Well, I think that a well-documented API is better than some MS code (which could be either good, acceptable or horrible). If you have the complete documentation, it's often easier to write your own compatible API than hack Microsoft's API, removing all the unwanted features and library dependencies. Although it would be better if Microsoft provided both the sourcecode (for people who don't want to reinvent the bycicle or as a reference for those who are writing from scratch) and the API (which would be great for already established projects like Openoffice and others, so that they would become more compatible).
As I understand the EU doesn't like when one company bundles its product A with its product B to promote B with the monopoly or near-monopoly status of A. In this case, it's two different companies. It's like complaining that you get free magazines on your airplane flight. Or getting Wikipedia links posted related to the slashdot story. Even Adsense may be considered bundling because when you visit a website, you get a lot of related (or unrelated) links.
And just to prove my point, anyone of you remember DAT?
I remember seeing DAT players in stores about 10-15 years ago. They were not entirely useless - when burnable CDs didn't exist or cost as much as your house (and computers were expensive, mp3 didn't exist and a 400Mb hard drive was considered enormous), DATs provided you with a way to record digital audio. They also lived their second life when Philips made car audio systems that read digital data recorded on a usual audio cassette.
Some people may get bored with a game pretty quickly. I cannot play the same strategy game for more than a month (even if I'm playing in multiplayer). My sister *still* plays Warcraft III since it was published. The main problem with strategies/RPGs is that your gaming experience stays pretty much the same. They don't have very good storylines (except for perhaps Starcraft) and in strategies you end up building units until the 5-minute final battle where you either lose your army and have or completely defeat your enemy. RPGs usually end up collecting stuff and increasing experience and level. FPSs last less than strategies but they present you a good story (compared to strategies), interesting maps where you take advantage of the map itself etc. Compared to FPSs, RPGs have a "smoother" experience - they have simpler maps, simpler storylines and so they keep you interested by offering new weapons/units/upgraded. I'd say that you can play an RPS for longer than an FPS but its replay ability is lower. But playing a single game for months isn't much fun, no matter how good it is. You'll still be fighting Night Elves, Orcs and others - and after half a year they'll look all the same. It's like visiting only one website - Slashdot, MSDN, OSNews etc.
These dogs are stupid. REALLY stupid. I remember a BBC documentary about AI and robots and they flipped the dog over and put it upside down in their back lawn. The dog tried to get on its feet and after failing several times said something like "I need help".
I think it would teach the Sony Rootkit creators a good lesson. If you consider how many man-hours were spent on getting rid of that thing then calling these people for just one day is a really soft sort of punishment. Especially because Sony Music and others seem to believe that the rootkit fiasco was a way of protecting *their* rights.
And non-US people could use Skypeout since it's free in the US. Might be even funnier if someone from a GMT+2 timezone calls to a GMT-7 timezone when it's 3 AM there (I wonder if these phone numbers are work, home or mobile?)
Yes, but would you protest if McDolald's wanted to shut down your favorite restaraunt because they might be selling hamburgers that are made using McDonald's recipe? RIAA wants to shut down P2P networks even when not all shared content is illegal. Not to mention that they sue people who don't even have a computer.
Re:there is an old russian joke...
on
Earth Sandwich
·
· Score: 2, Funny
In Soviet Russia, joke laughs at you!
Re:there is an old russian joke...
on
Earth Sandwich
·
· Score: 1
Although I'm Russian, I've never heard that joke...
It would look better if the keys were lit independently. But as I understand, you can only control the overall keyboard brightness. This would look as if some circut gets overloaded and the keyboard doesn't get enough power. What would be better is keys that light independently - imagine keys flashing in rows or in circles (like sound waves in water) or in random order, looking like old-school mainframes shown in movies.
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing Viral marketing it something that is spread by people, not by advertizing agencies. It behaves like a virus - once you release the ad into the wild, it spreads without your control, because people think it's interesting/funny and send it to their friends.
Well, this is completely unrelated with politics and the government, so why should it be censored? China isn't Iran where the government bans things based on religion. What's more, China is trying to gain respect in any possible way, that's why they recently flew their first man in space - it's "me too", but on a larger scale.
How about email? I used to have a @netscape.com amil address, and it looked cool, like I was working for Netscape. AOL doesn't have a very good email brand (they have AIM mail, but it looks for lots of people like the email account meny people get with AIM and don't know what to do with afterwards).
Oranges are really acidic (I'm not joking). I once ate an orange and then put my hands on my keyboard's palm rest (without washing my hands). This resulted in melting of the plastic - not much, but enough to have my fingerprint engraved on the keyboard. And it's not dirt - it's actually plastic shaped as a fingerprint!
Well, what I meant was that iD no longer mantains it and no fork is declared (or recognized) as the official version. So if someone downloads the source from iD, changes a few things and posts it to Sourceforge, it would have the same status as other projects which vastly improve the engine. Not to mention that lots of forks may be reinventing the whell, adding the same stuff to iD's version but in different ways. I've looked at Nexuiz and it looks very promising, thanks for the link.
Well, the article is talking about the Japanese market, not the American. It's like saying that GSM1900 doesn't do well in Europe. Japan has its customs and traditions, and usually products made by Japanese companies sell much better than imported goods.
Well, because humans are more intelligent than animals. They won't eat poisonous stuff (rats, however, often choose a beta tester for new kinds of food and eat it only it the beta-tester doesn't die). They are able to install and mantain stuff like chemical reactors (to create a friendlier atmosphere), communication equipment, food plants etc., as well as create a base and expand the population. They are able to do observations and report back to Earth (automated cameras are dumb and they cannot be controlled manually from Earth because there is a very serious lag even when communicating with the closest planet, Mars). On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how rats (or any other animal) adapt to the new environment. But it would be crazy to send a bunch of animals to some planet and not release them in the wild (what would they achieve besides eating and increasing population?). And it would be crazy to send the animals to Mars, release them in the wild and watch how they suffocate in a hostile atmosphere.
I live in Russia, and all three major cellphone providers offer a simular service. Well, I've never seen anyone use it except tech-savvy people (and they usually play with the service for a week and then completely forget it). This may be convenient if, for example, your kid is unable to reply your phone call - in a noisy environment, while riding a bike or playing football. It can also be useful if your kid gets lost. And think how this service would be useful if your phone is stolen! You can track the bastard who stole it on a map and teach him a lesson.
Well, I found a blog about Windows Mobile useful because I was worried that having flash instead of RAM for data storage could ruin my handheld (because flash memory has a limited number of rewrite cycles). The blog explained why they switched to flash, how things work and that MS developers are aware of the issues of using flash and explained how exactly how they are dealing with these problems. This was not a marketspeak press-release, nor a 100+ page technical document with lots of abbreviations, but rather a "here's how we do it" kind of explanation.
Nowadays mobile phones with integrated cameras, I think, completely replace this kind of stuff. And some Nokia phones are about the same size as the Minox! And portables such as the Macbook and some ASUS models have an camera. These display-integrated cameras look pretty small, so I guess that the camera without the notebook, with flash memory and a battery would be the size of a 2-3 times think CR2032 battery (the one you have in wristwatches).
Well, I've just searched for my nickname on Google, and the fist two and the fourth links were some unrelated companies, the third was my profile on OSNews (where I have something like 10 postings or even less) and the fifth was my personal website. No sign of Slashdot anywhere on the first page of Google's results, although I am a member since 2005 and I have over 200 postings.
HP has (or used to have) great support of discontinued products. A friend of mine got an ancient HP 486 server, and we decided to wisit HP's website. The latest BIOS for that server released in 2001 (the server was made in 1994 or something like that). Usually hardware companies like ASUS, Gigabyte etc. release new bioses and drivers no more that a year after a product is released, so I'd say HP had excellent support, at least for servers. Oh, and my HP Laserjet (made in 1995) still works perfectly on any OS, old or new.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I think that a well-documented API is better than some MS code (which could be either good, acceptable or horrible). If you have the complete documentation, it's often easier to write your own compatible API than hack Microsoft's API, removing all the unwanted features and library dependencies.
Although it would be better if Microsoft provided both the sourcecode (for people who don't want to reinvent the bycicle or as a reference for those who are writing from scratch) and the API (which would be great for already established projects like Openoffice and others, so that they would become more compatible).
As I understand the EU doesn't like when one company bundles its product A with its product B to promote B with the monopoly or near-monopoly status of A. In this case, it's two different companies.
It's like complaining that you get free magazines on your airplane flight. Or getting Wikipedia links posted related to the slashdot story. Even Adsense may be considered bundling because when you visit a website, you get a lot of related (or unrelated) links.
Actually, Google have done this before - DivX used to have Google Toolbar included, and now even Google Desktop is bundled with it.
I remember seeing DAT players in stores about 10-15 years ago. They were not entirely useless - when burnable CDs didn't exist or cost as much as your house (and computers were expensive, mp3 didn't exist and a 400Mb hard drive was considered enormous), DATs provided you with a way to record digital audio. They also lived their second life when Philips made car audio systems that read digital data recorded on a usual audio cassette.
Some people may get bored with a game pretty quickly. I cannot play the same strategy game for more than a month (even if I'm playing in multiplayer). My sister *still* plays Warcraft III since it was published. The main problem with strategies/RPGs is that your gaming experience stays pretty much the same. They don't have very good storylines (except for perhaps Starcraft) and in strategies you end up building units until the 5-minute final battle where you either lose your army and have or completely defeat your enemy. RPGs usually end up collecting stuff and increasing experience and level.
FPSs last less than strategies but they present you a good story (compared to strategies), interesting maps where you take advantage of the map itself etc. Compared to FPSs, RPGs have a "smoother" experience - they have simpler maps, simpler storylines and so they keep you interested by offering new weapons/units/upgraded.
I'd say that you can play an RPS for longer than an FPS but its replay ability is lower.
But playing a single game for months isn't much fun, no matter how good it is. You'll still be fighting Night Elves, Orcs and others - and after half a year they'll look all the same. It's like visiting only one website - Slashdot, MSDN, OSNews etc.
These dogs are stupid. REALLY stupid. I remember a BBC documentary about AI and robots and they flipped the dog over and put it upside down in their back lawn. The dog tried to get on its feet and after failing several times said something like "I need help".
I think it would teach the Sony Rootkit creators a good lesson.
If you consider how many man-hours were spent on getting rid of that thing then calling these people for just one day is a really soft sort of punishment. Especially because Sony Music and others seem to believe that the rootkit fiasco was a way of protecting *their* rights.
And non-US people could use Skypeout since it's free in the US.
Might be even funnier if someone from a GMT+2 timezone calls to a GMT-7 timezone when it's 3 AM there (I wonder if these phone numbers are work, home or mobile?)
Yes, but would you protest if McDolald's wanted to shut down your favorite restaraunt because they might be selling hamburgers that are made using McDonald's recipe?
RIAA wants to shut down P2P networks even when not all shared content is illegal. Not to mention that they sue people who don't even have a computer.
In Soviet Russia, joke laughs at you!
Although I'm Russian, I've never heard that joke...
It would look better if the keys were lit independently. But as I understand, you can only control the overall keyboard brightness. This would look as if some circut gets overloaded and the keyboard doesn't get enough power.
What would be better is keys that light independently - imagine keys flashing in rows or in circles (like sound waves in water) or in random order, looking like old-school mainframes shown in movies.
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing
Viral marketing it something that is spread by people, not by advertizing agencies. It behaves like a virus - once you release the ad into the wild, it spreads without your control, because people think it's interesting/funny and send it to their friends.
Well, this is completely unrelated with politics and the government, so why should it be censored? China isn't Iran where the government bans things based on religion. What's more, China is trying to gain respect in any possible way, that's why they recently flew their first man in space - it's "me too", but on a larger scale.
How about email?
I used to have a @netscape.com amil address, and it looked cool, like I was working for Netscape.
AOL doesn't have a very good email brand (they have AIM mail, but it looks for lots of people like the email account meny people get with AIM and don't know what to do with afterwards).
Oranges are really acidic (I'm not joking).
I once ate an orange and then put my hands on my keyboard's palm rest (without washing my hands). This resulted in melting of the plastic - not much, but enough to have my fingerprint engraved on the keyboard. And it's not dirt - it's actually plastic shaped as a fingerprint!
Well, what I meant was that iD no longer mantains it and no fork is declared (or recognized) as the official version. So if someone downloads the source from iD, changes a few things and posts it to Sourceforge, it would have the same status as other projects which vastly improve the engine. Not to mention that lots of forks may be reinventing the whell, adding the same stuff to iD's version but in different ways.
I've looked at Nexuiz and it looks very promising, thanks for the link.
Well, the article is talking about the Japanese market, not the American.
It's like saying that GSM1900 doesn't do well in Europe.
Japan has its customs and traditions, and usually products made by Japanese companies sell much better than imported goods.
Netscape->Mozilla->Firefox
Quake 1,2,3 (although not mantained anymore)
Google's AJAX toolkit
Well, because humans are more intelligent than animals.
They won't eat poisonous stuff (rats, however, often choose a beta tester for new kinds of food and eat it only it the beta-tester doesn't die).
They are able to install and mantain stuff like chemical reactors (to create a friendlier atmosphere), communication equipment, food plants etc., as well as create a base and expand the population.
They are able to do observations and report back to Earth (automated cameras are dumb and they cannot be controlled manually from Earth because there is a very serious lag even when communicating with the closest planet, Mars).
On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how rats (or any other animal) adapt to the new environment.
But it would be crazy to send a bunch of animals to some planet and not release them in the wild (what would they achieve besides eating and increasing population?). And it would be crazy to send the animals to Mars, release them in the wild and watch how they suffocate in a hostile atmosphere.
I live in Russia, and all three major cellphone providers offer a simular service. Well, I've never seen anyone use it except tech-savvy people (and they usually play with the service for a week and then completely forget it).
This may be convenient if, for example, your kid is unable to reply your phone call - in a noisy environment, while riding a bike or playing football. It can also be useful if your kid gets lost.
And think how this service would be useful if your phone is stolen! You can track the bastard who stole it on a map and teach him a lesson.
Well, I found a blog about Windows Mobile useful because I was worried that having flash instead of RAM for data storage could ruin my handheld (because flash memory has a limited number of rewrite cycles). The blog explained why they switched to flash, how things work and that MS developers are aware of the issues of using flash and explained how exactly how they are dealing with these problems. This was not a marketspeak press-release, nor a 100+ page technical document with lots of abbreviations, but rather a "here's how we do it" kind of explanation.
Nowadays mobile phones with integrated cameras, I think, completely replace this kind of stuff. And some Nokia phones are about the same size as the Minox!
And portables such as the Macbook and some ASUS models have an camera. These display-integrated cameras look pretty small, so I guess that the camera without the notebook, with flash memory and a battery would be the size of a 2-3 times think CR2032 battery (the one you have in wristwatches).
Well, I've just searched for my nickname on Google, and the fist two and the fourth links were some unrelated companies, the third was my profile on OSNews (where I have something like 10 postings or even less) and the fifth was my personal website. No sign of Slashdot anywhere on the first page of Google's results, although I am a member since 2005 and I have over 200 postings.
HP has (or used to have) great support of discontinued products.
A friend of mine got an ancient HP 486 server, and we decided to wisit HP's website. The latest BIOS for that server released in 2001 (the server was made in 1994 or something like that). Usually hardware companies like ASUS, Gigabyte etc. release new bioses and drivers no more that a year after a product is released, so I'd say HP had excellent support, at least for servers.
Oh, and my HP Laserjet (made in 1995) still works perfectly on any OS, old or new.