Remember that time when we were going to let you play our games and you were all like "no way" and we were like "just kidding, we were just pretending we were going to let you play so we could take your money". Good Times!
Now the telecom companies will just cut the number of lines they service and split it out to 200x as many people, effectively keeping the same speed for everyone, but cutting maintenance costs at the same time.
And you know, if they decide to pass those savings on to the consumer, great! But I have a sneaking suspicion that they'll just keep the profits so they can broadcast "RECORD EARNINGS FOR XYZ TELECOM THIS YEAR!"
Doesn't tens of thousands of players playing games of Team Fortress, Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike, Counterstrike: Source, Day of Defeat, Day of Defeat: Source, Natural Selection, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch lend credence to the counter-argument that PC gaming is not dead?
I wonder how smart this "neural network" would actually be.
For instance, say I'm playing a game of (Popular FPS A) with a bunch of people online, and I understand how the neural network works. Couldn't I just repeatedly move left to right in a jerky fasion for a bit, and then run straight toward my enemy? If they lag, the neural network computations will show me as moving left to right, where I'm actually just running straight...
Battlestar Galactica has proven that it's possible to create cinema-quality special effects and atmosphere on a TV show budget these days
Firefly too; Man I wish that show hadn't been canceled.
This means that movie and TV studios will have to provide decades of copyright material if they don't want it to appear on YouTube, or spend even more time scanning the site for violations
But at least they can!
While that's a good point, is it a guarantee that Dell isn't charging anything for the FOSS being on the system? Dell may claim that they're not charging for the FOSS itself, but for the time it took to get that software set up when it shipped the PC (or something to that effect), but how do we as consumers know that they aren't ripping people off?
...now that Free Open Source Software is being commercialized by hardware vendors such as Dell, System76, EmperorLinux, Zareason.com, and TechCollective.com, acquiring computers powered by FOSS is straightforward...
Isn't that conflicting with the definition of "FOSS?"
Was slashdot ever...
on
Ask Rob Malda
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Was slashdot ever intended to be a source of income? What caused it to become such?
when a legitimate -- but not yet activated How does Microsoft know that a product is legitimate if it hasn't yet been activated? It's my understanding that the activation process is the means by which Microsoft determines that a product is in fact legitimate.
How is Windows XP any different? You can't download any Windows updates unless you have activated your copy of Windows... what's the difference?
She was holding a lump of what looked like putty in her hands. The employee asked about the plastic circuit board on her chest, and Simpson walked away without responding, Pare said. Emphasis mine
Anyone in their right mind would have answered when asked about a potentially bomb shaped (to the inquirer, not slashdotters) object on their person.
the moron who couldn't get a job as anything better than the manager of a games store is not the person I want judging a child's academic or intellectual ability.
The manager of the store wasn't judging ANYONE's academic or intellectual ability... He was letting the school system judge their intellectual abilities, and if the school system deemed the kids to be below average, he wasn't allowing them to buy games.
Yeah, of course people are saying that it's bad business, but what he did was with good intent and in a perfect world, could have had a good impact.
The problem is that it's not a perfect world and people can easily just go somewhere else for the same products... His tactic isn't very effective in that situation.
But seriously, I applaud the guy for sticking up for a good principle and trying to motivate kids to perform better instead of being a corporate sales-whore, trying to sell as many games as possible.
The real question I have is whether or not DDR2 is worth upgrading over DDR1. I have 2 gigabytes of DDR RAM in my computer, and I recently started thinking that upgrading might be a good idea. But would I notice a performance increase by upgrading to DDR2? I don't want to spend $150 on a new motherboard and RAM only to get a marginal speed boost.
1) Get out your credit card and enter in all those pesky details
2) Enter your address and phone number and then wait for it to verify
3) Download it and watch it in the DRM-rich environment.
Illegitimate media download:
1) Search for what you want on your favorite torrent site
2) Download the torrent
3) ?????????????
4) Profit!! (by not having to pay)
I think the most obvious problem here is that the Linux community (not partnering with Microsoft) has an eye that sees things without a shade of green around everything. There isn't money to be made in every aspect of what it looks at, and is only interested in improving what they already have. Microsoft and partners looks at it with green tinted goggles (The goggles, they do nothing!) and tries to find ways to eke out money regardless of making improvements.
If they have to improve something to make money, then that would be their motivation.
I think the Linux community itself is divided, however. There are several companies trying to make money from Linux (Red Hat), and then there are other groups of people who are intent on making sure Linux remains open source and free for all...
I would think that either Linux needs to remain completely free and open source for ALL distributions, or Microsoft is going to start sticking its fingers into the pie, trying to figure out where the money drip is.
I always thought the concept presented in the movie Red Planet (retardo movie, I know) was interesting.
Basically, they had this sphere that the crew climbed into, then it had gigantic inflated balloon things surrounding it. In the movie, their spacecraft was able to slow down enough to drop the crew container and have it just bounce once it hit the ground.
Of course that isn't an option, but what about an apparatus that was able to fire the crew container at close to the same speed that the craft is traveling downwards, but in the opposite direction (up)? Same idea as if you're in a falling elevator, jumping might prevent you from dying... A human can't generate enough force to mitigate the downward velocity, but wouldn't it be theoretically possible?
The other idea I had was a mini-space elevator. There could be a space shuttle type craft that orbits the planet and when the crew is ready to go down to the surface, the shuttle extends a super long, super strong cable that reels the landing craft down to the surface close enough to release them safely. Admittedly, the first option doesn't seem all that realistic, as the humans aboard would probably be killed by the G-forces required to counter the negative velocity, but the second option seems somewhat plausible.
While I understand that while robots are infinitely patient and can help an autistic child learn on that basis, wouldn't that be counterproductive?
What I mean by that is that while robots are infinitely patient, society is not. An average person in social situations is not patient indefinitely, so why would we teach them that social situations mean perfect patience? I'm not trying to be mean-spirited or cruel sounding; I am genuinely curious as to whether or not these autistic children would grow up understanding that everyone everywhere can tolerate their quirks with infinite patience.
Then again, it might be a catch-22 in itself... Autistic child can't learn unless the teacher exudes perfect patience, human teacher can't accomplish that, child can't learn, etc.
But then again, maybe it's not so cut-and-dried as that and people could maybe work on being more patient? That would seem ideal to me.
but its creators imagine it could be used in devices such as pacemakers, where the beating of the heart would produce ample movement to power the magnetic mechanism
Wouldn't this be contrary to the law of conservation of energy that states that energy cannot be created? IE- The heart beats, producing enough energy to power the pacemaker, which in turn produces enough energy to power the heart, which in turn produces enough energy to power the pacemaker... etc?
Slashdot Mirror
Now the telecom companies will just cut the number of lines they service and split it out to 200x as many people, effectively keeping the same speed for everyone, but cutting maintenance costs at the same time.
And you know, if they decide to pass those savings on to the consumer, great! But I have a sneaking suspicion that they'll just keep the profits so they can broadcast "RECORD EARNINGS FOR XYZ TELECOM THIS YEAR!"
I'll answer your question with another question.
Doesn't tens of thousands of players playing games of Team Fortress, Team Fortress 2, Counterstrike, Counterstrike: Source, Day of Defeat, Day of Defeat: Source, Natural Selection, and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch lend credence to the counter-argument that PC gaming is not dead?
I wonder how smart this "neural network" would actually be.
For instance, say I'm playing a game of (Popular FPS A) with a bunch of people online, and I understand how the neural network works. Couldn't I just repeatedly move left to right in a jerky fasion for a bit, and then run straight toward my enemy? If they lag, the neural network computations will show me as moving left to right, where I'm actually just running straight...
Firefly too; Man I wish that show hadn't been canceled.
But at least they can!
While that's a good point, is it a guarantee that Dell isn't charging anything for the FOSS being on the system? Dell may claim that they're not charging for the FOSS itself, but for the time it took to get that software set up when it shipped the PC (or something to that effect), but how do we as consumers know that they aren't ripping people off?
...now that Free Open Source Software is being commercialized by hardware vendors such as Dell, System76, EmperorLinux, Zareason.com, and TechCollective.com, acquiring computers powered by FOSS is straightforward...Isn't that conflicting with the definition of "FOSS?"
Was slashdot ever intended to be a source of income? What caused it to become such?
How does Microsoft know that a product is legitimate if it hasn't yet been activated? It's my understanding that the activation process is the means by which Microsoft determines that a product is in fact legitimate.
How is Windows XP any different? You can't download any Windows updates unless you have activated your copy of Windows... what's the difference?
Emphasis mine
Anyone in their right mind would have answered when asked about a potentially bomb shaped (to the inquirer, not slashdotters) object on their person.
The guards acted correctly in my opinion.
"Hmm, why do they call it the red planet anyhow? Sure looks green to me!"
The manager of the store wasn't judging ANYONE's academic or intellectual ability... He was letting the school system judge their intellectual abilities, and if the school system deemed the kids to be below average, he wasn't allowing them to buy games.
Try again.
Yeah, of course people are saying that it's bad business, but what he did was with good intent and in a perfect world, could have had a good impact.
The problem is that it's not a perfect world and people can easily just go somewhere else for the same products... His tactic isn't very effective in that situation.
But seriously, I applaud the guy for sticking up for a good principle and trying to motivate kids to perform better instead of being a corporate sales-whore, trying to sell as many games as possible.
My video card is a Geforce 7900 GTX (512mb) and my CPU is an AMD Athlon X2 4600+. With that setup, would my RAM be holding me back?
The real question I have is whether or not DDR2 is worth upgrading over DDR1. I have 2 gigabytes of DDR RAM in my computer, and I recently started thinking that upgrading might be a good idea. But would I notice a performance increase by upgrading to DDR2? I don't want to spend $150 on a new motherboard and RAM only to get a marginal speed boost.
Does anyone have any insight?
Legitimate media download:
1) Get out your credit card and enter in all those pesky details
2) Enter your address and phone number and then wait for it to verify
3) Download it and watch it in the DRM-rich environment.
Illegitimate media download:
1) Search for what you want on your favorite torrent site
2) Download the torrent
3) ?????????????
4) Profit!! (by not having to pay)
I'm back in 1999 again... oy.
Windows XP.
Haha, "s/i/a/i". And crap, I noticed my misspelling after I posted the comment. That'll teach me to preview first.
Old and Busted: RIAA
New Hotness: SIAA
We're doomed.
I think the most obvious problem here is that the Linux community (not partnering with Microsoft) has an eye that sees things without a shade of green around everything. There isn't money to be made in every aspect of what it looks at, and is only interested in improving what they already have. Microsoft and partners looks at it with green tinted goggles (The goggles, they do nothing!) and tries to find ways to eke out money regardless of making improvements.
If they have to improve something to make money, then that would be their motivation.
I think the Linux community itself is divided, however. There are several companies trying to make money from Linux (Red Hat), and then there are other groups of people who are intent on making sure Linux remains open source and free for all...
I would think that either Linux needs to remain completely free and open source for ALL distributions, or Microsoft is going to start sticking its fingers into the pie, trying to figure out where the money drip is.
I always thought the concept presented in the movie Red Planet (retardo movie, I know) was interesting.
Basically, they had this sphere that the crew climbed into, then it had gigantic inflated balloon things surrounding it. In the movie, their spacecraft was able to slow down enough to drop the crew container and have it just bounce once it hit the ground.
Of course that isn't an option, but what about an apparatus that was able to fire the crew container at close to the same speed that the craft is traveling downwards, but in the opposite direction (up)? Same idea as if you're in a falling elevator, jumping might prevent you from dying... A human can't generate enough force to mitigate the downward velocity, but wouldn't it be theoretically possible?
The other idea I had was a mini-space elevator. There could be a space shuttle type craft that orbits the planet and when the crew is ready to go down to the surface, the shuttle extends a super long, super strong cable that reels the landing craft down to the surface close enough to release them safely. Admittedly, the first option doesn't seem all that realistic, as the humans aboard would probably be killed by the G-forces required to counter the negative velocity, but the second option seems somewhat plausible.
While I understand that while robots are infinitely patient and can help an autistic child learn on that basis, wouldn't that be counterproductive?
What I mean by that is that while robots are infinitely patient, society is not. An average person in social situations is not patient indefinitely, so why would we teach them that social situations mean perfect patience? I'm not trying to be mean-spirited or cruel sounding; I am genuinely curious as to whether or not these autistic children would grow up understanding that everyone everywhere can tolerate their quirks with infinite patience.
Then again, it might be a catch-22 in itself... Autistic child can't learn unless the teacher exudes perfect patience, human teacher can't accomplish that, child can't learn, etc.
But then again, maybe it's not so cut-and-dried as that and people could maybe work on being more patient? That would seem ideal to me.
Wouldn't this be contrary to the law of conservation of energy that states that energy cannot be created? IE- The heart beats, producing enough energy to power the pacemaker, which in turn produces enough energy to power the heart, which in turn produces enough energy to power the pacemaker... etc?