At first, I thought it said they were going to put these 1-second ads in DV cameras, not DVRs. I was about to flip out for a second there...
Now, if only all commercials became 1-second blips and they cut down the commercial space accordingly (instead of putting in more to fill up the gap). Longer shows and less fast forwarding!
In my experience, mplayer runs faster (and has mencoder). Xine always seems to desync audio and video when fast forwarding in large files, on every system I have tried it on. Also, I've never had a problem opening a file in mplayer, but I have in xine.
Yeah, I'm glad about the memory leak fixes (who wouldn't be?) but I'm really glad about the Gmail and Yahoo Beta crash fixes. Those were my biggest pet peeves.
"Of course being able to chose one's OS is sooo much more important than being able to chose one's government."
Can one person really choose their government? No, it takes the whole voting population (or at least, the part of the voting population that actually votes). Can one person choose their own OS? Yes.
If Sony were to make a (cheap; current solutions are kludgy and expensive) adapter for the PSP that would allow you to output AV to an external system (re: TV), I'm sure sales for the format would go way up. As it is, nobody wants to have to buy it in two separate mediums. If I had a home UMD player, or some such adapter, I at least would be willing to purchase some more UMD movies. Oh well.
Also, that last bit of the summary (about Blu-Ray)... It was my understanding that Blu-Ray looks like it might win the next format war, provided companies can convince everyone to upgrade their still-new DVDs to yet another format.
If they're going to go any further with the "ping" feature, there should be a function (enabled by default) that prompts you before pinging the servers.
Or a way to disable it altogether (if one doesn't exist). Time to write some patches...or extensions:)
Re:Sensationalist Journalism?
on
A Flu Pandemic?
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· Score: 1
Yes, everything is a pandemic now. Remember SARS? How many died from it? 7? And only the elderly or immuno-deficient? I'll believe it's a pandemic when it becomes one, and not run around willy-nilly building bomb shelters wherever I can and causing panic, thank you very much!
" 'Sadly, in "Oh Canada", the person _accused_ of libel has to _prove_ that it is true. Go read up on Canadian law.'
I don't think that's necessarily bad. If the burden of proof is on the plaintiff to prove that a statement is not true, it opens up almost any kind of libel at all. I could say you eat children, and it would be very hard to prove that you don't.
If you're going around saying damaging things about people, don't you think you should have proof?"
Would it be much easier for you to prove that he has eaten children?
With this system (the Canadian one, that is), it sounds like any corporation could go around suing individuals for things that may be true, yet hard to prove so (or this individual might not have the financial means to do as such).
But, IMO, both systems are valid, though I would be more on the side of the individual than the corporation.
I'm glad that I will soon no longer be a minor, and thus not have to worry about this type of thing so much...
Worst. Legislation. Ever. (well, in regards to video games...)
So, let me get this straight...an operating system, required to run any computer, and traditionally supposed to run on a wide range of computers, will require a better graphics card than is needed for Half-Life 2? Pass...
Um, unstoppable? Did I say I wanted shards removed from the game? No. I clearly said that I thought pets and stones should have them, but Shadow Burn and Soul Fire should not.
You think we would be overpowered with just those not requiring shards? Give me a break. They are already balanced without the shard cost. "Oh no, this warlock can hit me for 500 damage every 15 seconds!" Boo-hoo. Removing the shard cost just removes tedium. And Soul Fire? How often do you use this spell? It can have its uses, but is situational, and don't forget that 1 minute cooldown.
One of two things needs to happen: They need to remove the tedium of collecting shards (what other class has to farm just to be as good as everyone else?), OR they need to make warlocks just as good as everyone else without them, and more powerful WITH them (but have shards much more difficult to obtain). Obviously, they will do the first, as the latter one WOULD make us overpowered.
I have played a warlock since the day the game came out, and am one of the top damage dealers in MC. I see the power of warlocks, and also the idiotic faults. Shards were worth it in beta, but they messed up with retail.
There is one undeniable flaw with Soulshards, and your argument: Our spells that require shards are no more powerful than another class' equivalent spell; in fact, in a few cases, our spells are weaker, and still have a shard requirement tagged on.
Shadow Burn: Requires a shard, gives a shard if it deals the killing blow (difficult to do in high-end raids; better for PvP). 450-502 damage, 365 mana, 15 second cooldown. TALENT ONLY (admittedly, only 10 points required to get it).
Compare it with: Fireblast: 431-509 damage, 340 mana, 8 second cooldown. Acquired by trainer.
So, Shadow Burn is not as good as Fireblast for several reasons: it is less mana-efficient, it is talent-based, and it has twice the cooldown. Why does it need a shard? What idiotic person decided this was balanced? It is our only DD spell (nightfall doesn't count; it takes time for the bolt to travel and still requires another spell to tick off on the target first, and is also proc-based), and it isn't even trainer-acquired. Oh, and don't get me started on Shaman *Shocks...cheesy cheesy.
It needs refinement: perhaps get rid of the shard requirement, yet leave the gaining part. Would make a nice replacement for crappy Drain Soul. OR, it should have its damage output increased and/or its cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.
Another spell like this is Soul Fire. It again has twice the cooldown of the Mage equivalent, and does less damage, as well (less burst, and SF doesn't have a DoT either). Yet it still has a shard cost? WHY? And if you think Pyroblast (Mage equivalent) should be better than SF because Pyro is talent-based, then you just admitted Shadow Burn should be better than Fireblast, because Shadow Burn is talent-based as well, while, again, Fireblast is not.
Why does summoning somebody require a shard AND two people? One or the other, I say, or maybe a shard and just one person.
I have no problem with demons or stones requiring a shard (though there should be some way to get a free minion if the last one was dismissed or lost due to bad terrain).
*And one argument for the removal of shards is this: If a warlock would be overpowered without shard requirements, then isn't a warlock also overpowered that has 20+ shards? He isn't going to run out any time soon, and the only difference between the two is one has more inventory space (which doesn't make too much of a difference).*
**I am not in favor of removing shards altogether (that is just a kind of pipe dream). Just tweak them!**
The manual says shards make the warlock more powerful. In actuality, shards just keep the warlock from being gimped. A shard-bearing warlock is just as good as another class, not better (as the manual implies).
And one more thing: what is the lore reason for not acquiring shards from non-experience-wielding mobs? They used to have shards; are you telling me they don't anymore? That lowbie 'lock is getting shards off them--shouldn't I, as the more powerful "master of the nether", be even more efficient at shard-gathering than some whelp?
it does appear that you need to remove your index finger from the left side to make a right click, however, this isn't nearly as unnatural as it seems, but then, that just could be how I mouse naturaly.
I see. I will probably have to use it. The way it/seems/ is that you constantly have to worry about where your fingers are...but then again, I have to use both mouse buttons quite often.
Having been lucky enough to use one today, I can assure you that it functions just like any other mouse, with a tactile click when you press down. The second button functionality comes from resting fingers on the mouse. Remove your index finger so that you're only touching the right side, and it's a right click. Put it back or touch only the left side and it's a regular click. It's actually pretty neat.
I hope I am reading this wrong. You have to remove your left finger from the mouse to initiate a right click? That sounds awful. Maybe if I use it, it won't seem so bad.
Slashdot Mirror
"It's better to get some shiny, unasked for features than nothing at all in my opinion, even if it is not as good as added stability."
Except for when those shiny, unasked for features are buggy as hell and crash your system or cause other forms of havoc.
At first, I thought it said they were going to put these 1-second ads in DV cameras, not DVRs. I was about to flip out for a second there...
Now, if only all commercials became 1-second blips and they cut down the commercial space accordingly (instead of putting in more to fill up the gap). Longer shows and less fast forwarding!
In my experience, mplayer runs faster (and has mencoder). Xine always seems to desync audio and video when fast forwarding in large files, on every system I have tried it on. Also, I've never had a problem opening a file in mplayer, but I have in xine.
I'll agree that xine is better for DVDs, though!
Yeah, I'm glad about the memory leak fixes (who wouldn't be?) but I'm really glad about the Gmail and Yahoo Beta crash fixes. Those were my biggest pet peeves.
"Of course being able to chose one's OS is sooo much more important than being able to chose one's government."
Can one person really choose their government? No, it takes the whole voting population (or at least, the part of the voting population that actually votes). Can one person choose their own OS? Yes.
If Sony were to make a (cheap; current solutions are kludgy and expensive) adapter for the PSP that would allow you to output AV to an external system (re: TV), I'm sure sales for the format would go way up. As it is, nobody wants to have to buy it in two separate mediums. If I had a home UMD player, or some such adapter, I at least would be willing to purchase some more UMD movies. Oh well. Also, that last bit of the summary (about Blu-Ray)... It was my understanding that Blu-Ray looks like it might win the next format war, provided companies can convince everyone to upgrade their still-new DVDs to yet another format.
Nothing is cuter than this site.
Google should uncensor the results on April Fool's day. "Hey, we were just kidding, China!"
If they're going to go any further with the "ping" feature, there should be a function (enabled by default) that prompts you before pinging the servers.
:)
Or a way to disable it altogether (if one doesn't exist). Time to write some patches...or extensions
We don't add support to the kernel?
Yes, everything is a pandemic now. Remember SARS? How many died from it? 7? And only the elderly or immuno-deficient? I'll believe it's a pandemic when it becomes one, and not run around willy-nilly building bomb shelters wherever I can and causing panic, thank you very much!
" 'Sadly, in "Oh Canada", the person _accused_ of libel has to _prove_ that it is true. Go read up on Canadian law.'
I don't think that's necessarily bad. If the burden of proof is on the plaintiff to prove that a statement is not true, it opens up almost any kind of libel at all. I could say you eat children, and it would be very hard to prove that you don't.
If you're going around saying damaging things about people, don't you think you should have proof?"
Would it be much easier for you to prove that he has eaten children?
With this system (the Canadian one, that is), it sounds like any corporation could go around suing individuals for things that may be true, yet hard to prove so (or this individual might not have the financial means to do as such).
But, IMO, both systems are valid, though I would be more on the side of the individual than the corporation.
Now the Chinese can look up Dallas!
How can you patent something that is natural, and never made by humans? Maybe I should go patent trees! And water!
I'm glad that I will soon no longer be a minor, and thus not have to worry about this type of thing so much... Worst. Legislation. Ever. (well, in regards to video games...)
True, I'll give you that. But at least a GBA cart is something. And most people looking at the article, I'll wager, know how big they are.
Sure there is. Didn't you see the picture of it next to the GBA cart?
They do? I run KDE 3.3 fine (re: smoothly) on a 500MHz system at my school, and my 1.13GHz P3 notebook runs E17 CVS flawlessly.
So, let me get this straight...an operating system, required to run any computer, and traditionally supposed to run on a wide range of computers, will require a better graphics card than is needed for Half-Life 2? Pass...
The Plutonians will probably get the CDs and use them as coasters, like all the AOL CDs they get.
Um, unstoppable? Did I say I wanted shards removed from the game? No. I clearly said that I thought pets and stones should have them, but Shadow Burn and Soul Fire should not.
You think we would be overpowered with just those not requiring shards? Give me a break. They are already balanced without the shard cost. "Oh no, this warlock can hit me for 500 damage every 15 seconds!" Boo-hoo. Removing the shard cost just removes tedium. And Soul Fire? How often do you use this spell? It can have its uses, but is situational, and don't forget that 1 minute cooldown.
One of two things needs to happen: They need to remove the tedium of collecting shards (what other class has to farm just to be as good as everyone else?), OR they need to make warlocks just as good as everyone else without them, and more powerful WITH them (but have shards much more difficult to obtain). Obviously, they will do the first, as the latter one WOULD make us overpowered.
I have played a warlock since the day the game came out, and am one of the top damage dealers in MC. I see the power of warlocks, and also the idiotic faults. Shards were worth it in beta, but they messed up with retail.
There is one undeniable flaw with Soulshards, and your argument: Our spells that require shards are no more powerful than another class' equivalent spell; in fact, in a few cases, our spells are weaker, and still have a shard requirement tagged on.
Shadow Burn: Requires a shard, gives a shard if it deals the killing blow (difficult to do in high-end raids; better for PvP). 450-502 damage, 365 mana, 15 second cooldown. TALENT ONLY (admittedly, only 10 points required to get it).
Compare it with: Fireblast: 431-509 damage, 340 mana, 8 second cooldown . Acquired by trainer.
So, Shadow Burn is not as good as Fireblast for several reasons: it is less mana-efficient, it is talent-based, and it has twice the cooldown. Why does it need a shard? What idiotic person decided this was balanced? It is our only DD spell (nightfall doesn't count; it takes time for the bolt to travel and still requires another spell to tick off on the target first, and is also proc-based), and it isn't even trainer-acquired. Oh, and don't get me started on Shaman *Shocks...cheesy cheesy.
It needs refinement: perhaps get rid of the shard requirement, yet leave the gaining part. Would make a nice replacement for crappy Drain Soul. OR, it should have its damage output increased and/or its cooldown reduced to 5 seconds.
Another spell like this is Soul Fire. It again has twice the cooldown of the Mage equivalent, and does less damage, as well (less burst, and SF doesn't have a DoT either). Yet it still has a shard cost? WHY? And if you think Pyroblast (Mage equivalent) should be better than SF because Pyro is talent-based, then you just admitted Shadow Burn should be better than Fireblast, because Shadow Burn is talent-based as well, while, again, Fireblast is not.
Why does summoning somebody require a shard AND two people? One or the other, I say, or maybe a shard and just one person.
I have no problem with demons or stones requiring a shard (though there should be some way to get a free minion if the last one was dismissed or lost due to bad terrain).
*And one argument for the removal of shards is this: If a warlock would be overpowered without shard requirements, then isn't a warlock also overpowered that has 20+ shards? He isn't going to run out any time soon, and the only difference between the two is one has more inventory space (which doesn't make too much of a difference).*
**I am not in favor of removing shards altogether (that is just a kind of pipe dream). Just tweak them!**
The manual says shards make the warlock more powerful. In actuality, shards just keep the warlock from being gimped. A shard-bearing warlock is just as good as another class, not better (as the manual implies).
And one more thing: what is the lore reason for not acquiring shards from non-experience-wielding mobs? They used to have shards; are you telling me they don't anymore? That lowbie 'lock is getting shards off them--shouldn't I, as the more powerful "master of the nether", be even more efficient at shard-gathering than some whelp?
I feel dumber having watched it :(
it does appear that you need to remove your index finger from the left side to make a right click, however, this isn't nearly as unnatural as it seems, but then, that just could be how I mouse naturaly.
/seems/ is that you constantly have to worry about where your fingers are...but then again, I have to use both mouse buttons quite often.
I see. I will probably have to use it. The way it
Having been lucky enough to use one today, I can assure you that it functions just like any other mouse, with a tactile click when you press down. The second button functionality comes from resting fingers on the mouse. Remove your index finger so that you're only touching the right side, and it's a right click. Put it back or touch only the left side and it's a regular click. It's actually pretty neat. I hope I am reading this wrong. You have to remove your left finger from the mouse to initiate a right click? That sounds awful. Maybe if I use it, it won't seem so bad.