There is no great economic incentive to have a basement in warmer climates, so prevalence is hit or miss.
Actually, there is. In warmer climates basements are often cool and damp (which can make it feel even cooler) compared to the upstairs (this is true in Wisconsin where summers, while generally mild, can still hit 100 F on the hottest days. You spend more time in the basement on these days, usually next to your home-made dry bar. =P Of course tornadoes are irrelevant as generally if tornado sirens go off, everyone is running upstairs to stand on their porch to watch the tornado. hehe).
Given the extra living space, it's not uncommon to have a bedroom in the basement allowing for cooler and much more comfortable living conditions without having to resort to air conditioning. However, the other points such as water table, geography, natural disasters, hold true. Basements just aren't feasible in some areas.
That is such BS. This is the most obnoxious attempt to appeal to the WoW crowd and it sickens me. Wizards should prepare spells and if they run out then too bad, they should have planned better.
I'm curious. Why do you feel that wizards should prepare spells and be limited to the number they can cast (per day)? Is it because you simply don't like the "WoW crowd" and don't want WotC to appeal to them or is there another reason?
We didn't. We're going to sell them to you in another book at a later time.
Did you design DnD4 around video games?
Yes, we designed DnD4 with consideration of selling our rules to video game makers and to work on other platforms.
Are all DM's male?
There is a such thing as a stupid question, and that's one of them.
Will wizards be overpowered because they can cast as many spells a round as they want?
No, a wizard can only perform a certain number of things a round, but they can cast as many number or different spells per combat. We don't want wizards to have to use a xBow because their spells are gone. That's boring.
Does WotC consider everything in DnD their IP?
I don't really know how to answer that question without bringing my legal team down on me, so I'll just say that d20 is symbolic with DnD but other games use it, but logically our IP = our IP.
Great programmers work for who they want, on what they want.
I'd take a step back on that one. Before they're "programmers superstars", they're usually college graduates. Start by trolling for college students. Lower your needs from "must be" to "can be" and take those who actually enjoy programming and build them up into superstars by putting them in your super company. They'll probably turn into Superstars in no time if your company is as good to work for as you describe.
Who cares? What happens to the Empire after the destruction of the second Death Star?
There are some very excellent novels out there that take place right after the events of the second Death Star destruction. Some say the "Thrawn" series is the defacto trilogy after RotJ.
That's the easiest, but likely most costly, way out. But the original question was "how do I teach myself graphical design, particularly in the context of websites?"
To answer that, I would suggest there's a lot of a) reading and b) practice involved. You don't have to go to school to learn web graphic design, but you do have work hard at learning it. But, taking a course will just make it a lot easier. "Art" stuff is harder to just pickup and do, unlike "tech" stuff. This coming from a guy who was going to go to art school but opted for a Computer Science degree while studying CGI and ending up as a web developer.
An excellent book that expands on CSS techniques as well as gets into how to visualize site design to best markup your website (without tables per say). Later on it will teach you how to look for inspiration in print media (magazines, newspapers, etc) and how to keep a "diary" of design ideas by cutting and pasting different images into a scrap book. It'll also cover different design aspects such as fixed vs liquid layouts, pixel vs em sizing, and get into CSS3 stuff that's coming down the pike (still) with the Advanced Layout Method. This is a must read, but requires some good CSS knowledge.
This book is less about design and more about how HTML/CSS markup to make your design easier to do without getting into table layouts. It'll make your job easier and might give you some design ideas. And since you cannot have one without the other...
Another excellent web development book. Like "bulletproof" above, it's a very fast read but worth it's weight in gold. Can you find this stuff on the Intranet? Sure, particularly from A List Apart, who's authers regularly post their articles too, but it's worth having a nice colored book for fast reference.
There's a website for this book, The CSS Zen Garden, that you can use and probably pass over this book (I did, but I'm still interested in adding this one to my collection). This will teach you about how HTML and CSS differ and what can be accomplished by good CSS and semantic HTML. It'll probably also get your inspired as there are a ton of gorgeous examples in the book.
You cannot talk about web site design without taking into consideration Usability and Steve Krug's book is probably the best thing you can read for you and your visitors. He's a nice guy (I've contacted him via email after reading his book and he kindly responded), his book is funny, short, and chalk full of full color graphical examples. You can also read from Nielson's website Useit.com to get more education on usability but there's a good deal of people who feel Nielson's "requirements" can be taken with a grain of salt.
John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of global music body, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, said: "The operators of The Pirate Bay have always been interested in making money, not music.
Does anyone read that and NOT think: "What's the difference from Record labels?" =P
Perfect dark *was* GoldenEye 2, [...]You might notice both were from the same publisher, Rare
To go farther, TimeSplitters series is also very good and made by mostly the same people. The people who started Rare and made it famous for it's 007 and Perfect Dark games started their own company called "Free Radical". TimeSplitters plays like 007 and Prefect Dark with plenty of sillyness. If you where looking for a 007 for your PS2/GameCube/Wii(which plays GC games) you can pick up TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. All you need is your 3 friends. Only, you'll probably find out the rose tinted glasses are thick after you've been spoiled by PC FPS like Counter-Strike and TFC and small 4-player split-screen becomes annoying.
IE8's new scheme and those supporting it are being met with an equallevel of criticism.
Yeah, if you're a web designer, it's best you read the stuff that's flying around out there. It's an pretty big and important change being proposed for web development standards.
So now, screw it, they're going to play the game, and it turns out that gaming is a fricking huge industry, and they can blow a ton of money on legislation that is favorable to them.
Well, given that the PTV say's this on their website...
World of Warcraft is incredibly fun to play [...] there is a fair amount of violence-some of it bloody, references to alcohol, and occasionally a subtle sexual innuendo.
They don't sound so bad. (ah, the power of the ellipsis. hehe =P )
In all seriousness, does the PTV support Disney movies? Because that pretty much sums up Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, among others. I have to admit, their site is pretty interesting. They actual do a fair amount of Video Game coverage (from WoW, to Lego Star Wars, to Halo) with a family spin. But I completely object to this: "Halo 2, Educational value: None".;)
Look at the UI changes in Windows Media Player, and you'll see a program that has become less user friendly, while prettier.
God, I thought I was the only one who thought that. hehe. I use to have an old copy of WMP laying around that I would use (from back in the Win98 days) because it actually played some video formats, and I could the menu bar. =P I still ask myself "why don't I have a fast forward button?" It sucks to have to drag the timeline bar to just move the video ahead/back a few seconds.
And on top of that, the other common complains would be the MP3 bogging down the system bug and DRM hardware issues. Though, I don't have Vista and I'm keeping my family from 'upgrading' to it with new computers (had Dell install XP instead of Vista, because my fathers tax software wouldn't work in Vista).
How does a girl [...] manage to survive a helicopter crash?
The crash was a bit sketchy, yes, but because of the way it was filmed, it could suspend disbelief enough. The first thing that really got me was just before the crash, I was thinking... "wow, is it just me or if I was the pilot, I'd be a) going higher, b) going the other direction, c)both.
After further consideration, my 2nd point of the film is... how does that first building "blow up"? I mean, the monster never appeared to be shooting fire out of it's mouth. What caused the huge explosion? That's what I would like to know. Did it throw a gas truck at it or something, or do buildings just spontaneously explode?
I have to admit, I loved the film and I'm surprised so many people didn't like it. Lets just say, watch that 2000 remake of Godzilla, then tell me this film sucked. =P
Java is also a lousy "beginners" language, because its reliance on standard libraries leads beginners to look for pre-packaged solutions rather than writing their own.
While you make a good point, it's really a non-issue. Any (good) class will have an assignment (for example) to create you own linked list class. Obviously using the standard classes would be a major failure. Lets not talk theoretics of punishing the victim (student/language) instead of the criminal (the poorly designed class). After all, I can just as easily say C/C++ is a poor "beginners" language because it's been around so long, it's too easy to copy/paste a solution than creating your own.
It's not Java's fault it has a good standard library, it's an instructors fault for not teaching the student the basics of programming and data structures.
As soon as we got them, we used our site license to replace Vista with XP on all of our computers. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens in other corporate environments.
My company is purposely buying with Vista to have a license but using the our site license to replace it with XP. Our company policy is still "No Vista, No IE7". Though, I think they should update to IE7 by now, but I guess there's some sort of application that will break with it (I don't know what it is, and I have all the browsers installed on my machine for web testing)
One excellent way to do this is for a person to give something that was personally costly, but has little actual value to the receiver
Damn it! I kept telling my ex-GF this! But noooooo, she didn't understand how expensive that #1 issue of Superman that I bought for her! I told her that it might have little value to her, but that it was costly for me! Bah, some women are just shallow!
The assertion that Nintendo would build an entire factory to satisfy the console demand is ludicrous. They would and should simply hire a contract manufacturer...
Sorry, the point wasn't that Nintendo would literally build a factory. The use of "build a factory" was to simplify the point of manufacturing supply to avoid long convoluted business strategy, demand management, and time/cost constraints and complexities. Turken also points out other contract manufacturing dependencies.
My apologizes if my statement seemed to literal instead of figurative. I'm familiar enough with contract manufacturing, I work for a manufacturing company that supplies big name retailers (obviously they're not going to build their own factory) and other manufactures, to name a few.
Thanks, I often make these spelling/grammar mistakes and never properly proof read. I just phonetically spell something out without thinking twice or looking back. I'll look out for it in the future (along with my other popular misspelling waist and waste). It's a dumb mistake and I like being called out on it to change my habit.
Slashdot Mirror
That's exactly what I wanted to know, given that it was the title of the article and worthy enough to be the topic of the first couple of paragraphs.
Actually, there is. In warmer climates basements are often cool and damp (which can make it feel even cooler) compared to the upstairs (this is true in Wisconsin where summers, while generally mild, can still hit 100 F on the hottest days. You spend more time in the basement on these days, usually next to your home-made dry bar. =P Of course tornadoes are irrelevant as generally if tornado sirens go off, everyone is running upstairs to stand on their porch to watch the tornado. hehe).
Given the extra living space, it's not uncommon to have a bedroom in the basement allowing for cooler and much more comfortable living conditions without having to resort to air conditioning. However, the other points such as water table, geography, natural disasters, hold true. Basements just aren't feasible in some areas.
I'm curious. Why do you feel that wizards should prepare spells and be limited to the number they can cast (per day)? Is it because you simply don't like the "WoW crowd" and don't want WotC to appeal to them or is there another reason?
My browser won't render the page properly.
To Summerize...
We didn't. We're going to sell them to you in another book at a later time. Yes, we designed DnD4 with consideration of selling our rules to video game makers and to work on other platforms. There is a such thing as a stupid question, and that's one of them. No, a wizard can only perform a certain number of things a round, but they can cast as many number or different spells per combat. We don't want wizards to have to use a xBow because their spells are gone. That's boring. I don't really know how to answer that question without bringing my legal team down on me, so I'll just say that d20 is symbolic with DnD but other games use it, but logically our IP = our IP.So that's what the "IT-reason" tag is.
Curious, but what is it that you disagree with since I never wrote that they needed official training in a computer field?
I'd take a step back on that one. Before they're "programmers superstars", they're usually college graduates. Start by trolling for college students. Lower your needs from "must be" to "can be" and take those who actually enjoy programming and build them up into superstars by putting them in your super company. They'll probably turn into Superstars in no time if your company is as good to work for as you describe.
Cheers,
Fozzy
It's like the Force, but backwards.
That's because it takes too long to level a Paladin.
There are some very excellent novels out there that take place right after the events of the second Death Star destruction. Some say the "Thrawn" series is the defacto trilogy after RotJ.
That's the easiest, but likely most costly, way out. But the original question was "how do I teach myself graphical design, particularly in the context of websites?"
To answer that, I would suggest there's a lot of a) reading and b) practice involved. You don't have to go to school to learn web graphic design, but you do have work hard at learning it. But, taking a course will just make it a lot easier. "Art" stuff is harder to just pickup and do, unlike "tech" stuff. This coming from a guy who was going to go to art school but opted for a Computer Science degree while studying CGI and ending up as a web developer.
Here are some books:
You mean their loss margin just got smaller. They're still looking forward to making a profit.
Does anyone read that and NOT think: "What's the difference from Record labels?" =P
To go farther, TimeSplitters series is also very good and made by mostly the same people. The people who started Rare and made it famous for it's 007 and Perfect Dark games started their own company called "Free Radical". TimeSplitters plays like 007 and Prefect Dark with plenty of sillyness. If you where looking for a 007 for your PS2/GameCube/Wii(which plays GC games) you can pick up TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. All you need is your 3 friends. Only, you'll probably find out the rose tinted glasses are thick after you've been spoiled by PC FPS like Counter-Strike and TFC and small 4-player split-screen becomes annoying.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Actually... It's the web standards community that gave Microsoft the green light to go off in their own direction (and hoping other browsers will do the same).
IE8's new scheme and those supporting it are being met with an equal level of criticism.
Yeah, if you're a web designer, it's best you read the stuff that's flying around out there. It's an pretty big and important change being proposed for web development standards.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Well, given that the PTV say's this on their website...
They don't sound so bad. (ah, the power of the ellipsis. hehe =P )
In all seriousness, does the PTV support Disney movies? Because that pretty much sums up Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, among others. I have to admit, their site is pretty interesting. They actual do a fair amount of Video Game coverage (from WoW, to Lego Star Wars, to Halo) with a family spin. But I completely object to this: "Halo 2, Educational value: None". ;)
Cheers,
Fozzy
God, I thought I was the only one who thought that. hehe. I use to have an old copy of WMP laying around that I would use (from back in the Win98 days) because it actually played some video formats, and I could the menu bar. =P I still ask myself "why don't I have a fast forward button?" It sucks to have to drag the timeline bar to just move the video ahead/back a few seconds.
And on top of that, the other common complains would be the MP3 bogging down the system bug and DRM hardware issues. Though, I don't have Vista and I'm keeping my family from 'upgrading' to it with new computers (had Dell install XP instead of Vista, because my fathers tax software wouldn't work in Vista).
Cheers,
Fozzy
The crash was a bit sketchy, yes, but because of the way it was filmed, it could suspend disbelief enough. The first thing that really got me was just before the crash, I was thinking... "wow, is it just me or if I was the pilot, I'd be a) going higher, b) going the other direction, c)both.
After further consideration, my 2nd point of the film is... how does that first building "blow up"? I mean, the monster never appeared to be shooting fire out of it's mouth. What caused the huge explosion? That's what I would like to know. Did it throw a gas truck at it or something, or do buildings just spontaneously explode?
I have to admit, I loved the film and I'm surprised so many people didn't like it. Lets just say, watch that 2000 remake of Godzilla, then tell me this film sucked. =P
Cheers,
Fozzy
They don't want you to pull out your Radio Controller and start making the plane do loop-de-loops. =P
While you make a good point, it's really a non-issue. Any (good) class will have an assignment (for example) to create you own linked list class. Obviously using the standard classes would be a major failure. Lets not talk theoretics of punishing the victim (student/language) instead of the criminal (the poorly designed class). After all, I can just as easily say C/C++ is a poor "beginners" language because it's been around so long, it's too easy to copy/paste a solution than creating your own.
It's not Java's fault it has a good standard library, it's an instructors fault for not teaching the student the basics of programming and data structures.
Cheers,
Fozzy
My company is purposely buying with Vista to have a license but using the our site license to replace it with XP. Our company policy is still "No Vista, No IE7". Though, I think they should update to IE7 by now, but I guess there's some sort of application that will break with it (I don't know what it is, and I have all the browsers installed on my machine for web testing)
Cheers,
Fozzy
Damn it! I kept telling my ex-GF this! But noooooo, she didn't understand how expensive that #1 issue of Superman that I bought for her! I told her that it might have little value to her, but that it was costly for me! Bah, some women are just shallow!
Sorry, the point wasn't that Nintendo would literally build a factory. The use of "build a factory" was to simplify the point of manufacturing supply to avoid long convoluted business strategy, demand management, and time/cost constraints and complexities. Turken also points out other contract manufacturing dependencies.
My apologizes if my statement seemed to literal instead of figurative. I'm familiar enough with contract manufacturing, I work for a manufacturing company that supplies big name retailers (obviously they're not going to build their own factory) and other manufactures, to name a few.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Thanks, I often make these spelling/grammar mistakes and never properly proof read. I just phonetically spell something out without thinking twice or looking back. I'll look out for it in the future (along with my other popular misspelling waist and waste). It's a dumb mistake and I like being called out on it to change my habit.
Cheers,
Fozzy