Because as we all know, if the all of the world's militaries disappeared, why overnight, the whole world would live in harmony and peace. Especially if firearms were illegal everywhere. Then, no one would have any guns (because killers hate to break the law) or armies, and physically powerful gangs of merciless cutthroats with lots of sword and archery practice would definitely NOT roam the land pillaging and raping peaceful farmers and artisans. It's unthinkable, it's never happened. Why, before there were guns and armies, all people lived in a blessed Utopia free of disease, famine, rampaging predators and rival tribes trying to eat you. It was only when evil men created cities and armies to protect themselves (from God knows what! there was nothing to fear!) that life became to unbearably harsh and, GASP, *BABIES WERE KILLED*! Later, firearms were invented that allowed evil old ladies to actually protect themseleves from gangs of virile young criminals by, *HORROR*, SHOOTING THEM AND HURTING, OR EVEN KILLING THEM!
This madness must stop. I demand a return to good old days when there was no war, disease, guns, filthy capitalist pigs, or PVC packaging that's fucking impossible to open.
Games should be, and are, judged ultimately by only one criteria... is it fun?
Take, for example, "American McGee's Alice". Artistically, it was a tour de force. But it was plagued by mediocre mechanics and gameplay, and, despite the beautiful level design, the levels were like a "rail-shooter", there was only one path to follow. It got good initial reviews because of its sheer beauty, but people soon came to realize that it just wasn't much fun.
Artistic? Yes. Fun? Not really. So, as a game, it wasn't very good.
Long term sales are the best indicator of a game's quality. All intellectual pretension aside, the people vote with their wallets. Word of mouth will ensure the success of a game that most people find fun.
To be fair, to a LISP guru like Graham, everything else sucks (except maybe C, and then it's only an evil of convenience). And rightly so... if you are an expert in a functional language with highly optimized implementations like LISP, everything else does suck.
But many of us can't think like that (or at least, we don't have the discipline or desire to learn). It takes me a lot longer to develop an elegant solution to a real-world problem in a functional language than to just bang it out in Perl or BASIC.
I like the Keytronic LT Classic II. Just like your basic keyboard (no superfluous or missing keys), except the keys seem to never go dead or even lose their bounce! Lifetime guarantee for $39.00.
If it's 20,000 LY away it didn't brighten 3 times last year (that we know of)... rather it brightened 3 times in one year approximately 20,000 years ago.
Western capitalists respect the concept of the Individual and his right to be free of an arbitrary State taking his hard earned Money. People come to America to be rich capitalists because it's better than being poor communists.
The 20th century clearly demonstrated that communism, and it's totalitarian cousins fascism and priest-ridden-oligarchy, lead to starvation and genocide, while free markets keep the western democracies well-fed and productive.
Thanks for your insight. I wish the Iranian people the best for the future of their country, and a bloodless revolution to bring it about. I just wish the US government would help more... I can only hope our actions in Iraq are helping the whole region.
What do you mean, where did they get the gun? There are literally millions of kids in the US with.22 rifles. And millions of them do nothing illegal with them every single day, and never will. Blaming a gun is just as bad as blaming a videogame.
What else do you want? Eliminating the possibility of other interfaces and toolkits, so nobody will be confused? How exactly do you propose to stop people from developing alternative interfaces for fun? Make it illegal?
The whole concept of an exclusive interface for Unix is ridiculous pipe dream.
It's more like discovering that all the locks can be bypassed with a credit card and then telling all the tenants how to do it. A lot could be stolen before everyone got their stuff out. Probably not, but it presents the opportunity. He should have given the company a chance to clean up their mess before revealing the exploit.
But, I don't think he should go to prison. His intentions were to embarrass the company into fixing the hole; not entirely honorable, and there are much better ways to go about it, but that's not felonious intent. There is also the issue of the company's shared liability by their neglect to secure their customers' data, knowing that an exploit was possible.
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Because as we all know, if the all of the world's militaries disappeared, why overnight, the whole world would live in harmony and peace. Especially if firearms were illegal everywhere. Then, no one would have any guns (because killers hate to break the law) or armies, and physically powerful gangs of merciless cutthroats with lots of sword and archery practice would definitely NOT roam the land pillaging and raping peaceful farmers and artisans. It's unthinkable, it's never happened. Why, before there were guns and armies, all people lived in a blessed Utopia free of disease, famine, rampaging predators and rival tribes trying to eat you. It was only when evil men created cities and armies to protect themselves (from God knows what! there was nothing to fear!) that life became to unbearably harsh and, GASP, *BABIES WERE KILLED*! Later, firearms were invented that allowed evil old ladies to actually protect themseleves from gangs of virile young criminals by, *HORROR*, SHOOTING THEM AND HURTING, OR EVEN KILLING THEM!
This madness must stop. I demand a return to good old days when there was no war, disease, guns, filthy capitalist pigs, or PVC packaging that's fucking impossible to open.
Uh... count the digits in my ID. Now count the digits in yours.
You don't have to be a liberal asshat to be a geek.
... he deserves a righteous ass-kicking.
You're welcome to leave at any time.
... that he's not a "button-masher".
Ditto.
One of the first things I used to learn about a new programming language was how to generate random numbers so I could write a character generator.
I always used my own programs while GM'ing to randomly generate and keep track of NPC and monster stats.
EH? The baby boomers are old enough to have grandchildren to watch with.
Games should be, and are, judged ultimately by only one criteria... is it fun?
Take, for example, "American McGee's Alice". Artistically, it was a tour de force. But it was plagued by mediocre mechanics and gameplay, and, despite the beautiful level design, the levels were like a "rail-shooter", there was only one path to follow. It got good initial reviews because of its sheer beauty, but people soon came to realize that it just wasn't much fun.
Artistic? Yes. Fun? Not really. So, as a game, it wasn't very good.
Long term sales are the best indicator of a game's quality. All intellectual pretension aside, the people vote with their wallets. Word of mouth will ensure the success of a game that most people find fun.
Hopefully, they won't set up a mass base on the moon and threaten us with big rocks dropped from the top of the gravity well.
I must concur.
Damn, I've sold and given away all my Banks books... time to start buying them again for a reread.
To be fair, to a LISP guru like Graham, everything else sucks (except maybe C, and then it's only an evil of convenience). And rightly so... if you are an expert in a functional language with highly optimized implementations like LISP, everything else does suck.
But many of us can't think like that (or at least, we don't have the discipline or desire to learn). It takes me a lot longer to develop an elegant solution to a real-world problem in a functional language than to just bang it out in Perl or BASIC.
You are so wrong.
I don't have a beard.
... the 5-second-rule is that the dog has 5 seconds to eat dropped food before I pick it up and eat it myself.
He knows this, and usually manages to snatch the morsel before it even hits the floor.
I like the Keytronic LT Classic II. Just like your basic keyboard (no superfluous or missing keys), except the keys seem to never go dead or even lose their bounce! Lifetime guarantee for $39.00.
If it's 20,000 LY away it didn't brighten 3 times last year (that we know of)... rather it brightened 3 times in one year approximately 20,000 years ago.
Nobody has a job as a computer anymore... they've all been replaced by computers.
Western capitalists respect the concept of the Individual and his right to be free of an arbitrary State taking his hard earned Money. People come to America to be rich capitalists because it's better than being poor communists.
The 20th century clearly demonstrated that communism, and it's totalitarian cousins fascism and priest-ridden-oligarchy, lead to starvation and genocide, while free markets keep the western democracies well-fed and productive.
Yes. Help. I'm being oppressed by "The Man". Will nobody fight for my right as an American to view porn and communist propaganda?
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of anonymizing proxies.
Thanks for your insight. I wish the Iranian people the best for the future of their country, and a bloodless revolution to bring it about. I just wish the US government would help more... I can only hope our actions in Iraq are helping the whole region.
Is there some moral dilemma in your mind with undermining the authority of a totalitarian regime that is hated by its own people?
What do you mean, where did they get the gun? There are literally millions of kids in the US with .22 rifles. And millions of them do nothing illegal with them every single day, and never will. Blaming a gun is just as bad as blaming a videogame.
If you want standardized and simple, use Red Hat.
What else do you want? Eliminating the possibility of other interfaces and toolkits, so nobody will be confused? How exactly do you propose to stop people from developing alternative interfaces for fun? Make it illegal?
The whole concept of an exclusive interface for Unix is ridiculous pipe dream.
It's more like discovering that all the locks can be bypassed with a credit card and then telling all the tenants how to do it. A lot could be stolen before everyone got their stuff out. Probably not, but it presents the opportunity. He should have given the company a chance to clean up their mess before revealing the exploit.
But, I don't think he should go to prison. His intentions were to embarrass the company into fixing the hole; not entirely honorable, and there are much better ways to go about it, but that's not felonious intent. There is also the issue of the company's shared liability by their neglect to secure their customers' data, knowing that an exploit was possible.
He should be fined for being an asshole.
I don't know. Could you provide a link with more information?