The truley amazing thing about this is that MS is scared of someone.
Allow me to suggest a different possibility. Perhaps Microsoft's very-public "being gay is OK" slogan was scaring away talent. Perhaps the vast majority of potential employees were seeking more of a "don't ask don't tell" environment, rather than one plastered with colorful ribbons.
The situation you describe is not "discrimination", it's "conforming to culture". If you don't like a company's culture, you can find another company to work for.
If you feel you should not be punished for not conforming, well that is a valid complaint, but don't call it discrimination.
Would that be the same consumer market that passed anti-gay marriage laws in 11 different states last November?
More specifically, those were state CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS not just state laws. The whole reason for that is because they're afraid that activist judges would overturn laws already in the books. Currently 39 states have "Defense of Marriage Acts" as laws, as well as the federal DOMA.
I have companies like IBM, Sony, BitMover, etc... using my software and yet I'm unfit to work for them... That basically tells you that the people who "do work" and the people who "do hiring" are not the same and don't talk.
Or it may be the case that being able to write useful software alone does not make you fit to work.
The answer to your implied question is that many people think the Iraq war (and Bush's foreign policy in general) is a much worthier cause than funding NASA. Of course, you wont find many of those people posting on slashdot. But I digress...
OTOH, theres something like $150 million earmarked for NEA next year - I'd rather see that go to NASA, or back in taxpayer's pockets.
Seriously though, how many N. Americans who are here knocking the climate have actually spent sufficient time in the UK to judge? I think you'll find the stereotype is a little far fetched.
Well, I spent (and enjoyed!) 12 days in the UK almost five years ago in April. We had one sunny day, 10 rainy days, and 1 day where it snowed a foot (in the "mountains" in Wales). So UK weather can be wacko on occasion too:)
Not sure why you posted as AC, your comment is a well written argument. However, to counter, consider Canada. The guns-per-capita is over 1 in Canada. And yet almost 0 gun deaths each year.
It's not the gun culture in the US, its the violence and hate in the culture.
Guns dont kill without someone pulling the trigger.
What's wrong with people that they think a game that allows you to beat up women, shoot cops and steal cars is fun?
Absolutely nothing. Which is the whole point. One of the many reasons why people play games is that games allow you to "do" things you can not or should not do in real life.
If you don't like that sort of game, nobody is forcing you to play it.
Your statement, "new freedoms under the Patriot Act to surveil poeple without a warrant under certain circumstances" is quite misleading. Here are some suggested reads to get a feel for what the Patriot Act actually does:
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry082803. as p http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200404 200 835.asp http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/mcc arthy2003 11130835.asp
The FBI have used the PATRIOT act against people who are clearly not terrorists.
Do you have any credible news sources to back up this claim? If so, please post URLs, otherwise I don't think many people are going to believe a wild unsubstantiated claim like this.
A similar system is in all IBM Thinkpads made in the past six months or so (called "Active Protection"). Yes, it works. There's a little app the shows its status in real-time.
I have to agree with you there - it was pretty impressive how Bin Laden was captured so quickly. Uh.. oh.. wait...
Bin Laden was one of many reasons for the US actions in Afghanistan. We toppled the Taliban regime (who supported Al Queda and Osama) and now Afghanistan is a budding, successful democracy. In a few years Iraq will be quite similar.
Iraq is/was alot tougher than Afghanistan, and the administration did not expect that, which is unfortunate, but does not mean it was the wrong thing to do.
Your de-mining bit though; rather ironic considering that when last I heard, the U.S. still hadn't signed the international treaty banning anti-personnel mines.
That's because a few million US land mines are the ONLY thing keeping the North Korean's from re-invading South Korea.
Maybe all of yours fail that way, but I have a T20, an old P3-800 Netvista, and a P3-550 300PL in my office that all work fine. In fact, there are literally thousands of these old machines where I work and they all work fine.
Yeah, nothing wrong with doing 40 in a 25 mph zone. After all, instead of having 5 seconds to react to a kid running into the street you have less than 2 seconds.
Of course doing 90 in a 65 means you've increased the time it takes you stop by an additional 3 seconds and roughly 90 more feet.
So what makes having "5 seconds to stop" safe but "2 seconds to stop" unsafe? Safety is not a black/white thing, but shades of grey. Yes, 25mph is safER than 40mph, but that doesn't mean either is inherently safe or unsafe. I consider both safe enough. Same with the 90mph vs 65mph point (in most situtations). The basic idea is that a human being has a much better ability to judge safeness than a metal sign on the side of the road.
In addition most kids just need to buy a high-end video card and slap it in their parent's computer to get a nice gaming rig rather than buy a whole computer for themself. That's what I did until I got my own machine for college.
How's that working out, by the way? I assume no one under 17 watches R-rated movies in theaters, no one under 18 smokes, and people under 21 have never even tasted alcohol...
Just because a law gets broken by many people on many occasions does not necessarily make it a bad law.
Yes global warming in the past 50-100 years has pretty much been proven, but there is almost no good evidence showing that human activity has caused it.
After you do the initial install of Steam and HL2 and all your other Steam apps, and you authenticate, and you set your setup to allow offline mode (so it saves your account info locally) all you do is make a backup of your c:\steam directory (or wherever you installed it). Simply transfer this to your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, computers and it will work fine, without any sort of internet connection on each. Yes it works. I've done it twice already.
However, if these two types were the only things which would make the game run, I'd prefer the DOOM3 copy protection. The reasoning is also simple. I'd rather shut down one program than have some software ring home, download some crap, send my information and make me wait until the dev/pub thinks I can play it. Also it is much easier to take a CD/DVD with me than a good fast internet connection.
It is amazing how many people claim that Steam has flaws/annoyances that it does NOT have. Once you have logged into steam and "registered" your steam app, you can, in the future, run Steam without any type of internet connection and it will work in offline mode - you will have full access to single player! No need to drag a fast internet connection with you, as you say.
Because just copying the folder and then putting it back on Windows is NOT the same as reinstalling the program, and probably won't work!
I know it's not the same, but in this case, it works. I've done it a couple of times transferring Steam to different computers. Actually, this works with more programs than you may think. Sure, you dont get auto-generated program menus and it doesn't show up in Add/Remove Programs, but the darn thing still works!
I find it funny that you assumed that my statement was a "guess" and that it wouldn't work, yet your contradiction was also merely a guess. My statement is fact - as I said, I've done it twice already, copied the \Steam folder from the original PC and to a laptop. I've run steam in offline mode from this laptop and all the games work fine (no multiplayer obviously!)
Your valve scenario doesn't really hold any water. Assuming you already have a steam account, and Steam and all your games are installed somewhere, you can run any of them without any sort of internet connection in "offline mode". So if you're worried about not being able to play HL2 in 10 years or whatever, just make sure you have a backup of your Steam directory and you will be able to play, no matter what.
Slashdot Mirror
Allow me to suggest a different possibility. Perhaps Microsoft's very-public "being gay is OK" slogan was scaring away talent. Perhaps the vast majority of potential employees were seeking more of a "don't ask don't tell" environment, rather than one plastered with colorful ribbons.
Just a possiblity one may want to consider.
The situation you describe is not "discrimination", it's "conforming to culture". If you don't like a company's culture, you can find another company to work for.
If you feel you should not be punished for not conforming, well that is a valid complaint, but don't call it discrimination.
More specifically, those were state CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS not just state laws. The whole reason for that is because they're afraid that activist judges would overturn laws already in the books. Currently 39 states have "Defense of Marriage Acts" as laws, as well as the federal DOMA.
http://www.domawatch.org has good information.
Or it may be the case that being able to write useful software alone does not make you fit to work.
The answer to your implied question is that many people think the Iraq war (and Bush's foreign policy in general) is a much worthier cause than funding NASA. Of course, you wont find many of those people posting on slashdot. But I digress...
OTOH, theres something like $150 million earmarked for NEA next year - I'd rather see that go to NASA, or back in taxpayer's pockets.
Seriously though, how many N. Americans who are here knocking the climate have actually spent sufficient time in the UK to judge? I think you'll find the stereotype is a little far fetched.
Well, I spent (and enjoyed!) 12 days in the UK almost five years ago in April. We had one sunny day, 10 rainy days, and 1 day where it snowed a foot (in the "mountains" in Wales). So UK weather can be wacko on occasion too
Do you think maybe this is why we didn't sign it?
Not sure why you posted as AC, your comment is a well written argument. However, to counter, consider Canada. The guns-per-capita is over 1 in Canada. And yet almost 0 gun deaths each year.
It's not the gun culture in the US, its the violence and hate in the culture.
Guns dont kill without someone pulling the trigger.
Absolutely nothing. Which is the whole point. One of the many reasons why people play games is that games allow you to "do" things you can not or should not do in real life.
If you don't like that sort of game, nobody is forcing you to play it.
Your statement, "new freedoms under the Patriot Act to surveil poeple without a warrant under certain circumstances" is quite misleading. Here are some suggested reads to get a feel for what the Patriot Act actually does:
. as p4 200 835.aspc arthy2003 11130835.asp
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry082803
http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry20040
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/mc
The FBI have used the PATRIOT act against people who are clearly not terrorists.
Do you have any credible news sources to back up this claim? If so, please post URLs, otherwise I don't think many people are going to believe a wild unsubstantiated claim like this.
A similar system is in all IBM Thinkpads made in the past six months or so (called "Active Protection"). Yes, it works. There's a little app the shows its status in real-time.
Bin Laden was one of many reasons for the US actions in Afghanistan. We toppled the Taliban regime (who supported Al Queda and Osama) and now Afghanistan is a budding, successful democracy. In a few years Iraq will be quite similar.
Iraq is/was alot tougher than Afghanistan, and the administration did not expect that, which is unfortunate, but does not mean it was the wrong thing to do.
That's because a few million US land mines are the ONLY thing keeping the North Korean's from re-invading South Korea.
Maybe all of yours fail that way, but I have a T20, an old P3-800 Netvista, and a P3-550 300PL in my office that all work fine. In fact, there are literally thousands of these old machines where I work and they all work fine.
So what makes having "5 seconds to stop" safe but "2 seconds to stop" unsafe? Safety is not a black/white thing, but shades of grey. Yes, 25mph is safER than 40mph, but that doesn't mean either is inherently safe or unsafe. I consider both safe enough. Same with the 90mph vs 65mph point (in most situtations). The basic idea is that a human being has a much better ability to judge safeness than a metal sign on the side of the road.
In addition most kids just need to buy a high-end video card and slap it in their parent's computer to get a nice gaming rig rather than buy a whole computer for themself. That's what I did until I got my own machine for college.
Just because a law gets broken by many people on many occasions does not necessarily make it a bad law.
Yes global warming in the past 50-100 years has pretty much been proven, but there is almost no good evidence showing that human activity has caused it.
Don't worry, I had the same thought too at first... they should have said "Christmas Cookies" instead :)
Because you are not a member of the US House of Representatives or the US Senate.
After you do the initial install of Steam and HL2 and all your other Steam apps, and you authenticate, and you set your setup to allow offline mode (so it saves your account info locally) all you do is make a backup of your c:\steam directory (or wherever you installed it). Simply transfer this to your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, computers and it will work fine, without any sort of internet connection on each. Yes it works. I've done it twice already.
It is amazing how many people claim that Steam has flaws/annoyances that it does NOT have. Once you have logged into steam and "registered" your steam app, you can, in the future, run Steam without any type of internet connection and it will work in offline mode - you will have full access to single player! No need to drag a fast internet connection with you, as you say.
I know it's not the same, but in this case, it works. I've done it a couple of times transferring Steam to different computers. Actually, this works with more programs than you may think. Sure, you dont get auto-generated program menus and it doesn't show up in Add/Remove Programs, but the darn thing still works!
I find it funny that you assumed that my statement was a "guess" and that it wouldn't work, yet your contradiction was also merely a guess. My statement is fact - as I said, I've done it twice already, copied the \Steam folder from the original PC and to a laptop. I've run steam in offline mode from this laptop and all the games work fine (no multiplayer obviously!)
Your valve scenario doesn't really hold any water. Assuming you already have a steam account, and Steam and all your games are installed somewhere, you can run any of them without any sort of internet connection in "offline mode". So if you're worried about not being able to play HL2 in 10 years or whatever, just make sure you have a backup of your Steam directory and you will be able to play, no matter what.