Domain: google.ca
Stories and comments across the archive that link to google.ca.
Comments · 2,456
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Re:It's there servers
This is why it pays to have a modicum of computer knowledge.
Assuming you're not trolling...
When you send a query to google, it goes over the "internet" in the clear. That is, not encrypted. Anyone who can see it can read it. Well who can read it? Turns out a lot of people. Between me and google are probably 10 different boxes. 5 of which are just my ISPs routers. The other five are boxes on other networks, not even related to Google.
There is no inherant requirement for privacy like there is with telephones (maybe their ought to be one). But that said, you're giving your data to Google, willingly no less. That gives them every right to record it. You gave them permission by using their service, I guess you never read their TOS which is your fault, not theirs. Think about the analogy in the real world. This is like you handing your drivers license to every stranger you meet, then getting upset when some of them write it down.
If you don't want your assets [IP, location, name, platform, etc] leaked to Google you should use an anonymous proxy.
Tom -
Excellent documentary on the Global Warming scam
For those interested in hearing from actual scientists (rather than U.N. political hacks and social pseudo-scientists), and notable figures such as one of the original founders of Greenpeace who accurately dub environmentalists as humanity haters, I highly recommend this film, done by private Channel 4 in the U.K.:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=90055667928 11497638
Some things you won't hear from the shrill Global Warming propagandists:
-- Natural CO2 emissions trail warming/cooling. An effect, not a cause
-- Vastly more CO2 is emitted naturally than by human production
-- It doesn't matter anyway. CO2 is irrelevant to the earth's temperature
-- Water Vapor is a radically more important "greenhouse gas"
-- Cosmic radiation affects cloud formation, which in turn affects temperature
-- Solar output massively affects terrestrial weather directly
-- Solar ouput indirectly affects terrestrial weather by affecting how cosmic radiation ultimately reaches the earth, affecting cloud formation
-- The earth's climate is always changing, and underwent massive swings in both directions millions of years before humanity even walked the earth
-- Ice ages are bad. If one was on the way, there is absolutely nothing mankind could do currently to stop it.
Oh, and incidentally, here's a classic question: What do you think the "ideal temperature" of the earth should be? :) And do you think that somehow the earth has had such a temperature before Man arrived? -
Definately true
Darn, you stole my point. But to add to that for those that want to see this in action (hey, the RIAA likes screenshots, right):
See Here, or here, or just here
You've got one card allowing you to set or clone (copy from the connecting machine) a MAC address, another allow to type in the MAC segments, and then a bunch of google results in general for the interfaces to this.
And this is just for routers, mind. It's also quite easy to spoof MAC using windows, easy on linux/BSD using ifconfig, or see here for info on all the common OS's.
So what can you do with this?
Well with a router it makes it easy (as mentioned in the parent) to configure so that the ISP thinks a given PC is connected... thus skipping the issues when you have either the computer or the router plugged directly to the DSL/cable modem.
With a PC you can test various DHCP settings, pretend to be somebody else and nab their IP (the dhcp serving machine will generally assume you are whomever your MAC states you are), get onto MAC-secured wireless, and many other things. There are plenty of legit uses, but certainly many other cases where one an online "identity" could be easily misrepresented. -
M3DS Simply
I'm very supprised no one has mentioned the m3simply yet. I got mine a few weeks back and it's been awesome. It plays clean NDS roms (unmodified exact copies), runs homebrew, and plays music and movies (needs transcoding) right out of the box. It takes microSD cards and comes with a microSD-usb reader/writer. You can find the microSD chips and the m3simply's online for about the price of two NDS games - not bad. You can then download all 872 games (and counting). The best part is you can play all the wifi games over the internet and locally. You can also check out the compatibility list and this comparison chart.
Happy homebrewing :) -
Re:is Hawking a real physicist?Some people think he's not that great as can be seen in the video The Hawking Paradox.
For a scientist, being proven wrong is no big deal and often just as important as being right. It's just another factor in his/ her continuing work. Being wrong does not make you a bad scientist. Einstein's 'Cosmological Constant' anyone?
Hawking has been wrong numerous times (it usually costs him a case of wine). Quite often he actually prove *himself* wrong. -
Re:is Hawking a real physicist?
I mean, holding the same office as that Newton guy probably does not mean much.
;)
Some people think he's not that great as can be seen in the video The Hawking Paradox. -
Fine, but keep an eye on manufacturers then.
There's no doubt that the growing amount of ewaste is a huge problem, but if we're going to charge the consumer for the fee, then there should be stiff penalties for companies like Epson and HP that put kill-switches into their printers to cause them to fail prematurely.
HP killswitch.
Epson killswitch. -
Metal Slug
That game has a striking, striking resemblance to Metal Slug. I hope slashdotters remember that game (Hell, MS6 came out recently).
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=62433052119 56602090&q=Metal+Slug
The game looks nice, I suppose it plays nice too, but honestly: when the hell is Contra III: Alien Wars coming? We've had too many games without manly haircuts.
I think Ikaruga and Castlevania are going to redeem XBLA. -
Re:Oooh! Just like the sexual shrimp inthe print a
I was under the impression that the idea of subliminal advertising was debunked some thirty years ago when Subliminal Seduction burst upon the scene.
That book was crap, and has been thoroughly discredited. However, cognitive psychologists have been aware of the existance (and impact) of subthreshold primes for some time now.
Like other posters, I am surprised that gaming companies need to resort to this, when there are so many overt attempts to manipulate the sucker^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomers to keep playing. Mind you, their job is to keep people passively feeding the machines, and anything that aids that goal is fair game...
Strangely enough, the kaptcha for this post was unprimed...
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F-16 had a similar bug
Luckily they found it during simulations of the F-16. A bug in the fly-by-wire software caused the plane to think that it was upside-down whenever it crossed the equator. It would try to correct the problem immediately -- A maneuver that the plane could probably survive, but that would probably kill the pilot had it occured in real life.
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Re:Exchange yes, Office no
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Re:And i-bullshit too!
Every Business?
The American Dream is a lottery, and with Domain's going for $5 hosing going for $7 a month and Ruby/CSS/Flash/Sql texts available for free... there really isn't any cost involved.
Sure you're going to be shouting in a screaming convention so some marketting skills are required. -
Like Bill Gates says
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Re:The HIV virus has actually never been seen...so
If you have an open mind, if you are willing to accept the possibility that the medical establishment is not a perfect institution. Then maybe you would be willing to listen to an alternative viewpoint.
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-2668901721 32861595&q=the+other+side+of+aids
I challenge you to respond to any or of the conclusions in this documentary. It is important to note that if a person gets a cold virus, that virus is easily detectable in large quantities in that persons blood. The HIV virus is rarely/if ever isolated in a patients blood, the tests do not test for the virus itself, they only test for non-specific antibodies that may or may not indicate the presence of HIV. That is what the makers of the tests state.
The facts are that anyone that tests positive for HIV is told that they will die. That there life will irreversibly change, most enter into a emotional state of fear, dread, shame. This emotional state KILLS PEOPLE, your emotional state directly affects your health. Many go onto a prescribed regimen of dangerous drugs, that cause harm to the body, whose side effects precisely match those of the symptoms of AIDS, wasting, fatigue, immune suppression and on and on.
Please don't believe me, do your own research.
The simple facts are that billions and billions of dollars are given to scientists to research the establishments view of AIDS. Alternative research is not funded and is shunned. To this date there has been no scientific studies that prove a relationship between the HIV retro-virus and the disease known as AIDS. No explanation as to how HIV can cause AIDS, through what mechanisms. Sure there are a theories but few facts. In 1984 when AIDS was first "discovered" there was no indication of a relationship between HIV and AIDS, no scientific studies, no peer reviewed papers. If there was no evidence how did they "know" HIV causes AIDS. It is important to know that no other retro-virus in existence has anywhere near the same viral-genetic-infection pattern that AIDS supposedly has.
Again this is a fairly complicated topic and can be argued for days and days in forums such as this. Watch the video, do your own research and decide for yourself. Don't believe me, don't believe your doctor do your own research, your life or the lives of friends and family could depend on this. -
Re:saw something like this on sciam
The Silicon Retina, Carver Mead and Misha Mahowald, Scientific American, 1991.
(Unfortunately, is seems Scientific American do not archive anything before 2001 on their site.)
Nu Scientist is a fricking linkspamming rag, note how the url in the summary includes the submitters name as a variable? No free click from me buddy.
Nu Scientist is a bunch of populist science "lite". They have a lot of nerve to even use the word Scientist in their name.
Here's a hint:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=New+Scientist+site%3 Aslashdot.org (7,180 occurrences) -
Why Not Use Real Nerd Numbers?
Google will be forced to pay $32,600 for each day it displayed the links of the plaintiffs.
That's awfully close to a nerd number: 2 to the power of 15 = $32,768 [1]. We are talking about computers here, and there's nothing computers like more then binary numbers! Maybe the court was being generous by choosing a slightly lower number. What do you think Google will do with that *extra* $168 dollars a day they are not being charged?
[1] For the fun of it, I used Google Calculator to give the proof, and yes the Caret symbol is really a bitwise operator but not according to Google Calculator. I suppose one could say that Google is guilty of "Bitwise Violation" also...but that's for another article ;) -
Re:bomb ourselves?
Hmm, hope they don't end in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-
a &rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=zWi&q=us+to bacco+police+waco -
Re:Instead of physical bombing
Sure, but smart bombs flying through the windows http://www.google.ca/search?q=flying+windows and hitting the PC Screen would be so much more cool...
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Re:Compressed Air StorageThe above example uses an abondoned mine for compressed air storage, but the technology used to create Natural Gas Storage caverns has existed for a while.
In a location with salt,limestone or sandstone rock formations, they are dug with non-potable water injection (at 1100m) and pumping the slurry. NETL has a bit on Rock Storage Caverns dug in areas where the geology doesn't allow for water slurry construction.
I used to work for TransGas and they operate 901 million cubic meters of gas storage facilities. I toured the cavern facility at Regina, SK Canada a few years ago, it's a few miles from my house.
I sleep like a baby on a -20C winter night knowing there is 3 or 4 Penta Joules of gas tucked away there. :) -
Go back to reddit, troll
What your trolling on this site too?
This person posts the SAME EXACT POST to EVERY story on reddit. Everyone. Always from some shitty comcast site.
Just a little FYI for the clueless person who modded this troll up.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22becoming+a+ Police+State%22+site%3Areddit.com&btnG=Search&meta = -
Quick Scan
A really quick scan of the price of windows driver development, demonstrates how much actual value this is for business. Now all you would need to do is pay someone to extend the drivers to other platforms! Eureka!
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Re:Not Just for Nukes
I dunno - the org post spoke to pixelating of nuclear facilities, and across the river from Windsor sits the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant, which is presented in all its glory
...
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Windsor,+Ont ario&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=41.965585,-83.259223&spn=0.00 7243,0.021458&t=k&om=1 -
Re:Other country are not blurred ?
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Re:Other country are not blurred ?
Might want to link to the right page
:)
Here's a French reactor complex, unblurred.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=paluel,+fra nce&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=49.858073,0.635576&spn=0.00723 5,0.021629&t=h&om=1 -
Gentilly-2 Nuclear power plant
I dont know who provided this image to Google Maps, but you can see a nuclear power plant in full quality at Bécancour, Québec. I would say that if you don't ask Google to censor it, they wont do it by thelmself. http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=fr&q=route+de+l
a +centrale+nucl%C3%A9aire,b%C3%A9cancour+qc,+ca&ie= UTF8&z=16&ll=46.394823,-72.355592&spn=0.006304,0.0 21629&t=h&om=1 -
Sweden vs... Canada? + Google Maps
Ok, interesting, but how does this space launch site compares to the previously slashdottly discussed Nova Scotia site? (yes, already in other comments, but no links provided as far as I could find)
While we're at it. The Sweden launch site on Google Maps.
"This provides us with Europe's first obvious place for suborbital space flights," said Susan Newsam, spokeswoman at Virgin Galactic, who adds that "flying into the aurora borealis has never been done before."
Ok, I don't get it. What's the point? I thought the closer to the equator the better (less energy required to reach "space"), thus ESA's space launch site at Kourou, French Guyana. -
Re:You can do the same thing...
John Williams (Consumertronics) has run ads for years selling methods and techniques for stopping power meters and even getting them to run backwards. No need for solar or wind generators. See: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=consumertroni
c s+%22stopping+power+meters -
Re:Fallout
Fallout was unquestionably the best PC game ever made.
I don't know about best PC game, but it was definitely the best post-apocalyptic RPG I ever played. Fallout 3 has been in developement for a while... http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Fallout+3&btnG =Google+Search&meta= (Looking forward to it) -
Re:Are you kidding?
Nice try.
Somehow I'm not surprised to find that materials written for consumption by grade school students (and teachers) get this wrong. A prime element of an integral domain is a non-zero non-unit p such that if p divides ab, p divides either a or b (or both). The integers are an integral domain, and (-5) is a prime. -
Re:Are you kidding?
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Re:Exactly!
I don't know at what point in time you researched prior to buying, but this search turned up the parallels bug you described in the first 5 results:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=Parallels+problems+M ac+Pro&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a& rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official -
Re:Perhaps you,ve heard of these things called fac
Ok fine. If you want to argue that 19th century Western European social critics coined the term "socialism" and therefore by definition no form of government before that time could be correctly called a "socialist" government then go ahead, but such an argument is pedantry at it's best.
Socialism is generally defined as "A system based on public ownership of the means of production and distribution of wealth", and such forms of government were experimented with long before Karl Marx. If you want to argue that they weren't socialist because no one had coined the term socialism then there's nothing I can say to convince you otherwise. -
They don't need truth.
You seem to be under the impression that the AI is designed to figure out whether a given e-mail is reliable or accurate. It is not. It is designed to figure out what the subject of a spam actually is. If a letter is titled "Hi! It's your Uncle Harold!" and inside is a Markov-chain generated letter on the subject of "v1aqra", a conventional spam filter may have trouble understanding that the letter is selling pills. Bayesian approaches come close, but they're in the hands of the spammers too... spammers just check their algorithms against the filter and try to get a low score.
What these researchers need is a large number of articles on a variety of subjects a human being would not describe as "nonsense." It doesn't matter whether the wikipedia article claims the common cold is caused by a virus or by swamp gas, the AI will still learn that the common cold is often associated with coughing, sneezing, sniffles or a mild fever. Viagra is associated with sex, ladies, satisfaction and inversely associated with penile pumps, spanish fly and oysters. A program that understands this is more likely to catch a cleverly generated spam.
My question is whether this program will associate the acronym "AI" with the adjective "burgeoning." The association with this cliche is so strong in my mind I was sure I saw it in the summary, but it seems I was wrong. That's how human brains work.
Google is burgeoning too. -
So...
Why not just use Google Translate to "translate" Youtube?
Quite simple, really. Not sure if Youtube's videos will work (which would make it a useless workaround), but translating from (for example) Chinese Simplified to English will usually ensure you get non-altered text (it being a different character set the engine's looking for and all. You could also technically use one of the following IP's if it's just blocked at the domain level (Youtube's linking seems to be all relative):
208.65.153.242
208.65.153.245
208.65.153.251
208.65.153.253
208.65.153.241
And then there's the obligatory mention of Tor.
Yes, I also realize that my first method is cruelly aligned to anglophones. -
I think that dynamic compilation is a good idea
I think that JIT (which I call dynamic) compilation is a good idea because it would allow binary executables to run on different architectures. I have posted to comp.arch a programming language which would produce the same result on different architectures while retaining the flexibility of C here.
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Dimmable CFLs
Dimmable CFLs are available: http://www.google.ca/search?q=cfL+dimmable
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lawn mower men
I wasn't able to spot anywhere in the pictures the giant elastic band used to start this sucker. Exactly how does that work? Or does all fourteen crew assemble along the top and give a giant heave to fourteen lawn-mower pull cords in perfect unison?
For all those people worried about the fuel consumption level, a Wikipedia page states that a container ship can carry as much as $300 million in cargo. In our highly disposable society, you'd need to depreciate that figure by $100 million in the first year post-production.
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=three+hundred+ million+times+hours%2Fyear
Loaded to capacity, the goods conveyed could be depreciating on the open market by as much as $34,000 per hour in transit. $34,000/hour buys a lot of giddy-up. -
Go ask google
I asked Google and it said 10 trillion rubles is 379.859832 billion U.S. dollars.
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As a linguist....I'd like to point out to you that there's actually a fairly well-known class of grammatical entities, a kind of quantifier called "minimizers" (a cursory search for my favourite one and the word minimizers on google returns this.)
Just for your edification.... What's the difference between the following:
1. John knows fuck all about Linux.
2. John doesn't know fuck all about Linux.
3. Mary has done shit all day.
4. Mary hasn't done shit all day.
"care less" is in the same class. The truth values of these sentences do not change from positive to negated contexts. A friend of mine is currently writing a paper I don't agree with her about on whether or not items that cause sentential negation in French are in fact negation or minimizers or another beast entirely "negative polarity items."
So let's not fight about this. They're grammatical. -
Re:If they put Morena Baccarin in it
GIS for the lazy...
You Firefly fans won't need it though ;) -
Re:So unlock cellphones...
I am with you on this one.
I live in Canada and am on Rogers Wireless. Personally I never cared for them as their coverage isn't the greatest in my area, but it still works for what I need. I switched because I could buy any random unlocked GSM phone on the net and use it with them. Whereas the only competitor to where I am is CDMA [actually, Rogers is now the only GSM carrier in Canada now that they bought Fido]. All of the CDMA carriers require you purchase your phone through them. I told them to shove it, went on the net and bought a Motorola A630 for $160 on TigerDirect.ca. I love this phone. :-) -
Re:Pareto Distribution
Are you confusing "poor" and "poverty," or am I?
Good question: according to Answers poverty is: the state of being poor.
Thank you for your more static definition of poverty. You see, the level I was using was the concept of "living below the poverty line" where that line was 10k this year and 5k a decade ago. This concept of the poverty line is the one oft-quoted by news pundits or people pushing social security agendas.
Now point #2 is not perfectly static b/c housing requirements would vary dramatically between say Alaska and Miami, but the definition does include the concept of privacy. But hey, this stuff is good, this is stuff that can be measured. I really appreciate the reply, b/c most people don't care to even think about this stuff.
Now given that I live in balmy Winnipeg, I'll nitpick your list and add the requirement for adequate clothing (big deal out here, $100 winter jackets are not for show).
Given all of this info, I think that we'll actually reduce this conversation to something with a political bend (which makes this an opinion/ideological debate, rather than a debate about definitions). I'll warn you that I'm of the conservative bend.
The minimum wage in my region is $7.60 or about USD $6.61 (actually higher than the US minimum wage). At 40 hrs/week, that's just over about 15k, after standard income taxes that's about 12k/year or 1k/month. Now, in Winnipeg, a basic 2 bedroom apartment costs $700/month, and I'd like to assume that having a room-mate offers "the possibility for privacy", so all we'd really need to provide is schooling (free to 12th grade in Canada) and health care (free in Canada, drugs not included). So that leaves our minimum wage employee about $650/month (paying half the rent) to make food and clothes.
So clearly, with that money, this person is not poor by your definitions. Heck, with this money they could apply for a reduced-rate pass at the local Y, pay for a monthly bus pass (now tax-deductible) and even be well-entertained between the library and activities at the Y. In fact this minimum-wage employee, working full time, could ostensibly live a pretty healthy life. And let's not forget, that they won't stay at minimum forever, currently minimum wage (in Manitoba) is set to go up again in April (to $8/hour), but it's already irrelevant b/c we're at 3.5% unemployment, so nobody really makes minimum wage. All you really need to do is show up to work every day, do an adequate job and you'll get regular pay increases, so even minimum can be viewed as a short term issue.
Now, this issue changes a little when a kid arrives, but even a single parent is not without recourse in Canada. The government provides a Canada Child Tax Benefit (on a sliding scale) and Manitoba has the Manitoba Shelter Benefit for families, there is a GST Tax Credit, there are CRISP benefits and even childcare (daycare) subsidies. Of course, in single parent situations, the "missing" parent is expected to pay child support. If that "missing" parent has died, the government will help replace that income using Canada pension plan benefits, to the tune of about $200/month. As a bonus, if you need childcare to be able to work, those childcare costs are tax-deductible (whatever parts are not already subsidized). The system only scales out to a few of children, but if you have 4 kids, no partner and a
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Re:Pareto Distribution
this is not correct. It is what you have been told by the media.
Money is actually created by the banks, See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_reserve_ba nking
and
http://video.google.ca/videosearch?q=fractional+re serve+banking
"The Money Masters", on google video, is a little out of date on its economic theory and suggestions at the end. But it gets the major points of the matter right.
currently in Canada banks operate with a 0% reserve.
in the USA it varies I think it is 3% for some types of accounts, and 0% for others. -
Some interesting talks
Gapminder is a group of people working on interesting ways to visualise data from the UN, as well as databases from national, and non-governmental organisations. The results are pretty interesting to see, and actually quite hopeful in terms of the world outlook. There seem to be a lot of incorrect preconceptions most people have about global socioeconomics which come from the way things were 30 to 40 years ago.
Here are a couple of rather interesting talks about what they've been working on. There's quite a bit of overlap between the two, but the Google Techtalk is longer and more complete. In Hans' talk at TED, in order to back up the claim that there are incorrect preconceptions, he shows how some of the brightest Swedish students scored a statistically significant margin worse than random when asked to choose the country with the highest child mortality rate from pairs selected such that one of each pair had double the child mortality rate of the other.
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Some interesting talks
Gapminder is a group of people working on interesting ways to visualise data from the UN, as well as databases from national, and non-governmental organisations. The results are pretty interesting to see, and actually quite hopeful in terms of the world outlook. There seem to be a lot of incorrect preconceptions most people have about global socioeconomics which come from the way things were 30 to 40 years ago.
Here are a couple of rather interesting talks about what they've been working on. There's quite a bit of overlap between the two, but the Google Techtalk is longer and more complete. In Hans' talk at TED, in order to back up the claim that there are incorrect preconceptions, he shows how some of the brightest Swedish students scored a statistically significant margin worse than random when asked to choose the country with the highest child mortality rate from pairs selected such that one of each pair had double the child mortality rate of the other.
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Re:"Making available"
If I leave a stack of copied CDs (ones I own myself) that I made for backup purposes (since my CDs quite easilly scratch) accidentily on a table in a foodcourt and someone takes them with them, would I be sueable for infringement of copyright?
More up here. Not only you can copy all the CDs you borrow (be it from a friend or a library), but you can share them online, too (says the Supreme Court). -
Re:Yahoo?What is a goggle? Well, according to Google , it's a protective form of eyewear designed to protect the eyes and seal to the surrounding face.
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slowly compromises will come?So unless we complain nothing happens? That doesn't seem fair or efficient.
They've already made ink pack gadgets to protect clothes.
There are similar protective containers for dvds.The cashier takes them off with another gadget of some sort (magnets?).
So solutions are near at hand with little/no creativity required.
That being said this is what *I'd* like to see:
A new package which is easy to open but makes a loud bang. Ever pulled a christmas cracker?
If the bang is hard to avoid thieves should be deterred.
As a bonus christmas mornings should get much more fun. -
Is no one else surprised...?
So, not one person playing MMOs these days spent any time online gaming before there WERE MMOs? I feel old. I recall, fondly, the days when half of my online compatriots disappeared for weeks on end after being booted out of college for spending too much time online chatting, playing -text based- roleplaying games, -freeform- on chats such as Alamak and The Keep. Hell, I barely graduated high school thanks to my own idiocy: spending night after night up developing characters, cohesing storylines, sketching out designs for newer, better villains. I know one person who lost out on a fellowship because of the Game - and another who dropped out of university three times because they couldn't (or wouldn't) get a handle on what was going on. And people are making a big deal over this as if it's the latest version of crack since - well - crack? Give me a break. People will always be addicted to something. We're human; we like being altered. Be it caffiene, meth, pot - sex, sports, stock trading. Whatever it is that blows your hair back, you want more of it. Sometimes I wonder if addictions only get labelled addictions because they can't be parleyed into some form of sociological benefit or industry. At least not for those addicted. I'm sure it could be argued that Blizzard falls into the same category as some other Enabling Corporations I could mention. But who cares, right? People smoke and drink in the movies all the time. Who ever saw a hot film-noir leading lady who had a penchent for dungeon crawling?
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Is no one else surprised...?
So, not one person playing MMOs these days spent any time online gaming before there WERE MMOs? I feel old. I recall, fondly, the days when half of my online compatriots disappeared for weeks on end after being booted out of college for spending too much time online chatting, playing -text based- roleplaying games, -freeform- on chats such as Alamak and The Keep. Hell, I barely graduated high school thanks to my own idiocy: spending night after night up developing characters, cohesing storylines, sketching out designs for newer, better villains. I know one person who lost out on a fellowship because of the Game - and another who dropped out of university three times because they couldn't (or wouldn't) get a handle on what was going on. And people are making a big deal over this as if it's the latest version of crack since - well - crack? Give me a break. People will always be addicted to something. We're human; we like being altered. Be it caffiene, meth, pot - sex, sports, stock trading. Whatever it is that blows your hair back, you want more of it. Sometimes I wonder if addictions only get labelled addictions because they can't be parleyed into some form of sociological benefit or industry. At least not for those addicted. I'm sure it could be argued that Blizzard falls into the same category as some other Enabling Corporations I could mention. But who cares, right? People smoke and drink in the movies all the time. Who ever saw a hot film-noir leading lady who had a penchent for dungeon crawling?