"Of several acceptable explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest is preferable even when there's good evidence to suggest a more complex explanation and no evidence to suggest the simplest. Furthermore, that evidence is automatically invalidated by the first guy to yell out 'Occam's razor,' especially when the guy makes no attempt to explain himself."
Why not invent some brand new, goofy theory that applies only to the Earth and not to any of the other celestial bodies that we know have magnetic fields which DON'T have oceans? Has somebody never heard of Occam's Razor?
Better question: Is somebody misinterpreting Occam's Razor? The answer is "yes: pclminion."
You seem to be missing out the part when the US helped overthrow the democratically elected government in 1953 and installed a brutal despot. Nope, nothing to do with how that changed Iranian society at all.
As an american who went to american public schools, I have to point out that we probably did it to stop Hitler from getting the rocket pack.
Metroid Prime 3 says it can be done just fine for very casual players.
For the 1000th time
-"Casual" is only an insult to immature gamers who take themselves way too seriously. Using it as an insult makes you and the gaming community look ridiculous. Trying to contrast yourself to "casual" gaming also is ridiculous.
-"Casual" and "real/hardcore/super duper/other artificial term you come up with to make yourself sound better" are not mutually exclusive. It is actually possible to play wii fit and then play WoW or whatever games you prefer. The videogame police will really not come to your house and arrest you, your immune system won't kill you if you try to play the other game type.
We use fingerprints for identifying criminals, but clearly that's not what they were evolved for. In the absence of the conservation, had the friction studies shown a positive result, that still would not have meant it was evolved for that purpose. But the fact that primates have kept fingerprints around through multiple speciation events really makes it seem like it had some function. There's also the possibility that it is somehow necessary to develop fingerprints in order to develop primate fingers.
If you really want to play in Penisworld, be my guest, but as for me, I prefer content with coherent design beyond the capabilities of Joe Nobody.
Yes, after searching for hours for decent user created content on little big planet, I came up with roughly as much content as one level of the actual game levels. The quality on the Ico level was about equal to the game's included levels, but that was the only one in the same ballpark that I stumbled across. There were undoubtedly great ones that I didn't find, but how long would I have had to look to find it?
You could play any number of tasteless 9/11 simulators, few of which even worked right (I was curious.) You could play quite a few levels that were just art, some anime character in blocks. A suprising number of "tons and tons of points" levels. Nothing very playable. Aside from the Ico level, which while impressive, would not for me have justified the purchase.
Had little big planet shipped only as a toolset, IMO it would have been an interesting novelty but not a good game. So that's not a good example.
The music in an iphone game also does not seem like a solid indicator as to the rest of the game industry trends.
On the other hand, in science the typical model is that some careless graduate student messes up an experiment in such a way as to give unexpected (and therefore interesting results). A couple other members of the lab try to replicate the experiment with ambiguous results but the principle investigator (PI) is desperate for any interesting looking results at all that can be used in a grant application so the PI goes ahead and applies for a grant on the basis of the messed up results. Because the PI is working at a major research university the messed up results are given the benefit of the doubt and grant gets awarded to the PI. By the time the grant money becomes available (typically a year or two after the initial careless experiment), it is clear to most people in the lab that the entire research premise of the (typically five year) grant is bogus. But the PI is essentially required by the grant to hire someone to do the research and, anyway, the PI is typically so far removed from the actual research ((instead doing administrative stuff) that the PI is the last to know that the original results were bogus. So, anyway, some starry-eyed young post-doc gets hired on to spend five years of his life working on a research premise that is already known by pretty much everyone else in the lab (except the PI) to be totally bogus.
Thats... specific... You seem to be using your specific experience in one field of science to condemm the grant system for all fields of science.
If the PI is that clueless, then there's going to be trouble no matter how structured the grant is.
His grandma represents way too many people who have no idea. Just as disturbing is what kind of stupid does it take to put the IR receiver on a surface that is likely to be obstructed?
The kind of stupid that is more aptly named "not familiar with a specific technology." Some people weren't born with innate knowledge of IR recievers. Some of those people aren't geared toward testing where things have gone wrong, or else fear things they don't know.
Your compassion for the elderly and non-technophile population is astounding, by the way. People like you give computer professionals the arrogant and annoying stereotype.
But, what's to stop law enforcement to start outsourcing more and more and more to 'private' businesses to spy on people and do their work for them?
General government incompetence for one... Also, we're talking about this specific case. I'm skeptical that the cops bribed circuit city techs to do their searches of hard drives for them. That would be pretty funny, especially because they went bankrupt, but it didn't happen in this particular case. I don't think circuit city stumbling onto this type of content when they're repairing your computer sounds like something we need a safeguard against. If there were evidence that a computer repair place were scanning through your computer whenever you brought it in, there would be something fishy there, but this sounds like a complete accident.
Anyway, I didn't say it's a GOOD system or was justified, just that it isn't actually cops in this circumstance. As a member of the ACLU, I am definitely with you that law enforcement and especially government needs almost all the regulations and oversight we can heap on them, if the government pays you for monitoring crime, you're law enforcement and should be barred from conducting unreasonable searches.
If the cops can just do whatever they want without losing their case, then they'll just do whatever they want, including door-to-door shakedowns.
It was the circuit city guys though. They were the ones who found the stuff, they presumably called the police. And if the guys from circuit city can just do whatever they want, then they'll just do whatever they want, including playing WoW rather than helping you find anything.
Fortunately, that dystopian vision won't come true since they went bankrupt.
The point though is that this was NOT the cops. If it were, it would definitely (or rather, should definitely) be an open and shut case if they didn't have a warrant to search his computer. You as a private citizen though have no need to get a search warrant. If you're breaking into a neighbors house to steal something, and you see your neighbor has a kiddie porn dungeon, your testimony can be used as a basis for a search warrant, right (IANAL so I don't want to overstate that)? If the cops, on the other hand, go into your house uninvited and without a warrant, that case would be tossed out (or should, and again, IANAL.) Why should it be any different for a computer?
Attention grabbing. That seems to be nature's standard. They couch it in different terms, like "general interest," It seems to me that if you did a really impressive study on something that was worthwhile, but the general science community wouldn't really care about, you're not going to make it into nature, wheras if something is of greater interest outside your specific field, that's going to have a better chance even if within your field the finding wasn't that important.
So without understanding TFA, I'd say this is an attention grabbing journal article, and assuming it's not riddled with inaccuracies, it's exactly the type of thing that Nature would pick up. My impression is that nature articles featured on slashdot are much more common than articles from PLoS one (though I definitely haven't done anything to test that.)
I think I remember reading that one of PLoS one's goals was to be a journal with rigorous standards that did not include rejecting articles because they weren't interesting enough to the general public.
Fortunately, the two are not mutually exclusive, there are plenty of articles published in nature that are both of general interest and great studies.
Disclaimer: the above might be much more true for my field, biology, than it is for physics or other fields.
I read the title and thought it was talking about places in real life. When I was living in Tokyo, I went to Squaresoft's headquarters. Totally could have stolen some videogame award trophies right off their front desk, assuming I completed some sidequest to distract the guard first. On the next floor there was a taped up piece of paper with a moggle on it pointing to the left and saying something in japanese, probably something like "That way to accounting."
Pretty boring, plus I felt like a huge nerd. Then again, it was only 3 blocks out of my way.
Anyway, I'm not sure how many other real videogame related places you aren't supposed to go there are.
Slashdot Mirror
I like it, occam's razor turbo:
"Of several acceptable explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest is preferable even when there's good evidence to suggest a more complex explanation and no evidence to suggest the simplest. Furthermore, that evidence is automatically invalidated by the first guy to yell out 'Occam's razor,' especially when the guy makes no attempt to explain himself."
What was it before?
A coffee coaster.
Why not invent some brand new, goofy theory that applies only to the Earth and not to any of the other celestial bodies that we know have magnetic fields which DON'T have oceans? Has somebody never heard of Occam's Razor?
Better question: Is somebody misinterpreting Occam's Razor? The answer is "yes: pclminion."
You seem to be missing out the part when the US helped overthrow the democratically elected government in 1953 and installed a brutal despot. Nope, nothing to do with how that changed Iranian society at all.
As an american who went to american public schools, I have to point out that we probably did it to stop Hitler from getting the rocket pack.
Funny doesn't give karma, Some use insightful as a way to say, " Your funny and you deserve karma for that comment."
Some mods also use insightful, or any other moderation, as a way to say "I'm clearly drunk."
Metroid Prime 3 says it can be done just fine for very casual players.
For the 1000th time
-"Casual" is only an insult to immature gamers who take themselves way too seriously. Using it as an insult makes you and the gaming community look ridiculous. Trying to contrast yourself to "casual" gaming also is ridiculous.
-"Casual" and "real/hardcore/super duper/other artificial term you come up with to make yourself sound better" are not mutually exclusive. It is actually possible to play wii fit and then play WoW or whatever games you prefer. The videogame police will really not come to your house and arrest you, your immune system won't kill you if you try to play the other game type.
Or maybe it didn't evolve that way for any particular reason.
The fact that fingerprints are so conserved among primates, and some even have them on their tails which they use to grip trees as well, to me that suggests it's a functional feature. Were humans the only ones with fingerprints I would agree that it might not be an evolved feature.
We use fingerprints for identifying criminals, but clearly that's not what they were evolved for. In the absence of the conservation, had the friction studies shown a positive result, that still would not have meant it was evolved for that purpose. But the fact that primates have kept fingerprints around through multiple speciation events really makes it seem like it had some function. There's also the possibility that it is somehow necessary to develop fingerprints in order to develop primate fingers.
Dogs have noseprints that are as unique as fingerprints (and in fact are legal ID for dogs in Canada).
Uh... why exactly is Canada defining legal and illegal ways of identifying dogs?
If you really want to play in Penisworld, be my guest, but as for me, I prefer content with coherent design beyond the capabilities of Joe Nobody.
Yes, after searching for hours for decent user created content on little big planet, I came up with roughly as much content as one level of the actual game levels. The quality on the Ico level was about equal to the game's included levels, but that was the only one in the same ballpark that I stumbled across. There were undoubtedly great ones that I didn't find, but how long would I have had to look to find it?
You could play any number of tasteless 9/11 simulators, few of which even worked right (I was curious.) You could play quite a few levels that were just art, some anime character in blocks. A suprising number of "tons and tons of points" levels. Nothing very playable. Aside from the Ico level, which while impressive, would not for me have justified the purchase.
Had little big planet shipped only as a toolset, IMO it would have been an interesting novelty but not a good game. So that's not a good example.
The music in an iphone game also does not seem like a solid indicator as to the rest of the game industry trends.
On the other hand, in science the typical model is that some careless graduate student messes up an experiment in such a way as to give unexpected (and therefore interesting results). A couple other members of the lab try to replicate the experiment with ambiguous results but the principle investigator (PI) is desperate for any interesting looking results at all that can be used in a grant application so the PI goes ahead and applies for a grant on the basis of the messed up results. Because the PI is working at a major research university the messed up results are given the benefit of the doubt and grant gets awarded to the PI. By the time the grant money becomes available (typically a year or two after the initial careless experiment), it is clear to most people in the lab that the entire research premise of the (typically five year) grant is bogus. But the PI is essentially required by the grant to hire someone to do the research and, anyway, the PI is typically so far removed from the actual research ((instead doing administrative stuff) that the PI is the last to know that the original results were bogus. So, anyway, some starry-eyed young post-doc gets hired on to spend five years of his life working on a research premise that is already known by pretty much everyone else in the lab (except the PI) to be totally bogus.
Thats... specific... You seem to be using your specific experience in one field of science to condemm the grant system for all fields of science.
If the PI is that clueless, then there's going to be trouble no matter how structured the grant is.
Because the megacorporations can afford more lobbyists than most citizens? (Sorry for answering the rhetorical question :)
Yes?
(sorry for answering YOUR rhetorical question, and for continuing it.)
Ah. Uh, well then I guess I am the one that is giving bad stereotypes here.
I apologize.
You know, he didn't say mark twain was an idiot ecause of anything copyright related. Dude just hates Samuel Clemens.
His grandma represents way too many people who have no idea. Just as disturbing is what kind of stupid does it take to put the IR receiver on a surface that is likely to be obstructed?
The kind of stupid that is more aptly named "not familiar with a specific technology." Some people weren't born with innate knowledge of IR recievers. Some of those people aren't geared toward testing where things have gone wrong, or else fear things they don't know.
Your compassion for the elderly and non-technophile population is astounding, by the way. People like you give computer professionals the arrogant and annoying stereotype.
start defending this idiot.
Okay... uh... he works hard for the bribes the mafiaa pays him. You can't accuse him of not delivering.
Does pointing this out make you a Goodwin law Nazi?
If you hadn't just goodwin'd yourself, that would be quite insightful for pointing out that irony.
If as a society you are pissing off a modern US Republican, you have to be doing something right.
(waits for someone to flame or flamebait about muslim extremists...)
While we're talking about animal diseases, what about german measles?
It seems like this kid didn't have to worry about light pollution.
She didn't have to worry about heavy pollution either!
(cricket noises)
But, what's to stop law enforcement to start outsourcing more and more and more to 'private' businesses to spy on people and do their work for them?
General government incompetence for one... Also, we're talking about this specific case. I'm skeptical that the cops bribed circuit city techs to do their searches of hard drives for them. That would be pretty funny, especially because they went bankrupt, but it didn't happen in this particular case. I don't think circuit city stumbling onto this type of content when they're repairing your computer sounds like something we need a safeguard against. If there were evidence that a computer repair place were scanning through your computer whenever you brought it in, there would be something fishy there, but this sounds like a complete accident.
Anyway, I didn't say it's a GOOD system or was justified, just that it isn't actually cops in this circumstance. As a member of the ACLU, I am definitely with you that law enforcement and especially government needs almost all the regulations and oversight we can heap on them, if the government pays you for monitoring crime, you're law enforcement and should be barred from conducting unreasonable searches.
If the cops can just do whatever they want without losing their case, then they'll just do whatever they want, including door-to-door shakedowns.
It was the circuit city guys though. They were the ones who found the stuff, they presumably called the police. And if the guys from circuit city can just do whatever they want, then they'll just do whatever they want, including playing WoW rather than helping you find anything.
Fortunately, that dystopian vision won't come true since they went bankrupt.
The point though is that this was NOT the cops. If it were, it would definitely (or rather, should definitely) be an open and shut case if they didn't have a warrant to search his computer. You as a private citizen though have no need to get a search warrant. If you're breaking into a neighbors house to steal something, and you see your neighbor has a kiddie porn dungeon, your testimony can be used as a basis for a search warrant, right (IANAL so I don't want to overstate that)? If the cops, on the other hand, go into your house uninvited and without a warrant, that case would be tossed out (or should, and again, IANAL.) Why should it be any different for a computer?
how the hell did it get published Nature?
Attention grabbing. That seems to be nature's standard. They couch it in different terms, like "general interest," It seems to me that if you did a really impressive study on something that was worthwhile, but the general science community wouldn't really care about, you're not going to make it into nature, wheras if something is of greater interest outside your specific field, that's going to have a better chance even if within your field the finding wasn't that important.
So without understanding TFA, I'd say this is an attention grabbing journal article, and assuming it's not riddled with inaccuracies, it's exactly the type of thing that Nature would pick up. My impression is that nature articles featured on slashdot are much more common than articles from PLoS one (though I definitely haven't done anything to test that.)
I think I remember reading that one of PLoS one's goals was to be a journal with rigorous standards that did not include rejecting articles because they weren't interesting enough to the general public.
Fortunately, the two are not mutually exclusive, there are plenty of articles published in nature that are both of general interest and great studies.
Disclaimer: the above might be much more true for my field, biology, than it is for physics or other fields.
I read the title and thought it was talking about places in real life. When I was living in Tokyo, I went to Squaresoft's headquarters. Totally could have stolen some videogame award trophies right off their front desk, assuming I completed some sidequest to distract the guard first. On the next floor there was a taped up piece of paper with a moggle on it pointing to the left and saying something in japanese, probably something like "That way to accounting."
Pretty boring, plus I felt like a huge nerd. Then again, it was only 3 blocks out of my way.
Anyway, I'm not sure how many other real videogame related places you aren't supposed to go there are.
Maybe IBM's 45 minute meeting patent will meet the same fate.
Yes, but if they hang onto their 1-44 minute meeting patents and their 46-infinity minute meetings, it will still be a bitch.
Bad week if you are trying to force your failing business model to stay relevant like the RIAA
I don't know, my "I'll trade you a handmade spear for that hamburger" buisiness is actually doing much better this week.