Political correctness, or a handwave away from the fact that what they were doing stopped having anything to do with Congressionally-declared wars?
Classic conflict of interest
on
Patents vs. Secrecy
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Along with their more famously sneaky missions, part of what the NSA is tasked to do is help ensure the crypto/cybersecurity of the people of the United States. The DoD is probably trying to block the NSA because of fears of what the NSA may release to aid the United States would also aid our enemies, since it's supposed to be their job to marginalize and/or eliminate those enemies.
Personally, I think the Department of Defense should remember why the word "defense" is in their name to begin with, and not just some sort of Orwellian "Minipax" ploy. The priority here should be defending the United States, not necessarily attacking our enemies. The best defense may be a good offense, but it isn't the only defense.
"How so? There wasn't anything on the table to require porn sites to use the domain."
There was nothing on the table to restrict/ban the sales of M or AO games when the ESRB set up its ratings board, either. Essentially, establishing an.xxx TLD is the beginning of a slippery slope we've already seen before.
Re:Unauthorized Games
on
20 Years of NES
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· Score: 2, Insightful
"why do I recall playing Tengen games on the NES that weren't liscensed by Nintendo."
Lawyers. Tengen (among others) reverse-engineered the lock-out chip and then fought Nintendo in court until they were able to use their work-around.
"All the fanboys seem to ignore that Nintendo broke the law repeatedly. When Microsoft does it, you guys pee your fake-lawyer trousers. When Nintendo does it, you pee your fanboy pants."
Because what Nintendo forced us to buy in the 1980's and 1990's was actually good, perhaps not even needing market coercion.
Yeah, we're whipped, but Nintendo is that fine-ass chick that makes being whipped oh so worth it (think of a certain Bill Withers song, if you're old enough). Microsoft... isn't.
"I look forward to their doom thanks to the GamePark open handheld gaming platform."
Who's calling whom a rabid fanboy?
GamePark? Never heard of it. Let me know when they make Wario Ware for it.
Re:Trip down memory lane
on
20 Years of NES
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· Score: 5, Informative
The seal wasn't used to stop pirates, it was the lock-out chip. Witness Tengen.
If you'd read Game Over, you know the seal was part of a program to keep publishers from flooding the market; it wasn't to keep bad games from getting through, it was to to keep a metric fuckload of crap games from getting through (ala 2600). The seal was Nintendo's PR way of telling potential consumers that it wasn't going to be the cause of another Dark Age of Video Games.
Nintendo also had a strict policy of limiting the number of titles a publisher could release in a year. They could still get away with crap games, but then they'd have to rely on that crap game for income before they're allowed to have another shot at finding player love.
"Let's just open our borders completely and see how much cops, nurses, and mailmen make after we open up their position to everybody on earth."
Nurses are an exception, but generally few people come to the US intent on becoming a cop or a postal worker. Police forces specifically have a long history of employing poor imigrants that can't get jobs elsewhere (consider the stereotype of the Irish cop). In general, however, these are jobs that you don't need to leave the country of your birth to do.
Programming is one of those jobs that you need to go to the developed world to do. If it ain't North America, it's Western Europe, Eastern Asia or Australia.
"In that case, do you think anybody will be dumb enough to join the military in their defense?"
On the other hand, we have a situation where foreign nationals sign up to go to Iraq with the intent to become citizens. And while Washington will continue to swear up and down that it isn't official policy to "fast-track" soldiers, it sure doesn't help, and Congress has a habit of granting posthumous citizenship.
"Besides, the world is now joined at the hip when it comes to economic and social prosperity. There isn't gonna be a powerful China without the US, and vice versa. We are all in this together, the sooner everyone realizes this the better."
"Leftists are actually heavily under-represented in charitable volunteering."
We're not talking about tithing, we're talking about Wikipedia. It's not intended to be a "charity," it's simply an attempt at a group-managed knowledgebase; a collective hobby.
Slashdot Mirror
Political correctness, or a handwave away from the fact that what they were doing stopped having anything to do with Congressionally-declared wars?
Along with their more famously sneaky missions, part of what the NSA is tasked to do is help ensure the crypto/cybersecurity of the people of the United States. The DoD is probably trying to block the NSA because of fears of what the NSA may release to aid the United States would also aid our enemies, since it's supposed to be their job to marginalize and/or eliminate those enemies.
Personally, I think the Department of Defense should remember why the word "defense" is in their name to begin with, and not just some sort of Orwellian "Minipax" ploy. The priority here should be defending the United States, not necessarily attacking our enemies. The best defense may be a good offense, but it isn't the only defense.
So you're saying that there's so much dark matter^Wfiber out there that it caused a Big Crunch in the telephone industry?
Many Bothans died to bring us this article...
Ballmer was supposed to aim for Google before he threw the chair! Silly...
"How so? There wasn't anything on the table to require porn sites to use the domain."
.xxx TLD is the beginning of a slippery slope we've already seen before.
There was nothing on the table to restrict/ban the sales of M or AO games when the ESRB set up its ratings board, either. Essentially, establishing an
"why do I recall playing Tengen games on the NES that weren't liscensed by Nintendo."
Lawyers. Tengen (among others) reverse-engineered the lock-out chip and then fought Nintendo in court until they were able to use their work-around.
Come now! Industry analysts at least get paid for not having a girlfriend!
"It's foolish, revisionist history to say that Americans hated videogames. Does anyone remember Pac Man fever?"
You named everything that had to do with Pac-Man other than the 2600 port, and it was that game that helped America to learn to hate video games.
Pac-Man for the 2600 sucked long hard pixelated bars.
"All the fanboys seem to ignore that Nintendo broke the law repeatedly. When Microsoft does it, you guys pee your fake-lawyer trousers. When Nintendo does it, you pee your fanboy pants."
Because what Nintendo forced us to buy in the 1980's and 1990's was actually good, perhaps not even needing market coercion.
Yeah, we're whipped, but Nintendo is that fine-ass chick that makes being whipped oh so worth it (think of a certain Bill Withers song, if you're old enough). Microsoft... isn't.
"I look forward to their doom thanks to the GamePark open handheld gaming platform."
Who's calling whom a rabid fanboy?
GamePark? Never heard of it. Let me know when they make Wario Ware for it.
The seal wasn't used to stop pirates, it was the lock-out chip. Witness Tengen.
If you'd read Game Over, you know the seal was part of a program to keep publishers from flooding the market; it wasn't to keep bad games from getting through, it was to to keep a metric fuckload of crap games from getting through (ala 2600). The seal was Nintendo's PR way of telling potential consumers that it wasn't going to be the cause of another Dark Age of Video Games.
Nintendo also had a strict policy of limiting the number of titles a publisher could release in a year. They could still get away with crap games, but then they'd have to rely on that crap game for income before they're allowed to have another shot at finding player love.
Oh yeah? When I was your age, we didn't have these new-fangled vee-dee-oh games! For fun, we had real gorillas throwing real barrels at us!
(Seriously, though, my first console was ColecoVision, so I've already felt old for a while.)
"Let's just open our borders completely and see how much cops, nurses, and mailmen make after we open up their position to everybody on earth."
Nurses are an exception, but generally few people come to the US intent on becoming a cop or a postal worker. Police forces specifically have a long history of employing poor imigrants that can't get jobs elsewhere (consider the stereotype of the Irish cop). In general, however, these are jobs that you don't need to leave the country of your birth to do.
Programming is one of those jobs that you need to go to the developed world to do. If it ain't North America, it's Western Europe, Eastern Asia or Australia.
"In that case, do you think anybody will be dumb enough to join the military in their defense?"
On the other hand, we have a situation where foreign nationals sign up to go to Iraq with the intent to become citizens. And while Washington will continue to swear up and down that it isn't official policy to "fast-track" soldiers, it sure doesn't help, and Congress has a habit of granting posthumous citizenship.
"Besides, the world is now joined at the hip when it comes to economic and social prosperity. There isn't gonna be a powerful China without the US, and vice versa. We are all in this together, the sooner everyone realizes this the better."
They said something very similar in 1913.
"Leftists are actually heavily under-represented in charitable volunteering."
We're not talking about tithing, we're talking about Wikipedia. It's not intended to be a "charity," it's simply an attempt at a group-managed knowledgebase; a collective hobby.
2040? Heck, we'll all be living of tabletop fusion by then! When not driving our flying cars to and fro, that is...
It's from Zonk, don't hold your breath.
For the sake of your post, at least, I hope the web admin doesn't maliciously point the link to goatse.
"Well, Prisoner 24601, it looks like the computer has your lethal injection scheduled for tomorrow..."
"I'm not as dumb as I look."
You mean he's even dumber?
"Just send a married couple, two gays, two lesbians, the Pope and Darl McBride on the mission."
A mission to where, a bar?
"Somewhere in the world, Jeff Goldblum weeps..."
What, he still can't find a decent part?
But... but... he's in marketing!
"Joswiak"
Was he able to climb up through the ranks because he's only one of six people on the planet whose last name rhymes with "Wozniak?"
I mean, I realize with my last name it's a pot/kettle thing, but come on!
Yeah, but we're talking about the UK; the best they can do is Wales.