Hey, I remember my friends back in the day bragging about pirating a certain groundbreaking FPS game, Arj'ed onto 50 floppy disks... Of course, no CD burners back then.
Your comment made me imagine the entertaining concept of "readeasies" where once you got past Vinny the bouncer you could drink bathtub gin and swap books with the other patrons. For some reason I also picture everyone wearing zoot suits and flapper dresses...
Of course it is interesting to see who (in the real world) are those companies?. If we suppose they are some top-notch companies that use a lot of processing power (like stock market companies wanting to run their models) they may preffer (and they may already have) to run their own servers to protect their secrets.
I suspect that one of the promises Sun makes is "your data and programs will never, EVER be at risk of theft, and will only ever be even known about by our machines, and one or two highly-trusted and superbly compensated employees". At least that's what I would promise...
I wouldn't be surprised if one day the normal mode of 'retirement' is to take a few years off from work every decade or two, but never permanently retire.
I've always worried that my generation might face exactly that prospect... only in a more negative way than you portray it. Think "involuntarily take two to six months off every year or two, find new work just before you burn through all your savings from the last job, and have nothing to retire ON when you get old".
I doubt that the clause would EVER stand up in court. But if it prevents a few chargebacks, it's served its purpose and more than paid for itself... Adding it there was basically "free" after all.
Let's be totally honest: when you read about some grandma or naive intarweb n00b being taken in on one of these scams, your gut reaction isn't "that darn naughty criminal!" it's "WTF? Who could be STUPID enough to fall for this nonsense?"
Well yeah, I think that, but it is overlaid on the basic assumption "wow this scammer is a real piece of shit". That's just a given, I don't have to consciously think it...
Your reference to my tombstone is a clear, and actionable threat of death. Please remove it from the website "www.slashpoint.com" at once or I will pursue legal action and criminal charges against you, the owners of the website, and John Carmack.
Jack Thompson
cc New York State Attorney's Office Federal Bureau of Investigation Interpol God
"almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband"
Does this mean that 60% of the population HAS broadband access in their homes? Or that they could have it installed if they want? I assume that it means the former, since almost everyone has cable TV by now and therefore likely access to cable internet.
I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?
"And the Lord, being infinite and all-powerful, set in motion an entire universe, starting with an amusing variety of quarks. After many billions of years, life appeared on many of the planetary bodies in this universe. After many millions more, some of these life forms were capable of intelligent thought, and the Lord was pleased. And the Lord did send Soothing Allegories to placate the literal-minded beings who wanted to believe that It had done all this recently (and possibly involving a turtle or magic tree somehow), while leaving the rest to figure out what had ACTUALLY happened."
Well, an obvious spin-off of dog Neuticles is HUMAN Neuticles. People aren't usually "fixed" but many men lose a testicle to cancer or injury. And there are also female->male transsexuals to think of. So natural-feeling testicle prostheses should have lucrative medical, as well as veterinary, uses.
Actually, reconstructing the viral genome from scratch LESSENS the danger of unexpected elements in the sequence. The entire thing was put together from artificially constructed DNA of known sequence, making the process extremely controlled. At the end, the researchers knew exactly what they had down to the last base pair, and the goal was to accurately recreate the 1918 flu virus. So that's what they produced. If their virus was not just like the original 1918 strain, their research is not very helpful to the fields of epidemiology or virology.
Keep in mind that "loser pays" can bite you in the ass - if you sue Proctor & Gamble or GE or Ford over a faulty product... and you LOSE. They will send you an absolutely ruinous bill for their expensive corporate lawyers. This would have a chilling effect inhibiting citizen lawsuits against corporations. As it is, the worst off you will be is having to pay your own lawyers (who may work cheap or pro bono for a noble cause, or for a % of the settlement).
Thanks for the info! I'm always leery of US-Canada ordering for that very reason - some pretty outrageous shipping costs that have no basis in the reality of the postal system. I didn't expect the HPLHS to do this at all, but your confirmation of it is welcome.
My gaming machine (runs hot and rather noisy due to case fans including a blowhole) produces a fair amount of noise, which can be an annoying distraction when I'm actually playing (esp. games like CS where you might want to hear faint footsteps etc). I suppose I should get headphones...
I think you'd be surprised at what researchers can consider interesting. If MMOG's exhibit unusual or emergent new uses of language, then linguists might very well be interested in players' experiences. Games are common human activities after all, and countless monographs have been written on physiological and social aspects of sports, chess, NASCAR, and yes, video games.
Well, "Nearly-Headless Nick" might finally have a chance to become "Got-Some-Head-Yesterday Nick"...
/with apologies to J.K. Rowlings...
The Asshole-Libertarian comes out to play
on
The New Face Lift
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
No, the problem is the people who think they have a right to a perfect life - and that someone else should bear the costs.
That's a hell of a thing to say to someone who has burns on 40% of his body. He doesn't want a "perfect life", he wants to not live in pain and discomfort. Who are you to criticize him for that, as you enjoy a life free of these problems? Try compassion some time, instead of clutching your wallet, fearful you might ever have to help somebody else.
Breast augmentation does not require a donor cadaver. I imagine that would restrict this surgery to "therapeutic" uses - i.e. where the patient really *needed* a facial graft due to severe disfigurement. I doubt that donor tissue is permitted to be used for elective cosmetic procedures.
Something that is socialized is not run for the "collective good". A socialized system is a system run for the entertainment of the person that runs it, sort of a massive toy for a few funded by a general public.
That is only your opinion. I live under a semi-socialist system and yeah, our politicians can be jackasses just as yours are (google "canadian sponsorship scandal") but the system IS run, by and large, for the collective good. Medicare is specifically designed so that all citizens get an equal (quite high) standard of care. It is not easy to pay for it as a country but our tax burden here is not onerous.
That's the ideology anyway.
You've got it completely backwards. The collective good is the ideology, abuses are the unfortunate reality (in any system).
Blue Cross has delivered to me a better standard of medical care than most European governments would deliver to their citizens and certainly exceeds what Canada does for its. I get to see any doctor I want to for my wife and myself and my kid, whenever I want to see that doctor, When my wife was pregnant I got ultrasounds out the wazoo and soon as her blood pressure went up a bit they induced her and gave her a c-section. When I want to talk to a doctor, I have one on call 24/7. In terms of health care, I really do have it all.
Everything is paid for except a small ($10) copay, and I don't have to do a thing. Blue Cross is the best of American health care, if not the world, but it is expensive. I pay probably more for that level of service than Europeans pay in taxes. And every year it costs me 10% more, and I can't eat that indefinitely. Either that, or I have to go get more money.
So you get good medical coverage, but you have to pay through the nose for it. What about the people who CAN'T invest as much as you can (not just the Medicaid covered ultra-poor but the lower middle class etc.), do you deny they would fare better under a socialized system? And how would you fare worse? You would still get good care, and you would have a lot more money to spend on other things.
Go re-read what I wrote. I didn't say it was socialism. I said it was very close.
But it's NOT. It's the exact opposite - Private for-profit health insurance is at the other end of the ideological spectrum from socialized government-run insurance. In one case the system is managed for the benefit of the consumers (taxpayers) and in the other the system is managed for the benefit of the profit-making entities.
Our insurance system, from the consumer perspective, is effectively socialism.
No it isn't. The system is run for profit... massive profit for the insurers. Something being collectively run does not equal socialism. In socialism, the collective is for the benefit of the people, not the profit of a few wealthy shareholders. Socialized medicine is actually cheaper than private insurance because the insurer (the government) does not make a profit. It is not perfect, of course, but it is cheaper per capita and you get the treatment you need.
The only benefit our "free enterprise" gives us in the case of health insurance is the choice of which insurance company will rip us off and which doctor will see us for 30 seconds and then leaving the rest of the care to a nurse.
I see you share my opinion of private insurers. Medical care is an example of something which is both a collective good for everyone, and which the government is well equipped to manage. That it is instead used to squeeze money out of people's pockets to enrich the few via "free market capitalism" is inexcusable.
Well, there are a billion Chinese, and only 300 million of us, so maybe they are onto something!
Uh riiiight. Try telling my Chinese coworker that, and he'll tell you how most of those billion have no choice in how their country is run, and might as well be living in a feudal system for all the good "communism" does them. They are not "onto something", they are victims of an uncaring central government which views the peasant farmers as pack animals. This is the case for most of the world's poor - cash for medical care is the norm. A sick child can ruin a poor family's finances forever. Not that the situation in the US is much better, but at least you have Medicaid to provide the poor with basic care.
Anyway my point is that yes, private insurance is bad, but my (and my country's) solution is Socialist while yours is Libertarian and in my opinion, impractical.
Most people in the USA have private insurance, either by themselves or through work. Socialism is when the state pays for medical care, with tax money. This is what we have in Canada and believe it or not the state does take a keen interest to ensure that it (i.e. the taxpayers) is not being overbilled. Double-dipping or fraudulently billing doctors do not get off lightly.
I trust you're not saying that people should have to pay for medical care out-of-pocket. That wouldn't lead to people seeking "value for money", it would lead to most people not seeking medical care at all. In the Chinese countryside, the peasants have to pay cash for care, and most of them just don't go to the doctor, because even the most basic treatment costs them years of their savings (source: personal anecdotes from a Chinese co-worker). Believe me, that is not the kind of situation you want here in the "free world".
I don't think many people whose religions forbid pork care who else eats it. I believe the Jewish and Muslim books say "YOU should not eat pork", not "EVERYONE should not eat pork". Personally, none of my Muslim co-workers ever seem to a damn what I eat...
Notice how there is absolutly no anger whatsoever at the Chinese government, only at Yahoo for simply RESPECTING THE LAWS of that government!
The same people who thing Yahoo is evil for turning over information to China, collected IN China, as required by law, are the same people who demand that the EU start selling advanced offensive weapons systems to China.
I suspect most people here who find this case outrageous also would oppose the arms sales. As for anger at the Chinese government, it should be taken for granted among civilized people - they are after all oppressors, murderers, and hypocrites, and we have all known so for decades. I don't feel I have to reiterate my hatred of Nazis every day either.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, I remember my friends back in the day bragging about pirating a certain groundbreaking FPS game, Arj'ed onto 50 floppy disks... Of course, no CD burners back then.
Your comment made me imagine the entertaining concept of "readeasies" where once you got past Vinny the bouncer you could drink bathtub gin and swap books with the other patrons. For some reason I also picture everyone wearing zoot suits and flapper dresses...
Of course it is interesting to see who (in the real world) are those companies?. If we suppose they are some top-notch companies that use a lot of processing power (like stock market companies wanting to run their models) they may preffer (and they may already have) to run their own servers to protect their secrets.
I suspect that one of the promises Sun makes is "your data and programs will never, EVER be at risk of theft, and will only ever be even known about by our machines, and one or two highly-trusted and superbly compensated employees". At least that's what I would promise...
I wouldn't be surprised if one day the normal mode of 'retirement' is to take a few years off from work every decade or two, but never permanently retire.
I've always worried that my generation might face exactly that prospect... only in a more negative way than you portray it. Think "involuntarily take two to six months off every year or two, find new work just before you burn through all your savings from the last job, and have nothing to retire ON when you get old".
I doubt that the clause would EVER stand up in court. But if it prevents a few chargebacks, it's served its purpose and more than paid for itself... Adding it there was basically "free" after all.
Let's be totally honest: when you read about some grandma or naive intarweb n00b being taken in on one of these scams, your gut reaction isn't "that darn naughty criminal!" it's "WTF? Who could be STUPID enough to fall for this nonsense?"
Well yeah, I think that, but it is overlaid on the basic assumption "wow this scammer is a real piece of shit". That's just a given, I don't have to consciously think it...
Mr. "dgatwood",
Your reference to my tombstone is a clear, and actionable threat of death. Please remove it from the website "www.slashpoint.com" at once or I will pursue legal action and criminal charges against you, the owners of the website, and John Carmack.
Jack Thompson
cc
New York State Attorney's Office
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Interpol
God
"almost 60% of the U.S. population now has access to broadband"
Does this mean that 60% of the population HAS broadband access in their homes? Or that they could have it installed if they want? I assume that it means the former, since almost everyone has cable TV by now and therefore likely access to cable internet.
I wonder what the possibilities would be for starting a Steam-like service, but instead of peddling one's own games, instead distributing inexpensive indie games in exchange for a percentage? Would many casual gamers install a client like that?
"And the Lord, being infinite and all-powerful, set in motion an entire universe, starting with an amusing variety of quarks. After many billions of years, life appeared on many of the planetary bodies in this universe. After many millions more, some of these life forms were capable of intelligent thought, and the Lord was pleased. And the Lord did send Soothing Allegories to placate the literal-minded beings who wanted to believe that It had done all this recently (and possibly involving a turtle or magic tree somehow), while leaving the rest to figure out what had ACTUALLY happened."
Well, an obvious spin-off of dog Neuticles is HUMAN Neuticles. People aren't usually "fixed" but many men lose a testicle to cancer or injury. And there are also female->male transsexuals to think of. So natural-feeling testicle prostheses should have lucrative medical, as well as veterinary, uses.
Actually, reconstructing the viral genome from scratch LESSENS the danger of unexpected elements in the sequence. The entire thing was put together from artificially constructed DNA of known sequence, making the process extremely controlled. At the end, the researchers knew exactly what they had down to the last base pair, and the goal was to accurately recreate the 1918 flu virus. So that's what they produced. If their virus was not just like the original 1918 strain, their research is not very helpful to the fields of epidemiology or virology.
- double-barreled shotgun
- spiked hockey armor
- extra-hold hair products
- Auntie Entity's phone number
Keep in mind that "loser pays" can bite you in the ass - if you sue Proctor & Gamble or GE or Ford over a faulty product... and you LOSE. They will send you an absolutely ruinous bill for their expensive corporate lawyers. This would have a chilling effect inhibiting citizen lawsuits against corporations. As it is, the worst off you will be is having to pay your own lawyers (who may work cheap or pro bono for a noble cause, or for a % of the settlement).
Thanks for the info! I'm always leery of US-Canada ordering for that very reason - some pretty outrageous shipping costs that have no basis in the reality of the postal system. I didn't expect the HPLHS to do this at all, but your confirmation of it is welcome.
My gaming machine (runs hot and rather noisy due to case fans including a blowhole) produces a fair amount of noise, which can be an annoying distraction when I'm actually playing (esp. games like CS where you might want to hear faint footsteps etc). I suppose I should get headphones...
I think you'd be surprised at what researchers can consider interesting. If MMOG's exhibit unusual or emergent new uses of language, then linguists might very well be interested in players' experiences. Games are common human activities after all, and countless monographs have been written on physiological and social aspects of sports, chess, NASCAR, and yes, video games.
a heavy helping of spectral prostitutes
/with apologies to J.K. Rowlings...
Well, "Nearly-Headless Nick" might finally have a chance to become "Got-Some-Head-Yesterday Nick"...
No, the problem is the people who think they have a right to a perfect life - and that someone else should bear the costs.
That's a hell of a thing to say to someone who has burns on 40% of his body. He doesn't want a "perfect life", he wants to not live in pain and discomfort. Who are you to criticize him for that, as you enjoy a life free of these problems? Try compassion some time, instead of clutching your wallet, fearful you might ever have to help somebody else.
Breast augmentation does not require a donor cadaver. I imagine that would restrict this surgery to "therapeutic" uses - i.e. where the patient really *needed* a facial graft due to severe disfigurement. I doubt that donor tissue is permitted to be used for elective cosmetic procedures.
Something that is socialized is not run for the "collective good". A socialized system is a system run for the entertainment of the person that runs it, sort of a massive toy for a few funded by a general public.
That is only your opinion. I live under a semi-socialist system and yeah, our politicians can be jackasses just as yours are (google "canadian sponsorship scandal") but the system IS run, by and large, for the collective good. Medicare is specifically designed so that all citizens get an equal (quite high) standard of care. It is not easy to pay for it as a country but our tax burden here is not onerous.
That's the ideology anyway.
You've got it completely backwards. The collective good is the ideology, abuses are the unfortunate reality (in any system).
Blue Cross has delivered to me a better standard of medical care than most European governments would deliver to their citizens and certainly exceeds what Canada does for its. I get to see any doctor I want to for my wife and myself and my kid, whenever I want to see that doctor, When my wife was pregnant I got ultrasounds out the wazoo and soon as her blood pressure went up a bit they induced her and gave her a c-section. When I want to talk to a doctor, I have one on call 24/7. In terms of health care, I really do have it all.
Everything is paid for except a small ($10) copay, and I don't have to do a thing. Blue Cross is the best of American health care, if not the world, but it is expensive. I pay probably more for that level of service than Europeans pay in taxes. And every year it costs me 10% more, and I can't eat that indefinitely. Either that, or I have to go get more money.
So you get good medical coverage, but you have to pay through the nose for it. What about the people who CAN'T invest as much as you can (not just the Medicaid covered ultra-poor but the lower middle class etc.), do you deny they would fare better under a socialized system? And how would you fare worse? You would still get good care, and you would have a lot more money to spend on other things.
Go re-read what I wrote. I didn't say it was socialism. I said it was very close.
But it's NOT. It's the exact opposite - Private for-profit health insurance is at the other end of the ideological spectrum from socialized government-run insurance. In one case the system is managed for the benefit of the consumers (taxpayers) and in the other the system is managed for the benefit of the profit-making entities.
Our insurance system, from the consumer perspective, is effectively socialism.
No it isn't. The system is run for profit... massive profit for the insurers. Something being collectively run does not equal socialism. In socialism, the collective is for the benefit of the people, not the profit of a few wealthy shareholders. Socialized medicine is actually cheaper than private insurance because the insurer (the government) does not make a profit. It is not perfect, of course, but it is cheaper per capita and you get the treatment you need.
The only benefit our "free enterprise" gives us in the case of health insurance is the choice of which insurance company will rip us off and which doctor will see us for 30 seconds and then leaving the rest of the care to a nurse.
I see you share my opinion of private insurers. Medical care is an example of something which is both a collective good for everyone, and which the government is well equipped to manage. That it is instead used to squeeze money out of people's pockets to enrich the few via "free market capitalism" is inexcusable.
Well, there are a billion Chinese, and only 300 million of us, so maybe they are onto something!
Uh riiiight. Try telling my Chinese coworker that, and he'll tell you how most of those billion have no choice in how their country is run, and might as well be living in a feudal system for all the good "communism" does them. They are not "onto something", they are victims of an uncaring central government which views the peasant farmers as pack animals. This is the case for most of the world's poor - cash for medical care is the norm. A sick child can ruin a poor family's finances forever. Not that the situation in the US is much better, but at least you have Medicaid to provide the poor with basic care.
Anyway my point is that yes, private insurance is bad, but my (and my country's) solution is Socialist while yours is Libertarian and in my opinion, impractical.
Most people in the USA have private insurance, either by themselves or through work. Socialism is when the state pays for medical care, with tax money. This is what we have in Canada and believe it or not the state does take a keen interest to ensure that it (i.e. the taxpayers) is not being overbilled. Double-dipping or fraudulently billing doctors do not get off lightly.
I trust you're not saying that people should have to pay for medical care out-of-pocket. That wouldn't lead to people seeking "value for money", it would lead to most people not seeking medical care at all. In the Chinese countryside, the peasants have to pay cash for care, and most of them just don't go to the doctor, because even the most basic treatment costs them years of their savings (source: personal anecdotes from a Chinese co-worker). Believe me, that is not the kind of situation you want here in the "free world".
I don't think many people whose religions forbid pork care who else eats it. I believe the Jewish and Muslim books say "YOU should not eat pork", not "EVERYONE should not eat pork". Personally, none of my Muslim co-workers ever seem to a damn what I eat...
Notice how there is absolutly no anger whatsoever at the Chinese government, only at Yahoo for simply RESPECTING THE LAWS of that government!
The same people who thing Yahoo is evil for turning over information to China, collected IN China, as required by law, are the same people who demand that the EU start selling advanced offensive weapons systems to China.
I suspect most people here who find this case outrageous also would oppose the arms sales. As for anger at the Chinese government, it should be taken for granted among civilized people - they are after all oppressors, murderers, and hypocrites, and we have all known so for decades. I don't feel I have to reiterate my hatred of Nazis every day either.