As much as I feel even the worst scum should have their rantings protected under the First Amendment, and as much as I find it reprehensible that the British government wanted to prosecute them, why the @$#% did they seek asylum in Los Angeles? If you were a foreign bigot looking for a place in America to seek asylum, wouldn't you be better off somewhere in Mississippi or Alabama? Were they hoping that the famously racist LA police would protect them?
but gold farming has a real negative impact for legitimate gamers. I'm sick of having to compete with professional, hack-using gold farmers for in-game resources, I'm sick of having to hear badly worded spam every time I enter a major virtual city, and I'm sick of what they do to in-game economies. It could be argued that some games (e.g. Final Fantasy XII) were damaged by gold farmers, or at least made a lot less money than they could have because gamers quit over the antics of gold farmers.
The gold farmers have years of experience hiding from the game developers, so I doubt this law will have much impact on their operations, but it's nice to know those @$#% will have one more shoulder to have to look over.
Janet Napolitano -- fresh from her attempt to persecute conservatives -- has now waved the white flag of defeat at the terrorists of the world, letting them know that they can do whatever they like while in America, and no one will know about it. This is a sad, sad day for Real Americans(tm). [/CONSERVATIVESTRAWMAN]
Personally, I shy away from games and movies that prominently feature tits and blood because they are almost always low quality.
However, saying that art needs to be censored to be good is just totalitarian nonsense. Yes, good films were produced in Nazi Germany, but Germany has produced far more great films after the Nazi era. Yes, good films were made in fascist Italy, but Italy has produced far more great films since abandoning fascism. It is possible to make great films despite censorship, but no one rational claims that great films are made because of censorship.
People only call the IT department after they've worked themselves into a tizzy with a computer problem. By the time they call you, they're already angry and irrational. Learn to diffuse their anger with humor, you'll find your conversations become much more productive that way. Also, when people ask for a project and give it an unreasonable deadline, learn to nicely but firmly inform them that you will not be able to meet the deadline and that they should give you more advance warning for complex projects in the future.
While I have my criticisms of Microsoft, I'm hardly a basher. Despite having lots of familiarity with Macs and a tiny bit of familiarity with LINUX, I use Microsoft operating systems exclusively.
Two things are worth mentioning here. One is that practically any palooka can show up and start one of these threads. Someone probably saw the article in the WP (or an article about the article in WP) and started a thread without doing research and finding out that this is actually an old issue, an issue that was already mentioned back in February on this site, and that Microsoft had issued a fix a month ago. Bone-headed posts happen a lot around here. That doesn't make these threads part of a sinister conspiracy against Microsoft.
The other thing worth mentioning is that frankly, this is worth mentioning again. While the disabled uninstall button was obnoxious, to me the greater wrong here was sneaking in an extension to a competitor's browser through an automatic OS update without informing the user.
The hardware maximums for Win 7 Starter Edition are categorically insane. They make the 3 app limit moot because such a computer would have trouble running more than two apps at the same time anyway. They're just shooting themselves in the foot here. The more restrictive they make Win7SE, the more motivation they give manufacturers to switch to LINUX.
Both addictive drugs and addictive games can severely disrupt your life. However, once you become addicted to a drug, you're addicted for life. The addiction never entirely goes away. Addictive games are not like that at all, which is partly why I object to the use of the word "addicting" in this manner.
Religion exists for the sole purpose of allowing the powerful few to control the many, which is why it's pretty much universal to all human civilizations. While it's true that evil would still exist even if religion didn't, the truth is that religion makes it much easier for evil men to convince large numbers of good people to do evil things.
Arguing that religion isn't evil because it is merely a tool/justification is like arguing that a torture device isn't evil. The argument is technically correct, but also irrelevant.
I was unemployed for a long time after the dotcom bust. During this period, I became extremely depressed and ended up badly addicted to World of Warcraft. I played WoW pretty much non-stop around the clock to the point where it interfered with personal hygiene, much less the time I should have spent looking for a job.
When I finally did find a job, the addiction simply went away on its own. I still log in once in a while to catch up with my in-game friends, but I typically play less than 3 hours per week. I actually have to talk myself into logging in and generally my only motivation to do so is spending time with the friends I made while I was addicted to the game.
As others have said, game/computer/internet addiction isn't like addiction to chemical substances. Solve the underlying problem and the "addiction" pretty much disappears on its own.
Getting your friend to stop playing this MMO will not solve anything. You need to find out why he's immersing himself in the game and deal with that problem.
Well, for starters, those figures you see thrown around showing half of Americans believing in creationism are based on studies with questionable methods. The number is still depressingly large, but not as large as its made out.
Another thing to consider is that "none of the above" is pretty much the fastest growing religious designation in America, with nontheists making up a fairly big chunk of that. Nontheists are not generally known for insisting in heliocentrism because the Bible says so.
Lastly, the political branch of the evangelical movement (the Republican party/conservative movement) is disintegrating as we speak, being crushed under the weight of its own stupidity.
I'll have to dig it up one of these days:
"Hard drive" = computer
"CPU" = computer
"Computer" = monitor
"Mouse" = pointer
"Program" = folder
"Folder" = program (note: all files and folders are identified by the name of the application the user uses the most, e.g. "last I saw it, it was in Microsoft Word").
"States rights" was not about what you claim, it was about slavery. The war was started over slavery. Don't take my word for it, read the writings of the people who started the secessionist movement and ran the rebellion.
There's no law that stops a private investigator from following you around... at least not in public spaces. The standard is "reasonable expectation of privacy", so following you into Bally's to film you working out is OK (especially if you're being investigated for medical insurance fraud), but not following you into church to film you praying.
How can this magic microwave thingie detect what clearly didn't happen? According to the devil-worshiping scientists, this "big bang" occurred billions of years before the universe existed, so we know it never happened. If it never happened, how can we possibly detect anything emanating from it? This is obviously yet another hoax designed to lead people away from GAWD. [/christianstrawman]
I know this may come as a shock to you, but the entire scientific community is not part of a vast international conspiracy against oil companies and Christians, no matter what your favorite propaganda-peddlers tell you.
How many years has it been that we've been getting these "we're gonna run out of IP addresses" articles? It's no wonder no one takes these warning seriously: we've all been subjected to a dramatic demonstration of the boy-crying-wolf parable for some time now.
No offense, but this is the RC, and Microsoft is rushing to get Windows 7 out of the door. Furthermore, they have a strong motive to not make any major changes to the OS between now and release after the driver fiasco with Windows Vista's release.
Microsoft is not using previewers as free QA. Any feedback users of Win7RC give will probably be ignored. It's not just Microsoft, it's most of the software industry: late-stage beta is no longer about finding bugs, it's about marketing. The sole purpose of all of this is to generate buzz, and it seems to be working quite well.
In all fairness, Apple's situation is different from Microsoft. Because they're dealing with much smaller numbers, it's harder for them to adequately predict demand. As someone who used to provide support for Macs, I'm generally very quick to climb all over Apple's back and scream bloody murder (they're far more draconian with developers and customers than Microsoft is), but I am not going to get all over their case about occasionally underestimating demand.
Microsoft on the other hand is dealing with larger numbers, so it's easier to predict demand when they do something, like release a beta for a much-anticipated update to their operating system.
As long as you use a cable tester, your cables are just as good as the commercial variety, and tons more convenient because you can always make a cable of exactly the length you need.
Console makers frequently negotiate for exclusive content in an attempt to woo more customers. I thought this was standard practice in the console market.
Slashdot Mirror
As much as I feel even the worst scum should have their rantings protected under the First Amendment, and as much as I find it reprehensible that the British government wanted to prosecute them, why the @$#% did they seek asylum in Los Angeles? If you were a foreign bigot looking for a place in America to seek asylum, wouldn't you be better off somewhere in Mississippi or Alabama? Were they hoping that the famously racist LA police would protect them?
I may actually install Silverlight for this. Feynman was the shit.
but gold farming has a real negative impact for legitimate gamers. I'm sick of having to compete with professional, hack-using gold farmers for in-game resources, I'm sick of having to hear badly worded spam every time I enter a major virtual city, and I'm sick of what they do to in-game economies. It could be argued that some games (e.g. Final Fantasy XII) were damaged by gold farmers, or at least made a lot less money than they could have because gamers quit over the antics of gold farmers.
The gold farmers have years of experience hiding from the game developers, so I doubt this law will have much impact on their operations, but it's nice to know those @$#% will have one more shoulder to have to look over.
The terrorists have won!
Janet Napolitano -- fresh from her attempt to persecute conservatives -- has now waved the white flag of defeat at the terrorists of the world, letting them know that they can do whatever they like while in America, and no one will know about it. This is a sad, sad day for Real Americans(tm). [/CONSERVATIVESTRAWMAN]
Personally, I shy away from games and movies that prominently feature tits and blood because they are almost always low quality.
However, saying that art needs to be censored to be good is just totalitarian nonsense. Yes, good films were produced in Nazi Germany, but Germany has produced far more great films after the Nazi era. Yes, good films were made in fascist Italy, but Italy has produced far more great films since abandoning fascism. It is possible to make great films despite censorship, but no one rational claims that great films are made because of censorship.
People only call the IT department after they've worked themselves into a tizzy with a computer problem. By the time they call you, they're already angry and irrational. Learn to diffuse their anger with humor, you'll find your conversations become much more productive that way. Also, when people ask for a project and give it an unreasonable deadline, learn to nicely but firmly inform them that you will not be able to meet the deadline and that they should give you more advance warning for complex projects in the future.
While I have my criticisms of Microsoft, I'm hardly a basher. Despite having lots of familiarity with Macs and a tiny bit of familiarity with LINUX, I use Microsoft operating systems exclusively.
Two things are worth mentioning here. One is that practically any palooka can show up and start one of these threads. Someone probably saw the article in the WP (or an article about the article in WP) and started a thread without doing research and finding out that this is actually an old issue, an issue that was already mentioned back in February on this site, and that Microsoft had issued a fix a month ago. Bone-headed posts happen a lot around here. That doesn't make these threads part of a sinister conspiracy against Microsoft.
The other thing worth mentioning is that frankly, this is worth mentioning again. While the disabled uninstall button was obnoxious, to me the greater wrong here was sneaking in an extension to a competitor's browser through an automatic OS update without informing the user.
The hardware maximums for Win 7 Starter Edition are categorically insane. They make the 3 app limit moot because such a computer would have trouble running more than two apps at the same time anyway. They're just shooting themselves in the foot here. The more restrictive they make Win7SE, the more motivation they give manufacturers to switch to LINUX.
Both addictive drugs and addictive games can severely disrupt your life. However, once you become addicted to a drug, you're addicted for life. The addiction never entirely goes away. Addictive games are not like that at all, which is partly why I object to the use of the word "addicting" in this manner.
Religion exists for the sole purpose of allowing the powerful few to control the many, which is why it's pretty much universal to all human civilizations. While it's true that evil would still exist even if religion didn't, the truth is that religion makes it much easier for evil men to convince large numbers of good people to do evil things.
Arguing that religion isn't evil because it is merely a tool/justification is like arguing that a torture device isn't evil. The argument is technically correct, but also irrelevant.
...because it's fair AND balanced!
I was unemployed for a long time after the dotcom bust. During this period, I became extremely depressed and ended up badly addicted to World of Warcraft. I played WoW pretty much non-stop around the clock to the point where it interfered with personal hygiene, much less the time I should have spent looking for a job.
When I finally did find a job, the addiction simply went away on its own. I still log in once in a while to catch up with my in-game friends, but I typically play less than 3 hours per week. I actually have to talk myself into logging in and generally my only motivation to do so is spending time with the friends I made while I was addicted to the game.
As others have said, game/computer/internet addiction isn't like addiction to chemical substances. Solve the underlying problem and the "addiction" pretty much disappears on its own.
Getting your friend to stop playing this MMO will not solve anything. You need to find out why he's immersing himself in the game and deal with that problem.
Well, for starters, those figures you see thrown around showing half of Americans believing in creationism are based on studies with questionable methods. The number is still depressingly large, but not as large as its made out.
Another thing to consider is that "none of the above" is pretty much the fastest growing religious designation in America, with nontheists making up a fairly big chunk of that. Nontheists are not generally known for insisting in heliocentrism because the Bible says so.
Lastly, the political branch of the evangelical movement (the Republican party/conservative movement) is disintegrating as we speak, being crushed under the weight of its own stupidity.
I'll have to dig it up one of these days: "Hard drive" = computer "CPU" = computer "Computer" = monitor "Mouse" = pointer "Program" = folder "Folder" = program (note: all files and folders are identified by the name of the application the user uses the most, e.g. "last I saw it, it was in Microsoft Word").
"States rights" was not about what you claim, it was about slavery. The war was started over slavery. Don't take my word for it, read the writings of the people who started the secessionist movement and ran the rebellion.
There's no law that stops a private investigator from following you around... at least not in public spaces. The standard is "reasonable expectation of privacy", so following you into Bally's to film you working out is OK (especially if you're being investigated for medical insurance fraud), but not following you into church to film you praying.
You gave four steps. Ctrl-click is one step.
How can this magic microwave thingie detect what clearly didn't happen? According to the devil-worshiping scientists, this "big bang" occurred billions of years before the universe existed, so we know it never happened. If it never happened, how can we possibly detect anything emanating from it? This is obviously yet another hoax designed to lead people away from GAWD. [/christianstrawman]
I know this may come as a shock to you, but the entire scientific community is not part of a vast international conspiracy against oil companies and Christians, no matter what your favorite propaganda-peddlers tell you.
How many years has it been that we've been getting these "we're gonna run out of IP addresses" articles? It's no wonder no one takes these warning seriously: we've all been subjected to a dramatic demonstration of the boy-crying-wolf parable for some time now.
No offense, but this is the RC, and Microsoft is rushing to get Windows 7 out of the door. Furthermore, they have a strong motive to not make any major changes to the OS between now and release after the driver fiasco with Windows Vista's release.
Microsoft is not using previewers as free QA. Any feedback users of Win7RC give will probably be ignored. It's not just Microsoft, it's most of the software industry: late-stage beta is no longer about finding bugs, it's about marketing. The sole purpose of all of this is to generate buzz, and it seems to be working quite well.
In all fairness, Apple's situation is different from Microsoft. Because they're dealing with much smaller numbers, it's harder for them to adequately predict demand. As someone who used to provide support for Macs, I'm generally very quick to climb all over Apple's back and scream bloody murder (they're far more draconian with developers and customers than Microsoft is), but I am not going to get all over their case about occasionally underestimating demand.
Microsoft on the other hand is dealing with larger numbers, so it's easier to predict demand when they do something, like release a beta for a much-anticipated update to their operating system.
As long as you use a cable tester, your cables are just as good as the commercial variety, and tons more convenient because you can always make a cable of exactly the length you need.
Console makers frequently negotiate for exclusive content in an attempt to woo more customers. I thought this was standard practice in the console market.
Also, liberals are just as bad.
There, now that that's out of the way, we don't have to work through the tired and increasingly predictable responses from libertarians/conservatives.