In my last job I bought an A$1800 Asus laptop, rented that back to the company for A$125 a month, over 24 months that's $3000 but that's really what less than what the company saved by me providing my own laptop (insurance et al.) plus I picked my own specs.
Above this I also received a A$500 per year allowance for work related gadgets, so tablets, phones and so forth.
Same here. My current employer almost went belly up keeping everyone on without the work. Eventually when faced with either closing their doors, my boss took everyone in a room and explained it had gotten worse, asked who had options and if they were willing to exercise them, and then the remainder were let go with the crystal clear understanding that they did everything they could, that it was certainly not by bad performance on their part, and that should things turn around, they will be the first to get a call.
Contrary to what they teach you at the Ivy league schools, as the employees were treated like reasonable people, they treated the business owners the same way.
This,
In Australia its called voluntary redundancy. It's normally done earlier as employers have to pay out for redundancy. Good employers tend to use this before choosing redundancies.
Bad employers try to find reasons to fire people... then get dragged over the coals by Fair Work Australia. Beyond that, an employer who treats their staff well will find that staff will do the same for their employer, even to the point of taking a voluntary pay cut which is something I saw happen during the GFC (those six employees who took a cut are now earning more than they made in 2008 before the GFC).
does dell offer linux on it's blade servers? if not, that could be an area they can improve on... if they can pull their head out of microsoft's asshole
Dell offers Linux on most of their servers. IIRC blades are included. But most people tend to buy their blades sans OS, even MS shops as they are covered by a Enterprise Agreement.
That being said, Windows 8 has got to be hurting them.
Actually from a business perspective, buying Dell might not be a bad idea... basically doing a reverse of what dell did to Alienware... buy it and actually improve the brand, support and image...
Just the support would do. Dell still has a huge following in businesses, same with HP simply because they were both geared to provide massive deliveries (try asking Apple to deliver 500 PC's per week for 8 weeks built to your specifications... oh and the first delivery is next week. They'll laugh at you, Dell wont). Apart from that, HP is shite, Dell used to be OK but is heading to shite.
Dell just has to up it's support offerings and decrease the failure rate.
Dells best bet would be to kill the expensive crappy laptops (XPS and Alienware) concentrate on producing cheap consumer units (for home) and solid performance units with a long life (for businesses). Lets face it, Dell is not an innovator, buying Dell used to be like buying a Toyota Camry, as boring as batshit but you knew exactly what you were getting.
If this does go ahead, chances are they'll get snapped up by someone who will trash it, like HP.
The only thing that Apple did differently was pour millions of dollars into advertising. The amount of marketing Apple used was unheard of in the smartphone market. The fact you think the Iphone was innovative when it did less than existing Symbian WinMo phones is proof that this worked. The problem Apple has is that everyone has acclimatised to that level of marketing that Apple used.
Point in short. The shiny has rubbed off and now people see Apple as "just another phone company".
Competition is a good thing.
Competition is a good thing(TM) but I cant see Apple competing. The fact they keep suing their competitors to try to stop or slow their sales demonstrates they've lost the ability to compete (or simply didn't have it in the first place).
I find that the same amount of alcohol has very different effect in different times. Sometimes two beers are enough, other times I simply can't get drunk.
Fatigue and other factors play a huge role in your resistance to alcohol.
Remember that Alcohol is a poison, the fact you're doing to yourself is not withstanding.
Being tired often turns you into a "cheap date" (meaning you get drunk off few drinks). Eating affects how quickly alcohol is adsorbed into your system, drinking on a full stomach decreases the rate of adsorption hence the saying "Eatin's cheatin". The opposite end of this are times where you can drink 15 drinks and still be ready for more.
Or, irony will be that kids want to get their hands on this game now . . . just because it has an R18+ rating. Doing anything that is illegal or a sin is more fun. Like, sex before you are married, sneaking into a movie with an adult rating, buying beer when you are under aged, etc.
The R18+ sticker is a big red, blinking "Buy Me!" sticker on the box for kids.
Like supplying alcohol to a minor, I assume there are enforceable penalties for supplying a minor with an R18+ game (it's my country, but i'm too lazy to rtfa).
The key word is selling, not supplying.
It's illegal to sell alcohol to a minor, but if a parent gives alcohol to a minor they haven't commited an offence. It's the same with R18 (we've had this rating on movies, books and music for years) It's illegal to sell R18 material to someone under 18, but if their parents buy it there's no problem.
My big problem is that too many people associate "mature" with sex and graphic violence. It's maturity seen from the perspective of a teenager.
Fixed that for you.
This is not a problem restricted to gamers. In fact the non-gaming jock is more likely to see graphic sex and violence to be "mature" than the average gamer.
But this is the difference between "adult" and "mature". Something like Playboy is "adult" literature, something like Lolita is "mature" literature.
This is not to say that graphic violence has no place in good storytelling, it can be a very effective story device but a game centred around gratuitous sex and violence tends not to have too much story in it. For example, a game based on a war or in the Mafia could use a bloody massacre to drive home a point about violence and loss... Games that centre around cutting people up with swords by pressing a certain button combo and watching blood splatter as I said, tends not to have any artistic merit (or gaming skill, but that's a different argument).
Not that I want to see these games restricted at all. Quite the contrary I think they should be available to people who want to buy them.
I just think its sad that Australians have been treated like infants so long by their politicians...why did they put up with that shit?
Because you're imagining it. We tend to ignore with things foreigners imagine are happening in Australia mate.
As a parent just give me the same kind of info they give for a TV program "This game contains scenes of (insert violence, sex, drug references, whatever)" and let ME decide what is and is not appropriate for my boys.
You'll find more violence and sex on Australian TV then on US TV.
I find that anyone used to an iOS device can pick up a Nexus 7 and notice the lag.
If all you use is Android devices, you probably don't notice.
I found the opposite.
I only used Android up until work made me carry an Iphone 1 week out of every 4. Found that IOS was so slow compared to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but they just covered it up by using animations. It too longer to open the messaging application on IOS than on Android.
I timed them side by side, Android was much faster to open the application. The phones in question were an Iphone 3GS and a Motorola Milestone (Moto Droid) so they had fairly similar specs. This was on IOS version 3, when we updated to IOS 4 it slowed down horribly.
I tried it again recently comparing an Iphone 4GS to my (Samsung) Galaxy Nexus, there was an even bigger gap between Android 4.2 and IOS 4 (the owner hadn't updated to IOS 5 yet)
but I most certainly can 'feel' the lag.
Here's the problem. You "felt" it, you didn't test it. I actually tested it.
If you get lag on a Nexus device, you're almost certainly imagining it.
Now beyond this, I find IOS far more infuriating to use as it forces me back to the home screen every time I want to use another application where as Android has rapid task switching, not to mention the lack to text reflow. Even if Android lag was as bad as you said (and having run some really bad community ROMs on my Milestone and Desire Z, I've seen bad lag) it would not slow me down anywhere near as much as IOS is _designed_ to slow me down.
but they're still military weapons kept at the home.
By military personnel, All Swiss men undertake military training at age 20 and remain in the military until at least 30. This is why Switzerland has no standing army, they rely on a civilian militia (that has received military training). These people have gun safety drilled into them.
. Even then, most gun safes only stand up to a crowbar
Here your credibility goes through the window. A proper gun safe is difficult to open without explosives, it's also bolted to a houses foundations (this is the kind of safe my guns are stored in). You do not store firearms in a $20 safe you purchased from a hardware store.
You clearly don't know anything about how guns are kept in switzerland.
he vast majority of murders in the USA are actually related to other crimes, specifically organized crime and the drug black market.
And in Switzerland that would be more than enough to prevent you from possessing a firearm ever again. "Endangering your life or the life of others" will permanently disqualify you from owning a firearm in Switzerland. Also, gun and ammunition sales are controlled (you failed to mention this when you said bullets were subsidies, you also failed to mention that ammunition purchased at ranges must be used there).
The "imaginary land" you call Switzerland does not exist. The Swiss are very strict on firearm usage, this is why sports shooting is so common over there but without a lot of gun crime, because if you do anything stupid with guns (like walk around the streets with a loaded firearm) they will take them off you. I did just fix that, you're making stuff up to support a point that is patently wrong.
I think you really need to live in Switzerland before commenting on them as you clearly have no idea what gun culture is like there.
I also happen to think our support structure for the mentally ill is horribly broken and needs to be fixed. End the war on drugs, actually combat poverty, treat the sick and we'd be more like Imaginary Land - awash with guns, but very little crime, not just 'little gun crime'.
Fixed that for you.
Switzerland actually has tough gun laws. Most weapons kept at home are kept as part of their military obligations (hence most weapons are SIG 550 and SIG-Sauer P220's, the standard issue for Swiss milita), ammunition is also issued to them and every round is expected to be returned although most of this ammunition has been recalled since 2007. The Swiss are very tough on any misconduct with firearms, such as travelling (transported) with a loaded firearm.
In order for the US to become like Switzerland, it would need to become very tough on any tiny misuse of firearms and more than willing to remove firearms from anyone who even looks at their guns funny.
Not that I disagree with your other point. Treating the mentally ill rather than ignoring them until the situation blows up and then blaming games/movies/rock music will do wonders for a society.
No, it just means someone didn't pay enough to the Chinese officials.
More like the wife of Foxconn's CEO made a slight at the Chinese officials mistress. Chinese official loses face and has to make up for it by grandstanding and making the CEO lose face.
(still regretting the purchasing of two velociraptors for RAID-0)
I suppose redundancy is important when cloning killer dinosaurs.
RAID0 is striping, which is important for camouflage.
However when it comes to a good backup plan, you need to make them lysine deficient so that if the velocoraptors aren't completely supplied with with the amino acid lysine by you they slip into a coma and die.
The idea of drilling a tunnel is to focus the explosion so more energy goes upwards, similar to how guns use a barrel rather than just hitting a bullet at the explosive end pointed in the right direction. At a quick guess, a nuke in a moderately deep hole could have about twice the effect of a surface detonation, but that's assuming 100% of the charge gets directed upwards (some will go into the ground or be wasted by other things).
But here we're talking about drilling a hole that can be used as a nozzle (to direct the energy) or finding a natural formation that can be used to the same effect. Something like this would be relatively shallow on an object 350 meters wide. I mean compared to trying to use the nuke to break the asteroid into smaller pieces.
Yes, it's an obvious and shameful ploy. We all know why you do it.
Then what do you recommend for indie developers, who aren't yet "tall enough" to qualify for Nintendo's developer program
To understand the market before making things. Understand your capabilities and you potential client base before making business decisions.
The problem is that sometimes a certain sequence of DirectX or OpenGL calls might crash a particular card's driver.
Then it's an OpenGL or Direct X issue. The entire reason for using a VM or framework like OpenGL is so you dont have to code for every single combination of driver and hardware out there.
That worked for me in Android 4.1, but as of Android 4.2, it no longer works:
So because the Wiimote does not work on one version of Android, all bluetooth controllers are now useless.
Sorry, I expected you to understand that it was an example.
That and a way to hold both the Bluetooth controller and the phone or tablet.
The tablet would be connected to the TV, outputting as a normal console would. When on the go, it can be used as a tablet, when plugged into a TV, it can be used as a console. Existing tablets can both accept bluetooth input and have HDMI output. I left this part out of my previous post accidentally but it still should fairly obvious.
In other words, you're telling me you believe in Ouya. Am I understanding you right?
Belief would be the wrong word.
I see the potential of OUYA and similar consoles. The theory is good but remains to be put into practice. I think the OUYA will sell but because it's basically a beta version, it wont be a smashing success. What it will do is pave the way for future products by ironing out the bugs and identifying how the market wants to use it. Maybe an OUYA 2 will be a success.
I definitely see this as a strong force for change in console gaming though.
Wii came with a Wii Remote, and Wii U comes with a Wii U GamePad. Both fulfill the same positional input role as a mouse.
Motion contorol and touch screens do not provide the same positional input as a mouse. They provide positional input but not in the same way. This is why stylus pads have not replaced traditional mice, the mouse is more ergonomic and accurate than a stylus as well as much easier to use.
But the Wii is not the console we need to compare to the Steambox. The Wii is a console being a console, which is completely different to the Xbox and Playstation which are consoles trying to be PCs. The Wii is for when I have friends over and want to play together regardless of skill level. The PC is where I go to play complex games or play for any length of time, completely different requirements and roles.
How can an indie PC game developer gain enough clout to pressure hardware manufacturers into fixing their bugs?
They dont seem to have much of an issue with this currently.
Developers target a framework like Direct X,.net or other language. The framework deals with the hardware. Yes, everything in the future will be set in it's own VM, hardware has reached the point where this is feasible.
Smartphones have the additional distinction of lacking physical buttons, putting them at a disadvantage for genres that involve making a character move, jump, and use a weapon, rather than selecting items on the screen.
I can hook a Wiimote up to my Android phone.
The infrastructure is there, all phones/tablets these days have bluetooth, it's just a mater of software. This is why I believe that in the near future, consoles will be tablets with UI's and programs specifically designed for gaming and gaming peripherals (in the same way my Media Centre PC UI is designed for playing movies and watching TV). The traditional console will merge with the tablet and consoles trying to be PC's will simply go away.
Now the Steambox isn't for existing PC gamers or casual gamers. It seems squarely aimed at people who play "PC-Pretender" consoles like the Xbox and Playstation by providing the hardware and the software without any input required from the purchaser. People who play the Wii exclusively wont get a steambox... Someone who plays COD on the Xbox will be the primary audience.
Awaiting the inevitable mod-down from console fanboys for:
A) suggesting that playing games on the Wii is fun.
B) suggesting that the $CONSOLEOFCHOICE is not going to survive.
Sorry Fanboys, I remember the Turbo Grafx and 3DO, consoles trying to rival PC's are an aberration, console gaming is all about casual and accessible fun (and there's nothing wrong with that).
I wish other gamers were as enlightened as you. But in the real world, I get the impression from other Slashdot comments that you are in a slim minority. Mass-produced products are for the masses, not the edge cases.
My media centre PC is connected to my TV. My gaming box is connected to my 1920x1200 IPS monitor. TV's aren't that good for gaming when their resolution is limited to 1920x1080 and 27" 2560x1440 monitors are now under A$300. This is the main reason TV's wont replace monitors for gamers, monitors are improving whilst TV's are stuck at their current resolutions.
The VAST majority of killings take place using cheap handguns, and if you're OK with home-made bullets, then you're OK will all the bullets any small-time (or even mass) killer will need.
I'm going to guess you've never lived anywhere where there are a lot of home made bullets.
I have, in places like Thailand and the Philippines, there are a lot of guns and life is cheap. No they wont think twice about shooting a foreigner if you piss them off (guns don't make a polite society, they make a scared society) and if you do get shot, you hope to hell you get shot with one of the local rounds not a professionally made import. I know someone who was shot 9 times in the back at close range and didn't suffer any serious injuries because the local rounds were that poorly made (weak metals, poorly mixed powder) that none managed to penetrate entirely through the muscles on his back. Needless to say he didn't stick around in the Phils after that though.
Home made bullets and guns are rarely quality. Nutcases especially lack tend to lack the patience, dedication and intelligence to become good at a craft.
I'm sorry that it doesn't "jive" with your beliefs but it's true.
It's incredibly nice to know that if I get mugged, the change that the attacker has a gun is so infinitesimally low that I don't need to worry about it. Gun crime in Australia is much lower than in the US and we have a much stricter definition of gun crime than the US does.
Slashdot Mirror
You need to bring your own computer to work on.
Gadget allowances rock.
In my last job I bought an A$1800 Asus laptop, rented that back to the company for A$125 a month, over 24 months that's $3000 but that's really what less than what the company saved by me providing my own laptop (insurance et al.) plus I picked my own specs.
Above this I also received a A$500 per year allowance for work related gadgets, so tablets, phones and so forth.
Same here. My current employer almost went belly up keeping everyone on without the work. Eventually when faced with either closing their doors, my boss took everyone in a room and explained it had gotten worse, asked who had options and if they were willing to exercise them, and then the remainder were let go with the crystal clear understanding that they did everything they could, that it was certainly not by bad performance on their part, and that should things turn around, they will be the first to get a call.
Contrary to what they teach you at the Ivy league schools, as the employees were treated like reasonable people, they treated the business owners the same way.
This,
In Australia its called voluntary redundancy. It's normally done earlier as employers have to pay out for redundancy. Good employers tend to use this before choosing redundancies.
Bad employers try to find reasons to fire people... then get dragged over the coals by Fair Work Australia. Beyond that, an employer who treats their staff well will find that staff will do the same for their employer, even to the point of taking a voluntary pay cut which is something I saw happen during the GFC (those six employees who took a cut are now earning more than they made in 2008 before the GFC).
does dell offer linux on it's blade servers? if not, that could be an area they can improve on... if they can pull their head out of microsoft's asshole
Dell offers Linux on most of their servers. IIRC blades are included. But most people tend to buy their blades sans OS, even MS shops as they are covered by a Enterprise Agreement. That being said, Windows 8 has got to be hurting them.
Actually from a business perspective, buying Dell might not be a bad idea... basically doing a reverse of what dell did to Alienware... buy it and actually improve the brand, support and image...
Just the support would do. Dell still has a huge following in businesses, same with HP simply because they were both geared to provide massive deliveries (try asking Apple to deliver 500 PC's per week for 8 weeks built to your specifications... oh and the first delivery is next week. They'll laugh at you, Dell wont). Apart from that, HP is shite, Dell used to be OK but is heading to shite.
Dell just has to up it's support offerings and decrease the failure rate.
Dells best bet would be to kill the expensive crappy laptops (XPS and Alienware) concentrate on producing cheap consumer units (for home) and solid performance units with a long life (for businesses). Lets face it, Dell is not an innovator, buying Dell used to be like buying a Toyota Camry, as boring as batshit but you knew exactly what you were getting.
If this does go ahead, chances are they'll get snapped up by someone who will trash it, like HP.
What do you mean by again?
Apple never innovated in the first place.
The only thing that Apple did differently was pour millions of dollars into advertising. The amount of marketing Apple used was unheard of in the smartphone market. The fact you think the Iphone was innovative when it did less than existing Symbian WinMo phones is proof that this worked. The problem Apple has is that everyone has acclimatised to that level of marketing that Apple used.
Point in short. The shiny has rubbed off and now people see Apple as "just another phone company".
Competition is a good thing.
Competition is a good thing(TM) but I cant see Apple competing. The fact they keep suing their competitors to try to stop or slow their sales demonstrates they've lost the ability to compete (or simply didn't have it in the first place).
I find that the same amount of alcohol has very different effect in different times. Sometimes two beers are enough, other times I simply can't get drunk.
Fatigue and other factors play a huge role in your resistance to alcohol.
Remember that Alcohol is a poison, the fact you're doing to yourself is not withstanding.
Being tired often turns you into a "cheap date" (meaning you get drunk off few drinks). Eating affects how quickly alcohol is adsorbed into your system, drinking on a full stomach decreases the rate of adsorption hence the saying "Eatin's cheatin". The opposite end of this are times where you can drink 15 drinks and still be ready for more.
Or, irony will be that kids want to get their hands on this game now . . . just because it has an R18+ rating. Doing anything that is illegal or a sin is more fun. Like, sex before you are married, sneaking into a movie with an adult rating, buying beer when you are under aged, etc.
The R18+ sticker is a big red, blinking "Buy Me!" sticker on the box for kids.
Like supplying alcohol to a minor, I assume there are enforceable penalties for supplying a minor with an R18+ game (it's my country, but i'm too lazy to rtfa).
The key word is selling, not supplying.
It's illegal to sell alcohol to a minor, but if a parent gives alcohol to a minor they haven't commited an offence. It's the same with R18 (we've had this rating on movies, books and music for years) It's illegal to sell R18 material to someone under 18, but if their parents buy it there's no problem.
My big problem is that too many people associate "mature" with sex and graphic violence. It's maturity seen from the perspective of a teenager.
Fixed that for you.
This is not a problem restricted to gamers. In fact the non-gaming jock is more likely to see graphic sex and violence to be "mature" than the average gamer.
But this is the difference between "adult" and "mature". Something like Playboy is "adult" literature, something like Lolita is "mature" literature.
This is not to say that graphic violence has no place in good storytelling, it can be a very effective story device but a game centred around gratuitous sex and violence tends not to have too much story in it. For example, a game based on a war or in the Mafia could use a bloody massacre to drive home a point about violence and loss... Games that centre around cutting people up with swords by pressing a certain button combo and watching blood splatter as I said, tends not to have any artistic merit (or gaming skill, but that's a different argument).
Not that I want to see these games restricted at all. Quite the contrary I think they should be available to people who want to buy them.
Because you're imagining it. We tend to ignore with things foreigners imagine are happening in Australia mate.
You'll find more violence and sex on Australian TV then on US TV.
Or you just don't notice it.
I find that anyone used to an iOS device can pick up a Nexus 7 and notice the lag.
If all you use is Android devices, you probably don't notice.
I found the opposite.
I only used Android up until work made me carry an Iphone 1 week out of every 4. Found that IOS was so slow compared to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but they just covered it up by using animations. It too longer to open the messaging application on IOS than on Android.
I timed them side by side, Android was much faster to open the application. The phones in question were an Iphone 3GS and a Motorola Milestone (Moto Droid) so they had fairly similar specs. This was on IOS version 3, when we updated to IOS 4 it slowed down horribly.
I tried it again recently comparing an Iphone 4GS to my (Samsung) Galaxy Nexus, there was an even bigger gap between Android 4.2 and IOS 4 (the owner hadn't updated to IOS 5 yet)
but I most certainly can 'feel' the lag.
Here's the problem. You "felt" it, you didn't test it. I actually tested it.
If you get lag on a Nexus device, you're almost certainly imagining it.
Now beyond this, I find IOS far more infuriating to use as it forces me back to the home screen every time I want to use another application where as Android has rapid task switching, not to mention the lack to text reflow. Even if Android lag was as bad as you said (and having run some really bad community ROMs on my Milestone and Desire Z, I've seen bad lag) it would not slow me down anywhere near as much as IOS is _designed_ to slow me down.
By military personnel, All Swiss men undertake military training at age 20 and remain in the military until at least 30. This is why Switzerland has no standing army, they rely on a civilian militia (that has received military training). These people have gun safety drilled into them.
Here your credibility goes through the window. A proper gun safe is difficult to open without explosives, it's also bolted to a houses foundations (this is the kind of safe my guns are stored in). You do not store firearms in a $20 safe you purchased from a hardware store.
You clearly don't know anything about how guns are kept in switzerland.
And in Switzerland that would be more than enough to prevent you from possessing a firearm ever again. "Endangering your life or the life of others" will permanently disqualify you from owning a firearm in Switzerland. Also, gun and ammunition sales are controlled (you failed to mention this when you said bullets were subsidies, you also failed to mention that ammunition purchased at ranges must be used there). The "imaginary land" you call Switzerland does not exist. The Swiss are very strict on firearm usage, this is why sports shooting is so common over there but without a lot of gun crime, because if you do anything stupid with guns (like walk around the streets with a loaded firearm) they will take them off you. I did just fix that, you're making stuff up to support a point that is patently wrong.
I think you really need to live in Switzerland before commenting on them as you clearly have no idea what gun culture is like there.
I also happen to think our support structure for the mentally ill is horribly broken and needs to be fixed. End the war on drugs, actually combat poverty, treat the sick and we'd be more like Imaginary Land - awash with guns, but very little crime, not just 'little gun crime'.
Fixed that for you.
Switzerland actually has tough gun laws. Most weapons kept at home are kept as part of their military obligations (hence most weapons are SIG 550 and SIG-Sauer P220's, the standard issue for Swiss milita), ammunition is also issued to them and every round is expected to be returned although most of this ammunition has been recalled since 2007. The Swiss are very tough on any misconduct with firearms, such as travelling (transported) with a loaded firearm.
In order for the US to become like Switzerland, it would need to become very tough on any tiny misuse of firearms and more than willing to remove firearms from anyone who even looks at their guns funny.
Not that I disagree with your other point. Treating the mentally ill rather than ignoring them until the situation blows up and then blaming games/movies/rock music will do wonders for a society.
No, it just means someone didn't pay enough to the Chinese officials.
More like the wife of Foxconn's CEO made a slight at the Chinese officials mistress. Chinese official loses face and has to make up for it by grandstanding and making the CEO lose face.
(still regretting the purchasing of two velociraptors for RAID-0)
I suppose redundancy is important when cloning killer dinosaurs.
RAID0 is striping, which is important for camouflage.
However when it comes to a good backup plan, you need to make them lysine deficient so that if the velocoraptors aren't completely supplied with with the amino acid lysine by you they slip into a coma and die.
Guns don't kill people, linux does.
Linux doesn't kill, Linux sysadmins do.
So thanks to fireflies I can have even brighter, more obnoxious headlights on my car.
The idea of drilling a tunnel is to focus the explosion so more energy goes upwards, similar to how guns use a barrel rather than just hitting a bullet at the explosive end pointed in the right direction. At a quick guess, a nuke in a moderately deep hole could have about twice the effect of a surface detonation, but that's assuming 100% of the charge gets directed upwards (some will go into the ground or be wasted by other things).
But here we're talking about drilling a hole that can be used as a nozzle (to direct the energy) or finding a natural formation that can be used to the same effect. Something like this would be relatively shallow on an object 350 meters wide. I mean compared to trying to use the nuke to break the asteroid into smaller pieces.
the Paper-Thin Tablet
But sir, it's paper-thin.
Yes I know its a joke but... If we really wanted to use nukes on the asteroid wouldn't surface detonations to adjust it's trajectory would be better.
To understand the market before making things. Understand your capabilities and you potential client base before making business decisions.
Then it's an OpenGL or Direct X issue. The entire reason for using a VM or framework like OpenGL is so you dont have to code for every single combination of driver and hardware out there.
So because the Wiimote does not work on one version of Android, all bluetooth controllers are now useless.
Sorry, I expected you to understand that it was an example.
The tablet would be connected to the TV, outputting as a normal console would. When on the go, it can be used as a tablet, when plugged into a TV, it can be used as a console. Existing tablets can both accept bluetooth input and have HDMI output. I left this part out of my previous post accidentally but it still should fairly obvious.
Belief would be the wrong word.
I see the potential of OUYA and similar consoles. The theory is good but remains to be put into practice. I think the OUYA will sell but because it's basically a beta version, it wont be a smashing success. What it will do is pave the way for future products by ironing out the bugs and identifying how the market wants to use it. Maybe an OUYA 2 will be a success.
I definitely see this as a strong force for change in console gaming though.
Australia is pleased and proud to announce that the number of horrid and lethally venomous creatures per hectare has reached historic lows!
Actually it's up.
There are record numbers of snake being caught in the city of Adelaide.
Fire and snakes, A gentle reminder that everything on this continent is trying to kill you.
Motion contorol and touch screens do not provide the same positional input as a mouse. They provide positional input but not in the same way. This is why stylus pads have not replaced traditional mice, the mouse is more ergonomic and accurate than a stylus as well as much easier to use.
But the Wii is not the console we need to compare to the Steambox. The Wii is a console being a console, which is completely different to the Xbox and Playstation which are consoles trying to be PCs. The Wii is for when I have friends over and want to play together regardless of skill level. The PC is where I go to play complex games or play for any length of time, completely different requirements and roles.
They dont seem to have much of an issue with this currently.
.net or other language. The framework deals with the hardware. Yes, everything in the future will be set in it's own VM, hardware has reached the point where this is feasible.
Developers target a framework like Direct X,
I can hook a Wiimote up to my Android phone.
The infrastructure is there, all phones/tablets these days have bluetooth, it's just a mater of software. This is why I believe that in the near future, consoles will be tablets with UI's and programs specifically designed for gaming and gaming peripherals (in the same way my Media Centre PC UI is designed for playing movies and watching TV). The traditional console will merge with the tablet and consoles trying to be PC's will simply go away.
Now the Steambox isn't for existing PC gamers or casual gamers. It seems squarely aimed at people who play "PC-Pretender" consoles like the Xbox and Playstation by providing the hardware and the software without any input required from the purchaser. People who play the Wii exclusively wont get a steambox... Someone who plays COD on the Xbox will be the primary audience.
Awaiting the inevitable mod-down from console fanboys for:
A) suggesting that playing games on the Wii is fun.
B) suggesting that the $CONSOLEOFCHOICE is not going to survive.
Sorry Fanboys, I remember the Turbo Grafx and 3DO, consoles trying to rival PC's are an aberration, console gaming is all about casual and accessible fun (and there's nothing wrong with that).
my PC is *ALREADY* connected to my tv
I wish other gamers were as enlightened as you. But in the real world, I get the impression from other Slashdot comments that you are in a slim minority. Mass-produced products are for the masses, not the edge cases.
My media centre PC is connected to my TV. My gaming box is connected to my 1920x1200 IPS monitor. TV's aren't that good for gaming when their resolution is limited to 1920x1080 and 27" 2560x1440 monitors are now under A$300. This is the main reason TV's wont replace monitors for gamers, monitors are improving whilst TV's are stuck at their current resolutions.
The VAST majority of killings take place using cheap handguns, and if you're OK with home-made bullets, then you're OK will all the bullets any small-time (or even mass) killer will need.
I'm going to guess you've never lived anywhere where there are a lot of home made bullets.
I have, in places like Thailand and the Philippines, there are a lot of guns and life is cheap. No they wont think twice about shooting a foreigner if you piss them off (guns don't make a polite society, they make a scared society) and if you do get shot, you hope to hell you get shot with one of the local rounds not a professionally made import. I know someone who was shot 9 times in the back at close range and didn't suffer any serious injuries because the local rounds were that poorly made (weak metals, poorly mixed powder) that none managed to penetrate entirely through the muscles on his back. Needless to say he didn't stick around in the Phils after that though.
Home made bullets and guns are rarely quality. Nutcases especially lack tend to lack the patience, dedication and intelligence to become good at a craft.
Nicely cherry picked information. too bad it's inaccurate. Come on back with REAL data not from a pundit site.
Hi, Australian here.
Actually it's entirely accurate.
This is from the Australian Institute of Criminology
I'm sorry that it doesn't "jive" with your beliefs but it's true.
It's incredibly nice to know that if I get mugged, the change that the attacker has a gun is so infinitesimally low that I don't need to worry about it. Gun crime in Australia is much lower than in the US and we have a much stricter definition of gun crime than the US does.