One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com
Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!!
Back-up your data and, when you bike,
always wear white.
A suitable counterpoint for Steve Jobs' umpteenth appearence on the cover of Time as the guy who knows what's cool:
Paying $1.99 to watch 40 minutes of TV on a 2.5 inch screen? Why not offer us an Orange Julius fetched from the toilet or an asbestos jockstrap?
posted by ruffin
at 10/18/2005 11:38:00 PM
Don't like rhinos (or Beyonce)? No biggie, just change a few VM flags and here you go...
That's right, someone on java.net is showing you how to put a semi-risque and almost certainly [coed] workplace-offensive picture of Beyonce with buttons shaped like rhinos on your Java application's preferences GUI made with Swing.
Admittedly, I'm a database guy. If the button works and is nicely placed, I'm done. I don't care if it looks like a pill from The Matrix (like in Aqua on OS X) or a boring grey rectangle.
(apologies to anyone coming from /. who read this same post there... but there with more idiotic mistakes in the writing & logic!)
This article posted on Slashdot (quote below) is exactly why I'm not real sure why we're so paranoid about getting locked out of copying DVDs or pay-per-view movies. Look, the worst that'll happen is that you have to video tape what you're watching with a camcorder. Until companies figure out how to pipe the goods right into electrodes sitting in our brains, we'll continue to have an awfully natural break point from which to grab anything we can experience -- from the contraptions that allow us to preserve "real life". This Sony PSP handheld projector is an awfully smart idea along those lines, as it is simply a specialized camera tied to a projection system that can easily get, I'd imagine, the sort of resolution to which we've become acustomed to seeing on the half-century-plus old medium of the television.
I recently (yesterday? Man, I need a LONG nap) purchased three [vinyl] records, as an example. I know audiophiles will hate me, but instead of buying hundreds of dollars of software and equipment to listen to them through iTunes, I plan to stick my iBook in front of the speakers and tape the albums through the iBook's internal mike. What's the big deal? I've listened to shows from Furthurnet that aren't much better, and enjoyed them.
What we've become used to and spoiled by is the ability to have everything in a digital format, and not only that but a digital format that provides what goes for a "definitive" experience; the digital version is now usually 'the best'. The fact that today's generation expects exact copies of the definitive experience even in their blackmarket content shows what's particularly unique about this digital age. We've come a long ways from the in-theater camcorder bootlegs Seinfeld made famous.
Anyhow, here's the quote from /.:
This new peripheral takes a completely different approach and clips on top of your PSP screen, with two screws to fit at the back of the handheld (in these two holes you can see on the top of the UMD drive). Some sort of pyramid grows from the base, with a precision lens and mirror system at the top, capturing the image and light, in a similar way a scanner or camera would. It then converts it into a video signal that is sent through video leads going from the adapter to your TV set.
posted by ruffin
at 10/16/2005 06:32:00 PM
I admit it. I'm addicted to World of Warcraft. I'm able to stop playing for a month at a time, apparently, but something akin to Foxtrot's Jason, every couple of months the addiction's back.
Anyhow, in "WoW", you run a series of quests which build storylines for your character. Say some proverbial maiden has lost her locket and needs you to battle ogres to retrieve it -- you talk to her, 'get' the quest, and off you go. When you bring the locket back, she's supposed to give you some sort of reward, your character gets more 'experience points' making you better at fighting ogres & the like, and off you go to find another quest. Simple stuff. Very King Arthur, I'll admit.
What I don't like is when the computer rears its ugly head. Let's pretend I brought back the locket, the maiden took it, and I got zilch. In fact, the maiden acts like she still hasn't gotten anything. And it took me hours to get the blamed locket. I want my reward, yo. It's a bug in the WoW code, so I email support.
Here's their less than impressive response (skip to see end of vent): Hello,
Thank you for contacting the World of Warcraft Game Master Department.
In order to solve your current quest issue we ask that you do the following:
-Abandon the quest from the quest log -Move all quest items to the main backpack -Return to the NPC that gave you the quest (If it is a series, the last NPC you interacted with) -Acquire the quest again -If the "error duplicate item appears" then please destroy any quest items.
If the same issue occurs a second time, please petition for a Game Master detailing the events. We thank you for your patience.
That's right. Blizzard, the company that makes WoW, wants me to go throw away those hours again and see if I can make the bug reoccur. Oh that's fun. It's like telling Luke Skywalker, "Luke, I know you fired the missile into the Death Star and it blew up, but for some reason we missed it. Can you go back?" (I know that I'm also periliously close to sounding like Luke "The Crybaby" in Thumb Wars, but we'll skip that for now. Hours of my life wasted, I'm telling you! As opposed to all those spent collecting virtual rewards from virtual lockets given to automatons controlled by huge Windows servers... no waste there)
Are you kidding me? You thank me for my patience? You mean you thank me for shelling out $10 a month to bug test your danged game! My goodness, where the heck do I find users like that? Looks like I've been in the wrong biz all this time.
posted by ruffin
at 10/15/2005 05:33:00 PM
Welp, this certainly looks like a video iPod, doesn't it? Thinksecret is speculating that it's more video-ready, proof-of-concept than an annoucement that Apple is going to start selling movies today as well. Instead they think there's going to be a 'true' video iPod in 2006 that comes in a different (more PSP-like?) format.
Which gets me to wondering... The Pippen (Apple's prototype gaming console) never picked up, but could they be considering moving into the portable game console market? They apparently hired game programmers a while back; it's beginning to look like this wasn't to get games on Powermacs but on an upcoming version of the iPod.
posted by ruffin
at 10/12/2005 12:12:00 PM
The key difference: Yahoo is not scanning copyrighted works, as Google did before publishers called foul and it temporarily stopped. Instead, Yahoo is paying for the scanning of older, out of print titles and making them searchable through the Yahoo index and a new website at opencontentalliance.org.
If they're smart, they'll be creating/using some sort of standard so that copyright owners can create concordances, etc, that can interoperate anonymously. That is, if you want to make your book Yahoo searchable, you simply follow the standard and you're in the system.
posted by ruffin
at 10/03/2005 11:40:00 PM
The postings on this site are [usually] my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any employer, past or present, or other entity. About Our Author
