Interesting point. Other than solitaire, which is primarily a way to kill time, are there any one-person "games" that have endured in the same manner as chess?
Perhaps one of the problems pinball faces is the lack of a true competitive element--sure, people take turns and compare scores, but it's typically more engaging to pit yourself against another player (even if that player is virtual). New games recognize that, and the trend is to pit players against players.
I've never seen a competitive two-player pinball game (but then I've never really looked).
Or... we're not from the US and therefore didn't share the same sort of childhood experiences as you... would you mind explaining to those of us who don't understand you, exactly what you're talking about?
Sorry, I figured "Cootie" must already have been in every country in every language since it was so ubiquitous when I was five years old... or at least it seemed that way when I was five.
If Lewis was anything like nearly every other author in the world, then he did not necessarily start out to write an entire series, with the first book first. He probably started out to write a good story, and he liked it so much that he just kept writing. Then he discovered there was an interesting bit before he started the original book, so he went back and wrote that.
Just because something turns out really good does not mean the creator formed it from a "vision." In fact, many authors sit down at the typewriter with nothing more than a blank sheet of paper and a vague sense of scene or character or story, and a few months later, there's a book.
You have to manage your team better. You are the leader, take responsibility for the output.
Actually, he said "co-developers" and "de-facto role of a software team leader."
What this really means is that Our Hero's manager is weak, a guy who wants to limit his own accountability by blurring the lines of management. He won't acknowledge Our Hero's management role with an actual managerial title or compensation, yet he will continue pushing project responsibilities onto the poor, inexperienced guy.
This allows the manager to take credit if it works and to avoid blame if it doesn't. Been there, done that. In the long run, no matter how this project turns out, Our Hero will still have the same bad boss, and he'll be in this project situation again and again until he gets a different boss or redefines his role up (into management) or down (back into coder-only).
Show them the coding standards that are to be followed. Show them the requirements. Show them the deliverable date. If they can't make those 3 things come together to the degree neccesary, show them the door.
But more likely the typical project goes something like this:
Show them the delivery date.
Show them the elevator pitch from the VC slides.
Show them the delivery date, a month earlier than before because they need it earlier for a higher valuation.
Show them a few "requirements" that vaguely define a high-level feature set, such as "calendar," "authentication," "groupware," and "workflow management."
Show them the delivery date.
Change the requirements, but don't tell them.
Show them the delivery date.
Ask them why they aren't tracking to the new requirements, then show them the new requirements.
Force them to agree to the delivery date in front of the Board of Directors.
Add six new major requirements.
Show them the delivery date.
When the project is late and 75% functional and 100% untested at the delivery date, cover your own ass by blaming the lead developer and fire him.
Oh, wait, you're the lead developer. Sorry, dude, but you'd better get your resume together because you have all the accountability with little of the authority.
But I'm too afraid to pay $1600US for a laptop when I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get it to work very will with the Linux kernel.
This very thing happened to me. I was new to installing Linux in late 1999, had no idea what the issues might be. I spent about a month reading as much as I could about laptop models, from manufacturer brochures to the various difficult-to-read "linux on laptops" pages. (They were clearly more oriented to people who already knew what to do and how to do it.)
I ended up settling on a Compaq Presario 1925, for which someone had posted what appeared to be pretty clear directions for getting Linux installed. Then I went to the store, where they had a 1930, bigger hard disk and DVD, and the guy offered me the same price. I was no fool, right?
Turns out that what wasn't in the brochure was a video chip "upgrade" in the 1925 to the 1930 to a chip that had no XFree86 drivers. Took an MIS manager friend of mine a couple days to figure out what happened.
D'oh!
Rather than return the laptop, though, I waited for a new driver to be released. Two months later, there it was. The thing's been a dream since. (I have it dual-boot with the original Win98 because I need Win98 for my employer's software.)
So buy their stock (NASDAQ:FORG) today. Then, sell it after the herd has stampeded it up 400%. Then, sell short because this type of thing happens all the time, and the companies claiming the patent on such a broadly used technology always fall back to their pre-lawsuit levels, often below.
I am not qualified to give investment advice. Ignore the above statement. Or don't, at your peril.
I am dismayed that this community has such a low opinion of the usability of Linux. Either that or we have a terrifically low opinion of Joe Sixpack.
Yes, if something goes wrong with the Linux installation or apps, Joe Sixpack won't know how to fix it. But wait... what happens if something goes wrong with the Windows machine or app that Joe's friend just bought?
How many of us have spent time helping friends, neighbors, and relatives install a new version of Windows when the store clerk at CompUSA or some other "knowledgeable" outlet says, "well, gee, um... you need to upgrade your Operating System!" So they paid $80 for the upgrade, and then they called us.
It is my opinion that Linux is stable and friendly enough to compete with Windows on Windows' own terms.
While the car itself doesn't produce pollution, it has to get its electricity from somewhere, and in the vast majority of cases it will be from a power source that pollutes anyway.
The REAL irony is that the electricity probably comes from deisel trains. Sort of a perverse circuit when fuel powers a vehicle that makes electricity to power a vehicle specifically for the purpose of not burning fuel.
Now my brain hurts. I'm going to go lie down now...
If you go to a movie like this expect very little and hope for the most. I figured MIB2 was going to suck, but I was happy to see a decent funny movie.
That's fine for people with lots of money to burn and very little to burn it with. Those of us with families and better things to do don't really like to spend $50 (after multiple tickets, popcorn, babysitter, etc.) for a mediocre movie. I certainly wouldn't ever pay to go see something I thought was going to suck.
You want people to stop whining about how bad movies are? Then the movie industry should do two things: (1) charge less for movies and (2) stop crowing about how every weekend there's a new 9-figure box office record for receipts.
Because everyone has complained about the current, stationary natural gas powerplants polluting the air, they will take them and put them on flatbed cars and drive them up and down the train tracks. This will have the double benefit of bailing out Amtrak and allowing the deisel generators to continue to belch out known harmful chemicals all day and all night, further allowing the government to completely ignore solar power.
I just don't get why the state that has most of the Mojave Desert can't set up a decent solar energy system, at least for the bottom half of the state.
I am hopeful that this action, the policing of their own licenses, indicates a reduction in their need to pass the CBDTPA. It would be nice if they actually heard all the complaints against that bill and responded with a more reasonable course of action.
Doesn't anyone else think it odd that a company with $40 billion in cash would get a 10'x10' booth in the "startups" section at the Linux show?
Perhaps the single most plausible explanation for this is that Microsoft recently acquired a company that had already paid for their booth. There are several companies listed on the rookery page of the conference web site that do not appear on the show floor map. These include Globetrotter, Shaolin Microsystems, APPX Software, and Cylant. None of them appears to have anything on their web sites about being acquired, however.
They really want that Peruvian government contract.
They felt that Linux users around the world were deprived the added vacation time enjoyed by Windows users, so they are appearing to show off their three new Linux-based viruses.
It was part of the "community service" they have to perform as part of their antitrust settlement
They will be collecting names of attendees... their software license audit list is getting short and they need to keep the pipeline full
Their marketing department has automatically signed them up for every "expo" in the country because it has the letters "xp" in it.
Their booth will actually be empty. They just wanted to thumb their collective nose at the Linux community with their $44 billion in cash reserves.
They've ported Clippy to Linux.
It's a new form of hazing for all the fresh-out-of-college marketing employees.
The network on the show floor has always been impervious to viruses; putting a whole bunch of Microsoft Outlook boxes on the network will solve that problem.
It is classic cold war, arms-race tactics. By showing up with the biggest booth and the biggest budget, soon they will dominate and co-opt the entire show, and the little fish won't be able to show up any more. In five years, LinuxWorld Expo will be dead, or at least turned into a sidelight for another Microsoft lovefest. I wish it weren't so.
... my fear is that Microsoft writes a Linux emulator for Windows.
<theory type="conspiracy"> They will make it available for free to show the world how open they are. They will make it so easy to download and install that every eMachines owner will get it immediately. Hell, they may even include it with their next Windows update.
It will be SO buggy and error prone that all those Windows users will conclude that they will never switch to Linux. </theory>
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OK, I'm going to show my ignorance here...
Are public keys unique? Could we not have a system where people's ID numbers are actually their public keys?
flame away for my lack of knowledge about encryption technology...
Interesting point. Other than solitaire, which is primarily a way to kill time, are there any one-person "games" that have endured in the same manner as chess?
Perhaps one of the problems pinball faces is the lack of a true competitive element--sure, people take turns and compare scores, but it's typically more engaging to pit yourself against another player (even if that player is virtual). New games recognize that, and the trend is to pit players against players.
I've never seen a competitive two-player pinball game (but then I've never really looked).
Sorry, I figured "Cootie" must already have been in every country in every language since it was so ubiquitous when I was five years old... or at least it seemed that way when I was five.
Try these:
YesterdayLand Toys, with pictures
Instructions for the game
and Milton Bradley's product page.
Have you seen an actual giant armored space ant? You must be the same guy that said this walks like a six-legged cat.
Where the hell have you seen a six-legged cat?!?!
Or, more to the point, how in the world would you know how a six-legged cat moves?
IT'S A GIANT COOTIE!
Seriously, remember the game "Cootie" when you were kids? (Those of you who aren't kids anymore anyway.)
Other good (?) choices:
Pee Wee Herman
George Bush (senior)
Keanu Reeves (using his Bill & Ted voice)
If Lewis was anything like nearly every other author in the world, then he did not necessarily start out to write an entire series, with the first book first. He probably started out to write a good story, and he liked it so much that he just kept writing. Then he discovered there was an interesting bit before he started the original book, so he went back and wrote that.
Just because something turns out really good does not mean the creator formed it from a "vision." In fact, many authors sit down at the typewriter with nothing more than a blank sheet of paper and a vague sense of scene or character or story, and a few months later, there's a book.
(I mean the use of the term "dozens," not the fact that there's a new Windows virus introduced every 75 minutes.)
Actually, he said "co-developers" and "de-facto role of a software team leader."
What this really means is that Our Hero's manager is weak, a guy who wants to limit his own accountability by blurring the lines of management. He won't acknowledge Our Hero's management role with an actual managerial title or compensation, yet he will continue pushing project responsibilities onto the poor, inexperienced guy.
This allows the manager to take credit if it works and to avoid blame if it doesn't. Been there, done that. In the long run, no matter how this project turns out, Our Hero will still have the same bad boss, and he'll be in this project situation again and again until he gets a different boss or redefines his role up (into management) or down (back into coder-only).
But more likely the typical project goes something like this:
Oh, wait, you're the lead developer. Sorry, dude, but you'd better get your resume together because you have all the accountability with little of the authority.
This very thing happened to me. I was new to installing Linux in late 1999, had no idea what the issues might be. I spent about a month reading as much as I could about laptop models, from manufacturer brochures to the various difficult-to-read "linux on laptops" pages. (They were clearly more oriented to people who already knew what to do and how to do it.)
I ended up settling on a Compaq Presario 1925, for which someone had posted what appeared to be pretty clear directions for getting Linux installed. Then I went to the store, where they had a 1930, bigger hard disk and DVD, and the guy offered me the same price. I was no fool, right?
Turns out that what wasn't in the brochure was a video chip "upgrade" in the 1925 to the 1930 to a chip that had no XFree86 drivers. Took an MIS manager friend of mine a couple days to figure out what happened.
D'oh!
Rather than return the laptop, though, I waited for a new driver to be released. Two months later, there it was. The thing's been a dream since. (I have it dual-boot with the original Win98 because I need Win98 for my employer's software.)
As did Geoworks with WAP. In the graph of GWRX's stock performance, can you find the point at which the suit was filed?
hint: It's right before the stock skyrocketed from the teens to its all-time high north of $50.
So buy their stock (NASDAQ:FORG) today. Then, sell it after the herd has stampeded it up 400%. Then, sell short because this type of thing happens all the time, and the companies claiming the patent on such a broadly used technology always fall back to their pre-lawsuit levels, often below.
I am not qualified to give investment advice. Ignore the above statement. Or don't, at your peril.
Of course, the real reason Wal-Mart is doing this is because they can.
It's Sam's way of thumbing his nose at Bill.
I am dismayed that this community has such a low opinion of the usability of Linux. Either that or we have a terrifically low opinion of Joe Sixpack.
Yes, if something goes wrong with the Linux installation or apps, Joe Sixpack won't know how to fix it. But wait... what happens if something goes wrong with the Windows machine or app that Joe's friend just bought?
How many of us have spent time helping friends, neighbors, and relatives install a new version of Windows when the store clerk at CompUSA or some other "knowledgeable" outlet says, "well, gee, um... you need to upgrade your Operating System!" So they paid $80 for the upgrade, and then they called us.
It is my opinion that Linux is stable and friendly enough to compete with Windows on Windows' own terms.
The REAL irony is that the electricity probably comes from deisel trains. Sort of a perverse circuit when fuel powers a vehicle that makes electricity to power a vehicle specifically for the purpose of not burning fuel.
Now my brain hurts. I'm going to go lie down now...
That's fine for people with lots of money to burn and very little to burn it with. Those of us with families and better things to do don't really like to spend $50 (after multiple tickets, popcorn, babysitter, etc.) for a mediocre movie. I certainly wouldn't ever pay to go see something I thought was going to suck.
You want people to stop whining about how bad movies are? Then the movie industry should do two things: (1) charge less for movies and (2) stop crowing about how every weekend there's a new 9-figure box office record for receipts.
Coal grows on plants?!?
Because everyone has complained about the current, stationary natural gas powerplants polluting the air, they will take them and put them on flatbed cars and drive them up and down the train tracks. This will have the double benefit of bailing out Amtrak and allowing the deisel generators to continue to belch out known harmful chemicals all day and all night, further allowing the government to completely ignore solar power.
I just don't get why the state that has most of the Mojave Desert can't set up a decent solar energy system, at least for the bottom half of the state.
That's why they're going to park them upwind of Mexico.
I am hopeful that this action, the policing of their own licenses, indicates a reduction in their need to pass the CBDTPA. It would be nice if they actually heard all the complaints against that bill and responded with a more reasonable course of action.
Doesn't anyone else think it odd that a company with $40 billion in cash would get a 10'x10' booth in the "startups" section at the Linux show?
Perhaps the single most plausible explanation for this is that Microsoft recently acquired a company that had already paid for their booth. There are several companies listed on the rookery page of the conference web site that do not appear on the show floor map. These include Globetrotter, Shaolin Microsystems, APPX Software, and Cylant. None of them appears to have anything on their web sites about being acquired, however.
<theory type="conspiracy">
They will make it available for free to show the world how open they are. They will make it so easy to download and install that every eMachines owner will get it immediately. Hell, they may even include it with their next Windows update.
It will be SO buggy and error prone that all those Windows users will conclude that they will never switch to Linux.
</theory>