Back in 1997 NOVA did an episode, "Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca", where they went to Peru and filmed the natives building a grass suspension bridge in the traditional style. I'd recommend watching it if you want to see one of these things under construction, it really it amazing how they go from dry grass to a sturdy rope bridge.
I had a similar experience back in Feburary. I think a long time about character names. With the limited character customization options its really your entire identity in WoW. Made up a little, wrinkled gnomish rogue called GrandmaShiv. Thought it would be fun to play a motherly character who'll stab you in the back with her knitting needles, in contrast to all the young, healthy adventurers. Didn't even get out of the newbie area before a self-appointed name nazi reported me to a GM. Title violation.
My experience with the GM went a little smoother than CmdrTaco. I was not immediately thrown out of the game. I got an out-of-game email from GM Gamada telling me that my name was changed to a new temporary one. That my offense was "Use of title and Inappropriate naming on a role play server (non-fantasy name)" That I could reply back with a list of new names if the temporary one was not suitable. And an email address I could write to with a dispute.
So I disputed, explaining my character idea, why "Grandma" is appropriate for the character and why "Shiv" is a valid fantasy name (thieves' cant word derived from latin, not just modern gangspeak). I also pointed out that the RP Naming Policy stated that "Fantasy titles should be earned through the mechanics of the game" but I doubted I'd be able to earn the title "Grandma" in WoW.
Destrus, Senior GM, wrote back saying he understood my position and talked with his supervisors about it, but the policy is no titles, fantasy or not. At least they thought about it a bit.
So... good experience with the GMs. But did I ever play that character again? No. The whole thing soured my enthusiasm for the concept and "Beldame" (my new chosen name) was just... different from "GrandmaShiv". It would be interesting to know how many characters continue to be played after a name change. Does changing a character name in a MMORPG pretty much guarantee their death?
I used to worry about things like "definately" vs "definitely" but then I read a few books on the history of the English language and realized a lot of what we consider to be "correct" was either A) previously considered to be incorrect B) based upon a no longer used pronounciation C) simply imposed by an authority. The book I recommend reading is Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" which entertainingly goes through the history of the English language and shows that it is very much an evolving thing.
"definately" vs "definitely" is a perfect example. Spelling of words tends to follow pronunciation changes. I drift between pronouncing it def-in-at-ly and def-in-it-ly. Thus my spelling tends to follow suit. One might argue that it should clearly be "definitely" since it comes from the root "definite". I would counter with a word from this very paragraph: "Pronunciation" whose English root is "pronounce". Shouldn't it be "pronounciation"? But that's considered a misspelling. To further confuse the matter, the latin root is "pronunciatio" and I'll bet at one time we spelled it "pronunce".
With all the exceptions and entanglements in English spelling its no wonder it drifts all over the place. Consider the widely divergent pronunciations of various English speakers all around the world (and just within the US) and you can start to care less and less about the particular details of grammar and spelling. Throw in the fact that at one point Webster (of the dictionary) just decided to change some spellings he didn't like (the American "color" vs the British "colour" is one example) and you can see how silly it is to insist on rote memorization of "proper" spelling. There's a good reason the Oxford English Dictionary documents the language *as used* rather than as is considered correct.
As long as the message gets across and reading speed is not impared its ok. ("its" vs "it's" is a whole other story).
Of course, their r sum th1ngz w3 kn agre g0 2 far.
If you poke around in the win32/ and wince/ directories in the Perl source you'll find a handful of C source and header files which are:
* (c) 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
* Portions (c) 1999 ActiveState Tool Corp, http://www.activestate.com/
*
* You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
* License or the Artistic License, as specified in the README file.
These came about as a result of work ActiveState did for Microsoft (remember all that unnecessary wailing and nashing of teeth about ActiveState "selling out Perl" to Microsoft?) Yes, sometimes a little Open Source work leaks out of Redmond.
I don't think I've gotten a single SoBig virus. Either they're not getting sent or something upstream is blocking them.
OTOH, I get about 1000+ pieces of virus related junk. Its exceeded spam. About half is anti-virus software telling me they blocked a virus. The other half is various bounce messages and autoresponders from viruses going out to addresses that no longer exist or to list admin addresses, lists that require verification, etc... with my email address.
How many legit pieces of email do I get a day? 100-200 maybe.
The situation is absurd. If your email address is widely available (in my case, in the Perl documentation) you'll get clobbered. I had to franticly write a set of SpamAssassin rules to block the antivirus reponses to make my mail usable again.
I've been archiving all my unfiltered, incoming mail since Feburary. 80,000 messages. If anyone seriously wants to run some statistics for how hard a popular email address gets hammered, I'll consider making it available.
I, too, would rather see you use the NMS versions. It hurts the back of my eyeballs to see anyone teaching using Matt's code in 2003. Why? Well, just ask Matt Wright:
While the free code found at my web site has not evolved much in recent years, the general programming practices and standards of CGI programs have. nms is an attempt by very active programmers in the Perl community to bring the quality of code for these types of programs up to date and eliminate some of the bad programming practices and bugs found in the existing Matt's Script Archive code.
I would highly recommend downloading the nms versions if you wish to learn CGI programming. The code you find at Matt's Script Archive is not representative of how even I would code these days. My interests and activies have moved on, however, and I just have not found the time to update all of my scripts. One of the major reasons for this is that they work for many people. For this reason, I will continue to provide them to the public, but am also pleased to make you aware of well-coded alternatives.
The NMS versions don't have the comments explaining what each line is doing, first year CS student style, but it is better to teach with good code than well-commented bad code. In the end, you can't replace good teaching with lots of comments.
If the comments are the only thing holding you back from using NMS, add them in!
What I found interesting about the article was the Mayor's threat of legal action. Now wouldn't that be interesting, having the Mayor drag Williamette Week into court for theft of her recycling. The case would go to trial and the WW could then deliberately lose the case in order to set a legal precedent for trash being property.
A quick look at the cast & crew will tell you that T3 is going to be a big budget train wreck. The most glarring omission? James Cameron. He directed and wrote T1, directed, wrote and produced T2. He's nowhere to be found on T3. Very Bad. Nor do we get William Wishner Jr., co-writer of both T1 and T2. Very, very bad.
So who do we have instead?
Director: Jonathan Mostow Of "U-571" infamy.
Writers: John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris The people who brought us "The Net", "The Game" and the terminally medicore "Interceptor".
Writer: Tedi Sarafian He wrote the script for "Tank Girl".
Actors... The only returning actor is Arnold, because you can't have the movie without him. Neither Linda Hamilton nor Edward Furlong are coming back.
Given the exodus of the original cast and crew and the lame second string players they've brought in for replacements, I can predict it won't be worth $10.
Rent the T2 Special Edition instead.
We did have Japanese codes, just not that week.
on
Review: Pearl Harbor
·
· Score: 1
As a point of order, we were breaking Japanese diplomatic (JN-25?) and naval codes on a regular basis prior to Pearl Harbor. Magic and Purple were two decoding devices. However, just prior to December 7th the encryption keys were changed and we didn't figure them out again until December 10th (?).
By Midway (June, 1942) we were pretty much reading everything.
I remember this because I just re-read "Midway: The Incredible Victory" by Walter Lord (Wordsworth Military Press), but I don't happen to have the copy with me so I can't go into detail.
I remember when HKS rented out floorspace from the non-profit where I was working. A good bunch of guys. They'd help us out alot since we were just a bunch of clueless hippies then (some might say I still am...)
Its also nice to see a tech firm that's NOT in New York or California making some $dough$. (Yay, Pittsburgh)
Just a note of congrats from one who's trying to make to to another who has.
Slashdot Mirror
Back in 1997 NOVA did an episode, "Secrets of Lost Empires: Inca", where they went to Peru and filmed the natives building a grass suspension bridge in the traditional style. I'd recommend watching it if you want to see one of these things under construction, it really it amazing how they go from dry grass to a sturdy rope bridge.
I had a similar experience back in Feburary. I think a long time about character names. With the limited character customization options its really your entire identity in WoW. Made up a little, wrinkled gnomish rogue called GrandmaShiv. Thought it would be fun to play a motherly character who'll stab you in the back with her knitting needles, in contrast to all the young, healthy adventurers. Didn't even get out of the newbie area before a self-appointed name nazi reported me to a GM. Title violation.
My experience with the GM went a little smoother than CmdrTaco. I was not immediately thrown out of the game. I got an out-of-game email from GM Gamada telling me that my name was changed to a new temporary one. That my offense was "Use of title and Inappropriate naming on a role play server (non-fantasy name)" That I could reply back with a list of new names if the temporary one was not suitable. And an email address I could write to with a dispute.
So I disputed, explaining my character idea, why "Grandma" is appropriate for the character and why "Shiv" is a valid fantasy name (thieves' cant word derived from latin, not just modern gangspeak). I also pointed out that the RP Naming Policy stated that "Fantasy titles should be earned through the mechanics of the game" but I doubted I'd be able to earn the title "Grandma" in WoW.
Destrus, Senior GM, wrote back saying he understood my position and talked with his supervisors about it, but the policy is no titles, fantasy or not. At least they thought about it a bit.
So... good experience with the GMs. But did I ever play that character again? No. The whole thing soured my enthusiasm for the concept and "Beldame" (my new chosen name) was just... different from "GrandmaShiv". It would be interesting to know how many characters continue to be played after a name change. Does changing a character name in a MMORPG pretty much guarantee their death?
I used to worry about things like "definately" vs "definitely" but then I read a few books on the history of the English language and realized a lot of what we consider to be "correct" was either A) previously considered to be incorrect B) based upon a no longer used pronounciation C) simply imposed by an authority. The book I recommend reading is Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" which entertainingly goes through the history of the English language and shows that it is very much an evolving thing.
"definately" vs "definitely" is a perfect example. Spelling of words tends to follow pronunciation changes. I drift between pronouncing it def-in-at-ly and def-in-it-ly. Thus my spelling tends to follow suit. One might argue that it should clearly be "definitely" since it comes from the root "definite". I would counter with a word from this very paragraph: "Pronunciation" whose English root is "pronounce". Shouldn't it be "pronounciation"? But that's considered a misspelling. To further confuse the matter, the latin root is "pronunciatio" and I'll bet at one time we spelled it "pronunce".
With all the exceptions and entanglements in English spelling its no wonder it drifts all over the place. Consider the widely divergent pronunciations of various English speakers all around the world (and just within the US) and you can start to care less and less about the particular details of grammar and spelling. Throw in the fact that at one point Webster (of the dictionary) just decided to change some spellings he didn't like (the American "color" vs the British "colour" is one example) and you can see how silly it is to insist on rote memorization of "proper" spelling. There's a good reason the Oxford English Dictionary documents the language *as used* rather than as is considered correct.
As long as the message gets across and reading speed is not impared its ok. ("its" vs "it's" is a whole other story).
Of course, their r sum th1ngz w3 kn agre g0 2 far.
Microsoft is just expressing its "XXXXXXX To Innovate".
If you poke around in the win32/ and wince/ directories in the Perl source you'll find a handful of C source and header files which are:
* (c) 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
* Portions (c) 1999 ActiveState Tool Corp, http://www.activestate.com/
*
* You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
* License or the Artistic License, as specified in the README file.
These came about as a result of work ActiveState did for Microsoft (remember all that unnecessary wailing and nashing of teeth about ActiveState "selling out Perl" to Microsoft?) Yes, sometimes a little Open Source work leaks out of Redmond.
And just to add a little more credit, I'm his roomate. Yes its true. You can check my rep if you like. Have fun.
Also the local news boys, KOIN Channel 6, just left. Ovid will be on the news at 11 tonite.
I don't think I've gotten a single SoBig virus. Either they're not getting sent or something upstream is blocking them.
OTOH, I get about 1000+ pieces of virus related junk. Its exceeded spam. About half is anti-virus software telling me they blocked a virus. The other half is various bounce messages and autoresponders from viruses going out to addresses that no longer exist or to list admin addresses, lists that require verification, etc... with my email address.
How many legit pieces of email do I get a day? 100-200 maybe.
The situation is absurd. If your email address is widely available (in my case, in the Perl documentation) you'll get clobbered. I had to franticly write a set of SpamAssassin rules to block the antivirus reponses to make my mail usable again.
I've been archiving all my unfiltered, incoming mail since Feburary. 80,000 messages. If anyone seriously wants to run some statistics for how hard a popular email address gets hammered, I'll consider making it available.
I, too, would rather see you use the NMS versions. It hurts the back of my eyeballs to see anyone teaching using Matt's code in 2003. Why? Well, just ask Matt Wright:
from http://www.scriptarchive.com/nms.html
The NMS versions don't have the comments explaining what each line is doing, first year CS student style, but it is better to teach with good code than well-commented bad code. In the end, you can't replace good teaching with lots of comments.
If the comments are the only thing holding you back from using NMS, add them in!
Please don't use MSA code to teach with.
Williamette Week has posted a followup story Garbage Chronicles.
In short:
What I found interesting about the article was the Mayor's threat of legal action. Now wouldn't that be interesting, having the Mayor drag Williamette Week into court for theft of her recycling. The case would go to trial and the WW could then deliberately lose the case in order to set a legal precedent for trash being property.
A quick look at the cast & crew will tell you that T3 is going to be a big budget train wreck. The most glarring omission? James Cameron. He directed and wrote T1, directed, wrote and produced T2. He's nowhere to be found on T3. Very Bad. Nor do we get William Wishner Jr., co-writer of both T1 and T2. Very, very bad.
So who do we have instead?
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Of "U-571" infamy.
Writers: John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris
The people who brought us "The Net", "The Game" and the terminally medicore "Interceptor".
Writer: Tedi Sarafian
He wrote the script for "Tank Girl".
Actors...
The only returning actor is Arnold, because you can't have the movie without him. Neither Linda Hamilton nor Edward Furlong are coming back.
Given the exodus of the original cast and crew and the lame second string players they've brought in for replacements, I can predict it won't be worth $10.
Rent the T2 Special Edition instead.
As a point of order, we were breaking Japanese diplomatic (JN-25?) and naval codes on a regular basis prior to Pearl Harbor. Magic and Purple were two decoding devices. However, just prior to December 7th the encryption keys were changed and we didn't figure them out again until December 10th (?).
By Midway (June, 1942) we were pretty much reading everything.
I remember this because I just re-read "Midway: The Incredible Victory" by Walter Lord (Wordsworth Military Press), but I don't happen to have the copy with me so I can't go into detail.
I remember when HKS rented out floorspace from the non-profit where I was working. A good bunch of guys. They'd help us out alot since we were just a bunch of clueless hippies then (some might say I still am...)
Its also nice to see a tech firm that's NOT in New York or California making some $dough$. (Yay, Pittsburgh)
Just a note of congrats from one who's trying to make to to another who has.