Asteroids - space maneuvering and shooting at it's 2D best. The numerous clones were fun to play, my favorite of which was Maelstrom.
Pac-Man - the first fast paced game I played. (shout-outs to: Sea Quest, Kaboom, & Super Breakout)
Super Mario Brothers 3 - This game had great controls. SMB3 was the pinnicale with Super Mario World a close second. Perhaps I am old school, but when they went 3D with this series I think they lost something. Perhaps it was the camera angle thing and the inability to tell precisely where you were. (shout-outs to: Blaster Master, Life Force, and Gauntlet)
Sim City 4 - Just plain fun. Each iteration surpasses the previous. SC4 with the Rush Hour expansion rocks.
Doom - My first FPS game. (I missed Wolfenstein 3D somehow) Doom 3 is best incarnation.
Masters of Orion 3 - I have no nostalgia for 1 or 2. 3 has it's issues, but I still enjoy it.
Civilization 3 - Excellent series. I love 3.
Quake 2 - For the multi-player. 1 was an eye-opener. 2 was a blast to play, especially for all the mods like Lithium, Chaos, & Action. The gold standard for FPS games. (shout-outs to: Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament 2K4, Duke Nukem 3D, & Tron 2.0)
Grand Torismo 2 - Being able to own and upgrade your cars is what sold me on this one. Graphics came later.
Super Metroid - Excellent series.
Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 - only because of the ability to create a team and the super power plays. (shout-out to: RBI Baseball, All-Star Baseball, & Backyard Baseball)
Animal Crossing - I cannot adequately explain why, but when you spend 2 years of your life playing a game for a few hours every day it has got to make your "most important game list". It's crack for people with OCD.
Prince of Persia the Sands of Time - I don't know about the others, but Sands of Time is fantastic.
Ice Hockey - Yes, the NES one. (shout-outs to: Stanley Cup, Blades of Steel, & the NHL series)
Diabo 2 - a formula perfected.
StarCraft - yet another formula perfected. (shout-outs to: Warlords Battlecry, Total Annihilation, & WarCraft)
Tetris - fast and furious. (shout-outs to: Dr. Mario, Bejewled, & Minesweeper)
You obviously misread my post. I never said it was "ok". In fact, I barely took a side in this argument. What I did talk about was the long range future...hundreds of thousands of years. In the long run, that is why the article on wikipedia can claim that about the orbital forcing. In that timespan, I believe that statement to be accurate. The Earth will get warmer and cooler. I highly doubt it will stay the same because...well it never has. Even if you minimize human impact you can still end up with a desert world or a snow ball world given the complex cycles and systems and enough time. Carbon trading/taxing may buy some time, but it's not a cure. Not by a long shot.
I still have my doubts that an effective global climate body can exist. Even with carbon trading and trying to bring the market into the mix. BTW, it will take a global government to enforce it. If India or China or the US do not want to fully comply to Kyoto or any other treaty on GHG limits, no one can stop them. They may abide while it suits their interests, but when it does not they will stop.
The real questions are: Can we control it? If so, how? And knowing how, do we even want to bother?
There is a good bit of information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age
To sum up:
"...by this definition we are still in an ice age." - If we are still in an Ice Age, technically speaking, then how much warmer was the Earth in the distant past than it is now? How much warmer will the Earth get even if we magically stop all Human caused climate change? What would happen if we did magically stop?
"More colloquially,... ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and Eurasian continents: in this sense, the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago." - So the Earth started to get warmer and entered into an interglacial period about 10K years ago. What caused that?
"There have been four major ice ages in the further past." - It appears that the Earth cools down and warms up over very long periods of time for various reasons. (that seem to be largely guess work at this point) If there are long term cycles and short term cycles constantly going on, for which we are just beginning to understand. I agree that Humans can do things to encourage warming or cooling, but looking at the big picture in the long run it seems a mere drop in the bucket. Are we trying to combat Global Warming because we like our current temperatures and in reality trying to fight the system? Can we win that fight? Can Humanity prevent the Earth from warming up too much or cooling too much?
"The Earth is in an interglacial period now, the last retreat ending about 10,000 years ago." - I mentioned this above.
"There is no evidence that anthropogenic forcing from increased "greenhouse gases" outweighs orbital forcing, and the prediction for the next few hundred years is for temperature rises: see global warming regardless of man's activities." - This is where things get complicated. Yes, Humans are affecting their environment, but even if we did not the Earth would still be getting warmer. That is until it started to get cooler again and the Earth entered into a new period of glaciation.
Imagine large glaciers covering much of North America, Europe, and Asia. Is that a good thing? Imagine large deserts like the Sahara covering much of North America, Europe, and Asia. Is that a good thing? Again, what exactly are we trying to accomplish? Is seems that a lot of people want to keep things just the way they are, at this exact moment in time, for ever and ever. So lets go with that.
Now imagine a world-wide governmental body with the directive to pass laws, implement corrective actions, and enforce policies all to control and preserve the global climate. What an undertaking to try and be the thermostat of the Earth! If you think political bickering about climate change is bad now...imagine it with elections and appointments to that organization. [The deligation from the Alliance of Artic Nations respectfully request the Global Thermostat be set to 72 F. Objection! The deligation from the Eqitorial Preservation Association clearly need the thermostat to stay at 68 F, where it belongs! (heh, reminds me of work!)] So, what must that organization do? Well, until it learns how to control: the energy output of the Sun, Drifting of the tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, and many more things the best it can do is react to each of these things by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when the Earth needs warming and removing them when it needs cooling. Sounds a lot like Terra forming. In this case it would be Terra controlling. Do we really know how to do that? I highly doubt it.
In the end, the temperature will rise and fall and Humanity is just along for the ride, even though we may be able to take out some of the small bumps along the way.
While I enjoy playing Lord of the Rings, it is not for everyone. Before giving it as a gift to someone, I would run down this quick checklist.
A) Have they read the books more than once? - This may be the best indicator if they will enjoy the game. If they enjoyed the books enough to re-read, then there is a good chance they will enjoy the game and give it a chance.
B) Do they handle losing well? - It is double tough to win this game, especially with the expansions. If they don't like games they only have a small chance of winning then this game may not be for them.
I have played it a few times and have never won. We made it to Mordor once.....once. Actually, I shouldn't say "we" because the fellowship was down to only Sam, who promptly died after his first turn in Mordor. In my opinion, you need to have extreme good fortune to win. However, when you do win, you'll talk about it for months.
1) Counter Strike - quick, dirty, & fun. I think part of the definition of a "comfort game" is a game that is easy to pick up and put down and still have a load of fun. This fits it to a 'T'. 2) All-Star Baseball 2004 - I love baseball. I've always had a baseball "comfort game", this just happens to be the latest one. 2) StarCraft - quick & fun. This game is like your old pair of shoes that you refuse to throw out because they fit so well. 3) Mario Kart: Double Dash - Just pure, quick fun. 150cc is just challenging enough to make winning still feel good. 4) Civilization 3 - not too quick, but very fun. Especially when you set to Chieften and roll modern armor over their chariots.:) 5) Unreal Tournament 2004 - quick, dirty, & fun w/ tanks. If this game were easier for me to play, it would be higher on the list.
This kind of thinking used to be known as "thinking the unthinkable". It is possible to construct scenarios under which we recoup much of the losses in a relatively short time, given adequate preparation. Some of these scenarios are even plausible, if not likely, given adequate preparation. From the point of view of our species, we would suffer a misfortune, but not a cataclysm.
Heh...
Cut to: int. War Room
Strangelove:
Executes an about face from the big board to face the camera. Mr. President, I would not rule out the chance to preserve a nucleus of human specimens. It would be quite easy... heh heh... rolls forward into the light at the bottom of ah... some of our deeper mineshafts. The radioactivity would never penetrate a mine some thousands of feet deep. And in a matter of weeks, sufficient improvements in dwelling space could easily be provided.
Muffley:
How long would you have to stay down there?
Strangelove:
Well let's see now ah, searches within his lapel cobalt thorium G. notices circular slide rule in his gloved hand aa... nn... Radioactive halflife of uh,... hmm.. I would think that uh... possibly uh... one hundred years. On finishing his calculations, he pulls the slide rule roughly from his gloved hand, and returns it to within his jacket.
Muffley:
You mean, people could actually stay down there for a hundred years?
Strangelove:
It would not be difficult mein Fuhrer! Nuclear reactors could, heh... I'm sorry. Mr. President. Nuclear reactors could provide power almost indefinitely. Greenhouses could maintain plantlife. Animals could be bred and slaughtered. A quick survey would have to be made of all the available mine sites in the country. But I would guess... that ah, dwelling space for several hundred thousands of our people could easily be provided.
Muffley:
Well I... I would hate to have to decide.. who stays up and.. who goes down.
Strangelove:
Well, that would not be necessary Mr. President. It could easily be accomplished with a computer. And a computer could be set and programmed to accept factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross section of necessary skills. Of course it would be absolutely vital that our top government and military men be included to foster and impart the required principles of leadership and tradition. Slams down left fist. Right arm rises in stiff Nazi salute. Arrrrr! Restrains right arm with left. Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. But ah with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present gross national product within say, twenty years.
Muffley:
But look here doctor, wouldn't this nucleus of survivors be so grief stricken and anguished that they'd, well, envy the dead and not want to go on living?
Strangelove:
No sir... Right arm rolls his wheelchair backwards. Excuse me. Struggles with wayward right arm, ultimately subduing it with a beating from his left.
Also when... when they go down into the mine everyone would still be alive. There would be no shocking memories, and the prevailing emotion will be one of nostalgia for those left behind, combined with a spirit of bold curiosity for the adventure ahead! Ahhhh! Right are reflexes into Nazi salute. He pulls it back into his lap and beats it again. Gloved hand attempts to strangle him.
Turgidson:
Doctor, you mentioned the ration of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Strangelove:
Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristic
I'll do you one better. A fried of mine once showed me an old tool called the Magic: The Gathering Encyclopedia. This tool is no longer useful, since they stopped making database updates for it long, long ago, but here is what we did.
We found the password for it on-line, it was protected, and then we created Perl scripts to interact with the decks created in the database. We would use the tool to create a deck using any and all cards that existed at the time. Then we would save the decks in an XML file. Then we pointed our Perl CGI scripts at the XML file and it would interpret the data and produce HTML using the pictures from the Encyclopedia's images, which were randomly numbered in several directories. A little tweaking of the sizing and spacing and presto... we could print out any deck we wanted. We could have printed them on nice cardstock, but we just used regular paper and put any card in behind it to make it sturdy so we could play with them. Had them in protector sleeves.
It was great! We would get together and play big multiplayer games with uber-decks. Tear each other appart. And we barely spend a dime.
Anyone remember Starcraft: Ghost?.... Neither do I. I believe that the reason we did not see a SC2 was because they were trying to take it in the direction of Ghost, a sort of Metal Gear clone, but then they decided to not release it. Read this for more info. Frankly, I think it is a good move. No point in releasing a bad game and having to take all the bad PR that would generate from it on the chin. The rumors that they do not want to make another RTS make me think that there next move may be a MMORTS.
It would be interesting to see what they would do with such a thing. They could have multiple solar systems to fight over, 3D space battles, dozens of planets, personal hero charachters like Jim Raynor that you could gain levels with, train, and equip. And they could again make each race very different from each other. I think it's do-able. With the lessons learned from WoW and Diablo2, I think they could pull it off.
While I do not doubt your thoughts, there is one point that did not seem accurate:
"To be frank, anybody levelling Ranger or Ninja at a rate of more than one or two levels per week is almost certainly buying gil, unless they started with a vast amount of capital."
That seems a lot low, to me. If you find a good party to group with (full of people that know what they are doing), know where to go and what mobs to grab, you can gain one level every 2-3 hours barring accidental linkage induced death. I know because I do it. I play MAYBE 5 hours a week. One night.
But, you have to have a good group built (enough Healers, Damage dealers, and a Tank that is on top of things) that runs like a well oiled machine. All doing their skill chains for the extra damage, which leads to faster kills that lead to the experience chains for the extra experience. It all adds up over the course of a few hours.
The trick is to latch onto a good Perma (a regular group). Mine happens to be made of good friends that I know outside of the game, so I know that they are not lying when they tell me that they have never bought gil with real money. Besides, I know what they make, where they sell it, and how much they get for it (mostly because they are bragging about it all the time on the linkshell) and trust me, they don't need to buy gil with real money.
The very fact that IGE was pumping up the prices on good gear that can be made brings in hoards of cash to the people that sell them. The extra gil gets re-distributed though-out the game as the crafter's spend it, but there is some lag in this so it is not that apparent and the wealth gap does develop.
Knowing how to spend it wisely, buying only what you need to help your role in the group, it will last you a while. Even more if you can get hand-me-downs.;) Hey, it's not a freebie as much as you'd think. I've saved some of their in-game lives with certain acts of thrilling heroics....so they owe me a little.:)
Anyway, I'm not saying that buying gil with real cash is not hurting the game. I am saying that it even though it goes on it won't hurt you that much if you play smart. Heck, you can even take advantage of it and make a nice pile of gil for yourself.
By choosing the time period to be between episode IV & V the designers created two issues.
First, having the game take place in the middle of the story in effect puts the game in a very small box from a story, event, & content perspective. They were limited on what ships, items, etc. they could have, how much the in game universe could change and what events they could do, and how much the players could affect things. To stay true to the story and fit everything in the "little box" they would have to leave out some big things. Which leads me to the second issue...
it created the "Jedi Paradox". How can you have characters run around as Jedi when according to the story there is only supposed to be one, Yoda. (Luke is barely a padawan and Sidious and Vader are sith) The only reason to do this would be to advance through the timeline and have events that happen in the movies happen in the game and allow the players to take part in them, which they do not seem to be doing. I heard that Middle Earth Online (did this get cancled?) was going to try to do something similar. However, SWG never did this.
Ideally, they should have chosen a time period before episode I, like KotOR did, or after episode VI (or even after all the books). Then they could do just about whatever they wanted with the story & events and still have jedi and sith running amok everywhere.
_________ is what you make of it. Most people insert "Life" but it works well with "College" and "Your career" also.
What Dan says is good. It sounds like he thinks all CS Majors should minor in General Business or Econ...which is fine. A few thoughs on his article. First off... grammer, touch typing, and nutrition you should have learned in grade school (and they're not that important). There's not enough time in 4 years to have this and all the other stuff too. In fact, there is so much on that list it looks more like a 5 year degree. I'll try to point out the important stuff in a minute.
While you are still and undergrad, take advantage of your time and try and lean as much as you can in between partying on the weekends. You'll never know for certain what you will be doing when you graduate so try and pick up as much stuff as you can on the way. I'm not talking about taking this elective or that one. I'm talking about learning things on your own time.
If they teach you C++ in a class, that's great. Soak it up. But don't do all your assignments in it. If an assignment allows you to use any language, pick one you don't know and learn it. This is hard, but worth doing. Ask the professor if they have a suggestion for a language if you need to. Each language you can pick up is one more for on your resume. Find and excuse and lean the following on your own:
C++
Visual Basic or C#
Java
Perl
some database interaction using SQL
shell scripting in Unix (try to use SED and AWK)
scripting in Windows (good luck)
Also, try porting some code you wrote from one language into another. For example, I once had to port some Perl code down to a bash script. Don't ask me why...
Also, set up your own computer so you can learn different Operating Systems. Configure them so you can use them to send e-mail and browse the web. Thorw on some compilers so you can use it to write your code. Try to make it as secure as possible. Take notes. Ask for advice, but make sure you do it yourself. You don't learn as much by watching someone else do it for you. And test your results. Try to get some experience with:
a Modern Windows server..(if you can get your hands on the install media)
any version of Linux... (the more complicated the better...you never learn as much when it all goes well.)
Solaris 10 or later... (It's not the same on Intel machines as on Sun machines, but it's still worth learning)
I would say that the majority of classes you take at University are worthless for getting you a job. Do not fret. Employers want to see that degree all the same. And they want to see a high GPA. It shows you did well no matter WHAT was thrown at you...even if it was "Economics from Plato to Keynes" or "Italian Renaissance Art".
In closing, I would say that as long as you apply yourself and try to learn as much as possible about computers, it really does not matter what program you take. Employers only care about the skills (which you can learn on your own) and if you have any degree with high grades. I work with a Pre-Med student turned Windows Server guru and a dual major Physics & Philosophy that turned himself into a coding guru. Start anywhere, just make sure you are a guru in the end.
One last thing in case you missed it the first time. The most important piece of advice in this post was this: Party on the weekends. Even if you have to throw the party yourself.
You build your team, play games whenever you have time, and buy more players when you lose them to injury and death. (mostly death)
It's based on an old Games Workshop game called Blood Bowl. Think rugby with War Hammer. Great game, although a bit long. Quick games are around 90 minutes.
Your formula holds true only for activites that are exciting for the home team....just after something exciting has happened.
I would guess that excitement levels depend upon the following factors: the score, the inning, outs, the count (balls and strikes on the batter), base runners, the batter, the game. For example, every time your team's power hitter is at the plate, the game gets a boost in excitement. If there are runners on, it gets another boost. If his team is behind in the score, then it gets another boost. If it's possible for him to take the lead by hitting a homerun, yet another boost. If it's the bottom of the 9th with two outs in game 7 of the World Series, then is about as exciting as it gets.
Yes, a very good game. They have a few expansion packs too. The secret to this game is knowing if the judge will go for the most accurate or the most funny.
I have been using T-Bird 0.8 for a while and am generally pleased. However, I still have to fire up Outlook Express once in a while to do one thing. Usenet Newsgroups. Why? T-Bird has no "Combine and Decode" feature.
Most Newsgroups require that a posted message be no larger than a certain size so to post large files, like mp3's, you must split them appart into several seperate posts. Without the Combine and Decode functionality you cannot put the pieces back together again.
Granted, Usenet Newsgorups have not gained as much popularity as the rest of the internet but it would still be nice to have. And until this feature is added to T-Bird, then Usenet users like myself will still be forced to use OE. Basically, why run two e-mail clients? It's not a good idea for the average user, so they are going to stick with OE.
I believe he was referring to Trusted Solaris. There were two seperate kernels in development at Sun. One was the regular solaris most of us are use to and the other was something they called Trusted Solaris. I have had the....joy of working with it. According to their "master plan" they merged the two kernels in Solaris 10. So, you would have the features of Trusted Solaris (TSol) available, if you so desired.
TSol is one of the most secure OS's I've administered. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the kernel developers and the one quote I'd like to convey about what we talked about is "That which is not explicitly permitted is implicitly denined."
However, Linux can have this level of security also. If you go here you will see the webpage for Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux). Although, it is only a technology demonstration and may not be suitable for a real world environment.
These OS's are based on mandatory access control policies using roles. This is where the quote comes in to play. If you do not specifically give permission for an executable or a user to perform a specific action, that action will fail. There is no root user. Regular users have no rights themselves but are granted roles they can assume. These roles are given the rights and permissions to perform the tasks they have been asigned. You can create a "backup-admin" role so that it will have access to the tape drive and be able to read all files on the system, but not write anywhere but the tape drive and not be able to do anything else.
Now, I have not read if this part of the code will be "Open Sourced" and it was not discussed in the article. However, it has to be deeply embedded into the OS kernel for it to work so I must assume that it will be a part of it.
Mark my words: Mandatory Access Control, Labeled Security, and Role Based Access are the future of secure operating systems. If an operating system does not do these things it will not be considered for use in environments that have a high priority for information security (infosec). IMO, anything that connects to the Internet or a WAN or hosts sensitive data should have infosec as a high priority. If SELinux is not further developed, or a suitable replacement is created, then Linux will fall off the infosec curve.
Agreed. Star Trek was all about the ship. (point 1 & 3) A Star Trek MMO game should be all about YOUR ship. The real combat in the game should be ship vs. ship. The missions (see quests) should involve your ship. (eg. have to find more dilithium. have to deliver the smuggled supplies. Have to deliver the diplomats. have to carry out a set of Starfleet orders like explore, defend, patrol. etc.) In addition to increasing your character stats and abilities, you can upgrade your ship and its numerous components.
Now, what does that mean? "Your" ship could be one you own or one you work on as part of it's crew. Though, I do not believe there should be an absolute requirement for all stations to be manned by real players. The crew could be a mix of NPCs and players. You're home point would be your personal quarters. When you log in you could "relieve" the NPC that was running your station and when you log out the NPC relieves you. That way, you ship can still function when only a few of your buddies are available. Or better yet, let the captain do some grunt work and get the ship to a certain point before you log on.:) You could run the ship with just one person, but not well. Through abilities your character can eventually do the job better than the NPCs.
What about captain? Do we just let anybody be a captain? On civilian ships, sure....why not?? However, if you want to be a Captain in Starfleet.....that's another matter. It definately needs a ranking system of some sort, at least for the military ships. Obviously, it would be different between the empires. I think any Klingon can gain command of a ship simply defeating the current captain in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat.
However, there are some serious things to decide. What do you do when your ship is destoryed? Oh, you just respawn the ship at the last starbase? Are you and your crewmantes cloned? And in point 4, what part of the timeline is the game set in? Here is where you run into problems if you allow ships to explore the galaxy. Eventually, it will all be explored. Or one empire will be destroyed or something like that. If the system is inflexable, the players actions do not matter, then why bother making a MMO game when a single player game will suffice? Like Starfleet Academy. (BTW, Starfleet Academy was a great game. I'd like to see a new version of that with updated graphics, more multiplayer support, more interactive environments in space. Nebula, solar flares, asteroids. Maybe some kind of "away mission" support.) Anyway, there are a bunch of dangers that could easily make a StarTrek MMO game stink. I wish them Good Luck.
Big deal. Logical game flaws have been around for decades. Back in my old SNES days, I found a logic glitch in Madden '95 where I could sack the opposing QB about 90% of the time it called a passing play. It would also stop most run plays for negative yards too. The trick was this:
I pretty much worked out of the nickle and dime defensive packages the whole game. Right before the snap, you quickly adjust my defensive line close together and nudge them an inch forward then you pick on of the two in the center and have them take a step back. When the ball is snapped, their offensive linesmen will block yours, but the one that is suppose to block the one you control will block someone else. The double-teamed defensive tackle gets plowed out of the way leaving a nice hole for you to run through and sack the QB. There were a few run plays that could counter this, but the computer rarely called them. In season mode, my record for sacks by a single player is 136 by Bruce Smith. I don't know how many his teammates had, but it had to be similar.
Another one of my favorite SNES games with broken logic was NHL Stanley Cup.
#85 of the Oilers scored 473 goals in one season with only 917 shots on goal. (The counter rolled over somewhere around 250)
Most goals by a team in a game: Oilers 30 out of 51 shots on goal
Most goals in a game by a single player: #16 St. Louis - 17 out of 24 shots.
The trick was to get a break-away with a fast skater, come up along the boards and angle towards the net at the dots, then when you get to the dots - coast. This draws the goalie away from the net and towards you. When you see him advance, you skate around him to the front of an empty net. Some goalies are quick enough to recover, but you should still be able to sneak in a few goals a game against the best.
Another game, Super Tennis, the easy way to beat Don J. is to lob to one of the back corners then run to the middle of the baseline. Don J. always smashes back up the middle. You use his hard smash against him by returning it up the opposite side of the court.
This the list of programs that the built-in firewall will break until you add them to the exception list. Be ready to do the procedure listed in the Knowledge Base article on every machine you apply the service pack to.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, history has often looked upon comets a bad omens, like War and the death of Kings.
Blaster Master
Defender
Contra
Maniac Mansion
Smash TV
Total Annihilation
...call me when they make this into a plugin for Photoshop.
Many moons ago.... Scott gave us the answer and we posted it here:1 7
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/09/20582
You obviously misread my post. I never said it was "ok". In fact, I barely took a side in this argument. What I did talk about was the long range future...hundreds of thousands of years. In the long run, that is why the article on wikipedia can claim that about the orbital forcing. In that timespan, I believe that statement to be accurate. The Earth will get warmer and cooler. I highly doubt it will stay the same because...well it never has. Even if you minimize human impact you can still end up with a desert world or a snow ball world given the complex cycles and systems and enough time. Carbon trading/taxing may buy some time, but it's not a cure. Not by a long shot.
I still have my doubts that an effective global climate body can exist. Even with carbon trading and trying to bring the market into the mix. BTW, it will take a global government to enforce it. If India or China or the US do not want to fully comply to Kyoto or any other treaty on GHG limits, no one can stop them. They may abide while it suits their interests, but when it does not they will stop.
To sum up:
- "...by this definition we are still in an ice age." - If we are still in an Ice Age, technically speaking, then how much warmer was the Earth in the distant past than it is now? How much warmer will the Earth get even if we magically stop all Human caused climate change? What would happen if we did magically stop?
- "More colloquially,
... ice age is used to refer to colder periods with extensive ice sheets over the North American and Eurasian continents: in this sense, the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago." - So the Earth started to get warmer and entered into an interglacial period about 10K years ago. What caused that?
- "There have been four major ice ages in the further past." - It appears that the Earth cools down and warms up over very long periods of time for various reasons. (that seem to be largely guess work at this point) If there are long term cycles and short term cycles constantly going on, for which we are just beginning to understand. I agree that Humans can do things to encourage warming or cooling, but looking at the big picture in the long run it seems a mere drop in the bucket. Are we trying to combat Global Warming because we like our current temperatures and in reality trying to fight the system? Can we win that fight? Can Humanity prevent the Earth from warming up too much or cooling too much?
- "The Earth is in an interglacial period now, the last retreat ending about 10,000 years ago." - I mentioned this above.
- "There is no evidence that anthropogenic forcing from increased "greenhouse gases" outweighs orbital forcing, and the prediction for the next few hundred years is for temperature rises: see global warming regardless of man's activities." - This is where things get complicated. Yes, Humans are affecting their environment, but even if we did not the Earth would still be getting warmer. That is until it started to get cooler again and the Earth entered into a new period of glaciation.
Imagine large glaciers covering much of North America, Europe, and Asia. Is that a good thing? Imagine large deserts like the Sahara covering much of North America, Europe, and Asia. Is that a good thing? Again, what exactly are we trying to accomplish? Is seems that a lot of people want to keep things just the way they are, at this exact moment in time, for ever and ever. So lets go with that.Now imagine a world-wide governmental body with the directive to pass laws, implement corrective actions, and enforce policies all to control and preserve the global climate. What an undertaking to try and be the thermostat of the Earth! If you think political bickering about climate change is bad now...imagine it with elections and appointments to that organization. [The deligation from the Alliance of Artic Nations respectfully request the Global Thermostat be set to 72 F. Objection! The deligation from the Eqitorial Preservation Association clearly need the thermostat to stay at 68 F, where it belongs! (heh, reminds me of work!)] So, what must that organization do? Well, until it learns how to control: the energy output of the Sun, Drifting of the tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, and many more things the best it can do is react to each of these things by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when the Earth needs warming and removing them when it needs cooling. Sounds a lot like Terra forming. In this case it would be Terra controlling. Do we really know how to do that? I highly doubt it.
In the end, the temperature will rise and fall and Humanity is just along for the ride, even though we may be able to take out some of the small bumps along the way.
While I enjoy playing Lord of the Rings, it is not for everyone. Before giving it as a gift to someone, I would run down this quick checklist.
A) Have they read the books more than once? - This may be the best indicator if they will enjoy the game. If they enjoyed the books enough to re-read, then there is a good chance they will enjoy the game and give it a chance.
B) Do they handle losing well? - It is double tough to win this game, especially with the expansions. If they don't like games they only have a small chance of winning then this game may not be for them.
I have played it a few times and have never won. We made it to Mordor once.....once. Actually, I shouldn't say "we" because the fellowship was down to only Sam, who promptly died after his first turn in Mordor. In my opinion, you need to have extreme good fortune to win. However, when you do win, you'll talk about it for months.
1) Counter Strike - quick, dirty, & fun. I think part of the definition of a "comfort game" is a game that is easy to pick up and put down and still have a load of fun. This fits it to a 'T'. :)
2) All-Star Baseball 2004 - I love baseball. I've always had a baseball "comfort game", this just happens to be the latest one.
2) StarCraft - quick & fun. This game is like your old pair of shoes that you refuse to throw out because they fit so well.
3) Mario Kart: Double Dash - Just pure, quick fun. 150cc is just challenging enough to make winning still feel good.
4) Civilization 3 - not too quick, but very fun. Especially when you set to Chieften and roll modern armor over their chariots.
5) Unreal Tournament 2004 - quick, dirty, & fun w/ tanks. If this game were easier for me to play, it would be higher on the list.
Heh...
We found the password for it on-line, it was protected, and then we created Perl scripts to interact with the decks created in the database. We would use the tool to create a deck using any and all cards that existed at the time. Then we would save the decks in an XML file. Then we pointed our Perl CGI scripts at the XML file and it would interpret the data and produce HTML using the pictures from the Encyclopedia's images, which were randomly numbered in several directories. A little tweaking of the sizing and spacing and presto... we could print out any deck we wanted. We could have printed them on nice cardstock, but we just used regular paper and put any card in behind it to make it sturdy so we could play with them. Had them in protector sleeves.
It was great! We would get together and play big multiplayer games with uber-decks. Tear each other appart. And we barely spend a dime.
Anyone remember Starcraft: Ghost? .... Neither do I. I believe that the reason we did not see a SC2 was because they were trying to take it in the direction of Ghost, a sort of Metal Gear clone, but then they decided to not release it. Read this for more info. Frankly, I think it is a good move. No point in releasing a bad game and having to take all the bad PR that would generate from it on the chin. The rumors that they do not want to make another RTS make me think that there next move may be a MMORTS.
It would be interesting to see what they would do with such a thing. They could have multiple solar systems to fight over, 3D space battles, dozens of planets, personal hero charachters like Jim Raynor that you could gain levels with, train, and equip. And they could again make each race very different from each other. I think it's do-able. With the lessons learned from WoW and Diablo2, I think they could pull it off.
"To be frank, anybody levelling Ranger or Ninja at a rate of more than one or two levels per week is almost certainly buying gil, unless they started with a vast amount of capital."
That seems a lot low, to me. If you find a good party to group with (full of people that know what they are doing), know where to go and what mobs to grab, you can gain one level every 2-3 hours barring accidental linkage induced death. I know because I do it. I play MAYBE 5 hours a week. One night.
But, you have to have a good group built (enough Healers, Damage dealers, and a Tank that is on top of things) that runs like a well oiled machine. All doing their skill chains for the extra damage, which leads to faster kills that lead to the experience chains for the extra experience. It all adds up over the course of a few hours.
The trick is to latch onto a good Perma (a regular group). Mine happens to be made of good friends that I know outside of the game, so I know that they are not lying when they tell me that they have never bought gil with real money. Besides, I know what they make, where they sell it, and how much they get for it (mostly because they are bragging about it all the time on the linkshell) and trust me, they don't need to buy gil with real money.
The very fact that IGE was pumping up the prices on good gear that can be made brings in hoards of cash to the people that sell them. The extra gil gets re-distributed though-out the game as the crafter's spend it, but there is some lag in this so it is not that apparent and the wealth gap does develop.
Knowing how to spend it wisely, buying only what you need to help your role in the group, it will last you a while. Even more if you can get hand-me-downs. ;) Hey, it's not a freebie as much as you'd think. I've saved some of their in-game lives with certain acts of thrilling heroics....so they owe me a little. :)
Anyway, I'm not saying that buying gil with real cash is not hurting the game. I am saying that it even though it goes on it won't hurt you that much if you play smart. Heck, you can even take advantage of it and make a nice pile of gil for yourself.
First, having the game take place in the middle of the story in effect puts the game in a very small box from a story, event, & content perspective. They were limited on what ships, items, etc. they could have, how much the in game universe could change and what events they could do, and how much the players could affect things. To stay true to the story and fit everything in the "little box" they would have to leave out some big things. Which leads me to the second issue...
it created the "Jedi Paradox". How can you have characters run around as Jedi when according to the story there is only supposed to be one, Yoda. (Luke is barely a padawan and Sidious and Vader are sith) The only reason to do this would be to advance through the timeline and have events that happen in the movies happen in the game and allow the players to take part in them, which they do not seem to be doing. I heard that Middle Earth Online (did this get cancled?) was going to try to do something similar. However, SWG never did this.
Ideally, they should have chosen a time period before episode I, like KotOR did, or after episode VI (or even after all the books). Then they could do just about whatever they wanted with the story & events and still have jedi and sith running amok everywhere.
What Dan says is good. It sounds like he thinks all CS Majors should minor in General Business or Econ...which is fine. A few thoughs on his article. First off... grammer, touch typing, and nutrition you should have learned in grade school (and they're not that important). There's not enough time in 4 years to have this and all the other stuff too. In fact, there is so much on that list it looks more like a 5 year degree. I'll try to point out the important stuff in a minute.
While you are still and undergrad, take advantage of your time and try and lean as much as you can in between partying on the weekends. You'll never know for certain what you will be doing when you graduate so try and pick up as much stuff as you can on the way. I'm not talking about taking this elective or that one. I'm talking about learning things on your own time.
If they teach you C++ in a class, that's great. Soak it up. But don't do all your assignments in it. If an assignment allows you to use any language, pick one you don't know and learn it. This is hard, but worth doing. Ask the professor if they have a suggestion for a language if you need to. Each language you can pick up is one more for on your resume. Find and excuse and lean the following on your own:
- C++
- Visual Basic or C#
- Java
- Perl
- some database interaction using SQL
- shell scripting in Unix (try to use SED and AWK)
- scripting in Windows (good luck)
Also, try porting some code you wrote from one language into another. For example, I once had to port some Perl code down to a bash script. Don't ask me why...Also, set up your own computer so you can learn different Operating Systems. Configure them so you can use them to send e-mail and browse the web. Thorw on some compilers so you can use it to write your code. Try to make it as secure as possible. Take notes. Ask for advice, but make sure you do it yourself. You don't learn as much by watching someone else do it for you. And test your results. Try to get some experience with:
- a Modern Windows server..(if you can get your hands on the install media)
- any version of Linux... (the more complicated the better...you never learn as much when it all goes well.)
- Solaris 10 or later... (It's not the same on Intel machines as on Sun machines, but it's still worth learning)
I would say that the majority of classes you take at University are worthless for getting you a job. Do not fret. Employers want to see that degree all the same. And they want to see a high GPA. It shows you did well no matter WHAT was thrown at you...even if it was "Economics from Plato to Keynes" or "Italian Renaissance Art".In closing, I would say that as long as you apply yourself and try to learn as much as possible about computers, it really does not matter what program you take. Employers only care about the skills (which you can learn on your own) and if you have any degree with high grades. I work with a Pre-Med student turned Windows Server guru and a dual major Physics & Philosophy that turned himself into a coding guru. Start anywhere, just make sure you are a guru in the end.
One last thing in case you missed it the first time. The most important piece of advice in this post was this:
Party on the weekends. Even if you have to throw the party yourself.
fumbbl.com
And it's FREE!
You build your team, play games whenever you have time, and buy more players when you lose them to injury and death. (mostly death)
It's based on an old Games Workshop game called Blood Bowl. Think rugby with War Hammer. Great game, although a bit long. Quick games are around 90 minutes.
I would guess that excitement levels depend upon the following factors: the score, the inning, outs, the count (balls and strikes on the batter), base runners, the batter, the game. For example, every time your team's power hitter is at the plate, the game gets a boost in excitement. If there are runners on, it gets another boost. If his team is behind in the score, then it gets another boost. If it's possible for him to take the lead by hitting a homerun, yet another boost. If it's the bottom of the 9th with two outs in game 7 of the World Series, then is about as exciting as it gets.
There's your confirmation. At least on some Solaris servers I've seen.
Yes, a very good game. They have a few expansion packs too. The secret to this game is knowing if the judge will go for the most accurate or the most funny.
Most Newsgroups require that a posted message be no larger than a certain size so to post large files, like mp3's, you must split them appart into several seperate posts. Without the Combine and Decode functionality you cannot put the pieces back together again.
Granted, Usenet Newsgorups have not gained as much popularity as the rest of the internet but it would still be nice to have. And until this feature is added to T-Bird, then Usenet users like myself will still be forced to use OE. Basically, why run two e-mail clients? It's not a good idea for the average user, so they are going to stick with OE.
...not just the Dune novels. Some even say that the story of the original is very close to "The Hidden Fortress". This site explains things very well.
TSol is one of the most secure OS's I've administered. I had the opportunity to speak with one of the kernel developers and the one quote I'd like to convey about what we talked about is "That which is not explicitly permitted is implicitly denined."
However, Linux can have this level of security also. If you go here you will see the webpage for Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux). Although, it is only a technology demonstration and may not be suitable for a real world environment.
These OS's are based on mandatory access control policies using roles. This is where the quote comes in to play. If you do not specifically give permission for an executable or a user to perform a specific action, that action will fail. There is no root user. Regular users have no rights themselves but are granted roles they can assume. These roles are given the rights and permissions to perform the tasks they have been asigned. You can create a "backup-admin" role so that it will have access to the tape drive and be able to read all files on the system, but not write anywhere but the tape drive and not be able to do anything else.
Now, I have not read if this part of the code will be "Open Sourced" and it was not discussed in the article. However, it has to be deeply embedded into the OS kernel for it to work so I must assume that it will be a part of it.
Mark my words: Mandatory Access Control, Labeled Security, and Role Based Access are the future of secure operating systems. If an operating system does not do these things it will not be considered for use in environments that have a high priority for information security (infosec). IMO, anything that connects to the Internet or a WAN or hosts sensitive data should have infosec as a high priority. If SELinux is not further developed, or a suitable replacement is created, then Linux will fall off the infosec curve.
Now, what does that mean? "Your" ship could be one you own or one you work on as part of it's crew. Though, I do not believe there should be an absolute requirement for all stations to be manned by real players. The crew could be a mix of NPCs and players. You're home point would be your personal quarters. When you log in you could "relieve" the NPC that was running your station and when you log out the NPC relieves you. That way, you ship can still function when only a few of your buddies are available. Or better yet, let the captain do some grunt work and get the ship to a certain point before you log on. :) You could run the ship with just one person, but not well. Through abilities your character can eventually do the job better than the NPCs.
What about captain? Do we just let anybody be a captain? On civilian ships, sure....why not?? However, if you want to be a Captain in Starfleet.....that's another matter. It definately needs a ranking system of some sort, at least for the military ships. Obviously, it would be different between the empires. I think any Klingon can gain command of a ship simply defeating the current captain in one-on-one hand-to-hand combat.
However, there are some serious things to decide. What do you do when your ship is destoryed? Oh, you just respawn the ship at the last starbase? Are you and your crewmantes cloned? And in point 4, what part of the timeline is the game set in? Here is where you run into problems if you allow ships to explore the galaxy. Eventually, it will all be explored. Or one empire will be destroyed or something like that. If the system is inflexable, the players actions do not matter, then why bother making a MMO game when a single player game will suffice? Like Starfleet Academy. (BTW, Starfleet Academy was a great game. I'd like to see a new version of that with updated graphics, more multiplayer support, more interactive environments in space. Nebula, solar flares, asteroids. Maybe some kind of "away mission" support.) Anyway, there are a bunch of dangers that could easily make a StarTrek MMO game stink. I wish them Good Luck.
I pretty much worked out of the nickle and dime defensive packages the whole game. Right before the snap, you quickly adjust my defensive line close together and nudge them an inch forward then you pick on of the two in the center and have them take a step back. When the ball is snapped, their offensive linesmen will block yours, but the one that is suppose to block the one you control will block someone else. The double-teamed defensive tackle gets plowed out of the way leaving a nice hole for you to run through and sack the QB. There were a few run plays that could counter this, but the computer rarely called them. In season mode, my record for sacks by a single player is 136 by Bruce Smith. I don't know how many his teammates had, but it had to be similar.
Another one of my favorite SNES games with broken logic was NHL Stanley Cup.
#85 of the Oilers scored 473 goals in one season with only 917 shots on goal. (The counter rolled over somewhere around 250)
Most goals by a team in a game: Oilers 30 out of 51 shots on goal
Most goals in a game by a single player: #16 St. Louis - 17 out of 24 shots.
The trick was to get a break-away with a fast skater, come up along the boards and angle towards the net at the dots, then when you get to the dots - coast. This draws the goalie away from the net and towards you. When you see him advance, you skate around him to the front of an empty net. Some goalies are quick enough to recover, but you should still be able to sneak in a few goals a game against the best.
Another game, Super Tennis, the easy way to beat Don J. is to lob to one of the back corners then run to the middle of the baseline. Don J. always smashes back up the middle. You use his hard smash against him by returning it up the opposite side of the court.
This the list of programs that the built-in firewall will break until you add them to the exception list. Be ready to do the procedure listed in the Knowledge Base article on every machine you apply the service pack to.