Roy Ward - Slashdot User

Simpler "Hello World" Demonstrated In C 582

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:03PM from the non-obfuscated dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Wondering where all that bloat comes from, causing even the classic 'Hello world' to weigh in at 11 KB? An MIT programmer decided to make a Linux C program so simple, she could explain every byte of the assembly. She found that gcc was including libc even when you don't ask for it. The blog shows how to compile a much simpler 'Hello world,' using no libraries at all. This takes me back to the days of programming bare-metal on DOS!"

Game Difficulty As a Virtue 204

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday February 04, 2010 @03:16AM from the all-hail-battletoads dept.

The Wii and various mobile gaming platforms have done wonders for the trend toward casual or "easy" games. But the success of a few recent titles, despite their difficulty, has caused some to wonder whether the pendulum has swung too far; whether a little frustration can be seen as a good thing. Quoting: "The evidence is subtle but compelling. For one example, look to major consumer website GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2009: Atlus' PS3 RPG Demon's Souls, which received widespread critical acclaim – none of which failed to include a mention of the game's steep challenge. GameSpot called it 'ruthlessly, unforgivingly difficult.' Demon's Souls was a sleeper hit, an anomaly in the era of accessibility. One would think the deck was stacked against a game that demanded such vicious persistence, such precise attention – and yet a surge of praise from critics and developers alike praised the game for reintroducing the experience of meaningful challenge, of a game that demanded something from its players rather than looked for ways to hand them things. It wasn't just Demon's Souls that recently flipped the proverbial bird to the 'gaming for everyone' trend. In many ways, the independent development scene can be viewed on the macro level as a harbinger of trends to come, and over the past year and into 2010, many indies have decided to be brutal to their players."

Comment Cursive is not good handwriting anyway (Score 1) 921

by Roy Ward on Sunday July 26, 2009 @08:17PM (#28831569) Attached to: 26 Years Old and Can't Write In Cursive

I've heard it described as a form of 'bastard copperplate'.

Learning cursive messed up my handwriting quite a bit, so I ditched it completely in my third last year of school in favor of legible printing (so that markers would be able to read my exams).

Steorn's "Free Energy" Jury Comes Back To Bite Them 213

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday June 24, 2009 @10:42AM from the time-to-backpedal dept.

chiark writes "Remember Steorn? Free energy for all, coming soon, and a gauntleted slap in the face to the physics establishment: 'come be our jury, and prove us right or wrong.' Well, 2 years later, the jury's verdict is in, and it's not the validation Steorn was hoping for: 'Twenty-two independent scientists and engineers were selected by Steorn to form this jury. It has for the past two years examined evidence presented by the company. The unanimous verdict of the Jury is that Steorn's attempts to demonstrate the claim have not shown the production of energy. The jury is therefore ceasing work.' Steorn had the choice to either accept this and move on, or attempt to rebut. Guess which approach they took?"

Comment They arlready do this to non US residents (Score 5, Informative) 676

by Roy Ward on Thursday May 28, 2009 @07:44PM (#28132193) Attached to: Homeland Security To Scan Citizens Exiting US

As someone who occasionally visits your country (with a New Zealand passport and valid work visa), I can tell you that all non-US citizens are already subject to this indignity, for no better reasons than you will be. It's unfortunately just the next step (I've never been fingerprinted going into any other country, or any other time at all for that matter).

Comment Re:But we aren't all good drivers (Score 1) 859

by Roy Ward on Wednesday May 20, 2009 @12:18PM (#28026895) Attached to: Australia, UK To Test Vehicle Speed-Limiting Devices

I'm not a good driver, and I don't drive (probably not good because I never practiced enough though).

I mostly agree with your argument though - _nearly_ everyone thinks they are a good driver.

The problem isn't necessarily that speed causes accidents - it's also that hight speed greatly increases the level of damage.

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