No, this isn't a good thing at all. The aluminum the fungus has "eaten" is still there--it's just reacted with other substances, presumably releasing energy, since that's how fungi work.
All this means is that you'll need more energy to recover the aluminum from old CDs.
If you want to recycle CDs, the easiest way to do it is (probably) to heat them to the plastic's melting point and then strain out the aluminum bits.
In real life, the most important things a program needs to be are
maintainable and correct, where the latter
tends to follow (more easily) from the former. A good programming
course should teach how to abstract, how to structure for
maintainability and how to comment usefully.
Both Java and C++ can be used for this but Java has the advantage of
not being full of obscure little features that will blow your foot off
if you look at them wrong, so it gets my vote over C++ as a first
language. It's not ideal, mind you, but if you're teaching it to
people who just want to get a
programming job at the end of the course (as
opposed to learning computer science), it's likely the best you can
do. (If not, try Python or LISP.)
In an ideal world, programming students should have to learn at least
four radically different programming languages and implement
non-trivial projects in all of them before they can inflict themselves
on the industry.
BTW, I agree with Chris DiBona's comment that it's necessary to
understand low-level issues. However, that should be later.
A novice who believes the computer works because of little elves but
knows how to abstract and comment will produce much better software
than somebody who can design processors but writes spaghetti code.
Essentially gracenote is suing because they are using a competing
service. Regardless of if it is the same protocol or not. This won't
stand up in court simply for the fact that businesses can (and do)
support community services instead of a corporation.
I don't think Gracenote intends to win. Roxio is in the process of
being spun off as a publicly traded corporation, and a lawsuit tends
to do bad things to the stock price of a new company. I suspect that
Gracenote's management is hoping that Roxio will try to settle this
quickly out of court. No doubt, the settlement will include Roxio
agreeing to use cddb again.
(Disclaimer: I have no inside knowledge. This is just how it looks to
me.)
The question of emulation or porting is the wrong one to ask. Game
developers shouldn't be developing for Windows at all. Instead, they
should be developing for Linux and then including a copy of Linux with
the game.
And no, I don't mean a full-blown copy of RedHat 7.1. I mean a kernel
and the libs, servers and drivers needed to run the game, installed on
either a live filesystem on the CD, a UMSDOS-based installation on the
Windows filesystem or a filesystem image on the hard disk mounted via
the loopback device. The typical Windows gamer simply runs the
Windows-based installer, which copies some files to his/her hard
disk and that's it. When he/she clicks on an icon to start the game,
it just starts up loadlin or some glossier equivalent, which boots
Linux, which starts up the game in its rc.local.
(Linux gamers would, of course, run the games natively.)
The only inconvenience this would have for the Windows user is that
they'd have to reboot the machine after quitting the game. Oh darn.
For the game developers, though, this has enormous benefits. No longer do
they have to test their games under all of the different flavours of
Windows. No longer do they have to worry about Microsoft deciding to
deprecate an API they depend on. With open-source software, you
control your infrastructure.
And, as an added bonus, game publishers will get access to another
(admittedly small) platform for free. Oh yes, and Linux is a much
better development environment than Windows too.
Start up XEmacs and type: M-x praise-be-unto-xemacs . (For the vi-using heathens out there, "M-x" is the combination of the "meta" key (usually mapped to alt) and x.)
I'm not sure if it counts as an easter egg since it shows up in a search of available commands and easter eggs are not supposed to be documented.
This game comes as no surprise to me. It's quite common for somebody to slap "Christian" on something as a way to sell a product. Just go to your neighbourhood Christian book store (making sure to wear a Marilyn Manson T-Shirt) and have a look around. Christian Rock, Christian Fiction, Christian software. (Jon Katz is wrong about TWIH being the first Christian action game--I remember seeing "Spiritual Warfare" for the Nintendo years ago. And cringing.)
Now, I don't think this is necessarily bad. Some of this stuff is useful and beneficial. I like some Christian rock (e.g. Massivivid), fiction (Stephen Lawhead), and having a searchable online Bible on hand can often come in really handy. However, Sturgeons law applies--90% of everything is crap. A lot of this stuff is a mediocre knock-off of something secular with a "Christian" label slapped on.
This is why I think Mr. Katz is wrong in his analysis. He's not part of the subculture and he doesn't understand it. This isn't so much a result of the Columbine massacre as just another "Christian" knock-off. (Whether or not it's a good knock-off is another question.)
The significance of this event is, it seems, mostly a product of his own biases.
Slashdot Mirror
No, this isn't a good thing at all. The aluminum the fungus has "eaten" is still there--it's just reacted with other substances, presumably releasing energy, since that's how fungi work.
All this means is that you'll need more energy to recover the aluminum from old CDs.
If you want to recycle CDs, the easiest way to do it is (probably) to heat them to the plastic's melting point and then strain out the aluminum bits.
In real life, the most important things a program needs to be are maintainable and correct, where the latter tends to follow (more easily) from the former. A good programming course should teach how to abstract, how to structure for maintainability and how to comment usefully.
Both Java and C++ can be used for this but Java has the advantage of not being full of obscure little features that will blow your foot off if you look at them wrong, so it gets my vote over C++ as a first language. It's not ideal, mind you, but if you're teaching it to people who just want to get a programming job at the end of the course (as opposed to learning computer science), it's likely the best you can do. (If not, try Python or LISP.)
In an ideal world, programming students should have to learn at least four radically different programming languages and implement non-trivial projects in all of them before they can inflict themselves on the industry.
BTW, I agree with Chris DiBona's comment that it's necessary to understand low-level issues. However, that should be later. A novice who believes the computer works because of little elves but knows how to abstract and comment will produce much better software than somebody who can design processors but writes spaghetti code.
Essentially gracenote is suing because they are using a competing service. Regardless of if it is the same protocol or not. This won't stand up in court simply for the fact that businesses can (and do) support community services instead of a corporation.
I don't think Gracenote intends to win. Roxio is in the process of being spun off as a publicly traded corporation, and a lawsuit tends to do bad things to the stock price of a new company. I suspect that Gracenote's management is hoping that Roxio will try to settle this quickly out of court. No doubt, the settlement will include Roxio agreeing to use cddb again.
(Disclaimer: I have no inside knowledge. This is just how it looks to me.)
The question of emulation or porting is the wrong one to ask. Game
developers shouldn't be developing for Windows at all. Instead, they
should be developing for Linux and then including a copy of Linux with
the game.
And no, I don't mean a full-blown copy of RedHat 7.1. I mean a kernel
and the libs, servers and drivers needed to run the game, installed on
either a live filesystem on the CD, a UMSDOS-based installation on the
Windows filesystem or a filesystem image on the hard disk mounted via
the loopback device. The typical Windows gamer simply runs the
Windows-based installer, which copies some files to his/her hard
disk and that's it. When he/she clicks on an icon to start the game,
it just starts up loadlin or some glossier equivalent, which boots
Linux, which starts up the game in its rc.local.
(Linux gamers would, of course, run the games natively.)
The only inconvenience this would have for the Windows user is that
they'd have to reboot the machine after quitting the game. Oh darn.
For the game developers, though, this has enormous benefits. No longer do
they have to test their games under all of the different flavours of
Windows. No longer do they have to worry about Microsoft deciding to
deprecate an API they depend on. With open-source software, you
control your infrastructure.
And, as an added bonus, game publishers will get access to another
(admittedly small) platform for free. Oh yes, and Linux is a much
better development environment than Windows too.
So why isn't anyone doing this?
Start up XEmacs and type: M-x praise-be-unto-xemacs . (For the vi-using heathens out there, "M-x" is the combination of the "meta" key (usually mapped to alt) and x.)
I'm not sure if it counts as an easter egg since it shows up in a search of available commands and easter eggs are not supposed to be documented.
But there you go.
Now, I don't think this is necessarily bad. Some of this stuff is useful and beneficial. I like some Christian rock (e.g. Massivivid), fiction (Stephen Lawhead), and having a searchable online Bible on hand can often come in really handy. However, Sturgeons law applies--90% of everything is crap. A lot of this stuff is a mediocre knock-off of something secular with a "Christian" label slapped on.
This is why I think Mr. Katz is wrong in his analysis. He's not part of the subculture and he doesn't understand it. This isn't so much a result of the Columbine massacre as just another "Christian" knock-off. (Whether or not it's a good knock-off is another question.)
The significance of this event is, it seems, mostly a product of his own biases.
--Chris