There are many free "development environments" for windows.
My favorite is MinGW with MSYS. If you need an IDE, you can use something like bloodshed's Dev-C++, which is a bit buggy, but completely useable. I don't use the IDE, I prefer using a text editor... I guess I'm old, slow, and tired.
Or, if you don't like that, you can get Microsoft's compiler and SDK's for free from MSDN. Again, you'll be doing without an IDE, or suing a third-party one.
Or, if you don't like Microsoft, Intel's C/C++ compiler is also free, or so I've been told. I only use gcc and it's ports so I couldn't say from direct experience.
Now, there are three FREE possibilities for game development on Windows. I bet other people can list more. Where is this high cost of entry that you refer to?
The Mandelbrot set is *definitely* a direct extension of Gaston Julia's theory and work. The problem is that Julia's work was unfinished.
So I'm not sure how to refer to Mandelbrot's accomplishment -- is it a discovery? A refinement? An invention? I'm not sure what term is correct.
But stolen does not seem correct. And I dont' just mean in the tired "intellectual property is not theft" sense... if he appropriated Julia's intellectual property without permission, I'd go as far as to call that Stealing.
I don't think he did, though -- even in this very article the subject comes up and he gives full credit to Julia for what Julia did.
Q:Fractals seem to appear all over nature and in economics. Even the internet is fractal. What does that say about the underlying nature of these phenomena?
A:Well, it depends on the field. Circles and straight lines also appear everywhere. Does this mean that all those phenomena have something in common? Of course not. The roughly circular trajectory of a planet around the sun is due to gravitational interactions. Berries are round because a sphere has a smaller skin. The beauty of geometry is that it is a language of extraordinary subtlety that serves many purposes.
Q:So fractals don't point to a single rule underlying reality?
A:There is no single rule that governs the use of geometry. I don't think that one exists.
----
If I believed in a God, I'd say God bless Mr Mandelbrot. As it is, I'll just say, "Damn skippy."
I suppose it's not right that i'm more irritated about the new-age whackos who think fractals really *MEAN* something than the guy who invented the Mandelbrot set is.
(Invented? Discovered? Well, whatever, you know what I mean.)
Now I've got a nice little quote of The Man Himself telling them all they're f-ing idiots.
Oops, that was me, I accidentally posted as AC -- I'm not taking credit now to whore karma or anything, just so you can ask me if there's any details I left out about the thing.
Stanley Spadowski: George, you know I was wondering, like if you were traveling through outer space, I mean like you're going real fast, like the speed of light, you know...hoooohhhhh... and all of a sudden you started screaming...aaaahhhhh aaaaahhhhh... Do you think your brain would blow up?
Bob: Guys, I'm trying to work... Do you mind?
Stanley Spadowski: I don't mind. Go right ahead... Do you mind, George?
As a "skeptic" I found both Jon's comments on Crossfire and this article to be enjoyable -- in the sense that here's someone saying what we've known to be true for years.
If any of you feel this way, you might enjoy some fine skeptical sites such as:
In my case, it means I get paid X dollars per week, whether I work 20 hours or 80.
I expect it's the same for most USAians who are 'salaried' but reading this article makes me realize I don't have a clear concept of other people's compensation for their jobs. The female writing it apparently thinks paid overtime should be a given. If you'd asked me, I'd have said no one gets paid overtime, I've never heard of that.
I mean, outside of hourly jobs like working the grill at McDonalds or selling pants at the Gap. Sure, you get overtime for those kinds of jobs. But not office work... right?
I've come to accept perpetual crunch time, unpaid overtime, and no comp days as "industry standard."
I guess that makes me part of the problem. Reading this article woke me up a little... maybe I should be getting those things. I wonder how many programmers are in the situation of having little to no 'crunch time' and paid overtime and comp days? Especially paid overtime -- who gets that? Anyone?
I've been using WinAmp since the beginning, before AOL, and I still have a copy of 3.0 somewhere because it was the last version that didn't suck, sure.
If Microsoft brings an intellectual property suit against me for modding my Xbox someday -- will they also defend me in the same suit, now that I have complete MS-sponsored indemnification from IP suits based on their products?
Okay, I'll grant you that FireFox is probably more secure than IE. But to say it lacks security issues is going a little further than I'd go, myself. In fact, I'd be willing to bet you $10 that it has security issues of it's own.
Don't sell your friend a dream. Set his expectations realistically. No software is bulletproof. No software lacks security issues.
Firefox f-ing rocks, no doubt about it. It blows IE out of the water. It probably has far fewer security holes. But to say it "lacks security issues" is naieve.
Don't believe everything you read on slashdot. A lot of these people have an agenda to meet.
Thanks for the review; could have done with more about the game and less about your efforts involved in getting it.
Incidentally, I don't think a soda machine is a tribute to Half Life. They're in every fucking FPS nowadays -- and they're not all tributes to Half Life. They're just boring, unoriginal level design.
Seriously. When was the last time you saw a soda machine in a video game and went, "Hey, nice touch!"?
Oh, right... just a couple of minutes ago. Oh well, so much for the objectivity of your review.
I'm pretty sure the system is designed so that the central machine does all the secure stuff, with the ATM being not much more than a calculator keypad. -------
Actually, the reason you can't generally use an ATM or Debit card (without having it cobranded by a credit card issuer) is that the regulations say the customer's pin MUST be encrypted on the client machine; the one that does the swipe.
I'm not sure exactly what security implications this may have -- I think the encryption is generally handled by specialized hardware. But the bottom line is the 'secure stuff' *must* happen on the client (ATM) machine, not at some hidden backroom server.
Go ahead, tell me to RTFA. No, the one about ATMs. There isn't one! What the hell?!
Okay, never mind that.
There are plenty of ATMs that have run Windows in the US of A and while I've seen some pretty embarassing bluescreens and such, I'm not aware of any reports of viruses on the ATMs or of viruses targeted towards ATMs, which you'd think would be a cool way to go...
Slashdot Mirror
"And the man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he's made on your dreams..."
Except there's been a "stolen" Half Life 2 on the 'net for nearly a *year* now...
I love the points you make. The answer to the implied question at the end of your post is simple.
Auto manufacturers have more and more expensive lobbyists.
I don't know where you're coming from.
There are many free "development environments" for windows.
My favorite is MinGW with MSYS. If you need an IDE, you can use something like bloodshed's Dev-C++, which is a bit buggy, but completely useable. I don't use the IDE, I prefer using a text editor... I guess I'm old, slow, and tired.
Or, if you don't like that, you can get Microsoft's compiler and SDK's for free from MSDN. Again, you'll be doing without an IDE, or suing a third-party one.
Or, if you don't like Microsoft, Intel's C/C++ compiler is also free, or so I've been told. I only use gcc and it's ports so I couldn't say from direct experience.
Now, there are three FREE possibilities for game development on Windows. I bet other people can list more. Where is this high cost of entry that you refer to?
Stole?
The Mandelbrot set is *definitely* a direct extension of Gaston Julia's theory and work. The problem is that Julia's work was unfinished.
So I'm not sure how to refer to Mandelbrot's accomplishment -- is it a discovery? A refinement? An invention? I'm not sure what term is correct.
But stolen does not seem correct. And I dont' just mean in the tired "intellectual property is not theft" sense... if he appropriated Julia's intellectual property without permission, I'd go as far as to call that Stealing.
I don't think he did, though -- even in this very article the subject comes up and he gives full credit to Julia for what Julia did.
Q:Fractals seem to appear all over nature and in economics. Even the internet is fractal. What does that say about the underlying nature of these phenomena?
A:Well, it depends on the field. Circles and straight lines also appear everywhere. Does this mean that all those phenomena have something in common? Of course not. The roughly circular trajectory of a planet around the sun is due to gravitational interactions. Berries are round because a sphere has a smaller skin. The beauty of geometry is that it is a language of extraordinary subtlety that serves many purposes.
Q:So fractals don't point to a single rule underlying reality?
A:There is no single rule that governs the use of geometry. I don't think that one exists.
----
If I believed in a God, I'd say God bless Mr Mandelbrot. As it is, I'll just say, "Damn skippy."
I suppose it's not right that i'm more irritated about the new-age whackos who think fractals really *MEAN* something than the guy who invented the Mandelbrot set is.
(Invented? Discovered? Well, whatever, you know what I mean.)
Now I've got a nice little quote of The Man Himself telling them all they're f-ing idiots.
I LOVE THIS MAN!
I used to work at a place like that. I was whelmed.
Oops, that was me, I accidentally posted as AC -- I'm not taking credit now to whore karma or anything, just so you can ask me if there's any details I left out about the thing.
Stanley Spadowski: George, you know I was wondering, like if you were traveling through outer space, I mean like you're going real fast, like the speed of light, you know ...hoooohhhhh... and all of a sudden you started screaming ...aaaahhhhh aaaaahhhhh... Do you think your brain would blow up?
Bob: Guys, I'm trying to work... Do you mind?
Stanley Spadowski: I don't mind. Go right ahead... Do you mind, George?
If taking the train required the use of my eyes, I'd get a lot less sleep on a daily basis.
What kind of train are you on, anyhow? Are you the conductor?
If you are; I agree. No video for you.
As a "skeptic" I found both Jon's comments on Crossfire and this article to be enjoyable -- in the sense that here's someone saying what we've known to be true for years.
If any of you feel this way, you might enjoy some fine skeptical sites such as:
The James Randi Educational Foundation
http://www.randi.org/
Committe for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
http://www.csicop.org/
Bad Astronomy
http://www.badastronomy.com/
In my case, it means I get paid X dollars per week, whether I work 20 hours or 80.
I expect it's the same for most USAians who are 'salaried' but reading this article makes me realize I don't have a clear concept of other people's compensation for their jobs. The female writing it apparently thinks paid overtime should be a given. If you'd asked me, I'd have said no one gets paid overtime, I've never heard of that.
I mean, outside of hourly jobs like working the grill at McDonalds or selling pants at the Gap. Sure, you get overtime for those kinds of jobs. But not office work... right?
It's probably too late to get a response on this now --
But Konqueror does this, and I dig it. Is that wrong?
I've come to accept perpetual crunch time, unpaid overtime, and no comp days as "industry standard."
I guess that makes me part of the problem. Reading this article woke me up a little... maybe I should be getting those things. I wonder how many programmers are in the situation of having little to no 'crunch time' and paid overtime and comp days? Especially paid overtime -- who gets that? Anyone?
I've been using WinAmp since the beginning, before AOL, and I still have a copy of 3.0 somewhere because it was the last version that didn't suck, sure.
But there's one thing I've never understood.
What's with the Llama-whipping?
There's got to be some story there, right?
If Microsoft brings an intellectual property suit against me for modding my Xbox someday -- will they also defend me in the same suit, now that I have complete MS-sponsored indemnification from IP suits based on their products?
Hey, watch it!
I'm a nihilist, and I don't want the good name of nihilism associated with scum like Ashcroft.
Ashcroft is a CHRISTIAN.
Get it right.
It'd be fun to have some of that hardware, but what you're describing isn't a supercomputer. It's just a plain old mainframe.
"Lack of security issues?"
Okay, I'll grant you that FireFox is probably more secure than IE. But to say it lacks security issues is going a little further than I'd go, myself. In fact, I'd be willing to bet you $10 that it has security issues of it's own.
Don't sell your friend a dream. Set his expectations realistically. No software is bulletproof. No software lacks security issues.
Firefox f-ing rocks, no doubt about it. It blows IE out of the water. It probably has far fewer security holes. But to say it "lacks security issues" is naieve.
Don't believe everything you read on slashdot. A lot of these people have an agenda to meet.
Hrm... Turrets Syndrome!
Thanks for the review; could have done with more about the game and less about your efforts involved in getting it.
Incidentally, I don't think a soda machine is a tribute to Half Life. They're in every fucking FPS nowadays -- and they're not all tributes to Half Life. They're just boring, unoriginal level design.
Seriously. When was the last time you saw a soda machine in a video game and went, "Hey, nice touch!"?
Oh, right... just a couple of minutes ago. Oh well, so much for the objectivity of your review.
"Insightful?"
No, it's "funny."
Re: googling for vipers with infrared sensitivity.
Try googling on
viper "heat pit"
And you'll get all you ever wanted.
I'm pretty sure the system is designed so that the central machine does all the secure stuff, with the ATM being not much more than a calculator keypad.
-------
Actually, the reason you can't generally use an ATM or Debit card (without having it cobranded by a credit card issuer) is that the regulations say the customer's pin MUST be encrypted on the client machine; the one that does the swipe.
I'm not sure exactly what security implications this may have -- I think the encryption is generally handled by specialized hardware. But the bottom line is the 'secure stuff' *must* happen on the client (ATM) machine, not at some hidden backroom server.
Go ahead, tell me to RTFA. No, the one about ATMs. There isn't one! What the hell?!
Okay, never mind that.
There are plenty of ATMs that have run Windows in the US of A and while I've seen some pretty embarassing bluescreens and such, I'm not aware of any reports of viruses on the ATMs or of viruses targeted towards ATMs, which you'd think would be a cool way to go...
Anyone got that article?