...Bethesda specializes in 'Roll' Playing, which is not much more then combat. Ala, Morrowind.
Role-Playing consists of having engaging stories, typically filled with engaging characters and well thought out plots.
Role-Playing games can easily become Roll Playing games, the opposite is not true about Roll playing games.
They better aim for at least a "M" rating...
on
Todd Howard on Fallout 3
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
...otherwise they may as well not even bother with crafting a Fallout game. Fallout is so much more then just a vague place in space and time.
The gore, the profanity, the illicit substances, the very mild pornographic elements are all that solidified the series into what it is.
Fallout without all of that would be like watching 'The Terminator' where the Cyborgs did nothing but help the humans and give them hugs when they feel sad, instead of being hell-bent on destroying humanity. (When I say that, I am talking about ALL the cyborgs being friendly to humans...)
Just look at what corporations do, Enron purposefully and very maliciously worked out deals where power plants would 'find reasons' to shut down, in order to drastically inflate the cost of energy. They played a short taped conversation proving this on NPR this morning.
I am not saying that all corporations are bad, it's just that when you mix utilities with greed, it is extremely easy for people of low moral fiber to put in place schemes like Enron executives did.
There are certain things that the government should own the rights to and then they should lease those rights out to corporations. That might not work perfectly either, but it might be a better middle ground then full government control or full corporate control.
...focus on one window environment to be able to make easy to install games.
The Loki installer could be used with any Window environment and from my experience with Loki games would run perfectly fine under several different Windowing Environments.
The important thing is to have a standard underlying Multi-media programming API for sound, graphics and what-not. Whether that should be one single monolithic Multimedia API, several Multimedia APIs covering various aspects or many Multimedia APIs that use a set of 'standard' calls to produce similar effects covering various aspects of Multimedia, remains to be seen.
Although, if you look at most modern Linux distros they will typically automagically configure the correct settings to run a large plethora of existing games for the platform.
The only 'problem' that exists with some games is the installation process. That was mostly take care of by Loki, but unfortunately their business model was unable to support their great work. The only other thing that could/should be looked at is getting Free/OSS game developers to consider creating easier to install 'final' versions at various milestones.
With the 'grass roots' game developers putting out excellent work and making it easy to get games rolling, it wouldn't be difficult to see a small and potentially profitable Linux game development market that may simply ignore the Windows and Mac markets.
Of course, that would mean good, quality and well-designed games would have to be developed and also that the Linux community would actually have to pay for those games.
Nobody ever said that life and business is supposed to be easy.
My statement wasn't necesarily clear enough. The portion regarding the MS Passport debacle clouded what I was attempting to get across.
What I am saying is that there should be no single algorithm for security across all networks. There should be no single system in place at every work, home or government location. There needs to be dozens upon dozens of different methods of creating a secure environment.
Some companies could use "USB Key Security" with any of a dozen different algorithms for producing the resulting key combinations. Other companies could use Thumbprints, still others could use some kind of Firewire key or some new 'key' system. Other places could stick with passwords and protect physical access to systems through physical security.
By having all of these different systems in place, it makes it all the much more difficult for would be data thieves to be able to walk into and out of wherever with whatever data they please.
It's not security through obscurity, it is security through hetergenous systems. If everyone uses the same thing, then one all-powerful crack could break into all systems. With everything being different, one all-powerful crack would only break the systems tht are vulnerable to it.
I do not understand why everyone is always so intent on hammering the idea of one platform, one vendor, one security system, one way of doing things.
...that once the Linux desktop is easier to use that LInux Gaming will 'take off'.
PC gaming 'Took Off' without PCs being easy/simple to use devices. Just remember back to the days of DOS with games like the original Wing Commander, not necesarily very easy to get running, when compared with installing and getting modern games to run under Windows.
Linux gaming shouldn't be an afterthought, it should be a current thought, going along with the development of an easy to use desktop operating system.
..should exist. There *MUST* be many differing vendors and many differing standards.
The lessons of Microsoft's Passport system crack/failures shouldn't be so easily forgotten. One system across the world makes ONE single point of failure.
If ever other corporation has one of several dozen different security/authentication systems, then most businesses would be protected, if one system was cracked.
...your OnStar system can also be tied into a in-car Cellphone.
The OnStar system, if you pay the monthly fees, can be used to make advanced reservations at restaurants, buy movie tickets, theatre tickets, airplane tickets and a host of other usefull features, all while you are NOT in any clear and present danger.
OnStar, it's more then what the commercials tell you... (What a slogan!)
...patented process by which a computer system is capable of correcting or at least warning the user of such systems that they are attempting to produce a series of grammatical and spelling errors that completely erodes the point of their intended statement in a publicly accessible forum composed of a series of threaded, hyperlinked statements born from a base point, normally called a story or editorial statment.
There's so many options and so many 'ways of doing things' with Linux and EVERYBODY knows they are right and everyone else is wrong or simply misguided...
Gentoo Linux users will proclaim that their distro is simply the best and the only option to go for. However, you still have a steep learning and a long setup time for building a system, which requires more then just passing knowledge of Linux, which isn't bad. It just isn't necesarily conducive to the 'standard' corporate environment. (My opinion may not match your own.)
Red Hat Linux is supported by a long standing team of Linux Engineers that has built itself around supporting the Enterprise computing environment, which makes it a good choice for such environments.
Mandrake Linux has made a name of itself for desktop use, mostly for consumer end-users, although they are working hard at making inroads to the corporate enterprise environment.
SuSe Linux/Novell is a long standing corporate computing environment corporation that should be able to provide support that equals or surpasses Red Hat. Of course, that would depend upon who you talk to.
Beyond that, there are tons of other players in the marketplace that will or won't be here in 6 months to a year.
Honestly, if I was setting up a Corporate Environment to create a standard setup across multiple servers, I would choose either Red Hat or SuSe/Novell. They are widely used distros, they both have easy to use tools, they both have certification programs, which could be used in order to certify that a support team, from the top Admin all the way down to the helpdesk jockey have a certain level of knowledge comensurate with their position as well as knowing the tools for that particular distro.
...take a introduction to drafting course with a hardcore lettering Nazi instructor. By the end of the class, if you actually care about the resulting grade, you will be able to scratch out quality letters at a rather decent rate of speed.
People remark about my hand lettering quite often, my handwriting (which is cursive for the uninitiated) on the other hand is so terrible that at times even I am unable to decipher my scratches.
...that many of these same people swear by MS Software and by way of the design of MSSQL in that is uses RPC even for local requests, will often configure MySQL to act like MSSQL, 'cause that is what they were done taught.
...small formfactor PCs may not be well advertised and sold by the larger PC Manufacturers. However, small form factor PCs have been available for a handful of years.
Some of these units are designed with 'portablity' in mind for use at LAN Parties. These compact systems often ave impressive stats for being as small as they are.
The only kind of 'paradigm shift' that could arise from the MacMini is the one regarding small form factor PCs now being on the radar for 'traditional' PC users/consumers.
It's not entirely innovative, it's not entirely ground breaking, unless you only see the world of Computers as being Apple Computers. (That's not meant to be a burn or a flamebait, it's the honest truth of the matter.)
All the MacMini really does is take small form factor PCs into a slightly smaller package then previously available and applies the Apple aestetics, internal hardware and Operating System to the design as well as brings such small units into the conscience of PC users.
...if there is something that we can control and a handful of other things we can't control then we should just drop the whole thing? That's not very good logic to apply to a situation.
If someone has inoperable cancer, we don't ignore the fact they have a hangnail. We take care of what we can, because that's what we do. "We" meaning humanity.
As for particulates, humanity has pushed more then enough particulates into the air through our industrial activities, which acts much like the particulates kicked into the air by volcanos. However, we have started to significantly decrease the emission of those particulates, but not CO2 and subequently have witnessed an increase in the rate of Global Warming.
We know the causes of the rise in Global Temperatures. That really isn't part of the debate. We have control over nee of the MAJOR Contributing factors of Global Warming, which is the production of CO2 and the destruction of CO2 cleansing forests. Both activities greatly increase the parts per million of CO2 in the air.
There are many factors that affect the temperature of the Earth. That is not in dispute any climate scientist will tell you that. There's nothing we can do about the increase or decrease of solar activity. What that scientist will also tell you is that CO2 will trap in heat and thus greatly increase the effect and speed of Global Warming.
Since it goes without saying that we do have the option of controlling our production of CO2 and do have technology available to remove CO2 from the air, we should do it.
Otherwise we may as well stop providing any other kind of medical care to someone that has been diagnosed with a fatal disease. What's the point in taking care of some medical condition we can control if the patient will succumb to something doctors can't control anyway? IN fact, since every human has been diagnosed with the eventually fatal disease of life, we may as well stop all medical care altogether.
...Global Warming is in very largely related to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. What is also known is that Human activities dump roughly 8 to 9 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.
The amount of CO2 put into the air by humans is by far the highest amount of CO2 put into the air by any other source and simply didn't exist prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Since the Industrial Revolution more and more CO2 finds its way into the atmoshpere every single year. At the same time, fewer and fewer plants are available to remove that CO2 from the atmoshphere, due in part to Rain Forest Deforrestation.
I would imagine that any human of average intellect would be capable of understanding with that, rather simplistic, bit of evidence that the world is heading towards a radically sped up Global Warming period that will result in drastic environmental changes and not for the better of humanity.
We, as a species, simply have nothing to lose by taking this seriously and have potentially everything to gain by acting upon the evidence pointing to CO2 production as being a source of Global Warming. To that end, we must cut down and nearly eliminate our CO2 production, stop the deforestation of the Rain Forests and seek other methods of removing CO2 from the air.
If that is difficult for you to understand, then understand that by researching and then implementing technology that not only cuts CO2 emissions, but also helps remove CO2 from the air, there will be another massive rise in the economy. Creating and building new technologies creates jobs, opportunities and economic boons.
In this case, it doesn't matter if people don't believe they need or should use such technology. Whether they like it or not, this technology will only be for the benefit of all humanity and help ensure that it is more likely that the human race will continue to exist, as we know it today.
Around the same time as those scientists were suggesting an ice age, there were other scientists that looked at all of the available data and saw that we were actually heading towards global warming. They stated, back in the 70's, that the effects of Global Warming would be more easily seen around the year 2000. Guess what? They were right.
Since 2000, we have seen stronger and more frequent hurricanes. We have seen fairly significant changes in weather patterns, bringing some colder weather to certain regions, but overall an increase in the average global temperature.
Those intellectuals that were talking about 2 billion people being a problem might not have been taking into account more modern food production efforts or the eventual creation of 'factory farming'. They might have also been thinking about other global resources that are starting to become more scarce.
The important thing to note is that there is no direct correlation between those intellectuals being wrong about the two billion people mark and the Global Warming theory supporting scientists. I mean, at one point, prominent scientists believed that the sound barrier couldn't be broken because one would hit an invisible wall of air and be smashed to bits against it. They were wrong too.
Y2K didn't matter, mostly due to the massive effort that took place to make certain that it wouldn't become a problem. Just because it was fixed before it became a very threatening issue, doesn't mean it was never going to be a problem.
Sometimes people are wrong. Other times they aren't. All that is known right now is that there is far more evidence supporting Global Warming then the naysayers have supporting the idea that Global Warming isn't happening. The Global Warming supporting scientific community have mountains of evidence, whereas the Anti-Global Warming side has a tiny amount of EASILY dismissable evidence, that is supported mostly by people that aren't scientists that study this issue.
...in US Schools is that the law is that the law is far worse then it actually is in practice.
Like I said, it's *mostly* a terrible evil law through the 'wonders' of US Propaganda. Which is little different then the propaganda foisted upon Chinese school children.
If all the world's governments or individuals teaching school could simply overcome the need to spout off only partially correct or completely incorrect propaganda about everyone else...
Well, let's just say the human species would likely be better off.
Re:Nothing to worry about there...
on
China Bans 50 Games
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Of course, it isn't really true that Chinese citizens are only allowed to have one child. For a short time, I dated a Chinese national who was enrolled in a US College.
She is the youngest child of 6 children. Her family spent most of its 'growing up years' in a farming community, although most of her brothers and sisters, as well as herself, have ended up obtaining rather advance college degrees.
I was a little taken aback when she said she had 5 brothers and sisters and I asked her about the one child law. She mentioned that wasn't necesarily true. It's encouraged, but not set in law where the government will break down your door for having more then one child and take you off to labor camps. That's mostly US propaganda.
Of course, she had several Chinese propagandist ideas about life in the US. It was pretty fun working through those things, while it lasted.
Re:My Rights? What's this got to do with...
on
China Bans 50 Games
·
· Score: 1
Sure, why not.
That's beside the point though. Slashdot has and likely always will be, very North American, (United States specifically) centric in their news reporting.
To be even more finely grained, Slashdot is more "Mid-West" then any other part of the US as well. As I understand it, most of the founding team members were born and raised in the Mid-West.
Anyway, now we are incredibly digressing from the topic.
Things in Europe should be "European Rights Online". Stories from China should be "Chinese Rights Online" and so on...
...the last I heard the Chinese government is still busy pretending that the HIV Virus doesn't exist. It's a great population control mechanism.
No matter where you go, people want to put parts of themselves into other people, as often as possible. If you have and keep a population largely uneducated about reproductive health and safety, it is entirely possible that a vast number of them will get infected.
Without treatment, it is likely that those infected people will die within ten years. Bam, there goes your population control problem.
My Rights? What's this got to do with...
on
China Bans 50 Games
·
· Score: 0, Troll
...my rights?
Shouldn't this be under "Chinese Dissident's Rights Online" or "Chinese Citizen Rights Online" or "Chinese Criminal Ring Rights Online"?
From some of the other comments I have read, it seems as though this could be something to do with battling piracy. I will have to read the article to find out. I still have no idea what this would have to do with my rights...
A 'Basic Home', in the United States, consists of the minimum amount of space the local zoning ordinances allow for the construction of a home. In many places, that means a house roughly around 700 Square Feet. (Give or take some Square Footage.)
Homes in that smallish size can be purchased for as low as $50k in many places. You might even find them priced even lower then that.
In many parts of the world, homes as luxurious as a 'Basic Home' of roughly 700 Sq. Ft. in the US, could be had for quite a bit less.
If you are talking between 250/400k homes you are talking about luxury homes that are nearing 2000 Square Feet or more. (Depending on the area.)
As for truly 'Basic Housing' one could, if they really weren't materialistic in the least, purchase a parcel of land for less then $10k and plop a 'Trailer Home' on that land for then then another $10k.
Currently, it simply isn't possible to test that hypothesis, since our civilization doesn't even exist beyond one planet in any recognizable form.
It would be great if our leadership would consider the fact that the future generations might be interested in experiencing what it could be like to have a nearly 100,000 year old civilization. If that happened, it is possible that we could reach that point to test that hypothesis.
Slashdot Mirror
Role-Playing consists of having engaging stories, typically filled with engaging characters and well thought out plots.
Role-Playing games can easily become Roll Playing games, the opposite is not true about Roll playing games.
The gore, the profanity, the illicit substances, the very mild pornographic elements are all that solidified the series into what it is.
Fallout without all of that would be like watching 'The Terminator' where the Cyborgs did nothing but help the humans and give them hugs when they feel sad, instead of being hell-bent on destroying humanity. (When I say that, I am talking about ALL the cyborgs being friendly to humans...)
Don't know what "SPECIAL" is, indeed.
If you know Fallout, you know SPECIAL.
You are a Philistine.
This is extremely true!
Just look at what corporations do, Enron purposefully and very maliciously worked out deals where power plants would 'find reasons' to shut down, in order to drastically inflate the cost of energy. They played a short taped conversation proving this on NPR this morning.
I am not saying that all corporations are bad, it's just that when you mix utilities with greed, it is extremely easy for people of low moral fiber to put in place schemes like Enron executives did.
There are certain things that the government should own the rights to and then they should lease those rights out to corporations. That might not work perfectly either, but it might be a better middle ground then full government control or full corporate control.
The Loki installer could be used with any Window environment and from my experience with Loki games would run perfectly fine under several different Windowing Environments.
The important thing is to have a standard underlying Multi-media programming API for sound, graphics and what-not. Whether that should be one single monolithic Multimedia API, several Multimedia APIs covering various aspects or many Multimedia APIs that use a set of 'standard' calls to produce similar effects covering various aspects of Multimedia, remains to be seen.
You are partially correct.
Although, if you look at most modern Linux distros they will typically automagically configure the correct settings to run a large plethora of existing games for the platform.
The only 'problem' that exists with some games is the installation process. That was mostly take care of by Loki, but unfortunately their business model was unable to support their great work. The only other thing that could/should be looked at is getting Free/OSS game developers to consider creating easier to install 'final' versions at various milestones.
With the 'grass roots' game developers putting out excellent work and making it easy to get games rolling, it wouldn't be difficult to see a small and potentially profitable Linux game development market that may simply ignore the Windows and Mac markets.
Of course, that would mean good, quality and well-designed games would have to be developed and also that the Linux community would actually have to pay for those games.
Nobody ever said that life and business is supposed to be easy.
My statement wasn't necesarily clear enough. The portion regarding the MS Passport debacle clouded what I was attempting to get across.
What I am saying is that there should be no single algorithm for security across all networks. There should be no single system in place at every work, home or government location. There needs to be dozens upon dozens of different methods of creating a secure environment.
Some companies could use "USB Key Security" with any of a dozen different algorithms for producing the resulting key combinations. Other companies could use Thumbprints, still others could use some kind of Firewire key or some new 'key' system. Other places could stick with passwords and protect physical access to systems through physical security.
By having all of these different systems in place, it makes it all the much more difficult for would be data thieves to be able to walk into and out of wherever with whatever data they please.
It's not security through obscurity, it is security through hetergenous systems. If everyone uses the same thing, then one all-powerful crack could break into all systems. With everything being different, one all-powerful crack would only break the systems tht are vulnerable to it.
I do not understand why everyone is always so intent on hammering the idea of one platform, one vendor, one security system, one way of doing things.
PC gaming 'Took Off' without PCs being easy/simple to use devices. Just remember back to the days of DOS with games like the original Wing Commander, not necesarily very easy to get running, when compared with installing and getting modern games to run under Windows.
Linux gaming shouldn't be an afterthought, it should be a current thought, going along with the development of an easy to use desktop operating system.
The lessons of Microsoft's Passport system crack/failures shouldn't be so easily forgotten. One system across the world makes ONE single point of failure.
If ever other corporation has one of several dozen different security/authentication systems, then most businesses would be protected, if one system was cracked.
The OnStar system, if you pay the monthly fees, can be used to make advanced reservations at restaurants, buy movie tickets, theatre tickets, airplane tickets and a host of other usefull features, all while you are NOT in any clear and present danger.
OnStar, it's more then what the commercials tell you... (What a slogan!)
There's so many options and so many 'ways of doing things' with Linux and EVERYBODY knows they are right and everyone else is wrong or simply misguided...
Gentoo Linux users will proclaim that their distro is simply the best and the only option to go for. However, you still have a steep learning and a long setup time for building a system, which requires more then just passing knowledge of Linux, which isn't bad. It just isn't necesarily conducive to the 'standard' corporate environment. (My opinion may not match your own.)
Red Hat Linux is supported by a long standing team of Linux Engineers that has built itself around supporting the Enterprise computing environment, which makes it a good choice for such environments.
Mandrake Linux has made a name of itself for desktop use, mostly for consumer end-users, although they are working hard at making inroads to the corporate enterprise environment.
SuSe Linux/Novell is a long standing corporate computing environment corporation that should be able to provide support that equals or surpasses Red Hat. Of course, that would depend upon who you talk to.
Beyond that, there are tons of other players in the marketplace that will or won't be here in 6 months to a year.
Honestly, if I was setting up a Corporate Environment to create a standard setup across multiple servers, I would choose either Red Hat or SuSe/Novell. They are widely used distros, they both have easy to use tools, they both have certification programs, which could be used in order to certify that a support team, from the top Admin all the way down to the helpdesk jockey have a certain level of knowledge comensurate with their position as well as knowing the tools for that particular distro.
That's just my opinion anyway.
People remark about my hand lettering quite often, my handwriting (which is cursive for the uninitiated) on the other hand is so terrible that at times even I am unable to decipher my scratches.
Some of these units are designed with 'portablity' in mind for use at LAN Parties. These compact systems often ave impressive stats for being as small as they are.
The only kind of 'paradigm shift' that could arise from the MacMini is the one regarding small form factor PCs now being on the radar for 'traditional' PC users/consumers.
It's not entirely innovative, it's not entirely ground breaking, unless you only see the world of Computers as being Apple Computers. (That's not meant to be a burn or a flamebait, it's the honest truth of the matter.)
All the MacMini really does is take small form factor PCs into a slightly smaller package then previously available and applies the Apple aestetics, internal hardware and Operating System to the design as well as brings such small units into the conscience of PC users.
If someone has inoperable cancer, we don't ignore the fact they have a hangnail. We take care of what we can, because that's what we do. "We" meaning humanity.
As for particulates, humanity has pushed more then enough particulates into the air through our industrial activities, which acts much like the particulates kicked into the air by volcanos. However, we have started to significantly decrease the emission of those particulates, but not CO2 and subequently have witnessed an increase in the rate of Global Warming.
We know the causes of the rise in Global Temperatures. That really isn't part of the debate. We have control over nee of the MAJOR Contributing factors of Global Warming, which is the production of CO2 and the destruction of CO2 cleansing forests. Both activities greatly increase the parts per million of CO2 in the air.
There are many factors that affect the temperature of the Earth. That is not in dispute any climate scientist will tell you that. There's nothing we can do about the increase or decrease of solar activity. What that scientist will also tell you is that CO2 will trap in heat and thus greatly increase the effect and speed of Global Warming.
Since it goes without saying that we do have the option of controlling our production of CO2 and do have technology available to remove CO2 from the air, we should do it.
Otherwise we may as well stop providing any other kind of medical care to someone that has been diagnosed with a fatal disease. What's the point in taking care of some medical condition we can control if the patient will succumb to something doctors can't control anyway? IN fact, since every human has been diagnosed with the eventually fatal disease of life, we may as well stop all medical care altogether.
The amount of CO2 put into the air by humans is by far the highest amount of CO2 put into the air by any other source and simply didn't exist prior to the Industrial Revolution.
Since the Industrial Revolution more and more CO2 finds its way into the atmoshpere every single year. At the same time, fewer and fewer plants are available to remove that CO2 from the atmoshphere, due in part to Rain Forest Deforrestation.
I would imagine that any human of average intellect would be capable of understanding with that, rather simplistic, bit of evidence that the world is heading towards a radically sped up Global Warming period that will result in drastic environmental changes and not for the better of humanity.
We, as a species, simply have nothing to lose by taking this seriously and have potentially everything to gain by acting upon the evidence pointing to CO2 production as being a source of Global Warming. To that end, we must cut down and nearly eliminate our CO2 production, stop the deforestation of the Rain Forests and seek other methods of removing CO2 from the air.
If that is difficult for you to understand, then understand that by researching and then implementing technology that not only cuts CO2 emissions, but also helps remove CO2 from the air, there will be another massive rise in the economy. Creating and building new technologies creates jobs, opportunities and economic boons.
In this case, it doesn't matter if people don't believe they need or should use such technology. Whether they like it or not, this technology will only be for the benefit of all humanity and help ensure that it is more likely that the human race will continue to exist, as we know it today.
Around the same time as those scientists were suggesting an ice age, there were other scientists that looked at all of the available data and saw that we were actually heading towards global warming. They stated, back in the 70's, that the effects of Global Warming would be more easily seen around the year 2000. Guess what? They were right.
Since 2000, we have seen stronger and more frequent hurricanes. We have seen fairly significant changes in weather patterns, bringing some colder weather to certain regions, but overall an increase in the average global temperature.
Those intellectuals that were talking about 2 billion people being a problem might not have been taking into account more modern food production efforts or the eventual creation of 'factory farming'. They might have also been thinking about other global resources that are starting to become more scarce.
The important thing to note is that there is no direct correlation between those intellectuals being wrong about the two billion people mark and the Global Warming theory supporting scientists. I mean, at one point, prominent scientists believed that the sound barrier couldn't be broken because one would hit an invisible wall of air and be smashed to bits against it. They were wrong too.
Y2K didn't matter, mostly due to the massive effort that took place to make certain that it wouldn't become a problem. Just because it was fixed before it became a very threatening issue, doesn't mean it was never going to be a problem.
Sometimes people are wrong. Other times they aren't. All that is known right now is that there is far more evidence supporting Global Warming then the naysayers have supporting the idea that Global Warming isn't happening. The Global Warming supporting scientific community have mountains of evidence, whereas the Anti-Global Warming side has a tiny amount of EASILY dismissable evidence, that is supported mostly by people that aren't scientists that study this issue.
Like I said, it's *mostly* a terrible evil law through the 'wonders' of US Propaganda. Which is little different then the propaganda foisted upon Chinese school children.
If all the world's governments or individuals teaching school could simply overcome the need to spout off only partially correct or completely incorrect propaganda about everyone else...
Well, let's just say the human species would likely be better off.
Of course, it isn't really true that Chinese citizens are only allowed to have one child. For a short time, I dated a Chinese national who was enrolled in a US College.
She is the youngest child of 6 children. Her family spent most of its 'growing up years' in a farming community, although most of her brothers and sisters, as well as herself, have ended up obtaining rather advance college degrees.
I was a little taken aback when she said she had 5 brothers and sisters and I asked her about the one child law. She mentioned that wasn't necesarily true. It's encouraged, but not set in law where the government will break down your door for having more then one child and take you off to labor camps. That's mostly US propaganda.
Of course, she had several Chinese propagandist ideas about life in the US. It was pretty fun working through those things, while it lasted.
Sure, why not.
That's beside the point though. Slashdot has and likely always will be, very North American, (United States specifically) centric in their news reporting.
To be even more finely grained, Slashdot is more "Mid-West" then any other part of the US as well. As I understand it, most of the founding team members were born and raised in the Mid-West.
Anyway, now we are incredibly digressing from the topic.
Things in Europe should be "European Rights Online". Stories from China should be "Chinese Rights Online" and so on...
No matter where you go, people want to put parts of themselves into other people, as often as possible. If you have and keep a population largely uneducated about reproductive health and safety, it is entirely possible that a vast number of them will get infected.
Without treatment, it is likely that those infected people will die within ten years. Bam, there goes your population control problem.
Shouldn't this be under "Chinese Dissident's Rights Online" or "Chinese Citizen Rights Online" or "Chinese Criminal Ring Rights Online"?
From some of the other comments I have read, it seems as though this could be something to do with battling piracy. I will have to read the article to find out. I still have no idea what this would have to do with my rights...
What planet do you live on?
A 'Basic Home', in the United States, consists of the minimum amount of space the local zoning ordinances allow for the construction of a home. In many places, that means a house roughly around 700 Square Feet. (Give or take some Square Footage.)
Homes in that smallish size can be purchased for as low as $50k in many places. You might even find them priced even lower then that.
In many parts of the world, homes as luxurious as a 'Basic Home' of roughly 700 Sq. Ft. in the US, could be had for quite a bit less.
If you are talking between 250/400k homes you are talking about luxury homes that are nearing 2000 Square Feet or more. (Depending on the area.)
As for truly 'Basic Housing' one could, if they really weren't materialistic in the least, purchase a parcel of land for less then $10k and plop a 'Trailer Home' on that land for then then another $10k.
Currently, it simply isn't possible to test that hypothesis, since our civilization doesn't even exist beyond one planet in any recognizable form.
It would be great if our leadership would consider the fact that the future generations might be interested in experiencing what it could be like to have a nearly 100,000 year old civilization. If that happened, it is possible that we could reach that point to test that hypothesis.