We US engineers are either bored building endless varieties of consumer crap or worrying what are we will be asked to build in a war with Russia and Iran.
Except those of us who actually have decent jobs working on rockets. Yes, my children think I'm awesome.
My neighbors and coworkers say I look like Gordon Freeman.
Therefore, Gordon Freeman must be cute.
So, it's established. However my wife also says the Gordon Freeman looks mean and I don't. I think that may be because I don't generally carry a crowbar, although I've been considering it lately.
Was that the one of them with the old woman who turns into a snake or one of the other ones?
Actually, I love Bollywood films, even ones with women who turn into snakes. I suddenly have the urge to go home and watch Dil Chahta Hai again, or at least all the parts with Preity Zinta and the singing/dancing theater scene with Pooja. Too bad no one turns into a snake in that one, though.
My favorite implementation of dueling in computer games is still "Curse of Monkey Island"; you have to figure out the correct witty comeback in order to win your duels. It's one of the best (or at least most amusing) puzzles I've ever seen.
Curse of Monkey Island takes the insult swordfighting from the first game in the series, Secret of Monkey Island where the insults happened to be written by Orson Scott Card. Really. I would love to see a MMO game that incorporates witty banter so maybe he can put some of that in there.
For what it's worth, Card also wrote all the dialog for another old LucasArts game, The Dig.
Ultimately all such games require conflict as much as cooperation, and without combat, conflict feels lacking in many such games.
Orson Scott Card is already quite experienced in video game combat. He wrote all of the insults for the insult swordfighting in Secret of Monkey Island, the first Monkey Island game. Although I guess this type of "fighting" is naturally inherent among players in MMORPGs in general, maybe he can make it fresh with less expletives and more wit.
It's not the games ommitted from the review that bother me so much (like the Japanese NES Star Wars game where Darth Vader turns into a giant scorpion on the first level - I play it just to see that), it's the blatant errors in the article like these.
[Bounty Hunter] finally gave people a chance to take control of a Fett, specifically Attack of the Clones' Jango.
What about Star Wars: Demolition? You can control Boba Fett and blow the crap out of everything. What more does one want to do with a Fett?
Even better, you can play Boba Fett: Gungan Hunter by entering the GUNGANHUNT cheat code in Demolition and playing Hunt-a-Droid where all the droids are replaced by Jar-Jar. The joy of being Boba Fett on a planet full of Jar-Jars who exclaim "How wude!" as they are reduced to a pile of bones just cannot be equalled by other Star Wars games.
Last but not least, [Galaxies] was the first Star Wars game that let you become a Wookiee.
What about Galactic Battlegrounds? Were those Wookies I thought I controlled just William Wallace from Age of Empires 2 in a wookie suit?
If mistakes are made in such important details as these, how can anyone trust the article for making important Star Wars gaming decisions?
That reminds me of the first Star Wars game I ever played. It was a game written in BASIC on a Commodore PET. You were a tie fighter stunningly rendered in alternate keyboard graphics shooting equally stunning X wings that would appear in the way while moving from side to side in a trench with amazingly flat slash and back-slash walls. And I loved it.
I loved it so much it inspired me to learn to program which led me to where I am today. Curse that game.
Lego Harry Potter Creator actually had a Chamber of Secrets sequel, so the first one must not have been a total disaster. My son liked it. He is a big fan of the original Lego Creator as well, so that's no big surprise.
This game looks more like the Lego games that use characters, not building things like Creator. The Lego Creator games are very complex, but most of their games aren't like that. Some of them are quite fun. Lego Rock Raiders is quite an entertaining RTS game. The Lego World Builder shockwave game on Lego.com is a fun game requiring good resource management but takes just minutes to learn. The Creator games are the ultimate in Lego game complexity, so it would be harsh to judge their other games based on them.
Since the PS2 plays PS1 games, you can always play Star Wars Demolition with the GUNGANHUNT cheat code. All the droids in the Hunt-a-droid games turn into Jar-Jars which say "How Wude!" when you shoot them and they turn into a pile of bones.
If sabotage is the suspected cause, why was this person not brought to justice? The Indian authorities are well aware of the identity of the employee and the nature of the evidence against him.
I once attended a presentation made by someone closely involved in the inquiry. As I recall, the sabateur died in the "accident". When you have people clamoring for justice and the accused is deceased, it's hard to have closure.
My wife lived in Mossyrock, WA at the time of the big eruption. Too close for comfort. Her strongest memories from that time are
Being in Morton when it blew and having to return home - toward the volcano - while the eruption was occurring. There was ash, including firey bits as she describes it, falling all around as they drove home. Sounds like hell's equivalent of a snowstorm.
Wearing snow boots for weeks to go anywhere, particularly school, and trudging through all the ash.
Checking out the tracks left by insects in the ash as they wandered about.
Thinking everyone she knew who lived elsewhere was nuts for thinking it was cool to collect ash that had fallen from the volcano, or even worse, buying it as a memento. It was everywhere, who could possibly want it?
I'd go for the snowboot and shovel markets if I was there, I think. That and selling the ash to those living too far away to be blessed by it's falling in their yard.
As for me, I thought it was so cool that I had a small bag of Mt St Helens ash I purchased with a photo of the eruption. I'm not sure if I've ever shared that little nugget of info with her.
I also am a big fan of Total Annihilation. It's hard not to be.
But regarding the original post, I would have to say that Total Annihilation: Kingdoms benefitted much more from modern hardware. TA ran great at the time of its release. TA:K on the other hand was a beast to run which was likely part of what made it less successful than it could have been. On newer systems it's beautiful. The smooth movements and details are impressive. The more organic feel to it than TA had makes it more difficult to pull off, so it definitely has benefitted from more modern hardware.
It just so happens a lot of us crusty old buggers are still kids at heart and somewhere between the adult and the kid in us we get confused and angry over unmet expectations.
Actually, I think it's more like crusty old buggers at heart trying to act like kids.
Kids get over unmet expectations quickly, adapt and enjoy, and that's only if they have high expectations in the first place. Crusty old buggers...well...they have too much old crust hindering their ability to change and making them ornery. The only kids I've seen who have high expectations in trivial things and cry foul when they are unmet are those who have been conditioned by adults to not enjoy the wonders around them. For a kid, many things in the world should be wonders.
As an American* working in Canada, I'll tell you that in my experience yes, it is more open and relaxed than in the US. That is until your company becomes noticed as an aquisition target because it's so successful and a US company sucks it up to help keep them alive. Having been through the experience, the contrast in company cultures was tremendous and the resulting atmosphere in the company continues to be depressing and as filled with corporate politics and frustrations as one could imagine.
My advice: if you find a good job in Canada with the atmosphere you seek, enjoy it while it lasts. I did. And since then I've moved on to a smaller Canadian company where I enjoy the relaxed culture still, sadly I just don't get paid as well for it.
As an aside, for an excellent resource on Canadian culture in general compared to the US, see Emily Way's An American's Guide to Canada. There is much useful info there.
*Disclaimer: For those who are anal about such things, yes, I generally refer to myself as an American, prefectly aware that there are many other countries upon the American continent. But having lived in three other countries apart from the US, I have found that by refering to yourself as a US citizen, estadounidense, or whatever else often tends to confuse people. Really, it does. Once they realize what you're saying, they invariably reply "oh, you're American". So after years of trying to buck the trend, I've given in to the pressure from residents of other countries, including Canada and Mexico, the two countries with the most right to be offended by such a moniker, and call myself an American.
Apparently eBay is doing something right, but with no buyer protection, no seller authentication, and no desire to participate in seller-buyer conflicts, no return policy, can the business model be sustained?
eBay Business Model in Slashspeak
1. Create website marketplace 2. Others go about their business 3. Profit! 4. ????
Um, you mean there's something after profit? Whoa. Never gotten that far before.
Okay, maybe expecting the Internet Archive to take care of my online presence for me in the event of my demise is a bit much, but it's not like I'll be wanting to change my site after my death.
And if it so happens that I change my mind and do want to change it after I'm dead, let's see if their fancy-schmancy network security can stop a ghost.
Speaking from related experience, this is true. Interrupting lunch is a very bad idea.
On the first day of grade 1 way back in the day, my class and I were standing in line to go into the mostly full cafeteria. The kid next to me said "Hey, pull that" and pointed at the fire alarm. "What is it?" I asked. "It's cool" he replied, or something to that effect. After a bit of coaxing, I did indeed pull the fire alarm. For the rest of the year, I was not known as the kid who got everyone out of the evil exam, but the one who pulled the alarm DURING LUNCH on the first day of school. The principal didn't believe that I didn't know what it was, which was in fact the case. My eyes were opened to many important realities of life through that little experience.
And now I'm doomed to wander the earth and repeat the story to all who will listen.
Why do we keep assuming, all available evidence to the contrary, that SCO's strategies have anything to do with running a successful business?
Perhaps their strategy is to horribly fail at every they do for some unknown reason.
Maybe Darl has watched The Producers one too many times. Just replace the rich little old ladies with companies and making out with...um...corporate making out. Then when everything fails quickly, they make off with a bunch of cash. The only thing that could mess up their plan is for SCO to do something as ridiculous as Springtime for Hitler and be successful for their how-can-they-be-so-stupid entertainment value...
On second thought, maybe he should have watched The Producers one more time.
Now just give them a fake name in the first place, say something from a prank call to Moe's from the Simpsons, and watch the hilarity ensue as the cashier considers whether or not to say your name out loud.
I hate carrying my card with me so I just give my phone number. Safeway has my phone number tied to someone else's name and info. They messed up, it wasn't deliberate on my part. So everytime I go there they look at me funny as they say "Thank you, Mr. Um...". I think my name is now Vishwa Naidici to them and that definitely doesn't look like a typical name for a young white male.
Without colors, you're depriving yourself of important information.
Thanks a lot. I'll pass that on to my parents if they decide to go back in time to conceive and pass on their color-blind genes to me all over again.
And I thought it was only colors I had problems with, now I know I'm missing information as well. What more can I have missed out on all these long years?!?
Oh, come on now, this is Google we're talking about. Just look it up yourself. Here it is in one click without having expend all that effort to type all four letters yourself. (Warning: The answer is not pretty)
Ah, that explains the extraordinary talent displayed by all on Canadian Idol, ha ha.
As an American living in Canada, even though I don't like your example and think it ridiculous, I would have to agree with your conclusion. Now that leads to a discussion of what type of politicians you get when they are voted in by the people and the people are looking for comedy...wow, I suddenly understand how the incredibly appealing and charismatic Jean Chretien managed to become PM and stay in office so long! The comedy on CBC is just not the same since he left office...
Slashdot Mirror
We US engineers are either bored building endless varieties of consumer crap or worrying what are we will be asked to build in a war with Russia and Iran.
Except those of us who actually have decent jobs working on rockets. Yes, my children think I'm awesome.
Follow me here.
My wife says I'm cute.
My neighbors and coworkers say I look like Gordon Freeman.
Therefore, Gordon Freeman must be cute.
So, it's established. However my wife also says the Gordon Freeman looks mean and I don't. I think that may be because I don't generally carry a crowbar, although I've been considering it lately.
Was that the one of them with the old woman who turns into a snake or one of the other ones?
Actually, I love Bollywood films, even ones with women who turn into snakes. I suddenly have the urge to go home and watch Dil Chahta Hai again, or at least all the parts with Preity Zinta and the singing/dancing theater scene with Pooja. Too bad no one turns into a snake in that one, though.
My favorite implementation of dueling in computer games is still "Curse of Monkey Island"; you have to figure out the correct witty comeback in order to win your duels. It's one of the best (or at least most amusing) puzzles I've ever seen.
Curse of Monkey Island takes the insult swordfighting from the first game in the series, Secret of Monkey Island where the insults happened to be written by Orson Scott Card. Really. I would love to see a MMO game that incorporates witty banter so maybe he can put some of that in there.
For what it's worth, Card also wrote all the dialog for another old LucasArts game, The Dig.
Ultimately all such games require conflict as much as cooperation, and without combat, conflict feels lacking in many such games.
Orson Scott Card is already quite experienced in video game combat. He wrote all of the insults for the insult swordfighting in Secret of Monkey Island, the first Monkey Island game. Although I guess this type of "fighting" is naturally inherent among players in MMORPGs in general, maybe he can make it fresh with less expletives and more wit.
"You fight like a dairy farmer!"
"How appropriate, you fight like a cow!"
Yeah, I can see this.
So they can clone a PET, but what about a SuperPET?
Dual processors, five programming languages built in, 96k RAM and stacks of detailed manuals. I'd take one of those for a dollar.
It's not the games ommitted from the review that bother me so much (like the Japanese NES Star Wars game where Darth Vader turns into a giant scorpion on the first level - I play it just to see that), it's the blatant errors in the article like these.
[Bounty Hunter] finally gave people a chance to take control of a Fett, specifically Attack of the Clones' Jango.
What about Star Wars: Demolition? You can control Boba Fett and blow the crap out of everything. What more does one want to do with a Fett?
Even better, you can play Boba Fett: Gungan Hunter by entering the GUNGANHUNT cheat code in Demolition and playing Hunt-a-Droid where all the droids are replaced by Jar-Jar. The joy of being Boba Fett on a planet full of Jar-Jars who exclaim "How wude!" as they are reduced to a pile of bones just cannot be equalled by other Star Wars games.
Last but not least, [Galaxies] was the first Star Wars game that let you become a Wookiee.
What about Galactic Battlegrounds? Were those Wookies I thought I controlled just William Wallace from Age of Empires 2 in a wookie suit?
If mistakes are made in such important details as these, how can anyone trust the article for making important Star Wars gaming decisions?
That reminds me of the first Star Wars game I ever played. It was a game written in BASIC on a Commodore PET. You were a tie fighter stunningly rendered in alternate keyboard graphics shooting equally stunning X wings that would appear in the way while moving from side to side in a trench with amazingly flat slash and back-slash walls. And I loved it.
I loved it so much it inspired me to learn to program which led me to where I am today. Curse that game.
Lego Harry Potter Creator actually had a Chamber of Secrets sequel, so the first one must not have been a total disaster. My son liked it. He is a big fan of the original Lego Creator as well, so that's no big surprise.
This game looks more like the Lego games that use characters, not building things like Creator. The Lego Creator games are very complex, but most of their games aren't like that. Some of them are quite fun. Lego Rock Raiders is quite an entertaining RTS game. The Lego World Builder shockwave game on Lego.com is a fun game requiring good resource management but takes just minutes to learn. The Creator games are the ultimate in Lego game complexity, so it would be harsh to judge their other games based on them.
Since the PS2 plays PS1 games, you can always play Star Wars Demolition with the GUNGANHUNT cheat code. All the droids in the Hunt-a-droid games turn into Jar-Jars which say "How Wude!" when you shoot them and they turn into a pile of bones.
Now that is always worth playing.
UCC did not reveal the name of the saboteur so that legal action could be initiated.
Quoting from http://www.bhopal.com/faq.htm
If sabotage is the suspected cause, why was this person not brought to justice?
The Indian authorities are well aware of the identity of the employee and the nature of the evidence against him.
I once attended a presentation made by someone closely involved in the inquiry. As I recall, the sabateur died in the "accident". When you have people clamoring for justice and the accused is deceased, it's hard to have closure.
I'd go for the snowboot and shovel markets if I was there, I think. That and selling the ash to those living too far away to be blessed by it's falling in their yard.
As for me, I thought it was so cool that I had a small bag of Mt St Helens ash I purchased with a photo of the eruption. I'm not sure if I've ever shared that little nugget of info with her.
I also am a big fan of Total Annihilation. It's hard not to be.
But regarding the original post, I would have to say that Total Annihilation: Kingdoms benefitted much more from modern hardware. TA ran great at the time of its release. TA:K on the other hand was a beast to run which was likely part of what made it less successful than it could have been. On newer systems it's beautiful. The smooth movements and details are impressive. The more organic feel to it than TA had makes it more difficult to pull off, so it definitely has benefitted from more modern hardware.
It just so happens a lot of us crusty old buggers are still kids at heart and somewhere between the adult and the kid in us we get confused and angry over unmet expectations.
Actually, I think it's more like crusty old buggers at heart trying to act like kids.
Kids get over unmet expectations quickly, adapt and enjoy, and that's only if they have high expectations in the first place. Crusty old buggers...well...they have too much old crust hindering their ability to change and making them ornery. The only kids I've seen who have high expectations in trivial things and cry foul when they are unmet are those who have been conditioned by adults to not enjoy the wonders around them. For a kid, many things in the world should be wonders.
As an American* working in Canada, I'll tell you that in my experience yes, it is more open and relaxed than in the US. That is until your company becomes noticed as an aquisition target because it's so successful and a US company sucks it up to help keep them alive. Having been through the experience, the contrast in company cultures was tremendous and the resulting atmosphere in the company continues to be depressing and as filled with corporate politics and frustrations as one could imagine.
My advice: if you find a good job in Canada with the atmosphere you seek, enjoy it while it lasts. I did. And since then I've moved on to a smaller Canadian company where I enjoy the relaxed culture still, sadly I just don't get paid as well for it.
As an aside, for an excellent resource on Canadian culture in general compared to the US, see Emily Way's An American's Guide to Canada. There is much useful info there.
*Disclaimer: For those who are anal about such things, yes, I generally refer to myself as an American, prefectly aware that there are many other countries upon the American continent. But having lived in three other countries apart from the US, I have found that by refering to yourself as a US citizen, estadounidense, or whatever else often tends to confuse people. Really, it does. Once they realize what you're saying, they invariably reply "oh, you're American". So after years of trying to buck the trend, I've given in to the pressure from residents of other countries, including Canada and Mexico, the two countries with the most right to be offended by such a moniker, and call myself an American.
Apparently eBay is doing something right, but with no buyer protection, no seller authentication, and no desire to participate in seller-buyer conflicts, no return policy, can the business model be sustained?
eBay Business Model in Slashspeak
1. Create website marketplace
2. Others go about their business
3. Profit!
4. ????
Um, you mean there's something after profit? Whoa. Never gotten that far before.
It's to deal with all the injuries resulting from research gone awry funded through the Ministry of Silly Walks.
Okay, maybe expecting the Internet Archive to take care of my online presence for me in the event of my demise is a bit much, but it's not like I'll be wanting to change my site after my death.
And if it so happens that I change my mind and do want to change it after I'm dead, let's see if their fancy-schmancy network security can stop a ghost.
Speaking from related experience, this is true. Interrupting lunch is a very bad idea.
On the first day of grade 1 way back in the day, my class and I were standing in line to go into the mostly full cafeteria. The kid next to me said "Hey, pull that" and pointed at the fire alarm. "What is it?" I asked. "It's cool" he replied, or something to that effect. After a bit of coaxing, I did indeed pull the fire alarm. For the rest of the year, I was not known as the kid who got everyone out of the evil exam, but the one who pulled the alarm DURING LUNCH on the first day of school. The principal didn't believe that I didn't know what it was, which was in fact the case. My eyes were opened to many important realities of life through that little experience.
And now I'm doomed to wander the earth and repeat the story to all who will listen.
Now about this albatross around my neck...
Why do we keep assuming, all available evidence to the contrary, that SCO's strategies have anything to do with running a successful business?
Perhaps their strategy is to horribly fail at every they do for some unknown reason.
Maybe Darl has watched The Producers one too many times. Just replace the rich little old ladies with companies and making out with...um...corporate making out. Then when everything fails quickly, they make off with a bunch of cash. The only thing that could mess up their plan is for SCO to do something as ridiculous as Springtime for Hitler and be successful for their how-can-they-be-so-stupid entertainment value...
On second thought, maybe he should have watched The Producers one more time.
Now just give them a fake name in the first place, say something from a prank call to Moe's from the Simpsons, and watch the hilarity ensue as the cashier considers whether or not to say your name out loud.
I hate carrying my card with me so I just give my phone number. Safeway has my phone number tied to someone else's name and info. They messed up, it wasn't deliberate on my part. So everytime I go there they look at me funny as they say "Thank you, Mr. Um...". I think my name is now Vishwa Naidici to them and that definitely doesn't look like a typical name for a young white male.
Without colors, you're depriving yourself of important information.
Thanks a lot. I'll pass that on to my parents if they decide to go back in time to conceive and pass on their color-blind genes to me all over again.
And I thought it was only colors I had problems with, now I know I'm missing information as well. What more can I have missed out on all these long years?!?
It's about time I found a decent replacement for my old Zorba.
I wonder where I put that thing anyway...it was so easy to misplace with it's small size.
Oh, come on now, this is Google we're talking about. Just look it up yourself. Here it is in one click without having expend all that effort to type all four letters yourself. (Warning: The answer is not pretty)
Crap on GoogleAh, that explains the extraordinary talent displayed by all on Canadian Idol, ha ha.
As an American living in Canada, even though I don't like your example and think it ridiculous, I would have to agree with your conclusion. Now that leads to a discussion of what type of politicians you get when they are voted in by the people and the people are looking for comedy...wow, I suddenly understand how the incredibly appealing and charismatic Jean Chretien managed to become PM and stay in office so long! The comedy on CBC is just not the same since he left office...