Well, given that the world runs on embedded systems, and will probably become more reliant on even greater numbers of even more complex embedded systems, I'd say assembler will be around for quite a while. However, in terms of game programming or something, it's probably not amazingly useful any more. It is my understanding that most of the API calls to advanced graphics libraries are about as optimized as they are going to get. Clearly you don't need it to write a medical billing application.
I would not encourage universities to start pumping out CS graduates who have never seen assembly laguage, and don't expect it to phased out of the average Electrical Engineering curriculum any time soon.
Frankly, I don't think it's a very good question. It's sort of like saying, "Given that we now have calculators and computer algebra systems that will do the math for us, is it really worth it to waste students' time learning the nuts and bolts of mathematics?" It has been my (limited) experience in software engineering that knowing how something works on a deeper level will almost always be an asset, and at the worst have no effect at all.
We have here a "scientific study" that shows that conservation of energy doesn't apply to children. It makes me wonder what other spurious crap we accept as truth because a "study" was done.
If this study is true, then I would like to build a car powered by children on excercise wheels. It seems clear to me that they don't require any extra energy to excercise so, hey, free energy.
I figured since I submitted the article, I would offer my own perspective on it.
Personally, I think global warming is at least partially anthropogenic and that it is a serious threat to our civilization. Also, aside from global warming, I think that building millions of machines that pump poison into our atmosphere is a Bad Idea.
However, I am put off by the sense political fervor over global warming. There are too many unreasonable people shouting and pointing fingers and not enough reasoned scientific debate. The fact that the opinions of respected researchers are being ignored (or threatened) because it isn't the "cool thing to think" right now is troubling.
Some of you have already decided that Global Warming is/isn't anthropogenic, and that it is/isn't a threat and that we should/shouldn't do something dramatic about it. Nothing anyone says will change your mind. Any evidence that contradicts your opinon is "politcally motivated", "biased", or "dishonest". Any evidence that in any way supports your opninion is "incontrovertible truth". This is an unscientific mindset. I think this is what the professor from MIT is warning us about.
I think skepticism should be encouraged, and fantacism should be exposed and derided. Thus, I submitted this article. I don't think there was anything in the article that said global warming is or isn't the threat Al Gore claims it is. However, it seems to be true that dissenting scientists feel threatened and squelched for what they think. This is not the formula for progress or truth.
"80% of the work in a modern game is content, not coding"
I once heard a quote: "No game has ever failed to ship because the art wasn't done."
Games are difficult because of the programming. They don't spend months in QA because people are trying to decide if they like the textures or not. A videogame is a horrifyingly complex state machine, and it is basically impossible to eliminate all potential bugs in a modern 3D title.
Game production stalls for technical reasons a majority of the time.
I want to echo some of the comments made about Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The first KOTOR was one of my favorite games of all time. Then Obsidian took over the engine from Bioware to make the sequel. The result? Crappy plot, game destroying bugs (I had to completely start over 3/4 through the game because of a saved game bug), and an overall disappointing experience. This was especially painful for me because of how much I liked the first KOTOR.
I will not be purchasing any games from Obsidian in the future, unless I read on a reputable review site that it is distinctly top notch.
Who cares what the mods think? Just keep posting what YOU think. There's nothing less interesting than navigating into a discussion and reading two hundred attempts at reflecting the un-official group consesus of Slashdot. It's interesting to hear intelligent individuals put forth their ideas and test them against counter-argument. Slashdot is supposedly a website that "smart people" read. There's nothing smart about being a sheep or a dictaphone.
I quote Captain Picard: "If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for who we really are."
I think one of, if not the most, destructive element of humanity that is causing the most threat to our survival as a race is the lust for power rather than progress.
Groups of individuals interested in progress and health have no incentive to fight, cause problems, revolt, steal, or destroy. They want to behave in a way that will best contribute to the prosperity of themselves and those around them. I think a vast majority of the political and social problems we face stem from individuals recklessly seeking and attaining power. From Sudanian warlords, to American politicians and businessmen, the lust for power without regard for proress is what is destroying us.
The answer to this? I'm not entirely sure. The best I can come up with is to create and enforce political institutions that prevent the concentration of power, and encourage a culture of education, thought, and progress for individuals and society.
I have a really bad feeling that someday the government will mandate that everyone have access to cable television so that we can be properly mind controlled by our federal and corporate overlords. It will become a sort of social stigma. You will have trouble doing business and getting jobs if you don't watch TV. Job interviews will include questions about the latest episode of such and such, as well credit card applications, bank loan interviews, etc.
Yes, I am a tinfoil hat junkie. I don't watch any television and I read too much, which causes me to be well informed, pessimistic, and paranoid.
Queue the jokes about the wee-wee's and wii-wii's.
There's some deep, dark, American GI Joe watching Transformer fan race car noise making gun fanatic within the murky depths of my soul that can't help but laugh at this stupid, childish marketing scheme.
I think the Wii looks fun as a videogame platform, but the marketing is nearly to the point where it requires you to not have a penis.
My advice is that you get the skillset. It sounds like you want something for nothing. Any skill requires some sort of investment, either financial or personal. You can decide which investment you'd rather make.
Very, very rarely do I wind up disagreeing with him, and even when I do, I can usually see his point.
The man is a rarity: a great critic.
I think there's some correlation between these two statements. Although to be fair, I agree with you. But still. "He agrees with me. He is therefore great." I love it.
I hope they don't make a game like War and Piece. It would be thirty times longer than necessary, have two hundred main characters all of whom are named Alexei or Anna, and have a barely discernable plot.
I've always thought the best strategy for building a Star Wars MMO would be to combine something like City of Heroes with World of Warcraft. Yes, I know this seems obvious. "Wow, combine two great game ideas! You're a genius!" But here's what I mean:
Every player character is a jedi. You can totally customize your race, appearance, and style of force use. In fact, you don't even have to use the force if you don't want. But you start out with force potential. And the players can go around the Star Wars universe being good or bad guys, doing quests and unlocking new force powers and crafting interesting weapons.
The reason I say this, is because it makes every player feel like an important part of the action. I can only reallly speak for myself, but I'm not going to pay money for a game just so I can experience the simulated thrill of eeking out a living as a dancer, or a baker or some crap. I want a gun, a lightsaber, and directions to the nearest enemy. I want to be a part of the Star Wars adventure and kick some ass. I don't need to meet Han Solo every ten minutes to remind me I'm in Star Wars, but neither do I want to spent 345 hours farming pubic hairs on some remote moon in the yadda yadda quadrant.
I've never designed a game so my opinion amounts to approximately ass, but I just feel like Star Wars Galaxies was designed by people with no concept of human psychology or game design theory. [shrug]
Slashdot Mirror
Well, given that the world runs on embedded systems, and will probably become more reliant on even greater numbers of even more complex embedded systems, I'd say assembler will be around for quite a while. However, in terms of game programming or something, it's probably not amazingly useful any more. It is my understanding that most of the API calls to advanced graphics libraries are about as optimized as they are going to get. Clearly you don't need it to write a medical billing application.
I would not encourage universities to start pumping out CS graduates who have never seen assembly laguage, and don't expect it to phased out of the average Electrical Engineering curriculum any time soon.
Frankly, I don't think it's a very good question. It's sort of like saying, "Given that we now have calculators and computer algebra systems that will do the math for us, is it really worth it to waste students' time learning the nuts and bolts of mathematics?" It has been my (limited) experience in software engineering that knowing how something works on a deeper level will almost always be an asset, and at the worst have no effect at all.
In Soviet Russia, Third Place Wins You!
No. Did you check the website we're on? Or even your sense of humor?
We have here a "scientific study" that shows that conservation of energy doesn't apply to children. It makes me wonder what other spurious crap we accept as truth because a "study" was done.
If this study is true, then I would like to build a car powered by children on excercise wheels. It seems clear to me that they don't require any extra energy to excercise so, hey, free energy.
I figured since I submitted the article, I would offer my own perspective on it.
Personally, I think global warming is at least partially anthropogenic and that it is a serious threat to our civilization. Also, aside from global warming, I think that building millions of machines that pump poison into our atmosphere is a Bad Idea.
However, I am put off by the sense political fervor over global warming. There are too many unreasonable people shouting and pointing fingers and not enough reasoned scientific debate. The fact that the opinions of respected researchers are being ignored (or threatened) because it isn't the "cool thing to think" right now is troubling.
Some of you have already decided that Global Warming is/isn't anthropogenic, and that it is/isn't a threat and that we should/shouldn't do something dramatic about it. Nothing anyone says will change your mind. Any evidence that contradicts your opinon is "politcally motivated", "biased", or "dishonest". Any evidence that in any way supports your opninion is "incontrovertible truth". This is an unscientific mindset. I think this is what the professor from MIT is warning us about.
I think skepticism should be encouraged, and fantacism should be exposed and derided. Thus, I submitted this article. I don't think there was anything in the article that said global warming is or isn't the threat Al Gore claims it is. However, it seems to be true that dissenting scientists feel threatened and squelched for what they think. This is not the formula for progress or truth.
"80% of the work in a modern game is content, not coding"
I once heard a quote: "No game has ever failed to ship because the art wasn't done."
Games are difficult because of the programming. They don't spend months in QA because people are trying to decide if they like the textures or not. A videogame is a horrifyingly complex state machine, and it is basically impossible to eliminate all potential bugs in a modern 3D title.
Game production stalls for technical reasons a majority of the time.
I bet you've been waiting years to put this knowledge to use. =D
I want to echo some of the comments made about Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. The first KOTOR was one of my favorite games of all time. Then Obsidian took over the engine from Bioware to make the sequel. The result? Crappy plot, game destroying bugs (I had to completely start over 3/4 through the game because of a saved game bug), and an overall disappointing experience. This was especially painful for me because of how much I liked the first KOTOR.
I will not be purchasing any games from Obsidian in the future, unless I read on a reputable review site that it is distinctly top notch.
Who cares what the mods think? Just keep posting what YOU think. There's nothing less interesting than navigating into a discussion and reading two hundred attempts at reflecting the un-official group consesus of Slashdot. It's interesting to hear intelligent individuals put forth their ideas and test them against counter-argument. Slashdot is supposedly a website that "smart people" read. There's nothing smart about being a sheep or a dictaphone. I quote Captain Picard: "If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for who we really are."
"Single men under thirty don't count as adults."
I'd like to see you explain that to the marine corps.
Rarely have a username and a comment come together in such perfect harmony. =)
I think one of, if not the most, destructive element of humanity that is causing the most threat to our survival as a race is the lust for power rather than progress.
Groups of individuals interested in progress and health have no incentive to fight, cause problems, revolt, steal, or destroy. They want to behave in a way that will best contribute to the prosperity of themselves and those around them. I think a vast majority of the political and social problems we face stem from individuals recklessly seeking and attaining power. From Sudanian warlords, to American politicians and businessmen, the lust for power without regard for proress is what is destroying us.
The answer to this? I'm not entirely sure. The best I can come up with is to create and enforce political institutions that prevent the concentration of power, and encourage a culture of education, thought, and progress for individuals and society.
Well I'm going to patent "Stupid Bullshit" and file suit against 90% of all patent holders. =(
I have a really bad feeling that someday the government will mandate that everyone have access to cable television so that we can be properly mind controlled by our federal and corporate overlords. It will become a sort of social stigma. You will have trouble doing business and getting jobs if you don't watch TV. Job interviews will include questions about the latest episode of such and such, as well credit card applications, bank loan interviews, etc.
Yes, I am a tinfoil hat junkie. I don't watch any television and I read too much, which causes me to be well informed, pessimistic, and paranoid.
RTFA
Queue the jokes about the wee-wee's and wii-wii's.
There's some deep, dark, American GI Joe watching Transformer fan race car noise making gun fanatic within the murky depths of my soul that can't help but laugh at this stupid, childish marketing scheme.
I think the Wii looks fun as a videogame platform, but the marketing is nearly to the point where it requires you to not have a penis.
My advice is that you get the skillset. It sounds like you want something for nothing. Any skill requires some sort of investment, either financial or personal. You can decide which investment you'd rather make.
Just ask that guy who married Star Jones.
Very, very rarely do I wind up disagreeing with him, and even when I do, I can usually see his point.
The man is a rarity: a great critic.
I think there's some correlation between these two statements. Although to be fair, I agree with you. But still. "He agrees with me. He is therefore great." I love it.
You seem to be [i]really[/i] fascinated with probes. Freud would have a field day. Then again, sometimes a probe is just a probe.
I hope they don't make a game like War and Piece. It would be thirty times longer than necessary, have two hundred main characters all of whom are named Alexei or Anna, and have a barely discernable plot.
This story will be hacked and available via bittorrent in like 2 days. I'll wait until then to read it, in case I don't like it.
But 10,000 assclowns runing around named "1337j3d1" swingin their lightsabers around is not Star Wars.
Maybe you didn't see Attack of the Clones. =D
I've always thought the best strategy for building a Star Wars MMO would be to combine something like City of Heroes with World of Warcraft. Yes, I know this seems obvious. "Wow, combine two great game ideas! You're a genius!" But here's what I mean:
Every player character is a jedi. You can totally customize your race, appearance, and style of force use. In fact, you don't even have to use the force if you don't want. But you start out with force potential. And the players can go around the Star Wars universe being good or bad guys, doing quests and unlocking new force powers and crafting interesting weapons.
The reason I say this, is because it makes every player feel like an important part of the action. I can only reallly speak for myself, but I'm not going to pay money for a game just so I can experience the simulated thrill of eeking out a living as a dancer, or a baker or some crap. I want a gun, a lightsaber, and directions to the nearest enemy. I want to be a part of the Star Wars adventure and kick some ass. I don't need to meet Han Solo every ten minutes to remind me I'm in Star Wars, but neither do I want to spent 345 hours farming pubic hairs on some remote moon in the yadda yadda quadrant.
I've never designed a game so my opinion amounts to approximately ass, but I just feel like Star Wars Galaxies was designed by people with no concept of human psychology or game design theory. [shrug]
It comes bundled with a Phantom Console that runs Linux and a copy of Duke Nukem Forever.