I think a lot of this has to do with the continuious copyright extensions. If copyright were left alone and implemented as it was originally, it wouldn't seem like such an oppressive system.
Basically the copyright extension lobbyists are killing themselves slowly by stretching out copyright terms longer and longer. Each time they stretch it, the thinner it's importance becomes to the general population who see it as unfair to the common good.
You can set up with the EFF an automatically recurring monthly donation as well. I did this a couple years ago and have been donating $25/month to the EFF ever since I started.
It may not be all that much more difficult. Japanese grammar is much more formulaic and has fewer exceptions than English writing. It might be easier to write an algorithm to get a contextual hint at characters which are difficult to resolve.
However, this probably balances out with what you described so that both languages are probably roughly equally difficult problems to solve for OCR.
Now as for speech recognition, I'd have to assume that Japanese would be much easier to recognize since there are a clear set of syllables, and inherent timing dependencies in pronunciation. Add that to the more formulaic grammar, and I'd have to be fairly confident that Japanese is easier to write a speech recognition algorithm for.
You don't need a fancy machine in a doctor's office to get addicted to VR. There are a growing number of VR environments which you and play in at home.
I'll admit I'm addicted to one, as I spend 90% of my free time within it. I know for a fact that it keeps me distracted from issues that I don't want to deal with in my RL (real life as we call it in-world); so I can see how it could be used effectively to distract people from other problems (even physical ones like burns) and help pass the time while they heal emotionally or physically.
For you Mars colonizers, if you dig a hole about 30-40 km deep, you'll find that a pretty good air pressure and temperature will result. It'll be CO2, of course, but perhaps some trees won't mind too much.
This statement deserves a +6 insightful. Do you have any sources for information on this topic and it's feasibity?
Companies that run MMO games are a lot like governments in this regard...
Put in a massive nerf, then when everyone complains, back it off a bit. Then everyone celebrates their "vicotry" not realizing that they are still effectively nerfed.
I'm not a physicist either, but just looking at this from a simple perspective, if heat death occurs, and everything is slowly approaching 0 degrees kelvin, isn't the concept of time fading as well? Once everything comes to a halt and nothing is happening, then time becomes a frivolous dimension anyway.
It's sort of as though the "time" dimension itself will be curling up to insignificance the same way we currently understand higher spatial dimensions to be curled up...
From Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson There is something new: A globe about the size of a grapefruit, a perfectly detailed rendition of Planet Earth, hanging in space at arm's length in front of his eyes. Hiro has heard about this but never seen it. It is a piece of CIC software called, simply, Earth. It is the user interface that CIC uses to keep track of every bit of spatial information that it owns - all the maps, weather data, architectural plans, and satellite surveillance stuff.
SL is much closer to metaverse-like qualities than There or Active Worlds, but I will concede that There has it's place too for those who don't do so well with a technically complex world, and just want a simple place to hang out.
I think SL has greater system requirements too because *everything* in the world is dynamic. Every single primitive shape in every object, the ground mesh, the sky, the trees, particles, etc. are all dynamic and can change right beneath you at any time if the owner is around and editing it or if he/she has scripted the objects to change. You even see the changes happening in real time.
There's no way to do the traditional compiled 3d scene with baked textures like you get in most games. Therefore the system requirements are higher to make all this dynamic content possible in a real-time environment.
Second Life and There are not MMORPGs they're not even technically 'games'. They are MMOEs.
MMORPG : MMOE:: Windows : Linux
You can play with a lot more of the innards in an MMOE like SL & There.
I don't know much about There, but in SL you can build 3d objects, create custom textures & clothings, write scripts, and even great games within the world. And you don't need anyone's permission to build things, upload your textures or sounds, or approve your scripts.
You can't do those sorts of things in most MMORPGs like EQ, SWG, DAoC, etc. Sure they have crafter classes, but you only earn the right to "craft" premade objects that have already been modeled, textured, and scripted by the creators of the game.
Personally, now that i've gotten a taste of the freedom in SL, I don't want to go back to the restrictive MMORPG genre.
I have a feeling venus will become a lot more interesting as time goes on. Having too much atmosphere seems to be a problem much more easily solved than having too little.
At least venus can eventually be terraformed when we develop such technology to do so. Mars doesn't have much hope of being terraformed because it lacks the gravity to keep an atmosphere in place.
I think what drove me away from online games is the lack of departure from the levelling treadmill, combined with the incessant immaturity of adolescent players.
I recommend Second Life to people who are bored/sick of MMO's or games in general, but still have lots of free time to spend on the computer =) SL is not really even a game, but more of a metaverse, or generic 3D environment where you can build anything you want, or explore and/or collect things that other people have made.
If you ever enjoyed any of the old Maxis games, you'll probably get hooked on SL; it's a big simulator world, where you can see all the changes people are making to it in real time, as they're creating.
The best thing about it is that it's age limited to 18+ so the atmosphere is mostly mature and intelligent, and there's even areas where you'll find "adult" content if that kind of thing interests you...
So basically if you're losing interest in games but still like hanging out online with other people, I suggest taking a look at SL... They have a one week trial but even a basic subscription is just $10 (one time, not monthly). And don't let the cheesy website throw you off, it looks a lot better inside =P
If anyone ever had a right to actually really name a star (and not just those "star registry" organizations), it'd be the guy who discovered this one...
It seems like there just aren't enough gamers interested in paying a monthly subscription to make it profitable for game makers.
I think MMO games would get a lot more subscribers if they could find a model where they bring people in for a flat one-time fee, and then give the player more when they're already comfortable with the game and are ready and willing to upgrade to a monthly fee. This will inject a consant flow of new players into the game, who subsequently get hooked and upgrade.
I think the biggest reason why people don't like recurring monthly subscriptions is they know that if they decide they're not interested, that they will have to go through the hassle to cancel their monthly subscription. Some companies make this troublesome on purpose to discourage cancellations, and many people realize this so they feel even less inclined to subscribe.
Second Life's population has exploded since they began offering the "basic" one-time subscription accounts. The basic accounts do not really differ significantly from the "premium" monthly accounts, so it provides people with basically an unlimited trial for a one-time cost.
I think if more MMO games did this, they would "hook" a lot more subscribers, who would then spread praise for the game by word-of-mouth. The only difficulty is finding the right set of capabilities to encourage people to upgrade to a monthly subscription.
For SL, the capability you get with a monthly payment is the right to own land. Land is not necessary to create, but it is necessary for your creations to persist in the world completely under your control. This works out well, because new users don't need land. But as time goes on, there is more and more incentive to own land so that the creations they make will have a home in the world even while they are offline.
It's concepts like this that game companies need to find if they want to break though the hesitation that many people have with monthly subscription fees. They need a way to let people enjoy their worlds for a flat rate, and then offer them more when they're ready for it.
Slashdot Mirror
I think a lot of this has to do with the continuious copyright extensions. If copyright were left alone and implemented as it was originally, it wouldn't seem like such an oppressive system.
Basically the copyright extension lobbyists are killing themselves slowly by stretching out copyright terms longer and longer. Each time they stretch it, the thinner it's importance becomes to the general population who see it as unfair to the common good.
Unfortunately this will probably just turn into a for-profit system for powerlevellers who take on new players as sidekicks for a fee. =/
Why do you seem to indicate that SWT is a bad thing for desktop apps?
SWT is a much better way to do a GUI than AWT or Swing.
You can set up with the EFF an automatically recurring monthly donation as well. I did this a couple years ago and have been donating $25/month to the EFF ever since I started.
You're probably just kidding, but there are algorithms to compress sound in time without affecting it's pitch. =)
I get the feeling this is being used on the radio more and more...
Has anyone else seen September 12?
The odds are far against you these days with the higher density drives.
You might get lucky with an old 20GB drive, but try it on a 320GB unit and you're 99.9% certian to have a bad drive within an hour if not immediately.
Every time I hit one of these para-sites I reach up to my trusty old Google toolbar and click the blue sad face. I encourage others to do the same.
Does this mean it'll fry all your appliances if you get DDoSed? =P
It may not be all that much more difficult. Japanese grammar is much more formulaic and has fewer exceptions than English writing. It might be easier to write an algorithm to get a contextual hint at characters which are difficult to resolve.
However, this probably balances out with what you described so that both languages are probably roughly equally difficult problems to solve for OCR.
Now as for speech recognition, I'd have to assume that Japanese would be much easier to recognize since there are a clear set of syllables, and inherent timing dependencies in pronunciation. Add that to the more formulaic grammar, and I'd have to be fairly confident that Japanese is easier to write a speech recognition algorithm for.
Well if they can get the algorithm into hardware that can fit inside a pen, why not a phone? =)
True, but doesn't that make you (the ISP) responsible for whatever damage was done by the hacker?
You don't need a fancy machine in a doctor's office to get addicted to VR. There are a growing number of VR environments which you and play in at home.
I'll admit I'm addicted to one, as I spend 90% of my free time within it. I know for a fact that it keeps me distracted from issues that I don't want to deal with in my RL (real life as we call it in-world); so I can see how it could be used effectively to distract people from other problems (even physical ones like burns) and help pass the time while they heal emotionally or physically.
Not to mention gravity, not chemical bonds, is the predominant force that holds the contents of the moon together.
So instead of a "clack" you'd get a "smush".
For you Mars colonizers, if you dig a hole about 30-40 km deep, you'll find that a pretty good air pressure and temperature will result. It'll be CO2, of course, but perhaps some trees won't mind too much.
This statement deserves a +6 insightful. Do you have any sources for information on this topic and it's feasibity?
Companies that run MMO games are a lot like governments in this regard...
Put in a massive nerf, then when everyone complains, back it off a bit. Then everyone celebrates their "vicotry" not realizing that they are still effectively nerfed.
I'm not a physicist either, but just looking at this from a simple perspective, if heat death occurs, and everything is slowly approaching 0 degrees kelvin, isn't the concept of time fading as well? Once everything comes to a halt and nothing is happening, then time becomes a frivolous dimension anyway.
It's sort of as though the "time" dimension itself will be curling up to insignificance the same way we currently understand higher spatial dimensions to be curled up...
It only has Windows and OSX ports, but runs under WINE almost perfectly.
They say there's a Linux version in the works as well, so keep your eyes open =)
At $10 for a lifetime subscription, how can you go wrong?
SL is the first MMO that I've seen that has a one-time (non-recurring) rate to play. The fact that it's $10 instead of $50 is even more impressive.
Agreed.
SL is much closer to metaverse-like qualities than There or Active Worlds, but I will concede that There has it's place too for those who don't do so well with a technically complex world, and just want a simple place to hang out.
I think SL has greater system requirements too because *everything* in the world is dynamic. Every single primitive shape in every object, the ground mesh, the sky, the trees, particles, etc. are all dynamic and can change right beneath you at any time if the owner is around and editing it or if he/she has scripted the objects to change. You even see the changes happening in real time.
There's no way to do the traditional compiled 3d scene with baked textures like you get in most games. Therefore the system requirements are higher to make all this dynamic content possible in a real-time environment.
Second Life and There are not MMORPGs they're not even technically 'games'. They are MMOEs.
:: Windows : Linux
MMORPG : MMOE
You can play with a lot more of the innards in an MMOE like SL & There.
I don't know much about There, but in SL you can build 3d objects, create custom textures & clothings, write scripts, and even great games within the world. And you don't need anyone's permission to build things, upload your textures or sounds, or approve your scripts.
You can't do those sorts of things in most MMORPGs like EQ, SWG, DAoC, etc. Sure they have crafter classes, but you only earn the right to "craft" premade objects that have already been modeled, textured, and scripted by the creators of the game.
Personally, now that i've gotten a taste of the freedom in SL, I don't want to go back to the restrictive MMORPG genre.
I have a feeling venus will become a lot more interesting as time goes on. Having too much atmosphere seems to be a problem much more easily solved than having too little.
At least venus can eventually be terraformed when we develop such technology to do so. Mars doesn't have much hope of being terraformed because it lacks the gravity to keep an atmosphere in place.
I think what drove me away from online games is the lack of departure from the levelling treadmill, combined with the incessant immaturity of adolescent players.
I recommend Second Life to people who are bored/sick of MMO's or games in general, but still have lots of free time to spend on the computer =) SL is not really even a game, but more of a metaverse, or generic 3D environment where you can build anything you want, or explore and/or collect things that other people have made.
If you ever enjoyed any of the old Maxis games, you'll probably get hooked on SL; it's a big simulator world, where you can see all the changes people are making to it in real time, as they're creating.
The best thing about it is that it's age limited to 18+ so the atmosphere is mostly mature and intelligent, and there's even areas where you'll find "adult" content if that kind of thing interests you...
So basically if you're losing interest in games but still like hanging out online with other people, I suggest taking a look at SL... They have a one week trial but even a basic subscription is just $10 (one time, not monthly). And don't let the cheesy website throw you off, it looks a lot better inside =P
If anyone ever had a right to actually really name a star (and not just those "star registry" organizations), it'd be the guy who discovered this one...
It seems like there just aren't enough gamers interested in paying a monthly subscription to make it profitable for game makers.
I think MMO games would get a lot more subscribers if they could find a model where they bring people in for a flat one-time fee, and then give the player more when they're already comfortable with the game and are ready and willing to upgrade to a monthly fee. This will inject a consant flow of new players into the game, who subsequently get hooked and upgrade.
I think the biggest reason why people don't like recurring monthly subscriptions is they know that if they decide they're not interested, that they will have to go through the hassle to cancel their monthly subscription. Some companies make this troublesome on purpose to discourage cancellations, and many people realize this so they feel even less inclined to subscribe.
Second Life's population has exploded since they began offering the "basic" one-time subscription accounts. The basic accounts do not really differ significantly from the "premium" monthly accounts, so it provides people with basically an unlimited trial for a one-time cost.
I think if more MMO games did this, they would "hook" a lot more subscribers, who would then spread praise for the game by word-of-mouth. The only difficulty is finding the right set of capabilities to encourage people to upgrade to a monthly subscription.
For SL, the capability you get with a monthly payment is the right to own land. Land is not necessary to create, but it is necessary for your creations to persist in the world completely under your control. This works out well, because new users don't need land. But as time goes on, there is more and more incentive to own land so that the creations they make will have a home in the world even while they are offline.
It's concepts like this that game companies need to find if they want to break though the hesitation that many people have with monthly subscription fees. They need a way to let people enjoy their worlds for a flat rate, and then offer them more when they're ready for it.