Well that was a complete non-sequitur and kinda rude. My point was that Warren Buffet (one of the richest men in the world) has made his fortune by investing in companies that actually turn a profit as opposed to typical speculation. Because of his past success and a 10% stake, there's a chance that the Chinese car is not vaporware.
Now your comment implies that I am somehow responsible for the current financial crisis either because I make speculative investments or take out/issue bad loans, perhaps based on what Warren Buffet does. Those implications aren't true, nor do they have any bearing on the comment I made. So, I can only assume you're trolling for easy mod points.
You should stop because it only makes you look like an idiot.
That's awesome. You could see the internet before: goatse, tub girl, and 2-girls on cup. Think of all the things you could un-watch!
Hell, I could un-rick-roll myself, thereby destroying that meme forever!
I for one cannot wait until all the appropriate reading materials come out: Knuth's Fundamental Quantum Algorithms, Quantum Algorithms for Dummies, and Quantum Algorithms in a nutshell.:)
Yes, you're right for the most part that educational games do suck. But, I think that's mostly due to poor game design rather than a bad core concept. Here's my counter example:
Wired Article. You also make some good points on how to make the learning process fun or motivating instead of a tiring marketing drone:). Maybe the developers will follow your advice if they read slashdot, heh.
That really depends on the game mechanics. If it's fun, then the core idea can be whatever it needs to be. If you think about it, games with initially odd concepts have performed well: Sim City (or any of the Sim Series), the Tycoon series, Pheonix Wright, Eco, Katamari Damacy, Sonic. Not every game needs to be pigeone-holed into RTS or FPS to be fun. It's just easier for publishers to make the safe bet.
There. I did it in one line of code. #!/usr/bin/env python import sys g_sqSize = -1 # the board size, passed at runtime g_board = [] # the board will be constructed as a list of lists def main(): global g_sqSize if len(sys.argv) != 2: g_sqSize = 8 # Default: Fill the normal 8x8 chess board else: try: g_sqSize = int(sys.argv[1]) # or, the NxN the user wants except: print "Usage: " + sys.argv[0] + " " sys.exit(1) for i in xrange(0, g_sqSize): g_board.append(g_sqSize*[0]) # Fill the board with zeroes Fill(0,0,1) # Start the recursion with a 1 in the upper left print "No solution found" # if the recursion returns, it failed def InRangeAndEmpty(ty,tx): # check if coordinates are within the board return ty>=0 and tx>=0 and ty
I believe that extension only works in windows. It seems to use some ie's engine to run MS web features. So if you run linux you're pretty much screwed. : /
You are in a pitch-black room. A warm glow is coming from a nearby window.
You turn right and are confronted by a man in a suite.
He hands you a slip of paper.
You have been sued by a grue.
I think one of the reasons sins does well is that the main developer or manager targets these games at people who will pay for them: my guess is young adults who have money, like strats, and might want to play a game with friends. When I consider World of Goo, the target audience is much larger and the game size is much smaller. The former increases those who might distribute the game and the latter increases the likelihood of the game being distributed. I for one, would rather shell out 40$ then spend a week torrenting a 4gb game. I like World of Goo and hope the devs are successful but there are some features that make it more susceptible to piracy. My suggestion would be to make (non-lan) internet play a bigger feature and do some serial checking like steam or bnet. Otherwise, they might do better by focusing on a target audience that pays.
I'd be surprised if political figures downloaded content from the intertubes much less used it. Keep in mind that most people who are in political office were alive before computers became ubiquitous and over their lifetime, never had to learn how to use it out of necessity. That's why these laws get passed. It doesn't effect those voting for it. If it did, it would have been shot down much faster.
I agree with you for the most part. I was really making a comment what the expectations of the town should be, not the inhabitants. Mainly that, if it doesn't some plan distributing and reproducing knowledge, then it will lose that knowledge as the older, 'gifted' intellectuals die out.
1) not everyone has the talent to teach
You're never too young to learn.
2) many of them shouldn't be distracted from their research
If they don't teach, how are they going to train a team of lab monkeys to do their bidding. The benefits of teaching are that you can train people to do your busy work:).
3) teaching at universities is overrated when so many subjects can be learnt from a book in a course directed by a TA.
You do make a valid point that smart people's time might be wasted on teaching low level material, it could also be said that they are not teaching the material alone. Good teachers can infect their students with enthusiasm and help them learn how to learn (e.g. using mnemonic or technique to understand the material).
All that being said, I still think education is a smart person's greatest contribution.
I think we already have something like this to the degree that it can exist and they're called universities. I actually think this isn't a very good idea. The premise is that smart people are naturally gifted and if, herded into a small enclosure, will develop good things. The true value of smart people, however, is not the gadgets they can develop, but the education they can distribute to their surrounding communities. If the city does not train new minds, or allow the 'less intelligent' to be trained, then it will probably stifle the growth of intellectual resources. If it does do research and train you people who show sufficient academic prowess, then it's simply a university town.
I've rarely seen a library that had student's only admittance; actually I've only seen it once for my high school library and that can't be counted. Typically, universities, at least respectable ones, have areas that are meant to service the public during the day. This may consist of a shiny fountain, some art work, and a library in most cases. I believe these services exist for two reasons: 1) advertising and 2) to uphold the ideal that (public) education builds better communities. From that point of view, it seems almost mandatory to pay a pittance of $100-$1000 for a connection to the largest source of information in the world.
Go to the library?
Seriously, if you're at a University, or hell, any community, you should have a library which usually has some kind of internet connection. And you don't have to worry about being charged some arbitrary amount per MB. : /
I think that really depends on your level of customer interaction for a given job. If you have a high level of customer interaction, then it probably pays to be safe and make them feel comfortable that they are dealing with a professional. If you're working for a few (intelligent) customers at a time, particularly for contracting work, they may be more forgiving if they product or services you're selling are good; i.e. they can look past your appearances and you're not interacting with their customers. I think their are a couple gradients to this though:
1) Low level manual labor - whatever's comfortable.
2) Customer representative - Shirt and tie, or whatever uniform is specified.
3) Technical - Comfortable, nice looking clothes, probably collared shirt and khakis.
4) Project/People managers - Shirt and tie (not like a uniform) and probably a suite as your salary goes up.
These observations are only for men's dress codes though.
If you have to work under someone and deal with customers, you probably will have to be assimilated, because that's just better for business. Otherwise, you only dress nice because it's comfortable and helps you fit in. : /
There's actually a couple of practical reasons to limit where and when people can smoke. A few I can think of is: it's detrimental to other's health, smells like shit, and can cause fires in a few places. Having a law that limits smoking is kinda like having a law that limits assault or peeing in public. Restricting freedoms isn't just about taking away rights but ensuring that everyone has them, to some degree or another. From looking around, fascism can occur as both a right-wing or left-wing phenomena in which the well-being of the government is placed above the well-being of the individual. This is slightly different from the motives of a liberal party which try to ensure that something is provided for those with less power (political or otherwise). To quote wikipedia:
Fascism is a totalitarian and nationalist ideology.
Liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity.
Something tells me your just trying to use fascism as a lean-word to get everyone to agree with your conservative ideals; watch Fox news much?
A game can look as creepy as Hell, and the sound can be spot on. But, if I am not afraid to die, to lose something I've worked for, I'll just think it's cool.
Ya, whenever my router's internet light goes out while playing a game, all I can do is hide beneath the sheets and pray to God it's not the end of the world.
This reminds me of something a comedian once said (forget who it was):
If your sitting in a bar, look around. Do you see and presidents?
Ultimately, I'd want to have someone smarter, and hopefully more sober, than me. Especially if they have broad authority over the economy and military. One can only hope.:/
That's actually a pretty sad indication of how much a college name matters over what you do. I had a friend who did his undergrad at MIT, and when applying for jobs, he was insta-accepted to various tech jobs. No interview. No background checks. Just an open door. Given that, he refused those jobs because that easy entry gave him some indication as to who the companies hired and on what criteria. On the other extreme, were a couple of people who had to work twice as hard because they had to sell the college they attended. It's a little sad, but it's the reality.
Computers have to be taught to a similar degree that computers have to be taught; that is unless your willing to sit through a computer's random training session and see what coalesces. I'd be more interested to see, not if a computer could answer questions, but rather if a computer could ask questions and use those answers to fuel the development of further questions, experiments, or answers. That is, after all, where the human learning model starts.
It's kinda like going into Walmart and seeing a marked-up (made-for-low-wages) item marked-down. This increases sales because customers feel like they're saving money by spending money. And, since America is made up of stupid consumers, we'll think this is a deal and buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well that was a complete non-sequitur and kinda rude. My point was that Warren Buffet (one of the richest men in the world) has made his fortune by investing in companies that actually turn a profit as opposed to typical speculation. Because of his past success and a 10% stake, there's a chance that the Chinese car is not vaporware.
Now your comment implies that I am somehow responsible for the current financial crisis either because I make speculative investments or take out/issue bad loans, perhaps based on what Warren Buffet does. Those implications aren't true, nor do they have any bearing on the comment I made. So, I can only assume you're trolling for easy mod points.
You should stop because it only makes you look like an idiot.
I kinda doubt Warren Buffett would invest in vaporware....
Hmm what is an R4? (for the uninitiated among us)
That's awesome. You could see the internet before: goatse, tub girl, and 2-girls on cup. Think of all the things you could un-watch!
Hell, I could un-rick-roll myself, thereby destroying that meme forever!
I for one cannot wait until all the appropriate reading materials come out: Knuth's Fundamental Quantum Algorithms, Quantum Algorithms for Dummies, and Quantum Algorithms in a nutshell. :)
Yes, you're right for the most part that educational games do suck. But, I think that's mostly due to poor game design rather than a bad core concept. Here's my counter example: Wired Article. You also make some good points on how to make the learning process fun or motivating instead of a tiring marketing drone :). Maybe the developers will follow your advice if they read slashdot, heh.
That really depends on the game mechanics. If it's fun, then the core idea can be whatever it needs to be. If you think about it, games with initially odd concepts have performed well: Sim City (or any of the Sim Series), the Tycoon series, Pheonix Wright, Eco, Katamari Damacy, Sonic. Not every game needs to be pigeone-holed into RTS or FPS to be fun. It's just easier for publishers to make the safe bet.
There. I did it in one line of code.
#!/usr/bin/env python import sys g_sqSize = -1 # the board size, passed at runtime g_board = [] # the board will be constructed as a list of lists def main(): global g_sqSize if len(sys.argv) != 2: g_sqSize = 8 # Default: Fill the normal 8x8 chess board else: try: g_sqSize = int(sys.argv[1]) # or, the NxN the user wants except: print "Usage: " + sys.argv[0] + " " sys.exit(1) for i in xrange(0, g_sqSize): g_board.append(g_sqSize*[0]) # Fill the board with zeroes Fill(0,0,1) # Start the recursion with a 1 in the upper left print "No solution found" # if the recursion returns, it failed def InRangeAndEmpty(ty,tx): # check if coordinates are within the board return ty>=0 and tx>=0 and ty
I believe that extension only works in windows. It seems to use some ie's engine to run MS web features. So if you run linux you're pretty much screwed. : /
You are in a pitch-black room. A warm glow is coming from a nearby window.
You turn right and are confronted by a man in a suite.
He hands you a slip of paper.
You have been sued by a grue.
That's why we should make a nethack game that uses the WoW graphics engine. Imagine how much cooler that would be! :)
I think one of the reasons sins does well is that the main developer or manager targets these games at people who will pay for them: my guess is young adults who have money, like strats, and might want to play a game with friends. When I consider World of Goo, the target audience is much larger and the game size is much smaller. The former increases those who might distribute the game and the latter increases the likelihood of the game being distributed. I for one, would rather shell out 40$ then spend a week torrenting a 4gb game. I like World of Goo and hope the devs are successful but there are some features that make it more susceptible to piracy. My suggestion would be to make (non-lan) internet play a bigger feature and do some serial checking like steam or bnet. Otherwise, they might do better by focusing on a target audience that pays.
I'd be surprised if political figures downloaded content from the intertubes much less used it. Keep in mind that most people who are in political office were alive before computers became ubiquitous and over their lifetime, never had to learn how to use it out of necessity. That's why these laws get passed. It doesn't effect those voting for it. If it did, it would have been shot down much faster.
1) not everyone has the talent to teach
You're never too young to learn.
2) many of them shouldn't be distracted from their research
If they don't teach, how are they going to train a team of lab monkeys to do their bidding. The benefits of teaching are that you can train people to do your busy work :).
3) teaching at universities is overrated when so many subjects can be learnt from a book in a course directed by a TA.
You do make a valid point that smart people's time might be wasted on teaching low level material, it could also be said that they are not teaching the material alone. Good teachers can infect their students with enthusiasm and help them learn how to learn (e.g. using mnemonic or technique to understand the material).
All that being said, I still think education is a smart person's greatest contribution.
I think we already have something like this to the degree that it can exist and they're called universities. I actually think this isn't a very good idea. The premise is that smart people are naturally gifted and if, herded into a small enclosure, will develop good things. The true value of smart people, however, is not the gadgets they can develop, but the education they can distribute to their surrounding communities. If the city does not train new minds, or allow the 'less intelligent' to be trained, then it will probably stifle the growth of intellectual resources. If it does do research and train you people who show sufficient academic prowess, then it's simply a university town.
All terrorists were once little kids. Therefore, we should ban little kids. There, Problem solves once and for all.
I've rarely seen a library that had student's only admittance; actually I've only seen it once for my high school library and that can't be counted. Typically, universities, at least respectable ones, have areas that are meant to service the public during the day. This may consist of a shiny fountain, some art work, and a library in most cases. I believe these services exist for two reasons: 1) advertising and 2) to uphold the ideal that (public) education builds better communities. From that point of view, it seems almost mandatory to pay a pittance of $100-$1000 for a connection to the largest source of information in the world.
Go to the library?
Seriously, if you're at a University, or hell, any community, you should have a library which usually has some kind of internet connection. And you don't have to worry about being charged some arbitrary amount per MB. : /
I think that really depends on your level of customer interaction for a given job. If you have a high level of customer interaction, then it probably pays to be safe and make them feel comfortable that they are dealing with a professional. If you're working for a few (intelligent) customers at a time, particularly for contracting work, they may be more forgiving if they product or services you're selling are good; i.e. they can look past your appearances and you're not interacting with their customers. I think their are a couple gradients to this though:
1) Low level manual labor - whatever's comfortable.
2) Customer representative - Shirt and tie, or whatever uniform is specified.
3) Technical - Comfortable, nice looking clothes, probably collared shirt and khakis.
4) Project/People managers - Shirt and tie (not like a uniform) and probably a suite as your salary goes up.
These observations are only for men's dress codes though.
If you have to work under someone and deal with customers, you probably will have to be assimilated, because that's just better for business. Otherwise, you only dress nice because it's comfortable and helps you fit in. : /
"ban everyone from smoking cigarettes"
There's actually a couple of practical reasons to limit where and when people can smoke. A few I can think of is: it's detrimental to other's health, smells like shit, and can cause fires in a few places. Having a law that limits smoking is kinda like having a law that limits assault or peeing in public. Restricting freedoms isn't just about taking away rights but ensuring that everyone has them, to some degree or another. From looking around, fascism can occur as both a right-wing or left-wing phenomena in which the well-being of the government is placed above the well-being of the individual. This is slightly different from the motives of a liberal party which try to ensure that something is provided for those with less power (political or otherwise). To quote wikipedia:
Fascism is a totalitarian and nationalist ideology.
Liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity.
Something tells me your just trying to use fascism as a lean-word to get everyone to agree with your conservative ideals; watch Fox news much?
A game can look as creepy as Hell, and the sound can be spot on. But, if I am not afraid to die, to lose something I've worked for, I'll just think it's cool.
Ya, whenever my router's internet light goes out while playing a game, all I can do is hide beneath the sheets and pray to God it's not the end of the world.
This reminds me of something a comedian once said (forget who it was):
:/
If your sitting in a bar, look around. Do you see and presidents?
Ultimately, I'd want to have someone smarter, and hopefully more sober, than me. Especially if they have broad authority over the economy and military. One can only hope.
That's actually a pretty sad indication of how much a college name matters over what you do. I had a friend who did his undergrad at MIT, and when applying for jobs, he was insta-accepted to various tech jobs. No interview. No background checks. Just an open door. Given that, he refused those jobs because that easy entry gave him some indication as to who the companies hired and on what criteria. On the other extreme, were a couple of people who had to work twice as hard because they had to sell the college they attended. It's a little sad, but it's the reality.
Computers have to be taught to a similar degree that computers have to be taught; that is unless your willing to sit through a computer's random training session and see what coalesces. I'd be more interested to see, not if a computer could answer questions, but rather if a computer could ask questions and use those answers to fuel the development of further questions, experiments, or answers. That is, after all, where the human learning model starts.
It's kinda like going into Walmart and seeing a marked-up (made-for-low-wages) item marked-down. This increases sales because customers feel like they're saving money by spending money. And, since America is made up of stupid consumers, we'll think this is a deal and buy it.