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Orth

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hubskier for: 3453 days

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Orth  ·  3428 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Nine theories of the multiverse.

I read a pretty cool online science fiction story called Fine Structure which touches on this. I'm halfway debating posting a main topic for it since I can't find one already, but describing it is difficult at best without spoiling it...

I'll just pull a section from TVtropes' entry:

   Twenty Minutes into the Future, scientists have discovered a set of technologies that break the laws of physics as we know them, such as teleportation or other dimensions, as well as a list of the real laws of physics. Worryingly, the scientists studying these technologies are dying in mysterious "accidents". More worryingly, the laws of physics appear to be changing over time, in such a way that each newly discovered technology can only be used once.
Don't let the first story throw you off. It'll come off as mostly nonsense (and it is, I think, or it just went WWAAYY over my head), but I had a friend of mine stop reading there because I couldn't persuade him that's the only section like that.
Orth  ·  3431 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Do you think what is happening to reddit could happen to other major social media?

I think it's mostly a function of the looseness of the "groups" of Hubski. Since there aren't subreddits, posts get grouped by poster/sharer, tags, and badged. Basically instead of walling off groups from one another Hubski lets each person define their own content groupings. You're sort of your own mod on Hubski, deciding what and who you want to see more or less of. Things that most people don't care for can/will be filtered and trolls/spambots just end up talking to each other, if anyone. Even though you don't necessarily see the same posts as everyone else Hubski gives more of a feeling of a singular community rather than many fragmented ones IMO.

Orth  ·  3439 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Dynamically Declaring Functions and Methods

I haven't used Ruby for much, but from what I remember learning it, it has the ability to do what you want. Found an article on it. Reading that article, it gives a VERY basic example. A search for "dynamic methods ruby" gets a lot of results.

Orth  ·  3440 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How did you learn programming?

Hah! Sorry, bad choice of words, by set I meant more like defined or predetermined.

Orth  ·  3441 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How did you learn programming?

Heh, well, if you don't mind me being tangential. A friend got me into it around middle school. His father programmed software which was eventually bought out by a company that works with substance abuse clinics and his brother, within a few years of our friendship, got a job at Microsoft. Anyway he'd been programming stuff for a while when he introduced me to it. He taught me the basics and shared really cool programs he'd made with me. Somewhere around the end of middle school, I learned there was a class at the High School on programming. The teacher was nice enough to let me install Visual Basic (6, I think) that was used in the class to tinker with on my own. I was really lucky to do this because by the time I reached the correct grade to take the class, it was no longer available, probably due to lack of interest (South Carolina... enough said?).

So anyway I just kept taking classes whenever/wherever I could, got into college Comp. Sci. program and the rest is history.

Basically start with something simple, and try some free online tutorials.

Some starting concepts that are important:

Variable Typing - in some languages variables are just names and will hold whatever you want them to... text, a number, whatever. That's weak typing. Some languages you define the type of variable and then it will ONLY hold those values. Your integer variable will only ever contain whole numbers etc. This is strong typing. The definitions aren't as exact as that... basically strong typed languages can be more rigid, but in return provide some automatic error checking (You can't put your String (text) in that Integer!) which a weak typed language would only stumble over once you run the program.

Data Structures - These are ways of organizing data. A queue is like stuff waiting in line. It comes out of the line in the same order it entered the line (FIFO - First In, First Out). Stacks are the same but the order is reversed (LIFO - Last In, First Out). There are a lot more complicated structures, but mostly these will be built into default libraries so if you know one which would be useful you don't have to write/rewrite it yourself.

Object Oriented - Basically a focus on defining "objects" which contain variables in a set structure (data structure!). If you define a Ball object as having a diameter, a position, and a direction, then all Ball variables/objects/instances will contain those values. Object oriented programming ideals can be generally used independent of language but some are built specifically for it.

Language API - As I mentioned above, this is a list of functions/methods/tools you don't have to make yourself, they come included in default libraries the language supports. Very useful once you've got some programming foundation so you understand the lingo used.

There are a lot of resources available to ease you in. Good luck!

Orth  ·  3442 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: These include the particular 10 Nearly all Guaranteeing Games involving E3 2015

The whole article is littered with them... For instance for 'Dishonored 2':

  Crucially, such as the initial, you are able to have the whole sport, in the event you thus choose, with out eradicating a heart and soul.
Orth  ·  3446 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Homestuck Discussion?

Yeah that has been the hardest part of convincing others to read it. The story just doesn't seem to go anywhere...probably well into Act 2.

Maybe try out the Lets Read to until the story picks up?