>How is it a monochrome sensor if it has colored filters to sense different colors?
The sensor itself is monochrome - it just detects brightness. Overlaying it is a mosaic of coloured filters set in a pattern. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosaicing for a good explanation
>We have had one of those for 300 years. That is why the non-English parts of the UK have kicked up such a fuss...
Yeah, like the way the Scots get far more per capita than England from our state funds. I can see how that would hurt.
>I must be lucky, my GF already talks about 3DTV. Last year I tried unsuccesfully to hold her back on the home cinema system.
It's a trick. Mine was the same until I married her. Now she just complains about all the Hifi, TVs, speakers etc cluttering the place up.
>The Xbox 360 is dead in Japan and Europe outside of the UK
European Sales in excess of 10m units and was the only consoile to show year on year growth in 2009. Truly dead indeed.
>What if it's 'normal' that's wrong?
Indeed. It's all part of the medicalisation of perfectly normal conditions and behaviours. There have been no real breakthroughs in terms of treating real disease since the 60/70's when all the big stuff happened. Since then, outside of cancer, not much has really happened. As a result, big pharma have started to work on finding cures for problems we never knew we had - controlling behaviours outside the norms, rafts of mumbo jumbo like anti-oxidents, miracle foods etc. Read 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre (and check his web site of the same name) for some enlightening stuff.
As for Autism, it's not ideal and can cause a lot of problems for people but it can also bring some big pluses too. Do we really all want to be clones? looking the way celeb culture says we should and having perfect personalities? Hell no! Rejoice in the difference.
Re:never can get enough of the theme song.
on
M.U.L.E. Is Back
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· Score: 1
>Yeah, the Atari version was the king
Yep. One of many games that these days are always attributed to the C64 but were actually ports from the Atari 800 or the Atari 800 version came first.
I've got an O'level grade B in maths (For non Brits, that's what you do when you're 15/16 years old and 2 levels below a degree i.e. worthless) and that's it. I've been programming for 30+ years and I don't think I've needed any maths beyond the basics. Given that most of this has been writing stuff for banks, you'd kind of think maths would be used all the time but nope, just the simple stuff. The only maths orientated programmers I've met were in the market analysis/tracking/predicting area and they used Excel and Mathamatica mainly rather than coding per se.
I tend to steer well clear of these things but do occassionally take out extended warrenty for items more likely to break. I was an early adopter of LCD TVs and took out a 3 year warrenty and sure enough, 2 years down the line, it died and I got a new (better - w00t!) one which has been fine since. I recently upgraded to a new Samsung from John lewis (UK) who do a free 5 year warranty on all TVs which is cool.
Generally, anything with moving parts that might fail, I tend to get extended warranty and to date, I've been lucky (?) inasmuch as the device died during the extended warranty so it wa smoney well spent.
Luckily, in the UK you get aminimum of 1year anyway and potentially a further year under EU rules but most retailers are ignorant of the newer rules and try to kick pack (but fail).
>In the UK, turntables never completely went out of the stores.
Even more bizarrely, Linn, makers of very high end audio recently announced they are ceasing manufacture of CD players as sales have died compared to their multi-room, streaming audio systems.
>audiophiles will need to replace LPs every so often
Maybe. A lot of audiophiles use DVD-A (or whatever it is called) though as these are generally far better mastered than bog standard CDs. Certainly, most of the more vocal audiophiles I talk to all listen this way and often say much as they like vinyl, DVD-A sounds better.
>in reality most vinyl discs are a direct transfer from the digital master used for the CD
Do you have any stats/details on that because my experience is the opposite. Pretty much every vinyl album I've bought in recent years is significantly differently mastered to the CD.
>was much easier to mix songs and get the beats to mix using the record players
At the time, yes but now you can buy 'DJ CD Players' which allow scratching (shudder> and can have the speed adjusted just as you could with vinyl.
TBH, most DJ's I know just carry a laptop with all their stuff on it and mixing software and use a combination of pre-programmed sets and the software to blend tracks/adjust bpm etc.
>if the Fancy Lads started beef with the Crips?
OK, I really need to re-educate my taste buds. I read that as something to do with lard and chips (French Fries) and my first thought was 'Mmmm... chips....'
>Being familiar with music from hotties like Timberlake and Daughtry makes you popular with the ladies
Call me picky but I wouldn't be interested in a woman that liked that sort of music.
>Why is that? I didn't realise that ones taste in music could be such a defining characteristic.
It's a generational thing I suspect. Many people of my generation (I'm mid forties) very much define people by their music, especially what they listened to in their youth. The particular sub culture you belonged to as a teen was strongly related to your musical tastes and general mindset. These days, fashion/tribe is still important but the music side less so - you can have kids who dress the same but have very different tastes in music.
An additional point is that a lot of people get caught up with the various hype machines and buy in to certain artists even though in all truth, they're a bit crap. This marks them out to the rest of us as being a bit mindless, easily led etc.
Is it possible this is a nationality related issue? I'm in the UK and in my experience, IT normally equates to quality, professional etc. The people that do the monitor swap outs etc are 'support'. For many years, whenever I told Americans I worked in IT, they said 'What's that?' so I think the term existed here far longer than over the pond. Maybe, we see it more as a badge of honour and less as a perjorative term?
Sounds pretty petty to me. I have no problem at all with IT and don't see why anyone would. I don't care what my job's called as long as it interests/challanges me and provides a monthly paycheck. If you're that hung up with titles, I'd suggest your problem lies closer to home.
>How is 7-8 reasonable for "good enough"
That certainly is a valid point. A previous editor opined much the same and thought as you do that an average product (i.e. most of them) should be a 5. However, people have got so used to seeing 5 as being a crap product that it would effectively mislead readers unless the entire reviewing industry adopted it en-masse. i.e., it ain't going to happen.
We have a situation where most product is broadly similar in terms of quality and does what it is supposed to by and large. Very little truly shines and very little is screamingly bad. Those that are will incur the 10's and 1/2's. It's probably fair to assume that all things being equal, if you read a review that's a 10, it's really good. 7/8 means it will do what you want competently (I'm more of an app reviewer than games these days). Not much gets 4/5/6, instead there'll be a bunch of 1/2/3's and those you want to avoid. Maybe we could get by with 1/2/3? 1 - Avoid, 2 - buy, 3 - buy right now.
Apart from anything else, people shouldn't get overly hung up about the numbers - they really are just a case of 'think of a number'. That's why different reviews vary, often wildly. What is important is the text of the review - that's where you'll find details of what works well and what doesn't. Some people want a GFX fest and sod the gameplay, others are the reverse and some get excited about having a printed manual instead of a PDF. That's another reason why the numbers are just a guide - no single value can cover all readers interests/needs.
>Games are not cut
That's odd. I know a whole stack of people who work on games - mainly designers and graphics artists and they often get games pulled during development, often right near the end and sometimes for no reason other than a change of management at the publisher who decide it's not what they want after all.
It's far worse for smaller developement houses with 50 staff as they work hand to mouth with the milestone payments keeping them going and the next game slated to start after the current one ends. If the game gets pulled, they run out of cash pretty damned fast and die as they can't hang on until the next game is ready to roll.
OK, maybe FIFA isn't the best example - what about a non game title like Adobe Elements - the last version (8) didn't add much over 7 so for first time buyers, the value is very different to existing ones, especially those on V7. One would have hoped you'd have got the thrust of the point without getting hung up about the specific title.
Slashdot Mirror
>How is it a monochrome sensor if it has colored filters to sense different colors?
The sensor itself is monochrome - it just detects brightness. Overlaying it is a mosaic of coloured filters set in a pattern. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosaicing for a good explanation
>We have had one of those for 300 years. That is why the non-English parts of the UK have kicked up such a fuss...
Yeah, like the way the Scots get far more per capita than England from our state funds. I can see how that would hurt.
>I must be lucky, my GF already talks about 3DTV. Last year I tried unsuccesfully to hold her back on the home cinema system.
It's a trick. Mine was the same until I married her. Now she just complains about all the Hifi, TVs, speakers etc cluttering the place up.
>The Xbox 360 is dead in Japan and Europe outside of the UK
European Sales in excess of 10m units and was the only consoile to show year on year growth in 2009. Truly dead indeed.
http://boingboing.net/2009/07/16/autism-as-an-academi.html
Gives some examples. Not sure it outweighs the negatives but it's still food for thought.
>What if it's 'normal' that's wrong?
Indeed. It's all part of the medicalisation of perfectly normal conditions and behaviours. There have been no real breakthroughs in terms of treating real disease since the 60/70's when all the big stuff happened. Since then, outside of cancer, not much has really happened. As a result, big pharma have started to work on finding cures for problems we never knew we had - controlling behaviours outside the norms, rafts of mumbo jumbo like anti-oxidents, miracle foods etc. Read 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre (and check his web site of the same name) for some enlightening stuff.
As for Autism, it's not ideal and can cause a lot of problems for people but it can also bring some big pluses too. Do we really all want to be clones? looking the way celeb culture says we should and having perfect personalities? Hell no! Rejoice in the difference.
>Yeah, the Atari version was the king
Yep. One of many games that these days are always attributed to the C64 but were actually ports from the Atari 800 or the Atari 800 version came first.
I've got an O'level grade B in maths (For non Brits, that's what you do when you're 15/16 years old and 2 levels below a degree i.e. worthless) and that's it. I've been programming for 30+ years and I don't think I've needed any maths beyond the basics. Given that most of this has been writing stuff for banks, you'd kind of think maths would be used all the time but nope, just the simple stuff. The only maths orientated programmers I've met were in the market analysis/tracking/predicting area and they used Excel and Mathamatica mainly rather than coding per se.
I tend to steer well clear of these things but do occassionally take out extended warrenty for items more likely to break. I was an early adopter of LCD TVs and took out a 3 year warrenty and sure enough, 2 years down the line, it died and I got a new (better - w00t!) one which has been fine since. I recently upgraded to a new Samsung from John lewis (UK) who do a free 5 year warranty on all TVs which is cool.
Generally, anything with moving parts that might fail, I tend to get extended warranty and to date, I've been lucky (?) inasmuch as the device died during the extended warranty so it wa smoney well spent.
Luckily, in the UK you get aminimum of 1year anyway and potentially a further year under EU rules but most retailers are ignorant of the newer rules and try to kick pack (but fail).
>Red Hot Chilli Peppers :-(
A pity - their recent CDs have been dreadfully mastered
>In the UK, turntables never completely went out of the stores.
Even more bizarrely, Linn, makers of very high end audio recently announced they are ceasing manufacture of CD players as sales have died compared to their multi-room, streaming audio systems.
>audiophiles will need to replace LPs every so often
Maybe. A lot of audiophiles use DVD-A (or whatever it is called) though as these are generally far better mastered than bog standard CDs. Certainly, most of the more vocal audiophiles I talk to all listen this way and often say much as they like vinyl, DVD-A sounds better.
>and make it go wuka-wuka-wuka.
Because usually, wuka-wuka-wuka sounds a hell of a lot better than the track left to its own devices.
>in reality most vinyl discs are a direct transfer from the digital master used for the CD
Do you have any stats/details on that because my experience is the opposite. Pretty much every vinyl album I've bought in recent years is significantly differently mastered to the CD.
>was much easier to mix songs and get the beats to mix using the record players
At the time, yes but now you can buy 'DJ CD Players' which allow scratching (shudder> and can have the speed adjusted just as you could with vinyl.
TBH, most DJ's I know just carry a laptop with all their stuff on it and mixing software and use a combination of pre-programmed sets and the software to blend tracks/adjust bpm etc.
>if the Fancy Lads started beef with the Crips?
OK, I really need to re-educate my taste buds. I read that as something to do with lard and chips (French Fries) and my first thought was 'Mmmm... chips....'
>the isle of man
He's got a point - it's where Mark Kermode came from as well as umm, err... umm...
They've got a cool annual TT race too.
>Being familiar with music from hotties like Timberlake and Daughtry makes you popular with the ladies
Call me picky but I wouldn't be interested in a woman that liked that sort of music.
>Why is that? I didn't realise that ones taste in music could be such a defining characteristic.
It's a generational thing I suspect. Many people of my generation (I'm mid forties) very much define people by their music, especially what they listened to in their youth. The particular sub culture you belonged to as a teen was strongly related to your musical tastes and general mindset. These days, fashion/tribe is still important but the music side less so - you can have kids who dress the same but have very different tastes in music.
An additional point is that a lot of people get caught up with the various hype machines and buy in to certain artists even though in all truth, they're a bit crap. This marks them out to the rest of us as being a bit mindless, easily led etc.
>What do you call someone from the UK? I wanted to say British but that excludes Northern Ireland.
That's OK, we prefer it that way.
Is it possible this is a nationality related issue? I'm in the UK and in my experience, IT normally equates to quality, professional etc. The people that do the monitor swap outs etc are 'support'. For many years, whenever I told Americans I worked in IT, they said 'What's that?' so I think the term existed here far longer than over the pond. Maybe, we see it more as a badge of honour and less as a perjorative term?
Sounds pretty petty to me. I have no problem at all with IT and don't see why anyone would. I don't care what my job's called as long as it interests/challanges me and provides a monthly paycheck. If you're that hung up with titles, I'd suggest your problem lies closer to home.
>How is 7-8 reasonable for "good enough"
That certainly is a valid point. A previous editor opined much the same and thought as you do that an average product (i.e. most of them) should be a 5. However, people have got so used to seeing 5 as being a crap product that it would effectively mislead readers unless the entire reviewing industry adopted it en-masse. i.e., it ain't going to happen.
We have a situation where most product is broadly similar in terms of quality and does what it is supposed to by and large. Very little truly shines and very little is screamingly bad. Those that are will incur the 10's and 1/2's. It's probably fair to assume that all things being equal, if you read a review that's a 10, it's really good. 7/8 means it will do what you want competently (I'm more of an app reviewer than games these days). Not much gets 4/5/6, instead there'll be a bunch of 1/2/3's and those you want to avoid. Maybe we could get by with 1/2/3? 1 - Avoid, 2 - buy, 3 - buy right now.
Apart from anything else, people shouldn't get overly hung up about the numbers - they really are just a case of 'think of a number'. That's why different reviews vary, often wildly. What is important is the text of the review - that's where you'll find details of what works well and what doesn't. Some people want a GFX fest and sod the gameplay, others are the reverse and some get excited about having a printed manual instead of a PDF. That's another reason why the numbers are just a guide - no single value can cover all readers interests/needs.
>Games are not cut
That's odd. I know a whole stack of people who work on games - mainly designers and graphics artists and they often get games pulled during development, often right near the end and sometimes for no reason other than a change of management at the publisher who decide it's not what they want after all.
It's far worse for smaller developement houses with 50 staff as they work hand to mouth with the milestone payments keeping them going and the next game slated to start after the current one ends. If the game gets pulled, they run out of cash pretty damned fast and die as they can't hang on until the next game is ready to roll.
OK, maybe FIFA isn't the best example - what about a non game title like Adobe Elements - the last version (8) didn't add much over 7 so for first time buyers, the value is very different to existing ones, especially those on V7. One would have hoped you'd have got the thrust of the point without getting hung up about the specific title.