NCSA Mosaic: When I first knew him, your father was already a great application. But I was amazed how strongly the Internet was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a browser. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Lynx. I was wrong.
Luke Spyglass: There IS still standards compliance in him. I've felt it.
NCSA Mosaic: He more Microsoft's interpretation of W3C standards now than compliant; twisted and evil.
Luke Spyglass: I can't do it, Mosaic.
NCSA Mosaic: You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Internet Explorer again.
Luke Spyglass: I can't kill my own father.
NCSA Mosaic: Then Microsoft has already won. You were our only hope.
Luke Spyglass: Lynx spoke of another.
NCSA Mosaic: The other he spoke of is your twin sister.
Luke Spyglass: But I HAVE no sister.
NCSA Mosaic: Hmm. To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born. The Emperor knew, as I did, if IE were to have any offspring, they would be a threat to him. That is the reason why your sister remains safely anonymous.
Luke Spyglass: Opera! Opera's my sister.
NCSA Mosaic: Your codebase serves you well. Bury your threads deep down, Luke. They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor.
Is that how it would really go down? While it would appear that Jaffe is speaking in a manner that is against the grain with his employer, I think what we're seeing here is really symptomatic of a bigger problem within Sony's ranks:
So basically the two factions of this company have formed a yin-yang of suck so powerful, that it's becomming it's own worst enemy. One day, it'll have to choose between ripping itself in half or dying altogether. In light of that, I'm actually suprised more folks from within haven't been more vocal about how things are going.
Or maybe they're just burning through cardboard boxes at an alarming rate...
What would it take for a great single-player RPG now?
Honestly, I think it just takes a highly driven creative team to sit down and go: "let's recapture the experience that Fallout/Diablo/Final Fantasy" brough to the table. Ya know, before cutscenes and poly counts became so important."
Ultimately, it's just another form of narrative just like all other genres of gaming, but it's not equal to others. If anything it superceeds the requirements for action and puzzle titles by a landslide. It's a richer design format, that requires the interaction between avatar and world to be far more than "repeatedly mash the X button to break things." Also, you can't just sit down and codify your favorite pen-and-paper RPG rulebook - now you need art assets to back all that stuff up. So ultimately they're just harder to make, and will become ever more so in the future.
Now a Shadowrun MMORPG would be nice - provided that people can wash the foul taste of Matrix Online out of their mouths in time. Honestly, just about any old FASA franchise would work: Earthdawn and Battletech* would each be fantastic as completely open-ended online games.;)
(*Ya know, focus on the guys inside the cockpit for a change.)
"I suggest we put the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in charge of developing a REAL moonbase."
That got me thinking: at what altitude are you no longer within a given country's airspace?
Depending on the anwser, it might be motivation enough for an orbital casino (let alone a lunar one) if it allowed it's proprietors to side-step enough laws (read: blackjack and hookers for everyone).
FWIW I've seen this happen at plants all along the Ohio river, but they're mostly aluminum refineries, various petrochemical plants and other industrial-looking setups. I have no clue what the breakeven wattage is for on-site power generation, but I'm guessing it's pretty huge.
The really clever ones (IMO) are set up next door to a stripmine, where the coal elevator/tredmill runs directly over route 7, straight into the plant's furnace (or so it would seem, trundling down the road at 50mph). My guess is that they've cut out virtually all the overhead (union labor != cheap), except for what folks you have actually shoveling the stuff out of the ground.
I think you're on to something though. Maybe Google should've moved to WV instead?
Your reverse car sensor could be translated to a row of buzzers against the back or under a thigh. The seatbelt could have that direction-sense built into it.
Now there's an idea. If the kind of synesthesia we get from PS2 controllers is any indication of how well this can work, I see no reason why a "rumble seat" couldn't be developed for left-right-rear proximity detection. Properly executed, it would make driving in swift freeway traffic a lot safer*, let alone what it could do for parking.
(*ever calculate how big the right-side blind spot is on a Ford Expedition, if the driver is only 5' tall?)
ie. "To replace brick 1234, please remove brick 2345 first. Then remove 4532. Then remove 9786. Then remove 4575. Now remove 1234, replace. Now reinsert previously removed bricks"
Do not deviate from the prescribed route, or data and/or user termination may result. Please see the included reference DVD for more information about navigating to broken nodes.
Nick "Winters": Hey, wait a minute! This is the Nick "Winters" show, and I do the entertaining, thank you! Let's go out with something really hot for these folks, alright? A big hit on the '77. [ singing ] "Ah.. Star Wars! Nothing but Star Wars! Gimme those Star Wars.. don't let them end! Ah.. Star Wars! If they should bar wars.. please let these Star Wars stay-ay! And, hey! How about that nutty Star Wars bar? Can you forget all those creatures in there? And, hey! Darth Vader in that black and evil mask - did he scare you as much as he scared me-e-e-e?" [ turns and screams when he finds Paul the Pianist wearing a Darth Vader mask ] My seventh winter up here! [ singing ] "Star Wars-s-s-s!"
I'll add that the majority of drawbacks in javascript are deficiencies in the DOM. 'select' objects and the rather inflexible event model come to mind as prime examples of this. Javascript, by itself, is a clean and compact scripting language that gets the job done well. And even those issues are fairly easy to code around thanks to how flexible javascript is.
I've given the reciept thing a thought as well. Seeing as how 'electronic reciepts' sent to your email, PDA, or cell phone are a long way off, this might be the best solution.
If you're like me, your pockets keep filling up with these little slips of paper from all over: the gas station, 7-11, the office cafeteria, wherever.
Such a device could not only handle inventory of grocery reciepts, but could track your bottom line putting software like Quicken to shame.
Sure, it'd be an OCR nightmare, but it could handle the kitchen inventory and then some.
Before taking this suggestion seriously, realize what an uphill battle this will be. For a more exact idea, take a look at what you need to do to acquire any self-study credits in your curriculum.
You're going to have to sell this idea to your professors, guidance councelor and probably the head of the college of business and/or arts & sciences (depends on your university). At a minimum, this includes legitimizing FOSS engineering as equivalent to an internship with an actual company, something that an employer would be very skeptical of. Basically, it'll be like trying to get credit for having a job, when you're really self-employed (which anyone can do).
Documenting your efforts (and failures!) in attempting to go through the usual channels for an internship (university career center, temp agency, headhunter, etc) will be crucial to your case. Otherwise, you're just begging for an exception without a good reason.
IMHO, some universities tend to be more concerned with the graduation-to-hire ratio than the quality of your education! It's possible that you'll need to assure them that granting you such an exception won't open up a loophole that'll reduce that statistic.
Anyway, good luck finsihing that degree, however you're going to go about it.:)
At some point, you need to use emulation to replace old equipment that simply dies on its own.
I recenly procured a C64 w/disk drive and monitor and an Amiga complete with software. My hope was to replace my original C64 which is suffering from a bad SID chip (sound is terrible and paddles don't work correctly).
Much to my horror, the 'new' C64 also had the same problem. So despite my efforts to procure used hardware to run my old software, I was cornered by a common flaw in the hardware itself.
Everything breaks eventually. The drive motor in your play station will give out, your AtariST disk drives will stop spinning, and your Gravis Ultra Sound will decide to stop playing beautiful demo music. Even your old Atari and NES carts will eventually break down (it may take a long time).
There are too many legitimate uses for emulation, that I cannot envision a future where corporations can continue to turn a blind eye to the consumer-market demand for such a thing.
(Aside: the corporate market has existed for some time now)
Yep. Having done my time in tech-support, this is mostly correct... except for the script thing. You wind up composing your own "script" of sorts, as you're conditioned over time by the user environment of "ass-elbow confusion".
Now, the operative words to avoid this situation are:
"Your manager, now. You did nothing wrong. I'll wait."
or
"Pass me up to the next support tier, please. Look at the call record. I'll wait."
If details seem to be a bit light, that's because it's still theoretical... and not in the way that your typical Tokamak or the ITER project is. We're talking something that isn't even proven (yet) to be fusion at all.
And you're right: it is primarily accoustic in nature and can operate on a *much* smaller scale than your typical plasma-type reactor.
The device is a clear glass canister about the height of two coffee mugs stacked on top of one another. Inside the canister is a liquid called deuterated acetone.
[...]
The researchers expose the clear canister of liquid to pulses of neutrons every five milliseconds, or thousandths of a second, causing tiny cavities to form. At the same time, the liquid is bombarded with a specific frequency of ultrasound, which causes the cavities to form into bubbles that are about 60 nanometers - or billionths of a meter - in diameter. The bubbles then expand to a much larger size, about 6,000 microns, or millionths of a meter - large enough to be seen with the unaided eye.
[...]
Within nanoseconds these large bubbles contract with tremendous force, returning to roughly their original size, and release flashes of light in a well-known phenomenon known as sonoluminescence.
[...]
At that point, deuterium atoms fuse together, the same way hydrogen atoms fuse in stars, releasing neutrons and energy in the process. The process also releases a type of radiation called gamma rays and a radioactive material called tritium, all of which have been recorded and measured by the team.
Some suggested reading to help bridge the gap between reality and "Mr. Fusion" here:
Slashdot Mirror
Scotty, mod him up.
NCSA Mosaic: IE was a good friend.
NCSA Mosaic: When I first knew him, your father was already a great application. But I was amazed how strongly the Internet was with him. I took it upon myself to train him as a browser. I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Lynx. I was wrong.
Luke Spyglass: There IS still standards compliance in him. I've felt it.
NCSA Mosaic: He more Microsoft's interpretation of W3C standards now than compliant; twisted and evil.
Luke Spyglass: I can't do it, Mosaic.
NCSA Mosaic: You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Internet Explorer again.
Luke Spyglass: I can't kill my own father.
NCSA Mosaic: Then Microsoft has already won. You were our only hope.
Luke Spyglass: Lynx spoke of another.
NCSA Mosaic: The other he spoke of is your twin sister.
Luke Spyglass: But I HAVE no sister.
NCSA Mosaic: Hmm. To protect you both from the Emperor, you were hidden from your father when you were born. The Emperor knew, as I did, if IE were to have any offspring, they would be a threat to him. That is the reason why your sister remains safely anonymous.
Luke Spyglass: Opera! Opera's my sister.
NCSA Mosaic: Your codebase serves you well. Bury your threads deep down, Luke. They do you credit, but they could be made to serve the Emperor.
But where is the fetus going to gestate? In a box?
Nice. ;) Your joke gave me food for thought.
h tml
Is that how it would really go down? While it would appear that Jaffe is speaking in a manner that is against the grain with his employer, I think what we're seeing here is really symptomatic of a bigger problem within Sony's ranks:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/sony_pr.
So basically the two factions of this company have formed a yin-yang of suck so powerful, that it's becomming it's own worst enemy. One day, it'll have to choose between ripping itself in half or dying altogether. In light of that, I'm actually suprised more folks from within haven't been more vocal about how things are going.
Or maybe they're just burning through cardboard boxes at an alarming rate...
I'm waiting for Sony "X-Ray" technology to come out - You get 1Tb per disc, and the disc only needs to be sitting on top of the drive to be readable!
What would it take for a great single-player RPG now?
;)
Honestly, I think it just takes a highly driven creative team to sit down and go: "let's recapture the experience that Fallout/Diablo/Final Fantasy" brough to the table. Ya know, before cutscenes and poly counts became so important."
Ultimately, it's just another form of narrative just like all other genres of gaming, but it's not equal to others. If anything it superceeds the requirements for action and puzzle titles by a landslide. It's a richer design format, that requires the interaction between avatar and world to be far more than "repeatedly mash the X button to break things." Also, you can't just sit down and codify your favorite pen-and-paper RPG rulebook - now you need art assets to back all that stuff up. So ultimately they're just harder to make, and will become ever more so in the future.
Now a Shadowrun MMORPG would be nice - provided that people can wash the foul taste of Matrix Online out of their mouths in time. Honestly, just about any old FASA franchise would work: Earthdawn and Battletech* would each be fantastic as completely open-ended online games.
(*Ya know, focus on the guys inside the cockpit for a change.)
"I suggest we put the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in charge of developing a REAL moonbase."
That got me thinking: at what altitude are you no longer within a given country's airspace?
Depending on the anwser, it might be motivation enough for an orbital casino (let alone a lunar one) if it allowed it's proprietors to side-step enough laws (read: blackjack and hookers for everyone).
FWIW I've seen this happen at plants all along the Ohio river, but they're mostly aluminum refineries, various petrochemical plants and other industrial-looking setups. I have no clue what the breakeven wattage is for on-site power generation, but I'm guessing it's pretty huge.
The really clever ones (IMO) are set up next door to a stripmine, where the coal elevator/tredmill runs directly over route 7, straight into the plant's furnace (or so it would seem, trundling down the road at 50mph). My guess is that they've cut out virtually all the overhead (union labor != cheap), except for what folks you have actually shoveling the stuff out of the ground.
I think you're on to something though. Maybe Google should've moved to WV instead?
Your reverse car sensor could be translated to a row of buzzers against the back or under a thigh. The seatbelt could have that direction-sense built into it.
Now there's an idea. If the kind of synesthesia we get from PS2 controllers is any indication of how well this can work, I see no reason why a "rumble seat" couldn't be developed for left-right-rear proximity detection. Properly executed, it would make driving in swift freeway traffic a lot safer*, let alone what it could do for parking.
(*ever calculate how big the right-side blind spot is on a Ford Expedition, if the driver is only 5' tall?)
Imagine yourself: a beowulf cluster of these things.
[OBVIOUS]
ie. "To replace brick 1234, please remove brick 2345 first. Then remove 4532. Then remove 9786. Then remove 4575. Now remove 1234, replace. Now reinsert previously removed bricks"
Do not deviate from the prescribed route, or data and/or user termination may result. Please see the included reference DVD for more information about navigating to broken nodes.
*sniff* *sniff*
Something around here smells like burning plastic and metal...
Well, I for one welcome our new unrepentant network laying hippie, over-charged by ICANN, overlords.
With this trend, I wonder if they'll just change their name to "UCANNT".
Someone mod the parent up.
It's a reference to a *classic* SNL sketch starring Bill Murray as a (bad and cheesy) lounge singer named "Nick Winters".
Transcript Here
Hear it here under 'MP3' at the bottom.
Nick "Winters": Hey, wait a minute! This is the Nick "Winters" show, and I do the entertaining, thank you! Let's go out with something really hot for these folks, alright? A big hit on the '77. [ singing ] "Ah.. Star Wars! Nothing but Star Wars! Gimme those Star Wars.. don't let them end! Ah.. Star Wars! If they should bar wars.. please let these Star Wars stay-ay! And, hey! How about that nutty Star Wars bar? Can you forget all those creatures in there? And, hey! Darth Vader in that black and evil mask - did he scare you as much as he scared me-e-e-e?" [ turns and screams when he finds Paul the Pianist wearing a Darth Vader mask ] My seventh winter up here! [ singing ] "Star Wars-s-s-s!"
My thoughts exactly.
I'll add that the majority of drawbacks in javascript are deficiencies in the DOM. 'select' objects and the rather inflexible event model come to mind as prime examples of this. Javascript, by itself, is a clean and compact scripting language that gets the job done well. And even those issues are fairly easy to code around thanks to how flexible javascript is.
I've given the reciept thing a thought as well. Seeing as how 'electronic reciepts' sent to your email, PDA, or cell phone are a long way off, this might be the best solution.
If you're like me, your pockets keep filling up with these little slips of paper from all over: the gas station, 7-11, the office cafeteria, wherever.
Such a device could not only handle inventory of grocery reciepts, but could track your bottom line putting software like Quicken to shame.
Sure, it'd be an OCR nightmare, but it could handle the kitchen inventory and then some.
Before taking this suggestion seriously, realize what an uphill battle this will be. For a more exact idea, take a look at what you need to do to acquire any self-study credits in your curriculum.
:)
You're going to have to sell this idea to your professors, guidance councelor and probably the head of the college of business and/or arts & sciences (depends on your university). At a minimum, this includes legitimizing FOSS engineering as equivalent to an internship with an actual company, something that an employer would be very skeptical of. Basically, it'll be like trying to get credit for having a job, when you're really self-employed (which anyone can do).
Documenting your efforts (and failures!) in attempting to go through the usual channels for an internship (university career center, temp agency, headhunter, etc) will be crucial to your case. Otherwise, you're just begging for an exception without a good reason.
IMHO, some universities tend to be more concerned with the graduation-to-hire ratio than the quality of your education! It's possible that you'll need to assure them that granting you such an exception won't open up a loophole that'll reduce that statistic.
Anyway, good luck finsihing that degree, however you're going to go about it.
At some point, you need to use emulation to replace old equipment that simply dies on its own.
I recenly procured a C64 w/disk drive and monitor and an Amiga complete with software. My hope was to replace my original C64 which is suffering from a bad SID chip (sound is terrible and paddles don't work correctly).
Much to my horror, the 'new' C64 also had the same problem. So despite my efforts to procure used hardware to run my old software, I was cornered by a common flaw in the hardware itself.
Everything breaks eventually. The drive motor in your play station will give out, your AtariST disk drives will stop spinning, and your Gravis Ultra Sound will decide to stop playing beautiful demo music. Even your old Atari and NES carts will eventually break down (it may take a long time).
There are too many legitimate uses for emulation, that I cannot envision a future where corporations can continue to turn a blind eye to the consumer-market demand for such a thing.
(Aside: the corporate market has existed for some time now)
Yep. Having done my time in tech-support, this is mostly correct... except for the script thing. You wind up composing your own "script" of sorts, as you're conditioned over time by the user environment of "ass-elbow confusion".
Now, the operative words to avoid this situation are:
"Your manager, now. You did nothing wrong. I'll wait."
or
"Pass me up to the next support tier, please. Look at the call record. I'll wait."
Ahh.. this explains spelunker culture all too well. ;)
(sorry, no link. Too lazy.)
Too bored. Here's the link:
ORNL
Google also turned up this gem:
Canadian Agricultural Energy End-Use Data and Analysis Centre (Ethanol Page)
Enjoy!
And you're right: it is primarily accoustic in nature and can operate on a *much* smaller scale than your typical plasma-type reactor.
From http://news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/2004/0400302
Some suggested reading to help bridge the gap between reality and "Mr. Fusion" here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_fusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoluminescence
Also, googling for the above topics yields a plethora of results.
Let me see if I have this right:
(Virtual) Remote Island Location + Monster Infestation + Mutants + Active Volcano + Heavily Fortified Automated Mine = Prime Real-Estate at $26K USD
Only in a game.
I'd hate to see what the burned-out inner-cities of Entropia look like.
Thank you for the one dose of sanity left in this discussion. I've read the main page for the site, and it is just what the name implies. Thanks!