I remember playing the original Leisure Suit Larry (when I could sneak on). For some reason my grandparents password protected that game. Then there was Tapper. Later there were great games with awesome graphics like X-Wing and The Day of the Tentacle. Of course none of that compared to Oregon Trail.:)
Windows 3.11 was so... weird. I loved the Disney screensaver that ran on it, though. Goofy actually managed to accidentally start a program once. Heh, I guess the programmers never checked to make sure that he didn't accidentally open a non-folder.
Of course, nothing beats the text-based internet. now that was fun. I mean, I cannot take a Star Trek quiz without thinking of that old text page loading so slowly with these new fangled radio buttons!!!
Personally I ban all IPs originating from the Moon and Mars. I block all of the Moon because that's where all those neo-hacker-survivalist freaks go to escape the coming of the end of the world. Really, they hammer my networks and try to bring down my systems, and that just gets irritating after a while. At least they could target their attacks on important systems like fusion plants and WMD storage facilities. I also block Mars because I really don't care if a bunch of aliens can see my websites. Screw the Martians, they're just a race of god-like beings with an ego to match their boundless power. If they want to view my data, they can come over here and download the data straight into their exposed and grossly pulsating brains with their awesome telepathic powers.
I salute you! Actually, it sounds like something I would do. That sounds almost as funny as moving the "pay" phone around Burning Man (linky-poo). You're used to seeing it bolted down, but having a user talking on the phone as you just lift it up and start walking is just awesome.
No, Google was not the first search engine. Not by a long shot. There were indexers around before the search engines that we know of today took root. Yahoo! was around before Google. Alta Vista was around before Google. There was also one in '94 that I remember using that might have been called "Northern Light" -- which looks like an entiprise search solution now, if it is the same company.
Google stays in beta as long as it wants to stay in beta. I think the original search engine was in beta status for years. It was perfectly functional in beta, and it because well known during its beta, and the switch from beta to production was almost meaningless to the outside world. They just removed the "beta" from their logo.
Frankly, I prefer a good, production quality app that says in "beta" a long time to some privately tested crap that doesn't work when it's released. Or heck... Microsoft's production releases which feel more like infinite betas. (God forbid that you actually try one of their betas...)
I really can't keep it all straight. There's a limit to the number of processes (tasks) that you can have running concurrently before your poor organizational system starts to thrash....
And on a more useful topic... for a long time I used to have my homepage setup such that the center section (bounded by links, quotes, and news) highlighted all my upcoming activities. Everything from birthdays to deadlines. I didn't keep up with it mostly because I had to hand edit it at the time and I hadn't learned PHP yet. If I can reformat that page to use a submission form and add a few more features, I might get just a bit more organized.
...which reminds me... I still need to look for an apartment for next month or I'm going to be living on the streets. Hmmm. I should do that soon.
First, let me recommend Neopets. It's been getting fairly commercialized, but what I saw of it a few years ago looked good for younger children (and adults who act young.:P) Neopets will give you son a pet or pets to take care of as well as introducing him to an economy (through the market place) and allow him to play many fun games. The only thing to really watch out for is the merchandise.:P
As for programming experience, I do recommend it. I personally was exposed to BASIC when I was 2 and 8, and I just didn't get the connection between typing in weird "sentances" and the output. For an initial programming language, try Logo. It's cute and simple. Most of the basic "easy" programs consist of instructing the "turtle" what to draw through a series of simple commands such as the example below, which draws a sqaure. Of course, if he doesn't know about degrees in a circle yet, then the LEFT 90 may be above his head, but that shouldn't be too hard to help him with. (I don't remember what school taught me when...)
FORWARD 100
LEFT 90
FORWARD 100
LEFT 90
FORWARD 100
LEFT 90
FORWARD 100
The nice thing about Logo is that it's a graphic output that responds to your programs immediately. After he begins to understand Logo, he can move on to BASIC.
Frankly, even just having some random simple, yet "cool" programs will help him type better. Learning programming will help him get a better basic understanding of the computer, which will aid him in the long run compared to the next generation of luddites who will always be relative neophytes compared to him!
My grandfather tried to teach me basic when I was 2 and again when I was 8. I don't remmeber the first attempt, but I definately remember the second. He wanted to show me how to draw a circle, but I didn't understand why typing random characters made anything, and why I would want to do that over using the really cool paint program that he had on DOS instead.:P
If you want to introduce a child to programming, I STRONGLY suggest using Logo.
Why don't you document everything that you patch? I know you document a lot of things in detail, but there's often a lot of minor (and sometimes major) changes that go undocumented. For example, changing some animations such as the Female Tauren dance happened in patch 1.5 (I believe) but it was never in the patch notes. Is there a possibility that these minor changes can be documented somewhere, like in a "Minor Patch Notes" addendum to the main patch log? A lot of work in the player community is to try and figure out what you guys "stealth patch."
Why has World of Warcraft typically followed a policy wherein they did not seem to acknowledge bugs until the next preview of the patch notes came out? When I want to report a bug, I don't want to report a bug 15 other people already have. On that same token, if the bug is avoidable or if there is a work around until it gets patched in a month (or more) I'd like to know about it. It wasn't until very recently that there has been any kind of public acknowledgement that the team knew about the bugs (the posts on the Bug forum helps!) unless I petitioned a GM (and then their information often seems outdated.)
I had a professor whose comments were so poorly writen that I had to wade through the code that was poorly explained to understand that the code itself was poorly written and I should have just Googled for a simpler implementation in the first place.
I graduated with a BS in CS last year. I'm attending UC Santa Cruz this coming fall (I'm so excited!)
I'm not the type of person who has ever really felt the need to study and study for these standardized tests. I get good enough scores, and I'm lazy. Despite that, I decided to study (only a bit--don't want to harm my reputation here) for the GREs.
First, a lot of the schools I looked at either didn't want the GRE subject test, or would consider it, but it would be a tertiary level reason (compared to personal statement and grades on the primary level). My score in the GRE subject test wasn't going to make or break my acceptance, but I wanted to do well for me.
The best thing I can suggest (besides looking at that book) is the practice test. (Score:-1, Redundant) I really do recommend going over that. If nothing else, taking a look at the questions will help you understand the types of things that they will ask on the test, and let you figure out what subjects you're weak in so you can beef up on those a bit.
My weakness was in remembering the specifics of some algorithms and their big O, little O, and omega values. I was also weak in networking because my school had a sucky networking class, and I didn't know anything about operating systems yet because I hadn't taken that course yet. (Oh! Paging and threads! There were so many questions I couldn't answer!)
In any case, just figuring out the basic areas that they will cover and trying to identify what you are weak in will help. Just go through your old books, notes, Google searches to get the answers to any questions (or class of questions) that they may ask. They're pretty consistent with their questions, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I feared it would be.
I just finished my B.S. in the States, and I just finished getting accepted to grad school. I was interested in graphics more than visualization, but at the time I was researching, I didn't know the difference. (I know I prefer graphics now.)
I'm a native of California, so I'm a bit biased, but when I went looking for schools, I concentrated on schools on the West Coast. Of the schools I found, UC Davis seemed to have a very strong visualization program. They have an "institute" which means that sub-division of Computer Science that is more or less independant of a lot of the other politics in the department. (http://www.idav.ucdavis.edu/) They say they do graphics, but that's a small subset of what they do, which is primarily viz based stuff. I've toured their facilities twice, and they have some interesting stuff. In one lab they have four screens stuck together to form a larger screen about 2m x 2m (or so). In another lab, they have a lot of 3D interactive equipment, and a huge screen in there that takes up an entire wall. (Almost 4m x 4m, I'd say.) They can use gloves and 3D goggles to "look" around and manipulate the enviroment. They also have an older 3D scanner, and they're getting in another 3D (with three walls covered with screens, as well as the floor) that will be called "The Cave" and allow them to work with Geologists to display their data in a large 3D interactive enviroment.
They guarantee that you will have desk space as a grad student (bonus), and they try hard to help you get financial aid. The profs are very nice in that department, especially Ken Day, who is in charge over there. Nice guy.
The only real reason I didn't go was that I didn't want to do viz! I opted for a more "well-rounded" department so I could explore a bit first before settling on a discipline.
Do schools need to teach it? I really don't think so. I tried learning typing in the past via the standard homerow method, and I could not stand it. I used to hunt and peck like many of us, but after an excessive amount of time with chat clients and instant messengers, I do not need to look at the keyboard anymore (if it's familiar.)
Like another poster mentioned earlier, you'd only really need a typing class if you wanted to be a really fast secretary or something. Like needing professional driving lessons for NASCAR or professional swimming lessons for the Olympics. If you are exposed to an enviroment that needs a skill, you will likely pick up that skill on your own over time.
I may not be the fastest typist, nor the most acurate, but I also didn't kill Mavis Beacon after months of typing exercises.
Slashdot Mirror
I remember playing the original Leisure Suit Larry (when I could sneak on). For some reason my grandparents password protected that game. Then there was Tapper. Later there were great games with awesome graphics like X-Wing and The Day of the Tentacle. Of course none of that compared to Oregon Trail. :)
Windows 3.11 was so... weird. I loved the Disney screensaver that ran on it, though. Goofy actually managed to accidentally start a program once. Heh, I guess the programmers never checked to make sure that he didn't accidentally open a non-folder.
Of course, nothing beats the text-based internet. now that was fun. I mean, I cannot take a Star Trek quiz without thinking of that old text page loading so slowly with these new fangled radio buttons!!!
Personally I ban all IPs originating from the Moon and Mars. I block all of the Moon because that's where all those neo-hacker-survivalist freaks go to escape the coming of the end of the world. Really, they hammer my networks and try to bring down my systems, and that just gets irritating after a while. At least they could target their attacks on important systems like fusion plants and WMD storage facilities. I also block Mars because I really don't care if a bunch of aliens can see my websites. Screw the Martians, they're just a race of god-like beings with an ego to match their boundless power. If they want to view my data, they can come over here and download the data straight into their exposed and grossly pulsating brains with their awesome telepathic powers.
I salute you! Actually, it sounds like something I would do. That sounds almost as funny as moving the "pay" phone around Burning Man (linky-poo). You're used to seeing it bolted down, but having a user talking on the phone as you just lift it up and start walking is just awesome.
If I had mod points.... :( +5 Funny
To get an insight into the early history of Google (which is actually pretty interesting) check out http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.ht ml
Google stays in beta as long as it wants to stay in beta. I think the original search engine was in beta status for years. It was perfectly functional in beta, and it because well known during its beta, and the switch from beta to production was almost meaningless to the outside world. They just removed the "beta" from their logo.
Frankly, I prefer a good, production quality app that says in "beta" a long time to some privately tested crap that doesn't work when it's released. Or heck... Microsoft's production releases which feel more like infinite betas. (God forbid that you actually try one of their betas...)
And on a more useful topic... for a long time I used to have my homepage setup such that the center section (bounded by links, quotes, and news) highlighted all my upcoming activities. Everything from birthdays to deadlines. I didn't keep up with it mostly because I had to hand edit it at the time and I hadn't learned PHP yet. If I can reformat that page to use a submission form and add a few more features, I might get just a bit more organized.
I am an idiot and forgot to put in whitespace. Thank you for your time.
First, let me recommend Neopets. It's been getting fairly commercialized, but what I saw of it a few years ago looked good for younger children (and adults who act young. :P) Neopets will give you son a pet or pets to take care of as well as introducing him to an economy (through the market place) and allow him to play many fun games. The only thing to really watch out for is the merchandise. :P
As for programming experience, I do recommend it. I personally was exposed to BASIC when I was 2 and 8, and I just didn't get the connection between typing in weird "sentances" and the output. For an initial programming language, try Logo. It's cute and simple. Most of the basic "easy" programs consist of instructing the "turtle" what to draw through a series of simple commands such as the example below, which draws a sqaure. Of course, if he doesn't know about degrees in a circle yet, then the LEFT 90 may be above his head, but that shouldn't be too hard to help him with. (I don't remember what school taught me when...)
FORWARD 100
LEFT 90
FORWARD 100
LEFT 90
FORWARD 100
LEFT 90
FORWARD 100
The nice thing about Logo is that it's a graphic output that responds to your programs immediately. After he begins to understand Logo, he can move on to BASIC.
Frankly, even just having some random simple, yet "cool" programs will help him type better. Learning programming will help him get a better basic understanding of the computer, which will aid him in the long run compared to the next generation of luddites who will always be relative neophytes compared to him!
If you want to introduce a child to programming, I STRONGLY suggest using Logo.
Why don't you document everything that you patch? I know you document a lot of things in detail, but there's often a lot of minor (and sometimes major) changes that go undocumented. For example, changing some animations such as the Female Tauren dance happened in patch 1.5 (I believe) but it was never in the patch notes. Is there a possibility that these minor changes can be documented somewhere, like in a "Minor Patch Notes" addendum to the main patch log? A lot of work in the player community is to try and figure out what you guys "stealth patch."
Why has World of Warcraft typically followed a policy wherein they did not seem to acknowledge bugs until the next preview of the patch notes came out? When I want to report a bug, I don't want to report a bug 15 other people already have. On that same token, if the bug is avoidable or if there is a work around until it gets patched in a month (or more) I'd like to know about it. It wasn't until very recently that there has been any kind of public acknowledgement that the team knew about the bugs (the posts on the Bug forum helps!) unless I petitioned a GM (and then their information often seems outdated.)
I had a professor whose comments were so poorly writen that I had to wade through the code that was poorly explained to understand that the code itself was poorly written and I should have just Googled for a simpler implementation in the first place.
I'm not the type of person who has ever really felt the need to study and study for these standardized tests. I get good enough scores, and I'm lazy. Despite that, I decided to study (only a bit--don't want to harm my reputation here) for the GREs.
First, a lot of the schools I looked at either didn't want the GRE subject test, or would consider it, but it would be a tertiary level reason (compared to personal statement and grades on the primary level). My score in the GRE subject test wasn't going to make or break my acceptance, but I wanted to do well for me.
The best thing I can suggest (besides looking at that book) is the practice test. (Score:-1, Redundant) I really do recommend going over that. If nothing else, taking a look at the questions will help you understand the types of things that they will ask on the test, and let you figure out what subjects you're weak in so you can beef up on those a bit.
My weakness was in remembering the specifics of some algorithms and their big O, little O, and omega values. I was also weak in networking because my school had a sucky networking class, and I didn't know anything about operating systems yet because I hadn't taken that course yet. (Oh! Paging and threads! There were so many questions I couldn't answer!)
In any case, just figuring out the basic areas that they will cover and trying to identify what you are weak in will help. Just go through your old books, notes, Google searches to get the answers to any questions (or class of questions) that they may ask. They're pretty consistent with their questions, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I feared it would be.
I'm a native of California, so I'm a bit biased, but when I went looking for schools, I concentrated on schools on the West Coast. Of the schools I found, UC Davis seemed to have a very strong visualization program. They have an "institute" which means that sub-division of Computer Science that is more or less independant of a lot of the other politics in the department. (http://www.idav.ucdavis.edu/) They say they do graphics, but that's a small subset of what they do, which is primarily viz based stuff. I've toured their facilities twice, and they have some interesting stuff. In one lab they have four screens stuck together to form a larger screen about 2m x 2m (or so). In another lab, they have a lot of 3D interactive equipment, and a huge screen in there that takes up an entire wall. (Almost 4m x 4m, I'd say.) They can use gloves and 3D goggles to "look" around and manipulate the enviroment. They also have an older 3D scanner, and they're getting in another 3D (with three walls covered with screens, as well as the floor) that will be called "The Cave" and allow them to work with Geologists to display their data in a large 3D interactive enviroment.
They guarantee that you will have desk space as a grad student (bonus), and they try hard to help you get financial aid. The profs are very nice in that department, especially Ken Day, who is in charge over there. Nice guy.
The only real reason I didn't go was that I didn't want to do viz! I opted for a more "well-rounded" department so I could explore a bit first before settling on a discipline.
Like another poster mentioned earlier, you'd only really need a typing class if you wanted to be a really fast secretary or something. Like needing professional driving lessons for NASCAR or professional swimming lessons for the Olympics. If you are exposed to an enviroment that needs a skill, you will likely pick up that skill on your own over time.
I may not be the fastest typist, nor the most acurate, but I also didn't kill Mavis Beacon after months of typing exercises.
BTW, this is my first /. post. Yay! :)