Around the age of 6, I was fascinated with spaceships, dinosaurs, racecars and robots. My love for robots resulted in many a robotic toys and I recall one birthday where I was given one of those "autonomous" 30 cm high robots that would move about in patterns, spin and open their chest to expose blazing cannons while making an awful racket. While I thought it cool in its inanimated state, I was terrified of it when it was activated. I would jump on to a stool or a bed and behold it from afar, and ask others to turn it off, when I had enough.
In the end, I had accumulated 3 robots of the sort and I got over my robot-freight. One or two of them, were actually able to fire 4 plastic projectiles, though not on their own. That required me to release a spring based firing mechanism.
When I started attending school, I once invited a friend over. By that time, I was very proud of my robot collection and I would brag, as kids do, about my toys. When telling my new found friend about my robots, I pointed out that one of the robots could fire missiles. In Danish the word missile vaguely (_vaguely_) resembles that of "oranges" (at least to a kid); and so having misheard me and perhaps never having heard the word "missiles" - he wasn't going to give me the impression that his own robot army was inferior to mine, and thus replied that his robots at home could also fire oranges.
In retrospective, the orange caliber is somewhat more impressive than little plastic darts, but back then missiles just sounded cooler than oranges.
I had a similar experience when I asked Joseph Weizenbaum (creator of Eliza) for an autograph at a lecture he held at my university.
He also gave me his e-mail address and a sad look. I felt very shallow and materialistic after that moment.
Until I figure out a question worthy of his time (doubt I ever will), I shall leave him alone.
There's a museum in Denmark that utilizes PDAs to "enrichen" the museum experience. Using barcodes/ something similar (it is able to interface with the exhibited items). One of concepts behind the "interactive museum", is that you choose what kind of topic you want to focus on. The current exhibit is based on birds of flight. You could e.g. focus on the differences between flight mechanics of birds, feeding habits or otherwise. The pda will then guide you through the various exhibitied items, and provide specialize information about the topic of your choice in the relation to the items you're presented with.
They have also developed "museum" game modes, designed for schoolchildren that encourage kids to do "research" as they travel from item to item, awarding them with points as they go along.
Furthermore - as far as I could tell, the pdas will store information about the items you have seen, and provide information about them online; so the experience doesnt end as you leave the museum. The idea is that, if you see an item of particular interest, you can "mark it" using your pda - and you will then be able to read more about it in a webportal, when you get back home.
The overall point is to cater for individual learning experiences. Why not use touchscreens, you might ask? Well, if you've been to a museum as of late, you might have experienced children fighting over getting to push buttons and the limit to conventional signs: there's only so many people that can read a sign at once in confined spaces.
With the pda, the user gets to investigate matters at his own pace, focusing on issues that interest him; while getting a feel for the physical aspect of things (rather than just sitting at home, using wikipedia or encarta)
My TV-Tunercard just arrived yesterday, and despite the fact that its slightly offtopic (me using windows and all), I thought I'd take the chance to ask about your thoughts about that card.
I havent had a TV since moved back to Århus in February, and I live in a small student collective. Focussing a fair bit on design, I've got a huge 21" sony triniton CRT that now doubles as a flat-heater as well as a TV.
I found the TV-Image to be a bit grainy when run in full screen and I wonder whether a different cable would influence the "reception" quality on a whole.. (I'm on cable though)
The card does seem to have a lot of nifty features, and it was pretty cheap.
My main gripes are with the happy-happy-joy-joy software interface. Are there any alternative softwares to those that get delivered with the given TV-Tuner cards?
You apply LED to internet connection.
You begind praying to Slashdot for attention. You finish your prayer. You feel that slashdot is displeased.
The LED is cursed. You cannot disconnect it from the internet.
The voice of slashdot booms: "Thou hast angered me."
I consider myself a veteran gamer (having been along for the ride since the first pong clones). I play games nearly daily, but certain considerations keep me from touching mmorpgs.
Being a student, I have a minimum income and I dont want to pay a monthy fee to play a game.
.. but what really keeps me from mmorpgs is the fact that computers take a big enough part of my time away as it is. I work as a webdesigner next to my studies. I design and program for fun (and profit) at home. I play SP games and the odd MP game online (battlefield mostly).. but I have dropped all "clan" activity.
I used to play ActionQuake for at least 3 hours a day a couple of years ago. Then CS came along. I realized I wasnt willing to invest the kind of time into a game, that was required to be able to do well. Sure, you could play less - but there's a virtual minimum weekly playtime, to be able to do fairly well CS server.. and a lot of the servers where inhabited with kids that spent all their sparetime perfecting their "mad skillz". I pretty much dropped MP fpsing (except for BF (because it counteracts 'ramboism'/lonewolf rules everyone).
All in all, I play a lot less these days than I used to; due to my studies, my job and the fact that I want some sort of social life outside the virtual world.
I was in for a surprise when my (now X) girlfriend forgot about our online meetings (We were living in two different countries at the time), because she got caught up in some trail-client for a mmorpg.
Once I'm going steady again*, I might pick up an mmorpg.. but for now there's waaay too much geek-time as it is.
Back in the day, when I moved to a student collective, I let two of my neighbours (that I hardly knew) borrow my computer so they could check mail.. that was the beginning of friendship that I cherish today
Hehe.. but what are the chances of that happening?
I supposed considering that both potential agents ( Carthumber and ringing-tone-jockey ) are likely candidates for top-x pop listening, which narrows down their choices of play, it wouldn't be that unlikely at all..
Then there's the issue of syncronization.. but lets face it; pop tends to be simple so we're not looking at two complex patterns that are hard to match..
Chances are you'll have people refering to a "wicked mix" they heard at some road-junction, the other day.. but they just can't seem to find it again.
My grudge with the MI films was that they pissed on the original concept: Teamwork. The movie goes along with the standard: one action hero and ditches the one thing that made the series great: specialists cooperating
Now, I havent played the remakes - but I remember the arcadegame, the c64 port and especially the amiga port with fondness.
Ramming motorcycles with your card, avoiding those annoying wheel cutters and tasting sidewinder missiles for bumping off innocents.
What we need now though; as I discussed with my brother the other day, is a new carmageddonish game - preferably set in a madmax/falloutish world with excellent multiplay and a great singleplayer story rich mode.
The shooter/car-carnage ratio is dangerously off scale.. gta is fun - but the softwarehouses keep churning out FPS'ers - We need weapons mounted on custom job-vehicles and fun bump'n run action..
Why did you have to remind me? 'Nippon kue kue... Happy go-oh lucky.. we are the one of those.. we made it.. hos HOS HOS HOS - YaaaaaTTa, Yatta, yatta'.
Havent heard it in months, and its still in there waiting to pop up with summoned.
Nope - not infantry. Field maintainance administration; Comm & Retrieval/Repair coordination in war-scenarios. Sat in a mobile office, with a small group of people and directed our maintainance company during exercises. We had an NT server and 2 clients per mobile office. It was warm and comfy compared to the field exercises of the first 3 months. Yup, had basic training like everyone else; which is when I got to throw a grenade, and "play" with guns.
I remember being very nervous about throwing my first (and hopefully last) handgrenade. Regardless of hollywood fantasies, it leaves you 3 seconds til detonation, once its armed and released.
I remember thinking "If you mess this up, it'll be your last mistake"
I'm glad I'm no longer in the army, but it was kind of neat to try, and fireworks will never be the same again.
Slashdot Mirror
I was waiting for that one to show.
Around the age of 6, I was fascinated with spaceships, dinosaurs, racecars and robots. My love for robots resulted in many a robotic toys and I recall one birthday where I was given one of those "autonomous" 30 cm high robots that would move about in patterns, spin and open their chest to expose blazing cannons while making an awful racket. While I thought it cool in its inanimated state, I was terrified of it when it was activated. I would jump on to a stool or a bed and behold it from afar, and ask others to turn it off, when I had enough.
In the end, I had accumulated 3 robots of the sort and I got over my robot-freight. One or two of them, were actually able to fire 4 plastic projectiles, though not on their own. That required me to release a spring based firing mechanism.
When I started attending school, I once invited a friend over. By that time, I was very proud of my robot collection and I would brag, as kids do, about my toys. When telling my new found friend about my robots, I pointed out that one of the robots could fire missiles. In Danish the word missile vaguely (_vaguely_) resembles that of "oranges" (at least to a kid); and so having misheard me and perhaps never having heard the word "missiles" - he wasn't going to give me the impression that his own robot army was inferior to mine, and thus replied that his robots at home could also fire oranges.
In retrospective, the orange caliber is somewhat more impressive than little plastic darts, but back then missiles just sounded cooler than oranges.
But how can I sell you shit, when you know its shit?
I'm thrilled that Ghost in the shell 2 is "now on screen".
I had a similar experience when I asked Joseph Weizenbaum (creator of Eliza) for an autograph at a lecture he held at my university. He also gave me his e-mail address and a sad look. I felt very shallow and materialistic after that moment. Until I figure out a question worthy of his time (doubt I ever will), I shall leave him alone.
There's a museum in Denmark that utilizes PDAs to "enrichen" the museum experience. Using barcodes/ something similar (it is able to interface with the exhibited items). One of concepts behind the "interactive museum", is that you choose what kind of topic you want to focus on. The current exhibit is based on birds of flight. You could e.g. focus on the differences between flight mechanics of birds, feeding habits or otherwise. The pda will then guide you through the various exhibitied items, and provide specialize information about the topic of your choice in the relation to the items you're presented with.
They have also developed "museum" game modes, designed for schoolchildren that encourage kids to do "research" as they travel from item to item, awarding them with points as they go along.
Furthermore - as far as I could tell, the pdas will store information about the items you have seen, and provide information about them online; so the experience doesnt end as you leave the museum. The idea is that, if you see an item of particular interest, you can "mark it" using your pda - and you will then be able to read more about it in a webportal, when you get back home.
The overall point is to cater for individual learning experiences.
Why not use touchscreens, you might ask? Well, if you've been to a museum as of late, you might have experienced children fighting over getting to push buttons and the limit to conventional signs: there's only so many people that can read a sign at once in confined spaces.
With the pda, the user gets to investigate matters at his own pace, focusing on issues that interest him; while getting a feel for the physical aspect of things (rather than just sitting at home, using wikipedia or encarta)
There's something to the term unauthorized demonstration that just echoes suppression.
My TV-Tunercard just arrived yesterday, and despite the fact that its slightly offtopic (me using windows and all), I thought I'd take the chance to ask about your thoughts about that card.
I havent had a TV since moved back to Århus in February, and I live in a small student collective. Focussing a fair bit on design, I've got a huge 21" sony triniton CRT that now doubles as a flat-heater as well as a TV.
I found the TV-Image to be a bit grainy when run in full screen and I wonder whether a different cable would influence the "reception" quality on a whole.. (I'm on cable though)
The card does seem to have a lot of nifty features, and it was pretty cheap.
My main gripes are with the happy-happy-joy-joy software interface. Are there any alternative softwares to those that get delivered with the given TV-Tuner cards?
Extended exposure to life will result in death.
Earlier that day:
You apply LED to internet connection.
You begind praying to Slashdot for attention.
You finish your prayer. You feel that slashdot is displeased.
The LED is cursed. You cannot disconnect it from the internet.
The voice of slashdot booms: "Thou hast angered me."
The last bit came out all wrong. Århus is a place, not a person. The "My X-Girlfriend" bit just snuck in there :/
I consider myself a veteran gamer (having been along for the ride since the first pong clones). I play games nearly daily, but certain considerations keep me from touching mmorpgs.
.. but what really keeps me from mmorpgs is the fact that computers take a big enough part of my time away as it is. I work as a webdesigner next to my studies. I design and program for fun (and profit) at home. I play SP games and the odd MP game online (battlefield mostly).. but I have dropped all "clan" activity.
Being a student, I have a minimum income and I dont want to pay a monthy fee to play a game.
I used to play ActionQuake for at least 3 hours a day a couple of years ago. Then CS came along. I realized I wasnt willing to invest the kind of time into a game, that was required to be able to do well. Sure, you could play less - but there's a virtual minimum weekly playtime, to be able to do fairly well CS server.. and a lot of the servers where inhabited with kids that spent all their sparetime perfecting their "mad skillz". I pretty much dropped MP fpsing (except for BF (because it counteracts 'ramboism'/lonewolf rules everyone).
All in all, I play a lot less these days than I used to; due to my studies, my job and the fact that I want some sort of social life outside the virtual world.
I was in for a surprise when my (now X) girlfriend forgot about our online meetings (We were living in two different countries at the time), because she got caught up in some trail-client for a mmorpg.
Once I'm going steady again*, I might pick up an mmorpg.. but for now there's waaay too much geek-time as it is.
*Look out Århus. My X-Girlfriend
My thoughts as well. I must have been playing too much civ :P
Never underestimate the energy potential of algea
.. he's been electrocuted!"
...GREEEEEEEN SLIME!...
"Oh - my - god
Back in the day, when I moved to a student collective, I let two of my neighbours (that I hardly knew) borrow my computer so they could check mail.. that was the beginning of friendship that I cherish today
Hehe.. but what are the chances of that happening?
I supposed considering that both potential agents ( Carthumber and ringing-tone-jockey ) are likely candidates for top-x pop listening, which narrows down their choices of play, it wouldn't be that unlikely at all..
Then there's the issue of syncronization.. but lets face it; pop tends to be simple so we're not looking at two complex patterns that are hard to match..
Chances are you'll have people refering to a "wicked mix" they heard at some road-junction, the other day.. but they just can't seem to find it again.
I have way too much time on my hands.
My grudge with the MI films was that they pissed on the original concept: Teamwork. The movie goes along with the standard: one action hero and ditches the one thing that made the series great: specialists cooperating
Now, I havent played the remakes - but I remember the arcadegame, the c64 port and especially the amiga port with fondness.
Ramming motorcycles with your card, avoiding those annoying wheel cutters and tasting sidewinder missiles for bumping off innocents.
What we need now though; as I discussed with my brother the other day, is a new carmageddonish game - preferably set in a madmax/falloutish world with excellent multiplay and a great singleplayer story rich mode.
The shooter/car-carnage ratio is dangerously off scale.. gta is fun - but the softwarehouses keep churning out FPS'ers - We need weapons mounted on custom job-vehicles and fun bump'n run action..
a pseudo-tag (meant to indicate the trainer) and poor spelling ruined that joke :P
*squeek!* *squeek!*
God job, cheesefoot!
*Ka-Booooom!*
800 downloads.. and I missed it. oh well
Why did you have to remind me? 'Nippon kue kue... Happy go-oh lucky.. we are the one of those.. we made it.. hos HOS HOS HOS - YaaaaaTTa, Yatta, yatta'.
Havent heard it in months, and its still in there waiting to pop up with summoned.
"..By reading these words, you are already part of the story. How involved you want to become is completely up to you...
Yep. *Closes browser*
Nope - not infantry. Field maintainance administration; Comm & Retrieval/Repair coordination in war-scenarios. Sat in a mobile office, with a small group of people and directed our maintainance company during exercises. We had an NT server and 2 clients per mobile office. It was warm and comfy compared to the field exercises of the first 3 months. Yup, had basic training like everyone else; which is when I got to throw a grenade, and "play" with guns.
I remember being very nervous about throwing my first (and hopefully last) handgrenade. Regardless of hollywood fantasies, it leaves you 3 seconds til detonation, once its armed and released.
I remember thinking "If you mess this up, it'll be your last mistake"
I'm glad I'm no longer in the army, but it was kind of neat to try, and fireworks will never be the same again.