I don't know about you, but I would not be comfortable with a bunch of newbie kids using Linux for games and overlooking its power features. Linux is an OS for the thinking man, not blood-crazed teenagers hungering for first person shooters. Those people should not even have the privilege of using an advanced OS like Linux.
What exactly do you think the script kiddies are??
I don't buy that. I think parents SHOULD have control over raising their children. Part of being human is living your life according to rules. Some of these rules are moral, some legal, etc. Without rules to govern our behavior, we are nothing more than animals.
My ideological problem is who controls by what rules we live--imho, government should control our legal behavior (I'll loosely define that as any behavior which directly adversely affects another individual--though it's much more complex that just that) and we should be responsible for our own moral control.
The library isn't a pornography merchant, that's why they don't have Hustlers.
The point is, the government should not, and can not make moral decisions for us. Hopefully parents should have raised kids well enough they know not to go looking for pr0n at the local library.
Scott
I'm very very strongly against government censorship. However, I do believe it's a parent's right to control what kind of material their children get access to (or at least try). This control doesn't extend to schools and libraries. Libraries and schools I do not think should be censored ever. Make parents sign agreements before letting their kids use public internet if liability is the problem.
This censorship software is clearly ridiculous, and seems like it has barely improved since the first versions were released. This only adds to the ridiculousness of the demands to censor public access.
On an somewhat sad sidenote, the network administrator of my high school system is also totally against censorship and tracking of websites, but when upgrading servers last year had software installed which COULD do both (but didn't). Apparently he felt that given the attitude in the school system, it was only a matter of time before mandatory censorship and tracking would be the status quo.
I took the AP AB C++ course two years ago. I already knew just about everything taught in the course, and was mainly looking for a fun class after the Latin teacher left:(
My feelings on making it "fun" are firstly, be a good teacher!! The teacher I had for AP CS (and also AP Physics, and also network administrator for the entire school system) is one of the coolest teachers I've ever had! With a mixture of puns, other bad jokes, and unbound enthusiasm (at times jumping around the room!) he made that class incredibly fun.
Beyond that though, pick fun projects. The BigInt/LargeInt is required, and isn't really fun unless you like that sort of thing (I do). One project we did that EVERYONE loved was called "animal guesser". Build a tree of questions and answers so you can eventually have "conversations" like Is it a mammal? N Is it a reptile? Y Does it have a shell? Y Is it a tortoise? N Is it a painted box turtle? Y It's a painted box turtle!
then add functionality so you can add questions and animals. etc and then with save/load functionality, some of the guys had trees that were like 30 levels deep. They really got into it.
Another really fun project was the calculator. We built a rudimentary compiler that could perform arithmetic, with variables, largeint's, etc. Very few (if anyone else) fully understood the way the calculator worked (it used a truthtable--I think the approach advocated by Crenshaw would be MUCH better for a high school class), but at the same time everyone was sort of like. "wow..." seeing it come to fruition.
One other thing--at the end of the year he let us do a final project that could be anything. I toyed around with dos mode graphics and asm which was fun, but then wrote a POP e-mail client. OThers wrote a chess game, another wrote a network chat program that borrowed code from Doom for IPX networking.
In short, the teacher got almost everyone motivated. He had a very large number of 5's on the AP exam, and a lot of 4's. People did well because he got them into the course.
of course some people will just never get into it--one girl fell asleep one day, the teacher got everyone quieted, slowly picked up this long and big metal rod and dropped it onto the hard, hard floor. BAM!! hahaha, she jumped up yelling!! It was so funny!! He and the other physics teacher also did that in their respective physics classes often. A truly great teacher:)
I think I would trust the Post Office and this Internet scheme a lot more if it was spun off and privatized.
I really think the Post Office should just be left to die--or privatize and modernize. Or at least, exist, but in a much reduced state. For packages we've got a plethora of shipping companies. For most plain mail, e-mail does the trick. Why should this huge government agency still exist if there's not a place for it?
I do agree with you--if 3dfx does something that goes contrary to my beliefs I've stated here, if they do turn out to be "evil" or what not, I wouldn't be as supportive of them as I am.
IIRC it involved Babbages (or Electronics Boutique). There were special stickers 3dfx put out that said either "3dfx required" or "3dfx enhanced" depending if it was glide only, or something else. There were apparently mistakes in how these stickers got put on boxes.
I don't know that proper blame was ever placed in this case.
I read your post, I simply found your points uninteresting. Opening glide did nothing? Try following DRI dev maybe. See how useless it is. They wouldn't have opened specs just to be popular. 3dfx hardware works on more platforms that just about any other 3D card. I'm not totally sure of dev. status in FreeBSD of other cards, but there is rudimentary support in the most recently releases for 3dfx and DRI. I'll also mention that 3dfx has supported Linux just about as long as any company has, though unofficially. Darryl Strauss was given specs starting several years ago with the Voodoo1 and wrote linux drivers. From listening to him and others, many wanted to open specs and source even earlier than they did, but it was too disputed and dangerous a move. Darryl now works full time a Precision Insight. 3dfx also now has at least one dedicated linux engineer. now, I compare this to Nvidia who hasn't open specs, who releases obfuscared source code after first releasing binary only drivers. I would hardly say my faith is blind. Scott
Yeah, and this corporation is run by people like Scott Sellers and Gary Tarolli who are truly good guys. These guys are the founders of 3dfx and they STILL hang around on newsgroups posting messages. They often help out with a particularly tough programming issue, or answer some technical questions.
Yes I remember glide, and I remember how it's been opensource for almost a year now. And 3dfx has never strongarmed reviewers and critics.
And I notice you neglected to mention FXT1--how does that fit into your "3dfx is evil" theory? FXT1 is a compression technology that has been developed by 3dfx and is totally open! How can you complain about that.
On the 3dfx newsgroups you'll see posts fairly often by two people named "Scott Sellers" and "Gary Tarolli". Tarolli especially often answers very tough programming questions. These guys are the S and T in SST. These guys are the founders of 3dfx. How many other companies do you see the founders posting on newsgroups and messageboards? Especially about technical and programming issues?
Seriously, how nice that Derek Perez apologized. Anyone who seriously follows 3d stuff knows that Derek Perez is one of the loudest, abrasive, and derogatory. He'll be back to his usual antics within no time. He represents Nvidia's attitude, and I'm surprised that so many people at slashdot just let slide.
You don't see 3dfx pulling any crap like this. You don't see Nvidia opening their specs or giving free open source technology like FXT1 away. That's why I support 3dfx.
I honestly believe, and actions speak louder than words (well..maybe not in Derek Perez's case!), that 3dfx is a good corporation. They really care about the community.
Diablo2 can be played in glide mode, and there's no denying in looks better. At a friend's house I've seen side by side, software vs Glide and there's no question which looks better. Since glide is 3D mode, I would assume FSAA would make a difference, though incredibly minor.
Slashdot Mirror
What exactly do you think the script kiddies are??
I don't buy that. I think parents SHOULD have control over raising their children. Part of being human is living your life according to rules. Some of these rules are moral, some legal, etc. Without rules to govern our behavior, we are nothing more than animals.
My ideological problem is who controls by what rules we live--imho, government should control our legal behavior (I'll loosely define that as any behavior which directly adversely affects another individual--though it's much more complex that just that) and we should be responsible for our own moral control.
Scott
The library isn't a pornography merchant, that's why they don't have Hustlers. The point is, the government should not, and can not make moral decisions for us. Hopefully parents should have raised kids well enough they know not to go looking for pr0n at the local library. Scott
I'm very very strongly against government censorship. However, I do believe it's a parent's right to control what kind of material their children get access to (or at least try). This control doesn't extend to schools and libraries. Libraries and schools I do not think should be censored ever. Make parents sign agreements before letting their kids use public internet if liability is the problem.
This censorship software is clearly ridiculous, and seems like it has barely improved since the first versions were released. This only adds to the ridiculousness of the demands to censor public access.
On an somewhat sad sidenote, the network administrator of my high school system is also totally against censorship and tracking of websites, but when upgrading servers last year had software installed which COULD do both (but didn't). Apparently he felt that given the attitude in the school system, it was only a matter of time before mandatory censorship and tracking would be the status quo.
Scott
I took the AP AB C++ course two years ago. I already knew just about everything taught in the course, and was mainly looking for a fun class after the Latin teacher left :(
:)
My feelings on making it "fun" are firstly, be a good teacher!! The teacher I had for AP CS (and also AP Physics, and also network administrator for the entire school system) is one of the coolest teachers I've ever had! With a mixture of puns, other bad jokes, and unbound enthusiasm (at times jumping around the room!) he made that class incredibly fun.
Beyond that though, pick fun projects. The BigInt/LargeInt is required, and isn't really fun unless you like that sort of thing (I do). One project we did that EVERYONE loved was called "animal guesser". Build a tree of questions and answers so you can eventually have "conversations" like
Is it a mammal? N
Is it a reptile? Y
Does it have a shell? Y
Is it a tortoise? N
Is it a painted box turtle? Y
It's a painted box turtle!
then add functionality so you can add questions and animals. etc and then with save/load functionality, some of the guys had trees that were like 30 levels deep. They really got into it.
Another really fun project was the calculator. We built a rudimentary compiler that could perform arithmetic, with variables, largeint's, etc. Very few (if anyone else) fully understood the way the calculator worked (it used a truthtable--I think the approach advocated by Crenshaw would be MUCH better for a high school class), but at the same time everyone was sort of like. "wow..." seeing it come to fruition.
One other thing--at the end of the year he let us do a final project that could be anything. I toyed around with dos mode graphics and asm which was fun, but then wrote a POP e-mail client. OThers wrote a chess game, another wrote a network chat program that borrowed code from Doom for IPX networking.
In short, the teacher got almost everyone motivated. He had a very large number of 5's on the AP exam, and a lot of 4's. People did well because he got them into the course.
of course some people will just never get into it--one girl fell asleep one day, the teacher got everyone quieted, slowly picked up this long and big metal rod and dropped it onto the hard, hard floor. BAM!! hahaha, she jumped up yelling!! It was so funny!! He and the other physics teacher also did that in their respective physics classes often. A truly great teacher
Scott
ok, well shut my mouth
Scott
I think I would trust the Post Office and this Internet scheme a lot more if it was spun off and privatized.
I really think the Post Office should just be left to die--or privatize and modernize. Or at least, exist, but in a much reduced state. For packages we've got a plethora of shipping companies. For most plain mail, e-mail does the trick. Why should this huge government agency still exist if there's not a place for it?
Scott
Scott
Per-process namespaces like in plan9--these are slated to be added to Linux, are they not?
Scott
no, I'm definitely not Scott Sellers :)
I do agree with you--if 3dfx does something that goes contrary to my beliefs I've stated here, if they do turn out to be "evil" or what not, I wouldn't be as supportive of them as I am.
Scott
IIRC it involved Babbages (or Electronics Boutique). There were special stickers 3dfx put out that said either "3dfx required" or "3dfx enhanced" depending if it was glide only, or something else. There were apparently mistakes in how these stickers got put on boxes.
I don't know that proper blame was ever placed in this case.
Scott
I read your post, I simply found your points uninteresting. Opening glide did nothing? Try following DRI dev maybe. See how useless it is. They wouldn't have opened specs just to be popular. 3dfx hardware works on more platforms that just about any other 3D card. I'm not totally sure of dev. status in FreeBSD of other cards, but there is rudimentary support in the most recently releases for 3dfx and DRI. I'll also mention that 3dfx has supported Linux just about as long as any company has, though unofficially. Darryl Strauss was given specs starting several years ago with the Voodoo1 and wrote linux drivers. From listening to him and others, many wanted to open specs and source even earlier than they did, but it was too disputed and dangerous a move. Darryl now works full time a Precision Insight. 3dfx also now has at least one dedicated linux engineer. now, I compare this to Nvidia who hasn't open specs, who releases obfuscared source code after first releasing binary only drivers. I would hardly say my faith is blind. Scott
Yeah, and this corporation is run by people like Scott Sellers and Gary Tarolli who are truly good guys. These guys are the founders of 3dfx and they STILL hang around on newsgroups posting messages. They often help out with a particularly tough programming issue, or answer some technical questions.
It's this sort of thing which sets 3dfx apart.
Scott
Yes I remember glide, and I remember how it's been opensource for almost a year now. And 3dfx has never strongarmed reviewers and critics.
And I notice you neglected to mention FXT1--how does that fit into your "3dfx is evil" theory? FXT1 is a compression technology that has been developed by 3dfx and is totally open! How can you complain about that.
On the 3dfx newsgroups you'll see posts fairly often by two people named "Scott Sellers" and "Gary Tarolli". Tarolli especially often answers very tough programming questions. These guys are the S and T in SST. These guys are the founders of 3dfx. How many other companies do you see the founders posting on newsgroups and messageboards? Especially about technical and programming issues?
These guys ARE different.
Scott
Seriously, how nice that Derek Perez apologized. Anyone who seriously follows 3d stuff knows that Derek Perez is one of the loudest, abrasive, and derogatory. He'll be back to his usual antics within no time. He represents Nvidia's attitude, and I'm surprised that so many people at slashdot just let slide.
You don't see 3dfx pulling any crap like this. You don't see Nvidia opening their specs or giving free open source technology like FXT1 away. That's why I support 3dfx.
I honestly believe, and actions speak louder than words (well..maybe not in Derek Perez's case!), that 3dfx is a good corporation. They really care about the community.
Scott
Diablo2 can be played in glide mode, and there's no denying in looks better. At a friend's house I've seen side by side, software vs Glide and there's no question which looks better. Since glide is 3D mode, I would assume FSAA would make a difference, though incredibly minor.