The kid posted the video just before he and his family moved to Canada, out of the reach of British law
If he moves between countries, he is either a tourist or an immigrant. Vandalism is criminal behaviour, and can be used to obatin an arrest warrant. In Canada, some employments require you to pass a criminal record check in order to ensure that you will not cause problems with the large quantity of customer data (a criminal record might not disqualify you, depending on the severity.) However, an outstanding arrest warrant for vandalism could be considered risky as the person may be a risk of flight, or may feel confident in performing other crimes.
Alternativly, take the civil route. When a default judgement is applies in the UK, there's most likely some paperwork that allows enforcement of such a judgement in Canada - meaning that any collection agency can assign the maximum interest rate and start harassing the family.
There's plenty of quirks with international law, especially when minors are involved. You'd best contact your lawyer if you want more information, but a change in country does not guarentee invulnerability from prosecution.
Anyone ever seen an AO video game, btw? (outside Japan?)
Duke3D would be the closest. This was pre-ESRB, but did have a "Warning: Adult Content" as well as an RSAC rating stating that there was significant sexual content.
But for a state to enact a law requiring that resellers put M rated games behind a counter and demand ID, like is as done with cigarettes and alcohol is fine by me.
The US has a pesky thing called the first amendment.
Also, there's a major difference with M rated games compared to cigarettes and alcohol: The former is a "soft" limitation, where it is not recommended to sell to children, while the latter is restricted to those above the age of 18. Putting a hard restriction on something that should be flexible is considered bad, since it locks out 17-years-less-a-day from buying Bioshock (where that last copy gets yanked by a random stranger thats 17-years-plus-a-day, and no more shipments are bound to come in.)
Also, the ESRB has an 18+ rating for pornography, which has strict regulations for sale due to it's nature.
"Episodic content" was already around for a long time in the form of expansion packs (and related tactics.) For example:
- Doom was released - shortly later, there was Doom II and Final Doom. - Quake was released - it received two expansion packs. (As a side note, a bug involving firing the thunderbolt underwater regressed back into the expansions.) - Quake 2 was released, and it also received two expansions. - The Sims is known for a large set of expansion packs - while not technically episodic, it's the exact same system used in episodic development.
In 5 years modern games won't even run on the machine you are talking about building, yet PS3 games always will.
In five years, you probably want to replace that Playstation 3 with the Playstation 4. Whether it is general wear (i.e. components stop working after a few years), damage (e.g. electrical spike that somehow skips past a surge protector), or planned obsolescense (e.g. publishers stop producing games for the PS3), your old console will either die or only be useful for games that you already own.
where as in the general purpose computer realm developers will expect more powerful machines to be purchased so no need to optimize.
Optimization is still mandatory for general purpose computers. An example of an unoptimized game is Sanity: Aiken's Artifact, which processes lightmaps whenever the level is loaded - sometimes taking 2-3 minutes even if you have a modern computer. (These is the same game that has sometimes Levitation drop out prematurly, causing an insta-kill.)
Likewise, optimization is also required if you enter extreme circumstances. For example, the Cossacks series has a relativly high unit limit - using a stock pathfinding algorithm would kill the game very rapidly due to the large maps and large armies.
not to turn this into a PC vs. Console debate, but even IF you put all that together, you will have a grand total of zero games designed to take advantage of the strength of your system.
Just crank up the resolution and display settings. Try running games at 1600x1200 with 8xAA and 4xAF - even if it doesn't max out the video card, it will come quite close. Alternativly, run FRAPS, which will max out your system when combined the game you are playing with.
BTW, games are not supposed to be designed to max out modern systems. Doing so causes a risk of overloading the system in "extreme" situations where there are a few more enemies than normal. Usually, this results in processing lag or framerate drops, but other results are possible.
My TV has a power button, which works as a hard power button. There's also the TV remote, which puts the TV into the "soft-off" state where it's ready to turn on, but not exactly off. That's not all - when there's a power failure, the TV turns on as soon as power is restored. Given the size of the TV, I guess the manufacturer thought it would be used as a Kiosk where it needed to be always on rather than being used at home.
I guess it's no worse than the "Wake on Modem" that's enabled by default in the computer bios.
Mo'Slo and other slowdown utilities work by periodically requesting time from the CPU - this works fine until you have a "fast" computer, which results in bursts of fast events, or a multi-core computer where slowdown utilities are less effective.
With Ultima II in particular, I ran it under Dosbox. The result was that the game was too slow even after trying to use ~15000 cycles. I don't see why this should be the case, but that's what happened.
From what I see, the media makes claims that games such as Bully and Grand Theft Auto are causing problems with society. Granted, the GTA is designed to promote immoral behaviour within the game, as most players expect it necessary to do some crimes to advance through the game (while at the same time, trying not to get five stars).
However, in most of the cases displayed by the media, the situation is usually: - Overblown, such as the infamous "beating the hooker" in GTA - where such behaviour adds stars and very rarely is of use. - An advertisement - 25 to Life was designed to parasitically exploit the media controversy. - Moot, because the games in question are already rated for adults - no developer should have to tone their game designed to be rated 'M' just so that it can be played by teenagers. - Inconsistant - people decry games at random for being violent, but none are as serious as Solder of Fortune which implements dismemberments, and various death animations (including hits to the neather region.) Likewise, 'R' rated films are given more leinant treatement. - and/or Incorrect - Arlene wasn't named after a character in Doom.
If it weren't for the last two points, I would say something about Red-Pixel Syndrome.
The result is whenever I see an US state trying to pass a violent-video-game law, I immediatly treat it as a joke (especially when they know full well it won't survive the First.) This is in contrast to laws that were passed in Canada, which I agreed with since they brought video games on-par with other media.
I tried getting back to Telengard after ~15 years. While there isn't a problem running a game in real-time, it becomes an issue when you have to wait ~5-10 seconds for the scene to render and only have a short window of opportunity to make an action before being assigned the default "pass". The situation was worse with IBM PCs - since processor speeds kept improving, any old game that relied on a slow processor for delays became almost unplayable (e.g. Ultima III - on a modern system the whirlpool would slag pirate ships before you could see it on screen, which was required to advance the plot.)
As a side note, these games aren't exactly Role-playing games. It's more on par with a combat-oriented red-box D&D (1st edition) where the only interest is in killing off monsters, as opposed to Paranoia where there is a mandatory focus on roleplaying (usually at the expense of the rules.) Regardless, I don't have anything against computer-run adventure programs.
Staring at a 2d desktop screen all day will seriously dissociate you from reality, and you will lose lots of skills you take for granted. Starting with the social ones first.
Citation? If that is a personal account of someone you know, then it's easily countered with another personal account which claims that computers have better social skills than most teenagers.
Nothing wrong with pen and paper. Its reliable and worked well for thousands of years. CD roms lasts maybe 20 years at the most. Harddrives maybe 10. Some paper has lasted 2000 years. No electricity nor toxic chemicals required. No OS's to crash, no drivers to update, no software to install, nothing to go obsolete. Portable, durable, always on.
Only acid-free paper can last that long. In addition, unless you are using a book or keeping track of receipts, it is unlikely that you need paper for that amount of time.
Also, I have spent a large quantity of time with paper, and came to the conclusion that it is much more bulky than a notebook computer. While a notebook isn't a complete replacement to paper, I found my notebook to be a better reference guide than written or printed notes. The following reasons are the strongest: - The paper that I have undergoes frequent usage, and therefore experienced frequent wear (especially at the 3-holes for the binder). - It is slightly more difficult to add information to paper - you may run out of room. - Using a pen? That's a permanent change that can't be undone. (Pencil marks can be erased, but...) - It is faster to compose text-only notes on a computer than on paper.
There are some cases where I would use paper - but that is due to convienence since a computer is less suitable for the task at hand.
Could it be that most students today have no ability to critically think?
Actually, the ability to critically think is continuously supressed in the public "regurgitation" school system. These systems train students that there is exactly one correct answer to questions, and that they have to be done in a specific method. The supression of the theory of evolution is one example.
The only way to develop the skill is to follow the concept of He Said, She Said - find a topic (e.g. Is capital punishment acceptable?), and write two opposing viewpoints. As much as you hate the rigid 5-paragraph essay, it is ideal for keeping your two opposing arguments balanced enough. Here's a scaled down version (i.e. two 5-sentence paragraphs) of such an argument:
+ Capital punishment is necessary in the criminal justice system. When criminals commit severe crimes, they remain in jail for the rest of their life, leeching from the rest of society. Capital punishment will significantly reduce the overall cost by cutting down the number of years such criminals can remain a burden. In addition, this punishment can also be utilized as a method to encourage reformation (similar to parole) where produtive prisoners are permitted to enjoy life for a longer period. This economic advantage can help both society and prisoner reformation.
- Capital punishment is the bane of society. The current justice system is inaccurrate with a large quantity of false convictions. These false convictions, which include charges "worthy" of capital punishment, can be composed of fabrication of evidence, political motivation, Confessing Sams, or general mistakes. A direct result of such blunders is a loss of an innocent life. To prevent such unnecessary loss, capital punishment must be avoided at all costs.
As you take a look from both sides of an argument, you become better developed in handling suspect claims. While you may initially have an emotional feeling concerning something not being "right", this will change into being able to detect the exact arguments that are causing the problem.
It was a private communication and one could (probably) argue he had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Instead of attrition.org, let's assume the senator contacted a "hacker" group either composed of, or infiltrated by government agents. Such a "reasonable expectation of privacy" does not protect against a criminal conviction.
Likewise, any upstanding citizen would forward such letters to the local police department.
Why should a reasonable expectation of privacy prevent the public posting of criminal solicitation but permit forwarding copies to police forces (where it will be used as evidence and put on public record), especially when such tasks are either not possible, or eventually detectable?
The real reason why they are ineffective is because they aren't noticable (i.e. there is no way to notice the ad while playing the game.) The common methods so far is pasting things on billboards, which doesn't attract attention, or breaking the gameplay (e.g. as done on MSN Gaming Zone) which interrupts the game.
The trick is to have the ads related to something within the game. For example, UT2004 can have a sniper tower with a billboard advertising Jolt cola as "electrifing" - and that sniper tower contains a lightning gun. As players get killed, they'll glance around and see that the jolts of electricity is coming from the tower with the jolt cola billboard.
It might not be perfectly effective, but it works a lot better.
Non-geeky gifts for geeks? Why bother? They're geeks for a reason - they like geeky stuff!
Most geeky-stuff that non-geeks would consider to be a present for them (e.g. book about computers) is usually something that they would already have anyway.
Of course, socks can never go wrong, since those things are known to disappear one-at-a-time. Giving them as christmas presents help replenish their stocks.
How about game companies recalling a product if they need to release a patch on the same day of the release? That should take care of the "ship it and patch it" mentality.
Bugs can still find their way through rigerous testing. As an example, Chasm: The Rift immediatly crashes on startup - and this issue is 100% reproducable. The workaround is to run Windows 95, since it's memory protection system is more lax than standard Dos Protected mode drivers.
There's also cases where testing is either infeasible or impossible. Rise of the Triad implemented the Bonus Bonus, which is received by obtaining the requirements for all other bonuses (all of which are described in the help file.) The reward for obtaining this bonus is a program crash.
Indeed, Amazon is one of the most cluttered sites still around. I redesigned it on a local copy and it seemed to me that about 75% of the items on the pages could be removed without any ordinary user noticing the loss - except of course that it would be much easier to read and navigate.
That would probably violate some patents, in the same way that you can violate Amazon's one-click-shopping patent.
Personally, I hate knee-jerk replies that defend the fact that the woman was stupid enough to have a cup containing HOT BEVERAGE in an unstable position while in a MOVING VEHICLE.
And which woman are you referring to? It obviously isn't Stella Liebeck since the car was parked at the time.
I'd comment on other aspects of this case (if applicable), but I need to know the person or case in question. Just remember that I received a minor second-degree burn from spilled coffee, which wasn't even mine.
Not really. It would stop at an error message such as "No system volume" or something similar.
If you have an old computer, such as a Commodore 64, you may be lucky and have a BASIC ROM chip that acts as an OS itself. However, most computers off the shelf require an operating system to run, even if it is something as simple as Dos.
otherwise how could you install an OS?
Most OS distributions have at least one bootable floppy disk, or one bootable CD - also known as secondary boot devices. In theory, you could run an app OS free from a pair of floppies, but you are only running that single app rather than using a computer.
As for your pizza counter arguement, you are missing one important fact: You ASK for onions with your pizza.
Allow me to correct the original analogy: It's closer to trying to use unprocessed yeast in it's original form as the pizza, rather than the proper method of preparation and cooking.
All of the violent games on the shelves are generally considered bad for kids/people to play because they promote dangerous and criminal behaviour.
SWAT 4 is a counterexample - if you are too wreckless with your shots, or apply too much force on some targets, your score is penalized. I found out the hard way in the demo - it caused a failed mission since the score did not meet minimum requirements even though primary objectives were met.
Grand Theft Auto is also a counterexample. While it is expected that you commit crimes to advance the plot, you get a gold star whenever you do so. One star is simply having cops chase after you when you are in the line of sight, while 5-6 stars results in the national guard being deployed. In addition, GTA 2020 has even more stars, where 9 stars treats you as a nuclear threat and launches tactical nukes just to take you out (and it's still minimum collateral damage).
THIS type of game seems to promote a type of behavior that might be considered above the law. Someone with overwhelming religious convictions is going to disregard any societal taboos (and laws) if they conflict with those convictions. Taken to the extreme, they might strap a vest of explosives to their chest and walk into a crowded mall, or grade school, or market in downtown Baghdad. Boom.
When you do so: - You hit friendly targets - lose 2 points. - You hit targets that can be converted - lose 2 points. - You commit suicide, something which is frowned upon in most religions - in particular, Islam treats suicide as the ultimate sin, especially after the invention of the remote detonator. (Some people have the mistaken belief that those people are martyrs.) Lose 2 points. - You may hit enemies to gain 1 point each, but see above since you forgot to minimize collateral damage. - You have no chance of redeeming yourself afterward - if you do it in the name of $DEITY, and he or she didn't like it, don't expect eternal bliss.
A person manipulated by the game to a degree to perform homacide bombings has another influence affecting him. For example, school yard bullies.
After all, the difference between good and evil is only 3 points. Might as well not bother worying about the differences unless you can reach a massive audience.
Jack Thompson against Fundamentalist Christians == ??? *pop*
= political infighting.
Jack Thompson is known to fight against NIMF, Hilary and the Lousiana District attorney for not fighting videogames as much as they could. One reason is that they believe that further actions would be greater political suicide, but it is clear that Jack Thompson generally turns on political allies.
If games would shut the hell up with unconstitutional for 2 seconds they might realise that allowing the adult themed games to be legally protected is in everyone's best interest. The law still allows a parent or guardian to buy for their kid and it's them, rather than anyone else who should make that choice.
There's already adult-themed games - in the US, they appear as the "M 17+" category, since they are not part of the pornographic "AO 18+". Likewise, adult themed movies appear as 'R' in the us, as opposed to the pornographic "NC-17"
The laws in question: - attempt to override accepted ratings with poorly-thoughout regulations (i.e. violence so prevailent that it holds the plot together, as in Rainbow Six.) - attempt to enforce the existing rating, when there are reports of errors made. (e.g. Oblivion, which was originally rated 'T'.) - are knee-jerk reactions to games that are expected to be adult-entertainment (with the false belief that games are for kids.) - are sexist, since they say that it's bad to attack women, but the "white-American-male" is perfectly acceptable to assault. (And yet, those same politicians wonder why there's massive sexism in society.)
Adult-only games are also rare in the US, since most stores don't carry them - as well as the fact that there are too many "Moral Panics", as demonstrated by Primal Rage. In this case, a woman bought the game for her 11-year old son (in spite of a 'T'een rating), and complained about one of the fatality maneuvers - successfully pulling the game nation-wide.
Now, some of it is despicably bad and just unplayable (example, X-Wing 1, fantastic game but I re-tried it recently and sorry but 320x200 is no good - it's just TOO blocky, specially on the big screens we all own now)
There's a "collectors" edition which is a Windows-native copy. It runs at 640x480 - although that is still on the blocky side, it is much more comfortable than playing at the original resolution.
As for blockyness, try playing the game in a windowed mode - it may cause some other quirks, but it may be a bit more comfortable to watch. This might not be possible in some cases (e.g. using the stock Windows VM), but there are workarounds available.
Of course, it should be noted that there IS a way to have Windows leave the hibernation file alone unless you tell it to hibernate again; that is, a hibernate once, resume many kind of situation. It's a trick often used when building a car PC. You get the system to the point where you'd want the system to start from, then tell it to hibernate. From then on, it'll resume from that spot. If you can get your system to work properly with hibernation, it's just about as fast as you'll ever get it to boot.
Hibernation is merely a dump of RAM onto the hard drive. If you add or remove non-hotswap hardware (e.g. add memory) or write to the underlying filesystem, the system might not be able to boot from the state or otherwise have other stability issues.
Perhaps you were thinking about DeepFreeze, which prevents permanent changes to your hard drive?
why do phishers just go for the harder targets like eBay, Paypal and Banks? Since a significant proportion of sites these days require a login and password, and that many people will simply use the same login and password, why not phish for some forum or news site, where users are off guard and more likely to fall for the phish?
eBay, and Paypal aren't too difficult, because that's where everybody swarms. When everybody swarms there, you get plenty on the lower end of the spectrum that fall to phishing.
In a way, the smaller forums tend to be a bit more alert. For example, Slashdot has a highly technical crowd that is resistant to phishing (but not necessarly other tactics such as viruses) as it gets discussed every single day - in addition to the fact that such users have access to... utilities. In addition, small forums generally have the admin posting almost every other day, giving the illusion that the admin knows the userbase well enough that phishing attempts look a little obvious.
Slashdot Mirror
If he moves between countries, he is either a tourist or an immigrant. Vandalism is criminal behaviour, and can be used to obatin an arrest warrant. In Canada, some employments require you to pass a criminal record check in order to ensure that you will not cause problems with the large quantity of customer data (a criminal record might not disqualify you, depending on the severity.) However, an outstanding arrest warrant for vandalism could be considered risky as the person may be a risk of flight, or may feel confident in performing other crimes.
Alternativly, take the civil route. When a default judgement is applies in the UK, there's most likely some paperwork that allows enforcement of such a judgement in Canada - meaning that any collection agency can assign the maximum interest rate and start harassing the family.
There's plenty of quirks with international law, especially when minors are involved. You'd best contact your lawyer if you want more information, but a change in country does not guarentee invulnerability from prosecution.
Duke3D would be the closest. This was pre-ESRB, but did have a "Warning: Adult Content" as well as an RSAC rating stating that there was significant sexual content.
The US has a pesky thing called the first amendment.
Also, there's a major difference with M rated games compared to cigarettes and alcohol: The former is a "soft" limitation, where it is not recommended to sell to children, while the latter is restricted to those above the age of 18. Putting a hard restriction on something that should be flexible is considered bad, since it locks out 17-years-less-a-day from buying Bioshock (where that last copy gets yanked by a random stranger thats 17-years-plus-a-day, and no more shipments are bound to come in.)
Also, the ESRB has an 18+ rating for pornography, which has strict regulations for sale due to it's nature.
"Episodic content" was already around for a long time in the form of expansion packs (and related tactics.) For example:
- Doom was released - shortly later, there was Doom II and Final Doom.
- Quake was released - it received two expansion packs. (As a side note, a bug involving firing the thunderbolt underwater regressed back into the expansions.)
- Quake 2 was released, and it also received two expansions.
- The Sims is known for a large set of expansion packs - while not technically episodic, it's the exact same system used in episodic development.
In five years, you probably want to replace that Playstation 3 with the Playstation 4. Whether it is general wear (i.e. components stop working after a few years), damage (e.g. electrical spike that somehow skips past a surge protector), or planned obsolescense (e.g. publishers stop producing games for the PS3), your old console will either die or only be useful for games that you already own.
Optimization is still mandatory for general purpose computers. An example of an unoptimized game is Sanity: Aiken's Artifact, which processes lightmaps whenever the level is loaded - sometimes taking 2-3 minutes even if you have a modern computer. (These is the same game that has sometimes Levitation drop out prematurly, causing an insta-kill.)
Likewise, optimization is also required if you enter extreme circumstances. For example, the Cossacks series has a relativly high unit limit - using a stock pathfinding algorithm would kill the game very rapidly due to the large maps and large armies.
Just crank up the resolution and display settings. Try running games at 1600x1200 with 8xAA and 4xAF - even if it doesn't max out the video card, it will come quite close. Alternativly, run FRAPS, which will max out your system when combined the game you are playing with.
BTW, games are not supposed to be designed to max out modern systems. Doing so causes a risk of overloading the system in "extreme" situations where there are a few more enemies than normal. Usually, this results in processing lag or framerate drops, but other results are possible.
My TV has a power button, which works as a hard power button. There's also the TV remote, which puts the TV into the "soft-off" state where it's ready to turn on, but not exactly off. That's not all - when there's a power failure, the TV turns on as soon as power is restored. Given the size of the TV, I guess the manufacturer thought it would be used as a Kiosk where it needed to be always on rather than being used at home.
I guess it's no worse than the "Wake on Modem" that's enabled by default in the computer bios.
Mo'Slo and other slowdown utilities work by periodically requesting time from the CPU - this works fine until you have a "fast" computer, which results in bursts of fast events, or a multi-core computer where slowdown utilities are less effective.
With Ultima II in particular, I ran it under Dosbox. The result was that the game was too slow even after trying to use ~15000 cycles. I don't see why this should be the case, but that's what happened.
From what I see, the media makes claims that games such as Bully and Grand Theft Auto are causing problems with society. Granted, the GTA is designed to promote immoral behaviour within the game, as most players expect it necessary to do some crimes to advance through the game (while at the same time, trying not to get five stars).
However, in most of the cases displayed by the media, the situation is usually:
- Overblown, such as the infamous "beating the hooker" in GTA - where such behaviour adds stars and very rarely is of use.
- An advertisement - 25 to Life was designed to parasitically exploit the media controversy.
- Moot, because the games in question are already rated for adults - no developer should have to tone their game designed to be rated 'M' just so that it can be played by teenagers.
- Inconsistant - people decry games at random for being violent, but none are as serious as Solder of Fortune which implements dismemberments, and various death animations (including hits to the neather region.) Likewise, 'R' rated films are given more leinant treatement.
- and/or Incorrect - Arlene wasn't named after a character in Doom.
If it weren't for the last two points, I would say something about Red-Pixel Syndrome.
The result is whenever I see an US state trying to pass a violent-video-game law, I immediatly treat it as a joke (especially when they know full well it won't survive the First.) This is in contrast to laws that were passed in Canada, which I agreed with since they brought video games on-par with other media.
I tried getting back to Telengard after ~15 years. While there isn't a problem running a game in real-time, it becomes an issue when you have to wait ~5-10 seconds for the scene to render and only have a short window of opportunity to make an action before being assigned the default "pass". The situation was worse with IBM PCs - since processor speeds kept improving, any old game that relied on a slow processor for delays became almost unplayable (e.g. Ultima III - on a modern system the whirlpool would slag pirate ships before you could see it on screen, which was required to advance the plot.)
As a side note, these games aren't exactly Role-playing games. It's more on par with a combat-oriented red-box D&D (1st edition) where the only interest is in killing off monsters, as opposed to Paranoia where there is a mandatory focus on roleplaying (usually at the expense of the rules.) Regardless, I don't have anything against computer-run adventure programs.
Citation? If that is a personal account of someone you know, then it's easily countered with another personal account which claims that computers have better social skills than most teenagers.
Only acid-free paper can last that long. In addition, unless you are using a book or keeping track of receipts, it is unlikely that you need paper for that amount of time.
Also, I have spent a large quantity of time with paper, and came to the conclusion that it is much more bulky than a notebook computer. While a notebook isn't a complete replacement to paper, I found my notebook to be a better reference guide than written or printed notes. The following reasons are the strongest:
- The paper that I have undergoes frequent usage, and therefore experienced frequent wear (especially at the 3-holes for the binder).
- It is slightly more difficult to add information to paper - you may run out of room.
- Using a pen? That's a permanent change that can't be undone. (Pencil marks can be erased, but...)
- It is faster to compose text-only notes on a computer than on paper.
There are some cases where I would use paper - but that is due to convienence since a computer is less suitable for the task at hand.
Actually, the ability to critically think is continuously supressed in the public "regurgitation" school system. These systems train students that there is exactly one correct answer to questions, and that they have to be done in a specific method. The supression of the theory of evolution is one example.
The only way to develop the skill is to follow the concept of He Said, She Said - find a topic (e.g. Is capital punishment acceptable?), and write two opposing viewpoints. As much as you hate the rigid 5-paragraph essay, it is ideal for keeping your two opposing arguments balanced enough. Here's a scaled down version (i.e. two 5-sentence paragraphs) of such an argument:
+ Capital punishment is necessary in the criminal justice system. When criminals commit severe crimes, they remain in jail for the rest of their life, leeching from the rest of society. Capital punishment will significantly reduce the overall cost by cutting down the number of years such criminals can remain a burden. In addition, this punishment can also be utilized as a method to encourage reformation (similar to parole) where produtive prisoners are permitted to enjoy life for a longer period. This economic advantage can help both society and prisoner reformation.
- Capital punishment is the bane of society. The current justice system is inaccurrate with a large quantity of false convictions. These false convictions, which include charges "worthy" of capital punishment, can be composed of fabrication of evidence, political motivation, Confessing Sams, or general mistakes. A direct result of such blunders is a loss of an innocent life. To prevent such unnecessary loss, capital punishment must be avoided at all costs.
As you take a look from both sides of an argument, you become better developed in handling suspect claims. While you may initially have an emotional feeling concerning something not being "right", this will change into being able to detect the exact arguments that are causing the problem.
Instead of attrition.org, let's assume the senator contacted a "hacker" group either composed of, or infiltrated by government agents. Such a "reasonable expectation of privacy" does not protect against a criminal conviction.
Likewise, any upstanding citizen would forward such letters to the local police department.
Why should a reasonable expectation of privacy prevent the public posting of criminal solicitation but permit forwarding copies to police forces (where it will be used as evidence and put on public record), especially when such tasks are either not possible, or eventually detectable?
The real reason why they are ineffective is because they aren't noticable (i.e. there is no way to notice the ad while playing the game.) The common methods so far is pasting things on billboards, which doesn't attract attention, or breaking the gameplay (e.g. as done on MSN Gaming Zone) which interrupts the game.
The trick is to have the ads related to something within the game. For example, UT2004 can have a sniper tower with a billboard advertising Jolt cola as "electrifing" - and that sniper tower contains a lightning gun. As players get killed, they'll glance around and see that the jolts of electricity is coming from the tower with the jolt cola billboard.
It might not be perfectly effective, but it works a lot better.
Most geeky-stuff that non-geeks would consider to be a present for them (e.g. book about computers) is usually something that they would already have anyway.
Of course, socks can never go wrong, since those things are known to disappear one-at-a-time. Giving them as christmas presents help replenish their stocks.
Bugs can still find their way through rigerous testing. As an example, Chasm: The Rift immediatly crashes on startup - and this issue is 100% reproducable. The workaround is to run Windows 95, since it's memory protection system is more lax than standard Dos Protected mode drivers.
There's also cases where testing is either infeasible or impossible. Rise of the Triad implemented the Bonus Bonus, which is received by obtaining the requirements for all other bonuses (all of which are described in the help file.) The reward for obtaining this bonus is a program crash.
That would probably violate some patents, in the same way that you can violate Amazon's one-click-shopping patent.
And which woman are you referring to? It obviously isn't Stella Liebeck since the car was parked at the time.
I'd comment on other aspects of this case (if applicable), but I need to know the person or case in question. Just remember that I received a minor second-degree burn from spilled coffee, which wasn't even mine.
Not really. It would stop at an error message such as "No system volume" or something similar.
If you have an old computer, such as a Commodore 64, you may be lucky and have a BASIC ROM chip that acts as an OS itself. However, most computers off the shelf require an operating system to run, even if it is something as simple as Dos.
Most OS distributions have at least one bootable floppy disk, or one bootable CD - also known as secondary boot devices. In theory, you could run an app OS free from a pair of floppies, but you are only running that single app rather than using a computer.
Allow me to correct the original analogy: It's closer to trying to use unprocessed yeast in it's original form as the pizza, rather than the proper method of preparation and cooking.
SWAT 4 is a counterexample - if you are too wreckless with your shots, or apply too much force on some targets, your score is penalized. I found out the hard way in the demo - it caused a failed mission since the score did not meet minimum requirements even though primary objectives were met.
Grand Theft Auto is also a counterexample. While it is expected that you commit crimes to advance the plot, you get a gold star whenever you do so. One star is simply having cops chase after you when you are in the line of sight, while 5-6 stars results in the national guard being deployed. In addition, GTA 2020 has even more stars, where 9 stars treats you as a nuclear threat and launches tactical nukes just to take you out (and it's still minimum collateral damage).
When you do so:
- You hit friendly targets - lose 2 points.
- You hit targets that can be converted - lose 2 points.
- You commit suicide, something which is frowned upon in most religions - in particular, Islam treats suicide as the ultimate sin, especially after the invention of the remote detonator. (Some people have the mistaken belief that those people are martyrs.) Lose 2 points.
- You may hit enemies to gain 1 point each, but see above since you forgot to minimize collateral damage.
- You have no chance of redeeming yourself afterward - if you do it in the name of $DEITY, and he or she didn't like it, don't expect eternal bliss.
A person manipulated by the game to a degree to perform homacide bombings has another influence affecting him. For example, school yard bullies.
After all, the difference between good and evil is only 3 points. Might as well not bother worying about the differences unless you can reach a massive audience.
= political infighting.
Jack Thompson is known to fight against NIMF, Hilary and the Lousiana District attorney for not fighting videogames as much as they could. One reason is that they believe that further actions would be greater political suicide, but it is clear that Jack Thompson generally turns on political allies.
There's already adult-themed games - in the US, they appear as the "M 17+" category, since they are not part of the pornographic "AO 18+". Likewise, adult themed movies appear as 'R' in the us, as opposed to the pornographic "NC-17"
The laws in question:
- attempt to override accepted ratings with poorly-thoughout regulations (i.e. violence so prevailent that it holds the plot together, as in Rainbow Six.)
- attempt to enforce the existing rating, when there are reports of errors made. (e.g. Oblivion, which was originally rated 'T'.)
- are knee-jerk reactions to games that are expected to be adult-entertainment (with the false belief that games are for kids.)
- are sexist, since they say that it's bad to attack women, but the "white-American-male" is perfectly acceptable to assault. (And yet, those same politicians wonder why there's massive sexism in society.)
Adult-only games are also rare in the US, since most stores don't carry them - as well as the fact that there are too many "Moral Panics", as demonstrated by Primal Rage. In this case, a woman bought the game for her 11-year old son (in spite of a 'T'een rating), and complained about one of the fatality maneuvers - successfully pulling the game nation-wide.
There's a "collectors" edition which is a Windows-native copy. It runs at 640x480 - although that is still on the blocky side, it is much more comfortable than playing at the original resolution.
As for blockyness, try playing the game in a windowed mode - it may cause some other quirks, but it may be a bit more comfortable to watch. This might not be possible in some cases (e.g. using the stock Windows VM), but there are workarounds available.
Hibernation is merely a dump of RAM onto the hard drive. If you add or remove non-hotswap hardware (e.g. add memory) or write to the underlying filesystem, the system might not be able to boot from the state or otherwise have other stability issues.
Perhaps you were thinking about DeepFreeze, which prevents permanent changes to your hard drive?