Well, that's the thing. Extreme capitalism is just another form of extreme opression: work like a dog and do what you're told, or be homeless. That's the biggest problem with not having a liveable minimum wage... everyone lives in fear of losing their paycheck.
It'd be an option to search for only legitimate websites that are on topic with my search and filter out bullshit entries trying to make a quick buck from ads with no real content; perhaps something that uses a wiki or other list, if only a bit more controlled and less freely-edited, combined with clicks out and recommendations. Similarly, an option to filter out forum posts and the like wouldn't be amiss either.
Stop commenting as AC's and then modding them up. No one likes you, the truth is not in the middle, and republicans are jokes on every level. At least you believe in God, but you manage to fuck that up too by using His name to preach hatred. Please die in no less than 3 fires.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but it was the only angle I could possibly think of as to why someone would buy it. Hell, I don't know why they stuck one of those things in the PS3 to begin with, for if I'm not mistaken, it's only going to be used for movies... although I could've heard wrong. There's just no market for these things. The most amazing bit is that there are two companies trying to be the first to fail horribly, rather than the usual lone-man fuckups of the marketplace.
Can't say I've really noticed a difference. My mother just bought herself a large plasma HD TV, and when I went over and hooked it up and ran the DVD player through it looked pretty much the same as the HD cable channels. Progressive scan and high storage DVD's look pretty damn good, certainly good enough that you need to plop down a few hundred bucks.
I fail to see any point in either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, particularly when they cost so damn much. I suppose for the few people that need to back up tons of data all the time, it'd be a good thing, but there's absolutely no reason for an average consumer to buy one. DVD movies don't need any improving, very few average consumers need anything more than writable CD's, or at the very most, writable DVD's. In fact, I can't think of a single thing that the everyday person would need either drive for.
We used to have the right of habeas corpus and guarantees of our privacy against every possible intrusion made without proper cause by the government, the Patriot Act kinda changed all that; nevertheless, any police officer could hold someone for 32 hours without charges before 9/11, and sometimes much longer... remember Mitnick? Now, I'm somewhat lacking in sleep, but I'm fairly certain that the French and Canadians have laws equivalent to habeas corpus (I believe most every civilized western democracy does as it's a fairly basic human right), probably which surpass our own right now.
Oh, and the NSA's actions are harmful not only for violating the founding principles of this country (go to China if you want to curtail the rights of the people rather than putting enough effort into creating a solution that protects everything about this country), but has limitless opportunities for abuse by those near the top of the program and those near them. It's also a program that gives very little benefit to fighting terrorism in an age of disposable cell phones and language that won't trigger any filtering programs, instant messaging, and so forth; there's actually much more potential for abuse than for any real good. Anyway, speaking of the way the world's progressing, nothing could be more important that protecting every legal right and liberty we have, because quite frankly, the people of the West no longer have the capability of popular revolution in the case that things got really bad; imagine if Washington had tried to stage the American Revolution while the British had the armaments of today's military. Oh, and that brings me to my last point. The worst parts about the NSA and Patriot Act and such is that Al-Qaeda is not that much of a threat to the US. In fact, it's not really a threat at all. We are not up against vast armies or comparable weaponry. With the amount of power that the United States has from its economic and politial clout to the sheer behemoth might of our military and vast superiority of technology, I'd count 9/11 as more of a lucky sucker-punch due to bureaucratic stupidity, and a suicidal one at that. Terrorism is not the Nazi Germany of today, nor the equivalent of the dangers of the Cold War. The only thing needed to stop terrorism is more hard work and careful planning, that's all. There was no need for a war against a country that had nothing to do with bin Laden that killed thousands of innocents, there was never any need for a Patriot Act, nor giving the NSA and CIA blanket authority to do whatever they want.
To hook up to a quantum computer cluster. That's all I really want before I die... hopefully before we create an artificial intelligence. I don't feel particularly good about combining AI and quantum computing, as it'll likely mean either a sudden massive jump or complete extinction for human civilization, whichever might be more convenient for that manner of entity. Eh.:)
1) An absolute free market destroys competition and innovation. The simplest cursory understanding of the steel, oil, and meat barons of old makes this obvious, or shit, look at Microsoft.
2) Movies have become incredibly cheap to make. CGI has cut the effects budgets down tremendously, and high-definition digital cameras mean that the huge cost of film stock has vanished. Not to mention it takes less time to shoot with digital as you can watch everything right away. You don't get to see how the lighting turned out on the specific type of film stock you used until you take it back to the lab. The only thing that keeps the budgets so high are the actors' salaries.
Last time I checked, the idea behind creating a "corporation" was to give it a legal title as a person, hense the root of the word... Slightly astounded at how this court could fail to grasp not only the law but common sense and english vocabulary.
Hah! Just kidding, I don't really expect the courts to go by morality or, god forbid, simple logic. All those little corporate trolls on here that seem to snipe at me from time to time, you may now go ahead and explain to me how judges and courts are somehow restricted by the nuance of law, and cannot find any way at all to rule in favor of ethical good.
"weren't many indie games a few decades ago" should be "weren't many indie movies a few decades ago". Just a little spur of the moment dyslexia, my apologies.
Pretty sure that the "free market" before the anti-trust laws prevented competition just a tad more than the regulation of today's economy. Please be more specific.
Also, the reason there aren't many indie games now is the same reason there weren't many indie games a few decades ago. We're just getting into the medium and have not developed methods to cheaply streamline the process of game making, whereas movies have become much, much, much less expensive to make. We just have to wait and improve upon methods and make them more affordable.
That's right, we can't very well let the USA be in second place for anything. We must pirate more. I will do my part, and ask that all slashdotters make a pledge of the same kind.
Just do your fucking OS thing and quit trying to control the world. It's getting really, really, really fucking old. You don't have to dominate EVERY ASPECT OF COMPUTING EVER.
These two industries are shining examples of why the free market is not only a bad idea, but mostly a farce perpetuated by greedy entrepreneurs looking for a quick buck without regard to the harm they cause the rest of society. Filth, I tell you.
The reasons these industries are highly regulated is because of the risks involved, which should be fucking obvious. Even with draconic regulation, there are still high levels of deaths related to faulty equipment, malpractice, and pharmaceuticals that weren't tested enough causing serious maladies in those prescribed to that medication. To do anything else would be to put human suffering below progress in the marketplace. Just go ahead and change your name to Goebbels. Similarly, airlines are only allowed to use the most trustworthy designs that go through the most rigorous certifications because of the risks to human life involved. Get a fucking clue already.
Furthermore, since just what fucking date am I supposed to believe that the US is dead last in either of the aforementioned areas?
Right, so when can Apple sue Windows for making a GUI file system for their OS? Eat shit, Creative. If the judge files for the plaintiff in this, I will personally kick him in the teeth.
The location of the pay phone or anything else used to call in a leak would be more than enough for a clever man. Stake out that spot and other places like it, record who uses it and when and compare with the next list of phone calls.
Sorry, but when neither is doing their job and people are being tortured and possibly killed without fair trial, it's time to start leaking to the press. That's the bottom line, and you don't get to hide behind "classified information" when you do something that unethical. Period.
Er, and when the CIA has been using our tax dollars to violate international treaties and laws, as with the secret torture prisons, what then? Does any agency just get blanket permission to do whatever the fuck it wants by calling what it does classified information?
The CIA needs to be held to a greater degree of oversight, but it isn't. Leaks are important to keep them from going hog wild. Who gives a flying fuck if we know that they used some CIA bullshit "predator missiles" in pakistan? You know that's not the real reason why the FBI is investigating. The FBI is trying to scare any would-be whistleblowers from leaking information that could severely damage (further) the reputation of the agency and/or the administration.
Dead wrong. The reason we have journalistst and freedom of the press is because we can't trust the government. 99% of the time, the leak is someone who can't take whistleblower status but wants to tell the public about wrongdoing in the government. Should gool ol' dubya have been allowed to keep the leak about the secret CIA prisons from escaping? Absolutely not. But it's okay for him to out an active CIA agent, Mrs. Plame?
Read the fucking constitution and look up some judicial records before you open your big, dumb mouth please. The law is very specific about protecting journalistic sources, there is supposed to be no way around it.
Weren't they responsible for that game and its iterations? How the fuck are they running out of money? There has to be something else behind this. RockStar is the last company in the game industry that needs to be laying off employees, particularly employees that contribute to so many award winning games...
Slashdot Mirror
Well, that's the thing. Extreme capitalism is just another form of extreme opression: work like a dog and do what you're told, or be homeless. That's the biggest problem with not having a liveable minimum wage... everyone lives in fear of losing their paycheck.
It'd be an option to search for only legitimate websites that are on topic with my search and filter out bullshit entries trying to make a quick buck from ads with no real content; perhaps something that uses a wiki or other list, if only a bit more controlled and less freely-edited, combined with clicks out and recommendations. Similarly, an option to filter out forum posts and the like wouldn't be amiss either.
Stop commenting as AC's and then modding them up. No one likes you, the truth is not in the middle, and republicans are jokes on every level. At least you believe in God, but you manage to fuck that up too by using His name to preach hatred. Please die in no less than 3 fires.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but it was the only angle I could possibly think of as to why someone would buy it. Hell, I don't know why they stuck one of those things in the PS3 to begin with, for if I'm not mistaken, it's only going to be used for movies... although I could've heard wrong. There's just no market for these things. The most amazing bit is that there are two companies trying to be the first to fail horribly, rather than the usual lone-man fuckups of the marketplace.
Can't say I've really noticed a difference. My mother just bought herself a large plasma HD TV, and when I went over and hooked it up and ran the DVD player through it looked pretty much the same as the HD cable channels. Progressive scan and high storage DVD's look pretty damn good, certainly good enough that you need to plop down a few hundred bucks.
I fail to see any point in either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, particularly when they cost so damn much. I suppose for the few people that need to back up tons of data all the time, it'd be a good thing, but there's absolutely no reason for an average consumer to buy one. DVD movies don't need any improving, very few average consumers need anything more than writable CD's, or at the very most, writable DVD's. In fact, I can't think of a single thing that the everyday person would need either drive for.
We used to have the right of habeas corpus and guarantees of our privacy against every possible intrusion made without proper cause by the government, the Patriot Act kinda changed all that; nevertheless, any police officer could hold someone for 32 hours without charges before 9/11, and sometimes much longer... remember Mitnick? Now, I'm somewhat lacking in sleep, but I'm fairly certain that the French and Canadians have laws equivalent to habeas corpus (I believe most every civilized western democracy does as it's a fairly basic human right), probably which surpass our own right now.
Oh, and the NSA's actions are harmful not only for violating the founding principles of this country (go to China if you want to curtail the rights of the people rather than putting enough effort into creating a solution that protects everything about this country), but has limitless opportunities for abuse by those near the top of the program and those near them. It's also a program that gives very little benefit to fighting terrorism in an age of disposable cell phones and language that won't trigger any filtering programs, instant messaging, and so forth; there's actually much more potential for abuse than for any real good. Anyway, speaking of the way the world's progressing, nothing could be more important that protecting every legal right and liberty we have, because quite frankly, the people of the West no longer have the capability of popular revolution in the case that things got really bad; imagine if Washington had tried to stage the American Revolution while the British had the armaments of today's military.
Oh, and that brings me to my last point. The worst parts about the NSA and Patriot Act and such is that Al-Qaeda is not that much of a threat to the US. In fact, it's not really a threat at all. We are not up against vast armies or comparable weaponry. With the amount of power that the United States has from its economic and politial clout to the sheer behemoth might of our military and vast superiority of technology, I'd count 9/11 as more of a lucky sucker-punch due to bureaucratic stupidity, and a suicidal one at that. Terrorism is not the Nazi Germany of today, nor the equivalent of the dangers of the Cold War. The only thing needed to stop terrorism is more hard work and careful planning, that's all. There was no need for a war against a country that had nothing to do with bin Laden that killed thousands of innocents, there was never any need for a Patriot Act, nor giving the NSA and CIA blanket authority to do whatever they want.
To hook up to a quantum computer cluster. That's all I really want before I die... hopefully before we create an artificial intelligence. I don't feel particularly good about combining AI and quantum computing, as it'll likely mean either a sudden massive jump or complete extinction for human civilization, whichever might be more convenient for that manner of entity. Eh. :)
1) An absolute free market destroys competition and innovation. The simplest cursory understanding of the steel, oil, and meat barons of old makes this obvious, or shit, look at Microsoft.
2) Movies have become incredibly cheap to make. CGI has cut the effects budgets down tremendously, and high-definition digital cameras mean that the huge cost of film stock has vanished. Not to mention it takes less time to shoot with digital as you can watch everything right away. You don't get to see how the lighting turned out on the specific type of film stock you used until you take it back to the lab. The only thing that keeps the budgets so high are the actors' salaries.
Last time I checked, the idea behind creating a "corporation" was to give it a legal title as a person, hense the root of the word... Slightly astounded at how this court could fail to grasp not only the law but common sense and english vocabulary.
Hah! Just kidding, I don't really expect the courts to go by morality or, god forbid, simple logic. All those little corporate trolls on here that seem to snipe at me from time to time, you may now go ahead and explain to me how judges and courts are somehow restricted by the nuance of law, and cannot find any way at all to rule in favor of ethical good.
When someone becomes a "whistleblower", all they do list their claims that are then investigated. If they claims are false, nothing happens.
"weren't many indie games a few decades ago" should be "weren't many indie movies a few decades ago". Just a little spur of the moment dyslexia, my apologies.
Pretty sure that the "free market" before the anti-trust laws prevented competition just a tad more than the regulation of today's economy. Please be more specific.
Also, the reason there aren't many indie games now is the same reason there weren't many indie games a few decades ago. We're just getting into the medium and have not developed methods to cheaply streamline the process of game making, whereas movies have become much, much, much less expensive to make. We just have to wait and improve upon methods and make them more affordable.
That's right, we can't very well let the USA be in second place for anything. We must pirate more. I will do my part, and ask that all slashdotters make a pledge of the same kind.
;)
USA! USA! USA!
Just do your fucking OS thing and quit trying to control the world. It's getting really, really, really fucking old. You don't have to dominate EVERY ASPECT OF COMPUTING EVER.
Bring back ninjas.
Fire everyone at the NSA.
At least you'll feel cool while being spied on.
These two industries are shining examples of why the free market is not only a bad idea, but mostly a farce perpetuated by greedy entrepreneurs looking for a quick buck without regard to the harm they cause the rest of society. Filth, I tell you.
The reasons these industries are highly regulated is because of the risks involved, which should be fucking obvious. Even with draconic regulation, there are still high levels of deaths related to faulty equipment, malpractice, and pharmaceuticals that weren't tested enough causing serious maladies in those prescribed to that medication. To do anything else would be to put human suffering below progress in the marketplace. Just go ahead and change your name to Goebbels. Similarly, airlines are only allowed to use the most trustworthy designs that go through the most rigorous certifications because of the risks to human life involved. Get a fucking clue already.
Furthermore, since just what fucking date am I supposed to believe that the US is dead last in either of the aforementioned areas?
Right, so when can Apple sue Windows for making a GUI file system for their OS? Eat shit, Creative. If the judge files for the plaintiff in this, I will personally kick him in the teeth.
The location of the pay phone or anything else used to call in a leak would be more than enough for a clever man. Stake out that spot and other places like it, record who uses it and when and compare with the next list of phone calls.
Sorry, but when neither is doing their job and people are being tortured and possibly killed without fair trial, it's time to start leaking to the press. That's the bottom line, and you don't get to hide behind "classified information" when you do something that unethical. Period.
Er, and when the CIA has been using our tax dollars to violate international treaties and laws, as with the secret torture prisons, what then?
Does any agency just get blanket permission to do whatever the fuck it wants by calling what it does classified information?
The CIA needs to be held to a greater degree of oversight, but it isn't. Leaks are important to keep them from going hog wild. Who gives a flying fuck if we know that they used some CIA bullshit "predator missiles" in pakistan? You know that's not the real reason why the FBI is investigating. The FBI is trying to scare any would-be whistleblowers from leaking information that could severely damage (further) the reputation of the agency and/or the administration.
Dead wrong. The reason we have journalistst and freedom of the press is because we can't trust the government. 99% of the time, the leak is someone who can't take whistleblower status but wants to tell the public about wrongdoing in the government. Should gool ol' dubya have been allowed to keep the leak about the secret CIA prisons from escaping? Absolutely not. But it's okay for him to out an active CIA agent, Mrs. Plame?
Read the fucking constitution and look up some judicial records before you open your big, dumb mouth please. The law is very specific about protecting journalistic sources, there is supposed to be no way around it.
Depending on where that's written.
Become /. front page material?
Just wondering.
Weren't they responsible for that game and its iterations? How the fuck are they running out of money? There has to be something else behind this. RockStar is the last company in the game industry that needs to be laying off employees, particularly employees that contribute to so many award winning games...
Let end with a resounding WTF?!?!