Some people will never be happy with any outcome. If Gordon Brown made a statement along the lines of "Any apology now would be too late to make any difference, so we won't bother" There would be public outcry. The petition arose and was taken notice of because So Many People Wanted It. I label anyone saying that the apology is worthless as trolling.
That the current government is taking responsibility and manning up enough to apologize is a good sign that we have reached a point where we can accept of people's lifestyle choices.
We recently ran a similar experiment at work where we took 2 copies of a 50 page document and asked one student to scan and email it to the neighboring desk, and we got another student to hand deliver the second copy over the same distance.
The results were startling.
We have now opted to remove all computer equipment from our offices as we consider them inferior to manual transfer of information.
There is much inconsistency in the starwars universe. If you played the PS3 game with Starkiller, you'd see the scene where he dissasembles and reassembles his lightsaber with the force. I'm quite certain that he'd be able to turn it on/off w/o the need for a switch. But the question is, why bother? It was clearly useful for Han to be able to use the lightsaber w/o the need for the force. What will happen if someone not able to use the force steals (or in some other way obtains) your lightsaber, and proceeded to try to attack you with it? I don't see that fight lasting long.
Having a switch on the lightsaber is clearly optional, and definitly something that is open to discussion and interpretation. The whole thing is fictional anyway, so I'll not lose any sleep over whether they should or should not have switches...
In some of the starwars books and 'lore' this was exactly the case, that the blades were activated by use of the force. This also ensured that they automatically powered down when dropped (but not thrown as the Jedi would hold down the 'on' switch during this act)
There were some schools of thought that the energy source itself for the weapon came from the force, and used crystals to focus it.
As for handguards, what are you going to make it from that a lightsabre won't cut through? This fact alone surely makes it a pointless exercise in putting them there.
I for one welcome our new computer overlords!!
Seriously though, there's no reason why an AI won't be benevolent instead of destructive. Look at Jane from the Ender series, or Data from startrek, there's just as much scope for them being a force of good as of evil.
Nobody said it had to be random. It didn't even have to be stratified random sampling. They were deliberatly targeting these cowboys. What IS interesting is how they came across Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush in the test. Who had reported them as having a bad rep when they found and fixed the problem for free, and with a smile?
This is not intended to be flip, or a joke, but wouldn't a ruleing like this mean that all photos of children, would be labelled as pornographic, due to the potential for them to be used in a simulated sexual image?
I'm not expert, and I'm kinda glad I'm somewhat naieve in this, but surely child pornography is all about the child's body, in it's totality, and not about having it's face superimposed onto that of an adult. If someone's fetish revolves about the faces of children then surely no photo can be ruled out as a source of pornographic material?
Interesting how I havn't seen any comments relating to MUDs. There were some games all about grinding until you got your skills maxxed and then you went on to die repeatedly until perma death (the number of times you could die varied greatly between MUDS) and then started over again.
And each death could mean the instant loss of all your belongings if te player who killed you decided to bury, or pillage, your corpse (and act frowned upon, but still occuring on occasion) or your corpse might disappear after time if you couldn't find someone to ressurect you in time.
This has been removed from most mainstream games, WoW only has a gold loss for damage armour on death and a short corpse run (if no ressurect available). The main reason for this is due to subscriptions. It is largely okay for people to suffer massive setbacks on death if the game is already paid for such a setback only affects yourself. A simmilar effect in a MMOPRG would mean that progress would be held up constantly as people reroll after a permadeath, or regear if their equipment was lost (look what happened to players who were hacked in WoW before they were able to restore people's belongings).
It would not only affect the player it happened to, but also all who play with them. Also, the game itself would have to become alot easier if anyone, as a team, were to have a chance at achieving anything.
The way these games are now is possibly the only way thay can be in a MMO environment. Punishment for death has to be near negligable and content must be oriented about team play, and not the Hero's Story, which many single players games are based on.
I myself have played WoW extensively, but I've seen in all the MMO's I've tried over the years, that they, from the early stages of the game, focus on the team, the faction, the race, the corperation and how you fit in the greater orginisational structure, and try to steer away from the loner, the solo adventurer so as to promote an online society, culture.
Slashdot Mirror
Just you wait for Carbon Nano-Phones!
It was Apple Cored?
Tomorrow you sleep with the fish-crab-dolphin hybrid monsters
Some people will never be happy with any outcome. If Gordon Brown made a statement along the lines of "Any apology now would be too late to make any difference, so we won't bother" There would be public outcry. The petition arose and was taken notice of because So Many People Wanted It. I label anyone saying that the apology is worthless as trolling.
That the current government is taking responsibility and manning up enough to apologize is a good sign that we have reached a point where we can accept of people's lifestyle choices.
Damn inflation, I remember when you used to be able to give an opinion for 2 cents!
We recently ran a similar experiment at work where we took 2 copies of a 50 page document and asked one student to scan and email it to the neighboring desk, and we got another student to hand deliver the second copy over the same distance.
The results were startling.
We have now opted to remove all computer equipment from our offices as we consider them inferior to manual transfer of information.
There is much inconsistency in the starwars universe. If you played the PS3 game with Starkiller, you'd see the scene where he dissasembles and reassembles his lightsaber with the force. I'm quite certain that he'd be able to turn it on/off w/o the need for a switch. But the question is, why bother? It was clearly useful for Han to be able to use the lightsaber w/o the need for the force. What will happen if someone not able to use the force steals (or in some other way obtains) your lightsaber, and proceeded to try to attack you with it? I don't see that fight lasting long. Having a switch on the lightsaber is clearly optional, and definitly something that is open to discussion and interpretation. The whole thing is fictional anyway, so I'll not lose any sleep over whether they should or should not have switches...
In some of the starwars books and 'lore' this was exactly the case, that the blades were activated by use of the force. This also ensured that they automatically powered down when dropped (but not thrown as the Jedi would hold down the 'on' switch during this act) There were some schools of thought that the energy source itself for the weapon came from the force, and used crystals to focus it. As for handguards, what are you going to make it from that a lightsabre won't cut through? This fact alone surely makes it a pointless exercise in putting them there.
A right-handed robot is Dexterous. A left handed robot is Sinister. I really hope they don't go making any left-handed robots or we're doomed.
You do realise that the gulf war was the result of the slight possibility that the US might have one of it's numerous sources of oil denied to it?
I have 24Meg BB from BT in Dunlaoghaire. It's cheaper than Eircom and quite reliable.
...the S.T.A.R.S MT has suddenly disappeared, has not logged in in over a week. Guildmembers are concerned
I for one welcome our new computer overlords!! Seriously though, there's no reason why an AI won't be benevolent instead of destructive. Look at Jane from the Ender series, or Data from startrek, there's just as much scope for them being a force of good as of evil.
Nobody said it had to be random. It didn't even have to be stratified random sampling. They were deliberatly targeting these cowboys. What IS interesting is how they came across Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush in the test. Who had reported them as having a bad rep when they found and fixed the problem for free, and with a smile?
I forsee much rickrolling
Atleast he'll never have to pay for a flight again. I wonder how many airmiles he has now. Trip to the moon anyone?
This is not intended to be flip, or a joke, but wouldn't a ruleing like this mean that all photos of children, would be labelled as pornographic, due to the potential for them to be used in a simulated sexual image? I'm not expert, and I'm kinda glad I'm somewhat naieve in this, but surely child pornography is all about the child's body, in it's totality, and not about having it's face superimposed onto that of an adult. If someone's fetish revolves about the faces of children then surely no photo can be ruled out as a source of pornographic material?
I would be of the opinion that they could never make a complete review of this package, as Wikipedia is constantly changing, and already huge.
Interesting how I havn't seen any comments relating to MUDs. There were some games all about grinding until you got your skills maxxed and then you went on to die repeatedly until perma death (the number of times you could die varied greatly between MUDS) and then started over again. And each death could mean the instant loss of all your belongings if te player who killed you decided to bury, or pillage, your corpse (and act frowned upon, but still occuring on occasion) or your corpse might disappear after time if you couldn't find someone to ressurect you in time. This has been removed from most mainstream games, WoW only has a gold loss for damage armour on death and a short corpse run (if no ressurect available). The main reason for this is due to subscriptions. It is largely okay for people to suffer massive setbacks on death if the game is already paid for such a setback only affects yourself. A simmilar effect in a MMOPRG would mean that progress would be held up constantly as people reroll after a permadeath, or regear if their equipment was lost (look what happened to players who were hacked in WoW before they were able to restore people's belongings). It would not only affect the player it happened to, but also all who play with them. Also, the game itself would have to become alot easier if anyone, as a team, were to have a chance at achieving anything. The way these games are now is possibly the only way thay can be in a MMO environment. Punishment for death has to be near negligable and content must be oriented about team play, and not the Hero's Story, which many single players games are based on. I myself have played WoW extensively, but I've seen in all the MMO's I've tried over the years, that they, from the early stages of the game, focus on the team, the faction, the race, the corperation and how you fit in the greater orginisational structure, and try to steer away from the loner, the solo adventurer so as to promote an online society, culture.