Well, our quarters, loonies, and toonies ($1CDN and $2CDN for those who don't know) have so many permutations on them that residents find it impossible to identify them half of the time.
Very often, I get some change, look at one of the coins, and I'm left with the impression of "what the hell is this?". It seems every year they add several variations on each coin, and most people don't recognize an awful lot of them.
And, as you point out, vending machines can get confused with so many different variations.
Very annoying.
Cheers Speak for yourself, eh? No one I've ever met has ever complained about the coins being hard to recognize. I can instantly tell when I'm holding a toonie or a loonie. The only changes are the images on them, and so what? That's really frickin' cool that our mint can put little bits of artwork on our currency all the time. Far removed from being annoying.
I've played this game, and it's quite bad. I'd say it's as bad, or worse than "Custers Revenge" the Atari 2600 "rape an American Indian" game which I also played once on an emulator. Though to "Custers Revenge" credit, they didn't try to claim some garbage about it being art, games changing the world, or whatever.
The interview of the game developer is pretty funny. He sounds like a freshman humanities 101 paper using phrases like
"but for me it helps to inform one of the core ideas of the game: a criticism of the conventions of gaming in part to critique the limitations games currently have to deal with regards to genuine issues."
and gems like:
"It was a courageous, progressive gesture because it suggested that maybe gaming could be growing up a bit and face the music that all forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration"
Sadly being kicked out of Slamdance is going to give this guy far more press than he deserves. No, not because he created something controversial.. but because he created a crappy game with no subtlety and just expected everyone to accept that "all forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration".
Here's a clue to this guy. If you want your "art" to be accepted as a "valid tool for societal exploration", you just might want to create something that doesn't suck monkey-dick. Then that whole "it's art and changing peoples opinions of what a game is" thing might have a bit more validity. "Hitler agrees. Let's burn all the games we don't approve of."
I'm just a lowly Electrical Engineer who works in RF.
At my last job, we made transmitters. Some of them were really small - small enough to be surgically implanted into fish or ducks. It was cutting edge stuff; I had to work with the manufacturers to work out bugs in the chips, compilers, and programmers.
So how does this work, again?
Well, you're the electrical engineer. How would you make an RFID chip that fit in a coin? Rather than pointing out how it cannot, point out how it can.
"I'm not here to teach you. I'm here to provide the information you need for the exam. If you think you can pass the exam without listening to me, you're welcome to leave." This is exactly how schools should be run. Wut? That right there is a good reason for why schools are failing at their job. I could care less if I pass or fail the final exam. I'm going to school to learn, and I want to learn about the subject I'm taking, not about the exam at the end of the year.
You can argue that if you can't pass the exam for whatever class you're taking, you haven't learned anything, and that's fair enough. But I vehemently disagree that the teacher's job is to solely prepare you for a final exam. I'd be demanding my money back from the university if a teacher told me that. I'd rather go someplace where I'll get a real education, thankyouverymuch.
Alright, fantastic. A parasite that might be able to change my behaviour. Possibly for the worse. Naturally, I don't particularly relish the idea that there's a parasite in my brain effecting the way I think and act.
So, assuming one has such a parasite, are there treatments to get rid of it?
If NASA is going to consider building orbitals first, then they should start looking at the errant asteroids flying around our solar system. The benefits are twofold: You get a large rocky body that can help support and protect the critical portions of an orbital colony, and you get to mine its insides for whatever valuable ore there is.
Who knows, if we get lucky with the mineral and metal composition we might be able to start manufacturing processes in space. Once we're over the first hurdle of getting that equipment up there, it's pretty much free running - just need to ship up fuel so we can grab some more asteroids. Then mine those asteroids out, build new colonies in them, and fuel more expansion. In fifty or sixty years we might end up with a colony on Ceres instead of Mars.
they actually made a radioactive energy kit FOR KIDS?! Why don't they just put "For ages 8 and up, especially terrorists" on it? They could build a dirty pipe bomb (radiation spreading) using just a couple of those kits probably.
You've got to be kidding me. I think your brain shut off the second you heard nuclear and radiation. I am astounded that the first thing you think of when you see this isn't, "children might swallow the slightly radioactive material, and get sick from heavy metal poisoning." but, "terrorists are going to buy a whole bunch of these kits, and then use the marginally radioactive material to slightly irradiate people with a small pipe bomb! ZOMG!!11 TERRORIRST!!"
Would 15 seconds be enough warning time to prepare for an earthquake?
Yes, it would.
I worked at a shipping warehouse, and I can tell you that even 5 seconds of warning prior to an earthquake could save the lives of workers. The goods are stacked up 4-5 stories high, and each crate easily weighs half a ton or more. It wouldn't take much shaking to knock the top ones down and crush people.
Considering the size of the building I worked at, the only real options available would be to either get out of the isle as fucking fast as you could, or to get under the girders supporting the crates. 15 seconds of warning would be plenty of time for me to hop on my pallet-jack and drive to the dock before anything happened. So yeah, even 15 seconds of warning could mean the difference between being alive, and being crushed under a crate of peanutbutter.
I've played most of what's out there and nothing compares to Halo. Simply put, Halo is strategy mixed with visceral combat in the most balanced online gaming experience avaiable. The only reason millions still play Halo 2 online is cause the experience is that good.
In my honest opinion, Halo 2 was rushed, and consequently has cut many corners in the gameplay. [The biggest gaping flaw I can think of is Fall damage - Which was cut right near the end of development because of problems with it and the sword.]
Pretty much the only reason I play Halo 2 online anymore, is because of the friends I've made. If it weren't for them, I'd be hosting Halo 1 LAN parties.
The live action portion was in the beginning, with the two children. There was a quick Q&A in IRC about the trailer after it went live, I made a post containing almost all the pertinent information here: http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl? read=765397 Though I think I missed a question somewhere.
To quote Frankie:
"Actually the stuff with the kids was filmed on a set they filled with grass."
You see, Halo and Halo 2 have both been plagued by little glitches, which give huge advantages to the players that can best exploit them.
The biggest offenders in Halo 2 being:
Superbouncing - You crouch and walk into a small space, then jump on a crack in the geometry, at which point you'll go flying up in the air. Allowing you to gain access to otherwise unattainable locations.
Button Glitches - Which are endorsed by the MLG [Major League Gaming] community. [Endorsed in that they don't care if you use them. In my eyes, the equivalent of letting baseball players use steroids.] Button glitches work by hitting buttons in a particular order to get a desired result. There are numerous glitches in Halo 2 - ranging from B-X-R which lets you instantly kill an opponent in close combat, to R-R-X which allows you to shoot twice in quick succession.
I think it is unfortunate that to be a pro at this game, you essentially have to exploit it. I often hear arguments of how "Bungie wouldn't have put it in the game if they didn't want it." or "It takes skill to pull off." among many others, but it doesn't change the fact that these players are essentially cheating, and it's divided the Halo community: The MLG "hardcore" gamers and pro's, and the rest of us. As a result both sides tend to argue a lot, in addition to wanting differing things in Halo 3.
Which is essentially what I think this open beta is about. Bungie didn't need an open beta for Halo 1 and 2. However, even though they tried very hard to get rid of these kinds of glitches, the community still managed to find some. So why not put the community to use? Get them to find the glitches for you, then squash them before the game goes gold. I certainly hope their plan works.
Slashdot Mirror
The interview of the game developer is pretty funny. He sounds like a freshman humanities 101 paper using phrases like
"but for me it helps to inform one of the core ideas of the game: a criticism of the conventions of gaming in part to critique the limitations games currently have to deal with regards to genuine issues."
and gems like:
"It was a courageous, progressive gesture because it suggested that maybe gaming could be growing up a bit and face the music that all forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration"
Sadly being kicked out of Slamdance is going to give this guy far more press than he deserves. No, not because he created something controversial.. but because he created a crappy game with no subtlety and just expected everyone to accept that "all forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration".
Here's a clue to this guy. If you want your "art" to be accepted as a "valid tool for societal exploration", you just might want to create something that doesn't suck monkey-dick. Then that whole "it's art and changing peoples opinions of what a game is" thing might have a bit more validity. "Hitler agrees. Let's burn all the games we don't approve of."
Well, you're the electrical engineer. How would you make an RFID chip that fit in a coin? Rather than pointing out how it cannot, point out how it can.
That right there is a good reason for why schools are failing at their job. I could care less if I pass or fail the final exam. I'm going to school to learn, and I want to learn about the subject I'm taking, not about the exam at the end of the year.
You can argue that if you can't pass the exam for whatever class you're taking, you haven't learned anything, and that's fair enough. But I vehemently disagree that the teacher's job is to solely prepare you for a final exam. I'd be demanding my money back from the university if a teacher told me that. I'd rather go someplace where I'll get a real education, thankyouverymuch.
Alright, fantastic. A parasite that might be able to change my behaviour. Possibly for the worse. Naturally, I don't particularly relish the idea that there's a parasite in my brain effecting the way I think and act.
So, assuming one has such a parasite, are there treatments to get rid of it?
If NASA is going to consider building orbitals first, then they should start looking at the errant asteroids flying around our solar system. The benefits are twofold: You get a large rocky body that can help support and protect the critical portions of an orbital colony, and you get to mine its insides for whatever valuable ore there is.
Who knows, if we get lucky with the mineral and metal composition we might be able to start manufacturing processes in space. Once we're over the first hurdle of getting that equipment up there, it's pretty much free running - just need to ship up fuel so we can grab some more asteroids. Then mine those asteroids out, build new colonies in them, and fuel more expansion. In fifty or sixty years we might end up with a colony on Ceres instead of Mars.
You've got to be kidding me. I think your brain shut off the second you heard nuclear and radiation. I am astounded that the first thing you think of when you see this isn't, "children might swallow the slightly radioactive material, and get sick from heavy metal poisoning." but, "terrorists are going to buy a whole bunch of these kits, and then use the marginally radioactive material to slightly irradiate people with a small pipe bomb! ZOMG!!11 TERRORIRST!!"
Yes, it would.
I worked at a shipping warehouse, and I can tell you that even 5 seconds of warning prior to an earthquake could save the lives of workers. The goods are stacked up 4-5 stories high, and each crate easily weighs half a ton or more. It wouldn't take much shaking to knock the top ones down and crush people.
Considering the size of the building I worked at, the only real options available would be to either get out of the isle as fucking fast as you could, or to get under the girders supporting the crates. 15 seconds of warning would be plenty of time for me to hop on my pallet-jack and drive to the dock before anything happened. So yeah, even 15 seconds of warning could mean the difference between being alive, and being crushed under a crate of peanutbutter.
In my honest opinion, Halo 2 was rushed, and consequently has cut many corners in the gameplay. [The biggest gaping flaw I can think of is Fall damage - Which was cut right near the end of development because of problems with it and the sword.]
Pretty much the only reason I play Halo 2 online anymore, is because of the friends I've made. If it weren't for them, I'd be hosting Halo 1 LAN parties.
The live action portion was in the beginning, with the two children. There was a quick Q&A in IRC about the trailer after it went live, I made a post containing almost all the pertinent information here: http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl? read=765397 Though I think I missed a question somewhere.
To quote Frankie: "Actually the stuff with the kids was filmed on a set they filled with grass."
I think it's rather clever, actually.
m l For information on some others.
You see, Halo and Halo 2 have both been plagued by little glitches, which give huge advantages to the players that can best exploit them.
The biggest offenders in Halo 2 being:
Superbouncing - You crouch and walk into a small space, then jump on a crack in the geometry, at which point you'll go flying up in the air. Allowing you to gain access to otherwise unattainable locations.
Button Glitches - Which are endorsed by the MLG [Major League Gaming] community. [Endorsed in that they don't care if you use them. In my eyes, the equivalent of letting baseball players use steroids.] Button glitches work by hitting buttons in a particular order to get a desired result. There are numerous glitches in Halo 2 - ranging from B-X-R which lets you instantly kill an opponent in close combat, to R-R-X which allows you to shoot twice in quick succession.
http://www.halo-2-glitches.com/weapon-glitches.ht
I think it is unfortunate that to be a pro at this game, you essentially have to exploit it. I often hear arguments of how "Bungie wouldn't have put it in the game if they didn't want it." or "It takes skill to pull off." among many others, but it doesn't change the fact that these players are essentially cheating, and it's divided the Halo community: The MLG "hardcore" gamers and pro's, and the rest of us. As a result both sides tend to argue a lot, in addition to wanting differing things in Halo 3.
Which is essentially what I think this open beta is about. Bungie didn't need an open beta for Halo 1 and 2. However, even though they tried very hard to get rid of these kinds of glitches, the community still managed to find some. So why not put the community to use? Get them to find the glitches for you, then squash them before the game goes gold. I certainly hope their plan works.