Comment Re:Programming? (Score 1) 132
My understanding, though I haven't looked into it myself, is that CSS is Turing-complete.
Comment Re:Cold War Doctrine (Score 1) 732
As I recall, for most of the Cold War, NATO's strategic plan for an all-out assault from the Warsaw Pact was two-fold.
Step 1: Kiss your ass goodbye, because there's no way NATO had the forces in-theatre to stop the Red Army before it hits the Channel.
Step 2: Use tactical nuclear weapons to vaporize enemy tank concentrations in an attempt to not be pwned.
Step 3: Watch the Red Army use nukes back at them.
Step 4: Watch the nuclear exchanges accelerate and escalate until Paris is a rising fireball.
Step 5: Strategic launch.
Step 6: Threads
Comment Re:Can the enemy actually shoot down the F35? (Score 1) 732
Let me get this straight...
We had the F-4 in Vietnam, which was supposed to never need to dogfight because it would just kill everything at long range with missiles. That turned out to be not so much, and the F-4 turned like a sled and was getting chewed up by MIGs. So we designed and built the F-16, which had very strong dogfighting characteristics while also having reasonable air-to-ground potential.
But we wanted something more robust, with more range and payload, so we built the F/A-18, which has stronger strike capabilities (and twin engines, which gets the Navy stiff), but it's not as good at dogfighting as the F-16.
But we wanted something even more awesome, with stealth and STOVL, so we built the F-35, which is more like a dog than a dogfighter, but it won't matter because with shiny new technology, it'll kill everything at range with missiles. And now it's being shown that the F-35 will be... chewed up by MIGs.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Comment Technical skills or development skills? (Score 3) 293
It's interesting to me to compare Cogswell's post to Matt Briggs' one on the role of senior developers here. http://mattbriggs.net/blog/201...
It seems to me that Briggs has the right of things; the skills that bring real value to development efforts are less connected with specific language functions or quirks and more associated with understanding how to develop software projects.
How Sperm Whales Offset Their Carbon Footprint 150
Boy Wunda writes "Scientists at Flinders University in South Australia found that in an awesome example of design by Mother Nature, Southern Ocean sperm whales offset their carbon footprint by simply defecating – an action that releases tons of iron a year and stimulates the growth of phytoplankton which absorb and trap carbon dioxide. If only we humans could say the same for our poop, which really doesn't do much more than just sit there." I'm going to do my part by buying some iron supplements and a can of chili, and heading off toward the ocean.
First Self-Replicating Creature Spawned In Conway's Game of Life 241
Calopteryx writes "New Scientist has a story on a self-replicating entity which inhabits the mathematical universe known as the Game of Life. 'Dubbed Gemini, [Andrew Wade's] creature is made of two sets of identical structures, which sit at either end of the instruction tape. Each is a fraction of the size of the tape's length but, made up of two constructor arms and one "destructor," play a key role. Gemini's initial state contains three of these structures, plus a fourth that is incomplete. As the simulation progresses the incomplete structure begins to grow, while the structure at the start of the tape is demolished. The original Gemini continues to disassemble as the new one emerges, until after nearly 34 million generations, new life is born.'"
Dedicated Halo 2 Fans Keep Multiplayer Alive 239
On April 15th, Microsoft terminated Xbox Live support for the original Xbox console, marking the end of online multiplayer for many older games. However, a group of Halo 2 players have refused to give up online play by leaving their consoles on and connected since then. Overheating consoles and dropped connections have taken their toll, but at present, 13 players are still going strong.
Comment Re:Is StarCraft the right game to use for this? (Score 1) 200
A proper rush in Starcraft doesn't need to touch the town hall, though that's always nice. Military dominance begets economic dominance via control of map resources. Thus has it always been.
Comment Re:Newer Games Should Take Lessons (Score 1) 65
I did, and L4D gets two big thumbs up from this gamer. Modern firearms, ragdolling, and huge swarms of zombies? Made. Of. Win.
Comment Newer Games Should Take Lessons (Score 3, Interesting) 65
I wish more games would take the 'more is more' approach to enemies that Serious Sam did. I loved the HUGE SCREAMING HORDES of bad guys that would try to zerg you down. It was a nice change of pace from, say, Unreal's 'kill a bad guy, which triggers another bad guy, because the engine chokes and dies if two mobs are on the screen at the same time'. And I liked Unreal. More games should have more swarms.
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