I only think about the advertisments, I guess we will only get Coca/Pepsi-cola and Microsoft adverts, since these adverts must be for a really wide audience (i.e. the whole world)
Pretty much the same as network TV now (minus the ability to insert local ads by the local affiliates). You could talor the ads somewhat by show and target viewers (i.e. Hair dye ads during Sex and the City, Internet dating service ads during Babylon 5, Scientology ads during Welcom Back Kotter, etc.).
Mad Magazine did a musical version of Star Wars about 27 years ago. It was called "The Force and I" and is in the December 1978 issue (#203) for those with the collection on CD (or hardcopy).
While I think that it stinks a bit, he WAS using Windows as part of his product name, which has been ruled several times to be Microsoft's trademark.
Not just "Windows" but "_dows", remember the Lindows lawsuit? Although MS didn't actually win that completely. They lost in a US court but won in some European courts. Lindows eventually gave up fighting and changed their name to Linspire. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115668,0 0.asp
The worst part is, all the good new laptops are being made with widescreen because little Jane going off to college wants to watch DVDs.
I don't think laptop customers are the real motivation for the change to wide screens. Laptop makers used to be the primary (or only) market for LCD panels. That is no longer the case. Television makers are buying a lot of LCD panels, and they want wide screens. Laptop makers are just riding along, since they can probably get a 20" widescreen panel for the same price or cheaper than a 17" 4:3 panel.
Problem? That's the whole reason the different TLDs were created.
Maybe in the begining but:
A) The public doesn't know or care how TLDs are supposed to work and expect every URL to end in ".com" (and in most cases, they're right).
and
B) ICANN doesn't enforce the TLD "rules" anyway so you don't need to be a non-profit organization to get ".org" and don't need to be a commercial organization to get ".com" etc.
In other words, the people who use the internet don't care about TLDs and the people who run the DNS don't care about TLDs; therefore TLDs serve no useful purpose other than to create confusion in the public and opertunities for shady organizations to generate web trafic (or worse, run phishing sites) by registering a similar name to a legitimate web site. "Your Paypal information needs to be updated, please log on to http://www.paypal.cz/ and re-enter your credit card number."
Now if it had GPS coordinates included, that would be a little more scary..
Easy enough to update the printer driver to include your computer's NIC and most recent IP address along with the date and serial number. Not quite as good as GPS but probably enough to track you down (it's enough for the RIAA to track down file sharers).
The problem is that CG is used so indiscriminately now. In the begining, it was only used to do things that you couldn't do any other way (like the living water in The Abyss or the T1000 morphs in Terminator 2). Now-a-days CG is used as a cost cutting measure to do things that could be done in a more traditional way but would cost a little more. I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark the other day (which still looks great after 20+ years) and thinking, if they shot that movie today they would have just used CG instead of finding 1000 trained snakes, and it would look like crap.
The Promise: Cheap, clean, safe, plentiful electric power.
The Reality: Expensive power with waste we don't know how to deal with, but it does have the added bonus of creating by-products that can be turned into horrible weapons of mass destruction.
The Technology: Robots
The Promise: Sit back in your easy chair and let Robby the Robot mow the lawn and take out the trash while you relax and have a beer.
The Reality: Sit back in the unemployment line and let Robby the Robot do your manufacturing job while you look for another (and don't forget to mow the lawn and take out the garbage when you get home).
The Technology: Super Intelligent Computers and Nanobots
The Promise: Utopia!
The Reality: A computer smarter than everyone on Earth and unstopable microscopic, self-replicating robots; what could possibly go wrong?!? (cue the Terminator theme music)
Terrorists? I think you are confusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) with the Patriot Act (2001). Yes they are both retarded laws rammed through congress with little thought to the consequences, but they are different retarded laws. One turns law-abiding citizens into pirates, the other turns them into terrorists.
And what's with the dot as a separator?/less/to/more/specific/all/the/way!
Hmmm... maybe they use the dot so people don't confuse it with the directory path separator? I can see it now, Unix users typing www/slashdot/org and Windows users typing www\slashdot\org
As for the less-to-more vs. more-to-less specific, I wondered about that myself, especially since Usenet is the opposite way (for example alt.fan.slashdot.rants).
They did register the domain http://www.gmail.co.uk/. Too bad they didn't register www.gmail.com while they were at it, that would have prevented the whole problem in the first place (Google would have had to find a different name for their service). Maybe we should all use the link to try to log on to their private web email service to show our support for them;-)
Catacomb3D was equally revolutionary (same basic engine as Wolf3D), but most people didn't see it until after Wolf3D became popular.
Other than replacing Nazis with Demons, Doom's gameplay was identical to Wolf3D. The technical improvement was a better rendering engine that allowed maps with vertical dimension (stairs, ramps and elevators) but this did not significantly change the gameplay dynamics. Same with Quake which added 3D rendered enemies and items, nice looking graphics but no change in gameplay. The next real revolution in the FPS genre after Wolf3D came with the addition of multiplayer in Duke Nukem 3D.
otherwise we would see more games as revolutionary as Doom and Quake popping up on the interent.
Wolfenstein 3D was revolutionary. Doom and Quake were just incremental technical refinements of the same basic gameplay mechanics. But a game doesn't have to be revolutionary to be good.
When is the last time a solid freeware game caught the imagination of millions? About 15 years.
What about Bejeweled? O.K. it's demoware not freeware but it certainly caught the imagination of millions, most of whom were not "gamers". Ever since Tetris, puzzle games are one genre where gameplay still counts over graphics, and new modes of gameplay are being introduced all the time. Creative games are out there, you just have to look for them.
That's why I can't stand it when I see universities teaching Java and C#. By the time those kids get out of school that train will have left the station.
When I was in school (1980's) we learned Pascal. I've never used it on the job, but that doesn't mean it wasn't benifical. It taught me structured programming which made it easier to pick up C and C++ later on. All theory and no practice produces people who think they know everything but can't actually do anything (in other words, management types).
Technology Reporting Rule #37: Only mention Open Source Software in a story if it has a negative connotation.
Technology Reporting Rule #38: Throw in the names of some commercial software as well so it doesn't seem biased.
Particularly when you foist them upon a young, rebellious, smarter than average, and technologically savvy demographic group.
So then arts, law and business schools have nothing to worry about.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Pretty much the same as network TV now (minus the ability to insert local ads by the local affiliates). You could talor the ads somewhat by show and target viewers (i.e. Hair dye ads during Sex and the City, Internet dating service ads during Babylon 5, Scientology ads during Welcom Back Kotter, etc.).
Mad Magazine did a musical version of Star Wars about 27 years ago. It was called "The Force and I" and is in the December 1978 issue (#203) for those with the collection on CD (or hardcopy).
Not just "Windows" but "_dows", remember the Lindows lawsuit? Although MS didn't actually win that completely. They lost in a US court but won in some European courts. Lindows eventually gave up fighting and changed their name to Linspire. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115668,0 0.asp
I don't think laptop customers are the real motivation for the change to wide screens. Laptop makers used to be the primary (or only) market for LCD panels. That is no longer the case. Television makers are buying a lot of LCD panels, and they want wide screens. Laptop makers are just riding along, since they can probably get a 20" widescreen panel for the same price or cheaper than a 17" 4:3 panel.
Spam jams Stan's LAN.
Guy's WiFi goes awry.
CERN confirms worm, firms squirm.
Forget cassette and diskette, USB key snazzy.
Nimrods applaud iPods abroad, while tightwads called slipshod clawed screen fraud.
One Phish, Two Phish.
Red Phish, Blue Phish.
Don't be so sour! Butter late than never.
Maybe in the begining but:
A) The public doesn't know or care how TLDs are supposed to work and expect every URL to end in ".com" (and in most cases, they're right).
and
B) ICANN doesn't enforce the TLD "rules" anyway so you don't need to be a non-profit organization to get ".org" and don't need to be a commercial organization to get ".com" etc.
In other words, the people who use the internet don't care about TLDs and the people who run the DNS don't care about TLDs; therefore TLDs serve no useful purpose other than to create confusion in the public and opertunities for shady organizations to generate web trafic (or worse, run phishing sites) by registering a similar name to a legitimate web site. "Your Paypal information needs to be updated, please log on to http://www.paypal.cz/ and re-enter your credit card number."
They're only operating in the UK so they bought http://www.gmail.co.uk/ instead (before google bought gmail.com). One of the biggest problems with the current DNS system is that if you register http://www.nasa.gov/ it doesn't stop someone else from buying http://www.nasa.net/, http://www.nasa.com/, http://www.nasa.org/, or whatever. Time to get rid of top level domains altogether.
Easy enough to update the printer driver to include your computer's NIC and most recent IP address along with the date and serial number. Not quite as good as GPS but probably enough to track you down (it's enough for the RIAA to track down file sharers).
The problem is that CG is used so indiscriminately now. In the begining, it was only used to do things that you couldn't do any other way (like the living water in The Abyss or the T1000 morphs in Terminator 2). Now-a-days CG is used as a cost cutting measure to do things that could be done in a more traditional way but would cost a little more. I was watching Raiders of the Lost Ark the other day (which still looks great after 20+ years) and thinking, if they shot that movie today they would have just used CG instead of finding 1000 trained snakes, and it would look like crap.
"I am da law!"
The Technology: Nuclear Power
The Promise: Cheap, clean, safe, plentiful electric power.
The Reality: Expensive power with waste we don't know how to deal with, but it does have the added bonus of creating by-products that can be turned into horrible weapons of mass destruction.
The Technology: Robots
The Promise: Sit back in your easy chair and let Robby the Robot mow the lawn and take out the trash while you relax and have a beer.
The Reality: Sit back in the unemployment line and let Robby the Robot do your manufacturing job while you look for another (and don't forget to mow the lawn and take out the garbage when you get home).
The Technology: Super Intelligent Computers and Nanobots
The Promise: Utopia!
The Reality: A computer smarter than everyone on Earth and unstopable microscopic, self-replicating robots; what could possibly go wrong?!? (cue the Terminator theme music)
Terrorists? I think you are confusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) with the Patriot Act (2001). Yes they are both retarded laws rammed through congress with little thought to the consequences, but they are different retarded laws. One turns law-abiding citizens into pirates, the other turns them into terrorists.
CLEarly VERy few microsofT oWners wIll swiTch.
Yeah but they were all solar-powered electric vehicles. I guess the Prius can't save us after all.
Hmmm... maybe they use the dot so people don't confuse it with the directory path separator? I can see it now, Unix users typing www/slashdot/org and Windows users typing www\slashdot\org
As for the less-to-more vs. more-to-less specific, I wondered about that myself, especially since Usenet is the opposite way (for example alt.fan.slashdot.rants).
They did register the domain http://www.gmail.co.uk/. Too bad they didn't register www.gmail.com while they were at it, that would have prevented the whole problem in the first place (Google would have had to find a different name for their service). Maybe we should all use the link to try to log on to their private web email service to show our support for them ;-)
Catacomb3D was equally revolutionary (same basic engine as Wolf3D), but most people didn't see it until after Wolf3D became popular. Other than replacing Nazis with Demons, Doom's gameplay was identical to Wolf3D. The technical improvement was a better rendering engine that allowed maps with vertical dimension (stairs, ramps and elevators) but this did not significantly change the gameplay dynamics. Same with Quake which added 3D rendered enemies and items, nice looking graphics but no change in gameplay. The next real revolution in the FPS genre after Wolf3D came with the addition of multiplayer in Duke Nukem 3D.
otherwise we would see more games as revolutionary as Doom and Quake popping up on the interent. Wolfenstein 3D was revolutionary. Doom and Quake were just incremental technical refinements of the same basic gameplay mechanics. But a game doesn't have to be revolutionary to be good. When is the last time a solid freeware game caught the imagination of millions? About 15 years. What about Bejeweled? O.K. it's demoware not freeware but it certainly caught the imagination of millions, most of whom were not "gamers". Ever since Tetris, puzzle games are one genre where gameplay still counts over graphics, and new modes of gameplay are being introduced all the time. Creative games are out there, you just have to look for them.
I, for one, welcome our new Space Penguin overlords.
How long did it take them to cut off 680x0 users when they switched to PPC?
That's why I can't stand it when I see universities teaching Java and C#. By the time those kids get out of school that train will have left the station. When I was in school (1980's) we learned Pascal. I've never used it on the job, but that doesn't mean it wasn't benifical. It taught me structured programming which made it easier to pick up C and C++ later on. All theory and no practice produces people who think they know everything but can't actually do anything (in other words, management types).
Technology Reporting Rule #37: Only mention Open Source Software in a story if it has a negative connotation. Technology Reporting Rule #38: Throw in the names of some commercial software as well so it doesn't seem biased.
Particularly when you foist them upon a young, rebellious, smarter than average, and technologically savvy demographic group. So then arts, law and business schools have nothing to worry about. ;-)