I'm 43 myself, and I never considered myself old for anything. I know for a fact that I'm smarter than the average joes out there, (hint...when everything you do, everything you attempt...becomes easier for you than your peers, stakes are...that you really ARE smarter than your peers).
Recently, I decided to revert my os to Linux Slackware 13.37 (gotta love the title), and it went down with me like a sinch, ubuntu 11.04 sucked donkeys balls, why? Unity...and tablets that is... people wants to be idiots, and treated as such. Now I'm going Linux from scratch, do ya wanna fight about it? No...
In my 12'th of age...I programmed assembly, so what of it...now I'm 43, I'm not anyone famous, not anyone YOU lot know...I'm just a lonely bastard living it out in some swedish forest as a loner...a tech freak for sure, but I never stopped believing in myself, neither should you. I can do anything - can you?
With all respect to your beloved wife and the wonderful person she undoubtedly is - it's better to remember the good things and the good times you had together when she was well. The bad thing about remembering and missing loved ones, is that you'll refresh your memories about them to a degree where you miss them so much that a sadness will dwell inside of you and possibly make life much harder than ease your pain.
This effect is much worse in kids (I was a kid too, and learning from past experience I'd say I was better off not having too many pictures & memorabilia of the person I loved the most), I knew she had ONE great wish - and I try to fulfil that wish, but only so far. The more you miss them, the more you'll cry, the emptier your life will feel like because you're reminding yourself of your losses - if it works the other way around...say...like reminding you of the great times you had, this is STILL in the PAST and won't help a future relationship, the same applies to your kids.
It's important to "ease out" from the pain your kids will experience from the loss, lest they remember, the better it is, especially since it makes them live in the NOW (which is VERY important for kids) they don't need to dwell upon losses, kids are a BUNDLE of FEELINGS,,,and are especially vulnerable to excessive feel-overloads of impressions. Free them from sadness - Look into the future.
Trust me - this is probably what your wife wishes for you and the kids too, I know my (now deceased) family members do...because I know them well, they're selfless and caring - and I did what they wanted me to do, try my best - and don't dwell upon the past. I've made the mistake of dwelling, thats why I can tell you of my experiences in life.
Build like a tank, uses the original arcade sticks as used in the arcade-machines, comes with 21 micro-switch buttons (also the same round buttons used in the arcade machines) for the 2 player version.
You can even get one with a TrackBall in the middle for (Marble Madness, Crystal castles etc.)
Very VERY expensive, but it'll take the bashing your friends will give it, since it's built like the arcade machine, same wood, same rubber-corner protection etc. Heavy, not easy to move around. It'll pretty much take anything you throw at it.
With consoles like Playstation 3, it's much easier to just have a heap of games ready to play right here and now, rather than having to sort discs and insert/eject stupid scratchable game discs all the time.
Another advantage is that you can just "re-download" your entire game collection if you should switch machine, or upgrade to a bigger harddisk, now tell me that's not LOOOVELY?
As for PC and STEAM, they very often have huge price cuts, and brand new games are usually 30-40 percent cheaper than in the stores (at least Danish stores - where a new game costs 100 bucs, and sells for 59 on Steam)...
And...you can carry your games collection with you - forever, I mean...I STILL have old playable games on steam I installed ages ago, and have lost the discs to - Yay for the future I say, it's not the future - it's today! (ok, that was cheesy, but you get the point);)
- They where the first to introduce "3-strikes-and-out" Internet connection. Meaning if you download something from piratebay, 3 times - then you lose your internet connection by law. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8436745.stm
Needless to say, this NEW restriction doesn't come as a huge surprise when it's from France. It's the same country that wanted the entire world to speak French instead of English, remember EuroDisney in the beginning, where you were nearly chased out of the country if you couldn't speak French (it's not like that anymore...experience dawns on them eventually)...but come ON FRANCE...
It's in their very nature. Men would not be born if it wasn't for women. If they're dropping out of something technical...so be it, won't make the world go under. I say - good riddance. They're not as passionate about IT as men are.
Old at 40? LOL... Let's take the world famous mythbusters team as an example of "experience":
Jamie Hyneman, the man with the moustache and white shirt. Age 53. And Adam Savage, now 43....both debunking simple and mathematically advanced myths all over the world, so famous for their nerdy enthusiasm that they're even hailed by Scientists all over the world - despite NOT having a science degree, for being some of the brightest "kids" around;)
Point is......I'm in my 40's too, and I'm still a big kid, playing around with science & computers as I've always done, in my spare time I've got a HUGE science lab with test-equipment and millions of components - doing science just because...science is FUN.
To read that I'm old and useless in the employers eyes is a laughing deal for me, I'm lolling all over the place. You want to know what my last employer told me - dear potential employers out there:
We've never had such a fast worker in our entire career as management, yes - you work only 37-40 hours a week or so, but wholly CRAP you can put it out. Before we used to hire younger people, but you sure are a prime example of how experience just beats 80+ hours any day from ANY young worker.
Needless to say, I worked there for years.
And I'm just as "kiddy" as kids today, I've got my playstation3, latest Android phone (had the iPod touch when it came out the first time), huge-ass tv, latest touch-screen PC's running several operating systems, toys everywhere - and a whole lot of youtube followers all over the world (yet I won't reveal who I am in here, because I like to discuss things without a face sometimes);)
But the point remains the same - any person thinking that 40-60 is old...needs to get their head checked, and furthermore - any 40-60 year old thinking that they're old not being capable anymore...shame on you for not wanting to work...lame excuse and make everyone else look bad!:o)
They could've headed this all off by disclosing it openly in the first place, instead of claiming 'accidental' data collection.
Yes they COULD, but imagine if you were the government, and you were told to finally disclose to the world that we've been discussing and negotiating with Aliens for over 50 years now, and we're about to tell YOU that - the world would go MAD in an INSTANT, so - what you do, is to reveal as little as possible, in small bite-sized chunks, and of course - everything available to anyone who wants to know...no secrets here...but they just would not plaster BIG BANNERS all over the place saying - hey look, we've got Aliens!
Google is already struggling with half the planet who's mostly technically illiterate, try telling the people who doesn't even have a computer what they're doing, and you'll have worst-case scenarios raining all over the place.
...on one hand we all love to use Google, let's face it - it's the no#1 search engine, finds more data for you than you could ever dream of coming up with on your own or any other engine, shows you the way on your navigator - heck...even shows you where to get hot coffee on a rainy day, free mail service, supports open-source initiatives all over, man - that's like free drugs, you WILL get addicted, and there's really no way out.
Google and the government have ONE thing in common though, power. And knowledge is TRUE power. Imagine if you knew everyones dreams, thoughts, loves, hates, inventions. Google knows pretty much everything there is to know about me, and yes - I have volunteered to this, I'm addicted to Google, I love what Google provides me with, and I've seen nothing truly sinister from them the last 10 years, something about the truth shall set you free? Maybe there's something to that old saying.
But the government knows pretty much what they want to know too, why destroy a good thing? I don't think the recording of WiFi spots was a "Mistake", no one in their right mind can make that big of an engineering mistake, it uses extra data, no optimisation in that, but you got to tell them something, so it was an accident.
Do I believe that Google is Evil? no - I don't, but with any great power - especially knowledge - you have to use it with care, and be careful to whom you hand it to. Admit it - you want knowledge, why should they be any different, the difference is - you hand it to them - voluntarily, and thats not necessarily a bad thing.
Remember that movie "What Women Want"?, great flick btw. Mel Gibson all of a sudden by accident, gets the gift of being able to read every womans mind, he can hear them speak. This momentarily drives the man crazy, but at the psychologists bench, he discovers that this knowledge is truly a gift - if you knew what a woman want all the time - you could RULE the world.
There's some truth in that, if you know your audience, you can please your audience like no one else, and you can have it all, future inventions will be based on millions of minds - worldwide - tell me - who would NOT want that?
I remember that guy, from TV-Shop, many years ago. When I was young and impressionable (read: stupid).
I bought a set of 8 tapes, called Mega-Memory. Kevin gave a few smart "initial pointers" on how you could memorise things really quickly by using the "peg system", associating an item or a "doing" with something (an item) etc, or a situation. And he used catchy sentences like this:
"Everyone remembers faces, right, but names? Oh - I remember his name, but what's his face like? (Everyone in the audience laughs and agrees)" And goes on by telling us we can remember anything by using his mega-mind system. Which is utterly bullshit, because once you get to advanced formulas, actual stories etc. you won't remember squat anyway, not anything extra with his system. With his system, you may improve to remember 20 SIMPLE items instead of...say 10...
He's well known for scams like this, take some 10% truth things (which most people agree too, and understand immediately) to sell something thats a complete lie - based on that 10% of truth (which you got for free, in the infomercial in the first place).
It's like people who win because they tell HALF-truths, because everyone understands the first part, the second part must also be true? Right? Wrong! Thats how people like him scams millions across the world.
There is ONE thing that REALLY annoy me with these reviews, it's all the buildup-hype. Too many times I've been disappointed with all these augmented reality devices that are set to change the world every time they're released. The only controller that "surprised" me in a positive way was the WiiMote, it was truly revolutionary, but the Wii itself - way behind our time due to it's slow speed, low-resolution non-HD graphics.
The PS3 camera was a HUGE disappointment for me, especially with EyePet, this thing needs 300-600 watts indoor lighting (no - I am not kidding, I have this thing!), and it sucks donkeysballs.
The Nintendo DSi (with camera) sucked even worse, the augmented reality games for the camera, was a joke, and the resolution a lowly 300k pixels, for the release price, this thing was a pure ripoff. At least they could have included some InfraRed LEDs to illuminate the face with, but no...
The PS3 SixAxis function is a joke. It's not even accurate in any way, it's flimsy and shaky at best, no wonder most games doesn't use it, it's major FAIL.
The wiimote's major advantage is it's infrared-camera in front of the wiimote. This gives a fairly accurate aiming function as it tracks the two infrared-led in the illumination-bar that it comes with. Still - unfortunately...the accelerometer is a bit on the flimsy side too, and yes - the wiimote suffers severely from lag, so no REAL skill is involved (which explains why it's so popular with elders & mothers) If you want to test this, you can sit down while you play golf / wiisports etc...and barely rotate the wiimote lightly at will..there are no kinematic weight-transfer from your body to the wiimote, hence...it's more a novelty than a real augmented reality unit.
Project Natal (to me) is what seems like the most likely new unit to have something really NEW to offer, as it comes with a 1080p High-Resolution camera AND an Infra-RED camera (yes - two cameras!) and therefor will be able to be used in almost total darkness, hence work the way these cameras should work with games. However - adding a unit with a more precise accelerometer - wouldn't be entirely stupid either, then we're in business.
The new ps3 controllers (wiimote clones with a led-bulb and the camera on the other side rather than in the remote) is technically the same as the wiimote, I just hope that the accelerometer is more precise and more capable of measuring weight (power transfer from your body) to "feel" your energy, then it might stand a chance. What worries me - is the Eyetoys epic crappiness, as an owner of this camera, I know it's weaknesses, out-of-focus, narrow-angle-view, low-light, out-of-whitebalance piece of junk. My asus Eeetop computer has a better webcam than this, and it can see almost in total darkness, which is exactly the oposite of the PS3 Eye that needs several hundreds of WATTS to even work.
Unfortunately all my new PC's only come with USB, so I'm using older computers to be compatible with both the SOFTWARE (that wasn't made for seriously fast computers) and the RS232. I'm using a 3 dollar USB-to-Serial on my newer pc's though. (China, yay!);)
I have a whole bunch of RS232 based stuff, my two Eprom burners all use RS232, my 8x52 series MCU devboards (purchased recently!) use RS232...My Roland compatible XY flatbed plotter (used to plot PCBs) uses it... My Radio-Amateur modem (Multi modem), connected to my radio-amateur gear...also uses it...and the list is virtually ENDLESS...so no - it ain't going anytime soon.
The constant disk trashing in Vista & Windows 7 - is the ultimate Achilles heel for these OS's. You can fany it up with your wiseness about coding until you turn blue from the waiting, it still makes the machine hopelessly slow, not to mention the mental pain aquired from the constant disk-trashing-sound. Not to mention the ever-lagging-soggy response you have because the harddisk is "doing something else all the time".
Why is it, that Linux with X11 & Gnome - takes less than 27 seconds to boot on a BRAND NEW computer, and the SAME brand NEW computer...Windows 7 fights itself through disk-trashing-hell+preload-to-infinity for 5-7 minutes? I was READY for windows 7, I heard good things about it, I tried it for a WHOLE WEEK...until I almost caved in, and even though it was HELL to get all my hardware up and running with Ubuntu 9.10 (which is the shitties Ubuntu yet, hardware wise)...I STILL prefer to run Linux...compared to almost wanting to KILL my computer over the constant disk-activity!
I know I can turn it off, but Microsoft turns it ON every freaking update anyway. I'm also tired of the constant nagging - on what I should have ON / activated / turned off etc...after every update (which is nearly every day), and constant nagging about my software trying to run (because I want to run it).....MY GOD WHY CANT MICROSOFT return to Windows 2000 days....?
...is one of the most innovative open source programs ever to hit our lucky-bum-lives.
Not only did they revolutionize the way UV-Rework works, even Maya users envied Blender so much, but the coders behind the UV-tools even made a UV-Plugin for the Maya users to get that very specific tool - free of charge. This is the power of the Open Source Community!
The great thing about software like the Gimp & Blender, is that it's not only freely available to everyone without deep pockets - but it's actually powerful enough to serve you commercially.
I know - because I've been using these programs for over 10 years - commercially - earning a living. Sure - I've used 3dstudio max, paid for a full license too, full CS suite as well - but these packages...powerful as they are, don't Cather for the small audience, they Cather for the big studios.
Once I had trouble with my 5000 dollar 3DS suite, no one helped me, I wrote over 6 months pleas to the devs at discreet, but no one cared. They finally offered a bug-fix, but only if you subscribed to an 1000 dollar upgrade!!!!
I switched to OpenSource from then of, The Blender devs. responded to my bug-woes in less than TWO DAYS fixing the bugs I reported......I never saw that day - from the commercial counterparts.
It makes it much easier to work on the images, instead of having to "mishap-click" on every single window, and having to click on the related window in order to get back into the image editor again. WAAAAY overdue, but finally here - good job guys!
Mark my words, Apple are renown for their PR-stunts.
By getting everyone upset, a simple thing like the obvious lack of Flash, which is severely needed for a proper Surfing Experience that the iPad is made for, this is nothing but a PR-STUNT, ingenious - I have to admit - because it'll make you and other RAVE on forever and critique iPad & Apple = Free publicity, and of course - shortly after iPad has been launched, Apple will timely announce that Flash is coming - after all, they have "listened" to their "audience".
Because of our extensive education and schooling system, his creativity would be killed by standards and accredited & accepted knowledge that he'd have to go through an learn & get approved for in order to be heard anywhere - even then - it would be pretty hard for someone THIS creative to get ANY attention at all.
You can show people a gazillion things, not even a professor would understand - unless it was written in a language that the professor understands, which takes a lifetime of study to learn to converse to and with.
A small example. The Cross Diagonal Matrix processor was invented by someone independent from any company or school - yet - it received little or no attention at all, even though it was a revolutionary idea that made parallel computing much faster by adding a cross-layer diagonal communication protocol to it (across wafered processors, in a 3d structure rather than todays 2D architecture)...but did anyone listen? Nooo...
That's how he'd be to, alone, suffering, but inventing.
...is the best thing that ever happened to the human mind.
Taking notes is distracting, and yes - most of us have some kind of note taking capacity either via our smartphones, mobilphones or pc's. But they are NOT as practical as the pen. The pen - you have - here and now, no need to "boot-up-your-pen" or click on some application deeply hidden in your cellphone somewhere......yes - you KNOW you have it, but you'll rather prefer to REMEMBER it rather than bother with all the "clicking", so your brain gets trained to remember things better - and what do you know...it WORKS!
Sorry to burst your bubble but you can't transmit information faster than light.
Period.
How do you know that? We only know the laws of physics, well - as little as we DO know about it. Maybe there's something faster than light - that we don't know yet?
Slashdot Mirror
You know...wink wink, nudge nudge...
"Wanna see how good a blind man is with a computer, I can torrent too baby, yeah - watcha wanna watch, eh?"
No, you're never too old to learn - anything!
I'm 43 myself, and I never considered myself old for anything. I know for a fact that I'm smarter than the average joes out there, (hint...when everything you do, everything you attempt...becomes easier for you than your peers, stakes are...that you really ARE smarter than your peers).
Recently, I decided to revert my os to Linux Slackware 13.37 (gotta love the title), and it went down with me like a sinch, ubuntu 11.04 sucked donkeys balls, why? Unity ...and tablets that is... people wants to be idiots, and treated as such. Now I'm going Linux from scratch, do ya wanna fight about it? No...
In my 12'th of age...I programmed assembly, so what of it...now I'm 43, I'm not anyone famous, not anyone YOU lot know...I'm just a lonely bastard living it out in some swedish forest as a loner...a tech freak for sure, but I never stopped believing in myself, neither should you. I can do anything - can you?
...is seldom a good idea.
With all respect to your beloved wife and the wonderful person she undoubtedly is - it's better to remember the good things and the good times you had together when she was well.
The bad thing about remembering and missing loved ones, is that you'll refresh your memories about them to a degree where you miss them so much that a sadness will dwell inside of you and possibly make life much harder than ease your pain.
This effect is much worse in kids (I was a kid too, and learning from past experience I'd say I was better off not having too many pictures & memorabilia of the person I loved the most), I knew she had ONE great wish - and I try to fulfil that wish, but only so far. The more you miss them, the more you'll cry, the emptier your life will feel like because you're reminding yourself of your losses - if it works the other way around...say...like reminding you of the great times you had, this is STILL in the PAST and won't help a future relationship, the same applies to your kids.
It's important to "ease out" from the pain your kids will experience from the loss, lest they remember, the better it is, especially since it makes them live in the NOW (which is VERY important for kids) they don't need to dwell upon losses, kids are a BUNDLE of FEELINGS,,,and are especially vulnerable to excessive feel-overloads of impressions. Free them from sadness - Look into the future.
Trust me - this is probably what your wife wishes for you and the kids too, I know my (now deceased) family members do...because I know them well, they're selfless and caring - and I did what they wanted me to do, try my best - and don't dwell upon the past. I've made the mistake of dwelling, thats why I can tell you of my experiences in life.
Now - I only look ahead.
Yep, there's NOTHING like the Xarcade sticks.
Build like a tank, uses the original arcade sticks as used in the arcade-machines,
comes with 21 micro-switch buttons (also the same round buttons used in the arcade machines) for the 2 player version.
You can even get one with a TrackBall in the middle for (Marble Madness, Crystal castles etc.)
Very VERY expensive, but it'll take the bashing your friends will give it, since it's built like the arcade machine, same wood, same rubber-corner protection etc.
Heavy, not easy to move around. It'll pretty much take anything you throw at it.
C'mon - it's not the future - it's already here.
With consoles like Playstation 3, it's much easier to just have a heap of games ready to play right here and now, rather than having to sort discs and insert/eject stupid scratchable game discs all the time.
Another advantage is that you can just "re-download" your entire game collection if you should switch machine, or upgrade to a bigger harddisk, now tell me that's not LOOOVELY?
As for PC and STEAM, they very often have huge price cuts, and brand new games are usually 30-40 percent cheaper than in the stores (at least Danish stores - where a new game costs 100 bucs, and sells for 59 on Steam)...
And...you can carry your games collection with you - forever, I mean...I STILL have old playable games on steam I installed ages ago, and have lost the discs to - Yay for the future I say, it's not the future - it's today! ;)
(ok, that was cheesy, but you get the point)
- They where the first to introduce "3-strikes-and-out" Internet connection. Meaning if you download something from piratebay, 3 times - then you lose your internet connection by law.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8436745.stm
- They where imposing restrictions on content on personal homepages
http://www.cdt.org/pr_statement/french-court-imposes-speech-restrictions-beyond-its-borders-0
(and much more)
- They always stand in way of internet innovation, if something isn't checked with them, it's illegal:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103516
Needless to say, this NEW restriction doesn't come as a huge surprise when it's from France. It's the same country that wanted the entire world to speak French instead of English, remember EuroDisney in the beginning, where you were nearly chased out of the country if you couldn't speak French (it's not like that anymore...experience dawns on them eventually) ...but come ON FRANCE...
It's in their very nature. Men would not be born if it wasn't for women.
If they're dropping out of something technical...so be it, won't make the world go under.
I say - good riddance. They're not as passionate about IT as men are.
Old at 40? LOL... Let's take the world famous mythbusters team as an example of "experience":
Jamie Hyneman, the man with the moustache and white shirt. Age 53. And Adam Savage, now 43....both debunking simple and mathematically advanced myths all over the world, so famous for their nerdy enthusiasm that they're even hailed by Scientists all over the world - despite NOT having a science degree, for being some of the brightest "kids" around ;)
Point is... ...I'm in my 40's too, and I'm still a big kid, playing around with science & computers as I've always done, in my spare time I've got a HUGE science lab with test-equipment and millions of components - doing science just because...science is FUN.
To read that I'm old and useless in the employers eyes is a laughing deal for me, I'm lolling all over the place. You want to know what my last employer told me - dear potential employers out there:
We've never had such a fast worker in our entire career as management, yes - you work only 37-40 hours a week or so, but wholly CRAP you can put it out. Before we used to hire younger people, but you sure are a prime example of how experience just beats 80+ hours any day from ANY young worker.
Needless to say, I worked there for years.
And I'm just as "kiddy" as kids today, I've got my playstation3, latest Android phone (had the iPod touch when it came out the first time), huge-ass tv, latest touch-screen PC's running several operating systems, toys everywhere - and a whole lot of youtube followers all over the world (yet I won't reveal who I am in here, because I like to discuss things without a face sometimes) ;)
But the point remains the same - any person thinking that 40-60 is old...needs to get their head checked, and furthermore - any 40-60 year old thinking that they're old not being capable anymore...shame on you for not wanting to work...lame excuse and make everyone else look bad! :o)
They could've headed this all off by disclosing it openly in the first place, instead of claiming 'accidental' data collection.
Yes they COULD, but imagine if you were the government, and you were told to finally disclose to the world that we've been discussing and negotiating with Aliens for over 50 years now, and we're about to tell YOU that - the world would go MAD in an INSTANT, so - what you do, is to reveal as little as possible, in small bite-sized chunks, and of course - everything available to anyone who wants to know...no secrets here...but they just would not plaster BIG BANNERS all over the place saying - hey look, we've got Aliens!
Google is already struggling with half the planet who's mostly technically illiterate, try telling the people who doesn't even have a computer what they're doing, and you'll have worst-case scenarios raining all over the place.
...on one hand we all love to use Google, let's face it - it's the no#1 search engine, finds more data for you than you could ever dream of coming up with on your own or any other engine, shows you the way on your navigator - heck...even shows you where to get hot coffee on a rainy day, free mail service, supports open-source initiatives all over, man - that's like free drugs, you WILL get addicted, and there's really no way out.
Google and the government have ONE thing in common though, power. And knowledge is TRUE power. Imagine if you knew everyones dreams, thoughts, loves, hates, inventions. Google knows pretty much everything there is to know about me, and yes - I have volunteered to this, I'm addicted to Google, I love what Google provides me with, and I've seen nothing truly sinister from them the last 10 years, something about the truth shall set you free? Maybe there's something to that old saying.
But the government knows pretty much what they want to know too, why destroy a good thing? I don't think the recording of WiFi spots was a "Mistake", no one in their right mind can make that big of an engineering mistake, it uses extra data, no optimisation in that, but you got to tell them something, so it was an accident.
Do I believe that Google is Evil? no - I don't, but with any great power - especially knowledge - you have to use it with care, and be careful to whom you hand it to. Admit it - you want knowledge, why should they be any different, the difference is - you hand it to them - voluntarily, and thats not necessarily a bad thing.
Remember that movie "What Women Want"?, great flick btw. Mel Gibson all of a sudden by accident, gets the gift of being able to read every womans mind, he can hear them speak. This momentarily drives the man crazy, but at the psychologists bench, he discovers that this knowledge is truly a gift - if you knew what a woman want all the time - you could RULE the world.
There's some truth in that, if you know your audience, you can please your audience like no one else, and you can have it all, future inventions will be based on millions of minds - worldwide - tell me - who would NOT want that?
I remember that guy, from TV-Shop, many years ago. When I was young and impressionable (read: stupid).
I bought a set of 8 tapes, called Mega-Memory. Kevin gave a few smart "initial pointers" on how you could memorise things really quickly by using the "peg system", associating an item or a "doing" with something (an item) etc, or a situation. And he used catchy sentences like this:
"Everyone remembers faces, right, but names? Oh - I remember his name, but what's his face like? (Everyone in the audience laughs and agrees)" And goes on by telling us we can remember anything by using his mega-mind system. Which is utterly bullshit, because once you get to advanced formulas, actual stories etc. you won't remember squat anyway, not anything extra with his system. With his system, you may improve to remember 20 SIMPLE items instead of ...say 10...
He's well known for scams like this, take some 10% truth things (which most people agree too, and understand immediately) to sell something thats a complete lie - based on that 10% of truth (which you got for free, in the infomercial in the first place).
It's like people who win because they tell HALF-truths, because everyone understands the first part, the second part must also be true? Right? Wrong! Thats how people like him scams millions across the world.
There is ONE thing that REALLY annoy me with these reviews, it's all the buildup-hype.
Too many times I've been disappointed with all these augmented reality devices that are set to change the world every time they're released.
The only controller that "surprised" me in a positive way was the WiiMote, it was truly revolutionary, but the Wii itself - way behind our time due to it's slow speed, low-resolution non-HD graphics.
The PS3 camera was a HUGE disappointment for me, especially with EyePet, this thing needs 300-600 watts indoor lighting (no - I am not kidding, I have this thing!), and it sucks donkeysballs.
The Nintendo DSi (with camera) sucked even worse, the augmented reality games for the camera, was a joke, and the resolution a lowly 300k pixels, for the release price, this thing was a pure ripoff. At least they could have included some InfraRed LEDs to illuminate the face with, but no...
The PS3 SixAxis function is a joke. It's not even accurate in any way, it's flimsy and shaky at best, no wonder most games doesn't use it, it's major FAIL.
The wiimote's major advantage is it's infrared-camera in front of the wiimote. This gives a fairly accurate aiming function as it tracks the two infrared-led in the illumination-bar that it comes with. Still - unfortunately...the accelerometer is a bit on the flimsy side too, and yes - the wiimote suffers severely from lag, so no REAL skill is involved (which explains why it's so popular with elders & mothers) If you want to test this, you can sit down while you play golf / wiisports etc...and barely rotate the wiimote lightly at will..there are no kinematic weight-transfer from your body to the wiimote, hence...it's more a novelty than a real augmented reality unit.
Project Natal (to me) is what seems like the most likely new unit to have something really NEW to offer, as it comes with a 1080p High-Resolution camera AND an Infra-RED camera (yes - two cameras!) and therefor will be able to be used in almost total darkness, hence work the way these cameras should work with games.
However - adding a unit with a more precise accelerometer - wouldn't be entirely stupid either, then we're in business.
The new ps3 controllers (wiimote clones with a led-bulb and the camera on the other side rather than in the remote) is technically the same as the wiimote, I just hope that the accelerometer is more precise and more capable of measuring weight (power transfer from your body) to "feel" your energy, then it might stand a chance.
What worries me - is the Eyetoys epic crappiness, as an owner of this camera, I know it's weaknesses, out-of-focus, narrow-angle-view, low-light, out-of-whitebalance piece of junk. My asus Eeetop computer has a better webcam than this, and it can see almost in total darkness, which is exactly the oposite of the PS3 Eye that needs several hundreds of WATTS to even work.
...all use SERIAL, even today.
Unfortunately all my new PC's only come with USB, so I'm using older computers to be compatible with both the SOFTWARE (that wasn't made for seriously fast computers) and the RS232. ;)
I'm using a 3 dollar USB-to-Serial on my newer pc's though. (China, yay!)
I have a whole bunch of RS232 based stuff, my two Eprom burners all use RS232, my 8x52 series MCU devboards (purchased recently!) use RS232...My Roland compatible XY flatbed plotter (used to plot PCBs) uses it... ...so no - it ain't going anytime soon.
My Radio-Amateur modem (Multi modem), connected to my radio-amateur gear...also uses it...and the list is virtually ENDLESS
Non taken.
I'll forward that to Asus. ;) You guys are doing something wrong!
The constant disk trashing in Vista & Windows 7 - is the ultimate Achilles heel for these OS's. You can fany it up with your wiseness about coding until you turn blue from the waiting, it still makes the machine hopelessly slow, not to mention the mental pain aquired from the constant disk-trashing-sound. Not to mention the ever-lagging-soggy response you have because the harddisk is "doing something else all the time".
Why is it, that Linux with X11 & Gnome - takes less than 27 seconds to boot on a BRAND NEW computer, and the SAME brand NEW computer...Windows 7 fights itself through disk-trashing-hell+preload-to-infinity for 5-7 minutes? I was READY for windows 7, I heard good things about it, I tried it for a WHOLE WEEK...until I almost caved in, and even though it was HELL to get all my hardware up and running with Ubuntu 9.10 (which is the shitties Ubuntu yet, hardware wise)...I STILL prefer to run Linux...compared to almost wanting to KILL my computer over the constant disk-activity!
I know I can turn it off, but Microsoft turns it ON every freaking update anyway. I'm also tired of the constant nagging - on what I should have ON / activated / turned off etc...after every update (which is nearly every day), and constant nagging about my software trying to run (because I want to run it).....MY GOD WHY CANT MICROSOFT return to Windows 2000 days....?
...worst - most redundant product ever.
When it came , no HDTV...limited amount of titles, not worth getting. Period.
...FLATTR!
Of course - I'd run faster than light to give my credit-card information to the Pirate Bay Pirates, that only makes perfect sense in bizarro world!
...is one of the most innovative open source programs ever to hit our lucky-bum-lives.
Not only did they revolutionize the way UV-Rework works, even Maya users envied Blender so much, but the coders behind the UV-tools even made a UV-Plugin for the Maya users to get that very specific tool - free of charge. This is the power of the Open Source Community!
The great thing about software like the Gimp & Blender, is that it's not only freely available to everyone without deep pockets - but it's actually powerful enough to serve you commercially.
I know - because I've been using these programs for over 10 years - commercially - earning a living. Sure - I've used 3dstudio max, paid for a full license too, full CS suite as well - but these packages...powerful as they are, don't Cather for the small audience, they Cather for the big studios.
Once I had trouble with my 5000 dollar 3DS suite, no one helped me, I wrote over 6 months pleas to the devs at discreet, but no one cared. They finally offered a bug-fix, but only if you subscribed to an 1000 dollar upgrade!!!!
I switched to OpenSource from then of, The Blender devs. responded to my bug-woes in less than TWO DAYS fixing the bugs I reported... ...I never saw that day - from the commercial counterparts.
OpenSource ROCKS!
In general, if you want user-friendlyness, open source software isn't the place to be looking
WTF?
I'd say exactly the opposite - if you want user friendliness - Open Source IS your hope, basically because it's programmed by users - for users!
I'm glad they're doing this.
It makes it much easier to work on the images, instead of having to "mishap-click" on every single window, and having to click on the related window in order to get back into the image editor again. WAAAAY overdue, but finally here - good job guys!
Mark my words, Apple are renown for their PR-stunts.
By getting everyone upset, a simple thing like the obvious lack of Flash, which is severely needed for a proper Surfing Experience that the iPad is made for, this is nothing but a PR-STUNT, ingenious - I have to admit - because it'll make you and other RAVE on forever and critique iPad & Apple = Free publicity, and of course - shortly after iPad has been launched, Apple will timely announce that Flash is coming - after all, they have "listened" to their "audience".
http://www.pedobearplush.com/ (and yes - it's the real thing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHayFWwN_6Q ;)
Because of our extensive education and schooling system, his creativity would be killed by standards and accredited & accepted knowledge that he'd have to go through an learn & get approved for in order to be heard anywhere - even then - it would be pretty hard for someone THIS creative to get ANY attention at all.
You can show people a gazillion things, not even a professor would understand - unless it was written in a language that the professor understands, which takes a lifetime of study to learn to converse to and with.
A small example. The Cross Diagonal Matrix processor was invented by someone independent from any company or school - yet - it received little or no attention at all, even though it was a revolutionary idea that made parallel computing much faster by adding a cross-layer diagonal communication protocol to it (across wafered processors, in a 3d structure rather than todays 2D architecture) ...but did anyone listen? Nooo...
That's how he'd be to, alone, suffering, but inventing.
...is the best thing that ever happened to the human mind.
Taking notes is distracting, and yes - most of us have some kind of note taking capacity either via our smartphones, mobilphones or pc's. But they are NOT as practical as the pen. The pen - you have - here and now, no need to "boot-up-your-pen" or click on some application deeply hidden in your cellphone somewhere... ...yes - you KNOW you have it, but you'll rather prefer to REMEMBER it rather than bother with all the "clicking", so your brain gets trained to remember things better - and what do you know...it WORKS!
Sorry to burst your bubble but you can't transmit information faster than light.
Period.
How do you know that?
We only know the laws of physics, well - as little as we DO know about it.
Maybe there's something faster than light - that we don't know yet?