If I was a publisher, I would pick this up in a heartbeat... Just because LucasArts are RETARDED and don't realize they can profit on their great legacy like Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, doesn't mean some other (smarter) publisher can't either.
I, personally, can't wait to play this game, even though I'm not a big fan of White Wolf games... Longest Journey, Syberia, new Leisure Suit Larry game , this one.. I'm almost afraid to say it, but maybe, MAYBE, adventure games are making a comeback?
The best example of online justice, imo, is in the movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", where the protagonists obtain a fortune at the end of the film, since a movie was made based on their lives, and then spend it on tracking down everyone who talked shit about them on the Internet, flying to their houses, and beating the crap out of them:-)
I'm basically the only guy in my group of friends who can build computers and can help others when something goes wrong. So the first thing I tell them is - stop using IE, and switch to Firefox. If they refuse to do so, I simply explain that life is all about choices. This is a free country, and of course, they have a choice of using IE. And I have a choice of not helping them with anything related to their computer if they don't take my advice. It's that simple.
All of them made the right choice so far:-)
Needless to say, when I build a new computer for someone, I delete all shortcuts to IE, and put a shortcut labeled "INTERNET (Mozilla Firefox)" right in the middle of the desktop.
And while you're at it, apologize for Brian Adams and Alanis Morisette. Of course, we have to apologize for about 95% of everything else that's on the radio:-(
Great game indeed! The original was one of the first and greatest RPG/Strategy/Action hybrid games of all time... incredibly addictive, and I'm talking Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - kind of addictive! Highly recommended for everyone!
One of the main reasons I keep going back to playing certain single-player RPG's like Fallout, Betrayal at Krondor, Planescape: the Torment and Baldur's Gate is the excellent storyline, worthy of any movie. Maybe if any MMORPG had a good storyline, I would check it out...
.. in a great sci-fi book "Labyrinth of Reflections" by Sergey Lukianenko. Unfortunately, it hasn't been translated into English (yet), so I can't post a link...
In the book, there's a funny bit about cyberworld residents meeting in a town hall by the Statue of a Last Spammer... built when the last spammer was exterminated by the bounty hunters. Being wise enough, the governments still decided to keep the bounty in effect AFTER the last spammer was caught.
Personally, I think this is crazy enough that it could work. Imagine the unlimited energies of 16 year olds who spend their days glued to the computer, chatting on IRC, cracking porn site passwords, doing various small-scale mischief and playing Counterstrike, directed towards catching spammers. All I can say is, that would be a BAD time to be a spammer.
Send $5 to the 5 names on this list, then put your name at the top, remove that last entry, and send it to 5 of your friends.
I forgot where I read that (maybe even here), but here goes anyway:
Imagine that combined with penis enlargment spam. Cut your penis into 5 parts, send each part to top 5 names on the list.. receive more penis in the mail! Guaranteed to add inches and inches to your penis!
... where the boss comes up to Dilbert and says "I think we need to build a relational database.", and Dilbert asks 'What color do you want it in?', and the boss replies 'Blue will be the best' or something like that...
I've graduated a year ago, and I hope my experience can help you and other recent graduates, even a little bit, in this tough market.
I got my Bachelor's in CS in May 2003. I didn't graduate a Top 10 Ivy League school, or have a particularly good GPA, so I knew it was going to be very hard. I looked around for jobs for a while, went on a few interviews, but I had no clue on how to pass interviews, or how to write a resume. So, money was very scarce and I needed some kind of job.
So I got a job - I don't even want to say what it was, it wasn't programming for sure. I worked there for 8 hours a day, and then I went to my friend's office to help him set up his business - both software and hardware, and then I came home, practiced programming and sent out resumes. I read programming books on the train everywhere, as well.
After a while, I got really lucky - a family friend agreed to help me with my resume, and I realized how much it sucked. There's way too little space here and I don't have the time to say everything I want to say about the resume, but here's a few basic pointers.
Make it absolutely clear what kind of job you are looking for. Don't put there things that would indicate that basically, you would agree to any job in an IT field.
Put concrete things on your resume, that show that you know what the hell you're talking about. So instead of 'Programmed a Java', write 'Used Java to design and develop an inventory management application, utilizing Swing for front-end and JDBC to interact with Sybase database.' People that search through resumes on Monster.com or Dice.com don't look for 'Java', they look for Swing, JSP, JDBC - etc.
Don't lie. At least, don't flat out lie - everyone expects your resume to paint a little better picture than you actually are, but don't put blatant lies like 4 years of Unix experience while your Unix experience has been limited to checking your college mail at campus network (guilty).
Keep track of where you send your resume, what position, and what version of your resume. Nothing fancy, simple Notepad file will do. But it saves you a lot of valuale time while searching for a job.
Interviews - again, there are tomes written on this subject, but basic pointers again: SHOW YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Ask questions that show that you understend and are genuinely interested in the subject. The word "no" should NOT come out of your mouth. Of course, again, you shouldn't flat out lie - but if someone ask's you if you know skill X, instead of 'No', you should say "I've heard about it, but didn't have the opportunity to work with it professionally.. however, I'm a very fast learner and will pick up very fast"
The money question. The correct response to 'How much money do you want?' is "Money is really not that important to me, if the job is interesting and challenging, I would be happy with any reasonable offer." If they ask you to name a number, name a range. DON'T UNDERVALUE YOURSELF. If the job pays $40K and you say you'll be willing to do it for $25K, the alarm bell immediately rings in your interviewer's head - if this guy is so desperate to do this job for $25K, he must be a loser. Next!
So, in conclusion, looking for a job is a VERY HARD job in itself. You have to pay attention to every small detail and work very hard to succeed. In my case, after 10 months it finally paid off - I was offered a full time position and now happily working for a major financial company, with a salary almost twice as large as an average entry-level CS graduate.
Assuming that these rules describe how Microsoft design their software, then I have to say there's nothing wrong with them. For example, the one platform issue - Microsoft has an opportunity to design for one platform, they know they can get away with it, and that's how they do. So the rule works for them.
However, whether these rules are applicable for others is another question whatsoever. Microsoft's goal is to monopolize the market and get insane profits, and well, not give a shit about anything else. So if you look at these rules from that viewpoint, they make perfect sense - but not much else. That's why I think the author should make it more clearer that these rules apply only for a company that has a market share comparable to Microsoft and has the same goals.
So, in conclusion, these rules are mostly useless for anybody but Microsoft.
I applaud them for having the guts to make some major changes to the franchise, as opposed to 'let's not fix what's not broken, make some new graphics, sounds, levels, and call it a sequel'.
However, I'm praying to God that they don't make it real time. Civ series is one of the few last examples of turn based strategy games done exceptionally well. I'd hate to see it become another RTS clone...
That game was an absolutely great, and in my opinion, along with X-Com, early Might & Magic games, Ultimas, Doom, LucasArts adventures, Dune 2, and many many others, represented the golden age of computer gaming . I just wish someday gaming companies would return to caring about gameplay and not visuals.
Pair Nailed In AOL Spam Scheme
Arrested in theft of firm's 30 million subscriber list
JUNE 23--An AOL software engineer was arrested today for stealing the company's entire subscriber list--totaling 92 million screen names--and selling it to a 21-year-old Las Vegas spammer. According to the below federal criminal complaint, Jason Smathers, 24, last year illegally accessed the highly confidential AOL list by using another employee's identification codes. Smathers, who worked in AOL's Dulles, Virginia office, then allegedly sold the list to Sean Dunaway, who used the AOL database to promote his own online gambling business and who also sold the list for $52,000 to fellow spammers, one of whom used the names "for purposes of marketing herbal penile enlargement pills," according to the complaint. AOL's subscriber base is about 30 million individual customers, who account for 92 million different screen names. Prosecutors also contend that Smathers subsequently sold Hathaway an updated AOL customer list--this one with approximately 18 million names--for $100,000. Both men have been charged with conspiracy, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. The Secret Service probe was aided by a spammer who purchased the two lists from Dunaway and is now seeking "leniency concerning his/her participation" in the AOL conspiracy, notes the complaint. (13 pages)
... if you're having a convention outside, you don't NEED computers. Enjoy the outside world, have a barbeque, play frisbee (I dare not say any other sport in fear for my karma, I already got it too low giving honest answers like this), and forget about computers, if at least for ONE DAY.
I'm sure that's what everyone wants to see now in 2004. Please, don't ruin my childhood dream of seeing Carrie Fischer naked by making me imagine the same thing now.. *shudder*
Slashdot Mirror
If I was a publisher, I would pick this up in a heartbeat... Just because LucasArts are RETARDED and don't realize they can profit on their great legacy like Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, doesn't mean some other (smarter) publisher can't either.
... Longest Journey, Syberia, new Leisure Suit Larry game , this one .. I'm almost afraid to say it, but maybe, MAYBE, adventure games are making a comeback?
I, personally, can't wait to play this game, even though I'm not a big fan of White Wolf games
The best example of online justice, imo, is in the movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", where the protagonists obtain a fortune at the end of the film, since a movie was made based on their lives, and then spend it on tracking down everyone who talked shit about them on the Internet, flying to their houses, and beating the crap out of them :-)
I'm basically the only guy in my group of friends who can build computers and can help others when something goes wrong. So the first thing I tell them is - stop using IE, and switch to Firefox. If they refuse to do so, I simply explain that life is all about choices. This is a free country, and of course, they have a choice of using IE. And I have a choice of not helping them with anything related to their computer if they don't take my advice. It's that simple.
:-)
All of them made the right choice so far
Needless to say, when I build a new computer for someone, I delete all shortcuts to IE, and put a shortcut labeled "INTERNET (Mozilla Firefox)" right in the middle of the desktop.
And while you're at it, apologize for Brian Adams and Alanis Morisette. Of course, we have to apologize for about 95% of everything else that's on the radio :-(
... Fix It Again, Tony!
It's only fitting that they partner up with MicroSoft.
Great game indeed! The original was one of the first and greatest RPG/Strategy/Action hybrid games of all time... incredibly addictive, and I'm talking Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - kind of addictive! Highly recommended for everyone!
One of the main reasons I keep going back to playing certain single-player RPG's like Fallout, Betrayal at Krondor, Planescape: the Torment and Baldur's Gate is the excellent storyline, worthy of any movie. Maybe if any MMORPG had a good storyline, I would check it out ...
... this just in: a snowstorm warning from Hell!
.. in a great sci-fi book "Labyrinth of Reflections" by Sergey Lukianenko. Unfortunately, it hasn't been translated into English (yet), so I can't post a link ...
In the book, there's a funny bit about cyberworld residents meeting in a town hall by the Statue of a Last Spammer... built when the last spammer was exterminated by the bounty hunters. Being wise enough, the governments still decided to keep the bounty in effect AFTER the last spammer was caught.
Personally, I think this is crazy enough that it could work. Imagine the unlimited energies of 16 year olds who spend their days glued to the computer, chatting on IRC, cracking porn site passwords, doing various small-scale mischief and playing Counterstrike, directed towards catching spammers. All I can say is, that would be a BAD time to be a spammer.
Send $5 to the 5 names on this list, then put your name at the top, remove that last entry, and send it to 5 of your friends.
I forgot where I read that (maybe even here), but here goes anyway:
Imagine that combined with penis enlargment spam. Cut your penis into 5 parts, send each part to top 5 names on the list.. receive more penis in the mail! Guaranteed to add inches and inches to your penis!
... where the boss comes up to Dilbert and says "I think we need to build a relational database.", and Dilbert asks 'What color do you want it in?', and the boss replies 'Blue will be the best' or something like that ...
only some 0.01% of all jobs are being outsourced and the chance that you'll loose your job over it are practically nil
Are you kidding me? What planet are you from? You wouldn't possibly be talking about USA, right? If you are, might I inquire where you got that stats?
I've graduated a year ago, and I hope my experience can help you and other recent graduates, even a little bit, in this tough market.
I got my Bachelor's in CS in May 2003. I didn't graduate a Top 10 Ivy League school, or have a particularly good GPA, so I knew it was going to be very hard. I looked around for jobs for a while, went on a few interviews, but I had no clue on how to pass interviews, or how to write a resume. So, money was very scarce and I needed some kind of job.
So I got a job - I don't even want to say what it was, it wasn't programming for sure. I worked there for 8 hours a day, and then I went to my friend's office to help him set up his business - both software and hardware, and then I came home, practiced programming and sent out resumes. I read programming books on the train everywhere, as well.
After a while, I got really lucky - a family friend agreed to help me with my resume, and I realized how much it sucked. There's way too little space here and I don't have the time to say everything I want to say about the resume, but here's a few basic pointers.
Make it absolutely clear what kind of job you are looking for. Don't put there things that would indicate that basically, you would agree to any job in an IT field.
Put concrete things on your resume, that show that you know what the hell you're talking about. So instead of 'Programmed a Java', write 'Used Java to design and develop an inventory management application, utilizing Swing for front-end and JDBC to interact with Sybase database.' People that search through resumes on Monster.com or Dice.com don't look for 'Java', they look for Swing, JSP, JDBC - etc.
Don't lie. At least, don't flat out lie - everyone expects your resume to paint a little better picture than you actually are, but don't put blatant lies like 4 years of Unix experience while your Unix experience has been limited to checking your college mail at campus network (guilty).
Keep track of where you send your resume, what position, and what version of your resume. Nothing fancy, simple Notepad file will do. But it saves you a lot of valuale time while searching for a job.
Interviews - again, there are tomes written on this subject, but basic pointers again: SHOW YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Ask questions that show that you understend and are genuinely interested in the subject. The word "no" should NOT come out of your mouth. Of course, again, you shouldn't flat out lie - but if someone ask's you if you know skill X, instead of 'No', you should say "I've heard about it, but didn't have the opportunity to work with it professionally.. however, I'm a very fast learner and will pick up very fast"
The money question. The correct response to 'How much money do you want?' is "Money is really not that important to me, if the job is interesting and challenging, I would be happy with any reasonable offer." If they ask you to name a number, name a range. DON'T UNDERVALUE YOURSELF. If the job pays $40K and you say you'll be willing to do it for $25K, the alarm bell immediately rings in your interviewer's head - if this guy is so desperate to do this job for $25K, he must be a loser. Next!
So, in conclusion, looking for a job is a VERY HARD job in itself. You have to pay attention to every small detail and work very hard to succeed. In my case, after 10 months it finally paid off - I was offered a full time position and now happily working for a major financial company, with a salary almost twice as large as an average entry-level CS graduate.
Assuming that these rules describe how Microsoft design their software, then I have to say there's nothing wrong with them. For example, the one platform issue - Microsoft has an opportunity to design for one platform, they know they can get away with it, and that's how they do. So the rule works for them.
However, whether these rules are applicable for others is another question whatsoever. Microsoft's goal is to monopolize the market and get insane profits, and well, not give a shit about anything else. So if you look at these rules from that viewpoint, they make perfect sense - but not much else. That's why I think the author should make it more clearer that these rules apply only for a company that has a market share comparable to Microsoft and has the same goals.
So, in conclusion, these rules are mostly useless for anybody but Microsoft.
I applaud them for having the guts to make some major changes to the franchise, as opposed to 'let's not fix what's not broken, make some new graphics, sounds, levels, and call it a sequel'.
...
However, I'm praying to God that they don't make it real time. Civ series is one of the few last examples of turn based strategy games done exceptionally well. I'd hate to see it become another RTS clone
That game was an absolutely great, and in my opinion, along with X-Com, early Might & Magic games, Ultimas, Doom, LucasArts adventures, Dune 2, and many many others, represented the golden age of computer gaming . I just wish someday gaming companies would return to caring about gameplay and not visuals.
From The Smoking Gun:
Pair Nailed In AOL Spam Scheme Arrested in theft of firm's 30 million subscriber list
JUNE 23--An AOL software engineer was arrested today for stealing the company's entire subscriber list--totaling 92 million screen names--and selling it to a 21-year-old Las Vegas spammer. According to the below federal criminal complaint, Jason Smathers, 24, last year illegally accessed the highly confidential AOL list by using another employee's identification codes. Smathers, who worked in AOL's Dulles, Virginia office, then allegedly sold the list to Sean Dunaway, who used the AOL database to promote his own online gambling business and who also sold the list for $52,000 to fellow spammers, one of whom used the names "for purposes of marketing herbal penile enlargement pills," according to the complaint. AOL's subscriber base is about 30 million individual customers, who account for 92 million different screen names. Prosecutors also contend that Smathers subsequently sold Hathaway an updated AOL customer list--this one with approximately 18 million names--for $100,000. Both men have been charged with conspiracy, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. The Secret Service probe was aided by a spammer who purchased the two lists from Dunaway and is now seeking "leniency concerning his/her participation" in the AOL conspiracy, notes the complaint. (13 pages)
What of people who overclock the best CPU's available to reach performance level still unavailable in non-overclocked chips?
Ask him/her views on outsourcing
N*Sync ... cool ...
*rubs eyes in disbelief, slowly shakes head"
In poker (at least most variations), you play against other players, and not against the house (which, I agree with you, always wins)
I think this is an excellent idea.. There should be more programming contests with nice prizes around here.
How do you know it wasn't him who posted it on the other site in the first place?
... if you're having a convention outside, you don't NEED computers. Enjoy the outside world, have a barbeque, play frisbee (I dare not say any other sport in fear for my karma, I already got it too low giving honest answers like this), and forget about computers, if at least for ONE DAY.
...
God, I wanna do that so bad
- no nekkid carrie fisher.
.. *shudder*
I'm sure that's what everyone wants to see now in 2004. Please, don't ruin my childhood dream of seeing Carrie Fischer naked by making me imagine the same thing now