Your account history alone makes a good argument
for putting the year in the dates on
comments. I just went to the oldest comment
on your 24list and I didn't realize I had jumped
back to 1999 until I went off/. and onto another site.
Peace of mind is a great thing. Even though it's an illusion from most closed-source companies, people will still pay for this and this alone.
Some of the government offices I work with continually lamblast Linux for being free. Not opensource. Free. You see... these same offices happen to want someone to sue when stuff breaks. That is peace of mind for many government offices and contractors. Who do you sue when a Free open source program breaks or lets in the commies?
Ultimately the price tag is there for the liability-implied and the right-to-sue-somebody. Well, as far as some contracts go anyway.
this kind of hardware may be very useful for unattended video work - you know, the box that is sitting there in the rack and encoding, decoding, switching, inserting, etc
My current work environment would definately welcome the chance to ditch the several dozen windows boxen it has doing just this type of work now. We also need some major beefy boxen for desktop video and graphics rendering in real time... in an Irix environment... so folks wouldn't be wholly hostile to linux-based stuff. Although I admit it's a major battle to get the okay to use Linux for anything at my work... including web services.
I suppose the key is to actually getting AI opponents to learn and remember... or perhaps there should be more of an "evolutionary algorithm" approach toward NPC character behaviour. The NPC that lives the longest gets the majority of his description vector used for making new NPCs? Then you could introduce "mutations" as deviant behavioural types. That would make game play at least more unpredictable. Fundamentally you won't likely see an expert Half-Life system to beat down players "Deep Blue" style.
The problem is that you can't build "game trees" (a method of listing out all possible moves available from all previous moves... an AI would then select the most adventageous game sub-tree for itself by making the "smartest" move... the smart move being the move with the largest number of "victory leaves" in the tree) or map all possible games for a Dune or StarCraft style game that make practical sense... so you can't get chess game style AI from them because the game itself is too flexible.
Ofcourse I'm making a lot of assumptions in that statement.
"This discovery is comparable to finding a mastodon or saber-toothed tiger," said Piotr Naskrecki, director of Conservation International's new Invertebrate Diversity Initiative
Yes, except either of those animals could a) smush you, or b) gore you... this little guy will just creep-you-out! "Ew, get it off! get it off!"
I spent several years going to the university in Fairbanks Alaska and I saw the northern lights frequently.
What strikes me about these images is that the Aurora is very red in these images. The aurora was always green when I saw it. Rarely there would be a little red in it for a short time.
The red color is very striking and very odd I wish I could see them from down here in the south. It took several years to get used to looking up and not seeing a green glow overhead. I miss the snow and the aurora, but I don't miss sub-zero temperatures all the time.
I agree in part, there is no principle reason that software should have bugs. In the process of writing software from scratch or in a team, skillful programmers should communicate their intent well so that there are no bugs. When I write software from scratch I usually have no logical bugs in my code either.
I get bugs in practical situations however. For example in one of my OpenGL demos a certain video card produced a mirrored effect instead of a translucent effect using a certain alpha blending function. I had no logical errors in my code, the same compile runs fine on other boxen, but on certain configs I'll crash the X server.
In another example I can give from work, I maintain a large set of Perl data processing scripts. The previous author left no notes. The code is rife with examples of bad programming... for instance a while loop several thousand lines long starts with a label above it... the while loop is filled with if statements, nearly all of the if statements break to the label above the start of the while loop (but not all mind you). Some of the subroutines called inside the loop return, some call exit, some call modules and libraries.
Amazingly this seeming kermudgen of code has no logical errors in it. The program functions perfectly. I personally think that I am a better programmer now than the person who created the program was at the time they wrote the program and it's dozen or so libraries... however, my boss only knows that I take longer to work on the script and that I create bugs in the software whenever I do. He wonders why he can't get me to work as fast and efficiently as the man I replaced.
There should be no bugs. It's a good idea, so is leaving notes in your code, and not using globals for everything. It is also a good idea for software to have a set of functional goals that are clearly defined so a programmer knows when something is working properly and when it isn't. It is also a good idea to have a definition of what is a bug and what isn't.
The interaction between software components, operating system inconsistencies, and poor communication introduce bugs to software. There should be no bugs, but there should be clear direction for what code does. There should be clear functional decompositions or object oriented designs. In the real world there isn't.
It would be nice if the bossman would stop and let the programmers be free. Instead the bossman keeps us down beating his drum chanting, "faster, faster, cheaper, cheaper!" I can take pride in my work right out the door while one of my coworkers says, "sure I can take over his job, he left such clear notes and perfectly logical code!" And, who do you suppose keeps his job because he is irreplacable? Right, the guy who leaves a kludge and no perldocs.
Here's the easiest way to think of it: each parameter represents a degree of freedom; an axis you can move back and forth along, as you change the parameter's value. So, for instance, specifying a color in MojoWorld adds three higher dimensions: one for each of the red, green and blue values you use to specify the color. Each of these axes corresponds to a higher dimension in Parametric Hyperspace: it's just a different direction you can move in. You can see that, in getting all the settings right for a scene, you've set a lot of parameters, and thus traveled in many dimensions of Parametric Hyperspace.
Since the product doesn't store individual worlds, but rather parameters for a procedural system... or a point in parametric hyperspace... the data file for a single world isn't large. Each individual world only needs to be defined with a set of n-dimensional coordinates. I don't do much playing with things like bryce or whatever (can't afford it) but if I'm not mistaken that is a significantly different paradigm. What I didn't see is how large the executable was that generated the worlds dynamically from the n-dimensional parameter vector or hyperspatial coordinates. Technically the program wouldn't have to be large either, but I'm curious...
I'm considering retargeting myself to web development in order to
open up more job possibilities
I find it odd that you say that. I've been trying to retarget myself to something other than web development in order to open up more job possibilities. I feel stuck in web development and I was hoping to try and find work outside of the Perl/PHP/SQL/web market. I encourage you to follow the advice already on this page if you want to go ahead and do that, but I'm having trouble getting work as a web developer with only two years of experience. I certainly scoffed at "web programming" when I was in college and never dreamt I'd be wishing I could get out of it.
I didn't look to become a "web developer" I just sort of fell into it because I was familiar with Perl. From there it snow-balled into all the other webly tools that I'm now familiar with.
Or better yet, you could wear a tinfoil hat whenever you go out in public. The reflection of the sunlight off the foil would disrupt the camera, preventing it from getting a clear shot of you.
I think that this is a great idea for a "Think Geek" product, a shiny metallic ball cap that came in silver or gold reflective cloth. You could have nifty geeky phrases silk screened on it. Tux would look cool on a speckled shimmery silver ball cap made for the gals... or a crackle-ly "foil" cap for the guys.
Merchandising, Merchandising, where the real money from Open Source is made!
We should institute an internet-wide Karma system! Every e-mail account on the whole 'net could have a karma associated with it... if you post enough bad e-mails you get zero karma on your e-mails... then I could set my e-mail reader to only view posts/e-mail with +2 karma.
One of the major combat tactics for stealthy planes is to use the "fog of war" to conceal themselves. During heavy fighting combatants can be confused with plenty of visible hostile targets, if a stealthy plane is just slightly less visible that still represents a tactical edge for the stealthy craft.
I want this product adapted to function as wallpaper so I can turn one wall in my house into an enormous Monitor/TV! At 80dpi that's better than the average TV... and If the drawing rate is too slow for TV it would still make a killer wallpaper since you could then load custom art onto your walls! Imagine your whole apartment/house in "Propaganda" print wallpapers! Ooh the swirls! Or you could have a random wallpaper every day, and display custom senery for lunch!
--// Hartsock//
Finally an innovative product from MS!
on
PS2 As PC
·
· Score: 1
Microsoft Screw You AOL We Own J00!
New MS "Screw you AOL We Own J00" version 6.0 6.0 6.0! It's Easy! Easy! Easy! It's so Easy MicroSoft will Screw AOL for you! Did we mention it's EASY? It's Easy! All your friends are using "Screw you AOL We Own J00" and if you use "Screw you AOL We Own J00" then you will giggle and be happy all the time! It's Easy to use! Not to mention how "Screw you AOL We Own J00" brings people together in a true sense of community! It's Easy! Download today! It's Easy!
I read an old compuserve EULA back in '96 that stated something to the effect that by using compuserve you give consent for them to scan all files on you hard disk or other permenant media.
I call for the UN to mandate the IT companies sell older networking equipment, PC's and software far below cost
to third world countries, to help leapfrog them into the net age (much like pharmaceutical companies have
humanely decided to offer AIDS drugs below cost to AIDS-stricken Africans). As a species, we have far too
much to lose.
The problem with your suggestion is that doing such a thing with IT might very well undermine the economic advantages that allow the 1st world to maintain its standard of living and therefore the very development IT. Unfortunately "trickel-down technology" is the only thing we have in our tool chest of tested ways of distributing technology between vastly different nations.
Most third world nations wouldn't have the ability to even exploit the gift.
Remember the movie "Dumbo Drop"? The US apparently would give poor South Vietnamese trucks as payment. The Vietnamese couldn't afford gas. What was more valuable to them? An elephant, since it can haul like a truck and eats plant matter which is readily available. So boys get 'em an elephant (and comedy ensues).
Offering free or cheap IT to third world countries certainly won't help them if the poor buggars can't read or get clean water. It's downright ironic to offer them computers when they can't even get phone service.
Sorry, I just don't think that free IT to third worlders is such a brilliant idea. These folks have a much wider gap to cross.
Heck, there's a technological gap even in the US. In the last economic boom, the cities grew and prospered while joblessness and layoffs dominated the rural country side. We haven't even figured out how to distribute the wealth, technology, and education in our own nation. How do we expect to assist another nation in redistributing its wealth when we can't do it either?
I grew up in a rural community where we had one tv channel until the mid eighties. We didn't get an internet pipe until '96... and I know of a half dozen communities that still don't have internet access at all.
In time the technologies of the internet will refine and trickel down to all facets of society and all nations in a superior form than what exists now. If we don't neglect other opprotunities for altruism, chances are that newly refined technologies forged in creative fires yet unkindled will yet yeild a level playing field where a true international meritocracy can arise.
Give it a thousand or so years... and go read "3001" (the novel) for ideas.
I'm certainly hoping that this event becomes an embarassing memory all of us can rant/laugh about later. I have the sneeking suspicion that this may turn into an event to remember as the turning point for slashdot.
Before today will be remembered as the heady days when folks posted freely their musings. Soon we'll start sliding downward toward full active moderation and censorship, albiet benevolent at first. I think too that this is a good demarkation of the new internet climate, I find it ironic that this comes right after Katz latest diatribes.
I am totally in favor of this concept, but I couldn't help notice that he failed to answer
the question of how they would make money. It is established that consoles are sold
at a loss, and the money is made in licensing.
I agree. It seems he is banking on the Open Source Developer community jumping with both feet whole-sale go-for-broke into the concept... and I would jump on the band wagon too, provided the hardware was cheap enough.
But there's your point! If they plan to make money on the hardware, the boxes will be too much for me to mess with... and probably for most gamers to mess with too. Does he plan to loose money on consoles at first then jack up the price to start turning profit? If he charges for licensing then does the console remain Open Source?
I'm dying to develop some software on this thing (OpenGL woo hoo!, Free SDK yee haw!) but are they going to be around in 3 years? Did I miss something? I basically got the idea he was building a phenominon not a business... not that I mind.
Slashdot Mirror
Your account history alone makes a good argument for putting the year in the dates on comments. I just went to the oldest comment on your 24list and I didn't realize I had jumped back to 1999 until I went off /. and onto another site.
Dang.
Peace of mind is a great thing. Even though it's an illusion from most closed-source companies, people will still pay for this and this alone.
Some of the government offices I work with continually lamblast Linux for being free. Not opensource. Free. You see... these same offices happen to want someone to sue when stuff breaks. That is peace of mind for many government offices and contractors. Who do you sue when a Free open source program breaks or lets in the commies?
Ultimately the price tag is there for the liability-implied and the right-to-sue-somebody. Well, as far as some contracts go anyway.
this kind of hardware may be very useful for unattended video work - you know, the box that is sitting there in the rack and encoding, decoding, switching, inserting, etc
My current work environment would definately welcome the chance to ditch the several dozen windows boxen it has doing just this type of work now. We also need some major beefy boxen for desktop video and graphics rendering in real time... in an Irix environment... so folks wouldn't be wholly hostile to linux-based stuff. Although I admit it's a major battle to get the okay to use Linux for anything at my work... including web services.
I suppose the key is to actually getting AI opponents to learn and remember... or perhaps there should be more of an "evolutionary algorithm" approach toward NPC character behaviour. The NPC that lives the longest gets the majority of his description vector used for making new NPCs? Then you could introduce "mutations" as deviant behavioural types. That would make game play at least more unpredictable. Fundamentally you won't likely see an expert Half-Life system to beat down players "Deep Blue" style.
The problem is that you can't build "game trees" (a method of listing out all possible moves available from all previous moves... an AI would then select the most adventageous game sub-tree for itself by making the "smartest" move... the smart move being the move with the largest number of "victory leaves" in the tree) or map all possible games for a Dune or StarCraft style game that make practical sense... so you can't get chess game style AI from them because the game itself is too flexible.
Ofcourse I'm making a lot of assumptions in that statement.
"This discovery is comparable to finding a mastodon or saber-toothed tiger," said Piotr Naskrecki, director of Conservation International's new Invertebrate Diversity Initiative
Yes, except either of those animals could a) smush you, or b) gore you... this little guy will just creep-you-out! "Ew, get it off! get it off!"
I spent several years going to the university in Fairbanks Alaska and I saw the northern lights frequently.
What strikes me about these images is that the Aurora is very red in these images. The aurora was always green when I saw it. Rarely there would be a little red in it for a short time.
The red color is very striking and very odd I wish I could see them from down here in the south. It took several years to get used to looking up and not seeing a green glow overhead. I miss the snow and the aurora, but I don't miss sub-zero temperatures all the time.
Source Developer's Network?
Dot instead of SlashDot?
Meat instead of Freshmeat?
Oh, can I be one of the tape monkeys?
as a door stop. It truly changed the way I used the internet... my office is cooler!
Yes, but no.
I agree in part, there is no principle reason that software should have bugs. In the process of writing software from scratch or in a team, skillful programmers should communicate their intent well so that there are no bugs. When I write software from scratch I usually have no logical bugs in my code either.
I get bugs in practical situations however. For example in one of my OpenGL demos a certain video card produced a mirrored effect instead of a translucent effect using a certain alpha blending function. I had no logical errors in my code, the same compile runs fine on other boxen, but on certain configs I'll crash the X server.
In another example I can give from work, I maintain a large set of Perl data processing scripts. The previous author left no notes. The code is rife with examples of bad programming... for instance a while loop several thousand lines long starts with a label above it... the while loop is filled with if statements, nearly all of the if statements break to the label above the start of the while loop (but not all mind you). Some of the subroutines called inside the loop return, some call exit, some call modules and libraries.
Amazingly this seeming kermudgen of code has no logical errors in it. The program functions perfectly. I personally think that I am a better programmer now than the person who created the program was at the time they wrote the program and it's dozen or so libraries... however, my boss only knows that I take longer to work on the script and that I create bugs in the software whenever I do. He wonders why he can't get me to work as fast and efficiently as the man I replaced.
There should be no bugs. It's a good idea, so is leaving notes in your code, and not using globals for everything. It is also a good idea for software to have a set of functional goals that are clearly defined so a programmer knows when something is working properly and when it isn't. It is also a good idea to have a definition of what is a bug and what isn't.
The interaction between software components, operating system inconsistencies, and poor communication introduce bugs to software. There should be no bugs, but there should be clear direction for what code does. There should be clear functional decompositions or object oriented designs. In the real world there isn't.
It would be nice if the bossman would stop and let the programmers be free. Instead the bossman keeps us down beating his drum chanting, "faster, faster, cheaper, cheaper!" I can take pride in my work right out the door while one of my coworkers says, "sure I can take over his job, he left such clear notes and perfectly logical code!" And, who do you suppose keeps his job because he is irreplacable? Right, the guy who leaves a kludge and no perldocs.
Here's the easiest way to think of it: each parameter represents a degree of freedom; an axis you can move back and forth along, as you change the parameter's value. So, for instance, specifying a color in MojoWorld adds three higher dimensions: one for each of the red, green and blue values you use to specify the color. Each of these axes corresponds to a higher dimension in Parametric Hyperspace: it's just a different direction you can move in. You can see that, in getting all the settings right for a scene, you've set a lot of parameters, and thus traveled in many dimensions of Parametric Hyperspace.
Since the product doesn't store individual worlds, but rather parameters for a procedural system... or a point in parametric hyperspace... the data file for a single world isn't large. Each individual world only needs to be defined with a set of n-dimensional coordinates. I don't do much playing with things like bryce or whatever (can't afford it) but if I'm not mistaken that is a significantly different paradigm. What I didn't see is how large the executable was that generated the worlds dynamically from the n-dimensional parameter vector or hyperspatial coordinates. Technically the program wouldn't have to be large either, but I'm curious...
I'm considering retargeting myself to web development in order to open up more job possibilities
I find it odd that you say that. I've been trying to retarget myself to something other than web development in order to open up more job possibilities. I feel stuck in web development and I was hoping to try and find work outside of the Perl/PHP/SQL/web market. I encourage you to follow the advice already on this page if you want to go ahead and do that, but I'm having trouble getting work as a web developer with only two years of experience. I certainly scoffed at "web programming" when I was in college and never dreamt I'd be wishing I could get out of it.
I didn't look to become a "web developer" I just sort of fell into it because I was familiar with Perl. From there it snow-balled into all the other webly tools that I'm now familiar with.
I think that this is a great idea for a "Think Geek" product, a shiny metallic ball cap that came in silver or gold reflective cloth. You could have nifty geeky phrases silk screened on it. Tux would look cool on a speckled shimmery silver ball cap made for the gals... or a crackle-ly "foil" cap for the guys.
Merchandising, Merchandising, where the real money from Open Source is made!
We should institute an internet-wide Karma system! Every e-mail account on the whole 'net could have a karma associated with it... if you post enough bad e-mails you get zero karma on your e-mails... then I could set my e-mail reader to only view posts/e-mail with +2 karma.
//
--// Hartsock
One of the major combat tactics for stealthy planes is to use the "fog of war" to conceal themselves. During heavy fighting combatants can be confused with plenty of visible hostile targets, if a stealthy plane is just slightly less visible that still represents a tactical edge for the stealthy craft.
//
--// Hartsock
I want this product adapted to function as wallpaper so I can turn one wall in my house into an enormous Monitor/TV! At 80dpi that's better than the average TV... and If the drawing rate is too slow for TV it would still make a killer wallpaper since you could then load custom art onto your walls! Imagine your whole apartment/house in "Propaganda" print wallpapers! Ooh the swirls! Or you could have a random wallpaper every day, and display custom senery for lunch!
//
--// Hartsock
Microsoft Screw You AOL We Own J00!
New MS "Screw you AOL We Own J00" version 6.0 6.0 6.0! It's Easy! Easy! Easy! It's so Easy MicroSoft will Screw AOL for you! Did we mention it's EASY? It's Easy! All your friends are using "Screw you AOL We Own J00" and if you use "Screw you AOL We Own J00" then you will giggle and be happy all the time! It's Easy to use! Not to mention how "Screw you AOL We Own J00" brings people together in a true sense of community! It's Easy! Download today! It's Easy!
--// Hartsock
Is just me or did article some bad english? Most posts on slashdot tho! *LOL* Dictionary Buying!
//
--// Hartsock
I read an old compuserve EULA back in '96 that stated something to the effect that by using compuserve you give consent for them to scan all files on you hard disk or other permenant media.
//
--// Hartsock
I call for the UN to mandate the IT companies sell older networking equipment, PC's and software far below cost to third world countries, to help leapfrog them into the net age (much like pharmaceutical companies have humanely decided to offer AIDS drugs below cost to AIDS-stricken Africans). As a species, we have far too much to lose.
//
The problem with your suggestion is that doing such a thing with IT might very well undermine the economic advantages that allow the 1st world to maintain its standard of living and therefore the very development IT. Unfortunately "trickel-down technology" is the only thing we have in our tool chest of tested ways of distributing technology between vastly different nations. Most third world nations wouldn't have the ability to even exploit the gift.
Remember the movie "Dumbo Drop"? The US apparently would give poor South Vietnamese trucks as payment. The Vietnamese couldn't afford gas. What was more valuable to them? An elephant, since it can haul like a truck and eats plant matter which is readily available. So boys get 'em an elephant (and comedy ensues).
Offering free or cheap IT to third world countries certainly won't help them if the poor buggars can't read or get clean water. It's downright ironic to offer them computers when they can't even get phone service.
Sorry, I just don't think that free IT to third worlders is such a brilliant idea. These folks have a much wider gap to cross.
Heck, there's a technological gap even in the US. In the last economic boom, the cities grew and prospered while joblessness and layoffs dominated the rural country side. We haven't even figured out how to distribute the wealth, technology, and education in our own nation. How do we expect to assist another nation in redistributing its wealth when we can't do it either?
I grew up in a rural community where we had one tv channel until the mid eighties. We didn't get an internet pipe until '96... and I know of a half dozen communities that still don't have internet access at all.
In time the technologies of the internet will refine and trickel down to all facets of society and all nations in a superior form than what exists now. If we don't neglect other opprotunities for altruism, chances are that newly refined technologies forged in creative fires yet unkindled will yet yeild a level playing field where a true international meritocracy can arise.
Give it a thousand or so years... and go read "3001" (the novel) for ideas.
--// Hartsock
I'm certainly hoping that this event becomes an embarassing memory all of us can rant/laugh about later. I have the sneeking suspicion that this may turn into an event to remember as the turning point for slashdot.
//
Before today will be remembered as the heady days when folks posted freely their musings. Soon we'll start sliding downward toward full active moderation and censorship, albiet benevolent at first. I think too that this is a good demarkation of the new internet climate, I find it ironic that this comes right after Katz latest diatribes.
--// Hartsock
but the general purpose PC will always live on in small communities of hobbyists and computer enthusiasts... just like "Buckaroo Bonzai".
//
--// Hartsock
Umm, it won't be "vaporware" until they start missing deadlines. Just because it's in the works, doesn't mean it's vaporware...
//
I think that was supposed to be a clever remark about how we should expect them to start missing deadlines as soon as there are some set.
--// Hartsock
I have a dream too... but my robots don't cut grass. My robots will have little stingers on them and will help me take over the world.
//
--// Hartsock
I am totally in favor of this concept, but I couldn't help notice that he failed to answer the question of how they would make money. It is established that consoles are sold at a loss, and the money is made in licensing.
//
I agree. It seems he is banking on the Open Source Developer community jumping with both feet whole-sale go-for-broke into the concept... and I would jump on the band wagon too, provided the hardware was cheap enough.
But there's your point! If they plan to make money on the hardware, the boxes will be too much for me to mess with... and probably for most gamers to mess with too. Does he plan to loose money on consoles at first then jack up the price to start turning profit? If he charges for licensing then does the console remain Open Source?
I'm dying to develop some software on this thing (OpenGL woo hoo!, Free SDK yee haw!) but are they going to be around in 3 years? Did I miss something? I basically got the idea he was building a phenominon not a business... not that I mind.
--// Hartsock