OK, so it doesn't have "teh s3xy" of Java, Python, or Ruby -- but BASIC is very easy to pick up, and with modern dialects like FreeBASIC, you can write good, modular, maintainable programs. It's also a lot of fun, which seems to be especially important; you can write a quick simulation of whatever you're interested in, without a lot of work.
This isn't your father's BASIC; it has support for lots of memory, 32-bit graphics, user data types, functions and subroutines (including passing by reference or value), and even multithreading including mutexes. Or you could use it to run older QBasic programs from the Dark Ages, complete with line numbers, LET statements, GOTOs, and all that.
...what's wrong with a good old directory containing some mp3s (oggs, wavs, whatever), some jpgs (pngs, tiffs, whatever) of the album art, a m3u or other playlist file, and maybe some html notes and hyperlinks?
Oh, silly me. They want a single album file. gzip's got ya covered there, folks...
>Rumors that the book contains a joke in the ISBN remain unconfirmed.
Were we talking about any other author, I would scoff. But this being xkcd, it actually sounds plausible.
Even if they're smart enough to hand both logins to one person and that person fakes doing work as his partner, the IP addresses would give it away if they cheated.
If the students used Remote Desktop, nobody would know. I'm posting this during my lunch break at work, but you wouldn't know it from the IP address...
Here are some science/math/technology books that I've found to be educational, interesting, or otherwise thought-provoking. I'm sure I'm leaving many out, but these in particular stand out to me.
They're listed in rough order of the amount of math and thought required (The Road To Reality being very difficult and very fascinating.)
Cosmos (C. Sagan)
Zero (C. Seife)
The Joy of Pi (D. Blatner)
Chaos (J. Gleick)
Artificial Life (S. Levy)
Linked (A.-L. BarabÃsi)
The Mathematical Tourist (I. Peterson)
A Brief History of Time (S. Hawking)
The Mystery of the Aleph (A. Aczel)
Finite and Infinite Games (J. Carse)
An Imaginary Tale: The Story of i (P. Nahin)
e: The Story of a Number (E. Maor)
The Fractal Geometry of Nature (B. Mandelbrot)
The Road to Reality (R. Penrose)
A guy sends out spam with images of scantily-clad women -- and THIS, not his Quixotic crusade against everything that offends him, is a reason for using the Can-SPAM act against him?
Jack Thompson actually went up a notch in my estimation, now that I've heard he's sending out pr0n emails. (His approval rating in my book is now at 1%. Way to go, Jack!!)
Some of these don't exactly look professionally written. No "university" that I know of would ever let something like #19 get published with so many glaring errors that it's difficult to tell what the original intent of the question was. (see unedited copy below) .
19.When I take a new, I like to be tipped off on whom should be gotten next to
Some of the questions are also phrased in the past tense; I would expect this to be corrected (e.g. "was or is") on a professional psychological profile survey.
I wonder if this was either fabricated, or simply recreated from someone's memory of the questions. (Possibly the latter, assuming that the complainants and/or the lawyers sending the takedown message did in fact read the original survey as well as the contents of the post in question...)
Given that it has both a moon and an atmosphere, are they going to admit that it's a planet (albeit a weird one) -- or do we let the definition become so strict that soon nothing qualifies as a planet anymore?
Slashdot Mirror
OK, so it doesn't have "teh s3xy" of Java, Python, or Ruby -- but BASIC is very easy to pick up, and with modern dialects like FreeBASIC, you can write good, modular, maintainable programs. It's also a lot of fun, which seems to be especially important; you can write a quick simulation of whatever you're interested in, without a lot of work.
...Oh, and did I mention that both FreeBASIC and FBIDE are free?
This isn't your father's BASIC; it has support for lots of memory, 32-bit graphics, user data types, functions and subroutines (including passing by reference or value), and even multithreading including mutexes. Or you could use it to run older QBasic programs from the Dark Ages, complete with line numbers, LET statements, GOTOs, and all that.
Pick up FBIDE while you're there, too.
...what's wrong with a good old directory containing some mp3s (oggs, wavs, whatever), some jpgs (pngs, tiffs, whatever) of the album art, a m3u or other playlist file, and maybe some html notes and hyperlinks?
Oh, silly me. They want a single album file. gzip's got ya covered there, folks...
Theres no intelligent live down here!!
Sure, there is. Knoppix, for one.
You must be new here.
>Rumors that the book contains a joke in the ISBN remain unconfirmed. Were we talking about any other author, I would scoff. But this being xkcd, it actually sounds plausible.
...that Windows 7 will be horrific enough to make us miss Vista? Wow.
Little less intro next time.
I think he's just channeling Sheogorath.
Even if they're smart enough to hand both logins to one person and that person fakes doing work as his partner, the IP addresses would give it away if they cheated.
If the students used Remote Desktop, nobody would know. I'm posting this during my lunch break at work, but you wouldn't know it from the IP address...
...the cake is a li--ne drawing?
As long as I get my next Elder Scrolls fix (and it's still single-player and anywhere near as good as Oblivion), Bethesda can do no wrong.
In the meantime, howsabout an official version of Morroblivion? I'd pay good money for that!
Living in northern Philadelphia, I'm lucky if I can make out enough bright stars to see Orion or Ursa Major, let alone something like the Milky Way...
Yep. I left out the whole vi vs emacs question. emacs is Lisp, and therefore evil.
...but then again, I prefer DOS Edit to both of 'em, so take what I say with a large grain of salt!
I'm not even British, and I'm hearing "EX-TER-MI-NATE!" in my head...
No thanks; wake me up when they come out with the "Google n*log(n)" version.
Here are some science/math/technology books that I've found to be educational, interesting, or otherwise thought-provoking. I'm sure I'm leaving many out, but these in particular stand out to me.
They're listed in rough order of the amount of math and thought required (The Road To Reality being very difficult and very fascinating.)
Cosmos (C. Sagan)
Zero (C. Seife)
The Joy of Pi (D. Blatner)
Chaos (J. Gleick)
Artificial Life (S. Levy)
Linked (A.-L. BarabÃsi)
The Mathematical Tourist (I. Peterson)
A Brief History of Time (S. Hawking)
The Mystery of the Aleph (A. Aczel)
Finite and Infinite Games (J. Carse)
An Imaginary Tale: The Story of i (P. Nahin)
e: The Story of a Number (E. Maor)
The Fractal Geometry of Nature (B. Mandelbrot)
The Road to Reality (R. Penrose)
A guy sends out spam with images of scantily-clad women -- and THIS, not his Quixotic crusade against everything that offends him, is a reason for using the Can-SPAM act against him?
...but yeah, sic 'im, guys. About bloody time.
Jack Thompson actually went up a notch in my estimation, now that I've heard he's sending out pr0n emails. (His approval rating in my book is now at 1%. Way to go, Jack!!)
Now there's a whatcouldpossiblygowrong article if I ever saw one...
Darwinian natural selection in action!
Anyone with a label machine and too much free time can make a badge for himself and - poof! - become an "ethicist".
How unethical!
"I've fought mud crabs more feasome than you!"
Some of the questions are also phrased in the past tense; I would expect this to be corrected (e.g. "was or is") on a professional psychological profile survey.
I wonder if this was either fabricated, or simply recreated from someone's memory of the questions. (Possibly the latter, assuming that the complainants and/or the lawyers sending the takedown message did in fact read the original survey as well as the contents of the post in question...)
Frickin' laser beam? Check!
...but where are the sharks?
"What is the ultimate answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?"
...
"Hmm. Tricky."
We miss you, Mr. Adams.
Given that it has both a moon and an atmosphere, are they going to admit that it's a planet (albeit a weird one) -- or do we let the definition become so strict that soon nothing qualifies as a planet anymore?
This may even win the first Meta-Ig-Nobel: where everyone just assumes it has to win, and nobody gets around to actually nominating it...