Obviously, games are exempt. I mean unnecessary things like "Browser enhancements", "Desktop enhancements", "Download helpers" (not to be confused with major software companies' download managers) etc. I'm the geek in my family, so when I flew 3000 miles out to visit them I ended up optimizing two peoples' computers in my spare time, amongst other techy tasks. One had a "Desktop Manager" third party program that caused her system to freeze on boot-up every other time, and for some reason she had her task manager disabled. (as Administrator no less) Both had their 512MB of ram bogged down with tons of useless background programs.
The point of my original post was: If you don't need new software to do what you need to do, don't download it. This should work to WoW and other games, as you obviously need to download the software to play it.
Never sign up for any unnecessary service that requires you to install software, EVER. This is much worse than, say, Yahoo Messenger which installs the toolbar that changes all your settings or...well, I can't reference anything else because that 15 minute annoyance was enough for me to be more cautious than ever with 3rd party software. I used to think Sears was at least "reputable", but this thread has convinced me to stick with Macy's/Nordstroms for clothing (theirs are better anyway), Ikea for furniture/large appliances, OSH/Home Depot/Lowe's for hardware, and Bed Bath & Beyond for beyond.
Not that I ever shopped at Sears in the last 5 years anyway.
On a related topic, if a merchant requires special software for me to purchase from them, I'll just take my business elsewhere.
My core wants to cry out "right on" and "fight the machine", but there's a simpler solution. Keep regular remote backups of everything then smash your computer to unauctionable bits when the fuzz shows up.:) Particularly easy for me because I'm a laptop person. I'd need nothing but a hammer.
So the basis for "chimps have better memory than humans" is with the ability to memorize patterns displayed for a split second. Even the article admits that the college students lost to the chimp when the patterns were displayed for shorter periods of time. It doesn't seem like an intelligence thing, it seems like a reflex thing, which I absolutely expect primates to be superior at.
So I suggest that the test be done again with chimps vs. hardcore gamers, ones who win international Half Life competitions, or Tetris competitions, or anything requiring extreme hand-eye coordination. I'm sure we'd beat those filthy stinking apes!
I'll concede then. The major focus on the radio was violence, so I jumped to conclusions.
At least I have a long-winded rant ready for the next "typical" government vs. gaming article, once this article gets buried and forgotten and it's back to same old.
I know I'm certainly violating forum etiquette by not reading the article, but in not doing so, I'll make a point.
I had to listen to what was probably this story on the radio while driving to work this morning. Every two-three months, someone manages to get a press release out saying violence in video games is harming society, and all the major media outlets pick it up. It typically happens during slow news weeks, when they run out of mine collapses, celebrity snafus, and infrastructure meltdowns.
I don't care if the latest study says that video games will make kids 20% more likely to do some specific unspeakable act. For one thing, few kids have done said unspeakable act in the past, so 20% doesn't add much. The fact is, there are people out there who are lost, careless, abused, depressed, or whatever makes them finally snap. Sure, you may stop 14 year old little ilovegta1993 from stealing a car, but he'll just go and do whatever violent act that piques their interest, be it drawn from the news, school, maybe even from a book.
I didn't read the article because it's surely published by an individual or entity who, for whatever reason, dislikes violent games, and take advantage of a societal flaw where hearing something over and over causes people with no stake in the issue to believe it, and vote/sign petitions in their favor. Step by step, they pass bits and pieces of their agenda into law, ultimately making the nation 0.00001% safer at the cost of our freedom.
I wish someone would do a study on the negative effects of an excessively sheltered childhood, because you know how messed up these activists' kids must be. I'd spam the link to that one all over the internet.
Fellow libertarian here, but there's one really tough question we need to ask your libertarian candidate. And that question is:
Who are you?
We need a libertarian candidate who's a self-made billionaire and can fund their own campaign.
I love this story, on so many levels. This is the first of its kind that I've seen. You always read about and expect stories like the Don Imus firing, (who, by the way, is suing CBS. Good luck to him.) or how someone is fined hundreds of thousands of US$ for saying the F-word, or "massive uproar" over split-second bairly-visible nip slips. But here we have the anti-censorship crowd doing exactly what the paranoid networks feared would come from the other side. I hope this is the start of a new revolution.
When did we get to the point where everything has to revolve around the opinions of a few overzealous religious-right middle-aged stay-at-home mothers who lived their whole lives inside a bubble and have too much time on their hands? [I have a sister who's just like that] For one, I don't think these people are going to change brands of toothpaste because their favorite brand sponsors a show that drops S-bombs and F-bombs on a regular basis. I also don't think these people will be buying any high-end cars or other luxury products, so those sponsors are safe. No sane person would boycott any sort of medication or medical treatment over this. The only potential advertisers affected might be those selling lower-end cars, SUVs(mainly), and perhaps any product that requires some amount of forethought. I'm sure there's a few obsessive individuals who will write down the names of every product that sponsors an offensive show and avoid them, but these are considerably rare.
Keeping this from becoming too off-topic, what Opie and Anthony fans can do is this: Take a brief look at the advertisers who pulled out in opposition of censorship. If they sell anything big that you plan on purchasing, remember to tell the salesperson (or probably better, write the company a letter with a photocopy of your receipt) that you went with them because they supported Opie and Anthony. (or free speech, but at least mention Opie and Anthony) I already plan to do the same because a (different) radio show that I love came under fire awhile back, and their main sponsor stood up for them. So my next mattress is coming from that sponsor. This is turning the tables on what networks and sponsors expect from consumers, and in doing so we may change their views on censorship.
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Obviously, games are exempt. I mean unnecessary things like "Browser enhancements", "Desktop enhancements", "Download helpers" (not to be confused with major software companies' download managers) etc. I'm the geek in my family, so when I flew 3000 miles out to visit them I ended up optimizing two peoples' computers in my spare time, amongst other techy tasks. One had a "Desktop Manager" third party program that caused her system to freeze on boot-up every other time, and for some reason she had her task manager disabled. (as Administrator no less) Both had their 512MB of ram bogged down with tons of useless background programs.
The point of my original post was: If you don't need new software to do what you need to do, don't download it. This should work to WoW and other games, as you obviously need to download the software to play it.
Never sign up for any unnecessary service that requires you to install software, EVER. This is much worse than, say, Yahoo Messenger which installs the toolbar that changes all your settings or...well, I can't reference anything else because that 15 minute annoyance was enough for me to be more cautious than ever with 3rd party software. I used to think Sears was at least "reputable", but this thread has convinced me to stick with Macy's/Nordstroms for clothing (theirs are better anyway), Ikea for furniture/large appliances, OSH/Home Depot/Lowe's for hardware, and Bed Bath & Beyond for beyond.
Not that I ever shopped at Sears in the last 5 years anyway.
On a related topic, if a merchant requires special software for me to purchase from them, I'll just take my business elsewhere.
My core wants to cry out "right on" and "fight the machine", but there's a simpler solution. Keep regular remote backups of everything then smash your computer to unauctionable bits when the fuzz shows up. :) Particularly easy for me because I'm a laptop person. I'd need nothing but a hammer.
So the basis for "chimps have better memory than humans" is with the ability to memorize patterns displayed for a split second. Even the article admits that the college students lost to the chimp when the patterns were displayed for shorter periods of time. It doesn't seem like an intelligence thing, it seems like a reflex thing, which I absolutely expect primates to be superior at. So I suggest that the test be done again with chimps vs. hardcore gamers, ones who win international Half Life competitions, or Tetris competitions, or anything requiring extreme hand-eye coordination. I'm sure we'd beat those filthy stinking apes!
I'll concede then. The major focus on the radio was violence, so I jumped to conclusions.
At least I have a long-winded rant ready for the next "typical" government vs. gaming article, once this article gets buried and forgotten and it's back to same old.
I know I'm certainly violating forum etiquette by not reading the article, but in not doing so, I'll make a point.
I had to listen to what was probably this story on the radio while driving to work this morning. Every two-three months, someone manages to get a press release out saying violence in video games is harming society, and all the major media outlets pick it up. It typically happens during slow news weeks, when they run out of mine collapses, celebrity snafus, and infrastructure meltdowns.
I don't care if the latest study says that video games will make kids 20% more likely to do some specific unspeakable act. For one thing, few kids have done said unspeakable act in the past, so 20% doesn't add much. The fact is, there are people out there who are lost, careless, abused, depressed, or whatever makes them finally snap. Sure, you may stop 14 year old little ilovegta1993 from stealing a car, but he'll just go and do whatever violent act that piques their interest, be it drawn from the news, school, maybe even from a book.
I didn't read the article because it's surely published by an individual or entity who, for whatever reason, dislikes violent games, and take advantage of a societal flaw where hearing something over and over causes people with no stake in the issue to believe it, and vote/sign petitions in their favor. Step by step, they pass bits and pieces of their agenda into law, ultimately making the nation 0.00001% safer at the cost of our freedom.
I wish someone would do a study on the negative effects of an excessively sheltered childhood, because you know how messed up these activists' kids must be. I'd spam the link to that one all over the internet.
Fellow libertarian here, but there's one really tough question we need to ask your libertarian candidate. And that question is: Who are you? We need a libertarian candidate who's a self-made billionaire and can fund their own campaign.
I love this story, on so many levels. This is the first of its kind that I've seen. You always read about and expect stories like the Don Imus firing, (who, by the way, is suing CBS. Good luck to him.) or how someone is fined hundreds of thousands of US$ for saying the F-word, or "massive uproar" over split-second bairly-visible nip slips. But here we have the anti-censorship crowd doing exactly what the paranoid networks feared would come from the other side. I hope this is the start of a new revolution.
When did we get to the point where everything has to revolve around the opinions of a few overzealous religious-right middle-aged stay-at-home mothers who lived their whole lives inside a bubble and have too much time on their hands? [I have a sister who's just like that] For one, I don't think these people are going to change brands of toothpaste because their favorite brand sponsors a show that drops S-bombs and F-bombs on a regular basis. I also don't think these people will be buying any high-end cars or other luxury products, so those sponsors are safe. No sane person would boycott any sort of medication or medical treatment over this. The only potential advertisers affected might be those selling lower-end cars, SUVs(mainly), and perhaps any product that requires some amount of forethought. I'm sure there's a few obsessive individuals who will write down the names of every product that sponsors an offensive show and avoid them, but these are considerably rare.
Keeping this from becoming too off-topic, what Opie and Anthony fans can do is this: Take a brief look at the advertisers who pulled out in opposition of censorship. If they sell anything big that you plan on purchasing, remember to tell the salesperson (or probably better, write the company a letter with a photocopy of your receipt) that you went with them because they supported Opie and Anthony. (or free speech, but at least mention Opie and Anthony) I already plan to do the same because a (different) radio show that I love came under fire awhile back, and their main sponsor stood up for them. So my next mattress is coming from that sponsor. This is turning the tables on what networks and sponsors expect from consumers, and in doing so we may change their views on censorship.