Just for the sake of accuracy - "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty" does broadcasts still, covering some Eastern Europeans countries. a http://www.rferl.org
In the Ukraine (where the geographic center of the Europe is located) this radio is becoming more and more popular and increasingly vital as the situation with human rights and free speech deteriorates.
Local reincarnation of KGB (named SBU) tried to claim control over dot.ua
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44012, 00.html
And more recently the head of SBU shocked the journalists by sharing these plans:
"SBU wants to register all Internet users", quotes him Interfax-Ukraine (http://www.interfax.kiev.ua/eng/) news agency. Gen. Radchenko elaborated "this registration is analogous to existing phone book that lists all numbers of owners and users of the phones". He claimed that it is needed to "avoid anonymous sites and pirated traffic". "We need a registry. Internet should be regarded as yet another type of communications". "The appropriate decision has been already made", added the General. (source: http://www.korrespondent.net/main/23804/ in Russian only, sorry)
>> Information wants to be free. Regardless of your moral position, it's a law of nature.
The underlying philosophical problem behind this discussion and many alikes is IMHO the ABSENCE of formalized and generally accepted "laws of nature" regarding information. Except for second law of thermodynamics all other "laws" governing/describing/restricting information are fragmented, very specific to a certain branch of scientific knowledge and usually are not accepted even by adjacent branches of science.
It's safe to assume that all participants in this thread do work with information on daily basis. However even here there is no accord whether it is "free", "not free" or if "free" is applicable to information at all.
Outside the science and geek community the notion of "information" and "how it works" is even less understood. For majority of humans it is more mysterious entity than God, Devil or Fate.
When something is not understood yet exists it creates controversy always. This controversy will not be resolved until some genius comes up with new "Theory or Information" that could exist in "bimbo proof" form as well. Try to reduce Claude Shannon's works to something like "apple falls down", "earth rotates around the sun" or "everything is relative" and you will fail. Bimbos may have never heard about Newton, Galileo or Einstein, however they know the briefs of their fundamental theories.
Generally accepted "laws" of information are needed and will be described sooner or later because information is something used by all - geeks, bimbos, lawyers, musicians, etc. Until then all efforts to enforce these laws artificially (by legislators, artists, businessmen, geeks) will fail.
/nelliza
PS. I hope to witness these discoveries in my lifetime and I am sure it will be most exciting process! Probably this very discussion is a part of it.
Re: ..evolving into new genre rather than dying
on
Vanishing Game Genres
·
· Score: 1
Being a harcore fan of Sierra classic games (LSL anybody, heh?) I would agree and mourn the genre if...
Recently I happened to walk thru (play is not quite appropriate here) "The Longest Journey" on PC and "Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective" on DVD (it was available earlier on PC, but much more impressive on DVD). Those two "games" plus of course "Grim Fandango" plus a bit of leisure time encouraged me to ponder where the andenture games genre heads to.
I think it will evolve into interactive multimedia fiction - with multiple plot twists, rich visual and audio experience and OF COURSE great storytellers behind the plot. I doubt it will be mass-market hit, however there will always be a narrow niche of consumers ready to pay reasonably high price for that type of entertainment (myself including).
I don't expect to find any stock puzzles there (only brain dead would want to solve that Hanoi Tower for 100th time!), puzzles will migrate to mass-market finally, if not already.
Only basic exploration elements - the ability to walk/wander thru the plot, direct dialogues, manupulate inventory - will remain.
Just try "The Longest Journey" to see what I mean. Not that I like the fantasy, but I have to admin it is well-crafted story with great music, talented actors and nice graphics that makes me think about anything but the death of adventure.
If only it had video of same quality as Sherlock Holmes DVDs and more mature content like "Grim Fandango"...
But you cannot have it all... Or you can?/nelliza
Re: That is the problem, but not age-related.
on
Too Old To Code?
·
· Score: 1
One of my Teachers is a surgeon who switched to cybernetics in his 50th. Now he is 85. He is still coding (not only composing algorithms), absolutely hooked to the Net and is very much requested.
Since 17 I mostly worked with older programmers. Now I am 35 and colleagues are in their 40-50. Of all problems none of us ever worried about being obsolete or switching careers.
My opinions are based on years of close contacts with these highly talented people.
I think the ability to re-learn has nothing to do with age.
Young programmers appear to be more adaptable to changes not because they re-learn quickly, but because they are learning current stuff now.
The stubbornness is as common in script kiddies as in 50-year old mainframe geeks. 19yo Perl wiz who swears never write a line in C++ - is that uncommon? Not to me.
The ability to learn new stuff and adapt to new technologies is mostly drawn from basic education (not necessarily means formal education, although some types of formal education help more than others and CS is not one of these).
Good basic education provides that you can learn on your own, out of your own curiosity, at times you feel the need to. And you know how to learn, where to learn and who to learn from (and you can learn from younger people as willingly as from the elders).
Once you've lost the interest to learn new stuff you are dead as professional at any age. (I am about programming and IT, I can speculate there are some careers where the above is not true).
The process of learning new computer languages resembles learning natural ones. First 3 are hard, next 3 are fun, the rest X are like reading manual for the some new gadget - you can find something new only in "troubleshooting" pages.
PS. I definitely dream of 2038 too, it will be great fun -;)
Slashdot Mirror
Just for the sake of accuracy - "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty" does broadcasts still, covering some Eastern Europeans countries. a http://www.rferl.org
, 00 .html
In the Ukraine (where the geographic center of the Europe is located) this radio is becoming more and more popular and increasingly vital as the situation with human rights and free speech deteriorates.
Local reincarnation of KGB (named SBU) tried to claim control over dot.ua
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44012
And more recently the head of SBU shocked the journalists by sharing these plans:
"SBU wants to register all Internet users", quotes him Interfax-Ukraine (http://www.interfax.kiev.ua/eng/) news agency. Gen. Radchenko elaborated "this registration is analogous to existing phone book that lists all numbers of owners and users of the phones". He claimed that it is needed to "avoid anonymous sites and pirated traffic". "We need a registry. Internet should be regarded as yet another type of communications". "The appropriate decision has been already made", added the General. (source: http://www.korrespondent.net/main/23804/ in Russian only, sorry)
>> Information wants to be free. Regardless of your moral position, it's a law of nature.
The underlying philosophical problem behind this discussion and many alikes is IMHO the ABSENCE of formalized and generally accepted "laws of nature" regarding information. Except for second law of thermodynamics all other "laws" governing/describing/restricting information are fragmented, very specific to a certain branch of scientific knowledge and usually are not accepted even by adjacent branches of science.
It's safe to assume that all participants in this thread do work with information on daily basis. However even here there is no accord whether it is "free", "not free" or if "free" is applicable to information at all.
Outside the science and geek community the notion of "information" and "how it works" is even less understood. For majority of humans it is more mysterious entity than God, Devil or Fate.
When something is not understood yet exists it creates controversy always. This controversy will not be resolved until some genius comes up with new "Theory or Information" that could exist in "bimbo proof" form as well. Try to reduce Claude Shannon's works to something like "apple falls down", "earth rotates around the sun" or "everything is relative" and you will fail. Bimbos may have never heard about Newton, Galileo or Einstein, however they know the briefs of their fundamental theories.
Generally accepted "laws" of information are needed and will be described sooner or later because information is something used by all - geeks, bimbos, lawyers, musicians, etc. Until then all efforts to enforce these laws artificially (by legislators, artists, businessmen, geeks) will fail.
/nelliza
PS. I hope to witness these discoveries in my lifetime and I am sure it will be most exciting process! Probably this very discussion is a part of it.
Being a harcore fan of Sierra classic games (LSL anybody, heh?) I would agree and mourn the genre if... Recently I happened to walk thru (play is not quite appropriate here) "The Longest Journey" on PC and "Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective" on DVD (it was available earlier on PC, but much more impressive on DVD). Those two "games" plus of course "Grim Fandango" plus a bit of leisure time encouraged me to ponder where the andenture games genre heads to. I think it will evolve into interactive multimedia fiction - with multiple plot twists, rich visual and audio experience and OF COURSE great storytellers behind the plot. I doubt it will be mass-market hit, however there will always be a narrow niche of consumers ready to pay reasonably high price for that type of entertainment (myself including). I don't expect to find any stock puzzles there (only brain dead would want to solve that Hanoi Tower for 100th time!), puzzles will migrate to mass-market finally, if not already. Only basic exploration elements - the ability to walk/wander thru the plot, direct dialogues, manupulate inventory - will remain. Just try "The Longest Journey" to see what I mean. Not that I like the fantasy, but I have to admin it is well-crafted story with great music, talented actors and nice graphics that makes me think about anything but the death of adventure. If only it had video of same quality as Sherlock Holmes DVDs and more mature content like "Grim Fandango"... But you cannot have it all... Or you can? /nelliza
One of my Teachers is a surgeon who switched to cybernetics in his 50th. Now he is 85. He is still coding (not only composing algorithms), absolutely hooked to the Net and is very much requested.
Since 17 I mostly worked with older programmers. Now I am 35 and colleagues are in their 40-50.
Of all problems none of us ever worried about being obsolete or switching careers.
My opinions are based on years of close contacts with these highly talented people.
I think the ability to re-learn has nothing to do with age.
Young programmers appear to be more adaptable to changes not because they re-learn quickly, but because they are learning current stuff now.
The stubbornness is as common in script kiddies as in 50-year old mainframe geeks. 19yo Perl wiz who swears never write a line in C++ - is that uncommon? Not to me.
The ability to learn new stuff and adapt to new technologies is mostly drawn from basic education (not necessarily means formal education, although some types of formal education help more than others and CS is not one of these).
Good basic education provides that you can learn on your own, out of your own curiosity, at times you feel the need to. And you know how to learn, where to learn and who to learn from (and you can learn from younger people as willingly as from the elders).
Once you've lost the interest to learn new stuff you are dead as professional at any age. (I am about programming and IT, I can speculate there are some careers where the above is not true).
The process of learning new computer languages resembles learning natural ones. First 3 are hard,
next 3 are fun, the rest X are like reading manual for the some new gadget - you can find something
new only in "troubleshooting" pages.
PS. I definitely dream of 2038 too, it will be great fun -;)