That essay, "The Fateful Lightning", is available in Isaac Asimov's book "The Edge of Tomorrow". Great book, BTW. Half the book is comprised of non-fiction science essays. It was published in 1985, so a few essays are a bit dated, but it's a great read.
Re:Seems typical of the industry to me.
on
Dynamix Closed Down?
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Friend, you're dead-on accurate.
There's a small community college in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada that offers a two year program in "Electronic Game Design". Basically, it's two years of learning the entire development process of a typical software business. Documentation, project management, overall design, game theory, application programming, 3D modelling, 2D graphics, and a little bit of artifical intelligence.
The intent of the program is to have people learn to make modern PC video games. It's a nice place: very up-to-date hardware and software (industry standard stuff like Lightwave, Photoshop, Maya, etc), smart instructors, not too expensive to attend, either. The overall goal for the two years is to form a team of roughly 4 to 6 people from the various graphics and programming streams, and develop a commercial-quality PC game. It doesn't have to be on the level of Quake 3 or Mechwarrior 4, but should be at an appropriate level for a B-title. Demos are acceptable, as these are intended for portfolio pieces for the team's members.
But the *stress*, my god! If working in an academic environment, without the pressure of having to generate revenue was bad, then I can't imagine what it's like in the real industry! I'm amazed that any PC video games turn out as well as they do.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever done a study on the suicide rate of game developers?:)
Here's a solution that doesn't involve masks. Each day, use facepaint and make pretty designs on your face! Be creative! Smiley faces, caligraphy, last nights hockey scores, anything!
And for camera systems that might track by the *shape* of one's face, one could wear various accessories, such as an ordinary pair of Groucho Marx joke glasses.
I also, for no particular reason, feel that GNOME is more lightweight than KDE. I have no evidence to back this up.
If anecdotal evidence is any indication, I do.
Under just X and Windowmaker on a 400MHz CPU and 384 MB RAM, under no other load at all, Pan 0.9.90 (Gnome-based Usenet client) takes about two seconds to start up. KNode from KDE 2.2 beta 1 (another Usenet client of similiar size and featureset) takes one and a half minutes to start up.
Take a wild guess which desktop environment I don't even keep around for the libraries anymore.
And yes, I know the reason for why KDE apps are slow to load under a non-KDE desktop, so nobody bother flaming me about it.
Perhaps this would be a good time to plug one of my favourite X programs, Desktop File Manager.
There a lots of screenshots there to show you what it's like.
It's basically a simple, low-overhead way to manage files in X. It's not as full-featured as its Gnome or KDE equivalents, but it's not supposed to be. It's stable and fast and works very well with any window manager you'd care to name. It even has full DND support.
And if you've got XV thumbnails of images, those thumbnails will be used as the image's icon. Handy little feature.:)
All you need to use it is X, the XPM libraries and GTK. Fairly standard for any distro.
I don't know what Mr. Sandone considers "locking down computer systems to prevent activity that could be compromising", but shouldn't that include fixing buggy software?
Very true with regard to movie and TV acting, but there's always live performances. Perhaps this could spur a greater public interest in theatre acting. After all, all these trained actors and actresses would still want jobs.
Don't worry, they'll add Qubit this time. He'll still only say two different things, but he'll be able to say them both *and* neither at the same time.
Tux in the games... Now someone with graphical talent has to go make a version of the Tux logo that has him in a glowing blue suit with a frisbee-o-death strapped to his back.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe they could get David Duchovny as Neo instead. He has all that experience with carefully guarding against facial expressions.
That essay, "The Fateful Lightning", is available in Isaac Asimov's book "The Edge of Tomorrow". Great book, BTW. Half the book is comprised of non-fiction science essays. It was published in 1985, so a few essays are a bit dated, but it's a great read.
So Texas is the US version of Quebec?
Friend, you're dead-on accurate.
:)
There's a small community college in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada that offers a two year program in "Electronic Game Design". Basically, it's two years of learning the entire development process of a typical software business. Documentation, project management, overall design, game theory, application programming, 3D modelling, 2D graphics, and a little bit of artifical intelligence.
The intent of the program is to have people learn to make modern PC video games. It's a nice place: very up-to-date hardware and software (industry standard stuff like Lightwave, Photoshop, Maya, etc), smart instructors, not too expensive to attend, either. The overall goal for the two years is to form a team of roughly 4 to 6 people from the various graphics and programming streams, and develop a commercial-quality PC game. It doesn't have to be on the level of Quake 3 or Mechwarrior 4, but should be at an appropriate level for a B-title. Demos are acceptable, as these are intended for portfolio pieces for the team's members.
But the *stress*, my god! If working in an academic environment, without the pressure of having to generate revenue was bad, then I can't imagine what it's like in the real industry! I'm amazed that any PC video games turn out as well as they do.
Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever done a study on the suicide rate of game developers?
The Aliens TC scared the hell out of me. Especially the first level. That was incredibly creepy the first time through.
If there's any old-school Doom fans here who haven't played it yet, it's worth your time. >:)
Try Opera. You won't regret it. Runs beautifully, and doesn't cause the entire OS to crash on the (extremely rare, btw) occasions that it crashes.
Here's a solution that doesn't involve masks. Each day, use facepaint and make pretty designs on your face! Be creative! Smiley faces, caligraphy, last nights hockey scores, anything!
And for camera systems that might track by the *shape* of one's face, one could wear various accessories, such as an ordinary pair of Groucho Marx joke glasses.
No, Rule #3 states that rampant lesbianism needs no excuses.
I also, for no particular reason, feel that GNOME is more lightweight than KDE. I have no evidence to back this up.
If anecdotal evidence is any indication, I do.
Under just X and Windowmaker on a 400MHz CPU and 384 MB RAM, under no other load at all, Pan 0.9.90 (Gnome-based Usenet client) takes about two seconds to start up. KNode from KDE 2.2 beta 1 (another Usenet client of similiar size and featureset) takes one and a half minutes to start up.
Take a wild guess which desktop environment I don't even keep around for the libraries anymore.
And yes, I know the reason for why KDE apps are slow to load under a non-KDE desktop, so nobody bother flaming me about it.
We've secretly replaced George Lucas with Ed Wood. Let's see if anyone notices.
You spoony bard! I was happy with DFM! Now you come along and show me something that shatters my little world! :)
Seriously, Rox is very nice, I agree. You have a convert.
Perhaps this would be a good time to plug one of my favourite X programs, Desktop File Manager. There a lots of screenshots there to show you what it's like.
It's basically a simple, low-overhead way to manage files in X. It's not as full-featured as its Gnome or KDE equivalents, but it's not supposed to be. It's stable and fast and works very well with any window manager you'd care to name. It even has full DND support.
And if you've got XV thumbnails of images, those thumbnails will be used as the image's icon. Handy little feature. :)
All you need to use it is X, the XPM libraries and GTK. Fairly standard for any distro.
End plug.
I don't know what Mr. Sandone considers "locking down computer systems to prevent activity that could be compromising", but shouldn't that include fixing buggy software?
I don't doubt it. Frankly, it's hard to imagine a feature that Emacs doesn't have and/or hasn't had. :)
"Rape can be funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd."
You mean they aren't already?
Very true with regard to movie and TV acting, but there's always live performances. Perhaps this could spur a greater public interest in theatre acting. After all, all these trained actors and actresses would still want jobs.
First thing I said to myself was "that should be 640,480". I'm such a nerd...
Hands up everyone who went looking for this. You know who you are.
I'm not sure if there is a precedent judging whether keylogging is a wiretap or a search, but common sense says it is a wiretap.
True, therefore I predict that the legal system will decide that it is a search.
Slashdot should have a "Horrific Pun" moderation setting, but I'm torn between it being a +1 or -1.
"Thade. Agent Thade."
Hmm. The Apetrix...
Don't worry, they'll add Qubit this time. He'll still only say two different things, but he'll be able to say them both *and* neither at the same time.
Tux in the games... Now someone with graphical talent has to go make a version of the Tux logo that has him in a glowing blue suit with a frisbee-o-death strapped to his back. :)
Yes, I know. But he'll still whine. :)