Naval War - perhaps the most fun I've had with a card game. No longer published, it's an old Avalon Hill game. You get ships, and shells to fire. You then proceed to sink your opponent's ships. Not too hard, but a lot of fun. Games are pretty quick as well - one hand can be played in 10-15 minutes, with some luck and no chit-chat.
Tayler does this, and I have to say, over the last few years, his comic has gotten really, really good. If you haven't read it, read it. Although he comments today that his buffer is down to 4 days, which is the lowest it has ever been...
And it works with 1.0 as well. That reminds me, I've been meaning to hack the hell out of those lists, to make them far more amusing. I mean, animals are nice, but think of the potential for causing log-reading admins to crap/wet themselves...
True, but I think you miss the larger point in relationship to this article - both schools you mentioned test for math skills. In fact, just about all students in the US are assessed for reading, writing, and math skills. In many other countries, it is customary to test only those students who perform well. Often this is because the least well performing students are pushed out of school and into trades before they reach 15.
In addition, many other countries do not educate large chunks of their population. Only those in select social classes get an education, and this obviously causes a disparity when comparing scores. It causes an even larger disparity when comparing per-pupil spending.
In the US, we are legally obliged to educate EVERYONE, no matter their ethnicity, sex OR disability. How many of the countries on this list place students with significant disabilities in their general education system and test them alongside the rest of the students?
IDL may be the language you are referring to. IDL is indeed based on FORTRAN, and is pretty good at efficiant matrix calculations. While expensive, it is still in use in the astronomical circles, due to the efficiancy with which it can manipulate CCD images.
While an undregraduate at Alfred University, I used IDL quite a bit in my upper level astronomy classes. A friend of mine is part of the University of Rochester Near Infrared Astronomy Group, where his main task is to code monstrosities in IDL to deal with all their astronomical data.
Re:Hopefully not as terrible as the first
on
Halo 2 Released
·
· Score: 1
My buddy's GF was playing oldskool Doom2 with us a few months back, and she's a non-mouser. Just uses the num-pad for her directional pad, somewhat akin to a gamepad. My buddy and I have been fraggers since the Wolf3D days, and needless to say, it wasn't a good showing on her part. I believe that she was outstrafed while using the BFG on more than one occasion, resulting in death from behind while she was watching the ball coast down the hallway.
I guess one could buy a USB controller and play FPS on the computer, but do you see anyone doing that? No. Why? Because a controller sucks to play a FPS with. Now for racing games, I yank out a controller. For flight sims, I pull out a joystick. But for a FPS I need to be able to pull a 180, jump and shoot, all in one motion. I could do two of those things at once with a controller, although the 180 would take a bit of time. I can do all three at once with a mouse, faster than most people can react.
Halo2 would have a better shot at being god's gift to man (or at least teens) if one could mod the hell out of it, but I doubt that it will happen. Now I hear Epic makes a game which encourages user mods and content...
Well, that's location dependant - It's pretty hard to pretend you're someone else when the people checking off names either know you or know the person you are trying to impersonate. I walked in and said, "hi grandma" and hello to the other woman checking off voters as they came in. I didn't know the third person, but he knew my father, and thus who I was. Of course, this is less than surprising when I live in a town of 3000, of which less than 1500 vote. (actually a high percentage, as we have a lot of sub 18yr olds around here.)
I guess it's hard to imagine them IDing all the people in this town, when odds are at about 95% that at least one of the three people checking names knows the person in question.
Now, taking that a step further - what if it was mandated? As I chatted with my grandma about the turnout after I voted, I got to see a lot of the people coming in - and I knew about 50% of them by sight. Is there really a reason to ID everyone if someone who has been away from home for 7 years (4 yrs of college and work for 3 yrs) knows 50% of the population wandering into the polls over 15 min?
Of course, we could mandate ID checking on a federal or state level, but that's another example of how one size doesn't fit all. In this town, there's no real reason to check ID. In other places, it's stupid not to.
What I just don't understand is why we have such a gambler's mentality when it comes to voting. "All or Nothing" isn't a representative government nor vote. Sending 20 electoral votes to Bush when almost half of Ohio disagrees just isn't appropriate.
My state went democratic, in a 60/40 split. I'd be more than happy to allocate 40% of our electoral votes to Bush, as 40% of the people in this state apparently wanted him to win. Having 100% of our votes go to Kerry just doesn't make sense. It is even worse in close races in large states, where almost half the people will be very unhappy as all the state's votes go to a less favored candidate.
Proportional voting will also allow a little wiggle room for third parties. To get, say, 1/20 votes, all a third party has to do is capture 5% of the vote. Independents have been close to this in a few elections, in a few states. While this still isn't a major threat to the two parties, it will shake up politics a little.
I guess I'm just confused as to why 66% of people in Colorado feel it's ok to not be represented if the other party has only 51% of the vote. In that situation, I'd be yelling for my 49% representation, personally.
Another major issue is that a lot, if not most non-us countries only test their high-performing students. In the US, we test *everyone*, and yet for years people have been duped into comparing those results against the top 50-25% of students in other countries. We mandate that *all* students get a moderately equal education, and that everyone gets tested. In the rest of the world, there are a lot of countries where students don't see any real equality in education, and a lot of kids don't get educated at all. Comparing scores from the US to other countries is really comparing apples to oranges.
As someone who just started teaching, I can honestly say that there isn't a lot wrong with education in the US, at least compared to much of the developed world. Standards for teachers have continued to rise, and the people I see entering the workplace now are more skilled than teachers were 30 years ago. Is everything roses and chocolates? Hell no! But we're not doing badly. There's always plenty of room for improvement, but I'm not worried about this country collapsing due to the educational deficiencies of the next generation.
What could be done to improve the educational system in this country? All sorts of things. The problem is that nobody can agree on those things. Personally, I think standardized tests are a crock of shit, and that they don't reliably test content knowledge nor the ability to use what one has learned. Do I have a better method to reliably and fairly assess a student's knowledge, which works flawlessly across all cultures and languages? No. And neither does anyone else.
Would more funding help? Yes. But funding is useless without training and direction. I would love to see technology fully integrated into public schools, where we teach students to make good use of it. But until we get both funding and knowledgeable teachers and administrators, that won't happen. At the moment, my high school doesn't even teach programming, and it's one of the largest schools in the area. I have a celeron 400 for a workstation, running XP, Novell desktop environment, with mandated use of Gradequick for attendance and grades. I can't run multiple apps on it at once. But it's the best we have, because the funding isn't there, and the administration doesn't see better computers as a priority. Combine these things with a school board composed of non-educators, primarily concerned with chopping down the school budget, and there will be no change in how the school views technology for years to come.
The bottom line is that in the US, we have made equality the goal, rather than maximizing the abilities of our top students. While it's a noble goal, we still aren't there, and the system is set up to force all students to a middle-point. We're a country that wants everyone treated equally rather than fairly. Education reform is tied to the government, the economy, and the citizens. The only way to make education better is to educate the general public on education, and hope that it trickles up to the government. We've been debating educational reform for hundreds of years, and we will continue to do so for hundreds more. If you want change, be sure to vote, and get on a school board, because they help set the policies and goals for schools.
Well, I don't know what sucks more: I have "Always show link domains" checked in my preferences, so your post shows as:
This [this.org] would [idea.com] truly [truly.net] suck [suck.com] if [if.com] _ [it.com] [ever.com]became [became.com] popular [popular.com].
While it's irritating, I know where the links are and what they point to...
I was wondering about a Mozilla plugin that does this, as it's nice to have here at/., where people often spoof/make wacky links to stuff. I just don't know how good of an idea it is web-wide, as the above result demonstrates.
I don't recall where I read it, but there was a suggestion that the soot from diesel engines might be a cause for global warming. Apparently they found that when black soot covered the more solar-reflective snow it lead to more solar absorption and faster melting rates. Diesels are smoky and black, whereas gasoline based cars and trucks don't produce anywhere near the same amount of soot. Therefore, diesels are worse for the environment than gasoline engines.
However, I'd be a major hypocrite if I didn't mention that I have major issues with global warming, as on a million-year cycle we're at the top of a warming cycle. Combine that with fairly decent evidence that our glaciers have melted and reformed many times, and I think the "problem" is much more political than real. (I'm not saying 'fuck up the environment, it's ok' - I'm just saying that 'global warming' is not necessarily the issue that politics make it out to be.) As an interesting addition, there is a fairly rugged theory that a sea-level rise would trigger an ice age.
I believe that it goes like this: Northern Canada is an arctic desert, which gets little snowfall every year. If the northern ice cap melts, we'll have a large expanse of open water north of Canada. Suddenly, the arctic desert has plenty of water. It's still cold most of the time that far north, as we're only talking a few degrees needed to melt most of our northern ice. So we have an assload of water in what was a desert, and it starts to snow all the time. As it's still fairly cold in this area, the snow builds up fast, a glacier forms, the next ice age comes along, and that glacier begins its plow-trip down NA to make another Long Island.
I can't commend on the current status of the above theories, but as of three-four years ago, they were given at least a little credence.
And in a related note, one of my geophysicist teachers went on a rant once, and made the following comment, "Six thousand years ago we had ten thousand feet of ice above where we now sit. It scoured the bedrock and compressed the landmass below our feet. This continent was lower by several feet. Now, we have two options, assuming global warming does exist:
We ban CFCs and massive CO2 releases, plant lots of trees, and in another few thousand years we have a glacier scouring North America all the way down to Kentucky. Goodbye New York, Washington...
Or, we keep using CFCs and burning our forests, and we get weather like this for the next few thousand years. I mean, think about it! By saying "End Global Warming" we're saying, "Bring on the Ice!"
It is not a bad idea, if you are legally allowed to carry those weapons. Gun laws vary state-by-state, and the strictest laws are placed on CONCEALED weapons. I live in Vermont, where you don't need a license to own most non-concealed and non-automatic firearms. It is perfectly legal for me to walk down the street with three shotguns and four rifles strapped to my body, holding a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. As long as the guns are unloaded, the knife is sheathed, and I'm not doing it threateningly, there's no real problem. (Aside from nervous stares and a worried constable, if he's around.)
While there have been some major police fuckups in this country and others, they generally involved people with potentially concealed weapons in high-stress and poorly lit situations. As long as I'm not threatening someone, non-concealed weapons are fine to tote around. Hell, I know some people who drive around with minimal visibility out their back window, due to all the guns stuffed in the gun rack. Again, as long as they aren't loaded, you don't get any problems from the police this far out in the country.
I've even seen a guy walking down the road during duck season, wearing waders, with a bible in one hand and his shotgun cracked over his shoulder. He was going to church before going hunting, it seems. Apparently he used to stand his shotgun in the corner of the church during the sermon, and pick it up on the way out. If I were to point to a problem, it would have to be cities. Guns are fine way out here in the boonies...
Don't forget graphics! Just installing video drivers can be a pain in the ass, (you generally have to stop X first, not the most intuitive process for someone new to linux and/or the cli) and up-to-date video divers won't help you with anything that requires DirectX. Until Linux has a DirectX drop-in, I don't see Linux desktops working for a lot of people.
While OpenGL is decent, from my uninformed point of view, I see it struggling to catch DirectX. If OpenGL provided developers with a technologically superior platform, we might see many more Windows applications use the OpenGL framework instead. As it is, most graphics applications for Windows are built on DirectX, and until that changes, or until we can run DirectX applications in linux, the Linux Desktop won't work for a lot of Windows users. Especially Gamers...
At the same time, how many of these office workers ever were trained to use a computer in the first place? Most of the offices I've worked in hired "people with computer experience" - that is, people who could demonstrate the ability to turn on a computer and use a keyboard and mouse. Why? because they didn't need as much training, which saved money. I wonder how much more efficient some real training will make these people.
Outside of switching to linux, I think that actually training workers to use a computer will make more of a difference than an OS switch ever could. Of course, since they are switching to linux, the extra training will only help make the switch seem even better, which is good for everyone but MS.
Of the 10 or so guys I talk hardware with, all shop newegg.com almost exclusively for hardware, with only the occasional "5pm need it now" run to a local vendor. Newegg is fairly cheep, they have reasonable shipping, (free on a lot of stuff) and a very liberal return policy for newly purchased items. I can attest to about 12 complete, badass systems, with 95% of the parts purchased from newegg. We're a happy bunch of newegg customers, and have been so for three+ years.
While I won't say academia is all peaches and cream, if you have a 4 year degree, no job, and no real hope of one, it begins to look pretty sexy. If you have a teaching certification, you have a job. And not only do you have a job, but you're never going to be in danger of getting outsourced or laid off. That was the complaint of the grandparent - finding that you have a 4 year degree and are not really employable. Thus my suggestion of "try teaching, it's a job."
Granted, there's a lot of shit to deal with in academia, but it's not that much worse than most engineering or tech jobs out there. Every industry has rotten budget cuts, morons in high places, and doesn't respect people doing essential jobs. Teaching in US public schools is not any different, although you generally get to go home earlier, and you get summers off.
It's not necessarily the best job in the world, but it sure beats a lot of things, including unemployment. And education is very good at..educating people. Most schools really push additional education for their teachers, which means that they pay for you to learn new skills. Not too shabby.
If you've got that four year degree, and don't have a job, invest an additional 1.5 - 2 years into becoming a certified teacher. With the certification requirements of NCLB, and the average age of teachers somewhere in the mid to high 50s, the USA is heading into an ever-greater teacher shortage. As one hell of a benefit, a fair number of school districts are desperate enough for teachers, that they will pay off your student loans, if you sign a multi-year contract.
The hours aren't bad, the benefits are great, and the job security is near 100%. While you have to jump through some *very* assinine hoops to prove that you know what you know, the end result is worth it. And quite frankly, the poor teacher salaries of the last few decades are becomming more and more competitive, especially if you have a higher degree and a few years on the job.
The average user will be happy su'ing to root just as soon as someone makes a button on the desktop that reads "make me god". A button which requires a password to make it happen, and after 10 min of inactivity, releases root. Honestly, all joe user really needs is translation into his language.
"You may not install this software unless you are god."
joe user: "Humm, this button says it will make me god...needs password....WOW fancy colors!! I must be god!!"
There is indeed a vaild reason to code in spawn points - so that nobody spawns closer to major powerups or the best weapons. The problem with random spawns is the randomness of it all - most map makers try to make maps fairly - no spawn point has a major advantage, no team has a major advantage by spawning closer to team-based goals. Randomness throws this out, as well as occasionally spawning people in rather dangerous spots.
There are a few easy ways around spawn camping. First and foremost are server admins who pay attention, and ban lame-ass campers. Secondly, if you have about 2x the spawn points as the # of players, it becomes almost pointless to try to camp one point. Lastly, a couple seconds of invincibility for newly spawned peeps should kill any remaining problems.
Personally, we run two things to prevent spawn-camping - a 2 second invincibility period, and the Matrix Moves. Our mobility is good enough that even if we spawn in where someone is camping, we can usually get away or at least get to a decent weapon.
Frankly, only n00bs camp, and if a n00b camps on our server, they will get their ASS handed to them. About half our regulars would probable smite them with the default weapon, and everyone else would take the time to hunt them down and smite them until they quit playing. We generally don't have to ban people - if a handful of clanners get pissed off at someone, they gang up and obliterate them. There's nothing like spawn-camping with a major weapon, only to have someone sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a melee weapon...
Slashdot Mirror
I think somebody trolled somebody, but I'm not sure which was which...
It is only you. The rest of us don't read the articles...
Other great card games I've played:
Lunch Money
- standard set is best, IMHO
Naval War
- perhaps the most fun I've had with a card game. No longer published, it's an old Avalon Hill game. You get ships, and shells to fire. You then proceed to sink your opponent's ships. Not too hard, but a lot of fun. Games are pretty quick as well - one hand can be played in 10-15 minutes, with some luck and no chit-chat.
http://schlockmercenary.com/
Tayler does this, and I have to say, over the last few years, his comic has gotten really, really good. If you haven't read it, read it. Although he comments today that his buffer is down to 4 days, which is the lowest it has ever been...
From:
http://www.cosmicat.com/extensions/firesomething/
"Compatible with Mozilla Firefox 1.0PR."
And it works with 1.0 as well. That reminds me, I've been meaning to hack the hell out of those lists, to make them far more amusing. I mean, animals are nice, but think of the potential for causing log-reading admins to crap/wet themselves...
a) if they modded him, they can't post in the same forum.
b)"Gator CPO at the Department of Homeland Security - Mozilla Junglecow"
True, but I think you miss the larger point in relationship to this article - both schools you mentioned test for math skills. In fact, just about all students in the US are assessed for reading, writing, and math skills. In many other countries, it is customary to test only those students who perform well. Often this is because the least well performing students are pushed out of school and into trades before they reach 15.
In addition, many other countries do not educate large chunks of their population. Only those in select social classes get an education, and this obviously causes a disparity when comparing scores. It causes an even larger disparity when comparing per-pupil spending.
In the US, we are legally obliged to educate EVERYONE, no matter their ethnicity, sex OR disability. How many of the countries on this list place students with significant disabilities in their general education system and test them alongside the rest of the students?
The US does.
Way back then or now?
Ditto. AMD XP 2800, and it's damn quiet. Yes, you can still hear it, but it's far quieter than my Dell P3 was.
BTW, how did your brother think it was off? That is, unless you turned in your geek card and didn't hook up the badass blue running lights....
IDL may be the language you are referring to. IDL is indeed based on FORTRAN, and is pretty good at efficiant matrix calculations. While expensive, it is still in use in the astronomical circles, due to the efficiancy with which it can manipulate CCD images.
While an undregraduate at Alfred University, I used IDL quite a bit in my upper level astronomy classes. A friend of mine is part of the University of Rochester Near Infrared Astronomy Group, where his main task is to code monstrosities in IDL to deal with all their astronomical data.
My buddy's GF was playing oldskool Doom2 with us a few months back, and she's a non-mouser. Just uses the num-pad for her directional pad, somewhat akin to a gamepad. My buddy and I have been fraggers since the Wolf3D days, and needless to say, it wasn't a good showing on her part. I believe that she was outstrafed while using the BFG on more than one occasion, resulting in death from behind while she was watching the ball coast down the hallway.
I guess one could buy a USB controller and play FPS on the computer, but do you see anyone doing that? No. Why? Because a controller sucks to play a FPS with. Now for racing games, I yank out a controller. For flight sims, I pull out a joystick. But for a FPS I need to be able to pull a 180, jump and shoot, all in one motion. I could do two of those things at once with a controller, although the 180 would take a bit of time. I can do all three at once with a mouse, faster than most people can react.
Halo2 would have a better shot at being god's gift to man (or at least teens) if one could mod the hell out of it, but I doubt that it will happen. Now I hear Epic makes a game which encourages user mods and content...
Well, that's location dependant - It's pretty hard to pretend you're someone else when the people checking off names either know you or know the person you are trying to impersonate. I walked in and said, "hi grandma" and hello to the other woman checking off voters as they came in. I didn't know the third person, but he knew my father, and thus who I was. Of course, this is less than surprising when I live in a town of 3000, of which less than 1500 vote. (actually a high percentage, as we have a lot of sub 18yr olds around here.)
I guess it's hard to imagine them IDing all the people in this town, when odds are at about 95% that at least one of the three people checking names knows the person in question.
Now, taking that a step further - what if it was mandated? As I chatted with my grandma about the turnout after I voted, I got to see a lot of the people coming in - and I knew about 50% of them by sight. Is there really a reason to ID everyone if someone who has been away from home for 7 years (4 yrs of college and work for 3 yrs) knows 50% of the population wandering into the polls over 15 min?
Of course, we could mandate ID checking on a federal or state level, but that's another example of how one size doesn't fit all. In this town, there's no real reason to check ID. In other places, it's stupid not to.
What I just don't understand is why we have such a gambler's mentality when it comes to voting. "All or Nothing" isn't a representative government nor vote. Sending 20 electoral votes to Bush when almost half of Ohio disagrees just isn't appropriate.
My state went democratic, in a 60/40 split. I'd be more than happy to allocate 40% of our electoral votes to Bush, as 40% of the people in this state apparently wanted him to win. Having 100% of our votes go to Kerry just doesn't make sense. It is even worse in close races in large states, where almost half the people will be very unhappy as all the state's votes go to a less favored candidate.
Proportional voting will also allow a little wiggle room for third parties. To get, say, 1/20 votes, all a third party has to do is capture 5% of the vote. Independents have been close to this in a few elections, in a few states. While this still isn't a major threat to the two parties, it will shake up politics a little.
I guess I'm just confused as to why 66% of people in Colorado feel it's ok to not be represented if the other party has only 51% of the vote. In that situation, I'd be yelling for my 49% representation, personally.
Another major issue is that a lot, if not most non-us countries only test their high-performing students. In the US, we test *everyone*, and yet for years people have been duped into comparing those results against the top 50-25% of students in other countries. We mandate that *all* students get a moderately equal education, and that everyone gets tested. In the rest of the world, there are a lot of countries where students don't see any real equality in education, and a lot of kids don't get educated at all. Comparing scores from the US to other countries is really comparing apples to oranges.
As someone who just started teaching, I can honestly say that there isn't a lot wrong with education in the US, at least compared to much of the developed world. Standards for teachers have continued to rise, and the people I see entering the workplace now are more skilled than teachers were 30 years ago. Is everything roses and chocolates? Hell no! But we're not doing badly. There's always plenty of room for improvement, but I'm not worried about this country collapsing due to the educational deficiencies of the next generation.
What could be done to improve the educational system in this country? All sorts of things. The problem is that nobody can agree on those things. Personally, I think standardized tests are a crock of shit, and that they don't reliably test content knowledge nor the ability to use what one has learned. Do I have a better method to reliably and fairly assess a student's knowledge, which works flawlessly across all cultures and languages? No. And neither does anyone else.
Would more funding help? Yes. But funding is useless without training and direction. I would love to see technology fully integrated into public schools, where we teach students to make good use of it. But until we get both funding and knowledgeable teachers and administrators, that won't happen. At the moment, my high school doesn't even teach programming, and it's one of the largest schools in the area. I have a celeron 400 for a workstation, running XP, Novell desktop environment, with mandated use of Gradequick for attendance and grades. I can't run multiple apps on it at once. But it's the best we have, because the funding isn't there, and the administration doesn't see better computers as a priority. Combine these things with a school board composed of non-educators, primarily concerned with chopping down the school budget, and there will be no change in how the school views technology for years to come.
The bottom line is that in the US, we have made equality the goal, rather than maximizing the abilities of our top students. While it's a noble goal, we still aren't there, and the system is set up to force all students to a middle-point. We're a country that wants everyone treated equally rather than fairly. Education reform is tied to the government, the economy, and the citizens. The only way to make education better is to educate the general public on education, and hope that it trickles up to the government. We've been debating educational reform for hundreds of years, and we will continue to do so for hundreds more. If you want change, be sure to vote, and get on a school board, because they help set the policies and goals for schools.
Well, I don't know what sucks more: I have "Always show link domains" checked in my preferences, so your post shows as:
/., where people often spoof/make wacky links to stuff. I just don't know how good of an idea it is web-wide, as the above result demonstrates.
This [this.org] would [idea.com] truly [truly.net] suck [suck.com] if [if.com] _ [it.com] [ever.com]became [became.com] popular [popular.com].
While it's irritating, I know where the links are and what they point to...
I was wondering about a Mozilla plugin that does this, as it's nice to have here at
I don't recall where I read it, but there was a suggestion that the soot from diesel engines might be a cause for global warming. Apparently they found that when black soot covered the more solar-reflective snow it lead to more solar absorption and faster melting rates. Diesels are smoky and black, whereas gasoline based cars and trucks don't produce anywhere near the same amount of soot. Therefore, diesels are worse for the environment than gasoline engines.
However, I'd be a major hypocrite if I didn't mention that I have major issues with global warming, as on a million-year cycle we're at the top of a warming cycle. Combine that with fairly decent evidence that our glaciers have melted and reformed many times, and I think the "problem" is much more political than real. (I'm not saying 'fuck up the environment, it's ok' - I'm just saying that 'global warming' is not necessarily the issue that politics make it out to be.) As an interesting addition, there is a fairly rugged theory that a sea-level rise would trigger an ice age.
I believe that it goes like this: Northern Canada is an arctic desert, which gets little snowfall every year. If the northern ice cap melts, we'll have a large expanse of open water north of Canada. Suddenly, the arctic desert has plenty of water. It's still cold most of the time that far north, as we're only talking a few degrees needed to melt most of our northern ice. So we have an assload of water in what was a desert, and it starts to snow all the time. As it's still fairly cold in this area, the snow builds up fast, a glacier forms, the next ice age comes along, and that glacier begins its plow-trip down NA to make another Long Island.
I can't commend on the current status of the above theories, but as of three-four years ago, they were given at least a little credence.
And in a related note, one of my geophysicist teachers went on a rant once, and made the following comment, "Six thousand years ago we had ten thousand feet of ice above where we now sit. It scoured the bedrock and compressed the landmass below our feet. This continent was lower by several feet. Now, we have two options, assuming global warming does exist:
We ban CFCs and massive CO2 releases, plant lots of trees, and in another few thousand years we have a glacier scouring North America all the way down to Kentucky. Goodbye New York, Washington...
Or, we keep using CFCs and burning our forests, and we get weather like this for the next few thousand years. I mean, think about it! By saying "End Global Warming" we're saying, "Bring on the Ice!"
It is not a bad idea, if you are legally allowed to carry those weapons. Gun laws vary state-by-state, and the strictest laws are placed on CONCEALED weapons. I live in Vermont, where you don't need a license to own most non-concealed and non-automatic firearms. It is perfectly legal for me to walk down the street with three shotguns and four rifles strapped to my body, holding a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other. As long as the guns are unloaded, the knife is sheathed, and I'm not doing it threateningly, there's no real problem. (Aside from nervous stares and a worried constable, if he's around.)
While there have been some major police fuckups in this country and others, they generally involved people with potentially concealed weapons in high-stress and poorly lit situations. As long as I'm not threatening someone, non-concealed weapons are fine to tote around. Hell, I know some people who drive around with minimal visibility out their back window, due to all the guns stuffed in the gun rack. Again, as long as they aren't loaded, you don't get any problems from the police this far out in the country.
I've even seen a guy walking down the road during duck season, wearing waders, with a bible in one hand and his shotgun cracked over his shoulder. He was going to church before going hunting, it seems. Apparently he used to stand his shotgun in the corner of the church during the sermon, and pick it up on the way out. If I were to point to a problem, it would have to be cities. Guns are fine way out here in the boonies...
I'm still waiting to see a site with dynamic stats actually note that they caught me running Mozilla FireYak...or Mozilla LightningPanda.
God damn does the Firesomething extension make me laugh...
Don't forget graphics! Just installing video drivers can be a pain in the ass, (you generally have to stop X first, not the most intuitive process for someone new to linux and/or the cli) and up-to-date video divers won't help you with anything that requires DirectX. Until Linux has a DirectX drop-in, I don't see Linux desktops working for a lot of people.
While OpenGL is decent, from my uninformed point of view, I see it struggling to catch DirectX. If OpenGL provided developers with a technologically superior platform, we might see many more Windows applications use the OpenGL framework instead. As it is, most graphics applications for Windows are built on DirectX, and until that changes, or until we can run DirectX applications in linux, the Linux Desktop won't work for a lot of Windows users. Especially Gamers...
At the same time, how many of these office workers ever were trained to use a computer in the first place? Most of the offices I've worked in hired "people with computer experience" - that is, people who could demonstrate the ability to turn on a computer and use a keyboard and mouse. Why? because they didn't need as much training, which saved money. I wonder how much more efficient some real training will make these people.
Outside of switching to linux, I think that actually training workers to use a computer will make more of a difference than an OS switch ever could. Of course, since they are switching to linux, the extra training will only help make the switch seem even better, which is good for everyone but MS.
Of the 10 or so guys I talk hardware with, all shop newegg.com almost exclusively for hardware, with only the occasional "5pm need it now" run to a local vendor. Newegg is fairly cheep, they have reasonable shipping, (free on a lot of stuff) and a very liberal return policy for newly purchased items. I can attest to about 12 complete, badass systems, with 95% of the parts purchased from newegg. We're a happy bunch of newegg customers, and have been so for three+ years.
While I won't say academia is all peaches and cream, if you have a 4 year degree, no job, and no real hope of one, it begins to look pretty sexy. If you have a teaching certification, you have a job. And not only do you have a job, but you're never going to be in danger of getting outsourced or laid off. That was the complaint of the grandparent - finding that you have a 4 year degree and are not really employable. Thus my suggestion of "try teaching, it's a job."
Granted, there's a lot of shit to deal with in academia, but it's not that much worse than most engineering or tech jobs out there. Every industry has rotten budget cuts, morons in high places, and doesn't respect people doing essential jobs. Teaching in US public schools is not any different, although you generally get to go home earlier, and you get summers off.
It's not necessarily the best job in the world, but it sure beats a lot of things, including unemployment. And education is very good at..educating people. Most schools really push additional education for their teachers, which means that they pay for you to learn new skills. Not too shabby.
If you've got that four year degree, and don't have a job, invest an additional 1.5 - 2 years into becoming a certified teacher. With the certification requirements of NCLB, and the average age of teachers somewhere in the mid to high 50s, the USA is heading into an ever-greater teacher shortage. As one hell of a benefit, a fair number of school districts are desperate enough for teachers, that they will pay off your student loans, if you sign a multi-year contract.
The hours aren't bad, the benefits are great, and the job security is near 100%. While you have to jump through some *very* assinine hoops to prove that you know what you know, the end result is worth it. And quite frankly, the poor teacher salaries of the last few decades are becomming more and more competitive, especially if you have a higher degree and a few years on the job.
The average user will be happy su'ing to root just as soon as someone makes a button on the desktop that reads "make me god". A button which requires a password to make it happen, and after 10 min of inactivity, releases root. Honestly, all joe user really needs is translation into his language.
"You may not install this software unless you are god."
joe user: "Humm, this button says it will make me god...needs password....WOW fancy colors!! I must be god!!"
There is indeed a vaild reason to code in spawn points - so that nobody spawns closer to major powerups or the best weapons. The problem with random spawns is the randomness of it all - most map makers try to make maps fairly - no spawn point has a major advantage, no team has a major advantage by spawning closer to team-based goals. Randomness throws this out, as well as occasionally spawning people in rather dangerous spots.
There are a few easy ways around spawn camping. First and foremost are server admins who pay attention, and ban lame-ass campers. Secondly, if you have about 2x the spawn points as the # of players, it becomes almost pointless to try to camp one point. Lastly, a couple seconds of invincibility for newly spawned peeps should kill any remaining problems.
Personally, we run two things to prevent spawn-camping - a 2 second invincibility period, and the Matrix Moves. Our mobility is good enough that even if we spawn in where someone is camping, we can usually get away or at least get to a decent weapon.
Frankly, only n00bs camp, and if a n00b camps on our server, they will get their ASS handed to them. About half our regulars would probable smite them with the default weapon, and everyone else would take the time to hunt them down and smite them until they quit playing. We generally don't have to ban people - if a handful of clanners get pissed off at someone, they gang up and obliterate them. There's nothing like spawn-camping with a major weapon, only to have someone sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a melee weapon...