I think deviant individuals will probably always seek out whatever is taboo in their society
I can tell you from personal experience that this is true. I was deviant way before I saw and pictures, videos, text, etc.; Before I even had access to the Internet.
That said, I can tell you that the Internet has allowed me to find others like myself and come to terms with how I am and accept it. I know that a lot of people would consider me to be an immoral person, and I used to as well until I was able to do research on the Internet - this kind of material certainly isn't available in your local library.
Whether this is 'good' or not I don't know, but I DO know that I feel better and have a much happier life now.
I find that listening to orchestral music and Frank Sinatra on an old black disc often sounds MUCH better than what is available on a CD. It seems richer and warmer. Also, there is the atmosphere that an old turntable creates; enjoying music isn't limited to just the aural.
The problem that the parent poster described is very real.
There are some people in the world that are in the upper 0.01% for gaming. They're not cheating - they really are just that good. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference.
I used to run all of the gaming servers for a (now defunct) gaming clan and I was often called upon to jump into a game and check out someone in person to see if they were cheating. Automated tools like PunkBuster et al. can be tricked and fooled; The best way to catch a cheater is through observation, but even then it can be difficult to tell.
I'm sure that I have banned more than one innocent person. To those people: I'm sorry. Maybe you have awesome reflexes, or maybe you have a 6th sense that others lack. I don't know that though. I always tried to give the benefit of the doubt - I would rather forgive the guilty than punish the innocent - but everyone makes mistakes.
The summary calls this a "rare opportunity to interview a cheater". Cheaters are hardly rare and it isn't difficult to talk to them. Granted, you're likely to get "OMGSTFUONTEHBBQ!!!11!1!one!eleven" than a real conversation, but...
Regardless, the amount of cheating that exists online now is the reason I only play online with people I know, on locked servers. The rest of the time it is single player stuff. When I play a game I play to have fun, and cheaters make games very UN-fun.
Catching them can be a problem. I'm happy the some companies are taking steps towards anti-cheating measures, but ultimately the cheaters are going to win. They control the software running on their hardware and they can modify it as they see fit.
PunkBuster was a good example of this. A server with PunkBuster running required all client connecting to be running a PunkBuster client, which reported to the server various bits of information such as video drivers, what processes are running, if something might be modifying the game's memory, etc. But, after a while, it was useless because the client software was hacked to make the cheater player seem legitimate.
Anti-cheat software is like a lock on a door: It only keeps the honest people out.
It is upsetting to me that your talk was taken out of context. I often feel that this is happening more and more in the world of reporting. Whenever I read or hear news I always feel like someone is trying to pull a fast one on me by leaving out context, twisting words, and purposefully mis-quoting in order to push an agenda - and in this case, the agenda seems to have been to make you look like an ass.
It's a shame. )o: I think we all know you're a lot smarter than the article makes you sound.
Microsoft, apparently, has an automotive division. I just hope that they treat this software with more care than they do Windows. I don't really feel like having to hook my car up to the 'net every night to check for patches.
I wish I had known this eight years ago when I was looking for a college to attend. That's an impressive list of names! At least now I know where to start looking when I feel like going back to school.
Because instead of selling you one product with all the games for, say, $60, they can sell you TEN products with 20-30 games for $40 each and make a LOT more money.
What I find interesting here is that some of the games are not traditional Nintendo titles:
Bonk's Adventure - A Turbo Grafix 16 title (A great system, IMHO, since the same cartridge could be used on the main console AND the hand held console!)
Sonic the Hedgehog - How on earth did they manage to license this one? I'm surprised that Sony would let Nintendo do this.
I use this all the time at work. I'm a web developer and the rules here are pretty lax, so people are allowed to browse the web, use IRC, etc., as long as their work gets done.
But: I still put everything through an SSH tunnel to my Linux server. I'm still not doing anything wrong, but I don't see any reason for me to let the network admins sniff everything I do on the network.
By the way; I use the Privoxy HTTP proxy on my linux server, so I get the added benefit of that as well. Privoxy rocks. (o:
Then just add character or paragraph count. Using current regex expressions, it really should be that hard to implement.
This reminds me of one of my all time favorite programmer quotations, by Jamie Zawinski:
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
I've run across a few partners so far that do nothing but "pass" on every picture.
A picture of the night sky, filled with stars. They want to pass. They can't even type in "stars" or "sky"? Oi... It wouldn't be a real internet experience without the trolls...
This is the important question. A group of friends shouldn't have to change to accomodate someone - if someone wants to be a member, that person has to be the one to change.
I have found that girls mesh very easily with the boys, provided: 1) The girl isn't ditzy or an airhead. Now, a girl in IT is highly unlikely to be this way, but smart guys tend to like to be around other smart people. 2) A lot of guys don't like the girls around because they feel really uncomfortable that they might say "the wrong thing", and the next minute they are having a "sensitivity training" session with Human Resources. Don't be emo. Please. Take a joke for what it is - a joke - instead of taking it personally. Bonus points for telling a few yourself, it will help us relax. 3) Give it some time. Like anyone new to a group, there is going to be some discomfort while everyone figures out what kind of person you are. 4) Feminism is okay - Feminazi-ism is not. 5) If someone does something totally inappropriate - you know what I mean - feel free to follow the chain of command and get the other person in trouble. Don't go overboard though. There is nothing worse than someone who takes every little thing out of context in an attempt to be the victim.
At the last company I worked, there were two females hired in an otherwise all male IT department. One was something of a tomboy and she was instantly accepted as part of the group. GREAT sense of humor. The other was one of those types that would whine to HR the minute she thought something "inappropriate" was going on (and, honestly, it never was - we were pretty well behaved there). She ended up being the one noone talked to unless it was necessary - but, somehow, it was OUR fault.
That said, boys and girls ARE different. I don't see anything inherently wrong with single-gender groups. It's natural.
This is no different than what happened in the Pen and Paper RPG world - ten years ago.
Most earlier PnP RPGs (AD&D, 2nd Ed. as an example) were heavily class based. Almost everything you were able to do was dictated by your character's class. When WhiteWolf came on the scene with Vampire: the Masquerade, I remember a lot of people being initially confused by the lack of classes. Your character is just a set of skills. But, as people tried it out, they LOVED it - it allowed them to have tons and tons of freedom over what their character is able to do, instead of being restricted by a class system.
I'm not a MMORPG fan at all - recurring fees and a limited scope of interaction make PnP gaming much more appealing for me - but I'm surprised that it has taken people so long to figure this out, much less write a news article about it.
Funny thing is... I have several friends in the UK and they always make fun of the USA for having tightened the borders, restricting (legal) immigration, and calling President Bush a Nazi. To me, this is sweet irony. I think they're just jealous.
Yeah, the price per gallon of gasoline here is obscene. It hovers around $3 right now.
But!
Compared to bottled water, gasoline is cheap! $1.20 for a.33L bottle of Evian, for example. Google tells me that 1 gallon = 3.78 Litres (we'll round to 3.66 for simplicity). That means that I'm spending $13 per gallon of water and that's a necessity for life! Now if THAT isn't price gouging I don't know what is... WAR ON THE BOTTLED WATER COMPANIES!
The Olympics should be about being the best athlete - not who can squeeze out a few fractions of a second because they have better/more expensive swimware. I don't mind using technology for training and conditioning, but in the field (or in this case, the pool) the equipment one has shouldn't be the deciding factor.
Re:I'm not a php/perl guru, but
on
PHP Hacks
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· Score: 1
Yeah, there is some stupid bashing in there.
For example, talking about different functions for case sensitive and case insensitive operations:
Yup, PHP has a stripos() for case insensitive matching. This is a bad thing? Seems to me that the Perl guy has to lowercase everything to get the same result (which, personally, is what I do in PHP, but that's besides the point). This is bad? I don't think so.
I also see complaints about "no prepared statements" and whatnot. I think people miss the point. PHP provides a lot of core functionality that, quite often, is little more than wrappers around standard C libraries. It's up to YOU to write (or find) the extra functionality if you need/want it. That's why PEAR and PECL exist - to extend the core functionality. It's really no different than CPAN.
There are a few valid points. Sure, the function naming conventions are inconsistent (sometimes with underscores between words, sometimes not), argument lists could be more standardized, etc. But, it's a useful language and it allows rapid development of web apps. It's good at what it was designed to do (and it isn't bad on the command line either, believe it or not). Every language has quirks - Perl included.
I don't see why the Perl guys have their panties all up in a bunch. If you don't like it... Don't use it. Move on. Simple as that. The 5 year old name calling get old real fast. If you want to make a real statement then close your mouth and write better code.
Re:How I make a website using PHP
on
PHP Hacks
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· Score: 1
Believe it or not - well, I'm sure you do - I've interviewed people who said they could "Write PHP". An entire E-Commerce portal, no less. With integration with Froogle and all kinds of bells and whistles.
Apparently, downloading and installing osCommerce counts as writing PHP to some people. The funny part is when you start asking questions about, "How was X implemented?" "Does it have feature Y?" "Why did you decide to do A instead of B?" and watching them -squirm-. Oh, those are the fun interviews. (o: You gotta either be really stupid or have huge balls to do something like that... So far, I'm still waiting to find one with the huge balls. Either way, it's a lot of fun!
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I can tell you from personal experience that this is true. I was deviant way before I saw and pictures, videos, text, etc.; Before I even had access to the Internet.
That said, I can tell you that the Internet has allowed me to find others like myself and come to terms with how I am and accept it. I know that a lot of people would consider me to be an immoral person, and I used to as well until I was able to do research on the Internet - this kind of material certainly isn't available in your local library.
Whether this is 'good' or not I don't know, but I DO know that I feel better and have a much happier life now.
The correct spelling is "Bestiality".
I'm not quite sure why, but it might have something to do with the first four letters of the word.
Oh wait - crap - that was supposed to be an 'anonymous guilty pleasure'...
I find that listening to orchestral music and Frank Sinatra on an old black disc often sounds MUCH better than what is available on a CD. It seems richer and warmer. Also, there is the atmosphere that an old turntable creates; enjoying music isn't limited to just the aural.
The problem that the parent poster described is very real.
There are some people in the world that are in the upper 0.01% for gaming. They're not cheating - they really are just that good. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference.
I used to run all of the gaming servers for a (now defunct) gaming clan and I was often called upon to jump into a game and check out someone in person to see if they were cheating. Automated tools like PunkBuster et al. can be tricked and fooled; The best way to catch a cheater is through observation, but even then it can be difficult to tell.
I'm sure that I have banned more than one innocent person. To those people: I'm sorry. Maybe you have awesome reflexes, or maybe you have a 6th sense that others lack. I don't know that though. I always tried to give the benefit of the doubt - I would rather forgive the guilty than punish the innocent - but everyone makes mistakes.
The summary calls this a "rare opportunity to interview a cheater". Cheaters are hardly rare and it isn't difficult to talk to them. Granted, you're likely to get "OMGSTFUONTEHBBQ!!!11!1!one!eleven" than a real conversation, but...
Regardless, the amount of cheating that exists online now is the reason I only play online with people I know, on locked servers. The rest of the time it is single player stuff. When I play a game I play to have fun, and cheaters make games very UN-fun.
Catching them can be a problem. I'm happy the some companies are taking steps towards anti-cheating measures, but ultimately the cheaters are going to win. They control the software running on their hardware and they can modify it as they see fit.
PunkBuster was a good example of this. A server with PunkBuster running required all client connecting to be running a PunkBuster client, which reported to the server various bits of information such as video drivers, what processes are running, if something might be modifying the game's memory, etc. But, after a while, it was useless because the client software was hacked to make the cheater player seem legitimate.
Anti-cheat software is like a lock on a door: It only keeps the honest people out.
Hi Rasmus!
It is upsetting to me that your talk was taken out of context. I often feel that this is happening more and more in the world of reporting. Whenever I read or hear news I always feel like someone is trying to pull a fast one on me by leaving out context, twisting words, and purposefully mis-quoting in order to push an agenda - and in this case, the agenda seems to have been to make you look like an ass.
It's a shame. )o: I think we all know you're a lot smarter than the article makes you sound.
Microsoft, apparently, has an automotive division. I just hope that they treat this software with more care than they do Windows. I don't really feel like having to hook my car up to the 'net every night to check for patches.
I wish I had known this eight years ago when I was looking for a college to attend. That's an impressive list of names! At least now I know where to start looking when I feel like going back to school.
Because instead of selling you one product with all the games for, say, $60, they can sell you TEN products with 20-30 games for $40 each and make a LOT more money.
Meant to say Sega, not Sony. Yikes. Time for some coffee. (o:
What I find interesting here is that some of the games are not traditional Nintendo titles:
Bonk's Adventure - A Turbo Grafix 16 title (A great system, IMHO, since the same cartridge could be used on the main console AND the hand held console!)
Sonic the Hedgehog - How on earth did they manage to license this one? I'm surprised that Sony would let Nintendo do this.
I use this all the time at work. I'm a web developer and the rules here are pretty lax, so people are allowed to browse the web, use IRC, etc., as long as their work gets done.
But: I still put everything through an SSH tunnel to my Linux server. I'm still not doing anything wrong, but I don't see any reason for me to let the network admins sniff everything I do on the network.
By the way; I use the Privoxy HTTP proxy on my linux server, so I get the added benefit of that as well. Privoxy rocks. (o:
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.
I've run across a few partners so far that do nothing but "pass" on every picture.
A picture of the night sky, filled with stars. They want to pass. They can't even type in "stars" or "sky"? Oi... It wouldn't be a real internet experience without the trolls...
It was certainly a small IT department - eight people, serving a company with about 1,000 users.
This is the important question. A group of friends shouldn't have to change to accomodate someone - if someone wants to be a member, that person has to be the one to change.
I have found that girls mesh very easily with the boys, provided:
1) The girl isn't ditzy or an airhead. Now, a girl in IT is highly unlikely to be this way, but smart guys tend to like to be around other smart people.
2) A lot of guys don't like the girls around because they feel really uncomfortable that they might say "the wrong thing", and the next minute they are having a "sensitivity training" session with Human Resources. Don't be emo. Please. Take a joke for what it is - a joke - instead of taking it personally. Bonus points for telling a few yourself, it will help us relax.
3) Give it some time. Like anyone new to a group, there is going to be some discomfort while everyone figures out what kind of person you are.
4) Feminism is okay - Feminazi-ism is not.
5) If someone does something totally inappropriate - you know what I mean - feel free to follow the chain of command and get the other person in trouble. Don't go overboard though. There is nothing worse than someone who takes every little thing out of context in an attempt to be the victim.
At the last company I worked, there were two females hired in an otherwise all male IT department. One was something of a tomboy and she was instantly accepted as part of the group. GREAT sense of humor. The other was one of those types that would whine to HR the minute she thought something "inappropriate" was going on (and, honestly, it never was - we were pretty well behaved there). She ended up being the one noone talked to unless it was necessary - but, somehow, it was OUR fault.
That said, boys and girls ARE different. I don't see anything inherently wrong with single-gender groups. It's natural.
This is no different than what happened in the Pen and Paper RPG world - ten years ago.
Most earlier PnP RPGs (AD&D, 2nd Ed. as an example) were heavily class based. Almost everything you were able to do was dictated by your character's class. When WhiteWolf came on the scene with Vampire: the Masquerade, I remember a lot of people being initially confused by the lack of classes. Your character is just a set of skills. But, as people tried it out, they LOVED it - it allowed them to have tons and tons of freedom over what their character is able to do, instead of being restricted by a class system.
I'm not a MMORPG fan at all - recurring fees and a limited scope of interaction make PnP gaming much more appealing for me - but I'm surprised that it has taken people so long to figure this out, much less write a news article about it.
You can, at least, tag them.
Funny thing is... I have several friends in the UK and they always make fun of the USA for having tightened the borders, restricting (legal) immigration, and calling President Bush a Nazi. To me, this is sweet irony. I think they're just jealous.
Yeah, the price per gallon of gasoline here is obscene. It hovers around $3 right now.
.33L bottle of Evian, for example. Google tells me that 1 gallon = 3.78 Litres (we'll round to 3.66 for simplicity). That means that I'm spending $13 per gallon of water and that's a necessity for life! Now if THAT isn't price gouging I don't know what is... WAR ON THE BOTTLED WATER COMPANIES!
But!
Compared to bottled water, gasoline is cheap! $1.20 for a
The Olympics should be about being the best athlete - not who can squeeze out a few fractions of a second because they have better/more expensive swimware. I don't mind using technology for training and conditioning, but in the field (or in this case, the pool) the equipment one has shouldn't be the deciding factor.
For example, talking about different functions for case sensitive and case insensitive operations:
Yup, PHP has a stripos() for case insensitive matching. This is a bad thing? Seems to me that the Perl guy has to lowercase everything to get the same result (which, personally, is what I do in PHP, but that's besides the point). This is bad? I don't think so.
I also see complaints about "no prepared statements" and whatnot. I think people miss the point. PHP provides a lot of core functionality that, quite often, is little more than wrappers around standard C libraries. It's up to YOU to write (or find) the extra functionality if you need/want it. That's why PEAR and PECL exist - to extend the core functionality. It's really no different than CPAN.
There are a few valid points. Sure, the function naming conventions are inconsistent (sometimes with underscores between words, sometimes not), argument lists could be more standardized, etc. But, it's a useful language and it allows rapid development of web apps. It's good at what it was designed to do (and it isn't bad on the command line either, believe it or not). Every language has quirks - Perl included.
I don't see why the Perl guys have their panties all up in a bunch. If you don't like it... Don't use it. Move on. Simple as that. The 5 year old name calling get old real fast. If you want to make a real statement then close your mouth and write better code.
Believe it or not - well, I'm sure you do - I've interviewed people who said they could "Write PHP". An entire E-Commerce portal, no less. With integration with Froogle and all kinds of bells and whistles.
Apparently, downloading and installing osCommerce counts as writing PHP to some people. The funny part is when you start asking questions about, "How was X implemented?" "Does it have feature Y?" "Why did you decide to do A instead of B?" and watching them -squirm-. Oh, those are the fun interviews. (o: You gotta either be really stupid or have huge balls to do something like that... So far, I'm still waiting to find one with the huge balls. Either way, it's a lot of fun!
This seems to work alright for me:
/..
A = Shortest Possible Time (Ideal Time)
B = Realistic Time
C = Longest Possible Time
(A+2B+C)/4
Then double it so you can spend the extra time reading
With several more months left, how can they possibly make a "Best of 2006" list? It isn't over yet!