The syntax can be a little weird but Inform is a really great object orientated language because it is used for writing Interactive Fiction.. and the objects you create are real objects like forks, animals, buildings etc..
Compilers and VMs are freely available for most platforms.
I don't know much about pre-NES games, but I do love my NES.
I think there are a lot of people who grew up playing now "classic" games that just wince when they see the latest 3d game where the designer's biggest puzzle was to figure out where to hide the rocket launchers. I mean, I dig Quake a lot, but I have also played newer games like Half-Life and Quake 2 which I think are just toal crap.
There is something about the technical ability of programmers which draws me to a game. When I first saw Quake with it's all software 3d engine doing 20 or 30 fps on my older pentium long ago, it was the neatest thing I have ever seen. For some reason I don't get as much joy knowing that a graphics card is doing all the 3d number crunching. The same thing when I play Solstice on my NES and puzzle myself over the complex dynamic sprite masking that works so quickly and so flawlessly on that 1.6 (?) Mhz processor. This interests me so much more than XYZ million triangles per second on a hardware accelerator.
My last point is that most new games let you save your progress at any time or place. This takes away so much of a game and wipes out all that the programmers have done to build up a climax in the game. I like games like Blaster Master on the NES which required at least an hour in front of the TV if you wanted to finish it. You can't just play for 5 minutes, save, and come back to it later to finally finish the game in a week and get a fraction of the experience.
I'm probably missing out on a lot of really good newer games and also a lot of pre-80's games but I don't really care.
The article is a little vague but it seemed like they were going to ask record companies (i.e. sony was mentioned) if they wanted to participate instead of just letting people trade anything. Is that the case? If so, you won't find any Metallica on there.
I can't see anybody *wanting* to make micropayments for something that they can get for free on napster or a half-dozen other services. I don't think this system is going to be the exact same.
As for paying for viewing sites ad-free, I don't really want that to catch on. Because then people like me who aren't going to be doing that (and who's junkbuster keeps on breaking mysteriously) will have to look at ads saying "MAKE THIS AD GO AWAY FOR JUST $.25!!" So annoying.
There was a database I used in DOS long ago that accepted inquiries like "make a report of all employees who's payrate is more than 7.50".. it worked suprisingly well.
That kind of thing is going to work with a database inquiry but not with an OS and file system.
I think that if all of a user's documents, information and methods were stored in one database -- or at least links to all of their files stored in a database -- then it could work out better.
(most) People don't think/speak in file directories and processes. Instead they talk about people, documents, information, and projects. A user's personal data would have to be organized accordingly.
But if you want to mv img??.jp*.. or whatever then you might just have to open an xterm... the interface for dealing with files and processes already exists.
If you've got one finger free, like your "pointer" finger, then you're quite likely to have another finger free like the one next to it. Why not design a keyboard with that in mind? Wouldn't it be even more efficient?
I'm trying to imagine a situation where a person is so bogged down that they only have one finger free. If that's the future of computing, I'll stick with inefficiently typing 100 wpm with all 10 fingers.
I was wondering the same thing but I just figured it out.
Nutella is the name of a fudgy peanut-buttery spread you put on toast or whatever.
That must be what they are referring to. I've heard of it before, but for some reason it's rare in the US.
'course the way I'd pronounce Gnutella (guhNEW-tell-uh, pronouncing the G like in GNU or GNOME) makes it sound nothing like Nutella.. I'm wondering how a British person would pronounce it.
People should have a say in where their copyrighted material goes. I think most people would feel pretty bad about writing a book and then having it yanked from your hands and copied all over the place without receving a penny for any of it. ('course I stink at analogies)
Maybe if Metallica themselves uploaded a few MP3s themselves at one time, then all they would be able to say was "oops, I didn't know they would spread like that".. but they didn't.
But I also think it's impossible to control mass distribution of media now. And any attempts to go after Gnutella (a true file-sharing utility just like anonymous FTP) will be fruitless.
So what Metallica and other musicians want may be justified, but it just ain't gonna happen.
But it's impossible. From here on out, it's simply not possible to control major media distribution.
Metallica's contract was written up before anybody even conceived that music distribution channels would be broken.. which is a shame, but I'm not sure who's fault that is... Definitely not the fans'.
I so used to be into realtime graphics programming and read a bunch of stuff about it including Michael Abrash's graphics programming Black Book but of course I never really "got it" as far as the technology went.
I would still love to do that kind of work for a living, but it seems like there's no way for a person to get into that nowadays without tons of previous knowledge.
Right now I'm working on an associates in computer programming at ITT but I know that won't put me anywhere near where I would like to be knowledge-wise. Oh well. Maybe my chance to get real paid will come along someday in the future, but I doubt it.
you can see that complaining is what i really do best
Anyway, I love my NES. I play it more than my N64. I clean it, care for it, scrub it's connectors so they always seat. I buy it new (used) games regularly. And it loves me back!
Is it on the linux console or something? What about the score?
Tetris without a next piece is pointless... You might say it's "cheating" or something, but consider the following:
For every piece, there are n possible moves in a given situation, but if you know the next piece as well, there are n^2 possible moves! And only one is the most efficient.
I used to enjoy sitting in front of my computer, but then I got lazy and I don't use my brain here anymore. I used to program and learn stuff all the time, but now I've forgotten all the C I knew and my mind doesn't want to absorb any new info.
I used to know tons of C, lots of C++, some perl, some shell scripting, even a bit of assembly. When I was little, I was the god of Quick Basic. But I've forgotten all of that, which is really frustrating. Now I sit in front of my puter for hours thinking nothing but "Gee, I'll check slashdot again. Nope, nothing new. I wonder if I have any mail...." I try learning stuff again, but it all goes in my eyeballs and out my ears.
I don't know if this is due to sitting in front of my puter too much or what. Anybody have a cure for brain-deadedness?
I like to follow a few Free Software projects, and I don't think that someday the people contributing to them will start writing code for image or money. Maybe people who work for RedHat will, but I'm sure they already do. It's their job. I don't think Suck is taking in concideration anything outside of the LinuxConglomoCorps that are in the spotlight these days.
I don't know exactly what this RedHat IPO is, and I don't really care. So maybe I'm wrong about everything here.
Slashdot Mirror
but not even they can kill your 'tris clone according to t his page (google cache, original won't work) But who knows if whoever wrote that is right.
I use win98 for school stuff (Visual Basic, C++) and leave it running for weeks at a time.
It crashes sometimes.. which is a lot more than my main machine does (linux) but twice a day is an exaggeration.
Compilers and VMs are freely available for most platforms.
www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/inform.html
Chicks dig Bubble Bobble!!
I don't know much about pre-NES games, but I do love my NES.
I think there are a lot of people who grew up playing now "classic" games that just wince when they see the latest 3d game where the designer's biggest puzzle was to figure out where to hide the rocket launchers. I mean, I dig Quake a lot, but I have also played newer games like Half-Life and Quake 2 which I think are just toal crap.
There is something about the technical ability of programmers which draws me to a game. When I first saw Quake with it's all software 3d engine doing 20 or 30 fps on my older pentium long ago, it was the neatest thing I have ever seen. For some reason I don't get as much joy knowing that a graphics card is doing all the 3d number crunching. The same thing when I play Solstice on my NES and puzzle myself over the complex dynamic sprite masking that works so quickly and so flawlessly on that 1.6 (?) Mhz processor. This interests me so much more than XYZ million triangles per second on a hardware accelerator.
My last point is that most new games let you save your progress at any time or place. This takes away so much of a game and wipes out all that the programmers have done to build up a climax in the game. I like games like Blaster Master on the NES which required at least an hour in front of the TV if you wanted to finish it. You can't just play for 5 minutes, save, and come back to it later to finally finish the game in a week and get a fraction of the experience.
I'm probably missing out on a lot of really good newer games and also a lot of pre-80's games but I don't really care.
The article is a little vague but it seemed like they were going to ask record companies (i.e. sony was mentioned) if they wanted to participate instead of just letting people trade anything. Is that the case? If so, you won't find any Metallica on there.
I can't see anybody *wanting* to make micropayments for something that they can get for free on napster or a half-dozen other services. I don't think this system is going to be the exact same.
As for paying for viewing sites ad-free, I don't really want that to catch on. Because then people like me who aren't going to be doing that (and who's junkbuster keeps on breaking mysteriously) will have to look at ads saying "MAKE THIS AD GO AWAY FOR JUST $.25!!" So annoying.
There was a database I used in DOS long ago that accepted inquiries like "make a report of all employees who's payrate is more than 7.50".. it worked suprisingly well.
.. or whatever then you might just have to open an xterm... the interface for dealing with files and processes already exists.
That kind of thing is going to work with a database inquiry but not with an OS and file system.
I think that if all of a user's documents, information and methods were stored in one database -- or at least links to all of their files stored in a database -- then it could work out better.
(most) People don't think/speak in file directories and processes. Instead they talk about people, documents, information, and projects. A user's personal data would have to be organized accordingly.
But if you want to mv img??.jp*
Moderators of even the smallest web boards know how to find and ban IPs.
You post something nonsensical but guaranteed to get +2 so that wsabstract.com gets some attention reguardless of wether your post was good or bad.
Thank you for the example.
If you've got one finger free, like your "pointer" finger, then you're quite likely to have another finger free like the one next to it. Why not design a keyboard with that in mind? Wouldn't it be even more efficient?
I'm trying to imagine a situation where a person is so bogged down that they only have one finger free. If that's the future of computing, I'll stick with inefficiently typing 100 wpm with all 10 fingers.
dwl - devils advocate always
I have a soft-spot for the bear/geek type. ESR is one such specimen. Especially with the moustache, he is very hot! WOOF!
(haha, bye bye karma)
I can't sleep without the sound of my computers fans.
My computers LEDs, however, are a different issue. They are bright enough to light up my whole room. I have them all covered with tape.
I was wondering the same thing but I just figured it out.
Nutella is the name of a fudgy peanut-buttery spread you put on toast or whatever.
That must be what they are referring to. I've heard of it before, but for some reason it's rare in the US.
'course the way I'd pronounce Gnutella (guhNEW-tell-uh, pronouncing the G like in GNU or GNOME) makes it sound nothing like Nutella.. I'm wondering how a British person would pronounce it.
People should have a say in where their copyrighted material goes. I think most people would feel pretty bad about writing a book and then having it yanked from your hands and copied all over the place without receving a penny for any of it. ('course I stink at analogies)
Maybe if Metallica themselves uploaded a few MP3s themselves at one time, then all they would be able to say was "oops, I didn't know they would spread like that".. but they didn't.
But I also think it's impossible to control mass distribution of media now. And any attempts to go after Gnutella (a true file-sharing utility just like anonymous FTP) will be fruitless.
So what Metallica and other musicians want may be justified, but it just ain't gonna happen.
Gee.. All the /. gang dressed as leathermen ready for action! Who's the hot daddy bear up front? Katz?
And by looking at what CmdrTaco wrote up there, he's been hitting the bottle early this morning.
Could this also affect Yahoo or other web-mail services? Or just Hotmail because of the specific kind of info they keep in their cookies?
But it's impossible. From here on out, it's simply not possible to control major media distribution.
Metallica's contract was written up before anybody even conceived that music distribution channels would be broken.. which is a shame, but I'm not sure who's fault that is... Definitely not the fans'.
I so used to be into realtime graphics programming and read a bunch of stuff about it including Michael Abrash's graphics programming Black Book but of course I never really "got it" as far as the technology went.
I would still love to do that kind of work for a living, but it seems like there's no way for a person to get into that nowadays without tons of previous knowledge.
Right now I'm working on an associates in computer programming at ITT but I know that won't put me anywhere near where I would like to be knowledge-wise. Oh well. Maybe my chance to get real paid will come along someday in the future, but I doubt it.
you can see that complaining is what i really do best
Will always be the Solstice title music.
Anyway, I love my NES. I play it more than my N64. I clean it, care for it, scrub it's connectors so they always seat. I buy it new (used) games regularly. And it loves me back!
Is it on the linux console or something? What about the score?
Tetris without a next piece is pointless... You might say it's "cheating" or something, but consider the following:
For every piece, there are n possible moves in a given situation, but if you know the next piece as well, there are n^2 possible moves! And only one is the most efficient.
It looks like the lights don't turn on or off very quickly. There is a lot of "motion blur" on the web cam.
I used to write and re-write tetris games in quick basic, and then C++.. But I havn't for a long time. This project is very inspiring.
I used to enjoy sitting in front of my computer, but then I got lazy and I don't use my brain here anymore. I used to program and learn stuff all the time, but now I've forgotten all the C I knew and my mind doesn't want to absorb any new info.
I used to know tons of C, lots of C++, some perl, some shell scripting, even a bit of assembly. When I was little, I was the god of Quick Basic. But I've forgotten all of that, which is really frustrating. Now I sit in front of my puter for hours thinking nothing but "Gee, I'll check slashdot again. Nope, nothing new. I wonder if I have any mail...." I try learning stuff again, but it all goes in my eyeballs and out my ears.
I don't know if this is due to sitting in front of my puter too much or what. Anybody have a cure for brain-deadedness?
Or at least with my old p90 I could. Whenever my computer was doing something processor/memory intensive, I could hear it making a strange sound.
I can also hear my video card making a sound when things are drawing to video memory. Actually, maybe it's the bus that makes the sound.
I can also hear things like CRTs scanning. I always know which TVs in the house are on.
I like to follow a few Free Software projects, and I don't think that someday the people contributing to them will start writing code for image or money. Maybe people who work for RedHat will, but I'm sure they already do. It's their job. I don't think Suck is taking in concideration anything outside of the LinuxConglomoCorps that are in the spotlight these days.
I don't know exactly what this RedHat IPO is, and I don't really care. So maybe I'm wrong about everything here.
www.cfug.org/infocom/
has some information (just a site i found in a search) about linux and infocom games.
I really dig the atmosphere you get with text-based games, though I've never actually gotten very far in any of them.