Funny you put it that way, I've often wondered if it would be possible to generate energy (electricity) by dropping things (rocks or ice or whatever) into the atmosphere.
Maybe from the plasma wake or whatever it is?
Another idea that occured was to drop a (small) rock into the atmosphere and then launch a rocket up through the hole it would (momentarily) punch in the atmosphere.
"Soft Landings from DOS bailouts" was my first Linux.:)
I still remember sitting in the computer center all afternoon transferring the 5.25" floppies my friend lent me over to 3.5" floppies for my PC. About 40 disks IIRC.
So far as I can tell, the main reason for going debian these days (at home and I'm mainly talking about 'workstations') is if you specifically don't want to have your hardware set up for you.
Some people really *do* want to spend all day configuring their NICs, tv tuner cards, soundcards etc.;-)
Mandrake truly rocks for its automatic hardware detection and configuration.
I am an advanced Linux user. I have been using Linux since 1992. I work as a sysadmin at a web hosting outfit that uses debian almost exclusively.
I use Mandrake at home because I work on computers all day.
When I get home I want my computers to just freaking *work* and not spend all weekend configuring them.
Mandrake is good like that.
Mandrake is not just "great for people new to Linux" its also great for lazy but advanced users like me.
Actually, I managed to get them to work by exploring the ftp directory structure and figuring out where the links were supposed to go. It sort of worked well enough for my purposes.
"Actually it didn't implement AD&D at all, it implemented the D&D3.5 rules."
pedant
"And it did a better job than any computer game in history at representing a RPG rules set in a workable fashion. It was more faithful than any other conversion"
Absolutely!
"and despite the unfixed bugs, it was quite playable."
I have to disagree with you there. Maybe my 'playability' threshold is higher than yours.
I think theres a future for the game engine. At least I hope so, it'd be a shame to waste yet another decent game engine just because its first incarnation is crap (thinking of Ultima Ascenscion here, which had an awesome, groundbreaking game engine but a totally rubbish game).
not because of the AD&D rules being ported to a CRPG, but because;
1. It is extremely bug-ridden. Really *really* badly bug ridden. And abandoned too. No more patches. The publishers just don't care; they have made their money back already. Atari *suck*.
2. The designers appeared to have taken the original p&p module and turned it into a game with very little 'fleshing out'. Normally, when a DM buys a module and runs it as a game, they treat it as a framework. In TOEE all we get is the framework.
As an example of just how bad it is, a single rogue character can finish the game in about 30 mins with very little levelling up; all sneaking outside of combat is 'take 20'.
Every action you need to perform, every item you need to find to complete the game can be done from stealth (except one and that only leads to a non-combat dialog). If you know where to go and what to pick up the entire game can be completed with no combat. Period. Normally that'd be a good thing (eg the original Fallout, which can be completed *almost* without combat, by a 'talker'). But here, in ToEE, its only because theres no real storyline.
However, the ToEE game engine is potentially *awesome*; it faithfuly implements the AD&D rules. There is very little problem in this regard.
"The masses have absolutely lost touch with what is relevant and real to them as individuals, they have instead accepted these induced emotional events as real"
You should read Jean Baudrillard (sp?) 'Simulations'.
One nice insight in that book is 'It is no longer necessary to be able to produce an opinion; only to be able to reproduce public opinion.'
"These days, there are very few places where planning so far in advance is an advantage."
I guess so, especially when you don't know what the hell the climate will be doing in 10 years time.
I had read somewhere that the climate over the last 5000 years had been unusually stable, thus maybe making it possible to *have* civilisations at all.
What I mean is that due to the election schedule and the vagaries of public opinion, no democracy is really able to plan more than several years ahead.
Unless one were able to manipulate public opinion and ensure stable government *ahem*.
Nope, you are not allowed to discuss *anything* with an American that could *possibly* be of use to a terrorist or relate to terror in any way whatsoever on penalty of extrajudicial incarceration or non-accidental unlawful killing.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny you put it that way, I've often wondered if it would be possible to generate energy (electricity) by dropping things (rocks or ice or whatever) into the atmosphere.
Maybe from the plasma wake or whatever it is?
Another idea that occured was to drop a (small) rock into the atmosphere and then launch a rocket up through the hole it would (momentarily) punch in the atmosphere.
Slackware was my second Linux distro.
/. a while back "I want an operating system, not a religion!"
Then when Redhat came out, I decided that prebuilt binaries were a good idea since it was taking forever to compile emacs, gcc et. al.
Then, when Redhat had their gcc fiasco, I started looking for a new distro. Eventually settled on Mandrake and havn't looked back.
At work I use debian, except for my workstation.
Debian is great for servers, but I'd never recommend it for home use, except by hardcore workaholic geeks with a penchant for quirky OS's.
As someone said in some post on
I have two armature magnets from a huge, ancient SCSI hard drive.
So, if there is no "energy in magnets" why does it take a huge amount of energy to seperate them?
And why do the generate sufficient energy, when they come back together, to seriously hurt my finger?
Tell me *that*. Thanks.
"Soft Landings from DOS bailouts" was my first Linux. :)
I still remember sitting in the computer center all afternoon transferring the 5.25" floppies my friend lent me over to 3.5" floppies for my PC. About 40 disks IIRC.
"FirstClass"?
You have my deepest sympathies.
So far as I can tell, the main reason for going debian these days (at home and I'm mainly talking about 'workstations') is if you specifically don't want to have your hardware set up for you.
;-)
Some people really *do* want to spend all day configuring their NICs, tv tuner cards, soundcards etc.
Mandrake truly rocks for its automatic hardware detection and configuration.
I am an advanced Linux user. I have been using Linux since 1992. I work as a sysadmin at a web hosting outfit that uses debian almost exclusively.
I use Mandrake at home because I work on computers all day.
When I get home I want my computers to just freaking *work* and not spend all weekend configuring them.
Mandrake is good like that.
Mandrake is not just "great for people new to Linux" its also great for lazy but advanced users like me.
for more than a fucking *week*
Actually, I managed to get them to work by exploring the ftp directory structure and figuring out where the links were supposed to go. It sort of worked well enough for my purposes.
"Actually it didn't implement AD&D at all, it implemented the D&D3.5 rules."
pedant
"And it did a better job than any computer game in history at representing a RPG rules set in a workable fashion. It was more faithful than any other conversion"
Absolutely!
"and despite the unfixed bugs, it was quite playable."
I have to disagree with you there.
Maybe my 'playability' threshold is higher than yours.
I think theres a future for the game engine. At least I hope so, it'd be a shame to waste yet another decent game engine just because its first incarnation is crap (thinking of Ultima Ascenscion here, which had an awesome, groundbreaking game engine but a totally rubbish game).
I'd say that the all destroying Leviathan that is Atari Q&A will be the final authority.
Its been a 'few weeks away' for many months now.
not because of the AD&D rules being ported to a CRPG, but because;
1. It is extremely bug-ridden. Really *really* badly bug ridden. And abandoned too. No more patches. The publishers just don't care; they have made their money back already. Atari *suck*.
2. The designers appeared to have taken the original p&p module and turned it into a game with very little 'fleshing out'. Normally, when a DM buys a module and runs it as a game, they treat it as a framework. In TOEE all we get is the framework.
As an example of just how bad it is, a single rogue character can finish the game in about 30 mins with very little levelling up; all sneaking outside of combat is 'take 20'.
Every action you need to perform, every item you need to find to complete the game can be done from stealth (except one and that only leads to a non-combat dialog). If you know where to go and what to pick up the entire game can be completed with no combat. Period. Normally that'd be a good thing (eg the original Fallout, which can be completed *almost* without combat, by a 'talker'). But here, in ToEE, its only because theres no real storyline.
However, the ToEE game engine is potentially *awesome*; it faithfuly implements the AD&D rules. There is very little problem in this regard.
a Dell rack system.
Don't forget to ask them about the complimentary ear protectors.
There has been a 7.6% increase in the amount of crap music available in stores.
"The masses have absolutely lost touch with what is relevant and real to them as individuals, they have instead accepted these induced emotional events as real"
You should read Jean Baudrillard (sp?) 'Simulations'.
One nice insight in that book is 'It is no longer necessary to be able to produce an opinion; only to be able to reproduce public opinion.'
Could someone please explain what Janet Jacksons pastie-tipped tit has got to do with christianity?
"sealed against accidental immersion (1 m for 30 min.)"
30 mins? at one meter?
yeah *thats* ruggedised. NOT.
"Contracts that violate federal law, even when agreed to by both parties, are unenforceable."
So don't *ever* take a job at a Radio Shack in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. No matter how nice and sunny it may seem.
If they got it right, one would *never* tell from chatting with it that it was the 'serial killer' chatbot.
Thats what serial killers are like... if they programmed it to be all violent and nasty they got it *bzzzt* wrong.
Your typical serial killer is a *nice* guy who you can *trust*.
Trust me.
"These days, there are very few places where planning so far in advance is an advantage."
:)
I guess so, especially when you don't know what the hell the climate will be doing in 10 years time.
I had read somewhere that the climate over the last 5000 years had been unusually stable, thus maybe making it possible to *have* civilisations at all.
That might change
What I mean is that due to the election schedule and the vagaries of public opinion, no democracy is really able to plan more than several years ahead.
Unless one were able to manipulate public opinion and ensure stable government *ahem*.
"Don't forget the Egyptian pyramids, the Great wall of China, and Mont. St Michel (which took 500 years to complete)."
Yeah but then democracy happened and since then no democratic state can plan more than about 4 years ahead.
"In January of 2007, for instance, the asteroid will be"
IIRC the applet uses two body math. Theres no 'will be' about it; its just conjecture.
Nope, you are not allowed to discuss *anything* with an American that could *possibly* be of use to a terrorist or relate to terror in any way whatsoever on penalty of extrajudicial incarceration or non-accidental unlawful killing.
"I really think an apology to disease organisms is in order."
Yeah true true...
My apologies to all viruses, bacteria and protists everywhere, you are benign compared with government.
"Off the top of my head, he's trying to cure AIDS."
Only so he has a bigger potential market.
"humans are better at some things than machines and will do them for lower cost."
:)
We need a Butlerian Jihad!
"Thou shalt not replace a human with a machine."
Bring in the mentats! (I just want some of that sappho juice).