OK, I've voted in a few Canadian elections, and I'm still confused at the massive desire to have all sorts of gizmos and gadgets involved in voting in the States.
A printed ballot and a pencil to mark an X and you're done, paper trail (literal) included.
I don't know if it's really a joke or not though, I did that for years... and now I write microcode for the Playstation 2, so it was probably worth the pain... oh, the pain...
Freedom to do anything you like that does not directly affect anyone else. Freedom to do anything, but answer to the law of the land once you have done something wrong. Faith that fear of punishment will keep most people in line. I think those are reasonable expectations, without assuming that everybody is going to do something wrong.
I guess the question is, how much freedom are you willing to give up to reduce already very small the odds that you will be harmed by someone with a mental problem? How much if you're actually only 1% safer? Bad things are going to happen to a minority of people, it's unavoidable. I'll take my chances before trading freedom for dubious and unmeasurable safety.
Not a flame, but I think a free and just society rests on two principles:
1. Presumption of innocence until proof of guilt
2. An individual is responsible for their own actions
Banning materials is a presumption of guilt - it denies them to those who would actually deal responsibly with them.
Blaming external forces rather than those taking the action absolves everyone of responsibility, as our actions are always motivated by outside forces.
The price of freedom is the risk that some will abuse freedom. If we really don't want it, let's just drop the pretense and welcome the dictatorship with open arms already.
Well, I have a BSc from U of C, and they don't teach "C," they teach computer science (that's why is't a degree in computer science, not C), which is much more valuable as it applies to all future technologies.
That said, CPSC 233 was basically the "C" course, and C was used extensively throughout the program. I believe Java may have replaced C in several instances after I graduated, but that's not so different.
OK, in theory it might be possible to create some socialist utopia where I am always able to find wonderful employment within walking distance of affordable family housing, interspersed among shops providing all of life's necessities, and wonderful public transit that is always on time and runs 24/7 to take me a bit further for those things I only need occasionally.
My wife will be happy with the local doctor, and the hospital will be close enough for my wife to walk to just before she gives birth (we've planned a home birth twice and ended up in hospital twice, so really, it needs to be close by).
Somehow there will be a road system to supply this myriad of shops, and to allow me to drive my rented car on occasion, but no one will use it unless they really have no other option.
It might be possible to solve the logistics of such a city, but the social changes required to get people to live in such a city would seem to me to be rather daunting.
Anyway, it might be possible to put my familly on a bus, but if you've ever tried to carry the baby and chase the toddler while hauling groceries because your wife is too whimpy to carry much more than a few pounds, you would know that the temptation for personal transportation is irresistable.:-)
OK, I can't RTFA, the host name doesn't even resolve, but...
I guess car free would be OK, as long as:
a. Nobody ever wants to go anywhere public transit doesn't go (another city? countryside?)
b. There's some way to get 50lbs of groceries plus other assorted, bulky, items, to within 10ft of my door while also transporting my wife, two kids and a great-grandparent.
You're making the same sort of leap that irritates me with people who hate video games that contain violence -- the assumption that people won't be able to distinguish between reality and the video game.
What I've been thinking for some time is that the people worried about violent video games are themselves the ones who can't separate fantasy from reality, not the ones actually playing the games. Combined with an "everyone should be just like me" mentality, perhaps their attitudes aren't too surprising.
That falls somewhere between sad, pathetic, and more than a little bit frightening.
-Learn C and get a decent assembler - BASIC and debug are not going to cut it
-Don't worry about the girl thing so much, but take opportunities as they arise
-You're not quite as smart as you think you are, but everybody else is actually as stupid as you suspect
Would you have to have an infinite number of monkey feeders...
You are aware that if you are feeding an infinite number of monkeys, while you might be able to obtain Shakespeare, you will also obtain an infinite amount of both figurative and literal crap, right?:-)
I made one of these once
on
Advergames
·
· Score: 1
A 32-bit DOS-based platform game called Scramble for Humpty's Restaurants in Canada.
I don't recall getting a reasonable percentage of $1B though.:-)
Pogs will be first. But by the time this technology is viable, you take the insect toy template, combine it with the camera template, and combine that with the wireless LAN template... while each in themselves would be too complicated to design from the ground up, the whole point of the machine would be to make things simple enough for someone of script-kiddie intelligence to "print" such things. Combining them should be more or less trivial, and then you just need to combine it with a delivery method, which is no different from current virus delivery.
That was just a starter idea anyway... I'm sure there are many more annoying (or deadly) things you could build.
So, any ideas on what will be the first virus payload that targets such a device? I can just imagine the mayhem that would occur if such a thing were to become a common appliance.
Ooh, I know, print an autonomous spycam that networks with any other such camera or wireless network in transmission range. Easy enough to build, give it some insect-level AI and you might never know you were infected.
The ability to deply a wide variety of physical objects into my home at will, for anyone able to break into my computer. Hmm, I think I'll be leaving mine off, unplugged and locked up in the basement unless I really, really need it.
First off, I'm in the games industry, so take any of my comments with an appropriately sized block of salt.
Which is really more likely? That violent games create violent people, or that people who commit or desire to commit violence are drawn to violent games?
The first has no clearly demonstrable casality. Smoking doesn't cause cancer in everyone, but at least it's statistically significant enough to show that it does cause it. In all honesty, more studies need to be conducted to be sure there isn't some sort of link, but the statement "If you play violent video games, then you will be compelled to commit violent acts in real life," is clearly far from the truth.
The second would suggest that violent people are committing fake violence rather than spending their time committing real violence, which would seem to me to be a vast improvement. Kids love violence as it gives them some sense of power, where they otherwise have none. That's not really a problem of violence, though, as much as it is a problem of discrimination.
Seems to me just a further attempt to diminish personal responsibility. Perhaps this is the crux of the matter - a free society requires an intelligent and informed populace who can look after themselves and take responsibility for their own actions. Unfortunately, there is an enormous chunk of the population who are either unwilling or unable to carry that responsibility, and they demand that we prove they are so weak-willed that they can be influenced to do practically anything.
Once again, the few are screwing it up for everybody else. It was a nice civilization guys, hopefully we get it right next time.
By that, I mean write-once PROMs that can be popped into a digital camera; they can hold x number of pictures, and when you click the button, the picture gets burned right into the PROM.
Except... if you take a picture with a digital camera, Photoshop it, and then burn it into such a PROM from the computer (which should be trivial), you've only gained the illusion of authenticity.
On the other hand, if designers didn't have to go through the "logic filter" of programmers, you'd probably end up with some horrific mess that didn't make any sense at all. Really, you wouldn't end up with anything better than the film industry - moments of brilliance, with heaps of pure crap.
Of course, I'm totally biased, believe me at your own risk.:-)
Actually, teams make games, each person contributing something of value to the best of their ability. A few people make high-level decisions and then get glamorized in the press as being "the" person who created the game.
Did you have a bad experience in game development or something?
I work in the games industry, and I got a BSc. in Computer Science at a "regular" university, and I certainly agree with you.
When I was taking Computer Science, it was actually taught as a science, not "just programming." If you understand the underlying theories and algorithms, you can apply them to anything. I actually wish I had realized the value in that before I started computer science. I had been programming games for many years before university, but the formalization of it made me a much better overall developer.
Focusing on games might give you some insight into the specific area of making games, but I picked that up on my own because that's what I wanted to do. I think that drive is the only thing that's going to get you anywhere in the games industry, backing it up by the broad skills of a full university degree is going to serve you much better in the future.
As computers and consoles become faster and faster, the things you learn about that couldn't be done in real time gradually become possible. Learning how to make Pac-Man 20 years ago wouldn't have well prepared me for making the 3D games of today, but the techniques we use today have been around in non-real-time applications for a long time.
As another industry insider (Electronic Arts, mostly on SSX) I defnitely agree with your points. EA really focuses on huge hits and first-week sales. There aren't many (are there any?) "sleeper hits" in the games industry. The barrier to entry into the games industry is getting higher all the time as well - it takes a lot of people or a lot of hours (or both) to make "AAA" titles.
I have seen several games and game companies fail because making games is, well, hard. Unfortunately, most of them don't realize this until well after they have committed themselves to delivering something.
Making games is a crazy mix of passion, professionalism, art and intelligence. It seems to me most failures come about because one (or more, in the more spectacular failures) of those components is seriously lacking.
Anyway, I hope AOM does well for you! The demo looked great, I should be picking up a copy this week!
Why waste your voice when a small portable airhorn is so inexpensive?
While I don't have any sympathy for telemarketing, I do have some for telemarketers, who are usually extremely poorly paid and can't find any other job... might not want to be too hard on someone who probably hates their job anyway.
Re:Read the article...
on
Skydriving
·
· Score: 5, Funny
How many times do the cars miss the ground?
Not often, but if distracted at just the right moment...
The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University.
What was the purpose of this paragraph? It just comes out of nowhere, and the subject abruptly dropped. Is there some reason to believe it might be from Mars, rather than, say, anywhere else? Does it matter? Was the reporter concerned that the Martians were hurling rocks at little girls' feet?
It just struck me as though this reporter didn't have the faintest clue what they were reporting on, but remembered some buzz about meteors from Mars a few years back...
Slashdot Mirror
So, what is the GAME like?
IANAL, but you are
Hopefully somebody translates this for our guests...
OK, I've voted in a few Canadian elections, and I'm still confused at the massive desire to have all sorts of gizmos and gadgets involved in voting in the States.
A printed ballot and a pencil to mark an X and you're done, paper trail (literal) included.
Hey, I was going to say that.
I don't know if it's really a joke or not though, I did that for years... and now I write microcode for the Playstation 2, so it was probably worth the pain... oh, the pain...
Freedom to do anything you like that does not directly affect anyone else. Freedom to do anything, but answer to the law of the land once you have done something wrong. Faith that fear of punishment will keep most people in line. I think those are reasonable expectations, without assuming that everybody is going to do something wrong.
I guess the question is, how much freedom are you willing to give up to reduce already very small the odds that you will be harmed by someone with a mental problem? How much if you're actually only 1% safer? Bad things are going to happen to a minority of people, it's unavoidable. I'll take my chances before trading freedom for dubious and unmeasurable safety.
Not a flame, but I think a free and just society rests on two principles:
1. Presumption of innocence until proof of guilt
2. An individual is responsible for their own actions
Banning materials is a presumption of guilt - it denies them to those who would actually deal responsibly with them.
Blaming external forces rather than those taking the action absolves everyone of responsibility, as our actions are always motivated by outside forces.
The price of freedom is the risk that some will abuse freedom. If we really don't want it, let's just drop the pretense and welcome the dictatorship with open arms already.
Well, I have a BSc from U of C, and they don't teach "C," they teach computer science (that's why is't a degree in computer science, not C), which is much more valuable as it applies to all future technologies.
That said, CPSC 233 was basically the "C" course, and C was used extensively throughout the program. I believe Java may have replaced C in several instances after I graduated, but that's not so different.
OK, in theory it might be possible to create some socialist utopia where I am always able to find wonderful employment within walking distance of affordable family housing, interspersed among shops providing all of life's necessities, and wonderful public transit that is always on time and runs 24/7 to take me a bit further for those things I only need occasionally.
:-)
My wife will be happy with the local doctor, and the hospital will be close enough for my wife to walk to just before she gives birth (we've planned a home birth twice and ended up in hospital twice, so really, it needs to be close by).
Somehow there will be a road system to supply this myriad of shops, and to allow me to drive my rented car on occasion, but no one will use it unless they really have no other option.
It might be possible to solve the logistics of such a city, but the social changes required to get people to live in such a city would seem to me to be rather daunting.
Anyway, it might be possible to put my familly on a bus, but if you've ever tried to carry the baby and chase the toddler while hauling groceries because your wife is too whimpy to carry much more than a few pounds, you would know that the temptation for personal transportation is irresistable.
OK, I can't RTFA, the host name doesn't even resolve, but...
I guess car free would be OK, as long as:
a. Nobody ever wants to go anywhere public transit doesn't go (another city? countryside?)
b. There's some way to get 50lbs of groceries plus other assorted, bulky, items, to within 10ft of my door while also transporting my wife, two kids and a great-grandparent.
Good luck.
You're making the same sort of leap that irritates me with people who hate video games that contain violence -- the assumption that people won't be able to distinguish between reality and the video game.
What I've been thinking for some time is that the people worried about violent video games are themselves the ones who can't separate fantasy from reality, not the ones actually playing the games. Combined with an "everyone should be just like me" mentality, perhaps their attitudes aren't too surprising.
That falls somewhere between sad, pathetic, and more than a little bit frightening.
I would disagree with that - MI3 was great. It was MI4 that left a lot to be desired...
-Learn C and get a decent assembler - BASIC and debug are not going to cut it
-Don't worry about the girl thing so much, but take opportunities as they arise
-You're not quite as smart as you think you are, but everybody else is actually as stupid as you suspect
Would you have to have an infinite number of monkey feeders...
:-)
You are aware that if you are feeding an infinite number of monkeys, while you might be able to obtain Shakespeare, you will also obtain an infinite amount of both figurative and literal crap, right?
A 32-bit DOS-based platform game called Scramble for Humpty's Restaurants in Canada.
:-)
I don't recall getting a reasonable percentage of $1B though.
Pogs will be first. But by the time this technology is viable, you take the insect toy template, combine it with the camera template, and combine that with the wireless LAN template... while each in themselves would be too complicated to design from the ground up, the whole point of the machine would be to make things simple enough for someone of script-kiddie intelligence to "print" such things. Combining them should be more or less trivial, and then you just need to combine it with a delivery method, which is no different from current virus delivery.
That was just a starter idea anyway... I'm sure there are many more annoying (or deadly) things you could build.
Just because I'm a pessimist...
So, any ideas on what will be the first virus payload that targets such a device? I can just imagine the mayhem that would occur if such a thing were to become a common appliance.
Ooh, I know, print an autonomous spycam that networks with any other such camera or wireless network in transmission range. Easy enough to build, give it some insect-level AI and you might never know you were infected.
The ability to deply a wide variety of physical objects into my home at will, for anyone able to break into my computer. Hmm, I think I'll be leaving mine off, unplugged and locked up in the basement unless I really, really need it.
First off, I'm in the games industry, so take any of my comments with an appropriately sized block of salt.
Which is really more likely? That violent games create violent people, or that people who commit or desire to commit violence are drawn to violent games?
The first has no clearly demonstrable casality. Smoking doesn't cause cancer in everyone, but at least it's statistically significant enough to show that it does cause it. In all honesty, more studies need to be conducted to be sure there isn't some sort of link, but the statement "If you play violent video games, then you will be compelled to commit violent acts in real life," is clearly far from the truth.
The second would suggest that violent people are committing fake violence rather than spending their time committing real violence, which would seem to me to be a vast improvement. Kids love violence as it gives them some sense of power, where they otherwise have none. That's not really a problem of violence, though, as much as it is a problem of discrimination.
Seems to me just a further attempt to diminish personal responsibility. Perhaps this is the crux of the matter - a free society requires an intelligent and informed populace who can look after themselves and take responsibility for their own actions. Unfortunately, there is an enormous chunk of the population who are either unwilling or unable to carry that responsibility, and they demand that we prove they are so weak-willed that they can be influenced to do practically anything.
Once again, the few are screwing it up for everybody else. It was a nice civilization guys, hopefully we get it right next time.
By that, I mean write-once PROMs that can be popped into a digital camera; they can hold x number of pictures, and when you click the button, the picture gets burned right into the PROM.
Except... if you take a picture with a digital camera, Photoshop it, and then burn it into such a PROM from the computer (which should be trivial), you've only gained the illusion of authenticity.
On the other hand, if designers didn't have to go through the "logic filter" of programmers, you'd probably end up with some horrific mess that didn't make any sense at all. Really, you wouldn't end up with anything better than the film industry - moments of brilliance, with heaps of pure crap.
:-)
Of course, I'm totally biased, believe me at your own risk.
Actually, teams make games, each person contributing something of value to the best of their ability. A few people make high-level decisions and then get glamorized in the press as being "the" person who created the game.
Did you have a bad experience in game development or something?
I work in the games industry, and I got a BSc. in Computer Science at a "regular" university, and I certainly agree with you.
When I was taking Computer Science, it was actually taught as a science, not "just programming." If you understand the underlying theories and algorithms, you can apply them to anything. I actually wish I had realized the value in that before I started computer science. I had been programming games for many years before university, but the formalization of it made me a much better overall developer.
Focusing on games might give you some insight into the specific area of making games, but I picked that up on my own because that's what I wanted to do. I think that drive is the only thing that's going to get you anywhere in the games industry, backing it up by the broad skills of a full university degree is going to serve you much better in the future.
As computers and consoles become faster and faster, the things you learn about that couldn't be done in real time gradually become possible. Learning how to make Pac-Man 20 years ago wouldn't have well prepared me for making the 3D games of today, but the techniques we use today have been around in non-real-time applications for a long time.
As another industry insider (Electronic Arts, mostly on SSX) I defnitely agree with your points. EA really focuses on huge hits and first-week sales. There aren't many (are there any?) "sleeper hits" in the games industry. The barrier to entry into the games industry is getting higher all the time as well - it takes a lot of people or a lot of hours (or both) to make "AAA" titles.
I have seen several games and game companies fail because making games is, well, hard. Unfortunately, most of them don't realize this until well after they have committed themselves to delivering something.
Making games is a crazy mix of passion, professionalism, art and intelligence. It seems to me most failures come about because one (or more, in the more spectacular failures) of those components is seriously lacking.
Anyway, I hope AOM does well for you! The demo looked great, I should be picking up a copy this week!
Why waste your voice when a small portable airhorn is so inexpensive?
While I don't have any sympathy for telemarketing, I do have some for telemarketers, who are usually extremely poorly paid and can't find any other job... might not want to be too hard on someone who probably hates their job anyway.
How many times do the cars miss the ground?
Not often, but if distracted at just the right moment...
The stone could have come from Mars, according to expert on Earth impacts Dr Benny Peiser, of Liverpool John Moores University.
What was the purpose of this paragraph? It just comes out of nowhere, and the subject abruptly dropped. Is there some reason to believe it might be from Mars, rather than, say, anywhere else? Does it matter? Was the reporter concerned that the Martians were hurling rocks at little girls' feet?
It just struck me as though this reporter didn't have the faintest clue what they were reporting on, but remembered some buzz about meteors from Mars a few years back...