The one game that has always stood out in my mind as having great A.I. was Comanche Maximum Overkill. The original (386DX-40 era) DOS game actually advertised in the manual that if you repeat the same attack pattern for 30 seconds then the game would adapt, AND IT DID!
Imagine this scenario; you are in a helicopter hiding behind a hill. Whenever a bad-guy gets close enough, you pop-up above the hill, get a missile lock, fire, then drop below the hill. If you repeat this pattern long-enough (30+ seconds) then enemy copters will sneak up behind you and blow you up. I was always impressed at this "Learning A.I." as opposed to what most computers games do.
RTS/TBS: build stuff quicker then you can and/or advance technology faster then should be possible. FPS: Have 'super accurate' shots, higher health, bigger guns.
The issue is your internet connection AND your ISPs connection to the world. Your connection to the world is more likely to go down before a Google cluster would. Think of how often Telco's, ISP, and major hubs go down. This is the point behind having LOCAL copies of apps/servers/services, the odds that the hub/switch dies (with nothing else inhouse to patch around) is very slim compared to the odds of internet connectivity going south.
Simple. Illegal information = Thought Crimes = A very bad thing!
There is nothing wrong with information, it is what you do with that information that is crucial. Just because somebody get stabbed with a knife, you don't bad all steak knives do you? A screwdriver can be used to steal a car or build a house, it is a TOOL; just like information.
Then that brings us to to the fact that no filtering software works 100% so you get:
(A) legit websites get blocked too (B) "Bad Stuff" still gets through
When this happens, what is the point of filtering it anyway?
Another issue with all laws: People and opinions change, so what is illegal today, might be perfectly acceptable in 40 years. We don't think twice about letting women vote, or mixed-colour couples getting married, or even in some places same-sex marriages. Public opinion changes, but only with information.
Another example of prior art is HP's Dashboard. (It was a 'Program Manager' replacement for Windows 3.1. It's main design hurdle was that it was in the middle of the screen and thus you had to either keep minimizing apps, or resize them around the center program launcher if you wanted to quickly swap around to different applications. Once you got around it's quirks if was a very fine piece of software for its time.
It's a numbers game. How many laptops are seized each month? Few. How many laptops are on all international flights? LOTS.
In the last year I have flown over 20 times. Once I was asked to turn the laptop on. All other times, they just wanted me to take it out of my carry-on bag.
This cheat required somebody on the 'inside' to perpetrate. As with most casino table games, if you have somebody on the inside, cheating is easy.
This is how I cheated at various online poker sites. Me and two buddies would join a table, and have a VNC connection setup to view each others hands. two of us would play dummy hands based on whom had the best hand of the bunch. We cleaned out every table we played at.
Your results do vary. Since I signed up (when it was still in early 'invite-only' days), I have had one false positive and 3 spam emails that snuck-through.
Yes Spamassassin is great, but I have found Gmail to be awesome.
This was an idea that I had a very long tie ago when I was still a teenager (before I had ever heard of space elevators). Lets imagine you had a geostationary satellite in orbit above your construction site. That satellite then lowers a cable into the atmosphere (due to it being geostationary there should be minimal re-entry friction) your main concern would be dealing with the winds on a 100km long cable dangling in the air. Once you have connected the cable to the land, fire some booster rockets on the satellite to get it into the desired orbit (say L1), you could even have the shuttle attach some larger equipment to it to increase it's mass.
With an increase in mass and the longer distance from the planet, centrifugal force should keep the cable taut. You now can start having things 'climb' the cable to build a larger platform.
Instead of hoping that your monitor is good enough, lets get LCD glasses that display something better then 800x600. Most eye glasses are around 2" in diameter, if you could cram enough pixels into that space to give a minimum of ~1024x768 resolution then you will have a market.
Portable gaming anyone? portable and PRIVATE browsing? Sign me up.
Guild Wars got my money because it works on Linux. Savage got my money because it works on Linux. Defcon got my money because it works on Linux. NeverWinter Night got my money because it works on Linux.
There are many more but you get the idea.
If you want my money, make sure it works on Linux!
What I like about this is that it represents an evolution of technology and not just mundane rehash of an existing idea.
Take Youtube for example. It is an internet Monster, both in terms of # of people viewing AND # of people contributing. It is nothing more then a modern take on "Home Movies" and Americas Funniest Home Videos.
This idea that the NYT has implemented is just one step away from bringing awesome to ALL forms of information. I wish I could invest money in an idea, because this will be everywhere soon.
A 2D screen cannot portray the necessary 3D clues that we as humans need to identify with an object as 'real'. task: place an object on the table between a few obstacles. Now try to do the same thing using a computer monitor and remote controlled arm. Magnitudes more difficult.
I know I'm a geek when i get excited thinking about the Faraday cage they use during these tests! Wow, big enough for an AIRPLANE! I am jealous too, I can admit that.
I almost bought one when it first came out but the test-drive was horrible. The rear-view mirror was unusable due to the design of the rear window/hatch. The main support cross-member completely blocked the view splitting the mirror in half. That left you with trying to look over the top of it (and seeing mostly sky) or under it through a darkly tinted 'lower window' which only left a view of the bumper of the car 5 feet behind you.
I am 5'10" tall so completely 'average' by North American standards, but perhaps this car was designed to 'fit' an average Asian.
Ahh, but can you type on the damn thing? I love my Eee, but I hate using it. The keys are too damn small to type on. Screen size I can live with, but IMHO it's only good for a few non-interactive things. (I know I could add an external keyboard, but that defeats the portability that I was after.
PS3 only. Good quality visuals. It is a detective story/game.
Re:BloatWare Continues....
on
Chrome Vs. IE 8
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
THIS!
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
A good question that I think needs to be asked is this: "What information are we trying to convey?" and "What is the best way to convey that message?"
The sole purpose of the internet is to provide a medium(s) that convey data/information. It seems to me this concept got perverted and got us into the pickle that we currently see. I remember the days when it was HARD to find information on the net, well thanks to web 2.x data is getting hard to find again.
Why bother with dead-tree versions? There are thousands of FREE online tutorials/guides/how-to/wikis that these kids can learn from. For any of them that don't have 'net access at home, use the schools copiers/printers to give them something to bring home.
Teach them dammit, don't just hand out a book and hope they figure it out. Earn the right to be called a teacher. Perhaps then when the smart ones ask "Why..?" you can really answer.
Slashdot Mirror
The one game that has always stood out in my mind as having great A.I. was Comanche Maximum Overkill. The original (386DX-40 era) DOS game actually advertised in the manual that if you repeat the same attack pattern for 30 seconds then the game would adapt, AND IT DID!
Imagine this scenario; you are in a helicopter hiding behind a hill. Whenever a bad-guy gets close enough, you pop-up above the hill, get a missile lock, fire, then drop below the hill. If you repeat this pattern long-enough (30+ seconds) then enemy copters will sneak up behind you and blow you up. I was always impressed at this "Learning A.I." as opposed to what most computers games do.
RTS/TBS: build stuff quicker then you can and/or advance technology faster then should be possible.
FPS: Have 'super accurate' shots, higher health, bigger guns.
The issue is your internet connection AND your ISPs connection to the world. Your connection to the world is more likely to go down before a Google cluster would. Think of how often Telco's, ISP, and major hubs go down. This is the point behind having LOCAL copies of apps/servers/services, the odds that the hub/switch dies (with nothing else inhouse to patch around) is very slim compared to the odds of internet connectivity going south.
Age of consent varies from one country to another. Who's rule is right?
Simple. Illegal information = Thought Crimes = A very bad thing!
There is nothing wrong with information, it is what you do with that information that is crucial. Just because somebody get stabbed with a knife, you don't bad all steak knives do you? A screwdriver can be used to steal a car or build a house, it is a TOOL; just like information.
Then that brings us to to the fact that no filtering software works 100% so you get:
(A) legit websites get blocked too
(B) "Bad Stuff" still gets through
When this happens, what is the point of filtering it anyway?
Another issue with all laws: People and opinions change, so what is illegal today, might be perfectly acceptable in 40 years. We don't think twice about letting women vote, or mixed-colour couples getting married, or even in some places same-sex marriages. Public opinion changes, but only with information.
"People should not be afraid of their government, instead a government should be afraid of its people."
And thus marks the end my my upgrade path with Firefox. It's been nice, so long and thanks for all the fish!
Another example of prior art is HP's Dashboard. (It was a 'Program Manager' replacement for Windows 3.1. It's main design hurdle was that it was in the middle of the screen and thus you had to either keep minimizing apps, or resize them around the center program launcher if you wanted to quickly swap around to different applications. Once you got around it's quirks if was a very fine piece of software for its time.
It's a numbers game. How many laptops are seized each month? Few. How many laptops are on all international flights? LOTS.
In the last year I have flown over 20 times. Once I was asked to turn the laptop on. All other times, they just wanted me to take it out of my carry-on bag.
This cheat required somebody on the 'inside' to perpetrate. As with most casino table games, if you have somebody on the inside, cheating is easy.
This is how I cheated at various online poker sites. Me and two buddies would join a table, and have a VNC connection setup to view each others hands. two of us would play dummy hands based on whom had the best hand of the bunch. We cleaned out every table we played at.
If you are not getting paid for your time or getting equivalent time-off in-lieu of, why would you work it?
Your results do vary. Since I signed up (when it was still in early 'invite-only' days), I have had one false positive and 3 spam emails that snuck-through.
Yes Spamassassin is great, but I have found Gmail to be awesome.
This was an idea that I had a very long tie ago when I was still a teenager (before I had ever heard of space elevators). Lets imagine you had a geostationary satellite in orbit above your construction site. That satellite then lowers a cable into the atmosphere (due to it being geostationary there should be minimal re-entry friction) your main concern would be dealing with the winds on a 100km long cable dangling in the air. Once you have connected the cable to the land, fire some booster rockets on the satellite to get it into the desired orbit (say L1), you could even have the shuttle attach some larger equipment to it to increase it's mass.
With an increase in mass and the longer distance from the planet, centrifugal force should keep the cable taut. You now can start having things 'climb' the cable to build a larger platform.
Why wouldn't this work?
Instead of hoping that your monitor is good enough, lets get LCD glasses that display something better then 800x600. Most eye glasses are around 2" in diameter, if you could cram enough pixels into that space to give a minimum of ~1024x768 resolution then you will have a market.
Portable gaming anyone? portable and PRIVATE browsing? Sign me up.
Guild Wars got my money because it works on Linux.
Savage got my money because it works on Linux.
Defcon got my money because it works on Linux.
NeverWinter Night got my money because it works on Linux.
There are many more but you get the idea.
If you want my money, make sure it works on Linux!
It's always nice to see complex engineering projects that work. It gives the impression that theory and reality are getting closer.
wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flettner_ship/
Jacques Cousteaus' ship the Calypso was the first ship of this style that I had known about.
What I like about this is that it represents an evolution of technology and not just mundane rehash of an existing idea.
Take Youtube for example. It is an internet Monster, both in terms of # of people viewing AND # of people contributing. It is nothing more then a modern take on "Home Movies" and Americas Funniest Home Videos.
This idea that the NYT has implemented is just one step away from bringing awesome to ALL forms of information. I wish I could invest money in an idea, because this will be everywhere soon.
I'm geeked about it.
A 2D screen cannot portray the necessary 3D clues that we as humans need to identify with an object as 'real'.
task: place an object on the table between a few obstacles. Now try to do the same thing using a computer monitor and remote controlled arm. Magnitudes more difficult.
I know I'm a geek when i get excited thinking about the Faraday cage they use during these tests! Wow, big enough for an AIRPLANE! I am jealous too, I can admit that.
Cool, thanks.
I almost bought one when it first came out but the test-drive was horrible. The rear-view mirror was unusable due to the design of the rear window/hatch. The main support cross-member completely blocked the view splitting the mirror in half. That left you with trying to look over the top of it (and seeing mostly sky) or under it through a darkly tinted 'lower window' which only left a view of the bumper of the car 5 feet behind you.
I am 5'10" tall so completely 'average' by North American standards, but perhaps this car was designed to 'fit' an average Asian.
Ahh, but can you type on the damn thing? I love my Eee, but I hate using it. The keys are too damn small to type on. Screen size I can live with, but IMHO it's only good for a few non-interactive things. (I know I could add an external keyboard, but that defeats the portability that I was after.
PS3 only. Good quality visuals. It is a detective story/game.
THIS!
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
A good question that I think needs to be asked is this: "What information are we trying to convey?"
and "What is the best way to convey that message?"
The sole purpose of the internet is to provide a medium(s) that convey data/information. It seems to me this concept got perverted and got us into the pickle that we currently see. I remember the days when it was HARD to find information on the net, well thanks to web 2.x data is getting hard to find again.
I propose 2 new protocols for internet usage:
Advertisement.Free.Transport.Protocol
Rich.Commercial.Experience.Protocol
Lets fix the signal to noise ratio we currently endure.
Why bother with dead-tree versions? There are thousands of FREE online tutorials/guides/how-to/wikis that these kids can learn from. For any of them that don't have 'net access at home, use the schools copiers/printers to give them something to bring home.
Teach them dammit, don't just hand out a book and hope they figure it out. Earn the right to be called a teacher. Perhaps then when the smart ones ask "Why..?" you can really answer.