Err, if you know you're going to be out for awhile, you simply plant stuff that grows slower, or don't plant anything.
I (admittedly) do play this thing on occasion, and I don't really see anything in there that would make your classic 'gold farmer' ('scuse the pun) see it as worth their time. Few folks buy the bucks in-game as it is, and unlike Mafia Wars style games, a bot would be fairly useless.
I could've summed the game down in two sentences: It's a cute-but-silly animated time waster that occasionally begs you to buy stuff. Its general appeal lies in the fact that unlike most games, you help other players to advance instead of beating them down.
Disclosure: I am formerly an F-117 avionics technician, of what used to be the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Tonopah Test Range, NV (the original home of the F-117 Nighthawk). That said, I've been a civilian for nearly 20 years, but...
The USAF 'fessed up to the existence of the F-117 in 1988 (and included a fuzzy-at-best photograph). That was what they were "really" working on at the time. Better stuff (cf. the B-2) came out later, and from other projects. Before 1988, we were considered to be working on an A-7 avionics upgrade program - my old orders still reflect that (while my old training records had a ton of phrases reading "see classified master"). After 1988, the A-7s were quietly sent back to the Arizona boneyard they came out of, and we were officially working on the Stealth Fighter from that point on. There was no "really working on" bit to it - that's what we were doing.
Now it may or may not be true that they are/were/will-be working on something else. Those may come out in due time, or they may be quietly buried or shelved if they don't work out. Fact is, there may well be more than one project in motion, but the confirmation or denial of those projects simply will not happen unless/until the USAF says something about 'em individually and in particular. Even during my 'tenure', we only knew about our baby - we didn't talk to others about our doings, and they didn't talk to us about theirs.
Sorry, but that's just the way it is *shrug*. It's weird, it's secretive, and you just got along in spite of it. If I were a betting man, I'd say that the odds were excellent of other projects going on... but you and I won't know about them until the gov't is good and ready to say something about 'em.
Exactly. Even the vaunted "stealth" technologies of the 1980's and '90s were engineered only towards a certain set of frequencies.
This 'invisibility cloak' could be defeated as easily as using a video camera with "night shot" built in (basically, an infrared emitter on the camera body sends out IR, and the lens picks that up, making it a bit more active than simply taking in whatever it sees). The cloak blocks the IR, so it'll either shine with the reflected waves or will show up as a shadow.
Other ways to defeat it? Talcum powder or other particulates (like rain ferinstance).
'course, I doubt that they could make such a "cloak" anyway, at least insofar as it would still show movement. So unless their 'spy' is really good at standing still, he's still liable to be noticed.
NPR I wouldn't be so sure about - even the leftists called it "National Palestinian Radio" at times. And yes, it does have an editorial slant, and that slant is noticeably left-leaning at times (not as bad as, say, "Air America" though).
Americans are often enamored of the BBC, mostly because they are completely unfamiliar with Brit politics, so the subtleties just don't register.
I have respect for the Beeb's reporting, but only insofar as they at least try to be concise and even-handed about the story, and aren't as given to sensationalism and pandering. That said, I do so knowing full well that there is a bit of a slant going on with them, which I chalk up to having a slightly different cultural/ideological center-of-gravity. NPR tries to emulate that, but is given at times to the occasional mini-gasms of leftist blather.
you can't trust anything you read or hear in the media right now because there is no standard of truth to which they are legally bound.
The reason the US enjoys freedom of the press is because the last thing we need is, as Orwell so elegantly put it, a Ministry of Truth.
Also, you are completely incorrect on your point in the first place... Libel and Slander laws are still in place, and are among the few types of court where the defendant has the burden of proof, in that he or she is required to prove that the alleged slander or libel is instead actual truth/fact/etc.
Finally, lying to the public does have repercussions, and they are rather large. Google for Stephen Glass, Mike Barnicle, James Forlong, et al. Personally and professionally, telling lies will hurt you in the end - all the opposition has to do is prove the lie. Personally, I'd like to see you prove the lie WRT Fox News - you made the claim, now let's see some examples. Screw-ups and slants, sure - every org has those, and the screw-ups are more often than not corrected. But... you said "lie" - now let's see those actual lies you are alleging.
I'm no lover of Fox News (they lost my interest a long time ago along with CNN when even their news segments turned to sensationalist crap), but if you're going to make the accusations, let's see the proof.
True - though something is lacking in TFA: there is a diff between hitting the docs for learning, and hitting them for troubleshooting.
The man pages are more for learning (you can troubleshoot with them too, but diagnostic info in them are going to be lacking, just like trying to rely on the Windows Help files to fix a busted Exchange connector). Odds are, a beginner/apprentice won't know what to do with 'em for fixing a problem unless he/she is a royal badass at general computing/programming practices.
For troubleshooting, you're gonna have to hit Google - you have better odds there that someone else had the same problem and posted it (and its solution). There was once a time when you could write up docs for troubleshooting and diagnostics, covering up to 80% or more of what most folks run up against.
It still boils down to upping your skills on the OS and on general practices, though.
Actually, if you look up the AT&T v. BSD *nix lawsuits, both were found to have infringed on each other, forcing both parties to basically cross-license their stuff and call it a loss (which turned out to be a pretty solid win for those of us out here in Geekdom).
...for starters, Mann is a very frequent writing contributor to realclimate.org - using it as a cite to bolster his arguments is kind of recursive, don't you think?
Not nitpicking, I promise, but seriously? You may want to consider using a different source than 'Mann's friends and defenders posting on a left-leaning PAC funded website' if you're going to use the word "Lie" in such a definitive manner.
Dude - there are (and were) cults out in the US today that do much, much worse. Past examples? Branch Davidians (Waco), the SunYungMoon group during the 1980's ("Moonies"), and the recent polygamy compound in Colorado City, Arizona. They all stand out as some rather egregious examples, and I don't doubt there are more of 'em out there today.
They don't have barbed wire and guards per se, but I'm willing to wager that their denizens are brainwashed enough that none of the fencing and such is necessary.
Err, the massive propellers that most cargo ships use make trying to foul one useless? Unless that rope you're using is 20cm thick or better, good luck with fouling a prop whose average diameter would often dwarfs the pirate's boat entirely with room to spare. Hell, good luck fouling the prop by ramming your entire boat into it for that matter...
Maybe you meant the golf ball cannon option? Umm, okay - you only have to get the balls up 5-10 stories high, not counting superstructure, let alone the bridge. RPG's are probably more plentiful than golf balls in that part of the world, and tend to be a lot more portable, methinks.
This should be fairly easy to figure down... Are they Google-able? They have a company?
The NDA part shouldn't be bothersome... it's par for the course; I make vendors sign 'em for certain server infrastructure additions or analysis (cf. anything that may possibly handle trade secrets, etc - even Microsoft signs one before doing their true-up audits). Besides, no NDA can prevent you from reporting illegal activity, so don't sweat it.
Otherwise, just get everything in writing (and notarized!) before agreeing to it, and make sure you get at least some of the payment up-front, at certain project milestones, etc. If it still makes you nervous, spend some cash on a lawyer to eyeball the whole thing before signing it.
I'm thinking that we as a society are becoming (or are already) a bit too fetishised over coddling their children.
(warning: impending 'get off my lawn' rant/moment...)
When our grandparents were kids, if they got bullied, their own parents would respond by teaching them how to fight. Hell, even when I was a kid, my parents' reaction to bullying was usually along the lines of "...well kick his ass then - as long as you didn't start it, you won't be in trouble from us for finishing it".
Nowadays, the Internet is easier to deal with - if someone is acting the fool, teach your kid to block 'em and inform the webmaster/etc. Teach 'em to toughen up and to ignore the idiots of this world - it'll better prepare them for adulthood.
Leaving your kid alone online is the perfect equivalent of letting them wander around alone on Times Square - if you're dumb enough to do it, then at least prepare them for the inevitable bumps and bruises... or perhaps maybe not let your kid surf the thing unsupervised, eh?
At least this way there's no scrambling around on the cops' part over false positives (because those are almost guaranteed with this system), and nobody has to waste taxpayer money over something that parents should already know how to do, FFS...
You do realize that most execution methods don't require obesity as a factor, right?;)
There was once a time when mere prison sentences would serve as a deterrent - getting chained to a straw-covered floor and being brutalized, underfed, and half-frozen tends to do that, and hard labor was usually thrown in for good measure. By the time you got out, you definitely did not want to get thrown back in. Executions were usually pretty ugly, and getting killed after sentencing was a swift near-certainty.
Nowadays? The two biggest things most convicts have to worry about are not angering the other cons, and not getting a horny cellmate. Otherwise, the system basically supports you for however long you're locked up. Even an execution can take years if not decades to arrive, and by then the condemned is likely so damned bored with life that he looks forward to it as a means of release.
So yeah - deterrence isn't so much a factor these days IMHO. I once supported capital punishment, since it seems to make the most sense (removed from society while at the same time incurring the minimum amount of expense). OTOH, the vindictive side of me prefers them to live on for years, forgotten by society, world+dog moving on, as they are driven slowly mad by the monotony of knowing they will amount to nothing, in spite of whatever brief notoriety they might have had.
Once in a blue moon they drag out ol' Charlie Manson and interview him... and every year he became less of an icon of fear, and more of a caricature or parody. In 1969, the citizens of LA feared him terribly. In 2009, he's just some crazy old nutjob that people crack jokes about, the majority not even bothering to think of him at all. And there isn't jack that he can do about it. That, especially to some fame-seeking crackpot, is the cruelest punishment of all, no?
You may want to expand your scope beyond mere online stores. For instance, how much would Southland (7-Eleven) pay for targeted ads on this netbook? The folks who make (insert 40-ounce cheap beer brand)? The idea is to lure folks to their brand/store/product/etc instead of the competition's.
Slashdot Mirror
Err, if you know you're going to be out for awhile, you simply plant stuff that grows slower, or don't plant anything.
I (admittedly) do play this thing on occasion, and I don't really see anything in there that would make your classic 'gold farmer' ('scuse the pun) see it as worth their time. Few folks buy the bucks in-game as it is, and unlike Mafia Wars style games, a bot would be fairly useless.
I could've summed the game down in two sentences: It's a cute-but-silly animated time waster that occasionally begs you to buy stuff. Its general appeal lies in the fact that unlike most games, you help other players to advance instead of beating them down.
Disclosure: I am formerly an F-117 avionics technician, of what used to be the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Tonopah Test Range, NV (the original home of the F-117 Nighthawk). That said, I've been a civilian for nearly 20 years, but...
The USAF 'fessed up to the existence of the F-117 in 1988 (and included a fuzzy-at-best photograph). That was what they were "really" working on at the time. Better stuff (cf. the B-2) came out later, and from other projects. Before 1988, we were considered to be working on an A-7 avionics upgrade program - my old orders still reflect that (while my old training records had a ton of phrases reading "see classified master"). After 1988, the A-7s were quietly sent back to the Arizona boneyard they came out of, and we were officially working on the Stealth Fighter from that point on. There was no "really working on" bit to it - that's what we were doing.
Now it may or may not be true that they are/were/will-be working on something else. Those may come out in due time, or they may be quietly buried or shelved if they don't work out. Fact is, there may well be more than one project in motion, but the confirmation or denial of those projects simply will not happen unless/until the USAF says something about 'em individually and in particular. Even during my 'tenure', we only knew about our baby - we didn't talk to others about our doings, and they didn't talk to us about theirs.
Sorry, but that's just the way it is *shrug*. It's weird, it's secretive, and you just got along in spite of it. If I were a betting man, I'd say that the odds were excellent of other projects going on... but you and I won't know about them until the gov't is good and ready to say something about 'em.
Exactly. Even the vaunted "stealth" technologies of the 1980's and '90s were engineered only towards a certain set of frequencies.
This 'invisibility cloak' could be defeated as easily as using a video camera with "night shot" built in (basically, an infrared emitter on the camera body sends out IR, and the lens picks that up, making it a bit more active than simply taking in whatever it sees). The cloak blocks the IR, so it'll either shine with the reflected waves or will show up as a shadow.
Other ways to defeat it? Talcum powder or other particulates (like rain ferinstance).
'course, I doubt that they could make such a "cloak" anyway, at least insofar as it would still show movement. So unless their 'spy' is really good at standing still, he's still liable to be noticed.
NPR I wouldn't be so sure about - even the leftists called it "National Palestinian Radio" at times. And yes, it does have an editorial slant, and that slant is noticeably left-leaning at times (not as bad as, say, "Air America" though).
Americans are often enamored of the BBC, mostly because they are completely unfamiliar with Brit politics, so the subtleties just don't register.
I have respect for the Beeb's reporting, but only insofar as they at least try to be concise and even-handed about the story, and aren't as given to sensationalism and pandering. That said, I do so knowing full well that there is a bit of a slant going on with them, which I chalk up to having a slightly different cultural/ideological center-of-gravity. NPR tries to emulate that, but is given at times to the occasional mini-gasms of leftist blather.
I mean, where, exactly, is there any evidence to suggest that "the government" is going to step in and take over the role held by the free press?
The so-called "Fairness Doctrine" stands out...
you can't trust anything you read or hear in the media right now because there is no standard of truth to which they are legally bound.
The reason the US enjoys freedom of the press is because the last thing we need is, as Orwell so elegantly put it, a Ministry of Truth.
Also, you are completely incorrect on your point in the first place... Libel and Slander laws are still in place, and are among the few types of court where the defendant has the burden of proof, in that he or she is required to prove that the alleged slander or libel is instead actual truth/fact/etc.
Finally, lying to the public does have repercussions, and they are rather large. Google for Stephen Glass, Mike Barnicle, James Forlong, et al. Personally and professionally, telling lies will hurt you in the end - all the opposition has to do is prove the lie. Personally, I'd like to see you prove the lie WRT Fox News - you made the claim, now let's see some examples. Screw-ups and slants, sure - every org has those, and the screw-ups are more often than not corrected. But... you said "lie" - now let's see those actual lies you are alleging.
I'm no lover of Fox News (they lost my interest a long time ago along with CNN when even their news segments turned to sensationalist crap), but if you're going to make the accusations, let's see the proof.
True - though something is lacking in TFA: there is a diff between hitting the docs for learning, and hitting them for troubleshooting.
The man pages are more for learning (you can troubleshoot with them too, but diagnostic info in them are going to be lacking, just like trying to rely on the Windows Help files to fix a busted Exchange connector). Odds are, a beginner/apprentice won't know what to do with 'em for fixing a problem unless he/she is a royal badass at general computing/programming practices.
For troubleshooting, you're gonna have to hit Google - you have better odds there that someone else had the same problem and posted it (and its solution). There was once a time when you could write up docs for troubleshooting and diagnostics, covering up to 80% or more of what most folks run up against.
It still boils down to upping your skills on the OS and on general practices, though.
Actually, if you look up the AT&T v. BSD *nix lawsuits, both were found to have infringed on each other, forcing both parties to basically cross-license their stuff and call it a loss (which turned out to be a pretty solid win for those of us out here in Geekdom).
First, it isn't clear how Al Gore would instantly become a billionaire if cap and trade becomes law.
Let me help clarify that for you a little...
...for starters, Mann is a very frequent writing contributor to realclimate.org - using it as a cite to bolster his arguments is kind of recursive, don't you think?
Political Action Committee - Funded.
Not nitpicking, I promise, but seriously? You may want to consider using a different source than 'Mann's friends and defenders posting on a left-leaning PAC funded website' if you're going to use the word "Lie" in such a definitive manner.
Dude - there are (and were) cults out in the US today that do much, much worse. Past examples? Branch Davidians (Waco), the SunYungMoon group during the 1980's ("Moonies"), and the recent polygamy compound in Colorado City, Arizona. They all stand out as some rather egregious examples, and I don't doubt there are more of 'em out there today.
They don't have barbed wire and guards per se, but I'm willing to wager that their denizens are brainwashed enough that none of the fencing and such is necessary.
Err, the massive propellers that most cargo ships use make trying to foul one useless? Unless that rope you're using is 20cm thick or better, good luck with fouling a prop whose average diameter would often dwarfs the pirate's boat entirely with room to spare. Hell, good luck fouling the prop by ramming your entire boat into it for that matter...
Maybe you meant the golf ball cannon option? Umm, okay - you only have to get the balls up 5-10 stories high, not counting superstructure, let alone the bridge. RPG's are probably more plentiful than golf balls in that part of the world, and tend to be a lot more portable, methinks.
Contrary to popular belief, lower-level languages don't make shitty programmers competent.
True, but at least the clued-in know that up-front. Too many of the upper-level ones tend to mislead the masses into thinking they're competent.
True, but damn - an ASM-only web server would be hella fast! (and hella boring).
...could be worse - it could've used only the .NET framework
Oh, wait...
This should be fairly easy to figure down... Are they Google-able? They have a company?
The NDA part shouldn't be bothersome... it's par for the course; I make vendors sign 'em for certain server infrastructure additions or analysis (cf. anything that may possibly handle trade secrets, etc - even Microsoft signs one before doing their true-up audits). Besides, no NDA can prevent you from reporting illegal activity, so don't sweat it.
Otherwise, just get everything in writing (and notarized!) before agreeing to it, and make sure you get at least some of the payment up-front, at certain project milestones, etc. If it still makes you nervous, spend some cash on a lawyer to eyeball the whole thing before signing it.
"click"!? In *BSD!?
*blink* .... *blink*...
(turns to crowd - )
It's a HERETIC! BURN HIM!
Dude - if your kid gets bullied at school, do you:
a) take care of it w/ the kid (e.g. teaching him how to fight back) and/or the school administrators if necessary, or...
b) call 911?
This isn't a hard question, I promise you.
I'm thinking that we as a society are becoming (or are already) a bit too fetishised over coddling their children.
(warning: impending 'get off my lawn' rant/moment...)
When our grandparents were kids, if they got bullied, their own parents would respond by teaching them how to fight. Hell, even when I was a kid, my parents' reaction to bullying was usually along the lines of "...well kick his ass then - as long as you didn't start it, you won't be in trouble from us for finishing it".
Nowadays, the Internet is easier to deal with - if someone is acting the fool, teach your kid to block 'em and inform the webmaster/etc. Teach 'em to toughen up and to ignore the idiots of this world - it'll better prepare them for adulthood.
Leaving your kid alone online is the perfect equivalent of letting them wander around alone on Times Square - if you're dumb enough to do it, then at least prepare them for the inevitable bumps and bruises... or perhaps maybe not let your kid surf the thing unsupervised, eh?
At least this way there's no scrambling around on the cops' part over false positives (because those are almost guaranteed with this system), and nobody has to waste taxpayer money over something that parents should already know how to do, FFS...
I just don't think I have the stomach for it.
You do realize that most execution methods don't require obesity as a factor, right? ;)
There was once a time when mere prison sentences would serve as a deterrent - getting chained to a straw-covered floor and being brutalized, underfed, and half-frozen tends to do that, and hard labor was usually thrown in for good measure. By the time you got out, you definitely did not want to get thrown back in. Executions were usually pretty ugly, and getting killed after sentencing was a swift near-certainty.
Nowadays? The two biggest things most convicts have to worry about are not angering the other cons, and not getting a horny cellmate. Otherwise, the system basically supports you for however long you're locked up. Even an execution can take years if not decades to arrive, and by then the condemned is likely so damned bored with life that he looks forward to it as a means of release.
So yeah - deterrence isn't so much a factor these days IMHO. I once supported capital punishment, since it seems to make the most sense (removed from society while at the same time incurring the minimum amount of expense). OTOH, the vindictive side of me prefers them to live on for years, forgotten by society, world+dog moving on, as they are driven slowly mad by the monotony of knowing they will amount to nothing, in spite of whatever brief notoriety they might have had.
Once in a blue moon they drag out ol' Charlie Manson and interview him... and every year he became less of an icon of fear, and more of a caricature or parody. In 1969, the citizens of LA feared him terribly. In 2009, he's just some crazy old nutjob that people crack jokes about, the majority not even bothering to think of him at all. And there isn't jack that he can do about it. That, especially to some fame-seeking crackpot, is the cruelest punishment of all, no?
Err, what if he's thinking about Chewbacca? Might even get him acquitted.
Internet Explorer is perfectly safe for everyday use.
As long as you follow the old US gov't C3 security guidelines/settings for Windows NT 4.0 while you do it, sure.
Strangely enough, I'm torn between demanding a funny mod or an insightful one for you.
You may want to expand your scope beyond mere online stores. For instance, how much would Southland (7-Eleven) pay for targeted ads on this netbook? The folks who make (insert 40-ounce cheap beer brand)? The idea is to lure folks to their brand/store/product/etc instead of the competition's.