Okay, so you can argue that guy wouldn't have done anything on his own. But what about the guy who thought he was blowing up the van full of explosives in the middle of the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Portland? He thought up the plot and sought out the informants. I've heard the tape where the agent asks the guy "Are you sure you want to do this, you know there will be women and children in the crowd." and he is adamant. That seems like a pretty valuable use of agency resources.
You're confusing legal and ethical. Anyone who isn't Catholic may not have any say in the matter and there may be no legal authority to stop it, but it would still be wrong if some of the Vatican administrators are using their authority to award supplier contracts to their cousins and pay double. That still doesn't make it a slashdot story, but the parallels to the wikileaks affair, and punishing the whistleblowers does.
The thing that got my attention is that one of the leaked letters discusses "the likely date of Benedict's death." Could that possibly be true? Or is the original article writer just trolling to get a rise out of conspiracy theorists? It is so bizarre, it just might be true.
In what way is the current system "fundamentally broken" ? They sold 609 million units last year just in games for the Wii, PS3, Xbox360, DS and 3DS. That's a lot of money for the industry. At the same time, I have tremendous choice as a consumer. Even just on the 360 there are a lot more good games than I have time to play. Add to that everything available for phones, pads, and the PC both in retail and electronic distribution and it is a great time to be a gamer.
If there are developers and publishers that are losing money because they spent a bunch of money on a crappy game, that isn't the fault of the used game market. People have been predicting for decades that the tremendous and rising cost of producing and promoting blockbuster movies was too high and that studios would fail and fewer movies would be made, but I see no evidence that there are fewer movies available.
If console makers go through with their plan to kill the used market, it might make them more money, or it might convince consumers to spend that $15-30 they would have spent on a used console game on some other platform. Or they may not be as willing to pay the $60 for the new game if they know they can't sell it for $30 when they are done with it, so, again, they may choose to buy a $5 app. that keeps them entertained for a week.
It is a huge decision for console makers, with big effects, but let us not pretend they are fixing anything.
No kidding. I'm pretty sure we know nothing conclusive about what causes autism, so any uncited quote from an unnamed source that claims that too much tablet use could cause it is worthy of scorn. I'm kind of surprised that hypnosec got away with including that crap in the headline. Can we mod him down?
from TFA:"There may never be another game as popular as WoW, and even if there is, at the very least WoW will always be considered the first mega-successful MMORPG."
I'm surprised that no one has challenged this yet. I think WoW became more popular at it's high point, but I think Everquest paved the way for it, and was as popular at it is now. EQ certainly eclipsed the stuff like Ultima Online and Baldur's Gate that preceded it.
Having read the much, much better IBM press release, I see now that the arrays of TX and RX diodes are assembled to the mother chip while it is still in wafer, which would imply automation, and as you said alignment by lithography. Then there is this bit: "The Holey Optochips are designed for direct coupling to a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array through an efficient microlens optical system that can be assembled with conventional high-volume packaging tools." So again, automated, not manual. I simply had no idea there was such a thing as a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array, like they sell them at Frye's or something. In any case, IBM seems to be trying to make it clear that this isn't some esoteric lab experiment like I assumed it was, but uses existing technology that could be scaled into production. Now my question is: what did they use to feed data to 24 40-something Gigabit channels? I'm guessing they loopback the optical side, but that is just a guess, maybe they have 24 optical sources and loopback the electrical side. I wish they had a picture of the whole setup.
from TFA: "the holes on the chip allowing optical access to 24 850-nanometre vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) and photodiode arrays flip-chip soldered to the Optochip" so no, the lasers and photodiodes are not part of the holey chip. But that isn't even the alignment I'm talking about, even if those were built into the chip, I think someone still has to align the polished end of the fiber to the diode, unless the diodes are so perfectly aligned to the holes and the holes have good enough tolerances that the holes align the fiber without intervention. That still sound like a non-trivial thing to get right 48 times. Rework would be a bitch. Also, the people who actually make the reticles might drink Mt. Dew, but the people in chip layout and chip finishing drink coffee, thankyouverymuch.
How would you like to be the technician who had to align 24 photodiodes and 24 lasers to 48 optical fibers on a 5mm x 5mm die. They should have a picture of that heroic individual in the press release. But no, the PR people are just making up crap about transfer rates.
Unfortunately, my company firewall prevents me from reading TFA, but your comments refer to a Detective in Maryland, the DHS, ICE and moving money through foreign banks. I do know that in the cases for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the others that were shut down in the last big legal action, what they were actually charged with was bank/wire fraud. The credit card companies, in compliance with US law, were refusing to make payments from US residents to these foreign casinos. So the casinos were disguising the charges' origin and nature by routing them through a third-party and presenting them as being for non-gambling products and services. If you are presenting a fraudulent charge to a US credit card company for a US customer, it seems to me that you are breaking US law and under US jurisdiction. What if Bodog is doing the same thing? What if they are routing a charge through the Maldives and disguising its' origin and nature, presenting it to a customer and credit card company in Maryland? At that point aren't they doing business in Maryland? I don't think we can pretend this is all perfectly legal in Canada any more. And if they are legally seizing assets, isn't the domain an asset that is based in the US? If we say that Verisign shouldn't obey a US court order, then what court should have the authority to seize that property? Are you saying the Fed should have to go to a Canadian court because the original registrar is in Canada? Even if the law was broken in the US and the domain resides in the US?
Walled garden, huh? You say that like it's a bad thing. 1. Okay, I shouldn't have said "none". How about few. Aimbot and texture hacks are rare in consoles. We would like to keep it that way. I don't want to play on a console against someone on a PC. 2. I don't believe that PC gaming has higher revenue than console gaming. Regardless, even if PC game sales are under-reported, I don't think consoles would convince PC gamers to change by being more like a PC. 3&4. I concede that PCs have more multimedia services. If you want to hook a PC up to your HDTV in your living room, you're a minority. Most people want an appliance. And an appliance that understands voice commands is pretty cool.
I think you understated the "same for everyone" aspect. The "level playing field" of console multiplayer gaming is a HUGE plus. Maybe on par with the "it just works" aspect.
Your bias is showing. You think PC gaming is superior and if consoles were more like PCs they would be better. But us console gamers DO NOT WANT the barrier removed. We like to know that none of our opponents are using aimbots or custom textures that let them see through walls or macros or other such cheats. We like the fact that people that mod the hardware of their XBOX in order to cheat run the risk of getting locked out of XBox Live. Microsoft makes more money on Xbox games than it does on the same game for PC. And PC game sales are dwarfed by the volume of console game sales, so the value of wooing PC gamers onto the console is not that big. It looks to me like that barrier benefits both Microsoft and console gamers.
Also, Microsoft has been pretty serious about making the XBox into a media center, when was the last time you tried it? I have a friend who recently canceled cable TV and uses his PC as a DVR for over the air programming, then streams from the PC to all the XBoxes in the house. The Xbox also runs Hulu+, Netflix, Espn, Last.fm and a UFC channel. I hear the next OS update will add more. I believe they plan on being able to replace set-top boxes from some cable companies in the future. If they are limited, it is because the content providers want to maintain control, not because MS, Sony Nintendo, or Apple are "dicking around" YOU trying telling the networks they should stream everything so the users don't have to pay for cable.
I don't understand this part:
“Moreover, while conventional chip fabrication requires multimillion dollar clean room facilities, our process can be performed with simple equipment that costs much less."
They can only be replacing the physical layer step, the laser or the photo-diode, if they don't need a multimillion dollar equipment. They will still need a conventional chip for the amplifier or laser-driver. So their claim that the signal won't have to leave the fiber is misleading right off the bat. Then I have to wonder why it would be cheaper to grow a laser (and test it) one-at-a-time on the end of a fiber instead of on a wafer. Okay, you skip packaging, but the market has already decided (for the moment) that packaged lasers are cheaper than putting a bare die directly into an integrated module.
Where's the savings?
"What boggles me is, who are these people that have lower scores than him? I wonder how many other children are out their dominating us adults in games and we don't even realize it."
Obviously it IS amazing how quickly some children can learn. And I too always wondered who those people were, until I played with one for some time and when I was dead follwed him and saw his choices. This bad player and many other like him don't play like it is a game, they aren't committed to the objective of the game. They are totally risk averse, concerned with "surviving" (its a game) camp in a "safe" place, and are totally predictable because they are playing scared. They are sitting ducks for people who willing to risk losing for a chance to win.
A young child is totally fearless because they are still much more in tune with "pretend" than most adults are. A childs simplistic view of the game and egoless total commitment to the goal can be very valuable assets in certain types of games.
I know that I play at my best when I am totally oblivious to my own personal score and totally focused on the team goals and countering the opponent. Then I'll notice that I have a great score and I'm number one on the server and it totally throws me off, I can't play well when I'm self-conscious. Children have an easier time being completely in the moment and engrossed in the game.
It really isn't that obvious. Sony currently doesn't have an online service competing with XBox Live. They have broadband hardware, but the online part is left up to the game publishers. There is no centralized service, there is not one price. Each game on the PS2 can have it's own monthy charge for connection and there is no coordination between them.
In contrast, you pay for XBox Live once, and login once, and from there see where all your friends are playing, send invites to them to come join you for a race or whatever. Plus all the new stuff that comes with the 360. My neighbor is obsessed with getting all the "achievement points" on every new game he buys.
I had not heard that Sony was going to compete with this service until now. And while I don't have an X-Box or a new 360, I had decided that I was not going to buy a PS3 unless they will offer a centralized service with the features that XBox Live has.
Honestly though, I'm most interested in the new Nintendo Controllers and the possibilities they bring if they really work and keep working.
All this speculation that there is trouble manufacturing the Cell processor is because some analyst in Japan thinks that the processors will cost Sony $230 each. That is really weak evidence for assuming that yields suck. I think that the simplest explanation is that the analyst doesn't know what he's talking about. You probably know more about processors than he does.
I clearly remember one of the first DVDs I bought was The Matrix for $13, brand spankin new.
IMHO, this is because Warner was doing everything it could to make sure people didn't adopt the Divx standard that Circuit City and Disney were trying to get to critical mass. Warner was putting almost it's entire back catalog on DVD and old movies were cheap. Then Divx died, mostly because it wasn't supported by enough studios and wasn't sold in enough stores, and after it was pronounced dead, all the DVD prices went back up.
"What the hell ever happened to shows like Junkyard Wars, the robot wars show, and other cool engineering shows like them???"
I too miss Junkyard Wars. They actually showed people BUILDING things instead of fighting about building things. I mean, I'll watch Moster Garage because some of the stuff they make is pretty cool, but not without being frustrated that the camera is on the people rather than the car.
But it is funny you should bring up Battlebots. What happened to those guys? Well two of the contestants who made the most legendary bots, Blendo and Deadblow, they happen to be doing a TV show. Yeah, you might have heard of it, it's called....Mythbusters.
"The rep pointed out that all 'leftover' crops are considered weeds, and to just use another herbicide to prevent the spread."
That sounds nice and simple. Reality is rarely as simple. FTFA:"Farmers in Canada soon found that these volunteers were resistant to at least one herbicide, and became impossible to kill with two or three applications of different weedkillers after a succession of various GM crops were grown.
The new plants were dubbed superweeds because they proved resistant to three herbicides while the crops they were growing among had been genetically engineered to be resistant to only one.
To stop their farm crops being overwhelmed with superweeds, farmers had to resort to using older, much stronger varieties of "dirty" herbicide long since outlawed as seriously damaging to biodiversity."
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, so you can argue that guy wouldn't have done anything on his own. But what about the guy who thought he was blowing up the van full of explosives in the middle of the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Portland? He thought up the plot and sought out the informants. I've heard the tape where the agent asks the guy "Are you sure you want to do this, you know there will be women and children in the crowd." and he is adamant. That seems like a pretty valuable use of agency resources.
You're confusing legal and ethical. Anyone who isn't Catholic may not have any say in the matter and there may be no legal authority to stop it, but it would still be wrong if some of the Vatican administrators are using their authority to award supplier contracts to their cousins and pay double. That still doesn't make it a slashdot story, but the parallels to the wikileaks affair, and punishing the whistleblowers does.
The thing that got my attention is that one of the leaked letters discusses "the likely date of Benedict's death." Could that possibly be true? Or is the original article writer just trolling to get a rise out of conspiracy theorists? It is so bizarre, it just might be true.
In what way is the current system "fundamentally broken" ? They sold 609 million units last year just in games for the Wii, PS3, Xbox360, DS and 3DS. That's a lot of money for the industry. At the same time, I have tremendous choice as a consumer. Even just on the 360 there are a lot more good games than I have time to play. Add to that everything available for phones, pads, and the PC both in retail and electronic distribution and it is a great time to be a gamer. If there are developers and publishers that are losing money because they spent a bunch of money on a crappy game, that isn't the fault of the used game market. People have been predicting for decades that the tremendous and rising cost of producing and promoting blockbuster movies was too high and that studios would fail and fewer movies would be made, but I see no evidence that there are fewer movies available. If console makers go through with their plan to kill the used market, it might make them more money, or it might convince consumers to spend that $15-30 they would have spent on a used console game on some other platform. Or they may not be as willing to pay the $60 for the new game if they know they can't sell it for $30 when they are done with it, so, again, they may choose to buy a $5 app. that keeps them entertained for a week. It is a huge decision for console makers, with big effects, but let us not pretend they are fixing anything.
Yep, you're right, Skyrim totally flopped. Bethesda will never make another bloody RPG.
No kidding. I'm pretty sure we know nothing conclusive about what causes autism, so any uncited quote from an unnamed source that claims that too much tablet use could cause it is worthy of scorn. I'm kind of surprised that hypnosec got away with including that crap in the headline. Can we mod him down?
Like this maybe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross
from TFA:"There may never be another game as popular as WoW, and even if there is, at the very least WoW will always be considered the first mega-successful MMORPG." I'm surprised that no one has challenged this yet. I think WoW became more popular at it's high point, but I think Everquest paved the way for it, and was as popular at it is now. EQ certainly eclipsed the stuff like Ultima Online and Baldur's Gate that preceded it.
Having read the much, much better IBM press release, I see now that the arrays of TX and RX diodes are assembled to the mother chip while it is still in wafer, which would imply automation, and as you said alignment by lithography. Then there is this bit: "The Holey Optochips are designed for direct coupling to a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array through an efficient microlens optical system that can be assembled with conventional high-volume packaging tools." So again, automated, not manual. I simply had no idea there was such a thing as a standard 48-channel multimode fiber array, like they sell them at Frye's or something. In any case, IBM seems to be trying to make it clear that this isn't some esoteric lab experiment like I assumed it was, but uses existing technology that could be scaled into production. Now my question is: what did they use to feed data to 24 40-something Gigabit channels? I'm guessing they loopback the optical side, but that is just a guess, maybe they have 24 optical sources and loopback the electrical side. I wish they had a picture of the whole setup.
from TFA: "the holes on the chip allowing optical access to 24 850-nanometre vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) and photodiode arrays flip-chip soldered to the Optochip" so no, the lasers and photodiodes are not part of the holey chip. But that isn't even the alignment I'm talking about, even if those were built into the chip, I think someone still has to align the polished end of the fiber to the diode, unless the diodes are so perfectly aligned to the holes and the holes have good enough tolerances that the holes align the fiber without intervention. That still sound like a non-trivial thing to get right 48 times. Rework would be a bitch. Also, the people who actually make the reticles might drink Mt. Dew, but the people in chip layout and chip finishing drink coffee, thankyouverymuch.
How would you like to be the technician who had to align 24 photodiodes and 24 lasers to 48 optical fibers on a 5mm x 5mm die. They should have a picture of that heroic individual in the press release. But no, the PR people are just making up crap about transfer rates.
Unfortunately, my company firewall prevents me from reading TFA, but your comments refer to a Detective in Maryland, the DHS, ICE and moving money through foreign banks. I do know that in the cases for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the others that were shut down in the last big legal action, what they were actually charged with was bank/wire fraud. The credit card companies, in compliance with US law, were refusing to make payments from US residents to these foreign casinos. So the casinos were disguising the charges' origin and nature by routing them through a third-party and presenting them as being for non-gambling products and services. If you are presenting a fraudulent charge to a US credit card company for a US customer, it seems to me that you are breaking US law and under US jurisdiction. What if Bodog is doing the same thing? What if they are routing a charge through the Maldives and disguising its' origin and nature, presenting it to a customer and credit card company in Maryland? At that point aren't they doing business in Maryland? I don't think we can pretend this is all perfectly legal in Canada any more. And if they are legally seizing assets, isn't the domain an asset that is based in the US? If we say that Verisign shouldn't obey a US court order, then what court should have the authority to seize that property? Are you saying the Fed should have to go to a Canadian court because the original registrar is in Canada? Even if the law was broken in the US and the domain resides in the US?
Walled garden, huh? You say that like it's a bad thing. 1. Okay, I shouldn't have said "none". How about few. Aimbot and texture hacks are rare in consoles. We would like to keep it that way. I don't want to play on a console against someone on a PC. 2. I don't believe that PC gaming has higher revenue than console gaming. Regardless, even if PC game sales are under-reported, I don't think consoles would convince PC gamers to change by being more like a PC. 3&4. I concede that PCs have more multimedia services. If you want to hook a PC up to your HDTV in your living room, you're a minority. Most people want an appliance. And an appliance that understands voice commands is pretty cool.
I think you understated the "same for everyone" aspect. The "level playing field" of console multiplayer gaming is a HUGE plus. Maybe on par with the "it just works" aspect.
Your bias is showing. You think PC gaming is superior and if consoles were more like PCs they would be better. But us console gamers DO NOT WANT the barrier removed. We like to know that none of our opponents are using aimbots or custom textures that let them see through walls or macros or other such cheats. We like the fact that people that mod the hardware of their XBOX in order to cheat run the risk of getting locked out of XBox Live. Microsoft makes more money on Xbox games than it does on the same game for PC. And PC game sales are dwarfed by the volume of console game sales, so the value of wooing PC gamers onto the console is not that big. It looks to me like that barrier benefits both Microsoft and console gamers. Also, Microsoft has been pretty serious about making the XBox into a media center, when was the last time you tried it? I have a friend who recently canceled cable TV and uses his PC as a DVR for over the air programming, then streams from the PC to all the XBoxes in the house. The Xbox also runs Hulu+, Netflix, Espn, Last.fm and a UFC channel. I hear the next OS update will add more. I believe they plan on being able to replace set-top boxes from some cable companies in the future. If they are limited, it is because the content providers want to maintain control, not because MS, Sony Nintendo, or Apple are "dicking around" YOU trying telling the networks they should stream everything so the users don't have to pay for cable.
That is absurd.
I don't understand this part: “Moreover, while conventional chip fabrication requires multimillion dollar clean room facilities, our process can be performed with simple equipment that costs much less." They can only be replacing the physical layer step, the laser or the photo-diode, if they don't need a multimillion dollar equipment. They will still need a conventional chip for the amplifier or laser-driver. So their claim that the signal won't have to leave the fiber is misleading right off the bat. Then I have to wonder why it would be cheaper to grow a laser (and test it) one-at-a-time on the end of a fiber instead of on a wafer. Okay, you skip packaging, but the market has already decided (for the moment) that packaged lasers are cheaper than putting a bare die directly into an integrated module. Where's the savings?
"What boggles me is, who are these people that have lower scores than him? I wonder how many other children are out their dominating us adults in games and we don't even realize it."
Obviously it IS amazing how quickly some children can learn. And I too always wondered who those people were, until I played with one for some time and when I was dead follwed him and saw his choices. This bad player and many other like him don't play like it is a game, they aren't committed to the objective of the game. They are totally risk averse, concerned with "surviving" (its a game) camp in a "safe" place, and are totally predictable because they are playing scared. They are sitting ducks for people who willing to risk losing for a chance to win.
A young child is totally fearless because they are still much more in tune with "pretend" than most adults are. A childs simplistic view of the game and egoless total commitment to the goal can be very valuable assets in certain types of games.
I know that I play at my best when I am totally oblivious to my own personal score and totally focused on the team goals and countering the opponent. Then I'll notice that I have a great score and I'm number one on the server and it totally throws me off, I can't play well when I'm self-conscious. Children have an easier time being completely in the moment and engrossed in the game.
It really isn't that obvious. Sony currently doesn't have an online service competing with XBox Live. They have broadband hardware, but the online part is left up to the game publishers. There is no centralized service, there is not one price. Each game on the PS2 can have it's own monthy charge for connection and there is no coordination between them.
In contrast, you pay for XBox Live once, and login once, and from there see where all your friends are playing, send invites to them to come join you for a race or whatever. Plus all the new stuff that comes with the 360. My neighbor is obsessed with getting all the "achievement points" on every new game he buys.
I had not heard that Sony was going to compete with this service until now. And while I don't have an X-Box or a new 360, I had decided that I was not going to buy a PS3 unless they will offer a centralized service with the features that XBox Live has.
Honestly though, I'm most interested in the new Nintendo Controllers and the possibilities they bring if they really work and keep working.
All this speculation that there is trouble manufacturing the Cell processor is because some analyst in Japan thinks that the processors will cost Sony $230 each. That is really weak evidence for assuming that yields suck. I think that the simplest explanation is that the analyst doesn't know what he's talking about. You probably know more about processors than he does.
I clearly remember one of the first DVDs I bought was The Matrix for $13, brand spankin new.
IMHO, this is because Warner was doing everything it could to make sure people didn't adopt the Divx standard that Circuit City and Disney were trying to get to critical mass. Warner was putting almost it's entire back catalog on DVD and old movies were cheap. Then Divx died, mostly because it wasn't supported by enough studios and wasn't sold in enough stores, and after it was pronounced dead, all the DVD prices went back up.
"What the hell ever happened to shows like Junkyard Wars, the robot wars show, and other cool engineering shows like them???"
I too miss Junkyard Wars. They actually showed people BUILDING things instead of fighting about building things. I mean, I'll watch Moster Garage because some of the stuff they make is pretty cool, but not without being frustrated that the camera is on the people rather than the car.
But it is funny you should bring up Battlebots. What happened to those guys? Well two of the contestants who made the most legendary bots, Blendo and Deadblow, they happen to be doing a TV show. Yeah, you might have heard of it, it's called....Mythbusters.
"The rep pointed out that all 'leftover' crops are considered weeds, and to just use another herbicide to prevent the spread."
That sounds nice and simple. Reality is rarely as simple.
FTFA:"Farmers in Canada soon found that these volunteers were resistant to at least one herbicide, and became impossible to kill with two or three applications of different weedkillers after a succession of various GM crops were grown.
The new plants were dubbed superweeds because they proved resistant to three herbicides while the crops they were growing among had been genetically engineered to be resistant to only one.
To stop their farm crops being overwhelmed with superweeds, farmers had to resort to using older, much stronger varieties of "dirty" herbicide long since outlawed as seriously damaging to biodiversity."
" What's not immediately clear from the story is how this happened."
Yep, you have to read the whole article and not just the first paragraph.
And why is a UK student selling pixels for US dollars instead of pounds?