I'm often dumbfounded at people picking D&D as an example of an RPG. D&D is what I like to call a "roll playing game", as opposed to a "role playing game". As it's often played, it sticks down to rolling dice, having combats and running through stock adventures and carefully (sometimes) designed dungeons. Combat mechanics are very important, because that's what most of the game is about. On the other hand, you'll find that other less combat-oriented RPGs involve a lot more "role playing", that is, taking someone's role and doing more than some axe-swinging or spellcasting.
Take the example of Vampire: The Masquerade, where you have large political plots with a hint of demency (Malkavian anyone?), backstabbing, moral qualms (humanity) besides the odd physical action.
Take Legend of the 5 Rings, where every action is under the shadow of samurai honour and acting according to that mentality is role playing challenge (which is also why most people can't play it).
Not to belittle D&Ders, but unless you have an experienced GM who pushes campaigns into something more than a hack&slash fest, you're probably still missing a ROLE playing experience.:)
Stored procedures, imho, are essential for data integrity. It's all fine and dandy when you have just a web app sitting on top of the database, but when multiple applications access the database, sometimes from different sources and programmers, you have to make sure they all follow at least the same base set of rules.
Stored procedures centralize a degree of data validation and integrity. They are also for on-modify creation of data. For instance, one can use stored procedures to make sure some read only table is always up-to-date, by making it so that inserts/updates are mirrored to that table. Some could argue that this can destroy normalization, but in some situations where reply time is critical, normalization can do more harm then good, and sometimes you're better off with more data than with having to join two tables. Stored procedures can be of great value here.
Do web applications need stored procedures? Probably most won't. But then again, "web app" doesn't define an application, it just defines an interface, a media.
Stored procedures are also vital in one of the most important things regarding project development: abstraction. You can customize the database layer to execute code that is implicit to database operations, thus saving time by not having to make them explicit in the application layer AND also saving a roundtrip from the app to the db for each of those explicit calls turned implicit - hope this made sense.
What about mean outsourcing of closed source projects. I find it a lot more likely that an obscure, underpaid programmer in a 3rd world country will introduce a backdoor into a closed source project than into an open source one.
A friend of mine got himself a corrective surgery on both eyes, in two consecutive weeks. He hated lens, and not only he looks great w/o glasses but it's also pratical for lots of stuff. He had a small irritation on the 1st eye (it was red) but it went away after a week - natural the medics said.
I'll never forget his comment about having shower, something along the lines of:
First time I had a shower w/o glasses after the surgery I thought: "OMG! I can see my it!" - apparently he couldn't see it before.:)
I use CfEngine a lot, mostly at the computer lab at uni, with about 20 machines. It scales very well. I also use it on a small network at the office, it's great to setup a workstation in a hurry. It's also good for single host admining.
The Perl lovers outthere will probably enjoy PICA (Perl Installation and Configuration Agent) aswell.
Aaaaactually, most really odd things sound realistic if you add "it happened in the US".:)
- An unelected president in a modern democracy
- Sensorship and brainwashing in a modern democracy
- Severing decades of allegiance just because France said "no"... and then came "Freedom fries". Next what, demolish the statue?
- Government defending abstinence as the means to counter Aids, in a country where porn runs as amok as hookers.
- A pop star having to apologize for showing her breast.
C'mon. You gotta face it. Japan has odd things (Godzilla), but at least they mostly live either in imagination or in ignorance of their culture. Looks perfectly natural to them. Does most things that happen in the US look natural to you?:)
Let's keep in mind that a technology is not intrinsicly good or evil. The use of RFID tags on kids might or might not be acceptable, but it ends up as a very good way to keep track of little kids. Imho it's acceptable. Doesn't mean that scaling it to other circumstances would.
Howeber, how long before they realize kids can drop the tags and then start implanting them beneath skin? Obviously the more imaginative among us can relate to sci-fi scenarios where you receive your tag when you're born, but they're not quite there yet. Wait and see?
As for the slashdotter above that posted that odd things happen in Japan... actually the really odd things happen in the US. What's the last time you heard of someone being sued in Japan for a no-brainer? What other country defends abstinence as the primary means to counter Aids? I mean... c'mon.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I'm often dumbfounded at people picking D&D as an example of an RPG. D&D is what I like to call a "roll playing game", as opposed to a "role playing game". As it's often played, it sticks down to rolling dice, having combats and running through stock adventures and carefully (sometimes) designed dungeons. Combat mechanics are very important, because that's what most of the game is about. On the other hand, you'll find that other less combat-oriented RPGs involve a lot more "role playing", that is, taking someone's role and doing more than some axe-swinging or spellcasting. :)
Take the example of Vampire: The Masquerade, where you have large political plots with a hint of demency (Malkavian anyone?), backstabbing, moral qualms (humanity) besides the odd physical action.
Take Legend of the 5 Rings, where every action is under the shadow of samurai honour and acting according to that mentality is role playing challenge (which is also why most people can't play it).
Not to belittle D&Ders, but unless you have an experienced GM who pushes campaigns into something more than a hack&slash fest, you're probably still missing a ROLE playing experience.
Stored procedures, imho, are essential for data integrity. It's all fine and dandy when you have just a web app sitting on top of the database, but when multiple applications access the database, sometimes from different sources and programmers, you have to make sure they all follow at least the same base set of rules.
Stored procedures centralize a degree of data validation and integrity. They are also for on-modify creation of data. For instance, one can use stored procedures to make sure some read only table is always up-to-date, by making it so that inserts/updates are mirrored to that table. Some could argue that this can destroy normalization, but in some situations where reply time is critical, normalization can do more harm then good, and sometimes you're better off with more data than with having to join two tables. Stored procedures can be of great value here.
Do web applications need stored procedures? Probably most won't. But then again, "web app" doesn't define an application, it just defines an interface, a media.
Stored procedures are also vital in one of the most important things regarding project development: abstraction. You can customize the database layer to execute code that is implicit to database operations, thus saving time by not having to make them explicit in the application layer AND also saving a roundtrip from the app to the db for each of those explicit calls turned implicit - hope this made sense.
Cheers.
What about mean outsourcing of closed source projects. I find it a lot more likely that an obscure, underpaid programmer in a 3rd world country will introduce a backdoor into a closed source project than into an open source one.
I'll never forget his comment about having shower, something along the lines of:
First time I had a shower w/o glasses after the surgery I thought: "OMG! I can see my it!" - apparently he couldn't see it before. :)
I use CfEngine a lot, mostly at the computer lab at uni, with about 20 machines. It scales very well. I also use it on a small network at the office, it's great to setup a workstation in a hurry. It's also good for single host admining. The Perl lovers outthere will probably enjoy PICA (Perl Installation and Configuration Agent) aswell.
Aaaaactually, most really odd things sound realistic if you add "it happened in the US". :)
:)
- An unelected president in a modern democracy
- Sensorship and brainwashing in a modern democracy
- Severing decades of allegiance just because France said "no"... and then came "Freedom fries". Next what, demolish the statue?
- Government defending abstinence as the means to counter Aids, in a country where porn runs as amok as hookers.
- A pop star having to apologize for showing her breast.
C'mon. You gotta face it. Japan has odd things (Godzilla), but at least they mostly live either in imagination or in ignorance of their culture. Looks perfectly natural to them. Does most things that happen in the US look natural to you?
Let's keep in mind that a technology is not intrinsicly good or evil. The use of RFID tags on kids might or might not be acceptable, but it ends up as a very good way to keep track of little kids. Imho it's acceptable. Doesn't mean that scaling it to other circumstances would. Howeber, how long before they realize kids can drop the tags and then start implanting them beneath skin? Obviously the more imaginative among us can relate to sci-fi scenarios where you receive your tag when you're born, but they're not quite there yet. Wait and see? As for the slashdotter above that posted that odd things happen in Japan... actually the really odd things happen in the US. What's the last time you heard of someone being sued in Japan for a no-brainer? What other country defends abstinence as the primary means to counter Aids? I mean... c'mon. :)