Several people have mentioned counterstrike and day of defeat, both of which are Half-Life mods. About 10 or 12 of us get together once a month for a LAN party and we have found the HL and its mods are best. Once you install HL, you do not need the CD to play multiplayer.
There are many great multiplayer mods available: Team Fortress Classic, Deathmatch Classic (which recreates Quake 1 deathmatch), FireArms, Day of Defeat, Global Warfare, Counterstrike, etc. The first two on the list come with the latest HL patch and the rest are freely available for download.
This is similar to my experience learning physics (AP Physics C my junior year in high school). You have to learn to think, not just rote memorization. Don't just learn the basic formulas, learn how to use them. Ditto for other technical topics. Just because you know every command line switch for [insert favoirte console prog here] doesn't mean you know how to use it. If you're trying to learn something, don't just memorize, go out and use it. You may never need it again, but you'll probably remember enough. Though I have never taken a certification test (I'm a senior in HS), I think that they would be heavy on application.
Just my $0.02. For all I know, I'm wrong about the tests...
I've used the 6 GB archos, and frankly, I hated it. I returned it to CompUSA. It broke after about 3 days, wouldn't play or talk to my computer. It was fortunate that it stoped working and didn't work in the store either, else I would not have been able to get my money back. I highly reccomend avoiding Archos jukeboxes, read any messageboard about them, people have many problems, with the units and getting a response from the company.
I'm a high school student with too much going on this summer to get are real job, so I do computer work for people for $10/hr. In addition to fixing things when they break (windows), I also teach them things. Most of my clients are retired people who want to be able to do certain things. For example, scan pictures and email them, use voice recognition software b/c their arthritis makes typing a problem, etc. I've found that having them sit in the chair and do everything works best, me showing how to do something usually goes in one ear and out the other.
As to you question, I would show them how to use (I assume) windows. Basic things, starting programs, closing them, using the start menu. Maybe deleting files. Use some kind of word processor as a demo for all this, so they can learn something useful, as well as how to use the OS. Show them how to start a web browser and basic things, like how to go forward/back, favorites, the history, etc.
For the extremely paranoid, one could put one's computer in a Faraday Cage. Since there is no electric field within a conductor, radio cannot get in or out - radio is light is electromagnetic waves. No listening in on your wireless input, no listening in with TEMPEST, whatever that is. The only problem would be your ethernet cable. You could also use fiber optics for all conections, no radio leak from them.
Put it on a rocket in some semblance of a stable orbit around the sun. Hard to get to, sure, but very long lasting. Or you could send it to the moon, crash onto the surface, though you would have to worry about micrometeorite erosion. Get your DNA encoded onto a gold platter like on the Voyagers and pay JPL to put it on its next spacecraft that will leave the solar system. How about a crate of dynamite and a mountain as in Mt. Rushmore?
I've always loved FASA's RPGs, espcially if you count Battletech as a RPG. Unfortunaly, FASA has essentially gone out of business. Shadowrun has been sold, as has Battletech. I've played countless games of btech and lots of Earthdawn, liscenced to Living Room Games about a year ago. All of their products have been excellent and the Battletech fiction is really good. Michael A. Stackpole (of Star Wars: X-Wing fame) wrote some of the best of the novels, however, he due to reasions that are rather difficult to explain left, perhaps with new ownership, he'll return, please... If you're interested, I'd buy Battletech 4th Edition and the Blood of Kerensky trilogy by Stackople.
Anybody in South Carolina/Georgia (the Augusta area) interested in playing btech, email me.
... if it is working right, i seem to have a pretty good phone line. I average about 300 to 400 ping playing tfc, not too bad. I think my subdivion should rent a big pipe or something and set up a really big network. Bell south refuses offer DSL because "we live too far from their offices in downtown area" I wonder what an oc3 and big fiber lan would cost:)
My high school, which will remain unnamed, uses Bess; it sucks. Plus the librarians who run the entire network are completely clueless. While job shadowing at an ISP, I was told that that if you're trapped in a frame you can go anywhere without being filtered, can anybody confirm? If so, I'm going to put up a page on my freeshell account for just that purpose.
And you can get if for free off of the July 2000 PC Gamer CD or buy the package with all three xcom games on it. Yes, an excellent game, when I started playing, I didn't do anything productive for several days (this was during the summer).
I'll bet that it would be simple to modify these type cameras (wired would be better) for use in a telescope. Although the quality would be poor compared to a ccd or video camera designed for astronomy (SBIG, etc) it would be good for a beginner. I'm thinking of modifying my really cheap webcam for this use. All one would need to do is remove the assorted lenses and filters and mount it in the center of a 1.25" barrel. Just my $0.02
I redid them, converting to SI units, probably with some random mistakes of my own thrown in. This came up during the poll (Tis the season to...). Anyway, here's a link. And I didn't have to look up a single formula, then again, I've been studying for my AP Physics (C) midterm.
His World War series is pretty good, even if the plot sounds cheesy (Aliens invade in the middle of WWII). I read them at 13 - 14, but they're probably not too appropriate for someone of that age...
Slashdot Mirror
Several people have mentioned counterstrike and day of defeat, both of which are Half-Life mods. About 10 or 12 of us get together once a month for a LAN party and we have found the HL and its mods are best. Once you install HL, you do not need the CD to play multiplayer.
There are many great multiplayer mods available: Team Fortress Classic, Deathmatch Classic (which recreates Quake 1 deathmatch), FireArms, Day of Defeat, Global Warfare, Counterstrike, etc. The first two on the list come with the latest HL patch and the rest are freely available for download.
Planet Half-Life has an extensive list of mods.
This is similar to my experience learning physics (AP Physics C my junior year in high school). You have to learn to think, not just rote memorization. Don't just learn the basic formulas, learn how to use them. Ditto for other technical topics. Just because you know every command line switch for [insert favoirte console prog here] doesn't mean you know how to use it. If you're trying to learn something, don't just memorize, go out and use it. You may never need it again, but you'll probably remember enough. Though I have never taken a certification test (I'm a senior in HS), I think that they would be heavy on application.
Just my $0.02. For all I know, I'm wrong about the tests...
I've used the 6 GB archos, and frankly, I hated it. I returned it to CompUSA. It broke after about 3 days, wouldn't play or talk to my computer. It was fortunate that it stoped working and didn't work in the store either, else I would not have been able to get my money back. I highly reccomend avoiding Archos jukeboxes, read any messageboard about them, people have many problems, with the units and getting a response from the company.
I live in SC and will be 18 next April, so I'm wondering when I will be able to not vote for Hollings :)
Ingersoll
I'm a high school student with too much going on this summer to get are real job, so I do computer work for people for $10/hr. In addition to fixing things when they break (windows), I also teach them things. Most of my clients are retired people who want to be able to do certain things. For example, scan pictures and email them, use voice recognition software b/c their arthritis makes typing a problem, etc. I've found that having them sit in the chair and do everything works best, me showing how to do something usually goes in one ear and out the other.
As to you question, I would show them how to use (I assume) windows. Basic things, starting programs, closing them, using the start menu. Maybe deleting files. Use some kind of word processor as a demo for all this, so they can learn something useful, as well as how to use the OS. Show them how to start a web browser and basic things, like how to go forward/back, favorites, the history, etc.
Just my $0.02
For the extremely paranoid, one could put one's computer in a Faraday Cage. Since there is no electric field within a conductor, radio cannot get in or out - radio is light is electromagnetic waves. No listening in on your wireless input, no listening in with TEMPEST, whatever that is. The only problem would be your ethernet cable. You could also use fiber optics for all conections, no radio leak from them.
Put it on a rocket in some semblance of a stable orbit around the sun. Hard to get to, sure, but very long lasting. Or you could send it to the moon, crash onto the surface, though you would have to worry about micrometeorite erosion. Get your DNA encoded onto a gold platter like on the Voyagers and pay JPL to put it on its next spacecraft that will leave the solar system. How about a crate of dynamite and a mountain as in Mt. Rushmore?
I've always loved FASA's RPGs, espcially if you count Battletech as a RPG. Unfortunaly, FASA has essentially gone out of business. Shadowrun has been sold, as has Battletech. I've played countless games of btech and lots of Earthdawn, liscenced to Living Room Games about a year ago. All of their products have been excellent and the Battletech fiction is really good. Michael A. Stackpole (of Star Wars: X-Wing fame) wrote some of the best of the novels, however, he due to reasions that are rather difficult to explain left, perhaps with new ownership, he'll return, please... If you're interested, I'd buy Battletech 4th Edition and the Blood of Kerensky trilogy by Stackople.
Anybody in South Carolina/Georgia (the Augusta area) interested in playing btech, email me.
Brin's books are: Sundiver, The Uplift War, Startide Rising, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, and Heaven's Reach.
I thought they were very good, and David Brin in general is an excellent writer. He, along with two other authors wrote a new Foundation series.
... if it is working right, i seem to have a pretty good phone line. I average about 300 to 400 ping playing tfc, not too bad. I think my subdivion should rent a big pipe or something and set up a really big network. Bell south refuses offer DSL because "we live too far from their offices in downtown area" I wonder what an oc3 and big fiber lan would cost :)
This month's Popular Science has a couple of pages about it, pretty immoble right now, it requires a pool table's worth of optics and equipment.
My high school, which will remain unnamed, uses Bess; it sucks. Plus the librarians who run the entire network are completely clueless. While job shadowing at an ISP, I was told that that if you're trapped in a frame you can go anywhere without being filtered, can anybody confirm? If so, I'm going to put up a page on my freeshell account for just that purpose.
And you can get if for free off of the July 2000 PC Gamer CD or buy the package with all three xcom games on it. Yes, an excellent game, when I started playing, I didn't do anything productive for several days (this was during the summer).
JEI
I'll bet that it would be simple to modify these type cameras (wired would be better) for use in a telescope. Although the quality would be poor compared to a ccd or video camera designed for astronomy (SBIG, etc) it would be good for a beginner. I'm thinking of modifying my really cheap webcam for this use. All one would need to do is remove the assorted lenses and filters and mount it in the center of a 1.25" barrel. Just my $0.02
I redid them, converting to SI units, probably with some random mistakes of my own thrown in. This came up during the poll (Tis the season to...). Anyway, here's a link. And I didn't have to look up a single formula, then again, I've been studying for my AP Physics (C) midterm.
His World War series is pretty good, even if the plot sounds cheesy (Aliens invade in the middle of WWII). I read them at 13 - 14, but they're probably not too appropriate for someone of that age...
The book that comes after Xenocide is Children of the Mind.