I'm sure we'd rebuild (eventually), but, as other posters have pointed out, starting from scratch would require going through many of the same basic steps we've gone through in the past 50 years (how many recent college graduates could tell you how to do floating-point division of a binary number?)
One problem I can see would be that we'd have almost a thousand years to build up legacy code before the dreaded Y3K bug hits--by 2090, people will have realized that, once again, they'd forgotten to use more than two digits for the year, but they only need to add in a third, right? Their code won't be around in a few hundred years, so there's no need to use four digits when three's plenty...and so the legacy grows...
Just think -- self-healing condoms! No longer worry about dying from ripping one of those little bastards.
Hmm...I see a potential problem...what if some of the glue packets break open, and the condom becomes "permanently affixed"? Could be painful, ebarrasing, or both...
"What's the next case, nurse?"
"Another couple needs to be separated, doctor, but I'm not sure you should take this one..."
From the article: "Doug Adkins, who developed the mechanical design for the new mini-robot, says the researchers further reduced its size by using a new rapid prototyping technique to form the device's body. Called stereolithography,..."
Ok, stereolithography was first launched in 1987--is fourteen-year-old technology really "new"?
As I was pondering what use there could be for these small robots other than voyeurism and keeping tabs on what employees really are doing, it occured to me that they could be useful for rescue operations, such as after earthquakes. Imagine releasing a horde of these guys through the rubble of a collapsed building--they'd be able to follow paths no human ever could, perhaps even the (remnants of the) plumbing system. And they could report to the rescuers the _exact_ location of any survivors they found, allowing rescuers to be much more accurate in their attempts to save people--rather than having to move the entire building, they just dig straight to the trapped people.
Of course, this requires that the robots become a bit more advanced, and actually include the sensors which are PLANNED, BUT NOT IMPLEMENTED YET.
They might be fulfilling to the programmer, but that does not necessarily mean that games programming is the highest form of programming. Don't get me wrong, I like a Quake deathmatch with the rest of the office as much as the next guy, but to say that games programming somehow transcends other software is wrong
Re-read his article. He's not claiming that programming games is inherently better than any other sort of programming; he's simply stating that, for him, it is what he wants to do, and what he does best. For him, it is the "sweetest spot". (Personally, I have to agree, but that's beside the point.)
If you program the system that runs a hospital, and you enjoy doing it, good. That may just be your "sweetest spot"--but not everyone's going to want to do so.
Also, to state that games are a little trivial compared to sending someone to the moon is roughly equivalent to saying that Beethoven is a little trivial compared to Eli Whitney. Art has a very important role in society, and many people feel that games can (and do) approach, at least, the level of art.
(Side note: I'm not trying to be condescending by defining IP twice, I just didn't want their to be confusion about which expansion of IP I was refering to.:-))
Hmm, here's a thought...if there's potential confusion over the abbreviations you're using because you're using the same letters for two very different things within a few sentences, why abbreviate at all? I mean, sure, it's all the rage to show off how you're comfortable with the subject matter to the point where you can toss around random-seeming letters, fully expecting others to understand them (ie., IP, SDMI, P2P, IMHO, IANAL, etc.), and that's been going on for far longer than the tech industry (I just used two different abbreviations which have been in use for so long that very few people actually remember what they stand for, for instance), but there should be a limit, somewhere...
Just a thought.
Buchanan's relatives and family friends live in Palm Beach.
I just made these up...
Actually, you got this last one (and perhaps the last two, depending on how much you feel the second depends on the third) correct. There're a fair number of posts in this thread about this, so I won't bother going into more specifics here.
I think it says a lot about the student body that an outcast kid can play their social game for a couple of weeks and win the Homecoming King title.
Er, actually, Katz seems to have gone beyond the article in describing him as an outcast. The article quotes Patrick as referring to "[his] friends, the downtrodden" when talking about the support he's gotten. He was on the Homecoming planning commitee, yes, but there's no mention anywhere in the article about whether he defines himself as a "geek". (Actually, geek doesn't appear in the article at all...)
From the article: Superintendent Davis said that if Griffiths didn't like the homecoming court selection process, he could have spoken to student government leaders, the school newspaper or any administrator on campus.
"There are many opportunities for any student to express dissatisfaction at Mira Costa," he said. "(Griffiths) was within the organization that plans homecoming. At no time did he express dissatisfaction with the process or the program. That's where it should have been expressed and dealt with."
Griffiths said he figured renouncing his crown at the homecoming game would make the strongest statement
So, he got suspended for voicing his opinion publicly. Sure, it was probably a disruption to the ceremony to have him walk away. If I were handing out the crown, I'm sure I wouldn't have known how to address the crowd at that point--but to suspend him? That's a bit much.
Besides, if he had spoken out to administrators, what would've happened? He would've been removed from the team he was on, someone else elected, and no one would've given it a second thought--except him. His voice would've been silenced before it could be heard.
Yeah, sure. Resist violently, get beaten up, arrested, charged (with resisting arrest at the least), probably have the local (or even national) news run an article about how this college hacker fought the FBI before being arrested and charged. Yes, that'll help things dramatically.
Not.
The average person reading that article, no matter how unbiased it tried to be, would automatically leap to the "Evil hacker, he must've fought 'em because he's guilty as hell" mindset. And that's simply not beneficial to anyone except for the true hacker, who suddenly finds himself with a convenient scapegoat.
Sounds to me like this guy responded appropriately.
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One problem I can see would be that we'd have almost a thousand years to build up legacy code before the dreaded Y3K bug hits--by 2090, people will have realized that, once again, they'd forgotten to use more than two digits for the year, but they only need to add in a third, right? Their code won't be around in a few hundred years, so there's no need to use four digits when three's plenty...and so the legacy grows...
Hmm...I see a potential problem...what if some of the glue packets break open, and the condom becomes "permanently affixed"? Could be painful, ebarrasing, or both...
"What's the next case, nurse?"
"Another couple needs to be separated, doctor, but I'm not sure you should take this one..."
"Why not? I'm feeling fine."
"Yes, doctor...but...she's your daughter."
Ok, stereolithography was first launched in 1987--is fourteen-year-old technology really "new"?
Of course, this requires that the robots become a bit more advanced, and actually include the sensors which are PLANNED, BUT NOT IMPLEMENTED YET.
Re-read his article. He's not claiming that programming games is inherently better than any other sort of programming; he's simply stating that, for him, it is what he wants to do, and what he does best. For him, it is the "sweetest spot". (Personally, I have to agree, but that's beside the point.)
If you program the system that runs a hospital, and you enjoy doing it, good. That may just be your "sweetest spot"--but not everyone's going to want to do so.
Also, to state that games are a little trivial compared to sending someone to the moon is roughly equivalent to saying that Beethoven is a little trivial compared to Eli Whitney. Art has a very important role in society, and many people feel that games can (and do) approach, at least, the level of art.
(Side note: I'm not trying to be condescending by defining IP twice, I just didn't want their to be confusion about which expansion of IP I was refering to. :-))
Hmm, here's a thought...if there's potential confusion over the abbreviations you're using because you're using the same letters for two very different things within a few sentences, why abbreviate at all? I mean, sure, it's all the rage to show off how you're comfortable with the subject matter to the point where you can toss around random-seeming letters, fully expecting others to understand them (ie., IP, SDMI, P2P, IMHO, IANAL, etc.), and that's been going on for far longer than the tech industry (I just used two different abbreviations which have been in use for so long that very few people actually remember what they stand for, for instance), but there should be a limit, somewhere... Just a thought.- Buchanan's relatives and family friends live in Palm Beach.
I just made these up...Actually, you got this last one (and perhaps the last two, depending on how much you feel the second depends on the third) correct. There're a fair number of posts in this thread about this, so I won't bother going into more specifics here.
Er, actually, Katz seems to have gone beyond the article in describing him as an outcast. The article quotes Patrick as referring to "[his] friends, the downtrodden" when talking about the support he's gotten. He was on the Homecoming planning commitee, yes, but there's no mention anywhere in the article about whether he defines himself as a "geek". (Actually, geek doesn't appear in the article at all...)
Superintendent Davis said that if Griffiths didn't like the homecoming court selection process, he could have spoken to student government leaders, the school newspaper or any administrator on campus.
"There are many opportunities for any student to express dissatisfaction at Mira Costa," he said. "(Griffiths) was within the organization that plans homecoming. At no time did he express dissatisfaction with the process or the program. That's where it should have been expressed and dealt with."
Griffiths said he figured renouncing his crown at the homecoming game would make the strongest statement
So, he got suspended for voicing his opinion publicly. Sure, it was probably a disruption to the ceremony to have him walk away. If I were handing out the crown, I'm sure I wouldn't have known how to address the crowd at that point--but to suspend him? That's a bit much.
Besides, if he had spoken out to administrators, what would've happened? He would've been removed from the team he was on, someone else elected, and no one would've given it a second thought--except him. His voice would've been silenced before it could be heard.
Not.
The average person reading that article, no matter how unbiased it tried to be, would automatically leap to the "Evil hacker, he must've fought 'em because he's guilty as hell" mindset. And that's simply not beneficial to anyone except for the true hacker, who suddenly finds himself with a convenient scapegoat.
Sounds to me like this guy responded appropriately.