As a proud Aussie myself, I have never met another Australian who feels the term "Aussie" is in any way degrading or rude. Some Americans may feel that way about the term "Yank" but I can say with complete confidence that "Aussie PM" gets used ALL THE TIME in Australia, by people and on TV.
Wasn't there an identical article a few weeks ago? Like Fusion power, this seems to come up all the time but until something is in production it's not really news...
Actually, I think you'll find that MOST divisions in MS make serious profits, it's just that there's a few big investments which are still in the early growth stage (where they consume more capital than they produce).
+1. Well said Atomic.
Games really are quite symptomatic more than anything. Even those of us who play games less often often do so to catch up on something we miss, be it social interaction, the feeling of success, the ability to do things where failure isn't lasting, sometimes it's even just the desire for a colourful screen and deep story when we feel what we're going through in life just isn't that grand.
Best thing to do is to AVOID this kind of situation entirely, by ensuring that you (and those you care about) have a strong sense of purpose and confidence. Your friends need to know that if they are ever in trouble, you'll be right behind them. Never make it about how bad the game is; make it about how much they _can_ do (though if their self-esteem IS low, you may need to start with baby-steps -> low-risk high-reward RL situations etc).
People tend to take the path of least resistance. That's exactly what's going on here. But when people realise that a short-term investment in Real Life can have huge dividends down the track, that's when awesomeness begins.
Yeah? You know a lot of people that wake up at 9am and get on the religion forums and then pray until 3am?
Nah, generally they get up at 6am and pray until 12:P.
Seriously though, I think that while it may certainly help him out of the MMO issue, religion also opens a potentially larger can of worms. If he is an addictive personality, surely there is the chance that he would end up taking it to an extreme? If religion becomes a lifestyle, it can have many of the same detrimental effects as game (withdrawing from others because they don't fit your lifestyle, spending lots of time away from the "real world"). It's hard to quantify, but my guess would be that there's at least some risk of it.
And lets face it, the reason Watchmen was undervalued was that it had that dumb love plot. Audiences have seen it before, and it made the movie seem sickeningly predictable. Thank heavens I stayed to watch the end, and the Rorschach bits - 5 star material there.
I don't think that this is in the company's best interest.
$36 a year is 10c a day, and even if the machine boots in 1 minute, that's ~$20/60 = 33c of wasted employee time. So there's not that much incentive (carbon trading may change this).
I'd be interested to see the effect of Sleep mode, however, as that boots much faster.
This is amazing.
I will buy every single game, and watch every movie. I've long thought that the series would be excellent on the silver screen, and the thought of a WoT game just makes me salivate...
Of course, it has to be done right, but I am confidant it will. Movies seem to generally have higher production values these days, as audiences are increasingly critical.
Awesome.
I love some of the posts here, especially the one which says both that "the media elected Obama" and at the same time that "the media shows all of Obamas bad points and none of McCains because McCain has none..."
Contradictory much?
While a technological voting system is indeed requisite in this day and age, once can't help but wonder about the possibility of errors, especially given how close some elections have been. As such, it would appear that there are two possible answers:
(i) A secondary voting system which can be used as a rough measurement of how accurate the electronic system is.
(ii) Rather than requiring a simple majority vote, if the election results are within, say, 5% of each other, then a manual vote can be called.
In Australia, voting is compulsory (though it's simple to cast an invalid vote should you wish to abstain). It's also done completely by hand, everyone writes their votes on paper. Of course, Australia has under 10% of the population of the USA, but it does mean that it's possible, if expensive. Our candidates are also generally so similar that noone _really_ cares who gets in, anyway.:P (aside from said candidates).
We have to go back to basics here.
Truth is not subjective; it's a scientific concept based on how much evidence can be provided towards a claim - once that claim is accepted, there is a burden of proof on challenging claims.
That said, the breadth of the internet is such that I sincerely doubt we as a species have enough power to audit it. What we do have is the tools of education, and people need to realise that "critical thinking" does not equate to "thinking critically". You don't have to automatically oppose things; you just have to be able to accept that whichever claim has more evidence is more worthy of belief. Naturally, knowing what others think is a kind of evidence, though how strong it is depends on the nature of those who believe it.
Not simple. But the truth rarely is.
While I agree with you, I should point out that the key attribute of Science which stands over religion is that if the student out-asks the teacher (ie, if there is proof against accepted theory), then accepted theory changes to the newer, better one.
It's this constant evolution (no pun intended) of ideas that is what makes science such a powerful tool to base our lives on.
Slashdot Mirror
As a proud Aussie myself, I have never met another Australian who feels the term "Aussie" is in any way degrading or rude. Some Americans may feel that way about the term "Yank" but I can say with complete confidence that "Aussie PM" gets used ALL THE TIME in Australia, by people and on TV.
Yeah, that's really fair on all the employees who are now jobless through no fault of their own.
Wasn't there an identical article a few weeks ago? Like Fusion power, this seems to come up all the time but until something is in production it's not really news...
Actually, I think you'll find that MOST divisions in MS make serious profits, it's just that there's a few big investments which are still in the early growth stage (where they consume more capital than they produce).
http://xkcd.com/481/
+1. Well said Atomic. Games really are quite symptomatic more than anything. Even those of us who play games less often often do so to catch up on something we miss, be it social interaction, the feeling of success, the ability to do things where failure isn't lasting, sometimes it's even just the desire for a colourful screen and deep story when we feel what we're going through in life just isn't that grand. Best thing to do is to AVOID this kind of situation entirely, by ensuring that you (and those you care about) have a strong sense of purpose and confidence. Your friends need to know that if they are ever in trouble, you'll be right behind them. Never make it about how bad the game is; make it about how much they _can_ do (though if their self-esteem IS low, you may need to start with baby-steps -> low-risk high-reward RL situations etc). People tend to take the path of least resistance. That's exactly what's going on here. But when people realise that a short-term investment in Real Life can have huge dividends down the track, that's when awesomeness begins.
Yeah? You know a lot of people that wake up at 9am and get on the religion forums and then pray until 3am?
Nah, generally they get up at 6am and pray until 12 :P.
Seriously though, I think that while it may certainly help him out of the MMO issue, religion also opens a potentially larger can of worms. If he is an addictive personality, surely there is the chance that he would end up taking it to an extreme? If religion becomes a lifestyle, it can have many of the same detrimental effects as game (withdrawing from others because they don't fit your lifestyle, spending lots of time away from the "real world"). It's hard to quantify, but my guess would be that there's at least some risk of it.
...so lets destroy the OS so that they look good by comparison!" -Paraphrased from the article.
GhostBusters!
And lets face it, the reason Watchmen was undervalued was that it had that dumb love plot. Audiences have seen it before, and it made the movie seem sickeningly predictable. Thank heavens I stayed to watch the end, and the Rorschach bits - 5 star material there.
I don't think that this is in the company's best interest. $36 a year is 10c a day, and even if the machine boots in 1 minute, that's ~$20/60 = 33c of wasted employee time. So there's not that much incentive (carbon trading may change this). I'd be interested to see the effect of Sleep mode, however, as that boots much faster.
This is amazing. I will buy every single game, and watch every movie. I've long thought that the series would be excellent on the silver screen, and the thought of a WoT game just makes me salivate... Of course, it has to be done right, but I am confidant it will. Movies seem to generally have higher production values these days, as audiences are increasingly critical.
Awesome. I love some of the posts here, especially the one which says both that "the media elected Obama" and at the same time that "the media shows all of Obamas bad points and none of McCains because McCain has none..." Contradictory much?
These puns are simply shocking.
While a technological voting system is indeed requisite in this day and age, once can't help but wonder about the possibility of errors, especially given how close some elections have been. As such, it would appear that there are two possible answers: (i) A secondary voting system which can be used as a rough measurement of how accurate the electronic system is. (ii) Rather than requiring a simple majority vote, if the election results are within, say, 5% of each other, then a manual vote can be called. In Australia, voting is compulsory (though it's simple to cast an invalid vote should you wish to abstain). It's also done completely by hand, everyone writes their votes on paper. Of course, Australia has under 10% of the population of the USA, but it does mean that it's possible, if expensive. Our candidates are also generally so similar that noone _really_ cares who gets in, anyway. :P (aside from said candidates).
We have to go back to basics here. Truth is not subjective; it's a scientific concept based on how much evidence can be provided towards a claim - once that claim is accepted, there is a burden of proof on challenging claims. That said, the breadth of the internet is such that I sincerely doubt we as a species have enough power to audit it. What we do have is the tools of education, and people need to realise that "critical thinking" does not equate to "thinking critically". You don't have to automatically oppose things; you just have to be able to accept that whichever claim has more evidence is more worthy of belief. Naturally, knowing what others think is a kind of evidence, though how strong it is depends on the nature of those who believe it. Not simple. But the truth rarely is.
While I agree with you, I should point out that the key attribute of Science which stands over religion is that if the student out-asks the teacher (ie, if there is proof against accepted theory), then accepted theory changes to the newer, better one. It's this constant evolution (no pun intended) of ideas that is what makes science such a powerful tool to base our lives on.