What you fail to realize is that a collection of books is just as transient. Titles don't go into a library collection and stay there forever. the book your tax dollars financed ten years ago served it's purpose and is probably gone now. This is especially true with popular fiction titles. More sholarly books tend to stick around, but generally, books that were popular 10 years ago don't get read now. so they go away to make room for what the public wants NOW. The same will be true with the console games.
You claim that interactive fiction is not legitimate literature, but you say that "Legitimate authors struggle to perfect their reader's experience" . That is prescisely what the IF author has to focus on, perhaps more than a traditional author.
What you fail to realize is that there are no "dice-throws" in interactive fiction. Every line of text you read was written by the author. The author not only had to write that text, s/he had to use fairly complex code to ensure that the text you're reading is appropriate to the current game state. I was fortunate enough to have a course in writing IF at my university. Taking that course was a real eye-opener. It made me realize that it's relatively easy to tell a story. It's much harder to anticipate and cope with the actions of people who are telling themselves the story.
IF Tolkien had kept his books locked away and never shown them to anyone, then it could be argued that he truly "owned" them. But he didn't. He published them and they became copyrighted works. And part of the deal with copyrighted works is that eventually, they become public domain works. Authors and creators know this going in. They get some time to profit from the work, and then the public gets to do what they want with it. What gives me the right to it is that I'm a member of the public. My tax dollars fund the infrastructure that allows the copyright office to enforce the authors temporary monopoly.
We need Mickey because we've paid for him. For years and years, the American tax payer has given Disney a monopoly on Mickey. Disney has made billions off of him. The taxpayer funded the copyright office, which enforced the laws that protected Disney's monopoly. Now, its the publics turn. In exchange for those years of protection and the chance to make billions off their little mouse, Disney is supposed to turn him over to the public.
We need access to things like Mickey because everything in our culture and our knowledge is based on something that came before. Look at Disney's movies. All are based on some old fairytale or myth, or are an adaptation of a book. Imagine if those works had never become "public domain". Disney would never have created any of those movies! Copyright is a double-edged sword. If you are a strong supporter of long copyright terms, you'd best check that the things you create your works from are not based on public domain works.
The constitution states that copyright was created "to promote science and the useful arts". Giving a creator a limited monopoly on their creation does just that. But when the creator is long dead and the evil, bloated corporation that he founded is still sucking every dime they can from the same old characters, it hardly seems that "science and the useful arts" are getting anything back.
We need Mickey because along with him, we'll get a vast catalog of early films, books songs, and other works. IF we don't get them soon, they will disappear altogether. And once they're gone, they're gone for good.
Copyright is supposed to have a limited term. Almost 100 years can hardly be construed as "limited".
If you liked Ad Verbum, you should hunt around for a copy of an old Infocom title: "Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of it"
The wordplay puzzles in "Nord and Bert" offer more variety and depth than "Ad Verbum". There are puzzles involving spoonerisms, puns, and every other type of word play. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Also, for scholarly research and lots of great Interactive fiction links, check out Prof. Dennis Jerz's Interactive Fiction pages.
I grew up on this one. He uses clever little drawings to explain physics principles. Gonick is only the cartoonist though. He collaborated with a physicist named Art Huffman to write this. It's a great introduction to the principles of physics and electricity for novices.
Just search for his name and physics on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller.
He's also written some excellent history books. (Cartoon history of the universe I and II. These got me through me freshman year history courses. Lots of interesting little tidbits. Did you know the Egyptians used crocidile dung as birth control?)
Damn straight. Disney is largely responsible for the sorry state of the public domain today. Hopefully, some of the tenants of the OSS movement will start to wear off on them. I actually just finished a paper last semester about how the OSS movement will reviatlize the public domain. The damage Disney has caused to the public domain was one of my major arguments for copyright reform.
Here's a.pdf version of my paper.
Share and enjoy!
The only problem is, I'm a technical writer. Telling them I don't like to do documentation would be an addmission that I hate my career. (which I don't)
In this case "ultimate" doesn't necessecarily mean they make the coolest games, but that they're the biggest player.
Having their name at the top of a list of videogames is meaningless to geeks, but when grandma wants to buy Johnny something for Xmas, she'll go with the brand name she's at least heard of.
Jupiter Media Metrix is known for skewing their data to keep clients happy. Could it be that M$ is trying to cast themselves as the "ultimate games company"? Maybe a branding push to help the XBox?
Take these figures with an extremely large grain of salt. One of my English Profs maintains a webpagepage about Jupiter and their "research." Lots of links to other stuff on Jupiter too. They have a long and sordid history.
At long last, Cosmic Banditos has been reprinted! Signed copies available Cheap.
I noticed it too. Nothing like coming off as an illiterate chimp to your audience. Congrats Hillary, you've proven that not only are you a mouth piece for thieves, but you're a moron as well. Or didn't you write this piece of tripe?
Why not help them increase their literacy level while they have fun? There are plenty of text adventures that are non-violent and engaging. Any of the infocom titles would be an excellent choice, with the exception of HHGTG. That one might be a bit frustrating. As an added bonus, these games will run on the simplest of hardware and don't require frequent fixing. Also, it might foster a sense of community among your juveniles, forcing them to share solutions to puzzles.
True, true. MP3 has had a few years to get ingrained. Look at the variety of hardware that is MP3 compatible now: portables, car stereos, home theater, etc. John Q. Public isn't going to rush out and grab Ogg because he dropped $400 on a neato car stereo that can play his Napstered Mp3s. Ogg will become the codec of choice among disenfranchised hacker wanna-be's and Linux zealots, but Mp3 will keep it's mainstream strangle hold for a while yet.
I think a good paralell here is the story CD/miniDisc. They were developed within a few years of eachother, but CD was the clear winner, despite the advantages of miniDisc. (Those being smaller size, better resistance to skipping, and better resiliency.) The CD had a foothold in the marketplace, and miniDisc never caught up.
The problem isn't that the cops want to find criminals. That's their job. The problem is that these cameras could provide a minute by minute diary of your whereabouts. Would you allow someone to install a tracking collar on you and monitor your movements? Just think of all the neat info they could dig up on you.
"John Doe spent two hours drinking at Joe's. He then stumbled three blocks to the nearest titty bar. He was observed leaving the bar with a woman who is a known prostitute. They were seen entering cab #31337 on Fillmore street."
The cops could then tail your cab and bust you. This system is to open to abuse. No matter what way you cut it, the problems outweigh the benefits. I would rather let a few criminals walk than live in fear that I would be arrested for someting I did three weeks ago that the cops just found while reviewing their tapes.
I had one, and you didn't miss much. We had one game that used the speech synthesis. "Alpiner". The speech thing made fun of you when fell down. Said stuff like "Smooth move, sport".
I assume they call it a Rumplestiltskin attack because the spammers are playing a name guessing game. Of course, if it were true to the story, they'd only get three chances to guess, and if they didn't guess right, you'd get their firstborn child.
Ahh, the Ti/994a. Speech synthesiser, loading programs off of audio tape, cheap knockoff games. "Munchman", where your little ghost eater leaves benid pellets instead of eating them.
What a steamy pile of crap.
Pretty widgets like fading menus and shadowy mice do not make a "bleeding edge interface." As for meaningful error messages, they're still errors, aren't they?
I don't claim to know the first damn thing about interface design, but I know what works for me and what doesn't. Win2k doesn't.
Re:buncha inbred kitties
on
TigerCloning
·
· Score: 1
I'd have to agree with you. Everything I learned in my high school biology class indicates that you need a wide base of DNA to avoid all the problems that incest brings. Let's be honest, how many dead thylcines do they have just laying around to pull genetic matter from? not a whole lot I'd guess. And How large a population will they have to create to avoid inbreeding? Pretty large I'd say. Anybody know the mathamematical formula for this?
Who are you? Where are we going? And what's with the handbasket?
The first Cray super computer to use Flourinert was the Cray 2, circa 1988. Instead of using a liquid nitrogen intercooler system, the flourinert was circulated to a refrigaration unit mounted outside the building. This made it one of the quietest supercomputers ever. Also one of the prettiest! (Looked like a giant Xmas tree bubble light.)
For more pictures and info, go to Cray.com's gallery. In the picture, the C shaped tower in the center is the computer. The two red and white boxes at the rear are pumps for the flourinert, and the clear tube at rear center is a recirculation system.
Who are you? Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?
Slashdot Mirror
What you fail to realize is that a collection of books is just as transient. Titles don't go into a library collection and stay there forever.
the book your tax dollars financed ten years ago served it's purpose and is probably gone now. This is especially true with popular fiction titles. More sholarly books tend to stick around, but generally, books that were popular 10 years ago don't get read now. so they go away to make room for what the public wants NOW. The same will be true with the console games.
You claim that interactive fiction is not legitimate literature, but you say that "Legitimate authors struggle to perfect their reader's experience" . That is prescisely what the IF author has to focus on, perhaps more than a traditional author.
What you fail to realize is that there are no "dice-throws" in interactive fiction. Every line of text you read was written by the author. The author not only had to write that text, s/he had to use fairly complex code to ensure that the text you're reading is appropriate to the current game state. I was fortunate enough to have a course in writing IF at my university. Taking that course was a real eye-opener. It made me realize that it's relatively easy to tell a story. It's much harder to anticipate and cope with the actions of people who are telling themselves the story.
IF Tolkien had kept his books locked away and never shown them to anyone, then it could be argued that he truly "owned" them. But he didn't. He published them and they became copyrighted works. And part of the deal with copyrighted works is that eventually, they become public domain works. Authors and creators know this going in. They get some time to profit from the work, and then the public gets to do what they want with it. What gives me the right to it is that I'm a member of the public. My tax dollars fund the infrastructure that allows the copyright office to enforce the authors temporary monopoly.
We need access to things like Mickey because everything in our culture and our knowledge is based on something that came before. Look at Disney's movies. All are based on some old fairytale or myth, or are an adaptation of a book. Imagine if those works had never become "public domain". Disney would never have created any of those movies! Copyright is a double-edged sword. If you are a strong supporter of long copyright terms, you'd best check that the things you create your works from are not based on public domain works.
The constitution states that copyright was created "to promote science and the useful arts". Giving a creator a limited monopoly on their creation does just that. But when the creator is long dead and the evil, bloated corporation that he founded is still sucking every dime they can from the same old characters, it hardly seems that "science and the useful arts" are getting anything back.
We need Mickey because along with him, we'll get a vast catalog of early films, books songs, and other works. IF we don't get them soon, they will disappear altogether. And once they're gone, they're gone for good.
Copyright is supposed to have a limited term. Almost 100 years can hardly be construed as "limited".
If you liked Ad Verbum, you should hunt around for a copy of an old Infocom title:
"Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of it"
The wordplay puzzles in "Nord and Bert" offer more variety and depth than "Ad Verbum". There are puzzles involving spoonerisms, puns, and every other type of word play. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Also, for scholarly research and lots of great Interactive fiction links, check out Prof. Dennis Jerz's Interactive Fiction pages.
I grew up on this one. He uses clever little drawings to explain physics principles. Gonick is only the cartoonist though. He collaborated with a physicist named Art Huffman to write this. It's a great introduction to the principles of physics and electricity for novices.
Just search for his name and physics on Amazon or at your favorite bookseller.
He's also written some excellent history books.
(Cartoon history of the universe I and II. These got me through me freshman year history courses. Lots of interesting little tidbits. Did you know the Egyptians used crocidile dung as birth control?)
Now you can enjoy both Portman and hot grits in the privacy of your own kitchen, at the same time!
http://acm.cs.uwec.edu/~hoymb/portman.jpg
Damn straight. Disney is largely responsible for the sorry state of the public domain today. Hopefully, some of the tenants of the OSS movement will start to wear off on them. I actually just finished a paper last semester about how the OSS movement will reviatlize the public domain. The damage Disney has caused to the public domain was one of my major arguments for copyright reform. Here's a .pdf version of my paper.
Share and enjoy!
hear hear. And Framemaker provides easy template support. Highly recommended.
The only problem is, I'm a technical writer. Telling them I don't like to do documentation would be an addmission that I hate my career. (which I don't)
In this case "ultimate" doesn't necessecarily mean they make the coolest games, but that they're the biggest player.
Having their name at the top of a list of videogames is meaningless to geeks, but when grandma wants to buy Johnny something for Xmas, she'll go with the brand name she's at least heard of.
Take these figures with an extremely large grain of salt. One of my English Profs maintains a webpagepage about Jupiter and their "research." Lots of links to other stuff on Jupiter too. They have a long and sordid history. At long last, Cosmic Banditos has been reprinted! Signed copies available Cheap.
I noticed it too. Nothing like coming off as an illiterate chimp to your audience. Congrats Hillary, you've proven that not only are you a mouth piece for thieves, but you're a moron as well. Or didn't you write this piece of tripe?
Why not help them increase their literacy level while they have fun? There are plenty of text adventures that are non-violent and engaging. Any of the infocom titles would be an excellent choice, with the exception of HHGTG. That one might be a bit frustrating. As an added bonus, these games will run on the simplest of hardware and don't require frequent fixing. Also, it might foster a sense of community among your juveniles, forcing them to share solutions to puzzles.
True, true. MP3 has had a few years to get ingrained. Look at the variety of hardware that is MP3 compatible now: portables, car stereos, home theater, etc. John Q. Public isn't going to rush out and grab Ogg because he dropped $400 on a neato car stereo that can play his Napstered Mp3s. Ogg will become the codec of choice among disenfranchised hacker wanna-be's and Linux zealots, but Mp3 will keep it's mainstream strangle hold for a while yet.
I think a good paralell here is the story CD/miniDisc. They were developed within a few years of eachother, but CD was the clear winner, despite the advantages of miniDisc. (Those being smaller size, better resistance to skipping, and better resiliency.) The CD had a foothold in the marketplace, and miniDisc never caught up.
Click here to see Natalie's Hot Grits
For a link that works, try this one. Portman brand Hot Grits
Are those Portman brand Hot Grits ?
"John Doe spent two hours drinking at Joe's. He then stumbled three blocks to the nearest titty bar. He was observed leaving the bar with a woman who is a known prostitute. They were seen entering cab #31337 on Fillmore street."
The cops could then tail your cab and bust you. This system is to open to abuse. No matter what way you cut it, the problems outweigh the benefits. I would rather let a few criminals walk than live in fear that I would be arrested for someting I did three weeks ago that the cops just found while reviewing their tapes.
I had one, and you didn't miss much. We had one game that used the speech synthesis. "Alpiner". The speech thing made fun of you when fell down. Said stuff like "Smooth move, sport".
I assume they call it a Rumplestiltskin attack because the spammers are playing a name guessing game. Of course, if it were true to the story, they'd only get three chances to guess, and if they didn't guess right, you'd get their firstborn child.
Ahh, the Ti/994a. Speech synthesiser, loading programs off of audio tape, cheap knockoff games. "Munchman", where your little ghost eater leaves benid pellets instead of eating them. What a steamy pile of crap.
"solid Bush Country" my ass...in almost all of the states, the candiates were with in a few percentage points of each other. Hardly "solid" anything
Pretty widgets like fading menus and shadowy mice do not make a "bleeding edge interface." As for meaningful error messages, they're still errors, aren't they? I don't claim to know the first damn thing about interface design, but I know what works for me and what doesn't. Win2k doesn't.
I'd have to agree with you. Everything I learned in my high school biology class indicates that you need a wide base of DNA to avoid all the problems that incest brings. Let's be honest, how many dead thylcines do they have just laying around to pull genetic matter from? not a whole lot I'd guess. And How large a population will they have to create to avoid inbreeding? Pretty large I'd say. Anybody know the mathamematical formula for this?
Who are you? Where are we going? And what's with the handbasket?
Purple Power
The first Cray super computer to use Flourinert was the Cray 2, circa 1988. Instead of using a liquid nitrogen intercooler system, the flourinert was circulated to a refrigaration unit mounted outside the building. This made it one of the quietest supercomputers ever. Also one of the prettiest! (Looked like a giant Xmas tree bubble light.)
For more pictures and info, go to Cray.com's gallery. In the picture, the C shaped tower in the center is the computer. The two red and white boxes at the rear are pumps for the flourinert, and the clear tube at rear center is a recirculation system.
Who are you? Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?