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Emulation (Games)

Submission + - Non-Physical Electrical Experimentation?

SmarkWoW writes: I've had an ongoing inkling to begin learning and experimenting with Electrical Engineering concepts. Being a college student, I don't have the abundance of funds that most people have. As with any learning process there are a multitude of mistakes to be made and fixed. Physical experimentation and mistakes generally come at price, whereas software-based experimentation does not. I would rather not have to keep running to the store to buy new components (IE, reversing the connections of a capacitor and ruining it). I'm looking at "emulation" alternatives that can provide the same general learning experience, and can perhaps provide feedback I wouldn't otherwise have with a just multimeter. The closest thing I have been able to find is a script/plugin for Garry's Mod entitled Wire Mod. Do any of the Slashdotters out there have any recommendations or related input?

Comment Talking From Experience (Score 1) 160

Speaking from experience in playing educational games. I'm currently a 19 year old male. My Father, being very tech oriented, bought me MANY educational PC games, I'll just list a few:

JumpStart $X Grade by Knowledge Adventure (where $X is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, though I lost interest after 4th)
Super Solvers: Gizmos & Gadgets by The Learning Company

JumpStart 3rd Grade and Gizmos & Gadgets were by far my favorite at the time. As a previous reply brought up, I also played Age of Empires 2: Gold Edition as a kid... I remember a specific campaign entitled "El Sid" where you go kill the Spanish King (if I recall). It was later brought up in an 11th grade history class.

JumpStart was by far the best game, the general plot: A scientist owns this huge mansion built into a mountain. He has a bratty little girl. The scientist goes off to some convention, while hes away his daughter fails a history test so she decides to use her fathers time machine to alter history to match her test answers. She sends back various robotic inhabitants of the mansion back in time to alter various parts of history (IE instead an astronomer discovering that the Sun is the center of the Solar System, he discovers that Polly (the daughter) is the center of the solar system). You help the "head robot" to prevent Polly from altering time. You perform various puzzles around the mountain to get clues and charg up the time machine. Some include learning about art, cooking, doing multiplication, patterns (simon says), Hand-eye coordination (a moonlander type game), among MANY others.

Gizmo's & Gadgets was also one of my favorite games. The Learning Company makes a huge amount of education games, Super Solvers, Midnight Madness, Reader Rabbit, etc. Basically in G&G a mad scientist owns a car construction shop right next to your car construction shop, and hes threatening to take you over. He decides to race you 20 times with 20 different vehicles (cars/planes/helicopters). You agree and he cheats by sending over a bunch of chimps (actual monkeys) to your shop to steal all your parts. Basically you have to go out to the warehouse, and get your parts back. Because of how its layed out you have to do various puzzles. For instance, weight balancing, electrical wiring (basic light bulb, switch, batteries, but does teach series/parallel), Energy, Force, Magnetics, Simple Machines, and Gears. Anyway, you get various parts back and build your car and race. If you lose you go back and make it better (different propellor, wheels, etc) until you win.

Educational games can be fun. I'm speaking from experience. I liked G&G so much that I still have an ISO of it 10 years later. Sadly it wont run on any current operating sytems, someday I'll start up a W98se Virtual machine and play around with it. If you're looking for more research take a look at Borderbund, Knowledge Adventure, and The Learning Company.

Thanks,
Smark
http://www.spectralcoding.com/

Comment Re:Net Neutrality (Score 5, Insightful) 342

I'd just like to point you to a few links explicitly discouraging users from taking illegal actions against this:

ED Article Excerpts:
"1. DON'T FUCK WITH THE LAW- We want to first make use of the rights we have, censorship is violating our rights."
"Acting like an idiot and trying to DDoS them will only end with you being persecuted (and/or prosecuted), and your actions being used as a justification."
"This battle is one we have to fight legally..."
"DO NOT RAGE ON THESE PHONE NUMBERS, SIMPLY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE ISSUE!"

Insurgen Article
Excepts:
"Acting like a retard and trying to DDoS them will only end in them going [A QUOTE]"
"Don't try to DDoS or do ANYTHING illegal or legally ambiguous to AT&T. This is a corporation with more resources, manpower, and preparation than anything you script kiddies have ever dealt with. You will be caught and prosecuted. Go through legal channels and reverse this using legitimate means."

Those are just the ones in the windows I have open.

Obviously there is no way to force someone not to do something, but the intentions are to solve this without any "damages".

Thanks,
Smark
SpectralCoding

Comment Net Neutrality (Score 2, Insightful) 342

This is about Net Neutrality.

Sure Anonymous is angry about being blocked by 15.5% of internet users, but this is only the first step. Most responses to this blockage are directed toward fighting net neutrality, NOT Anon attacking AT&T because their site was blocked.

Anonymous is trying to fight this peacefully, they're not going to be DDoSing any DNS servers, backbone routers, or the like. They're going to be calling Customer Reps and complaining.

This is a Net Neutrality issue, not a Internet Hate Machine issue.

Thanks,
Smark
http://www.spectralcoding.com/
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Blocks Select 4chan Boards (spectralcoding.com) 3

SmarkWoW writes: "In what appears to be the first major steps toward stifling Net Neutrality, AT&T blocks a select few boards from the major imageboard 4chan. First reported by the official 4chan Status Blog, it appears that those who have residential AT&T DSL connections are unable to view certain boards on 4chan. The boards in question are /rk9/ and the infamous /b/. As most readers know, /b/ is the home of Anonymous, a large group of computer users responsible for spawning many memes such as RickRolling and LOLcats. Sources estimate that 15.5% of all internet users user AT&T DSL. A few short hours after reports of the blockage surfaced, members of /b/ have already begun to retaliate. The first strike appears to be toward the AT&T CEO, Randall Stephenson. Needless to say, this is going to get ugly."

Comment Re:Katz vs Munroe? (Score 1) 231

I agree. I've been reading xkcd for quite some time (since its comics were in the low 200s). About two weeks ago I went back and decided to read all 460+. This semester at my university I'm taking an astronomy class. The morning we went over Kepler's laws, I read all xkcd again. I found THIS comic and busted out laughing. I'd prolly read the comic a few times before, but never understood it.
Communications

Choosing a Replacement Email System For a University? 485

SmarkWoW writes "The university I attend is currently looking to change the way in which is provides its students with an email service. In the past they used a legacy mail system which can no longer fit their needs. A committee has narrowed the possibilities down to three vendors: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Representatives from these three vendors will be coming to our college and giving a presentation on the advantages of their systems. We're looking at other services these companies provide such as calendaring and integration with existing software that our university runs. What questions would Slashdot readers ask during these Q&A sessions? Which of these three companies would you recommend? Why? What advantages would each have that college-level students would take advantage of? What other aspects should we consider when making our decision?"

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