I moved to Calgary after growing up in a town of about 17,000 people. First day I was in the city there was a school yard fight with bats and pipes and a kid got shot. Next day at a different school there was a fight with chains and a kid got stabbed. I had to wonder what the hell kind of place I'd moved to where the school kids do that kind of shit. Then there was the kid who got torched a couple years ago, I think the little monsters threw gas on him...
Anyway all that being said my experience of Calgary is much different (maybe because I was 20 when I got there and 6'0, 190 pounds of "Get the fuck away from me" when I walked the streets). The only problems I ever had were drunken panhandlers and groups of teenagers brave enough to yell at me from across the street or their vehicles while I was walking around at 2:00AM. I always liked to live downtown though, some areas were worse than others I guess.
I think it is a wonderful way of approximating to the reader just how disorienting flashbacks could be to a shell-shocked soldier
I didn't think of it that way before. I just thought that that particular section was a little clumsy. Now that you mention it, the way it is written is actually very well done (assuming of course that Stephenson was actually going for that effect...)
I saw the images of people that were blown up, shot up, and hacked up. These were hard-core and in your face images of violence from all over the world and nothing like image of a blown up imp from Doom. If you want to learn how to become a remorseless killer all you have to do is follow in the footsteps of your favourite news story.
Oh yeah, I think there was something about yet another punk shooting up yet another school. What does that make since the huge media hype of Littleton? Three, four? I don't really know for sure since I can't watch the news too often (too depressing). I would bet that most of them wouldn't have done it if they didn't figure they'd make the national news or CNN.
At times in this article the author seemed to be saying, "Look, these guys aren't monsters." Then at other times the author seemed to be saying, "They aren't monsters, but they make games that make people kill other people." Romero and Carmack and the games they make aren't the monsters here. The idea that an FPS can teach you how to kill a person is ridiculous. They DO teach you how to point at something, I'll give ya that (assuming you haven't already figured that part out after 14 years on the planet). The one kid said, "I don't even know how to load a gun." If you ask me, that says everything that should need to be said about the issue of games teaching kids how to kill.
It was the Pizza Hut/Taco Bell/KFC flier I found in my mailbox that finally made me want to puke. Before I found that thing I was already pretty sick of the hype and I am a Star Wars fan too. I mean, with the line-ups and the midnight toy grubbing things were getting kinda out of hand. Every channel on tv has something about Phantom Menace at least once every half-hour (at least that's the way it seems).
When the first trailer was out my friend and I discussed it at length. Yeah, it was quite exciting, this movie is gunna kick ass, blah blah blah, but too bad those battle droids look so goddamn cheezy, and that kid looks like he's a pretty bad actor from what I've seen of him on the tv (the hype machine was just beginning to roll), etc.... The point is that I came away from that discussion with the fear that this movie is going to suck, but that noone will EVER admit it if it does. The hype is too big. People are forced to love it now.
The funny thing about hype is that it can turn the hard-core fans off. Hype will get you the masses, easy as pie. Alot of the real fans will hate you for it though.
I probably won't see this movie until it hits video. I won't be able to say I saw it on the big screen, but I feel the need to fight the hype in some way (no matter how insignificant my $8 * ? is).
When I read the slogan under the Slashdot logo at the top of this page it says "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". I don't see "LINUX ONLY" stamped anywhere up there. I don't see anything wrong with the posters giving us articles concerning platforms or OSes other than Linux and the hardware it runs on. In fact even though I'm quite a Linux supporter, I'm sick of the people who think this must be a Linux only site. My understanding is that Linux is on the minds of the nerds at this point of history so we get alot of stories about Linux (if I'm wrong here, well, sorry... somebody should make that clear). That's cool, but why are the posters slammed when they post an article about something other than Linux? That's not cool, or uncool, or whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
I moved to Calgary after growing up in a town of about 17,000 people. First day I was in the city there was a school yard fight with bats and pipes and a kid got shot. Next day at a different school there was a fight with chains and a kid got stabbed. I had to wonder what the hell kind of place I'd moved to where the school kids do that kind of shit. Then there was the kid who got torched a couple years ago, I think the little monsters threw gas on him...
Anyway all that being said my experience of Calgary is much different (maybe because I was 20 when I got there and 6'0, 190 pounds of "Get the fuck away from me" when I walked the streets). The only problems I ever had were drunken panhandlers and groups of teenagers brave enough to yell at me from across the street or their vehicles while I was walking around at 2:00AM. I always liked to live downtown though, some areas were worse than others I guess.
I think it is a wonderful way of approximating to the reader just how disorienting flashbacks could be to a shell-shocked soldier
I didn't think of it that way before. I just thought that that particular section was a little clumsy. Now that you mention it, the way it is written is actually very well done (assuming of course that Stephenson was actually going for that effect...)
Seems to me that the mouse wheel (which I love) could do that job quite intuitively. Wheel up to push, wheel down to pull.
I saw the images of people that were blown up, shot up, and hacked up. These were hard-core and in your face images of violence from all over the world and nothing like image of a blown up imp from Doom. If you want to learn how to become a remorseless killer all you have to do is follow in the footsteps of your favourite news story.
Oh yeah, I think there was something about yet another punk shooting up yet another school. What does that make since the huge media hype of Littleton? Three, four? I don't really know for sure since I can't watch the news too often (too depressing). I would bet that most of them wouldn't have done it if they didn't figure they'd make the national news or CNN.
At times in this article the author seemed to be saying, "Look, these guys aren't monsters." Then at other times the author seemed to be saying, "They aren't monsters, but they make games that make people kill other people." Romero and Carmack and the games they make aren't the monsters here. The idea that an FPS can teach you how to kill a person is ridiculous. They DO teach you how to point at something, I'll give ya that (assuming you haven't already figured that part out after 14 years on the planet). The one kid said, "I don't even know how to load a gun." If you ask me, that says everything that should need to be said about the issue of games teaching kids how to kill.
It was the Pizza Hut/Taco Bell/KFC flier I found in my mailbox that finally made me want to puke. Before I found that thing I was already pretty sick of the hype and I am a Star Wars fan too. I mean, with the line-ups and the midnight toy grubbing things were getting kinda out of hand. Every channel on tv has something about Phantom Menace at least once every half-hour (at least that's the way it seems).
When the first trailer was out my friend and I discussed it at length. Yeah, it was quite exciting, this movie is gunna kick ass, blah blah blah, but too bad those battle droids look so goddamn cheezy, and that kid looks like he's a pretty bad actor from what I've seen of him on the tv (the hype machine was just beginning to roll), etc.... The point is that I came away from that discussion with the fear that this movie is going to suck, but that noone will EVER admit it if it does. The hype is too big. People are forced to love it now.
The funny thing about hype is that it can turn the hard-core fans off. Hype will get you the masses, easy as pie. Alot of the real fans will hate you for it though.
I probably won't see this movie until it hits video. I won't be able to say I saw it on the big screen, but I feel the need to fight the hype in some way (no matter how insignificant my $8 * ? is).
Hmmm...
When I read the slogan under the Slashdot logo at the top of this page it says "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". I don't see "LINUX ONLY" stamped anywhere up there. I don't see anything wrong with the posters giving us articles concerning platforms or OSes other than Linux and the hardware it runs on. In fact even though I'm quite a Linux supporter, I'm sick of the people who think this must be a Linux only site. My understanding is that Linux is on the minds of the nerds at this point of history so we get alot of stories about Linux (if I'm wrong here, well, sorry... somebody should make that clear). That's cool, but why are the posters slammed when they post an article about something other than Linux? That's not cool, or uncool, or whatever.
bah