I'm going to reply to my own post, to basically second what's being shouted over and over. Teachers.
We're 90% Mac, running 10.4.11 (with a few 10.5.5 *ehem*) and as easy as Macs are to use, we still spend over a week each summer training our teachers in the BASICS. I'll get calls every day, clear to the next summer, with teachers wanting to do the most simple tasks. This is not a critique on their skills as teachers, not at all, but many of them simply do not GET computers. There are days I feel, that it is likely that they never will.
So when presenting to your school board, also stress that it'll be all for naught without competent teachers, to teach the teachers. I lucked out, as one of our most excellent regular classroom teachers is also in love with technology, and helps our department with training each year. Don't know where we'd be without someone like her. Likely dusting off the computer labs.
I work at a small and fairly wealthy rural ISD, a far cry from a struggling inner-city operation, but one of the best things you can do is get to know your school board.
Their meetings are open to the public, and often have plenty of time for Q&A. Calling ahead can land you a slotted time to make a presentation. Convince them of the need for technology, and if you can stress the actual VALUE short and long term, you may be surprised at their willingness to budget for this sort of thing.
However, my international adventures are limited to Canada and Japan. Most recently was a trip to Tokyo last March, where I had 0 issues coming or going with the Macbook I took along for digital photo dumps. YMMV.
Seems to me, due to Android's fairly high quality, and developer openness, that it will eventually become the OS of choice for most smart phone companies/manufactures. The iPhone will always be the iPhone, and either you can get one, or you cannot.
As a Verizon customer who isn't too big on cell phones anyway, I'll most likely end up with an Android phone before too long by sheer default when the hardware is free/reduced. Apple can't beat that with their model. Nor would they want to!
Apples and Googles (the new oranges)
Hardly a fair comparison!
Any passable movie script can be cooked up by one or two guys over a weekend with some good coffee.
Special effects, at the scale movie-goers demand, requires entire buildings full of artist going at it for months. That kind of manpower isn't cheap, and even then I'd say the writers will take home a lot more at the end of the day.
Because Hollywood is a business. They rarely let fresh substance in, they like what they know will sell. If something has already been made, and sold well, no sense in trying anything new and discovering all too late that it will not sell. They ain't in this to make a statement about the human condition, question the limits of the imagination, or brave the unknown. Think of the loss!
Just ease out of it. You don't have to ditch the job straight away to move on to other professions. For myself, I've got a great IT job, I could see myself here for quite a long time. Is it my childhood dream of traveling the world showing my awesome movies to the masses? No, but that's why I work on the dream nights & weekends in an office I built out of the upstairs game-room. This way, slowly but surely, I can ease myself into a position where I can make a choice that won't wreck my life, financially speaking.
How about this novel concept: Make a killer game, and sell a lot of copies!
When was the last time Zelda or Mario needed Nike/Coke/Dodge ads to make money? I'm with the parent, screw'em. I don't want them, and I don't need them. There are plenty of great games to play that don't make me feel dirty or insulted. So many recent games lost sales from me and my circle for in-game ads, such as Crackdown earlier this year. I enjoyed the demo, but after a single distraction (large dodge truck ad) I was done. Battlefield 2142 is another fine example, might as well re-name the sucker adware42, and it has no business on my PC.
If developers want to see my money, all they have to do is a make a great game, and leave all that "sponsored by" crap in the splash screen or on the box. You can't even begin to imagine my disappointment in last weeks news with Quake:ET, a game I've been following for years...
The bottom line is, if your development cost are so high that you have to start selling ad space in your game world, then maybe it's time you evaluate your development processes, and the game in question; for something has gone horribly wrong.
The best part is the holiday season, how can you know which format to buy for your favorite uncle you only get to see once a year. You can't very well call asking, "Heya Uncle Bob, say, what kind of HD DVD format do you use? What? No! I'm not thinking about getting you a new high-def format movie or show this year, that's preposterous!"
More importantly, even if you tell your aunt Becky 4 times (twice in writing no less,) you'll still get the wrong damned format come the great unwrapping time. Never mind the fact it's not even the film you asked for.
All in all, I say they've gone and set them selves up for a big return this year, at least here in the states.
Dynamic advertising is pushed into the space via banners around the world, and in billboards. HD-quality video is running on the billboards. Well, done and scared me off. Next! Video games are quickly becoming as insulting as television and the local AMC; one day not to far from now I'll only have my old books as a proper escape from the capitalist bombardment.
If you're an enthusiast with an existing AMD rig, why not just plop in a new CPU rather than a full Intel combo upgrade?
If I was AM2 rather than 939, I myself would be down on this in a heartbeat. From the looks of things, overall it's about on par with Intel's bang-per-buck chips (E6600/E6700), sounds like a good move to me!
Realistically, there's so much transition going on right now, DX10 cards, new operating systems, multiple cores, I think it's best to let this storm even out for another 6-12 months before considering a full upgrade. So for now, plop in that new CPU or GPU, if need be, and have fun!
It's a multi-campus district wide wireless distribution. A combination of crappy firmware on the POE, the switches, and one point even the Apple airports, has left our wireless less than 100%. It's a constant battle against the forces of outsourced call centers and ceiling tile dust! However, since the latest rebuild, it's been up a month now. *knock on wood*
But good for you and your Linksys! I've also had zero issues with my d-link at home, almost a year strong now! However, I'm thinking it's time to roll out gigabit wired, only the neighbor and her regular payment of chocolate chip cookies is keeping the home wi-fi going, really (and the Wii as well, naturally).
This happens to me quite often, I will dig into a project trying to solve some major issue or another (Wi-Fi's down again!) and hours later I've solved it. The problem is I've already forgotten the original issue and found three others that are really quite trivial. Sometimes I look up and notice, sometimes I just keep working away, creating new issues and solutions with complete disregard for the original major issue. It's like my focus becomes so narrow, that I can't see the bigger picture without someone else stepping in.
This is where a good project manager should step in. "You do realize you've been painting the same tiny bit of trim for the past three hours, right?"
More like GTA looks fun, while Psychonauts looks weird.
Everyone can "get" GTA style graphics, but not everyone can "get" Psychonaut's Tim Burton look. I was one of those who didn't even bother with Psychonauts based on visual style alone, I just didn't like it.
I also didn't pick up GTA:SA for the same reason, I find the 80's pulp melodrama much more interesting than the 90's gritty gangland I grew up with. *shurgs* (Plus, the music was so much better, and you know it!)
Ever hear of "live and let be!" Ever hear of "freedom?" I'd rather cause damage and be obviously wrong than not be free to express my self through religion.
Personally, I don't care much for organized religion either, but I must respect their right to gather, or risk loosing that right for my self. That's the price of freedom. I can go off and be agnostic, while others can go pay tribute to Odin. Live and let be.
Now, if Scientologist were going around killing people or resorting to any number of illegal activities for whatever ends, then yes those responsible ought to be prosecuted. Dissolve the entire religion? I don't think that's very progressive (or in my case, American) at all. However, in this case here, I must question the constitutionality of the methods employed by the church.
These technical limitations led to one of my favorite video game effects, where enemies explode and disappear in a puff of smoke after being 'dealt with' by the player. Certainly doesn't work for say, HL2/GoW style games, but effective and very cool when it does. The Windwaker is by far my favorite implementation of this, followed by Super Mario, where the baddies just fall off the screen, down into some unseen pit of doom.
In X-Men 3, they developed a computer effects algorithm that made Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart look very young. In fact, it was so well done that I reckoned them able to go in and make a new original cast Star Trek film. (With the surviving members anyway, may the fallen RIP.) I also reckoned they could make Ian McKellen (Glandolf) and Ian Holm (Bilbo) look younger in The Hobbit with this technique. (Has anyone seen Sam Lowry?)
...but the 7-11's in Japan don't sell Slurpees. I mean, one could hardly call a 7-11 "7-11," if they ain't got no Slurpees!
Actually, a little wikipedia reading reveals that they tried to sell Slurpee when they first opened, but the populous was not interested in the frozen delight. Opting instead for the irresistible ice cream in a bag.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven#Japan
Sorry, I know I'm way off topic, but I did get a big kick out of the picture of 7-11 selling the PS3.
...it went to a kid stuck in a hospital bed somewhere in Dallas instead.
Sure it was $130 I didn't really have, but now there's an undoubtedly more suitable recipient enjoying Mario Cart between operations, and I feel all the better for it.
Glad I could help in my small way to reach that million dollar mark, my first year giving to Child's Play too. High-Five!
Now all that's left is to organize a field-trip to engage DS WiFi wars at the local children's hospital. Maybe even invite old Jack for a round or two.
The Wii has a certain amount of built-in flash memory, enough to store several VC games, Wii Save Games, and yes, even a web browser. You may also expand this to your liking by adding in a standard SD card.
No need to swap disk like we all did with the Dreamcast.
For movies, trailers are one thing, but 30 minutes of Coke sponsored ads that delay the written starting time of a feature are quite another, and drove me away from the theater. (In addition to price general theater price gouging.) I wait for the DVD.
TV? I snapped about 4-5 years ago, I no longer have cable and the TV is only used for games and DVDs. Most of the DVDs I own have the ability to skip the trailers and go right into it, a non-issue there.
Magazines? Eh, I've never had a need with the net so I never really ever picked one up in the first place. I have contributed content to a few gamer mags in the past, however. I have a small stack of sci-fi novels for the bathroom instead.
Basically if I don't get the option, they don't get my dollar. It's not that difficult, and it's hardly even an effort on my part, I see something I don't like, I don't pay for it. Only issue here and now is that I do like games very much, and I wish them to remain ad free so I can enjoy them in the future as I have in the past. This is something I'm a bit more spirited with than other mediums, and I do tend to go on about it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not a shill or anything like that, but I just so happened to meet the perfect woman on that site. And hey, it was free! The baby... not so much! :O
I'm going to reply to my own post, to basically second what's being shouted over and over. Teachers.
We're 90% Mac, running 10.4.11 (with a few 10.5.5 *ehem*) and as easy as Macs are to use, we still spend over a week each summer training our teachers in the BASICS. I'll get calls every day, clear to the next summer, with teachers wanting to do the most simple tasks. This is not a critique on their skills as teachers, not at all, but many of them simply do not GET computers. There are days I feel, that it is likely that they never will.
So when presenting to your school board, also stress that it'll be all for naught without competent teachers, to teach the teachers. I lucked out, as one of our most excellent regular classroom teachers is also in love with technology, and helps our department with training each year. Don't know where we'd be without someone like her. Likely dusting off the computer labs.
I work at a small and fairly wealthy rural ISD, a far cry from a struggling inner-city operation, but one of the best things you can do is get to know your school board. Their meetings are open to the public, and often have plenty of time for Q&A. Calling ahead can land you a slotted time to make a presentation. Convince them of the need for technology, and if you can stress the actual VALUE short and long term, you may be surprised at their willingness to budget for this sort of thing.
However, my international adventures are limited to Canada and Japan. Most recently was a trip to Tokyo last March, where I had 0 issues coming or going with the Macbook I took along for digital photo dumps. YMMV.
Seems to me, due to Android's fairly high quality, and developer openness, that it will eventually become the OS of choice for most smart phone companies/manufactures. The iPhone will always be the iPhone, and either you can get one, or you cannot. As a Verizon customer who isn't too big on cell phones anyway, I'll most likely end up with an Android phone before too long by sheer default when the hardware is free/reduced. Apple can't beat that with their model. Nor would they want to! Apples and Googles (the new oranges)
Hardly a fair comparison! Any passable movie script can be cooked up by one or two guys over a weekend with some good coffee. Special effects, at the scale movie-goers demand, requires entire buildings full of artist going at it for months. That kind of manpower isn't cheap, and even then I'd say the writers will take home a lot more at the end of the day.
Because Hollywood is a business. They rarely let fresh substance in, they like what they know will sell. If something has already been made, and sold well, no sense in trying anything new and discovering all too late that it will not sell. They ain't in this to make a statement about the human condition, question the limits of the imagination, or brave the unknown. Think of the loss!
Just ease out of it. You don't have to ditch the job straight away to move on to other professions. For myself, I've got a great IT job, I could see myself here for quite a long time. Is it my childhood dream of traveling the world showing my awesome movies to the masses? No, but that's why I work on the dream nights & weekends in an office I built out of the upstairs game-room. This way, slowly but surely, I can ease myself into a position where I can make a choice that won't wreck my life, financially speaking.
How about this novel concept: Make a killer game, and sell a lot of copies!
When was the last time Zelda or Mario needed Nike/Coke/Dodge ads to make money? I'm with the parent, screw'em. I don't want them, and I don't need them. There are plenty of great games to play that don't make me feel dirty or insulted. So many recent games lost sales from me and my circle for in-game ads, such as Crackdown earlier this year. I enjoyed the demo, but after a single distraction (large dodge truck ad) I was done. Battlefield 2142 is another fine example, might as well re-name the sucker adware42, and it has no business on my PC.
If developers want to see my money, all they have to do is a make a great game, and leave all that "sponsored by" crap in the splash screen or on the box. You can't even begin to imagine my disappointment in last weeks news with Quake:ET, a game I've been following for years...
The bottom line is, if your development cost are so high that you have to start selling ad space in your game world, then maybe it's time you evaluate your development processes, and the game in question; for something has gone horribly wrong.
The best part is the holiday season, how can you know which format to buy for your favorite uncle you only get to see once a year. You can't very well call asking, "Heya Uncle Bob, say, what kind of HD DVD format do you use? What? No! I'm not thinking about getting you a new high-def format movie or show this year, that's preposterous!"
More importantly, even if you tell your aunt Becky 4 times (twice in writing no less,) you'll still get the wrong damned format come the great unwrapping time. Never mind the fact it's not even the film you asked for.
All in all, I say they've gone and set them selves up for a big return this year, at least here in the states.
27B Stroke 6
I'm a stickler for paper work.
Well, done and scared me off. Next! Video games are quickly becoming as insulting as television and the local AMC; one day not to far from now I'll only have my old books as a proper escape from the capitalist bombardment.
If you're an enthusiast with an existing AMD rig, why not just plop in a new CPU rather than a full Intel combo upgrade? If I was AM2 rather than 939, I myself would be down on this in a heartbeat. From the looks of things, overall it's about on par with Intel's bang-per-buck chips (E6600/E6700), sounds like a good move to me!
Realistically, there's so much transition going on right now, DX10 cards, new operating systems, multiple cores, I think it's best to let this storm even out for another 6-12 months before considering a full upgrade. So for now, plop in that new CPU or GPU, if need be, and have fun!
Even the subtle ads in Crackdown weren't subtle enough for this gamer. No sale! >=(
It's a multi-campus district wide wireless distribution. A combination of crappy firmware on the POE, the switches, and one point even the Apple airports, has left our wireless less than 100%. It's a constant battle against the forces of outsourced call centers and ceiling tile dust! However, since the latest rebuild, it's been up a month now. *knock on wood*
But good for you and your Linksys! I've also had zero issues with my d-link at home, almost a year strong now! However, I'm thinking it's time to roll out gigabit wired, only the neighbor and her regular payment of chocolate chip cookies is keeping the home wi-fi going, really (and the Wii as well, naturally).
This happens to me quite often, I will dig into a project trying to solve some major issue or another (Wi-Fi's down again!) and hours later I've solved it. The problem is I've already forgotten the original issue and found three others that are really quite trivial. Sometimes I look up and notice, sometimes I just keep working away, creating new issues and solutions with complete disregard for the original major issue. It's like my focus becomes so narrow, that I can't see the bigger picture without someone else stepping in.
This is where a good project manager should step in. "You do realize you've been painting the same tiny bit of trim for the past three hours, right?"
More like GTA looks fun, while Psychonauts looks weird.
Everyone can "get" GTA style graphics, but not everyone can "get" Psychonaut's Tim Burton look. I was one of those who didn't even bother with Psychonauts based on visual style alone, I just didn't like it.
I also didn't pick up GTA:SA for the same reason, I find the 80's pulp melodrama much more interesting than the 90's gritty gangland I grew up with. *shurgs* (Plus, the music was so much better, and you know it!)
Why?
Ever hear of "live and let be!" Ever hear of "freedom?" I'd rather cause damage and be obviously wrong than not be free to express my self through religion.
Personally, I don't care much for organized religion either, but I must respect their right to gather, or risk loosing that right for my self. That's the price of freedom. I can go off and be agnostic, while others can go pay tribute to Odin. Live and let be.
Now, if Scientologist were going around killing people or resorting to any number of illegal activities for whatever ends, then yes those responsible ought to be prosecuted. Dissolve the entire religion? I don't think that's very progressive (or in my case, American) at all. However, in this case here, I must question the constitutionality of the methods employed by the church.
By that logic, there might as well be no freedom religion at all. It's all "made up" by man at some point or another.
You don't have to like them, even the obviously wacky ones (I've been touched by his noodle appendage!) but you should respect their rights to exist.
Should we be a bit more aggressive in limiting their manipulation of the law? Sure, but that goes for any unjust manipulation of the law by any party.
These technical limitations led to one of my favorite video game effects, where enemies explode and disappear in a puff of smoke after being 'dealt with' by the player. Certainly doesn't work for say, HL2/GoW style games, but effective and very cool when it does. The Windwaker is by far my favorite implementation of this, followed by Super Mario, where the baddies just fall off the screen, down into some unseen pit of doom.
In X-Men 3, they developed a computer effects algorithm that made Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart look very young. In fact, it was so well done that I reckoned them able to go in and make a new original cast Star Trek film. (With the surviving members anyway, may the fallen RIP.) I also reckoned they could make Ian McKellen (Glandolf) and Ian Holm (Bilbo) look younger in The Hobbit with this technique. (Has anyone seen Sam Lowry?)
Here's a site with side-by-side pictures from x3: http://www.fxguide.com/article357.html
...but the 7-11's in Japan don't sell Slurpees. I mean, one could hardly call a 7-11 "7-11," if they ain't got no Slurpees!
Actually, a little wikipedia reading reveals that they tried to sell Slurpee when they first opened, but the populous was not interested in the frozen delight. Opting instead for the irresistible ice cream in a bag.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven#Japan
Sorry, I know I'm way off topic, but I did get a big kick out of the picture of 7-11 selling the PS3.
...it went to a kid stuck in a hospital bed somewhere in Dallas instead.
Sure it was $130 I didn't really have, but now there's an undoubtedly more suitable recipient enjoying Mario Cart between operations, and I feel all the better for it.
Glad I could help in my small way to reach that million dollar mark, my first year giving to Child's Play too. High-Five!
Now all that's left is to organize a field-trip to engage DS WiFi wars at the local children's hospital. Maybe even invite old Jack for a round or two.
At the risk of feeding the troll:
The Wii has a certain amount of built-in flash memory, enough to store several VC games, Wii Save Games, and yes, even a web browser. You may also expand this to your liking by adding in a standard SD card.
No need to swap disk like we all did with the Dreamcast.
As a matter of fact, yes.
For movies, trailers are one thing, but 30 minutes of Coke sponsored ads that delay the written starting time of a feature are quite another, and drove me away from the theater. (In addition to price general theater price gouging.) I wait for the DVD.
TV? I snapped about 4-5 years ago, I no longer have cable and the TV is only used for games and DVDs. Most of the DVDs I own have the ability to skip the trailers and go right into it, a non-issue there.
Magazines? Eh, I've never had a need with the net so I never really ever picked one up in the first place. I have contributed content to a few gamer mags in the past, however. I have a small stack of sci-fi novels for the bathroom instead.
Basically if I don't get the option, they don't get my dollar. It's not that difficult, and it's hardly even an effort on my part, I see something I don't like, I don't pay for it. Only issue here and now is that I do like games very much, and I wish them to remain ad free so I can enjoy them in the future as I have in the past. This is something I'm a bit more spirited with than other mediums, and I do tend to go on about it.