Don't come along often?
on
Prime Obsession
·
· Score: 5, Informative
It's a minor point, but I have to take issue with the poster's statement that popular math books don't come along often. How about:
Mathematics And Sex (2004)
Pi: A Biography of the World's Most Mysterious Number (2004)
Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, the Stock Market and Just About Everything Else (2004)
Entanglement: The Unlikely Story of How Scientists, Mathematicians, and Philosphers Proved Einstein's Spookiest Theory (2003)
The Mathematical Century : The 30 Greatest Problems of the Last 100 Years (2003)
The Golden Ratio : The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number (2003)
When Least Is Best : How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible (2003)
The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers (2001)
An Imaginary Tale (1998)
e: The Story of a Number (1998)
Just to pick some recent examples (i.e. not including the masterpieces of Martin Gardner and other recreational mathematicians in the 1960s and 70s, and apologies if I left off your favorite).
I would agree, however, that good pop-math books are a great deal more rare.
This is an interesting article, but the situation is quite hypothetical--the odds of someone trying this development model for a 2D point-and-click graphical adventure are slim. For real fans of this genre (who also might want to make a buck) it might be more interesting to relax some of the assumptions about part-time or hobbyist programming staff and the infeasibility of internet distribution (and/or even a shareware model). Developer/publishers like Spiderweb Software (makers of the Exile series, among other Ultima-type RPGs) help with the back-end stuff for small-time or hobbyist shareware developers. Similarly, sites like Home of the Underdogs promote and help sell "scratchware" games. The real question to me is, can a scratchware/shareware/late night after work development team make enough money to break even (given the real and opportunity costs of creating the game)?
I have to agree with the parent's sentiment on this one. People who watch television or listen to radio put up with advertising because the programming is provided at no cost. Cable channels and product placement in films blurs this line considerably, but advertising in games completely shatters it. I simply will not buy a game with advertising, period. Not to mention the privacy concerns raised by other posters, I find the idea of in-game ads on a product costing upwards of $50 jarring and offensive.
I also would not play "free" or subsidized games in return for exposure to advertising, but others may find this idea acceptable. How about a choice? $49.99 for ad-free, $19.99 at launch for a internet-enabled ad-full version?
I'm having a hard time thinking of a story with a lower risk of slashdotting the server than this one. Let's see, what would I be less likely to download than a disc imagine of Amiga and Atari songs for the DC? Maybe a rip of the new Strong Bad Sings...in Farsi! cd?
[Note to big videogame music fans: I'm just kidding, not trolling. Don't hurt me!]
I would have to agree regarding the choice of engine. As I recall, pathfinding was pretty ugly (at least compared to BGII or BGII:ToB) and the PS:T engine had some other warts. I would rather see the game made using the BGII version of the Infinity Engine, as opposed to the Neverwinter one. I never really got used to the camera in NN--give me fixed isomorphic RPGs with great inside jokes ("I'm the skull of Vecna") any day!
Exactly my point, Anonymous Coward. Way too much of what passes for news in the United States starts out as VNR's or stories on PR Newswire. This is exactly what the marketing folks want--credible 3rd party reporting of a PR department's message. Justifying the value of PR by pointing to the number of PR stories that make it into a news cycle is circular and silly.
And no, clarifying the source of a typographical error by using [sic] in a quotation does not make me feel "way smart." Being way smart makes me feel way smart.
Um, no, Slashbot. I am not saying that "/. is marketing for Crey [sic]." I am saying that much of what passes for journalism is actually driven by the marketing departments of corporations, who spoon-feed their press releases to media sources too understaffed or lazy to fill their own pages or broadcast. I am arguing that Slashdot should continue to be a "NEWS DIGEST!" not a "PR DIGEST!"
And I have never seen a press release that "says what needs to be said." Press releases say what companies want to be said.
Hey, nothing personal--I have a soft spot in my heart for Crays, too. And this story is a *lot* better than yesterday's topper: Gamespot has pictures of the box that Nintendo is going to ship the DS in!!
Obviously I pissed somebody off, cause I got modded down as "overrated." I just get worn down by the endless parade of PR trumpeted as news in the mainstream media. And sorry about your misfortune in attending BU.
These press releases ripped right off of PR newswire and posted to Slashdot always remind me of the "find the fake ad" section of Games magazine. "Find the fake news story planted on Slashdot to generate `buzz'". Bah. I hate marketing.
J
I know, another slashdot Windoze/M$ vs. "two words: Mac gamer" flamewar is just what we need, but the parent is on topic and not flamebait. For dog's sake, if the editors post an advertisement for a new mac, people should respect a post that meets the ad on its own terms.
This is a very interesting issue that has sparked already at least three types of comments:
1. Game X has done this successfully
2. I play games to escape => this shouldn't be done
3. This is just a whiny, Liberal, politically-correct issue.
As a mature (read: over 30) gamer who has played a lot of games, my general position is that, in the right genre, done correctly, socially-relevant games can showcase some of the best ideas and talent in the medium. I'm not talking about arcade games with the FBI's "stay away from drugs" splashscreen or making the blood in Mortal Combat green for the kids at home.
I *am* talking about some of the most emotionally powerful moments in gaming, such as the child-abuse cutscenes that explain character motivation in The Longest Journey, or the brilliant handling of a variety of social issues in Planescape: Torment (IMHO the best CPRG of all time), or the socially-relevant and mind-blowing puzzles in IF such as Infocom's classic A Mind Forever Voyaging. In games like these, the social commentary was relevant and important to plot and character, and did not distract from the escapism in any way. Moreover, the player does not come away from games of this sort feeling like s/he has been lectured at.
Remember, one of the things that makes novels, films, and, yes, games, great is there ability to engage the viewer/player emotionally. Ultimately, it is the games of this sort that will be remembered in the gaming "canon" as the steps that moved the gaming from a "fad" in the post-Atari '80s to a "fine art" in the future.
I suppose that this is interesting, in a geeky/hacker way, but I really don't think it belongs in the games section. Just because they used game console hardware for an OSS/Linux port story doesn't make it gaming news....
So, as always in America, we turn to privatization as solution for the failure or unwillingness for the government provision of goods and services. "If science is so valuable," the argument runs, "private industry can and should provide it."
Rather than hope that some small or large corporation agrees that a profit can be made off of Hubble research, the government should take a stand and finance basic science for its own sake, instead of ruminating about a massive aerospace industry welfare program under the cover of an exciting bunch of missions to the Moon and Mars.
Of course, I'm not so naive as to think that the government actually would change their priorities on this. After all, with all the tax cuts to the rich and a couple of expensive wars to fight, hard choices have to be made, right?
And we still need our Federal mohair subsidy program, so it's time for Hubble to go!
I don't mean this as flamebait, but how about keeping a medium-sized notebook with you all the time. As a professor and researcher, I have found that nothing works better than an "idea book" for keeping notes from reading, paper ideas, sketches, equations, proofs, diagrams, etc., all together.
I have a small notebook (between 3x5 and 8.5x11) that I keep in my briefcase to and from work and jot everything down in it. It never crashes, it takes only seconds to include complex graphs or equations (no equation editor or LaTeX tags needed!), and can even be backed up via xerox (which I have done with ripped pages--just staple the copied page back in!).
This rocks! I have the Atari 2600 JAKKS compilation and it's a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories (yes, I am an *old* gamer). One of may favorite things about it is introducing my kids to Adventure, which is one of my all time favorite games.
This new Midway product has some serious classics as well (Robotron, Smash TV...) that I spent serious cash on in the arcade, but they're not as small-children friendly (pretty damned violent, actually). Add to this the issue about support for multiple joysticks (anyone remember the Atari 5200 Robotron cart that came with a plastic thing that clamped the joysticks together?), and this one might not be as successful.
I suppose I'll still buy it anyway, though...
This is a fascinating bit of detective work that should serve as a reminder to all careless users (especially Windows ones) that *SPAM IS NOT BENIGN*. It's not just annoying ads for penile implants--it can be downright dangerous to your PC.
It sounds like it could be fun (some of my favorite things about Planescape:Torment were the in-jokes on rpg'ing and old Advanced D&D), but I don't know how the console engine will port to the PC. I think I'll be reading the reviews for a while on this one before I pick it up...
Who says home powerline doesn't work? I use it in a 4500 sqft house with 40 y.o. electrical wiring and it works great everywhere. Even with a signal booster, my previous 11b wireless network only worked in 1/2 the house. Plus, my linksys WiFi crap never worked with anyone else's hardware, but all my powerline stuff plays together quite nicely...
From the article: "Q15: What will happen to the study results? Why are you doing this study? A: In simplest terms, we are trying to figure out if we can spot the target of an attack based on the methods used so we can build a smarter IDS that thinks like a hacker does. Of course, to make something think like a hacker, we have to know how hackers think, so we study them. If we are successful, we intend to build such a box, market it commercially, make 100-Gazillion Dollars (muhaha!) and buy Microsoft and fire Bill Gates. OK, I made the last part up, but you get the idea."
Business Plan:
1. Set up atypical Windows 2000 servers that do not resemble anything in the wild and have no opportunities for social engineering since this is not part of the "wargame."
As a grad student, I was quite a book pirate. There are many 20-30 year old statistics texts (not college textbooks, but academic press stuff) that cost upwards for $400 for a used copy if you can find them at all.
Our solution was to find them in the library or order them ILL and then photocopy and distribute them among ourselves. I suppose there might be some fair-use argument to made in support of this (academic use, minimal monetary damage to the author, etc), but probably not, especially as many authors scan their own old books and sell copies of them (mostly to libraries) for high fees.
Point is, people have been pirating books for a long time, just not very many copies at a time. Of course books like I'm talking about often only sell a few hundred-a thousand copies anyway, so 20 illegal ones might matter a lot more in this case than, say, to J.K. Rowling...
Now I can just sit back and wait for the PIAA to subpoena me....
Slashdot Mirror
Mathematics And Sex (2004)
Pi: A Biography of the World's Most Mysterious Number (2004)
Chance: A Guide to Gambling, Love, the Stock Market and Just About Everything Else (2004)
Entanglement: The Unlikely Story of How Scientists, Mathematicians, and Philosphers Proved Einstein's Spookiest Theory (2003)
The Mathematical Century : The 30 Greatest Problems of the Last 100 Years (2003)
The Golden Ratio : The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number (2003)
When Least Is Best : How Mathematicians Discovered Many Clever Ways to Make Things as Small (or as Large) as Possible (2003)
The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers (2001)
An Imaginary Tale (1998)
e: The Story of a Number (1998)
Just to pick some recent examples (i.e. not including the masterpieces of Martin Gardner and other recreational mathematicians in the 1960s and 70s, and apologies if I left off your favorite). I would agree, however, that good pop-math books are a great deal more rare.
This is an interesting article, but the situation is quite hypothetical--the odds of someone trying this development model for a 2D point-and-click graphical adventure are slim. For real fans of this genre (who also might want to make a buck) it might be more interesting to relax some of the assumptions about part-time or hobbyist programming staff and the infeasibility of internet distribution (and/or even a shareware model). Developer/publishers like Spiderweb Software (makers of the Exile series, among other Ultima-type RPGs) help with the back-end stuff for small-time or hobbyist shareware developers. Similarly, sites like Home of the Underdogs promote and help sell "scratchware" games. The real question to me is, can a scratchware/shareware/late night after work development team make enough money to break even (given the real and opportunity costs of creating the game)?
I also would not play "free" or subsidized games in return for exposure to advertising, but others may find this idea acceptable. How about a choice? $49.99 for ad-free, $19.99 at launch for a internet-enabled ad-full version?
[Note to big videogame music fans: I'm just kidding, not trolling. Don't hurt me!]
I would have to agree regarding the choice of engine. As I recall, pathfinding was pretty ugly (at least compared to BGII or BGII:ToB) and the PS:T engine had some other warts. I would rather see the game made using the BGII version of the Infinity Engine, as opposed to the Neverwinter one. I never really got used to the camera in NN--give me fixed isomorphic RPGs with great inside jokes ("I'm the skull of Vecna") any day!
And no, clarifying the source of a typographical error by using [sic] in a quotation does not make me feel "way smart." Being way smart makes me feel way smart.
And I have never seen a press release that "says what needs to be said." Press releases say what companies want to be said.
Obviously I pissed somebody off, cause I got modded down as "overrated." I just get worn down by the endless parade of PR trumpeted as news in the mainstream media. And sorry about your misfortune in attending BU.
These press releases ripped right off of PR newswire and posted to Slashdot always remind me of the "find the fake ad" section of Games magazine. "Find the fake news story planted on Slashdot to generate `buzz'". Bah. I hate marketing. J
I know, another slashdot Windoze/M$ vs. "two words: Mac gamer" flamewar is just what we need, but the parent is on topic and not flamebait. For dog's sake, if the editors post an advertisement for a new mac, people should respect a post that meets the ad on its own terms.
1. Game X has done this successfully
2. I play games to escape => this shouldn't be done
3. This is just a whiny, Liberal, politically-correct issue.
As a mature (read: over 30) gamer who has played a lot of games, my general position is that, in the right genre, done correctly, socially-relevant games can showcase some of the best ideas and talent in the medium. I'm not talking about arcade games with the FBI's "stay away from drugs" splashscreen or making the blood in Mortal Combat green for the kids at home.
I *am* talking about some of the most emotionally powerful moments in gaming, such as the child-abuse cutscenes that explain character motivation in The Longest Journey, or the brilliant handling of a variety of social issues in Planescape: Torment (IMHO the best CPRG of all time), or the socially-relevant and mind-blowing puzzles in IF such as Infocom's classic A Mind Forever Voyaging. In games like these, the social commentary was relevant and important to plot and character, and did not distract from the escapism in any way. Moreover, the player does not come away from games of this sort feeling like s/he has been lectured at.
Remember, one of the things that makes novels, films, and, yes, games, great is there ability to engage the viewer/player emotionally. Ultimately, it is the games of this sort that will be remembered in the gaming "canon" as the steps that moved the gaming from a "fad" in the post-Atari '80s to a "fine art" in the future.
I suppose that this is interesting, in a geeky/hacker way, but I really don't think it belongs in the games section. Just because they used game console hardware for an OSS/Linux port story doesn't make it gaming news....
Rather than hope that some small or large corporation agrees that a profit can be made off of Hubble research, the government should take a stand and finance basic science for its own sake, instead of ruminating about a massive aerospace industry welfare program under the cover of an exciting bunch of missions to the Moon and Mars.
Of course, I'm not so naive as to think that the government actually would change their priorities on this. After all, with all the tax cuts to the rich and a couple of expensive wars to fight, hard choices have to be made, right?
And we still need our Federal mohair subsidy program, so it's time for Hubble to go!
(I'm not bitter or anything)
I have a small notebook (between 3x5 and 8.5x11) that I keep in my briefcase to and from work and jot everything down in it. It never crashes, it takes only seconds to include complex graphs or equations (no equation editor or LaTeX tags needed!), and can even be backed up via xerox (which I have done with ripped pages--just staple the copied page back in!).
This rocks! I have the Atari 2600 JAKKS compilation and it's a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories (yes, I am an *old* gamer). One of may favorite things about it is introducing my kids to Adventure, which is one of my all time favorite games. This new Midway product has some serious classics as well (Robotron, Smash TV...) that I spent serious cash on in the arcade, but they're not as small-children friendly (pretty damned violent, actually). Add to this the issue about support for multiple joysticks (anyone remember the Atari 5200 Robotron cart that came with a plastic thing that clamped the joysticks together?), and this one might not be as successful. I suppose I'll still buy it anyway, though...
This is a fascinating bit of detective work that should serve as a reminder to all careless users (especially Windows ones) that *SPAM IS NOT BENIGN*. It's not just annoying ads for penile implants--it can be downright dangerous to your PC.
It sounds like it could be fun (some of my favorite things about Planescape:Torment were the in-jokes on rpg'ing and old Advanced D&D), but I don't know how the console engine will port to the PC. I think I'll be reading the reviews for a while on this one before I pick it up...
Who says home powerline doesn't work? I use it in a 4500 sqft house with 40 y.o. electrical wiring and it works great everywhere. Even with a signal booster, my previous 11b wireless network only worked in 1/2 the house. Plus, my linksys WiFi crap never worked with anyone else's hardware, but all my powerline stuff plays together quite nicely...
From the article:
"Q15: What will happen to the study results? Why are you doing this study?
A: In simplest terms, we are trying to figure out if we can spot the target of an attack based on the methods used so we can build a smarter IDS that thinks like a hacker does. Of course, to make something think like a hacker, we have to know how hackers think, so we study them. If we are successful, we intend to build such a box, market it commercially, make 100-Gazillion Dollars (muhaha!) and buy Microsoft and fire Bill Gates. OK, I made the last part up, but you get the idea."
Business Plan:
1. Set up atypical Windows 2000 servers that do not resemble anything in the wild and have no opportunities for social engineering since this is not part of the "wargame."
2. Pay "hackers" $250 to crack them.
3. ???
4. Profit!
Our solution was to find them in the library or order them ILL and then photocopy and distribute them among ourselves. I suppose there might be some fair-use argument to made in support of this (academic use, minimal monetary damage to the author, etc), but probably not, especially as many authors scan their own old books and sell copies of them (mostly to libraries) for high fees.
Point is, people have been pirating books for a long time, just not very many copies at a time. Of course books like I'm talking about often only sell a few hundred-a thousand copies anyway, so 20 illegal ones might matter a lot more in this case than, say, to J.K. Rowling...
Now I can just sit back and wait for the PIAA to subpoena me....