While perhaps more vile, this turns out to be much easier to stop when light is shined on it.
Only if people are watching the light when it shines. Blink, and the spin will cause the light to wander off in another direction. A few may see it, but the vast majority are too entertained with the latest TV drama or current useless time waster to even care.
Perhaps what we need is a new reality television show. Some sort of investigative, edited for maximum effect, scandal digging show, a la Cheaters. Wouldn't that be great?
I mean, just look at those Survivor challenges! They're probably excrutiatingly boring when taped out on some beach or sand pit in the middle of nowhere, but get that footage back in the studio, cut out 90% of the people running on sand, slap on some tension building music and you've got yourself a hit!
Senator? It's a Recall. The Constituents have spoken.
The bittorent protocol is used a lot of time legitimately
This cannot be stressed enough. I know that anecdotal stories aren't worth much, but I used Azureus over the past few weeks to download Debian ISOs, some high-res videos created by a WOW guild, and a few more ISOs of Ubuntu. To be fair, I did download one recording of a TV show episode that has now been taken off the air. (Rumor was a C&D and threat of lawsuit.)
With Napster, I didn't download anything off of there that could be considered "fair use" or legitimately distributed.
Actually, rural Kansas (at least Kiowa county) makes pretty good use of that USF surcharge on our cellphone bills.
Not disagreeing with you, but that USF charge will not cover desktop or laptop computers. They fall under an ineligible type of technology for that program. Look here to see what can be used with the program.
I think every school would jump at the chance to provide every student with a laptop instead of making a cart of 24 "normal" laptops available.
Microsoft and Brazilian bikinis are about the only two products where you can get away with charging people hundreds of dollars for almost nothing -- Of course, I know which one I'd rather see my girlfriend use...
So if we switched everything from petroleum to biofuels overnight, we would change from adding x amount of carbon to the air a day, to removing x/10 or so per day.
So now by removing C02 from the atmosphere we'll contribute to global cooling?
Shit, I live in Minnesota. I don't want it to get colder!
You're telling me that anyone, anywhere can just get decent work for what they want to do, at a company that they love? That nobody is ever driven to work a job that they dislike in order to survive? That someone cannot be trapped by circumstances?
You're the one who needs to get real. We don't live in some happy, zero-unemployment, workers' market utopia. The workers don't always have choice. And I wasn't *just* talking about tech jobs. Lots of people compromise their ethics in their jobs.
I'm not saying that working for a company like this is necessarily "good", but we could give someone the benefit of the doubt before just dismissing them out of hand because "they worked for X company". Their character can come out in the interview.
I think a good MMORPG rich in things to do and with a large gaming population is more appealing to me.
The big problem I see if an environment such as Oblivion (and Morrowind too, for that matter) is that you have such a level of freedom that it would be a griefers' paradise.
What if a person took it upon themselves to kill every NPC in the game? (Which you can do if you feel like it.) Suddenly, hundreds of quests become unavailable, guilds can't be joined, and the world loses a lot. You'd need people that would be willing to guard the NPCs. Would there be a massive "world-resurrection" after X amount of NPCs are killed? That takes away from the realism quite a bit. Having "safe-havens" in cities where you can't use magic or combat really takes away from the overall freedom of the game. In a single player game, when you grief, the only one you hurt is yourself.
I've thought a lot about this, and there are two ways, used together that I think this could be combated.
First is by extending the realism of the world to where the people repopulate themselves, albeit more quickly than the real world, but having places where kids go to school, learn a trade, and eventually think of quests for the players, or give out "orphaned" quests previously owned by a dead NPC. An incredible undertaking, to be sure, but it would solve some of the temporary problems incurred by griefers.
And second, because the human players are still far more powerful, you only get to die once, just like the real world. If a griefer starts causing problems, they will likely get a bounty on their heads (like Morrowind), and be unable to get close to civilization anymore, living their life as an outcast. Eventually, if they get powerful enough to kill guards, the "normal" people of the world might have to take matters into their own hands, and hunt the person down.
Such an incredibly realistic immersive world would need consequences for those that cause others this "virtual" harm, even if it is just in the game world. Then the problem becomes how to balance it with those that have made a mistake, such as accidently killing an NPC, so other rules would need to be in place. (A justice system?)
Would you really want to be in a world like that? Guess what, you already are. Unfortunately, we *will* create alternate worlds like this; it's just a matter of time, and there's really no technical barrier to it, except fooling our senses. What sick, twisted worlds will we make in the years to come? And will they be mirrored by good, idyllic worlds?
Hmm. I feel a psych paper coming on. I'm either going to stop, or start working on one of these "worlds" and and GPL it before it gets locked up.
Of course, you could have just done a Google Search to find that info. But, the act of actually doing a search to find an exact date perhaps would label one as a "Trekkie". Does that make me one? I hated Enterprise, if that helps. Except for T'Pol. She was HAWT.
Incidently, the first TNG episode was in the year 2363, according to one of those Google links. Holodecks were around sometime in the first season. So you were right, relatively speaking. It's still "a while to wait".
Re:And make sure it burns up on re-entry too!
on
Golf in Space
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· Score: 1
I don't get it at all. You pay a buttload of cash for the equipment, for bad clothing, and for the privilege to play on a manicured field. And you keep paying the latter, over and over again, to avoid sucking that badly.
I use the NationalAccess service from Verizon Wireless on my cel phone for internet access. A bluetooth adaptor, a little software hacking on my Treo, and I have unlimited data. It's only 128kbps, but I don't have much of a need for lots of bandwidth. With a little time, I can even download torrents.
But, you're right. My setup is a frankenstein's monster to an end user. Replace the bluetooth Palm app with a hacked version?
I'm sure that Verizon locked out the bluetooth dialup access for precisely what I'm doing. All those Treos with unlimited data plans connecting to the internet on a computer? It might be more than they want the consumer to do. Doing an email sync with work and checking Slashdot Palm doesn't use much bandwidth, but other uses are much more demanding.
I can just imagine those Verizon folks:
"How the hell does this person download half a GB of data in one night onto a TREO?"
Although, I don't think that the RDF applies to Pixar, just Apple. You don't see Steve Jobs as "head salesman" for Pixar, at least not as much. And what is being a good salesman besides "distorting reality", such as it is, to convince people that they should buy your product? Whether your product is hot stuff or not, if you convince people that your product is verily orgiastic, then they will come in droves to buy it.
I think the iPod product line is good (great even), but not that good.
..one more proof of how valid the methods and the logic behind science and engineering is - regardless of what religious teachers are trying to persuade us.
Full disclosure: I am a Christian in the USA.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but just (re)iterating that there are those people out there that can reconcile science and religion. Religion and science (for me) are both ways to find out more of the world around me. Not all people that subscribe to a religion take Creationism as law; I would venture that most don't. For instance, I believe that God created the universe. It's just that simple, with no extra baggage. No timeline, no creation of animals, humans, whatever.
Through furthering science, we expand our understanding of the universe. I just can't fathom how the religious fundamentals can't cope with the fact that both can exist. In my mind, science is furthering my understanding of existence, that which God initially created. The universe operates according to rules, which God created. I disagree vehemently with Intelligent Design, not because I don't believe that the universe was created by a higher power, but from the fact that it is a veiled attempt at injecting religion into scientific education. Their agenda, fueled by fervent zealotry, actually goes contrary to understanding a God-created universe!
If scientists had advanced this theory with verifiable evidence of extra-terrestrial influence on the path that life had taken on Earth, I would not object, but this "theory" is being pushed by those that have no business in science. It is utterly untestable.
Perhaps what marks the difference is that the religious fundamentals see God intervening everywhere, in everyday things, when it's only the rules that were set down in the first place. (I have thoughts on Christ's miracles, but I won't go into them here.)
It often seems that the vocal minority outweighs the silent majority. I probably haven't said anything here that hasn't been said before, but I just wanted to say again that there are religious people out there that have no problem with science, and the efforts to advance it. I am one of them, and I know hundreds more.
How much pain is inflicted by $1? How much pain is inflicted by finding a decent P2P app, avoiding viruses, then getting a quality download.
The fault in your logic (that I see, others may think differently) lies in that you don't need to set up the software multiple times for that dollar. Download 1000 songs to fill up your player with iTMS, $990. Download 1000 songs over one of those "decent" p2p apps, $0. Your time may be worth more, but it isn't all that time consuming to find music with one of them.
Bottom line, I think people are lying. You really think that the average "poor" high school or college student that got an iPod for Christmas is going to spend even $50 on music from iTMS? Maybe the parents also got them a prepaid iTMS card that they used right away, but I just think that just accounts for the spike in iTMS downloads after Christmas. Gotta get those retail add-ons!
Why should they continue? Even if they spend an hour of their time on some p2p app they could download three albums of music. That's conservative. At $10-15 bucks for each album, that's $30-45 they have "saved". (This point is debatable, but the consumer has still gained something of value for $0.) Not many will make $30-45 per hour, even outside that demographic. Who cares if the music quality isn't great? It's "good enough" for most people.
In my opinion, a dollar is still way too much to pay. Digital music is everywhere and supply is way up, without an equal rise in demand. The RIAA is attempting to curb this demand with lawsuits, but it won't work. A dollar per song still props up the same tired model. Some albums can even cost more. Drop the price down, way down, and I might bite.
Here in Minnesota, the Governor promised "no new taxes", so instead he got a "health impact fee" passed on cigarettes. It was expected to bring in $400 million to the state coffers. Unfortunately, it violates the legal agreement for the 1998 settlement with tobacco companies. Notably, "the state gave up claims against the companies for "liability of any nature whatsoever" for past or future smoking-related health costs.." A state judge has made a decision that it violates the agreement, and it is in appeals right now, but there's lots of hand-wringing and complaining.
Oops.
Stuff like this will just drive more tobacco business online, too. Although, some of those online smoke shops look a bit...shady.
Slashdot Mirror
Only if people are watching the light when it shines. Blink, and the spin will cause the light to wander off in another direction. A few may see it, but the vast majority are too entertained with the latest TV drama or current useless time waster to even care.
Perhaps what we need is a new reality television show. Some sort of investigative, edited for maximum effect, scandal digging show, a la Cheaters. Wouldn't that be great?
I mean, just look at those Survivor challenges! They're probably excrutiatingly boring when taped out on some beach or sand pit in the middle of nowhere, but get that footage back in the studio, cut out 90% of the people running on sand, slap on some tension building music and you've got yourself a hit!
Senator? It's a Recall. The Constituents have spoken.
This cannot be stressed enough. I know that anecdotal stories aren't worth much, but I used Azureus over the past few weeks to download Debian ISOs, some high-res videos created by a WOW guild, and a few more ISOs of Ubuntu. To be fair, I did download one recording of a TV show episode that has now been taken off the air. (Rumor was a C&D and threat of lawsuit.)
With Napster, I didn't download anything off of there that could be considered "fair use" or legitimately distributed.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Your sig makes total sense to me now.
SNES all the way.
Not disagreeing with you, but that USF charge will not cover desktop or laptop computers. They fall under an ineligible type of technology for that program. Look here to see what can be used with the program.
I think every school would jump at the chance to provide every student with a laptop instead of making a cart of 24 "normal" laptops available.
Microsoft, I know. Furries get me going too.
So now by removing C02 from the atmosphere we'll contribute to global cooling?
Shit, I live in Minnesota. I don't want it to get colder!
Your average person would probably not be doing that willingly, even with a guide.
You're the one who needs to get real. We don't live in some happy, zero-unemployment, workers' market utopia. The workers don't always have choice. And I wasn't *just* talking about tech jobs. Lots of people compromise their ethics in their jobs.
I'm not saying that working for a company like this is necessarily "good", but we could give someone the benefit of the doubt before just dismissing them out of hand because "they worked for X company". Their character can come out in the interview.
Everyone needs to eat. Sometimes we do what we have to in order to survive.
"Let's see, I can eat, pay bills, and make ends meet, or not work for this company with which I have philisophical differences."
Just because someone works for one of these companies doesn't mean that they are "evil".
The big problem I see if an environment such as Oblivion (and Morrowind too, for that matter) is that you have such a level of freedom that it would be a griefers' paradise.
What if a person took it upon themselves to kill every NPC in the game? (Which you can do if you feel like it.) Suddenly, hundreds of quests become unavailable, guilds can't be joined, and the world loses a lot. You'd need people that would be willing to guard the NPCs. Would there be a massive "world-resurrection" after X amount of NPCs are killed? That takes away from the realism quite a bit. Having "safe-havens" in cities where you can't use magic or combat really takes away from the overall freedom of the game. In a single player game, when you grief, the only one you hurt is yourself.
I've thought a lot about this, and there are two ways, used together that I think this could be combated.
First is by extending the realism of the world to where the people repopulate themselves, albeit more quickly than the real world, but having places where kids go to school, learn a trade, and eventually think of quests for the players, or give out "orphaned" quests previously owned by a dead NPC. An incredible undertaking, to be sure, but it would solve some of the temporary problems incurred by griefers.
And second, because the human players are still far more powerful, you only get to die once, just like the real world. If a griefer starts causing problems, they will likely get a bounty on their heads (like Morrowind), and be unable to get close to civilization anymore, living their life as an outcast. Eventually, if they get powerful enough to kill guards, the "normal" people of the world might have to take matters into their own hands, and hunt the person down.
Such an incredibly realistic immersive world would need consequences for those that cause others this "virtual" harm, even if it is just in the game world. Then the problem becomes how to balance it with those that have made a mistake, such as accidently killing an NPC, so other rules would need to be in place. (A justice system?)
Would you really want to be in a world like that? Guess what, you already are. Unfortunately, we *will* create alternate worlds like this; it's just a matter of time, and there's really no technical barrier to it, except fooling our senses. What sick, twisted worlds will we make in the years to come? And will they be mirrored by good, idyllic worlds?
Hmm. I feel a psych paper coming on. I'm either going to stop, or start working on one of these "worlds" and and GPL it before it gets locked up.
Indecent exposure and lewd conduct?
Incidently, the first TNG episode was in the year 2363, according to one of those Google links. Holodecks were around sometime in the first season. So you were right, relatively speaking. It's still "a while to wait".
All this for "a good walk spoiled".
This is the reason why. It's the money.
But, you're right. My setup is a frankenstein's monster to an end user. Replace the bluetooth Palm app with a hacked version?
I'm sure that Verizon locked out the bluetooth dialup access for precisely what I'm doing. All those Treos with unlimited data plans connecting to the internet on a computer? It might be more than they want the consumer to do. Doing an email sync with work and checking Slashdot Palm doesn't use much bandwidth, but other uses are much more demanding.
I can just imagine those Verizon folks:
"How the hell does this person download half a GB of data in one night onto a TREO?"
Oh! New hardware. I didn't read TFA.
Still, though, I'm equally submissive to my keyboard and mouse at work for eight hours a day, so it might not be much of a change.
5 Verizon
5 Level3
4 Google
= 14
Funny...this timed out the first two times I tried to submit. Just watch me post Verizon! :P
Although, I don't think that the RDF applies to Pixar, just Apple. You don't see Steve Jobs as "head salesman" for Pixar, at least not as much. And what is being a good salesman besides "distorting reality", such as it is, to convince people that they should buy your product? Whether your product is hot stuff or not, if you convince people that your product is verily orgiastic, then they will come in droves to buy it.
I think the iPod product line is good (great even), but not that good.
By "magic dust" you mean, "reality distortion field", right?
Full disclosure: I am a Christian in the USA.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but just (re)iterating that there are those people out there that can reconcile science and religion. Religion and science (for me) are both ways to find out more of the world around me. Not all people that subscribe to a religion take Creationism as law; I would venture that most don't. For instance, I believe that God created the universe. It's just that simple, with no extra baggage. No timeline, no creation of animals, humans, whatever.
Through furthering science, we expand our understanding of the universe. I just can't fathom how the religious fundamentals can't cope with the fact that both can exist. In my mind, science is furthering my understanding of existence, that which God initially created. The universe operates according to rules, which God created. I disagree vehemently with Intelligent Design, not because I don't believe that the universe was created by a higher power, but from the fact that it is a veiled attempt at injecting religion into scientific education. Their agenda, fueled by fervent zealotry, actually goes contrary to understanding a God-created universe!
If scientists had advanced this theory with verifiable evidence of extra-terrestrial influence on the path that life had taken on Earth, I would not object, but this "theory" is being pushed by those that have no business in science. It is utterly untestable.
Perhaps what marks the difference is that the religious fundamentals see God intervening everywhere, in everyday things, when it's only the rules that were set down in the first place. (I have thoughts on Christ's miracles, but I won't go into them here.)
It often seems that the vocal minority outweighs the silent majority. I probably haven't said anything here that hasn't been said before, but I just wanted to say again that there are religious people out there that have no problem with science, and the efforts to advance it. I am one of them, and I know hundreds more.
You leave? Pff. Then you can't watch her fall down in the morning because she's so bowlegged that she can't walk. That's what keeps me there.
The fault in your logic (that I see, others may think differently) lies in that you don't need to set up the software multiple times for that dollar. Download 1000 songs to fill up your player with iTMS, $990. Download 1000 songs over one of those "decent" p2p apps, $0. Your time may be worth more, but it isn't all that time consuming to find music with one of them.
Bottom line, I think people are lying. You really think that the average "poor" high school or college student that got an iPod for Christmas is going to spend even $50 on music from iTMS? Maybe the parents also got them a prepaid iTMS card that they used right away, but I just think that just accounts for the spike in iTMS downloads after Christmas. Gotta get those retail add-ons!
Why should they continue? Even if they spend an hour of their time on some p2p app they could download three albums of music. That's conservative. At $10-15 bucks for each album, that's $30-45 they have "saved". (This point is debatable, but the consumer has still gained something of value for $0.) Not many will make $30-45 per hour, even outside that demographic. Who cares if the music quality isn't great? It's "good enough" for most people.
In my opinion, a dollar is still way too much to pay. Digital music is everywhere and supply is way up, without an equal rise in demand. The RIAA is attempting to curb this demand with lawsuits, but it won't work. A dollar per song still props up the same tired model. Some albums can even cost more. Drop the price down, way down, and I might bite.
My point is that it is still "worth it".
is WHAT? You can't leave us hanging!
By FSM's noodle, I can't stand the suspense!
Only if the dice are weighted.
Oops.
Stuff like this will just drive more tobacco business online, too. Although, some of those online smoke shops look a bit...shady.