I'll concur heartily about the Homeworld box. The Homeworld Game of the Year edition is even better--it comes with the standard manual, all the quick reference charts, the complete Strategy Guide, and a second CD with the 1.05 patch and complete audio soundtrack on it. I'd been browsing at the store for a few minutes, and I nearly dropped it because I wasn't expecting the box to be so damn heavy.
They're catering this to *today's* cellphone crowd?
>north You walk into the bathroom. Do your nails? (y/n) >n Yuk! You really look fat without your nails done. Do your nails? (y/n) >y You feel much better. You notice some makeup on the counter. Put on makeup? (y/n) >n You think you're going to school without putting makeup on? What will your friends think?! Put on makeup? (y/n) >y You feel much better. >go outside You're in the driveway. >drive car Which care do you want to take? >drive Jeep Yuk! Why not take daddy's nice BMW?
Let it be noted for the record that the word "geek" DOES NOT APPEAR ONCE in the preceeding Jon Katz article, nor does "ChixClickers" or "jock". Someone check hell for ice...
1) It didn't *totally* disregard *all* of the things that made the book so damn good. I think they kept some of the names the same.
2) It wasn't longer.
3) It proved that John Travolta can, in fact, be made uglier through use of extensive makeup.
4) Parents can say, "Don't misbehave, Johnny, or I'll get you casted in the sequel!" to discipline children.
5) It TOTALLY disregards the second half of the book, and who wants to watch the part without totally improbable odds of beating an alien race thousands of times more advanced than our own anyway?
6) It's giving Britney Spears and Bill Gates some needed competition in the "Worst Thing Ever To Happen, Ever" category.
Yeah, I've heard every argument about the books and read that damn FAQ. I agree with Luceno's Right of Rebuttal at the bottom: The books themselves are the counterpoint to the arguments. They happen to be excellent, excellent books even if you've never seen the TV series (which I hadn't when I started reading them).
If you want to nitpick them, go right ahead, but frankly I've never really thought that any of the nits that usually get brought up are big enough in the first place to take away from Daley and Luceno's *almost* flawless depcition of the Robotech universe and the storyline.
I grew up on the original Robotech series, and it still rules. The books based on the series (by Jack McKinney, if anyone's interested), are ten times better than the cartoon was (and a hundred times more in-depth), but 'Tech was still a gazillion times better than Voltron and whatever other American cartoons were on at the time.
They could just have every time zone have the elections at the same physical time (9 AM to 9 PM on the East Coast, 8 AM to 8 PM in Central, etc.), which would completely eliminate the West Coast time lag problem.
I think that makes way too much sense for politics, though, so it might have to be flagged down and talked about in committee for a few decades.
Truth --> Raw Data --> Study Findings--> Yahoo Article--> Slashdot.
If there were ANY meaningful pieces of information somewhere along that chain, it's pretty certain they're lost by now...if there's one thing I learned writing psychology experiments, it's that the data can say whatever the hell you want it to, as long as you omit enough pieces of relevant information.
Even CONSIDERING not putting the Foundation Trilogy up there is nuts.
Top X Signs Napster is Destroying the Universe
on
Product Placement
·
· Score: 3
1) Metallica now suing everyone who has ever played one of their CDs in a public place, ever, without paying royalties.
2) US bombs Iraq--not because they were closing oil lines, because they wouldn't play nice and upload their MP3s.
3) Sex has been renamed "Doin' the Napstah".
4) College campuses attempt to ban public libraries, as since they freely loan and collect books without a hidden agenda they must be evil.
5) In a desperate attempt to quiet the whole situation and appease the masses, the music industry announces that for the next 24 hours only, there will be a special "Buy 100, Get 1 Free!" sale on CDs made prior to 1985.
6) All references to "The Force" are replaced by "The Napster" in the Holy Trilogy. <I>Use the Napster, Luke...</I>
I've had a Freewwweb account for about 2 months, so far no boogy man has come to get me. I use it as a backup account.
Eventually, when I'm <I>positive</I> the company's not going to fold tomorrow, I might decide to axe my regular ISP and go to it exclusively...but not yet.
3) Best decoration idea for AOL (or is that Time Warner?) free trial disks.
4) Most frequent Slashdot visitor (in geek terms...biggest geek).
5) Author of code most resembling a Rube Goldberg machine.
6) Most confusing instruction manual (you know, those paperweights that come with software and stuff).
7) Dumbest customer support call.
8) Dumbest customer support representative.
9) Internet Invention Award (only Al Gore may be nominated).
10) If it takes half a man half a day to dig half a hole, how long will it take three monkeys to climb the Empire State Building--A, B, or C, true or false?
jesus...my brain is about 30 minutes behind my fingers, apparently. I even REMEMBERED the IPO in Oct and I still asked. Just shoot me now and take my job.
Will frequent Slashdot contributors/commenters/moderators be eligible to get in at the IPO price?
Top X Bugs We Wish Would Have Happened
on
Apocalypse Not
·
· Score: 3
1) Hillary Clinton no longer laughingly claims to be from New York.
2) Mysterious Windows Popup: "We're sorry for leeching your all money and time over the past decade; all personnel at Redmond, Washington will now jump off the nearest cliff after wiring the compound with C-4."
3) CNN mysteriously switches spots with the Spice Channel.
4) F'n Energizer Bunny dies.
5) Arquette Compound explodes.
6) France's showers become operational.
7) Massive glitch leads to MTV only being able to play music that people over the age of 12 can enjoy.
8) Living La Vida Loca and the Macarena simultaneously erased from human history, along with the Nixon Administration and New Kids on the Block.
OBVIOUSLY, the solution is to make a keyboard with one and only one button.
It would sit right smack in the middle of the keyboard. The only label on it would be a little smiley face. (You could put some LSD on it if so inclined).
Then, you think about what you want the button to do REALLY HARD as you press it down. The keyboard would then interpret your thought and send the appropriate message to the computer.
Of course, you'd have to put new typing programs on the market to teach you where on the Home Key to place your fingers.
Some would say that as long as the keyboard is reading your thoughts, why not just eliminate the keyboard altogether and just communicate your thoughts telepathically to the computer? Obviously, that's just hogwash. How are you supposed to convey your thoughts without pressing down on the button??
Anyway, I have a limited number of these special keyboards made, so contact me if you want one. The price is $100 per unit, non-negotiable.
DISCLAIMER: The keyboards only work as long as your only thoughts are, "Do nothing. Do nothing."
Requirements Documents. Can't live with them, can't live without them, can't ignite them and dance around their burning ashes.
The requirements document of the project I just spent 80 hours a week working on for the entire summer was a source of so much grief that I get queasy just thinking about it.
Basically, the customer handed us over 1000 pages of documentation and said, "This is the best requirement document that has ever been written. You shouldn't need to ask us anything about it, because it's so damn PERFECT!"
Needless to say, it was NOT perfect.
It looked all fine and dandy on paper or on design flowcharts, but actually trying to write compliant code was a nightmare and a half.
But wait! Here comes the frustrating part!
Every time we tried to talk to the customer about something we needed to implement that wasn't in the requirements document, the response would be...
Slashdot Mirror
According to Monster.com, 335 job descriptoins include the phrase "Warfare". You can hold such captivating jobs as:
You mean Nightwatch, not Blackwatch.
I'll concur heartily about the Homeworld box. The Homeworld Game of the Year edition is even better--it comes with the standard manual, all the quick reference charts, the complete Strategy Guide, and a second CD with the 1.05 patch and complete audio soundtrack on it. I'd been browsing at the store for a few minutes, and I nearly dropped it because I wasn't expecting the box to be so damn heavy.
A perfectly dynamic haiku generator, suitable for every situation...
printf("This Haiku was made\n
In response to your query.\n
Have a nice season.);
Where's mah prize?
They're catering this to *today's* cellphone crowd?
>north
You walk into the bathroom. Do your nails? (y/n)
>n
Yuk! You really look fat without your nails done. Do your nails? (y/n)
>y
You feel much better. You notice some makeup on the counter. Put on makeup? (y/n)
>n
You think you're going to school without putting makeup on? What will your friends think?! Put on makeup? (y/n)
>y
You feel much better.
>go outside
You're in the driveway.
>drive car
Which care do you want to take?
>drive Jeep
Yuk! Why not take daddy's nice BMW?
Ecetera, ecetera...
Let it be noted for the record that the word "geek" DOES NOT APPEAR ONCE in the preceeding Jon Katz article, nor does "ChixClickers" or "jock". Someone check hell for ice...
1) It didn't *totally* disregard *all* of the things that made the book so damn good. I think they kept some of the names the same.
2) It wasn't longer.
3) It proved that John Travolta can, in fact, be made uglier through use of extensive makeup.
4) Parents can say, "Don't misbehave, Johnny, or I'll get you casted in the sequel!" to discipline children.
5) It TOTALLY disregards the second half of the book, and who wants to watch the part without totally improbable odds of beating an alien race thousands of times more advanced than our own anyway?
6) It's giving Britney Spears and Bill Gates some needed competition in the "Worst Thing Ever To Happen, Ever" category.
Yeah, I've heard every argument about the books and read that damn FAQ. I agree with Luceno's Right of Rebuttal at the bottom: The books themselves are the counterpoint to the arguments. They happen to be excellent, excellent books even if you've never seen the TV series (which I hadn't when I started reading them).
If you want to nitpick them, go right ahead, but frankly I've never really thought that any of the nits that usually get brought up are big enough in the first place to take away from Daley and Luceno's *almost* flawless depcition of the Robotech universe and the storyline.
I grew up on the original Robotech series, and it still rules. The books based on the series (by Jack McKinney, if anyone's interested), are ten times better than the cartoon was (and a hundred times more in-depth), but 'Tech was still a gazillion times better than Voltron and whatever other American cartoons were on at the time.
I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it...
They could just have every time zone have the elections at the same physical time (9 AM to 9 PM on the East Coast, 8 AM to 8 PM in Central, etc.), which would completely eliminate the West Coast time lag problem.
I think that makes way too much sense for politics, though, so it might have to be flagged down and talked about in committee for a few decades.
...it's just a language with really long words. Probably the damn Eskimos.
Hmmm...
Truth --> Raw Data --> Study Findings--> Yahoo Article--> Slashdot.
If there were ANY meaningful pieces of information somewhere along that chain, it's pretty certain they're lost by now...if there's one thing I learned writing psychology experiments, it's that the data can say whatever the hell you want it to, as long as you omit enough pieces of relevant information.
Next.
I never wanted to be a software analyst, stuck in a cubicle all day like a hamster stuck in the page.
I wanted to be...
I wanted to be...
I wanted to be...A LUMBERJACK COMPUTER PROGRAMMER.
Even CONSIDERING not putting the Foundation Trilogy up there is nuts.
1) Metallica now suing everyone who has ever played one of their CDs in a public place, ever, without paying royalties.
2) US bombs Iraq--not because they were closing oil lines, because they wouldn't play nice and upload their MP3s.
3) Sex has been renamed "Doin' the Napstah".
4) College campuses attempt to ban public libraries, as since they freely loan and collect books without a hidden agenda they must be evil.
5) In a desperate attempt to quiet the whole situation and appease the masses, the music industry announces that for the next 24 hours only, there will be a special "Buy 100, Get 1 Free!" sale on CDs made prior to 1985.
6) All references to "The Force" are replaced by "The Napster" in the Holy Trilogy. <I>Use the Napster, Luke...</I>
I've had a Freewwweb account for about 2 months, so far no boogy man has come to get me. I use it as a backup account.
Eventually, when I'm <I>positive</I> the company's not going to fold tomorrow, I might decide to axe my regular ISP and go to it exclusively...but not yet.
1) Favorite way to kill JonKatz in effigy.
2) Best way Microsoft has screwed you over today.
3) Best decoration idea for AOL (or is that Time Warner?) free trial disks.
4) Most frequent Slashdot visitor (in geek terms...biggest geek).
5) Author of code most resembling a Rube Goldberg machine.
6) Most confusing instruction manual (you know, those paperweights that come with software and stuff).
7) Dumbest customer support call.
8) Dumbest customer support representative.
9) Internet Invention Award (only Al Gore may be nominated).
10) If it takes half a man half a day to dig half a hole, how long will it take three monkeys to climb the Empire State Building--A, B, or C, true or false?
jesus...my brain is about 30 minutes behind my fingers, apparently. I even REMEMBERED the IPO in Oct and I still asked. Just shoot me now and take my job.
Will frequent Slashdot contributors/commenters/moderators be eligible to get in at the IPO price?
1) Hillary Clinton no longer laughingly claims to be from New York.
2) Mysterious Windows Popup: "We're sorry for leeching your all money and time over the past decade; all personnel at Redmond, Washington will now jump off the nearest cliff after wiring the compound with C-4."
3) CNN mysteriously switches spots with the Spice Channel.
4) F'n Energizer Bunny dies.
5) Arquette Compound explodes.
6) France's showers become operational.
7) Massive glitch leads to MTV only being able to play music that people over the age of 12 can enjoy.
8) Living La Vida Loca and the Macarena simultaneously erased from human history, along with the Nixon Administration and New Kids on the Block.
I think we should go to a versioning system similar to the way that Japan sometimes names their TV shows (and the Chinese name their restaurants).
Super Fun Happy Windows!
Joy Joy Green Linux!
Excellent Excel Dynasty!
Wicked Flaming Death Emacs Wok!
Imperial Yahoo!
I'm still retired. You're not reading this.
o use.com
1) http://www.lawnmowers.com
2) http://www.howtomakemoneywithoutreallyleavingtheh
3) http://www.kiteflying101.com
4) www.conjugalvisit.com
5) www.jennicam.com
6) www.bored.com
7) www.physicalexercise.com
8) www.warehouse-o-porn.com
9) www.mailorderbride.com
10) www.GET-A-LIFE.com
11) Wanna buy a duck?
OBVIOUSLY, the solution is to make a keyboard with one and only one button.
It would sit right smack in the middle of the keyboard. The only label on it would be a little smiley face. (You could put some LSD on it if so inclined).
Then, you think about what you want the button to do REALLY HARD as you press it down. The keyboard would then interpret your thought and send the appropriate message to the computer.
Of course, you'd have to put new typing programs on the market to teach you where on the Home Key to place your fingers.
Some would say that as long as the keyboard is reading your thoughts, why not just eliminate the keyboard altogether and just communicate your thoughts telepathically to the computer? Obviously, that's just hogwash. How are you supposed to convey your thoughts without pressing down on the button??
Anyway, I have a limited number of these special keyboards made, so contact me if you want one. The price is $100 per unit, non-negotiable.
DISCLAIMER: The keyboards only work as long as your only thoughts are, "Do nothing. Do nothing."
Requirements Documents. Can't live with them, can't live without them, can't ignite them and dance around their burning ashes.
::Loud screams and coders jumping out windows::
The requirements document of the project I just spent 80 hours a week working on for the entire summer was a source of so much grief that I get queasy just thinking about it.
Basically, the customer handed us over 1000 pages of documentation and said, "This is the best requirement document that has ever been written. You shouldn't need to ask us anything about it, because it's so damn PERFECT!"
Needless to say, it was NOT perfect.
It looked all fine and dandy on paper or on design flowcharts, but actually trying to write compliant code was a nightmare and a half.
But wait! Here comes the frustrating part!
Every time we tried to talk to the customer about something we needed to implement that wasn't in the requirements document, the response would be...
"Read the requirements document!"
...it also opens up the door for even more advanced bioengineered viruses and the like.