I remember Tycho saying that his favourite video-game web comic is VG Cats; outside of that his all-around favourite is Scary Go Round. Both of them are indeed excellent comics, if you ask me.
I couldn't agree more. I remember reading the Gamespy review of Soul Calibur 2. A page was dedicated to let every reviewer to express his opinions: All of them but one (I think Fargo was the exception) whined about how they expected it to be 'revolutionary' and a 'huge leap forward for fighting games' (the way Soul Calibur 1 was).
Thankfully, I had already played Soul Calibur 2 and I knew how fantastic a game it was. This game magazine mentality results in stupid reviews. For now, the only people I trust on game opinions is Gabe & Tycho, and my little brother.
(Sorry for the rant, I'm just glad other people see the foolishness too)
Have you ever been to Ukraine? I haven't, but I've been to Romania, a neighbouring country with the same mindset regarding computer programming. I was there for BOI (the Balkan Olympiad in informatics) and let me tell you that Romanians kicked our Balkan (and in other times international) asses. I'm not going to chalk this up to training and practice because they were awfully talented guys (and it would like I'm bitter, which I am not), but they *do* have an excellent education system which, as I've heard, would teach them about graphs and minimum spanning trees while we were being taught on using MS Paint on Windows 3.1.
Is it a rich country? From what I've seen in Iasi, it's not. Do they know how to get there? Somebody in their Ministry of Education sure does.
That would make sense in this case if piracy was a habit. Are you saying that Microsoft employees are warez junkies? Chain pirates?
I believe that this is a perfect example of the primary reason people pirate stuff. Convenience, not cost(I'm of course ignoring 3D Studio and Maya warez).
Thanks:-) Not only have I discovered it, but I already 'converted' two of my friends.
I loved Jaka's Story and Melmoth, and thought the whole of Church & State was fantastic. I can't wait to buy 'Flight', issue 150 is such an evil cliffhanger:-)
Yeah, that's what I heard:-) I'm not saying anything about the rest of Cerebus, I'm just saying that people shouldn't stop reading it because of fear that money thrown into it will encourage unorthodox opinions.
Now if it is indeed crazy and unreadable, that's a perfectly valid reason to stop reading. I'm just gonna go ahead until I can't take it any longer.
So? I don't agree with him either (on most of that stuff anyway). But he certainly has the right to say whatever the hell he wants. It's not like the money goes to a secret organization which assasinates, ahem, 'feministist scum'.
I'm currently in college. I read Tangents, and Cerebus up to #150 (end of Melmoth). I'm saving money for the rest. Has it occurred to you that males, up to the end of Church & State, were the greedy, thoughtless, megalomaniacal lot? I would be more specific but this is no place for spoilers. If you've read as much as you said, you can tell what I'm talking about.
I'm not sure how keeping the development burden of Java internal to Sun really makes them money, though.
The thing is, with open-sourcing, someone can attempt to wrestle control of Java away from them, and succeed, not by fighting them but simply by being better. If Sun tries to take Java in a direction it feels it's right, and many developers don't agree, nothing can stop them from creating a 'separatist' version of Java. If that version is agreed by many to be better, and becomes popular, Sun loses control. Worst case scenario (for Sun, of course): incompatibility, void certifications, loss of market influence.
For Sun, the reasons against open-sourcing are exactly the reasons it opposed Microsoft's J++. Sure, Microsoft's solution was closed-source and platform-specific, and open-sourcing is only going to help Java be better. But from the company's point of view, both are threats to its influence.
Super Smaaaaaaaaash Brothers!
on
Humor in Games?
·
· Score: 1
Hint, game companies: People find adventure game funny and worth playing.
Sigh.
Aside from the classic Lucasarts games, I found Super Smash Bros. (the first one) to be absolutely hilarious. My little brother borrowed it and we knew nothing about it. So we started playing, with no computer players,punching each other in the face. It was just entertaining, until I found a giant hammer, grabbed it, and smashed Link into orbit, while the Donkey Kong hammer tune was playing in its retro glory.
We laughed to tears. And then we realized that wasn't even half the fun of playing a 4-player free-for-all. Too often would we pause the game to explain to each other how the most incredible thing just happened.
But seriously, I love the first 3. I enjoyed the fourth, and laughed out loud at times, but some of the jokes made me groan, especially when they beat "insult something or another" to death. Plus, there was more expression in characters when their faces were made of 20 pixels.
I wish people would be more like you. Besides programming (I'm mainly a Windows programmer, and also do linux occasionaly), I don't really care about the platform I'm running for basic things (I used to, when I was, like, 17). I do recognize each platform's strengths and weaknesses, and mix n' match depending on what I want to do.
They're called a potential superpower mainly because their conventional army is currently not mobile enough to be used to affect distant countries.
Nuclear power has come to be one of the 'checklist item' for superpower candidacy, but it having nuclear capabilities does not magically turn you into a world politics playa. Not anymore, anyhow.
I call poetic justice on that. You build your system on a platform you know or should know is insecure, people get to gloat when that decision comes back to bite you.
He wasn't gloating, he was expressing hope that the decision will come back to bite them. So that he could gloat, I guess.
Add Nintendo to the list of people to not buy anything from.
Stupid lawyer firms do not an evil company make. Do you honestly think Nintendo high executives are aware of this, and let this go ahead? I'm pretty sure they told the firm to 'do what you have to do' to protect their trademarks.
Someone just needs to tell them that the lawyers they pay are idiots. This isn't an evil corporation thing, it's just hilarious.
The simpler method of keeping the code base secure is to use the installation tools (apt-get for debian or rpm up2date tools) and only those tools for updating anything on the system.
Maybe I haven't made myself clear, but I was not talking about updates, I was talking about any random downloaded executable.
If you're used to the Unix/Linux way of thought, it's weird. But Windows doesn't have a central trusted repository of packages. Think of it in this way (I'm a Debian user): You're looking for a.deb for an obscure piece of software, and you finally find it on some guy's personal repository. You add his site on sources.list and apt-get update/apt-get install someprogram. Is this safe? Of course not. But if you need that program, you acknowledge the (practically tiny) risk and go ahead.
spouting off about signature systems that ask about if you trust something or not is going to be pretty useless considering all you have to do is keep up the game trying to convince idiot users that they can trust your package...
Having to convince the 'idiot' is still better than trusting the package without a single prompt. The measure is weak and flawed, yes. That was not my main argument, however. The.NET-like fine-grained security policy is a much more serious solution (if it is eventually presented properly)
means, which leads to the same "yes click reflex" problem I described above
Yes, but in this case, the "yes click reflex" could be a good thing! If the default was a restricted environment for the executable, and if just clicking OK makes most of the programs work (because they are not violating the restrictions as a piece of malware would), then the system works. If it does violate the restrictions, A scary "Program tried to access the network" dialog box would tell you of the program's intents, and allow you to run it under less restrictions if you did want the program to access the network.
The solution as I see it is to deny (for a particular class of) users the ability for them to install anything in the first place.
You can prevent installation of a program by one user for all users (forbid change to global settings) but there is currently nothing that can stop an executable from doing whatever it wants in the user-specific registry tree and files. Even if the problem is reduced to a simple user, it's still a problem, as I said in my first post. The 'lazy programmers' part is true, but not that much anymore, fortunately. My family computer runs all accounts as normal users, and most software works properly, except for a badly designed Greek encyclopaedia from 1996.
I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting here. I assume you are referring to a process listing app, such as the Windows task manager?
I'm suggesting executable control: If an you run an executable that wasn't ran before, it will ask you about the way it should handle it (complete trust, no network access, no filesystem access outside of home directory etc.) Also, lots of "Recommended" "Not Recommended" and stop signs for the "n00bs".
Agreed, although even better is to have a NAT/firewall device for your internet connection.
You're right, of course. But the personal firewall can help detect spyware by telling you what program is trying to be naughty.
You're also right about the 'yes' reflex. But some people do read the warnings, and the uninitiated will ask their local 'tech-support' geek for an explanation. If the geek teaches them some good habits without needing to install 3rd-party software, it's a better world for all of us. More tech-savvy people will also like that they can try out that suspicious executable without compromising their machine/user account.
Slashdot Mirror
It is funny, but I think Homestar's better if you are tired of the 'violent funny' prevalent in web comics/flash movies.
I remember Tycho saying that his favourite video-game web comic is VG Cats; outside of that his all-around favourite is Scary Go Round. Both of them are indeed excellent comics, if you ask me.
I couldn't agree more. I remember reading the Gamespy review of Soul Calibur 2. A page was dedicated to let every reviewer to express his opinions: All of them but one (I think Fargo was the exception) whined about how they expected it to be 'revolutionary' and a 'huge leap forward for fighting games' (the way Soul Calibur 1 was).
Thankfully, I had already played Soul Calibur 2 and I knew how fantastic a game it was. This game magazine mentality results in stupid reviews. For now, the only people I trust on game opinions is Gabe & Tycho, and my little brother.
(Sorry for the rant, I'm just glad other people see the foolishness too)
As I Cypriot I would like to say that we are very happy to learn that Atlantis was found off the coasts of our tiny island. For, like, the third time.
I'm going to wait for more significant proof this time. But hey, our tourist-based economy could use the surge.
Get a hold of yourself.
Have you ever been to Ukraine? I haven't, but I've been to Romania, a neighbouring country with the same mindset regarding computer programming. I was there for BOI (the Balkan Olympiad in informatics) and let me tell you that Romanians kicked our Balkan (and in other times international) asses. I'm not going to chalk this up to training and practice because they were awfully talented guys (and it would like I'm bitter, which I am not), but they *do* have an excellent education system which, as I've heard, would teach them about graphs and minimum spanning trees while we were being taught on using MS Paint on Windows 3.1.
Is it a rich country? From what I've seen in Iasi, it's not. Do they know how to get there? Somebody in their Ministry of Education sure does.
That would make sense in this case if piracy was a habit. Are you saying that Microsoft employees are warez junkies? Chain pirates?
I believe that this is a perfect example of the primary reason people pirate stuff. Convenience, not cost(I'm of course ignoring 3D Studio and Maya warez).
Thanks :-) Not only have I discovered it, but I already 'converted' two of my friends.
:-)
I loved Jaka's Story and Melmoth, and thought the whole of Church & State was fantastic. I can't wait to buy 'Flight', issue 150 is such an evil cliffhanger
Yeah, that's what I heard :-) I'm not saying anything about the rest of Cerebus, I'm just saying that people shouldn't stop reading it because of fear that money thrown into it will encourage unorthodox opinions.
Now if it is indeed crazy and unreadable, that's a perfectly valid reason to stop reading. I'm just gonna go ahead until I can't take it any longer.
Money will only encourage him to write more.
:-)
So? I don't agree with him either (on most of that stuff anyway). But he certainly has the right to say whatever the hell he wants. It's not like the money goes to a secret organization which assasinates, ahem, 'feministist scum'.
I'm currently in college. I read Tangents, and Cerebus up to #150 (end of Melmoth). I'm saving money for the rest. Has it occurred to you that males, up to the end of Church & State, were the greedy, thoughtless, megalomaniacal lot? I would be more specific but this is no place for spoilers. If you've read as much as you said, you can tell what I'm talking about.
And my sig is *finally* kinda relevant
Personally for the three months I've been living here, I only had one service outage. Which blocks are ported, by the way?
Wow, my hands tremble.
:-) You kinda lose it there.
You *are* a psychic. I was going to post same joke.
From Phoenix Metro.
Specifically Tempe.
More specifically, the corner of Broadway and McClintock
I knew I shouldn't have taken that tinfoil hat off.
I'm not sure how keeping the development burden of Java internal to Sun really makes them money, though.
The thing is, with open-sourcing, someone can attempt to wrestle control of Java away from them, and succeed, not by fighting them but simply by being better. If Sun tries to take Java in a direction it feels it's right, and many developers don't agree, nothing can stop them from creating a 'separatist' version of Java. If that version is agreed by many to be better, and becomes popular, Sun loses control. Worst case scenario (for Sun, of course): incompatibility, void certifications, loss of market influence.
For Sun, the reasons against open-sourcing are exactly the reasons it opposed Microsoft's J++. Sure, Microsoft's solution was closed-source and platform-specific, and open-sourcing is only going to help Java be better. But from the company's point of view, both are threats to its influence.
Hint, game companies: People find adventure game funny and worth playing.
Sigh.
Aside from the classic Lucasarts games, I found Super Smash Bros. (the first one) to be absolutely hilarious. My little brother borrowed it and we knew nothing about it. So we started playing, with no computer players,punching each other in the face. It was just entertaining, until I found a giant hammer, grabbed it, and smashed Link into orbit, while the Donkey Kong hammer tune was playing in its retro glory.
We laughed to tears. And then we realized that wasn't even half the fun of playing a 4-player free-for-all. Too often would we pause the game to explain to each other how the most incredible thing just happened.
I played the demo long long time ago. I still remember laughing my ass of at the giant crab scene.
Money Island
That sounds more like a reality show.
But seriously, I love the first 3. I enjoyed the fourth, and laughed out loud at times, but some of the jokes made me groan, especially when they beat "insult something or another" to death.
Plus, there was more expression in characters when their faces were made of 20 pixels.
I wish people would be more like you. Besides programming (I'm mainly a Windows programmer, and also do linux occasionaly), I don't really care about the platform I'm running for basic things (I used to, when I was, like, 17). I do recognize each platform's strengths and weaknesses, and mix n' match depending on what I want to do.
Wish I had mod points.
They're called a potential superpower mainly because their conventional army is currently not mobile enough to be used to affect distant countries.
Nuclear power has come to be one of the 'checklist item' for superpower candidacy, but it having nuclear capabilities does not magically turn you into a world politics playa. Not anymore, anyhow.
Please prove this for me: Prime factorization is NP-complete.
:-)
Prime factorization is a O(1) "problem". Nice try
Do you really find userfriendly that funny? I believe there's a lot of funnier web comics out there.
:-)
Just saying
I call poetic justice on that. You build your system on a platform you know or should know is insecure, people get to gloat when that decision comes back to bite you.
He wasn't gloating, he was expressing hope that the decision will come back to bite them. So that he could gloat, I guess.
Add Nintendo to the list of people to not buy anything from.
Stupid lawyer firms do not an evil company make. Do you honestly think Nintendo high executives are aware of this, and let this go ahead? I'm pretty sure they told the firm to 'do what you have to do' to protect their trademarks.
Someone just needs to tell them that the lawyers they pay are idiots. This isn't an evil corporation thing, it's just hilarious.
Besides, Nintendo makes great games.
The simpler method of keeping the code base secure is to use the installation tools (apt-get for debian or rpm up2date tools) and only those tools for updating anything on the system.
.deb for an obscure piece of software, and you finally find it on some guy's personal repository. You add his site on sources.list and apt-get update/apt-get install someprogram. Is this safe? Of course not. But if you need that program, you acknowledge the (practically tiny) risk and go ahead.
.NET-like fine-grained security policy is a much more serious solution (if it is eventually presented properly)
Maybe I haven't made myself clear, but I was not talking about updates, I was talking about any random downloaded executable.
If you're used to the Unix/Linux way of thought, it's weird. But Windows doesn't have a central trusted repository of packages.
Think of it in this way (I'm a Debian user): You're looking for a
spouting off about signature systems that ask about if you trust something or not is going to be pretty useless considering all you have to do is keep up the game trying to convince idiot users that they can trust your package...
Having to convince the 'idiot' is still better than trusting the package without a single prompt. The measure is weak and flawed, yes. That was not my main argument, however. The
means, which leads to the same "yes click reflex" problem I described above
Yes, but in this case, the "yes click reflex" could be a good thing! If the default was a restricted environment for the executable, and if just clicking OK makes most of the programs work (because they are not violating the restrictions as a piece of malware would), then the system works. If it does violate the restrictions, A scary "Program tried to access the network" dialog box would tell you of the program's intents, and allow you to run it under less restrictions if you did want the program to access the network.
The solution as I see it is to deny (for a particular class of) users the ability for them to install anything in the first place.
You can prevent installation of a program by one user for all users (forbid change to global settings) but there is currently nothing that can stop an executable from doing whatever it wants in the user-specific registry tree and files. Even if the problem is reduced to a simple user, it's still a problem, as I said in my first post.
The 'lazy programmers' part is true, but not that much anymore, fortunately. My family computer runs all accounts as normal users, and most software works properly, except for a badly designed Greek encyclopaedia from 1996.
I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting here. I assume you are referring to a process listing app, such as the Windows task manager?
I'm suggesting executable control: If an you run an executable that wasn't ran before, it will ask you about the way it should handle it (complete trust, no network access, no filesystem access outside of home directory etc.) Also, lots of "Recommended" "Not Recommended" and stop signs for the "n00bs".
Agreed, although even better is to have a NAT/firewall device for your internet connection.
You're right, of course. But the personal firewall can help detect spyware by telling you what program is trying to be naughty.
You're also right about the 'yes' reflex. But some people do read the warnings, and the uninitiated will ask their local 'tech-support' geek for an explanation. If the geek teaches them some good habits without needing to install 3rd-party software, it's a better world for all of us. More tech-savvy people will also like that they can try out that suspicious executable without compromising their machine/user account.