Burn the Programmer

Post by jon_richards » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 5:31 AM UTC

mcguire wrote: post #202

crooked-v wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it depends on if you're talking early series or late series. Early series, the wizards were college academia taken to absurdist violent extremes, to the point of assassinating each other to try and get tenure slots. Most of that got quietly dropped over time to make them more likeable.

...that's an option? (Ex-academic here.)

Post by firebones » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 6:24 AM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #227

ronald_raygun wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a very similar experience when I took a processor design class in college. At first in the class we started learning the binary codes for each instruction, which bits were the registers, instruction bits etc. It seemed so pointless at the time. When we finally got to the end and it clicked that those bits were physically turning on and off gates, it blew my mind.

In my class, circa 2001, we were taught about an adder, then used cheap chips in a breadboard with wires and bulbs to show it, then used Logicworks to create a simple version in software. Rinse and repeat for other components, and the final project was to copy and paste those components into a larger logicworks project and hook them up together into a simple 4 bit CPU with a few dozen bytes of RAM. It could understan…

Post by digi_owl » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 9:33 AM UTC

ocschwar wrote: post #197

marsrover wrote: post #3

You know, us programmers like to refer to ourselves as wizards but I really wonder if non-programmers think the same or is it just like any other profession they're not knowledgeable of? I don't know anything about chemical engineering but I've never considered chemical engineers to be magical. I do like thinking of myself as a wizard, though.

> I don't know anything about chemical engineering but I've never considered chemical engineers to be magical. For a layman who's curious about computers, he can just go to a computer and try stuff. Worst outcome from there is loss of some data. If you're curious about chemical engineering, you're restrained a bit, because you're not really going to go near equipment that can easily blow you up, burn you, freeze you,…

Post by thenomad » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 11:54 AM UTC

kbenson wrote: post #184

(Fun fact: horror games are more intense in VR, by some margin. So terrifying, in fact, that I added a "Low Terror Mode" recently, after reading a significant number of people saying "I'd love to play your game, but I absolutely won't, because it sounds way too scary.") While I would love to play the full terror mode, the low terror mode made me think of a game that replaced the undead horrors you summon with giant p…

Post by xaedes » Sat, Nov 11, 2017, 11:55 AM UTC

rtuulik wrote: post #109

j2kun wrote: post #29

It makes me wonder if there are any realms of wizardry where the highest ranking wizards spend all their time on management skills and never get to practice their magic. "Oh, these days I just review a lot of spell-design scrolls and mentor junior acolytes. Magic is more of a people business, you know."

Maybe, but its more likely that majority of higher ranking wizards would focus on growing their sheep herding business. :) http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2017/02/22/the-wizards-and...