Hm. I remember doing that exercise as well. --I think the scoring formula needed to be adjusted, because my solid bundle of sticks soaked in glue creating basically a polymer enhanced log could take all the weight the testing apparatus was able to provide, plus that of the teacher and two students standing in a rope looped over my 'bridge'. It never broke, thus my ham-fisted design won the contest despite the ridiculous number of pieces used to make it.
It was also generally agreed that I was an ass and that the real winner was the team which had came up with one of those conventional erector-set type designs.
The point which led me to this idea was that I'd noticed in the scoring formula there was no limit on the amount of glue we were allowed to use. I'd considered making a solid log of glue with a single strut buried inside it, but the drying times wouldn't have allowed me to finish the project before testing day. I think one of my purposes in going through the school system was to spend as much energy as possible challenging the silliness of conventional thinking, though at the time I was giggling too much to take notice.
I have NO idea what the heck is going on with the planet anymore.
There's too much conflicting information. The waters have been successfully muddied to death. I am ready to curl up into a comatose ball and watch re-runs of mindless TV shows and will allow you to inject me with whatever 'vaccine' you want, and my phone calls will be mumbles which I no longer care if you tap. You WIN!
Actually, I'm just kidding. -Because while the messages and science are claiming this and that, Global Warming, Global Cooling, Sunspot Minimums, Oceanic Saline Maximums, Gulf Stream, Greenhouse Gas and on and on. . . It all adds up to one thing and one thing only. . .
Ice Age.
And that, my friends, is the only thing which counts in the end, and it's what The Powers That Be are having to plan for. Having everybody on the planet paralyzed with confusion just helps keep them. . , well, paralyzed so that the various plans can move forth without complication.
It isn't anyone else's job to take care of you. It is your job. Be prepared.
Almost sound advice, but do take care. . .
Cuz, what are you going to do when the currency collapses and the geo-political situation snatches the rug out from everybody's feet? The government certainly isn't going to help anybody out. The primary solution is to be prepared to help each other; trying to take care of yourself exclusively is a very demanding and lonely option when infrastructure fails.
The more you are loved, the more people will be genuinely willing to help you. The more you genuinely help other people, the more you are loved. It's a powerful circle, and indeed, it is the only one which is self-sustaining, whereas selfishness and bitterness do invite love. Just a few thoughts to ponder.
When you have a ton of money to spend on making a piece of media which needs to sell a lot of copies in a very short time to break even, then you spend a portion of that ton of money making sure everybody is jumping up and down with anticipation about it.
It's not always strictly true, but in general you won't go too far wrong following this rule of thumb: The bigger the hype, the more middling the game/movie/whatever will be, because BIG money doesn't like to take BIG risks, and so it doesn't. It's that simple. And the hype for Bioshock was VERY bought and paid for. You could see that from a mile away. It's too bad, because, as you say, there were some really excellent ideas bubbling in the stew of the marketing which could have been exploited but apparently, from what I've read about it, (I'm not a gamer anymore), were simply not and the few ideas which were followed were nothing particularly special. A middling, safe, high eye-candy game.
The best games I ever played, (back when I still played games), were sleeper hits or Part II's riding on the coat tails of previous sleeper hits. --Or they were not even hits at all, but just games I personally enjoyed. And such is life, and no complaints. People worked and learned and played and another day went by with something interesting to do. Not every experience is going to be stand-out amazing, otherwise nothing would stand out or amaze. Still, it's nice to know that around some future corner, right when you think you've seen it all, there will be another mind-blowing surprise you completely failed to anticipate. Life is infinitely complex and wonderful this way. It's why I love being alive so much!
They might have been opposite intentions but the background of "government is always right" cut through both films but Star Ship Trooper did a lot better job, IMO.
True. I remember coming out of Troopers thinking, "What the-?" It felt like I'd just watched a propaganda piece done entirely straight and was completely baffled by it because I didn't realize that it was meant to be exactly that, --except good and convincing. "Humans are attacked for no reason. Humans society goes all Happy Spartan with no negative repercussions. Humans kick ass. War is Fun! THE END!"
I think if I'd been a bit more politically aware in 1997, I might have recognized it and given a shudder as you did, but instead I was just confused.
Well I vote for STAR Ship Trooper being better than Vendetta. It was a *SCARY* and it actually had a "OK" story line. Vendetta was just a confused story nobody could understand.
Wow. Those two films were composed with 180 degree opposite intentions. I can't tell if you're writing with an eye toward the ironic or not, but Starship Troopers was written by Heinlein, a confirmed supporter and fan of the Vietnam war who would have no doubt been cheering Team Bush. --At least based on where his head was when he wrote Starship Troopers.
V for Vendetta was written by a guy who would have been beaten up by cops at the RNC this week, were he daft enough to be out on the streets protesting rather than doing the same thing a few thousand times more effectively through the writing of comic books.
Totally different industry, and we didn't follow through because we were teen-agers with half-assed ideas but, the research turned up some amazing knowledge which cleared the way to many awesome skills for navigating the world. We went on and did something completely different, but we used a lot of what we learned during this first process.
--One of the first places we visited was a spring manufacturer. We told the plant manager what we were trying to do. Turns out it would have cost a hundred bucks or so to get a machine cranking out little springs to our specifications, and after that you bought the springs by weight; pennies per pound. --Same with all the other parts. We discovered that you can make pretty much whatever you want out of metal and plastic; any shape imaginable and. . , well, this is basic engineering/business 101 and I imagine not terribly surprising to anybody who reads this, but it was a real education for a couple of teenagers at the time.
The world opened up! We realized, "Hey, we can make any darned thing we want. Industry is set up precisely to make this possible. It's just a matter of coming up with a good design and then making some phone calls and working out a sales route, assembling the thing, packaging and shipping. Heck, if you can get advanced orders from enough retail chains you can pretty much know before you start how much money you need and what your profit margins will be, and with that information you can put a plan together for a bank and get a loan to start cranking products out. If you plan carefully, it's like printing money! Ah. . . So THIS is where millionaires come from. Dang! This isn't hard at all. It just takes smarts and effort. Wow! We can do ANYTHING!"
Or something like that. It feels good to know that goods don't just magically appear on shop shelves, but that you can put them there yourself; you can shape the world. You barely even need seed capital before the business loan, unless you need to hire engineers and programmers and such for the prototype, and even that can be worked into a more advanced business plan to take to a bank. You can start the whole thing with bus fare and a clean shirt and slacks!
One bank manager took an interest and gave me a half-hour lecture and several pieces of really awesome advice which I still use today. One of which was that banks don't care much for small loans, but that thinking REALLY big is more likely to procure a willing investment. (I don't know if that is still true today in the current economic climate, but back then it was apparently so). And second, I met a couple of professionals, (one of whom was a lawyer who did a few hundred dollars worth of paper work for me for free), who lived by that rule from the movie, "Pay it Forward" --but a decade and a half before that movie was even a twinkle in some script-writer's eye. "I'm going to do this for you for free, but one day when you are successful, a young, bright-eyed kid is going to come to you for help. You must promise to help that kid the way I'm helping you now. Will you do this?"
My god, yes! I almost hugged the man. --And that came from a lawyer, no less. Dang! People can be SO awesome.
So I think this tablet project is totally boss. If nobody is making what you want and you want it enough, then darn straight, go make one yourself! Chances are there are a bunch of somebodies out there also trying to wish the thing into existence, and that's your market right there. So why not do it? --It will fill your life with a purpose you created within yourself, it will give you a fascinating obstacle course of scalable challenges to work through and that sort of thing brings real joy. And at the end of it, if your aims are right and you put in the work and you don't allow yourself to fall into wishful thinking, then you'll succeed and have made the world a better place in the process. So these guys completely rock, and Open Source is definitely a cool way to go! I can see their business plan evolving thusly.
As a total aside, Doctor Who is my other huge favorite.
That dude is so utterly, utterly positive and courageous. Shines like a beacon in the landscape of television! I figure if the human race is capable of envisioning the likes of Doctor Who, then we all might just have a chance.
Just listen to all the confused people offering you told-you-so advice. Why on earth do people DO that? Don't they SEE?
--I feel for you, my friend. Nonsense bureaucracy is designed to ding you to death, and it totally sucks that one of your neighbors ratted you out. We're supposed to watch out for each other and not deliberately try to make life difficult in a million and one petty ways. I wish I lived in your neighborhood so I could have offered you my driveway.
If you take the single quotes out and read it without your tin foil hat on there's nothing to object to. It's just the council asking for people to report problems which they'll then look into. Surely every local government in the world does that.
Eventually people will learn that tin foil, (in its metaphoric state), is a healthy additive in any mental diet.
I'm guessing that this lesson won't sink in until those people find themselves on the wrong side of some barbed wire. But we don't like to think of such things, so it's better to make silly jokes and hope we're right despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. --Or worse, secretly plan to be one of the informers, so you can finally do away with all the queers and colored people and those weird neighbors who looked at you funny that one time.
Don't worry though. I'll throw some bread over the wall for you after your sociopathic neighbor who hates you for no good reason calls the cops on you for having a suspicious number of empty spam tins or whatever in your recycling bin. Unless of course you turn her in first, in which case I'll just punch you in the mouth. Hm. Better turn me while you're at it. Cuz you know, I'm one of those strange people who wears that suspicious-looking tin foil. And boy, wouldn't it be nice to be able to get rid of that lot, eh? They're a blight on the community! They're different. They don't salute with proper British gusto. They don't support the war!
There is a driver who lives near me who regularly skips red lights and speeds, unless there is a police car about. Currently, I have no power to report him, even if I have evidence so he carries on knowing full well that he can get away with it.
Of course you do. Get on the phone and complain to the police. This is statistically how most criminals are caught; by citizens reporting crimes. --The difference with this new scheme is that snitching is being introduced in an organized manner through 'green' environmentalism which people are far more likely to allow a toe-hold.
This is the next small step in the Big Evil Plan everybody has been nervously hoping would just kind of not happen. --First they sold Brits those gawdawful surveillance cameras, (and to my ever-lasting astonishment, actually managed to convince a significant portion of the populace to love them), so now it's time to take the next step.
I'm curious to see at what point people will realize, "Oops. People are vanishing into camps. Maybe that's not such a good thing. . . Maybe I should have put my foot down a few years back. .."
The sad part is, with the kind of programming the British have undergone over the last century or so, I actually think there will be a good portion of the population which will be cheering the whole death-parade right up to the bitter end. I'm not judging such people, but it is a bit depressing to consider.
That's your business, hear-say being what it is. I would note that this happened to me in 1988, if that's any use to you. I still find it surprising in retrospect, however. I rather thought tie-dye was a sixties thing.
I worked with a group of kids when I was in my teens one Summer. --You know, games and sports and arts & crafts and such. This one day, we made tie-dyed shirts.
Well the shirt I made turned out pretty good and I wore it for the whole afternoon and kind of forgot it was on me. Then after the kids all went off back home, me and a few of the other 'leaders' decided to head out for a movie and burgers and stuff. At the end of the evening, we all split off and I was on my way back home alone.
My opinion of humanity then began to plummet.
Taking public transit, I was getting all these freaked out looks. Everybody was acting as though they were scared of me. --I was used to being totally ignored, but people were really, really nervous. It was baffling. It happened not just with the occupants of one bus, but on another and on a train as well. I didn't work out it was the tie-dye shirt they were all reacting to until this one Stephen Colbert clone actually measured me up and down with an expression of abject, "Small-guy-on-his-first-day-in-prison" and then made a comment about the Grateful Dead being really cool in some kind of weird effort to. . , not get hurt by me? It was utterly unreal. I couldn't believe just how limited a set of lives people must lead in order to react in such a manner. As just a teen-ager, (back when I wasn't aware of politics in the slightest,) even I had worked out that hippies were the last form of political life you needed to back slowly away from.
I filed the incident away under, "Fear and Ignorance" for later reference and have dusted it off for you today.
What really needs to be done is a strict control of feed qualities. --Disallowing the addition of animal matter, (not to mention downer cow animal matter) in the feed supply would pretty much eliminate the whole problem of BSE. I cannot understand why this isn't done; the science is understood and agreed upon, (I believe), and I can't imagine that much is saved by feeding dead cows to live cows. It seems a small price to pay for sanity. But nobody has ever asked me, and the cattle farmers I've met are all totally on board with the free range organic model anyway, and they just nod and tell me extra details. I've never met a factory farmer, and I'm not sure I want to. I'd feel that awkwardness which I always feel when trying to figure out how to converse civilly with ignorant and/or callous people who have chosen not to think or act responsibly in the world.
Really, factory farming and cruelty to livestock as a whole should be banished from the planet, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Too many simply don't care. --I've talked to a lot of people who consume meat products, and most of them know the details and problems but rather than adjust their behavior appropriately, they have instead perfected the art of 'Just Not Thinking About It'. I love meat, and in fact my blood-type requires it for me to stay at the peak of my health, but I don't need that much, and it doesn't mean I have to eat drugged-up garbage procured from miserable creatures.
The amazing thing is that most of the people I've discussed this with and who reject common sense are visibly unhealthy and miserable for their trouble. Ignorance is NOT bliss. It's slow suicide. But you probably have your own notions about this, so I don't want to bore you with my complaining.
From reading the case document one learns the following details. . .
"Creekstone Farms Premium Beef" processes 300,000 head of cattle per year. This means they're not a farm; they're a rendering plant, and that means they buy beef from anybody who sells, using whatever standards, feeds, drugs, etc., those individual farmers choose. This is the factory farm system at its full bloom, cute, trust-inspiring name aside. --And what they are trying to do is to hedge their bets against the nightmare of having to cull entire herds if tests for BSE come up positive.
So what? How is that bad?
It's bad because these guys are NOT concerned about your health. They are part of a multi-billion dollar per year industry which is being threatened by the import standards of other countries which want, very rightly so, to make sure their populations are not being poisoned.
The renderer, "Creekstone" wants to use the cheapest and fastest-working BSE testing kit on each of the cows they kill in the full knowledge that the test isn't effective. --That is, the test can only read large concentrations of BSE prions in brain tissue, and is thus more effective the older the cow is, 5 years being the mean average. Creekstone kills its cows at 24 months, and the test isn't even rated for use on cows under 30 months.
Thus the test won't actually find infected cows and Creekstone will be able to sell them with impunity.
But it's worse than that. . .
See, now if a BSE infected cow is found, all the cattle it had contact with are destroyed, resulting in an insurance premium and profit-loss nightmare. But if a cow happens to be found using this test, (which there is a slight chance happening in the most extreme cases of infection), then the company can argue that the rest of the herd should be spared because, "See, we caught the sick one! Our system worked. We don't need to cull the herd because, after all, each animal is individually tested!"
Had this action been allowed by the courts, it would have constituted a scam which would have saved the cattle industry potentially billions of dollars, and they know it. Why else would they be willing to pay the cost of 300,000 BSE testing kits per year and the extra labor required to implement those tests? When have you ever heard of a corporation deliberately deciding to increase the cost of its production system without being legally compelled to do so? --This is insurance against having to kill entire herds should mandatory testing turn up sick cows, and obviously Creekstone, --and this is the important part-- knows that there is a high enough likelihood of BSE infected cows turning up in their herds to warrant this expense.
The only way cows can get BSE is if they are fed brain tissue from other infected animals --specifically the cows which die or are wounded on the farm, and which are minced up and deliberately added into the feed supply.
If you want to eat safe, then buy local, buy free range. Free Range Organic meat tastes a LOT better, doesn't cost a whole lot more, and hey, it wont kill you.
The final point I would note here is the article itself is an example of asinine journalism. Either the journalist is corrupt or stupid or both for writing such a misleading article. That's the kind of journalism which can get people killed. We see a lot of that kind these days.
Wow! Everybody here is full of suggestions, and that's great, but dude. . .
I LOVE your idea of an iridium ring. It's totally cool and I'd definitely go with it! --The only piece of advice I'd offer is to scope her out first. Girls are, on a fundamental level, creatures which are very aware of social values with respect to other girls, and their moms especially. If other girls will not be impressed by an iridium ring, then she'll feel bad about it on some level. I'd try to find out first if she'd be happy with a ring like that. --You might even run it past her mother first, and see if you can't sell the awesomeness of the idea to her; if you can get her mom to truly see it the same way you do, as a powerfully romantic gesture other women would wish their guys loved them enough to think of, then you're good for life and she'll treasure her ring as much as you hope she will. If it all seems good, then go for it! The idea behind it as you describe it is super romantic and the metal is just plain cool. But I'm a guy, which means I'm basically retarded when it comes to this sort of thing.
Good luck on pop-the-question day! She sounds like a lucky girl if you're thinking this much about getting it right.
I should have said that there have recently been physical mechanisms examined which might be used to explain the patterns noted in astrology. Electromagnetics and the ability of cells to react to EM radiation in a variety of spectrums in combination with lunar gravity. --Both of which have been posited as possible reasons why subterranean organisms have the apparent ability to regulate their internal cycles with the day night cycle of the planet, to take one example.
The patterns are observable to any who look, and there have long been physical mechanisms which might be used to explain those patterns. Here is another one.
It's on days like this where I realize I have no idea what to expect.
All I can speak for are my initial reactions, --first impressions lasting and all:
She seems high-pitched and dippy and utterly non-threatening to male egos. Reminds me of this awesome woman I met once in Texas who was a strident supporter of women's rights but who was still twenty pounds under weight and had to be home from her pseudo-activist life-style, (teaching ballet at a girl's youth club) to get supper on the table. The rage in her was simmering around the edges of her pleasant smile and perfect lip stick, but she was too underweight and exhausted to actually break the system. Palin doesn't have that kind of fire, but the lock on her mind appears to be the same; she just can't see it. (This is first impression stuff, so I might be entirely wrong.)
Palin looks like the Republican idea of 'granting' power to women. Compared to Hillary's robust and self-realized personal strength, Palin looks like she has been allowed a watered-down, "isn't that nice, honey" brand of power in the full knowledge that the balding white alpha males they hope to put into office will get the real work done while she takes care of organizing the Tupperware parties.
I have no idea how this is all going to play out, but if I were a woman, I'd be quietly infuriated for reasons I couldn't quite explain. --Or I'd be one of those fully mind-locked prairie roses who knows her place and is thankful to my dominant male for keeping me safe and adoring my femininity or some such old-world nonsense. . .
Either way. . , this might actually be an effective move, (regardless of whether or not it was done on purpose). The image of a Norman Rockwell Mom and Pop running the country on old family values is going to have a powerful effect in the minds of many. That's my current guess. But who knows? This time next month, some other utterly unexpected horsehockey may well change the rules once again.
You are seriously trying to tell me that really, I'M the one spewing profanity while supporting the new editorial direction whereby Slashdot editors post front-page their "Let's make fun of people" news items? --That, really, it wasn't YOU doing this? That your posts, wherein you called everybody who disagreed with your position, "fucking whiners", were all an elaborate illusion I somehow managed to create for myself and that really, all along, YOU have been the one objecting to such mean-spirited, small-mindedness?
Ha ha! I see we have another 'live' one. (And I say that in quotes for a reason).
Laying it on a bit thick, aren't we?
No. Not at all, and you are an excellent example. "Juvenile, mean-spirited and exclusionary."
Incidentally, I see this kind of attack pattern repeated with these Billo types all the time. Rather than deny the truth in what you are saying, they instead attack your manner of describing it. One step removed from ad hom, it's the schoolyard equivalent of shooting down an argument because the words you use sound 'gay'. Generally when this is the first shot out of the cannon, you can only expect the intelligence of the argument to diminish from that point on. Let's see what else this genius has to offer. . .
Gimme a fucking break. If you hate it here, go do your own site, with blackjack and hookers, then. Otherwise, STFU. Whiners like GP and you are just adding to the noise they're complaining about.
No. I like it here. And actually, I'd say that it's the mean-spirited, juvenile and exclusionary people like you who are the ones adding to the noise being laughed at. I can only imagine the kinds of vile emails you might send which would warrant a guffaw or two. Heck, I'm laughing at you and singling you out right now. --I'm simply saying that you shouldn't be laughed at and singled out from the administrative level. Even snarling neophytes need the opportunity to grow and learn, and for that it's important the editorial staff resists the temptation to smack you down themselves.
I understand perfectly, you moron. You clicked on the link, posted, and just felt you had to be heard. Again, what the fuck are you doing here if you hate it so much? Does your pimp put a gun to your head and force you to read idle between blowjobs or something?
No, you clearly do not understand perfectly or you wouldn't be repeating yourself. The new editorial direction represents a fundamental negative shift which the people you are hissing at are opposed to and would like to see reversed. --If you re-read my post with less lather around the jaws you might realize that I'm actually making sense, but that can only happen if you manage to set aside your ego and turn off your emotional auto-response. But you can't do that, can you? Every human contact which crosses your brain has to be filed under, "Respects my wounded greatness" or "Must Be Punished!".
Great, a non-sequitur. You're an idiot and mentally challenged.
Non-sequitur? Hardly. Here, I'll explain it to you with easy to follow numbers so that you can understand. Ready?
1. Fox & Friends is a political discussion show which airs on the state propaganda organ known as the Fox Network. 2. The Fox Network uses emotionally manipulative techniques to such an unabashed degree that even Joseph Goebbels would blush. 3. All of the tactics they use in their regular programming are identical to the ones you use and approve of, with the sole exception being that they don't spit foul language to make their points, which sadly, actually makes them appear smarter than you. (Though, to be fair, I suspect it's a different story off camera.) 4. Since your mind-set matches theirs, I suggested that you would fit right in with their company.
See? Very simple. If you still can't understand, then please don't bother asking me to explain it again, because I don't honestly think I could make it any more clear. You'll just have to grow up and experience the world a bit more.
You put the editor's crotchety 'I Hate Spiderman' opinion piece on page 2, while you at least pretend to hold some journalistic integrity on the front cover.
Please, please cut this out. If you want to be a blog site, then be a blog site, but warn me first so I can delete my bookmarks. I've had the highest respect for the professionalism and restraint of Slashdot editors over the years. I even looked the other way with the socialist rants of Cmdr Taco those years back, because he was at least making himself the willing target when he got up on the soap box with his opinion pieces. But this is different. This is about laughing at weak and unpopular people from the administrative level after they have gone away and cannot even defend themselves. It's cowardly and petty and you should be ashamed. Geeks of all people should know better.
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Hm. I remember doing that exercise as well. --I think the scoring formula needed to be adjusted, because my solid bundle of sticks soaked in glue creating basically a polymer enhanced log could take all the weight the testing apparatus was able to provide, plus that of the teacher and two students standing in a rope looped over my 'bridge'. It never broke, thus my ham-fisted design won the contest despite the ridiculous number of pieces used to make it.
It was also generally agreed that I was an ass and that the real winner was the team which had came up with one of those conventional erector-set type designs.
The point which led me to this idea was that I'd noticed in the scoring formula there was no limit on the amount of glue we were allowed to use. I'd considered making a solid log of glue with a single strut buried inside it, but the drying times wouldn't have allowed me to finish the project before testing day. I think one of my purposes in going through the school system was to spend as much energy as possible challenging the silliness of conventional thinking, though at the time I was giggling too much to take notice.
-FL
I have NO idea what the heck is going on with the planet anymore.
There's too much conflicting information. The waters have been successfully muddied to death. I am ready to curl up into a comatose ball and watch re-runs of mindless TV shows and will allow you to inject me with whatever 'vaccine' you want, and my phone calls will be mumbles which I no longer care if you tap. You WIN!
Actually, I'm just kidding. -Because while the messages and science are claiming this and that, Global Warming, Global Cooling, Sunspot Minimums, Oceanic Saline Maximums, Gulf Stream, Greenhouse Gas and on and on. . . It all adds up to one thing and one thing only. . .
Ice Age.
And that, my friends, is the only thing which counts in the end, and it's what The Powers That Be are having to plan for. Having everybody on the planet paralyzed with confusion just helps keep them. . , well, paralyzed so that the various plans can move forth without complication.
-FL
It isn't anyone else's job to take care of you. It is your job. Be prepared.
Almost sound advice, but do take care. . .
Cuz, what are you going to do when the currency collapses and the geo-political situation snatches the rug out from everybody's feet? The government certainly isn't going to help anybody out. The primary solution is to be prepared to help each other; trying to take care of yourself exclusively is a very demanding and lonely option when infrastructure fails.
The more you are loved, the more people will be genuinely willing to help you. The more you genuinely help other people, the more you are loved. It's a powerful circle, and indeed, it is the only one which is self-sustaining, whereas selfishness and bitterness do invite love. Just a few thoughts to ponder.
-FL
When you have a ton of money to spend on making a piece of media which needs to sell a lot of copies in a very short time to break even, then you spend a portion of that ton of money making sure everybody is jumping up and down with anticipation about it.
It's not always strictly true, but in general you won't go too far wrong following this rule of thumb: The bigger the hype, the more middling the game/movie/whatever will be, because BIG money doesn't like to take BIG risks, and so it doesn't. It's that simple. And the hype for Bioshock was VERY bought and paid for. You could see that from a mile away. It's too bad, because, as you say, there were some really excellent ideas bubbling in the stew of the marketing which could have been exploited but apparently, from what I've read about it, (I'm not a gamer anymore), were simply not and the few ideas which were followed were nothing particularly special. A middling, safe, high eye-candy game.
The best games I ever played, (back when I still played games), were sleeper hits or Part II's riding on the coat tails of previous sleeper hits. --Or they were not even hits at all, but just games I personally enjoyed. And such is life, and no complaints. People worked and learned and played and another day went by with something interesting to do. Not every experience is going to be stand-out amazing, otherwise nothing would stand out or amaze. Still, it's nice to know that around some future corner, right when you think you've seen it all, there will be another mind-blowing surprise you completely failed to anticipate. Life is infinitely complex and wonderful this way. It's why I love being alive so much!
-FL
They might have been opposite intentions but the background of "government is always right" cut through both films but Star Ship Trooper did a lot better job, IMO.
True. I remember coming out of Troopers thinking, "What the-?" It felt like I'd just watched a propaganda piece done entirely straight and was completely baffled by it because I didn't realize that it was meant to be exactly that, --except good and convincing. "Humans are attacked for no reason. Humans society goes all Happy Spartan with no negative repercussions. Humans kick ass. War is Fun! THE END!"
I think if I'd been a bit more politically aware in 1997, I might have recognized it and given a shudder as you did, but instead I was just confused.
-FL
Well I vote for STAR Ship Trooper being better than Vendetta. It was a *SCARY* and it actually had a "OK" story line. Vendetta was just a confused story nobody could understand.
Wow. Those two films were composed with 180 degree opposite intentions. I can't tell if you're writing with an eye toward the ironic or not, but Starship Troopers was written by Heinlein, a confirmed supporter and fan of the Vietnam war who would have no doubt been cheering Team Bush. --At least based on where his head was when he wrote Starship Troopers.
V for Vendetta was written by a guy who would have been beaten up by cops at the RNC this week, were he daft enough to be out on the streets protesting rather than doing the same thing a few thousand times more effectively through the writing of comic books.
But seriously. . , you're yanking my leg, right?
-FL
Totally different industry, and we didn't follow through because we were teen-agers with half-assed ideas but, the research turned up some amazing knowledge which cleared the way to many awesome skills for navigating the world. We went on and did something completely different, but we used a lot of what we learned during this first process.
--One of the first places we visited was a spring manufacturer. We told the plant manager what we were trying to do. Turns out it would have cost a hundred bucks or so to get a machine cranking out little springs to our specifications, and after that you bought the springs by weight; pennies per pound. --Same with all the other parts. We discovered that you can make pretty much whatever you want out of metal and plastic; any shape imaginable and. . , well, this is basic engineering/business 101 and I imagine not terribly surprising to anybody who reads this, but it was a real education for a couple of teenagers at the time.
The world opened up! We realized, "Hey, we can make any darned thing we want. Industry is set up precisely to make this possible. It's just a matter of coming up with a good design and then making some phone calls and working out a sales route, assembling the thing, packaging and shipping. Heck, if you can get advanced orders from enough retail chains you can pretty much know before you start how much money you need and what your profit margins will be, and with that information you can put a plan together for a bank and get a loan to start cranking products out. If you plan carefully, it's like printing money! Ah. . . So THIS is where millionaires come from. Dang! This isn't hard at all. It just takes smarts and effort. Wow! We can do ANYTHING!"
Or something like that. It feels good to know that goods don't just magically appear on shop shelves, but that you can put them there yourself; you can shape the world. You barely even need seed capital before the business loan, unless you need to hire engineers and programmers and such for the prototype, and even that can be worked into a more advanced business plan to take to a bank. You can start the whole thing with bus fare and a clean shirt and slacks!
One bank manager took an interest and gave me a half-hour lecture and several pieces of really awesome advice which I still use today. One of which was that banks don't care much for small loans, but that thinking REALLY big is more likely to procure a willing investment. (I don't know if that is still true today in the current economic climate, but back then it was apparently so). And second, I met a couple of professionals, (one of whom was a lawyer who did a few hundred dollars worth of paper work for me for free), who lived by that rule from the movie, "Pay it Forward" --but a decade and a half before that movie was even a twinkle in some script-writer's eye. "I'm going to do this for you for free, but one day when you are successful, a young, bright-eyed kid is going to come to you for help. You must promise to help that kid the way I'm helping you now. Will you do this?"
My god, yes! I almost hugged the man. --And that came from a lawyer, no less. Dang! People can be SO awesome.
So I think this tablet project is totally boss. If nobody is making what you want and you want it enough, then darn straight, go make one yourself! Chances are there are a bunch of somebodies out there also trying to wish the thing into existence, and that's your market right there. So why not do it? --It will fill your life with a purpose you created within yourself, it will give you a fascinating obstacle course of scalable challenges to work through and that sort of thing brings real joy. And at the end of it, if your aims are right and you put in the work and you don't allow yourself to fall into wishful thinking, then you'll succeed and have made the world a better place in the process. So these guys completely rock, and Open Source is definitely a cool way to go! I can see their business plan evolving thusly.
As a total aside, Doctor Who is my other huge favorite.
That dude is so utterly, utterly positive and courageous. Shines like a beacon in the landscape of television! I figure if the human race is capable of envisioning the likes of Doctor Who, then we all might just have a chance.
Why yes, I am a huge geek. Why do you ask?
-FL
Just listen to all the confused people offering you told-you-so advice. Why on earth do people DO that? Don't they SEE?
--I feel for you, my friend. Nonsense bureaucracy is designed to ding you to death, and it totally sucks that one of your neighbors ratted you out. We're supposed to watch out for each other and not deliberately try to make life difficult in a million and one petty ways. I wish I lived in your neighborhood so I could have offered you my driveway.
-FL
If you take the single quotes out and read it without your tin foil hat on there's nothing to object to. It's just the council asking for people to report problems which they'll then look into. Surely every local government in the world does that.
Eventually people will learn that tin foil, (in its metaphoric state), is a healthy additive in any mental diet.
I'm guessing that this lesson won't sink in until those people find themselves on the wrong side of some barbed wire. But we don't like to think of such things, so it's better to make silly jokes and hope we're right despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. --Or worse, secretly plan to be one of the informers, so you can finally do away with all the queers and colored people and those weird neighbors who looked at you funny that one time.
Don't worry though. I'll throw some bread over the wall for you after your sociopathic neighbor who hates you for no good reason calls the cops on you for having a suspicious number of empty spam tins or whatever in your recycling bin. Unless of course you turn her in first, in which case I'll just punch you in the mouth. Hm. Better turn me while you're at it. Cuz you know, I'm one of those strange people who wears that suspicious-looking tin foil. And boy, wouldn't it be nice to be able to get rid of that lot, eh? They're a blight on the community! They're different. They don't salute with proper British gusto. They don't support the war!
-FL
There is a driver who lives near me who regularly skips red lights and speeds, unless there is a police car about. Currently, I have no power to report him, even if I have evidence so he carries on knowing full well that he can get away with it.
Of course you do. Get on the phone and complain to the police. This is statistically how most criminals are caught; by citizens reporting crimes. --The difference with this new scheme is that snitching is being introduced in an organized manner through 'green' environmentalism which people are far more likely to allow a toe-hold.
This is the next small step in the Big Evil Plan everybody has been nervously hoping would just kind of not happen. --First they sold Brits those gawdawful surveillance cameras, (and to my ever-lasting astonishment, actually managed to convince a significant portion of the populace to love them), so now it's time to take the next step.
I'm curious to see at what point people will realize, "Oops. People are vanishing into camps. Maybe that's not such a good thing. . . Maybe I should have put my foot down a few years back. . ."
The sad part is, with the kind of programming the British have undergone over the last century or so, I actually think there will be a good portion of the population which will be cheering the whole death-parade right up to the bitter end. I'm not judging such people, but it is a bit depressing to consider.
-FL
I don't believe any of this story.
That's your business, hear-say being what it is. I would note that this happened to me in 1988, if that's any use to you. I still find it surprising in retrospect, however. I rather thought tie-dye was a sixties thing.
-FL
Military aggression, in this case Georgia's attack on Ossetia is not equivalent to "wearing a dress". How does this escape you?
Because his mind started melting sometime around the late nineties. I'm afraid you won't get much more than vitriol and general inanity from that guy.
For a more grounded version of events, I found this item to be illuminating.
-FL
The only false evidence are leftist talking points.
Uh. . , now which government office issues those? Douglas Feith certainly doesn't.
-FL
I worked with a group of kids when I was in my teens one Summer. --You know, games and sports and arts & crafts and such. This one day, we made tie-dyed shirts.
Well the shirt I made turned out pretty good and I wore it for the whole afternoon and kind of forgot it was on me. Then after the kids all went off back home, me and a few of the other 'leaders' decided to head out for a movie and burgers and stuff. At the end of the evening, we all split off and I was on my way back home alone.
My opinion of humanity then began to plummet.
Taking public transit, I was getting all these freaked out looks. Everybody was acting as though they were scared of me. --I was used to being totally ignored, but people were really, really nervous. It was baffling. It happened not just with the occupants of one bus, but on another and on a train as well. I didn't work out it was the tie-dye shirt they were all reacting to until this one Stephen Colbert clone actually measured me up and down with an expression of abject, "Small-guy-on-his-first-day-in-prison" and then made a comment about the Grateful Dead being really cool in some kind of weird effort to. . , not get hurt by me? It was utterly unreal. I couldn't believe just how limited a set of lives people must lead in order to react in such a manner. As just a teen-ager, (back when I wasn't aware of politics in the slightest,) even I had worked out that hippies were the last form of political life you needed to back slowly away from.
I filed the incident away under, "Fear and Ignorance" for later reference and have dusted it off for you today.
-FL
They caught people about to break the law ... period ... that's it.
Which law? Or should that be, "Witch law"?
-FL
Good points all.
What really needs to be done is a strict control of feed qualities. --Disallowing the addition of animal matter, (not to mention downer cow animal matter) in the feed supply would pretty much eliminate the whole problem of BSE. I cannot understand why this isn't done; the science is understood and agreed upon, (I believe), and I can't imagine that much is saved by feeding dead cows to live cows. It seems a small price to pay for sanity. But nobody has ever asked me, and the cattle farmers I've met are all totally on board with the free range organic model anyway, and they just nod and tell me extra details. I've never met a factory farmer, and I'm not sure I want to. I'd feel that awkwardness which I always feel when trying to figure out how to converse civilly with ignorant and/or callous people who have chosen not to think or act responsibly in the world.
Really, factory farming and cruelty to livestock as a whole should be banished from the planet, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Too many simply don't care. --I've talked to a lot of people who consume meat products, and most of them know the details and problems but rather than adjust their behavior appropriately, they have instead perfected the art of 'Just Not Thinking About It'. I love meat, and in fact my blood-type requires it for me to stay at the peak of my health, but I don't need that much, and it doesn't mean I have to eat drugged-up garbage procured from miserable creatures.
The amazing thing is that most of the people I've discussed this with and who reject common sense are visibly unhealthy and miserable for their trouble. Ignorance is NOT bliss. It's slow suicide. But you probably have your own notions about this, so I don't want to bore you with my complaining.
-FL
The government got this one right!
From reading the case document one learns the following details. . .
"Creekstone Farms Premium Beef" processes 300,000 head of cattle per year. This means they're not a farm; they're a rendering plant, and that means they buy beef from anybody who sells, using whatever standards, feeds, drugs, etc., those individual farmers choose. This is the factory farm system at its full bloom, cute, trust-inspiring name aside. --And what they are trying to do is to hedge their bets against the nightmare of having to cull entire herds if tests for BSE come up positive.
So what? How is that bad?
It's bad because these guys are NOT concerned about your health. They are part of a multi-billion dollar per year industry which is being threatened by the import standards of other countries which want, very rightly so, to make sure their populations are not being poisoned.
The renderer, "Creekstone" wants to use the cheapest and fastest-working BSE testing kit on each of the cows they kill in the full knowledge that the test isn't effective. --That is, the test can only read large concentrations of BSE prions in brain tissue, and is thus more effective the older the cow is, 5 years being the mean average. Creekstone kills its cows at 24 months, and the test isn't even rated for use on cows under 30 months.
Thus the test won't actually find infected cows and Creekstone will be able to sell them with impunity.
But it's worse than that. . .
See, now if a BSE infected cow is found, all the cattle it had contact with are destroyed, resulting in an insurance premium and profit-loss nightmare. But if a cow happens to be found using this test, (which there is a slight chance happening in the most extreme cases of infection), then the company can argue that the rest of the herd should be spared because, "See, we caught the sick one! Our system worked. We don't need to cull the herd because, after all, each animal is individually tested!"
Had this action been allowed by the courts, it would have constituted a scam which would have saved the cattle industry potentially billions of dollars, and they know it. Why else would they be willing to pay the cost of 300,000 BSE testing kits per year and the extra labor required to implement those tests? When have you ever heard of a corporation deliberately deciding to increase the cost of its production system without being legally compelled to do so? --This is insurance against having to kill entire herds should mandatory testing turn up sick cows, and obviously Creekstone, --and this is the important part-- knows that there is a high enough likelihood of BSE infected cows turning up in their herds to warrant this expense.
The only way cows can get BSE is if they are fed brain tissue from other infected animals --specifically the cows which die or are wounded on the farm, and which are minced up and deliberately added into the feed supply.
If you want to eat safe, then buy local, buy free range. Free Range Organic meat tastes a LOT better, doesn't cost a whole lot more, and hey, it wont kill you.
The final point I would note here is the article itself is an example of asinine journalism. Either the journalist is corrupt or stupid or both for writing such a misleading article. That's the kind of journalism which can get people killed. We see a lot of that kind these days.
-FL
Wow! Everybody here is full of suggestions, and that's great, but dude. . .
I LOVE your idea of an iridium ring. It's totally cool and I'd definitely go with it! --The only piece of advice I'd offer is to scope her out first. Girls are, on a fundamental level, creatures which are very aware of social values with respect to other girls, and their moms especially. If other girls will not be impressed by an iridium ring, then she'll feel bad about it on some level. I'd try to find out first if she'd be happy with a ring like that. --You might even run it past her mother first, and see if you can't sell the awesomeness of the idea to her; if you can get her mom to truly see it the same way you do, as a powerfully romantic gesture other women would wish their guys loved them enough to think of, then you're good for life and she'll treasure her ring as much as you hope she will. If it all seems good, then go for it! The idea behind it as you describe it is super romantic and the metal is just plain cool. But I'm a guy, which means I'm basically retarded when it comes to this sort of thing.
Good luck on pop-the-question day! She sounds like a lucky girl if you're thinking this much about getting it right.
-FL
Correction.
I should have said that there have recently been physical mechanisms examined which might be used to explain the patterns noted in astrology. Electromagnetics and the ability of cells to react to EM radiation in a variety of spectrums in combination with lunar gravity. --Both of which have been posited as possible reasons why subterranean organisms have the apparent ability to regulate their internal cycles with the day night cycle of the planet, to take one example.
-FL
I just did.
The patterns are observable to any who look, and there have long been physical mechanisms which might be used to explain those patterns. Here is another one.
There is no magic. Long live magic.
-FL
It's on days like this where I realize I have no idea what to expect.
All I can speak for are my initial reactions, --first impressions lasting and all:
She seems high-pitched and dippy and utterly non-threatening to male egos. Reminds me of this awesome woman I met once in Texas who was a strident supporter of women's rights but who was still twenty pounds under weight and had to be home from her pseudo-activist life-style, (teaching ballet at a girl's youth club) to get supper on the table. The rage in her was simmering around the edges of her pleasant smile and perfect lip stick, but she was too underweight and exhausted to actually break the system. Palin doesn't have that kind of fire, but the lock on her mind appears to be the same; she just can't see it. (This is first impression stuff, so I might be entirely wrong.)
Palin looks like the Republican idea of 'granting' power to women. Compared to Hillary's robust and self-realized personal strength, Palin looks like she has been allowed a watered-down, "isn't that nice, honey" brand of power in the full knowledge that the balding white alpha males they hope to put into office will get the real work done while she takes care of organizing the Tupperware parties.
I have no idea how this is all going to play out, but if I were a woman, I'd be quietly infuriated for reasons I couldn't quite explain. --Or I'd be one of those fully mind-locked prairie roses who knows her place and is thankful to my dominant male for keeping me safe and adoring my femininity or some such old-world nonsense. . .
Either way. . , this might actually be an effective move, (regardless of whether or not it was done on purpose). The image of a Norman Rockwell Mom and Pop running the country on old family values is going to have a powerful effect in the minds of many. That's my current guess. But who knows? This time next month, some other utterly unexpected horsehockey may well change the rules once again.
-FL
One word: Projection.
Projection?
Let me get this straight:
You are seriously trying to tell me that really, I'M the one spewing profanity while supporting the new editorial direction whereby Slashdot editors post front-page their "Let's make fun of people" news items? --That, really, it wasn't YOU doing this? That your posts, wherein you called everybody who disagreed with your position, "fucking whiners", were all an elaborate illusion I somehow managed to create for myself and that really, all along, YOU have been the one objecting to such mean-spirited, small-mindedness?
Is that REALLY what you are trying to say here?
-FL
Ha ha! I see we have another 'live' one. (And I say that in quotes for a reason).
Laying it on a bit thick, aren't we?
No. Not at all, and you are an excellent example. "Juvenile, mean-spirited and exclusionary."
Incidentally, I see this kind of attack pattern repeated with these Billo types all the time. Rather than deny the truth in what you are saying, they instead attack your manner of describing it. One step removed from ad hom, it's the schoolyard equivalent of shooting down an argument because the words you use sound 'gay'. Generally when this is the first shot out of the cannon, you can only expect the intelligence of the argument to diminish from that point on. Let's see what else this genius has to offer. . .
Gimme a fucking break. If you hate it here, go do your own site, with blackjack and hookers, then. Otherwise, STFU. Whiners like GP and you are just adding to the noise they're complaining about.
No. I like it here. And actually, I'd say that it's the mean-spirited, juvenile and exclusionary people like you who are the ones adding to the noise being laughed at. I can only imagine the kinds of vile emails you might send which would warrant a guffaw or two. Heck, I'm laughing at you and singling you out right now. --I'm simply saying that you shouldn't be laughed at and singled out from the administrative level. Even snarling neophytes need the opportunity to grow and learn, and for that it's important the editorial staff resists the temptation to smack you down themselves.
I understand perfectly, you moron. You clicked on the link, posted, and just felt you had to be heard. Again, what the fuck are you doing here if you hate it so much? Does your pimp put a gun to your head and force you to read idle between blowjobs or something?
No, you clearly do not understand perfectly or you wouldn't be repeating yourself. The new editorial direction represents a fundamental negative shift which the people you are hissing at are opposed to and would like to see reversed. --If you re-read my post with less lather around the jaws you might realize that I'm actually making sense, but that can only happen if you manage to set aside your ego and turn off your emotional auto-response. But you can't do that, can you? Every human contact which crosses your brain has to be filed under, "Respects my wounded greatness" or "Must Be Punished!".
Great, a non-sequitur. You're an idiot and mentally challenged.
Non-sequitur? Hardly. Here, I'll explain it to you with easy to follow numbers so that you can understand. Ready?
1. Fox & Friends is a political discussion show which airs on the state propaganda organ known as the Fox Network.
2. The Fox Network uses emotionally manipulative techniques to such an unabashed degree that even Joseph Goebbels would blush.
3. All of the tactics they use in their regular programming are identical to the ones you use and approve of, with the sole exception being that they don't spit foul language to make their points, which sadly, actually makes them appear smarter than you. (Though, to be fair, I suspect it's a different story off camera.)
4. Since your mind-set matches theirs, I suggested that you would fit right in with their company.
See? Very simple. If you still can't understand, then please don't bother asking me to explain it again, because I don't honestly think I could make it any more clear. You'll just have to grow up and experience the world a bit more.
-FL
You put the editor's crotchety 'I Hate Spiderman' opinion piece on page 2, while you at least pretend to hold some journalistic integrity on the front cover.
Please, please cut this out. If you want to be a blog site, then be a blog site, but warn me first so I can delete my bookmarks. I've had the highest respect for the professionalism and restraint of Slashdot editors over the years. I even looked the other way with the socialist rants of Cmdr Taco those years back, because he was at least making himself the willing target when he got up on the soap box with his opinion pieces. But this is different. This is about laughing at weak and unpopular people from the administrative level after they have gone away and cannot even defend themselves. It's cowardly and petty and you should be ashamed. Geeks of all people should know better.
-FL