Are flywheels always going to be a pipe dream? I remember in the mid-90s this guy swore he was close to nailing it.
i remember hearing about them too. like your car was going to have this big flywheel on a gimbal inside a metal sphere in a vacuum and holy shit could they spin that fucker up and store some energy and they could kind of sip on the energy through like eddy braking?
yeah i don't really know what happened with that.
I remember one drawback was the huge amount of potential energy they'd have and, like, how easy it would be to make that not potential
Like, you get in a fender-bender and suddenly a rack of heavy metal wheels goes exploding out of your trunk at three hundred miles an hour
Though obviously that wasn't the reason the stuff didn't pan out. I bet it was something boring like they couldn't get a good enough vacuum or something.
I dunno, wasn't there a big kerfuffle over the pronunciation in that thread? I quit reading after 'it was good, but the plot could have been better' was seen as an unacceptable critique.
I dunno, wasn't there a big kerfuffle over the pronunciation in that thread? I quit reading after 'it was good, but the plot could have been better' was seen as an unacceptable critique.
Oh God, I don't know.
Sarksus on
0
KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
I mean there are companies that do okay without DRM.
The guys who made GalCivII for instance.
Granted GalCivII doesn't have anywhere near the budget AC2 had so it didn't need as many sales to break even.
But then I never demanded game companies depend on 7 digit number budgeted games to survive either.
I have been feeling for a couple of years now that either everyone will adopt something like steam or there will be a rather large game related bust. for my part I can't really justify buying something for myself if it's not off steam.
and if I can't get it on the pc I have to want it reaaaal bad.
Are flywheels always going to be a pipe dream? I remember in the mid-90s this guy swore he was close to nailing it.
i remember hearing about them too. like your car was going to have this big flywheel on a gimbal inside a metal sphere in a vacuum and holy shit could they spin that fucker up and store some energy and they could kind of sip on the energy through like eddy braking?
yeah i don't really know what happened with that.
I remember one drawback was the huge amount of potential energy they'd have and, like, how easy it would be to make that not potential
Like, you get in a fender-bender and suddenly a rack of heavy metal wheels goes exploding out of your trunk at three hundred miles an hour
Though obviously that wasn't the reason the stuff didn't pan out. I bet it was something boring like they couldn't get a good enough vacuum or something.
Interesting end to road rage.
moniker on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I think bionics and prosthesis is a really interesting field because there are basically two parallel paths to where we want to go, namely machinery and biology. Like, it's going to be interesting seeing if blind people prefer going for the low-res webcam robot eyes or the cloned eyes that maybe you have to take immunosuppressors or something to handle
Their new DRM requires always-on internets. And you can't save to your computer, all the saves are on Ubi's servers.
This is MADNESS.
beep
you can save to your HDD and in fact have to
and you can also turn off the save cloud
but the always on internet thing is true, it will kick you out of your game the second you lose connection, apparently not saving your progress in the meantime.
Tarranon on
You could be anywhere
On the black screen
0
Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratorMod Emeritus
man the slow advancement of battery technology has been kind of disappointing.
it's a big part of why we can't have cool robots
What is involved in that, exactly? Is it a chemistry problem, or a materials thing, or what?
ELM knows the field a whole lot better than I do. I had a buddy at MIT that knew some guys working in nanotube capacitor batteries but apparently it was all grant-bait bullshit and was never going to amount to anything.
i think really what it comes down to is that the coolest ideas require unobtanium (like some material with crazy capacitance or a room-temperature semiconductor) and that no one has come up with a better method using real materials than metal-and-acid to store electricity.
Are flywheels always going to be a pipe dream? I remember in the mid-90s this guy swore he was close to nailing it.
i remember hearing about them too. like your car was going to have this big flywheel on a gimbal inside a metal sphere in a vacuum and holy shit could they spin that fucker up and store some energy and they could kind of sip on the energy through like eddy braking?
yeah i don't really know what happened with that.
As far as I know, rotational momentum is a big problem with flywheels in mobile applications. Also the fact that the failure mode is going to be "shards of metal and ceramic exploding in all directions" probably factors in.
i remember a dude saying that they would make it all out of stuff that was brittle enough that it would kind of just vaporize if the vacuum was breached.
friction would be a huge problem. pulling and maintaining that kind of vacuum on something outside a lab would be a huge problem.
basically though my sense is that we haven't gotten terribly better at making physical machinery recently in the past 50 years or so. like, our advancements in mechanical fields have been really small compared to our advancements in electronic and computational fields. and i think that our expectations are a little skewed because of that.
Their new DRM requires always-on internets. And you can't save to your computer, all the saves are on Ubi's servers.
This is MADNESS.
beep
you can save to your HDD and in fact have to
and you can also turn off the save cloud
but the always on internet thing is true, it will kick you out of your game the second you lose connection, apparently not saving your progress in the meantime.
Hahahaha, that is awesome. Exactly what I wanted, my singleplayer experience to have all of the drawbacks of multiplayer and none of the advantages.
Sarksus on
0
KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
So wait, you even DO save to the HDD but STILL CAN'T SAVE SHOULD YOUR CONNECTION BE LOST?
Their new DRM requires always-on internets. And you can't save to your computer, all the saves are on Ubi's servers.
This is MADNESS.
beep
you can save to your HDD and in fact have to
and you can also turn off the save cloud
but the always on internet thing is true, it will kick you out of your game the second you lose connection, apparently not saving your progress in the meantime.
Hahahaha, that is awesome. Exactly what I wanted, my singleplayer experience to have all of the drawbacks of multiplayer and none of the advantages.
Wow, so apparently I won't buying any more ubisoft games. Ever.
I mean there are companies that do okay without DRM.
The guys who made GalCivII for instance.
Granted GalCivII doesn't have anywhere near the budget AC2 had so it didn't need as many sales to break even.
But then I never demanded game companies depend on 7 digit number budgeted games to survive either.
didn't stardock do galciv?
galciv and another of their products, windowblinds, just destroyed one of my laptops and i suspect it was because of some drm monkey-business.
that or they put some sort of poison into my registry
Irond Will on
0
KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
edited February 2010
It's like, just take StarForce back if you want to be dicks about DRM Ubisoft. Yeah remember them? You dropped them because of negative attention, but then you bring this shit?
Kagera on
My neck, my back, my FUPA and my crack.
0
SarksusATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered Userregular
edited February 2010
It will be good when Steam is popular enough where they can force publishers to forgo their own DRM and rely solely on Steam DRM.
Sarksus on
0
KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
Yawn. Morning [chat]. That cinema discussion got sorted out and everyone agreed in the end, right? Cool.
This weekend I will be going to see the exhibition of art inspired by the Russian Space Program at our glorious Contemporary Art Gallery. There's one installation that is a huge astronaut you can walk around in. They're running tons of stuff alongside it, like discussion groups for Stanislaw Lem books and the like. I my new gallery.
I don't even know how those companies make money, offering me all those 'packs' with 10 games at like $40.
But I like that, that's GOOD for me.
So let's go with that.
If like you need to tone down the 'gfx' and hire less Kristen Bells, I'm good y0.
Steam has, I think, basically the perfect ratio of incentive to compromise for the consumer. Great anti-piracy measures that have really never been an inconvenience for me across multiple systems and platforms, and tons of bonuses. If it's not working out on their end, that would be horrible, horrible news because from a consumer perspective they're pretty much the best.
kagera; based off that article, it would seem to be the case.
I'm just glad consoles are where they're at today. When is the next gen coming out? I've sort of let this one pass me by, so it'd be nice to have a fresh start.
I'm just glad consoles are where they're at today. When is the next gen coming out? I've sort of let this one pass me by, so it'd be nice to have a fresh start.
If PR speak is anything to go by
Which it totally is
NEVA
Dox the PI on
0
KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
I'm just glad consoles are where they're at today. When is the next gen coming out? I've sort of let this one pass me by, so it'd be nice to have a fresh start.
If PR speak is anything to go by
Which it totally is
NEVA
We're on year 4 of the DECADE OF PLAYSTATION 3 are we not?
Kagera on
My neck, my back, my FUPA and my crack.
0
Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratorMod Emeritus
I don't even know how those companies make money, offering me all those 'packs' with 10 games at like $40.
But I like that, that's GOOD for me.
So let's go with that.
If like you need to tone down the 'gfx' and hire less Kristen Bells, I'm good y0.
the deals offered by steam are all like end-of-life or supplemental revenue
like you know that you can buy legit DVDs of in-theater movies in russia for like $5? They call them R5's.
it's because piracy is so pervasive that the companies figure that they can either get $0, or if they make it easy and legitimate, at least some people will pony up the $5
and they are going to make all their real money on the american and european markets anyways.
steam deals are like "man no one is ever going to buy L4D again now that L4D2 is out. but what if we offered it for $10 on download?"
I'm just glad consoles are where they're at today. When is the next gen coming out? I've sort of let this one pass me by, so it'd be nice to have a fresh start.
I think this generation is supposed to last 10 years. So we should have another 5 until the PS4 and XBox 720.
I mean there are companies that do okay without DRM.
The guys who made GalCivII for instance.
Granted GalCivII doesn't have anywhere near the budget AC2 had so it didn't need as many sales to break even.
But then I never demanded game companies depend on 7 digit number budgeted games to survive either.
didn't stardock do galciv?
galciv and another of their products, windowblinds, just destroyed one of my laptops and i suspect it was because of some drm monkey-business.
that or they put some sort of poison into my registry
Stardock actually appears to pride themselves on their slashdot approach to business. I don't know much about their profits, but they usually do good work. No DRM, will actually give you a refund and revoke your license if you don't like the product, I've gotten them to transfer games from one account to another.
Of course their pres is also a bit of libtard but he means well. Elki trolled him once. Was good times.
I don't even know how those companies make money, offering me all those 'packs' with 10 games at like $40.
But I like that, that's GOOD for me.
So let's go with that.
If like you need to tone down the 'gfx' and hire less Kristen Bells, I'm good y0.
the deals offered by steam are all like end-of-life or supplemental revenue
like you know that you can buy legit DVDs of in-theater movies in russia for like $5? They call them R5's.
it's because piracy is so pervasive that the companies figure that they can either get $0, or if they make it easy and legitimate, at least some people will pony up the $5
and they are going to make all their real money on the american and european markets anyways.
steam deals are like "man no one is ever going to buy L4D again now that L4D2 is out. but what if we offered it for $10 on download?"
I dunno if that's necessarily true. Remember when L4D1 was only out for 3-4 months and they decided - as an experiment - to reduce the price to $25 for the weekend? And the result was that they made MORE money THAT weekend than during the release weekend? And that was waaaaaaaaay before L4D2 was even announced.
I'm sure it's end of life for some products but there are some interesting psychological/marketing shenanigans at play here.
Drez on
Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
0
Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratorMod Emeritus
I'm just glad consoles are where they're at today. When is the next gen coming out? I've sort of let this one pass me by, so it'd be nice to have a fresh start.
I think this generation is supposed to last 10 years. So we should have another 5 until the PS4 and XBox 720.
yeah it is going to be a while
the advancement of graphic capabilities have seemed to have kind of slowed down since this generation of consoles was introduced. the 360 at least doesn't look much worse than high-end computers.
Posts
I remember one drawback was the huge amount of potential energy they'd have and, like, how easy it would be to make that not potential
Like, you get in a fender-bender and suddenly a rack of heavy metal wheels goes exploding out of your trunk at three hundred miles an hour
Though obviously that wasn't the reason the stuff didn't pan out. I bet it was something boring like they couldn't get a good enough vacuum or something.
I dunno, wasn't there a big kerfuffle over the pronunciation in that thread? I quit reading after 'it was good, but the plot could have been better' was seen as an unacceptable critique.
Oh God, I don't know.
Their new DRM requires always-on internets. And you can't save to your computer, all the saves are on Ubi's servers.
This is MADNESS.
like physics and jerking off to a picture of darwin
Imagine the most silly goose, obnoxious DRM possible.
Their newly-announced DRM for Assassin's Creed II (and other upcoming PC games) is worse than what you've just imagined.
Wow, holy shit, fuck that.
I have been feeling for a couple of years now that either everyone will adopt something like steam or there will be a rather large game related bust. for my part I can't really justify buying something for myself if it's not off steam.
and if I can't get it on the pc I have to want it reaaaal bad.
On the black screen
Interesting end to road rage.
Is it...is it 640x480?
Hahaha. Kinda hardcore.
beep
you can save to your HDD and in fact have to
and you can also turn off the save cloud
but the always on internet thing is true, it will kick you out of your game the second you lose connection, apparently not saving your progress in the meantime.
On the black screen
i remember a dude saying that they would make it all out of stuff that was brittle enough that it would kind of just vaporize if the vacuum was breached.
friction would be a huge problem. pulling and maintaining that kind of vacuum on something outside a lab would be a huge problem.
basically though my sense is that we haven't gotten terribly better at making physical machinery recently in the past 50 years or so. like, our advancements in mechanical fields have been really small compared to our advancements in electronic and computational fields. and i think that our expectations are a little skewed because of that.
Quote from the article Tycho links in the newspost for today's comic:
Fuck. That.
I don't even know how those companies make money, offering me all those 'packs' with 10 games at like $40.
But I like that, that's GOOD for me.
So let's go with that.
If like you need to tone down the 'gfx' and hire less Kristen Bells, I'm good y0.
Hahahaha, that is awesome. Exactly what I wanted, my singleplayer experience to have all of the drawbacks of multiplayer and none of the advantages.
Wow, so apparently I won't buying any more ubisoft games. Ever.
Yep.
didn't stardock do galciv?
galciv and another of their products, windowblinds, just destroyed one of my laptops and i suspect it was because of some drm monkey-business.
that or they put some sort of poison into my registry
Galciv2 has no DRM AFAIK.
I know they have Impulse if you choose to get it through that, but it's lame and wants to be STEAM.
This weekend I will be going to see the exhibition of art inspired by the Russian Space Program at our glorious Contemporary Art Gallery. There's one installation that is a huge astronaut you can walk around in. They're running tons of stuff alongside it, like discussion groups for Stanislaw Lem books and the like. I
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Steam has, I think, basically the perfect ratio of incentive to compromise for the consumer. Great anti-piracy measures that have really never been an inconvenience for me across multiple systems and platforms, and tons of bonuses. If it's not working out on their end, that would be horrible, horrible news because from a consumer perspective they're pretty much the best.
kagera; based off that article, it would seem to be the case.
On the black screen
If PR speak is anything to go by
Which it totally is
NEVA
We're on year 4 of the DECADE OF PLAYSTATION 3 are we not?
the deals offered by steam are all like end-of-life or supplemental revenue
like you know that you can buy legit DVDs of in-theater movies in russia for like $5? They call them R5's.
it's because piracy is so pervasive that the companies figure that they can either get $0, or if they make it easy and legitimate, at least some people will pony up the $5
and they are going to make all their real money on the american and european markets anyways.
steam deals are like "man no one is ever going to buy L4D again now that L4D2 is out. but what if we offered it for $10 on download?"
I think this generation is supposed to last 10 years. So we should have another 5 until the PS4 and XBox 720.
Stardock actually appears to pride themselves on their slashdot approach to business. I don't know much about their profits, but they usually do good work. No DRM, will actually give you a refund and revoke your license if you don't like the product, I've gotten them to transfer games from one account to another.
Of course their pres is also a bit of libtard but he means well. Elki trolled him once. Was good times.
On the black screen
Nah apples taste amazing cold. The texture goes all icky when they're warm.
Where Madness and the Fantasical Come to Play
well i bought galciv2 on physical dvd and i don't remember if it requires the disc to play. i guess i assume it does.
but man my laptop had a mighty battle with stardock several years ago and stardock defeated my poor laptop.
I dunno if that's necessarily true. Remember when L4D1 was only out for 3-4 months and they decided - as an experiment - to reduce the price to $25 for the weekend? And the result was that they made MORE money THAT weekend than during the release weekend? And that was waaaaaaaaay before L4D2 was even announced.
I'm sure it's end of life for some products but there are some interesting psychological/marketing shenanigans at play here.
yeah it is going to be a while
the advancement of graphic capabilities have seemed to have kind of slowed down since this generation of consoles was introduced. the 360 at least doesn't look much worse than high-end computers.
1) Uplay is also terrible. Why the hell do we need a second method of getting DLC? Why isn't the Xbox 360/PS3 system good enough?
2) This is hilarious considering I was unable to even connect to Uplay while my Xbox 360 was functioning. Awesome servers, guys!