Riker: ::eye roll:: ::sigh::

2K Studios Battleship Commander: "Picard, we will not stand for this outrage! We acted according to our laws and traditions; the developers that have defected *must* be returned to us so they may be given their exit interviews. Release them to us at once!"

Worf: "Captain, the battleship has powered up their phasers."

We need more requirements. I'd like to submit the following as a starting point:

* Must be usable with respect to the correct chronological context. Consider how the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution have been hashed over, in the last 200+ years. We need to be able to reference the exact version of the language, as used, in any legal script. This will keep lawyers from interpreting version 1.0 laws using version 2.0 rules and definitions. Alternatively, the task is monumental: create a language that will stand as valid speech, *forever.*

* Must be amendable. Amendments to the language must not be permitted to collide with existing definitions. I would go as far as to say that synonyms and homonyms must be strictly prohibited; a side effect here is a relatively pun-free language.

* The definition of anything must be readily quantifiable, without ambiguity, right down to the planck constant if need be. Recommending the strict use of SI measurements for both space and time.

* An improved version of these requirements must be penned in version 1.0 of the language, to be followed immediately by version 2.0

Then that's technically the existing corpus of law in any English speaking country, today.

Over time, the legal system has accrued terminology, jargon, and definition as each case has helped clarify or reinforce the written law. So we have things like "malice aforethought" or "work for hire" that have relatively exact meanings when compared with the use of those phrases in passing.

Yet we know that it's not exact *enough*. It fails as a specification over, and over again.

Another critical difference is a tradeoff between cost of learning and the flexibility of the interface. A CLI is hard/expensive to master, but once you do, you can do a great deal of work as the tools are able to interoperate in unforeseen ways. A GUI is the opposite situation: easier to learn, but overall, a shallower toolset that can only be used in ways that are deliberately designed into the interface.

The only way a GUI can even come close to the flexibility of a CLI, would be to require a radical re-think of the whole thing. For instance: allowing the user to attach objects from any piece of software in the system, to any control, in any interface, at any time. That would be a start, as it still doesn't address things like arbitrary logic, data flow, or automation between tools. From there it becomes obvious why Microsoft is toying with the idea of pushing software vendors to invest in CLI tools: as you say, it's easier to engineer.

That's probably the next step. Powering it would be a bitch, but I'm sure some kind of inductive power via a headband would do the job.

I think an 8x8 sensor is just enough to make this work for an optical prosthetic. The saccading motion of the eye would build up a higher resolution image inside the patient's mind. It would still be low resolution overall, but it would be a huge step over the current prototype.

READY.
SYS 64738

Fatal Frame followed that advice exceptionally well. Your "weapon" in that game is a camera that eats souls. So not only are you continually faced with the doubt that the silly thing will actually do the job, but you have to get really close and take photographs of malign spirits over and over again. It's very effective at creating fear in the player, beyond what the environment can do.

"Y'all should get down on your knees "

Yup.

The internet is the hand of change, with consoles that run GuitarHero/RockBand, like XBox and the PS3, are the ring of power that adorns it.

Time to kiss that ring, big five.

"they're pissed they're not producing and making the games themselves."

This is too true. And they should be pissed because they failed to see this coming and capitalize on it. But it's not too late.

XBOL completely nailed the distribution details down for content updates, and RockBand and GuitarHero can now use the same controllers. The standards have been set, and the kinks worked out. If there was ever a time for any one of the big five to roll out their own game with regular updates, this would be it.

But no, instead they stammer and stomp their feet. Dumb, dumb, dumb.