I suppose another approach would be to ban all calculators, forcing everyone to actually know how to do calculations. It makes it fairer for everyone, because now those who cannot afford a calculator for the exam are now on an even playing field.
You can code equations to your heart's content for the calculators, but IIRC the SAT people walk around and force you to clear the memory before the exam. The same rules probably apply to other tests, too. Of course, nothing is preventing someone from coding an app that makes it just look like it cleared the memory, because the test proctors make only a cursory inspection.
In fairness to the game, I was quite young at the time it came out, about 6 or 7, though I wouldn't play it till later. I probably wasn't paying attention to the story.
Warcraft III (the only game in the series which I've played) had a fairly deep story, especially when you compare it to Command and Conquer. Command and Conquer really has very little story, other than "I need you to attack this point. This is the opposition. Good luck." Not only does Warcraft have a story, but they also have a unique world to explore, complete with a large set of creatures and lore. Command and Conquer lacks that.
Java is okay. The main thing I don't like about it is the lack of const references. I also miss having pass-by-value and pass-by-reference be explicit.
What about it doesn't integrate well with the STL? I've encountered a few strange things, but I'd like to here about what sorts of issues you've encountered.
Qt is a framework, not just a GUI library. The QtCore classes can be used without any dependencies on the QtGui classes. And yes, Boost does have a threading class or two. I think it is even being adopted for the next C++ standard.
I was about to recommend this, too. It has SQL plugins. The framework can handle networking, graphics, GUIs, scripting, and even threading. And if you write your application well enough, it is possible to compile it for multiple platforms with no or little changes. I've got a cross-compiler set up on my Linux box, and I use it to compile the Windows versions of some of my apps. WINE can also be used for basic testing, though I would always test in on a real Windows machine (or several).
Aren't they trying to pass (or have passed) some sort of three-strikes law in France over file-sharing copyrighted materials? That doesn't sound like a recognition of any sort of rights to distribute and use copyrighted material without profit.
I believe the reasoning may go something like this: the vaccine (if I understand everything correctly) contains a dead or crippled version of the disease in question, perhaps even deactivated toxins. The body will have its typical reaction to the disease itself, and will attack the (mostly) harmless vaccine, with the purpose being to cause the immune system to recognize the vaccine as foreign, destroy it, and remember how to destroy it.
I suspect that the GP resists this, perhaps assuming that a more natural exposure to e.g. the flu will result in a better immune system, as it will have to do all the fighting on its own against a real opponent, not a crippled on.
Gamers Gate, so far as I know, does not use DRM in its downloads. I downloaded Hearts of Iron 3 from there, and the game requires no CD key, no disk in the drive, no nothing. You download an application that will download and install the game you bought (different app per game). It will save the install files, too. The only issue is that the place is run by a small publisher, and they don't have a huge amount of bandwidth.
They didn't tell me that! I ran it on one of my production servers, and now it's sucking up all the resources it can get. I keep trying to kill the process, but everytime I do, it just takes even more resources. I'm eagerly awaiting the next patch. The 2000, 2004, and 2008 patches didn't help my problems. I'm hoping the 2012 patch is better.
Imagine what the landscape would look like if there were 20 companies all stringing power lines to every neighborhood to compete for home electrical power.
It might look something like it already does, though I doubt that 20 companies would exist on any given street. It might be more akin to one company laying fiber on the street, while another company runs cable, and another one runs telephone lines. With the duplicated power lines will come extra redundancy and competition.
Yep, Steam isn't the only way to go. Not only is there Direct2Drive, but there's also other, smaller, online distributors like Gamer's Gate. There's plenty of room for developers and publishers to add their own distribution methods.
This does give me an interesting idea: image a program that is the digital distribution clone of Trillian or Pidgin. Instead of having to download tons of different distribution programs, visit 50 bajillion websites to download stuff, it would be nice to have them all merged into one program.
I don't think it's a borderline depression; some of the BLS's unemployment statistics in the US (the U6 series) show an unemployment rate of 17% for September. If U6 is accurate, then this unemployment rate is greater than in 1940, and is in the same league as most of the rest of the Great Depression.
IBM is absolutely answering to government in this case. They heard the call of copyrights, something that probably would not exist without government intervention, and then attacked all competitors with copyright. Then, the government decides that its own laws on copyrights, which provide for this behavior, must be overridden with anti-trust laws, because IBM is apparently too big (not that I disagree). It's an upside down pyramid of laws that must be expanded because of the consequences of another law.
I'm for the repeal of all IP laws. Strike at the root of the problem.
By going down the DIY path, you can get setups that aren't even remotely close to what the computer manufacturers provide. For example, you could get an ARM system on a chip, like a Beagle Board, put that in a case, and have a cheap, lower power, desktop analogue to the netbook. Once I can find a Beagle Board-like system that has the dual-core Cortex chips (which I don't think are available yet), I'll be all over it to give to some of my elderly relatives that want a computer only to browse the web and cheap e-mail. One of them already uses Linux exclusively, and he seems to be satisfied.
Sometimes it is a good thing to use your own DLLs. I'm writing a mod tool for a game at the moment, and I am using Qt4 to provide the graphics. Qt4 on Windows by default is compiled with MinGW, but I compiled mine with Visual Studio. If I had the Qt4 DLLs in the system directory, it probably would cause issues for any other Qt4 using program that might use those particular DLLs. To be on the safe side, I kept the DLLs in the directory of the program.
All it takes is one publisher innovating, and it will force all others to follow or lose business. I do think the publishers will probably end up following the RIAA model for a while, before either their industry is destroyed and rebuilt or until they, in their final moments of sense, change models.
And as far as OS X itself is concerned, I essentially have a Linux machine, with all common Linux tools available to me, with the additional plus of a superior UI. (Superior to Linux, that is. It is debatable whether the UI is superior to Windows, though some people feel that it is.)
Whether or not a particular UI is superior is a very subjective thing. Take a look at the Office 2007 ribbon controversy. There are people who love the ribbon, and people who absolutely hate the ribbon.
Many of your other points are valid, though it overlooks the fact that, for some hardware configurations, the Hackintosh route is possible. My own laptop is capable of running Mac OS X (and did for a while). So all of the options a Mac user has are available to me, too.
I bet there will be a faster ARM to throw at the problem sometime. The current trend seems to be for ARM chips to be scaling upwards. I would love to be able to buy, say, a 64-bit ARM quad core so I can get the multitasking I want with lower power consumption. With the amount of RAM it would be capable of supporting, I would be at my sweet stop.
What spending did you vote for? In my state, I have never been able to vote on any sort of spending. Occasionally I can vote on taxes (one tax has been defeated many times for the past decade or so), but I don't recall being able to choose where my tax dollars go. Do other states let the public vote on this sort of thing?
They'd get more colors if only they weren't cheap and used Monster cables. It transformed my cold lifeless home theater with digital equipment by making the bits, well......well....warmer! Yes, warmer! With these new warmer bits, the picture quality improved, and I could see things I couldn't before.
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I suppose another approach would be to ban all calculators, forcing everyone to actually know how to do calculations. It makes it fairer for everyone, because now those who cannot afford a calculator for the exam are now on an even playing field.
You can code equations to your heart's content for the calculators, but IIRC the SAT people walk around and force you to clear the memory before the exam. The same rules probably apply to other tests, too. Of course, nothing is preventing someone from coding an app that makes it just look like it cleared the memory, because the test proctors make only a cursory inspection.
In fairness to the game, I was quite young at the time it came out, about 6 or 7, though I wouldn't play it till later. I probably wasn't paying attention to the story.
Warcraft III (the only game in the series which I've played) had a fairly deep story, especially when you compare it to Command and Conquer. Command and Conquer really has very little story, other than "I need you to attack this point. This is the opposition. Good luck." Not only does Warcraft have a story, but they also have a unique world to explore, complete with a large set of creatures and lore. Command and Conquer lacks that.
Misogynist: A man who hates women as much as women hate one another.
--H.L. Mencken
Java is okay. The main thing I don't like about it is the lack of const references. I also miss having pass-by-value and pass-by-reference be explicit.
What about it doesn't integrate well with the STL? I've encountered a few strange things, but I'd like to here about what sorts of issues you've encountered.
Qt is a framework, not just a GUI library. The QtCore classes can be used without any dependencies on the QtGui classes. And yes, Boost does have a threading class or two. I think it is even being adopted for the next C++ standard.
I was about to recommend this, too. It has SQL plugins. The framework can handle networking, graphics, GUIs, scripting, and even threading. And if you write your application well enough, it is possible to compile it for multiple platforms with no or little changes. I've got a cross-compiler set up on my Linux box, and I use it to compile the Windows versions of some of my apps. WINE can also be used for basic testing, though I would always test in on a real Windows machine (or several).
Aren't they trying to pass (or have passed) some sort of three-strikes law in France over file-sharing copyrighted materials? That doesn't sound like a recognition of any sort of rights to distribute and use copyrighted material without profit.
I believe the reasoning may go something like this: the vaccine (if I understand everything correctly) contains a dead or crippled version of the disease in question, perhaps even deactivated toxins. The body will have its typical reaction to the disease itself, and will attack the (mostly) harmless vaccine, with the purpose being to cause the immune system to recognize the vaccine as foreign, destroy it, and remember how to destroy it.
I suspect that the GP resists this, perhaps assuming that a more natural exposure to e.g. the flu will result in a better immune system, as it will have to do all the fighting on its own against a real opponent, not a crippled on.
Gamers Gate, so far as I know, does not use DRM in its downloads. I downloaded Hearts of Iron 3 from there, and the game requires no CD key, no disk in the drive, no nothing. You download an application that will download and install the game you bought (different app per game). It will save the install files, too. The only issue is that the place is run by a small publisher, and they don't have a huge amount of bandwidth.
They didn't tell me that! I ran it on one of my production servers, and now it's sucking up all the resources it can get. I keep trying to kill the process, but everytime I do, it just takes even more resources. I'm eagerly awaiting the next patch. The 2000, 2004, and 2008 patches didn't help my problems. I'm hoping the 2012 patch is better.
Imagine what the landscape would look like if there were 20 companies all stringing power lines to every neighborhood to compete for home electrical power.
It might look something like it already does, though I doubt that 20 companies would exist on any given street. It might be more akin to one company laying fiber on the street, while another company runs cable, and another one runs telephone lines. With the duplicated power lines will come extra redundancy and competition.
Yep, Steam isn't the only way to go. Not only is there Direct2Drive, but there's also other, smaller, online distributors like Gamer's Gate. There's plenty of room for developers and publishers to add their own distribution methods.
This does give me an interesting idea: image a program that is the digital distribution clone of Trillian or Pidgin. Instead of having to download tons of different distribution programs, visit 50 bajillion websites to download stuff, it would be nice to have them all merged into one program.
I have some old but serviceable computer speakers (like, 1990s) that I still use. They will pick up my phone's signal and I'll get an annoying buzz.
I don't think it's a borderline depression; some of the BLS's unemployment statistics in the US (the U6 series) show an unemployment rate of 17% for September. If U6 is accurate, then this unemployment rate is greater than in 1940, and is in the same league as most of the rest of the Great Depression.
IBM is absolutely answering to government in this case. They heard the call of copyrights, something that probably would not exist without government intervention, and then attacked all competitors with copyright. Then, the government decides that its own laws on copyrights, which provide for this behavior, must be overridden with anti-trust laws, because IBM is apparently too big (not that I disagree). It's an upside down pyramid of laws that must be expanded because of the consequences of another law.
I'm for the repeal of all IP laws. Strike at the root of the problem.
By going down the DIY path, you can get setups that aren't even remotely close to what the computer manufacturers provide. For example, you could get an ARM system on a chip, like a Beagle Board, put that in a case, and have a cheap, lower power, desktop analogue to the netbook. Once I can find a Beagle Board-like system that has the dual-core Cortex chips (which I don't think are available yet), I'll be all over it to give to some of my elderly relatives that want a computer only to browse the web and cheap e-mail. One of them already uses Linux exclusively, and he seems to be satisfied.
Sometimes it is a good thing to use your own DLLs. I'm writing a mod tool for a game at the moment, and I am using Qt4 to provide the graphics. Qt4 on Windows by default is compiled with MinGW, but I compiled mine with Visual Studio. If I had the Qt4 DLLs in the system directory, it probably would cause issues for any other Qt4 using program that might use those particular DLLs. To be on the safe side, I kept the DLLs in the directory of the program.
All it takes is one publisher innovating, and it will force all others to follow or lose business. I do think the publishers will probably end up following the RIAA model for a while, before either their industry is destroyed and rebuilt or until they, in their final moments of sense, change models.
And as far as OS X itself is concerned, I essentially have a Linux machine, with all common Linux tools available to me, with the additional plus of a superior UI. (Superior to Linux, that is. It is debatable whether the UI is superior to Windows, though some people feel that it is.)
Whether or not a particular UI is superior is a very subjective thing. Take a look at the Office 2007 ribbon controversy. There are people who love the ribbon, and people who absolutely hate the ribbon.
Many of your other points are valid, though it overlooks the fact that, for some hardware configurations, the Hackintosh route is possible. My own laptop is capable of running Mac OS X (and did for a while). So all of the options a Mac user has are available to me, too.
I bet there will be a faster ARM to throw at the problem sometime. The current trend seems to be for ARM chips to be scaling upwards. I would love to be able to buy, say, a 64-bit ARM quad core so I can get the multitasking I want with lower power consumption. With the amount of RAM it would be capable of supporting, I would be at my sweet stop.
What spending did you vote for? In my state, I have never been able to vote on any sort of spending. Occasionally I can vote on taxes (one tax has been defeated many times for the past decade or so), but I don't recall being able to choose where my tax dollars go. Do other states let the public vote on this sort of thing?
They'd get more colors if only they weren't cheap and used Monster cables. It transformed my cold lifeless home theater with digital equipment by making the bits, well......well....warmer! Yes, warmer! With these new warmer bits, the picture quality improved, and I could see things I couldn't before.