IE 6 does not properly interpret standard HTML/CSS. I don't know how other web developers feel about this, but I refuse to add IE hacks to my code to make it work in IE 6. IE 7 is bug-laden garbage that most people regret installing. If somebody swallows all that and installs IE 8 it's probably because a friend or relative set their computer to automatically download and install all MS updates and IE is part of that package.
Firefox, Opera and Chrome seem to work just fine and interpret standard HTML/CSS.
How about eliminating the grind altogether by making XP the measure of your highest achieved level of proficiency at something rather than the accumulation of points for doing X thing Y times? So if I can kill a level 10 monster that makes me level 10. Then I have to gear up, learn some tactics, whatever before I can beat a level 11 monster. But if you already know or have that stuff you can just jump ahead. Oh wait there goes the "Over 50 hours of gameplay!" tag...
In other words, either we're reaching the limit of what traditional education can teach to a person in a reasonable amount of time or we're reaching the limit of human comprehension. At least one of the two will need a major overhaul before we'll see molecular transistors and biophotonics reach the level of accessibility and acceptance of, say, amateur electronics. And until that happens we'll only see slow, fringe, theoretical progress like this.
That's ok, the entire article is off topic for/. unless someone wants to argue that nuclear war would put an end to all modern technology and other nerdly pursuits so news about nuclear disarmament is nerd news. Meh
A robot that walks around clearing the house of bugs? I think that's commercial application enough right there. Of course, if they want to sell it for $400 that's another matter.
Overall the Chinese are more concerned with social order than personal freedom. Besides that, how many people would be willing to throw away everything they've worked for and start over again in another country just because of a bit of online censorship? A few, yes, but probably not many. If this happened in America you'd probably hear a bit of bitching and moaning, but I doubt you'd see more than 100,000 people emigrate because of it. And besides, as another poster noted, where would you go? Most countries limit your personal freedoms in some way and the ones that don't are very likely to get you killed.
It is the best option. It's obvious you can't go toe to toe with the media interest groups right now and TPB had long ago grown too large to stay under the radar any longer. What could they do?
This is a good way to step out of the frying pan they've landed in, regroup, and, if they're still interested, figure out another way to compete with the interest groups a few years down the line. It may be idealist to think they'll want to spend their entire lives fighting for this cause, but if they really go through with that then this is the most practical way to do it.
The same can be said for every national government. You don't rise to power without a lifetime of struggle and by the time you get there you'd hardly be considered connected to anything or anyone but the people who got you there. Just because the Chinese power class lets it all hang out while Western powers play the cloak and dagger game doesn't make them any different underneath all the bullshit. Remember that the media is part of this game too. Don't let yourself be distracted by troubles in one part of the world when there is plenty of trouble brewing elsewhere.
How do you suppose the world's superpowers remain superpowers without meddling in every other country's affairs? The only reason this is happening in Iran is because somebody's put a lot of resources into it.
A lot of blood is going to be shed in the next few days. And the press just happens to be considered a fair target by the Iranian government.:-(
Making the press a target is actually going to backfire on the Iranian government. Instead of the usual 15 minutes devoted to practically any international event before the next bit of sensationalist bullshit comes on the air, this attack on their own may embitter the press enough to cause them to give Iran a bit of hell for its trouble. Imprisoning or killing a few dozen reporters could mean the difference between a revolution that nobody ever hears or cares about and one that has most of the world supporting it and therefore succeeds.
I hope the victory will be in the system no longer being able to pretend it is "for the people, by the people".
And then what? Just because people don't read/. doesn't mean they're stupid. They know what's going on as well as we do. Maybe they know it because their pension plans are gone or their kids are dead in a dummy war the US is fighting to keep the economy afloat. This broken system is the best we've got. No reform and no revolution could change that. What would you revolt into that would be incorruptible? People are incapable of governing themselves. Someday we'll design better people or machines who will be able to conquer and govern the rest of us effectively. Until then, just try to lay low.
China is too populous to be a democracy. According to Google there are roughly 300 million people in the US and 1,300 million people living in China. Forget about the size of the country for a minute and think about the size of the government that would be required to coordinate the efforts of so many people in some kind of meaningful way.
Of course, you could say that in a direct democracy or some kind of technocratic democracy people would all be so wired that they could make direct, informed decisions into a central computer that would compile everyone's decision and act according to the majority. C'mon, now. We can't even get electronic voting. We need committees elected by people. Committees to oversee those committees. And in a government as large as a democratic republic of China would be, you'd need committees to oversee committees to oversee committees and so on until government would be so bogged down they'd make US Congress look like a 24-hour Vegas wedding chapel.
So for now your choices are to have a China that keeps revolting, split the country into smaller chunks that can be more efficiently governed, or deal with a government that spends most of its effort creating social order and lets everything else fall where it may.
Apple users come in two main varieties - technophiles and justmakeitworkdammit-types. Technophiles who are also Apple fans tend to own every new piece of Apple technology the minute it hits store shelves. They'd buy shit on a stick if Apple could prove that it came out of Steve Jobs' ass or at least give it that sexy look that all Apple products have. They'll have no trouble giving up legacy support because they probably don't use any hardware or software more than a year old. The other category of Apple users will just throw enough money at the problem to make it go away and Apple with happily oblige with overpriced hardware and software. There is no alternative even if they were willing to look.
What about Windows users? Windows doesn't 'just work.' (Neither does Linux.) Many Windows boxes are scrapheaps. Many users combine old programs with new, professional software with something their CS undergrad cousin wrote. We're not just talking about home users here. IT departments stretch their shrinking budgets and cut corners in very creative ways. Their machines are barely holding together and you want to do away with legacy support now? Yes, they will bitch. Loudly.
This is precisely why it's such a genius plan. Save money up front and provide jobs for increased maintenance and auto repair. It continues a trend that in going from a production economy to a service economy the US has gone from an economy that grows by increasing efficiency and producing more goods to an economy that grows by decreasing efficiency to keep people employed. Good thing other countries depend on this fake economic growth for their own fake economic growth! If somebody ever figured out how to get people doing real jobs again we'd all be fucked.
The only approach I can think of that might work is to ahve a server that is heavily moderated and people are banned reasonably often.
I agree and think this works well in a small group environment. It's obvious who is there to have a good time and who is there to be an asshat. Admins know the regulars and take the time to know newbies. When somebody logs on to cause trouble they can whip out the ban stick very quickly.
I used to help admin a small MUX. No formal rules or penalties, just have a good time and be a decent human being. I had no trouble banning obvious troublemakers on a first offense. Everyone was very happy with this common sense system. However, we had maybe 40 regulars and 10 on at a time. I can't imagine doing something like this on a server with a population in the thousands or even in the hundreds.
The RIAA can easily drop the one case and hold up the class action suit in court for years. Even if that suit does go in favor of the RIAA's victims they can still appeal and hold it up a few more years. And in the meantime they have plenty of other tools at their disposal: re-education campaigns, new legislation to file lawsuits under, working with ISP monopolies, to name a few. Just sayin'... don't go recycling those tin foil hats yet.
Not picking on your post specifically, but it's interesting that within 10 minutes of my original post I got two responses telling me that if I don't enjoy WoW PvP I shouldn't roll on a PvP server. What's interesting is that I wasn't expressing an opinion on PvP, I was just stating that there is a penalty to it.
It's also an interesting response because it's the same knee-jerk defense of WoW PvP I've read in many other forums. If you don't like it, go away. If that's become such a quick response to anything that seems even remotely to be an attack on PvP, maybe that says something about how PvP is broken in WoW. Can you play on a PvP server without griefing or being griefed? What if all your friends are griefers and refuse to roll on anything but a PvP server? Is there any point to playing on a PvP server besides being able to one day grief others? Do people even distinguish between griefing and PvP anymore or is it basically, "You're on a PvP server. Expect PvP all day, every day. Oh and by the way PvP means that as you're out questing you'll encounter random groups of PvP equipped max level players who will kill you and camp your corpse."
And no, I don't play WoW so I don't need advice on what server to roll on. I'm just a bit disappointed in what PvP has come to be defined as. I tell my WoW playing friends that when I want to PvP I'll load up DoD:S or TF2. That's consensual PvP.
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IE 6 does not properly interpret standard HTML/CSS. I don't know how other web developers feel about this, but I refuse to add IE hacks to my code to make it work in IE 6. IE 7 is bug-laden garbage that most people regret installing. If somebody swallows all that and installs IE 8 it's probably because a friend or relative set their computer to automatically download and install all MS updates and IE is part of that package. Firefox, Opera and Chrome seem to work just fine and interpret standard HTML/CSS.
How about eliminating the grind altogether by making XP the measure of your highest achieved level of proficiency at something rather than the accumulation of points for doing X thing Y times? So if I can kill a level 10 monster that makes me level 10. Then I have to gear up, learn some tactics, whatever before I can beat a level 11 monster. But if you already know or have that stuff you can just jump ahead. Oh wait there goes the "Over 50 hours of gameplay!" tag...
In other words, either we're reaching the limit of what traditional education can teach to a person in a reasonable amount of time or we're reaching the limit of human comprehension. At least one of the two will need a major overhaul before we'll see molecular transistors and biophotonics reach the level of accessibility and acceptance of, say, amateur electronics. And until that happens we'll only see slow, fringe, theoretical progress like this.
That's ok, the entire article is off topic for /. unless someone wants to argue that nuclear war would put an end to all modern technology and other nerdly pursuits so news about nuclear disarmament is nerd news. Meh
There can be only one!
Attorneys and doctors continue to need paper.
This is because they have to cover their asses against ridiculous litigation or pursue it against those who haven't adequately covered said asses.
This is like hitting refresh on your browser until a new /. posting comes up, right?
A robot that walks around clearing the house of bugs? I think that's commercial application enough right there. Of course, if they want to sell it for $400 that's another matter.
om before nom
Overall the Chinese are more concerned with social order than personal freedom. Besides that, how many people would be willing to throw away everything they've worked for and start over again in another country just because of a bit of online censorship? A few, yes, but probably not many. If this happened in America you'd probably hear a bit of bitching and moaning, but I doubt you'd see more than 100,000 people emigrate because of it. And besides, as another poster noted, where would you go? Most countries limit your personal freedoms in some way and the ones that don't are very likely to get you killed.
That, or the Sega Genesis controller. Every controller to come out after those two has been a real pain in the ass to use.
It is the best option. It's obvious you can't go toe to toe with the media interest groups right now and TPB had long ago grown too large to stay under the radar any longer. What could they do?
This is a good way to step out of the frying pan they've landed in, regroup, and, if they're still interested, figure out another way to compete with the interest groups a few years down the line. It may be idealist to think they'll want to spend their entire lives fighting for this cause, but if they really go through with that then this is the most practical way to do it.
The same can be said for every national government. You don't rise to power without a lifetime of struggle and by the time you get there you'd hardly be considered connected to anything or anyone but the people who got you there. Just because the Chinese power class lets it all hang out while Western powers play the cloak and dagger game doesn't make them any different underneath all the bullshit. Remember that the media is part of this game too. Don't let yourself be distracted by troubles in one part of the world when there is plenty of trouble brewing elsewhere.
Arrowsmith?
How do you suppose the world's superpowers remain superpowers without meddling in every other country's affairs? The only reason this is happening in Iran is because somebody's put a lot of resources into it.
A lot of blood is going to be shed in the next few days. And the press just happens to be considered a fair target by the Iranian government. :-(
Making the press a target is actually going to backfire on the Iranian government. Instead of the usual 15 minutes devoted to practically any international event before the next bit of sensationalist bullshit comes on the air, this attack on their own may embitter the press enough to cause them to give Iran a bit of hell for its trouble. Imprisoning or killing a few dozen reporters could mean the difference between a revolution that nobody ever hears or cares about and one that has most of the world supporting it and therefore succeeds.
That's what these guys did to get, and remain in power.
That's remarkably shortsighted seeing as those dead kids represent the future voter base.
More likely they represent future troublemakers. Might as well kill them before they're old enough to wield pitchforks.
I hope the victory will be in the system no longer being able to pretend it is "for the people, by the people".
And then what? Just because people don't read /. doesn't mean they're stupid. They know what's going on as well as we do. Maybe they know it because their pension plans are gone or their kids are dead in a dummy war the US is fighting to keep the economy afloat. This broken system is the best we've got. No reform and no revolution could change that. What would you revolt into that would be incorruptible? People are incapable of governing themselves. Someday we'll design better people or machines who will be able to conquer and govern the rest of us effectively. Until then, just try to lay low.
China is too populous to be a democracy. According to Google there are roughly 300 million people in the US and 1,300 million people living in China. Forget about the size of the country for a minute and think about the size of the government that would be required to coordinate the efforts of so many people in some kind of meaningful way.
Of course, you could say that in a direct democracy or some kind of technocratic democracy people would all be so wired that they could make direct, informed decisions into a central computer that would compile everyone's decision and act according to the majority. C'mon, now. We can't even get electronic voting. We need committees elected by people. Committees to oversee those committees. And in a government as large as a democratic republic of China would be, you'd need committees to oversee committees to oversee committees and so on until government would be so bogged down they'd make US Congress look like a 24-hour Vegas wedding chapel.
So for now your choices are to have a China that keeps revolting, split the country into smaller chunks that can be more efficiently governed, or deal with a government that spends most of its effort creating social order and lets everything else fall where it may.
Woooo! Jelly corals!
Apple users come in two main varieties - technophiles and justmakeitworkdammit-types. Technophiles who are also Apple fans tend to own every new piece of Apple technology the minute it hits store shelves. They'd buy shit on a stick if Apple could prove that it came out of Steve Jobs' ass or at least give it that sexy look that all Apple products have. They'll have no trouble giving up legacy support because they probably don't use any hardware or software more than a year old. The other category of Apple users will just throw enough money at the problem to make it go away and Apple with happily oblige with overpriced hardware and software. There is no alternative even if they were willing to look.
What about Windows users? Windows doesn't 'just work.' (Neither does Linux.) Many Windows boxes are scrapheaps. Many users combine old programs with new, professional software with something their CS undergrad cousin wrote. We're not just talking about home users here. IT departments stretch their shrinking budgets and cut corners in very creative ways. Their machines are barely holding together and you want to do away with legacy support now? Yes, they will bitch. Loudly.
This is precisely why it's such a genius plan. Save money up front and provide jobs for increased maintenance and auto repair. It continues a trend that in going from a production economy to a service economy the US has gone from an economy that grows by increasing efficiency and producing more goods to an economy that grows by decreasing efficiency to keep people employed. Good thing other countries depend on this fake economic growth for their own fake economic growth! If somebody ever figured out how to get people doing real jobs again we'd all be fucked.
The only approach I can think of that might work is to ahve a server that is heavily moderated and people are banned reasonably often.
I agree and think this works well in a small group environment. It's obvious who is there to have a good time and who is there to be an asshat. Admins know the regulars and take the time to know newbies. When somebody logs on to cause trouble they can whip out the ban stick very quickly.
I used to help admin a small MUX. No formal rules or penalties, just have a good time and be a decent human being. I had no trouble banning obvious troublemakers on a first offense. Everyone was very happy with this common sense system. However, we had maybe 40 regulars and 10 on at a time. I can't imagine doing something like this on a server with a population in the thousands or even in the hundreds.
The RIAA can easily drop the one case and hold up the class action suit in court for years. Even if that suit does go in favor of the RIAA's victims they can still appeal and hold it up a few more years. And in the meantime they have plenty of other tools at their disposal: re-education campaigns, new legislation to file lawsuits under, working with ISP monopolies, to name a few. Just sayin'... don't go recycling those tin foil hats yet.
Not picking on your post specifically, but it's interesting that within 10 minutes of my original post I got two responses telling me that if I don't enjoy WoW PvP I shouldn't roll on a PvP server. What's interesting is that I wasn't expressing an opinion on PvP, I was just stating that there is a penalty to it.
It's also an interesting response because it's the same knee-jerk defense of WoW PvP I've read in many other forums. If you don't like it, go away. If that's become such a quick response to anything that seems even remotely to be an attack on PvP, maybe that says something about how PvP is broken in WoW. Can you play on a PvP server without griefing or being griefed? What if all your friends are griefers and refuse to roll on anything but a PvP server? Is there any point to playing on a PvP server besides being able to one day grief others? Do people even distinguish between griefing and PvP anymore or is it basically, "You're on a PvP server. Expect PvP all day, every day. Oh and by the way PvP means that as you're out questing you'll encounter random groups of PvP equipped max level players who will kill you and camp your corpse."
And no, I don't play WoW so I don't need advice on what server to roll on. I'm just a bit disappointed in what PvP has come to be defined as. I tell my WoW playing friends that when I want to PvP I'll load up DoD:S or TF2. That's consensual PvP.