And that homeless guy really does want a dollar for bus fare. Come on, there's money to be made. It's not about survival it's about being a lazy bastard wanting to earn enough money for the week by an hour's "work". Not everyone climbing a pole to cut the wire is a Jean Valjean.
I think what the parent's point is that many of these folks are doing this to make a living. When one has their backs against the wall, they do desperate things.
This is the typical bleeding heart argument. And poor drug dealers, they're just trying to make a living too.
You realize that a morally sound person will refuse to engage in this type of activity on principle, no matter how hard up they are? These people are the scum of the earth, their parents should never have had children because certainly they had no idea how to raise them. These opportunists are out to make a quick buck because they think the world owes them something, and they have no interest (or are probably amused by) the damage they cause to society. I'm just sad that because of bleeding heart like you we're not allowed to shoot them.
to prevent horrific events, rather than wading through the aftermath.
Except the horrific events don't get prevented either. Life itself is a pretty horrific event, considering we all die at the end. Plus if you live long enough, your reward (apart from a shell of a body) is getting to watch everyone else die.
Funny, I live in the third world and despite the inefficiency of the police, the thugs that kill you if you take too long handing over your car keys or your watch because there are no consequences - they know they will never get caught, I feel much better than when I'm in the US with your cowboy power-happy cops and your government who suspects everyone of terrorism.
Yeah well I guess starting out not believing in God and then expecting someone to prove that he exists is a bad idea too, whereas the believer just has to say "god exists - end of story". No doubt you see the parallel.
There is no hair's breadth between the two, because they are the same number. The difference between the two is not "essentially" zero, it IS zero.
Except for the fact that a) "zero" is not a number, it is a place-holder and b) the difference between x and y in your universe is merely a sum of n x 0, because there's nothing special about 0.999... so if it applies to this number it applies to 1.999... and 2, 2.999 and 3, and why not 0.000...01 and 0, 1.000...01 and 1, and hey, why not 1.000...put enough zeros...01 and 1.000......02, etc. Because once you get down smaller than the smallest subatomic particle in the universe, more fractions lose meaning and you might as well round up or down.
I'm not being a luddite, I just see this "fad" as an attempt to churn the TV market once more. Only the American public can't afford to pay their mortgages - they certainly aren't going to fork over thousands of dollars for HD 3D televisions - unless of course Nancy Pelosi decides it's time to Support American Electronics Retailers, and Obama signs a new tax break for all TV purchases over $3000.
HD is not the same difference as the one between color and black&white. And, as you say, it's mostly only available on "popular" channels. There was a series of articles a while back that demonstrated that cable companies simply could not transmit every channel as HD due to bandwidth constraints - so it will only ever be on the "select" channels someone else decides are "worth it". 3D is silly and causes headaches, and short of impressing young children, 3D movies are absolute rubbish anyway as the plot soon disintegrates into "wow this is 3D look at what we can do" zooming in and out on objects.
While no doubt some revolutionary technology will be invented that will cause everyone to want a new television, 3D and HD certainly aren't it.
Really interesting would be if someone managed to compile statistics on what the success rate for such fishing expeditions is, so that the public could see what an efficient use of public funds and time such methods provide.
When will people get their heads around the fact that the law-breaker always has the initiative? The only way you can successfully prevent all crimes is to chain everyone to a wall and gag them. All of this "prevention" necessarily comes at the cost of individual freedom and privacy. However as a side effect it produces data and situations that can easily be exploited by corrupt law enforcement officers and/or politicians. Western society is traveling down a very dangerous road, and most people seem oblivious to that fact.
I'll admit I have no idea how the business works, but I'm sure EA could lean on the developer and say "patch this piece of crap if you want your next cheque".
Funny you should bring up game development on linux though... the linux game development community seems more bent on reinventing the wheel (freeciv, etc) or making existing DOS/Windows games run on linux, than actually innovating.
That reflects a lack of understanding of the notion of infinity which would explain the lack of understanding of the problem.
No, I am saying that the same hair's breadth that lies between 0.999... and 1 actually lies on the other side of your 0.999... also. If we agree that such tiny fractions, for all intents and purposes, make no difference (it is essentially zero) so that we can call 0.999... = 1, then there's nothing stopping us from subtracting such a difference from 0.999... and calling it equal, also. Adding the same hair's breadth to 1 should also get you 1.000...0001 = 1 since there's nothing magical about 0.999...
Repeat until you reach any number you want to equate to 1.
Or admit that all numbers are just figments of our imagination anyway.
Er, except your cable company probably offers a limited range of HD channels because they don't have the bandwidth. Good for you if you're rich enough to justify an HD television just to watch ESPN in HD. That doesn't stop it from being a scam.
Wow I am going to pay thousands of dollars for a television with "new" technology that somehow has a worse pixel resolution than my computer monitor!
Or, you could just download HD movies and watch them on your laptop...and at the end of the day you have a laptop.
First of all, only a small portion of the force is on at any given time.
Yes, roughly 1/3. It's called a shift. But then again the calls aren't all happening at once, either. Some officers do become free to deal with new calls after an hour or so.
Third of all, while somebody complaining about a Facebook post seems a little silly, it could easily be a serious death threat from a crazy ex, or something.
Yes, it could be. Or it could be a terror plot aimed at destroying the world! Oh my god, it could be the start of World War Three! This is what happens when you start dealing in "pre-crime" and acting out of "an abundance of caution". The guy who was jaywalking *COULD* be on his way to murder the Queen. But then again he might not be.
Personally I blame the lawyers - they are responsible for this behavior because they take the single victim from the group of 100 "threatened" persons, point to them and say "see? I told you so? THIS COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED" and slap you with a lawsuit. The reality is that the police are wasting their time 99% of the time when dealing with crap like this - it was never going to go anywhere anyway. The answer is not more police, and more use of force. The answer is educating people - just like all those idiots who crowd my emergency room because of the sniffles, which means the stroke and the heart attack need to wait 2 extra hours.
Fourth of all, why are the *police* part of this "whining women" bunch?
As someone else pointed out - the mere fact that they feel the need to post "how tough" it is to do their jobs classifies them as whiners.
In short, fuck off. You're not clever or witty, just a stupid asshole.
Is this the official law enforcement answer? I only say this because you referred to the police as "we". Why are you taking this personally? It's not like you designed the police force and turned it into what it is today. You're probably just a very small cog in a large machine, and you have no choice but to do your job as best you can. I am criticizing the machine as a whole, and society as a whole: not you. However when a person reacts in the manner you just did, it does speak about a certain level of insecurity.
My argument is that once you take away said "panache", what's left? It's not the hardware that's amazing. It's certainly not selling because of price. It's not diversification that keeps the Apple/iCon stores going. It's not because Apple is the de facto market leader in cell phones, PDA's, MP3 players or computers. It's Steve Jobs, plugging his products to the world and carving out his (I'll be generous) 10%. However these toys (because that's what they are) are impossible to justify in a business setting because of price - there are cheaper, fully functional alternatives. Apple will always be the product for teenagers to show off at school ("look what daddy bought me for Christmas!"), or for idiots who bought the whole argument about Apple computers/software being "flawless", or those who are just too lazy to think, learn and comparison shop.
A police force of 10,000 people is whining because they get approximately 100 calls per hour? Give me a break. Government service at its best...
What I especially like are the calls "threatening post on facebook". Your tax dollars at work - society has turned into a bunch of whining women, and the police themselves are no exception.
It is very much a key man company. I don't want to be holding stock the year Steve Jobs dies - no one else has the, no, I won't say "vision" for a company that repackages old tech and patents something as innovative as a text filter - call it the marketing skills, Steve has. The minute he dies Apple becomes an overpriced PALM.
But what's going to happen when they can't sue people because malware propagates itself far more quickly than Microsoft can detect its origin?
More to the point, when US judges realize that foreign courts aren't obliged to enforce US verdicts despite their billion dollar "awards", and that really extradition only applies to criminal, not civil cases...
It would be the exact same issue on Linux and Mac OS X too.
Then why isn't it? While it's easy to shift blame onto the user, this completely overlooks the fact that a system designed with the capability of executing foreign code without any kind of privilege escalation check is just asking for trouble. No one should have to worry about those puppies or that porn in the first place.
Yet EA is still - overall - making buckloads of money.
Of course. Because they are such big publishers and have a finger pretty much in every genre of game (through acquisitions), they dominate the market. Especially since games are a wonderful impulse buy - pre-teens and teens who "have to have" the game because whats-his-name at school got it, or because it's version 3 in a series, or because of the bright colors on the packaging. Mature gamers who remember what EA used to be, and hope that a company as old and (once) respected as EA will stand behind their products and patch them ASAP if there are any problems.
It takes a long time to absolutely destroy a reputation, especially when you're in a dominant position. But I can't help but notice that every company franchise they buy out gets destroyed, dumbed down, and processed so much it stops being fun.
The problem is that PC gaming is dying as online console gaming gains ground.
I've argued this before, and I will argue it again:
PC games will never die. Simply because the "barrier to entry" for PC game development is so low. No specialized equipment is needed. No specialized software either (you can download a free version of Visual Studio directly from Microsoft). All you need is a basic knowledge of programming, and the desire to build a game.
So while the big studios try to lock up the market on proprietary consoles, or charge huge up-front fees for "Software Development Kits", and buy out any upstart before he ever gets a chance to publish; the creative talent, the innovation, the new ways of doing things - will always be seen first on a PC.
While sure, some guy on a PC can never code the same eye-candy as a $50 million team or compete with version 5 of a highly successful franchise, the PC is destined to be the platform for new concepts not seen before in the game industry. And as we've seen before with games like Doom, Darwinia, etc, you can go from no-name to best seller in a matter of months, thanks to the internet. Frankly, I'm not worried.
Honestly I think it's part of the life-cycle of corporations. The people with the authority to promote tend to lose their objective view of their subordinates, and end up promoting people that they LIKE rather than the people most suited for the job. Repeat this for a few cycles and you end up with the "good old boys/girls" club at the top, who are all best buddies but who are far less competent than their jobs demand. This reinforces apathy down below, since what's the point in busting your butt for a dumb-ass? Initiative and effort don't get rewarded (or worse, get penalized by jealous managers), and the rot sets in.
This is why large corporations can lose money, lose focus, engage in some amazingly ridiculous ventures and go bankrupt. I guess it's only human nature, but nothing lasts forever.
Slashdot Mirror
Most slashdot readers are able to make up their own fucking minds, anonymous dickhead.
get the feeling that Hollywood is trying to shove 3D down our throats lately?
Actually I work much more than that, but I'm self employed.
people do what they feel they need to survive.
And that homeless guy really does want a dollar for bus fare. Come on, there's money to be made. It's not about survival it's about being a lazy bastard wanting to earn enough money for the week by an hour's "work". Not everyone climbing a pole to cut the wire is a Jean Valjean.
I think what the parent's point is that many of these folks are doing this to make a living. When one has their backs against the wall, they do desperate things.
This is the typical bleeding heart argument. And poor drug dealers, they're just trying to make a living too.
You realize that a morally sound person will refuse to engage in this type of activity on principle, no matter how hard up they are? These people are the scum of the earth, their parents should never have had children because certainly they had no idea how to raise them. These opportunists are out to make a quick buck because they think the world owes them something, and they have no interest (or are probably amused by) the damage they cause to society. I'm just sad that because of bleeding heart like you we're not allowed to shoot them.
This isn't protecting democracy, it's treason.
Er, no it isn't. Assange is not a US or Afghan citizen. You can only betray your own country, you know.
to prevent horrific events, rather than wading through the aftermath.
Except the horrific events don't get prevented either. Life itself is a pretty horrific event, considering we all die at the end. Plus if you live long enough, your reward (apart from a shell of a body) is getting to watch everyone else die.
Funny, I live in the third world and despite the inefficiency of the police, the thugs that kill you if you take too long handing over your car keys or your watch because there are no consequences - they know they will never get caught, I feel much better than when I'm in the US with your cowboy power-happy cops and your government who suspects everyone of terrorism.
Yeah well I guess starting out not believing in God and then expecting someone to prove that he exists is a bad idea too, whereas the believer just has to say "god exists - end of story". No doubt you see the parallel.
There is no hair's breadth between the two, because they are the same number. The difference between the two is not "essentially" zero, it IS zero.
Except for the fact that a) "zero" is not a number, it is a place-holder and b) the difference between x and y in your universe is merely a sum of n x 0, because there's nothing special about 0.999... so if it applies to this number it applies to 1.999... and 2, 2.999 and 3, and why not 0.000...01 and 0, 1.000...01 and 1, and hey, why not 1.000...put enough zeros...01 and 1.000... ...02, etc. Because once you get down smaller than the smallest subatomic particle in the universe, more fractions lose meaning and you might as well round up or down.
I'm not being a luddite, I just see this "fad" as an attempt to churn the TV market once more. Only the American public can't afford to pay their mortgages - they certainly aren't going to fork over thousands of dollars for HD 3D televisions - unless of course Nancy Pelosi decides it's time to Support American Electronics Retailers, and Obama signs a new tax break for all TV purchases over $3000.
HD is not the same difference as the one between color and black&white. And, as you say, it's mostly only available on "popular" channels. There was a series of articles a while back that demonstrated that cable companies simply could not transmit every channel as HD due to bandwidth constraints - so it will only ever be on the "select" channels someone else decides are "worth it". 3D is silly and causes headaches, and short of impressing young children, 3D movies are absolute rubbish anyway as the plot soon disintegrates into "wow this is 3D look at what we can do" zooming in and out on objects.
While no doubt some revolutionary technology will be invented that will cause everyone to want a new television, 3D and HD certainly aren't it.
Really interesting would be if someone managed to compile statistics on what the success rate for such fishing expeditions is, so that the public could see what an efficient use of public funds and time such methods provide.
When will people get their heads around the fact that the law-breaker always has the initiative? The only way you can successfully prevent all crimes is to chain everyone to a wall and gag them. All of this "prevention" necessarily comes at the cost of individual freedom and privacy. However as a side effect it produces data and situations that can easily be exploited by corrupt law enforcement officers and/or politicians. Western society is traveling down a very dangerous road, and most people seem oblivious to that fact.
I'll admit I have no idea how the business works, but I'm sure EA could lean on the developer and say "patch this piece of crap if you want your next cheque".
Netbeans, Eclipse, whatever...
Funny you should bring up game development on linux though... the linux game development community seems more bent on reinventing the wheel (freeciv, etc) or making existing DOS/Windows games run on linux, than actually innovating.
That reflects a lack of understanding of the notion of infinity which would explain the lack of understanding of the problem.
No, I am saying that the same hair's breadth that lies between 0.999... and 1 actually lies on the other side of your 0.999... also. If we agree that such tiny fractions, for all intents and purposes, make no difference (it is essentially zero) so that we can call 0.999... = 1, then there's nothing stopping us from subtracting such a difference from 0.999... and calling it equal, also. Adding the same hair's breadth to 1 should also get you 1.000...0001 = 1 since there's nothing magical about 0.999...
Repeat until you reach any number you want to equate to 1.
Or admit that all numbers are just figments of our imagination anyway.
HD was a compelling shift in tv technology.
Er, except your cable company probably offers a limited range of HD channels because they don't have the bandwidth. Good for you if you're rich enough to justify an HD television just to watch ESPN in HD. That doesn't stop it from being a scam.
Wow I am going to pay thousands of dollars for a television with "new" technology that somehow has a worse pixel resolution than my computer monitor!
Or, you could just download HD movies and watch them on your laptop...and at the end of the day you have a laptop.
First of all, only a small portion of the force is on at any given time.
Yes, roughly 1/3. It's called a shift. But then again the calls aren't all happening at once, either. Some officers do become free to deal with new calls after an hour or so.
Third of all, while somebody complaining about a Facebook post seems a little silly, it could easily be a serious death threat from a crazy ex, or something.
Yes, it could be. Or it could be a terror plot aimed at destroying the world! Oh my god, it could be the start of World War Three! This is what happens when you start dealing in "pre-crime" and acting out of "an abundance of caution". The guy who was jaywalking *COULD* be on his way to murder the Queen. But then again he might not be.
Personally I blame the lawyers - they are responsible for this behavior because they take the single victim from the group of 100 "threatened" persons, point to them and say "see? I told you so? THIS COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED" and slap you with a lawsuit. The reality is that the police are wasting their time 99% of the time when dealing with crap like this - it was never going to go anywhere anyway. The answer is not more police, and more use of force. The answer is educating people - just like all those idiots who crowd my emergency room because of the sniffles, which means the stroke and the heart attack need to wait 2 extra hours.
Fourth of all, why are the *police* part of this "whining women" bunch?
As someone else pointed out - the mere fact that they feel the need to post "how tough" it is to do their jobs classifies them as whiners.
In short, fuck off. You're not clever or witty, just a stupid asshole.
Is this the official law enforcement answer? I only say this because you referred to the police as "we". Why are you taking this personally? It's not like you designed the police force and turned it into what it is today. You're probably just a very small cog in a large machine, and you have no choice but to do your job as best you can. I am criticizing the machine as a whole, and society as a whole: not you. However when a person reacts in the manner you just did, it does speak about a certain level of insecurity.
They wouldn't have Steve's panache of course,
My argument is that once you take away said "panache", what's left? It's not the hardware that's amazing. It's certainly not selling because of price. It's not diversification that keeps the Apple/iCon stores going. It's not because Apple is the de facto market leader in cell phones, PDA's, MP3 players or computers. It's Steve Jobs, plugging his products to the world and carving out his (I'll be generous) 10%. However these toys (because that's what they are) are impossible to justify in a business setting because of price - there are cheaper, fully functional alternatives. Apple will always be the product for teenagers to show off at school ("look what daddy bought me for Christmas!"), or for idiots who bought the whole argument about Apple computers/software being "flawless", or those who are just too lazy to think, learn and comparison shop.
A police force of 10,000 people is whining because they get approximately 100 calls per hour? Give me a break. Government service at its best...
What I especially like are the calls "threatening post on facebook". Your tax dollars at work - society has turned into a bunch of whining women, and the police themselves are no exception.
0.99999... is equal to 1, then 0.999999...8 is equal to 0.99999... and 0.9999999...7 is equal to 0.999999...6 etc etc etc until 1 = 0! Holy shit!
Or we could just admit that using a tool incorrectly produces idiotic results.
It is very much a key man company. I don't want to be holding stock the year Steve Jobs dies - no one else has the, no, I won't say "vision" for a company that repackages old tech and patents something as innovative as a text filter - call it the marketing skills, Steve has. The minute he dies Apple becomes an overpriced PALM.
But what's going to happen when they can't sue people because malware propagates itself far more quickly than Microsoft can detect its origin?
More to the point, when US judges realize that foreign courts aren't obliged to enforce US verdicts despite their billion dollar "awards", and that really extradition only applies to criminal, not civil cases...
It would be the exact same issue on Linux and Mac OS X too.
Then why isn't it? While it's easy to shift blame onto the user, this completely overlooks the fact that a system designed with the capability of executing foreign code without any kind of privilege escalation check is just asking for trouble. No one should have to worry about those puppies or that porn in the first place.
Yet EA is still - overall - making buckloads of money.
Of course. Because they are such big publishers and have a finger pretty much in every genre of game (through acquisitions), they dominate the market. Especially since games are a wonderful impulse buy - pre-teens and teens who "have to have" the game because whats-his-name at school got it, or because it's version 3 in a series, or because of the bright colors on the packaging. Mature gamers who remember what EA used to be, and hope that a company as old and (once) respected as EA will stand behind their products and patch them ASAP if there are any problems.
It takes a long time to absolutely destroy a reputation, especially when you're in a dominant position. But I can't help but notice that every company franchise they buy out gets destroyed, dumbed down, and processed so much it stops being fun.
The problem is that PC gaming is dying as online console gaming gains ground.
I've argued this before, and I will argue it again:
PC games will never die. Simply because the "barrier to entry" for PC game development is so low. No specialized equipment is needed. No specialized software either (you can download a free version of Visual Studio directly from Microsoft). All you need is a basic knowledge of programming, and the desire to build a game.
So while the big studios try to lock up the market on proprietary consoles, or charge huge up-front fees for "Software Development Kits", and buy out any upstart before he ever gets a chance to publish; the creative talent, the innovation, the new ways of doing things - will always be seen first on a PC.
While sure, some guy on a PC can never code the same eye-candy as a $50 million team or compete with version 5 of a highly successful franchise, the PC is destined to be the platform for new concepts not seen before in the game industry. And as we've seen before with games like Doom, Darwinia, etc, you can go from no-name to best seller in a matter of months, thanks to the internet. Frankly, I'm not worried.
Honestly I think it's part of the life-cycle of corporations. The people with the authority to promote tend to lose their objective view of their subordinates, and end up promoting people that they LIKE rather than the people most suited for the job. Repeat this for a few cycles and you end up with the "good old boys/girls" club at the top, who are all best buddies but who are far less competent than their jobs demand. This reinforces apathy down below, since what's the point in busting your butt for a dumb-ass? Initiative and effort don't get rewarded (or worse, get penalized by jealous managers), and the rot sets in.
This is why large corporations can lose money, lose focus, engage in some amazingly ridiculous ventures and go bankrupt. I guess it's only human nature, but nothing lasts forever.
In the Netherlands everyone who offers public access
But hotel wi-fi is for HOTEL GUESTS, not the "public".