On top of everything everyone else has said, professional athletes make up an almost invisible fraction of the human population, and there really just aren't enough of them, not to mention enough in-breeding amongst them to split off into a subspecies. Plus, while many of them are insanely wealthy, they're still not as wealthy as many CEOs out there...
I don't think that's the sort of wealth we're talking about anyways. It's actually a much more subtle difference--more between the lower classes, and upper-middle and above. I think the article is sort of insane though, as I've seen countless upper-middle class people who are not exactly the specimens of genetic superiority that TFA talks about.
I really doubt that anyone who plays DDR is complaining about "having to move around too much" or "looking stupid" with regards to the Wiimote. There are people who make such silly complaints, but they're the same people who say those things about DDR. So I think you're talking about some intersection of populations that simply doesn't exist.
When I'm confronted with discussions like this, I usually like to point out that having some understanding of the underlying mathematics of these things will really help make you a better programmer. That has certainly been the case for me at any rate. Though it may also have to do with one's learning style.
Its like MySpace without the crappy badly done webpages.
Well, excepting the fact that YouTube itself is a crappy badly done webpage. If you think YouTube is a well-designed website, you should maybe start getting your eyes checked. Then, just make sure to stay far, far away from any web-related programming or design.
Please stow the DRM complaints. Those are the kind of complaints that stupid people make. If DRM is not for you, go buy your CDs from the store. End of story. Consumer choice, remember? And buying music is also a legal choice.
Personally, I do. It's just hard to imagine why anyone *would* pay for DRM'd music, at least for me. It's crazy--you're paying for music as if it's a service. What ever happened to the satisfaction of having an actual record (LP or CD or what have you) on the shelf that you can do what you damn well please with?
That's partly why I, and many of my peers, still stick with Livejournal. No matter how much more control is gained over there by marketdroids, the people who originally made LJ, and continue to make it work, actually in general seem to be of the "do no evil" philosophy (LJA excluded--they suck, hard) and continue to make most of LJ open source, etc, etc. In other words, the people who have direct control over the situation--the people who make the site work in the first place--aren't out to get anyone.
I think that rather than blaming the teacher you should blame your own lack of comprehension skills. My personal background in Physics doesn't extend much past that of a sophomore Physics undergrad, though I do have a strong background in math, and I thought that his post was entirely understandable and very eye-opening for me as to how all this stuff works, and what the research in TFA was trying to do.
I didn't say that all "blame the parents" reactions are over-simplified. I just meant in cases like these. Obviously in cases where the parents were abusive and neglectful you damn well can blame them. But just allowing a kid to play a violent video game is not the problem in of itself, as you seemed to qualify at the end.
Of course not everyone turns out okay, but the video games have nothing to do with it. They type of kid who would perform this kind of violence has problems that stem way deeper than anything having to do with video games. Kids killed their parents before there were video games too.
Would I let any kids play violent games? No. The point of my post was not "I turned out okay so everyone else must too." Rather, it's that my parents recognized that I was mature enough to handle fictional violence. That's the key distinction here, and the role the parents really need to be playing--knowing their children.
I thought I had also mentioned that, but maybe it was in another comment. I agree that it's irresponsible and stupid for parents to leave weapons lying around where kids can get to them. Though there's still something wrong with a kid who does something like this without or without access to a gun.
Well, I'm just trying to remember see... You'd think you'd remember if you've ever shot and killed someone, but my brain isn't fully awake yet, and I can't quite place it......oh right! I've never even held a gun (except airsoft).
It isn't bad parenting if you raised your child right in the first place. I was raised in such a way as to be able to tell reality from fiction (I think the lack of religion might have something to do with it). Plus inviting easily accessible handguns into a house with children is a recipe for disaster whether video games factor in or not.
I think the "blame the parents" reaction is also a bit over-simplified. My parents allowed me to play games like this when I was 14 (and younger). I don't believe it led me to shoot anyone. This was not neglect on their part--it was a way of recognizing my maturity.
I think the only person who can really be blamed, if you're into the blaming thing, is the child. Though anyone who would do such a thing is clearly mentally unbalanced, so if you want to blame the parents you should blame them for not recognizing that, and for making guns easily available, but not for letting him play the video game.
Yeah, X-Boxen are really flying off the shelves there. I can't even imaging a Japanese person walking into a game store to buy a Wii without walking out with a 360 in hand too.
Granted, I can't imagine why an American would either, but I'm highly biased against non-Japanese game systems, so anything I say is lunacy anyways.
While I think that a rumble feature does add to some titles, and I will probably notice in some games where it's missing, I certainly don't consider it a crucial feature.
However, the only reason it was removed in the first place was, of course, so Sony could go "Hey look! We have motion sensing too!" Except that it's only along one axis really, and some people *cough*Nintendo*cough* have proven that it's possible to have both. So it's really sort of crappy. I think there are far more games already that make effective use of the rumble pack than will make effective use of tilt sensing (this'll be great for racing games and some games like Monkey Ball, but for most games it's unnecessary).
So really the whole affair is just ridiculous--I'm one of those people who still want the PS3 to succeeed. It's just that Sony hasn't done much to help their case,
Well *somebody* has to oversee the voting machines, and believe me that's *not* going to be the open source community. As wasteful as it can be, I think that the best organization to be building the machines is the government itself, federal or local I really don't care, as long as it's done right. This is not something that should be considered a profitable industry--it's too essential (then again, I'm a crazy loon socialist).
Just because it's open source doesn't mean it the work on it has to be shared by the open source community as a whole. It could be an exclusive operation, but with the source open just for review. I think that's all anyone really cares about, is being able to review the code.
Ah...while I agree with the other reply to this comment stating that all this political correctness is hooey, I would also like to point out that your entire response to the parent is around one sentence that is not even related to the rest of the content of the post. Why don't you respond to the parent's other assertions before you start nitpicking trivialties?
How could an administration completely inept at all other times be able to pull off this massive fraud on a heretofore unimaginable scale without leaving hardly any evidence behind?
First of all, it's important to note that the administration's hands are pretty clean on this one (with the exception, perhaps, of Karl Rove). There is, in fact, a "vast right-wing conspiracy", (though that's sort of a misnomer as it implies secrecy, of which there is none) that exists rather independently of any one presidential administration.
And as the previous sibling poster has pointed out, there is plenty of evidence.
Whether it was incompetence (more likely, I agree) or conspiracy, the person responsible for that mishap (the soon to be completely irrelevant Catherine Harris) was awarded after the election with a seat in the House, and that's just kind of disturbing.
Slashdot Mirror
On top of everything everyone else has said, professional athletes make up an almost invisible fraction of the human population, and there really just aren't enough of them, not to mention enough in-breeding amongst them to split off into a subspecies. Plus, while many of them are insanely wealthy, they're still not as wealthy as many CEOs out there...
I don't think that's the sort of wealth we're talking about anyways. It's actually a much more subtle difference--more between the lower classes, and upper-middle and above. I think the article is sort of insane though, as I've seen countless upper-middle class people who are not exactly the specimens of genetic superiority that TFA talks about.
I really doubt that anyone who plays DDR is complaining about "having to move around too much" or "looking stupid" with regards to the Wiimote. There are people who make such silly complaints, but they're the same people who say those things about DDR. So I think you're talking about some intersection of populations that simply doesn't exist.
Old meme -_- Like, almost as old the web itself.
When I'm confronted with discussions like this, I usually like to point out that having some understanding of the underlying mathematics of these things will really help make you a better programmer. That has certainly been the case for me at any rate. Though it may also have to do with one's learning style.
Its like MySpace without the crappy badly done webpages.
Well, excepting the fact that YouTube itself is a crappy badly done webpage.
If you think YouTube is a well-designed website, you should maybe start getting your eyes checked. Then, just make sure to stay far, far away from any web-related programming or design.
Please stow the DRM complaints. Those are the kind of complaints that stupid people make. If DRM is not for you, go buy your CDs from the store. End of story. Consumer choice, remember? And buying music is also a legal choice.
Personally, I do. It's just hard to imagine why anyone *would* pay for DRM'd music, at least for me. It's crazy--you're paying for music as if it's a service. What ever happened to the satisfaction of having an actual record (LP or CD or what have you) on the shelf that you can do what you damn well please with?
That's partly why I, and many of my peers, still stick with Livejournal. No matter how much more control is gained over there by marketdroids, the people who originally made LJ, and continue to make it work, actually in general seem to be of the "do no evil" philosophy (LJA excluded--they suck, hard) and continue to make most of LJ open source, etc, etc. In other words, the people who have direct control over the situation--the people who make the site work in the first place--aren't out to get anyone.
I think that rather than blaming the teacher you should blame your own lack of comprehension skills. My personal background in Physics doesn't extend much past that of a sophomore Physics undergrad, though I do have a strong background in math, and I thought that his post was entirely understandable and very eye-opening for me as to how all this stuff works, and what the research in TFA was trying to do.
I didn't say that all "blame the parents" reactions are over-simplified. I just meant in cases like these. Obviously in cases where the parents were abusive and neglectful you damn well can blame them. But just allowing a kid to play a violent video game is not the problem in of itself, as you seemed to qualify at the end.
Of course not everyone turns out okay, but the video games have nothing to do with it. They type of kid who would perform this kind of violence has problems that stem way deeper than anything having to do with video games. Kids killed their parents before there were video games too.
Would I let any kids play violent games? No. The point of my post was not "I turned out okay so everyone else must too." Rather, it's that my parents recognized that I was mature enough to handle fictional violence. That's the key distinction here, and the role the parents really need to be playing--knowing their children.
I thought I had also mentioned that, but maybe it was in another comment. I agree that it's irresponsible and stupid for parents to leave weapons lying around where kids can get to them. Though there's still something wrong with a kid who does something like this without or without access to a gun.
Well, I'm just trying to remember see... You'd think you'd remember if you've ever shot and killed someone, but my brain isn't fully awake yet, and I can't quite place it... ...oh right! I've never even held a gun (except airsoft).
And that would be a bad thing?
It isn't bad parenting if you raised your child right in the first place. I was raised in such a way as to be able to tell reality from fiction (I think the lack of religion might have something to do with it). Plus inviting easily accessible handguns into a house with children is a recipe for disaster whether video games factor in or not.
I think the "blame the parents" reaction is also a bit over-simplified.
My parents allowed me to play games like this when I was 14 (and younger). I don't believe it led me to shoot anyone. This was not neglect on their part--it was a way of recognizing my maturity.
I think the only person who can really be blamed, if you're into the blaming thing, is the child. Though anyone who would do such a thing is clearly mentally unbalanced, so if you want to blame the parents you should blame them for not recognizing that, and for making guns easily available, but not for letting him play the video game.
It's not incorrect English in a colloquial settings, such as this one, where it is commonly used and understood slang. Asshole.
Yeah, X-Boxen are really flying off the shelves there. I can't even imaging a Japanese person walking into a game store to buy a Wii without walking out with a 360 in hand too.
Granted, I can't imagine why an American would either, but I'm highly biased against non-Japanese game systems, so anything I say is lunacy anyways.
While I think that a rumble feature does add to some titles, and I will probably notice in some games where it's missing, I certainly don't consider it a crucial feature.
However, the only reason it was removed in the first place was, of course, so Sony could go "Hey look! We have motion sensing too!" Except that it's only along one axis really, and some people *cough*Nintendo*cough* have proven that it's possible to have both. So it's really sort of crappy. I think there are far more games already that make effective use of the rumble pack than will make effective use of tilt sensing (this'll be great for racing games and some games like Monkey Ball, but for most games it's unnecessary).
So really the whole affair is just ridiculous--I'm one of those people who still want the PS3 to succeeed. It's just that Sony hasn't done much to help their case,
Well *somebody* has to oversee the voting machines, and believe me that's *not* going to be the open source community. As wasteful as it can be, I think that the best organization to be building the machines is the government itself, federal or local I really don't care, as long as it's done right. This is not something that should be considered a profitable industry--it's too essential (then again, I'm a crazy loon socialist).
Just because it's open source doesn't mean it the work on it has to be shared by the open source community as a whole. It could be an exclusive operation, but with the source open just for review. I think that's all anyone really cares about, is being able to review the code.
Brace New World? Okay, I realize the C and the V keys are right next to each other, but that's still pretty bad.
Ah...while I agree with the other reply to this comment stating that all this political correctness is hooey, I would also like to point out that your entire response to the parent is around one sentence that is not even related to the rest of the content of the post. Why don't you respond to the parent's other assertions before you start nitpicking trivialties?
How could an administration completely inept at all other times be able to pull off this massive fraud on a heretofore unimaginable scale without leaving hardly any evidence behind?
First of all, it's important to note that the administration's hands are pretty clean on this one (with the exception, perhaps, of Karl Rove). There is, in fact, a "vast right-wing conspiracy", (though that's sort of a misnomer as it implies secrecy, of which there is none) that exists rather independently of any one presidential administration.
And as the previous sibling poster has pointed out, there is plenty of evidence.
Whether it was incompetence (more likely, I agree) or conspiracy, the person responsible for that mishap (the soon to be completely irrelevant Catherine Harris) was awarded after the election with a seat in the House, and that's just kind of disturbing.
Um...I think he was being facetious.