Gamification is what your dad said when you complained about picking up sticks in the backyard, and he replied "Let's make a game of it. See how many you can get done in a minute, and then try to beat your record for the next minute."
Gamification is what makes people practice instruments on Rock Band that would bore them in real life.
That someone who studies games could call it bullshit kinda puzzles me. It may be a silly word, and it may be misapplied to things like FourSquare badges no one cares about, but it's hardly bullshit.
If you're serious and you mean adopting instead, current laws make it very hard. First of all, it's something like $20,000, and on top of that you can't have had any jaywalking tickets and you have to prove you've been eating Kashi for breakfast for at least a year, to prove that you're fit parents.
Well I'll be -- I never noticed that. That's definitely useful information, but it still would be nice to see a progress bar/chart/whatever of disk usage.
I mean, just look at a standard Tivo box. 40G hard drive gives you about 35 hours of recording time.
That's only if you record at crappy quality. If you record at "good" (not "best"), you get around 15. Which goes real fast, let me tell you. What's worse is that there's no way to find out how much space you've used up or is available.
[/gripe]
Again, too soft. What would be nice is one made out of African Blackwood. African blackwood is used for making woodwind instruments and is jet black and very hard wearing. Doesn't need any finish either and is fairly easy to shape with rasps etc.
I actually liked those. I thought they were great for fps games -- the ball seemed more responsive than the optical ones. You didn't put your palm on it, of course, you moused with your fingertips. Actually seemed a bit easier on the wrists. Had to toss if of course in favor of the best mouse -- microsoft's 4-button + scroll intellimouse. I won't argue with Apple that one-button mice are best if you've never used a computer before, but hell if I can stand one.
I agree with this 100%. I hate those freakin things. I figure they did that for the sake of either less cost or more durability, though. I don't think it's a design thing.
Apple was so enamored with absolute pure, minimalist design that some designers may argue that ergonomics were compromised.
I thought the exact same thing the first time I saw those earbud headphones. They look like a couple primitive shapes stuck together. Come to find out, they're the most comfortable earbud headphones I've had, even without the foam.
I hate to be an Apple apologist, but I can't think of anywhere they've sacrificed ergonimics for design. I think they just eschew curves and stuff that look ergonomic, but don't actually make the thing easier to use.
Oh please. Even the dirtiest of hippies will tell you that smoking 1 joint is as bad for you a 3 cigarettes. And that's a conservative estimate. Have you ever smoked it? I feel like I jut sandpapered my lungs and throat afterwards. No way is that less harmful than tobacco, even ignoring what long term THC abuse does to you.
Thank you! I totally agree -- the new definition is what science is all about. Except the 2nd part should be something like "...to lead to incontrovertable explanations about the workings of natural phenomena."
I think most people on both sides don't realise how little fossil evidence there is. I mean, it's pretty clear we evolved from neanderthals, and I think they evolved from australopithicans, but I have a hard time bridging the gap between australopithicans and chimps. Other people believe australopithicans ARE chimps, and the bones were mixed up (wasn't Lucy's knee bone found like 2 years earlier than the rest of her, or something like that?). The simple fact that scientists are arguing about it proves that there's simply not enough evidence to teach it like it's definitely definitely what happened.
But either way, I don't see how the new definition would prevent teaching evolution. It's the best scientific theory we have so far, and subscribes to the new definition fine.
If people want to honour animals, they should leave them alive rather than spuriously 'thinning out their numbers', South Park style.
So... we should honor animals by processing them in "factory farms and industrial slaughterhouses?" You don't think they'd rather be running around outside?
What about the overpopulated deer habitats? We should let the environment get overrun with whitetail for lack of natural predators?
but the majority of hunters I encounter seem to be pissed idiots, blasting away at roadsigns and leaving beer cans and rubbish everywhere.
I don't think you know many hunters. The only hunters like that I see are on TV. Granted, I'm sure they exist, but I doubt there are any more stupid hunters than there are stupid vegetarians.
I know we'll get into this religious war about TCO and all that crap, but the fact remains that you can buy a new nicely equiped PC for a lot less than the cheapest Mac costs... and then you're getting the cheapest Mac.
You know, despite the fact that you can get a 1.8 ghz g5 for $1500 now (screen included if you get an iMac), and a g4 for about the price of a similiarly-equipped PC, I believed in this logic too. Especially since, as a Mac owner, I had dreams of "buying a new PC" to mean "buying a new mobo and ram and recycling the other componenets from your last machine."
But I've been using a (Dell) PC at work for the past couple weeks, and let me tell you, at 2.5 ghz, it feels slower than my 1.2ghz g4. Dealing with viruses is a pain in the ass, and I have to restart at least once a day. Several things are a lot more complicated than they need to be. It takes more than a couple clicks to search for a file, and it asks me if I'm sure every time I move something to the trash. Of fucking course, I just clicked on it, didn't I? And if I did it by mistake, it's not like I can't just pull it right back out of the trash.
Don't even get me started on networking.
Someone else said Macs were like Lexuses. It's more like Macs are Honda Accords (or tricked-out Civics), and PCs are like the old Escort that your uncle gave you because it wasn't worth his time to sell. The one that you're always worried will crash.
"Michael Thomas, the PA reader who helped us add up all the toys purchased as of late last night also had this very nice quote at the end of his message to us:
'Now I understand what all of the anti-videogame people ment when they said children raised on games would grow up abnormal. They were right, we'd all grow up with really big hearts.'"
So much for avoiding the flames. And I don't know what you're talking about with the Star Wars comment -- whatever.
I didn't explain it because I don't understand every bit of it, and you'd do much better to get it straight from Campbell. But basically, myths are like a collective dream, or a set of instructions on how you need to live your life to fufill it. For instance, with creation myths, in the case of the garden of eden one, you can look at it like eden is the paradise of our original nature (the thing that Buddhists believe exists outside consciousness, the thing that continues on when you're reincarnated). The garden is guarded by two angels -- duality. So it's sort of saying you can reach spiritual paradise when you defeat the concept of duality (good vs. evil, male vs. female, something vs. nothing). This -- I'm pretty sure -- corrseponds to Heaven, or Nirvana.
I'm still working it out myself, which is why I was more comfortable pointing the poster in the direction of someone who knew what they were talking about than spouting off my own interpretation.
The Bible is a group of stories meant to influence peasants into being nice to one another, following the church's practices, and most of all, be satisfied with their lot in life ("if you suffer righteously now, Jesus will raise you on high, and you will go to heaven")
It's not that simple. It's not a bunch of stories -- it's a set of myths. Big difference. Read Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" for more info. As far as it being a ruse to put the peasants in their place, think about the rich and the poor people you know. Does their happiness have anything to do with how much money they have?
I wouldn't be surprised if it actually did exist. At least it would partly explain the fact the Hiro Protagonist is maybe the lamest name for a character I've ever come across. Seriously, I just about put the book down from that alone. I'm glad I read the whole thing, but I'm even gladder that Neal is picking better names now.
As an aside, you know why the made-for-TV Incredible Hulk is named David Banner rather than Bruce Banner (the original name)? The TV execs thought the name Bruce was too gay. No joke.
192k is about equivalent to 2" analog tape, IIRC. As in, really really good. I want this.
I haven't used this, but I feel pretty confident in saying it kicks Fruity Loops's ass.
Still, $999 for just software when you can get Pro Tools + the mBox interface for 3 or 4 hundred? Not worth it, IMO. Targeted towards the pros, I guess.
i'm in the same boat i think. i can't recall the last CD i bought..
I can. Modest Mouse's "Good News for People Who Love Bad News." I bought it brand-new for $10 and it's worth 10 times that. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love it. Do I feel bad for supporting the RIAA (in this case, Sony)? Sure I do. But I'm also supporting a reasonable pricing structure (if everyone only bought CDs for $10, they might catch on and make all CDs $10).
When is the last time some worth buying the entire cd for was featured on TRL?
I don't know about TRL, but I saw the video for "Float On" on MTV the other day. It's SO worth buying the whole album. EVERY SINGLE SONG (except maybe Dance Hall) kicks ass.
Sure, I like to support indies too. Especially some of the quality stuff at songfight. But you can't let your principles make you shoot yourself in the foot. Not everything on MTV sucks. Just 99% of it.
No, I'm serious. I realise it was forged, but I wanted to make sure that they got it by going to my website (which I can't prevent) rather than me being stupid about some phish scam (which I'm fairly sure I haven't been).
You're right, but most people don't know how to check the headers, much less look up the IP. But the two easiest checks against these type of messages weren't available in the test:
1) Does it make sense that I would get this? If I don't use US Bank, for instance, it's obvious it's fraud. But for the sake of the test, I think they assume you're involved with those companies, and that's okay.
2) More importantly, they don't let you check where the links are going to. If I rollover "www.paypal.com" and in the little bar in my browser it says "www.paypal.com," I know it's alright. But if it says "ccnums.steal-this-suckers-identity.com"...
I had a client recently who called me complaining that she was getting hundreds of e-mails bounced to her that she didn't send out.
I was getting those for a while (they seemed to have let up lately). What are the cause of those? I don't open any attachments I wasn't expecting, and I run OSX.
Slashdot Mirror
Else, how could Chore Wars exist?
Gamification is what your dad said when you complained about picking up sticks in the backyard, and he replied "Let's make a game of it. See how many you can get done in a minute, and then try to beat your record for the next minute."
Gamification is what makes people practice instruments on Rock Band that would bore them in real life.
That someone who studies games could call it bullshit kinda puzzles me. It may be a silly word, and it may be misapplied to things like FourSquare badges no one cares about, but it's hardly bullshit.
who was bombed on Bailey's at the time
you can do that?
If you're serious and you mean adopting instead, current laws make it very hard. First of all, it's something like $20,000, and on top of that you can't have had any jaywalking tickets and you have to prove you've been eating Kashi for breakfast for at least a year, to prove that you're fit parents.
Personally, I can't hear the difference between Back in Black at 192bpm
;P
That's the Chipmunks' cover version
Well I'll be -- I never noticed that. That's definitely useful information, but it still would be nice to see a progress bar/chart/whatever of disk usage.
I mean, just look at a standard Tivo box. 40G hard drive gives you about 35 hours of recording time.
That's only if you record at crappy quality. If you record at "good" (not "best"), you get around 15. Which goes real fast, let me tell you. What's worse is that there's no way to find out how much space you've used up or is available.
[/gripe]
Again, too soft. What would be nice is one made out of African Blackwood. African blackwood is used for making woodwind instruments and is jet black and very hard wearing. Doesn't need any finish either and is fairly easy to shape with rasps etc.
You mean grenadilla wood?
http://www.puchner.com/en/literatur/grenadill.php
I actually liked those. I thought they were great for fps games -- the ball seemed more responsive than the optical ones. You didn't put your palm on it, of course, you moused with your fingertips. Actually seemed a bit easier on the wrists. Had to toss if of course in favor of the best mouse -- microsoft's 4-button + scroll intellimouse. I won't argue with Apple that one-button mice are best if you've never used a computer before, but hell if I can stand one.
I agree with this 100%. I hate those freakin things. I figure they did that for the sake of either less cost or more durability, though. I don't think it's a design thing.
Apple was so enamored with absolute pure, minimalist design that some designers may argue that ergonomics were compromised.
I thought the exact same thing the first time I saw those earbud headphones. They look like a couple primitive shapes stuck together. Come to find out, they're the most comfortable earbud headphones I've had, even without the foam.
I hate to be an Apple apologist, but I can't think of anywhere they've sacrificed ergonimics for design. I think they just eschew curves and stuff that look ergonomic, but don't actually make the thing easier to use.
Oh please. Even the dirtiest of hippies will tell you that smoking 1 joint is as bad for you a 3 cigarettes. And that's a conservative estimate. Have you ever smoked it? I feel like I jut sandpapered my lungs and throat afterwards. No way is that less harmful than tobacco, even ignoring what long term THC abuse does to you.
Thank you! I totally agree -- the new definition is what science is all about. Except the 2nd part should be something like "...to lead to incontrovertable explanations about the workings of natural phenomena."
I think most people on both sides don't realise how little fossil evidence there is. I mean, it's pretty clear we evolved from neanderthals, and I think they evolved from australopithicans, but I have a hard time bridging the gap between australopithicans and chimps. Other people believe australopithicans ARE chimps, and the bones were mixed up (wasn't Lucy's knee bone found like 2 years earlier than the rest of her, or something like that?). The simple fact that scientists are arguing about it proves that there's simply not enough evidence to teach it like it's definitely definitely what happened.
But either way, I don't see how the new definition would prevent teaching evolution. It's the best scientific theory we have so far, and subscribes to the new definition fine.
IANAL, but it looks like section 107 applies to copyrighted work only. It doesn't say anything about trademarks, which have different rules.
If people want to honour animals, they should leave them alive rather than spuriously 'thinning out their numbers', South Park style.
So... we should honor animals by processing them in "factory farms and industrial slaughterhouses?" You don't think they'd rather be running around outside?
What about the overpopulated deer habitats? We should let the environment get overrun with whitetail for lack of natural predators?
but the majority of hunters I encounter seem to be pissed idiots, blasting away at roadsigns and leaving beer cans and rubbish everywhere.
I don't think you know many hunters. The only hunters like that I see are on TV. Granted, I'm sure they exist, but I doubt there are any more stupid hunters than there are stupid vegetarians.
I know we'll get into this religious war about TCO and all that crap, but the fact remains that you can buy a new nicely equiped PC for a lot less than the cheapest Mac costs... and then you're getting the cheapest Mac.
You know, despite the fact that you can get a 1.8 ghz g5 for $1500 now (screen included if you get an iMac), and a g4 for about the price of a similiarly-equipped PC, I believed in this logic too. Especially since, as a Mac owner, I had dreams of "buying a new PC" to mean "buying a new mobo and ram and recycling the other componenets from your last machine."
But I've been using a (Dell) PC at work for the past couple weeks, and let me tell you, at 2.5 ghz, it feels slower than my 1.2ghz g4. Dealing with viruses is a pain in the ass, and I have to restart at least once a day. Several things are a lot more complicated than they need to be. It takes more than a couple clicks to search for a file, and it asks me if I'm sure every time I move something to the trash. Of fucking course, I just clicked on it, didn't I? And if I did it by mistake, it's not like I can't just pull it right back out of the trash.
Don't even get me started on networking.
Someone else said Macs were like Lexuses. It's more like Macs are Honda Accords (or tricked-out Civics), and PCs are like the old Escort that your uncle gave you because it wasn't worth his time to sell. The one that you're always worried will crash.
from the site:
"Michael Thomas, the PA reader who helped us add up all the toys purchased as of late last night also had this very nice quote at the end of his message to us:
'Now I understand what all of the anti-videogame people ment when they said children raised on games would grow up abnormal. They were right, we'd all grow up with really big hearts.'"
So much for avoiding the flames. And I don't know what you're talking about with the Star Wars comment -- whatever.
I didn't explain it because I don't understand every bit of it, and you'd do much better to get it straight from Campbell. But basically, myths are like a collective dream, or a set of instructions on how you need to live your life to fufill it. For instance, with creation myths, in the case of the garden of eden one, you can look at it like eden is the paradise of our original nature (the thing that Buddhists believe exists outside consciousness, the thing that continues on when you're reincarnated). The garden is guarded by two angels -- duality. So it's sort of saying you can reach spiritual paradise when you defeat the concept of duality (good vs. evil, male vs. female, something vs. nothing). This -- I'm pretty sure -- corrseponds to Heaven, or Nirvana.
I'm still working it out myself, which is why I was more comfortable pointing the poster in the direction of someone who knew what they were talking about than spouting off my own interpretation.
The Bible is a group of stories meant to influence peasants into being nice to one another, following the church's practices, and most of all, be satisfied with their lot in life ("if you suffer righteously now, Jesus will raise you on high, and you will go to heaven")
It's not that simple. It's not a bunch of stories -- it's a set of myths. Big difference. Read Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" for more info. As far as it being a ruse to put the peasants in their place, think about the rich and the poor people you know. Does their happiness have anything to do with how much money they have?
I wouldn't be surprised if it actually did exist. At least it would partly explain the fact the Hiro Protagonist is maybe the lamest name for a character I've ever come across. Seriously, I just about put the book down from that alone. I'm glad I read the whole thing, but I'm even gladder that Neal is picking better names now.
As an aside, you know why the made-for-TV Incredible Hulk is named David Banner rather than Bruce Banner (the original name)? The TV execs thought the name Bruce was too gay. No joke.
192k is about equivalent to 2" analog tape, IIRC. As in, really really good. I want this.
I haven't used this, but I feel pretty confident in saying it kicks Fruity Loops's ass.
Still, $999 for just software when you can get Pro Tools + the mBox interface for 3 or 4 hundred? Not worth it, IMO. Targeted towards the pros, I guess.
but I'll cheerfully stop using Windows as soon as Linux is easier and better and HAS THE SOFTWARE I NEED TO GET MY WORK DONE.
;)
like some sort of blocker to keep you from posting long arguments on Slashdot?
i'm in the same boat i think. i can't recall the last CD i bought..
I can. Modest Mouse's "Good News for People Who Love Bad News." I bought it brand-new for $10 and it's worth 10 times that. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love it. Do I feel bad for supporting the RIAA (in this case, Sony)? Sure I do. But I'm also supporting a reasonable pricing structure (if everyone only bought CDs for $10, they might catch on and make all CDs $10).
When is the last time some worth buying the entire cd for was featured on TRL?
I don't know about TRL, but I saw the video for "Float On" on MTV the other day. It's SO worth buying the whole album. EVERY SINGLE SONG (except maybe Dance Hall) kicks ass.
Sure, I like to support indies too. Especially some of the quality stuff at songfight. But you can't let your principles make you shoot yourself in the foot. Not everything on MTV sucks. Just 99% of it.
No, I'm serious. I realise it was forged, but I wanted to make sure that they got it by going to my website (which I can't prevent) rather than me being stupid about some phish scam (which I'm fairly sure I haven't been).
You're right, but most people don't know how to check the headers, much less look up the IP. But the two easiest checks against these type of messages weren't available in the test:
1) Does it make sense that I would get this? If I don't use US Bank, for instance, it's obvious it's fraud. But for the sake of the test, I think they assume you're involved with those companies, and that's okay.
2) More importantly, they don't let you check where the links are going to. If I rollover "www.paypal.com" and in the little bar in my browser it says "www.paypal.com," I know it's alright. But if it says "ccnums.steal-this-suckers-identity.com"...
I had a client recently who called me complaining that she was getting hundreds of e-mails bounced to her that she didn't send out.
I was getting those for a while (they seemed to have let up lately). What are the cause of those? I don't open any attachments I wasn't expecting, and I run OSX.