I've been in the situation where people wanted to move. Usually it is because its "what they know" or "what they have at home" and are just familiar with it.
The other question might be "how pretty is it"? I've seen people in a company bitch about a perfectly decent mail system (WITH a built in calendar feature) because it was through a green terminal screen and didn't look 'modern' enough. I'm wondering if the opposition you face is of a similar nature?
If so, would it be possiuble to make (or find an OSS equivalent) GUI windows front-end? Do they want to change for feature reasons with Outlook (possible), or is it just cause they want it to look like Outlook?
So now we've got a kickass hugely powerful computer, that say, Linus Torvalds (or any other brilliant mind for that matter), has downloaded himself into.
Therein lies the problem. What makes you think it will be a brilliant mind? I'd like to submit into evidence Robocop 2
Or more to the point, what makes you think that even a brilliant mind would survive the transition intact? Not quite the same, but cf "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling.
Now we have to suffer through another round of [foo] (IEE-1394) to explain it everytime its mentioned?
I realize that marketing types figure that re-branding every n years will ensure job longevity, but would it hurt you so much to stick to a frickin name for something?
Computing's Sgt Pepper already exists, and like it or not, it is Windows.
Windows has been the dominant OS and GUI during the last 5 years, where more people have gotten involved in computing than have used them previously. The sub $1000 system almost universally has Windows on it, and thus it defines how computing is supposed to work for a lot of people.
OS X may be cool, and innovative, but Apple's 5% market share means that it won't be a Touchstone. The Beatle's weren't some little secret band that only a handful of people had heard about, that was recommended by word of mouth. "Sgt Pepper's" was mass-market domination, when every damn tune on the album would end up being a single.
So, like it or not, the Touchstone is here, and has already happened. And no matter how much Steve doesn't like it, nothing can change the fact that it is Bill and not him.
Do these guys even have a clue? Jeezus, I'm debating sending them my own copy of O'Reilly's "DNS & Bind" just to bring them up to speed.
For the most part, the pther requests seem even and measured, thoguh I might urge some consolidation (eg, having both.sex and.xxx is a bit redundant; same goes for some of the other categories)
But Name.Space looks like the largest group of domain-squatting vultures I've seen. I'm thinking they should be unilaterally rejected just to prove a point.
So they locked the terminals down and provided limited aps? BFD. SO what.
Just because it looks like a PC, and a PC is probably the easiest way for the l;ibary to bring in the kind of functionality they want does not mean they have to provide a complete cyber-cafe.
Who cares if IRC is shut down. For that matter, why should you care which browser is being used? The point is it is their machine and they are the ones letting you use it.
The only services they really need to let you have is access to their book catalogue. If that is on an online terminal, then so be it. If they decide to give you the option to use online info sources, then that is their choice.
I'm starting to believe that there is an unrealistic expectation for the level of service that libraries shoudl be providing here on slashdot. Want unlimited access? Get your own damn machine.
At one time on Friday, BeOS was up to over 40%. While this may have been due to some active boostering by Be-users, it is dwarfed in comparison by the mass nerf that MS appears to have pulled.
I mean, who do they think they are? Verant?;)
Unfortunately, all it does is reinforce a simple internet truism: Never believe online polls.
But, having been to their website and read the industrial-srength legal fine print on *everything* there, the suits behind this thing smell like the very scariest sort,
And how is that different from anyone that you might know?
--sugarman--
Alright, I don't see this listed on the site, but is it possible to pre-load a certain types of "body-parts" into this program prior to letting it run? Basically, defining the task and saying which tools are allowed?
If so then something like this would be a blast to run with MindStorms or something similar. Set it free to randomly create Lego critters, and then put them together to test them out in the real world.
Now, I haven't used Mindstorms, but isn't there a CAD-like Lego model-builder program? Could the 2 be combined in some way?
Well Verant and EQ are under the vast umbrella of Sony, and they're not involved in lawsuits invoking other emulators or the DMCA, are they?
IMHO, this is going to get litigated hard and fast. How effective that will be remains to be seen. Verant has been unwilling or unable to go after other indiviudals, such as the E-Bay Farmers, or Uber You planes-raid people. (for those not in the know, Uber you is a bunch of players who are charging people for the privledge of going on a raid to the one of the various Planes in EQ. There's a little more to it than that, natch, but not much.) Of course, the E-Bay practices haven't actually threatened Verant's cash-flow.
Now, on a related note, I'd love to see this go to court. Verant has admitted that many of their coders were avid MUDers from back in the day, and a lot of the inspiration for EQ came from one particular MUD Brad used to play (sorry, can't remember the name). Most of the MUD's fall under various froms of an "open License", and EQ itself has a lot of throwbacks to those text-based MUDs. More so than UO or AC appear to have, for instance. I'd be very interested to see the source for some of the code from EQ, and from whence it sprang.
The generic 'Linux for Dummies' 2nd edition Desktop reference is one of the most useful Linux books I've found.
It isn't really in depth, it just has a list of most of the common commands, their usage, and the most common options. As such, it has probably gotten more day-to-day use than any 600+ page manual that might be on my bookshelf.
Short, to the point, and it gets the job done. Seems like a perfect match. =) It should definetly get included with the books reviewed above.
???? (Not sure if this is getting double posted or not. Apologies in advance if it has.)
I got a chance to see some of the new IBM Netfinity servers in action a month or so ago, prior to the announcement yesterday of them supporting Linux thoughout the product line. I gotta admit, they are really nice.
IBM has transfered a lot of their mainframe tech over to the mid-range line, and these things are looking solid. The failover stuff is nice, and a lot of the little things they include for troubleshooting make support a lot easier.
I can't speak for the Linux boxes, but they did manage to make some WinNT boxes solid, so I'm sure the penquins will be alright as well.
Nope, busted. Right now, Delphi is little more than a learning tool on my workstation. I like a lot of what I see, and the VCL and other parts haven't given me any real problems. OF course, I haven't been in a position to stress them much either. Sorry to hear it doesn't cut the mustard at a other levels of use.
That being said, the orginal question still stands. If C# is a tool to make COM or SOAP or AotD (Acronym of the Day) development easier, how is it different from the languages we're currently are using for that development? Wouldn't we be better served by making better tools for the languages we have than devising a new construction method?
Aside from the basic C-language syntax that is the basis for C#. (Serious question, no sarcasm intended. Implied, maybe, but not intentional 8)
With Kylix bringing many of these features to Linux soon, as well as the strength of the VCL and a powerful rad tool that will provide an easy migration path, why is C# a big deal?
Well, not the whole thing. Take one of the existing codebases and have the students modify it. They can add there own parts (snippets), and it would probably allow for division into project teams.
This would let the students gravitate to the area they may be most interested in (coders, builders, whatever) and will also allow you to share ideas between more than one class (if you have one, or if the other teachers are into it).
As the actual building requires a lot of creative writing, you may want to see if some of the English teachers / students want to participate as well.
I can't speak for eveyone, but this is the sort of thing my freidns and I were doing in our spare time during highschool anyways, so why not comhine the 2?
Contrary to popular opinion, Sting was never in the Whiff. You might be confusing him with his ex-tag-team partner, the Dingo Warrior, who has been in both.
I'm not really crying over this one. If in fact that this game does mean that Verant is shut out of the development for the SWMMORPG, then that is the best news I've had in ages.
I've been cringing ever since I heard the initial rumors about Verant being involved. MOstly because, while EQ does fill a certain need, the one thing it succeeds above all else is in being the most boring game ever created. Never has so little been accomplished in a game in such a long amount of time.
Methinks that George L. (Initials reserved to protect anonymity) got tired of waiting for an Orc Warlord to spawn and figured that there had to be someone who could make a faster game.
Slashdot Mirror
The other question might be "how pretty is it"? I've seen people in a company bitch about a perfectly decent mail system (WITH a built in calendar feature) because it was through a green terminal screen and didn't look 'modern' enough. I'm wondering if the opposition you face is of a similar nature?
If so, would it be possiuble to make (or find an OSS equivalent) GUI windows front-end? Do they want to change for feature reasons with Outlook (possible), or is it just cause they want it to look like Outlook?
While I'm sure that a S/390 or an E10K would make a really spiffy Quake server, it really doesn't matter which Office suite it runs.
Therein lies the problem. What makes you think it will be a brilliant mind? I'd like to submit into evidence Robocop 2
Or more to the point, what makes you think that even a brilliant mind would survive the transition intact? Not quite the same, but cf "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling.
But they seem to be concentrating their efforts against the ALA directly.
Your quote is best answered by the paragraph directly following in the CNN article, which quotes Marvin Johnson of the ACLU.
Now we have to suffer through another round of [foo] (IEE-1394) to explain it everytime its mentioned?
I realize that marketing types figure that re-branding every n years will ensure job longevity, but would it hurt you so much to stick to a frickin name for something?
(QnD summary: jacked individual does some funking dreaming which mutates into the wild and escapes into cyberspace)
Neat stuff
Windows has been the dominant OS and GUI during the last 5 years, where more people have gotten involved in computing than have used them previously. The sub $1000 system almost universally has Windows on it, and thus it defines how computing is supposed to work for a lot of people.
OS X may be cool, and innovative, but Apple's 5% market share means that it won't be a Touchstone. The Beatle's weren't some little secret band that only a handful of people had heard about, that was recommended by word of mouth. "Sgt Pepper's" was mass-market domination, when every damn tune on the album would end up being a single.
So, like it or not, the Touchstone is here, and has already happened. And no matter how much Steve doesn't like it, nothing can change the fact that it is Bill and not him.
For the most part, the pther requests seem even and measured, thoguh I might urge some consolidation (eg, having both .sex and .xxx is a bit redundant; same goes for some of the other categories)
But Name.Space looks like the largest group of domain-squatting vultures I've seen. I'm thinking they should be unilaterally rejected just to prove a point.
Mmmmm, BeOS
Just because it looks like a PC, and a PC is probably the easiest way for the l;ibary to bring in the kind of functionality they want does not mean they have to provide a complete cyber-cafe.
Who cares if IRC is shut down. For that matter, why should you care which browser is being used? The point is it is their machine and they are the ones letting you use it.
The only services they really need to let you have is access to their book catalogue. If that is on an online terminal, then so be it. If they decide to give you the option to use online info sources, then that is their choice.
I'm starting to believe that there is an unrealistic expectation for the level of service that libraries shoudl be providing here on slashdot. Want unlimited access? Get your own damn machine.
I mean, who do they think they are? Verant? ;)
Unfortunately, all it does is reinforce a simple internet truism: Never believe online polls.
And how is that different from anyone that you might know? --sugarman--
If so then something like this would be a blast to run with MindStorms or something similar. Set it free to randomly create Lego critters, and then put them together to test them out in the real world.
Now, I haven't used Mindstorms, but isn't there a CAD-like Lego model-builder program? Could the 2 be combined in some way?
IMHO, this is going to get litigated hard and fast. How effective that will be remains to be seen. Verant has been unwilling or unable to go after other indiviudals, such as the E-Bay Farmers, or Uber You planes-raid people. (for those not in the know, Uber you is a bunch of players who are charging people for the privledge of going on a raid to the one of the various Planes in EQ. There's a little more to it than that, natch, but not much.) Of course, the E-Bay practices haven't actually threatened Verant's cash-flow.
Now, on a related note, I'd love to see this go to court. Verant has admitted that many of their coders were avid MUDers from back in the day, and a lot of the inspiration for EQ came from one particular MUD Brad used to play (sorry, can't remember the name). Most of the MUD's fall under various froms of an "open License", and EQ itself has a lot of throwbacks to those text-based MUDs. More so than UO or AC appear to have, for instance. I'd be very interested to see the source for some of the code from EQ, and from whence it sprang.
Just a thought...
It isn't really in depth, it just has a list of most of the common commands, their usage, and the most common options. As such, it has probably gotten more day-to-day use than any 600+ page manual that might be on my bookshelf.
Short, to the point, and it gets the job done. Seems like a perfect match. =) It should definetly get included with the books reviewed above.
IBM has transfered a lot of their mainframe tech over to the mid-range line, and these things are looking solid. The failover stuff is nice, and a lot of the little things they include for troubleshooting make support a lot easier.
I can't speak for the Linux boxes, but they did manage to make some WinNT boxes solid, so I'm sure the penquins will be alright as well.
Nope, busted. Right now, Delphi is little more than a learning tool on my workstation. I like a lot of what I see, and the VCL and other parts haven't given me any real problems. OF course, I haven't been in a position to stress them much either. Sorry to hear it doesn't cut the mustard at a other levels of use. That being said, the orginal question still stands. If C# is a tool to make COM or SOAP or AotD (Acronym of the Day) development easier, how is it different from the languages we're currently are using for that development? Wouldn't we be better served by making better tools for the languages we have than devising a new construction method?
With Kylix bringing many of these features to Linux soon, as well as the strength of the VCL and a powerful rad tool that will provide an easy migration path, why is C# a big deal?
This would let the students gravitate to the area they may be most interested in (coders, builders, whatever) and will also allow you to share ideas between more than one class (if you have one, or if the other teachers are into it).
As the actual building requires a lot of creative writing, you may want to see if some of the English teachers / students want to participate as well.
I can't speak for eveyone, but this is the sort of thing my freidns and I were doing in our spare time during highschool anyways, so why not comhine the 2?
Just don't make it too much like work =)
Alright,...the coolest page from the whole damn thing, from the Escherization project.
=)
I've been cringing ever since I heard the initial rumors about Verant being involved. MOstly because, while EQ does fill a certain need, the one thing it succeeds above all else is in being the most boring game ever created. Never has so little been accomplished in a game in such a long amount of time.
Methinks that George L. (Initials reserved to protect anonymity) got tired of waiting for an Orc Warlord to spawn and figured that there had to be someone who could make a faster game.
The original from Thoreau.
Well, I Had a problem with some Post-Fartist's being over during a house party, but I just opened the window.