You implied, and I agree, that non-scientists *should* consider scientific consensus. Because they aren't climate scientists themselves, and they don't even have the tools to discern a good scientist from a bad one. So going with consensus is a very sane choice. It's not science, but it may be the best choice.
(Calling it a success because people installed silverlight isn't much. Afterall, the same people would have probably installed a rootkit and trojan in order to watch the Olympic streaming. They just don't care.)
It is much. It's not a contest of public opinion, it's a contest of install base. If Microsoft can get the numbers, it doesn't matter whether the people thought rationally about it first.
It seems silly to write off Silverlight. Windows, IE and Direct 3D come to mind. You can't take over the world in only one version!
When I travel, one of the advantages of a DS is that if I see a game I am interested in, I know I can buy it and play it regardless of where I bought my DS.
You still can.
Regionally tailored content I can understand, but you could:
Just do a check on the region, and have a default if you have no content tailored for that region
I'm guessing there will be few if any cartridge games that are DSi-exclusive. Most of this stuff is going to be downloads. If they open Pandora's box of global online game sales, how are they going to handle exchange rates? Mom: "The Yen is weak today Jimmy, be sure to point to Japan when you get your Super Mario Brothers!"
The only area where it could conceivably work is with the free stuff. But what if they sell something in country A and then want to make it free in country B?
All this means is that we won't be able to buy a DSi from Japan. (You can still import standard Japanese DS games.) And since U.S. content will not even be available prior to U.S. launch, that means this is only going to the affect people who insist on having everything early, or really really want that Japan-only color scheme that is bound to come out sometime down the road.
For the rest of us this means nothing. Did you really think you were going to get online downloads from Japan?
What about the XBox systems is anything but evolutionary? All it has done is delayed the inevitable merge between PCs and home entertainment devices (game consoles, Blu Ray players) and further established Microsoft as the software upon which home computing operates.
Sure, there are features in the XBox that have pressured Sony and Nintendo to add them as well, but it was only a matter of time before the PC applied that same pressure. Haven't you noticed PCs getting cheaper, smaller, and better integrated with TVs?
Now in addition to having a stranglehold on the gaming operating system of the future (Windows _______) they a stranglehold on the social networking aspect of it, in addition to royalties for every game sold. And all we have to show for it is less money in our bank account and one more technology brick taking up space under our TV. We are subsidizing the monopoly.
For real though, the PC is evolving with or without consoles. Until the eventual merge, each new home console is simply one more roadblock between me and the games I want to play. That doesn't help; that sucks.
Personally, I'd like to see the address bar at the bottom, which fits with the GUI paradigm of a shell
It may fit the paradigm of a shell, but it fits nothing else. Nearly all written/displayed communication goes from the top down, and given that the URL is a sort of title or headline, it will always belong at or near the top of the page.
Their statement is silly and can be ignored, but the idea of an online racing league leads to an interesting question:
Supposing a lot of the winners turn out to be "gamers" (not race drivers in real life), would such an accomplishment give them any kind of head start into a real racing career?
Why would they dictate that the sales support for XP has been dropped so quickly?
They are managing their image. Their operating systems are the most visible part of what they do as a company. They want people to view Vista as a success, because they want to be seen as a successful and thriving company. This is how most companies handle their iterative releases (make people forget about the previous iteration as quickly as possible). Evidently Microsoft is just getting more creative/abusive about it.
It shouldn't be the place of society to protect people from themselves.
Actually, the entire educational system is an attempt by society to protect people from themselves. Perhaps it would be sufficient to say that the responsibility here is ultimately upon the borrower. I'm all for educating these numbskulls to do the right thing, especially the ones who haven't already made the mistake.
I sorta disagree that it's "no surprise". The necessary gyroscopes (I'm assuming that is what has been added, since accelerometers can only do so much) were already demonstrably affordable in Nintendo's own WarioWare Twisted! game for the Game Boy Advance. It may have been cost-cutting like you said, but if it was cheap enough to put in a cartridge, then there's no way it would add more than a few dollars to the cost of a controller.
The other possibility is that the engineers lacked the imagination to realize they needed something more than accelerometers. I find this kind of hard to believe, since anyone writing software for it would immediately see the limitations.
Sony was able to integrate the DualShock pretty well. I don't see why this Wii attachment would be much different, especially considering the enormous improvements it will bring.
It's not about accuracy and response time. Gyroscopes can sense completely different things than accelerometers can. Imagine the Wiimote resting on a table. Now turn the Wiimote like the hands of a clock. To an accelerometer, this movement is virtually *invisible*. The positioning relative to the earth hasn't changed. But a gyroscope, on the other hand, knows that the remote has been turned. This is the data missing from the current Wiimote. (It's also why you control Excite Truck like a see-saw, and not like a bus's steering wheel.)
Two gyrosopes would be even better (and maybe the addon has two), because if the Wiimote is pointing up while on the table, then you'll need to measure a different axis as it spins.
From day one, people have assumed the Wii remote had 1:1 capabilities and that it only needed better software to realize it, but this has always been false. It only contains accelerometers, which, as far as absolute positioning is concerned, are limited to interactions with earth's gravity. I am assuming this new attachment contains a *gyroscope* or two to fill in the gaps.
I am both surprised and glad to see that Nintendo is willing to retrofit their controller. It's an important move, because until they establish 1:1 control they are daring their competitors to do it first.
I won't pretend these people don't have problems going in, but isn't it naive to suppose that WoW isn't, at the very least, an enabler for this sort of behavior?
Guns don't kill people, people kill people, right? And I suppose the same is true with crack. "Hold on people, let's not start blaming crack here! It's not crack's fault that Johnny can't say no!"
Although I agree that a battle must be waged against those who fraudulently exploit universities for personal gain, it would be a little sad to me if the only recourse were to make all universities a grueling gauntlet of overload. An area of study should be something the student is passionate about and enjoys, and it's difficult to enjoy something that sucks the life out of you through an extreme level of work that only elite students can handle.
Type A personalities shouldn't be the only people getting degrees. Let them get the Harvard and MIT degrees, fine, but I hope, for the sake of people with a more average degree of talent and work ethic, that there will always be learning institutions willing to teach the rest of us. Learning should be for the masses, not just for the elite.
And don't get me wrong. Universities shouldn't be a cakewalk, and they shouldn't create scenarios where people can cheat to achieve a degree. I agree with the above comment calling for practical interviews. Students should be challenged, and professors should be aware of their students' growing level of expertise.
You have a link? The Green Mountain site clearly states that their electricity is "100% renewables". They contrast it to non-renewables, which include natural gas. The only fine print I found merely stated that they can't guarantee their "cleaner" energy will go straight to your house, but they do guarantee that they contribute to the grid as much as you use (providing the same net effect).
It's possible that during their start up phase they had no choice but to make some concessions.
When the Gamecube came out I imagined it would be a good idea for Apple to make their computers play Gamecube games natively. Why not? There were lots of similarly-branded components at the time (ATI graphics cards, I think, IBM chips). That would have been a win-win, because Nintendo really needed some kind of boost, and Macs desperately needed games. If that didn't happen, then I doubt Macs playing PS3 games ever will. Don't you think you'd sooner see a VAIO playing PS3 games?
There are plenty of young, hungry, fresh-out-of-school designers that'll work for cheap and give you good work.
The fresh-out-of-school graphic designers I've known were good at art, but only had the most basic understanding of web standards and usability. If you hire someone fresh out of school, expect to work extra close with them on the HTML and CSS.
Why not only display As a Seller feedback on auctions? You can still keep both feedback categories visible on that person's profile page, for those who are curious to know someone's As a Buyer feedback.
Slashdot Mirror
You implied, and I agree, that non-scientists *should* consider scientific consensus. Because they aren't climate scientists themselves, and they don't even have the tools to discern a good scientist from a bad one. So going with consensus is a very sane choice. It's not science, but it may be the best choice.
With poor Adobe support like this, how can Silverlight *not* soon supplant it?
Speed seems to be determined by a lack of bloat... and by bloat, I mean features.
"Seems" is the key word here. Isn't "correlation does not imply causation" sort of a /. mantra?
It is much. It's not a contest of public opinion, it's a contest of install base. If Microsoft can get the numbers, it doesn't matter whether the people thought rationally about it first.
It seems silly to write off Silverlight. Windows, IE and Direct 3D come to mind. You can't take over the world in only one version!
You still can.
I'm guessing there will be few if any cartridge games that are DSi-exclusive. Most of this stuff is going to be downloads. If they open Pandora's box of global online game sales, how are they going to handle exchange rates? Mom: "The Yen is weak today Jimmy, be sure to point to Japan when you get your Super Mario Brothers!"
The only area where it could conceivably work is with the free stuff. But what if they sell something in country A and then want to make it free in country B?
All this means is that we won't be able to buy a DSi from Japan. (You can still import standard Japanese DS games.) And since U.S. content will not even be available prior to U.S. launch, that means this is only going to the affect people who insist on having everything early, or really really want that Japan-only color scheme that is bound to come out sometime down the road.
For the rest of us this means nothing. Did you really think you were going to get online downloads from Japan?
What about the XBox systems is anything but evolutionary? All it has done is delayed the inevitable merge between PCs and home entertainment devices (game consoles, Blu Ray players) and further established Microsoft as the software upon which home computing operates.
Sure, there are features in the XBox that have pressured Sony and Nintendo to add them as well, but it was only a matter of time before the PC applied that same pressure. Haven't you noticed PCs getting cheaper, smaller, and better integrated with TVs?
Now in addition to having a stranglehold on the gaming operating system of the future (Windows _______) they a stranglehold on the social networking aspect of it, in addition to royalties for every game sold. And all we have to show for it is less money in our bank account and one more technology brick taking up space under our TV. We are subsidizing the monopoly.
For real though, the PC is evolving with or without consoles. Until the eventual merge, each new home console is simply one more roadblock between me and the games I want to play. That doesn't help; that sucks.
It may fit the paradigm of a shell, but it fits nothing else. Nearly all written/displayed communication goes from the top down, and given that the URL is a sort of title or headline, it will always belong at or near the top of the page.
Their statement is silly and can be ignored, but the idea of an online racing league leads to an interesting question:
Supposing a lot of the winners turn out to be "gamers" (not race drivers in real life), would such an accomplishment give them any kind of head start into a real racing career?
They are managing their image. Their operating systems are the most visible part of what they do as a company. They want people to view Vista as a success, because they want to be seen as a successful and thriving company. This is how most companies handle their iterative releases (make people forget about the previous iteration as quickly as possible). Evidently Microsoft is just getting more creative/abusive about it.
Actually, the entire educational system is an attempt by society to protect people from themselves. Perhaps it would be sufficient to say that the responsibility here is ultimately upon the borrower. I'm all for educating these numbskulls to do the right thing, especially the ones who haven't already made the mistake.
I sorta disagree that it's "no surprise". The necessary gyroscopes (I'm assuming that is what has been added, since accelerometers can only do so much) were already demonstrably affordable in Nintendo's own WarioWare Twisted! game for the Game Boy Advance. It may have been cost-cutting like you said, but if it was cheap enough to put in a cartridge, then there's no way it would add more than a few dollars to the cost of a controller.
The other possibility is that the engineers lacked the imagination to realize they needed something more than accelerometers. I find this kind of hard to believe, since anyone writing software for it would immediately see the limitations.
Sony was able to integrate the DualShock pretty well. I don't see why this Wii attachment would be much different, especially considering the enormous improvements it will bring.
It's not about accuracy and response time. Gyroscopes can sense completely different things than accelerometers can. Imagine the Wiimote resting on a table. Now turn the Wiimote like the hands of a clock. To an accelerometer, this movement is virtually *invisible*. The positioning relative to the earth hasn't changed. But a gyroscope, on the other hand, knows that the remote has been turned. This is the data missing from the current Wiimote. (It's also why you control Excite Truck like a see-saw, and not like a bus's steering wheel.)
Two gyrosopes would be even better (and maybe the addon has two), because if the Wiimote is pointing up while on the table, then you'll need to measure a different axis as it spins.
From day one, people have assumed the Wii remote had 1:1 capabilities and that it only needed better software to realize it, but this has always been false. It only contains accelerometers, which, as far as absolute positioning is concerned, are limited to interactions with earth's gravity. I am assuming this new attachment contains a *gyroscope* or two to fill in the gaps.
I am both surprised and glad to see that Nintendo is willing to retrofit their controller. It's an important move, because until they establish 1:1 control they are daring their competitors to do it first.
Maybe they mean the same thing, but I would regard looking at pornography as common, not normal. I think it breeds dissatisfaction with one's partner.
I won't pretend these people don't have problems going in, but isn't it naive to suppose that WoW isn't, at the very least, an enabler for this sort of behavior?
Guns don't kill people, people kill people, right? And I suppose the same is true with crack. "Hold on people, let's not start blaming crack here! It's not crack's fault that Johnny can't say no!"
Although I agree that a battle must be waged against those who fraudulently exploit universities for personal gain, it would be a little sad to me if the only recourse were to make all universities a grueling gauntlet of overload. An area of study should be something the student is passionate about and enjoys, and it's difficult to enjoy something that sucks the life out of you through an extreme level of work that only elite students can handle.
Type A personalities shouldn't be the only people getting degrees. Let them get the Harvard and MIT degrees, fine, but I hope, for the sake of people with a more average degree of talent and work ethic, that there will always be learning institutions willing to teach the rest of us. Learning should be for the masses, not just for the elite.
And don't get me wrong. Universities shouldn't be a cakewalk, and they shouldn't create scenarios where people can cheat to achieve a degree. I agree with the above comment calling for practical interviews. Students should be challenged, and professors should be aware of their students' growing level of expertise.
You have a link? The Green Mountain site clearly states that their electricity is "100% renewables". They contrast it to non-renewables, which include natural gas. The only fine print I found merely stated that they can't guarantee their "cleaner" energy will go straight to your house, but they do guarantee that they contribute to the grid as much as you use (providing the same net effect). It's possible that during their start up phase they had no choice but to make some concessions.
And even in Texas we have access to Green Mountain Energy (100% wind). It has been around a while now and costs the same as TXU.
When the Gamecube came out I imagined it would be a good idea for Apple to make their computers play Gamecube games natively. Why not? There were lots of similarly-branded components at the time (ATI graphics cards, I think, IBM chips). That would have been a win-win, because Nintendo really needed some kind of boost, and Macs desperately needed games. If that didn't happen, then I doubt Macs playing PS3 games ever will. Don't you think you'd sooner see a VAIO playing PS3 games?
It's for more than that of course. It allows you to enable certain camera functions that do not exist in the shipping firmware, like RAW mode.
What self-respecting Linux nerd uses Hotmail?
Why not only display As a Seller feedback on auctions? You can still keep both feedback categories visible on that person's profile page, for those who are curious to know someone's As a Buyer feedback.