Modern humans are called "Homo Sapiens Sapiens". The oldest "modern human" found are about 200,000 years old (according to Wikipedia).
The entire branch of homo sapiens however, including species no longer around today, is thought to be about 500,000 years old (also according to Wikipedia).
Homo Sapiens are around for about 500,000 years, but what they're talking about in this article are our ancestors of human-like primates, of which some species are tens of millions of years old.
The extra spaces entered in a Slashdot comment aren't stripped. HTML interpreters ignore them when displaying text, but they are available in the source code.
...there's no such thing as double spaces. Seriously, HTML doesn't support it. I can put as many spaces between sentences as I want in this message, but it won't show.
I think you are right on both points. That's what you get when only one model with an annual update cycle is offered: from summer to christmas sales will be booming and then they'll drop as more people will be waiting for the new model next summer. Apple could perhaps counter this by offering a second phone, but chances are they're perfectly fine with being in #2 or #3 in terms of market share as long as they remain in #1 profit-wise.
Facebook could be made completely open and still be the only really valuable social networking site out there. Because FB isn't about the technology at all, it's about the database. Only FB has the most users, therefore the highest chance you'll be able to find your friends on it. And there is no way FB will share that data, even when using open protocols.
Even when open standards are realised for poking, wall-writing, liking etc. who will store the userdata to make these functions of any value?
If you really think e-mail isn't a traditional form of communcation, you are in fact old. In fact, only old people think of e-mail as a form of communication at all. Back in 2007, Slashdot ran an article saying that teenagers are only using e-mail to get in touch with old people, but aren't using it to communicating with each other at all.
You say you are making instructional videos, which implies to me the audio will contain mostly speech. If that is indeed the case, then a low bitrate like 64 kbps in mono will probably suffice. Encoders like MP3 or AAC are very good at keeping speech intelligible at lower bitrates.
What's the advantage of multiple resolutions instead of just pushing one 480p (or 360p if detail isn't that important) file at a low enough bitrate to be streamable but high enough to be watchable?
Seems to me that everyone would be happy with this one version of the video.
You are exactly right. And it's quite noble of Google they are actually planning to release version 6 to 8 at all. They could take an example of Sierra or Microsoft.
The Larry team at Sierra On-Line felt they were falling behind to King's Quest in the late eightees. King's Quest was already at number 4 in 1988, while a year later Larry only released part 3. To get ahead, the folks at the Larry team decided to skip part 4 altogether and go straight on to Larry 5.
Microsoft played an even worse trick with Word for Windows when they released version 6 in '93 after their previous version 2 from '91. Afterall, WordPerfect was also at version 6, so now Word was up to speed as well.
Not everyone likes 3rd person view for all games. I think it sucks for when you control a walking/running character and need to aim. That's the job of 1st person view.
I seriously disagree with you there. I really think a lot of games where you control a walking/running character are much better playable in 3rd person than in 1st person. Games with a first person perspective always seem very outdated and limited to me, especially when controlled with a mouse and keyboard. The biggest problem as I see it, is that in most fps games, there is no seperation between looking and moving. You both look and steer your character with the mouse, while you use the keyboard to accelerate, break or strafe. I use racing terms for this, because it feels to me as if it's controls for a car instead of person. You press W and move forward while looking straight ahead, but if you want to look at something on your left or right (as you would do in real life all the time), the entire body of the character moves along with it. If you want to keep on going in a straight line while looking left, you have to use an akward combination of W and D, so you are sort of half-strafing. Doing these sort of manoeuvres make me feel like a complete idiot and I can't imagine it looks good from other people's perspectives. The fact you're constantly looking at your own hands, so apparently are walking around with your arms in front of your body doesn't help with this.
Good games to me are not just about shooting. There's all other sorts of actions, and most of 'em are an awful hassle from a first person perspective, while being easy yet fun from a 3rd person angle. Jumping and climbing is really akward and hard in most first perspective games, not to mention moving down a ladder while walking backwards. Just look at how smooth your character jumps into ropes and climbs buildings in games such as Assasin's Creed or the new Prince of Persia games and compare that to how you move around in Call of Duty or Half-Life. Some smart folks may point out that Mirror's Edge is a first person game and jumping and climbing in that game is a really nice experience. The fact that that's an achievement really says a lot about the first person perspective. It's just not suitable if you want control over your character and be aware of your surroundings.
The process of choosing a CPU (or any component for that matter) has never really changed. This is what you do:
1) Get a list of all recent CPU models and prices
2) Sort the list by price descending
3) Ignore the top of the list, because those prices are just ridiculous. There will be a point in the list where prices suddenly drop to more decent levels
4) Pick a model around that point in the list (the highest one you can afford, but not so high the price becomes ridiculous again)
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm amazed they're showing this old clip again at a conference, instead of showing off their progress since then. Especially since they've got a proper name for Natal now and are actually intending to launch it.
I don't think they'll make a big fuss about one guy with a camera. But I have been part of a larger film crew on a Rotterdam metro and we did run into problems with the security, that's how I know they don't allow filming or taking pictures.
Slashdot Mirror
Since the majority of business is still being handled by COBOL, you really haven't got anything to worry about yet.
Modern humans are called "Homo Sapiens Sapiens". The oldest "modern human" found are about 200,000 years old (according to Wikipedia).
The entire branch of homo sapiens however, including species no longer around today, is thought to be about 500,000 years old (also according to Wikipedia).
Homo Sapiens are around for about 500,000 years, but what they're talking about in this article are our ancestors of human-like primates, of which some species are tens of millions of years old.
This is basically the plot of Battlestar Gallactica.
The extra spaces entered in a Slashdot comment aren't stripped. HTML interpreters ignore them when displaying text, but they are available in the source code.
I call for a universal language made from the ground up.
Done.
...since they aren't supposed to be used in written texts anyway. Shortening words is nice for a note on the fridge, but nothing more.
You seriously think the writer of the text should also be the person to format the page? Boy, I don't want to visit your comment-enabled website.
...there's no such thing as double spaces. Seriously, HTML doesn't support it. I can put as many spaces between sentences as I want in this message, but it won't show.
I think you are right on both points. That's what you get when only one model with an annual update cycle is offered: from summer to christmas sales will be booming and then they'll drop as more people will be waiting for the new model next summer. Apple could perhaps counter this by offering a second phone, but chances are they're perfectly fine with being in #2 or #3 in terms of market share as long as they remain in #1 profit-wise.
In about half a century, Android will dominate a 1000% of the market!
...but hasn't the iPhone sales been slow the past 6 months due to anticipation for the new model coming out last month?
Facebook could be made completely open and still be the only really valuable social networking site out there. Because FB isn't about the technology at all, it's about the database. Only FB has the most users, therefore the highest chance you'll be able to find your friends on it. And there is no way FB will share that data, even when using open protocols.
Even when open standards are realised for poking, wall-writing, liking etc. who will store the userdata to make these functions of any value?
No, I'm not. Of course e-mail is not obsolete. But it is very old-school.
If you really think e-mail isn't a traditional form of communcation, you are in fact old. In fact, only old people think of e-mail as a form of communication at all. Back in 2007, Slashdot ran an article saying that teenagers are only using e-mail to get in touch with old people, but aren't using it to communicating with each other at all.
The sound quality is also important.
You say you are making instructional videos, which implies to me the audio will contain mostly speech. If that is indeed the case, then a low bitrate like 64 kbps in mono will probably suffice. Encoders like MP3 or AAC are very good at keeping speech intelligible at lower bitrates.
What's the advantage of multiple resolutions instead of just pushing one 480p (or 360p if detail isn't that important) file at a low enough bitrate to be streamable but high enough to be watchable?
Seems to me that everyone would be happy with this one version of the video.
If you're going to create an H264 version, you might as well push that to the Android devices as well.
You are exactly right. And it's quite noble of Google they are actually planning to release version 6 to 8 at all. They could take an example of Sierra or Microsoft.
The Larry team at Sierra On-Line felt they were falling behind to King's Quest in the late eightees. King's Quest was already at number 4 in 1988, while a year later Larry only released part 3. To get ahead, the folks at the Larry team decided to skip part 4 altogether and go straight on to Larry 5.
Microsoft played an even worse trick with Word for Windows when they released version 6 in '93 after their previous version 2 from '91. Afterall, WordPerfect was also at version 6, so now Word was up to speed as well.
Not everyone likes 3rd person view for all games. I think it sucks for when you control a walking/running character and need to aim. That's the job of 1st person view.
I seriously disagree with you there. I really think a lot of games where you control a walking/running character are much better playable in 3rd person than in 1st person. Games with a first person perspective always seem very outdated and limited to me, especially when controlled with a mouse and keyboard. The biggest problem as I see it, is that in most fps games, there is no seperation between looking and moving. You both look and steer your character with the mouse, while you use the keyboard to accelerate, break or strafe. I use racing terms for this, because it feels to me as if it's controls for a car instead of person. You press W and move forward while looking straight ahead, but if you want to look at something on your left or right (as you would do in real life all the time), the entire body of the character moves along with it. If you want to keep on going in a straight line while looking left, you have to use an akward combination of W and D, so you are sort of half-strafing. Doing these sort of manoeuvres make me feel like a complete idiot and I can't imagine it looks good from other people's perspectives. The fact you're constantly looking at your own hands, so apparently are walking around with your arms in front of your body doesn't help with this.
Good games to me are not just about shooting. There's all other sorts of actions, and most of 'em are an awful hassle from a first person perspective, while being easy yet fun from a 3rd person angle. Jumping and climbing is really akward and hard in most first perspective games, not to mention moving down a ladder while walking backwards. Just look at how smooth your character jumps into ropes and climbs buildings in games such as Assasin's Creed or the new Prince of Persia games and compare that to how you move around in Call of Duty or Half-Life. Some smart folks may point out that Mirror's Edge is a first person game and jumping and climbing in that game is a really nice experience. The fact that that's an achievement really says a lot about the first person perspective. It's just not suitable if you want control over your character and be aware of your surroundings.
Exactly. If this article says anything at all, it's that Amazon sells amazingly little hardcovers.
The process of choosing a CPU (or any component for that matter) has never really changed. This is what you do:
Any other spec is just marketing.
Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm amazed they're showing this old clip again at a conference, instead of showing off their progress since then. Especially since they've got a proper name for Natal now and are actually intending to launch it.
Steam proves that people want downloads more than physical media. The industry needs to understand that downloading doesn't equal piracy.
I don't think they'll make a big fuss about one guy with a camera. But I have been part of a larger film crew on a Rotterdam metro and we did run into problems with the security, that's how I know they don't allow filming or taking pictures.