How can you be sure? If they ever do run 'psychological tests' of that nature, that's one thing those responsible for them would want to keep absolutely secret - so much that FOIA isn't going to find out about them. It seems to me this is the only way you can be absolutely sure that no operators will have a sudden onset of conscience when asked to push the button that kills millions.
Politics. America has a very partisan, adversarial political culture. That sometimes forces ideologies together that you might expect to be opposed, because they have a common enemy and a common political party.
I think the DRM might be a bit less important than it used to be, with so much distribution going through Steam now and the multiplayer/DLC rising in importance.
As someone involved in the piracy community for many years, I've seen Steam do some serious damage. It makes obtaining a game legitimately so convenient and affordable, people aren't torrenting like they used to. If it's too expensive people will just wait for the sale or for the price to fall, or buy one of the thousands of more affordable games that can be easily found.
"And being able to install random binaries from dubious sources, particularly pirated versions is the source of most botnet/virus/trojan problems yet if Microsoft makes an app store and go signed apps only well that's the evil empire ceasing control."
Windows and Linux both have their roots in an age before sandboxing of executables. It's an all-or-nothing thing: If you allow a program to run, there's almost no restriction on what it can do. Contrast with something like, for example, Android - an OS which allows quite fine-grained control over what each individual program is able to access. If Windows or Linux worked like that you could just right-click your dodgy keygen program, select 'run with restrictions' and untick the boxes for writing to a file, changing system configuration or accessing the network.
The NES wasn't without flaw. It was perfect when it was new - but enough use and it would eventually wear to the point that left and right or up and down could be pressed simultaneously. Some games really didn't like that.
I think we can all agree on one thing though: If traffic laws are written on the assumption that they will be violated constantly in small ways, those are badly-written laws.
Some terroristy bombs don't even need the detonator. Al Quida used to use propanone peroxide in their bombs (Which is why it's hard to get laboratory-grade hydrogen peroxide now) - it gives a good bang, and it's so sensitive you don't need a detonator. They don't use it much though, because it's also so sensitive it is prone to premature detonation during handling. They lost too many bomb-makers that way.
I will repeat my earlier comment: This is Texas. To a lot of people in the US, especially the more conservative states like Texas, there is no distinction. There are but two religions in the world: Christianity, and the Infidels. Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, doesn't matter - they will all burn the same in the end, and they all hate Jesus.
This happened in Texas. Remember that to many people in the US, especially the conservative states like Texas, there are only two religions: Christianity, and The Infidels. Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus... all going to burn the same in the end.
Someone is going to work out that if you shine a laser at the sensor of an autonomous car, it'll think there is a vehicle right behind and accelerate to avoid a collision.
I was only speculating - I said 'might' because that is how I'd consider resolving the issue of testing how the human element of the launch system would perform.
I would imagine that the higher-ups take the possibility into account, and run extensive screening to make sure any operators are well-trained enough to turn the key. They may even be able to run drill tests where the operators are not aware if the missiles are actually armed or not. Operators might be asked to fire on a regular basis, never knowing if the launch code they were given is genuine, or just some random numbers that the computer will reject.
And zero wars between countries that have nuclear weapons. No-one dares risk escalation. The Cold War is called such precisely because there was no actual direct fighting involved - just lots of being prepared to fight, and a few proxy wars.
It's a common problem with allegory. The author has the tricky task of telling two stories at once, without letting them conflict. Sometimes this doesn't work quite right.
After the battle Aslan reveals that he could actually have defeated the ice queen with one paw ties behind his back - but he needed all those animals to fight and die in the battle in order to teach everyone and important moral lesson about the value of sacrifice.
It's something of a recurring theme - the Leo ex Machina has the ability to step in at any time and fix everything, but never does so because that would be unfair interference. At least until The Last Battle, when he just gets fed up with the story, flicks on his omnipotence mode, lobotomises anyone who refuses to love him and quickly whips up a paradise where he can frolic with some children forever.
Because some of the biggest titles are console-only, and even if there is a PC version it may not be released until long after the console version. One of the biggest games of last year, Destiny, was console-only. I purchased a second-hand xbox 360 for myself because I wanted to complete the single-player campaigns of all the Halo games.
Also because few games allow multiplayer interoperability between console and PC, which means if you are a social gamer you won't be able to hang with the same crowd.
Perhaps America needs to drop the national ego a bit and look to the rest of the world, see what policies have been shown to work, and adopt them. Rather than just dismissing all the lessons learned elsewhere as not American and therefore not worthy of acknowledgement.
Not quite true: Tungsten is toxic. It's just not an issue with tungsten bulbs because the amount of tungsten in them is so tiny as to be negligible. Just like the mercury in CFLs.
The quality of CFLs varies - if you buy cheap, it's going to be unreliable and perform poorly. With incandescent bulbs they are all effectively interchangeable, one manufacturer is as good as any other.
You don't derive rights from anywhere. They are an agreed-upon fiction. A fiction that is made real by enforcement - if you occupy someone else's land then they can eventually have armed police officers come and physically haul you off. A right without enforcement is not only worthless - it doesn't exist at all. Just look at almost all of history.
Reducing energy usage would mean lifestyle changes. People hate that. Passionately. Remember the outrage that surrounded even something so slight as energy-efficiency requirements for light bulbs?
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How can you be sure? If they ever do run 'psychological tests' of that nature, that's one thing those responsible for them would want to keep absolutely secret - so much that FOIA isn't going to find out about them. It seems to me this is the only way you can be absolutely sure that no operators will have a sudden onset of conscience when asked to push the button that kills millions.
Politics. America has a very partisan, adversarial political culture. That sometimes forces ideologies together that you might expect to be opposed, because they have a common enemy and a common political party.
I think the DRM might be a bit less important than it used to be, with so much distribution going through Steam now and the multiplayer/DLC rising in importance.
As someone involved in the piracy community for many years, I've seen Steam do some serious damage. It makes obtaining a game legitimately so convenient and affordable, people aren't torrenting like they used to. If it's too expensive people will just wait for the sale or for the price to fall, or buy one of the thousands of more affordable games that can be easily found.
"And being able to install random binaries from dubious sources, particularly pirated versions is the source of most botnet/virus/trojan problems yet if Microsoft makes an app store and go signed apps only well that's the evil empire ceasing control."
Windows and Linux both have their roots in an age before sandboxing of executables. It's an all-or-nothing thing: If you allow a program to run, there's almost no restriction on what it can do. Contrast with something like, for example, Android - an OS which allows quite fine-grained control over what each individual program is able to access. If Windows or Linux worked like that you could just right-click your dodgy keygen program, select 'run with restrictions' and untick the boxes for writing to a file, changing system configuration or accessing the network.
The NES wasn't without flaw. It was perfect when it was new - but enough use and it would eventually wear to the point that left and right or up and down could be pressed simultaneously. Some games really didn't like that.
I think we can all agree on one thing though: If traffic laws are written on the assumption that they will be violated constantly in small ways, those are badly-written laws.
Some terroristy bombs don't even need the detonator. Al Quida used to use propanone peroxide in their bombs (Which is why it's hard to get laboratory-grade hydrogen peroxide now) - it gives a good bang, and it's so sensitive you don't need a detonator. They don't use it much though, because it's also so sensitive it is prone to premature detonation during handling. They lost too many bomb-makers that way.
I will repeat my earlier comment: This is Texas. To a lot of people in the US, especially the more conservative states like Texas, there is no distinction. There are but two religions in the world: Christianity, and the Infidels. Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, doesn't matter - they will all burn the same in the end, and they all hate Jesus.
This happened in Texas. Remember that to many people in the US, especially the conservative states like Texas, there are only two religions: Christianity, and The Infidels. Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus... all going to burn the same in the end.
Someone is going to work out that if you shine a laser at the sensor of an autonomous car, it'll think there is a vehicle right behind and accelerate to avoid a collision.
I was only speculating - I said 'might' because that is how I'd consider resolving the issue of testing how the human element of the launch system would perform.
I would imagine that the higher-ups take the possibility into account, and run extensive screening to make sure any operators are well-trained enough to turn the key. They may even be able to run drill tests where the operators are not aware if the missiles are actually armed or not. Operators might be asked to fire on a regular basis, never knowing if the launch code they were given is genuine, or just some random numbers that the computer will reject.
The canyon took about six million years to form. More than a few thousand.
And zero wars between countries that have nuclear weapons. No-one dares risk escalation. The Cold War is called such precisely because there was no actual direct fighting involved - just lots of being prepared to fight, and a few proxy wars.
The best planned centralised network. Decentralised networks can take it.
It's a common problem with allegory. The author has the tricky task of telling two stories at once, without letting them conflict. Sometimes this doesn't work quite right.
After the battle Aslan reveals that he could actually have defeated the ice queen with one paw ties behind his back - but he needed all those animals to fight and die in the battle in order to teach everyone and important moral lesson about the value of sacrifice.
It's something of a recurring theme - the Leo ex Machina has the ability to step in at any time and fix everything, but never does so because that would be unfair interference. At least until The Last Battle, when he just gets fed up with the story, flicks on his omnipotence mode, lobotomises anyone who refuses to love him and quickly whips up a paradise where he can frolic with some children forever.
A clock that looks vaguely like a hollywood depiction of a bomb may also inspire fear.
Because metric is a Communist plan to weaken America's moral character.
Because some of the biggest titles are console-only, and even if there is a PC version it may not be released until long after the console version. One of the biggest games of last year, Destiny, was console-only. I purchased a second-hand xbox 360 for myself because I wanted to complete the single-player campaigns of all the Halo games.
Also because few games allow multiplayer interoperability between console and PC, which means if you are a social gamer you won't be able to hang with the same crowd.
Perhaps America needs to drop the national ego a bit and look to the rest of the world, see what policies have been shown to work, and adopt them. Rather than just dismissing all the lessons learned elsewhere as not American and therefore not worthy of acknowledgement.
Not quite true: Tungsten is toxic. It's just not an issue with tungsten bulbs because the amount of tungsten in them is so tiny as to be negligible. Just like the mercury in CFLs.
The quality of CFLs varies - if you buy cheap, it's going to be unreliable and perform poorly. With incandescent bulbs they are all effectively interchangeable, one manufacturer is as good as any other.
"Now not to mention the fact we're losing good farm-able land to these turbines."
Most of the ones I see around here are built atop farmland. The only land lost to farming is the footprint of the tower.
You don't derive rights from anywhere. They are an agreed-upon fiction. A fiction that is made real by enforcement - if you occupy someone else's land then they can eventually have armed police officers come and physically haul you off. A right without enforcement is not only worthless - it doesn't exist at all. Just look at almost all of history.
Reducing energy usage would mean lifestyle changes. People hate that. Passionately. Remember the outrage that surrounded even something so slight as energy-efficiency requirements for light bulbs?