I have been working PC repair since the days of Win3.1 and I can count the number of times I've HAD to use CLI in Windows to fix a problem with one hand with fingers left over.
When Win3.1 came out in '92, I had been repairing Macintosh 128's, 512's, and SE's for four years. I can count the number of times I had to use a CLI to do that with no hands. And still have an appendage left to play with.
Bill Gates made sure that EVERYTHING had a GUI, from the most basic app to the most complex. He made sure that instead of CLI all a user had to deal with was checkboxes, radio buttons, textboxes, etc.
While Bill may have made that happen for the Windows product line, it's well documented that the idea behind it wasn't his innovation. I'm not arguing that Gates isn't a 'genius' but that you're misattributing the nature of his genius. He's demonstrated over the past 25 years that his talent is not software design or product innovation. Bill is a capitalist genius, a master of the corporate trade, a captain of industry. And you don't accomplish that without testing the rules. And as a result, other people apply the labels monopolist, son of a bitch, and even thief.
You're modded funny, but I'm taking you seriously because I feel the same way.
I've avoided tattoos my entire life not because I think they're ugly or unwise, but because a) they're permanent, and b) I can't think of anything important enough to imprint permanently on my skin. But a practical device like a chronograph, or a blood sugar monitor, would be more than sufficient to make me get one.
And to the sister reply: Add some means to provide input, like a keyboard or numpad, and I'd be one of the first. Provided the processing core could be upgraded. (The last thing I'd want to do is be an early adopter with no path to upgrade.)
Subtract two kids and add one wife either nagging me or hollering at the kid and you understand why I look forward to coming to a cubicle farm and working between a flatulant VHDL programmer and a logorrheic systems engineer, underneath Nerf and nano-RC airspace.
I'm lining up right next to you for the same service. There are a whole bunch of us who've voted Nader for the last 12 years and have had to endure the abuse from Dems who believe their candidates were "entitled" to our votes.
I voted my conscience, based on an informed opinion, as people like Jefferson and Madison intended me to. Not for the candidate I thought would win so that I could feel special, or for some ideals projected onto the candidates. I refuse to be blamed for the outcome because your candidate sucked and lost, or because he won and still sucked.
RPGers are the gamers the GP is talking about. If you're a CCG gamer, then SJG is inferior to names like WOTC, yes. (Though I suggest you try Illuminati - either Deluxe or INWO if you can find it.) SJG's titles sell because they're fun, yes, but also because they were made by gamers for gamers not engineered to marketing specifications. These are: GURPS and In Nomine and even Toon... also the now out of print titles like Car Wars, Ogre, GEV, and the aforementioned Illuminati (Deluxe, not INWO).
Sounds to me like Hasbro/WotC learned something from the 3.0/3.5 release: make it very inconvenient for the player to use anything but the version in print. Kill groups that continue to use obsolete versions die out with attrition.
In 2000, I was a RPG grognard with a 25-year collection of TSR relics. When 3.0 was released, me and my gaming group said "WTF? We've spent thousands on our books, we're gonna keep playing 2.5" and we continued to tell our new recruits to find used copies of the PHB and Skills & Powers books, or download the PDFs. I did eventually buy the core set by 2002 so that I could continue to play pickup games or sit in on other groups. But then got royally pissed when I sat down with a group in 2004 and learned that the $120 I spent on core books was completely wasted because they had released 3.5.
Screw that. They're trying to use the MTG model on RPG publications. It ain't gonna work. Most of us grognards embaraced the CCG genre when it came out, but after seeing what it's done to the RPG market and culture, we're reviled. And pissed.
And now, the PDFs of 2.5 are contraband? Screw you Hasbro. Screw you with a bastard sword. Sideways.
I'm seriously considering switching my group to GURPS. The great aunt post above about SJ Games was correct. Steve Jackson gets gamers.
Giving up my ability to mod this thread to point out a difference between Banks' "Orbitals" and Niven's "Ringworlds."
The Banks orbitals are ring structures designed to rotate once every standard day about an axis perpendicular to the primary star, creating a natural day/night cycle due to its own rotation, as well as artificial "gravity" due to the "fictitious" centrifugal force experienced in the rotating frame of reference on its inner surface. The center of mass of the orbital revolves around the primary star in the habitable zone (e.g., approx. 1 AU for a star like our own Sol). To get an idea of the scale of this structure, assuming the standard day (period of rotation, T) is 24 hours (8.64e4 seconds), and the desired force of "gravity" (g) is 10 m/s^2. This requires the radius of the structure to be r = (g*T^2)/(4*pi()^2) or approximately 1.89 million km, creating a circumference of about 12 million kilometers. The Wikipedia entry describes them as being approximately 10 million km in circumference, implying either a slightly longer day or slightly higher gravity (or both, if I recall the novels correctly).
In contrast, the much more well-known Niven Ringworld is designed to encircle the primary star, with the structure rotating about the primary while remaining in dynamic equilibrium within the habitable zone, thus defining the radius to be 1 AU, or about 150 million km, 100 times the size of the Banks Orbital... This arrangement has been shown to be unstable, and in fact Niven uses this instability as a plot device in his second novel about the megastructure.
Technical differences aside, I give the aesthetic edge to the Banks Orbital as its concept inherently solves the problem of creating a diurnal cycle, avoiding the need for a second structure of "shadow squares" and providing for the traversal of the sun across the sky, sunrises and sunsets, etc. The Banks Orbital concept is also tailorable to the needs of the builder, in terms of diurnal period and apparent gravity.
I really do want to like VLC, because I'm so damn tired of Quicktime Player. Help me with two problems and I will become a devoted fan:
VLC doesn't seem to just do the basics that Quicktime Player manages. All I need are keybindings for play, pause, step forward 1 frame, step back 1 frame, and cue/rewind at 8x or better. I can never seem to get VLC to do that. I have found the preferences where you can assign the keys to these functions, but it never "takes," or it exhibits strange behavior when I try and use the assigned keybindings.
Also, I have a collection of old.mpg and.wmv files that got their "Duration" tags messed up somehow[*1]. Can VLC fix these? An example would be a clip that is 20 minutes old, but when I open it in Quicktime Player it shows some other number, e.g., "2:14." I know the rest of the content is there, because the file size hasn't changed, but I can't access it.
The first thing I thought of when I read about the archivist was the NetHack Tourist class, and how I always thought that there should be a "Librarian" class, as well, considering how many books and scrolls are in the game.
The Librarian would be able to identify all scrolls and books, but unable to discern b/c/u status. However, the Librarian could improve NO weapon skills except one - Thrown weapon. And of course, books would be quiverable. The Librarian also would have a very restricted encumbrance limit, discouraging the use of heavy armor.
And of course, if this were to come about, I would name all of my Librarians "Conan."
Then you need a manufacturing EE to redesign the circuit so it does not use any rare or known unreliable or hard to surface mount or single sourced parts.
Then you need a quality engineer who will redesign things so the hot voltage regulator is not right next to the electrolytic capacitors, and shuffle the pcb traces so they're less likely to short out from tin whiskers, and rearrange them for better ESD protection, and they will test it in an environmental chamber for performance over a wide temperature range.
Then you'll need a standards EE who will make sure it meets EU and US standards for safety and toxicity and flammability and electromagnetic emissions.
In my 20 years in aerospace, I've encountered quite a few good, experienced designers (usu. not someone who holds an EE degree, or a salaried engineer position) can do the last three items quoted. A *really* good designer or "supertech" can do all four, but I've encountered only four or five of those rare assets, ever.
The sad part, though, is that nearly everyone you interview will tell you they can do all four. And many cannot live up to even one of the claims.
The BATFE was originally a part of the Dept of Treasury. They're the "revvin'ooers" that pre-prohibition moonshiners used to shoot at. Their charter was originally enforcement of the tax code for items that were notoriously difficult to tax, due to smuggling, etc... However over the years, especially after they were transferred to the Justice Dept during Prohibition, other enforcement responsibility has fallen to them as well... like the enforcement of prohibition laws.
Slashdot Mirror
Seal Flu.
Bark, bark!
I imagine this scene would cause a few problems for the software, too.
When Win3.1 came out in '92, I had been repairing Macintosh 128's, 512's, and SE's for four years. I can count the number of times I had to use a CLI to do that with no hands. And still have an appendage left to play with.
While Bill may have made that happen for the Windows product line, it's well documented that the idea behind it wasn't his innovation. I'm not arguing that Gates isn't a 'genius' but that you're misattributing the nature of his genius. He's demonstrated over the past 25 years that his talent is not software design or product innovation. Bill is a capitalist genius, a master of the corporate trade, a captain of industry. And you don't accomplish that without testing the rules. And as a result, other people apply the labels monopolist, son of a bitch, and even thief.
Right after the paperless office is perfected.
And right after college students learn to apply the same discipline to attending class and studying as they do to partying and carousing.
You're modded funny, but I'm taking you seriously because I feel the same way.
I've avoided tattoos my entire life not because I think they're ugly or unwise, but because a) they're permanent, and b) I can't think of anything important enough to imprint permanently on my skin. But a practical device like a chronograph, or a blood sugar monitor, would be more than sufficient to make me get one.
And to the sister reply: Add some means to provide input, like a keyboard or numpad, and I'd be one of the first. Provided the processing core could be upgraded. (The last thing I'd want to do is be an early adopter with no path to upgrade.)
No, the real question is whether the LongPenIs Mightier Than The Sword.
(Perhaps we should ask Sean Connery.)
I can see the Marketing Slogan now:
The LongPen 15
Mightier than the Sword!
I'd like to see a report on this Thermal Protection System you speak of.
Please make sure it includes the mandatory first page.
Subtract two kids and add one wife either nagging me or hollering at the kid and you understand why I look forward to coming to a cubicle farm and working between a flatulant VHDL programmer and a logorrheic systems engineer, underneath Nerf and nano-RC airspace.
That sounds like the one occasion when I worked from home.
And I didn't have any roommates!
Don't forget the other threat to government and industry information policy: The EFF.
(On that note: please donate to the EFF.)
Mod parent up. And GO DONATE. Their new "NSA" tee is pretty cool... last year's tee is cool, too, and still available if you don't have one yet.
I'm lining up right next to you for the same service. There are a whole bunch of us who've voted Nader for the last 12 years and have had to endure the abuse from Dems who believe their candidates were "entitled" to our votes.
I voted my conscience, based on an informed opinion, as people like Jefferson and Madison intended me to. Not for the candidate I thought would win so that I could feel special, or for some ideals projected onto the candidates. I refuse to be blamed for the outcome because your candidate sucked and lost, or because he won and still sucked.
Or wean yourself from tube feeding.
RPGers are the gamers the GP is talking about. If you're a CCG gamer, then SJG is inferior to names like WOTC, yes. (Though I suggest you try Illuminati - either Deluxe or INWO if you can find it.) SJG's titles sell because they're fun, yes, but also because they were made by gamers for gamers not engineered to marketing specifications. These are: GURPS and In Nomine and even Toon... also the now out of print titles like Car Wars, Ogre, GEV, and the aforementioned Illuminati (Deluxe, not INWO).
Sounds to me like Hasbro/WotC learned something from the 3.0/3.5 release: make it very inconvenient for the player to use anything but the version in print. Kill groups that continue to use obsolete versions die out with attrition.
In 2000, I was a RPG grognard with a 25-year collection of TSR relics. When 3.0 was released, me and my gaming group said "WTF? We've spent thousands on our books, we're gonna keep playing 2.5" and we continued to tell our new recruits to find used copies of the PHB and Skills & Powers books, or download the PDFs. I did eventually buy the core set by 2002 so that I could continue to play pickup games or sit in on other groups. But then got royally pissed when I sat down with a group in 2004 and learned that the $120 I spent on core books was completely wasted because they had released 3.5.
Screw that. They're trying to use the MTG model on RPG publications. It ain't gonna work. Most of us grognards embaraced the CCG genre when it came out, but after seeing what it's done to the RPG market and culture, we're reviled. And pissed.
And now, the PDFs of 2.5 are contraband? Screw you Hasbro. Screw you with a bastard sword. Sideways.
I'm seriously considering switching my group to GURPS. The great aunt post above about SJ Games was correct. Steve Jackson gets gamers.
Giving up my ability to mod this thread to point out a difference between Banks' "Orbitals" and Niven's "Ringworlds."
The Banks orbitals are ring structures designed to rotate once every standard day about an axis perpendicular to the primary star, creating a natural day/night cycle due to its own rotation, as well as artificial "gravity" due to the "fictitious" centrifugal force experienced in the rotating frame of reference on its inner surface. The center of mass of the orbital revolves around the primary star in the habitable zone (e.g., approx. 1 AU for a star like our own Sol). To get an idea of the scale of this structure, assuming the standard day (period of rotation, T) is 24 hours (8.64e4 seconds), and the desired force of "gravity" (g) is 10 m/s^2. This requires the radius of the structure to be r = (g*T^2)/(4*pi()^2) or approximately 1.89 million km, creating a circumference of about 12 million kilometers. The Wikipedia entry describes them as being approximately 10 million km in circumference, implying either a slightly longer day or slightly higher gravity (or both, if I recall the novels correctly).
In contrast, the much more well-known Niven Ringworld is designed to encircle the primary star, with the structure rotating about the primary while remaining in dynamic equilibrium within the habitable zone, thus defining the radius to be 1 AU, or about 150 million km, 100 times the size of the Banks Orbital... This arrangement has been shown to be unstable, and in fact Niven uses this instability as a plot device in his second novel about the megastructure.
Technical differences aside, I give the aesthetic edge to the Banks Orbital as its concept inherently solves the problem of creating a diurnal cycle, avoiding the need for a second structure of "shadow squares" and providing for the traversal of the sun across the sky, sunrises and sunsets, etc. The Banks Orbital concept is also tailorable to the needs of the builder, in terms of diurnal period and apparent gravity.
I really do want to like VLC, because I'm so damn tired of Quicktime Player. Help me with two problems and I will become a devoted fan:
*1 Somehow=viewing them using WMP9 @:
Considering the title, I'm glad you linked to the Andrew Hamilton version and not the Seymour Butts version.
The first thing I thought of when I read about the archivist was the NetHack Tourist class, and how I always thought that there should be a "Librarian" class, as well, considering how many books and scrolls are in the game.
The Librarian would be able to identify all scrolls and books, but unable to discern b/c/u status. However, the Librarian could improve NO weapon skills except one - Thrown weapon. And of course, books would be quiverable. The Librarian also would have a very restricted encumbrance limit, discouraging the use of heavy armor.
And of course, if this were to come about, I would name all of my Librarians "Conan."
And thus, Achievement Whoring finds its way to slashdot.
Yea, last time I participated in an acid test, I went and saw Used Cars at a midnight movie. This is somehow reminiscent... only without Kurt Russell.
In my 20 years in aerospace, I've encountered quite a few good, experienced designers (usu. not someone who holds an EE degree, or a salaried engineer position) can do the last three items quoted. A *really* good designer or "supertech" can do all four, but I've encountered only four or five of those rare assets, ever.
The sad part, though, is that nearly everyone you interview will tell you they can do all four. And many cannot live up to even one of the claims.
If I hadn't spent all my mod points yesterday in the Mythbusters thread on +1 Funny's, you'd be getting a +1 Insightful right now.
The BATFE was originally a part of the Dept of Treasury. They're the "revvin'ooers" that pre-prohibition moonshiners used to shoot at. Their charter was originally enforcement of the tax code for items that were notoriously difficult to tax, due to smuggling, etc... However over the years, especially after they were transferred to the Justice Dept during Prohibition, other enforcement responsibility has fallen to them as well... like the enforcement of prohibition laws.