The article says they're 3cm x 1.5cm, yet the image shows robots the size of red blood cells. Someone is an idiot, I hope the image wasn't provided by the people making these things, because I personally don't want swarms of defective robots flying around trying to pollinate my eyes or something like that.
Just imagine riding along at 50mph on a motorcycle and swallowing a flying microrobot - sounds painful. (The article doesn't really say if they move by air - but swarm makes me think of flying bugs.)
Reminds me of the way the 'clones' in 'Brave New World' were conditioned to throw out items that broke/tore and buy new ones instead of repairing them.
They need to couple the touchpad system (or a voice system even) with a visual recognition software and cameras to verify the actual number of people waiting. That way it can tell whether there really are 40 people waiting to go to a floor, or if it was just that annoying guy pressing the button repeatedly.
If they had it track faces according to when they pressed, etc, it could actually automatically remove floors if the people changed their mind and took the stairs - or update the stats if you picked a second different floor.
Course then people will start worrying about privacy issues, but it seems like the most efficient way to do it.
It seems like people are assuming they have 5 million current subscribers - but the press release never really specifies (unless I missed it). It could be they've had that many over the life of the game. That would explain the steady increase.
Hot? Not a chance. Not to be mean or anything but my grandma looks better.
I can't really find much about her, just a bunch of quotes by her - I agree with the parent though, she doesn't seem to know much about MMO* games. Maybe she's more of a FPS game manager, that's sure what it sounds like from her comments.
TFA: The funny thing is those giant retail stores are in for a world of hurt. The giant 400-pound gorilla that has yet to truly reveal its retail chomping head is Broadband. Currently about half the country has some form of DSL or Cable modem, and that number is growing. Download speeds are increasing as well, and once we start seeing download speeds of 100Mbps, content on demand will swallow the game retail beast whole.
I disagree. Yes, broadband speeds are going up, and yes the saturation level is increasing - but I don't think that means the big developers are going to make it their primary distribution system.
What are they really going to do? Make larger maps, add more detail to graphics, add more Hi-Def cutscenes. Only MMO* and other generes that are quite dependent on the internet for playability will resort heavily to this method - if any do at all. Sure we have steam, and it's easy to use and a pretty great service - but that isn't going to stop them from sending their CDs to Best Buy. They know the guy pacing up and down the game aisle is a valuable customer, and for at least the next 40 years there are plenty of people accustomed to shopping at brick and mortar stores, even if they game online.
Heck, I know plenty of adults that are wary of giving their credit card number for a business transaction online, much less buying a game for their own entertainment.
Yeah sure, they're clearer, but with the exception of the first one - with the woman in the white suit - they all look *worse* with more clarity. I bet even the first one would look worse if they weren't so close to the figure.
Think of the images as a picture - which look more realistic? In the 360 shots they took a step back as far as realism. The reason is that the slight blurring brings all the objects together into a cohesive image - if you clarify everything its obvious that the objects just aren't quite lifelike, and the main character tends to stand out as obviously not 'part of the picture'.
Personally I don't think either one will make a difference while actually playing the games, it's just something for fanboys that gloat over numbers - but if you really want photorealism then a little blurring will usually help cover up your mistakes, because it's very unlikely we'll see photorealism with clarity any time soon in games.
I find it amusing that people are giving Microsoft an easy time because "they are doing something that has never been done before" - Referring to the launch in all the countries within a pretty close proximity timewise.
Sure it hasn't been done, but how does releasing in a ton of different countries make it much different than releasing in one at a time? Sure you *might* be able to get away with blaming shortages on that - but not stuff like overheating or scratching disks. The lack of reasoning in the present day and age is getting rather insane.
Probably one of those RAM "hard drives" I saw on a slashdot article a while back. IIRC they have 4GB capacity max right now (four 1 gig sticks of ram)
While googling in an attempt to find what I was thinking about, I found this article from a year ago about a HUGE one of these bought by the US government for 'database crosschecking' (Spying on people in real time, for those of you wearing your tinfoil hats)
I wasn't even bringing firewalls into the equation - NAT would force you to forward ports, etc. thus providing somewhat of a security benefit - right? (At least from the outside-in perspective)
I don't think I want a permanent static IP address. I know ISPs keep logs, but I'd rather not have web sites or people gathering data about me be able to count on that IP always being a single person (me).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't NAT and the separation of networks a good thing, security wise? (Obviously there are other measures needed, but it plays a part..) Even if we had IP6 it seems we'd still want DMZs and the like. Maybe I'm getting the wrong impression from the articles, but it seems like they're emphasizing everyone being able to have an IP address on a common network essentially - instead of the Internet being a network connecting a bunch of private networks. I don't know about you, but I feel much safer having my computers on a private network connected via one IP and a router than I would having all of them exposed.
Yeah but that amount isn't factored into how much the movie made. They don't say "oh our movie made $114m, plus it cost consumers $25m for babysitting, so we made $139m!"
You're right about the play times, BUT if you want to go there, then you also have to factor in the cost of the console, divided by the number of games purchased - accessories could be likened to popcorn I guess, some people buy it, some don't...
Really though, the whole games movie comparison doesn't show us much - the markets are so totally different.
One game, one person, doesn't cost tech support any different amount depending on who that one person is... (Granted they may ask some of the same questions as a previous owner - but some owners would call multiple times, others might not call at all, that's how it works.)
Well, in today's present society the first step would be to automate voting, and get rid of the electorate delegates - that would ensure the majority actually does rule (assuming the techonology is implemented correctly).
Second step would be (this I'm sort of deriving from an article I read) - to send the senators and representatives home, and allow them to use video conferencing instead. I think this would allow more "real" people to eventually get elected - and be *willing* to get elected, since they wouldn't have to move out of their home towns - leaving friends, family, and a sense of what's going on locally in their state behind them.
On certain issues you could also institute country wide referendums. More technical issues would have to be decided by the senate/house - which is why electing competent people would still be important.
Last but not least, it might be a good idea to make being a senator/representative a part time job, and let them keep their day jobs. That would keep them in touch with daily life, and also effectively curb the amount of useless legislation that's passed each year. (Along with mitigating the effects of lobbyists - since they wouldn't fear losing their jobs, they would merely be doing a service for their country.)
Oh, and term limits might also fit into that plan quite well to enforce the idea that "this is not your permanent job".
Not that the scenario will ever happen in my lifetime without a nation-wide catastrophy or revolt, but it doesn't hurt to throw the ideas out there.
I don't know, if it's so harmful then why can it net you a nice job if you're good at it?
The same thing couldn't really be said for being a drunk, pothead, smoker, or any of the other "bad" habits I can think of at the moment. Sure in each profession there are connoisseurs, but generally they aren't people who indulge in excess, which is the sign of addiction right? (arguable I guess, but true in the majority of cases)
On the other hand a lot of tech jobs involve quite a bit of internet surfing/interaction per day - enough to satisfy a junkie? Quite possibly.
I'm probably a good example - I learned a lot of what I know from reading tons of material on the internet. In the end it was probably 1/2 trial-and-error and 1/4 random internet reading (Important for knowledge to get the job in the first place) and 1/4 internet research (Finding specific information to maintain the position and keep current)
Judging from the gameplay video it looks more like a - First Person Throw Stuff At People With My Weird Tentacles And See Pretty Particle Effects - than a FPS.
I wouldn't play it merely because it looked like it took so long to kill the guys... I mean if it takes me 5 seconds pounding away at an AI that's just standing there to kill him theres something really wrong with the way damage is calculated.
Slashdot Mirror
Precisely why I read slashdot and fark, but not digg.
Slashdot has the non-time sensitive, most interesting news - with insightful or interesting comments.
Fark has the time sensitive or humorous news, with clever or funny comments.
Digg is somewhere in the middle, with the immature comments or spam I can find in an AIM chat room if I need it.
The article says they're 3cm x 1.5cm, yet the image shows robots the size of red blood cells. Someone is an idiot, I hope the image wasn't provided by the people making these things, because I personally don't want swarms of defective robots flying around trying to pollinate my eyes or something like that.
Just imagine riding along at 50mph on a motorcycle and swallowing a flying microrobot - sounds painful. (The article doesn't really say if they move by air - but swarm makes me think of flying bugs.)
It isn't an all-or-nothing proposition. The government is big enough for one portion to be diabolical while another portion is incompetent.
Doesn't take long to get your graphics card set up on OSX - and what is that based on?
/Cue secondary whining about how there aren't many games for Macs.
Reminds me of the way the 'clones' in 'Brave New World' were conditioned to throw out items that broke/tore and buy new ones instead of repairing them.
They need to couple the touchpad system (or a voice system even) with a visual recognition software and cameras to verify the actual number of people waiting. That way it can tell whether there really are 40 people waiting to go to a floor, or if it was just that annoying guy pressing the button repeatedly.
If they had it track faces according to when they pressed, etc, it could actually automatically remove floors if the people changed their mind and took the stairs - or update the stats if you picked a second different floor.
Course then people will start worrying about privacy issues, but it seems like the most efficient way to do it.
It isn't so much efficiency as Hardware vs Software, imo.
It seems like people are assuming they have 5 million current subscribers - but the press release never really specifies (unless I missed it). It could be they've had that many over the life of the game. That would explain the steady increase.
This post neither exists nor not exists until you observe it.
*This post neither exists nor does not exist until you moderate it.
Quote: Man, if you ask me, putting this woman in charge was one seriously bad decision. Maybe she's hot.
p g?v=0
http://static.flickr.com/28/60151919_ac9f1bd72f.j
Hot? Not a chance. Not to be mean or anything but my grandma looks better.
I can't really find much about her, just a bunch of quotes by her - I agree with the parent though, she doesn't seem to know much about MMO* games. Maybe she's more of a FPS game manager, that's sure what it sounds like from her comments.
TFA: The funny thing is those giant retail stores are in for a world of hurt. The giant 400-pound gorilla that has yet to truly reveal its retail chomping head is Broadband. Currently about half the country has some form of DSL or Cable modem, and that number is growing. Download speeds are increasing as well, and once we start seeing download speeds of 100Mbps, content on demand will swallow the game retail beast whole.
I disagree. Yes, broadband speeds are going up, and yes the saturation level is increasing - but I don't think that means the big developers are going to make it their primary distribution system.
What are they really going to do? Make larger maps, add more detail to graphics, add more Hi-Def cutscenes. Only MMO* and other generes that are quite dependent on the internet for playability will resort heavily to this method - if any do at all. Sure we have steam, and it's easy to use and a pretty great service - but that isn't going to stop them from sending their CDs to Best Buy. They know the guy pacing up and down the game aisle is a valuable customer, and for at least the next 40 years there are plenty of people accustomed to shopping at brick and mortar stores, even if they game online.
Heck, I know plenty of adults that are wary of giving their credit card number for a business transaction online, much less buying a game for their own entertainment.
Yeah sure, they're clearer, but with the exception of the first one - with the woman in the white suit - they all look *worse* with more clarity. I bet even the first one would look worse if they weren't so close to the figure.
Think of the images as a picture - which look more realistic? In the 360 shots they took a step back as far as realism. The reason is that the slight blurring brings all the objects together into a cohesive image - if you clarify everything its obvious that the objects just aren't quite lifelike, and the main character tends to stand out as obviously not 'part of the picture'.
Personally I don't think either one will make a difference while actually playing the games, it's just something for fanboys that gloat over numbers - but if you really want photorealism then a little blurring will usually help cover up your mistakes, because it's very unlikely we'll see photorealism with clarity any time soon in games.
I find it amusing that people are giving Microsoft an easy time because "they are doing something that has never been done before" - Referring to the launch in all the countries within a pretty close proximity timewise.
Sure it hasn't been done, but how does releasing in a ton of different countries make it much different than releasing in one at a time? Sure you *might* be able to get away with blaming shortages on that - but not stuff like overheating or scratching disks. The lack of reasoning in the present day and age is getting rather insane.
Probably one of those RAM "hard drives" I saw on a slashdot article a while back. IIRC they have 4GB capacity max right now (four 1 gig sticks of ram)
e wsID=1176
While googling in an attempt to find what I was thinking about, I found this article from a year ago about a HUGE one of these bought by the US government for 'database crosschecking' (Spying on people in real time, for those of you wearing your tinfoil hats)
http://www.techworld.com/storage/news/index.cfm?N
Enjoy.
I wasn't even bringing firewalls into the equation - NAT would force you to forward ports, etc. thus providing somewhat of a security benefit - right? (At least from the outside-in perspective)
I don't think I want a permanent static IP address. I know ISPs keep logs, but I'd rather not have web sites or people gathering data about me be able to count on that IP always being a single person (me).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't NAT and the separation of networks a good thing, security wise? (Obviously there are other measures needed, but it plays a part..) Even if we had IP6 it seems we'd still want DMZs and the like. Maybe I'm getting the wrong impression from the articles, but it seems like they're emphasizing everyone being able to have an IP address on a common network essentially - instead of the Internet being a network connecting a bunch of private networks. I don't know about you, but I feel much safer having my computers on a private network connected via one IP and a router than I would having all of them exposed.
Yeah but that amount isn't factored into how much the movie made. They don't say "oh our movie made $114m, plus it cost consumers $25m for babysitting, so we made $139m!"
You're right about the play times, BUT if you want to go there, then you also have to factor in the cost of the console, divided by the number of games purchased - accessories could be likened to popcorn I guess, some people buy it, some don't...
Really though, the whole games movie comparison doesn't show us much - the markets are so totally different.
One game, one person, doesn't cost tech support any different amount depending on who that one person is... (Granted they may ask some of the same questions as a previous owner - but some owners would call multiple times, others might not call at all, that's how it works.)
Well, in today's present society the first step would be to automate voting, and get rid of the electorate delegates - that would ensure the majority actually does rule (assuming the techonology is implemented correctly).
Second step would be (this I'm sort of deriving from an article I read) - to send the senators and representatives home, and allow them to use video conferencing instead. I think this would allow more "real" people to eventually get elected - and be *willing* to get elected, since they wouldn't have to move out of their home towns - leaving friends, family, and a sense of what's going on locally in their state behind them.
On certain issues you could also institute country wide referendums. More technical issues would have to be decided by the senate/house - which is why electing competent people would still be important.
Last but not least, it might be a good idea to make being a senator/representative a part time job, and let them keep their day jobs. That would keep them in touch with daily life, and also effectively curb the amount of useless legislation that's passed each year. (Along with mitigating the effects of lobbyists - since they wouldn't fear losing their jobs, they would merely be doing a service for their country.)
Oh, and term limits might also fit into that plan quite well to enforce the idea that "this is not your permanent job".
Not that the scenario will ever happen in my lifetime without a nation-wide catastrophy or revolt, but it doesn't hurt to throw the ideas out there.
I don't know, it sounds more like an advertisement for Chemistry.com and less like anything scientific to me.
I don't know, if it's so harmful then why can it net you a nice job if you're good at it?
The same thing couldn't really be said for being a drunk, pothead, smoker, or any of the other "bad" habits I can think of at the moment. Sure in each profession there are connoisseurs, but generally they aren't people who indulge in excess, which is the sign of addiction right? (arguable I guess, but true in the majority of cases)
On the other hand a lot of tech jobs involve quite a bit of internet surfing/interaction per day - enough to satisfy a junkie? Quite possibly.
I'm probably a good example - I learned a lot of what I know from reading tons of material on the internet. In the end it was probably 1/2 trial-and-error and 1/4 random internet reading (Important for knowledge to get the job in the first place) and 1/4 internet research (Finding specific information to maintain the position and keep current)
Judging from the gameplay video it looks more like a - First Person Throw Stuff At People With My Weird Tentacles And See Pretty Particle Effects - than a FPS.
I wouldn't play it merely because it looked like it took so long to kill the guys... I mean if it takes me 5 seconds pounding away at an AI that's just standing there to kill him theres something really wrong with the way damage is calculated.
What exactly is this company/software - and how do they go about hacking into your computer?
Seems like most of the non-casual downloaders would have enough security (firewall - router, etc) to prevent most attempts.
Well, from this point on I'll be skeptical of the skills of any IT person that has "Crest Electronics" on their resume from now on.