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Atari 2600 Hacks
olclops writes "Check out this guy's projects. He's an Atari 2600 programmer who's created, among other things, a cartridge that uses the 2600's sound generators to turn your atari into a full polyphonic synthesizer! The demos sound insane. Imagine being able to play console-perfect pitfall music from an atari hooked up to an amp. His other games look cool, too. Apparently, he'll be at the Classic Gaming Expo next weekend."
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Weeelllll -
my cunt is a'drippin',
your lips are a'sippin',
my ass is a'crappin',
your mouth is a'lappin'
all that comes out of an oracifce
you eat for a main course-ifice
poop and pee, all a'yummy
Sitting proud inside your tummy!
Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week. Tip your waitstaff.
Here is my ass
Which you may kiss.
Take time and aim well
You don't want to miss.
For if you aim low
And your lips they do fall
Then you will find
You'll be sucking my balls.
If you aim high
Despite your true heart
Sucks to be you
Now you're eating my fart.
Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week. Please, remember your waitstaff.
IMHO, one of the biggest challenges that must be overcome before Linux
dominates the typical user's desktop comes not from Microsoft, but from many
Linux advocates themselves. The average Linux user is a different kind of
person than the average Windows or Macintosh user...they are more
technology-oriented, more likely to be professional coders, hackers, or at
least dabblers in programming. Their abilities and their interests put them
in a demographic that is different from 90% of the other people on Earth.
It's this difference that makes people in this group great at abstract
mental activities like mathematics, algorithms, and coding.
Linux is an OS that was written by hackers for hackers. It's a great
movement that I have great hopes for. But an OS written for hackers is not
going to be an overwhelming success with most of that other 90%. Supporting
normal people is not a major problem, but it does require that Linux
advocates recognize and acknowledge that they must understand and respect
their users. It's very common to hear such disparaging comments as
"joe-stupidass-user" or "idiot users", and as long as that kind of attitude
persists, I don't hold much hope for Linux being a success on the client at
the scale that Windows is.
I should add that I've been designing software for ten years or more, and
I've seen plenty of field studies and usability tests where users had
trouble with something that seemed obvious to me...I can't count the number
of times I've thought "oh, that dumb user!", but the fact is that if your
users can't use the design you think is so great, you'd better bite your
tongue and do a new design. You can *think* users are dumb all you want,
but you need to smile and respect their needs if you want your software to
be user friendly. And it's actually rather rewarding to see a user smiling
and saying "Oh this is fun!" while successfully using your software.
Especially if the first couple times got confused stares and frowns or
frustrated responses and failure.
As far as the meaning of "user friendly", I'll suggest that it means "being
useful for the intended users, and being easy to for them to learn and to
use". It is too general a concept to simply mean one feature or another,
and I disagree that it means "idiot-proof", for reasons rambled on about
earlier. (On the other hand, a key principle in user interface design is
"forgiveness", as in "let the user go back a step, let them undo whatever
stupid thing they just did." I guess this could be considered
idiot-proofing, but I'd like to meet the hacker that has never used Undo, or
wished it was there when it wasn't...hackers are human too, and we *all*
make mistakes).
heh. "The Simplest Computer" - sounds like an elementary children's book. "The Little Monitor That Could."
.Net strategy - namely, pay per use. It costs $10 per computation, or 15 minutes, whichever comes first.
Anyway, here is the simplest computer around, and the interface is perfect because we are all born with it - the interface is human DRIVE. The computer works like this: I stick my pee sprout in your mom's poop chute for 1, and I stick it in her pee hole for 0.
poop chute = 1
pee hole = 0
Sometimes I stick it in her mouth, but that is for parity.
Sometimes complex operations can take a long time to complete, but that's okay! We're looking for simplicity here, not speed. And waiting for this interface isn't that bad.
This simple computer is very susceptable to visuses. In fact, it comes pre-loaded with several.
For review:
poop chute = 1
pee hole = 0
This computer also fits into Microsoft's
poop chute = 1
pee hole = 0
The gory details of my thought processes:
Ooh, new article. Yay.
Reads title: Atari 2600 hacks
Damnit Taco, not another webserver running on strange hardware!
Oh wait, no, this may actually be cool.
Your mom's cunt has reverb too.