Now I'll have to find the old S.P.A.M. files, dig up my editor, brush up on Hypertalk, figure out the iPod format.... Dang! I guess I'll be getting one of those things after all...
I tried making a similar game a while back. Mine was text and ASCII "art" based...
Dang, some long-dormant synapses just fired.
There was a text-based game format called SPAM (just try and google that now.) I wrote an editor and player for the format (in HyperCard, no less.) My editor could export to HTML, for a web-based 'click-through' adventure. I wonder if I still have those files... it might make for a whole minute's worth of entertainment between songs...
All good points, but it assumes "deterministic" is a bad thing.
One of the pleasures of gaming is figuring out the worldview of the game designers. With more open-ended games, like RPGs, you can profitably read the rules. I have several games I've never played, but studied the rules like they were Holy Writ.
The interesting thing about page-linked games (like the old text-adventure novels) is that you have to play it through several times to 'get' what the designer thinks is good/bad behavior. "Should I fight the first chance I get, or try not to fight?" It's the urge to understand the system that underlies true hacking.
Heck, if Zork gets ported to the iPod, I might buy one. That or they aquire a radio tuner.
I was disappointed. After reading the/. story I clicked through hoping to find out what "an art farm that grows vegetables" was. Rubenesque Pumpkins, anyone?
It's funny that, with all of the fuss over the fact that they were not fixing the problem, there's been barely a
whisper on the Mac web about the fact that it's all being taken care
of.
It's always more fun to bitch. I'd expect to see more along the lines of, "Well, they're FINALLY taking care of it!"
I believe that most people don't want to swap our convoluted
babylonian time system for decimal time, and I consider this an
example differing in degree but not type from the English/Metric
Well, in an attempt to tie together your well-thought-out response to my frivilous post, I will say that the time system doesn't even differ in degree (pun not intended). IIRC, the french did try to institute a 'metric time' system, but it did not long survive the revolution.
In my field, an inch can be divided into 72 points. That seems like an odd (as in strange) number, but you can halve it, halve the result, and halve that result before you approach granularity.
Of course, even better would be a system based on, say, 128 units. But I don't know of any that existed (outside of journals) before computation became a field unto itelself.
I've never understood how the metric system can be thought of as fancy
or tricky by most Americans. It's all base 10.
It's not really considered 'tricky'. It's considered 'French'. (Hey, we invented base 10 money. Do you really think we couldn't use the metric system if we thought it was a good idea?!)
That said, I think Stargate has become too sciency/technical. Did anyone else prefer it when all the technology like the Gates themselves were much more mystical and incomprehensible?
"Magic, in any sufficiently advanced show, is indistinguishable from technology." (Appologies to ACC)
Actually, I think what happens is that writers have to have some idea of what and how things work, in order to work with it consistently. Eventually, it works its way into the scripts.
We, as viewers, don't need to know how or why things work the way they do. It actually keeps things more interesting for us to be trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, that gets forgotten.
It's roughly analagous to seeing the monster in a horror movie: Less is more.
You can't walk around the house with these.
on
Videophones Revisited
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
What practical advantage does it have over ordinary audio-only phones? If anything, I'd say normal phones are easier to use!
The trend with phones has been one of increasing portability. Speakerphones let you walk around the room, cordless phones let you walk around the house, and cell phones let you walk around... well, pretty much anywhere.
I'm not sure if the occasional benefit of seeing the other person will outweigh the need to be in one place while talking. I think I would find it frustrating.
Oh, it's all for the security of the United States.
Ah! I was wondering why those Germans in Germany were scanning passengers in a German airport as part of a European initiative. Turns out it's to secure the United States!
Tell me, are European tinfoil hats more stylish than the American variety?
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I gather that George got the shaft; his wife ran off with one of his
employees, leaving him to raise their children (which is why there was
so long a delay between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace).
She was also the editor of the first two (or fourth and fifth) Star Wars films, which may have something to do with the quality of the subsequent (or subsequent and preceeding) ones.
Did we ever find out who did the "Phantom Edit"? My money was on her.
But according to Computerwoche and other reports, the city lacks the funds to invest in the planned testing and development of an open-source solution.
They've got about $35 million budgeted for this migration, and they're out of money at the 'testing and development' phase? How did they come up with their replacement cost figures without doing some 'testing'?
Add to this that they only have about 34 million in the bank, and their burn rate will bankrupt them within the next 6 months,
That's the key here. They have to cut costs (I'm in an outfit that's doing something similar), they hope/pray that someone will take up the slack for them. That , I understand. The trick is, for someone like me, that I don't trust that support will last. (I'm only a quasi-geek, and can't write my own conduits.)
Right now, I'm looking for a linux/bsd solution. I don't want my address book lost to me the next time I upgrade.
Add to that that they need to dedicate developers to supporting a
platform that less than 5% of customers use.
I'm sure that was their logic, but it's short sighted. Palm competes directly against Win CE--Mac users are a natural customer base. Case in point: I've been shopping for a cellphone/pda. Guess which ones I'm not looking at any more?
Slashdot Mirror
Good job!
Now I'll have to find the old S.P.A.M. files, dig up my editor, brush up on Hypertalk, figure out the iPod format.... Dang! I guess I'll be getting one of those things after all...
I tried making a similar game a while back. Mine was text and ASCII "art" based...
Dang, some long-dormant synapses just fired.
There was a text-based game format called SPAM (just try and google that now.) I wrote an editor and player for the format (in HyperCard, no less.) My editor could export to HTML, for a web-based 'click-through' adventure. I wonder if I still have those files... it might make for a whole minute's worth of entertainment between songs...
All good points, but it assumes "deterministic" is a bad thing.
One of the pleasures of gaming is figuring out the worldview of the game designers. With more open-ended games, like RPGs, you can profitably read the rules. I have several games I've never played, but studied the rules like they were Holy Writ.
The interesting thing about page-linked games (like the old text-adventure novels) is that you have to play it through several times to 'get' what the designer thinks is good/bad behavior. "Should I fight the first chance I get, or try not to fight?" It's the urge to understand the system that underlies true hacking.
Heck, if Zork gets ported to the iPod, I might buy one. That or they aquire a radio tuner.
I was disappointed. After reading the /. story I clicked through hoping to find out what "an art farm that grows vegetables" was. Rubenesque Pumpkins, anyone?
It's funny that, with all of the fuss over the fact that they were not fixing the problem, there's been barely a whisper on the Mac web about the fact that it's all being taken care of.
It's always more fun to bitch. I'd expect to see more along the lines of, "Well, they're FINALLY taking care of it!"
I believe that most people don't want to swap our convoluted babylonian time system for decimal time, and I consider this an example differing in degree but not type from the English/Metric
Well, in an attempt to tie together your well-thought-out response to my frivilous post, I will say that the time system doesn't even differ in degree (pun not intended). IIRC, the french did try to institute a 'metric time' system, but it did not long survive the revolution.
In my field, an inch can be divided into 72 points. That seems like an odd (as in strange) number, but you can halve it, halve the result, and halve that result before you approach granularity.
Of course, even better would be a system based on, say, 128 units. But I don't know of any that existed (outside of journals) before computation became a field unto itelself.
I'm going to have to rethink this whole Open Source thing...
I've never understood how the metric system can be thought of as fancy or tricky by most Americans. It's all base 10.
It's not really considered 'tricky'. It's considered 'French'. (Hey, we invented base 10 money. Do you really think we couldn't use the metric system if we thought it was a good idea?!)
;-)
maybe you could program two stargates with different addresses and put them next to each other???
Imagine a Beowulf cluster...
(Sorry. Had to.)
That said, I think Stargate has become too sciency/technical. Did anyone else prefer it when all the technology like the Gates themselves were much more mystical and incomprehensible?
"Magic, in any sufficiently advanced show, is indistinguishable from technology." (Appologies to ACC)
Actually, I think what happens is that writers have to have some idea of what and how things work, in order to work with it consistently. Eventually, it works its way into the scripts.
We, as viewers, don't need to know how or why things work the way they do. It actually keeps things more interesting for us to be trying to figure it out. Unfortunately, that gets forgotten.
It's roughly analagous to seeing the monster in a horror movie: Less is more.
What practical advantage does it have over ordinary audio-only phones? If anything, I'd say normal phones are easier to use!
The trend with phones has been one of increasing portability. Speakerphones let you walk around the room, cordless phones let you walk around the house, and cell phones let you walk around... well, pretty much anywhere.
I'm not sure if the occasional benefit of seeing the other person will outweigh the need to be in one place while talking. I think I would find it frustrating.
Oh, it's all for the security of the United States.
Ah! I was wondering why those Germans in Germany were scanning passengers in a German airport as part of a European initiative. Turns out it's to secure the United States!
Tell me, are European tinfoil hats more stylish than the American variety?
I recently signed up for an AOL 'free trial.' It took about five minutes before spam started showing up in the mailbox. I was amazed.
(BTW, if you're on a Mac, don't bother--the Mac software for AOL doesn't appear to have been upgraded for a couple years--commercials be damned.)
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Unable to select database
I gather that George got the shaft; his wife ran off with one of his employees, leaving him to raise their children (which is why there was so long a delay between Return of the Jedi and Phantom Menace).
She was also the editor of the first two (or fourth and fifth) Star Wars films, which may have something to do with the quality of the subsequent (or subsequent and preceeding) ones.
Did we ever find out who did the "Phantom Edit"? My money was on her.
Just say it like Homer: Lin-DOH!
(Does Fox have a trademark on "DOH"?)
Now of course programming with just the middle finger isn't as productive, but it works none the less ..
Of course it's difficult to be productive you're programming in binary! "Off" and "Fsck You!"
But according to Computerwoche and other reports, the city lacks the funds to invest in the planned testing and development of an open-source solution.
They've got about $35 million budgeted for this migration, and they're out of money at the 'testing and development' phase? How did they come up with their replacement cost figures without doing some 'testing'?
Another big name... Shuttle, the maker of those small little cube looking PCs...
Heh.
I really think this situation only really occurs in the younger age brackets.
Yes, among those who do the bulk of the reproduction. That's when the 'selection' occurs.
A 30 year old is less likely to become pregnant 'accidentally' than a 20 year old.
A 30 year old is less likely to become pregnant at all than a 20 year old.
When you think about it, all those stupid, impulsive kids are outbreeding us smart folks who take precautions and have (maybe) one child.
The new game is tenatively titled "Vaporquest."
Add to this that they only have about 34 million in the bank, and their burn rate will bankrupt them within the next 6 months,
That's the key here. They have to cut costs (I'm in an outfit that's doing something similar), they hope/pray that someone will take up the slack for them. That , I understand. The trick is, for someone like me, that I don't trust that support will last. (I'm only a quasi-geek, and can't write my own conduits.)
Right now, I'm looking for a linux/bsd solution. I don't want my address book lost to me the next time I upgrade.
Hmmmm... Palm Desktop was built from the code for Claris Organizer. I wonder if Apple can reinvent that wheel, or buy back PD from Palm?
Palm Desktop is great, btw. I used it (it's a free D/L) for many months before I even bought a Palm.
Add to that that they need to dedicate developers to supporting a platform that less than 5% of customers use.
I'm sure that was their logic, but it's short sighted. Palm competes directly against Win CE--Mac users are a natural customer base. Case in point: I've been shopping for a cellphone/pda. Guess which ones I'm not looking at any more?
The laptop apparently even plays the sound of a car revving up while booting, which Enderle seems to think is all the rage at meetings.
I bet that never gets old.