hey, here's an idea -- if you're on a server that routinely has a queue, and you want to play at 7 pm, why not log in at 6:30 and go do something else in the interim?
if you get logged in, just tap a key every now and then so you're not AFK
Most of Western Pennsylvania meets your criteria with the only exceptions being floods and tornados. There is lots of land that is flood-immune and tornados have only hit a sparce few times in the last number of years. I'll get the welcome mat out for you.
>>There is a valid point that Chess is a better game than Poker in society. I am speaking neutral not leaning toward Poker or Chess cause I hate them both anyways. >>The game of Poker will never be open to all audiences. It is a game aimed at RICH adults, limiting the potential audience. I am not saying you and your college buddies can't get together and play free poker. But schools would never encourage the game like Chess. There is a real scientific aspect to Chess that Poker does not have.
Yeah, that explains why there are SO many chess tournaments held as fund raisers for churches, non-profits and school activities compared to poker tournaments (rolls eyes). Chess is aimed at the richest of the rich -- the people who can afford the tutors to make it to an elite level. I can go buy Super System vols 1 and 2 for $60 and be ahead of the game in poker.
Let me rephrase this -- i'm a good poker player and an average chess player -- I don't study chess at all but I know the strategy enough to beat the tar out of someone who doesn't really play. If you sat me down heads up against, lets say Chris Ferguson, in 100 matches of texas hold 'em, I win 20. Even though he's one of the top players in the world. I sit down across from Kasparov + co. in 100 chess matches I don't have a prayer of even drawing one game.
So which game do you think is more likely to draw an audience? Sorry, I'd write more but I can't wait to catch ESPN's presentation of the world series of chess.....
I think you're wrong on this -- the appeal of team sports games is to be your favorite players and see what they do -- Michael Vick, Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, etc. Nobody opens up a golf game saying 'I can't wait to tee off as Duffy Waldorf!'. You play golf games for the courses and the challenge, not for the individual players (aside from Woods and Mickelson). Any team sports game today without 'name' players isn't going to do even a fraction as good as the same game with real players.
I might feel some sympathy if we knew the salary info...if this guy is making 45K a year and doing this, he's getting f'ed, but if he's making 95k a year, I'd have a lot less sympathy...
Re:Gamers taking day off from work
on
Halo 2 Released
·
· Score: 1
yeah, nanowrimo is taking some serious time away from the important things like GTA:SA...they need to coordinate the dates better...
Despite what ESPN would have you believe, there are a large number of people who play games other than "No-limit hold 'em'", namely Limit and Omaha. Each of those games are based FAR more on mathematical odds, probability, and having the nuts as opposed to the bluffing and gamesmanship required for No-Limit. It would be much much easier to program a bot that could play Limit and Omaha profitably. No-Limit and preventing collusion are a much more difficult task.
Never said either side was exactly rocket scientists. Of course, the person who accepted the bill worked at a Fashion Bug...not exactly a haven for those who have prime SATs.
There are plenty of things Republicans have done in the past (and present) to sway elections. I just don't like hearing Democrats acting all high and mighty about it as if they're crap smells sweeter.
You FOOL! How dare you provide a link to something that helps to disprove what Our Lord and Savior Michael Moore and all those brilliant Hollywood-Types have been telling us! Next thing you'll be telling us is that voting locations in St. Louis were kept open hours later as they bussed in the homeless or that mental health patients in Pennsylvania were wheeled to polling places with the word "GORE" magic markered on their arm. Quit spreading such dastardly lies!!
On a related note, none of this would have been a problem if there wasn't an electoral college, but a pure popular vote would do little to stop corruption. In Chicago, they know that fudging the votes towards a Democratic president won't help much since Illinois is already going to the Democrat. But, if their votes count directly with and against the rest of the nation, you can be sure they'll throw thousands of Snowball I's into the mix.
What keeps me off Linux, I'll tell you, and no, I'm not trying to put this off as flamebait.
I have been a computer geek type since I was old enough to sit and type. I have been working with computers for over 20 years in one fashion or another, so while I might not be a guru on them, I know what I'm doing. So when I built my own computer in the fall of 2002, I decided to install Mandrake Linux (what was available at the store) to give it a whirl. Biggest mistake I ever made.
First off, the 'easy' installation took me hours to do, then it decided to keep freezing once I got it running. Then one thing stopped working after another, and I was spending more time trying to figure out what was wrong than spending time using my computer. I deleted the installation, put Windows XP home on the PC, firewall, anti-spyware, hell, I'll even download firefox or something. My windows PC WORKS FOR ME AND DOES WHAT I NEED IT TO DO. Nothing anyone could say about Linux after my experience with Mandrake will change that. I have a working PC that maybe crashes once a month. I can live with that and buying WinXP rather than spending hours cruising through message boards to figure out why my modem drivers weren't working correctly (and yes, I had to do that)
In short, Linux might be right for some people. For me and what I wanted, it was wrong, and I don't plan on going back. To the Linux zealots (not Linux users), add up the amount of time that you've spent having to 'tweak' something that you wouldn't have to do in Windows (and downloading patches doesn't count -- I do that while reading Slashdot). Multiply those hours by whatever dollar emount you choose and see what value you've had to spend on Linux. It's probably a lot less than an XP install.
Sorry if this offends any Linux people, but my experience is my experience and I can't change it.
In Allegheny County, PA, you can go to the county assessment website (http://www2.county.allegheny.pa.us/RealEstate/Sea rch.asp) and search on street name, address, OWNER, etc. In the information for most houses are also the pictures of said house. So this is nothing really new, at least around here.
Just to add to that, at XU (CompSci class of '00 here) since the Math and CS (and to an extent, Physics) student population is so small, in many of the foundation classes, you find yourself intermingling and working with people from other disciplines and learning from them as well. It gives you a good exposure into how a person who is a physics major tackles a Discrete Math (assuming that course is still around) problem versus how you might.
>>Larry Rosin, the president of Somerville, N.J.-based Edison Media Research, said it was absurd to suggest that the Internet and file sharing have not had a profound effect on the music industry. >>"Anybody who says that the Internet has not affected sales is just not paying attention to what is going on out there," he said. "It's had an effect on everything else in life, why wouldn't it have an effect on this?"
So who is to say it hasn't had a positive effect? Notice he leaves what TYPE of effect out.
Jumping the shark? They can't!
on
The Simpsons Movie
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Homer has already jumped the shart -- DABF12 -- Gump Roast. They show him literally jumping the shark. Groening and company know how to make fun of themselves, and that's just an inside reference for those of us that notice those things.
And the fact that I knew exactly which episode it happened in, and only had to look at snpp.com to find the ep. ## scares me...
Re:How will they pay for this?
on
WiFi Free-For-All
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
>>Meanwhile, anyone who flies through PIT will see banners everywhere celebrating "Yesterday's Airport of Tomorrow". Um, yeah...I suppose that makes it the airport of today...they put up plaques explaining the glorious and futuristic history of the airport, and how traveller friendly it is. Citizens of the Twenty First Century, fly PIT, fly the Future!
While I appreciate the fact that you pay attention to the banners there, you're a little off in terms of what they mean. Those banners refer to the OLD Pittsburgh International Airport (now since relegated to cargo planes), which, when it opened 50+ years ago, WAS The Airport of Tomorrow. As opposed to some other airports, Pittsburgh International IS pretty modern and with the times. Like many other airports, the biggest complaint there is the lack of a larger security area, which was originally designed NOT with post 9/11 security measures in mind. The banners for the new Pittsburgh International make note of how it used to be a farm.
BTW--here's your trivia du jour -- Pittsburgh International is the largest major airport in America not directly serviced by an Interstate -- They are trying to get Route 60 (and 22/30) designated as part of I-376 so they no longer have that distinction.
Good luck getting snail mail through quickly anymore after the White House/Congress Ricin scares. Mail is going to take that much longer (it was at a 2-3 week delay before the latest round, IIRC). A fax is probably a much better idea.
>>For example, you mean to tell me that since the last space shuttle crash, which was only a year ago, they had time to modify their Mars lander design to include that "In Memoriam" placard that's on there? They would have had to do it almost immediately after the crash because it takes time to get to Mars. A long time.
Columbia crashed in early Feb. They launched the Mars Spirit Rover in June. Call me crazy but I think that's enough time to add a metal plate.
>>PA is also building new exits on the Turnpike that only accept EZ-Pass. There was a rumor that EZ-Pass would only pay for itself if enough people ran the tolls and were fined. Then it was rumored that enough people were not doing it. Now PA is making it impossible to exit without EZ-Pass
I wish they did that. So far, there is only one EZ-Pass only exit, near Philly. It leads straight into an industrial park, and is only accessable, both onto and off of the turnpike on the Westbound lanes.
If there are plans for EZ Pass Slip Exits anywhere on this side of Breezewood to Ohio, I have yet to hear or read anything about it. I'd hardly call that forcing everyone to get EZ Pass. Most Eastern PA Exits have 2, at most, EZ Pass lanes open in rush hour, reserving the majority for everyone else.
Marge: So, did you call any of your friends?0
Lisa: Friend? [scoffs] These are my only friends.
[holds up a book]
Grownup nerds like Gore Vidal, and even he's kissed more boys
than I ever will. Marge: Girls, Lisa. Boys kiss girls.
I also think in part it's because in certain areas of the world, those sites will get a lot less sympathy from outside authorities, especially if the activities are illegal in those areas. If I'm an authority in Country A, and someone tells me that people in my country are crippling servers for a Company B in Country B, where the service Company B provides is illegal in my part of Country A, I'm going to be a lot less enthusiastic about helping them track down said hackers.
I know of more than a few non-technical people who still were able to figure out Napster/Kazaa/etc and download songs who deleted EVERY.mp3 the second they heard about RIAA lawsuits/etc. They didn't understand that the RIAA was going after sharers--they heard 'mp3' and 'lawsuit' in the same sentence and freaked out. Granted, this is just anecdotal and not representative of the whole population, but I think it's an attitude more than just a few people had.
I have a feeling a good number of other people did the same thing, even if they did just rip the music from their purchased CDs. To the uninformed, it must look really scary.
Here's what worries me with my EZ Pass on the PA Turnpike.
Whose to say I don't travel 75 miles in 60 minutes (as recorded at the exits...humor me, they're exactly that far apart), and then they send me a ticket for speeding (It's 65 MPH)
The day I hear of that happening for real, I'm throwing my EZ Pass out the window.
Read This, take from it what you will, I'm not saying that it is all true or all false, but brings up interesting points, including that McVeigh had Middle Eastern connections.
As for racial profiling, lets just say that for arguments sake, that McVeigh had some Middle Eastern help. Then you add up OKC, WTC '93, 9/11, USS Cole, US Embassies in Africa, etc...over 30 men of Middle Eastern origin or decent, between the ages of 18-40, and 2 white guys. Does that justify racial profiling? Maybe not, but it's certainly enough to bring it to the table for discussion.
If I remember my physics correctly, there are approx 2^(1E80) particles in the universe. This is going to be one heck of a long barcode. I hope I'm not in a supermarket self-checkout line with someone with a whole basket of these things.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
hey, here's an idea -- if you're on a server that routinely has a queue, and you want to play at 7 pm, why not log in at 6:30 and go do something else in the interim?
if you get logged in, just tap a key every now and then so you're not AFK
Most of Western Pennsylvania meets your criteria with the only exceptions being floods and tornados. There is lots of land that is flood-immune and tornados have only hit a sparce few times in the last number of years. I'll get the welcome mat out for you.
>>There is a valid point that Chess is a better game than Poker in society. I am speaking neutral not leaning toward Poker or Chess cause I hate them both anyways.
>>The game of Poker will never be open to all audiences. It is a game aimed at RICH adults, limiting the potential audience. I am not saying you and your college buddies can't get together and play free poker. But schools would never encourage the game like Chess. There is a real scientific aspect to Chess that Poker does not have.
Yeah, that explains why there are SO many chess tournaments held as fund raisers for churches, non-profits and school activities compared to poker tournaments (rolls eyes). Chess is aimed at the richest of the rich -- the people who can afford the tutors to make it to an elite level. I can go buy Super System vols 1 and 2 for $60 and be ahead of the game in poker.
Let me rephrase this -- i'm a good poker player and an average chess player -- I don't study chess at all but I know the strategy enough to beat the tar out of someone who doesn't really play. If you sat me down heads up against, lets say Chris Ferguson, in 100 matches of texas hold 'em, I win 20. Even though he's one of the top players in the world. I sit down across from Kasparov + co. in 100 chess matches I don't have a prayer of even drawing one game.
So which game do you think is more likely to draw an audience? Sorry, I'd write more but I can't wait to catch ESPN's presentation of the world series of chess.....
I think you're wrong on this -- the appeal of team sports games is to be your favorite players and see what they do -- Michael Vick, Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, etc. Nobody opens up a golf game saying 'I can't wait to tee off as Duffy Waldorf!'. You play golf games for the courses and the challenge, not for the individual players (aside from Woods and Mickelson). Any team sports game today without 'name' players isn't going to do even a fraction as good as the same game with real players.
I might feel some sympathy if we knew the salary info...if this guy is making 45K a year and doing this, he's getting f'ed, but if he's making 95k a year, I'd have a lot less sympathy...
yeah, nanowrimo is taking some serious time away from the important things like GTA:SA...they need to coordinate the dates better...
Despite what ESPN would have you believe, there are a large number of people who play games other than "No-limit hold 'em'", namely Limit and Omaha. Each of those games are based FAR more on mathematical odds, probability, and having the nuts as opposed to the bluffing and gamesmanship required for No-Limit. It would be much much easier to program a bot that could play Limit and Omaha profitably. No-Limit and preventing collusion are a much more difficult task.
Never said either side was exactly rocket scientists. Of course, the person who accepted the bill worked at a Fashion Bug...not exactly a haven for those who have prime SATs.
There are plenty of things Republicans have done in the past (and present) to sway elections. I just don't like hearing Democrats acting all high and mighty about it as if they're crap smells sweeter.
You FOOL! How dare you provide a link to something that helps to disprove what Our Lord and Savior Michael Moore and all those brilliant Hollywood-Types have been telling us! Next thing you'll be telling us is that voting locations in St. Louis were kept open hours later as they bussed in the homeless or that mental health patients in Pennsylvania were wheeled to polling places with the word "GORE" magic markered on their arm. Quit spreading such dastardly lies!!
On a related note, none of this would have been a problem if there wasn't an electoral college, but a pure popular vote would do little to stop corruption. In Chicago, they know that fudging the votes towards a Democratic president won't help much since Illinois is already going to the Democrat. But, if their votes count directly with and against the rest of the nation, you can be sure they'll throw thousands of Snowball I's into the mix.
What keeps me off Linux, I'll tell you, and no, I'm not trying to put this off as flamebait.
I have been a computer geek type since I was old enough to sit and type. I have been working with computers for over 20 years in one fashion or another, so while I might not be a guru on them, I know what I'm doing. So when I built my own computer in the fall of 2002, I decided to install Mandrake Linux (what was available at the store) to give it a whirl. Biggest mistake I ever made.
First off, the 'easy' installation took me hours to do, then it decided to keep freezing once I got it running. Then one thing stopped working after another, and I was spending more time trying to figure out what was wrong than spending time using my computer. I deleted the installation, put Windows XP home on the PC, firewall, anti-spyware, hell, I'll even download firefox or something. My windows PC WORKS FOR ME AND DOES WHAT I NEED IT TO DO. Nothing anyone could say about Linux after my experience with Mandrake will change that. I have a working PC that maybe crashes once a month. I can live with that and buying WinXP rather than spending hours cruising through message boards to figure out why my modem drivers weren't working correctly (and yes, I had to do that)
In short, Linux might be right for some people. For me and what I wanted, it was wrong, and I don't plan on going back. To the Linux zealots (not Linux users), add up the amount of time that you've spent having to 'tweak' something that you wouldn't have to do in Windows (and downloading patches doesn't count -- I do that while reading Slashdot). Multiply those hours by whatever dollar emount you choose and see what value you've had to spend on Linux. It's probably a lot less than an XP install.
Sorry if this offends any Linux people, but my experience is my experience and I can't change it.
Peace
In Allegheny County, PA, you can go to the county assessment website (http://www2.county.allegheny.pa.us/RealEstate/Sea rch.asp)
and search on street name, address, OWNER, etc. In the information for most houses are also the pictures of said house. So this is nothing really new, at least around here.
Just to add to that, at XU (CompSci class of '00 here) since the Math and CS (and to an extent, Physics) student population is so small, in many of the foundation classes, you find yourself intermingling and working with people from other disciplines and learning from them as well. It gives you a good exposure into how a person who is a physics major tackles a Discrete Math (assuming that course is still around) problem versus how you might.
>>Larry Rosin, the president of Somerville, N.J.-based Edison Media Research, said it was absurd to suggest that the Internet and file sharing have not had a profound effect on the music industry.
>>"Anybody who says that the Internet has not affected sales is just not paying attention to what is going on out there," he said. "It's had an effect on everything else in life, why wouldn't it have an effect on this?"
So who is to say it hasn't had a positive effect? Notice he leaves what TYPE of effect out.
Homer has already jumped the shart -- DABF12 -- Gump Roast. They show him literally jumping the shark. Groening and company know how to make fun of themselves, and that's just an inside reference for those of us that notice those things.
And the fact that I knew exactly which episode it happened in, and only had to look at snpp.com to find the ep. ## scares me...
>>Meanwhile, anyone who flies through PIT will see banners everywhere celebrating "Yesterday's Airport of Tomorrow". Um, yeah...I suppose that makes it the airport of today...they put up plaques explaining the glorious and futuristic history of the airport, and how traveller friendly it is. Citizens of the Twenty First Century, fly PIT, fly the Future!
While I appreciate the fact that you pay attention to the banners there, you're a little off in terms of what they mean. Those banners refer to the OLD Pittsburgh International Airport (now since relegated to cargo planes), which, when it opened 50+ years ago, WAS The Airport of Tomorrow. As opposed to some other airports, Pittsburgh International IS pretty modern and with the times. Like many other airports, the biggest complaint there is the lack of a larger security area, which was originally designed NOT with post 9/11 security measures in mind. The banners for the new Pittsburgh International make note of how it used to be a farm.
BTW--here's your trivia du jour -- Pittsburgh International is the largest major airport in America not directly serviced by an Interstate -- They are trying to get Route 60 (and 22/30) designated as part of I-376 so they no longer have that distinction.
Good luck getting snail mail through quickly anymore after the White House/Congress Ricin scares. Mail is going to take that much longer (it was at a 2-3 week delay before the latest round, IIRC). A fax is probably a much better idea.
>>For example, you mean to tell me that since the last space shuttle crash, which was only a year ago, they had time to modify their Mars lander design to include that "In Memoriam" placard that's on there? They would have had to do it almost immediately after the crash because it takes time to get to Mars. A long time.
Columbia crashed in early Feb. They launched the Mars Spirit Rover in June. Call me crazy but I think that's enough time to add a metal plate.
>>PA is also building new exits on the Turnpike that only accept EZ-Pass. There was a rumor that EZ-Pass would only pay for itself if enough people ran the tolls and were fined. Then it was rumored that enough people were not doing it. Now PA is making it impossible to exit without EZ-Pass
I wish they did that. So far, there is only one EZ-Pass only exit, near Philly. It leads straight into an industrial park, and is only accessable, both onto and off of the turnpike on the Westbound lanes.
If there are plans for EZ Pass Slip Exits anywhere on this side of Breezewood to Ohio, I have yet to hear or read anything about it. I'd hardly call that forcing everyone to get EZ Pass. Most Eastern PA Exits have 2, at most, EZ Pass lanes open in rush hour, reserving the majority for everyone else.
Marge: So, did you call any of your friends?0
Lisa: Friend? [scoffs] These are my only friends.
[holds up a book]
Grownup nerds like Gore Vidal, and even he's kissed more boys
than I ever will.
Marge: Girls, Lisa. Boys kiss girls.
The primary targets appear to be gambling sites.
I also think in part it's because in certain areas of the world, those sites will get a lot less sympathy from outside authorities, especially if the activities are illegal in those areas. If I'm an authority in Country A, and someone tells me that people in my country are crippling servers for a Company B in Country B, where the service Company B provides is illegal in my part of Country A, I'm going to be a lot less enthusiastic about helping them track down said hackers.
I know of more than a few non-technical people who still were able to figure out Napster/Kazaa/etc and download songs who deleted EVERY .mp3 the second they heard about RIAA lawsuits/etc. They didn't understand that the RIAA was going after sharers--they heard 'mp3' and 'lawsuit' in the same sentence and freaked out. Granted, this is just anecdotal and not representative of the whole population, but I think it's an attitude more than just a few people had.
I have a feeling a good number of other people did the same thing, even if they did just rip the music from their purchased CDs. To the uninformed, it must look really scary.
Here's what worries me with my EZ Pass on the PA Turnpike.
Whose to say I don't travel 75 miles in 60 minutes (as recorded at the exits...humor me, they're exactly that far apart), and then they send me a ticket for speeding (It's 65 MPH)
The day I hear of that happening for real, I'm throwing my EZ Pass out the window.
Just mash the keypad with your hand and we'll send you a special dialing/voting wand.
Read This, take from it what you will, I'm not saying that it is all true or all false, but brings up interesting points, including that McVeigh had Middle Eastern connections.
As for racial profiling, lets just say that for arguments sake, that McVeigh had some Middle Eastern help. Then you add up OKC, WTC '93, 9/11, USS Cole, US Embassies in Africa, etc...over 30 men of Middle Eastern origin or decent, between the ages of 18-40, and 2 white guys. Does that justify racial profiling? Maybe not, but it's certainly enough to bring it to the table for discussion.
If I remember my physics correctly, there are approx 2^(1E80) particles in the universe. This is going to be one heck of a long barcode. I hope I'm not in a supermarket self-checkout line with someone with a whole basket of these things. :-)