You know whatelse honks me off? Reviews for games that are 8.5-10, you know wildly outstanding, but when you get the game there are terrible technical issues with the game. Like Battlefield 2. A couple crappy patches, terrible multiplayer GUI, etc.
That really bugs me. All the game mags are so in the pockets of the big publishers, they should just call themselves...EA Computer Gaming Monthly, for example.
Some fringe makers have made models that tend to be used in crimes because of thier cost (the Saturday Night Special types) and style and capacity (Tec-9/Mac-10 types), however the majority of those used in crimes are from the "straw purchase" and are resold on the grey/black market.
Poster is rght, the vast majority of most firearms maker's sales are 100% legit and never used in a violent crime while there seems to be a pool of black/grey market guns used over and over by different criminals in violent crimes.
Take a look at Wyoming or Utah once and tell me it's "fully populated". We've only looked at a fraction of the ocean floor in detail, hell the United States is about the only Nation-State to fully explore it's territorial limits with sonar, the rest of the Nation-States 12 mile limits are unknown.
We've not found all of the petroleum deposits yet, hell we've not found all the billion barrel basins, let alone smaller basins. Other metals, minerals and important chemicals likewise aren't fully mapped nor used.
Sure the Earth is "claimed" by Nation-States, but its not explored, nor developed even fractionally yet.
When there is a financial reason to leave the Earth, when the Corps go to LEO and L-5, then space travel will explode, but right now, theres tons to learn and find on Earth.
The United States Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves estimates the world supply of oil shale at 1662 billion barrels of which 1200 billion barrels is in the United States. So is that oil company propoganda?
Incorrect. The Emperor had no intention of surrendering in the spring or summer of '45. There were murmurings of it from some in his cabinet, but He had zero intention of surrendering.
The Japanese were becoming better and better and better at killing the Allied invaders as the war moved along.
The total number of Japanese armed forces personnel demobalized by the U.S. Military Government after the surrender was 6,465,435, including 784,047 on Kyushu.
Estimates during the planning ranges from 6,700 to 7,200 aircraft available for operations against the American invasion but in fact there were over 12,700 aircraft available and within range of the invasion zones.
American losses in the Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO) from July 1944 through July 1945 totaled over 200,000 wounded plus 10,000 killed and missing from the Marianas, 5,500 from Leyte and it's environs, 9,000 on Luzon, 6,800 at Iwo Jima, 12,600 at Okinawa and 2,000 killed at Peleliu . Operations for the most part in the PTO had real casualties outpacing estimates and despite the pummeling of the Japanese by increasing aerial and naval bombardment and the destruction of Japanese infrastructure, the gap between estimates and real casualties was widening. While the American military and civilian leadership know that American forces always won, operations were falling behind schedule and the cost was increasing on men and material.
On Okinawa, the Japanese military leadership had a better understanding of American force levels and operational planning than the United States had of Japanese preparations, even though the United States was able to read Japanese Signals Traffic throughout the war . While the Philippines gave the Americans a chance to operate against the Japanese in two familiar styles, the jungle and forest battle which had worked so well in New Guinea and the Solomon Chain and the maneuver battle on Luzon which gave the Pacific Theatre of Operations some of the same slashing attacks that were common in the Mediterranean and European Theatres, Okinawa was a different style. The low hills and reverse slopes along with built-up areas allowed the Japanese to draw in American infantry and armor close enough that the inferior Japanese weapons were effective.
Before the American assault, the Japanese correctly estimated the American ground force size, the size of the American beachheads, the duration in which the Americans would remain in their beachheads, the American breakout tactics, and the focus of the American attack . This is remarkable because, for the most part, no Japanese leaders who encountered American forces in the field after 1943 ever survived to teach lessons to other Japanese staff officers on American tactics and communications between Italy, Japan, and Germany and were limited in this regard. However this lack of communication and experience in being beaten by the Americans does have a tangible advantage, the Japanese soldiers haven't known defeat at the hands of Americans, since the majority of units which have been defeated on land were cut off and eliminated, there is no way for morale to lower because of veterans telling the soldiers how bad it might be when the Americans come.
Over and around Okinawa, the Kamikaze tactics came into their own, with over 1,100 Japanese aircraft lost in the air, 14 allied ships were sunk, and 90 damaged. Four carriers, three of them American and one British, were seriously damaged. This level of damage occurred around an island up to four hundred miles from the airfields where the Kamikaze flew, and in the fall during Olympic, though the Kamikazes would indeed have much less fuel, they would not have to fly across open ocean, and would be able to screen themselves from the Americans with the terrain, as well as screening themselves from fighter-cover with clouds from the Winter that would soon descend upon the Japanese Islands.
During the battles for the Philippines, kamikazes were able to continually slip through the combat air patrols and CVEs sent forward specifically to deal with the kamikazes after it was discovered that the majority of naval rapid-fire guns were unable to deal with the oncoming aircraft and not able to knock down less than half of the incoming fighters before they reached the fleet. Interception around the Philippines in January 1945, because of Japanese flight tactics and radar problems, became "largely a matter of luck."
"As for the future, when energy resources start to dwindle..."
Thats the problem, resources are not dwindling, nor will they. If one looks at all the oil, for one example, and looks at ALL the know oil shale, rock oil, tar sands, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of years of petroleum avaliable.
No, the low scale war that is occuring over resources are occuring over rare-earths or class items (diamonds), resources which are not rare.
When something strategic does become rare, the powers that need it, EU-US-China-Russia-Pacific Rim will secure it's delivery.
"The TV Commerical shows a guy walking with a rocket launcher, stripers, a fight, cops chasing someone and a car being blown up."
Yea, because TV commericals are a good representation of whats in a game and the parents had to see them right?
BS, game should have on the box whats in it, if HBO or Showtime have TV MA Adult Language, Rape, Violence, Strong Sexual Content, then game publishers need to as well, on the box. My PS/2 copy of GTA SA doesn't.
Game makers, don't say on the boxes or on the commericals what the content is.
To say it's all the parents or the makers fault isn't the complete story, both sides are at fault here. Why can't a game maker say what is in the frickin' game? Saying it's on a review at a website isn't good enough, they need to publish on the game whats in the game. Parents need to have access to the content so they can say yea or nay.
They aren't required to have an array of skills and experiance.
A typical path in the US is a BA in English or Communications or something else light and Liberal Arts.
Heres a list for the University here in Portland Oregon for the General Middle Grade program
"Candidates must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university and a strong academic record; in most cases, a 3.0 cumulative GPA is necessary. They must also submit passing scores on a basic educational skills test and a subject area test. Admission to the GTEP is selective and competitive. High value is placed on interpersonal skills, experience in working with children, academic achievement, course work preparation, potential to meet the needs of pupils, social development, and motivation." http://www.ed.pdx.edu/ci/gtep_prereq.shtml
"Early Childhood, Early Elementary, and Middle School (multiple subjects): Prerequisites: Psy 311 - Human Development Art 312 - Art in the Elementary School Mus 381 - Music Fundamentals Lib 428 - Children's Literature Mth 211, 212 - Foundations of Elementary Mathematics (8 credits minimum) Passing scores on: ORELA* and CBEST** or PPST*** Highly recommended: Ed 420 - Introduction to Education CI 432 - Computer Applications Middle School (single subject) and High School Education: Prerequisites: Psy 311 - Human Development Academic Advisor Review Form Passing scores on: Praxis II Subject Assessments and Subject Area Test(s) in the area you wish to teach and CBEST** or PPST*** Highly recommended: Ed 420 - Introduction to Education CI 432 - Computer Applications
Teachers should only be paid very well if they bring a set of skills into the Classroom and can teach. High saleries aren't going to fix the problem, a fundamental change in how K-12s work will fix the problem.
The other big problem is the National Educational Association here in the States.
"The National Education Association recently had its annual convention, where it called for President Bush to withdraw our troops from Iraq, vowed to defeat the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and resolved to educate about the need for debt cancellation in underdeveloped countries."
Number one item for discussion..."New Business Item 2 (Revised) NEA affirms and supports the decision of the Executive Committee to participate in the national Wal-Mart Consumer Education Campaign initiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Further, NEA strongly encourages state and local affiliates and individual NEA members to participate in this campaign."
Yep and another issue that the United States needs to deal with, and the sooner the better are the schools.
It's not about funding and it's not about class sizes, it's about how education in the Public K-12s is structured. We are still teaching kids so that they will be good factory workers and the Ed Schools in the US aren't focused on teaching teachers how to teach math and science.
Anyone who says its because of Bush or because of the Religous are full of it, the problem in the US is poorly structured schools and misplaced budgets.
Why are there multiple principals per school each making 70-100K? Why are there press contacts in the District Office making 50K+ a year?
While Moscow is booming, a little slowed because of the Asian Economic problems and over all cool down in the World Economy, Russia isn't booming.
So the region is becoming what it was 600 years ago, City-States and the hinterlands they "control".
Moscow exerts control over oil, gas, aerospace technology and timber outside of Moscow while they are stimied in Chechnya by a small, small force which is costing them thousands of soldiers and alot of equipment.
Russia, I've heard as a whole is about 100 years behind Europe and the Americas.
Also, from what I remember of Apollo/Saturn 204, the Velco in the capsule exploded in addition to the spark causing the fire.
"The Apollo 204 Review Board determined that a silver-plated copper wire running through an environmental control unit near the command module pilot's couch had become stripped of its insulation and abraded by repeated opening and closing of an associated access door. This weak point in the wiring also happened to pass near a junction in a ethylene glycol / water cooling line, which had developed a leak. The electrolysis of ethylene glycol solution with the anode made of silver resulted in a violent exothermic reaction that ignited the ethylene glycol mixture, which in turn was able to burn in the atmosphere of pure pressurized oxygen."
Well, this is a priority because the partners think it's a priority.
Carnegie Observatories Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Texas A&M University University of Arizona University of Michigan The University of Texas at Austin
Look, it's not about having one device, the more devices we have doing research, the better. NASA and ESA run Hubble and will replace it with the James Webb (stupid name IMO) in the next decade.
Yea, but I want point out the obvious and overlooked fact in this movie from a comic book, the United States is not a Democracy and hasn't been since 1787.
The United States of America is a Federal Republic. A federal republic is a state which is both a federation and a republic. A federation is a state composed of a number of self-governing regions (often themselves referred to as 'states') united by a central, federal government.
The United States as a whole is not a liberal democracy. A city, township, organization or county might be a democracy, but from about the time you get beyond a township, you are electing representatives for you, which does not make it a true democracy.
V for Vendetta or any other comic or movie isn't written for people to understand what can go really bad, they are written to make money and soothe the ego of the authors. World War Two in Western Europe shows what happens when a Republic goes bad.
I use OS X on my laptop, server, desktop. I moved to OS X from Red Hat on the server because I find it much easier to set up services and the box with OS X than Linux.
Also, I hate KDE/Gnome desktops and find Aqua much easier to deal with.
It's easier for me to deal with the shell once in a while, than a whole lot, as I had to deal with the shell a whole lot in Linux.
The Windows Dev need a P4 with a gig of ram. The Unix Programers can do it on a P4, but it'll work just fine on a Mot 68K or a 486. The Mainframe Programmers think a Ti-92 has too much horsepower.
Slashdot Mirror
You know whatelse honks me off? Reviews for games that are 8.5-10, you know wildly outstanding, but when you get the game there are terrible technical issues with the game. Like Battlefield 2. A couple crappy patches, terrible multiplayer GUI, etc.
That really bugs me. All the game mags are so in the pockets of the big publishers, they should just call themselves...EA Computer Gaming Monthly, for example.
Some fringe makers have made models that tend to be used in crimes because of thier cost (the Saturday Night Special types) and style and capacity (Tec-9/Mac-10 types), however the majority of those used in crimes are from the "straw purchase" and are resold on the grey/black market.
Poster is rght, the vast majority of most firearms maker's sales are 100% legit and never used in a violent crime while there seems to be a pool of black/grey market guns used over and over by different criminals in violent crimes.
Blizzard still patches it and it runs great under OS X
Take a 300k Autocad drawing of a house with detail plans and open it on a 386 and take the same drawing and open it on a 3.2 GHz P4.
Tell me the redraw times are the same.
Earth is NOT fully populated nor explored fully.
Take a look at Wyoming or Utah once and tell me it's "fully populated". We've only looked at a fraction of the ocean floor in detail, hell the United States is about the only Nation-State to fully explore it's territorial limits with sonar, the rest of the Nation-States 12 mile limits are unknown.
We've not found all of the petroleum deposits yet, hell we've not found all the billion barrel basins, let alone smaller basins. Other metals, minerals and important chemicals likewise aren't fully mapped nor used.
Sure the Earth is "claimed" by Nation-States, but its not explored, nor developed even fractionally yet.
When there is a financial reason to leave the Earth, when the Corps go to LEO and L-5, then space travel will explode, but right now, theres tons to learn and find on Earth.
Burt Rutan has worked for NASA in the past and currently has projects underway with Northrup Grumman and the DoD.
The United States Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves estimates the world supply of oil shale at 1662 billion barrels of which 1200 billion barrels is in the United States. So is that oil company propoganda?
Incorrect. The Emperor had no intention of surrendering in the spring or summer of '45. There were murmurings of it from some in his cabinet, but He had zero intention of surrendering.
The Japanese were becoming better and better and better at killing the Allied invaders as the war moved along.
The total number of Japanese armed forces personnel demobalized by the U.S. Military Government after the surrender was 6,465,435, including 784,047 on Kyushu.
Estimates during the planning ranges from 6,700 to 7,200 aircraft available for operations against the American invasion but in fact there were over 12,700 aircraft available and within range of the invasion zones.
American losses in the Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO) from July 1944 through July 1945 totaled over 200,000 wounded plus 10,000 killed and missing from the Marianas, 5,500 from Leyte and it's environs, 9,000 on Luzon, 6,800 at Iwo Jima, 12,600 at Okinawa and 2,000 killed at Peleliu . Operations for the most part in the PTO had real casualties outpacing estimates and despite the pummeling of the Japanese by increasing aerial and naval bombardment and the destruction of Japanese infrastructure, the gap between estimates and real casualties was widening. While the American military and civilian leadership know that American forces always won, operations were falling behind schedule and the cost was increasing on men and material.
On Okinawa, the Japanese military leadership had a better understanding of American force levels and operational planning than the United States had of Japanese preparations, even though the United States was able to read Japanese Signals Traffic throughout the war . While the Philippines gave the Americans a chance to operate against the Japanese in two familiar styles, the jungle and forest battle which had worked so well in New Guinea and the Solomon Chain and the maneuver battle on Luzon which gave the Pacific Theatre of Operations some of the same slashing attacks that were common in the Mediterranean and European Theatres, Okinawa was a different style. The low hills and reverse slopes along with built-up areas allowed the Japanese to draw in American infantry and armor close enough that the inferior Japanese weapons were effective.
Before the American assault, the Japanese correctly estimated the American ground force size, the size of the American beachheads, the duration in which the Americans would remain in their beachheads, the American breakout tactics, and the focus of the American attack . This is remarkable because, for the most part, no Japanese leaders who encountered American forces in the field after 1943 ever survived to teach lessons to other Japanese staff officers on American tactics and communications between Italy, Japan, and Germany and were limited in this regard. However this lack of communication and experience in being beaten by the Americans does have a tangible advantage, the Japanese soldiers haven't known defeat at the hands of Americans, since the majority of units which have been defeated on land were cut off and eliminated, there is no way for morale to lower because of veterans telling the soldiers how bad it might be when the Americans come.
Over and around Okinawa, the Kamikaze tactics came into their own, with over 1,100 Japanese aircraft lost in the air, 14 allied ships were sunk, and 90 damaged. Four carriers, three of them American and one British, were seriously damaged. This level of damage occurred around an island up to four hundred miles from the airfields where the Kamikaze flew, and in the fall during Olympic, though the Kamikazes would indeed have much less fuel, they would not have to fly across open ocean, and would be able to screen themselves from the Americans with the terrain, as well as screening themselves from fighter-cover with clouds from the Winter that would soon descend upon the Japanese Islands.
During the battles for the Philippines, kamikazes were able to continually slip through the combat air patrols and CVEs sent forward specifically to deal with the kamikazes after it was discovered that the majority of naval rapid-fire guns were unable to deal with the oncoming aircraft and not able to knock down less than half of the incoming fighters before they reached the fleet. Interception around the Philippines in January 1945, because of Japanese flight tactics and radar problems, became "largely a matter of luck."
"As for the future, when energy resources start to dwindle..."
Thats the problem, resources are not dwindling, nor will they. If one looks at all the oil, for one example, and looks at ALL the know oil shale, rock oil, tar sands, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of years of petroleum avaliable.
No, the low scale war that is occuring over resources are occuring over rare-earths or class items (diamonds), resources which are not rare.
When something strategic does become rare, the powers that need it, EU-US-China-Russia-Pacific Rim will secure it's delivery.
Oh, the Bible thumpers have been going on and on and on about this crap and bar-codes and the EU and everything else.
Your moon-bat Bible thumpers like Jack Van-Impe carry on about this all the time. No one consults them because they are obscure and mad as hatters.
Plus I think we share the data with the UK/France/Russia so they don't blow up thier old nukes to test them.
"The TV Commerical shows a guy walking with a rocket launcher, stripers, a fight, cops chasing someone and a car being blown up."
Yea, because TV commericals are a good representation of whats in a game and the parents had to see them right?
BS, game should have on the box whats in it, if HBO or Showtime have TV MA Adult Language, Rape, Violence, Strong Sexual Content, then game publishers need to as well, on the box. My PS/2 copy of GTA SA doesn't.
Game makers, don't say on the boxes or on the commericals what the content is.
To say it's all the parents or the makers fault isn't the complete story, both sides are at fault here. Why can't a game maker say what is in the frickin' game? Saying it's on a review at a website isn't good enough, they need to publish on the game whats in the game. Parents need to have access to the content so they can say yea or nay.
Plus Spike seems to hold the trademark on anything "X" or "Spike". And if you dare to cross him, he'll sue you.
They aren't required to have an array of skills and experiance.
l
A typical path in the US is a BA in English or Communications or something else light and Liberal Arts.
Heres a list for the University here in Portland Oregon for the General Middle Grade program
"Candidates must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university and a strong academic record; in most cases, a 3.0 cumulative GPA is necessary. They must also submit passing scores on a basic educational skills test and a subject area test. Admission to the GTEP is selective and competitive. High value is placed on interpersonal skills, experience in working with children, academic achievement, course work preparation, potential to meet the needs of pupils, social development, and motivation."
http://www.ed.pdx.edu/ci/gtep_prereq.shtml
"Early Childhood, Early Elementary, and Middle School (multiple subjects):
Prerequisites:
Psy 311 - Human Development
Art 312 - Art in the Elementary School
Mus 381 - Music Fundamentals
Lib 428 - Children's Literature
Mth 211, 212 - Foundations of Elementary Mathematics (8 credits minimum)
Passing scores on:
ORELA* and
CBEST** or PPST***
Highly recommended:
Ed 420 - Introduction to Education
CI 432 - Computer Applications
Middle School (single subject) and High School Education:
Prerequisites:
Psy 311 - Human Development
Academic Advisor Review Form
Passing scores on:
Praxis II Subject Assessments and Subject Area Test(s) in the area you wish to teach and
CBEST** or PPST***
Highly recommended:
Ed 420 - Introduction to Education
CI 432 - Computer Applications
Teachers should only be paid very well if they bring a set of skills into the Classroom and can teach. High saleries aren't going to fix the problem, a fundamental change in how K-12s work will fix the problem.
The other big problem is the National Educational Association here in the States.
"The National Education Association recently had its annual convention, where it called for President Bush to withdraw our troops from Iraq, vowed to defeat the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and resolved to educate about the need for debt cancellation in underdeveloped countries."
http://www.nea.org/annualmeeting/raaction/nbi.htm
Number one item for discussion..."New Business Item 2 (Revised)
NEA affirms and supports the decision of the Executive Committee to participate in the national Wal-Mart Consumer Education Campaign initiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Further, NEA strongly encourages state and local affiliates and individual NEA members to participate in this campaign."
Thats going to help Billy read won't it?
Yep and another issue that the United States needs to deal with, and the sooner the better are the schools.
It's not about funding and it's not about class sizes, it's about how education in the Public K-12s is structured. We are still teaching kids so that they will be good factory workers and the Ed Schools in the US aren't focused on teaching teachers how to teach math and science.
Anyone who says its because of Bush or because of the Religous are full of it, the problem in the US is poorly structured schools and misplaced budgets.
Why are there multiple principals per school each making 70-100K? Why are there press contacts in the District Office making 50K+ a year?
Don't forget Israel, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria and a bunch of others listed here...
t s_by_nationality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_astronau
Also, the US did have a manned spaceflight program while Shuttle was grounded, we had Scaled Composites flying.
No way is it an even bet if humans can compete with the Earth's systems for extinction events.
History shows that the planet is WAY better at it than we could ever hope to be.
Even if we popped all the nukes on Earth, it'd not register on the list of extinction events.
While Moscow is booming, a little slowed because of the Asian Economic problems and over all cool down in the World Economy, Russia isn't booming.
So the region is becoming what it was 600 years ago, City-States and the hinterlands they "control".
Moscow exerts control over oil, gas, aerospace technology and timber outside of Moscow while they are stimied in Chechnya by a small, small force which is costing them thousands of soldiers and alot of equipment.
Russia, I've heard as a whole is about 100 years behind Europe and the Americas.
Also, from what I remember of Apollo/Saturn 204, the Velco in the capsule exploded in addition to the spark causing the fire.
/ v4p2b.htm
"The Apollo 204 Review Board determined that a silver-plated copper wire running through an environmental control unit near the command module pilot's couch had become stripped of its insulation and abraded by repeated opening and closing of an associated access door. This weak point in the wiring also happened to pass near a junction in a ethylene glycol / water cooling line, which had developed a leak. The electrolysis of ethylene glycol solution with the anode made of silver resulted in a violent exothermic reaction that ignited the ethylene glycol mixture, which in turn was able to burn in the atmosphere of pure pressurized oxygen."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009
Well, this is a priority because the partners think it's a priority.
Carnegie Observatories
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Texas A&M University
University of Arizona
University of Michigan
The University of Texas at Austin
Look, it's not about having one device, the more devices we have doing research, the better. NASA and ESA run Hubble and will replace it with the James Webb (stupid name IMO) in the next decade.
Yea, but I want point out the obvious and overlooked fact in this movie from a comic book, the United States is not a Democracy and hasn't been since 1787.
The United States of America is a Federal Republic. A federal republic is a state which is both a federation and a republic. A federation is a state composed of a number of self-governing regions (often themselves referred to as 'states') united by a central, federal government.
The United States as a whole is not a liberal democracy. A city, township, organization or county might be a democracy, but from about the time you get beyond a township, you are electing representatives for you, which does not make it a true democracy.
V for Vendetta or any other comic or movie isn't written for people to understand what can go really bad, they are written to make money and soothe the ego of the authors. World War Two in Western Europe shows what happens when a Republic goes bad.
I use OS X on my laptop, server, desktop. I moved to OS X from Red Hat on the server because I find it much easier to set up services and the box with OS X than Linux.
Also, I hate KDE/Gnome desktops and find Aqua much easier to deal with.
It's easier for me to deal with the shell once in a while, than a whole lot, as I had to deal with the shell a whole lot in Linux.
And...
The Windows Dev need a P4 with a gig of ram.
The Unix Programers can do it on a P4, but it'll work just fine on a Mot 68K or a 486.
The Mainframe Programmers think a Ti-92 has too much horsepower.