Funny you say that. I just discovered a few days ago that my old university email account just stopped working.
It's been set to forward all messages to gmail since freshman year of college, so I only noticed it was dead after I realized I haven't received an email from facebook in months...
To clarify: - you are free to get a development kit and create any game you want with it. - you may even be free to distribute said game in a limited context, but without a MS certificate it will only be playable on development and modded systems. - If said game was developed with the official MS SDK, the license of that software may expressly prohibit you from distributing products without obtaining a seperate license. The legality of those EULAs are always questionable, but if the game was developed using reverse-engineered tools and libraries (ala Wii homebrew) there are no such restrictions. - No mainstream retailer will distribute any title rated AO. That's not to say all stores would be opposed... - this is the way game consoles have been (in some form or another) for as long as the industry has existed, and will remain this way until, at a minimum, a time when there is no distinction between PC and game console.
So in other words, the effective legality of selling AO games on any game console comes down to the legality of modding a system to allow homebrew content. It's been ruled that this is legal for phones, but the case for game consoles is less clear (as previously discussed on/.).
The same thing happened to my M$ hotmail account earlier this year. I don't recall what their inactivity timeout was, but it made no sense that it was even triggered given that email is also linked to my active and *paid* M$ Xbox Live account. Supposedly they sent an inactivity warning email first, but of course the secondary email address is one that I use even less often . . .
Inactivity timeouts for some services make sense, but deleting entire email accounts should not be taken as lightly as some companies think they should. Of course, if Yahoo decided to outright delete my account with them that's been inactive for literally years, that I would understand. A few months though... not acceptable.
In other words, they want to build the fabled city of Atlantis.
Except without - the ability to safely sink below the ocean and rise up again at will. For example, to submerge beneath passing tropical storms. - the ability to travel the seven seas to travel and explore [ok, my idea, not part of the fable, unless you consider below] - the ability to take off and fly between star systems and/or galaxies [the Stargate variety]
Of course, should tragedy strike and it really does sink (assuming its not designed to do so), then it really would fit the story of the real ancient city of Atlantis (presumably an island that was hit by an earthquake and sank below the ocean) that inspired said fables.
Joking aside, this is a good idea for the future. Particularly for Japan, which suffers from a shortage of stable land, and whose people are already used to commuting between islands. Furthermore, if they can truly make it self-sufficient, then it would serve as a great model to learn how to build future Lunar,Martian,etc. colonies.
Actually, that is an excerpt from TFA. It's still an inflammatory opinion to be in a news article, but in this case the fault is the original article and not the/. summary (hmm, is that a first?).
Google Docs may not be, but GMail certainly has (at least partial) Exchange support - that's the best method of email sync for old WM6 phone (Disclaimer: My next phone will be Android-based).
The answer is obvious. Dr. Who used his Sonic Screwdriver to modify the phone so that this previously unknown companion of his could talk to her family back in his own time. The odd appearance of the phone was the result of the Doctor's failed attempt to disguise it...
Unfortunately, after not reading TFA (this is/.) but rather the one it links to, it appears that this is more of a pseudo-3D parlor trick - literally based on a 'Victorian era' trick used in parlors...
"The ordinance prohibits wireless equipment within 1,500 feet of homes, schools, day care centers, and houses of worship, unless the company can prove absolute need."
Note the last part of that sentence from the summary. In essence, it seems to imply that their just requiring special building permits approved on a case-by-case basis for any new cell tower built in a potentially concerning place. That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
At the very least, if the process for requesting permits for new towers becomes more cumbersome, perhaps the providers will look more closely at re-using/sharing existing towers in more elaborate ways. If not, we'll have cell towers on every block sooner or later (which isn't good for anybody).
Agreed. I did a similar thing with both my Dad and Cousin's computers, switching both to Ubuntu almost two years ago now. I'll add that neither are near me, and I'm physically down there maybe once a year.
In all that time, I've had all of two complaints. One was from my cousin who needed some silly windows-only Sharepoint-like site from her school - solution, I foresaw that and just told her to pay attention when her computer turns on and switch back into Windows for that task. (It's an old machine, so VM is out of the question).
The other was when "my email inbox disappeared" because he somehow changed his homepage. That issue is clearly OS-agnostic.
Actually, it was both Yeast and Algae. And as I said, we have a long way to go before people would be ready to buy this stuff (and hence justify mass production).
Probably at the same time that companies acknowledge that its OK if they make the same (inflation-adjusted) amount of sales as the year before and constant growth is not a necessity.
In other news, Walmart contemplates changing their name to Buy N' Large.
Asimov predicted this decades ago. Just another case of science catching up to fiction, or perhaps this just validates the theories of psychohistory that we aren't supposed to know about..
Of course, there's a long way to go before we generate enough recipes and concoctions of artificial ingredients to make it palatable, so that it's economically and socially mandated to create massive bio-farms.
For more information, refer to your copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica.
Still a good deal though (thxs), even if it's just for a year. Personally, I'm on the fence about renewing now... for $40 I'll probably renew it, but at $60 it's probable I won't next year.
Lately, all I've used my M$ Xbox Live for is Netflix and very rarely for games. The Xbox is the fastest/most convenient way of watching Netflix... but if the price goes up and I don't find myself playing Live games any more over the next few months, it'll be time to drop it in favor of just watching it through the PC.
Of course, then I'll need to buy myself that silly DisplayPort adapter so I can output to the TV and both monitors at the same time from the PC instead of having to choose 2 of 3 screens already connected via the other ports, but that's another story/rant...
Yes, but citing the source generally means you go out and read the source to base your claim on, or at least to verify that the summary is valid. The GP (based on the smiley), is speaking about cheating the system by citing the wikipedia source, without taking that extra step to actually verify for himself that the source validates the article (which isn't always the case on wikipedia, though they try).
I'm pretty certain that in most areas, cell phones will already receive notifications from the Emergency Alert System in a crisis via SMS. Or at least, that's how it should be...
Me thinks there is something wrong with that picture. *ALL* of them are wearing dust suits and walking around on static mats. Im sorry it is going to be sitting outside in a rather harsh environment. If you need to take that amount of care now perhaps there is something wrong? I can understand taking care building it but that makes me think it will fail later on when put in a mars dust storm.
The reason for the bunny suits at this stage is NOT to protect it against damage from dust, but to prevent contamination. If we're sending a probe to another planet to search for traces of life, the last thing we want is to "discover" life that we brought with us in the first place. Hence all spacecraft (or rover) components are handled in the most sterile of environments.
The mats in those photos are probably to ensure it doesn't roll over any lingering dust on the floor and to mark where people (in bunny suits) shouldn't work, I doubt those are actually anti-static mats, or if they are if that's the main purpose in there.
Or a game with an active community that he's involved in. I first got into coding in JHS learning Perl CGI to make an automated website for a Starcraft clan me and my friends started. We also played with the SC map editor for a while, but that wasn't exactly coding.
The point is to start with a goal that he wants to accomplish, then encourage exploration from there. Mods are a great idea, but few of those are simple enough for one person to learn and see results in a project by themselves in a short period of time. Community websites in support of a game on the other hand are much more manageable. As are, for certain types of games, utilities to help strategize, organize statistics, tournaments, etc.
Another useful path is making quick games (or utilities) to play on the go. In my day, it was games for the TI graphing calculator to not play during class:-) Now a days, iPhone or Android apps could be a more interesting start.
In a way, this is just an extension of what some studios have done in the past. It's nearly always the publishers that push the DRM against the developers wishes. I remember a few games in the past where the unofficial word from the developers was to download a no-CD crack to bypass certain performance issues. Of course they would never say so through official channels, but the message (through Forums that the developers frequented) was quite clear.
Only a small portion of routers are actually Linux based. Most Cisco/Linksys ones (not counting the 'L' models) actually use VxWorks. Linux is becoming increasingly popular on the cheaper brand routers as well, where the vendors don't want to invest in software. In general though, dedicated embedded operating systems (ie:VxWorks) reign supreme in the majority of routers.
A full desktop operating system will never be seen in an embedded device (note: linux without X is not a desktop OS).
And yes, most network 'vulnerabilities' are the result of poor configuration. To give the general public credit though, many people assume that things come properly configured out of the box when they plug it in and it works. What we should have are more routers that are shipped in a secure state, with annoying GUI wizards to configure wifi security features for the "idiots guide to..." crowd. That way, it would require effort to make a network unsecure, versus expecting people to exert efforts to secure something they don't understand in the first place.
iPad-like tablets are useless to us tech folks, but as the sales show, their at least in the short term adequate enough for the masses to continue iPadding Jobs' wallet.
The ideal device, which I still have yet to see as a real commercial product at a reasonable price, is a convertible netbook.
A small laptop with 720p capabilities (like the newer netbooks), plus a stylus-friendly touchscreen, and the ability to fold it open all the way [or rotate and fold back if that's simpler] so it can be used as a tablet when the need arises [ie: watching a movie, reading on the go, making presentations, etc].
Combine that with a sunlight-friendly screen, like the OLPC's Pixel Qi color ePaper-like display, and you've got a real winner.
Before you can answer that question, you have to realize that game manuals fall into two, maybe three, categories:
1) Traditional Instruction Manual with story overview, controls reference, and other useful information. No matter what, such manuals are always essential for quick multiplayer games (ie:Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Smash Bros., etc.) for looking up some extra moves while you wait your turn;-) For some games their useless, but for others their a great reference.
2) "Collectible" Instruction manuals. These are one-step below the dedicated art books that come with recent games, but still include extensive story, background information, artwork, and more. These won't be going away, though I predict we'll increasingly be seeing them only on "collector's" edition copies.
3) The Boilerplate Manuals. These are the ones that Ubisoft and others use the most and should go the way of the dinosaur. These manuals are always virtually identical, contain a picture of the controller, copyright notice, and maybe a copy of the description printed on the box. On occasion, these come in thick booklets that trick you into thinking it's type (1) or (2) before you realize that it's just boilerplate * n languages.
So in summation - if all the publisher's are writing are boilerplate manuals, let's go save some trees. But for those few developers that still invest the time in creating real manuals, those are an important piece of gaming tradition that we don't want to lose.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny you say that. I just discovered a few days ago that my old university email account just stopped working.
It's been set to forward all messages to gmail since freshman year of college, so I only noticed it was dead after I realized I haven't received an email from facebook in months...
To clarify: ...
- you are free to get a development kit and create any game you want with it.
- you may even be free to distribute said game in a limited context, but without a MS certificate it will only be playable on development and modded systems.
- If said game was developed with the official MS SDK, the license of that software may expressly prohibit you from distributing products without obtaining a seperate license. The legality of those EULAs are always questionable, but if the game was developed using reverse-engineered tools and libraries (ala Wii homebrew) there are no such restrictions.
- No mainstream retailer will distribute any title rated AO. That's not to say all stores would be opposed
- this is the way game consoles have been (in some form or another) for as long as the industry has existed, and will remain this way until, at a minimum, a time when there is no distinction between PC and game console.
So in other words, the effective legality of selling AO games on any game console comes down to the legality of modding a system to allow homebrew content. It's been ruled that this is legal for phones, but the case for game consoles is less clear (as previously discussed on /.).
Disclaimer: IANAL
The same thing happened to my M$ hotmail account earlier this year. I don't recall what their inactivity timeout was, but it made no sense that it was even triggered given that email is also linked to my active and *paid* M$ Xbox Live account. Supposedly they sent an inactivity warning email first, but of course the secondary email address is one that I use even less often . . .
Inactivity timeouts for some services make sense, but deleting entire email accounts should not be taken as lightly as some companies think they should. Of course, if Yahoo decided to outright delete my account with them that's been inactive for literally years, that I would understand. A few months though ... not acceptable.
In other words, they want to build the fabled city of Atlantis.
Except without
- the ability to safely sink below the ocean and rise up again at will. For example, to submerge beneath passing tropical storms.
- the ability to travel the seven seas to travel and explore [ok, my idea, not part of the fable, unless you consider below]
- the ability to take off and fly between star systems and/or galaxies [the Stargate variety]
Of course, should tragedy strike and it really does sink (assuming its not designed to do so), then it really would fit the story of the real ancient city of Atlantis (presumably an island that was hit by an earthquake and sank below the ocean) that inspired said fables.
Joking aside, this is a good idea for the future. Particularly for Japan, which suffers from a shortage of stable land, and whose people are already used to commuting between islands. Furthermore, if they can truly make it self-sufficient, then it would serve as a great model to learn how to build future Lunar,Martian,etc. colonies.
Actually, that is an excerpt from TFA. It's still an inflammatory opinion to be in a news article, but in this case the fault is the original article and not the /. summary (hmm, is that a first?).
Not true. There are plenty of people that view certain (ie:headless servers, embedded machines, etc) Linux/Unix systems as a pure shell with no GUI.
Google Docs may not be, but GMail certainly has (at least partial) Exchange support - that's the best method of email sync for old WM6 phone (Disclaimer: My next phone will be Android-based).
The answer is obvious. Dr. Who used his Sonic Screwdriver to modify the phone so that this previously unknown companion of his could talk to her family back in his own time. The odd appearance of the phone was the result of the Doctor's failed attempt to disguise it...
Exactly my first thoughts.
Unfortunately, after not reading TFA (this is /.) but rather the one it links to, it appears that this is more of a pseudo-3D parlor trick - literally based on a 'Victorian era' trick used in parlors ...
The modern version of the technology is still interesting and worth a watch (there's a video, in addition to the article) - http://singularityhub.com/2009/12/18/old-trick-enhances-modern-3d-video-teleconferencing/
"The ordinance prohibits wireless equipment within 1,500 feet of homes, schools, day care centers, and houses of worship, unless the company can prove absolute need."
Note the last part of that sentence from the summary. In essence, it seems to imply that their just requiring special building permits approved on a case-by-case basis for any new cell tower built in a potentially concerning place. That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
At the very least, if the process for requesting permits for new towers becomes more cumbersome, perhaps the providers will look more closely at re-using/sharing existing towers in more elaborate ways. If not, we'll have cell towers on every block sooner or later (which isn't good for anybody).
90-95% of the time that's true, but alzheimer's isn't always just an old timers disease. It's called early-onset Alzeimer's disease
Agreed. I did a similar thing with both my Dad and Cousin's computers, switching both to Ubuntu almost two years ago now. I'll add that neither are near me, and I'm physically down there maybe once a year.
In all that time, I've had all of two complaints. One was from my cousin who needed some silly windows-only Sharepoint-like site from her school - solution, I foresaw that and just told her to pay attention when her computer turns on and switch back into Windows for that task. (It's an old machine, so VM is out of the question).
The other was when "my email inbox disappeared" because he somehow changed his homepage. That issue is clearly OS-agnostic.
Actually, it was both Yeast and Algae. And as I said, we have a long way to go before people would be ready to buy this stuff (and hence justify mass production).
Probably at the same time that companies acknowledge that its OK if they make the same (inflation-adjusted) amount of sales as the year before and constant growth is not a necessity.
In other news, Walmart contemplates changing their name to Buy N' Large.
Asimov predicted this decades ago. Just another case of science catching up to fiction, or perhaps this just validates the theories of psychohistory that we aren't supposed to know about..
Of course, there's a long way to go before we generate enough recipes and concoctions of artificial ingredients to make it palatable, so that it's economically and socially mandated to create massive bio-farms.
For more information, refer to your copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica.
Still a good deal though (thxs), even if it's just for a year. Personally, I'm on the fence about renewing now ... for $40 I'll probably renew it, but at $60 it's probable I won't next year.
Lately, all I've used my M$ Xbox Live for is Netflix and very rarely for games. The Xbox is the fastest/most convenient way of watching Netflix ... but if the price goes up and I don't find myself playing Live games any more over the next few months, it'll be time to drop it in favor of just watching it through the PC.
Of course, then I'll need to buy myself that silly DisplayPort adapter so I can output to the TV and both monitors at the same time from the PC instead of having to choose 2 of 3 screens already connected via the other ports, but that's another story/rant...
Yes, but citing the source generally means you go out and read the source to base your claim on, or at least to verify that the summary is valid. The GP (based on the smiley), is speaking about cheating the system by citing the wikipedia source, without taking that extra step to actually verify for himself that the source validates the article (which isn't always the case on wikipedia, though they try).
I'm pretty certain that in most areas, cell phones will already receive notifications from the Emergency Alert System in a crisis via SMS. Or at least, that's how it should be...
Me thinks there is something wrong with that picture. *ALL* of them are wearing dust suits and walking around on static mats. Im sorry it is going to be sitting outside in a rather harsh environment. If you need to take that amount of care now perhaps there is something wrong? I can understand taking care building it but that makes me think it will fail later on when put in a mars dust storm.
The reason for the bunny suits at this stage is NOT to protect it against damage from dust, but to prevent contamination. If we're sending a probe to another planet to search for traces of life, the last thing we want is to "discover" life that we brought with us in the first place. Hence all spacecraft (or rover) components are handled in the most sterile of environments.
The mats in those photos are probably to ensure it doesn't roll over any lingering dust on the floor and to mark where people (in bunny suits) shouldn't work, I doubt those are actually anti-static mats, or if they are if that's the main purpose in there.
It certainly would be, even with the obligatory $34.99 s&h fees when you find them on ebay.
Or a game with an active community that he's involved in. I first got into coding in JHS learning Perl CGI to make an automated website for a Starcraft clan me and my friends started. We also played with the SC map editor for a while, but that wasn't exactly coding.
The point is to start with a goal that he wants to accomplish, then encourage exploration from there. Mods are a great idea, but few of those are simple enough for one person to learn and see results in a project by themselves in a short period of time. Community websites in support of a game on the other hand are much more manageable. As are, for certain types of games, utilities to help strategize, organize statistics, tournaments, etc.
Another useful path is making quick games (or utilities) to play on the go. In my day, it was games for the TI graphing calculator to not play during class :-) Now a days, iPhone or Android apps could be a more interesting start.
In a way, this is just an extension of what some studios have done in the past. It's nearly always the publishers that push the DRM against the developers wishes. I remember a few games in the past where the unofficial word from the developers was to download a no-CD crack to bypass certain performance issues. Of course they would never say so through official channels, but the message (through Forums that the developers frequented) was quite clear.
Only a small portion of routers are actually Linux based. Most Cisco/Linksys ones (not counting the 'L' models) actually use VxWorks. Linux is becoming increasingly popular on the cheaper brand routers as well, where the vendors don't want to invest in software. In general though, dedicated embedded operating systems (ie:VxWorks) reign supreme in the majority of routers.
A full desktop operating system will never be seen in an embedded device (note: linux without X is not a desktop OS).
And yes, most network 'vulnerabilities' are the result of poor configuration. To give the general public credit though, many people assume that things come properly configured out of the box when they plug it in and it works. What we should have are more routers that are shipped in a secure state, with annoying GUI wizards to configure wifi security features for the "idiots guide to..." crowd. That way, it would require effort to make a network unsecure, versus expecting people to exert efforts to secure something they don't understand in the first place.
iPad-like tablets are useless to us tech folks, but as the sales show, their at least in the short term adequate enough for the masses to continue iPadding Jobs' wallet.
The ideal device, which I still have yet to see as a real commercial product at a reasonable price, is a convertible netbook.
A small laptop with 720p capabilities (like the newer netbooks), plus a stylus-friendly touchscreen, and the ability to fold it open all the way [or rotate and fold back if that's simpler] so it can be used as a tablet when the need arises [ie: watching a movie, reading on the go, making presentations, etc].
Combine that with a sunlight-friendly screen, like the OLPC's Pixel Qi color ePaper-like display, and you've got a real winner.
Before you can answer that question, you have to realize that game manuals fall into two, maybe three, categories:
1) Traditional Instruction Manual with story overview, controls reference, and other useful information. No matter what, such manuals are always essential for quick multiplayer games (ie:Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Smash Bros., etc.) for looking up some extra moves while you wait your turn ;-) For some games their useless, but for others their a great reference.
2) "Collectible" Instruction manuals. These are one-step below the dedicated art books that come with recent games, but still include extensive story, background information, artwork, and more. These won't be going away, though I predict we'll increasingly be seeing them only on "collector's" edition copies.
3) The Boilerplate Manuals. These are the ones that Ubisoft and others use the most and should go the way of the dinosaur. These manuals are always virtually identical, contain a picture of the controller, copyright notice, and maybe a copy of the description printed on the box. On occasion, these come in thick booklets that trick you into thinking it's type (1) or (2) before you realize that it's just boilerplate * n languages.
So in summation - if all the publisher's are writing are boilerplate manuals, let's go save some trees. But for those few developers that still invest the time in creating real manuals, those are an important piece of gaming tradition that we don't want to lose.