...until I became addicted to World of Warcraft.:)
For at least two years, I tended to rate games by the "Counter-Strike Factor": Is it more fun for me to play this, or would I rather just play Counter-Strike?
KOTOR: Totally more fun than CS. I played it 3 times through straight. That was about the only one, though, that I can think of.
I really enjoyed playing CS, at first, when I had a good server to play on (the "CDMA data" test server someplace in San Diego). Then, condition zero came out and the server disappeared (from 1.6 lists too)... and it was a struggle to find servers that I liked to play on. Playing with strangers isn't much fun.
At first, CS was very hard. The learning curve is VERY steep. Often, skilled players will do so well that it seems that they are cheating. (Sometimes opponents ARE cheating, which sucks.;))
I was at the point where I was better than most n00bs, but no where NEAR as good as any of the guys on the pro / amateur league circuits. It could be fun, but other times it was a dreary slog of trying to find a server that wasn't either full of cheaters, full of retards, or WAY above my skill level.:)
WoW seems to require less skill... it's very easy, i hear, to solo to 60. I'm almost there (59!), but play mainly with guildmates. Grouping with others to do hard quests is where the skill and comraderie comes in -- you learn to work well together, etc... *shrugs*.
If I weren't playing WoW, I'd be playing CS:Source, probably, or Battlefield2. In WoW, though, I seem to have more fun.
Waiting for groups SUCKS. Traveling sucks, in that I sometimes wish I could put on autopilot. However, there are still moments where I am running through a pretty lower level zone (Feralas) and get warm fuzzies.
Is it me, or do the zones seem to get uglier as you level up?:D
Why anybody would swerve and risk their own life and the lives of others to avoid hitting a rabbit, squirrel, cat, et al is beyond rational comprehension.
Most drivers are not rational. (Same for most humans.)
We want to avoid catastrophic harm to $animal... and so try to get out of the way. Or, we may worry that it's a hard obstacle and reflexively swerve so as not to hit it.
I am very intellectually aware that I would MUCH rather run over a cat or small dog than run my car off the road into a light pole... but driving along a dark road, I've swerved morethan a couple times -- and wondered "WTF?" about.5 seconds afterwards.
Besides, I don't know how 18 months old pictures of secret service positions could be useful to a terrorist.
I imagine that the most useful places for keepingan eye on things hasn't changed much. These positions result from features of the architecture and landscape, not from the mere whims of Secret Service agents. I imagine that their guard rotations are very well planned, and cover many of the same areas as they did a year ago, in pretty much exactly the same way.
It is considered a slap in Jesus's face if we throw away the lives he died for by having abortions.
I find it laughable that we as humans would have the power to screw someone else's chances to get into heaven / be saved / be loved enough by God, however you want to phrase that.
Isn't such a position a bit contradictory of an omnipotent, loving god?
The senior programmer (manager of our department) where I used to work wrote an entire web application (seemed small, but was VERY robust) in COBOL. He ended up writing his own HTTP replies by hand, etc.
Crazy stuff.
We had built several Java-based web apps, and the sheer amount of things he had to do that were done 'automagically' for us (such as getting/parsing input parameters, hehe) was staggering.
So yes, you *can* write web apps in COBOL. If you're a programming GOD. (Jim is;))
It's been a while since I did anything remotely like a web application. For those of us that don't know, why are Application and Session variables bad?
I'm not saying they're good -- I don't know anything about them, and am looking for better understanding.:)
The problem is not that they want to step up and do what no one else wants to (provide non-glamorous services that businesses would rather pay for than do in-house). The problem is that they wantto PATENT it, which would grant them exclusivity unless you pay them, for an idea that has its basis in somethign already out there:
- Monster.com matches job seekers with those looking for their services - itmoonlighter does similarly
The idea of a website which connects service seekers with service providers should NOT be patentable simply because the services in question are "web services", or "book selling services", or "llama-grooming services".
The story for Marathon and Halo are much more deep and complex than many other shooter-type games, and were a significant factor in the games' popularity. Hell, people are STILL working to understand all the nuances of the overall story.
Granted, many people bought Halo (and Halo2) forthe multiplayer -- which IS awesome. However, don't discount the popularity impact of the games' stories.
It's already happened... I first heard about this back when there was some bruhaha about an italian (or was it israeli?) intel-agent-rescue gone wrong. I believe it was eitehr earlier this year or last... but the redacted portions were recovered and posted publically by a Eurpoean news group, IIRC.
Yeah... Acrobat + "make this stuff secret!" doesn't really work.:D
I tried an SR MUD once, didn't really like it. I prefer the pen and paper style play (whether live or over forums/IRC), since then I can say "I duck behind that steel desk, putting my machine pistol over the top and laying suppressive fire so my chummers can get across the lobby to the elevator.":D
I had forgotten, but I actually liked the dumpshock forums. Their game forums are widespread, and can even make really good reading.:D The good ones, at least.
I always thought that Deus Ex did a very good job of capturing some of the feel of Shadowrun,and would make a good basis, as far as how they did storytelling and skills and all that, for a Shadowrun game. Not to mention that anotech upgrades and such really were a fun analog to cyberware.
Yes, Morrowind is HUGE -- and it would be awesome to have a Seattle Metroplex that was as accessible as the continent in Morrowind... But honestly, I could not really PLAY morrowind much because it was _so_ open ended. =/ I'd settle for a Deus Ex -like game ("levels" that were largely open-ended, and a pretty linear plot) if it were Fun and Well Written. I suspect that a game like that would be more feasible to be written by a game company (though goodness knows, I'd LOVE for Bethesda to try it.;)).
Fun and well written... heh...yeah, I guess that's really why Morrowind and Deus Ex wouldbe good though-food for a Shadowrun game.
On a side note -- does anyone know of any good online SR games? I'm tempted to go back to the Dumpshock Forums, but... *sigh*... actually I suspect I answered my own question, since that's pretty much the largest set of SR games/etc that are play-by-forum. (Now if I could only find live ones them near ME...)
Not only that, it works in opera. The menu referenced by TFA hasn't in either of the ones I've used.
I liked the radial menu, somewhat...:) But the icons could do with being larger and not mystery-meatish... (Well, OK, so I recognized most of the icons.. but still.;))
I completely agree. I read his description of this, and thought, "Oh my GOD, I want to do that!!":) Please do not feel embarassed about your code. This seems like an awesome idea, and I for one would LOVE to try and duplicate it. I just have no idea where to start.:)
I'm also interested in your design decisions. Can you tell us more about this? Can you publish pseudocode, or whatnot, even?
I think the concern of many is less the unreality of it, and more that characters with very large breasts are almsot always portrayed as sexy, etc... and it perpetuates the idea that big breasts == the sexy. (Hey, can't say I disagree, within reason;))
I believe some people worry that it will make girls who do not develop the same way feel less desirable, less-womanly, whatever, due to the almost universal portrayal of women in games as of Barbie-esque proportions.
I suspect this differs from the way guys are always muscular and macho, etc, because breasts are considered sexual - imagine if all the male characters had absurdly above-average sized genitals, for example. (All you who play H-games, you be quiet.;)) People would almost certainly complain about that too. (Then again, they would complain about any game that even hinted at the existence of genitals, so maybe the point is moot...)
you can search their archieve and access it and its content. That is not archieving.
I believe that that IS archiving. If you could not access the content, it wouldn't be an an archive, or at least not a usable archive. (If it's not usable, what's the point? It's like a chair made of running chainsaws.)
A collection of old data that is not accessible would probably qualify as an archive, but accessibility has a bit of implied presence. You don't keep old stuff without the expectation that someday, someone can read it again.
Stolen from dictionary.reference.com:
archive
1. A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest. Often used in the plural: old land deeds in the municipal archives.
2. Computer Science.
1. A long-term storage area, often on magnetic tape, for backup copies of files or for files that are no longer in active use.
2. A file containing one or more files in compressed format for more efficient storage and transfer.
3. A repository for stored memories or information: the archive of the mind.
Note: I learned almost all of this from a senior engineer where I work, about a week ago.:)
Where will we get enough hydrogen?
On earth: Water + nuclear power == hydrogen (and oxygen). Lox-Hydrogen is one of the best rocket fuels, say propulsion the engineers where I work.
Once we get infrastrucure in space, we can mine asteroids for water/ice, and use nuclear and/or solar power to convert THEM to hydrogen as well.
The key is getting the infrastructure in space (on the moon and at Lagrange points) for efficient space exploration (rather than trying to launch an expedition every time), and doing it BEFORE we run out of resources on our little ball of dirt.
If we don't manage to get off the earth before we run out of resources, then... well... then we are screwed.
I know this has been marked as funny, and was surely partly humorous. However, I feel that the parent is ENTIRELY correct.
The first into space will be the only civilization that lives and even then we will inevitably fight amongst ourselves for supremacy of land and space. And regardless of what country we come from, there will be an intellectual divide that separates each faction of thought, whether it be a hive mind, militaristic, eco-friendly, or religion based mindset.
Considering that we have seen such things happen before (colonization of the Americas, for example), and already see the intellectual divides in our current political situation, I see no reason NOT to expect that the nations that go to space will fight over it. And try to "win" by out-colonizing and out-fighting the others.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure you can give up something every time someone asks for it, but how long will you last in that case?
... ;)
France has been around since at least 1958
Step 6) Profit!!!
...until I became addicted to World of Warcraft. :)
;))
:)
... *shrugs*.
:D
For at least two years, I tended to rate games by the "Counter-Strike Factor": Is it more fun for me to play this, or would I rather just play Counter-Strike?
KOTOR: Totally more fun than CS. I played it 3 times through straight. That was about the only one, though, that I can think of.
I really enjoyed playing CS, at first, when I had a good server to play on (the "CDMA data" test server someplace in San Diego). Then, condition zero came out and the server disappeared (from 1.6 lists too)... and it was a struggle to find servers that I liked to play on. Playing with strangers isn't much fun.
At first, CS was very hard. The learning curve is VERY steep. Often, skilled players will do so well that it seems that they are cheating. (Sometimes opponents ARE cheating, which sucks.
I was at the point where I was better than most n00bs, but no where NEAR as good as any of the guys on the pro / amateur league circuits. It could be fun, but other times it was a dreary slog of trying to find a server that wasn't either full of cheaters, full of retards, or WAY above my skill level.
WoW seems to require less skill... it's very easy, i hear, to solo to 60. I'm almost there (59!), but play mainly with guildmates. Grouping with others to do hard quests is where the skill and comraderie comes in -- you learn to work well together, etc
If I weren't playing WoW, I'd be playing CS:Source, probably, or Battlefield2. In WoW, though, I seem to have more fun.
Waiting for groups SUCKS. Traveling sucks, in that I sometimes wish I could put on autopilot. However, there are still moments where I am running through a pretty lower level zone (Feralas) and get warm fuzzies.
Is it me, or do the zones seem to get uglier as you level up?
... though I imagine we'd almost rather speak in C ... :)
Why anybody would swerve and risk their own life and the lives of others to avoid hitting a rabbit, squirrel, cat, et al is beyond rational comprehension.
... but driving along a dark road, I've swerved morethan a couple times -- and wondered "WTF?" about .5 seconds afterwards.
Most drivers are not rational. (Same for most humans.)
We want to avoid catastrophic harm to $animal... and so try to get out of the way. Or, we may worry that it's a hard obstacle and reflexively swerve so as not to hit it.
I am very intellectually aware that I would MUCH rather run over a cat or small dog than run my car off the road into a light pole
Besides, I don't know how 18 months old pictures of secret service positions could be useful to a terrorist.
I imagine that the most useful places for keepingan eye on things hasn't changed much. These positions result from features of the architecture and landscape, not from the mere whims of Secret Service agents. I imagine that their guard rotations are very well planned, and cover many of the same areas as they did a year ago, in pretty much exactly the same way.
It is considered a slap in Jesus's face if we throw away the lives he died for by having abortions.
I find it laughable that we as humans would have the power to screw someone else's chances to get into heaven / be saved / be loved enough by God, however you want to phrase that.
Isn't such a position a bit contradictory of an omnipotent, loving god?
The senior programmer (manager of our department) where I used to work wrote an entire web application (seemed small, but was VERY robust) in COBOL. He ended up writing his own HTTP replies by hand, etc.
;))
Crazy stuff.
We had built several Java-based web apps, and the sheer amount of things he had to do that were done 'automagically' for us (such as getting/parsing input parameters, hehe) was staggering.
So yes, you *can* write web apps in COBOL. If you're a programming GOD. (Jim is
It's been a while since I did anything remotely like a web application. For those of us that don't know, why are Application and Session variables bad?
:)
I'm not saying they're good -- I don't know anything about them, and am looking for better understanding.
The problem is not that they want to step up and do what no one else wants to (provide non-glamorous services that businesses would rather pay for than do in-house). The problem is that they wantto PATENT it, which would grant them exclusivity unless you pay them, for an idea that has its basis in somethign already out there:
- Monster.com matches job seekers with those looking for their services
- itmoonlighter does similarly
The idea of a website which connects service seekers with service providers should NOT be patentable simply because the services in question are "web services", or "book selling services", or "llama-grooming services".
I disagree.
The story for Marathon and Halo are much more deep and complex than many other shooter-type games, and were a significant factor in the games' popularity. Hell, people are STILL working to understand all the nuances of the overall story.
Granted, many people bought Halo (and Halo2) forthe multiplayer -- which IS awesome. However, don't discount the popularity impact of the games' stories.
It's already happened ... I first heard about this back when there was some bruhaha about an italian (or was it israeli?) intel-agent-rescue gone wrong. I believe it was eitehr earlier this year or last ... but the redacted portions were recovered and posted publically by a Eurpoean news group, IIRC.
... Acrobat + "make this stuff secret!" doesn't really work. :D
Yeah
Dual Colt Manhunters actually
(Never actually used a machine pistol in-game...)
</SR geek>
*grins*...
:D
:D The good ones, at least.
I tried an SR MUD once, didn't really like it. I prefer the pen and paper style play (whether live or over forums/IRC), since then I can say "I duck behind that steel desk, putting my machine pistol over the top and laying suppressive fire so my chummers can get across the lobby to the elevator."
I had forgotten, but I actually liked the dumpshock forums. Their game forums are widespread, and can even make really good reading.
I always thought that Deus Ex did a very good job of capturing some of the feel of Shadowrun,and would make a good basis, as far as how they did storytelling and skills and all that, for a Shadowrun game. Not to mention that anotech upgrades and such really were a fun analog to cyberware.
... But honestly, I could not really PLAY morrowind much because it was _so_ open ended. =/ I'd settle for a Deus Ex -like game ("levels" that were largely open-ended, and a pretty linear plot) if it were Fun and Well Written. I suspect that a game like that would be more feasible to be written by a game company (though goodness knows, I'd LOVE for Bethesda to try it. ;)).
... heh ...yeah, I guess that's really why Morrowind and Deus Ex wouldbe good though-food for a Shadowrun game.
... *sigh* ... actually I suspect I answered my own question, since that's pretty much the largest set of SR games/etc that are play-by-forum. (Now if I could only find live ones them near ME...)
Yes, Morrowind is HUGE -- and it would be awesome to have a Seattle Metroplex that was as accessible as the continent in Morrowind
Fun and well written
On a side note -- does anyone know of any good online SR games? I'm tempted to go back to the Dumpshock Forums, but
Not only that, it works in opera. The menu referenced by TFA hasn't in either of the ones I've used.
... :) But the icons could do with being larger and not mystery-meatish ... (Well, OK, so I recognized most of the icons.. but still. ;))
I liked the radial menu, somewhat
Cool script, though... how well does it degrade?
I completely agree. I read his description of this, and thought, "Oh my GOD, I want to do that!!" :) Please do not feel embarassed about your code. This seems like an awesome idea, and I for one would LOVE to try and duplicate it. I just have no idea where to start. :)
I'm also interested in your design decisions. Can you tell us more about this? Can you publish pseudocode, or whatnot, even?
I think the concern of many is less the unreality of it, and more that characters with very large breasts are almsot always portrayed as sexy, etc... and it perpetuates the idea that big breasts == the sexy. (Hey, can't say I disagree, within reason ;))
;)) People would almost certainly complain about that too. (Then again, they would complain about any game that even hinted at the existence of genitals, so maybe the point is moot...)
I believe some people worry that it will make girls who do not develop the same way feel less desirable, less-womanly, whatever, due to the almost universal portrayal of women in games as of Barbie-esque proportions.
I suspect this differs from the way guys are always muscular and macho, etc, because breasts are considered sexual - imagine if all the male characters had absurdly above-average sized genitals, for example. (All you who play H-games, you be quiet.
That will merely 1mpr0ve the s1ze of their ordering system!
;)
maybe we should market such spam to spammers....
you can search their archieve and access it and its content. That is not archieving.
I believe that that IS archiving. If you could not access the content, it wouldn't be an an archive, or at least not a usable archive. (If it's not usable, what's the point? It's like a chair made of running chainsaws.)
A collection of old data that is not accessible would probably qualify as an archive, but accessibility has a bit of implied presence. You don't keep old stuff without the expectation that someday, someone can read it again.
Stolen from dictionary.reference.com:
archive
1. A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest. Often used in the plural: old land deeds in the municipal archives.
2. Computer Science.
1. A long-term storage area, often on magnetic tape, for backup copies of files or for files that are no longer in active use.
2. A file containing one or more files in compressed format for more efficient storage and transfer.
3. A repository for stored memories or information: the archive of the mind.
Note: I learned almost all of this from a senior engineer where I work, about a week ago. :)
... well ... then we are screwed.
Where will we get enough hydrogen?
On earth:
Water + nuclear power == hydrogen (and oxygen). Lox-Hydrogen is one of the best rocket fuels, say propulsion the engineers where I work.
Once we get infrastrucure in space, we can mine asteroids for water/ice, and use nuclear and/or solar power to convert THEM to hydrogen as well.
The key is getting the infrastructure in space (on the moon and at Lagrange points) for efficient space exploration (rather than trying to launch an expedition every time), and doing it BEFORE we run out of resources on our little ball of dirt.
If we don't manage to get off the earth before we run out of resources, then
I know this has been marked as funny, and was surely partly humorous. However, I feel that the parent is ENTIRELY correct. The first into space will be the only civilization that lives and even then we will inevitably fight amongst ourselves for supremacy of land and space. And regardless of what country we come from, there will be an intellectual divide that separates each faction of thought, whether it be a hive mind, militaristic, eco-friendly, or religion based mindset. Considering that we have seen such things happen before (colonization of the Americas, for example), and already see the intellectual divides in our current political situation, I see no reason NOT to expect that the nations that go to space will fight over it. And try to "win" by out-colonizing and out-fighting the others.