... is actually not run by the state and is not called Swissair. The company he's looking for is "Swiss International Air Lines" (since 2002) and is a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa (since 2005).
In the Doom II final level "Icon of Sin", the boss is a giant goat's skull with a fragment missing from its forehead. It says, "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!", distorted and in reverse to sound like a demonic chant. One can use the "idclip" cheat to enter the boss and see Romero's severed head which is skewered to a post. The player defeats the boss (without the idclip cheat) by shooting rockets into its exposed brain after activating a lift and riding it; Romero's head functions as its hit detection point; when he "dies", the boss is killed and the game is finished.
Will AoC run on Linux? As far as I know AoC has its own graphic engine built buy Funcom, using many DirectX10 features and it's also part of Microsoft's "Games for Windows" line-up. Any chance Wine will be able to handle AoC any time soon? I am not sure, maybe anyone here has more insight.
I would love to play something new, but so far the only MMORPGs that work perfectly smooth are WoW and Eve Online. WoW even runs faster since I switched to Linux.:-)
My expectations are high for "The Chronicles of Spellborn" which will be using a modified Unreal engine and should be easier to port, since most of the work has already been done with other games using nearly the same engine. Until then, I'll (have to) stick to WoW to get my daily MMORPG dose.
Very interesting comment and I completely agree with your view on how the music industry needs to adept to consumers needs. The situation here in Europe (Switzerland) where I live is the same as in the USA. Even though the RIAA does not have such a strong influence here (yet) you still feel and experience their less then consumer friendly way of doing business. (radio stations playing the same songs over and over, CD stores with 1000 copies of some over-hyped band but not one alternative / unsigned group, etc.)
Normally I am not one to promote any online stores, but I think you might enjoy cdbaby.com. They currently have a 5$ per CD sale, mostly unsigned and unknown bands but absolutely great music from many different genres and you get the physical media which you may rip / encode to your liking. No DRM, no copy protection,... They also have a very interesting and simple business model, which makes groups like the RIAA obsolete. Worth a read even if you don't plan to buy any CDs there, it really opened my eyes how the music business can be both, commercially viable and still leave enough room for indie / alternative bands.
Disclaimer: I do not work for this store, I am just a happy customer. And pleeez excuse ze bad English, I normally talk German or French.
Nothings says immersion as jumping through a Pepsi logo to materialize somewhere else. Maybe at the enemy headquarters sponsored by Coca-Cola, while Tony the Tiger is shooting you with Cheerios and Mr. T is getting funky with his new Super Soaker 2000.
Saying that Bush is responsible for making people hate our country is wrong.
Well, it's true for me. Probably I am not the only one, because the sentiments here in Switzerland / Europe are definately CONTRA-USA. Bush (and his administration) are certainly responsible for it. People voting for him and giving him another 4 years worth of fucking up everything the US once stood for might be another reason, and it sheds a bad light on the "free thinking people of the United States"
I used to love the USA and I have been there a few times. Since Bush started his War on Terror, invaded Afghanisten, invaded and bombed Iraq, treats everyone who is not a US citizien as a potential terrorist and even spies on his own people... I hate your country. I am sorry to say it, because I wish it would be different.
... the day game developers decide to concentrate on gameplay instead of shiny graphics, will be the day PC gaming is reborn.
Until then we have to play "Quake 7", the newest "Final Fantasy XXIV", "Generic RTS 7494" and the freshest "Wannabe-WoW-RPG".
Of course, you do realize that NASA's overall budget has actually been increasing over the past few years, right?
That's correct. But if you take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_budget, you will see that the increase has not been as huge, especially if you consider inflation. Add to this the 3 Billion $ for the so called "pet projects" mentioned in TFA and NASA is at about the same level they were back in 1984. Of course I am no expert, you probably have more insight then me... I am not even from the US. But don't you think the discrepancy between certain governmental departments is shocking, to say the least?
... $419.3 billion (2006 official), it's no surprise that they have to cut certain other projects. Poor NASA, sadly there's not as much profit in exploring / colonizing space as there is in invading countries with rich oil sources.
I am just trying to find a reasonable way how the government could spend the money.
Since MS is one of the strongest adversaries of OSS, and have been accused of beeing a monopolistic company, the money would be well spent if it's used to support exactly those people MS is trying to stop from beeing successfull. Or maybe use the money to support universities and research... there are probably many more ways to put the cash to good use.
I just fear that the EU will either keep quiet about it, or use it for something like debt reduction, lawyer costs, and "other expenses".
Imagine a car and a truck going 100km/h. Both have the same speed, but the truck is carrying 20'000kg of goods, whereas the car only got room for about 300kg. It's the same with low and high bandwith... the signals are equally fast, but they carry a different amount of information.
If the internet gets tiered, the road you are driving on will suddenly be limited to 50km/h, although it's the same road you used for years.
... because prices cannot be fixed so easily by the mobile / broadband providers. (national cartels!)
If you live in Austria you've got the choice between 4-5 different mobile phone providers and none of them offers a flat rate. Germany on the other hand offers a flat rate for 25Euros per month. Best deal you can currently get.... if you live in Germany.
Same with Broadband. A typicall 2mbit/512kbit connection in Austria costs about the same (45Euros) as a 100mbit connection in Sweden.
So, I am all for opening up the networks... more competition should bring the prices down in some EU countries.
The mesh was already ingame. Bethesda already had female character models with breasts along with textures for nude skin.
Taken from the description of the mod that possibly caused the ESRB to review their rating for Oblivion:
"In the process of trying to create a nude skin for Oblivion, I found Bethesda had already done all the work for me. They just covered it up with underwear afterwards. (At least in my version -- I know sometimes European versions are different, as those cultures accept the human body better.)"
Included in Oblivion without 3rd party plug-ins / add-ons:
Dismembered corpses; human skulls split apart by an axe; a person with his face crushed and his entrails hanging around; skeletons of babies trapped inside the catacombs of their own mother; and lots of other (very graphical) forms of violence.... Rated TEEN.
And now we have (through a 3rd party modification of a mesh already in game): Nipples... Rated M. Oh my god! Teh Horror! N I P P L E S . Ban it! O_o
FTFA: "The subpoenas are part of the government's defense of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. The law makes it illegal to provide children with online content deemed harmful to them."
As easy as it is to change some words in the article, you should also be able to change the filter. Let's try it:
"The subpoenas are part of the government's defense of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. The law makes it illegal to provide people with online content deemed harmful to the government."
Mod me a troll if you want, but I still think this issue is scary. I am all for protecting children, but not at the cost of my own freedom to access all the (legal) information I want to.
If they have a 5% success in stealing customers from World of Warcraft, it will bring them about 300k new subscribers. I would call that a great success and afaik that would be more players then SWG ever had.
(WoW has an estimated player base of about 6 million. including multiple accounts, so maybe only 5.5 million unique ones)
Even if there is an optimal strategy to win a game, you still have to consider the skill of players, especially in FPS. There might be something like "the best spot to defend your base" or "the quickest way to capture the enemy flag" but if you get a headshot while executing your perfect strategy, because the enemy has the better aim then you, even the best thought out plan is worthless.
Racing games might also have a perfect strategy (shortest possible way around the racing track, etc.), which you could theoretically calculate to make it 100% accurate. But still, the best calculation is worthless if you can't drive that car, virtually or in real life... no matter where.
Slashdot Mirror
... is actually not run by the state and is not called Swissair. The company he's looking for is "Swiss International Air Lines" (since 2002) and is a subsidiary of the German airline Lufthansa (since 2005).
Otherwise, the plan seems legit.
Very interesting read. Thank's for sharing the link.
... can be found here:
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Future-of-Internet-Search-Mobile-version/59175
I really like this concept and believe it's a viable new way to interact with our environment.
In the Doom II final level "Icon of Sin", the boss is a giant goat's skull with a fragment missing from its forehead. It says, "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!", distorted and in reverse to sound like a demonic chant. One can use the "idclip" cheat to enter the boss and see Romero's severed head which is skewered to a post. The player defeats the boss (without the idclip cheat) by shooting rockets into its exposed brain after activating a lift and riding it; Romero's head functions as its hit detection point; when he "dies", the boss is killed and the game is finished.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Romero
(incl. picture)
Will AoC run on Linux? As far as I know AoC has its own graphic engine built buy Funcom, using many DirectX10 features and it's also part of Microsoft's "Games for Windows" line-up. Any chance Wine will be able to handle AoC any time soon? I am not sure, maybe anyone here has more insight.
:-)
I would love to play something new, but so far the only MMORPGs that work perfectly smooth are WoW and Eve Online. WoW even runs faster since I switched to Linux.
My expectations are high for "The Chronicles of Spellborn" which will be using a modified Unreal engine and should be easier to port, since most of the work has already been done with other games using nearly the same engine. Until then, I'll (have to) stick to WoW to get my daily MMORPG dose.
Thank you for your comprehensive and accurate summary of the situation in Switzerland. As mentioned by fest321 the article on Boing-Boing is nonsense.
... whoever tagged this story ipwned. Thank you. :-)
Best. Tag. Ever.
Very interesting comment and I completely agree with your view on how the music industry needs to adept to consumers needs. The situation here in Europe (Switzerland) where I live is the same as in the USA. Even though the RIAA does not have such a strong influence here (yet) you still feel and experience their less then consumer friendly way of doing business. (radio stations playing the same songs over and over, CD stores with 1000 copies of some over-hyped band but not one alternative / unsigned group, etc.)
... They also have a very interesting and simple business model, which makes groups like the RIAA obsolete. Worth a read even if you don't plan to buy any CDs there, it really opened my eyes how the music business can be both, commercially viable and still leave enough room for indie / alternative bands.
Normally I am not one to promote any online stores, but I think you might enjoy cdbaby.com. They currently have a 5$ per CD sale, mostly unsigned and unknown bands but absolutely great music from many different genres and you get the physical media which you may rip / encode to your liking. No DRM, no copy protection,
Disclaimer: I do not work for this store, I am just a happy customer. And pleeez excuse ze bad English, I normally talk German or French.
Nothings says immersion as jumping through a Pepsi logo to materialize somewhere else. Maybe at the enemy headquarters sponsored by Coca-Cola, while Tony the Tiger is shooting you with Cheerios and Mr. T is getting funky with his new Super Soaker 2000.
Well, it's true for me. Probably I am not the only one, because the sentiments here in Switzerland / Europe are definately CONTRA-USA. Bush (and his administration) are certainly responsible for it. People voting for him and giving him another 4 years worth of fucking up everything the US once stood for might be another reason, and it sheds a bad light on the "free thinking people of the United States"
I used to love the USA and I have been there a few times. Since Bush started his War on Terror, invaded Afghanisten, invaded and bombed Iraq, treats everyone who is not a US citizien as a potential terrorist and even spies on his own people... I hate your country. I am sorry to say it, because I wish it would be different.
... the day game developers decide to concentrate on gameplay instead of shiny graphics, will be the day PC gaming is reborn. Until then we have to play "Quake 7", the newest "Final Fantasy XXIV", "Generic RTS 7494" and the freshest "Wannabe-WoW-RPG".
That's correct. But if you take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_budget, you will see that the increase has not been as huge, especially if you consider inflation. Add to this the 3 Billion $ for the so called "pet projects" mentioned in TFA and NASA is at about the same level they were back in 1984. Of course I am no expert, you probably have more insight then me... I am not even from the US. But don't you think the discrepancy between certain governmental departments is shocking, to say the least?
... $419.3 billion (2006 official), it's no surprise that they have to cut certain other projects. Poor NASA, sadly there's not as much profit in exploring / colonizing space as there is in invading countries with rich oil sources.
I am just trying to find a reasonable way how the government could spend the money.
... there are probably many more ways to put the cash to good use.
Since MS is one of the strongest adversaries of OSS, and have been accused of beeing a monopolistic company, the money would be well spent if it's used to support exactly those people MS is trying to stop from beeing successfull. Or maybe use the money to support universities and research
I just fear that the EU will either keep quiet about it, or use it for something like debt reduction, lawyer costs, and "other expenses".
Some people here already pointed out, that the fines will be a total of about 1.4 Billion USD.
Does anyone know what those fines will be used for? I doubt they will be donated to open source projects. I'd appreciate some more info.
Imagine a car and a truck going 100km/h. Both have the same speed, but the truck is carrying 20'000kg of goods, whereas the car only got room for about 300kg. It's the same with low and high bandwith... the signals are equally fast, but they carry a different amount of information.
If the internet gets tiered, the road you are driving on will suddenly be limited to 50km/h, although it's the same road you used for years.
Hey Mods. Just because he compiled a list with the last point beeing "Profit" it's not automatically funny.
... because prices cannot be fixed so easily by the mobile / broadband providers. (national cartels!)
If you live in Austria you've got the choice between 4-5 different mobile phone providers and none of them offers a flat rate. Germany on the other hand offers a flat rate for 25Euros per month. Best deal you can currently get.... if you live in Germany.
Same with Broadband. A typicall 2mbit/512kbit connection in Austria costs about the same (45Euros) as a 100mbit connection in Sweden.
So, I am all for opening up the networks... more competition should bring the prices down in some EU countries.
Taken from the description of the mod that possibly caused the ESRB to review their rating for Oblivion:
Included in Oblivion without 3rd party plug-ins / add-ons: .... Rated TEEN.
... Rated M. Oh my god! Teh Horror! N I P P L E S . Ban it! O_o
Dismembered corpses; human skulls split apart by an axe; a person with his face crushed and his entrails hanging around; skeletons of babies trapped inside the catacombs of their own mother; and lots of other (very graphical) forms of violence
And now we have (through a 3rd party modification of a mesh already in game):
Nipples
FTFA:
"The subpoenas are part of the government's defense of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. The law makes it illegal to provide children with online content deemed harmful to them."
As easy as it is to change some words in the article, you should also be able to change the filter. Let's try it:
"The subpoenas are part of the government's defense of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. The law makes it illegal to provide people with online content deemed harmful to the government."
Mod me a troll if you want, but I still think this issue is scary. I am all for protecting children, but not at the cost of my own freedom to access all the (legal) information I want to.
If they have a 5% success in stealing customers from World of Warcraft, it will bring them about 300k new subscribers. I would call that a great success and afaik that would be more players then SWG ever had. (WoW has an estimated player base of about 6 million. including multiple accounts, so maybe only 5.5 million unique ones)
Even if there is an optimal strategy to win a game, you still have to consider the skill of players, especially in FPS. There might be something like "the best spot to defend your base" or "the quickest way to capture the enemy flag" but if you get a headshot while executing your perfect strategy, because the enemy has the better aim then you, even the best thought out plan is worthless. Racing games might also have a perfect strategy (shortest possible way around the racing track, etc.), which you could theoretically calculate to make it 100% accurate. But still, the best calculation is worthless if you can't drive that car, virtually or in real life ... no matter where.