I see I can nominate games from popular platforms like the Virtual Boy, but there's no option for the BBC, which only brought us games like Elite and Exile (as mentioned here not two days ago). Ah well, "Computer Misc" here we come.
I wouldn't mind the arbitrary list so much if it was even in alphabetical order...
Yes, Doom and Quake are *just* like Shakespeare's works. Prince Hamlet enters, torn by guilt, grief, jealousy, and vengeance, and soliloquizes with stirring poetry about his problems. Then he proceeds to launch heavy artillery at Queen Gertrude and Claudius.
But just imagine the duel with Laertes!
Trumpets the while
HAMLET. Come on sir. LAERTES. Come my lord.
They play
HAM. One. LAE. No. HAM. Judgement. OSRIC. A hit, a very palpable hit. LAE. Nay, thou'rt lame; thou campest; I'll not play with thee.
How many games have you played where the gameplay is just horrid 95% of the way through, and then all of a sudden gameplay mechanics change for the last 5% of the game, and it totally rocks? None? Yeah, me too.
Quite. On the other hand, the opposite is often true - take Final Fantasy VII as the classic example of a game that starts out excellent and ceases to be worth playing a couple of hours into the second disk. Or Xenogears, come to that - the story improves rapidly towards the end, but the gameplay is long gone by then. Or Deus Ex, which many people consider falls into a rut about two thirds of the way through (personally I'm rather fond of the Ocean Lab and Missile Base missions, but I know a lot of people consider them annoying distractions).
People who fail to finish games often have quite some justification, in other words...
These "These [Did anyone else read it as|In Soviet Russia|X is deader than BSD] jokes are getting old" whines are getting increasingly more tedious. If you don't like them, add a -6 modifier to Funny mods and you'll be rid of them for good.
If someone fixes a bug in 2.4 or 2.6 that was also present in 2.2, it makes sense to fix it in 2.2 as well. That's one of the jobs of the 2.2 maintainer.
Ahh, Exile... I have very fond memories of struggling to remember all the keys, then being killed repeatedly by the first robot (if I made it past the hamburger^Wgun turret, which was a moot issue). The only part I ever really managed to enjoy was using the targetting indicator thingy to make it look as though the player was relieving himself. (Hey, it was funny to a eight-year old.)
Exile was basically too damned difficult for its own good. It was pushing the Beeb to the very limits of its capabilities, and it showed. For that reason I wouldn't describe it as as good as Elite or Repton, which managed to have amazing gameplay without being too complex to control.
No vendor, no matter how well placed, should just run off and try to implement a solution. Why? Because odds are good it will not take off. Everyone involved needs to agree on a solution THEN implement it.
That's why Windows is a POSIX platform and nobody uses Internet Explorer extensions on their websites, then?
Oh, wait.
Microsoft actually are in a position to do something about this unilaterally. If Outlook and Outlook Express suddenly start warning their users every time they get an email that doesn't use the authentication system Microsoft are pushing, the major ISPs will adopt that system. It won't even make Microsoft look like evil monopolists, because even rabid geeks prefer Bill Gates to spammers.
3) France wins a war (without American help and without being led by a non-frenchman)
Even if you don't count the French Revolution, doesn't the Norman Conquest count? French invade Britain, French win, Britain ruled by Frenchmen for several hundred years. I'm pretty sure William of Normandy was French, and I'm pretty sure the Americans didn't intervene in that one.
Compiled languages may be faster for silicon hardware, but interpreted languages are often faster for neural wetware. Given the decreasing cost of silicon and the increasing cost of labor, interpretted langauges should see increase usage for many "small" programming tasks.
So what you really want is the best of both worlds. Modern languages like Haskell or OCaml provide multiple levels of compilation. OCaml, for example, can run in an interactive toplevel loop, or as a fully interpreted script, or compiled to portable bytecode; and when you've finished debugging, you can then compile the final program to a native binary for maximum speed.
I believe you can do similar things with more established languages like Lisp, too. Mistakenly perceiving the choice in programming languages as a choice between C/C++ or Perl/Python/Ruby doesn't do anyone any favours.
Of course of those of us that actually look at the screen and not the keyboard while typing, feedback about whether or not we pressed the right key comes from what we see and not the tactile feedback anyway, so how would a virtual keyboard be a problem?
Well, those of us who continue to type while looking at hard copy, say, do actually rely on tactile feedback to know whether we pressed the right keys or not. Even when I'm looking at the screen I generally know I've made a typo from the feel of things before I spot it in the text. It's quite useful to be able to, for example, glance back up at the previous paragraph without having to stop typing the current one.
int main left parenthesis int argc comma char asterisk asterisk argv right parenthesis left curly bracket printf left parenthesis doublequotes Hello World backslash n right parenthesis semi-colon right curly bracket
By the way, if someone's interested in investigating a possible GPL violation, take a look at the Dolphin Gamecube emulator. Their last version had error messages from a GPL powerPC emulation core, and the binary is obfuscated.
To quote the developers of the emulator in question:
Yes, we did use the incomplete and pretty bad Microlib PowerPC emulator to ease the initial stages of development. Yes, we have since removed and replaced it.Obviously we missed a few traces of the code, including the reported error message but not much more. Maybe we rushed this preview release a bit, but we really wanted to get something out there. If you feel that this absolutely tiny mishap in this little hobby project that we earn absolutely no money from is a major GPL violation, go sue us.
Replying to myself... bad, I know... but I should probably acknowledge that the above post is incorrect, and its parent is correct: their "Linux license FAQ" does make it clear that their IP license only entitles you to use Linux binaries, not "their" Linux source.
Since they still refuse to identify what Linux source they "own", it's unclear how you're supposed to stick to that part of the license, or indeed how you're supposed to get Linux binaries in the first place. The whole thing is a bit weird.
IANAL, of course, but my best guess, for what little it's worth, is this: they don't care where your Linux binaries are coming from, or whether you compile them yourself, or even modify them, so long as you've paid the protection money^W^Wlicensing fee; the "binary only" bit refers to their IP, not your Linux source, and it's designed to prevent people saying "I bought a Linux license, now show me the System V source code that I'm paying for."
At least, that's the only sensible interpretation I can think of. Maybe I'm being unreasonable in expecting it to mean something sensible...
Exactly how is hurting Linux in the best interest of Sun? . . . Please, and I'm being serious here, give me ONE GOOD REASON that Sun would want anything to happen to Linux.
Well, you see, they've got this new product called the "Java Desktop", and if Linux continues to grow in popularity on the desktop, they won't sell as many copies. So they need to destroy Linux so they can sell their Java Desktop.
This new Sun OS is really cool, it's a pity it won't have a chance of catching on unless they can destroy Linux. It uses Gnome as its desktop, see, and it's all based on this great kernel written by some guy from Finland...
>From my experience, Java does generally represent a performance drop from, say, C++. And so I think that's true regardless.
I disagree . . . and a whole bunch of studies disagree. But you are entitled to your opinion.
Would you be willing to reference some of those studies? I'm familiar with the theory that suggests JIT might be able to outperform ahead-of-time compilers, but while I see it regularly cited on Slashdot by fans of $INTERPRETED_LANGUAGE, I have never seen anyone provide figures
Do you have actually evidence that Java can outperform C++, or are you just referring to the theoretical possibility that it might?
The original Deus Ex handled this pretty well for the most part. Sure, it was heavily scripted, and when it came to the crunch you weren't actually allowed to choose not to leave UNATCO, but you still got a fair amount of control over which characters died when, if they even died at all (was it actually necessary to kill anyone apart from Navarre? I'm pretty sure she's the only person you can't let live).
BTW, don't forget the characters who are still alive when you begin System Shock. You can't have forgotten the frantic dash through the ventilation channels of the flight deck, only to realise that nothing you can do will get you there in time to save them.
Slashdot Mirror
I read that as "Too many cocks spoil the broth." Dude, any cock would spoil the broth. Ewwwwww.
What's wrong with chicken broth?
Who on earth chose that list of platforms?
I see I can nominate games from popular platforms like the Virtual Boy, but there's no option for the BBC, which only brought us games like Elite and Exile (as mentioned here not two days ago). Ah well, "Computer Misc" here we come.
I wouldn't mind the arbitrary list so much if it was even in alphabetical order...
Yes, Doom and Quake are *just* like Shakespeare's works.
Prince Hamlet enters, torn by guilt, grief, jealousy, and vengeance, and soliloquizes with stirring poetry about his problems. Then he proceeds to launch heavy artillery at Queen Gertrude and Claudius.
But just imagine the duel with Laertes!
Trumpets the while
HAMLET. Come on sir.
LAERTES. Come my lord.
They play
HAM. One.
LAE. No.
HAM. Judgement.
OSRIC. A hit, a very palpable hit.
LAE. Nay, thou'rt lame; thou campest; I'll not play with thee.
How many games have you played where the gameplay is just horrid 95% of the way through, and then all of a sudden gameplay mechanics change for the last 5% of the game, and it totally rocks?
None?
Yeah, me too.
Quite. On the other hand, the opposite is often true - take Final Fantasy VII as the classic example of a game that starts out excellent and ceases to be worth playing a couple of hours into the second disk. Or Xenogears, come to that - the story improves rapidly towards the end, but the gameplay is long gone by then. Or Deus Ex, which many people consider falls into a rut about two thirds of the way through (personally I'm rather fond of the Ocean Lab and Missile Base missions, but I know a lot of people consider them annoying distractions).
People who fail to finish games often have quite some justification, in other words...
Was that `ping' command implemented in perl?
Compare the numbers of people watching LoTR who've read the books, with the numbers of people watching GiTS who've read the manga.
I'd bet a fair sum that the figure will be much higher in the first case.
There couldn't possibly be any variation in the ability to make a distinct 'l' sound. And no one would ever pronounce it 'rukki'.
No, they wouldn't. What they're using is a Japanese word "rakkii", derived from the English "lucky" - they aren't even trying to pronounce an "l".
These "These [Did anyone else read it as|In Soviet Russia|X is deader than BSD] jokes are getting old" whines are getting increasingly more tedious. If you don't like them, add a -6 modifier to Funny mods and you'll be rid of them for good.
If someone fixes a bug in 2.4 or 2.6 that was also present in 2.2, it makes sense to fix it in 2.2 as well. That's one of the jobs of the 2.2 maintainer.
Ahh, Exile... I have very fond memories of struggling to remember all the keys, then being killed repeatedly by the first robot (if I made it past the hamburger^Wgun turret, which was a moot issue). The only part I ever really managed to enjoy was using the targetting indicator thingy to make it look as though the player was relieving himself. (Hey, it was funny to a eight-year old.)
Exile was basically too damned difficult for its own good. It was pushing the Beeb to the very limits of its capabilities, and it showed. For that reason I wouldn't describe it as as good as Elite or Repton, which managed to have amazing gameplay without being too complex to control.
No vendor, no matter how well placed, should just run off and try to implement a solution. Why? Because odds are good it will not take off. Everyone involved needs to agree on a solution THEN implement it.
That's why Windows is a POSIX platform and nobody uses Internet Explorer extensions on their websites, then?
Oh, wait.
Microsoft actually are in a position to do something about this unilaterally. If Outlook and Outlook Express suddenly start warning their users every time they get an email that doesn't use the authentication system Microsoft are pushing, the major ISPs will adopt that system. It won't even make Microsoft look like evil monopolists, because even rabid geeks prefer Bill Gates to spammers.
3) France wins a war (without American help and without being led by a non-frenchman)
Even if you don't count the French Revolution, doesn't the Norman Conquest count? French invade Britain, French win, Britain ruled by Frenchmen for several hundred years. I'm pretty sure William of Normandy was French, and I'm pretty sure the Americans didn't intervene in that one.
Privateer is listed as supported by DOSBox, and WC: Armada is claimed to run. I haven't tried it myself, but that's definitely a project to watch.
If you do this, you will have problems in 2100.
Um, I doubt he'll be the one having problems...
Compiled languages may be faster for silicon hardware, but interpreted languages are often faster for neural wetware. Given the decreasing cost of silicon and the increasing cost of labor, interpretted langauges should see increase usage for many "small" programming tasks.
So what you really want is the best of both worlds. Modern languages like Haskell or OCaml provide multiple levels of compilation. OCaml, for example, can run in an interactive toplevel loop, or as a fully interpreted script, or compiled to portable bytecode; and when you've finished debugging, you can then compile the final program to a native binary for maximum speed.
I believe you can do similar things with more established languages like Lisp, too. Mistakenly perceiving the choice in programming languages as a choice between C/C++ or Perl/Python/Ruby doesn't do anyone any favours.
So basically you are saying there should be competitive grocery shopping? Yeah your stupid.
Umm... "Supermarket Sweep". 'Nuff said.
Of course of those of us that actually look at the screen and not the keyboard while typing, feedback about whether or not we pressed the right key comes from what we see and not the tactile feedback anyway, so how would a virtual keyboard be a problem?
Well, those of us who continue to type while looking at hard copy, say, do actually rely on tactile feedback to know whether we pressed the right keys or not. Even when I'm looking at the screen I generally know I've made a typo from the feel of things before I spot it in the text. It's quite useful to be able to, for example, glance back up at the previous paragraph without having to stop typing the current one.
int main left parenthesis int argc comma char asterisk asterisk argv right parenthesis left curly bracket printf left parenthesis doublequotes Hello World backslash n right parenthesis semi-colon right curly bracket
I take it the syntax error is deliberate?
To quote the developers of the emulator in question:
Replying to myself... bad, I know... but I should probably acknowledge that the above post is incorrect, and its parent is correct: their "Linux license FAQ" does make it clear that their IP license only entitles you to use Linux binaries, not "their" Linux source.
Since they still refuse to identify what Linux source they "own", it's unclear how you're supposed to stick to that part of the license, or indeed how you're supposed to get Linux binaries in the first place. The whole thing is a bit weird.
IANAL, of course, but my best guess, for what little it's worth, is this: they don't care where your Linux binaries are coming from, or whether you compile them yourself, or even modify them, so long as you've paid the protection money^W^Wlicensing fee; the "binary only" bit refers to their IP, not your Linux source, and it's designed to prevent people saying "I bought a Linux license, now show me the System V source code that I'm paying for."
At least, that's the only sensible interpretation I can think of. Maybe I'm being unreasonable in expecting it to mean something sensible...
Exactly how is hurting Linux in the best interest of Sun? . . . Please, and I'm being serious here, give me ONE GOOD REASON that Sun would want anything to happen to Linux.
Well, you see, they've got this new product called the "Java Desktop", and if Linux continues to grow in popularity on the desktop, they won't sell as many copies. So they need to destroy Linux so they can sell their Java Desktop.
This new Sun OS is really cool, it's a pity it won't have a chance of catching on unless they can destroy Linux. It uses Gnome as its desktop, see, and it's all based on this great kernel written by some guy from Finland...
So I went in there to vote for the greatest game of all time, Elite.
I'm slightly surprised to find it's actually listed, but - what's this?
"Elite (Firebird, 1985, C64/PC)"
Um, what?
Elite was released in 1984, guys, by Acornsoft, for the BBC Micro...
>From my experience, Java does generally represent a performance drop from, say, C++. And so I think that's true regardless.
I disagree . . . and a whole bunch of studies disagree. But you are entitled to your opinion.
Would you be willing to reference some of those studies? I'm familiar with the theory that suggests JIT might be able to outperform ahead-of-time compilers, but while I see it regularly cited on Slashdot by fans of $INTERPRETED_LANGUAGE, I have never seen anyone provide figures
Do you have actually evidence that Java can outperform C++, or are you just referring to the theoretical possibility that it might?
The original Deus Ex handled this pretty well for the most part. Sure, it was heavily scripted, and when it came to the crunch you weren't actually allowed to choose not to leave UNATCO, but you still got a fair amount of control over which characters died when, if they even died at all (was it actually necessary to kill anyone apart from Navarre? I'm pretty sure she's the only person you can't let live).
BTW, don't forget the characters who are still alive when you begin System Shock. You can't have forgotten the frantic dash through the ventilation channels of the flight deck, only to realise that nothing you can do will get you there in time to save them.