Yes, these are the ones I dropped in to recommend. Most 12-year-olds aren't going to be delighted by "Hello World" or Fibonacci sequence programs. Scratch and Alice are actually fun ways to start, giving instant, interesting feedback while teaching fundamentals of programming.
Incidentally, Alice was written in Python, and one of the people in charge of it was Randy Pausch of "The Last Lecture" fame.
Video games are generally contrived to put some success within your reach, if only you'll play for just a while longer.
If you're not hacking/exploiting, your MMO successes fall within the scope of the designers' vision, and there isn't anything to be very proud of in the first place. You've merely completed the exercise.
If you're bothered when lower-end game content is re-contrived for a different audience, then I bet you're just envious and/or ashamed about your sunk costs.
But you'd be right that challenges acquire importance by not having a planner make them achievable for you. You're just having trouble accepting that that was the case for your own apparent challenges too.
I guess I'd accept that downing pre-nerf M'uru is about as significant as devising a slightly personalized way to tie your own shoelaces... but what getting a life really means is taking on all the challenges that are hard by lack of design.
What are the downsides to their content management system? I was looking at it very seriously last weekend (http://matrix.squiz.net/), and although I was surprised by the licensing terms, the features are incredible--I think the only other OSS project currently offering anything comparable is Plone, although I'd be glad to be corrected. Just don't say Mambo or Xaraya or anything else at http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ or http://www.oscom.org/matrix/index.html that I've already investigated. Our current (costly) content management system runs over 350 separate domains, and we've got to have a finished CMS designed to do that all in one package while being clusterable and providing Mac/Linux-compatible WYSIWYG editing to end users managing one site each. Plone might fit the bill, but its Python and ZODB foundations feel pretty exotic compared to MySource Matrix's PHP and PostgreSQL... Most of our developers won't touch Plone. On the other hand, MySource Matrix's licensing terms would actually be an improvement here, where inertia causes all our source to remain closed under ordinary circumstances.
Although many folks pay for non-attending memberships to Worldcon and although all last year's attendees also get to make nominations, there is another odd detail here pointing to the location of the convention as a factor in the nominee list:
One of the nominees, Ian McDonald's River of Gods, hasn't even been published in the US, and from what I've heard, it probably won't be. The postal service might explain that too, but with only around 400-500 people nominating, it's much more plausible to suppose the nominations were skewed a little right of the pond.
The common wisdom also has it that location was a factor in Robert Sawyer's win in Toronto. Little else explains it.
A friend and I routinely bet on Hugo winners. Three months ago, I bet that Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell would win the Hugo for best novel in 2004. I'm glad to see it made the nominee list, and knowing the other novels, I still think JS&MN will win. It's fantasy, but that's OK under Hugo rules, and no other SF/Fantasy novel got 1/10th as many favorable reviews last year. If you enjoy fantasy, Jane Austen, and Neil Gaiman, then you'll definitely like it too.
I also predict that the winner won't be American. Yeah, this is the first year that no American was nominated for best novel. Note that the Hugo is voted on by Worldcon members, and Worldcon is in Scotland this year. So a substantial portion of the voters will be able to travel to Scotland for the con, and I believe several of these nominees are more well-known in the UK. They're all really good--don't get me wrong--but location is probably a factor in this list.
Well, in addition to Hominids, I've read Starplex, The Terminal Experiment, and Illegal Alien. If I'm biased against Canadians in general or Sawyer in particular, I certainly keep giving them a try.
Robert Sawyer is very much comparable to Michael Crichton. He cranks out a lot of books. They are fast reads. And they are bad for a lot of the same reasons. They feel shallow, like a mediocre SF movie or TV show. They are full of goofiness and cliches.
Have you actually read the competition? Can you honestly say that Hominids adds more to the world's literary imagination than The Scar or Kiln People? Can you honestly say that Hominids has better writing or characterization than Bones of the Earth? I suppose it's possible, but you don't say.
Hugo-nominated fantasy novels include but are not limited to...
Day of the Minotaur (1967) Too Many Magicians (1967) Goblin Reservation (1969) Harpist in the Wind (1980) Little, Big (1982) Tea With the Black Dragon (1984) Seventh Son (1988) Red Prophet (1989) Prentice Alvin (1990) Towing Jehovah (1995)
By the way, Hominids is a dreadful book, and there's a coincidence in its win that Slashdot readers may not know about: the author couldn't possibly be more active in promoting himself as Canada's big-time SF writer, and all the Hugo voters this year were necessarily paid members of a convention taking place in Canada--in fact, Toronto where the winning author lives. Are Canadian SF fans really such parochial nationalist boosters that they would vote for a bad book just because it's Canadian? I wouldn't have thought so before yesterday.
You should read Hominids, The Scar, Bones of the Earth, Kiln People, and The Years of Rice and Salt if you'd like to judge for yourself. I'd have voted for any of them and even "no award" before I would have voted for Hominids.
It's a tiny sample, but it looks like these are clear favorites:
1. The Wooden Sea, Jonathan Carroll
2. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
And all these do well, showing up on several lists and/or
ranking high where they're mentioned:
Cosmonaut Keep, Ken MacLeod
Nekropolis, Maureen McHugh
The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson
Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Personally, I haven't read enough 2001 novels to make a decent list.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, these are the ones I dropped in to recommend. Most 12-year-olds aren't going to be delighted by "Hello World" or Fibonacci sequence programs. Scratch and Alice are actually fun ways to start, giving instant, interesting feedback while teaching fundamentals of programming. Incidentally, Alice was written in Python, and one of the people in charge of it was Randy Pausch of "The Last Lecture" fame.
If you're not hacking/exploiting, your MMO successes fall within the scope of the designers' vision, and there isn't anything to be very proud of in the first place. You've merely completed the exercise.
If you're bothered when lower-end game content is re-contrived for a different audience, then I bet you're just envious and/or ashamed about your sunk costs.
But you'd be right that challenges acquire importance by not having a planner make them achievable for you. You're just having trouble accepting that that was the case for your own apparent challenges too.
I guess I'd accept that downing pre-nerf M'uru is about as significant as devising a slightly personalized way to tie your own shoelaces ... but what getting a life really means is taking on all the challenges that are hard by lack of design.
What are the downsides to their content management system? I was looking at it very seriously last weekend (http://matrix.squiz.net/), and although I was surprised by the licensing terms, the features are incredible--I think the only other OSS project currently offering anything comparable is Plone, although I'd be glad to be corrected. Just don't say Mambo or Xaraya or anything else at http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ or http://www.oscom.org/matrix/index.html that I've already investigated. Our current (costly) content management system runs over 350 separate domains, and we've got to have a finished CMS designed to do that all in one package while being clusterable and providing Mac/Linux-compatible WYSIWYG editing to end users managing one site each. Plone might fit the bill, but its Python and ZODB foundations feel pretty exotic compared to MySource Matrix's PHP and PostgreSQL ... Most of our developers won't touch Plone. On the other hand, MySource Matrix's licensing terms would actually be an improvement here, where inertia causes all our source to remain closed under ordinary circumstances.
One of the nominees, Ian McDonald's River of Gods, hasn't even been published in the US, and from what I've heard, it probably won't be. The postal service might explain that too, but with only around 400-500 people nominating, it's much more plausible to suppose the nominations were skewed a little right of the pond.
The common wisdom also has it that location was a factor in Robert Sawyer's win in Toronto. Little else explains it.
I also predict that the winner won't be American. Yeah, this is the first year that no American was nominated for best novel. Note that the Hugo is voted on by Worldcon members, and Worldcon is in Scotland this year. So a substantial portion of the voters will be able to travel to Scotland for the con, and I believe several of these nominees are more well-known in the UK. They're all really good--don't get me wrong--but location is probably a factor in this list.
Incidentally, here's a really good round-up of the best SF/Fantasy novels published last year: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.wr itten/msg/4ab6c83b0b234305
Robert Sawyer is very much comparable to Michael Crichton. He cranks out a lot of books. They are fast reads. And they are bad for a lot of the same reasons. They feel shallow, like a mediocre SF movie or TV show. They are full of goofiness and cliches.
Have you actually read the competition? Can you honestly say that Hominids adds more to the world's literary imagination than The Scar or Kiln People? Can you honestly say that Hominids has better writing or characterization than Bones of the Earth? I suppose it's possible, but you don't say.
Day of the Minotaur (1967)
Too Many Magicians (1967)
Goblin Reservation (1969)
Harpist in the Wind (1980)
Little, Big (1982)
Tea With the Black Dragon (1984)
Seventh Son (1988)
Red Prophet (1989)
Prentice Alvin (1990)
Towing Jehovah (1995)
By the way, Hominids is a dreadful book, and there's a coincidence in its win that Slashdot readers may not know about: the author couldn't possibly be more active in promoting himself as Canada's big-time SF writer, and all the Hugo voters this year were necessarily paid members of a convention taking place in Canada--in fact, Toronto where the winning author lives. Are Canadian SF fans really such parochial nationalist boosters that they would vote for a bad book just because it's Canadian? I wouldn't have thought so before yesterday.
You should read Hominids, The Scar, Bones of the Earth, Kiln People, and The Years of Rice and Salt if you'd like to judge for yourself. I'd have voted for any of them and even "no award" before I would have voted for Hominids.
Locus Magazine Best Novels of 2001
Barnes and Noble Best SF of 2001
January Magazine Best of 2001 (go down to the bottom for SF)
Borders Best SF of 2001
Amazon Best Science Fiction of 2001
Amazon Best Fantasy of 2001
Some guy's Best SF of 2001 list
An Amazon Listmania Best SF of 2001 list
It's a tiny sample, but it looks like these are clear favorites:
1. The Wooden Sea, Jonathan Carroll
2. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville
3. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
And all these do well, showing up on several lists and/or ranking high where they're mentioned:
Cosmonaut Keep, Ken MacLeod
Nekropolis, Maureen McHugh
The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson
Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett
Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
Personally, I haven't read enough 2001 novels to make a decent list.