If this could prevent child-napping, yes I'd put one on my kids.
But it wouldn't. An RFID detector would be easy enough to buy or manufacture from parts you could get at Radioshack. If the tag is injected under the skin you'd use the detector to locate it, then cut it out.
Remember, it's not as if the kidnapper is at all concerned with the welfare of the child. Cutting out a small hunk of flesh isn't going to bother them. And a canny kidnapper would do something interesting with that hunk of flesh - like tape it to the underside of someone else's car so the police would waste time trying to locate and storm(trooper) the house of some innocent.
There is no upside to tagging kids in the crime prevention department. The only use that such a system has is to track the child itself, for the benefit of the parents (in terms of control) or the government (also in terms of control).
In any event, this link is fairly representative of the average reported usage statistics. Note that the site, like many others says that "It is quite common by many web stats report programs, not to detect new browsers like Opera and Netscape 6 or 7 from the web log" - which means that usage of Opera is most likely under-reported because folks like me masquerade as IE to get around sites that check for IE and refuse to display for any other browser.
In case you don't feel like hitting this site - or the many others that keep similar statistics - Opera stands at roughly 3.4% of the user base after a sharp usage increase over the last month, most likely due to government agencies recommending that people dump IE for other browsers. In comparison, Apple claims to have 2.8% of the personal computer market. This is especially significant when you consider that Opera had only a.65% market share less three years ago.
As with all web browser statistics you need to take them with a grain of salt; but because Opera users often mask themselves as IE users (for the reason listed above) in this case the grain will most likely result in underreporting, not overreporting.
How low does one's market penetration have to be before one is no longer considered a credible commercial competitor? I think Opera's definitely on the wrong side of that number, but could be convinced otherwise.
Apple has about the same market share in computers that Opera has in browsers - and for opera, we're talking about copies bought, rather than the freeware version like I'm using since there aren't any reliable statistics for the latter. So if you contend that Opera isn't a credible competitor, then by your definition neither is Apple.
Opera might have a small, even tiny percentage of the market. But last I checked it has the fastest-growing user base of any browser - and yes, that includes Mozilla/Firefox/whatever the hell they're calling it these days.
Bethesda doesn't seem to be the right choice for this. They've never done anything remotely close to Fallout, and while their Elder Scrolls series has always been ambitious the actual gameplay, story and mechanics leave a hell of a lot to be desired. To date they haven't put out anything like a finished, debugged game, nor have they bothered to patch obvious errors. With Morrowind, for example, players have developed patches for over *900* errors - many of them quest-breaking - and several THOUSAND spelling and grammar errors. Jesus H., even Microprose didn't suck this badly!
Morrowind is a game great in concept and very poor in execution. A magic system which obviously never left alpha, much less beta, and doesn't work at all properly; easily exploited alchemy and enchantment systems; a broken barter system; hackneyed combat which consists of click-click-clicking on the mouse key while your character inanely executes the same attack over and over again (even NWN does a much better job at combat animations); a story which at times is very original but all-too-often resembles a certain 'defeat the Dark Lord' tale we've all read before; and so on, and so forth.
Bethesda is the company of never-quite-realized potential and always-alpha games. Great concepts, lousy execution. Aside from the nice open-endedness of Morrowind - a great break from the boring 'load areas' of other games - about the only thing done to a polish was the landscape itself, along with the in-game books. Everything else left a hell of a lot to be desired.
Given Bethesda's track record I seriously doubt Fallout 3 will be anything like the Fallout 1 and 2, which were both great games. Even more so, I doubt they'll actually finish the game, and like all of their previous products will release it long before it's ready, with a rule system that makes little sense, is easily broken, and full of fun-killing exploits. I do think they'll release a Fallout version of the CS - if only so us players will do the patching for them.
It's too damned bad, really. This franchise should've gone to the guys who did Planescape: Torment (bailed and formed a company called Obsidian, I think?). They know how to tell a story, and to finish a game up proper. With Bethesda at the helm I think this pretty much spells the end of the Fallout series.
The metric system is used by the majority of scient communities all over the world people, learn to use it!!
That's what you get when you have concepts like 'sovereignty'. Fortunately for us we aren't part of the EU, will never be part of the EU, and will never be told by the EU what to do. If we want to keep our quirky, backwards system for day-to-day use, then who the hell are you to tell us otherwise?
It is intereasting how the main (and quite plausable) reason used by the USA authorities against going metric is due to the huge cost/effort which would be involved doing all the convertions.
No, the main reason the U.S. doesn't 'go metric' is because our government can't force us to do so and for the most part we, the people, don't want to. That's what's called a 'representative government', in case our friends on the other side of the pond have forgotten about such things in their rush to a new world order.
Not mainstream in America, no matter how much a bunch of socially-retarded, pasty-faced little losers might wish. Call them 'graphic novels' all you like, but at the end of the day they're still comic books, made for little kids and a fringe element that refuses to grow up.
The New World Order way of doing business, which goes something like this:
"We were on top in 20th century, and we're too lazy and/or stupid to come up with a new business model to replace our failing one. Besides which, somebody out there might do better than us and outcompete us, and we can't abide a *real* free market - we could lose against actual competition! So instead we're going to buy the legislators we need to artificially prop up that outdated and outmoded model that our entire business depends upon. If that infringes on liberties, or spits on the principles of capitalism, do you really think we give a shit? Now shut the fuck up, consumer proles, and think what you're told to think."
Congress is clearly for sale, and everything under the sun can be patented or copyrighted for near-eternity, squashing anything remotely derivative for all time (Disney will make sure of that, with future Mickey Mouse laws). Why bother with the effort of coming up with something new, especially if that means you might fail against savvier competition? Stasis is good, mmmkay, because stasis is the best chance an old-style company has of maintaining it's position. If stasis can be bought and the worthless consumer cowed into submission or brainwashed into thinking that new copyright laws are Holy Writ (and so many slashdotters have demonstrated the success of this tactic), then why not?
Maybe this *is* the new business model, where free market capitalism is something to crush at all costs. And with it the best chance for the creation of new technologies, new companies, and new challenges to stodgy old ways of thinking. All the better if you can get the more brain-dead consumer fucks to actually argue your case for you....
Dictatorships aren't the Evil Wizard, once killed doesn't mean there is an automatic Happy Ending (tm). That is just the begining of the story.
Well no shit, Sherlock. Thanks for explaining that one to me.
BTW, I'm an isolationist. I could give a rat's ass if the Chinese are suffering under a dictatorship. It's *their* problem, not mine. I think the same thing about Iraq and wish to god we'd never gone there. If they won't liberate themselves, then fuck 'em.
That doesn't prevent me from saying, as an observable fact and not just an opinion, that "dictatorships suck". Because they do. It's really that simple.
(3) Patriot act gives the police the same rights that they have for prosecuting drug crimes and organized crime but now for terrorism. I certainly wish we didn't have the Patriot act, but what are the alternatives?
How many 'terrorists' have been caught due to the passage of the Patriot Act? Could you repeat that please? Did I hear you say 'none'?
In any event, the Patriot Act isn't necessary for the investigation and prosecution of crimes. So-called acts of 'terrorism' aren't any different than any other crime on the books, nor should they be treated differently just because the motivations of the participants (lunacy, I think, being the prime factor) fall into a certain class of thought crime. Murder is still murder no matter what your reasons are for committing it, e.g., it's no more heinous to blow someone's head off for political or religious reasons than it is because you want their wallet. The end result is exactly the same: one headless victim.
New powers for law enforcement were unnecessary, and have only resulted in diminishing rights for *law-abiding Americans*. Funny how us law-abiding types get punished for the acts of criminals, don't you think?
In the McCarthy Era the great bug-a-boo was communism; later, 'The Enemy' was the Soviet Union; now, with no Soviet Union to blame anything on (indeed, with a Russia that seems bent on becoming even more capitalistic than America is), the government has invented 'The Terrorist'. Which is the best sort of enemy at all, since he can exist anywhere, at any time, disguised as anyone. Like the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism can last forever....
Free societies are judged by how well they protect the rights of the individual.... not how many they sacrifice 'for the greater good'
Unless you're one of the new pseudo-liberals in modern America. For them it's all about sacrificing the individual for the 'greater good'.
I also hear that same argument from quite a few Europeans, leading me to believe that 'socialism' and 'brainwashing' often go hand-in-hand. How any person could welcome self-enslavement so long as he has the satisfaction of knowing that his neighbor is enslaved as well is beyond me.
Once it becomes acceptable to sacrifice individual rights for the nebulous 'greater good' you're well on your way to a totalitarian hell. Insanely enough, it appears that a great many people find decision-making to troublesome to deal with, and would actively support having a nice little dictatorship take that burden from them.
The NSA is prevented from spying in America or on American citizens. This is quite different than the Chinese government.
Prevented by what? The law? Last year the FBI admitted to Congress that they authorized more than 2,000 illegal wiretaps. I don't remember any FBI agents or department heads being indicted, much less convicted, for these criminal acts.
The law often only seems to apply to civilians. So much for 'checks and balances' and 'all people are equal in the eyes of the law'.
Sounds like you were born into the least taxed, most government-hostile, richest society on earth... and deeply resent the fact that it's not even moreso.
And why shouldn't it be? To please pseudo-liberal, middle-class wannabe socialists who like to indulge in white guilt with their clueless, self-help-loving, crystal-power-worshipping friends?
Many of them (most probably at the local level) run very efficiently
You have got to be fucking kidding. Or on crack. Or both.
I've worked for government. Never once did I see anything close to 'efficiency'. What I did see was quite a bit of law-bending, more than a few instances of law-breaking, frequent and repeated attempts to mislead or outright lie to the public, and enormous amounts of money spent on what could only be called 'dick-measuring contests', often between two departments within the same governmental body. Not to mention payoffs and useless pork and 'cost overruns' and the gymnastics required to keep all the management around while firing - oh, excuse me, 'laying off' - the proles who actually do the work when budget cuts come around.
" He didn't invent the technology. More important, he saw its potential to transform the industry."
Right there, in black and white. Inventing the technology wasn't important; oh no, it's *hyping* the technology that's the real milestone here! Without the hype, the DVD technology might still exist but we could've missed out on all those billions - and then what use would the technology be?
The article writer should give up the pen and see if he can't get a job as fluffer for hollywood executive types. Surely he's got to be pretty damned good as swallowing cock by now.
Well, when all is said and done we can still nuke your sorry little socialist ass back into the stone age.
As for the EU, it's a failed attempt to replace the Soviet Union as the contender to America for global power, a pathetic exercise in trying to reclaim the lost glory of the centuries before the rise of America. The Europeans need to realize that their day of greatness has come and gone, and that they will never, ever recapture that day no matter how hard they try.
If anyone comes along to replace us, it sure as hell won't be Europe.
Why would anyone trust this guy? It's clear that he's as much a fanatic as Limbaugh, and any rationale Constitution-loving moderate knows that fanatics are dangerous scumbugs, the face of dull-minded, moronic evil, folks you never, ever turn your back on.
Of course, it could just be that Moore and Limbaugh are both con artists, milking their respective audiences for everything they're worth and laughing all the way to the bank. The hot air that both trade in is the sort of stuff that appeals to the vapidly stupid.
Slashdot Mirror
If this could prevent child-napping, yes I'd put one on my kids.
But it wouldn't. An RFID detector would be easy enough to buy or manufacture from parts you could get at Radioshack. If the tag is injected under the skin you'd use the detector to locate it, then cut it out.
Remember, it's not as if the kidnapper is at all concerned with the welfare of the child. Cutting out a small hunk of flesh isn't going to bother them. And a canny kidnapper would do something interesting with that hunk of flesh - like tape it to the underside of someone else's car so the police would waste time trying to locate and storm(trooper) the house of some innocent.
There is no upside to tagging kids in the crime prevention department. The only use that such a system has is to track the child itself, for the benefit of the parents (in terms of control) or the government (also in terms of control).
Max
Haven't heard of Google yet, have you?
.65% market share less three years ago.
In any event, this link is fairly representative of the average reported usage statistics. Note that the site, like many others says that "It is quite common by many web stats report programs, not to detect new browsers like Opera and Netscape 6 or 7 from the web log" - which means that usage of Opera is most likely under-reported because folks like me masquerade as IE to get around sites that check for IE and refuse to display for any other browser.
In case you don't feel like hitting this site - or the many others that keep similar statistics - Opera stands at roughly 3.4% of the user base after a sharp usage increase over the last month, most likely due to government agencies recommending that people dump IE for other browsers. In comparison, Apple claims to have 2.8% of the personal computer market. This is especially significant when you consider that Opera had only a
As with all web browser statistics you need to take them with a grain of salt; but because Opera users often mask themselves as IE users (for the reason listed above) in this case the grain will most likely result in underreporting, not overreporting.
Max
How low does one's market penetration have to be before one is no longer considered a credible commercial competitor? I think Opera's definitely on the wrong side of that number, but could be convinced otherwise.
Apple has about the same market share in computers that Opera has in browsers - and for opera, we're talking about copies bought, rather than the freeware version like I'm using since there aren't any reliable statistics for the latter. So if you contend that Opera isn't a credible competitor, then by your definition neither is Apple.
Opera might have a small, even tiny percentage of the market. But last I checked it has the fastest-growing user base of any browser - and yes, that includes Mozilla/Firefox/whatever the hell they're calling it these days.
Max
nd you think the lack of a commercial competitor to IE is meaningless?
Opera is a commercial competitor to IE, and a much better browser at that.
Max
I just wish that someone could train application developers to write code that runs correctly under non-admin accounts.
Oh, you mean like Linux developers have been doing, right from the get-go?
Max
Bethesda doesn't seem to be the right choice for this. They've never done anything remotely close to Fallout, and while their Elder Scrolls series has always been ambitious the actual gameplay, story and mechanics leave a hell of a lot to be desired. To date they haven't put out anything like a finished, debugged game, nor have they bothered to patch obvious errors. With Morrowind, for example, players have developed patches for over *900* errors - many of them quest-breaking - and several THOUSAND spelling and grammar errors. Jesus H., even Microprose didn't suck this badly!
Morrowind is a game great in concept and very poor in execution. A magic system which obviously never left alpha, much less beta, and doesn't work at all properly; easily exploited alchemy and enchantment systems; a broken barter system; hackneyed combat which consists of click-click-clicking on the mouse key while your character inanely executes the same attack over and over again (even NWN does a much better job at combat animations); a story which at times is very original but all-too-often resembles a certain 'defeat the Dark Lord' tale we've all read before; and so on, and so forth.
Bethesda is the company of never-quite-realized potential and always-alpha games. Great concepts, lousy execution. Aside from the nice open-endedness of Morrowind - a great break from the boring 'load areas' of other games - about the only thing done to a polish was the landscape itself, along with the in-game books. Everything else left a hell of a lot to be desired.
Given Bethesda's track record I seriously doubt Fallout 3 will be anything like the Fallout 1 and 2, which were both great games. Even more so, I doubt they'll actually finish the game, and like all of their previous products will release it long before it's ready, with a rule system that makes little sense, is easily broken, and full of fun-killing exploits. I do think they'll release a Fallout version of the CS - if only so us players will do the patching for them.
It's too damned bad, really. This franchise should've gone to the guys who did Planescape: Torment (bailed and formed a company called Obsidian, I think?). They know how to tell a story, and to finish a game up proper. With Bethesda at the helm I think this pretty much spells the end of the Fallout series.
Max
Rights to privacy, free speech and freedom of information are core values here.
Except fo the Europeans among us. They've given all of that up, apparently in exchange for the wonders of the metric system.
Max
I see the Euro-trolls are out in force. I guess 'freedom of speech' is also a dead concept in the EU.
Max
The metric system is used by the majority of scient communities all over the world people, learn to use it!!
That's what you get when you have concepts like 'sovereignty'. Fortunately for us we aren't part of the EU, will never be part of the EU, and will never be told by the EU what to do. If we want to keep our quirky, backwards system for day-to-day use, then who the hell are you to tell us otherwise?
Max
It is intereasting how the main (and quite plausable) reason used by the USA authorities against going metric is due to the huge cost/effort which would be involved doing all the convertions.
No, the main reason the U.S. doesn't 'go metric' is because our government can't force us to do so and for the most part we, the people, don't want to. That's what's called a 'representative government', in case our friends on the other side of the pond have forgotten about such things in their rush to a new world order.
Max
Yeah, and we all know there's hardly any of those around. Tiny fraction of the economy.
If Bush gets re-elected in November then I'm pretty sure you can count on this to be the case by 2008. Guess he's just thinking ahead on this one.
Max
Not mainstream in America, no matter how much a bunch of socially-retarded, pasty-faced little losers might wish. Call them 'graphic novels' all you like, but at the end of the day they're still comic books, made for little kids and a fringe element that refuses to grow up.
Max
Well hell, if your nearest neighbor was Australia you'd want high immigration standards, too.
Max
The New World Order way of doing business, which goes something like this:
"We were on top in 20th century, and we're too lazy and/or stupid to come up with a new business model to replace our failing one. Besides which, somebody out there might do better than us and outcompete us, and we can't abide a *real* free market - we could lose against actual competition! So instead we're going to buy the legislators we need to artificially prop up that outdated and outmoded model that our entire business depends upon. If that infringes on liberties, or spits on the principles of capitalism, do you really think we give a shit? Now shut the fuck up, consumer proles, and think what you're told to think."
Congress is clearly for sale, and everything under the sun can be patented or copyrighted for near-eternity, squashing anything remotely derivative for all time (Disney will make sure of that, with future Mickey Mouse laws). Why bother with the effort of coming up with something new, especially if that means you might fail against savvier competition? Stasis is good, mmmkay, because stasis is the best chance an old-style company has of maintaining it's position. If stasis can be bought and the worthless consumer cowed into submission or brainwashed into thinking that new copyright laws are Holy Writ (and so many slashdotters have demonstrated the success of this tactic), then why not?
Maybe this *is* the new business model, where free market capitalism is something to crush at all costs. And with it the best chance for the creation of new technologies, new companies, and new challenges to stodgy old ways of thinking. All the better if you can get the more brain-dead consumer fucks to actually argue your case for you....
Max
Dictatorships aren't the Evil Wizard, once killed doesn't mean there is an automatic Happy Ending (tm). That is just the begining of the story.
Well no shit, Sherlock. Thanks for explaining that one to me.
BTW, I'm an isolationist. I could give a rat's ass if the Chinese are suffering under a dictatorship. It's *their* problem, not mine. I think the same thing about Iraq and wish to god we'd never gone there. If they won't liberate themselves, then fuck 'em.
That doesn't prevent me from saying, as an observable fact and not just an opinion, that "dictatorships suck". Because they do. It's really that simple.
Max
(3) Patriot act gives the police the same rights that they have for prosecuting drug crimes and organized crime but now for terrorism. I certainly wish we didn't have the Patriot act, but what are the alternatives?
How many 'terrorists' have been caught due to the passage of the Patriot Act? Could you repeat that please? Did I hear you say 'none'?
In any event, the Patriot Act isn't necessary for the investigation and prosecution of crimes. So-called acts of 'terrorism' aren't any different than any other crime on the books, nor should they be treated differently just because the motivations of the participants (lunacy, I think, being the prime factor) fall into a certain class of thought crime. Murder is still murder no matter what your reasons are for committing it, e.g., it's no more heinous to blow someone's head off for political or religious reasons than it is because you want their wallet. The end result is exactly the same: one headless victim.
New powers for law enforcement were unnecessary, and have only resulted in diminishing rights for *law-abiding Americans*. Funny how us law-abiding types get punished for the acts of criminals, don't you think?
In the McCarthy Era the great bug-a-boo was communism; later, 'The Enemy' was the Soviet Union; now, with no Soviet Union to blame anything on (indeed, with a Russia that seems bent on becoming even more capitalistic than America is), the government has invented 'The Terrorist'. Which is the best sort of enemy at all, since he can exist anywhere, at any time, disguised as anyone. Like the War on Drugs, the War on Terrorism can last forever....
Max
Free societies are judged by how well they protect the rights of the individual.... not how many they sacrifice 'for the greater good'
Unless you're one of the new pseudo-liberals in modern America. For them it's all about sacrificing the individual for the 'greater good'.
I also hear that same argument from quite a few Europeans, leading me to believe that 'socialism' and 'brainwashing' often go hand-in-hand. How any person could welcome self-enslavement so long as he has the satisfaction of knowing that his neighbor is enslaved as well is beyond me.
Once it becomes acceptable to sacrifice individual rights for the nebulous 'greater good' you're well on your way to a totalitarian hell. Insanely enough, it appears that a great many people find decision-making to troublesome to deal with, and would actively support having a nice little dictatorship take that burden from them.
Max
Overall Americans don't usually understand the sociologics of dictatorships and non-democratic countries.
As in, "dictatorships suck"? That seems pretty self-evident to me. But then I'm an American, so what do I know?
Max
The NSA is prevented from spying in America or on American citizens. This is quite different than the Chinese government.
Prevented by what? The law? Last year the FBI admitted to Congress that they authorized more than 2,000 illegal wiretaps. I don't remember any FBI agents or department heads being indicted, much less convicted, for these criminal acts.
The law often only seems to apply to civilians. So much for 'checks and balances' and 'all people are equal in the eyes of the law'.
Max
Sounds like you were born into the least taxed, most government-hostile, richest society on earth... and deeply resent the fact that it's not even moreso.
And why shouldn't it be? To please pseudo-liberal, middle-class wannabe socialists who like to indulge in white guilt with their clueless, self-help-loving, crystal-power-worshipping friends?
Max
Many of them (most probably at the local level) run very efficiently
You have got to be fucking kidding. Or on crack. Or both.
I've worked for government. Never once did I see anything close to 'efficiency'. What I did see was quite a bit of law-bending, more than a few instances of law-breaking, frequent and repeated attempts to mislead or outright lie to the public, and enormous amounts of money spent on what could only be called 'dick-measuring contests', often between two departments within the same governmental body. Not to mention payoffs and useless pork and 'cost overruns' and the gymnastics required to keep all the management around while firing - oh, excuse me, 'laying off' - the proles who actually do the work when budget cuts come around.
Most government is horseshit.
Max
Vote for evil.
Well I would, if I thought Nader might get elected....
Max
" He didn't invent the technology. More important, he saw its potential to transform the industry."
Right there, in black and white. Inventing the technology wasn't important; oh no, it's *hyping* the technology that's the real milestone here! Without the hype, the DVD technology might still exist but we could've missed out on all those billions - and then what use would the technology be?
The article writer should give up the pen and see if he can't get a job as fluffer for hollywood executive types. Surely he's got to be pretty damned good as swallowing cock by now.
Max
Well, when all is said and done we can still nuke your sorry little socialist ass back into the stone age.
As for the EU, it's a failed attempt to replace the Soviet Union as the contender to America for global power, a pathetic exercise in trying to reclaim the lost glory of the centuries before the rise of America. The Europeans need to realize that their day of greatness has come and gone, and that they will never, ever recapture that day no matter how hard they try.
If anyone comes along to replace us, it sure as hell won't be Europe.
Max
Why would anyone trust this guy? It's clear that he's as much a fanatic as Limbaugh, and any rationale Constitution-loving moderate knows that fanatics are dangerous scumbugs, the face of dull-minded, moronic evil, folks you never, ever turn your back on.
Of course, it could just be that Moore and Limbaugh are both con artists, milking their respective audiences for everything they're worth and laughing all the way to the bank. The hot air that both trade in is the sort of stuff that appeals to the vapidly stupid.
Max