As soon as there is a cracked version that eliminates the need for a net connection i will be using it on my internet free gaming box, but Valve will not see a penny from me. Im not a 'pirate', i just dont support companies with shit policies.
No. You're a 'pirate'.
If you were serious about not supporting companies with shit policies, YOU WOULDN'T PLAY THE GAME AT ALL.
Oh wait, you'll do like most other mass transit projects and LOSE YOUR DAMN SHIRT.
Why is there this idea that projects in the public interest need to be profitable?
If public transportation benefits the public more than a lack of public transportation (and that certainly isn't true in all situations), then it's okay if the government spends more on the system than it takes in.
For much of the flight, a computer is controlling the aircraft with the pilot and copilot only monitoring it.
Exactly why fully autonomous automobiles would be so problematic: it would be wise for drivers to continue monitoring their vehicles even if they don't actively control them. But will they? Or are they going to fall asleep at the wheel watching a DVD instead?
Airplane pilots are highly trained and regulated; can we trust the average motorists to have enough brain cells rubbing together to let the car drive for them responsibly?
I think we'll see an advanced form of cruise control become standard equipment on cars in 30 or 40 years, but it will still fall short of total auto-automation. Cars will give feedback that encourages drivers to drive safely and efficiently, but the human will always ultimately be in control.
I remember when typewriters were used for writing text documents, and paper-tape calculators were used for arithmetic, and turntables were used for listening to music... and today the desktop computer is a single device that does all those things for me.
The same convergence is now happening in pocket-sized devices, and I consider this a Good Thing. The gestalt of general-purpose computing is greater than its parts.
You 'educators' will simply take your drivel as passed from above (the 'curriculum') without critical regard of any type, and spout it in the dictated fashion with the minimal possible effort.
Man, fuck you. Many of my friends are teachers, and your attitude towards them quite frankly couldn't BE more insulting and disrespectful.
I'm sorry if the teachers YOU had when you were in school were lazy. I'm sorry that they shaped you into an ill-informed and bitter man.
The teachers I know will be the first to admit that the curriculae handed down to them by administrators and legislators, many of whom have never put in any time at the front of a classroom, are imperfect at best.
The teachers I know TEACH first and foremost, and then make up reports to their bosses later that makes it look as though they're abiding by the curriculum.
The teachers I know truly and honestly care about giving an education to their kids. And for you to come here and say that they don't, or that their underlying motivation for doing so is less than honest, is indefensible.
What are those 50k$ of use when you live in a city full of pollution?
You might focus on the pollution in cities; I focus on the culture.
I'd rather live in a place where I can go to a different museum, bar, film, restaurant, concert, or park every single day of the year and still not run out of options than to live in a place where "a night on the town" consists of picking up a case of beer at the Wal-Mart, heading down to the quarry to drink all night, and then heading to Denny's for breakfast. (Not that all rural places are like that.)
Even better is that rural areas have lower costs of living, thus making $50,000/yr a very good wage to have.
Of course, those same jobs that paid $50,000 in the big city are only going to be offered for $40,000 in the rural areas.
Sure, you'll be able to afford more housing for the buck, but lifestyle items (cars, DVDs, even most food products) cost about the same all over the country. You could actually end up with less buying power by following a job out to greener pastures.
Why is that so hard? It's File -> Properties -> Statistics in OpenOffice.
You just answered your own question.
The problem is not that it's hard to count words in a particular word processor. The problem is that every application has its own unique ideas about how a word counter should be implemented and what the user should do to run it. The user's knowledge isn't transferable.
Aren't Sainsbury's Rice Pops just counterfeit Kellogg's Rice Krispies? What's the freakin' difference already?
Puffed rice cereal can't be copyrighted. Your analogy is just silly.
just maybe if perhaps "official" stuff wasn't so overpriced, there might be a chance that people perhaps wouldn't feel so much of an urge to counterfeit it, possibly.
Tell me about it. The only reason people are buying these bootleg Famicom clones is because it costs HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS to buy a brand new NES and ten to fifteen cartridges. You're ENTIRELY off the point.
Look, copyright law currently says that those "big rich corporations" CAN have their cake and eat it. (As can any content creator large or small, but that's another argument.) If you believe in the rightness of the law, follow it. If you don't, lobby to have it changed. But defiance of the law doesn't win the bootleg makers any brownie points, even if they shroud themselves in the veil of civil disobedience. Breaking the law is breaking the law.
Yes, they are all garbage, but I personally haven't seen any that run noticeably off from the genuine article.
I wonder if the systems might be running in PAL mode internally, but hacked to output an NTSC-compatible signal. Running a system designed for 50Hz at 60Hz would result in the games being 20% too fast.
Another legally notable thing about many of the designs is that the lightguns they come with are VERY realistic looking, and almost certainly qualify as illegal imitation firearms in several states.
In fact, it is this behavior that eventually led to their own fall.
What fall is this? Nintendo is still the undisputed champion of the portable market, and still highly profitable in the home console market even if they no longer lead in terms of number of consoles sold.
Competing video players are too heavy and cumbersome.
My Archos Gmini 400 is no larger or heavier than an iPod. And it was released 2 months prior to Jobs' statements.
Users don't have video content.
Sure I do! The challenge, and I will admit there's really no user-friendly way of doing this yet, is figuring out which files will play on it as is--that is, MPEG4-SP video AVI files (eg, DivX or XviD w/o bidi filtering), no more than 640x400 resolution, no more than 30fps, with IMA-ADPCM or MP3 CBR soundtrack--and figuring out how to convert other content to meet those specs (if possible).
The screens are too small.
Irrelevant. This is a PERSONAL video player.
I can hold the 2.2" screen a foot away from my eyes, and it takes up the same amount of my viewing area as a 30" television across the room. Uses a whole lot electricity that way, too.
Jobs would be smart not to put a Video iPod on the market NOW, but he would be foolish to NEVER put one out.
Geesh. Why not just print all the frames out onto paper and make a flipbook?
If you want a video player in an iPod's form factor, either sit tight for 2 years until a honest-to-goodness Video iPod to come out, or buy a Gmini 200 (Flash page).
Anyway, exit poll numbers are unreliable for a variety of reasons.
That's as maybe, but then how come exit polls generally reflected actual voting patterns pretty closely in elections prior to this one?
Just because the soundbites about exit polls broadcast by the media don't explain the entire methodology used doesn't mean that there isn't one.
Overall, announcing the results of exit polls before the election is done is a bad idea
Agreed. But then, no major media outlets DID announce exit poll results until the polls had closed in those polling areas. There were "leaked" numbers posted on blogs earlier in the afternoon, but those are as likely to have been intentional disinformation from campaign staff as actual exit poll numbers.
I never really understood *why* people in the US expect to know results "before bedtime". Do they really?
Keep in mind that the 2000 Bush/Gore race was the first of the television era where the margin of victory wasn't significantly larger than the margin of error in exit polling.
1976's Carter/Ford race, the previously closest race post-WWII, had a spread of 57 electoral votes. In contrast, Bush won in 2000 by only 5 electoral votes.
When the race is so close, it's much harder to accurately predict the winner quickly. It doesn't stop the media from trying, though; fast results are what the public has come to expect.
Get all your co-workers together and join a union, scehdule collective bargaining and make some realistic demands.
Okay, but don't be surprised when management's response to this is "We don't need this grief from you guys when there are guys in India willing to work 80-hour weeks for a third of what we're paying you now. Pack your shit and get out."
Computer skills globalize much more easily than more manual types of labor. A union's efficacy is dependent on its ability to prevent alternate labor sources from being available, and that just can't be done with IS/IT skills the same way it can with "you have to be there" jobs like factory work or teaching.
Winamp can now take its place in software history, next to Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Mosaic, and all the other innovative and important "killer apps" of years past that have been reduced to only niche usage today.
We've moved on to other things, now. But we appreciate what you made for us.
our system is about "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt", not "they are pretty sure"
Well shit, we better tell the police to stop arresting people unless they catch them in the act. How else are they supposed to know if someone's 100% guilty or not?
that assumption is already tainting potential jurers in to believing the man is guilty long before the trial even begins.
Have you ever served on a jury in the US? If you're familiar at all with the case from stories in the media, you're going to be removed from the jury pool.
it's a wake-up call that the voice of the people was overwritten by fraud in this election.
s/was/may have been/
Isn't it also possible that the exit polls were just more inaccurate than usual this year?
In any case, the only way to find out what happened is to audit the voting process. And not one done by the election officials who have motivation to save face by covering up or trivializing any anomalies; but an audit by the people.
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As soon as there is a cracked version that eliminates the need for a net connection i will be using it on my internet free gaming box, but Valve will not see a penny from me. Im not a 'pirate', i just dont support companies with shit policies.
No. You're a 'pirate'.
If you were serious about not supporting companies with shit policies, YOU WOULDN'T PLAY THE GAME AT ALL.
Oh wait, you'll do like most other mass transit projects and LOSE YOUR DAMN SHIRT.
Why is there this idea that projects in the public interest need to be profitable?
If public transportation benefits the public more than a lack of public transportation (and that certainly isn't true in all situations), then it's okay if the government spends more on the system than it takes in.
For much of the flight, a computer is controlling the aircraft with the pilot and copilot only monitoring it.
Exactly why fully autonomous automobiles would be so problematic: it would be wise for drivers to continue monitoring their vehicles even if they don't actively control them. But will they? Or are they going to fall asleep at the wheel watching a DVD instead?
Airplane pilots are highly trained and regulated; can we trust the average motorists to have enough brain cells rubbing together to let the car drive for them responsibly?
I think we'll see an advanced form of cruise control become standard equipment on cars in 30 or 40 years, but it will still fall short of total auto-automation. Cars will give feedback that encourages drivers to drive safely and efficiently, but the human will always ultimately be in control.
Can't imagine computers doing worse job than we're doing already.
Oh yeah...?
"Microsoft AutoNavigator XP, Personal Edition".
In his case, I suspect the filters are human.
Or possibly Morlocks.
I remember when typewriters were used for writing text documents, and paper-tape calculators were used for arithmetic, and turntables were used for listening to music... and today the desktop computer is a single device that does all those things for me.
The same convergence is now happening in pocket-sized devices, and I consider this a Good Thing. The gestalt of general-purpose computing is greater than its parts.
You 'educators' will simply take your drivel as passed from above (the 'curriculum') without critical regard of any type, and spout it in the dictated fashion with the minimal possible effort.
Man, fuck you. Many of my friends are teachers, and your attitude towards them quite frankly couldn't BE more insulting and disrespectful.
I'm sorry if the teachers YOU had when you were in school were lazy. I'm sorry that they shaped you into an ill-informed and bitter man.
The teachers I know will be the first to admit that the curriculae handed down to them by administrators and legislators, many of whom have never put in any time at the front of a classroom, are imperfect at best.
The teachers I know TEACH first and foremost, and then make up reports to their bosses later that makes it look as though they're abiding by the curriculum.
The teachers I know truly and honestly care about giving an education to their kids. And for you to come here and say that they don't, or that their underlying motivation for doing so is less than honest, is indefensible.
What are those 50k$ of use when you live in a city full of pollution?
You might focus on the pollution in cities; I focus on the culture.
I'd rather live in a place where I can go to a different museum, bar, film, restaurant, concert, or park every single day of the year and still not run out of options than to live in a place where "a night on the town" consists of picking up a case of beer at the Wal-Mart, heading down to the quarry to drink all night, and then heading to Denny's for breakfast. (Not that all rural places are like that.)
I think I'm going to be sick.
Considering your paranoia concerning the pharmaceutical industry, I would recommend against you getting sick...
Even better is that rural areas have lower costs of living, thus making $50,000/yr a very good wage to have.
Of course, those same jobs that paid $50,000 in the big city are only going to be offered for $40,000 in the rural areas.
Sure, you'll be able to afford more housing for the buck, but lifestyle items (cars, DVDs, even most food products) cost about the same all over the country. You could actually end up with less buying power by following a job out to greener pastures.
Why is that so hard? It's File -> Properties -> Statistics in OpenOffice.
You just answered your own question.
The problem is not that it's hard to count words in a particular word processor. The problem is that every application has its own unique ideas about how a word counter should be implemented and what the user should do to run it. The user's knowledge isn't transferable.
Aren't Sainsbury's Rice Pops just counterfeit Kellogg's Rice Krispies? What's the freakin' difference already?
Puffed rice cereal can't be copyrighted. Your analogy is just silly.
just maybe if perhaps "official" stuff wasn't so overpriced, there might be a chance that people perhaps wouldn't feel so much of an urge to counterfeit it, possibly.
Tell me about it. The only reason people are buying these bootleg Famicom clones is because it costs HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS to buy a brand new NES and ten to fifteen cartridges. You're ENTIRELY off the point.
Look, copyright law currently says that those "big rich corporations" CAN have their cake and eat it. (As can any content creator large or small, but that's another argument.) If you believe in the rightness of the law, follow it. If you don't, lobby to have it changed. But defiance of the law doesn't win the bootleg makers any brownie points, even if they shroud themselves in the veil of civil disobedience. Breaking the law is breaking the law.
Yes, they are all garbage, but I personally haven't seen any that run noticeably off from the genuine article.
I wonder if the systems might be running in PAL mode internally, but hacked to output an NTSC-compatible signal. Running a system designed for 50Hz at 60Hz would result in the games being 20% too fast.
Another legally notable thing about many of the designs is that the lightguns they come with are VERY realistic looking, and almost certainly qualify as illegal imitation firearms in several states.
In fact, it is this behavior that eventually led to their own fall.
What fall is this? Nintendo is still the undisputed champion of the portable market, and still highly profitable in the home console market even if they no longer lead in terms of number of consoles sold.
Competing video players are too heavy and cumbersome.
My Archos Gmini 400 is no larger or heavier than an iPod. And it was released 2 months prior to Jobs' statements.
Users don't have video content.
Sure I do! The challenge, and I will admit there's really no user-friendly way of doing this yet, is figuring out which files will play on it as is--that is, MPEG4-SP video AVI files (eg, DivX or XviD w/o bidi filtering), no more than 640x400 resolution, no more than 30fps, with IMA-ADPCM or MP3 CBR soundtrack--and figuring out how to convert other content to meet those specs (if possible).
The screens are too small.
Irrelevant. This is a PERSONAL video player.
I can hold the 2.2" screen a foot away from my eyes, and it takes up the same amount of my viewing area as a 30" television across the room. Uses a whole lot electricity that way, too.
Jobs would be smart not to put a Video iPod on the market NOW, but he would be foolish to NEVER put one out.
What do you need your eyes for when you're on the train or working out?
Geesh. Why not just print all the frames out onto paper and make a flipbook?
If you want a video player in an iPod's form factor, either sit tight for 2 years until a honest-to-goodness Video iPod to come out, or buy a Gmini 200 (Flash page).
I chose the latter and haven't looked back.
Anyway, exit poll numbers are unreliable for a variety of reasons.
That's as maybe, but then how come exit polls generally reflected actual voting patterns pretty closely in elections prior to this one?
Just because the soundbites about exit polls broadcast by the media don't explain the entire methodology used doesn't mean that there isn't one.
Overall, announcing the results of exit polls before the election is done is a bad idea
Agreed. But then, no major media outlets DID announce exit poll results until the polls had closed in those polling areas. There were "leaked" numbers posted on blogs earlier in the afternoon, but those are as likely to have been intentional disinformation from campaign staff as actual exit poll numbers.
I never really understood *why* people in the US expect to know results "before bedtime". Do they really?
Keep in mind that the 2000 Bush/Gore race was the first of the television era where the margin of victory wasn't significantly larger than the margin of error in exit polling.
1976's Carter/Ford race, the previously closest race post-WWII, had a spread of 57 electoral votes. In contrast, Bush won in 2000 by only 5 electoral votes.
When the race is so close, it's much harder to accurately predict the winner quickly. It doesn't stop the media from trying, though; fast results are what the public has come to expect.
Get all your co-workers together and join a union, scehdule collective bargaining and make some realistic demands.
Okay, but don't be surprised when management's response to this is "We don't need this grief from you guys when there are guys in India willing to work 80-hour weeks for a third of what we're paying you now. Pack your shit and get out."
Computer skills globalize much more easily than more manual types of labor. A union's efficacy is dependent on its ability to prevent alternate labor sources from being available, and that just can't be done with IS/IT skills the same way it can with "you have to be there" jobs like factory work or teaching.
AFAIK you cannot be forced to work overtime.
True of employees getting hourly wages, but if you're salaried the overtime laws generally don't apply to you.
Winamp can now take its place in software history, next to Wordperfect, Lotus 1-2-3, Mosaic, and all the other innovative and important "killer apps" of years past that have been reduced to only niche usage today.
We've moved on to other things, now. But we appreciate what you made for us.
our system is about "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt", not "they are pretty sure"
Well shit, we better tell the police to stop arresting people unless they catch them in the act. How else are they supposed to know if someone's 100% guilty or not?
that assumption is already tainting potential jurers in to believing the man is guilty long before the trial even begins.
Have you ever served on a jury in the US? If you're familiar at all with the case from stories in the media, you're going to be removed from the jury pool.
Fines don't work. When you are a professional scammer and thief, this is just the cost of doing business.
This theory breaks down when the amount of the fine is greater than 100% of the business's net income.
it's a wake-up call that the voice of the people was overwritten by fraud in this election.
s/was/may have been/
Isn't it also possible that the exit polls were just more inaccurate than usual this year?
In any case, the only way to find out what happened is to audit the voting process. And not one done by the election officials who have motivation to save face by covering up or trivializing any anomalies; but an audit by the people.