It was really fun at first, when the laws were real, but then I started seeing some ones that are obviously fake. that ticked me off, I mean, for instance, in illinois "The english language is forbidden". How fake can you get? It makes me wonder if any of the others are. Someone should really go through that site and verify them, and not post em unless they are really verified. I dont think it would be that hard.
For those of you who read 1984, I would have to say this is humerously similar to the 'spies' that all the children were a member of, in which they would rat out their parents to the thoughtpolice. haha,
seriously tho, while piracy isnt good, and the script kiddies and warez d00dz and whatever other 'leet names they make up on IRC are easily some of the most irritating people in the world, what do the boyscouts have to do with this?
I believe the turing test is both impossible to pass, and an inaccurate way of measuring artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence's purpose isnt to mimick the way humans think and react but to be able to devise solutions to problems without the need of specific programming for the problem, to be able to learn and adapt to new situations, and not just be constrained by a single original procedure. This test to an extent might measure this, as the computer would be able to answer a question accurately no matter what the form the question is presented as, and if it does not have the answer on hand, search the internet for the answer, however, the answer would still be very easily distinguishable from a human's answer.
There are a number of ways in which one could "trick" the computer, or "cheat" on t he test from either the interrogaters end, or the person whom is being compared to the computer. One easy way to cheat would be to simply look for human error. A computer has no element of human error, except that which is programmed into it. An instant giveaway might be a typo ("teh"). Another giveaway would be when the person does not know the answer to the question, as any artificial intelligence computer program made to be able to accurately answer questions would be able to quickly locate and produce the correct answer, while no person knows everything. You ask someone "whats the atomic mass of bromine" and they would be like "what the hell kind of question is that?", while a computer spits out the number. Which brings me to how the answerer could cheat: slang and dialect. People generally dont speak proper english, and it would be easy to distinguish between a computer program and certain dialects or slang used by people. Of course, you could attempt to tackle this and the typo problem both by making it purposefully make typos, or attempt to make it speak with slang ("gangsta_turing_AI": 'you best step off 'for I bust a cap in you a$$ motha*****') but seriously, is this what AI is about? I didnt think so, and even if we went to such lengths, I don't believe it could be done 100% convincingly, at least not by the end of the month;).
This is one of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life. Now I'm not just shrugging this off because I do fit into this category (I use the internet well over 4 hours of time), hey, it does cut into other activities, but it is hardly an addiction. I use the internet as a means of gaining information, for communication, and, while I am currently unemployed, have used it as pretty much all of my job, having been a web master, and technical support. I could hardly consider something you use for your job to be an addiction, more of a tool. A very useful and educating tool actually. Many people talk on the phone more than 4 hours a day, as a result of their jobs, and I don't believe anyone would consider that addictive behavior, or if they talked on the phone for more than four hours a day NOT as a result of their jobs. Or reading a book, many people read books for more than four hours a day as well. In my personal opinion, I believe that these psychologists are simply attempting to grab on to the Internet bandwagon and use the fact that almost any nes, study, breakthrough, what have you which relates to the internet is almost instantly publicized, read, replied to, discussed, and then funded by somebody with a lot of cash who takes the whole thing hook line and sinker, in which case I would bet they will be rather successful. I'm not a psychologist, but I'm an internet user, and I could tell you that I can go just fine without using the internet, if my computer blew up, I would live on, I might not have a whole lot to do on those boring rainy days when nobody is home and there's nothing to do, but I wouldn't exactly be going through withdrawals. I believe if the internet was really addicting. I wonder how many hours a day these psychologists spend looking for new addictions... hope it isnt more than four, we might be looking at some kind of disorder!
I'm not the proclaimed expert on the subject, but it seems to me that younger people will work for cheaper than older people. While programmers older than 35 are more likely to have families, kids, nice cars with high insurance, etc, they usually need a bit more money to support this lifestyle, whereas a 20odd year old kid coming straight out of college most likely lives in an apartment and has the car they have been driving since high school, unless they have been lucky to have more money. Also, it is more likely that someone over 35 is more interested in having more benefits and retirement than someone in their twenties, not to mention, if they have a family, they are less likely to be able to work as many hours as they would want to spend some time at home. Then there's the fact that younger people will have less work experience under their belts, which allows companies to have an excuse to pay them less money than they might have to pay someone with 15-20 years of experience. I also notice many companies have been hiring people right out of high school and training them, because it is easier to train them and mold them to work for the company this way.
To make this short and sweet: THIS PISSES ME OFF I love nintendo, and have always loved their games, and in fact, I was one of those people out at 5 in the morning to get in line to buy a Nintendo 64 the day it came out, but this makes me want to reconsider them as a company. the 16 bit Super Nintendo hasnt come out with a new game in over a year as far as I know, and highly doubt that nintendo relies on or even makes ANY profit off the system for its money. This is why I dont see any reasoning behind their attack on SNES9X besides to be bastards. I think Nintendo needs to back off and let us have our fun, Connectix got a commercial emulator for the still widely popular PSX, why cant we have a free emulator for a system which would be long forgotten if it wasnt for emulation?
Linux Only games are ok, but lets not be selfish. Linux is a great operating system and it rocks when we get good games (especially MythII!) for it, but the majority of players out there are on windows and mac. (I play all my games on my mac) Anyway, more platforms = more people to play with, always a good thing, especially for MythII, which I believe is the most fun, while still mentally challenging multiplayer game of all time. What linux needs is some games released at the SAME time as other platforms, and some games reading "System requirements:" with a Linux, right beside Windows 98 and Macintosh. Now wouldnt that be beautiful? oh, and btw, does anyone know if this port of MythII will include multiplayer over bungie.net?
I don't think that all the people who wait in line for Star Wars are doing it because they really want to see the movie that bad. I am kinda into star wars, but I'm not going to die if I dont see it on the first day, or the first month.
But still, I cut school on wednesday, drove to vacaville (20 or 30 miles away) with some friends, and stood in line for four hours to get tickets. I did it kinda partly so I could one day say "I stood in line for four hours to buy tickets to star wars." I mean, how often do you get to participate in something like that, as boring as it may sound, it was actually really fun, lots of star wars fans, people doing things, in fact, I even saw some other friends who were waiting in line too. It was like a party, the only thing it was missing was beer. And when I got my tickets, it wasnt for the 12:01 showing, but it was for the first day, and I felt pretty cool.
Sometimes part of the reason for things isnt so much the result, as the experience of doing what it takes to get there. Maybe I have an interesting idea of fun, but it works for me.
Sure, we all remember when we had (or still do have) sites with "made using " but those times are gone, at least for me. Those of you who do web design professionally know that people do not pay you to take your time figuring out what combination of hexadecimal digits equals the perfect colour of blue. Web editors are just plain quicker, even though a little piece inside you dies every time you use em. But with ones such as GoLive you can do some really awesome web design AND not have to sell your soul to microsoft like everyone thinks! As for which one is the best editor, im not really sure, myself, I havent seen the most up-to-date features of many of em, but I can say that Frontpage aint it, no matter what people might tell you.
Slashdot Mirror
It was really fun at first, when the laws were real, but then I started seeing some ones that are obviously fake. that ticked me off, I mean, for instance, in illinois "The english language is forbidden". How fake can you get? It makes me wonder if any of the others are. Someone should really go through that site and verify them, and not post em unless they are really verified. I dont think it would be that hard.
For those of you who read 1984, I would have to say this is humerously similar to the 'spies' that all the children were a member of, in which they would rat out their parents to the thoughtpolice. haha,
seriously tho, while piracy isnt good, and the script kiddies and warez d00dz and whatever other 'leet names they make up on IRC are easily some of the most irritating people in the world, what do the boyscouts have to do with this?
Rakshasa
I believe the turing test is both impossible to pass, and an inaccurate way of measuring artificial intelligence.
;).
Artificial intelligence's purpose isnt to mimick the way humans think and react but to be able to devise solutions to problems without the need of specific programming for the problem, to be able to learn and adapt to new situations, and not just be constrained by a single original procedure. This test to an extent might measure this, as the computer would be able to answer a question accurately no matter what the form the question is presented as, and if it does not have the answer on hand, search the internet for the answer, however, the answer would still be very easily distinguishable from a human's answer.
There are a number of ways in which one could "trick" the computer, or "cheat" on t he test from either the interrogaters end, or the person whom is being compared to the computer. One easy way to cheat would be to simply look for human error. A computer has no element of human error, except that which is programmed into it. An instant giveaway might be a typo ("teh"). Another giveaway would be when the person does not know the answer to the question, as any artificial intelligence computer program made to be able to accurately answer questions would be able to quickly locate and produce the correct answer, while no person knows everything. You ask someone "whats the atomic mass of bromine" and they would be like "what the hell kind of question is that?", while a computer spits out the number. Which brings me to how the answerer could cheat: slang and dialect. People generally dont speak proper english, and it would be easy to distinguish between a computer program and certain dialects or slang used by people. Of course, you could attempt to tackle this and the typo problem both by making it purposefully make typos, or attempt to make it speak with slang ("gangsta_turing_AI": 'you best step off 'for I bust a cap in you a$$ motha*****') but seriously, is this what AI is about? I didnt think so, and even if we went to such lengths, I don't believe it could be done 100% convincingly, at least not by the end of the month
This is one of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life. Now I'm not just shrugging this off because I do fit into this category (I use the internet well over 4 hours of time), hey, it does cut into other activities, but it is hardly an addiction. I use the internet as a means of gaining information, for communication, and, while I am currently unemployed, have used it as pretty much all of my job, having been a web master, and technical support. I could hardly consider something you use for your job to be an addiction, more of a tool. A very useful and educating tool actually. Many people talk on the phone more than 4 hours a day, as a result of their jobs, and I don't believe anyone would consider that addictive behavior, or if they talked on the phone for more than four hours a day NOT as a result of their jobs. Or reading a book, many people read books for more than four hours a day as well. In my personal opinion, I believe that these psychologists are simply attempting to grab on to the Internet bandwagon and use the fact that almost any nes, study, breakthrough, what have you which relates to the internet is almost instantly publicized, read, replied to, discussed, and then funded by somebody with a lot of cash who takes the whole thing hook line and sinker, in which case I would bet they will be rather successful. I'm not a psychologist, but I'm an internet user, and I could tell you that I can go just fine without using the internet, if my computer blew up, I would live on, I might not have a whole lot to do on those boring rainy days when nobody is home and there's nothing to do, but I wouldn't exactly be going through withdrawals. I believe if the internet was really addicting. I wonder how many hours a day these psychologists spend looking for new addictions... hope it isnt more than four, we might be looking at some kind of disorder!
I'm not the proclaimed expert on the subject, but it seems to me that younger people will work for cheaper than older people. While programmers older than 35 are more likely to have families, kids, nice cars with high insurance, etc, they usually need a bit more money to support this lifestyle, whereas a 20odd year old kid coming straight out of college most likely lives in an apartment and has the car they have been driving since high school, unless they have been lucky to have more money. Also, it is more likely that someone over 35 is more interested in having more benefits and retirement than someone in their twenties, not to mention, if they have a family, they are less likely to be able to work as many hours as they would want to spend some time at home. Then there's the fact that younger people will have less work experience under their belts, which allows companies to have an excuse to pay them less money than they might have to pay someone with 15-20 years of experience. I also notice many companies have been hiring people right out of high school and training them, because it is easier to train them and mold them to work for the company this way.
To make this short and sweet: THIS PISSES ME OFF
I love nintendo, and have always loved their games, and in fact, I was one of those people out at 5 in the morning to get in line to buy a Nintendo 64 the day it came out, but this makes me want to reconsider them as a company.
the 16 bit Super Nintendo hasnt come out with a new game in over a year as far as I know, and highly doubt that nintendo relies on or even makes ANY profit off the system for its money. This is why I dont see any reasoning behind their attack on SNES9X besides to be bastards. I think Nintendo needs to back off and let us have our fun, Connectix got a commercial emulator for the still widely popular PSX, why cant we have a free emulator for a system which would be long forgotten if it wasnt for emulation?
End of Rant.
Linux Only games are ok, but lets not be selfish. Linux is a great operating system and it rocks when we get good games (especially MythII!) for it, but the majority of players out there are on windows and mac. (I play all my games on my mac) Anyway, more platforms = more people to play with, always a good thing, especially for MythII, which I believe is the most fun, while still mentally challenging multiplayer game of all time.
What linux needs is some games released at the SAME time as other platforms, and some games reading "System requirements:" with a Linux, right beside Windows 98 and Macintosh. Now wouldnt that be beautiful?
oh, and btw, does anyone know if this port of MythII will include multiplayer over bungie.net?
Rakshasa
I don't think that all the people who wait in line for Star Wars are doing it because they really want to see the movie that bad. I am kinda into star wars, but I'm not going to die if I dont see it on the first day, or the first month.
But still, I cut school on wednesday, drove to vacaville (20 or 30 miles away) with some friends, and stood in line for four hours to get tickets. I did it kinda partly so I could one day say "I stood in line for four hours to buy tickets to star wars." I mean, how often do you get to participate in something like that, as boring as it may sound, it was actually really fun, lots of star wars fans, people doing things, in fact, I even saw some other friends who were waiting in line too. It was like a party, the only thing it was missing was beer. And when I got my tickets, it wasnt for the 12:01 showing, but it was for the first day, and I felt pretty cool.
Sometimes part of the reason for things isnt so much the result, as the experience of doing what it takes to get there. Maybe I have an interesting idea of fun, but it works for me.
Rakshasa
Sure, we all remember when we had (or still do have) sites with "made using " but those times are gone, at least for me. Those of you who do web design professionally know that people do not pay you to take your time figuring out what combination of hexadecimal digits equals the perfect colour of blue. Web editors are just plain quicker, even though a little piece inside you dies every time you use em. But with ones such as GoLive you can do some really awesome web design AND not have to sell your soul to microsoft like everyone thinks! As for which one is the best editor, im not really sure, myself, I havent seen the most up-to-date features of many of em, but I can say that Frontpage aint it, no matter what people might tell you.