among other countries. Brazil would love to add world's only commercial spaceport to its list of national trophies/tourist attractions. So would Malaysia. So would a ton of other countries. If we don't get this approved, we'll see a lot of tech and cash go elsewhere.
I'm not sure, but I think there's another option open to people that hasn't been addressed here (or it's so unpopular it's been modded below my threshold.)
If you love the gaming industry and you've got a gripe, then you're probably just not in a situation that rewards the kind of effort demanded. But if you REALLY love gaming, then you've got a good game in you screaming to get out, right?/. has had good stories about how open source game dev yields less-than-stellar (and generally non-lifestyle-supporting) game projects. But what hasn't been covered is forming a startup to make your game and either 1) reward you appropriately for working insane hours or 2) prove what some people above have said about the optimum value of working a limited number of hours a week.
There's a lot of venture capital out there. People aren't giving it away on the street corners, but if you've really got a good game inside of you you ought to be able to find a marketing/business guy who loves games and will pitch your idea to the VCs because you've got a good game inside you. Ditto the art/creative people you'll need. If you can't build a good creative/technical/business team to do this you either 1) don't have a good game inside you or 2) don't have what it takes to make it a reality.
And before you rip my head off, you need to know that 1) I was the technical brain behind a startup that raised $750,000 in capital after the.com bubble burst and 2) I am making my first feature-length movie in my spare time in addition to working full-time as a software architect. People need to put up, shut up, or go to work coding the database behind some mega-store's on-line shopping cart.
Okay, NOW you can rip my head off.
How can you isolate for one variable?
on
Killer Ozone?
·
· Score: 1
I thought that hot, humid, still weather contributed to the level of ozone in the ground-level air. I know that Atlanta is crisp and clean in the fall/winter and a hazy nightmare in the summer. Is there a connection between hot, stuffy weather and cardiovascular stress, too? Or instead? This sounds a lot more like someone making a bold grab for tenure than good science.
This tiny moon is thought to be in a 'death spiral', slowly orbiting toward the surface of Mars. Here, Phobos was found to be about five kilometres ahead of its predicted orbital position. This could be an indication of an increased orbital speed associated with its secular acceleration, causing the moon to spiral in toward Mars.
Eventually Phobos could be torn apart by Martian gravity and become a short-lived ring around Mars, or even impact on the surface. This orbit will be studied in more detail over the lifetime of the Mars Express.
Well, crap. All my hopes pinned on a Mars colony letting the human race survive an asteroid impact and it's already got a a gun at its head and a bullet zipping down the barrel. Geologically speaking, of course.
This is the kind of thing all us hard-core geeks who grew up reading the Real Heinlein (from the '40s and 50s, before he got too preachy to tell a story) have dreamed of. A lot of really good geeks have died wanting to see this day.
Maybe a Mainframe Terminal of the Unknown Geek can be built for them. Instead of an eternal flame it could have an eternal Estes engine on it.
Awwww, precious! If only you had the balls to sign your post... And had the intelligence to realize that popularity contests score nothing other than popularity. Ah, well.
Golly, Garcia. If the movies are "SHITTY FUCKING" then don't, uh, download them illegally? If they're that bad, don't watch them.
All your raving is misfocused. People shouldn't pay to watch "SHITTY FUCKING" movies? No, people just shouldn't watch "SHITTY FUCKING" movies. Stealing something "SHITTY FUCKING" is still stealing.
"In fact, it turns me off more than anything." Well, good for you. Honest people can only relate anecdotes from what they know. If you can't relate to the anecdotes, then I only hope you could see his arguments without them.
Now, for a brief economics lesson: studios have to make movies that cost $100 million plus because they have billions of dollars. The truth is they'd love to make great movies with that money, but they have to get a return on their investment. This isn't consumers being limited by the studios: it's the studios responding to the market. I would much rather have my daughter see "The Secret of Roan Inish" than watching some mindless Olsen Twins vehicle. Guess what? Not many other people felt that way, or thay would have bought enough tickets to "Roan Inish" to prove movies like that are worthwhile investments.
McDonald's makes hamburgers because - surprise! - lots of people like hamburgers.
But, getting back to the price tag: a studio has to make big budget movies because they've only got a limited number of film crews, and they have to get a return on ALL their money. If I've got to invest two billion dollars this year, do I make 20 big films or 400 small ones? When the 400 small ones would force me to 1) Investigate 20 times the scripts (not just for quality, but legal rights) 2) build 20 times my existing soundstages 3) hire and equip 20 times the crews and 4) develop 20 times the marketing campaigns?
You wanna see what piracy gets ya? Move to Malaysia for a few years. They will NEVER come up with a major, world-enhancing piece of intellectual property because it gets STOLEN as soon as it appears. Sorry.
And while I can't recommend Anger Management the "SHITTY FUCKING" movie I can recommend Anger Management counselling to you.
we've had language support for KLINGON for, oh, how many star dates now? I can't wait to see how Babelfish mangles it: cruising for chicks becomes !@#@@#!!@@$##@#@ (kayaking for baby terns.)
I remember the first time I heard my (then future) wife swear. I mean, she's nicer than nice. No Damns, no Hells, nothing. Then I loaded up a ROM of Dig Dug and we were playing it (her favorite game of all time.) It was her turn and she's great at it, so I would settle in on the futon and read bewtween turns. I had just got my magazine open when I heard a voice out of the Exorcist say, "FUCK!!!!!!!" That's when I knew I had to make her mine.
Just saw it. Anakin gets red-rimmed yellow contacts to show he's evil. The wookies are taking over where the ewoks left off. Alec Guinness does the narration/explanation for most of the trailer... Thank goodness there was some decent monologues in Star Wars.
Of course, AOL folks get the "The making of" mini documentaries, where we all get to rage at the loving detail of George Lucas retrofitting explanations to his choices. It's fun! Could almost make a drinking game out of them.
Proving once again that Googling for the wrong thing will get you the wrong thing. The oil-for-food scandal is about (among other things) France's Interior Minister getting oil voucher bribes in exchange for France blocking actions against Iraq in the UN security council (not resolutions in the general assembly, actually acting on the resolutions in the security council.)
I'm not saying France gets most of its electricity from oil. I'm saying that France's Interior Minister accepted oil voucher bribes from Saddam Hussein to influence the U.N. Security Council to drop sanctions against Iraq so he could finish developing weapons of mass destruction. A lot of people like the idea of weaning us off oil because it would drastically reduce the funding available to Islamofascists.
We don't use oil as our primary means of generating electricity. We use coal. And then natural gas. Neither of which are big foreign dependencies for us. I guess you're suggesting that we use nuclear energy to break down water for hydrogen power? But the cost of that is more than the cost of gasoline at the current rate. Electric cars, maybe?
As much as some people hate to hear it, we're not fighting in the Middle East because of oil. We're there because we're fighting Islamofascism. Otherwise, we would have used Saddam as an oil-for-food crony the way France and Germany were.
We can wean ourselves off oil better with deisel-electric hybrids, which would give us the same efficiencyt as is projected with fuel cells, and burn vegetable oils as well as (or instead of) petroleum. Vegetable oil powered electric hybrids are actually Solar Powered (think about it.) Which means they're Nuclear Powered. So maybe that's how nuclear weans us off petroleum.
Heh... Line was just under 2 hours for me this morning. My wife voted at 2:30 this afternoon, and it took her 20 minutes. The good news is that we didn't have a rush hour this morning because of the voting, so I got to work quickly. I heard about a lot of moveon.org in the news setting up at polling places and hectoring voters. We don't get that here, I think because we Georgians heavily armed and most moveon folks are gun control zombies.
Wow. Where do you live? Here in suburban Atlanta, GA we waited in line almost two hours to vote for president back in 2000. Can't wait to see how it is tomorrow morning.
You know, I can't think of any other character someone would want to play besides Neo. I mean, really: how about security guard who gets shot to pieces number 23? Or Tryke: Dozer and Tank's dwarf amputee cousin? I'd love to be Agent Smith, but I don't think killing that drippy little wanna-be messiah would be too satisfying after the first two or three thousand times.
is that the game designers control the parameters through which you experience the world. For instance, you could have a game with a re-education camp you sent people to that made them better citizens. If you lead people up to the idea subtly enough, you could have some people think "Hey, maybe there IS something to it." Or quarantine camps to control an epidemic. Or, more subtly, some kind of research system that said, "If you throw $300 billion dollars at AIDS, you will cure it in 90 days" or something. It's easy to forget that there are systemic limits on the number of people with the aptitudes and inclinations to become biochemists, and that it takes 6-10 years of post-secondary education to get them to the point where they can make some kind of contribution to the effort. It leaves out that mutation is random and might frustrate our efforts for decades or even centuries.
Of course, in a race like this one the system might be written so that a "magic path" exists to halt terrorist attacks on us: abandon Israel, provide $40 billion in scholarships to Arab countries to study here and the game plays its victory sequence. It's a great new tool for propogandists. That's all.
Slashdot Mirror
among other countries. Brazil would love to add world's only commercial spaceport to its list of national trophies/tourist attractions. So would Malaysia. So would a ton of other countries. If we don't get this approved, we'll see a lot of tech and cash go elsewhere.
I'm not sure, but I think there's another option open to people that hasn't been addressed here (or it's so unpopular it's been modded below my threshold.)
/. has had good stories about how open source game dev yields less-than-stellar (and generally non-lifestyle-supporting) game projects. But what hasn't been covered is forming a startup to make your game and either 1) reward you appropriately for working insane hours or 2) prove what some people above have said about the optimum value of working a limited number of hours a week.
.com bubble burst and 2) I am making my first feature-length movie in my spare time in addition to working full-time as a software architect. People need to put up, shut up, or go to work coding the database behind some mega-store's on-line shopping cart.
If you love the gaming industry and you've got a gripe, then you're probably just not in a situation that rewards the kind of effort demanded. But if you REALLY love gaming, then you've got a good game in you screaming to get out, right?
There's a lot of venture capital out there. People aren't giving it away on the street corners, but if you've really got a good game inside of you you ought to be able to find a marketing/business guy who loves games and will pitch your idea to the VCs because you've got a good game inside you. Ditto the art/creative people you'll need. If you can't build a good creative/technical/business team to do this you either 1) don't have a good game inside you or 2) don't have what it takes to make it a reality.
And before you rip my head off, you need to know that 1) I was the technical brain behind a startup that raised $750,000 in capital after the
Okay, NOW you can rip my head off.
I thought that hot, humid, still weather contributed to the level of ozone in the ground-level air. I know that Atlanta is crisp and clean in the fall/winter and a hazy nightmare in the summer. Is there a connection between hot, stuffy weather and cardiovascular stress, too? Or instead? This sounds a lot more like someone making a bold grab for tenure than good science.
This tiny moon is thought to be in a 'death spiral', slowly orbiting toward the surface of Mars. Here, Phobos was found to be about five kilometres ahead of its predicted orbital position. This could be an indication of an increased orbital speed associated with its secular acceleration, causing the moon to spiral in toward Mars.
Eventually Phobos could be torn apart by Martian gravity and become a short-lived ring around Mars, or even impact on the surface. This orbit will be studied in more detail over the lifetime of the Mars Express.
Well, crap. All my hopes pinned on a Mars colony letting the human race survive an asteroid impact and it's already got a a gun at its head and a bullet zipping down the barrel. Geologically speaking, of course.
that when I flush a toilet the water looks like a spiral galazy as it goes down the sewer? Sounds like God leaned on the handle.
This is the kind of thing all us hard-core geeks who grew up reading the Real Heinlein (from the '40s and 50s, before he got too preachy to tell a story) have dreamed of. A lot of really good geeks have died wanting to see this day.
Maybe a Mainframe Terminal of the Unknown Geek can be built for them. Instead of an eternal flame it could have an eternal Estes engine on it.
Awwww, precious! If only you had the balls to sign your post... And had the intelligence to realize that popularity contests score nothing other than popularity. Ah, well.
Awww, Precious! If only you had the balls to sign your name to your post...
Golly, Garcia. If the movies are "SHITTY FUCKING" then don't, uh, download them illegally? If they're that bad, don't watch them.
All your raving is misfocused. People shouldn't pay to watch "SHITTY FUCKING" movies? No, people just shouldn't watch "SHITTY FUCKING" movies. Stealing something "SHITTY FUCKING" is still stealing.
"In fact, it turns me off more than anything." Well, good for you. Honest people can only relate anecdotes from what they know. If you can't relate to the anecdotes, then I only hope you could see his arguments without them.
Now, for a brief economics lesson: studios have to make movies that cost $100 million plus because they have billions of dollars. The truth is they'd love to make great movies with that money, but they have to get a return on their investment. This isn't consumers being limited by the studios: it's the studios responding to the market. I would much rather have my daughter see "The Secret of Roan Inish" than watching some mindless Olsen Twins vehicle. Guess what? Not many other people felt that way, or thay would have bought enough tickets to "Roan Inish" to prove movies like that are worthwhile investments.
McDonald's makes hamburgers because - surprise! - lots of people like hamburgers.
But, getting back to the price tag: a studio has to make big budget movies because they've only got a limited number of film crews, and they have to get a return on ALL their money. If I've got to invest two billion dollars this year, do I make 20 big films or 400 small ones? When the 400 small ones would force me to 1) Investigate 20 times the scripts (not just for quality, but legal rights) 2) build 20 times my existing soundstages 3) hire and equip 20 times the crews and 4) develop 20 times the marketing campaigns?
You wanna see what piracy gets ya? Move to Malaysia for a few years. They will NEVER come up with a major, world-enhancing piece of intellectual property because it gets STOLEN as soon as it appears. Sorry.
And while I can't recommend Anger Management the "SHITTY FUCKING" movie I can recommend Anger Management counselling to you.
we've had language support for KLINGON for, oh, how many star dates now? I can't wait to see how Babelfish mangles it: cruising for chicks becomes !@#@@#!!@@$##@#@ (kayaking for baby terns.)
an eskimo get when he sits on his igloo too long? Polaroids!
I remember the first time I heard my (then future) wife swear. I mean, she's nicer than nice. No Damns, no Hells, nothing. Then I loaded up a ROM of Dig Dug and we were playing it (her favorite game of all time.) It was her turn and she's great at it, so I would settle in on the futon and read bewtween turns. I had just got my magazine open when I heard a voice out of the Exorcist say, "FUCK!!!!!!!" That's when I knew I had to make her mine.
Just saw it. Anakin gets red-rimmed yellow contacts to show he's evil. The wookies are taking over where the ewoks left off. Alec Guinness does the narration/explanation for most of the trailer... Thank goodness there was some decent monologues in Star Wars.
Of course, AOL folks get the "The making of" mini documentaries, where we all get to rage at the loving detail of George Lucas retrofitting explanations to his choices. It's fun! Could almost make a drinking game out of them.
Proving once again that Googling for the wrong thing will get you the wrong thing. The oil-for-food scandal is about (among other things) France's Interior Minister getting oil voucher bribes in exchange for France blocking actions against Iraq in the UN security council (not resolutions in the general assembly, actually acting on the resolutions in the security council.)
I'm not saying France gets most of its electricity from oil. I'm saying that France's Interior Minister accepted oil voucher bribes from Saddam Hussein to influence the U.N. Security Council to drop sanctions against Iraq so he could finish developing weapons of mass destruction. A lot of people like the idea of weaning us off oil because it would drastically reduce the funding available to Islamofascists.
We don't use oil as our primary means of generating electricity. We use coal. And then natural gas. Neither of which are big foreign dependencies for us. I guess you're suggesting that we use nuclear energy to break down water for hydrogen power? But the cost of that is more than the cost of gasoline at the current rate. Electric cars, maybe?
As much as some people hate to hear it, we're not fighting in the Middle East because of oil. We're there because we're fighting Islamofascism. Otherwise, we would have used Saddam as an oil-for-food crony the way France and Germany were.
We can wean ourselves off oil better with deisel-electric hybrids, which would give us the same efficiencyt as is projected with fuel cells, and burn vegetable oils as well as (or instead of) petroleum. Vegetable oil powered electric hybrids are actually Solar Powered (think about it.) Which means they're Nuclear Powered. So maybe that's how nuclear weans us off petroleum.
That the huge banner advert for Doom 3 next to this story listing on /. was PURELY coincidental. Purely.
Repeat after me: Pong is not a stress test. Pong is not a stress test.
Heh... Line was just under 2 hours for me this morning. My wife voted at 2:30 this afternoon, and it took her 20 minutes. The good news is that we didn't have a rush hour this morning because of the voting, so I got to work quickly. I heard about a lot of moveon.org in the news setting up at polling places and hectoring voters. We don't get that here, I think because we Georgians heavily armed and most moveon folks are gun control zombies.
Wow. Where do you live? Here in suburban Atlanta, GA we waited in line almost two hours to vote for president back in 2000. Can't wait to see how it is tomorrow morning.
You know, I can't think of any other character someone would want to play besides Neo. I mean, really: how about security guard who gets shot to pieces number 23? Or Tryke: Dozer and Tank's dwarf amputee cousin? I'd love to be Agent Smith, but I don't think killing that drippy little wanna-be messiah would be too satisfying after the first two or three thousand times.
Cell phone use is outlawed in Georgia Polling stations, for which I am very grateful. In line outside, on the other hand...
Now the Olson Twins can have a private jet that assists their weight-loss regimen.
Well, only those mobile-only users dumb enough to let their phone numbers get listed.
is that the game designers control the parameters through which you experience the world. For instance, you could have a game with a re-education camp you sent people to that made them better citizens. If you lead people up to the idea subtly enough, you could have some people think "Hey, maybe there IS something to it." Or quarantine camps to control an epidemic. Or, more subtly, some kind of research system that said, "If you throw $300 billion dollars at AIDS, you will cure it in 90 days" or something. It's easy to forget that there are systemic limits on the number of people with the aptitudes and inclinations to become biochemists, and that it takes 6-10 years of post-secondary education to get them to the point where they can make some kind of contribution to the effort. It leaves out that mutation is random and might frustrate our efforts for decades or even centuries.
Of course, in a race like this one the system might be written so that a "magic path" exists to halt terrorist attacks on us: abandon Israel, provide $40 billion in scholarships to Arab countries to study here and the game plays its victory sequence. It's a great new tool for propogandists. That's all.