Segway also revolutionised the Peter Gabriel concert I saw last week: he sang one song while riding on a Segway (both him and the main woman singer were rolling around the stage on their Segways) I guess Segways are sort-of-OK stage props. I liked the Texas concert better!
Peter Molyneux has done great games but lately he seems to have forgotten gameplay. Black and White should have been an excellent game, if only the pet had taken less of a center stage: it's not because you have one (not so) original (tamagotchi) idea that you have to sacrifice everything to it. Black & White could have been a good RTS with a twist.
the BBC feedback form is Here! this is my feedback to them: Stephen Evans' story (URL below) is a disgrace, and significantly changes my impression that I can trust the BBC to provide factual reporting. As I think you may get a few complaints, let me focus on the more blatant bits of journalistic unprofessionalism: (1)(quote)the run-of-the-mill geeks who wreak damage on the unsuspecting computer user(end quote) Does Mr Evans have any statistical evidence of what these "run-of-the-mill geeks" are. My analysis of the source of damage on computer user is much more that professional criminals: spammers, hackers with specific purposes, PR stunt agents, are to blame. (2)(quote)If anyone's anger has no measure, it is the wrath of internet zealots who believe that code should be free to all (open source). (end quote) This is a great misrepresentation of what open source is: open source software is not necessariliy free from associated payments, many companies are now basing a sound business model on the distribution, support, and services, around open source software: these are for-profit organisation. Mr Evans seems to have only a very vague idea on what open source actually is, and misrepresents it in a damaging way I think. (3) lack of reference: the Internet is full of detailed accounts on the ins-and-out of the SCO matter. Mr Evans provides links to none.
You, AC, while refering to Muslims, wrote: (quote) I think the only solution is to "clean them out" of the middle east like a farmer clean out rats from his barn. (end quote)(cough)(spit) Please consider for one second refering to any other ethnic group in such a despicable way, then look at yourself. Best Regards
Sadly, you are partly right. I am french, and am quite glad I moved to Switzerland. France has some serious issues. For example, read the book by the brother of Mr Moussaoui on what France was like for them (that Moussaoui guy is the 9/11 missing passenger)
You wrote: "The online experience so far also seems to be incredibly shallow, even if it is time consuming." Have you ever tried Neverwinter Nights in a properly organised game with DM(s) online ? No single player RPG will ever reach that level of quality. check it out!
I saw those in October: Sharp had a big booth, with these screeens on all the form factors. Altogether Very Nice, but I noticed that these screens are better on handhelds than on laptops, as positioning the screen to your eyes in the *right* (ie fiddly) way is natural with a handheld, but requires neck movemement with a laptop
I think you are right. One of the fundamental reasons why all of this is happening is that the very platform is going down: portable phones already have the processing power of PCs of not so long ago, once everybody is used to having computing in their pocket, what's the point of a "computer" with an "user interface". I am not an "user" I just need things done, I dont need an "interface", I just need things done!
Neverwinter Nights? exactly!
also... the best multi-player content is available, and for free, HERE
I DM'ed a few games, played a lot more, it is absolute fun.
Also players will burn about 2 or 3 hours a week there, ie a sane level.
That's a very good question !
In the wonderful 21st century world we live in now, being in the black (ie not in the red) is of little significance: classic stock valuation takes into account earnings that make it into dividends (ie the money being made and somehow passed back to the shareholder) and growth (the money that will be made later)
It's been a while now that stock valuation has very much been only growth-based, many "high tech" companises (all companies are high tech now) just "reinvesting" all their income (reinvesting into private jets, that is)
Anyway, "making money" is not enough, you can still be making 2% of return on investment, which then means the investement would have been better off in bonds, or in stocks (until mid-2000).
One famous economist's famous quote: "in the long term, we are all dead"
What I did to get pure silence from my still noisy PC was to put the PC in another part of the house, and run a KVM extender all the way to my room.
Complete silence.
Getting decent audio cables all the way for games and listening to CDs / MP3 's meant that I got more cabling than I at first thought, but apart from that it was a no brainer.
Going to higher video resolutions, say from 1600x1200 upwards may not work that well, check it out.
ps. I used a dakota kvm switch, had no problem.
Re:$1200 is.....MS omnipotent, Don't Think So
on
$1200 Cheap!
·
· Score: 1
I'm afraid you're of on a tangent there. That post you just made is not only offensive, it is also illegal in most (if not all) states.
If you scuba-dived one day does that make you a fish ?
There are hostile environments aplenty on Earth as it stands. You think human's organisation and technology is in any kind of good-enough shape to consider that Terraforming very-first-step ?
As far as I can see humans are more in the process of Mars/Venus-forming the Earth atmosphere.
There are many more technologies to be mastered than rockets and space suits before you can say humanity really entered space in any kind of meaningful way.
Disposable, yeah right. Have you considered where these thought of yours come from ? Are they really yours ?
Think 60's, arms race, long-range bomb delivery...
Ok, you do have a point.
However if you look at the majority of the posts, you'll see that it gets very mushy along the lines of equating XP to "doing the right thing", or just to prototyping, or peer review, or whatever. I was stressing the point that it is in the details and not the truisms / generalities that the value of method lies.
The one thing I do not want is some half-brained manager using her half understood version of XP to screw my project & team. I've seen it done with OO...
Also about refactoring: what does "not globaly" mean. We are talking about code, ie an abstraction. One small refactoring change may have big impacts (if not, then you wrote too much code !). And automated refactoring is a good thing if you can get it, and if you can't, pass me the red bull. (Ever tamed code monsters with the Cast workbench ?)
Apart from testing, another tidbit without which XP is just another swing of ye old formalism pendulum (you know, chaos vs. order, all that) is refactoring.
This is what distinguishes XP from prototyping.
Refactoring code is for example generating a function by taking a chunk out of an existing function. Refactoring, maybe, I'm not sure, prevents explosive complexity growth.
A proper automated refactoring tool is hard to develop, and your code base had better be in a very coherent language, like Smalltalk or maybe Lisp/Scheme.
IMHO XP in Java or C/C++ misses the point, and will go down in history as another misunderstood "fad".
thanks for quoting me, but dont be so sure: collective minds are also systems, the computer geek flaw is he's used to high-certainty/large-scale problem solving, while social skills mostly is a low-certainty/small-scale thing.
Try NLP, its mostly rubbish but the journey's interesting.
Greenspun is in the classical geek-trap: his good understanding of what happened results in his inability to prevent his description from looking very one-sided: maybe he's not jumping to conclusions, just getting there very fast!
I myself had some contact with Allen Shaheen at #$£*CTP (hope Novell cleans it up well), my bet is 4 to 1 that Greenspun is right.
A recent epidemiological study would tend to indicate that not only cell-phones have not (not yet?) triggered any surge in brain cancer, they also have had an effect on the reduction of early lung cancer occurence.
The only current explanation is socio-economical: cell-phone use competes with smoking in young adults' finances and adulthood self-image.
As for echelon, watch that ulcer.
XP does deliver...just like 4GL, RAD, even WaterFall, once upon a time did deliver: it's recent and looks modern, so attracts a following of programmers, team leaders, user environments that are more open-minded, ready to talk,... than average
When (if) it gets mainstream, the magic will just wear off...
One more enduring point in XP though: Smalltalk *is* a better language, not because it's OO, but because it's the most self contained & orthogonal.
Slashdot Mirror
Segway also revolutionised the Peter Gabriel concert I saw last week: he sang one song while riding on a Segway (both him and the main woman singer were rolling around the stage on their Segways) I guess Segways are sort-of-OK stage props.
I liked the Texas concert better!
Peter Molyneux has done great games but lately he seems to have forgotten gameplay. Black and White should have been an excellent game, if only the pet had taken less of a center stage: it's not because you have one (not so) original (tamagotchi) idea that you have to sacrifice everything to it. Black & White could have been a good RTS with a twist.
the BBC feedback form is Here!
this is my feedback to them:
Stephen Evans' story (URL below) is a disgrace, and significantly changes my impression that I can trust the BBC to provide factual reporting.
As I think you may get a few complaints, let me focus on the more blatant bits of journalistic unprofessionalism:
(1)(quote)the run-of-the-mill geeks who wreak damage on the unsuspecting computer user(end quote) Does Mr Evans have any statistical evidence of what these "run-of-the-mill geeks" are. My analysis of the source of damage on computer user is much more that professional criminals: spammers, hackers with specific purposes, PR stunt agents, are to blame.
(2)(quote)If anyone's anger has no measure, it is the wrath of internet zealots who believe that code should be free to all (open source).
(end quote)
This is a great misrepresentation of what open source is: open source software is not necessariliy free from associated payments, many companies are now basing a sound business model on the distribution, support, and services, around open source software: these are for-profit organisation. Mr Evans seems to have only a very vague idea on what open source actually is, and misrepresents it in a damaging way I think.
(3) lack of reference: the Internet is full of detailed accounts on the ins-and-out of the SCO matter. Mr Evans provides links to none.
You, AC, while refering to Muslims, wrote:
(quote)
I think the only solution is to "clean them out" of the middle east like a farmer clean out rats from his barn.
(end quote)(cough)(spit)
Please consider for one second refering to any other ethnic group in such a despicable way, then look at yourself.
Best Regards
Sadly, you are partly right. I am french, and am quite glad I moved to Switzerland. France has some serious issues. For example, read the book by the brother of Mr Moussaoui on what France was like for them (that Moussaoui guy is the 9/11 missing passenger)
You wrote:
"The online experience so far also seems to be incredibly shallow, even if it is time consuming."
Have you ever tried Neverwinter Nights in a properly organised game with DM(s) online ?
No single player RPG will ever reach that level of quality.
check it out!
I saw those in October: Sharp had a big booth, with these screeens on all the form factors. Altogether Very Nice, but I noticed that these screens are better on handhelds than on laptops, as positioning the screen to your eyes in the *right* (ie fiddly) way is natural with a handheld, but requires neck movemement with a laptop
I think you are right. One of the fundamental reasons why all of this is happening is that the very platform is going down: portable phones already have the processing power of PCs of not so long ago, once everybody is used to having computing in their pocket, what's the point of a "computer" with an "user interface". I am not an "user" I just need things done, I dont need an "interface", I just need things done!
...is the animatrix set of short animes.
At least from an artistic standpoint this is clearly where the W. brothers wanted to go.
The official sequel is just a $-mandatory, surprisingly sedate, and a bit sad really, exploitation of the brilliance of the original Matrix movie.
Neverwinter Nights? exactly! also... the best multi-player content is available, and for free, HERE I DM'ed a few games, played a lot more, it is absolute fun. Also players will burn about 2 or 3 hours a week there, ie a sane level.
What's next you ask ?
I do not know. I do have a collection of "Digital - Microsoft alliance" t-shirts from when DEC still existed.
Embrace and Extend.
That's a very good question !
In the wonderful 21st century world we live in now, being in the black (ie not in the red) is of little significance: classic stock valuation takes into account earnings that make it into dividends (ie the money being made and somehow passed back to the shareholder) and growth (the money that will be made later)
It's been a while now that stock valuation has very much been only growth-based, many "high tech" companises (all companies are high tech now) just "reinvesting" all their income (reinvesting into private jets, that is)
Anyway, "making money" is not enough, you can still be making 2% of return on investment, which then means the investement would have been better off in bonds, or in stocks (until mid-2000).
One famous economist's famous quote: "in the long term, we are all dead"
What I did to get pure silence from my still noisy PC was to put the PC in another part of the house, and run a KVM extender all the way to my room.
Complete silence.
Getting decent audio cables all the way for games and listening to CDs / MP3 's meant that I got more cabling than I at first thought, but apart from that it was a no brainer.
Going to higher video resolutions, say from 1600x1200 upwards may not work that well, check it out.
ps. I used a dakota kvm switch, had no problem.
I'm afraid you're of on a tangent there. That post you just made is not only offensive, it is also illegal in most (if not all) states.
If you scuba-dived one day does that make you a fish ? There are hostile environments aplenty on Earth as it stands. You think human's organisation and technology is in any kind of good-enough shape to consider that Terraforming very-first-step ? As far as I can see humans are more in the process of Mars/Venus-forming the Earth atmosphere. There are many more technologies to be mastered than rockets and space suits before you can say humanity really entered space in any kind of meaningful way. Disposable, yeah right. Have you considered where these thought of yours come from ? Are they really yours ? Think 60's, arms race, long-range bomb delivery ...
Ok, you do have a point. However if you look at the majority of the posts, you'll see that it gets very mushy along the lines of equating XP to "doing the right thing", or just to prototyping, or peer review, or whatever. I was stressing the point that it is in the details and not the truisms / generalities that the value of method lies. The one thing I do not want is some half-brained manager using her half understood version of XP to screw my project & team. I've seen it done with OO... Also about refactoring: what does "not globaly" mean. We are talking about code, ie an abstraction. One small refactoring change may have big impacts (if not, then you wrote too much code !). And automated refactoring is a good thing if you can get it, and if you can't, pass me the red bull. (Ever tamed code monsters with the Cast workbench ?)
Apart from testing, another tidbit without which XP is just another swing of ye old formalism pendulum (you know, chaos vs. order, all that) is refactoring. This is what distinguishes XP from prototyping. Refactoring code is for example generating a function by taking a chunk out of an existing function. Refactoring, maybe, I'm not sure, prevents explosive complexity growth. A proper automated refactoring tool is hard to develop, and your code base had better be in a very coherent language, like Smalltalk or maybe Lisp/Scheme. IMHO XP in Java or C/C++ misses the point, and will go down in history as another misunderstood "fad".
thanks for quoting me, but dont be so sure: collective minds are also systems, the computer geek flaw is he's used to high-certainty/large-scale problem solving, while social skills mostly is a low-certainty/small-scale thing.
Try NLP, its mostly rubbish but the journey's interesting.
Greenspun is in the classical geek-trap: his good understanding of what happened results in his inability to prevent his description from looking very one-sided: maybe he's not jumping to conclusions, just getting there very fast!
I myself had some contact with Allen Shaheen at #$£*CTP (hope Novell cleans it up well), my bet is 4 to 1 that Greenspun is right.
A recent epidemiological study would tend to indicate that not only cell-phones have not (not yet?) triggered any surge in brain cancer, they also have had an effect on the reduction of early lung cancer occurence. The only current explanation is socio-economical: cell-phone use competes with smoking in young adults' finances and adulthood self-image. As for echelon, watch that ulcer.
XP does deliver ...just like 4GL, RAD, even WaterFall, once upon a time did deliver: it's recent and looks modern, so attracts a following of programmers, team leaders, user environments that are more open-minded, ready to talk, ... than average
When (if) it gets mainstream, the magic will just wear off...
One more enduring point in XP though: Smalltalk *is* a better language, not because it's OO, but because it's the most self contained & orthogonal.