Finally, someone has explained the limitations of email! It only took 35 years, but now I finally understand! I had no idea that when I was typing my message, the receiver wouldn't understand my tone of voice and couldn't see my face. Now that the Christian Science Monitor has explained it, it makes perfect sense.
If I ever have a child that I choose not to sacrifice to the Machine Gods, I'm gonna send them to the priethood. Those guys are sharp!
The "Collector's Edition" of Terminator (if you think T2 was better or T3 WASN'T a sick travesty, you should know better) editted the sound of Arnold's.45 so it sounds like it's got a suppressor on it, ruining the scene where he kills the first Sarah Conner.
I'm hurting for them, too. However, their predicament underscores the problem facing we old game lovers. I have pulled gigs and gigs of stuff from Home of the Underdogs over the years, but I've never donated a cent, so all they've gotten out of me is a thin stream of ad revenue and some new users I sent their way. Not much compensation for the best freeware game site out there. I am ashamed of myself, and if they come back, I'm going to donate SOMETHING in exchange for the thousands of hours of fun they've provided.
I'd suggest any other leeches out there start coughing up some loot, too. It can be pretty amazing what an infusion of cash can do to a site/developers motivation.
Re:Republish Close Combat 3!
on
Abandoned Games
·
· Score: 1
And maybe this time add some AI, so the NME doesn't wander into every minefield they possibly can. The best interface and unit selection of the series, sure, but the AI was terrible. How hard can that be on static maps?
...and the KISS principle is amongst the most useful, and least understood. Some developers seem to think that, if they can just make their software capable of doing anything anyone would ever want to do, that this translates into simplicity.
You can not reach simplicty through complexity. It's one of those concepts that's so plug stupid, people discard it without even thinking about all the overly-complicated things they hate in life. Embracing it is a key to making a highly accessible system, with broad appeal.
My signature may seem to contradict this, but I believe both principles stand, and the truly perfect, pure system we all want falls in between.
...why can't they deliver a decent gaming experience?
Of course they can make tough decisions. They have to in order to survive! The PC market is sort of their appetizer, just to squeek by until the next opportunity (a la iPod) arises.
Their lack of software is rediculous. They don't, to the best of my limited knowledge, even have their own productivity\business suite! If they can't outdo MS to the extent that MS is bad for users business, they can't compete.
If they can't deliver gamers, then they aren't delivering anything but niche-market devices.
It's like comparing oranges and pianos. They both involve wood.
I don't know anyone who plays those incredibly popular MMORPG in Korea. Probably because they don't speak Koreish.
Seriously, if they were genuinely devided, the U.S. would barely notice, and the other nations would have a baby dot-com boom, as they replicated the best services the U.S. has to offer, and then added other that wouldn't be legal in the U.S. Good for them, ho-hum for us. Besides, seperation is exactly what the Internet is NOT about, so folks who wanted to be connected would suddenly had a good reason to bypass the Internet, and create their own parrellel global networks. I'm sure they're already out there, I just don't rate an invite. You think crime syndicates are comfortable with encryption alone, with all the loot they have to spend? I wouldn't be.
It is a delusion to believe the Internet is controlled or can be controlled. The genie got out LONG ago. Control junkies can only hope to make money from it, not guide or influence it. The Internet has remained cool for so long expressly because of the lack of control.
If Chinese students can routinely bypass the Great Firewall, then what's to stop me or you? Just add motivation.
As a lower-middle-level IT guy, I have heard this type of BS before. I have been accused of incompetence by half the managers in my freaking company. The other half think I'm a saint. Lots of luck on your commitee. That really is the best way to come up with new ideas. Or at least blow a week without working.
All IT department are ultimately bottle-necked by the willingness of management to commit to ever-increasing levels of service.
That's fancy talk for "They're a bunch of tightwads."
I can't imagine a bonafide "incompentent" IT department. It's pretty hard to fake technical knowledge for long (between technicians), and we constantly test each other for dominance in our work groups, whether we see it as such or not.
More like, the described IT department is understaffed and/or underfunded. That, or the mangement refuses to upgrade from ancient, widely varying production systems on the grounds of costs or other "difficulty". I once supported 5 completely different production systems, and a host of secondary systems, running on different hardware and software, spread across 13 locations all over SoCal. I did it alone for 1.5 years. There were entire weeks when I couldn't have described what I did to keep things working after the fact, because I was totally and completely fried. Not conducive to producing orginal or innovative ideas, especially when they had no audience.
Thank goodness we finally converted to a nice centralized system, added staff, and got things relatively stable. Now when people complain, I tell them the story above. Our system is FAR from perfect, but it's better than it was, and apparently that's the best I can expect from my crap company. Without a truly serious commitment to improved software, the system we've built will ultimately rot. Development is key, and if your oganization doesn't have developers working on your system EVERY DAY, whether they are in-house or out, then your system is rotting as we speak.
Which of course is all very compelling to management, until to lay out the costs involved in constant development.
For the management: You get what you pay for.
For the IT guys: A good boss could be worth your sanity. Know any?
I'm sure it's not a simplistic as my idea, but should RIM just have to pay license dues on the patents, and continue their service? Possibly the settlement could involve transfer of the system to NTP's control?
Damn right, hoss. I came it at the 1200 baud level, and since none of the good BBS's were local, I had to learn how to pick locks so my folks couldn't ground me for running up the phone bill. Those were indeed the days....
Some of you folkes will remember a time with 14.4 Kbps was a LOT of bandwidth, and most of these wouldn't voluntarily switch back. Our children will be laughing at us for our pathetic 1.5 Mbps links, and their children will laugh at them for technology we would kill for. It happens to be a fact.
Slow news day?
Technology invents its own uses. Give me your extra bandwidth, and I'll find something to do with it.
I hope and fear for this story, because I loved the book. I also loved "Johnny Mneumonic" in short story form, before it was butchered. The story is simply too cerebral to adapt well. I don't know what the movie industry needs to do, but emulating the past ain't workin'.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, the lady was trying to step on the mouse to make her PC go. I guess she was thinking about a sewing machine.
They can't stop kids from getting cigarettes, drugs, porn, and guns, and yet they persist with this nonsense.
An unenforcable law is worse than a joke. It creates a situation where the enforcement of any and all laws is brought into question.
After all, if police and adults can't stop children from circumventing minor laws, what's stops adults from committing more serious offenses?
Finally, someone has explained the limitations of email! It only took 35 years, but now I finally understand! I had no idea that when I was typing my message, the receiver wouldn't understand my tone of voice and couldn't see my face. Now that the Christian Science Monitor has explained it, it makes perfect sense.
If I ever have a child that I choose not to sacrifice to the Machine Gods, I'm gonna send them to the priethood. Those guys are sharp!
The "Collector's Edition" of Terminator (if you think T2 was better or T3 WASN'T a sick travesty, you should know better) editted the sound of Arnold's .45 so it sounds like it's got a suppressor on it, ruining the scene where he kills the first Sarah Conner.
.45 is LOUD!
Han shot first, and Arnold's
I'm hurting for them, too. However, their predicament underscores the problem facing we old game lovers. I have pulled gigs and gigs of stuff from Home of the Underdogs over the years, but I've never donated a cent, so all they've gotten out of me is a thin stream of ad revenue and some new users I sent their way. Not much compensation for the best freeware game site out there. I am ashamed of myself, and if they come back, I'm going to donate SOMETHING in exchange for the thousands of hours of fun they've provided.
I'd suggest any other leeches out there start coughing up some loot, too. It can be pretty amazing what an infusion of cash can do to a site/developers motivation.
And maybe this time add some AI, so the NME doesn't wander into every minefield they possibly can. The best interface and unit selection of the series, sure, but the AI was terrible. How hard can that be on static maps?
...and the KISS principle is amongst the most useful, and least understood. Some developers seem to think that, if they can just make their software capable of doing anything anyone would ever want to do, that this translates into simplicity.
You can not reach simplicty through complexity. It's one of those concepts that's so plug stupid, people discard it without even thinking about all the overly-complicated things they hate in life. Embracing it is a key to making a highly accessible system, with broad appeal.
My signature may seem to contradict this, but I believe both principles stand, and the truly perfect, pure system we all want falls in between.
...why can't they deliver a decent gaming experience?
Of course they can make tough decisions. They have to in order to survive! The PC market is sort of their appetizer, just to squeek by until the next opportunity (a la iPod) arises.
Their lack of software is rediculous. They don't, to the best of my limited knowledge, even have their own productivity\business suite! If they can't outdo MS to the extent that MS is bad for users business, they can't compete.
If they can't deliver gamers, then they aren't delivering anything but niche-market devices.
It's like comparing oranges and pianos. They both involve wood.
I don't know anyone who plays those incredibly popular MMORPG in Korea. Probably because they don't speak Koreish.
Seriously, if they were genuinely devided, the U.S. would barely notice, and the other nations would have a baby dot-com boom, as they replicated the best services the U.S. has to offer, and then added other that wouldn't be legal in the U.S. Good for them, ho-hum for us. Besides, seperation is exactly what the Internet is NOT about, so folks who wanted to be connected would suddenly had a good reason to bypass the Internet, and create their own parrellel global networks. I'm sure they're already out there, I just don't rate an invite. You think crime syndicates are comfortable with encryption alone, with all the loot they have to spend? I wouldn't be.
It is a delusion to believe the Internet is controlled or can be controlled. The genie got out LONG ago. Control junkies can only hope to make money from it, not guide or influence it. The Internet has remained cool for so long expressly because of the lack of control.
If Chinese students can routinely bypass the Great Firewall, then what's to stop me or you? Just add motivation.
May the machine gods be merciful.
As a lower-middle-level IT guy, I have heard this type of BS before. I have been accused of incompetence by half the managers in my freaking company. The other half think I'm a saint. Lots of luck on your commitee. That really is the best way to come up with new ideas. Or at least blow a week without working.
All IT department are ultimately bottle-necked by the willingness of management to commit to ever-increasing levels of service.
That's fancy talk for "They're a bunch of tightwads."
I can't imagine a bonafide "incompentent" IT department. It's pretty hard to fake technical knowledge for long (between technicians), and we constantly test each other for dominance in our work groups, whether we see it as such or not.
More like, the described IT department is understaffed and/or underfunded. That, or the mangement refuses to upgrade from ancient, widely varying production systems on the grounds of costs or other "difficulty". I once supported 5 completely different production systems, and a host of secondary systems, running on different hardware and software, spread across 13 locations all over SoCal. I did it alone for 1.5 years. There were entire weeks when I couldn't have described what I did to keep things working after the fact, because I was totally and completely fried. Not conducive to producing orginal or innovative ideas, especially when they had no audience.
Thank goodness we finally converted to a nice centralized system, added staff, and got things relatively stable. Now when people complain, I tell them the story above. Our system is FAR from perfect, but it's better than it was, and apparently that's the best I can expect from my crap company. Without a truly serious commitment to improved software, the system we've built will ultimately rot. Development is key, and if your oganization doesn't have developers working on your system EVERY DAY, whether they are in-house or out, then your system is rotting as we speak.
Which of course is all very compelling to management, until to lay out the costs involved in constant development.
For the management: You get what you pay for.
For the IT guys: A good boss could be worth your sanity. Know any?
I'm sure it's not a simplistic as my idea, but should RIM just have to pay license dues on the patents, and continue their service? Possibly the settlement could involve transfer of the system to NTP's control?
Damn right, hoss. I came it at the 1200 baud level, and since none of the good BBS's were local, I had to learn how to pick locks so my folks couldn't ground me for running up the phone bill. Those were indeed the days....
Some of you folkes will remember a time with 14.4 Kbps was a LOT of bandwidth, and most of these wouldn't voluntarily switch back. Our children will be laughing at us for our pathetic 1.5 Mbps links, and their children will laugh at them for technology we would kill for. It happens to be a fact. Slow news day? Technology invents its own uses. Give me your extra bandwidth, and I'll find something to do with it.
I hope and fear for this story, because I loved the book. I also loved "Johnny Mneumonic" in short story form, before it was butchered. The story is simply too cerebral to adapt well. I don't know what the movie industry needs to do, but emulating the past ain't workin'.