It's too bad wire technology hasn't improved to this point. Aren't the currently smallest wires carbon nanotubes? If so, that may provide a problem when hooking these transistors up.
Unless of course I'm an idiot (that's a distinct possibility) and they've thought of an even better way to transport electrons.
I think the first jump [before immortal] would be regeneration of missing body parts.
I'm betting on ending up as brain in a jar as soon as we can decode all of the signals that pass through the spinal cord, optic nerve, auditory nerve, and taste buds. And since each send their signals through the same kinds of nerves, we really only have to perfect the interface between electronics and nerve endings (since the chemicals that nerves use would probably be more difficult to decode). Since this will take some time, technology will probably be caught up enough to be able to roughly emulate the real world in all physical aspects. Emulate vital organs so our brain doesn't go crazy pumping a nonresponsive heart, and stick me in a jar!
I see better uses for the technology to augment reality rather than replace it (although that's a good choice when our bodies go). Imagine the uses it could have returning the senses people lose like sight, hearing, and even touch. I also think it would be pretty neat to control what you hear, what you see, etc. And even if we do end up as jars on a shelf, we could probably take a trip in an ASIMO, QRIO, or even ROBO-ONE!
My personal wager is we'll find stem cells are responsible for cancer. Stem cells can be turned into or grown into any other cells.
I thought cancers were caused by unchecked mitosis of cells, regardless of what type of cell it began as. Something to do with not snipping off a bit of telomerase at the end of DNA as it's being replicated so that each cell can split an infinite number of times? Kind of like the TTL (time to live) value in IP packets.
I've read interesting theories about how inducing a type of cancer could be used to make humans immortal, or close to immortal, but those theories break down when you have to get rid of the old cells to be replaced by the new ones.
Who the fuck modded this as TROLL? You weren't there! We were! So shut your mod-privelage mouth and let us tell it like it is. We are (or were) paying for the class, so we're more than entitled to our opinions of it.
Crap, I didn't mean for that to sound like programming as a whole. I meant programming for games, considering the professor was a software designer for years before becoming a teacher, so he's got coding skills.
Hey man, congratulations on dropping the course. I'm still in it hoping to just get a good grade to bring my GPA up. But yeah, you're right, the course doesn't seem to have any direction. You still interested in making a game? I've got one I've been working on for some time. And I'm not in the SVGA, 'cause I've seen the work they produce. Oh yeah, I'm Duncan. Drop me a line sometime at duncanbojangles @ cox-internet.com if you're ever interested.
I attend the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a Computer Science major and I'm in their first class. I'm kinda disappointed in it, though, for a few reasons.
The instructor knew absolutely nothing about game design and programming, or even games in general before deciding to be the instructor of the course. So, he doesn't have quite the same grasp on the concept that most college students interested in game design and programming do.
If you'll notice I've been saying game design AND programming. Personally, I feel the two are different aspects of making a game. I couldn't design a fun game to save my life (and I've tried) but I enjoy and feel I'm fairly proficient programming games. I thought the course would cover both aspects but so far it's been only game design using an application called Game Maker. I'll admit, the application is nice and very well put together, but it tries to completely remove the coding portion of creating a game.
The programming portion of the course is going to be implementing the game engine in C++ found in the book Sam's Teach Yourself Game Programming in 24 Hours which seems kinda lame. He does want us to extend the game engine, but it's still just cut and pasting.
Finally, the whole damn course is Windows-centric. I'm not a Windows hater, but I really don't enjoy using it if I don't have to. I proposed to the professor before the course was even an option that he look into something cross platform like SDL, which will run on pretty much any operational operating system available now. It also simplifies many things like setting up a window, handling input(keyboard, mouse, joystick), and even network code.
Hopefully the class will get better this semester or in future sememsters, but as of now, the whole "Game" curriculum seems pretty lame.
(b) Testing: How are they going to test this trillion element chip ? Testing complexity grows exponential with number of elements and it will require serious consideration. It may be worthwhile to make smaller components which can be tested easily (modern chips has one-third cost devoted to testing)
My guess is that they'll only do random/spot checking of one chip in each batch of the chips they manufacture. There would likely be a maximum of bad cells that are allowed and part of the read/write specification would be to mark bad cells at runtime so that checking the device is left mainly as an exercise to the buyer.
Statistically it would be hard to say how many people upgraded, didn't upgrade, first copy of firefox was 1.0.1
They could do a simple check to see what browser the request came from to tell if it was a new user of firefox or someone upgrading. I doubt anyone would upgrade firefox using a different web browser.
Well, now that you mention it, Slax is a pretty nifty bootable Slackware CD. Of course it's not full to the brim with apps like Knoppix is, but that's also not the Slackware philosophy.
The latest is 180 MB so it can fit on one of those small CDs, the "Professional" edition is 234 MB, and the "Frodo" edition is only 34 MB (console only, just the way we Slackers like it). It's pretty useful for futzing about with a system. It's got very good hardware detection (in my experience), KDE, fluxbox, and the programs you'll probably want for a nice minimal live CD. And I really like the KDE theme.:) -- "Donkey, if it were me, you'd be dead."
I tried responding to your question but found out rather quickly that I have no eloquence when it comes to speaking, or writing in this case. Wikipedia does a much better job.
1.) Where exactly in the moon is the Helium-3 located? I read the article but did not see mention of exactly where the stuff is. Is it in moon rock? Does the moon have an ultra thin atmosphere of this stuff?
2.) Putting a metric buttload of really good Helium in a ship and blasting it towards Earth where it will reenter the atmosphere at very high temperatures doesn't seem like a good idea. If anything happens, say a leak of the helium that caused an explosion, how powerful would the explosion be? Would it be high enough in the atmosphere to not worry about? Would it wipe out a state or three?
3.) Would it be possible to use the helium-3 gathered from the moon to power the ship back to Earth? Could the helium-3 be used to power small reactors on the moon to enable a robotic or human colony to thrive?
4.) What would happen to the moon if it were mined? How stable is the moon, and if we start taking stuff off of the moon and putting it on Earth, what happens to the moon's orbit? the Earth's orbit?
It seems interesting, but I don't know how well mining the moon sits with me. Didn't anyone see that episode of Sliders where the moon was mined so much it broke up and headed towards Earth in continent sized chunks!?
We're getting this at my university! The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is on the up and up!
Re:Why I dislike Halo (and all modern console game
on
Halo 2 Goes Gold
·
· Score: 1
You make an excellent point. Destroying things realistically is key to a good game. I have nothing else to add, for your words ring true in the ear of one who kills mercilessly the people of Vice City.:)
Re:Why I dislike Halo (and all modern console game
on
Halo 2 Goes Gold
·
· Score: 1
Sadly, for a large percentage of American males between the ages of 6 and 36, the ability to violently kill people and destroy property in a game without real life consequences is the pinnacle of gaming.
I'm sorry, but my previous post was made in sarcasm. While GTA does have a great story line (porn, drugs, gangs, etc.) and great gameplay, the feature that attracts most people to it is the ease with which you are able to wipe out the entire population of a small city using only an Uzi and a Pinto.
This shows how games are being utilized: some people play to increase their skill and are genuinely competitive, while others use games mainly to relax, however morbid their relaxation technique is.
Again, sorry for the confusion, in the future I'll post the mandatory
<sarcasm></sarcasm>
tags.
Re:Why I dislike Halo (and all modern console game
on
Halo 2 Goes Gold
·
· Score: 1
To me, a game isn't necessarily fun just because I can kill things more easily. It's fun because of the challenge. It's fun because of the story, or the coolness.
Slashdot Mirror
It's too bad wire technology hasn't improved to this point. Aren't the currently smallest wires carbon nanotubes? If so, that may provide a problem when hooking these transistors up.
Unless of course I'm an idiot (that's a distinct possibility) and they've thought of an even better way to transport electrons.
I think the first jump [before immortal] would be regeneration of missing body parts.
I'm betting on ending up as brain in a jar as soon as we can decode all of the signals that pass through the spinal cord, optic nerve, auditory nerve, and taste buds. And since each send their signals through the same kinds of nerves, we really only have to perfect the interface between electronics and nerve endings (since the chemicals that nerves use would probably be more difficult to decode). Since this will take some time, technology will probably be caught up enough to be able to roughly emulate the real world in all physical aspects. Emulate vital organs so our brain doesn't go crazy pumping a nonresponsive heart, and stick me in a jar!
I see better uses for the technology to augment reality rather than replace it (although that's a good choice when our bodies go). Imagine the uses it could have returning the senses people lose like sight, hearing, and even touch. I also think it would be pretty neat to control what you hear, what you see, etc. And even if we do end up as jars on a shelf, we could probably take a trip in an ASIMO, QRIO, or even ROBO-ONE!
If everyone goes to LCDs, interoffice efficiency will surely decline since there's no space on an LCD for Post-Its!
I thought cancers were caused by unchecked mitosis of cells, regardless of what type of cell it began as. Something to do with not snipping off a bit of telomerase at the end of DNA as it's being replicated so that each cell can split an infinite number of times? Kind of like the TTL (time to live) value in IP packets.
I've read interesting theories about how inducing a type of cancer could be used to make humans immortal, or close to immortal, but those theories break down when you have to get rid of the old cells to be replaced by the new ones.
I ran your brainfuck code through my own interpreter and you're loops are unbalanced.
Who the fuck modded this as TROLL? You weren't there! We were! So shut your mod-privelage mouth and let us tell it like it is. We are (or were) paying for the class, so we're more than entitled to our opinions of it.
Crap, I didn't mean for that to sound like programming as a whole. I meant programming for games, considering the professor was a software designer for years before becoming a teacher, so he's got coding skills.
Hey man, congratulations on dropping the course. I'm still in it hoping to just get a good grade to bring my GPA up. But yeah, you're right, the course doesn't seem to have any direction. You still interested in making a game? I've got one I've been working on for some time. And I'm not in the SVGA, 'cause I've seen the work they produce. Oh yeah, I'm Duncan. Drop me a line sometime at duncanbojangles @ cox-internet.com if you're ever interested.
- The instructor knew absolutely nothing about game design and programming, or even games in general before deciding to be the instructor of the course. So, he doesn't have quite the same grasp on the concept that most college students interested in game design and programming do.
- If you'll notice I've been saying game design AND programming. Personally, I feel the two are different aspects of making a game. I couldn't design a fun game to save my life (and I've tried) but I enjoy and feel I'm fairly proficient programming games. I thought the course would cover both aspects but so far it's been only game design using an application called Game Maker. I'll admit, the application is nice and very well put together, but it tries to completely remove the coding portion of creating a game.
- The programming portion of the course is going to be implementing the game engine in C++ found in the book Sam's Teach Yourself Game Programming in 24 Hours which seems kinda lame. He does want us to extend the game engine, but it's still just cut and pasting.
- Finally, the whole damn course is Windows-centric. I'm not a Windows hater, but I really don't enjoy using it if I don't have to. I proposed to the professor before the course was even an option that he look into something cross platform like SDL, which will run on pretty much any operational operating system available now. It also simplifies many things like setting up a window, handling input(keyboard, mouse, joystick), and even network code.
Hopefully the class will get better this semester or in future sememsters, but as of now, the whole "Game" curriculum seems pretty lame.(b) Testing: How are they going to test this trillion element chip ? Testing complexity grows exponential with number of elements and it will require serious consideration. It may be worthwhile to make smaller components which can be tested easily (modern chips has one-third cost devoted to testing)
My guess is that they'll only do random/spot checking of one chip in each batch of the chips they manufacture. There would likely be a maximum of bad cells that are allowed and part of the read/write specification would be to mark bad cells at runtime so that checking the device is left mainly as an exercise to the buyer.
Statistically it would be hard to say how many people upgraded, didn't upgrade, first copy of firefox was 1.0.1
They could do a simple check to see what browser the request came from to tell if it was a new user of firefox or someone upgrading. I doubt anyone would upgrade firefox using a different web browser.
Well, now that you mention it, Slax is a pretty nifty bootable Slackware CD. Of course it's not full to the brim with apps like Knoppix is, but that's also not the Slackware philosophy.
:)
The latest is 180 MB so it can fit on one of those small CDs, the "Professional" edition is 234 MB, and the "Frodo" edition is only 34 MB (console only, just the way we Slackers like it). It's pretty useful for futzing about with a system. It's got very good hardware detection (in my experience), KDE, fluxbox, and the programs you'll probably want for a nice minimal live CD. And I really like the KDE theme.
--
"Donkey, if it were me, you'd be dead."
Computer programs child!
Or was that Soviet America?
Not twice the size, four times the volume.
I tried responding to your question but found out rather quickly that I have no eloquence when it comes to speaking, or writing in this case. Wikipedia does a much better job.
Electrical Bus
Signal Trace
I have a couple of thoughts on the subject.
1.) Where exactly in the moon is the Helium-3 located? I read the article but did not see mention of exactly where the stuff is. Is it in moon rock? Does the moon have an ultra thin atmosphere of this stuff?
2.) Putting a metric buttload of really good Helium in a ship and blasting it towards Earth where it will reenter the atmosphere at very high temperatures doesn't seem like a good idea. If anything happens, say a leak of the helium that caused an explosion, how powerful would the explosion be? Would it be high enough in the atmosphere to not worry about? Would it wipe out a state or three?
3.) Would it be possible to use the helium-3 gathered from the moon to power the ship back to Earth? Could the helium-3 be used to power small reactors on the moon to enable a robotic or human colony to thrive?
4.) What would happen to the moon if it were mined? How stable is the moon, and if we start taking stuff off of the moon and putting it on Earth, what happens to the moon's orbit? the Earth's orbit?
It seems interesting, but I don't know how well mining the moon sits with me. Didn't anyone see that episode of Sliders where the moon was mined so much it broke up and headed towards Earth in continent sized chunks!?
Finally I can view all the new porn I've been collecting.
I wonder how much work it would take to get the kernel to run as interpretted C code?
Now C is an interpreted language!
So you wouldn't like this?
You can't just take the man's word for it? He has a Slashdot ID under 1000 for Jebus' sake!
We're getting this at my university! The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is on the up and up!
You make an excellent point. Destroying things realistically is key to a good game. I have nothing else to add, for your words ring true in the ear of one who kills mercilessly the people of Vice City. :)
I'm sorry, but my previous post was made in sarcasm. While GTA does have a great story line (porn, drugs, gangs, etc.) and great gameplay, the feature that attracts most people to it is the ease with which you are able to wipe out the entire population of a small city using only an Uzi and a Pinto.
This shows how games are being utilized: some people play to increase their skill and are genuinely competitive, while others use games mainly to relax, however morbid their relaxation technique is.
Again, sorry for the confusion, in the future I'll post the mandatory tags.
To me, a game isn't necessarily fun just because I can kill things more easily. It's fun because of the challenge. It's fun because of the story, or the coolness.
Have you even heard of Grand Theft Auto?