Eventually, you start to run out of titles to say ‘here are a few links I’ve been looking at this week’ 😉
I enjoyed the debate about the value and dangers of the Internet over on Tom Kyte’s blog. There are aspects of both sides of the argument I agree with but there has been at least one reason for me to be grateful for the improved access to obscure information this week.
When I was a 17 year old games programmer, a group of us would be in the office at 3 or 4 am most nights, eating (free) Chinese food, smoking (free) cigarettes, drinking (free) coke and playing M.U.L.E. It wasn’t the only game we played, but the American-authored Atari games were always the ones that we went for – M.U.L.E., Star Raiders, Miner 2049er (which Matthew Smith obviously played a bit too) – and I remember being utterly obsessed with M.U.L.E. I knew nothing about the author, though, and this article touched me. There’s a lot of truth in there, more than a hint of humanity and I can vouch for the fact that games programmers were big fans of M.U.L.E.
I’ve also noticed Peter Scott’s current series of blogs on what Data Warehouses are all about, or at least what differentiates them from the majority of databases that the majority work with. These are a very easy read and give a good initial flavour of the subject. As I’m writing this, it occurs to me that some links to other sources of more detailed information might be a useful addition.
Finally, this story is funny (well, maybe for a DBA or sys admin). Well, it would be if it wasn’t so disconcerting and I can vouch for it’s accuracy
I loved M.U.L.E. I still consider it one of the best designed games ever. There was another I really liked, too. I think it was called Full Metal Planet.
They don’t look like much compared to games today, but playability is still king.
I’m getting a little long in the tooth for all the FPS that all blend together.