I don't think anyone will argue that chemical addictions can alter the neurochemistry of the addict.
WoW addiction isn't drug addiction, though. A better metaphor is gambling addiction, which is purely psychological (i.e., not chemically addictive). I'm not aware of any studies that show that gambling addiction changes the neurochemistry of its addicts. (That doesn't mean they're not out there, just that I'm not familiar with them.)
There's no doubt that sometimes people don't have a choice -- in the case of external pressures being applied to them. If you live in a totalitarian regime, your freedoms are necessarily limited. If you're physiologically dependent on a chemical, you may die without it. But there's no evidence (that I know of, nor that you cited) to support a voluntary, not-externally-induced action (such as gambling or playing video games) removing a person's ability to choose to stop taking that action.
Teaching to an area where there's a lot of interest is a good idea -- it makes the students want to learn. I don't know what level they're planning on starting at, but as someone who's played with Quake source, I can say that the C source is of reasonable complexity, enough so that a CS course could take advantage of it as a teaching tool fairly well. Add that to the opportunities working with modelling and skin design, and you could build a curriculum that offered a broad range of CS experiences. Kudos to UC Irvine! Matthew
While there is an increasing trend of women using computers (and yes, even female geeks), it's unlikely that there will be any real progess toward women making up an equal portion of the computer field -- at least, no more so than they do now. The internet provides a real opportunity for an equal opportunity workplace, but unfortunately, that isn't where the problem lies. A great deal of the reason there are so few women in math and science intensive fields is because we, as a society, send the message that math is for boys and not for girls.
This isn't done explicitly -- that's part of why it's so insidious; this message may be sent by teachers who give the girls less attention in class, by the media as a whole, by the boys in the class, by parents, or by a host of other factors. What matters is that it's there, and usually in so innocuous a form as to go unnoticed. It's truly awful that our social system is so horribly imbalanced, and that even if it were recognized, it would be difficult to remedy. The fact that this problem, and others like it, aren't even acknowledged means that we are far from resolving them.
Prejudice is pervasive. It always resurfaces in a subtler, more devious form, no matter what steps are taken to eliminate it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, you have to admit there hasn't been any real conflict between VHS and Betamax since DVD±R hit the market.
Er... you can pick anyone as the party leader.
We already have an EVE CCG. It was released at GenCon last year.
I don't think anyone will argue that chemical addictions can alter the neurochemistry of the addict.
WoW addiction isn't drug addiction, though. A better metaphor is gambling addiction, which is purely psychological (i.e., not chemically addictive). I'm not aware of any studies that show that gambling addiction changes the neurochemistry of its addicts. (That doesn't mean they're not out there, just that I'm not familiar with them.)
There's no doubt that sometimes people don't have a choice -- in the case of external pressures being applied to them. If you live in a totalitarian regime, your freedoms are necessarily limited. If you're physiologically dependent on a chemical, you may die without it. But there's no evidence (that I know of, nor that you cited) to support a voluntary, not-externally-induced action (such as gambling or playing video games) removing a person's ability to choose to stop taking that action.
But if she understood it... would she really want you to be 100% faster than usual?
$ factor 104743
104743: 104743
Sweet.
How can we, as average citizens, help combat or forestall the kinds of legal tactics the RIAA uses?
In particular, do you have any advice for people considering going into law who oppose the RIAA?
Teaching to an area where there's a lot of interest is a good idea -- it makes the students want to learn. I don't know what level they're planning on starting at, but as someone who's played with Quake source, I can say that the C source is of reasonable complexity, enough so that a CS course could take advantage of it as a teaching tool fairly well. Add that to the opportunities working with modelling and skin design, and you could build a curriculum that offered a broad range of CS experiences. Kudos to UC Irvine! Matthew
While there is an increasing trend of women using computers (and yes, even female geeks), it's unlikely that there will be any real progess toward women making up an equal portion of the computer field -- at least, no more so than they do now. The internet provides a real opportunity for an equal opportunity workplace, but unfortunately, that isn't where the problem lies. A great deal of the reason there are so few women in math and science intensive fields is because we, as a society, send the message that math is for boys and not for girls.
This isn't done explicitly -- that's part of why it's so insidious; this message may be sent by teachers who give the girls less attention in class, by the media as a whole, by the boys in the class, by parents, or by a host of other factors. What matters is that it's there, and usually in so innocuous a form as to go unnoticed. It's truly awful that our social system is so horribly imbalanced, and that even if it were recognized, it would be difficult to remedy. The fact that this problem, and others like it, aren't even acknowledged means that we are far from resolving them.
Prejudice is pervasive. It always resurfaces in a subtler, more devious form, no matter what steps are taken to eliminate it.
Matthew