Some high profile companies are already taking advantage of digital distribution (aka pay-to-download). Bioware's NeverWinter Nights sells "premium modules" from an online store. SOE's EQ2 has "adventure packs".
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the effect this will have on publishers. Currently, developers are very reliant on publishers to get their products out in the stores, but with the advent of online distribution and marketing, the dynamics are changing. Now, small developer firms can bypass traditional publishers to publish their own products online via BT.
Actually, they do this not just to save money, but to also not infuriate the current user base. Introduce a new feature, and many will raise a "nerf" ruckus.
Comparing Lisp TO XML is still apples to oranges. There are cases were simple data formats (e.g. Lisp, JSON) are better, and there are cases where self-describing formats (e.g. XML) are better. Just try creating a Lisp equivalent of XHTML, and you'll see what I mean.
I blame the title. Too much Star Trek mumbo jumbo. Nanophotonic Waveguides...wtf is that? Needs to be nonsensical title like "one step closer to phasers".
I'm no doubt in the minority here, but I play games to escape from real life. I'm not a hardcore roleplayer (though given a good enough environment, I'll roleplay), but I dislike getting bombarded with OOC comments and I'd rather not chat with others on topics like Iraq. I suppose that makes me a light roleplayer.
With that said, it's pretty obvious why I don't like others "introducing" things from alternate realities (e.g. the real world). It ruins the immersion. It has little to do with jealousy for me, since I don't play RPGs to primarily get phat loot like most others. I play it to live an alternate life.
Does this mean I'm completely against the secondary market? No, I'm fine with games that support IGE and the likes, though I'll personally be hesitant to play them. For example, EQ2's Station Exchange program (or whatever it's called) is fine with me. However, your statement here is plain stupid:
On the legality side, I am beginning to think we are going to see someone eventually go to court and beat one of the game companies.
Hey, what happened to the idea of choice? For a community that's so pro-choice (in terms of software), I find it odd that you want ALL games to accept the secondary market. It's like saying "Linux should be illegal." Have you ever considered that there's a niche of gamers and game developers that oppose IGE?
Well, whatever the case, IGE won't affect me, since I don't play MMORPGs nowadays. But, in the off chance I start playing again, I'd rather play in a game or game server that restricts the secondary market.
Yeah, Javascript is a great language once you get over its oddities, such as its ambiguity with types, leading to a weird ! operator and null == undefined (which led to the mostly unnecessary === operator). However, it's lack of static classes does make it harder to maintain (and I don't mean those pseudo-classes taking advantage of closures - those just look funky).
How does a good server-side JS engine compare with PHP in performance though?
Fortunately, the Firefox nightly builds are much better at memory management, so the next version of Firefox will most likely handle memory issues very well.
Okay that makes sense. I thought they were using a single existing png image and simply resizing it. I was surprised thinking that this was the case, because, as you said, png is not a vector format.
Thanks for the clarification.
BTW, I forgot to escape <img> in the grandparent post ("and tried loading it as an <img> in arbitrary sizes").
Can you elaborate on that? I've created a diagonal line in a 1024x1024 png, saved it, and tried loading it as an in arbitrary sizes. Obviously, it works as a 1:1 slope line, but it starts disappearing when approaching 0 or infinite slope.
but use a PNG graphic format and a linear description for the Firefox browser
You can make lines with arbitrary angles and lengths with pngs?! Is that what he's talking about? I've experimented a little with line images but the problem is always the pixelation when the line becomes too long. I really want to know how they solved the issue. Maybe someone here can enlighten me...
I have a web-app that's IE only since it has VRML. I could use SVG for Firefox nightlies, but the public Firefox build doesn't support it, so that's a no go. And no, I'm not going to use flash.
Honestly, I don't know much about the Semantic Web, but I have my doubts. In addition to its mechanical nature, I suspect the Semantic Web may eventually be plagued by abuse: search engine optimization. HTML is presentable so even if it's being abused with SEO, the human can verify whether it's crap or not. Can the machine do that?
That's where the search engine comes in. Something that sifts thru the available data and presents the tidbits that are ripe for picking.
I predict that this very act of picking relevant data is going to be biggest technology of tomorrow. Imagine a search engine-powered message board. I'm not talking about a message board that has a search feature; no, I'm envisioning a message board that's powered by a search engine: posts are linked automatically to relevant posts, and relevant posts of a topic are automatically presented to viewers. Something like/. except even better, since it would get rid of most redundant posts.
Although I don't know what the Africans are farming, but there's a type of agriculture known as "cash crops". Most famous example: tobacco. Try eating tobacco, why don't you.
Also, there are other basic necessities than food. You know, water and shelter. And guess what they'll need for at least one of those: cash. Hence, the cash crops.
Slashdot Mirror
RTFA. It's NOT called a library anymore.
An essential tool for detecting IE mem leaks: http://www.outofhanwell.com/ieleak/
Isn't this already possible with OLEDs?
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the effect this will have on publishers. Currently, developers are very reliant on publishers to get their products out in the stores, but with the advent of online distribution and marketing, the dynamics are changing. Now, small developer firms can bypass traditional publishers to publish their own products online via BT.
Actually, they do this not just to save money, but to also not infuriate the current user base. Introduce a new feature, and many will raise a "nerf" ruckus.
Comparing Lisp TO XML is still apples to oranges. There are cases were simple data formats (e.g. Lisp, JSON) are better, and there are cases where self-describing formats (e.g. XML) are better. Just try creating a Lisp equivalent of XHTML, and you'll see what I mean.
I blame the title. Too much Star Trek mumbo jumbo. Nanophotonic Waveguides...wtf is that? Needs to be nonsensical title like "one step closer to phasers".
With that said, it's pretty obvious why I don't like others "introducing" things from alternate realities (e.g. the real world). It ruins the immersion. It has little to do with jealousy for me, since I don't play RPGs to primarily get phat loot like most others. I play it to live an alternate life.
Does this mean I'm completely against the secondary market? No, I'm fine with games that support IGE and the likes, though I'll personally be hesitant to play them. For example, EQ2's Station Exchange program (or whatever it's called) is fine with me. However, your statement here is plain stupid:
Hey, what happened to the idea of choice? For a community that's so pro-choice (in terms of software), I find it odd that you want ALL games to accept the secondary market. It's like saying "Linux should be illegal." Have you ever considered that there's a niche of gamers and game developers that oppose IGE?Well, whatever the case, IGE won't affect me, since I don't play MMORPGs nowadays. But, in the off chance I start playing again, I'd rather play in a game or game server that restricts the secondary market.
How does a good server-side JS engine compare with PHP in performance though?
Ditto. Thanks for this article :)
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/
Fortunately, the Firefox nightly builds are much better at memory management, so the next version of Firefox will most likely handle memory issues very well.
Thanks for the clarification.
BTW, I forgot to escape <img> in the grandparent post ("and tried loading it as an <img> in arbitrary sizes").
Can you elaborate on that? I've created a diagonal line in a 1024x1024 png, saved it, and tried loading it as an in arbitrary sizes. Obviously, it works as a 1:1 slope line, but it starts disappearing when approaching 0 or infinite slope.
I have a web-app that's IE only since it has VRML. I could use SVG for Firefox nightlies, but the public Firefox build doesn't support it, so that's a no go. And no, I'm not going to use flash.
Honestly, I don't know much about the Semantic Web, but I have my doubts. In addition to its mechanical nature, I suspect the Semantic Web may eventually be plagued by abuse: search engine optimization. HTML is presentable so even if it's being abused with SEO, the human can verify whether it's crap or not. Can the machine do that?
That's where the search engine comes in. Something that sifts thru the available data and presents the tidbits that are ripe for picking.
I predict that this very act of picking relevant data is going to be biggest technology of tomorrow. Imagine a search engine-powered message board. I'm not talking about a message board that has a search feature; no, I'm envisioning a message board that's powered by a search engine: posts are linked automatically to relevant posts, and relevant posts of a topic are automatically presented to viewers. Something like /. except even better, since it would get rid of most redundant posts.
That's the future I'm talking about.
Well, XML was primarily meant to be machine-read. It just has the added benefit of being human-understandable and human-writable.
I use Tab Mix. Smaller and more stable.
That's especially true for comedies (which is what I mainly watch).
Well, it's okay to use the tag if you never intend to use XHTML 1.1+ (and who knows when IE will ever support XHTML...)
Is this the justification China uses to evade its human rights issues?
Also, there are other basic necessities than food. You know, water and shelter. And guess what they'll need for at least one of those: cash. Hence, the cash crops.