That is an excellent analogy. It would be interesting if the interpretation of a state's Good Samaritan law could be modified to account for things like this.
They play a heavily edited and dubbed Cowboy Bebop. It just isn't the same.
While you are correct that what is aired is edited and dubbed in English, your statement is misleading.
Ask most anime fans to list their favorite English dubs, and I guarantee that Cowboy Bebop will show up several times. Many have said that it's better than the Japanese version. I don't agree with that, but I can see why it's believed to be.
I can not recall CN ever allowing one of their programs to display cigarette smoking, gunfire with actual bloody results, a level of swearing beyond "golly-gee!," repeated and quite visible drug references, etc. While there were edits and completely cut episodes, what was left on the air represents a monumental step in the right direction for adult-oriented animation on television. And to top it all off, they are airing the cut episodes during the re-runs to make up for the knee-jerk reaction to the content the cut episodes had in the light of 9/11.
Re:OK, let's kill soldiers instead.
on
The Drone War
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· Score: 1
The problem is, without any moral cost of war, what's to stop it? We can go to war without stopping or thinking.
The economic costs of funding it. Regardless of what some may think, thiswarain'tcheap. Those missles our fighters are using cost thousands each. The staggering amount of fuel used has to be paid for. The costs of shipping even the most rudimentary forces and supplies overseas (especially to a location as remote and inhospitable as Afghanistan) are enormous. Don't forget the naval ships repositioned in the Persian Gulf and the sorties flown every day. Each person serving in the military must be paid, fed, and housed. Even limited wars like this are tremendously expensive. However, I understand your point about political pressure at home and I agree it plays an important part as well.
Quoting from the news piece: In December, Java was more popular than.Net for building Web services, according to a ZDNet UK poll, but weeks later the position had dramatically reversed; investigation revealed just what lengths Microsoft will go to to promote its products.
...by the time the poll closed, on 5 January, the position had dramatically changed, with three quarters of voters claiming to be implementing.Net. This apparent sudden change of heart over the Christmas period appears to be the result of a concerted campaign within Microsoft.
ZDNet UK logs reveal rather obvious vote rigging, and prove that it originated from within Microsoft...
This is not the first time Microsoft has been caught using dubious practices.
This is hardly a spin-a-licious news article. The bulk of the piece is devoted to explaining the background and detailing some of the things they uncovered. The editorializing you want is here in Slashdot and places like The Register.
I work for a school board association and handle unemployment compensation data for them. There are still many school districts out there that use those Imation tapes. We've been banging the, "Get on the Net, dammit!" drum for a while, but holdouts continue to remain.
That is based on the assumption that the programmers want to create maximum-quality software. That's no way to sell software. If you sell something that works, you don't get repeat sales.
I am no programmer, nor am I a salesperson. But I would think that the word-of-mouth praise and the critical acclaim "maxium-quality software" would recieve would be far more beneficial to the business than sending out lame, buggy software that requires constant pricey upgrades. And before a wise-ass says, "MICROSOFT!," look at the sheer variety of software it sells. It can afford to make less-than-stellar software because it's other lines of business can subsidize the sales that are lost to pissed-off customers who only buy a handful of their products.
I'm assuming you are being sarcastic with that, in which case, label me nit-picky.:)
From the link and posted by Benjamin LaHaise: Face it, the only people trying to confuse things are the disk vendors.
Is it worth recasting the general public's idea about what these "standard" units are? Especially if it's for the sake of being accurate in an instance where it doesn't matter to the consumer? My dad doesn't give a damn exactly how much RAM or hard disk space he has, and neither do I. As long as he and I know the rough number, there isn't a problem.
I may very well get flamed for saying this on slashdot, especially this thread, but I NEVER PLAYED a single FF game, NEVER.
Which FF is the BEST?
First off all, I have only played FFI (US NES release) and FF Tactics. I've watched my friends play FFVII and FFIX. Final Fantasy Tactics is by far my favorite.
The plot can only be described as epic. It leans more into intrastate and intraregional politics, but the plotline is very well-written and paced. There are few funny moments. It's a pretty serious story. I don't know much about this in other games these days, but when well-known characters die, especially in unexpected ways, you sit up and pay more attention. The characters themselves are the expected typecast heroes...but they aren't stale. The minor dialogue screwups in the translation fix that.:)
The battle system is also one of my favorites, almost as good as Secret of Mana's. It takes the tradional Job classes, adds a few, and as you gain levels in each class, you can select abilities from each class and "equip" them. This way, your mages don't have to be wussies in physical combat. They might even last a round or two. *grin* Everyone has a Zodiac symbol (Cancer, Aries, etc) which if exploited correctly, can result in higher damage and hit rates. Combine this with manipulating and taking advantage of the Faith and Brave attributes. There are a ton of items to equip, and the best are stashed away in some very tough places. The menu system is straightforward and quick to learn and use. The actual battle locations are on contoured terrain there the environmental context of the character can make a difference in attacking or defending. It's more of a chess board kind of battle than the "bad guy(s) in the center, we attack all at once from the front" FF stereotype.
The music is absolutely awesome. Some very inspired orchestral pieces that only get old after the 3rd or 4th replay. j/k Really, the music is great. My friends sure did get sick of the Formation screen music though. I have the BGM soundtrack 2-disc CD set and listen to it often. The sound effects are a curious mix of modern synth and old NES analogue sounds.
The graphics are quite good for it's time. They weren't there to dazzle, but to keep yor attention focused on the battle. The magics are animated with a lean towards minimalism (except for a few like Meteor, the lvl 4 spells, and the Summons, of course). There are cut scenes, but they're animated the same way the battles are.
I've played FFT many times all the way through over the last two years. I've never gotten tired of it. I have no idea how long it takes to beat it, but if I sit down and spend a few hours each day and not fight a ton of "power up" battles, I bet I could beat it in a week or two. Note that you can easily spend a half hour on a single battle. It may be because the fight is hard, or you may want to drag it out as long as possible in order to level up faster. You can set yourself a leisurely pace and not worry about it...although the plot's twists may take a refresher to get back into. A lot happens as the game progresses.
Essentially, I love FFT because it is so different from the other FF games out there. No, I haven't played any of the recent releases. But with the AD&D style statistics, the logical progression of the Job classes, the chess-like way the battles are fought, the depth one can take in character modification, and the seriousness of the story all make FFT into one of my favorite games. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to kick Gafgarian's ass on the other side of that castle wall again.
The flaws,
discovered five weeks ago by independent security researchers, threatened to undermine widespread adoption of Microsoft's latest Windows software, which many hope will be an economic catalyst for the sagging technology industry.
And they released a fix for the first time today??? Was the hole so bad that it required that much time to fix?
Re:How Does Microsoft Expect to Stay in Business?
on
WinXP Security Flaw
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· Score: 1
I'd call it customer inertia. Or a fear of trying new things out. Or a desire to stick with "something that works...sort of."
Re:A need for Distributed Content Storage
on
Adcritic Shuts Down
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· Score: 1
Ideally, the vision would be something like the seti@home model: download a little screensaver to your computer. You configure how much disk space you want to allocate for the program, and then you walk away. The server on your computer registers itself with a central broker, and starts receiving data fragments to cache.
But wouldn't this expose hundreds and hundreds of unsuspecting people to various lawsuits from copyright holders and such? They'd have little to no idea what files would be sitting on their drive and I'm certain some lawyer desperately searching for a way to justify his existence would love arguing in a courtroom about how you participated in a "wide-ranging consipiracy to pirate and steal from legitimate copyright owners" or something similiarly exaggerated.
Apparently, this NEO4 chip allows regionless DVD playback and disables MACROVISION, something that I value far more than the CDR game playback.
I withhold judgement until I PLAY it...
on
XBox Released
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· Score: 4, Informative
I own a PS2 and am quite happy with it. However, I plan on keeping an open mind about the Xbox and the GameCube. Anyone else remember the damning the SNES got when it first came out? And how popular did it get?
What I find interesting is that I first heard about the crashes on 9/11 through office word of mouth...just like this current one. "Did you hear? There was another crash, this time in Queens." Eh? Then the scramble to find a news website that will hold up. And once again, I had to turn to/.
Re:Command Line still best for file manipulation
on
MS DOS: A Eulogy
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· Score: 1
Try doing any complex file selection with a GUI without having to individually go through and click each wanted file. Ugh!
I can only see this as being a big distinction when working with multiple folders and/or multiple disks, because the time difference can't be that noticable. Not when you make Windows show the file extensions, use easily identifiable icons, order by file type/date/size, use Shift + click + drag or Control + click......hmmm......maybe I was wrong.:)
Seriously, for average users who have a handful of "data" folders, using the GUI is much easier than remembering/looking up commands and their arguements.
One could say that the "useful" job he serves is to draw attention to something that a lot of people (it seems) think needs more attention. For reference, just read all the complaints in this thread about poor error-handling. Now that he's Media, he can't REALLY be expected to be concretely useful, right?;)
My parents were equally fearfull of screwing things up on their Apple IIc before they purchased the IBM Aptiva replacement. They were fearfull of screwing things up when they made the move from Win 3.11 to Win 95. They were fearfull when they bought their most recent PC with 98 on it. It was this technophobia that got me interested in computers to begin with...I was forced to do all the grunt work with the PCs in my house. It goes without saying they refuse to sit back and take a calmer look at things while they cling to the "OH MY GOD IT'S A COMPUTER AND I HAVE NO WAY TO UNDERSTAND IT!!" mentality.
But I think your point that your grandmother was afraid is moot because the jump from the previous OS to 95 was a big one for most people. I consider myself a borderline geek, yet I have no *nix experience and if you dropped me in front of a CLI with a handful of those cryptic commands, it would take me quite a while to get the hang of it. It's about transferring your knowledge from one system to another.
I agree. A true monopoly could charge whatever it wanted for it's products. If Microsoft was a true monopoly, then it could charge $500 for the upgrade version of Windows XP. But it can't because it knows people would flock to Apple or Linux to escape the prices.
Dictionary.com's definition of monopoly says it all: "A right granted by a government giving exclusive control over a specified commercial activity to a single party."
Under the SSSCA, it would be "unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies."
Do these people have any idea how much it would cost to replace all these wonderfully vague "interactive digital devices" in order to make them compliant? Telephones, keyboards, remote controls, speakers, hearing aids, car stereos, printers, wristwatches, etc etc. What lunacy.
How would you calculate the damages to your computer anyway? To be honest, if someone stealthily erased 50 MP3s I wouldn't notice it until my playlist randomly got to those songs, and in Winamp, it just skips over missing files. I'd never know until the one day a week or so down the road when I wanted to hear that song or this sing and they couldn't be found. If those files were ones that I ripped and encoded legally myself, then the actual money lost is insignificant/nonexistant...of course the loss of privacy and the time isn't. Of those files that I didn't acquire legally...what kind of damages would that create? Basically, what financial damages would this plan inflict upon us?
The RIAA's interest in the USA Act, an anti-terrorism bill that the Senate and the House approved last week, grew out of an obscure part of it called section 815. Called the "Deterrence and Prevention of Cyberterrorism" section, it says that anyone who breaks into computers and causes damage "aggregating at least $5,000 in value" in a one-year period would be committing a crime.
If the current version of the USA Act becomes law, the RIAA believes, it could outlaw attempts by copyright holders to break into and disable pirate FTP or websites or peer-to-peer networks. Because the bill covers aggregate damage, it could bar anti-piracy efforts that cause little harm to individual users, but meet the $5,000 threshold when combined.
I'd call this "circumventing" wouldn't you? Those intrusive bastards want carte blanche to do whatever they want, while ordinary people get screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
That is an excellent analogy. It would be interesting if the interpretation of a state's Good Samaritan law could be modified to account for things like this.
They play a heavily edited and dubbed Cowboy Bebop. It just isn't the same.
While you are correct that what is aired is edited and dubbed in English, your statement is misleading.
Ask most anime fans to list their favorite English dubs, and I guarantee that Cowboy Bebop will show up several times. Many have said that it's better than the Japanese version. I don't agree with that, but I can see why it's believed to be.
I can not recall CN ever allowing one of their programs to display cigarette smoking, gunfire with actual bloody results, a level of swearing beyond "golly-gee!," repeated and quite visible drug references, etc. While there were edits and completely cut episodes, what was left on the air represents a monumental step in the right direction for adult-oriented animation on television. And to top it all off, they are airing the cut episodes during the re-runs to make up for the knee-jerk reaction to the content the cut episodes had in the light of 9/11.
I would start with The Antitrust Terrible 10: Why the Most Reviled "Anti-competitive" Business Practices Can Benefit Consumers in the New Economy and The Government's War on Mergers: The Fatal Conceit of Antitrust Policy, because it is a common misconception that antitrust is even needed. More analysis is found here, here, and these two links. In short, antitrust and monopoly-busting tactics do more damage than good.
The problem is, without any moral cost of war, what's to stop it? We can go to war without stopping or thinking.
The economic costs of funding it. Regardless of what some may think, this war ain't cheap. Those missles our fighters are using cost thousands each. The staggering amount of fuel used has to be paid for. The costs of shipping even the most rudimentary forces and supplies overseas (especially to a location as remote and inhospitable as Afghanistan) are enormous. Don't forget the naval ships repositioned in the Persian Gulf and the sorties flown every day. Each person serving in the military must be paid, fed, and housed. Even limited wars like this are tremendously expensive. However, I understand your point about political pressure at home and I agree it plays an important part as well.
Quoting from the news piece: .Net for building Web services, according to a ZDNet UK poll, but weeks later the position had dramatically reversed; investigation revealed just what lengths Microsoft will go to to promote its products.
...by the time the poll closed, on 5 January, the position had dramatically changed, with three quarters of voters claiming to be implementing .Net. This apparent sudden change of heart over the Christmas period appears to be the result of a concerted campaign within Microsoft.
In December, Java was more popular than
ZDNet UK logs reveal rather obvious vote rigging, and prove that it originated from within Microsoft...
This is not the first time Microsoft has been caught using dubious practices.
This is hardly a spin-a-licious news article. The bulk of the piece is devoted to explaining the background and detailing some of the things they uncovered. The editorializing you want is here in Slashdot and places like The Register.
I work for a school board association and handle unemployment compensation data for them. There are still many school districts out there that use those Imation tapes. We've been banging the, "Get on the Net, dammit!" drum for a while, but holdouts continue to remain.
Apparently, eMag has a 9-track retirement program for it's customers to use. Let's hope nothing important gets lost in the process.
That is based on the assumption that the programmers want to create maximum-quality software. That's no way to sell software. If you sell something that works, you don't get repeat sales.
:)
I am no programmer, nor am I a salesperson. But I would think that the word-of-mouth praise and the critical acclaim "maxium-quality software" would recieve would be far more beneficial to the business than sending out lame, buggy software that requires constant pricey upgrades. And before a wise-ass says, "MICROSOFT!," look at the sheer variety of software it sells. It can afford to make less-than-stellar software because it's other lines of business can subsidize the sales that are lost to pissed-off customers who only buy a handful of their products.
I'm assuming you are being sarcastic with that, in which case, label me nit-picky.
From the link and posted by Benjamin LaHaise :
Face it, the only people trying to confuse things are the disk vendors.
Is it worth recasting the general public's idea about what these "standard" units are? Especially if it's for the sake of being accurate in an instance where it doesn't matter to the consumer? My dad doesn't give a damn exactly how much RAM or hard disk space he has, and neither do I. As long as he and I know the rough number, there isn't a problem.
I may very well get flamed for saying this on slashdot, especially this thread, but I NEVER PLAYED a single FF game, NEVER.
:)
Which FF is the BEST?
First off all, I have only played FFI (US NES release) and FF Tactics. I've watched my friends play FFVII and FFIX. Final Fantasy Tactics is by far my favorite.
The plot can only be described as epic. It leans more into intrastate and intraregional politics, but the plotline is very well-written and paced. There are few funny moments. It's a pretty serious story. I don't know much about this in other games these days, but when well-known characters die, especially in unexpected ways, you sit up and pay more attention. The characters themselves are the expected typecast heroes...but they aren't stale. The minor dialogue screwups in the translation fix that.
The battle system is also one of my favorites, almost as good as Secret of Mana's. It takes the tradional Job classes, adds a few, and as you gain levels in each class, you can select abilities from each class and "equip" them. This way, your mages don't have to be wussies in physical combat. They might even last a round or two. *grin* Everyone has a Zodiac symbol (Cancer, Aries, etc) which if exploited correctly, can result in higher damage and hit rates. Combine this with manipulating and taking advantage of the Faith and Brave attributes. There are a ton of items to equip, and the best are stashed away in some very tough places. The menu system is straightforward and quick to learn and use. The actual battle locations are on contoured terrain there the environmental context of the character can make a difference in attacking or defending. It's more of a chess board kind of battle than the "bad guy(s) in the center, we attack all at once from the front" FF stereotype.
The music is absolutely awesome. Some very inspired orchestral pieces that only get old after the 3rd or 4th replay. j/k Really, the music is great. My friends sure did get sick of the Formation screen music though. I have the BGM soundtrack 2-disc CD set and listen to it often. The sound effects are a curious mix of modern synth and old NES analogue sounds.
The graphics are quite good for it's time. They weren't there to dazzle, but to keep yor attention focused on the battle. The magics are animated with a lean towards minimalism (except for a few like Meteor, the lvl 4 spells, and the Summons, of course). There are cut scenes, but they're animated the same way the battles are.
I've played FFT many times all the way through over the last two years. I've never gotten tired of it. I have no idea how long it takes to beat it, but if I sit down and spend a few hours each day and not fight a ton of "power up" battles, I bet I could beat it in a week or two. Note that you can easily spend a half hour on a single battle. It may be because the fight is hard, or you may want to drag it out as long as possible in order to level up faster. You can set yourself a leisurely pace and not worry about it...although the plot's twists may take a refresher to get back into. A lot happens as the game progresses.
Essentially, I love FFT because it is so different from the other FF games out there. No, I haven't played any of the recent releases. But with the AD&D style statistics, the logical progression of the Job classes, the chess-like way the battles are fought, the depth one can take in character modification, and the seriousness of the story all make FFT into one of my favorite games. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to kick Gafgarian's ass on the other side of that castle wall again.
I'd call it customer inertia. Or a fear of trying new things out. Or a desire to stick with "something that works...sort of."
Apparently, this NEO4 chip allows regionless DVD playback and disables MACROVISION, something that I value far more than the CDR game playback.
I own a PS2 and am quite happy with it. However, I plan on keeping an open mind about the Xbox and the GameCube. Anyone else remember the damning the SNES got when it first came out? And how popular did it get?
What I find interesting is that I first heard about the crashes on 9/11 through office word of mouth...just like this current one. "Did you hear? There was another crash, this time in Queens." Eh? Then the scramble to find a news website that will hold up. And once again, I had to turn to /.
...they're all getting sued. By whom? Guess who.
Try doing any complex file selection with a GUI without having to individually go through and click each wanted file. Ugh!
:)
I can only see this as being a big distinction when working with multiple folders and/or multiple disks, because the time difference can't be that noticable. Not when you make Windows show the file extensions, use easily identifiable icons, order by file type/date/size, use Shift + click + drag or Control + click......hmmm......maybe I was wrong.
Seriously, for average users who have a handful of "data" folders, using the GUI is much easier than remembering/looking up commands and their arguements.
One could say that the "useful" job he serves is to draw attention to something that a lot of people (it seems) think needs more attention. For reference, just read all the complaints in this thread about poor error-handling. Now that he's Media, he can't REALLY be expected to be concretely useful, right? ;)
Expect a "study" of the "sudden increase in Internet Explorer usage after the introduction of Windows XP" in a month or so.
My parents were equally fearfull of screwing things up on their Apple IIc before they purchased the IBM Aptiva replacement. They were fearfull of screwing things up when they made the move from Win 3.11 to Win 95. They were fearfull when they bought their most recent PC with 98 on it. It was this technophobia that got me interested in computers to begin with...I was forced to do all the grunt work with the PCs in my house. It goes without saying they refuse to sit back and take a calmer look at things while they cling to the "OH MY GOD IT'S A COMPUTER AND I HAVE NO WAY TO UNDERSTAND IT!!" mentality.
But I think your point that your grandmother was afraid is moot because the jump from the previous OS to 95 was a big one for most people. I consider myself a borderline geek, yet I have no *nix experience and if you dropped me in front of a CLI with a handful of those cryptic commands, it would take me quite a while to get the hang of it. It's about transferring your knowledge from one system to another.
I agree. A true monopoly could charge whatever it wanted for it's products. If Microsoft was a true monopoly, then it could charge $500 for the upgrade version of Windows XP. But it can't because it knows people would flock to Apple or Linux to escape the prices.
Dictionary.com's definition of monopoly says it all: "A right granted by a government giving exclusive control over a specified commercial activity to a single party."
Under the SSSCA, it would be "unlawful to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies."
Do these people have any idea how much it would cost to replace all these wonderfully vague "interactive digital devices" in order to make them compliant? Telephones, keyboards, remote controls, speakers, hearing aids, car stereos, printers, wristwatches, etc etc. What lunacy.
How would you calculate the damages to your computer anyway? To be honest, if someone stealthily erased 50 MP3s I wouldn't notice it until my playlist randomly got to those songs, and in Winamp, it just skips over missing files. I'd never know until the one day a week or so down the road when I wanted to hear that song or this sing and they couldn't be found. If those files were ones that I ripped and encoded legally myself, then the actual money lost is insignificant/nonexistant...of course the loss of privacy and the time isn't. Of those files that I didn't acquire legally...what kind of damages would that create? Basically, what financial damages would this plan inflict upon us?
From the Wired article:
The RIAA's interest in the USA Act, an anti-terrorism bill that the Senate and the House approved last week, grew out of an obscure part of it called section 815. Called the "Deterrence and Prevention of Cyberterrorism" section, it says that anyone who breaks into computers and causes damage "aggregating at least $5,000 in value" in a one-year period would be committing a crime.
If the current version of the USA Act becomes law, the RIAA believes, it could outlaw attempts by copyright holders to break into and disable pirate FTP or websites or peer-to-peer networks. Because the bill covers aggregate damage, it could bar anti-piracy efforts that cause little harm to individual users, but meet the $5,000 threshold when combined.
I'd call this "circumventing" wouldn't you? Those intrusive bastards want carte blanche to do whatever they want, while ordinary people get screwed.