Sounds like a win for GOFAI. Most of the time the stupid brute force approach beats the kind of thing they seem to be talking about. It's nice to see them taking an idealistic approach and actually getting results.
Damn it, I didn't read the wiki links I posted. I think you gun people can back me up in that nobody would refer to a Thompson or an Uzi or an MP5 as a "Machine Gun."
It's pedantic, but their labeling this as "Machine Gun" kind of bummed me out. It gave me the Hollywood vibe of "any fully automatic weapon is a machine gun."
I think the DRM is the major factor that is killing PC gaming. I know, PC gaming has been predicted to die every year for the last ten; but the difference now is that it really seems to be happening.
I don't think it's dying, It's evolving. PC games will probably start to move back toward their roots (flight sims, dense RPGs, Civilization) and consoles games will pander more to the LCD. This is a good thing; People who want to play nerdy D&D type games will have the PC and people who want to mindlessly blow shit up will have the consoles. I like to do both, but the current PC/console releases mean I get a half ass version of both (Fallout 3 seems like it will be a perfect example of this.)
Do everything you can to avoid making the player replay lengthy sequences. For the most part, this means allowing full quick-saves.
I'd say go one step further and implement good *auto* saves (Halo did this well.) I've been playing Oblivion and if I get immersed in the game and my current quest (not thinking about saving,) I can be set back a ridiculous amount depending on whether or not I've passed through an arbitrary "auto save enabled" portal.
I never had any luck with "parsing" for real web pages (the "to hell with errors, render anything" HTML philosophy allows for a lot of leeway.) I bypass the structure and use regular expressions more often than not. That said, I'm going to look into using Javascript for that just because I like the idea of using my natural enemy's technology against itself (I don't think they provide regular expressions though:(.)
I wasn't trying to screen scrape with Javascript (although you've piqued my interest now.) I was saying that embedded Javascript on the target pages was an impediment.
Most of my experience with Javascript has been adversarial just because one of my hobbies is screen scraping for raw data. For normal purposes though it seems like a near perfect solution. I have only a passing knowledge of its capabilities, but it seems that it's the rare technology that both hardcore comp-sci people and entry level developers can like. It's a custom purpose language, but doesn't it have first class functions? (They say every feature added to a language in the last 20 years is a less good version of something that's in Lisp, but I get the impression that the Javascript people really got it right.)
I'll update my software when I experience a bug that might have been fixed, or see that there's a cool new feature. The developers are so focused on the work that they're doing that they can't imagine anyone not wanting the latest and greatest, but the end user just wants something that does what they need it to do (Apple is the worst for this IMO, I don't need a new iTunes update every 4 days.)
You'll get a pretty polarized set of opinions on that one
Stephenson's going to be pretty polarizing in general. Personally, I can't think of any other author who can write an 800 page book where there's something on just about every page that makes me stop and say "Wow, that was awesome." On the other hand (as you stated) when you start to see the pages dwindling, you wonder how he's going to wrap it all up, and even being familiar with his style, it's always surprising how much the story "stops" rather than "ends."
There's a lot of overhead in pirating games for someone who doesn't normally do it. I needed to find a suitable client, then find a reputable site with a decent number of seeders, and even then I had to read the comments to make sure it wasn't some bullshit thing that didn't work (or there's a Trojan.) Once the download's done I need to get the virtual drive happening or burn an image.
It still takes some effort to pirate games, but once someone learns to do it (maybe just for a no CD crack) it becomes more tempting. I think the only way to win is to have the customer base *want* to pay for it.
When I wanted to check out "The Sims 2" I went out of my way to pirate it. EA's managed to alienate me (a customer who's spent thousands of dollars on their products) to the point where I'll actually spend more than $50 worth of my time to get a torrent.
Do the opposite of what they do, like George Costanza.
From what they haven't said about avoiding current MMO problems I picture it like this:
NPC: Bring me 17 Tribble Scrotums.
Player: Ok, here you go.
NPC: Kill the renegade Klingon warlord.
Player: Done. ... 49 levels later...
NPC: Invade the Borg ship and destroy it's power source.
Player: Mission accomplished!
NPC: uhh... now just keep doing that again and again for increasingly diminishing rewards....
Player: but didn't I already...
NPC: SILENCE! Invade the Borg ship and...
After seeing this story I realize I'm an enlightened environmental hero. That 486DX2 in the corner would be poisoning people if I hadn't though "I might still need it for something!"
That's an excellent summary of things that neither party will fix. The problem is that the alternatives are just as bad. The Green Party or the Libertarians or the Constitution Party would address 80% of those problems effectively but they always have to tack on a few batshit crazy things that (rightfully) scare away their potential supporters. I'd like to see some people elected who can solve the real problems without the impractical ideology.
I would compete in the untangling cables event on the condition that there were no Cat 5 cables involved. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put that damn reverse facing tab on those should be beaten severely.
A lot of people have an innate discomfort with the idea that we are merely more sophisticated versions of something so simple and mechanical. I've always though viruses should be considered life because most of the counter arguments I've read are really weak, but they persist because of that bias.
Why are there so many Libertarians on Slashdot? Do we really want to allow Microsoft to become OCP? I'm all for smaller government, but the whole "free markets solve everything" thing seems incredibly naive to me.
I don't even think the static screenshots of the "improvements" look better, never mind the game play implications. Also, I'm impressed with the tone of the Blizzard guy defending their choices while also accepting the criticisms. Has there ever been a bad or even mediocre Blizzard game? I think they're one of the few groups who "get it" and know how to make a fun game, and I'm looking forward to playing Diablo III.
So what makes Apple better or different? It's how people FEEL about Apple. If you disagree, instead of modding me flaimbait, how about citing some *objective* examples of where I am mistaken?
I'm not one of those Apple zealots, I personally prefer Linux for work and XP for home, but I bought my mom a MacBook a couple of years ago and have received 0 (zero) tech support calls since (down from 1 or 2 a month with the Windows machine she had.) On that same mom-friendly laptop, I was able to write a python script in emacs and run it from a real shell. I think that's a pretty good level of quality/flexibility out of the box.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like a win for GOFAI. Most of the time the stupid brute force approach beats the kind of thing they seem to be talking about. It's nice to see them taking an idealistic approach and actually getting results.
Damn it, I didn't read the wiki links I posted. I think you gun people can back me up in that nobody would refer to a Thompson or an Uzi or an MP5 as a "Machine Gun."
It's pedantic, but their labeling this as "Machine Gun" kind of bummed me out. It gave me the Hollywood vibe of "any fully automatic weapon is a machine gun."
Machine Gun
Assault Rifle
Submachine Gun
I think the DRM is the major factor that is killing PC gaming. I know, PC gaming has been predicted to die every year for the last ten; but the difference now is that it really seems to be happening.
I don't think it's dying, It's evolving. PC games will probably start to move back toward their roots (flight sims, dense RPGs, Civilization) and consoles games will pander more to the LCD. This is a good thing; People who want to play nerdy D&D type games will have the PC and people who want to mindlessly blow shit up will have the consoles. I like to do both, but the current PC/console releases mean I get a half ass version of both (Fallout 3 seems like it will be a perfect example of this.)
Do everything you can to avoid making the player replay lengthy sequences. For the most part, this means allowing full quick-saves.
I'd say go one step further and implement good *auto* saves (Halo did this well.) I've been playing Oblivion and if I get immersed in the game and my current quest (not thinking about saving,) I can be set back a ridiculous amount depending on whether or not I've passed through an arbitrary "auto save enabled" portal.
since it has native Dom parsers and methods.
I never had any luck with "parsing" for real web pages (the "to hell with errors, render anything" HTML philosophy allows for a lot of leeway.) I bypass the structure and use regular expressions more often than not. That said, I'm going to look into using Javascript for that just because I like the idea of using my natural enemy's technology against itself (I don't think they provide regular expressions though :(.)
I wasn't trying to screen scrape with Javascript (although you've piqued my interest now.) I was saying that embedded Javascript on the target pages was an impediment.
Most of my experience with Javascript has been adversarial just because one of my hobbies is screen scraping for raw data. For normal purposes though it seems like a near perfect solution. I have only a passing knowledge of its capabilities, but it seems that it's the rare technology that both hardcore comp-sci people and entry level developers can like. It's a custom purpose language, but doesn't it have first class functions? (They say every feature added to a language in the last 20 years is a less good version of something that's in Lisp, but I get the impression that the Javascript people really got it right.)
I'll update my software when I experience a bug that might have been fixed, or see that there's a cool new feature. The developers are so focused on the work that they're doing that they can't imagine anyone not wanting the latest and greatest, but the end user just wants something that does what they need it to do (Apple is the worst for this IMO, I don't need a new iTunes update every 4 days.)
You'll get a pretty polarized set of opinions on that one
Stephenson's going to be pretty polarizing in general. Personally, I can't think of any other author who can write an 800 page book where there's something on just about every page that makes me stop and say "Wow, that was awesome." On the other hand (as you stated) when you start to see the pages dwindling, you wonder how he's going to wrap it all up, and even being familiar with his style, it's always surprising how much the story "stops" rather than "ends."
I'm still reeling from the time-travel implied by "Then now what."
That statement make perfect sense once you accept the truth.
There's a lot of overhead in pirating games for someone who doesn't normally do it. I needed to find a suitable client, then find a reputable site with a decent number of seeders, and even then I had to read the comments to make sure it wasn't some bullshit thing that didn't work (or there's a Trojan.) Once the download's done I need to get the virtual drive happening or burn an image.
It still takes some effort to pirate games, but once someone learns to do it (maybe just for a no CD crack) it becomes more tempting. I think the only way to win is to have the customer base *want* to pay for it.
When I wanted to check out "The Sims 2" I went out of my way to pirate it. EA's managed to alienate me (a customer who's spent thousands of dollars on their products) to the point where I'll actually spend more than $50 worth of my time to get a torrent.
Do the opposite of what they do, like George Costanza.
Not true: slashdot star trek poll
From what they haven't said about avoiding current MMO problems I picture it like this:
... 49 levels later ... ... now just keep doing that again and again for increasingly diminishing rewards .... ... ...
NPC: Bring me 17 Tribble Scrotums.
Player: Ok, here you go.
NPC: Kill the renegade Klingon warlord.
Player: Done.
NPC: Invade the Borg ship and destroy it's power source.
Player: Mission accomplished!
NPC: uhh
Player: but didn't I already
NPC: SILENCE! Invade the Borg ship and
After seeing this story I realize I'm an enlightened environmental hero. That 486DX2 in the corner would be poisoning people if I hadn't though "I might still need it for something!"
If it's on the web you can archive it.
It's not the easiest way to do it, but with the increased difficulty rating even if your execution is less than perfect you could get a good score
"Optimism, pessimism, f-ck that; we're going to make it happen. As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work."
If they succeed I bet everyone will know that a hundred years from now (particularly those who survive the Earth-destroying comet because of it.)
That's an excellent summary of things that neither party will fix. The problem is that the alternatives are just as bad. The Green Party or the Libertarians or the Constitution Party would address 80% of those problems effectively but they always have to tack on a few batshit crazy things that (rightfully) scare away their potential supporters. I'd like to see some people elected who can solve the real problems without the impractical ideology.
I would compete in the untangling cables event on the condition that there were no Cat 5 cables involved. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put that damn reverse facing tab on those should be beaten severely.
A lot of people have an innate discomfort with the idea that we are merely more sophisticated versions of something so simple and mechanical. I've always though viruses should be considered life because most of the counter arguments I've read are really weak, but they persist because of that bias.
Why are there so many Libertarians on Slashdot? Do we really want to allow Microsoft to become OCP? I'm all for smaller government, but the whole "free markets solve everything" thing seems incredibly naive to me.
I don't even think the static screenshots of the "improvements" look better, never mind the game play implications. Also, I'm impressed with the tone of the Blizzard guy defending their choices while also accepting the criticisms. Has there ever been a bad or even mediocre Blizzard game? I think they're one of the few groups who "get it" and know how to make a fun game, and I'm looking forward to playing Diablo III.
Macs usually do come at a ~10% premium.
Let's say I want a basic laptop.
The Dell is $599, the Mac is $1099.
All arguments about quality aside, for what the average consumer's looking for Macs are still a lot more expensive.
So what makes Apple better or different? It's how people FEEL about Apple. If you disagree, instead of modding me flaimbait, how about citing some *objective* examples of where I am mistaken?
I'm not one of those Apple zealots, I personally prefer Linux for work and XP for home, but I bought my mom a MacBook a couple of years ago and have received 0 (zero) tech support calls since (down from 1 or 2 a month with the Windows machine she had.) On that same mom-friendly laptop, I was able to write a python script in emacs and run it from a real shell. I think that's a pretty good level of quality/flexibility out of the box.