recall Valve saying they were developing the episodes concurrently but at $50/game and a 16 months inbetween, one may as well call them HL3 and HL4.
Parent post:
Episode two is more than just new maps. They're thoroughly revising the core game engine (better rendering, better physics, better support for multi-core processors). There are also AI changes to support cooperative game play - in other words, instead of Alex just following you around and giving you hints, she will actually help you perform tasks.
So, you agree then.
Look, Valve can make as many improvements to the engine as they want, but if the game can be finished in a piddling amount of time, people are still going to wind up feeling stiffed.
Anyone who was expecting a pat, neatly wrapped up ending clearly hasn't been watching the series. Or if they were, they weren't thinking about the guy who wrote it. When was the last time we saw David Chase wrap up something neatly?
I think the folks arguing that Tony was killed at the cut-to-black are on to something, but it's not really worth arguing about. Either there will be a movie or not (my money is on not), and if there is, the folks arguing that Tony is dead will likely feel pretty dumb.
Anyway, this is probably the best thing I've read so far about the series conclusion. (Not my blog.) Make of it what you will.
But, hey, I've been known to claim the 3GHz promise was just a strawman to excuse sacking IBM. Steve learned from his NeXTMachine failure that a software company is better off using cheap commodity hardware.
I was under the impression that Apple's biggest reason for dumping IBM wasn't the lack of a 3GHz cpu, but the lack of any kind of G5 small/cool enough to put in a laptop. There was a good year or so where Apple was putting out G5 based desktop machines in the form of iMacs and Power Macs, but failed to release a single G5 powered laoptop. That was a huge black eye for Apple.
(Since the G5 powers a ton of next gen consoles, I have a feeling that IBM isn't crying in their beer.)
I think it's obvious that this is where the darkness-loving creatures that inspired the film Pitch Black are hiding. Pity they're not likely to get a total eclipse for a long, long time.
The short version: it's very good. But a huge pain in the ass.
The slightly longer version: IPtables is about network access, firewalls, et cetera. SELinux is about ensuring the integrity and access rights of software on your system. It's designed to prevent, say, one process on your machine from overwriting a file it should be able to. There's a pretty good explanation of exactly what it buys you here. (Warning: government site. They're watching youuuuuu!)
The problem with SELinux is that up until recently it has been a royal pain in the ass to configure. You'd go, "Sure, this sounds like a good idea", turn it on, and then curse it roundly when you tried updating MySQL from the version that ships with RHEL to the most recent supported release from MySQL. As a result, most folks just turned it off - they figured it wasn't worth the hassle.
RHEL 5 apparently includes tools (see the article) for figuring out what's wrong with your SELinux configuration. Definitely worth looking into. But if you're not concerned with validating application integrity on your home box... and let's face it, it's a home box... probably not worth it for you until it becomes dead simple.
Of course, things can get ugly. In a different case from the above, a telemarketer called back after I gave him the run-around with a bunch of stupid questions, and he called me a "stupid little punk" and threatened to "show up at my house with a baseball bat."
Wow. That's easily the dumbest thing I've ever heard of a telemarketer saying.
I hope you followed up with, "And how long do you think it will take the police to track that back to you once I report this call to them?"
O'REILLY: Reluctantly, and I mean reluctantly, "Talking Points" is going to support this legislation. It's the best we can get and does improve the situation. But make no mistake, it's not fair. It drastically alters the United States of America. And there will be unintended consequences all over the place.
The new census report says America's now one-third minority. And in four states -- California, New Mexico, Texas, and Hawaii -- whites are the minority. So with the infusion of as many as 20 to 30 million new citizens in the next 10 years, the landscape of America will absolutely change.
Translation: "Oh no, the brown people are coming!"
The irony here is that, in theory, if the fraudster had offered to cut his victims in on the deal, it would have been just a regular old business partnership. (But of course, his take would have been much less.)
Okay, first, IANAL. But I know that in the US, harassment of a company's business partners can be considered actionable under RICO. Anyone know if AllOfMP3 may be able to bring a suit against IFPI?
Lost requires you to think. Obviously I know that's not what a lot of people want to do when watching TV, but that's part of what makes the show great - it's not a show for the lazy or feeble-minded. It demands audience participation, which should be something we celebrate from the normally non-interactive boob tube.
Look, all implications that I'm not smart enough to understand Lost aside, I never said that they weren't answering questions about "the weird stuff." Certainly some of the mysteries they brought up have been answered, and being that the remainder of the series is something of an unknown quantity (it's like, the future, eh?) it's not that I don't think they're going to resolve them.
(Note: I'm trying to keep discussion about this spoiler free, so I'm deliberately using some weird language to refer to events in last night's episode.)
My problem with Lost is that sometimes they'll go, "Hey, look, plot twist!" And I'm left thinking, "Okay, but lame plot twist." Last night's episode was a perfect example of this: two "twists," one regarding Jacob, and the other regarding "the scene at the pit". That latter scene wasn't cheesy, but I'd been waiting for it for the last three episodes, and knew immediately when it had arrived. That feels slapdash.
Anyway, it probably says something about my relationship with that show that despite the fact that I'm down on it, I still have fairly detailed knowledge about... um... pretty much this whole season. Dammit, Lost, I wish I could quit you.
(As for BSG and Grey's Anatomy: those would be the episodes I was referring to when I said "floundering". The "boxing" scene from earlier this season was like ST:TOS'"Kirk helps Spock get it out of his system" wrestling scene, only ham-handed and stupid. Generally, the show is much better.)
I gotta say, though: THE SCARY NUMBERS!! thing? I actually really liked that. I didn't mind it when plot twists seemed random or improbable (like the cursed lottery numbers), I minded it when they were just... lame.
Look, I think BSG is the best show on television right now (as much as it's on at all right now, rasm frasm nine month hiatus). But despite the fact that the show has occasionally floundered a bit, I've generally had the feeling that the show is actually going somewhere, that Ron Moore et. al. are actually interested in telling a story. One that has... what's it called? Oh right! An end.
Contrast this with Lost, which I started off watching avidly, but now... well, the four phases of Lost watching:
1. This show is great! I wonder what they'll do next?!? 2. Huh? That didn't make sense. 3. You guys are making it up as you go along, aren't you? 4. God, I hope you guys are making it up, because God help you if you planned it this way.
This one is actually pretty recent. I am deeply embarrassed.
I was working on a shell script designed to stop Sybase replication on an AIX server. The AIX server in question was at a client site, and I was working remotely across a VPN. Fortunately, it wasn't their production machine. Unfortunately, I forgot two cardinal rules of shell scripting:
1. Unlike most "grown-up" programming languages, you can't include a function definition after the function call: the definition has to come first. 2. On AIX, the shutdown command doesn't require any arguments.
Synthesize these two facts and you get an important corollary:
3. It is a very, very bad idea to name a shell script function "shutdown".
Once I realized what was going on, I spent most of the countdown trying to recall how to abort a shutdown in AIX. (Answer: you can't). With about ten seconds to go, I realized that I didn't have any other options, so I called shutdown again with the "fast" and "reboot" options. So at least I was spared having to call someone at the client site and asking them to start the machine up again.
Unfortunately for the developers, they didn't actually develop the DNF side-mission code themselves - they're letting it evolve directly within the game. Unfortunately, the element of chance involved means that they'll have to play it an infinite number of times before DNF-evolution appears in the game...
Look, this is a stupid argument, akin to saying that they're doing it "even though they're not getting paid for it." Of course open source developers do it to relieve boredom - if I have available time, and I get bored, know what I do? Something that makes me happy.
The author could have said that open source developers do it because of the joy it brings them, and it would have been functionally equivalent.
On the one hand, folks who are trained to think in terms of data relationships and database development are liable to want to put as much as possible right in the database.
On the other hand... well, forget it. There is no other hand, it's more like a shifting mass of appendages, like Shiva on an acid binge. The other extreme are people like David Heinemeier Hansson, who want to use database to store information and otherwise stay the hell out of the way - as I believe he put it once, to be as dumb as possible.
That may be a minority view, but the minority isn't exactly vanishingly small. eBay, for example, not only skips out on transactions (you know, the thing people like to beat up on MySQL for not having years ago), but doesn't even enforce referential integrity in the database. Stored procedures are right out. (warning: reference is a PDF.)
My own personal, under-informed and probably worthless view: I like enforce referential integrity where I can in the DB, and transactions are a good thing, but stored procedures are better left to maintenance and administration functions than anything involving business logic.
Has it ever occurred to you that there may be a third option? To wit: maybe the good people of Washington state like being on fire. It's good for you! Builds character in kids!
I tell ya, people these days don't know how good they have it.
Canada, aka Canuckia, is getting a lot stricter with its immigration policies. These days I'm pretty sure that showing up at a checkpoint while on fire will get you detained for a fairly lengthy interview with Canuckian authorities.
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Parent post:
So, you agree then.
Look, Valve can make as many improvements to the engine as they want, but if the game can be finished in a piddling amount of time, people are still going to wind up feeling stiffed.
That oughtta work. I do that recreationally anyway.
Anyone who was expecting a pat, neatly wrapped up ending clearly hasn't been watching the series. Or if they were, they weren't thinking about the guy who wrote it. When was the last time we saw David Chase wrap up something neatly?
I think the folks arguing that Tony was killed at the cut-to-black are on to something, but it's not really worth arguing about. Either there will be a movie or not (my money is on not), and if there is, the folks arguing that Tony is dead will likely feel pretty dumb.
Anyway, this is probably the best thing I've read so far about the series conclusion. (Not my blog.) Make of it what you will.
I was under the impression that Apple's biggest reason for dumping IBM wasn't the lack of a 3GHz cpu, but the lack of any kind of G5 small/cool enough to put in a laptop. There was a good year or so where Apple was putting out G5 based desktop machines in the form of iMacs and Power Macs, but failed to release a single G5 powered laoptop. That was a huge black eye for Apple.
(Since the G5 powers a ton of next gen consoles, I have a feeling that IBM isn't crying in their beer.)
I think it's obvious that this is where the darkness-loving creatures that inspired the film Pitch Black are hiding. Pity they're not likely to get a total eclipse for a long, long time.
Damn beer.
Obviously rather than "prevent one process on your machine from overwriting a file it should be able to," I meant "shouldn't". Feh.
The short version: it's very good. But a huge pain in the ass.
The slightly longer version: IPtables is about network access, firewalls, et cetera. SELinux is about ensuring the integrity and access rights of software on your system. It's designed to prevent, say, one process on your machine from overwriting a file it should be able to. There's a pretty good explanation of exactly what it buys you here. (Warning: government site. They're watching youuuuuu!)
The problem with SELinux is that up until recently it has been a royal pain in the ass to configure. You'd go, "Sure, this sounds like a good idea", turn it on, and then curse it roundly when you tried updating MySQL from the version that ships with RHEL to the most recent supported release from MySQL. As a result, most folks just turned it off - they figured it wasn't worth the hassle.
RHEL 5 apparently includes tools (see the article) for figuring out what's wrong with your SELinux configuration. Definitely worth looking into. But if you're not concerned with validating application integrity on your home box... and let's face it, it's a home box... probably not worth it for you until it becomes dead simple.
Well... I mean, I'm bitching that they don't work.
Yes. Personally, I don't care who writes them, as long as they're functional and not encumbered by something redolent of evil.
Wow. That's easily the dumbest thing I've ever heard of a telemarketer saying.
I hope you followed up with, "And how long do you think it will take the police to track that back to you once I report this call to them?"
Oh! Okay, I got something.
Translation: "Oh no, the brown people are coming!"
And this is from last week.
That's a pretty interesting story.
The irony here is that, in theory, if the fraudster had offered to cut his victims in on the deal, it would have been just a regular old business partnership. (But of course, his take would have been much less.)
Okay, first, IANAL. But I know that in the US, harassment of a company's business partners can be considered actionable under RICO. Anyone know if AllOfMP3 may be able to bring a suit against IFPI?
Don't take it personally. After first contact, there were a lot of people who didn't trust the Vulcans.
Wait, we still have a ton of pro forma comments to get through! Here's my contribution:
Hey! I'm a Nazi, you insensitive clod!
Look, all implications that I'm not smart enough to understand Lost aside, I never said that they weren't answering questions about "the weird stuff." Certainly some of the mysteries they brought up have been answered, and being that the remainder of the series is something of an unknown quantity (it's like, the future, eh?) it's not that I don't think they're going to resolve them.
(Note: I'm trying to keep discussion about this spoiler free, so I'm deliberately using some weird language to refer to events in last night's episode.)
My problem with Lost is that sometimes they'll go, "Hey, look, plot twist!" And I'm left thinking, "Okay, but lame plot twist." Last night's episode was a perfect example of this: two "twists," one regarding Jacob, and the other regarding "the scene at the pit". That latter scene wasn't cheesy, but I'd been waiting for it for the last three episodes, and knew immediately when it had arrived. That feels slapdash.
Anyway, it probably says something about my relationship with that show that despite the fact that I'm down on it, I still have fairly detailed knowledge about... um... pretty much this whole season. Dammit, Lost, I wish I could quit you.
(As for BSG and Grey's Anatomy: those would be the episodes I was referring to when I said "floundering". The "boxing" scene from earlier this season was like ST:TOS'"Kirk helps Spock get it out of his system" wrestling scene, only ham-handed and stupid. Generally, the show is much better.)
Ha!
I gotta say, though: THE SCARY NUMBERS!! thing? I actually really liked that. I didn't mind it when plot twists seemed random or improbable (like the cursed lottery numbers), I minded it when they were just... lame.
I have to disagree.
Look, I think BSG is the best show on television right now (as much as it's on at all right now, rasm frasm nine month hiatus). But despite the fact that the show has occasionally floundered a bit, I've generally had the feeling that the show is actually going somewhere, that Ron Moore et. al. are actually interested in telling a story. One that has... what's it called? Oh right! An end.
Contrast this with Lost, which I started off watching avidly, but now... well, the four phases of Lost watching:
1. This show is great! I wonder what they'll do next?!?
2. Huh? That didn't make sense.
3. You guys are making it up as you go along, aren't you?
4. God, I hope you guys are making it up, because God help you if you planned it this way.
And Lost just got extended another three seasons.
This one is actually pretty recent. I am deeply embarrassed.
I was working on a shell script designed to stop Sybase replication on an AIX server. The AIX server in question was at a client site, and I was working remotely across a VPN. Fortunately, it wasn't their production machine. Unfortunately, I forgot two cardinal rules of shell scripting:
1. Unlike most "grown-up" programming languages, you can't include a function definition after the function call: the definition has to come first.
2. On AIX, the shutdown command doesn't require any arguments.
Synthesize these two facts and you get an important corollary:
3. It is a very, very bad idea to name a shell script function "shutdown".
Once I realized what was going on, I spent most of the countdown trying to recall how to abort a shutdown in AIX. (Answer: you can't). With about ten seconds to go, I realized that I didn't have any other options, so I called shutdown again with the "fast" and "reboot" options. So at least I was spared having to call someone at the client site and asking them to start the machine up again.
Unfortunately for the developers, they didn't actually develop the DNF side-mission code themselves - they're letting it evolve directly within the game. Unfortunately, the element of chance involved means that they'll have to play it an infinite number of times before DNF-evolution appears in the game...
...is another guy's passion.
Look, this is a stupid argument, akin to saying that they're doing it "even though they're not getting paid for it." Of course open source developers do it to relieve boredom - if I have available time, and I get bored, know what I do? Something that makes me happy.
The author could have said that open source developers do it because of the joy it brings them, and it would have been functionally equivalent.
Man. And you thought it was just DNF.
You can't get ye user-created content!
Oh man, talk about a can of worms.
On the one hand, folks who are trained to think in terms of data relationships and database development are liable to want to put as much as possible right in the database.
On the other hand... well, forget it. There is no other hand, it's more like a shifting mass of appendages, like Shiva on an acid binge. The other extreme are people like David Heinemeier Hansson, who want to use database to store information and otherwise stay the hell out of the way - as I believe he put it once, to be as dumb as possible.
That may be a minority view, but the minority isn't exactly vanishingly small. eBay, for example, not only skips out on transactions (you know, the thing people like to beat up on MySQL for not having years ago), but doesn't even enforce referential integrity in the database. Stored procedures are right out. (warning: reference is a PDF.)
My own personal, under-informed and probably worthless view: I like enforce referential integrity where I can in the DB, and transactions are a good thing, but stored procedures are better left to maintenance and administration functions than anything involving business logic.
So cynical, Chris.
Has it ever occurred to you that there may be a third option? To wit: maybe the good people of Washington state like being on fire. It's good for you! Builds character in kids!
I tell ya, people these days don't know how good they have it.
Canada, aka Canuckia, is getting a lot stricter with its immigration policies. These days I'm pretty sure that showing up at a checkpoint while on fire will get you detained for a fairly lengthy interview with Canuckian authorities.