Oddly, I think the coolest thing about this one is that it too is rechargable. That's the one thing I really disliked about my Palm Pro, and then my Palm III. I go through too many batteries.
Color does open up a bunch more options, though. WinCE had two bigger problems: first I have still seen no open-sourced or free development tools. Most folks I know didn't want to buy VC++ and then the cross-compiler to play with an app they thought of building. Second, WinCE was a bigger multi-tasking OS--totally unnecessary for a palm computer (imo).
I _really_ like the fact that my Palm isn't multi-tasking and that it has hooks for programs to restore state when I switch back into them.
That's trippy. I've been doing MS stuff for some 10 years now--maybe longer, but I'd have to think about what the first thing I did was. As such, I don't find it that hard to keep up with the current technologies and how they change from generation of Windows to the next. I find most of the new technologies are based on older ones. OLE/NOLE -> COM/DCOM. Much of the same thinking is there. Most of it isn't a marketing tactic, but rather they're redesigning the object models so they're more general and can adapt to more things. Take the ODBC -> OLEDB thing for instance. OLEDB can access Exchange data stores and databases and IIS Indexes and a bunch of other non-similar things all as data sources. vs. ODBC which was primarily for database data (though there were drivers for flatfiles and other things like that).
Like you said though, it's not a big deal. I'm happy to know that things will get easier as time goes on and I get better versed in the Linux community and culture. I didn't realize that the two worlds were so isomorphically similar. (eek--hope i didn't commit a blasphemy, heh)
I think it's important as to what language you speak. If you naturally speak in a very gutteral language, Klingon for instance, then Perl is definitely your choice language. Lots of gutteral punctuation stuff in there for many endless hours of happy oration. Perl is also the choice language for code obfuscation contests and plain old hard-core showing off with Perl one-liners that hack and slash text files into important bits, save it to a database after consulting an LDAP directory tree, heat up a burrito in the microwave two offices down, and print out a banner message pronouncing your coolness in hex on your friend's terminal.
And Python is great for writing stuff that you want to be able to read later on without endless comments and your secret decoder ring.
I've worked for two consulting companies. In both of them you were severly looked down upon for even thinking about working a nice solid 50 hour week and then doing something else with your 118 other hours. One of them I ended up working some 80-90 hours a week, but spending some 60-70 hours in the office.
The biggest problem is the learning curve. You have to spend loads of time just keeping up with trade rags, web-zines, industry news, security issues, and then playing with all the stuff you're supposed to keep current on. Often I don't have time to do this at work. I do a lot of this at home and elsewhere.
In the MS world where things get released every 2 years or so, it's not incredibly bad. In the Linux world where updates come every few weeks, it can get a bit amazing that I can keep up at all.
And to top it off, it's amazing at how many folks _don't_ do the homework and end up being totally incompetent. So now I have to go learn their stuff too because I can't stand bad code and bad design. By the end of the day, work -> life.
Though I've noticed that this is no different from farmers or agricultural workers. Wake in the wee hours of the morning, do a lot of chores, check the fields.... Sleep 6 hours and start the cycle again.
One of the open source funds should bid like $10,000 for the check and then have him donate the money back to the fund. Then they'd have the check, and $2,000 more!
i guess i haven't left my darkened room long enough to notice there was a stereotype. weird. i can't wait for the stereotype geek sitcom to come around. course, i don't watch tv much--so it might already exist. 0x90210, maybe?
it should be noted, that most geek-folk i know prefer sushi to twinkies. and we're not shy--just socially-challenged, thank you very much. i know i met most of the women I knew in college because they had computer problems.
/will
Re:How is this an RPG?
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Verge2 GPLed
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· Score: 1
On Role/Roll: I poked around for games created using the Verge engine that might be role-playing, but didn't see anything. Mostly, I just saw FF and Zelda-type games.
I then poked around the code and dev docs and I think it's possible to create a role-playing game with some modicum of role-playing involved. And I think that it's possible--but it'd take a lot of effort. Even as such, I don't think we'll ever going to see a one-player computer game that will ever reach the levels that gaming around a kitchen table until the wee hours of tomorrow afternoon whilst snacking on leftover pizza, nilla wafers, and A&W Root Beer. MUDs and online gaming communities sometimes come close though.
On presentation kinds of things (README file, install/config scripts...): I'm glad they GPL'd whatever they did actually GPL because it's neat to see people making the leap of faith to GPL the product of their toil and sweat. Though I kind of think that folks would look at other GPL'd software for guidance to make some adjustments to their distrobution before GPL'ing their software.
/will
Re:Is this really an area that needs filling?
on
IceWM 1.0.0 released
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· Score: 1
I'm working with a couple of guys building a mud server entirely in Python. There are lots of other mud servers out there, but none that I helped to build and grow. The neat thing about Linux is that it gives _everyone_ the tools to build _anything_ they want for free. Folks are free to engage in projects and learn as much as they want because all the information is there for them to absorb and play with.
And then it's fun to say, "Hey--look what I built!" And see who comes trudging to the door. Then the fact that there are people who look at what you've done, and they care! Some will ditch it for a better thingie, but some will actually take the time to send you an email saying, "This is a good start, but you should really work on these directions." And even if you hate that person and think their opinion sucks--you've got their opinion. It's a dialogue between your team and other interested folks in the world.
All this from your own initiative that you're able to take because all the tools are there and free because of the efforts of other folks and their projects and initiatives. Even if the tools aren't there--you have the tools to build the tools!
That's the power of GNU and Linux. That's the fun, the advantage, the cool-factor. It's even cooler that this massive distributed hobby is even affecting market share of companies that employ people to do what we do as a hobby and for fun. Who cares about the market share anyhow? GNU and Linux have a critical mass to continue to be really dynamic and energetic and active. In this your hobby is FUN! It fulfills life! We have FUN building things while others toil at their respective workplaces building commercial software.
But people have that freedom to solve whatever problems they feel need solving--even if it's been solved a dozen times before. And that's how this community has grown and that's what makes it thrive. Because people are genuinely interested in what they're doing because it's their two hands and their mind that is part of it.
i don't understand why folks say you can type on a "virtual keyboard". it doesn't say anything about virtual keyboards, but rather about sign-language and hand signals. measuring where the hand is.
so i suppose you could then model "virtual keyboard" movements on like a silent keyboard which is really just posterboard with bumps. that gives you your tactile cues to where keys are, and gives you something that you can move wherever. you could even cut the keyboard in half and put the halves wherever.
but saying you can type in the air is a little naive--they're talking about sign-language. incidentally, it's kind of neat that it would be possible to learn sign language and be able to "dictate" that way to your computer. so you're movements are single-keystrokes, but rather entire words and phrases. you can abstract the communication process to your computer one entire level.
it'd be nice to have more folks who can speak with sign-language anyways. i know i learned bits of sign language in order to communicate across loud rooms and during meetings.
I loved the original series. I enjoyed watching Next Generation. Deep Space 9 was boring. Voyager is horrible.
The imagination and the creativity has waned and now it's gone. I have watched a few of the newer episodes and after the first 5 minutes, I can guess pretty accurately what will happen. My brother and I used to joke that they have 9 adlib scripts--they grab one, change a few names, change a few details, add water, and *voilla* new episode! Clearly the imagination and the creativity that was once there, is now no longer there.
And the symbolism and messages of the episodes is incredibly dry and cheesy now. Before they used to say these heavy things about humankind. About the universe. About interrelationships. About technology and society. Now it's all this touchy-feely stuff.
I think they should end Voyager and do movies every now and then.
Here's a list of the 9 scripts: 1. the inevitable crystalline entity
2. ____ hits a rift in space/time and have to repeat what they did until they figure it out
3. superior entity/race tests _____ crew and the crew has to defend humanity and the entity/race learns what it means to be _human_
4. ____, the new technological trinket, is like a drug and the crew becomes addicted and then has to become unaddicted
5. ____, the token non-emotional being (android, morph, computer program, borg), spends another episode discovering human emotions
6. holodeck suffers malfunction/is tampered with, and they have to make-believe for real
7. the crew of the _____ is on a routine mission and discover a covered-up conspiracy by the federation against some group of innocents and the crew of the _____ break regulations to help them
8. crew member _____ revolts against _____'s doctrine and fights against them--oh no, who's gonna die
9. Q irritates the crew of the _____ for an hour and discovers that they are still the wily humans they always have been
I was thinking about doing Lasik. I had three friends who did. 1 did great and loves it. 1 sees halos at night and glare, but loves it anyways. And i never talk to the third guy because he was such a loser.
After reading a lot of stuff, and then the Time article, I decided I'll just stick with my glasses with the tape on the bridge. I think it adds a lot to my overall seductive and erotic image, anyhow.
My awesome x-roommate is native Japanese. I just asked him to translate the specs to me:
- it covers the touch panel part with the keyboard - it's 60mm X 22mm sheet. the sheet can be put on/taken off without any cable, or somekind of connection. all the typing will be taken are of by the associated software. - you can have the touch panel on top of the keyboard if you need. (the picture is listed in the wed site. second picture from top.) - a part of the keyboard is customizable. - they started shipping in this Oct. - it does not take extra battery. it's just a sheet sitting on top of the screen. - it works for WorkPad, WorkPad c3, Palm III, Palm IIIx, Palm IIIe, Palm V for now. not sure if this works for Visor. i don't believe Visor will be out in Japan for a while... - the current cost is 6800 yen + tax. pretty much $70...
I understand why they're adding color. But I'm not sure color would add much to the usability of the device. I guess it would make the pilot games more interesting.
I can think of a list of other things I'd rather that they did:
-- make it rechargable, so you can drop it in your cradle to let it recharge rather than using a set of batteries every 3 weeks. that's the only thing i like about my dad's WinCE device that I wish I had on any of the palm pilots I've owned.
-- make it easier to disassemble the unit--these new units are harder to disassemble and tinker with.
-- add a big red button on the back that says "don't panic".
-- change the buttons so they look like the gameboy. there should be a directional pad, then an a button and a b button. it seems silly, but i think that's navigationally more useful and allows many applications to be more natural in their interface. like when you're writing in Memo pad, you could move the cursor with the directional pad. that'd make editing those little spelling errors SO much easier.
-- two electrodes at the top of the palm pilot like little horns. so then i can run a whopping 3 volts through whomever tries to pick at the tape on my glasses!
Hm. While i think it sounds kind of neat, in the article he mentions his csh getting killed by friendly fire from possibly tcsh.... What happens if you move this to Quake2 with scripted bots? And you get a csh that just doesn't feel like dying and camps out killing everything that walks in the door--including you! the admin! What if they start learning stuff--I mean the bot isn't _really_ the csh, it is just an inworld avatar for the csh and actually has no link with the csh process.
Hey--what happens when the process kills the admin anyways?
I think it'd be more useful if the interface was more like either Myst or some other non-combat oriented FP game. Where you can manipulate stuff around--like taking errant processes off the merry-go-round and putting them on the workbench to see what's wrong with them. Or maybe putting up a few dry eraser boards for processes to talk to each other. A big screen like the big board in the war room in Dr. Strangelove to show memory allocation. You get to see what other admins are doing just by watching their avatars.
My point being that the number of times I kill stuff vs. the number of other things I do tells me that Doom isn't really the interface to go with.
Woah--The Star Wars trilogy _is_ a great thing. And it's exciting for someone to see the _first_ showing--it's akin to being a band groupie.
And while I'm not sitting on the sidewalks (i'm working), i think it's neat that there are folks out there that feel this _strongly_ about something that they'll wait for weeks to get tickets. I don't think this is a good measure of one's "life".
Let people have their fun. Let people create stories that help them define their lives and their persons. No real star wars fan is going to say "It wasn't important to me so I waited a month before I saw the first 'sequel' to come out in a decade."
As i recall, before the original Star Wars opened, George Lucas was going around the toy industry trying to get companies to back his star wars action figures. Most of the companies said that it wasn't what kids wanted, but George kept trying--until he hit Kenner (i think it was kenner--might have been Hasbro--shrug). They said ok and after star wars launched it created the action figures industry and whichever company it was that produced the action figures--they made a bazillion dollars.
My point being that George Lucas is not as you have portrayed him. Amongst other things, he is a business man and he is putting forth lots of effort to make money. Even back then though you may not have noticed it much.
I remember watching The Power of Myth and marvelling at the depth that Star Wars had through Joseph Campbell's eyes. But I wouldn't be surprised if Joseph Campbell helped make the Star Wars trilogy what it is today by instilling that mythological quality--and George Lucas just packaged it all together.
I really think that much of this mega-hype is planned. It's unfortunate that some of us got so sick of it months ago and now it's like you can't hardly sneeze without spraying some new Star Wars mega-hype fu-fu thing.
I'd forgotten how much of my youth (not that long ago) I have completely blocked out of my mind. The months that friends and I went through parent-teacher conferences, and meetings because D&D was "satanic"; the arguments I got in when peers would insist that people who break the law were some how genetically inferior (i'm not even kidding--it was ridiculous); the binge-drinking and peer pressure to do things that were just obscene in their content and value and form.
I haven't watched tv in like three weeks--except a few shows here and there, because this media-blitz is so full of crap it's sickening. Where did these "adults" grow up? Are they literate? The only warning sign for a potential killer I don't fall under is that I don't have a gun collection.
But I sure collected enough pained memories of ridicule and loneliness and bitter solemn depression that if I didn't have this underlying mindset that doing such a thing would _destroy_ the people around me (the few _friends_ I had and my family), it was more tempting than all the apples in eden.
It's unfortunate that there are so many people out there who are exposed to the media, and have never befriended one of us friendless folk--they see the media coverage and can't but hate us all because we're misguided and evil.
I've been reading this book for over six months (i do a lot of work, so i don't have oodles of time to soak up the immensity of the task and it's not exactly just-before-bed reading material). And all the while friends ask me what it's about--and why it's taking me so long to read (i usually read stuff pretty fast--one three-day weekend i read 5 vonnegut books (the scars have healed--thanks!)).
I'm glad I'm reading it just after college as it is connecting many many many things I've read, experienced, and felt during my college extravaganza. It is truly a marvel of a book.
But I disagree with the attempts to summarize the book. All summaries of the book (and I'm not being cheesy, and I'm not trying to be cute either--I really think that this is the best and most complete answer given the set of all combinations of human vocabulary) should be as follows:
I think I worded my question somewhat ambiguously.... I've actually programmed in all of these languages. I did my thesis, half in Java 1.0 and 1.1.x and half writing in C with VC++ with the Win32 API and all that jazz. And I've been doing some programming in VB since they released v.1.0 all those many years ago.
So I wasn't really looking for a this languag vs. that language kind of thing. I was looking to see if there were "studies" on performance between Java and other languages.
I'm looking for "studies" because Java _is_ in flux and changes pretty rapidly. I just want to know about performance.
--willhelm
all or nothing or happy some
on
ShutUp Software
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· Score: 2
Just by the way the world works, none of us read/see/experience every bit of "information" out there. So by social and more intentional means, we filter out all that "information" into a sect of information that we consider to be within the realm of the agreeable, and inside the boundaries of our ability to process that "information" in the short amount of time we have to exist.
It's just not a plausible idea to even consider happily having an open mind for _everything_.
So given that, we have to filter out the information, we have to block out voices in the nebulous cloud out there, we have to risk not hearing ideas which may benefit us in an effort to hear as much as possible without being unproductive in life's pursuits.
I think the issues isn't specified well. I think that the issue is not whether or not to filter or block, but who gets to control that filter--i.e. is it within our power as individuals to control the filters we apply to society's information media, or do we relinquish that control, that freedom, to some "Shutup Software" program or agency.
Theoretically, if one is consistent in one's messages, he/she will be blocked by those who are opposed to those messages anyways. The existance of "Shutup Software" neither helps nor hinders this plight, imo--so long as it is in the hands of the individual, and not some blocking thing like AOL's stuff. But the nature of the AOL service is to protect those AOLers from the dangers of the free-thinking world.
And that's good. Some folks don't have the backgrounds many/. 'ers have. Background in terms of thought-provoking literature, philosophical rhetoric (from Stallman, or Wall, or FSF folks, or non-FSF folks).... It should be their choice to sign up with an institution like AOL and let AOL filter out the stuff they wouldn't be able to deal with anyhow because they may lack the tools to deal with that sort of "free-thought".
On the one hand, I think this is a charged issue. On the other, who cares--it's one of those things. Social forces, whether we band together and make bumper stickers or not, are propelling society in unusual directions. If we want to avoid this, we should all live in our own little bubbles and never interact. The freedom of the individual and the freedom of the individual within an increasingly complex and growing society is not the same thing. Some communities don't want porn palaces in their neighborhoods. Maybe they would benefit from this. Maybe not. It's their choice. Maybe they'll decide something different later on. Maybe the "community" will abuse the freedoms of the individual....
Hmmm.... I know there was a point in there somewhere.... Ack.... Lost my track.
Hold your individual freedom to filter. And retain your individual freedom to not filter. Your freedom is your ability to say yes, no or ignore the question altogether.
I don't have a problem with the "stereotypes", or the conclusions represented--except for the fact that there are a _lot_ of hackers in the world that came from families that were fine, and so on so forth. (of course, there's a hacker vs. cracker vocab issue here too--but i know a bunch of crackers as well that had wonderful families.)
It's like back in the 80's when everyone thought D&D caused all these people to sacrifice animals, and explore sewer systems, and so on so forth--but they neglected the fact that many of them had a serious history of drug abuse and such.
So I think it's kind of a cheesy superficial conclusion that is hampered by the very small group of hackers that the author has come in contact with.
I don't know. I think there is a measure of something that could be both construed as arrogance and as righteousness. Here we are--been using this stuff for a while now. And suddenly there's all this BS media press (half of which is incorrect) and companies "jumping on the bandwagon". I think it's less arrogance and more touchiness and such. Some is excitement, but as with all high-media-profile things, the number of losers that are actively associating themselves with linux and gnu and open source and the new set of buzzwords has grown exponentially. Are older folks "losing our turf"?
Slashdot Mirror
Oddly, I think the coolest thing about this one is that it too is rechargable. That's the one thing I really disliked about my Palm Pro, and then my Palm III. I go through too many batteries.
Color does open up a bunch more options, though. WinCE had two bigger problems: first I have still seen no open-sourced or free development tools. Most folks I know didn't want to buy VC++ and then the cross-compiler to play with an app they thought of building. Second, WinCE was a bigger multi-tasking OS--totally unnecessary for a palm computer (imo).
I _really_ like the fact that my Palm isn't multi-tasking and that it has hooks for programs to restore state when I switch back into them.
/will
That's trippy. I've been doing MS stuff for some 10 years now--maybe longer, but I'd have to think about what the first thing I did was. As such, I don't find it that hard to keep up with the current technologies and how they change from generation of Windows to the next. I find most of the new technologies are based on older ones. OLE/NOLE -> COM/DCOM. Much of the same thinking is there. Most of it isn't a marketing tactic, but rather they're redesigning the object models so they're more general and can adapt to more things. Take the ODBC -> OLEDB thing for instance. OLEDB can access Exchange data stores and databases and IIS Indexes and a bunch of other non-similar things all as data sources. vs. ODBC which was primarily for database data (though there were drivers for flatfiles and other things like that).
Like you said though, it's not a big deal. I'm happy to know that things will get easier as time goes on and I get better versed in the Linux community and culture. I didn't realize that the two worlds were so isomorphically similar. (eek--hope i didn't commit a blasphemy, heh)
/will
I think it's important as to what language you speak. If you naturally speak in a very gutteral language, Klingon for instance, then Perl is definitely your choice language. Lots of gutteral punctuation stuff in there for many endless hours of happy oration. Perl is also the choice language for code obfuscation contests and plain old hard-core showing off with Perl one-liners that hack and slash text files into important bits, save it to a database after consulting an LDAP directory tree, heat up a burrito in the microwave two offices down, and print out a banner message pronouncing your coolness in hex on your friend's terminal.
And Python is great for writing stuff that you want to be able to read later on without endless comments and your secret decoder ring.
/will
I've worked for two consulting companies. In both of them you were severly looked down upon for even thinking about working a nice solid 50 hour week and then doing something else with your 118 other hours. One of them I ended up working some 80-90 hours a week, but spending some 60-70 hours in the office.
The biggest problem is the learning curve. You have to spend loads of time just keeping up with trade rags, web-zines, industry news, security issues, and then playing with all the stuff you're supposed to keep current on. Often I don't have time to do this at work. I do a lot of this at home and elsewhere.
In the MS world where things get released every 2 years or so, it's not incredibly bad. In the Linux world where updates come every few weeks, it can get a bit amazing that I can keep up at all.
And to top it off, it's amazing at how many folks _don't_ do the homework and end up being totally incompetent. So now I have to go learn their stuff too because I can't stand bad code and bad design. By the end of the day, work -> life.
Though I've noticed that this is no different from farmers or agricultural workers. Wake in the wee hours of the morning, do a lot of chores, check the fields.... Sleep 6 hours and start the cycle again.
/will
That's awesome! Format your holo-drive and get a suntan.
Now I won't have to go outside to get rid of my pasty white complexion.
/will
One of the open source funds should bid like $10,000 for the check and then have him donate the money back to the fund. Then they'd have the check, and $2,000 more!
But seriously--what a cool guy--
/will
i guess i haven't left my darkened room long enough to notice there was a stereotype. weird. i can't wait for the stereotype geek sitcom to come around. course, i don't watch tv much--so it might already exist. 0x90210, maybe?
it should be noted, that most geek-folk i know prefer sushi to twinkies. and we're not shy--just socially-challenged, thank you very much. i know i met most of the women I knew in college because they had computer problems.
/will
On Role/Roll:
I poked around for games created using the Verge engine that might be role-playing, but didn't see anything. Mostly, I just saw FF and Zelda-type games.
I then poked around the code and dev docs and I think it's possible to create a role-playing game with some modicum of role-playing involved. And I think that it's possible--but it'd take a lot of effort. Even as such, I don't think we'll ever going to see a one-player computer game that will ever reach the levels that gaming around a kitchen table until the wee hours of tomorrow afternoon whilst snacking on leftover pizza, nilla wafers, and A&W Root Beer. MUDs and online gaming communities sometimes come close though.
On presentation kinds of things (README file, install/config scripts...):
I'm glad they GPL'd whatever they did actually GPL because it's neat to see people making the leap of faith to GPL the product of their toil and sweat. Though I kind of think that folks would look at other GPL'd software for guidance to make some adjustments to their distrobution before GPL'ing their software.
/will
I'm working with a couple of guys building a mud server entirely in Python. There are lots of other mud servers out there, but none that I helped to build and grow. The neat thing about Linux is that it gives _everyone_ the tools to build _anything_ they want for free. Folks are free to engage in projects and learn as much as they want because all the information is there for them to absorb and play with.
And then it's fun to say, "Hey--look what I built!" And see who comes trudging to the door. Then the fact that there are people who look at what you've done, and they care! Some will ditch it for a better thingie, but some will actually take the time to send you an email saying, "This is a good start, but you should really work on these directions." And even if you hate that person and think their opinion sucks--you've got their opinion. It's a dialogue between your team and other interested folks in the world.
All this from your own initiative that you're able to take because all the tools are there and free because of the efforts of other folks and their projects and initiatives. Even if the tools aren't there--you have the tools to build the tools!
That's the power of GNU and Linux. That's the fun, the advantage, the cool-factor. It's even cooler that this massive distributed hobby is even affecting market share of companies that employ people to do what we do as a hobby and for fun. Who cares about the market share anyhow? GNU and Linux have a critical mass to continue to be really dynamic and energetic and active. In this your hobby is FUN! It fulfills life! We have FUN building things while others toil at their respective workplaces building commercial software.
But people have that freedom to solve whatever problems they feel need solving--even if it's been solved a dozen times before. And that's how this community has grown and that's what makes it thrive. Because people are genuinely interested in what they're doing because it's their two hands and their mind that is part of it.
/will
i don't understand why folks say you can type on a "virtual keyboard". it doesn't say anything about virtual keyboards, but rather about sign-language and hand signals. measuring where the hand is.
so i suppose you could then model "virtual keyboard" movements on like a silent keyboard which is really just posterboard with bumps. that gives you your tactile cues to where keys are, and gives you something that you can move wherever. you could even cut the keyboard in half and put the halves wherever.
but saying you can type in the air is a little naive--they're talking about sign-language. incidentally, it's kind of neat that it would be possible to learn sign language and be able to "dictate" that way to your computer. so you're movements are single-keystrokes, but rather entire words and phrases. you can abstract the communication process to your computer one entire level.
it'd be nice to have more folks who can speak with sign-language anyways. i know i learned bits of sign language in order to communicate across loud rooms and during meetings.
/will
I loved the original series. I enjoyed watching Next Generation. Deep Space 9 was boring. Voyager is horrible.
The imagination and the creativity has waned and now it's gone. I have watched a few of the newer episodes and after the first 5 minutes, I can guess pretty accurately what will happen. My brother and I used to joke that they have 9 adlib scripts--they grab one, change a few names, change a few details, add water, and *voilla* new episode! Clearly the imagination and the creativity that was once there, is now no longer there.
And the symbolism and messages of the episodes is incredibly dry and cheesy now. Before they used to say these heavy things about humankind. About the universe. About interrelationships. About technology and society. Now it's all this touchy-feely stuff.
I think they should end Voyager and do movies every now and then.
Here's a list of the 9 scripts:
1. the inevitable crystalline entity
2. ____ hits a rift in space/time and have to repeat what they did until they figure it out
3. superior entity/race tests _____ crew and the crew has to defend humanity and the entity/race learns what it means to be _human_
4. ____, the new technological trinket, is like a drug and the crew becomes addicted and then has to become unaddicted
5. ____, the token non-emotional being (android, morph, computer program, borg), spends another episode discovering human emotions
6. holodeck suffers malfunction/is tampered with, and they have to make-believe for real
7. the crew of the _____ is on a routine mission and discover a covered-up conspiracy by the federation against some group of innocents and the crew of the _____ break regulations to help them
8. crew member _____ revolts against _____'s doctrine and fights against them--oh no, who's gonna die
9. Q irritates the crew of the _____ for an hour and discovers that they are still the wily humans they always have been
Time magazine did a good article in October:
0 0.html
http://www.pa thfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,31865,
I was thinking about doing Lasik. I had three friends who did. 1 did great and loves it. 1 sees halos at night and glare, but loves it anyways. And i never talk to the third guy because he was such a loser.
After reading a lot of stuff, and then the Time article, I decided I'll just stick with my glasses with the tape on the bridge. I think it adds a lot to my overall seductive and erotic image, anyhow.
/will
My awesome x-roommate is native Japanese. I just asked him to translate the specs to me:
- it covers the touch panel part with the keyboard
- it's 60mm X 22mm sheet. the sheet can be put on/taken off without any cable, or somekind of connection. all the typing will be taken are of by the associated software.
- you can have the touch panel on top of the keyboard if you need. (the picture is listed in the wed site. second picture from top.)
- a part of the keyboard is customizable.
- they started shipping in this Oct.
- it does not take extra battery. it's just a sheet sitting on top of the screen.
- it works for WorkPad, WorkPad c3, Palm III, Palm IIIx, Palm IIIe, Palm V for now. not sure if this works for Visor. i don't believe Visor will be out in Japan for a while...
- the current cost is 6800 yen + tax. pretty much $70...
/will
I understand why they're adding color. But I'm not sure color would add much to the usability of the device. I guess it would make the pilot games more interesting.
I can think of a list of other things I'd rather that they did:
-- make it rechargable, so you can drop it in your cradle to let it recharge rather than using a set of batteries every 3 weeks. that's the only thing i like about my dad's WinCE device that I wish I had on any of the palm pilots I've owned.
-- make it easier to disassemble the unit--these new units are harder to disassemble and tinker with.
-- add a big red button on the back that says "don't panic".
-- change the buttons so they look like the gameboy. there should be a directional pad, then an a button and a b button. it seems silly, but i think that's navigationally more useful and allows many applications to be more natural in their interface. like when you're writing in Memo pad, you could move the cursor with the directional pad. that'd make editing those little spelling errors SO much easier.
-- two electrodes at the top of the palm pilot like little horns. so then i can run a whopping 3 volts through whomever tries to pick at the tape on my glasses!
/will
Hm. While i think it sounds kind of neat, in the article he mentions his csh getting killed by friendly fire from possibly tcsh.... What happens if you move this to Quake2 with scripted bots? And you get a csh that just doesn't feel like dying and camps out killing everything that walks in the door--including you! the admin! What if they start learning stuff--I mean the bot isn't _really_ the csh, it is just an inworld avatar for the csh and actually has no link with the csh process.
Hey--what happens when the process kills the admin anyways?
I think it'd be more useful if the interface was more like either Myst or some other non-combat oriented FP game. Where you can manipulate stuff around--like taking errant processes off the merry-go-round and putting them on the workbench to see what's wrong with them. Or maybe putting up a few dry eraser boards for processes to talk to each other. A big screen like the big board in the war room in Dr. Strangelove to show memory allocation. You get to see what other admins are doing just by watching their avatars.
My point being that the number of times I kill stuff vs. the number of other things I do tells me that Doom isn't really the interface to go with.
/will
forgot my NYT password--how am i going to read the article now!
/willhelm
Woah--The Star Wars trilogy _is_ a great thing. And it's exciting for someone to see the _first_ showing--it's akin to being a band groupie.
And while I'm not sitting on the sidewalks (i'm working), i think it's neat that there are folks out there that feel this _strongly_ about something that they'll wait for weeks to get tickets. I don't think this is a good measure of one's "life".
Let people have their fun. Let people create stories that help them define their lives and their persons. No real star wars fan is going to say "It wasn't important to me so I waited a month before I saw the first 'sequel' to come out in a decade."
As i recall, before the original Star Wars opened, George Lucas was going around the toy industry trying to get companies to back his star wars action figures. Most of the companies said that it wasn't what kids wanted, but George kept trying--until he hit Kenner (i think it was kenner--might have been Hasbro--shrug). They said ok and after star wars launched it created the action figures industry and whichever company it was that produced the action figures--they made a bazillion dollars.
My point being that George Lucas is not as you have portrayed him. Amongst other things, he is a business man and he is putting forth lots of effort to make money. Even back then though you may not have noticed it much.
I remember watching The Power of Myth and marvelling at the depth that Star Wars had through Joseph Campbell's eyes. But I wouldn't be surprised if Joseph Campbell helped make the Star Wars trilogy what it is today by instilling that mythological quality--and George Lucas just packaged it all together.
I really think that much of this mega-hype is planned. It's unfortunate that some of us got so sick of it months ago and now it's like you can't hardly sneeze without spraying some new Star Wars mega-hype fu-fu thing.
I'd forgotten how much of my youth (not that long ago) I have completely blocked out of my mind. The months that friends and I went through parent-teacher conferences, and meetings because D&D was "satanic"; the arguments I got in when peers would insist that people who break the law were some how genetically inferior (i'm not even kidding--it was ridiculous); the binge-drinking and peer pressure to do things that were just obscene in their content and value and form.
I haven't watched tv in like three weeks--except a few shows here and there, because this media-blitz is so full of crap it's sickening. Where did these "adults" grow up? Are they literate? The only warning sign for a potential killer I don't fall under is that I don't have a gun collection.
But I sure collected enough pained memories of ridicule and loneliness and bitter solemn depression that if I didn't have this underlying mindset that doing such a thing would _destroy_ the people around me (the few _friends_ I had and my family), it was more tempting than all the apples in eden.
It's unfortunate that there are so many people out there who are exposed to the media, and have never befriended one of us friendless folk--they see the media coverage and can't but hate us all because we're misguided and evil.
I'm 23. And I feel soooo old and weary sometimes.
/will
Weird--this morning when I logged in, I was greeted with the following "fortune":
"The best book on programming for the layman is 'Alice in Wonderland'; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman."
How coincidental is that?
/will
I've been reading this book for over six months (i do a lot of work, so i don't have oodles of time to soak up the immensity of the task and it's not exactly just-before-bed reading material). And all the while friends ask me what it's about--and why it's taking me so long to read (i usually read stuff pretty fast--one three-day weekend i read 5 vonnegut books (the scars have healed--thanks!)).
I'm glad I'm reading it just after college as it is connecting many many many things I've read, experienced, and felt during my college extravaganza. It is truly a marvel of a book.
But I disagree with the attempts to summarize the book. All summaries of the book (and I'm not being cheesy, and I'm not trying to be cute either--I really think that this is the best and most complete answer given the set of all combinations of human vocabulary) should be as follows:
So, what's the book really about?
mu.
/will
I think I worded my question somewhat ambiguously.... I've actually programmed in all of these languages. I did my thesis, half in Java 1.0 and 1.1.x and half writing in C with VC++ with the Win32 API and all that jazz. And I've been doing some programming in VB since they released v.1.0 all those many years ago.
So I wasn't really looking for a this languag vs. that language kind of thing. I was looking to see if there were "studies" on performance between Java and other languages.
I'm looking for "studies" because Java _is_ in flux and changes pretty rapidly. I just want to know about performance.
--willhelm
Just by the way the world works, none of us read/see/experience every bit of "information" out there. So by social and more intentional means, we filter out all that "information" into a sect of information that we consider to be within the realm of the agreeable, and inside the boundaries of our ability to process that "information" in the short amount of time we have to exist.
/. 'ers have. Background in terms of thought-provoking literature, philosophical rhetoric (from Stallman, or Wall, or FSF folks, or non-FSF folks).... It should be their choice to sign up with an institution like AOL and let AOL filter out the stuff they wouldn't be able to deal with anyhow because they may lack the tools to deal with that sort of "free-thought".
It's just not a plausible idea to even consider happily having an open mind for _everything_.
So given that, we have to filter out the information, we have to block out voices in the nebulous cloud out there, we have to risk not hearing ideas which may benefit us in an effort to hear as much as possible without being unproductive in life's pursuits.
I think the issues isn't specified well. I think that the issue is not whether or not to filter or block, but who gets to control that filter--i.e. is it within our power as individuals to control the filters we apply to society's information media, or do we relinquish that control, that freedom, to some "Shutup Software" program or agency.
Theoretically, if one is consistent in one's messages, he/she will be blocked by those who are opposed to those messages anyways. The existance of "Shutup Software" neither helps nor hinders this plight, imo--so long as it is in the hands of the individual, and not some blocking thing like AOL's stuff. But the nature of the AOL service is to protect those AOLers from the dangers of the free-thinking world.
And that's good. Some folks don't have the backgrounds many
On the one hand, I think this is a charged issue. On the other, who cares--it's one of those things. Social forces, whether we band together and make bumper stickers or not, are propelling society in unusual directions. If we want to avoid this, we should all live in our own little bubbles and never interact. The freedom of the individual and the freedom of the individual within an increasingly complex and growing society is not the same thing. Some communities don't want porn palaces in their neighborhoods. Maybe they would benefit from this. Maybe not. It's their choice. Maybe they'll decide something different later on. Maybe the "community" will abuse the freedoms of the individual....
Hmmm.... I know there was a point in there somewhere.... Ack.... Lost my track.
Hold your individual freedom to filter. And retain your individual freedom to not filter. Your freedom is your ability to say yes, no or ignore the question altogether.
I don't have a problem with the "stereotypes", or the conclusions represented--except for the fact that there are a _lot_ of hackers in the world that came from families that were fine, and so on so forth. (of course, there's a hacker vs. cracker vocab issue here too--but i know a bunch of crackers as well that had wonderful families.)
It's like back in the 80's when everyone thought D&D caused all these people to sacrifice animals, and explore sewer systems, and so on so forth--but they neglected the fact that many of them had a serious history of drug abuse and such.
So I think it's kind of a cheesy superficial conclusion that is hampered by the very small group of hackers that the author has come in contact with.
I don't know. I think there is a measure of something that could be both construed as arrogance and as righteousness. Here we are--been using this stuff for a while now. And suddenly there's all this BS media press (half of which is incorrect) and companies "jumping on the bandwagon". I think it's less arrogance and more touchiness and such. Some is excitement, but as with all high-media-profile things, the number of losers that are actively associating themselves with linux and gnu and open source and the new set of buzzwords has grown exponentially. Are older folks "losing our turf"?
Mmm.... Many mixed emotions....