It can knock you down pretty far depending on how much you owe. $300 is probably not going kill your credit outright if it's very good, but if it's average, you could see some serious problems including rate hikes to your credit cards and trouble qualifying for loans or possibly even housing or jobs. In which case, they wrongfully damaged you and you can take them to court for a small pile of money and have it taken off your credit. It's your responsibility to show that you were wrongfully affected by their actions(so save any documents on such things)but they must show that they properly put this on your credit report and some places are harsher than others for that. Also you can dispute it in the meantime although that has mixed results generally if they have your signature on a sheet of paper. The credit bureau's don't take a lot of time to handle disputes and tend to take the word of the businesses over the individual.
As a reasonably attractive woman and giant nerd that I am, I've gone into store where the leering is not only there, but supported and one upped by the staff. Blatantly. Now, I would say, given the amount of comic book/game stores I've been entered in my life about half of them have been either dismissive or creepy, NOT counting the general filthyness of a few of the stores. I remember the 90's specfically going into comic book stores and the guys in there looking from me to the Dawn posters. It really freaked me out and I almost never got into any comics at all because of that. Luckily, I've found wonderful game and comic book stores that I can go to and feel good about spending my money at. So when I see those places on television I think, oh, it's one of those places.
I honestly have to agree. I felt the world was beautiful and some of the fight scenes were fun, and while that's why most people will go to and expect from this movie, I hope they aren't disappointed. There were too many tacted-on and extremely trite love scenes. And the slapstick comedy. Hellboy gets hit with lockers, hell boy slips in goo. I really expected a three stooges scenes with Klaus as Moe, Abe as Larry, and Hellboy as Curly. I just couldn't get into it. I seriously think they could have cut about 45 minutes out of the middle and it would have been a much much better film for it. I personally suggest waiting for matinee or even a rental, though, it's one really great aspect, it's beauty, might be missed.
What alarms me about that is that a lot of small companies make money through the sales of pdf's specifically using that license, wether it's tied to a wotc product or not. And the pdf is a great way to get rules and information from past games or even play a game that you remembered from high school but don't have and can't find the books for. It's also a cheap way for many on limited incomes to get copies of books for cheaper. Obviously, all these small companies some of which have loyal fanbases, would have to stop producing items that bring in the cash. This also alienates a part of their fanbase, for those making content that is playable in multiple systems. It's basically saying that the only customers a company can have are those that wotc approves of. And I suppose that's fine, but I doubt it will receive the amount of support that it has in the past.
Most of my favorite books are those from Monte Cook. He did some excellent work and his former company would have to just stop printing and selling their best stuff just to hop on board the 4e train. No more ptolus pdf's for sale for those that missed the bus. And that's a shame. If 4e is a hit then it means those that don't like 4e are going to stop seeing supplements from people and companies they've enjoyed. Seems a shame really.
I always wanted to play games that were heroic. We've always had a standing rule in our campaigns of no evil characters. So I have to wonder, what's with all of the devil and demon based races and power sources and where are all of the good angelic based power sources? It seems as if the 4th edition rules have been swallowed by the "Evil is Cool" paradigm, which I have to say is incredibly sad to me(this was a big pet peeve of mine in Unearthed Arcana where there was a Tiefling but no Aasimar paragon class). In 3.5 all of the base classes and races were relatively neutral with a bit of a flavor for good. Why suddenly move to the "Evil is Cool" route in a game that historically and for the most part has been about epic struggles of good and neutral against an encompassing evil?
From flipping through the preview I've noticed a distinct change in the way D&D feels. Before we always felt that we had this fun game rich with the possibilities of role playing and rules encouraged that. In the new edition it feels as if the rules are moving more towards a simplified dungeon slogging view and there seems to be a lot of power creep. It seems as if the rules have been simplified specifically for computer/console type playing environments. By doing that, it feels as if 4th edition wasn't made for the existing fans and long time players but for a younger crowd. What kind of considerations went into pleasing the existing base of roleplayers who are looking for rules that enhance their roleplaying over ease of use? Will there be optional rules in the final products for those of us who prefer a more traditional story-based gaming experience(more granuality on skills being one of my top concerns) as opposed to the dungeon slog of 1st edition and console gaming?
As long as a warrant is required to set up the bugging, I don't have a big problem with it. That actually stopped being the case for specifically the warrantless wiretapping quite recently. The
Protect America Act of 2007 removed any call that has one party in a foreign country from protection via the FISA act and requiring a warrant from the FISA court, instead handing that authorization over to the National Intelligence Director and the Attorney General. Both of which are political appointees. Also, information such as location doesn't require a warrant either. IANAL, so my interpretation may be off a little, but that's the gist of what I can see.
While I don't have a problem with proper and correct surveillance, I believe there should be oversight. Specifically, non-politically appointed oversight.
I mean really really out of shape. I've known this for awhile, but it's nice that I have something I can do that I enjoy that actually gives me a bit of a workout. My SO and I are playing a lot of Tennis together. It's less of a learning curve and more practical to play a few best of 3 games of tennis every night than to go out and do it in cold wet seattle. And surprisingly, we can work up a sweat after a half hour to an hour of tennis.
The bowling is really easy on the arms. Baseball can be hard on the pitching arm. Boxing is a real work out. And golf is kind of relaxing and is more of a precision game. Several of the Raving Rabbids games have tested our metal. I seem to be really good at the running and rhythm games, and my SO is great at the shooting and fine manipulation games.
All in all, it was fun to notice that little bit of pain in the back of the shoulder that lets you know you got some exercise. Something I rarely feel I can do much of anymore, which is really just a mental block and lazyness on my part. Still, if they could figure out some way to get your legs to workout in this games, it would be something better for youth to do besides the regular sit and stare video games that I grew up with.
Just as a point of order, I got to play the nintendo wii last night with a friend. She works at nintendo and they got to take their unit home a little early. I've already got my Mii programmed into my wii remote. But, to the point, it was a lot of fun for me. I really enjoyed the game play and while I'm not sure it will be good for everything(Red Steel was very difficult for me to get the hang of), overall the games I have and even wii sports were just plain fun. You won't see the massive graphics budgets like the ps3 will get, but I've never been big on the latest greatest graphics. I get a system because I think it will have fun games.
Also, just as a note, the Rayman game, Raving Rabbids I think it's called, is cute, funny, and very quirky and had all of us in stitches even though we couldn't play 4 player mode because my friend forgot to get my nunchuks. Still totally fun game.
I used to be a republican, but these guys shame the political party. I wish there were more good ones out there that would stand up for the constitution in this. It's quite sad. Anyway, I believe MSNBC has info on their site debunking the RNC talking points as well. I really hope this isn't as bad as it could be and we can all walk away from this only slightly scarred but I have a feeling there is a lot more to come. It's all about the checks and balances.
Quite honestly, I think most books that go on a programmers shelf should be gotten by the programmer depending on whatever they are working on. Avoiding specific languages and such unless you KNOW they want something for a specific language for a specific task, in which case you should probably check around amazon.com to see what might be best. My favorite gift book for would be programmers or to those that have been in the business for only a couple of years is The Pragmatic Programmer. It's a great read and is chock-full of useful information and if you don't agree with everything they have to say, and I dare say that most won't, their reasoning behind things is pretty solid and after 10 years as a programmer, I can really appreciate most of their advice. There are just some things that aren't taught in college and this book, in my opinion, contains a solid number of them.
I'm gay and christian. I can't help the first but the latter is a choice. In the grand scheme of religion, who has the right one? Is it you or me? Honestly, we won't know until we meet the Creator. Your interpretation may be more right than mine, I don't know. But I do know God made me this way and he probably has a reason. Who am I to question it. Who are you?
The only time I've ever been fired. They rounded the bunch of us up that were going to have to leave and told us. In the room were the only two women working in the IT department. One of their criteria, they told us, was that of not having a family to support. After that it was really difficult to even FIND a job. I was often looked over because I didn't seem to fit the geek stereotypes and there were plenty out there looking for a job. I don't think that people are taking the non-hiring aspect into mind. It took me forever to get BACK into IT and I had to do sales for awhile before I could even find an IT job.
There are lots of cries about PC speech and such on this subject. Mostly by a lot of men who frankly have no idea what they are talking about. Here's my opinion as a male to female transsexual woman who has experienced both sides of the gender divide.
I can say that it isn't easy being a woman in a computer field and I would imagine that would extend to other hard sciences as well. When I was male and less experienced, my opinion seemed to matter more. I was given an elevated status just because of my gender. Now I have to fight to be listened to by idiots who think that I might be somehow deficient in my logic or math. It's really weird and damn annoying to be questioned time and again when you've proven that you know what you're doing.
When I was trying to live the boy life I really thought that others were being understanding to other women but it wasn't until I was in the role that I realized all the little condescensions here and there and the amount of leeway and tolerance men get in comparison to women. I can only imagine that growing up in a school environment. Honestly you will never meet someone as feminist as someone who has lived on both sides of these coins and is trying to earn a decent living.
My point is just this. The glass ceiling is real. The condescension is real. There is a LOT of social bias that can make a statement like the above a false positive and that can't be ignored and I would challenge all the men here to take that to heart and start listening to your female coworkers a little more. Chances are they worked their hineys off just to be seen as your equal and they deserve a little recognition.
Hmmmm. OK, well I agree with you on some of your poins, but I have to say, your first point is kind of off. Someone very well could have patented, in this totally fake and unneeded scenario, a method for pointallism. That's the problem with patents on unique methods. If the first person to do it, could have patented it then the others might not have not have been able to use it. The problem is innovations are being patnented here that are just not that original, unique, or unobvious. Even if it stimulated more people to try new stuff because of outrageous licensing agreements then it may have stifled more then it helped, but really that's umprovable conjecture.
But let's say someone did in fact patent a method for creating a work of art using a method that makes for less realistic more fluid pictures that exist to say make the viewer think more about the painting and what each piece of that painting means. 20 years is a pretty long time really when you are living it. Heck half the people here aren't 20 years old. ^_^
As for the fifth point, most artists and especially the impressionists of that particular time were very poor. Very very poor. They were the original starving artists. Some artists just didn't have a talent or a need to express themselves with realism but rather preferred a more fluid and interesting painting.
Art is generally though, a bad medium to discuss patents. Patents are for science and they have their uses. And the amount that the patent system has given to science is phenomenal. But this is just not that original in my opinion. My car stereo does the same thing. The ambient orb does the same thing. It's not a new concept and sticking peanut butter between two chocolate cookies shouldn't be a patentable item. Now if they have a unique way of creating light, that might be more patentable, but just putting a user variable light inside of a box and calling it science is just not a great idea or a decent way to spend my tax dollars.
In general, members of the mass media are not guided primarily by being "liberal" or "conservative" but rather by doing what they perceive to be their jobs.
Not entirely true. One of my best friends was a television reporter before she lost her son. I asked her about it once, because she of course found exception with criticism of reporters in general. She told me that often, when someone reports the news, they use their views in creating the report. It gives them the chance to make a difference however small. Their contribution to the world. I found that alarming really and it's made me stand up and watch the news a little differently. I don't like marketing of any type and I certainly don't want it in my news.
I've watched Fox news. Their news isn't horrible to me, but it's certainly not centrist. CNN seemed pretty left but it's gotten better of late in my opinion. Still I get my news from the BBC. They know what news and know that it isn't all about americans and brits. Go figure.
The commercial linux client they have doesn't work either, so they've, as far as I can tell, completely locked out all non-windows/Mac clients. Which may be a small amount, but when my company asked me to look for an IM client I went elsewhere because of their lackluster linux support.
The complaint isn't actually one of email retention exclusively. It's putting email retnetion together with your search and surfing habits. And possibly, in the future, selling your profile to the highest bidder or just letting the government have all of your information easily at their fingertips. It's the first step to Big Brother. We have laws against this kind of thing already for purposes of privacy which is a human right and for lack of responsibility in others.
It's more about having too much information in one area for me. I see this kind of thing and I think, no thanks. Suddenly, your tongue in cheek comments could be taken more seriously by people who you don't know and don't know you. Or you trust a friend to watch your house for the weekend and he downloads craploads of kiddie porn he found on google. Meanwhile it was your cookie and your email. Too much power in one place is a bad deal and that's kind of what we have here. A method of putting your real correspondence to what you do on a daily basis. If you make the wrong mistake, you could be branded for it(And might not even know about it until it's too late.)
Chances are, you won't know when the government is looking at your profile. I'm not really the type to go all tinfoil hat or anything, but you have to admit that the potential for abuse is extremely high.
Most of my geek girlfriends are trying to find guys through normal means. One is using a dating service another go's to clubs. You know, you never know if a woman is smart until you come up to them and say hi and ask them to chat. Honest interest in them goes a long way. =) There's an old lesbian saying, "We are 10,000,000 women waiting for someone else to ask us to dance." Woman, by habit, tend to be passive. Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to find women and say hello, give them a sincere compliment and do it confidently but not arrogantly.
And for God-sake, put on a button up shirt and some nice fitting slacks that show off your butt good. If you can dress decently, that's half the battle. Even a fat guy can look well put together in a nice pair of slacks, a blue button up shirt, and a nice white(and not dingy white) t-shirt. And shoes make a difference. Smart women most likely are looking for men who can hold their own and have confidence. They likely won't be as impressed by how much you make. Something I had to learn when I transitioned to female was how to act as if I have confidence even when I don't. It's a good skill and keeps me from being a target for all kinds of bad stuff.
If you get turned down, that's life. Remember learning to ride a bike, your first c programs, learning to make NFS secure? It usually doesn't work the first time. =) But you have to keep trying and adapting and learning.
I know many geek guys have spent a life in torture by jocks and idiots. But it's your turn to shine. Also, if something just doesn't work out, try to save the friendship. She likely knows a ton about you and can help you with everything if you can resist the urge to throw everything of hers away. Friendships with chicks is VERY cool. It will teach you how to talk with a woman, which is a good skill to have. We're not all into little crystal ornaments and makeup/clothes. Though beauty standards for women are tons higher than they are for men and that's why they seem to be a bit more preoccupied with looks on average. It was a huge shock when I transitioned full time. I knew of it but I didn't realize it was that decisive. Anyway, have patience, listen, ask, and dress for success.
You know, I happen to be a transsexual woman and a geek. Most transsexual women do everything they can to avoid male stereotypes. Though a large amount of us do work in the computer industry, by and large the bulk of us do not. And we are SUCH a minority that it is incredibly unlikely to begin with. Only about 1 in 10 us will ever pass on that kind of level, even to amazingly needy geek guys with little contact with women. And for the record, pre surgery, the large portion of us aren't into guys, geek or otherwise. ^_^ Post surgery that often changes though it hasn't for me.
On the other hand, many of the geek women I know are pretty incredible women. They've worked past the stereotypes and done something with their lives. They are confident and powerful and quite often beautiful women. =) Be kind to your geek girls boys, they deserve good lives and good boyfriends.
Ian McKellen deserved an Oscar for his performance, not only because he was consistently great in all three movies, but his acting didn't overshadow and it easily could have. It's a pity he was nominated this year.
of a whole set of new laws that redefine computer crimes? What will the political outcome of this breech be. I guarantee that it will be no small thing. I think they've been looking for an excuse to broaden what consists of a computer crime for awhile and this will give the dems the fuel to push it forward and restrict what we do and what we can use our computers for even more. Hillary Clinton did after head the RIAA and I'm sure her friends there are chomping at the bit to put through some new legislation.
I think it's time for some more really good dystopian novels to come out. It's getting that way again.
Don't think pump up, think stall. I would bet that in light of the fact that the IP that they claim to own is in fact in dispute, that they file a motion to let them finish this second trial first. It has relevance to the trial and I think it would be hard for the judge to say no to such a request.
Meanwhile, they will be able to extor...er, persuade others to buy into that phantom ip litigation insurance and continue to pump up prices so that they can all sell their shares and get to the bahamas by next winter.
Hopefully Novell will file a motion to keep them from selling snake oi...er ip litigation insurance. Best of luck Novell. Make it quick please.
As a transgendered woman I have a little perspective here. There are a couple of gripes here.
1) Avatars -
The Men - We get good looking buff avatars and you get hot chick avatars. What's the problem?
The Women - All the males are playing the hot chick avatar and I personally wouldn't want 36EEE breasts. Why do these game programmers always program us like porn stars?
The Misunderstanding - Men honestly think about sex a lot. Women tend to think more about love and honesty. Women often would like to portray themselves to a certain extent, (maybe with a few enhancements but usually not the boobs). The last thing that most women want out of an avatar is to look like a depraved sex kitten and get hit on by 14 year old boys. If a woman is going into an online environment or even an offline one, she is more likely to try to relate herself to the characters presented. If there are going to be female characters in a game there should at least be some that have normal proportions that are a little easier to relate oneself to the characters. In short, women think more about what they are and where they are going while men tend to like to see themselves and others better than they are physically and women just don't need to be forced into a playboy centerfold when they aren't. It's demeaning and doesn't do much for self-esteem.
2. The Storylines -
The Men - That storyline kicked ass! I just saved the world and got the girl. woohoo!
The Women - Well that was a shallow piece of malarky. I just saved the world and got the girl. WTF! I'm gonna go read a book.
The Misunderstanding - With a few very notable exceptions(Final Fantasy has been FAIRLY inclusive though the main character 5 time out of 6 has always been male, but a few of them there have been shared roles such as in final fantasy 9.) Especially the early ones., these games are made for boys and boys mostly. To be fair, boys by more games by a VERY large margin. Men also write most of the game plots, again with only a few notable exceptions(Kings Quest anyone?). So anyway, you rarely see good storylines that can cater to both men and women. It's really a chicken and the egg thing.
3. The Victim
The Men - The character I most identified with was wearing full plate armor, had a magic gun of evil slaying, and could summon all 8 Gods of the realm.
The Women - The only character I have to identify with was lying stripped nearly bare on the dungeon floor was rescued by some dork with no personality in a tin can who thought he spoke to the Gods. Throughout the entire game, my characters only words were, "Help! Save me!". And in the end she fell in love with the psycho tin can. Games are dumb, I'm gonna go get some exercise.
The Misunderstanding - Women in games quite frequently exist as victims or sex toys and quite frankly chances are if you see a woman in a movie with only a few notable exceptions, it's the same way. The women fall in love with the main character and that's really why they exist. They don't do much of anything. If they do, they have to show a weekness to or for the main character in the games before they can be valid characters. If you look at one of my favorite games, FFVII, Cloud goes on a date with one of the three girls. It's easiest to get Aerith. She is the most outgoing and trusting of the bunch. She dies midway through the game never to be seen again. She was the strong one really. She was the one that helped everybody through to that point and they killed her. Don't get me wrong, that was one of the most poignant scenes in any video game ever. What happens after that is that one of the other female characters starts falling in love with the main character, notice it specifically isn't vice versa. He makes no admittance to her until the very end. The other woman is constantly stealing stuff from you and causing havoc and generally being the comic relief. Now Barret admittedly is a bit stereotypically male with the gun arm and a pentient to want to start fights.
They try and tailor each game to nothing more than time sinks. The longer your play the more money they make. This right there takes the "fun" factor away and adds in the grind. Why do the developers think its fun to go on a 14 hr raid to maybe get a piece of eq that I might need at some point in my characters life.
Ahhhh... The time sink. It's not really about how long you play, but rather for how many months you keep your account. They do need to make money after to support their workers. The more people play per month, the more money they lose. Think about that for a minute. Bandwidth costs money. And people here seem to think that all corporations have infinite amounts of money and bandwidth. Well while it's true that Sony in the case of EQ isn't a small company, they took a chance and invested in this guys idea. Now their goal isn't, nor should it be, to waste their investors money on something that won't in turn make money for them.
Another instance of the Time Sink you will see in games like D&D from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day. The point of the game is not to win, but to progress a character forward or more importantly, the characters story forward. I've played D&D for well over 10 years now and I've never had a character above 12th level(I've only had about 12 characters). Talk about a time sink. RPG's are goal oriented games. And goals shouldn't be terribly easy.
I think, actually, with EQ, the first expansion added a new race and gave you higher levels. The second one increased your level a little more. The third one added new powers and spells the fourth one added a new race and the fifth one added an entirely new way of questing and dungeon crawling.
Also, how long has EQ been out there? 4 and half years now or something like that(I sincerely don't know) and they are consistently turning a profit. People have to enjoy the game for them to stay around. They have friends there, they have a community. If community doesn't matter to you and you can't stand questing then of something like everquest is just going to seem like a bunch of giant timeseeks. Maybe Diablo is more your speed or something that's more instant gratification. Me I enjoy sitting and talking to friends, the quests give me time to sit and chat to those I haven't seen in awhile. To me, 9.95 a month was cheap for that. The Velious expansion awed me.
That said, I don't have time to everquest anymore. I have friends, a job, real life, and I've decided to go back to school. All of that combined means I have 0-time at home or at least when I do, I'm not going to spend it in front of the computer. They've these new fangled things called books that I'm trying to read more of but they are SUCH a timesink.
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It can knock you down pretty far depending on how much you owe. $300 is probably not going kill your credit outright if it's very good, but if it's average, you could see some serious problems including rate hikes to your credit cards and trouble qualifying for loans or possibly even housing or jobs. In which case, they wrongfully damaged you and you can take them to court for a small pile of money and have it taken off your credit. It's your responsibility to show that you were wrongfully affected by their actions(so save any documents on such things)but they must show that they properly put this on your credit report and some places are harsher than others for that. Also you can dispute it in the meantime although that has mixed results generally if they have your signature on a sheet of paper. The credit bureau's don't take a lot of time to handle disputes and tend to take the word of the businesses over the individual.
As a reasonably attractive woman and giant nerd that I am, I've gone into store where the leering is not only there, but supported and one upped by the staff. Blatantly. Now, I would say, given the amount of comic book/game stores I've been entered in my life about half of them have been either dismissive or creepy, NOT counting the general filthyness of a few of the stores. I remember the 90's specfically going into comic book stores and the guys in there looking from me to the Dawn posters. It really freaked me out and I almost never got into any comics at all because of that. Luckily, I've found wonderful game and comic book stores that I can go to and feel good about spending my money at. So when I see those places on television I think, oh, it's one of those places.
I honestly have to agree. I felt the world was beautiful and some of the fight scenes were fun, and while that's why most people will go to and expect from this movie, I hope they aren't disappointed. There were too many tacted-on and extremely trite love scenes. And the slapstick comedy. Hellboy gets hit with lockers, hell boy slips in goo. I really expected a three stooges scenes with Klaus as Moe, Abe as Larry, and Hellboy as Curly. I just couldn't get into it. I seriously think they could have cut about 45 minutes out of the middle and it would have been a much much better film for it. I personally suggest waiting for matinee or even a rental, though, it's one really great aspect, it's beauty, might be missed.
What alarms me about that is that a lot of small companies make money through the sales of pdf's specifically using that license, wether it's tied to a wotc product or not. And the pdf is a great way to get rules and information from past games or even play a game that you remembered from high school but don't have and can't find the books for. It's also a cheap way for many on limited incomes to get copies of books for cheaper. Obviously, all these small companies some of which have loyal fanbases, would have to stop producing items that bring in the cash. This also alienates a part of their fanbase, for those making content that is playable in multiple systems. It's basically saying that the only customers a company can have are those that wotc approves of. And I suppose that's fine, but I doubt it will receive the amount of support that it has in the past.
Most of my favorite books are those from Monte Cook. He did some excellent work and his former company would have to just stop printing and selling their best stuff just to hop on board the 4e train. No more ptolus pdf's for sale for those that missed the bus. And that's a shame. If 4e is a hit then it means those that don't like 4e are going to stop seeing supplements from people and companies they've enjoyed. Seems a shame really.
I always wanted to play games that were heroic. We've always had a standing rule in our campaigns of no evil characters. So I have to wonder, what's with all of the devil and demon based races and power sources and where are all of the good angelic based power sources? It seems as if the 4th edition rules have been swallowed by the "Evil is Cool" paradigm, which I have to say is incredibly sad to me(this was a big pet peeve of mine in Unearthed Arcana where there was a Tiefling but no Aasimar paragon class). In 3.5 all of the base classes and races were relatively neutral with a bit of a flavor for good. Why suddenly move to the "Evil is Cool" route in a game that historically and for the most part has been about epic struggles of good and neutral against an encompassing evil?
From flipping through the preview I've noticed a distinct change in the way D&D feels. Before we always felt that we had this fun game rich with the possibilities of role playing and rules encouraged that. In the new edition it feels as if the rules are moving more towards a simplified dungeon slogging view and there seems to be a lot of power creep. It seems as if the rules have been simplified specifically for computer/console type playing environments. By doing that, it feels as if 4th edition wasn't made for the existing fans and long time players but for a younger crowd. What kind of considerations went into pleasing the existing base of roleplayers who are looking for rules that enhance their roleplaying over ease of use? Will there be optional rules in the final products for those of us who prefer a more traditional story-based gaming experience(more granuality on skills being one of my top concerns) as opposed to the dungeon slog of 1st edition and console gaming?
I mean really really out of shape. I've known this for awhile, but it's nice that I have something I can do that I enjoy that actually gives me a bit of a workout. My SO and I are playing a lot of Tennis together. It's less of a learning curve and more practical to play a few best of 3 games of tennis every night than to go out and do it in cold wet seattle. And surprisingly, we can work up a sweat after a half hour to an hour of tennis.
The bowling is really easy on the arms. Baseball can be hard on the pitching arm. Boxing is a real work out. And golf is kind of relaxing and is more of a precision game. Several of the Raving Rabbids games have tested our metal. I seem to be really good at the running and rhythm games, and my SO is great at the shooting and fine manipulation games.
All in all, it was fun to notice that little bit of pain in the back of the shoulder that lets you know you got some exercise. Something I rarely feel I can do much of anymore, which is really just a mental block and lazyness on my part. Still, if they could figure out some way to get your legs to workout in this games, it would be something better for youth to do besides the regular sit and stare video games that I grew up with.
Just as a point of order, I got to play the nintendo wii last night with a friend. She works at nintendo and they got to take their unit home a little early. I've already got my Mii programmed into my wii remote. But, to the point, it was a lot of fun for me. I really enjoyed the game play and while I'm not sure it will be good for everything(Red Steel was very difficult for me to get the hang of), overall the games I have and even wii sports were just plain fun. You won't see the massive graphics budgets like the ps3 will get, but I've never been big on the latest greatest graphics. I get a system because I think it will have fun games.
Also, just as a note, the Rayman game, Raving Rabbids I think it's called, is cute, funny, and very quirky and had all of us in stitches even though we couldn't play 4 player mode because my friend forgot to get my nunchuks. Still totally fun game.
I can post a link here too.
Where the Washington Post debunked those talking points.
I used to be a republican, but these guys shame the political party. I wish there were more good ones out there that would stand up for the constitution in this. It's quite sad. Anyway, I believe MSNBC has info on their site debunking the RNC talking points as well. I really hope this isn't as bad as it could be and we can all walk away from this only slightly scarred but I have a feeling there is a lot more to come. It's all about the checks and balances.
Quite honestly, I think most books that go on a programmers shelf should be gotten by the programmer depending on whatever they are working on. Avoiding specific languages and such unless you KNOW they want something for a specific language for a specific task, in which case you should probably check around amazon.com to see what might be best. My favorite gift book for would be programmers or to those that have been in the business for only a couple of years is The Pragmatic Programmer. It's a great read and is chock-full of useful information and if you don't agree with everything they have to say, and I dare say that most won't, their reasoning behind things is pretty solid and after 10 years as a programmer, I can really appreciate most of their advice. There are just some things that aren't taught in college and this book, in my opinion, contains a solid number of them.
I'm gay and christian. I can't help the first but the latter is a choice. In the grand scheme of religion, who has the right one? Is it you or me? Honestly, we won't know until we meet the Creator. Your interpretation may be more right than mine, I don't know. But I do know God made me this way and he probably has a reason. Who am I to question it. Who are you?
The only time I've ever been fired. They rounded the bunch of us up that were going to have to leave and told us. In the room were the only two women working in the IT department. One of their criteria, they told us, was that of not having a family to support. After that it was really difficult to even FIND a job. I was often looked over because I didn't seem to fit the geek stereotypes and there were plenty out there looking for a job. I don't think that people are taking the non-hiring aspect into mind. It took me forever to get BACK into IT and I had to do sales for awhile before I could even find an IT job.
There are lots of cries about PC speech and such on this subject. Mostly by a lot of men who frankly have no idea what they are talking about. Here's my opinion as a male to female transsexual woman who has experienced both sides of the gender divide.
I can say that it isn't easy being a woman in a computer field and I would imagine that would extend to other hard sciences as well. When I was male and less experienced, my opinion seemed to matter more. I was given an elevated status just because of my gender. Now I have to fight to be listened to by idiots who think that I might be somehow deficient in my logic or math. It's really weird and damn annoying to be questioned time and again when you've proven that you know what you're doing.
When I was trying to live the boy life I really thought that others were being understanding to other women but it wasn't until I was in the role that I realized all the little condescensions here and there and the amount of leeway and tolerance men get in comparison to women. I can only imagine that growing up in a school environment. Honestly you will never meet someone as feminist as someone who has lived on both sides of these coins and is trying to earn a decent living.
My point is just this. The glass ceiling is real. The condescension is real. There is a LOT of social bias that can make a statement like the above a false positive and that can't be ignored and I would challenge all the men here to take that to heart and start listening to your female coworkers a little more. Chances are they worked their hineys off just to be seen as your equal and they deserve a little recognition.
Hmmmm. OK, well I agree with you on some of your poins, but I have to say, your first point is kind of off. Someone very well could have patented, in this totally fake and unneeded scenario, a method for pointallism. That's the problem with patents on unique methods. If the first person to do it, could have patented it then the others might not have not have been able to use it. The problem is innovations are being patnented here that are just not that original, unique, or unobvious. Even if it stimulated more people to try new stuff because of outrageous licensing agreements then it may have stifled more then it helped, but really that's umprovable conjecture.
But let's say someone did in fact patent a method for creating a work of art using a method that makes for less realistic more fluid pictures that exist to say make the viewer think more about the painting and what each piece of that painting means. 20 years is a pretty long time really when you are living it. Heck half the people here aren't 20 years old. ^_^
As for the fifth point, most artists and especially the impressionists of that particular time were very poor. Very very poor. They were the original starving artists. Some artists just didn't have a talent or a need to express themselves with realism but rather preferred a more fluid and interesting painting.
Art is generally though, a bad medium to discuss patents. Patents are for science and they have their uses. And the amount that the patent system has given to science is phenomenal. But this is just not that original in my opinion. My car stereo does the same thing. The ambient orb does the same thing. It's not a new concept and sticking peanut butter between two chocolate cookies shouldn't be a patentable item. Now if they have a unique way of creating light, that might be more patentable, but just putting a user variable light inside of a box and calling it science is just not a great idea or a decent way to spend my tax dollars.
Not entirely true. One of my best friends was a television reporter before she lost her son. I asked her about it once, because she of course found exception with criticism of reporters in general. She told me that often, when someone reports the news, they use their views in creating the report. It gives them the chance to make a difference however small. Their contribution to the world. I found that alarming really and it's made me stand up and watch the news a little differently. I don't like marketing of any type and I certainly don't want it in my news.
I've watched Fox news. Their news isn't horrible to me, but it's certainly not centrist. CNN seemed pretty left but it's gotten better of late in my opinion. Still I get my news from the BBC. They know what news and know that it isn't all about americans and brits. Go figure.
The commercial linux client they have doesn't work either, so they've, as far as I can tell, completely locked out all non-windows/Mac clients. Which may be a small amount, but when my company asked me to look for an IM client I went elsewhere because of their lackluster linux support.
The complaint isn't actually one of email retention exclusively. It's putting email retnetion together with your search and surfing habits. And possibly, in the future, selling your profile to the highest bidder or just letting the government have all of your information easily at their fingertips. It's the first step to Big Brother. We have laws against this kind of thing already for purposes of privacy which is a human right and for lack of responsibility in others.
It's more about having too much information in one area for me. I see this kind of thing and I think, no thanks. Suddenly, your tongue in cheek comments could be taken more seriously by people who you don't know and don't know you. Or you trust a friend to watch your house for the weekend and he downloads craploads of kiddie porn he found on google. Meanwhile it was your cookie and your email. Too much power in one place is a bad deal and that's kind of what we have here. A method of putting your real correspondence to what you do on a daily basis. If you make the wrong mistake, you could be branded for it(And might not even know about it until it's too late.)
Chances are, you won't know when the government is looking at your profile. I'm not really the type to go all tinfoil hat or anything, but you have to admit that the potential for abuse is extremely high.
Too much info in one place for me, thank you.
Most of my geek girlfriends are trying to find guys through normal means. One is using a dating service another go's to clubs. You know, you never know if a woman is smart until you come up to them and say hi and ask them to chat. Honest interest in them goes a long way. =) There's an old lesbian saying, "We are 10,000,000 women waiting for someone else to ask us to dance." Woman, by habit, tend to be passive. Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to find women and say hello, give them a sincere compliment and do it confidently but not arrogantly.
And for God-sake, put on a button up shirt and some nice fitting slacks that show off your butt good. If you can dress decently, that's half the battle. Even a fat guy can look well put together in a nice pair of slacks, a blue button up shirt, and a nice white(and not dingy white) t-shirt. And shoes make a difference. Smart women most likely are looking for men who can hold their own and have confidence. They likely won't be as impressed by how much you make. Something I had to learn when I transitioned to female was how to act as if I have confidence even when I don't. It's a good skill and keeps me from being a target for all kinds of bad stuff.
If you get turned down, that's life. Remember learning to ride a bike, your first c programs, learning to make NFS secure? It usually doesn't work the first time. =) But you have to keep trying and adapting and learning.
I know many geek guys have spent a life in torture by jocks and idiots. But it's your turn to shine. Also, if something just doesn't work out, try to save the friendship. She likely knows a ton about you and can help you with everything if you can resist the urge to throw everything of hers away. Friendships with chicks is VERY cool. It will teach you how to talk with a woman, which is a good skill to have. We're not all into little crystal ornaments and makeup/clothes. Though beauty standards for women are tons higher than they are for men and that's why they seem to be a bit more preoccupied with looks on average. It was a huge shock when I transitioned full time. I knew of it but I didn't realize it was that decisive. Anyway, have patience, listen, ask, and dress for success.
You know, I happen to be a transsexual woman and a geek. Most transsexual women do everything they can to avoid male stereotypes. Though a large amount of us do work in the computer industry, by and large the bulk of us do not. And we are SUCH a minority that it is incredibly unlikely to begin with. Only about 1 in 10 us will ever pass on that kind of level, even to amazingly needy geek guys with little contact with women. And for the record, pre surgery, the large portion of us aren't into guys, geek or otherwise. ^_^ Post surgery that often changes though it hasn't for me.
On the other hand, many of the geek women I know are pretty incredible women. They've worked past the stereotypes and done something with their lives. They are confident and powerful and quite often beautiful women. =) Be kind to your geek girls boys, they deserve good lives and good boyfriends.
Ian McKellen deserved an Oscar for his performance, not only because he was consistently great in all three movies, but his acting didn't overshadow and it easily could have. It's a pity he was nominated this year.
of a whole set of new laws that redefine computer crimes? What will the political outcome of this breech be. I guarantee that it will be no small thing. I think they've been looking for an excuse to broaden what consists of a computer crime for awhile and this will give the dems the fuel to push it forward and restrict what we do and what we can use our computers for even more. Hillary Clinton did after head the RIAA and I'm sure her friends there are chomping at the bit to put through some new legislation.
I think it's time for some more really good dystopian novels to come out. It's getting that way again.
Don't think pump up, think stall. I would bet that in light of the fact that the IP that they claim to own is in fact in dispute, that they file a motion to let them finish this second trial first. It has relevance to the trial and I think it would be hard for the judge to say no to such a request.
Meanwhile, they will be able to extor...er, persuade others to buy into that phantom ip litigation insurance and continue to pump up prices so that they can all sell their shares and get to the bahamas by next winter.
Hopefully Novell will file a motion to keep them from selling snake oi...er ip litigation insurance. Best of luck Novell. Make it quick please.
As a transgendered woman I have a little perspective here. There are a couple of gripes here.
1) Avatars -
The Men - We get good looking buff avatars and you get hot chick avatars. What's the problem?
The Women - All the males are playing the hot chick avatar and I personally wouldn't want 36EEE breasts. Why do these game programmers always program us like porn stars?
The Misunderstanding - Men honestly think about sex a lot. Women tend to think more about love and honesty. Women often would like to portray themselves to a certain extent, (maybe with a few enhancements but usually not the boobs). The last thing that most women want out of an avatar is to look like a depraved sex kitten and get hit on by 14 year old boys. If a woman is going into an online environment or even an offline one, she is more likely to try to relate herself to the characters presented. If there are going to be female characters in a game there should at least be some that have normal proportions that are a little easier to relate oneself to the characters. In short, women think more about what they are and where they are going while men tend to like to see themselves and others better than they are physically and women just don't need to be forced into a playboy centerfold when they aren't. It's demeaning and doesn't do much for self-esteem.
2. The Storylines -
The Men - That storyline kicked ass! I just saved the world and got the girl. woohoo!
The Women - Well that was a shallow piece of malarky. I just saved the world and got the girl. WTF! I'm gonna go read a book.
The Misunderstanding - With a few very notable exceptions(Final Fantasy has been FAIRLY inclusive though the main character 5 time out of 6 has always been male, but a few of them there have been shared roles such as in final fantasy 9.) Especially the early ones., these games are made for boys and boys mostly. To be fair, boys by more games by a VERY large margin. Men also write most of the game plots, again with only a few notable exceptions(Kings Quest anyone?). So anyway, you rarely see good storylines that can cater to both men and women. It's really a chicken and the egg thing.
3. The Victim
The Men - The character I most identified with was wearing full plate armor, had a magic gun of evil slaying, and could summon all 8 Gods of the realm.
The Women - The only character I have to identify with was lying stripped nearly bare on the dungeon floor was rescued by some dork with no personality in a tin can who thought he spoke to the Gods. Throughout the entire game, my characters only words were, "Help! Save me!". And in the end she fell in love with the psycho tin can. Games are dumb, I'm gonna go get some exercise.
The Misunderstanding - Women in games quite frequently exist as victims or sex toys and quite frankly chances are if you see a woman in a movie with only a few notable exceptions, it's the same way. The women fall in love with the main character and that's really why they exist. They don't do much of anything. If they do, they have to show a weekness to or for the main character in the games before they can be valid characters. If you look at one of my favorite games, FFVII, Cloud goes on a date with one of the three girls. It's easiest to get Aerith. She is the most outgoing and trusting of the bunch. She dies midway through the game never to be seen again. She was the strong one really. She was the one that helped everybody through to that point and they killed her. Don't get me wrong, that was one of the most poignant scenes in any video game ever. What happens after that is that one of the other female characters starts falling in love with the main character, notice it specifically isn't vice versa. He makes no admittance to her until the very end. The other woman is constantly stealing stuff from you and causing havoc and generally being the comic relief. Now Barret admittedly is a bit stereotypically male with the gun arm and a pentient to want to start fights.
Ahhhh... The time sink. It's not really about how long you play, but rather for how many months you keep your account. They do need to make money after to support their workers. The more people play per month, the more money they lose. Think about that for a minute. Bandwidth costs money. And people here seem to think that all corporations have infinite amounts of money and bandwidth. Well while it's true that Sony in the case of EQ isn't a small company, they took a chance and invested in this guys idea. Now their goal isn't, nor should it be, to waste their investors money on something that won't in turn make money for them.
Another instance of the Time Sink you will see in games like D&D from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day. The point of the game is not to win, but to progress a character forward or more importantly, the characters story forward. I've played D&D for well over 10 years now and I've never had a character above 12th level(I've only had about 12 characters). Talk about a time sink. RPG's are goal oriented games. And goals shouldn't be terribly easy.
I think, actually, with EQ, the first expansion added a new race and gave you higher levels. The second one increased your level a little more. The third one added new powers and spells the fourth one added a new race and the fifth one added an entirely new way of questing and dungeon crawling.
Also, how long has EQ been out there? 4 and half years now or something like that(I sincerely don't know) and they are consistently turning a profit. People have to enjoy the game for them to stay around. They have friends there, they have a community. If community doesn't matter to you and you can't stand questing then of something like everquest is just going to seem like a bunch of giant timeseeks. Maybe Diablo is more your speed or something that's more instant gratification. Me I enjoy sitting and talking to friends, the quests give me time to sit and chat to those I haven't seen in awhile. To me, 9.95 a month was cheap for that. The Velious expansion awed me.
That said, I don't have time to everquest anymore. I have friends, a job, real life, and I've decided to go back to school. All of that combined means I have 0-time at home or at least when I do, I'm not going to spend it in front of the computer. They've these new fangled things called books that I'm trying to read more of but they are SUCH a timesink.