I do most everything from terminal windows. However, I usualy keep Gnome Terminal's "translucent" backgrounds on so I can see my desktop wallpaper and pretend I'm actualy getting my money's worth out of my expensive monitors.
In college I had the following conversation with some guy on the same floor as me :
Dude: Hey man, what's that game I always see you playing? Me: Grand Theft Auto? Dude: No man, on the computer. Me: Actualy,... Nevermind. Grand Theft is pretty much all I've been playing recently. Dude: No, that other game. Every time I walk past your room you're always playing it. Me:... Dude: That game with all the words and shit.
The character writing the email about watersports is a fictional character in a computer game that is set in the year 1999.
Google did not have a safesearch feature in 1999.
The point is not that I'm trying to nitpick, the point is that it's a period piece. The internet and people's attitudes towards it were very diferent just six years ago.
"Why do painters/sketchartisists paint or draw still-life when they can just scribble between the lines with some crayons...it's fun, right?" No, Because painting offers more possibilities than coloring books. Coloring books allow you to pretend you're an artist when you're not.
"Why do people play chess when they could just play checkers? Still fun, right?" Checkers also has limited possibilities. People play chess because they want a game will more challenge and complexity than checkers.
What you're describing are intentionally simplified activities designed to be easy for young people. That's not the same as a childish style. It would be easy enough to print coloring books for grownups, but they don't? Why? For the same reason you can't buy adult bikes with training wheels. It has nothing to do with style or aesthetics.
"Christ, would you enjoy a game like Grand Turismo 4 if all the cars and courses and base concept were the same, but it was cel-shaded and cartoony? How bout NFL 2k6? kill.zone?" This is a silly question. You can't just go mix-and-matching styles randomly, of course you'll come up with ridiculous combinations. Try the reverse. You probably think "Hello Kitty : Roller Rescue" and "Barbie Horse Adventure" are childish titles. Would photo-realistic visuals make the games more adult or mature? Or would it just make them bizarre Frankenstein miss-matches?
"These are action games with semi-badass characters. We aren't looking for Call of Duty type style here. We're looking for what we've come to know and love." So you think the Link featured back in the Eighties was adult and badass? With a visual style that wasn't cartoonish?
I've recently been playing the Zelda games for the first time, taking them roughly in order, and I've thought that it very interesting how the series started off childish and cartoonish, (perhaps partly out of necessity.), then it gradually got more and more serious, and then finally, as though Nintendo suddenly realized what it had done, gloriously returned Zelda to it's light-hearted roots.
It's tempting to draw oversimplifying allusions to the game industry as a whole from this, but I'm not going to try.
I have it on good authority that nearly 100% of all aliens are either terrorists, communists, or nazis, and therefore are acceptable as "feel good" targets.
Yes, yes, we all know that visuals don't make the game.
We get it. Really. We all get it.
Now is it ok with you if, all else being equal, we prefer more-pretty over less-pretty? Does that meet with your approval if we talk about that for one or two posts?
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule of playing Nethack and Pac-Man to educate us about the dangers of judging a book by its cover, but I think we've got the situation under control now.
" These laptops are very old school. I doubt it would even be possible to play starcraft. In other words, the stealing intuitive is the same as a text book. "
What happens if you're mugged? Not only does the guy have your passwords (you want to press one button and have it automaticaly spit out your password right?), but now you don't have your passwords and you've never memorized them.
The article talks about using these for small scale, possibly in-home, manufacturing. There's no need for it to go straight from raw materials provided directly from mother earth. That would be undesirable. I have no idea how far down I'd have to dig down to find iron ore near my house, but I certainly wouldn't want a bot trying to find out.
In fact, the article talks about using materials similar to modern rapid prototyping devices. The diference would be that the super-expensive prototyping devices would simply be cheaper if they could copy themselves.
Of course, that's not to say they need self-replicating technology to own their own companies.
Conversly if the warehouse full of assembly bots was owned and operated by an American who sold the goods to the locals but produced no jobs and spent no money localy, then it's not going to help that country's economy no matter how much the American bot-master saves on manufacturing costs.
The only hope is that the bot-master would walk around town saying things like "It's a good thing I'm saving money by not hiring any locals!" and then get lynched.
No one said they were self-replicating from raw materials straight from a mine. I'm not sure why that would even be desirable. Many simple componants are already cheap. I'd be happy to buy my self-replicating robot a spool of wire from time to time.
Judging from their web-site I agree that the CNN story does seem premature though.
That's silly. Fabrication speed is still an issue even if they are self replicating.
If I need an entire warehouse full of self replicated robots to fashion a plastic spoon in under a week then it would not be practical.
Alternatively, if they can only manufacture things solo (especially small things.) then their ability to replicate does not enter into it.
Lastly the bots present an overhead. Their raw materials must be paid for and the bots must be powered. (It looks like it runs on a few D cells. If I had a warehouse full of them I'd need an army of people just changing batteries for me.)
I'm not putting down this invention, (Though I don't think it's as far along as CNN would have us believe.) I'm just pointing out that self-replication does not necessarily translate into manufacturing efficiency or free wealth for all.
A quick glance at a changelog for a Java project, such as Azureus,shows all sorts of "compatability fixes". Not just for compatability across diferent OSes, but also for compatability across diferent versions of the VM that's supposed to solve everyone's problems.
To avoid moving your hand
on
Blank Keyboard
·
· Score: 1
He's sped up his typing by never having to move his hand away from the business part of his fancy keyboard. And he's avoided that constant pinky-finger use that generaly goes with using keys like [shift] or [Windows].
True enough. But the fact remains, that lawfully sold guns wind up in outlaw hands through no fault of their lawful owners.
Had those guns been outlawed, the lawful owners (being lawful) would not have purchased them, and the subsequent unlawful owners would not have had access to them either.
Since you seemed to be (correct me if I'm wrong) counting the deaths/crimes that resulted from the lawful sale of these weapons, you must count deaths/crimes caused by all of those weapons that were lawfully sold. Otherwise you are simply selecting a non-representative portion to support your argument.
Unless a fabulous number of these things have been stolen, your original point would still stand, so I'm just nitpicking here.
"but we don't take guns away from the cops." Not at all. (And you'll notice I didn't argue for or against banning it, I was just nitpicking your selective statistics.) But in evaluating their effectiveness you must consider all consequences of issuing them. To do otherwise would not be honest. It's the easiest thing in the world look at all the facts and say "that doesn't count" to the ones that don't help your position.
And in fact, in some situations, where issuing an officer a weapon causes more harm than good, they don't get weapons. For example, many prison guards don't get guns, do you think it's because anyone accuses the guards of committing crimes?
I'm not arguing in favor of this silly political posturing going on in the State of California. It just bugs me that be it gun control, anti-gun controll, or crystal pyramid aura therapy, people instantly mentally narrow down the dataset until they've decided that only the data that agrees with them counts.
RMS appears to have the irritating tendency to be an incurable egomaniac. When he's speaking in general terms I usualy agree with him, but when he's talking about specifics he comes off more like a nut. He talks about embracing free software, but it appears as though he only embraces software that he personaly has had a hand in. Free software that he has not personaly had a hand in is often declared to have some imagined flaw and new software must be created to appease RMS, needlessly duplicating effort.
I say 'appears' because I do not follow him closely enough to make any real judgements, but personaly I'm glad that the Media, for the most part, has latched onto Linus Torvalds as Linux's poster boy and not RMS.
The real diference is that if you came to my house and cheated at monopoly, I'd throw you out. Perhaps after beating you with a baseball bat I keep especialy for that purpose. But if you use a service like this to cheat at an online game the other players can't tell you cheated, they just know your character is richer than their character. The other players can't tell the diference between cheating in this fashion and good old fashioned skill and effort.
I think that game developers should somehow figure a way to determine which players use these services and brand their avatars with a scarlet dollar sign.
Slashdot Mirror
A legit car delivery service/dealership would require about the same effort, but they'd have to pay for the cars.
So long as they're confident they're not going to get caught I'd say they're more successful commiting crimes.
Sarcastic Version : Yea, because if you live in Hong Kong and you work hard, you're almost certainly being paid a lot.
I do most everything from terminal windows. However, I usualy keep Gnome Terminal's "translucent" backgrounds on so I can see my desktop wallpaper and pretend I'm actualy getting my money's worth out of my expensive monitors.
... Nevermind. Grand Theft is pretty much all I've been playing recently. ...
In college I had the following conversation with some guy on the same floor as me :
Dude: Hey man, what's that game I always see you playing?
Me: Grand Theft Auto?
Dude: No man, on the computer.
Me: Actualy,
Dude: No, that other game. Every time I walk past your room you're always playing it.
Me:
Dude: That game with all the words and shit.
Like Manucfacturing Automobiles!
The character writing the email about watersports is a fictional character in a computer game that is set in the year 1999.
Google did not have a safesearch feature in 1999.
The point is not that I'm trying to nitpick, the point is that it's a period piece. The internet and people's attitudes towards it were very diferent just six years ago.
"We go from "teen" cartoony to 5-year old cartoony "
Teen?
"Why do painters/sketchartisists paint or draw still-life when they can just scribble between the lines with some crayons...it's fun, right?"
No, Because painting offers more possibilities than coloring books. Coloring books allow you to pretend you're an artist when you're not.
"Why do people play chess when they could just play checkers? Still fun, right?"
Checkers also has limited possibilities. People play chess because they want a game will more challenge and complexity than checkers.
What you're describing are intentionally simplified activities designed to be easy for young people. That's not the same as a childish style. It would be easy enough to print coloring books for grownups, but they don't? Why? For the same reason you can't buy adult bikes with training wheels. It has nothing to do with style or aesthetics.
"Christ, would you enjoy a game like Grand Turismo 4 if all the cars and courses and base concept were the same, but it was cel-shaded and cartoony? How bout NFL 2k6? kill.zone?"
This is a silly question. You can't just go mix-and-matching styles randomly, of course you'll come up with ridiculous combinations. Try the reverse. You probably think "Hello Kitty : Roller Rescue" and "Barbie Horse Adventure" are childish titles. Would photo-realistic visuals make the games more adult or mature? Or would it just make them bizarre Frankenstein miss-matches?
"These are action games with semi-badass characters. We aren't looking for Call of Duty type style here. We're looking for what we've come to know and love."
So you think the Link featured back in the Eighties was adult and badass? With a visual style that wasn't cartoonish?
I've recently been playing the Zelda games for the first time, taking them roughly in order, and I've thought that it very interesting how the series started off childish and cartoonish, (perhaps partly out of necessity.), then it gradually got more and more serious, and then finally, as though Nintendo suddenly realized what it had done, gloriously returned Zelda to it's light-hearted roots.
It's tempting to draw oversimplifying allusions to the game industry as a whole from this, but I'm not going to try.
So, does the universe itself have a style?
I ask not to be sarcastic, but because I don't have an answer.
I have it on good authority that nearly 100% of all aliens are either terrorists, communists, or nazis, and therefore are acceptable as "feel good" targets.
Yes, yes, we all know that visuals don't make the game.
We get it. Really. We all get it.
Now is it ok with you if, all else being equal, we prefer more-pretty over less-pretty? Does that meet with your approval if we talk about that for one or two posts?
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule of playing Nethack and Pac-Man to educate us about the dangers of judging a book by its cover, but I think we've got the situation under control now.
" These laptops are very old school. I doubt it would even be possible to play starcraft. In other words, the stealing intuitive is the same as a text book. "
I wish I'd known that before I stole one.
Havn't the Titan rockets occasionaly come crashing back down to Earth?
What happens if you're mugged? Not only does the guy have your passwords (you want to press one button and have it automaticaly spit out your password right?), but now you don't have your passwords and you've never memorized them.
The article talks about using these for small scale, possibly in-home, manufacturing. There's no need for it to go straight from raw materials provided directly from mother earth. That would be undesirable. I have no idea how far down I'd have to dig down to find iron ore near my house, but I certainly wouldn't want a bot trying to find out.
In fact, the article talks about using materials similar to modern rapid prototyping devices. The diference would be that the super-expensive prototyping devices would simply be cheaper if they could copy themselves.
I would love to see a (non-trivial) Lego Mindstorms robot that, given a bucket of legos, could build a copy of itself.
That'd be the best thing ever.
Of course, that's not to say they need self-replicating technology to own their own companies.
Conversly if the warehouse full of assembly bots was owned and operated by an American who sold the goods to the locals but produced no jobs and spent no money localy, then it's not going to help that country's economy no matter how much the American bot-master saves on manufacturing costs.
The only hope is that the bot-master would walk around town saying things like "It's a good thing I'm saving money by not hiring any locals!" and then get lynched.
No one said they were self-replicating from raw materials straight from a mine. I'm not sure why that would even be desirable. Many simple componants are already cheap. I'd be happy to buy my self-replicating robot a spool of wire from time to time.
Judging from their web-site I agree that the CNN story does seem premature though.
That's silly. Fabrication speed is still an issue even if they are self replicating.
If I need an entire warehouse full of self replicated robots to fashion a plastic spoon in under a week then it would not be practical.
Alternatively, if they can only manufacture things solo (especially small things.) then their ability to replicate does not enter into it.
Lastly the bots present an overhead. Their raw materials must be paid for and the bots must be powered. (It looks like it runs on a few D cells. If I had a warehouse full of them I'd need an army of people just changing batteries for me.)
I'm not putting down this invention, (Though I don't think it's as far along as CNN would have us believe.) I'm just pointing out that self-replication does not necessarily translate into manufacturing efficiency or free wealth for all.
A quick glance at a changelog for a Java project, such as Azureus ,shows all sorts of "compatability fixes". Not just for compatability across diferent OSes, but also for compatability across diferent versions of the VM that's supposed to solve everyone's problems.
He's sped up his typing by never having to move his hand away from the business part of his fancy keyboard. And he's avoided that constant pinky-finger use that generaly goes with using keys like [shift] or [Windows].
That was my first thought when I read this. Glad I'm not the only one.
The PSP has a resolution of 480x272 that's not that much.
True enough.
But the fact remains, that lawfully sold guns wind up in outlaw hands through no fault of their lawful owners.
Had those guns been outlawed, the lawful owners (being lawful) would not have purchased them, and the subsequent unlawful owners would not have had access to them either.
Since you seemed to be (correct me if I'm wrong) counting the deaths/crimes that resulted from the lawful sale of these weapons, you must count deaths/crimes caused by all of those weapons that were lawfully sold. Otherwise you are simply selecting a non-representative portion to support your argument.
Unless a fabulous number of these things have been stolen, your original point would still stand, so I'm just nitpicking here.
"but we don't take guns away from the cops."
Not at all. (And you'll notice I didn't argue for or against banning it, I was just nitpicking your selective statistics.) But in evaluating their effectiveness you must consider all consequences of issuing them. To do otherwise would not be honest. It's the easiest thing in the world look at all the facts and say "that doesn't count" to the ones that don't help your position.
And in fact, in some situations, where issuing an officer a weapon causes more harm than good, they don't get weapons. For example, many prison guards don't get guns, do you think it's because anyone accuses the guards of committing crimes?
I'm not arguing in favor of this silly political posturing going on in the State of California. It just bugs me that be it gun control, anti-gun controll, or crystal pyramid aura therapy, people instantly mentally narrow down the dataset until they've decided that only the data that agrees with them counts.
Bah! Ok, I'm done ranting now.
"The gun has been used in crimes very sporadically, but I don't believe ever by lawful owners,..."
What about in weapons stolen from lawfull owners?
They count too.
RMS appears to have the irritating tendency to be an incurable egomaniac. When he's speaking in general terms I usualy agree with him, but when he's talking about specifics he comes off more like a nut. He talks about embracing free software, but it appears as though he only embraces software that he personaly has had a hand in. Free software that he has not personaly had a hand in is often declared to have some imagined flaw and new software must be created to appease RMS, needlessly duplicating effort.
I say 'appears' because I do not follow him closely enough to make any real judgements, but personaly I'm glad that the Media, for the most part, has latched onto Linus Torvalds as Linux's poster boy and not RMS.
The real diference is that if you came to my house and cheated at monopoly, I'd throw you out. Perhaps after beating you with a baseball bat I keep especialy for that purpose.
But if you use a service like this to cheat at an online game the other players can't tell you cheated, they just know your character is richer than their character. The other players can't tell the diference between cheating in this fashion and good old fashioned skill and effort.
I think that game developers should somehow figure a way to determine which players use these services and brand their avatars with a scarlet dollar sign.