I've read Nielsen's book about usability & web design and I can assure you that it's only a common sense compilation.
He does not say anything that doesn't hit you in the eye... I do not mean that this book isn't useful for someone who has never, ever, worked professionaly in UI design, but is utter bs for anyone with some knowledge.
Take that, and take that JN's sites are kinda awful [like '95 SUN's intranet] (and not that usable - btw, I think that aestethics play a hughe role in usability) and then RTFA.
No trolling, but.. something like DirectX wouldn't hurt!
I mean (aside from DirectInput which is pretty cool), the whole development cycle is DX-centered: Microsoft asks Nvidia/ATi what they need, then they put it on DX nad then the cards take advantage of it... it's cyclic.
Carmack is the only reason for OpenGL's survival...
Traditionaly the gaming industry is one where garage developers have great impact.
A big problem I see with Linux as a mainstream gaming platform is that there is no significant market to tempt those developers with no extra money to burn...
I speak myself as a former game developer (now on the academic side of the world)... how would you convince me to develop for linux if I have no extra money??
You're not getting it at all. What I'm saying has nothing to do with the thieves, it's all about not doing justice for yourself. Perhaps you're right here, they are thieves. Or perhaps not, and the article (which I read, btw) is plain wrong, how do you know?
Even if they are thieves, you cannot judge them and punish them, this is not (or at least, this should be not) a neo far west.
--krahd
p.d. perhaps you still not getting it: just imagine I report to/. that you had ripped my site.
I'm reposting this cause I want to make shure ppl read it:
To all of you thinking of a DDOS attack (slashdotting) to those thieves:
EVER heard of "not guilty until proven otherwise"!?!?!?
If we start slashdotting evry site that is not correct to... us... it's kinda ovbious to me that we'll be doing not only something that is plain wrong but also that is plain illegal.
EVER heard of "not guilty until proven otherwise"!?!?!?
If we start slashdotting evry site that is not correct to... us... it's kinda ovbious to me that we'll be doing not only something that is plain wrong but also that is plain illegal.
Linus says "or the blame is really on the companies who sell and install the systems that are quite that fragile" arguing that we should not blame the poor geeky guy who fires a virus for not getting a date (!).
Why this kind of forgiveness applies only to computer related crimes? If this lonely guy chooses to start driving his car and crushing people... should we blame the car's manufacturer??
yeah sure, I've started and later managed/directed a project which has failed completelly. So obviusly solo projects are not of very high quality. Linus: face that and leave that linux thing.
--krahd
Genetic Algs, Boids and artificial life
on
Mutating Animations
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
When I read the article, it immediatly made me remember the Boids which are a computer model of coordinated animal motion such as bird flocks and fish schools, first introduced by Craig Reynolds. Those where an example of emergent behaviour, where a bunch of independent moving things start moving in a coordinated way thanks to some "local guidelines" controlling their behaviour.
So, if every thing (boid) is telled to steer to avoid crowding local flockmates, steer towards the average heading of local flockmates and steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates, they start to move as a flock (!).
This approach of obtaining a more developed behaviour in an automatic (more accurately in an "emergent" way), is a lot related to genetic algorithms (GA) evolving an animation model, 'cos is exactly the opposite approach: In the first one the designer must specify the underlying mechanisms that permits the animation, while in the latter the designer must specify the result that is desired.
What I found more appealing of GA's approach is that the system can outperform the initial specifications, as is noted by a lot of papers in ALife. Some have developed an artificial world (in the paper linked above is named "Geb") where individuals can develope a (eventually) coordinated behaviour to survive (the fitnness function is an implicit "survive function").
What would be cool is to use GA in a pre-determined way to evolve (in a explcit way) the basic behaviour that construct the coordinated mass beahaviours (like boids' flocking).
I do not understand, adding his own questions to pre-recorded phrases does not hold any sense, does it? He can twist it any way he wants... ("genuine dialogue"???!!? wtf?).
What I liked about the article is the "The reality slips and cartoon metaphysics of The Matrix" phrase. A great synthesis of the trilogy (which, btw, i happen to like a lot).
So who is supposed to have the right to decide what and how should something be investigated... as long as the goverment (and his mental-patient-cowboy-leader) is the one who's deciding I want information to be as free as possible.
Actually, until somone can prove that the man on charge is a more wise person than the society itself i would still think the very same...
and what's this "technology has the power to destroy" !?!?!?... ask Hiroshima's people about it.
10. Space Shooter or "Shmups"
It's not dying: it has been dead for quite a long time.
9. Puzzle
What??? Lot of people still plays solitaire... even minesweeper!
What might be happening is that there are not new types of puzzles...
8. Light Gun
They're not really dead as they weren't really alive... aside of some people playing on nintendos, there were not a really market for they. I always thaught that the problem was that there is only one way to play with this things... aim and shoot.
7. Text Adventure
They didn't die: they evolved! quite long ago they became graphic adventures.
6. Maze
rrright, they died. But that is not a game genre, just a kind of puzzle.
5. Virtual Reality
Again, that's not a genre. I thing much of us would love to play a FPS with a helmet or somthing truly immersive... but most of us can't afford it, and (AFAIK) the real good ones are way too expensive
4. Educational
They would be right only if Educational games had ever been alive. But i still think that they would be a good idea
3. Full Motion Video
And then again... this is not a genre, it's just poor designed video games with a bad transition/gaming ratio...
2. Beat 'Em Up
They are right (at least!). RIP. We'll miss you (i loved double dragon).
1. Graphic Adventure
They are right again. Why did Graphic adventures died? I really really enjoid Maniac MAnsion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island (I II & III)... why aren't new-3d-full-of-eye-candies-graphic-adventures? Perhaps there's a need for a new Roberta.
--krahd
[rant] They could have written _something_
on
Meteorite Hits Girl
·
· Score: 1
I mean, sometimes following a link in a slashdot post is not worthy, but this is ridiculous...
I'm sorry I have to strongly disagree. The last match, at least, was useful to prove one thing about the world cup: regularity, that is, every match was awful, with everybody defending instead of creating something fun to watch.
Now, add the decisive role played by the referees (just remember brazil's imaginary penalty, germany's invisible hand-on-ball, spain vs korea, and a long etcetera...), and you'll have all the "world cup champion" concept relativized... it looks that the only two things that matter are how good are you defending and how much extra help you are able to afford.
Pretty sad... football is the greatest sport (and the FIFA is the most profitable sport-related-organization).
Borges also wrote somewhere that the universe was an engine to find all God's name, but I think he always thought this as a part of the Babel's Lybrary concept wich is a much more interesting idea:) (everything.org?).
Anyway, it seems kinda obvious to me that computers cannot pray for you, as noone else than you can. At least, that's the old-fashioned was to see it, as a deep thought state and as a way to communicate with God. (I've never done it, but I'm sure that this is what it's supposed to be).
I do not pretend to discuss if this CyberRosary makes any sense, 'cos it will only if Religion does, and it's a tough thing to discuss (and I do not think slashdot is the place to do it), but it points out a whole new usage for IT, I mean using computers for attending the spiritual issues of human beings. For example we can have a new and sophisticated version of that little program that acted as a shrink.
--krahd yeah, i know i should improve my english...
p.s. I'd like a/. Poll about Uruguay's next poll (we'll have 'em next 28th.:)
There must be some other uses for the incredible power of the megasupercomputer that distributed computing creates. I mean other than just cracking the latest encryption algorithm(s).
I'm sure someone will come up with a new and cool use for Dist. Comp.
Slashdot Mirror
me> hey, nice link, i'll click it
firefox> it looks like you're writing a letter!
me> rm -rf
krahd
(disclaimer, I didn't RTFA)
I've read Nielsen's book about usability & web design and I can assure you that it's only a common sense compilation.
He does not say anything that doesn't hit you in the eye... I do not mean that this book isn't useful for someone who has never, ever, worked professionaly in UI design, but is utter bs for anyone with some knowledge.
Take that, and take that JN's sites are kinda awful [like '95 SUN's intranet] (and not that usable - btw, I think that aestethics play a hughe role in usability) and then RTFA.
--krahd
No trolling, but.. something like DirectX wouldn't hurt!
I mean (aside from DirectInput which is pretty cool), the whole development cycle is DX-centered: Microsoft asks Nvidia/ATi what they need, then they put it on DX nad then the cards take advantage of it... it's cyclic.
Carmack is the only reason for OpenGL's survival...
--krahd
Traditionaly the gaming industry is one where garage developers have great impact.
A big problem I see with Linux as a mainstream gaming platform is that there is no significant market to tempt those developers with no extra money to burn...
I speak myself as a former game developer (now on the academic side of the world)... how would you convince me to develop for linux if I have no extra money??
--krahd
You're not getting it at all. What I'm saying has nothing to do with the thieves, it's all about not doing justice for yourself. Perhaps you're right here, they are thieves. Or perhaps not, and the article (which I read, btw) is plain wrong, how do you know?
/. that you had ripped my site.
Even if they are thieves, you cannot judge them and punish them, this is not (or at least, this should be not) a neo far west.
--krahd
p.d. perhaps you still not getting it: just imagine I report to
I'm reposting this cause I want to make shure ppl read it:
To all of you thinking of a DDOS attack (slashdotting) to those thieves:
EVER heard of "not guilty until proven otherwise"!?!?!?
If we start slashdotting evry site that is not correct to... us... it's kinda ovbious to me that we'll be doing not only something that is plain wrong but also that is plain illegal.
--krahd
EVER heard of "not guilty until proven otherwise"!?!?!?
If we start slashdotting evry site that is not correct to... us... it's kinda ovbious to me that we'll be doing not only something that is plain wrong but also that is plain illegal.
--krahd
I can't agree more with you... but OTOH a bit of "quality commercials" won't hurt, just to show us how crappy the regular ones are.
I mean, I want to have the right to choose if I am gonna see any commercial, but if I (for some reason) choose to see them, I want them to be cool.
--krahd
that allen was a ventriloquist!
--krahd
Linus says "or the blame is really on the companies who sell and install the systems that are quite that fragile" arguing that we should not blame the poor geeky guy who fires a virus for not getting a date (!).
Why this kind of forgiveness applies only to computer related crimes? If this lonely guy chooses to start driving his car and crushing people... should we blame the car's manufacturer??
--krahd
mod me up, scottie!
...you insensitive clod!
--krahd
is to whistle a song to the mic and having Google give me some mp3 with that tune...
--krahd
mod me up, scottie!
start bombing an(other) uncensored country!
hooray!
and it still can't run Doom III at a decent rate.
--krahd
mod me up, scottie!
yeah sure, I've started and later managed/directed a project which has failed completelly. So obviusly solo projects are not of very high quality. Linus: face that and leave that linux thing.
--krahd
When I read the article, it immediatly made me remember the Boids which are a computer model of coordinated animal motion such as bird flocks and fish schools, first introduced by Craig Reynolds. Those where an example of emergent behaviour, where a bunch of independent moving things start moving in a coordinated way thanks to some "local guidelines" controlling their behaviour.
So, if every thing (boid) is telled to steer to avoid crowding local flockmates, steer towards the average heading of local flockmates and steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates, they start to move as a flock (!).
This approach of obtaining a more developed behaviour in an automatic (more accurately in an "emergent" way), is a lot related to genetic algorithms (GA) evolving an animation model, 'cos is exactly the opposite approach: In the first one the designer must specify the underlying mechanisms that permits the animation, while in the latter the designer must specify the result that is desired.
What I found more appealing of GA's approach is that the system can outperform the initial specifications, as is noted by a lot of papers in ALife. Some have developed an artificial world (in the paper linked above is named "Geb") where individuals can develope a (eventually) coordinated behaviour to survive (the fitnness function is an implicit
"survive function").
What would be cool is to use GA in a pre-determined way to evolve (in a explcit way) the basic behaviour that construct the coordinated mass beahaviours (like boids' flocking).
--krahd
mod me up, scottie!
Actually, there's a band from canada, called [The User], that composed (some years ago) a "Symphony for dot matrix printer).
It sounded kinda cool, but...
--krahd
I do not understand, adding his own questions to pre-recorded phrases does not hold any sense, does it? He can twist it any way he wants... ("genuine dialogue"???!!? wtf?).
What I liked about the article is the "The reality slips and cartoon metaphysics of The Matrix" phrase. A great synthesis of the trilogy (which, btw, i happen to like a lot).
--krahd
So who is supposed to have the right to decide what and how should something be investigated... as long as the goverment (and his mental-patient-cowboy-leader) is the one who's deciding I want information to be as free as possible.
Actually, until somone can prove that the man on charge is a more wise person than the society itself i would still think the very same...
and what's this "technology has the power to destroy" !?!?!?... ask Hiroshima's people about it.
dammit.
Perhaps, editors should turn local echo off... ;)
--krahd
silly post, i know...
here are the genres that are supposedly dying:
10. Space Shooter or "Shmups"
It's not dying: it has been dead for quite a long time.
9. Puzzle
What??? Lot of people still plays solitaire... even minesweeper!
What might be happening is that there are not new types of puzzles...
8. Light Gun
They're not really dead as they weren't really alive... aside of some people playing on nintendos, there were not a really market for they. I always thaught that the problem was that there is only one way to play with this things... aim and shoot.
7. Text Adventure
They didn't die: they evolved! quite long ago they became graphic adventures.
6. Maze
rrright, they died. But that is not a game genre, just a kind of puzzle.
5. Virtual Reality
Again, that's not a genre. I thing much of us would love to play a FPS with a helmet or somthing truly immersive... but most of us can't afford it, and (AFAIK) the real good ones are way too expensive
4. Educational
They would be right only if Educational games had ever been alive. But i still think that they would be a good idea
3. Full Motion Video
And then again... this is not a genre, it's just poor designed video games with a bad transition/gaming ratio...
2. Beat 'Em Up
They are right (at least!). RIP. We'll miss you (i loved double dragon).
1. Graphic Adventure
They are right again. Why did Graphic adventures died? I really really enjoid Maniac MAnsion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island (I II & III)... why aren't new-3d-full-of-eye-candies-graphic-adventures? Perhaps there's a need for a new Roberta.
--krahd
I mean, sometimes following a link in a slashdot post is not worthy, but this is ridiculous...
krahd
I'm sorry I have to strongly disagree.
The last match, at least, was useful to prove one thing about the world cup: regularity, that is, every match was awful, with everybody defending instead of creating something fun to watch.
Now, add the decisive role played by the referees (just remember brazil's imaginary penalty, germany's invisible hand-on-ball, spain vs korea, and a long etcetera...), and you'll have all the "world cup champion" concept relativized... it looks that the only two things that matter are how good are you defending and how much extra help you are able to afford.
Pretty sad... football is the greatest sport (and the FIFA is the most profitable sport-related-organization).
too bad!
krahd
Borges also wrote somewhere that the universe was an engine to find all God's name, but I think he always thought this as a part of the Babel's Lybrary concept wich is a much more interesting idea :) (everything.org?).
/. Poll about Uruguay's next poll (we'll have 'em next 28th. :)
Anyway, it seems kinda obvious to me that computers cannot pray for you, as noone else than you can.
At least, that's the old-fashioned was to see it, as a deep thought state and as a way to communicate with God. (I've never done it, but I'm sure that this is what it's supposed to be).
I do not pretend to discuss if this CyberRosary makes any sense, 'cos it will only if Religion does, and it's a tough thing to discuss (and I do not think slashdot is the place to do it), but it points out a whole new usage for IT, I mean using computers for attending the spiritual issues of human beings. For example we can have a new and sophisticated version of that little program that acted as a shrink.
--krahd
yeah, i know i should improve my english...
p.s. I'd like a
There must be some other uses for the incredible power of the megasupercomputer that distributed computing creates. I mean other than just cracking the latest encryption algorithm(s).
I'm sure someone will come up with a new and cool use for Dist. Comp.
--krahd