The reason I use my iPod mini is that when I'm at work I want music that is conducive to getting me into the 'productivity zone'. Most of the FM stations in my area (KCMO) have crappy DJs wasting my time jabbering on about crap and pulling stunts that were old when I was 14. When they do get to a song they seldom play them in a row and always seem to be 'walking' on the song. (If we had a DJ that was as good as, say, the Greaseman whos is in the Washington DC area, that would be another story.;-))
NPR is fine when I'm driving to and from work to help keep myself informed, but when I'm working news and informative stories tend to pull my focus away from what I'm doing, that is, my mind pays more attention to what's being said rather than the job I'm currently doing.
I do have to say I'm amused that you consider people choosing to listen to stuff *they like* "incredibly asocial and self-important and stuffy". Why is it so terrible to go with an alternative when an existing source isn't meeting their needs? FM radio isn't the only way to be social or discover new music.:-D The 'net (especially with broadband) gives many ways to find new/different music.
You have to click, hold, and move the drive/share icon to trigger the eject symbol appearing. (Just clicking and holding might be someone trying to bring up a Finder view of the drive/share.)
Anecdotal evidenced-base comment (You Have Been Warned (tm);-)):
Among the people I know that have an iPod, the reason they use the iPod is to get away from the perceived crap on the radio. They want to hear the stuff they think is good, not the few dribs and drabs of songs some overly-verbose DJ has been told to play.
I can see why a few folks want an all-in-one device, but adding an FM tuner adds complexity, various legal hoops, and a small dilution of focus to a device that has always about having your music.
(Ok, ok, the iPod photo is a small dilution as well. I think Apple tried to be innovative and add a feature they though people could use. It hasn't been a big boost to iPod sales, though that may mostly be because of the high prices of the iPod photo.)
Don't blame Obsidian, blame LucasArts. Many of the promo videos stated that the game for both XBox and PC would be out in February. LucasArts was the one that moved the XBbox release date up by a couple of months. When a chunk of your schedule is ripped away from you something has to give.:-(
Even Firefly, which I love, managed to sometimes feel a little claustrophobic (ships crossing between stars passing by within a few hundred feet of each other, a little strange).
They had the ships pass closely for dramatic story-telling reasons. Yeah, it's probably too close for absolute realism, but it works on the emotional level for the viewer. The reaver (?) ship was so close that it was inside the psychological 'safe' distance. It added nicely to the tension of the encounter without being grossly wrong.
I can accept those types of trade offs in a good story, especially given the tight time constraints of a TV episode.
Anandtech is the *latest* person to say you should buy more RAM. When I bought my old iBook in 2001 it was a common suggestion to get 512MB or, in the case of the iBook, 640MB RAM (the max). More RAM is better for power-users.:)
For the typical user or beginner, 256MB will be a decent amount. They aren't going to be running half a dozen or a dozen apps at the same time. Maybe iTunes, iChat, Safari, plus another app at the same time. Typical users tend to single-task more because it is easier for them to focus on what they are doing.
If there are problems in the game, I'd like to see them reported. I've yet to see anything like that in anyone's reviews, unless they are another end user who's not associated with the game or a web site who sells the game. None of the magazines or on line review sites give you this kind of information. Just to illustrate, I'll name some examples.
I've purchased several games only to be severely disappointed. I purchased Morrowind III Bethesda Softworks and it took me 3 months just to get to a point where I could create a character without the game causing me to get the BSOD thanks to an illegal call to my video driver. I was not alone in this problem. How hard it is to tell people that your game isn't compatible with the NVIDIA chipset? At the time the NVIDIA chipset was the hottest card around and in order to meet their sales projections, they kept mum.
The thing is, is it a widespread problem or a single user's problem? A reviewer needs to look at the broader picture. If a big only happens on their PC and not others then should they report it? Maybe.
To use your example of Morrowind, in my house we were playing it on three different PCs (all legit, we all wanted the goodies in the collector's edition:-D) with three different Geforces (a GF2 Ultra, a GF3 Ti300, and a GF4 4600). All were using the latest WHQL drivers for the particular OS (XP and 98SE). No bluescreens or illegal operations.
So, the question becomes as a reviewer, does one report that Morrowind won't work with "the NVIDIA chipset" or just assume that the problem lies with one's personal PC? After all, we all buy a lemon part once in a while. It doesn't mean that entire line of parts is bad.
My preference would be for the reviewer to state they had a problem, list the hardware and software used (w/version numbers), and then continue the review with another (stock setup) PC.
Re:No mention of HL2?
on
Getting the Girl
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Another one would be Cate Archer from the No One Lives Forever series. The character's looks were based on the real life model Mitzi Martin.
I'm sure the same calibre GPU two years ago would have required a fan + more power. I'm sure 2 years from now the 6800FX will be a "moderate" card by the newer standards.
You're spot on. I just replaced my son's GF3 Ti200 with an on-sale GF FX 5700LE. While the 5700LE does need a fan, it doesn't need the molex connector like my 5600 Ultra that I purchased a year and a half ago. (The two cards are approximately equal in performance.)
L2, on the other hand had more variety, although it was impossibly tough in places (I became so bored trying to finish the prison section where you must set up 3 sentry guns and survive against an entire fucking army at close range that I just switched on the God mode).
Here's a tip to survive that spot without taking any damage:
Take out each sentry gun, turn it around, and then put it back in its storage slot. (You might want to make sure a sentry gun is in a slot on the outside of the little corridor.) Place yourself in the empty inner slot. Now the sentry guns will mow down the soldiers and can't be knocked over. If any soldiers do make into that little corridor you can kill them with the double-shot from the shotgun. If you stay back in your spot you may never see a soldier or take any damage.
Some of the areas in HL2 are tough if you try to go toe to toe with the enemy. If you thing defensively you can make it through quite easily.
Not that HL2 is perfect (or even the best game ever) I wish Valve had put a manual in the game (lamest collectors edition ever!). I never realized until recently that you can roll a grenade on the floor (right click). There's an area in the game where that would have been nice to know about the first time around.
To be a bit pedantic, words can have multiple meanings. It is one of those features of the English language that give it richness. Just as an example, the Oxford Dictionary of Current English lists as the second meaning of pirate as "person who infringes another's copyright or business rights or who broadcasts without official authorization".
Just as "hacker" has multiple meanings (good and bad) depending on the context, so does pirate, pirating, and piracy.
Firefox is used as an example of an app that shows the quality of FOSS. A possible carrot to get people thinking about using other FOSS software (including operating systems).
My question is, isn't Firefox's goal more about keeping the web alive as a standards-based system instead of an IE-specific system? The 'gee, maybe I should look at other FOSS apps' reaction just a happy side effect?
To me, Firefox gains undermine Windows dominance because Firefox is creating a bigger market for standards-based web sites. Yes, Firefox adds value to Windows, but it also adds value to other areas even more.
In a sense, Firefox is using a go-ish strategy. Let your enemy win some, but in doing so you (Firefox) win even more. The situation isn't strictly a win/lose scenario that is presented in the blog entry.
Those are my thoughts. Since I'm not following the Mozilla Foundation's strategy closely am I missing something important?
That problem only gets worse when you centralize school boards. Just look at the mess California and Texas have with regards to textbooks. Because California and Texas are each basically one stop shopping when it comes to purchasing text books they tend to set the standard for all text books across the nation simply because of their size. Break those two up into their constituent, local school boards and you would immediately dilute the power of small fringe groups. (That is, it is a lot harder to, say, replace evolution with creationism when the battles have to be fought at every school.)
:chuckle: Only on/. would someone suggest reinforcing the broken parts of the existing system. Adding even more unresponsive bureaucracy is going to make things better?
Two of the main problems of the existing system are the fact it is very difficult to get rid of bad teachers (tenure anyone?) and that there is a increasing loss of local control.
You have to be able to get rid of bad teachers or be able to move them around. for things to ever improve. The problem with making them fully civil servants (they are pretty close to that now), is that the civil service will move to make sure it keeps its headcount as large as possible. Bureaucracies always try to increase because that gives them more power.
Local control, well, you might want to take a look at the Constitutional principle of "consent of the governed". Yes, some local systems will screw up. However, some will find better ways to do things. Mistakes won't affect every school district and the good ideas can percolate through out the system. I mean, do you really want a monopoly with all that entails for your educational system?
As far as "very professionalized administration", rampant credentialism is overwhelming actual education efforts. Instead of trying to educate students for those that go on and provide useful skills to those that won't move on to higher education, the system is being pushed towards making sure every student had a piece of paper stating they weren't left behind.
[...] worst of all the camera work was done by a trainee they grabbed off the street - half the time the camera is looking at the roof or floor not at the actors!
That's deliberate. They are using the documentary-ish technique that Firefly had. Kind of a 'what happened? where?' attempt for TV.
I would say give them more time, but you've indicated that you aren't. YMDV (Your Mileage Did Vary) I try to give a new show a season to work itself out. It takes time for the people involved to see what works and what doesn't. The lead time for production means corrections aren't going to happen in just a few episodes.
Even though they had fantastic engineers DEC was run by morons. When the PCs (Z80 based CPM ones) were gaining popularity DEC had a PC with both a 8080 and a Z80. This machine could run DOS and CP/M. It had high resolution color, it had a 132 column screen with smooth scrolling, it had built in VT100 emulation. It was the best PC on the market and they could not sell it.
Ah, the DEC Rainbow 100. I have two of them.;-) (All Rainbows have the Z80 and an _8088_, not the 8080.)
The problem was compatibility. While CP/M-86/80 allowed you to run most 16-bit and 8-bit CP/M apps, the version of MS-DOS didn't run the common IBM-PC software (the Rainbow was DECs answer to the IBM PC). You needed custom versions of your DOS apps for the Rainbow.
If DEC had pulled a Compaq and built-in 100% IBM PC compatibility then things might have been different. As it was, the Rainbow is just another of the odd relics from the early days of the microcomputer market.
My comment about emotional hatred was based on David Cobb's answer "I cannot under any circumstances accept nuclear power and genetically modified foods as a healthy alternative.".
His statements shows that he would not look at any new facts or opposing arguments. Reactors are being developed that can't go critical. Based on "under *any* circumstances" (emphasis mine) it means that if nuclear power was the safest, most environmentally safe alternative he wouldn't accept it. That doesn't sound like a person with a rational view on the subject, but one that has made an emotional decision. Emotional decisions aren't bad per se (love, for example), but it does mean you aren't able to have a reasonable discussion with the person on the subject. (Now, if he had said something to the effect of 'I don't accept the current designs' then that would be someone willing to accept new evidence.)
If you say he was being a bit over the top on the topic, I would respond that he can't have it both ways with his statement. Either he is honestly principled and means exactly what he says, or he's playing the part of a typical politician: saying what he thinks his audience wants to hear. I chose to think that he means what he said. YMMV
Slashdot Mirror
Shouldn't that be "not falling down on the job of being drunken students"? ;-)
Not only did they run the song into the ground, they cut the lyrics "You make a grown man cry" from the song.
The reason I use my iPod mini is that when I'm at work I want music that is conducive to getting me into the 'productivity zone'. Most of the FM stations in my area (KCMO) have crappy DJs wasting my time jabbering on about crap and pulling stunts that were old when I was 14. When they do get to a song they seldom play them in a row and always seem to be 'walking' on the song. (If we had a DJ that was as good as, say, the Greaseman whos is in the Washington DC area, that would be another story. ;-))
:-D The 'net (especially with broadband) gives many ways to find new/different music.
NPR is fine when I'm driving to and from work to help keep myself informed, but when I'm working news and informative stories tend to pull my focus away from what I'm doing, that is, my mind pays more attention to what's being said rather than the job I'm currently doing.
I do have to say I'm amused that you consider people choosing to listen to stuff *they like* "incredibly asocial and self-important and stuffy". Why is it so terrible to go with an alternative when an existing source isn't meeting their needs? FM radio isn't the only way to be social or discover new music.
The author of the Tremor codec and OGG itself would disagree.
/. story on the issue. :-D
There was even a
I don't know which is funnier, your spoof or the '+1, Interesting' mod you got. :-D
You have to click, hold, and move the drive/share icon to trigger the eject symbol appearing. (Just clicking and holding might be someone trying to bring up a Finder view of the drive/share.)
Anecdotal evidenced-base comment (You Have Been Warned (tm) ;-)):
Among the people I know that have an iPod, the reason they use the iPod is to get away from the perceived crap on the radio. They want to hear the stuff they think is good, not the few dribs and drabs of songs some overly-verbose DJ has been told to play.
I can see why a few folks want an all-in-one device, but adding an FM tuner adds complexity, various legal hoops, and a small dilution of focus to a device that has always about having your music.
(Ok, ok, the iPod photo is a small dilution as well. I think Apple tried to be innovative and add a feature they though people could use. It hasn't been a big boost to iPod sales, though that may mostly be because of the high prices of the iPod photo.)
Don't blame Obsidian, blame LucasArts. Many of the promo videos stated that the game for both XBox and PC would be out in February. LucasArts was the one that moved the XBbox release date up by a couple of months. When a chunk of your schedule is ripped away from you something has to give.
Even Firefly, which I love, managed to sometimes feel a little claustrophobic (ships crossing between stars passing by within a few hundred feet of each other, a little strange).
They had the ships pass closely for dramatic story-telling reasons. Yeah, it's probably too close for absolute realism, but it works on the emotional level for the viewer. The reaver (?) ship was so close that it was inside the psychological 'safe' distance. It added nicely to the tension of the encounter without being grossly wrong.
I can accept those types of trade offs in a good story, especially given the tight time constraints of a TV episode.
"[...] then maybe, but for now, can't we limit slashdot to innovative and never-before-seen things?"
;-)
But, but, the DUPE-O-TRON in Slashcode is a *feature*, not a bug.
Why, Nipples, the Vulcan distro. It's logically intuitive.
;-)
Anandtech is the *latest* person to say you should buy more RAM. When I bought my old iBook in 2001 it was a common suggestion to get 512MB or, in the case of the iBook, 640MB RAM (the max). More RAM is better for power-users. :)
For the typical user or beginner, 256MB will be a decent amount. They aren't going to be running half a dozen or a dozen apps at the same time. Maybe iTunes, iChat, Safari, plus another app at the same time. Typical users tend to single-task more because it is easier for them to focus on what they are doing.
1. Where do you work that you need to use an iPod at work?
;-)
The IRS
2. Are they hiring?
Yes.
If there are problems in the game, I'd like to see them reported. I've yet to see anything like that in anyone's reviews, unless they are another end user who's not associated with the game or a web site who sells the game. None of the magazines or on line review sites give you this kind of information. Just to illustrate, I'll name some examples.
:-D) with three different Geforces (a GF2 Ultra, a GF3 Ti300, and a GF4 4600). All were using the latest WHQL drivers for the particular OS (XP and 98SE). No bluescreens or illegal operations.
I've purchased several games only to be severely disappointed. I purchased Morrowind III Bethesda Softworks and it took me 3 months just to get to a point where I could create a character without the game causing me to get the BSOD thanks to an illegal call to my video driver. I was not alone in this problem. How hard it is to tell people that your game isn't compatible with the NVIDIA chipset? At the time the NVIDIA chipset was the hottest card around and in order to meet their sales projections, they kept mum.
The thing is, is it a widespread problem or a single user's problem? A reviewer needs to look at the broader picture. If a big only happens on their PC and not others then should they report it? Maybe.
To use your example of Morrowind, in my house we were playing it on three different PCs (all legit, we all wanted the goodies in the collector's edition
So, the question becomes as a reviewer, does one report that Morrowind won't work with "the NVIDIA chipset" or just assume that the problem lies with one's personal PC? After all, we all buy a lemon part once in a while. It doesn't mean that entire line of parts is bad.
My preference would be for the reviewer to state they had a problem, list the hardware and software used (w/version numbers), and then continue the review with another (stock setup) PC.
Another one would be Cate Archer from the No One Lives Forever series. The character's looks were based on the real life model Mitzi Martin.
I'm sure the same calibre GPU two years ago would have required a fan + more power. I'm sure 2 years from now the 6800FX will be a "moderate" card by the newer standards.
You're spot on. I just replaced my son's GF3 Ti200 with an on-sale GF FX 5700LE. While the 5700LE does need a fan, it doesn't need the molex connector like my 5600 Ultra that I purchased a year and a half ago. (The two cards are approximately equal in performance.)
L2, on the other hand had more variety, although it was impossibly tough in places (I became so bored trying to finish the prison section where you must set up 3 sentry guns and survive against an entire fucking army at close range that I just switched on the God mode).
Here's a tip to survive that spot without taking any damage:
Take out each sentry gun, turn it around, and then put it back in its storage slot. (You might want to make sure a sentry gun is in a slot on the outside of the little corridor.) Place yourself in the empty inner slot. Now the sentry guns will mow down the soldiers and can't be knocked over. If any soldiers do make into that little corridor you can kill them with the double-shot from the shotgun. If you stay back in your spot you may never see a soldier or take any damage.
Some of the areas in HL2 are tough if you try to go toe to toe with the enemy. If you thing defensively you can make it through quite easily.
Not that HL2 is perfect (or even the best game ever) I wish Valve had put a manual in the game (lamest collectors edition ever!). I never realized until recently that you can roll a grenade on the floor (right click). There's an area in the game where that would have been nice to know about the first time around.
To be a bit pedantic, words can have multiple meanings. It is one of those features of the English language that give it richness. Just as an example, the Oxford Dictionary of Current English lists as the second meaning of pirate as "person who infringes another's copyright or business rights or who broadcasts without official authorization".
Just as "hacker" has multiple meanings (good and bad) depending on the context, so does pirate, pirating, and piracy.
Firefox is used as an example of an app that shows the quality of FOSS. A possible carrot to get people thinking about using other FOSS software (including operating systems).
My question is, isn't Firefox's goal more about keeping the web alive as a standards-based system instead of an IE-specific system? The 'gee, maybe I should look at other FOSS apps' reaction just a happy side effect?
To me, Firefox gains undermine Windows dominance because Firefox is creating a bigger market for standards-based web sites. Yes, Firefox adds value to Windows, but it also adds value to other areas even more.
In a sense, Firefox is using a go-ish strategy. Let your enemy win some, but in doing so you (Firefox) win even more. The situation isn't strictly a win/lose scenario that is presented in the blog entry.
Those are my thoughts. Since I'm not following the Mozilla Foundation's strategy closely am I missing something important?
That problem only gets worse when you centralize school boards. Just look at the mess California and Texas have with regards to textbooks. Because California and Texas are each basically one stop shopping when it comes to purchasing text books they tend to set the standard for all text books across the nation simply because of their size. Break those two up into their constituent, local school boards and you would immediately dilute the power of small fringe groups. (That is, it is a lot harder to, say, replace evolution with creationism when the battles have to be fought at every school.)
:chuckle: Only on /. would someone suggest reinforcing the broken parts of the existing system. Adding even more unresponsive bureaucracy is going to make things better?
Two of the main problems of the existing system are the fact it is very difficult to get rid of bad teachers (tenure anyone?) and that there is a increasing loss of local control.
You have to be able to get rid of bad teachers or be able to move them around. for things to ever improve. The problem with making them fully civil servants (they are pretty close to that now), is that the civil service will move to make sure it keeps its headcount as large as possible. Bureaucracies always try to increase because that gives them more power.
Local control, well, you might want to take a look at the Constitutional principle of "consent of the governed". Yes, some local systems will screw up. However, some will find better ways to do things. Mistakes won't affect every school district and the good ideas can percolate through out the system. I mean, do you really want a monopoly with all that entails for your educational system?
As far as "very professionalized administration", rampant credentialism is overwhelming actual education efforts. Instead of trying to educate students for those that go on and provide useful skills to those that won't move on to higher education, the system is being pushed towards making sure every student had a piece of paper stating they weren't left behind.
Because they are in a friendly competition to see if the iPod can be mentioned more times than Gentoo+Portage ? ;-)
[...] worst of all the camera work was done by a trainee they grabbed off the street - half the time the camera is looking at the roof or floor not at the actors!
That's deliberate. They are using the documentary-ish technique that Firefly had. Kind of a 'what happened? where?' attempt for TV.
I would say give them more time, but you've indicated that you aren't. YMDV (Your Mileage Did Vary) I try to give a new show a season to work itself out. It takes time for the people involved to see what works and what doesn't. The lead time for production means corrections aren't going to happen in just a few episodes.
Even though they had fantastic engineers DEC was run by morons. When the PCs (Z80 based CPM ones) were gaining popularity DEC had a PC with both a 8080 and a Z80. This machine could run DOS and CP/M. It had high resolution color, it had a 132 column screen with smooth scrolling, it had built in VT100 emulation. It was the best PC on the market and they could not sell it.
;-) (All Rainbows have the Z80 and an _8088_, not the 8080.)
Ah, the DEC Rainbow 100. I have two of them.
The problem was compatibility. While CP/M-86/80 allowed you to run most 16-bit and 8-bit CP/M apps, the version of MS-DOS didn't run the common IBM-PC software (the Rainbow was DECs answer to the IBM PC). You needed custom versions of your DOS apps for the Rainbow.
If DEC had pulled a Compaq and built-in 100% IBM PC compatibility then things might have been different. As it was, the Rainbow is just another of the odd relics from the early days of the microcomputer market.
My comment about emotional hatred was based on David Cobb's answer "I cannot under any circumstances accept nuclear power and genetically modified foods as a healthy alternative.".
His statements shows that he would not look at any new facts or opposing arguments. Reactors are being developed that can't go critical. Based on "under *any* circumstances" (emphasis mine) it means that if nuclear power was the safest, most environmentally safe alternative he wouldn't accept it. That doesn't sound like a person with a rational view on the subject, but one that has made an emotional decision. Emotional decisions aren't bad per se (love, for example), but it does mean you aren't able to have a reasonable discussion with the person on the subject. (Now, if he had said something to the effect of 'I don't accept the current designs' then that would be someone willing to accept new evidence.)
If you say he was being a bit over the top on the topic, I would respond that he can't have it both ways with his statement. Either he is honestly principled and means exactly what he says, or he's playing the part of a typical politician: saying what he thinks his audience wants to hear. I chose to think that he means what he said. YMMV