Rumor... a friend told me this story a year ago, don't know if its true and didn't find anything about it after a quick search on the internet... but here goes:
My friend said "
I had a friend who used to work for the government... years ago he processed the photos that the US spy satellites took. One night at dinner the discussion had wandered onto the topic of the atomic bomb and its potential uses in a modern conflict, and someone says something to the effect:
"... the US is the only country that has used the atomic bomb against another nation..."
At which the friend spoke up, "Except for the time when the Russians bombed the Chinese."
Everyone at the table stopped talking and looked at him. "What!"
"Oh you guys didn't hear about that did you..."
A rough outline of the scenario...
Back in the late 50's or early 60's sometime the Russians and the Chinese are glaring at each other across the Siberian border of which some remote corner's exact boundries are in dispute. Each country lines up some number of troops and tensions are a little high. Finally the Russians move their withdraw their troops back about 10 miles... the next day the Chinese advance 10 miles. A few days later the Russians retreat 25 miles... over the next few days the Chinese advance 25 miles (meanwhile the US spy satellites are catching all of this in photos). A few more days go by and the Russians retreate 50 miles and the Chinese advance once again. So the Russian retreat 100 miles and drop a nuke right above the Chinese!... From that point on Chinese ceased their dispute over the Siberian border.
Is this true! How come no one has heard of this story? Supposedly the Russians weren't going to tell because they didn't want to attract international condemnation. Besides, they had used in their own territory. They could claim it to be a test.
The Chinese? They didn't want to have to answer the question, "What was China doing with troops deep in Soviet Siberia."
The US? Why were they silent? That is top secret, but maybe some of the declassified photos show the events...
A big part of the cost of producing a game is the content production. Game companies throw many man-years of artist's time to get the content just right, putting in the cobwebs, covering z-fighting, and hiding the geometrical seams.
Two things are going to solve the content creation problem for many games in the future: (1) procedural generation of textures and geometry, and (2) user created content.
Game companies have discovered that if they provide tools, rudimentary and broken tools will do but even just the specs so users can create their own (often better) tools, some users WILL create content for the game. Sure, only a few users will be motivated to do it, but a few per thousand can easily surpass the content creation power of 20 artists. Especially if the game company provides sample content, users can generate content of comparable or better quality.
Expect to see much more of this in the future. What's cool, is that for some people creating content is as compelling, or more, than playing the game itself, and some of these people would otherwise never have been attracted tot he game. In other words, as some games start to blur the lines between content-creation and the game itself, they will attract new (traditionally non-gamer) players to join.
Online, multi-player gaming will probably provide the mass entertainment that interractive TV was supposed to.
My wife has had one eye done so far (but not by Lasik, another outfit) and likes the results. Her new vision is as good or better than the other with a contact, except at night where bright lights have more streamers, making the contact slightly better.
The best thing about the surgery is that she can see as soon as she wakes up. Also, she can see well when playing in the water. She's planning on having the other eye done in a few months.
She wasn't sure about undergoing the procedure until a friend of hers with worse vision had both eyes done at once and said he could see better walking out of the clinic than he ever could with glasses or contacts.
I definitely recommend going through the consultation to see if it is likely to be good for you.
As I understand it, the Linux kernel is licensed under the GPL, so it is still GNU, however without the rest of the GNU system utilities the FSF would not mind if you called it whatever you wanted.
CS is much more general than CIS, so it is easier for a CS major to do a CIS's job than the other
way around. But, if we're talking about general
degrees the best thing you can do is get a physics
degree, take CS classes on the side, and learn CIS as a hobby at home. Then you'll be as employable as they come.
Slashdot Mirror
Rumor... a friend told me this story a year ago, don't know if its true and didn't find anything about it after a quick search on the internet... but here goes:
... From that point on Chinese ceased their dispute over the Siberian border.
My friend said "
I had a friend who used to work for the government... years ago he processed the photos that the US spy satellites took. One night at dinner the discussion had wandered onto the topic of the atomic bomb and its potential uses in a modern conflict, and someone says something to the effect:
"... the US is the only country that has used the atomic bomb against another nation..."
At which the friend spoke up, "Except for the time when the Russians bombed the Chinese."
Everyone at the table stopped talking and looked at him. "What!"
"Oh you guys didn't hear about that did you..."
A rough outline of the scenario...
Back in the late 50's or early 60's sometime the Russians and the Chinese are glaring at each other across the Siberian border of which some remote corner's exact boundries are in dispute. Each country lines up some number of troops and tensions are a little high. Finally the Russians move their withdraw their troops back about 10 miles... the next day the Chinese advance 10 miles. A few days later the Russians retreat 25 miles... over the next few days the Chinese advance 25 miles (meanwhile the US spy satellites are catching all of this in photos). A few more days go by and the Russians retreate 50 miles and the Chinese advance once again. So the Russian retreat 100 miles and drop a nuke right above the Chinese!
Is this true! How come no one has heard of this story? Supposedly the Russians weren't going to tell because they didn't want to attract international condemnation. Besides, they had used in their own territory. They could claim it to be a test.
The Chinese? They didn't want to have to answer the question, "What was China doing with troops deep in Soviet Siberia."
The US? Why were they silent? That is top secret, but maybe some of the declassified photos show the events...
A big part of the cost of producing a game is the content production. Game companies throw many man-years of artist's time to get the content just right, putting in the cobwebs, covering z-fighting, and hiding the geometrical seams.
Two things are going to solve the content creation problem for many games in the future: (1) procedural generation of textures and geometry, and (2) user created content.
Game companies have discovered that if they provide tools, rudimentary and broken tools will do but even just the specs so users can create their own (often better) tools, some users WILL create content for the game. Sure, only a few users will be motivated to do it, but a few per thousand can easily surpass the content creation power of 20 artists. Especially if the game company provides sample content, users can generate content of comparable or better quality.
Expect to see much more of this in the future. What's cool, is that for some people creating content is as compelling, or more, than playing the game itself, and some of these people would otherwise never have been attracted tot he game. In other words, as some games start to blur the lines between content-creation and the game itself, they will attract new (traditionally non-gamer) players to join.
Online, multi-player gaming will probably provide the mass entertainment that interractive TV was supposed to.
My wife has had one eye done so far (but not by Lasik, another outfit) and likes the results. Her new vision is as good or better than the other with a contact, except at night where bright lights have more streamers, making the contact slightly better.
The best thing about the surgery is that she can see as soon as she wakes up. Also, she can see well when playing in the water. She's planning on having the other eye done in a few months.
She wasn't sure about undergoing the procedure until a friend of hers with worse vision had both eyes done at once and said he could see better walking out of the clinic than he ever could with glasses or contacts.
I definitely recommend going through the consultation to see if it is likely to be good for you.
As I understand it, the Linux kernel is licensed under the GPL, so it is still GNU, however without the rest of the GNU system utilities the FSF would not mind if you called it whatever you wanted.
CS is much more general than CIS, so it is easier for a CS major to do a CIS's job than the other
way around. But, if we're talking about general
degrees the best thing you can do is get a physics
degree, take CS classes on the side, and learn CIS as a hobby at home. Then you'll be as employable as they come.