You misunderstand the placebo effect. No objective measures of health are affected by placebos, only subjective measures.
For example, no placebo will change your blood sugar level like insulin, nor will it kill the bacteria in a bladder infection. It can, however, change your perception of fatigue or pain. Placebos can make a person feel better, but it won't make them better.
The power of positive thinking has very little real-world effect on objective outcomes. You can't wish a broken bone back together or believe a clogged artery into opening.
The placebo effect is nothing more than what happens when a parent kisses a child's bruise and it feels better. Kind attention results in patients feeling better. Most diseases are self-limiting. When the patient feels better and the disease follows its natural course and resolves itself, it seems like placebos healed the patient. Note that feeling better is not the same as actually being healthier. You can forget your pain for a while, but if the underlying issue isn't resolved, it'll come back.
I'm too old school, I guess. I can't aim for shit with an analog stick on a controller. When I started playing XBox 360 with my son, I finally understood the previously mystifying option of "Aim Assist". It's hard as hell to hit things in an action FPS with that little stick. There's a very good reason why you almost never see PC and console versions of the same game allow multiplayer with each other. The PC versions would own the console versions due to the sucktastic aiming of the analog sticks.
While you are correct in that you cannot install games without teh intert00bs, you can certainly play them without connectivity. Steam's offline mode is quite good.
It also keeps the games patched, which is nice.
Valve still has some work to do in smoothing out their "cloud[1]" feature, used to sync your saved games between computers, but it's a step in the right direction. Particularly for someone like me who travels a lot for work. Play at home on desktop -> saves go into "cloud" -> continue where I left off on laptop.
Mike
[1] Hate that word, cloud. "New media" marketing BS for "It's on servers outside of your premises." Bah.
You make valid points, and that scares me. I realize I'm a niche market, but I travel quite a bit for business. Usually away 5 out 7 days a week. I'm a gamer and use evening gaming as entertainment and stress relief. I do not want to have to haul a big, heavy (X-Box 360/PS-3) console with me and have to fight to hook it up to the hotel TV just to game. The Wii is surprisingly portable, but even then, it's one more set of things (Wii, brick, controller, game disks, sensor bar, and RF modulator+cables (for TV's without RCA connectors)) to carry with me. I'm rely on my laptop for gaming.
If PC gaming fades away, I hope the consoles get a lot more portable. Or maybe with decent remote abilities (RDP/VNC into the console at home and play from the hotel? There's a thought.:) )
Guru
Slashdot Mirror
You misunderstand the placebo effect. No objective measures of health are affected by placebos, only subjective measures.
For example, no placebo will change your blood sugar level like insulin, nor will it kill the bacteria in a bladder infection. It can, however, change your perception of fatigue or pain. Placebos can make a person feel better, but it won't make them better.
The power of positive thinking has very little real-world effect on objective outcomes. You can't wish a broken bone back together or believe a clogged artery into opening.
The placebo effect is nothing more than what happens when a parent kisses a child's bruise and it feels better. Kind attention results in patients feeling better. Most diseases are self-limiting. When the patient feels better and the disease follows its natural course and resolves itself, it seems like placebos healed the patient. Note that feeling better is not the same as actually being healthier. You can forget your pain for a while, but if the underlying issue isn't resolved, it'll come back.
For more information: http://www.sciencebasedmedicin...
I'm too old school, I guess. I can't aim for shit with an analog stick on a controller. When I started playing XBox 360 with my son, I finally understood the previously mystifying option of "Aim Assist". It's hard as hell to hit things in an action FPS with that little stick. There's a very good reason why you almost never see PC and console versions of the same game allow multiplayer with each other. The PC versions would own the console versions due to the sucktastic aiming of the analog sticks.
While you are correct in that you cannot install games without teh intert00bs, you can certainly play them without connectivity. Steam's offline mode is quite good. It also keeps the games patched, which is nice. Valve still has some work to do in smoothing out their "cloud[1]" feature, used to sync your saved games between computers, but it's a step in the right direction. Particularly for someone like me who travels a lot for work. Play at home on desktop -> saves go into "cloud" -> continue where I left off on laptop. Mike [1] Hate that word, cloud. "New media" marketing BS for "It's on servers outside of your premises." Bah.
You make valid points, and that scares me. I realize I'm a niche market, but I travel quite a bit for business. Usually away 5 out 7 days a week. I'm a gamer and use evening gaming as entertainment and stress relief. I do not want to have to haul a big, heavy (X-Box 360/PS-3) console with me and have to fight to hook it up to the hotel TV just to game. The Wii is surprisingly portable, but even then, it's one more set of things (Wii, brick, controller, game disks, sensor bar, and RF modulator+cables (for TV's without RCA connectors)) to carry with me. I'm rely on my laptop for gaming. If PC gaming fades away, I hope the consoles get a lot more portable. Or maybe with decent remote abilities (RDP/VNC into the console at home and play from the hotel? There's a thought. :) )
Guru