I think you missed a bit of the supply/demand lesson. When supply remains the same, and demand goes down, prices go down (not directly proportionately, but they do go down).
Not really. There is the rest of the world.
If we're in a situation where we HAVE to let go of oil, it'll be because it's extremely expensive due to higher world-wide demand.
Anyone fancy posting a link to the actual download, rather than yet another javascript-implemented, advert-laden bullshit fest, registration required download portal?
Damn these people on teh internet that acually want to get money to pay for their equipment and bandwidth!
Mod me to Hell, I don't care. I'm sick of people wanting a free ride for everything.
I can't imagine any sane engineer linking the OS to the intercar communication system in a way that would allow direct control of the car from an outside source.
They've been doing that for a while now. I'm guessing that you aren't aware of the Invisible Fleet that moves toxic waste and very Top Secret Government Stuff.
Those vehicles can be manipulated remotely in case they are hijacked (or whatever else Bad happens). Look for the little white dome on top of discreet plain tractor-trailers. It has satellite communications. Among other things, the doors can be locked and the speed of the vehicle can be changed all of the way down to zero from a remote location.
"Satellite Security Systems (S3), a global provider of asset security and logistics control, in cooperation with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and InterState Oil Company, dramatically demonstrated the first wireless remote shutdown of a fully loaded moving petrochemical tanker truck."
Imagine what will happen when someone figures out how to shut a bunch of those vehicles down at one time when they are all driving at highway speeds.
It's invaluable to be able to plug in and find out that the problem is the oxygen sensor in bank 2, or that there's an overheating condition in the transmission.
True. But, the diagnostics tool shouldn't be necessary. For example, I have a pair of New Yorkers (woot, spare parts!) and to diagnose the car, I only need to flip through Drive, Neutral, Reverse, 1st, and 2nd, turn the ignition on and off 3 times, and I automagically get blinking lights that tell me exactly what problems the sensors have detected.
On my S10, it's even easier. A 4inch wire jumping a connection lets me know if there is an oxygen sensor problem among other things.
We really don't need sophisticated diagnostic equipment since a computer chip can flash codes at us using our dashboard lights.
But, then again, like Microsoft, car manufacturers derive a lot of their income supporting repairs.
Gas may go away but you have to power the vehicles somehow and since we aren't building any more clean environmentally friendly nuclear power plants we'll probably be burning oil or more likely coal which dumps tons and tons of mercury into our food chain every year (anyone know what the half life of mercury is?)
Since we'll still need oil for lubrication, and due to the law of supply & demand, oil for hings/bearing/drivetrain/etc will probably shoot up to $10+ per quart.
Many people think that we can break oil dependency, but I always tell those people to look at everything in their home...every item that is there had at least one (if not many) instance where oil was involved in it existing there. Without oil, we wouldn't have Slime pouring out of our TV sets because the TVs couldn't be manufactured or delivered.
We won't be rid of oil until the good stuff is gone and it gets too expensive to refine 'crappy' oil.
If a game is not a game of chance, but a game of skill, then the law does not allow casinos to host that game
You forgot about Poker games such as Texas Hold 'em.
The casino couldn't care less who wins. This is because they get a portion of the money played for hosting the game.
I make ~$500 per month playing Texas Hold 'Em because I'm not playing the high stakes tables where almost everyone is an expert. I play very tight most of the time and rake in some $$$ when I get a good starting hand.
The casino doesn't care. They can't lose money no matter what happens. They still get their cut of the money played.
And developers just release games with notice "This game requires hard drive".
Marketing will then scream that profits will be lower unless the game is sold at a slightly higher price. (High enough to get more profit, not so high as to kill sales)
Then, people who have the higher priced XBOX will be pissed off that games aimed at their hardware cost more.
I currently use ICQ 2003b still and have many AIM contacts on my ICQ contact list, and I have no AIM account.
You automatically have an AIM account if you have an ICQ account.
I've never signed up for AIM but my ICQ UIN works quite well.
It might be because my UIN is under 10,000 (I singned up for ICQ right when it was released). I'll have to investigate this because I've been recommending Trillian to friends for 1/2 year and don't want them to have those problems.
Thanks for the Informative reply. I hope people who currently have mod points will notice your post.
True. Otherwise, people would have seen the below very quickly and known it was a complete satire:
Gamers rejoiced back in April when it was announced that Blizzard, Square/Enix and Sony were merging their virtual worlds so that online characters from one game could stride seamlessly into another. It made perfect business sense and I was the first to say I wasn't at all surprised by the news. I had been predicting it for months. The fact that it turned out to be an April Fool's joke and entirely false only proves my point. Ahem.
I just tried Trilian the other day. It doesn't support ICQ basically because of several limitations involving 8 digit cutoffs, forcing your password to lowercase, and refusing to load AIM contacts on your ICQ contact list. What a piece of junk.
I've never had problems with Trillian (even with ICQ, I started with ICQ when it was beta) except for a few versions that crashed when starting up. (I have several hundred contacts).
or you can get an awesome open-source program like miranda which supports ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen, Netsend and tons more... all in a ~3meg memory footprint.
Trillian is a similar program that works quite well.
I like it a lot because I've had IM since December 1996 and can't stand being locked down to one IM. Or, even worse, running 4+ different IM programs at once.
The comment that was made in the blurb/article about not being able to differentiate between a game and real life is ridiculous. It's inflammatory and biased and baseless. Nobody is making a mental disconnect between the two "places".
Is it baseless? After all, it would seem that a lot of people don't know the difference between a satire web site article and a completely serious one.
I'm guessing the article didn't point it out because it's not true. It's an old urban legend among PC builders that's been thoroughly debunked repeatedly, to the point where most people actually don't believe it anymore. {SNIP excellent explanation}
People can also go and grab a 6-pack of beer in cans (noooo!) to experient with and see that aluminum is not all it's cracked up to be.
The point of the article was not about unlockables, but specifically about way too many parts of a game having to be "unlocked".
On a similar point, I've always like games that avoid Undo/Saves (they save at certain times only or are limited at a small number...it's not up to the player).
It's much like applications (Linux mostly) that often avoid the 'undo' command. People/Players learn much more when they don't have a Save/Undo to rely on.
I use a map editor that didn't (purposely) used to have an Undo command. After a few mistakes, I learned to AVOID mistakes rather than sloppily designing and rely on UNDO to save my ass.
Another example: I wasn't very attentive to making backups of my file systems. Then, one dark day, I used rm -rf on a remote root directory.
Since the game devs seem to think that MP games are the only kind that count, I'll have to assume that "Project Offset" is also MP-only. Too bad. A single-player fantasy FPS with pretty graphics might have attracted my gaming dollars.
Multiplayer often gets much more attention online because we are online and gameplay can change at any moment...much like replies to posts on forums such as this one.
Single player games have a much more limited number of variations of gameplay. The game is scripted and that's what happens. (Deus Ex and Black&White did do much more though).
Multiplayer games tend to last longer (ignoring EXCELLENT games) because playing them is akin to playing a game where anything under the sun can happen due to other humans interacting with it.
It was said:They support screaming fast 20g moves up to 45 inches / second...and even higher, depending upon the surface.
To which mikeophile replied: Will they support 20G impacts when I throw the damn thing against the wall after I am fragged by a LAN hacker for the n-th time?
You are asking the wrong question.
It should be, who will win in a Device vs LAN hacker's head contest?
1 - Who really looks at their keyboard that much during a game session?
The gamers who lose most often and have plenty of time to order these products online.
All kidding aside: As far as FPS games go, there isn't any time for players to look at a keyboard. And, in most games, a command like 'stats' or web-based statistics show how badly a player is doing.
Slashdot Mirror
In other words, Monbiot flat out chickened out.
No, he just dodged this: "Hey dad how come I can't go to a better college and why is mom sobbing all of the time?"
I think you missed a bit of the supply/demand lesson. When supply remains the same, and demand goes down, prices go down (not directly proportionately, but they do go down).
Not really. There is the rest of the world.
If we're in a situation where we HAVE to let go of oil, it'll be because it's extremely expensive due to higher world-wide demand.
Anyone fancy posting a link to the actual download, rather than yet another javascript-implemented, advert-laden bullshit fest, registration required download portal?
Damn these people on teh internet that acually want to get money to pay for their equipment and bandwidth!
Mod me to Hell, I don't care. I'm sick of people wanting a free ride for everything.
1964 called and they asked for their lame counter-replies back.
1957 called and wants their genetic material back.
I can't imagine any sane engineer linking the OS to the intercar communication system in a way that would allow direct control of the car from an outside source.
They've been doing that for a while now. I'm guessing that you aren't aware of the Invisible Fleet that moves toxic waste and very Top Secret Government Stuff.
Those vehicles can be manipulated remotely in case they are hijacked (or whatever else Bad happens). Look for the little white dome on top of discreet plain tractor-trailers. It has satellite communications. Among other things, the doors can be locked and the speed of the vehicle can be changed all of the way down to zero from a remote location.
Tanker Truck Shutdown Via Satellite
"Satellite Security Systems (S3), a global provider of asset security and logistics control, in cooperation with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and InterState Oil Company, dramatically demonstrated the first wireless remote shutdown of a fully loaded moving petrochemical tanker truck."
Imagine what will happen when someone figures out how to shut a bunch of those vehicles down at one time when they are all driving at highway speeds.
It's invaluable to be able to plug in and find out that the problem is the oxygen sensor in bank 2, or that there's an overheating condition in the transmission.
True. But, the diagnostics tool shouldn't be necessary. For example, I have a pair of New Yorkers (woot, spare parts!) and to diagnose the car, I only need to flip through Drive, Neutral, Reverse, 1st, and 2nd, turn the ignition on and off 3 times, and I automagically get blinking lights that tell me exactly what problems the sensors have detected.
On my S10, it's even easier. A 4inch wire jumping a connection lets me know if there is an oxygen sensor problem among other things.
We really don't need sophisticated diagnostic equipment since a computer chip can flash codes at us using our dashboard lights.
But, then again, like Microsoft, car manufacturers derive a lot of their income supporting repairs.
I'm more curious about what the car will be running on now that oil prices are skyrocketing and there are dire words about peak oil.
If we pass Peak Oil soon we can look forward to not seeing Firestone on the sides of our tires.
Instead, they'll say Flintstone.
Gas may go away but you have to power the vehicles somehow and since we aren't building any more clean environmentally friendly nuclear power plants we'll probably be burning oil or more likely coal which dumps tons and tons of mercury into our food chain every year (anyone know what the half life of mercury is?)
.
Since we'll still need oil for lubrication, and due to the law of supply & demand, oil for hings/bearing/drivetrain/etc will probably shoot up to $10+ per quart.
Many people think that we can break oil dependency, but I always tell those people to look at everything in their home...every item that is there had at least one (if not many) instance where oil was involved in it existing there. Without oil, we wouldn't have Slime pouring out of our TV sets because the TVs couldn't be manufactured or delivered
We won't be rid of oil until the good stuff is gone and it gets too expensive to refine 'crappy' oil.
2. cruise control will advance to auto-following
Yes, Stephen King warned us about that in Maximum Overdrive.
Technology has come a long way since Duel
Sorry. Is there an article linked? I saw some preamble and some advertising and some gratuitous web dross, but an article? I'm afraid I missed it.
a r1=249&var2=0 a r1=249&var2=1 a r1=249&var2=2
It's a horribly designed web site. Here are the links:
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&v
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&v
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&v
Absolutly true. Consider this:
If a game is not a game of chance, but a game of skill, then the law does not allow casinos to host that game
You forgot about Poker games such as Texas Hold 'em.
The casino couldn't care less who wins. This is because they get a portion of the money played for hosting the game.
I make ~$500 per month playing Texas Hold 'Em because I'm not playing the high stakes tables where almost everyone is an expert. I play very tight most of the time and rake in some $$$ when I get a good starting hand.
The casino doesn't care. They can't lose money no matter what happens. They still get their cut of the money played.
And developers just release games with notice "This game requires hard drive".
Marketing will then scream that profits will be lower unless the game is sold at a slightly higher price. (High enough to get more profit, not so high as to kill sales)
Then, people who have the higher priced XBOX will be pissed off that games aimed at their hardware cost more.
I currently use ICQ 2003b still and have many AIM contacts on my ICQ contact list, and I have no AIM account.
You automatically have an AIM account if you have an ICQ account.
I've never signed up for AIM but my ICQ UIN works quite well.
It might be because my UIN is under 10,000 (I singned up for ICQ right when it was released). I'll have to investigate this because I've been recommending Trillian to friends for 1/2 year and don't want them to have those problems.
Thanks for the Informative reply. I hope people who currently have mod points will notice your post.
Some of us just don't RTFA.
True. Otherwise, people would have seen the below very quickly and known it was a complete satire:
Gamers rejoiced back in April when it was announced that Blizzard, Square/Enix and Sony were merging their virtual worlds so that online characters from one game could stride seamlessly into another. It made perfect business sense and I was the first to say I wasn't at all surprised by the news. I had been predicting it for months. The fact that it turned out to be an April Fool's joke and entirely false only proves my point. Ahem.
I just tried Trilian the other day. It doesn't support ICQ basically because of several limitations involving 8 digit cutoffs, forcing your password to lowercase, and refusing to load AIM contacts on your ICQ contact list. What a piece of junk.
I've never had problems with Trillian (even with ICQ, I started with ICQ when it was beta) except for a few versions that crashed when starting up. (I have several hundred contacts).
YMMV.
or you can get an awesome open-source program like miranda which supports ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen, Netsend and tons more... all in a ~3meg memory footprint.
Trillian is a similar program that works quite well.
I like it a lot because I've had IM since December 1996 and can't stand being locked down to one IM. Or, even worse, running 4+ different IM programs at once.
The comment that was made in the blurb/article about not being able to differentiate between a game and real life is ridiculous. It's inflammatory and biased and baseless. Nobody is making a mental disconnect between the two "places".
Is it baseless? After all, it would seem that a lot of people don't know the difference between a satire web site article and a completely serious one.
I'm guessing the article didn't point it out because it's not true. It's an old urban legend among PC builders that's been thoroughly debunked repeatedly, to the point where most people actually don't believe it anymore.
{SNIP excellent explanation}
People can also go and grab a 6-pack of beer in cans (noooo!) to experient with and see that aluminum is not all it's cracked up to be.
The point of the article was not about unlockables, but specifically about way too many parts of a game having to be "unlocked".
On a similar point, I've always like games that avoid Undo/Saves (they save at certain times only or are limited at a small number...it's not up to the player).
It's much like applications (Linux mostly) that often avoid the 'undo' command. People/Players learn much more when they don't have a Save/Undo to rely on.
I use a map editor that didn't (purposely) used to have an Undo command. After a few mistakes, I learned to AVOID mistakes rather than sloppily designing and rely on UNDO to save my ass.
Another example: I wasn't very attentive to making backups of my file systems. Then, one dark day, I used rm -rf on a remote root directory.
Since then I've been a better person.
plus when the guy who did Spy vs. Spy died and now the new ones are horrible and in this awful spraypaint sort of drawing style.
I'll second that one.
Spy vs. Spy became a very pale shadow of what it was before.
For more than a decade it can't even pray to compare to Bugs Bunny vs Elmer Fudd.
Since the game devs seem to think that MP games are the only kind that count, I'll have to assume that "Project Offset" is also MP-only. Too bad. A single-player fantasy FPS with pretty graphics might have attracted my gaming dollars.
Multiplayer often gets much more attention online because we are online and gameplay can change at any moment...much like replies to posts on forums such as this one.
Single player games have a much more limited number of variations of gameplay. The game is scripted and that's what happens. (Deus Ex and Black&White did do much more though).
Multiplayer games tend to last longer (ignoring EXCELLENT games) because playing them is akin to playing a game where anything under the sun can happen due to other humans interacting with it.
It was said: They support screaming fast 20g moves up to 45 inches / second...and even higher, depending upon the surface.
To which mikeophile replied: Will they support 20G impacts when I throw the damn thing against the wall after I am fragged by a LAN hacker for the n-th time?
You are asking the wrong question.
It should be, who will win in a Device vs LAN hacker's head contest?
1 - Who really looks at their keyboard that much during a game session?
The gamers who lose most often and have plenty of time to order these products online.
All kidding aside: As far as FPS games go, there isn't any time for players to look at a keyboard. And, in most games, a command like 'stats' or web-based statistics show how badly a player is doing.
Kick ass! I can keep track of my key bindings in Duke Nukem Forever [wired.com]!
YM, "Duke Nukem Whenever", HTH.
But it is the greenhouse effect. If you have ever worked around greenhouses, you inject C02 to induce faster plant grow. Like plants like bogs..
Why did dinosaurs tower 3 stories? The biomass could support them. Would we survive a transition to a CO2 rich atmosphere? I don't know.
Marijuana grows over 50% faster if all other factors don't limit the growth. So, we'll survive as long as we have cartoons to watch.