Re:Big boost for space tech if it is on course...
on
A Rock Moves In Space
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· Score: 5, Funny
October 2018 Status Report
We have finally decided on the location for the meeting for the committee that will determine the budget proposal for the committee to plan the catering for the blue-ribbon commission for the removal of the asteroid threat.
The DRM shackle (tm) will be foisted upon all of us, because as you know, analog TV broadcasts will be illegal come 2006 or so. Everyone is going to have to buy the George Orwell/Hillary Rosen/Jack Valenti Corporate Media Theft Protector (tm, pat. pending), even for your old 1957 KUBA Komet, complete with shock collars, pupil trackers and catheter for preventing you from missing commercials due to "nature's call".
The deluxe model dispenses beer, snack foos, antacid and feminine hygiene products.
_You_ survived just fine. So did I. But Lego didn't. If you go into a toy store these days, you will find that Lego is now almost all licensed stuff or extremely non-generic play sets. It's a shame even though some of the set are still quite good. The Star Wars sets in particular offer lots of good generic pieces for building all kinds of cool vehicles, etc.
It's a shame, though, that kids have to have imagination fed to them, marketing people would never dare let them think for themselves.
I have 4 kids and generally I buy them computer games with level builders or games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, which is one of the best computer games ever, IMO. I also buy them lots and lots of Lego, plain old paper, markers, pens, crayons, Sculpey, Play-Doh, sidewalk chalk, etc. All 4 of my kids from 2 to 8 do some form of art every day because they like it (also, their computer/Dreamcast/TV time is limited so after whining for an hour or so, they generally find some constructive use for their time, or at least will go off somewhere and quietly beat each other up.
For about the 1000th time I wish I could mod up a response to one of my comments.
Automatic code generation just replaces one set of tedium with another... the difference being is once you learn to do it the proper way, it's a lot easier and faster, but if you rely on Microsoft's crappy pseudo-CASE tool, nothing ever gets easier or faster... and in fact, when you want to modify the generated code, you just opened up a big can of trouble.
I always felt if someone thought VS's "automatic code generation" is anything other than an annoying waste of time, you've either never used it, or are only a cookbook programmer, and you don't sound like either.
Starting from scratch, I'd be more inclined to go with wxWindows, although I personally would get up and running much faster with MFC since I have used it for years.
MFC makes some things easier, but many features carry an obscene amount of bloat, and are often less hassle to write from scratch than deal with Microsoft's way of doing things (I certainly found that to be the case for doing ftp... using MFC required writing more code than doing it from scratch!)
Let's face it, Lucas doesn't want to be remembered as the part creator of the most fantastic, visionary epic movie of the 21st century. He wants to be remembered as the sole monomaniacal creator of a vast, lumbering, eye-catchingly beautiful, but woodenly acted monstrosity that missed a lot of its potential but made billions selling toys.
p.s. I like the the Star Wars movies, I really do, but Spielberg could provide everything Lucas lacks, which is a lot. Lucas's true skills and genius are as a creator/visionary/producer, not a writer or director, where he is 3rd rate at best.
Neo is established to be more powerful than the agents at the end of the first movie since they have never had to deal with anything like him before. No doubt the agents can change and adapt.
This is not like what I consider to be the worst movie I ever paid to see, "Spawn" wherein it is established early on that our hero cannot die (because he is already dead or some crap like that) and the in rest of the movie he is threatened with being killed by various forces. I would have walked out, but I thought my buddy wanted to see the rest... he was only staying because he thought _I_ wanted to...
That movie was only worthy of MST3K, and I think even those guys would have a hard time of it.
I'm sure the agents will return in new and deadly ways (not to mention those albino "virus" dudes)... also even if Neo _is_ unbeatable, all his friends, not to mention the rest of humanity, are not. Even if he cannot be defeated, can he save them? Believe me, despite all the hokiness and plot holes (and I'm saying this despite the fact that "The Matrix" is one of my favorite movies ever), there is plenty of room for real drama and suspense. Not to mention lotsa butt kickin' and eye candy.
This is the same site that has a story of the development of Neotame. They claim a scientist with Army developing a new nerve gas supposedly spilled some on his hand, and since it smelled sweet, he tasted it and discovered Neotame. Now, I know truth can be stranger than fiction, but this sounds like total FUD to me.
Um... you seem to forget the Arabs. In the Middle Ages, the Arabic culture flourished and was the intellectual center of the world, particularly in fields like mathematics and astronomy. It's my understanding that the Arabs were largely responsible for maintaining the knowledge that the ancient Greeks, and others, had developed.
Why do you think we use "Arabic numbers"?
Why do you think most stars have Arabic names?
It's unfortunate that advanced Middle Eastern culture has largely disappeared in the last millenium, and surely Europe, the New World and Far East lead the world in scientific and cultural development now, but there was a lot happening in the Middle Ages.
And let's not forget Europe. Even before the Renaissance, Europe, while certainly not advancing like it did starting in the 15th century, was hardly stagnant. Most of Western society's major secular institutions: hospitals, universities, etc, were founded in the Middle Ages.
And of course, we all know that the Chinese had many advanced developments centuries before the rest of the world (gunpowder, paper, etc).
Yeah, and it would only cost you $2000 in time and trouble to get that $500.
That's the problem with most of the so-called legal "solutions" to harrasing behavior and other modern nuisances.
It's kind of like class action lawsuits. Sure, 10 million people win a class-action lawsuit, each getting $1.73, and the company loses 5% of their profit for one week. Big whoop!
Listing SourceForge.net in the "MP3" category was almost certainly an accident.
Unless SmartFilter is on the take from Microsoft. After all, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to convince a company like that that anything related Open Source is Communist.
Yet another way to pee away hours and hours of your life accomplishing nothing useful. Then your kid uses a magnet to put up his latest drawing and scrambles the whole system.
Really, was this designed by Microsoft? Why must every appliance do everything. Can't we have simple devices that do one job well?
In my opinion, you could replace the entire HCI research department at Microsoft, my friend, and it would get much better results. Well said.
Rick
p.s. This is a rant that is worth running down the street and waving because even people should know better are falling victim to goofy GUIs.
Re:this explains...
on
Version Fatigue
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Microsoft had some good standards but they constantly ignore them these days. I saw a quote that thanks to Web application, which forces people to use really crappy UI, and the preponderance of high-resolution with lots of colors and everyone trying to take advantage of it (skinning is just another word for "angry fruit salad"), UI has been set back to about 1984.
No standards, nothing you can count on. I don't know how many slick curvy shiny little apps I've tried where you're randomly stabbing at everything on the screen because you don't know what's a control and what's just window dressing (e.g., Kai).
And this tendency to make regular Windows apps look like Web pages is just ludicrous. There were so many violations of common sense in just the installation of Visual Studio.NET, I could write a book about it. The app itself isn't too bad, but in some ways Microsoft has become the worst UI innovator because they are making lots of stylistic changes that have a negative effect on usability. That and their 10-year tendancy to try to minimize the actual usable area of the screen. Why is it that every new version of Microsoft's apps have bigger toolbars, more deadspace (worst of all!) and less actual working area of the screen. The Amiga had it best with menu bars that only came up with a right mouse click... why should that chunk of screen be eaten up by something that is only used for a couple of seconds at a time?
Plus, as "Einstein" Broderick, the wacky Virginia Tech physics professor I had in the late 80's, used to say, you could whip out a pen knife and edit your code while waiting in traffic.
He kept a keypunch in his office because he _liked_ cards. I had a Fortran class on cards in 1982, but for everything else we used the Vax 11/780 or IBM PC's. By 1987, Broderick was probably about the only one still using cards at VT.
It wasn't even preaching... it was more along the lines of, and I quote:
Neener, neener, neener.
And had about as much insight. I'm a Windows user and developer with more experience than 95% of the folks on/. and I'll tell you that Windows succeeds for the masses because it is easier to install and use. Period. I've set up and run Linux a few times, and while it's fun for me (though occasionally frustrating), the idea of any non-savvy person installing and using Linux is laughable. Windows these days pretty much installs and configures itself with you only entering your ISP phone number. For all it's stupidity, monopolistic advantages, and just plain evil on Microsoft's part, I still believe Windows deserves to be successful (to what degree is another matter).
If this is what passes for insightful, or even funny, than the Linux community is never going to get past the childish l337 h4x0R pimply-faced nerd image that I imagine the average person (or at least those few who actually know what Linux is) thinks of Linux users.
I think Linux has a lot going for it and wish it the best of success, and hope it takes Microsoft down a few pegs, but with this attitude, no one (new) will ever take it seriously.
Well, for one, you're comparing apples and oranges and you seem to have missed my point.
If I were going to write a game for Linux, I would try to use libraries and tools (like SDL, f'rinstance) that would allow me to port my game to Windows should it gain some modicum of success. If you are trying to make money... and recall that's what the article was about, you need to have the broadest comsumer base to draw from.
In music you have to start at the local gigs at the bars and night clubs. In software, you can go to the bars and also get a spot in the (admittedly overbooked) arena as well for relatively little additional effort. If you are in it to make money, you're a fool not to.
Recall, most people said you should do it for fun, not profit (and I agree), assuming that a really cool game has potential to become profitable anyway (although many of my all-time favorites like Nethack, Omega, Battleforce (turned-based mech battles on the Amiga), never did and could never make much money if any.
Also recall that in the Windows market, anyone who can crank out "Hello, World" in VB wants to sell it as shareware, so yes, the "market" is saturated with lots of trivial and/or useless code compared with Linux, but on the other hand, the cream will rise to the top.
Best-case scenario, you sell your soul^H^H^H^Hgame to Satan^H^H^H^H^HMicrosoft, and retire.
Optimally we would get something that comes in rolls and can be cut to size.
No, optimally we would have a spray can full of self-assembling nano display goo, just lay a template of your choice on the wall, spray away, wait a while, and your terabyte wireless network will instantly recognize the display and start pumping it Bugs Bunny from your satellite feed.
Agreed. Darth Maul was interesting for exactly two reasons: cool make-up/costume and Ray Park's incredible acrobatic talents. Otherwise he was a cypher. There was nothing to him that couldn't be found in the hundreds of faceless Stormtroopers from Episode IV: Light-saber fodder.
Did we learn anything about Maul? Do we know anything about his motivations? In reality, Darth Maul was less of a character than his lightsaber.
Dooku, Jango Fett and Palpatine were more interesting for the reasons stated, and we still got to see some kick butt action. Who imagined Yoda could be so awesome a fighter back in the days when he was a Muppet?
I don't have to take up smoking to see that it isn't good for me. I think we can take a look at the communist/socialist governments around the world and get a good idea that they don't work to well for the average citizen.
There are some socialist countries in Europe that seem to have a decent standard of living, etc, but anything based on a totalitarian regime that ignores certain basic human rights is ipso facto not a good thing.
I worked at a contractor for the U.S.P.S. several years ago. At the time they were using OS/2, and when 2.0 was released, they still hadn't implemented the switch from 1.2 to 1.3.
My recollection of the version numbers may not be right, but it describes the situation. The government, for good and bad reasons, moves very slowly on these matters.
Slashdot Mirror
October 2018 Status Report
We have finally decided on the location for the meeting for the committee that will determine the budget proposal for the committee to plan the catering for the blue-ribbon commission for the removal of the asteroid threat.
The DRM shackle (tm) will be foisted upon all of us, because as you know, analog TV broadcasts will be illegal come 2006 or so. Everyone is going to have to buy the George Orwell/Hillary Rosen/Jack Valenti Corporate Media Theft Protector (tm, pat. pending), even for your old 1957 KUBA Komet, complete with shock collars, pupil trackers and catheter for preventing you from missing commercials due to "nature's call".
The deluxe model dispenses beer, snack foos, antacid and feminine hygiene products.
_You_ survived just fine. So did I. But Lego didn't. If you go into a toy store these days, you will find that Lego is now almost all licensed stuff or extremely non-generic play sets. It's a shame even though some of the set are still quite good. The Star Wars sets in particular offer lots of good generic pieces for building all kinds of cool vehicles, etc.
It's a shame, though, that kids have to have imagination fed to them, marketing people would never dare let them think for themselves.
I have 4 kids and generally I buy them computer games with level builders or games like Roller Coaster Tycoon, which is one of the best computer games ever, IMO. I also buy them lots and lots of Lego, plain old paper, markers, pens, crayons, Sculpey, Play-Doh, sidewalk chalk, etc. All 4 of my kids from 2 to 8 do some form of art every day because they like it (also, their computer/Dreamcast/TV time is limited so after whining for an hour or so, they generally find some constructive use for their time, or at least will go off somewhere and quietly beat each other up.
For about the 1000th time I wish I could mod up a response to one of my comments.
Automatic code generation just replaces one set of tedium with another... the difference being is once you learn to do it the proper way, it's a lot easier and faster, but if you rely on Microsoft's crappy pseudo-CASE tool, nothing ever gets easier or faster... and in fact, when you want to modify the generated code, you just opened up a big can of trouble.
I always felt if someone thought VS's "automatic code generation" is anything other than an annoying waste of time, you've either never used it, or are only a cookbook programmer, and you don't sound like either.
Starting from scratch, I'd be more inclined to go with wxWindows, although I personally would get up and running much faster with MFC since I have used it for years.
MFC makes some things easier, but many features carry an obscene amount of bloat, and are often less hassle to write from scratch than deal with Microsoft's way of doing things (I certainly found that to be the case for doing ftp... using MFC required writing more code than doing it from scratch!)
Yeah, well 60 plus years from now when I'm barking on 100 years old, I hope I'm still alive to wear diapers.
Regardless, the movie still sucked.
Let's face it, Lucas doesn't want to be remembered as the part creator of the most fantastic, visionary epic movie of the 21st century. He wants to be remembered as the sole monomaniacal creator of a vast, lumbering, eye-catchingly beautiful, but woodenly acted monstrosity that missed a lot of its potential but made billions selling toys.
p.s. I like the the Star Wars movies, I really do, but Spielberg could provide everything Lucas lacks, which is a lot. Lucas's true skills and genius are as a creator/visionary/producer, not a writer or director, where he is 3rd rate at best.
Neo is established to be more powerful than the agents at the end of the first movie since they have never had to deal with anything like him before. No doubt the agents can change and adapt.
This is not like what I consider to be the worst movie I ever paid to see, "Spawn" wherein it is established early on that our hero cannot die (because he is already dead or some crap like that) and the in rest of the movie he is threatened with being killed by various forces. I would have walked out, but I thought my buddy wanted to see the rest... he was only staying because he thought _I_ wanted to...
That movie was only worthy of MST3K, and I think even those guys would have a hard time of it.
I'm sure the agents will return in new and deadly ways (not to mention those albino "virus" dudes)... also even if Neo _is_ unbeatable, all his friends, not to mention the rest of humanity, are not. Even if he cannot be defeated, can he save them? Believe me, despite all the hokiness and plot holes (and I'm saying this despite the fact that "The Matrix" is one of my favorite movies ever), there is plenty of room for real drama and suspense. Not to mention lotsa butt kickin' and eye candy.
This is the same site that has a story of the development of Neotame. They claim a scientist with Army developing a new nerve gas supposedly spilled some on his hand, and since it smelled sweet, he tasted it and discovered Neotame. Now, I know truth can be stranger than fiction, but this sounds like total FUD to me.
Um... you seem to forget the Arabs. In the Middle Ages, the Arabic culture flourished and was the intellectual center of the world, particularly in fields like mathematics and astronomy. It's my understanding that the Arabs were largely responsible for maintaining the knowledge that the ancient Greeks, and others, had developed.
Why do you think we use "Arabic numbers"?
Why do you think most stars have Arabic names?
It's unfortunate that advanced Middle Eastern culture has largely disappeared in the last millenium, and surely Europe, the New World and Far East lead the world in scientific and cultural development now, but there was a lot happening in the Middle Ages.
And let's not forget Europe. Even before the Renaissance, Europe, while certainly not advancing like it did starting in the 15th century, was hardly stagnant. Most of Western society's major secular institutions: hospitals, universities, etc, were founded in the Middle Ages.
And of course, we all know that the Chinese had many advanced developments centuries before the rest of the world (gunpowder, paper, etc).
Yeah, and it would only cost you $2000 in time and trouble to get that $500.
That's the problem with most of the so-called legal "solutions" to harrasing behavior and other modern nuisances.
It's kind of like class action lawsuits. Sure, 10 million people win a class-action lawsuit, each getting $1.73, and the company loses 5% of their profit for one week. Big whoop!
Listing SourceForge.net in the "MP3" category was almost certainly an accident.
Unless SmartFilter is on the take from Microsoft. After all, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to convince a company like that that anything related Open Source is Communist.
"Better Dead than Red(Hat)" I suppose.
Yet another way to pee away hours and hours of your life accomplishing nothing useful. Then your kid uses a magnet to put up his latest drawing and scrambles the whole system.
Really, was this designed by Microsoft? Why must every appliance do everything. Can't we have simple devices that do one job well?
In my opinion, you could replace the entire HCI research department at Microsoft, my friend, and it would get much better results. Well said.
Rick
p.s. This is a rant that is worth running down the street and waving because even people should know better are falling victim to goofy GUIs.
Microsoft had some good standards but they constantly ignore them these days. I saw a quote that thanks to Web application, which forces people to use really crappy UI, and the preponderance of high-resolution with lots of colors and everyone trying to take advantage of it (skinning is just another word for "angry fruit salad"), UI has been set back to about 1984.
.NET, I could write a book about it. The app itself isn't too bad, but in some ways Microsoft has become the worst UI innovator because they are making lots of stylistic changes that have a negative effect on usability. That and their 10-year tendancy to try to minimize the actual usable area of the screen. Why is it that every new version of Microsoft's apps have bigger toolbars, more deadspace (worst of all!) and less actual working area of the screen. The Amiga had it best with menu bars that only came up with a right mouse click... why should that chunk of screen be eaten up by something that is only used for a couple of seconds at a time?
No standards, nothing you can count on. I don't know how many slick curvy shiny little apps I've tried where you're randomly stabbing at everything on the screen because you don't know what's a control and what's just window dressing (e.g., Kai).
And this tendency to make regular Windows apps look like Web pages is just ludicrous. There were so many violations of common sense in just the installation of Visual Studio
Oh well, I've ranted long enough.
Plus, as "Einstein" Broderick, the wacky Virginia Tech physics professor I had in the late 80's, used to say, you could whip out a pen knife and edit your code while waiting in traffic.
He kept a keypunch in his office because he _liked_ cards. I had a Fortran class on cards in 1982, but for everything else we used the Vax 11/780 or IBM PC's. By 1987, Broderick was probably about the only one still using cards at VT.
It wasn't even preaching... it was more along the lines of, and I quote:
/. and I'll tell you that Windows succeeds for the masses because it is easier to install and use. Period. I've set up and run Linux a few times, and while it's fun for me (though occasionally frustrating), the idea of any non-savvy person installing and using Linux is laughable. Windows these days pretty much installs and configures itself with you only entering your ISP phone number. For all it's stupidity, monopolistic advantages, and just plain evil on Microsoft's part, I still believe Windows deserves to be successful (to what degree is another matter).
Neener, neener, neener.
And had about as much insight. I'm a Windows user and developer with more experience than 95% of the folks on
If this is what passes for insightful, or even funny, than the Linux community is never going to get past the childish l337 h4x0R pimply-faced nerd image that I imagine the average person (or at least those few who actually know what Linux is) thinks of Linux users.
I think Linux has a lot going for it and wish it the best of success, and hope it takes Microsoft down a few pegs, but with this attitude, no one (new) will ever take it seriously.
Well, for one, you're comparing apples and oranges and you seem to have missed my point.
If I were going to write a game for Linux, I would try to use libraries and tools (like SDL, f'rinstance) that would allow me to port my game to Windows should it gain some modicum of success. If you are trying to make money... and recall that's what the article was about, you need to have the broadest comsumer base to draw from.
In music you have to start at the local gigs at the bars and night clubs. In software, you can go to the bars and also get a spot in the (admittedly overbooked) arena as well for relatively little additional effort. If you are in it to make money, you're a fool not to.
Recall, most people said you should do it for fun, not profit (and I agree), assuming that a really cool game has potential to become profitable anyway (although many of my all-time favorites like Nethack, Omega, Battleforce (turned-based mech battles on the Amiga), never did and could never make much money if any.
Also recall that in the Windows market, anyone who can crank out "Hello, World" in VB wants to sell it as shareware, so yes, the "market" is saturated with lots of trivial and/or useless code compared with Linux, but on the other hand, the cream will rise to the top.
Best-case scenario, you sell your soul^H^H^H^Hgame to Satan^H^H^H^H^HMicrosoft, and retire.
Yeah, that's right. If you want to make money writing software, purposely ignore 90% of the market. That'll teach 'em.
Optimally we would get something that comes in rolls and can be cut to size.
No, optimally we would have a spray can full of self-assembling nano display goo, just lay a template of your choice on the wall, spray away, wait a while, and your terabyte wireless network will instantly recognize the display and start pumping it Bugs Bunny from your satellite feed.
Agreed. Darth Maul was interesting for exactly two reasons: cool make-up/costume and Ray Park's incredible acrobatic talents. Otherwise he was a cypher. There was nothing to him that couldn't be found in the hundreds of faceless Stormtroopers from Episode IV: Light-saber fodder.
Did we learn anything about Maul? Do we know anything about his motivations? In reality, Darth Maul was less of a character than his lightsaber.
Dooku, Jango Fett and Palpatine were more interesting for the reasons stated, and we still got to see some kick butt action. Who imagined Yoda could be so awesome a fighter back in the days when he was a Muppet?
I don't have to take up smoking to see that it isn't good for me. I think we can take a look at the communist/socialist governments around the world and get a good idea that they don't work to well for the average citizen.
There are some socialist countries in Europe that seem to have a decent standard of living, etc, but anything based on a totalitarian regime that ignores certain basic human rights is ipso facto not a good thing.
I worked at a contractor for the U.S.P.S. several years ago. At the time they were using OS/2, and when 2.0 was released, they still hadn't implemented the switch from 1.2 to 1.3.
My recollection of the version numbers may not be right, but it describes the situation. The government, for good and bad reasons, moves very slowly on these matters.
I also like the music Holst made for "Star Wars" too.