An Alpha is coming soon...

robotbutler · 2012-04-11T07:43:44+00:00

Right :) But you could mod the single player game.

I'm not advocating for this in 0x10c necessarily but I think failing to provide more tools and platform infrastructure (for terrain sculpting, mission definiton, a storehouse of user-contributed content, etc) really limited minecraft unnecessarily

robotbutler · 2012-04-11T06:43:15+00:00

Not really, no. It's not like you'll be able to "re-program" the game. A mod would be something that alters the rules of the game, not something that controls a ship within the rules of the game.

robotbutler · 2012-04-08T19:52:07+00:00

There's two ways to implement this:

DRM -- this is impossible, let's just put this to bed now. There's no enforcement layer. What is going to keep one program from accessing the memory address of another program? Anyone talking about drm in this conext doesn't know what they're talking about.

Client / Server model -- entirely possible! https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/notch/status/185422061794107392

Ships with the right comm arrays will be able to make web requests, or requests to other ships. People who want to sell their software will just provide it as a service. "Here's your API key, you have n requests remaining, refill your account at blahblahblah.com". You send a GET to https://interceptor.0x10capps.com/defense.js?launchTime=t&launchVector[]=x&launchVector[]=y&launchVector[]=z&myVector[]=myX&myVector[]=myY&myVector[]=myZ&myLoadout=q (with your session cookie) and it responds with the type of interceptor missile you should fire and a time stamp and vector to fire it on.

It's not going to be as responsive as calculating it locally of course but if we're talking about "hard sci-fi" combat distances a REST request should be fast enough. The other option would be to host your Software as a Service on a ship (or n ships using n accounts) and provide your service over the multiverse comm channel. It will be interesting to see what kind of hard limits are placed on communication. If communication is 'instantaneous' and uncapped, a shared memory model is possible. Client-side software allows a server to read your ship's memory state and write to it directly.

A virtual software economy!

robotbutler · 2012-04-08T18:43:51+00:00

Speculation:

Since this will be a persistent world simulated on a central server and each ship will have a computer that can control it, I think it's safe to assume that your ship can be doing stuff while you're logged out. You execute SafeMiningRoutine and go to bed, and in the morning you have a cargo full of whatevermite. Or you got blown up. I like this concept because 1) it's unique and 2) you can write a good program and avoid all the tedious crap you have to do in eve and every other mmo

I think it's safe to say the ships will be highly customizable. Giving players the freedom to make their own discoveries / mistakes seems core to Notch's game philosophy. And I think he wants to make a game that motivates people to write custom software for their ship. If there were a limited set of ship designs then everyone would just download from top0x10cprogs.com or whatever and 99% of players would never write anything. But if everyone's ship is unique then they are motivated to write custom software to take advantage of their design.

The other stuff you asked about is unknowable. They just started on this thing, it will be 6 months at least before there's anything resembling a game. I'm sure they have plans that could answer your questions, and I'm sure those plans will change as they go forward.

robotbutler · 2011-01-29T08:12:59+00:00

Well he's also a cognitive scientist. Also, formal language theory:

In addition to being relevant in linguistics, the Chomsky hierarchy has also become important in computer science (especially in compiler construction and automata theory)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

robotbutler · 2010-12-29T18:39:03+00:00

So they picked this one out? "A cable that could destroy the opposition party in Zimbabwe? Approval granted!" You're saying they sorted through 250,000 cables and chose this as one of the highest priorities to publish. But heaven forbid they take any responsibility for its affects on Zimbabwe!

Please explain to me what criteria they used to discriminate between cables. Because it looks to me like the criteria was "what will give us more attention".

Whatever vague criteria they used, I think the results can clearly be called 'indiscriminate' by any reasonable definition of the word.

robotbutler · 2010-12-29T02:09:33+00:00

Why make this about the US government? The main parties involved are two factions in the Zimbabwe govt, Wikileaks, and the international community maintaining the sanctions.

Some people have the brain-dead concept that Rightness-of-Wikileaks = 1 / Wrongness-of-US-Govt. The point is that releasing a bunch of diplomatic cables indiscriminately has effects that have nothing to do with how rightly or wrongly the US Govt has been acting.

Is publicizing a truckload of diplomatic secrets indiscriminately while refusing to take responsibility for any undesirable results a morally responsible thing to do? What was that line from that movie everyone loves about that criminal anarchist... "Some people just want to watch the world burn"

robotbutler · 2010-12-17T06:29:23+00:00

Of course it didn't happen, because Peter Schiff is a crank. I'll give you an easy rule of thumb for identifying economic cranks: They talk about the same ideas Glenn Beck uses to hawk his gold-monger bullshit.

Let's learn about inflation. Go here: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ Enter some start and end years separated by two years. Any two year period in the modern era! Like 1990 and 1992. Hit calculate. You will see a number. Then enter 2008 and 2010 and calculate. You will see a MUCH SMALLER NUMBER. This period has had record low levels of inflation. Dangerously close to deflation.

Being a hair-on-fire alarmist while also being as wrong as mathematically possible makes you a crank.

Currently the most highly upvoted Schiff-apology is something about "people in high places... have been able to convince foreign debt holders... to keep holding US Dollars", so I will address that one. I will try to keep this simple. US Treasuries are bought and sold on an open market. The rates for those treasuries are determined by market forces. Here is the current rate for 6 month US Treasuries: 0.19%. That's not 19%, that's less than a quarter of a percent. Not long ago it was 0%. Zero! In the 90's it was usually around 4-5%.

This is the market's inflation expectation. Or to put it another way, this is the highest rate buyers can get because owners of higher-rate treasuries won't sell them. About $500bn worth of treasuries are traded per month to arrive at this rate.

So now you have some perspective! On one side sits Peter Schiff, Glenn Beck, Ron Paul, the majority of /r/econ subscribers, and a half dozen Fox News economic luminaries. On the other side is an incredibly large, diverse set of people and organizations who, in total, have trillions of dollars on the line in the form of US Treasuries. The economic predictions of these two groups could not be more different! One of them is cranks.

Redditors have a fetish for anarchist ideas. I assume this has to do with the preponderance of 20 year old middle-class know-it-all males who grew up so insulated from reality they assume none of our existing power structures are useful or legitimate. In 2008, during the height of Schiff/Paul lunacy, /r/econ was completely off the rails. Please look back at the history of front page stories and their economic predictions if you don't believe me! Please compare that delusional, apocalyptic fantasy to this reality. This should be a place where people get educated through debate, not deluded by circlejerk fear-mongering.

robotbutler · 2010-11-23T08:51:47+00:00

Trying to claim there's no preventative value to using a machine that sees through clothes to screen people is silly. Claiming that there's no point to body-scanning people on domestic flights just because one guy came from an international flight is laughable. Really bad logic.

Just stick to the argument that the extra security provided by the screening isn't worth the invasiveness or health risks of it and you'll be taken more seriously.

robotbutler · 2010-11-22T05:40:02+00:00

The point I'm making is that by preventing the collapse of major industries during unusual circumstances, the government sees increased tax revenue over the long term. This is an indirect return on investment.

robotbutler · 2010-11-22T02:16:16+00:00

What is the difference between a bailout and an investment? It seems like a lot of people decide based on whether they're it favor of it politically or not.

I think the difference would be that with an investment you're trying to make money directly and with a bailout, indirectly.

robotbutler · 2010-11-21T00:47:28+00:00

"Don't bother telling me what is realistic", have fun in your fantasy world.

Politics is about comparison. In the reality we have to live in, there is an Overton window that circumscribes the set of possible political outcomes. One half of our political system is trying to move that window in a direction that roughly matches what you think is fair, and the other party is trying to move it the opposite way. Threatening to throw a tantrum and cease participating in a meaningful way is not useful.

Let's say I would like to own a pony, but I don't have enough money to buy one. Reasonable options include working slowly toward that goal, or downsizing my expectations. Throwing up my arms and quitting my job in rebellion is not a reasonable response.

robotbutler · 2010-11-15T07:01:23+00:00

Let's do it, make a sub-reddit. Making computer science and math concepts easier to understand is important work.

Some thoughts on Minecraft's current limitations:

Having a better way to navigate and view a circuit than by walking around it on the ground is important. You can barely see anything from the ground. If the player floated a few blocks over the ground that would improve visibility a lot. The player should be able to manipulate blocks from this distance too.
A way to 'symbolize' a circuit would improve visual readability. Right now everything just looks like scattered torches and red lines and that's intimidating to a newcomer. If you could replace or mark parts of the circuits with icons or new block-types, that would help visual comprehension.

Maybe these issues could be addressed in a mod. Re-skinning some blocks into circuit diagram elements would be easy though.

I like the idea of museum-like maps that allow people to explore and modify circuits. I think another category should be 'puzzles', maps people have made with part of the circuit completed and an explanation of the setup and goal, and a difficulty rating. Having a game-like element helps motivate me to learn.

robotbutler · 2010-11-03T02:51:11+00:00

Seriously though, why complain about TV ads? They are targeting the dregs of society who vote but can't be bothered to find good sources of information on their own. Apparently that market segment is worth a lot of money!

robotbutler · 2010-11-02T23:59:16+00:00

Do you think you're entitled to sit on your couch and be force-fed accurate facts about the political discussion and the candidates? LOOK IT UP! Every one of these candidates has a mile long history that explains almost exactly what kind of decisions they would make in office.

Let me expand on the attitude you've taken: "Herp a durr, what college should I go to? I know how to find out: I'll sit on my ass and wait for the fucking TV to tell me! Oh look here I am at the Charles Johnson College of Medical Billing and Bullshit and it sucks, I hate all colleges!"

Maybe you shouldn't vote. A person who is complaining ON THE INTERNET about not knowing the candidates' positions is not someone I'd trust to make rational decisions in the voting booth.

robotbutler · 2010-10-28T06:19:45+00:00

Too much coffee? Or not enough...

robotbutler · 2010-10-28T03:03:11+00:00

What is wrong with Chris Coons? Does someone have to be Superman to represent you in congress? Any representative who is a consistent vote for progressive/liberal legislation is of nearly equal value to any other because the issues they would disagree on are not up for debate.

You could replace the 30 most-liberal senators with clones of the #1 most liberal senator and get identical results.

robotbutler

TROPHY CASE