Those programs are designed to pick up on lighting mistakes. They can be fooled, it just takes a better staged shot, or a LOT more photoshop work. In this case though, the mod was cloning smoke. I'm not sure if the light engines would pick up on it. The issue here is that the cloning was visually obvious to the naked eye. And editor who saw that picture and let it go should be caned for shear incompotence.
So true, I'm significantly more concerned about skin irritation, blood stream poisoning and respratory problems due to nano-particles than some unrealistic nano-bot.
"The PS3 could still pull off being a kickass game machine even if BluRay tanks as a video format"
But how many people will spring for a $600 game console? If BR tanks, Sony would be better off re-tooling for a cheap CD/DVD player and dropping the price. $400 for a top end console makes a lot more sence then $600 for a top end console with a worthless feature.
I would actually venture a guess that the type of person who spends $3000+ on an Alienware is significantly MORE likely to buy the PS3. That kind of disposable income coupled with a strong desire for top-end/latest greatest.
The PS3 is trying to be a cutting edge entertainment system. The question is, will the BluRay player (err HD, whichever it uses) make enough value for consumers to buy it? If you are already in the market for a $300 HD/BluRay player AND a $300 console, then the PS3 makes sence. If you are in the market for a $40 DVD player and a $200 Console, then a Wii makes sence. If the high def video disk market doesn't pan out, then the PS3 is screwed.
Good to know. I have never actually owned and "entertainment system", only computers. I borrowed a friends original Nintendo once for a few weeks, so that's what I'm familiar with. I have no idea on the release dates of any of the newer consoles.
Old nintendo controlers are digital, the directional and A-B buttons were either "on" or "off". These patents are for analog controls, which means they determine if a button is 0% down, 100% down, or anything in between.
If you want to play Classic Doom in the glory of Doom 3 check out http://cdoom.d3files.com/ It is a Doom 3 total conversion to allow you to play all of episode 1 from the original Doom in the Doom 3 engine. Updated graphics, textures, models, music, everything.
There are a hand ful of old games that I will pull out and play through all the way.
1 - Monkey Island. Straight up one of the best humorous adventures out there, even in 16 colors! 2 - Quest for Glory 1. After the VGA remake, the 256 color imagry interesting story line, and great game play make it worth running through over and over. 3 - Quest for Glory 2. The old CGA version still keeps me entertained. The type-action interface requires actual thought. Instead of clicking on someone for a dialog option, you actually have to type "ask about sword", or "climb rope". No glowing outlines on interactive objects.
What I'm waiting for is a first/third person pov world, with much less combat and much more throught than most of the current FPSs these days and a healthy dose of social humour. Tomb Raider meets Myst with Leisure Suit Larry cameos.
Efficiency and cash. The most efficient standard farming to produce bio-diesel (soy) makes about 50g/acre (compared to 300+g/acre ethanol), so it is not efficient for your average farmer to grow bio-diesel.
The real golden ticket of Bio-Diesel is in Algae farms, which can (theoretically) pack huge densities into smaller areas (800+g/acre), and they can do so in non-farmable land (ie: the desert). And they can reduce emissions from coal burning plants. And BD is still much more efficient than petro-gas or ethanol. Production may not be scalable to off set the entire US, but no single solution is. But algee farm BD could easily scale to replace the existing diesel demand, which should reduce the price point on heating oil and jet fuel from oil.
As opposed to those people who blindly assume "computer = bad, paper = good"
IAACP (I am a computer programmer), but I have a strong respect for paper trails and auditing. I am all for electronic voting, I think the results will be faster and more accurate tabulation. But I am also for a solid, verifiable, and auditable paper trail. That means that for every vote that is made there has to be the electronic notation, a paper receipt for the voter, and a paper receipt for the vote counters.
Actually, I don't really have any problem with WMP. It plays lots of media types, I can toss a CD in the drive and use WMP to rip it to a high bitrate MP3 or WMA with out a DRM, it's a little heavy on the resources, but my PC has no problems with it. All round, I think WMP is one of MS's better programs.
"Although the Q1 won more points, the Newton was declared the overall winner of the battle and was crowned by CNET.co.uk in an emotional ceremony."
In other words, the Q1 beat the Newton 5 to 3. Although I personally think the Q1 should have won the Price point also as you can not buy a new Newton like the one they tested. So it just comes down to the editor being a Mac fan or Windows hater.
$60 a night might get you a motel 4 in the off season in the US.
There was a 'Chinesse getaway' showcase on the travel channel a few weeks ago that showcased some primo suits for $200 or less a night. $200/night might get you a two bed suite in Las Vegas, but definately nothing poshe.
You want a cheap luxury vacation? Head for China, check out the nightly prices on high end hotel suites and stake and lobster dinners. The joys of an artifically low currency value.
I find [ctrl]-A useful when reading excessively linked Wikis. I appreciate the ability to shoot off easily on so many tangents, but it can be challanging to read when every word is a link.
Never from scratch, if I'm in that deep I replace the tranny with a new or rebuilt one. But that doesn't mean I can't. That just means that my time is important enough to me that I would rather purchase one. But I have pulled apart the common maintenance/replacement items on automatics, and watched a case splitting.
"2)Never seen a transmission-rebuild manual."
I completely understand what you are saying. The infamous "Assembly is reverse of above disasembly" Haynes instruction. That's why I said with "good directions" they should be able to. We're not talking about sending someone into a court room with an instruction sheet written for a lawyer, nor are we going to send joe schmoe into the auto shop with a tech doc designed for experienced mechanics. We're talking about doing research and comming up with appropriate information, so items like using care and lube on seals and torque specs are noted.
The problem with that analogy is the FF/IE is not required to run 'IIS Applications', and there is a vastly different market that makes up the web industry.
Mono helps.Net application run on linux, not Java.
It's not as bad as you think. Look at the vast majority of employees in the automotive service industry. Most of my wrench monkey fans have high school diplomas, live pay check to pay check, and voted for Bush.
If THEY can tear apart a tranny, any able bodied person with the ability to research enough of the law to attempt to defend themselves of these charges should be able to tear down an rebuild a transmission. By 'no problem' I mean that it will be difficult, but if they are careful, follow good directions, and use the appropriate tools, at the end of the ordeal they will have a working transmission. Not to mention a much better understanding of how trannys work.
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Those programs are designed to pick up on lighting mistakes. They can be fooled, it just takes a better staged shot, or a LOT more photoshop work. In this case though, the mod was cloning smoke. I'm not sure if the light engines would pick up on it. The issue here is that the cloning was visually obvious to the naked eye. And editor who saw that picture and let it go should be caned for shear incompotence.
-Rick
That's because Republicans are "Borrow and Spend". Which would you rather be, poor(democrat), or owned by China(republican)?
-Rick
So true, I'm significantly more concerned about skin irritation, blood stream poisoning and respratory problems due to nano-particles than some unrealistic nano-bot.
-Rick
As if the NSA doesn't have enough to do already, we're going to put them on the watch for billions of nano-bots?!
-Rick
But what about the penguin from batman?
-Rick
But if UMD added $200 to the price of the PSP and sales were in the tanks anyways (as in no product shortage at launch), what do they have to lose?
-Rick
"The PS3 could still pull off being a kickass game machine even if BluRay tanks as a video format"
But how many people will spring for a $600 game console? If BR tanks, Sony would be better off re-tooling for a cheap CD/DVD player and dropping the price. $400 for a top end console makes a lot more sence then $600 for a top end console with a worthless feature.
-Rick
I would actually venture a guess that the type of person who spends $3000+ on an Alienware is significantly MORE likely to buy the PS3. That kind of disposable income coupled with a strong desire for top-end/latest greatest.
The PS3 is trying to be a cutting edge entertainment system. The question is, will the BluRay player (err HD, whichever it uses) make enough value for consumers to buy it? If you are already in the market for a $300 HD/BluRay player AND a $300 console, then the PS3 makes sence. If you are in the market for a $40 DVD player and a $200 Console, then a Wii makes sence. If the high def video disk market doesn't pan out, then the PS3 is screwed.
-Rick
Good to know. I have never actually owned and "entertainment system", only computers. I borrowed a friends original Nintendo once for a few weeks, so that's what I'm familiar with. I have no idea on the release dates of any of the newer consoles.
-Rick
Old nintendo controlers are digital, the directional and A-B buttons were either "on" or "off". These patents are for analog controls, which means they determine if a button is 0% down, 100% down, or anything in between.
-Rick
If you want to play Classic Doom in the glory of Doom 3 check out http://cdoom.d3files.com/ It is a Doom 3 total conversion to allow you to play all of episode 1 from the original Doom in the Doom 3 engine. Updated graphics, textures, models, music, everything.
[Bias note: I host the musician's web set at http://sonicclang.ringdev.com/ ]
-Rick
There are a hand ful of old games that I will pull out and play through all the way.
1 - Monkey Island. Straight up one of the best humorous adventures out there, even in 16 colors!
2 - Quest for Glory 1. After the VGA remake, the 256 color imagry interesting story line, and great game play make it worth running through over and over.
3 - Quest for Glory 2. The old CGA version still keeps me entertained. The type-action interface requires actual thought. Instead of clicking on someone for a dialog option, you actually have to type "ask about sword", or "climb rope". No glowing outlines on interactive objects.
What I'm waiting for is a first/third person pov world, with much less combat and much more throught than most of the current FPSs these days and a healthy dose of social humour. Tomb Raider meets Myst with Leisure Suit Larry cameos.
-Rick
Efficiency and cash. The most efficient standard farming to produce bio-diesel (soy) makes about 50g/acre (compared to 300+g/acre ethanol), so it is not efficient for your average farmer to grow bio-diesel.
The real golden ticket of Bio-Diesel is in Algae farms, which can (theoretically) pack huge densities into smaller areas (800+g/acre), and they can do so in non-farmable land (ie: the desert). And they can reduce emissions from coal burning plants. And BD is still much more efficient than petro-gas or ethanol. Production may not be scalable to off set the entire US, but no single solution is. But algee farm BD could easily scale to replace the existing diesel demand, which should reduce the price point on heating oil and jet fuel from oil.
-Rick
As opposed to those people who blindly assume "computer = bad, paper = good"
IAACP (I am a computer programmer), but I have a strong respect for paper trails and auditing. I am all for electronic voting, I think the results will be faster and more accurate tabulation. But I am also for a solid, verifiable, and auditable paper trail. That means that for every vote that is made there has to be the electronic notation, a paper receipt for the voter, and a paper receipt for the vote counters.
-Rick
http://www.uspto.gov/ ;)
-Rick
Wow, way to go overboard on a simple ribbing. I'd hate to see your reaction if someone actually tried to piss you off.
-Rick
Actually, I don't really have any problem with WMP. It plays lots of media types, I can toss a CD in the drive and use WMP to rip it to a high bitrate MP3 or WMA with out a DRM, it's a little heavy on the resources, but my PC has no problems with it. All round, I think WMP is one of MS's better programs.
-Rick
Windows, IIS, MySQL, PHP - WIMP
-Rick
"Although the Q1 won more points, the Newton was declared the overall winner of the battle and was crowned by CNET.co.uk in an emotional ceremony."
In other words, the Q1 beat the Newton 5 to 3. Although I personally think the Q1 should have won the Price point also as you can not buy a new Newton like the one they tested. So it just comes down to the editor being a Mac fan or Windows hater.
-Rick
$60 a night might get you a motel 4 in the off season in the US.
There was a 'Chinesse getaway' showcase on the travel channel a few weeks ago that showcased some primo suits for $200 or less a night. $200/night might get you a two bed suite in Las Vegas, but definately nothing poshe.
-Rick
You want a cheap luxury vacation? Head for China, check out the nightly prices on high end hotel suites and stake and lobster dinners. The joys of an artifically low currency value.
-Rick
I find [ctrl]-A useful when reading excessively linked Wikis. I appreciate the ability to shoot off easily on so many tangents, but it can be challanging to read when every word is a link.
-Rick
"1)Never rebuilt a transmission."
Never from scratch, if I'm in that deep I replace the tranny with a new or rebuilt one. But that doesn't mean I can't. That just means that my time is important enough to me that I would rather purchase one. But I have pulled apart the common maintenance/replacement items on automatics, and watched a case splitting.
"2)Never seen a transmission-rebuild manual."
I completely understand what you are saying. The infamous "Assembly is reverse of above disasembly" Haynes instruction. That's why I said with "good directions" they should be able to. We're not talking about sending someone into a court room with an instruction sheet written for a lawyer, nor are we going to send joe schmoe into the auto shop with a tech doc designed for experienced mechanics. We're talking about doing research and comming up with appropriate information, so items like using care and lube on seals and torque specs are noted.
-Rick
The problem with that analogy is the FF/IE is not required to run 'IIS Applications', and there is a vastly different market that makes up the web industry.
.Net application run on linux, not Java.
Mono helps
-Rick
It's not as bad as you think. Look at the vast majority of employees in the automotive service industry. Most of my wrench monkey fans have high school diplomas, live pay check to pay check, and voted for Bush.
If THEY can tear apart a tranny, any able bodied person with the ability to research enough of the law to attempt to defend themselves of these charges should be able to tear down an rebuild a transmission. By 'no problem' I mean that it will be difficult, but if they are careful, follow good directions, and use the appropriate tools, at the end of the ordeal they will have a working transmission. Not to mention a much better understanding of how trannys work.
-Rick