'Stupid' is rather subjective, defective behavior may be less polite, but more to the point. If you wake up 40 years old, evicted from every place you've lived, broke and with a bad credit history, you're 20 years behind where you need to be simply to survive. I write this, living in a town with a significant homeless population, thinking these people aren't just broke now, but in jeopardy long term.
And as for 'weak', often it's not so simple. People respond to different stimuli, such is diversity, but some respond more strongly and some respond so strongly that short of intervention they cannot step back from it.
The tough part is, we don't come with an owner's manual for ourselves when we turn 18, complete with specifications: Alergic to peanuts, will have chemical addiction to alcohol, excellent mental focus for business, will be able to run marathons until 48, etc.
Um. Ok, so if I wrote that I have a red truck, I could expect dissertation on political, ethnic or economic interpretations of 'red', without so much as a nod to 'good color for visibility' or 'appealing color'.
Together, the traits indicative of a behavior 'problem' are meaningful and telling. 'We make time for those things which are important to us' Acceptable, unacceptable, I'm not judging or even suggesting there's a need to judge. Nature is the ultimate judge. If you can't pull yourself away from a game long enough to eat, get to work, meet a date; if you spend all conscious time playing or plotting how to spend more time playing that you can't earn two dimes to rub together; if you are decepting to yourself or others to the detriment of your own welfare then you have a problem. Not even on a social or national leve, but on an individual level. If you are able to convince yourself there's enough time for one more turn before the burning house falls in on you, you have an addiction.
It could be argued that it's a psychological addiction or a chemical addiction, for whatever percieved need there is for hormonal, or other substances are in the blood and how it makes you feel.
I'm not a doctor of psychology, but I've certainly been around long enough to observe the symptoms in myself and others. And for coloquial purposes, 'addiction' is a fine term, as most will acknowledge some familiarity with the concepts associated with, rather than whatever today's terminology has progressed to.
Addiction is where a hobby becomes compulsive, even obsessive.
Signs of addiction:
Late, frequently, because one can't pull oneself away from the same activity.
Broke or deeply in debt, because all one's capital goes into support of the activity.
Deceptive, distorting truth or outright lying to cover signs others observe and ask questions about.
Denial, all of the above are evident, but failing to accept that it's a problem.
It's not an invention of psychologists. It's real and addiction to games, as much as drugs, alcohol, or any of a thousand other interests or passtimes has ruined lives.
I've been addicted to games from time to time, particularly strategy games, which can cause a lot of stress, thus consciously play for fun and in limited amounts. I've also spent hundreds of hours playing muds over the past years and had to curtail that, too. Sounds and graphics aren't the attraction, interaction is. Probably why Ultima Online is still a hot item.
The Detroit Free Press covered MUD addiction several years ago, relating the experience of a working stiff who's wife (~40) and two kids (teens) lived in squallor and spent every waking hour (that at least the kids weren't in school) in muds.
Gaming addiction isn't new, there was a game which was so addicting that it was assailed as contributing to the ills of a nation and was outlawed and serious effort was pursued to erradicate it. You know it as Mah Jong.
"I just heard a fly in the garden, trapped in a spider's web, call out for Philippe!"
"That's nothing, I just heard a bunch of cockroach es in the fridge say, 'All your paté are belong to us!'"
Yes, and considering NO average Joes will go until a LOT of rich folks do (think cars,
airplanes, etc, etc, etc)... I'd say it is NOT going to happen overnight.
And when it does happen, we can look forward to:
The first Domino's Pizza delivery in space, "Hey, the toppings are stuck to the top of the box!"
_Real_ scien-terrific 'spiriments, "Oh, man, he puked and it came straight out!"
Mothers equiped with instant cameras will line everyone up for a group picture over the Grand Canyon.
New anti-gravity sports leagues will be developed.
and inevitably, the below-average Joe's will arrive to make space totally egalitarian...
Rednecks in space -- "Dang! I haid th' gol-dang yard all fixed up with space junk and them nassa varmints are tryin't swipe it again. Maw! Git muh laser arn! Ahm agonna blast 'em."
They seem to come up with all these neat innovations, but by the time the[sic] get to use them something better and cheaper has been devoloped.
Issues which contribute to delay bringing to market:
Expensing research which contributed to current technology (if it took x million dollars of research to get this advancement, then that cost has to be paid, and it's not all at once)
Current technology must be affordable. Ok, if you're the FBI scanning billions of emails or any other deep pocketed government department (NASA, DoE, etc.) You can buy it, but you don't buy a lot of them.
Improvement in the manufacturing process makes it possible, practical and affordable (yet, more R&D which you don't often hear about which must be expensed)
Today's technology pretty much meets todays needs. 99% of the market would actually be just fine with a 500 Mhz P3 or Athlon system, with 20 Gig HD and 128 Meg of ram. Launch a 100GHz CPU and people wouldn't have the need, though if it cost marginally more than the current crop, of course they'd buy it, but only gamers (no, not in FPS, but in behind the scenes complexity) and engineers would see benefit.
Raw materials, supply chain, etc. Sometimes all the materials, meeting purity/quantity aren't there and you have to wait for them to catch up.
Sorry, that's it, no more accurate predictions until next year!
Ok, so I successfully predicted this, what does it say? The game of one-upsmanship is to reassure investors that R&D proceeds during uncertain economic times? Though we aren't selling much, we're preparing for the future, just like our competition is? Sounds good to me.
I read the book, in the week prior to the movie coming out (what, 1985?) and was stunned at how incomprehensible the film was. Ok, it's really an epic tale told in probably 120 min. or so of film and like the recent Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone, much was left out or the film would have been 8 hours, if not longer. Sacrifices have to be made, but I'll probably never alot another couple hours of my life to see Dune the movie again.
Now, if anyone is interested in seeing a really fun film, go find Amelie. Also, film noir with some chuckles, Novocaine (w/Steve Martin) Both worth seeing a second time. Hopefully LOTR will not disappoint, after all the hype.
People bred for athletics become commodities. What happens when they don't succeed for their intended purpose and that's all they've been trained for? You might get some idea of how failures react by recalling the glorious career of Michael Tyson, someone who can box, but can't think on his own two feet.
It might be worth reviewing Bladerunner, or reading Michael Stackpole's and Robert Thurston's BattleTech novels (start with the Blood of Kerensky series: Lethal Heritage, Blood Legacy, Lost Destiny.) Consider how engineering humans for a purpose, athletic or otherwise demeans them as individuals. Why not just start cloning the best physical specimens and then throw them away when they are no longer useful.
The idea has certainly been kicked around a lot, and not just as fodder for sci-fi (but sci-fi provides such an arena to explore the social ramifications and consequences.) How would anyone in this group feel if, as in the BattleTech works, naturally conceived children of parents who found each other socially, were considered inferior? Just Don't Do It, seems to say enough.
Yet another one of these fine toys in a comoditized market. Heard on the way in that Palm is hacking off (or will be soon) another 18% of their workforce. I'm not complaning, mind you, far from it, but it's increasingly fascinating to see such a pace of innovation and roll-out while the cell phone and hand held markets are flat or imploding.
I guess it's something like treading water until the boom comes back and everyone needs one of these again.
News.com notes that this will be used in slot machines and ATMs. Insert obligatory free-money
joke.
Free money, or FEE money?
A Fee of $4.00 will be charged to this transaction for customer support, legal fees and continued lobbying to prevent Microsoft from being punished for monopolistic practices.
PRESS THIS BUTTON TO ACCEPT ---->
OR
PRESS THIS BUTTON TO ACCEPT ---->
Sorry, CANCEL has been disabled, please call 1-900-UGO-MSFT for customer support, first 30 minutes $75, mininum charge 30 minutes.
Ironic that ABC/Disney has backed away from the internet (Go.com), MS-NBC is a weak presence, CBS/Viacom is almost nonexistent in influence and the only company capable of enforcing through medium (any metering or blocking of content exchange) is TW/AOL.
I find it interesting that many of these companies could be throttling this sort of device as an oligarchy, yet have little or no influence on the use of the technology. Actually that's a good thing, because of many concerns about there eventually being only a few companies, some years down the road, through which internet service will be provided and dictating what technology would be available and how it could be used by consumers.
Interesting. I'm not much of an autograph hound, as I prefer to cut celebs a wide berth, expecting they would appreciate as much. I have been to a few book signings, but chiefly to hear the authors speak. I wouldn't dream of selling any of these. I've had the luck to meet
the late Douglas Adams w/Terry Jones
Bill Bryson
Neil Gaiman (thanks to a timely interview and link on/.)
Dave Barry
I wish I'd caught Bruce, but often schedule or shear distance doesn't allow (had to drive 120 miles, each way, for DNA and TJ, but Bill Bryson was walking distance from home.)
Not with Bruce, but with Bill Bryson (Walk in the Woods, Neither Here nor There, etc.) I asked him, jokingly to sign it "Congratulations eBay High Bidder!"
It was good for a chuckle, but something in his laugh suggested it was actually a little bit sensitive. I wonder if Bruce (or even Wil, if he's reading) has any thoughts on the weasels who show up to get things autographed generically to hawk as soon as they get home.
Something Disney or anyone else can do, is sell cards with a certain amount of credit at the park, similar to phone cards. I've received a few of these in lieu of gift certificates. Up to now Disney has issued their own money for use in the park, this would appear to be a minor change, then once the cards are exhausted they could be collector items, with various themes on them, like they do with the money. Sometimes better security is just a matter of a slight change in practice.
For instance, a little app on your wireless
device that let you check the length of lines at the rides,
Hey, my GPS can do that! And considering ±3 metres with the length of the usual line, that would produced a reasonable degree of accuracy. It would be pretty cool to spend a day at D/World or D/Land with a GPS tracking you around like Billy of Family Circus (BTW, there's a couple good spoofs of F.C. in the latest Bizzaro collection.)
Still, you need something to do while standing in line at these parks for 40 minutes waiting to get on a 30 second ride.
"Look, mummy, is that man tying calculators together?"
"No, Bobby, he's a creep trying to crack the 802.11b network and 128bit encryption and steal our credit card info to sell to bin Laden"
I wouldn't bet my credit card number on it not being cracked, but at the least they do seem to be thinking forward on security, by detecting attempts to access their network.
If you were planning to crack a network and steal purchase information, there's easier places, like dumpster diving, as I still see the occasional receipt with full number and expy on it blow down the streets with other stray litter.
Slashdot Mirror
And as for 'weak', often it's not so simple. People respond to different stimuli, such is diversity, but some respond more strongly and some respond so strongly that short of intervention they cannot step back from it.
The tough part is, we don't come with an owner's manual for ourselves when we turn 18, complete with specifications: Alergic to peanuts, will have chemical addiction to alcohol, excellent mental focus for business, will be able to run marathons until 48, etc.
Together, the traits indicative of a behavior 'problem' are meaningful and telling. 'We make time for those things which are important to us' Acceptable, unacceptable, I'm not judging or even suggesting there's a need to judge. Nature is the ultimate judge. If you can't pull yourself away from a game long enough to eat, get to work, meet a date; if you spend all conscious time playing or plotting how to spend more time playing that you can't earn two dimes to rub together; if you are decepting to yourself or others to the detriment of your own welfare then you have a problem. Not even on a social or national leve, but on an individual level. If you are able to convince yourself there's enough time for one more turn before the burning house falls in on you, you have an addiction.
It could be argued that it's a psychological addiction or a chemical addiction, for whatever percieved need there is for hormonal, or other substances are in the blood and how it makes you feel.
I'm not a doctor of psychology, but I've certainly been around long enough to observe the symptoms in myself and others. And for coloquial purposes, 'addiction' is a fine term, as most will acknowledge some familiarity with the concepts associated with, rather than whatever today's terminology has progressed to.
"They're making their way through the first 50,000 lines, it's neck and neck! Oh, Johannson's screen turns blue, he's out of it!"
World Cyber games could lead to addiction! ;)
Signs of addiction:
Late, frequently, because one can't pull oneself away from the same activity.
Broke or deeply in debt, because all one's capital goes into support of the activity.
Deceptive, distorting truth or outright lying to cover signs others observe and ask questions about.
Denial, all of the above are evident, but failing to accept that it's a problem.
It's not an invention of psychologists. It's real and addiction to games, as much as drugs, alcohol, or any of a thousand other interests or passtimes has ruined lives.
The Detroit Free Press covered MUD addiction several years ago, relating the experience of a working stiff who's wife (~40) and two kids (teens) lived in squallor and spent every waking hour (that at least the kids weren't in school) in muds.
Gaming addiction isn't new, there was a game which was so addicting that it was assailed as contributing to the ills of a nation and was outlawed and serious effort was pursued to erradicate it. You know it as Mah Jong.
"I just heard a fly in the garden, trapped in a spider's web, call out for Philippe!"
"That's nothing, I just heard a bunch of cockroach es in the fridge say, 'All your paté are belong to us!'"
Here's an embedded link for those who don't care to futz with cut-n-paste.
And when it does happen, we can look forward to:
The first Domino's Pizza delivery in space, "Hey, the toppings are stuck to the top of the box!"
_Real_ scien-terrific 'spiriments, "Oh, man, he puked and it came straight out!"
Mothers equiped with instant cameras will line everyone up for a group picture over the Grand Canyon.
New anti-gravity sports leagues will be developed.
and inevitably, the below-average Joe's will arrive to make space totally egalitarian...
Rednecks in space -- "Dang! I haid th' gol-dang yard all fixed up with space junk and them nassa varmints are tryin't swipe it again. Maw! Git muh laser arn! Ahm agonna blast 'em."
Issues which contribute to delay bringing to market:
Expensing research which contributed to current technology (if it took x million dollars of research to get this advancement, then that cost has to be paid, and it's not all at once)
Current technology must be affordable. Ok, if you're the FBI scanning billions of emails or any other deep pocketed government department (NASA, DoE, etc.) You can buy it, but you don't buy a lot of them.
Improvement in the manufacturing process makes it possible, practical and affordable (yet, more R&D which you don't often hear about which must be expensed)
Today's technology pretty much meets todays needs. 99% of the market would actually be just fine with a 500 Mhz P3 or Athlon system, with 20 Gig HD and 128 Meg of ram. Launch a 100GHz CPU and people wouldn't have the need, though if it cost marginally more than the current crop, of course they'd buy it, but only gamers (no, not in FPS, but in behind the scenes complexity) and engineers would see benefit.
Raw materials, supply chain, etc. Sometimes all the materials, meeting purity/quantity aren't there and you have to wait for them to catch up.
Sorry, that's it, no more accurate predictions until next year!
Ok, so I successfully predicted this, what does it say? The game of one-upsmanship is to reassure investors that R&D proceeds during uncertain economic times? Though we aren't selling much, we're preparing for the future, just like our competition is? Sounds good to me.
Now, if anyone is interested in seeing a really fun film, go find Amelie. Also, film noir with some chuckles, Novocaine (w/Steve Martin) Both worth seeing a second time. Hopefully LOTR will not disappoint, after all the hype.
Adolf Hitler even considered a master race. How's this actually different from his aspirations? Not in the least.
It might be worth reviewing Bladerunner, or reading Michael Stackpole's and Robert Thurston's BattleTech novels (start with the Blood of Kerensky series: Lethal Heritage, Blood Legacy, Lost Destiny.) Consider how engineering humans for a purpose, athletic or otherwise demeans them as individuals. Why not just start cloning the best physical specimens and then throw them away when they are no longer useful.
The idea has certainly been kicked around a lot, and not just as fodder for sci-fi (but sci-fi provides such an arena to explore the social ramifications and consequences.) How would anyone in this group feel if, as in the BattleTech works, naturally conceived children of parents who found each other socially, were considered inferior? Just Don't Do It, seems to say enough.
I guess it's something like treading water until the boom comes back and everyone needs one of these again.
Free money, or FEE money?
A Fee of $4.00 will be charged to this transaction for customer support, legal fees and continued lobbying to prevent Microsoft from being punished for monopolistic practices.
PRESS THIS BUTTON TO ACCEPT ---->
OR
PRESS THIS BUTTON TO ACCEPT ---->
Sorry, CANCEL has been disabled, please call 1-900-UGO-MSFT for customer support, first 30 minutes $75, mininum charge 30 minutes.
Must resist urge!
Aaahh, will weakening!
Can't hold out much longer!
Aiiieeeeee!
Experts are looking into it.
I find it interesting that many of these companies could be throttling this sort of device as an oligarchy, yet have little or no influence on the use of the technology. Actually that's a good thing, because of many concerns about there eventually being only a few companies, some years down the road, through which internet service will be provided and dictating what technology would be available and how it could be used by consumers.
the late Douglas Adams w/Terry Jones
Bill Bryson
Neil Gaiman (thanks to a timely interview and link on /.)
Dave Barry
I wish I'd caught Bruce, but often schedule or shear distance doesn't allow (had to drive 120 miles, each way, for DNA and TJ, but Bill Bryson was walking distance from home.)
It was good for a chuckle, but something in his laugh suggested it was actually a little bit sensitive. I wonder if Bruce (or even Wil, if he's reading) has any thoughts on the weasels who show up to get things autographed generically to hawk as soon as they get home.
Now I can fire up FrontPage and make sport of Microsoft! Ha! Ants do have rights!
Something Disney or anyone else can do, is sell cards with a certain amount of credit at the park, similar to phone cards. I've received a few of these in lieu of gift certificates. Up to now Disney has issued their own money for use in the park, this would appear to be a minor change, then once the cards are exhausted they could be collector items, with various themes on them, like they do with the money. Sometimes better security is just a matter of a slight change in practice.
Hey, my GPS can do that! And considering ±3 metres with the length of the usual line, that would produced a reasonable degree of accuracy. It would be pretty cool to spend a day at D/World or D/Land with a GPS tracking you around like Billy of Family Circus (BTW, there's a couple good spoofs of F.C. in the latest Bizzaro collection.)
Still, you need something to do while standing in line at these parks for 40 minutes waiting to get on a 30 second ride.
"Look, mummy, is that man tying calculators together?"
"No, Bobby, he's a creep trying to crack the 802.11b network and 128bit encryption and steal our credit card info to sell to bin Laden"
If you were planning to crack a network and steal purchase information, there's easier places, like dumpster diving, as I still see the occasional receipt with full number and expy on it blow down the streets with other stray litter.
On IEEE Steven Cherry takes a look at the effectiveness of current ID cards.