I hated the narration myself, but I think its existance is really a tip-off to the fact that the story is itself a fairy-tale for robots. Try rewatching it from that perspective...
- Spryguy
Re:Lots of stupid references in A.I
on
Review: A.I.
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· Score: 1
Except the Ewoks were annoying and cutesey in a totally puke-inducing way. And the supertoy Teddy was not at all annoying, was interesting, and was cute in a non-vomitous way.
MacCauley Culkin was never a good actor. In fact, if you watch Home Alone 2, you'll see what an abysmal actor he is. Don't EVEN compare him to Haley Joel Osmont. Haley is an amazing actor. Did you check out the scene when he was "imprinted"? The kid is *good*. I hope he gets a best actor nod...
- Spryguy
Re:2,000 years enough? *whisper, whisper*
on
Review: A.I.
·
· Score: 1
It is possibly long enough. Depends on what was going on climactically. Not sure it's long enough to freeze the ocean down to the depth that it did, but who knows...
What I find MORE interesting is how well everything held up after being under water for 2000 years (and under ice as well... the freezing process aparently didn't damage anything). Think two thousand years back, and how few relics survived. Now imagine the skyscrapers being surrounded by ocean, being pounded by water for hundreds of years, and then ice-bergs, and then being frozen... and tell me they'd all still be upright and more-or-less looking like they did 2000 years ago...
But inspite of all that... I consider the movie to be a 'Robot's fairy tale', and as such, am willing to not nit-pick. It's not supposed to be taken literally or to be real. It's a fairy tale for robots. And if you view it as that, it's a decent movie.
....but since it's a new language, and by its very nature a scripting language can't be all that 'c-like' (no variable types for starters!), your arguement doesn't make sense. Since this is a NEW scripting language, by definition they'd have to learn a new language. Chances are, they already know some other scripting language (jscript being a good example, but also perl or python or Tcl, even vbscript). All of those are embeddable already.
So I still don't see what value this brings to the table.
I've determined that "C-like" really means just the following:
1. Uses curly braces to delimit logical code blocks
2. Uses lowercase statements for control flow (if, while, for, switch)
3. The 'for' statement is not a proper looping or interation statement, but is just a "while++"
4. The 'switch' statement is horribly limited to compile time numeric constants and requires you to remember to 'break' after each case, which is braindead.
5. The language relies on libraries of functions to do anything useful (printf, scanf, getchar, fopen, etc, etc)
6. Ends logical lines with semicolons.
And that's about it. When you see "C-like", they tend to be talking more about form than function, to be honest. And they certainly NEVER mean any of C's ugly (but of course powerful) sides, like pointer arithmetic, massively complicated typed variable declarations on one line, a preprocessor that can easily obfuscate meaning from simply examining the code with human eyes, etc, etc.
Quite frankly, C got so far as it did because it was VERY fast, and very powerful if you knew how to weild it... and these things were very important when you had little memory and slow processors to work with. To be honest, the design goals of C make almost no sense any more. And C++ (a language I've worked heavily in for 8 years) is an abomination these days. So complicated it literally takes YEARS to become truely proficient, and designing and implementing huge systems in it is pure torture. Languages like Java and the like are here to take advantage of the ever increasing cheapness and availability of CPU and memory (and disk). They simplify life dramatically, speed development, get rid of complicated maintenance of separate header and code files, compile lightening fast, report errors better, have fewer ambiguities and problems, and do the job "fast enough". Ditto for all the scripting languages around.
So frankly, it's getting to the point where being EXACTLY like "C" isn't a selling point on ANY level. Being "C-like" sorta helps a transition from a 'habit' sort of point of view, but really isn't that necessary any more.
MY question is... we already have JScript (which is close to C, by virtue of being sorta kinda like Java, which is close to C++)... why do we NEED this? What does it bring to the table, except YASL (Yet Another Scripting Language)? We already have Perl, Python, JScript, and (god forbid) VBScript in this world... what is the motivation and purpose behind a C-Script? Are there really that many C programmers that have no clue about C++ or Java, that are now going to be writing scripting stuff? I would think JScript would have most people covered if they wanted a C-like syntax (near enough, anyway).
Have you tried using ADO from C++? It's very possible, very easy (once you figure out how to do it), and works like a charm. All the ease of ADO and the power and structure of C++.
No... but for every current buyer of Photoshop, there are probably 11 people using pirated versions, copies loaned from friends, or 'borrowed' from work... etc, etc. I'd wager that Photoshop is one of the more pirated pieces of software out there. And I'd also wager that relatively few people pay full retail (thanks to upgrade pricing, and all sorts of scams involving getting college kids to buy you a copy for their steep education discount).
I know I'd have a copy if it were $100 or so. At $600+ I certainly can't justify it. I can think of at least a dozen people in the same boat (including people who have 'pirated' copies but would be willing to pay and go legit if the price were more reasonable).
Of course, the UI is grossely unfriendly and unintuitive in so many ways... it's not really a mass market product. But that's Adobe's fault (on so many levels).
But is it worse than "Airport Tycoon"? At least the one place I saw it reviewed on-line did give it a sucky review, though it deserved ten times worse (they gave it 3/10, I'd give it 0/10). Airport Tycoon is the only software I've ever purchased and installed, that I uninstalled and totally *threw away* within four hours of installing it.
Exactly. The 'us v.s. THEM' mind-set of religion is the problem, not the cure. People feel empowered by religion and the bible to beat up on jews and gays, or anyone perceived to be either... God is the justification for beating up and tormenting anyone perceived as 'not Christian enough' (or as bad, not the RIGHT KIND of Christian).
There's a reason we try to separate church and state. Keep religion out of it. Teach ethics. Teach the golden rule. Teach the law. But my gawd, do NOT teach religion in schools! It'll only make the problem WORSE.
Highschool was the worst. No sex, no fun, just boring school work. College was a little better. Some sex, some fun, and the school work was more interesting.
I definitely hit my strides in my 30's though. More sex than I can handle, great fun, lots of friends, wonderful parties, and the money to be able to afford things and to travel.
Highschool was the worst part of my life, by far. And I can TOTALLY relate with the kids that want to shoot up their schools.
This sort of oppressive homophobia negatively affects gay and straight kids alike. And the Teachers and Administration stand by and do nothing while it's going on. I remember very explicitly that if a kid shoved another kid in view of a teacher, the teacher would repremand them -- UNLESS the shove was accompanied with calling the kid a 'fag'. Then the teacher seemed to turn a blind eye.
And they wonder why kids go postal. The Teachers and Administrators need to be held accountable for not only ignoring this kind of abuse and rampant homophobia, but tacidly (and sometimes actively) ENCOURAGING it.
I have a "Heaven 17" CD ("Bigger than America" or something like that) which couldn't be played in most CDROM players... I finally got MusicMatch to be able to rip it (in analog only, and with 'glitches' in it every so often) and play it, but most others simply could not access it. It plays in a normal CD player just fine.
This CD was originally created in 1997 or so, I think.
"The other thing that irritates me is that every program seems to thing it is entitled to have a system tray icon."
WindowsXP lets you manage your system tray. Unused icons in the tray can be hidden, and you can control which ones are hidden or displayed on a per-icon basis. Totally flexible and configurable. It lets you clean up all that crap. Of course, the crap is still running in the background... to totally get rid of it, you have to configure the application itself (or potentially uninstall it).
That's what CDR and CDRW are for. And you only back up what you need to... not anything you can just re-install (just backup the settings and datafiles).
An OS Installation of 1Gig doesn't have ANY effect on a *smart* backup procedure. Why backup things that are already backed up on the install CD??
"Stability of Windows, this must be a joke:-)"
Only if you're NOT talking about Win2K... and why anyone would be using a version other than that for anything serious (i.e. business), I'm not sure.
"Why bother even comparing Mac OS to Windows. Of course Windows is far worse. I figured it went without saying. However, just because it's worse than Mac OS doesn't mean Mac OS doesn't have problems too. "
Okay, you've just proved yourself to be a nut who's never heard of Win2k... which is really really stable and remarkably free from any odious bugs.
(your comments are perfectly valid for all Win9x versions, including WinMe)
In concert with any tax cut, I want to see Tax Simplification! It shouldn't take me hours to figure out what taxes I owe, and three people doing my taxes shouldn't come up with three different answers. The more complicated rules should be abolished or simplified, and the rules should be made more consistent. The current system is utterly ridiculous. I don't WANT a tax cut if it's going to make it MORE complicated and make me spend MORE time trying to figure out what the real tax is I owe!
The point is to provide a basic minimal standard of health care. Something a humane and just society affords all its citizens.
What about a right 'not to be left dying in the street because you fell suddenly ill after your husband divorced you leaving you with no job skills in the market place and no money'?
Yahoo has ever right to control what it sells using its system. It can refuse entry or allow entry of any person or item it chooses. It's called freedom.
And you're free to choose another auction site if you're not happy with Yahoo's policies. You are, of course, FORCED to use another auction site if you wish to find something Yahoo won't allow to be sold using its system.
Yahoo will either be successful with this policy or not. It's called free enterprise.
Frankly, I find roller-coaster Tycoon to be one of the most addictive games I've ever played. I have both expansion packs, and have playd most of the scenereos (and am still going). Talk about a time-sink!
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I hated the narration myself, but I think its existance is really a tip-off to the fact that the story is itself a fairy-tale for robots. Try rewatching it from that perspective...
- Spryguy
Except the Ewoks were annoying and cutesey in a totally puke-inducing way. And the supertoy Teddy was not at all annoying, was interesting, and was cute in a non-vomitous way.
- Spryguy
MacCauley Culkin was never a good actor. In fact, if you watch Home Alone 2, you'll see what an abysmal actor he is. Don't EVEN compare him to Haley Joel Osmont. Haley is an amazing actor. Did you check out the scene when he was "imprinted"? The kid is *good*. I hope he gets a best actor nod...
- Spryguy
It is possibly long enough. Depends on what was going on climactically. Not sure it's long enough to freeze the ocean down to the depth that it did, but who knows...
What I find MORE interesting is how well everything held up after being under water for 2000 years (and under ice as well... the freezing process aparently didn't damage anything). Think two thousand years back, and how few relics survived. Now imagine the skyscrapers being surrounded by ocean, being pounded by water for hundreds of years, and then ice-bergs, and then being frozen... and tell me they'd all still be upright and more-or-less looking like they did 2000 years ago...
But inspite of all that... I consider the movie to be a 'Robot's fairy tale', and as such, am willing to not nit-pick. It's not supposed to be taken literally or to be real. It's a fairy tale for robots. And if you view it as that, it's a decent movie.
- Spryguy
....but since it's a new language, and by its very nature a scripting language can't be all that 'c-like' (no variable types for starters!), your arguement doesn't make sense. Since this is a NEW scripting language, by definition they'd have to learn a new language. Chances are, they already know some other scripting language (jscript being a good example, but also perl or python or Tcl, even vbscript). All of those are embeddable already.
So I still don't see what value this brings to the table.
- Spryguy
I've determined that "C-like" really means just the following:
1. Uses curly braces to delimit logical code blocks
2. Uses lowercase statements for control flow (if, while, for, switch)
3. The 'for' statement is not a proper looping or interation statement, but is just a "while++"
4. The 'switch' statement is horribly limited to compile time numeric constants and requires you to remember to 'break' after each case, which is braindead.
5. The language relies on libraries of functions to do anything useful (printf, scanf, getchar, fopen, etc, etc)
6. Ends logical lines with semicolons.
And that's about it. When you see "C-like", they tend to be talking more about form than function, to be honest. And they certainly NEVER mean any of C's ugly (but of course powerful) sides, like pointer arithmetic, massively complicated typed variable declarations on one line, a preprocessor that can easily obfuscate meaning from simply examining the code with human eyes, etc, etc.
Quite frankly, C got so far as it did because it was VERY fast, and very powerful if you knew how to weild it... and these things were very important when you had little memory and slow processors to work with. To be honest, the design goals of C make almost no sense any more. And C++ (a language I've worked heavily in for 8 years) is an abomination these days. So complicated it literally takes YEARS to become truely proficient, and designing and implementing huge systems in it is pure torture. Languages like Java and the like are here to take advantage of the ever increasing cheapness and availability of CPU and memory (and disk). They simplify life dramatically, speed development, get rid of complicated maintenance of separate header and code files, compile lightening fast, report errors better, have fewer ambiguities and problems, and do the job "fast enough". Ditto for all the scripting languages around.
So frankly, it's getting to the point where being EXACTLY like "C" isn't a selling point on ANY level. Being "C-like" sorta helps a transition from a 'habit' sort of point of view, but really isn't that necessary any more.
- Spryguy
MY question is... we already have JScript (which is close to C, by virtue of being sorta kinda like Java, which is close to C++)... why do we NEED this? What does it bring to the table, except YASL (Yet Another Scripting Language)? We already have Perl, Python, JScript, and (god forbid) VBScript in this world... what is the motivation and purpose behind a C-Script? Are there really that many C programmers that have no clue about C++ or Java, that are now going to be writing scripting stuff? I would think JScript would have most people covered if they wanted a C-like syntax (near enough, anyway).
- Spryguy
Have you tried using ADO from C++? It's very possible, very easy (once you figure out how to do it), and works like a charm. All the ease of ADO and the power and structure of C++.
- Spryguy
No... but for every current buyer of Photoshop, there are probably 11 people using pirated versions, copies loaned from friends, or 'borrowed' from work... etc, etc. I'd wager that Photoshop is one of the more pirated pieces of software out there. And I'd also wager that relatively few people pay full retail (thanks to upgrade pricing, and all sorts of scams involving getting college kids to buy you a copy for their steep education discount).
I know I'd have a copy if it were $100 or so. At $600+ I certainly can't justify it. I can think of at least a dozen people in the same boat (including people who have 'pirated' copies but would be willing to pay and go legit if the price were more reasonable).
Of course, the UI is grossely unfriendly and unintuitive in so many ways... it's not really a mass market product. But that's Adobe's fault (on so many levels).
- Spryguy
But is it worse than "Airport Tycoon"? At least the one place I saw it reviewed on-line did give it a sucky review, though it deserved ten times worse (they gave it 3/10, I'd give it 0/10). Airport Tycoon is the only software I've ever purchased and installed, that I uninstalled and totally *threw away* within four hours of installing it.
- Spryguy
Exactly. The 'us v.s. THEM' mind-set of religion is the problem, not the cure. People feel empowered by religion and the bible to beat up on jews and gays, or anyone perceived to be either... God is the justification for beating up and tormenting anyone perceived as 'not Christian enough' (or as bad, not the RIGHT KIND of Christian).
There's a reason we try to separate church and state. Keep religion out of it. Teach ethics. Teach the golden rule. Teach the law. But my gawd, do NOT teach religion in schools! It'll only make the problem WORSE.
- Spryguy
Highschool was the worst. No sex, no fun, just boring school work. College was a little better. Some sex, some fun, and the school work was more interesting.
I definitely hit my strides in my 30's though. More sex than I can handle, great fun, lots of friends, wonderful parties, and the money to be able to afford things and to travel.
Highschool was the worst part of my life, by far. And I can TOTALLY relate with the kids that want to shoot up their schools.
- Spryguy
This sort of oppressive homophobia negatively affects gay and straight kids alike. And the Teachers and Administration stand by and do nothing while it's going on. I remember very explicitly that if a kid shoved another kid in view of a teacher, the teacher would repremand them -- UNLESS the shove was accompanied with calling the kid a 'fag'. Then the teacher seemed to turn a blind eye.
And they wonder why kids go postal. The Teachers and Administrators need to be held accountable for not only ignoring this kind of abuse and rampant homophobia, but tacidly (and sometimes actively) ENCOURAGING it.
- Spryguy
I have a "Heaven 17" CD ("Bigger than America" or something like that) which couldn't be played in most CDROM players... I finally got MusicMatch to be able to rip it (in analog only, and with 'glitches' in it every so often) and play it, but most others simply could not access it. It plays in a normal CD player just fine.
This CD was originally created in 1997 or so, I think.
- Spryguy
"The other thing that irritates me is that every program seems to thing it is entitled to have a system tray icon."
WindowsXP lets you manage your system tray. Unused icons in the tray can be hidden, and you can control which ones are hidden or displayed on a per-icon basis. Totally flexible and configurable. It lets you clean up all that crap. Of course, the crap is still running in the background... to totally get rid of it, you have to configure the application itself (or potentially uninstall it).
- Spryguy
That's what CDR and CDRW are for. And you only back up what you need to... not anything you can just re-install (just backup the settings and datafiles).
An OS Installation of 1Gig doesn't have ANY effect on a *smart* backup procedure. Why backup things that are already backed up on the install CD??
- Spryguy
"Stability of Windows, this must be a joke :-)"
Only if you're NOT talking about Win2K... and why anyone would be using a version other than that for anything serious (i.e. business), I'm not sure.
- Spryguy
"Why bother even comparing Mac OS to Windows. Of course Windows is far worse. I figured it went without saying. However, just because it's worse than Mac OS doesn't mean Mac OS doesn't have problems too. " Okay, you've just proved yourself to be a nut who's never heard of Win2k... which is really really stable and remarkably free from any odious bugs. (your comments are perfectly valid for all Win9x versions, including WinMe)
- Spryguy
I wanna know when we're going to see hunky and attractive MEN on the damn show... Equal time, dammit! :-)
- Spryguy
In concert with any tax cut, I want to see Tax Simplification! It shouldn't take me hours to figure out what taxes I owe, and three people doing my taxes shouldn't come up with three different answers. The more complicated rules should be abolished or simplified, and the rules should be made more consistent. The current system is utterly ridiculous. I don't WANT a tax cut if it's going to make it MORE complicated and make me spend MORE time trying to figure out what the real tax is I owe!
- Spryguy
Yeah, and that's one aspect of the tax that really really needs to change. It's teh stupidest, anti-incentive I've ever seen. Ugh!
- Spryguy
The point is to provide a basic minimal standard of health care. Something a humane and just society affords all its citizens.
What about a right 'not to be left dying in the street because you fell suddenly ill after your husband divorced you leaving you with no job skills in the market place and no money'?
- Spryguy
"The inmates actually DO have a say in whether or not they are forced to do labor."
It is left to the reader as an exercise to find the oxymoron in this sentence. And I'm not refering to the individual who said it.
- Spryguy
Yahoo has ever right to control what it sells using its system. It can refuse entry or allow entry of any person or item it chooses. It's called freedom.
And you're free to choose another auction site if you're not happy with Yahoo's policies. You are, of course, FORCED to use another auction site if you wish to find something Yahoo won't allow to be sold using its system.
Yahoo will either be successful with this policy or not. It's called free enterprise.
- Spryguy
Frankly, I find roller-coaster Tycoon to be one of the most addictive games I've ever played. I have both expansion packs, and have playd most of the scenereos (and am still going). Talk about a time-sink!
StarCraft comes in second for me.
- Spryguy