Rock Band 2 definitely gets my vote for best game of the year. Yes, it's technically just an 'add-on' for Rock Band 1, but ever since the Rock Band franchise started, I've played, maybe, 10 hours of anything other than 1 and 2 on my X-box. NOTHING can beat getting friends together and rocking out. The DLC is phenomenal; diverse and entertaining.
You're right, in most jurisdictions there is Theft of Services involved. Theaters and other entertainment venues were specifically added it seems. I was thinking back to the rule of law that stated there had to be demonstrable loss by the plaintiff (which may be hard to prove if they're offering the service whether you're in the theater or not). However, as a violation, I'm not sure if go to jail under criminal charges. Of course, IANAL (and for good reason).
I thought there was...
From - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Rules_of_Civi l_Procedure
"Rule 11 requires all papers to be signed by the attorney. It also provides for sanctions against the attorney or client for harassment, frivolous arguments, or a lack of factual investigation. The purpose of sanctions is deterrent, not punitive. Courts have broad discretion about the exact nature of the sanction which can include: consent to in personam jurisdiction, fines, dismissal of claims, or dismissal of the entire case. The current version of Rule 11 is much more lenient than its 1980s version. Supporters of tort reform in Congress regularly call for legislation to make Rule 11 stricter."
Ron Gilbert has said himself that the inspiration for The Secret of Monkey Island|Monkey Island came from the Pirates ride. He then refuted the claims once he saw Disney making a boatload of money off the movies, and started claiming that they must've gotten the idea for the movie from him. One obvious example is the prison scene in MI2, complete with key-carrying dog named 'Walt'.
IANAOptometrist, but from what I've read recently (and one of the things the article you've linked references), is that brightness takes a secondary role to contrast when it comes to eyestrain. Unless you're looking at a bright monitor in a very dark room, the brightness of the point of primary focus in comparison to the peripherals will be the main factor in eyestrain.
Actually, no. Having "grown up" in Southern California, whenever I saw the oracle, I thought of the Gypsy fortune-teller from the original Pirates of the Caribbean, which I believe was the intent.
CI is a FRINGE group, and not taught in "churches", at least as a matter of course.
As someone living in the Southern United States, the so-called 'Bible Belt', I beg to differ. Good old Southern racism is, sadly, very much alive down here. It's passed down from generation to generation like a mutant gene, and it gets its roots from the 'fringe' religious ramblings of Christian Identity.
However, Radical Islam, is standard fair, and taught all over the place. I can name several prominent Muslim Clerics just off the top of my head. I cannot do the same for CI. Besides, when was the last time a CIer hijacked a plane, blew up a building, set an IED, destroyed a Mosque, Church or Synagogue?
Why did Buford O. Furrow, Jr. attack a Jewish Community center in 1999? Christian Identity.
Why did Benjamin Smith go on a minority-targetted sooting spree in 1999? Christian Identity.
Why did two members of the Creativity Movement attempt to blow up Black and Jewish landmarks in 2002? Perhaps you're starting to get the picture.
It's a very parallel ideology. In fact, the head of the Ku Klux Clan, Posse Comitatus, and the Aryan Nation/Aryan Brotherhood, August Kreis, has recently reached out to al Qaeda in an attempt to form an alliance.
The problem here, is that you want to marginalize Radical Islam and make it seem like it is just a few wackos, when the reality is, radical = mainstream.
Please don't assume to know what I want, because I realize Radical Islam is more than a 'few wackos', just like EVERY religion has more than its share of 'wackos'. I'm just not getting my world-view spoon fed to me by my own religious leaders, and can see that the problem is not with any one religion in particular, but with any movement, religious or otherwise, that sponsors hate.
Further, most "christians" are willing and do denounce violence from such groups as CIers. I have yet to see such boldness from the Muslim communities, except in VERY RARE CASES, and then, those people usually end up hiding for the rest of their lives. Do you remember Salman Rushdie? All he did was write a FICTIONAL NOVEL.
Yes, most Christians do denounce the violence. Out of one side of their mouth, that is. The other is normally too busy spouting out propaganda against any religion, lifestyle, or medical procedure that they disagree with.
Plus, it's a lot easier to play the 'concerned citizen' and decry the violence while sitting in a comfortable position within the highest populated religion in the U.S. Try to advance non-Christian views in a predominantly Christian culture and see how far that gets you. Probably about as far as advancing non-Islamic views in a predominantly Muslim culture.
Now compare to the violence associated with "The Last Temptation of Christ". Right, what violence. There wasn't any.
Oh? Tell that to the people injured by the molotov cocktails tossed into the movie theater by Catholic fundementalists. Scorsese himself stated that for over a year, death threats had him so scared he couldn't open his own mail.
While you may like to try to compare the extremes, but there is no comparison, because nominal christianity and judiasm is not "extreme", whereas nominal Islam in its current state IS.
Nominal Christianity, Judaism, or Islam are not what I was referring to. I was just making a point that, like you said, there are 'wackos' in each and every one of them. And right now, with all the focus on the scary Muslim wackos, it's the rest that'll sneak up on you if you don't pay attention. While everyone keeps on worrying about all those terrorist attacks, civil liberties are being taken, scientific advancement is being squelched, and the gap between Church and State is shrinking at an alarming pace.
As I stated, extremists are the issue. On that I think you agree. You state that the Islamic extremists are the norm, and according to population census when it comes to religious preference, that's utterly false. The radicals are driven by politics, using their religion as a means to an end, as a way to incite the sheeple, as a flag around which their flock can gather.
Are you talking about the 'Windows Genuine Advantage' program? If that's the case, it's not a mandatory program, you just can't receive any updates from the MS site. But if someone doesn't have legitimate software to begin with, I don't see how having to find illegitimate updates would be an issue for them.
Although I'm not in favor of overly restrictive anti-piracy programs, I don't think it's quite as dastardly an issue as the MS crowd makes it out to be. False positives suck in any such endeavor, but just like in all media-covered things, I think the negative aspects are blown out of proportion. I've never met anyone who had a problem with it; have you?
Now with graphics cards, I agree that it's not 'forced' per se. But as the game developers continue to push the envelope graphically, if you choose to play the games you also have to fork over the cash for the card that can play it. From my experience, it's the gaming community that drives this though, so we've only ourselves to blame. So, it's not forced, but the game developers and graphic card manufacturers can be highly persuasive;)
The thing that I'm not understanding (excuse my ignorance on the subject, please) is that I've done countless re-installs of XP on numerous computers, and I've never been asked to 'validate'. Is this a 'feature' of XP Home Edition, because in that case I can understand where you're coming from since I only have experience with Pro. Forced obsolescence DOES suck, but honestly I go through it more with graphic cards than operating systems.
But if you're basically saying that M$ will in some hypothetical distant time, stop this 'authentication' service that I've never been asked to use, then I don't see a strong need to change my OS to anything else in the meantime. I personally (and I know MANY people would argue against this) don't see the benefits of changing to a *nix OS when my hammer seems to be working fine. But if you can point me in the direction of an easy to follow, easy to install, easy to operate *nix-based OS that will run my applications (games, audio-authoring, multimedia) in a stable, user-friendly environment, I'd be happy to look into it. I'm not a WIN fanboi, but it's the easiest thing I've found for the 'casual' user.
See, I suppose this is why I differ from the/. "The screwdriver is God!" groupthink. I've NEVER had a problem with my hammer being taken away. I've never been forced to upgrade. Sure, I've purchased larger hammers due to my desire to run certain applications, but it was not becase I was suddenly denied my right to use my hammer.
I'd be surprised to hear that such a thing is anything more than FUD because people don't like the hammer-maker, or that it affects a significant portion of the people that actually use the tool as intended.
Of course, if you don't go to the manufacturer, and instead buy your hammer off some shady dealer off the internet, you can't rightfully complain that your hammer is sub-standard. They call them 'cracked' for a reason...
I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a Catholic. I'm not a Christian. But I'm also not blind. The problem is not with radical MUSLIMS, but radical PEOPLE.
And just to add clarity;
Exodus 22:20 "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed."
Leviticus 24:16 "And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death."
Acts 3:23 "And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."
Islam isn't the only religion to preach intolerance. Most followers of the Bible would likely argue that only a small radical slice of zealots would actually follow through with these things. I can imagine that the same might be said of followers of Islam and the quote you pulled...
That's kinda what I thought at first as well, but looking over the lower two-thirds of the article, I started to get a different impression. They talked about a 'strong web' idea, where if your webpage is disconnected from the 'main' web and set up in a sort of 'secondary web' with just your Geocities accounts, for instance, linking to it, then the actual websites that interconnected within your site matrix would rank a 0 overall.
Not sure if this is correct or not, just the impression that I got from what little of the TFA I could skim at work...
Maybe it's just me, but I don't know if "illiterate Indian slum dwellers" is a demographic I'd want my bank investing vast amounts of capital and new technology into.
Slashdot Mirror
Tell that to Jack Bauer...
Rock Band 2 definitely gets my vote for best game of the year. Yes, it's technically just an 'add-on' for Rock Band 1, but ever since the Rock Band franchise started, I've played, maybe, 10 hours of anything other than 1 and 2 on my X-box. NOTHING can beat getting friends together and rocking out. The DLC is phenomenal; diverse and entertaining.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. - Emo Phillips
I think it had to do with the 'uncanny valley' effect as well. *Almost* real, but not quite...
Yeah, especially if they were planning on using that laptop to do it.
(Avoiding Admission Charges)
PENAL LAW 165.15(9) (Committed on or after Nov. 1, 1992)
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/cji/3-PenalLaw/165/1 65-15(9).pdf
You're right, in most jurisdictions there is Theft of Services involved. Theaters and other entertainment venues were specifically added it seems. I was thinking back to the rule of law that stated there had to be demonstrable loss by the plaintiff (which may be hard to prove if they're offering the service whether you're in the theater or not). However, as a violation, I'm not sure if go to jail under criminal charges. Of course, IANAL (and for good reason).
Actually, going into a theater without paying is trespassing. There's absolutely no 'theft' involved.
I thought there was... From - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Rules_of_Civi l_Procedure
"Rule 11 requires all papers to be signed by the attorney. It also provides for sanctions against the attorney or client for harassment, frivolous arguments, or a lack of factual investigation. The purpose of sanctions is deterrent, not punitive. Courts have broad discretion about the exact nature of the sanction which can include: consent to in personam jurisdiction, fines, dismissal of claims, or dismissal of the entire case. The current version of Rule 11 is much more lenient than its 1980s version. Supporters of tort reform in Congress regularly call for legislation to make Rule 11 stricter."
It's all good, just don't use your kazoo to play copyrighted works...
Ron Gilbert has said himself that the inspiration for The Secret of Monkey Island|Monkey Island came from the Pirates ride. He then refuted the claims once he saw Disney making a boatload of money off the movies, and started claiming that they must've gotten the idea for the movie from him. One obvious example is the prison scene in MI2, complete with key-carrying dog named 'Walt'.
IANAOptometrist, but from what I've read recently (and one of the things the article you've linked references), is that brightness takes a secondary role to contrast when it comes to eyestrain. Unless you're looking at a bright monitor in a very dark room, the brightness of the point of primary focus in comparison to the peripherals will be the main factor in eyestrain.
Actually, no. Having "grown up" in Southern California, whenever I saw the oracle, I thought of the Gypsy fortune-teller from the original Pirates of the Caribbean, which I believe was the intent.
As someone living in the Southern United States, the so-called 'Bible Belt', I beg to differ. Good old Southern racism is, sadly, very much alive down here. It's passed down from generation to generation like a mutant gene, and it gets its roots from the 'fringe' religious ramblings of Christian Identity.
However, Radical Islam, is standard fair, and taught all over the place. I can name several prominent Muslim Clerics just off the top of my head. I cannot do the same for CI. Besides, when was the last time a CIer hijacked a plane, blew up a building, set an IED, destroyed a Mosque, Church or Synagogue?
Why did Buford O. Furrow, Jr. attack a Jewish Community center in 1999? Christian Identity.
Why did Benjamin Smith go on a minority-targetted sooting spree in 1999? Christian Identity.
Why did two members of the Creativity Movement attempt to blow up Black and Jewish landmarks in 2002? Perhaps you're starting to get the picture.
It's a very parallel ideology. In fact, the head of the Ku Klux Clan, Posse Comitatus, and the Aryan Nation/Aryan Brotherhood, August Kreis, has recently reached out to al Qaeda in an attempt to form an alliance.
The problem here, is that you want to marginalize Radical Islam and make it seem like it is just a few wackos, when the reality is, radical = mainstream.
Please don't assume to know what I want, because I realize Radical Islam is more than a 'few wackos', just like EVERY religion has more than its share of 'wackos'. I'm just not getting my world-view spoon fed to me by my own religious leaders, and can see that the problem is not with any one religion in particular, but with any movement, religious or otherwise, that sponsors hate.
Further, most "christians" are willing and do denounce violence from such groups as CIers. I have yet to see such boldness from the Muslim communities, except in VERY RARE CASES, and then, those people usually end up hiding for the rest of their lives. Do you remember Salman Rushdie? All he did was write a FICTIONAL NOVEL.
Yes, most Christians do denounce the violence. Out of one side of their mouth, that is. The other is normally too busy spouting out propaganda against any religion, lifestyle, or medical procedure that they disagree with.
Plus, it's a lot easier to play the 'concerned citizen' and decry the violence while sitting in a comfortable position within the highest populated religion in the U.S. Try to advance non-Christian views in a predominantly Christian culture and see how far that gets you. Probably about as far as advancing non-Islamic views in a predominantly Muslim culture.
Now compare to the violence associated with "The Last Temptation of Christ". Right, what violence. There wasn't any.
Oh? Tell that to the people injured by the molotov cocktails tossed into the movie theater by Catholic fundementalists. Scorsese himself stated that for over a year, death threats had him so scared he couldn't open his own mail.
While you may like to try to compare the extremes, but there is no comparison, because nominal christianity and judiasm is not "extreme", whereas nominal Islam in its current state IS.
Nominal Christianity, Judaism, or Islam are not what I was referring to. I was just making a point that, like you said, there are 'wackos' in each and every one of them. And right now, with all the focus on the scary Muslim wackos, it's the rest that'll sneak up on you if you don't pay attention. While everyone keeps on worrying about all those terrorist attacks, civil liberties are being taken, scientific advancement is being squelched, and the gap between Church and State is shrinking at an alarming pace.
As I stated, extremists are the issue. On that I think you agree. You state that the Islamic extremists are the norm, and according to population census when it comes to religious preference, that's utterly false. The radicals are driven by politics, using their religion as a means to an end, as a way to incite the sheeple, as a flag around which their flock can gather.
Just like Christianity...
Although I'm not in favor of overly restrictive anti-piracy programs, I don't think it's quite as dastardly an issue as the MS crowd makes it out to be. False positives suck in any such endeavor, but just like in all media-covered things, I think the negative aspects are blown out of proportion. I've never met anyone who had a problem with it; have you?
Now with graphics cards, I agree that it's not 'forced' per se. But as the game developers continue to push the envelope graphically, if you choose to play the games you also have to fork over the cash for the card that can play it. From my experience, it's the gaming community that drives this though, so we've only ourselves to blame. So, it's not forced, but the game developers and graphic card manufacturers can be highly persuasive ;)
But if you're basically saying that M$ will in some hypothetical distant time, stop this 'authentication' service that I've never been asked to use, then I don't see a strong need to change my OS to anything else in the meantime. I personally (and I know MANY people would argue against this) don't see the benefits of changing to a *nix OS when my hammer seems to be working fine. But if you can point me in the direction of an easy to follow, easy to install, easy to operate *nix-based OS that will run my applications (games, audio-authoring, multimedia) in a stable, user-friendly environment, I'd be happy to look into it. I'm not a WIN fanboi, but it's the easiest thing I've found for the 'casual' user.
I'd be surprised to hear that such a thing is anything more than FUD because people don't like the hammer-maker, or that it affects a significant portion of the people that actually use the tool as intended.
Of course, if you don't go to the manufacturer, and instead buy your hammer off some shady dealer off the internet, you can't rightfully complain that your hammer is sub-standard. They call them 'cracked' for a reason...
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/15/ 1652222
They were recently (and rightly) unbanned, but it created quite a stir as you can probably imagine.
Is that before or after they terminate your WoW account? ;)
You can flip over a screwdriver to pound in nails, but why not just use the hammer?
http://dejavu.movies.go.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity As I stated, there are religious zealots in every religion. Thanks for proving my point.
I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a Catholic. I'm not a Christian. But I'm also not blind. The problem is not with radical MUSLIMS, but radical PEOPLE. And just to add clarity; Exodus 22:20 "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed." Leviticus 24:16 "And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death." Acts 3:23 "And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." Islam isn't the only religion to preach intolerance. Most followers of the Bible would likely argue that only a small radical slice of zealots would actually follow through with these things. I can imagine that the same might be said of followers of Islam and the quote you pulled...
But 'deplane' sounds so much better when you're already living on whatever Fantasy Island these 'lawmakers' are...
That's kinda what I thought at first as well, but looking over the lower two-thirds of the article, I started to get a different impression. They talked about a 'strong web' idea, where if your webpage is disconnected from the 'main' web and set up in a sort of 'secondary web' with just your Geocities accounts, for instance, linking to it, then the actual websites that interconnected within your site matrix would rank a 0 overall.
Not sure if this is correct or not, just the impression that I got from what little of the TFA I could skim at work...
Crap. Now all I need are the friends =/
Maybe it's just me, but I don't know if "illiterate Indian slum dwellers" is a demographic I'd want my bank investing vast amounts of capital and new technology into.