Your mistake is assuming that this is what's best for the company. It's a VERY common mistake companies make... they lock their product down, streamline, take control of the whole experience, move consumers into preferred channels (and every other buzzphrase)... and profit maximize themselves straight to bankruptcy.
You mean Wil Wright, but point taken. I'll also reinforce that with "Spore", the craptitude and suckiness of which made the 'a Wil Wright Game!' banner on any future EA product completely worthless. Corporate types need to understand that the value of a creative person is lost if they attempt to explicitly control what that person creates. It doesn't take much crap to ruin the good value of a reputation.
You're going from under 10 millisecond pings for an internal network, to an external site that very possibly (depending on internet weather) could have pings of a 50-100 milliseconds or more. It doesn't matter what the size of the pipe into your basement is; occasionally you get hangups and stalls when your leave your local network.
This is also a good opportunity for a competitor. Starcraft massively dominates competitive gaming in the RTS genre. Nothing else comes close. I suspect Blizzard's ridiculous stripping out of the LAN play feature is partly to ensure no large Starcraft 2 event can happen without Blizzard's active participation and/or approval.
Blizzard right now reminds me of Sony three years ago. Drunk with success, and making every wrong decision.
That was my first thought. The fact that this occurs is a good thing. Not the plastic in the ocean, but the fact that it tends to stabilize in a certain location. I have a hunch they'll find no shortage of life in that area... it will just be a very DIFFERENT ecosystem than other places.
And, some point in the future, it will be worthwhile and profitable to clean it up. Just like, in the future, garbage dumps will be the greatest source of raw materials.
I would claim Nintendo is, primarily due to gaming being their only revenue source. They aren't quite as willing to screw up their only source of income in order to keep their media/music/home pc/movei/websearch/whatnot wings of their company happy.
Nintendo is far from angelic, and has done nasty arrogant things in the past... but they're no Microsoft, and certainly no Sony.
Forget that. How does it compare to XP? That's the most important question.
My impression from various benchmarks is that it's much closer to XP's speed than Vista was. That's a big relief. I'm not going to upgrade anytime soon, but it's nice to know there's at least a path ahead. Now: Does it still allow for a Windows Classic theme?
If it's used in the struggle against despots and tyrants, it IS impressive. A peaceful and civilized nation needs to keep the biggest and best weapons on hand, else they be overrun by mongols (figuratively).
Fortunately, peaceful and free nations also generally have the best technology, industry, and economy, which allows us to have the most impressive weapons.
The carbon content of paper is around 40%. Therefore, each paperback takes... what, maybe a fourth to a half a kilo? out of the atmosphere, for the duration of the lifespan of the book... which I'm sure is probably measured in decades.
I don't know about the ESRB, but for movie ratings, even simply reshuffling scenes or cutting scenes OUT will invalidate the rating. This ticked me off, because the 'unrated' Lust, Caution DVD release is actually a censored version of the NR-17 theatrical release.
It doesn't matter that the content added is objectionable or not, but that it is now has different content than what was initially rated. And what if (GASP) they advertised smoking, drinks, or guns!
The Wiimote is clever and creative, and makes the Wii the most natural console for first-person shooters. The interface is far better than the 360's or PS3's for aiming and shooting, just barely worse than a mouse/keyboard combination.
Unfortunately, the potential for the Wii in this area has been pretty much ignored by EVERYBODY, consumers and developers alike.
I know it's asking for a "troll" but another option to avoid the bankruptcy would have been to avoid downloading.
Downloading isn't the problem. The defendant didn't receive any fines or punishment for downloading, and I don't believe that anybody ever has. The problems is sharing them (or downloading them with a protocol that automatically shares them, as bit torrent does... or putting them in a shared, publicly accessible folder). If you download songs from, say, a direct link on a website, my understanding is that you are not infringing copyright at all (at least in a legally actionable way). The person sharing them is.
These news stories always talk about people being sued by the RIAA for downloading music, and that's exactly what the RIAA wants people to think, but if you examine the charges, they'll always be for distributing files.
You misunderstand the 'No True Scotsman' error. It would be applicable if his argument was 'Real Republicans' wouldn't act that way. That's not what he said; he said they weren't true conservatives. Since Republican and Conservative are different (but overlapping) sets, with different definitions, what he said is perfectly valid.
There are conservative libertarians, for instance, and there are republicans who aren't conservative. This is true, which makes your criticism an error.
The PS2 was clearly less powerful than the Gamecube, also. You could say the PS2 beat the Dreamcast, if you consider them the same generation; the DC was kind of in-between gens.
Point is kind of taken about the PS3/360. We've been seeing pretty equivalent results in performance between the two consoles. I think the PS3 has significantly more potential, but it may be moot, because I'm not sure it'll ever get fully tapped. But Sony certainly claims to have the best hardware!
Ok. Then take a known, low-res source: A movie on DVD. Say, "The Matrix". 32 bit color, 720x480 resolution. Laughably low, right? I mean, that's WII-level specs!
And yet a well-done movie on DVD looks FAR better than a 1080p clip of gameplay on a PS3. Why? Because the modeling, animation, and physics are lagging FAR behind raw resolution.
Gould's thesis is that IQ is a meaningless measure, and that intelligence is a meaningless notion that doesn't correspond to a single measurable entity in the first place.
I would completely agree with the sentiment that IQ is a vastly simplified measure, but it certainly isn't meaningless. Take a thousand people and separate them by IQ into top 33%, middle 34%, and bottom 33%. You'll find that the groups will correlate very strongly with wealth, social standing, and many other indicators of success. IQ clearly correlates VERY well with VERY real factors. Perhaps it's the cause, perhaps it's a side effect of something else; but it is certainly a very useful measure that tells us SOMETHING real about a person.
Fast hardware lost this gen to the slowest (Wii). It lost last gen to the slowest (PS2). You can argue that two gens ago, the PS1 was slower than the N64, although that's less certain. Raw speed is most certainly not the most important component of success for a console.
I wouldn't say hardware was unimportant, though. The Wii won because of its hardware, clearly. But it needs to be looked at in terms of what the hardware actually brings to the buyer. Higher res? Who cares? Faster refresh? Doesn't matter. Better AI and gameplay? Well, that might help, but it's pretty clear that the 360's and PS3's improved processors aren't being used for that.
New methods of control, new interfaces, whole new styles of gameplay? Microphones, vibrations, sensors, speakers, and so forth... now, that will catch a customer's eye. That makes playing a game something new, instead of a slightly glossier but nearly indistinguishable version of an older game. New hardware is important, but the growth needs to branch out in new directions, instead of being this one-dimensional 'better graphics' mantra that the consoles have been pushing. Improvements in graphics are mattering less and less.
By redefining intelligence to have nothing to do with what anybody means by intelligence, he can then claim that other systems exhibit more intelligence. Like a rock, presumably, since it survives far better than humans. I think this may be an example of somebody getting too interesting in specifics of tree-bark, and forgetting about the forest.
That might not be the best argument, because Image did more to ruin comics than any other publisher. They're one of the main reasons that comics are marketing and hype driven, focused on an insular community of fanboys, and have basically ceded the vast majority of the market to manga.
I have a child. Two of them. Sorry if this is rude, but it only makes you 'torn' if you are unclear about the issue in the first place. If you have reasoned it out, the reasoning doesn't change when you have children. 'Right' and 'wrong' shouldn't change depending on your personal situation.
I once got a notice on the door that some helpful neighbor distributed, which said a sex offender had moved into the neighborhood. Into the trash it went. That info was useless, because there was no need to alter my or my children's behavior one bit. Such a reaction would probably cause more harm than good.
Can we dispel the myth that sex offenders are more likely to reoffend. I have never seen a study that states this.
I agree; but that's not what he said. He said that "Sex offenders (and for the moment let's assume the very worst kinds of sex offenders such as kiddie molestors) are statistically much more likely to reoffend when exposed to high levels of stress"
That's not claiming that their reoffend rate is high or low; just that putting them under stress and in untenable situations will make it higher. That's common sense.
Slashdot Mirror
My plans are evidently working; I've already gotten to "everybody ignores me" stage. Two more steps to world domination!!!!
Your mistake is assuming that this is what's best for the company. It's a VERY common mistake companies make... they lock their product down, streamline, take control of the whole experience, move consumers into preferred channels (and every other buzzphrase)... and profit maximize themselves straight to bankruptcy.
You mean Wil Wright, but point taken. I'll also reinforce that with "Spore", the craptitude and suckiness of which made the 'a Wil Wright Game!' banner on any future EA product completely worthless. Corporate types need to understand that the value of a creative person is lost if they attempt to explicitly control what that person creates. It doesn't take much crap to ruin the good value of a reputation.
You're going from under 10 millisecond pings for an internal network, to an external site that very possibly (depending on internet weather) could have pings of a 50-100 milliseconds or more. It doesn't matter what the size of the pipe into your basement is; occasionally you get hangups and stalls when your leave your local network.
This is also a good opportunity for a competitor. Starcraft massively dominates competitive gaming in the RTS genre. Nothing else comes close. I suspect Blizzard's ridiculous stripping out of the LAN play feature is partly to ensure no large Starcraft 2 event can happen without Blizzard's active participation and/or approval.
Blizzard right now reminds me of Sony three years ago. Drunk with success, and making every wrong decision.
That was my first thought. The fact that this occurs is a good thing. Not the plastic in the ocean, but the fact that it tends to stabilize in a certain location. I have a hunch they'll find no shortage of life in that area... it will just be a very DIFFERENT ecosystem than other places.
And, some point in the future, it will be worthwhile and profitable to clean it up. Just like, in the future, garbage dumps will be the greatest source of raw materials.
The profit motive being an unalterable fact, yes.
I would claim Nintendo is, primarily due to gaming being their only revenue source. They aren't quite as willing to screw up their only source of income in order to keep their media/music/home pc/movei/websearch/whatnot wings of their company happy.
Nintendo is far from angelic, and has done nasty arrogant things in the past... but they're no Microsoft, and certainly no Sony.
Forget that. How does it compare to XP? That's the most important question.
My impression from various benchmarks is that it's much closer to XP's speed than Vista was. That's a big relief. I'm not going to upgrade anytime soon, but it's nice to know there's at least a path ahead. Now: Does it still allow for a Windows Classic theme?
Just visiting here from 4chan? How's summer break?
If it's used in the struggle against despots and tyrants, it IS impressive. A peaceful and civilized nation needs to keep the biggest and best weapons on hand, else they be overrun by mongols (figuratively).
Fortunately, peaceful and free nations also generally have the best technology, industry, and economy, which allows us to have the most impressive weapons.
The carbon content of paper is around 40%. Therefore, each paperback takes... what, maybe a fourth to a half a kilo? out of the atmosphere, for the duration of the lifespan of the book... which I'm sure is probably measured in decades.
I don't know about the ESRB, but for movie ratings, even simply reshuffling scenes or cutting scenes OUT will invalidate the rating. This ticked me off, because the 'unrated' Lust, Caution DVD release is actually a censored version of the NR-17 theatrical release.
It doesn't matter that the content added is objectionable or not, but that it is now has different content than what was initially rated. And what if (GASP) they advertised smoking, drinks, or guns!
The Wiimote is clever and creative, and makes the Wii the most natural console for first-person shooters. The interface is far better than the 360's or PS3's for aiming and shooting, just barely worse than a mouse/keyboard combination.
Unfortunately, the potential for the Wii in this area has been pretty much ignored by EVERYBODY, consumers and developers alike.
I know it's asking for a "troll" but another option to avoid the bankruptcy would have been to avoid downloading.
Downloading isn't the problem. The defendant didn't receive any fines or punishment for downloading, and I don't believe that anybody ever has. The problems is sharing them (or downloading them with a protocol that automatically shares them, as bit torrent does... or putting them in a shared, publicly accessible folder). If you download songs from, say, a direct link on a website, my understanding is that you are not infringing copyright at all (at least in a legally actionable way). The person sharing them is.
These news stories always talk about people being sued by the RIAA for downloading music, and that's exactly what the RIAA wants people to think, but if you examine the charges, they'll always be for distributing files.
You misunderstand the 'No True Scotsman' error. It would be applicable if his argument was 'Real Republicans' wouldn't act that way. That's not what he said; he said they weren't true conservatives. Since Republican and Conservative are different (but overlapping) sets, with different definitions, what he said is perfectly valid.
There are conservative libertarians, for instance, and there are republicans who aren't conservative. This is true, which makes your criticism an error.
The PS2 was clearly less powerful than the Gamecube, also. You could say the PS2 beat the Dreamcast, if you consider them the same generation; the DC was kind of in-between gens.
Point is kind of taken about the PS3/360. We've been seeing pretty equivalent results in performance between the two consoles. I think the PS3 has significantly more potential, but it may be moot, because I'm not sure it'll ever get fully tapped. But Sony certainly claims to have the best hardware!
That's odd. There's usually about four-five chicks in every game that fall in love with the hero. They must not be looking hard enough.
Ok. Then take a known, low-res source: A movie on DVD. Say, "The Matrix". 32 bit color, 720x480 resolution. Laughably low, right? I mean, that's WII-level specs!
And yet a well-done movie on DVD looks FAR better than a 1080p clip of gameplay on a PS3. Why? Because the modeling, animation, and physics are lagging FAR behind raw resolution.
Gould's thesis is that IQ is a meaningless measure, and that intelligence is a meaningless notion that doesn't correspond to a single measurable entity in the first place.
I would completely agree with the sentiment that IQ is a vastly simplified measure, but it certainly isn't meaningless. Take a thousand people and separate them by IQ into top 33%, middle 34%, and bottom 33%. You'll find that the groups will correlate very strongly with wealth, social standing, and many other indicators of success. IQ clearly correlates VERY well with VERY real factors. Perhaps it's the cause, perhaps it's a side effect of something else; but it is certainly a very useful measure that tells us SOMETHING real about a person.
Fast hardware lost this gen to the slowest (Wii). It lost last gen to the slowest (PS2). You can argue that two gens ago, the PS1 was slower than the N64, although that's less certain. Raw speed is most certainly not the most important component of success for a console.
I wouldn't say hardware was unimportant, though. The Wii won because of its hardware, clearly. But it needs to be looked at in terms of what the hardware actually brings to the buyer. Higher res? Who cares? Faster refresh? Doesn't matter. Better AI and gameplay? Well, that might help, but it's pretty clear that the 360's and PS3's improved processors aren't being used for that.
New methods of control, new interfaces, whole new styles of gameplay? Microphones, vibrations, sensors, speakers, and so forth... now, that will catch a customer's eye. That makes playing a game something new, instead of a slightly glossier but nearly indistinguishable version of an older game. New hardware is important, but the growth needs to branch out in new directions, instead of being this one-dimensional 'better graphics' mantra that the consoles have been pushing. Improvements in graphics are mattering less and less.
By redefining intelligence to have nothing to do with what anybody means by intelligence, he can then claim that other systems exhibit more intelligence. Like a rock, presumably, since it survives far better than humans. I think this may be an example of somebody getting too interesting in specifics of tree-bark, and forgetting about the forest.
That might not be the best argument, because Image did more to ruin comics than any other publisher. They're one of the main reasons that comics are marketing and hype driven, focused on an insular community of fanboys, and have basically ceded the vast majority of the market to manga.
I have a child. Two of them. Sorry if this is rude, but it only makes you 'torn' if you are unclear about the issue in the first place. If you have reasoned it out, the reasoning doesn't change when you have children. 'Right' and 'wrong' shouldn't change depending on your personal situation.
I once got a notice on the door that some helpful neighbor distributed, which said a sex offender had moved into the neighborhood. Into the trash it went. That info was useless, because there was no need to alter my or my children's behavior one bit. Such a reaction would probably cause more harm than good.
Can we dispel the myth that sex offenders are more likely to reoffend. I have never seen a study that states this.
I agree; but that's not what he said. He said that "Sex offenders (and for the moment let's assume the very worst kinds of sex offenders such as kiddie molestors) are statistically much more likely to reoffend when exposed to high levels of stress"
That's not claiming that their reoffend rate is high or low; just that putting them under stress and in untenable situations will make it higher. That's common sense.