No it isn't. Why should it be? I'd be the first to admit that there is a lot of shitty game music around, but there are some real gems as well. People listen to film music; why not game music as well?
Then again, people listen to Britney and anything the RIAA pumps out... I don't think I'll ever understand that.
The real truth, in case we are about to forget, is that it is very important to employers to whine as much as possible about programmer shortages. When the group of available programmers increases, they have greater choice and can offer lower wages.
I don't believe in an upcoming shortage of legacy programmers, and if I did I would consider it a cause for celebration.
I suspect the US doesn't give a flying fuck who is with them anymore. If shooting down a 3-4 billion euro satellite system is what they need, they might just do it and all repercussions be damned.
The EU cannot wage a military conflict against the US, but a trade war could be extremely painful as well. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if, a decade from now, we will find ourselves in the middle of a new cold war, this time between the US and the EU. Not necessarily over the shooting down of spacecraft, but there are plenty of other potential and real conflicts. I certainly remember the days when "allies" didn't mean "lackeys" and "coalition" didn't mean "suckers"...
The team size is directly related to the capacity of the rescue pod, which is a Soyuz craft docked to the station. Originally NASA was supposed to build a large Crew Rescue Vehicle which could hold up to seven people, but budget cuts killed that project. As a result the space station crew is now limited to no more than three.
Having said that, I'm not entirely certain why they chose to work with just two people.
Here in the Netherlands the government wants providers to keep a log of all mail (http, ftp, whatever) traffic that goes over their lines. The providers are complaining, but in the end they will simply raise prices to compensate. Effectively I will be paying to be spied upon. And in the case of email, I will be paying to receive spam and then store it for five or ten years.
I strongly suspect this list was first devised by spammers to convince people that spam cannot be fought. In fact that is wrong, all it takes is the realisation that instead of a single perfect solution we will need a series of incremental solutions. As solutions multiply the amount of spam will drop, but this will take time. I'm fine with that, as long as we are making progress. Right now thanks to your attitude we are not making much progress.
A law against spam will not actually stop it, but it does allow action to be taken against the spammer after he is found out so he won't do it again.
Similarly, a technical solution that enforces detectability of the spammer will make it possible to find out so he is, so the law can be applied.
Neither law nor technical solution on its own will stop spam, but together they can be used to significantly reduce the volume. And that's all we are asking for, really.
template<typename T> void Swap (T &a, T&b) { const T temp = a; a = b; b = temp; }
And before you complain about any alleged use of variables, 'temp' is a constant;-)
And unlike those oh-so-clever xor based solutions, this one works for any type that supports assignment (including floating point numbers and classes that have operator= overloaded).
Plus, you can actually expect to be able to understand it in five years time when you do to some maintenance on the code.
I'm serious though. I don't like PoP because the controls sucked. I must have played hundreds of platform games (mostly on 8 bit machines) and this one _really_ doesn't cut it.
I respectfully offer this different opinion: the original Prince of Persia was a piece of uncontrollable crap that sacrificed any semblance of control accuracy for its animation system. Lightly tap the left button, and watch the prince awkwardly stumble over two tiles, make a little dance on the edge of a deep pit, and finally tumble in. Or fall victim to some other invisible death trap, which were scattered liberally through its screens.
Like so many titles that are now happily remembered by elderly PC gamers, PoP just had the distinction of being among the first titles on that platform that exceeded the graphical prowess of the CGA card, and as such it left a deep and lasting impression on many. But really, as platform games go it was a very significant step backwards from the days of pixel perfect joy that were so common on the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. And as it happened, it was a blow the platform gaming genre has never really recovered from (and spare me your Netcraft jokes).
A scathing post about PoP would not be complete without at least a quick mention of its horrific control scheme (featuring numerous keys for different types of step, jump, or whatever), or its dull graphics that fit nicely within the PC tradition of "grey walls, grey walls, and more grey walls". But that's nitpicking, really. The game was flawed at the core, and no amount of beautiful EGA-colored graphics could have rescued a concept that, Dragon's Lair style, only allows control input whenever it is convenient for the animators.
So, go play Jet Set Willy. Go play Turrican. _Those_ are platform games worthy of that name, where every pixel counts and is accounted for. And forget about that wasteland of frustration and broken keyboards, that abomination known as PoP.
Just to clarify, the site he is talking about is this one. What he is trying to say is this: if the bad guys ever find out about it, they might try to do something stupid and most likely illegal such as performing a DDOS. And we really don't want it to go down, since it is a most excellent source for TV shows, movies, games, and music.
On the Amiga you pressed shift to get that effect, and that was great.
I agree with the grand parent: scrollbars that force you to remain inside an invisible box are the work of satan, and when the revolution comes at last I will personally seek out the person responsible and make sure he ends up against the wall...
Thanks for that marvellous, yet utterly irrelevant observation. I don't think a songfestival is as important as the political organisation of a continent, but I'm sure you feel different. And that's ok, you too are entitled to your opinion.
For the record, I do not think Israel should be in the EU either.
Not even then. The "European Union" is a collection of nations that are all located IN EUROPE. Turkey is not in Europe, except for a very small part. Geographic issues aside, there is a major cultural and religious gap between Turkey and the EU. What's next? Should Iraq become part of the EU (next country after Turkey)? Hell, why not Saudi Arabia or Iran?
Besides, Bush wants them in, so it cannot be right. He is probably hoping this to have a destabilizing and/or paralyzing influence on the entire EU...
Really, why is it that so many system administrators think their work is done when nobody else can do theirs? Your role is to SUPPORT THE BLOODY COMPANY. If that support requires that a vendor needs something, because someone much higher up in the organisation then you decided that was needed, you should make damn sure he gets it or negotiate some sort of acceptable compromise.
If I came in to your company and told you I need to have a line added to both services and (x)inetd, and you told me to fill in a stack of forms, wait three weeks, and deny one of them, I would simply walk away from the job. It is just not worth supporting a customer who doesn't want to be helped, it will just cost us a lot of money while sitting around twiddling our thumbs (or are those weeks spent waiting for you to get off your sorry ass billable hours? No? Thought not...)
Makes me wonder what you do when one of your customers calls. "Wanna buy something? Ok, fill in these forms and wait 4 months. Then you may get it... Or not." You wouldn't stay in business for long that way...
I wish people wouldn't compare Halo to PC FPS's, it's a completely different sub-genre, IMO.
That's an interesting statement. Let's see: in an FPS you see the world in first person perspective and shoot things. In Halo you see the world in first person perspective and shoot things. In an FPS you usually have some meaningless story, nice graphics, and a choice of weapons. In Halo you have a meaningless story, nice graphics (unless you are bothered by repetitive design), oh wait, now I see: you don't get a choice of weapons.
Right... Completely different subgenre. It is clearly a RLFPSWO2G (that's "Repetitive Level First Person Shooter With Only Two Guns"). Glad we cleared that up.
"Hi, I just wanted to let you know that last night I checked in a patch for the space shuttle that will let it make an extra loop around the moon to drop off some supplies for a buddy of mine who is stuck there for a few weeks. Hope you don't mind!"
You just don't dump some satellite code onto your PC and "test" it.
Sure you can. We make that kind of software. The reason you won't ever see it as open source is because the various instruments on the spacecraft are covered by confidentiality agreements (or worse, in case of military hardware). And as hardware goes it is typically rather obscure stuff, requiring significant domain knowledge as well to emulate correctly.
Another issue is that these systems are rather CPU-intensive - we have a 16-CPU box for the spacecraft instruments plus a dedicated PC to emulate the flight computer itself. But you could run it on simpler hardware if you are willing to run at less than realtime speed.
Interestingly, the closest we ever get to seeing the actual flight software is binary images of it. While that is a lot closer than most slashdotters are likely to get, it is still far removed from being able to do something useful with it.
Of course the other good reason why this isn't going to be open source is because of price. For details you should really contact a salesperson, but let me give you a clue: (raises little finger to mouth) "Mwuhahaha!";-)
"So, now you are all set. Just click ok and you're off!"
...excruciating pause while hapless parent/legal guardian/alien adoption mother/other supported entity stares at the screen without any external confirmation of possible ongoing thought processes...
"Just... Click... Ok."
...another interminable pause...
"Yes, but WHY do I have to click ok? Can't it just work? I don't understand why this is so complicated."
Aarg! Or how about that situation where you are working with someone (doesn't have to be a parent, colleagues are great for this), and they keep repeating the same improbable method for doing something. For example, they are copying data from one Excel sheet to another, ONE BLOODY CELL AT A TIME, using the MOUSE AND MENU to select the copy and paste operations. But the worst of all is: for some reason between each copy and paste they let go of the mouse and reach over to the keyboard to switch between sheets. And all the cells they are copying are in the same column. And there are over 400 of them...
Slashdot Mirror
Then again, people listen to Britney and anything the RIAA pumps out... I don't think I'll ever understand that.
I don't believe in an upcoming shortage of legacy programmers, and if I did I would consider it a cause for celebration.
I suppose we could also flush it all down the sinkhole that is the eastwards expansion of the EU...
The EU cannot wage a military conflict against the US, but a trade war could be extremely painful as well. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if, a decade from now, we will find ourselves in the middle of a new cold war, this time between the US and the EU. Not necessarily over the shooting down of spacecraft, but there are plenty of other potential and real conflicts. I certainly remember the days when "allies" didn't mean "lackeys" and "coalition" didn't mean "suckers"...
At least, it is, good to see, that, overuse of comma's, goes back, a long way.
Having said that, I'm not entirely certain why they chose to work with just two people.
Here in the Netherlands the government wants providers to keep a log of all mail (http, ftp, whatever) traffic that goes over their lines. The providers are complaining, but in the end they will simply raise prices to compensate. Effectively I will be paying to be spied upon. And in the case of email, I will be paying to receive spam and then store it for five or ten years.
A law against spam will not actually stop it, but it does allow action to be taken against the spammer after he is found out so he won't do it again.
Similarly, a technical solution that enforces detectability of the spammer will make it possible to find out so he is, so the law can be applied.
Neither law nor technical solution on its own will stop spam, but together they can be used to significantly reduce the volume. And that's all we are asking for, really.
And unlike those oh-so-clever xor based solutions, this one works for any type that supports assignment (including floating point numbers and classes that have operator= overloaded).
Plus, you can actually expect to be able to understand it in five years time when you do to some maintenance on the code.
I'm serious though. I don't like PoP because the controls sucked. I must have played hundreds of platform games (mostly on 8 bit machines) and this one _really_ doesn't cut it.
Like so many titles that are now happily remembered by elderly PC gamers, PoP just had the distinction of being among the first titles on that platform that exceeded the graphical prowess of the CGA card, and as such it left a deep and lasting impression on many. But really, as platform games go it was a very significant step backwards from the days of pixel perfect joy that were so common on the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. And as it happened, it was a blow the platform gaming genre has never really recovered from (and spare me your Netcraft jokes).
A scathing post about PoP would not be complete without at least a quick mention of its horrific control scheme (featuring numerous keys for different types of step, jump, or whatever), or its dull graphics that fit nicely within the PC tradition of "grey walls, grey walls, and more grey walls". But that's nitpicking, really. The game was flawed at the core, and no amount of beautiful EGA-colored graphics could have rescued a concept that, Dragon's Lair style, only allows control input whenever it is convenient for the animators.
So, go play Jet Set Willy. Go play Turrican. _Those_ are platform games worthy of that name, where every pixel counts and is accounted for. And forget about that wasteland of frustration and broken keyboards, that abomination known as PoP.
I guess the first rule of www.suprnova.org is: don't talk about www.suprnova.org.
I doubt it. While the two original Metal Gear games for MSX were great, the platform was relatively obscure, and the NES version just stank.
Did the two of you (parent and grandparent) actually work for Acclaim, or do you have another reason for such a strong reaction? Just curious...
I agree with the grand parent: scrollbars that force you to remain inside an invisible box are the work of satan, and when the revolution comes at last I will personally seek out the person responsible and make sure he ends up against the wall...
For the record, I do not think Israel should be in the EU either.
Besides, Bush wants them in, so it cannot be right. He is probably hoping this to have a destabilizing and/or paralyzing influence on the entire EU...
Really, why is it that so many system administrators think their work is done when nobody else can do theirs? Your role is to SUPPORT THE BLOODY COMPANY. If that support requires that a vendor needs something, because someone much higher up in the organisation then you decided that was needed, you should make damn sure he gets it or negotiate some sort of acceptable compromise.
If I came in to your company and told you I need to have a line added to both services and (x)inetd, and you told me to fill in a stack of forms, wait three weeks, and deny one of them, I would simply walk away from the job. It is just not worth supporting a customer who doesn't want to be helped, it will just cost us a lot of money while sitting around twiddling our thumbs (or are those weeks spent waiting for you to get off your sorry ass billable hours? No? Thought not...)
Makes me wonder what you do when one of your customers calls. "Wanna buy something? Ok, fill in these forms and wait 4 months. Then you may get it... Or not." You wouldn't stay in business for long that way...
That's an interesting statement. Let's see: in an FPS you see the world in first person perspective and shoot things. In Halo you see the world in first person perspective and shoot things. In an FPS you usually have some meaningless story, nice graphics, and a choice of weapons. In Halo you have a meaningless story, nice graphics (unless you are bothered by repetitive design), oh wait, now I see: you don't get a choice of weapons.
Right... Completely different subgenre. It is clearly a RLFPSWO2G (that's "Repetitive Level First Person Shooter With Only Two Guns"). Glad we cleared that up.
How about using Multiple-Source Degradation Of Service? The reason I'm saying this is because your system has known incompatibilities with Windows...
"Hi, I just wanted to let you know that last night I checked in a patch for the space shuttle that will let it make an extra loop around the moon to drop off some supplies for a buddy of mine who is stuck there for a few weeks. Hope you don't mind!"
Sure you can. We make that kind of software. The reason you won't ever see it as open source is because the various instruments on the spacecraft are covered by confidentiality agreements (or worse, in case of military hardware). And as hardware goes it is typically rather obscure stuff, requiring significant domain knowledge as well to emulate correctly.
Another issue is that these systems are rather CPU-intensive - we have a 16-CPU box for the spacecraft instruments plus a dedicated PC to emulate the flight computer itself. But you could run it on simpler hardware if you are willing to run at less than realtime speed.
Interestingly, the closest we ever get to seeing the actual flight software is binary images of it. While that is a lot closer than most slashdotters are likely to get, it is still far removed from being able to do something useful with it.
Of course the other good reason why this isn't going to be open source is because of price. For details you should really contact a salesperson, but let me give you a clue: (raises little finger to mouth) "Mwuhahaha!" ;-)
"So, now you are all set. Just click ok and you're off!"
"Just... Click... Ok."
"Yes, but WHY do I have to click ok? Can't it just work? I don't understand why this is so complicated."
Aarg! Or how about that situation where you are working with someone (doesn't have to be a parent, colleagues are great for this), and they keep repeating the same improbable method for doing something. For example, they are copying data from one Excel sheet to another, ONE BLOODY CELL AT A TIME, using the MOUSE AND MENU to select the copy and paste operations. But the worst of all is: for some reason between each copy and paste they let go of the mouse and reach over to the keyboard to switch between sheets. And all the cells they are copying are in the same column. And there are over 400 of them...
Halo 2 larger than Half Life? Just how much scenery did they have to duplicate to achieve that!?