Well it was originally going to be a Dirk Gently book, but then it was going to be a HHG book, and then it just never happened. Given where the HHG series left off, it's kind of appropriate that Salmon of Doubt gets published post-humourously, though...
Mind, I've read enough about DNA's writing style to know there aren't going to be any notes explaining what was yet to be written. (IIRC, generally he didn't actually know where the story was going to end up when writing) It'll be interesting.
for a browser that lots of ram and a fast computer should not be reqired. While this may be true. The requirements:
Mac OS
Mac OS 8.6 or later
PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or faster processor, or G3/G4
64 MB RAM
36 MB of free hard disk space
Compare the System Requirements for the web browser iCab, for the Macintosh, that has been quite popular in the Mac community recently. (check http://www.icab.de)
System Requirements
Minimum 4MB free RAM
System 7.0.1 or 7.1 if ThreadManager and DragManager are also installed
System 7.5 or newer
MacTCP or OpenTransport
InternetConfig 1.2 (or Mac OS 8.5 or newer)
PPC, 68020, 68030 or 68040
And the download is 1.2 Megs. The only real drawback is that Javascript is only half done, and CSS2 isn't implemented yet, but it renders most web pages well, and has a number of features not in most web browsers... (Turning off Blink tags functionality, and ad and Javascript filtering are favorites, as is the built-in HTML error reporter...)
Of course, you realise that the kids would end up getting blamed for the porn in the history logs under this system, when the porn could easily have been called up by someone else in the family...
On the other hand, Gore's approach really is creepy -- compel ISP's to provide an ability to track users so that parents can snoop on their kid's activites? It ain't censorship, but it is draconian.
Also, wouldn't that be unfeasible at the ISP end, due to overload of information? Such an act might well put the majority of small ISP's out of business, because of inability to comply, due to lack of server space.
OTOH, it would be a lot easier to require some sort of command in the browser to display a web histor... wait a sec, the browsers already do that, don't they?
I read the book, and later watched the movie. The movie was actually one of the worst butchering jobs I've seen on a book. Generally, in my experience, the movie is worse then the book, and it certainly was in this case.
I'vwe done computer comparision shopping before, and to get a Mac, you pretty much are stuck with mail order, online orders, used, a few small Mac-specific stores and CompUSA. Fry's used to carry them, but it's been a few years since I've had one near me, so I couldn't say, now...
Well, it is a yearly event, so get ready for next year. Check out the specialised languages, such as Inform and Tads, before trying anything in a more conventional programming language, because you get a parser, and, for those two, at least, portability, for free...
I probably listen to radically different music then you (celtic) , but Green Linnet is independant. They also prace cds recently, and have a few tracks available free as mp3's at their home page, http://www.greenlinnet.com/
I'm not sure on the others, but on Angband, the currect copyright is:
Copyright (c) 1997 Ben Harrison, James E. Wilson, Robert A. Koeneke
This software may be copied and distributed for educational, research,
and not for profit purposes provided that this copyright and statement
are included in all such copies. Other copyrights may also apply.
The license isn't open source, as open source's popularity wasn't widespread when it came out, but it is effectively so, since you can get the code for almost any version of it easily. The current maintainer is also in process of trying to get the licence switched to a dual license with GPL, and wants as many people who've contributed to Angband's code over the years as possible to e-mail him giving permission.
It's worth mentioning that it is pretty easy to change the buttons look, too. The download page for iCab features 26 or so alternate icon sets for icab, and several alternate animations for web page loading, as well as instructions on how to customize the buttons yourself.
Well, the vocabulary can sometimes be a problem, but a lot of that is a matter of how well the games are programmed.
Personally, I'd consider the difference between text adventures and graphic adventures to be the difference between a novel and a movie. The movie is appealing to a wider audience, and can bring things to life, but you can still get more involved, and use your imagination more, and responses to actions are cheap, costing coding in a line of text, rather then requiring $$ for an animation for, say, what happens when you try to set a house on fire, which usually doesn't get spent, instead just not allowing you to try it, or, in some cases spewing forth "you can't do that" or some such...
Also, for a new "Monkey Island" type game, you might check out Monkey Islad 4, which is in the works.
Oh, and it's "Graham Nelson". If you like Lovecraftian fiction at all, check out Anchorhead, in the Infocom style games link. Probably the most aborbing text adventure I've played, and I had chills running down my back while playing...
Well - I advice you take out whatever contains words like (for demonstrative purposes) &cunt&, &slut&, &large rod&, &purple monster&. Leave in words like &breast&, &penis&, & vagina& and such.
Thus filtering out sites about Barney, but leaving in sites about "Hot asian women"?
They did. It was called CyberDog. It is *still* somewhat popular, though Apple discontinued any work on it a few years back.
Of course, nowdays, Mac users are moving to iCab. East to use, fast, small, functional, stable (in a preview release, yet!) and with a bunch of features neither IE nor Netscape can match...
Don't forget Green Linnet records. They aren't on the RIAA list, as either Green Linnet, or their other title, Xenophile, they also have distributed some of McKennitts songs, as well as a number of other good artists (actually, whenever after celtic, I know the music is good if distributed by Green Linnet).
You may also note that they have 15 tracks from assorted cds downloadable as mp3s.
http://www.greenlinnet.com/audio/mp3.htm
They have series of themed cd's at $8, though you'll pay more for a cd of one specific artist...
Oh, BTW, I have some Loreena McKennitt cds here, and some of them mention Warner Brothers and BMG, as well as Quinlan Road, on the back. Wouldn't they be RIAA members?
Exactly. Think of "it" as being like $_ in Perl. Now think of what would happen if you tried to write a program in Perl with no other variables in Perl...
Oh, and I did write a calculator in HyperTalk. I also wrote a psuedo-Logo-ish stack, with a button for the turtle...
Are they any faster then Netscape 6 PR 1 was? I ran Netscape 6 PR 1 on my Mac, chose "Open URL", typed in "http://www.slashdot.org/", and it took around a minute *per letter* for it to appear. At 240 Mhz with a 604e, my Mac is no speed demon, but that is the only program I've ever typed ahead of the text on that machine...
I'll stick with iCab till Mozilla gets it's speed majorly improved, thanks...
Aquarian, keep in mind that the majority of the people on Slashdot have never been pointed to the FAQ, MFAQ, or NFAQ, and thus likely wouldn't have heard the whole story on Salmon of Doubt...
Of Alice in Wonderland, often cited as an influence, he says, "I read - or rather, had read to me - Alice in Wonderland as a child and I hated it. It really frightened me. Some months ago, I tried to go back to it and read a few pages, and thought, 'This is jolly good stuff, but still...' If it wasn't for that slightly nightmarish quality that I remember as a kid I'd've enjoyed it, but I couldn't shake that feeling. So although people like to suggest that Carroll was a big influence - using the number 42 and all that - he really was not."
Slashdot Mirror
Well it was originally going to be a Dirk Gently book, but then it was going to be a HHG book, and then it just never happened. Given where the HHG series left off, it's kind of appropriate that Salmon of Doubt gets published post-humourously, though...
Mind, I've read enough about DNA's writing style to know there aren't going to be any notes explaining what was yet to be written. (IIRC, generally he didn't actually know where the story was going to end up when writing) It'll be interesting.
for a browser that lots of ram and a fast computer should not be reqired. While this may be true. The requirements:
Mac OS
Mac OS 8.6 or later
PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or faster processor, or G3/G4
64 MB RAM
36 MB of free hard disk space
Compare the System Requirements for the web browser iCab, for the Macintosh, that has been quite popular in the Mac community recently. (check http://www.icab.de)
System Requirements
Minimum 4MB free RAM
System 7.0.1 or 7.1 if ThreadManager and DragManager are also installed
System 7.5 or newer
MacTCP or OpenTransport
InternetConfig 1.2 (or Mac OS 8.5 or newer)
PPC, 68020, 68030 or 68040
And the download is 1.2 Megs. The only real drawback is that Javascript is only half done, and CSS2 isn't implemented yet, but it renders most web pages well, and has a number of features not in most web browsers... (Turning off Blink tags functionality, and ad and Javascript filtering are favorites, as is the built-in HTML error reporter...)
Of course, you realise that the kids would end up getting blamed for the porn in the history logs under this system, when the porn could easily have been called up by someone else in the family...
On the other hand, Gore's approach really is creepy -- compel ISP's to provide an ability to track users so that parents can snoop on their kid's activites? It ain't censorship, but it is draconian.
Also, wouldn't that be unfeasible at the ISP end, due to overload of information? Such an act might well put the majority of small ISP's out of business, because of inability to comply, due to lack of server space.
OTOH, it would be a lot easier to require some sort of command in the browser to display a web histor... wait a sec, the browsers already do that, don't they?
How about putting the unfiltered ones in the restroom stalls, solving both problems at once?
(Am I going to lose karma over this? ^_^)
I read the book, and later watched the movie. The movie was actually one of the worst butchering jobs I've seen on a book. Generally, in my experience, the movie is worse then the book, and it certainly was in this case.
New Kids on the Block
Yoko Ono
Linda McCartney (singing)
Billy Ray Cyrus
You lose.
I'vwe done computer comparision shopping before, and to get a Mac, you pretty much are stuck with mail order, online orders, used, a few small Mac-specific stores and CompUSA. Fry's used to carry them, but it's been a few years since I've had one near me, so I couldn't say, now...
Well, it is a yearly event, so get ready for next year. Check out the specialised languages, such as Inform and Tads, before trying anything in a more conventional programming language, because you get a parser, and, for those two, at least, portability, for free...
I probably listen to radically different music then you (celtic) , but Green Linnet is independant. They also prace cds recently, and have a few tracks available free as mp3's at their home page, http://www.greenlinnet.com/
I'm not sure on the others, but on Angband, the currect copyright is:
Copyright (c) 1997 Ben Harrison, James E. Wilson, Robert A. Koeneke
This software may be copied and distributed for educational, research,
and not for profit purposes provided that this copyright and statement
are included in all such copies. Other copyrights may also apply.
The license isn't open source, as open source's popularity wasn't widespread when it came out, but it is effectively so, since you can get the code for almost any version of it easily. The current maintainer is also in process of trying to get the licence switched to a dual license with GPL, and wants as many people who've contributed to Angband's code over the years as possible to e-mail him giving permission.
If you've contributed any code to Angband, you might check at
http://thangorodrim.angband.org/ope nsource.html
It's worth mentioning that it is pretty easy to change the buttons look, too. The download page for iCab features 26 or so alternate icon sets for icab, and several alternate animations for web page loading, as well as instructions on how to customize the buttons yourself.
Monkey *Island* 4. *Island*. I know how to spell. Really...
Well, the vocabulary can sometimes be a problem, but a lot of that is a matter of how well the games are programmed.
Personally, I'd consider the difference between text adventures and graphic adventures to be the difference between a novel and a movie. The movie is appealing to a wider audience, and can bring things to life, but you can still get more involved, and use your imagination more, and responses to actions are cheap, costing coding in a line of text, rather then requiring $$ for an animation for, say, what happens when you try to set a house on fire, which usually doesn't get spent, instead just not allowing you to try it, or, in some cases spewing forth "you can't do that" or some such...
Also, for a new "Monkey Island" type game, you might check out Monkey Islad 4, which is in the works.
Oh, and it's "Graham Nelson". If you like Lovecraftian fiction at all, check out Anchorhead, in the Infocom style games link. Probably the most aborbing text adventure I've played, and I had chills running down my back while playing...
Thus filtering out sites about Barney, but leaving in sites about "Hot asian women"?
They did. It was called CyberDog. It is *still* somewhat popular, though Apple discontinued any work on it a few years back.
Of course, nowdays, Mac users are moving to iCab. East to use, fast, small, functional, stable (in a preview release, yet!) and with a bunch of features neither IE nor Netscape can match...
He was also the kind of guy that tended to proletsyze at parties, while drinking wine and generally being the life of the party... :)
Don't forget Green Linnet records. They aren't on the RIAA list, as either Green Linnet, or their other title, Xenophile, they also have distributed some of McKennitts songs, as well as a number of other good artists (actually, whenever after celtic, I know the music is good if distributed by Green Linnet).
You may also note that they have 15 tracks from assorted cds downloadable as mp3s.
http://www.greenlinnet.com/audio/mp3.htm
They have series of themed cd's at $8, though you'll pay more for a cd of one specific artist...
Oh, BTW, I have some Loreena McKennitt cds here, and some of them mention Warner Brothers and BMG, as well as Quinlan Road, on the back. Wouldn't they be RIAA members?
Exactly. Think of "it" as being like $_ in Perl. Now think of what would happen if you tried to write a program in Perl with no other variables in Perl...
Oh, and I did write a calculator in HyperTalk. I also wrote a psuedo-Logo-ish stack, with a button for the turtle...
Just as a sidenote, all Barney songs I've encountered are actually public domain songs with new words anyways...
Are they any faster then Netscape 6 PR 1 was? I ran Netscape 6 PR 1 on my Mac, chose "Open URL", typed in "http://www.slashdot.org/", and it took around a minute *per letter* for it to appear. At 240 Mhz with a 604e, my Mac is no speed demon, but that is the only program I've ever typed ahead of the text on that machine...
I'll stick with iCab till Mozilla gets it's speed majorly improved, thanks...
Well, that info is in George Washingtons diary, too, IIRC, so they'd have to expunge that as well...
All three are required reading for DNA fans...
From page 5 of "Don't Panic":
Of Alice in Wonderland, often cited as an influence, he says, "I read - or rather, had read to me - Alice in Wonderland as a child and I hated it. It really frightened me. Some months ago, I tried to go back to it and read a few pages, and thought, 'This is jolly good stuff, but still...' If it wasn't for that slightly nightmarish quality that I remember as a kid I'd've enjoyed it, but I couldn't shake that feeling. So although people like to suggest that Carroll was a big influence - using the number 42 and all that - he really was not."