But for the life of me I can't remember the name/author...
The general premise is that an earlier prototype of the Constitution class is on a maiden voyage (or something) and encounters the Romulans.
Some of the book IS from the Romulan standpoint. There is a mutiney on the Romulan ship and the Romulan captain (who is the honorable elder statesman-type) defects. The Romulan (evil) second in command presses an attack on the Federation ship.
The Federation captain learns from the Romulan captain that the Romulans have broken ALL of the Federation codes, so the Federation captain uses a ruse... PRETENDING that the Federation has invented a cloaking device and that there are other cloaked ships waiting for a general attack.
The visible ship (our heros) has a "cloaking unit that has failed" and radios home in "theoretically unbreakable" code (that they know that the Romulans will intercept) that they (our heros) have compromised the general attack and to call it off.
The Romulans KNOWING that there are additional Federation ships about (after all it came across in high priority code) break off their attack on our heros.
So at the end of the book the Federation undergoes a crash program to improve their codes, while the Romulans break their balls trying to discover the "cloaking device" because "obviously the Federation can do it, why can't we..."
It was a REALLY good read. Too bad I can't remember the title...
Part of the fun is that you weren't a bad ass. Pretty much anybody else in the game could kick your tail.
In order to do well you had to sneak around, hiding in shadows, not making any noise. It was pretty cool to make a bow shot against a completely unaware guard and watch him slump noiselessly. But after a while I decided a really good thief didn't need to be a murderer. The game was much harder that way, but also a lot more rewarding...
It wasn't uncommon to wait 15 or 20 real time minutes for the exact right combination of guard patrols that would allow you to black jack just one of them so you could continue.
And let me tell you, sneaking about in creepy old game houses, and having a guard pop up behind you from a blind side would really get your pulse racing.
There was a scenario called "Return to the Cathedral" freaky, FREAKY, FREAKY!!!
There was a slashdot article a couple years ago on invoking fear or terror in games. "Return to the Cathedral" was the number one reference...
After a lot of years in the industry, switching back and forth between software and systems engineering, and technical and management positions, I have come to the following insight...
There are only a few ways of managing things correctly and a HUGE number of ways to fsck things up.
Un-educated, incompetent or greedy/immoral managers are essentually a long term death sentence on any effort.
The unfortunate thing is that since there are so many ways of screwing things up and so few ways of doing it right, very few of us get the opportunity to experience what it is like when management is doing their job well.
Not exactly heaven, but a long long way from the hell of "Death March."
The technique failed on 2 out of 8 "crooks" and bagged 1 or 2 innocent people out of 12.
These numbers hardly invoke my confidence in their system.
Now imagine 250 people waiting to get on a plane, one of them a lying, evil terrorist.
You get 25 false positives and a 75% chance of catching the (one) terrorist. What technique are you going to use to get that 0.75 person out of the 25.75 pissed off people that you acused?
The direct subject knowledge that you get from college is already several years out of date.
For instance, it took several years for colleges to start teaching C++ after it became an industry standard. Same with Java.
The number I most frequently hear is that the effective life of your direct subject knowledge is 7 years.
So, you have a choice...
College can teach you the latest whiz bang technology so you can immediately get a job in industry, work for about 7 years then have to find a different career.
-or-
College can teach you how to learn.
The *learning* skills that you pick up quickly studying/learning Greek Mythology and Child Psychology also apply to learning new computer languages/technologies.
I picked a college that taught me how to learn rather than any particular technology. This has allowed me to take the Object Oriented revolution and the web revolution in stride, while my more "focused" peers are out of work and have moved out of software.
My two cents worth...
Re:The need for offsite backup
on
More WTC News
·
· Score: 1
It is extremely telling that companies have disaster recovery plans for the machines, but not the people...
Slashdot Mirror
But for the life of me I can't remember the name/author...
The general premise is that an earlier prototype of the Constitution class is on a maiden voyage (or something) and encounters the Romulans.
Some of the book IS from the Romulan standpoint. There is a mutiney on the Romulan ship and the Romulan captain (who is the honorable elder statesman-type) defects. The Romulan (evil) second in command presses an attack on the Federation ship.
The Federation captain learns from the Romulan captain that the Romulans have broken ALL of the Federation codes, so the Federation captain uses a ruse... PRETENDING that the Federation has invented a cloaking device and that there are other cloaked ships waiting for a general attack.
The visible ship (our heros) has a "cloaking unit that has failed" and radios home in "theoretically unbreakable" code (that they know that the Romulans will intercept) that they (our heros) have compromised the general attack and to call it off.
The Romulans KNOWING that there are additional Federation ships about (after all it came across in high priority code) break off their attack on our heros.
So at the end of the book the Federation undergoes a crash program to improve their codes, while the Romulans break their balls trying to discover the "cloaking device" because "obviously the Federation can do it, why can't we..."
It was a REALLY good read. Too bad I can't remember the title...
Help? Older slashdotters?
Line Grunt.
Let's see that would be...
3 pitches per batter times 3 batters per inning per 9 innings.
That's 81 pitches, right???
-LG
"I don't think that word means what you think it means." Indigo Montoya
Now we know what Microsoft means by "Windows is secure..."
Thief was a FPS game from Looking Glass.
Part of the fun is that you weren't a bad ass. Pretty much anybody else in the game could kick your tail.
In order to do well you had to sneak around, hiding in shadows, not making any noise. It was pretty cool to make a bow shot against a completely unaware guard and watch him slump noiselessly. But after a while I decided a really good thief didn't need to be a murderer. The game was much harder that way, but also a lot more rewarding...
It wasn't uncommon to wait 15 or 20 real time minutes for the exact right combination of guard patrols that would allow you to black jack just one of them so you could continue.
And let me tell you, sneaking about in creepy old game houses, and having a guard pop up behind you from a blind side would really get your pulse racing.
There was a scenario called "Return to the Cathedral" freaky, FREAKY, FREAKY!!!
There was a slashdot article a couple years ago on invoking fear or terror in games. "Return to the Cathedral" was the number one reference...
-LineGrunt
Postscript is based on Forth. You can "program" Postscript...
Don't know why a non-printer driver person would want to, but you can...
-LG
After a lot of years in the industry, switching back and forth between software and systems engineering, and technical and management positions, I have come to the following insight...
There are only a few ways of managing things correctly and a HUGE number of ways to fsck things up.
Un-educated, incompetent or greedy/immoral managers are essentually a long term death sentence on any effort.
The unfortunate thing is that since there are so many ways of screwing things up and so few ways of doing it right, very few of us get the opportunity to experience what it is like when management is doing their job well.
Not exactly heaven, but a long long way from the hell of "Death March."
My $0.02US.
LineGrunt
They can have my Linux box when they pry it from my cold dead fingers!
-Grunt
Gee, they had a sample group of 20 people.
The technique failed on 2 out of 8 "crooks" and bagged 1 or 2 innocent people out of 12.
These numbers hardly invoke my confidence in their system.
Now imagine 250 people waiting to get on a plane, one of them a lying, evil terrorist.
You get 25 false positives and a 75% chance of catching the (one) terrorist. What technique are you going to use to get that 0.75 person out of the 25.75 pissed off people that you acused?
-D
I played that Star Trek while I was at Harvey Mudd College ("There's a school, way up north, that's made for you and me...") from 83-86.
At least one freshman failed out of college altogether due to too much playing time.
-D
The direct subject knowledge that you get from college is already several years out of date.
For instance, it took several years for colleges to start teaching C++ after it became an industry standard. Same with Java.
The number I most frequently hear is that the effective life of your direct subject knowledge is 7 years.
So, you have a choice...
College can teach you the latest whiz bang technology so you can immediately get a job in industry, work for about 7 years then have to find a different career.
-or-
College can teach you how to learn.
The *learning* skills that you pick up quickly studying/learning Greek Mythology and Child Psychology also apply to learning new computer languages/technologies.
I picked a college that taught me how to learn rather than any particular technology. This has allowed me to take the Object Oriented revolution and the web revolution in stride, while my more "focused" peers are out of work and have moved out of software.
My two cents worth...
It is extremely telling that companies have disaster recovery plans for the machines, but not the people...
The address given is really slow...
Try:
http://users.soltec.net/~foote
-Donald