i don't think you quite understood what was going on in the pictures. those people weren't just wallowing in e-waste; they were trying to recycle the stuff.
what about the big picture, you might ask? while it's nice to raise awareness about this particular issue, it's pretty naive to think that if only there was some legislation passed in the US, then your chinese foreman wouldn't be dumping waste into the ocean. we rich countries can pass all the environmental laws we want, but if we want developing countries to follow the same standards, we either have to march troops in, or persuade them to enact their own environmental laws. if you want to consider consequences to the planet, remember that the US is only 4.53% of the world's population. imagine if say.. 37.29% of the world's population decided that they too wanted to experience strong economic growth with little or no environmental regulation. awareness will only take you so far.
But that's exactly our points -- yours and mine. We don't get better locks, and we don't get better windows -- front or back. We simply don't worry about such attacks because we live in safe neighbourhoods -- safe by statistical standards. There's a break-in every few months around here, and expensive things are stolen. But these thieves get through police-patrolled neighbourhoods, alarm systems, and locks of all kinds. We don't improve them because most would get through anyway. And ultimately, there aren't enough break-ins to be concerned. home security makes a good analogy that anybody can understand. i doubt even a single person here has door locks that can't be picked, windows that can't be broken, or garage door openers that can't be hacked. wtf? isn't your family's safety important?
how many people here have even bothered to replace their $30 deadbolts with $100+ models that can'tbebumped?
Why in the blue fuck would you even ask that question? You can't buy a wii without a wii remote. It's a package deal. The question isn't even academic, it's just misguided. that question was merely a twist on a statement in the very first paragraph of the article:
It's a very nice product, but it actually has a relatively specific audience and a fairly specific appeal, frankly, based on one feature, which is the controller itself. i asked it because i think it's funny that while everyone and their mother (literally!) is saying that wii is fun to play, there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to the question of why wii is fun to play. judging from the strong negative reaction to my first question, i'd say that people aren't willing to get past the idea of a wii without wiimote and give the article a fair reading, since the entire basis of the article is to focus on hardware other than the controller. Hence, welcome to wii fanboii central.
Still, i'm glad you gave the question a shot.
Yes, arse, graphics really matter, with "all else being equal." Which is why everyone flocks to the Xbox 360 and PS3 when all else is equal amongst all the consoles. Remember, "all else" is anything I can come up with (and more!), so that includes well, once sony and microsoft get past possible patent issues, i don't think it's a stretch to say all of the consoles will have wiimote-like controllers in the future. (i think i read sometime back that the wiimote was covered by various patents?) once that happens, we'll have the situation that everyone had envisioned for the latest round of console wars, before nintendo messed everything up with their damned wiimote! i'm surprised that nobody here is talking about such a possible future. it almost looks like.. yep, you guessed it: wii fanboii central!
what if microsoft and sony were to develop a wiimote clone? If Microsoft and Sony did that, it'd be a great idea, judging from the excitement the wii version has created. is anyone wondering aloud what their favorite xbox or playstation games would be like with a wiimote-like controller? nope, not a peep.
if you think that i'm biased, i'd have to admit that i do have a definite anti-sony and anti-microsoft bias. in fact, my latest entrepreneur of the year award definitely goes to nintendo (the riaa tried to lobby for legislation naming them the winner of the award, but they ran into veto problems). but, i'm the kind of person that likes to have his cake AND eat it. so, instead of patting myself on the back for buying a wii, i'll just keep on asking interesting and silly questions.
i think a lot of people here are simply arguing semantics. creditright? wtf? let's just make up a new word because we don't
understandtheoldone.
and, let's abolish copyright and make up something entirely new and different, like say... droit d'auteur! i don't understand frênçh, but that sounds totally cool, and it's completely original
!
the bottom line is: if you talk about how much you love gpl, then turn around and download spider-man 3, then you are a hypocrite. agree/disagree?
How so? I'll tell you - it's because the students are violating the Acceptable Use Policy that all students sign and agree to. If they disagree, then can use their parents' computers to accomplish those things that are explicitly forbidden at school (and that they are required to enforce by law - the CIPA, in fact), or find other public use computers that do not have those restrictions. actually, in this case, if they disagree, then they can spend 3 months at home. does that seem like a fair and appropriate punishment to you?
That's like getting a library card - you agree to borrow a book, and return it. If you think that because you're impoverished, or need the money to buy medicine for chemotheraphy for your sainted mother, and so sell the book and fail to return it, that you WON'T be prosecuted for violating the law, then you're delusional. if i thought that, i wouldn't be delusional; i'd be right. because, failing to return a book to the library will get me fined by the library, not prosecuted by the courts.
there's been a lot of talk about whether students should follow the rules or not, but i think the real issue here is the severity of the punishments handed out. at most, these students should have had their school computer access permanently revoked, and either given some other tasks, or the burden of having to finish their computer-related assignments away from school. there is no reason for school officials to compare these offenses to far more serious crimes, or to hand out punishments far out of proportion to the offenses committed.
If they're told that these are rules, but you don't *really* have to obey them, what other rules will they choose to ignore? Will they ignore the rules about bringing weapons to school? Will they ignore the rules about bringing drugs to school? Will they chose to ignore the rules about cheating on tests? have you lost your mind? using a proxy on a school computer is nowhere near a serious offense as bringing weapons and drugs to school. so, let's not start cutting off hands here.
I've seen people walked off jobs for less. yeah? like what?
really. who needs 2 kinds of picture ID when a piece of paper with some numbers written on it will serve just as well? it's impossible to forge, and works for all of your kids, too!
it was metamatic who first brought up the subject of non-violent coop games; i merely commented that i was aware that they existed. rest assured that i haven't forgotten about the violent games that are out there.
i'm not sure how much more value you're getting in a true AI that has the ability to learn over a "fake" AI that is merely comprised of a simple set of heuristics. taking onyxia as an example, i doubt that pve guilds would welcome the possibility of having to relearn content every week, since most pve guilds i've seen are filled with people who like to learn content once, then show up in subsequent weeks, mash a few buttons (NWS), pick up loot, and log out until the next raid. in addition, once a computer opponent has had a chance to learn and improve against players who are also learning and improving, any newbies who show up later with little skill and/or gear will be severely outmatched by this "super computer player". so, balancing this kind of situation could be tricky.
my impression is that "fake" AIs provide pretty good gaming experiences, already. thus, instead of having to deal with all the extra trouble and work that writing a true AI entails, i'd rather see a game developer write decent heuristics, then move on to content and other features.
anyways, my original position was that real players provide plenty of challenge and entertainment, and a true computer AI isn't really needed. i'm just writing this for kicks.
why would i want to play against an artificial intelligence when i can play online against real people? in my mind, there is no going back to single-player gaming once multi-player games have taken root (even if human players are often less intelligent than the typical computer AI). so, this notion that computer games need better AI is like saying that we need faster cd-rom drives.
the bomb threat was made on march 11th, and cody was arrested on march 12th. the principal didn't leap to any conclusions. she had a call log that pointed to cody webb, and so she concluded that he made the bomb threat. it's a pretty standard problem-solving technique which i'm sure many people here have used. and, when you're looking at computer logs, the thought "i can't assume the timestamps are correct" doesn't exactly leap to the front of your mind. you may come around to it later if you notice a discrepancy somewhere.
how this relates to va tech is that you want school officials to take prudent steps to protect their schools, such as calling in the police when they find a student they strongly suspect of making a bomb threat. you don't want them to just let students do what they want and say what they want because of some vague notion that all people should be free, even students.
replying to myself to add this:
so soon after the events at va tech, i'm surprised to see so many people clamoring to punish school officials for simply trying to protect their school.
Slashdot Mirror
i don't think you quite understood what was going on in the pictures. those people weren't just wallowing in e-waste; they were trying to recycle the stuff.
what about the big picture, you might ask? while it's nice to raise awareness about this particular issue, it's pretty naive to think that if only there was some legislation passed in the US, then your chinese foreman wouldn't be dumping waste into the ocean. we rich countries can pass all the environmental laws we want, but if we want developing countries to follow the same standards, we either have to march troops in, or persuade them to enact their own environmental laws. if you want to consider consequences to the planet, remember that the US is only 4.53% of the world's population. imagine if say.. 37.29% of the world's population decided that they too wanted to experience strong economic growth with little or no environmental regulation. awareness will only take you so far.
just wait until your former boss also gets hired at your new company. you said all those nice things about him, remember?
how many people here have even bothered to replace their $30 deadbolts with $100+ models that can't be bumped?
Still, i'm glad you gave the question a shot.
Yes, arse, graphics really matter, with "all else being equal." Which is why everyone flocks to the Xbox 360 and PS3 when all else is equal amongst all the consoles. Remember, "all else" is anything I can come up with (and more!), so that includes well, once sony and microsoft get past possible patent issues, i don't think it's a stretch to say all of the consoles will have wiimote-like controllers in the future. (i think i read sometime back that the wiimote was covered by various patents?) once that happens, we'll have the situation that everyone had envisioned for the latest round of console wars, before nintendo messed everything up with their damned wiimote! i'm surprised that nobody here is talking about such a possible future. it almost looks like.. yep, you guessed it: wii fanboii central! what if microsoft and sony were to develop a wiimote clone? If Microsoft and Sony did that, it'd be a great idea, judging from the excitement the wii version has created. is anyone wondering aloud what their favorite xbox or playstation games would be like with a wiimote-like controller? nope, not a peep.if you think that i'm biased, i'd have to admit that i do have a definite anti-sony and anti-microsoft bias. in fact, my latest entrepreneur of the year award definitely goes to nintendo (the riaa tried to lobby for legislation naming them the winner of the award, but they ran into veto problems). but, i'm the kind of person that likes to have his cake AND eat it. so, instead of patting myself on the back for buying a wii, i'll just keep on asking interesting and silly questions.
if i ask questions like:
- what would wii be like without the wii remote?
- what if microsoft and sony were to develop a wiimote clone?
- all else being equal, do graphics matter?
- does price really matter to an avid gamer?
am i going to get tarred and feathered?should take a few hundred years. after that, the computer will be able to reassemble all of the documents in 30 seconds. whew!
*COUGH*youngjarjar
the bottom line is: if you talk about how much you love gpl, then turn around and download spider-man 3, then you are a hypocrite. agree/disagree?
buying your drugs from the lowest bidder isn't always a good thing.
nt
there's been a lot of talk about whether students should follow the rules or not, but i think the real issue here is the severity of the punishments handed out. at most, these students should have had their school computer access permanently revoked, and either given some other tasks, or the burden of having to finish their computer-related assignments away from school. there is no reason for school officials to compare these offenses to far more serious crimes, or to hand out punishments far out of proportion to the offenses committed.
The hippy report card! Guess who scores a D-!!!
Seriously, can't these two organizations get along without staging a bum fight in the media?
really. who needs 2 kinds of picture ID when a piece of paper with some numbers written on it will serve just as well? it's impossible to forge, and works for all of your kids, too!
one word: marketing.
...not even counting the one that sells for $999 + $299 shipping.
amazon seems to have a bunch of blu-ray disc players for under $1000, and even one model for under $500.
it was metamatic who first brought up the subject of non-violent coop games; i merely commented that i was aware that they existed. rest assured that i haven't forgotten about the violent games that are out there.
i'm not sure how much more value you're getting in a true AI that has the ability to learn over a "fake" AI that is merely comprised of a simple set of heuristics. taking onyxia as an example, i doubt that pve guilds would welcome the possibility of having to relearn content every week, since most pve guilds i've seen are filled with people who like to learn content once, then show up in subsequent weeks, mash a few buttons (NWS), pick up loot, and log out until the next raid. in addition, once a computer opponent has had a chance to learn and improve against players who are also learning and improving, any newbies who show up later with little skill and/or gear will be severely outmatched by this "super computer player". so, balancing this kind of situation could be tricky.
my impression is that "fake" AIs provide pretty good gaming experiences, already. thus, instead of having to deal with all the extra trouble and work that writing a true AI entails, i'd rather see a game developer write decent heuristics, then move on to content and other features.
anyways, my original position was that real players provide plenty of challenge and entertainment, and a true computer AI isn't really needed. i'm just writing this for kicks.
who's the enemy in this video?
so, then the questions becomes: why would i want to play alongside computer controlled characters when i can play alongside real people?
are you one of those people who are still looking for Mankrik's wife while wandering around in the outlands?
why would i want to play against an artificial intelligence when i can play online against real people? in my mind, there is no going back to single-player gaming once multi-player games have taken root (even if human players are often less intelligent than the typical computer AI). so, this notion that computer games need better AI is like saying that we need faster cd-rom drives.
the bomb threat was made on march 11th, and cody was arrested on march 12th. the principal didn't leap to any conclusions. she had a call log that pointed to cody webb, and so she concluded that he made the bomb threat. it's a pretty standard problem-solving technique which i'm sure many people here have used. and, when you're looking at computer logs, the thought "i can't assume the timestamps are correct" doesn't exactly leap to the front of your mind. you may come around to it later if you notice a discrepancy somewhere.
how this relates to va tech is that you want school officials to take prudent steps to protect their schools, such as calling in the police when they find a student they strongly suspect of making a bomb threat. you don't want them to just let students do what they want and say what they want because of some vague notion that all people should be free, even students.
replying to myself to add this: so soon after the events at va tech, i'm surprised to see so many people clamoring to punish school officials for simply trying to protect their school.
no. read my post titled "hindsight" and stop screwing around with the school.