Comment Re:Deadlines (Score 1) 58
Wish I had Mod points. Love that post. Hard to pick between Funny and Insightful. Made me laugh first, but after that it's the latter.
3rd Grader Accused of Hacking Schools' Computer System 344
Gud writes "According to The Washington Post a 9-year-old was able to hack into his county's school computer network and change such things as passwords, course work, and enrollment info. From the article: 'Police say a 9-year-old McLean boy hacked into the Blackboard Learning System used by the county school system to change teachers' and staff members' passwords, change or delete course content, and change course enrollment. One of the victims was Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale, according to an affidavit filed by a Fairfax detective in Fairfax Circuit Court this week. But police and school officials decided no harm, no foul. The boy did not intend to do any serious damage, and didn't, so the police withdrew and are allowing the school district to handle the half-grown hacker.'"
Comment Re:WPS (Score 1) 432
During, yes. But not at OS/2's release in 1987, which is what I was replying to. The few in your list that did exist I would question being "viable" as a desktop OS. At the time, anyway. And I say that w/o having used them back then, and all are UNIX or a clone, essentially. Since I run a Linux-based OS 90% of the time as my Desktop OS, I'm probably wrong about "2", not about there being more now though.
Comment Re:WPS (Score 1) 432
There were very few viable desktop operating systems back then to choose from.
You think there are more "viable" desktop operating systems available today than back when OS/2 was released?
Are you sure?
Per platform, I would say yes. Especially on the "PC". There was DOS and OS/2. There are way more than 2 "viable" desktop operating systems now. Necessarily popular, maybe not, but they are all there.
How To Find Bad Programmers 359
AmberShah writes "The job post is your potential programmer's first impression of your company, so make it count with these offputting features. There are plenty of articles about recruiting great developers, but what if you are only interested in the crappy ones?" I think much of the industry is already following these guidelines.
Recommendations For C++/OpenGL Linux Tutorials? 117
QuaveringGrape writes "After a few years of Python I've recently been trying to expand my programming knowledge into the realm of compiled languages. I started with C, then switched over to C++. A friend and longtime OpenGL programmer told me about NeHe's tutorials as a good step after the command-line programs started to get old, but there's a problem: all the tutorials are very Windows-based, and I've been using Linux as my single platform for a while now. I'm looking for suggestions for tutorials that are easy to learn, without being dumbed down or geared towards non-programmers."
Why Are There No Popular Ultima Online-Like MMOs? 480
eldavojohn writes "I have a slightly older friend who played through the glory days of Ultima Online. Yes, their servers are still up and running, but he often waxes nostalgic about certain gameplay functions of UO that he misses. I must say that these aspects make me smile and wonder what it would be like to play in such a world — things like housing, thieving and looting that you don't see in the most popular massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft. So, I've followed him through a few games, including Darkfall and now Mortal Online. And these (seemingly European developed) games are constantly fading into obscurity and never catching hold. We constantly move from one to the next. Does anyone know of a popular three-dimensional game that has UO-like rules and gameplay? Perhaps one that UO players gravitated to after leaving UO? If you think that the very things that have been removed (housing and thieving would be two good topics) caused WoW to become the most popular MMO, why is that? Do UO rules not translate well to a true 3D environment? Are people incapable of planning for corpse looting? Are players really that inept that developers don't want to leave us in control of risk analysis? I'm familiar with the Bartle Test but if anyone could point me to more resources as to why Killer-oriented games have faded out of popularity, I'd be interested."
Best Man Rigs Newlyweds' Bed To Tweet During Sex 272
When an UK man was asked to be the best man at a friend's wedding he agreed that he would not pull any pranks before or during the ceremony. Now the groom wishes he had extended the agreement to after the blessed occasion as well. The best man snuck into the newlyweds' house while they were away on their honeymoon and placed a pressure-sensitive device under their mattress. The device now automatically tweets when the couple have sex. The updates include the length of activity and how vigorous the act was on a scale of 1-10.
Comment Re:anoNet (Score 1) 560
Did you read what you quoted?
I know nothing at all about Anonet at this point, but what they are saying is valid. It's not up to any ONE person, or a specific group to decide what people allow to be hosted using their machines. This is good, I think. Speaking for myself, I'm extremely open minded, and would not censor just about anything. Kiddie Porn would be a huge exception. Images of rape in general as well. But, ideas and opinions, no.
That's just me.
Comment Re:If it worked for Jordan's family (Score 1) 426
The only difference is the books being released under Jordan's names were done using his notes, and by his wishes. These were books he would have wrote himself.
Which is why this is so wrong. Finishing the WoT posthumously was completely Jordon's wish. He planned for it. And, this is completely different. It's like Jordon had finished, then 40 years after he did, 17 years after his death, the estate decided to let someone add on to it.
I would love to have seen more stories in the WoT universe. Jordon hinted a while back he may have written some in the future. However, beyond finishing the "last" book, which so far is being done very well, I really don't want to see other author's touching it.
Submission + - Storytelling in Games: Wizardry I
MrNash writes: "The Armchair Empire has posted the first in a series of features discussing storytelling in games. In this installment, the article talks about Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, and how the lack of a story was actually a good thing.
"In modern narrative games it can feel as though there is an invisible barrier between the player and the game. At the back of one's head there's the thought that we're being guided on an adventure that is being controlled by a game designer. He wants us to do things at certain points, and will tell a story as we go. With Wizardry I, this isn't the case. It's like Woodhead and Greenburg said to the players, "There's an evil wizard at the bottom of that maze over there. If he isn't stopped, he'll cause all sorts of trouble in town. Why don't you rustle up a posse, and go kick his ass," after which point they patted players on their collective bottom and sent them on their way. From here on in, we were on our own, and would have to figure out just about everything for ourselves. Our imaginations helped to temper the experience while playing. We didn't worry about narrative cues to tell us what to do, or add context to the game. We created our own context as we went.
TV Delays Driving AU Viewers To Piracy 394
Astat1ne writes in with a story in The Register about the delays Australian TV viewers are experiencing getting overseas-produced series and how this is driving many of them to download the shows via BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks. The problem is compounded by the fact that Australian viewers are unable to download legal copies of the episodes from the US iTunes website. Quoting: "According to a survey based on a sample of 119 current or recent free-to-air TV series, Australian viewers are waiting an average of almost 17 months for the first-run series first seen overseas. Over the past two years, average Australian broadcast delays for free-to-air television viewers have more than doubled from 7.9 to 16.7 months."
