In the future, advertisers will vie with each other to create the most annoying, painful, disgusting, soul-destroying commercials possible. Then the viewing audience will have the option to pay to NOT see the commercials. How much would you pay to never have to see another Quiznos, Axe Body Spray or Girls Gone Wild advertisement? I'd definitely pay more for a DVD that didn't try to force me to watch them.
Eventually, they might stop making commercials altogether, just the threat will be enough to make the viewer cough up the cash so they don't have to see them.
There will be a black market for products that skip or distort the advertisements. The advertising industry will send enforcers 'round your neighborhood with anti-advertising detectors to find those who are skipping the commercials without paying for the privilege. When they find them, they'll sue users of these hacks, for back-pay and damages, having taken lessons from the RIAA.
I have always admired George Takei and think it's great to name an asteroid after him. Gay jokes and calling him names is pretty foul. You would think I was new here to expect any better.
Is it a PC-only game? My cursory searches didn't turn up anything for consoles. I played Baldur's Gate on the PS2; I like playing PlayStation RPGs that support multiple players. I guess this isn't one of those?
I was fixing a computer in a high-level admin's office once...when I was finished I used the computer to log in to my trouble-ticket database to sign off on the job and pick up the next one. My database site started with www1.ticketetc.etc and this dope had auto-complete on in his browser, which happily dropped down www1.hotteenagesluts.etc, etc., etc. It would be pretty hard to mistake that for hotteenagesluts, Massachusetts. I didn't report that one, it was an accident that I saw it. Although it probably explained the problems with his computer.
I also once worked with a dude that would porn-surf at work, and his station was right next to the fridge where we all kept our lunches and drinks so it was impossible not to see it. He seemed to get a kick out of it, actually, making his co-workers look at his crap. I had to work on his computer once, and he had bookmarked hundreds of porn sites. I did finally report that dude, the manager "talked" to him. The surfer moved his computer into a little closet-type room and started going in to work at 4am so he could porn surf "in private." I didn't much like having his sleazy little porn-addled eyeballs on me at work, nor did I enjoy him walking around constantly at half-mast, I can tell you that.
Is it legal to jack off at work in Scandinavia? I don't know about you but I have never heard of anyone masturbating to Slashdot or a cup of coffee. What if your cube neighbor doesn't want to see or hear your porn or your reactions to it?
A 1992 computer game based around Giger's art, you play a guy who has bought a house that has connections to an alternate world...
I never did finish it. It was really easy to lose and die, and the dying was pretty frightening!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Seed_(computer_g ame)
I got the 3.0 books from half.com a couple of years ago after 3.5 came out - at $3/book, I bought one for every player I had. We've been happily playing from them ever since. I was pretty stoked that 3.5 had come out since it made the older books so easy to get. But I'm a total tightwad.
If this dude details his spamming exploits, why not use the book to sue or prosecute him? It's illegal, isn't it? Would an ex-burgler get to make a bunch of money from a book on his lock-picking techniques and stories about houses he'd broken into and people he'd mugged?
"Besides, Bush remaining in the White House at this point only seems to be helping the Democrats. Why the heck would anyone in their right mind want to get rid of the perfect foil?"
Because there should be consequences when a President uses lies to start a war, illegally spies on citizens, holds prisoners without charge, tortures captives, and uses signing statements to rewrite the law. Because people are still dying in Iraq - hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died in addition to more than 3,000 American soldiers and more are dying every day. Because it's entirely possible Bush will invade Iran before he leaves office.
Just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean the rules don't apply to you.
Paying someone else doesn't mean the rules don't apply to you.
Mocking people for caring doesn't make the rules not apply to you.
Saying you aren't dishonest doesn't make the rules not apply to you.
It is dishonest to buy a character, because you agreed not to do that when you signed up for the game. It's just a game, if you don't want to abide by the rules, don't play.
Think about it this way - your son could have sold his account four times, kept the money, and had Blizzard give the account back to him every time, doing exactly what ya'll have done thus far (if he could have found buyers who would not cancel the payments). Doesn't that sound a little fishy? The ripped off buyers couldn't complain to Blizzard because buying an account is against the ToS anyway.
I've never made any online screwups either, but if you Google my name, it turns up in a lot of spammy web sites. It's because I have a longstanding website that has some useful information on it, and I write a monthly column that is printed online. The spammy websites appear to scrape random data from personal and commercial websites so that they will have some kind of content. I can't imagine my name helps much, it's pretty unique to me and not many people are going to be searching for it! It's annoying but I think pretty apparent to anyone that looks that I didn't have anything to do with it being there.
Who picked on Cho? Maybe it was the English profs that tried to get him mental help? Maybe it was the dorm-mates that tried to befriend him?
I think anonymous just wants to believe random violence can't happen to him/her because they don't "pick on people." Or maybe it has been picked on and is having some kind of revenge fantasy.
"...Mr. Smedley said he wanted to diversify his customer base, which is 85 percent male and 32 years old, on average. Women have become the major driver of the casual games business (games like Bejeweled and Bookworm), and Mr. Smedley wants a piece of that action.
"We want to get our average age lower, probably into the low 20s, and I'd really like to see the gender breakdown go to 50-50 or even slightly more women than men, to reflect real life," he said."
"...when we got more women on the team, it was like 'No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.' "
"His boss, Yair Landau, vice chairman of Sony Pictures and president of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, said: "We are clearly moving beyond men in tights with broadswords. Women in cocktail dresses and stilettos and men in tuxedos with silencers is a very natural place for Sony Online to be expanding."
I am sure women gamers will be thrilled with the opportunity to own online puppies and wear cocktail dresses and stilettos! It really makes me want to play these games!
When I was a kid we had a TRS-80 with a cassette tape drive. My Dad and I would get these magazines with DOS programs in them, to make fractals or a lunar lander game or something. We'd take turns, one person reading a line of code and the other typing it in. Sometimes it would take days to get a program typed in and we'd leave the computer on in between typing sessions until the program was completely entered and could be saved onto the cassette. I remember my little step-brother came in while we were gone, noticed the computer had been left on and helpfully shut it down for us... waaaah! Several days of typing gone!
(Wonder what became of him? Our parents divorced and we lost touch. Hi, Cliff, if you are out there!)
Imagine how these women feel if they read slashdot.
I agree. It's really disheartening. You'd think the intelligent 'beta males' of geekdom would sympathize a little more with women but it just ain't so. Apparently being bullied or otherwise looked down on doesn't make one more sympathetic - it makes one more likely to bully, objectify or otherwise put down someone else that is perceived as being lower on the social totem pole (i.e., female).
Of course this isn't true of all men or all geek men. Perhaps it's just the jerks that post the most, who knows? I do personally know some men (geek and otherwise) that are awesome.
The ISP, not wanting to look like they're pushing porn on children (whether they actually are or not is irrelevant), will more than likely cave in the face of the political pressure, and start to block the port.
Do you really think so? Wouldn't the ISP stand to lose an awful lot of business that way? I think they are more in it for the money than for political popularity. ISPs are businesses, not candidates for office. Plus, you could block a port with user-configurations, not via a blanket block.
In the unlikely case that (some) ISPs did cave in, wouldn't that give rise to "adult" ISPs that would capitalize on the situation?
I agree the idea of segregating by port is dumb, but even if it was implemented, if you wanted to you would still be able to look at all the porn you wanted.
The honest porn purveyors would probably happily self-segregate to get anti-porn people off their backs. It's the dishonest ones that cause the situations where someone that really doesn't want to look at porn gets ambushed by it. These dishonest folks are the people that are trying to install malware on your computer anyway and porn's just a bait on the hook. They wouldn't play by the rules anyhow, they are already criminals. So it does seem rather hopeless.
Read up on genetic engineering and selectable markers. The antibiotic resistance is a selectable marker, for use when you are in the lab and studying genes, not for releasing into the wild. It's done all the time, don't panic!
Have you considered working for a college? I've been doing tech support-type stuff for a university for years - sysadmin, programming Cisco routers, setting up and fixing PCs, web design, you name it. Just being there and being willing to help on projects has gotten me all kinds of interesting experience. The people are smart and nice and usually very grateful. I can't count how many PhD's have said to me "I'm so stupid about computers." I don't feel compelled to say "I'm so stupid about entomology/veterinary medicine/horticulture/etc" but whatever makes 'em feel better!
Anyhow, there are LOTS of tech jobs at a big college and it's a very different environment from the corporate world. Each department likes to have its own jack-or-jill-of-all-trades to take care of PCs, networking, etc., and it sounds like your skill set would make you very useful. Plus you can often get additional training, classes, certifications, workshops, etc., paid for through your job as part of 'professional development.'
Slashdot Mirror
Eventually, they might stop making commercials altogether, just the threat will be enough to make the viewer cough up the cash so they don't have to see them.
There will be a black market for products that skip or distort the advertisements. The advertising industry will send enforcers 'round your neighborhood with anti-advertising detectors to find those who are skipping the commercials without paying for the privilege. When they find them, they'll sue users of these hacks, for back-pay and damages, having taken lessons from the RIAA.
From "Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork" 1976
I have always admired George Takei and think it's great to name an asteroid after him. Gay jokes and calling him names is pretty foul. You would think I was new here to expect any better.
You're right, it was Dark Alliance. Also correct about the lack of story! But fun for multi-player hack-n-slash.
Ah, thanks. It would be a challenge to craft a good story in a multiplayer game.
Is it a PC-only game? My cursory searches didn't turn up anything for consoles. I played Baldur's Gate on the PS2; I like playing PlayStation RPGs that support multiple players. I guess this isn't one of those?
I was fixing a computer in a high-level admin's office once...when I was finished I used the computer to log in to my trouble-ticket database to sign off on the job and pick up the next one. My database site started with www1.ticketetc.etc and this dope had auto-complete on in his browser, which happily dropped down www1.hotteenagesluts.etc, etc., etc. It would be pretty hard to mistake that for hotteenagesluts, Massachusetts. I didn't report that one, it was an accident that I saw it. Although it probably explained the problems with his computer.
I also once worked with a dude that would porn-surf at work, and his station was right next to the fridge where we all kept our lunches and drinks so it was impossible not to see it. He seemed to get a kick out of it, actually, making his co-workers look at his crap. I had to work on his computer once, and he had bookmarked hundreds of porn sites. I did finally report that dude, the manager "talked" to him. The surfer moved his computer into a little closet-type room and started going in to work at 4am so he could porn surf "in private." I didn't much like having his sleazy little porn-addled eyeballs on me at work, nor did I enjoy him walking around constantly at half-mast, I can tell you that.
Is it legal to jack off at work in Scandinavia? I don't know about you but I have never heard of anyone masturbating to Slashdot or a cup of coffee. What if your cube neighbor doesn't want to see or hear your porn or your reactions to it?
A 1992 computer game based around Giger's art, you play a guy who has bought a house that has connections to an alternate world... I never did finish it. It was really easy to lose and die, and the dying was pretty frightening! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Seed_(computer_g ame)
I got the 3.0 books from half.com a couple of years ago after 3.5 came out - at $3/book, I bought one for every player I had. We've been happily playing from them ever since. I was pretty stoked that 3.5 had come out since it made the older books so easy to get. But I'm a total tightwad.
If this dude details his spamming exploits, why not use the book to sue or prosecute him? It's illegal, isn't it? Would an ex-burgler get to make a bunch of money from a book on his lock-picking techniques and stories about houses he'd broken into and people he'd mugged?
"Besides, Bush remaining in the White House at this point only seems to be helping the Democrats. Why the heck would anyone in their right mind want to get rid of the perfect foil?" Because there should be consequences when a President uses lies to start a war, illegally spies on citizens, holds prisoners without charge, tortures captives, and uses signing statements to rewrite the law. Because people are still dying in Iraq - hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died in addition to more than 3,000 American soldiers and more are dying every day. Because it's entirely possible Bush will invade Iran before he leaves office.
Just because you have a lot of money doesn't mean the rules don't apply to you.
Paying someone else doesn't mean the rules don't apply to you.
Mocking people for caring doesn't make the rules not apply to you.
Saying you aren't dishonest doesn't make the rules not apply to you.
It is dishonest to buy a character, because you agreed not to do that when you signed up for the game.
It's just a game, if you don't want to abide by the rules, don't play.
Think about it this way - your son could have sold his account four times, kept the money, and had Blizzard give the account back to him every time, doing exactly what ya'll have done thus far (if he could have found buyers who would not cancel the payments). Doesn't that sound a little fishy? The ripped off buyers couldn't complain to Blizzard because buying an account is against the ToS anyway.
I've never made any online screwups either, but if you Google my name, it turns up in a lot of spammy web sites. It's because I have a longstanding website that has some useful information on it, and I write a monthly column that is printed online. The spammy websites appear to scrape random data from personal and commercial websites so that they will have some kind of content. I can't imagine my name helps much, it's pretty unique to me and not many people are going to be searching for it! It's annoying but I think pretty apparent to anyone that looks that I didn't have anything to do with it being there.
Who picked on Cho? Maybe it was the English profs that tried to get him mental help? Maybe it was the dorm-mates that tried to befriend him? I think anonymous just wants to believe random violence can't happen to him/her because they don't "pick on people." Or maybe it has been picked on and is having some kind of revenge fantasy.
I am sure women gamers will be thrilled with the opportunity to own online puppies and wear cocktail dresses and stilettos! It really makes me want to play these games!
When I was a kid we had a TRS-80 with a cassette tape drive. My Dad and I would get these magazines with DOS programs in them, to make fractals or a lunar lander game or something. We'd take turns, one person reading a line of code and the other typing it in. Sometimes it would take days to get a program typed in and we'd leave the computer on in between typing sessions until the program was completely entered and could be saved onto the cassette. I remember my little step-brother came in while we were gone, noticed the computer had been left on and helpfully shut it down for us... waaaah! Several days of typing gone! (Wonder what became of him? Our parents divorced and we lost touch. Hi, Cliff, if you are out there!)
>> That's a matter of education.
Not necessarily. It's particularly dangerous for blind people.5 /bm0506/bm050605.htm
See: http://www.nfb.org/Images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm0
I agree. It's really disheartening. You'd think the intelligent 'beta males' of geekdom would sympathize a little more with women but it just ain't so. Apparently being bullied or otherwise looked down on doesn't make one more sympathetic - it makes one more likely to bully, objectify or otherwise put down someone else that is perceived as being lower on the social totem pole (i.e., female).
Of course this isn't true of all men or all geek men. Perhaps it's just the jerks that post the most, who knows? I do personally know some men (geek and otherwise) that are awesome.
Guess I'm safe then! I'm off for a poison frog buffet!
Do you really think so? Wouldn't the ISP stand to lose an awful lot of business that way? I think they are more in it for the money than for political popularity. ISPs are businesses, not candidates for office. Plus, you could block a port with user-configurations, not via a blanket block.
In the unlikely case that (some) ISPs did cave in, wouldn't that give rise to "adult" ISPs that would capitalize on the situation?
The honest porn purveyors would probably happily self-segregate to get anti-porn people off their backs. It's the dishonest ones that cause the situations where someone that really doesn't want to look at porn gets ambushed by it. These dishonest folks are the people that are trying to install malware on your computer anyway and porn's just a bait on the hook. They wouldn't play by the rules anyhow, they are already criminals. So it does seem rather hopeless.
Read up on genetic engineering and selectable markers. The antibiotic resistance is a selectable marker, for use when you are in the lab and studying genes, not for releasing into the wild. It's done all the time, don't panic!
Anyhow, there are LOTS of tech jobs at a big college and it's a very different environment from the corporate world. Each department likes to have its own jack-or-jill-of-all-trades to take care of PCs, networking, etc., and it sounds like your skill set would make you very useful. Plus you can often get additional training, classes, certifications, workshops, etc., paid for through your job as part of 'professional development.'