I'm looking to start a very serious and real form of social networking for geeks like us... We honestly have nothing to go to except flamebaiting slashdot. Wouldn't you like to honestly have a place to socialize without flamebaiting and mass spamming of pictures of hot chicks wanting you to be your friend and view their webcam?
But... isn't that exactly what geeks do?
But I think it could work. A social network site where slashdot and boardgamegeek are well known, where people share D&D or GURPS characters, find others to play carious games with, etc. It could work. On the other hand, isn't that pretty much what internet already is? Maybe a geek site will never succeed because there are hundreds of successful geek sites out there already. If you want this to work, you need to connect with all those hundreds of other sites.
Yes it was massively pirated. What is your point? It sold a huge number as well. Just like Quake. That was massively pirated, had no copy protection and sold huge.
My point is that piracy is exposure, and exposure leads to more sales.
My cellphone subscription is cheaper than my landline subscription, but I do pay a lot more for international calls, unfortunately. More expensive subscriptions may make international calls closer to the price of land lines.
Makes me wonder if part of the reason Cell Phones aren't dominant in the US is that most people have no need to call international then.
I realise I didn't express myself clearly. It's the cellphone where my international calls are more expensive. But that's partly because I have an extremely cheap cellphone subscription.
International calls on land lines are so cheap these days that I don't think cell phones will ever be cheaper. On the other hand, on international cellphone networks I'd expect the real costs for an international call are hardly more expensive than for a local one.
A lot of people claim that piracy is what ultimately killed the Amiga. That was completely untrue in my experience. What really killed the Amiga was id Software releasing "Doom".
Which was massively pirated, ofcourse. So does that mean the Amiga was killed by PC piracy?
How does the cost of the cell phone compare to land line? For 'long distance' that is, compared to the phone.
My cellphone subscription is cheaper than my landline subscription, but I do pay a lot more for international calls, unfortunately. More expensive subscriptions may make international calls closer to the price of land lines.
Ofcourse if you want cheap international calls, VoIP is the way to go.
Slight backtrack. Where the cell phone 'used' to be considered a luxury, it is now a common place item or necessity. Times are changing, as the cost has come down.
And for some people it's about addiction. I used to work with a woman who played the lottery every day. She would spend so much on lottery tickets that she'd have to borrow money to pay her rent.
People like that, whether it's self delusion or simply honest stupidity, really don't understand that spending $100 and getting $20 back doesn't make you a winner.
People like that have a serious problem. It's an addiction, similar to a hard drug addiction. The people I know who play the lottery have a good job and buy one ticket a month. Or maybe a few.
I guess I won't be buying any games at all! That list is most, if not all the game companies that I have bought from and copied... er, I mean backed up...
There are dozens of other game companies that make better and more innovative games without trying to screw their customers.
It is dishonest. An honest person would throw the cheque away. Why would you even bother cashing the cheque if it wasn't your money? The only reason would be greed.
Not quite understanding how cheques work is also a possible reason. Few people use cheques nowadays, so a lot of people won't have any experience with them, and might think it's the cheque itself that's worth something.
Ofcourse even then simply sending the cheque back makes more sense, but a lot of people just aren't very logical thinkers.
Finally, someone else who thinks the lottery is a stupid tax.
Well, I bet other think that but your one of the first I have saw say it.
Then you haven't been paying attention. Ages ago I also called lotteries a stupidity tax, and I doubt I made that up myself.
It's wrong, though. Lotteries aren't any more a tax on stupidity than paying for bungeejumping is. It's not about the money, it's about the thrill, the idea that you could win. Not everything in life is about monetary return on investment.
I never play in a lottery, but I know people who do, fully aware that they'll never win back what they spend on it. But that's not why they play.
Calling lotteries a stupid tax is very profound when you're in highschool and just figured out how probabilities work. But as you grow up, you should realise that people are getting more from it than just money. They pay for a dream, and it's a pretty nice dream, even if it's not true.
I just don't get how people are stupid enough to fall for #1. A check is just a piece of paper until it's cashed. Offer to void it and send it back to them through the mail.
It is stupid to fall for #1, but it's not dishonest. And a lot of people really are not very smart. Or they have too positive a view of humanity to distrust someone who makes such a reasonable request.
If you are dumb enough to fall for one of the oldest fraud methods in existence, you deserve to lose you money, but not your freedom.
The diplomat does have a point that the victims were willing to participate in an embezzling scheme. They didn't commit a crime, but they were willing to do so.
The scammers, on the other hand, most definitely did commit a crime. So the victims are not "just as guilty", but they're not innocent angels either.
True, but it's more true with javascript than with most others. My use case was a list of 400 checkboxes some of which had to be checked if some other list contained the name of that checkbox. It's two loops, and the biggest one is 400 iterations, and you have to match two strings. In most languages, this takes a fraction of a second. In javascript, it took over 20 seconds when I first got to look at this. With some pruning (applying the "science" part of CS, I suppose), I cut it back to about 2 seconds. Still not lightning fast, but for the user it's an amazing difference.
But one big thing when programming javascript is that that's not the only language you can work in. It's definitely worthwhile to do as much of the calculation serverside if at all possible. Unless everything is cached ofcourse.
One of the biggest issues I've had with it is the poor performance (relative to what it's being asked to do) in the current browser engines.
One thing I learned to avoid is big iterations. Keeping your loop as short, efficient and preferably absent as possible has a surprisingly big impact on javascript performance.
Well it should lead to greater immersion, but in my years of playing MMOs it is rarely true. I've felt immersed in the action of a good battle, but almost never the storyline.
Perhaps because MMOs are generally not about storyline.
The one exception is in EVE Online, and the story wasn't something written by the dev team, it was the fact that my character there has an actual story and that story actually effected the world of the game. Being involved in a war between two alliances in 0.0 space, even though I was mostly hauling supplies to our player owned station, was far more immersing a game experience than anything I've found in WoW, LotRO, GW, CoH, DDO, or EQ. What I did in EVE actually mattered in the world of the game. By contrast, when absolutely nothing in the larger game world changes when I do or do not complete an epic quest, then I don't feel immersed, I feel dismissed.
That's a common failing in many games: the world is in stasis waiting for you to arrive to do quests, and beyond that, nothing ever changes, nothing has consequences. This makes most games feel very fake, and it breaks immersion.
This is even somewhat true in Planescape: Torment (the best storyline in a game ever), but that game hides it so well that you don't notice, and that works. And in Torment, some of your choices really do matter. It's more interactive than most games, and interactivity does lead to greater immersion, whether you're playing EVE or Torment.
Heck, if you want me to list only PC games, then here's another 10 better than TLJ:
Max Payne, Kings Quest III, Planescape: Torment, The Witcher, Warcraft III, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Starcraft
Thanks for this list. I see a few I haven't played yet.
it will be used by ie developers to test ff compatibility... rofl
You mean they're gonna test their websites in IE to see if they work correctly in FF? Firefox already has the superior webdeveloper add-ons. I'd like a firefox plugin that allows me to debug IE CSS with those FF add-ons.
Slashdot Mirror
They can be played over the Internet, but they can't *really* be played over the Internet. It's just not the same.
It's not the same, but that doesn't mean it's worse. I've seen some of my best roleplaying on RPGs by email.
I'm looking to start a very serious and real form of social networking for geeks like us... We honestly have nothing to go to except flamebaiting slashdot. Wouldn't you like to honestly have a place to socialize without flamebaiting and mass spamming of pictures of hot chicks wanting you to be your friend and view their webcam?
But... isn't that exactly what geeks do?
But I think it could work. A social network site where slashdot and boardgamegeek are well known, where people share D&D or GURPS characters, find others to play carious games with, etc. It could work. On the other hand, isn't that pretty much what internet already is? Maybe a geek site will never succeed because there are hundreds of successful geek sites out there already. If you want this to work, you need to connect with all those hundreds of other sites.
raging racist.
What is it with the ACs and baseless racism claims today?
Yes it was massively pirated. What is your point? It sold a huge number as well. Just like Quake. That was massively pirated, had no copy protection and sold huge.
My point is that piracy is exposure, and exposure leads to more sales.
My cellphone subscription is cheaper than my landline subscription, but I do pay a lot more for international calls, unfortunately. More expensive subscriptions may make international calls closer to the price of land lines.
Makes me wonder if part of the reason Cell Phones aren't dominant in the US is that most people have no need to call international then.
I realise I didn't express myself clearly. It's the cellphone where my international calls are more expensive. But that's partly because I have an extremely cheap cellphone subscription.
International calls on land lines are so cheap these days that I don't think cell phones will ever be cheaper. On the other hand, on international cellphone networks I'd expect the real costs for an international call are hardly more expensive than for a local one.
...pirating id's stuff.
That's how Id got big, remember? Doom was pirated a lot, and that made it a big hit.
It's like blaming the manufacturers of hammers for all murders committed by a hammer.
Well, they could at least have made the hammers less lethal. From foam rubber or something.
A lot of people claim that piracy is what ultimately killed the Amiga. That was completely untrue in my experience. What really killed the Amiga was id Software releasing "Doom".
Which was massively pirated, ofcourse. So does that mean the Amiga was killed by PC piracy?
How does the cost of the cell phone compare to land line? For 'long distance' that is, compared to the phone.
My cellphone subscription is cheaper than my landline subscription, but I do pay a lot more for international calls, unfortunately. More expensive subscriptions may make international calls closer to the price of land lines.
Ofcourse if you want cheap international calls, VoIP is the way to go.
Slight backtrack. Where the cell phone 'used' to be considered a luxury, it is now a common place item or necessity. Times are changing, as the cost has come down.
Nowadays it's the landline that's a luxury.
Cause that's what they need...cell phones. Nevermind the maniacs running those countries...
Good communication can help struggling economies a lot. I'm not familiar with Trinidad & Tobego, but in Africa, cell phones are quite popular.
And for some people it's about addiction. I used to work with a woman who played the lottery every day. She would spend so much on lottery tickets that she'd have to borrow money to pay her rent.
People like that, whether it's self delusion or simply honest stupidity, really don't understand that spending $100 and getting $20 back doesn't make you a winner.
People like that have a serious problem. It's an addiction, similar to a hard drug addiction. The people I know who play the lottery have a good job and buy one ticket a month. Or maybe a few.
I guess I won't be buying any games at all! That list is most, if not all the game companies that I have bought from and copied... er, I mean backed up...
There are dozens of other game companies that make better and more innovative games without trying to screw their customers.
Hence the move to online and console games. Don't forget to thank your local pirate for making that possible.
I'm hoping that will open up the PC game market for newer, smaller and more innovative companies. I don't care much for most of the big name titles.
List<String> strings = new ArrayList<String>();
I count only two, where does the third come from?
I forgot. It could be:
String str = strings.get(i);
Although that's standard Java, and not special for generics ofcourse.
And ofcourse if you want a new reference to the collection, you need to do
List objects = strings;
because if you do
List objects = strings;
the compiler will accept it, but your type safety is gone.
It is dishonest. An honest person would throw the cheque away. Why would you even bother cashing the cheque if it wasn't your money? The only reason would be greed.
Not quite understanding how cheques work is also a possible reason. Few people use cheques nowadays, so a lot of people won't have any experience with them, and might think it's the cheque itself that's worth something.
Ofcourse even then simply sending the cheque back makes more sense, but a lot of people just aren't very logical thinkers.
Here in the US it's supposed to be ok to be a "stickler" about your due process rights.
I thought that was considered unpatriotic nowadays.
Finally, someone else who thinks the lottery is a stupid tax.
Well, I bet other think that but your one of the first I have saw say it.
Then you haven't been paying attention. Ages ago I also called lotteries a stupidity tax, and I doubt I made that up myself.
It's wrong, though. Lotteries aren't any more a tax on stupidity than paying for bungeejumping is. It's not about the money, it's about the thrill, the idea that you could win. Not everything in life is about monetary return on investment.
I never play in a lottery, but I know people who do, fully aware that they'll never win back what they spend on it. But that's not why they play.
Calling lotteries a stupid tax is very profound when you're in highschool and just figured out how probabilities work. But as you grow up, you should realise that people are getting more from it than just money. They pay for a dream, and it's a pretty nice dream, even if it's not true.
I just don't get how people are stupid enough to fall for #1. A check is just a piece of paper until it's cashed. Offer to void it and send it back to them through the mail.
It is stupid to fall for #1, but it's not dishonest. And a lot of people really are not very smart. Or they have too positive a view of humanity to distrust someone who makes such a reasonable request.
If you are dumb enough to fall for one of the oldest fraud methods in existence, you deserve to lose you money, but not your freedom.
The diplomat does have a point that the victims were willing to participate in an embezzling scheme. They didn't commit a crime, but they were willing to do so.
The scammers, on the other hand, most definitely did commit a crime. So the victims are not "just as guilty", but they're not innocent angels either.
That's true of any programming language.
True, but it's more true with javascript than with most others. My use case was a list of 400 checkboxes some of which had to be checked if some other list contained the name of that checkbox. It's two loops, and the biggest one is 400 iterations, and you have to match two strings. In most languages, this takes a fraction of a second. In javascript, it took over 20 seconds when I first got to look at this. With some pruning (applying the "science" part of CS, I suppose), I cut it back to about 2 seconds. Still not lightning fast, but for the user it's an amazing difference.
But one big thing when programming javascript is that that's not the only language you can work in. It's definitely worthwhile to do as much of the calculation serverside if at all possible. Unless everything is cached ofcourse.
One of the biggest issues I've had with it is the poor performance (relative to what it's being asked to do) in the current browser engines.
One thing I learned to avoid is big iterations. Keeping your loop as short, efficient and preferably absent as possible has a surprisingly big impact on javascript performance.
It's just that no one has come up with a better language.
No one has been able to come up with a better language than javascript? That's a scary thought.
Well it should lead to greater immersion, but in my years of playing MMOs it is rarely true. I've felt immersed in the action of a good battle, but almost never the storyline.
Perhaps because MMOs are generally not about storyline.
The one exception is in EVE Online, and the story wasn't something written by the dev team, it was the fact that my character there has an actual story and that story actually effected the world of the game. Being involved in a war between two alliances in 0.0 space, even though I was mostly hauling supplies to our player owned station, was far more immersing a game experience than anything I've found in WoW, LotRO, GW, CoH, DDO, or EQ. What I did in EVE actually mattered in the world of the game. By contrast, when absolutely nothing in the larger game world changes when I do or do not complete an epic quest, then I don't feel immersed, I feel dismissed.
That's a common failing in many games: the world is in stasis waiting for you to arrive to do quests, and beyond that, nothing ever changes, nothing has consequences. This makes most games feel very fake, and it breaks immersion.
This is even somewhat true in Planescape: Torment (the best storyline in a game ever), but that game hides it so well that you don't notice, and that works. And in Torment, some of your choices really do matter. It's more interactive than most games, and interactivity does lead to greater immersion, whether you're playing EVE or Torment.
Heck, if you want me to list only PC games, then here's another 10 better than TLJ:
Max Payne, Kings Quest III, Planescape: Torment, The Witcher, Warcraft III, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Starcraft
Thanks for this list. I see a few I haven't played yet.
it will be used by ie developers to test ff compatibility ... rofl
You mean they're gonna test their websites in IE to see if they work correctly in FF? Firefox already has the superior webdeveloper add-ons. I'd like a firefox plugin that allows me to debug IE CSS with those FF add-ons.