Intelligent people (and all people, really) like to work on things they're passionate about. There are plenty of very intelligent people who are passionate about solving the many issues that plague our civilization, and they are working very hard to do so. These particular intelligent people are passionate about finding new planets.
Somehow I doubt they're interested in studying this so they can come up with survival strategies for when our Sun goes all Red Giant on us. I think everyone is pretty much in agreement that when the time comes, a Bruce Willis and nuclear weapons based solution will present itself.
This sort of discovery is really more useful in a "science for science's sake" sort of way. Plus, as we continue to improve our abilities to spot distant planets, we improve our chances of finding an Earth-like planet that may harbor life, particularly hot green space-babe life. Such a discovery would certainly propel space exploration back into "top priority" status.
Where did you get $399 from? The summary clearly states it's $199. Even $199 is probably well out of reach for your average Chinese farmer, though. Of course, so is most of the stuff they're likely to find on Newegg.
The article suggests that this does not explain the K-T event, which is already adequately explained by the asteroid impact theory. This theory explains the cyclical decreases in biodiversity that seem to happen about once every 62 million years. The K-T event is not part of this cyclical pattern.
You seem to be a conscientious and thoughtful person who is interested in quality articles that will spur interesting discussions. Once you and the 5 other people on Slashdot who are like that do your thing though, what about the thousands of other Slashdot readers?
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that not even the paid editors of Slashdot put that much time or thought into deciding whether a submission is good or not, how do you expect the average Slashdot reader to do so?
The Firehose is an easy way for the editors to reduce the number of story submissions they have to look through in order to find the good stuff. It will not reliably bring the best stories to the top, but it should be pretty effective at burying the most obvious garbage. Basically, it's like a spam filter for the editors, and is essentially doing part of their job for them.
From your link, the PS3 is number one in Amazon sales (not total sales, just those made on Amazon) and the Wii is number two. Also, the PS3 is selling from Amazon direct at retail price while the Wii is only available through third parties at (at least) $75 above retail price. I would imagine these facts are all related in some way.
This is a DATA CENTER, its whole purpose in life is to be available when things like this happen. It had better have generators and plenty of fuel on hand at all times. The data center I work at has the capability to run at full power with nothing coming in from the outside world for 36 hours. I don't know what the standard is for other data centers, but it seems like they should be capable of getting at least 12 hours of operation without incoming power from the grid.
Impossible, they would never commit suicide without posting a note in the form of bad angst-filled poetry to their blog first. There is no chance any of them will actually kill themselves until the site is back online.
Any data center that advertises high availability should be testing that sort of thing on a regular basis. It's possible that they could fail switchover even if they are being regularly tested, but it is unlikely.
If the "power outage" theory is correct and the "drunken employee" theory is incorrect, as a customer I'd be pissed that the data center I pay tons of money to can't keep my site up in the event of a power outage, which is one of the main perks of hosting at a data center in the first place.
Sure, they used eye tracking software to note that the players actually looked at the ads, but they didn't use microphones to record the players cursing at the ads as they looked at them. If an ad clashes with the scenery, it's going to draw my eye. That doesn't mean I am thinking positively about the ad or its content, and it certainly doesn't mean I'm going to buy any of their crap.
They should compare these ads to just flashing random brightly colored crap on the screen, and see which one gets more "engagement".
To me, art is about the emotions it evokes in the beholder. If a piece of work is capable of stirring strong emotions, it can probably be considered art. In video games, the entire experience of playing them can often stir up strong emotions, even if they are not the emotions intended by the creator.
A hallmark of much great art is that it can be appreciated on many different levels by many different people, often in ways the creator of the work never intended. A truly great game could very well do the same thing.
Like I said, it's arguable if any game up to the present has been able to do all of this, but to say it's impossible is, I think, fundamentally misunderstanding what art is.
Stating that games cannot be high art, and backing up this assertion by giving examples of games that aren't (anecdotal evidence) is logically flawed.
He may be right that there are no games currently in existence that should be considered high art, but that does not preclude one from coming out in the future. There is nothing inherent to video games that would prevent this, especially given that what is and what is not "art" or "high art" is entirely subjective.
He says install it, and then in the very next sentence says that he know you won't, because you're a Slashdot reader. The entire rest of the post is about why Alexa is flawed and shouldn't be used for anything by anyone.
Sure, from a purely mercenary point of view he'd like you to install it so that advertisers stupid enough to use Alexa will see Slashdot's traffic represented, but he acknowledges that you almost certainly won't. Taco has never had the kind of relationship with his readership to where he could tell them to do something and they would go out and do it, unless that "something" was "post goatse links to Slashdot," and I'm pretty sure he knows that.
Maybe they're having trouble because the best programmers know they can get hired anywhere they want and don't have the patience to deal with Google's ridiculously long and convoluted hiring process.
As any long-time denizen of BBSes or MUDs can tell you, every time someone posts that they are leaving it is always legit, and they never, ever come back.
Now, far be it from me to criticize the research of a group that can manage to convince someone to give them a grant to play checkers with a computer all day, but their "proof" on that site is a little suspect.
When I click on the proof, all I get is a Java error saying "Unable to connect to server". While the inability to connect to the Checkers server may make it "Unbeatable" in a Wargames-esque "the only way to win is not to play" kind of way, it's kind of a cop-out.
The original and unabridged order is linked in the summary, go read it. The problem with relying on the Secretaries of Defense and State to serve as checks and balances with this is that all three of those officials are Executive Branch people who serve at the pleasure of the President. If the President orders this for a particular person, chances are good that all three of these people will rubber-stamp it. You cannot have true checks and balances existing entirely within one branch of the government.
If you freeze my assets, I have no use of them. That is the same as seizure. If the Supreme Court has decided otherwise, that's a pretty lousy decision in my opinion.
As for the IRS seizing property, there is at least some sort of process that happens before they do that. They don't just go in without any prior warning and take everything. It's arguable if what they do can be considered "due process" under the law, but it's a lot better than what this order gives the Treasury Department the authority to do.
That's the preamble of the order, and I don't think you're reading it right. All that says is that due to these violent acts, the President finds it necessary to write this order. It does not say that one must actually commit these acts to fall under this order. The types of activities that would cause you to fall under this order are enumerated further down, and are not all related to violent acts. They include things like undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction or political reform (so do anti-war protesters fit under this?) and providing assistance to groups that do so.
The language is very broad and wide open to interpretation as to who does or does not fall under the order, and is definitely not just limited to people who commit acts of violence.
Slashdot Mirror
Intelligent people (and all people, really) like to work on things they're passionate about. There are plenty of very intelligent people who are passionate about solving the many issues that plague our civilization, and they are working very hard to do so. These particular intelligent people are passionate about finding new planets.
Somehow I doubt they're interested in studying this so they can come up with survival strategies for when our Sun goes all Red Giant on us. I think everyone is pretty much in agreement that when the time comes, a Bruce Willis and nuclear weapons based solution will present itself.
This sort of discovery is really more useful in a "science for science's sake" sort of way. Plus, as we continue to improve our abilities to spot distant planets, we improve our chances of finding an Earth-like planet that may harbor life, particularly hot green space-babe life. Such a discovery would certainly propel space exploration back into "top priority" status.
In Soviet Russia, this stupid joke fucking hates YOU!
Where did you get $399 from? The summary clearly states it's $199. Even $199 is probably well out of reach for your average Chinese farmer, though. Of course, so is most of the stuff they're likely to find on Newegg.
The article suggests that this does not explain the K-T event, which is already adequately explained by the asteroid impact theory. This theory explains the cyclical decreases in biodiversity that seem to happen about once every 62 million years. The K-T event is not part of this cyclical pattern.
You seem to be a conscientious and thoughtful person who is interested in quality articles that will spur interesting discussions. Once you and the 5 other people on Slashdot who are like that do your thing though, what about the thousands of other Slashdot readers?
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that not even the paid editors of Slashdot put that much time or thought into deciding whether a submission is good or not, how do you expect the average Slashdot reader to do so?
The Firehose is an easy way for the editors to reduce the number of story submissions they have to look through in order to find the good stuff. It will not reliably bring the best stories to the top, but it should be pretty effective at burying the most obvious garbage. Basically, it's like a spam filter for the editors, and is essentially doing part of their job for them.
From your link, the PS3 is number one in Amazon sales (not total sales, just those made on Amazon) and the Wii is number two. Also, the PS3 is selling from Amazon direct at retail price while the Wii is only available through third parties at (at least) $75 above retail price. I would imagine these facts are all related in some way.
This is a DATA CENTER, its whole purpose in life is to be available when things like this happen. It had better have generators and plenty of fuel on hand at all times. The data center I work at has the capability to run at full power with nothing coming in from the outside world for 36 hours. I don't know what the standard is for other data centers, but it seems like they should be capable of getting at least 12 hours of operation without incoming power from the grid.
Impossible, they would never commit suicide without posting a note in the form of bad angst-filled poetry to their blog first. There is no chance any of them will actually kill themselves until the site is back online.
Any data center that advertises high availability should be testing that sort of thing on a regular basis. It's possible that they could fail switchover even if they are being regularly tested, but it is unlikely.
If the "power outage" theory is correct and the "drunken employee" theory is incorrect, as a customer I'd be pissed that the data center I pay tons of money to can't keep my site up in the event of a power outage, which is one of the main perks of hosting at a data center in the first place.
Sure, they used eye tracking software to note that the players actually looked at the ads, but they didn't use microphones to record the players cursing at the ads as they looked at them. If an ad clashes with the scenery, it's going to draw my eye. That doesn't mean I am thinking positively about the ad or its content, and it certainly doesn't mean I'm going to buy any of their crap.
They should compare these ads to just flashing random brightly colored crap on the screen, and see which one gets more "engagement".
To me, art is about the emotions it evokes in the beholder. If a piece of work is capable of stirring strong emotions, it can probably be considered art. In video games, the entire experience of playing them can often stir up strong emotions, even if they are not the emotions intended by the creator.
A hallmark of much great art is that it can be appreciated on many different levels by many different people, often in ways the creator of the work never intended. A truly great game could very well do the same thing.
Like I said, it's arguable if any game up to the present has been able to do all of this, but to say it's impossible is, I think, fundamentally misunderstanding what art is.
Stating that games cannot be high art, and backing up this assertion by giving examples of games that aren't (anecdotal evidence) is logically flawed.
He may be right that there are no games currently in existence that should be considered high art, but that does not preclude one from coming out in the future. There is nothing inherent to video games that would prevent this, especially given that what is and what is not "art" or "high art" is entirely subjective.
Pretty much all text is plane text. Unless it's 3 dimensional I guess.
He's hoping to get crossposted on digg.
He says install it, and then in the very next sentence says that he know you won't, because you're a Slashdot reader. The entire rest of the post is about why Alexa is flawed and shouldn't be used for anything by anyone.
Sure, from a purely mercenary point of view he'd like you to install it so that advertisers stupid enough to use Alexa will see Slashdot's traffic represented, but he acknowledges that you almost certainly won't. Taco has never had the kind of relationship with his readership to where he could tell them to do something and they would go out and do it, unless that "something" was "post goatse links to Slashdot," and I'm pretty sure he knows that.
Has anyone checked on the Buggalo? This could be another kidnap attempt by the native Martians.
Sure, but then you have all of the additional overhead costs associated with maintaining 9 babies instead of just one.
Maybe they're having trouble because the best programmers know they can get hired anywhere they want and don't have the patience to deal with Google's ridiculously long and convoluted hiring process.
I may never eat again. Thanks for that.
As any long-time denizen of BBSes or MUDs can tell you, every time someone posts that they are leaving it is always legit, and they never, ever come back.
Now, far be it from me to criticize the research of a group that can manage to convince someone to give them a grant to play checkers with a computer all day, but their "proof" on that site is a little suspect.
When I click on the proof, all I get is a Java error saying "Unable to connect to server". While the inability to connect to the Checkers server may make it "Unbeatable" in a Wargames-esque "the only way to win is not to play" kind of way, it's kind of a cop-out.
The original and unabridged order is linked in the summary, go read it. The problem with relying on the Secretaries of Defense and State to serve as checks and balances with this is that all three of those officials are Executive Branch people who serve at the pleasure of the President. If the President orders this for a particular person, chances are good that all three of these people will rubber-stamp it. You cannot have true checks and balances existing entirely within one branch of the government.
If you freeze my assets, I have no use of them. That is the same as seizure. If the Supreme Court has decided otherwise, that's a pretty lousy decision in my opinion.
As for the IRS seizing property, there is at least some sort of process that happens before they do that. They don't just go in without any prior warning and take everything. It's arguable if what they do can be considered "due process" under the law, but it's a lot better than what this order gives the Treasury Department the authority to do.
That's the preamble of the order, and I don't think you're reading it right. All that says is that due to these violent acts, the President finds it necessary to write this order. It does not say that one must actually commit these acts to fall under this order. The types of activities that would cause you to fall under this order are enumerated further down, and are not all related to violent acts. They include things like undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction or political reform (so do anti-war protesters fit under this?) and providing assistance to groups that do so.
The language is very broad and wide open to interpretation as to who does or does not fall under the order, and is definitely not just limited to people who commit acts of violence.