I'd certainly rather see a game that never made it to market, than buy one that shouldn't have. Not talking specifically about the Infocom ones, of course, just games in general.
This is pretty much what Wikileaks is for. Though if you're in Australia, that avenue will soon be sealed off from you if that new law gets approved. All in the name of our safety, of course. Can't have terrorists bringing down the economy by trying to improve it.
Other important offices haven't changed yet though. Attorney General, Governor General (though that's changing soon), and although I'm not sure, people like the heads of ASIO or the Federal Police probably haven't changed either. John Howard was a power-hungry prick, but now Parliament is feeling upward pressure from the other power-hungry pricks who've grown accustomed to the ability to breach our Constitution whenever they please.
Looks like there will be one positive thing to come of this: The number of "paranoid schizophrenia" diagnoses will sharply decrease, since it's not paranoia when you really are being watched.
But in previous years, he didn't have the kill switch to the OS that runs the intelligence agencies! He probably threatened to deactivate their copies of Vista:P
Now they can own your life, too! I think Microsoft will be the first to prove people have souls when they begin research into how they can own them. Sorry. Had to. When I started typing, there was no other Microsoft bashing post. Mod me down for Flamebait, if you want:P
I read a lot of ebooks on my computer screen, and compiz's colour inversion feature helps a lot. I like to read white on black too. I think of it like this: If black is no reflection, and white is all wavelengths reflected, then reading black on white is like trying to read a stencil. You're not actually reading the light, you're reading the gaps in it, and so, all of the white around the text is counted as visual information. White on black just feels better for my eyes, but a lot of my friends with glasses say that white on black is a definite no for them. The white bleeds out too much for their eyes, and it's hard to focus on it. I think the end result of any extensive enough study on this would just be "to each, his own".
There were a lot of things wrong with the old movie, and they kind of ruined the experience. Fair enough the special effects weren't much, since it was made years ago, and I first saw it in 2004 (I was late to the party, I read Dune in 2002:P), but some things were just wrong. Spoiler alert, though I doubt anyone who cares wouldn't know already, but in the movie (and I may be wrong, I couldn't bring myself to watch it again), I'm sure Duncan Idaho was shot. Through his shield. And I was sitting there thinking "That's the whole fucking POINT of shields! He copped a sword to the head, dammit!" Dune is a hard book to compress to a movie, because there's a lot of introspection and internal monologue, which border on a definite no in cinema since nothing is actually happening while the character talks to himself. I just hope they don't omit crucial details, and keep most of the seemingly insignificant ones in. Some of the most meaningless insignificant details meant a lot later in the book, and later in the series, and it would just be a shame to see the book ruined by a bad movie a second time.
Censorship doesn't stop information from getting out, it's just the Government going "LALALALALA I'M NOT LISTENING AND YOU CAN'T HEAR OVER MY LALALALALA!!!!". When you watch a TV show where they beep over a few words, you know what they said, and it's not like children have never heard them before.
Personally, I'm very anti-censorship, though pro-classification. I don't think anyone should be barred from seeing anything, but people should at least know if there's excessive violence or sex scenes in something before they put the kids in front of everybody's favourite glowing babysitter. If we got rid of censorship, maybe parents would pay more attention to that big "AO" on the box when they buy a game. Argh... I drifted way off topic...
I wonder if the FSF will successfully campaign to see the source and check for GPL violations, which I'm sure Microsoft will try and get away with. Stallman better sharpen his katana, and probably train up some extra ninjas.
The visual effects usually don't look so great next to real images. Although the movie Beowulf wasn't all great all the time (actually a lot of it was sub-par, I think), there were scenes when it seemed close enough. Kind of like when you see The Lion King on stage, it quickly becomes a non-issue that everything is a puppet, and the puppeteers are clearly visible. I think if people want to be fooled, they will allow themselves to be fooled. If you go to watch a movie with a preconceived idea that you'll hate it, then you will most often hate it (unless it's a triumph of modern cinema). To people with an open mind about the technology, who will give into it when they want to be in a simulation, it won't matter that it's not quite real. And in the event it is good enough to trick people, they'll have a reverse-placebo effect if they know it's a simulation. They'll see flaws that aren't really there.
Oh dear... Imagine the fallout from a fully immersive VR GTA... Jack Thompsons of the future (or perhaps Cyborg Thompson, since I think he'll go to the grave kicking and screaming, like all Christians who've actually read their Bible should) will be calling it a "murder simulator", and to lend credence to the claims, the US Government will make America's Army VR (no playing as Terrorists, so Counter-Strike 7 will still outsell it), and recruit through it. On the other hand, we can put Cyborg Thompson into one of these things, and he need never trouble society again. A tailor made simulation where he always wins, and becomes the Pope should suit him. That, or a sim where he finds out he's really the second coming of Jesus.
I'd love to be a terrorist, but today's religiously based terrorism outfits aren't tailored to the atheistic youth. Give me political terrorism any day - Perhaps I should go to China and get involved in or form a Tibetan resistance movement:P
When, in the past twenty years, has prior art actually mattered in a patent case? From reading stories on Slashdot, I've seen companies patent things that other companies have already patented! If I phrased the patent application right, I could have everyone who SPEAKS pay me royalties.
Votes probably weren't bought outright, but talk is cheap. Microsoft probably bought a few persuasive people to argue the point until they're blue in the face. A few who genuinely like OOXML, plus a few with a new car, can certainly convince enough of the remainder to get it through. Just look for the countries that did a 180 first and you'll find a few dubious phone calls, at least.
When Columbus left to accidentally find a new continent, he was sure to sail off the edge of the world. Or come back with unearthly monsters chasing him down. Where are all the zombie-apocalypse theories? Or the gate-to-hell theories we normally see related to this stuff in games, books and movies?
I didn't mean that I thought he was a hack. I loved the Dune series. I was merely extrapolating from the AnonymousCoward's reasoning that Robert Jordan isn't a legend just because he has one exceptionally long series. It doesn't matter how many or how few books a series has, what matters is the impact a particular writer has on not only his genre but on the way we perceive all other works after having read it.
So what if he drew the story out into twelve books? It doesn't make The Wheel of Time any less iconic within the fantasy genre. Do we consider The Elder Scrolls series of games a complete waste of time because there's six of them? (not counting expansions, of course, and those ridiculous mobile phone games). Admittedly when I look back on a Wheel of Time book I think to myself "now what actually happened in that book?", but it doesn't make them any less entertaining to read. Robert Jordan is known as Robert Jordan for the Wheel of Time, but he had two other pen names (neither as prolific). Why don't we try cramming everything Dune related into one volume? Using your logic, Frank Herbert is a hack.
Slashdot Mirror
Looks like everyone who doesn't register their Nintendo DS is going to be a dangerous criminal! :O
I'd certainly rather see a game that never made it to market, than buy one that shouldn't have. Not talking specifically about the Infocom ones, of course, just games in general.
... Can someone hand me our Constitution? It's a kindness compared to what the government is doing to it.
This is pretty much what Wikileaks is for. Though if you're in Australia, that avenue will soon be sealed off from you if that new law gets approved. All in the name of our safety, of course. Can't have terrorists bringing down the economy by trying to improve it.
Enough said in the subject, really...
Other important offices haven't changed yet though. Attorney General, Governor General (though that's changing soon), and although I'm not sure, people like the heads of ASIO or the Federal Police probably haven't changed either. John Howard was a power-hungry prick, but now Parliament is feeling upward pressure from the other power-hungry pricks who've grown accustomed to the ability to breach our Constitution whenever they please.
Looks like there will be one positive thing to come of this: The number of "paranoid schizophrenia" diagnoses will sharply decrease, since it's not paranoia when you really are being watched.
But in previous years, he didn't have the kill switch to the OS that runs the intelligence agencies! He probably threatened to deactivate their copies of Vista :P
Now they can own your life, too! I think Microsoft will be the first to prove people have souls when they begin research into how they can own them. Sorry. Had to. When I started typing, there was no other Microsoft bashing post. Mod me down for Flamebait, if you want :P
I read a lot of ebooks on my computer screen, and compiz's colour inversion feature helps a lot. I like to read white on black too. I think of it like this: If black is no reflection, and white is all wavelengths reflected, then reading black on white is like trying to read a stencil. You're not actually reading the light, you're reading the gaps in it, and so, all of the white around the text is counted as visual information. White on black just feels better for my eyes, but a lot of my friends with glasses say that white on black is a definite no for them. The white bleeds out too much for their eyes, and it's hard to focus on it. I think the end result of any extensive enough study on this would just be "to each, his own".
There were a lot of things wrong with the old movie, and they kind of ruined the experience. Fair enough the special effects weren't much, since it was made years ago, and I first saw it in 2004 (I was late to the party, I read Dune in 2002 :P), but some things were just wrong. Spoiler alert, though I doubt anyone who cares wouldn't know already, but in the movie (and I may be wrong, I couldn't bring myself to watch it again), I'm sure Duncan Idaho was shot. Through his shield. And I was sitting there thinking "That's the whole fucking POINT of shields! He copped a sword to the head, dammit!" Dune is a hard book to compress to a movie, because there's a lot of introspection and internal monologue, which border on a definite no in cinema since nothing is actually happening while the character talks to himself. I just hope they don't omit crucial details, and keep most of the seemingly insignificant ones in. Some of the most meaningless insignificant details meant a lot later in the book, and later in the series, and it would just be a shame to see the book ruined by a bad movie a second time.
Censorship doesn't stop information from getting out, it's just the Government going "LALALALALA I'M NOT LISTENING AND YOU CAN'T HEAR OVER MY LALALALALA!!!!". When you watch a TV show where they beep over a few words, you know what they said, and it's not like children have never heard them before. Personally, I'm very anti-censorship, though pro-classification. I don't think anyone should be barred from seeing anything, but people should at least know if there's excessive violence or sex scenes in something before they put the kids in front of everybody's favourite glowing babysitter. If we got rid of censorship, maybe parents would pay more attention to that big "AO" on the box when they buy a game. Argh... I drifted way off topic...
I wonder if the FSF will successfully campaign to see the source and check for GPL violations, which I'm sure Microsoft will try and get away with. Stallman better sharpen his katana, and probably train up some extra ninjas.
The visual effects usually don't look so great next to real images. Although the movie Beowulf wasn't all great all the time (actually a lot of it was sub-par, I think), there were scenes when it seemed close enough. Kind of like when you see The Lion King on stage, it quickly becomes a non-issue that everything is a puppet, and the puppeteers are clearly visible. I think if people want to be fooled, they will allow themselves to be fooled. If you go to watch a movie with a preconceived idea that you'll hate it, then you will most often hate it (unless it's a triumph of modern cinema). To people with an open mind about the technology, who will give into it when they want to be in a simulation, it won't matter that it's not quite real. And in the event it is good enough to trick people, they'll have a reverse-placebo effect if they know it's a simulation. They'll see flaws that aren't really there.
First, we steal the underwear, then, ???, and then, Profit!
Oh dear... Imagine the fallout from a fully immersive VR GTA... Jack Thompsons of the future (or perhaps Cyborg Thompson, since I think he'll go to the grave kicking and screaming, like all Christians who've actually read their Bible should) will be calling it a "murder simulator", and to lend credence to the claims, the US Government will make America's Army VR (no playing as Terrorists, so Counter-Strike 7 will still outsell it), and recruit through it. On the other hand, we can put Cyborg Thompson into one of these things, and he need never trouble society again. A tailor made simulation where he always wins, and becomes the Pope should suit him. That, or a sim where he finds out he's really the second coming of Jesus.
I'd love to be a terrorist, but today's religiously based terrorism outfits aren't tailored to the atheistic youth. Give me political terrorism any day - Perhaps I should go to China and get involved in or form a Tibetan resistance movement :P
When, in the past twenty years, has prior art actually mattered in a patent case? From reading stories on Slashdot, I've seen companies patent things that other companies have already patented! If I phrased the patent application right, I could have everyone who SPEAKS pay me royalties.
Votes probably weren't bought outright, but talk is cheap. Microsoft probably bought a few persuasive people to argue the point until they're blue in the face. A few who genuinely like OOXML, plus a few with a new car, can certainly convince enough of the remainder to get it through. Just look for the countries that did a 180 first and you'll find a few dubious phone calls, at least.
We in the business like to call this a "protection racket".
I didn't mean he thought he was, I meant the ignorant masses were sure he'd never return.
When Columbus left to accidentally find a new continent, he was sure to sail off the edge of the world. Or come back with unearthly monsters chasing him down. Where are all the zombie-apocalypse theories? Or the gate-to-hell theories we normally see related to this stuff in games, books and movies?
And how do you propose we convince a populace with a pre-Gallilean understanding of science and the universe, that Mars IS important?
I didn't mean that I thought he was a hack. I loved the Dune series. I was merely extrapolating from the AnonymousCoward's reasoning that Robert Jordan isn't a legend just because he has one exceptionally long series. It doesn't matter how many or how few books a series has, what matters is the impact a particular writer has on not only his genre but on the way we perceive all other works after having read it.
So what if he drew the story out into twelve books? It doesn't make The Wheel of Time any less iconic within the fantasy genre. Do we consider The Elder Scrolls series of games a complete waste of time because there's six of them? (not counting expansions, of course, and those ridiculous mobile phone games). Admittedly when I look back on a Wheel of Time book I think to myself "now what actually happened in that book?", but it doesn't make them any less entertaining to read. Robert Jordan is known as Robert Jordan for the Wheel of Time, but he had two other pen names (neither as prolific). Why don't we try cramming everything Dune related into one volume? Using your logic, Frank Herbert is a hack.