If the terms of agreement is what the original poster stated, then by accepting the contract you also accept those terms. Violation of those terms would place you in breech of contract and thus charges could be brought forth. However, I'm curious of whether they can actually montior you without being in violation of the protection of privacy act. In reality, a lawyer probably wrote all of that and most people wouldn't probably have noticed it till they violated it and lawyers came to their door. Sneaky lawyers aren't they?
What I ment to say is that the creators of BeOS have created an executable of BeOS so that people can run BeOS from Windows without having to partition/install BeOS. This allows people to "test drive" BeOS without fear of losing Win9x. You can go and check this out at: http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/
Introns are actually bits of the code that are the portions of inactive genes whereas extrons are the active portions. Theoretically all living cells in your body have the exact... (ok to be PC) nearly exact DNA sequence. The difference is that the cells have different genes taht are active (extrons instead of introns). So to say that introns are rubbish is wrong. They are important.
Since we are shifting towards "more fluid, biological systems", here's something to think about: There exists the possiblitiy to encode something using DNA. Unlike binary systems, DNA offers a base four (A,T,C,G) system which can offer a higher level of encryption. Additionally if the typcial DNA strand can contain enough information for a full human, then think of the possible information that could be stored in terms of megabytes... gigabytes... heck try tertabytes!!! Additionally, this may sound a bit 007-ish, but intellegence/counter-intellegence agencies would have a field day as such modified DNA could be stored safely in a human host and thus makes smuggling information easier. Sounds too much like sci-fi? Well, there was a article (months old by now) of how a female scientist has already been able to encode/decode a simple text message using DNA.
Yeah, they've "mapped" the Human Genome and they don't know what most of it does, but by having the "road map" laid out people can know try to tackle various parts of it. Think of it this: there's a challenge to break this encyrpted string. A starting/ending point is established and then the string is broken into several parts and various people attempt to decypher it. Mapping the Human Genome runs parallel to this example. Since the mapping is complete people can now have an established "road map" in which to reference discoveries they've made about gene XX at location YY.
You said: Also, this game's website mentions that the player can control the plot of the game, and write it herself. Is that true? I'd be interested to know how that works...
The idea behind NWN is that it gives players the ability to become Dungeon Masters (DMs) and thus be able to alter the "reality" of the game. That is to say, the DM becomes the story teller and can modify the surroundings/quests/items or create new ones (not sure about the items though). The idea isn't new persay because Vampire: The Masqurade (sp?) had this feature, but it was to difficult to implement (a.k.a. large learning curve). Hopefully, NWN will provide some really good tools to allow players to DM more easily.
Well BeOS does have some pretty niffty features such as a built-in mp3 decoder and it can handle graphics pretty well for a PC. IMHO, Macs handle graphics far better than PCs, but with BeOS the difference is a little smaller. Anyways, the latest BeOS, can be run under a Win9x environment I think so you can try it yourself and see if you like it.
You said:
Think about one of the major reasons the internet failed to make money.
The last time I checked, the internet was making money. In fact, with companies like Amazon.com paving the way for other companies shifting towards online sales. If the internet wasn't making money then why are so many companies earn profits from it. One could go on all day of the various examples of companies making a killing in the Internet business (a.k.a. e-Commerce). Although there have been and still are companies that flop (fail), there are enough of them that are successful that make it a worthwhile venture.
Now to address Open Source, true it's not the best business plan, but it sure does give the ability for people, outside the company, to make signficant additions/changes to the the open source program (i.e. Linux/Unix). This makes it a huge advantage over companies that don't do open source (MS).
Mayhaps, but looking at how beowulf (or is it beowolf) clusters seem to be more effective in doing jobs requring massive processor power. Especially considering the cost-effectiveness ratio between say a EV8 verious a huge beowulf (beowolf) cluster made up of Dreamcasts with that niffty broadband adapter.
If you are refering to why the test scores of the U.S. are so low compared to other countries especial countries like Korea and Japan, the answer is that these tests are not conducted equally. We in the U.S. test everyone up to the 12th grade. Meanwhile, in countries like Japan and Korea, they have yearly exams that determine not only the placement but advancedment of students. That is to say, they have exams each year and based on the test results, students are sent to schools ranking from A-1 to X-N (where X is a letter and N is a number and A-1 is the best school at that level and X-N is the worst). Additionally, students who "fail" the exam are put out of school. They don't continue. This ensures that only the best portion of their students are being tested especially those going onwards to college. Also you've got to consider their methods of teaching. It's almost complete recital of facts and very little creative thinking. Classes are usually lecture types and most successful students usually go to supplemental instruction after school to relearn what the teacher taught that day. I suppose if we adopted such a harsh and tough school system we too could be on the top of the list as well.
I agree with you in that we should put more money into the public school system, but the problem remains that as technology becomes more apart of our lives, we should include it in education. That's why some colleges have included laptop computers as a part of tution. Now I'm not quite sure if this for-profit school is the best answer, but we'll never know unless someone tries.
Consider the Metallica/Napster fiasco, a group of people got together and found an innovative way to make music more available to the masses. Once the authors of the music got whiff of the idea that this could possibly divert money from them, they decide to make a huge case over it. The ironic thing is that with the growing usage of Napster, more cds and cassettes were sold. Parallel to that, online shopping has mad it easier for people to find and buy what they are looking for. Yet in both cases, groups are fighting a war, which in the long run will hurt them more than the consumers.
Hey fellas did you read that small print? The one that says:
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Slashdot is not responsible for what they say.
According to that, all of you people who were stupid (or brave) enough to make links can be held legally reponsible and thus it would be ya'll who would have to pay that fine of $50.00. Considering that a really good lawyer could force slashdot to hand over the information regarding your account (i.e. your name) then Albuquerque Journal could charge ya'll with the fine. Of course, if ya'll resist then I suppose Albuquerque Journal could go further and actually bring charges against ya'll. Think of the combine cost of lawyer fees, court fees, and the original fine. But then again ya'll could get a judge to throw out the 'hole entire thing as a "frivous case".
IMHO, I'm also glad to hear that Lucas is going back to the drawing board. After hearing that all character shots were done a month ago got me worried that SWE2 would just be a CGI filled movie. Special effects is one thing, but it can't carry a movie all the way through especially in the Star Wars Universe. I doubt fans would have been happy with 2 hours of CGI and only 30 minutes of actual character dialog. Of course that's just my opinion.
Actually I think you've failed to realize a serious consequence of adding video and sound to a virtual community. By adding video/sound to a virtual community, you have essentially created a virtual forum (meeting place). The problem with this (as with most technological advances) is that it makes us lazier. Think about it, with the ability to work, communicate, and shop online, what's the point in going outside? We'd all become fat and lazy and so technology-dependent that in the event that power goes out we all be SOL.
Actually, Lego beat ya to that idea. I think the Lego Robotics Set (I'm not sure of the name) has all the stuff you need to make a wheeled robot w/ camera that can one can program to do stuff. However, if you people are serious about using a camera to observe people (a.k.a. survallence) then go check out those spy stores. You wouldn't believe what they are capable of putting cameras into (Clocks, Teddy Bears, Vases, etc.)
Slashdot Mirror
If the terms of agreement is what the original poster stated, then by accepting the contract you also accept those terms. Violation of those terms would place you in breech of contract and thus charges could be brought forth. However, I'm curious of whether they can actually montior you without being in violation of the protection of privacy act. In reality, a lawyer probably wrote all of that and most people wouldn't probably have noticed it till they violated it and lawyers came to their door. Sneaky lawyers aren't they?
Project: To Take Over The World
What I ment to say is that the creators of BeOS have created an executable of BeOS so that people can run BeOS from Windows without having to partition/install BeOS. This allows people to "test drive" BeOS without fear of losing Win9x. You can go and check this out at: http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/
Project: To Take Over The World
Introns are actually bits of the code that are the portions of inactive genes whereas extrons are the active portions. Theoretically all living cells in your body have the exact... (ok to be PC) nearly exact DNA sequence. The difference is that the cells have different genes taht are active (extrons instead of introns). So to say that introns are rubbish is wrong. They are important.
Project: To Take Over The World
Since we are shifting towards "more fluid, biological systems", here's something to think about: There exists the possiblitiy to encode something using DNA. Unlike binary systems, DNA offers a base four (A,T,C,G) system which can offer a higher level of encryption. Additionally if the typcial DNA strand can contain enough information for a full human, then think of the possible information that could be stored in terms of megabytes... gigabytes... heck try tertabytes!!! Additionally, this may sound a bit 007-ish, but intellegence/counter-intellegence agencies would have a field day as such modified DNA could be stored safely in a human host and thus makes smuggling information easier. Sounds too much like sci-fi? Well, there was a article (months old by now) of how a female scientist has already been able to encode/decode a simple text message using DNA.
Project: To Take Over The World
Yeah, they've "mapped" the Human Genome and they don't know what most of it does, but by having the "road map" laid out people can know try to tackle various parts of it. Think of it this: there's a challenge to break this encyrpted string. A starting/ending point is established and then the string is broken into several parts and various people attempt to decypher it. Mapping the Human Genome runs parallel to this example. Since the mapping is complete people can now have an established "road map" in which to reference discoveries they've made about gene XX at location YY.
Project: To Take Over The World
You said:
Also, this game's website mentions that the player can control the plot of the game, and write it herself. Is that true? I'd be interested to know how that works...
The idea behind NWN is that it gives players the ability to become Dungeon Masters (DMs) and thus be able to alter the "reality" of the game. That is to say, the DM becomes the story teller and can modify the surroundings/quests/items or create new ones (not sure about the items though). The idea isn't new persay because Vampire: The Masqurade (sp?) had this feature, but it was to difficult to implement (a.k.a. large learning curve). Hopefully, NWN will provide some really good tools to allow players to DM more easily.
Project: To Take Over The World
Well BeOS does have some pretty niffty features such as a built-in mp3 decoder and it can handle graphics pretty well for a PC. IMHO, Macs handle graphics far better than PCs, but with BeOS the difference is a little smaller. Anyways, the latest BeOS, can be run under a Win9x environment I think so you can try it yourself and see if you like it.
Project: To Take Over The World
You said:
Think about one of the major reasons the internet failed to make money.
The last time I checked, the internet was making money. In fact, with companies like Amazon.com paving the way for other companies shifting towards online sales. If the internet wasn't making money then why are so many companies earn profits from it. One could go on all day of the various examples of companies making a killing in the Internet business (a.k.a. e-Commerce). Although there have been and still are companies that flop (fail), there are enough of them that are successful that make it a worthwhile venture.
Now to address Open Source, true it's not the best business plan, but it sure does give the ability for people, outside the company, to make signficant additions/changes to the the open source program (i.e. Linux/Unix). This makes it a huge advantage over companies that don't do open source (MS).
Project: To Take Over The World
Mayhaps, but looking at how beowulf (or is it beowolf) clusters seem to be more effective in doing jobs requring massive processor power. Especially considering the cost-effectiveness ratio between say a EV8 verious a huge beowulf (beowolf) cluster made up of Dreamcasts with that niffty broadband adapter.
Project: To Take Over The World
If you are refering to why the test scores of the U.S. are so low compared to other countries especial countries like Korea and Japan, the answer is that these tests are not conducted equally. We in the U.S. test everyone up to the 12th grade. Meanwhile, in countries like Japan and Korea, they have yearly exams that determine not only the placement but advancedment of students. That is to say, they have exams each year and based on the test results, students are sent to schools ranking from A-1 to X-N (where X is a letter and N is a number and A-1 is the best school at that level and X-N is the worst). Additionally, students who "fail" the exam are put out of school. They don't continue. This ensures that only the best portion of their students are being tested especially those going onwards to college.
Also you've got to consider their methods of teaching. It's almost complete recital of facts and very little creative thinking. Classes are usually lecture types and most successful students usually go to supplemental instruction after school to relearn what the teacher taught that day. I suppose if we adopted such a harsh and tough school system we too could be on the top of the list as well.
Project: To Take Over The World
I agree with you in that we should put more money into the public school system, but the problem remains that as technology becomes more apart of our lives, we should include it in education. That's why some colleges have included laptop computers as a part of tution. Now I'm not quite sure if this for-profit school is the best answer, but we'll never know unless someone tries.
Project: To Take Over The World
Consider the Metallica/Napster fiasco, a group of people got together and found an innovative way to make music more available to the masses. Once the authors of the music got whiff of the idea that this could possibly divert money from them, they decide to make a huge case over it. The ironic thing is that with the growing usage of Napster, more cds and cassettes were sold. Parallel to that, online shopping has mad it easier for people to find and buy what they are looking for. Yet in both cases, groups are fighting a war, which in the long run will hurt them more than the consumers.
Project: To Take Over The World
Hey fellas did you read that small print? The one that says:
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. Slashdot is not responsible for what they say.
According to that, all of you people who were stupid (or brave) enough to make links can be held legally reponsible and thus it would be ya'll who would have to pay that fine of $50.00. Considering that a really good lawyer could force slashdot to hand over the information regarding your account (i.e. your name) then Albuquerque Journal could charge ya'll with the fine. Of course, if ya'll resist then I suppose Albuquerque Journal could go further and actually bring charges against ya'll. Think of the combine cost of lawyer fees, court fees, and the original fine. But then again ya'll could get a judge to throw out the 'hole entire thing as a "frivous case".
Project: To Take Over The World
IMHO, I'm also glad to hear that Lucas is going back to the drawing board. After hearing that all character shots were done a month ago got me worried that SWE2 would just be a CGI filled movie. Special effects is one thing, but it can't carry a movie all the way through especially in the Star Wars Universe. I doubt fans would have been happy with 2 hours of CGI and only 30 minutes of actual character dialog. Of course that's just my opinion.
Project: To Take Over The World
Actually I think you've failed to realize a serious consequence of adding video and sound to a virtual community. By adding video/sound to a virtual community, you have essentially created a virtual forum (meeting place). The problem with this (as with most technological advances) is that it makes us lazier. Think about it, with the ability to work, communicate, and shop online, what's the point in going outside? We'd all become fat and lazy and so technology-dependent that in the event that power goes out we all be SOL.
Just my 2 bits.
Project: To Take Over The World
Actually, Lego beat ya to that idea. I think the Lego Robotics Set (I'm not sure of the name) has all the stuff you need to make a wheeled robot w/ camera that can one can program to do stuff. However, if you people are serious about using a camera to observe people (a.k.a. survallence) then go check out those spy stores. You wouldn't believe what they are capable of putting cameras into (Clocks, Teddy Bears, Vases, etc.)
Project: To Take Over The World