Perhaps you need to learn more about why courts award a ton of money to people sometimes.
There are two kinds of damages awarded in court. The first is compensatory damages. Let's say a shop owner doesn't shovel his walk (as is required by law in many places in America). Someone slips, falls, and breaks their arm. If a jury (or judge) decides that the shopkeeper is at fault, then the compensatory damages in this case would be the shopkeeper having to pay for the medical bills of the person who was hurt. Compensatory damages may also cover things such as lost wages (i.e., what if the person with a broken arm was a cake decorater and had to take time off of work or lost his/her job because of their handicap).
Compensatory damages alone, though, may just be written off by a company as expenses. For instance, if you make a swing set that will occasionally fall apart and kill a toddler, why bother repairing it or issuing a recall if its only going to cost the funeral expenses? It would be relatively cheap for a large corporation.
This is where punitive damages come in. Punitive damages are basically society saying "You fucked up, and this is why you shouldn't do this again." These can vary from something like $10,000 to millions upon millions of dollars. It makes court much more of a gamble and makes people and companies who might otherwise act like assholes and pay off their bad behavior way, way more careful.
In the instance of the autism case, the parents could probably get compensatory damages towards paying for the additional medical care and special schooling an autistic child would require. This would probably be a few hundred thousand dollars at most. In this one instance that's barely a dent in someone's profit margins. But if the punitive damages go something more like $20 million, then maybe they'll think about stepping up their quality controls or searching for a less harmful formula.
(As an aside, I think the "vaccines cause autism" thing is largely bunk considering the large swath of medical data that shows that there probably isn't a connection.)
Just like the Starship Troopers film, it's the difference between Infantry and Fleet.
The Air Force and Navy are both responsible for equipment that can end up costing millions - or billions - of dollars. What's the most expensive thing you ever figure a soldier in the Marines or Army ever used? An M1 Abrams tank costs about $6.2 million, and even if you crash a tank it can probably be mostly salvaged. Meanwhile, the F-15 costs $43-55 million, and when one goes down it tends to stay down and be unsalvageable.
Moreover, the Air Force and Navy both have stationary bases. Sure, a destroyer might have relatively cramped quarters, but an airbase is going to have nice accommodations. Invading a foreign country? One of the major tasks is to capture and secure their own airfields for your use.
The infantry, meanwhile, typically get stretched far, far away from the supply chain. When a C-130 brings a planeload of new supplies to the airfield, it has to then be loaded up on a truck and dodge enemy fire and IEDs to make it all the way to the forward base where the grunts are.
When the day comes that we have transporter technology, personal jetpacks, etc. - basically anything that (cheaply) allows for fast deploying and extracting of troops - then the Army and Marines will have more comfortable accommodations. Until then they have to be highly mobile and able to set up camp practically anywhere.
You can make a lot of fun, low power games. I imagine I could play a game on my phone, and then when I get home I could sync it up to a console or computer and continue where I left off when I was out and about.
I bought Mount & Blade, Psychonauts, Beyond Good & Evil, and Torchlight all for $5 each on Steam. $20 for several hundred hours of gameplay. Best $20 I've ever spent.
The holidays are fun time. Steam always has a *massive* holiday sale where everything is 10%-80% off. Valve games are typically 50% off. Last year I bought the iD pack and got every game iD ever made (except for Quake 4 and Enemy Territory Quake) for $35.
There is seriously no good reason not to like Steam.
Yeah, DRM. Yeah, you need to activate over the Internet. Yeah, you may one day "lose" your games. But if I had bought retail discs, I would have had maybe 10-15 games (unless I bought used, which are dubious at best considering issues like banned CD-keys because of cheating) instead of 100+.
The problem is that the *AAs are facing a battle against time.
As time goes by, internet connections are going to improve and the citizenry is going to become more aware. In 4 years all of those 14 year olds today using Limewire will be 18 and eligible to vote in many countries.
It's a battle they are (eventually) going to lose to sanity. ACTA was probably going to be a stopgap. They tried to do it too big and have it too far-reaching, though, so they basically shot themselves in the foot.
I await the day 50 years from now when I can laugh about all of this, and weep about the same exact shit happening with some other medium, i.e. "Are neuro-interactive hologames making our education pavilions more violent?"
Of course, as one of those kids who actually had Mario Paint and messed around with it, I greatly appreciate anything ihasmario does. And its quite creepy how well Smells Like Teen Spirit goes together with the "Never..." lyrics.
Well on the one hand, you are paying good money to learn at their institution. It shouldn't be their damn business whether or not you even show up to class, much less use a laptop to take your notes.
On the other hand, if, say, a large percentage of their students didn't graduate, I'm sure that they would have a bit of difficulty filling their roles in the following years as well as raising money for new facilities and whatnot.
It's a very fine balancing act between the students' need for freedom and the school's need to, well, survive.
A friend of mine was a help desk monkey at a college. You know, the guys most people call when their computer breaks and they don't know what the Hell is going on.
If no one made a call, then he was to sit on his ass. If he played games, well... it's not entirely *allowed*, but he basically has paid free time. Many a Diablo II quest was completed during his work hours because he literally had nothing to do but was on the clock.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd imagine he wants to make an exact replica of the game for the same reason people build Warhammer battlefields, model train sets, etc. by hand.
Yeah sure, there's something out there you can already buy and get working, but I bet I could make a really good (if not 1:1) replica by myself!
No. No no no no no. Do you know how many hours of my life I have lost to that game? You son of a bitch! Why would you do this to me?! T_T
I believe he was trying to link to this file, provided courtesy of this post.
First time in a long time I've seen an AC make sense. Mod parent out of the gutter so people see this.
Perhaps you need to learn more about why courts award a ton of money to people sometimes.
There are two kinds of damages awarded in court. The first is compensatory damages. Let's say a shop owner doesn't shovel his walk (as is required by law in many places in America). Someone slips, falls, and breaks their arm. If a jury (or judge) decides that the shopkeeper is at fault, then the compensatory damages in this case would be the shopkeeper having to pay for the medical bills of the person who was hurt. Compensatory damages may also cover things such as lost wages (i.e., what if the person with a broken arm was a cake decorater and had to take time off of work or lost his/her job because of their handicap).
Compensatory damages alone, though, may just be written off by a company as expenses. For instance, if you make a swing set that will occasionally fall apart and kill a toddler, why bother repairing it or issuing a recall if its only going to cost the funeral expenses? It would be relatively cheap for a large corporation.
This is where punitive damages come in. Punitive damages are basically society saying "You fucked up, and this is why you shouldn't do this again." These can vary from something like $10,000 to millions upon millions of dollars. It makes court much more of a gamble and makes people and companies who might otherwise act like assholes and pay off their bad behavior way, way more careful.
In the instance of the autism case, the parents could probably get compensatory damages towards paying for the additional medical care and special schooling an autistic child would require. This would probably be a few hundred thousand dollars at most. In this one instance that's barely a dent in someone's profit margins. But if the punitive damages go something more like $20 million, then maybe they'll think about stepping up their quality controls or searching for a less harmful formula.
(As an aside, I think the "vaccines cause autism" thing is largely bunk considering the large swath of medical data that shows that there probably isn't a connection.)
I see lots of "Oh great, another dumbass post from $EDITOR".
Are there any editors than anyone here likes or thinks is remotely competent whatsoever?
In Windows: KDawson Edition, there's no spellchecker and Internet Explorer 5's home page is automatically and irrevocably set to Fark.
Yes, but if you find someone better, you'll be getting more bang for your buck!
For the last time, we will not read upside downy faxes.
But the paper is as white as the day I bought it, and it smells springtime fresh!
Because it looks like they're doing something. There has to be a name for what this is called,
It's called Busy Work. It was bullshit in 3rd grade and it's bullshit today.
Just like the Starship Troopers film, it's the difference between Infantry and Fleet.
The Air Force and Navy are both responsible for equipment that can end up costing millions - or billions - of dollars. What's the most expensive thing you ever figure a soldier in the Marines or Army ever used? An M1 Abrams tank costs about $6.2 million, and even if you crash a tank it can probably be mostly salvaged. Meanwhile, the F-15 costs $43-55 million, and when one goes down it tends to stay down and be unsalvageable.
Moreover, the Air Force and Navy both have stationary bases. Sure, a destroyer might have relatively cramped quarters, but an airbase is going to have nice accommodations. Invading a foreign country? One of the major tasks is to capture and secure their own airfields for your use.
The infantry, meanwhile, typically get stretched far, far away from the supply chain. When a C-130 brings a planeload of new supplies to the airfield, it has to then be loaded up on a truck and dodge enemy fire and IEDs to make it all the way to the forward base where the grunts are.
When the day comes that we have transporter technology, personal jetpacks, etc. - basically anything that (cheaply) allows for fast deploying and extracting of troops - then the Army and Marines will have more comfortable accommodations. Until then they have to be highly mobile and able to set up camp practically anywhere.
I agree. The iPad is definitely ridiculous... -lous... -lous... -lous... ...
Whoever is in charge of your main IT department should be fired. Out of a cannon.
Well, I'm sure in due time we'll have iNorton and all of the iPhones will be safe from this kinda stuff.
Furthermore, if there are many people working for less than $10 a day, where do they get the money to buy cars from?
From the money they get every month sent home by their family members who are working in more prosperous countries.
Go ahead, try to use a Western Union on payday in a city like mine with tons of immigrants. You'll have a 2 hour wait in line at least.
"Okay, now that you've attached your webcam to your garden hose, let's get this virtual colonoscopy started!"
Yeah, religion has had an impact on civilization. Now I have two options for driving my enemies back to the stone age: nukes, and religion!
Man, just think of the possibilities.
You can make a lot of fun, low power games. I imagine I could play a game on my phone, and then when I get home I could sync it up to a console or computer and continue where I left off when I was out and about.
I bought Mount & Blade, Psychonauts, Beyond Good & Evil, and Torchlight all for $5 each on Steam. $20 for several hundred hours of gameplay. Best $20 I've ever spent.
The holidays are fun time. Steam always has a *massive* holiday sale where everything is 10%-80% off. Valve games are typically 50% off. Last year I bought the iD pack and got every game iD ever made (except for Quake 4 and Enemy Territory Quake) for $35.
There is seriously no good reason not to like Steam.
Yeah, DRM. Yeah, you need to activate over the Internet. Yeah, you may one day "lose" your games. But if I had bought retail discs, I would have had maybe 10-15 games (unless I bought used, which are dubious at best considering issues like banned CD-keys because of cheating) instead of 100+.
The problem is that the *AAs are facing a battle against time.
As time goes by, internet connections are going to improve and the citizenry is going to become more aware. In 4 years all of those 14 year olds today using Limewire will be 18 and eligible to vote in many countries.
It's a battle they are (eventually) going to lose to sanity. ACTA was probably going to be a stopgap. They tried to do it too big and have it too far-reaching, though, so they basically shot themselves in the foot.
I await the day 50 years from now when I can laugh about all of this, and weep about the same exact shit happening with some other medium, i.e. "Are neuro-interactive hologames making our education pavilions more violent?"
Rick Astley's hair spray probably contributed more to global warming than RickRoll views.
Dropping in two of my favorites:
Paintroll'd
Nirvana vs. Rick Astley
Of course, as one of those kids who actually had Mario Paint and messed around with it, I greatly appreciate anything ihasmario does. And its quite creepy how well Smells Like Teen Spirit goes together with the "Never..." lyrics.
Oh my, that brings me back to the TFC and CS matches in AutoCAD whenever the teacher was absent...
And he was absent frequently. (:
Well on the one hand, you are paying good money to learn at their institution. It shouldn't be their damn business whether or not you even show up to class, much less use a laptop to take your notes.
On the other hand, if, say, a large percentage of their students didn't graduate, I'm sure that they would have a bit of difficulty filling their roles in the following years as well as raising money for new facilities and whatnot.
It's a very fine balancing act between the students' need for freedom and the school's need to, well, survive.
A friend of mine was a help desk monkey at a college. You know, the guys most people call when their computer breaks and they don't know what the Hell is going on.
If no one made a call, then he was to sit on his ass. If he played games, well... it's not entirely *allowed*, but he basically has paid free time. Many a Diablo II quest was completed during his work hours because he literally had nothing to do but was on the clock.