They've been trying to work with Oculus for a year or so on settling the issue. Oculus made some offers, and Zeni felt they weren't enough. Now they are suing over it.
And as long as its use is viewed the same as drinking, that's fine with me. My problem is pot users seem to think they should be able to get high on their smoke break, or while driving, or whatever. By all means, use it at home or when you are off the clock. Just don't show up anywhere smelling like pot that you couldn't show up smelling like vodka.
Plus, it's an overrated series, even if you just talk about the original 3. So many people like it because its Star Wars, rather than because they actually like it. Rocky Horror Picture Show is another example, where you basically have to profess your love for it when it comes up in conversation, or everyone looks at you like you're a snake; even the guy who only saw 30 minutes of it 15 years ago.
Don't get me wrong; I enjoy Star Wars. But the level of hype and status it receives from people is just way out of whack.
As interesting as this stuff is, we really need to be focusing on better propulsion methods. Lets figure out how to visit the planets we KNOW exist here in our solar system, and then get excited about planets in others. Lets get an orbital shipyard in place and start hauling in asteroids for materials. Maybe establish a presence on the moon; something like a radio telescope on the far side.
Trying so hard to detect these "earth-like" planets in other systems just seems like the scientific equivalent of playing a lottery that has an uncertain payout. I guess the ultimate "prize" would be something like finding an earth 2.0, and directing our communications to it in hopes of maybe discovering some technological-advancing information, ala Contact. Just seems ironic considering all the mathematicians and scientists and such that laugh at the unwashed masses who play the actual lottery, and call it an idiot tax.
Not directly but you can rule out some of the more iffy situations by looking at their other convictions. For example, the sex abuse charges are often handled separately from other charges (usually drug trafficking or something). So if you just look at the sex abuse record, you might find a 30 year old who got hit with child pornography charges because he had pictures of 16 year old on his phone from texting. In that case, I could see it being a situation of an honest mistake, etc.. But when you also find out that he has another charge pending for a meth lab or something, it suddenly creates a very different picture of who that guy is.
Also, keep in mind that up here in Alaska, there is a real issue with sex abuse, particularly among the native communities. There's a lot of really awful stuff that goes on in the remote areas. If you're interested, look up sex-abuse statistics for Alaska specifically, and you'll get a clearer picture. It's very similar to states like MS or AL.
You don't seem to care about the fact that although sex offenders are less likely to re-offend, when they do re-offend the damage goes a lot farther than most other crimes. Those statistics you are bringing up are lumping in things like shoplifting, drug-related arrests, etc.. All crimes are not equal.
Not sure if that would be a good example of "the follow of the entire DRM approach." At least no more so than the existence of adblock plugins has show the ad industry the error of its ways.
Keep in mind that Naughty Dog was and is a studio that does Sony exclusives. There was no reason for them to worry about portability, which is exactly why their games were always leading edge in performance. That studio, above all others, knew how to use every last resource that the PS3 offered.
It sounds like your perspective is biased towards those who are in the "grey area" of the law, maybe because you typically defend certain types of clients. All I know is when I look at sex offender lists for my area, the vast majority (as in pretty much all I could find) were clearly not cases of a 16 year old sexting with a 17 year old. I can say this because here in Alaska, we have a very good online system called "courtview" where you can look up all kinds of public information. This lets me cross reference sex offender lists (which are generally very vague on conviction info) with actual records of what happened.
It's not perfect (such as if someone was convicted in another state), but it is something I use and track just to stay aware of people in my area. I bring it up because I don't remember ever seeing any offenders with the questionable convictions. It's usually pretty cut and dry. Stuff like a 26 year old male convicted of possession of child porn, and I see the conviction happened 3 years ago and the docket information mentions stuff like "thousands of pictures" or whatever.
I don't want to be the guy using the "think of the kids" defense here, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable giving the benefit of the doubt with child sex offenders. Not unless there's some real serious statistics that back up your claim of "vast majority" being innocent victims who happened to have sexted with a minor who's a year older or whatever.
It would cost money to release the code, because they'd have to clean it up. There is a lot of code-reuse in games, especially those that are part of franchises. Releasing even older code means giving access to potential insider information, like naming conventions, or even exposing possible bugs exploits that could very well have carried over to more current games.
The backlash on this stuff is actually kind of interesting to me, though. I see a lot of people basically complaining about this 'in principle' with only very rare individuals actually effected.
Bluray quality is great. I definitely like watching them over DVD's. The problem is that the prices have been kept artificially high. Paying $30 or even $20 for a movie with some many alternatives these days is just going to fail hard.
I didn't say the K6-2 was the peak of AMD; just that it was the last time I really got excited about anything they came out with. AMD did some good stuff during the mid-2000's, but there were other computer upgrades that had more impact on performance -- particularly RAM. Those were the days when adding a stick of RAM was a legitimate means of being able to do amazing things like browse the internet while listening to music... at the same time!. Upgrading from 512 to 2GB was a huge boost in productivity. The CPU's during that time may as well have been soldered on to the motherboard for most people, because you didn't generally upgrade them unless you also needed to upgrade the MB (for better RAM probably).
The K6-2 era was different, because at that point, the CPU was still a huge bottleneck for things like game performance. Having CPU features like MMX and 3DNOW! was a pretty big deal, and there was a lot of good competition between the two companies.
The last time I truly got excited about AMD was when the K6-2 came out. These days, I just wish AMD would put a focus on power consumption and high quality rather than simply trying to out-core Intel.
It would be like "twitch tv" except through your cable box. This kind of thing could take off pretty well if games start to build in some kind of "spectator" mode meant for streaming. It's already proven very popular for things like Star Craft, and I have to admit the idea of simply tuning into a channel from the couch is pretty cool.
I'm not sure this would work though. If you have, say, a 46 inch TV that's spoofing itself as a 4.7 inch cell phone, something tells me they will stream you a lower-quality picture. Or are people actually streaming 1080p and higher content to small screens already? (honest question)
If you read about the "great filter" then you'd find out that the big question isn't what that filter is, but WHERE it takes place. Is it the step from single-cell to multi-cell organism? Is it the rise of special intelligence? Part of the warning with the great filter idea, is that since there seems to be no observable evidence (directly or indirectly) of any other species progressing past the point we are at, it stands to reason that the "filter" could in fact be very close at hand, either through some social thing like nuclear war, or something else like a nearby exploding supernova.
So either we have already passed the filter in one of the many earlier stages in our history, or it is yet to come. If it's yet to come, that's something we should be concerned about.
It's not about communicating with other civilizations, or even about directly observing them. Life could very well be different from us, but unless it thrives in dark matter, we should be able to observe the side effects of any civilization that has had enough time to explore the galaxy. Stuff like dyson spheres, etc.. More importantly, any such civilization would have eventually come to our little neighborhood and done things like harvest out planets.
The reason that's even on the table is because the timelines are so large that compared to the age of the universe, the act of actually going out and populating all of the star systems in the Milky Way is a pretty quick affair. At least once you get started. We're talking along the lines of millions of years, which isn't much.
Slashdot Mirror
They've been trying to work with Oculus for a year or so on settling the issue. Oculus made some offers, and Zeni felt they weren't enough. Now they are suing over it.
And as long as its use is viewed the same as drinking, that's fine with me. My problem is pot users seem to think they should be able to get high on their smoke break, or while driving, or whatever. By all means, use it at home or when you are off the clock. Just don't show up anywhere smelling like pot that you couldn't show up smelling like vodka.
Hollywood hates trying different things.
Plus, it's an overrated series, even if you just talk about the original 3. So many people like it because its Star Wars, rather than because they actually like it. Rocky Horror Picture Show is another example, where you basically have to profess your love for it when it comes up in conversation, or everyone looks at you like you're a snake; even the guy who only saw 30 minutes of it 15 years ago. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy Star Wars. But the level of hype and status it receives from people is just way out of whack.
As interesting as this stuff is, we really need to be focusing on better propulsion methods. Lets figure out how to visit the planets we KNOW exist here in our solar system, and then get excited about planets in others. Lets get an orbital shipyard in place and start hauling in asteroids for materials. Maybe establish a presence on the moon; something like a radio telescope on the far side. Trying so hard to detect these "earth-like" planets in other systems just seems like the scientific equivalent of playing a lottery that has an uncertain payout. I guess the ultimate "prize" would be something like finding an earth 2.0, and directing our communications to it in hopes of maybe discovering some technological-advancing information, ala Contact. Just seems ironic considering all the mathematicians and scientists and such that laugh at the unwashed masses who play the actual lottery, and call it an idiot tax.
Not directly but you can rule out some of the more iffy situations by looking at their other convictions. For example, the sex abuse charges are often handled separately from other charges (usually drug trafficking or something). So if you just look at the sex abuse record, you might find a 30 year old who got hit with child pornography charges because he had pictures of 16 year old on his phone from texting. In that case, I could see it being a situation of an honest mistake, etc.. But when you also find out that he has another charge pending for a meth lab or something, it suddenly creates a very different picture of who that guy is. Also, keep in mind that up here in Alaska, there is a real issue with sex abuse, particularly among the native communities. There's a lot of really awful stuff that goes on in the remote areas. If you're interested, look up sex-abuse statistics for Alaska specifically, and you'll get a clearer picture. It's very similar to states like MS or AL.
You don't seem to care about the fact that although sex offenders are less likely to re-offend, when they do re-offend the damage goes a lot farther than most other crimes. Those statistics you are bringing up are lumping in things like shoplifting, drug-related arrests, etc.. All crimes are not equal.
Not sure if that would be a good example of "the follow of the entire DRM approach." At least no more so than the existence of adblock plugins has show the ad industry the error of its ways.
Keep in mind that Naughty Dog was and is a studio that does Sony exclusives. There was no reason for them to worry about portability, which is exactly why their games were always leading edge in performance. That studio, above all others, knew how to use every last resource that the PS3 offered.
It sounds like your perspective is biased towards those who are in the "grey area" of the law, maybe because you typically defend certain types of clients. All I know is when I look at sex offender lists for my area, the vast majority (as in pretty much all I could find) were clearly not cases of a 16 year old sexting with a 17 year old. I can say this because here in Alaska, we have a very good online system called "courtview" where you can look up all kinds of public information. This lets me cross reference sex offender lists (which are generally very vague on conviction info) with actual records of what happened. It's not perfect (such as if someone was convicted in another state), but it is something I use and track just to stay aware of people in my area. I bring it up because I don't remember ever seeing any offenders with the questionable convictions. It's usually pretty cut and dry. Stuff like a 26 year old male convicted of possession of child porn, and I see the conviction happened 3 years ago and the docket information mentions stuff like "thousands of pictures" or whatever. I don't want to be the guy using the "think of the kids" defense here, but that doesn't mean I'm comfortable giving the benefit of the doubt with child sex offenders. Not unless there's some real serious statistics that back up your claim of "vast majority" being innocent victims who happened to have sexted with a minor who's a year older or whatever.
Reminds me of Pablo Francisco
That's done nothing to spur the US to innovation. Only to clamp down on freedom.
Ever since the Cold War ended, the US has really gone to shit. It's like an old boxer who goes out of shape because there's no one left to fight.
It would cost money to release the code, because they'd have to clean it up. There is a lot of code-reuse in games, especially those that are part of franchises. Releasing even older code means giving access to potential insider information, like naming conventions, or even exposing possible bugs exploits that could very well have carried over to more current games.
The backlash on this stuff is actually kind of interesting to me, though. I see a lot of people basically complaining about this 'in principle' with only very rare individuals actually effected.
It's a good thing this isn't about having people blasting through red lights. Reading is hard. Hyperbole and ignorance, on the other hand...
Yeah, I've never known MS to be flexible and helpful in the way he describes, so I'm guessing he's getting special treatment.
Bluray quality is great. I definitely like watching them over DVD's. The problem is that the prices have been kept artificially high. Paying $30 or even $20 for a movie with some many alternatives these days is just going to fail hard.
I didn't say the K6-2 was the peak of AMD; just that it was the last time I really got excited about anything they came out with. AMD did some good stuff during the mid-2000's, but there were other computer upgrades that had more impact on performance -- particularly RAM. Those were the days when adding a stick of RAM was a legitimate means of being able to do amazing things like browse the internet while listening to music... at the same time!. Upgrading from 512 to 2GB was a huge boost in productivity. The CPU's during that time may as well have been soldered on to the motherboard for most people, because you didn't generally upgrade them unless you also needed to upgrade the MB (for better RAM probably).
The K6-2 era was different, because at that point, the CPU was still a huge bottleneck for things like game performance. Having CPU features like MMX and 3DNOW! was a pretty big deal, and there was a lot of good competition between the two companies.
The last time I truly got excited about AMD was when the K6-2 came out. These days, I just wish AMD would put a focus on power consumption and high quality rather than simply trying to out-core Intel.
It would be like "twitch tv" except through your cable box. This kind of thing could take off pretty well if games start to build in some kind of "spectator" mode meant for streaming. It's already proven very popular for things like Star Craft, and I have to admit the idea of simply tuning into a channel from the couch is pretty cool.
I'm not sure this would work though. If you have, say, a 46 inch TV that's spoofing itself as a 4.7 inch cell phone, something tells me they will stream you a lower-quality picture. Or are people actually streaming 1080p and higher content to small screens already? (honest question)
But where are you going to go? Do you honestly believe Verizon will be the only company doing this?
I'm pretty sure the people they are blocking aren't actually subscribers...
If you read about the "great filter" then you'd find out that the big question isn't what that filter is, but WHERE it takes place. Is it the step from single-cell to multi-cell organism? Is it the rise of special intelligence? Part of the warning with the great filter idea, is that since there seems to be no observable evidence (directly or indirectly) of any other species progressing past the point we are at, it stands to reason that the "filter" could in fact be very close at hand, either through some social thing like nuclear war, or something else like a nearby exploding supernova.
So either we have already passed the filter in one of the many earlier stages in our history, or it is yet to come. If it's yet to come, that's something we should be concerned about.
It's not about communicating with other civilizations, or even about directly observing them. Life could very well be different from us, but unless it thrives in dark matter, we should be able to observe the side effects of any civilization that has had enough time to explore the galaxy. Stuff like dyson spheres, etc.. More importantly, any such civilization would have eventually come to our little neighborhood and done things like harvest out planets.
The reason that's even on the table is because the timelines are so large that compared to the age of the universe, the act of actually going out and populating all of the star systems in the Milky Way is a pretty quick affair. At least once you get started. We're talking along the lines of millions of years, which isn't much.