Man I hear ya... It's just like all those fools calling that box on the desk a computer, when we all know a computer is actually a person who performs computations. Anyway, I gotta jump into the old horseless carriage for a spot of motoring.;)
I have a Sega Master System I still play from time to time. It was released back in 1985, which makes it 24 years old. Mostly I play Fantasy Zone, one of the first "cute 'em ups" and Spellcaster, a strange hybrid of platformer and point and click adventure.
As for computers, I have a Sony HB-75, which is from 1984. But I'm in the middle of repairing the keyboard (hard to find those microswitches these days). Mostly I use it for fun Basic programing and playing Hydlide, my one MSX cartridge.
Or you could import the DS browser (the european one even supports english) or wait untill june and get a US version. It's Opera 8.x not firefox, but it still does a bang up job with the google stuff. (gmail, chat etc.) Heck I even use it as remote for my stereo at home (thanks to ampache). The software keyboard works fine on the touch screen, it comes with a memory pack for cache etc. but it's still plenty slow. but, given the harware, maybe that's not surprising.
Learning math is just like learning a spoken lanuage. Math has it's own vocabulary, and it's own set of rules. And (at least at the pre-calc / calc level) these rules are totaly consistent.
So, How do you learn a language? By exposure, if you want to speak spanish well, live in Mexico for a while. Sadly, it's much harder to imerse yourself in math. In fact, one of the only avenues availible is... Going to class, and doing your homework. (sorry) I just came off a stint of teaching precalc and trig and I can tell you as a straight fact, none of my students who consistantly came to class and did thier homework got less than a B.
However if you hate rote you probably also hate page after page of math problems, so the homework part may be a stretch for you. I was the same way, and I still managed to get a bacelors in math. You simply need to find some other way to imerse yourself in math. In my case I conned my way into tutoring math (even though I knew nothing about it) teaching others is a great way to learn, since it forces you to really get your thoughts together. You might also try reading books on math, I highly recomend Kline's "mathematics for the non-mathemtician".
But honestly, the homework/class thing is the easiest way to go.
I'm sorry, but when I hear the word Banhammer, it makes me think of some German heavy metal band. Kinda like a cross between the scorpions and poison, big hair, tight pants and too much drama. Perhaps a side project for Mr. Hasselhof.
Please, can't we call the mass banning of players from some online game something less embarasing? Like, I don't know, mass banning?
Seems like this is what they're doing... execpt the don't need to throw in the freebies.
Honestly, does anyone think the PS3 is going to stay $600 for any length of time? The early adopters get the latest and greatest, Sony takes them for as much money as they possibly can then in six to eight months they drop the price and start selling them to the rest of us.
There exists a strange group of people called "Early adopters" who will go to amazing lengths to have the latest and greatest. These folks will gladly shell out $600 for a console and $70 each for games. And, if your intial run of consoles is small enough, they will buy them all. Perhaps Sony knows this...
Here's my take on Sony's strategy.
I. Soak the early adopters for as much cash as possible. II. Follow the launch with a rapid and drastic price drop for both consoles and games. III. Profit.
After all Sony may have made it's share of mistakes, but they've had one or two small successes as well.
I agree that all of the next gen consoles are computers and really need to be treated as such. But the problem is that they are being marketed as game consoles, and every game console back to dawn of time (or the late 1970s) has been a peice of AV hardware. Companies go out of their way to market them as such, to avoid losing potential consumers who have no interest in computers, or even find them scary. That the next gen consoles really are computers doesn't change the way consumers percive them. This can be interperated in two ways, consumers are dumb, or somebody doesn't understand their target market. Imagine the following scenario...
Customer: This Microsoft car 360 keeps crashing. Support: How are you using it? Customer: Well, I was just driving down the road... Support: AHA! That's the problem. Car 360 is a perfomance machine, you sould only opperate it on closed racetracks.
This is the same mistake Microsoft made. They, like you, assume that the 360 is a computer, and people will treat it as such. But the reality is that a game console is not supposed to be a computer. It's a piece of AV hardware, and it ought to work like it, since that's how people are going to treat it. Think of it like a VCR, it needs to be able to go in the cabinet under the TV and still work.
The big problem is not that they don't know the mass, but rather that they're not sure of the composition or structural integrity of asteroids. Maybe they are poorly cemented balls of rock, in which case slamming a rocket into one will just shake it up rather than move it. Each asteriod is likely to be slightly different, and in enough ways that it's pretty tricky to model. Of course, the bright students will notice the flaw in this reasoning... all this test will prove is that they could (or could not) deflect a certain asteroid (and maybe shed some light on the possibility of deflecting others that seem similar). Unfourtunately this doesn't tell us too much about our chances of deflecting the one that ends up having our name on it.
I for one am a little tired of the current crop of big name games... I have no interest in a rehash of quake, or madden 1995 + n (n in Z+). The only gmes that have kept me playing are titles like animal crossing, or katamari damacy that offer something new. I really hope that this will push developers to be a bit more creative and not just crank out the same crap with a new controller.
The pessimist in me sees into a dark future, in which the big N has failed in their bold move, and the money men are saying... look they really did just want more of the same... roll out Doom 19!
Mathematics for the nonmathematician by Morris Kline is a great intro. It covers the basics up to integral calculus, with nice peices on probability and set theory. Kline takes a historical aproach,showing how and why each topic was developed, also each chapter is fairly independent, so you can pick and choose the parts that are of interest. I've got the dover edition, and it's ISBN is: 0-486-24823-2
Crap you're right... we should be devoting our every thought and action to the events of Sep. 11... not wondering about silly old science... or civil liberties... or even reading web pages... hey wait a minute... what are you doing here?!?! get off line and go do something patriotic with your day!
Here's what worked for me:
First: Get a completely useless UnderGrad Degree
Second: Get a mind numbing office job
Third: Spend all your time playing video games, and hacking on harware and software.
Third: let the poeple in your office discover that you are good at computers.
Fourth: quit the office job, and go work for a huge, soul crushing ISP.
tahhh Dahhh... you're there. Ofcourse this was 92-94 so YMMV...
When I am interviewing someone, I tend to look more at personality, intelligence, and curiosity. I figure that anyone can memorize the names of some commands, and throw that back at me when ever. But having been burned by a few people who were, as my papy used to say "all book learnin'". I've found that memorizing facts, and knowing how to solve problems are very different skills. I need someone who knows how to keep the network up and running, not someone who knows how to pass a test. So how do I find people like that? First I look over their resume, and make sure that the meet some minimal technical and experience requirements, then I ask the canidates I'm going to interview to describe a project they worked on, or a major problem they solved. I tell them this ahead of time, and also let them know that the project or problem doesn't have to be computer related. Then durring the interview I grill them on what they did, how they got the information and so on, trying to pick out the person with the best problem solving skills. I may not end up with the person who knows the most arcane technical details, but I do end up with the person who is most likley to be able to figure out problems that nobody has seen before.
Slashdot Mirror
Man I hear ya... It's just like all those fools calling that box on the desk a computer, when we all know a computer is actually a person who performs computations. Anyway, I gotta jump into the old horseless carriage for a spot of motoring. ;)
Don't feel bad... I assumed it had something to do with the NEO-GEO AES. Video game nerds unite!
I have a Sega Master System I still play from time to time. It was released back in 1985, which makes it 24 years old. Mostly I play Fantasy Zone, one of the first "cute 'em ups" and Spellcaster, a strange hybrid of platformer and point and click adventure.
As for computers, I have a Sony HB-75, which is from 1984. But I'm in the middle of repairing the keyboard (hard to find those microswitches these days). Mostly I use it for fun Basic programing and playing Hydlide, my one MSX cartridge.
Or you could import the DS browser (the european one even supports english) or wait untill june and get a US version. It's Opera 8.x not firefox, but it still does a bang up job with the google stuff. (gmail, chat etc.) Heck I even use it as remote for my stereo at home (thanks to ampache). The software keyboard works fine on the touch screen, it comes with a memory pack for cache etc. but it's still plenty slow. but, given the harware, maybe that's not surprising.
Learning math is just like learning a spoken lanuage. Math has it's own vocabulary, and it's own set of rules. And (at least at the pre-calc / calc level) these rules are totaly consistent.
So, How do you learn a language? By exposure, if you want to speak spanish well, live in Mexico for a while. Sadly, it's much harder to imerse yourself in math. In fact, one of the only avenues availible is... Going to class, and doing your homework. (sorry) I just came off a stint of teaching precalc and trig and I can tell you as a straight fact, none of my students who consistantly came to class and did thier homework got less than a B.
However if you hate rote you probably also hate page after page of math problems, so the homework part may be a stretch for you. I was the same way, and I still managed to get a bacelors in math. You simply need to find some other way to imerse yourself in math. In my case I conned my way into tutoring math (even though I knew nothing about it) teaching others is a great way to learn, since it forces you to really get your thoughts together. You might also try reading books on math, I highly recomend Kline's "mathematics for the non-mathemtician".
But honestly, the homework/class thing is the easiest way to go.
I'm sorry, but when I hear the word Banhammer, it makes me think of some German heavy metal band. Kinda like a cross between the scorpions and poison, big hair, tight pants and too much drama. Perhaps a side project for Mr. Hasselhof.
Please, can't we call the mass banning of players from some online game something less embarasing? Like, I don't know, mass banning?
Baaaanhaaamah! rock you very much! (tm)
Seems like this is what they're doing... execpt the don't need to throw in the freebies.
Honestly, does anyone think the PS3 is going to stay $600 for any length of time? The early adopters get the latest and greatest, Sony takes them for as much money as they possibly can then in six to eight months they drop the price and start selling them to the rest of us.
There exists a strange group of people called "Early adopters" who will go to amazing lengths to have the latest and greatest. These folks will gladly shell out $600 for a console and $70 each for games. And, if your intial run of consoles is small enough, they will buy them all. Perhaps Sony knows this...
Here's my take on Sony's strategy.
I. Soak the early adopters for as much cash as possible.
II. Follow the launch with a rapid and drastic price drop for both consoles and games.
III. Profit.
After all Sony may have made it's share of mistakes, but they've had one or two small successes as well.
I agree that all of the next gen consoles are computers and really need to be treated as such. But the problem is that they are being marketed as game consoles, and every game console back to dawn of time (or the late 1970s) has been a peice of AV hardware. Companies go out of their way to market them as such, to avoid losing potential consumers who have no interest in computers, or even find them scary. That the next gen consoles really are computers doesn't change the way consumers percive them. This can be interperated in two ways, consumers are dumb, or somebody doesn't understand their target market. Imagine the following scenario...
Customer: This Microsoft car 360 keeps crashing.
Support: How are you using it?
Customer: Well, I was just driving down the road...
Support: AHA! That's the problem. Car 360 is a perfomance machine, you sould only opperate it on closed racetracks.
This is the same mistake Microsoft made. They, like you, assume that the 360 is a computer, and people will treat it as such. But the reality is that a game console is not supposed to be a computer. It's a piece of AV hardware, and it ought to work like it, since that's how people are going to treat it. Think of it like a VCR, it needs to be able to go in the cabinet under the TV and still work.
The big problem is not that they don't know the mass, but rather that they're not sure of the composition or structural integrity of asteroids. Maybe they are poorly cemented balls of rock, in which case slamming a rocket into one will just shake it up rather than move it. Each asteriod is likely to be slightly different, and in enough ways that it's pretty tricky to model. Of course, the bright students will notice the flaw in this reasoning... all this test will prove is that they could (or could not) deflect a certain asteroid (and maybe shed some light on the possibility of deflecting others that seem similar). Unfourtunately this doesn't tell us too much about our chances of deflecting the one that ends up having our name on it.
I for one am a little tired of the current crop of big name games... I have no interest in a rehash of quake, or madden 1995 + n (n in Z+). The only gmes that have kept me playing are titles like animal crossing, or katamari damacy that offer something new. I really hope that this will push developers to be a bit more creative and not just crank out the same crap with a new controller.
... look they really did just want more of the same... roll out Doom 19!
The pessimist in me sees into a dark future, in which the big N has failed in their bold move, and the money men are saying
Mathematics for the nonmathematician by Morris Kline is a great intro. It covers the basics up to integral calculus, with nice peices on probability and set theory. Kline takes a historical aproach,showing how and why each topic was developed, also each chapter is fairly independent, so you can pick and choose the parts that are of interest. I've got the dover edition, and it's ISBN is: 0-486-24823-2
Crap you're right... we should be devoting our every thought and action to the events of Sep. 11... not wondering about silly old science... or civil liberties... or even reading web pages... hey wait a minute... what are you doing here?!?! get off line and go do something patriotic with your day!
shouldn't that be WASD fare well? (sorry, sorry)
Here's what worked for me: First: Get a completely useless UnderGrad Degree Second: Get a mind numbing office job Third: Spend all your time playing video games, and hacking on harware and software. Third: let the poeple in your office discover that you are good at computers. Fourth: quit the office job, and go work for a huge, soul crushing ISP. tahhh Dahhh... you're there. Ofcourse this was 92-94 so YMMV...
When I am interviewing someone, I tend to look more at personality, intelligence, and curiosity. I figure that anyone can memorize the names of some commands, and throw that back at me when ever. But having been burned by a few people who were, as my papy used to say "all book learnin'". I've found that memorizing facts, and knowing how to solve problems are very different skills. I need someone who knows how to keep the network up and running, not someone who knows how to pass a test. So how do I find people like that? First I look over their resume, and make sure that the meet some minimal technical and experience requirements, then I ask the canidates I'm going to interview to describe a project they worked on, or a major problem they solved. I tell them this ahead of time, and also let them know that the project or problem doesn't have to be computer related. Then durring the interview I grill them on what they did, how they got the information and so on, trying to pick out the person with the best problem solving skills. I may not end up with the person who knows the most arcane technical details, but I do end up with the person who is most likley to be able to figure out problems that nobody has seen before.