I hope you're right about Nintendo learning from the other two. I think the biggest thing that they can do to get developers on their side is to give the Revolution a single, powerful processor. Everything I've heard indicates that the Xbox 360 and PS3 are a pain the ass to develop for, since nobody in the gaming industry knows how to write parallel code.
If Nintendo can jump into this now and promise a console that's easier to develop for and debug on, they'll have a big advantage. However, if they wait two more years, the programming tools and abilities will catch up and they'll lose any advatage they could have had.
I'm still longing for a worthy successor to X-Com. Nothing is as satisfying as mind-controlling a sectoid, having him scout around for other aliens, and then dropping a blaster bomb on all of them:)
As for modern implementations, you've got UFO: Aftermath and Silent Storm. UFO:AM is very similar in terms of combat, but you don't have nearly as much control over your base. SS has great combat and a simple RPG system (character classes and levels with an ability tree). Both were developed by Eastern European teams, so they're a bit buggy and localization was a bit sub-par. I'd recommend SS over UFO:AM, but both were pretty entertaining.
There's also an expansion to Silent Storm called Sentinels, but I haven't played that yet.
Some upcoming games you might be interested in: * Hammer & Sickle - sequel to SS * UFO: Aftershock - sequel to UFO:AM * Nightwatch - tactical RPG using the SS engine * Rebelstar - GBA game from the makers of X-Com
And of course, since it's Slashdot, there's the obligatory open-source project in development: http://www.projectxenocide.com/
If you've got any other recommendations, I'd love to hear them. These sorts of games are like crack to me.
"I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'". "What's so special about the cheesemakers?" "Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."
The Fields Medal is basically the Nobel Prize for Mathematics (since there is no Nobel Prize in that category). It's awarded every four years. Mathworld has some more info.
OK, so Slashdot's ads aren't too bad. That was just the first thing that came to mind. Fark is probably a better example - lots of animated gifs on the front page.
The point is that blocking images by the server isn't the best way to do it, since sometimes ad and non-ad images are hosted on the same server. Mozilla's image blocking is nice, but still could stand some improvement.
There's a problem with that, though (at least as far as I can tell). The banner ads at Slashdot, for example, are from images.slashdot.org. If I block those, I lose all of the icons on the page, which I don't want to do. Mozilla needs a finer-grained image filter, based on the image name and/or path (e.g., block stuff with "banner" or "ad" in the path).
Junkbuster does this by default, but Mozilla and Junkbuster don't seem to get along very well. At least, they didn't before, and I haven't tried recently.
My guess is that any frequency in a certain range would balance the connected rods, but that the range gets really small as the number of rods increases.
You're probably right that the values would be impossible to calculate exactly, but you can still get a pretty good approximation with certain techniques.
Which reminds me, I should get to work on my math homework:(
Has anyone else heard about the research into people balancing sticks on their fingertips, and how this has to do with random neuro-muscular noise, but generated by the body instead?
I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but it's possible to stabilize a pendulum (e.g., a stick) in an inverted position by vibrating the base (e.g., your hand) rapidly. Here's the first link that I could find on Google. It's been a while since I've dealt with the math, but I think it has something to do with the Mathieu equation from Floquet Theory. </math lesson>
Obligatory Deep Thought
on
Skydriving
·
· Score: 5, Funny
"I bet a funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is, while you're in midair, you still hit those brakes! Hey, better try the emergency brake!" -Jack Handy
"When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much." -Fen-Yang
For those of you complaining about the huge error messages that the STL can sometimes cause, you might want to try this: http://www.bdsoft.com/tools/stlfilt.html
I haven't tried it because I haven't done anything with the STL in a while, but it seems pretty nifty. It's basically a Perl script that you can use to decipher the error messages into something useful. There's even instructions on how to make it work with VC++.
This article has a better description and an example, in which a 20-line error message is reduced to plain English.
Slashdot Mirror
I hope you're right about Nintendo learning from the other two. I think the biggest thing that they can do to get developers on their side is to give the Revolution a single, powerful processor. Everything I've heard indicates that the Xbox 360 and PS3 are a pain the ass to develop for, since nobody in the gaming industry knows how to write parallel code.
If Nintendo can jump into this now and promise a console that's easier to develop for and debug on, they'll have a big advantage. However, if they wait two more years, the programming tools and abilities will catch up and they'll lose any advatage they could have had.
I'm still longing for a worthy successor to X-Com. Nothing is as satisfying as mind-controlling a sectoid, having him scout around for other aliens, and then dropping a blaster bomb on all of them :)
As for modern implementations, you've got UFO: Aftermath and Silent Storm. UFO:AM is very similar in terms of combat, but you don't have nearly as much control over your base. SS has great combat and a simple RPG system (character classes and levels with an ability tree). Both were developed by Eastern European teams, so they're a bit buggy and localization was a bit sub-par. I'd recommend SS over UFO:AM, but both were pretty entertaining.
There's also an expansion to Silent Storm called Sentinels, but I haven't played that yet.
Some upcoming games you might be interested in:
* Hammer & Sickle - sequel to SS
* UFO: Aftershock - sequel to UFO:AM
* Nightwatch - tactical RPG using the SS engine
* Rebelstar - GBA game from the makers of X-Com
And of course, since it's Slashdot, there's the obligatory open-source project in development:
http://www.projectxenocide.com/
If you've got any other recommendations, I'd love to hear them. These sorts of games are like crack to me.
Forget about the fork; use a spoon.
They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
-- Carl Sagan
On a related note, why are explosions always rocking, e.g., "Explosions rock Baghdad"? Why don't they ever roll?
Pure mathematicians don't do it, they leave it as an exercise to the reader.
Applied mathematicians do it with a real-world model.
(since we're talking about nerd culture...)
"I think it was 'Blessed are the cheesemakers'".
"What's so special about the cheesemakers?"
"Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."
How about a giant chin for the icon?
Here's a list of all the Metropolis artists available at EMusic.com. $15/month, unlimited downloads, all in MP3 format...
-Chris
BINGO!!
I heard it as crossing a mountaineer and a mosquito, since the mountaineer is a scaler, and the mosquito is a [disease] vector.
(Disclaimer: I didn't write these)
.
Q: What's purple and commutes?
A: An abelian grape
Q: What's yellow, and equivalent to the Axiom of Choice?
A: Zorn's Lemon.
(with links for the math-impaired)
The Fields Medal is basically the Nobel Prize for Mathematics (since there is no Nobel Prize in that category). It's awarded every four years. Mathworld has some more info.
OK, so Slashdot's ads aren't too bad. That was just the first thing that came to mind. Fark is probably a better example - lots of animated gifs on the front page.
The point is that blocking images by the server isn't the best way to do it, since sometimes ad and non-ad images are hosted on the same server. Mozilla's image blocking is nice, but still could stand some improvement.
There's a problem with that, though (at least as far as I can tell). The banner ads at Slashdot, for example, are from images.slashdot.org. If I block those, I lose all of the icons on the page, which I don't want to do. Mozilla needs a finer-grained image filter, based on the image name and/or path (e.g., block stuff with "banner" or "ad" in the path).
Junkbuster does this by default, but Mozilla and Junkbuster don't seem to get along very well. At least, they didn't before, and I haven't tried recently.
-Chris
My guess is that any frequency in a certain range would balance the connected rods, but that the range gets really small as the number of rods increases.
:(
You're probably right that the values would be impossible to calculate exactly, but you can still get a pretty good approximation with certain techniques.
Which reminds me, I should get to work on my math homework
I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but it's possible to stabilize a pendulum (e.g., a stick) in an inverted position by vibrating the base (e.g., your hand) rapidly. Here's the first link that I could find on Google. It's been a while since I've dealt with the math, but I think it has something to do with the Mathieu equation from Floquet Theory.
</math lesson>
"Gosh, that election really sucked. Well, at least it'll probably be the last one we ever have."
(from the What Do You Think section)
"I bet a funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is, while you're in midair, you still hit those brakes! Hey, better try the emergency brake!"
-Jack Handy
Try EMusic. They've got a lot of good stuff from smaller record labels. And it's only $15/month (or less if you sign up for longer).
It's just a Freudian slip. You know, like when you say one thing and mean your mother...
-Chris
"When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of scripture are not enough.
When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much."
-Fen-Yang
For those of you complaining about the huge error messages that the STL can sometimes cause, you might want to try this:
http://www.bdsoft.com/tools/stlfilt.html
I haven't tried it because I haven't done anything with the STL in a while, but it seems pretty nifty. It's basically a Perl script that you can use to decipher the error messages into something useful. There's even instructions on how to make it work with VC++.
This article has a better description and an example, in which a 20-line error message is reduced to plain English.