These are all consumption disorders. Americans have them in epidemic proportions. Partly because we consume alcohol, drugs, toys, clothing, food and everything else to feed a desire really created by something else. Usually "spiritual", but most often caused by a family problem, especially early in life. And, as a buddhist will tell you, feeding the desire just makes it stronger. The resulting attachment to the material forces us further from the spiritual, which increases the desire, more consumption - the Wheel of Living.
So the desire to buy cool clothes and gadgets is caused by a family problem? Ohhhhhhhhh kkkkkk... Seriously, I think you're completely nuts.
The rest, about spirituality... I'll have plenty of time to be spiritual when I die, thank you.
I guess I just don't see the particular reason someone would measure finger length vs. mathematical ability. I can't imagine a real positive outcome from this kind of research. If you wanted to measure mathematiacl ability and the ways it was increased or decreased through genetics, I just don't see why you'd go looking at fingers.
I didn't care for a response, thank you. I wanted you to know that I think any daydreaming drooler can come up with fantasy worlds. It's not impressive to me at all that someone spent a huge portion of their life doing so. You might have guessed, but I'm one of those people that cannot stand it when they group Sci-Fi and Fantasy into the same area in the book store.
But seriously. I'm not sure if this kind of research is ethically sound. Considering people could exploit this as a basic form of eugenics... how much more research like this should we be willing to tolerate? And what exactly was the goal of this study?
Ask yourself: Is research was done that proved scientifically that people with light skin were inherently smarter than people with dark skin, don't you think there'd be at least a little problem there? Ethically, I couldn't see a responsible researcher even doing that kind of study. I don't see any practicable use of the results. The end result is overall a negative thing.
Tolkien's work is not even just another Dune or Star Wars or anything of the sort.
And just what "sort" is that? I don't know if I speak for most people, but lumping Dune and Star Wars into the same category is fucking asinine. Obviously you haven't read Dune, or if you have, you missed 90% of what Dune had to offer.
Dune was a work of genius. Star Wars, while a good ride, doesn't hold a candle to Dune's depth.
Consider: how many authors create a language -- a full language -- for their work? Tolkien made five.
So fucking what? Anybody can make up five languages. It's not how many languages you make up but how you USE them.
How many develope an entire chronological cosmology -- from beginning to ending.
Quite a few, thanks.
How many create an entire mythos for this world?
Again, quite a few.
How many write an extremely detailed history from first created of a race until its end?
I'm sorry but if it's not part of the story, I could care less that eleventy-hundred years ago some Dorf from Shubulobiville killed an Elf from Arn'ah'ii''han and stole his chickens. If it has nothing to do with the story then it should NOT be used as evidence that the story is better than any other story. It's pure nerd flotsam.
The danger is this: every person or child who is introduced to probably the greatest story ever conceived and delivered will come into it... in a game....
The greatest story ever conceived huh? Well, that's kind of tough for you to judge, since I just conceived of a better one last night dreaming. I didn't write it down, but I sure as hell did CONCEIVE it. Greatest story ever written? Not even close: Hobbit finds ring. Ring creates jealousy and hobbit kills friend over it. Ring has mysterious powers imbued into it from some bullshit unexplainable super wizard. Except for everyone else it just makes them invisible and evil. Ring has to be destroyed or else the big bad guy is gonna get it and kill all the gay hobbits. Ring gets carried to mountain with the most cliche name in the history of stories -- where it is dropped into the lava because only THAT lava, not any other heat of that nature, can destroy it. Along with the original hobbit who found it. End of story. That sure is fantasy, because to me it sounds like a bunch of magically wonderful bullshit.
You know what's wrong with being a fanboy? Nothing, until you start to step on other people's work and tastes. Step off, bitch.
I realized my reply strayed away from the original point. I agree with most of your observations. I get somewhat defensive sometimes. Workin on it, that's all I can say.
It's clear that all this technology we have today comes with risks.
But to say that using a computer from 1986 is better than using what he have today merely because you wouldn't need AV or Firewalls is not accurate.
And you're telling me that there's no such thing as an entry level Linux user who needs firewall/AV? Maybe because it's pretty hard to be an entry-level Linux user, period? What if something goes wrong with your Linux install? I'm sure an entry level user could fix it! How about if a huge corporation runs completely on Linux. No need for firewalls? No need for AV? Don't you think if *nix was as popular as Win32/64 there would be a lot more incentive to try to create malware and try to hack into the servers? Don't you think, just maybe, that there would be vulnerabilities found and exploited? Well, apparently you think Linux is the be-all end-all solution for computing.
I call it being able to surf Wikipedia, Google, and Slashdot in a tabbed browser while running a program like Seti@home in the background with Winamp, Excel, Word and Outlook all readily available at the touch of a button (alt-tab) through mapped servers that centrally store my work. (let's not forget WoW running windowed in the background so I can watch my auctions). Oh, I probably shouldn't leave out the firewalls, the AV software, the synchronization/connection with my PDA, the EPO client, the dual 21" LCDs driven at 1600x1200 EACH, and the fact that all of it pops up on my screen within a second if I want it.
Gee. I guess I don't call that bloat at all. I call it multi-tasking. Let's see a computer from 1986 do that.
So let me get this straight. Someone's complaining that a computer today can do all of this but that dialog boxes pop up a little slower? Then go back to using your '86 Mac. I'm quite happy with what I have today, thank you.
Pause is really nice, yes. In an MMO like WoW you do get to Pause, but not quite as easily. Say you're in a Raid. The smallest raids in WoW have 10 people. The biggest 25. Some even go to 40 but those are a thing of the past.
Anyway, if you're in the raid and you aren't fighting a boss you can just tell everyone you'll be right back and take off for a few minutes. This is acceptable in almost all situations save for a small percentage where you are under a strict time limit.
If you're just playing solo, it's easy to pause. If you're inside a dungeon you can just stand there. If you're outside you can usually run a few seconds to a safe area such as a road or outpost. If you're in the next expansion area (and you've hit level 70 and bought a flying mount) you can just mount up and fly straight up a few hundred feet and just hover.
No, it's not as nice as being able to stop the action mid fight. But heck, if you really, truly have to leave the computer, just do it. Death isn't that bad really in WoW at least. It costs you two things: a little time, and a little gold.
Some MMOs where death has a bigger penalty and less ease of leaving for a few minutes probably ought to take the hint. We can't be glued to the screen the whole time.
1) Scale. An MMO is limited in how many units can be operating in a single battle. Network limitations are the reason World of Warcraft couldn't deliver on its promise of world pvp. Dunno if anyone knows what happened in the old "world pvp" days of Tarren Mill... but the general problem was once enough people showed up it became so laggy that it was unplayable. That really sucked. Talk about destroying immersion.
2) Continuity of Storyline. Look at Matrix Online. Everyone wants to be Neo, but nobody can. Look at SWG. Everyone wanted to be a Jedi. But nobody could be Luke Skywalker. Not true in an offline RPG. You can literally live the storyline of your favorite character.
3) User created content. Look at Morrowind for example. The game came with a construction set. You could build your own world. You were the god of that world you created. Now shift to WoW. You're a peon, and if you're lucky you can get 24 other people together to take down raid mobs. But you'll never be able to do it solo. You'll never BE that raid mob.
When the day comes that they give a player the chance to control a raid mob (with their current abilities and hitpoints) that's the day a raid wipes every time on that mob, forever. The AI on those mobs is particularly stupid. Tactically, if I were said mob, I would immediately kill all the healers, then the DPS. Which would leave the tank beating on me with his sword 'n board. To which I would let loose a huge laugh, do a/golfclap, and walk away.
Considering that we're finding so many planets, don't you think it's rather assuming of us to claim that Riyo Mori is really, truly, Miss Universe 2007?
I have noticed of late that when someone's cell phone rings in my house it's almost like a mini EMP just went off. If the phone is close to a set of speakers you can often tell before the phone even rings that there's a call incoming -- the speakers start making all sorts of noise.
I've looked into this and I'm not the only person who has speakers/electronics that respond to cell phones this way. Are they really pumping that much juice in the signal these days or is my setup wired so that EM signals somehow translate into sound on the speakers? And how do I fix that?
The real reason was that certain other countries had a building with FOUR sides and the people who built the pentagon were thinking, fuck it all, we're going to FIVE BLADES..errr SIDES!!!
To me at least, if you read between the lines, the more interesting part of this is not that our fearless leaders in intelligence and military had some behind-the-scenes secret reason for the name, but because of the opposite: they were so incredibly boring they couldn't come up with anything better than the SHAPE OF THE BUILDING.
Why couldn't it be because there are 5 tenets to the intelligence community, or 5 of the ten commandments, or Arby's had a 5 for 5.95 and each side represented a sandwich, or the 5 Ws, or the Jackson 5, or the 5th deviation, or because the building was really built to cover a secret alien spaceship that was shaped like a pentagon, or because they made some 5 alarm chili the day they were thinking up plans. I could go on forever.
Like I said: If we are going there to work on starting a base/colony, I'm all for it. If we're going there to collect moon dust and play robot golf, I'm not.
When they're going somewhere other than the moon, let me know. That barren chunk of rock is a pointless waste of money IMHO. Unless you're going to build a lunar colony. So if they're starting that, then I'm all for it. Otherwise, you might as well spend the money it costs to get there on Big Macs. With cheese.
The process of observing the world and drawing a logical set of self consistent conclusions. All sciences, especially the soft sciences, have bias, or systematic error.
No, sorry. Science seeks only to disprove through experimentation. Thus through inference we can hope that what we haven't disproven so far remains so, so we can use it to some logical and useful application. True, pure Science has no bias or error. It simply exists as a method. This method has been laid out for us already, it is called the Scientific Method. It is a set of steps which one may follow that utilizes rational thinking to eliminate possibilities via experiment. Science can never provide an aboslute. This is because no human is able to consider the absolute set of all circumstances in any experiment. Only God, providing God exists, can perform that feat. Science can only hope to provide extremely accurate approximations to the truth.
There is no attack on faith, as faith is what we believe, not what we use when we need to model a natural process.
Faith, as a belief in something that cannot be proven or disproven (i.e. God) is impervious to attack because it has no substance. The belief in something which cannot be proven or disproven cannot provide any degree of logical foundation upon which one could mount an attack. Thus, no, one cannot attack faith, because faith is irrational. This relegates faith to the blurry realm of pyschology. Does having faith mean you as an individual have chosen to have it, and have a certain perspective because of that choice, or does it work the opposite way, meaning faith is generated based on some deeper, uncontrollable and unconcsious physiological trait? So far, we cannot prove or disprove this either. Which leaves faith in a relatively safe position. And leaves people who think that God created the universe in a likewise safe position. The same can be said for people who believe there is no god.
The clear fact of the matter is that the Universe exists. Most people think that means it had to be created by something. This is because humans naturally evolved understanding beginning and end. The concept that something may have neither is so alien that, I think for many people, it's simply easier to think something created it. And what do many people think is responsible for that? None other than God. But they will argue day and night that God has no beginning or end.
People like me, we don't claim to know. We can accept that the universe has been around forever. Just like other people think God has been around forever. At this point, God and the Universe begin to look awfully similar. So if you choose to support creationism over evolution, that's your choice, and I respect that. But if you choose to abandon logic, rational thought, and start to draw absolutes, then I have a problem with you. If you tell people that Science is something it is not, I especially have a problem with you. And I think I'm right in it.
Slashdot Mirror
I really like Google. I don't understand why they have to do this though.
TLF
So the desire to buy cool clothes and gadgets is caused by a family problem? Ohhhhhhhhh kkkkkk... Seriously, I think you're completely nuts.
The rest, about spirituality... I'll have plenty of time to be spiritual when I die, thank you.
TLF
I guess I just don't see the particular reason someone would measure finger length vs. mathematical ability. I can't imagine a real positive outcome from this kind of research. If you wanted to measure mathematiacl ability and the ways it was increased or decreased through genetics, I just don't see why you'd go looking at fingers.
That's all I meant to say.
TLF
I didn't care for a response, thank you. I wanted you to know that I think any daydreaming drooler can come up with fantasy worlds. It's not impressive to me at all that someone spent a huge portion of their life doing so. You might have guessed, but I'm one of those people that cannot stand it when they group Sci-Fi and Fantasy into the same area in the book store.
TLF
In Soviet Russia index finger ring you!
But seriously. I'm not sure if this kind of research is ethically sound. Considering people could exploit this as a basic form of eugenics... how much more research like this should we be willing to tolerate? And what exactly was the goal of this study?
Ask yourself: Is research was done that proved scientifically that people with light skin were inherently smarter than people with dark skin, don't you think there'd be at least a little problem there? Ethically, I couldn't see a responsible researcher even doing that kind of study. I don't see any practicable use of the results. The end result is overall a negative thing.
TLF
Dune was a work of genius. Star Wars, while a good ride, doesn't hold a candle to Dune's depth. So fucking what? Anybody can make up five languages. It's not how many languages you make up but how you USE them. Quite a few, thanks. Again, quite a few. I'm sorry but if it's not part of the story, I could care less that eleventy-hundred years ago some Dorf from Shubulobiville killed an Elf from Arn'ah'ii''han and stole his chickens. If it has nothing to do with the story then it should NOT be used as evidence that the story is better than any other story. It's pure nerd flotsam. The greatest story ever conceived huh? Well, that's kind of tough for you to judge, since I just conceived of a better one last night dreaming. I didn't write it down, but I sure as hell did CONCEIVE it. Greatest story ever written? Not even close: Hobbit finds ring. Ring creates jealousy and hobbit kills friend over it. Ring has mysterious powers imbued into it from some bullshit unexplainable super wizard. Except for everyone else it just makes them invisible and evil. Ring has to be destroyed or else the big bad guy is gonna get it and kill all the gay hobbits. Ring gets carried to mountain with the most cliche name in the history of stories -- where it is dropped into the lava because only THAT lava, not any other heat of that nature, can destroy it. Along with the original hobbit who found it. End of story. That sure is fantasy, because to me it sounds like a bunch of magically wonderful bullshit.
You know what's wrong with being a fanboy? Nothing, until you start to step on other people's work and tastes. Step off, bitch.
TLF
I realized my reply strayed away from the original point. I agree with most of your observations. I get somewhat defensive sometimes. Workin on it, that's all I can say.
TLF
It's clear that all this technology we have today comes with risks.
But to say that using a computer from 1986 is better than using what he have today merely because you wouldn't need AV or Firewalls is not accurate.
And you're telling me that there's no such thing as an entry level Linux user who needs firewall/AV? Maybe because it's pretty hard to be an entry-level Linux user, period? What if something goes wrong with your Linux install? I'm sure an entry level user could fix it! How about if a huge corporation runs completely on Linux. No need for firewalls? No need for AV? Don't you think if *nix was as popular as Win32/64 there would be a lot more incentive to try to create malware and try to hack into the servers? Don't you think, just maybe, that there would be vulnerabilities found and exploited? Well, apparently you think Linux is the be-all end-all solution for computing.
You're wrong.
TLF
Someone please rescue me from trying to wrap my brain around why this is important enough to care about.
TLF
I call it being able to surf Wikipedia, Google, and Slashdot in a tabbed browser while running a program like Seti@home in the background with Winamp, Excel, Word and Outlook all readily available at the touch of a button (alt-tab) through mapped servers that centrally store my work. (let's not forget WoW running windowed in the background so I can watch my auctions). Oh, I probably shouldn't leave out the firewalls, the AV software, the synchronization/connection with my PDA, the EPO client, the dual 21" LCDs driven at 1600x1200 EACH, and the fact that all of it pops up on my screen within a second if I want it.
Gee. I guess I don't call that bloat at all. I call it multi-tasking. Let's see a computer from 1986 do that.
So let me get this straight. Someone's complaining that a computer today can do all of this but that dialog boxes pop up a little slower? Then go back to using your '86 Mac. I'm quite happy with what I have today, thank you.
TLF
Pause is really nice, yes. In an MMO like WoW you do get to Pause, but not quite as easily. Say you're in a Raid. The smallest raids in WoW have 10 people. The biggest 25. Some even go to 40 but those are a thing of the past.
Anyway, if you're in the raid and you aren't fighting a boss you can just tell everyone you'll be right back and take off for a few minutes. This is acceptable in almost all situations save for a small percentage where you are under a strict time limit.
If you're just playing solo, it's easy to pause. If you're inside a dungeon you can just stand there. If you're outside you can usually run a few seconds to a safe area such as a road or outpost. If you're in the next expansion area (and you've hit level 70 and bought a flying mount) you can just mount up and fly straight up a few hundred feet and just hover.
No, it's not as nice as being able to stop the action mid fight. But heck, if you really, truly have to leave the computer, just do it. Death isn't that bad really in WoW at least. It costs you two things: a little time, and a little gold.
Some MMOs where death has a bigger penalty and less ease of leaving for a few minutes probably ought to take the hint. We can't be glued to the screen the whole time.
TLF
1) Scale. An MMO is limited in how many units can be operating in a single battle. Network limitations are the reason World of Warcraft couldn't deliver on its promise of world pvp. Dunno if anyone knows what happened in the old "world pvp" days of Tarren Mill... but the general problem was once enough people showed up it became so laggy that it was unplayable. That really sucked. Talk about destroying immersion.
/golfclap, and walk away.
2) Continuity of Storyline. Look at Matrix Online. Everyone wants to be Neo, but nobody can. Look at SWG. Everyone wanted to be a Jedi. But nobody could be Luke Skywalker. Not true in an offline RPG. You can literally live the storyline of your favorite character.
3) User created content. Look at Morrowind for example. The game came with a construction set. You could build your own world. You were the god of that world you created. Now shift to WoW. You're a peon, and if you're lucky you can get 24 other people together to take down raid mobs. But you'll never be able to do it solo. You'll never BE that raid mob.
When the day comes that they give a player the chance to control a raid mob (with their current abilities and hitpoints) that's the day a raid wipes every time on that mob, forever. The AI on those mobs is particularly stupid. Tactically, if I were said mob, I would immediately kill all the healers, then the DPS. Which would leave the tank beating on me with his sword 'n board. To which I would let loose a huge laugh, do a
TLF
Considering that we're finding so many planets, don't you think it's rather assuming of us to claim that Riyo Mori is really, truly, Miss Universe 2007?
I do.
TLF
I have noticed of late that when someone's cell phone rings in my house it's almost like a mini EMP just went off. If the phone is close to a set of speakers you can often tell before the phone even rings that there's a call incoming -- the speakers start making all sorts of noise.
I've looked into this and I'm not the only person who has speakers/electronics that respond to cell phones this way. Are they really pumping that much juice in the signal these days or is my setup wired so that EM signals somehow translate into sound on the speakers? And how do I fix that?
TLF
It's a prison for Nazi War criminals you insensitive clod!
Seriously though, that's f'd up.
There's no possible way the designer did that by accident. Zero.
TLF
The real reason was that certain other countries had a building with FOUR sides and the people who built the pentagon were thinking, fuck it all, we're going to FIVE BLADES..errr SIDES!!!
TLF
To me at least, if you read between the lines, the more interesting part of this is not that our fearless leaders in intelligence and military had some behind-the-scenes secret reason for the name, but because of the opposite: they were so incredibly boring they couldn't come up with anything better than the SHAPE OF THE BUILDING.
Why couldn't it be because there are 5 tenets to the intelligence community, or 5 of the ten commandments, or Arby's had a 5 for 5.95 and each side represented a sandwich, or the 5 Ws, or the Jackson 5, or the 5th deviation, or because the building was really built to cover a secret alien spaceship that was shaped like a pentagon, or because they made some 5 alarm chili the day they were thinking up plans. I could go on forever.
How incredibly boring.
TLF
The original plan of a "Triagon" was suggested, but thrown out at the last minute due to technical inaccuracies. I blame politics!
TLF
Argh. You're right.
/. for not letting you edit comments!
I actually hit submit and cringed, I realized what I had done at the last second. CURSE
TLF
I agree with you. FOUR!
TLF
Like I said: If we are going there to work on starting a base/colony, I'm all for it. If we're going there to collect moon dust and play robot golf, I'm not.
TLF
When they're going somewhere other than the moon, let me know. That barren chunk of rock is a pointless waste of money IMHO. Unless you're going to build a lunar colony. So if they're starting that, then I'm all for it. Otherwise, you might as well spend the money it costs to get there on Big Macs. With cheese.
TLF
At being hyped beyond its true usefulness!
I belive congrats are in order.
TLF
The clear fact of the matter is that the Universe exists. Most people think that means it had to be created by something. This is because humans naturally evolved understanding beginning and end. The concept that something may have neither is so alien that, I think for many people, it's simply easier to think something created it. And what do many people think is responsible for that? None other than God. But they will argue day and night that God has no beginning or end.
People like me, we don't claim to know. We can accept that the universe has been around forever. Just like other people think God has been around forever. At this point, God and the Universe begin to look awfully similar. So if you choose to support creationism over evolution, that's your choice, and I respect that. But if you choose to abandon logic, rational thought, and start to draw absolutes, then I have a problem with you. If you tell people that Science is something it is not, I especially have a problem with you. And I think I'm right in it.
TLF
You know what's really scary? God evolved.
TLF