This, actually, is a perfect counterpoint to the "realistic physics are ALWAYS better" line of thinking.
If it weren't for these deliberate anomalies, Breakout, et al, would be thrown into "loops". I remember a port of Breakout for the TI-83 graphics calculator that suffered from this - you would eventually have the ball at such an angle that no matter how you hit it, it'd always travel along the same pattern.
Face it - even today, this applies. Would it really be fun if your character could only jump 6-12 inches off the ground? If you ran at a rate of around 20MPH? My stipulation is that it would not be. Game designers must fudge the physics to keep a game playable. And frankly, I find the physics of Mighty Final Fight for the NES to be light-years ahead of the supposedly "revolutionary" physics of, say, Trespasser. More complex != more funriffic.
Interaction is great and all, but please give humanoid NPCs more rigid joints! It looks silly seeing them flopping around with elastic joints, or doing backflips after being shot in the face.
I disagree, to a certain extent.
When it comes to NPCs and enemies "reacting fo' realz" - I disagree. Sure, give them better AI (so long as "better" means "less predictable" and isn't a codeword for "can spawn other enemies to hate-rape you on sight, and requires so much processor power that there is only one enemy per stage"). But frankly, attempts have been made to make realistic physics, and without exception these games always feel muddy and unplayable. Give me Burnout Revenge over Flatout any day of the month of the week's year, kthx.
What works in the real world, with near instantaneous brain-body 3D real time control, and TOTAL SENSORY IMMERSION(TM) (note - I've patented that trademark, so now everyone has a damn good excuse to avoid the outside world) tends to take a bellyflop when you're interfacing via a mouse/keyboard/gamepad/John Romero's Magic Glowing Orb, looking at a monitor that, at best, does a good job at tricking your eyes into 2.5 dimensions.
It's been proven that people do not want "real physics" - they want "Hollywood physics". When they say "better physics", what they're saying is that they don't want paper-thin enemies who fly at 100 MPH from a shotgun blast. They want ragdoll dudes who will spin 1080 when you blast off an arm, then look at the stump, still gushing blood, and fall face-first, even though real people would scream in pain and probably not do much after the blast.
HOWEVER - when it comes to scenery physics, HELL YES. Nothing irritates me more than the Magic Unbreakable Door, found in virtually every 3D shooter. I've got rockets the size of a HUMAN BEING here. You mean to tell me a wooden door will take five of them? Other objects of note:
* - Telephone poles OF DOOM (found in most racing games, Grand Theft Auto)
* - Wooden Support Planks WITH ARMOR-ALL (found in a lot of shooters - okay, one or two shots isn't going to do much, but if I take a tommygun to a 2 by 4, the tommygun wins)
* - Ground of SOLID STEEL (almost every FPS - see my next point for more)
Dirt mound OF GOD (if I hit a dirt mound with an RPG, it should fly apart. I think that games should be REQUIRED to accurately simulate the effects of RPGs on scenery - and maybe this will keep the next five or six clone-developers from adding the damn thing. When I was in my formulative years I never imagined that I'd be saying this, but I am sick and tired of Rocket Propelled Grenades, Rocket Launchers, Giant Phallic Things Which Explode On Impact, and/or "Bazookas". They are done in every action game. They are always virtually the same. Once I play a game where a hit with a rocket will cause buildings to explode, key cards to become redundant, and mazes to be a thing of the past, I will buy back into the "Bigger and more explosive is BETTER" philosophy. And I'm not talking about Zombies Ate My Neighbors or Duke Nukem style "oh look, it's a suspicious crack in a wall, PERHAPS A ROCKET WOULD LOOK NICE HERE" linearity. I'm thinking more along the lines of the (criminally underrated) Future Tactics, except more brutal).
Anyway. Instead of worrying about the Next Big Thing, and bitching about how all games are the SAME, and becoming suckers for arm-deadening, fruitily-named attempts at brute-force "innovation" (like, uh... gee, nothing's coming to mind, so I guess this is strictly hypothetical:-P ) - instead of this, how about we collectively lobby to get these things done right? An RTS with millions of genero-zergish units per side. A FPS with real-time rocket-based-dynamic-level-modification and death-physics so mind-jarringly violent (and bloody) that Jack Thompson and Joey "Senator" Lieberman simultaniously combust. A sports game where I can choose to attempt a brutal tackle tha
When Duke3D came out (seems like it was ages ago... forever, one might-- ouch, okay, sorry, sorry), it was right around the same time as Quake.
As a 13 year old, I figure I represented the "market" a lot more accurately than I do in my wiser (and more bitter / broke) years. It was Duke3D all the way for me, and I didn't think twice about it. Sure, Quake had better multiplayer (according to PC Gamer at least), but I was still netless at home. The novelty of shooting a wall and leaving actual bullet holes was thrilling. Getting to "play" pool, leaving footprints in the bloodstains left behind... all of this added up to a game that was fun way beyond the point where it should be. I don't mean to knock Duke3D, of course, but after the first episode the level design took a nosedive. Compare anything from the second episode to, oh, how about Healing Vats from DOOM. For me, it's a no brainer, at least when it comes to the simple question of "which of these levels is better, from a strictly looking-at-it-in-the-automap perspective". However, Duke3D's interactions had me playing, playing, playing, searching for the next deadpan line, or little "extra".
Also, this was the time when I became disillusioned with PC Gamer. I recall Duke3D edging Quake out in the ratings by about a percentage point or two. Heck, an issue or two later, Duke3D beat Quake in the "Best games of all time" list. Then, a year later, once the PC Gamer staff saw which game was completely dominating the online world, they scrambled to look "all knowing" by handing Quake the Best Game of the Year award. It'd be one thing if they alluded to some lasting value, but really it was your typical "press release" copy-paste. Fucking PC Gamer. I wipe my ass with that magazine now. Anyway...
One other thing. Is it just me, or does Capcom really have a finger on the pulse of the "heart" of physics? Every single game of theirs - well, since about the third Mega Man at least - has this perfect "feel" to it, that even makes games from genres I normally don't give a crap about (3D platformers) addictive and fun. I'm thinking of Maximo: Army of Zin here.
Anyway, I know that sounds like a lame attempt to make sure I avoid the -1, Offtopic mod, but it's the first thing that popped into my mind when seeing this. Midway's another company - for the most part, excluding the budget line, their games handle very, very nicely. Compare Blitz to Madden - and yes, I am quite aware that one of them is arcade football and the other attempts to be a simulation. Crank the Madden settings until the players are fast and whatever, bottom line is that Blitz feels nicer. Hitz beats the EA and SegaSports hockey titles hands down, largely for the same reason (even though the last version of Hitz had the worst "player editor" I've ever seen - major flaw in my book).
For a counterpoint, try comparing Bible Adventures or any of the Color Dreams games to, oh, geez, any of the major platformers. Compare a shooter from the Action 52 cartridge to Gun*Nac. Move up to SNES, compare The Combantants with Final Fight, or Kyle Petty's No Fear Racing with Mario Kart, or the second Ken Griffey game to the first. Which games "suck" by popular consensus? (PROTIP: The first games mentioned). What's a major uniting difference? The physics, the handling, the speed of play and the "oomph" behind a home-run / tight turn / nick-of-time-bullet-dodge / enemy stomp. In the first games, these are always an afterthought. I imagine the coders just kinda throwing darts at a wall, figuring "okay, player jumps, lands - now make sure all the platforms can be reached from the player's height (last step strictly optional - Active Enterprises, I'm looking at you)". In the case of the second games listed, I could easily see whole months being spent on nothing more than making incremental number-changes, in the 0.000000004 range of things. And that's why (IMO) the second games have always not only sold better, but been a better experience than the other, som
Yes.. To be technical, what we now have is mandatory registration for a board that may or may not later on decide to make use of all this data. You see a fuss and a holler every time omg evil M$ collects user information, but I find this far more disturbing.
The brief, summarized draft history, for those unable/unwilling to click the hyperlink:
1) Draft for WWI
2) Peacetime draft pre-WWII when it was pretty obvious America would be fighting at some point. Interesting note: "12 months" quickly became "18 months" in 1941, and "six months post-war" once the US got involved. For those of you posting about the Government going down the toilet - sorry, but it's pretty much always been this way.
3) Peacetime draft on until the 60s (see also: Elvis)
4) Barry Goldwater (R) proposes ending the draft in 1964. See also "Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today".
5) Draft ends in 1973 - oddly enough, under the term of "evil" "Republican" Richard M. Nixon.
6) In 1980, acting as the lame duck President, Jimmy Carter (D) signs the people's rights away by starting the Selective Service System.
7) In 1986, under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan (R), the last prosecution for failure to register for the draft was made.
Clinton made it legal for people from the middle east to be rendered. To satisfy the egyptians and avoid international law.
I don't agree with it, but that is a lot different then rendering your own people.
Khaled Masri. German Citizen. Eskimo Spy. (or whatever the actual case may be) I assume you're not going to deny the ongoing process of globalization - being that you sound (no offense currently intended) party-line "liberal" and all, and this is one of those things that everybody from the "left" goes on about (yes, in case my quotes don't make it obvious, I find the entire duality perspective incredibly distasteful - but if the words have meaning for some, then why not use them?) - however, a side effect of this globalization is that the lines between "German citizen" and, uh, the American Government's "own people" (which is, frankly, an offensive term to be using - I am not property of the Government, nor do I consider it my own - until the time comes when it acts on my personal, actual interest) are blurred. It's a small step from giving some German guy an enema and a trip to the Punishment Facility to kidnapping an American Muslim, and another small step from kidnapping him to kidnapping a political activist, whistleblower, or member of Fugazi - and a small step from that to grabbing that annoying Michael Moore guy and treating him to a special, private screening of Farenhate 9/11.
And who do we have to thank for these human rights abuses? Oh, yes, the hero of Student Idiots^H^H^H^H^H^HDemocrats from coast to coast. And, gee, let me see... before the government started torturing people, how many attacks were made on American soil? Like, none? Maybe one if you count Pearl Harbor as soil. Maybe two if the first WTC bombing came before this bill - which would not surprise me, since Clinton's middle name (and, as far as I'm concerned, and with the usual Russ "Gold, not Stein" Feingold exception, the entire Democratic Party's) is "wet 'em". And let's see, afterwards, there was a huge terrorist attack, a bunch of poorly educated Midwesterners and naive Republocrats living in fear, and a growing, relentless push towards anal retentivity in all facets of life - from the obvious plane flights to the less obvious - bringing bottled "water" to a sports game, or sneaking in covert recording equipment to a concert.
Your vote. Your choice. Is "not the other guy" really enough?
I shutter to think how many Americans don't know how our political system works.
And I shudder to think about how many Americans can't even speak our own fucking language...
(sorry, mods, but this was BEGGING for it;) Would have posted this AC, but the "slow down Cowboy" "feature" prevents that - so PLEASE mod me down to 0 - I've been a bad boy.)
Sorry, but these days questioning a Democrat is obviously a troll because Bush blah blah oil blah blah conservative evil blah blah blah religious right blah blah war Carter (D) started the draft up again oops I mean blah blah PATRIOT act (all Bush's fault of course, totally not the House or the Senate) blah blah Iraq blah blah Clinton (D) made it legal to send people to Syria for tortureoops I mean uhhhh REPUBLICAN BAD ANYTHING BUT THIS GUY A VOTE FOR GREEN IS A VOTE FOR RED HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
...sorry. I just need to hear someone say that every now and again... or as most say, "get that off my chest". Sigh... and my Karma was Good, too...
While I agree with where you're coming from, I must unfortunately call "bullshit" on this +1 Insightful character of the senator. I believe the situation would more likely go:
RIAA CEO "We must make it harder for these people to get streaming music, as opposed to CD's."
Senator "...Streaming...?"
RIAA CEO "Mr Senator, please accept $10,000 as a donation to your next election".
Senator "Oooh, greenie shiny..."
RIAA CEO "Oh and speaking of, maybe we can help the process by banning all streaming media"
Senator "...streaming...?"
RIAA CEO "Oh look another check for your campaign finance. Is $20,000 good?"
Remember, with very few exceptions, the majority of senators (and, for the most part, U.S. politicians in general) are, basically, old droolbags who "look" and "sound" the part. Image is everything, philosophy is just a stream of buzzwords and party ties. I'd be very surprised if more than five of them knew what CBR and VBR stood for, or what the general process of each is (and this is hardly rocket science).
Heck, I'd be surprised if a single politician even knew what ROT-13 was, much less how to decode it ("wait... you mean I click the... wait wait... file... edit? no no, wait... okay... so I go to 'decode, RTF, I mean, 'ROT-13''... wait, but how do I know when the file is 'ROT-13'?").
Anyway, with the above corrections, I'd say the scenario is more than likely. The Californian Feingold has always struck me as a particularly nasty old witch, but I can't exactly recall why at the moment. Probably some dumbshit Tipper Gore "save the children" routine -- oh, maybe she was the one who started the "NO BAD VIDEOGAMES TO MINORS MUST 'PROTECT' ALL CHILDREN!!!1!" bill in California? Eh, whatever. Fucking cunt. I'd throw her to the lions if this was a truly Roman Democracy-No-Wait-Republic-I-Mean-Democracy-I-Mean -Fuck-It-Where's-That-Julius-Guy-Let-Him-Run-The-D amn-Show. : D
yes, called a Democrat a "fucking cunt"... probably get -1 flamebait from the do-meaning well-gooders in a heartbeat... so much for an "alternative" party - demoncrats can be just as bugfuck robotic as repubicans
Funny how winAMP and foobar2000 manage to run faster than iTunes.
Funny also how VLC and even WinAMP manage to not be complete shite at playing videos (and can even do fullscreen omg).
One might conclude that, in fact, Apple just can't handle coding in Windows, or something equally preposterous - because we all know that, unlike M$, Apple's never sued bloggers or screwed over customers or released broken hardware or... oh... wait...
I dared question the illusion that Apple <3's us all, so this is probably going to be modded flamebait - but whatever.
MY MOM KNOWS I'M INSIGHTFUL AND INFORMATIVE LIKE ALL THE OTHER BOYS.
Not only that, but in Smash Brothers characters have a large number of lives. This could, looking at the issue from the perspective of a crazy intrusive puritanical legislator (which I myself am not), mislead children into believe that they can be shot, fall from great heights, be slashed with swords, be set on fire, and die, and just come back again 19 more times. Who will think about the children!
Even WORSE than that, this promotes the silly pagan mud-people idea of reincarnation! WHEN WILL THEY STOP ATTACKING CHRISTMAS?!?
I'm a-movin' to Tuttle, OK - a place where people grow - FRIENDLY! - and can all let the State parent their children to dissuade any un-American individuality or freedom of alternative expression!
No school with a CS department worth its salt would end up with a deal like this. If a school ends up with a deal like this, guess what? Their CS department is not very good. It may be full of nice people, it might be full of top end machines, it might be full of the shiniest textbooks in the country - but it is not a very efficient, effective, well-managed, or well-guided CS department - that is to say, it is not a good department.
It is as if I said "any dog with rabies is not a very good dog to be around; certainly not a dog I would wish to be around", and you (/ someone) said, "oh yes - but let me inform you, I know of quite a few top quality dogs, who have been propositioned by RabiesMouthFoamCo for Special Injections". Now I am left with saying "...well, my good sir, then it is still not a dog I would wish to be around", and then going into a private place and hollering "A BLOO A BLOO A BLOO" while running around in erratic circles until the aggravation of hearing Middle Management stories wears off.
...any college that would sign this sort of exclusivity deal probably doesn't have much in the way of, oh, how shall we say, a progressive-minded fast-paced cutting-edge technological studies / computer science department - by which I mean that this list of 72 colleges (which I don't believe was published - I skimmed TFA) is more likely to be "Ben Doke's Midtown College of Applied Farm Machineary" and "Oral Roberts God Fearing U" and 70 other semi-community colleges than it is "M.I.T." and "UC-Berkeley" and other notable names from the Ivy League and Division I-A - and students who'd attend the sort of college that would sign a deal as stupid and moronic as this are probably the sorts who'll be happily locked into Windows anyway, for the rest of the foreseeable future. Or the mildly sociopathic types who'll get a perverse thrill out of signing up for distance learning Web CT classes, then informing the instructor that they won't be able to check their validated campus email because they run Linux;)
So, uh, all hype, and it's sorta nerdy - but does it matter?
...is that Comcast is the alternative (that I know of).
I remember one day the phone line went down. Pfft. Zzt. Nothing. No dialtone, no incoming, and of course no DSL. Called Verizon Support and got level 1'd for two hours. "Did you check the test line?". You fucking robot, did I not just say that three seperate lines, plus the DSL, were all out, and yes I have unplugged each and every phone in every possible combination? The test line isn't going to tell me anything I don't already know.
Anyway, three days later (can't get an engineer on a weekend, no siree bobsiree) some guy shows up and fixes the issue. Aside from that, and the usual LinkSys router + DSL modem teething troubles, Verizon's been okay, though hardly optimal.
At least Comcast could get a greasemonkey out here in 24 hours to wiggle the wires and shrug in perplexion, since everything "seemed fine" at the moment. Of course, who cares if the service is quick when the shit's down at least two hours per week? And don't get me started on the cable TV.
Anyone know of any good, reliable, cheap, non-firewalled broadband in the DC Metro area?
But I believe the main reason that Americans are familiar with "our" (though I don't personally remember committing any) own human rights violations is that we talk about them.
Perhaps you could set the standard for Europeans everywhere (heh) and utilize some cases we aren't already sick to death of hearing about as your next example? Such as French support of South American terroris^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hleaders (Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, anyone) or how England seems to have twice the troubles with "extreme" media as the US (which to date hasn't directly surpressed anything no matter how overtly sexual / violent / "weird" - wish I could say the same for the United "Frank Zappa's 200 Motels" Kingdom) - those are just a couple, I'm sure there are better cases out there.
Remember, people aren't automatically intrinsically gifted with knowledge of each and every world event - one way of gifting us with that knowledge is by letting the knowledge slip casually, thus prompting some of us to go feed the keywords into search engines, and some of us to ask "what" (sans punctuation, of course), thus prompting a +1 Informative copy-and-pasting of the first page ganked from a Googling of the keywords.:-P
And propaganda? No such thing - yes, I am sure this one is very, very hard to decide...
...just like how the USSR never had any nuclear incidents, and the Soviet space program never suffered any less of human life. Crime, suffering? Practically non-existant! Oh, if only the glorious Communist state had survived, we would never have such troubles in Russia!
...in case my sarcasm is not perfectly clear: There's a fine line between "keeping an open mind" and "remaining entirely gullible". I think someone's crossed it.
...our story begins in the 1950s, a time when the world was terrified of communism, but "terrorist" was still a pretty obscure word. A time when society argued on whatever passed for slashdot at the time whether television would ever truly supplant radio in the minds of America's masses. Rollerskates were still a novelty.
Along came a man - a musician, some would say - named Elvis. His music was generally modified from the tunes of slaves. And oh was there ever an uproar. Roger Ebert, Sr.: "That certainly isn't music! Beethoven, Bach, Brahams - that is music! Elvis, why, his band doesn't even number in the dozens of people! It's even worse than the devil's jazz! Any man that would shake his-- his pelvis-- in such a way is hardly a man - a DEMON is he!". And Elvis sold millions of records and up until recently has been a household name (until the estate changed hands and tradition went buggery-up, at least)
The 50s gave rise to the 60s, and soon the Ebert Srs. of the world had a new demon to contend with - The Beatles! "At least Elvis was a nice boy. I mean, the haircut and everything. Perhaps the future shall look back upon him with a rosy eye, as they shall Warren Harding, and realize that he was merely a symptom of his troubled, communist-infected times. But these Beatles - their hair is the devil's work, and the noise they make is not Art! Four men playing those flash-in-the-pan electric instruments can never produce Art!". And yet the Beatles gathered a small following over the years, and are still remembered today.
The early 60s gave way to the mid 60s, and the Beatles were back in the center of controversy. Music critics declared that Sgt. Pepper's was hardly Art, that Art could not be made with the aid of a devil electronic synthesizer - it was hardly even Real Music! And lo, Frank Zappa came with his answer - "We're Only In It For the Money", being composed and performed entirely on natural instruments (albiet with crafty tape manipulation). And the masses winced - this was not Music! Music, Art, whatever you want to call it, was about how a Boy loved a Girl, or perhaps about how a Girl loved a Boy. Certainly, Music was not about how American Womanhood was phony, nor something that would attack the very institution of America's policemen - why, the police never shoot innocents in Art - and Music, Art, was absolutely nothing that contained such disgusting and wholly inappropriate bodily noises! Frank Zappa is currently looked on in musical circles as perhaps the single most "important" (whatever that means) American Composer to escape the 20th century, even if the original Mothers of Invention disbanded less than two years after We're Only In It For the Money's release.
And so on and so on the debate continued - the 60s became the 70s, and prog came out, but it was apparently too "pompous" to be Art, and the entire debate became less and less relevant as time went on. Hell, the critics of Shakesphere's time wouldn't call him "Art" -at the time, Shakesphere was the pulp disposable garbage of the common peasent - or at least, so I learned in my tax-funded primary education. Who knows for real. Anyway, basically something needs to be really dead and not relevant to current goings-on in the world before it will be called Art, because the way these art snobs throw the term around, it basically means History + Emotion - heck, the Sex Pistols will probably be considered Art in 500 years, assuming we don't nuke each other off the planet or DRM all the music to death by then.
Basically, Ebert (and most critics) seem to be bemoaning the lack of "innocence" in the industry. I relate to some degree - focus groups and deliberate manipulation have replaced the Happy Accident in the mainstream spotlight. But truly, it becomes an issue of Those Who Can Create Art, Create Art; Those Who Can't Create Art, Become an Art Critic - as so perfectly captured by Matt Groening in the Life Is Hell comic.
I really don't know where all this leads. Much as I per
First, let me declare how overwhelmingly disappointed I was when I checked the calendar and realized that it was not, in fact, April Fool's Day. I'd frankly prefer slashdot becoming the Portal of Ponies! to seeing this in the news.
1) Frankly, any political official has made the choice to be a political official. At that point, one should accept that there are compromises - like neutrality. Yes, I know she is not a judge (just as I am not a lawyer) - and yes, I know that it's not the FCC's decision. Still, how secure would you feel if the President of the US said something like, "actually, I'm a huge fan of burning witches at the stake, and am looking forward to using my platform as a 'bully pulprit' on the topic"? To put it another way, and try to express my emotions as purely as they're coming on - italicized for strong language - this isn't her goddamn job, I didn't ask for her goddamn opinion, and shouldn't she be "using" her "position" as something other than a fucking bully pulprit? Hey, Debbie, how about, you know, doing the job that you were appointed to do, to serve the people - not "lead" the people, not "encourage" the "direction" the "people" will "take" - not get involved in corporate goddamn matters - but rather, commission the federal airwaves so I can watch the ballgame on ABC without Joe McHam broadcasting his own drunken play-by-play?
2) These seems like a transparent "deal-making" sort of statement. Allow me to elaborate - considering that the major networks are already involved with the FCC over the whole "naughty words" thing, what's stopping them from reaching a deal like H.R. 2911 (you know, the Tipper Bill - 'Prenatal' (sic) Advisory - aka the bill which caused me to - yes - sympathize with Bushitlerlol in the 2000 election (a vote for Red is a vote for Not-Blue - sure I was rooting for Nader, but anyway, I digress)) - aka, "well Mr. Government, Ms. Debbie - we don't want no legal setbacks... so how about we settle this here matter out of court... we'll all line up and force DRM on the customers if you agree to, uh, lighten up on the S word when it's sweeps week"? My hypothesis: Absolutely nothing, and that is what in fact will happen. So much for the "free market" that some fake-Libitarian +5 Insightful Idiot posted a few posts up from here.
This woman is twice as idiotic as Harriet Miers, and yet who really gets outraged over this? Where's the media uproar over this nonpolitical, opinionated statement from someone being paid with my tax dollars? Oh, yeah, Bush said something silly, that's more important. Certainly hasn't happened before, certainly isn't going to happen again.
Ugh.
Anyway. I kinda wandered off the main line and turned my guarenteed karma-whore into a post that pissed off the Republicans, the Democrats, and is probably -1 Redundant to the Independant Frontier Electronique Freedom Fighters (all two or three of them still bothering to post online these days, heh). So go ahead, mod me...
Yes, and while they're at it, how about perpetual motion, a Beowulf cluster on a single diode, frictionless fans, a 96X DVD-R/RW, a printer that can also make thick rimmed "hipster" glasses on command, and a greater-than-10% market share?
Slashdot Mirror
This, actually, is a perfect counterpoint to the "realistic physics are ALWAYS better" line of thinking.
If it weren't for these deliberate anomalies, Breakout, et al, would be thrown into "loops". I remember a port of Breakout for the TI-83 graphics calculator that suffered from this - you would eventually have the ball at such an angle that no matter how you hit it, it'd always travel along the same pattern.
Face it - even today, this applies. Would it really be fun if your character could only jump 6-12 inches off the ground? If you ran at a rate of around 20MPH? My stipulation is that it would not be. Game designers must fudge the physics to keep a game playable. And frankly, I find the physics of Mighty Final Fight for the NES to be light-years ahead of the supposedly "revolutionary" physics of, say, Trespasser. More complex != more funriffic.
Interaction is great and all, but please give humanoid NPCs more rigid joints! It looks silly seeing them flopping around with elastic joints, or doing backflips after being shot in the face.
:-P ) - instead of this, how about we collectively lobby to get these things done right? An RTS with millions of genero-zergish units per side. A FPS with real-time rocket-based-dynamic-level-modification and death-physics so mind-jarringly violent (and bloody) that Jack Thompson and Joey "Senator" Lieberman simultaniously combust. A sports game where I can choose to attempt a brutal tackle tha
I disagree, to a certain extent.
When it comes to NPCs and enemies "reacting fo' realz" - I disagree. Sure, give them better AI (so long as "better" means "less predictable" and isn't a codeword for "can spawn other enemies to hate-rape you on sight, and requires so much processor power that there is only one enemy per stage"). But frankly, attempts have been made to make realistic physics, and without exception these games always feel muddy and unplayable. Give me Burnout Revenge over Flatout any day of the month of the week's year, kthx.
What works in the real world, with near instantaneous brain-body 3D real time control, and TOTAL SENSORY IMMERSION(TM) (note - I've patented that trademark, so now everyone has a damn good excuse to avoid the outside world) tends to take a bellyflop when you're interfacing via a mouse/keyboard/gamepad/John Romero's Magic Glowing Orb, looking at a monitor that, at best, does a good job at tricking your eyes into 2.5 dimensions.
It's been proven that people do not want "real physics" - they want "Hollywood physics". When they say "better physics", what they're saying is that they don't want paper-thin enemies who fly at 100 MPH from a shotgun blast. They want ragdoll dudes who will spin 1080 when you blast off an arm, then look at the stump, still gushing blood, and fall face-first, even though real people would scream in pain and probably not do much after the blast.
HOWEVER - when it comes to scenery physics, HELL YES. Nothing irritates me more than the Magic Unbreakable Door, found in virtually every 3D shooter. I've got rockets the size of a HUMAN BEING here. You mean to tell me a wooden door will take five of them? Other objects of note:
* - Telephone poles OF DOOM (found in most racing games, Grand Theft Auto)
* - Wooden Support Planks WITH ARMOR-ALL (found in a lot of shooters - okay, one or two shots isn't going to do much, but if I take a tommygun to a 2 by 4, the tommygun wins)
* - Ground of SOLID STEEL (almost every FPS - see my next point for more)
Dirt mound OF GOD (if I hit a dirt mound with an RPG, it should fly apart. I think that games should be REQUIRED to accurately simulate the effects of RPGs on scenery - and maybe this will keep the next five or six clone-developers from adding the damn thing. When I was in my formulative years I never imagined that I'd be saying this, but I am sick and tired of Rocket Propelled Grenades, Rocket Launchers, Giant Phallic Things Which Explode On Impact, and/or "Bazookas". They are done in every action game. They are always virtually the same. Once I play a game where a hit with a rocket will cause buildings to explode, key cards to become redundant, and mazes to be a thing of the past, I will buy back into the "Bigger and more explosive is BETTER" philosophy. And I'm not talking about Zombies Ate My Neighbors or Duke Nukem style "oh look, it's a suspicious crack in a wall, PERHAPS A ROCKET WOULD LOOK NICE HERE" linearity. I'm thinking more along the lines of the (criminally underrated) Future Tactics, except more brutal).
Anyway. Instead of worrying about the Next Big Thing, and bitching about how all games are the SAME, and becoming suckers for arm-deadening, fruitily-named attempts at brute-force "innovation" (like, uh... gee, nothing's coming to mind, so I guess this is strictly hypothetical
When Duke3D came out (seems like it was ages ago... forever, one might-- ouch, okay, sorry, sorry), it was right around the same time as Quake.
As a 13 year old, I figure I represented the "market" a lot more accurately than I do in my wiser (and more bitter / broke) years. It was Duke3D all the way for me, and I didn't think twice about it. Sure, Quake had better multiplayer (according to PC Gamer at least), but I was still netless at home. The novelty of shooting a wall and leaving actual bullet holes was thrilling. Getting to "play" pool, leaving footprints in the bloodstains left behind... all of this added up to a game that was fun way beyond the point where it should be. I don't mean to knock Duke3D, of course, but after the first episode the level design took a nosedive. Compare anything from the second episode to, oh, how about Healing Vats from DOOM. For me, it's a no brainer, at least when it comes to the simple question of "which of these levels is better, from a strictly looking-at-it-in-the-automap perspective". However, Duke3D's interactions had me playing, playing, playing, searching for the next deadpan line, or little "extra".
Also, this was the time when I became disillusioned with PC Gamer. I recall Duke3D edging Quake out in the ratings by about a percentage point or two. Heck, an issue or two later, Duke3D beat Quake in the "Best games of all time" list. Then, a year later, once the PC Gamer staff saw which game was completely dominating the online world, they scrambled to look "all knowing" by handing Quake the Best Game of the Year award. It'd be one thing if they alluded to some lasting value, but really it was your typical "press release" copy-paste. Fucking PC Gamer. I wipe my ass with that magazine now. Anyway...
One other thing. Is it just me, or does Capcom really have a finger on the pulse of the "heart" of physics? Every single game of theirs - well, since about the third Mega Man at least - has this perfect "feel" to it, that even makes games from genres I normally don't give a crap about (3D platformers) addictive and fun. I'm thinking of Maximo: Army of Zin here.
Anyway, I know that sounds like a lame attempt to make sure I avoid the -1, Offtopic mod, but it's the first thing that popped into my mind when seeing this. Midway's another company - for the most part, excluding the budget line, their games handle very, very nicely. Compare Blitz to Madden - and yes, I am quite aware that one of them is arcade football and the other attempts to be a simulation. Crank the Madden settings until the players are fast and whatever, bottom line is that Blitz feels nicer. Hitz beats the EA and SegaSports hockey titles hands down, largely for the same reason (even though the last version of Hitz had the worst "player editor" I've ever seen - major flaw in my book).
For a counterpoint, try comparing Bible Adventures or any of the Color Dreams games to, oh, geez, any of the major platformers. Compare a shooter from the Action 52 cartridge to Gun*Nac. Move up to SNES, compare The Combantants with Final Fight, or Kyle Petty's No Fear Racing with Mario Kart, or the second Ken Griffey game to the first. Which games "suck" by popular consensus? (PROTIP: The first games mentioned). What's a major uniting difference? The physics, the handling, the speed of play and the "oomph" behind a home-run / tight turn / nick-of-time-bullet-dodge / enemy stomp. In the first games, these are always an afterthought. I imagine the coders just kinda throwing darts at a wall, figuring "okay, player jumps, lands - now make sure all the platforms can be reached from the player's height (last step strictly optional - Active Enterprises, I'm looking at you)". In the case of the second games listed, I could easily see whole months being spent on nothing more than making incremental number-changes, in the 0.000000004 range of things. And that's why (IMO) the second games have always not only sold better, but been a better experience than the other, som
Didn't Apple already sign the Beatles?
--
(PROTIP: The above was a joke)
we have a draft?
Yes.. To be technical, what we now have is mandatory registration for a board that may or may not later on decide to make use of all this data. You see a fuss and a holler every time omg evil M$ collects user information, but I find this far more disturbing.
The brief, summarized draft history, for those unable/unwilling to click the hyperlink:
1) Draft for WWI
2) Peacetime draft pre-WWII when it was pretty obvious America would be fighting at some point. Interesting note: "12 months" quickly became "18 months" in 1941, and "six months post-war" once the US got involved. For those of you posting about the Government going down the toilet - sorry, but it's pretty much always been this way.
3) Peacetime draft on until the 60s (see also: Elvis)
4) Barry Goldwater (R) proposes ending the draft in 1964. See also "Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today".
5) Draft ends in 1973 - oddly enough, under the term of "evil" "Republican" Richard M. Nixon.
6) In 1980, acting as the lame duck President, Jimmy Carter (D) signs the people's rights away by starting the Selective Service System.
7) In 1986, under the Presidency of Ronald Reagan (R), the last prosecution for failure to register for the draft was made.
Clinton made it legal for people from the middle east to be rendered. To satisfy the egyptians and avoid international law.
I don't agree with it, but that is a lot different then rendering your own people.
Khaled Masri. German Citizen. Eskimo Spy. (or whatever the actual case may be) I assume you're not going to deny the ongoing process of globalization - being that you sound (no offense currently intended) party-line "liberal" and all, and this is one of those things that everybody from the "left" goes on about (yes, in case my quotes don't make it obvious, I find the entire duality perspective incredibly distasteful - but if the words have meaning for some, then why not use them?) - however, a side effect of this globalization is that the lines between "German citizen" and, uh, the American Government's "own people" (which is, frankly, an offensive term to be using - I am not property of the Government, nor do I consider it my own - until the time comes when it acts on my personal, actual interest) are blurred. It's a small step from giving some German guy an enema and a trip to the Punishment Facility to kidnapping an American Muslim, and another small step from kidnapping him to kidnapping a political activist, whistleblower, or member of Fugazi - and a small step from that to grabbing that annoying Michael Moore guy and treating him to a special, private screening of Farenhate 9/11.
And who do we have to thank for these human rights abuses? Oh, yes, the hero of Student Idiots^H^H^H^H^H^HDemocrats from coast to coast. And, gee, let me see... before the government started torturing people, how many attacks were made on American soil? Like, none? Maybe one if you count Pearl Harbor as soil. Maybe two if the first WTC bombing came before this bill - which would not surprise me, since Clinton's middle name (and, as far as I'm concerned, and with the usual Russ "Gold, not Stein" Feingold exception, the entire Democratic Party's) is "wet 'em". And let's see, afterwards, there was a huge terrorist attack, a bunch of poorly educated Midwesterners and naive Republocrats living in fear, and a growing, relentless push towards anal retentivity in all facets of life - from the obvious plane flights to the less obvious - bringing bottled "water" to a sports game, or sneaking in covert recording equipment to a concert.
Your vote. Your choice. Is "not the other guy" really enough?
I shutter to think how many Americans don't know how our political system works.
;) Would have posted this AC, but the "slow down Cowboy" "feature" prevents that - so PLEASE mod me down to 0 - I've been a bad boy.)
And I shudder to think about how many Americans can't even speak our own fucking language...
(sorry, mods, but this was BEGGING for it
I know we voted for english way back in the day, but that doesn't make publishing in german a crime.
No. This is Nazi propaganda (seriously! - how rare is it that such phrases can be literally said? scroll down about two "page downs" worth).
Well it's been 30 years since high school but I'm pretty sure they still teach kids about the physics of sound today.
Not anymore. They needed that space for the moment of silence and the Intelligent Design lesson/disclaimer/second lesson.
Sorry, but these days questioning a Democrat is obviously a troll because Bush blah blah oil blah blah conservative evil blah blah blah religious right blah blah war Carter (D) started the draft up again oops I mean blah blah PATRIOT act (all Bush's fault of course, totally not the House or the Senate) blah blah Iraq blah blah Clinton (D) made it legal to send people to Syria for torture oops I mean uhhhh REPUBLICAN BAD ANYTHING BUT THIS GUY A VOTE FOR GREEN IS A VOTE FOR RED HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
...sorry. I just need to hear someone say that every now and again... or as most say, "get that off my chest". Sigh... and my Karma was Good, too...
Green.
While I agree with where you're coming from, I must unfortunately call "bullshit" on this +1 Insightful character of the senator. I believe the situation would more likely go:
n -Fuck-It-Where's-That-Julius-Guy-Let-Him-Run-The-D amn-Show. : D
RIAA CEO "We must make it harder for these people to get streaming music, as opposed to CD's."
Senator "...Streaming...?"
RIAA CEO "Mr Senator, please accept $10,000 as a donation to your next election".
Senator "Oooh, greenie shiny..."
RIAA CEO "Oh and speaking of, maybe we can help the process by banning all streaming media"
Senator "...streaming...?"
RIAA CEO "Oh look another check for your campaign finance. Is $20,000 good?"
Remember, with very few exceptions, the majority of senators (and, for the most part, U.S. politicians in general) are, basically, old droolbags who "look" and "sound" the part. Image is everything, philosophy is just a stream of buzzwords and party ties. I'd be very surprised if more than five of them knew what CBR and VBR stood for, or what the general process of each is (and this is hardly rocket science).
Heck, I'd be surprised if a single politician even knew what ROT-13 was, much less how to decode it ("wait... you mean I click the... wait wait... file... edit? no no, wait... okay... so I go to 'decode, RTF, I mean, 'ROT-13''... wait, but how do I know when the file is 'ROT-13'?").
Anyway, with the above corrections, I'd say the scenario is more than likely. The Californian Feingold has always struck me as a particularly nasty old witch, but I can't exactly recall why at the moment. Probably some dumbshit Tipper Gore "save the children" routine -- oh, maybe she was the one who started the "NO BAD VIDEOGAMES TO MINORS MUST 'PROTECT' ALL CHILDREN!!!1!" bill in California? Eh, whatever. Fucking cunt. I'd throw her to the lions if this was a truly Roman Democracy-No-Wait-Republic-I-Mean-Democracy-I-Mea
yes, called a Democrat a "fucking cunt"... probably get -1 flamebait from the do-meaning well-gooders in a heartbeat... so much for an "alternative" party - demoncrats can be just as bugfuck robotic as repubicans
Shoot, that reminds me of a certain political leader, but I can't remember which one....
All of them, perhaps?
Funny how winAMP and foobar2000 manage to run faster than iTunes.
Funny also how VLC and even WinAMP manage to not be complete shite at playing videos (and can even do fullscreen omg).
One might conclude that, in fact, Apple just can't handle coding in Windows, or something equally preposterous - because we all know that, unlike M$, Apple's never sued bloggers or screwed over customers or released broken hardware or... oh... wait...
I dared question the illusion that Apple <3's us all, so this is probably going to be modded flamebait - but whatever.
MY MOM KNOWS I'M INSIGHTFUL AND INFORMATIVE LIKE ALL THE OTHER BOYS.
Your spelling makes me want to vomit.
Not only that, but in Smash Brothers characters have a large number of lives. This could, looking at the issue from the perspective of a crazy intrusive puritanical legislator (which I myself am not), mislead children into believe that they can be shot, fall from great heights, be slashed with swords, be set on fire, and die, and just come back again 19 more times. Who will think about the children!
Even WORSE than that, this promotes the silly pagan mud-people idea of reincarnation! WHEN WILL THEY STOP ATTACKING CHRISTMAS?!?
I'm a-movin' to Tuttle, OK - a place where people grow - FRIENDLY! - and can all let the State parent their children to dissuade any un-American individuality or freedom of alternative expression!
Allow me to rephrase, then.
No school with a CS department worth its salt would end up with a deal like this. If a school ends up with a deal like this, guess what? Their CS department is not very good. It may be full of nice people, it might be full of top end machines, it might be full of the shiniest textbooks in the country - but it is not a very efficient, effective, well-managed, or well-guided CS department - that is to say, it is not a good department.
It is as if I said "any dog with rabies is not a very good dog to be around; certainly not a dog I would wish to be around", and you (/ someone) said, "oh yes - but let me inform you, I know of quite a few top quality dogs, who have been propositioned by RabiesMouthFoamCo for Special Injections". Now I am left with saying "...well, my good sir, then it is still not a dog I would wish to be around", and then going into a private place and hollering "A BLOO A BLOO A BLOO" while running around in erratic circles until the aggravation of hearing Middle Management stories wears off.
...any college that would sign this sort of exclusivity deal probably doesn't have much in the way of, oh, how shall we say, a progressive-minded fast-paced cutting-edge technological studies / computer science department - by which I mean that this list of 72 colleges (which I don't believe was published - I skimmed TFA) is more likely to be "Ben Doke's Midtown College of Applied Farm Machineary" and "Oral Roberts God Fearing U" and 70 other semi-community colleges than it is "M.I.T." and "UC-Berkeley" and other notable names from the Ivy League and Division I-A - and students who'd attend the sort of college that would sign a deal as stupid and moronic as this are probably the sorts who'll be happily locked into Windows anyway, for the rest of the foreseeable future. Or the mildly sociopathic types who'll get a perverse thrill out of signing up for distance learning Web CT classes, then informing the instructor that they won't be able to check their validated campus email because they run Linux ;)
So, uh, all hype, and it's sorta nerdy - but does it matter?
...is that Comcast is the alternative (that I know of).
I remember one day the phone line went down. Pfft. Zzt. Nothing. No dialtone, no incoming, and of course no DSL. Called Verizon Support and got level 1'd for two hours. "Did you check the test line?". You fucking robot, did I not just say that three seperate lines, plus the DSL, were all out, and yes I have unplugged each and every phone in every possible combination? The test line isn't going to tell me anything I don't already know.
Anyway, three days later (can't get an engineer on a weekend, no siree bobsiree) some guy shows up and fixes the issue. Aside from that, and the usual LinkSys router + DSL modem teething troubles, Verizon's been okay, though hardly optimal.
At least Comcast could get a greasemonkey out here in 24 hours to wiggle the wires and shrug in perplexion, since everything "seemed fine" at the moment. Of course, who cares if the service is quick when the shit's down at least two hours per week? And don't get me started on the cable TV.
Anyone know of any good, reliable, cheap, non-firewalled broadband in the DC Metro area?
Trying to not sound like a troll...
:-P
But I believe the main reason that Americans are familiar with "our" (though I don't personally remember committing any) own human rights violations is that we talk about them.
Perhaps you could set the standard for Europeans everywhere (heh) and utilize some cases we aren't already sick to death of hearing about as your next example? Such as French support of South American terroris^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hleaders (Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, anyone) or how England seems to have twice the troubles with "extreme" media as the US (which to date hasn't directly surpressed anything no matter how overtly sexual / violent / "weird" - wish I could say the same for the United "Frank Zappa's 200 Motels" Kingdom) - those are just a couple, I'm sure there are better cases out there.
Remember, people aren't automatically intrinsically gifted with knowledge of each and every world event - one way of gifting us with that knowledge is by letting the knowledge slip casually, thus prompting some of us to go feed the keywords into search engines, and some of us to ask "what" (sans punctuation, of course), thus prompting a +1 Informative copy-and-pasting of the first page ganked from a Googling of the keywords.
And propaganda? No such thing - yes, I am sure this one is very, very hard to decide...
...just like how the USSR never had any nuclear incidents, and the Soviet space program never suffered any less of human life. Crime, suffering? Practically non-existant! Oh, if only the glorious Communist state had survived, we would never have such troubles in Russia!
...in case my sarcasm is not perfectly clear: There's a fine line between "keeping an open mind" and "remaining entirely gullible". I think someone's crossed it.
...our story begins in the 1950s, a time when the world was terrified of communism, but "terrorist" was still a pretty obscure word. A time when society argued on whatever passed for slashdot at the time whether television would ever truly supplant radio in the minds of America's masses. Rollerskates were still a novelty.
Along came a man - a musician, some would say - named Elvis. His music was generally modified from the tunes of slaves. And oh was there ever an uproar. Roger Ebert, Sr.: "That certainly isn't music! Beethoven, Bach, Brahams - that is music! Elvis, why, his band doesn't even number in the dozens of people! It's even worse than the devil's jazz! Any man that would shake his-- his pelvis-- in such a way is hardly a man - a DEMON is he!". And Elvis sold millions of records and up until recently has been a household name (until the estate changed hands and tradition went buggery-up, at least)
The 50s gave rise to the 60s, and soon the Ebert Srs. of the world had a new demon to contend with - The Beatles! "At least Elvis was a nice boy. I mean, the haircut and everything. Perhaps the future shall look back upon him with a rosy eye, as they shall Warren Harding, and realize that he was merely a symptom of his troubled, communist-infected times. But these Beatles - their hair is the devil's work, and the noise they make is not Art! Four men playing those flash-in-the-pan electric instruments can never produce Art!". And yet the Beatles gathered a small following over the years, and are still remembered today.
The early 60s gave way to the mid 60s, and the Beatles were back in the center of controversy. Music critics declared that Sgt. Pepper's was hardly Art, that Art could not be made with the aid of a devil electronic synthesizer - it was hardly even Real Music! And lo, Frank Zappa came with his answer - "We're Only In It For the Money", being composed and performed entirely on natural instruments (albiet with crafty tape manipulation). And the masses winced - this was not Music! Music, Art, whatever you want to call it, was about how a Boy loved a Girl, or perhaps about how a Girl loved a Boy. Certainly, Music was not about how American Womanhood was phony, nor something that would attack the very institution of America's policemen - why, the police never shoot innocents in Art - and Music, Art, was absolutely nothing that contained such disgusting and wholly inappropriate bodily noises! Frank Zappa is currently looked on in musical circles as perhaps the single most "important" (whatever that means) American Composer to escape the 20th century, even if the original Mothers of Invention disbanded less than two years after We're Only In It For the Money's release.
And so on and so on the debate continued - the 60s became the 70s, and prog came out, but it was apparently too "pompous" to be Art, and the entire debate became less and less relevant as time went on. Hell, the critics of Shakesphere's time wouldn't call him "Art" -at the time, Shakesphere was the pulp disposable garbage of the common peasent - or at least, so I learned in my tax-funded primary education. Who knows for real. Anyway, basically something needs to be really dead and not relevant to current goings-on in the world before it will be called Art, because the way these art snobs throw the term around, it basically means History + Emotion - heck, the Sex Pistols will probably be considered Art in 500 years, assuming we don't nuke each other off the planet or DRM all the music to death by then.
Basically, Ebert (and most critics) seem to be bemoaning the lack of "innocence" in the industry. I relate to some degree - focus groups and deliberate manipulation have replaced the Happy Accident in the mainstream spotlight. But truly, it becomes an issue of Those Who Can Create Art, Create Art; Those Who Can't Create Art, Become an Art Critic - as so perfectly captured by Matt Groening in the Life Is Hell comic.
I really don't know where all this leads. Much as I per
Only idiots would hold back on knowledge and securing their future job-compatibility on basis of image alone.
To paraphrase the BOFH... War's too good for them.
First, let me declare how overwhelmingly disappointed I was when I checked the calendar and realized that it was not, in fact, April Fool's Day. I'd frankly prefer slashdot becoming the Portal of Ponies! to seeing this in the news.
:-\
1) Frankly, any political official has made the choice to be a political official. At that point, one should accept that there are compromises - like neutrality. Yes, I know she is not a judge (just as I am not a lawyer) - and yes, I know that it's not the FCC's decision. Still, how secure would you feel if the President of the US said something like, "actually, I'm a huge fan of burning witches at the stake, and am looking forward to using my platform as a 'bully pulprit' on the topic"? To put it another way, and try to express my emotions as purely as they're coming on - italicized for strong language - this isn't her goddamn job, I didn't ask for her goddamn opinion, and shouldn't she be "using" her "position" as something other than a fucking bully pulprit? Hey, Debbie, how about, you know, doing the job that you were appointed to do, to serve the people - not "lead" the people, not "encourage" the "direction" the "people" will "take" - not get involved in corporate goddamn matters - but rather, commission the federal airwaves so I can watch the ballgame on ABC without Joe McHam broadcasting his own drunken play-by-play?
2) These seems like a transparent "deal-making" sort of statement. Allow me to elaborate - considering that the major networks are already involved with the FCC over the whole "naughty words" thing, what's stopping them from reaching a deal like H.R. 2911 (you know, the Tipper Bill - 'Prenatal' (sic) Advisory - aka the bill which caused me to - yes - sympathize with Bushitlerlol in the 2000 election (a vote for Red is a vote for Not-Blue - sure I was rooting for Nader, but anyway, I digress)) - aka, "well Mr. Government, Ms. Debbie - we don't want no legal setbacks... so how about we settle this here matter out of court... we'll all line up and force DRM on the customers if you agree to, uh, lighten up on the S word when it's sweeps week"? My hypothesis: Absolutely nothing, and that is what in fact will happen. So much for the "free market" that some fake-Libitarian +5 Insightful Idiot posted a few posts up from here.
This woman is twice as idiotic as Harriet Miers, and yet who really gets outraged over this? Where's the media uproar over this nonpolitical, opinionated statement from someone being paid with my tax dollars? Oh, yeah, Bush said something silly, that's more important. Certainly hasn't happened before, certainly isn't going to happen again.
Ugh.
Anyway. I kinda wandered off the main line and turned my guarenteed karma-whore into a post that pissed off the Republicans, the Democrats, and is probably -1 Redundant to the Independant Frontier Electronique Freedom Fighters (all two or three of them still bothering to post online these days, heh). So go ahead, mod me...
~~-- -1, Flamebait
Yes, and while they're at it, how about perpetual motion, a Beowulf cluster on a single diode, frictionless fans, a 96X DVD-R/RW, a printer that can also make thick rimmed "hipster" glasses on command, and a greater-than-10% market share?
They could market it as "the iMprobability Drive"
I get an iBook for $800 that just works.
Quoting an ad campaign to support your position == -1, Brainwashed / Non-accredited