Thank you for pointing these out. The clinical term is mass hysteria, and the colloquial term is witchhunt, which you point out. A more recent, better documented, and with chilling aftereffects that are still being felt is McCarthyism--the witchhunt for communists. Warped Factors by Walter Koenig (Checkov on Star Trek, Bester on B5) has a superb first-hand account of this era (but the book is a little boring). Bottom line: we never learn.
The article implies the image is semi-transparent. You could create some very nice psuedo-3D diaramas with layering. As for cost, no initial demand will keep it high for three or more years after production begins. At the very least, we can watch the price of LCDs go down.
Reminds me of the allegory of the monkey who can't get his hand out of the cookie jar because he won't let go of the cookie. Security measures to help prevent all DoS attacks as well e-mail virus-like scripts and web scripts severely impair the ability to control and advertise. Until then, you're better off using 3rd party security measures.
They didn't arrest and confiscate because of suspected violence! They were not in compliance with DMCA for using copyrighted material in a digital form without license.
I clicked on all the links off the Read More, but I could find no example of the Amazon version of the tip jar. Are the jars for Amazon supporting others, or others supporting Amazon, or both/neither? This story doesn't seem to have any content.
It appears that the end of the article suggests people aren't bothering to remember names and numbers, that PDAs and speed dials are keeping us from placing names, addresses, and phone numbers into long-term memory. We enter the data in under 20 seconds and poof! we're on to short attention span moment 153 for the day. To remember something, you repeat it to yourself for about 30 seconds. It's a shame the article takes such great lengths to remind us of short- and long-term memory spans.
Sometimes the article wasn't paranoid enough. If you're forced to register your home video before sending it via e-mail, expect the content nazi's to black out frames or the whole video. We clearly saw a sony logo in the background which we gridded out. We do not have a partnership with Sony. If this sounds farfetched, try getting your film developed at Wal*Mart. It is their policy to not deliver "offensive" material.
Access to my records in the way a patient needs it: tests, weight charts, physical records over a period of time (BP, pulse rate, etc.)
The ability to make and break appointments online, however, made appointments should be followed up by an office call, broken appointments should be also be phoned in by patient to be fair. This would really solve the on-hold problem I have making appointments.
Automated e-mail reminders: is your insurance the same?, you're due for a 12-month follow-up, your meds should have run out by now...
E-mail prescription refill requests for maintenance drugs, like allergy medicines
Total pharmaceutical tracking: what drugs you're currently taking, how they might interact, PDR notes and cross references, prescribed dosages, your preferred pharmacy information.
Doctor schedule changes, because my doctor(s) shift their schedules between different offices and hospitals, as well as take vacations(!).
24-hour non-emergency correspondence, preferably by a network of doctors and nurses. Stress the non-emergency aspect here, and only by patients.
E-mail notification when test results are in: You're x-rays are in, please schedule you're follow-up appointment...
These are just some of what I can think of, since this is a brainstorming question. I think an overall theme of my list is to keep some of the more tedious things on-line, and try not to impersonalize the face-to-face things. Most importantly, if this could somehow streamline the waiting time, it would be appreciated.
This is one of those cases that shows how good business ethics are good business profits. Of course you should do the right thing for your customer. If not, they will one way or another find out they've been had. No repeat business. No repeat business, no good references. No references no new business. Taken to extremes, the company will generate bad refernces.
Do what's best for the customer. It actually pays!
Securing a system of this type, even if 100% successful, requires it be locked up according to the highest security clearance it operates under. There's a really good chance there will still be two computers: one in the secure area, and one for e-mail, word processing, etc, because it requires a great big physical effort to get the whole system out.
Therefore, this would only help a PC user that is always working under his highest security.
Excellent examples of SF not being primarily American. Jules Verne is a Frenchman who was very influential in the genre. Both the French and the English are really the biggest influences in molding SF into what it is today.
However, American money makes American SF, particularly movies, the most influential force right now. All I can say is read the book and we can see if he means "pop culture," of which there are many national flavors.
Well, I doubt the controller had much to do with the demise, but you show a fascinating correlation! The Genesis pad, the original one, had a tendency to make me push in the wrong direction because of the crescent shape.
The DC pad is like: let's take the crappy Nights controller and make it better. The worst result was putting the wire on the end furthest from the game system. Why?
Let me see, millions of DC's out there and less than half that in PS2. Should I publish games for a system that will have no new owners by the end of the year, or should I publish games for a system that will continue to have new owners on through 2002 and possibly beyond? If the code isn't hardware specific yet, I'd immediately dump my DC version.
Wordsmithing the Internet, using lawyers to pretend that internet documents are not the same as documents, and claiming patents on internet procedures, will be their downfall.
Soon, and very soon, the Internet will render itself useless, when traffic exceeds its capacity and or speed requirements abandon it. At this point CMGI and all the other patent grubbers will realize their technicalities will render their patents useless. You see all of their patents will be for the "Internet," and won't apply to any new technologies. Technically speaking, that is.
I agree that computer use will enhance a child's intelligence and prepare them for pretty much every GUI and interface they'll deal with their entire lives; however, children have precious spare time.
The truth is they have a lot of spare time, but the two-hours after school until Mom and Dad or Big-bro pick them up is a lot more wasted than before. As much as I hate Physical Education, it is vital in a childs development to get well rounded exercise. Likewise, well rounded brain-exercise, like art and music, are important intelligence builders as well.
30 Hours at the PC a week? Some kids can handle it, some can't. They need to break their precious spare time up between school work, art/music, chores, television (yes, TV!), and the computer. Likewise, PC fun should equally be divided amongst games, writing e-mail to Uncle Jim, surfing the internet, and so forth.
Any computer work incorporated with school work is an extremely efficient use of this time: training and learning (and often fun). Will a child deprived of the Internet and a PC suffer? No, not physically and slightly intellectually. It really isn't emotional, physical, or mental, what Mr. Katz is getting at is competition.
Most, and I'd guess all, schools and libraries have the ages of their students and lenders on file. It's kind of required to get a children's or adult's card, or to attend school.
Why not implement a log-in procedure and tie it in with the card numbers and student id's. Anyone over the age of 18 should not be filtered at all. Under 18s could be filtered by default, but I'm a great proponent of having only the parents control the filtering option. Oh yeah, that would require parental attention.
I'm not sure why my library has to use filtering software at all, since all of the supposed types of no-no sites are already against library rules to view anyway. Penalty: no computer privileges.
This information, or rather lack thereof, is the same nonsense I heard a month after Playstation's launch. It's vague because the success of the current system decides the timetable of the next one.
The planning does have to begin now, however. Currently, all they can talk about are theoretical limits and projected pricetags. With Sega's "giving up," of home hardware systems and focus on software, Sony is hinting that the dismal sales of PS2 might demand the drop of their home hardware biz.
Why did I say "dismal?" Because had they released their original estimate of systems, 1 million, they would have sold them out in 1-7 days. Instead they only sold half that many and have been trickling ever since. Dreamcasts outnumber Playstation 2's. Hardware sales are usually at a loss and made up in licensing sales. And lastly, Sony charges less for licensing, hence the cheaper-than-Nintendo prices, making their profit margin lower.
In the long run, however, I predict the sales will be wonderful, and the DVD player feature will topple the competition. Next time, however, expect Sony to license the hardware spec for PS3 to an exclusive manufacture for about 12-24 months sales period so they can make money immediately.
Article is very good, however I disagree on one area. Michael Abrash wrote:
If you like it, game programming is about the best software job there is. It touches on practically every area of programming, and it's one of the few places where code can still be written clean instead of patched over or pieced together from canned parts. It's also one of the few places where optimization still really matters.
This only applies to non-sequel, non-port, non-home console games. Playstation2 and Dreamcast games developers often use middleware to achieve their games. Sequels and ports often involve revitalizing and fixing old code.
The really good programmers maintain their own custom sets of classes, routines, macros, and code fragments, which is the only way to "keep it clean." In other words, keep your own can of parts.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the problem with spamming the spammers? You see, revenge feels great, but you justify their spam as legitimate business. Not only that, they recognize their effectiveness when they get any response.
If you perceive a problem, don't be part of it, fix it. For now, use filters. Deleting an e-mail is much easier than recycling physical junk mail. Whatever you do, don't let them get ahold of another e-mail address.
If hospital's take 8 percent of all energy in California to operate, should they cut power to hospital's? Should hospital's cut back? The answers are no and not necessarily.
Simply pointing out the energy consumption of an industry is really not the same as pointing out the wasted energy. You can make no assumptions about how much they're wasting based on consumption.
The article appears to be goading the IT industry.
These people, especially the ones that have a group outing of it, are fetishists. They're getting a cheap thrill out of something taboo. I admit it isn't that taboo except that it's trespassing. But that's enough for some people.
When I was a kid, I thought exploring construction sites was wonderful. You could walk through a house before it's built. Step through a wall. See how dirty an operation it really is before it's all cleaned up. My parents told me not to. Silly parents, what did they know? I broke my leg at a construction site when I was 8. Sometimes prohibitions make really good sense.
The Internet was never free. Deregulation only meant that it was up to the servers to guard their own content, and it took several government regulations off the books.
The Internet was never immune to current law. You have lawyers who claim it isn't tacked down because there is no specific mention of electronic media in copyright law, slander laws, etc. But we know what was intended.
The Internet was never private. It was the rise of typically private transactions that led the hue and cry for privacy. In fact, the Internet was bare, naked, and exposed for all the world. We demanded privacy after-the-fact. This is the same thing that happened with telephones.
Perhaps we should understand the realism, recognize that our states and countries have laws, and instead of expected some sort of Idealistic free world to come about on its own, we should try and create it.
Despite the cynicism of my view, I think the Idealistic views of the Internet have a lot of merit. I also believe that many of the local laws being passed violate existing laws or even, heaven forbid, the Constitution (in the US anyway). Don't take things for granted, they aren't.
California failed to plan for the contingency that the price of oil would go up. They put into legislation price caps and enforce within their own state. The prices of fuel are generated out of state. Essentially, the buyers of the power plants were duped.
I find the de-reg experiment to be an utter failure because it proves the need for a nation-wide cap on prices--which really means charging more in the off-season. That's federal regulation. It can't be done with just one state.
The legislation of California, if it doesn't act decisively, will be 100% to blame for the lack of energy. A rolling blackout, barring a true shortage of fuel, is always caused by negligence.
If there are blackouts, I strongly urge the residents of California to commence class actions against the state. Blackouts endanger lives, and it could be solved if California would borrow money from the Feds or other states to lend, in turn to the power companies.
The bottom line is: you have to do some things regardless of whether you can afford to, because of responsibility and duty.
Nice guesses, interesting ideas. It is very important to know that prototypes are:
Smaller than large-scale projects
Larger than micro-scale projects
Spartan and often box-like
Made from standard parts when available
That's why standard parts and tools were used. Probably the non-standard fittings were pre-assembled. As for colleges and universities, that's where a lot of funding and testing will occur, so I think that was a marketing ploy. I also realize the information "leaked" was controlled and slightly self-contradictory. There is a really good chance that part of it is true (maybe half), and the rest (maybe all) is intentionally false.
One thing is certain: it's not an appliance of any kind. Appliances, like the microwave oven, VHS, TV, trash compactor(what's that??), etc., make no money for years. Then there's a boom, where everyone needs one. Then the market is sated (like PCs). Then the initial companies start chapter 11 and make mergers. Any potential investor would immediately recognize this.
From my best accounting it's either a component or an out-and-out hoax. It better not be Furby II! "Me-lo-way-oh-dabba!"
I've played the Japanese release. It's essentially the same as the US since the English, French, and Japanese language translations are all there. Graphics-wise, it's not impressive. Gameplay is similar to Asheron's call. Where the game does shine is its online/offline continuity, with a complete offline quest. Unfortunately, I was unable to test the online portion; however there are "downloadable quests," that can be retrieved, which adds the unknown element. I just can't wait to see how it handles lag and dead reckoning. I hate moonwalking characters and popping from place to place!
PSO is supposed to support the broadband adapter, so I guess the biggest hurdle now is getting the US servers online and synched with the rest of the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you for pointing these out. The clinical term is mass hysteria, and the colloquial term is witchhunt, which you point out. A more recent, better documented, and with chilling aftereffects that are still being felt is McCarthyism--the witchhunt for communists. Warped Factors by Walter Koenig (Checkov on Star Trek, Bester on B5) has a superb first-hand account of this era (but the book is a little boring). Bottom line: we never learn.
----------------------
The article implies the image is semi-transparent. You could create some very nice psuedo-3D diaramas with layering. As for cost, no initial demand will keep it high for three or more years after production begins. At the very least, we can watch the price of LCDs go down.
----------------------
Reminds me of the allegory of the monkey who can't get his hand out of the cookie jar because he won't let go of the cookie. Security measures to help prevent all DoS attacks as well e-mail virus-like scripts and web scripts severely impair the ability to control and advertise. Until then, you're better off using 3rd party security measures.
----------------------
They didn't arrest and confiscate because of suspected violence! They were not in compliance with DMCA for using copyrighted material in a digital form without license.
----------------------
I clicked on all the links off the Read More, but I could find no example of the Amazon version of the tip jar. Are the jars for Amazon supporting others, or others supporting Amazon, or both/neither? This story doesn't seem to have any content.
----------------------
It appears that the end of the article suggests people aren't bothering to remember names and numbers, that PDAs and speed dials are keeping us from placing names, addresses, and phone numbers into long-term memory. We enter the data in under 20 seconds and poof! we're on to short attention span moment 153 for the day. To remember something, you repeat it to yourself for about 30 seconds. It's a shame the article takes such great lengths to remind us of short- and long-term memory spans.
----------------------
Sometimes the article wasn't paranoid enough. If you're forced to register your home video before sending it via e-mail, expect the content nazi's to black out frames or the whole video. We clearly saw a sony logo in the background which we gridded out. We do not have a partnership with Sony. If this sounds farfetched, try getting your film developed at Wal*Mart. It is their policy to not deliver "offensive" material.
----------------------
These are just some of what I can think of, since this is a brainstorming question. I think an overall theme of my list is to keep some of the more tedious things on-line, and try not to impersonalize the face-to-face things. Most importantly, if this could somehow streamline the waiting time, it would be appreciated.
----------------------
Do what's best for the customer. It actually pays!
----------------------
Therefore, this would only help a PC user that is always working under his highest security.
----------------------
However, American money makes American SF, particularly movies, the most influential force right now. All I can say is read the book and we can see if he means "pop culture," of which there are many national flavors.
----------------------
The DC pad is like: let's take the crappy Nights controller and make it better. The worst result was putting the wire on the end furthest from the game system. Why?
----------------------
Sega Dreamcast: It's sinking.
----------------------
Soon, and very soon, the Internet will render itself useless, when traffic exceeds its capacity and or speed requirements abandon it. At this point CMGI and all the other patent grubbers will realize their technicalities will render their patents useless. You see all of their patents will be for the "Internet," and won't apply to any new technologies. Technically speaking, that is.
----------------------
The truth is they have a lot of spare time, but the two-hours after school until Mom and Dad or Big-bro pick them up is a lot more wasted than before. As much as I hate Physical Education, it is vital in a childs development to get well rounded exercise. Likewise, well rounded brain-exercise, like art and music, are important intelligence builders as well.
30 Hours at the PC a week? Some kids can handle it, some can't. They need to break their precious spare time up between school work, art/music, chores, television (yes, TV!), and the computer. Likewise, PC fun should equally be divided amongst games, writing e-mail to Uncle Jim, surfing the internet, and so forth.
Any computer work incorporated with school work is an extremely efficient use of this time: training and learning (and often fun). Will a child deprived of the Internet and a PC suffer? No, not physically and slightly intellectually. It really isn't emotional, physical, or mental, what Mr. Katz is getting at is competition.
----------------------
Why not implement a log-in procedure and tie it in with the card numbers and student id's. Anyone over the age of 18 should not be filtered at all. Under 18s could be filtered by default, but I'm a great proponent of having only the parents control the filtering option. Oh yeah, that would require parental attention.
I'm not sure why my library has to use filtering software at all, since all of the supposed types of no-no sites are already against library rules to view anyway. Penalty: no computer privileges.
----------------------
The planning does have to begin now, however. Currently, all they can talk about are theoretical limits and projected pricetags. With Sega's "giving up," of home hardware systems and focus on software, Sony is hinting that the dismal sales of PS2 might demand the drop of their home hardware biz.
Why did I say "dismal?" Because had they released their original estimate of systems, 1 million, they would have sold them out in 1-7 days. Instead they only sold half that many and have been trickling ever since. Dreamcasts outnumber Playstation 2's. Hardware sales are usually at a loss and made up in licensing sales. And lastly, Sony charges less for licensing, hence the cheaper-than-Nintendo prices, making their profit margin lower.
In the long run, however, I predict the sales will be wonderful, and the DVD player feature will topple the competition. Next time, however, expect Sony to license the hardware spec for PS3 to an exclusive manufacture for about 12-24 months sales period so they can make money immediately.
----------------------
If you like it, game programming is about the best software job there is. It touches on practically every area of programming, and it's one of the few places where code can still be written clean instead of patched over or pieced together from canned parts. It's also one of the few places where optimization still really matters.
This only applies to non-sequel, non-port, non-home console games. Playstation2 and Dreamcast games developers often use middleware to achieve their games. Sequels and ports often involve revitalizing and fixing old code.
The really good programmers maintain their own custom sets of classes, routines, macros, and code fragments, which is the only way to "keep it clean." In other words, keep your own can of parts.
----------------------
If you perceive a problem, don't be part of it, fix it. For now, use filters. Deleting an e-mail is much easier than recycling physical junk mail. Whatever you do, don't let them get ahold of another e-mail address.
----------------------
Simply pointing out the energy consumption of an industry is really not the same as pointing out the wasted energy. You can make no assumptions about how much they're wasting based on consumption.
The article appears to be goading the IT industry.
----------------------
When I was a kid, I thought exploring construction sites was wonderful. You could walk through a house before it's built. Step through a wall. See how dirty an operation it really is before it's all cleaned up. My parents told me not to. Silly parents, what did they know? I broke my leg at a construction site when I was 8. Sometimes prohibitions make really good sense.
----------------------
The Internet was never immune to current law. You have lawyers who claim it isn't tacked down because there is no specific mention of electronic media in copyright law, slander laws, etc. But we know what was intended.
The Internet was never private. It was the rise of typically private transactions that led the hue and cry for privacy. In fact, the Internet was bare, naked, and exposed for all the world. We demanded privacy after-the-fact. This is the same thing that happened with telephones.
Perhaps we should understand the realism, recognize that our states and countries have laws, and instead of expected some sort of Idealistic free world to come about on its own, we should try and create it.
Despite the cynicism of my view, I think the Idealistic views of the Internet have a lot of merit. I also believe that many of the local laws being passed violate existing laws or even, heaven forbid, the Constitution (in the US anyway). Don't take things for granted, they aren't.
----------------------
I find the de-reg experiment to be an utter failure because it proves the need for a nation-wide cap on prices--which really means charging more in the off-season. That's federal regulation. It can't be done with just one state. The legislation of California, if it doesn't act decisively, will be 100% to blame for the lack of energy. A rolling blackout, barring a true shortage of fuel, is always caused by negligence.
If there are blackouts, I strongly urge the residents of California to commence class actions against the state. Blackouts endanger lives, and it could be solved if California would borrow money from the Feds or other states to lend, in turn to the power companies.
The bottom line is: you have to do some things regardless of whether you can afford to, because of responsibility and duty.
----------------------
Smaller than large-scale projects
Larger than micro-scale projects
Spartan and often box-like
Made from standard parts when available
That's why standard parts and tools were used. Probably the non-standard fittings were pre-assembled. As for colleges and universities, that's where a lot of funding and testing will occur, so I think that was a marketing ploy. I also realize the information "leaked" was controlled and slightly self-contradictory. There is a really good chance that part of it is true (maybe half), and the rest (maybe all) is intentionally false.
One thing is certain: it's not an appliance of any kind. Appliances, like the microwave oven, VHS, TV, trash compactor(what's that??), etc., make no money for years. Then there's a boom, where everyone needs one. Then the market is sated (like PCs). Then the initial companies start chapter 11 and make mergers. Any potential investor would immediately recognize this.
From my best accounting it's either a component or an out-and-out hoax. It better not be Furby II! "Me-lo-way-oh-dabba!"
----------------------
PSO is supposed to support the broadband adapter, so I guess the biggest hurdle now is getting the US servers online and synched with the rest of the world.
----------------------