This has been done before, IIRC Samsung released one of the first TV quality raster scanning system for laser shows.
Basically a standard laser show setup uses multiple lasers (to get your RGB) combined into a single beam then passed through a device, such as a PCAOM, which acts as rather like a programmable colour filter. (this isn't the only way it can be done with solid state lasers).
Two sets of mirrors can be steered in the X and Y axis to draw your shapes, beam effects, etc.
In the case of a TV or other raster displays the beam is steered much like you would an electron beam on a regular TV. It scans a horizontal line, moves down scans across, repeat. You can switch the direction of the scan (left to right, then right to left) on alternating lines to speed up the scan rate.
Interesting... if you remove the story from the link, going straight to http://idle.slashdot.org/ you still get the Superbowl ad story, but under it you'll see an Idle Firehose in a new interface. The page title becomes Firehose as well.
If you're old enough to remember "Global Thermonuclear War" from WarGames and thought it looked like it would make for a fun game to play, I suggest you check out Introversion's DEFCON at http://everybody-dies.com/ . "It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe - just maybe - you can lose the least." - from the site.
It's a great mix of Risk style strategy with real-time play and can support up to 6 players simultaneously on-line. Initially you layout your radars, silos, ships, etc, during a setup phase. As the clock ticks you move through the DEFCON stages allowing for ever more hostile play until DEFCON5 when you can launch your nukes. You can make/break alliances and try to get other players to blow each-other up before you unleash hellfire on those left alive.
There's actually a lot of strategy to timing your attacks so that your missiles can fly in from different silos, submarines, bombers, etc, and hit a target all at once. You need a heavy storm of missiles all coming in at once or local defense has an easy time of shooting them all down. But, when attacking, you become vulnerable - so you don't want to set too many resources to attack either.
Anyhow, one of my favorite games for any platform. And you can download a demo or buy it directly from their site for Windows/MacOSX/Linux, bypassing Steam and it's ilk.
Sheesh, this thing is down at 405nm... that's almost at the bottom of the visible spectrum. The funny thing is, that's so low it's not even blue anymore - it's violet!
Other "blue" lasers are in the range of 473nm. Given the color responsiveness of the eye these already appear darker than their Red and Green cousins even at similar power output. And you can't really get high power blue lasers.
So given that these are only 20mw and super low on the spectrum, I'd expect these are hardly visible in comparison with other pointers. A unique color, if you can see the damned thing.
Seems pretty pointless to me really... why would anyone buy one?!
Back when I was younger I wasn't allowed to watch "You Can't do That on Television" and the Simpsons. I wasn't allowed to have an Nintendo (or a "game machine" as my father called it). Instead I was told to go play with my computer.
Boy have times changed;)
I don't know about that!
<looking up nervously>
Something the Review Missed:It Bloody Well Crashes
on
Review - Full Auto
·
· Score: 1
I played an early demo of this game that was released on a magazine CD and liked it. Stupidly I thought some of the apparent short comings were because this was a demo and purchased in on release day... ha stupid me.
What the review fails to mention is how often this damn game actually *CRASHES*. It locks the whole bloody 360 up! The screen freezes, the remote stops responding, and nothing short of pushing the power button on the 360 itself will get it back. And this is in single player campaign mode!
Interestingly the first disc I bought on release day crashed about 8 times in the course of 14 games played! I returned the game the next day and they'd only exchange it. This new disc seems much more stable - but it still crashes frequently. I asked a few people on Live and they reported similar crashing problems. So it doesn't appear to be restricted to my copy/machine.
It can be a fun game. Not my favorite, but a fun one... particularly if you play multiplayer or on Live.
But if I were Sega/Pseudo I'd never have let this thing out the door the way it is! In my opinion, given the slow downs and frequent crashes, this a Beta release not a signed-off on console game!
DON'T BUY IT... save your money for a game that's stable.
Own a PS2? Xbox or Gamecube?
on
OSx86 Cracked Again
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
This is one of the main reasons I dislike Apple as a company: the arrogance. Steve wants to tell me what I can and can't play on an iPod (e.g., suing Real). Steve wants to tell me what I can and can't do with software I buy. Frankly, screw Steve!
Apple could be so much more successful if they would stop being such a-hole control freaks and just sell their products and embrace people wanting to use THE SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE THAT THEY FREAKING OWN the way the want to.
Do you own a PS2? Nintendo DS? Or any console for that matter?
If so welcome to the world of not necessarily being able to use your software/hardware in a way you'd like.
OSX is tied to Mac hardware. Consoles are locked down from running arbitrary software. Why? Because in both cases one doesn't make enough money without the thing it's tied to.
A console doesn't have the margins to be viable independently. In a Windows world OSX probably couldn't compete as an OS alone and generate enough money.
You can say that the they should sell them at a price point where they are viable... but I'd suggest such a price point likely doesn't exist!
An Xbox 360 sells for around $400 - at a loss! If MS charged say $600 instead, how many less machines would actually sell? Would there be enough penetration it make it worth while for the software developers time to develop for it?
How much would OSX cost to be profitable on its own? How reliable would it be running on unknown combinations of commodity hardware?
Now I agree that it should be legal for you to modify your hardware/software locks to run as you see fit. That will dissuade enough people that the market remains viable. I don't think, however, that you should bitch that the locks are there to begin with!
They reason they are geeks is because they are NOT on the go!
<sigh>, when will Slashdot get it... once again, Correlation does not equate to Causality!
For example, sick people are not on the go. Geeks are not on the go, ergo geeks must be sick! Doesn't make sense, does it?
Now, that geeks are not on the go is supported by the fact that I'm sitting here on a lovely Saturday afternoon writing this. I'm certainly not on the go. However it's not because I'm not on the go that I'm sitting here posting on/., rather it's the other way around. I'm sitting here posting, which is preventing me from being on the go. Thus not being on the go is an effect rather than the actual cause.
Governments always seem to load up their shotgun and miss the wrong target. They stumble on a solution to a problem, and don't ever question whether that's a problem they really should be solving or if the solution will actually work.
Sir Humphreys! Beautiful! Who's the lucky minister to have you writing for them now??
By my reading of this (IANAL) all the games industry has to do to get around this ruling is to remove all the extra nasties, like region coding, with a new system and then sue the mod chip maker who gets around this new system. Then the chip would *only* be for copyright protection and so the modchip would have no other valid use.
Your reading, while a sense making interpretation, worries me.
Sure, removing region coding, etc, would be great. But that doesn't mean that the only use for a mod chip is bypassing copy protection. What about homebrew apps?
I have a modded Xbox. I use Xbox Media Center on it. XBMC is great, I can stream music/video from my PC, get news/weather, view my digital camera pics on my HDTV, along with a host of other cool features.
Even as far as bypassing the copy protection is concerned, yes, it also allows me to copy my games onto the HD. But this is legal. I own the game and I can make a backup copy. I just elect to play my backups and leave the discs on the shelf as much as possible. It lets me access my games faster and not risk the DVD's as often (which is good when you have kids in the house!).
Could I copy games? Sure. Do I? No. I like playing on LIVE occasionally and you need the real disc to do that. Besides which, I write software for a living. Do I want people copying what I write? No, so why should I do it to other developers?
Even hating the developer (cough EA cough) isn't a good enough excuse for that.
Though, music, is different. Why? In Canada I have to pay a levy to the music industry for every piece of recordable media I buy. Given that I use tons of discs for non-music related things it seems I'm already paid up. Besides which Canadian copyright law has some interesting allowances for personal copies. Anyhow, a whole other rant.
The point here is: the mod chip allows for much more than just region code bypassing, and it's all legal. The chips shouldn't be illegal, using them to pirate software should be(and is!). Just as I can legally own a radar detector in Canada, I just can't use it to try and dodge speed traps (which makes them pretty useless I grant).
For the past few years I've been giving out my ICQ # to students so they can (try to) msg me at weird times when I'm not at the school but might be willing to help.
Well, first day of classes last year I go through my usual welcome bit then give out my contact info. I got as far as "And you can reach me on ICQ at..." and then got cut off as one girl blurts out "ICQ??! Wow, that's old school!"
It seems to me that now that Microsoft's getting a real taste of success and getting more and more attention from people who normally wouldn't give a shit that now they're determined to hold onto it as hard as they can, and frivilous lawsutis seem to be one of their methods. Nor do i think that FOSS has a chance with this - it's their OS, they reserve teh right to control what technology one can play on it. I'm all for FOSS on this one, but i think they may be getting in over their heads.
Hmmmmm.... careful, that knife cuts both ways you know.
While this is an interesting issue, and one I hadn't heard of before, it's only one of many mines in the field of HD.
If you're looking to get into HD there are a *lot* of little quirks to take into account, such as:
- Offically there are two HD resolutions, 720p and 1080i
- Most HD TV's are only capable of *one* of these resolutions. So you have to choose, 720p OR 1080i in most cases. If you want one that can do both, check very carefully.. forget DLP or LCD based devices (fixed set of pixels so fixed resolution), CRT only.
- Many HDTV's will *not* convert from one format to another. They accept only their native resolution.
- Different networks broadcast using one standard or the other. For example CBS uses 1080i and ABC 720p IIRC. Fox is way behind in HDTV support.
- Most HDTV receivers can handle either a 720p or 1080i signal and will convert as required for your TV's native resolution.
- Some TV providers only support one format, regardless of the source material. Ie, in Canada Starchoice only broadcasts in 1080i. Any 720p content they have they upconvert to 1080i before broadcasting. It's impossible to receive a native 720p signal from them.
- The Xbox supports both HDTV modes... but very few HD games actually use 1080i (Dragons Lair being one). Most are 720p. So if this is important to you, you'll possibly want a 720p native TV: most receivers do not have HD inputs that would let you upconvert a 720p game to a 1080i signal for the TV. (the new Xbox will have more HD content than the current one, but it's a good bet that they'll be mostly 720p titles)
- Most Projectors and Plasma's are *not* HDTV. They are EDTV (enhanced definition) or some such. Check the specs carefully.
- Most projectors are 1024x768. This means your HD signal of 1920x1080i or 1920x720p is being heavily rescaled horizontally! Few projectors have a true HD native resolution.
So there you go... lots of fun things to take into account!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head Tetris like game
I thought I might POKE around a bit with some old Apple hardware and thought this book might help. After taking a PEEK at your review and decided to CALL off purchasing it.
The MPX-220 was a travishmockey, and I have't heard good things of the MPX either.
Well you'll hear something good now!
For those of you who've never heard of it, Motorola's MPX aka the MPX300 (pre-production model number) is the first phone to have a dual-hinged clamshell design. It can open in portrait mode (phone number pad has precedence) or landscape (qwerty has precedence)
Have a look at http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/images/0,,48,00.html
They're not available through any providers yet, but I got one off eBay and you can now get it from Tiger Direct. This phone has Bluetooth, 802.11b, GPRS, and IRDA all in one! Drop a 1gig SD card into the SDIO slot and you've got loads of storage.
Having had one for a month now: if you're a hardcore PDA user this might be underpowered, particularly in the ram dept. If you want always on Internet for E-Mail, IM, SSH, Terminal Services, VNC, and general communication then it kicks ASS.
I can listen to MP3's, watch videos, SSH into my servers (and actually type no stupid pecking or stylus squiggles), have voice dialing through my bluetooth headset (realtime voice recognition, no pre-recorded voice labels), etc, all in one device.
I hate carrying multiple devices around. This is, by far, the best all-in-one I've found. Is it perfect? No, but it's damned good.
You mention they were farmed out, would you know to whom?
By reading the terms and conditions of this comment, you are locked in to obeying them by the most basic laws of physics of the universe and failure to obey them will cause you and your entire family to instantly cease to exist.
Man, your lawyer must have friends in very high places if he can issue a Cease to Exist notice!
How is such a thing delivered? Does the Reaper come in person?
This is very inconvenient, because it essentially makes the addressbook on my cell phone useless. I'd love to have something that just automatically routes calls through them. That would definately add to the value of their service.
Not necessarily... while it would no longer be as simple as entering the number of the person you want to call, many phones will let you daisy chain them with a Pause feature. This feature tells the autodialer to wait n number of seconds (or half seconds or what have you for the particular phone) before dialing more numbers.
So you set it up to dial your access number, say 702-555-1212. You want it to then call your destination number, say 613-555-1234. You would then program the phone to dial:
702-555-1212,,,,613-555-1234
(the comma representing whatever character your phone uses to indicate a pause).
This way the phone dials the access number, waits a few seconds to let that call process and the service connect, then dials your destination number.
You could even insert access codes if necessary with additional pauses if need be (ie code 1234):
702-555-1212,,,1234,,,,613-555-1234
It is more work to setup, and you'd need to figure out what sort of delay you needed, but otherwise it should work. The ability to pause and enter more digits has been built into many phones for years...
Say what you will about.NET, like it or hate it. Either way I think the Mono Project is a Good Thing.
Ideology aside.NET is likely here to stay simply because of MS's market penetration, never mind that is actually happens to be (IMHO) pretty good.
Having a non-MS implementation that allows.NET applications to run on either MS or non-MS platforms is potentially the holy grail of Linux adoption. If more and more apps Just Worked on Windows or Linux, why keep paying the MS tax? (I'm talking average user here, not people who know enough to use things like WINE)
But herein lies the problem. Platform independence was always the claim/goal of Java. One it has had mixed results in achieving. MS's dirty pool with the JRE is certainly a big reason for its less than stellar success on Windows.
Sun hates.NET..NET could become what they wanted Java to be... IF projects like Mono are successful. So, what would they likely do? Kill it in the name of Java.
Granted Mono is GPL'd, so they couldn't kill it entirely. But taking funding away from Miguel de Icaza and his team would certainly slow its progress dramatically. I'd hate to see that.
.NET already works on Windows (obviously), and with Mono it's starting to work pretty darn well elsewhere. It would be a shame to lose that.
Blockwars: free, realtime, multiplayer game similar to Tetris.
Slashdot Mirror
This has been done before, IIRC Samsung released one of the first TV quality raster scanning system for laser shows.
Basically a standard laser show setup uses multiple lasers (to get your RGB) combined into a single beam then passed through a device, such as a PCAOM, which acts as rather like a programmable colour filter. (this isn't the only way it can be done with solid state lasers).
Two sets of mirrors can be steered in the X and Y axis to draw your shapes, beam effects, etc.
In the case of a TV or other raster displays the beam is steered much like you would an electron beam on a regular TV. It scans a horizontal line, moves down scans across, repeat. You can switch the direction of the scan (left to right, then right to left) on alternating lines to speed up the scan rate.
Wikipedia has some info on Laser TV's in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_TV and LaserFX has some info on PCAOM's if you're interested in the older tech: http://www.laserfx.com/Backstage.LaserFX.com/Archives/Archives6.html
Early systems actually used multiple projectors overlapping or drawing the first 3rd, 2nd third, etc of the image to make up for slower scan rates.
Please, PLEASE make the hurting stop - I beg of you!
Interesting... if you remove the story from the link, going straight to http://idle.slashdot.org/ you still get the Superbowl ad story, but under it you'll see an Idle Firehose in a new interface. The page title becomes Firehose as well.
Changes are afoot!
If you're old enough to remember "Global Thermonuclear War" from WarGames and thought it looked like it would make for a fun game to play, I suggest you check out Introversion's DEFCON at http://everybody-dies.com/ . "It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe - just maybe - you can lose the least." - from the site.
It's a great mix of Risk style strategy with real-time play and can support up to 6 players simultaneously on-line. Initially you layout your radars, silos, ships, etc, during a setup phase. As the clock ticks you move through the DEFCON stages allowing for ever more hostile play until DEFCON5 when you can launch your nukes. You can make/break alliances and try to get other players to blow each-other up before you unleash hellfire on those left alive.
There's actually a lot of strategy to timing your attacks so that your missiles can fly in from different silos, submarines, bombers, etc, and hit a target all at once. You need a heavy storm of missiles all coming in at once or local defense has an easy time of shooting them all down. But, when attacking, you become vulnerable - so you don't want to set too many resources to attack either.
Anyhow, one of my favorite games for any platform. And you can download a demo or buy it directly from their site for Windows/MacOSX/Linux, bypassing Steam and it's ilk.
Other "blue" lasers are in the range of 473nm. Given the color responsiveness of the eye these already appear darker than their Red and Green cousins even at similar power output. And you can't really get high power blue lasers.
So given that these are only 20mw and super low on the spectrum, I'd expect these are hardly visible in comparison with other pointers. A unique color, if you can see the damned thing.
Seems pretty pointless to me really... why would anyone buy one?!
I don't know about that!
<looking up nervously>
I played an early demo of this game that was released on a magazine CD and liked it. Stupidly I thought some of the apparent short comings were because this was a demo and purchased in on release day... ha stupid me.
What the review fails to mention is how often this damn game actually *CRASHES*. It locks the whole bloody 360 up! The screen freezes, the remote stops responding, and nothing short of pushing the power button on the 360 itself will get it back. And this is in single player campaign mode!
Interestingly the first disc I bought on release day crashed about 8 times in the course of 14 games played! I returned the game the next day and they'd only exchange it. This new disc seems much more stable - but it still crashes frequently. I asked a few people on Live and they reported similar crashing problems. So it doesn't appear to be restricted to my copy/machine.
It can be a fun game. Not my favorite, but a fun one... particularly if you play multiplayer or on Live.
But if I were Sega/Pseudo I'd never have let this thing out the door the way it is! In my opinion, given the slow downs and frequent crashes, this a Beta release not a signed-off on console game!
DON'T BUY IT... save your money for a game that's stable.
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game.
Apple could be so much more successful if they would stop being such a-hole control freaks and just sell their products and embrace people wanting to use THE SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE THAT THEY FREAKING OWN the way the want to.
Do you own a PS2? Nintendo DS? Or any console for that matter?
If so welcome to the world of not necessarily being able to use your software/hardware in a way you'd like.
OSX is tied to Mac hardware. Consoles are locked down from running arbitrary software. Why? Because in both cases one doesn't make enough money without the thing it's tied to.
A console doesn't have the margins to be viable independently. In a Windows world OSX probably couldn't compete as an OS alone and generate enough money.
You can say that the they should sell them at a price point where they are viable... but I'd suggest such a price point likely doesn't exist!
An Xbox 360 sells for around $400 - at a loss! If MS charged say $600 instead, how many less machines would actually sell? Would there be enough penetration it make it worth while for the software developers time to develop for it?
How much would OSX cost to be profitable on its own? How reliable would it be running on unknown combinations of commodity hardware?
Now I agree that it should be legal for you to modify your hardware/software locks to run as you see fit. That will dissuade enough people that the market remains viable. I don't think, however, that you should bitch that the locks are there to begin with!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer game.
<sigh>, when will Slashdot get it... once again, Correlation does not equate to Causality!
For example, sick people are not on the go. Geeks are not on the go, ergo geeks must be sick! Doesn't make sense, does it?
Now, that geeks are not on the go is supported by the fact that I'm sitting here on a lovely Saturday afternoon writing this. I'm certainly not on the go. However it's not because I'm not on the go that I'm sitting here posting on /., rather it's the other way around. I'm sitting here posting, which is preventing me from being on the go. Thus not being on the go is an effect rather than the actual cause.
Or something. I think I need some fresh air. :)
Blockwars: a free multiplayer, head to head game!
Sir Humphreys! Beautiful! Who's the lucky minister to have you writing for them now??
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game.
Your reading, while a sense making interpretation, worries me.
Sure, removing region coding, etc, would be great. But that doesn't mean that the only use for a mod chip is bypassing copy protection. What about homebrew apps?
I have a modded Xbox. I use Xbox Media Center on it. XBMC is great, I can stream music/video from my PC, get news/weather, view my digital camera pics on my HDTV, along with a host of other cool features.
Even as far as bypassing the copy protection is concerned, yes, it also allows me to copy my games onto the HD. But this is legal. I own the game and I can make a backup copy. I just elect to play my backups and leave the discs on the shelf as much as possible. It lets me access my games faster and not risk the DVD's as often (which is good when you have kids in the house!).
Could I copy games? Sure. Do I? No. I like playing on LIVE occasionally and you need the real disc to do that. Besides which, I write software for a living. Do I want people copying what I write? No, so why should I do it to other developers?
Even hating the developer (cough EA cough) isn't a good enough excuse for that.
Though, music, is different. Why? In Canada I have to pay a levy to the music industry for every piece of recordable media I buy. Given that I use tons of discs for non-music related things it seems I'm already paid up. Besides which Canadian copyright law has some interesting allowances for personal copies. Anyhow, a whole other rant.
The point here is: the mod chip allows for much more than just region code bypassing, and it's all legal. The chips shouldn't be illegal, using them to pirate software should be(and is!). Just as I can legally own a radar detector in Canada, I just can't use it to try and dodge speed traps (which makes them pretty useless I grant).
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game.
For the past few years I've been giving out my ICQ # to students so they can (try to) msg me at weird times when I'm not at the school but might be willing to help.
Well, first day of classes last year I go through my usual welcome bit then give out my contact info. I got as far as "And you can reach me on ICQ at..." and then got cut off as one girl blurts out "ICQ??! Wow, that's old school!"
sigh.
It seems to me that now that Microsoft's getting a real taste of success and getting more and more attention from people who normally wouldn't give a shit that now they're determined to hold onto it as hard as they can, and frivilous lawsutis seem to be one of their methods. Nor do i think that FOSS has a chance with this - it's their OS, they reserve teh right to control what technology one can play on it. I'm all for FOSS on this one, but i think they may be getting in over their heads.
Hmmmmm.... careful, that knife cuts both ways you know.
If you're looking to get into HD there are a *lot* of little quirks to take into account, such as:
- Offically there are two HD resolutions, 720p and 1080i
- Most HD TV's are only capable of *one* of these resolutions. So you have to choose, 720p OR 1080i in most cases. If you want one that can do both, check very carefully.. forget DLP or LCD based devices (fixed set of pixels so fixed resolution), CRT only.
- Many HDTV's will *not* convert from one format to another. They accept only their native resolution.
- Different networks broadcast using one standard or the other. For example CBS uses 1080i and ABC 720p IIRC. Fox is way behind in HDTV support.
- Most HDTV receivers can handle either a 720p or 1080i signal and will convert as required for your TV's native resolution.
- Some TV providers only support one format, regardless of the source material. Ie, in Canada Starchoice only broadcasts in 1080i. Any 720p content they have they upconvert to 1080i before broadcasting. It's impossible to receive a native 720p signal from them.
- The Xbox supports both HDTV modes... but very few HD games actually use 1080i (Dragons Lair being one). Most are 720p. So if this is important to you, you'll possibly want a 720p native TV: most receivers do not have HD inputs that would let you upconvert a 720p game to a 1080i signal for the TV. (the new Xbox will have more HD content than the current one, but it's a good bet that they'll be mostly 720p titles)
- Most Projectors and Plasma's are *not* HDTV. They are EDTV (enhanced definition) or some such. Check the specs carefully.
- Most projectors are 1024x768. This means your HD signal of 1920x1080i or 1920x720p is being heavily rescaled horizontally! Few projectors have a true HD native resolution.
So there you go... lots of fun things to take into account!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head Tetris like game
Sorry, just to clarify... was that R+ or R-?
Blockwars: Multiplayer Tetris like game
Google and Amazon.com will merge into, the grid will be born, Blog's will rule the news... oh, it's just too sad to go on...
See it for yourself!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game similar to Tetris.
I do believe we now have a new theory of the universe: The Pop Music Uncertainty Principal
You can know what station is playing crap, but not in what order.
Or, you know now what crap will be played, but not on which station.
This explains a lot...
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, Tetris like game.
Thanks!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head to head game
Well you'll hear something good now!
For those of you who've never heard of it, Motorola's MPX aka the MPX300 (pre-production model number) is the first phone to have a dual-hinged clamshell design. It can open in portrait mode (phone number pad has precedence) or landscape (qwerty has precedence)
Have a look at http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/images/0, ,48,00.html
They're not available through any providers yet, but I got one off eBay and you can now get it from Tiger Direct. This phone has Bluetooth, 802.11b, GPRS, and IRDA all in one! Drop a 1gig SD card into the SDIO slot and you've got loads of storage.
Having had one for a month now: if you're a hardcore PDA user this might be underpowered, particularly in the ram dept. If you want always on Internet for E-Mail, IM, SSH, Terminal Services, VNC, and general communication then it kicks ASS.
I can listen to MP3's, watch videos, SSH into my servers (and actually type no stupid pecking or stylus squiggles), have voice dialing through my bluetooth headset (realtime voice recognition, no pre-recorded voice labels), etc, all in one device.
I hate carrying multiple devices around. This is, by far, the best all-in-one I've found. Is it perfect? No, but it's damned good.
You mention they were farmed out, would you know to whom?
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, head-to-head on-line game.
Man, your lawyer must have friends in very high places if he can issue a Cease to Exist notice!
How is such a thing delivered? Does the Reaper come in person?
Blockwars: Free, multiplayer, Tetris like game.
Unlimited airtime!
Blockwars free, multiplayer, tetris like game
Not necessarily... while it would no longer be as simple as entering the number of the person you want to call, many phones will let you daisy chain them with a Pause feature. This feature tells the autodialer to wait n number of seconds (or half seconds or what have you for the particular phone) before dialing more numbers.
So you set it up to dial your access number, say 702-555-1212. You want it to then call your destination number, say 613-555-1234. You would then program the phone to dial:
702-555-1212,,,,613-555-1234
(the comma representing whatever character your phone uses to indicate a pause).
This way the phone dials the access number, waits a few seconds to let that call process and the service connect, then dials your destination number.
You could even insert access codes if necessary with additional pauses if need be (ie code 1234):
702-555-1212,,,1234,,,,613-555-1234
It is more work to setup, and you'd need to figure out what sort of delay you needed, but otherwise it should work. The ability to pause and enter more digits has been built into many phones for years...
Blockwars: Free, multiplayer, head to head game.
Wait... four-way with dual core processors... so what they are saying is
THERE ARE FOUR SOCKETS!
Blockwars: free, multiplayer Tetris like game
MRS. BUTTLE: Thank you. And this is my receipt for your receipt.
(sigh)
Blockwars: free, multiplayer, Tetris like game
Ideology aside .NET is likely here to stay simply because of MS's market penetration, never mind that is actually happens to be (IMHO) pretty good.
Having a non-MS implementation that allows .NET applications to run on either MS or non-MS platforms is potentially the holy grail of Linux adoption. If more and more apps Just Worked on Windows or Linux, why keep paying the MS tax? (I'm talking average user here, not people who know enough to use things like WINE)
But herein lies the problem. Platform independence was always the claim/goal of Java. One it has had mixed results in achieving. MS's dirty pool with the JRE is certainly a big reason for its less than stellar success on Windows.
Sun hates .NET. .NET could become what they wanted Java to be... IF projects like Mono are successful. So, what would they likely do? Kill it in the name of Java.
Granted Mono is GPL'd, so they couldn't kill it entirely. But taking funding away from Miguel de Icaza and his team would certainly slow its progress dramatically. I'd hate to see that.
Blockwars: free, realtime, multiplayer game similar to Tetris.