(you get my Crazy Taxi, Mr. Driller and Rez over my cold, dead body)
Glad to hear somebody mention Mr. Driller. I think that game is phenomenal; it's a shame so many seems unaware of it.
Re:what about infinate do you not understand?
on
Time Travel
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· Score: 1
I understand infinite just fine. Nowhere did I claim that any of the quantities we are looking at are finite. I'll repeat what I said "it seems likely that such universes [those with people who can time travel] comprise a very small percentage of the total number of universes". If you believe that this means that the number of universes must be finite, then it is you who does not understand.
Now, by the same token to assume you are going to live today based on your history of living makes good sense.
I agree if I have to guess whether I will die today, my best guess is no. However, this is a far cry from saying I have proven that I will not. That was my point, that evidence indicating that something is likely true is not a proof, so I disagreed with your claim that increasing entropy has been proven time and again.
Anyone claiming that it's possible to leave this universe and enter another needs to explain why we never see anyone entering this universe
I can explain that. Someone could only enter our universe if he were coming from a universe in which people could time travel. It seems likely that such universes comprise a very small percentage of the total number of universes. Since the number of universes from which people time travel is so small compared to the total number of universes, any particular universe (including our own) is overwhelmingly unlikely to be one of the ones at which a time traveler arrives.
Time and again things have happened that are consistent with your claim about entropy. However, I don't see how these things "prove" that the theory that entropy always increases is correct. I could just as well say that time and again it has been proven that I am immortal, since many days have passed on which I did not die.
If you think I was trivializing human intelligence, then I didn't make myself clear. My point is only that we have virtually no understanding of human intelligence. Therefore, it is pointless to say that some computer program doesn't count as "real AI" because it works differently than human intelligence.
Even Deep Blue that "beat" Kasparov was just an oversized chess calculator with a ton of relevant algorithms running at insane speeds.
It's been said a thousand times, but apparently needs to be repeated: for all we know, that's all we are when we play chess. People who complain that chess playing programs don't have "real" intelligence because they use a lot of brute force forget that we don't know how human intelligence works, and Kasparov's brain might be doing the same.
You missed the most important reason for banning fake child pornography which is that legalizing it makes it much harder to prosecute people for real child pornography. If someone is caught with a (real) picture of a kid having sex with an adult he say "oh that's not real, that was made in photoshop" and then get off without any punishment.
Re:Check this box to GPL abandonware
on
How to Save PGP
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· Score: 1
Yes, but what's the solution to that? If you're saying that people should copy the data to a new medium before they throw out the device for reading the old medium, that doesn't work so well if the reason they're throwing out the device is that it broke.
I don't see how providing one counter-example proves that they don't "often" coincide. He didn't say "always coincide", so you have not proved him wrong.
That's great, but the word was being used here in English, so it makes sense to use it in its English sense rather than accord to its meaning in a foreign language. I would hardly cause using a word as it has come to be defined in your language "misuse".
Yes, the windows way may take more keystrokes/ mouse motions, but it will always do what you want. On X, if you highlight something else, you lose what was in your copy buffer. For example, if you want to paste text to replace other text, you can't highlight what you're replacing and then paste. On Windows, you never accidentally lose what you have copied, since it's pretty hard to accidentally hit ctrl-C.
I wonder if these legal types are ever going to actually blame this on the actual people who are sharing
I hope not. Getting only my ISP in trouble when I share files sounds like a good arrangement to me. Don't knock it, it works in our favor (most of us, anyway).
Re:.Net fails the pr0n test
on
.NETly News
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· Score: 1
Human history has shown that with the advent of any new important media, pr0n has never been far behind.
Was this really true of tv and radio (I know that porn made it to tv eventually, but did it do so quickly)?
I know how much fun it is to complain about how much worse everything is getting, but you're just around. New games used to cost about $70-$80 at Toys R Us when I was younger. Now they rarely cost more than, and sometimes much less (mainly since dvd's/ cd's are cheaper to make than cartriages, but also due to competition). And besdides, that seems like a perfectly reasonable price. The number of hours of entertainment I've gotten from GTA3 is many times more than one could get from a movie, and yet DVD's still cost $20 (or however much; I don't buy movies). These prices seem right in line.
I think there are two different kinds of advertisement that can be put into video games. One kind is ads that make sense within the world of the game. One example would be if a racing game had paid advertisements on the cars that made them look like real race cars. Another would be selling space for court-side ads in a basketball game. I think this sort of advertisement is perfectly accetptable because it adds to the verisimilitude of the game.
The second kind of advertisements is product placement that does not fit stylistically into the game. An example would be if the cut scenes in Final Fantasy showed the characters wearing Fubu clothing and swilling Cherry Coke. This sort of product placement makes one feel that advertising is being 'crammed down one\'s throat', and is thus not acceptable to many gamers. As long as companies can differentiate between the two types-- and avoid the latter-- everything will be okay.
I also have a related question: What's the deal with the car brands in Gran Turismo? Do the car companies pay to have their products "featured" in the game, does the game company pay for the rights to use real cars, or does no money change hands?
Freshman year, there was a huge box of aol cd's in the mail room. We stole it, and my friends used the discs (along with some sticky gum) to wallpaper their room. They had the reflective side out, so it looked very nice.
Even cooler (and this was my idea), one of them used the cd's to make the Batman symbol in their window. It was visible to everyone walking by outside and looking quite cool.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, but a lot more people go to the movies on a friday or saturday than on a wednesday.
Glad to hear somebody mention Mr. Driller. I think that game is phenomenal; it's a shame so many seems unaware of it.
I understand infinite just fine. Nowhere did I claim that any of the quantities we are looking at are finite. I'll repeat what I said "it seems likely that such universes [those with people who can time travel] comprise a very small percentage of the total number of universes". If you believe that this means that the number of universes must be finite, then it is you who does not understand.
I agree if I have to guess whether I will die today, my best guess is no. However, this is a far cry from saying I have proven that I will not. That was my point, that evidence indicating that something is likely true is not a proof, so I disagreed with your claim that increasing entropy has been proven time and again.
I can explain that. Someone could only enter our universe if he were coming from a universe in which people could time travel. It seems likely that such universes comprise a very small percentage of the total number of universes. Since the number of universes from which people time travel is so small compared to the total number of universes, any particular universe (including our own) is overwhelmingly unlikely to be one of the ones at which a time traveler arrives.
Time and again things have happened that are consistent with your claim about entropy. However, I don't see how these things "prove" that the theory that entropy always increases is correct. I could just as well say that time and again it has been proven that I am immortal, since many days have passed on which I did not die.
If you think I was trivializing human intelligence, then I didn't make myself clear. My point is only that we have virtually no understanding of human intelligence. Therefore, it is pointless to say that some computer program doesn't count as "real AI" because it works differently than human intelligence.
It's been said a thousand times, but apparently needs to be repeated: for all we know, that's all we are when we play chess. People who complain that chess playing programs don't have "real" intelligence because they use a lot of brute force forget that we don't know how human intelligence works, and Kasparov's brain might be doing the same.
Who is the "they" that ruined the internet?
You missed the most important reason for banning fake child pornography which is that legalizing it makes it much harder to prosecute people for real child pornography. If someone is caught with a (real) picture of a kid having sex with an adult he say "oh that's not real, that was made in photoshop" and then get off without any punishment.
No.
Checking return values of functions and system calls to see if they failed isn't anal, it's essential.
What if we recorded our writing on stone tablets then? That would last a while.
Yes, but what's the solution to that? If you're saying that people should copy the data to a new medium before they throw out the device for reading the old medium, that doesn't work so well if the reason they're throwing out the device is that it broke.
I hope you pronounce it "ass".
I don't see how providing one counter-example proves that they don't "often" coincide. He didn't say "always coincide", so you have not proved him wrong.
That's great, but the word was being used here in English, so it makes sense to use it in its English sense rather than accord to its meaning in a foreign language. I would hardly cause using a word as it has come to be defined in your language "misuse".
Yes, the windows way may take more keystrokes/ mouse motions, but it will always do what you want. On X, if you highlight something else, you lose what was in your copy buffer. For example, if you want to paste text to replace other text, you can't highlight what you're replacing and then paste. On Windows, you never accidentally lose what you have copied, since it's pretty hard to accidentally hit ctrl-C.
I hope not. Getting only my ISP in trouble when I share files sounds like a good arrangement to me. Don't knock it, it works in our favor (most of us, anyway).
Was this really true of tv and radio (I know that porn made it to tv eventually, but did it do so quickly)?
Go to Toys R Us and tell us how many GBA games they're selling. Then tell us how many Palm, WinCE and TI-89 games.
I know how much fun it is to complain about how much worse everything is getting, but you're just around. New games used to cost about $70-$80 at Toys R Us when I was younger. Now they rarely cost more than, and sometimes much less (mainly since dvd's/ cd's are cheaper to make than cartriages, but also due to competition). And besdides, that seems like a perfectly reasonable price. The number of hours of entertainment I've gotten from GTA3 is many times more than one could get from a movie, and yet DVD's still cost $20 (or however much; I don't buy movies). These prices seem right in line.
I know many people who would disagree with the "just as good" claim.
The second kind of advertisements is product placement that does not fit stylistically into the game. An example would be if the cut scenes in Final Fantasy showed the characters wearing Fubu clothing and swilling Cherry Coke. This sort of product placement makes one feel that advertising is being 'crammed down one\'s throat', and is thus not acceptable to many gamers. As long as companies can differentiate between the two types-- and avoid the latter-- everything will be okay.
I also have a related question: What's the deal with the car brands in Gran Turismo? Do the car companies pay to have their products "featured" in the game, does the game company pay for the rights to use real cars, or does no money change hands?
Thanks for your time.
Freshman year, there was a huge box of aol cd's in the mail room. We stole it, and my friends used the discs (along with some sticky gum) to wallpaper their room. They had the reflective side out, so it looked very nice.
Even cooler (and this was my idea), one of them used the cd's to make the Batman symbol in their window. It was visible to everyone walking by outside and looking quite cool.