No, take it even further - not just beliefs, but passing comments. If your roommate says his breakfast is good, tell him it's made of shit and anyone who eats it is retarded. You are then free to eat some yourself.
What? Kids are playing video games in church?! I'm furious, and you should be too. Don't you know how impressionable kids are? They have a hard time seeing the difference between fantasy and reality sometimes. One must be very careful what kind of influences they are exposed to.
Seriously: why would you let these kids go to church?! At least Halo admits it's fiction.
Having actually run Vista on a Celeron 2.4 GHz, with 512MB of _cheap ass_ RAM, and a Geforce FX 5500 (read: can't do above DX 8.1, or shader model 1.4) I can say without hesitation that Vista will run fine. Yes, even Aero with full transparency at 1600x1200.
Come on guys, this is _good news_. One of the biggest complaints about Vista is that it took so long to get finished, three years for a new OS is perfect. No,it's not going to take SEVEN gigabytes of ram or DX 17 - Vista runs _fine_ on a half-gig, with a geforce FX.
Is Windows the best OS? Defenitly not. Should we resort to hyperbolye and pot-shots? No. Am I the only one who thinks all such commentors are jerks? Apparently.
Human action, alas, has little to do with natural selection.
Huh? Humans are animals. Animals killing off other animals is the quintessential example of natural selection.
Furthermore, natural selection doesn't care about what's "natural" or not. Bears, fishing boats, or meteors - it's all just 'death'.
Exactly my thoughts. It's not a "hoax", it's just not up to standards. If someone else had written about this little-known/accepted theory, it would be a fine article.
I usually check Wikipedia first. Usually has whatever information I need, reviewed by hundreds (if not thousands) of people, and relevant links and references. But, I also always check the 'Talk Page' to see if any information is being disputed, or if there have been bouts of vandalism. Sometimes I'll try search Google for "wiki [subject]" to see if there's a wiki for that topic specifically, but often such specificity is not necessary - and if such a wiki exists it's usually referenced in the Wikipedia entry as well. If I see anything that appears out-of-order, or if my questions about the topic aren't answered fully, I always turn to Google.
So, while Wikipedia is my first stop, it's rarely my final stop.
Never mind the game's rave reviews, the beginning of the first-person shooter "Half-Life 2: Episode One" is a problem. That's not what the reviewers wrote. That's what the game's developers say -- and they say it in the game.
The confession is right there in the code, represented as a floating word balloon hovering in the game's opening area, visible to any player giving the game a go with the audio-commentary feature turned on. When clicked, the speech balloon spins and an audio clip plays. One of the game's developers at Valve apologizes for a design choice that has the player discovering that their own character can't make a simple jump that a computer-controlled ally can. It was necessary for the flow of the game, the developer explains, adding, "honestly, we're not especially happy with this crutch."
Released in June, "Half-Life 2: Episode One" includes the option to reveal more than 100 floating speech balloons of audio commentary explaining the whys and hows of some of the game's smallest but most significant details. Players can play the game without ever seeing the balloons or listening to the clips, but if they choose to activate them, they can hear developers chatter away as they blast away the forces plaguing City 17.
Non-gamers might find this completely unremarkable. DVD movies have included commentary since they had shrink wrap. But "Half-Life" joins only a small handful of games released in the last decade that include any commentary tracks at all, one of gaming's most revealing features. (Did you know "Grand Theft Auto" and the war against the Taliban inspired a major "Star Wars" game?) So why are a few proud developers doing it, and what's been keeping everyone else from jumping onboard?
"Over the years we've brought in hundreds of play testers to sit down and play our games while we all watch and take notes," Valve project manager Erik Johnson told MTV News. "What we found was that all of them were interested in why we made the choices we made, and how they had evolved over the course of the game's development. In a lot of ways, this is the kind of conversation we're trying to replicate with the commentary system."
So, yes, players, that is an enhanced refraction shader being used in the opening segment of "Half-Life 2." The commentary says so. And, perhaps more interestingly, player-hero Gordon Freeman's cute female companion Alyx follows rather than leads, because when she used to lead, test players found her annoying. And the pod in the heart of the citadel will play a big role in "Episode Two."
Valve's Web site reports that 15 percent of the people who have played "Episode One" since its June release have activated the game's commentary feature, just under half the number of people who have finished the game. That's enough for Valve. "There isn't really any chance of us leaving it out in our future titles," Johnson said.
The earliest audio commentary in video games may very well be the one in Factor 5's 2000 "Star Wars" starfighter-combat game "Battle for Naboo." Back then, games were on CDs and cartridges, neither of which left a whole lot of room for bonus audio tracks. Factor 5 managed to squeeze a few minutes of commentary for each of the game's levels onto their game's Nintendo 64 cartridge. Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht could not be reached to explain how and why -- nor to say whether the company's next title, the PS3 dragon-combat game "Lair" will be their fourth-straight game with an unlockable commentary track. But the developers' previous efforts make them not just the most prolific commentary-makers in the industry, but also the best advertisement for why they're worthwhile. Where else can gamers listen to developers talking comfortably about their games without the distraction of pesky reporters and without the need to talk in sales-pitch sound bites?
Consider the audio track in Factor 5's "Rogue Leader II: Rebel Strike," a 2003 "Star Wars" game for the GameCube. Eggebrecht and colleagues reveal that thei
Pretty much what Steam does. You can activate your Steam account on any computer and download the games you own but you can't play them on multiple computers at the same time.
That's the plan, but you can still have multiple computers logged into the same Steam account at the same time. I've never tried getting two people on the same account to log into the same online server - but I can log in to a lan server multiple times with the same account.
At most, Steam will tell you your 'ticket has expired' and ask you to input your password again.
Of course, Valve might decide that I've done something wrong and disable my account, taking away over 300 dollars in videogames from me. But then I'll just go get pirated copies that'll work just as well, and never buy another Valve title again nor another game off Steam.
What a wild and crazy idea. Personally, I'm not sure if game content developed exclusively for Windows will ever take off. The future is in games that are designed for Linux and BSD, but with a Mac OS port. If there's time, perhaps they'll make a port for Windows - but that's such a small audience, I wonder if it's even worth doing.
Making a game that only runs on Windows? It'll never sell.
Those are all good questions, but they have nothing to do with the topic at hand. The visuals used to portray the game (not on a box, but in a 'trailer' movie in this instance) are the same quality as what's seen in-game.
..."Groups protesting an American soldier funerals instead of paying their respects."
"Paying respects", like, not flying the flag at half-mast? Or "paying respects" by not giving them proper equipment in combat? How about "paying respects" by sending them into a war without a clear, if not totally false, reason to? How exactly do you want people to "pay respects"? Perhaps some people are focusing on the fact that these soldiers died invading another country that had not, would not, and could not make any serious threats to your "great country". Perhaps these people are focusing on the fact that your "great country" has been wiretapping their own people, subverting all manor of personal freedoms, and using scare-tactics to control the very people they claim to protect? Perhaps these 'protesters' are angry about the fact that your "great country" has kept people prisoner in facilities outside the United States - some of them 'secret camps' - where these people are tortured. Tortured. Some of these people have committed no crime, most haven't even been charged with a crime.
So, why should these people treat the dead better than you treat everyone.
Moving on...
..."Immigrants burning our flag at rallies in San Fransisco."
That line's so chock-full of ignorance and hate - it actually startles me.
The use of "immigrants" and "our flag" shows you don't consider these people to be "American". They are Americans. The only difference between them and you, is their ancestors probably came here from Europe before yours.
..."American citizens calling for the assassination of our president."
Really? Then the American people must want to be liberated. Some kind-hearted country should go in, "shock and awe" style and topple the regime. Oh wait - that would be going outside of legitimate methods of change, and that would make them terrorists. I'm glad only "islamofacists" do crazy stuff like that.
..."Slashdot posters constantly making references / jokes about moving to Canada."
I live in Canada, it's better than the 'states, but the current PM is the worst we've ever had (even more than the actually insane one). We don't lower our flags to half-mast anymore either. Thanks for that, by the way.
..."I guess I just see the examples and you don't."
You mean those examples I just refuted? Yeah, they were hard to see before - because you didn't write them out. *sigh*
..."Directly from Chavez's speech in which he referred to GW as the devil..."
Not that I think Chavez is a good leader, but perhaps he's still a bit miffed about Pat Robinson saying, on national television, the US should assassinate him. I assume he actually threatened your "great country" somewhere else in his speech, and you just didn't quote it... because it's cool not to quote what you're talking about? The line you quoted is not a threat - it's a warning. The US is not seen in a good light in many countries. What, with the "saying one thing, and doing the completely opposite, evil thing" going on, people don't like that so much.
..."Groups around us are preparing to act now, as we speak to destroy our country. They won't pick and choose, Democrat, Republican or Independent it won't matter. They're coming to get us, and according to Chavez's threat, it'll be soon... within GW's lifetime. Thus, if we don't stand up and do something, we going to be in a "nightmare" within the next 50 years. Does that answer your questions?"
Was my question "are you a paranoid nutbag?" If it was, then yes; my question has been answered. Are you serious? You actually think that "nightmare" line was a threat of war? Chavez was referring to the fact that your "great country" is degrading it's own citizens. The "nightmare" will be a dystopian America, brought on by
Holy crap - you are probably the strangest person I've ever seen. Let's take this step-by-step:
...With no sacrifice, we have no sense of one-ness.
"One-ness"? Uh...
... We see that today with many examples
Too bad you didn't cite any of them.
... because it seems like if our country or fellow citizen is defamed, threatened, or harmed we just seem to shrug it off.
Huh? 'Defamed' is nothing, 'threatened' is something for authorities to look into, as is 'harm'. And, unless I'm mistaken, The United States hasn't exactly been 'not' invading countries lately.
... If we don't unite, Hugo Chavez will be right in his recent flames, and America will crumble, much much sooner than we expect
What?! "[S]ooner than we expect"?! When exactly do you expect your "great country" to crumble?
Slashdot Mirror
No, take it even further - not just beliefs, but passing comments. If your roommate says his breakfast is good, tell him it's made of shit and anyone who eats it is retarded. You are then free to eat some yourself.
What? Kids are playing video games in church?! I'm furious, and you should be too. Don't you know how impressionable kids are? They have a hard time seeing the difference between fantasy and reality sometimes. One must be very careful what kind of influences they are exposed to.
Seriously: why would you let these kids go to church?! At least Halo admits it's fiction.
Oh come on! That was gold! Where are my mod points when I need them?
Having actually run Vista on a Celeron 2.4 GHz, with 512MB of _cheap ass_ RAM, and a Geforce FX 5500 (read: can't do above DX 8.1, or shader model 1.4) I can say without hesitation that Vista will run fine. Yes, even Aero with full transparency at 1600x1200.
Come on guys, this is _good news_. One of the biggest complaints about Vista is that it took so long to get finished, three years for a new OS is perfect. No,it's not going to take SEVEN gigabytes of ram or DX 17 - Vista runs _fine_ on a half-gig, with a geforce FX.
Is Windows the best OS? Defenitly not. Should we resort to hyperbolye and pot-shots? No. Am I the only one who thinks all such commentors are jerks? Apparently.
"The Dreamcast Community has sent emails to Sega Japan to ask for a rethink on this issue"
"Dreamcast Community" (read: George, Leslie, and Frank).
Huh? Humans are animals. Animals killing off other animals is the quintessential example of natural selection.
Furthermore, natural selection doesn't care about what's "natural" or not. Bears, fishing boats, or meteors - it's all just 'death'.
"You guys are going to have to come up with new input devices that don't involve small entities with two toggleable states."
I propose some kind of 'bacon-activated' controller.
The Game Gear had 6, the original Gameboy had 4, and the GB Pocket, Colour, and Advance used 2.
Q: "if you were going to give it up, what games would you insist on playing before you had to quit?"
A: All.
Mod parent up!
"i", "english", "ppl", "all", "in short", [plus general punctuation mistakes/omissions]
Somehow I don't think Wikipedia is your English teacher's main concern with you.
Exactly my thoughts. It's not a "hoax", it's just not up to standards. If someone else had written about this little-known/accepted theory, it would be a fine article.
I use Wikipedia Lookup Firefox extension. No typing, one click.
I usually check Wikipedia first. Usually has whatever information I need, reviewed by hundreds (if not thousands) of people, and relevant links and references. But, I also always check the 'Talk Page' to see if any information is being disputed, or if there have been bouts of vandalism. Sometimes I'll try search Google for "wiki [subject]" to see if there's a wiki for that topic specifically, but often such specificity is not necessary - and if such a wiki exists it's usually referenced in the Wikipedia entry as well. If I see anything that appears out-of-order, or if my questions about the topic aren't answered fully, I always turn to Google.
So, while Wikipedia is my first stop, it's rarely my final stop.
Never mind the game's rave reviews, the beginning of the first-person shooter "Half-Life 2: Episode One" is a problem. That's not what the reviewers wrote. That's what the game's developers say -- and they say it in the game.
The confession is right there in the code, represented as a floating word balloon hovering in the game's opening area, visible to any player giving the game a go with the audio-commentary feature turned on. When clicked, the speech balloon spins and an audio clip plays. One of the game's developers at Valve apologizes for a design choice that has the player discovering that their own character can't make a simple jump that a computer-controlled ally can. It was necessary for the flow of the game, the developer explains, adding, "honestly, we're not especially happy with this crutch."
Released in June, "Half-Life 2: Episode One" includes the option to reveal more than 100 floating speech balloons of audio commentary explaining the whys and hows of some of the game's smallest but most significant details. Players can play the game without ever seeing the balloons or listening to the clips, but if they choose to activate them, they can hear developers chatter away as they blast away the forces plaguing City 17.
Non-gamers might find this completely unremarkable. DVD movies have included commentary since they had shrink wrap. But "Half-Life" joins only a small handful of games released in the last decade that include any commentary tracks at all, one of gaming's most revealing features. (Did you know "Grand Theft Auto" and the war against the Taliban inspired a major "Star Wars" game?) So why are a few proud developers doing it, and what's been keeping everyone else from jumping onboard?
"Over the years we've brought in hundreds of play testers to sit down and play our games while we all watch and take notes," Valve project manager Erik Johnson told MTV News. "What we found was that all of them were interested in why we made the choices we made, and how they had evolved over the course of the game's development. In a lot of ways, this is the kind of conversation we're trying to replicate with the commentary system."
So, yes, players, that is an enhanced refraction shader being used in the opening segment of "Half-Life 2." The commentary says so. And, perhaps more interestingly, player-hero Gordon Freeman's cute female companion Alyx follows rather than leads, because when she used to lead, test players found her annoying. And the pod in the heart of the citadel will play a big role in "Episode Two."
Valve's Web site reports that 15 percent of the people who have played "Episode One" since its June release have activated the game's commentary feature, just under half the number of people who have finished the game. That's enough for Valve. "There isn't really any chance of us leaving it out in our future titles," Johnson said.
The earliest audio commentary in video games may very well be the one in Factor 5's 2000 "Star Wars" starfighter-combat game "Battle for Naboo." Back then, games were on CDs and cartridges, neither of which left a whole lot of room for bonus audio tracks. Factor 5 managed to squeeze a few minutes of commentary for each of the game's levels onto their game's Nintendo 64 cartridge. Factor 5 president Julian Eggebrecht could not be reached to explain how and why -- nor to say whether the company's next title, the PS3 dragon-combat game "Lair" will be their fourth-straight game with an unlockable commentary track. But the developers' previous efforts make them not just the most prolific commentary-makers in the industry, but also the best advertisement for why they're worthwhile. Where else can gamers listen to developers talking comfortably about their games without the distraction of pesky reporters and without the need to talk in sales-pitch sound bites?
Consider the audio track in Factor 5's "Rogue Leader II: Rebel Strike," a 2003 "Star Wars" game for the GameCube. Eggebrecht and colleagues reveal that thei
At most, Steam will tell you your 'ticket has expired' and ask you to input your password again.
Of course, Valve might decide that I've done something wrong and disable my account, taking away over 300 dollars in videogames from me. But then I'll just go get pirated copies that'll work just as well, and never buy another Valve title again nor another game off Steam.
What a wild and crazy idea. Personally, I'm not sure if game content developed exclusively for Windows will ever take off. The future is in games that are designed for Linux and BSD, but with a Mac OS port. If there's time, perhaps they'll make a port for Windows - but that's such a small audience, I wonder if it's even worth doing.
Making a game that only runs on Windows? It'll never sell.
Those are all good questions, but they have nothing to do with the topic at hand. The visuals used to portray the game (not on a box, but in a 'trailer' movie in this instance) are the same quality as what's seen in-game.
..."Groups protesting an American soldier funerals instead of paying their respects."
..."Immigrants burning our flag at rallies in San Fransisco."
..."American citizens calling for the assassination of our president."
..."Slashdot posters constantly making references / jokes about moving to Canada."
..."I guess I just see the examples and you don't."
..."Directly from Chavez's speech in which he referred to GW as the devil..."
..."Groups around us are preparing to act now, as we speak to destroy our country. They won't pick and choose, Democrat, Republican or Independent it won't matter. They're coming to get us, and according to Chavez's threat, it'll be soon ... within GW's lifetime. Thus, if we don't stand up and do something, we going to be in a "nightmare" within the next 50 years. Does that answer your questions?"
"Paying respects", like, not flying the flag at half-mast? Or "paying respects" by not giving them proper equipment in combat? How about "paying respects" by sending them into a war without a clear, if not totally false, reason to? How exactly do you want people to "pay respects"? Perhaps some people are focusing on the fact that these soldiers died invading another country that had not, would not, and could not make any serious threats to your "great country". Perhaps these people are focusing on the fact that your "great country" has been wiretapping their own people, subverting all manor of personal freedoms, and using scare-tactics to control the very people they claim to protect? Perhaps these 'protesters' are angry about the fact that your "great country" has kept people prisoner in facilities outside the United States - some of them 'secret camps' - where these people are tortured. Tortured. Some of these people have committed no crime, most haven't even been charged with a crime.
So, why should these people treat the dead better than you treat everyone.
Moving on...
That line's so chock-full of ignorance and hate - it actually startles me.
The use of "immigrants" and "our flag" shows you don't consider these people to be "American". They are Americans. The only difference between them and you, is their ancestors probably came here from Europe before yours.
Really? Then the American people must want to be liberated. Some kind-hearted country should go in, "shock and awe" style and topple the regime. Oh wait - that would be going outside of legitimate methods of change, and that would make them terrorists. I'm glad only "islamofacists" do crazy stuff like that.
I live in Canada, it's better than the 'states, but the current PM is the worst we've ever had (even more than the actually insane one). We don't lower our flags to half-mast anymore either. Thanks for that, by the way.
You mean those examples I just refuted? Yeah, they were hard to see before - because you didn't write them out. *sigh*
Not that I think Chavez is a good leader, but perhaps he's still a bit miffed about Pat Robinson saying, on national television, the US should assassinate him. I assume he actually threatened your "great country" somewhere else in his speech, and you just didn't quote it... because it's cool not to quote what you're talking about? The line you quoted is not a threat - it's a warning. The US is not seen in a good light in many countries. What, with the "saying one thing, and doing the completely opposite, evil thing" going on, people don't like that so much.
Was my question "are you a paranoid nutbag?" If it was, then yes; my question has been answered. Are you serious? You actually think that "nightmare" line was a threat of war? Chavez was referring to the fact that your "great country" is degrading it's own citizens. The "nightmare" will be a dystopian America, brought on by
Holy crap - you are probably the strangest person I've ever seen. Let's take this step-by-step:
...With no sacrifice, we have no sense of one-ness.
... We see that today with many examples
... because it seems like if our country or fellow citizen is defamed, threatened, or harmed we just seem to shrug it off.
... If we don't unite, Hugo Chavez will be right in his recent flames, and America will crumble, much much sooner than we expect
"One-ness"? Uh...
Too bad you didn't cite any of them.
Huh? 'Defamed' is nothing, 'threatened' is something for authorities to look into, as is 'harm'. And, unless I'm mistaken, The United States hasn't exactly been 'not' invading countries lately.
What?! "[S]ooner than we expect"?! When exactly do you expect your "great country" to crumble?
You are a crazy asshat.
ARRRGH! Stop butchering the English language! That's not 'begging the question'.
"It's not "hypocritical" to shoot for standards-compliant markup, "
Exactly true. The first priority should be to get code written that should work. Only after that should you try to write code that actually works.
"and neglect quirky pieces of software that ignore the standards."
You do realise that Firefox is not completely , right?