Posts by poopypants

Harpoons, eh?

Is the comet white?

The purpose of Steam machines is to attract console players

How well does a Steam machine compare to say, an XBox One?

Cost: Steam machine is same cost or higher.

Performance: Steam machine is as powerful or more powerful, depending on cost.

Upgrade path: XBox One not upgradeable. Steam machine wins hands down.

Number of games available: XBox One has a few, Steam machine has hundreds already ported.

Ease of use: The Steam interface is as easy to use as the XBox interface.

Cost of games: Steam sales make the Steam machine a clear winner.

Publisher friendly: Valve takes a much smaller slice of profit than Microsoft, and makes bug fix distribution cheaper and easier.

Leading AAA games: XBox One is currently a clear winner. For Steam Boxes to attract AAA titles, game engines will need to be ported. Some already have, but it remains to be seen how many more will do this. Probably they will, because the risk is small compared to the possible reward.

Conclusion: I think Valve will eventually succeed, but not until Steam machines attract more AAA titles, and are a clearly a superior product for the same price - probably 3 to 4 years from now.

Who the hell cares?

I already have a mobile phone. I don't need another one with wheels.

SEO is harmful to society

The world wide web is incomprehensibly huge, and we all rely on it to some extent.

The purpose of a search engine is to allow ordinary people to find what they want in this vast forest of irrelevant crap. In so doing they assist commerce by enabling the natural forces of supply and demand to work their magic. This is good for the economy, and good for the consumer.

Anything that acts to deliberately pervert this process is on the same ethical level as false advertising, and deserves to be punished.

This is obviously satire

written by men. The fact that many here can't see that is a reflection of the literal mindedness of the Asperger Syndrome* suffering male readership of this enormously popular publication.

*in good company:

Al Gore, 1948-, former US Vice President and presidential candidate

Bill Gates, 1955-, Entrepreneur and philanthropist. A key player in the personal computer revolution.

Bob Dylan, 1941-, US singer-songwriter

Charles Dickinson, 1951, US Writer

John Nash, 1928-, US mathematician (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, USA 2001)

Joseph Erber, 1985-, young English composer/musician who has Asperger's Syndrome, subject of a BBC TV documentary

Kevin Mitnick, 1963-, US "hacker"

Michael Palin, 1943-, English comedian and presenter

Oliver Sacks, 1933-, UK/US neurologist, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings

Robin Williams, 1951-, US Actor

etc...

It's a Christmas miracle!

I'm smiling!

So, they want more data?

They should build their own Square Kilometre Array.

Despite running Jelly Bean on both tablet and phone

"No eligible devices for your app to install"

Must try harder.

The Americans must love asymmetric warfare

Otherwise why would they build multi-million dollar weapons with a weak spot (lens) that can be rendered useless by a lone sniper.

So, do we still think

it's silly to suggest that the NSA will spy on people through their Kinects?

Star Citizen

Well, now I know where to fly my Starfarer when I play Star Citizen.

Probably thought

it was another snake, albeit one with an ocular deficiency.

The real inspector gadget?

If they hooked this up to London's CCTV cameras, would it be able to recognise criminal activity?

"For example, he claims, the so-called Windows 8.2 will allow users to run multiple Windows Store apps in windows on the desktop, rather than being forced to run them full screen even on high-resolution monitors, as they must do now."

I can do that already with Start8 (one of many third party fixes available). Why wait?

Always popular at the pub after a few

Mrs Puggy Wuggy has a square cut punt.

Not a punt cut square,

Just a square cut punt.

It's round in the stern and blunt in the front.

Mrs Puggy Wuggy has a square cut punt.

Au contraire

I think the Queensland government would prefer a long, drawn out case that repeatedly airs the previous government's breathtaking incompetence.

This cannot end well

I am reminded of "FISTO" from Fallout New Vegas.

They've both done very well

The PlayStation 4 and XBox One are tremendous advances on the previous generation, bringing much improved graphics and a more unified architecture. They are obviously both popular, and game studios are now able to explore things like better textures, wider field of view, higher frame rates, etc.

This all bodes well for an increase in the quality of games ported to PCs, which will make me happy.

WTF?

On my desk in front of me I have at the moment a 2560 x 1440 monitor. It is considerably larger than 12.9", and I am completely unable to distinguish individual pixels. Creating a 12.9" tablet with a resolution of 3072 x 2304 would be taking marketing masturbation to unprecedented levels.

This is simplistic. Reducing or eliminating the tax threshold would shift a lot of purchases to local stores.

(This assumes that the local stores are not price gouging. That may not be a valid assumption.)

Assuming the same number of imports, they would shift from individual imports requiring a hight level of government effort to process, to fewer bulk imports requiring less effort.

Of course, any government that made this change would likely lose the next election, so there is that. :)

This is indeed serendipitous

Defence applications, perhaps?

Also, it allows me to use the word serendipitous, which is nice.

Not really up to the task

Trickstar have tried to blame the game engine, but these developers didn't seem to have any problems using Unity. Seems the real reason for their failure is that those who were left after several walked out were out of their depth.

The overwhelming message I get from these ads

is that Microsoft is both desperate and sleazy.

So big.

So clumsy.

Oh dear

I think they might draw some invalid conclusions if they watch too much Portal or Skyrim.

My favourite job of all time

was filling bags with blood and bone manure. By hand. Ah, that gentle aroma.

This advertising campaign is succeeding

in convincing me that Microsoft is still as sleazy and disreputable as they have always been.

Serious gamers

probably have a PC, an Xbox One, a Playstation 4 and a Wii U. The rest of us are just doing it for fun.

The best outcome for the general public

would be for horrible parasites like Foundem to disappear.

All this vi and emacs talk

reminds me of the dispute between Lilliput and Blefuscu. Bizarre and irrelevant.

Water, not air

That thing looks like it might work under water. In the air, not so much.

It is vital that we preserve our early selfies for posterity

Not to mention all our accumulated cat videos.

Nobody cares much about augmented reality.

Virtual reality is much more fun.