I'm glad I'm safe from the madness - a perspective
on
Where are Wii?
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I got a Wii the day it came out. Don't be jealous, though, because it was a lot of waiting, patience, and phone calls. I made 2 calls per week to the local EB Games until I finally found out when the store was open for reservations. I waited 3 hours to get reservations when the store opened up on a Friday in October/late September. I was the first one to get a Wii reservation at that particular store. And the amazing thing is... I think I went through less work to get my Wii than most people have to go through these days. Then again, since I follow the game industry closely, I had the advantage. I knew what a Wii was since it was codenamed "Revolution" in 2005.
I see all these parents buying a Wii for their kids and I feel almost the same way I did when I saw the same parents buying Pokemon cards for their kids (or possibly the Wii-wanters' elder brothers and sisters), except a little less cynical: they'll do anything for their kids just to make them smile, and while I do give them credit for that, there's so much aggression in their pursuit of the Wii that I just wish some of these parents would draw the line. Christmas becomes more stressful when you've got an objective like Christmas shopping and a deadline like Christmas day, and it seems more and more to me that consumerism is just... Look, consumerism is ok. In moderation. It's just that... If the kid doesn't get a Wii for Christmas, is he going to cry? Probably, and nobody wants to see their children cry, but the kid has to learn how to deal with disappointment at some point in their lifetime. If they learn to deal with it they mature into better adults because of it.
And I know this next bit went for me as well: it's keeping up with Junior Jones. Essentially, if all your friends have it, you want it. If all your friends want it, you have to have it. For children, however, it isn't about one-upmanship as much as it is having stuff to play with. It might be the case with some kids, but... I don't know. I'm not a parent, but if I were... if I couldn't get my kids the presents that they wanted, I would like to sit them down on my lap and tell them why. Totally naive and idealistic, isn't it? But you never know until you try...
I like a lot of the suggestions being made here, and I'd simply like to add in (or emphasize) a couple of soundtracks and pieces from my collection:
Megaman 2 and 3, Megaman X and X4. Seriously, the original title of the character was Rockman, his sister was named Roll, Protoman was originally named "Blues", his dog sidekick is named "Rush" and his bird sidekick is named "Beat". The franchise was designed with good music in mind.
Yasunori Mitsuda's work: Chrono Trigger theme (Chrono Trigger), Time's Scar (Chrono Cross), 90% of Xenosaga Episode I (including Resurrection, Gnosis, Battle of KOS-MOS, Ormus, Song of Nephilim, and Kokoro), 90% of the Xenogears soundtrack (special mention to Awakening, Knight of Fire, Small of Two Pieces and June Mermaid - they still give me chills when I hear their atmospheric melodies).
Yuki Kajiura: hasn't done too much, but Xenosaga: Episode II's Communication Breakdown, Image theme of Xenosaga II, and Jr. are the best. Xenosaga Episode III was a huge improvement. Go for "The Battle of Your Soul", "Promised Pain", "Godsibb", "Testament". A lot of good tracks aren't included on the CDs, but somebody at Glabadia Hotel has ripped the music from the game. Look for Assault #2 and Battle vs. Yuriev.
Nobuo Uematsu: okay, bear with me - he makes a lot of good music, but he reuses a lot of chords and melodies from game-to-game, and has a hard time branching out. BUT, what he gets right he gets very right. One Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Zanarkand (FFX), YOU'RE NOT ALONE (FFIX), Vamo' alla Flamenco (FF IX), FITHOS, LUSEC, WEPOS, VINOSEC (FF VIII), Cyan (FF VI), Trojan Beauty (FF IV), and My Home, Sweet Home (FF V "Dear Friends" soundtrack).
F-Zero (Guitar Remix): Endless Challenge, Long Distance of Murder
Gran Turismo: Moon Over Castle
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Bloody Tears
And something I haven't seen yet:
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete - Luna's Boat Song and the Intro Theme. When you watch the animation sequence for the Boat Song, you will be hooked into the game. It's perfect and expresses the game's lighthearted, romantic, colorful world. And the Intro Theme rocks, too. Yes, they're in English.
Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete - Eternal Blue and Lucia's Theme. Same as above, but longer and better. These're also in English.
I use LinkedIn for professional networking, and I use Facebook for personal networking. If I know a guy from my work I like well enough to be considered a buddy, I'll add him/her to Facebook. If I know a person on Facebook to be very good at what they do, I'll add them to LinkedIn. It's that simple. It's Structuralism, man - just maintain separate spaces and let them overlap on exceptions only. I'm not going to add everybody I meet at a Conference to facebook, I'll add them to LinkedIn.
The problem the parent eludes to is that many developers think graphics are more important than the game. Graphics are nice, but if the game sucks, a polished turd is still a turd. I'd rather play a great game with decent graphics than a mediocre game that awes me with shiny for the 30 minutes I play until I decide that it sucks. I agree with that statement. Its why things like XBox Live Arcade and the Wii's Virtual Console exist. The game you get on those - developed over a decade ago or more - are for the most part still playable because the gameplay stands the test of time, even if the graphics don't. MegaMan games were a true test to good gameplay. Not the new ones that come out like MegaMan Battle Network or Advent, I mean the originals, MegaMan X and MegaMan Legends. Those were games that had an excellent structure to support themselves - 8 bosses, elemental/weapon weaknesses, a couple levels for a final boss, memorizing attack patterns - that you just can't help but enjoy. I think so, at least. Then again it gets tiring after MegaMan 8 or so, lol.
Sadly many developers do think the graphics are more important than the gameplay because the graphics are what sell. People are more likely to put their money down on a shiny new game expecting tons of entertainment when the gameplay is very likely to fall flat. None of them would be willing to try, say, Katamari Damacy because the game looks archaic. I'd say part of the fun lies upon rolling the Katamari into those super-deformed creatures and collecting characters like "High-school dropout", "Crowd of People", and the ever elusive "Cowbear" (yes, the game is so awesome it has a Cowbear in it).
The documentary was awesome, and I can't wait for this coming Wednesday's. I've got an entire shelf of books describing the history of video games, but while I know a lot about them these documentaries are always able to add more commentary and perspective into the mix. Stuff like Henry Jenkins' commentary is a nice addition.
When people were raving about full body scans, they'd look at the tiniest little blot on the image and go paranoid thinking its cancer. As Dr. House says, "it can find a problem in anybody."
Still, I wonder if this thing can export the images into a common 3d app file for use in Maya, Softimage, or 3dsMax?
I've seen a slide show of some of the worst Chernobyl cases, and I could barely look at the projector screen. Children had enlarged tumors, craniums, malformed arms, limbs... these children are living fates worse than death.
Anything can happen on-site that'll make your system fall apart. Neither MIT or Carnegie Melon did well in the Solar Decathlon, either, and that's because a lot of their stuff that was supposed to work ended up failing.
MMORPGs are becoming the downfall of PC gaming. Originally PC games - even the most expansive and open-ended titles - would last for 100-150 hours worth of gameplay. Afterwards a new game would have to be purchased. MMORPGs can go on indefinitely past 100, 200, 300 hours of gameplay. It could go on until the next big MMORPG emerges. And so many resources are dedicated to MMORPG development that developers barely have the means to make any other game for the PC. But I doubt there's a lot of incentive to develop a PC game to compete with the likes of WOW, so businesses probably skip normal PC games over for MMORPGs.
And Windows Vista might end up killing PC gaming permanently if the numbers are any indication. Direct X 10 is only compatible with Windows Vista, and game developers must choose: the best graphics in a game for an OS barely anyone will be using or continue working with XP? XP is here to stay, and I doubt Vista will become the gamer's OS. But if Microsoft keeps pushing Vista for gaming, gaming for the PC might slowly become undone. Especially since consoles are almost as powerful as PCs are right now. And even the Wii - which is not as powerful as either the XBox360 or PS3 - has enough graphics for lower-end games and the unique controls for intriguing game design. In hindsight, PC gaming doesn't look as good as console gaming right now. Otherwise Bioshock would've been a PC exclusive.
I only skimmed through the article, but it seems to me that Cringley is talking about the advertising. Let's assume for a minute that Google's search engine will be at number 1 for a very long time and thereby small companies will want to advertise with them. The advertisements are driven by the algorithms behind Google's search engines, and if those algorithms were altered it might have a detrimental effect on businesses that rely on Google for a fair portion of its business. It's a sensitive issue because there might be plenty of businesses that rely upon Google for a majority of its advertising. That's a lot of reliance upon algorithms, and to think a handful of lines of code might determine a business's success or failure.
I would never have discovered Mythbusters if my cable package didn't provide me with the Discovery channel, so the idea of packing some channels together has some appeal to me. Since science is lacking in the US, it should be mandatory that cable companies provide the "Educational Package": Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and we might as well throw in The History Channel, too. And make a "Civic Duty" package that contains C-SPAN and C-SPAN2, and perhaps a "Civic Duty +" package that adds The Daily Show and Colbert Report.
There was a section that basically said they could monitor what I'm playing on my PS3 at any time - whether I was running it at that time or not. Unless I'm playing something like DoA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball or Tokimeki Memorial, I wouldn't be too worried.
Funny, I'd have thought legitimate emulators such as the XBox Live Arcade and The Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console would at least be part of this increase in sales. Once broadband gets better by 2011, I think we'll definitely see an increase in games purchased online, and that might be a good amount of this "one third of all game sales" these researchers are anticipating.
If the ESRB had to play through each and every game on the market to judge their content and make a rating, some games would have to be delayed for months just so judges could mull over all the easter eggs, missions, and other miscellany. For movies its a hell of a lot easier: spend two hours on it, done. If you really wanted that much from the ESRB, have it run by the people who review games for a living. They've got to do it anyway, so might as well make it beneficial.
As far as I'm concerned, this new DVD format is nothing but vaporware until it's actually released. And even then, it could still go the way of the DIVX format. It seems like the Phantom of DVD players to me: cheap, using off-the-shelf technology, but able to do tons of really neat stuff. Remember, folks, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Wow, after reading this article I actually thought it was the first of April for a while. I kind of wish Jack Thompson sticks around, though. By the time he's caused enough chaos our legislative branch will finally push for more frivolous lawsuit and ethics reforms. He'd be the Bar Association's equivalent to Enron.
These people chose to work at Wal Mart and knew going into it what the pay was. Its simple economics. Wal Mart pays poorly because they have an abundant pool of workers who are quite willing to work at their pay scale.
Don't like the wages? Take a few night courses and move up. Or just work somewhere else. Wal-Mart destroys locally run "mom & pop" stores, lowers the real estate value of business districts, and as a result Wal-Mart is one of the few businesses left. People don't choose to work at Wal-Mart; they're forced to. Furthermore, corporate executives of some areas even ask that its employees go onto welfare, medicare, and medicaid. (See "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price"). I'd think more people would jump on the anti-Wal-Mart wagon if they knew our tax dollars were being used to give Wal-Mart a free ride like that.
Y'see, something about this post bugs me. Most people in the lower salary brackets are less likely to move up to higher level salary brackets (i.e., earn better jobs). That's because they don't have the proper resources to make that kind of progress. I'm sure there are some cases where people can attend night classes and earn some sort of certification for their efforts, but that's the exception from the norm. Fortunate folks like to think things are simple all across the board - for all people rich and poor-, but when you're smart enough to the point where you have a college degree (and can comprehend the majority of the stuff on/.), you don't realize that a lot of these people in these situations aren't as fortunate or as capable as you are. It's amazing how so many of us educated individuals can have such poor insight on important topics like this.
One of the other problems people have is that they don't like to acknowledge this kind of social issue in today's society. [sarcasm]God forbid we ever acknowledge the plight of the poor and feel guilty about being so well-off. We might just feel a bit too uncomfortable to even turn on our television sets.[/sarcasm] People think that if they don't acknowledge these issues then the issues will go away. And even if they do have to read about it, they'll just cast it off with a simple no-bs remark "don't like such-and-such? don't give em' your business." If things were that simple, I would've stopped paying my taxes when we went to war with Iraq in 2003.
This Pivar guy is just a businessman who wanted to cash in with an expensive book that has little science in it. The fact that he gave a scientist a book of his to review and then gets upset because of the review says a lot about him. Did he honestly have enough confidence in his writing and "doodles" that he thought he'd obtain a good review from a scientist of all people? He's either a huge narcissist or incredibly stupid. Pivar is a "wealthy businessman" according to Bad Astronomy Blog's post. Coincidence?
Wow! Hey, if I got to know Stephen Hawking well enough, do you think I could write a book on how theoretical physicists got it wrong? Too bad Steven Jay Gould isn't around to further comment on the issue. How brilliantly convenient for Pivar.
He's like the Uwe Boll of evolutionary biology. Whether that's as bad or worse than fundamentalist Christian whackjobs is up to the individual. Ultimately, this book's proper place is the science-fiction section.
Wow, I came in too late for this discussion. tch...
Either way, I'd like to put in my opinion on the whole evolution debate, since I seemed to iron out a pretty decent solution over a Sunday breakfast about a week ago.
Intelligent design does not belong in the science classroom because it has nothing to do with teaching the scientific method, or any of its applications. Evolution, on the other hand, was a theory supported by the scientific method, and has every right to be taught in science classes. High school biology labs prove the basic theories behind evolution - that and traits are transferred - using fruit flies. Anyone remember back that far? Intelligent Design cannot be proven or disproven through experimentation or research.
If people want Intelligent Design in the classroom, then they're going to have to put it into a philosophy class where it belongs. Hell that's where I learned it. Intelligent design was a product of pure intellectual deduction, just as everything else that is based upon faith and intuition. It was a solution that came by through pure logic. True, logic is a part of science, but it doesn't encompass the whole of science. But I honestly doubt any of the Intelligent Design supporters on the voting bloc care to put the necessary tax dollars into the educational system for such an expansion.
This should also quell anyone who has an issue with the word "belief". To be honest, the word "belief" has lost its meaning. The word "belief" has come to mean "something we consider true or accurate", as though these "beliefs" could change once the facts have been updated. The origins of the word "belief" come from words whose meaning is "to give one's heart to" or "to put their faith in". The difference is staggering, as shown by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kielowski in the first video of the mini-series "Decalogue". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decalogue Check the link to see what the first episode was all about, and a good google search can help you find the films, whether through actual purchase, YouTube, or BitTorrent (whichever you prefer).
Essentially, belief has its place, and absolute belief in science is wrong. Ultimately, there are a few things we can't quite grasp yet with science. There are always anomalies that cannot be explained. I dare not equate this towards evidence of the manifestation of God, however. If people need evidence to prove God is real, then they're already lost; it is because belief in God does not require facts nor research. It merely requires faith. That is what makes belief such a beautiful and powerful thing. Here's a link to an article that I enjoyed reading http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19811291/site/newsweek /.
Here's a solution my university's library came up with:
Our computers use Novell software, and logging in requires knowledge of your Novell username and password. Guests can log in to use the web, but they aren't granted access to any of the Microsoft Office or Macromedia Studio software. If a computer is left alone for 20 minutes, it shuts down/resets. When a computer is shut down/reset, it removes all new files and programs that were installed on the computer during usage. That way they stay clean of all the shit students put onto the computers, regardless of one's opinion of Novell. If a student forgets to back up his/her data, whether by burning it to a CD, putting it onto a flash drive, or e-mailing it to yourself, you're kind of screwed.
Come to think of it, my university also lends USB drives to students and faculty. It's not that big of a problem with the security measures placed upon our computers.
The real problem our university has had was when people use bittorrent or other P2P software to share media files and block up the university's entire network. There's a considerable lag when this occurs, and it drives me nuts. There are cases where we couldn't even access the wireless internet because of this.
One of the reasons our nation's gifted children are suffering is because of a severe lack of skilled, qualified teachers to suit their needs. Let me elaborate with a personal story: my mom always talks about how my grandmother was a second grade teacher, and was well known for her ability to teach her second grade students well enough to read from the newspaper by the end of the school year. Parents went out of their way to get their children into her courses. The problem, though, was that she had a horrible salary. She was a single mother and had to take care of four kids. Life for my mother was hard.
Teachers like my grandmother aren't around anymore because other industries pay better. That's not to say people are greedy money grubbers, though, because in most of the United States it is difficult to support oneself on a teacher's salary. So when given the choice between taking a $40k teaching gig or a $60k software developing gig in a state like, say, California (where schools are nearly last place in the country and living costs are HIGH), the majority would go for the $60k gig. And without good teachers or resources, we end up taking the mindset of "How do we keep the less gifted students on track with the norm?"
We all see ads and propaganda for the Army, right? Recruiters at every school. But where the hell is the propaganda for teacher recruitment? If our public education system had the same budget as the military, none of these problems would've existed. We'd have had ads asking for teachers playing at the theaters before the previews came on. Superintendents of public school boards would be making speaches at universities about why you should get a job in teaching. Gifted students would have access to advanced courses and cirriculum in the same school as the normal kids. (I've got nothing against the nation's military, though, and I wasn't intending to give that message off. Sorry.)
On another note, I took an IQ test a while ago and found out that... well, my IQ wasn't as high as the girl in the beginning of the TIME article, but it was up there. I don't remember being able to talk as well as she did, but in my psychology research I found out I did a lot while I was a kid. Memorizing the names and locations of the United States, making large structures with building blocks, y'know? However when I was at school I was a complete bonehead! I'd find it hard to read a lot of the material they gave in class and outright hated writing and grammar lessons. And I was always imagining different things, I never really focused on the teacher's lessons or anything. I was told that some of my classmates didn't even think that I would get past high-school.
There's a lot in deciding who is smart and who is not. A lot of the issues that students have are simple barriers or developmental issues that they haven't grown out of. Things like dyslexia, attention deficity disorder, or even an early fear of math. And there are a lot of issues with standardized testing, because many students learn and study in different ways, and if teachers aren't aware or open to these different types of learning methods, how are students supposed to excel?
Add onto that a lot of immigrant children don't even know English, so how are they supposed to learn in a classroom? One of the issues with the "No Child Left Behind" Act is that it rewards schools that perform well in academic standardized testing, but when a lot of students from poor immigrant families perform poorly because of a lack of education or the language barrier, the school and the entire district suffer the consequences. Ultimately the children are being taught material from the SATs and standardized testing for the sake of passing the exams only!
Do they really need to spend thousands of dollars analyzing data to determine there's more crime around check-cashing stores on paydays?
I'm sure it also points out there's less crime around donut shops, too.
Seriously, though, that example the article cited seems like the one most people are likely to understand. Perhaps the article writer is less inclined to mention the more sensitive things like drug trafficking locations. That would hamper an investigation, wouldn't it?
Most iPod owners don't know that you can load Linux on their iPod.
Most iPod owners wouldn't understand what that means, either.
As for the public's awareness of the HD capabilities of their gaming consoles... that does not surprise me, either. I get what LWATCDR is mentioning, though. I think what I want to say is that people do not have a reason to pay attention to HD capabilities. Watch what happens when 2009 rolls along and everything goes digital. That's when people will start looking at their consoles for HD content. Anything before that is possibly premature.
I know a lot of private high-schools keep content blockers on their networks to prevent students from accessing "naughty files", but that does not always stop people from accessing porn. I walked into my school's library and saw a group of men staring at nude photos plain as the eye can see, and I'm sure one of them played lookout so the guy at the keyboard can minimize the screen before the librarian could find out. Yay! Go teamwork!
Did I mention that I went to a Catholic high-school?
Why should anyone be surprised that the study was sponsored by Microsoft, Verizon, and News Corporation (which owns MySpace, fyi)? Newsweek's cover story is on global warming naysayers, the majority of whom are funded by ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, big steel, auto manufacturers, and utilities. Two very similar situations to be certain.
I'd just hate to be a parent of a teenager right now. No matter what you do you're never able to keep them perfectly safe. Ultimately the hardest decision to make is most likely the right one, i.e., don't be the "totally cool" parent, be the "responsible" one.
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I got a Wii the day it came out. Don't be jealous, though, because it was a lot of waiting, patience, and phone calls. I made 2 calls per week to the local EB Games until I finally found out when the store was open for reservations. I waited 3 hours to get reservations when the store opened up on a Friday in October/late September. I was the first one to get a Wii reservation at that particular store. And the amazing thing is... I think I went through less work to get my Wii than most people have to go through these days. Then again, since I follow the game industry closely, I had the advantage. I knew what a Wii was since it was codenamed "Revolution" in 2005.
I see all these parents buying a Wii for their kids and I feel almost the same way I did when I saw the same parents buying Pokemon cards for their kids (or possibly the Wii-wanters' elder brothers and sisters), except a little less cynical: they'll do anything for their kids just to make them smile, and while I do give them credit for that, there's so much aggression in their pursuit of the Wii that I just wish some of these parents would draw the line. Christmas becomes more stressful when you've got an objective like Christmas shopping and a deadline like Christmas day, and it seems more and more to me that consumerism is just... Look, consumerism is ok. In moderation. It's just that... If the kid doesn't get a Wii for Christmas, is he going to cry? Probably, and nobody wants to see their children cry, but the kid has to learn how to deal with disappointment at some point in their lifetime. If they learn to deal with it they mature into better adults because of it.
And I know this next bit went for me as well: it's keeping up with Junior Jones. Essentially, if all your friends have it, you want it. If all your friends want it, you have to have it. For children, however, it isn't about one-upmanship as much as it is having stuff to play with. It might be the case with some kids, but... I don't know. I'm not a parent, but if I were... if I couldn't get my kids the presents that they wanted, I would like to sit them down on my lap and tell them why. Totally naive and idealistic, isn't it? But you never know until you try...
I like a lot of the suggestions being made here, and I'd simply like to add in (or emphasize) a couple of soundtracks and pieces from my collection:
Megaman 2 and 3, Megaman X and X4. Seriously, the original title of the character was Rockman, his sister was named Roll, Protoman was originally named "Blues", his dog sidekick is named "Rush" and his bird sidekick is named "Beat". The franchise was designed with good music in mind.
Yasunori Mitsuda's work: Chrono Trigger theme (Chrono Trigger), Time's Scar (Chrono Cross), 90% of Xenosaga Episode I (including Resurrection, Gnosis, Battle of KOS-MOS, Ormus, Song of Nephilim, and Kokoro), 90% of the Xenogears soundtrack (special mention to Awakening, Knight of Fire, Small of Two Pieces and June Mermaid - they still give me chills when I hear their atmospheric melodies).
Yuki Kajiura: hasn't done too much, but Xenosaga: Episode II's Communication Breakdown, Image theme of Xenosaga II, and Jr. are the best. Xenosaga Episode III was a huge improvement. Go for "The Battle of Your Soul", "Promised Pain", "Godsibb", "Testament". A lot of good tracks aren't included on the CDs, but somebody at Glabadia Hotel has ripped the music from the game. Look for Assault #2 and Battle vs. Yuriev.
Nobuo Uematsu: okay, bear with me - he makes a lot of good music, but he reuses a lot of chords and melodies from game-to-game, and has a hard time branching out. BUT, what he gets right he gets very right. One Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Zanarkand (FFX), YOU'RE NOT ALONE (FFIX), Vamo' alla Flamenco (FF IX), FITHOS, LUSEC, WEPOS, VINOSEC (FF VIII), Cyan (FF VI), Trojan Beauty (FF IV), and My Home, Sweet Home (FF V "Dear Friends" soundtrack).
F-Zero (Guitar Remix): Endless Challenge, Long Distance of Murder
Gran Turismo: Moon Over Castle
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Bloody Tears
And something I haven't seen yet:
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete - Luna's Boat Song and the Intro Theme. When you watch the animation sequence for the Boat Song, you will be hooked into the game. It's perfect and expresses the game's lighthearted, romantic, colorful world. And the Intro Theme rocks, too. Yes, they're in English.
Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete - Eternal Blue and Lucia's Theme. Same as above, but longer and better. These're also in English.
I cannot believe nobody mentioned Lunar...
I use LinkedIn for professional networking, and I use Facebook for personal networking. If I know a guy from my work I like well enough to be considered a buddy, I'll add him/her to Facebook. If I know a person on Facebook to be very good at what they do, I'll add them to LinkedIn. It's that simple. It's Structuralism, man - just maintain separate spaces and let them overlap on exceptions only. I'm not going to add everybody I meet at a Conference to facebook, I'll add them to LinkedIn.
I'm amazed there are people who don't do this.
Sadly many developers do think the graphics are more important than the gameplay because the graphics are what sell. People are more likely to put their money down on a shiny new game expecting tons of entertainment when the gameplay is very likely to fall flat. None of them would be willing to try, say, Katamari Damacy because the game looks archaic. I'd say part of the fun lies upon rolling the Katamari into those super-deformed creatures and collecting characters like "High-school dropout", "Crowd of People", and the ever elusive "Cowbear" (yes, the game is so awesome it has a Cowbear in it).
The documentary was awesome, and I can't wait for this coming Wednesday's. I've got an entire shelf of books describing the history of video games, but while I know a lot about them these documentaries are always able to add more commentary and perspective into the mix. Stuff like Henry Jenkins' commentary is a nice addition.
When people were raving about full body scans, they'd look at the tiniest little blot on the image and go paranoid thinking its cancer. As Dr. House says, "it can find a problem in anybody."
Still, I wonder if this thing can export the images into a common 3d app file for use in Maya, Softimage, or 3dsMax?
I've seen a slide show of some of the worst Chernobyl cases, and I could barely look at the projector screen. Children had enlarged tumors, craniums, malformed arms, limbs... these children are living fates worse than death.
Anything can happen on-site that'll make your system fall apart. Neither MIT or Carnegie Melon did well in the Solar Decathlon, either, and that's because a lot of their stuff that was supposed to work ended up failing.
MMORPGs are becoming the downfall of PC gaming. Originally PC games - even the most expansive and open-ended titles - would last for 100-150 hours worth of gameplay. Afterwards a new game would have to be purchased. MMORPGs can go on indefinitely past 100, 200, 300 hours of gameplay. It could go on until the next big MMORPG emerges. And so many resources are dedicated to MMORPG development that developers barely have the means to make any other game for the PC. But I doubt there's a lot of incentive to develop a PC game to compete with the likes of WOW, so businesses probably skip normal PC games over for MMORPGs.
And Windows Vista might end up killing PC gaming permanently if the numbers are any indication. Direct X 10 is only compatible with Windows Vista, and game developers must choose: the best graphics in a game for an OS barely anyone will be using or continue working with XP? XP is here to stay, and I doubt Vista will become the gamer's OS. But if Microsoft keeps pushing Vista for gaming, gaming for the PC might slowly become undone. Especially since consoles are almost as powerful as PCs are right now. And even the Wii - which is not as powerful as either the XBox360 or PS3 - has enough graphics for lower-end games and the unique controls for intriguing game design. In hindsight, PC gaming doesn't look as good as console gaming right now. Otherwise Bioshock would've been a PC exclusive.
I only skimmed through the article, but it seems to me that Cringley is talking about the advertising. Let's assume for a minute that Google's search engine will be at number 1 for a very long time and thereby small companies will want to advertise with them. The advertisements are driven by the algorithms behind Google's search engines, and if those algorithms were altered it might have a detrimental effect on businesses that rely on Google for a fair portion of its business. It's a sensitive issue because there might be plenty of businesses that rely upon Google for a majority of its advertising. That's a lot of reliance upon algorithms, and to think a handful of lines of code might determine a business's success or failure.
Or perhaps that's overstating it a bit?
I would never have discovered Mythbusters if my cable package didn't provide me with the Discovery channel, so the idea of packing some channels together has some appeal to me. Since science is lacking in the US, it should be mandatory that cable companies provide the "Educational Package": Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and we might as well throw in The History Channel, too. And make a "Civic Duty" package that contains C-SPAN and C-SPAN2, and perhaps a "Civic Duty +" package that adds The Daily Show and Colbert Report.
Since this is the last game in the Halo series, how do they expect to keep the franchise afloat on spin-offs alone?
Funny, I'd have thought legitimate emulators such as the XBox Live Arcade and The Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console would at least be part of this increase in sales. Once broadband gets better by 2011, I think we'll definitely see an increase in games purchased online, and that might be a good amount of this "one third of all game sales" these researchers are anticipating.
If the ESRB had to play through each and every game on the market to judge their content and make a rating, some games would have to be delayed for months just so judges could mull over all the easter eggs, missions, and other miscellany. For movies its a hell of a lot easier: spend two hours on it, done. If you really wanted that much from the ESRB, have it run by the people who review games for a living. They've got to do it anyway, so might as well make it beneficial.
As far as I'm concerned, this new DVD format is nothing but vaporware until it's actually released. And even then, it could still go the way of the DIVX format. It seems like the Phantom of DVD players to me: cheap, using off-the-shelf technology, but able to do tons of really neat stuff. Remember, folks, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Wow, after reading this article I actually thought it was the first of April for a while. I kind of wish Jack Thompson sticks around, though. By the time he's caused enough chaos our legislative branch will finally push for more frivolous lawsuit and ethics reforms. He'd be the Bar Association's equivalent to Enron.
When will a fraud task force begin looking at all the scams found on online auction sites? Scammers make more money than thieves, don't they?
Don't like the wages? Take a few night courses and move up. Or just work somewhere else. Wal-Mart destroys locally run "mom & pop" stores, lowers the real estate value of business districts, and as a result Wal-Mart is one of the few businesses left. People don't choose to work at Wal-Mart; they're forced to. Furthermore, corporate executives of some areas even ask that its employees go onto welfare, medicare, and medicaid. (See "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price"). I'd think more people would jump on the anti-Wal-Mart wagon if they knew our tax dollars were being used to give Wal-Mart a free ride like that.
Y'see, something about this post bugs me. Most people in the lower salary brackets are less likely to move up to higher level salary brackets (i.e., earn better jobs). That's because they don't have the proper resources to make that kind of progress. I'm sure there are some cases where people can attend night classes and earn some sort of certification for their efforts, but that's the exception from the norm. Fortunate folks like to think things are simple all across the board - for all people rich and poor-, but when you're smart enough to the point where you have a college degree (and can comprehend the majority of the stuff on
One of the other problems people have is that they don't like to acknowledge this kind of social issue in today's society. [sarcasm]God forbid we ever acknowledge the plight of the poor and feel guilty about being so well-off. We might just feel a bit too uncomfortable to even turn on our television sets.[/sarcasm] People think that if they don't acknowledge these issues then the issues will go away. And even if they do have to read about it, they'll just cast it off with a simple no-bs remark "don't like such-and-such? don't give em' your business." If things were that simple, I would've stopped paying my taxes when we went to war with Iraq in 2003.
This Pivar guy is just a businessman who wanted to cash in with an expensive book that has little science in it. The fact that he gave a scientist a book of his to review and then gets upset because of the review says a lot about him. Did he honestly have enough confidence in his writing and "doodles" that he thought he'd obtain a good review from a scientist of all people? He's either a huge narcissist or incredibly stupid. Pivar is a "wealthy businessman" according to Bad Astronomy Blog's post. Coincidence?
i enceblogs_com_s_lead_blogger&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 (see that second point in the lawsuit)
His claim to fame is that he is a close friend of Steven Jay Gould. http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=pz_myers_sc
Wow! Hey, if I got to know Stephen Hawking well enough, do you think I could write a book on how theoretical physicists got it wrong? Too bad Steven Jay Gould isn't around to further comment on the issue. How brilliantly convenient for Pivar.
He's like the Uwe Boll of evolutionary biology. Whether that's as bad or worse than fundamentalist Christian whackjobs is up to the individual. Ultimately, this book's proper place is the science-fiction section.
Wow, I came in too late for this discussion. tch...
k /.
Either way, I'd like to put in my opinion on the whole evolution debate, since I seemed to iron out a pretty decent solution over a Sunday breakfast about a week ago.
Intelligent design does not belong in the science classroom because it has nothing to do with teaching the scientific method, or any of its applications. Evolution, on the other hand, was a theory supported by the scientific method, and has every right to be taught in science classes. High school biology labs prove the basic theories behind evolution - that and traits are transferred - using fruit flies. Anyone remember back that far? Intelligent Design cannot be proven or disproven through experimentation or research.
If people want Intelligent Design in the classroom, then they're going to have to put it into a philosophy class where it belongs. Hell that's where I learned it. Intelligent design was a product of pure intellectual deduction, just as everything else that is based upon faith and intuition. It was a solution that came by through pure logic. True, logic is a part of science, but it doesn't encompass the whole of science. But I honestly doubt any of the Intelligent Design supporters on the voting bloc care to put the necessary tax dollars into the educational system for such an expansion.
This should also quell anyone who has an issue with the word "belief". To be honest, the word "belief" has lost its meaning. The word "belief" has come to mean "something we consider true or accurate", as though these "beliefs" could change once the facts have been updated. The origins of the word "belief" come from words whose meaning is "to give one's heart to" or "to put their faith in". The difference is staggering, as shown by Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kielowski in the first video of the mini-series "Decalogue". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decalogue Check the link to see what the first episode was all about, and a good google search can help you find the films, whether through actual purchase, YouTube, or BitTorrent (whichever you prefer).
Essentially, belief has its place, and absolute belief in science is wrong. Ultimately, there are a few things we can't quite grasp yet with science. There are always anomalies that cannot be explained. I dare not equate this towards evidence of the manifestation of God, however. If people need evidence to prove God is real, then they're already lost; it is because belief in God does not require facts nor research. It merely requires faith. That is what makes belief such a beautiful and powerful thing. Here's a link to an article that I enjoyed reading http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19811291/site/newswee
Here's a solution my university's library came up with:
Our computers use Novell software, and logging in requires knowledge of your Novell username and password. Guests can log in to use the web, but they aren't granted access to any of the Microsoft Office or Macromedia Studio software. If a computer is left alone for 20 minutes, it shuts down/resets. When a computer is shut down/reset, it removes all new files and programs that were installed on the computer during usage. That way they stay clean of all the shit students put onto the computers, regardless of one's opinion of Novell. If a student forgets to back up his/her data, whether by burning it to a CD, putting it onto a flash drive, or e-mailing it to yourself, you're kind of screwed.
Come to think of it, my university also lends USB drives to students and faculty. It's not that big of a problem with the security measures placed upon our computers.
The real problem our university has had was when people use bittorrent or other P2P software to share media files and block up the university's entire network. There's a considerable lag when this occurs, and it drives me nuts. There are cases where we couldn't even access the wireless internet because of this.
One of the reasons our nation's gifted children are suffering is because of a severe lack of skilled, qualified teachers to suit their needs. Let me elaborate with a personal story: my mom always talks about how my grandmother was a second grade teacher, and was well known for her ability to teach her second grade students well enough to read from the newspaper by the end of the school year. Parents went out of their way to get their children into her courses. The problem, though, was that she had a horrible salary. She was a single mother and had to take care of four kids. Life for my mother was hard.
Teachers like my grandmother aren't around anymore because other industries pay better. That's not to say people are greedy money grubbers, though, because in most of the United States it is difficult to support oneself on a teacher's salary. So when given the choice between taking a $40k teaching gig or a $60k software developing gig in a state like, say, California (where schools are nearly last place in the country and living costs are HIGH), the majority would go for the $60k gig. And without good teachers or resources, we end up taking the mindset of "How do we keep the less gifted students on track with the norm?"
We all see ads and propaganda for the Army, right? Recruiters at every school. But where the hell is the propaganda for teacher recruitment? If our public education system had the same budget as the military, none of these problems would've existed. We'd have had ads asking for teachers playing at the theaters before the previews came on. Superintendents of public school boards would be making speaches at universities about why you should get a job in teaching. Gifted students would have access to advanced courses and cirriculum in the same school as the normal kids. (I've got nothing against the nation's military, though, and I wasn't intending to give that message off. Sorry.)
On another note, I took an IQ test a while ago and found out that... well, my IQ wasn't as high as the girl in the beginning of the TIME article, but it was up there. I don't remember being able to talk as well as she did, but in my psychology research I found out I did a lot while I was a kid. Memorizing the names and locations of the United States, making large structures with building blocks, y'know? However when I was at school I was a complete bonehead! I'd find it hard to read a lot of the material they gave in class and outright hated writing and grammar lessons. And I was always imagining different things, I never really focused on the teacher's lessons or anything. I was told that some of my classmates didn't even think that I would get past high-school.
There's a lot in deciding who is smart and who is not. A lot of the issues that students have are simple barriers or developmental issues that they haven't grown out of. Things like dyslexia, attention deficity disorder, or even an early fear of math. And there are a lot of issues with standardized testing, because many students learn and study in different ways, and if teachers aren't aware or open to these different types of learning methods, how are students supposed to excel?
Add onto that a lot of immigrant children don't even know English, so how are they supposed to learn in a classroom? One of the issues with the "No Child Left Behind" Act is that it rewards schools that perform well in academic standardized testing, but when a lot of students from poor immigrant families perform poorly because of a lack of education or the language barrier, the school and the entire district suffer the consequences. Ultimately the children are being taught material from the SATs and standardized testing for the sake of passing the exams only!
I'm sure it also points out there's less crime around donut shops, too.
Seriously, though, that example the article cited seems like the one most people are likely to understand. Perhaps the article writer is less inclined to mention the more sensitive things like drug trafficking locations. That would hamper an investigation, wouldn't it?
As for the public's awareness of the HD capabilities of their gaming consoles... that does not surprise me, either. I get what LWATCDR is mentioning, though. I think what I want to say is that people do not have a reason to pay attention to HD capabilities. Watch what happens when 2009 rolls along and everything goes digital. That's when people will start looking at their consoles for HD content. Anything before that is possibly premature.
I know a lot of private high-schools keep content blockers on their networks to prevent students from accessing "naughty files", but that does not always stop people from accessing porn. I walked into my school's library and saw a group of men staring at nude photos plain as the eye can see, and I'm sure one of them played lookout so the guy at the keyboard can minimize the screen before the librarian could find out. Yay! Go teamwork!
Did I mention that I went to a Catholic high-school?
Why should anyone be surprised that the study was sponsored by Microsoft, Verizon, and News Corporation (which owns MySpace, fyi)? Newsweek's cover story is on global warming naysayers, the majority of whom are funded by ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, big steel, auto manufacturers, and utilities. Two very similar situations to be certain.
I'd just hate to be a parent of a teenager right now. No matter what you do you're never able to keep them perfectly safe. Ultimately the hardest decision to make is most likely the right one, i.e., don't be the "totally cool" parent, be the "responsible" one.