Meanwhile, Nintendo-Gamer (previously N-Gamer, NGC Magazine, N64 Magazine, Super Play), which I've been subscribed too since 1994 has also died.
I used to read that magazine over and over, copying the artwork, trying the cheats, spending hours which two games I was going to ask for for Christmas/my birthday (right next to each other).
I've been using Linux on my desktop for 13 years now. It works just fine for me.
9 years here (although I first dabbled back in 2000). Cheers!
I use it at work too. I'm totally happy with it, far more so than with Windows, considering the hassle I've had to go through installing and maintaining it (whilst paying for the privilege). I'll admit that I've given up on the days of working on Gentoo, and went the easy route with Linux Mint Debian Edition, although I'm tempted by Arch.
As soon as Steam is available for Linux, then I'll never have to boot into Windows ever again. That's the only think I think needs fixing.
I'm just finishing my PhD in mathematical epidemiology (and before that I did an MSc in applied maths).
Yes, I use calculus: it forms the basis of almost everything I do. I've used systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to model disease spread, and the effects of culling. I've also used spatial stochastic models to examine the effect of space and small population sizes, which are based straight from the ODEs.
Partial differential equations (PDEs) are also commonly used to study spatial effects at both large scale (e.g. spread of disease at country level, waves), and small scale (e.g. tumour spread).
Programming is pretty important for me. My models range from simple (100 lines in GNU Octave to examine long term effects of changing parameters), to intermediate (2,200 lines of C for the spatial stochastic framework examining population based models), to huge (for the stochastic individual based models that I'm looking at next). My supervisor (whose supervisor's supervisor was Peter Higgs) started out as a physicist, and still uses Fortran 77. Some people I work with aren't big on coding, and just start with someone else's model and adjust it, although they usually have problems if they don't understand how it all works.
It wouldn't be terribly difficult to meet half way. Roll 2d10 (or 3d6, or something) + skill level, and then create a Unisystem style success table (e.g. up to 12 is +0, 13-15 is +1, 16-18 is +2 etc. -- that gives you the same mean number of hits for a given skill level).
You'll get a bit more variance (compared to the original system) in number of hits for low skill scores, and less for high skill scores, but it would be a pretty good approximation.
I don't know. Every edition has its strengths and weaknesses, but 3.5e was arguably less good than 3e, which in turn fixed a bunch of AD&D 2e's problems but created a whole string of new really bad ones (mostly by removing all caster restrictions while crippling the fighter, ramping up the complexity with feats, and heavy emphasis on the game board), while 2e was just a Bowdlerised version of AD&D 1e, which was in turn Original D&D with all the ambiguity removed for consistent tournament play.
4e was an extremely well crafted game, but it didn't quite have the same feel, losing quite a lot of D&D's flavour. Had 4e been released without the D&D branding, it probably wouldn't have done so well, but people would have appreciated it a lot more. Pathfinder has good flavour, but it pretty much failed to address 3e's real problems. 5e might be really good, but we won't know until we see it.
Besides, any true grognard knows that any D&D beyond the original 1974 edition is a travesty. Seriously, the original edition is spot on (barring the horrendous editing), which is why the retroclones (including those of Basic D&D) are so popular right now.
Linux took over my desktop nearly 10 years ago, although I first encountered it a few years before that. For me, 2003 was the Year of Linux on the Desktop. I hope it will be soon for you too.
Incidentally, I'm not a Linux power user (I used to be, but gave up caring), but I still use the command line all the time because it's so much easier to do stuff like moving and renaming lots of files, editing small text files, playing movies in mplayer. I only need to use the command line though for a very few things, and they're mostly programmer type stuff.
Windows hasn't been my primary OS for a long time, and whenever I'm back in I find it more difficult to do these simple things because I lack the familiarity, and access to all those handy utilities that allow me to do things more quickly. Windows isn't really any easier than Linux -- it takes just as much effort to get set up, it's just more familiar to Windows users.
by the way, LM:Debian Edition was so broken as to not even be worth discussing.
Last month I installed LMDE (xfce version) onto my EeePC, and have so far not encountered a single issue with it. None at all. Not even one. The sound works, Youtube works (admittedly I had accidentally set the sound to mute when I tested it in front of some friends, but that was easily fixed), the trackpad works, wireless works. I installed LaTeX, and that worked too. Don't know about DVDs, but my netbook doesn't have an optical drive, so it's not really something I can test. It's reading my Sansa Clip with no problems.
I think the only complaint is that wine isn't in the default repository, but I managed to get that installed manually (and back when I used Ubuntu, I really only used wine to play a few PC games and ZSnes, which 64 bit Ubuntu didn't have, but this laptop isn't powerful enough to run those, and Zsnes is in the repositories, so no problem there).
In the 10 odd years I've been running GNU/Linux, I have never had an install go as smoothly as I had for LMDE.
I used to run Gentoo many years ago. I could get it up and runing (enough to watch DVDs in GNOME) in about 5 hours on a system that was a few years old and only midrange when I built it.
A complete recompile of everything would take about a day and a half. I gave up because I couldn't be bothered with the admin, not because it took too long.
Decentralisation is just another way of saying "divide and conquer". Your rights will go faster than ever before, because it's much easier for a single state to introduce laws that hurt its citizens than for it to be introduced across the country, and once one state has introduced something, it's easier for another state to follow.
Ron Paul is a Republican, which means that unless you're rich, he does not represent your interests. This is just a wonderful way for them to take away your rights while conning you into thinking you're somehow better off.
Disclaimer: I live in Scotland, I have nothing personally to gain or lose from you voting however you want (although I suppose US global policy does ultimately affect us), but I do care about US citizens being taken advantage of by their politicians.
I'll have to admit that I don't know what you mean by "zip", "map" or "parallel-prefix" (although I'd love to know more). The offset is the only thing I've come across so far, which is why I was commenting on it.
I'm a mathematical modeller, and I like 1-based arrays. I program in both C and GNU Octave (a Matlab clone), and I find Octave considerably easier to use (although to be fair, that's because it's designed to be easy to do maths with). Stuff like "for i=1:50", or "X = rande(2,3,4)", "any(A==[1 2 3])" are things that are so trivial (or the wonder that is eval(), allowing me to generate code with my code). Sadly Octave is not fast enough to do all my work, but I can get things working in much less time (so it's excellent for short jobs).
Generally there are two things I'm going to want to do with arrays: order things, and count things. When counting integers, great, start from 0. When counting decimals (e.g. times), well the array numbering is of no help to me (except that 0 tends to line up with 0). I do a lot more ordering though, choosing the nth item from an array, or the (i,j,k)th item from a 3 dimensional array (which C doesn't like if you don't know the dimensions at compile time, which I usually don't). For ordering, I really struggle with how when selecting the nth thing, I have to pick the n-1th array slot. If I want to pick elements 5 through 10, then it's indices 4 through 9, and that just feels wrong. I get why it was done, but should we really be troubling ourselves over pointer arithmetic in this day and age?
You could say "if you're a modeller, and you like 1-based indexing and multidimensional variable length arrays, why don't you use Fortran?" Well... my supervisor uses it, I suppose I could learn it, and it would probably be worth while, but it's certainly got a steep learning curve, and there don't seem to be the tutorials out there that there are for C. For the moment I've stuck with C, but once you get used to 1-based indexing, it's hard to go back to 0-based.
I don't particularly like the sound of the word "math", it sounds like you're trying to talk with a mouth full of cake. If in doubt, just use the full word.
On the other hand, I would never refer to carbon emission as "carbons". Having done chemistry at school, that sounds like hydrocarbons, i.e. different types of carbon compounds, not a quantification of one type of carbon emission. So yes, I'll agree that that's annoying.
Also, there's a very large part of mathematics devoted to how to divide (solving the equation Ax=b for x, given A and b), so you know, I can add, subtract AND divide! That's easily enough to warrant a plural:)
I've got a Masters degree with distinction in Applied Mathematics, and I've tutored 2nd year university students.
I'm not from the US, so I'm not sure how old 10th graders are, but I hope I'm better at maths than them! (Yes, I got all the questions in the linked article correct).
I haven't owned a TV for 5 years, and I haven't lived in a flat with a TV for 3. The only time I see TV is at Christmas, when I go to stay with my or my wife's family, and I'm continually reassured that I've made the right choice.
I find that TV is an amazing attention grabber. TVs are entrancing, and if there's one on in the room, it ends up drawing everyone's attention, when we should be talking to each other. There's always something else on, although it's probably rubbish, and the temptation is to just channel flick during the adverts (and TV is so full of adverts -- I'm lucky enough to live in a country where we have the BBC, which doesn't have adverts, but even so). I'm very happy not to have that in my flat.
That doesn't mean I go without though. If I want to see something, I buy it on DVD and watch it on my computer (without the ads, competing programmes and in my own time). I listen to the radio a lot, and it is so content rich in comparison to TV (and satirical comedy news shows are amazing ways to get unbiased news). I also have a lot more time to do other interesting things.
I'm glad to hear that fewer people are watching TV (even if only by a tiny amount). I do know a few others who don't have one (admittedly not many), and I hope that more people end up spending less time in front of the box.
I'd just like to say that I have eaten at Kismot many times (it's right next door to my local), and they do have a warning for their ultra hot curry (you have to sign a disclaimer to even try it). So really, there's no excuse. I do know two people who have managed it though.
By the way, it's a lovely restaurant, the staff are really friendly (Akbar always asks after my sister), and the food is great. Just... avoid the killer;)
Funny really, since Gary Gygax made only the slightest of nods towards Tolkien fans, and D&D was never particularly good at emulating Middle Earth (far too much magic for one thing).
Original D&D was much more designed to emulate the sword and sorcery genre typified by the works of Leiber, Howard, and Moorcock. The game has changed a lot over the years, and while it still has elves, dwarves, trolls, orcs, and goblins, (the halflings do not in any way resemble hobbits any more), it really has very little in common with the works of Tolkien.
The suicide rate for workers in Foxconn was something like a quarter of the Chinese national average. I've never seen suicide statistics for the general factory worker population in China, but without this information there is no evidence that working for Foxconn is a risk factor.
I'm a scientific programmer, mostly working on mathematical models and simulation. Almost all the work I do is for myself, and I have very little experience working with others' code. Many of the people I know who use Python are in similar situations. I have personally had far less trouble with tabs than with spaces (aesthetically and functionally), and it's what I'm going to continue using until my circumstances change, since Python doesn't care either way (only the community, who will never see my code).
I just think that if you're going to tell people to use spaces instead of tabs, at least explain why. It's rather inconsistent considering the author tried to avoid the issue with text editors.
Yes, but to type in the programming exercises, do you recommend using vi or emacs?:-/
The author suggests gedit, for all platforms, which is a fair enough suggestion. However he then insists on using spaces over tabs, without any explanation of the relative merits, thus already choosing a side in yet another programming disagreement. A simple "choose one and stick to it" would have sufficed.
Personally If I follow the book I'll be using vim + tabs, because those are what I'm used to and prefer, but that's just me.
Well, I suppose I do hold a certain nostalgia for Sylvester McCoy, as he was the first Doctor I remember seeing, however having gone through and watched almost all the classic series, it's now Tom Baker, and with Tom Baker it's a tough call between Sarah Jane Smith and Leela. Bonnie Langford on the other hand...
Not that I'd want to try to rank the actors, as they all do great things and add something unique to the role, and I'm happy to watch any of the Doctors (although sometimes the scripts and directing have had their low points).
I did enjoy some of the Colin Baker episodes. Seriously, the guy did an amazing job considering the crap they were putting it through, and it's the producer John Nathan-Turner who would have been better lost, as he seemed determined to make the series die a slow death. Being forced to retake scenes requiring strong emotions multiple times just because "that prop in the background still isn't quite right" must have been soul destroying for the actors.
The good news is that Colin Baker is still doing Doctor Who via the Big Finish Productions, where he is given good scripts and is well liked among fans. Nicola Bryant seems to have settled into the role well too, and no longer sounds like she's about to burst into tears after every sentence.
Slashdot Mirror
Meanwhile, Nintendo-Gamer (previously N-Gamer, NGC Magazine, N64 Magazine, Super Play), which I've been subscribed too since 1994 has also died.
I used to read that magazine over and over, copying the artwork, trying the cheats, spending hours which two games I was going to ask for for Christmas/my birthday (right next to each other).
Sad times.
I've been using Linux on my desktop for 13 years now. It works just fine for me.
9 years here (although I first dabbled back in 2000). Cheers!
I use it at work too. I'm totally happy with it, far more so than with Windows, considering the hassle I've had to go through installing and maintaining it (whilst paying for the privilege). I'll admit that I've given up on the days of working on Gentoo, and went the easy route with Linux Mint Debian Edition, although I'm tempted by Arch.
As soon as Steam is available for Linux, then I'll never have to boot into Windows ever again. That's the only think I think needs fixing.
How about Resident Evil on the GameCube. A fantastic update over the Playstation original.
I do very much the same, frequently running xmaple (which is only installed on the server) and octave (when I'm doing heavy duty stuff) on the server.
It works brilliantly, why would we want to lose that feature?
I'm just finishing my PhD in mathematical epidemiology (and before that I did an MSc in applied maths).
Yes, I use calculus: it forms the basis of almost everything I do. I've used systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) to model disease spread, and the effects of culling. I've also used spatial stochastic models to examine the effect of space and small population sizes, which are based straight from the ODEs.
Partial differential equations (PDEs) are also commonly used to study spatial effects at both large scale (e.g. spread of disease at country level, waves), and small scale (e.g. tumour spread).
Programming is pretty important for me. My models range from simple (100 lines in GNU Octave to examine long term effects of changing parameters), to intermediate (2,200 lines of C for the spatial stochastic framework examining population based models), to huge (for the stochastic individual based models that I'm looking at next). My supervisor (whose supervisor's supervisor was Peter Higgs) started out as a physicist, and still uses Fortran 77. Some people I work with aren't big on coding, and just start with someone else's model and adjust it, although they usually have problems if they don't understand how it all works.
It wouldn't be terribly difficult to meet half way. Roll 2d10 (or 3d6, or something) + skill level, and then create a Unisystem style success table (e.g. up to 12 is +0, 13-15 is +1, 16-18 is +2 etc. -- that gives you the same mean number of hits for a given skill level).
You'll get a bit more variance (compared to the original system) in number of hits for low skill scores, and less for high skill scores, but it would be a pretty good approximation.
if (DnD > 3.5) {DnD=='sucks'}
I don't know. Every edition has its strengths and weaknesses, but 3.5e was arguably less good than 3e, which in turn fixed a bunch of AD&D 2e's problems but created a whole string of new really bad ones (mostly by removing all caster restrictions while crippling the fighter, ramping up the complexity with feats, and heavy emphasis on the game board), while 2e was just a Bowdlerised version of AD&D 1e, which was in turn Original D&D with all the ambiguity removed for consistent tournament play.
4e was an extremely well crafted game, but it didn't quite have the same feel, losing quite a lot of D&D's flavour. Had 4e been released without the D&D branding, it probably wouldn't have done so well, but people would have appreciated it a lot more. Pathfinder has good flavour, but it pretty much failed to address 3e's real problems. 5e might be really good, but we won't know until we see it.
Besides, any true grognard knows that any D&D beyond the original 1974 edition is a travesty. Seriously, the original edition is spot on (barring the horrendous editing), which is why the retroclones (including those of Basic D&D) are so popular right now.
Linux took over my desktop nearly 10 years ago, although I first encountered it a few years before that. For me, 2003 was the Year of Linux on the Desktop. I hope it will be soon for you too.
Incidentally, I'm not a Linux power user (I used to be, but gave up caring), but I still use the command line all the time because it's so much easier to do stuff like moving and renaming lots of files, editing small text files, playing movies in mplayer. I only need to use the command line though for a very few things, and they're mostly programmer type stuff.
Windows hasn't been my primary OS for a long time, and whenever I'm back in I find it more difficult to do these simple things because I lack the familiarity, and access to all those handy utilities that allow me to do things more quickly. Windows isn't really any easier than Linux -- it takes just as much effort to get set up, it's just more familiar to Windows users.
by the way, LM:Debian Edition was so broken as to not even be worth discussing.
Last month I installed LMDE (xfce version) onto my EeePC, and have so far not encountered a single issue with it. None at all. Not even one. The sound works, Youtube works (admittedly I had accidentally set the sound to mute when I tested it in front of some friends, but that was easily fixed), the trackpad works, wireless works. I installed LaTeX, and that worked too. Don't know about DVDs, but my netbook doesn't have an optical drive, so it's not really something I can test. It's reading my Sansa Clip with no problems.
I think the only complaint is that wine isn't in the default repository, but I managed to get that installed manually (and back when I used Ubuntu, I really only used wine to play a few PC games and ZSnes, which 64 bit Ubuntu didn't have, but this laptop isn't powerful enough to run those, and Zsnes is in the repositories, so no problem there).
In the 10 odd years I've been running GNU/Linux, I have never had an install go as smoothly as I had for LMDE.
I used to run Gentoo many years ago. I could get it up and runing (enough to watch DVDs in GNOME) in about 5 hours on a system that was a few years old and only midrange when I built it.
A complete recompile of everything would take about a day and a half. I gave up because I couldn't be bothered with the admin, not because it took too long.
Decentralisation is just another way of saying "divide and conquer". Your rights will go faster than ever before, because it's much easier for a single state to introduce laws that hurt its citizens than for it to be introduced across the country, and once one state has introduced something, it's easier for another state to follow.
Ron Paul is a Republican, which means that unless you're rich, he does not represent your interests. This is just a wonderful way for them to take away your rights while conning you into thinking you're somehow better off.
Disclaimer: I live in Scotland, I have nothing personally to gain or lose from you voting however you want (although I suppose US global policy does ultimately affect us), but I do care about US citizens being taken advantage of by their politicians.
I'll have to admit that I don't know what you mean by "zip", "map" or "parallel-prefix" (although I'd love to know more). The offset is the only thing I've come across so far, which is why I was commenting on it.
I'm a mathematical modeller, and I like 1-based arrays. I program in both C and GNU Octave (a Matlab clone), and I find Octave considerably easier to use (although to be fair, that's because it's designed to be easy to do maths with). Stuff like "for i=1:50", or "X = rande(2,3,4)", "any(A==[1 2 3])" are things that are so trivial (or the wonder that is eval(), allowing me to generate code with my code). Sadly Octave is not fast enough to do all my work, but I can get things working in much less time (so it's excellent for short jobs).
Generally there are two things I'm going to want to do with arrays: order things, and count things. When counting integers, great, start from 0. When counting decimals (e.g. times), well the array numbering is of no help to me (except that 0 tends to line up with 0). I do a lot more ordering though, choosing the nth item from an array, or the (i,j,k)th item from a 3 dimensional array (which C doesn't like if you don't know the dimensions at compile time, which I usually don't). For ordering, I really struggle with how when selecting the nth thing, I have to pick the n-1th array slot. If I want to pick elements 5 through 10, then it's indices 4 through 9, and that just feels wrong. I get why it was done, but should we really be troubling ourselves over pointer arithmetic in this day and age?
You could say "if you're a modeller, and you like 1-based indexing and multidimensional variable length arrays, why don't you use Fortran?" Well... my supervisor uses it, I suppose I could learn it, and it would probably be worth while, but it's certainly got a steep learning curve, and there don't seem to be the tutorials out there that there are for C. For the moment I've stuck with C, but once you get used to 1-based indexing, it's hard to go back to 0-based.
I don't particularly like the sound of the word "math", it sounds like you're trying to talk with a mouth full of cake. If in doubt, just use the full word.
On the other hand, I would never refer to carbon emission as "carbons". Having done chemistry at school, that sounds like hydrocarbons, i.e. different types of carbon compounds, not a quantification of one type of carbon emission. So yes, I'll agree that that's annoying.
Also, there's a very large part of mathematics devoted to how to divide (solving the equation Ax=b for x, given A and b), so you know, I can add, subtract AND divide! That's easily enough to warrant a plural :)
I've got a Masters degree with distinction in Applied Mathematics, and I've tutored 2nd year university students.
I'm not from the US, so I'm not sure how old 10th graders are, but I hope I'm better at maths than them! (Yes, I got all the questions in the linked article correct).
I haven't owned a TV for 5 years, and I haven't lived in a flat with a TV for 3. The only time I see TV is at Christmas, when I go to stay with my or my wife's family, and I'm continually reassured that I've made the right choice.
I find that TV is an amazing attention grabber. TVs are entrancing, and if there's one on in the room, it ends up drawing everyone's attention, when we should be talking to each other. There's always something else on, although it's probably rubbish, and the temptation is to just channel flick during the adverts (and TV is so full of adverts -- I'm lucky enough to live in a country where we have the BBC, which doesn't have adverts, but even so). I'm very happy not to have that in my flat.
That doesn't mean I go without though. If I want to see something, I buy it on DVD and watch it on my computer (without the ads, competing programmes and in my own time). I listen to the radio a lot, and it is so content rich in comparison to TV (and satirical comedy news shows are amazing ways to get unbiased news). I also have a lot more time to do other interesting things.
I'm glad to hear that fewer people are watching TV (even if only by a tiny amount). I do know a few others who don't have one (admittedly not many), and I hope that more people end up spending less time in front of the box.
I'd just like to say that I have eaten at Kismot many times (it's right next door to my local), and they do have a warning for their ultra hot curry (you have to sign a disclaimer to even try it). So really, there's no excuse. I do know two people who have managed it though.
By the way, it's a lovely restaurant, the staff are really friendly (Akbar always asks after my sister), and the food is great. Just... avoid the killer ;)
Milk? ... and cookies?
Funny really, since Gary Gygax made only the slightest of nods towards Tolkien fans, and D&D was never particularly good at emulating Middle Earth (far too much magic for one thing).
Original D&D was much more designed to emulate the sword and sorcery genre typified by the works of Leiber, Howard, and Moorcock. The game has changed a lot over the years, and while it still has elves, dwarves, trolls, orcs, and goblins, (the halflings do not in any way resemble hobbits any more), it really has very little in common with the works of Tolkien.
The suicide rate for workers in Foxconn was something like a quarter of the Chinese national average. I've never seen suicide statistics for the general factory worker population in China, but without this information there is no evidence that working for Foxconn is a risk factor.
I'm a scientific programmer, mostly working on mathematical models and simulation. Almost all the work I do is for myself, and I have very little experience working with others' code. Many of the people I know who use Python are in similar situations. I have personally had far less trouble with tabs than with spaces (aesthetically and functionally), and it's what I'm going to continue using until my circumstances change, since Python doesn't care either way (only the community, who will never see my code).
I just think that if you're going to tell people to use spaces instead of tabs, at least explain why. It's rather inconsistent considering the author tried to avoid the issue with text editors.
Yes, but to type in the programming exercises, do you recommend using vi or emacs? :-/
The author suggests gedit, for all platforms, which is a fair enough suggestion. However he then insists on using spaces over tabs, without any explanation of the relative merits, thus already choosing a side in yet another programming disagreement. A simple "choose one and stick to it" would have sufficed.
Personally If I follow the book I'll be using vim + tabs, because those are what I'm used to and prefer, but that's just me.
Well, I suppose I do hold a certain nostalgia for Sylvester McCoy, as he was the first Doctor I remember seeing, however having gone through and watched almost all the classic series, it's now Tom Baker, and with Tom Baker it's a tough call between Sarah Jane Smith and Leela. Bonnie Langford on the other hand...
Not that I'd want to try to rank the actors, as they all do great things and add something unique to the role, and I'm happy to watch any of the Doctors (although sometimes the scripts and directing have had their low points).
Cancer sucks...
I know. My dad died of cancer this time last year aged 58, so I'm feeling rather upset about her death.
Sarah Jane Smith was one of my favourite assistants, from my favourite era of Doctor Who. I'll miss her :(
I did enjoy some of the Colin Baker episodes. Seriously, the guy did an amazing job considering the crap they were putting it through, and it's the producer John Nathan-Turner who would have been better lost, as he seemed determined to make the series die a slow death. Being forced to retake scenes requiring strong emotions multiple times just because "that prop in the background still isn't quite right" must have been soul destroying for the actors.
The good news is that Colin Baker is still doing Doctor Who via the Big Finish Productions, where he is given good scripts and is well liked among fans. Nicola Bryant seems to have settled into the role well too, and no longer sounds like she's about to burst into tears after every sentence.