Nukes are terrible weapons. They have a lot of collateral damage, and they don't help that much to take over a city. You lose half the population. Your units can't be anywhere close by or they get hit, too, and the nasty pollution really hits your civ score hard! It's a weapon best avoided. The disadvantages way outway their advantages.
I had a friend do that with the original Civ as well, except that he surrounded the one remaining civilization with mechanized infantry. It was incredibly boring, but he wanted to see how high of a score he could get. He basically ended up building then selling city walls in most of his cities, since most of the world was occupied. Each turn took him literally hours near the end. After a few weeks, he finally finished the game and got the ranking of King Solomon or something close, and that was the end of that. After his epic game, I lost interest in Civ for years. I could never match such a feat, so it seemed pointless to try. He'd set the "world record". I got to see it happen, and that was enough for me for awhile. That game he played was quite epic.
The laptop I purchased was around $400. For the equivalent processor power, memory, display size, etc., I would have needed a $2,000 Mac Book Pro. I did my research. I really did want the Macbook, but I just couldn't justify to myself the massive price difference.
Macs price competitive? Since when? When I was looking for a laptop, an equivalent MacBook with the same hardware would have cost me FIVE times more than a windows machine. MacOS is great, but it's not worth over $1000 price difference on a non-Mac machine.
At the time the Apple II was released, there were only two other non-kit microcomputer systems available--the Radio Shack TRS-80 and the Commodore PET. Both models were well $1000, while the Apple II was about twice as much for equivalent memory. Of course, the Apple II could do a lot more than the other two systems, especially in regards to graphics. However, as the technology improved, and competitors offered more powerful systems at lower prices, Apple never reduced their prices. At the peak of the microcomputer golden age, an Apple II system cost nearly 10 times as much as an equivalent Commodore 64 system.
When Apple released their floppy disk drive, they priced it at $550. People asked why they priced it so high. Apple responded, "Because we can."
It's not an apples to apples comparison. Rugby is a much different game. There is absolutely no blocking of any kind (not gentlemanly, apparently) and since the ball is loose after every play, there is no desire from the defender to try and hit the ball carrier very hard to either knock the ball out or limit the forward progress. The ball will be dropped immediately at first contact. American football is classified by the "possession". Maintaining possession and maximizing forward progress is crucial to the sport.
Except that repeated heading of the futball is also known to cause similar types of brain damage. There was a report out just a few weeks ago that showed professional futballers suffering from similar cognitive declines as their North American counterparts from repeated head blows.
Of course it is still football. It is played on foot, not on horseback (such as polo), which is what the original term "football" meant. It had nothing to do with feet, except that the players were on their feet the whole game.
That's the general consensus, but it appears that the NFL Players lawsuit against the league is showing that the NFL knew about chronic brain injuries since the 1920's. Back then, there were no facemasks, pads, or even plastic. Helmets were relatively soft leather, designed more to protect the scalp and ears than the brain. So, equipment may not be the problem that everyone assumes it to be.
I disagree. Fundamentals are ALWAYS important even if they aren't practical. While 6502 assembly isn't practical anymore, the experience you gained programming with it provided you a foundation for future skills that many of your peers might not have. That not only gives you a competitive advantage, it makes you into a better, smarter professional. You can play the piano without learning music theory, but you will be a much better pianist if you do take the time to learn the fundamentals of music. It's the same for computer science or information technology.
The TS1000 was my first computer, too. I certainly had a love/hate relationship with that machine. I hated that it was so incredibly limited, but loved that it was mine. I didn't have to sign up for programming time anymore at the school or library. The machine was all my own whenever I wanted it even if it sucked. It was cheap and it was mine! Mine, mine, mine!! It was at least a good learning machine. There were a surprising number of programming books available, and even a decent amount of off the shelf software. The TS1000/ZX81 was certainly a brilliant example of engineering efficiency. Although it wouldn't compare to Woz's work with the Apple II, the fact that the Sinclair was able to do everything with only 4 chips was an incredible achievement.
I always had a soft spot in my heart for Sinclair and his machines. I wish they had something like the Spectrum here in the states, but by then Commodore had initiated the price wars and it was pointless for Clive to invest in his newer machines here. I can see why they were so popular in England. They were inexpensive, easy to work with, and quite ubiquitous. While many Americans long for their Commodore 64's or Atari 800's, the Sinclair was a truly British machine made for Britons. It's understandable why that generation of users holds the Speccy near and dear to their hearts. Software is still being produced for the Spectrum, and it boasts the largest software library in the world (according to Wikipedia).
In many ways Clive Sinclair was both the Jack Tramiel and Steve Jobs of Europe. Like Jobs, he believed in simple elegance for all his products. He was also a ruthless leader. Unlike Jobs, though, and more like Tramiel, he also believed in making his products as inexpensively as possible... cutting corners wherever he could to bring prices down. He certainly should be considered one of the great computing pioneers and given the same due reverence of his American peers. After all, he was knighted for bringing computing power to the masses.
Nevertheless, I don't think I'd use my TS1000 to control a nuclear power plant, as Sinclair Research suggested in their advertisements. Unfortunately, my unit isn't going to be running power plants or anything else for that matter--it doesn't work at all anymore. The years of temperature changes in the attic on the cheap parts finally did that little wonder in. I still have it sitting prominently at my desk, though. It makes a great conversation piece.
Thank you, Sir Clive, for making my first computer!
I loved the disk care warnings on the Beagle Bros. floppy disk envelopes. I always took care to not put the disk in the toaster, but I unfortunately didn't heed the warning about feeding disks to an alligator. Who knew that would ruin them?;-)
I also loved the "ragtime" graphics and fonts on all of their products.
It's important to note that the Commodore 64 incorporated graphics support hardware (aka the first "graphics card") which helped make the computer much faster than it's CPU speed would indicate, especially for gaming.
These guys have been doing this for years, and it's meant for lawyers and other legal eagles to participate. They have a very good success rate and have markets for all the cases that are being heard. The participants are people in the know, which makes their predictions more reliable than a typical political prediction site.
Starflight was an incredible game for it's time, so rich in gameplay and could still be run on an Intel 8088 IBM PC XT. I got so sucked into that game, I nearly flunked out of college. It's definitely one for the ages.
It's better now. Upper management has decided to finally stop trying to be Best Buy and cater to the hobbyists again. I applaud them for that. Custom electronics and parts have always been their bread and butter, but they really hated that and tried to be something else.
The markup on that stuff is like 600%. They make great margin on it, but the cash flow from it is low, so they still have to try and sell cell phones, but without the parts business, Radio Shack would be out of business.
Obviously a franchise. A company store would never sell that stuff. The franchise stores are great, 'cos you can still get all the discontinued and outdated Radio Shack items from years past that are still of interest.
...to jump on the iPhone giving apple everything they wanted and then some, but some stupid exec felt they just HAD to have it at any price, even though they were doing exceptionally well with Android phones and making way more money to boot. So, they got a few more iPhone subscribers, but now are losing money. Boo hoo. Apple needed Verizon more than Verizon needed Apple, and yet Verizon acted like the guy desperate for the girl. So, they lost. Any normal person could have predicted that action, but some overpaid executive could not. Amazing.
It's possible now that these phones might actually have a shot.. At least they have a chance to compete... Lighten up on the walled garden, do some better marketing, and improve on carrier relations, and maybe MS has a fighting chance.
I can tell you that Computer History DID motivate me and others. I found it fascinating and instructive--learning about the tools of the past helped build the foundations of what we do today. My college operating systems course felt the same way, since we spent at least a third of the course talking about the development of the OS over the years and what motivated the development of innovations such as virtual machines, virtual memory, timesharing, etc. In the process, we really got to know how and operating system works and why it does what it does. We did the same thing with the computer architecture class and assembly programming classes as well. To truly understand modern computer systems, you first have to learn how computing has developed over time. That means history--most of which is still relevant today.
Besides, just because something is old doesn't mean it's boring. How many kids over the years have downloaded and run old NES games from the virtual console? I've seen lots of kids playing 30 year old games and loving them. Pac Man is still a big seller. I just saw a port Collosal Cave, a 40 year old game, on the Android Market with a 4.5 star rating, rave reviews even from people who know nothing about the history, and over 100,000 downloads to date. they're not old, they are classics!
By working as a group, they gain enough leverage to get what they want. If any of the individual companies pulled out of these news aggregators, the agreggators would be no worse for wear and the news company would suffer the lack of traffic. So, they band together to extract their protection money. Smart... probably illegal, but maybe not. After all the RIAA and the MPAA seem to operate as illegal trusts with impunity.
Slashdot Mirror
Mr. President, we can't afford to have a mineshaft gap!!
Nukes are terrible weapons. They have a lot of collateral damage, and they don't help that much to take over a city. You lose half the population. Your units can't be anywhere close by or they get hit, too, and the nasty pollution really hits your civ score hard! It's a weapon best avoided. The disadvantages way outway their advantages.
I had a friend do that with the original Civ as well, except that he surrounded the one remaining civilization with mechanized infantry. It was incredibly boring, but he wanted to see how high of a score he could get. He basically ended up building then selling city walls in most of his cities, since most of the world was occupied. Each turn took him literally hours near the end. After a few weeks, he finally finished the game and got the ranking of King Solomon or something close, and that was the end of that. After his epic game, I lost interest in Civ for years. I could never match such a feat, so it seemed pointless to try. He'd set the "world record". I got to see it happen, and that was enough for me for awhile. That game he played was quite epic.
The laptop I purchased was around $400. For the equivalent processor power, memory, display size, etc., I would have needed a $2,000 Mac Book Pro. I did my research. I really did want the Macbook, but I just couldn't justify to myself the massive price difference.
You're a little ahead of yourself, there... The IBM PC didn't come out until 4 years later.
Whoops... should have said, "Well under $1000." Sorry for the typo.
Macs price competitive? Since when? When I was looking for a laptop, an equivalent MacBook with the same hardware would have cost me FIVE times more than a windows machine. MacOS is great, but it's not worth over $1000 price difference on a non-Mac machine.
At the time the Apple II was released, there were only two other non-kit microcomputer systems available--the Radio Shack TRS-80 and the Commodore PET. Both models were well $1000, while the Apple II was about twice as much for equivalent memory. Of course, the Apple II could do a lot more than the other two systems, especially in regards to graphics. However, as the technology improved, and competitors offered more powerful systems at lower prices, Apple never reduced their prices. At the peak of the microcomputer golden age, an Apple II system cost nearly 10 times as much as an equivalent Commodore 64 system.
When Apple released their floppy disk drive, they priced it at $550. People asked why they priced it so high. Apple responded, "Because we can."
It's not an apples to apples comparison. Rugby is a much different game. There is absolutely no blocking of any kind (not gentlemanly, apparently) and since the ball is loose after every play, there is no desire from the defender to try and hit the ball carrier very hard to either knock the ball out or limit the forward progress. The ball will be dropped immediately at first contact. American football is classified by the "possession". Maintaining possession and maximizing forward progress is crucial to the sport.
You can't really compare the two.
Except that repeated heading of the futball is also known to cause similar types of brain damage. There was a report out just a few weeks ago that showed professional futballers suffering from similar cognitive declines as their North American counterparts from repeated head blows.
Of course it is still football. It is played on foot, not on horseback (such as polo), which is what the original term "football" meant. It had nothing to do with feet, except that the players were on their feet the whole game.
That's the general consensus, but it appears that the NFL Players lawsuit against the league is showing that the NFL knew about chronic brain injuries since the 1920's. Back then, there were no facemasks, pads, or even plastic. Helmets were relatively soft leather, designed more to protect the scalp and ears than the brain. So, equipment may not be the problem that everyone assumes it to be.
I disagree. Fundamentals are ALWAYS important even if they aren't practical. While 6502 assembly isn't practical anymore, the experience you gained programming with it provided you a foundation for future skills that many of your peers might not have. That not only gives you a competitive advantage, it makes you into a better, smarter professional. You can play the piano without learning music theory, but you will be a much better pianist if you do take the time to learn the fundamentals of music. It's the same for computer science or information technology.
The TS1000 was my first computer, too. I certainly had a love/hate relationship with that machine. I hated that it was so incredibly limited, but loved that it was mine. I didn't have to sign up for programming time anymore at the school or library. The machine was all my own whenever I wanted it even if it sucked. It was cheap and it was mine! Mine, mine, mine!! It was at least a good learning machine. There were a surprising number of programming books available, and even a decent amount of off the shelf software. The TS1000/ZX81 was certainly a brilliant example of engineering efficiency. Although it wouldn't compare to Woz's work with the Apple II, the fact that the Sinclair was able to do everything with only 4 chips was an incredible achievement.
I always had a soft spot in my heart for Sinclair and his machines. I wish they had something like the Spectrum here in the states, but by then Commodore had initiated the price wars and it was pointless for Clive to invest in his newer machines here. I can see why they were so popular in England. They were inexpensive, easy to work with, and quite ubiquitous. While many Americans long for their Commodore 64's or Atari 800's, the Sinclair was a truly British machine made for Britons. It's understandable why that generation of users holds the Speccy near and dear to their hearts. Software is still being produced for the Spectrum, and it boasts the largest software library in the world (according to Wikipedia).
In many ways Clive Sinclair was both the Jack Tramiel and Steve Jobs of Europe. Like Jobs, he believed in simple elegance for all his products. He was also a ruthless leader. Unlike Jobs, though, and more like Tramiel, he also believed in making his products as inexpensively as possible... cutting corners wherever he could to bring prices down. He certainly should be considered one of the great computing pioneers and given the same due reverence of his American peers. After all, he was knighted for bringing computing power to the masses.
Nevertheless, I don't think I'd use my TS1000 to control a nuclear power plant, as Sinclair Research suggested in their advertisements. Unfortunately, my unit isn't going to be running power plants or anything else for that matter--it doesn't work at all anymore. The years of temperature changes in the attic on the cheap parts finally did that little wonder in. I still have it sitting prominently at my desk, though. It makes a great conversation piece.
Thank you, Sir Clive, for making my first computer!
I loved the disk care warnings on the Beagle Bros. floppy disk envelopes. I always took care to not put the disk in the toaster, but I unfortunately didn't heed the warning about feeding disks to an alligator. Who knew that would ruin them? ;-)
I also loved the "ragtime" graphics and fonts on all of their products.
It's important to note that the Commodore 64 incorporated graphics support hardware (aka the first "graphics card") which helped make the computer much faster than it's CPU speed would indicate, especially for gaming.
It's called Fantasy Scotus:
http://www.fantasyscotus.net/healthcare-case-predictions/
These guys have been doing this for years, and it's meant for lawyers and other legal eagles to participate. They have a very good success rate and have markets for all the cases that are being heard. The participants are people in the know, which makes their predictions more reliable than a typical political prediction site.
Starflight was an incredible game for it's time, so rich in gameplay and could still be run on an Intel 8088 IBM PC XT. I got so sucked into that game, I nearly flunked out of college. It's definitely one for the ages.
It's better now. Upper management has decided to finally stop trying to be Best Buy and cater to the hobbyists again. I applaud them for that. Custom electronics and parts have always been their bread and butter, but they really hated that and tried to be something else.
The markup on that stuff is like 600%. They make great margin on it, but the cash flow from it is low, so they still have to try and sell cell phones, but without the parts business, Radio Shack would be out of business.
Obviously a franchise. A company store would never sell that stuff. The franchise stores are great, 'cos you can still get all the discontinued and outdated Radio Shack items from years past that are still of interest.
...to jump on the iPhone giving apple everything they wanted and then some, but some stupid exec felt they just HAD to have it at any price, even though they were doing exceptionally well with Android phones and making way more money to boot. So, they got a few more iPhone subscribers, but now are losing money. Boo hoo. Apple needed Verizon more than Verizon needed Apple, and yet Verizon acted like the guy desperate for the girl. So, they lost. Any normal person could have predicted that action, but some overpaid executive could not. Amazing.
It's possible now that these phones might actually have a shot.. At least they have a chance to compete... Lighten up on the walled garden, do some better marketing, and improve on carrier relations, and maybe MS has a fighting chance.
I can tell you that Computer History DID motivate me and others. I found it fascinating and instructive--learning about the tools of the past helped build the foundations of what we do today. My college operating systems course felt the same way, since we spent at least a third of the course talking about the development of the OS over the years and what motivated the development of innovations such as virtual machines, virtual memory, timesharing, etc. In the process, we really got to know how and operating system works and why it does what it does. We did the same thing with the computer architecture class and assembly programming classes as well. To truly understand modern computer systems, you first have to learn how computing has developed over time. That means history--most of which is still relevant today.
Besides, just because something is old doesn't mean it's boring. How many kids over the years have downloaded and run old NES games from the virtual console? I've seen lots of kids playing 30 year old games and loving them. Pac Man is still a big seller. I just saw a port Collosal Cave, a 40 year old game, on the Android Market with a 4.5 star rating, rave reviews even from people who know nothing about the history, and over 100,000 downloads to date. they're not old, they are classics!
By working as a group, they gain enough leverage to get what they want. If any of the individual companies pulled out of these news aggregators, the agreggators would be no worse for wear and the news company would suffer the lack of traffic. So, they band together to extract their protection money. Smart... probably illegal, but maybe not. After all the RIAA and the MPAA seem to operate as illegal trusts with impunity.