One day, the dollar won't even be accepted in half the countries of the world. "Your green money is no good here, white man - go exchange it for real money, then we'll barter!"
To the surprise of many tourists, this has always been the case in Japan. Yes, you can use your dollars to buy yen at banks and exchange centers, but try to use USD at any regular store and you'll get that reaction pretty much verbatim.
I don't know about that. The Japanese are already very focused on the "we" over the "me"; they are quite efficient and frugal. The average Japanese makes personal sacrifices that would be unthinkable for Americans: living in tiny homes, relying exclusively on public transportation (or bikes), rigorous classification of garbage... Yet the actual reduction in energy usage is not that large. Not to mention that lifestyle choices are determined by both infrastructure and societal factors, both of which take decades to change. It's not like Americans can "buckle up" and their energy problems will be solved, or even significantly improved, tomorrow.
You clearly have never seen any actual Japanese/Chinese using computers. The current system is actually a godsend, because they don't need to recall every detail of the thousands of characters that make up the language to write it correctly. Using a keyboard and good IME software enables them to write much faster, more accurately and with cleaner type than would ever be possible by hand. In fact, the keyboard method is so good that nowadays most young Japanese have trouble writing less common words by hand, due to the lack of practice.
Action by their own citizens? The line is so far away as to be non-existent. They're indoctrinated from a young age, mesmerized by the economic explosion and their culture has a long tradition of conformity and deference to authority.
From TFA:
“Since the dawn of time, humanity’s long journey has led us to countless discoveries, Yet with each leap forward for civilisation, more people have been left behind. But our quest has taken us to a completely new horizon. History is about to be rewritten. This time human beings will be at the centre -- and the machines will be the ones that adapt. After five million years of evolution, is it possible that the future of humanity is humanity itself?”
That the article repeats verbatim such a quote from Microsoft's presentation without even a slight nod to the gross self-aggrandization clued me to the fact that the whole piece is yet another corporate advertisement disguised as news.
I mean, in addition to the whole story starting with an emergency meeting on mid 2007 about the need to "reimagine a new direction for the Xbox" yet failing to point out it was all due to the runaway success of the Wii. It actually sticks out like a sore thumb to see these VPs panicking about something that the article refuses to acknowledge exists.
What happens with many F2P games in Asia is the division of users into paying and non-paying categories. As a free user, you simply can't compete with the paying users and do not attempt to. But you can become a mid-level player and get away with lots of stuff without paying a dime, which is part of the fun. It's like being a startup making a living among the corporate giants.
Aren't WoW players deluding themselves? You can already buy yourself an advantage at the endgame (or any other stage) through unauthorized Real Money Trading.
All online games where transfer of resources (either in-game or out-of-game, by handing over login info) is possible are being monetized by one party or another.
Marc Prensky: "Digital Natives" are more skilled with digital techonologies than previous generations and these technologies are naturally integrated within their lives.
The media: "Digital Natives" are Internet-obsessed cyborgs that communicate exclusively with people they've never met via 140-character messages.
This study: The concept of "Digital Natives" is wrong. They are merely more skilled with digital techonologies than previous generations and these technologies are naturally integrated within their lives.
For someone who's actually familiar with Prenky's writing, it is pretty funny to see the article trying to disprove the notion of "Digital Natives" (or the "net generation") by basically giving textbook examples of the concept. I wonder which kind of editor allows contradicting statements such as "Young people have basically no interest in Web 2.0" and "An impressive 15% of young people have uploaded videos to YouTube" to appear in the same article.
If anything the authors disproved their own misconceptions and wild exaggerations about how young people actually interact with digital technology.
Japan has many 2ndary schools, but any Japanese person will tell you that only 3 count; Tokyo, Todai, and a third whose name escapes me. If you are a Japanese citizen of means and you can't get your child into one of those three, that's when you consider sending your child to Harvard, Yale, Oxford, etc.
I have a Master's Degree from Tokyo University and the bullshit-per-word quotient of this post is staggering. First, you refer to universities as "2ndary schools". Second, "Todai" means "TOkyo DAIgaku" = "Tokyo University". Third, while Tokyo U is regarded as #1 unquestionably, there are at least 4 other universities on the top tier, namely Kyoto U, Waseda, Keio and Tohoku, and probably a couple more. Fourth, to get into these universities you really have to be an excellent student: your parents being "citizens of means" (whatever that is) has no bearing on the equation. Finally, in Japan only the educational elite goes overseas: if you could get into, say, Yale, it means you could have gone to a top school in Japan as well.
For the very reasons you mentioned, it's going to be pretty hard to get straight into coding. Give him access to highly moddable games, where he can see results with relatively little effort. Even if he doesn't progress into programming, it will set off his creative fires (provided he *has* a creative spark at all).
Also, you can't "get a teenager" into anything. The best you can do is show him the door; he has to walk through it. Do this badly, and you'll turn him off something he could have been genuinely interested in by himself in a couple years.
Finally, you should get the kid's parents a copy of Marc Prensky's "Don't bother me Mom, I'm learning!" so they know gaming is not the complete waste of time they assume it is.
Because the man can do the same exercises without the Wii, without the game.
Wii Fit is like a cheap personal trainer/motivator.
The same thing can be accomplished by handing the man a pamphlet, except Wii Fit motivates better.
Not true. First, the balance board gives you advice on your balance and posture while you do the exercises. Second, the level of instruction would be comparable, if anything, to an interactive and customizable video, not a pamphlet. Third, the game provides immediate tracking and feedback, which are instrumental for learning new skills and routines. You may call the last point "extra motivation", but that's like not giving someone a calculator because they can do math by hand.
c) remove the Other OS, update and only use it for playing. Revenue stream continues for Sony (on new games) - but at the cost of goodwill to the company.
I don't see any decent outcome for Sony on either of the three options...
Sony is clearly aiming for this option. There is no loss of goodwill because 99.9% of customers don't care about the Other OS.
On the contrary, the name will grab attention (combined with the fact that a party named like that is a bona fide one). That is the most important thing for the young and tech demographic, which is likely to be their main demographic anyway.
It may be a tired old line, but it also seems to be right. The problem *won't* be solved by creating new parties. The issue will continue to be raised until the political system is reformed.
Obviously, reforming the system that keeps the two parties in power while said parties are still in power is not going to be easy. But it's either attempt that or accept that the system will always be a "shithole" that does not give the people have any say on how the country is governed.
Interestingly, Spain has one of the highest, if not THE highest, piracy levels in the European Union partly because of their media tax. People figure out that they're already paying for the right to pirate so they do it unabashedly. The media companies are probably banging their heads against a wall by now.
The video has a post-title closing shot not unlike movie trailers from the last decade. It starts at 3:45 and it's actually funnier than what I expected (admittedly I had pretty low expectations).
The question is, when did these start showing up in officially submitted academic videos?
...There are too many rumors flying around to actually know who's in the right here. It's easy to bet on the big corporation being greedy / evil / stupid. But *if* these guys did start talking to EA or other potential partners while still on Activision's payroll, they could be in breach of contract (at least if I understood industry expert Keith Boesky correctly).
there's a good chance that indie developers can actually be very successful. See Portal and Castle Crashers, for example.
Portal is NOT an indie game. The core mechanic was originally from a student game and the dev team was mostly composed from those students, yes, but they were employed at Valve and had the support and resources of a large corporation.
Also, tools exist to unDRM and convert between just about every ebook format, including Mobi, Azw, Topaz, ePub, PDF, Lit, PDB, and others, so books can in fact travel with you as you upgrade devices in the future, should you choose to go this route.
How is "you need to pirate this to get decent use out of it" an argument for actually buying something?? If I do unDRM an e-book, I'm a "criminal" in the eyes of Amazon or the copyright holder anyway. I gain nothing by paying.
Supporting non-DRM'd e-books, that's entirely another matter.
Slashdot Mirror
Russia, Brazil, South Africa, India, China - 4 out of 5 of those countries don't have functioning property rights regimes.
Exactly what is wrong with Brazil's property rights regime?
One day, the dollar won't even be accepted in half the countries of the world. "Your green money is no good here, white man - go exchange it for real money, then we'll barter!"
To the surprise of many tourists, this has always been the case in Japan. Yes, you can use your dollars to buy yen at banks and exchange centers, but try to use USD at any regular store and you'll get that reaction pretty much verbatim.
I don't know about that. The Japanese are already very focused on the "we" over the "me"; they are quite efficient and frugal. The average Japanese makes personal sacrifices that would be unthinkable for Americans: living in tiny homes, relying exclusively on public transportation (or bikes), rigorous classification of garbage... Yet the actual reduction in energy usage is not that large. Not to mention that lifestyle choices are determined by both infrastructure and societal factors, both of which take decades to change. It's not like Americans can "buckle up" and their energy problems will be solved, or even significantly improved, tomorrow.
You clearly have never seen any actual Japanese/Chinese using computers. The current system is actually a godsend, because they don't need to recall every detail of the thousands of characters that make up the language to write it correctly. Using a keyboard and good IME software enables them to write much faster, more accurately and with cleaner type than would ever be possible by hand. In fact, the keyboard method is so good that nowadays most young Japanese have trouble writing less common words by hand, due to the lack of practice.
Action by their own citizens? The line is so far away as to be non-existent. They're indoctrinated from a young age, mesmerized by the economic explosion and their culture has a long tradition of conformity and deference to authority.
So consumers do NOT like the iPhone, the Wii, the Nintendo DS, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3...
“Since the dawn of time, humanity’s long journey has led us to countless discoveries, Yet with each leap forward for civilisation, more people have been left behind. But our quest has taken us to a completely new horizon. History is about to be rewritten. This time human beings will be at the centre -- and the machines will be the ones that adapt. After five million years of evolution, is it possible that the future of humanity is humanity itself?”
That the article repeats verbatim such a quote from Microsoft's presentation without even a slight nod to the gross self-aggrandization clued me to the fact that the whole piece is yet another corporate advertisement disguised as news.
I mean, in addition to the whole story starting with an emergency meeting on mid 2007 about the need to "reimagine a new direction for the Xbox" yet failing to point out it was all due to the runaway success of the Wii. It actually sticks out like a sore thumb to see these VPs panicking about something that the article refuses to acknowledge exists.
What happens with many F2P games in Asia is the division of users into paying and non-paying categories. As a free user, you simply can't compete with the paying users and do not attempt to. But you can become a mid-level player and get away with lots of stuff without paying a dime, which is part of the fun. It's like being a startup making a living among the corporate giants.
Aren't WoW players deluding themselves? You can already buy yourself an advantage at the endgame (or any other stage) through unauthorized Real Money Trading.
All online games where transfer of resources (either in-game or out-of-game, by handing over login info) is possible are being monetized by one party or another.
Marc Prensky: "Digital Natives" are more skilled with digital techonologies than previous generations and these technologies are naturally integrated within their lives.
The media: "Digital Natives" are Internet-obsessed cyborgs that communicate exclusively with people they've never met via 140-character messages.
This study: The concept of "Digital Natives" is wrong. They are merely more skilled with digital techonologies than previous generations and these technologies are naturally integrated within their lives.
For someone who's actually familiar with Prenky's writing, it is pretty funny to see the article trying to disprove the notion of "Digital Natives" (or the "net generation") by basically giving textbook examples of the concept. I wonder which kind of editor allows contradicting statements such as "Young people have basically no interest in Web 2.0" and "An impressive 15% of young people have uploaded videos to YouTube" to appear in the same article.
If anything the authors disproved their own misconceptions and wild exaggerations about how young people actually interact with digital technology.
Japan has many 2ndary schools, but any Japanese person will tell you that only 3 count; Tokyo, Todai, and a third whose name escapes me. If you are a Japanese citizen of means and you can't get your child into one of those three, that's when you consider sending your child to Harvard, Yale, Oxford, etc.
I have a Master's Degree from Tokyo University and the bullshit-per-word quotient of this post is staggering. First, you refer to universities as "2ndary schools". Second, "Todai" means "TOkyo DAIgaku" = "Tokyo University". Third, while Tokyo U is regarded as #1 unquestionably, there are at least 4 other universities on the top tier, namely Kyoto U, Waseda, Keio and Tohoku, and probably a couple more. Fourth, to get into these universities you really have to be an excellent student: your parents being "citizens of means" (whatever that is) has no bearing on the equation. Finally, in Japan only the educational elite goes overseas: if you could get into, say, Yale, it means you could have gone to a top school in Japan as well.
Also, you can't "get a teenager" into anything. The best you can do is show him the door; he has to walk through it. Do this badly, and you'll turn him off something he could have been genuinely interested in by himself in a couple years.
Finally, you should get the kid's parents a copy of Marc Prensky's "Don't bother me Mom, I'm learning!" so they know gaming is not the complete waste of time they assume it is.
Because the man can do the same exercises without the Wii, without the game.
Wii Fit is like a cheap personal trainer/motivator.
The same thing can be accomplished by handing the man a pamphlet, except Wii Fit motivates better.
Not true. First, the balance board gives you advice on your balance and posture while you do the exercises. Second, the level of instruction would be comparable, if anything, to an interactive and customizable video, not a pamphlet. Third, the game provides immediate tracking and feedback, which are instrumental for learning new skills and routines. You may call the last point "extra motivation", but that's like not giving someone a calculator because they can do math by hand.
What prevents anyone from starting a new service to fill the void?
[citation needed]
In any case you should get paid enough to afford spellchecker software...
c) remove the Other OS, update and only use it for playing. Revenue stream continues for Sony (on new games) - but at the cost of goodwill to the company.
I don't see any decent outcome for Sony on either of the three options...
Sony is clearly aiming for this option. There is no loss of goodwill because 99.9% of customers don't care about the Other OS.
On the contrary, the name will grab attention (combined with the fact that a party named like that is a bona fide one). That is the most important thing for the young and tech demographic, which is likely to be their main demographic anyway.
Obviously, reforming the system that keeps the two parties in power while said parties are still in power is not going to be easy. But it's either attempt that or accept that the system will always be a "shithole" that does not give the people have any say on how the country is governed.
Interestingly, Spain has one of the highest, if not THE highest, piracy levels in the European Union partly because of their media tax. People figure out that they're already paying for the right to pirate so they do it unabashedly. The media companies are probably banging their heads against a wall by now.
The question is, when did these start showing up in officially submitted academic videos?
...There are too many rumors flying around to actually know who's in the right here. It's easy to bet on the big corporation being greedy / evil / stupid. But *if* these guys did start talking to EA or other potential partners while still on Activision's payroll, they could be in breach of contract (at least if I understood industry expert Keith Boesky correctly).
there's a good chance that indie developers can actually be very successful. See Portal and Castle Crashers, for example.
Portal is NOT an indie game. The core mechanic was originally from a student game and the dev team was mostly composed from those students, yes, but they were employed at Valve and had the support and resources of a large corporation.
Six, if you count the DS, PSP, and PS2 (because it's still selling).
No, in 2009 the PS2 finally gave up the ghost and only sold in marginal quantities. And the PSP is only having healthy sales in Japan.
Also, tools exist to unDRM and convert between just about every ebook format, including Mobi, Azw, Topaz, ePub, PDF, Lit, PDB, and others, so books can in fact travel with you as you upgrade devices in the future, should you choose to go this route.
How is "you need to pirate this to get decent use out of it" an argument for actually buying something?? If I do unDRM an e-book, I'm a "criminal" in the eyes of Amazon or the copyright holder anyway. I gain nothing by paying.
Supporting non-DRM'd e-books, that's entirely another matter.