Yeah, they use IED's too but they also use sniper rifles which are also perfectly legal in the USA. Use of snipers has increased dramatically over the last several months and they are extremely effective at killing American soldiers.
As an American, I sadly must agree with this. From birth we are taught we live in the greatest nation in the world and this is repeated throughout our lives. (We are not the only country who receives this brainwashing either.) Of course, there's nothing wrong with being proud of your country but I think it's important to keep it real too. It use to be that "greatest nation" meant something beyond just money and military might. I'm afraid that is no longer the case. My idea of a great country doesn't include one that suspends habeas corpus.
Wrong. They use various flavors of AK-47's mostly, which are perfectly legal in many parts of the country. The only difference is that theirs are enabled for fully automatic fire but this is a trivial modification to make to the semi-auto AK's here within the US.
One thing it doesn't take into account is the fact that adherance and enforcement vary wildly from country to country. The US is pretty serious about both but in Mexico most people pay far less than the 24.6% tax specified in the list.
While I agree with everything you say in principle, I stand by what I said in practice. You also have to take into consideration the fact that corporations have very little in the way of restrictions when it comes to privacy. This is partially because they can always use the excuse that somehow your private life impacts the work you do for said corporation, therefore, they have the right to invade your privacy (although this is handled by basically saying if you want the chance to work, you have to sign this document which says we can look into your background, etc.). I'm a contractor by trade and I recently had to turn down a gig because the client wanted me to provide them with so much personal information that they could have easily taken over my identity to such a degree that I couldn't have proved that I was more me than they are (or someone working for them who had access to this information).
Both the government and private entities have to respect and enforce privacy or you have none.
Instead of waiting for big corps like IBM, Oracle, and Weblogic to step up, my suggestion is to simply not use their servers. I honestly don't know a "rational" reason for using any of them. It's amusing that companies will use tons of open source software but not if it's the app server. I could understand it if they were actually better but they aren't. In fact, they flat out suck.
The troops learn simple, common phrases in arabic but that's it. If you actually expect them to learn to speak or read it fluently, then you're expectations are completely unrealistic. Your argument might have some actual bite instead of weak flaimbaitness if you made such a comment about the leadership of the country that sends the troops there in the first place.
Well said. You're posting annonymously so unfortunately you will probably not be read by most of the people here.
It's unfortunate that so many people are so focused on what the latest democrat and republican scandals are that they don't see that they're really getting fucked from both sides. Neither party gives a flying fuck about "average Joe" in America. They care about power and money.
Because both parties have proven to be beyond contempt, I've decided I will never vote for another republican or democrat again. Sure, it narrows my choices a lot but at least I can sleep at night.
You don't get it. There's a big difference between your soundcard and his HD-DVDs...
The soundcard was a big improvement over the sound chip built into computers. The studios want people to pay a premium for these new discs that look only a hair better than regular DVDs. I'd love to see Sony's Superbit DVDs played next to the equibalent HD-DVD or Blue-ray disc. I'm guessing it would be indistinguishable.
It's not a matter of liking or not liking them. Reread my first sentence in my first post. That sums up my attitude entirely. Having said that, the U.S. does go beyond that principle and has more restrictions than I would like.
I realise my view is a bit idealistic. No matter how much I believe in the concept of personal responsibility, there will always be people who simply are not or are incapable of being responsible, so some controls must be in place to keep the potential impact of their irresponsibility to a minimum. However, the state needs to always balance this with the notion of freedom and not penalize everyone for the ill deeds of a few. Too often, the state is overy aggressive and leans to heavily toward restriction. If you think about it, there's a very short road from reasonable restrictions to fascist levels of control.
I want to live in a country where I'm free to do what I like so long as don't harm others in the process. I believe there are more important things in life than worrying about getting shot randomly by gun-toting rednecks.
In short, your paranoia shouldn't infringe upon my freedom. To be any other way is to be a slave to fear and I refuse to live that way.
"Perfect pitch is learned, not innate. Since it is learned, it can be taught."
While this is the case for most people, I don't believe it is a truism. I was watching 60 minutes once where they had these autistic kids who were musical prodigies. Every one of them had perfect pitch but they were never taught it. In fact, the most amazing things that no ordinary person could do were things these kids could do with absolutely no teaching of the subject at all. One of them (9 yr old girl) heard a Herbie Hancock album one and was able to take one of the songs and reproduce EVERY part of the song on her keyboard. One guy remembered EVERY song he'd ever learned and could take any song and instantly change the style of the song to any style of your choosing -- and I'm not talking simple cliche' changes. He could also tell you every note played on a piano when struck ten keys at once (simply not possible for normal people). There are grand master level musicians that would give their left nut to have the abilities that these kids had naturally. Honestly, if I hadn't seen their abilities on this show, I don't think I would have believed it.
In any event, the point I'm trying to make is that I believe that all of our brains are wired somewhat differently and sometimes that wiring enables certain abilities or enhances them. Denying that genetics and nature have something to do with it all is simply being in denial yourself.
"Why won't US senators and pressure groups worry about that instead of a computer game (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/11/000227 [slashdot.org])?"
Two reasons:
1) The senators get big money from the RIAA and the RIAA has lobbyists who's sole job it is to sweet talk these people. Additionally, our current administration is very pro-business and consistently sides with the corporation over the little guy whenever they meet head to head.
2) In theory at least, it makes them look better to attack video games because then they can say they are protecting children. Of course, they don't really give a shit about the kids. They just want look like they do.
Sorry for the cynical response but that's pretty much how it works here.
"The event is called the Apple World Wide Developers Conference.
Steve Jobs talked about the new version of the OS and new high end boxes. These are the products that will most directly impact the lives and work of those who develop software for Apple systems. This conference has never been about targetting consumers. It's all about things that matter to developers."
Seriously, you must be kidding. Of the stuff I heard about, I don't think (as a developer) that any of it interests me specifically as a developer. Improvements to iCal are supposed to really make me a better developer? And lets not forget that Jobs knows that everytime he so much as farts, it makes news. In short, there is no such thing as "just for developers" when it comes to Apple. If there is, it's clearly news to Apple since they obviously don't treat it that way.
Actually, they count less because they only support a very specific set of hardware. Windows has to support everything under the sun and do it well. The difference in difficulty is night and day. Frankly, OSX is child's play compared to what has to be accounted for in Windows. That said, I think Microsoft is a mediocre software shop that's trying to develop something well beyond their technical ability.
What you say is different than what I was told on Jury duty last week. What you say also makes little sense. If the jury is allowed to ignore the judge, then the judge serves no purpose. Think it through...
He is right about the jury though. The judge will tell them exactly what to base their decision on and the jury is required by law to follow the judges instructions.
Unfortunately, my guess is that a judge would tell them that downloading a copy of what he already owns is a violation of fair use even though it, in no way, violates the spirit of the fair use laws. The laws are merely behind the times of technology.
Re:Where are the innovations ?
on
Prey Review
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Sure, being in an international competition is exciting but it really has nothing whatsoever to do with the game itself. It has to do with the high and the pressure of a competition of that nature. None of this has anything to do with the innovation level of FPSs. Halo is a huge innovative leap from quake. There's simply no conparison between the two. Halo is brilliant. I loved every minute of it whether I played single or multiplayer and I've played every FPS game worth mentioning since Wolfenstein.
You need to learn to separate the *feeling* of the good ol' days when you were doing international competitions and now (which is probably jack shit). Seriously, you need deep psycological counceling if you really think there's been no innovation in the FPS genre.
"Sorry but you are wrong (and need to lose the chip on your shoulder too). He is just pointing out what he sees going on. Since when is pointing something out an excuse?"
He's the one with a chip on his shoulder. He has no proof to support his argument. He's speculating. The only point in making a public statement like that is to soften the blow should his game tank.
"You said yourself that WoW "sucks up 6.5 million players". I'd say that was a very significant share of the total PC gaming population. The issue isn't so much money, it is time. You can have all the cash in the world but you'll never have more than 24 hrs in a day. If you have only 1-2 hrs a day to play, and you are spending them on WoW, you have none to spend on other games. You won't even find out about other games or play demos because you don't have the time."
I'm one of the 6.5 million and I DO play other games. So just because someone plays WoW does not mean they cannot play other games. I have two friends who play WoW and other games. Believe it or not, not everyone who plays an MMO puts ALL their time just into that game. It's only the hardcore addicts that have that problem.
Personally, I think he's prepping excuses in case his game does poorly. If his game doesn't do well, he can simply point to WoW as the spoiler. It's lame and weak.
The bottom line is that WoW sucks up 6.5 million players. That's it. There's A LOT more gamers out there. Believe it or not, there's a lot of gamers who don't like RPGs and don't like massively multiplayer games (because of the grinding and timesink). I know several gamers who have never played WoW and have no intention of doing so for these very reasons. I only play WoW when there's no other compelling game to play because, frankly, as good as WoW is, it still gets boring grinding hour after hour. WoW just made some excellent evolutionary improvements for the genre but it didn't redefine it or revolutionize it in any way. Consequently, it's vulnerable have its players leached by other games, massively multiplayer or not.
My advice to this guy who's supposedly so worried about WoW is to focus on making his game as great as he can and STFU. The game will speak for itself. WoW may steal some of the money but there's PLENTY more out there.
I buy from allofmp3 simply because they offer me what I want. Price has nothing to do with it. As soon as another site allows me to set what encoding I want and what bitrate with no DRM, they will get my business. Unfortunately the music industry doesn't understand any of this.
Sorry but that's not going to happen in country where almost all of the radio stations are owned by four companies. Thank God for deregulation! It's just great, ain't it?
I don't think so. That's like saying, "It's against the law to be ripped off." Not that it really matters since in a criminal case there's that whole "beyond a reasonable doubt" thing which would pretty much put the kabash on it going anywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, they use IED's too but they also use sniper rifles which are also perfectly legal in the USA. Use of snipers has increased dramatically over the last several months and they are extremely effective at killing American soldiers.
As an American, I sadly must agree with this. From birth we are taught we live in the greatest nation in the world and this is repeated throughout our lives. (We are not the only country who receives this brainwashing either.) Of course, there's nothing wrong with being proud of your country but I think it's important to keep it real too. It use to be that "greatest nation" meant something beyond just money and military might. I'm afraid that is no longer the case. My idea of a great country doesn't include one that suspends habeas corpus.
Wrong. They use various flavors of AK-47's mostly, which are perfectly legal in many parts of the country. The only difference is that theirs are enabled for fully automatic fire but this is a trivial modification to make to the semi-auto AK's here within the US.
Did you actually have a point to make?
What you describe is not Pseudofolliculitis Barbae. Pseudofolliculitis Barbae is hair that curves back in on itself and re-enters the skin.
One thing it doesn't take into account is the fact that adherance and enforcement vary wildly from country to country. The US is pretty serious about both but in Mexico most people pay far less than the 24.6% tax specified in the list.
While I agree with everything you say in principle, I stand by what I said in practice. You also have to take into consideration the fact that corporations have very little in the way of restrictions when it comes to privacy. This is partially because they can always use the excuse that somehow your private life impacts the work you do for said corporation, therefore, they have the right to invade your privacy (although this is handled by basically saying if you want the chance to work, you have to sign this document which says we can look into your background, etc.). I'm a contractor by trade and I recently had to turn down a gig because the client wanted me to provide them with so much personal information that they could have easily taken over my identity to such a degree that I couldn't have proved that I was more me than they are (or someone working for them who had access to this information).
Both the government and private entities have to respect and enforce privacy or you have none.
Instead of waiting for big corps like IBM, Oracle, and Weblogic to step up, my suggestion is to simply not use their servers. I honestly don't know a "rational" reason for using any of them. It's amusing that companies will use tons of open source software but not if it's the app server. I could understand it if they were actually better but they aren't. In fact, they flat out suck.
You have no privacy whatsoever. More to the point and contrary to popular opinion, there is no right to privacy guaranteed by the constitution.
The troops learn simple, common phrases in arabic but that's it. If you actually expect them to learn to speak or read it fluently, then you're expectations are completely unrealistic. Your argument might have some actual bite instead of weak flaimbaitness if you made such a comment about the leadership of the country that sends the troops there in the first place.
Well said. You're posting annonymously so unfortunately you will probably not be read by most of the people here.
It's unfortunate that so many people are so focused on what the latest democrat and republican scandals are that they don't see that they're really getting fucked from both sides. Neither party gives a flying fuck about "average Joe" in America. They care about power and money.
Because both parties have proven to be beyond contempt, I've decided I will never vote for another republican or democrat again. Sure, it narrows my choices a lot but at least I can sleep at night.
It's true that we get the government we deserve.
You don't get it. There's a big difference between your soundcard and his HD-DVDs...
The soundcard was a big improvement over the sound chip built into computers. The studios want people to pay a premium for these new discs that look only a hair better than regular DVDs. I'd love to see Sony's Superbit DVDs played next to the equibalent HD-DVD or Blue-ray disc. I'm guessing it would be indistinguishable.
It's not a matter of liking or not liking them. Reread my first sentence in my first post. That sums up my attitude entirely. Having said that, the U.S. does go beyond that principle and has more restrictions than I would like.
I realise my view is a bit idealistic. No matter how much I believe in the concept of personal responsibility, there will always be people who simply are not or are incapable of being responsible, so some controls must be in place to keep the potential impact of their irresponsibility to a minimum. However, the state needs to always balance this with the notion of freedom and not penalize everyone for the ill deeds of a few. Too often, the state is overy aggressive and leans to heavily toward restriction. If you think about it, there's a very short road from reasonable restrictions to fascist levels of control.
I want to live in a country where I'm free to do what I like so long as don't harm others in the process. I believe there are more important things in life than worrying about getting shot randomly by gun-toting rednecks.
In short, your paranoia shouldn't infringe upon my freedom. To be any other way is to be a slave to fear and I refuse to live that way.
Enjoy your life in Denmark.
"Perfect pitch is learned, not innate. Since it is learned, it can be taught."
While this is the case for most people, I don't believe it is a truism. I was watching 60 minutes once where they had these autistic kids who were musical prodigies. Every one of them had perfect pitch but they were never taught it. In fact, the most amazing things that no ordinary person could do were things these kids could do with absolutely no teaching of the subject at all. One of them (9 yr old girl) heard a Herbie Hancock album one and was able to take one of the songs and reproduce EVERY part of the song on her keyboard. One guy remembered EVERY song he'd ever learned and could take any song and instantly change the style of the song to any style of your choosing -- and I'm not talking simple cliche' changes. He could also tell you every note played on a piano when struck ten keys at once (simply not possible for normal people). There are grand master level musicians that would give their left nut to have the abilities that these kids had naturally. Honestly, if I hadn't seen their abilities on this show, I don't think I would have believed it.
In any event, the point I'm trying to make is that I believe that all of our brains are wired somewhat differently and sometimes that wiring enables certain abilities or enhances them. Denying that genetics and nature have something to do with it all is simply being in denial yourself.
"Why won't US senators and pressure groups worry about that instead of a computer game (http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/11 /000227 [slashdot.org])?"
Two reasons:
1) The senators get big money from the RIAA and the RIAA has lobbyists who's sole job it is to sweet talk these people. Additionally, our current administration is very pro-business and consistently sides with the corporation over the little guy whenever they meet head to head.
2) In theory at least, it makes them look better to attack video games because then they can say they are protecting children. Of course, they don't really give a shit about the kids. They just want look like they do.
Sorry for the cynical response but that's pretty much how it works here.
Seriously, you must be kidding. Of the stuff I heard about, I don't think (as a developer) that any of it interests me specifically as a developer. Improvements to iCal are supposed to really make me a better developer? And lets not forget that Jobs knows that everytime he so much as farts, it makes news. In short, there is no such thing as "just for developers" when it comes to Apple. If there is, it's clearly news to Apple since they obviously don't treat it that way.
Actually, they count less because they only support a very specific set of hardware. Windows has to support everything under the sun and do it well. The difference in difficulty is night and day. Frankly, OSX is child's play compared to what has to be accounted for in Windows. That said, I think Microsoft is a mediocre software shop that's trying to develop something well beyond their technical ability.
What you say is different than what I was told on Jury duty last week. What you say also makes little sense. If the jury is allowed to ignore the judge, then the judge serves no purpose. Think it through...
He is right about the jury though. The judge will tell them exactly what to base their decision on and the jury is required by law to follow the judges instructions.
Unfortunately, my guess is that a judge would tell them that downloading a copy of what he already owns is a violation of fair use even though it, in no way, violates the spirit of the fair use laws. The laws are merely behind the times of technology.
Sure, being in an international competition is exciting but it really has nothing whatsoever to do with the game itself. It has to do with the high and the pressure of a competition of that nature. None of this has anything to do with the innovation level of FPSs. Halo is a huge innovative leap from quake. There's simply no conparison between the two. Halo is brilliant. I loved every minute of it whether I played single or multiplayer and I've played every FPS game worth mentioning since Wolfenstein.
You need to learn to separate the *feeling* of the good ol' days when you were doing international competitions and now (which is probably jack shit). Seriously, you need deep psycological counceling if you really think there's been no innovation in the FPS genre.
"Sorry but you are wrong (and need to lose the chip on your shoulder too). He is just pointing out what he sees going on. Since when is pointing something out an excuse?"
He's the one with a chip on his shoulder. He has no proof to support his argument. He's speculating. The only point in making a public statement like that is to soften the blow should his game tank.
"You said yourself that WoW "sucks up 6.5 million players". I'd say that was a very significant share of the total PC gaming population. The issue isn't so much money, it is time. You can have all the cash in the world but you'll never have more than 24 hrs in a day. If you have only 1-2 hrs a day to play, and you are spending them on WoW, you have none to spend on other games. You won't even find out about other games or play demos because you don't have the time."
I'm one of the 6.5 million and I DO play other games. So just because someone plays WoW does not mean they cannot play other games. I have two friends who play WoW and other games. Believe it or not, not everyone who plays an MMO puts ALL their time just into that game. It's only the hardcore addicts that have that problem.
Personally, I think he's prepping excuses in case his game does poorly. If his game doesn't do well, he can simply point to WoW as the spoiler. It's lame and weak.
The bottom line is that WoW sucks up 6.5 million players. That's it. There's A LOT more gamers out there. Believe it or not, there's a lot of gamers who don't like RPGs and don't like massively multiplayer games (because of the grinding and timesink). I know several gamers who have never played WoW and have no intention of doing so for these very reasons. I only play WoW when there's no other compelling game to play because, frankly, as good as WoW is, it still gets boring grinding hour after hour. WoW just made some excellent evolutionary improvements for the genre but it didn't redefine it or revolutionize it in any way. Consequently, it's vulnerable have its players leached by other games, massively multiplayer or not.
My advice to this guy who's supposedly so worried about WoW is to focus on making his game as great as he can and STFU. The game will speak for itself. WoW may steal some of the money but there's PLENTY more out there.
I buy from allofmp3 simply because they offer me what I want. Price has nothing to do with it. As soon as another site allows me to set what encoding I want and what bitrate with no DRM, they will get my business. Unfortunately the music industry doesn't understand any of this.
Sorry but that's not going to happen in country where almost all of the radio stations are owned by four companies. Thank God for deregulation! It's just great, ain't it?
I don't think so. That's like saying, "It's against the law to be ripped off." Not that it really matters since in a criminal case there's that whole "beyond a reasonable doubt" thing which would pretty much put the kabash on it going anywhere.