It depends on what your course is, but if you want them to solve problems in a real world setting, you give them real world problems. Last time I checked, even with the vast amount of information that's available on the internet, there are still problems out there that need solving. Offer those up.
If you simply ask them to solve equations, that's not really solving problems in the real world. But if you ask them to design a bridge/circuit, that's something else. The problems should also be open-ended. If you have simple questions with only answer, that's easy to cheat. But having open-ended questions with multiple paths and/or multiple solutions makes it much more difficult to cheat. (And are probably better examples of real world situations.)
SHOW YOUR WORK! The more steps that need to be taken, the more 'samples' you have to see if people are simply rote cheating or not. If I'm solving an equation and I need twenty steps, and someone else does it in the same twenty steps - guess what? One of us copied off of the other. Even if they are smart enough to not copy all twenty steps verbatim, that still requires some level of intelligence.:)
PUNISH HARD As the likelihood of catching someone cheating decreases, the penalty should likewise increase. Just make it clear that if you're caught cheating, you get a zero on the exam, and it doesn't matter if you were the person doing the copying or being copied from.
This would fail because people would need to have personal responsibility. And that's something that we're afraid of. We should let government, in its omniscience, take care of things for us.
You use "Spill Mountains" on the edges. Basically, you make mountains 1,000 miles high on the rim to prevent spillage. (If you can build a ringworld, you can build mountains 1,000 miles high.) That's reasonably above a large portion of the atmosphere such that very little should spill out. By the way, you also use the mountains on the edge to put back soil that you naturally lose through erosion.:)
Set in the present time. Explain that since Indy drank of the Holy Grail that he has an extended lifespan, which is why an action hero from the 30s can be around in the present time, yet only have aged twenty years. He may not be as spry as he once was, but he's looking pretty good for a 100 year old archaeologist.
I personally like a "Search for Atlantis" theme myself, but whatever. You lose the Nazis as villains, and "terrorists" is decidedly less "fun" than Nazis, though.
Peak oil is not about the decline of oil, it's about the decline of CHEAP oil. Some would dismiss peak oil as another Malthusian doomsday. However, one needs to consider the fact that oil is such a huge part of our lives, and the discovery of cheap oil (and the fertilizer made from petroleum products) helped stem the tide. It's not simply energy, it's also plastics and a multitude of other products. While we *may* find alternative sources of energy, can you imagine a life without cheap plastic? Go through your day today and see how often you use plastic.
Oil will always be present on our planet. The problem is that the Return on Investment (ROI) may be severely diminished. Right now, it's cheaper to find, drill, and transport oil than it is to use it. If it becomes more expensive to find and transport oil, we will have to find another source of energy. In case you hadn't noticed, energy consumption is going UP and not down.
It's not something to take lightly. There are people working on it, but we really need alot more effort behind it. I'm imagining bacteria in a petri dish consuming all of the resources. If people don't wake up soon, we could easily be faced with a situation where we simply will not be able to find a solution. Consider that research itself takes up resources, which will become more scarce and valuable. There is a doomsday possibility out there, but I like to hope that some governments will wake up and put alot of effort into finding alternatives. Humans should hopefully be able to think their way out of the petri dish.
Wow. When I read the headline, I instantly had flashbacks to Wesleyan Tetris. Did anyone else play this game back in the day on the Mac?
(Actually, it looks like there was a topic at some point in time about it in 2002!) Oh, and a quick search reveals that there is no more Wesleyan Tetris, merely a virus out there.
It's all about the "must have". Half-Life 2 and/or Doom 3 was supposed to push the envelope of technology so people would have to upgrade in order to play. Now, whether or not that actually happened depends on who you ask, of course.
It also seems like the advances in each generation of video card is also declining. Look at the iterations from DX8 to DX9 to wherever we're at now. You essentially needed a new card to really take advantage of the latest version of DX. It doesn't seem like there have any advances on the software side that have precipitated a need on the hardware side.
Consoles can expand into the HD realm, which it appears this generation is doing. There may also be HD-DVD or Blu-ray implementations as well. (Expect the Nintendo and Sony ones to do it, although not the Microsoft one) Moving into a 720p with 5.1 standard is where home entertainment seems to be heading at the moment, and consoles have to follow suit.
There's more to KOTOR than just "amnesia guy." There's the whole Sith training aspect of it as well. I found that part interesting, as well as the whole light/dark side of the Force. The Bioware folks really took it to another level to explore WHY people become "evil."
The story, as made into a movie, would center around amnesia guy, but you have to admit, it's a rather complex plot for the Star Wars universe. I mean, you and I and alot of the/. population are well-versed in Total Recall or Dick stories. But think of all the kiddies out there for whom Star Wars is the end-all, be-all of science fiction. The story would sell, especially with Star Wars technology thrown in.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic would make an outstanding movie. If someone actually bothered to make it, the storyline and characters are much better than anything Lucas is putting out in the "current" trilogy.
Video games are a different medium than films. Resident Evil and Tomb Raider were more action-oriented games with hardly any plot. Hmmm... what kind of a movie do you think is going to arise out of a video game like that?
Basing a movie off of an RPG, such as KOTOR, would at least give the writers and directors more meat to play with. They probably wouldn't have to do too much yet still remain true to the game.
If you folks want a list of some good board games out there, I'd suggest funagain.com. Some of the ones I'd figure would warrant a look-see would include Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, or Pitchcar. Go look them up!
People should read Footfall by Niven and Pournelle to get a good idea what kind of damage can be done from space, and they hadn't even envisioned some of the technology in use today.
I am no fearful paranoid who thinks that a space war is going to happen very soon, but just thinking about the possibilities is exciting to me. Consider:
1. GPS satellites. Essentially the entire military from cruise missiles to ships to infantry soldiers basically rely on GPS for accurate movement and location. If these get taken out, you would seriously cripple the US' military.
2. Communication satellites. What happens when these get taken out? Now the soldiers on the ground not even don't know where they are, but they can't even tell each other about it. There's short-term radio, but any major theater-wide communication is going to be rough.
3. Spy satellites. Taking these out would severely cripple any intelligence gathering that could be done. The modern US military relies heavily on technology, and taking out their capability in space would utterly cripple it.
Let's not forget that if some country were to destroy the civilain satellites, you would really throw the US into a state of chaos. You thought the blackout was bad?
Do I think any of this is going to happen soon? No, not really. But to not prepare for it would really be a shame.
Star Wars: KOTOR may be rather problematic as far as the localization will go, but that'd be one awesome product to get into the Japanese market. They enjoy the Star Wars universe at least comparably to Americans. It's an RPG, and it's a damn good game to boot.
Maybe instead of shovelling crap over to Japan and then wondering why it doesn't sell, they should be sending over some of the better games to Japan. I understand that there are some cultural differences to work out, but at least send a good representative!
If you RTFA (not you, but most other people that your comment is directed to), their intended application is for high frequency transmitters and receivers. Their target is 200 GHz operation for use in digital TV stations. Imagine the bandwidth you can pull in the 200 GHz range. Very impressive.
Therefore, the applications for this would look to be rather expensive and specific. They should be close to creating rudimentary amplifier circuits to replace the vacuum tubes that they currently employ. I certainly agree that we shouldn't be looking at these to replace processors anytime soon. The process is at.2 microns which is pretty close, but I doubt they have looked into the transistor density necessary to replace your Athlon.
The possibilities for like 10 years down the road are VERY intriguiging, however!
Caltech is a great buy, if you can get in. When I went there, basically anyone who needed financial aid (and there was a majority at that place) got it. Some people even got paid to go there! (in other words, tuition waiver, plus they get a stiped for books, lodging, food, etc.)
The campus itself is first-rate. The physical plant is outstanding now with all of the recent improvements. The student-teacher ratio is ungodly, and the labs are all extremely accessible. If you can get in, Tech kicks major butt. But of course, I'm totally biased.
I don't know about repositories of art, etc. It sounds problematic because people at least want CREDIT for what they've done, if not compensation. And art is somewhat different than code - it's difficult to open source.
Although maybe you folks want to look at Gamasutra? It's certainly more company-oriented, but you may be able to find someone there...
OK, maybe not, but I'm imagining that this little guy, with a PDA over Wi-Fi would be a VERY interesting little device, especially at trade shows and the like. I'm not saying that people should go clubbing with their PDA, but imagine these suckers going off at E3 or some other trade show. If you could put some scheduling thing in there, it'd be even better.
Find all people going to Gordon Biersch after the convention. Or something like that.
Once again, it seems that Mother Nature is providing us the inspiration for some design challenge.
Consider the environment that a tumbleweed grows in: the desert - lots of open space, the ability to roam, and the need to traverse alot of ground with minimal energy. Sounds like Mars to me!
And yes, this is all a cheap pop so you can check out my.sig.
Nice for your home garden
on
Water Flows Uphill
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
That thing would look awesome in your garden. I'd buy one. (If I had the money, and if I had a garden to put it in.)
I'd also want to put one of those non-linear water wheels. You have buckets on a wheel and they get filled up by a source of water. As they fill, they begin to rotate the wheel. However, the buckets have holes on the bottom. This causes the water in the buckets to flow out. What results is a wheel that moves in a decidedly non-linear fashion. That'd be a nice companion to the Escher waterfall.:)
Just because a game doesn't require a 1GHz+ cpu doesn't mean it's old or low tech. Maybe they just know how to give you more bang per cycle than the latest greatest blockbuster developers do.
Or maybe they realize that you don't need whiz-bang graphics and full exploitation of the latest DirectX drivers to have a fun game. Gameplay should be paramount, and most developers out there think that all people should get is a technology demo. NO! Understand this: when I buy a game, I want to have FUN. Just give that to me. I don't really care how pretty it looks (as long as it uses 16-bit color and doesn't look like something from the VGA days I'll be happy), but I DO care how it plays.
Slashdot Mirror
It depends on what your course is, but if you want them to solve problems in a real world setting, you give them real world problems. Last time I checked, even with the vast amount of information that's available on the internet, there are still problems out there that need solving. Offer those up.
If you simply ask them to solve equations, that's not really solving problems in the real world. But if you ask them to design a bridge/circuit, that's something else. The problems should also be open-ended. If you have simple questions with only answer, that's easy to cheat. But having open-ended questions with multiple paths and/or multiple solutions makes it much more difficult to cheat. (And are probably better examples of real world situations.)
SHOW YOUR WORK! :)
The more steps that need to be taken, the more 'samples' you have to see if people are simply rote cheating or not. If I'm solving an equation and I need twenty steps, and someone else does it in the same twenty steps - guess what? One of us copied off of the other. Even if they are smart enough to not copy all twenty steps verbatim, that still requires some level of intelligence.
PUNISH HARD
As the likelihood of catching someone cheating decreases, the penalty should likewise increase. Just make it clear that if you're caught cheating, you get a zero on the exam, and it doesn't matter if you were the person doing the copying or being copied from.
This would fail because people would need to have personal responsibility. And that's something that we're afraid of. We should let government, in its omniscience, take care of things for us.
So it would appear that they're making some differences with color, etc., but yeah - I'd like to see a still or two at least.
Interestingly enough, I got my issue of Governing Magazine and they have an article about Wi-Fi. For those of you want to read another FA, click here.
There's also a couple of Q&A's with a couple of government type people and their viewpoints on municipal Wi-Fi.
You use "Spill Mountains" on the edges. Basically, you make mountains 1,000 miles high on the rim to prevent spillage. (If you can build a ringworld, you can build mountains 1,000 miles high.) That's reasonably above a large portion of the atmosphere such that very little should spill out. By the way, you also use the mountains on the edge to put back soil that you naturally lose through erosion. :)
Set in the present time. Explain that since Indy drank of the Holy Grail that he has an extended lifespan, which is why an action hero from the 30s can be around in the present time, yet only have aged twenty years. He may not be as spry as he once was, but he's looking pretty good for a 100 year old archaeologist.
I personally like a "Search for Atlantis" theme myself, but whatever. You lose the Nazis as villains, and "terrorists" is decidedly less "fun" than Nazis, though.
Peak oil is not about the decline of oil, it's about the decline of CHEAP oil. Some would dismiss peak oil as another Malthusian doomsday. However, one needs to consider the fact that oil is such a huge part of our lives, and the discovery of cheap oil (and the fertilizer made from petroleum products) helped stem the tide. It's not simply energy, it's also plastics and a multitude of other products. While we *may* find alternative sources of energy, can you imagine a life without cheap plastic? Go through your day today and see how often you use plastic.
Oil will always be present on our planet. The problem is that the Return on Investment (ROI) may be severely diminished. Right now, it's cheaper to find, drill, and transport oil than it is to use it. If it becomes more expensive to find and transport oil, we will have to find another source of energy. In case you hadn't noticed, energy consumption is going UP and not down.
It's not something to take lightly. There are people working on it, but we really need alot more effort behind it. I'm imagining bacteria in a petri dish consuming all of the resources. If people don't wake up soon, we could easily be faced with a situation where we simply will not be able to find a solution. Consider that research itself takes up resources, which will become more scarce and valuable. There is a doomsday possibility out there, but I like to hope that some governments will wake up and put alot of effort into finding alternatives. Humans should hopefully be able to think their way out of the petri dish.
(Actually, it looks like there was a topic at some point in time about it in 2002!) Oh, and a quick search reveals that there is no more Wesleyan Tetris, merely a virus out there.
It's all about the "must have". Half-Life 2 and/or Doom 3 was supposed to push the envelope of technology so people would have to upgrade in order to play. Now, whether or not that actually happened depends on who you ask, of course.
It also seems like the advances in each generation of video card is also declining. Look at the iterations from DX8 to DX9 to wherever we're at now. You essentially needed a new card to really take advantage of the latest version of DX. It doesn't seem like there have any advances on the software side that have precipitated a need on the hardware side.
Consoles can expand into the HD realm, which it appears this generation is doing. There may also be HD-DVD or Blu-ray implementations as well. (Expect the Nintendo and Sony ones to do it, although not the Microsoft one) Moving into a 720p with 5.1 standard is where home entertainment seems to be heading at the moment, and consoles have to follow suit.
Dutch Boyd's saying on this is the best:
"Poker is like sex. Everyone thinks they're the best, but alot of people have no clue what they're doing."
(Or something like that)
I can only imagine cryptologists of the 24th century trying to go through old internet logs as they attempt to decipher "AYBABTU"
Well, since this is full of spoilers, anyway:
/. population are well-versed in Total Recall or Dick stories. But think of all the kiddies out there for whom Star Wars is the end-all, be-all of science fiction. The story would sell, especially with Star Wars technology thrown in.
There's more to KOTOR than just "amnesia guy." There's the whole Sith training aspect of it as well. I found that part interesting, as well as the whole light/dark side of the Force. The Bioware folks really took it to another level to explore WHY people become "evil."
The story, as made into a movie, would center around amnesia guy, but you have to admit, it's a rather complex plot for the Star Wars universe. I mean, you and I and alot of the
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic would make an outstanding movie. If someone actually bothered to make it, the storyline and characters are much better than anything Lucas is putting out in the "current" trilogy.
Video games are a different medium than films. Resident Evil and Tomb Raider were more action-oriented games with hardly any plot. Hmmm... what kind of a movie do you think is going to arise out of a video game like that?
Basing a movie off of an RPG, such as KOTOR, would at least give the writers and directors more meat to play with. They probably wouldn't have to do too much yet still remain true to the game.
So since Ninja Gaiden is a better game than PoP, it should win GOTY hands-down this year, then, huh?
If you folks want a list of some good board games out there, I'd suggest funagain.com. Some of the ones I'd figure would warrant a look-see would include Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, or Pitchcar. Go look them up!
I am no fearful paranoid who thinks that a space war is going to happen very soon, but just thinking about the possibilities is exciting to me. Consider:
1. GPS satellites. Essentially the entire military from cruise missiles to ships to infantry soldiers basically rely on GPS for accurate movement and location. If these get taken out, you would seriously cripple the US' military.
2. Communication satellites. What happens when these get taken out? Now the soldiers on the ground not even don't know where they are, but they can't even tell each other about it. There's short-term radio, but any major theater-wide communication is going to be rough.
3. Spy satellites. Taking these out would severely cripple any intelligence gathering that could be done. The modern US military relies heavily on technology, and taking out their capability in space would utterly cripple it.
Let's not forget that if some country were to destroy the civilain satellites, you would really throw the US into a state of chaos. You thought the blackout was bad?
Do I think any of this is going to happen soon? No, not really. But to not prepare for it would really be a shame.
Star Wars: KOTOR may be rather problematic as far as the localization will go, but that'd be one awesome product to get into the Japanese market. They enjoy the Star Wars universe at least comparably to Americans. It's an RPG, and it's a damn good game to boot.
Maybe instead of shovelling crap over to Japan and then wondering why it doesn't sell, they should be sending over some of the better games to Japan. I understand that there are some cultural differences to work out, but at least send a good representative!
If you RTFA (not you, but most other people that your comment is directed to), their intended application is for high frequency transmitters and receivers. Their target is 200 GHz operation for use in digital TV stations. Imagine the bandwidth you can pull in the 200 GHz range. Very impressive.
.2 microns which is pretty close, but I doubt they have looked into the transistor density necessary to replace your Athlon.
Therefore, the applications for this would look to be rather expensive and specific. They should be close to creating rudimentary amplifier circuits to replace the vacuum tubes that they currently employ. I certainly agree that we shouldn't be looking at these to replace processors anytime soon. The process is at
The possibilities for like 10 years down the road are VERY intriguiging, however!
Caltech is a great buy, if you can get in. When I went there, basically anyone who needed financial aid (and there was a majority at that place) got it. Some people even got paid to go there! (in other words, tuition waiver, plus they get a stiped for books, lodging, food, etc.)
The campus itself is first-rate. The physical plant is outstanding now with all of the recent improvements. The student-teacher ratio is ungodly, and the labs are all extremely accessible. If you can get in, Tech kicks major butt. But of course, I'm totally biased.
Besides Halo and Ghost Recon, feel free to pick up Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Brute Force, and Serious Sam.
Xbox is king of consoles as far as FPS's go. And they're all essentially co-op nowadays.
I don't know about repositories of art, etc. It sounds problematic because people at least want CREDIT for what they've done, if not compensation. And art is somewhat different than code - it's difficult to open source.
Although maybe you folks want to look at Gamasutra? It's certainly more company-oriented, but you may be able to find someone there...
OK, maybe not, but I'm imagining that this little guy, with a PDA over Wi-Fi would be a VERY interesting little device, especially at trade shows and the like. I'm not saying that people should go clubbing with their PDA, but imagine these suckers going off at E3 or some other trade show. If you could put some scheduling thing in there, it'd be even better.
Find all people going to Gordon Biersch after the convention. Or something like that.
Once again, it seems that Mother Nature is providing us the inspiration for some design challenge.
.sig.
Consider the environment that a tumbleweed grows in: the desert - lots of open space, the ability to roam, and the need to traverse alot of ground with minimal energy. Sounds like Mars to me!
And yes, this is all a cheap pop so you can check out my
That thing would look awesome in your garden. I'd buy one. (If I had the money, and if I had a garden to put it in.)
I'd also want to put one of those non-linear water wheels. You have buckets on a wheel and they get filled up by a source of water. As they fill, they begin to rotate the wheel. However, the buckets have holes on the bottom. This causes the water in the buckets to flow out. What results is a wheel that moves in a decidedly non-linear fashion. That'd be a nice companion to the Escher waterfall. :)
Just because a game doesn't require a 1GHz+ cpu doesn't mean it's old or low tech. Maybe they just know how to give you more bang per cycle than the latest greatest blockbuster developers do.
Or maybe they realize that you don't need whiz-bang graphics and full exploitation of the latest DirectX drivers to have a fun game. Gameplay should be paramount, and most developers out there think that all people should get is a technology demo. NO! Understand this: when I buy a game, I want to have FUN. Just give that to me. I don't really care how pretty it looks (as long as it uses 16-bit color and doesn't look like something from the VGA days I'll be happy), but I DO care how it plays.