...and you think owning a gun is going to allow you to defend yourself against the US military ?
This is the attitude I find bizarre. FWIW, I'm not an American - we dont have the gun problem that you have in the US - so perhaps thats why arguments like this make NO SENSE to me.
A bigger, and just as unlikely scenario is not you defending yourself against the government, but the government defending itself against its own military. You aren't in the picture at all - and yet THIS is the justification for arming the entire nation against itself.
Mod me down... I dont care. And no, my views are not based on Michael Moore.
To be honest, when it comes to gun control, most of the rest of the western world looks at the US in amazement - and I think the stats would back me up.
Islamic extremists, Christian Right extremists, anti-abortion extremists, NRA extremists, Intelligent Design extremists - they're all the same to me. No informed debate, no sense of reason - you either agree with their view of the world or you're an enemy to the cause and they WILL shut you down - some more in extreme ways than others.
Above all else - he was the head of the NRA - to the rest of the civilised world he was an extremist.
Normally I wouldn't comment on such a sad occasion but for Charlton Heston I make an exception.
Cold, Dead Hands ??? - Finally. One less extremist in the world. No RIP, I hope he turns in his grave.
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1. Bank phishing is almost non-existent according to the docs - from the PDF I assume comes under Identity Fraud which in total comprises 2.9 % of overall internet fraud. Given that this number is all Identity Fraud, not just phishing, can we assume that people have finally gotten the message about opening emails from their bank ? Or is there a more covert reason in that banks are unwilling to admit to being stung and therefore payout the complaint without telling the autorities ??? (I would have thought this would be the most profitable online scam out there)
2. Russia. Only 0.8 % of Internet Fraud comes from Russia ??? For all the bad press over the years... Is anyone else having a hard time accepting this number ?
Couldn't have been a more stand up guy, coach, active in church, always kept his word, etc That'd make ME suspicious right there.;-)
Seriously though...He either was or he wasn't but please dont use his public persona as a defence. There is no "type" when it comes to child molesters. Just ask the Catholic Church.
It's going to take a long, long time before you have the algorithms in place that can simulate, animate, and render a realistic person. Animate? Yes... that is still a ways off, though even The Matrix had some pretty convincing versions of Neo.
But as for still frames and modelling, we're getting there:
As for realtime photorealistic animation though, we're a long, long way from there. Lighting is one hurdle, the bigger hurdle is content. Models, textures, rigs... forget rendering, all of this takes a lot of time to BUILD for a photoreal environment.
Its one thing to come up with a realistic model and scene for a photo-realistic still frame. Its another, to rig all of those models so that they can interact with each other in a pre-determined way. Its something altogether entirely different to do this in real time without predetermined paths and choreographed actions, and modelling all viewable elements based upon the degree of movement that a user has within the space.
This is very much highlighted in the differences between high-poly count models (for detailed stills) and low-poly models (used for 3D games). The "art" for immersive environments like simulated 3D gaming (fps, racing sims etc) is to come up with a convincing representation of a real world object with the lowest poly count possible.
Currently the difference between these polycounts is massive.
...THE BUTTON (TM) (C) 2008. All Rights Reserved. Patent Pending.
You know the one. Big, Red, Round. Has a PostIt note on it reading "DO NOT PUSH THIS".
I mean...cmon...Its just gotta be there somewhere! Its just gotta..
I'm in Australia. My ISP is in Australia. I listen to Australian bands. US bands. English bands. Jazz, rock, hard rock, pop culture and some classical stuff too. Actually pretty much a mix of everything from EVERYWHERE.
Who do I pay for the privelage of not getting sued ? Who does my ISP pay ?
RIAA ? The Australian version of RIAA? Anyone who claims to be a music distributor ? All of the above ??
This is straight "all your monies are belong to us" crap, that has nothing to do with finding a solution, and everything to do with ONE foreign (from my perspective) organisation trying to extort even more of my money from me.
I loved Against a Dark Backround (non Culture) and Excession (Culture) and a number of other Culture books that I can't remember the names of, but did anyone here ever actually get through Feersum Endjin ?
I didn't. Tried a couple of times now, due to some rave reviews, but I just can't get past the inlish yoosed in da bok. vary dificlt to rede.
Its sometimes hard to consider that these books are all from the same author, given the differences in complexity and writing style.
. They may have their personal favorates but, can code sucessfully in any language even if they never coded in it before. Because once you understand the classes the rest is just a google search from finding the right command and syntax of the languge. NOT just a google search, but one of many, MANY google searches...
It is true that you can track down the answer almost any coding question you have through google and forums, and if your question hasn't already been asked, you can post and get results, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a quick solution.
As we all know, there are many different ways to achieve the same result, some good, some bad, and they've ALL been posted on the net somewhere.
Signal to noise ratio can be terrible - resulting in hours wasted wading through pages and pages of search results that aren't quite what you're looking for, trying to come up with THE google search phrase that'll nail it. Other times I'm simply amazed at the detailed solution/explanation someone was prepared to write (for nothing).
You can get code snippets and examples for almost any task in most of the the well known languages, and it can save you time building the app. but in the end, in order to maintain it, you have to understand how it works.
I'd be interested to know a rough figure on how much money has changed hands in the IT industry as a result of software patent lawsuits in the past 3 decades, and whether that money stayed IN the IT industry (ie. winning company went on to make XYZ). Without any idea I am sure it would be in the TRILLIONS of dollars. Surely this is as good an indication as any of how damaging software patents are to the industry.
I was thinking the same thing! I don't know what the GP has against cowhales... maybe he's a bigot ?
To the GP: whalecow... I mean cmon... thats just insulting...what did cowhales ever do to you ??
How is this "Offtopic" ?
He has a point to make about ray-tracing...on an article about the viabilty of ray tracing.
Moderators: whether you agree with his point or not is irrelevant.
p, and dark getti Instead of wasting even more daylight hours sitting in front of a computer at work, I at least get to go home from work with a few hours of daylight left to do WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH IT.
Where I am in OZ, with DST, the sun can set as late as 9:30-10pm in the summer... which means 3 hrs a night for me to play with the kids outside, get into my power tool collection, get stuff done around the house. My choice. My time.
Winter OTOH sucks. Its dark getting up, and its dark getting home. Any time useful for anything outdoors is spent inside in front of a computer.
They just want you to have a nice, long, bright evening in which you will have the desire to use their products.
Troll? WFT ?? For poor formatting ? ?? Pretty much proves my point...
You may not like my political views, but my points are still friggin' valid:
1. Liberals are as bad, if not worse when it comes to the rights of its citizens, and I'm gald they're gone. 2. The $85Mill the Libs splashed on an Internet Filter was a waste of money - cracked in 15 mins by a teenager. 3. Put the f***ing computer in the lounge room and save everyone some money and stress.
The most positive influence we can have on depressive illness and community awareness is to change its name. "Depression" simply has too many connotations in general society and the term itself muddies the waters when trying to educate the general public as to its impact on people suffering from it and those around them.
"Suffering from depression" and "feeling depressed" are not the same thing, and, IMHO, we need are better term for differentiating between the two. What that word should be, I don't know - I'm not a medical specialist - but even the comments here on slashdot indicate how poorly people understand depression as an illness.
Take a look here to see how over-utilised the word is..
Let me guess... you're a Liberal voter right ?
All I can say is THANK GOD its Labor and not the Liberals bringing this in.
Yes it should be opt-in, not opt-out. Yes there is an argument that its not the role of government to be undertaking this in anycase, but if this type of system was ever going to be abused by our Government, then the Liberals would be the first to do so. John Howard and co. went hand-in-hand with George Bush when it came to individual rights and the rights of its citizens in general, and the lot that replaced them would do NO BETTER.
The Liberals dropped 84 million on a piece of filtering software that a 16 year old broke in 15 minutes straight out of the box. The Liberals are full-throttle big business and couldn't give a toss about kids online. The filtering software they DID put out was to win votes and look like they were doing something, not actually aimed at solving the problem (Almost any person in IT could have told them their filtering software was crap but they blew $100mill anyway - and yes, they were looking at mandatory filtering at the ISP level as well.. and no... there wouldn't have been an option to opt out, let alone opt in)
The Liberals are a xenophobic bunch of big business neo-cons reelected time and time again to protect us during the "war on terror". They've served their purpose... divided the country right down the middle and turned people against each other, and now, thankfully, they're gone.
The idea that these neo-cons have our best intentions at heart when it comes to censorship is laughable.
If Labor want to try and nanny state us for a while until they realise is still doesnt work then fine... at least I have options.
As for Internet censorship in general...yes. Please think of the children. Put the computer in the lounge room. Its cheap. It works. End of story.
Its not about attacking their beliefs...its about attacking their secrecy and the voracity with which they target their nay-sayers. It always amazes me how groups like this will fight to the death for the right to believe what they want to believe (free speech, free will) at the same time as they attempt to shut down anyone who would put forward an alternative (not free speech, no free will)
Slashdot Mirror
yeah... because by "MOST of the rest of the western world" I actually meant Switzerland.
Mod me down... I dont care. And no, my views are not based on Michael Moore. To be honest, when it comes to gun control, most of the rest of the western world looks at the US in amazement - and I think the stats would back me up. Islamic extremists, Christian Right extremists, anti-abortion extremists, NRA extremists, Intelligent Design extremists - they're all the same to me. No informed debate, no sense of reason - you either agree with their view of the world or you're an enemy to the cause and they WILL shut you down - some more in extreme ways than others. Above all else - he was the head of the NRA - to the rest of the civilised world he was an extremist.
Normally I wouldn't comment on such a sad occasion but for Charlton Heston I make an exception. Cold, Dead Hands ??? - Finally. One less extremist in the world. No RIP, I hope he turns in his grave.
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Apparently I need to put more text here to beat the postercompression filter. So here goes: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Phasellus non erat eu dui dignissim dictum. Integer iaculis nulla at nisl. Proin ut enim non ipsum varius laoreet. Integer feugiat, ante fringilla blandit convallis, leo sapien egestas velit, non condimentum nulla sem vitae risus. Mauris aliquam auctor quam. Sed ac enim. Donec mattis dui id ligula. Integer vel sem eget ante cursus tristique. Nullam vel orci vitae sem interdum placerat. In eget lectus. Donec blandit. Quisque lacus urna, malesuada vel, mollis sit amet, rutrum nec, est. Proin blandit ornare nibh. Duis et felis.
Done
1. Bank phishing is almost non-existent according to the docs - from the PDF I assume comes under Identity Fraud which in total comprises 2.9 % of overall internet fraud. Given that this number is all Identity Fraud, not just phishing, can we assume that people have finally gotten the message about opening emails from their bank ? Or is there a more covert reason in that banks are unwilling to admit to being stung and therefore payout the complaint without telling the autorities ??? (I would have thought this would be the most profitable online scam out there)
2. Russia. Only 0.8 % of Internet Fraud comes from Russia ??? For all the bad press over the years... Is anyone else having a hard time accepting this number ?
Seriously though...He either was or he wasn't but please dont use his public persona as a defence. There is no "type" when it comes to child molesters. Just ask the Catholic Church.
But as for still frames and modelling, we're getting there:
Sexy Girl - http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=532817
Tattoo Guy - http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=550192
The Artist - http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=472843
As for realtime photorealistic animation though, we're a long, long way from there. Lighting is one hurdle, the bigger hurdle is content. Models, textures, rigs... forget rendering, all of this takes a lot of time to BUILD for a photoreal environment.
Its one thing to come up with a realistic model and scene for a photo-realistic still frame. Its another, to rig all of those models so that they can interact with each other in a pre-determined way. Its something altogether entirely different to do this in real time without predetermined paths and choreographed actions, and modelling all viewable elements based upon the degree of movement that a user has within the space.
This is very much highlighted in the differences between high-poly count models (for detailed stills) and low-poly models (used for 3D games). The "art" for immersive environments like simulated 3D gaming (fps, racing sims etc) is to come up with a convincing representation of a real world object with the lowest poly count possible.
Currently the difference between these polycounts is massive.
Yeah... gimme the holodeck or the metaverse any day.
eg. Japanese whaling and the International Whaling Commision. Not a mega-corp per se, but the same principle applies.
I'm in Australia. My ISP is in Australia. I listen to Australian bands. US bands. English bands.
Jazz, rock, hard rock, pop culture and some classical stuff too. Actually pretty much a mix of everything from EVERYWHERE.
Who do I pay for the privelage of not getting sued ?
Who does my ISP pay ?
RIAA ? The Australian version of RIAA? Anyone who claims to be a music distributor ? All of the above ??
This is straight "all your monies are belong to us" crap, that has nothing to do with finding a solution, and everything to do with ONE foreign (from my perspective) organisation trying to extort even more of my money from me.
I loved Against a Dark Backround (non Culture) and Excession (Culture) and a number of other Culture books that I can't remember the names of, but did anyone here ever actually get through Feersum Endjin ?
I didn't. Tried a couple of times now, due to some rave reviews, but I just can't get past the inlish yoosed in da bok. vary dificlt to rede.
Its sometimes hard to consider that these books are all from the same author, given the differences in complexity and writing style.
..on learning yet another language or paradigm, try this:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=how+to+build+an+outdoor+setting+from+hardwood&btnG=Google+Search
It will make you a better programmer.
even if they never coded in it before. Because once you understand the classes the rest is just a
google search from finding the right command and syntax of the languge. NOT just a google search, but one of many, MANY google searches...
It is true that you can track down the answer almost any coding question you have through google and forums, and if your question hasn't already been asked, you can post and get results, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a quick solution.
As we all know, there are many different ways to achieve the same result, some good, some bad, and they've ALL been posted on the net somewhere.
Signal to noise ratio can be terrible - resulting in hours wasted wading through pages and pages of search results that aren't quite what you're looking for, trying to come up with THE google search phrase that'll nail it. Other times I'm simply amazed at the detailed solution/explanation someone was prepared to write (for nothing).
You can get code snippets and examples for almost any task in most of the the well known languages, and it can save you time building the app. but in the end, in order to maintain it, you have to understand how it works.
I'd be interested to know a rough figure on how much money has changed hands in the IT industry as a result of software patent lawsuits in the past 3 decades, and whether that money stayed IN the IT industry (ie. winning company went on to make XYZ). Without any idea I am sure it would be in the TRILLIONS of dollars. Surely this is as good an indication as any of how damaging software patents are to the industry.
I was thinking the same thing! I don't know what the GP has against cowhales... maybe he's a bigot ? To the GP: whalecow... I mean cmon... thats just insulting...what did cowhales ever do to you ??
How is this "Offtopic" ? He has a point to make about ray-tracing...on an article about the viabilty of ray tracing. Moderators: whether you agree with his point or not is irrelevant.
p, and dark getti
Instead of wasting even more daylight hours sitting in front of a computer at work, I at least get to go home from work with a few hours of daylight left to do WHAT I WANT TO DO WITH IT.
Where I am in OZ, with DST, the sun can set as late as 9:30-10pm in the summer... which means 3 hrs a night for me to play with the kids outside, get into my power tool collection, get stuff done around the house. My choice. My time.
Winter OTOH sucks. Its dark getting up, and its dark getting home. Any time useful for anything outdoors is spent inside in front of a computer.
They just want you to have a nice, long, bright evening in which you will have the desire to use their products.
where do I sign ?
Troll? WFT ?? For poor formatting ? ?? Pretty much proves my point...
You may not like my political views, but my points are still friggin' valid:
1. Liberals are as bad, if not worse when it comes to the rights of its citizens, and I'm gald they're gone.
2. The $85Mill the Libs splashed on an Internet Filter was a waste of money - cracked in 15 mins by a teenager.
3. Put the f***ing computer in the lounge room and save everyone some money and stress.
The most positive influence we can have on depressive illness and community awareness is to change its name.
"Depression" simply has too many connotations in general society and the term itself muddies the waters when trying to educate the general public as to its impact on people suffering from it and those around them.
"Suffering from depression" and "feeling depressed" are not the same thing, and, IMHO, we need are better term for differentiating between the two. What that word should be, I don't know - I'm not a medical specialist - but even the comments here on slashdot indicate how poorly people understand depression as an illness.
Take a look here to see how over-utilised the word is..
Let me guess... you're a Liberal voter right ? All I can say is THANK GOD its Labor and not the Liberals bringing this in. Yes it should be opt-in, not opt-out. Yes there is an argument that its not the role of government to be undertaking this in anycase, but if this type of system was ever going to be abused by our Government, then the Liberals would be the first to do so. John Howard and co. went hand-in-hand with George Bush when it came to individual rights and the rights of its citizens in general, and the lot that replaced them would do NO BETTER. The Liberals dropped 84 million on a piece of filtering software that a 16 year old broke in 15 minutes straight out of the box. The Liberals are full-throttle big business and couldn't give a toss about kids online. The filtering software they DID put out was to win votes and look like they were doing something, not actually aimed at solving the problem (Almost any person in IT could have told them their filtering software was crap but they blew $100mill anyway - and yes, they were looking at mandatory filtering at the ISP level as well.. and no... there wouldn't have been an option to opt out, let alone opt in) The Liberals are a xenophobic bunch of big business neo-cons reelected time and time again to protect us during the "war on terror". They've served their purpose... divided the country right down the middle and turned people against each other, and now, thankfully, they're gone. The idea that these neo-cons have our best intentions at heart when it comes to censorship is laughable. If Labor want to try and nanny state us for a while until they realise is still doesnt work then fine... at least I have options. As for Internet censorship in general...yes. Please think of the children. Put the computer in the lounge room. Its cheap. It works. End of story.
Its not about attacking their beliefs...its about attacking their secrecy and the voracity with which they target their nay-sayers. It always amazes me how groups like this will fight to the death for the right to believe what they want to believe (free speech, free will) at the same time as they attempt to shut down anyone who would put forward an alternative (not free speech, no free will)