Yes there are .NET Games and they aren't just pacman and mario brother games. http://www.koiosworks.com/[^] and for more see http://www.thezbuffer.com/categories/games.aspx[^] The ZBuffer[^] is where you can get news and info about Managed Games

Richard http://www.BellaDev.net

Ok so I didn't think this day would come but I need to learn C++ for an open source project I'm thinking about taking on. I have on my book shelf a book titled "C++ Primer Plus 3rd Edition" written by Stephen Prata and when I bought it several years ago was told it was "THE" book for anyone wanting to learn C++. I looked on Amazon and saw the book is now up to the 5th edition and my questions are: Is this really "THE" book on C++, Do I need to update to the 5th edition and Has anyone else went from C# to C++ if so What was the learning curve like? As always I trust the opinions of those here on CP so I came here first, please don't let me down by not answering :) Also thanks for the help,

Richard http://www.BellaDev.net

Ok so I didn't think this day would come but I need to learn C++ for a project I'm thinking about pursuing. I have on my book shelf a book titled "C++ Primer Plus 3rd Edition" written by Stephen Prata and when I bought it several years ago was told it was "THE" book for anyone wanting to learn C++. I looked on Amazon and see the book is now up to a 5th edition and my questions are: Is this really "THE" book on C++, Do I need to update to the 5th edition and Has anyone else went from C# to C++ if so What was the learning curve like? As always I trust the opinions of those here on CP so I came here first, please don't let me down by not answering :)

Richard http://www.BellaDev.net

And better yet... return ( fabs( x-5.0 ) < 0.0000001 );

What company is this, so I can remember never to purchase anything from them... -Richard

Michael Martin wrote:

Please, start up a company, I'll come work for you. Sorry don't understand what you want, can't do the job. But don't fire me and give me a raise, it ain't my fault I'm stupid, don't give a rat's arse and ain't half the worker Joe is. Don't compare me to everyone else, this ain't communist China you know. I'm trying my best.

I never said to hire idiots. I said we shouldn't compare children to each other because that isn't what we do as adults. We should pick the best and smartest people for our companies however that in no way translates into "you can be a slacker all you want and not get fired". Parents and/or Teachers should teach children to live up to their potential not be slackers. Being smart would actually mean something then. Currently it just means "I memorized more useless facts than you."

Michael Martin wrote:

Lovely, so trailer trash can home school as well.

Anyone and everyone should have the right to home school. If you put a limit on it based on the IQ of the parent then what stops you from putting a limit on it based on color of skin or religion?

Michael Martin wrote:

When the average child got what level of schooling? 3rd grage? 6th?

And yet they were still "smarter" than most kids these days. It was those 3rd or 6th grade educated kids that were the great inventors of America. It was in there common sense approach that helped them solve problems and build our nation. Kids that are taught to conform don't have common sense and they can't problem solve. Kids need to be taught to think not just memorize facts. Home schooled kids actually learn to think while kids in schools just memorize facts long enough to take a test and then they forget them. If you are going to argue against my points please THINK about what you are typing first. Don't give some pre-programmed response. -Richard

Michael Martin wrote:

How is this to be done without tests comparing him to other students of the same standard.

Why should we compare children to other children? If a child is doing their best then shouldn't that be good enough. Maybe they excel their peers or maybe they fall behind them but either way what is the point in making one of them feel stupid by comparing them with each other. We both know that just because two people happen to be the same age doesn't mean they are as smart as each other so why do we expect our children to conform to a certain level of intelligence when we don't enforce those standards on adults? It's because as adults we know that any such attempt would be pointless because each person is an individual with their own special talents and abilities. Kids are just the same. Let them grow at the rate they need and are able to and let's see if we don't get back to real creative thinking again.

Michael Martin wrote:

Also, how is the state (or anyone for that matter) to know that you are not some whack job teaching him devil worship or terrorism.

If I am a whack job teaching my kids devil worship or terrorism don't I still have that constitutional right? I believe the U.S.A. was formed on the idea that no man has the right to deny me freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As a free man I may wish to teach those things to my child and I may also wish to teach them normal educational subjects but without the narrow-mindedness that has crept into schools and our government. Now in schools it is OK to teach any religion or religious views except that of Christianity. If I want my child to look at not only the normal school book curriculum but also the biblical views then I am forced to home school.

Michael Martin wrote:

Also are you or your wife qualified to teach him anythin

Absolutely. In order to be a home school teacher all you must actually do is order curriculum from some entity and supply it and some instruction to your child. No college degree is required. That was the way school was taught up until about the 1900's. Teachers where nothing more than students that went to some sort of "teachers school" (Called a Normal School) for generally 3 months and they passed a test and they were teachers. We had a higher literacy rate and several set of generations that were real thinkers inst

Home schooling and all laws regarding it are at the state level so just about all 50 states have different rules and laws regarding them. I live in Arkansas and we actually had one of the best home school set of laws for three months until Governor Clinton helped us out and made us the most strict states. Luckily through the years our state government has repealed most of his additions and we are getting back on the right track but I'm going to still work on getting some more things repealed. One thing that pretty much stays the same between the states is the law that says kids from ages 5-18 must attend school and they can only not go to school under 18 if they have a high school diploma, some equivalent degree, or are attending a tech school for a specialize trade. Home schoolers in general make up a very small percent of the population. Here in Arkansas in 2005 there were only like 13,000 kids home schooling. I'm not sure of the number of normal schooling kids but I came from a very small school and we had 500 students in 7-12 grades so it wouldn't take but 4 or 5 normal sized schools to have 13,000 students. -Richard

Sit around and watch tv?

There are home school groups that organize sports and band like activities. It is also possible in some states for home schooled kids to take those classes/activities in a regular public school and do all of there normal class work at home. It's possible because schools get tax dollars for it and some states even go as far as telling schools they can't deny homeschoolers that option. -Richard

Absolutely. I believe it should be the burden of the family to help other family members in general. Why should I pay tax dollars to support some lazy guy and his lazy wife that won't work and only sit around on their butts all day having sex and making more babies that I will have to support also. I may be a Christian but natural selection needs to be given some free reign don't you think? -Richard

My son is only 19 months old so I still have a few years to go before I have to battle the state about home schooling issues but in my personal opinion the state shouldn't be able to tell me what my child should or should not be taught. If I opt to home school should I have full control over what my child learns without "big brother" watching him and testing him by their standards every year? My wife and I talked about it and she mentioned that the state should be able to say that you must teach things like reading, writing, and math but in my thinking if they can say my child has to study those topics then why can't they say he has to study foreign religions or devil worship or any other silly thing under the sun? What are y'alls thoughts? -Richard

You are forgetting Bush didn't write the 2002 intelligence reports, he AND congress believed them to be true and therefore acted upon them. Don't single Bush out he didn't write the reports or go to war by himself. If you want to complain, complain about the congressmen also and stop being so narrow minded.

Sweet! Thanks for sharing the link, the guys/girls around the office enjoyed it. -Richard

Google is your friend...[^] Quick answer found here...[^] -Richard

No problem. Life might be somewhat harder but it would be a lot less stressful then a day at the office I'm sure. Plus what you would do in the wild would actually be productive in the sense that what you were doing would actually benefit you and your family... On the other side, I do like my A/C and I don't like being hot so I'll stick with comfort for now and rely on primitive living for when it just must be done. @the original author: C# isn't bad and neither is C++ but why use unsafe code if you can do the same thing in C# safely? If a problem arises that can't be handled in C# then by all means have fun and write some C++ or unsafe C# code. -Richard

Just to chime in and possibly help out a little late, here are a few sites that show you how to align your content in different ways... Center Horizontal: http://www.bluerobot.com/web/css/center1.html[^] Center Vertical: http://www.jakpsatweb.cz/css/css-vertical-center-solution.html[^] Center Horizontal and Vertical: http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/thebox/deadcentre4.html[^] -Richard

Well isn't that special. It apparently pays to read "all" of the manual when you RTFM, DOH... :) -Richard

I could be wrong but I'm incline to say that it is not optional if you want your page to pass W3C compliance test or if you want to assign your document a doctype of Strict or Transitional. -Richard

Thats just some crazy stuff... I can't believe kids are even thinking of having sex that young. When I was 11 I was still thinking something along the lines of "Go ninja turtles" (insert favorit cartoon here). I just don't get it... -Richard