> Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.... "I have a catapult. Unless all the money is given to me, I will throw a large rock at your head."?!
> and probably 20-50 or more moves deep in a fairly short amount of time could possibly not win?
Not 20-50 moves deep, closer to 19 half moves. And even that doesn't guarantee victory.
For a textbook case of how to beat a computer, look at game 3. Kasparov went to a closed position, kept material on the board, and slowly forced it back. Meanwhile, the computer could never see what hundreds or thousands saw - that its only chance was to push pawns on the king side. Unfortunately, even seeing 19 half-moves ahead, the computer couldn't bring this to a clear advantage and was stymied by the general principle of "don't move the pawns that are in front of your King."
So the computer wasted time while Kasparov romped.
Which is the basic difference between playing chess against a computer vs playing chess against a human: the computer may fail to find general winning strategy without a clear short-term advantage attached (see game 3, the infamous f-pawn), but it will never make a horrible mistake like hanging a piece. (see game 3, 14...Bd6. Every commentator laughed it up over that one, being such an obvious trap, and I saw it a couple seconds later. With a human, you pause for a couple seconds - was that a blunder? did he leave a hole in the trap? Against a computer, you know without a doubt it's airtight or it would not have been played.) nor will it fail to punish a blunder made (see game 2, the move cited above.)
The general plan for chess at all levels and against all opponents is to play for a win with White and a draw with Black.
In other words, video game company leverages nostalgic character to try to sell trendy-genre game that has absolutely no connection to the previous games or previous people involved.
Film at 11.
The same thing almost happened to Space Quest 7 before it was shelved.
The reason for that is Sierra games were written by a bunch of professional sadists.
It wasn't just the cruel timing puzzles. It wasn't just trying to type GIVE CUBE PUZZLE TO LABION TERROR BEAST before being Tasmanian Deviled. It wasn't having to walk treacherous mountain paths or doing arcade sequences. It was not even tripping over a stupid cat and falling 2 steps... and dying.
It was the Your Game Is Hopeless and You Don't Know It scenario.
The one that comes to mind is King's Quest 5. If you don't get the *mumble* in the very first area of the game, you can't get to the island castle at the end. (Actually, there were a lot in that one. Another one involved a leg of lamb and a pie...)
Modern gaming does many things wrong, but at least you don't find out at the end of Half-Life that you missed the switch in Unforeseen Consequences which would have activated the button in Power Up which would have set off the explosives on the cliffside in Surface Tension, which would have revealed the cave which had the keycard inside that you needed to activate the elevator in Lambda Core.
actually, since my first machine that had keyboard reset was an Amiga 1000 (sequence mapped to an IBM keyboard would be something like Caps-alt-alt) I got used to two handing it.
> Anyone connecting a laptop to a non-authorised port needs to be strung up, then reeducated with a large stick.
*You* try telling the CEO he can't plug his laptop in wherever the hell he wants.
(... can't run IE with all Java and Active X permitted...) (... can't turn off the virus scanner because "it was giving him all these annoying errors"...) (... can't "shut down" his "Microsoft workstation" by leaning on the power button till it dies, "it's faster than using that stupid button thing. *I* don't see why it's so wrong. You sayin' you *want* me to waste time? When you grow up, you'll learn that time is money and...")
Slashdot Mirror
Sweet! Thanks!
> Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. ... "I have a catapult. Unless all the money is given to me, I will throw a large rock at your head."?!
> You're using an SMC networking product. That's not bragging, that's a cry for help.
I actually tried a couple others before settling on this.
Rock solid stable, lasted 2.5 years now, no problem.
What hacks &c did you do to it?
Heh, I know exactly what to do... wait for my SMC Barricade to realize the drop and dial out on the modem fallover line.
Behold the power of technology.
(Yes, I did RTFA, I know it's not serious... but I wanted to brag. ^_^)
No, the moistened bint lobbed the scimitar.
> and probably 20-50 or more moves deep in a fairly short amount of time could possibly not win?
Not 20-50 moves deep, closer to 19 half moves. And even that doesn't guarantee victory.
For a textbook case of how to beat a computer, look at game 3. Kasparov went to a closed position, kept material on the board, and slowly forced it back. Meanwhile, the computer could never see what hundreds or thousands saw - that its only chance was to push pawns on the king side. Unfortunately, even seeing 19 half-moves ahead, the computer couldn't bring this to a clear advantage and was stymied by the general principle of "don't move the pawns that are in front of your King."
So the computer wasted time while Kasparov romped.
Which is the basic difference between playing chess against a computer vs playing chess against a human: the computer may fail to find general winning strategy without a clear short-term advantage attached (see game 3, the infamous f-pawn), but it will never make a horrible mistake like hanging a piece. (see game 3, 14...Bd6. Every commentator laughed it up over that one, being such an obvious trap, and I saw it a couple seconds later. With a human, you pause for a couple seconds - was that a blunder? did he leave a hole in the trap? Against a computer, you know without a doubt it's airtight or it would not have been played.) nor will it fail to punish a blunder made (see game 2, the move cited above.)
The general plan for chess at all levels and against all opponents is to play for a win with White and a draw with Black.
We have cars, but we still hold foot races.
And cause people like me, watching a whole convoy of prefabs going by, to crack, "Well, there goes the neighborhood."
And what, then? The enxt trilogy is "The Adventures of Leia"?
> The OLDEST, most WIDELY ACCEPTED theory of biological diversity is creationism.
And 1000 years ago, the OLDEST, most WIDELY ACCEPTED theory of the shape of the planet was "flat".
Just think what we'll know tomorrow.
PS: Trust the Computer. The Computer is your Friend.
At least they aren't wielding the DMCA, the Patriot Act, claiming that pointing out that the emperor has no clothes is terrorism...
yet...
And from Al Lowe's web page:
A peek at the first (cancelled) LSL8 project.
In other words, video game company leverages nostalgic character to try to sell trendy-genre game that has absolutely no connection to the previous games or previous people involved.
Film at 11.
The same thing almost happened to Space Quest 7 before it was shelved.
2) Use of goto in pseudocode.
Thank you, drive through.
The reason for that is Sierra games were written by a bunch of professional sadists.
... and dying.
It wasn't just the cruel timing puzzles. It wasn't just trying to type GIVE CUBE PUZZLE TO LABION TERROR BEAST before being Tasmanian Deviled. It wasn't having to walk treacherous mountain paths or doing arcade sequences. It was not even tripping over a stupid cat and falling 2 steps
It was the Your Game Is Hopeless and You Don't Know It scenario.
The one that comes to mind is King's Quest 5. If you don't get the *mumble* in the very first area of the game, you can't get to the island castle at the end. (Actually, there were a lot in that one. Another one involved a leg of lamb and a pie...)
Modern gaming does many things wrong, but at least you don't find out at the end of Half-Life that you missed the switch in Unforeseen Consequences which would have activated the button in Power Up which would have set off the explosives on the cliffside in Surface Tension, which would have revealed the cave which had the keycard inside that you needed to activate the elevator in Lambda Core.
ESR on Carmack on GPL of code -> cheating
actually, since my first machine that had keyboard reset was an Amiga 1000 (sequence mapped to an IBM keyboard would be something like Caps-alt-alt) I got used to two handing it.
that and I've mapped right alt to altgr
Q: Who do you call when the internet gets clogged?
A: Roto router.
Artists must be protected.
Artists must be protected from the Terrible Secret of Kazaa.
Do you have Lawyers in your house?
"We wrote 10 wordplay slogans to lure customers."
"Did any of them work?"
"Nope. No pun in ten did."
> Anyone connecting a laptop to a non-authorised port needs to be strung up, then reeducated with a large stick.
*You* try telling the CEO he can't plug his laptop in wherever the hell he wants.
(... can't run IE with all Java and Active X permitted...)
(... can't turn off the virus scanner because "it was giving him all these annoying errors"...)
(... can't "shut down" his "Microsoft workstation" by leaning on the power button till it dies, "it's faster than using that stupid button thing. *I* don't see why it's so wrong. You sayin' you *want* me to waste time? When you grow up, you'll learn that time is money and...")
signed, a bitter tech support veteran
> The whole friggin' INTERNET "could" have pr0n on it, so why don't we shut it down, for the good of mankind?
No, for great profit.
DON'T GIVE THEM IDEAS!