...that name "Skynet" makes a disturbing amount of sense.
We only REALLY have to start worrying when we see the news post: Escaped Benevolent Floating Robot Decides To Use Look Of Governor Schwartzeneggar For The Face Of New Interactive Emissary.
Although I'm sure we'll be passe about it once it's posted on/. like 3 times in a row like everything else.
The problem is when you become addicted and sit in front of your computer all day.
....which is "wrong".
As opposed to being economically FORCED to sit staring at a computer monitor all day in a 8 x 8 cubicle, that's so much "better" and "normal".
I'm not objecting to my job, so much as objecting to the meme that anyone sitting in front of a computer for hours and hours is weird UNLESS they have no choice. Goofy social stereotypes.
It seems that people are missing the ramifications of this guy's conclusions.
IF we all agree (and it seems to be a generally-accepted proposition) that kids can learn from games, then do we also agree that children can be negatively influenced by video games?
Does this not take us a giant step toward the people that believe the school shooting incidents (like the tragically infamous Columbine shootings) are a result of kids playing first-person shooters?
Personally, I think I agree with both points, to a degree. (FWIW I don't think Dylan Kleebold (sp?) was a perfectly normal, well adjusted kid with a happy home life who 'suddenly' snapped from playing shooters.)
BUT. Kids CAN learn a lot from computer games that is vitally important - everything from simple cause-effect, to complex conditional planning, to understanding complex rules systems and lateral thinking. Kids can also learn an excessive reliance on violence to solve problems, an overdependence on rules, and simplistic solutions to complex problems.
That said, I think both results are deeply subject to parental involvement, like most things. If you sit and play through games with your kids, not only do you get to spend quantity time with them, but it's fun. On the other hand, if you are a worthless wretch that uses video games as a babysitter, and lets your 9 year old play GTA3, well, frankly you suck as a parent and shouldn't be suprised when your kid goes homocidal.
Well, I don't think he's out of bounds saying the article is "info-light" when it is. What kind of an idiot editor would let an article go to press with the title "GIANT PRINTER GOES ON SHOW: Two Swiss researchers have created what could be the largest portable ink jet printer in the world" without saying anywhere in the artile how BIG the damn thing is? D'oh.
And yeah, re the "profit motive" I'm guessing from the choice of demo picture of **Che Guevara** that commercial considerations weren't first on the inventors' list of concerns.
With the leadership of this country seriously questionable...
As long as you're going to drag politics into the discussion with such a non-sequitur, maybe you could pull your head out of your ass long enough to realize that this would mean the US doesn't need airbases all over the world. This would mean we could close all those airbases and stop 'oppressing' all the poor indigent people everywhere (and let them go right back to slaughtering each other for important reasons like who has "stars upon thars").
Linux is tougher to write this kind of thing for because it would require that the user perform so many steps. First the user would have to extract the tar file from the gzip file. Then he would have to expand the tar archive onto his hard drive, which would put the source there. Then the user would cd to the location where the source extracted. Then he would probably have to set various environment variables. Then he would have to run gmake. Then he would need to interpret the error messages to determine why the build didn't work. Then he would have to find and add various development tools and libraries to his system, adding any environment variables that they needed. Then he could try building again. When he finally got the build to work, he could then run the resulting executable, which would tell him to to type "man {trojan/worm name}. The man page would show various command line switches for specifying the e-mail client being used and various network options. Then the user would construct the proper command line to run the program and WHAM! Just like that, his system is infected.
... and WHAM! just like that, you've just divined why Linux IS still a marginal operating system. Most people don't want to have to do this to run an executable sent them by email. Is it virus coders' nirvana? Sure, but most of us accept the tradeoff of risk and convenience, I mean we drive cars don't we?
"The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past"
Well....so what? The 'album' or even recorded music at all has only existed for as long as there's been recording technology. Why is THIS techology - that allows so-called artists to put their music on some immutable form factor - so precious and worthy of preservation?
Perhaps this is just the end of an era - it used to be that musical artists only got paid for their PERFORMANCES. For a while, there has been the chance for them to record a song and effectively reap the rewards of millions of simultaneous performances. But now let's move on.
I think that ultimately biology will contribute more to CS than the other way 'round.
Presuming you're not a creationist, there are MILLIONS of generations worth of Darwinism at work in even a simple worm - weeding out the inefficient in times of stress, etc.
Granted, the process in biology is neither linear nor even relatively efficient, but there are tremendous lessons in autonomous operation, fault-tolerance (HUGE), adaptability, etc that bio systems can teach or implement in computer situations - what can bio-systems get from computers? It just seems natural (ha!) that the more we learn from bio-systems, the more we'll apply it to computer paradigms. Until now, it's been too complex for us to really understand.
Friend got a letter that was to him, but the envelope was addressed: kpjm d,oyj 234 smu dy/ n;pp,omhypm,m
But somehow he got it. It took him a while to realise the addy was John Smith 123 Any St. Bloomington MN typed with one's fingers one key to the right on the keyboard. But someone at the USPO figured it out & delivered it correctly.
And that's precisely the sort of paranoia that indulges and supports the fear-the-worst-possible-case theories of the reactionary right, radical left and forces society toward an ever more polarized condition.
There's a HUGE step between Pollyannish "It simply can't happen here...well, because it can't!" and a reasonable acknowledgement that the situations that Mr. Sterling postulates are based on fairly weak analogies. The situations Mr. Sterling describes were fairly unique conditions, and one might see the current US culture, society, government, and media situation as nearly the polar OPPOSITE of what he hypothesizes.
Thus the term "whacky". If we're looking at the same sky, and 99% of the people say it's blue, and he says it's orange - well, he might not be a 'visionary', he might just be nuts.
although I liked the George R R Martin short story
on
Ant Farm PC
·
· Score: 1
What's the range of effect?
on
Mastering Light
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I'd be curious to know the breadth of the effect (possibly limited to those wavelengths that can be captured by photonic crystals?). I mean, visible light is only a very small part of the EM spectrum. http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSp ec2.html Could this effect mean one could upshift radio waves to hard xrays? Or microwaves to gamma rays? The idea that this can be done with nearly 100% efficiency is the biggest wow-factor and seems like it should be violating the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
I'd love to be a karma whore, but nobody wants me.
(But my submissions about MS EULA forbidding users to even tell anyone benchmark results on.NET get rejected in favor of THIS crap? Who do I have to sleep with to get MY stories accepted?)
The point is you can never test SDI, because you are working against an opponent that is consciously trying to work around your system. You can never predict how the attack with occur. Then you can never simulate the attack, even as you might predict it -- you can never launch empty missiles at a realistic target. Instead at best you do tests over the ocean. That's why it will always be in beta, which is not a useful status for a safeguard.
...Which is complete nonsense. SDI is no safeguard, any more than the policy of MAD was a "safeguard".
SDI is a psychological and diplomatic exercise. I have a 20mm autocannon. You have a one shot pistol. Lethal, but still a popgun. You can try to kill me. But I have just introduced a possibility of failure in your one-shot popgun. Suddenly the calculus changes from "can you get the first shot off?" to "can you survive the significant chance that you won't kill me?".
Which is why I love scientists and computer geeks commenting on SDI - they always look at it from a system/hardware/reliability point of view, because that's their only toolbox. Even Scientific American felt obliged to snipe at SDI in a recent editorial.
Would *anyone* take it seriously if the staff of Foreign Policy Review or Henry Kissenger criticized Open Source Software as "simply unworkable, doomed to failure" - of course not. So how geeks that write code (or movie stars, or pop music artists) feel qualified to comment on international diplomacy I'll never understand.
I used to think getting a hot chick was a matter of uniquely human qualities too, but as I grow older and wiser it's more & more obvious that it's ultimately just a matter of number crunching.
Don't make me haul out Rick Okasek, Lyle Lovett, and Billy Joel as proof.
I think you're wrong. Hackneyed plotlines, cliche'd presentation, repetitive gameplay aren't fun and they never have been.
Doom - outstanding game, novelty value, suspense, great music. System Shock II - scared the crap outa me. Wonderful game. Halflife - great plot, great presentation. MGS2, Thief, Giants, etc. not to mention all the ones that are truly great online, CS, GR, AA, etc. - there are quite a few very good FPS games out there. Granted, they are dwarfed by the piles & piles of SHOVELWARE DRECK that is nothing more than a crappy 3d engine, gimmicky story, and crappy models. *cough* *cough* DAIKATANTA *cough* *cough*
I personally am optimistic that, given their focus on plot/story/suspense in this one, Id will make D3 really a good game. Fer gosh sakes' if you have Sandy Petersen behind the plot, that's at least worth 2 1/2 stars alone.
Are they re-hashing the plot from D1? Yup. In the same sense that scary movies are still fun despite their ultimate predictability, I don't think that hurts anything.
I look forward to wasting far too much time playing D3.
Slashdot Mirror
...that name "Skynet" makes a disturbing amount of sense.
/. like 3 times in a row like everything else.
We only REALLY have to start worrying when we see the news post: Escaped Benevolent Floating Robot Decides To Use Look Of Governor Schwartzeneggar For The Face Of New Interactive Emissary.
Although I'm sure we'll be passe about it once it's posted on
Well, gravity, 4 massive iron guiderails, 4-8 hi-tensile steel cable tiedowns, and 4 steel knuckle locks.
But I suppose that's quibbling.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/02/ 0450247&mode=thread&tid=158&tid=99
Ironically, that list may be pretty easy to track because of the high number of path intersections.
As opposed to being economically FORCED to sit staring at a computer monitor all day in a 8 x 8 cubicle, that's so much "better" and "normal".
I'm not objecting to my job, so much as objecting to the meme that anyone sitting in front of a computer for hours and hours is weird UNLESS they have no choice. Goofy social stereotypes.
It seems that people are missing the ramifications of this guy's conclusions.
IF we all agree (and it seems to be a generally-accepted proposition) that kids can learn from games, then do we also agree that children can be negatively influenced by video games?
Does this not take us a giant step toward the people that believe the school shooting incidents (like the tragically infamous Columbine shootings) are a result of kids playing first-person shooters?
Personally, I think I agree with both points, to a degree. (FWIW I don't think Dylan Kleebold (sp?) was a perfectly normal, well adjusted kid with a happy home life who 'suddenly' snapped from playing shooters.)
BUT. Kids CAN learn a lot from computer games that is vitally important - everything from simple cause-effect, to complex conditional planning, to understanding complex rules systems and lateral thinking. Kids can also learn an excessive reliance on violence to solve problems, an overdependence on rules, and simplistic solutions to complex problems.
That said, I think both results are deeply subject to parental involvement, like most things. If you sit and play through games with your kids, not only do you get to spend quantity time with them, but it's fun. On the other hand, if you are a worthless wretch that uses video games as a babysitter, and lets your 9 year old play GTA3, well, frankly you suck as a parent and shouldn't be suprised when your kid goes homocidal.
Well, I don't think he's out of bounds saying the article is "info-light" when it is. What kind of an idiot editor would let an article go to press with the title "GIANT PRINTER GOES ON SHOW: Two Swiss researchers have created what could be the largest portable ink jet printer in the world" without saying anywhere in the artile how BIG the damn thing is? D'oh.
And yeah, re the "profit motive" I'm guessing from the choice of demo picture of **Che Guevara** that commercial considerations weren't first on the inventors' list of concerns.
As long as you're going to drag politics into the discussion with such a non-sequitur, maybe you could pull your head out of your ass long enough to realize that this would mean the US doesn't need airbases all over the world. This would mean we could close all those airbases and stop 'oppressing' all the poor indigent people everywhere (and let them go right back to slaughtering each other for important reasons like who has "stars upon thars").
Beat the dead horse further, be my guest.
64? Dude!
Black, White, Cyan, and Magenta are all the colors a real man needs.
I checked my kids' textbook, it seems you already have.
"Purposely"?
Yeah, none of us buy it either.
"The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past"
Well....so what?
The 'album' or even recorded music at all has only existed for as long as there's been recording technology. Why is THIS techology - that allows so-called artists to put their music on some immutable form factor - so precious and worthy of preservation?
Perhaps this is just the end of an era - it used to be that musical artists only got paid for their PERFORMANCES. For a while, there has been the chance for them to record a song and effectively reap the rewards of millions of simultaneous performances. But now let's move on.
I think that ultimately biology will contribute more to CS than the other way 'round.
Presuming you're not a creationist, there are MILLIONS of generations worth of Darwinism at work in even a simple worm - weeding out the inefficient in times of stress, etc.
Granted, the process in biology is neither linear nor even relatively efficient, but there are tremendous lessons in autonomous operation, fault-tolerance (HUGE), adaptability, etc that bio systems can teach or implement in computer situations - what can bio-systems get from computers? It just seems natural (ha!) that the more we learn from bio-systems, the more we'll apply it to computer paradigms. Until now, it's been too complex for us to really understand.
My best, FOAF story:
,m
Friend got a letter that was to him, but the envelope was addressed:
kpjm d,oyj
234 smu dy/
n;pp,omhypm
But somehow he got it. It took him a while to realise the addy was
John Smith
123 Any St.
Bloomington MN
typed with one's fingers one key to the right on the keyboard. But someone at the USPO figured it out & delivered it correctly.
And that's precisely the sort of paranoia that indulges and supports the fear-the-worst-possible-case theories of the reactionary right, radical left and forces society toward an ever more polarized condition.
There's a HUGE step between Pollyannish "It simply can't happen here...well, because it can't!" and a reasonable acknowledgement that the situations that Mr. Sterling postulates are based on fairly weak analogies. The situations Mr. Sterling describes were fairly unique conditions, and one might see the current US culture, society, government, and media situation as nearly the polar OPPOSITE of what he hypothesizes.
Thus the term "whacky". If we're looking at the same sky, and 99% of the people say it's blue, and he says it's orange - well, he might not be a 'visionary', he might just be nuts.
...best: http://www.theouterlimits.com/episodes/season1/114 .htm
SANDKINGS
I'd be curious to know the breadth of the effect (possibly limited to those wavelengths that can be captured by photonic crystals?). I mean, visible light is only a very small part of the EM spectrum. http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSp ec2.html
Could this effect mean one could upshift radio waves to hard xrays? Or microwaves to gamma rays? The idea that this can be done with nearly 100% efficiency is the biggest wow-factor and seems like it should be violating the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.
I'd love to be a karma whore, but nobody wants me.
.NET get rejected in favor of THIS crap? Who do I have to sleep with to get MY stories accepted?)
(But my submissions about MS EULA forbidding users to even tell anyone benchmark results on
Especially if you have a lot of pr0n or recently-released movies.
Best Regards,
-Your neighbor.
SDI is a psychological and diplomatic exercise. I have a 20mm autocannon. You have a one shot pistol. Lethal, but still a popgun. You can try to kill me. But I have just introduced a possibility of failure in your one-shot popgun. Suddenly the calculus changes from "can you get the first shot off?" to "can you survive the significant chance that you won't kill me?".
Which is why I love scientists and computer geeks commenting on SDI - they always look at it from a system/hardware/reliability point of view, because that's their only toolbox. Even Scientific American felt obliged to snipe at SDI in a recent editorial.
Would *anyone* take it seriously if the staff of Foreign Policy Review or Henry Kissenger criticized Open Source Software as "simply unworkable, doomed to failure" - of course not. So how geeks that write code (or movie stars, or pop music artists) feel qualified to comment on international diplomacy I'll never understand.
Me, I'm just thinking that "Ardour" and "Church" just don't go together.
I used to think getting a hot chick was a matter of uniquely human qualities too, but as I grow older and wiser it's more & more obvious that it's ultimately just a matter of number crunching.
Don't make me haul out Rick Okasek, Lyle Lovett, and Billy Joel as proof.
Your comments have been autoforwarded to the Congressional Record and Senator Lieberman's office.
Thank you for making even more video game legislation possible.
"FPS games just aren't fun. Get over it."
I think you're wrong. Hackneyed plotlines, cliche'd presentation, repetitive gameplay aren't fun and they never have been.
Doom - outstanding game, novelty value, suspense, great music.
System Shock II - scared the crap outa me. Wonderful game.
Halflife - great plot, great presentation.
MGS2, Thief, Giants, etc. not to mention all the ones that are truly great online, CS, GR, AA, etc. - there are quite a few very good FPS games out there.
Granted, they are dwarfed by the piles & piles of SHOVELWARE DRECK that is nothing more than a crappy 3d engine, gimmicky story, and crappy models. *cough* *cough* DAIKATANTA *cough* *cough*
I personally am optimistic that, given their focus on plot/story/suspense in this one, Id will make D3 really a good game. Fer gosh sakes' if you have Sandy Petersen behind the plot, that's at least worth 2 1/2 stars alone.
Are they re-hashing the plot from D1? Yup. In the same sense that scary movies are still fun despite their ultimate predictability, I don't think that hurts anything.
I look forward to wasting far too much time playing D3.