Eventually, when 90% of the PC gaming market is lost to Usenet and torrents (the same 90% who actually use the Internet for two things more than watching stupid whores on Youtube and stupid, drunken whores on CollegeHumor), the game PRODUCERS (read: the people who actualy shell out the cash for the games to be made) will stop paying for new PC games and just make console games. Because hardware level DRM is so much cheaper than software DRM (even if hardware DRM is just difficult-to-change software DRM, but shhhh). We'll bitch because the Xbox 720 (No, not the Xbox 640), and the Playstation MX Paradigm (PS4), and well, Nintendo will be out of business by then, both (still) suck and there hasn't been a new PC game since the Halo 4 release (still with no online co-op (because they weren't able to pull it off in QUAKE 2 at all, nope)). They'll bitch about they millions "lost to piracy" when both sides know it was DRM's (read: greed's) fault for pushing the sides away from the each other. But we screwed ourselves. We wanted games that didn't suck on both the play level and the "doesn't make my computer a paranoid drug addict" level. And they wanted money. The two desires were never compatible. Money !== Everything_Else.
I stopped buying games a very long time ago because 1) they aren't worth paying for. 2) The one's worth paying for don't cause trends towards future "worth paying for" games. 3) This exact discussion. 4) All of my software budget went (and goes) to Adobe Flash, Photoshop, and their upgrades. You think piracy fines are bad, try business piracy fines, jesus.
And I can't simply have multiple computers for each individual task. Sure, like similar geeks, I've still got ever computer I've ever owned, each one down on the list doing equivalently-leveled tasks. But that's the besides the point. In order to play Bioshock, you can't have a suck computer in the first place. You drop $1500 for a system that can give you a decent playing experience with BioShock only to have it compromised for FREE by a damn demo. Worse still, paying for that compromise.
If I'm going to engage in a $50 lose-lose situation, I'm going to find the most attractive hooker on 13th Street and bet my buddies $10 she ain't Vice and try to get something-something for the other $40. That's money well lost.
So you live somewhere in the EU (completely guessing), those other countries around you are like our states. Not quite the same, but your EU is trying hard to make it so. With the ever-widening rules from state to state gives the impression we're also in a sea of multiple countries under the same banner. Just keeping up on the news from these 50 states make it difficult to spread outward to the world sometimes.
just proves how little you know or care about the rest of the world
So tell me right now what's going in Papua New Guinea and why you care.
My main source of news is from the BBC and the Guardian, along with CNN and other various outlets. Because I know that I can't trust either side to be completely unbiased on any topic ever. So I read both sides on most subjects I'm interested, even when I don't agree with one side. I know I'm a stupid biased American. And as such, I can recognize your biased opinions as well.
And just because I don't know what's going on in Chile, Barbados, or Germany, that doesn't mean I don't care. It means that I don't have the time to read every piece of news that comes out of every single source. I have a life, a girlfriend, and a job. I'll take ignorance of 3/4 of the world over no life, no girlfriend, and no job.
Also, so this isn't a total reply. Look at it this way, from a tweaked Slashdot Post Score standpoint:
When you are born, the country you were born to gets a rating of 100. As your life progresses, when good things happens (relating to life in that country) the country gets +1, when bad things happen -1. Every other country will have a similar rating but which starts at 0. Whatever country has the highest rating for you would be the "greatest country in the world" or whatever title your personality chooses for top prize. Currently, my rating for America is pretty low right now.
Oh yeah, you're the guy who fled for French Canada when the redcoats approached.
That I take offense to. I'll fight for this country as much as any other proud nationalist of any country. But the reason would leave is because I feel, more so everyday, that America is becoming something not worth fighting for, and, worse, almost seems that way already. And I'm not going to fight just because I want to act like a four-year-old (you) and pretend my big Brother (America) is being picked on by bullies (terrorists, politicians, lobbyists). Those four-year-olds eventually grow up and realize their big brother was an asshole who got exactly what he deserved. America is fast-becoming a country that is getting exactly what it deserves: hatred by everyone, even its standfast citizens.
Now, I'm not saying a couple thousand people deserved to die in 9/11. What I am saying is that all the measures taken to ensure 9/11 doesn't happen again is on the cusp of significantly affecting the American citizen's way of life and rendering the whole country uninhabitable by degree of law. Sure, everyone would be safe if we had ID chips and retinal scan front doors. But when I can't visit my family in the next state without three forms of ID, a blood test, a loyalty oath, and a written essay about American Cheese, that's just absurd. That next state might as well be a seperate country, in that case.
But let's do something. You tell me what I can do to make a change in this country. Start a protest group? Write a newsletter? Take a shot at Bush? What? I'm not against trying - not at all. I'm against people who preach and then offer nothing in real advice. You, my friend, are tech support.
There was a time when I couldn't imagine living in another country, not even as an exchange student. I've even turned down fantastic job offers from other countries because they simply weren't in America. But almost everyday now something happens, a law is passed, or another degree shaven off of what once made this country great is added to "Why isn't this the greatest country in the world anymore?" The next time a foreign job offer comes around, I'm probably going to take it, there's just not enough reasons not to these days. And even if one doesn't, Vancouver, BC is a very beautiful city. Get out while you still can.
That was the final plot of Stargate SG-1 with the... Orai or whatever they were called.
There will never be a universal understanding, as I see it. Anywhere, here on Earth or anywhere else. And to bring matters home a bit: the genocide in Darfur. The easiest solution that would kill the fewest people would be to eliminate the group of people who are committing the genocide. But that is also a genocide. So which is worse: the senseless slaughter of millions, or the calculated execution of those commiting the aforementioned atrocities. The answer is neither. People cry out again the genocide, and then others will cry out against the execution. No one will ever have the same stance on a single topic. Ever. And peace or uptopia is based on the idea that everyone can get along and agree with everyone else.
It is evident that you can't convince the general populace of people who would actually commit genocide (as opposed to talking to the side) not to do it. They sat around dicussing their hatred of X people, and one said, "Let's kill them all." And the majority, replied, "Fuck yeah!" The two or three that said no were shot and left as an example. So back to Hitler, he convinced enough of a nation that Jews were worthless that the rest of the nation fell in line. If YOU tried to talk Hitler down, he'd either convert you or kill you. Simply as that. And these aliens will have such a more poignant reason to not care about you or your opinion. Imagine what stereotypes the aliens have cultivated about us. I bet they think we'd be the super-advanced race, only to find we can't keep our shit together for five minutes.
And no matter what happens, War of the Worlds will prevail. Our world would be instantly deadly to all alien life, and vice versa. A single germ escapes an alien corpse and kills two million people.
Relating to technology, science is great if only for the fact it works to nullify your preconceptions with facts. Still, people only care about facts as far it supports their views. Think of Christianity and the dinosaurs. There are actual people who will jump up and down while screaming at you that God placed those bones there six thousand years ago for our oil supplies. Fact prove otherwise. But to that Christian, carbon-dating is the devil's tool. Now, intelligent, mature people can handle contrary facts: they live, they learn. We don't have to worry about those like-minded aliens. I'd sooner sit down with an alien and play poker than talk to half the people on this planet (morons, the lots) for three seconds.
Besides, what we really, really have to worry about are the "red states" who elected the alien version of Bush. Power in the hands of stupidity is often far worse than evil in the hands of the strong.
This is exactly what I was going to say, 1920 to 1990 were the best years of broadcasting the amount of "inteligent signal noise" that might be found by nearby sentient alien life capable of looking for those ISNs. Nowadays, satellites are the dominant form of signal pollution on our planet and most of it is aimed down at our planet. The next hundred years is probably has the highest chance of accidental discovery until the signal degrades until it isn't recognizable as an ISN.
And what if there is an alien life right next door, but there are objects, solar systems, or black holes, you name it, in between garbling the signals to nothingness? All this makes accidental discovery unlikely, and deliberate discovery just about impossible. Without considering the size of the universe, that is.
Furthermore, the idea that an advanced society is somehow purged of evil because of technological advances is like saying Hitler could be rehabilitated to bake cookies for Jewish children. Absurd. Hatred and evil are bred in the soul, and it doesn't matter how much technology would make it all but impossible to screw up your child with your own screwed up mind. Even that cold, sterile environment will, in turn, create cold, sterile people who will not treat others with warm and open arms. In fact, it will create people who care little for others, and while these aliens may not conquer us, they would probably not care if we were, say, bulldozed to make a intergalactic highway. The Star Trek idea of "universal peace" is a joke, because invariably, no matter what you do, there's that one guy who likes to screw children. You try to keep him locked away, brainwash him, or reconfigure his brainwaves, even simply killing him off to cure the problem. But in all cases of trying to fix that person, you've then taken away his peace of trying to screw children (I'm not condoning the actions, they are sick, I'm just stating a point). In order to create peace, someone else's idea of peace must vanish, along with that person. And with each generation, the idea of peace changes into something else and soon, the whole house of cards collapses into anarchy until the next reign of "peace."
We have enough trouble dealing with each other. Aliens would just make it so much worse, regardless of whether they end up being good or bad.
I would get this phone because I rarely ever use my cell phone. 95% of my communication, business or otherwise, is handled through email and IM. I'd certainly go for it if the cost was respectably less than what I currently pay (prepaid), which, granted isn't that much compared to contracted wireless costs. I have used a prepaid phone for nearly six years now, not because I'm too poor to afford a "real" phone, but because I am not a fan of long-term contracts. I lose interest easily and that nifty iPhone (to use a currently hyped phone) would get old (to me) in about three months and then I'd be stuck with a year and nine months of a service I only signed up for to get the phone. I'll quickly sacrifice not having the best phone out there for the money I save, and the hassles I avoid, in the long run. And I'd use Google's phone for free, of course, but only if it didn't outright suck.
Slashdot Mirror
Eventually, when 90% of the PC gaming market is lost to Usenet and torrents (the same 90% who actually use the Internet for two things more than watching stupid whores on Youtube and stupid, drunken whores on CollegeHumor), the game PRODUCERS (read: the people who actualy shell out the cash for the games to be made) will stop paying for new PC games and just make console games. Because hardware level DRM is so much cheaper than software DRM (even if hardware DRM is just difficult-to-change software DRM, but shhhh). We'll bitch because the Xbox 720 (No, not the Xbox 640), and the Playstation MX Paradigm (PS4), and well, Nintendo will be out of business by then, both (still) suck and there hasn't been a new PC game since the Halo 4 release (still with no online co-op (because they weren't able to pull it off in QUAKE 2 at all, nope)). They'll bitch about they millions "lost to piracy" when both sides know it was DRM's (read: greed's) fault for pushing the sides away from the each other. But we screwed ourselves. We wanted games that didn't suck on both the play level and the "doesn't make my computer a paranoid drug addict" level. And they wanted money. The two desires were never compatible. Money !== Everything_Else.
I stopped buying games a very long time ago because 1) they aren't worth paying for. 2) The one's worth paying for don't cause trends towards future "worth paying for" games. 3) This exact discussion. 4) All of my software budget went (and goes) to Adobe Flash, Photoshop, and their upgrades. You think piracy fines are bad, try business piracy fines, jesus.
And I can't simply have multiple computers for each individual task. Sure, like similar geeks, I've still got ever computer I've ever owned, each one down on the list doing equivalently-leveled tasks. But that's the besides the point. In order to play Bioshock, you can't have a suck computer in the first place. You drop $1500 for a system that can give you a decent playing experience with BioShock only to have it compromised for FREE by a damn demo. Worse still, paying for that compromise.
If I'm going to engage in a $50 lose-lose situation, I'm going to find the most attractive hooker on 13th Street and bet my buddies $10 she ain't Vice and try to get something-something for the other $40. That's money well lost.
My main source of news is from the BBC and the Guardian, along with CNN and other various outlets. Because I know that I can't trust either side to be completely unbiased on any topic ever. So I read both sides on most subjects I'm interested, even when I don't agree with one side. I know I'm a stupid biased American. And as such, I can recognize your biased opinions as well.
And just because I don't know what's going on in Chile, Barbados, or Germany, that doesn't mean I don't care. It means that I don't have the time to read every piece of news that comes out of every single source. I have a life, a girlfriend, and a job. I'll take ignorance of 3/4 of the world over no life, no girlfriend, and no job.
Also, so this isn't a total reply. Look at it this way, from a tweaked Slashdot Post Score standpoint:
When you are born, the country you were born to gets a rating of 100. As your life progresses, when good things happens (relating to life in that country) the country gets +1, when bad things happen -1. Every other country will have a similar rating but which starts at 0. Whatever country has the highest rating for you would be the "greatest country in the world" or whatever title your personality chooses for top prize. Currently, my rating for America is pretty low right now.
Now, I'm not saying a couple thousand people deserved to die in 9/11. What I am saying is that all the measures taken to ensure 9/11 doesn't happen again is on the cusp of significantly affecting the American citizen's way of life and rendering the whole country uninhabitable by degree of law. Sure, everyone would be safe if we had ID chips and retinal scan front doors. But when I can't visit my family in the next state without three forms of ID, a blood test, a loyalty oath, and a written essay about American Cheese, that's just absurd. That next state might as well be a seperate country, in that case.
But let's do something. You tell me what I can do to make a change in this country. Start a protest group? Write a newsletter? Take a shot at Bush? What? I'm not against trying - not at all. I'm against people who preach and then offer nothing in real advice. You, my friend, are tech support.
There was a time when I couldn't imagine living in another country, not even as an exchange student. I've even turned down fantastic job offers from other countries because they simply weren't in America. But almost everyday now something happens, a law is passed, or another degree shaven off of what once made this country great is added to "Why isn't this the greatest country in the world anymore?" The next time a foreign job offer comes around, I'm probably going to take it, there's just not enough reasons not to these days. And even if one doesn't, Vancouver, BC is a very beautiful city. Get out while you still can.
That was the final plot of Stargate SG-1 with the... Orai or whatever they were called.
There will never be a universal understanding, as I see it. Anywhere, here on Earth or anywhere else. And to bring matters home a bit: the genocide in Darfur. The easiest solution that would kill the fewest people would be to eliminate the group of people who are committing the genocide. But that is also a genocide. So which is worse: the senseless slaughter of millions, or the calculated execution of those commiting the aforementioned atrocities. The answer is neither. People cry out again the genocide, and then others will cry out against the execution. No one will ever have the same stance on a single topic. Ever. And peace or uptopia is based on the idea that everyone can get along and agree with everyone else.
It is evident that you can't convince the general populace of people who would actually commit genocide (as opposed to talking to the side) not to do it. They sat around dicussing their hatred of X people, and one said, "Let's kill them all." And the majority, replied, "Fuck yeah!" The two or three that said no were shot and left as an example. So back to Hitler, he convinced enough of a nation that Jews were worthless that the rest of the nation fell in line. If YOU tried to talk Hitler down, he'd either convert you or kill you. Simply as that. And these aliens will have such a more poignant reason to not care about you or your opinion. Imagine what stereotypes the aliens have cultivated about us. I bet they think we'd be the super-advanced race, only to find we can't keep our shit together for five minutes.
And no matter what happens, War of the Worlds will prevail. Our world would be instantly deadly to all alien life, and vice versa. A single germ escapes an alien corpse and kills two million people.
Relating to technology, science is great if only for the fact it works to nullify your preconceptions with facts. Still, people only care about facts as far it supports their views. Think of Christianity and the dinosaurs. There are actual people who will jump up and down while screaming at you that God placed those bones there six thousand years ago for our oil supplies. Fact prove otherwise. But to that Christian, carbon-dating is the devil's tool. Now, intelligent, mature people can handle contrary facts: they live, they learn. We don't have to worry about those like-minded aliens. I'd sooner sit down with an alien and play poker than talk to half the people on this planet (morons, the lots) for three seconds.
Besides, what we really, really have to worry about are the "red states" who elected the alien version of Bush. Power in the hands of stupidity is often far worse than evil in the hands of the strong.
This is exactly what I was going to say, 1920 to 1990 were the best years of broadcasting the amount of "inteligent signal noise" that might be found by nearby sentient alien life capable of looking for those ISNs. Nowadays, satellites are the dominant form of signal pollution on our planet and most of it is aimed down at our planet. The next hundred years is probably has the highest chance of accidental discovery until the signal degrades until it isn't recognizable as an ISN.
And what if there is an alien life right next door, but there are objects, solar systems, or black holes, you name it, in between garbling the signals to nothingness? All this makes accidental discovery unlikely, and deliberate discovery just about impossible. Without considering the size of the universe, that is.
Furthermore, the idea that an advanced society is somehow purged of evil because of technological advances is like saying Hitler could be rehabilitated to bake cookies for Jewish children. Absurd. Hatred and evil are bred in the soul, and it doesn't matter how much technology would make it all but impossible to screw up your child with your own screwed up mind. Even that cold, sterile environment will, in turn, create cold, sterile people who will not treat others with warm and open arms. In fact, it will create people who care little for others, and while these aliens may not conquer us, they would probably not care if we were, say, bulldozed to make a intergalactic highway. The Star Trek idea of "universal peace" is a joke, because invariably, no matter what you do, there's that one guy who likes to screw children. You try to keep him locked away, brainwash him, or reconfigure his brainwaves, even simply killing him off to cure the problem. But in all cases of trying to fix that person, you've then taken away his peace of trying to screw children (I'm not condoning the actions, they are sick, I'm just stating a point). In order to create peace, someone else's idea of peace must vanish, along with that person. And with each generation, the idea of peace changes into something else and soon, the whole house of cards collapses into anarchy until the next reign of "peace."
We have enough trouble dealing with each other. Aliens would just make it so much worse, regardless of whether they end up being good or bad.
I would get this phone because I rarely ever use my cell phone. 95% of my communication, business or otherwise, is handled through email and IM. I'd certainly go for it if the cost was respectably less than what I currently pay (prepaid), which, granted isn't that much compared to contracted wireless costs. I have used a prepaid phone for nearly six years now, not because I'm too poor to afford a "real" phone, but because I am not a fan of long-term contracts. I lose interest easily and that nifty iPhone (to use a currently hyped phone) would get old (to me) in about three months and then I'd be stuck with a year and nine months of a service I only signed up for to get the phone. I'll quickly sacrifice not having the best phone out there for the money I save, and the hassles I avoid, in the long run. And I'd use Google's phone for free, of course, but only if it didn't outright suck.