Because with all those biometric recognition system/ATM, all a junky robber would need off would be to cut my finger/eye/head whatever and try to match it against the ATM. With pin code they at least need you alive to tell them what the pin is.
In 5 years, once the activation server is down, or in 10 or whatever, what you got is a pretty coaster because you can't activate your legally purchased game without a crack.
OTOH about your points :
* you can automatically patches if you program for it. That msot game except MMOG don't do it isn't because of a technical ground, but rather a money/marketing ground. So no advantage here.
* I can install normal CD on many computer as I want, and only play on the one I have the physical CD. No change either here.
* Delivery isn't as convenient as you say, if you do not have a broad band, or a nice DSL. Heck with a 26 modem I can order something on an online store and it is delivered at home. But Steam would be unusable on such a connection.
I am sorry, but you are overplaying the advantage a lot. True this is a new mode of delivery for those which want the game on the day retail begin to sell it, but do not make up things out of thin air. This is pretty much the only advantage, the rest is only nice for the company selling the game.
You do realize than there isn't a weaker or stronger between the US and the world, right ? This is more of a symbiotic relationship. if the US start destroying the weorld, their economy and own population way's of life would go the down crapper since they CANNOT sustain it without the rest of the world. The rest of the world OTOH could very well live without the US. Imagine *JUST* a second that the rest of the world would say "from now on, we , the world, boycoitt fully the US". No more oil from orient. no more primary ressource. no more China manufactured product. no more european product. Nothing. How quick do you think the US would fall ? OTOH if the US close completly its frontier to the rest of the world, sure things would go bad a few month until economical curent stabilize themselves.
And that's it. most of the world need *manufactureed* product, which the US produce less and less, whereas US main product, "services" is a luxury for the rest of the world.
"The majority of the planet is weaker than the US, dependent on the US, or desperately in need of the US for protection or stability." so much for the rebuttal of this.
As for this : "The US is significantly safer in many, many ways. However, it is clearly not secure." I will let civil libertarian judge themselves the veracity of that. I will certainly prefer be at the mercy of a few terrorist attack once a while rather than see the slow rise of a police state in my own country, but hey, it is your own country after all. If you wish we can put collar with tracking device , as well as microphone linked to a carnivore like big network system on everybody in the country, thus completly defeating forever terrorist and making US a looooot more secure.
What you describe is a break against religious moral and not an ETHICAL decision. Using stem cell for something other than what the "great plan of God" is against religious moral. On the other hand, ethic does not burden itself with "religious moral" but about what is right to do within a society. Proof : if you erase the religious moral from the debat, by going in a more religious relaxed society (and do not mistake it US society at large is really religious strict, just look at how easily have people censor some book or other stuff but that is another debat) then the religious moral argument DISAPPEAR and stem cell research becomes "authorised" or ethical for the purpose of curing illness. If it was only a question of ethic then every western society would in mass have blocked stem cell research. But it is not the fact, even western traditional catholic countries have authorised it (France / Italy ?). Now those country have imposed a ban on stem cell research for OTHER purpose (reproduction, Cosmetic etc...).
Now about the real ethical question : Is it ethic to let go a mass of cell go to waste , and be incinerated, when it could be used to search for cures against illness that would heal people with sever neural injury ? No it is not have already decided many country the other side of the pond.
I mean, passively not carring who visit the web site , and only have content for US is fine, after all it is a political web site. But actively blocking the rest of the world... That comming for our world cooperator "pres. Bush"... I am strongly wishing that this MUST be an error of the net admin, not on purpose...
I mean, aren't they actively purporting that water keep memory and stuff as to "proove" their non-scientific theory ? Well next time one try to convince me, I will just let speak of what hapenned with the water he drinks;).
is that sometimes, you are so prepared that you feel the need to create your own war, out of various reason (religious, self righteousness, hidden WMD). A lot of people around here feel that the US long ago went beyond the "preparing for war" step and are way into the "being a master at crushing opponent mercilessly" and thus those other country feel the need to take "inssurance" that the US will not do war against them, for example by seeking out WMD themselves or targeting local population to make sure any battle would be extremly bloody. In other word, when the #1 army in the world is preparing for war, and you do not have any chance with conventional way, then use the dirtiest nasty trick you can to make sure that #1 army will hesitate a bit.
I have to wonder anyway why US has to prepare to war against country half the world away which could not care less about the US if left at their own devices. Especially with Checheny which is right now mostly a russian problem. How about a new US doctrine "Let other be". US might try that and becomming the #1 preparing for diplomacy, would be nice isn't it ? And by diplomacy I do not mean putting a lot of pressure on the population by cutting economic aids or closing markets. Or what about #1 helping countries without STRING attached ? Or how about being #1 at helping themselves by transfering a big part of their military project to education, or social ?
IIRC parody is when you take a work, and in an intent of humor you change it. In that case one could argue that a film is composed of two things : a copyrighted sound band, and a copyrighted image band, the film being recomposed by being the two together. So if you use the image part and change the sound part it isn't enough. You would have to change both, maybe by adding pink dancing bunny on every scene. Mind you I do not know how the law on parody is amde, but I saw time and time at the end of the films that "the sound band is (c) paramount as well as the image of therein film" , i.e. : separate entity.
And not of the german paradox (german are big beer drinker as opposed to to French wine drinking habits). AFAIK then French paradox is that the number of cardiac illness being lower in France despite a very fatty food habits, and it is thougth to be partially caused by wine drinking... Or so i remmember. I might be wrong ehre so feel free to correct me.
Can't somebody here write up a quick summary of what is said in the MP3 by Hammil ? I dunno for you all, but 1) I can't access the web site in the article summary 2) anyway the MP3 I downloaded from a mirror is so down in quality that as a foreigner which understand only oxford english, it is useless to me.
My kingdom for a quick summary in WRITTEN WORD. Ok maybe not my kingdom but at least my thanks...
"What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras"
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain"
Furthermore if you ban a book from the library because you DO NOT WANT YOUR OWN CHILD to see it, your forbid ALL OTHER CHILD to see it even if they parent would have authroised them. In other word censor is always wrong in such case. For pity's sake your example is wrong too, "the new joy of gay sex" would be in the ADULT section of your library and certainly unavailable to 4th grader (at least around ehre we have very young, young, teen , and adult section !!!).
I mean , the skarlov russian guy (spelling?) which cracked some reader format (yeah I have a bad memory) and was arrested, well this is the same type of story. Except that it wasn't nazi mamorabelia offered from the USA into france, it was a cracked reader offered from russia into USA. Where is the difference ? As far as I remmember the law in USA is that it does not matter that your firm is not in the USA, what matter is that you have economic interrest and client in the USA. Why should the things be different in EU ? Because it tickle badly your "free speech" nerve ? Well sorry, but what is good for the one is good for everybody. Accept it.
I work for an airline check in, and this is not informative. We filter out the people which are allowed to seat at the emergency exit (no old, no frail, no handicaped, no young people, no dick/fat people, no blind, no deaf etc...) but we do not refuse them service, they are simply palced elsewhere. We have special flag at reservation and CKI to allow for this. And as far as i know refusing them service on ground that they are handicaped would be a ground for a discremination lawsuit and a hefty legal punishment in EU and US, as well as extremly bad PR.
When you ask for your ticket you specify "WCHR" (Wheelchair) and automatically the airline will have a special way of handling you. You won't wait hours in a queue, you will automatically prioritary be checked in. If you have to be "searched" you will be placed in front of everybody. And as the boarding will start you will be baorded before all other pax, depending on the airline, sometimes even before first class pax.
Bottom line is you have to signal it at TKT (reservation) and specify that due to health problem you can't wait.
Here around we studied it, for one major airline in EU. We wanted a "backup system" in case the main system went down. Total Cost, without maintenance, about *3 whole day* of traffic "benefits"... Yes, that much. Right now the project is still discussed but most of us thinks it is dead in the egg. Instead the "older" and "less powerfull" developpement system will be used in case of break down.
Redundancy is OK, as long as it is not bleeding you dry.
... People started entering the DVD player craze out of two reason : 1) tehre was suddenly a dearth of cheapo 30$ players, and the videothek only had the new Blockbuster in DVD, and rarely as VHS (the change was gradual with more DVD coming out then VHS). And frankly this is what forced me to give up on my VHS recorder to put a DVD player. I am not alone colleague did the same. As for picture/sound quality, I do not see any difference on my TV. It might be true on HDTV but around here HDTV are a RARE occurence. As for the rewind things, people do not seem to care that much (after all you need is push a button, do something else, and when you are ready take the VHS already rewinded out). So I doubt that for the average consummer without a gret equipement the advantage you cited are true. Even worse with DVD I am FORCE FEEDED advertising at the start of the DVD, with the DVD forbidding fast forward. Lately I had to take 15 minutes of ads before the feature. With VHS you can at least use the fast forward button....
For me it is far more complicated to drive a car than to do computer related stuff. You ned to be both able to react quickly to new situation, to pay attention to a big environnement "volume" (right, left, behind, ahead), and need to repsect some "law". OTOH for computer you only need the law, look at a small volume/surface of info, and do not need quick reflex. Less skill needed. No wonder I always found doing computer related stuff easier than driving a car. And we are not even speaking of "looking under the hood" here (like your example with exhaust manifold) we are only speaking of basical task (word using/excel using compared to driving).
You get paid a very low *fix* salary but beside that there is the compansation, stock option and so on.... this allow you to display a "reasonable" salary whereas if you really count all benefice, well he would be waaay over 137K.
...So pardon me if I do not udnerstand why after a big volume trade the price drop (ok) but after a smaller volume about 2 hours later the price go exactly back where it was. Check for yourself it is back at 4.6, even highier that it was the previous day.
In the case of Galileo I would certainly be devout if it save my life or allow me pursue my "hobbits" without being executed by the church once I am discovered. Never heard of the process on him ? Do you really think he would not have had another outcome if Galileo had not been known to be a devout ? And since victor write hsitory, how are we to know now that it wasn't FAKE worshipping by an intelligent guy seeing where the power-that-be are ?
Epure Si Mueve is all i have to say in conclusion.
You can't generate cheap vast amount of "dummy data", which have the same quality and diversity of real data for the same price as the real data. Most airline I know of, inclusive the one i work with, on their test system simply copy the real data over. This is really cheap in comparison to generating data. Furthermore our program change are tested against real data, which is more sure than testing against fake dummy data that might be skewed when you generated them.
This is also *WHY* we all have to sign non disclosure agreement on the DATA not on the source, because of the sensitiveness of the data like credit card info, frequent flyer,address etc... Whereas the source is nearly a public things for who care to get its hand on it.
I work in a small company where the board of director pay increase was in total equal to 500K per year. The total of money spent for the employee is 5M per year. Yeah, they gave themselves a nice bonus there and it amount to 10% of the total workforce cost. Mind you in the workforce cost there is also hardware, electricity and so on. So it is even worse than described because not all those 5M are salary...
DVD recorder price is going down. *yaaawn*. First the price of dvd (the one with film) is still SOOOooo high that now for the price of 3 dvd you can get a reader. Now the recorder will be cheap. To record *WHAT* ? With all those macrovision , protection scheme, DMCA, drm, and evil bit stopping you making copy of broadcast, what will be the usage of those device ? These day I am barely using my PVR to record anything...
Clean up here is meant as "to make the offending graffiti disappear". In other word, by breaking their law and using public property to make illegal advertising, smirnoff [the company] earned the right to make its illegal advertising disappear. Whether that illegal advertising was a grafffiti with ink, or a reverse clean up, or a big 10*5 poster does not matter. They have to make it disappear. As for the "hidden" message that the city is unclean, frankly with or without cleaning graffiti people see that the city is dirty, you are probably the only one thinking that... Random grafiti or clean up in form of ad make it worse. I as a citizen of a big city would rather have unclean wall than clean up ad grafiti. It does not matter that it is a clean up, it is the contrast between the grafitti and the rest of the wall which make it appear like vandalism.
Slashdot Mirror
Because with all those biometric recognition system/ATM, all a junky robber would need off would be to cut my finger/eye/head whatever and try to match it against the ATM. With pin code they at least need you alive to tell them what the pin is.
In 5 years, once the activation server is down, or in 10 or whatever, what you got is a pretty coaster because you can't activate your legally purchased game without a crack.
OTOH about your points : * you can automatically patches if you program for it. That msot game except MMOG don't do it isn't because of a technical ground, but rather a money/marketing ground. So no advantage here. * I can install normal CD on many computer as I want, and only play on the one I have the physical CD. No change either here. * Delivery isn't as convenient as you say, if you do not have a broad band, or a nice DSL. Heck with a 26 modem I can order something on an online store and it is delivered at home. But Steam would be unusable on such a connection.
I am sorry, but you are overplaying the advantage a lot. True this is a new mode of delivery for those which want the game on the day retail begin to sell it, but do not make up things out of thin air. This is pretty much the only advantage, the rest is only nice for the company selling the game.
You do realize than there isn't a weaker or stronger between the US and the world, right ? This is more of a symbiotic relationship. if the US start destroying the weorld, their economy and own population way's of life would go the down crapper since they CANNOT sustain it without the rest of the world. The rest of the world OTOH could very well live without the US. Imagine *JUST* a second that the rest of the world would say "from now on, we , the world, boycoitt fully the US". No more oil from orient. no more primary ressource. no more China manufactured product. no more european product. Nothing. How quick do you think the US would fall ? OTOH if the US close completly its frontier to the rest of the world, sure things would go bad a few month until economical curent stabilize themselves.
And that's it. most of the world need *manufactureed* product, which the US produce less and less, whereas US main product, "services" is a luxury for the rest of the world.
"The majority of the planet is weaker than the US, dependent on the US, or desperately in need of the US for protection or stability." so much for the rebuttal of this.
As for this : "The US is significantly safer in many, many ways. However, it is clearly not secure." I will let civil libertarian judge themselves the veracity of that. I will certainly prefer be at the mercy of a few terrorist attack once a while rather than see the slow rise of a police state in my own country, but hey, it is your own country after all. If you wish we can put collar with tracking device , as well as microphone linked to a carnivore like big network system on everybody in the country, thus completly defeating forever terrorist and making US a looooot more secure.
What you describe is a break against religious moral and not an ETHICAL decision. Using stem cell for something other than what the "great plan of God" is against religious moral. On the other hand, ethic does not burden itself with "religious moral" but about what is right to do within a society. Proof : if you erase the religious moral from the debat, by going in a more religious relaxed society (and do not mistake it US society at large is really religious strict, just look at how easily have people censor some book or other stuff but that is another debat) then the religious moral argument DISAPPEAR and stem cell research becomes "authorised" or ethical for the purpose of curing illness. If it was only a question of ethic then every western society would in mass have blocked stem cell research. But it is not the fact, even western traditional catholic countries have authorised it (France / Italy ?). Now those country have imposed a ban on stem cell research for OTHER purpose (reproduction, Cosmetic etc...).
Now about the real ethical question : Is it ethic to let go a mass of cell go to waste , and be incinerated, when it could be used to search for cures against illness that would heal people with sever neural injury ? No it is not have already decided many country the other side of the pond.
I mean, passively not carring who visit the web site , and only have content for US is fine, after all it is a political web site. But actively blocking the rest of the world... That comming for our world cooperator "pres. Bush"... I am strongly wishing that this MUST be an error of the net admin, not on purpose...
I mean, aren't they actively purporting that water keep memory and stuff as to "proove" their non-scientific theory ? Well next time one try to convince me, I will just let speak of what hapenned with the water he drinks ;).
is that sometimes, you are so prepared that you feel the need to create your own war, out of various reason (religious, self righteousness, hidden WMD). A lot of people around here feel that the US long ago went beyond the "preparing for war" step and are way into the "being a master at crushing opponent mercilessly" and thus those other country feel the need to take "inssurance" that the US will not do war against them, for example by seeking out WMD themselves or targeting local population to make sure any battle would be extremly bloody. In other word, when the #1 army in the world is preparing for war, and you do not have any chance with conventional way, then use the dirtiest nasty trick you can to make sure that #1 army will hesitate a bit.
I have to wonder anyway why US has to prepare to war against country half the world away which could not care less about the US if left at their own devices. Especially with Checheny which is right now mostly a russian problem. How about a new US doctrine "Let other be". US might try that and becomming the #1 preparing for diplomacy, would be nice isn't it ? And by diplomacy I do not mean putting a lot of pressure on the population by cutting economic aids or closing markets. Or what about #1 helping countries without STRING attached ? Or how about being #1 at helping themselves by transfering a big part of their military project to education, or social ?
IIRC parody is when you take a work, and in an intent of humor you change it. In that case one could argue that a film is composed of two things : a copyrighted sound band, and a copyrighted image band, the film being recomposed by being the two together. So if you use the image part and change the sound part it isn't enough. You would have to change both, maybe by adding pink dancing bunny on every scene. Mind you I do not know how the law on parody is amde, but I saw time and time at the end of the films that "the sound band is (c) paramount as well as the image of therein film" , i.e. : separate entity.
And not of the german paradox (german are big beer drinker as opposed to to French wine drinking habits). AFAIK then French paradox is that the number of cardiac illness being lower in France despite a very fatty food habits, and it is thougth to be partially caused by wine drinking... Or so i remmember. I might be wrong ehre so feel free to correct me.
Can't somebody here write up a quick summary of what is said in the MP3 by Hammil ? I dunno for you all, but 1) I can't access the web site in the article summary 2) anyway the MP3 I downloaded from a mirror is so down in quality that as a foreigner which understand only oxford english, it is useless to me.
My kingdom for a quick summary in WRITTEN WORD. Ok maybe not my kingdom but at least my thanks...
"What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras"
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain"
Furthermore if you ban a book from the library because you DO NOT WANT YOUR OWN CHILD to see it, your forbid ALL OTHER CHILD to see it even if they parent would have authroised them. In other word censor is always wrong in such case. For pity's sake your example is wrong too, "the new joy of gay sex" would be in the ADULT section of your library and certainly unavailable to 4th grader (at least around ehre we have very young, young, teen , and adult section !!!).
I mean , the skarlov russian guy (spelling?) which cracked some reader format (yeah I have a bad memory) and was arrested, well this is the same type of story. Except that it wasn't nazi mamorabelia offered from the USA into france, it was a cracked reader offered from russia into USA. Where is the difference ? As far as I remmember the law in USA is that it does not matter that your firm is not in the USA, what matter is that you have economic interrest and client in the USA. Why should the things be different in EU ? Because it tickle badly your "free speech" nerve ? Well sorry, but what is good for the one is good for everybody. Accept it.
I work for an airline check in, and this is not informative. We filter out the people which are allowed to seat at the emergency exit (no old, no frail, no handicaped, no young people, no dick/fat people, no blind, no deaf etc...) but we do not refuse them service, they are simply palced elsewhere. We have special flag at reservation and CKI to allow for this. And as far as i know refusing them service on ground that they are handicaped would be a ground for a discremination lawsuit and a hefty legal punishment in EU and US, as well as extremly bad PR.
When you ask for your ticket you specify "WCHR" (Wheelchair) and automatically the airline will have a special way of handling you. You won't wait hours in a queue, you will automatically prioritary be checked in. If you have to be "searched" you will be placed in front of everybody. And as the boarding will start you will be baorded before all other pax, depending on the airline, sometimes even before first class pax.
Bottom line is you have to signal it at TKT (reservation) and specify that due to health problem you can't wait.
Here around we studied it, for one major airline in EU. We wanted a "backup system" in case the main system went down. Total Cost, without maintenance, about *3 whole day* of traffic "benefits"... Yes, that much. Right now the project is still discussed but most of us thinks it is dead in the egg. Instead the "older" and "less powerfull" developpement system will be used in case of break down.
Redundancy is OK, as long as it is not bleeding you dry.
... People started entering the DVD player craze out of two reason : 1) tehre was suddenly a dearth of cheapo 30$ players, and the videothek only had the new Blockbuster in DVD, and rarely as VHS (the change was gradual with more DVD coming out then VHS). And frankly this is what forced me to give up on my VHS recorder to put a DVD player. I am not alone colleague did the same. As for picture/sound quality, I do not see any difference on my TV. It might be true on HDTV but around here HDTV are a RARE occurence. As for the rewind things, people do not seem to care that much (after all you need is push a button, do something else, and when you are ready take the VHS already rewinded out). So I doubt that for the average consummer without a gret equipement the advantage you cited are true. Even worse with DVD I am FORCE FEEDED advertising at the start of the DVD, with the DVD forbidding fast forward. Lately I had to take 15 minutes of ads before the feature. With VHS you can at least use the fast forward button....
For me it is far more complicated to drive a car than to do computer related stuff. You ned to be both able to react quickly to new situation, to pay attention to a big environnement "volume" (right, left, behind, ahead), and need to repsect some "law". OTOH for computer you only need the law, look at a small volume/surface of info, and do not need quick reflex. Less skill needed. No wonder I always found doing computer related stuff easier than driving a car. And we are not even speaking of "looking under the hood" here (like your example with exhaust manifold) we are only speaking of basical task (word using/excel using compared to driving).
You get paid a very low *fix* salary but beside that there is the compansation, stock option and so on.... this allow you to display a "reasonable" salary whereas if you really count all benefice, well he would be waaay over 137K.
...So pardon me if I do not udnerstand why after a big volume trade the price drop (ok) but after a smaller volume about 2 hours later the price go exactly back where it was. Check for yourself it is back at 4.6, even highier that it was the previous day.
In the case of Galileo I would certainly be devout if it save my life or allow me pursue my "hobbits" without being executed by the church once I am discovered. Never heard of the process on him ? Do you really think he would not have had another outcome if Galileo had not been known to be a devout ? And since victor write hsitory, how are we to know now that it wasn't FAKE worshipping by an intelligent guy seeing where the power-that-be are ? Epure Si Mueve is all i have to say in conclusion.
I would add to the list "planescape torment" which had pretty good sophisticated philosophical reference (but no religious one per see).
You can't generate cheap vast amount of "dummy data", which have the same quality and diversity of real data for the same price as the real data. Most airline I know of, inclusive the one i work with, on their test system simply copy the real data over. This is really cheap in comparison to generating data. Furthermore our program change are tested against real data, which is more sure than testing against fake dummy data that might be skewed when you generated them.
This is also *WHY* we all have to sign non disclosure agreement on the DATA not on the source, because of the sensitiveness of the data like credit card info, frequent flyer,address etc... Whereas the source is nearly a public things for who care to get its hand on it.
I work in a small company where the board of director pay increase was in total equal to 500K per year. The total of money spent for the employee is 5M per year. Yeah, they gave themselves a nice bonus there and it amount to 10% of the total workforce cost. Mind you in the workforce cost there is also hardware, electricity and so on. So it is even worse than described because not all those 5M are salary...
DVD recorder price is going down. *yaaawn*. First the price of dvd (the one with film) is still SOOOooo high that now for the price of 3 dvd you can get a reader. Now the recorder will be cheap. To record *WHAT* ? With all those macrovision , protection scheme, DMCA, drm, and evil bit stopping you making copy of broadcast, what will be the usage of those device ? These day I am barely using my PVR to record anything...
Clean up here is meant as "to make the offending graffiti disappear". In other word, by breaking their law and using public property to make illegal advertising, smirnoff [the company] earned the right to make its illegal advertising disappear. Whether that illegal advertising was a grafffiti with ink, or a reverse clean up, or a big 10*5 poster does not matter. They have to make it disappear. As for the "hidden" message that the city is unclean, frankly with or without cleaning graffiti people see that the city is dirty, you are probably the only one thinking that... Random grafiti or clean up in form of ad make it worse. I as a citizen of a big city would rather have unclean wall than clean up ad grafiti. It does not matter that it is a clean up, it is the contrast between the grafitti and the rest of the wall which make it appear like vandalism.