Would that I had mod points for you, my friend. This is a classic example of border patrol doing what they're supposed to. Sorry if it took them slightly over a day to figure out there was no harm being done by the people with the incorrect visas, but they weren't roughed up, didn't have their rights stripped from them, had a speedy trip from accusal to judgement and were transported safely back home.
The gamecube is not percieved as "cool." It's best exclusive games, metroid and zelda, are often perceived as kiddie games, even though they are not! When customers think PS2, they think Vice City; when they think Xbox, they think Halo. But when the they think GC, what do they think of?
Extremely, extremely good point. I say this not only because I agree with you, but also because I think this way. In answer to your last question, when I think of GC (or Nintendo in general), I think of video games, which are completely different from PC games. The XBox and PS2, IMHO, cater to people who haven't experienced games on a PC. Nintendo caters to those who want a system away from their computer, in front of a tv. I think the nerd factor comes into it a little...games on a PC are nerdy, games on a platform system are cool. Nintendo was the jumping off spot for most of us who love PC games now, but when I play a platform system, I want side scrolling, fun, easily controlled action.
Platforms are great for games that require loads of buttons (Tekken required 4 up top, 4 on the right and the control pad). PCs are great for games that require sight control (FPS, for instance). For people who don't like PCs, they turn to the FPS on platforms. XBox and PS2 outperform Nintendo here. I don't think Nintendo should try to capture that genre, but whatever sells...
I'm more worried about the standards of 2003 corrupting the last game from 1988. If they decide to put a lot of frills and killer graphics in, I think it will take away some from the simplicity of Bard's Tale.
The graphics of the first game were simple, but the animations and simple lighting (Adventurer's Guild fireplace?) made the ambiance great. That and it was the closest thing I had ever seen to true D&D.
I'm debating whether to say the hand mapping was a pain or not. Let me rephrase...the hand mapping WAS a pain, but it definitely gave me a feeling of accomplishment when I was done. The new automap features are essential only because maps are so freakin huge.
I don't remember diamond armor in AD&D, but I do remember it from Bard's Tale. The stuff rocked until you got your first Spectre Snare. Diamond everything was totally the way to go for good armor.
Unfortunately, you leave yourself as closed minded, if not more so, than the people you are chastising. There may be a god (lowercase), but since he/she/it is intangible by the classic definition of tangibility, for now some people choose to take a knowledge of him/her/it on faith. For the majority of people, though, they misinterpret a belief in God (uppercase) as knowledge that, gosh darn it, he's real! Exceptions go out to those people who have had close encounters of the divine kind, whom we may choose to believe or not.
I think to truly discover a faith in some higher power, you must code a MUD. After having completed that task, you will have a much better understanding of how difficult it must have been to create the intermingling rules of the REAL universe.
I've always wondered how to go about distributing counterfeit money. While I think it would take freakin forever, what about change machines? I doubt there are cameras watching you and recording which bills you put in, and I can't imagine they can detect all the tangible differences as well as a person. Granted, they can get into much finer detail as far as coloring, spacing, etc, but that just means you have to print things out on a really nice printer.
You walk into an arcade with $100 in 10s every day for a week, you have $700 dollars in quarters (at the arcades that still use quarters instead of tokens). Same with laundromats.
Eh, I think the author's main point was that hacking, much like painting, is the creation of something that has been imbibed with the author's creativity. Safecracking doesn't yield any new creations to the world, you just open a safe. It may be an art form to crack a safe quickly and precisely, but I think you're really stretching the definition of art form and blurring it with common slang.
I would compare your argument to teachers being sued for giving bad recommendations, but this is more like the school being sued for a teacher giving a bad req. You're right on one point...a reputation does have a weight when doing transactions. Negative feedback affects you negatively, and positive feedback affects you positively. However, the only reason this system works is because people accept the fact that there will be negative feedback and positive feedback. Take away the chance of getting negative feedback, and the rating system loses all credentials.
--trb
Re:Was it like this back in the day?
on
SARS and the Internet
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
For the same reason that people backpat each other about television...a great number of people say there's nothing but trash on television, but when an event like 9/11 occurs and television is the only outlet for information because all the freakin phones are tied up, people suddenly realize that there is a reason, other than watching Survivor, for having a television.
A great many of our 'innovations' come from entertainment sources...optics, radio, computing, to name a few. You don't, on a daily basis, hear people extolling the virtues of entertainment devices, but every once in awhile we remember that there ARE non-recreational uses for them.
Police Quest was another Sierra great. I remember typing "get naked" or "strip" and you would, then the game would end because you were naked in public.
Space Quest had to be one of the greatest series ever...Roger Wilco will forever be the perfect imperfect hero. A janitor who keeps saving the universe, wonderful.
I never could figure out why Sierra moved to the no-typing model of gaming...it was so much more creative to be able to type "fondle woman" than to have to click that hand icon on her body. I will hand it to Sierra, they still incorporated some great error messages (SQ4: click the hand on yourself a few times for the "this is a family game" message).
but at the time I was in grade school / jr. high, so maybe I just remember wrong
No, you're absolutely correct. The current run of games typically have quests that involve one screen...ie, you walk into a room and have to figure out how to get up the staircase by jumping or pushing blocks. There's not a lot of multi screen puzzles unless you count having to retrieve item X in order to solve puzzle A.
I remember King's Quest and Police Quest...I don't think I EVER got all the points in PQ1. I kept trying this, that, the other, never happened. What a great game. That's what gave it great replayability. That, and you could die instantly with no warning (like a police officer can). There wasn't a lot of hand holding, if you couldn't figure out the solution you had to wait until the guide book came out or call the Sierra BBS and read message posts.
The genre has certainly changed, and not for the better. I want a good puzzle game like PQ where there' relatively no action, ie I don't have to kill things right and left and prove my manual dexterity and reflexes are up to par.
Is this really a problem? I've never been to London, but any city I have been to, the cabs were almost frantic to pull over and let you in. In New York, I've had cabbies pull over and ask if I wanted a ride when I was just standing there.
This seems like a solution waiting for a problem...
I somehow doubt that any woman who hadn't been considering entering CS before is going to see the poster for ACMW (or pick another women's group) and suddenly realize she really does belong there.
More often than not, these groups are formed by the women already in CS who want protection or to stand out or a place to talk to like minded ladies. I don't see them really helping at all, rather, they provide a place where more diversity can occur. If you want to help, form a tutoring session or a CS group that has a lot of women tutors so that these women won't feel they're being hit on or 'opressed' when they ask for help.
I've often wondered why nobody uses the term masculinist (or, pick another word for the male version of feminist). Ani Difranco said, and I'm paraphrasing, "All decent people are feminists". I agree, wholeheartedly, but I also think that you have to be a masculinist...that is, you have to acknowledge that men can do anything a woman can do. We just typically choose not to, whereas women think they can't therefore they don't.
Feminism was one of the greatest assets and one of the unholiest curses of the previous generation. It took an entire culture of women and said "What your mother and your mother's mother did with their lives isn't good enough nor is it fulfilling...get out there and have a career!" I'm all for women having careers, but let's face it...because of their emotions and their nurturing, women are better suited for taking care of kids than men are. We're more capable of working, where an agressive mentality is more likely to get you farther.
Factor in the social nature of women, and I don't see why anyone would want to bring more women into CS. MIS (management information sciences) would probably be the best we could hope for, it's a blend of computer science and business that requires both but focuses more on process and usefulness than the study of computers and algorithms.
These are exactly the problems that we are faced with and, as you mentioned, only 1 is really a problem. My girlfriend is a perfect example of both, actually. She could never do my job only because where I work we mostly sit at cubes and write code...it's how we're productive. There's not a lot of interaction going on. If my girlfriend stays at home for two days straight, she goes nuts from lack of socializing. A lot of girls are like this and I personally think it's just the way they are...much, much more dependant on others to fulfil their daily living requirements.
The second part is an issue, but I'm not sure what we do to fix it. I had women math teachers all the way through high school and although I didn't like their teaching style, I still got good grades so I'm not sure I believe we need to change the teaching style to give girls an advantage. I would equate that to teaching classes in Ebonics to give blacks a step up.
Actually, IMHO the tv show works against the movie because the movie is so unrealistic. Yeah, yeah...the whole concept is, but stick with me here.
In the tv show, you had a regular ol doctor who turned into a giant green guy. But at least the giant green guy was a real person too, so it was a little more believable than turning into a 13 ft tall CG innovation. To me, they would have to do a lot more work to make the Hulk's movements, et al, look human...which, remember, is the point of the whole comic...he really is human, just with a few 'changes' when he gets mad.
Slashdot Mirror
Would that I had mod points for you, my friend. This is a classic example of border patrol doing what they're supposed to. Sorry if it took them slightly over a day to figure out there was no harm being done by the people with the incorrect visas, but they weren't roughed up, didn't have their rights stripped from them, had a speedy trip from accusal to judgement and were transported safely back home.
I salute the officers on this case.
--trb
The gamecube is not percieved as "cool." It's best exclusive games, metroid and zelda, are often perceived as kiddie games, even though they are not! When customers think PS2, they think Vice City; when they think Xbox, they think Halo. But when the they think GC, what do they think of?
Extremely, extremely good point. I say this not only because I agree with you, but also because I think this way. In answer to your last question, when I think of GC (or Nintendo in general), I think of video games, which are completely different from PC games. The XBox and PS2, IMHO, cater to people who haven't experienced games on a PC. Nintendo caters to those who want a system away from their computer, in front of a tv. I think the nerd factor comes into it a little...games on a PC are nerdy, games on a platform system are cool. Nintendo was the jumping off spot for most of us who love PC games now, but when I play a platform system, I want side scrolling, fun, easily controlled action.
Platforms are great for games that require loads of buttons (Tekken required 4 up top, 4 on the right and the control pad). PCs are great for games that require sight control (FPS, for instance). For people who don't like PCs, they turn to the FPS on platforms. XBox and PS2 outperform Nintendo here. I don't think Nintendo should try to capture that genre, but whatever sells...
--trb
I'm more worried about the standards of 2003 corrupting the last game from 1988. If they decide to put a lot of frills and killer graphics in, I think it will take away some from the simplicity of Bard's Tale.
The graphics of the first game were simple, but the animations and simple lighting (Adventurer's Guild fireplace?) made the ambiance great. That and it was the closest thing I had ever seen to true D&D.
I'm debating whether to say the hand mapping was a pain or not. Let me rephrase...the hand mapping WAS a pain, but it definitely gave me a feeling of accomplishment when I was done. The new automap features are essential only because maps are so freakin huge.
--trb
If you think digging up old statements and having them used against you is a strange occurence, you have apparently never dated someone...
--trb
Among other things, this could theoretically this would remove that annoying judicial oversight from from the picture.
I know its content over presentation, but come on...two typos in one sentence?
--trb
I don't remember diamond armor in AD&D, but I do remember it from Bard's Tale. The stuff rocked until you got your first Spectre Snare. Diamond everything was totally the way to go for good armor.
--trb
So the north pole will now have better connectivity than parts of Loudon County, Va. Think Norway would be interesetd in hooking us up?
--trb
Google essentially does this. Google for something but spell it wrong, you'll get "Did you mean to search for ". This can be struck dead PDQ.
--trb
...where's the (Score: -1) Bad Pun when you need it?
Unfortunately, you leave yourself as closed minded, if not more so, than the people you are chastising. There may be a god (lowercase), but since he/she/it is intangible by the classic definition of tangibility, for now some people choose to take a knowledge of him/her/it on faith. For the majority of people, though, they misinterpret a belief in God (uppercase) as knowledge that, gosh darn it, he's real! Exceptions go out to those people who have had close encounters of the divine kind, whom we may choose to believe or not.
I think to truly discover a faith in some higher power, you must code a MUD. After having completed that task, you will have a much better understanding of how difficult it must have been to create the intermingling rules of the REAL universe.
--trb
I've always wondered how to go about distributing counterfeit money. While I think it would take freakin forever, what about change machines? I doubt there are cameras watching you and recording which bills you put in, and I can't imagine they can detect all the tangible differences as well as a person. Granted, they can get into much finer detail as far as coloring, spacing, etc, but that just means you have to print things out on a really nice printer.
You walk into an arcade with $100 in 10s every day for a week, you have $700 dollars in quarters (at the arcades that still use quarters instead of tokens). Same with laundromats.
Just curious.
--trb
I rally think you were to generous on punctuation and spalling.
--trb
Eh, I think the author's main point was that hacking, much like painting, is the creation of something that has been imbibed with the author's creativity. Safecracking doesn't yield any new creations to the world, you just open a safe. It may be an art form to crack a safe quickly and precisely, but I think you're really stretching the definition of art form and blurring it with common slang.
--trb
I would compare your argument to teachers being sued for giving bad recommendations, but this is more like the school being sued for a teacher giving a bad req. You're right on one point...a reputation does have a weight when doing transactions. Negative feedback affects you negatively, and positive feedback affects you positively. However, the only reason this system works is because people accept the fact that there will be negative feedback and positive feedback. Take away the chance of getting negative feedback, and the rating system loses all credentials.
--trb
For the same reason that people backpat each other about television...a great number of people say there's nothing but trash on television, but when an event like 9/11 occurs and television is the only outlet for information because all the freakin phones are tied up, people suddenly realize that there is a reason, other than watching Survivor, for having a television.
A great many of our 'innovations' come from entertainment sources...optics, radio, computing, to name a few. You don't, on a daily basis, hear people extolling the virtues of entertainment devices, but every once in awhile we remember that there ARE non-recreational uses for them.
--trb
I may now have to buy an Apple just to use the service
Hrm...CDs cost $13-$17 each, computers cost hundreds...you may want to reexamine your economic model.
--trb
While we're flashing back...
Police Quest was another Sierra great. I remember typing "get naked" or "strip" and you would, then the game would end because you were naked in public.
Space Quest had to be one of the greatest series ever...Roger Wilco will forever be the perfect imperfect hero. A janitor who keeps saving the universe, wonderful.
I never could figure out why Sierra moved to the no-typing model of gaming...it was so much more creative to be able to type "fondle woman" than to have to click that hand icon on her body. I will hand it to Sierra, they still incorporated some great error messages (SQ4: click the hand on yourself a few times for the "this is a family game" message).
--trb
but at the time I was in grade school / jr. high, so maybe I just remember wrong
No, you're absolutely correct. The current run of games typically have quests that involve one screen...ie, you walk into a room and have to figure out how to get up the staircase by jumping or pushing blocks. There's not a lot of multi screen puzzles unless you count having to retrieve item X in order to solve puzzle A.
I remember King's Quest and Police Quest...I don't think I EVER got all the points in PQ1. I kept trying this, that, the other, never happened. What a great game. That's what gave it great replayability. That, and you could die instantly with no warning (like a police officer can). There wasn't a lot of hand holding, if you couldn't figure out the solution you had to wait until the guide book came out or call the Sierra BBS and read message posts.
The genre has certainly changed, and not for the better. I want a good puzzle game like PQ where there' relatively no action, ie I don't have to kill things right and left and prove my manual dexterity and reflexes are up to par.
--trb
Is this really a problem? I've never been to London, but any city I have been to, the cabs were almost frantic to pull over and let you in. In New York, I've had cabbies pull over and ask if I wanted a ride when I was just standing there.
This seems like a solution waiting for a problem...
--trb
I'm trying to remember the order of the web pages I saw come up back in 1993...
1) Sun
2) HP
3) MS? IBM?
4-1000) Porn
Great invention, the web...
--trb
I somehow doubt that any woman who hadn't been considering entering CS before is going to see the poster for ACMW (or pick another women's group) and suddenly realize she really does belong there.
More often than not, these groups are formed by the women already in CS who want protection or to stand out or a place to talk to like minded ladies. I don't see them really helping at all, rather, they provide a place where more diversity can occur. If you want to help, form a tutoring session or a CS group that has a lot of women tutors so that these women won't feel they're being hit on or 'opressed' when they ask for help.
--trb
I've often wondered why nobody uses the term masculinist (or, pick another word for the male version of feminist). Ani Difranco said, and I'm paraphrasing, "All decent people are feminists". I agree, wholeheartedly, but I also think that you have to be a masculinist...that is, you have to acknowledge that men can do anything a woman can do. We just typically choose not to, whereas women think they can't therefore they don't.
Feminism was one of the greatest assets and one of the unholiest curses of the previous generation. It took an entire culture of women and said "What your mother and your mother's mother did with their lives isn't good enough nor is it fulfilling...get out there and have a career!" I'm all for women having careers, but let's face it...because of their emotions and their nurturing, women are better suited for taking care of kids than men are. We're more capable of working, where an agressive mentality is more likely to get you farther.
Factor in the social nature of women, and I don't see why anyone would want to bring more women into CS. MIS (management information sciences) would probably be the best we could hope for, it's a blend of computer science and business that requires both but focuses more on process and usefulness than the study of computers and algorithms.
--trb
Would that I had mod points to bump you up...
These are exactly the problems that we are faced with and, as you mentioned, only 1 is really a problem. My girlfriend is a perfect example of both, actually. She could never do my job only because where I work we mostly sit at cubes and write code...it's how we're productive. There's not a lot of interaction going on. If my girlfriend stays at home for two days straight, she goes nuts from lack of socializing. A lot of girls are like this and I personally think it's just the way they are...much, much more dependant on others to fulfil their daily living requirements.
The second part is an issue, but I'm not sure what we do to fix it. I had women math teachers all the way through high school and although I didn't like their teaching style, I still got good grades so I'm not sure I believe we need to change the teaching style to give girls an advantage. I would equate that to teaching classes in Ebonics to give blacks a step up.
--trb
Actually, IMHO the tv show works against the movie because the movie is so unrealistic. Yeah, yeah...the whole concept is, but stick with me here.
In the tv show, you had a regular ol doctor who turned into a giant green guy. But at least the giant green guy was a real person too, so it was a little more believable than turning into a 13 ft tall CG innovation. To me, they would have to do a lot more work to make the Hulk's movements, et al, look human...which, remember, is the point of the whole comic...he really is human, just with a few 'changes' when he gets mad.
--trb
Oh please, if this isn't the largest collection of REAL geeks on the planet, I don't know what is...
--trb