Back Pocket Calc, also known as BPC, has launched a programming contest to become a member of Back Pocket Calc.
To Find Out More about the Contest:
http://www.backpocketcalc.com/?q=contest
To Find Out More About BPC:
http://www.backpocketcalc.com/?q=node/2
To visit the BPC site
http://www.backpocketcalc.com/
Also, to answer the question "why would I want to join", here is our response:
We know we haven't programmed much. We are currently "dipping our feet in the TI-BASIC water" and are getting a professional handle on the language. We will, in the future, be coming out with what we consider to be excellent or even groundbreaking programs. We're not great now, but we learn fast and should progress speedily. When we shatter this community with suprise, you'll want to be with us for it.
Also, even if you don't believe us (and it's my policy not to lie), everyone so far has seemed eager to support new groups, such as ours. We think that anyone who submits an entry will be contributing to the dawn of a new age in the TI Community.
Your group is going nowhere unless you do something revolutionary with BASIC. BASIC has been pushed to the max -- there's no groundbreaking left to do. If you wish to become elite BASIC programmers, read
The 1337 Guide to TI-BASIC. Once you have become proficient in BASIC, you may apply to the BASIC Elite here at Cemetech.
I hear what you're saying Jon, and I had much the same thoughts as you, but let's be welcoming so we can help them along in learning to be 1337er, no?
Becoming 1337 is not something where you hold Mommy's hand and say "Make me 1337plzthx!" 1337 is more than a status, more than a mere trivial title. 1337 is the all-encompassing force that permeates the very fabric of space-time, it is Einstein's black box that is the very foundation of reality as we know it. To be 1337 is to be born 1337. It is the responsibility of those with the innate power of 1337ness to make the world a better place, to haxxor all that can be haxxored.
Alas, for every Nobel laureate, there is a gang-bangin' butt-pluggin' crack whore. And so it is with 1337, for it is counter-balanced by the dark forces of n00b. Like a foul pestilence, n00b seeps through the land, irreparably borking all that it touches. Entire familes at a time are felled by its evil methods, their minds shriveling up to mere vestiges of their former intelligences and eyes glazed over as they reach for the TV remote to watch yet another episode of the O.C. Even on the Holy Internet, many have fallen to the forces of n00b.
Members of Cemetech, it is up to us to repel this new ply of n00b in the form of BPC. Resist it with all your might, however strong the temptation may be! For if you join them, you will be sucked into a pit of stupidity and squalor, from which no human soul has ever returned. For you, my fellows, are 1337, and shall in the end rise above and triumph over the forces of n00b!
Also, anyone who is caught applying to BPC will be banned from these forums. Heed me well.
That was beautiful.
I liked the 1337 part, but it was drowned down by the mention of the n00b race.
And they don't seem that n00bish to me, just very enthusiastic to do some calc prgming.
Heh Sounds like something a certain somebody, whose name shall not be mentioned, said during the 1930s... So what if somebody from these forums decided to enter the "contest" just to prove how the forces of n00b have taken a stranglehold of them and their attempt to set up some programming forums?
I think he was referring to where "Ben W.- Resident Math Genius and TI-BASIC Guru. " "...hasn't really programmed much, but he knows how to do it."
Wow. That was really welcoming. I'm sure you just walked right into the TI community with l33tness, huh? Forgive us for programming some programs to get the hang of it.
I hereby pledge to make sure you know how l33t I will get. Also, I hope others will be more welcoming and supporting than this awful display. I am extremely offended. We aren't claiming to be l33t, by no means. We are, however planning to get at least good. That is not a crime by any means and we don't mean to attempt to demote your self-proclaimed wisdom. I do recognize that you code well, but you shouldn't abuse that power by stomping on n00bs. Everyone's a n00b at somepoint. Let us enter peacefully, and please take back your awful statements.
I agree wholeheartedly. Wait a minute, was Jon just kidding or what?
I take what I said back, but I wastn't trying to be as harsh as *someone* here with the second and fourth posts...
I meant to say that I can see you are just a group of new programmers that want to be better and get well known, correct? Your approach is a little too direct.
BPC's site is down, otherwise i woulda at least LOOKED at it
It worked a few minutes ago, so I'd say they are fixing a problem that I saw earlier with their navigation not quite working...
Jonathan_Pezzino wrote:
Becoming 1337 is not something where you hold Mommy's hand and say "Make me 1337plzthx!" 1337 is more than a status, more than a mere trivial title. 1337 is the all-encompassing force that permeates the very fabric of space-time, it is Einstein's black box that is the very foundation of reality as we know it. To be 1337 is to be born 1337. It is the responsibility of those with the innate power of 1337ness to make the world a better place, to haxxor all that can be haxxored.
Alas, for every Nobel laureate, there is a gang-bangin' butt-pluggin' <font color=red>censored</font> whore. And so it is with 1337, for it is counter-balanced by the dark forces of n00b. Like a foul pestilence, n00b seeps through the land, irreparably borking all that it touches. Entire familes at a time are felled by its evil methods, their minds shriveling up to mere vestiges of their former intelligences and eyes glazed over as they reach for the TV remote to watch yet another episode of the O.C. Even on the Holy Internet, many have fallen to the forces of n00b.
Members of Cemetech, it is up to us to repel this new ply of n00b in the form of BPC. Resist it with all your might, however strong the temptation may be! For if you join them, you will be sucked into a pit of stupidity and squalor, from which no human soul has ever returned. For you, my fellows, are 1337, and shall in the end rise above and triumph over the forces of n00b!
Also, anyone who is caught applying to BPC will be banned from these forums. Heed me well.
It's things like this that scare people away for programming for the calculators. I've seen the articles on the status of the TI community and how they always have a bad outlook on the future. What's said above definitely doesn't help things.
birdmanx35 wrote:
We know we haven't programmed much. We are currently "dipping our feet in the TI-BASIC water" and are getting a professional handle on the language. We will, in the future, be coming out with what we consider to be excellent or even groundbreaking programs. We're not great now, but we learn fast and should progress speedily. When we shatter this community with suprise, you'll want to be with us for it.
Also, even if you don't believe us (and it's my policy not to lie), everyone so far has seemed eager to support new groups, such as ours. We think that anyone who submits an entry will be contributing to the dawn of a new age in the TI Community.
that sounds pretty arogant, i think you deserved the a.ss-whooping that jon handed you
cause frankly, you WON'T "shatter this community with surprise" - maybe if you learned ASM, but not with basic. "groundbreaking" ti-basic programs will never exist again, as the language is pretty much dead, so without using ASM you can't do anything all that "new age". and saying crap like "it's my policy not to lie" after spewing BS like that first paragraph is just asking for it
Realistic expectations: make decent programs that truly have a use and don't already exist. Make games that focus on gameply, not "wow" factor. Do that, and you'll do good, but you will fall drastically short of the "goals" you have set for yourself, as they are impossible
It sounded to me like Jon was joking. He's a nice guy, and he's pretty welcoming to new members generally. Well, welcome guys, and I shall certainly give you any programming help I can, and I'm sure my compatriots here shall do the same.
Kllrnohj wrote:
birdmanx35 wrote:
We know we haven't programmed much. We are currently "dipping our feet in the TI-BASIC water" and are getting a professional handle on the language. We will, in the future, be coming out with what we consider to be excellent or even groundbreaking programs. We're not great now, but we learn fast and should progress speedily. When we shatter this community with suprise, you'll want to be with us for it.
Also, even if you don't believe us (and it's my policy not to lie), everyone so far has seemed eager to support new groups, such as ours. We think that anyone who submits an entry will be contributing to the dawn of a new age in the TI Community.
that sounds pretty arogant, I think you deserved the a.ss-whooping that jon handed you
cause frankly, you WON'T "shatter this community with surprise" - maybe if you learned ASM, but not with basic. "groundbreaking" ti-basic programs will never exist again, as the language is pretty much dead, so without using ASM you can't do anything all that "new age". and saying crap like "it's my policy not to lie" after spewing BS like that first paragraph is just asking for it
Yes, BASIC is dead, but it's still no reason to discourage people from programming. Everyone starts somewhere.
Happy pi'th post Kirb!
I agree, and while BASIC has been used to and beyond its full potential, there's nothing to say it can't still be taken farther.
I'd like to see Basic be taken farther. I think it can be taken farther. Even Weregoose thinks we haven't hit the end of the journey.
A contest to do this might have some turnout, escpecially if it is hosted by Cemetech.
KermMartian wrote:
It sounded to me like Jon was joking. He's a nice guy, and he's pretty welcoming to new members generally. Well, welcome guys, and I shall certainly give you any programming help I can, and I'm sure my compatriots here shall do the same.
I'll help them. I was in their position not too long ago, like 3 months or so.
The problem with new groups like this that think they're the sh it is that they just splinter the community and retard progress. Before you go about making statements like "BASIC Guru" and "Math Genius", you'd better be sure of a couple of things. First, make sure you are not a freshman who has owned their calculator for less than a year. Second, make sure you really know your stuff in BASIC, or you will be made to look like an as.s-clown by truely 1337 programmers. Third, do not be so arrogant as to go around all the forums and promote a so-called "contest" run by a bunch of noobs. You can't just enter the programming scene and expect to think that people are going to come flocking by the hundreds just to join your cutesy little "company." You need to earn respect first, and to do that you need to release programs. Sure, you'll be crappy and noobish at first (we've all been there), but more people will come to respect you and want to join you if you become truly proficient. Take a lesson from the caterpillar -- lay low whilst your are puny and noobish, then dazzle everyone with the sweet sparkling beauty of 1337 once you emerge from your chrysalis of learning.
I guess the moral of the story is, laugh at my humor while appreciating the subtle truisms beneath it and I won't have to be serious and even more devastatingly pessimistic and depressing.
