Sweet, I'm visiting a friend in Chicago in a few weeks, maybe we could go check that if it's still going by then.
I was at S&I the Christmas before last (to see the yearly "Christmas Around the World" trees), and they had a history of the Internet exhibit up. Seemed pretty cool at the time, though a bit dumbed-down. I remember they had this station where you could select a connection speed (300 baud, 56k, etc. up to OC-3), and it would show you the average transfer time for a file of a given size. I remember running the numbers in my head while standing there, and they were so wrong it wasn't even funny. Given the times they were showing for the given file size, they were implying you could squeeze something on the order of 30 KB/s out of an average 56k modem. Bull!
Nevertheless, it was a cool exhibit. Lots of button to push and levers and whatnot.
I sure don't feel young, but given what some of the other folks on here are putting as their first compy, I guess I'm a relative newcomer, comparatively speaking.
I think I was 6 or 7 at the time (1989-1990ish). My folks went to the local Radio Shack to see what this "personal computer" craze was all about.
Of course, I'd used Apples at school before that, but those weren't "mine." Pretty much all we ever did on them was use that dumb Logo app.
Anyways, I remember that all the Tandy really had was this drawing program that I barely remember, some kinda notepad for reminders and whatnot, a weird recipe book type thing, and a few other apps that I can't remember (probably because I never used them). All I gotta say is, Prince of Persia rocks!
And now you've just seen the typical "/. users think profits are bad" post.
The point that most everyone gets confused on is that profits aren't bad; in fact, I don't think anyone hear is saying that. How you obtain them, however, can be. I could become a real burden on society's ass by pulling an ever-popular mid-90s "hot McDonalds coffee" suing frenzy. Of course, I'd get a bad rep and the kind of notoriety that would destroy my life. Why is it that big businesses should be treated any differently? What real reason would any company have to demand excessive royalties for such common technologies? Surely they aren't doing it to play the part of the "righteous crusader," promoting innovation and independent thinking while at the same time protecting the rights of inventors everywhere.
I'm telling you right now, their motives aren't for profit. Not directly, anyways. They do these things because the USPTO has provided these companies with a nice, legit way to run their competitors out of business, without breaking federal antitrust laws. IP patents are like a trump card for big businesses that they can hold until the final trick and steal the game.
Well, I won't try to tell you otherwise, because I honestly can't say otherwise. I'm guessing PvP is some guy's blog or something similiar probably. Never read it. Don't care to.
It shocks me a bit that people can think that just because a "well-known" (I use the term loosely, since I've never heard of this Scott Kurtz guy) blogger or whatever writes an opinion or joke on their website, it instantly becomes their property, and anyone else who held that opinion or told that joke without having had any interaction with said blogger (or whatever) is immediately labelled as a liar and copycat.
People have individual thoughts once and a while, you know. You should try it sometime.
No kidding! 99% of the time, when I'm playing any kind of game, I'll choose to play a female character. After all, why would I want to spend all those countless hours of gaming staring at a guy's ass as I'm running around killing things?
Right on. And Luke falling from the AT-AT, well, if you read the novelized version (written by Lucas), it explains that Luke didn't walk away from that unscathed, even though he tried using the Force to slow his fall.
What if it removed IE?!
I would get up and dance a jig. However, M$ can't allow it's customers to be happy, since happy people eventually start to have independent thoughts. That's why they're not shipping AV with Vista. It'll remove IE and make people happy.
I have yet to see any new "feature" (and I use term loosely) of Vista that makes me think that it would be worth the upgrade. The new FS and graphics engine almost convinced me (not quite, but almost), but then poof! They disappeared. Why should I ditch my perfectly good XP installation which will undoubtedly be considerably less vulnerable to intrusion than the premiere release of Vista, especially since the virus-writing hordes will have a brand-spawking new OS to target with their malware, taking considerable attention off of XP?
Maybe I should upgrade 'cause it's all shiny looking! Oooohh, pretty, shiny colors. Nevermind the fact that I always turn off all styles and use Classic Windows widgets. Those are my system resources, and you can't have them, M$!
Personally, I smell another Windows ME (i.e. miserable failure).
You don't say? Wow, I had no idea that such a novel concept could have had precedent before even Firefox, since obviously my statement was all about tabbed browsing. Oh, no, there couldn't possibly be more to Firefox than tabbed browsing. That alone is what made it superior to IE, and now that the secret is out, Firefox is doomed! Nevermind the superior stability and rigorous adherence to W3C HTML/XML standards.....
I just feel dirty if my browser doesn't get hijacked at least once a week. Nice to see M$ is on the ball. Come on, Mozilla.....can't you get with the times? The developers at Norton and McAfee need to make a living too!
"Tabbed browsing" and "ability to delete browsing history"? This story must be a duped, because this browser was leaked to the public years ago. At the time, I think they called it "Firefox."
I wouldn't say IH provokes power gaming any more than straight up D&D. Having played a coupla IH one-shots, I was fairly impressed with the simplicity yet robustness of the system. It was good times. And not needing to worry about magic (or non-human races) was nice.
Depends on you perspective of it, I suppose. To some, this isn't a big deal at all.
I agree that not being given the option to disable such a feature is, if not underhanded, at least a sign of indifference. I mean, how difficult is it to simply add a prompt to allow or disallow usage reporting during installation? Not very. The fact that they didn't provide such a choice says a lot about how they view their customers.
On the other hand, how far are we, as customers, going to take this? Anymore it seems like people start an outrage over every privacy issue they can come up with. Seriously, you're never going to have complete privacy. Unless you become a hermit and shut yourself off from society, someone is always gonna take an interest in what you're doing. And you know what? I feel a lot safer knowing that people can't slink about completely undetected.
Anyways, I don't use iTunes, so...maybe my perspective on things is skewed.
Well, I won't be playing any games DURING the drive, seeing as I'll be driving myself home for the holidays. Besides, I kinda fell out of the console gaming scene years ago.
* Engage old man voice *
Back in MY day, for long road trips, all I needed was my original Game Boy and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. You whipper-snappers these days are all coddled!
Seriously, though, once I'm there, I'll be busting out Neverwinter Nights. The game never ceases to amuse me. I'll be working on the PW module that the PC Gaming Club I set up at my alma mater, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. They still let me develop and maintain the module, so that's what I'll be doing over Christmas.
Anyone who's interested, the server is called "ShadowRealm RHIT" under PW Action on GameSpy. I'll no doubt be on there, and any RPG only gets better when there are more people playing.
A lot of articles have been written on this matter. In many of them, Whedon claims to be holding out to see how DVD sales do before making any final decisions. I'm willing to entertain the hope that he might just be waiting to see if this is one of those movies that don't get discovered until the DVD is released.
IIRC, the movie wasn't a complete failure. It just wasn't a smash success either. It's didn't quite break even at the box office, but the DVD sales should put them into the profit zone. As Joss puts it, "it's a tough sell."
Personally, if Firefly/Serenity dies, I will be sorely disappointed. It ranks very high in my list of favorite Sci-Fi series.
Either way, all I have to say on the matter is that I once heard a proverb that applies here. Can't remember exactly how it went, but it had something to do with a hand, and the hand has food. The hand tries to give you that food, but instead of taking the food, you bite the hand. Yeah...
Seriously, if you European publishers think you're better off without Google, by all means, go without. Have fun in the unemployment line.
Gee, there's a wonderful concept. Don't put it into their heads that the "flat cost" is a bad thing. "Graduated cost" works both ways, you know. Some songs will get cheaper (crappy ones, no doubt), but a LOT will get more expensive if their demographics get based on popularity.
Slashdot Mirror
Sweet, I'm visiting a friend in Chicago in a few weeks, maybe we could go check that if it's still going by then.
I was at S&I the Christmas before last (to see the yearly "Christmas Around the World" trees), and they had a history of the Internet exhibit up. Seemed pretty cool at the time, though a bit dumbed-down. I remember they had this station where you could select a connection speed (300 baud, 56k, etc. up to OC-3), and it would show you the average transfer time for a file of a given size. I remember running the numbers in my head while standing there, and they were so wrong it wasn't even funny. Given the times they were showing for the given file size, they were implying you could squeeze something on the order of 30 KB/s out of an average 56k modem. Bull!
Nevertheless, it was a cool exhibit. Lots of button to push and levers and whatnot.
I sure don't feel young, but given what some of the other folks on here are putting as their first compy, I guess I'm a relative newcomer, comparatively speaking.
I think I was 6 or 7 at the time (1989-1990ish). My folks went to the local Radio Shack to see what this "personal computer" craze was all about.
Of course, I'd used Apples at school before that, but those weren't "mine." Pretty much all we ever did on them was use that dumb Logo app.
Anyways, I remember that all the Tandy really had was this drawing program that I barely remember, some kinda notepad for reminders and whatnot, a weird recipe book type thing, and a few other apps that I can't remember (probably because I never used them). All I gotta say is, Prince of Persia rocks!
And now you've just seen the typical "/. users think profits are bad" post.
The point that most everyone gets confused on is that profits aren't bad; in fact, I don't think anyone hear is saying that. How you obtain them, however, can be. I could become a real burden on society's ass by pulling an ever-popular mid-90s "hot McDonalds coffee" suing frenzy. Of course, I'd get a bad rep and the kind of notoriety that would destroy my life. Why is it that big businesses should be treated any differently? What real reason would any company have to demand excessive royalties for such common technologies? Surely they aren't doing it to play the part of the "righteous crusader," promoting innovation and independent thinking while at the same time protecting the rights of inventors everywhere.
I'm telling you right now, their motives aren't for profit. Not directly, anyways. They do these things because the USPTO has provided these companies with a nice, legit way to run their competitors out of business, without breaking federal antitrust laws. IP patents are like a trump card for big businesses that they can hold until the final trick and steal the game.
Well, I won't try to tell you otherwise, because I honestly can't say otherwise. I'm guessing PvP is some guy's blog or something similiar probably. Never read it. Don't care to.
It shocks me a bit that people can think that just because a "well-known" (I use the term loosely, since I've never heard of this Scott Kurtz guy) blogger or whatever writes an opinion or joke on their website, it instantly becomes their property, and anyone else who held that opinion or told that joke without having had any interaction with said blogger (or whatever) is immediately labelled as a liar and copycat.
People have individual thoughts once and a while, you know. You should try it sometime.
Well, it's hardly your prerogative to tell me my opinion is flat out wrong; however, I won't refute the idea that girls kick ass. They do. Seriously.
Joke? I was being serious. I'd much rather stare at a lady (be they real or not) than a dude.
No kidding! 99% of the time, when I'm playing any kind of game, I'll choose to play a female character. After all, why would I want to spend all those countless hours of gaming staring at a guy's ass as I'm running around killing things?
Not sure that would help the situation. Giving money away generates tax write-offs, which is even more work for the IRS.
My mistake, I was thinking of ANH. You're correct. Either way, the comment stands.
Right on. And Luke falling from the AT-AT, well, if you read the novelized version (written by Lucas), it explains that Luke didn't walk away from that unscathed, even though he tried using the Force to slow his fall.
Star Wars geeks unite!
What if it removed IE?! I would get up and dance a jig. However, M$ can't allow it's customers to be happy, since happy people eventually start to have independent thoughts. That's why they're not shipping AV with Vista. It'll remove IE and make people happy.
Been saying this for months and months.
I have yet to see any new "feature" (and I use term loosely) of Vista that makes me think that it would be worth the upgrade. The new FS and graphics engine almost convinced me (not quite, but almost), but then poof! They disappeared. Why should I ditch my perfectly good XP installation which will undoubtedly be considerably less vulnerable to intrusion than the premiere release of Vista, especially since the virus-writing hordes will have a brand-spawking new OS to target with their malware, taking considerable attention off of XP?
Maybe I should upgrade 'cause it's all shiny looking! Oooohh, pretty, shiny colors. Nevermind the fact that I always turn off all styles and use Classic Windows widgets. Those are my system resources, and you can't have them, M$!
Personally, I smell another Windows ME (i.e. miserable failure).
You don't say? Wow, I had no idea that such a novel concept could have had precedent before even Firefox, since obviously my statement was all about tabbed browsing. Oh, no, there couldn't possibly be more to Firefox than tabbed browsing. That alone is what made it superior to IE, and now that the secret is out, Firefox is doomed! Nevermind the superior stability and rigorous adherence to W3C HTML/XML standards.....
Are you familiar with the term "facetious"?
I just feel dirty if my browser doesn't get hijacked at least once a week. Nice to see M$ is on the ball. Come on, Mozilla.....can't you get with the times? The developers at Norton and McAfee need to make a living too!
"Tabbed browsing" and "ability to delete browsing history"? This story must be a duped, because this browser was leaked to the public years ago. At the time, I think they called it "Firefox."
I wouldn't say IH provokes power gaming any more than straight up D&D. Having played a coupla IH one-shots, I was fairly impressed with the simplicity yet robustness of the system. It was good times. And not needing to worry about magic (or non-human races) was nice.
Depends on you perspective of it, I suppose. To some, this isn't a big deal at all.
I agree that not being given the option to disable such a feature is, if not underhanded, at least a sign of indifference. I mean, how difficult is it to simply add a prompt to allow or disallow usage reporting during installation? Not very. The fact that they didn't provide such a choice says a lot about how they view their customers.
On the other hand, how far are we, as customers, going to take this? Anymore it seems like people start an outrage over every privacy issue they can come up with. Seriously, you're never going to have complete privacy. Unless you become a hermit and shut yourself off from society, someone is always gonna take an interest in what you're doing. And you know what? I feel a lot safer knowing that people can't slink about completely undetected.
Anyways, I don't use iTunes, so...maybe my perspective on things is skewed.
You can't beat longer battery life and better performance."
Sure you can. Now where'd I put that hammer.....
Well, I won't be playing any games DURING the drive, seeing as I'll be driving myself home for the holidays. Besides, I kinda fell out of the console gaming scene years ago.
* Engage old man voice *
Back in MY day, for long road trips, all I needed was my original Game Boy and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. You whipper-snappers these days are all coddled!
Seriously, though, once I'm there, I'll be busting out Neverwinter Nights. The game never ceases to amuse me. I'll be working on the PW module that the PC Gaming Club I set up at my alma mater, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. They still let me develop and maintain the module, so that's what I'll be doing over Christmas.
Anyone who's interested, the server is called "ShadowRealm RHIT" under PW Action on GameSpy. I'll no doubt be on there, and any RPG only gets better when there are more people playing.
Now here is what seperates Heroes,
From common folk like you and I
The man they called Jayne, he turned around his plane
And let that money hit sky
You can't take the sky from me.
Everyone sing along!
Theme song
A lot of articles have been written on this matter. In many of them, Whedon claims to be holding out to see how DVD sales do before making any final decisions. I'm willing to entertain the hope that he might just be waiting to see if this is one of those movies that don't get discovered until the DVD is released.
IIRC, the movie wasn't a complete failure. It just wasn't a smash success either. It's didn't quite break even at the box office, but the DVD sales should put them into the profit zone. As Joss puts it, "it's a tough sell."
Personally, if Firefly/Serenity dies, I will be sorely disappointed. It ranks very high in my list of favorite Sci-Fi series.
Posting on /. claims lives...
What the!!?!?! Ack, eek, urk... *thump*
French publishers? The French can read?
Either way, all I have to say on the matter is that I once heard a proverb that applies here. Can't remember exactly how it went, but it had something to do with a hand, and the hand has food. The hand tries to give you that food, but instead of taking the food, you bite the hand. Yeah...
Seriously, if you European publishers think you're better off without Google, by all means, go without. Have fun in the unemployment line.
Gee, there's a wonderful concept. Don't put it into their heads that the "flat cost" is a bad thing. "Graduated cost" works both ways, you know. Some songs will get cheaper (crappy ones, no doubt), but a LOT will get more expensive if their demographics get based on popularity.