The problem with this system is that many of these machines wirelessly transmit the CC# to the POS machine, cleartext. Sniffers in a van in the parking lot intercept the CC# and clone it anyways. A poster above you had exactly this happen to him (although he didn't realize how it was done.)
It's not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself.[...]The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there's a fourth pixel in every triad. So there's red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff.
You can only stream data so fast, and hold only so much in RAM, which limits the amount of geometry/textures that can be shown (and thus need to be created) per hour of cinematic gameplay. Unless some revolution in multiplayer modes comes about, multiplayer costs will mostly be for a predictable number of coding hours. As long as people are ok buying $60 action games with 4-12 hour campaigns and some standard multiplayer modes, the costs for that type of game are pretty predictable if it's not a mismanaged project. MMOs are where the costs are really huge, although single-player open world games tend to have highly reused geometry (*cough* Crackdown 2 *cough*) that doesn't cost as much for some reason.
I imagine with the next generation of consoles that costs will start increasing again, though.
I actually read an article about issues like this, and it seems different states have different wording in their wiretapping statutes. In some states, the audio part of the recording is what's illegal (many cellphones and pocket cameras record audio when they record video with no way to turn the microphone off). In other states, there's an exemption if it's obvious to all parties that what's happening is being recorded (local Channel 5 reporters with 50-pound cameras talking into a huge mic.) or if it's taking place in a public area (no privacy in public, remember?) but it seems judges are ignoring the public area exemption in cases like these.
If you have such a video, submit it to your local news station with a note requesting anonymity, or use a Youtube account created and accessed via TOR. If the police confiscate your camera/phone, you can sue and successfully get it back. One thing I do wonder: how is it not a violation for cops to have dashboard-mounted cameras that record audio and video constantly, yet a brief cellphone video of a pulled-over cop is a violation.
Just because it has a low profile doesn't make it any less an instance of disinformation. It deserves to be uncovered on a blog, but probably isn't Slashdot-worthy.
An xbox.com feature wouldn't mention this, but the Achievements system was systematically developed to appeal to one's higher psychological needs (esteem needs), and it gets obvious when you look at a few features:
Achievements are basically trophies that (supposedly) represent positive accomplishments, which fulfills our need to have meaningful accomplishments and triumphs in our life. You can browse other people's Achievements, so it gives the same feeling as a boast of "look what I did!" even if noone looks at your trophycase.
GamerScore is directly related to this, and is most comparable to money. You get it via any number of Achievements, and just like people boast about their income, players can boast about their GamerScore. GamerScore is prominently displayed on one's profile, so competitive types try to make it higher than anyone else's, presumably for 'prestige'. Of course it can't be spent so it has no intrinsic value.
Leaderboards are like GamerScore in that it allows for ranking one person as being 'better than' another, but it's for a specific game. The vast majority of people are unlikely to be thrilled that they're 2,000th on the leaderboards, though, so it's kept more for tradition than because it's intended to mesh with the other two systems.
Each game only doles out a maximum of so much GamerScore and Achievements, so if you want more then you'll need to rent/buy more games. Xbox Live Indie Games aren't allowed to award any GamerScore or Achievements, and some pro gamers have admitted to passing over them for that reason alone.
And yes, I know RPGs do basically the same thing. Notice that upgrade/leveling mechanics are working their way into EVERY genre nowadays? Makes one wonder about the esteem of hardcore gamers.
I have a potential solution to all three problems. Essentially, a random sample of constituents would be able to vote on any given issue; their voting would be compulsory, if they didn't vote they'd be removed from a list and wouldn't be allowed to vote again. This would prevent a vocal minority from being overrepresented while the majority is apathetic.
How to avoid fraud? Those who are selected to vote would be mailed an embedded system that is hard-coded to only be able to register votes with the voting server. It would use a modem (that dials in directly to the voting server) and self-signed certificates to avoid ISP blocking, vote sniffing or MITM attacks. I don't know how to mitigate DoSing the server, though. If it's kept secret who is able to vote for any given issue, bribery/intimidation would be more difficult; someone could claim "I'm not voting right now." Poor people accepting bribes to vote for Corrupt Party A is understandable when the alternative is getting no money and voting for Corrupt Party B. Actually voting on a specific law has a more concrete effect than one political party that can't be predicted to act better than another.
Nowadays, most game developers are owned by bottom-line-oriented publishers who prefer consoles over the PC for the reasons listed in the summary. There are very few developers who are enough of hardware geeks to want to push the envelope beyond what consoles can manage -- iD's Doom 3 and Crytek's Crysis are the only ones I can think of offhand, although both companies have sold out to consoles in recent years. Strategy games and MMOs are still PC-centric due to needing a mouse or dozens of keys; if the standard $200 Xbox 360 came with a mouse and keyboard, PC exclusives would be toast.
Mr. Brown owns the copyright, and it is HIS CHOICE whether to permit it or not. If he chooses to miss these sales, then maybe he's worse off for it, but that's his decision.
Copyright law exists for the advancement of society, not for the arbitrary whims of creators. His desires are moot compared to the overall effect on society.
Furthermore, what if the server resides in some far corner of the planet, and Google is testing the speed from SoCal? The speed GOOG gets will not always resemble what someone else (potentially across the ocean) will get, unless they test at every major node of the internet.
The bridge game referred to would be a game with a tiny learning curve. Nintendo handhelds are great at attracting these kinds of games -- Tetris, Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, Mario to name a few. Many DS games let you save at any point, allowing one to play for 15 minutes yet achieve progress. I'm skeptical that Farmville really has a 'zero learning curve' if you've never seen a computer before; all games other than Pong assume you know SOME basics.
It seems Motti is saying (judging by the translation) that he wants data retention of the IPs of kiddy porn uploaders, not retention of IPs of people who search for certain things on search engines. He specifically mentions Facebook and Youtube. Problem is, no law would be made that only requires retention of IPs that were connected to uploading kiddy porn (since any site could save money and work around the law by not trying to detect it as it's uploaded, and not storing IPs to later connect to flagged content). The only 'effective' solution is to keep every uploader's IP for a long time -- think of how long the TSA holds on to laptops, that's how long they need. The few non-trolls uploading kiddy porn to websites will move to non-EU servers (as if they didn't already) or another protocol.
Now, every insult becomes grounds for a defamation trial, with a guarantee of finding a defendant! Try not to say anything bad about royalty or religious icons, either. Uncovering astroturfers isn't made any easier, so this won't negatively affect the government/corporate overlords.
I swear politicians see 10 different moles to whack, figure out a way to whack 1 of them, and say "see I'm doing something about the mole problem" while ignoring the collateral damage, and the rat problem, rabbit problem, etc. It'd help alot if there didn't exist such universal revulsion to any practice or a group associated with it; some sanity to combat the anti-paedo witchhunt will go a long way preventing these kind of directives. I think the average person realizes that terrorism is really rare in western countries and there likely isn't a terrorist living next door, so maybe the panic will die down there first. But then we'll need a new ideological bogeyman, wonder what it'll be next. Pirate party politics maybe?
They could have the boys and girls sleep in different tents. Alternatively, it could be optional, with some CYA disclaimer form that has to be signed by the parents of the children who go. Furthermore, the implication that boys and men can't be trusted not to rape girls makes me a sad panda.
If the FBI is making automated scans of Facebook looking for certain combinations of words, I imagine they're also automatically scanning purchase data aggregated by Choicepoint et al looking for certain combinations of products. Remember, pay in cash and don't use your discount card if you want to purchase a pistol and Catcher In The Rye. Also, hope that your medication never gets its components used by drug cookers. I pray they're not abusing the PATRIOT Act to have automated access to all libraries' databases.
Am I the only one who's getting really sick of shooters? It seems 1st and 3rd person shooters are the "go-to" safe bet genre nowadays, like platformers were in the early '90s. There's only so many times I can shoot the same mooks with the same automatic rifles before I stop enjoying it. There's always another new element promising deeper gameplay (cover mechanics, stealth, vehicles) but you're still aligning the crosshair with the head and pulling the trigger like you were 13 years ago.
Maybe I'm just jaded, but most of the major game announcements at E3 are sequels or riding the coattails of a different blockbuster series. Aside from Last Guardian, all of the atypical games I'm looking forward to are indie games.
New games having 3d support is a no-brainer, the real information is the pricing on the Move. $49 for a wand and $29 for a navigation controller is $10 higher (each) than the respective Wii controllers; add in the cost of the Eye ($39) and there's going to be alot of angst over the cost of this new optional hardware. First-party Move games being priced at $39 was a smart move, undercutting first-party Wii games by $10; to be fair, Sony is no Nintendo when it comes to first-party games, and it seems most of the Move-compatible games are traditional games with Move support shoehorned in. In conclusion, it's not going to compete with the Wii, it's for PS3 owners who are willing to drop the cash to play a couple decent games that require it. No killer app was announced, so it's going to end up the same way as the Sega CD unless something out of left field (think Scribblenauts) is shown on the floor in the next couple days.
according to WikiLeaks' twitter feed: "Allegations in Wired that we have been sent 260,000 classified US embassy cables are, as far as we can tell, incorrect." Would Wikileaks have a reason to lie and withhold these messages, if the US govt. has the capability to find out if Manning sent them to Wikileaks? Maybe he leaked them, but to someone else, and it was simply assumed to have been to Wikileaks?
What happens when 50 million men realize it is mathematically impossible to have a family? Talk about a social experiment.
At least one of these things would happen: 1. Polyandry 2. Men marrying younger women, with the next generation having to marry progressively younger women. 3. Increased mortality of men, traditionally via military service. 4. Men leaving the country, or 'importing' women.
Why do politicians need money? To pay for the advertising in order to increase voter awareness of their campaign. Voters tend to not vote for a candidate they haven't heard of, if there's an alternate where they have. I reckon most voters only do actual research on candidates in an important race which has few candidates (e.g. President), so for most political seats, ads are the only thing a voter goes on. I imagine the ads are made by highly-paid PR men, and more ad spending tends to cause the networks to spend more time talking about the candidate (with the justification that they 'appear to be a serious contender'). More interest -> more coverage -> more interest
Lincoln had enough respect and name-recognition from his publishing his debates with Douglas to win the Presidency, so this is a viable alternative... which is probably why so many people who run for president have authored several books about their beliefs and ideas.
It also takes alot of money to hire people to go door to door to get enough signatures to get them on the ballot. This is much more expensive for those running for President, as it has to be done in every state. I could imagine some kind of grass-roots effort of volunteers getting signatures, run by local people who strongly support the candidate, which is done already, but at a scale that would suffice by itself and not require paying others.
Eliminating the conflict of interest between media and politicians would require banning political ads and creating an official highly-publicized series of debates, where anyone who is on the ballot can participate. I can't shake the feeling that media would still mainly cover the Two Parties and voters would continue voting for them out of sheer inertia, though. Switching to Range Voting would probably be more effective.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with this system is that many of these machines wirelessly transmit the CC# to the POS machine, cleartext. Sniffers in a van in the parking lot intercept the CC# and clone it anyways. A poster above you had exactly this happen to him (although he didn't realize how it was done.)
It's not going to have any cameras or projectors because the cameras will be embedded in the device itself.[...]The best way to think about it is like a big LCD where there's a fourth pixel in every triad. So there's red, green, and blue pixels giving you light, and a fourth pixel which is a sensor that will capture stuff.
Preorder your Microsoft Telescreen today!
You can only stream data so fast, and hold only so much in RAM, which limits the amount of geometry/textures that can be shown (and thus need to be created) per hour of cinematic gameplay. Unless some revolution in multiplayer modes comes about, multiplayer costs will mostly be for a predictable number of coding hours. As long as people are ok buying $60 action games with 4-12 hour campaigns and some standard multiplayer modes, the costs for that type of game are pretty predictable if it's not a mismanaged project. MMOs are where the costs are really huge, although single-player open world games tend to have highly reused geometry (*cough* Crackdown 2 *cough*) that doesn't cost as much for some reason.
I imagine with the next generation of consoles that costs will start increasing again, though.
Who is this lady and why is she not on a plane to Alaska?
<Tinfoil Hat>She sabotaged the last one?</Tinfoil Hat>
I actually read an article about issues like this, and it seems different states have different wording in their wiretapping statutes. In some states, the audio part of the recording is what's illegal (many cellphones and pocket cameras record audio when they record video with no way to turn the microphone off). In other states, there's an exemption if it's obvious to all parties that what's happening is being recorded (local Channel 5 reporters with 50-pound cameras talking into a huge mic.) or if it's taking place in a public area (no privacy in public, remember?) but it seems judges are ignoring the public area exemption in cases like these.
If you have such a video, submit it to your local news station with a note requesting anonymity, or use a Youtube account created and accessed via TOR. If the police confiscate your camera/phone, you can sue and successfully get it back.
One thing I do wonder: how is it not a violation for cops to have dashboard-mounted cameras that record audio and video constantly, yet a brief cellphone video of a pulled-over cop is a violation.
Just because it has a low profile doesn't make it any less an instance of disinformation.
It deserves to be uncovered on a blog, but probably isn't Slashdot-worthy.
We've upped our ante; up yours!
The only right I want to vote away is the right to vote away other people's rights.
Sandbox A will be put inside Sandbox B, and Sandbox B will be put inside Sandbox A. Problem solved!
An xbox.com feature wouldn't mention this, but the Achievements system was systematically developed to appeal to one's higher psychological needs (esteem needs), and it gets obvious when you look at a few features:
Achievements are basically trophies that (supposedly) represent positive accomplishments, which fulfills our need to have meaningful accomplishments and triumphs in our life. You can browse other people's Achievements, so it gives the same feeling as a boast of "look what I did!" even if noone looks at your trophycase.
GamerScore is directly related to this, and is most comparable to money. You get it via any number of Achievements, and just like people boast about their income, players can boast about their GamerScore. GamerScore is prominently displayed on one's profile, so competitive types try to make it higher than anyone else's, presumably for 'prestige'. Of course it can't be spent so it has no intrinsic value.
Leaderboards are like GamerScore in that it allows for ranking one person as being 'better than' another, but it's for a specific game. The vast majority of people are unlikely to be thrilled that they're 2,000th on the leaderboards, though, so it's kept more for tradition than because it's intended to mesh with the other two systems.
Each game only doles out a maximum of so much GamerScore and Achievements, so if you want more then you'll need to rent/buy more games. Xbox Live Indie Games aren't allowed to award any GamerScore or Achievements, and some pro gamers have admitted to passing over them for that reason alone.
And yes, I know RPGs do basically the same thing. Notice that upgrade/leveling mechanics are working their way into EVERY genre nowadays? Makes one wonder about the esteem of hardcore gamers.
I have a potential solution to all three problems. Essentially, a random sample of constituents would be able to vote on any given issue; their voting would be compulsory, if they didn't vote they'd be removed from a list and wouldn't be allowed to vote again. This would prevent a vocal minority from being overrepresented while the majority is apathetic.
How to avoid fraud? Those who are selected to vote would be mailed an embedded system that is hard-coded to only be able to register votes with the voting server. It would use a modem (that dials in directly to the voting server) and self-signed certificates to avoid ISP blocking, vote sniffing or MITM attacks. I don't know how to mitigate DoSing the server, though. If it's kept secret who is able to vote for any given issue, bribery/intimidation would be more difficult; someone could claim "I'm not voting right now." Poor people accepting bribes to vote for Corrupt Party A is understandable when the alternative is getting no money and voting for Corrupt Party B. Actually voting on a specific law has a more concrete effect than one political party that can't be predicted to act better than another.
Nowadays, most game developers are owned by bottom-line-oriented publishers who prefer consoles over the PC for the reasons listed in the summary. There are very few developers who are enough of hardware geeks to want to push the envelope beyond what consoles can manage -- iD's Doom 3 and Crytek's Crysis are the only ones I can think of offhand, although both companies have sold out to consoles in recent years. Strategy games and MMOs are still PC-centric due to needing a mouse or dozens of keys; if the standard $200 Xbox 360 came with a mouse and keyboard, PC exclusives would be toast.
Mr. Brown owns the copyright, and it is HIS CHOICE whether to permit it or not. If he chooses to miss these sales, then maybe he's worse off for it, but that's his decision.
Copyright law exists for the advancement of society, not for the arbitrary whims of creators. His desires are moot compared to the overall effect on society.
the police can simply publish a cryptographic hash of every card they archive after they have written fabricated evidence to it.
FTFY
Furthermore, what if the server resides in some far corner of the planet, and Google is testing the speed from SoCal? The speed GOOG gets will not always resemble what someone else (potentially across the ocean) will get, unless they test at every major node of the internet.
Independent contractor
The bridge game referred to would be a game with a tiny learning curve. Nintendo handhelds are great at attracting these kinds of games -- Tetris, Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, Mario to name a few. Many DS games let you save at any point, allowing one to play for 15 minutes yet achieve progress. I'm skeptical that Farmville really has a 'zero learning curve' if you've never seen a computer before; all games other than Pong assume you know SOME basics.
It seems Motti is saying (judging by the translation) that he wants data retention of the IPs of kiddy porn uploaders, not retention of IPs of people who search for certain things on search engines. He specifically mentions Facebook and Youtube. Problem is, no law would be made that only requires retention of IPs that were connected to uploading kiddy porn (since any site could save money and work around the law by not trying to detect it as it's uploaded, and not storing IPs to later connect to flagged content). The only 'effective' solution is to keep every uploader's IP for a long time -- think of how long the TSA holds on to laptops, that's how long they need. The few non-trolls uploading kiddy porn to websites will move to non-EU servers (as if they didn't already) or another protocol.
Now, every insult becomes grounds for a defamation trial, with a guarantee of finding a defendant! Try not to say anything bad about royalty or religious icons, either. Uncovering astroturfers isn't made any easier, so this won't negatively affect the government/corporate overlords.
I swear politicians see 10 different moles to whack, figure out a way to whack 1 of them, and say "see I'm doing something about the mole problem" while ignoring the collateral damage, and the rat problem, rabbit problem, etc.
It'd help alot if there didn't exist such universal revulsion to any practice or a group associated with it; some sanity to combat the anti-paedo witchhunt will go a long way preventing these kind of directives. I think the average person realizes that terrorism is really rare in western countries and there likely isn't a terrorist living next door, so maybe the panic will die down there first. But then we'll need a new ideological bogeyman, wonder what it'll be next. Pirate party politics maybe?
They could have the boys and girls sleep in different tents. Alternatively, it could be optional, with some CYA disclaimer form that has to be signed by the parents of the children who go.
Furthermore, the implication that boys and men can't be trusted not to rape girls makes me a sad panda.
If the FBI is making automated scans of Facebook looking for certain combinations of words, I imagine they're also automatically scanning purchase data aggregated by Choicepoint et al looking for certain combinations of products. Remember, pay in cash and don't use your discount card if you want to purchase a pistol and Catcher In The Rye. Also, hope that your medication never gets its components used by drug cookers. I pray they're not abusing the PATRIOT Act to have automated access to all libraries' databases.
Am I the only one who's getting really sick of shooters? It seems 1st and 3rd person shooters are the "go-to" safe bet genre nowadays, like platformers were in the early '90s. There's only so many times I can shoot the same mooks with the same automatic rifles before I stop enjoying it. There's always another new element promising deeper gameplay (cover mechanics, stealth, vehicles) but you're still aligning the crosshair with the head and pulling the trigger like you were 13 years ago.
Maybe I'm just jaded, but most of the major game announcements at E3 are sequels or riding the coattails of a different blockbuster series. Aside from Last Guardian, all of the atypical games I'm looking forward to are indie games.
New games having 3d support is a no-brainer, the real information is the pricing on the Move. $49 for a wand and $29 for a navigation controller is $10 higher (each) than the respective Wii controllers; add in the cost of the Eye ($39) and there's going to be alot of angst over the cost of this new optional hardware. First-party Move games being priced at $39 was a smart move, undercutting first-party Wii games by $10; to be fair, Sony is no Nintendo when it comes to first-party games, and it seems most of the Move-compatible games are traditional games with Move support shoehorned in. In conclusion, it's not going to compete with the Wii, it's for PS3 owners who are willing to drop the cash to play a couple decent games that require it. No killer app was announced, so it's going to end up the same way as the Sega CD unless something out of left field (think Scribblenauts) is shown on the floor in the next couple days.
according to WikiLeaks' twitter feed: "Allegations in Wired that we have been sent 260,000 classified US embassy cables are, as far as we can tell, incorrect."
Would Wikileaks have a reason to lie and withhold these messages, if the US govt. has the capability to find out if Manning sent them to Wikileaks? Maybe he leaked them, but to someone else, and it was simply assumed to have been to Wikileaks?
What happens when 50 million men realize it is mathematically impossible to have a family? Talk about a social experiment.
At least one of these things would happen:
1. Polyandry
2. Men marrying younger women, with the next generation having to marry progressively younger women.
3. Increased mortality of men, traditionally via military service.
4. Men leaving the country, or 'importing' women.
Why do politicians need money? To pay for the advertising in order to increase voter awareness of their campaign. Voters tend to not vote for a candidate they haven't heard of, if there's an alternate where they have. I reckon most voters only do actual research on candidates in an important race which has few candidates (e.g. President), so for most political seats, ads are the only thing a voter goes on. I imagine the ads are made by highly-paid PR men, and more ad spending tends to cause the networks to spend more time talking about the candidate (with the justification that they 'appear to be a serious contender'). More interest -> more coverage -> more interest
Lincoln had enough respect and name-recognition from his publishing his debates with Douglas to win the Presidency, so this is a viable alternative... which is probably why so many people who run for president have authored several books about their beliefs and ideas.
It also takes alot of money to hire people to go door to door to get enough signatures to get them on the ballot. This is much more expensive for those running for President, as it has to be done in every state. I could imagine some kind of grass-roots effort of volunteers getting signatures, run by local people who strongly support the candidate, which is done already, but at a scale that would suffice by itself and not require paying others.
Eliminating the conflict of interest between media and politicians would require banning political ads and creating an official highly-publicized series of debates, where anyone who is on the ballot can participate. I can't shake the feeling that media would still mainly cover the Two Parties and voters would continue voting for them out of sheer inertia, though. Switching to Range Voting would probably be more effective.