Shameless Minecraft-related plug: I'm the author of Millénaire, a Minecraft mod that ads NPC villages of multiple cultures that collect resources, extend their villages, trade with the player, and since recently give quests to the player. Have a look, it gives new aims to Minecraft.
http://millenaire.org/
A little blatant self-publicity there, but at least it's very much on-topic: the Millénaire mod (http://www.millenaire.org) already includes NPC villages for Minecraft, with NPCs that expend their villages, trade with the player, have children who get new jobs, produce new types of food and items, etc. They have a wide range of possible buildings too, and players can easily add their own plans to the mod. NPCs currently to either medieval Norman or medieval (Asian) Indian cultures.
That village was decent-looking, but no villagers? I suspect whatever villagers he has time to make before release will be very passive. Certainly far from those of the Millénaire mod (www.millenaire.org), that expend their village, improve buildings, have children that grow up into various kinds of adults, trade with the player, etc.
> If I had to go to jail when my kid killed someone under the influence, I would have had one kid instead of five, and spent more time on that one kid. If I can't afford the time, maybe I am not qualified to have kids at all?
I'm all for parents trying to educate their children correctly, but that's a recipe for disaster if I ever saw one: parents becoming hyper-protective by fear of prison, severely damaging the children' capacity to lead normal lives and probably leading to extreme behaviour in reaction by a fair number of them. No thanks.
I'm all for giving more powers to the Parliament at the expense of the Council, but I still do not see what's undemocratic about it: it's made up of ministers from elected governments after all, not nameless bureaucrats! If a national minister, responsible to a government itself responsible to its national parliament has no democratic mandate, who has? The only thing I really hate about the Council is that it deliberates in private, which if not strictly speaking undemocratic is hardly transparent. Good thing the constitutional treaty changes that (assuming it gets adopted).
The report will certainly have some influence, but that it is very anti-patent is not surprising considering that Michel Rocard has been one of the leaders of the anti-patent side in the EP since the beginning.
The real question is wether he can use his significant influence in the EP (he is without doubt one of the political heavyweights there) to convince the many MEPs not very committed to the matter that it's worth picking a major fight with the Commission and the Council on. I wish he can, as much because I want software patents banished from Europe as because I want to see the EP extending its influence at the expense of the Commission and the Council.
Good luck, Michel, and thanks!
This was a clear-cut case of a game designer deciding he wanted people to "play well" (in this case, build smallish, advanced nations instead of conquering everything in sight), instead of listening to what his customers wanted.
However, I found some efficient patches for it early on that neatly solved the problem for me. I can't remember what they were though...
Like with the Mac Mini itself, the prices are the same in dollars and euros - which considering that the euro is worth 1.3 $ and taking into account the 20% value-added tax, means we are still ripped of by 10%...
Anyway, this sweeten an already sweet deal. I only regret that the upgrade to 512 RAM, a must-have for anyone not buying a Mac Mini solely for email & the web, is still an over-priced 80 . Ah well, I guess I'll install the added RAM myself then.
I'm not sure I really understand what you're even saying. Is there something wrong with selling software, and something inherently good about giving it away for free? Get a little perspective. It's just bits, not food, medicine, clothing, or shelter. The linux community doesn't help the poor, cure disease or feed the hungry, it only produces software. That's fine, but don't overstate the righteousness of free software.
The point was not (well, not mainly;-) ) that it is morally superior to give software rather than sell it, but that one activity earns you money and the other don't - and it's a tad easier giving millions of dollars to charity when you became wealthy making money from software rather than when you spent your time working for free.
Calling for a non-profit community to match not so much the generosity as the financial power of the richest man alive is a troll, quite independently of the morality of both in the first place.
In a discussion on software patents, I think stating that The European Union is attempting (...) as you do is rather meaningless. What do you mean by "the European Union"? The Commission, which is for? The Parliament, which is against? The Council, which is severely divided on the issue?
The truth is that this is a very controversial issue inside the EU institutions, with a complex balance between the pro and anti sides, and that for now at least there is no single, or even no dominant, "European view" on the subject.
It would be more truthful to have something like "The European Commission and some European governments are attempting to pass (...)" instead.
I know this method which works rather well - but I do not know how to add a caption using it (except by adding the caption to the picture in a graphic editor, which is a pain). Any trick I'm missing?
Anyway, thanks for the help:)
Looks like adding a photo to a page of text
on
Apple iWork Screenshots
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Looks like adding a photo to a page of text will be very easy in Pages, with the text adapting automatically.
If that is indeed the case, it's great - one of my pet peeves with Word is how annoying adding a photo+legend to a page of text is. You basically have to redo the layout every time you change the text.
BTW, if I am wrong and there is a way to include a picture and its legend in text with the text flow being auto-adjusted, please reply with explanations on how to do it instead of modding me as a troll;-)
It does, and as far as I know...
on
China Goes Nuclear
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· Score: 4, Insightful
...there has never been a fatal casualty in the French civil nuclear program, which has been running for at least thirty years. End result? We are the only major EU country to produce more energy than we need, and make quite a lot of money selling it to our neighbours. Our biggest client? Germany, forced to import electricity from us after declaring the country a nuclear free zone... lol.
As for the whole "yeah but you don't want to live next to one", true enough but on the whole I would rather live close to a nuclear power plant than close to a coal or oil one.
and a Normand to be precise, I wish to thanks him for taking part in the D-Day. I did not know he had.
Hey, my very own house was liberated by Canadians soldiers (it's on top of a hill overlooking a river-crossing below, so it was a minor strategic target). Too bad he couldn't have been among them...
... and I have to agree. It's far from ugly, but the design does not look as "inspired" as that of the G4 iMac. Very practical (especially regarding the footprint), but not as innovating or attention-catching as its predecessor. The 20" version does look very good though, with the bigger screen making the white part below look quite small.
What really caught my eyes though are the 30" screens. Two of them side by side makes for a truly impressing sight! Too bad nearly no one can afford them and the G5 to make them run...;)
Asteroid impacts are the only known, credible, avoidable event that could potentially wipe out humanity.
What about a total nuclear war between say the US+EU vs Russia+China? It would not be enough to kill everyone on the planet straight of, but the mid term effects would be comparable in severity to a massive asteroid crash...
I must say I'm biased, since The Count of Montecristo is my all time favorite book;) but then again, I take your word for Les Miserables which is also agreat read.
I sort of guessed that from your pseudo;) I agree it's a great book, and I personally put it above les Misérables, but I know this is not the dominant opinion here. Plus, outside of those two particulars books, there is little doubts that Victor Hugo is by far the most important of the two authors. Montecristo is Dumas's only "great classic" novel; some of the others are deservedly very well known, but they are not as deep.
As a side note, this book (El ingenioso Hidalgo, Don Quixote de la Mancha) is to the Spanish Language as The Count of Montecristo is to French, Luther's New testament translation is to German, and the works of Shakespeare are to English.
As a Frenchman, I can tell you that while Montecristo is certainly the best book written by Dumas and probably in the fifty most important French books written, it is not "The Book". That honour would probably go to Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables".
I'm pleased by the naming choice BTW - it shows some humour and imagination, particularly with having Sancho stay behind and watch... they may be top notch engineers and scientists, but they have read their classics and can joke about their work. I like that.
of things that would be banned should this law pass. I do not support censorship, even of racist or antisemite speech, but to claim that the EU does not recognize antisemitism as hate speech is a flat-out lie and a troll of the first order. Only anti-muslim/arab speech is considered to be as much of a problem in Europe today than antisemitism by the EU leaders.
It's sad to see that they were people clueless enough to mode you up...
Both of those games are made by Paradox and are by far the most evolved historical games I've ever seen. Way beyond Civilization.
The EU2 "Grand Campaign", which covers world history from 1419 to 1820, has something like 200 nations in it and tens of thousands of historical events firing.
Sure, the game can quickly become anachronistic especially if you are a good player focusing on extending your empire, but it still strikes an excellent balance between simulating history and playability. I particularly like the way wars of religions are handled, and the crucial concept of national stability and of the necessity for a Casus Belly to declare war if you do not want to suffer from a drop in stability.
Those two games are the only one I would consider for teaching historical facts (and not simply getting students interested).
Slashdot Mirror
Good news for you, Millénaire come with an installer that removes the requirement of manually editing the jar ;)
Shameless Minecraft-related plug: I'm the author of Millénaire, a Minecraft mod that ads NPC villages of multiple cultures that collect resources, extend their villages, trade with the player, and since recently give quests to the player. Have a look, it gives new aims to Minecraft. http://millenaire.org/
A little blatant self-publicity there, but at least it's very much on-topic: the Millénaire mod (http://www.millenaire.org) already includes NPC villages for Minecraft, with NPCs that expend their villages, trade with the player, have children who get new jobs, produce new types of food and items, etc. They have a wide range of possible buildings too, and players can easily add their own plans to the mod. NPCs currently to either medieval Norman or medieval (Asian) Indian cultures.
Forgot the disclaimer: I made that Millénaire mod.
That village was decent-looking, but no villagers? I suspect whatever villagers he has time to make before release will be very passive. Certainly far from those of the Millénaire mod (www.millenaire.org), that expend their village, improve buildings, have children that grow up into various kinds of adults, trade with the player, etc.
> If I had to go to jail when my kid killed someone under the influence, I would have had one kid instead of five, and spent more time on that one kid. If I can't afford the time, maybe I am not qualified to have kids at all?
I'm all for parents trying to educate their children correctly, but that's a recipe for disaster if I ever saw one: parents becoming hyper-protective by fear of prison, severely damaging the children' capacity to lead normal lives and probably leading to extreme behaviour in reaction by a fair number of them. No thanks.
I'm all for giving more powers to the Parliament at the expense of the Council, but I still do not see what's undemocratic about it: it's made up of ministers from elected governments after all, not nameless bureaucrats! If a national minister, responsible to a government itself responsible to its national parliament has no democratic mandate, who has?
The only thing I really hate about the Council is that it deliberates in private, which if not strictly speaking undemocratic is hardly transparent. Good thing the constitutional treaty changes that (assuming it gets adopted).
The report will certainly have some influence, but that it is very anti-patent is not surprising considering that Michel Rocard has been one of the leaders of the anti-patent side in the EP since the beginning.
The real question is wether he can use his significant influence in the EP (he is without doubt one of the political heavyweights there) to convince the many MEPs not very committed to the matter that it's worth picking a major fight with the Commission and the Council on. I wish he can, as much because I want software patents banished from Europe as because I want to see the EP extending its influence at the expense of the Commission and the Council.
Good luck, Michel, and thanks!
* They can't bundle it with their OS
Are you challenging Microsoft on that one? Not a very wise move...
This was a clear-cut case of a game designer deciding he wanted people to "play well" (in this case, build smallish, advanced nations instead of conquering everything in sight), instead of listening to what his customers wanted.
However, I found some efficient patches for it early on that neatly solved the problem for me. I can't remember what they were though...
Like with the Mac Mini itself, the prices are the same in dollars and euros - which considering that the euro is worth 1.3 $ and taking into account the 20% value-added tax, means we are still ripped of by 10%...
Anyway, this sweeten an already sweet deal. I only regret that the upgrade to 512 RAM, a must-have for anyone not buying a Mac Mini solely for email & the web, is still an over-priced 80 . Ah well, I guess I'll install the added RAM myself then.
I'm not sure I really understand what you're even saying. Is there something wrong with selling software, and something inherently good about giving it away for free? Get a little perspective. It's just bits, not food, medicine, clothing, or shelter. The linux community doesn't help the poor, cure disease or feed the hungry, it only produces software. That's fine, but don't overstate the righteousness of free software.
;-) ) that it is morally superior to give software rather than sell it, but that one activity earns you money and the other don't - and it's a tad easier giving millions of dollars to charity when you became wealthy making money from software rather than when you spent your time working for free.
The point was not (well, not mainly
Calling for a non-profit community to match not so much the generosity as the financial power of the richest man alive is a troll, quite independently of the morality of both in the first place.
In a discussion on software patents, I think stating that The European Union is attempting (...) as you do is rather meaningless. What do you mean by "the European Union"? The Commission, which is for? The Parliament, which is against? The Council, which is severely divided on the issue?
The truth is that this is a very controversial issue inside the EU institutions, with a complex balance between the pro and anti sides, and that for now at least there is no single, or even no dominant, "European view" on the subject.
It would be more truthful to have something like "The European Commission and some European governments are attempting to pass (...)" instead.
I know this method which works rather well - but I do not know how to add a caption using it (except by adding the caption to the picture in a graphic editor, which is a pain). Any trick I'm missing?
:)
Anyway, thanks for the help
Looks like adding a photo to a page of text will be very easy in Pages, with the text adapting automatically.
;-)
If that is indeed the case, it's great - one of my pet peeves with Word is how annoying adding a photo+legend to a page of text is. You basically have to redo the layout every time you change the text.
BTW, if I am wrong and there is a way to include a picture and its legend in text with the text flow being auto-adjusted, please reply with explanations on how to do it instead of modding me as a troll
...there has never been a fatal casualty in the French civil nuclear program, which has been running for at least thirty years. End result? We are the only major EU country to produce more energy than we need, and make quite a lot of money selling it to our neighbours. Our biggest client? Germany, forced to import electricity from us after declaring the country a nuclear free zone... lol.
As for the whole "yeah but you don't want to live next to one", true enough but on the whole I would rather live close to a nuclear power plant than close to a coal or oil one.
and a Normand to be precise, I wish to thanks him for taking part in the D-Day. I did not know he had.
Hey, my very own house was liberated by Canadians soldiers (it's on top of a hill overlooking a river-crossing below, so it was a minor strategic target). Too bad he couldn't have been among them...
... and I have to agree. It's far from ugly, but the design does not look as "inspired" as that of the G4 iMac. Very practical (especially regarding the footprint), but not as innovating or attention-catching as its predecessor. The 20" version does look very good though, with the bigger screen making the white part below look quite small.
;)
What really caught my eyes though are the 30" screens. Two of them side by side makes for a truly impressing sight! Too bad nearly no one can afford them and the G5 to make them run...
W Ketchup, America's Ketchup! The perfect complement to your Freedom Fries!
And why not finish your patriotic meal with some Star Spangled Ice Cream, for the complete Conservative American Experience?
Asteroid impacts are the only known, credible, avoidable event that could potentially wipe out humanity.
What about a total nuclear war between say the US+EU vs Russia+China? It would not be enough to kill everyone on the planet straight of, but the mid term effects would be comparable in severity to a massive asteroid crash...
I must say I'm biased, since The Count of Montecristo is my all time favorite book ;) but then again, I take your word for Les Miserables which is also agreat read.
;) I agree it's a great book, and I personally put it above les Misérables, but I know this is not the dominant opinion here. Plus, outside of those two particulars books, there is little doubts that Victor Hugo is by far the most important of the two authors. Montecristo is Dumas's only "great classic" novel; some of the others are deservedly very well known, but they are not as deep.
I sort of guessed that from your pseudo
As a side note, this book (El ingenioso Hidalgo, Don Quixote de la Mancha) is to the Spanish Language as The Count of Montecristo is to French, Luther's New testament translation is to German, and the works of Shakespeare are to English.
As a Frenchman, I can tell you that while Montecristo is certainly the best book written by Dumas and probably in the fifty most important French books written, it is not "The Book". That honour would probably go to Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables".
I'm pleased by the naming choice BTW - it shows some humour and imagination, particularly with having Sancho stay behind and watch... they may be top notch engineers and scientists, but they have read their classics and can joke about their work. I like that.
of things that would be banned should this law pass. I do not support censorship, even of racist or antisemite speech, but to claim that the EU does not recognize antisemitism as hate speech is a flat-out lie and a troll of the first order. Only anti-muslim/arab speech is considered to be as much of a problem in Europe today than antisemitism by the EU leaders.
It's sad to see that they were people clueless enough to mode you up...
for a first post?
Both of those games are made by Paradox and are by far the most evolved historical games I've ever seen. Way beyond Civilization.
The EU2 "Grand Campaign", which covers world history from 1419 to 1820, has something like 200 nations in it and tens of thousands of historical events firing.
Sure, the game can quickly become anachronistic especially if you are a good player focusing on extending your empire, but it still strikes an excellent balance between simulating history and playability. I particularly like the way wars of religions are handled, and the crucial concept of national stability and of the necessity for a Casus Belly to declare war if you do not want to suffer from a drop in stability.
Those two games are the only one I would consider for teaching historical facts (and not simply getting students interested).