Published in 1957, it depicts colonization of alien planets by adapted men. Sort of reverse terraforming, here called pantropy, ie spreading the human race by adapting man's body to the environment while preserving his deep human nature. Not the best SF book ever, but very interesting nevertheless.
Quote: "You didn't make an Adapted Man with just a wave of the wand. It involved an elaborate constellation of techniques, known collectively as pantropy, that changed the human pattern in a man's shape and chemistry before he was born. And the pantropists didn't stop there. Education, thoughts, ancestors and the world itself were changed, because the Adapted Men were produced to live and thrive in the alien environments found only in space. They were crucial to a daring plan to colonize the universe."
I Television also has a pretty good local coverage, but less audience than France 3. I'd also suggest writing to Le Canard Enchaine, which has a dedicated column for this kind of stories ("Couac").
I'm not as optimistic as the previous poster, remember what happened to Serge Humpich. This guy found a way to crack the so-called most secure bank card system in the world (french Carte Bleue). He then contacted the system's proprietor (GIE Cartes Bancaires), offering help (not freely, alas for him) to fix the system thanks to his expertise, and as a demonstration bought a handful of metro tickets. He was indicted, temporarily jailed and found guilty of fraud, falsification and unauthorized access to an automated system. During the trial GIE kept on claiming that their system was unbreakable, yet some time later the first "Yes-cards" appeared on the black market and cracking info spread on the Net. Had the GIE taken Humpich seriously, no yes-cards could have been produced and no businesses harmed (usually small ones such as automated video cassette rental).
Merde pour la suite (frenchmen never wish good luck)
Smalltalk uses and enforces this convention, and Smalltalk is an industrial strength language. This convention is really effective, makes sense, is consistent and intuitive. You should improve your culture before bashing gratuitously.
BTW right now we're all using a software that embeds a prototype-based object oriented language: JavaScript. If you want to grab the concept I suggest you give it a try (note that I'm talking about the language, which is fine, not about the library or the implementations, which mostly suck). That makes JavaScript, a prototype-based language, the most widely deployed scripting language in the world.
Everybody nowadays seem to think that classes are mandatory in a OO language. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
Bootable Linux distro + auto-launched game + USB flash drive
= zero-install game
Live CD distros such as Knoppix seem to be rather popular these days and work fairly well (hardware autodetection...). So this solution is already viable for booting into a desktop environment. But what if it booted into a gaming environment? And what if it booted directly into the game?
Sounds familiar? PC + bootable game + USB flash drive = PS2/XBox + game CD + memory card.
So, instead of a game-based distro, one could create a linux-based framework for developing bootable games. Thanks to Linux being open source, we can modify the boot process at will. This is something we can't do as easily with proprietary systems (Windows), so the real advantage of OSS is obvious here.
With such a framework, the OS could be specifically tailored for gaming needs by removing all the useless stuff (unused daemons...). We could for example use SFF PCs (Shuttle...), possibly diskless, as game consoles.
The game becomes the distro. As it is linux-based, one could also launch or install the game from a regular linux environment instead of booting. And it could also be launched on Windows boxes since it bypasses the system completely. Or even on Mac if the proper kernel & binaries are installed. Or even on PS2 or XBox, why not;-)
Slashdot Mirror
A pizza box is too likely to attract geeks
Not surprising for a brain-dead OS
Rottenflesh ain't bad either as a Freshmeat parody.
Life is much simpler in Indiana, where Pi=3.2 (almost)
Their camcorder sucks.
Published in 1957, it depicts colonization of alien planets by adapted men. Sort of reverse terraforming, here called pantropy, ie spreading the human race by adapting man's body to the environment while preserving his deep human nature. Not the best SF book ever, but very interesting nevertheless.
Quote:
"You didn't make an Adapted Man with just a wave of the wand. It involved an elaborate constellation of techniques, known collectively as pantropy, that changed the human pattern in a man's shape and chemistry before he was born. And the pantropists didn't stop there. Education, thoughts, ancestors and the world itself were changed, because the Adapted Men were produced to live and thrive in the alien environments found only in space. They were crucial to a daring plan to colonize the universe."
I Television also has a pretty good local coverage, but less audience than France 3. I'd also suggest writing to Le Canard Enchaine, which has a dedicated column for this kind of stories ("Couac").
I'm not as optimistic as the previous poster, remember what happened to Serge Humpich. This guy found a way to crack the so-called most secure bank card system in the world (french Carte Bleue). He then contacted the system's proprietor (GIE Cartes Bancaires), offering help (not freely, alas for him) to fix the system thanks to his expertise, and as a demonstration bought a handful of metro tickets. He was indicted, temporarily jailed and found guilty of fraud, falsification and unauthorized access to an automated system. During the trial GIE kept on claiming that their system was unbreakable, yet some time later the first "Yes-cards" appeared on the black market and cracking info spread on the Net. Had the GIE taken Humpich seriously, no yes-cards could have been produced and no businesses harmed (usually small ones such as automated video cassette rental).
Merde pour la suite (frenchmen never wish good luck)
Smalltalk uses and enforces this convention, and Smalltalk is an industrial strength language. This convention is really effective, makes sense, is consistent and intuitive. You should improve your culture before bashing gratuitously.
BTW right now we're all using a software that embeds a prototype-based object oriented language: JavaScript. If you want to grab the concept I suggest you give it a try (note that I'm talking about the language, which is fine, not about the library or the implementations, which mostly suck). That makes JavaScript, a prototype-based language, the most widely deployed scripting language in the world.
Everybody nowadays seem to think that classes are mandatory in a OO language. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
Maybe it has been said before, but anyway:
;-)
Bootable Linux distro
+ auto-launched game
+ USB flash drive
= zero-install game
Live CD distros such as Knoppix seem to be rather popular these days and work fairly well (hardware autodetection...). So this solution is already viable for booting into a desktop environment. But what if it booted into a gaming environment? And what if it booted directly into the game?
Sounds familiar? PC + bootable game + USB flash drive = PS2/XBox + game CD + memory card.
So, instead of a game-based distro, one could create a linux-based framework for developing bootable games. Thanks to Linux being open source, we can modify the boot process at will. This is something we can't do as easily with proprietary systems (Windows), so the real advantage of OSS is obvious here.
With such a framework, the OS could be specifically tailored for gaming needs by removing all the useless stuff (unused daemons...). We could for example use SFF PCs (Shuttle...), possibly diskless, as game consoles.
The game becomes the distro. As it is linux-based, one could also launch or install the game from a regular linux environment instead of booting. And it could also be launched on Windows boxes since it bypasses the system completely. Or even on Mac if the proper kernel & binaries are installed. Or even on PS2 or XBox, why not
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