And now question is, given a finite amount of time, is it likely that a team of virtual monkeys sitting at virtual typewriters come up with working keys for the programs that I download before the downloads are finished?
Although the telephone has the 1-2-3 key on the top row, most calculators and keyboards have 7-8-9 on the top row. Switching between the two destroys muscle- and spatial- memory.
Unless your phone and calculator are physically similar and if you sometimes use your phone for doing calculations, I don't see how this can really be the case. Your brain knows that both are separate devices in different contexts.
Growing up in the 90's, I played video games both on consoles and on computers on a keyboard. Most consoles have the directional buttons on the left hand and the action buttons on the right. With a keyboard, it was pretty common to play games with directions controlled by the arrow keys on the right hand and using the far left control and alt buttons for actions. I have no problems playing games with either scheme for any duration of time.
Also, cashiers of various stores use keypads at their registers. Their phones have inverted keypads. But on either, they can still punch in long numbers without any hesitation. (A pointless observation to a pointless question.)
Why? It's still a concept that we've yet to fully witness. Cyberspace was the idea that humans would be able to transcend their own biological limitations by injecting or integrating their consciousness into machines. It's an idea that has been explored since Vernor Vinge published "True Names" in 1981. In works like that, Tron, Serial Experiments: Lain and other "cyberpunk" fictions, the worlds that people perceive are constructed out of how the human mind interprets the data being presented to them, like an extended imagination that builds a perceived environment out of data so that it's easy for a human to explore and use. Those worlds don't actually exist.
That's why video games such as WoW are probably the closest things that we have to cyberspace today: while we're not as fully-connected to a machine and we don't actually extend beyond ourselves, we are still presented with data by the computer which renders it for us into things that we can identify and understand. Our imaginations don't have to work too hard to translate the icons in a video game into functional concepts.
But if anyone used the term information superhighway seriously, it would be time to leave.
I agree that there should be an update to the protocol. But you shouldn't blame the victims if they aren't computer-savvy in the least. Some people just don't "get" computers. You and I could probably spot spam and malware at a glance, but if you watch people surf or do things who aren't so knowledgeable about what goes on online, you may be surprised at what they're willing to open. The truth is, inexperienced users open up bad files and links often because they're being deceived by someone who knows who his targets are.
I remember back when this "Metro" was called "active desktop". Your family members would gunk up their desktops with a dozen widgets, then go hunting for more until their system was useless
What I remember most about the Active Desktop is that when a program crashed, it would turn your background into an HTML page saying that Active Desktop was improperly shut off. Then you'd click a button that the error displayed to get your wallpaper back.
Mass Effect, for instance, allows me to select abilities, change weapons, and otherwise order my squad around while the game is paused, but it's not like I'm tempted to stay in that mode forever -- more likely, I get into that for a few seconds, then back into the game. Plus, it has a giant threatening countdown. I wonder if that pauses while you're typing code.
Yeah, but there's arguably more room for error when typing code instead of commanding squads and customizing your character. You'd have to learn the syntax for the game as well. I'm not saying that this will be a drawback or anything like that, but rather that I'm worried about how well this gameplay will be executed when Code Hero is finished.
Come on! Who doesn't want a game that lets you write code and then apply it to a game world using a gun?
That is one of the coolest ideas I've heard of in a long time, to be honest:D
Would you say that it would be the technical quality rather than the artistic quality of the developers?
I also didn't mean to imply that it looking like it's from the 90's is bad if I did; on the contrary, the style works for this type of game. It's in cyberspace, so everything looking abstract and computer-generated works for it.
I really like the cyberpunk virtual reality setting. It looks like a game straight out of the 90's. The concept of Code Hero sounds great, too, but the gameplay itself doesn't look all that interesting. It's hard to tell what the game will actually be like from descriptions and an in-development video, but it seems like there's a combination of shooting code blocks from a first-person perspective and actually writing code. I imagine that stopping to type code would slow down the rest of the game, but I'll watch the development because this could turn out to be very promising. Until then, it's making me want to replay the original System Shock where you can also enter a virtual reality and fight an evil AI from a first-person perspective.
Parent is modded "Funny", but it's true. I was hired to finish up a software project for a startup after they outsourced their web development to some students in India. The code I had to work with was a total mess. PHP code would jump in and out of HTML without warning, nothing was commented, and the spacing was completely random. On top of that, filenames weren't very descriptive, separate files were made for very basic functions, and there were tons of versions of the same files left over in the same directories as the functioning code with little to no indication on whether or not it was still used somewhere.
I find it so hard to believe that someone will take on a serious coding project and just disregard any sense of structure or organization at all.
Same here. I'm 23 and have been using the same Yahoo Mail account for the last decade. I'm also happy that they seem to have stomped out the bugs with the new mail interface. The keyboard shortcuts are pretty awesome too, just like you mentioned.
Even before WoW, Everquest, or any other MMORPG like it, there was a Lucasfilm game called Habitat that was released in the late 80's. There wasn't any real objective; it was more or less a graphical chat room where you can do different things like look for treasure, read newspaper, etc. People would go on "virtual dates" in that game. This long promotional video of Habitat shows just how easy that would be.
The self-checkout kiosks at the grocers has a 3-5 second lag each time I scan an item or put it on the baggage area too quickly.
That's actually so that your purchases can be monitored more easily to make sure that you're not stealing. It also forces the buyer to pace themselves so they don't get confused and forget if they scanned something already.
I would definitely say that Code Complete has been one of the most helpful and insightful books that I've read about programming. Reading through it never gets old.
You can't download malware with a browser that doesn't work. What's the problem?
And now question is, given a finite amount of time, is it likely that a team of virtual monkeys sitting at virtual typewriters come up with working keys for the programs that I download before the downloads are finished?
If you're storing logs there, you could just call it a "memory hole"
Unless your phone and calculator are physically similar and if you sometimes use your phone for doing calculations, I don't see how this can really be the case. Your brain knows that both are separate devices in different contexts.
Growing up in the 90's, I played video games both on consoles and on computers on a keyboard. Most consoles have the directional buttons on the left hand and the action buttons on the right. With a keyboard, it was pretty common to play games with directions controlled by the arrow keys on the right hand and using the far left control and alt buttons for actions. I have no problems playing games with either scheme for any duration of time.
Also, cashiers of various stores use keypads at their registers. Their phones have inverted keypads. But on either, they can still punch in long numbers without any hesitation. (A pointless observation to a pointless question.)
But it still can't run Crysis
Why? It's still a concept that we've yet to fully witness. Cyberspace was the idea that humans would be able to transcend their own biological limitations by injecting or integrating their consciousness into machines. It's an idea that has been explored since Vernor Vinge published "True Names" in 1981. In works like that, Tron, Serial Experiments: Lain and other "cyberpunk" fictions, the worlds that people perceive are constructed out of how the human mind interprets the data being presented to them, like an extended imagination that builds a perceived environment out of data so that it's easy for a human to explore and use. Those worlds don't actually exist.
That's why video games such as WoW are probably the closest things that we have to cyberspace today: while we're not as fully-connected to a machine and we don't actually extend beyond ourselves, we are still presented with data by the computer which renders it for us into things that we can identify and understand. Our imaginations don't have to work too hard to translate the icons in a video game into functional concepts.
But if anyone used the term information superhighway seriously, it would be time to leave.
.
In order to pass your Math final, you must defeat me, John Romero!
I agree that there should be an update to the protocol. But you shouldn't blame the victims if they aren't computer-savvy in the least. Some people just don't "get" computers. You and I could probably spot spam and malware at a glance, but if you watch people surf or do things who aren't so knowledgeable about what goes on online, you may be surprised at what they're willing to open. The truth is, inexperienced users open up bad files and links often because they're being deceived by someone who knows who his targets are.
I remember back when this "Metro" was called "active desktop". Your family members would gunk up their desktops with a dozen widgets, then go hunting for more until their system was useless
What I remember most about the Active Desktop is that when a program crashed, it would turn your background into an HTML page saying that Active Desktop was improperly shut off. Then you'd click a button that the error displayed to get your wallpaper back.
Only if they enjoy Microsoftcore porno, I suppose.
Then why does the crowd boo me off stage when I play badly?
Because you're playing badly.
When has this happened to any of the no-talent bands lately that can't play a note if it hits them?
People tend to go see bands that they like who can usually play their own songs live.
Just ask it in the right way and it will tell you:
User: You are a robot: yes or no?
Cleverbot: You are a human and I am a robot.
Though, I still have to try without accusing it of being one
Mass Effect, for instance, allows me to select abilities, change weapons, and otherwise order my squad around while the game is paused, but it's not like I'm tempted to stay in that mode forever -- more likely, I get into that for a few seconds, then back into the game. Plus, it has a giant threatening countdown. I wonder if that pauses while you're typing code.
Yeah, but there's arguably more room for error when typing code instead of commanding squads and customizing your character. You'd have to learn the syntax for the game as well. I'm not saying that this will be a drawback or anything like that, but rather that I'm worried about how well this gameplay will be executed when Code Hero is finished.
Come on! Who doesn't want a game that lets you write code and then apply it to a game world using a gun?
That is one of the coolest ideas I've heard of in a long time, to be honest :D
Would you say that it would be the technical quality rather than the artistic quality of the developers?
I also didn't mean to imply that it looking like it's from the 90's is bad if I did; on the contrary, the style works for this type of game. It's in cyberspace, so everything looking abstract and computer-generated works for it.
Because in Guitar Hero, you're in a band playing to an audience live and not in a recording studio session.
I really like the cyberpunk virtual reality setting. It looks like a game straight out of the 90's. The concept of Code Hero sounds great, too, but the gameplay itself doesn't look all that interesting. It's hard to tell what the game will actually be like from descriptions and an in-development video, but it seems like there's a combination of shooting code blocks from a first-person perspective and actually writing code. I imagine that stopping to type code would slow down the rest of the game, but I'll watch the development because this could turn out to be very promising. Until then, it's making me want to replay the original System Shock where you can also enter a virtual reality and fight an evil AI from a first-person perspective.
What's worse is when I plug it into my GPS, there are so many intermediary stops and detours that the Goto map looks like a bunch of spaghetti!
What do you think that it says about the service of each, then?
Parent is modded "Funny", but it's true. I was hired to finish up a software project for a startup after they outsourced their web development to some students in India. The code I had to work with was a total mess. PHP code would jump in and out of HTML without warning, nothing was commented, and the spacing was completely random. On top of that, filenames weren't very descriptive, separate files were made for very basic functions, and there were tons of versions of the same files left over in the same directories as the functioning code with little to no indication on whether or not it was still used somewhere.
I find it so hard to believe that someone will take on a serious coding project and just disregard any sense of structure or organization at all.
Same here. I'm 23 and have been using the same Yahoo Mail account for the last decade. I'm also happy that they seem to have stomped out the bugs with the new mail interface. The keyboard shortcuts are pretty awesome too, just like you mentioned.
Even before WoW, Everquest, or any other MMORPG like it, there was a Lucasfilm game called Habitat that was released in the late 80's. There wasn't any real objective; it was more or less a graphical chat room where you can do different things like look for treasure, read newspaper, etc. People would go on "virtual dates" in that game. This long promotional video of Habitat shows just how easy that would be.
The self-checkout kiosks at the grocers has a 3-5 second lag each time I scan an item or put it on the baggage area too quickly.
That's actually so that your purchases can be monitored more easily to make sure that you're not stealing. It also forces the buyer to pace themselves so they don't get confused and forget if they scanned something already.
So basically, don't try to educate anyone because it's useless. Gotcha.
Even despite the fact that it isn't. What's the point?
I would definitely say that Code Complete has been one of the most helpful and insightful books that I've read about programming. Reading through it never gets old.