The Wii, as with the DS, is also going to extend gaming into the homes of non-gamers.
Will it? How do you know?
As the DS got female gamers and parents interested with games like Nintendogs and Brain Age, the Wii will become inticing as an "alternative" workout, with games like Wii Sports. (We will see some sort of work-out "game" before the end of 2007, mark my words.) At the very least, it will chip away at the gamer stereotype as lazy blobs that sit on the couch while playing.
And what about the Dance Dance Revolution pads that are available for current gen consoles? Or the workout program-on-DVD for Xbox? (Yourself Fitness.) Did those chip away at anything?
Just FYI, most states in the US have crosswalks ("zebra crossings") at intersections whether they happen to be painted on the ground or not. That said, you don't know whether the driver going 45 in the rightmost lane is aware of that, or even if they are aware that they are driving at all while so busy talking on their cellphone and putting on makeup.
But, my point is, in every state I've lived in, it's perfectly legal to walk across a street at an intersection whether there are lines painted on the road or not.
I live on a small city lot, therefore I should live closer to where I work by your reckoning and have good transit service. But what you're not taking into account is that the city lot I'm on happens to be in Snohomish, WA... and there are no jobs in Snohomish!
So even though I'm not on an acre lot, I still have to drive over an hour on crowded state highways to get to work in Redmond.
It's been a long time since there were good-paying jobs available in smallish cities. Snohomish used to be the biggest city in the county, now at best it's a suburb. (Don't get me wrong, I *love* my city lot and my cute little house... but I could actually cut my commute by moving to a bigger house on more land if it happened to be closer to the jobs.)
No, I think the problem is that you're thinking inside-the-box and you're not seeing the forest for the trees. As I implied in my last point.
What's really amazing is that you basically stated my point, and then immediately went on to talk about utterly irrelevant details instead of processing it.
as you say that's the wrong mindset, it shouldn't be "it's good enough for Windows" but "the best I can be".
EXACTLY! That's my point. Mac users, whether or not the Mac sucks don't have an unhealthy obsession with beating Microsoft. Maybe it's because the community is older; maybe it's because the community is more mature. It doesn't matter why.
On the other hand, many complaints about Linux are met with the response: "well, Windows is just as bad so it's not like Linux has a real problem." This is a wrong argument when they happen to be right (for instance, installing the OS on a blank HD), but it's DOUBLY-WRONG when they happen to be wrong (for instance, I've seen this as a reply to the complaint that installing printers is too hard.) Saying that is basically saying, "well, it's not our problem" and dismissing the issue out-of-hand.
First of all, Slashdot is about 50/50 liberal and libertarian, from my observations.
Secondly, saying that "intelligent people who like to keep some awareness of the world outside Fox News and talk radio" are all going to be liberal is complete gibberish. There's as many left-wing talk radio stations as right-wing. And there's plenty of very intelligent people who support conservative politics... for instance, Thomas Sowell.
About 10 years ago, there was a company in Europe (France, I believe) trying to make that happen. They built a huge hanger, build a half-size prototype zeppelin... then ran out of money and went out of business. The hanger was remodeled to be a jungle theme park, I believe.
It's still a good idea, though. A decent-sized zeppelin could haul 2-4 cargo containers at 40+ MPH, and there's no need for a crew... these are simple enough to just pop in a computer and GPS and let them go. Pity the company that was working at this didn't make it.
I thought it took place in "Airstrip One" which may or may not have been called London at one time. Of course, it's kind of hard to be sure of anything in a world where history is malleable.
Has anyone here had any success in gaming online with satellite internet?
No.
Well, let me go into a bit more detail:
Hahahahahahahaha! No Flipping Way, Sucker! Hahahaha!
Also: Yet another Ask Slashdot question that can be answered by Google and common sense. Satellite = 600+ms latency. What do you do with people with that much latency in your Quake 4 game? Oh right, you kick their asses. WOW *might* be marginally tolerable... but I doubt it.
Office was pretty smart in Mac Classic. Instead of running as an installer, it would just copy what it needed the first time it ran. Your other examples are valid, though-- there were apps in Mac Classic that requires installers, just not a lot. Same as... *gasp* OS X. So no real change there.
and because of side placement of CD/DVD, inability of the unit to be placed within narrow enclosures...
Stupid question: Where would you put the CD/DVD drive?
Your options are basically the top, the bottom, or one of the sides. Which of those seems most practical? (Of course, if you did really want a design coup you could do something like sliding it underneath the keyboard and having the computer interface with it via the USB cable.
The first and third Halo novels were pretty good. There's enough material in those for at least one good movie, as long as its written and condensed well.
(The novelization of the game, however, stunk to high-heaven. The only even slightly interesting thing about it is that it told bits of the story from the Covenant point-of-view.)
Back when I used to read it, it was basically "Bush-bashing Daily." A typical headline might be: "Less animals adopted from shelters this year; is Bush killing America's puppies!?"
Oh wait... the Red Dwarf special editions were broadcast once ever and never seen again, and aren't available on DVD. So... yeah, great use of that money.
Microsoft is probably the most pro-patent reform of any US tech company. The problem is that, as cases like this show, they can't afford to not play the game... they just want the rules of the game to change.
BTW, here's the process I followed to find the Airport information:
Went to the Ubuntu.com homepage. Clicked "Community" under "Support". Clicked the link for the Ubuntu Documentation Project. Clicked HTML version of Ubuntu Desktop Guide. Clicked "Networking" under "Configuring your System". Nothing there. Hit back a few times to go back to the Community Support page. Now click the bottom link for "Ubuntu Wiki". Scroll down to "Network, Wireless and Internet Devices". Looks promising! Click there. Click "WifiDocs/Wireless Cards Supported". Scroll down looking for Apple... not listed. Look for Airport... not listed.
Here's the instructions for installing Airport wireless, from:
1.2.1. Prerequisites You must broadcast your essid from your router. This is not essential, and the wireless card will connect if broadcast is turned off and you specify the essid by hand, but it makes it easier to test.
Don't use ifup and ifdown until you configure your/etc/network/interfaces file. (see below for instructions on howto do that here.)
You must remove ndiswrapper if you where using it before, instructions on how can be found here;
You must remove wifi-radar, as it has a driver conflict with the driver.
WTF part of that am I supposed to understand? And that's only the first section, "prerequisites." Of course, if I was a Unix expert, I'd like WTF "ifup" and "ifdown" do and why I'd use them, or whether I had ndiswrapper installed. (You know, if I "where" using it before.) Hell, I barely know what a "essid" is, and I'm a pretty smart guy generally.
If/when Ubuntu do a kernel upgrade to 2.6.17 or later you MUST use wl_apsta.o (the script does that). The new module does not have the invalid AP bug. To obtain the wl_apsta.o visit http://drinus.net/airport/wl_apsta.o. (From the bcm43xx team). The latest firmware package contains this driver.
Uh... ok. All gibberish to me.
Anyway, there's no point to keep going... the point is that that documentation SUCKS ASS and is impossible for any normal person to follow. Ubuntu might as well just pop up a big message that says, "unless you're already a Unix expert, Airport cards don't work."
I never got it working. I couldn't install any Internet connection, so I gave up and went back to OS X. Ubuntu is utterly useless without any Internet connection... you can't install software, you can't play a DVD, you can't even view the help. Given, OS X and Windows XP are pretty useless without any Internet connections anymore, either, but Airport cards work in both of those.
When they get Airport cards working, I'll give it another try.
BTW, the issue with sleeping *does* really concern me. Trust me, the current.iso download of Ubuntu, when installed to an iBook, will *not* sleep the iBook when the lid closes by default... potentially damaging the hardware. There's no warning that this could damage the hardware whatsoever. That's BAD QA... TERRIBLE QA. If someone's iBook does get damaged due to installing Ubuntu, I hope they sue.
Oh, also, it popped back into text mode when it woke up from sleep. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to turn my computer on and have it go directly to my desktop without ever having to see anything in text mode... both Apple and Microsoft seem to pull it off just fine. (Ok, ok, XP stays in text mode about half a second before it goes to the pretty GUI splash.)
Actually, the pointer on my iBook moved too fast. Or, more accurately, about the same speed but all jerkily... the tracking speed was too high and the acceleration too low. Or vice versa, I don't remember, I just had to fiddle to get it right again.
Turning on sleep mode gave me a scary warning, but what it *didn't* mention is that the G4 iBooks like the one I have can actually be physically damaged if you close the lid while they're still running-- something Ubuntu does by default! (I dunno, maybe they do something to prevent this, or maybe Apple's warning about damaging the hardware is overzealous, but still it should at least *say* something.)
A lot of what turned me off was the ugliness. When it boots, it goes into text-mode three times... once to ask what disk to boot from, one to give some strange prompt I don't get, and a third to display some errors it doesn't explain. Since those errors don't seem to actually hurt anything, why even show them? Hide them in a error log like Windows does with unimportant errors.
I was a little impressed that details like the battery meter worked ok. Sound worked. The video was at the correct resolution by default. It just bothers me that there's a process to get Airport cards working, the instructions for it are on the website, and yet it doesn't just DO it on its own.
Also, since I'm griping, the Wiki had a big-ass long list of wireless chipsets and how well they worked, except it didn't include the Airport card. Apparently, I was supposed to telepathically know that "Airport" is actually "Broadcom". (The instructions on getting the Airport card working were on a different Wiki page, not linked-to by the first.)
(I couldn't follow the instructions for two reasons: 1. I didn't understand enough of them; it's written in a shorthand that assumes you're a Unix wizard and I'm not, and 2. it required an Internet connection to follow them. Catch-22 there... I can't get an Internet connection without my Airport card, and I can't get my Airport card working without an Internet connection.)
What distro have you been using? Installing software in Ubuntu: go to add/remove programs in the menu, find your program, select it, click [apply changes], done. Installing USB printers or scanners? Just plug 'em in. It doesn't get much simpler than this, and it certainly isn't on Windows. Still, Windows is considered Ready For The Desktop(C)(R)(TM)(WTF).
Just FYI, this only works *if* you have a working internet connection-- which is definitely not a given.
I installed Ubuntu on an iBook figuring everything would work. After all, Apple made thousands of the suckers and they're all identical... surely somebody by now has figured out all that needs to happen to get the iBooks working and shoved it into Ubuntu's install process. And except the AirPort card... it was.
What I don't get is that there *were* instructions on how to get it working on the Ubuntu support wiki, but for some stupid reason it wasn't scripted and just put on as part of the install process. What's that, some kind of IQ test? To see if you're worthy? (The instructions are completely gibberish to me-- I'm not worthy. I went back to OS X.)
I'm not saying that Linux should compare itself to OS X instead of to Windows. I'm saying Linux should focus on fixing problems in Linux instead of comparing itself to anything else.
I used the example of Macintosh, because (generally) Mac users will never say things like, "well, DVD Player on Mac steals focus, but that's OK because all kinds of Windows applications steal focus." Yet you see things like that in the Linux community all the time.
apps feel cluttered: most windows apps feel cluttered, too.
Just pointing out the mindset that will guarantee that Linux will never be better than Windows. It doesn't matter that Windows programs have the same problem if it is a valid problem.
You don't see Mac users constantly comparing their software to Windows... that's because Mac users have a sense of identity more complex than "we're not Windows." Linux needs to develop this, or it will never be better than Windows. (Because, whenever somebody suggests a problem with Linux, someone else will reply "well, Windows has the same problem" and nobody will act on it.)
Re:That's not like any BASIC program *I* ever wrot
on
Why Johnny Can't Code
·
· Score: 1
I was writing Commodore 64 code. I don't remember how to make a C-64 beep... I do remember it doesn't have a "BEEP" command like other BASICs. Hell, I'm just glad I remember the POKE code to change text color.
Slashdot Mirror
The Wii, as with the DS, is also going to extend gaming into the homes of non-gamers.
Will it? How do you know?
As the DS got female gamers and parents interested with games like Nintendogs and Brain Age, the Wii will become inticing as an "alternative" workout, with games like Wii Sports. (We will see some sort of work-out "game" before the end of 2007, mark my words.) At the very least, it will chip away at the gamer stereotype as lazy blobs that sit on the couch while playing.
And what about the Dance Dance Revolution pads that are available for current gen consoles? Or the workout program-on-DVD for Xbox? (Yourself Fitness.) Did those chip away at anything?
Lot of speculation going on in this post.
Just FYI, most states in the US have crosswalks ("zebra crossings") at intersections whether they happen to be painted on the ground or not. That said, you don't know whether the driver going 45 in the rightmost lane is aware of that, or even if they are aware that they are driving at all while so busy talking on their cellphone and putting on makeup.
But, my point is, in every state I've lived in, it's perfectly legal to walk across a street at an intersection whether there are lines painted on the road or not.
Except that doesn't matter in a lot of cases.
I live on a small city lot, therefore I should live closer to where I work by your reckoning and have good transit service. But what you're not taking into account is that the city lot I'm on happens to be in Snohomish, WA... and there are no jobs in Snohomish!
So even though I'm not on an acre lot, I still have to drive over an hour on crowded state highways to get to work in Redmond.
It's been a long time since there were good-paying jobs available in smallish cities. Snohomish used to be the biggest city in the county, now at best it's a suburb. (Don't get me wrong, I *love* my city lot and my cute little house... but I could actually cut my commute by moving to a bigger house on more land if it happened to be closer to the jobs.)
No, I think the problem is that you're thinking inside-the-box and you're not seeing the forest for the trees. As I implied in my last point.
What's really amazing is that you basically stated my point, and then immediately went on to talk about utterly irrelevant details instead of processing it.
as you say that's the wrong mindset, it shouldn't be "it's good enough for Windows" but "the best I can be".
EXACTLY! That's my point. Mac users, whether or not the Mac sucks don't have an unhealthy obsession with beating Microsoft. Maybe it's because the community is older; maybe it's because the community is more mature. It doesn't matter why.
On the other hand, many complaints about Linux are met with the response: "well, Windows is just as bad so it's not like Linux has a real problem." This is a wrong argument when they happen to be right (for instance, installing the OS on a blank HD), but it's DOUBLY-WRONG when they happen to be wrong (for instance, I've seen this as a reply to the complaint that installing printers is too hard.) Saying that is basically saying, "well, it's not our problem" and dismissing the issue out-of-hand.
First of all, Slashdot is about 50/50 liberal and libertarian, from my observations.
Secondly, saying that "intelligent people who like to keep some awareness of the world outside Fox News and talk radio" are all going to be liberal is complete gibberish. There's as many left-wing talk radio stations as right-wing. And there's plenty of very intelligent people who support conservative politics... for instance, Thomas Sowell.
About 10 years ago, there was a company in Europe (France, I believe) trying to make that happen. They built a huge hanger, build a half-size prototype zeppelin... then ran out of money and went out of business. The hanger was remodeled to be a jungle theme park, I believe.
It's still a good idea, though. A decent-sized zeppelin could haul 2-4 cargo containers at 40+ MPH, and there's no need for a crew... these are simple enough to just pop in a computer and GPS and let them go. Pity the company that was working at this didn't make it.
What the hell is a Quake-like console? You fire a little gun to run commands and navigate folder directories using WASD?!
I thought it took place in "Airstrip One" which may or may not have been called London at one time. Of course, it's kind of hard to be sure of anything in a world where history is malleable.
Has anyone here had any success in gaming online with satellite internet?
No.
Well, let me go into a bit more detail:
Hahahahahahahaha! No Flipping Way, Sucker! Hahahaha!
Also: Yet another Ask Slashdot question that can be answered by Google and common sense. Satellite = 600+ms latency. What do you do with people with that much latency in your Quake 4 game? Oh right, you kick their asses. WOW *might* be marginally tolerable... but I doubt it.
Office was pretty smart in Mac Classic. Instead of running as an installer, it would just copy what it needed the first time it ran. Your other examples are valid, though-- there were apps in Mac Classic that requires installers, just not a lot. Same as... *gasp* OS X. So no real change there.
Wow, you're still utterly missing my point. I give up. You know, I hear that in-between all those trees there's a forest.
and because of side placement of CD/DVD, inability of the unit to be placed within narrow enclosures...
Stupid question: Where would you put the CD/DVD drive?
Your options are basically the top, the bottom, or one of the sides. Which of those seems most practical? (Of course, if you did really want a design coup you could do something like sliding it underneath the keyboard and having the computer interface with it via the USB cable.
The first and third Halo novels were pretty good. There's enough material in those for at least one good movie, as long as its written and condensed well.
(The novelization of the game, however, stunk to high-heaven. The only even slightly interesting thing about it is that it told bits of the story from the Covenant point-of-view.)
With a movie such as that I could vaporize the earth! ...
It was a natural thought.
Back when I used to read it, it was basically "Bush-bashing Daily." A typical headline might be: "Less animals adopted from shelters this year; is Bush killing America's puppies!?"
Maybe it's gotten better, I dunno.
But it worked out so well when Red Dwarf did it!
Oh wait... the Red Dwarf special editions were broadcast once ever and never seen again, and aren't available on DVD. So... yeah, great use of that money.
Microsoft is probably the most pro-patent reform of any US tech company. The problem is that, as cases like this show, they can't afford to not play the game... they just want the rules of the game to change.
Went to the Ubuntu.com homepage. Clicked "Community" under "Support". Clicked the link for the Ubuntu Documentation Project. Clicked HTML version of Ubuntu Desktop Guide. Clicked "Networking" under "Configuring your System". Nothing there. Hit back a few times to go back to the Community Support page. Now click the bottom link for "Ubuntu Wiki". Scroll down to "Network, Wireless and Internet Devices". Looks promising! Click there. Click "WifiDocs/Wireless Cards Supported". Scroll down looking for Apple... not listed. Look for Airport... not listed.
Here's the instructions for installing Airport wireless, from:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver
WTF part of that am I supposed to understand? And that's only the first section, "prerequisites." Of course, if I was a Unix expert, I'd like WTF "ifup" and "ifdown" do and why I'd use them, or whether I had ndiswrapper installed. (You know, if I "where" using it before.) Hell, I barely know what a "essid" is, and I'm a pretty smart guy generally.
Uh... ok. All gibberish to me.
Anyway, there's no point to keep going... the point is that that documentation SUCKS ASS and is impossible for any normal person to follow. Ubuntu might as well just pop up a big message that says, "unless you're already a Unix expert, Airport cards don't work."
I never got it working. I couldn't install any Internet connection, so I gave up and went back to OS X. Ubuntu is utterly useless without any Internet connection... you can't install software, you can't play a DVD, you can't even view the help. Given, OS X and Windows XP are pretty useless without any Internet connections anymore, either, but Airport cards work in both of those.
.iso download of Ubuntu, when installed to an iBook, will *not* sleep the iBook when the lid closes by default... potentially damaging the hardware. There's no warning that this could damage the hardware whatsoever. That's BAD QA... TERRIBLE QA. If someone's iBook does get damaged due to installing Ubuntu, I hope they sue.
When they get Airport cards working, I'll give it another try.
BTW, the issue with sleeping *does* really concern me. Trust me, the current
Oh, also, it popped back into text mode when it woke up from sleep. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to turn my computer on and have it go directly to my desktop without ever having to see anything in text mode... both Apple and Microsoft seem to pull it off just fine. (Ok, ok, XP stays in text mode about half a second before it goes to the pretty GUI splash.)
Actually, the pointer on my iBook moved too fast. Or, more accurately, about the same speed but all jerkily... the tracking speed was too high and the acceleration too low. Or vice versa, I don't remember, I just had to fiddle to get it right again.
Turning on sleep mode gave me a scary warning, but what it *didn't* mention is that the G4 iBooks like the one I have can actually be physically damaged if you close the lid while they're still running-- something Ubuntu does by default! (I dunno, maybe they do something to prevent this, or maybe Apple's warning about damaging the hardware is overzealous, but still it should at least *say* something.)
A lot of what turned me off was the ugliness. When it boots, it goes into text-mode three times... once to ask what disk to boot from, one to give some strange prompt I don't get, and a third to display some errors it doesn't explain. Since those errors don't seem to actually hurt anything, why even show them? Hide them in a error log like Windows does with unimportant errors.
I was a little impressed that details like the battery meter worked ok. Sound worked. The video was at the correct resolution by default. It just bothers me that there's a process to get Airport cards working, the instructions for it are on the website, and yet it doesn't just DO it on its own.
Also, since I'm griping, the Wiki had a big-ass long list of wireless chipsets and how well they worked, except it didn't include the Airport card. Apparently, I was supposed to telepathically know that "Airport" is actually "Broadcom". (The instructions on getting the Airport card working were on a different Wiki page, not linked-to by the first.)
(I couldn't follow the instructions for two reasons: 1. I didn't understand enough of them; it's written in a shorthand that assumes you're a Unix wizard and I'm not, and 2. it required an Internet connection to follow them. Catch-22 there... I can't get an Internet connection without my Airport card, and I can't get my Airport card working without an Internet connection.)
What distro have you been using? Installing software in Ubuntu: go to add/remove programs in the menu, find your program, select it, click [apply changes], done. Installing USB printers or scanners? Just plug 'em in. It doesn't get much simpler than this, and it certainly isn't on Windows. Still, Windows is considered Ready For The Desktop(C)(R)(TM)(WTF).
Just FYI, this only works *if* you have a working internet connection-- which is definitely not a given.
I installed Ubuntu on an iBook figuring everything would work. After all, Apple made thousands of the suckers and they're all identical... surely somebody by now has figured out all that needs to happen to get the iBooks working and shoved it into Ubuntu's install process. And except the AirPort card... it was.
What I don't get is that there *were* instructions on how to get it working on the Ubuntu support wiki, but for some stupid reason it wasn't scripted and just put on as part of the install process. What's that, some kind of IQ test? To see if you're worthy? (The instructions are completely gibberish to me-- I'm not worthy. I went back to OS X.)
You completely and utterly missed my point.
I'm not saying that Linux should compare itself to OS X instead of to Windows. I'm saying Linux should focus on fixing problems in Linux instead of comparing itself to anything else.
I used the example of Macintosh, because (generally) Mac users will never say things like, "well, DVD Player on Mac steals focus, but that's OK because all kinds of Windows applications steal focus." Yet you see things like that in the Linux community all the time.
apps feel cluttered: most windows apps feel cluttered, too.
Just pointing out the mindset that will guarantee that Linux will never be better than Windows. It doesn't matter that Windows programs have the same problem if it is a valid problem.
You don't see Mac users constantly comparing their software to Windows... that's because Mac users have a sense of identity more complex than "we're not Windows." Linux needs to develop this, or it will never be better than Windows. (Because, whenever somebody suggests a problem with Linux, someone else will reply "well, Windows has the same problem" and nobody will act on it.)
I was writing Commodore 64 code. I don't remember how to make a C-64 beep... I do remember it doesn't have a "BEEP" command like other BASICs. Hell, I'm just glad I remember the POKE code to change text color.