There is abslolutely no reward or interest in fighting against/being beaten by anonymous opponents which have otherwise no personal connection to the player. I love quake, command and conquer, etcetera, but only in the same way as I love chess, and I would never even contemplate playing chess against someone I had never met in person, because that would be boring; a soulless challenge, so pointless that I may as well play against a computer.
I very much disagree. I like having a consistently large player pool with which to compare my play. Many of the people you play in online games have already gotten good enough to beat or compete with the best computer opponents. Facing a human player, in my experience, provides a new and unique challenge, even if you can't see their face.
There are also often large gaps in skill between friends that play games. The discrepancies between friends gets taken away when you play against a large player pool. Who cares if you're best at a game between 4 people? How about in the top 1% of 500,000 people?
I love to play with my friends, but I love it even more when we can play against an anonymous online multiplayer base. In CoD, for example, we can work together as a team and find a position together against incoming forces. It makes it even more real. Almost like real war.
I'm not sure what makes your challenges inspring and meaningful, and what makes mine soulless and pointless, but I have more fun with online multiplayer games than with games that don't connect. When I'm home alone late at night, and the house is dead silent - lonely even - there's something eerie about playing bots -- add the online part, and suddenly it fills the house with *just a little* more presence.
Some people become obsessed with online games, and perhaps I can see why it would be a diversion, but I am willing to bet that the vast majority of people are only interested in playing games against the people in their own existing social circle, and could not give a damn about massively multiplayer, always online bullshit - and that to lump every gamer in that crowd would be a disastrous folly.
Be careful where you lump every gamer. There's a reason why many of these games actually have a
Clifford Reid, chief executive of Complete Genomics, worries that it will be difficult for the judges to assess the accuracy of the newly sequenced genomes. “The technologies participating in the competition are the only technologies for judging the competition,” he says, adding that he is hopeful that contest organizers can come up with “a clever solution that makes everyone happy”.
Couldn't they just give all of the teams a set of identical DNA (for instance, the teams unknowingly share the DNA of 10 individuals) and compare the sequenced genomes to get an idea of how accurate they are?
It IS in *facebook*'s best interest to keep pedophiles away. It's not a government run panopticon. Facebook could take a lot of flack if it became a pedophile hub. They don't want to lose users that way.
Hey, if the religious website administrator can't prevent malware from entering the site, maybe the readers are just as bad at preventing malware from entering their computer! That makes religious sites an even bigger target!
Ok, sorry, blatant attack on religion. I just remember reading the article, so making the connection made me smile. Err, I mean... smile in the least offensive of ways.
That's like!... that's like!... *mumbles doing some math* carry the four... subtract the depth times the... divide out all extra... mmhm... surface area... ah, yes... average out the known surface water... okay... times roughly 100... *writes some more* Yes!... That's like zero liters of water!
Improving San Francisco's MUNI system is pretty important to me. It's been considerably annoying to see cars parked in the bus lane, and it's almost annoying as seeing cars park in the middle of the right lane with their emergency lights on because there's no parking, which more buses would help with!... As a side note, it's almost impossible to live in San Francisco for an extended period of time with a vehicle and not get a parking ticket. They're ruthless!!
It's funny though, I've lived in Germany for the last half year, and I've found that their transportation system is ten times better than San Francisco's. Don't get me wrong, BART is amazing, but I live in a small town at the moment and its transportation system runs more often than San Francisco's. Paris and Berlin have both train systems that run late, and night trains, while San Francisco's train system stops around 11 pm (then buses run sparsely after that).
If only there were a bank on Mars that needed bailed out... by god then we would get there! I wonder if there is enough atmosphere on the red planet to fly a helicopter from which we could drop money.. or lacking the funds... turkeys.
"that needed bailed out"?
you don't happen to be from pittsburgh, do you? or maybe have relatives that are from there?
For the near future, this planet is it, barring substantial improvements in technology. If we need to choose between a billion dollars spent establishing a colony on a celestial body or spent on developing sustaining methods of producing food in impoverished nations, the production of food must take precedence.
The thing is, we don't get to choose between a billion dollars spent here and a billion there. IMHO before we can even argue about where money gets spent, we, as a country (I'm referring to the US, you said dollars:P), need to get our priorities straight. As a country we have access to an absolutely HUGE amount of money; we just need to take it. With the proper government in place, we could advance our quality of life AND our [space] technology without even having to choose one over the other. It would, unfortunately, require a massive cultural change to a more scientific and activism oriented society.
I, for one, will be expecting a new Pavlovian reflex. Every time a man's fingers hit the keys, '.xxx', he will experience a rapid erection. It can be called "The Pavlovian Bonereflex".
Viagra sales will go down, Microsoft will patent the dot-x-x-x keystroke, and Vin Diesel fans will act like nothing happened.
Well shit, the government wasted all that money. All $500 million. Down the toilet.
I say we add it to the $6.851 Billion that's waste... err, well used by more important entities. (not to mention it might not have even been $500 million if they were loan guarantees)
Yes, sometimes our government seems corrupt. Yes, sometimes it can seem that many people are absolutely powerless to disagreeable events. But how often, really, are we active about things we think we cannot change? Almost never. Contrary to popular belief, there are effective things that we can do to spread our concern. Blogging about it and sending letters and emails to the government are just some little things. If you're passionate about it, gather people, start a protest. Send word out. Be active. I'm sure you can think of something; you're a slashdotter, smarter than many others have the privilege to be. You have an obligation to the country and to the world to represent America in the way you see fit. Saying, "I'm helpless" and calling it a day makes you just as useless as you think you are.
Slashdot Mirror
I won't explain it, as I don't feel like reading through all of it right now, but someone else is welcome to! And now it's easy to find.
Emission of pulse:
It's actually called Double optical Gating, not Grating, as the article called it. http://www.phys.ksu.edu/personal/chang/Chang-attoweb.pdf
Detection: Phase Retrieval by Omega Oscillation Filtering
http://www.creol.ucf.edu/research/publications/2859.pdf
There is abslolutely no reward or interest in fighting against/being beaten by anonymous opponents which have otherwise no personal connection to the player. I love quake, command and conquer, etcetera, but only in the same way as I love chess, and I would never even contemplate playing chess against someone I had never met in person, because that would be boring; a soulless challenge, so pointless that I may as well play against a computer.
I very much disagree. I like having a consistently large player pool with which to compare my play. Many of the people you play in online games have already gotten good enough to beat or compete with the best computer opponents. Facing a human player, in my experience, provides a new and unique challenge, even if you can't see their face.
There are also often large gaps in skill between friends that play games. The discrepancies between friends gets taken away when you play against a large player pool. Who cares if you're best at a game between 4 people? How about in the top 1% of 500,000 people?
I love to play with my friends, but I love it even more when we can play against an anonymous online multiplayer base. In CoD, for example, we can work together as a team and find a position together against incoming forces. It makes it even more real. Almost like real war.
I'm not sure what makes your challenges inspring and meaningful, and what makes mine soulless and pointless, but I have more fun with online multiplayer games than with games that don't connect. When I'm home alone late at night, and the house is dead silent - lonely even - there's something eerie about playing bots -- add the online part, and suddenly it fills the house with *just a little* more presence.
Some people become obsessed with online games, and perhaps I can see why it would be a diversion, but I am willing to bet that the vast majority of people are only interested in playing games against the people in their own existing social circle, and could not give a damn about massively multiplayer, always online bullshit - and that to lump every gamer in that crowd would be a disastrous folly.
Be careful where you lump every gamer. There's a reason why many of these games actually have a
vast majority
and why EA is willing to bet on it.
Clifford Reid, chief executive of Complete Genomics, worries that it will be difficult for the judges to assess the accuracy of the newly sequenced genomes. “The technologies participating in the competition are the only technologies for judging the competition,” he says, adding that he is hopeful that contest organizers can come up with “a clever solution that makes everyone happy”.
Couldn't they just give all of the teams a set of identical DNA (for instance, the teams unknowingly share the DNA of 10 individuals) and compare the sequenced genomes to get an idea of how accurate they are?
It IS in *facebook*'s best interest to keep pedophiles away. It's not a government run panopticon. Facebook could take a lot of flack if it became a pedophile hub. They don't want to lose users that way.
It was only 7 meters across. No impending doom this time folks.
If one were interested in acting on the show, how could he or she get involved?
Hey, if the religious website administrator can't prevent malware from entering the site, maybe the readers are just as bad at preventing malware from entering their computer! That makes religious sites an even bigger target!
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/03/01/1648232/liberalism-and-atheism-linked-to-iq
Ok, sorry, blatant attack on religion. I just remember reading the article, so making the connection made me smile. Err, I mean... smile in the least offensive of ways.
RTFA, Bill Banning, head of the major employer, Facebook Snooping, recently introduced himself to congress.
That's like!... that's like!... *mumbles doing some math* carry the four... subtract the depth times the... divide out all extra... mmhm ... surface area... ah, yes... average out the known surface water... okay... times roughly 100... *writes some more* Yes! ... That's like zero liters of water!
*shoulders drop in disappointment*
Did anyone else notice that the arXiv PDF was posted on April 1st?
Improving San Francisco's MUNI system is pretty important to me. It's been considerably annoying to see cars parked in the bus lane, and it's almost annoying as seeing cars park in the middle of the right lane with their emergency lights on because there's no parking, which more buses would help with! ... As a side note, it's almost impossible to live in San Francisco for an extended period of time with a vehicle and not get a parking ticket. They're ruthless!!
It's funny though, I've lived in Germany for the last half year, and I've found that their transportation system is ten times better than San Francisco's. Don't get me wrong, BART is amazing, but I live in a small town at the moment and its transportation system runs more often than San Francisco's. Paris and Berlin have both train systems that run late, and night trains, while San Francisco's train system stops around 11 pm (then buses run sparsely after that).
If only there were a bank on Mars that needed bailed out... by god then we would get there! I wonder if there is enough atmosphere on the red planet to fly a helicopter from which we could drop money.. or lacking the funds... turkeys.
"that needed bailed out"?
you don't happen to be from pittsburgh, do you? or maybe have relatives that are from there?
For the near future, this planet is it, barring substantial improvements in technology. If we need to choose between a billion dollars spent establishing a colony on a celestial body or spent on developing sustaining methods of producing food in impoverished nations, the production of food must take precedence.
The thing is, we don't get to choose between a billion dollars spent here and a billion there. IMHO before we can even argue about where money gets spent, we, as a country (I'm referring to the US, you said dollars :P), need to get our priorities straight. As a country we have access to an absolutely HUGE amount of money; we just need to take it. With the proper government in place, we could advance our quality of life AND our [space] technology without even having to choose one over the other. It would, unfortunately, require a massive cultural change to a more scientific and activism oriented society.
And of course, this is obligatory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
But seriously, when are we going to do something about it?
But more importantly, were you able to SEE any pix?
If you think our technology has traveled a long way so far, consider still how far ahead evolution is. Things like this amaze me.
Should I have been reading your comment in Data's voice? I couldn't help it. La Forge, deactivate the emotion chip attached to his neural net.
I, for one, will be expecting a new Pavlovian reflex. Every time a man's fingers hit the keys, '.xxx', he will experience a rapid erection. It can be called "The Pavlovian Bonereflex".
Viagra sales will go down, Microsoft will patent the dot-x-x-x keystroke, and Vin Diesel fans will act like nothing happened.
Well shit, the government wasted all that money. All $500 million. Down the toilet.
I say we add it to the $6.851 Billion that's waste... err, well used by more important entities. (not to mention it might not have even been $500 million if they were loan guarantees)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
They could be right under your nose (hah)!
Of course!
Yes, sometimes our government seems corrupt. Yes, sometimes it can seem that many people are absolutely powerless to disagreeable events. But how often, really, are we active about things we think we cannot change? Almost never. Contrary to popular belief, there are effective things that we can do to spread our concern. Blogging about it and sending letters and emails to the government are just some little things. If you're passionate about it, gather people, start a protest. Send word out. Be active. I'm sure you can think of something; you're a slashdotter, smarter than many others have the privilege to be. You have an obligation to the country and to the world to represent America in the way you see fit. Saying, "I'm helpless" and calling it a day makes you just as useless as you think you are.
So why did we invade and occupy Iraq and Afghanistan? It seems to me that all we needed were a good investigation and a team of crack Navy Seals.
Can we stop killing people now?
I really like your use of "we" in this post, because we really are the ones killing people. People seem to think we are separate from our government.
Well beyond humanoids.
It's so beautiful, interesting, and yet creepy in a way.
Humanity's advances in certain areas (like robotics) are amazing.
Not to mention the trendy music!
Can Slashdot Without Avoid Grammar Wrong Titles?
MAG-VIAG-NET makes give you erection! you simply put this special magnetic helmet on and...
but seriously... I wonder.