There has not once, ever, been a scientifically valid positive result from a single test for ghosts. Further research in the area, after this much overwhelming evidence, is useless.
You don't have any evidence there. You have a lack of evidence. Lack of evidence isn't proof of anything. If you lose your car keys and look for them in the kitchen, the living room, the basement, and the bathroom and don't find them - that doesn't mean that your keys no longer exist.
The problem with supernatural phenomena is that they can never be science, so the scientific method breaks down when you try to apply it. For instance, let us say that I have a hypothesis that you never say the word "butterscotch". I follow you around and record your conversations. I even offer you a butterscotch sundae, hoping you'll say "Oo! A butterscotch sundae!" And let's say I never hear you utter the word. Does that mean I am right? How about if you somehow get wind of my experiment and know that I want you to say "butterscotch". What then? Maybe you're just not saying it on purpose because you know I'd like you to.
In the matter of the supernatural, you cannot use the scientific method because (if true) there would be other minds at work potentially skewing the results of your experiments.
Meddle? The track Echoes is orgasmic to listen to. IMHO, it is one of the best tracks ever recorded.
If you haven't already, find a copy of Live at Pompeii. My copy is my wife's - her family owned a mom-and-pop video store and she kept the copy when it folded.
As creepy/beautiful as this song is, playing it to an abandoned amphitheater on the ruins of Pompeii just multiplies the awesome. There is some studio footage of the original scoring of Us and Them too. It's fantastic to watch.
You're allowed to sue anyone you like for any reason you want. I could sue every single person reading this post in a John Doe lawsuit because I believe that the gray aliens told me that people who read my slashdot posts are making the value of my stamp collection drop, so I want a million dollars from every one of you. Plus expenses.
See? You can sue anyone you want for any reason you like. Stories like these are really non-stories. About the only value is in letting you know "hey don't use these guys, they're litigious jerks."
You can sue anyone for any reason, sure - but winning your suit is of course another matter. Let these guys bringing the suit win, then you've got a story.
All it would really take is a terrorist attack, or a market crash, or anything that people could latch on to and gripe about. Doesn't even have to be his fault.
If that happens and Obama's numbers were to slip over the next 2 years, that would mean Palin would have a decent shot at being President.
NO THANK YOU.
Instead I'd much rather Obama ran against someone who is vaguely competent, so in the event that he loses the country doesn't wind up in Caribou Barbie's hands.
Besides - the process is to (hopefully) put the best people forward so the country has the best leadership available. Let's not wreck that. Let the Republicans pick whomever they wish, then we will try to win on our own merits.
Remember - karma is a bitch. The only way to win is to be the Good Guys In The White Hats(tm). Don't tempt fate.
'Approximately a half hour in, the team revealed their new PS3 secrets, the moment we all were waiting for. One of the major highlights here was, dongle-less jailbreaking by overflowing the bootup NOR flash, giving complete control over the system.
Ok, the PS3 was launched on November 11, 2006. Today's date is December 29, 2010. That means that it took over four years to be broken.
Compared to DVD and Blu-Ray, that is actually pretty darn good.
No, it's a worthwhile comment. He could have phrased it more diplomatically but it is a useful thing to know.
C, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Python, assembly... - these languages and all others are tools. They go in the toolbox and are brought out as needed. Each does something better than the others.
Were I to write a VM I would use C as well. A good way to think of C is "user friendly assembly". This is an excellent language to use for an interpreter. For a VM you want SPEED. So you need something with as little baggage as possible. It must be fast, and C has that going for it. After primary compilation it creates asm files. So why not go straight to assembly? A VM is complex. For something huge and complex ASM is a little too fine grained. You want C. So C was used. Best tool for the job.
Writing a gigantic user space application? C may not be your best bet. A lot of those types of programs spend a lot of time just sitting there waiting for input. You may not need anything that optimized. A big fat high level object oriented language can be a better pick. That's where Java/C# shine. You can do a lot with the fat libraries that go along for the ride. The UI creation is simple. Lots of bang for the buck.
Match tool to task and you'll make better software.
Convince advertisers that you'll look at their ads later if they don't bug you with them right now. That'll be the compromise. Get your lousy popups and spam off of the pages I'm interested in and you betcha I'll read them later.
Then set up a cron job to wipe the folder every so often.
Sure, sometimes if you land in the right environment it can go well for you. Rather fortunately I'm in just such a place. All of the things I've typed here today apply to former employers.
Sometimes you can wind up in a place where people are treated well for their energy and enthusiasm. Sure.
Most places though? Exact opposite.
You're not aware of it yet but there is a network in place of established people in established positions who work very little and get paid a lot. And are deeply interested in maintaining the status quo. Because it is working out very well for them.
So why change? If you're making six figures and playing golf at your company meetings...what on earth would make you want to change anything at all? Especially since any single change could possibly shift power and resources and make your cushy position irrelevant?
It's like a mutual stalemate. Two fiercely competing companies will both be loaded up with dozens of these suit wearing lampreys. As much as they would like to ace the other, they can't do too much. Shake the trees hard enough and perhaps everyone will fall.
The system has reached its point of minimum energy. Equilibrium. To move it to some other state would require a massive change and that might not work out in your favor.
So the suits ding at each other, firing off dinky patent lawsuits or back room deals to each others customers or whatever. That's the network. That's how it works. Once you're in, you're in. At that level the game becomes "how do I keep this ball rolling". Anything that might stop the game is the enemy.
Look at the RIAA for an example. Guys in suits. They make nothing, provide nothing, do nothing. Other than maintain their position. Strategic lawsuits, giving pennies on the dollar to the artists they claim to represent, pushing the DRM du jour on the public, lobbying, bogus lawsuits and intimidation. All for what? Because they like music? Hell no! To maintain their gravy train. I'll bet out of any thousand RIAA employees you interview you'll find no more than 3 that actually give a crap about music. The rest care more for their Lexus.
This being Slashdot, this is well known. What isn't as well known is that 99% of all businesses are the same.
How do you explain the fact that companies turn down people with length of experience well beyond the length of a college education then?
I suspect you already know the answer, but I'll offer my opinion anyways. People with that kind of experience are higher maintenance. They know what they can and can't get away with, having been in the system a while.
Your job is a kind of poker match, with each side gambling on the point where the other guy will fold. Experience makes you a better player. So naturally companies avoid the better players. If you were playing poker for money would you rather play someone with no experience or 20 years worth?
I think you're wrong: it is just laziness.
Oh sure, I agree. That figures in too absolutely.
So you're saying that the purpose of "education" is actually to teach you to shut up, sit down, and not question if things could be done better? Exactly what I have been saying for years. Why do we still put any kind of faith in degrees?
You do get an education along the way, which is nice. And occasionally useful. And if you are clever and subtle you can create change. But by and large - this is the case.
And yet no one seems to have any serious issues with this. I guess that is because everyone who is "smart enough" to be taken seriously knows how to shut up, and anyone who doesn't bend over probably is "too dumb" to matter.
Exactly. Intelligence is figuring out it is a game, figuring out what the rules are, and then playing to win. Winning in this case means a roof over your head, food and water, and heat in the winter.
Sure, you can buck the system. I've experimented with it. Know what changed? Guess. It's like pissing your pants in a dark suit. Gives you a nice warm feeling but nobody notices.
At one job I had I reported theft, unexcused absences where people were covering for each other, people rifling through each others desks to take credit for work they haven't done, you name it. What changed? Nothing. I quit the job and two months after that the HR lady I complained to at my exit interview in a fit of desperation quit without giving notice one Tuesday after sneaking out for a three hour lunch and getting bombed on Margaritas.
That's how it is. Sorry. YMMV, I hope.
As a society, yeah, we're screwed.
Pretty much. But with that in mind, how do you proceed? Self interest. Get paid and cover your ass.
Tech, community and online schools don't have as many hurdles. They are convenient and quick. That is part of their charm. It's in their sales pitch. But it defeats the purpose. They are looking for stubborn thick skull bastards who walk uphill both ways in the snow.
Sitting in a coffee shop with your laptop getting a degree online doesn't show what they are looking for. Sorry, but that's how it is.
After all, work is supposed to be tedious, and it's cheating if you find a way to automate the job, even if it saves the company millions.
Exactly. Wanna know why?
Because your boss and his co-workers that have worked there for fifteen years before you hired in made that system. Last thing in the world they want is some kid out of college making them all look stupid.
College isn't the ability to do something in a given field well. That is part of it, sure. But not the biggest part. What college teaches you is how to perform a long and difficult and often times utterly pointless task and be stubborn enough to see it through to the end. That's why lots of jobs have "college degree" as a requirement but they don't care which one you have. What they are looking for is someone who would move an entire bag of rice into a bucket and use chopsticks to do it and not complain. College will teach you this. This entry form is an example.
That's why the poster is confused about the bizarre space width requirement. It's a hurdle. That is its function. It doesn't have to make sense. It would be unrealistic if it did. PLENTY of things along the way in your education will not make any sense at all. It is important that you learn this. The task, whatever it is, must be done. And it must be done, and done in the way asked - regardless of how bizarre it seems. Or even if you have a better idea that would be faster/better/more efficient. No. Do it this way, in the way asked and the time allocated, and get it done.
It is the perfect training ground for life in the job market into which you will be dropped into here in a few years.
Well that's sort of a different thing. Software for the x86 9x platform would be expected to run on the x86 NT platform.
In this case you're changing the processor so it would be a fresh start. And one they've already done. Windows CE. It is the win32 api (trimmed down a bit) running on ARM.
Now, if they could do the "one codebase many architectures" thing like the Linux kernel - well, that would be nothing short of spectacular.
But don't hold your breath. They break compatibility all the time just moving down the x86 line as it is. Throw in another processor into the soup and you'd have a real mess, unless they put an insane amount of work into it. And from what I've seen from them so far I'll just be polite and say that seems highly unlikely.
I couldn't have said it better. What would be the point of porting the desktop Windows to ARM when MS is already in that market segment with Windows CE?
What would the difference be?
No x86 software would work on it and it would be a reimplementation of the win32 API. Which would be...Windows CE.
It matters because it's something to rile people up over. Doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. It's another imaginary point of contention that Fox news uses to keep it's viewers worked up about. If there isn't something to be outraged and upset over, their viewership would dwindle. That's how they make their money. Get people terrified over liberal-straw-man-of-the-day, then campaign vigorously against it. Be sure to tune in - we're fighting for your rights, America! That kind of crap.
Problem is, when gullible people believe their bullcrap and act on it. Like this guy. He's going to jail simply because he watches Fox news and believes what they say. His real crime is simply being gullible and believing what the "news" people told him.
1) It lets Allen know what he has to fix to get things moving. And it's a sort of promise from the court. "You said I needed to do X,Y, and Z. I've done X, Y, and Z. So let's get this party started."
2) Lawyers charge by the hour. A sloppy first filing? Damn! Going to have to put in some overtime on this one, boys. I'd say they were laughing all the way to the bank, but they probably aren't. They're probably in hysterics rolling around on the floor with glee and unable to walk until they catch their breath.
Steve! So good to hear from you! Been a fan for a long time now. Was just throwing some Illuminati around my table last weekend. The expansion with the artifacts positively rocks. Oh, and we've already got rules for the Zombie Dice drinking game. We have not found players suicidal enough to try it though. Yet.
Anyways, as to the business at hand, I have no idea as to the rest of the chart. I tested treads only, and this was some 20 odd years ago. It's a fuzzy memory at this point. I do recall playing 3-4 games only firing at treads. Initially the idea was "I'm going to stop this damned thing no matter what." Then I added an illegal number of units. And still couldn't stop a Mark 3. That's when the light bulb kind of went off.
Played 3 or 4 games (not a great sampling I know) firing only at treads. Counted them up on a piece of grid paper. Number of times fired, number of hits. And came up to about half what you'd expect. That's when I knew the thing was cheating.
I'll tell you what though. I do have a project in the works. A disassembly of the original C64 Ogre. It's something I've always wanted to do. The copy protection was obvious - a bad sector read early in the boot. It was obvious. The "gronking" noise a 1541 disk drive makes when it hits something it dislikes is well known. My theory is that if it didn't find the magic bad sector - wham! Bad combat tables. A disassembly would prove this out.
Perhaps someday I'll do this. It would be wonderfully old school.
BTW the book included with Ogre where the programmers explain how they programmed the AI is one of the finest programming documents in the universe. It should be a must read for game designers. It really is brilliant. I still have mine, in my original box set. Only thing missing is the radiation badge.
I found one of these when I was a teenager. Freaking subtle. Brilliant.
Steve Jackson's OGRE, for the Commodore 64.
I bought it. And did what any good geek would do. Made a backup and played that. And I could never beat it. But I did eventually screw up that disc - the old 5 1/4 discs did mess up fairly often. Especially in the 1541 drive.
So I played the original. And beat it. Made another backup. Couldn't beat it. A light went off.
I did a statistical analysis. All I did was fire at treads for several games. They're supposed to be hit 33% of the time regardless of weapon or circumstance. On the backup copy, it was close to 17%. On the original copy about 33%.
They built a single column shift into the game if it detects its a copy.
EVIL.
Especially seeing as how - wait for it - I was a paying customer. Thanks guys.
On the plus side, I did get really good at that game. You had to be playing at a column shift disadvantage.
You've got a *great* idea there! Reminds me of a display in the Florida Believe it or Not. It is a mirror with a caption over it saying how most people cannot fold their tongue over. You continue walking through the museum and you wind your way back around and you come to find out it is a one way mirror, and people on the other side are watching you.
We do something similar with this park.
On one side, a place where the devout can have pictures of Jesus riding raptors and 6000 year timelines of the planet. On the other side, people can watch them.
I have no idea which side would make the most money. =)
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree.
There has not once, ever, been a scientifically valid positive result from a single test for ghosts. Further research in the area, after this much overwhelming evidence, is useless.
You don't have any evidence there. You have a lack of evidence. Lack of evidence isn't proof of anything. If you lose your car keys and look for them in the kitchen, the living room, the basement, and the bathroom and don't find them - that doesn't mean that your keys no longer exist.
The problem with supernatural phenomena is that they can never be science, so the scientific method breaks down when you try to apply it. For instance, let us say that I have a hypothesis that you never say the word "butterscotch". I follow you around and record your conversations. I even offer you a butterscotch sundae, hoping you'll say "Oo! A butterscotch sundae!" And let's say I never hear you utter the word. Does that mean I am right? How about if you somehow get wind of my experiment and know that I want you to say "butterscotch". What then? Maybe you're just not saying it on purpose because you know I'd like you to.
In the matter of the supernatural, you cannot use the scientific method because (if true) there would be other minds at work potentially skewing the results of your experiments.
Meddle? The track Echoes is orgasmic to listen to. IMHO, it is one of the best tracks ever recorded.
If you haven't already, find a copy of Live at Pompeii. My copy is my wife's - her family owned a mom-and-pop video store and she kept the copy when it folded.
Here, check this out:
Part 1
Part 2
As creepy/beautiful as this song is, playing it to an abandoned amphitheater on the ruins of Pompeii just multiplies the awesome. There is some studio footage of the original scoring of Us and Them too. It's fantastic to watch.
From the geohot site:
props to fail0verflow for the asymmetric half
Geohot isn't taking credit for anyone's work here.
You're allowed to sue anyone you like for any reason you want. I could sue every single person reading this post in a John Doe lawsuit because I believe that the gray aliens told me that people who read my slashdot posts are making the value of my stamp collection drop, so I want a million dollars from every one of you. Plus expenses.
Here, read up on this guy.
See? You can sue anyone you want for any reason you like. Stories like these are really non-stories. About the only value is in letting you know "hey don't use these guys, they're litigious jerks."
You can sue anyone for any reason, sure - but winning your suit is of course another matter. Let these guys bringing the suit win, then you've got a story.
2012 is a long way away, and karma is a bitch.
Let's say the Democrats do manage to get Palin past the primary. Then Obama has a streak of bad luck, like W did.
All it would really take is a terrorist attack, or a market crash, or anything that people could latch on to and gripe about. Doesn't even have to be his fault.
If that happens and Obama's numbers were to slip over the next 2 years, that would mean Palin would have a decent shot at being President.
NO THANK YOU.
Instead I'd much rather Obama ran against someone who is vaguely competent, so in the event that he loses the country doesn't wind up in Caribou Barbie's hands.
Besides - the process is to (hopefully) put the best people forward so the country has the best leadership available. Let's not wreck that. Let the Republicans pick whomever they wish, then we will try to win on our own merits.
Remember - karma is a bitch. The only way to win is to be the Good Guys In The White Hats(tm). Don't tempt fate.
From the blurb:
'Approximately a half hour in, the team revealed their new PS3 secrets, the moment we all were waiting for. One of the major highlights here was, dongle-less jailbreaking by overflowing the bootup NOR flash, giving complete control over the system.
Ok, the PS3 was launched on November 11, 2006. Today's date is December 29, 2010. That means that it took over four years to be broken.
Compared to DVD and Blu-Ray, that is actually pretty darn good.
No, it's a worthwhile comment. He could have phrased it more diplomatically but it is a useful thing to know.
C, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Python, assembly... - these languages and all others are tools. They go in the toolbox and are brought out as needed. Each does something better than the others.
Were I to write a VM I would use C as well. A good way to think of C is "user friendly assembly". This is an excellent language to use for an interpreter. For a VM you want SPEED. So you need something with as little baggage as possible. It must be fast, and C has that going for it. After primary compilation it creates asm files. So why not go straight to assembly? A VM is complex. For something huge and complex ASM is a little too fine grained. You want C. So C was used. Best tool for the job.
Writing a gigantic user space application? C may not be your best bet. A lot of those types of programs spend a lot of time just sitting there waiting for input. You may not need anything that optimized. A big fat high level object oriented language can be a better pick. That's where Java/C# shine. You can do a lot with the fat libraries that go along for the ride. The UI creation is simple. Lots of bang for the buck.
Match tool to task and you'll make better software.
Convince advertisers that you'll look at their ads later if they don't bug you with them right now. That'll be the compromise. Get your lousy popups and spam off of the pages I'm interested in and you betcha I'll read them later.
Then set up a cron job to wipe the folder every so often.
Fantastic quote. I only wish it were possible for me to mod you up, or give you my mod points, or something.
Sure, sometimes if you land in the right environment it can go well for you. Rather fortunately I'm in just such a place. All of the things I've typed here today apply to former employers.
Sometimes you can wind up in a place where people are treated well for their energy and enthusiasm. Sure.
Most places though? Exact opposite.
You're not aware of it yet but there is a network in place of established people in established positions who work very little and get paid a lot. And are deeply interested in maintaining the status quo. Because it is working out very well for them.
So why change? If you're making six figures and playing golf at your company meetings...what on earth would make you want to change anything at all? Especially since any single change could possibly shift power and resources and make your cushy position irrelevant?
It's like a mutual stalemate. Two fiercely competing companies will both be loaded up with dozens of these suit wearing lampreys. As much as they would like to ace the other, they can't do too much. Shake the trees hard enough and perhaps everyone will fall.
The system has reached its point of minimum energy. Equilibrium. To move it to some other state would require a massive change and that might not work out in your favor.
So the suits ding at each other, firing off dinky patent lawsuits or back room deals to each others customers or whatever. That's the network. That's how it works. Once you're in, you're in. At that level the game becomes "how do I keep this ball rolling". Anything that might stop the game is the enemy.
Look at the RIAA for an example. Guys in suits. They make nothing, provide nothing, do nothing. Other than maintain their position. Strategic lawsuits, giving pennies on the dollar to the artists they claim to represent, pushing the DRM du jour on the public, lobbying, bogus lawsuits and intimidation. All for what? Because they like music? Hell no! To maintain their gravy train. I'll bet out of any thousand RIAA employees you interview you'll find no more than 3 that actually give a crap about music. The rest care more for their Lexus.
This being Slashdot, this is well known. What isn't as well known is that 99% of all businesses are the same.
How do you explain the fact that companies turn down people with length of experience well beyond the length of a college education then?
I suspect you already know the answer, but I'll offer my opinion anyways. People with that kind of experience are higher maintenance. They know what they can and can't get away with, having been in the system a while.
Your job is a kind of poker match, with each side gambling on the point where the other guy will fold. Experience makes you a better player. So naturally companies avoid the better players. If you were playing poker for money would you rather play someone with no experience or 20 years worth?
I think you're wrong: it is just laziness.
Oh sure, I agree. That figures in too absolutely.
So you're saying that the purpose of "education" is actually to teach you to shut up, sit down, and not question if things could be done better? Exactly what I have been saying for years. Why do we still put any kind of faith in degrees?
You do get an education along the way, which is nice. And occasionally useful. And if you are clever and subtle you can create change. But by and large - this is the case.
And yet no one seems to have any serious issues with this. I guess that is because everyone who is "smart enough" to be taken seriously knows how to shut up, and anyone who doesn't bend over probably is "too dumb" to matter.
Exactly. Intelligence is figuring out it is a game, figuring out what the rules are, and then playing to win. Winning in this case means a roof over your head, food and water, and heat in the winter.
Sure, you can buck the system. I've experimented with it. Know what changed? Guess. It's like pissing your pants in a dark suit. Gives you a nice warm feeling but nobody notices.
At one job I had I reported theft, unexcused absences where people were covering for each other, people rifling through each others desks to take credit for work they haven't done, you name it. What changed? Nothing. I quit the job and two months after that the HR lady I complained to at my exit interview in a fit of desperation quit without giving notice one Tuesday after sneaking out for a three hour lunch and getting bombed on Margaritas.
That's how it is. Sorry. YMMV, I hope.
As a society, yeah, we're screwed.
Pretty much. But with that in mind, how do you proceed? Self interest. Get paid and cover your ass.
Tech, community and online schools don't have as many hurdles. They are convenient and quick. That is part of their charm. It's in their sales pitch. But it defeats the purpose. They are looking for stubborn thick skull bastards who walk uphill both ways in the snow.
Sitting in a coffee shop with your laptop getting a degree online doesn't show what they are looking for. Sorry, but that's how it is.
After all, work is supposed to be tedious, and it's cheating if you find a way to automate the job, even if it saves the company millions.
Exactly. Wanna know why?
Because your boss and his co-workers that have worked there for fifteen years before you hired in made that system. Last thing in the world they want is some kid out of college making them all look stupid.
Sucks, I know.
College isn't the ability to do something in a given field well. That is part of it, sure. But not the biggest part. What college teaches you is how to perform a long and difficult and often times utterly pointless task and be stubborn enough to see it through to the end. That's why lots of jobs have "college degree" as a requirement but they don't care which one you have. What they are looking for is someone who would move an entire bag of rice into a bucket and use chopsticks to do it and not complain. College will teach you this. This entry form is an example.
That's why the poster is confused about the bizarre space width requirement. It's a hurdle. That is its function. It doesn't have to make sense. It would be unrealistic if it did. PLENTY of things along the way in your education will not make any sense at all. It is important that you learn this. The task, whatever it is, must be done. And it must be done, and done in the way asked - regardless of how bizarre it seems. Or even if you have a better idea that would be faster/better/more efficient. No. Do it this way, in the way asked and the time allocated, and get it done.
It is the perfect training ground for life in the job market into which you will be dropped into here in a few years.
Well that's sort of a different thing. Software for the x86 9x platform would be expected to run on the x86 NT platform.
In this case you're changing the processor so it would be a fresh start. And one they've already done. Windows CE. It is the win32 api (trimmed down a bit) running on ARM.
Now, if they could do the "one codebase many architectures" thing like the Linux kernel - well, that would be nothing short of spectacular.
But don't hold your breath. They break compatibility all the time just moving down the x86 line as it is. Throw in another processor into the soup and you'd have a real mess, unless they put an insane amount of work into it. And from what I've seen from them so far I'll just be polite and say that seems highly unlikely.
I couldn't have said it better. What would be the point of porting the desktop Windows to ARM when MS is already in that market segment with Windows CE?
What would the difference be?
No x86 software would work on it and it would be a reimplementation of the win32 API. Which would be...Windows CE.
Can it be saved via fan support, given the steadily declining viewership numbers?
Firefly.
If the rabid Firefly fans couldn't resurrect that show, then you guys don't have a prayer.
That being said, I welcome you all as brothers and sisters and feel your pain. You can't take the sky from me.
It matters because it's something to rile people up over. Doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. It's another imaginary point of contention that Fox news uses to keep it's viewers worked up about. If there isn't something to be outraged and upset over, their viewership would dwindle. That's how they make their money. Get people terrified over liberal-straw-man-of-the-day, then campaign vigorously against it. Be sure to tune in - we're fighting for your rights, America! That kind of crap.
Problem is, when gullible people believe their bullcrap and act on it. Like this guy. He's going to jail simply because he watches Fox news and believes what they say. His real crime is simply being gullible and believing what the "news" people told him.
And it's even today's comic:
XKCD 834.
It's good two ways.
1) It lets Allen know what he has to fix to get things moving. And it's a sort of promise from the court. "You said I needed to do X,Y, and Z. I've done X, Y, and Z. So let's get this party started."
2) Lawyers charge by the hour. A sloppy first filing? Damn! Going to have to put in some overtime on this one, boys. I'd say they were laughing all the way to the bank, but they probably aren't. They're probably in hysterics rolling around on the floor with glee and unable to walk until they catch their breath.
No, that's still one line, ten deep. Just orthogonal.
Steve! So good to hear from you! Been a fan for a long time now. Was just throwing some Illuminati around my table last weekend. The expansion with the artifacts positively rocks. Oh, and we've already got rules for the Zombie Dice drinking game. We have not found players suicidal enough to try it though. Yet.
Anyways, as to the business at hand, I have no idea as to the rest of the chart. I tested treads only, and this was some 20 odd years ago. It's a fuzzy memory at this point. I do recall playing 3-4 games only firing at treads. Initially the idea was "I'm going to stop this damned thing no matter what." Then I added an illegal number of units. And still couldn't stop a Mark 3. That's when the light bulb kind of went off.
Played 3 or 4 games (not a great sampling I know) firing only at treads. Counted them up on a piece of grid paper. Number of times fired, number of hits. And came up to about half what you'd expect. That's when I knew the thing was cheating.
I'll tell you what though. I do have a project in the works. A disassembly of the original C64 Ogre. It's something I've always wanted to do. The copy protection was obvious - a bad sector read early in the boot. It was obvious. The "gronking" noise a 1541 disk drive makes when it hits something it dislikes is well known. My theory is that if it didn't find the magic bad sector - wham! Bad combat tables. A disassembly would prove this out.
Perhaps someday I'll do this. It would be wonderfully old school.
BTW the book included with Ogre where the programmers explain how they programmed the AI is one of the finest programming documents in the universe. It should be a must read for game designers. It really is brilliant. I still have mine, in my original box set. Only thing missing is the radiation badge.
I found one of these when I was a teenager. Freaking subtle. Brilliant.
Steve Jackson's OGRE, for the Commodore 64.
I bought it. And did what any good geek would do. Made a backup and played that. And I could never beat it. But I did eventually screw up that disc - the old 5 1/4 discs did mess up fairly often. Especially in the 1541 drive.
So I played the original. And beat it. Made another backup. Couldn't beat it. A light went off.
I did a statistical analysis. All I did was fire at treads for several games. They're supposed to be hit 33% of the time regardless of weapon or circumstance. On the backup copy, it was close to 17%. On the original copy about 33%.
They built a single column shift into the game if it detects its a copy.
EVIL.
Especially seeing as how - wait for it - I was a paying customer. Thanks guys.
On the plus side, I did get really good at that game. You had to be playing at a column shift disadvantage.
You've got a *great* idea there! Reminds me of a display in the Florida Believe it or Not. It is a mirror with a caption over it saying how most people cannot fold their tongue over. You continue walking through the museum and you wind your way back around and you come to find out it is a one way mirror, and people on the other side are watching you.
We do something similar with this park.
On one side, a place where the devout can have pictures of Jesus riding raptors and 6000 year timelines of the planet. On the other side, people can watch them.
I have no idea which side would make the most money. =)
Of course nobody I know would go there. I'm college educated. ;)
Here, go check this out.
I say there is a large segment of this great country that would positively love this park. Might as well make a few bucks off of them.