Similar to your story, in the very old Macs it was trivial to replace the startup screen with an image of your choice by giving it the right name and putting it in the right place. One day I whipped up a little bomb picture (similar to the normal Mac has crashed error message that any Mac user should have recognized) and a silly message saying "this system will self destruct in 10 seconds." I put this image on one of the computers in the journalism lab, thinking the other students would get a kick out of it when they started the computer up in the morning.
As luck would have it, that day a secretary from one of the other departments needed to type something up first thing that morning and picked that very computer. Not particularly savvy and not used to Macs, she saw the message and flipped out.
Thankfully the journalism teacher knew what was going on, assured her everything was fine, and quickly figured out I was behind it. He didn't get too mad, but did make me take the picture off before anyone else got to see it.
That's more or less what I've done. Rather, I had a respectable day job, decided it would be fun to create a game, and just did it. It's a lot of work and a bit of a grind at times, but it's also a lot of fun and keeps me entertained thinking about the game in situations where I might otherwise just be bored. As basically a single-person shop I've made roughly minimum wage for all the extra hours, which still beats the typical hobby where you shell out a lot of cash instead of make a little, but ultimately (for me at least) it's got to be fun to do, because the money isn't going to be a big incentive. I could make a lot more doing other freelance work if I was just in it for the cash.
Background: degree in physics. Self-taught HTML turned into an HTML programmer job after college. Drifted into tech support after the dot-com bust. Had a couple of classes in C++ years ago and basically used what little I remembered to teach myself the PHP and MySQL needed to put together a web-based game. The technical skills I got from school haven't helped much; the desire to figure stuff out and make something other people can enjoy has been key to pushing my way through the difficult spots.
Only a hundred different accounts in a month? With some of my old forum software, I was getting ~20-40 a day for a while. Basically I just turned off automatic activation and required every "real" person to read the activation message to get fully activated. (Small group of people, tied to a game, so people could contact me inside the game as verification.)
Part of the problem was the captcha was broken in the old version, so I had it turned off. With the most recent update they fixed the captcha, and I've been down to only one spam account per month, maybe. I'm sure over time it'll get worse again as the bot writers figure out how to break things again.
All of us? I've never gone to the doctor for sniffles. And when I do go to the doctor, they've never prescribed an antibiotic unless they thought it would help.
I'm not sure how posting "I'm torn between integrity and lack of it but haven't done either" means I'm necessarily a bad person with worthless opinions. I'd say facing moral dilemmas makes me an average person. Did you only read the first paragraph of the the post before jumping to your judgmental conclusion? I can certainly see why you'd want to hide as an Anonymous Coward while you do that, though. You're discounting me for no reason, but hiding so I can't discount you. Hrmph.
Okay, so I stand corrected. The orbit is the path, and doesn't change (unless deflected) regardless of the object's position along that path.
What would be the correct term for "when the two objects on their respective orbits happen to be close to each other such that they might actually collide"?
Just this weekend we had a massive update that's designed to allow for replayability with a wide variety of options: restrictions, rewards, perming skills and changing classes, a chance to strategically replay quests, and leaderboards so players can compete against each other for different styles of play. It's the main point I'd been aiming for since I started development. That's why my sig changed to say we've gone gamma, because up until this point I would have said the game wasn't "complete enough" and was still in beta. We've got a continual development model, so we're never really "done," but this was (I hope) a major step toward keeping things interesting.
Hopefully you'll give it another shot sooner than in a couple of years.
I've thought a few times that I ought to get into the review business, just for the free games. That there are other bits of entertaining swag just makes it more appealing. I think I'd be willing to write a few short essays in exchange for a lot of free entertainment. Heck, I'd probably write an entire thesis to get one of those gigantic swords.
What happens is I can never decide whether I should sell out completely to get the most stuff, or I should try to maintain integrity and relish the occasional opportunity to tell off a company that threatens me for giving their game a bad review (you want 100% positive? buy an ad. You want a review, you get an actual review.)
Then I realize I don't have time to play all the games I own now, and I'd probably come out better financially by working and buying the games than writing reviews and getting free games.
Well, if you'd be willing to review or discuss my web-based superhero MMO, Twilight Heroes (www.TwilightHeroes.com), on your blog, I'll give you a FREE lifetime membership on your account. Does that count?
Disclaimer: it's already free to play for everyone, but I figured I had to try. Hopefully, in some small way, this lame attempt at bribery will make your day.
I'd be happy if my users called their installed software app, application, or software. Any of those are fine. I object a little to "software program" or "application program" but not to their face. What I can't stand is the "I need my icon for X" when they mean "I need you to install this software."
Yeah, that one bothered me, too. I wasn't really sure from the summary if it meant it was only traveling.25 million miles per year (unlikely, but implied) or just that 98 was when the orbits would intersect (more likely, but not as worded).
Well, if strangers on the internet are exactly identical to people you willingly interact with on a regular basis, and punching someone is exactly identical to withholding personal information they want to take without asking you first, then I'd say your analogy is perfectly apt.
I have still have files from my first computer, which I acquired in 1990. Yes, that's only 20 years, not 50, but I think if I've managed to get them from an Apple LC in Word through a PowerPC in WordPerfect back in college over to.rtf files on a Windows computer in 2010, they'll still be around and readable in another 30 years.
That's all well and good for English classes, where almost everything everyone says is going to be opinion when you're analyzing literature. However, in a lot of other arenas, including just about any online discussion, I'd argue that there are far more problems with people expressing opinion as fact than for people unnecessarily labeling their opinions as opinion. I'd rather see people clarify unnecessarily than fail to clarify enough.
On the checkout systems I've used, you don't have to put items "in the bag" so much as just on the scale where the bags are. So you could set your soda on that table, pay, and pick it up again without needing the bag. But my systems don't have a conveyor belt, either, so it could be pretty different.
The chance to make a good impression the next time I hear about them?
Sounds like they realise that they upset some people. When was the last time you got an apology like that from a company that made a mistake that didn't actually harm anyone?
Sure, apologies are always nice, but I wouldn't call them that unusual. Hell, Verizon apologized to me just yesterday, because I got spam text messages on my phone. Verizon! And gave me a $5 credit, which is enough to counteract a lot of future spam, too.
Bleh. This is the first I'd heard of them, and now I'm mostly annoyed by the publicity stunt. They may have a good product, but their advertising has turned me off. I don't feel inclined to rush over there and try their stuff.
I use them to announce updates for my online game. Generally those updates need to be short, or details need to be elsewhere, like on forums, for lengthy discussion. It works fantastically as a way to let people know about changes.
Technical truth is I post the update on Facebook and let it forward to Twitter. It automatically applies URL shorteners for me, making things even easier.
Wow. You just reminded me that I bought Alpha Centauri I way back when it came out. Then I played for 30 minutes, got eaten by some alien slime, started over, had the game crash, called it quits for the night, and never played again. Couldn't even say why, now. I liked Civ well enough. I think I just kind of forgot I had the game and never gave it any real effort.
Certainly not true for me. I want a Wii, but I've already got a PS3, and a fair bit of games and gear, and couldn't justify two platforms. So I would like one of these if there's decent software.
Though if the cost comes too close to the $170 end for the gear, that's just about as expensive as just buying the Wii in the first place.
I don't buy most of those.
1. Not having to talk to the person I'm trying to communicate with, I just don't see as a benefit.
2. & 3. Sometimes. If you're posing a challenging question. Maybe.
4. Hell no it isn't. Not for me. Text messages at $0.20 apiece is tons more expensive. Data plans are ridiculous, too.
5. How often do you really need to do this? Every case where anyone does it to me it's junk or practically spam.
6. Yeah, and the same holds true for voice mail messages.
7. How often is this necessary? Really?
Now 8 I won't argue, except to say sometimes texting can also be an annoyance (bright light in dim room, someone using text as an excuse to pretend they're halfway paying attention to you rather than admitting they're not and stepping away to make a call).
Now I'm not opposed to other people texting, as long as they don't force me to participate.
I've been doing the same thing for years. Righty at home, lefty at work, to spare my aching wrist. I can do almost anything lefty, but for really precise gaming, and really precise Photoshop work, I've got to mouse righty.
Weird thing I've noticed is how strongly other people can react to a mouse on the other side of the keyboard. Sometimes they just blindly drop their right hand onto the desk and flail around for a while, messing up my stuff. Sometimes they give me a weird look and an incredulous (and I really do mean that; they're not just being casual, they sound weirded out) "are you a lefty?" In one of the more extreme cases a professor actually got huffy, grumbled out loud about "the mouse is on the wrong side!" and rearranged my whole desk just so he could move the mouse over to type in his password.
Slashdot Mirror
As luck would have it, that day a secretary from one of the other departments needed to type something up first thing that morning and picked that very computer. Not particularly savvy and not used to Macs, she saw the message and flipped out.
Thankfully the journalism teacher knew what was going on, assured her everything was fine, and quickly figured out I was behind it. He didn't get too mad, but did make me take the picture off before anyone else got to see it.
Background: degree in physics. Self-taught HTML turned into an HTML programmer job after college. Drifted into tech support after the dot-com bust. Had a couple of classes in C++ years ago and basically used what little I remembered to teach myself the PHP and MySQL needed to put together a web-based game. The technical skills I got from school haven't helped much; the desire to figure stuff out and make something other people can enjoy has been key to pushing my way through the difficult spots.
Part of the problem was the captcha was broken in the old version, so I had it turned off. With the most recent update they fixed the captcha, and I've been down to only one spam account per month, maybe. I'm sure over time it'll get worse again as the bot writers figure out how to break things again.
All of us? I've never gone to the doctor for sniffles. And when I do go to the doctor, they've never prescribed an antibiotic unless they thought it would help.
If your premises are true and your terms are unambiguous ... you're probably not dealing with the real world?
I'm not sure how posting "I'm torn between integrity and lack of it but haven't done either" means I'm necessarily a bad person with worthless opinions. I'd say facing moral dilemmas makes me an average person. Did you only read the first paragraph of the the post before jumping to your judgmental conclusion? I can certainly see why you'd want to hide as an Anonymous Coward while you do that, though. You're discounting me for no reason, but hiding so I can't discount you. Hrmph.
What would be the correct term for "when the two objects on their respective orbits happen to be close to each other such that they might actually collide"?
I agree visual diagrams are always nice.
Hopefully you'll give it another shot sooner than in a couple of years.
What happens is I can never decide whether I should sell out completely to get the most stuff, or I should try to maintain integrity and relish the occasional opportunity to tell off a company that threatens me for giving their game a bad review (you want 100% positive? buy an ad. You want a review, you get an actual review.)
Then I realize I don't have time to play all the games I own now, and I'd probably come out better financially by working and buying the games than writing reviews and getting free games.
Wow. That's a massive list of podcasts. I'm in desperate need of commute fodder, and those sound pretty entertaining. Thanks for the links.
Disclaimer: it's already free to play for everyone, but I figured I had to try. Hopefully, in some small way, this lame attempt at bribery will make your day.
I'd be happy if my users called their installed software app, application, or software. Any of those are fine. I object a little to "software program" or "application program" but not to their face. What I can't stand is the "I need my icon for X" when they mean "I need you to install this software."
Yeah, that one bothered me, too. I wasn't really sure from the summary if it meant it was only traveling .25 million miles per year (unlikely, but implied) or just that 98 was when the orbits would intersect (more likely, but not as worded).
Well, if strangers on the internet are exactly identical to people you willingly interact with on a regular basis, and punching someone is exactly identical to withholding personal information they want to take without asking you first, then I'd say your analogy is perfectly apt.
I have still have files from my first computer, which I acquired in 1990. Yes, that's only 20 years, not 50, but I think if I've managed to get them from an Apple LC in Word through a PowerPC in WordPerfect back in college over to .rtf files on a Windows computer in 2010, they'll still be around and readable in another 30 years.
That's all well and good for English classes, where almost everything everyone says is going to be opinion when you're analyzing literature. However, in a lot of other arenas, including just about any online discussion, I'd argue that there are far more problems with people expressing opinion as fact than for people unnecessarily labeling their opinions as opinion. I'd rather see people clarify unnecessarily than fail to clarify enough.
On the checkout systems I've used, you don't have to put items "in the bag" so much as just on the scale where the bags are. So you could set your soda on that table, pay, and pick it up again without needing the bag. But my systems don't have a conveyor belt, either, so it could be pretty different.
What have they lost?
The chance to make a good impression the next time I hear about them?
Sounds like they realise that they upset some people. When was the last time you got an apology like that from a company that made a mistake that didn't actually harm anyone?
Sure, apologies are always nice, but I wouldn't call them that unusual. Hell, Verizon apologized to me just yesterday, because I got spam text messages on my phone. Verizon! And gave me a $5 credit, which is enough to counteract a lot of future spam, too.
Pretend you're going out of business when you're not? That's not silly, that's frustrating or unsettling.
Bleh. This is the first I'd heard of them, and now I'm mostly annoyed by the publicity stunt. They may have a good product, but their advertising has turned me off. I don't feel inclined to rush over there and try their stuff.
Technical truth is I post the update on Facebook and let it forward to Twitter. It automatically applies URL shorteners for me, making things even easier.
Wow. You just reminded me that I bought Alpha Centauri I way back when it came out. Then I played for 30 minutes, got eaten by some alien slime, started over, had the game crash, called it quits for the night, and never played again. Couldn't even say why, now. I liked Civ well enough. I think I just kind of forgot I had the game and never gave it any real effort.
Though if the cost comes too close to the $170 end for the gear, that's just about as expensive as just buying the Wii in the first place.
1. Not having to talk to the person I'm trying to communicate with, I just don't see as a benefit.
2. & 3. Sometimes. If you're posing a challenging question. Maybe.
4. Hell no it isn't. Not for me. Text messages at $0.20 apiece is tons more expensive. Data plans are ridiculous, too.
5. How often do you really need to do this? Every case where anyone does it to me it's junk or practically spam.
6. Yeah, and the same holds true for voice mail messages.
7. How often is this necessary? Really?
Now 8 I won't argue, except to say sometimes texting can also be an annoyance (bright light in dim room, someone using text as an excuse to pretend they're halfway paying attention to you rather than admitting they're not and stepping away to make a call).
Now I'm not opposed to other people texting, as long as they don't force me to participate.
Weird thing I've noticed is how strongly other people can react to a mouse on the other side of the keyboard. Sometimes they just blindly drop their right hand onto the desk and flail around for a while, messing up my stuff. Sometimes they give me a weird look and an incredulous (and I really do mean that; they're not just being casual, they sound weirded out) "are you a lefty?" In one of the more extreme cases a professor actually got huffy, grumbled out loud about "the mouse is on the wrong side!" and rearranged my whole desk just so he could move the mouse over to type in his password.