I would assume the 6 button interface exists everywhere to maintain consistency with the Tricorder. Soon enough the QWERTY keyboard will be replaced on desktop PCs with a hand held device that allows our teenagers to harness their texting ability when typing papers.
Its not that far fetched. First we had original typewriters that were redesigned to the QWERTY keyboard configuration to slow down typists that were jamming the machines. Then we went from the keyboard to those god awful thumb typing things on cell phones. It doesn't seem to far fetched that we'll have evolved to a horrible one handed 6 button interface by 24th century.
Data still makes it look easy though, he does have that super human speed and all.
Its chilling for me...because I live in one of those states! My family lives here. I'd like to see the area grow and be self sufficient so that I might raise my children here...but the regulations are such that any minority group can scuttle any project. A road that was planned 60 years ago has been successfully delayed out of existence simply by requesting a new environmental study (the old ones is to out of date) and then requesting it again when the new one comes in (the new one is out of date). A WiFi tower was abandoned as a project due to a small group of residents near the site which complained radio waves caused brain cancer. I'm not making this up. Affordable housing projects are stopped by running the developers through hoops, since the laws allow it and the people sitting on the boards would rather their view not be affected. We have a program that takes land off the tax rolls in exchange for agreeing not to develop it...and then we complain of budget shortfalls. And of course, the wind tower projects that our constantly lauded as our state's green future...well, they are to ugly to put on the mountains, only ski resorts can carve those up with impunity it seems.
All the while, our politicians say they want green jobs, affordable housing and broadband. Based on results, I'd they want ski resorts and their views preserved at all costs.
What happens when you unplug the ethernet cable? That usually shuts my 360 up. If you only play single player games, shouldn't that stop wasting your bandwidth downloading ads or whatever?
Doesn't Mass Effect 2 just use a basic disk check? And while retail Mass Effect 1 uses a version of securom with install limits the steam version only has steam. Steam is DRM of course, but I personally draw the line at install limits.
It sounds to me more like they are deluded. They think the PC should and has to be like the console platforms, common hardware and software, less demanding and technically less capable users, locked down and with a high cost barrier to entry.
It has never been and likely never will be anything like that. It is all over the map, some of the users want graphical blockbusters but many want weird unique things. The platform attracts a lot of different people with different demands...and because it is open with a low barrier to entry a few larger players can't dictate what those demands should be. Listen to them bitch about all the things that are actually the platforms greatest strengths!
We would all be better served if these developers would just follow through on their empty threat and take their ball and go home. I think we'll survive without them crapping up the place with console ports using the same old game play with new and innovative crappy DRM schemes. Make some shelf space for the other guys. They'd like the platform to just go away and die, but it won't. And for some strange reason they won't just leave it altogether. They keep threatening too. They must either actually be making a fair amount of money off their ports or actually be stupid or arrogant enough to think they have enough clout to dictate how the platform should be.
If I had to speculate, I'd said that when questioned the wife suggested that the creepy and moderately stupid coworker that seemed to be obsessed with her and had probably made a number of passes at her was a potential culprit.
This was actually one of the biggest reasons I used AMD for so long. AMD hasn't been quite as awesome recently (it's hard to go anywhere but down from the socket A days though) but with intel the decent motherboards seem to cost an arm an leg...making tossing them a more painful operation than with AMD processors...in addition to a more frequent one.
I agree with your point though, you should just buy the best bang for buck combo at the current time. Some people don't like to tinker or upgrade as often, but the concept of "future proofing" with PC hardware is a fool's errand.
Because its the only way to get people to STFU during the movie. You crank it up so even if they shout they can't be heard. It works. It makes my ears bleed too, but it beats the hell out of the alternative.
Sadly, we can't count on respect for others from the populace anymore. Movie theaters are filled with animals, hopping around, kicking, screeching, slopping food everwhere, beating their chests in moch threat displays. If most people weren't wearing pants, they would be hurling feces at one another.
This has been discussed a lot of places, and several times I can remember on slashdot. The vast majority of the discussion centers on whether this is possible at all. But even if we assume that they have found some magical formula that allows it to function, how many people would want it? Ignore the fact that PC gaming hardware isn't actually that expensive anymore. Most big name PC games are (sadly) just console ports anyway these days. After all the networking wizardry, server farms, custom compression, etc all that is really offered to the customer is just a console system where you rent the games. You can already do that with an xbox 360 or a PS3. And it even works without any internet connection at all for single player. You can play multiplayer games on it as well.
This whole thing, in addition to seeming like impossible vaporware, is the answer to the question nobody asked.
I agree with this. Cheaters ruin a lot of games, but complete eradication of them just isn't possible. It is harder on an open platform like the PC and still isn't possible on consoles. Couple this with less than perfect network connections which require some clever client guessing tricks to make the game appear smooth and playable and you're getting tugged in multiple directions.
People rag on VAC a lot for its delayed bans, and while Valve deserves being ragged on for many things I can't fault them to much for the way they handle it. VAC grabs the low hanging fruit of script kiddies using downloaded hacks, viciously permabans them and leaves admins to police everything else that slips through the cracks. They tacitly acknowledge they're never going to get 100% of the hackers, but it would be a fools errand to try. Instead they grab the 80% for 20% of the work and let the admins be the last line of defense. It ain't perfect (and neither is admin judgement sometimes) but it is about as good as you can get until people suddenly decide to stop being assholes.
I'd say anyone who is even moderately good at a FPS, or even just had a few lucky days has had this happen. Let's not forget being banned for the grave offense of "Killing the admin.":P
I remember once turning a corner in CS:S, while playing as CT and finding 4 Ts aiming my direction. My response to this situation, understandably, was to hold down fire button while backing out in the direction from which I came. While the first guy that died was a fairly legit aimed shot, the other 3 that fell to lucky headshots during my wild blasting were mere luck. A kick/ban vote was immediately called. Considering their poor reaction time attacking me, I was surprised at how quickly they found my name in the list while screaming "Hacks!" But then, CS players have always been better whiners than players.
From most of the comments I've read about this game and the uproar about it, most people now consider "Pirating with Righteousness" the no-lose alternative to boycotting. It is understandable. I mean, how can we expect some one to live without something so vital to their very survival? It would be like boycotting food! I'm pretty sure there aren't even any other FPS games out there available so what are they going to do?
I fail to see how a different LCD technology, that suffers from the same limitations in non-native resolution scaling that all LCD monitors suffer, is the answer to the problem. The colors may look a bit better, but since at least 2 of the games discussed in the post used 8-bit color that doesn't seem to be the sticking point.
This is what works for me from a student perspective. If I'm paying attention, I recall most of what is said. Paying attention is sometimes easier said then done. If I'm writing it down I have to be paying attention, and that which I missed I at least have a written record of and a context to go with it.
I recall hating my stats professor since she used overhead transparencies. Since she was not writing any of the material out, she would more or less read it and flip to the next slide. I cannot write as fast as she can read. Half a slide was useless to me. Most classes consisted of me scrambling to write the material down, with no real time to absorb it or think about it...failing to keep up half way through due to hand pain and giving up.
I got around this by forcing her to reteach or at least review the material prior to quiz time one on one during office hours. I didn't have to employ this tactic in other math classes since they used the plain old chalk board which gave me a fighting chance of keeping up.
Slashdot Mirror
I would assume the 6 button interface exists everywhere to maintain consistency with the Tricorder. Soon enough the QWERTY keyboard will be replaced on desktop PCs with a hand held device that allows our teenagers to harness their texting ability when typing papers.
Are we sure this isn't just an extension of the Hollywood 555 phone exchange convention?
Its not that far fetched. First we had original typewriters that were redesigned to the QWERTY keyboard configuration to slow down typists that were jamming the machines. Then we went from the keyboard to those god awful thumb typing things on cell phones. It doesn't seem to far fetched that we'll have evolved to a horrible one handed 6 button interface by 24th century.
Data still makes it look easy though, he does have that super human speed and all.
Its chilling for me...because I live in one of those states! My family lives here. I'd like to see the area grow and be self sufficient so that I might raise my children here...but the regulations are such that any minority group can scuttle any project. A road that was planned 60 years ago has been successfully delayed out of existence simply by requesting a new environmental study (the old ones is to out of date) and then requesting it again when the new one comes in (the new one is out of date). A WiFi tower was abandoned as a project due to a small group of residents near the site which complained radio waves caused brain cancer. I'm not making this up. Affordable housing projects are stopped by running the developers through hoops, since the laws allow it and the people sitting on the boards would rather their view not be affected. We have a program that takes land off the tax rolls in exchange for agreeing not to develop it...and then we complain of budget shortfalls. And of course, the wind tower projects that our constantly lauded as our state's green future...well, they are to ugly to put on the mountains, only ski resorts can carve those up with impunity it seems.
All the while, our politicians say they want green jobs, affordable housing and broadband. Based on results, I'd they want ski resorts and their views preserved at all costs.
What about this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152160?
Or this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114801?
I realize they're not in Euros, I'm unsure of their availability where you are. I think AMD is coming out with an updated version of this platform this summer.
I'm really confused now. Which group owns the rights to the name "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare"?
Does the other group own the rights to the name "Modern Duty: Call of Warfare"?
And which one is the one I gotta have right now!?
Invoice? Luxury! My ISP sends me a bag of goat entrails, which customer service informs me I must decipher all on my own.
What happens when you unplug the ethernet cable? That usually shuts my 360 up. If you only play single player games, shouldn't that stop wasting your bandwidth downloading ads or whatever?
Doesn't Mass Effect 2 just use a basic disk check? And while retail Mass Effect 1 uses a version of securom with install limits the steam version only has steam. Steam is DRM of course, but I personally draw the line at install limits.
It sounds to me more like they are deluded. They think the PC should and has to be like the console platforms, common hardware and software, less demanding and technically less capable users, locked down and with a high cost barrier to entry.
It has never been and likely never will be anything like that. It is all over the map, some of the users want graphical blockbusters but many want weird unique things. The platform attracts a lot of different people with different demands...and because it is open with a low barrier to entry a few larger players can't dictate what those demands should be. Listen to them bitch about all the things that are actually the platforms greatest strengths!
We would all be better served if these developers would just follow through on their empty threat and take their ball and go home. I think we'll survive without them crapping up the place with console ports using the same old game play with new and innovative crappy DRM schemes. Make some shelf space for the other guys. They'd like the platform to just go away and die, but it won't. And for some strange reason they won't just leave it altogether. They keep threatening too. They must either actually be making a fair amount of money off their ports or actually be stupid or arrogant enough to think they have enough clout to dictate how the platform should be.
If I had to speculate, I'd said that when questioned the wife suggested that the creepy and moderately stupid coworker that seemed to be obsessed with her and had probably made a number of passes at her was a potential culprit.
That isn't different from the academic world, cheating exists in both worlds. :P
This was actually one of the biggest reasons I used AMD for so long. AMD hasn't been quite as awesome recently (it's hard to go anywhere but down from the socket A days though) but with intel the decent motherboards seem to cost an arm an leg...making tossing them a more painful operation than with AMD processors...in addition to a more frequent one.
I agree with your point though, you should just buy the best bang for buck combo at the current time. Some people don't like to tinker or upgrade as often, but the concept of "future proofing" with PC hardware is a fool's errand.
I thought most titles from d2d used d2d's own type of DRM as well. Is Braid an exception to the rule or am I mistaken about the rule itself?
Pool's Closed.
I knew all those years playing Quake would come in handy eventually.
Because its the only way to get people to STFU during the movie. You crank it up so even if they shout they can't be heard. It works. It makes my ears bleed too, but it beats the hell out of the alternative.
Sadly, we can't count on respect for others from the populace anymore. Movie theaters are filled with animals, hopping around, kicking, screeching, slopping food everwhere, beating their chests in moch threat displays. If most people weren't wearing pants, they would be hurling feces at one another.
Wish I had mod points.
This has been discussed a lot of places, and several times I can remember on slashdot. The vast majority of the discussion centers on whether this is possible at all. But even if we assume that they have found some magical formula that allows it to function, how many people would want it? Ignore the fact that PC gaming hardware isn't actually that expensive anymore. Most big name PC games are (sadly) just console ports anyway these days. After all the networking wizardry, server farms, custom compression, etc all that is really offered to the customer is just a console system where you rent the games. You can already do that with an xbox 360 or a PS3. And it even works without any internet connection at all for single player. You can play multiplayer games on it as well.
This whole thing, in addition to seeming like impossible vaporware, is the answer to the question nobody asked.
I agree with this. Cheaters ruin a lot of games, but complete eradication of them just isn't possible. It is harder on an open platform like the PC and still isn't possible on consoles. Couple this with less than perfect network connections which require some clever client guessing tricks to make the game appear smooth and playable and you're getting tugged in multiple directions.
People rag on VAC a lot for its delayed bans, and while Valve deserves being ragged on for many things I can't fault them to much for the way they handle it. VAC grabs the low hanging fruit of script kiddies using downloaded hacks, viciously permabans them and leaves admins to police everything else that slips through the cracks. They tacitly acknowledge they're never going to get 100% of the hackers, but it would be a fools errand to try. Instead they grab the 80% for 20% of the work and let the admins be the last line of defense. It ain't perfect (and neither is admin judgement sometimes) but it is about as good as you can get until people suddenly decide to stop being assholes.
I'd say anyone who is even moderately good at a FPS, or even just had a few lucky days has had this happen. Let's not forget being banned for the grave offense of "Killing the admin." :P
I remember once turning a corner in CS:S, while playing as CT and finding 4 Ts aiming my direction. My response to this situation, understandably, was to hold down fire button while backing out in the direction from which I came. While the first guy that died was a fairly legit aimed shot, the other 3 that fell to lucky headshots during my wild blasting were mere luck. A kick/ban vote was immediately called. Considering their poor reaction time attacking me, I was surprised at how quickly they found my name in the list while screaming "Hacks!" But then, CS players have always been better whiners than players.
From most of the comments I've read about this game and the uproar about it, most people now consider "Pirating with Righteousness" the no-lose alternative to boycotting. It is understandable. I mean, how can we expect some one to live without something so vital to their very survival? It would be like boycotting food! I'm pretty sure there aren't even any other FPS games out there available so what are they going to do?
Not as easy as it looks, is it?
...wouldn't just raising the booze tax accomplish the same thing?
I fail to see how a different LCD technology, that suffers from the same limitations in non-native resolution scaling that all LCD monitors suffer, is the answer to the problem. The colors may look a bit better, but since at least 2 of the games discussed in the post used 8-bit color that doesn't seem to be the sticking point.
This is what works for me from a student perspective. If I'm paying attention, I recall most of what is said. Paying attention is sometimes easier said then done. If I'm writing it down I have to be paying attention, and that which I missed I at least have a written record of and a context to go with it.
I recall hating my stats professor since she used overhead transparencies. Since she was not writing any of the material out, she would more or less read it and flip to the next slide. I cannot write as fast as she can read. Half a slide was useless to me. Most classes consisted of me scrambling to write the material down, with no real time to absorb it or think about it...failing to keep up half way through due to hand pain and giving up.
I got around this by forcing her to reteach or at least review the material prior to quiz time one on one during office hours. I didn't have to employ this tactic in other math classes since they used the plain old chalk board which gave me a fighting chance of keeping up.