That must be great to find something like that. I remember reading Compute's Gazette (a C64 magazine) when I was a kid in the mid eighties. I always wanted to write some computer game and have it published in there. Unfortunately, I never had anything published in there. But boy was it fun to type in games by hand (either in BASIC or in machine code using MLX!! Woohoo!)
The problem with managers is not the fact that they don't hack the kernel, or can't even log into the network, but it's the fact that because they have NO idea what the people they're managing do, they make stupid management decisions.
They give the upper management promises that are near impossible to keep, they take away budgets that are definately needed, they move people to where they don't belong (like moving your FreeBSD web site admin to administrating the NT servers, or taking a rookie VisualBasic programmer and trying to make him configure a Cisco router).. and because of things like that, the workplace becomes unorganized, hecktic, and even hellish.
Of course the REAL problem is not so much that the middle managers don't know what they're dealing with, but that they don't listen to their employees who are trying to politely(at least one would hope) show them what they're doing wrong.
They're so concerned about their advancement, and their newfound power, that they don't care if they're screwing over employees, or even the company itself... and those types of managers are bad.
In any case, if I just re-stated what Katz said, ignore me. I don't like reading Katz articles, just the comments.:)
IDRTFA(I didn't read the freaking article) but from the summary above, they said a barter system.
Not real cash, but "digital cash". Sort of a "I'm letting you store my files here and then you'll let me download the files on your hard drive." or something.
Anyway, like I stated above, I didn't read the article, so don't mod me as informative.
Here in New Mexico, a company called LoboNet uses 2.4GHz LAN/WAN radios from BreezeCOM with outdoor antennas to businesses in the more rural areas. (Near Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but too far for DSL or ISDN)
They have around a dozen customers, and there's no problem with the FCC, since the 2.4GHz spectrum is an non-license spectrum. As far as power levels go, I don't know. But it works quite nicely.
(Although for some reason LoboNet doesn't have any mention of it on their site... strange. But I know it's there! Maybe there's some mention at the Integrity Networking Solutions site, since many of the wireless networking customers go through them.)
I have to agree. When I saw that old TV commercial for the original Legend of Zelda, I just had to get myself a NES. Too bad my parents had the strange idea that video game consoles were "evil." (Yet I could play any game I wanted on my C64. Strange) I think they were actually trying to keep the TV to themselves.
In any case, one of my friends got one, and I was over there every minute I could be, playing on that damn thing.:) I loved the original NES.
Later, when I got a SNES, I just couldn't find anything too exciting for it. Street Fighter wasn't too terribly exciting for me (I'm more of an adventure or strategy game player myself) and the Zelda for the SNES wasn't even exciting (I never really played it much until once when I was bored, and I got crazy with the emulators). Sure, I played SMW and beat just about every single area there was. (Was there more than 100? Somebody let me know. Heh)
In any case, the graphics were surely better on the SNES, but the NES was way more fun. (Maybe it was just because I was younger back then? Oh well)
I haven't really liked consoles since. The only game I like for the N64 is Zelda (figures) and the Final Fantasy series for the PSX/PS2 are good, but those usually show up in PC version these days... so there's not an incentive for me to purchase a new console. So, it doen't really bother me that they can't order new parts.
If a friend of mine gets one, I'll probably go play it. Since with the PSX, I always enjoy a good game of Tekken 3. Anyway, I'll shut up now.
Okay, I just skimmed over the thing, didn't really feel like reading it, but what I see when I look at all the pretty pictures, is a children's book on astronomy.
Seriously, that's kind of what it looks like. A book geared towards 8-10 year olds. Oh, right, they said it was targeted at politicians, I should've known it was gonna look like that.
Most older AT style keyboards had a switch to change between XT and AT modes. (Actually, IIRC the 84 key I is technically an XT keyboard)
If you don't have that switch, it may mean that the keyboard is XT only. (Quite possible)
If you can find a switch (if it's many dip switches, I'd recommend writing down the current config, then flipping til you get something that works.:) switch it, and try again.
Of course, there is always the possibility that it is just broken, but what can you expect for free?:)
First, you must always carry a baseball bat. (Wood, aluminum, steel, lead, iron, etc. it doesn't matter)
Second, as soon as a clueless executive says "Hey, I have an idea, let's patent sedimentary rock." you smack them in the leg with the aforementioned bat. They may limp around for awhile after that.
Third, when they get the lawyers together and get ready to apply for the patent, hit them all in the head with the bat. (Make sure you hit at least one of the lawyers twice)
Forth, if they are still insisting on getting this patent, don your sporty black armor with the classic skull facemask helmet, grab your trusty sword, bust in on a board meeting, kill the chairman, and exclaim "I am your leader now, fool mortals! Does anyone wish to challenge this?"
Finally at the beginning of your first meeting with the executives, proclaim in a deep booming voice "From this day forth, no one shall patent what is already a reality! Those who defy me will be destroyed!"
Alright, I'm done.
Oh, and make sure you always have scantily clad female servants following you around everywhere. (Uh, mostly for your pleasure.)
Here's the reason that the console market could never destroy the PC gaming market. People generally play PC games because they'd rather play them on their PC.
This is why the console gaming market has never destroyed it in the first place. Consoles have generally always sold more games than PC's. Ever since the Atari 2600 and the others around it's time. There weren't even many PC's available.
Sure there were the Commodore 64/128's, Apple's, Amiga's, etc., all which had immensely popular games, but in contrast, the consoles have always had the bigger market. But, when there's at least a few million who'd rather buy PC games than console games (someone like myself. I don't like sitting in front of my TV playing games. That's the biggest reason I prefer PC games.)
Though it is and always has been a smaller market, this does *not* mean that making a console that has the same components as a PC is going to eliminate the PC gaming market. That logic makes absolutely no sense.
I'm not going to buy an Xbox. Plain and simple. Even if the whole PC gaming market DOES go away, I still probably wouldn't buy a console. (I had both a playstation and a N64 at one time, but I've sold them both because I didn't find any games that interest me.) Sure all the 3d graphics look pretty, but what about us that still enjoy a good 2D RTS, or even a turn-based strategy? What about top-down RPG's? What about flight simulators? All of those are very hard to play with a gamepad, be it analog or not. You need a good mouse and keyboard (or a realistic fighter control stick) and even if you can get those for an Xbox, why would you? Then you'd need a desk or something, and you'd basically be back with a PC anyway.
The PC gaming market will NOT die, and I'll gladly fight anyone to the death who believes otherwise.
This is one of the reasons I've always wanted to be a game writer, and why I'm starting my own game company(although who knows if I'll succeed). I want to tell a story. I want to tell many stories.
Whether it be one of my own stories, a friend's, or just some random writer's story, I want to be able to tell it, not only in a way that is visually appealing, but in a way that enriches the player's life. (I'm not talking Chicken Soup for the Computer here, but just something that lets you escape from everyday life for awhile, and do something other than blow other's people's heads off in some FPS)
Too many games try to impress via their engines. Sure, it's nice if you can arc arrows over walls and hit people on the other side, (I'm not dissing Thief here, that's a good game)and if you had some grappeling hook you could fire, and it would realistically hook onto something, and you could climb up, and it could even fall off, or any number of "amazing 3d graphics and physics" things, it's still nothing without its story.
I used to play games with CGA graphics, or even some of the classic text adventures, and I loved them, because they had excellent stories. It's time to truly bring that back. If it takes 240 hours to play because of a really long, deep storyline, GOOD. I'll always have something to do in my spare time.
I know I'm probably saying the obvious, and maybe even straying off topic a little. But, this has really irked me about popular games these days. (Especially first-person shooters, which have a major lack of storyline) Anyway, I'll stop my ranting now, and go back to my dark cave.
-John H. (P.S. if anyone wants to invest in a small game company, write me e-mail.:)
Imaging if you could store data in DNA. You could encode the entire Windows operating system into some poor sap's DNA, and watch him mutate into a huge, bloated blob of goo which eats your house and terrorizes your grandparents while snacking on your children's brains.
How's that for mixing Gates with Hunkapiller?
If X sucks... let's make something better
on
X Windows Must Die!
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· Score: 4
Now I've seen many good points on here, and I've come to one conclusion. Why don't we make a 100% free, 100% original GUI system for Linux?
Sure, it would be a large project, but if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. So, let's organize a group to start working on something like this. Maybe even have sub-groups working to port X toolkits over to our new system. (I think this would be possible) Then anyone who wanted to could port their applications over to this, without having to worry about much at all.
Is anyone interested in this? Let's start a project, and do this. The time is ripe for something like this. This is your chance to make a big difference in the Linux or Opensource community. I think I may even register a sourceforge project. If anyone's interested, write me email.
I know a lot of people swear up and down that the optimizations that are compiled in Mandrake and the like are usually unnoticable, I must say that I am incredibly glad I switched to Mandrake, because it does feel smoother.
It's like playing your favorite first-person shooter at 25fps (It's tolerable) and upgrading your processor and graphics card and getting 60+fps (it feels much smoother) It doesn't boot up any faster, and I don't know if it compiles faster, and it may just be psychological, but it really does feel like it's moving smoother.
Sorry to nitpick, especially on a joke, but for it to be a 386/16, it'd have to be a 386sx/16 (IIRC), and since a 386sx was really a 286 in disguise, it had a max of 16MB ram, so you'd be outta luck.
I think anything to do with spam should be punishable by death. Whether you write it, send it, mail it, ship it, manufacture it, distribute it, eat it, or force your friends to eat it, you should be shot, disembowelled, castrated, and/or burnt at the stake.
If you hate e-mail spammers, but feel like going easy on them, make them EAT Hormel SPAM!! Even worse, make them eat Armour TREET! Because TREET is NEAT!
(That looks like something you'd see after running fortune)
I totally agree with you, but I had a thought... a bad thought.... something evil could happen.
What if we had a Microsoft in space??? I can see it now....
Shortly after leaving the atmosphere, the spaceship Linus, heading to the colony on Mars, is contacted my a MS patroller.
"Attention unknown vessel. This is the MSS Capitalism. You are not displaying a current, valid license on the outside of the ship. If you have not accepted a Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA) you may not enter Microsoft space."
"Microsoft space? But nobody owns space!"
"It doesn't matter. We make all the ships, so you have to follow our rules."
"But I built my own ship, because I didn't like your massive, bloated, clunky ships!"
"That is unacceptable. You may only use Microsoft ships."
"Noooo!"
Suddenly a bunch "Free Space Foundation" ships show up, and start shooting at the MS ship... etc.. etc.. etc..
I know that Heinlein had some damn good ideas in some of his stories. Take the book The Man Who Sold the Moon. One of the stories in there talked about nuclear reactors in space, that were in geosyncronous orbit, transmitting power down to the planet's surface. (via microwave or some such) (Of course, the whole thing went down due to the fact that someone accidently hit it with the service craft.)
But, even though the value of that doesn't seem too terribly great, still, it would mean if a meltdown happened, it wouldn't hurt anyone.
Now don't get me wrong, the conveyor belt roads in that book are a bit rediculous.:)
I also like the social concepts in a related short story (There's a book that contains the whole collection, but I can't remember what it's called.) But, the fact that in the new US (1980 something.:) That there was only one basic law. It was "You can do anything you want, as long as you do not harm anyone." Harming someone was specific to physical harm or stealing money or something. But, if you disobeyed the law, they exiled you do someplace like Canada (heh heh) for a year (IIRC) then you had the choice to come back, but if you screwed up a second time, then you had to stay out of the country forever.
Anyway, that's all I have to say.
Re:Virus to deter piracy?
on
Sim Plague
·
· Score: 1
Actually, they did something along those lines when they created the original SimCity. You had a red sheet of paper(red because it was really hard to copy... yet it was possible >:) that had codes and such. If you didn't enter the correct code, you'd start getting earthquakes and other disasters about every 10 seconds.
I always thought it was annoying, and, I did get download a crack for it not long after I bought it.:)
I know what you're saying. Even 10 years ago it was pretty good. I remember buying a copy of MS-DOS 5.0, which came with a nice big reference book. Told you just about everything you wanted to know. Detailed descriptions of every DOS command. It even had ASCII code page charts! I actually have one of those attached to my wall, at this very moment. It's come in handy more than once.
DOS 6.x only had a thin "Getting started" manual, which basically only told you how to boot off the disk and install it. Now with all of their Online Manuals, it tells you nothing but the *most* common problems, and how to fix them (most of which I could fix without their help) and it says if you want more information, contact the company you bought your PC from. How nice is that? Ugh.
This is kind of funny. Say goodbye to the classic Good vs. Evil battles. Now we have Evil vs. Evil. While the good sits by on the sidelines waiting for it to all fall apart, so that the good can take over.
It's kind of funny that someone affiliated with a "Christian" orginization would side with a large corporation like Microsoft, since they represent what most would say is the ultimate evil... money. How hippocritical is that?
Now I wish I hadn't bought the Win32 versions of Alpha Centauri and SimCity 3000, since now I want the linux versions. I guess I'll have to buy those too.:)
Damn fine interview, though. Damn fine man, and a damn fine company.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, you think $15000 is bad? Get a load of this.
That's just insane. (It actually looks like a joke)
When I read it, it says this:
Moderation Totals:Funny=5, Overrated=1, Total=6
None of those seem to add up to Troll.
That must be great to find something like that. I remember reading Compute's Gazette (a C64 magazine) when I was a kid in the mid eighties. I always wanted to write some computer game and have it published in there. Unfortunately, I never had anything published in there. But boy was it fun to type in games by hand (either in BASIC or in machine code using MLX!! Woohoo!)
The problem with managers is not the fact that they don't hack the kernel, or can't even log into the network, but it's the fact that because they have NO idea what the people they're managing do, they make stupid management decisions.
:)
They give the upper management promises that are near impossible to keep, they take away budgets that are definately needed, they move people to where they don't belong (like moving your FreeBSD web site admin to administrating the NT servers, or taking a rookie VisualBasic programmer and trying to make him configure a Cisco router).. and because of things like that, the workplace becomes unorganized, hecktic, and even hellish.
Of course the REAL problem is not so much that the middle managers don't know what they're dealing with, but that they don't listen to their employees who are trying to politely(at least one would hope) show them what they're doing wrong.
They're so concerned about their advancement, and their newfound power, that they don't care if they're screwing over employees, or even the company itself... and those types of managers are bad.
In any case, if I just re-stated what Katz said, ignore me. I don't like reading Katz articles, just the comments.
IDRTFA(I didn't read the freaking article) but from the summary above, they said a barter system.
Not real cash, but "digital cash". Sort of a "I'm letting you store my files here and then you'll let me download the files on your hard drive." or something.
Anyway, like I stated above, I didn't read the article, so don't mod me as informative.
Wouldn't the force of accelerating that fast kill a person?
I guess we can forget taking one of these things ourselves anywhere.
Here in New Mexico, a company called LoboNet uses 2.4GHz LAN/WAN radios from BreezeCOM with outdoor antennas to businesses in the more rural areas. (Near Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but too far for DSL or ISDN)
They have around a dozen customers, and there's no problem with the FCC, since the 2.4GHz spectrum is an non-license spectrum. As far as power levels go, I don't know. But it works quite nicely.
(Although for some reason LoboNet doesn't have any mention of it on their site... strange. But I know it's there! Maybe there's some mention at the Integrity Networking Solutions site, since many of the wireless networking customers go through them.)
I have to agree. When I saw that old TV commercial for the original Legend of Zelda, I just had to get myself a NES. Too bad my parents had the strange idea that video game consoles were "evil." (Yet I could play any game I wanted on my C64. Strange) I think they were actually trying to keep the TV to themselves.
:) I loved the original NES.
In any case, one of my friends got one, and I was over there every minute I could be, playing on that damn thing.
Later, when I got a SNES, I just couldn't find anything too exciting for it. Street Fighter wasn't too terribly exciting for me (I'm more of an adventure or strategy game player myself) and the Zelda for the SNES wasn't even exciting (I never really played it much until once when I was bored, and I got crazy with the emulators). Sure, I played SMW and beat just about every single area there was. (Was there more than 100? Somebody let me know. Heh)
In any case, the graphics were surely better on the SNES, but the NES was way more fun. (Maybe it was just because I was younger back then? Oh well)
I haven't really liked consoles since. The only game I like for the N64 is Zelda (figures) and the Final Fantasy series for the PSX/PS2 are good, but those usually show up in PC version these days... so there's not an incentive for me to purchase a new console. So, it doen't really bother me that they can't order new parts.
If a friend of mine gets one, I'll probably go play it. Since with the PSX, I always enjoy a good game of Tekken 3. Anyway, I'll shut up now.
Okay, I just skimmed over the thing, didn't really feel like reading it, but what I see when I look at all the pretty pictures, is a children's book on astronomy.
Seriously, that's kind of what it looks like. A book geared towards 8-10 year olds. Oh, right, they said it was targeted at politicians, I should've known it was gonna look like that.
Most older AT style keyboards had a switch to change between XT and AT modes. (Actually, IIRC the 84 key I is technically an XT keyboard)
:) switch it, and try again.
:)
If you don't have that switch, it may mean that the keyboard is XT only. (Quite possible)
If you can find a switch (if it's many dip switches, I'd recommend writing down the current config, then flipping til you get something that works.
Of course, there is always the possibility that it is just broken, but what can you expect for free?
First, you must always carry a baseball bat. (Wood, aluminum, steel, lead, iron, etc. it doesn't matter)
Second, as soon as a clueless executive says "Hey, I have an idea, let's patent sedimentary rock." you smack them in the leg with the aforementioned bat. They may limp around for awhile after that.
Third, when they get the lawyers together and get ready to apply for the patent, hit them all in the head with the bat. (Make sure you hit at least one of the lawyers twice)
Forth, if they are still insisting on getting this patent, don your sporty black armor with the classic skull facemask helmet, grab your trusty sword, bust in on a board meeting, kill the chairman, and exclaim "I am your leader now, fool mortals! Does anyone wish to challenge this?"
Finally at the beginning of your first meeting with the executives, proclaim in a deep booming voice "From this day forth, no one shall patent what is already a reality! Those who defy me will be destroyed!"
Alright, I'm done.
Oh, and make sure you always have scantily clad female servants following you around everywhere. (Uh, mostly for your pleasure.)
Thank you, and have a good day.
Here's the reason that the console market could never destroy the PC gaming market. People generally play PC games because they'd rather play them on their PC.
This is why the console gaming market has never destroyed it in the first place. Consoles have generally always sold more games than PC's. Ever since the Atari 2600 and the others around it's time. There weren't even many PC's available.
Sure there were the Commodore 64/128's, Apple's, Amiga's, etc., all which had immensely popular games, but in contrast, the consoles have always had the bigger market. But, when there's at least a few million who'd rather buy PC games than console games (someone like myself. I don't like sitting in front of my TV playing games. That's the biggest reason I prefer PC games.)
Though it is and always has been a smaller market, this does *not* mean that making a console that has the same components as a PC is going to eliminate the PC gaming market. That logic makes absolutely no sense.
I'm not going to buy an Xbox. Plain and simple. Even if the whole PC gaming market DOES go away, I still probably wouldn't buy a console. (I had both a playstation and a N64 at one time, but I've sold them both because I didn't find any games that interest me.) Sure all the 3d graphics look pretty, but what about us that still enjoy a good 2D RTS, or even a turn-based strategy? What about top-down RPG's? What about flight simulators? All of those are very hard to play with a gamepad, be it analog or not. You need a good mouse and keyboard (or a realistic fighter control stick) and even if you can get those for an Xbox, why would you? Then you'd need a desk or something, and you'd basically be back with a PC anyway.
The PC gaming market will NOT die, and I'll gladly fight anyone to the death who believes otherwise.
This is one of the reasons I've always wanted to be a game writer, and why I'm starting my own game company(although who knows if I'll succeed). I want to tell a story. I want to tell many stories.
Whether it be one of my own stories, a friend's, or just some random writer's story, I want to be able to tell it, not only in a way that is visually appealing, but in a way that enriches the player's life. (I'm not talking Chicken Soup for the Computer here, but just something that lets you escape from everyday life for awhile, and do something other than blow other's people's heads off in some FPS)
Too many games try to impress via their engines. Sure, it's nice if you can arc arrows over walls and hit people on the other side, (I'm not dissing Thief here, that's a good game)and if you had some grappeling hook you could fire, and it would realistically hook onto something, and you could climb up, and it could even fall off, or any number of "amazing 3d graphics and physics" things, it's still nothing without its story.
I used to play games with CGA graphics, or even some of the classic text adventures, and I loved them, because they had excellent stories. It's time to truly bring that back. If it takes 240 hours to play because of a really long, deep storyline, GOOD. I'll always have something to do in my spare time.
I know I'm probably saying the obvious, and maybe even straying off topic a little. But, this has really irked me about popular games these days. (Especially first-person shooters, which have a major lack of storyline) Anyway, I'll stop my ranting now, and go back to my dark cave.
-John H.
(P.S. if anyone wants to invest in a small game company, write me e-mail.:)
Imaging if you could store data in DNA. You could encode the entire Windows operating system into some poor sap's DNA, and watch him mutate into a huge, bloated blob of goo which eats your house and terrorizes your grandparents while snacking on your children's brains.
How's that for mixing Gates with Hunkapiller?
Now I've seen many good points on here, and I've come to one conclusion. Why don't we make a 100% free, 100% original GUI system for Linux?
Sure, it would be a large project, but if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. So, let's organize a group to start working on something like this. Maybe even have sub-groups working to port X toolkits over to our new system. (I think this would be possible) Then anyone who wanted to could port their applications over to this, without having to worry about much at all.
Is anyone interested in this? Let's start a project, and do this. The time is ripe for something like this. This is your chance to make a big difference in the Linux or Opensource community. I think I may even register a sourceforge project. If anyone's interested, write me email.
I know a lot of people swear up and down that the optimizations that are compiled in Mandrake and the like are usually unnoticable, I must say that I am incredibly glad I switched to Mandrake, because it does feel smoother.
It's like playing your favorite first-person shooter at 25fps (It's tolerable) and upgrading your processor and graphics card and getting 60+fps (it feels much smoother) It doesn't boot up any faster, and I don't know if it compiles faster, and it may just be psychological, but it really does feel like it's moving smoother.
Anyway... in summary: I like LinuxMandrake.
Sorry to nitpick, especially on a joke, but for it to be a 386/16, it'd have to be a 386sx/16 (IIRC), and since a 386sx was really a 286 in disguise, it had a max of 16MB ram, so you'd be outta luck.
I hope that if everything gets broken up nicely, that both companies will stop using such bland names for their products.
MS Office? Duh. It's an office suite. How... creative.
MS Windows? Oooh! It has windows! Let's call it Windows!
MS SQL Server? Hey, it's an... SQL Server.
MS Word? What a creative name for a word processor.
MS Internet Explorer? Wow. Now we can explore the internet.
MS Bob.... uhhh.
Anyway, they do have some somewhat unique names, like Excel. But still... everything's gotta be so generic.
I think anything to do with spam should be punishable by death. Whether you write it, send it, mail it, ship it, manufacture it, distribute it, eat it, or force your friends to eat it, you should be shot, disembowelled, castrated, and/or burnt at the stake.
If you hate e-mail spammers, but feel like going easy on them, make them EAT Hormel SPAM!! Even worse, make them eat Armour TREET! Because TREET is NEAT!
(That looks like something you'd see after running fortune)
I totally agree with you, but I had a thought... a bad thought.... something evil could happen.
What if we had a Microsoft in space??? I can see it now....
Shortly after leaving the atmosphere, the spaceship Linus, heading to the colony on Mars, is contacted my a MS patroller.
"Attention unknown vessel. This is the MSS Capitalism. You are not displaying a current, valid license on the outside of the ship. If you have not accepted a Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA) you may not enter Microsoft space."
"Microsoft space? But nobody owns space!"
"It doesn't matter. We make all the ships, so you have to follow our rules."
"But I built my own ship, because I didn't like your massive, bloated, clunky ships!"
"That is unacceptable. You may only use Microsoft ships."
"Noooo!"
Suddenly a bunch "Free Space Foundation" ships show up, and start shooting at the MS ship... etc.. etc.. etc..
I know that Heinlein had some damn good ideas in some of his stories. Take the book The Man Who Sold the Moon. One of the stories in there talked about nuclear reactors in space, that were in geosyncronous orbit, transmitting power down to the planet's surface. (via microwave or some such) (Of course, the whole thing went down due to the fact that someone accidently hit it with the service craft.)
:)
:) That there was only one basic law. It was "You can do anything you want, as long as you do not harm anyone." Harming someone was specific to physical harm or stealing money or something. But, if you disobeyed the law, they exiled you do someplace like Canada (heh heh) for a year (IIRC) then you had the choice to come back, but if you screwed up a second time, then you had to stay out of the country forever.
But, even though the value of that doesn't seem too terribly great, still, it would mean if a meltdown happened, it wouldn't hurt anyone.
Now don't get me wrong, the conveyor belt roads in that book are a bit rediculous.
I also like the social concepts in a related short story (There's a book that contains the whole collection, but I can't remember what it's called.) But, the fact that in the new US (1980 something.
Anyway, that's all I have to say.
Actually, they did something along those lines when they created the original SimCity. You had a red sheet of paper(red because it was really hard to copy... yet it was possible >:) that had codes and such. If you didn't enter the correct code, you'd start getting earthquakes and other disasters about every 10 seconds.
:)
I always thought it was annoying, and, I did get download a crack for it not long after I bought it.
I know what you're saying. Even 10 years ago it was pretty good. I remember buying a copy of MS-DOS 5.0, which came with a nice big reference book. Told you just about everything you wanted to know. Detailed descriptions of every DOS command. It even had ASCII code page charts! I actually have one of those attached to my wall, at this very moment. It's come in handy more than once.
DOS 6.x only had a thin "Getting started" manual, which basically only told you how to boot off the disk and install it. Now with all of their Online Manuals, it tells you nothing but the *most* common problems, and how to fix them (most of which I could fix without their help) and it says if you want more information, contact the company you bought your PC from. How nice is that? Ugh.
This is kind of funny. Say goodbye to the classic Good vs. Evil battles. Now we have Evil vs. Evil.
While the good sits by on the sidelines waiting for it to all fall apart, so that the good can take over.
It's kind of funny that someone affiliated with a "Christian" orginization would side with a large corporation like Microsoft, since they represent what most would say is the ultimate evil... money. How hippocritical is that?
Now I wish I hadn't bought the Win32 versions of Alpha Centauri and SimCity 3000, since now I want the linux versions. I guess I'll have to buy those too. :)
Damn fine interview, though. Damn fine man, and a damn fine company.