I had always assumed it was chemical. Interesting.
You've given me an idea - I wonder if there is some way to suspend a substance within the fluid and create these nucleation sites simultaneously throughout the supersaturated medium?
Perhaps some kind of ferrofluid? So you could run a magnetic field over it and cause the nucleation sites to appear which would cause the reaction to happen on a much more instant scale: read, explosive.
Now, if only I had the material, and the knowledge, and the friends at MIT. -- Music should be free
that makes sense actually, now that you mention it. Still, it's kind of frustrating when you want to open something up - even if your pretty sure you have no chance of fixing whatever's wrong with the device;] - I just like to open things. -- Music should be free
A serious question: when has a company's non-standard product significanly benefited the consumer? Or indeed the public at large?
Now, I don't mean standard and in "usual" - I mean standard as in "Serving as or conforming to a standard of measurement or value".
For example, those non-standard screws on some electronic devices. The manufacturer would have you believe that those are there to protect the integrity and quality of the product: but I think they just serve to obfuscate and generate revenue for the manufacturer.
After all, how would it be a bad thing if all MP3 players conformed to standard guidelines for portable devices? How would it be a bad thing if I could build and expand my own MP3 player adding features (like a camera or microphone) and enhancing it's function? How would it be a bad thing if all MP3 players ran a standard software operating system of some sort?
How would that be bad for the consumer?
It would seem to me that perhaps standards mean less choice for the manufacturers and more choice for the consumers. Since the opposite is likely true, I would argue this is must be why standards are so difficult to agree upon. -- Music should be free
I would argue that the innovation of the Wiimote comes from the fact that it is not just simple, but also non-encumbering.
Also, the food example was just the first thing that sprang to mind - I probably wouldn't play a cooking game either, to be honest. But who knows?
The reason the wiimote is unique is because both a steering wheel and the powerglove require effort from the user. I own a steering wheel for my computer, and it's fun. but most of the time all it does is sit in the closet. Why? Because it is big and bulky. I need to latch it down on my desk, or I would need to dedicate some room for it - precious desk real estate and precious time and effort.
the powerglove was cool - but you needed to wear it. It surrounded your hand and arm. You had to "slip into it" to use; it was inconvienient.
The wiimote is essentially a stick, a rock: a ball. You pick it up and you swing it around. This is probably what the very first toys were. The worlds most popular sport requires no more than a single item: a soccer ball.
Playing catch, frisbee, kick the can, snowball fights. Simple is fun. I'm not saying complex isn't fun - playing cards are a testament to complexity. But you don't need shuffle the snow before you play with it. -- Music should be free
My expectations are being raised all the time by announcements. I'm trying very had to keep them in check by playing original NES and SNES titles - just so when the Wii is released it will seem even cooler! Kind of like running around the pool makes it feel warm when you jump back in;)
Which brings me to the thing I find so tantilizing about this system - the excitement I feel when I think about the Wii is something I haven't felt since I was a young child on christmas morning when my parents suprised us with the NES. I was flabbergasted! I played Mario for hours and watched my siblings play for hours. I never thought I would feel the same again about a video game console - and I haven't yet.
But the excitement around the Wii and hearing how developers simply laugh and laugh while playing it is making me feel like that 12 year old wearing his pajamas until sundown fighting bowser.
I have to say, that even though the graphics have never been the issue with the Wii/Revolution I am still very happy to see that they appear very much "next gen".
I have to face the fact, that even though I admire gameplay and that "game-play" is really why we "play-games", graphics are darn interesting.
Additionally, the fact that the Wii is going to offer such a unique interface device will, I think, allow us to see "graphics" which will be completely absent on the other consoles. What I mean by this is that because the wiimote offers such a more intimate and intuitive interface with the console's game world that we will be able to interact with it in ways that will have the effect of looking even more "real-life" than a console with simply raw video processing power.
Example: by being able to hold a cooking skillet or wok and flip, shake, swirl and turn the food around in it the resulting imagery on the screen should looks very much and especially FEEL very much more "life like" than by being forced to use a joystick or keypad to move the virtual cookware.
Any additional video processing power should only serve to further enhance this experience. And that's truly what video should be for video games - the enhancement part (like a spice) - not the main course.
Hmm, I'm using a lot of cooking examples - is it lunch time yet? -- Music should be free
Does it seem plausable that someday voice communications could be handled completely by the people without the need for a big centralized entity like a government or a phone company?
I can see that VOIP is starting to show the potential of decentralized telephony. But could it go completely wireless? I know the technology would be tricky, but it's certainly plausable, yes?
Take for example the LP. Back in the day only very large companies could press records. The machines to mass produce these were expensive and bulky and they were very large. Additionally, after making the records you had to ship them - this required trucks: also expensive and bulky.
Fast forward to today. Anyone can burn a cd and anyone can send a song around the world. The means are here.
Cell phones require very little power and yet can transmit and recieve a signal from very far away. The base station is what currently makes this possible - but why couldn't something like a p2p cellular network be possible? Imagine if every car on the freeway as a node and if instead of a TV antenna on every house there were a repeater.
Perhaps this kind of technology could first take off in heavily populated metropolitan areas, where you are likely to be within mere feet of the next person with a cell phone. Everyone's voice and signals could route through each other.
I know this is a technical feat, but at one time so was creating microscopic holes in mylar with a laser using something as cheap as a meal.
RFID implants can be used for good. To fight fire sometimes one must use fire. I think what we need is a "little brother" scenario.
What we should do is chip our politicians. I think constituents shoud be able to see where they are and what they are doing during their "hours of operation". -- Music should be free
Hehe, I think you've swayed me. Now that I envision it I can see how it would be hard to take your boss seriously as a Dwarf fighter with an oversized warhammer! It's doubtful any work could ever get done in an environment like that.
That is certainly a tried and true method. Nonetheless, I would view the gaming meetings as the virtual world equivalent of the "company barbeque", or maybe "hawaiian shirt fridays".
You know, a once a week or bi-weekly team-building thing.
I think it could be fun.
Of course, as you point out it would depend heavily on business type and employee demographic as well.
Maybe it's a bad idea, I can accept that possibility - I'm pretty experienced with bad ideas. But I think it's important to try new things. After all, if we only ever stuck with that which has been "tried and true" we would still be plowing fields with horses and in fact would never have held the first teleconference. -- Music should be free
I'm not sure why you have to say "uh" when posting. There is plenty of time to form cogent arguments without stalling for time.
At any rate, I actually do use OS X and Linux. But yes, my primary desktop is Windows. Frankly I find OS X to be overhyped and Linux is just not a great desktop. Don't get me wrong, I *heart* linux deeply and use exclusively LAMP at work.
And I do find the prompting in OS X to be excessive at times. When running software updates I must enter my password for each update.
Even from the terminal, even if I am logged in as root I still need to sudo rm -R and then enter my password to remove a directory and it's contents. It's for the best, of course, but it seems that I shouldn't have to enter my password again once I've logged in as "root the all powerful". Darwin is a weird unix-like.
Now, lastly - I'm not looking forward to Vista. I use windows pretty much because it runs my games and has the added advantage of being able to browse and process words. But I am by no means a die-hard fan. I simply have the opinion that it's a good thing that Windows is prompting more often. I am not implying that this indicates that Windows is by any means now "fixed" because of it. Microsoft needs to leave their current architecture behind - Vista should (and it seems will) be the last of the NTs. -- Music should be free
Here's a novel idea: when you hire someone give them a headset and a free copy of World of Warcraft and subscription. Hold weekly "meetings" where everyone logs on and you discuss talking points while you slay rats and such. I think that even if you are not a gamer, this could still be fun.
Or you could more closely emmulate a real-world meeting with a sandbox game like Second Life and actually create a meeting area. With Second Life you could even show slideshows and stream a video presentation (given that you have the bandwidth for the video since it streams from you and not second life's servers). -- Music should be free
This "excessive prompting" is never complained about with OS X, or within Linux. What's the big deal about being asked for credentials when doing an installation or when performing privileged executions? Is not "excessive prompting" exactly what keeps malicious code from auto-executing and essentially is the primary reason there has been no self-replicating OS X worms to date?
I recall that recent "Mac Virus" which masqueraded as an image - however, if you clicked on it it would ask you for your password which set off alarms immediately. Had Apple decided that it was too much of a hassle for the user to enter their username everytime they needed to install a piece of software, this virus may very well have been successful.
I think the reason it's going to seem "excessive" is simply because of the lack of virtually ANY prompting in previous versions of Windows.
It's all relative, I would think.
Now, requiring Vista to play certain games however, that's excessively lame and nonsensical. -- Music should be free
First of all, I agree with you whole-heartedly. However, please take into account that "American Idol" can be voted for with a text message or phone call, and you don't need to register to vote, and you can be 8 years old and vote, and you can vote multiple times.
Ok, now that I have that off my chest: don't you wish there was a new-new world out there? I seem to remember something about how so many individuals left the old world behind 300 years ago because their ideas didn't mesh well with the old world.
They traveled across the ocean and prospered in a new land where they could create their own laws and live life the way they wanted to.
Now there is nowhere left to go. We've traveled as far as we can. There is no more land for new countries.
The best thing you can do with your browser is to write your congressperson and paraphrase some of the more cogent arguments for privacy; many are and have been presented here on slashdot.
I agree that there is certainly usefulness in having a powerful computer simply made into a form which can rest on your lap. But I would argue that full mobility will always be more useful. After all, wouldn't it be nice to bring a vacuum camping to clean out the tent before you roll it up? Additionally, if a roomba required a power cord its functionality would be greatly hindered.
Nonetheless, I agree with you that requiring a power cable by no means trounces the function of a device. But it would be nice to do away with.
"A fuel cell, a fuel cell, my kindom for a fuel cell!"
SLI in laptops! So neat, but so...immobile. Portable, yes. But only within the range of the extension cord. Perhaps when that day comes when we get better mobile power sources we will not come to expect reduced (even if slightly) functionality from our personal devices. When that day comes we will come to expect only greatly increased prices!
Slashdot Mirror
Yes you are hallucinating, but also yes they changed the layout.
;)
Personally I think this new layout is nice.
It's clean and more with the times.
Also, I'm pretty sure this new layout now makes slashdot fully web 2.0 compliant
--
Music should be free
I had always assumed it was chemical. Interesting.
You've given me an idea - I wonder if there is some way to suspend a substance within the fluid and create these nucleation sites simultaneously throughout the supersaturated medium?
Perhaps some kind of ferrofluid? So you could run a magnetic field over it and cause the nucleation sites to appear which would cause the reaction to happen on a much more instant scale: read, explosive.
Now, if only I had the material, and the knowledge, and the friends at MIT.
--
Music should be free
...of course, now I've suddenly become very thirsty.
--
Music should be free
that makes sense actually, now that you mention it. Still, it's kind of frustrating when you want to open something up - even if your pretty sure you have no chance of fixing whatever's wrong with the device ;] - I just like to open things.
--
Music should be free
A serious question: when has a company's non-standard product significanly benefited the consumer? Or indeed the public at large?
Now, I don't mean standard and in "usual" - I mean standard as in "Serving as or conforming to a standard of measurement or value".
For example, those non-standard screws on some electronic devices. The manufacturer would have you believe that those are there to protect the integrity and quality of the product: but I think they just serve to obfuscate and generate revenue for the manufacturer.
After all, how would it be a bad thing if all MP3 players conformed to standard guidelines for portable devices? How would it be a bad thing if I could build and expand my own MP3 player adding features (like a camera or microphone) and enhancing it's function? How would it be a bad thing if all MP3 players ran a standard software operating system of some sort?
How would that be bad for the consumer?
It would seem to me that perhaps standards mean less choice for the manufacturers and more choice for the consumers. Since the opposite is likely true, I would argue this is must be why standards are so difficult to agree upon.
--
Music should be free
You make good points, and they are valid.
I would argue that the innovation of the Wiimote comes from the fact that it is not just simple, but also non-encumbering.
Also, the food example was just the first thing that sprang to mind - I probably wouldn't play a cooking game either, to be honest. But who knows?
The reason the wiimote is unique is because both a steering wheel and the powerglove require effort from the user. I own a steering wheel for my computer, and it's fun. but most of the time all it does is sit in the closet. Why? Because it is big and bulky. I need to latch it down on my desk, or I would need to dedicate some room for it - precious desk real estate and precious time and effort.
the powerglove was cool - but you needed to wear it. It surrounded your hand and arm. You had to "slip into it" to use; it was inconvienient.
The wiimote is essentially a stick, a rock: a ball. You pick it up and you swing it around. This is probably what the very first toys were. The worlds most popular sport requires no more than a single item: a soccer ball.
Playing catch, frisbee, kick the can, snowball fights. Simple is fun. I'm not saying complex isn't fun - playing cards are a testament to complexity. But you don't need shuffle the snow before you play with it.
--
Music should be free
That was the word I was looking for! ;D
--
Music should be free
My expectations are being raised all the time by announcements. I'm trying very had to keep them in check by playing original NES and SNES titles - just so when the Wii is released it will seem even cooler! Kind of like running around the pool makes it feel warm when you jump back in ;)
:D
Which brings me to the thing I find so tantilizing about this system - the excitement I feel when I think about the Wii is something I haven't felt since I was a young child on christmas morning when my parents suprised us with the NES. I was flabbergasted! I played Mario for hours and watched my siblings play for hours. I never thought I would feel the same again about a video game console - and I haven't yet.
But the excitement around the Wii and hearing how developers simply laugh and laugh while playing it is making me feel like that 12 year old wearing his pajamas until sundown fighting bowser.
I'm so EXCITED
--
Music should be free
I have to say, that even though the graphics have never been the issue with the Wii/Revolution I am still very happy to see that they appear very much "next gen".
I have to face the fact, that even though I admire gameplay and that "game-play" is really why we "play-games", graphics are darn interesting.
Additionally, the fact that the Wii is going to offer such a unique interface device will, I think, allow us to see "graphics" which will be completely absent on the other consoles. What I mean by this is that because the wiimote offers such a more intimate and intuitive interface with the console's game world that we will be able to interact with it in ways that will have the effect of looking even more "real-life" than a console with simply raw video processing power.
Example: by being able to hold a cooking skillet or wok and flip, shake, swirl and turn the food around in it the resulting imagery on the screen should looks very much and especially FEEL very much more "life like" than by being forced to use a joystick or keypad to move the virtual cookware.
Any additional video processing power should only serve to further enhance this experience. And that's truly what video should be for video games - the enhancement part (like a spice) - not the main course.
Hmm, I'm using a lot of cooking examples - is it lunch time yet?
--
Music should be free
and this is different from current cell phones how? ;)
--
Music should be free
Does it seem plausable that someday voice communications could be handled completely by the people without the need for a big centralized entity like a government or a phone company?
I can see that VOIP is starting to show the potential of decentralized telephony. But could it go completely wireless? I know the technology would be tricky, but it's certainly plausable, yes?
Take for example the LP. Back in the day only very large companies could press records. The machines to mass produce these were expensive and bulky and they were very large. Additionally, after making the records you had to ship them - this required trucks: also expensive and bulky.
Fast forward to today. Anyone can burn a cd and anyone can send a song around the world. The means are here.
Cell phones require very little power and yet can transmit and recieve a signal from very far away. The base station is what currently makes this possible - but why couldn't something like a p2p cellular network be possible? Imagine if every car on the freeway as a node and if instead of a TV antenna on every house there were a repeater.
Perhaps this kind of technology could first take off in heavily populated metropolitan areas, where you are likely to be within mere feet of the next person with a cell phone. Everyone's voice and signals could route through each other.
I know this is a technical feat, but at one time so was creating microscopic holes in mylar with a laser using something as cheap as a meal.
Is this at least feasable?
--
Music should be free
RFID implants can be used for good. To fight fire sometimes one must use fire. I think what we need is a "little brother" scenario.
What we should do is chip our politicians. I think constituents shoud be able to see where they are and what they are doing during their "hours of operation".
--
Music should be free
Hehe, I think you've swayed me. Now that I envision it I can see how it would be hard to take your boss seriously as a Dwarf fighter with an oversized warhammer! It's doubtful any work could ever get done in an environment like that.
:D
But yes, undeniably it would be fun.
--
Music should be free
That is certainly a tried and true method. Nonetheless, I would view the gaming meetings as the virtual world equivalent of the "company barbeque", or maybe "hawaiian shirt fridays".
You know, a once a week or bi-weekly team-building thing.
I think it could be fun.
Of course, as you point out it would depend heavily on business type and employee demographic as well.
Maybe it's a bad idea, I can accept that possibility - I'm pretty experienced with bad ideas. But I think it's important to try new things. After all, if we only ever stuck with that which has been "tried and true" we would still be plowing fields with horses and in fact would never have held the first teleconference.
--
Music should be free
I'm not sure why you have to say "uh" when posting. There is plenty of time to form cogent arguments without stalling for time.
At any rate, I actually do use OS X and Linux. But yes, my primary desktop is Windows. Frankly I find OS X to be overhyped and Linux is just not a great desktop. Don't get me wrong, I *heart* linux deeply and use exclusively LAMP at work.
And I do find the prompting in OS X to be excessive at times. When running software updates I must enter my password for each update.
Even from the terminal, even if I am logged in as root I still need to sudo rm -R and then enter my password to remove a directory and it's contents. It's for the best, of course, but it seems that I shouldn't have to enter my password again once I've logged in as "root the all powerful". Darwin is a weird unix-like.
Now, lastly - I'm not looking forward to Vista. I use windows pretty much because it runs my games and has the added advantage of being able to browse and process words. But I am by no means a die-hard fan. I simply have the opinion that it's a good thing that Windows is prompting more often. I am not implying that this indicates that Windows is by any means now "fixed" because of it. Microsoft needs to leave their current architecture behind - Vista should (and it seems will) be the last of the NTs.
--
Music should be free
Here's a novel idea: when you hire someone give them a headset and a free copy of World of Warcraft and subscription. Hold weekly "meetings" where everyone logs on and you discuss talking points while you slay rats and such. I think that even if you are not a gamer, this could still be fun.
Or you could more closely emmulate a real-world meeting with a sandbox game like Second Life and actually create a meeting area. With Second Life you could even show slideshows and stream a video presentation (given that you have the bandwidth for the video since it streams from you and not second life's servers).
--
Music should be free
Ah yes! of Course! Why didn't I think of that.
But, did you ever even stop to think about the lactose intolerant! They're moon-people too you know!
--
Music should be free
This "excessive prompting" is never complained about with OS X, or within Linux. What's the big deal about being asked for credentials when doing an installation or when performing privileged executions? Is not "excessive prompting" exactly what keeps malicious code from auto-executing and essentially is the primary reason there has been no self-replicating OS X worms to date?
I recall that recent "Mac Virus" which masqueraded as an image - however, if you clicked on it it would ask you for your password which set off alarms immediately. Had Apple decided that it was too much of a hassle for the user to enter their username everytime they needed to install a piece of software, this virus may very well have been successful.
I think the reason it's going to seem "excessive" is simply because of the lack of virtually ANY prompting in previous versions of Windows.
It's all relative, I would think.
Now, requiring Vista to play certain games however, that's excessively lame and nonsensical.
--
Music should be free
The government is even invading the privacy of whole other countries!
--
Music should be free
First of all, I agree with you whole-heartedly. However, please take into account that "American Idol" can be voted for with a text message or phone call, and you don't need to register to vote, and you can be 8 years old and vote, and you can vote multiple times.
Ok, now that I have that off my chest: don't you wish there was a new-new world out there? I seem to remember something about how so many individuals left the old world behind 300 years ago because their ideas didn't mesh well with the old world.
They traveled across the ocean and prospered in a new land where they could create their own laws and live life the way they wanted to.
Now there is nowhere left to go. We've traveled as far as we can. There is no more land for new countries.
It's starting to make me feel somewhat trapped.
--
Music should be free
The best thing you can do with your browser is to write your congressperson and paraphrase some of the more cogent arguments for privacy; many are and have been presented here on slashdot.
This website can be quite a trove of insight.
--
Music should be free
I agree that there is certainly usefulness in having a powerful computer simply made into a form which can rest on your lap. But I would argue that full mobility will always be more useful. After all, wouldn't it be nice to bring a vacuum camping to clean out the tent before you roll it up? Additionally, if a roomba required a power cord its functionality would be greatly hindered.
Nonetheless, I agree with you that requiring a power cable by no means trounces the function of a device. But it would be nice to do away with.
----
Music wants to be free
Act V. Scene IV.
"A fuel cell, a fuel cell, my kindom for a fuel cell!"
SLI in laptops! So neat, but so...immobile. Portable, yes. But only within the range of the extension cord. Perhaps when that day comes when we get better mobile power sources we will not come to expect reduced (even if slightly) functionality from our personal devices. When that day comes we will come to expect only greatly increased prices!
----
Music wants to be free