...the government subsidizes the infrastructure, just like many other countries already do with important things like transportation?
When it comes to anything related to infrastructure, all America seems to do is fail fail fail. Amtrek gets 1/10th of the public funding as Germany's railways. Our bridges our literally at the breaking point. Many places have terrible roadway infrastructure. (You can tell when you've driven over the Conneticut border by how quickly the roads turn to shit.)
The Internet is going to supplant television and radio as we know it very quickly. We are falling behind other nations in yet another way. Let's hope whoever wins in '08 is a more tech savvy President who will get this stuff in better working order and get it out to the people who need it.
If no contract existed (which, judging by the posts here, it didn't), then as far as I'm concerned Lucas is in the wrong here.
Lucas bought the suits. The suits, not the designs, and certaintly not the rights to the designs.
Imagine if this prop guy wins. He has a LOT of past royalties he could potentially collect on - movie posters, action figures, the movies themselves, the three or ten versions of the movie on VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray that already exist and the next dozen or so that will be released in the ensuing decade.
School's certainly a good place to educate kids about STDs. Granted, it's stupidly designed education slanted heavily towards abstinence, but seeing herpes sores up on a screen is enough to scare the little fucks into using condoms.
I think this has a place in school as much as sex ed does, for the reasons above. Maybe it will prevent some poor, dumb teenager from getting raped in the back of a Wendy's or somethin'.
...stupid? If this can be sold for scrap metal, than I assume it's not radioactive anymore and safe to handle. If that's the case, they could probably make a killing slapping pieces of it onto plaques, numbering them, and selling them.
Enough geeks would be interested in owning a piece of scientific history that this would certainly make them a lot more money than scrapping it.
Let's say I had 100 beer cans from 1934, intact but opened. Would it, in any way, be a smart idea to sell them for the $2-3 in scrap metal? At the very least I could get $10 a pop on eBay from people who want to have a piece of beer history in their bars (private or otherwise).
Capitalism, people, capitalism! (And no, I don't actually have beer cans from 1934, so don't ask me. d: )
So, PC game developers whip up these massive, beautiful games (Crysis), wherein no earthly system of the time can possibly run it at a decent speed, and what can people do? Your $500 Dell desktop isn't going to cut it. You'll need at least $1000 ($1400 for a laptop) worth of hardware just to hope to be able to play the game at a playable speed, and you'd better hope you didn't skimp on the video. The problem with this is, not many people opt for the heavyweight PC; Most families, companies, bachelors, etc will want to run as cost-effectively as possible and thus won't bother with expensive video cards (the ones in question being at least $200 and at most $600-$700). There's really a very small market for "hardcore" PC gamers (the ones who want a 360/PS3-style experience and are willing to spend the sum of both consoles' worth in high-end gadgetry to do so), though it's very, very lucrative for hardware manufacturers.
This is all very true. However, if it weren't for games like Doom III and Crysis pushing the limits, I do not know if companies would be working so hard to get out the next-gen graphics cards.
There literally is no forseeable ceiling to graphics power - at least in terms for what the consumers will want. Oh, photorealistic graphics? Well, how long until you can render an entire city in photorealism? How about an entire state/province? Country? World? Galaxy?
As much as people might hate games like Crysis, they are a necessary evil. And this is coming from someone running a RADEON 9250 PCI card. I can play WoW and Half Life 2. d:
So, why should I, stuck with my crappy old Radeon 9600 Pro, go out and buy Crysis, even if I really wanted to? The answer is: I shouldn't. There's no possible way I could even squeeze 2FPS on that one. That's one sale gone. And what about all those people with $500 Dells who are also gamers? There's more missing sales.
This is true. This is why World of Warcraft and similar games are so successful. Smarter companies have turned away from graphics or used smart design compared to making something that requires a miniature nuclear reactor for a power supply and a graphics card that can render every pixel on Doom Guy's face in glorious HD 14 billion megawhatzits quality.
Remember though, gameplay, not graphics, is what has always mattered. Think of some of the most revered and/or innovative games in the last ten years. Viva Pinata. Katamari Damacy. Rollercoaster Tycoon. The Sims. Starcraft. These are not exactly graphics powerhouses, but they're fun, and there's millions upon millions of people who are running $500 Dells (the poor bastards) and buying them up.
Aside: did I mention you can pick up Rollercoaster Tycoon deluxe for like $15 with shipping to pretty much anywhere in the States? What a steal for a good bit of nostalgia, especially since my original three game discs were stolen. >:
Swipecards would be about as copy-proof as ATM cards and Credit Cards. So, instead of having to make a copy of a paper license, now someone has to make a copy of a license on a magnetic swipe card? That is just going to give the illusion of security, not actually provide it.
I think the real problem here is you've all somehow turned a discussion about the FBI and child pornography into a discussion of how search engines work. Only on Slashdot...
Unless bats are everywhere in the world, this thing is going to be pretty useless for the "blending in as a bat" aspect. I can just see Greenpeace up in arms after FARC or something goes around shooting bats with flamethrowers to weed out any "spies". *eyeroll*
Yes, there is the the chance that she will settle.
But from what we have seen from this woman, well... I think it's pretty obvious that she is very pissed and she will not settle for anything less than victory in this.
If I were in this position, I would be recording every phone call and saving every e-mail. I hope they're dumb enough to try to threaten or bribe her, because she seems like the kind of person who is going to make that kind of information public and make the RIAA look much worse than they already do.
Yeah well, when's the last time anything but a safe investment turned a profit? Brokeback Mountain? I'm sorry, but there's just not enough gay cowboys to make movies about to fill up the 2008 calender year. d:
Of course they have an increase in profits. There are actually some very high quality films coming out this year. Iron Man? The Dark Knight? Those are good reasons to go to theaters. The way I look at it, I either spend $10 on a movie ticket or I spend $20 on a DVD a year or two later - and the DVD is almost always worth it. I go to 2-6 movies a year, and they really have to earn my patronage by being a good film. And, of course, my friends have to be interested as well.
I don't see how "high budget movies" are going to go the way of the dinosaur. If anything, digital distribution is going to make getting movies out *easier*. Movie theaters are sure to disappear over time, but digital distribution will probably increase the profits of movies if they do it right.
Bandwidth is always cheaper than physical media.
My friend has already dealt with firmware roulette on his PSP, and now he is going to be dealing with this shit on his iPhone.
No big deal, right?
Yeah, except I'm the one who he goes to to do it.
I don't see how. He says, basically, we should stop worrying about the defense industries of other countries and put some of that money towards the space program (among other things). That's pretty clear to me.
1) Power through a law (using the public as support) to have all Federal political officials post their tax returns and bank statements online. Transparency is the first step towards ending corruption.
2) Pull our troops out of military situations that are none of our damn business - military action should be reserved for humantarian efforts, helping those who can't be helped (i.e. genocide), and, of course, war.
3) Have the National Guard come home first. They are the National Guard - why are we sending the home defense out to fight in another country?
4) Post National Guard troops on both borders as a temporary measure. Construct strong, highly-advanced border walls on both borders and make sure they are more than adequately staffed.
5) Create an American Foreign Legion, and run it pretty much like the French Foreign Legion - after passing an intelligence and background check, you can join up and serve in this new branch of the U.S. Military. 4 years of service earns you citizenship. It would largely be used for humantarian and engineering efforts (much like the National Guard), but would be very combat capable.
6) Legalize marijuana as it's completely harmless, and reclassify all drugs in the scheduling system into their scientifically proper places. Posession should just be a misdemeanor - intent to deal would be something more along the lines of operating without a business license and not so much a felony.
7) Eliminate the IRS and use the FairTax system.
That's about it...
Oh, and if it hasn't been brought up, the National Budget Simulator is hella fun. I usually get the deficit down to a couple hundred billion.
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM306
" Slashdot Engineer Chris Brown:
If you read game sites at all, by now you've probably had more than your fill of cake and Weighted Companion Cube jokes. But Portal remains one of the best games to come out this year, well worth the price of the entire Orange Box just by itself. "
Portal is an excellent game indeed, but Portal is not worth $50 (the price of the Orange Box) or even $40.
Nowadays people are starting to pay more for higher quality (but shorter) games, i.e. God of War, Heavenly Sword, and even way back to PS2's Beyond Good & Evil (although that was not terribly popular). All of those games offer at least 6 hours of gameplay in the primary storymode (that is, extras notwithstanding).
Portal can take 1 1/2 - 4 hours to beat, and the extras are basically slightly harder rehashes of the regular test chambers. I would not pay any more than $25 for Portal alone.
Slashdot Mirror
When it comes to anything related to infrastructure, all America seems to do is fail fail fail. Amtrek gets 1/10th of the public funding as Germany's railways. Our bridges our literally at the breaking point. Many places have terrible roadway infrastructure. (You can tell when you've driven over the Conneticut border by how quickly the roads turn to shit.)
The Internet is going to supplant television and radio as we know it very quickly. We are falling behind other nations in yet another way. Let's hope whoever wins in '08 is a more tech savvy President who will get this stuff in better working order and get it out to the people who need it.
Lucas bought the suits. The suits, not the designs, and certaintly not the rights to the designs.
Imagine if this prop guy wins. He has a LOT of past royalties he could potentially collect on - movie posters, action figures, the movies themselves, the three or ten versions of the movie on VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray that already exist and the next dozen or so that will be released in the ensuing decade.
I think this has a place in school as much as sex ed does, for the reasons above. Maybe it will prevent some poor, dumb teenager from getting raped in the back of a Wendy's or somethin'.
Enough geeks would be interested in owning a piece of scientific history that this would certainly make them a lot more money than scrapping it.
Let's say I had 100 beer cans from 1934, intact but opened. Would it, in any way, be a smart idea to sell them for the $2-3 in scrap metal? At the very least I could get $10 a pop on eBay from people who want to have a piece of beer history in their bars (private or otherwise).
Capitalism, people, capitalism! (And no, I don't actually have beer cans from 1934, so don't ask me. d: )
This is all very true. However, if it weren't for games like Doom III and Crysis pushing the limits, I do not know if companies would be working so hard to get out the next-gen graphics cards.
There literally is no forseeable ceiling to graphics power - at least in terms for what the consumers will want. Oh, photorealistic graphics? Well, how long until you can render an entire city in photorealism? How about an entire state/province? Country? World? Galaxy?
As much as people might hate games like Crysis, they are a necessary evil. And this is coming from someone running a RADEON 9250 PCI card. I can play WoW and Half Life 2. d:
This is true. This is why World of Warcraft and similar games are so successful. Smarter companies have turned away from graphics or used smart design compared to making something that requires a miniature nuclear reactor for a power supply and a graphics card that can render every pixel on Doom Guy's face in glorious HD 14 billion megawhatzits quality.
Remember though, gameplay, not graphics, is what has always mattered. Think of some of the most revered and/or innovative games in the last ten years. Viva Pinata. Katamari Damacy. Rollercoaster Tycoon. The Sims. Starcraft. These are not exactly graphics powerhouses, but they're fun, and there's millions upon millions of people who are running $500 Dells (the poor bastards) and buying them up.
Aside: did I mention you can pick up Rollercoaster Tycoon deluxe for like $15 with shipping to pretty much anywhere in the States? What a steal for a good bit of nostalgia, especially since my original three game discs were stolen. >:
Swipecards would be about as copy-proof as ATM cards and Credit Cards. So, instead of having to make a copy of a paper license, now someone has to make a copy of a license on a magnetic swipe card? That is just going to give the illusion of security, not actually provide it.
I think the real problem here is you've all somehow turned a discussion about the FBI and child pornography into a discussion of how search engines work. Only on Slashdot...
Wait, so they've invented a muscle that can isolate damage and keep on going? Didn't anyone learn ANYTHING from Terminator 2? T-1000, here we come...
Unless bats are everywhere in the world, this thing is going to be pretty useless for the "blending in as a bat" aspect. I can just see Greenpeace up in arms after FARC or something goes around shooting bats with flamethrowers to weed out any "spies". *eyeroll*
But from what we have seen from this woman, well... I think it's pretty obvious that she is very pissed and she will not settle for anything less than victory in this.
If I were in this position, I would be recording every phone call and saving every e-mail. I hope they're dumb enough to try to threaten or bribe her, because she seems like the kind of person who is going to make that kind of information public and make the RIAA look much worse than they already do.
I am honestly not surprised. Biometrics has a long way to go. Now when are we going to see retinal scanner thumb drives? *eyeroll*
What's al Qaeda gonna do, blow up a mailbox with a nuclear powered flashlight?
A politician who can code? I'd hate to read through any of that. It would just be loaded up with //No Comment.
Yeah well, when's the last time anything but a safe investment turned a profit? Brokeback Mountain? I'm sorry, but there's just not enough gay cowboys to make movies about to fill up the 2008 calender year. d:
Of course they have an increase in profits. There are actually some very high quality films coming out this year. Iron Man? The Dark Knight? Those are good reasons to go to theaters. The way I look at it, I either spend $10 on a movie ticket or I spend $20 on a DVD a year or two later - and the DVD is almost always worth it. I go to 2-6 movies a year, and they really have to earn my patronage by being a good film. And, of course, my friends have to be interested as well. I don't see how "high budget movies" are going to go the way of the dinosaur. If anything, digital distribution is going to make getting movies out *easier*. Movie theaters are sure to disappear over time, but digital distribution will probably increase the profits of movies if they do it right. Bandwidth is always cheaper than physical media.
My friend has already dealt with firmware roulette on his PSP, and now he is going to be dealing with this shit on his iPhone. No big deal, right? Yeah, except I'm the one who he goes to to do it.
Why couldn't it be 13.37 Billion years old? Almost a message from a greater power, I'd say...
I don't see how. He says, basically, we should stop worrying about the defense industries of other countries and put some of that money towards the space program (among other things). That's pretty clear to me.
1) Power through a law (using the public as support) to have all Federal political officials post their tax returns and bank statements online. Transparency is the first step towards ending corruption. 2) Pull our troops out of military situations that are none of our damn business - military action should be reserved for humantarian efforts, helping those who can't be helped (i.e. genocide), and, of course, war. 3) Have the National Guard come home first. They are the National Guard - why are we sending the home defense out to fight in another country? 4) Post National Guard troops on both borders as a temporary measure. Construct strong, highly-advanced border walls on both borders and make sure they are more than adequately staffed. 5) Create an American Foreign Legion, and run it pretty much like the French Foreign Legion - after passing an intelligence and background check, you can join up and serve in this new branch of the U.S. Military. 4 years of service earns you citizenship. It would largely be used for humantarian and engineering efforts (much like the National Guard), but would be very combat capable. 6) Legalize marijuana as it's completely harmless, and reclassify all drugs in the scheduling system into their scientifically proper places. Posession should just be a misdemeanor - intent to deal would be something more along the lines of operating without a business license and not so much a felony. 7) Eliminate the IRS and use the FairTax system. That's about it... Oh, and if it hasn't been brought up, the National Budget Simulator is hella fun. I usually get the deficit down to a couple hundred billion. http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm?lesson=EM306
" Slashdot Engineer Chris Brown: If you read game sites at all, by now you've probably had more than your fill of cake and Weighted Companion Cube jokes. But Portal remains one of the best games to come out this year, well worth the price of the entire Orange Box just by itself. " Portal is an excellent game indeed, but Portal is not worth $50 (the price of the Orange Box) or even $40. Nowadays people are starting to pay more for higher quality (but shorter) games, i.e. God of War, Heavenly Sword, and even way back to PS2's Beyond Good & Evil (although that was not terribly popular). All of those games offer at least 6 hours of gameplay in the primary storymode (that is, extras notwithstanding). Portal can take 1 1/2 - 4 hours to beat, and the extras are basically slightly harder rehashes of the regular test chambers. I would not pay any more than $25 for Portal alone.