Monster Sound is not for audiophiles, it's for wannabe audiophiles. It's actually an even bigger ripoff than most of the real audiophile stuff if you ask me, because they don't actually do anything expensive or use more expensive materials - they just hike up the prices. Of course, smart people use places like Blue Jeans Cable.
I have a pair of 20" Dell LCDs here and I just tried to work out the viewing angle because I haven't ever noticed any color distortion. I looked at them from pretty much 180 degrees and the only thing I saw was a little glare from the window - no inverted colors and if the perspective wasn't so off I'd have been able to read them just fine.
Because when people say Solaris they infer SPARC, and that is FAR from free. Yes, I know Solaris runs on Intel, but for whatever reason that's not a frequently considered option.
Because traditionally our Unix SAs rule the server room, and they (unsurprisingly) would rather run Linux than Windows. That may (or may not) have a basis in technical reality but as anyone who hangs around here can tell you, there's often a lot of resistance to Windows amongst Unix types:)
Or, the Linux TCO - whilst higher than Windows - is lower than Solaris/SPARC. That's why _we_ have a Linux environment - it doesn't compete with Windows, it competes with Sun.
You know, I used to love playing Harrier Attack and WEC LeMans on my CPC464. A couple months ago I found an emulator and some roms to relive the memories. And you know what? They sucked. I can't believe that's what passed for entertainment back then. So I'm happy with Crackdown thanks very much, it's the most fun I've had from a game in a loooong time.
If you don't like the driving try upgrading your driving skill before writing it off. I hated it at first, but by 2-stars it's much better. Easily on a par with GTA (not that that's saying much to be honest).
I'd give it a 5, it's one of the most addictive games I've played in years. All this goes to show is that tastes vary.
Re:Still more questions...
on
Crackdown Review
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Can you go inside buildings? Or is everything outdoors? You can go in some buildings, but very few. Most activity is outside (although many buildings have catwalks, tunnels, balconies etc to explore).
What is the driving like? At first, very frustrating, but as your driving skill gets higher the handling and performance improves a lot. I'm currently on 3 stars for driving and it's pretty nice.
Are there decent car chases? Or are they a weak subgame? There are fixed-course races which are essentially minigames. Not sure on what your definition of "weak" is though. In terms of chases, it's a lot like GTA. The cars are mainly used as ways of getting around, and as weapons (running bad guys down). There aren't any car-based missions like in GTA. Overall, this isn't a racing/driving game, but the cars aren't bad.
Is there any depth to hand-to-hand melee fighting? Or is it just punch, but the goal is to get strong enough that punches do more damage? Your character will do different melee attacks (kick, punch, roundhouse, etc) but you don't really have much control over them.
Can I throw a bad guy? Sure, you can throw anything if you're strong enough. If you're 3 or 4 star strength you can throw the car he's driving in too:)
How far? Depends how strong you are and how high you are. If you can get a body to the top of a tall building I'm sure you can clear a couple hundred feet. The physics work pretty well.
What if I punch him really hard? Does he go flying? Sure, and if you kick him off a bridge or building he'll fall down to the ground and stay there until you climb back down to get the weapons he dropped. Or if he ends up in water he'll float around for a while.
The point is that the secret was out. The story was going to get posted, Sony knew it and Kotaku knew it. Had Sony just stayed quiet it would have been buried under the days news like every other unsubstantiated rumor in the tech world and no-one would have thought anything else of it until the keynote where it's announced. But by making such a big issue of it they've done three things - (a) they've confirmed the rumor as 100% true, (b) they've given it far more publicity than it would have got otherwise and (c) they've made themselves look like idiotic bullies (again).
Sony have every right to handle their PR however they see fit, but I personally think they could have handled this a whole lot better. At least Apple have the smarts to not go after bloggers posting leaks until AFTER the big announcement.
The smart move would have been to offer Kotaku an exclusive in exchange for an NDA. That way everyone's happy - Kotaku get a big scoop and Sony get to keep their secret. The dumb move would have been to threaten one of the most widely read news outlets covering your business with "not being invited to our next press conference".
I guess it comes as no surprise which Sony chose to go with. I don't think anyone's saying Sony weren't entirely within their rights, I think we're just saying they were really, really stupid. Kotaku will continue to get plenty of Sony stories just seconds after they're posted elsewhere, and now they and their readership will be less predisposed to spinning thing's in Sony's direction. Dumb.
They will actually probably be more expensive (as in fact they often already are if you choose the "no OS" option). The reason for this is that the Microsoft "tax" is a myth - the amount paid for the OS is covered (and then some) by companies like Norton who bundle their demos & trial versions on the box. So lets say windows costs $50, Dell maybe get a total of $75 per machine from software vendors. If you don't have windows (and thus don't have the crapware) Dell ends up down $25.
Well for one thing, I don't steal music, I do pay for it - just not from places which use DRM. Most of the music I buy is on plain ol' CDs but I also use services like beatport, audiojelly, playittonight and so on. All of these stores sell licensed music from major artists (in the specific genres they service) on mp3. Beatport even offer WAV downloads which are the actual studio masters (for an additional fee to pay for bandwidth). So I'm probably not going to buy anything from puretracks, but I already consider myself to be supporting the non-DRM vendors.
As an aside, it always impresses me how much the dance music labels understand their customers and support sensible (non-DRM) download stores. Beatport has become amazingly succesful and has full back catalogue from pretty much every major (and minor) label in the industry.
I use NOD32, it's very fast, has a reasonably small footprint and is very discreet. It even has "silent mode" where it won't show itself unless it _really_ needs you to make a decision (like "I found a virus - clean or delete?"). I have it setup on all our machines with silent mode on my GF's, and have it email me with any notifications. Works very well and she loves it compared to Mcaffee which used to bug her every day just to tell her it had downloaded an update.
I can tell you that the company I worked for at the time (fortune 100, financial sector, yadda yadda) spent a huge amount of time and money on mitigating y2k. We really did scan and test _every_ system, which in a firm that size was a massive undertaking. End result? We found and fixed a number of problems and when it actually came to 1/1/00 we had no significant issues. I can promise that would not have been the case otherwise. Did we over prepare? Maybe...but better that than under prepare.
Thread based programming really isn't that hard, particularly where you have a problem space which can be split up into discreet chunks of work. Example - a photoshop blur filter. Just divide the image up into (overlapping) chunks and blur each piece on a different thread. Another example - digital audio. Put each VST instrument on it's own thread. Once your apps are well threaded (and in many cases they already are) you can simply rely on the OS to schedule them over how ever many cores are available. For example, I write server code on my desktop box (single core w/hyperthreading) and it runs perfectly happily on the 64 core production servers, just faster.
Of course this is simplifying things a bit, and it is hard to get the very best performance from any given environment, but you can make a big difference quite easily.
If I were such a manager, and had an employee who I though might pull a stunt like that, I'd fire them before they had the chance. If I didn't, well I guess I deserve what happens.
It's called taking responsibility. As a manager (not at GameStop I should add), if someone working for me screws up to such a level as to require someone to be fired, that someone should be me - I'm ultimately responsible for the actions of my team. A manager's role is to a large degree one of control and oversight, it's my job to make sure that the right people are given responsibilities, that they understand them, that they have whatever resources they need, and that they are trustworthy.
I don't get what the problem with EZ Pass is. It only does anything when I pass through a highway toll booth, and it only records the time I do so. So if I'm driving off-highway (which is most of the time) it does nothing. And if I really want anonymity for some reason I can just leave the tag at home or pop it in the silver antistatic baggy they helpfully supply. If I really wanted to be clever I could put it in another car. Given the other option (paying cash tolls) I don't think they really helps my privacy much seeing as the booths all have cameras and if the police were really interested in my movements they'd check the tapes.
How does Palm/Treo fit into this picture? I'm just curious - I've largely ignored smartphones until now and haven't kept up to date with who runs what these days.
Ignoring the fact that a myspace password is hardly as important as your SS# (unless, of course, they're the same!) the first place I'd call wouldn't be the host, it'd be my bank. You can't delete things from the internet, the data's out there, the damage is done. The first order of business is mitigating the risk of someone using that data. After that, you can think about figuring out who's responsible, and that's the person who posted it not the person who runs or hosts the site.
Slashdot Mirror
Monster Sound is not for audiophiles, it's for wannabe audiophiles. It's actually an even bigger ripoff than most of the real audiophile stuff if you ask me, because they don't actually do anything expensive or use more expensive materials - they just hike up the prices. Of course, smart people use places like Blue Jeans Cable.
I have a pair of 20" Dell LCDs here and I just tried to work out the viewing angle because I haven't ever noticed any color distortion. I looked at them from pretty much 180 degrees and the only thing I saw was a little glare from the window - no inverted colors and if the perspective wasn't so off I'd have been able to read them just fine.
Because when people say Solaris they infer SPARC, and that is FAR from free. Yes, I know Solaris runs on Intel, but for whatever reason that's not a frequently considered option.
Because traditionally our Unix SAs rule the server room, and they (unsurprisingly) would rather run Linux than Windows. That may (or may not) have a basis in technical reality but as anyone who hangs around here can tell you, there's often a lot of resistance to Windows amongst Unix types :)
Or, the Linux TCO - whilst higher than Windows - is lower than Solaris/SPARC. That's why _we_ have a Linux environment - it doesn't compete with Windows, it competes with Sun.
I think I found a bug...
You know, I used to love playing Harrier Attack and WEC LeMans on my CPC464. A couple months ago I found an emulator and some roms to relive the memories. And you know what? They sucked. I can't believe that's what passed for entertainment back then. So I'm happy with Crackdown thanks very much, it's the most fun I've had from a game in a loooong time.
If you don't like the driving try upgrading your driving skill before writing it off. I hated it at first, but by 2-stars it's much better. Easily on a par with GTA (not that that's saying much to be honest).
I'd give it a 5, it's one of the most addictive games I've played in years. All this goes to show is that tastes vary.
Can you go inside buildings? Or is everything outdoors?
:)
You can go in some buildings, but very few. Most activity is outside (although many buildings have catwalks, tunnels, balconies etc to explore).
What is the driving like?
At first, very frustrating, but as your driving skill gets higher the handling and performance improves a lot. I'm currently on 3 stars for driving and it's pretty nice.
Are there decent car chases? Or are they a weak subgame?
There are fixed-course races which are essentially minigames. Not sure on what your definition of "weak" is though. In terms of chases, it's a lot like GTA. The cars are mainly used as ways of getting around, and as weapons (running bad guys down). There aren't any car-based missions like in GTA. Overall, this isn't a racing/driving game, but the cars aren't bad.
Is there any depth to hand-to-hand melee fighting? Or is it just punch, but the goal is to get strong enough that punches do more damage?
Your character will do different melee attacks (kick, punch, roundhouse, etc) but you don't really have much control over them.
Can I throw a bad guy?
Sure, you can throw anything if you're strong enough. If you're 3 or 4 star strength you can throw the car he's driving in too
How far?
Depends how strong you are and how high you are. If you can get a body to the top of a tall building I'm sure you can clear a couple hundred feet. The physics work pretty well.
What if I punch him really hard? Does he go flying?
Sure, and if you kick him off a bridge or building he'll fall down to the ground and stay there until you climb back down to get the weapons he dropped. Or if he ends up in water he'll float around for a while.
The point is that the secret was out. The story was going to get posted, Sony knew it and Kotaku knew it. Had Sony just stayed quiet it would have been buried under the days news like every other unsubstantiated rumor in the tech world and no-one would have thought anything else of it until the keynote where it's announced. But by making such a big issue of it they've done three things - (a) they've confirmed the rumor as 100% true, (b) they've given it far more publicity than it would have got otherwise and (c) they've made themselves look like idiotic bullies (again).
Sony have every right to handle their PR however they see fit, but I personally think they could have handled this a whole lot better. At least Apple have the smarts to not go after bloggers posting leaks until AFTER the big announcement.
The smart move would have been to offer Kotaku an exclusive in exchange for an NDA. That way everyone's happy - Kotaku get a big scoop and Sony get to keep their secret. The dumb move would have been to threaten one of the most widely read news outlets covering your business with "not being invited to our next press conference".
I guess it comes as no surprise which Sony chose to go with. I don't think anyone's saying Sony weren't entirely within their rights, I think we're just saying they were really, really stupid. Kotaku will continue to get plenty of Sony stories just seconds after they're posted elsewhere, and now they and their readership will be less predisposed to spinning thing's in Sony's direction. Dumb.
They will actually probably be more expensive (as in fact they often already are if you choose the "no OS" option). The reason for this is that the Microsoft "tax" is a myth - the amount paid for the OS is covered (and then some) by companies like Norton who bundle their demos & trial versions on the box. So lets say windows costs $50, Dell maybe get a total of $75 per machine from software vendors. If you don't have windows (and thus don't have the crapware) Dell ends up down $25.
Errmmm....if trades were halted, how exactly would said investors pull out?
Well for one thing, I don't steal music, I do pay for it - just not from places which use DRM. Most of the music I buy is on plain ol' CDs but I also use services like beatport, audiojelly, playittonight and so on. All of these stores sell licensed music from major artists (in the specific genres they service) on mp3. Beatport even offer WAV downloads which are the actual studio masters (for an additional fee to pay for bandwidth). So I'm probably not going to buy anything from puretracks, but I already consider myself to be supporting the non-DRM vendors.
As an aside, it always impresses me how much the dance music labels understand their customers and support sensible (non-DRM) download stores. Beatport has become amazingly succesful and has full back catalogue from pretty much every major (and minor) label in the industry.
I use NOD32, it's very fast, has a reasonably small footprint and is very discreet. It even has "silent mode" where it won't show itself unless it _really_ needs you to make a decision (like "I found a virus - clean or delete?"). I have it setup on all our machines with silent mode on my GF's, and have it email me with any notifications. Works very well and she loves it compared to Mcaffee which used to bug her every day just to tell her it had downloaded an update.
I can tell you that the company I worked for at the time (fortune 100, financial sector, yadda yadda) spent a huge amount of time and money on mitigating y2k. We really did scan and test _every_ system, which in a firm that size was a massive undertaking. End result? We found and fixed a number of problems and when it actually came to 1/1/00 we had no significant issues. I can promise that would not have been the case otherwise. Did we over prepare? Maybe...but better that than under prepare.
As a Tomb Raider fan, I'd have to say I prefer silicone ;)
Thread based programming really isn't that hard, particularly where you have a problem space which can be split up into discreet chunks of work. Example - a photoshop blur filter. Just divide the image up into (overlapping) chunks and blur each piece on a different thread. Another example - digital audio. Put each VST instrument on it's own thread. Once your apps are well threaded (and in many cases they already are) you can simply rely on the OS to schedule them over how ever many cores are available. For example, I write server code on my desktop box (single core w/hyperthreading) and it runs perfectly happily on the 64 core production servers, just faster.
Of course this is simplifying things a bit, and it is hard to get the very best performance from any given environment, but you can make a big difference quite easily.
If I were such a manager, and had an employee who I though might pull a stunt like that, I'd fire them before they had the chance. If I didn't, well I guess I deserve what happens.
It's called taking responsibility. As a manager (not at GameStop I should add), if someone working for me screws up to such a level as to require someone to be fired, that someone should be me - I'm ultimately responsible for the actions of my team. A manager's role is to a large degree one of control and oversight, it's my job to make sure that the right people are given responsibilities, that they understand them, that they have whatever resources they need, and that they are trustworthy.
I don't get what the problem with EZ Pass is. It only does anything when I pass through a highway toll booth, and it only records the time I do so. So if I'm driving off-highway (which is most of the time) it does nothing. And if I really want anonymity for some reason I can just leave the tag at home or pop it in the silver antistatic baggy they helpfully supply. If I really wanted to be clever I could put it in another car. Given the other option (paying cash tolls) I don't think they really helps my privacy much seeing as the booths all have cameras and if the police were really interested in my movements they'd check the tapes.
How does Palm/Treo fit into this picture? I'm just curious - I've largely ignored smartphones until now and haven't kept up to date with who runs what these days.
I don't like assigning values to functions
user.fuckWith = userId.length() <= 4;
Ignoring the fact that a myspace password is hardly as important as your SS# (unless, of course, they're the same!) the first place I'd call wouldn't be the host, it'd be my bank. You can't delete things from the internet, the data's out there, the damage is done. The first order of business is mitigating the risk of someone using that data. After that, you can think about figuring out who's responsible, and that's the person who posted it not the person who runs or hosts the site.