The "parking ticket" gambit seems pretty weak too if you look around and notice two things:
1. You are parked legally
2. Everybody else has these "tickets"
I disagree. It is simply a part of the gambit. Involving government induces either anger ("damn those bureaucratic idiots") or fear ("oh crap - not another bureaucratic nightmare"). Money reinforces it. Then immediate visual queues that you're in the right (other people also ticketed) seals the deal. You're darned well going to get the bottom of this / show those idiots. Damned them and their indecipherable techno gibberish. Hook... line... sinker.
Emotional slight of hand is the hallmark of a good con.
But these days, given how much the world hates us (or at least the media pretends it does) for fixing their problems, maybe it's time we gave isolationism another chance.
U.S. can easily become self-sufficient and keep all its modern amenities, unlike many other countries that resent the U.S.
I can understand the attraction to the idea. Fine, if the World doesn't appreciate us, we'll just take our ball and go home. That'll show them.
But ultimately I doubt it is possible. We're in the world around us. Our culture is invasive. We have a taste for foreign trade with investments abroad and foreign investments at home. And if anything, these things will drive us to continue being out in the world and open to attack. Even in our Nation's youngest years, it found isolationism ended with the Barbary Pirates. I find it hard to believe that in a world that's gotten "smaller" that we'd be able to retreat to Fortress America in any meaningful way.
Interesting point. Of course, in my state the text is pretty high contrast (dark blue on white). Hmmm. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if I can find out what the OCR error rate is for the tollroads; I have inside connections.
There was still a standing army with career military. That was the framework on which to hang the mass of drafted civilians to form a army at war.
Of course, that was a different era. Today's military is nothing like the conscripts of the past. And that was before WWII changed a lot of outlook towards whether isolationism is viable (its an ongoing debate throughout the centuries).
The problem is that any country so desperate for "respect" that seizes on nuclear armament as a road to that respect will likely get the same respect that you give a rabid dog. And that tends to be pretty hard on all parties involved.
Sure. And I see it used daily at the local county's tollroad. Works pretty well. But the toll lanes create a reasonably controlled environment and it still requires an occasional human to manually read a percentage of images. I'd be curious as to how ANPR handles things - I couldn't imagine the technology to be that different.
Right now the police can pull you over and ask for your license. Don't show it and you see the inside of a cell.
And while you're driving around your car has license plates on it which can be scanned from far further than RFID.
Asking to see the license still requires asking. It also requires driving for one to be (legally) provided. RFID allows for scanning a crowd and (potentially) getting a crowd of identities in less than a second.
OCR on license plates are very doable if you control the conditions. Make sure the vehicle is going the desired location and mount the camera in the perfect position. Back that up with occasional human to try and work out those cases where OCR fails. With RFID you put up antennas in a few strategic locations and you cover blocks of traffic without worrying about angles, lighting, and other bothersome conditions.
The potential for abuse is already there. RFID makes it more efficient.
I chuckled the first time. However, I find that its the sort of joke that gets stale. Maybe its got to do with dealing with the problem and these forms being more annoyance than help.
Yes, but if the player isn't interested in putting the necessary time and effort, shouldn't the player simply consider switching to another kind of game ? Games are supposed to be fun. Not to be something you put efforts that you dislike into.
I completely agree. I believe that if you're cheating, you're not playing the game. And if you're not playing the game... then don't play the game.
However, there are folks out there who don't have that mind-set. Go to any forum dedicated to cheats for multi-player games and you'll see the attitude I've described.
I've yet to have apt install a completely new piece of software. The closest I've had is when dependencies have shifted to new libraries or different packaging and I need to remove the old to replace the new.
I've also had apt cheerfully recommend new software that I might consider installing along with my choices. But the big difference here is that its recommended and allowed me to say "why yes - that sounds great, I'll take that too, please."
You've done a great job at trying to pigeon-hole this as an issue on foreign nationals and immigration. But it's not. I'm sure you can find some xenophobes within the ranks of H1-B critics. But that doesn't mean everyone critical of the issue fears immigration.
To be sure, H1-B isn't about immigration. The H1-B visa is actually a non-immigration visa. It is entirely a temporary situation. If anything, it is anti-immigration.
It would be silly to automate your way through the fun part, but trying to eliminate a boring/repetitive/challenge-less part in order to skip ahead to the reward, I can understand that.
I can understand the appeal. I've played with automation aspects before. I used UOAssist back in the old UO days. And one of my favorite (defunct) addons of all time for WoW was Autotravel (you placed waypoints, named special waypoints, and could do things like "/at bank" to follow your waypoints to the bank). For someone who's grown up with computers, the desire to automate is natural.
Having said that - I also see where automation causes trouble. A friend of mine played Ashron's Call for quite awhile. One of the annoying aspects were players who had bots that timed the spawning of rare materials. Their bot would log in, collect the material (I think it was some kind of crystal), and log out. Players who didn't have bots running never had a chance to get at the materials in question.
Glider presented a similar problem for WoW players - automation provides an edge. It isn't just skipping over the repetition. It is cheating the same way that aim-bots and wall-hacks are cheating.
That said, I'm not totally adverse to grinding... in certain things at least. So long as the task itself is relatively engaging I can put up with a lot of repetition. Especially if I can do something else at the same time.
I don't do a lot of grinds. They're not really my thing (I don't think). But I've come up with ways of making them work. One of the big social interactions for my guild is picking a materials target, then going out en-mass to grind that goal. Many hands lessen the toil and all that. And it turns the whole process of gathering materials to arm our people in to a fun, social event.
I hear you. There's nothing like a book. However, I'm also a fan of electronic text. Some reasons are...
I can pack a couple books in a easy-to-carry form factor. Even a single "pocket book" softcover is larger than my trusty 'ole PDA. And when I'm almost done with the book I'm reading, no problem, I have the other one (or several) loaded and ready to go.
I don't need a nightlight to read my book in bed. No problems with bad lighting. The PDA's backlight keeps everything nice and easy to see (if it does sacrifice my battery charge).
Easy to bookmark and annotate. I can do these things to my heart's content without worrying about losing a bookmark or damaging my book.
As for your comments...
I've read my electronic books on my back. I've never had to worry about an "optimum viewing angle". I have had to scurry for a charger to keep my PDA from shutting down - usually at night when I'm using that power-hungry backlight. I've never had the page turning or scrolling interupt my ability to become absorbed in a book.
Again - I'm a fan of having a library. I'm a fan of the tactile feel of a book. I enjoy sitting back with a book even if there are inconveniences in doing so. But I've also found that there are advantages to the electronic format as well. And if I had my way, every physical book I buy (and I'll continue to buy them) would come with an electronic copy to fill my digital library as well.
The kind of challenge that's fun to play through couldn't be done by a bot. On the other hand, if a task can be automated by a computer script, then it wasn't fun or skilful (and hence was a pointless task) to begin with.
I completely disagree. Aim-bots give you, the FPS player normally dependent entirely on your own hand-eye coordination and whatever experience you have with the digital ordinance of choice, the ability of perfect aim without developing all that skill required to have it on your own. Just because something can be automated, doesn't mean that aspect of the game should be avoided.
I should note that some of the more recent FPS games come with their own bots. You tell the server you set up that you want X bots with X-level "skill" and the bots run around shooting at you (and each other). And darned if sometimes I can't tell the difference between a real player and bot if I didn't know any better. That doesn't mean the game is any less fun because a bot can do it.
Let's look at Chess. There are chess programs out there that completely out-class me (not that I've ever claimed to be an accomplished player). That doesn't mean I can't sit back and enjoy a good game. And it doesn't negate the merrits of the game at all.
I'm not saying the grind is the pinnacle of game play. I certainly appreciate the view of folks who dislike it. Gawd knows I've seen some WoW grinds and opted against it. I've also found ways of making some of those grinds fun and accepted them as part of the game.
I should note that a lot of WoW grinds exist because players want to game the system. Some things are meant to pop up by simple luck. Some are supposed to show over the length of a "career". But players being players, they'll crunch the numbers and figure out how to force the issue by simply brute-forcing it. Which is fine if you can find a way to make that your thing. But that doesn't mean that every grind that exists in the game must be done by every player.
Having spent a lot of time in various beurocracies, I can attest that malice and stupidity work very well together. While one does not guarantee the other, they are often interlinked.
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The difference being that Woz actually MADE the stuff, Jobs managed folks who made stuff.
The "parking ticket" gambit seems pretty weak too if you look around and notice two things:
1. You are parked legally
2. Everybody else has these "tickets"
I disagree. It is simply a part of the gambit. Involving government induces either anger ("damn those bureaucratic idiots") or fear ("oh crap - not another bureaucratic nightmare"). Money reinforces it. Then immediate visual queues that you're in the right (other people also ticketed) seals the deal. You're darned well going to get the bottom of this / show those idiots. Damned them and their indecipherable techno gibberish. Hook... line... sinker.
Emotional slight of hand is the hallmark of a good con.
Did he have a fish on his head and a loaf of bread under one arm? That's how you know they're legit.
I knew something was fishy. I just didn't know it was Swedish fish-y.
But these days, given how much the world hates us (or at least the media pretends it does) for fixing their problems, maybe it's time we gave isolationism another chance.
U.S. can easily become self-sufficient and keep all its modern amenities, unlike many other countries that resent the U.S.
I can understand the attraction to the idea. Fine, if the World doesn't appreciate us, we'll just take our ball and go home. That'll show them.
But ultimately I doubt it is possible. We're in the world around us. Our culture is invasive. We have a taste for foreign trade with investments abroad and foreign investments at home. And if anything, these things will drive us to continue being out in the world and open to attack. Even in our Nation's youngest years, it found isolationism ended with the Barbary Pirates. I find it hard to believe that in a world that's gotten "smaller" that we'd be able to retreat to Fortress America in any meaningful way.
Are you implying that you have no respect for the USA? How can that be? That have nukes!
Well - that explains why Isreal is so well respected in the region.
Interesting point. Of course, in my state the text is pretty high contrast (dark blue on white). Hmmm. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if I can find out what the OCR error rate is for the tollroads; I have inside connections.
There was still a standing army with career military. That was the framework on which to hang the mass of drafted civilians to form a army at war.
Of course, that was a different era. Today's military is nothing like the conscripts of the past. And that was before WWII changed a lot of outlook towards whether isolationism is viable (its an ongoing debate throughout the centuries).
The problem is that any country so desperate for "respect" that seizes on nuclear armament as a road to that respect will likely get the same respect that you give a rabid dog. And that tends to be pretty hard on all parties involved.
Sure. And I see it used daily at the local county's tollroad. Works pretty well. But the toll lanes create a reasonably controlled environment and it still requires an occasional human to manually read a percentage of images. I'd be curious as to how ANPR handles things - I couldn't imagine the technology to be that different.
Which is why I won't bother with that game. :P
Don't get me wrong... there's plenty (I mean PLENTY) of stuff that doesn't work in Wine and probably never will. Bummer.
But as the Blizzard guys do work with the Wine folks to keep everything smooth - that works for me.
As someone playing WoW on my Linux box, I say "chase on!"
Right now the police can pull you over and ask for your license. Don't show it and you see the inside of a cell.
And while you're driving around your car has license plates on it which can be scanned from far further than RFID.
Asking to see the license still requires asking. It also requires driving for one to be (legally) provided. RFID allows for scanning a crowd and (potentially) getting a crowd of identities in less than a second.
OCR on license plates are very doable if you control the conditions. Make sure the vehicle is going the desired location and mount the camera in the perfect position. Back that up with occasional human to try and work out those cases where OCR fails. With RFID you put up antennas in a few strategic locations and you cover blocks of traffic without worrying about angles, lighting, and other bothersome conditions.
The potential for abuse is already there. RFID makes it more efficient.
I chuckled the first time. However, I find that its the sort of joke that gets stale. Maybe its got to do with dealing with the problem and these forms being more annoyance than help.
You did it for the lulz.
And for some reason, people find it funny every single time it gets posted. I suppose memes don't survive if someone doesn't find it new.
Yes, but if the player isn't interested in putting the necessary time and effort, shouldn't the player simply consider switching to another kind of game ?
Games are supposed to be fun. Not to be something you put efforts that you dislike into.
I completely agree. I believe that if you're cheating, you're not playing the game. And if you're not playing the game... then don't play the game.
However, there are folks out there who don't have that mind-set. Go to any forum dedicated to cheats for multi-player games and you'll see the attitude I've described.
I've yet to have apt install a completely new piece of software. The closest I've had is when dependencies have shifted to new libraries or different packaging and I need to remove the old to replace the new.
I've also had apt cheerfully recommend new software that I might consider installing along with my choices. But the big difference here is that its recommended and allowed me to say "why yes - that sounds great, I'll take that too, please."
You've done a great job at trying to pigeon-hole this as an issue on foreign nationals and immigration. But it's not. I'm sure you can find some xenophobes within the ranks of H1-B critics. But that doesn't mean everyone critical of the issue fears immigration.
To be sure, H1-B isn't about immigration. The H1-B visa is actually a non-immigration visa. It is entirely a temporary situation. If anything, it is anti-immigration.
It would be silly to automate your way through the fun part, but trying to eliminate a boring/repetitive/challenge-less part in order to skip ahead to the reward, I can understand that.
I can understand the appeal. I've played with automation aspects before. I used UOAssist back in the old UO days. And one of my favorite (defunct) addons of all time for WoW was Autotravel (you placed waypoints, named special waypoints, and could do things like "/at bank" to follow your waypoints to the bank). For someone who's grown up with computers, the desire to automate is natural.
Having said that - I also see where automation causes trouble. A friend of mine played Ashron's Call for quite awhile. One of the annoying aspects were players who had bots that timed the spawning of rare materials. Their bot would log in, collect the material (I think it was some kind of crystal), and log out. Players who didn't have bots running never had a chance to get at the materials in question.
Glider presented a similar problem for WoW players - automation provides an edge. It isn't just skipping over the repetition. It is cheating the same way that aim-bots and wall-hacks are cheating.
That said, I'm not totally adverse to grinding... in certain things at least. So long as the task itself is relatively engaging I can put up with a lot of repetition. Especially if I can do something else at the same time.
I don't do a lot of grinds. They're not really my thing (I don't think). But I've come up with ways of making them work. One of the big social interactions for my guild is picking a materials target, then going out en-mass to grind that goal. Many hands lessen the toil and all that. And it turns the whole process of gathering materials to arm our people in to a fun, social event.
I hear you. There's nothing like a book. However, I'm also a fan of electronic text. Some reasons are...
I can pack a couple books in a easy-to-carry form factor. Even a single "pocket book" softcover is larger than my trusty 'ole PDA. And when I'm almost done with the book I'm reading, no problem, I have the other one (or several) loaded and ready to go.
I don't need a nightlight to read my book in bed. No problems with bad lighting. The PDA's backlight keeps everything nice and easy to see (if it does sacrifice my battery charge).
Easy to bookmark and annotate. I can do these things to my heart's content without worrying about losing a bookmark or damaging my book.
As for your comments...
I've read my electronic books on my back. I've never had to worry about an "optimum viewing angle". I have had to scurry for a charger to keep my PDA from shutting down - usually at night when I'm using that power-hungry backlight. I've never had the page turning or scrolling interupt my ability to become absorbed in a book.
Again - I'm a fan of having a library. I'm a fan of the tactile feel of a book. I enjoy sitting back with a book even if there are inconveniences in doing so. But I've also found that there are advantages to the electronic format as well. And if I had my way, every physical book I buy (and I'll continue to buy them) would come with an electronic copy to fill my digital library as well.
How do you make a small fortune? Start with a large one.
The kind of challenge that's fun to play through couldn't be done by a bot. On the other hand, if a task can be automated by a computer script, then it wasn't fun or skilful (and hence was a pointless task) to begin with.
I completely disagree. Aim-bots give you, the FPS player normally dependent entirely on your own hand-eye coordination and whatever experience you have with the digital ordinance of choice, the ability of perfect aim without developing all that skill required to have it on your own. Just because something can be automated, doesn't mean that aspect of the game should be avoided.
I should note that some of the more recent FPS games come with their own bots. You tell the server you set up that you want X bots with X-level "skill" and the bots run around shooting at you (and each other). And darned if sometimes I can't tell the difference between a real player and bot if I didn't know any better. That doesn't mean the game is any less fun because a bot can do it.
Let's look at Chess. There are chess programs out there that completely out-class me (not that I've ever claimed to be an accomplished player). That doesn't mean I can't sit back and enjoy a good game. And it doesn't negate the merrits of the game at all.
I'm not saying the grind is the pinnacle of game play. I certainly appreciate the view of folks who dislike it. Gawd knows I've seen some WoW grinds and opted against it. I've also found ways of making some of those grinds fun and accepted them as part of the game.
I should note that a lot of WoW grinds exist because players want to game the system. Some things are meant to pop up by simple luck. Some are supposed to show over the length of a "career". But players being players, they'll crunch the numbers and figure out how to force the issue by simply brute-forcing it. Which is fine if you can find a way to make that your thing. But that doesn't mean that every grind that exists in the game must be done by every player.
Having spent a lot of time in various beurocracies, I can attest that malice and stupidity work very well together. While one does not guarantee the other, they are often interlinked.