Maybe I'm being stupid here, but...
What, exactly, is illegal about me dumping the ROM's from my old NES games, putting them all on a flash card with an emulator/menu program, and playing them on the GBA hardware (which I purchased legally)? Or did I miss the story about the overturning of Fair Use while I was on vacation?
I have to agree, the ability in Linux to get something working, which is not in the original set of drivers with the distro is no fun. It took me forever to get my network card running under RH 7.0, the last time I tried Linux. Worse yet, the Linux driver was on the disk which came with the card. I just had to sort out a few dependancies, which ate several hours, and left a bad taste in my mouth for Linux. After that was running, I had a nice Linux install, with Gnome running, and not much else to do with it. So I rebooted into Windows so that I could play some of the games I wanted to.
In my mind this is really where Linux has an uphill battle. Most game developers make their games for Windows, and maybe port it to Linux if they have nothing else to do. Why? Well, because most people run Windows, and the developers want to go after a large market. So, if I want to play the latest games, I have to run Windows. And since I, and most other people run Windows, the new games are made to run on Windows. Its a vicious cycle, which re-enforces both running Windows on the desktop, and companies making software for Windows. The thing Linux really needs to have happen, is for a couple of major companies to make software for Linux at the same time they are making the Windows version. Once that happenes, Linux may be able to get some traction on the desktop. Until then, the cycle above will keep Windows on the desktop.
Actually, the first responder was partly correct. I was talking about both, though the last time I tried an install of Linux was RH 7.0 (I think), and while it wasn't bad, it was still a bit confusing. Though, you are correct, in that the largest problem was in installing drivers/software. Now, part of this can be attributed to the fact that most manufacturers make stuff to work with Windows, at this point, and treat Linux as an afterthough. As Linux on the desktop grows, this will hopefully get better.
Before I get flamed into oblivion for the claim made above, keep in mind that it has been a while since I tried any form of Linux, so things may have gotten better. In fact, I'm building a machine right now to give Slackware 9.1 a go, and hope to have a better experience with it. My goal is, to run it as a mail/web/ftp/roger wilco server, and alternate between it an the Win2K server, which is doing the job at the moment. I really do want to see how they compare side by side.
I don't know much about OSX, other than the name really, but from what you are telling me, ya it sounds like it will be the direction for Linux to move, in order to see mainstream adoption.
Though, again, if you look at it, it is closer to doing some of the things that Windows creates problems with. Running an attachment with only a password entry, while far better than auto-execute, still means that it will be very easy for the user to run a virus. Even the social programing required won't change much. Right now the average outlook VB virus comes with an attachment, and usually one or two lines saying, "Run this, its cool!!!". And, of course, many people run it. With OSX, the email wouldn't change, and the same people are going to run it, and then type in their password to get it to run.
In the end, you will have people doing dumb things on computers, running odd attachments, etc. It may be better because of the lack of auto-run type stuff, but viruses will still happen.
One of the things the author touches on, but fails to grasp fully, is that, part of the reason Linux is not now, and won't be for some time, adopted by Joe Sixpack, is that it is a complex PITA to install and run stuff on. Average people like simple. They want to get an email from George down the hall, with an attachment, click on it and have it run. If this means that they have to login as root all the time, and just give everything execute permissions, they will. The author recognizes that most of the problems exist between the chair and the keyboard, but then gives some nebulous, hand wavy, excuse that, if the world ran Linux, people would be better educated. Bullshit. People are going to be just as lazy, and just as ignorant about computers as they are now, they are going to do those dumb things that get them in trouble now, no matter which OS they are running. Even the added complexity will give way eventually. Someone will realize that they can make money selling a version of Linux that is "easy to use". And people will buy it, because they don't want to deal with the hassle. While I realize this is anethma to the/. crowd, most people don't care about the ability to modify the kernel if they want to (they don't!). They just want that 'puter thingy to show them the screen saver their friend sent them, and if they have to choose between a really secure OS, and one that just does it, they will pick the one that just does it. They will install programs that allow them to just run executables in an email, hell most of them will probably install a mail client that automatically launches executables if they think it will make things even eaiser on them. Face it, most people are scared of computers, and if they have to do anything more complex than launch OE and solitare, they are lost, and the author expects them to change, why? Because the Linux advocates will teach them better, he says this while ignoring the fact that many of us who deal with Windows on a daily basis have been trying rather hard to get people to lock up their Windows boxes a little better, without any success. Heck, my own girlfriend bitches about Mozilla on my machine, because it actually does things like block cookies, pop-ups, and java-script, unless you tell it otherwise. And she's probably a bit better about computers than the average person. Sure, the viruses will be different if/when Linux takes over the desktop (and establishes its own monoculture, probably be either RH or Lindows), but there will always be a security hole in the chair/keyboard interface.
Its still simple enough to get a regionless DVD player in the US. Many fine sellers will sell you a fixed DVD player on Ebay, which is basically brand new (unpacked and powered up once or twice, to fix).
This is exactly what I did, I went to EBay and did a search, something like "region free DVD player", found a nice enough unit for a good price, and bought it. Now I can play my copy of Futurama Season 1, which I bought from the UK, before it was released in the US on DVD (or announced for that matter).
Yes, in fact, I have traveled a good bit. And you know what? Its nice, but it is still just another way to waste time. I'm an avid camper, I love getting out into the middle of nowhere and seeing it. I happen to have a trip to Kelso Dunes comming up, if you've not done the hike, I do recommend it. My point is that, in the end, its still all the same, its still all just a way to spend time enjoying yourself. Just because you don't understand how someone else can enjoy the way they spend their leisure time, doesn't mean you should belittle it. With all personal likes and dislikes, consider for a moment the question why? Why do you enjoy traveling, why do you enjoy drinking? Eventually, if you pursue the question you will be forced to answer, because I do. There is no universal way to determine this sort of thing, its all personal taste that we have each developed over the course of our lives. And, quite thankfully, everyone will have different tastes. As the old cliche goes, "Verity is the Spice of Life".
So much in the world to do and see, and all you want is to be entertained.
How exactly, is this different? Its still pointless entertainment. I assume you mean soemthing like going out and hiking, what do you have at the end of it? Dirty clothes. Going out traveling, what does that net you? A few spotty memories, and slides and pictures to annoy your friends and family with. Again, nothing worth mentioning.
In case you haven't realized it, very few forms of entertainment have any actual gain involved, they are simply a way to relieve stress, and pass time. If you don't enjoy something, that's fine, but please don't belittle it. Unless you spend 100% of your time either working, or doing only those things which further yourself, you really are just a hypocrite.
Now, do some people go overboard and play video games way too much, sure. Of course, how much is too much? Much harder question. But then, there are many people out there that are obsesive about their hobbies, not just gamers.
Sadly, yes I was. Those things were huge, bucket shaped, handle and all. I seem to recall that it held something like 2 2-liter bottles of soda, or there-abouts. It was great for those all weekend D&D sessions (which were wonderfully common in my highschool days). We would run down to the AM-PM and fill them up (for like a buck, I think) and take them back to my friend's home, and spend the weekend in caffinated hack and slash bliss.
Was that the one that looked like a bucket? Seriously, AM-PM had this disgustingly huge drink "The Monster" or something like that, which looked, of all things, like a bucket of soda. I would get one of those and drink it over a weekend, and be wired on caffine. Man, its amazing sometimes the things glutony in the US gives rise too.
The person you quoted there seems to have never studied Vietnam. If a large majority of a population wants to remove a technically superior invader, it is quite possible. It becomes a war of attrition, and considering that the same people that the current govenment would be killing are the same people that used to supply them all of their weapons, a revolt is very possible. Guns just make it eaiser.
If its that simple, you should have done a bit better job of this.
First off, democracy is, in its purest form, 'mob rule'. That's the whole point, and failing of, democracy. Its that the majority (the mob) decides what the rules are. This is also refered to as the 'Tyrany of the majority'. This is why the US is a Representative Democracy and not a pure democracy. Pure democracy is a great way to make the minority slaves. The idea behind the Representative part of our government is that, we elect someone, who is supposed to be more informed than the rest of us, to make informed decisions as to the direction of our country. That includes doing things which are unpopular with the majority. Of course, we pick these people by popular election, which means that we may not necessarilly get the most informed person representing us, which is why we are allowed to re-evaluate our choice every few years. And, in the case of a representative who is perceived to have really fucked up, we have recalls (see California).
You're right, this is simple high school civics stuff, been a while has it?
Sometimes, I wish they would. During one weekend this summer I and a few friends had a BBQ at a local park. And the entire time we were there, there was an ice cream truck sitting in the parking lot blaring that high pitched, poorly sythesized music. By the end of the day, I was getting to the point that I was considering ripping the speaker off the truck and beating the driver severly about the head and sholders with it. Now granted, the park is a public place, but what he was doing really seemed, to me, to verge on creating a public nusciance.
I view telemarketers in the same way, they are creating a public nusciance. Moreover they are doing it in my house, knowingly. The ice cream driver I can forgive, it was a public venue. But the telemarketer is doing it in my house. They know, when they place that call, that the phone isn someone's house is going to be ringing, in fact, that is the whole point, to get to people in their homes.
That is the great thing about this bill, it does not outlaw telemarketing, if anything it legitimizes it. This bill simply says that, I am now able to tell the telemarketers that I do not want them reaching into my home to distrub me. Its kinda like the Do Not Disturb sign on a hotel door, its a way of saying I don't want your services, please go away. This doesn't infringe on the rights of the telemarketers in any way, it is not stopping them from selling their wares, it simply lets me control whether or not they can sell their wares inside my house.
Game, movie, when it comes to the Final Fantasy series, is there really much difference? It seems that you spend more time watching melodramatic cut scenes than you do actually playing the game.
Even solar has problems with the environment. At Solar One (and presumably Solar Two, which used the same setup), there was a problem with birds flying into the mirrors at full speed, which tended to be a bit fatal for the bird.
Also, considering the amount of concentrated sunlight near those towers, I wonder how a bird fared if it flew through. It was probably like passing through a solar oven.
The thing that bothers me is, from reading the article, I didn't dee any reference to the program asking the user if they want to install it. Now, one would assume that the record companies are not stupid enough to simply install software without asking the user, but they might be. And if they do that, isn't that exactly like a virus? After all, I'm sure we all remember the attempts of the RIAA et al. and Senator Fritz Hollings (D-Disney), to pass laws that would have legalized the RIAA smoking your computer if they thought you might have been involved in copyright infringment. Anyone bought this CD yet and checked this out?
Unless you have an optical mouse, flip it over, twist open the ball cover and remove the ball and all the dirt, and other stuff we'll not examine closely, out. Put the ball back, and close the cover. You have now decrufted your mouse. The process is simlar for trackballs, though even optical trackballs collect cruft, though it doesn't affect performace in that case.
On a similar tangent, one thing that might be worth looking at is the license that most games have these day. I seem to recall that most of them state that, if you don't agree to the terms you should return the product to the retailer for a full refund. Could you then take back a game and claim that you don't agree to the terms of the license and want you money back? And, when the inevitable refusal comes, go back to the company that made the game and demand your money back? If they refuse, wouldn't it be a sort of breach of contract. Of course, IANAL, but I would think you would at least have some grounds for a small claims lawsuit.
I had a thought along similar lines to this once. Basically start up a non-profit organization that employed people to follow around every elected representative 24/7 with a video camera. The only time the camera would not be recording the assigned representative would be when that rep. is in a private location, e.g. their home. And even then, the camera would be recording the front of the house, waiting for people to come and go. The footage is then put up on the internet for anyone and everyone to review. Afterall, these are the rep's who are asking us to put up with being monitored, let's start out by testing the monitoring on them. Moreover, I would try and see about getting these sorts of cameras inside their offices, and in any meetings where they discus stuff that might affect us citizens. The govenment these days seems to have forgotten that it is supposed to be them serving the people, not the other way around. Of course, most people have lost sight of that too, sigh.
You want to go for funny. I work for a company that does physical security/access control systems. Card readers, hand readers, every thing from the stuff the military often puts in, to the type of badge those of you who are working are probably wearing. Now, one of our customers is a major airport (actually several are, but that's not important), and they were having problems with their access contol system, so I get picked to fly out and do something about it. So I get there, have the usual fun of sleeping in a hotel, driving a gutless rental car, and working on their system late at night. So several days pass and I get ready to fly home, from the exact same airport I had been working in, the one who's police chief I was now on a first name basis with (nice lady mind you, though very forceful; knew what she wanted and was going to get it). So one might think that they wouldn't pay me much mind.
So I get my ticket, and made a huge blunder, I asked for a bulkhead seat. They're nice becaue you usually have more legroom, and with a 34" inseam I like legroom. So I go to the first security checkpoint, present my ticket and expect the usual scan and pass. But no, I get the full search the bag, take off your shoes bit. Ok, fine, whatever, put shoes back on, continue through. So the plane finally rolls up to the gate (two hours late, and gate is a bit of an overstatement more like rollup stairway outside in the rain), and we get ready to board. Now I tend to hate jostling in crowds, so I hang back while everyone else fights to get to their assigned seat first. Finally, it thins out so I start working my way to the counter, again expecting the usual punch ticket, have a nice flight sir, get on the plane. Nope again, I'm asked to "please step over here, sir." (They do realize that I am as white as people come?) So I get to remove my shoes again, and unpack my bag.
Now, maybe its just me, but you would think that, given the fact that I had spent the last couple of days fixing this airports security system, screening the hell out of me at this point would be just a bit pointless. Na, better make sure that he's not a terrorist, he only has a thank you certficate from the Secret Service hanging in his cubicle for his work on a major project that was under their care. Sheesh...
By the way what's the difference between a monkey with a swollen ass and a woman with swollen tits?
If you haven't figured this one out yet, please, think of the children, and shoot yourself. The last thing we need is teenage boys getting hard-ons looking at monkeys, there's enough sick shit on the internet aleady.
On a more serious side, this type of thing really shouldn't be too suprising. Most advances we humans have made can be linked back to procreation, and the continuance of the species in some way. And usually the closer people are to us, the more importance we place upon them. Basically, the people with the money to fund this sort of research aren't going to be too interested in robots that help feed/heal someone they have never met/heard of. But if there is a robot that will increse their chance at procreating, or at least having sex, they'll pony up the money. Now eventually someone with a bit of an alturistic streak will find a way to spin-off this technology into something more helpful to humans as a whole, but it all starts with the guy with money who wants to get laid.
You are a fucking moron. Final Fantasy games aren't overrated, they're simply the best RPG's ever.
FF7 had crappy 3D graphics? Is that why _everyone's_ jaw was gaping when they first saw it? Is that why it took other consoles and the PC _YEARS_ before they had anything that looked as good?
Turn a little bit this way, I can almost feel the air comming off you fanboy.
The FF series is, at best, an ok RPG (a sad abuse of that term really). The stories are not at all inventive, the dialogue is terrible (though this may just be a problem with translation), and the worlds so badly conceived that I can't manage to maintain a state of suspended disbelief. As far as I have seen, they are the poster children for liner story lines. FF3 had a great example of this, you were talking to some camp of outlaws and they were asking for your help, if you said no the leader would respond "but you must" and ask again. He wasn't kidding, you were stuck if you didn't say yes eventually.
As for FF7's graphics, you must be kidding. The pre-rendered FMV's were nice, I'll grant, but the in game 3D was revolting. Not that I blame Squre too much for that, at that time the idea of 3D graphics was starting to hit its stride, and everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon. But the character models were just sad, even at the time, I would have sworn I could count the number of polygons used to create each character, without taking off my shoes. They would have done better by sticking with well drawn 2D sprites for the in game graphics, and leaving the 3D stuff to the pre-rendered scenes. If "everyone's" jaw was dropping (hardly, I know I'm not alone in my belief), they were being hoodwinked by the hype. As for the PC taking years to have anything that good, that's not too suprising, dedicated vs. non-dedicated hardware. And as for the other consoles, the PS was released in the middle of an upgrade cycle for Nintendo and Sega, their hardware was a few years old at that point, so this isn't suprising either.
Sorry I don't agree with you there, but FF7 sucked on nearly every count. But that is just my opinion, so YMMV.
I realize that its popular to pick on the Republicans at the moment, but this sort of redisticting happens every few years (I forget how many at the moment, and am to lazy to look it up for a/. post) Which ever set of aristocrats are in power at the time use this redistricting to help themselves (gee, suprise). This is a normal function of our federal govenment. Is it right, and/or benificial to us pesants? Probaly not, but please don't pretend its new, or one sided.
Move along nothing to see here...
It seems to me that just about every FF game has been way overhyped, at least the ones I have seen here in the US.
1 - The 8-bit FF on the NES, wasn't exactly revolutionary, it was just another swords and sorcery RPG, ala Ultima. Though, I don't recall much hype at the time, I may have just missed it.
2 - On the SNES brought us a lack of control over the party (ok, I could switch between the premade characters, bleh), and a melodramatic storyline, the goal of which seemed to revolve more about the main character trying to pick a girlfriend, than saving the world.
3 - Its now Swords, Sorcery, and Machine Guns, WTF? Didn't the game designer's mothers ever teach them not to bring a knife to a gun fight? Obviously not. The Esper system was interesting, look ma, now everyone's a mage. Oh, and we all can cast Ultima a couple times a battle, so the game is just now boring as hell. The story was, at least, better than 2. It had a rather trite bit of self discovery, but at least its not more of the "pick your girlfriend" crap from 2.
7 - Ok, we don't feel like inovating, so we are going to use some really bad 3D graphics and hype the game on pre-rendered cut-scenes. Just ignore the hand drawn, 2D, backgrounds that you are running around in. And once again, the game designers still think a sword is a good thing in a gun fight, but hey we all have a zillion HP, so that doesn't matter. Now, lets see we need a story, oh I know, "pick your girlfriend, oh and um, save that world thingy.", "Didn't we do this in 2?", "shh, just keep quite and no one will notice that this is a really bad rehash."
8 - Alright, alright, a sword in a gunfight might not be a great idea, so will give the main character a sword, no a gun, no a sword, no a gun, wait, its both! And people seemed to like that esper idea, so we'll extend that, but we can't make it simple, no it must be cumbersome and confusing.
Ok, I'll admit at this point my FF knowledge sort of runs dry. I watched my girlfriend play FF8 for a while, and realized that I didn't even want to bother. I've heard rumor that there was a 9 and even a 10, but I was so disappointed in the series that I haven't bothered. Something just feels wrong to me about a game that has to boast the amout of FMV's it has, they might as well tell me that the story is a bad retread of a bad retread, and that there will be little in the story that is refreashing and new, or that isn't so overly melodramatic as to be painful. Maybe its just me, but I don't want to worry about how this girl or that girl feels about my character, I just want to strap on a sword, grab my magic tome, and go off and save the world, the girls should just be window dressing on the side, to swoon over me as I slay the dragon, excepting those women who are helping slay the dragon, and no I don't care if they have to hots for another character. Moreover, what ever happened to allowing me to pick my party? Ok, so it doesn't work well in these interactive movies, but it works very well in a game, and I thought that's what I was buying.
Ok, I'll get off the soapbox now.
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Maybe I'm being stupid here, but...
What, exactly, is illegal about me dumping the ROM's from my old NES games, putting them all on a flash card with an emulator/menu program, and playing them on the GBA hardware (which I purchased legally)? Or did I miss the story about the overturning of Fair Use while I was on vacation?
I have to agree, the ability in Linux to get something working, which is not in the original set of drivers with the distro is no fun. It took me forever to get my network card running under RH 7.0, the last time I tried Linux. Worse yet, the Linux driver was on the disk which came with the card. I just had to sort out a few dependancies, which ate several hours, and left a bad taste in my mouth for Linux. After that was running, I had a nice Linux install, with Gnome running, and not much else to do with it. So I rebooted into Windows so that I could play some of the games I wanted to.
In my mind this is really where Linux has an uphill battle. Most game developers make their games for Windows, and maybe port it to Linux if they have nothing else to do. Why? Well, because most people run Windows, and the developers want to go after a large market. So, if I want to play the latest games, I have to run Windows. And since I, and most other people run Windows, the new games are made to run on Windows. Its a vicious cycle, which re-enforces both running Windows on the desktop, and companies making software for Windows. The thing Linux really needs to have happen, is for a couple of major companies to make software for Linux at the same time they are making the Windows version. Once that happenes, Linux may be able to get some traction on the desktop. Until then, the cycle above will keep Windows on the desktop.
Actually, the first responder was partly correct. I was talking about both, though the last time I tried an install of Linux was RH 7.0 (I think), and while it wasn't bad, it was still a bit confusing. Though, you are correct, in that the largest problem was in installing drivers/software. Now, part of this can be attributed to the fact that most manufacturers make stuff to work with Windows, at this point, and treat Linux as an afterthough. As Linux on the desktop grows, this will hopefully get better.
Before I get flamed into oblivion for the claim made above, keep in mind that it has been a while since I tried any form of Linux, so things may have gotten better. In fact, I'm building a machine right now to give Slackware 9.1 a go, and hope to have a better experience with it. My goal is, to run it as a mail/web/ftp/roger wilco server, and alternate between it an the Win2K server, which is doing the job at the moment. I really do want to see how they compare side by side.
I don't know much about OSX, other than the name really, but from what you are telling me, ya it sounds like it will be the direction for Linux to move, in order to see mainstream adoption.
Though, again, if you look at it, it is closer to doing some of the things that Windows creates problems with. Running an attachment with only a password entry, while far better than auto-execute, still means that it will be very easy for the user to run a virus. Even the social programing required won't change much. Right now the average outlook VB virus comes with an attachment, and usually one or two lines saying, "Run this, its cool!!!". And, of course, many people run it. With OSX, the email wouldn't change, and the same people are going to run it, and then type in their password to get it to run.
In the end, you will have people doing dumb things on computers, running odd attachments, etc. It may be better because of the lack of auto-run type stuff, but viruses will still happen.
One of the things the author touches on, but fails to grasp fully, is that, part of the reason Linux is not now, and won't be for some time, adopted by Joe Sixpack, is that it is a complex PITA to install and run stuff on. Average people like simple. They want to get an email from George down the hall, with an attachment, click on it and have it run. If this means that they have to login as root all the time, and just give everything execute permissions, they will. The author recognizes that most of the problems exist between the chair and the keyboard, but then gives some nebulous, hand wavy, excuse that, if the world ran Linux, people would be better educated. Bullshit. People are going to be just as lazy, and just as ignorant about computers as they are now, they are going to do those dumb things that get them in trouble now, no matter which OS they are running. Even the added complexity will give way eventually. Someone will realize that they can make money selling a version of Linux that is "easy to use". And people will buy it, because they don't want to deal with the hassle. While I realize this is anethma to the /. crowd, most people don't care about the ability to modify the kernel if they want to (they don't!). They just want that 'puter thingy to show them the screen saver their friend sent them, and if they have to choose between a really secure OS, and one that just does it, they will pick the one that just does it. They will install programs that allow them to just run executables in an email, hell most of them will probably install a mail client that automatically launches executables if they think it will make things even eaiser on them. Face it, most people are scared of computers, and if they have to do anything more complex than launch OE and solitare, they are lost, and the author expects them to change, why? Because the Linux advocates will teach them better, he says this while ignoring the fact that many of us who deal with Windows on a daily basis have been trying rather hard to get people to lock up their Windows boxes a little better, without any success. Heck, my own girlfriend bitches about Mozilla on my machine, because it actually does things like block cookies, pop-ups, and java-script, unless you tell it otherwise. And she's probably a bit better about computers than the average person. Sure, the viruses will be different if/when Linux takes over the desktop (and establishes its own monoculture, probably be either RH or Lindows), but there will always be a security hole in the chair/keyboard interface.
Its still simple enough to get a regionless DVD player in the US. Many fine sellers will sell you a fixed DVD player on Ebay, which is basically brand new (unpacked and powered up once or twice, to fix).
This is exactly what I did, I went to EBay and did a search, something like "region free DVD player", found a nice enough unit for a good price, and bought it. Now I can play my copy of Futurama Season 1, which I bought from the UK, before it was released in the US on DVD (or announced for that matter).
Yes, in fact, I have traveled a good bit. And you know what? Its nice, but it is still just another way to waste time. I'm an avid camper, I love getting out into the middle of nowhere and seeing it. I happen to have a trip to Kelso Dunes comming up, if you've not done the hike, I do recommend it. My point is that, in the end, its still all the same, its still all just a way to spend time enjoying yourself. Just because you don't understand how someone else can enjoy the way they spend their leisure time, doesn't mean you should belittle it. With all personal likes and dislikes, consider for a moment the question why? Why do you enjoy traveling, why do you enjoy drinking? Eventually, if you pursue the question you will be forced to answer, because I do. There is no universal way to determine this sort of thing, its all personal taste that we have each developed over the course of our lives. And, quite thankfully, everyone will have different tastes. As the old cliche goes, "Verity is the Spice of Life".
So much in the world to do and see, and all you want is to be entertained.
How exactly, is this different? Its still pointless entertainment. I assume you mean soemthing like going out and hiking, what do you have at the end of it? Dirty clothes. Going out traveling, what does that net you? A few spotty memories, and slides and pictures to annoy your friends and family with. Again, nothing worth mentioning.
In case you haven't realized it, very few forms of entertainment have any actual gain involved, they are simply a way to relieve stress, and pass time. If you don't enjoy something, that's fine, but please don't belittle it. Unless you spend 100% of your time either working, or doing only those things which further yourself, you really are just a hypocrite.
Now, do some people go overboard and play video games way too much, sure. Of course, how much is too much? Much harder question. But then, there are many people out there that are obsesive about their hobbies, not just gamers.
Sadly, yes I was. Those things were huge, bucket shaped, handle and all. I seem to recall that it held something like 2 2-liter bottles of soda, or there-abouts. It was great for those all weekend D&D sessions (which were wonderfully common in my highschool days). We would run down to the AM-PM and fill them up (for like a buck, I think) and take them back to my friend's home, and spend the weekend in caffinated hack and slash bliss.
Was that the one that looked like a bucket? Seriously, AM-PM had this disgustingly huge drink "The Monster" or something like that, which looked, of all things, like a bucket of soda. I would get one of those and drink it over a weekend, and be wired on caffine. Man, its amazing sometimes the things glutony in the US gives rise too.
The person you quoted there seems to have never studied Vietnam. If a large majority of a population wants to remove a technically superior invader, it is quite possible. It becomes a war of attrition, and considering that the same people that the current govenment would be killing are the same people that used to supply them all of their weapons, a revolt is very possible. Guns just make it eaiser.
If its that simple, you should have done a bit better job of this.
First off, democracy is, in its purest form, 'mob rule'. That's the whole point, and failing of, democracy. Its that the majority (the mob) decides what the rules are. This is also refered to as the 'Tyrany of the majority'. This is why the US is a Representative Democracy and not a pure democracy. Pure democracy is a great way to make the minority slaves. The idea behind the Representative part of our government is that, we elect someone, who is supposed to be more informed than the rest of us, to make informed decisions as to the direction of our country. That includes doing things which are unpopular with the majority. Of course, we pick these people by popular election, which means that we may not necessarilly get the most informed person representing us, which is why we are allowed to re-evaluate our choice every few years. And, in the case of a representative who is perceived to have really fucked up, we have recalls (see California).
You're right, this is simple high school civics stuff, been a while has it?
Sometimes, I wish they would. During one weekend this summer I and a few friends had a BBQ at a local park. And the entire time we were there, there was an ice cream truck sitting in the parking lot blaring that high pitched, poorly sythesized music. By the end of the day, I was getting to the point that I was considering ripping the speaker off the truck and beating the driver severly about the head and sholders with it. Now granted, the park is a public place, but what he was doing really seemed, to me, to verge on creating a public nusciance.
I view telemarketers in the same way, they are creating a public nusciance. Moreover they are doing it in my house, knowingly. The ice cream driver I can forgive, it was a public venue. But the telemarketer is doing it in my house. They know, when they place that call, that the phone isn someone's house is going to be ringing, in fact, that is the whole point, to get to people in their homes. That is the great thing about this bill, it does not outlaw telemarketing, if anything it legitimizes it. This bill simply says that, I am now able to tell the telemarketers that I do not want them reaching into my home to distrub me. Its kinda like the Do Not Disturb sign on a hotel door, its a way of saying I don't want your services, please go away. This doesn't infringe on the rights of the telemarketers in any way, it is not stopping them from selling their wares, it simply lets me control whether or not they can sell their wares inside my house.
Game, movie, when it comes to the Final Fantasy series, is there really much difference? It seems that you spend more time watching melodramatic cut scenes than you do actually playing the game.
Even solar has problems with the environment. At Solar One (and presumably Solar Two, which used the same setup), there was a problem with birds flying into the mirrors at full speed, which tended to be a bit fatal for the bird. Also, considering the amount of concentrated sunlight near those towers, I wonder how a bird fared if it flew through. It was probably like passing through a solar oven.
The thing that bothers me is, from reading the article, I didn't dee any reference to the program asking the user if they want to install it. Now, one would assume that the record companies are not stupid enough to simply install software without asking the user, but they might be. And if they do that, isn't that exactly like a virus? After all, I'm sure we all remember the attempts of the RIAA et al. and Senator Fritz Hollings (D-Disney), to pass laws that would have legalized the RIAA smoking your computer if they thought you might have been involved in copyright infringment. Anyone bought this CD yet and checked this out?
Unless you have an optical mouse, flip it over, twist open the ball cover and remove the ball and all the dirt, and other stuff we'll not examine closely, out. Put the ball back, and close the cover. You have now decrufted your mouse. The process is simlar for trackballs, though even optical trackballs collect cruft, though it doesn't affect performace in that case.
On a similar tangent, one thing that might be worth looking at is the license that most games have these day. I seem to recall that most of them state that, if you don't agree to the terms you should return the product to the retailer for a full refund. Could you then take back a game and claim that you don't agree to the terms of the license and want you money back? And, when the inevitable refusal comes, go back to the company that made the game and demand your money back? If they refuse, wouldn't it be a sort of breach of contract. Of course, IANAL, but I would think you would at least have some grounds for a small claims lawsuit.
I had a thought along similar lines to this once. Basically start up a non-profit organization that employed people to follow around every elected representative 24/7 with a video camera. The only time the camera would not be recording the assigned representative would be when that rep. is in a private location, e.g. their home. And even then, the camera would be recording the front of the house, waiting for people to come and go. The footage is then put up on the internet for anyone and everyone to review. Afterall, these are the rep's who are asking us to put up with being monitored, let's start out by testing the monitoring on them. Moreover, I would try and see about getting these sorts of cameras inside their offices, and in any meetings where they discus stuff that might affect us citizens. The govenment these days seems to have forgotten that it is supposed to be them serving the people, not the other way around. Of course, most people have lost sight of that too, sigh.
You want to go for funny. I work for a company that does physical security/access control systems. Card readers, hand readers, every thing from the stuff the military often puts in, to the type of badge those of you who are working are probably wearing. Now, one of our customers is a major airport (actually several are, but that's not important), and they were having problems with their access contol system, so I get picked to fly out and do something about it. So I get there, have the usual fun of sleeping in a hotel, driving a gutless rental car, and working on their system late at night. So several days pass and I get ready to fly home, from the exact same airport I had been working in, the one who's police chief I was now on a first name basis with (nice lady mind you, though very forceful; knew what she wanted and was going to get it). So one might think that they wouldn't pay me much mind.
So I get my ticket, and made a huge blunder, I asked for a bulkhead seat. They're nice becaue you usually have more legroom, and with a 34" inseam I like legroom. So I go to the first security checkpoint, present my ticket and expect the usual scan and pass. But no, I get the full search the bag, take off your shoes bit. Ok, fine, whatever, put shoes back on, continue through. So the plane finally rolls up to the gate (two hours late, and gate is a bit of an overstatement more like rollup stairway outside in the rain), and we get ready to board. Now I tend to hate jostling in crowds, so I hang back while everyone else fights to get to their assigned seat first. Finally, it thins out so I start working my way to the counter, again expecting the usual punch ticket, have a nice flight sir, get on the plane. Nope again, I'm asked to "please step over here, sir." (They do realize that I am as white as people come?) So I get to remove my shoes again, and unpack my bag.
Now, maybe its just me, but you would think that, given the fact that I had spent the last couple of days fixing this airports security system, screening the hell out of me at this point would be just a bit pointless. Na, better make sure that he's not a terrorist, he only has a thank you certficate from the Secret Service hanging in his cubicle for his work on a major project that was under their care. Sheesh...
By the way what's the difference between a monkey with a swollen ass and a woman with swollen tits?
If you haven't figured this one out yet, please, think of the children, and shoot yourself. The last thing we need is teenage boys getting hard-ons looking at monkeys, there's enough sick shit on the internet aleady.
On a more serious side, this type of thing really shouldn't be too suprising. Most advances we humans have made can be linked back to procreation, and the continuance of the species in some way. And usually the closer people are to us, the more importance we place upon them. Basically, the people with the money to fund this sort of research aren't going to be too interested in robots that help feed/heal someone they have never met/heard of. But if there is a robot that will increse their chance at procreating, or at least having sex, they'll pony up the money. Now eventually someone with a bit of an alturistic streak will find a way to spin-off this technology into something more helpful to humans as a whole, but it all starts with the guy with money who wants to get laid.
You are a fucking moron. Final Fantasy games aren't overrated, they're simply the best RPG's ever.
FF7 had crappy 3D graphics? Is that why _everyone's_ jaw was gaping when they first saw it? Is that why it took other consoles and the PC _YEARS_ before they had anything that looked as good?
Turn a little bit this way, I can almost feel the air comming off you fanboy.
The FF series is, at best, an ok RPG (a sad abuse of that term really). The stories are not at all inventive, the dialogue is terrible (though this may just be a problem with translation), and the worlds so badly conceived that I can't manage to maintain a state of suspended disbelief. As far as I have seen, they are the poster children for liner story lines. FF3 had a great example of this, you were talking to some camp of outlaws and they were asking for your help, if you said no the leader would respond "but you must" and ask again. He wasn't kidding, you were stuck if you didn't say yes eventually.
As for FF7's graphics, you must be kidding. The pre-rendered FMV's were nice, I'll grant, but the in game 3D was revolting. Not that I blame Squre too much for that, at that time the idea of 3D graphics was starting to hit its stride, and everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon. But the character models were just sad, even at the time, I would have sworn I could count the number of polygons used to create each character, without taking off my shoes. They would have done better by sticking with well drawn 2D sprites for the in game graphics, and leaving the 3D stuff to the pre-rendered scenes. If "everyone's" jaw was dropping (hardly, I know I'm not alone in my belief), they were being hoodwinked by the hype. As for the PC taking years to have anything that good, that's not too suprising, dedicated vs. non-dedicated hardware. And as for the other consoles, the PS was released in the middle of an upgrade cycle for Nintendo and Sega, their hardware was a few years old at that point, so this isn't suprising either.
Sorry I don't agree with you there, but FF7 sucked on nearly every count. But that is just my opinion, so YMMV.
I realize that its popular to pick on the Republicans at the moment, but this sort of redisticting happens every few years (I forget how many at the moment, and am to lazy to look it up for a /. post) Which ever set of aristocrats are in power at the time use this redistricting to help themselves (gee, suprise). This is a normal function of our federal govenment. Is it right, and/or benificial to us pesants? Probaly not, but please don't pretend its new, or one sided.
Move along nothing to see here...
Srory, its srot of tguoh tyrnig to mix up the ltters in a wrod, and slitl get the sliplneg rhgit.
It seems to me that just about every FF game has been way overhyped, at least the ones I have seen here in the US.
1 - The 8-bit FF on the NES, wasn't exactly revolutionary, it was just another swords and sorcery RPG, ala Ultima. Though, I don't recall much hype at the time, I may have just missed it.
2 - On the SNES brought us a lack of control over the party (ok, I could switch between the premade characters, bleh), and a melodramatic storyline, the goal of which seemed to revolve more about the main character trying to pick a girlfriend, than saving the world.
3 - Its now Swords, Sorcery, and Machine Guns, WTF? Didn't the game designer's mothers ever teach them not to bring a knife to a gun fight? Obviously not. The Esper system was interesting, look ma, now everyone's a mage. Oh, and we all can cast Ultima a couple times a battle, so the game is just now boring as hell. The story was, at least, better than 2. It had a rather trite bit of self discovery, but at least its not more of the "pick your girlfriend" crap from 2.
7 - Ok, we don't feel like inovating, so we are going to use some really bad 3D graphics and hype the game on pre-rendered cut-scenes. Just ignore the hand drawn, 2D, backgrounds that you are running around in. And once again, the game designers still think a sword is a good thing in a gun fight, but hey we all have a zillion HP, so that doesn't matter. Now, lets see we need a story, oh I know, "pick your girlfriend, oh and um, save that world thingy.", "Didn't we do this in 2?", "shh, just keep quite and no one will notice that this is a really bad rehash."
8 - Alright, alright, a sword in a gunfight might not be a great idea, so will give the main character a sword, no a gun, no a sword, no a gun, wait, its both! And people seemed to like that esper idea, so we'll extend that, but we can't make it simple, no it must be cumbersome and confusing.
Ok, I'll admit at this point my FF knowledge sort of runs dry. I watched my girlfriend play FF8 for a while, and realized that I didn't even want to bother. I've heard rumor that there was a 9 and even a 10, but I was so disappointed in the series that I haven't bothered. Something just feels wrong to me about a game that has to boast the amout of FMV's it has, they might as well tell me that the story is a bad retread of a bad retread, and that there will be little in the story that is refreashing and new, or that isn't so overly melodramatic as to be painful. Maybe its just me, but I don't want to worry about how this girl or that girl feels about my character, I just want to strap on a sword, grab my magic tome, and go off and save the world, the girls should just be window dressing on the side, to swoon over me as I slay the dragon, excepting those women who are helping slay the dragon, and no I don't care if they have to hots for another character. Moreover, what ever happened to allowing me to pick my party? Ok, so it doesn't work well in these interactive movies, but it works very well in a game, and I thought that's what I was buying.
Ok, I'll get off the soapbox now.