Wed 17 Apr 2002 12:52
learn to do syntax folding in VIM.
2002-04-17-1451
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/16/modding/index.html
found following slashdot
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/16/163212&mode=thread&tid=127
Many of the best game companies now count on modders to show them the
way creatively and to ensure their own survival in a savagely
competitive market. This stands in marked contrast to the music and
film industry, which vindictively discourages fans from tinkering with
their content and clings to an outdated interpretation of copyright. By
fostering the creativity of their fans, their more agile peers in the
game industry have not only survived but prospered.
In a sense, mods also represent the most visible success of the free
software movement on the larger culture. For the millions who play
computer games, the same ethos of volunteerism and shared ownership
that characterizes free software has helped utterly transform the
gaming experience and the $8 billion-plus gaming industry.
The opening levels of the game were made available on the Internet as
freeware. To get the rest of the game (and hundreds of thousands did),
you had to purchase the "registered" version.
And with its success, according to Miller, came the unambiguous signal
that mods could be an integral part of a game's staying power. At
Apogee (which published id's first games), Miller and his "Wolf3D"
developers watched astounded as mods "actually helped extend the life
of a game by providing free additional content for players to explore."
In return for allowing mods to be created and exchanged, id simply
requested that fans modify only the registered version of "Doom" - -
not the freeware version. Almost all modders abided by this request;
many even incorporated elements in their mods that prevented their use
in the freeware version of "Doom." Not only did this tradition of
communal self-policing create a bond between id and their best fans, it
benefited the company commercially -- to enjoy all the free fan-created
content now coming available, you first had to pay your toll to id and
Apogee.
In keeping with Carmack's commitment to the principle that the source
code for software programs should be made available to the general
public, the code for "Doom" was released in late 1997. (Unix guru Eric
S. Raymond even cites the game in his influential essay "The Magic
Cauldron" as a case study proving the power of open source.)
And by encouraging such innovation, id had also created a new way for
fans to infiltrate the game industry. Keranen, Carlson, and many more
would be hired by game companies largely on the strength of their mods.
And unlike, say, the film and music industries, which are powered by
personal acquaintance and face time, the discourse of games is defined
online. Which is perhaps why the division between amateur and pro has
remained so permeable. For modders wanting in, who you are doesn't
ultimately depend on your experience or your contacts but on the
quality of your mod file. The upload is all.
"I loved every part of that group, which was pretty small those days,"
says Morris. "I even enjoyed the dumb jokes and infighting, which there
was a lot of, but the feedback from my users was the defining aspect of
that experience. Software is an art, and receiving criticisms and
salutations for my work was both gratifying and inspirational."
Last November, Valve invited the "Day of Defeat" team to San Francisco
to attend its 2001 Expo. It was actually the first time the team
members had ever met each other in person; scattered throughout the
States and Canada, they'd mainly collaborated via e-mail and instant
messaging. "Most of us had worked with each other over the Net for
about two years," Jungles says, "so it was strange to have 'just met'
someone you already knew very well."
"In the mod community," notes Epic's Cliff Bleszinski, "the users are
sometimes able to take design risks that the designers may deem too
radical or scary."
And with Steam, modders will have a powerful tool to put themselves out
to a larger market -- at a profit, if they choose. "We are going to be
offering mod teams a $995 engine license plus royalty to allow them to
distribute their mods over Steam," says Newell. "Once a mod team has
developed an audience they could think about either being aggregated
into some other offering or going all the way to publishing their game
over Steam."
For veteran designer Rich Carlson, this shift may be a cause for worry.
What happens when modders begin paying to download and make what they
once built and traded with each other just for the community spirit and
the pure love of creating? "It's kind of frightening," he says, "but
the popularity of mods could spell the eventual doom of freeware levels
and modifications."
What follows next depends on the ambitions of the modders and the
wisdom of the game publishers. Cannibalism -- modder energy consumed by
the gaming industry -- is one possibility. Then again, so is a
partnership of inspiration and investment, where the only barriers to
entry are imagination and a willingness to remake each other's dreams.
http://www.extremeprogramming.org/
awesome site design:
What has changed here? | XP Practices and Rules | This site zipped | Email the webmaster
Last modified March 29, 2002. See recent changes.
Copyright (c) 1999, 2000, 2001 Don Wells. All Rights reserved.
2002-04-17-1534
interaction design
roger schank engines for education - a hyper-book--
institute for learning sciences.
the death of academia? do I want to stay outside-m celebrate the outside?
2002-04-17-1803
wonderful
transformed
wonderful
to not profane the
by
--
getting absorbed in a video game!! solarwolf.py
from a peruvian woman in fairway: how to make soymilk. soak, blend, boil.
that woman/girl in blue with bright blue tennies. So naif 80s. but mysterious - 'she must know what she's-
brown hair perfectly straight and prim
petit
but a belt that
only-
I'm not naieve 80s
-----
If I were using a pen, how would things be different.
I could draw on the touch pad..
this font is so much more legible.
draw more?
_I_ know what she looked like[?]..
the zoller picture though.
the wanting to focus in that way.
info -->eyes
processing
communication protocol.
p220 wrm schwartz connecting mind and body
Achterberg soon became interested in the special state of consciousness in which patients become able to produce vivid imagery.
p221 the immune system was synonymous with the patients' own
self-concept. When it was imaged as strong and pure, it overcame
disease.
p222
He started by using temperature biofeeback to teach his patients to
warm their hands, thus assuring that they had the capacity to become
deeply physically relaxed--a prerequisite to entering theta.
carmen the little shark!
A pageant with all the characters in the pool- frank, sameen, etc, etc,
asking rick his name.
then he introducing self to carmen.
the houdini of noseclips
like when you think you can catch up to a person, but then, you don't know which way they went.
I'm a poet.
p222
Next, Peniston instructed his patients to rehearse specific
visualizations, on the premise that the body is capable of responding
directly to the mind's images. For the first visualization, he told
patients to imagine increasing the amplitude of their alpha brain
waves. Next, he asked them to envision a scene in which they explicitly
rejected alcohol. Finally he encouraged them to visualize
"normalization" of their personalities.
Once they'd practiced creating these images, Peniston hooked his patients up to biofeedback machines.
As they entered this nonverbal theta state, armed with the
visualizations they'd practiced, Peniston instructed his patients to
initiate the reprogramming with the simple command "Do it." The notion
was to have the images literally tell the body what to do.
Using the protocol that came out of his own theta experience, Peniston
provided his experimental group with temperature training, then helped
them construct specific imagery, and finally gave them thirty daily
sessions of brainwave training, each one lasting 30 minutes.
the experimental group showed statistically significant personality
changes. These included substantial decreases in aggression, anxiety,
and depressionand increases in warmth, stability, imagination, and
self-control.
All 20 alcoholic patients
twenty were chronic alcoholics, defined as those who'd been drinking
for 20 years or more and had at least four previous hospitalizations.
p224 All 20 alcoholic patients were followed up thirteen months after
the training and ultimately four years later, with similar results.
2002-04-17-2017
like warm summer from past in VA
.