No sane console vendor would license a patented killer feature to the competition at any price.
I'm not arguing that they shouldn't be able to patent this stuff. It wasn't an anti-patent rant... It's more of a lament of where gameplay innovation has gone to. Novel input methods aren't born in the arcade and then licensed for home use anymore. They're cooked up by the console makers as a bludgeon to kill off competition.
If it cost them anywhere near a billion dollars to make The Sims 3, they're doing it wrong.
They probably farmed production out the the cheapest off-shore duplicator they could find and the leak is probably off site. If so, all the upper and middle management should hang for it.
Yes, based on your anecdotal sample size of one, clearly I'm making this up.
She has a mild case of Eczema, which is commonly aggrivated by excessive washing. It causes cracking peeling, swelling and scarring. Her thumb prints have *not* grown back.
My wife worked at a biotech company. She had to wash her hands constantly for her job, and her fingerprints just washed off eventually.... But their security system to gain access to the building involved a fingerprint scanner and PIN.
She had to get a security exception to get into the building every single day.
First of all, it's divided over two years. Second, probably more than half of it is just having the game open in the background as a chat client while I'm doing something else like coding, or something.
If, for some reason, I continue to play at this pace for another 5 years (highly unlikely), I may some day approach the amount of time I spent in IRC channels in college.
I think I just have a unique worldview. I'm one of the few people who can say "I want to do this" and just go do it.
I would consider myself one of those people too. I know a lot of people like that. I think you're confusing "few people" being able to do that with "few people wanting the same random things that you want".
Personally, I started down a different path than you by not ever weighing 400lbs, or going into debt in the first place.... Solving problems you got yourself into isn't really all that great of an example when you're arguing there are better things to do with your life than play (a) video game(s).
play WoW for a few months, tell me your not feeling the itch!
As somebody who has quit an MMO before after signifigant time investment, and who currently plays WoW, I can tell you that the first week is the hardest. Three months later there's no "itch"...
The gameplay alone in any MMO I've ever seen is not enough to be "addicting". Certainly not the gameplay in WoW, which has been steadily going downhill. It's the combination of the gameplay, rewards, and social interactions that keep people coming back. After three months, you've figured out how to stay in touch with the people you wanted to stay in touch with outside of the game environment, and you've lost contact with everybody else from the game entirely. The social aspect is gone, and you have no reason to go back. If you did, you'd have to start from scratch building new relationships, and a *ton* of effort would be required to get your 'fix'.
Obviously, if a large number of your circle of friends continues to play, there will still be a draw... But the game itself? You'll have found a new one by then.
The problem is that when you're 16-18, you don't have any clue what has a point in the real world. If you think you know that your high-school class has no point, all it means is that your parents didn't teach you the lessons that they were supposed to... If you coddle a kid and tell them that they're the best thing ever to have happened to the world, they can then have sufficient ego to decide that the things adults have chosen to make them learn are 'useless'.
If the parents of those kids hadn't failed them, the kids could take some initiative and chose to learn the material despite having an uninteresting teacher.
Something like this could theoretically change "diagnosed" into diagnosed.
Think of all the false diagnoses that could be prevented if there were a sure-fire test. No more lazy teacher not wanting to deal with a discipline case sending the parents off to medicate....
This email was the first thing that came to my mind. I don't really see anybody looking from the ATM refiller's perspective; I am sure they have been told to record events like these; and for this exact reason they had the incident report.
Oh? Recording the incident involves cuffing the guy?
A simple "I took a photo of your ATM because I like to learn how the insides of things work; Would you like me to delete the photo from my iPhone and Google it when i get home instead?" should have sufficed.
A simple "If you didn't want people seeing the inside of your ATM you shouldn't have opened it up in front of a crowd of people. Oh, and if you think I'm going to delete the photo you're in for some disappointment" should have sufficed. The security guard should then proceeded to tuck his dick between his legs and hobble back to tell his boss how he should be fired for being clinically stupid.
Your post doesn't compute. Thinking about this from the refiller's perspective, I can't imagine how the guy was actually following any sort of well thought out procedure. If you don't want somebody seeing how your ATM works, make sure they're not standing there before you start mucking about with it. And of course people get upset about this kind of thing. You're reading a site where a fair percentage of the readership could find themselves in the same situation. This isn't about some random guy getting arrested for being a "smart-arse"... This is about seeing ourselves in the same situation, and not wanting to be arrested for it. Last I checked, being a "smart-arse" isn't illegal, but cops abusing their power to intimidate somebody is.
The "learn what you enjoy" theory has always seemed like a giant load of bull to me.
Education is hugely expensive. Going to school for what you want instead of for something practical is a massive, massive luxury. Unless you're wealthy, or on scholarship, you should go to school for something that pays the bills. By the time you get to college, you're an adult. It's time to start acting like one.
What does that mean for getting a masters? If somebody is going to pay for it for you, you'd be a fool not to do it. Beyond that, you need to do a cost/benefit analysis. Remember that if you choose incorrectly, paying for your education will have enormous impact on your quality of life for decades.
It will never be more acceptable than tobacco smoking. Look what's happening with that in the US. Even in the states that are "close" to legalizing marijuana.
Ugh. I hate when people say this outside of the context of Wikipedia.
Slashdot is not meant as reference material. It is a discussion forum. The simple fact that you are anecdotally unaware of some data doesn't mean a citation is required. Either use google, or assert why you think I'm incorrect. Don't expect that assertion to be particularly persuasive, though, if all you back it up with is "in my experience". Especially if you're not a known expert (Mr. Coward).
If you go around expecting people to provide references for easily verifiable facts in discussion, you're going to be disappointed. If you expect to win arguments by pointing out that people didn't cite easily verifiable facts in discussion you're going to be disappointed *and* a huge bore at parties. If you expect people to think you're clever for saying '[citation needed]' in a slashdot discussion, well, 2007 called and it wants its meme back.
Even if you neglect big companies, there are billions spent in startups for things as high level as drugs for a specific disease, or as low level as analytical chemistry.
Why would you trust the government to spend this on worthwhile things without being told what it was going to be spent on?
If you know in advance, there can be public debate. Knowledgeable people can make a case one way or the other. Then you can trust that you're spending money on the right things.
This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to needless government waste.
Why would you trust the government to spend this on worthwhile things without being told what it was going to be spent on?
I don't deny that the types of things you describe exist. I don't even deny that it's worth the government funding them. But there's a big difference between that and just blowing a half a billion dollars 'cause you've decided you're going to spend that much. The correct way to do it is to decide what your priorities are, then decide how much to spend on them. Not to decide how much you're going to spend first, and what you're going to spend it on after.
I can't. But you can easily find, using Google, places that will sell you read-only duplications for $0.25 each.
Nowhere in the linked article does it say this new storage is writeable/re-writable. It's being marketed to movie studios (again, according to the article), so one assumes that it's intended for read-only purposes.
I do know. However there is a clear implication here that this R&D won't happen unless the government funds it. There is also no evidence (especially without a list of exactly what the money is going to be spent on) that the things the government would fund research into wouldn't get funding without government involvement.
Apparently, according to the moderators, pointing that out is trolling.
We already spend more than 3% of GDP on Science R&D....
Oh, he means the government should spend 3% of GDP on R&D. Of course. Can't trust that shifty-eyed private industry. You know... The ones generating the GDP.
That's the difference between a pre-pressed BluRay disc, and a rewritable BluRay disc. Not a confusion between cents and dollars (which doesn't even make sense here).
We've currently got optical storage (BluRay) that holds 50GB for $0.005/GB. Is there really a demand for distributing 10x more static media for 20x the price?
It seems to me that the trend will be towards smaller and cheaper before higher capacity.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not confused. Let me fix your comment.
No sane console vendor would license a patented killer feature to the competition at any price.
I'm not arguing that they shouldn't be able to patent this stuff. It wasn't an anti-patent rant... It's more of a lament of where gameplay innovation has gone to. Novel input methods aren't born in the arcade and then licensed for home use anymore. They're cooked up by the console makers as a bludgeon to kill off competition.
Not because they're a terrible idea.... Mostly because they're all patented. If one vendor's system "wins", we all lose.
Without competition, there are no price wars.. There's no innovation.. You're lucky if there are even incremental upgrades.
If it cost them anywhere near a billion dollars to make The Sims 3, they're doing it wrong.
They probably farmed production out the the cheapest off-shore duplicator they could find and the leak is probably off site. If so, all the upper and middle management should hang for it.
Yes, based on your anecdotal sample size of one, clearly I'm making this up.
She has a mild case of Eczema, which is commonly aggrivated by excessive washing. It causes cracking peeling, swelling and scarring. Her thumb prints have *not* grown back.
My wife worked at a biotech company. She had to wash her hands constantly for her job, and her fingerprints just washed off eventually.... But their security system to gain access to the building involved a fingerprint scanner and PIN.
She had to get a security exception to get into the building every single day.
I'm approaching 99 days "/played"...
And it's not rediculous at all.
First of all, it's divided over two years. Second, probably more than half of it is just having the game open in the background as a chat client while I'm doing something else like coding, or something.
If, for some reason, I continue to play at this pace for another 5 years (highly unlikely), I may some day approach the amount of time I spent in IRC channels in college.
I would consider myself one of those people too. I know a lot of people like that. I think you're confusing "few people" being able to do that with "few people wanting the same random things that you want".
Personally, I started down a different path than you by not ever weighing 400lbs, or going into debt in the first place.... Solving problems you got yourself into isn't really all that great of an example when you're arguing there are better things to do with your life than play (a) video game(s).
As somebody who has quit an MMO before after signifigant time investment, and who currently plays WoW, I can tell you that the first week is the hardest. Three months later there's no "itch"...
The gameplay alone in any MMO I've ever seen is not enough to be "addicting". Certainly not the gameplay in WoW, which has been steadily going downhill. It's the combination of the gameplay, rewards, and social interactions that keep people coming back. After three months, you've figured out how to stay in touch with the people you wanted to stay in touch with outside of the game environment, and you've lost contact with everybody else from the game entirely. The social aspect is gone, and you have no reason to go back. If you did, you'd have to start from scratch building new relationships, and a *ton* of effort would be required to get your 'fix'.
Obviously, if a large number of your circle of friends continues to play, there will still be a draw... But the game itself? You'll have found a new one by then.
The problem is that when you're 16-18, you don't have any clue what has a point in the real world. If you think you know that your high-school class has no point, all it means is that your parents didn't teach you the lessons that they were supposed to... If you coddle a kid and tell them that they're the best thing ever to have happened to the world, they can then have sufficient ego to decide that the things adults have chosen to make them learn are 'useless'.
If the parents of those kids hadn't failed them, the kids could take some initiative and chose to learn the material despite having an uninteresting teacher.
Something like this could theoretically change "diagnosed" into diagnosed.
Think of all the false diagnoses that could be prevented if there were a sure-fire test. No more lazy teacher not wanting to deal with a discipline case sending the parents off to medicate....
Randomness wasn't the true goal here. It's quite possible that this machine is less-random than his pseudo-random-number generator.
The real goal here was catering to the superstitions of the quirky types that play dice games by mail.
I suspect that this will still be insufficient. Real gaming nerds like to select their weapon (die) for a particular roll.
Welcome to the world of computer vision.
If you're expecting magical software with human like intelligence (many people do...), I suggest you don't look behind the curtain.
This email was the first thing that came to my mind. I don't really see anybody looking from the ATM refiller's perspective; I am sure they have been told to record events like these; and for this exact reason they had the incident report.
Oh? Recording the incident involves cuffing the guy?
A simple "I took a photo of your ATM because I like to learn how the insides of things work; Would you like me to delete the photo from my iPhone and Google it when i get home instead?" should have sufficed.
A simple "If you didn't want people seeing the inside of your ATM you shouldn't have opened it up in front of a crowd of people. Oh, and if you think I'm going to delete the photo you're in for some disappointment" should have sufficed. The security guard should then proceeded to tuck his dick between his legs and hobble back to tell his boss how he should be fired for being clinically stupid.
Your post doesn't compute. Thinking about this from the refiller's perspective, I can't imagine how the guy was actually following any sort of well thought out procedure. If you don't want somebody seeing how your ATM works, make sure they're not standing there before you start mucking about with it. And of course people get upset about this kind of thing. You're reading a site where a fair percentage of the readership could find themselves in the same situation. This isn't about some random guy getting arrested for being a "smart-arse"... This is about seeing ourselves in the same situation, and not wanting to be arrested for it. Last I checked, being a "smart-arse" isn't illegal, but cops abusing their power to intimidate somebody is.
The "learn what you enjoy" theory has always seemed like a giant load of bull to me.
Education is hugely expensive. Going to school for what you want instead of for something practical is a massive, massive luxury. Unless you're wealthy, or on scholarship, you should go to school for something that pays the bills. By the time you get to college, you're an adult. It's time to start acting like one.
What does that mean for getting a masters? If somebody is going to pay for it for you, you'd be a fool not to do it. Beyond that, you need to do a cost/benefit analysis. Remember that if you choose incorrectly, paying for your education will have enormous impact on your quality of life for decades.
It will never be more acceptable than tobacco smoking. Look what's happening with that in the US. Even in the states that are "close" to legalizing marijuana.
As they say on wikipeadia, [Citation needed].
Ugh. I hate when people say this outside of the context of Wikipedia.
Slashdot is not meant as reference material. It is a discussion forum. The simple fact that you are anecdotally unaware of some data doesn't mean a citation is required. Either use google, or assert why you think I'm incorrect. Don't expect that assertion to be particularly persuasive, though, if all you back it up with is "in my experience". Especially if you're not a known expert (Mr. Coward).
If you go around expecting people to provide references for easily verifiable facts in discussion, you're going to be disappointed. If you expect to win arguments by pointing out that people didn't cite easily verifiable facts in discussion you're going to be disappointed *and* a huge bore at parties. If you expect people to think you're clever for saying '[citation needed]' in a slashdot discussion, well, 2007 called and it wants its meme back.
What is a NIC card
It's a close relative to the ATM machine.
You may only know of one, but many exist.
Even if you neglect big companies, there are billions spent in startups for things as high level as drugs for a specific disease, or as low level as analytical chemistry.
You're neglecting half of what I said.
If you know in advance, there can be public debate. Knowledgeable people can make a case one way or the other. Then you can trust that you're spending money on the right things.
This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to needless government waste.
Why would you trust the government to spend this on worthwhile things without being told what it was going to be spent on?
I don't deny that the types of things you describe exist. I don't even deny that it's worth the government funding them. But there's a big difference between that and just blowing a half a billion dollars 'cause you've decided you're going to spend that much. The correct way to do it is to decide what your priorities are, then decide how much to spend on them. Not to decide how much you're going to spend first, and what you're going to spend it on after.
I can't. But you can easily find, using Google, places that will sell you read-only duplications for $0.25 each.
Nowhere in the linked article does it say this new storage is writeable/re-writable. It's being marketed to movie studios (again, according to the article), so one assumes that it's intended for read-only purposes.
I do know. However there is a clear implication here that this R&D won't happen unless the government funds it. There is also no evidence (especially without a list of exactly what the money is going to be spent on) that the things the government would fund research into wouldn't get funding without government involvement.
Apparently, according to the moderators, pointing that out is trolling.
We already spend more than 3% of GDP on Science R&D....
Oh, he means the government should spend 3% of GDP on R&D. Of course. Can't trust that shifty-eyed private industry. You know... The ones generating the GDP.
That would be funny if you didn't have it backwards. (I didn't say .005 cents, I said .005 dollars)
I literally meant a half a cent per gigabyte for a pressed read-only BluRay disc.
That's the difference between a pre-pressed BluRay disc, and a rewritable BluRay disc. Not a confusion between cents and dollars (which doesn't even make sense here).
We've currently got optical storage (BluRay) that holds 50GB for $0.005/GB. Is there really a demand for distributing 10x more static media for 20x the price?
It seems to me that the trend will be towards smaller and cheaper before higher capacity.