Well as somebody who has listened to/read most of the works you've mentioned (The Prince, Mahler's 10th, Tolkien's Silmarillion, Mozart's Mass, Vergil's Aeneid), I can say that they are certainly fantastic but that there is a noticable point in all of those works that I've mentioned where the feel *changes*. It's the most obvious in Mozart's Mass: I heard the local university do a performance of it, and the movements composed by the guy-who-I'm-too-lazy-to-look-up were definitely different. In fact, interesting story about the Mass: Mozart composed it for financial reasons, like most of his stuff. Then he died, but his wife still needed cash and the mass wasn't finished. So his wife asked a bunch of his students, and all his best students said "No way we can do that justice, Mozart started that no way we can finish it". One of his *weaker* students was the only one willing to accept the job.
So yes, it is possible for unfinished work to be finished and released posthumously. But it is still very noticable that the author/composer/artist did not complete the work, and the quality is detracted considerably.
Essentially, like I'm sure many people have already pointed out, chances are the reason this is being released is because somebody somewhere wants money. And I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that that is true, or the fact that I'll probably buy it anyway (just like Star Wars Episode II.... it'll probably still pander Jar-Jar style to the 8 year old demographic, and I'll probably still go see it anyway).....
As a current high schooler (senior, graduating in two weeks thank god) I can very much second what he is saying.
For example, at my high school guess what computers are in all the labs and for all the teachers? P75mhz 12mb ram Win95 running some prehistoric Novell to hook up to the network. 500 mb hard drive.
It gets worse: what do elementary and middle schools get? I'm not even kidding: Apple IIGS and Apple IIEs.
Now the validity of this statement varies from person to person, but if you are the sort of computer geek with the compulsion to buy the "latest and greatest", or at least update relatively often that today a P200 would seem really quite obsolete, go ahead and donate it to a local school you fell support for (maybe even *you* have children attending). Trust me, chances are they can use it. And hey if you manipulate the system you might even manage to write it off to reduce your taxes:).
Don't get me wrong, you make many legitimate points. And if you want to follow your "no computer games or porn in people I date" clause then you're welcome to, it's your life (and in the case of porn I think it's extremely reasonable). And I very much agree that both of these "hobbies" can be done in excess, especially if the person doing them is involved with somebody else whom they could hurt. However, there are situations where these are just victimless crimes.
Now it depends upon the individual. Basically the person has to distinguish between reality and fantasy. However, assuming they can do this, and that they don't become so obsessed with fantasy that they start having problems with reality, then a little bit of fantasy now and then doesn't hurt anybody. What about reading a good book? Most books appeal to the reader to imagine themselves doing something else, and something that they often could not actually do for any number of reasons.
So yes, if the male of a relationship is always playing Quake and looking at porn and then proceeds to be abusive, that's bad. But if somebody just plays some computer games or watches some porn every once in a while, but doesn't hurt anybody as a result and is able to keep the line between fantasy and reality well defined, then I personally see nothing wrong with it.
Also, this article is poorly written, in the sense that it makes a huge deal about sex in computer games, but fails to mention that this really isn't that unusual. Magazines, television, movies, it's all full of sex. And guess why: because we like it. We can't help but like it, and that's not a crime. As long as our liking of it doesn't cause us to hurt anyone....
A game that I think looks really sweet is Dawn. You can check it out at:
http://www.glitchless.com/dawn
Anyway, it is very disappointing to me that it hasn't gotten better publicity. It's the first MMORPG that I've seen that's going to (attempt at least) stress the roleplaying, and not the hack'n'slash zoning 1337 a0l d00d sell your gear on eBay crap. When you die, you die, sort of like Hardcore Diablo 2. You get experience for doing stuff in general, not just killing stuff. The world is bigger. If you don't behave in character gods might smack you down.
Don't get me wrong, Star Wars is sweet, and I have the highest hopes for this Galaxies Online thing. But think about the market Lucas is aiming at with his movies (9-13 year oldish).... those will be the ones that will likely dominate this community. It's easy to make a good game, but it's so hard to make a good community. Diablo 2 is a perfect example: I love the game, but god I can't stand the community. Korean flaming, yada yada yada... oh well, save that rant for another day.
You may or may not disagree with his politics, and that's your choice. But thankfully he at least seems intelligent. He got his start as a venture capitalist in 1996, and then spearheaded various pro-republican-tech movements for Bob Dole and such, and now he's working for Dubya. Yes he trusts the companies a bit too much. But thank god he has a brain. It's actually reassuring to me to see a guy like him working for the government, because I'd rather have a smart disagreeable government then a stupid agreeable government. If they control so much of my life I at least want them to know *what* they're doing, even if I don't agree with the why....
That money can still do just about anything. You sue somebody enough and they'll be willing to sell out. It's a pity too, MP3.com was a great place for somebody to get their start trying to sell their music, or at least get publicity. I have several friends who have sites up their, and I myself have used it on more then one occasion.
This is a sad day indeed. It makes you think, if enough money is thrown at them who else could sell out? Suddenly DALnet's April Fool's Joke doesn't seem so funny anymore....
The article opens... "Using proprietary magnetic-isolation and RF MEMS-based antenna-reconfiguration technologies"....
Thankfully many fundamental technologies (lightbulbs, etc.) were developed before copyright laws were that heavily developed. If this e-tenna development is as huge as it seems, and if copyright laws get exaggerated, this could be quite a pain. Not that I'm accusing this company of a monopoly already, in fact I would think it more likely that they get bought out by somebody big (MS anyone?). It's just frightening, as this might be the really first major development technologically that has an extreme level of copyright protection.... the inventors should certainly get credit and cash, but competition should be allowed as well.
At the risk of sounding nasty, did you read the article? It pointed out a lot of nice enhancements, such as the development of culture, making diplomacy (and war) more complex, and allowing trade to be more all-encompassing. Also, one feature that I'm looking forward a lot to is now you have to have the correct resources to build stuff. It gave the example that you need iron to build the unit of "swordsmen", and if one player has a monopoly on iron then only they can build swordsmen. Much more accurate to real-life, as well as begging for all sorts of neato strategerie.
As for Civ 1 and Civ 2, sure the graphics got niftier in Civ 2, but in my mind the huge advance was the customizability. Civ 2 has sooooo muuucchh replay value, it's truly disgusting. I never ever play a straight game anymore, but every month or so I still go back to that game and either download a scenario I haven't played yet or just start a new one from a new side or using a new modpack. There are literally millions of ways to play Civ 2, or you can always just create your OWN. Yes Civ 1 had a little bit of this, but not anywhere near the online community or freely downloadable professionally done scenarios that Civ 2 has. I think that when Civ 3 comes out it's gonna be a helluva game....
The *real* problem with handheld devices...
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Palm In Trouble?
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· Score: 4
In my mind, at least, the real problem is that they really aren't that useful. I have recently acquired a Palm V at no cost to me (no I didn't steal it), and while it is funny as hell to play with, any and all actually useful functions it has are much better done with pen(cil) and paper. Honestly. And all the "syncrhonizing with the desktop" crap means that you either have to use the Palm desktop to keep your schedule, or be using Outlook, both of which I'd rather not do. In fact, the only real use I've found for it is reading free books, as essentially every single book that is old enough to not be copyrighted can be gotten for free in a format for palm (or converted from txt ala Gutenberg), and it is actually not that bad reading off of a palm (much better then slowly scrolling down a txt on the computer). But essentially, the palm is an expensive gameboy for adults.
In my mind, the thing that will make any handheld device actually worth it is as follows:
1. A *lot* more memory (whatever happened to those 300mb drives the size of credit cards that IBM was doing?)
2. Voice recognition (Graffiti is okay, but the palm needs something akin to dictation for input to be truly useful)
3. Some level of AI (this is sort of attached to the voice recognition part, but essentially I want to be able to say "take me to such-and-such a program" and it takes me there).
Notice how "color" and "net-access" aren't on that list. Well net access has some usability, but the fact that people are obsessed with color kind of irritates me. Oh well, I'll save that for another rant....
Well said, I like how you compared the licenses. I agree with everything you said, but would like to especially stress a point that you hinted at that I personally believe is not said enough, if ever. BSD License=more freedom to the immediately direct enduser, but possibly less freedom to the rest of the world. GPL=less freedom to next immediate user, but a guarantee of that same minimal amount of usability to any and all other eventual users. Somebody could take a BSD license thing, mess with it, and re-release it under the BSD license, and that would have more usability then GPL, but they aren't required to. GPL *guarantees* a certain level of usability to absolutely everybody. Basically BSD is more usable, but also more abusable. I'm not advocating one over the other, simply noting the differences...
Ever played the "Lemonade Game"? It's a game where you buy ingredients to make limonade, and sell it over the course of a month. You have to plan based on weather, and buy enough ingredients to make the lemonade but not so much as to have the ingredients go bad. Anyway, you obviously sell more for higher prices when it's hot out. And while the specific example you cited does seem quite extreme (which is why if I ever go on any sort of trip I bring a cooler with my own drinks), in essence it's just supply and demand, which is perfectly fair. At least *everybody* pays $3.75 for the cokes, not just some specifically targeted program where you track people who prefer coke and pump up the prices for them. By the way, visit lemonadegame.com if you want to check out the game in a nice little java form.
You kinda missed the point on the "sexism"
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The New Flatland
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Ahem you sort of missed the mark on that "sexism" bit. Yes, by todays standards that is quite sexist. At the time of publishing however it was just another clever point being made by the author: it was a comment on Victorian society, which if you know much about it you'll realize that dubbing women as lines isn't necessarily too inaccurate (and this is not to say that the many sided "nobility" are any better). Read through the eyes of a 21st century American Flatland is quite sexist. Seen as a 19th century Englishman would see it and it's a comment on society as well as space-time.
Yes, you're quite right. I actually live in Corvallis where this technology is being created, and it was quite funny watching late night news at 11pm.... they actually had a story!
Anyway, both the demo and most of the info seem to imply that it's primary use would be games (read: Quake III and other FPS), since it adds a new level of excitement and realism. It's true that just doing day-to-day running of the operating system would be both painful and boring with it, although this isn't to say that nobody gets repitive movement injuries from using a mouse... also another use of the technology would be for those unable to use normal mice due to some sort of physical issue (no/disabled arms, etc.).
Yes, I very much agree with you. I live out where I can't get broadband access either, and due to phone lines my 28.8 connects at an average of 19.2 - ye gods it makes for a laggy game of D2 or Quake 2, or whatever.
On the plus side, satellite net access is getting more realstic. The installation is still horrendous, but the monthly bill is getting lower. I have a list of them somewhere, but the only satellite ISP I can remember off the top of my head is Clipper.net.
Anyway, good luck and check out satellite net access.
Well oddly enough this "religion" comment, even though it's just spitting back out what most religious people say about cloning (no offense intended, most non-religious people say the same stuff over and over again too, it's just slightly different stuff), but it really made me realize something. Cloning is inevitable at this point in time, which means the presence of clones is inevitable. Probably within 20 years or so cloning will be mainstream enough that, while there won't be that many, there will be enough of them to count as a very minor demographic. Guess what the next level of civil rights will be? Now that rights for women, blacks, and foreigners in general have all been fought for (not to say that there is nothing left to do, but at least significant progress has been made), and rights for homosexuals are being fought for right now, the next level will be equal rights for clones.... just imagine the discrimination a clone will suffer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to get PC here. I believe in equal rights and don't support any discrimination, but this'll be disgusting and range from the most anal retentive conservative old man to the most long haired yet equally close minded flaming liberal.... trying not to discriminate against people yet not getting overly PC (PC is politically correct in this context btw, not personal computer).... oh well.
This is similar to the X-Men like the original post said additionally in the sense that they'll be discriminated against plenty. Oh, and as for your "should we regard them as humans" alright read some of the other posts floating around here (the "5 insightful" ones), but to sum it up quickly for you: identical twins are just like clones, except they happen to be "cloned" at the moment of conception. I happen to know a pair of identical twins in real life, and they certainly both qualify as having a soul, at least as much as anybody else I know does...
#1: How does the new broadband modem really change this? Yeah I know now the IP is no longer changing a la dialup, but still dreamcasts are online as before, I don't see why DoS attacks would be different.
#2: The broadband thing is just an adaptor... and I quote from the article thingy, "the adapter will allow you to use your existing Ethernet network, DSL or Cable modem services," i.e. the Dreamcast just hooks up with the network.... so you wouldn't really be attacking the dreamcast, you'd be attacking whatever network type thingy it hooks up to... not technical terms I realize, but still it's not like this is a cable modem for the dreamcast here....
Dreamcast let's you buy a mouse and a keyboard, albeit overpriced. Most hardcore Quake III dreamcast people get the keyboard and mouse.... that and chat doesn't exactly work without a keyboard....
Second, you can download stuff, it just doesn't have a drive to download it too if you're intending to save stuff (although the NetBSD hack port thing might change this). As for media players and downloading prOn, the dreamcast browser, while still pretty bad, is getting better in every new release.... in this current (2.0) release it now has shock (yeah yeah shock sucks whatever, at least it's a feature in it now *shrug* I don't care I always skip shock intros anyway), and I wouldn't be surprised if v3.0 has a media player....
Yeah I'd say you're hitting the issue pretty squarely, but you had trouble putting it in the form of a question. Then again I'll probably do no better, I usually rant too, but I'll try...
Do you really have it that bad? What I mean by that is does it fit that stereotype? I'm a geek too, and I'm 17 years old in high school, and I haven't had any of these troubles really. I move from circle to circle, spend a lot of time hanging out with music people (band and choir, some ork dorks heh), then move on to the good old Gay Straight Alliance wannabe hippie socialist types, hang out with some underclassmen (always good for an ego boost), hang out with the Anime people (even though I friggin hate anime hehe, they like AD&D too though), hang out with the really hardcore geeks who put me to shame..... am I a freak for not being a freak (no offense intended, not saying anti-social people suck or something, in fact I spend plenty of my time being social with people who might be considered anti-social, yet oddly enough I don't become anti-social myself) or something? I honestly don't know....
So I guess in an attempt to put all this rambling in a form of a question: do you feel comfortable about your social life? I'm not asking "are you popular" or "do you have friends".... that just invokes stereotypes of hollow cheerleaders and jocks in my mind.... despite society labeling them as popular I think that they're more often then not full of crap.... are you friendly with people? Is it more then a tiny handful of people? Do you feel comfortable walking the halls of your school (I'm not talking safety or somethings stupid, I'm talking socially)? You don't necessarily have to date, dating is so on and off anyway, it's all a soap opera.... but do you feel comfortable talking with/have friends who are whatever sex you are attracted to (in an effort to be politically correct heh)? I might just happen to be at a very good school or something, but while the jocks are still popular in there own way, our prom king last year was a friggin musician, and a guy whom I deeply respected, NOT the captain of the football team or some crap like that.... I forget who the queen was, but she wasn't a cheerleader or something like that.... she was in the choir I believe.... so yeah, do you feel comfortable with your social life?
I notice you listed off a number of activities/clubs, but neglected music (as have all the posts I've read up to this point), so I feel I may as well throw it in.
Do you participate in the making of music in any way, shape, or form? If so, then how? (i.e. school group, community group, just play piano yourself, orchestrate midis, whatever).... and secondly, what music do you listen to?
Well yeah I realize that and did mention it in my original post, but I'm still kind of surprised that there hasn't been at least a couple of hardcore hacker types out there who fought little Jimmy's mother to get a PS2 to toy with it. As I said I don't really know the technical differences between the DC and PS2, but it seems like at least a few hacker-types would have fought for a PS2.... I seem to remember DC hacks coming up within a month of the DC coming out.
.... is why I always hear about the DC hackers, but haven't heard about any PS2 hackers. Is it just because the DC has been around longer, or is it just more hacker-friendly? I'm not an expert on the DC or PS2, so I'm just wondering. Also it seems to me that there might be some interesting going-ons dealing with the DC in that I know it uses Windows CE for the memory card VMU dealies, which might mean there are some Windows CE-ish things inside the DC itself. As I said I don't know anything myself, I'm asking...
"With that small concession, it looks like the merger is likely to go through."
I wouldn't exactly consider it a small concession. Yes, I realize that this is a HUGE merger and that it shouldn't really go through at all, or at least the concession should be larger, but this is much better then nothing.
I for one view this as very good news. Don't get me wrong, I despise IM, I used ICQ back in, what was it, 96 or 97 but stopped pretty soon after AOL bought it....... so this won't really effect me directly, but all in all this is a good thing. A small blow to the beast is better then no blow at all...
For the love of god, his quotes aren't even factual! Gore had HIGHER sat scores (1355 total for Gore, 1206 for Bush)... just see http://www.insidepolitics.org/heard/heard32300.htm l.... additionally gradewise, Gore's lowest was a (singular) D in Natural Science, and highest were A's/A+'s in English/French. Bushes lows were 70 and 71 (out of 100) in sociology and economics (more important to presidency then natural science), and his highest was a "pass" in history/japanese....
Anyway, Bush is dumber, but that doesn't necessarily matter. What matters is Bush will make a very conservative supreme court that will be very unfriendly to the net and such (DMCA, etc., also Roe Vs. Wade, Euthanasia....)..... neither are nice guys, and while Gore is smart and Bush is dumb, so what? We've had dumb presidents in the past and will have them again in the future.
That and Bush has the popular vote. Gore's only hope is getting Florida. Note that two good things would happen if Gore wins the election. 1) We wouldn't have Bush. 2) The Republican party would try to attack the electoral college, possibly dismantle it, due to the fact that Bush would have lost the electoral college yet won the popular vote. And regardless of who does it, at least the electoral college will be dismantled.
Please moderators moderate this guys post down. His facts are wrong wrong wrong. The fact he has a "5 informative" score is truly scary to me./. is slipping...
In California or New York, Yes vote for Nader. I live in Oregon. And Bush will win this state. This state will be Republican for the first time in as long as I can remember. Ugh. And that's because we've got almost 10% going for Nader. Or is it 15? Either way, it's too much. We're a swing state, and even though we only have 7 electoral votes in an election this close it could all come down to just those 7. How sad.
Insightful enough, but I simply have to mention the most friggin underrated game ever: Shining Force. Always been a Sega game, and one of the best RPGs a console has ever had. Infinitely better then the oh-so overrated Final Fantasy..... Final Fantasy has lame number inflation (10 thousand hitpoints anybody?), and the dumbest combat system in the world (oooh I stand here, bad guys stand there, we hurt each other.... we heal if we need it, and occasionally we're ambushed and have enemies on BOTH sides), whereas Shining Force has initiative, overhead grid view stuff, movement, strategy, area affect spells, etc.... anyway, sure Sega doesn't have all the good games, but Sega has a lot of good games that just didn't get good publicity. For some reason people just don't KNOW about them.
That and a blue hedgehog with attitude is cooler then a fat slow plumber:p.
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Well as somebody who has listened to/read most of the works you've mentioned (The Prince, Mahler's 10th, Tolkien's Silmarillion, Mozart's Mass, Vergil's Aeneid), I can say that they are certainly fantastic but that there is a noticable point in all of those works that I've mentioned where the feel *changes*. It's the most obvious in Mozart's Mass: I heard the local university do a performance of it, and the movements composed by the guy-who-I'm-too-lazy-to-look-up were definitely different. In fact, interesting story about the Mass: Mozart composed it for financial reasons, like most of his stuff. Then he died, but his wife still needed cash and the mass wasn't finished. So his wife asked a bunch of his students, and all his best students said "No way we can do that justice, Mozart started that no way we can finish it". One of his *weaker* students was the only one willing to accept the job.
So yes, it is possible for unfinished work to be finished and released posthumously. But it is still very noticable that the author/composer/artist did not complete the work, and the quality is detracted considerably.
Essentially, like I'm sure many people have already pointed out, chances are the reason this is being released is because somebody somewhere wants money. And I don't know what bothers me more, the fact that that is true, or the fact that I'll probably buy it anyway (just like Star Wars Episode II.... it'll probably still pander Jar-Jar style to the 8 year old demographic, and I'll probably still go see it anyway).....
As a current high schooler (senior, graduating in two weeks thank god) I can very much second what he is saying.
:).
For example, at my high school guess what computers are in all the labs and for all the teachers? P75mhz 12mb ram Win95 running some prehistoric Novell to hook up to the network. 500 mb hard drive.
It gets worse: what do elementary and middle schools get? I'm not even kidding: Apple IIGS and Apple IIEs.
Now the validity of this statement varies from person to person, but if you are the sort of computer geek with the compulsion to buy the "latest and greatest", or at least update relatively often that today a P200 would seem really quite obsolete, go ahead and donate it to a local school you fell support for (maybe even *you* have children attending). Trust me, chances are they can use it. And hey if you manipulate the system you might even manage to write it off to reduce your taxes
Don't get me wrong, you make many legitimate points. And if you want to follow your "no computer games or porn in people I date" clause then you're welcome to, it's your life (and in the case of porn I think it's extremely reasonable). And I very much agree that both of these "hobbies" can be done in excess, especially if the person doing them is involved with somebody else whom they could hurt. However, there are situations where these are just victimless crimes.
Now it depends upon the individual. Basically the person has to distinguish between reality and fantasy. However, assuming they can do this, and that they don't become so obsessed with fantasy that they start having problems with reality, then a little bit of fantasy now and then doesn't hurt anybody. What about reading a good book? Most books appeal to the reader to imagine themselves doing something else, and something that they often could not actually do for any number of reasons.
So yes, if the male of a relationship is always playing Quake and looking at porn and then proceeds to be abusive, that's bad. But if somebody just plays some computer games or watches some porn every once in a while, but doesn't hurt anybody as a result and is able to keep the line between fantasy and reality well defined, then I personally see nothing wrong with it.
Also, this article is poorly written, in the sense that it makes a huge deal about sex in computer games, but fails to mention that this really isn't that unusual. Magazines, television, movies, it's all full of sex. And guess why: because we like it. We can't help but like it, and that's not a crime. As long as our liking of it doesn't cause us to hurt anyone....
A game that I think looks really sweet is Dawn. You can check it out at:
http://www.glitchless.com/dawn
Anyway, it is very disappointing to me that it hasn't gotten better publicity. It's the first MMORPG that I've seen that's going to (attempt at least) stress the roleplaying, and not the hack'n'slash zoning 1337 a0l d00d sell your gear on eBay crap. When you die, you die, sort of like Hardcore Diablo 2. You get experience for doing stuff in general, not just killing stuff. The world is bigger. If you don't behave in character gods might smack you down.
Don't get me wrong, Star Wars is sweet, and I have the highest hopes for this Galaxies Online thing. But think about the market Lucas is aiming at with his movies (9-13 year oldish).... those will be the ones that will likely dominate this community. It's easy to make a good game, but it's so hard to make a good community. Diablo 2 is a perfect example: I love the game, but god I can't stand the community. Korean flaming, yada yada yada... oh well, save that rant for another day.
You may or may not disagree with his politics, and that's your choice. But thankfully he at least seems intelligent. He got his start as a venture capitalist in 1996, and then spearheaded various pro-republican-tech movements for Bob Dole and such, and now he's working for Dubya. Yes he trusts the companies a bit too much. But thank god he has a brain. It's actually reassuring to me to see a guy like him working for the government, because I'd rather have a smart disagreeable government then a stupid agreeable government. If they control so much of my life I at least want them to know *what* they're doing, even if I don't agree with the why....
That money can still do just about anything. You sue somebody enough and they'll be willing to sell out. It's a pity too, MP3.com was a great place for somebody to get their start trying to sell their music, or at least get publicity. I have several friends who have sites up their, and I myself have used it on more then one occasion.
This is a sad day indeed. It makes you think, if enough money is thrown at them who else could sell out? Suddenly DALnet's April Fool's Joke doesn't seem so funny anymore....
The article opens... "Using proprietary magnetic-isolation and RF MEMS-based antenna-reconfiguration technologies"....
Thankfully many fundamental technologies (lightbulbs, etc.) were developed before copyright laws were that heavily developed. If this e-tenna development is as huge as it seems, and if copyright laws get exaggerated, this could be quite a pain. Not that I'm accusing this company of a monopoly already, in fact I would think it more likely that they get bought out by somebody big (MS anyone?). It's just frightening, as this might be the really first major development technologically that has an extreme level of copyright protection.... the inventors should certainly get credit and cash, but competition should be allowed as well.
At the risk of sounding nasty, did you read the article? It pointed out a lot of nice enhancements, such as the development of culture, making diplomacy (and war) more complex, and allowing trade to be more all-encompassing. Also, one feature that I'm looking forward a lot to is now you have to have the correct resources to build stuff. It gave the example that you need iron to build the unit of "swordsmen", and if one player has a monopoly on iron then only they can build swordsmen. Much more accurate to real-life, as well as begging for all sorts of neato strategerie.
As for Civ 1 and Civ 2, sure the graphics got niftier in Civ 2, but in my mind the huge advance was the customizability. Civ 2 has sooooo muuucchh replay value, it's truly disgusting. I never ever play a straight game anymore, but every month or so I still go back to that game and either download a scenario I haven't played yet or just start a new one from a new side or using a new modpack. There are literally millions of ways to play Civ 2, or you can always just create your OWN. Yes Civ 1 had a little bit of this, but not anywhere near the online community or freely downloadable professionally done scenarios that Civ 2 has. I think that when Civ 3 comes out it's gonna be a helluva game....
In my mind, at least, the real problem is that they really aren't that useful. I have recently acquired a Palm V at no cost to me (no I didn't steal it), and while it is funny as hell to play with, any and all actually useful functions it has are much better done with pen(cil) and paper. Honestly. And all the "syncrhonizing with the desktop" crap means that you either have to use the Palm desktop to keep your schedule, or be using Outlook, both of which I'd rather not do. In fact, the only real use I've found for it is reading free books, as essentially every single book that is old enough to not be copyrighted can be gotten for free in a format for palm (or converted from txt ala Gutenberg), and it is actually not that bad reading off of a palm (much better then slowly scrolling down a txt on the computer). But essentially, the palm is an expensive gameboy for adults.
In my mind, the thing that will make any handheld device actually worth it is as follows:
1. A *lot* more memory (whatever happened to those 300mb drives the size of credit cards that IBM was doing?)
2. Voice recognition (Graffiti is okay, but the palm needs something akin to dictation for input to be truly useful)
3. Some level of AI (this is sort of attached to the voice recognition part, but essentially I want to be able to say "take me to such-and-such a program" and it takes me there).
Notice how "color" and "net-access" aren't on that list. Well net access has some usability, but the fact that people are obsessed with color kind of irritates me. Oh well, I'll save that for another rant....
Well said, I like how you compared the licenses. I agree with everything you said, but would like to especially stress a point that you hinted at that I personally believe is not said enough, if ever. BSD License=more freedom to the immediately direct enduser, but possibly less freedom to the rest of the world. GPL=less freedom to next immediate user, but a guarantee of that same minimal amount of usability to any and all other eventual users. Somebody could take a BSD license thing, mess with it, and re-release it under the BSD license, and that would have more usability then GPL, but they aren't required to. GPL *guarantees* a certain level of usability to absolutely everybody. Basically BSD is more usable, but also more abusable. I'm not advocating one over the other, simply noting the differences...
Ever played the "Lemonade Game"? It's a game where you buy ingredients to make limonade, and sell it over the course of a month. You have to plan based on weather, and buy enough ingredients to make the lemonade but not so much as to have the ingredients go bad. Anyway, you obviously sell more for higher prices when it's hot out. And while the specific example you cited does seem quite extreme (which is why if I ever go on any sort of trip I bring a cooler with my own drinks), in essence it's just supply and demand, which is perfectly fair. At least *everybody* pays $3.75 for the cokes, not just some specifically targeted program where you track people who prefer coke and pump up the prices for them. By the way, visit lemonadegame.com if you want to check out the game in a nice little java form.
Ahem you sort of missed the mark on that "sexism" bit. Yes, by todays standards that is quite sexist. At the time of publishing however it was just another clever point being made by the author: it was a comment on Victorian society, which if you know much about it you'll realize that dubbing women as lines isn't necessarily too inaccurate (and this is not to say that the many sided "nobility" are any better). Read through the eyes of a 21st century American Flatland is quite sexist. Seen as a 19th century Englishman would see it and it's a comment on society as well as space-time.
Yes, you're quite right. I actually live in Corvallis where this technology is being created, and it was quite funny watching late night news at 11pm.... they actually had a story!
Anyway, both the demo and most of the info seem to imply that it's primary use would be games (read: Quake III and other FPS), since it adds a new level of excitement and realism. It's true that just doing day-to-day running of the operating system would be both painful and boring with it, although this isn't to say that nobody gets repitive movement injuries from using a mouse... also another use of the technology would be for those unable to use normal mice due to some sort of physical issue (no/disabled arms, etc.).
Yes, I very much agree with you. I live out where I can't get broadband access either, and due to phone lines my 28.8 connects at an average of 19.2 - ye gods it makes for a laggy game of D2 or Quake 2, or whatever.
On the plus side, satellite net access is getting more realstic. The installation is still horrendous, but the monthly bill is getting lower. I have a list of them somewhere, but the only satellite ISP I can remember off the top of my head is Clipper.net.
Anyway, good luck and check out satellite net access.
Well oddly enough this "religion" comment, even though it's just spitting back out what most religious people say about cloning (no offense intended, most non-religious people say the same stuff over and over again too, it's just slightly different stuff), but it really made me realize something. Cloning is inevitable at this point in time, which means the presence of clones is inevitable. Probably within 20 years or so cloning will be mainstream enough that, while there won't be that many, there will be enough of them to count as a very minor demographic. Guess what the next level of civil rights will be? Now that rights for women, blacks, and foreigners in general have all been fought for (not to say that there is nothing left to do, but at least significant progress has been made), and rights for homosexuals are being fought for right now, the next level will be equal rights for clones.... just imagine the discrimination a clone will suffer.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to get PC here. I believe in equal rights and don't support any discrimination, but this'll be disgusting and range from the most anal retentive conservative old man to the most long haired yet equally close minded flaming liberal.... trying not to discriminate against people yet not getting overly PC (PC is politically correct in this context btw, not personal computer).... oh well.
This is similar to the X-Men like the original post said additionally in the sense that they'll be discriminated against plenty. Oh, and as for your "should we regard them as humans" alright read some of the other posts floating around here (the "5 insightful" ones), but to sum it up quickly for you: identical twins are just like clones, except they happen to be "cloned" at the moment of conception. I happen to know a pair of identical twins in real life, and they certainly both qualify as having a soul, at least as much as anybody else I know does...
Okay problems with this:
#1: How does the new broadband modem really change this? Yeah I know now the IP is no longer changing a la dialup, but still dreamcasts are online as before, I don't see why DoS attacks would be different.
#2: The broadband thing is just an adaptor... and I quote from the article thingy, "the adapter will allow you to use your existing Ethernet network, DSL or Cable modem services," i.e. the Dreamcast just hooks up with the network.... so you wouldn't really be attacking the dreamcast, you'd be attacking whatever network type thingy it hooks up to... not technical terms I realize, but still it's not like this is a cable modem for the dreamcast here....
Okay, first off:
Dreamcast let's you buy a mouse and a keyboard, albeit overpriced. Most hardcore Quake III dreamcast people get the keyboard and mouse.... that and chat doesn't exactly work without a keyboard....
Second, you can download stuff, it just doesn't have a drive to download it too if you're intending to save stuff (although the NetBSD hack port thing might change this). As for media players and downloading prOn, the dreamcast browser, while still pretty bad, is getting better in every new release.... in this current (2.0) release it now has shock (yeah yeah shock sucks whatever, at least it's a feature in it now *shrug* I don't care I always skip shock intros anyway), and I wouldn't be surprised if v3.0 has a media player....
Yeah I'd say you're hitting the issue pretty squarely, but you had trouble putting it in the form of a question. Then again I'll probably do no better, I usually rant too, but I'll try...
Do you really have it that bad? What I mean by that is does it fit that stereotype? I'm a geek too, and I'm 17 years old in high school, and I haven't had any of these troubles really. I move from circle to circle, spend a lot of time hanging out with music people (band and choir, some ork dorks heh), then move on to the good old Gay Straight Alliance wannabe hippie socialist types, hang out with some underclassmen (always good for an ego boost), hang out with the Anime people (even though I friggin hate anime hehe, they like AD&D too though), hang out with the really hardcore geeks who put me to shame..... am I a freak for not being a freak (no offense intended, not saying anti-social people suck or something, in fact I spend plenty of my time being social with people who might be considered anti-social, yet oddly enough I don't become anti-social myself) or something? I honestly don't know....
So I guess in an attempt to put all this rambling in a form of a question: do you feel comfortable about your social life? I'm not asking "are you popular" or "do you have friends".... that just invokes stereotypes of hollow cheerleaders and jocks in my mind.... despite society labeling them as popular I think that they're more often then not full of crap.... are you friendly with people? Is it more then a tiny handful of people? Do you feel comfortable walking the halls of your school (I'm not talking safety or somethings stupid, I'm talking socially)? You don't necessarily have to date, dating is so on and off anyway, it's all a soap opera.... but do you feel comfortable talking with/have friends who are whatever sex you are attracted to (in an effort to be politically correct heh)? I might just happen to be at a very good school or something, but while the jocks are still popular in there own way, our prom king last year was a friggin musician, and a guy whom I deeply respected, NOT the captain of the football team or some crap like that.... I forget who the queen was, but she wasn't a cheerleader or something like that.... she was in the choir I believe.... so yeah, do you feel comfortable with your social life?
I notice you listed off a number of activities/clubs, but neglected music (as have all the posts I've read up to this point), so I feel I may as well throw it in.
Do you participate in the making of music in any way, shape, or form? If so, then how? (i.e. school group, community group, just play piano yourself, orchestrate midis, whatever).... and secondly, what music do you listen to?
Well yeah I realize that and did mention it in my original post, but I'm still kind of surprised that there hasn't been at least a couple of hardcore hacker types out there who fought little Jimmy's mother to get a PS2 to toy with it. As I said I don't really know the technical differences between the DC and PS2, but it seems like at least a few hacker-types would have fought for a PS2.... I seem to remember DC hacks coming up within a month of the DC coming out.
.... is why I always hear about the DC hackers, but haven't heard about any PS2 hackers. Is it just because the DC has been around longer, or is it just more hacker-friendly? I'm not an expert on the DC or PS2, so I'm just wondering. Also it seems to me that there might be some interesting going-ons dealing with the DC in that I know it uses Windows CE for the memory card VMU dealies, which might mean there are some Windows CE-ish things inside the DC itself. As I said I don't know anything myself, I'm asking...
"With that small concession, it looks like the merger is likely to go through."
I wouldn't exactly consider it a small concession. Yes, I realize that this is a HUGE merger and that it shouldn't really go through at all, or at least the concession should be larger, but this is much better then nothing.
I for one view this as very good news. Don't get me wrong, I despise IM, I used ICQ back in, what was it, 96 or 97 but stopped pretty soon after AOL bought it....... so this won't really effect me directly, but all in all this is a good thing. A small blow to the beast is better then no blow at all...
For the love of god, his quotes aren't even factual! Gore had HIGHER sat scores (1355 total for Gore, 1206 for Bush)... just see http://www.insidepolitics.org/heard/heard32300.htm l.... additionally gradewise, Gore's lowest was a (singular) D in Natural Science, and highest were A's/A+'s in English/French. Bushes lows were 70 and 71 (out of 100) in sociology and economics (more important to presidency then natural science), and his highest was a "pass" in history/japanese....
Anyway, Bush is dumber, but that doesn't necessarily matter. What matters is Bush will make a very conservative supreme court that will be very unfriendly to the net and such (DMCA, etc., also Roe Vs. Wade, Euthanasia....)..... neither are nice guys, and while Gore is smart and Bush is dumb, so what? We've had dumb presidents in the past and will have them again in the future.
That and Bush has the popular vote. Gore's only hope is getting Florida. Note that two good things would happen if Gore wins the election. 1) We wouldn't have Bush. 2) The Republican party would try to attack the electoral college, possibly dismantle it, due to the fact that Bush would have lost the electoral college yet won the popular vote. And regardless of who does it, at least the electoral college will be dismantled.
Please moderators moderate this guys post down. His facts are wrong wrong wrong. The fact he has a "5 informative" score is truly scary to me. /. is slipping...
In California or New York, Yes vote for Nader. I live in Oregon. And Bush will win this state. This state will be Republican for the first time in as long as I can remember. Ugh. And that's because we've got almost 10% going for Nader. Or is it 15? Either way, it's too much. We're a swing state, and even though we only have 7 electoral votes in an election this close it could all come down to just those 7. How sad.
Insightful enough, but I simply have to mention the most friggin underrated game ever: Shining Force. Always been a Sega game, and one of the best RPGs a console has ever had. Infinitely better then the oh-so overrated Final Fantasy..... Final Fantasy has lame number inflation (10 thousand hitpoints anybody?), and the dumbest combat system in the world (oooh I stand here, bad guys stand there, we hurt each other.... we heal if we need it, and occasionally we're ambushed and have enemies on BOTH sides), whereas Shining Force has initiative, overhead grid view stuff, movement, strategy, area affect spells, etc.... anyway, sure Sega doesn't have all the good games, but Sega has a lot of good games that just didn't get good publicity. For some reason people just don't KNOW about them.
That and a blue hedgehog with attitude is cooler then a fat slow plumber :p.