Just FYI, I was actually reading that up until you typed "The Police State of Amerika." Then my "psycho-meter" went off-the-scale and I decided to move on to more productive things, like writing this comment to let you know I think you're a psycho. Have a nice day.
Do you listen to the Adam Corolla show? He was talking about this "jobs Americans won't do" and he called it what it was: Utter bullshit. If you are poor, truly in need of money, you'll work in a field picking beans, you'll work at McDonalds, you'll do the work. The only Americans who *won't* do work like this are freeloading bums on welfare-- and they'd be freeloading bums on welfare even if the minimum wage was $50/hour.
"The GUI isn't perfect" has to be the understatement of the year. I can't think of any non-X11 OS X apps with a worse interface... except Lotus Notes (also Java.)
Yes, but here's my point: Using the official Bittorrent client, I don't have to do any of that to get a good download speed. It just plain works with no tinkering. The ability the tinker isn't bad, but it should have sane defaults so people who just want to download things can get to it.
I have a Macintosh and I've downloaded and used Azureus and I beg to differ.
In fact, because I'm extremely bored, I'll even re-download it just to give you an idea of where it goes wrong.
This Azureus 2.4.0.2 on OS X:
1) The first thing I see is a configuration wizard. Unfortunately, the buttons and layout are not the same as any OS X wizard.
2) At the same time I get the configuration wizard, I get Azureus Updater which tells me I need to restart. Already I'm confused; do I update first, or do the wizard first? The wizard window is in front, so let's start with that.
3) After saying my user proficiency is "beginner" the wizard asks me what my "line" and "Max Up Speed" is. "Max Up Speed?" WTF does that even mean? All the options are adsl/cable xxx/ kbps. Now I happen to know what they mean; the xxx represents any download speed, and the represents the upload speed, but anybody who honestly marks "beginner" isn't going to be able to answer this question.
4) Then it gets even more arcane. NAT/Server Port. HELLO!? DID YOU NOT SEE ME MARK BEGINNER!? Again, no beginner could possibly answer this question.
5) When the wizard is done, I get a "Completed" screen. But the "Finish" button is greyed out, instead I see a "Close" button I can click. Why have a "Finish" button at all if it's never used?!
6) The Updater (which I'm doing now because the main window popped out behind it, so I assume that's the next step) gave me an error, which I'd copy and paste here, but I can't because the text in the error message isn't selectable. Suffice it to say that the error message isn't a sheet in OS X (which is wrong), has a big-fat red X icon (wrong) and two buttons: "Details" and "Hide" (wrong, and wrong... and Details is a round-rect button for some reason while Hide is a normal one.)
7) So I hide that message and I get "automatic removal of torrent "azplugins_2.0..." oh I can't type it because the error disappears. Suffice it to say that it's an error message that nobody who marked "Beginner" in the wizard is going to understand.
8) Program preferences shows up as a tabbed window in the interface, not in a dialog. This is wrong.
9) Despite having no options to set in Proxy Options, Transport Network Settings, Transport Encryption, etc, those items still appear in the preferences list... they just have some explanatory test saying I can't access them because I said I was a beginner. BTW, no beginner can have a proxy? So if I have a proxy, and know all the information for it, by definition I can't possibly be a beginner?
10) I've wasted enough time on this already. But I'll just quickly add: Although it uses OS X widgets, the spacing and placement is all off, and it still looks like a planet Weebo app and not an OS X one. It's got the requisite Java slowness. The errors where windows wouldn't refresh correctly all the time seems to be fixed, at least. But the updater is moronic and everything about it is difficult to use, despite having a "beginner" setting.
Out of curiousity, where do you get a 9" CRT with decent resolution? I think it would be easier to find a LCD, since those are going in mini-DVD players and in-car video all the time. Sounds like a cool project, though... I might rip you off and make my own.
What he's probably referring to is the requirement to tweak all sorts of goofy values in the 10,000-page (or so it seems) and confusing-as-hell preferences screen in order to get it to get the same speeds that other bittorrent clients get by default. I have this problem as well; it seems like since my connection is 3mbps down and 768kbps up, it's somehow hosing Azureus because they're assuming your upload and download pipes are the same size... but that's just a theory. I consider myself a pretty advanced user, but I can't make heads or tails out of Azureus' complicated-as-hell prefs screen, and I certainly don't understand it well enough to make it work as well as the official Bittorrent client.
It looks ok on Mac OS and Linux (but only because all Linux apps are ugly), but it's eye-scarringly hideous on Windows.
Also I have problems sometimes getting the official client to download from certain sites... sometimes they require some kind of feature or something that the official client doesn't implement and you end up with a download that never starts. I mostly use it on Mac, though, so maybe that's only the Mac version.
It's already annoying. It's Java, which of course means that the GUI looks like something that comes from the planet Weebo-- well, ok, I don't know what planet it comes from, but it's certainly not Earth where Mac OS and Windows reside. Full of all those little bugs that don't really affect how it runs, but drive you up the wall anyway-- mostly things not refreshing when they change.
Bungie's announced several times that their next game is not going to be a Halo game. Since they haven't announced that game yet, I can't see how they would possibly have any Halo-related news to give us... unless they've passed Halo off to another development team.
More likely, we'll see an announcement of what Bungie's next project (non-Halo, remember?) is, and some video related to that. I bet we're at least a solid year away from another Halo title, at best.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a script and maybe a design doc for Halo 3, but I'd wager that it hasn't gotten much further than that, and won't until Bungie's next project is finished.
They would point out the prosperity they bring to areas where they build stores, but they fail to mention the manufacturing jobs they eliminate in this country when they import cheap Chinese merchandise, thereby converting a lot of good-paying jobs into low-paying jobs and sucking money out of the tax base and Social Security.
Maybe you can help me understand this, because I never have before:
How is that Wal-Mart's fault and not the American consumer's fault? Wal-Mart wouldn't import those products if they didn't sell, right?
If they started a campaign to annihilate teacher's unions, I'd be behind it 100%. And people wonder why the American education system is so crummy... that's what happens when you can't fire crummy teachers!
Considering that Cylons are capable of building and designing new Cylons, it's not that out-there that they could have a army and space-air-force in only ten years. I mean, it only would take a few dozen Cylons to build a new factory that could pump out thousands of them-- assuming they had the raw materials.
The best example of anachonistic special effects was in the Star Wars movies. We go from digital/hologram readouts on every system to the Millenium Falcon cockpit, full of dials and switches and where the lightspeed drive is a switch. A switch! The computer has to do tons of calculations so they don't appear in the middle of a star, and he throws a SWITCH to activate it.
Would have been much cooler if Lucas had stuck with the dials and switches for the prequels and gotten rid of all the screens and holograms in the ship cockpits.
Re:I can't wait for Spore!
on
EA's E3 Lineup
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Considering Oblivion is basically Morrowind with better graphics, physics and AI, and Morrowind is better Daggerfall with better graphics, physics, and AI... well, Bethestha is more of an "evolution" studio than a "revolution" studio. Of course, all their games are excellent and there's nothing at all wrong with it, just that the example you give isn't that good.
Sure. I've had to for work a dozen times, usually after replacing the motherboard and/or HD of a busted computer.
You just call up the number on the activation screen and when they ask why you're reinstalling, tell them the truth. They give the activation code 100% of the time. They used to be all US operators, but recently they've been outsourcing that phone line, unfortunately.
Sure they do. They have the right to treat you however they like, and you have the right to uninstall Windows and run something else. That's the free market-- Microsoft is free to do what they like, and you're free to do what you like.
The problem with games like Half-Life and Halo, which do the "cut scene" dialog while you're playing, is that frequently, I can't focus on the dialog (or even hear it) because I'm too busy gunning down aliens. There has to be a happen medium.
We're not as much a nanny-state as the UK, although it seems we're moving in that direction. Movie and music ratings have always been voluntary, and while it's true that the vast vast vast majority of movie theaters will turn away kids under 17 from rated R movies, it's not against the law to let them in.
It's all moot, anyway, since unless Oklahoma is entirely insane, this law will be struck down as being unconstitutional sooner or later. The only rating system that's compatible with the US Constitution is a voluntary one.
The real question, and one I doubt the Oklahoma lawmakers who voted for this spent more than a few seconds thinking about, is what makes games different from movies and music that they should require a government-enforced rating? Additionally, why don't novels (which can be extremely violent) have any kind of rating system, voluntary or otherwise? Would you give "Once Were Warriors" or "American Psycho" to an 8-year-old?
My personal theory: The older a medium is, the more people know about it and the less a rating system is required. Movies and recorded music are only a century old, novels have been around much longer, and video games are only a half-century old at best.
I'm thinking it was just a joke, buddy. Like that episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer declares that every war has been won by the side with the shortest haircuts. "American Indians vs. the Cavalry-- long hippie-hair versus short back and sides. Vietnam-- crew cuts, both sides, draw."
Yeah, why would anybody possibly want to work to improve something? That's ridiculous. Everyone knows that lack of choice in your CLI is the True Unix Way.
Re:It's a problem with the videogames NOT the movi
on
Why Game Movies Stink
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· Score: 1
*cough* Halo has 3 novels-worth of backstory, and tons more if you count all the backstory Bungie's previous game Marathon had, since the two games may take place in the same fictional universe. Halo has as much story telling in it as Half-Life, and HL was declared a masterpiece of game plots.
Slashdot Mirror
Just FYI, I was actually reading that up until you typed "The Police State of Amerika." Then my "psycho-meter" went off-the-scale and I decided to move on to more productive things, like writing this comment to let you know I think you're a psycho. Have a nice day.
Do you listen to the Adam Corolla show? He was talking about this "jobs Americans won't do" and he called it what it was: Utter bullshit. If you are poor, truly in need of money, you'll work in a field picking beans, you'll work at McDonalds, you'll do the work. The only Americans who *won't* do work like this are freeloading bums on welfare-- and they'd be freeloading bums on welfare even if the minimum wage was $50/hour.
"The GUI isn't perfect" has to be the understatement of the year. I can't think of any non-X11 OS X apps with a worse interface... except Lotus Notes (also Java.)
Yes, but here's my point: Using the official Bittorrent client, I don't have to do any of that to get a good download speed. It just plain works with no tinkering. The ability the tinker isn't bad, but it should have sane defaults so people who just want to download things can get to it.
I have a Macintosh and I've downloaded and used Azureus and I beg to differ.
In fact, because I'm extremely bored, I'll even re-download it just to give you an idea of where it goes wrong.
This Azureus 2.4.0.2 on OS X:
1) The first thing I see is a configuration wizard. Unfortunately, the buttons and layout are not the same as any OS X wizard.
2) At the same time I get the configuration wizard, I get Azureus Updater which tells me I need to restart. Already I'm confused; do I update first, or do the wizard first? The wizard window is in front, so let's start with that.
3) After saying my user proficiency is "beginner" the wizard asks me what my "line" and "Max Up Speed" is. "Max Up Speed?" WTF does that even mean? All the options are adsl/cable xxx/ kbps. Now I happen to know what they mean; the xxx represents any download speed, and the represents the upload speed, but anybody who honestly marks "beginner" isn't going to be able to answer this question.
4) Then it gets even more arcane. NAT/Server Port. HELLO!? DID YOU NOT SEE ME MARK BEGINNER!? Again, no beginner could possibly answer this question.
5) When the wizard is done, I get a "Completed" screen. But the "Finish" button is greyed out, instead I see a "Close" button I can click. Why have a "Finish" button at all if it's never used?!
6) The Updater (which I'm doing now because the main window popped out behind it, so I assume that's the next step) gave me an error, which I'd copy and paste here, but I can't because the text in the error message isn't selectable. Suffice it to say that the error message isn't a sheet in OS X (which is wrong), has a big-fat red X icon (wrong) and two buttons: "Details" and "Hide" (wrong, and wrong... and Details is a round-rect button for some reason while Hide is a normal one.)
7) So I hide that message and I get "automatic removal of torrent "azplugins_2.0..." oh I can't type it because the error disappears. Suffice it to say that it's an error message that nobody who marked "Beginner" in the wizard is going to understand.
8) Program preferences shows up as a tabbed window in the interface, not in a dialog. This is wrong.
9) Despite having no options to set in Proxy Options, Transport Network Settings, Transport Encryption, etc, those items still appear in the preferences list... they just have some explanatory test saying I can't access them because I said I was a beginner. BTW, no beginner can have a proxy? So if I have a proxy, and know all the information for it, by definition I can't possibly be a beginner?
10) I've wasted enough time on this already. But I'll just quickly add: Although it uses OS X widgets, the spacing and placement is all off, and it still looks like a planet Weebo app and not an OS X one. It's got the requisite Java slowness. The errors where windows wouldn't refresh correctly all the time seems to be fixed, at least. But the updater is moronic and everything about it is difficult to use, despite having a "beginner" setting.
Out of curiousity, where do you get a 9" CRT with decent resolution? I think it would be easier to find a LCD, since those are going in mini-DVD players and in-car video all the time. Sounds like a cool project, though... I might rip you off and make my own.
What he's probably referring to is the requirement to tweak all sorts of goofy values in the 10,000-page (or so it seems) and confusing-as-hell preferences screen in order to get it to get the same speeds that other bittorrent clients get by default. I have this problem as well; it seems like since my connection is 3mbps down and 768kbps up, it's somehow hosing Azureus because they're assuming your upload and download pipes are the same size... but that's just a theory. I consider myself a pretty advanced user, but I can't make heads or tails out of Azureus' complicated-as-hell prefs screen, and I certainly don't understand it well enough to make it work as well as the official Bittorrent client.
It looks ok on Mac OS and Linux (but only because all Linux apps are ugly), but it's eye-scarringly hideous on Windows.
Also I have problems sometimes getting the official client to download from certain sites... sometimes they require some kind of feature or something that the official client doesn't implement and you end up with a download that never starts. I mostly use it on Mac, though, so maybe that's only the Mac version.
It's already annoying. It's Java, which of course means that the GUI looks like something that comes from the planet Weebo-- well, ok, I don't know what planet it comes from, but it's certainly not Earth where Mac OS and Windows reside. Full of all those little bugs that don't really affect how it runs, but drive you up the wall anyway-- mostly things not refreshing when they change.
There's Real Software's RealBasic, but it's been getting more and more complex until it's about as bad as VB Express... so, uh, nevermind I said that.
Bungie's announced several times that their next game is not going to be a Halo game. Since they haven't announced that game yet, I can't see how they would possibly have any Halo-related news to give us... unless they've passed Halo off to another development team.
More likely, we'll see an announcement of what Bungie's next project (non-Halo, remember?) is, and some video related to that. I bet we're at least a solid year away from another Halo title, at best.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a script and maybe a design doc for Halo 3, but I'd wager that it hasn't gotten much further than that, and won't until Bungie's next project is finished.
They would point out the prosperity they bring to areas where they build stores, but they fail to mention the manufacturing jobs they eliminate in this country when they import cheap Chinese merchandise, thereby converting a lot of good-paying jobs into low-paying jobs and sucking money out of the tax base and Social Security.
Maybe you can help me understand this, because I never have before:
How is that Wal-Mart's fault and not the American consumer's fault? Wal-Mart wouldn't import those products if they didn't sell, right?
If they started a campaign to annihilate teacher's unions, I'd be behind it 100%. And people wonder why the American education system is so crummy... that's what happens when you can't fire crummy teachers!
Considering that Cylons are capable of building and designing new Cylons, it's not that out-there that they could have a army and space-air-force in only ten years. I mean, it only would take a few dozen Cylons to build a new factory that could pump out thousands of them-- assuming they had the raw materials.
The best example of anachonistic special effects was in the Star Wars movies. We go from digital/hologram readouts on every system to the Millenium Falcon cockpit, full of dials and switches and where the lightspeed drive is a switch. A switch! The computer has to do tons of calculations so they don't appear in the middle of a star, and he throws a SWITCH to activate it.
Would have been much cooler if Lucas had stuck with the dials and switches for the prequels and gotten rid of all the screens and holograms in the ship cockpits.
Considering Oblivion is basically Morrowind with better graphics, physics and AI, and Morrowind is better Daggerfall with better graphics, physics, and AI... well, Bethestha is more of an "evolution" studio than a "revolution" studio. Of course, all their games are excellent and there's nothing at all wrong with it, just that the example you give isn't that good.
Sure. I've had to for work a dozen times, usually after replacing the motherboard and/or HD of a busted computer.
You just call up the number on the activation screen and when they ask why you're reinstalling, tell them the truth. They give the activation code 100% of the time. They used to be all US operators, but recently they've been outsourcing that phone line, unfortunately.
Sure they do. They have the right to treat you however they like, and you have the right to uninstall Windows and run something else. That's the free market-- Microsoft is free to do what they like, and you're free to do what you like.
I have a great idea for a redesign, and it retains the same color of green, but we'd have to rename the site to "Hulk Smashdot!"
Is that acceptable?
The problem with games like Half-Life and Halo, which do the "cut scene" dialog while you're playing, is that frequently, I can't focus on the dialog (or even hear it) because I'm too busy gunning down aliens. There has to be a happen medium.
We're not as much a nanny-state as the UK, although it seems we're moving in that direction. Movie and music ratings have always been voluntary, and while it's true that the vast vast vast majority of movie theaters will turn away kids under 17 from rated R movies, it's not against the law to let them in.
It's all moot, anyway, since unless Oklahoma is entirely insane, this law will be struck down as being unconstitutional sooner or later. The only rating system that's compatible with the US Constitution is a voluntary one.
The real question, and one I doubt the Oklahoma lawmakers who voted for this spent more than a few seconds thinking about, is what makes games different from movies and music that they should require a government-enforced rating? Additionally, why don't novels (which can be extremely violent) have any kind of rating system, voluntary or otherwise? Would you give "Once Were Warriors" or "American Psycho" to an 8-year-old?
My personal theory: The older a medium is, the more people know about it and the less a rating system is required. Movies and recorded music are only a century old, novels have been around much longer, and video games are only a half-century old at best.
I'm thinking it was just a joke, buddy. Like that episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer declares that every war has been won by the side with the shortest haircuts. "American Indians vs. the Cavalry-- long hippie-hair versus short back and sides. Vietnam-- crew cuts, both sides, draw."
Yeah, why would anybody possibly want to work to improve something? That's ridiculous. Everyone knows that lack of choice in your CLI is the True Unix Way.
*cough* Halo has 3 novels-worth of backstory, and tons more if you count all the backstory Bungie's previous game Marathon had, since the two games may take place in the same fictional universe. Halo has as much story telling in it as Half-Life, and HL was declared a masterpiece of game plots.
Now, if they could only get licensed games to be good...
What, like Spiderman? Spiderman 2? Chronicles of Riddick, a game which was actually many times better than the movie it's based on?
There are good licensed games out there.