For your system needs for programming use, it depends on what the program is intended to do. If it's just a common app aimed at either the lowest common denominator or the average machine out there, then you're right. However, if you're creating computer games, VR programs, haptic (touch) programs, or time critical simulations then you'll need a faster/beefier machine. I mean, sure, you can write the code on that 1 GHz machine no problem, but compiling and testing it would be a pain.
He has used exactly ONE veto, and that was vetoing a bill that would have opened up some funding for some stem cell research. I wish that one had been overturned... Like Congress overturning vetoes, Bush has chosen to use his veto power to send a message to Congress (since that law went to him at a time when Congress, including the Republicans) were turning against his policies.
Could and would are two different things. It's rare for vetoes to be overturned and normally when they are overtunred it's to send a clear message to the President that vetoed the law (a power play by Congress, if you will). The grandparent was merely pointing out that BOTH the Republican and Democratic parties suck--neither really cares for the citizens.
There's no reason they couldn't do weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly releases. Most TV shows are filmed all in a large block and then they release the episodes through out the season. There's no reason that the game creators couldn't produce a "season" worth of episodes and then release them weekly. Not all episodes would necessarily be ready when the first episode comes out (just as not all episodes of the TV show are ready), but the story should all be there and all of the art should be created. It should just be an issue of "editing" and such. I mean, sure they could just release it in one large block for $50, but with episodic content they are selling episodes for $10-20 a pop and could get $100+ for a season where they would normally just be getting $50. Great for them, sucks for us...
There's a difference in that though: DVD was already an established standard and had clear benefits over VHS (plus it didn't require additional equipment to get those additional benefits). Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) still have yet to become proven standards/successors to DVDs, currently lack any additional benefits (beyond picture/audio quality), AND require most consumers to purchase additional equipment to see any benefit from them.
Of course, on the other hand, MiniDisc was actually successful in Japan... so something has to be said about Sony's mindshare there.
I think it's also worth pointing out that JRR wrote LOTR based on pressure from his publisher, not due to his own desire. He wanted to publish various histories of Middle Earth rather than creating another epic adventure to follow The Hobbit (in my opinion a MUCH better story then LOTR, but I realize I am in the minority in that regard--and Bilbo is a much better Hobbit then his kin... the most Hobbit-like Hobbit in LOTR, based on JRR's original description of them, is Sam). Thus, the publishing of Similarion, Unfinished Tales, Histories of Middle Earth, and possibly these new books may actually be more along the lines of what JRR wanted published himself.
I remember that, but that was a pretty bad advergame (but hey, it was free... although they were sort of advertising to the converted... since you had to buy the cereal to get the free game). I think the best example of advergaming out there is Cool Spot--a blatant advertisement for 7UP that you PAID to play (or to rent), but it was actually a fairly good game. Other fairly good games, but blatant advertisements, are the MicroMachine and HotWheels games (but those naturally adapt to the racing/stunt racing genres, so it's not so much of a stretch and it may even be that the companies that made those games wanted to in order to put more weight behind their games as opposed to Hot Wheels or MicroMachines wanting a game for advertisement purposes).
Spot = 7UP. The name of the game was "Cool Spot" and even though it was advergaming, it was quite fun and even spawned a sequel or two. If anybody has a ROM or a copy of it, let me know... that game rocked!
Oh, and let's not forget the various hotwheels and MicroMachine advergames that were also fairly decent.
That's teach me not to RTFA then... If that's the case then I would probably take the same course of action he did... frustration wtih the main conference for the field and no way of helping to influence the reform of said conference would make working in that field and having to put up with the conference unbearable.
That's how I used to do my creative writing--there was a caffeine phase and an alchohol phase. I never actually consumed them both simultaneously though. Oh, and the last two project I worked on ended with a sick phase--where I finished the project with either a terrible headache, bedridden, or otherwise too ill to leave the room. Still, I liked how the last two projects turned out (they can be found at my web site)--the last two I wrote were Dire Coda (WGA registered--just shy of a full screenplay length) and Anilove (one scene screenplay, just a standard copyright on this). I've been debating releasing some of my works under CreativeCommons license, but until I make a decision, they're all just standard copyrights (other than Dire Coda which is registered with the WGA-west).
Back on topic... there are certain things you have to do for tenure and you should know those going in. If you need to to "sell out" and do something popular to get some publications under your belt so you can get to your actual research, then that's the way you have to do things. There are a LOT of politics surround academia in terms of funding, department resources, publications, etc. If you can't handle it, then don't go into it (or quit like he did). SIGGRAPH relies on volunteers, so if its so horrible, why didn't he volunteer to be part of the paper committee and help get some "good" papers accepted to it? Or if the problem was simply that only one graphics conference existed, why didn't he try to get some corporate sponsors and other academic volunteers to organize another graphics conference (albeit a much smaller one that wouldn't hold as much weight for the first few years)? Most fields have just one MAJOR conference and several smaller conferences with more specialization, so I don't see how this is that much different than the situation with other fields.
I am fortunate, however, that my interest lies within HCI and while there are only a limited number of HCI specific conferences, there are lots of conferences related to HCI research due to the interdisciplinary nature of it.
Opera 9 also gets fewer pop-ups then any browser I've used. I run into issues with sites (including GMail and Google Calender) not supporting Opera but other than those minor annoyances its my browser of choice for my Windows machine. My OS X machine just has Safari--Opera didn't seem to perform quite as well on OS X as it does in Windows. I still have Firefox as my default browser at work and in Linux though. That said, I think the average user may still be better off with Firefox (despite it being targeted by malware and such now) simply because once the user browses to one of their web sites that doesn't work in Opera they'll stop using Opera for any web browsing and return to IE. Unless, you give them both Firefox and Opera (and hide all links to IE) then that might work--as I use Firefox as my backup browser when Opera can't handle a site (I even occasionally have to use IE--or the IE tabs in Firefox--because there's a survey site that pays $5 per survey that on rare occasions will require IE and since it's $5 for a less than 30 minute survey, and only the one web site I'm accessing I'm willing to do it with minimal kicking and screaming).
MS Research lab DOES come up with innovative new technology. It's just that a lot of it is still a long way from prime time (as would be expected--it's research, which is meant to generate innovation and then possibly profit later, not necessarily guaranteed profit). The MS Research Lab is one of the best software research labs in the world. They may not have as many patents as say IBM, but they still innovate quite a bit.
*Disclaimer* This message brought to you on a MacBook running OS X (10.4).
I stated that the 360 was less than a stellar success and that Microsoft was trying desperately to fix their mistake of launching worldwide too early by trying to find things that appeal to gamers outside of North America (but it's too little, too late). Sony, being the current market leader, should be prepared for a greater level of criticism then their underdog competitors--when you're #1 everybody turns a critical eye to you trying to find the weakness in your armor. And as for Sony not seeing the 360 as a threat anymore, that's probably partially true... but it's also true that if they delayed the launch by another year and really made the PS3 ready in terms of a large supply and a large array of launch titles they could very well lose the North American dominance position altogether and with a year delay possibly even see the 360 gain at least a foothold in other regions. To completely ignore a competitor, even an "insignificant one" is a bad business decision. Admittedly I was considerably less critical of Nintendo, but in terms of publisher reputation they have the best reputation out there in terms of consistently releasing high quality titles. And it depends on how you define "launch titles" as sometimes "launch titles" can be anything within the first few months of the console's life--in which case I'm looking forward to not only Zelda, but Metroid Prime 3 (which is slated for launch day), Mario Strikers, Mario Galaxy, Red Steel (launch day), Super Smash Brothers Brawl, hopefully eventually a new Pikmin (although that hasn't been announced...), possibly Rayman: Raving Rabits, Wii Orchestra (as long as I can find it for $30 or less), Excite Truck, etc. I will say though that the "wiimote" is a huge risk because I've seen similar technology used in VR CAVES and tracking is often an issue (and this is in much more expensive equipment... but the trackers also are a couple years old) so unless Nintendo has found a solution to the tracking issue we could be seeing the next VirtualBoy.
Nintendo and Sony showed next to nothing at the conference... The two games Nintendo showed were already rumored (and in the case of Strikers had been announced the week before, albeit only semi-officialy). Sony delayed their conference (although that wasn't mentioned in the summary) and then apparently showed next to nothing (unless their conference STILL hasn't happened)... Microsoft had the most announcements, but they don't exactly have any reason for secrecy as they aren't currently riding on a wave of hype--they're trying to create one (without much success...) Microsoft jumped the gun when they launched the 360, but in doing so they put pressure on Sony and that's showing as Sony's armor currently seems to be crumbly fairly quickly, partially due to their own ego but also because they're trying to meet a launch window that appears to early. Nintendo seems to have the only console that's ready--with a large number of quality launch titles (and other quality titles to come in the first year), a growing 3rd party developer group, and a system that they've been manufacturing for at least a month and recently increased production of (and without the hardware worries of their competitors since they're using fairly standard/very stable tech--as opposed to bleeding edge). That's not to count Sony out, they have the mindshare still and they more than likely have either at least one more "surprise" or they'll have some lie they'll tell to convince the stupid people (at least 75% of the population) that nothing can beat the PS3. Microsoft has a decent foothold in the North American market, but they just haven't done enough to win over the other markets--although they're trying (the exclusive rights to FIFA for a year and the Japanese RPGs are steps forward... but it, sadly, probably won't be enough...)
Were those all submitted by you? And are you a Sony fanboy, because all of those seem to have that same theme... plus posting about the MGS4 trailer before it's actually shown would be pointless for a site like Slashdot. I think the more interesting Sony story (and it may have already been posted) has to do with one of the games taking up 22 GB (Resistance: Fall of Man), which is also supposed to incorporate the motion controller functionality (but, surprise , doesn't). I have no real interest in the PS3, but the news of that game and the amount of disc space it used was interesting (although I wonder if part of the large size has to do with them not compressing their data--although that will be good in reducing load times, I would assume). Lots of rumors on the Wii front for news coming out tomorrow, but until those rumors become reality, nothing worse reporting on. As for the 360 (positive news) the roadmap for the PC-360 cross platform gaming was revealed today, and that's good because I thought that was one of the 360's few innovations.
See, is it that hard to balance the news out that much? I have no interest in either the PS3 or the 360 (at least right now--on a budget, and it'll be a Wii for me, plus I NEED my Zelda fix and then my Super Smash and Mario fix), but there are still articles for the other systems that I find interesting. Leave your bias at the door.
Bigger isn't always better though... You have to take into consideration the size of the room and what the room is used for. For example, a 60" television has no place in your child's bedroom (or even your own bedroom). It would be out of place and wouldn't mesh well with the rest (and this is coming from a person who thinks that the TV should be the center of the room and everything else should be laid out around it). I live in a small/modest sized apartment and as such when I look at TVs I tend to look in the 20-27" range both out of need to have it fit in with the rest and also to ensure that it can easily fit in whatever vehicle I will be using when moving to another apartment or another part of the country. I favor the LCDs over the other technologies due to their form factor and lower cost compared to other flat displays. It all depends on what you're looking for in a TV. If you're looking for longevity, then a CRT may very well still be the way to go.
Nope, I forgot to format it at all (I prefer to just add the couple of HTML tags since it's good practice anyway)... Sorry about that...
I hadn't planned on making that post so long--it kind of turned into a rant. It partially turned into rant because even though I own a Mac and think OS X is one of the better operating systems out there, I'm finding myself more and more annoyed by the 'Apple groupies' lately who seem to think that everything Apple is automagically 'da bomb'. Every OS, including Windows, has its pros and cons which is why I have *nix/Windows machine as well as an OS X machine.
The summary is misleading... Yes, Paul is a big time Windows advocate (but he's still not afraid to bash Microsoft/Windows where appropriate). It's true that Apple steals stuff from MS just as they steal stuff from Apple (although it's debatable whether or not they steal equally as Paul claims). They also both steal from the OS community--heck Apple stole both their kernel and their browser from BSD and Konqueror projects respectively (they have contributed back to both of those projects, but more than likely not nearly as much as they've gained from them). Still, I agree with his assessment about the release cycle of Apple--adding a couple of new features every year and selling and upgrade doesn't really count as a major release; major releases/versions are whole number releases versions. And $750 (non-academic price) to keep your OS as the 'latest and greatest' over the past 5 years is quite costly. Also, out of the features (at least those announced) being added in Leopard, I also agree that Time Machine and Spaces are far and above the most interesting (Core Animations just makes things pretty--and while I use a Mac, I really don't care if things are pretty...). But out of those Spaces should have been in the FIRST version of OS X as it's just virtual desktops and has been part of *nix for years (and a very useful part of *nix that, frankly, is rearely used by none power users). Time Machine is pretty nice and it solves a common problem for users, so this one is really great (Paul, and other's, argue that there are similar products out there for other OSs and there sort of are, but from what I've read about Time Machine it's a little bit of a different approach and it sounds like a superior option). Right now though there's not enough there for me to even consider spending the $70 (academic price) for an upgrade to Leopard when it comes out as right now Tiger works for me (minus the fact that gcc doesn't work on the Intel Macs--other than version 4.0 because for some reason cc1 and cc1plus aren't included in XCode for the Intel Macs, which Apple tech support informed me about... and which is very annoying when trying to compile FOSS... but I guess I can always run those on my desktop which boots Linspire, Ubuntu, and XP; especially since my desktop is more of my development/media machine any way).
By Wacom tablet, do you mean the monitor version or the USB peripheral? If you mean the monitor version, then isn't it cheaper/easier to own just a tablet? If you mean the other kind then the difference is that there is learning involved with that because it doesn't translate exactly to the screen coordinates--althought it's still better than a mouse. Have you ever seen somebody use a mouse for the first time, especially younger individuals? The mouse is not the easiest device to master because it deals with relative rather than absolute coordinates, the pen based system is a lot more natural and simpler. It's true that for expert computer users who have become accustomed to the mouse the tablet/pen system is "no big deal", but for new users and non-experts tablets make things considerably simpler. For expert users though tablets can still be useful in company meetings when taking down notes and you don't want the noise of the keyboard (but you want them electronic rather than in paper form).
I agree with that assessment about the Tablet not being on Apple's priority lists at the moment. I know a lot of geeks (including myself) who are interested in it, but I'm not expecting it any time soon because it simply lacks popular appeal. The hardware is still costly without too many benefits at the moment and the software is lagging as not too many companies are willing to properly invest in creating specialized interfaces for tablet edititions when very few people have tablet machines. Microsoft actually did a decent job with the Tablet PC OS, but the market just isn't there so 3rd parties aren't interested in working with it all that much.
I thought Shenmue was somewhat of a highbrow "game". I think part of the reason it failed commercially was due to its sort of highbrow nature. It had the game elements in it, but then it was also kind of a big tech demo and an actual virtual recreation of 1980's Japan and Hong Kong. Shenmue 2 even had artsy filters for sepia and black and white looks to give it even more of a highbrow feel. It also had an epic story (that unfortunately looks like we'll never learn the end of) with a character struggling to find himself after his dad is mysteriously murdered.
I agree with your comment for the most part, but I would assume (as somebody who has worked on tablet applications in the past) that the announcement of a tablet computer would be VERY important to developers (at least those involved with user interface creation). While you can use a standard application using a tablet interface, in order to make a GOOD tablet application you should really cater it to the tablet hardware. I would think that if Apple had plans for a tablet then they would want developers to know about it so that the tablet could be made stronger through supporting applications--a platform without supporting software is just a paper weight.
Those are different though as they only average all the review scores for particular games. This site is attempting to 'rate the rating' and thus apply weights to their review scores when calculating it into the total score--thus bad reviewers who consistently give certain genres and whatever a high or low score won't inflate or deflate the overall rating by as much.
Slashdot Mirror
For your system needs for programming use, it depends on what the program is intended to do. If it's just a common app aimed at either the lowest common denominator or the average machine out there, then you're right. However, if you're creating computer games, VR programs, haptic (touch) programs, or time critical simulations then you'll need a faster/beefier machine. I mean, sure, you can write the code on that 1 GHz machine no problem, but compiling and testing it would be a pain.
He has used exactly ONE veto, and that was vetoing a bill that would have opened up some funding for some stem cell research. I wish that one had been overturned... Like Congress overturning vetoes, Bush has chosen to use his veto power to send a message to Congress (since that law went to him at a time when Congress, including the Republicans) were turning against his policies.
Could and would are two different things. It's rare for vetoes to be overturned and normally when they are overtunred it's to send a clear message to the President that vetoed the law (a power play by Congress, if you will). The grandparent was merely pointing out that BOTH the Republican and Democratic parties suck--neither really cares for the citizens.
There's no reason they couldn't do weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly releases. Most TV shows are filmed all in a large block and then they release the episodes through out the season. There's no reason that the game creators couldn't produce a "season" worth of episodes and then release them weekly. Not all episodes would necessarily be ready when the first episode comes out (just as not all episodes of the TV show are ready), but the story should all be there and all of the art should be created. It should just be an issue of "editing" and such. I mean, sure they could just release it in one large block for $50, but with episodic content they are selling episodes for $10-20 a pop and could get $100+ for a season where they would normally just be getting $50. Great for them, sucks for us...
Of course, on the other hand, MiniDisc was actually successful in Japan... so something has to be said about Sony's mindshare there.
I think it's also worth pointing out that JRR wrote LOTR based on pressure from his publisher, not due to his own desire. He wanted to publish various histories of Middle Earth rather than creating another epic adventure to follow The Hobbit (in my opinion a MUCH better story then LOTR, but I realize I am in the minority in that regard--and Bilbo is a much better Hobbit then his kin... the most Hobbit-like Hobbit in LOTR, based on JRR's original description of them, is Sam). Thus, the publishing of Similarion, Unfinished Tales, Histories of Middle Earth, and possibly these new books may actually be more along the lines of what JRR wanted published himself.
I remember that, but that was a pretty bad advergame (but hey, it was free... although they were sort of advertising to the converted... since you had to buy the cereal to get the free game). I think the best example of advergaming out there is Cool Spot--a blatant advertisement for 7UP that you PAID to play (or to rent), but it was actually a fairly good game. Other fairly good games, but blatant advertisements, are the MicroMachine and HotWheels games (but those naturally adapt to the racing/stunt racing genres, so it's not so much of a stretch and it may even be that the companies that made those games wanted to in order to put more weight behind their games as opposed to Hot Wheels or MicroMachines wanting a game for advertisement purposes).
Oh, and let's not forget the various hotwheels and MicroMachine advergames that were also fairly decent.
That's teach me not to RTFA then... If that's the case then I would probably take the same course of action he did... frustration wtih the main conference for the field and no way of helping to influence the reform of said conference would make working in that field and having to put up with the conference unbearable.
That's how I used to do my creative writing--there was a caffeine phase and an alchohol phase. I never actually consumed them both simultaneously though. Oh, and the last two project I worked on ended with a sick phase--where I finished the project with either a terrible headache, bedridden, or otherwise too ill to leave the room. Still, I liked how the last two projects turned out (they can be found at my web site)--the last two I wrote were Dire Coda (WGA registered--just shy of a full screenplay length) and Anilove (one scene screenplay, just a standard copyright on this). I've been debating releasing some of my works under CreativeCommons license, but until I make a decision, they're all just standard copyrights (other than Dire Coda which is registered with the WGA-west). Back on topic... there are certain things you have to do for tenure and you should know those going in. If you need to to "sell out" and do something popular to get some publications under your belt so you can get to your actual research, then that's the way you have to do things. There are a LOT of politics surround academia in terms of funding, department resources, publications, etc. If you can't handle it, then don't go into it (or quit like he did). SIGGRAPH relies on volunteers, so if its so horrible, why didn't he volunteer to be part of the paper committee and help get some "good" papers accepted to it? Or if the problem was simply that only one graphics conference existed, why didn't he try to get some corporate sponsors and other academic volunteers to organize another graphics conference (albeit a much smaller one that wouldn't hold as much weight for the first few years)? Most fields have just one MAJOR conference and several smaller conferences with more specialization, so I don't see how this is that much different than the situation with other fields. I am fortunate, however, that my interest lies within HCI and while there are only a limited number of HCI specific conferences, there are lots of conferences related to HCI research due to the interdisciplinary nature of it.
Opera 9 also gets fewer pop-ups then any browser I've used. I run into issues with sites (including GMail and Google Calender) not supporting Opera but other than those minor annoyances its my browser of choice for my Windows machine. My OS X machine just has Safari--Opera didn't seem to perform quite as well on OS X as it does in Windows. I still have Firefox as my default browser at work and in Linux though.
That said, I think the average user may still be better off with Firefox (despite it being targeted by malware and such now) simply because once the user browses to one of their web sites that doesn't work in Opera they'll stop using Opera for any web browsing and return to IE. Unless, you give them both Firefox and Opera (and hide all links to IE) then that might work--as I use Firefox as my backup browser when Opera can't handle a site (I even occasionally have to use IE--or the IE tabs in Firefox--because there's a survey site that pays $5 per survey that on rare occasions will require IE and since it's $5 for a less than 30 minute survey, and only the one web site I'm accessing I'm willing to do it with minimal kicking and screaming).
MS Research lab DOES come up with innovative new technology. It's just that a lot of it is still a long way from prime time (as would be expected--it's research, which is meant to generate innovation and then possibly profit later, not necessarily guaranteed profit). The MS Research Lab is one of the best software research labs in the world. They may not have as many patents as say IBM, but they still innovate quite a bit. *Disclaimer* This message brought to you on a MacBook running OS X (10.4).
I stated that the 360 was less than a stellar success and that Microsoft was trying desperately to fix their mistake of launching worldwide too early by trying to find things that appeal to gamers outside of North America (but it's too little, too late). Sony, being the current market leader, should be prepared for a greater level of criticism then their underdog competitors--when you're #1 everybody turns a critical eye to you trying to find the weakness in your armor. And as for Sony not seeing the 360 as a threat anymore, that's probably partially true... but it's also true that if they delayed the launch by another year and really made the PS3 ready in terms of a large supply and a large array of launch titles they could very well lose the North American dominance position altogether and with a year delay possibly even see the 360 gain at least a foothold in other regions. To completely ignore a competitor, even an "insignificant one" is a bad business decision. Admittedly I was considerably less critical of Nintendo, but in terms of publisher reputation they have the best reputation out there in terms of consistently releasing high quality titles. And it depends on how you define "launch titles" as sometimes "launch titles" can be anything within the first few months of the console's life--in which case I'm looking forward to not only Zelda, but Metroid Prime 3 (which is slated for launch day), Mario Strikers, Mario Galaxy, Red Steel (launch day), Super Smash Brothers Brawl, hopefully eventually a new Pikmin (although that hasn't been announced...), possibly Rayman: Raving Rabits, Wii Orchestra (as long as I can find it for $30 or less), Excite Truck, etc. I will say though that the "wiimote" is a huge risk because I've seen similar technology used in VR CAVES and tracking is often an issue (and this is in much more expensive equipment... but the trackers also are a couple years old) so unless Nintendo has found a solution to the tracking issue we could be seeing the next VirtualBoy.
Nintendo and Sony showed next to nothing at the conference... The two games Nintendo showed were already rumored (and in the case of Strikers had been announced the week before, albeit only semi-officialy). Sony delayed their conference (although that wasn't mentioned in the summary) and then apparently showed next to nothing (unless their conference STILL hasn't happened)... Microsoft had the most announcements, but they don't exactly have any reason for secrecy as they aren't currently riding on a wave of hype--they're trying to create one (without much success...) Microsoft jumped the gun when they launched the 360, but in doing so they put pressure on Sony and that's showing as Sony's armor currently seems to be crumbly fairly quickly, partially due to their own ego but also because they're trying to meet a launch window that appears to early. Nintendo seems to have the only console that's ready--with a large number of quality launch titles (and other quality titles to come in the first year), a growing 3rd party developer group, and a system that they've been manufacturing for at least a month and recently increased production of (and without the hardware worries of their competitors since they're using fairly standard/very stable tech--as opposed to bleeding edge).
That's not to count Sony out, they have the mindshare still and they more than likely have either at least one more "surprise" or they'll have some lie they'll tell to convince the stupid people (at least 75% of the population) that nothing can beat the PS3. Microsoft has a decent foothold in the North American market, but they just haven't done enough to win over the other markets--although they're trying (the exclusive rights to FIFA for a year and the Japanese RPGs are steps forward... but it, sadly, probably won't be enough...)
See, is it that hard to balance the news out that much? I have no interest in either the PS3 or the 360 (at least right now--on a budget, and it'll be a Wii for me, plus I NEED my Zelda fix and then my Super Smash and Mario fix), but there are still articles for the other systems that I find interesting. Leave your bias at the door.
Bigger isn't always better though... You have to take into consideration the size of the room and what the room is used for. For example, a 60" television has no place in your child's bedroom (or even your own bedroom). It would be out of place and wouldn't mesh well with the rest (and this is coming from a person who thinks that the TV should be the center of the room and everything else should be laid out around it). I live in a small/modest sized apartment and as such when I look at TVs I tend to look in the 20-27" range both out of need to have it fit in with the rest and also to ensure that it can easily fit in whatever vehicle I will be using when moving to another apartment or another part of the country. I favor the LCDs over the other technologies due to their form factor and lower cost compared to other flat displays. It all depends on what you're looking for in a TV. If you're looking for longevity, then a CRT may very well still be the way to go.
I hadn't planned on making that post so long--it kind of turned into a rant. It partially turned into rant because even though I own a Mac and think OS X is one of the better operating systems out there, I'm finding myself more and more annoyed by the 'Apple groupies' lately who seem to think that everything Apple is automagically 'da bomb'. Every OS, including Windows, has its pros and cons which is why I have *nix/Windows machine as well as an OS X machine.
The summary is misleading... Yes, Paul is a big time Windows advocate (but he's still not afraid to bash Microsoft/Windows where appropriate). It's true that Apple steals stuff from MS just as they steal stuff from Apple (although it's debatable whether or not they steal equally as Paul claims). They also both steal from the OS community--heck Apple stole both their kernel and their browser from BSD and Konqueror projects respectively (they have contributed back to both of those projects, but more than likely not nearly as much as they've gained from them). Still, I agree with his assessment about the release cycle of Apple--adding a couple of new features every year and selling and upgrade doesn't really count as a major release; major releases/versions are whole number releases versions. And $750 (non-academic price) to keep your OS as the 'latest and greatest' over the past 5 years is quite costly. Also, out of the features (at least those announced) being added in Leopard, I also agree that Time Machine and Spaces are far and above the most interesting (Core Animations just makes things pretty--and while I use a Mac, I really don't care if things are pretty...). But out of those Spaces should have been in the FIRST version of OS X as it's just virtual desktops and has been part of *nix for years (and a very useful part of *nix that, frankly, is rearely used by none power users). Time Machine is pretty nice and it solves a common problem for users, so this one is really great (Paul, and other's, argue that there are similar products out there for other OSs and there sort of are, but from what I've read about Time Machine it's a little bit of a different approach and it sounds like a superior option). Right now though there's not enough there for me to even consider spending the $70 (academic price) for an upgrade to Leopard when it comes out as right now Tiger works for me (minus the fact that gcc doesn't work on the Intel Macs--other than version 4.0 because for some reason cc1 and cc1plus aren't included in XCode for the Intel Macs, which Apple tech support informed me about... and which is very annoying when trying to compile FOSS... but I guess I can always run those on my desktop which boots Linspire, Ubuntu, and XP; especially since my desktop is more of my development/media machine any way).
I forgot that Yellowstone spans 3 states (which include both Wyoming and Montana). Clearly the best option is North Dakota...err...Colbert then.
Doesn't South Dakota have Mount Rushmore? North Dakota doesn't have much though, or Wyoming, or Montana...
By Wacom tablet, do you mean the monitor version or the USB peripheral? If you mean the monitor version, then isn't it cheaper/easier to own just a tablet? If you mean the other kind then the difference is that there is learning involved with that because it doesn't translate exactly to the screen coordinates--althought it's still better than a mouse. Have you ever seen somebody use a mouse for the first time, especially younger individuals? The mouse is not the easiest device to master because it deals with relative rather than absolute coordinates, the pen based system is a lot more natural and simpler. It's true that for expert computer users who have become accustomed to the mouse the tablet/pen system is "no big deal", but for new users and non-experts tablets make things considerably simpler. For expert users though tablets can still be useful in company meetings when taking down notes and you don't want the noise of the keyboard (but you want them electronic rather than in paper form).
I agree with that assessment about the Tablet not being on Apple's priority lists at the moment. I know a lot of geeks (including myself) who are interested in it, but I'm not expecting it any time soon because it simply lacks popular appeal. The hardware is still costly without too many benefits at the moment and the software is lagging as not too many companies are willing to properly invest in creating specialized interfaces for tablet edititions when very few people have tablet machines. Microsoft actually did a decent job with the Tablet PC OS, but the market just isn't there so 3rd parties aren't interested in working with it all that much.
I thought Shenmue was somewhat of a highbrow "game". I think part of the reason it failed commercially was due to its sort of highbrow nature. It had the game elements in it, but then it was also kind of a big tech demo and an actual virtual recreation of 1980's Japan and Hong Kong. Shenmue 2 even had artsy filters for sepia and black and white looks to give it even more of a highbrow feel. It also had an epic story (that unfortunately looks like we'll never learn the end of) with a character struggling to find himself after his dad is mysteriously murdered.
I agree with your comment for the most part, but I would assume (as somebody who has worked on tablet applications in the past) that the announcement of a tablet computer would be VERY important to developers (at least those involved with user interface creation). While you can use a standard application using a tablet interface, in order to make a GOOD tablet application you should really cater it to the tablet hardware. I would think that if Apple had plans for a tablet then they would want developers to know about it so that the tablet could be made stronger through supporting applications--a platform without supporting software is just a paper weight.
Those are different though as they only average all the review scores for particular games. This site is attempting to 'rate the rating' and thus apply weights to their review scores when calculating it into the total score--thus bad reviewers who consistently give certain genres and whatever a high or low score won't inflate or deflate the overall rating by as much.