Australia uses instant run off with a SINGLE ballot.
Number 2'ing your favourite candidate is ALWAYS a bad idea.
The cases where it helps another candidate get to later rounds of the tally also means your favourite candidate does NOT get your vote in those rounds.
I think the reason that is labelled as [citation needed] is because it's pure bullshit. Does anywhere in the world allow people to change preferences between INSTANT run-off rounds?
Someone was looking for something negative to say, but it's fails the sniff test.
When you are born you don't control the "bits you were born with" very well, you have to learn that. It takes from for a baby to crawl, toddle, walk, run. It takes more time to learn to do such things with accuracy, and more complicated control takes more time again - professional athletes and sports players are not born with the ability, it's is learnt through training and practice, which does exactly what the parent suggests.
If you are 30, then you have had 30 years "teaching yourself" to use all of the bits you were born with. So don't expect to learn new prosthesis (or other devices) to the same level of competency in a few weeks.
The challenge is making these things easy to learn to a 'useful' competency in a very short period; but actual competency would rise with more usage, and ultimately it could very easily exceed your skill with other parts of the body.
I would expect that an implanted 'mouse/keyboard interface' would be used much more competently than the limbs by someone that spends all day using it to interface with computers; likewise, I would expect an athlete to use the limbs much more competently than the computer interface.
Singularity is basically this: Microsoft requires developers who ship 360 games to have their online features work in a single specific way. That is why you never see EULAs or create other accounts, why all menus look the same, why every game has leaderboards and achievements, etc...because it's mandated and has been since the beginning. You know that the experience is going to be seamless when you open the shrinkwrap.
That requirement could be defeated as soon as a developer decides they don't want to play that game. MS trying to make it a requirement is the same as the requirements Nintendo used to place on consoles. While it does get results, it is something that can also be abused, and can stand in the way of innovation by the developer.
I do agree that a standard interface defined by the manufacturer is good though, and I've noticed that newer PS3 games are adopting this trend too.
360 patches take seconds. PS3's take at least 5-10 minutes to download and "install." I hate waiting for downloaded demos to "install" when on 360 I can play as soon as the download is finished. Plus, it can continue downloading after I've shut the system down (and turn itself completely off when finished).
Perhaps you completely missed it, but my PS3 updates that fast too. Perhaps it's your connections, or the update servers for your region.
Home is not a "pretty cool feature," it is a waste of time. It's a glorified chat room, with a house each user can personalize...if they want to pay real money for accessories. Chat rooms are old and tired already and the avatars are all ugly. I can't believe they actually released it.
Purely a matter of opinion. I like @Home and use it regularly; Live has no equivalent. Nothing stops you from choosing not to use such a feature if it exists, but on Live there's no choice.
PSN is not and never will be on a similar level as Live. Let me know when I can private chat across different games, try all downloadable games before I buy them, use a single user name and friends list in ALL of my games, and... here's a big one... have a guarantee that online multiplayer service will never end in the games that I play.
Never? Seems like a strong word here; do you have inside information from Sony that none of us know about, indicating that they intend to not update PSN to compete? Yes, I can private chat across games. Yes, many games have demos freely available (just as many as Live) including for PSP games! No, Microsoft cannot guarantee that online servers will always run. PlaysForSure I bet.
That's right folks...Microsoft runs the matching servers for all online Xbox and Xbox 360 games (except for EA's). PS3 leaves it up to the developers, so if they want to stop service, you're SOL. But for any non-EA game on Xbox or Xbox 360, you'll be able to play a match for as long as Xbox Live exists and you know one other person who has the game and wants to play it with you. This is one big thing that makes the service worth paying for, and one that will certainly come to the forefront in a few years.
If EA did it differently, then so can others.
As I said, it's up to the developers, and you've only confirmed that.
But it's hardly a stretch to suppose that such figures are going to be somewhat accurate for others.
Australian and American game playing isn't really that different, and using American statistics is a lesser stretch than claiming against the " overwhelming majority of people".
Neither will be 100% true, but I think the statistics from America are far more likely to reflect the Australian truth.
No, I don't think the people of Australia really want that.
Don't confuse the idiotic ideals of a single senator (that only won their seat because of an epic preferences fail by the other parties) as being the ideals of the whole country.
I, like many [weasel words] Australians were interested in many of the well known games that were refused classification.
Here's a few RC games for a start, many of which were commonly played here in Australia despite being banned. It just meant people were unable to BUY them here, which is absurd.
Note that many of those games are R18+ simply for violence, or drug references. If this is okay in film, then why should it be banned from games?
Your opinion does not mirror the everyone in the country, and it's no reason to stop the sale of games such as these. You're free to not buy them and you'd be unaffected.
Well I bought my car for $500 myself, so I know such cheap cars are easily available; but typically it means that they're 15+ years old, so the maintenance cost in the first year is likely to be as much as the car was to purchase.
Cars are an ongoing cost, and they get more expensive to maintain over time; PS3's are not.
So I guess the point was that the initial price on a car is not reflective of it's actual cost. But the price tag on a PS3 really is the actual cost, so the comparison is a bit unfair.
Either way, I think we both agree that PS3's are still what most would consider overpriced, especially here in AU where anything game related gets sold for twice what the rest of the world pay. *sigh* (Except for EU, where I hear they get stung just as badly.)
My friends list on PSN is persistent, and used regularly on many games. It's a single, automatic (if you leave default setting) sign-in. If games make their own accounts, that's the developer, and there are bad developers on EVERY platform. WTF is "singularity in online requirements/standards" supposed to mean? A console IS a standard requirement, and both require a broadband connection to do much more than look at pretty web pages.
My PS3 patches in a couple minutes.
Xbox does not have an equivalent to @Home, which is actually a pretty cool feature on PSN.
PSN IS FREE.
I know Xbox Live was better at release, as PSN was very poor on release. But the current Live vs PSN puts them at a similar level, but only one is free.
If you want to pay for a similar service, that's fine; but just because you paid doesn't make it better.
To be fair, I think any car you can get at that price with enough change to insure is also going to require at least that much again to make it 'Road Worthy'. Unless you plan to drive it only on private property, which isn't how most would use it.
Though I do agree that the PS3 is still overpriced unless you want all the features (ie, as a game machine, a bluray player, and a network media box).
The telling point in their sales I think is that there are many who want all of those features, and they've bought it; but, if they want to further their market they need to lower price to market to the people that only want some of those features.
Yes I have a PS3, but I bought it for all the features and I'm in the shrinking demographic of 'has a lot of expendable income'.
I think you've grossly misunderstood what I meant.
Nope. Because IT DOESN'T MATTER. It affects no one, hurts no one, causes no problems, and is a mere formality.
I meant that this was the reflection, and your response confirms only that you feel it does not matter, and believe it to hurt no one. I never claimed it hurt anyone, I just suggested that perhaps the feeling that such a dismissive (and obviously) untruthful response would be indicative of the overall friendliness people feel from others.
If anything it is a positive thing because it shows that as a culture we choose a greeting that shows concern about others even if we don't always care.
If you don't care than you are not showing concern. And since you and everyone you say it to knows it's a canned response I don't think anyone would get the feeling you're showing any concern. Typically, a canned response to anything shows the opposite, that you're not interested, or just observing formalities.
The MEANING of the inquiry is a greeting, not usually an actual question into the well being of the person being greeted and this is well understood.
Absolutely, but when you mask things in formality you're not showing concern. Asking "How're you doing" and expecting a canned "good" isn't concern, it's greeting, and clearly as you've stated it's treated purely as a greeting for you. I was trying to say that in my experience, here in Australia, it's often not treated purely as a greeting, that's what "Hello" is for.
So by responding to my statement making the assumption that it's purely a greeting, you've missed what I was trying to say.
Furthermore it's likely that I might think sharing the actual nature of my present well being is none of your business. Should I just be a jackass and say "none of your business" because that would be telling the truth? No because that would be rude and benefits no one and you likely don't actually care anyway.
FYI: Not too bad is a pretty non-committal answer, and it's what most would say here if they don't want to talk about it.
That's a clear culture difference IMO, and what I was asking was not, "Does it matter if you're truthful at all times?", but, "Is this common canned lie an indication of a cultural difference?"
Based on your response, I think it is.
A very large number of people that move here say "the people are friendlier". And I do not for a second believe it's because individual people are nicer, nor do I believe the average niceness of people is higher. But small social differences would give a very different perception of the friendliness, and this might just be one of those (admittedly) very small cases.
Sorry but life isn't so black and white that telling the truth is always right and lying is always wrong. It is naive to think otherwise. If that disturbs your need for nice clear rules in life... well, get used to it because life is like that.
Because friendliness isn't a black and white perception, and the level of formally canned lies might be a factor in this grey area.
But if this disturbs your need to believe that the cultural meaning for words is the same in every culture... well, get used to it, because the world is not America.
Would you then say that it's a reflection on US culture that such a response is considered not only valid, but an acceptable place to lie?
In Australia, the more common answers by far would have to be "Not bad", "Not too bad", "Been better", etc. And sometimes said in a tone that implies they'd rather not talk about their mood. These are not only not lies, but often actually far more personal responses, even in a impersonal setting.
This does not stop people from quickly moving on to real conversation, or continuing on their way (if it was a casual question).
Coming into the office today, the exchanges went:
Coworker 1: How's things? Me: Not too bad.
Me: How're you doing? Coworker 2: The usual (jaded tone)
Me: How're things today? Coworker 3: Too busy as usual, you? Me: Better than yesterday (joking tone)
I would not say that such a lie is an expected response here, and it's a bit of a conversation killer if you say "fine" or "good". Even if I ask a support desk operator on the phone "How are you today?" when they answer my call, they're much more likely to say something like, "Not too bad", or even joke back with, "Well I'm working a help desk..." heh
Every online banking system I've used has a 'pay bills' function, that lets you plug in the BPay details (biller, account code) and pay the bill that way.
As it's a standard approach, you can pay your bills from any bank. As it's using your actual online banking, it's not a single target.
BPay is wonderful, the US really needs an equivalent.
I have an ATI 7500 which is about 8 years old so you'd think that by now all the bugs would have been worked out. But if I start doing 3D stuff for more than 5 minutes there's a fifty percent chance the X display will be filled with goo that will only go away after a reboot, or will crash altogether. Furthermore I'm using xserver-xorg-video-ati 6.6.3 because the newer versions (at least 6.8.0) couldn't even initialize my graphics card HDMI port...
I think you may be mistaken, or lying.
HDMI hardware wasn't in ANY devices until 2003, which is five years ago.
You seem to be confusing whether the clauses related to the eater, or the eaten. I was not intending to address that, only to address the issue of "'purple people' eater", versus, "purple 'people eater'", for which the comma is ample.
For that, your second example of "He was a flying and purple and people eater." correctly conveys meaning. Your derived sentence fragments are not important. Provided that they have the correct meaning and the original has the correct grammar, there is no conflict.
Most of this comes from the fact that you took it out of context. I was modifying the sentence fragment, whilst you are trying to apply full sentence semantics.
The use of a comma does not mean 'do a dumb replacement with the preceding words into fragments'. "He was a purple"? You're just trying to be silly.
Full context, using a comma: "He was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple, people eater." Means: He has one eye. He has one horn. He flies. He is purple. He is a people eater.
Your paraphrasing of the last clause is not required at all, as people-eater correctly conveys that he 'ate people'.
Removing the final comma: "He was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater." Means: He has one eye. He has one horn. He flies. He is a purple people eater. (eats purple people!)
As I stated, these are distinct, and the comma makes the distinction.
Clearly the source song is ambiguous, but my point was that the addition of correct punctuation is enough to correct ambiguity.
Unless U.S English somehow decided that commas no longer retain context, in which case I'd be happy to accept that this is only valid in British/Australian English. (I am Australian)
Please, merely because people you know are unaware of Linux does not mean that no one is.
My parents who know very little of computers knew of Linux, without me ever mentioning it. They asked me, "What's this Linux that's an alternative to windows?" (amusingly asking because 'Windows always crashes').
Linux has been covered on TV news, it's all over the internet.
It's not known by 'everyone' but then neither are car brands.
Someone is almost as likely to know what Linux is as they are to know what a Jag is. I'm not into cars and I have heard of a Jag, and many people are the same. They may not know a Jag when they see it, they may not care either.
Not everyone is a dumbarse, why do so many people accuse the general public of knowing nothing on such topics? They know less. Not nothing.
How many outside slashdot? Many I'd say. I have mentioned slashdot to friends before to get a strange look and a, "What's that?". To the same people I mention Linux and they know what it is, but don't really care, "Isn't that the other windows thing that geeks use?"
Slashdot Mirror
Australia uses instant run off with a SINGLE ballot.
Number 2'ing your favourite candidate is ALWAYS a bad idea.
The cases where it helps another candidate get to later rounds of the tally also means your favourite candidate does NOT get your vote in those rounds.
I think the reason that is labelled as [citation needed] is because it's pure bullshit. Does anywhere in the world allow people to change preferences between INSTANT run-off rounds?
Someone was looking for something negative to say, but it's fails the sniff test.
Yes it does!
When you are born you don't control the "bits you were born with" very well, you have to learn that.
It takes from for a baby to crawl, toddle, walk, run.
It takes more time to learn to do such things with accuracy, and more complicated control takes more time again - professional athletes and sports players are not born with the ability, it's is learnt through training and practice, which does exactly what the parent suggests.
If you are 30, then you have had 30 years "teaching yourself" to use all of the bits you were born with. So don't expect to learn new prosthesis (or other devices) to the same level of competency in a few weeks.
The challenge is making these things easy to learn to a 'useful' competency in a very short period; but actual competency would rise with more usage, and ultimately it could very easily exceed your skill with other parts of the body.
I would expect that an implanted 'mouse/keyboard interface' would be used much more competently than the limbs by someone that spends all day using it to interface with computers; likewise, I would expect an athlete to use the limbs much more competently than the computer interface.
Yeah, but the informative on a correction usually does. :)
That requirement could be defeated as soon as a developer decides they don't want to play that game. MS trying to make it a requirement is the same as the requirements Nintendo used to place on consoles.
While it does get results, it is something that can also be abused, and can stand in the way of innovation by the developer.
I do agree that a standard interface defined by the manufacturer is good though, and I've noticed that newer PS3 games are adopting this trend too.
Perhaps you completely missed it, but my PS3 updates that fast too.
Perhaps it's your connections, or the update servers for your region.
Purely a matter of opinion.
I like @Home and use it regularly; Live has no equivalent.
Nothing stops you from choosing not to use such a feature if it exists, but on Live there's no choice.
Never? Seems like a strong word here; do you have inside information from Sony that none of us know about, indicating that they intend to not update PSN to compete?
Yes, I can private chat across games.
Yes, many games have demos freely available (just as many as Live) including for PSP games!
No, Microsoft cannot guarantee that online servers will always run. PlaysForSure I bet.
If EA did it differently, then so can others.
As I said, it's up to the developers, and you've only confirmed that.
But it's hardly a stretch to suppose that such figures are going to be somewhat accurate for others.
Australian and American game playing isn't really that different, and using American statistics is a lesser stretch than claiming against the " overwhelming majority of people".
Neither will be 100% true, but I think the statistics from America are far more likely to reflect the Australian truth.
No, I don't think the people of Australia really want that.
Don't confuse the idiotic ideals of a single senator (that only won their seat because of an epic preferences fail by the other parties) as being the ideals of the whole country.
You have a serious case of confirmation bias.
I, like many [weasel words] Australians were interested in many of the well known games that were refused classification.
Here's a few RC games for a start, many of which were commonly played here in Australia despite being banned. It just meant people were unable to BUY them here, which is absurd.
Note that many of those games are R18+ simply for violence, or drug references. If this is okay in film, then why should it be banned from games?
Your opinion does not mirror the everyone in the country, and it's no reason to stop the sale of games such as these. You're free to not buy them and you'd be unaffected.
Vital point missed by half the thread: +informative.
When you drive on your own property, you don't pose a risk to everyone else.
Public roads may have many people using them, and so a licence is to use public roads using certain vehicles, not a licence to 'drive a car'.
I'm pretty sure the Wii sells at a profit.
Well I bought my car for $500 myself, so I know such cheap cars are easily available; but typically it means that they're 15+ years old, so the maintenance cost in the first year is likely to be as much as the car was to purchase.
Cars are an ongoing cost, and they get more expensive to maintain over time; PS3's are not.
So I guess the point was that the initial price on a car is not reflective of it's actual cost. But the price tag on a PS3 really is the actual cost, so the comparison is a bit unfair.
Either way, I think we both agree that PS3's are still what most would consider overpriced, especially here in AU where anything game related gets sold for twice what the rest of the world pay. *sigh*
(Except for EU, where I hear they get stung just as badly.)
My friends list on PSN is persistent, and used regularly on many games.
It's a single, automatic (if you leave default setting) sign-in. If games make their own accounts, that's the developer, and there are bad developers on EVERY platform.
WTF is "singularity in online requirements/standards" supposed to mean? A console IS a standard requirement, and both require a broadband connection to do much more than look at pretty web pages.
My PS3 patches in a couple minutes.
Xbox does not have an equivalent to @Home, which is actually a pretty cool feature on PSN.
PSN IS FREE.
I know Xbox Live was better at release, as PSN was very poor on release.
But the current Live vs PSN puts them at a similar level, but only one is free.
If you want to pay for a similar service, that's fine; but just because you paid doesn't make it better.
To be fair, I think any car you can get at that price with enough change to insure is also going to require at least that much again to make it 'Road Worthy'. Unless you plan to drive it only on private property, which isn't how most would use it.
Though I do agree that the PS3 is still overpriced unless you want all the features (ie, as a game machine, a bluray player, and a network media box).
The telling point in their sales I think is that there are many who want all of those features, and they've bought it; but, if they want to further their market they need to lower price to market to the people that only want some of those features.
Yes I have a PS3, but I bought it for all the features and I'm in the shrinking demographic of 'has a lot of expendable income'.
I think you've grossly misunderstood what I meant.
I meant that this was the reflection, and your response confirms only that you feel it does not matter, and believe it to hurt no one.
I never claimed it hurt anyone, I just suggested that perhaps the feeling that such a dismissive (and obviously) untruthful response would be indicative of the overall friendliness people feel from others.
If you don't care than you are not showing concern. And since you and everyone you say it to knows it's a canned response I don't think anyone would get the feeling you're showing any concern.
Typically, a canned response to anything shows the opposite, that you're not interested, or just observing formalities.
Absolutely, but when you mask things in formality you're not showing concern.
Asking "How're you doing" and expecting a canned "good" isn't concern, it's greeting, and clearly as you've stated it's treated purely as a greeting for you.
I was trying to say that in my experience, here in Australia, it's often not treated purely as a greeting, that's what "Hello" is for.
So by responding to my statement making the assumption that it's purely a greeting, you've missed what I was trying to say.
FYI: Not too bad is a pretty non-committal answer, and it's what most would say here if they don't want to talk about it.
That's a clear culture difference IMO, and what I was asking was not, "Does it matter if you're truthful at all times?", but, "Is this common canned lie an indication of a cultural difference?"
Based on your response, I think it is.
A very large number of people that move here say "the people are friendlier". And I do not for a second believe it's because individual people are nicer, nor do I believe the average niceness of people is higher.
But small social differences would give a very different perception of the friendliness, and this might just be one of those (admittedly) very small cases.
Because friendliness isn't a black and white perception, and the level of formally canned lies might be a factor in this grey area.
But if this disturbs your need to believe that the cultural meaning for words is the same in every culture... well, get used to it, because the world is not America.
Would you then say that it's a reflection on US culture that such a response is considered not only valid, but an acceptable place to lie?
In Australia, the more common answers by far would have to be "Not bad", "Not too bad", "Been better", etc. And sometimes said in a tone that implies they'd rather not talk about their mood. These are not only not lies, but often actually far more personal responses, even in a impersonal setting.
This does not stop people from quickly moving on to real conversation, or continuing on their way (if it was a casual question).
Coming into the office today, the exchanges went:
Coworker 1: How's things?
Me: Not too bad.
Me: How're you doing?
Coworker 2: The usual (jaded tone)
Me: How're things today?
Coworker 3: Too busy as usual, you?
Me: Better than yesterday (joking tone)
I would not say that such a lie is an expected response here, and it's a bit of a conversation killer if you say "fine" or "good". Even if I ask a support desk operator on the phone "How are you today?" when they answer my call, they're much more likely to say something like, "Not too bad", or even joke back with, "Well I'm working a help desk..." heh
What's the issue?
I know a lot of people (myself included) that actively avoid kissing, sharing glasses, etc with people that have cold sores.
Here in Australia the BPay system is ubiquitous.
Every online banking system I've used has a 'pay bills' function, that lets you plug in the BPay details (biller, account code) and pay the bill that way.
As it's a standard approach, you can pay your bills from any bank.
As it's using your actual online banking, it's not a single target.
BPay is wonderful, the US really needs an equivalent.
Except that for that level of portability you're likely using GTK anyway; that's the default kit wxWidgets uses.
That's not how it works.
The spectrum from a molecule is not the sum of its parts, but unique to that molecule.
If you hash a phrase, you do not get the same result as if you added the hashes of each of the words that make the phrase.
You're trying to over simplify.
Let me know when VNC is even remotely fast enough for real-time gaming.
Given the 60fps stipulation in the gp, I'd assume that was the intention.
I think you may be mistaken, or lying.
HDMI hardware wasn't in ANY devices until 2003, which is five years ago.
You seem to be confusing whether the clauses related to the eater, or the eaten. I was not intending to address that, only to address the issue of "'purple people' eater", versus, "purple 'people eater'", for which the comma is ample.
For that, your second example of "He was a flying and purple and people eater." correctly conveys meaning.
Your derived sentence fragments are not important. Provided that they have the correct meaning and the original has the correct grammar, there is no conflict.
Most of this comes from the fact that you took it out of context. I was modifying the sentence fragment, whilst you are trying to apply full sentence semantics.
The use of a comma does not mean 'do a dumb replacement with the preceding words into fragments'. "He was a purple"? You're just trying to be silly.
Full context, using a comma:
"He was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple, people eater."
Means:
He has one eye.
He has one horn.
He flies.
He is purple.
He is a people eater.
Your paraphrasing of the last clause is not required at all, as people-eater correctly conveys that he 'ate people'.
Removing the final comma:
"He was a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater."
Means:
He has one eye.
He has one horn.
He flies.
He is a purple people eater. (eats purple people!)
As I stated, these are distinct, and the comma makes the distinction.
Clearly the source song is ambiguous, but my point was that the addition of correct punctuation is enough to correct ambiguity.
Unless U.S English somehow decided that commas no longer retain context, in which case I'd be happy to accept that this is only valid in British/Australian English. (I am Australian)
The comma exists specifically to solve such ambiguity!
"he was a flying, purple people eater"
is distinct from,
"he was a flying, purple, people eater"
Bah, he just used the tools Yahweh made; clearly just a script goddy.
Please, merely because people you know are unaware of Linux does not mean that no one is.
My parents who know very little of computers knew of Linux, without me ever mentioning it. They asked me, "What's this Linux that's an alternative to windows?" (amusingly asking because 'Windows always crashes').
Linux has been covered on TV news, it's all over the internet.
It's not known by 'everyone' but then neither are car brands.
Someone is almost as likely to know what Linux is as they are to know what a Jag is. I'm not into cars and I have heard of a Jag, and many people are the same. They may not know a Jag when they see it, they may not care either.
Not everyone is a dumbarse, why do so many people accuse the general public of knowing nothing on such topics?
They know less. Not nothing.
How many outside slashdot? Many I'd say.
I have mentioned slashdot to friends before to get a strange look and a, "What's that?".
To the same people I mention Linux and they know what it is, but don't really care, "Isn't that the other windows thing that geeks use?"
Wii does:
Two SDTV modes: 480i (NTSC) and 576i (PAL).
One EDTV mode: 480p.
No 576p is provided.
I run my Wii in 480p to my HDTV to prevent flicker.