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User: Washu+Chan

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  1. Re:What about Foundation??? on 'Rendezvous With Rama' - The Movie · · Score: 1

    As a diehard Heinlein reader, I was disappointed with the movie. The book was an expanded essay on man's place in government. The movie tried to address the book's theme but fell flat while trying to blow everything up. The screenplay writer took too many liberties with the Heinlein text and alerted it to the point where all the ideas where lost. The book's main focus and time was spent on Johnny's time in basic training and before the bug war started. In the book, neither side is evil or good in the classical sense. No explanation is given for the war, only that it started and the ground-thumpers are in the middle of it. Heinlein out did himself by making Johnny and his company sound like true grunts and not cut-outs of them. They don't care how it started, only that they are going to finish it.

  2. Re:Blind? you're kidding... on Read To Your Children, Go To Jail (Not Really) · · Score: 1

    Actually, there are quite a few screen reading programs on the market. Kurzwil, Window-Eyes, Jaws and a few others. Unfornately, they usually require a sighted person to actually install it but visually-impaired and mobility-impaired people can use GUIs just fine. I've had to install these programs from time to time and are easy to use after a bit of training. They can be a bit unnerving if not configured correctly(ask a VI about what they think about hearing "GRAPHIC" when going over desktop icons. There are even screen readers drivers for Linux and a distrubtion of it called BILINUX. I personally have not seen it in action but from all accounts, it is quite good at having support for popular screen readers. The ADA was a very nessecary piece of law. Without, those with diabilities would have much harder time getting around. The best example is trying to go upstairs in a wheelchair without having an elevator nearby or trying to get through a store where the aisles are only a couple feet across. There has to be accessibilty for impaired individuals so that they can be as much a member of society as they want.

  3. Re:nuclear Java on EULA In Games · · Score: 1

    >On the subject of "weapons systems", wouldn't a >failure be more likely to prevent death than >cause it Try having a guided missle explode unexpectedly in the armory because the program crashed during a test or having it go for you instead of the enemy. The agreements in this case(along with ATC, life support or other fail safe situations) makes sure that the developers not use a language that could have this problem. Most of these kind of systems are programmed in Ada because that language won't allow for run-time errors. I don't know for most people but I wouldn't trust Java on the FAA or other CAA's newest equipment.

  4. Re:The Java Nuclear Clause in ELUAs on EULA In Games · · Score: 1

    Funny thing is that we had to reject the use of Java in our configuration applications once I read the EULA for IBM VisualAge Java. Since our entire division is air traffic control systems, we cannot use it since the software puts human lives at risk(not actually but better CYA just in case the config app crashes and burns the monitor and control system, which runs the entire operation). A flight sim in Java could be cool, just don't ever think about putting it on a operational ATC processor.