I think I know where they get their inspiration. The description sounds just like the video for Weird Al's "Don't Download This Song": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-grdpKVqg
Gold is not consumed, and provides no use to most people other than as an investment.
Water is something that is consumed, quite regularly.
Additionally, the price of water bottle is $1-$3 (depending on your location). The amount of gold that could be purchased for the same quantity of money is minuscule.
Therefore, I declare your analogy inept. Try comparing against cars next time.
My beef is that all the marketing materials say "Unlimited Data", and then you find out it's somewhat limited when you actually sign the contract (if you bother to read the fine print).
Certainly I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to my contract. But getting me into the store by advertising something they don't actually provide....
It might disqualify many lawyers. But suggesting that I'm advocating a net loss of freedom is a straw man. I strongly believe that everyone has the right to legal representation, but I also believe that people should be honest. *IF* (and it's a huge "if") everyone were honest, we wouldn't need very many lawyers at all. Some would still be needed to help settle disputes, but as honesty and respect for others increases, the number and seriousness of disputes decreases.
Sure, maybe it's a dream world, but maybe if more people share my dream, it will come closer to reality. Unfortunately, my sentiments remind me of a Jack Handy quote:
I can imagine a world without hate, a world without war, a world without fear. And I can imagine us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
If these guys are that good, then it is the RIAA's loss so that's good. Lawyer's are not usually paid to represent their own positions. They are hired by clients to represent theirs. A defense lawyer for a murderer isn't necessarily a murder or in favor of murder. The defense lawyer may even believe the client is guilty, but legal representation if still their right.
Just because someone pays you to do a job doesn't mean you should do it (hit man, for example).
It seems that either they have ethics, and believe in the RIAA's cause (enough to argue on their behalf). Or they are lacking in ethics, but will still argue for a cause they don't believe in. I don't want either type in the highest echelons of the justice department.
It doesn't seem to matter whether or not you WANT to do business with them again. As long as some ID thief wants to do business with Capital One in your name, you'll HAVE to do business with them just to clean up the mess.
Dark Reign was awesome regarding the AI settings (both the computer opponents and for controlling your individual units). At the beginning of the game, I would give my units a very short leash, and lengthen it as the situation allowed. Towards the end of a game, I loved being able to set my units on "search and destroy".
It remains one of my favorite games as it has a very strong rock-paper-scissors aspect to it. It's just a shame that it was released in the same generation as Starcraft.
A lot of programs quietly integrate into Windows Explorer. Some of these attempt to perform operations on each file (so that the icon can be modified, or extra info display, etc). The problem is that when you have a lot of these things integrated in (or just one poorly written one), it can really slow the whole thing down.
The reason the "save as" dialogs perform better is because they don't have any of the overhead of these integrated programs.
However, if you want the fastest speed directory traversal speed, simply load up DOS and learn a few basic commands. When you get to where you want to go, just type "start." and it will open up an explorer window to the current directory. Call me old fashioned, but sometimes the old tricks are the best tricks.
During the early days of Safari 3.0, I was in charge of making sure my companies product was compatible with Safari.
I have built WebKit from their xcode project. I have submitted bugs. And I know that sometimes the fix arrives in Safari months before WebKit.
I have much respect for that development team, but to say that Apple (as close-lipped and proprietary as they are) isn't holding anything back is just naive.
I don't use chrome for regular browsing. I like the plugins that Firefox gives me.
I drool over the performance improvements coming down the line, but how can I trust tests like these?
After each test run, I also assigned an arbitrary score, based on a ten point scale, with the winner getting ten points. At the end, all the scores are rolled up into a single score.
and
Based on our arbitrary score assignments, Google Chrome is the speed king.
At least TFA doesn't try and hide the fact that it's arbitrary... Sheesh!
Given all the revulsion that is always expressed towards those accused of such crimes, I can understand why everyone is afraid to be associated with anything other than revulsion towards the crimes.
Under the current hysteria, one can be condemned by the population for mere allegations-- and even though they can be cleared by the courts, their name will forever be associated with the rumors.
People need to take a step back, and realize that perfect justice cannot be enforced by people or courts in our world, because each person's perception of justice is different from others. People often rely on the ancient maxim "an eye for an eye" in determining justice. In game theory (which attempts to model human interaction), this form of justice is called tit for tat. This means that if somebody wrongs you, then can exact equal justice from them either directly, or through the courts. This sounds good, but in reality is far from perfect:
[An]...error in either player's interpretation of events can lead to an unending "death spiral". In this symmetric situation, each side perceives itself as preferring to cooperate, if only the other side would. But each is forced... into repeatedly punishing an opponent who continues to attack despite being punished... . Both sides come to think of themselves as innocent and acting in self-defense, and their opponent as either evil or too stupid to learn to cooperate.
A more optimal strategy for dealing with injustice is "tit for tat with forgiveness". This is generally like the tit for tat strategy, except that sometimes, instead of extracting revenge, you forgive the opponent and behave as if they had not wronged you. This allows for recovery from getting trapped in a the aforementioned "death spiral".
People who are marked as sex offenders are marked forever. They will always be on the fringe of society, never able to rise, and the odds are that they will spiral towards other habits that bad for society. We, as a society, need to understand that the hysteria around these crimes does more harm than good.
Government intervention in the housing market has royally screwed things up. School administration intervention into teaching will royally screw things up.
Greedy people royally screwed things up. I'm not saying the govt. was (or wasn't) involved, but please place the blame where it lies-- greedy and gullible citizens of all walks who basically fell for a giant ponzi scheme. The ones who got in first were payed off by the ones coming in later. And the ones who came in last got diddly squat!
Have you forgotten that to the computer malware looks essentially the same as any other program? With XP, the users are trusted to look after their systems. For many people, that turned out to be a bad idea, simply because they didn't know who to trust and who not to trust. So now the pendulum is swinging back the other way.
It's really a no-win situation for MS. If they leave it open, the majority of people will end up with an infected computer, and they complain about it. If it's closed, the population screams "let me do what I want", and they complain about it.
Puzzle games are less replayable. While not impossible, it's extremely difficult to come up with a system for dynamically generating puzzles so they're fresh each time.
And multi-player also suffers in puzzle games.
So in all, it takes a LOT more effort for a game company to make a puzzle game that has both multiplayer modes and is replayable, and those are large segments of the market. In short, it is easier to make an action game that will appeal to more people. Puzzle games are still great for once-through single-player, though (take Zelda games, for example).
Or there just needs to be a very large database of possibilities. Microsoft's Asirra is one of these with a finite number of items, but due to the nature and number of the items, a computer will have a difficult time breaking it.
Slashdot Mirror
I think I know where they get their inspiration. The description sounds just like the video for Weird Al's "Don't Download This Song": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-grdpKVqg
Gold is not consumed, and provides no use to most people other than as an investment.
Water is something that is consumed, quite regularly.
Additionally, the price of water bottle is $1-$3 (depending on your location). The amount of gold that could be purchased for the same quantity of money is minuscule.
Therefore, I declare your analogy inept. Try comparing against cars next time.
My beef is that all the marketing materials say "Unlimited Data", and then you find out it's somewhat limited when you actually sign the contract (if you bother to read the fine print).
Certainly I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to my contract. But getting me into the store by advertising something they don't actually provide....
I call that deceptive.
It might disqualify many lawyers. But suggesting that I'm advocating a net loss of freedom is a straw man. I strongly believe that everyone has the right to legal representation, but I also believe that people should be honest. *IF* (and it's a huge "if") everyone were honest, we wouldn't need very many lawyers at all. Some would still be needed to help settle disputes, but as honesty and respect for others increases, the number and seriousness of disputes decreases.
Sure, maybe it's a dream world, but maybe if more people share my dream, it will come closer to reality. Unfortunately, my sentiments remind me of a Jack Handy quote:
Just because someone pays you to do a job doesn't mean you should do it (hit man, for example).
It seems that either they have ethics, and believe in the RIAA's cause (enough to argue on their behalf). Or they are lacking in ethics, but will still argue for a cause they don't believe in. I don't want either type in the highest echelons of the justice department.
The point remains: why is it called "unlimited" if it's not meant to be unlimited.
Now you make *me* want to go and look at the sea... All the pretty shapes and colors...
It doesn't seem to matter whether or not you WANT to do business with them again. As long as some ID thief wants to do business with Capital One in your name, you'll HAVE to do business with them just to clean up the mess.
Dark Reign was awesome regarding the AI settings (both the computer opponents and for controlling your individual units). At the beginning of the game, I would give my units a very short leash, and lengthen it as the situation allowed. Towards the end of a game, I loved being able to set my units on "search and destroy".
It remains one of my favorite games as it has a very strong rock-paper-scissors aspect to it. It's just a shame that it was released in the same generation as Starcraft.
A lot of programs quietly integrate into Windows Explorer. Some of these attempt to perform operations on each file (so that the icon can be modified, or extra info display, etc). The problem is that when you have a lot of these things integrated in (or just one poorly written one), it can really slow the whole thing down.
The reason the "save as" dialogs perform better is because they don't have any of the overhead of these integrated programs.
However, if you want the fastest speed directory traversal speed, simply load up DOS and learn a few basic commands. When you get to where you want to go, just type "start ." and it will open up an explorer window to the current directory. Call me old fashioned, but sometimes the old tricks are the best tricks.
During the early days of Safari 3.0, I was in charge of making sure my companies product was compatible with Safari.
I have built WebKit from their xcode project. I have submitted bugs. And I know that sometimes the fix arrives in Safari months before WebKit.
I have much respect for that development team, but to say that Apple (as close-lipped and proprietary as they are) isn't holding anything back is just naive.
The problem is that we don't KNOW what Apple is keeping to themselves. It may be the juicy bits, or it may just be roughage, but we don't know.
And here on slashdot, that recipe is sure to bring out the tinfoil hat crowd.
(Since we're resurrecting ancient memes)
All our base is belong to us!
I don't use chrome for regular browsing. I like the plugins that Firefox gives me.
I drool over the performance improvements coming down the line, but how can I trust tests like these?
and
At least TFA doesn't try and hide the fact that it's arbitrary... Sheesh!
Given all the revulsion that is always expressed towards those accused of such crimes, I can understand why everyone is afraid to be associated with anything other than revulsion towards the crimes.
Under the current hysteria, one can be condemned by the population for mere allegations-- and even though they can be cleared by the courts, their name will forever be associated with the rumors.
People need to take a step back, and realize that perfect justice cannot be enforced by people or courts in our world, because each person's perception of justice is different from others. People often rely on the ancient maxim "an eye for an eye" in determining justice. In game theory (which attempts to model human interaction), this form of justice is called tit for tat. This means that if somebody wrongs you, then can exact equal justice from them either directly, or through the courts. This sounds good, but in reality is far from perfect:
A more optimal strategy for dealing with injustice is "tit for tat with forgiveness". This is generally like the tit for tat strategy, except that sometimes, instead of extracting revenge, you forgive the opponent and behave as if they had not wronged you. This allows for recovery from getting trapped in a the aforementioned "death spiral".
People who are marked as sex offenders are marked forever. They will always be on the fringe of society, never able to rise, and the odds are that they will spiral towards other habits that bad for society. We, as a society, need to understand that the hysteria around these crimes does more harm than good.
All personnel corrections are handled by the Ministry of Love.
If you're wondering if you should do this as a company, please watch Leonard Part 6, which is arguably one of the worst movies of all time.
There were never any Leonard Parts 1-5, and definitely no Leonard Part 7.
Food for thought...
Greedy people royally screwed things up. I'm not saying the govt. was (or wasn't) involved, but please place the blame where it lies-- greedy and gullible citizens of all walks who basically fell for a giant ponzi scheme. The ones who got in first were payed off by the ones coming in later. And the ones who came in last got diddly squat!
Have you forgotten that to the computer malware looks essentially the same as any other program? With XP, the users are trusted to look after their systems. For many people, that turned out to be a bad idea, simply because they didn't know who to trust and who not to trust. So now the pendulum is swinging back the other way.
It's really a no-win situation for MS. If they leave it open, the majority of people will end up with an infected computer, and they complain about it. If it's closed, the population screams "let me do what I want", and they complain about it.
Puzzle games are less replayable. While not impossible, it's extremely difficult to come up with a system for dynamically generating puzzles so they're fresh each time.
And multi-player also suffers in puzzle games.
So in all, it takes a LOT more effort for a game company to make a puzzle game that has both multiplayer modes and is replayable, and those are large segments of the market. In short, it is easier to make an action game that will appeal to more people. Puzzle games are still great for once-through single-player, though (take Zelda games, for example).
But how efficiently is the complainer using his/her electricity? He's browsing and posting on slashdot, of all places!
Pot, meet kettle.
And they don't think that inflation could have anything to do with the records being broken?
Not taking inflation into account is akin to slowly reducing the previous records.
Firefox + Custom plugin = access to whatever the heck you want.
Don't forget that the benefits you've listed for prepared statements can easily be implemented purely on the client side.
It seems to me, however, that prepared statements can give a performance *gain* since you don't have to parse the SQL for each query.
Or there just needs to be a very large database of possibilities. Microsoft's Asirra is one of these with a finite number of items, but due to the nature and number of the items, a computer will have a difficult time breaking it.