In Germany there actually is. It's called "Linux User".
As you might not know, Germany has the highest amount of Linux Users per capita. The interessting thing about this is, that Linux usage - through thorough help of SuSE, the dominant distro here, and serious advocacy through popular and well know politicians, is on the brink of actually reaching critical mass. You even get german standard commercial software for Linux - such as tax packages or accountant software. Most people who have some basic knowledge of computers have actually heard of Linux and more often than one may think have a slight grasp of the concept of "operating systems" and that "linux is something like Windows, but better if you know your way aroung PCs". Another funny thing is that SuSE is synonym for Linux. People actually say "Linux 8.0 is out now." But still: Until people stop using pirated software and actually are grabbed by the purse, windows is still gonna be there for a while. Allthoug the first german Linux Laptops are showing up (www.gericom.de) and every german geek is posed to tell *anybody* *not* to switch to XP. We'll just have to wait until M$ ceases to support 2K and the gouverment is finished migrating to Linux.:-)
I really don't know what your talking about. Are we talking about the same Programm? What is it that Blender supposedly can't handle large models? We all know Blenders booleans suck - but large models? Ok, it lacks certain features, but now where on earth is the Programm that beats Blenders unique interface to being a reference for how things can be streamlined? Missing configuration of shortcuts? That's not a reason to overthrough the whole thing. That can easyly be added on. And what makes you think you could actually improve restricted 2D Workspace Management beyond the one other detail of Blender that maybe needs finetuning? How do you toggle Screens and active-window-fullscreen in *your* 3D package? Telepathy? Don't get me wrong: Blender needs improvement. But improvement of the *existing* interface and feature set, such like: Object view sort grid (you say better herachy in the other post), proximity alignment (u call it "snapping"), undo (this shure is some bizar odity of B., I'll give you that), spline import, better rendering and some rough edges of the button layout. These are *all* things that don't interfere with Blenders existing philosophy of the GUI. I really don't get your point and calling 3DSMax a "low end 3D tool" dosn't help it. I don't like those wannabees thinking 3DSM is the cream of the crop just like you I guess - but gee wiz, "low end tool"...- that's leaning a bit far out, don't you think?
Are we talking past one another?
"Save Gaming - Kill a Magic Player today."
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Layoffs at WotC
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· Score: 2
WotC damaged intelligent gaming beyond repair. I feel no pitty what so ever for the company being bought by Hasbro after buying or chrushing nearly *every* RPG and Game Publisher in the buisness and then getting into shallow water. Magic and the following Wave of Trading Card games - that what made WotC turn from a 3 Person company into a 300+ company - drained an entire generation from a then solid culture of Pen and Paper RPGs with a substancial diversity. I'm feel sorry that those times had to pass so quickly. Damn WotC and their Magic, Pokemon and all that crap... (just the 2 cents of an old school gamer)
People ranting about Blenders GUI don't know what they're talking about and usually don't know much about 3D - or Blender, for that matter. While the learning curve is steep, once one has grasped it, everything falls into place and Blender becomes the 3D Workplace you'll never want to miss. In fact Blender has one of the most sophisticated GUIs out there. Its workspace management is unmatched, the OO structure using GL for rendering the controls is elegant and fast and the shortcuts are countless but still manage to be intutive. Unlike the utterly senseless habit of the OSS community of tearing everything apart in zillion little windows like Gimp of Sodipody - what a shame. A strategy thats absolutely wrong for these kind of programms.
Guy comes to Ronald Reagan: -"Mr. President, Mr. President, the Russians went up to the Moon and painted it red!" R. Reagan: "No Problem. Send an Apollo Mission to paint 'Coka Cola' across it."
Cash (C + Hash) == nice Idea, .Net == teh suxxo0rz
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C# for Java Developers
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· Score: 2
Cash deals with some syntax odities of simular languages in a nice way. It's a languageconcept worth while implementing..Net on the other hand sux. It's buggy as hell, runs only on Mickeysoft (so much for "platformindependent") and gains as the singular plus the choice between VB.Net, Cash.Net and some other proprietary M$ Coding lingua. Big fat hairy deal. Did anyone in the Industrie notice yet that near to zilch people are actually using.Net in a way that their offering products made with it? Either I wanna go M$, then I go native. Or I want go independent, then I go Java. Is that so hard to get across? No, folks,.Net is gonna fail - or it's gonna cost M$ another few billion and a change in market policy.
Hellooo? McFly? Anybody home? They are blocking 2 Billion + people of an Internetsite that's something like the cornerstone of online information! Don't you also think that a lot of powerpeople in the US and elsewhere envy the chinese powermongers for this? What will the world look like in 10 years from now, when books are getting scarce and drm is all over us like a polyester safari suit and each of us will be paying hard bucks only to view data - and even that will be censored? Pretty grim if you ask me... What I'm saying is: This is not the least bit funny!
Don't forget: You're selling Software to Software Developers. The customers you want are the ones you can't bullshit on about your product. So be honest and think of what these people want. Some simpple yet crucial rules you have to follow because of that: 1.) Solid Documentation.
2.) Works as Advertised and honesty about features and non-features. And don't just describe that something isn't supported, describe why and give them the opportunity to request little extensions that deal with the issue - you'll have a community in no time. (see www.gentleware.de as an example)
3.) Close contact/friendship. You and your customers ARE IN THE SAME BUISNESS!!! Give them space to discuss current problems in the field with your developers and get a feeling for the needs of the market. (if only Macromedia would do that...)
4.)Be good and tackle the difficult stuff that needs "Wow!" solutions - with a speciallized but modular aproach. In other words: Give me the tool I'm gonna bug my boss about! Nobody wants the zillionth IDE. Rather a rocksolid extension to existing OSS IDEs (example that I just had the other day : a Database binding administration tool that updates all the tedious error handling code and that kinda stuff automatically. Borlands proprietary stuff is cruddy and, well, proprietary and Netbeans lacks it)
If you make these rules your vision you're in for a solid long-term deal with a supperb customer base. Good luck and welcome to the buisness.
Netventures is the major shareholder of NaN Holding. Netventures bought in the deal to free the sources for 100K Euro - which actually is quite cheap, conisdering they lost a good deal of money with NaN Holding. Ton Roosendahl (afaik amongst others), even though former CEO of late NaN and NaN Holding, only is a minority shareholder. He couldn't just free the source on his own without NV popping a serious cap in his ass, allthoug he's probably the one who's got the source in his drawer. Deal is as soon as NV get 100K they give their "All go" for GPLing Blender.
Mickeysofts Giveaway Fonts where solid, good Typography. I'm suprised they gave them away for anyone in the first place. This is actually a good chance to get some GPLd Fonts under construction. The community needs good everyday capable scalable vector fonts - which are very rare - and, no, Motifs ultracrappy pixmaps aren't an option. This also is the time where we should be looking into the future and construct only complete sets of Unicode fonts rather than the 10millionth Helvetica rippoff.
Art is a Science. And hard work. I moved from Arts into the Software developement field. I'm trying to mix both. Don't fool yourself. Being a good artist and coming to the stuff that's fun to do and rewardable requires skill and long pratice. A day can go by with you being totally worked out without a thing achieved. Yet there's a very big upside in the computer related art field, which I actually (plan to) ride on: If you know how computers work or even can programm and have the artists skill to make good stuff that has awing potential you can go anywhere, achieve things the best artist couldn't achive and have a good chance of finding a 'license to print money'. My advice: Take drawing lessons and achieve a master skill level. Once you've learned the 'thinking around the corner' way of creative art with one skill (you have to go all the way in order to do so!) you can switch to any other by only learning the craft which then leaves you to choose whatever you wanna do: 3D, 2D vector, 2D pixel, Layout(web), Movie CGI/FX or - the big future - video gaming. It'll take a few years and you'll run into some walls, but it shure is cool. Good luck.
I was once about to study fashion design, so you might want to consider what I have to say: Scimpy Diamond rings are silly and pointless. In fact, making a diamond *ring* that makes sense is very difficult, because they tend to get clutsy and big, makeing even a woman look like a pimp wearing it. Eihter you want the shine of rock (diamonds are unique in the way they gather and reflect light - that's what makes them special and why they look cool when set up the right way) - then you need a certain amount for them to take effect. Check out the stuff from Bvlgary to see what I mean. To kinda answer your question: My LAP (Lebens Abschnitts Partner - "life period partner") and I (we've been together 8 years and have a 4 year old daughter) got a fitting Set of Stainless Steel rings for 100$ a piece. In platinum they would cost 1200$ a piece and look *exactly* the same. They look good, fit to *everything* I could wear (or not wear:-) ) and I actually *like* to wear mine, allthough I have to take it of when I type (which I do a lot). We took the remaining 2200$ and went on a vacation we'll have sweet memories about for the rest of our life. No, a scimpy zero-effect diamond pseudo-ring is not worth it. It's even pointless if you're serious about jewelery. If there's anything that's mindless luxury it's 'rare material' jewelery. If you can't buy it without even noticing the expense, kinda like Bill Gates or Malcom Forbes wouldn't notice, then see if you can make the idea of spending the diamond ring money for something of more value attractive to her. Don't get my wrong: If I where rich, I'd buy jewlery for my wife. The right way. Unfortunately, the stuff that actually looks good and moves away from pointless, crappy designed, "that little spec is a real diamond" to "wow, look at that - what a beautyfull necklace" comes from people like Bvlgary and Co. and costs 200K and above. If your wife doesn't look even more sexy with a piece of jewelery on her, chances are it is not the right jewelery for her or it's bad jewelery. The later is mostly the case. Keep that in mind when looking at the stuff. Good luck macking her happy.
As a former (!!) american citizen, I was suprised at how outraged I got reading this. Point is: If there is anything that makes up the 'political' side of the US majority, it's the fact that a sense for liberty or even anarchy is burried deep into the still persitant 'pioneer' spirit of US citizens. If political decisions are to be conducted by the people of the US, getting active is the only way for them (you) to get things moving back in the right direction. To be percise: Were this guy a konservative citizen of Switzerland, I could cope with his opinion. Lot's of high educated people crammed in a tight, overculturized place ought to find out for themselves when they do things wrong. Overreacting and jumping to blind activisim could be somewhat counterproductive in such an enviroment Or said otherwise: In larger parts of europe we've got the media for effective, in depth critical comments on politics. The US simply lacks a conform common level of education for political correction to work that way - kinda 'automatically', if you know what I mean. That's where it boils down to the real people and what they feel about their liberty. Let's face it folks: The last thing we all want is an USA 'going Orwell' - which it actually is doing in leaps and bounds at the time. The foremost thing that makes me think we can avoid that isn't a common political sense in the US, mind you, but the all-american peoples utter lack of humor when it finally gets to them that the fate of their hard earned liberty is at their hands. Bottom line: Don't listen to this 'wanna be' pseudo-european-cosmopolitan BS, get 'on the street' and tell John Doe what actually happening with this SSSCA, 'Patriot' and DMCA stuff, and kick some serious political butt before it's to late.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
In a way I know what he means - but he's wrong. I did a lot of Basic, Assembler and Opcode before I got into OOP. Those are 2 completely different ways of thinking, I'll give him (and everbody else) that. The Problem isn't the students though. Until now (15 years of computing) I haven't met a single softwaredeveloper with significant OOP skills that could actually explain to normal people how OOP works. CS theorist are big at insulting hands-on programmers. But as soon as it comes down to getting the message across and the team going they're often utterly clueless. I've learned the hard way. It took me years to grasp OOP even though I did programm years before - and I'm still chewing on my design patterns and UML. But when I'm finished, I'll actually be able to teach 'spagetti coders' the way - and not just bullshit about them like the arrogant rest of the pack.
Even proposing to take this guy and what he promotes for granted is so utterly bizare I can't help my self but laugh. Really, to me Cowboy Neal and Jacob Nielsen are on the same team. I mean, look at his site! Honestly now, chosing MySQL over Firebird on performance principles or stating that Linux is easier for a newbie than Windows is one thing, and pass if you are a slashdotter. But calling this guy with his sad and sorry excuse for a website the king of web usability is so gawdforesaken lame you wouldn't believe it.
I very much believe Jacob Nielsen and David Siegel (the other king of the web - the guy who 'invented' (ROTFL) spacer gifs) came to fame very much the same way. They started out early enough with gathering minions around them which provided links to each other and back to them - the so called 'other very good web experts'. Sewing a rumor that fed itself to full size. Just like the Windows 95 craze in times of OS/2 ('it's good... because lot's of people will use it so it's good... because lots of... you get the point)
No folks, really, trust me, this is NOT your metier. Calling this guy a webdesigner with a clue is like calling Bill Gates a fair buisnesspartner and a supplier of good software. And makes anyone calling him that a greater clown than even this Nielsen guy himself.
It's "Industry Standard". I mentioned Firebird the other day when a guy asked/. about a MySQl update feature. People didn't give a shit.
We use what we're used to, even if it's outdated or pointless. Other stuff is of no interest, Try telling a guy the advantages about Linux over WinXP and you'll know what I mean.
Can the human mind gain visualization skills in four dimensional geometry?... We never see four diminsions. The brain would keep wanting to make one dimension some known continuim such as time, a color sequence, tone, or intensity. Only after this intermediate step would you get a true four dimensional geometry in your head.
Your actually wrong in the second part. While our senses can't pick up more than 3D Sensory input our brain can very well imagine (and sense) more dimenions. It's simply a matter of training. Indian Yogis would call that 'meditation'.
The stuff those kind of people talk about like "when time becomes irrelevant" and such isn't some mystical BS (at least not with the honorable ones) - it's actually what you expierience when your brain is trained apropriately. Or forced into such condition by (ab)use of drugs. You can see "everything happen at once" like one would say. It's interesting that people reaching this kind of 'sense' have a syncronized activity of both halfs of the brain. Normaly we don't have that. But Yogis and people who have trained meditation can actually achieve such 'brainsyncing' at will. (a tranquil enviroment given)
Tibetian meditation 'training' is known to train the same as modern biofeedback 'brainsyncing', often with a nearly identical setup like: "look at those 2 spots and see them as one".
The Mac OS X version is still in the works but if you've got Linux on your IMac, it should run fine with Mesa (Software OpenGL). Oh - it's a Tron Game.;-) Check it out.
BotsnScouts is platfrom independent as it runs on Java. And it's a cool game - keeping in mind that it's a computerrized shameless rippoff of the Robo Rally Boardgame from Wizards of the Coast.:-) It's got hot seat, network multiplayer and a solid AI if you're lonely and/or need an extra opponent. Definetly check it out.
Listening to those RM guys ranting on D&D and calling their RPG 'realistic' allways has been a good laugh. Fact is that D&D and RM are RPG's that follow very much the same 'classical' principle of Charakterclasses, Levels and Hitpoints (aka 'CLH' RPG). And tons of pointless table-filled books to decash the junkies;-). Anyway, talking about realism in an RPG is silly even if the rules come as close to being plausile as it can be (GURPS and Milleniums End kinda go that direction). To me the hilarious paragraph-and-rulebook tonnage of CLH RPG's allways was the major downside of playability and fun. Torg was one of the first real reliefs I expierienced - and the Dramadeck is so much of an encouragement to drop CLH Hack'n'Slay I couldn't believe it. RPG's have come a long way since D&D (the DOS of RPG's), RM and it's heritage , it's kinda a shame people still stick to those game mechanisims that actually hinder roleplaying quite a bit (one would be suprised). Bottom line: If you wanna get an RPG, buy one of those which don't have Characterclasses, Expieriencelevels and Hitpoints. Everway, Torg, GURPS, and Milleniums End are a few that apply to that rule - and are worth looking at.
Oh, and please spare the endless "if you don't like the rules you can change them" and "rules aren't important, the people are" - I know those allready. Here's the response: You can by a good RPG in the first place, saves you a lot of time. And I usually pick my friends first, then pick the RPG. Might aswell be a good one.
Zip came close but failed. There's only on media which even still has the potential to cause a relief of the 3.5" Floppy. The MiniDisk. If Sony would have also made this a computer data storage media, we'd be looking at a new standard today. From what I gather, MD is/was somewhat error prone. Ok. So they should have made some rocksolid checksum mechanisim. They even could have wasted 10 or 15 MB on it without losing anything. (MD has 128MB!!!) But Sony had some psychological image problem barrier that kept them from establishing MD as a computer storage medium. So they could somehow put it on one level with the CD (which is Philips, remember?) That's a real shame. Now we've got yet another halfdead digital audio media and are still stuck with 3,5" - which is more expensive than MD! MD, as of today since it was established, is the best possible media when seeking the cheapest, physically smallest, phsycally durable, most widespread, digital RW storage. Mark my word: Even know Sony could start with MD Data drives and it still would have a good chance for causing floppy-reliefing impact.
First of all: We he say's is exactly why I think KWin (KDE Window Manager) sucks. It's a silly 'odze rippoff throwing all advance in Workspace management that OSS gained overboard. Or sort off. Take that pointless KDE Pager as an example.
THe other side to the coin is that he really isn't the GUI crack he considers himself. Creative Labs GUIs are far from inovative and an improvement in the 2D-stare-on Interface we have only will happen in small (but effective) changes in detail and not in a big bang revolution. Maybe he should check out a well configured Enlightenment, he'd be suprised about the difference it makes.
Slashdot Mirror
>Are there any "Linux Home" magazines?
:-)
In Germany there actually is. It's called "Linux User".
As you might not know, Germany has the highest amount of Linux Users per capita. The interessting thing about this is, that Linux usage - through thorough help of SuSE, the dominant distro here, and serious advocacy through popular and well know politicians, is on the brink of actually reaching critical mass. You even get german standard commercial software for Linux - such as tax packages or accountant software.
Most people who have some basic knowledge of computers have actually heard of Linux and more often than one may think have a slight grasp of the concept of "operating systems" and that "linux is something like Windows, but better if you know your way aroung PCs". Another funny thing is that SuSE is synonym for Linux. People actually say "Linux 8.0 is out now."
But still: Until people stop using pirated software and actually are grabbed by the purse, windows is still gonna be there for a while. Allthoug the first german Linux Laptops are showing up (www.gericom.de) and every german geek is posed to tell *anybody* *not* to switch to XP.
We'll just have to wait until M$ ceases to support 2K and the gouverment is finished migrating to Linux.
I really don't know what your talking about. Are we talking about the same Programm? What is it that Blender supposedly can't handle large models? We all know Blenders booleans suck - but large models?
Ok, it lacks certain features, but now where on earth is the Programm that beats Blenders unique interface to being a reference for how things can be streamlined?
Missing configuration of shortcuts? That's not a reason to overthrough the whole thing. That can easyly be added on. And what makes you think you could actually improve restricted 2D Workspace Management beyond the one other detail of Blender that maybe needs finetuning? How do you toggle Screens and active-window-fullscreen in *your* 3D package? Telepathy?
Don't get me wrong: Blender needs improvement. But improvement of the *existing* interface and feature set, such like: Object view sort grid (you say better herachy in the other post), proximity alignment (u call it "snapping"), undo (this shure is some bizar odity of B., I'll give you that), spline import, better rendering and some rough edges of the button layout. These are *all* things that don't interfere with Blenders existing philosophy of the GUI.
I really don't get your point and calling 3DSMax a "low end 3D tool" dosn't help it. I don't like those wannabees thinking 3DSM is the cream of the crop just like you I guess - but gee wiz, "low end tool"...- that's leaning a bit far out, don't you think?
Are we talking past one another?
WotC damaged intelligent gaming beyond repair. I feel no pitty what so ever for the company being bought by Hasbro after buying or chrushing nearly *every* RPG and Game Publisher in the buisness and then getting into shallow water.
Magic and the following Wave of Trading Card games - that what made WotC turn from a 3 Person company into a 300+ company - drained an entire generation from a then solid culture of Pen and Paper RPGs with a substancial diversity. I'm feel sorry that those times had to pass so quickly.
Damn WotC and their Magic, Pokemon and all that crap...
(just the 2 cents of an old school gamer)
People ranting about Blenders GUI don't know what they're talking about and usually don't know much about 3D - or Blender, for that matter.
While the learning curve is steep, once one has grasped it, everything falls into place and Blender becomes the 3D Workplace you'll never want to miss.
In fact Blender has one of the most sophisticated GUIs out there. Its workspace management is unmatched, the OO structure using GL for rendering the controls is elegant and fast and the shortcuts are countless but still manage to be intutive.
Unlike the utterly senseless habit of the OSS community of tearing everything apart in zillion little windows like Gimp of Sodipody - what a shame. A strategy thats absolutely wrong for these kind of programms.
Guy comes to Ronald Reagan:
-"Mr. President, Mr. President, the Russians went up to the Moon and painted it red!"
R. Reagan: "No Problem. Send an Apollo Mission to paint 'Coka Cola' across it."
Cash deals with some syntax odities of simular languages in a nice way. It's a languageconcept worth while implementing. .Net on the other hand sux. It's buggy as hell, runs only on Mickeysoft (so much for "platformindependent") and gains as the singular plus the choice between VB .Net, Cash .Net and some other proprietary M$ Coding lingua. Big fat hairy deal. .Net in a way that their offering products made with it? .Net is gonna fail - or it's gonna cost M$ another few billion and a change in market policy.
Did anyone in the Industrie notice yet that near to zilch people are actually using
Either I wanna go M$, then I go native. Or I want go independent, then I go Java. Is that so hard to get across?
No, folks,
It says something like 'runs with slight modifications'. *MEEEEP!*
Wrong answer.
200K still waiting for anyone who dares to go for it.
Hellooo? McFly? Anybody home?
They are blocking 2 Billion + people of an Internetsite that's something like the cornerstone of online information!
Don't you also think that a lot of powerpeople in the US and elsewhere envy the chinese powermongers for this? What will the world look like in 10 years from now, when books are getting scarce and drm is all over us like a polyester safari suit and each of us will be paying hard bucks only to view data - and even that will be censored?
Pretty grim if you ask me...
What I'm saying is: This is not the least bit funny!
Don't forget: You're selling Software to Software Developers.
The customers you want are the ones you can't bullshit on about your product. So be honest and think of what these people want.
Some simpple yet crucial rules you have to follow because of that:
1.) Solid Documentation.
2.) Works as Advertised and honesty about features and non-features. And don't just describe that something isn't supported, describe why and give them the opportunity to request little extensions that deal with the issue - you'll have a community in no time. (see www.gentleware.de as an example)
3.) Close contact/friendship. You and your customers ARE IN THE SAME BUISNESS!!! Give them space to discuss current problems in the field with your developers and get a feeling for the needs of the market. (if only Macromedia would do that...)
4.)Be good and tackle the difficult stuff that needs "Wow!" solutions - with a speciallized but modular aproach. In other words: Give me the tool I'm gonna bug my boss about! Nobody wants the zillionth IDE. Rather a rocksolid extension to existing OSS IDEs (example that I just had the other day : a Database binding administration tool that updates all the tedious error handling code and that kinda stuff automatically. Borlands proprietary stuff is cruddy and, well, proprietary and Netbeans lacks it)
If you make these rules your vision you're in for a solid long-term deal with a supperb customer base.
Good luck and welcome to the buisness.
Netventures is the major shareholder of NaN Holding. Netventures bought in the deal to free the sources for 100K Euro - which actually is quite cheap, conisdering they lost a good deal of money with NaN Holding.
Ton Roosendahl (afaik amongst others), even though former CEO of late NaN and NaN Holding, only is a minority shareholder. He couldn't just free the source on his own without NV popping a serious cap in his ass, allthoug he's probably the one who's got the source in his drawer.
Deal is as soon as NV get 100K they give their "All go" for GPLing Blender.
Mickeysofts Giveaway Fonts where solid, good Typography. I'm suprised they gave them away for anyone in the first place.
This is actually a good chance to get some GPLd Fonts under construction. The community needs good everyday capable scalable vector fonts - which are very rare - and, no, Motifs ultracrappy pixmaps aren't an option. This also is the time where we should be looking into the future and construct only complete sets of Unicode fonts rather than the 10millionth Helvetica rippoff.
Art is a Science. And hard work. I moved from Arts into the Software developement field. I'm trying to mix both.
Don't fool yourself. Being a good artist and coming to the stuff that's fun to do and rewardable requires skill and long pratice. A day can go by with you being totally worked out without a thing achieved. Yet there's a very big upside in the computer related art field, which I actually (plan to) ride on:
If you know how computers work or even can programm and have the artists skill to make good stuff that has awing potential you can go anywhere, achieve things the best artist couldn't achive and have a good chance of finding a 'license to print money'.
My advice: Take drawing lessons and achieve a master skill level. Once you've learned the 'thinking around the corner' way of creative art with one skill (you have to go all the way in order to do so!) you can switch to any other by only learning the craft which then leaves you to choose whatever you wanna do: 3D, 2D vector, 2D pixel, Layout(web), Movie CGI/FX or - the big future - video gaming. It'll take a few years and you'll run into some walls, but it shure is cool. Good luck.
[Nitpick mode on]
:-)
Titanium actually isn't an alloy. It's a chemical element and a pure metal in it's own right.
[Nitpick mode off]
Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't want you go discriminating on such a fine metal, y'know?
I was once about to study fashion design, so you might want to consider what I have to say: :-) ) and I actually *like* to wear mine, allthough I have to take it of when I type (which I do a lot).
Scimpy Diamond rings are silly and pointless. In fact, making a diamond *ring* that makes sense is very difficult, because they tend to get clutsy and big, makeing even a woman look like a pimp wearing it. Eihter you want the shine of rock (diamonds are unique in the way they gather and reflect light - that's what makes them special and why they look cool when set up the right way) - then you need a certain amount for them to take effect. Check out the stuff from Bvlgary to see what I mean.
To kinda answer your question:
My LAP (Lebens Abschnitts Partner - "life period partner") and I (we've been together 8 years and have a 4 year old daughter) got a fitting Set of Stainless Steel rings for 100$ a piece. In platinum they would cost 1200$ a piece and look *exactly* the same. They look good, fit to *everything* I could wear (or not wear
We took the remaining 2200$ and went on a vacation we'll have sweet memories about for the rest of our life. No, a scimpy zero-effect diamond pseudo-ring is not worth it. It's even pointless if you're serious about jewelery.
If there's anything that's mindless luxury it's 'rare material' jewelery. If you can't buy it without even noticing the expense, kinda like Bill Gates or Malcom Forbes wouldn't notice, then see if you can make the idea of spending the diamond ring money for something of more value attractive to her. Don't get my wrong:
If I where rich, I'd buy jewlery for my wife. The right way. Unfortunately, the stuff that actually looks good and moves away from pointless, crappy designed, "that little spec is a real diamond" to "wow, look at that - what a beautyfull necklace" comes from people like Bvlgary and Co. and costs 200K and above. If your wife doesn't look even more sexy with a piece of jewelery on her, chances are it is not the right jewelery for her or it's bad jewelery. The later is mostly the case. Keep that in mind when looking at the stuff.
Good luck macking her happy.
As a former (!!) american citizen, I was suprised at how outraged I got reading this.
Point is: If there is anything that makes up the 'political' side of the US majority, it's the fact that a sense for liberty or even anarchy is burried deep into the still persitant 'pioneer' spirit of US citizens.
If political decisions are to be conducted by the people of the US, getting active is the only way for them (you) to get things moving back in the right direction.
To be percise: Were this guy a konservative citizen of Switzerland, I could cope with his opinion. Lot's of high educated people crammed in a tight, overculturized place ought to find out for themselves when they do things wrong. Overreacting and jumping to blind activisim could be somewhat counterproductive in such an enviroment
Or said otherwise: In larger parts of europe we've got the media for effective, in depth critical comments on politics. The US simply lacks a conform common level of education for political correction to work that way - kinda 'automatically', if you know what I mean. That's where it boils down to the real people and what they feel about their liberty.
Let's face it folks: The last thing we all want is an USA 'going Orwell' - which it actually is doing in leaps and bounds at the time. The foremost thing that makes me think we can avoid that isn't a common political sense in the US, mind you, but the all-american peoples utter lack of humor when it finally gets to them that the fate of their hard earned liberty is at their hands.
Bottom line: Don't listen to this 'wanna be' pseudo-european-cosmopolitan BS, get 'on the street' and tell John Doe what actually happening with this SSSCA, 'Patriot' and DMCA stuff, and kick some serious political butt before it's to late.
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
In a way I know what he means - but he's wrong. I did a lot of Basic, Assembler and Opcode before I got into OOP. Those are 2 completely different ways of thinking, I'll give him (and everbody else) that.
The Problem isn't the students though. Until now (15 years of computing) I haven't met a single softwaredeveloper with significant OOP skills that could actually explain to normal people how OOP works. CS theorist are big at insulting hands-on programmers. But as soon as it comes down to getting the message across and the team going they're often utterly clueless.
I've learned the hard way. It took me years to grasp OOP even though I did programm years before - and I'm still chewing on my design patterns and UML. But when I'm finished, I'll actually be able to teach 'spagetti coders' the way - and not just bullshit about them like the arrogant rest of the pack.
Even proposing to take this guy and what he promotes for granted is so utterly bizare I can't help my self but laugh. Really, to me Cowboy Neal and Jacob Nielsen are on the same team.
... because lot's of people will use it so it's good ... because lots of... you get the point)
I mean, look at his site!
Honestly now, chosing MySQL over Firebird on performance principles or stating that Linux is easier for a newbie than Windows is one thing, and pass if you are a slashdotter.
But calling this guy with his sad and sorry excuse for a website the king of web usability is so gawdforesaken lame you wouldn't believe it.
I very much believe Jacob Nielsen and David Siegel (the other king of the web - the guy who 'invented' (ROTFL) spacer gifs) came to fame very much the same way. They started out early enough with gathering minions around them which provided links to each other and back to them - the so called 'other very good web experts'. Sewing a rumor that fed itself to full size. Just like the Windows 95 craze in times of OS/2 ('it's good
No folks, really, trust me, this is NOT your metier. Calling this guy a webdesigner with a clue is like calling Bill Gates a fair buisnesspartner and a supplier of good software. And makes anyone calling him that a greater clown than even this Nielsen guy himself.
It's "Industry Standard". /. about a MySQl update feature. People didn't give a shit.
I mentioned Firebird the other day when a guy asked
We use what we're used to, even if it's outdated or pointless. Other stuff is of no interest, Try telling a guy the advantages about Linux over WinXP and you'll know what I mean.
Can the human mind gain visualization skills in four dimensional geometry? ... We never see four diminsions. The brain would keep wanting to make one dimension some known continuim such as time, a color sequence, tone, or intensity. Only after this intermediate step would you get a true four dimensional geometry in your head.
Your actually wrong in the second part. While our senses can't pick up more than 3D Sensory input our brain can very well imagine (and sense) more dimenions. It's simply a matter of training.
Indian Yogis would call that 'meditation'.
The stuff those kind of people talk about like "when time becomes irrelevant" and such isn't some mystical BS (at least not with the honorable ones) - it's actually what you expierience when your brain is trained apropriately. Or forced into such condition by (ab)use of drugs.
You can see "everything happen at once" like one would say. It's interesting that people reaching this kind of 'sense' have a syncronized activity of both halfs of the brain.
Normaly we don't have that. But Yogis and people who have trained meditation can actually achieve such 'brainsyncing' at will. (a tranquil enviroment given)
Tibetian meditation 'training' is known to train the same as modern biofeedback 'brainsyncing', often with a nearly identical setup like: "look at those 2 spots and see them as one".
The Mac OS X version is still in the works but if you've got Linux on your IMac, it should run fine with Mesa (Software OpenGL). Oh - it's a Tron Game. ;-)
Check it out.
BotsnScouts is platfrom independent as it runs on Java. And it's a cool game - keeping in mind that it's a computerrized shameless rippoff of the Robo Rally Boardgame from Wizards of the Coast. :-)
It's got hot seat, network multiplayer and a solid AI if you're lonely and/or need an extra opponent. Definetly check it out.
Why bother with the endless MySQL/Postgres dispute when a completely redone Interbase has just gone gold with 1.0 final?
And it's GPL'd of course.
Listening to those RM guys ranting on D&D and calling their RPG 'realistic' allways has been a good laugh. ;-) .
Fact is that D&D and RM are RPG's that follow very much the same 'classical' principle of Charakterclasses, Levels and Hitpoints (aka 'CLH' RPG). And tons of pointless table-filled books to decash the junkies
Anyway, talking about realism in an RPG is silly even if the rules come as close to being plausile as it can be (GURPS and Milleniums End kinda go that direction).
To me the hilarious paragraph-and-rulebook tonnage of CLH RPG's allways was the major downside of playability and fun. Torg was one of the first real reliefs I expierienced - and the Dramadeck is so much of an encouragement to drop CLH Hack'n'Slay I couldn't believe it.
RPG's have come a long way since D&D (the DOS of RPG's), RM and it's heritage , it's kinda a shame people still stick to those game mechanisims that actually hinder roleplaying quite a bit (one would be suprised).
Bottom line:
If you wanna get an RPG, buy one of those which don't have Characterclasses, Expieriencelevels and Hitpoints. Everway, Torg, GURPS, and Milleniums End are a few that apply to that rule - and are worth looking at.
Oh, and please spare the endless "if you don't like the rules you can change them" and "rules aren't important, the people are" - I know those allready. Here's the response: You can by a good RPG in the first place, saves you a lot of time. And I usually pick my friends first, then pick the RPG. Might aswell be a good one.
Zip came close but failed. There's only on media which even still has the potential to cause a relief of the 3.5" Floppy.
The MiniDisk.
If Sony would have also made this a computer data storage media, we'd be looking at a new standard today.
From what I gather, MD is/was somewhat error prone. Ok. So they should have made some rocksolid checksum mechanisim. They even could have wasted 10 or 15 MB on it without losing anything. (MD has 128MB!!!)
But Sony had some psychological image problem barrier that kept them from establishing MD as a computer storage medium. So they could somehow put it on one level with the CD (which is Philips, remember?) That's a real shame. Now we've got yet another halfdead digital audio media and are still stuck with 3,5" - which is more expensive than MD! MD, as of today since it was established, is the best possible media when seeking the cheapest, physically smallest, phsycally durable, most widespread, digital RW storage.
Mark my word: Even know Sony could start with MD Data drives and it still would have a good chance for causing floppy-reliefing impact.
First of all:
We he say's is exactly why I think KWin (KDE Window Manager) sucks. It's a silly 'odze rippoff throwing all advance in Workspace management that OSS gained overboard. Or sort off. Take that pointless KDE Pager as an example.
THe other side to the coin is that he really isn't the GUI crack he considers himself. Creative Labs GUIs are far from inovative and an improvement in the 2D-stare-on Interface we have only will happen in small (but effective) changes in detail and not in a big bang revolution. Maybe he should check out a well configured Enlightenment, he'd be suprised about the difference it makes.