Am I the only one that sees irony in the fact Sid Meier, a guy who takes 3 years to make games that take 30 hours to play being mentioned in the same sentence as 48 hour game making session...?
A: Support Expires B: Release New OS C: No One Adopts New OS D: "SOMEONE" Develops a rootkit\virus\malware that targets old OS. E: Anti-Virus keeps the old OS limping along F: Anti-Virus vendors keep releasing updates to prevent new viruses\rootkits\etc. G: Over time thousands, if not millions of Old OS systems get infected by root kits that the large population isn't aware of. H: Create a new patch that specifically, when coupled with the largely ignored\unnoticed rootkit\virus\malware, makes Old OS unuseable. I: Choice: switch to Linux or upgrade to New OS. J: Laugh histerically as at least 50% upgrade to New OS and you bath in $20 bills soaked in Champaign. K: Profit.
Reads like a Tom Clancy novel of industrial espionage. We are just missing a lone whistleblower to out the research in making the patch kill the machine with the rootkit...
The leaked email would read:
Engineer - "There is a 80% chance this patch would cause a kernel halt if they have the rootkit."
Boss - "Would an upgrade to New OS be impacted if their machine died?"
Engineer - "No I dont think so."
Boss - "Great so 80% of those Old OS hold outs will need to upgrade to New OS right?"
Engineer - "They could go to Alt OS out of frustration sir."
Boss - "Yeah but they aren't New OS customer anyway. Even if 50% of them go to Alt OS we are talking a boom of at least 2-3 million new New OS customers! It's brilliant!"
What about the simplest answer provided by our fellow Amish:
Perhaps a truely advanced civilization achieves a sustainable parity on their planet and have no reason to colonize the galaxy.
[Being Rambling Optional Commentary]
Perhaps the logical conclusion to an advanced society is the development of a simple "Our planet can sustain X number of us. We achived that goal and now live sustainable on our planet with a targeted X population."
The Amish lifestyle, if they were a majority of the planet, would be pretty darn stealthy.
Leveraging the Samer theory (if true) then likely they would bury most artifical EM to shield people from the normal white noise we are used to and optical carriers used for data as a best-in-class communication medium.
A technologically advanced civilization would be efficent and leak very little "noise" into the universe. Also their ability to live "sustainably" on a planet would likely drive the need to colonize more then a system or two moot. More then likely large city-ships just out in the middle of nowhere are more likely.
where were the teabaggers when Bust ran that debt up
They were doing the same thing then, they were just called fiscal conservatives. There wasn't any ratings in covering them. The marketing aspects of conservatives and liberals is as stark as marketing to blacks and caucasians and asians. They are different in their tastes, background, and life experiences. No one covered 3000 protesters complaining about Bush's spending because they weren't marketable. Now that they have a slogan, theme (tea party) that is catchy and marketable, they get coverage.
It isn't the squeaky wheel that gets the media grease, it's the interesting sqeaky wheel that gets the grease. Conservative protester are pretty boring and lack a good hot-chick ratio...
Yep 340 as 8:49 PM CST total. So out of more then 2,000,000+ units AND assuming that all of them are correct that comes out to... well.... far from a storm. Read through the first thread of 160, 18 posts of people actually claiming to have a problem. I'm honestly not going to bother with the other thread. I'll give you 100% of those as users with a problem.
Installed the update. Still can stream by TV shows from my media server to the PS3 no problems. My online purchased Burnout Paradise works just fine. Watched Ironman on Blu-Ray, no issues. Bayonetta works just fine as does Eternal Sonata, Guitar Hero 3, Disegia, and Soul Calibur.
Not one issue. Since I have not had a problem with mine, and as the FUD article clearly states 'since I as a small minority of millions of units out there must clearly speak for all units' and as such there are no problems with bricking as a result of this patch.
Or as reality indicates: The bricked units fall within the norm of bricked units without the patch. Units die all the time as a % of the existing units. NOTHING in the article nor any other outlet indicates that there is an increased number of functional units suddenly becoming bricked as a result of the patch itself. I don't dispute that may be the case, but this garbage posing as news doesn't indicate that. THE FUD Factory (aka the poster) says a STORM of complains but the linked article only states a few but doesn't cite a source, forum, anything...
Some users are reporting infinite loops where the installation routine never completes, others are complaining about the inability to use a variety of different controllers during the process.
Reporting where? Forums, Sony, Phone, Telepathy? SOME USERS IS NOT A STORM. Why can't we start banning people from slashdot that just make shit up that has nothing to do with the article and fire some of these deadbeat FUD artists (You still here Kdawson? WTF!) for posting this crap. I get enough bullshit from my politicians I don't need it from moderators and editors too...
Standard: Correlation != to Causation disclaimer.
The question is: did the new firmware break something thus bricking the unit (No otherwise we would have a substantial % of units bricked and 1up, Gamespy, etc would by inindated with Forums 300 pages and 4000 posts in length bitching about their PS3s dying...)
Did the firmware update expose an already existing problem that unit and now, with the patch, bricks the unit (likely if the % of units reporting problems doesn't change, this would prompt Sony to respond rather quickly and shift into damage control real fast)
Did the firmware conflict with some existing software or configuration that now with the patch exposes a conflict rendering the unit a brick? (Possible and most likely but we need to compare the configuration of the bricked units to see what the bricked units have in common with one another but do not have in common with non-bricked units.)
e.g.
Sample A (Working) has AABBAA Sample B (Bricks) has ACCBBA Sample C (Working) has ACBAA
We could determine that possibly the firmware conflicts with having CC in the mix (whatever CC may be) in contrast to a single C. But privacy concerns would limit a company from auditing (even anonymously) the inventory of a game console.
A: Taco... READ THE ARTICLE THE POSTER IS CITING AND IF THEY DON'T MATCH UP, DON'T POST FUD!
B: Stoobalou QUIT MAKING SHIT UP IN YOUR SUMMARY. A STORM != SOME USERS. It's called FACT CHECKING. TRY IT
If by your logic, then price gouging is perfectly acceptable.
Evil is a subjective concept by which society measures benefit verus hazard to society.
Greed is good by your logic. Going back to the question "How much is enough" you clearly side on the "It's never enough". And no one is implying theft.
Profit (Net specifically) is an excess above the value of an object. The law of supply and demand factor in a free market environment. The reason the morality of profit has been and always will be in dispute is because there are no true free markets. In a pure free market You would sell a widget at $20 dollars (lets say you have a $10 markup) and I am unwilling to pay for it. Someone e else in a free market would come in to undercut the competition at $15 dollars ($5 markup). I buy that. The reality of economics, especially post minium wage erased the pure free market. Add in a botched patent system, litigation system (with no tort reform likely), and a copyright system gutted of it's original purpose. Add in resource scarcity and you have a mess and at it's core, a lust for unstatainable profit growth.
The advent of the public corporation means that you either have to have an infinite capability to improve the efficeny of create a widget (lowering endlessly the cost of the widget's creation) in order to continue to grow. The concept of Profit then puts pressure on the manufacture to not only improve the product's margin indefinately (which is impossible) but also build cost-of-entry barriers, resource constraints (see net neutrality) and all sorts of unpleasentries (See Big Oil).
"The love of money is the root of all evil" was accurate in ways you fail to see apparently.
How is this a set back? That statement assumes they aren't already throttling the piss out of traffic. I can download at 258kbps from Microsoft no problem. I can got to Hulu and clear 259kbps. I try and update World of Warcraft (which uses p2p) and I suddenly get 49kbps. I download Ubuntu Linux at 49kbps. In fact ANY torrent is exactly capped at 49kbps.(unless I turn on Protocol Encryption Only then magically that 49kbps cap vanishes...) I can download from any non-major website and get 128kbps... capped. (Simtropolis for example, sourceforge, etc.)
A SET BACK implies they are not throttling already.
And the kicker... If I start a torrent my bandwidth appears to be capped at 49kbps for about 3 hours afterwards.
a.k.a Boot Computer Download by Excel files from work at about 109kbps. Start a torrent and let it run for about 30 minutes while I take a shower. Torrent appears capped at 49kbps. Stop the torrent and close Utorrent. Download the same excel files from work... at 49kbps.... Wait 1 hour... try again... 49kbps Wait 1 hour... try again... 49kbps Wait 1 hour... suddenly back to about 109kbps...
Next Day: Boot computer Download excel files from work 109kbps. Open Forced Protocol Encryption torrent 256-290kbps for torrent. Close torrent. Download excel files from work 109kbps. Open WoW to update and suddenly total bandwidth drops to 49kbps....
Sorry it isn't a set back, it's "Court Affirms Right for ISPs to CONTINUE to throttle traffic."
As long as this stands non-megacorporations don't stand a chance when say Facebook will be allowed to buy a high service level then a competitor. There is nothing preventing Comcast in offering 21 Tier 1 SLA blocks 200 Tier 2 SLA blocks 1000 Tier 3 SLA Blocks
and bucketing all non-sla buyers in a T4 bucket. Then they can auction the top 21 blocks and charge substantial fees for the 2 and 3 blocks.
The capitalization of preferred service levels isn't new and the anti-competitive abuse that comes with it will be par for the course.
I remember studying the horrors of the Eugenics movement but I have to say... everyone of those people... might do us some good to keep dumb people from having too many kids who will also grow up to fear alien invasions from flying saucers...
Score +1 for the Idiocracy again... So far this week we are at a record of 33 points for the idiocracy and it's only Tuesday...
I mean even if there were aliens attacking, LOOK UP and if the skies are clear... no aliens in flying saucers. It's not like he reported INVISIBLE ALIEN SAUCERS... Right?
If common sense is common, then those that lack it lose their common link to the rest of us...
Profit is inheritly evil by definition. You have charged someone more for a good or service then it is actually worth. You can easily run a not-for-profit company or even a non-profit company. Net Profit is inheritly evil by the definition of charging someone more then something is worth. In that regard how much is enough? It's never enough once you go past the real value.
Sell A for $30 and you are honest. Sell A for $40 and you are overcharging by $10.
"But without profit you cannot grow."
Then you ask, "How much is enough?"
It's never enough once you cross the profit line. The whole usury debate has been going on for over 4000 years and the nature of profit in morality.
Profit is at it's core, evil in that sense. The question rages on, how much evil are you will to tolerate in order to stay ahead of the competition.
It's always a race to the bottom of the morality ladder. Ethics is nothing more then a series of rules a business tells people they play by until they become inconvienent.
"To think some uppity pesant thinks he can do as he pleases without our permission. The arrogance." - Excerpt from a trial in England from roughly the 12th century about some pesant butchering his chickens to feed his family and the land owner getting pissed because of some crap about getting 1/3rd the flock...(at least that's what I have scribbled in my old college notebook.)
Freedom long died when the US stopped exporting stuff and tried exporting ideas. The fact is the only thing the US largely exports is Intellectual Property. Does the whole Copyright\Patent fiasco not point that out?
Open Source is the largest economical threat to the US economy and it will only get worse. Wait till the corporations starts shipping everything offshore to extort more draconian Intellectual Property laws... oh wait...
In the end it is a pyhric victory. The businesses are now being choked by their own intellectual property crusade (see patent troll) and now that the genie is out of the bottle it is a race to the bottom until, like the dark ages few have a monopoly on thought itself by restricting who can read what. It took Gutenberg's heresy to end the dark ages in many ways...
IBM is trapped and now, and walks to a self-defeat that cannot be avoided. The 3rd world, which is soundly grounded in practical needs (food, water, shelter) cares little for the nonsense of imaginary property and simply see information as something free to share to get out of poverty. Those minds grow while those trapped in intellectual tyranny narrow.
IBM, it's a lose-lose either way. Might as well try to be the biggest IP hoarder around.
That's what it really is now, a crisis (intellectual) and hoarding mentality.
Score 1 for the Idiocracy. Doesn't that undermind the whole fundamental of Scrabble in spelling (yes as in spelling) words correctly and scoring points for doing so?
Again, as I bring up often with AI researchers, we as humans evolved over millions of years (or were created, doesn't matter) from simple organisms that encoded information that built up simple systems into complex systems. AI, true AI, must be grown, not created. Asking the AI if a Bat is a mammal and can fly can a squirrel? ignores a foundation of development in intelligence, our brains were created to react and store, not store and react from various inputs.
Ask an AI if the stove is hot. It should respond "I don't know, where is the stove?" Rather AI would try and make an inference based on known data. Since there isn't any the AI on a probablistic measure would say that blah blah stoves are in use at any given time and there is a blah blah blah. A human would put thier hand (a senor) near the stove and measure the change, if any in temperature and reply yes or no accordingly. If a human cannot see the stove, and had no additional information either a random guess is in order or a "I have no clue." response of some sort. The brain isn't wired to answer a specific question but it is wired to correlate independent inputs to draw conclusions based on the assembly and interaction of data and infer and deduce answers.
Given a film of two people talking a computer with decent AI would catagorize objects, identify people versus say a lamp, determine the people are engaged in action (versus a lamp just sitting there) making that relevant, hear the sound coming from the people then infer they are talking (making the link.) Then paralell the computer would filter out the chair, and various scenery in the thread now processing "CONVERSATION". The rest of the information is stored and additional threads may be created as the environment generates other links but if the AI is paying attention to the conversation then the TTL for the new threads and links should be short. When the conversation mentions the LAMP the information network should link the LAMP information to the CONVERSATION thread and provide the AI additional information (that was gathering in the background) that travels with the CONVERSATION thread.
Now the conversation appears to be about the lamp and wheather it goes with the room's decor. Again the links should be built adding, retroactively the room's information into the CONVERSATION thread (again expiring information that is irrelivant to a short term memory buffer) and ultimately since visual and verbal queues imply that the AI's opinion is wanted should result in the AI blurting out, "I love Lamp."
In case you missed it, this was one long Lamp joke...
In further news 20 million CAPTCHA drones in 3rd world countries rioted at the prospect of being replaced by advances in computer vision which will render captcha technology useless...
After reading the GP on the OP and highlighting the MT on the TP I can only come to one conclusion concerning the subject matter of the article itself.
I for one welcome out cowboyNeal worshipping Dancing Baby overlords but question their ability to run Earth better then a borg augmented Bill Gates. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong besides Steve Ballmer throwing a chair and breaking the series of tubes we call the Internet. The only thing worse then a suddenOutbreakOfCommonSense coupled with the release of Duke Nukem Forver is the return of Charlie the Unicorn during a Chocolate Rain. In Soviet Russia Snakes on a plane get You but under the new rulership we are as screwed as the Star Wars Kid getting the hookup with a Wii Fit Girl. If you don't think things can get worse, I am fine with that, OK Go. See if I care. But when Dear Leader forces you to do the Hampster Dance in front of the Saugeen Stripper after the JK Wedding Entrance Dance you will beg to be thrown in with those Snakes on a Plane flying to the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny! I know that CorrelationNoCausation may apply here but I am certain that the new overlords computer will be superior to our current technology, but does it run Linux and can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of their computers! My Epeen is huge thinking about it to the point of a joygasm! Perhaps with their technology we could getyourasstomars in the time it takes to watch the Last Lecture! Imagine the number of Libraries of Congress we could store using their technology! Mod me Troll how dare you you insensitive clod! Now to distract you while I steal the Netcraft report confirming Gentoo Linux is dying. LOOK OVER THERE! OMG!!! PONIES!!
Samer, a former radar operator of some sort apparently called into AM 1500 some years ago and offered that man made electromagnetic emmissions were driving us nuts.
Now we all know (most) that electromagnetic emissions are everywhere but, as most also know there is a given distribution of natural emissions and artifical emissions.
Over millions of years of evolution humans expect and operate with a given norm of those emissions. Those normal emissions are the "White Noise" of EM emissions. Humans, only in the last century and a half have started creating emissions that operate outside that norm. The Samer theory implies that since we haven't had millions of years to adapt to these new emissions they are a form of 'noise' that stands out from the norm we are used to. We perceive this new noise if you would and it affects are behavior. We know that EM can and does influence animals, why would we be no different then? The question is, if the Samer theory holds water is what kind of atrifical EM 'noise' affects us, and how.
I suffered from headaches for years until I bought a new LCD tv. I was 'hearing' the TV's high frequencies (That damn whine from CRTS). Now with LCDs I don't hear that at all. Imagine the amount of EM that we 'hear' but don't perceive. Like a noisy room making people irritable perhaps the Samer theory holds some water in human behavior. I am not quick to discredit the plaintiffs claim (I do disagree with a lawsuit) but if this case has real scientific implications furthering the possibility of the Samer theory being sound the impact is huge. The amount of man made 'noise' from everything from AM radio, powerlines, cell phones, etc then we have a big and pressing problem of identifying what emissions influence people physically and mentally, what the impact is, and what if anything can be done about it since we've already let the genie out of the bottle...
We know that various forms of EM can affect behaviors (migration, grazing patterns, maze memory in rats, etc.) Perhaps his claim is legitimate. If so the implications warrant more then a passing "Meh" in regards to the case.
White noise we are used to, anything that stands out from it (dripping faucet, etc.) can really piss people off. I wouldn't be suprised if people have sensitivities to various forms\freq\etc.
A: Tolkien was good, but not great. So the high and mightys worring about a sequel, rest: The Hobbit was a good book but it is hardly the greatest Fantasy Novel ever. In fact parts of Tolkien's writing is just plain boring. For all the people that bitch about copyright lasting too long and stifiling innovation and crap all bets are off if they think about expanding on Tolkien. I mean seriously could you imagine someone writing books about Star Wars besides Lucas? Madness they would all suck and drain the life out of his creative masterpiece!
I mean come on that Tim Zhanwhatever's sequel's to Star Wars were aweful and destroyed the franchise right? Mara Jade = Jar Jar err wait....
So It comes down to the Lost years between the two. No problem since there are plenty of unanswered questions between the two.
Relax. It is no more likely to suck then the movie the Hobbit itself.
Case Point: Star Wars -> Empire is to Matrix -> Whatever that shit they crap out was called. Nothing about a second movie implies it being worse then the original statistically speaking. Both the first and second Friday the 13ths were pretty good compared to the rest of the franchise.
On a more serious note let's not forget that the Hobbit is also considered on of the WORST books ever written since the perspective changes 1/2 through the book (actually isn't it like 1/3rd of the way in?) You can't really fuck up the movie more then that and we still call the Hobbit a great work... It's like Hobbits are Fuck-Up-Proof!
B: Butchering the story in making it a movie. Well they've tried what 4 times now and failed every time. They may not know what to do right but they'll have plenty of archive material to tell them what they did wrong. Yes they are going to rape your childhood, too bad it isn't yours anymore. Grab some lube if you are worried.
C: Flat acting concerns... Well... actually that might work better. The Hobbit was a pretty flat affair of classic folklore. The Elves should be flat (they are a rather dull people to begin with) and Dildo, I mean Bilbo wasn't much fun. Bard comes pretty much otta nowhere, the dwarves couldn't have been more of a Bavarian carcature if you tried, and the classical elements are all there almost page for page (Heroes' journey blah blah blah.)
I know I am old and cynical but seriously, Star War, B5, Star Trek, LOTR\Hobbit, Star Ship Troopers, Discworld are great and fun works but they are not "Mental\Spiritual\Philisophical\Humanistic Awakening" causing works. They good, they will be around in 100 years for sure, but few if any are going to pick up the Hobbit and say 40 years later, "They day I picked up the Hobbit was the day my life truely changed for the better."
Tolkien = Good, but so is Terry Brooks, Ann Mcaffery, Weis and Hickman, etc.
I would in all honesty be more excited about a Shanara movie then the Hobbit. I would also be more excited about winning $50 on a lottery scratch off.
That is the problem as you get older, the underlying plots are all the same and it is harder and harder to not notice that long enough to enjoy the movie. Like Avatar.... ZZzz.... Dances with Wolves in Space......
I am actually more interested in the proposed sequel to the Hobbit then the movie. I'd like to see something unexpected and new. No matter what a movie cannot compare with a book (even a comic book to a degree) because you can set the pace, you control to a greater degree what the world looks like, etc.
Just chill and try to enjoy the movie on it's own merits and if you can't, like me, rent and bitch about it at home and quit ruining the movie for those that can.
Slashdot Mirror
Am I the only one that sees irony in the fact Sid Meier, a guy who takes 3 years to make games that take 30 hours to play being mentioned in the same sentence as 48 hour game making session...?
A: Support Expires
B: Release New OS
C: No One Adopts New OS
D: "SOMEONE" Develops a rootkit\virus\malware that targets old OS.
E: Anti-Virus keeps the old OS limping along
F: Anti-Virus vendors keep releasing updates to prevent new viruses\rootkits\etc.
G: Over time thousands, if not millions of Old OS systems get infected by root kits that the large population isn't aware of.
H: Create a new patch that specifically, when coupled with the largely ignored\unnoticed rootkit\virus\malware, makes Old OS unuseable.
I: Choice: switch to Linux or upgrade to New OS.
J: Laugh histerically as at least 50% upgrade to New OS and you bath in $20 bills soaked in Champaign.
K: Profit.
Reads like a Tom Clancy novel of industrial espionage. We are just missing a lone whistleblower to out the research in making the patch kill the machine with the rootkit...
The leaked email would read:
Engineer - "There is a 80% chance this patch would cause a kernel halt if they have the rootkit."
Boss - "Would an upgrade to New OS be impacted if their machine died?"
Engineer - "No I dont think so."
Boss - "Great so 80% of those Old OS hold outs will need to upgrade to New OS right?"
Engineer - "They could go to Alt OS out of frustration sir."
Boss - "Yeah but they aren't New OS customer anyway. Even if 50% of them go to Alt OS we are talking a boom of at least 2-3 million new New OS customers! It's brilliant!"
What about the simplest answer provided by our fellow Amish:
Perhaps a truely advanced civilization achieves a sustainable parity on their planet and have no reason to colonize the galaxy.
[Being Rambling Optional Commentary]
Perhaps the logical conclusion to an advanced society is the development of a simple "Our planet can sustain X number of us. We achived that goal and now live sustainable on our planet with a targeted X population."
The Amish lifestyle, if they were a majority of the planet, would be pretty darn stealthy.
Leveraging the Samer theory (if true) then likely they would bury most artifical EM to shield people from the normal white noise we are used to and optical carriers used for data as a best-in-class communication medium.
A technologically advanced civilization would be efficent and leak very little "noise" into the universe. Also their ability to live "sustainably" on a planet would likely drive the need to colonize more then a system or two moot. More then likely large city-ships just out in the middle of nowhere are more likely.
where were the teabaggers when Bust ran that debt up
They were doing the same thing then, they were just called fiscal conservatives. There wasn't any ratings in covering them. The marketing aspects of conservatives and liberals is as stark as marketing to blacks and caucasians and asians. They are different in their tastes, background, and life experiences. No one covered 3000 protesters complaining about Bush's spending because they weren't marketable. Now that they have a slogan, theme (tea party) that is catchy and marketable, they get coverage.
It isn't the squeaky wheel that gets the media grease, it's the interesting sqeaky wheel that gets the grease. Conservative protester are pretty boring and lack a good hot-chick ratio...
Yep 340 as 8:49 PM CST total. So out of more then 2,000,000+ units AND assuming that all of them are correct that comes out to... well.... far from a storm. Read through the first thread of 160, 18 posts of people actually claiming to have a problem. I'm honestly not going to bother with the other thread. I'll give you 100% of those as users with a problem.
In short: Quit making shit up.
Installed the update.
Still can stream by TV shows from my media server to the PS3 no problems.
My online purchased Burnout Paradise works just fine.
Watched Ironman on Blu-Ray, no issues.
Bayonetta works just fine as does Eternal Sonata, Guitar Hero 3, Disegia, and Soul Calibur.
Not one issue. Since I have not had a problem with mine, and as the FUD article clearly states 'since I as a small minority of millions of units out there must clearly speak for all units' and as such there are no problems with bricking as a result of this patch.
Or as reality indicates: The bricked units fall within the norm of bricked units without the patch. Units die all the time as a % of the existing units. NOTHING in the article nor any other outlet indicates that there is an increased number of functional units suddenly becoming bricked as a result of the patch itself. I don't dispute that may be the case, but this garbage posing as news doesn't indicate that. THE FUD Factory (aka the poster) says a STORM of complains but the linked article only states a few but doesn't cite a source, forum, anything...
Some users are reporting infinite loops where the installation routine never completes, others are complaining about the inability to use a variety of different controllers during the process.
Reporting where? Forums, Sony, Phone, Telepathy? SOME USERS IS NOT A STORM. Why can't we start banning people from slashdot that just make shit up that has nothing to do with the article and fire some of these deadbeat FUD artists (You still here Kdawson? WTF!) for posting this crap. I get enough bullshit from my politicians I don't need it from moderators and editors too...
Standard: Correlation != to Causation disclaimer.
The question is:
did the new firmware break something thus bricking the unit (No otherwise we would have a substantial % of units bricked and 1up, Gamespy, etc would by inindated with Forums 300 pages and 4000 posts in length bitching about their PS3s dying...)
Did the firmware update expose an already existing problem that unit and now, with the patch, bricks the unit (likely if the % of units reporting problems doesn't change, this would prompt Sony to respond rather quickly and shift into damage control real fast)
Did the firmware conflict with some existing software or configuration that now with the patch exposes a conflict rendering the unit a brick? (Possible and most likely but we need to compare the configuration of the bricked units to see what the bricked units have in common with one another but do not have in common with non-bricked units.)
e.g.
Sample A (Working) has AABBAA
Sample B (Bricks) has ACCBBA
Sample C (Working) has ACBAA
We could determine that possibly the firmware conflicts with having CC in the mix (whatever CC may be) in contrast to a single C. But privacy concerns would limit a company from auditing (even anonymously) the inventory of a game console.
A: Taco... READ THE ARTICLE THE POSTER IS CITING AND IF THEY DON'T MATCH UP, DON'T POST FUD!
B: Stoobalou QUIT MAKING SHIT UP IN YOUR SUMMARY. A STORM != SOME USERS. It's called FACT CHECKING. TRY IT
and what if you need the widget?
If by your logic, then price gouging is perfectly acceptable.
Evil is a subjective concept by which society measures benefit verus hazard to society.
Greed is good by your logic. Going back to the question "How much is enough" you clearly side on the "It's never enough". And no one is implying theft.
Profit (Net specifically) is an excess above the value of an object. The law of supply and demand factor in a free market environment. The reason the morality of profit has been and always will be in dispute is because there are no true free markets. In a pure free market You would sell a widget at $20 dollars (lets say you have a $10 markup) and I am unwilling to pay for it. Someone e else in a free market would come in to undercut the competition at $15 dollars ($5 markup). I buy that. The reality of economics, especially post minium wage erased the pure free market. Add in a botched patent system, litigation system (with no tort reform likely), and a copyright system gutted of it's original purpose. Add in resource scarcity and you have a mess and at it's core, a lust for unstatainable profit growth.
The advent of the public corporation means that you either have to have an infinite capability to improve the efficeny of create a widget (lowering endlessly the cost of the widget's creation) in order to continue to grow. The concept of Profit then puts pressure on the manufacture to not only improve the product's margin indefinately (which is impossible) but also build cost-of-entry barriers, resource constraints (see net neutrality) and all sorts of unpleasentries (See Big Oil).
"The love of money is the root of all evil" was accurate in ways you fail to see apparently.
Gordon Geko would be proud... as would Enron...
I'm not making implications of the seller, we are talking about the nature of Profit itself, specifically net profit.
Gross != Net
How is this a set back? That statement assumes they aren't already throttling the piss out of traffic.
I can download at 258kbps from Microsoft no problem.
I can got to Hulu and clear 259kbps.
I try and update World of Warcraft (which uses p2p) and I suddenly get 49kbps.
I download Ubuntu Linux at 49kbps.
In fact ANY torrent is exactly capped at 49kbps.(unless I turn on Protocol Encryption Only then magically that 49kbps cap vanishes...)
I can download from any non-major website and get 128kbps... capped. (Simtropolis for example, sourceforge, etc.)
A SET BACK implies they are not throttling already.
And the kicker... If I start a torrent my bandwidth appears to be capped at 49kbps for about 3 hours afterwards.
a.k.a
Boot Computer
Download by Excel files from work at about 109kbps.
Start a torrent and let it run for about 30 minutes while I take a shower. Torrent appears capped at 49kbps.
Stop the torrent and close Utorrent.
Download the same excel files from work... at 49kbps....
Wait 1 hour... try again... 49kbps
Wait 1 hour... try again... 49kbps
Wait 1 hour... suddenly back to about 109kbps...
Next Day:
Boot computer
Download excel files from work 109kbps.
Open Forced Protocol Encryption torrent
256-290kbps for torrent.
Close torrent.
Download excel files from work 109kbps.
Open WoW to update and suddenly total bandwidth drops to 49kbps....
Sorry it isn't a set back, it's "Court Affirms Right for ISPs to CONTINUE to throttle traffic."
As long as this stands non-megacorporations don't stand a chance when say Facebook will be allowed to buy a high service level then a competitor. There is nothing preventing Comcast in offering 21 Tier 1 SLA blocks
200 Tier 2 SLA blocks
1000 Tier 3 SLA Blocks
and bucketing all non-sla buyers in a T4 bucket. Then they can auction the top 21 blocks and charge substantial fees for the 2 and 3 blocks.
The capitalization of preferred service levels isn't new and the anti-competitive abuse that comes with it will be par for the course.
I remember studying the horrors of the Eugenics movement but I have to say... everyone of those people... might do us some good to keep dumb people from having too many kids who will also grow up to fear alien invasions from flying saucers...
Score +1 for the Idiocracy again... So far this week we are at a record of 33 points for the idiocracy and it's only Tuesday...
I mean even if there were aliens attacking, LOOK UP and if the skies are clear... no aliens in flying saucers. It's not like he reported INVISIBLE ALIEN SAUCERS... Right?
If common sense is common, then those that lack it lose their common link to the rest of us...
Profit is inheritly evil by definition. You have charged someone more for a good or service then it is actually worth. You can easily run a not-for-profit company or even a non-profit company. Net Profit is inheritly evil by the definition of charging someone more then something is worth. In that regard how much is enough? It's never enough once you go past the real value.
Widget A: Cost $30 dollars (labor, materials, overhead, etc.)
Sell A for $30 and you are honest.
Sell A for $40 and you are overcharging by $10.
"But without profit you cannot grow."
Then you ask, "How much is enough?"
It's never enough once you cross the profit line. The whole usury debate has been going on for over 4000 years and the nature of profit in morality.
Profit is at it's core, evil in that sense. The question rages on, how much evil are you will to tolerate in order to stay ahead of the competition.
It's always a race to the bottom of the morality ladder. Ethics is nothing more then a series of rules a business tells people they play by until they become inconvienent.
"To think some uppity pesant thinks he can do as he pleases without our permission. The arrogance." - Excerpt from a trial in England from roughly the 12th century about some pesant butchering his chickens to feed his family and the land owner getting pissed because of some crap about getting 1/3rd the flock...(at least that's what I have scribbled in my old college notebook.)
Freedom long died when the US stopped exporting stuff and tried exporting ideas. The fact is the only thing the US largely exports is Intellectual Property. Does the whole Copyright\Patent fiasco not point that out?
Open Source is the largest economical threat to the US economy and it will only get worse. Wait till the corporations starts shipping everything offshore to extort more draconian Intellectual Property laws... oh wait...
In the end it is a pyhric victory. The businesses are now being choked by their own intellectual property crusade (see patent troll) and now that the genie is out of the bottle it is a race to the bottom until, like the dark ages few have a monopoly on thought itself by restricting who can read what. It took Gutenberg's heresy to end the dark ages in many ways...
IBM is trapped and now, and walks to a self-defeat that cannot be avoided. The 3rd world, which is soundly grounded in practical needs (food, water, shelter) cares little for the nonsense of imaginary property and simply see information as something free to share to get out of poverty. Those minds grow while those trapped in intellectual tyranny narrow.
IBM, it's a lose-lose either way. Might as well try to be the biggest IP hoarder around.
That's what it really is now, a crisis (intellectual) and hoarding mentality.
Score 1 for the Idiocracy. Doesn't that undermind the whole fundamental of Scrabble in spelling (yes as in spelling) words correctly and scoring points for doing so?
Again, as I bring up often with AI researchers, we as humans evolved over millions of years (or were created, doesn't matter) from simple organisms that encoded information that built up simple systems into complex systems. AI, true AI, must be grown, not created. Asking the AI if a Bat is a mammal and can fly can a squirrel? ignores a foundation of development in intelligence, our brains were created to react and store, not store and react from various inputs.
Ask an AI if the stove is hot. It should respond "I don't know, where is the stove?" Rather AI would try and make an inference based on known data. Since there isn't any the AI on a probablistic measure would say that blah blah stoves are in use at any given time and there is a blah blah blah. A human would put thier hand (a senor) near the stove and measure the change, if any in temperature and reply yes or no accordingly. If a human cannot see the stove, and had no additional information either a random guess is in order or a "I have no clue." response of some sort. The brain isn't wired to answer a specific question but it is wired to correlate independent inputs to draw conclusions based on the assembly and interaction of data and infer and deduce answers.
Given a film of two people talking a computer with decent AI would catagorize objects, identify people versus say a lamp, determine the people are engaged in action (versus a lamp just sitting there) making that relevant, hear the sound coming from the people then infer they are talking (making the link.) Then paralell the computer would filter out the chair, and various scenery in the thread now processing "CONVERSATION". The rest of the information is stored and additional threads may be created as the environment generates other links but if the AI is paying attention to the conversation then the TTL for the new threads and links should be short. When the conversation mentions the LAMP the information network should link the LAMP information to the CONVERSATION thread and provide the AI additional information (that was gathering in the background) that travels with the CONVERSATION thread.
Now the conversation appears to be about the lamp and wheather it goes with the room's decor. Again the links should be built adding, retroactively the room's information into the CONVERSATION thread (again expiring information that is irrelivant to a short term memory buffer) and ultimately since visual and verbal queues imply that the AI's opinion is wanted should result in the AI blurting out, "I love Lamp."
In case you missed it, this was one long Lamp joke...
Stop raping my childhood.err....wait hasn't been long enough yet.....
And in further news Loony British still thinks Ultima is relvant...
In further news 20 million CAPTCHA drones in 3rd world countries rioted at the prospect of being replaced by advances in computer vision which will render captcha technology useless...
After reading the GP on the OP and highlighting the MT on the TP I can only come to one conclusion concerning the subject matter of the article itself.
I for one welcome out cowboyNeal worshipping Dancing Baby overlords but question their ability to run Earth better then a borg augmented Bill Gates. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong besides Steve Ballmer throwing a chair and breaking the series of tubes we call the Internet. The only thing worse then a suddenOutbreakOfCommonSense coupled with the release of Duke Nukem Forver is the return of Charlie the Unicorn during a Chocolate Rain. In Soviet Russia Snakes on a plane get You but under the new rulership we are as screwed as the Star Wars Kid getting the hookup with a Wii Fit Girl. If you don't think things can get worse, I am fine with that, OK Go. See if I care. But when Dear Leader forces you to do the Hampster Dance in front of the Saugeen Stripper after the JK Wedding Entrance Dance you will beg to be thrown in with those Snakes on a Plane flying to the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny! I know that CorrelationNoCausation may apply here but I am certain that the new overlords computer will be superior to our current technology, but does it run Linux and can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of their computers! My Epeen is huge thinking about it to the point of a joygasm! Perhaps with their technology we could getyourasstomars in the time it takes to watch the Last Lecture! Imagine the number of Libraries of Congress we could store using their technology! Mod me Troll how dare you you insensitive clod! Now to distract you while I steal the Netcraft report confirming Gentoo Linux is dying. LOOK OVER THERE! OMG!!! PONIES!!
I never implied it was EM noise, just noise non the less. Good info though.
Actually to be fair I offer the Samer Theory:
Samer, a former radar operator of some sort apparently called into AM 1500 some years ago and offered that man made electromagnetic emmissions were driving us nuts.
Now we all know (most) that electromagnetic emissions are everywhere but, as most also know there is a given distribution of natural emissions and artifical emissions.
Over millions of years of evolution humans expect and operate with a given norm of those emissions. Those normal emissions are the "White Noise" of EM emissions. Humans, only in the last century and a half have started creating emissions that operate outside that norm. The Samer theory implies that since we haven't had millions of years to adapt to these new emissions they are a form of 'noise' that stands out from the norm we are used to. We perceive this new noise if you would and it affects are behavior. We know that EM can and does influence animals, why would we be no different then? The question is, if the Samer theory holds water is what kind of atrifical EM 'noise' affects us, and how.
I suffered from headaches for years until I bought a new LCD tv. I was 'hearing' the TV's high frequencies (That damn whine from CRTS). Now with LCDs I don't hear that at all. Imagine the amount of EM that we 'hear' but don't perceive. Like a noisy room making people irritable perhaps the Samer theory holds some water in human behavior. I am not quick to discredit the plaintiffs claim (I do disagree with a lawsuit) but if this case has real scientific implications furthering the possibility of the Samer theory being sound the impact is huge. The amount of man made 'noise' from everything from AM radio, powerlines, cell phones, etc then we have a big and pressing problem of identifying what emissions influence people physically and mentally, what the impact is, and what if anything can be done about it since we've already let the genie out of the bottle...
We know that various forms of EM can affect behaviors (migration, grazing patterns, maze memory in rats, etc.) Perhaps his claim is legitimate. If so the implications warrant more then a passing "Meh" in regards to the case.
White noise we are used to, anything that stands out from it (dripping faucet, etc.) can really piss people off. I wouldn't be suprised if people have sensitivities to various forms\freq\etc.
That won't be a problem. They can digitally youthen them by a decade without washing over the nuances of their performances.
Yeah that tech worked great on Christopher Lee in the Star War's Prequels. It was like watching a CGI monkey have sex with golf ball.
Will the perspective change 1/2 through the movie?
A: Tolkien was good, but not great. So the high and mightys worring about a sequel, rest: The Hobbit was a good book but it is hardly the greatest Fantasy Novel ever. In fact parts of Tolkien's writing is just plain boring. For all the people that bitch about copyright lasting too long and stifiling innovation and crap all bets are off if they think about expanding on Tolkien. I mean seriously could you imagine someone writing books about Star Wars besides Lucas? Madness they would all suck and drain the life out of his creative masterpiece!
I mean come on that Tim Zhanwhatever's sequel's to Star Wars were aweful and destroyed the franchise right? Mara Jade = Jar Jar err wait....
So It comes down to the Lost years between the two. No problem since there are plenty of unanswered questions between the two.
Relax. It is no more likely to suck then the movie the Hobbit itself.
Case Point: Star Wars -> Empire is to Matrix -> Whatever that shit they crap out was called. Nothing about a second movie implies it being worse then the original statistically speaking. Both the first and second Friday the 13ths were pretty good compared to the rest of the franchise.
On a more serious note let's not forget that the Hobbit is also considered on of the WORST books ever written since the perspective changes 1/2 through the book (actually isn't it like 1/3rd of the way in?) You can't really fuck up the movie more then that and we still call the Hobbit a great work... It's like Hobbits are Fuck-Up-Proof!
B: Butchering the story in making it a movie. Well they've tried what 4 times now and failed every time. They may not know what to do right but they'll have plenty of archive material to tell them what they did wrong. Yes they are going to rape your childhood, too bad it isn't yours anymore. Grab some lube if you are worried.
C: Flat acting concerns... Well... actually that might work better. The Hobbit was a pretty flat affair of classic folklore. The Elves should be flat (they are a rather dull people to begin with) and Dildo, I mean Bilbo wasn't much fun. Bard comes pretty much otta nowhere, the dwarves couldn't have been more of a Bavarian carcature if you tried, and the classical elements are all there almost page for page (Heroes' journey blah blah blah.)
I know I am old and cynical but seriously, Star War, B5, Star Trek, LOTR\Hobbit, Star Ship Troopers, Discworld are great and fun works but they are not "Mental\Spiritual\Philisophical\Humanistic Awakening" causing works. They good, they will be around in 100 years for sure, but few if any are going to pick up the Hobbit and say 40 years later, "They day I picked up the Hobbit was the day my life truely changed for the better."
Tolkien = Good, but so is Terry Brooks, Ann Mcaffery, Weis and Hickman, etc.
I would in all honesty be more excited about a Shanara movie then the Hobbit. I would also be more excited about winning $50 on a lottery scratch off.
That is the problem as you get older, the underlying plots are all the same and it is harder and harder to not notice that long enough to enjoy the movie. Like Avatar.... ZZzz.... Dances with Wolves in Space......
I am actually more interested in the proposed sequel to the Hobbit then the movie. I'd like to see something unexpected and new. No matter what a movie cannot compare with a book (even a comic book to a degree) because you can set the pace, you control to a greater degree what the world looks like, etc.
Just chill and try to enjoy the movie on it's own merits and if you can't, like me, rent and bitch about it at home and quit ruining the movie for those that can.
In short:
Do not scale to meet the needs of your customers but rather scale your customer's to meet your capacity.
It's sound but only works in a monopoly....