There was actually a joke about the Hulk and his purple pants. (They were always purple in the comic book for a long time.) Anyway, it was in Power Man and Iron Fist. Power Man was superstrong and while I don't think he was invulnerable, he was difficult to damage. Anyway, he favored wearing yellow silk shirts as part of his costume and they were ALWAYS getting torn up.
One issue he was stopping by to pick up a bunch of yellow silk shirts and they clerk was handing a pile of purple pants to a Dr. Banner.:)
While I don't recall what they do for DC comics, I know in Marvel most costumes are made of a special material invented by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. They say it's made out of unstable molecules. While I won't defend the science of THAT statement, it is intended to stretch very well, including to the point where it disappears, but un-stretches and is visable again. The example of THAT is for Colossus of the X-Men - when he goes from human to metal, he gets quite a bit bigger and some portions of his costume disappear, but return when he goes back to human.
Anyway, I imagine for a material like that, it wouldn't be too tough for it to heal small holes like from bullets, though I have seen it torn.
I believe that's the proper name. 2XL was a trivia game (mainly) that utilized 8-track tapes. There were four buttons that were mainly A-D for answering the questions. The personality they gave him was quirky and a little silly, but all in all it was fun. They later made a cassette tape version but somehow it wasn't the same.
Arr, matey, I beg to differ. While the speech isn't totally pirate nor totally devoid of real world, there are frequent "Arr", "Matey", "Avast" and other pirately talk thrown in. Lots of flavor, really enjoy playing.
I suggest reading the book Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams. Full of nanotech and all that, but one of the big technologies in his world is a fairly perfected virtual world.
D'Neilian (http://www.dnealian.com/) It's actually a system where the printing you learn first is more like the cursive you use - like lowercase a that is almost like a cursive one instead of a circle and stick construction.
My first elementary school principal, Mr. Thurber (Chapmen Elementary School, Rockwood, MI) invented it, so that's why I know.:)
I was in the first class at my college (Rose Hulman) to require all incoming freshman to have laptops, specifically the same laptop with the same software loaded. This was in Fall 1995, if that helps with an idea of technical specs. (I just wish someone had told us to occasionaly drain the battery...)
Anyway, we had power outlets and network jacks for each person in all of our non-lecture hall classrooms. We all had Office installed for writing papers, Maple for our math classes, Cadkey, a physics modeler... I'm not sure what Maple did for our math skills, but it did help quite a bit to be able to download the lesson from the Prof's shared area during the lecture, especially when so many profs had unreadable writing, or stood in front of the board too much.
On the other hand, my laptop was a $3000 paperweight by the time I graduated in '99. 486dx4 100, 20 megs of ram, 540 meg harddrive, no CD drive, external floppy...
Hmm, lots of essay questions? I had a standardized test like that - it was one of the AP English tests. We had to answer several essay questions, actually, three, I think.
Like I said... mostly multiplayer. Couple of categories:
a) Tunnels of Doom and Ultima III. Helped get me interested in computer games at an early age, and fantasy as a genre. Lots of hours hanging out with my brother and dad.
b) Warcraft 2 and Total Annihilation. Why? Bonding with college friends.
c) Everquest and MUSHes. Long term gaming. Social interaction with people I don't know.
The ewoks always have reminded me (or since I read it) of the Fuzzies, created by H. Beam Piper (The Complete Fuzzy), who, alas, killed himself before he could have made an issue of it. Very good books though, though the first two are better than the last - possibly because they only found the third one after he was dead.
The problem in my mind, is that it seems like the idealized female in video games tends towards being weak and helpless.
That's not idealized from a female viewpoint, and many male viewpoints.
Reminds me of an article in... Discover magazine, I think? about finding the idealized beauty by showing people lots of pictures, having them pick the ones they liked best and then making amalgams and variations. The female one ended up exaggeratedly female - big lips, large eyes, that kind of thing. The male one, however, didn't end up exaggerately male (neanderthalish), but rather ended up slightly feminized from the average - softer chin, less prominant brow, that kind of thing. (Noting that all female photos were to be voted on by men and vice versa, IIRC.)
We're doing just fine. Heck, my program is HIRING new people. Why? Because most or maybe even all the major programmer employers do Defense Contractor work. I guess I'll stop there so I don't say something I shouldn't.:)
... I'm guessing the cost of transporation was a bit much for a small private school.
What school? Rose Hulman, with the Solar Phantom. They've done fairly well, in my opinion, for a school that's only got the population of a large high school.
I don't suppose anyone will read this, since it's off the main page, but what the heck.
There is a history in my family of true dreams. I don't have the problem that I know of, since I don't remember most of my dreams, but I do have strong, strong deja vu.
Anyway... for example, when I was born, I was very sick, like two weeks in ICU sick. Anyway, my great-grandmother had a dream about a blond haired, blue eyed little girl with pig tails in a high chair and said I would be ok. No one had told her what I looked like, mind you.
You're saying "okay, big deal" at this point. The freaky part is that when I was a year old I was, ah ha, in a high chair with pigtails when someone gave me a piece of hard candy and I almost choked on it - my dad had to do the heimlich manuver on me.
There are some other stories, but I like that one the best.
Personally I always enjoyed Ultima III, but maybe I'm biased - we played that on our old Atari 130XE (or was it the 800? Whatever) so much that when I went to school (elementary school, mind you) I could hear the music everywhere. It was a wonderful bonding experience with my brother, my dad and myself.
I also enjoyed the fact that each game had a random map, so you had the cloth map to put labels on (we used right protect tabs, yes those paper things). The spell casting books were just awesome.
And, of course, the fourth adventure was where they screwed up and killed off all races but humans. I don't remember for sure, but I also think that's where you stopped having a party that you completely controlled.
Perhaps one reason that Benjamin Franklin is attributed with this quote, is because he said it in the movie version (and perhaps the stage, I've never seen it) of 1776.
My mom was a waitress for a fairly good while, and while they didn't call her condition Carpal Tunnel (this would be, eh, say 1985 or so), she did have to have surgery on the nerves in her wrists due to carrying around big trays with bent wrists all the time...
Krilia
Between those comments and about the assasins looks...
HELLO! Earth to MALES! You want to be liked by women, stop alienating them by treating them like something to be oggled! WE HAVE BRAINS!
Kria
I just saw this movie last night and howled in laughter through much of it. Heck, I'm sure that my friends and I were getting strange looks from everyone else in theater...
The different characters are extremely well done; Chaucer was too hilarious for words, particularly as we realized all of the Canterbury Tales references.
People comment that William just picks up a lance and learns how to fight in a month, but they miss one thing - he's been a squire since he was nine, so I suspect he'd had a bit of practice; we know he had plenty of sword practice.
Basically, this movie made fun of a lot of things - sports crowds, particularly wrestling, with the announcer style of Chaucer-as-herald and the makeup, were a particular target...
I loved how when they switched to modern music in the courtly dance, the dancing still maintained a feeling of precision. I thought the Nike product placement was hilariously funny.
Just for the record, I'm not a teenage girl - I'm married and in my twenties. Oh, and I saw it was several Scadians, who pointed out some of the mistakes, but mostly with amusement.
Time to stop babbling.
Kria
Hmm, personally, I haven't seen any little kids try to take things apart. Maybe that's because we have to give them absolutely safe toys that can't be taken apart because they'll swallow the pieces and hurt themselves. Ooops, that's a separate problem.:)
Um, you're right, staring at code CAN be a socially isolated activity. But it's your job, anyway. And it doesn't have to be - most of my projects in college were group projects. We would frequently have all four people (or whatever) huddled around a computer screen trying to debug somebody's code.
I guess I'll spill my other opinions while I'm here. I am (gasp) yes, another female computer scientist. Yet another voice crying out about this article.
A-hem. Anyway... I have heard these horror stories of teachers who discouraged female students from technical things, but, frankly, I've never actually seen any.
Then again, I was already pretty well into geeky things before I got to school - We got our first computer, a TI 99-4/A when I was four. Sure, not much of a computer, but I learned how to make an infinite print loop that said "Look what I can do!" before I went to kindergarten. My teachers always told me I could be whatever I wanted to - including when I wanted to be an archaeologist in elementary school.:)
In junior high, I attended a summer program at the University of Michigan that the whole point was exposing and encouraging young women to go into science and math.
Finally, I attended the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. Most people won't have heard of it, because it's pretty darn small - around 1200 students. Total, not per year. This college teaches just math and science. I was in the first class they admitted women. Pretty scary. But you know what? Every professor supported it, at least the ones I had. They wanted us to be there, and they wanted us to succeed. Heck, they even changed the numbers they usually accepted, just so no guys could complain that they weren't admitted because some woman bumped them out.
Most of the high GPAs in my class were from the female students. Oh, incidentally, that's what we were called - females. Not old enough to feel right being called "women" or "ladies" and we felt pretty, I don't know, demeaned being called "girls". So we were females and they were guys and no one really cared that we were there except that 1/13th of the male population didn't have to go across town to find a date.
Slashdot Mirror
There was actually a joke about the Hulk and his purple pants. (They were always purple in the comic book for a long time.) Anyway, it was in Power Man and Iron Fist. Power Man was superstrong and while I don't think he was invulnerable, he was difficult to damage. Anyway, he favored wearing yellow silk shirts as part of his costume and they were ALWAYS getting torn up.
:)
One issue he was stopping by to pick up a bunch of yellow silk shirts and they clerk was handing a pile of purple pants to a Dr. Banner.
While I don't recall what they do for DC comics, I know in Marvel most costumes are made of a special material invented by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. They say it's made out of unstable molecules. While I won't defend the science of THAT statement, it is intended to stretch very well, including to the point where it disappears, but un-stretches and is visable again. The example of THAT is for Colossus of the X-Men - when he goes from human to metal, he gets quite a bit bigger and some portions of his costume disappear, but return when he goes back to human.
Anyway, I imagine for a material like that, it wouldn't be too tough for it to heal small holes like from bullets, though I have seen it torn.
I believe that's the proper name. 2XL was a trivia game (mainly) that utilized 8-track tapes. There were four buttons that were mainly A-D for answering the questions. The personality they gave him was quirky and a little silly, but all in all it was fun. They later made a cassette tape version but somehow it wasn't the same.
Arr, matey, I beg to differ. While the speech isn't totally pirate nor totally devoid of real world, there are frequent "Arr", "Matey", "Avast" and other pirately talk thrown in. Lots of flavor, really enjoy playing.
Mirka, Pirate of the Velvet Claws
I suggest reading the book Aristoi by Walter Jon Williams. Full of nanotech and all that, but one of the big technologies in his world is a fairly perfected virtual world.
D'Neilian (http://www.dnealian.com/)
:)
It's actually a system where the printing you learn first is more like the cursive you use - like lowercase a that is almost like a cursive one instead of a circle and stick construction.
My first elementary school principal, Mr. Thurber (Chapmen Elementary School, Rockwood, MI) invented it, so that's why I know.
I was in the first class at my college (Rose Hulman) to require all incoming freshman to have laptops, specifically the same laptop with the same software loaded. This was in Fall 1995, if that helps with an idea of technical specs. (I just wish someone had told us to occasionaly drain the battery...)
Anyway, we had power outlets and network jacks for each person in all of our non-lecture hall classrooms. We all had Office installed for writing papers, Maple for our math classes, Cadkey, a physics modeler... I'm not sure what Maple did for our math skills, but it did help quite a bit to be able to download the lesson from the Prof's shared area during the lecture, especially when so many profs had unreadable writing, or stood in front of the board too much.
On the other hand, my laptop was a $3000 paperweight by the time I graduated in '99. 486dx4 100, 20 megs of ram, 540 meg harddrive, no CD drive, external floppy...
One of the last great cartoons - Animaniacs! Watched that all through college, along with Highlander before heading off to the dining hall.
Hmm, lots of essay questions? I had a standardized test like that - it was one of the AP English tests. We had to answer several essay questions, actually, three, I think.
Like I said... mostly multiplayer. Couple of categories:
a) Tunnels of Doom and Ultima III. Helped get me interested in computer games at an early age, and fantasy as a genre. Lots of hours hanging out with my brother and dad.
b) Warcraft 2 and Total Annihilation. Why? Bonding with college friends.
c) Everquest and MUSHes. Long term gaming. Social interaction with people I don't know.
The ewoks always have reminded me (or since I read it) of the Fuzzies, created by H. Beam Piper (The Complete Fuzzy), who, alas, killed himself before he could have made an issue of it. Very good books though, though the first two are better than the last - possibly because they only found the third one after he was dead.
The problem in my mind, is that it seems like the idealized female in video games tends towards being weak and helpless.
That's not idealized from a female viewpoint, and many male viewpoints.
Reminds me of an article in... Discover magazine, I think? about finding the idealized beauty by showing people lots of pictures, having them pick the ones they liked best and then making amalgams and variations. The female one ended up exaggeratedly female - big lips, large eyes, that kind of thing. The male one, however, didn't end up exaggerately male (neanderthalish), but rather ended up slightly feminized from the average - softer chin, less prominant brow, that kind of thing. (Noting that all female photos were to be voted on by men and vice versa, IIRC.)
Krilia
We're doing just fine. Heck, my program is HIRING new people. Why? Because most or maybe even all the major programmer employers do Defense Contractor work. I guess I'll stop there so I don't say something I shouldn't. :)
First - It was interesting reading the beginning of your book as someone from about half hour south of Detroit. (And after that, just interesting.)
Secondly - how many people have read your book/web page and know your stance on Autographs, but ask you for one anyway?
Carrie
(So, do you think I could get an autograph? joking, joking...)
... I'm guessing the cost of transporation was a bit much for a small private school. What school? Rose Hulman, with the Solar Phantom. They've done fairly well, in my opinion, for a school that's only got the population of a large high school.
I don't suppose anyone will read this, since it's off the main page, but what the heck.
There is a history in my family of true dreams. I don't have the problem that I know of, since I don't remember most of my dreams, but I do have strong, strong deja vu.
Anyway... for example, when I was born, I was very sick, like two weeks in ICU sick. Anyway, my great-grandmother had a dream about a blond haired, blue eyed little girl with pig tails in a high chair and said I would be ok. No one had told her what I looked like, mind you.
You're saying "okay, big deal" at this point. The freaky part is that when I was a year old I was, ah ha, in a high chair with pigtails when someone gave me a piece of hard candy and I almost choked on it - my dad had to do the heimlich manuver on me.
There are some other stories, but I like that one the best.
Carrie
Personally I always enjoyed Ultima III, but maybe I'm biased - we played that on our old Atari 130XE (or was it the 800? Whatever) so much that when I went to school (elementary school, mind you) I could hear the music everywhere. It was a wonderful bonding experience with my brother, my dad and myself.
I also enjoyed the fact that each game had a random map, so you had the cloth map to put labels on (we used right protect tabs, yes those paper things). The spell casting books were just awesome.
And, of course, the fourth adventure was where they screwed up and killed off all races but humans. I don't remember for sure, but I also think that's where you stopped having a party that you completely controlled.
Enough nostalgia for now, I suppose.
Perhaps one reason that Benjamin Franklin is attributed with this quote, is because he said it in the movie version (and perhaps the stage, I've never seen it) of 1776.
My mom was a waitress for a fairly good while, and while they didn't call her condition Carpal Tunnel (this would be, eh, say 1985 or so), she did have to have surgery on the nerves in her wrists due to carrying around big trays with bent wrists all the time... Krilia
Between those comments and about the assasins looks... HELLO! Earth to MALES! You want to be liked by women, stop alienating them by treating them like something to be oggled! WE HAVE BRAINS! Kria
Well, actually according to this web page, they didn't count them up as specifically Jedi votes. Kria
I just saw this movie last night and howled in laughter through much of it. Heck, I'm sure that my friends and I were getting strange looks from everyone else in theater... The different characters are extremely well done; Chaucer was too hilarious for words, particularly as we realized all of the Canterbury Tales references. People comment that William just picks up a lance and learns how to fight in a month, but they miss one thing - he's been a squire since he was nine, so I suspect he'd had a bit of practice; we know he had plenty of sword practice. Basically, this movie made fun of a lot of things - sports crowds, particularly wrestling, with the announcer style of Chaucer-as-herald and the makeup, were a particular target... I loved how when they switched to modern music in the courtly dance, the dancing still maintained a feeling of precision. I thought the Nike product placement was hilariously funny. Just for the record, I'm not a teenage girl - I'm married and in my twenties. Oh, and I saw it was several Scadians, who pointed out some of the mistakes, but mostly with amusement. Time to stop babbling. Kria
Um, you're right, staring at code CAN be a socially isolated activity. But it's your job, anyway. And it doesn't have to be - most of my projects in college were group projects. We would frequently have all four people (or whatever) huddled around a computer screen trying to debug somebody's code.
I guess I'll spill my other opinions while I'm here. I am (gasp) yes, another female computer scientist. Yet another voice crying out about this article.
A-hem. Anyway... I have heard these horror stories of teachers who discouraged female students from technical things, but, frankly, I've never actually seen any.
Then again, I was already pretty well into geeky things before I got to school - We got our first computer, a TI 99-4/A when I was four. Sure, not much of a computer, but I learned how to make an infinite print loop that said "Look what I can do!" before I went to kindergarten. My teachers always told me I could be whatever I wanted to - including when I wanted to be an archaeologist in elementary school. :)
In junior high, I attended a summer program at the University of Michigan that the whole point was exposing and encouraging young women to go into science and math.
Finally, I attended the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. Most people won't have heard of it, because it's pretty darn small - around 1200 students. Total, not per year. This college teaches just math and science. I was in the first class they admitted women. Pretty scary. But you know what? Every professor supported it, at least the ones I had. They wanted us to be there, and they wanted us to succeed. Heck, they even changed the numbers they usually accepted, just so no guys could complain that they weren't admitted because some woman bumped them out.
Most of the high GPAs in my class were from the female students. Oh, incidentally, that's what we were called - females. Not old enough to feel right being called "women" or "ladies" and we felt pretty, I don't know, demeaned being called "girls". So we were females and they were guys and no one really cared that we were there except that 1/13th of the male population didn't have to go across town to find a date.
Okay, that's enough rambling. Sorry about that.
Kria
icq: 259828