dimumurray

While the books were OK reads I can't say I found them impressive. The books felt too much like an amalgam of other works I've read before plus they don't really seem to have a voice of their own. Yes other authors have done this before and quite successfully, but the books just lack that feeling of authenticity. While it is remarkable that the books originally sprung from the mind of a sixteen year old (in the beginning, the author is in his twenties now) the influence of other works are far too pronounced. I can see how it came to be so popular though. A young fantasy writer comes on the scene when pop culture started to rediscover the allure of the Medieval fantasy epic. The Lord of the Rings movies of course being no small part of it. Still I hope when Pellini is done with this series of books he tries to craft something different and unique unto itself, emulating his predecessors methods and not so much their content next time around. I think for the most part this series of books is his ode to the authors that came before him. Now that he's got his feet wet I'd like to see Pellini create a work truly his own.

If an interface is used purely as a holder for constants then there won't be much of an issue. I think problems crop up when faced with the option of being able to implement the interface as well. You can treat the 'Constant Interface' as you would any Class with static members defined on them by just using the interface name and referencing the desired constant using 'dot' form like so: [interface_name].[constant_name] You just have to resist the temptation to implement the interface. Static imports should also apply to interfaces with constants so you're pretty much good to go either way. I can see your point though. 'Constant Interfaces' don't adhere to the ways in which you would traditionally use interfaces, but that is sometimes the nature of a design pattern. They sometimes eschew conventional practice in favor of achieving desired functionality. There are always trade offs. Have you considered using enums? They are more bloated than say a class with constant static members but they provide a less dubious format for your constants.

The real beef between Google and Microsoft is probably fallout from Google's purported tentative partnership with Yahoo!. Microsoft has been trying to buy out Yahoo! for some time now, but the Yahoo! board members have managed to avert all of Microsoft's advances, turning down multi-billion dollar take over bids like they were cheap candy. Currently Microsoft is backing some billionaire stakeholder (can't remember the guy's name at the moment) in the hopes the he'll stage a coup' de' tat, with the goal of replacing the current Yahoo! board members, opening the door for a quick take over.Yahoo! stockholders have voiced concerns as to whether the current board heads are up to the task of running the company, so the board was somewhat vulnerable to 'external' influences like the Microsoft backed billionaire guy. In an effort to smooth over the dangerously volatile situation with their stockholders the Board heads started pushing a partnership proposal with Google. The jist of the deal is that they would be swapping technology and services with Google thereby opening up markets hitherto untapped by Yahoo! and its affiliates. The board heads are hoping the stockholders will favor this deal rather than a buy out from Microsoft. Hence the reason why Microsoft is currently at odds with Google. In typical Microsoft fashion they try to undercut the competition by producing cheaper variants of a given technology. Microsoft has a great support network to foster quick distribution and adaptation of their technologies (usually to the exclusion of everything else). They have been able to leverage this advantage to great effect in the past. When IBM was king of the PC platform in the '80s there was a copy of MS-DOS on every one of their machines. It didn't matter if it was the best operating system or not, all that mattered was market share. They had the power of ubiquity, their software products were synonymous with the IBM platform. Today though the field of play is vastly different. The battle ground is the internet and Google can pretty much call it their home turf as far as search engines go, so no matter what Microsoft produces to compete with Google and its supporting technologies they'll be way behind the curve. Couple that with the current industry wide push behind open-source development and methodologies --with Google being one its forerunners-- Microsoft looks to be the weaker contender in this fight. Still, Microsoft is as tenacious and aggressive in its tactics as they come so whose to say who will be standing when the dust settles..

That looks like a pretty tight schedule. I can't pretend to be a very fast programmer myself, so only having 2 months to get every thing up and running seems a bit close to me. It seems that you have a project plan mapped out though. Just make sure that you have that plan well defined before you start coding anything. It's good practice to work out as many kinks as you can during the planning stages of an app. You can't foresee every possible stumbling block but if you devote enough time to planning the development phase should be much smoother. Are you building your GUI from scratch, building your GUI using an API like SWING or a combination of both?

Ladies and gentlemen I have found the mother of all mathematical resource sites. Wolfram MathWorld This site is the be all and end all of math sites. You'll be geeking out for hours on this site if you have a love of math. It is choc full of formulas and diagrams, some of which are interactive. It is mind-boggling when one considers the range of topics this site covers, no matter how simple or complex. And they don't skimp on the details either, with each concept (at least those I've read) thoroughly and clearly explained while keeping technical verbosity to a minimum. That being said, one still has to be familiar with mathematical terminology, thankfully each and every one is described (via links) and examples provided. I also found a cool open source math tool that is great for building visual aids for math concepts: GeoGebra Once you download and install the tool, you can use it to create you own interactive applications to illustrate mathematical concepts and problems. There is this one site owned by Micheal Horvath with a number of .ggb files available for download. Check them out at: https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ I have used his .ggb files on Bezier curves to clarify the concepts. I have a far better grasp of Bezier curves now than I ever did before. I encourage anyone even remotely interested in math to check these sites out. You won't be disappointed. Edit: This just in . There is also a GeoGebra wiki with tons of resources. Enjoy.

Well, I'm always up for a challenge. I'll take a look and see what I can come up with. Edit: Just skimmed through a synopsis of the game (via Rummikub - Wikipedia) . From what I can tell its scrabble (more or less) but without the letters and loads of twists thrown in for good measure. Looks pretty interesting. Edit: This is what I got thus far: You cannot play a card at the extremities of a 'run' (that is before an Ace or after a King), Jokers are not exempt for this rule Once a Joker is in play it maintains its assumed value and color/suite unless substituted for a card with that same value and color/suite. Players amending to a Joker in play cannot alter the Joker's assumed value without substitution. If substituted, the Joker must be played during that same turn with a minimum of two other cards. In a 'group' of three the Joker has one value but two possible colors/suites. Color is 'locked' when amended with a card suitable to the 'group' It would also be cool to indicate a Joker's assumed value and color by having the card animate in some way to reflect its chameleon like nature. Say that Jokers start out with a standard look, but when placed on the game grid they partially morph to mimic their assumed value. In the case of the last bullet point where it is one of three cards in a 'group' it might constantly shift between the two colors.

Thanks for a great and very extensive list of resources.

Everything seems to be back on track, thanks in no small part to BuffaloHelp. Thanks to all who posted with advice on how to solve the problem.I think the matter is pretty much closed at this point. Admins, feel free to close this topic at any time.

For you trivia buffs that would be (in Jeopardy format) : Who is Todd McFarlene? Silliness aside, that's not half bad Sone. If you stick with it you are bound to get better. When I started learning how to draw I read How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way. It is a bit outdated now in terms of style but you can still learn a lot from it should you choose to pick it up. As for myself I don't draw half as much as I used to but I still do a bit of pixel art on occasion (check out my album here on the boards). I even have an old (since around 1998) gallery over at Elfwood. It would be a great community for a growing artist like yourself to join. And yes you are an artist, just in the rough.

That sounded far too much like a lecture...Believe it or not I did google the problem but as I am new to the whole web hosting thing I think I framed many of inquiries in the wrong way and didn't get the answers I needed. Cheap or no, I learned somewhat. And that's the kind of guy I am, I learn by doing. I did do some reading and I tried to amass as much information as I thought neccessary before trying out new things. But at some point you have to get your feet wet, but every so often you hit a snag in the middle of that process. But that's life. You live, you learn. Now let's see. If I'm not mistaken this post should just about put me over the 30 credit mark. Time to re-apply .

Sage advice DemonFire. In addition you (OP) might want to spend some time pre-planning. A good way to approach any project is to create a set of requirements and specifications. Then you break those down into manageable chunks and milestones. MMOs are huge endeavors practically by default so you'll also want to spend some time researching the different approaches used to develop that kind of game. There are a lot of books out there on game design. One good one I've read is Swords & Circuitry: A Designer's Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games, by Neal and Jana Hartford. It is not a technical book, so it won't show you how to exploit your graphics card's pixel shader routines. What it does do, and does very well I might add, is show you how to build a game-world for an RPG. It takes you through all the components that make up a RPG and breaks them down for you to better understand them. The book also contains several interviews with game designers, case studies and even sample game scripts and design documents so you can get a solid understanding of how Role Playing Games are structured at the design level. If you take one thing away from this, remember to spend enough time on pre-planning. Once you have a clear map of where you want to go, you and more importantly your team will have a tangible goal in mind. A lot of projects end up still-born because they lacked proper planning. And don't be afraid to fail in your first couple of iterations. Failure can give you better insight into the development process so that next time around you will be better armed. Good luck with your efforts.

There are a number of free open-source graphic tools you could try. Here's a list I found on wiki-pedia: Free graphics software - Wikipedia That list covers quite a few applications and then some, but there was one i didn't see listed there called Inkscape. Its a vector application and may not be to your liking but I think you should try it anyway, if only just for kicks. And if you are planning on doing any 3D work do not forget to check out Blender. Its one of the coolest free 3D apps out there.

Hmm...tough question. I think the differences between the two are pretty broad. Most programmers actually start out as coders. I remember myself as a preteen looking at source code, unable to tell what it was meant to do by merely looking at it. Of course that didn't stop me from typing the code in and figuring out how to compile and run it. Imagine my prepubescent joy when I saw a little yellow ball bouncing off the four corners of my little Magnovox monitor...ahhh the memories (dabs eyes with napkin). I was hooked ever since. But I didn't become a programmer overnight. I did a lot more mindless code input before I started to make sense of code syntax and discerning different language constructs. Eventually you start buying books. Usually for the budding coder the content of those early book purchases are limited in scope. Often reflecting a specific interest. In my case I purchased a number of ghastly game programming titles in my early teens. Titles like "Teach yourself Game Programming in 21 Days" come to mind . Coders at this phase unwittingly cheat themselves out of garnering a well-rounded knowledge base from which to draw from, but you know the saying 'the heart wants what the heart wants'. You also start picking up on little coding tricks (and a few bad habits as well), which you naturally abuse. Yes folks I'm taking from experience here. I can recall a time when I thought Look Up Tables(LUTs) were the greatest thing since sliced bread. But I digress. There is only so much you can learn in vacuum however. And sometimes there are things you learn that won't serve you well in the long run (fixed-point math anyone). Ultimately what separates a Coder from a Programmer is a solid foundation in the fundamentals of the craft. These include but are not limited to understanding and being able to implement data structures like stacks, queues, heaps, hash-tables, Maps, Trees and their countless variants; measuring the efficiency of an algorithm via asymptotic notation; writing sorting algorithms; language paradigms etc. Though nowadays many of these elements come pre-packaged as API's you still need to know when it's best to apply them and when its not. And you never know, a day might come when you need to 'roll your own'. The separation between Coder and Programmer begins with a College Level Education. In a good institution you'll learn all the fundamentals and then some. And with a few good Professors to clue you in on the industry and what to expect in the field, your skills will grow and rapidly within the span of those four years. The trick is to find good schools with a solid Comp. Sci. program with courses covering not only the fundamentals but pertinent and current technologies as well.Though this is a dynamic industry, schools are reluctant to adapt or integrate technologies into their curriculum unless they have a proven record of longevity. While understandable this fact puts tertiary institutions as much as 4-6 years (on average) behind industry. Yet the same industry that demands expert knowledge of the latest technologies, does not invest enough in mentoring to compensate for the lack. One of the industry's many dilemmas. There seems to be a trend out there that is spawning coders by the dozen. Most apps today are built to allow for modification. Some supply GUI tools to achieve such ends (level map builders for FPSs) but many also allow modification via scripts in the form XML or some other standard. The initial goal of these scripting language developers was ease of use. But given time users of the applications often demand a richer feature set. Over time simple scripting engines start looking like fully-fledged programming languages equipped with GUI IDEs and debugging capabilities. Mayhap coders will have no recourse but to become programmers. But then again maybe not...

I have done exactly as you suggested and deleted my web hosting account. So currently I am working my way back up the ladder, so to speak. Picking up credits where ever I can in order to get my credit count back up to 30. One question though, when I re-apply for an account through the Free Web Hosting Forum do I have to explain this situation all over again if I happen to get a different administrator. I would hate to have to go through all the details again. Especially considering it was a mess of my own making.

I too, am a computer scientist. I don't know how far along you are in your studies, but in time you'll find -- with or without a medical background -- that ours is one of the few disciplines that draws upon and in turn influences all the other branches of science. We create abstractions of the world around us. Many of these abstractions find themselves applied to problems altogether outside of their domains potentially providing a more holistic view of science in general. But I'm moving away from the focus of this topic. Like I said before we create abstractions of the world around us. Of relevance to this topic are our attempts to model how the human brain functions. It is but one of many promising approaches to develop truly intelligent systems. The holy grail of AI research. One such model are neural networks. There are special cells, called neurons, that make up the brain and are thought to be responsible for memory and learning. Each neuron shares several connections with its neighboring siblings. Some connections act as inputs streaming in from other neurons. Other connections ferry outputs to yet other neurons. Here's a sample scenario. Imagine several neurons firing sending a multitude of tiny electrical charges along the connections (synapses) into a receiving neuron. The length and thickness of the synapses determines the speed/rate and strength of the charge and therefore its net influence on the receiving neuron. The net charge of all the incoming inputs may or may not cause the neuron to fire. Each neuron has its own threshold which when breached causes it to "fire", that is, releasing a charge of its own. The strength of this charge is also variable depending on the neuron. Now imagine billions of these little neurons, interconnected and firing away; that is your brain in action. The brain's neural network also exhibits a kind of structure. That structure gradually changes as new knowledge and learning is acquired over time. Even though neurons go though the typical life cycle of any other cell the impact of cell death and replacement (except in the case of massive brain damage) on structure is minimal. For the systems that scientist use to model neural networks, artificial neural networks, seek to maintain an optimal structure for a given problem domain. In term of computer science the neuron is modeled as a system of inter-connected nodes with a number of weighted inputs and outputs with special bias values that help shape the outcome. The inputs are calculated via a weighted sum and if this sum exceeds the node's threshold output is produced. This digital analog of the brain can be 'trained' on target data and then let loose upon more random input. Now my thinking is this. If an artificial network can be trained to act on data in a specific way, then I do not think it too far fetched that sometime in the future we will be able to scramble the structure of a person' neurons. First art imitates life and then, coming full circle, life imitating art. There are obviously some scary negative and amoral consequences of such a technology. It would give the term 'behavioral modification' new meaning. But hopefully that's a long way off (fingers crossed)... Here's a link to some slides I made on the topic of Neural Networks while taking an AI course in college: Neural__Networks.ppt It should elucidate some of the precepts of the technology and its origins.

I wouldn't hold my breath for that one. In truth, I'm using my account to host (or more accurately attempt to host) a flash-based application (game) for Facebook. So I won't actually have a site up. But I still need the ability to communicate with other servers over HTTP, if I hope to pull off the whole Facebook thing. Still, I do have a few ideas (actionscript tutorials most likely) for a site but its going to take time for me to build it.

Ok, that's two votes...Anyone know which admin would be most receptive to my request..

Ok I'll try to be more specific, though I doubt the extra detail I provide here will make much difference. First off, I have not installed a CMS or Blog. I added a few folders to the server and for one of those folders I wrote a a custom .htaccess file. Both folders are in the root directory. I also wrote an index.php file which references a number of php code libraries in one of the folders I created. Initially I placed it (index.php) in the root directory but realizing my error moved it to the public_html folder(changing the references to the code libraries accordingly). The permissions on the index.php file are set to octal 755. Folder creation and file uploads were done through FTP using Eclipse's Remote System Explorer plug-in...then I used cPanelX to set the desired permissions on folders and files. When I just got the account the default index.html rendered successfully in my browser (Firefox). After my modifications though all I get is the 403 Forbidden Error. There were other tweaks I tried out of frustration but to be honest I can't recall most of them. That's why I am requesting a full reboot.

I tried some of your suggestions, but nothing seems to work. And yes I have been moving files about...can an admin please re-run the hosting script on my account...

First off, let me say that I have spent considerable effort and time going through the forums seeking solutions for this problem. I have even gone as far as to seek help from the Xisto Live support team (they suggested I wait 2 hours and then get back to them. Well I did that, and there has been no change, and live support is now down). I've also tried changing permissions on both files and folders via Cpanel, but to no avail. I still end up with the same error: This happens any time I try to access my site via: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ And yes I've put my index.* files into the "/public_html" folder (which seems to be mirrored by the /www folder). What's weird is that I can access my account via cPanelX and even FTP and modify and upload files at will but I can't access my content via the internet. Any ideas as to what might be the problem?

Most web-savy folks have some notion of what Flash is. From a purely user standpoint it is a browser plug-in (FlashPlayer) that enables users to view flash enabled sites. From the web designer's perspective Flash is an authoring tool for creating dynamic graphic content which when done right can produce web sites with powerful visuals and interaction. Through the eyes of a developer, however, Flash is just one aspect of what we call the Flex platform. At the heart of that platform is Actionscript. Since the release of Flex3, what was once a simple scripting tool has evolved into a full-fledged Object Oriented programming language, complete with an extensive set of APIs(Application Programming Interfaces) out of which one can build a myriad of Rich Internet Applications(RIAs). Better yet, since Adobe acquired Macromedia, they have opened up aspects of the platform, effectively making code development for the platform open-source. The Flex3SDK can be downloaded practically free of cost (Adobe only requires that you register with their site). In addition they also supply extensive and thorough documentation. They also provide a robust IDE(Integrated Development Environment) called Flex Builder. It is an Eclipse plug-in with a suite of tools for Flex software development. Alas, Flex Builder comes at a price, and a hefty one at that. But there are open source alternatives such as FlashDevelop 3. The goal of this post is to present a list of resources for programmers interested in Flex Development so they can quickly get up to speed. So let's start with links to Adobe's site: Most of Adobe's products can be downloaded and evaluated over a 30-60 day period. I suggest downloading Flash and Flex Builder but only after having downloading and reading the free documentation for them, that way when you do download them you'll be able to squeeze the most out of the limited time you get to evaluate the product. The Flex3 SDK is free of charge. Adobe Products: Flex 3 SDK project home page Flash 9.0 Flex Builder Documentation:Adobe's documentation comes in one of three forms; PDF, html and livedocs. The PDf and html format can be downloaded, while LiveDocs can only be accessed online. In addition to having the standard docs LiveDocs also have extra annotations from the Adobe developers: Adobe Flex3/Actionscript Documentation Specifications: Version 9.0.swf specification (PDF) AVM2 overview (PDF) OpenSource Tools:*Note:Check the editor section for FlashDevelop 3 Open Source Flash The great thing about Flex development is that you can develop software independently of the Flash authoring tool. The scripting language is no longer tied to the Flash authoring environment as the Flex 3 SDK comes equip with compilers that convert Actionscript and MXML(Flex's custom mark-up language) into SWF files. Once you download the documentation I suggest starting with the following docs; Building And Deploying Flex Applications(300+ pages), Programming Actionscript 3.0 (500+ pages) and the Flex 3 Developer's Guide (1300+ pages). If anyone else has any other links to add to this list feel free to do so...

This movie was flat out brilliant. This is an epic drama masquerading as a comic book film. Not for kids though, the themes of the movies are sometimes dark and disturbing. Makes for great post-viewing discussion though. I never thought that a comic book film could be this thought provoking and on so many levels. Still I've read some solid graphic novels that were, so I guess it was only a matter of time until a director took that faithful step and show the medium as more than mere kid's stuff... A welcomed change, one can hope that this is the direction Hollywood will be moving in with regard to movies based on comic book characters...though I doubt it...but I still hope

With Flash Player 9 on practically every PC, a lot of web developers are moving to Abobe Flex, Flash and Actionscript as a development platform. I've seen a few posts related to the platform and I feel that a dedicated forum is more than warranted. Flash discussions could fall under web design as a sub-forum, while actionscript could fall under Programming Languages. There is also MXML to consider. It's Adobe's custom mark-up language for flash components. But these are just suggestions. Hopefully forum admins will look further into this issue and find it viable.

Thanks for the warm greetings folks... Rest assured that at the very least I'll try to keep things interesting...and then some I'd be happy to oblige...I'll PM you some of my stuff and maybe later I'll start an open post inviting other pixel artists to strut their stuff...

The one stop shop for pixel artists; from newbies to masters:Way Of The Pixel Make sure to check the following post at the Way of the Pixel forums: Tools, Resources and Linkage. Therein you'll find a truck load of goodies related to the craft of pixel art. But the greatest thing about the Way Of The Pixel forums is the level of user participation. You'll learn a lot there.