mangband! It's kind of like a realtime, multiplayer nethack. Not quite as advanced as nethack in terms of creatures and items, but a huge amount of fun nonetheless. And I promise your graphics cards will handle it.
For something a little more flashy there's Crossfire, which takes the graphics all the way from Nethack levels to Gauntlet levels. I've had some problems at LAN parties with the Windows client, but if you're all Linux you should be OK.
These games prove that fancy graphics aren't necessary to make a game fun. Plus, call me a wuss if you want, but I like that they can be played cooperatively.
If what you like most about Redhat is the ability to run "up2date" once a day, you might want to consider FreeBSD and running "cvsupit" once a day, for free, to the same effect. Like any OS, FreeBSD may or may not fit your needs, I'm just suggesting it as another possibility you can investigate.
I imagine most readers will want to make some sort of "Matrix" reference (as the article itself does), but this makes me think of Davy Crockett's Vampire Robot Slaves from Matt Crocco's and Liam Lynch's (the Sifl and Olly guys) album "History of America?"
(Voice of Davy)
I'm starting to get scared because these
robots are aware
that I'm running out of food, blood's
a bubbling crude
I'm hoping in the next town there will be
blood to be found
If I don't keep them pleased they'll be
feeding off me
(voice of vampire robot slaves)
Cuz' Davy Crocket says
He'd feed us blood for days
Some of this is reminiscent of things the functional programming language folks have been doing for a while. In particular the parse tree concept sounds a bit like graph reduction, which runs programs by repeatedly simplifying the graph which it (where the graph is a generalization of a parse tree). One of the things you can do with such a system is "common subexpression elimination" where common subtrees are moved to single point, ensuring they're evaluated only once. Sounds like a specialized form of refactoring, doesn't it...?
Of course all this is easier in functional languages, because you don't have to worry about state, identical trees will always evaluate to the same value. Not so in Java, if any of the nodes refer to global data.
I wonder how often Gosling talks with Guy Steele, who was pivotal in the development of both Scheme and Java. I'd love to see what they'd come up with if they put their brains together.
get a good mathematical analysis tool onto your computer and learn it.
On that note, I would highly recommend Maxima (an open source descendant of MACSYMA) which is quite powerful, and free. Couple it with Texmacs and you've got a system comparable to Maple or Mathematica.
the number of things that don't exist is vastly greater than the number of things that do. Therefore, statistically speaking, you don't exist. Any evidence to the contrary is just the product of your diseased, nonexistent, imagination.
This is a native port of JDK 1.4.1, which has indeed been eagerly awaited. High-quality native ports of the JDK 1.3 series have been around for quite some time.
...I'd nominate the Tiqit 83. A similiar idea, only with a built-in keyboard which would seem to make it more useful. Any bets on which, if either, will make it to market first?
Just last night John Baez (mentioned several other times in this thread) announced
a potentially important breakthrough: a LQG calculation that derives the same value for a fundamental parameter as one based on classical assumptions. He calls it "tooth-gnashingly nerve-wracking exciting."
They could put A/V content on the web in a proprietary encrypted format, so they wouldn't have to worry about all us Linux guys downloading their precious files
Until some Linux guy puts a proxy between the player and the internet, captures the files en route, and then cracks the proprietary encryption.
I agree the fundamental problem here is lack of imagination on the part of the **IA members, but I think the real solution will be in the form of making the content compelling enough, and cheap enough, that there'll be no motivation to steal it. Which ultimately means settling for big profits instead of obscene ones.
The point of the original article seems to be that any DRM, whether in hardware, software, purhased laws, or all three, is doomed to failure.
The
Feynman Lectures are classics, and with good reason. They cover
basic mechanics, special (and a little general) relativity,
electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. The writing is engaging, and
the math is easy to follow.
The one major criticism you can make is that mechanics are covered
without using the Lagrangian formalism, which is much more powerful
and much more applicable to quantum mechanics. For this, you may want
to check out Structure
and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics. This is a very dense
book but it covers a lot, and in a way geared towards programmers.
Warning: uses the Scheme programming language heavily. If you don't
like Scheme, you won't like this one.
For general relativity, I highly, highly recommend A
First Course in General Relativity. The prerequisites are pretty
minimal, and it's extremely well written.
Beyond that, check out John Baez's list of
favorite books. Actually, you might want to read anything and
everything Professor Baez has to say about physics, he knows a lot,
explains it very well and is willing to talk to people. He's one of
the few working physicists who still bothers with usenet. I'm currently working
through his book on Gauge
Fields, Knots and Gravity, and am enjoying it immensely.
Hard drive decay is the least of our problems. Protons are decaying, the universe is flying apart at an ever-increasing rate, in a mere 10^(10^26) years there'll be nothing left but infinte, cold, dark, empty space.
We're all doomed. Doomed, I say!
Do you really get upset when you see someone on a sitcom drinking a Pepsi?
Yes, when the can is held in a completely unnatural way, logo facing out, and is positioned at the exact center of the shot.
I know you want 24 hours of great uninterrupted entertainment geared directly towards you, with no money being made by anyone and all, but give me a break...
Hardly. Tell me how to send my money to Joss Whedon and company for next years' "Buffy" and I'll write the check so fast the paper will have scorch marks.
Ultimately, viewers paying the creators directly is a more efficient system all around, and someday someone is going to figure out how to make it work. It's already happening with music, video will just take longer because of the higher barrier to entry.
The solution
on
Bitter Java
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
After a few chapters it becomes clear that object-oriented programming is starting to reach practical limits. [...] So what is the solution?
Some people have been saying for years that the solution is functional
programing. In some functional languages, wierd run-time errors become type errors caught at compile time, the absence of state makes programs much easier to reason about, and so on.
Of course, there is no magic bullet to make software suck less, but I would strongly encourage all developers to at least look at what FP offers.
I agree, but I imagine that many if not most of the
machines in question are not for use by the students anyway, but rather the faculty and staff, who
probably use them mostly to read Word documents and send email around.
Of course, I think they should switch to Linux/OpenOffice/Mozilla anyway, but it's not a question of which gives the greatest educational benefit.
According to this
the Openoffice folks will be releasing 1.0.0 right around the time StarOffice 6 comes out. Neither one looks to be a radical departure from the current 6xx builds, which I've been using quite happily for some time.
Probably the biggest difference will be the lack of support for the Sun ONE WebTop(whatever, exactly, that is) in OpenOffice.
You're also paying as a way of giving something back to Simon Travaglia (and Illiad) for entertaining you. And as a way to encourage them to create more. By releasing this stuff free on the net first he's clearly not expecting payment, but that's not the same thing as saying he doesn't deserve any.
It's the same with GNU software. It's great that it's (beer) free, but that's no reason not to give something to the FSF if you can and want to.
Where's the prime-time, over hyped premier of
Core wars?
For my money nothing beats the visceral thrill
of watching one program write a 0 into another's
actve memory!
I'm telling you, this could be bigger than Junkyard wars, smackdown, and "Triumph of the Nerds"
combined.
Other factors?
on
Browsing Alone
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The other thing that has changed over the same time frame is the
average length of the work day, at least within certain sectors of
society. I suspect reduced participation in communities has much more
to do with this than with TV per se. People are exhausted when
they eventually get home - I know collapsing in front of the TV or a
web browser is about all I can muster after a 12 hour day.
Slashdot Mirror
... from someone who stays up all night, every night, getting drunk? Oh, Dave Aitel, not Dave Attell. Never mind.
For those who don't know already, both mplayer and xine play streaming windows media just fine on Linux/FreeBSD/etc.
mangband! It's kind of like a realtime, multiplayer nethack. Not quite as advanced as nethack in terms of creatures and items, but a huge amount of fun nonetheless. And I promise your graphics cards will handle it.
For something a little more flashy there's Crossfire, which takes the graphics all the way from Nethack levels to Gauntlet levels. I've had some problems at LAN parties with the Windows client, but if you're all Linux you should be OK.
These games prove that fancy graphics aren't necessary to make a game fun. Plus, call me a wuss if you want, but I like that they can be played cooperatively.
Microsoft confirms: Open source is dying.
If what you like most about Redhat is the ability to run "up2date" once a day, you might want to consider FreeBSD and running "cvsupit" once a day, for free, to the same effect. Like any OS, FreeBSD may or may not fit your needs, I'm just suggesting it as another possibility you can investigate.
(Voice of Davy)
I'm starting to get scared because these
robots are aware
that I'm running out of food, blood's
a bubbling crude
I'm hoping in the next town there will be
blood to be found
If I don't keep them pleased they'll be
feeding off me
(voice of vampire robot slaves)
Cuz' Davy Crocket says
He'd feed us blood for days
We want blood
Of course all this is easier in functional languages, because you don't have to worry about state, identical trees will always evaluate to the same value. Not so in Java, if any of the nodes refer to global data.
I wonder how often Gosling talks with Guy Steele, who was pivotal in the development of both Scheme and Java. I'd love to see what they'd come up with if they put their brains together.
On that note, I would highly recommend Maxima (an open source descendant of MACSYMA) which is quite powerful, and free. Couple it with Texmacs and you've got a system comparable to Maple or Mathematica.
the number of things that don't exist is vastly greater than the number of things that do. Therefore, statistically speaking, you don't exist. Any evidence to the contrary is just the product of your diseased, nonexistent, imagination.
Hm, I wonder to what extent this new roadmap is a reaction to Apple's decision to use khtml instead of mozilla as the basis for safari.
This is a native port of JDK 1.4.1, which has indeed been eagerly awaited. High-quality native ports of the JDK 1.3 series have been around for quite some time.
...I'd nominate the Tiqit 83. A similiar idea, only with a built-in keyboard which would seem to make it more useful. Any bets on which, if either, will make it to market first?
Just last night John Baez (mentioned several other times in this thread) announced a potentially important breakthrough: a LQG calculation that derives the same value for a fundamental parameter as one based on classical assumptions. He calls it "tooth-gnashingly nerve-wracking exciting."
Until some Linux guy puts a proxy between the player and the internet, captures the files en route, and then cracks the proprietary encryption.
I agree the fundamental problem here is lack of imagination on the part of the **IA members, but I think the real solution will be in the form of making the content compelling enough, and cheap enough, that there'll be no motivation to steal it. Which ultimately means settling for big profits instead of obscene ones.
The point of the original article seems to be that any DRM, whether in hardware, software, purhased laws, or all three, is doomed to failure.
The one major criticism you can make is that mechanics are covered without using the Lagrangian formalism, which is much more powerful and much more applicable to quantum mechanics. For this, you may want to check out Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics. This is a very dense book but it covers a lot, and in a way geared towards programmers. Warning: uses the Scheme programming language heavily. If you don't like Scheme, you won't like this one.
For general relativity, I highly, highly recommend A First Course in General Relativity. The prerequisites are pretty minimal, and it's extremely well written.
Beyond that, check out John Baez's list of favorite books. Actually, you might want to read anything and everything Professor Baez has to say about physics, he knows a lot, explains it very well and is willing to talk to people. He's one of the few working physicists who still bothers with usenet. I'm currently working through his book on Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity, and am enjoying it immensely.
Hard drive decay is the least of our problems. Protons are decaying, the universe is flying apart at an ever-increasing rate, in a mere 10^(10^26) years there'll be nothing left but infinte, cold, dark, empty space. We're all doomed. Doomed, I say!
Yes, when the can is held in a completely unnatural way, logo facing out, and is positioned at the exact center of the shot.
I know you want 24 hours of great uninterrupted entertainment geared directly towards you, with no money being made by anyone and all, but give me a break...
Hardly. Tell me how to send my money to Joss Whedon and company for next years' "Buffy" and I'll write the check so fast the paper will have scorch marks.
Ultimately, viewers paying the creators directly is a more efficient system all around, and someday someone is going to figure out how to make it work. It's already happening with music, video will just take longer because of the higher barrier to entry.
Of course, there is no magic bullet to make software suck less, but I would strongly encourage all developers to at least look at what FP offers.
The more you tighten your grip, the more companies will slip through your fingers.
Looks like this is, finally, starting to happen to Microsoft.
Of course, I think they should switch to Linux/OpenOffice/Mozilla anyway, but it's not a question of which gives the greatest educational benefit.
I'm deeply sorry for that.
Probably the biggest difference will be the lack of support for the Sun ONE WebTop(whatever, exactly, that is) in OpenOffice.
It's the same with GNU software. It's great that it's (beer) free, but that's no reason not to give something to the FSF if you can and want to.
I'm telling you, this could be bigger than Junkyard wars, smackdown, and "Triumph of the Nerds" combined.
The other thing that has changed over the same time frame is the average length of the work day, at least within certain sectors of society. I suspect reduced participation in communities has much more to do with this than with TV per se. People are exhausted when they eventually get home - I know collapsing in front of the TV or a web browser is about all I can muster after a 12 hour day.