"If shooting someone is justified - they are posing an imminent and deadly threat to the officer or someone else - then shoot them.
I would say that if it's possible, taser them instead. However, tasers are inherently a short-range device, so their usefulness is quite limited. A taser should be a short-range and situational alternative to shooting. I do, however, believe in using lethal force if justified.
I know this is offtopic (somewhat) so I won't mind if it's moderated out of usefulness, but I'll get on my soapbox at this point.
A taser should only ever be used as an alternative to shooting somebody. If you wouldn't shoot them in the same situation, you shouldn't taser them.
Resisting arrest alone should not mean tasering is on the table, even with a difficult struggle. Law enforcement is getting way to used to tasering simply to avoid any kind of physical confrontation.
If tasers didn't have the lethality question hanging over them I would think differently, but according to Amnesty International, at least, 334 people died after taser shocks between 2001 and 2008.
"By describing "balanced copyright" as "disgusting, the musician's lobby has admitted publicly that current copyright law is unbalanced in their favor."
By that logic anybody who disagrees with the Patriot Act is declaring they are not, in fact, patriots.
"He just kept saying "But Vista's the latest and bestest program..."
I'm sure he wanted the "bestest". I'll tell you what's annoying - reading people who semi-quote others by dumbing down their language to make them look incompetent or clueless.
It happens all the time on slashdot. I maintain that if you lie about "how" they said something you're effectively lying about "what" they said.
"You're only thinking of a single person, not for the whole species. If you had some event that would wipe out the entire human race and has the same chance as crashing your car, wouldn't that worry you more?"
Actually, I AM thinking globally. Any significant progress on the climate issue must involve dramatic changes on the part of India and China - a substantial portion of the species. Whether under sanctions or other forms of political pressure, capitulance will be major setbacks to these nations.
So before returning tens (and maybe hundreds) of millions of people to poverty by destroying the industries they work in, I'm saying you have to be pretty darned sure of your claims, and not just suspicious. "What if?" isn't sufficient.
"Answer me this: Can you risk being wrong? Do you have a spare planet, just in case?"
No, sir, that's not going to fly. The risk of e-coli doesn't stop you from eating vegetables. The risk of crashing doesn't stop most Americans from driving. The risk of skin cancer doesn't keep everybody hiding in their homes with the shades drawn.
"Can you risk being wrong?" Terrible question. You always must ask, "How likely is that risk?" Otherwise you lead yourself down an unreasonable path. You need to do better than "what if?" if you want to make changes that can bankrupt nations or devastate emerging economies.
"It seems to be more about the drivers than anything else. Porting to linux is very easy if it's working on the mac, and the "binary blob" drivers from nvidia are perfectly viable as a platform (in fact they have the best opengl3 support to date)."
The nice thing about developing for Apple is the heartless, uncompromising lockdown of the software. Make your game for Mac and you aren't dealing with dozens of distributions and a large number of systems that don't have complete, tuned drivers. You also aren't dealing with problems unique to some twat who made some ridiculous change to a conf file somewhere and is complaining that something in the game is glitchy. This strikes me as more likely in linux than it is on either Windows or MacOS.
If you develop an official linux client, you legitimize it and you adopt the requirement of supporting it. For Windows that's acceptable because of the vast and proven customer base. What would be the cost of supporting linux, on a per-copy-sold basis? Would it be low enough (with sufficiently high unit sales) to push the "linux initiative" into a profit?
If not, does it make any sense for a for-profit company to go down that road? In the past the linux community has benefited from what can only be called "generosity" on the part of Id. That's great, on their part, but I'm not surprised that it couldn't go on forever.
Software is just a step-by-step instruction list. It's is no more a form of math than is a cookbook. You could give instructions that make software "do" math, but that doesn't make it math any more than a student "is" math when using a calculator.
"After several instances of your company being evil towards the community bnetd & removal of LAN play on your newest titles, please give me a good reason to buy what you are selling.."
Since they clearly aren't going to budge on either position, there's only one reason to buy what they're selling. It's because you think that the entertainment you get is worth the money you spend, and is good enough to overcome your objections. What other reason could there possibly be?
In other words, what kind of answer are you after?
The WoW market will sort it out. If the price is too high, others will undercut it, or people will just go get what they need on their own. If it's high, but sells anyway, then it was priced appropriately.
Just because you can't find what you want for a price you like doesn't mean the prices are artificially high.
"Then there is me, who I scrimp and save even though I don't "Have to". I own my car, lock stock and barrel because I bought a used car. I own my own residence because I scrimped and saved so I could get a decent down payment on it and scrimped some more to pay it off ahead of time. I buy generic food at the grocery store and take other cost cutting measures. I don't buy expensive clothes and don't have an alcohol or drug habit."
When hyperinflation hits, you're the sacrificial lamb. A net debtor like me (vehicle plus mortgage, nothing else) will watch in relief as 30 years of future debt turns into something that can be paid off with change from the purchase of a loaf of bread, while the savings of people like you turns into dust as you watch.
"Trouble is thanks to lawyering, if they actually DID the right thing and admitted a design fault the'd be sued into oblivion becuase they sold a crap device."
What the hell are you talking about? It's an entertainment console, not a pacemaker. Their liability ends at repairing the consoles - which they have, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
On what grounds could they possibly be "sued into oblivion"? It's not burning down houses or causing incorrect medical diagnoses.
"Instead they just say "nothing to see here... move along. Here's a free repair!" and appease the masses."
I would call that "owning up to the problem". In fact, so would most people. Let's face it - the reason that owners of defective units would buy another one is because Microsoft clearly stood behind their product.
We'll see whether or not Sony will do the same if the PS3 Blu-ray drive failure rates keep climbing.
"Knowing (thinking) that something doesn't repeat and PROVING that it doesn't repeat are two ENTIRELY different things. I am guessing your maths/science education either stopped very early or you didn't do too well in either."
I wish I'd noticed this earlier, so I could belittle you proper. I'll leave it to you and your superior science/math brain to figure out why I find this amusing.
While I think that the computing horsepower was misdirected (covered elsewhere), and the last trillion digits could have waited, this post is mostly here for me to be arrogantly dismissive and make dick / vagina jokes.
"Knowing (thinking) that something doesn't repeat and PROVING that it doesn't repeat are two ENTIRELY different things. I am guessing your maths/science education either stopped very early or you didn't do too well in either. If they found out there was a pattern, would I make a change in my life tomorrow? Nope. Am I glad they are actually doing something like this? Yes. Physics, chemistry and mathematics research fields are very much interested in "pure" research. However, the funding behind them generally has excellent applications in mind that we don't know about."
My sciences are fine, thanks for asking. Even if you didn't ask, but chose to infer otherwise. Better than my math, but I know enough to understand they're looking for some pattern.
I have no beef with pure research at all. In fact, I'm in favour of it for the reason you mention - you never know what application some theoretical tidbit will have. However, they've brute-forced out 2.5 trillion digits with pure computing power, and I highly doubt they've actually completed meaningful pattern-searching on any significant portion of that. As you pointed out, the patterns can be, well, anything.
So, other than showing off, why aren't they redirecting all of that computational horsepower with dealing with the first trillion digits? They may have missed the "transistor" already.
These researchers are now in possession of the most useless piece of information in science.
3.14 was very useful. 3.1415? Even more so. But after that it's diminishing returns, baby. 2.5 trillion digits? Good heavens. Of course it never repeats - we kind of knew that already.
Pointless mathematical dick-sizing. Problem is, this dick is so huge no vagina will ever make use of it.
"Why on Earth does a way seal court documents even exist?"
To protect trade secrets under dispute, or to protect the identities of minors. Those are the two reasons that spring directly to mind. I'm sure there are others.
"Yes! And on a related note, if a politician or your country does something you don't like, for chrissakes SHUT UP about it. We don't want to hear your whining. Just vote for someone else the next time it comes up! There's no reason to go around discussing it like some animal."
That's not related at all.
This isn't about who is going to run your country, and consequently part of your life. It's not about food, shelter, utilities, or about anything that you NEED to have. It's about pure entertainment products for comparatively rich folks (and if you can spend money on video games you are comparatively rich). Buy it, or don't buy it. You won't live one second shorter if you don't buy it. In fact, you might live a little longer if you used the time productively. Who knows?
Bitching about how you aren't getting quite as much as you think you should for your video game dollar is just pointless. If the deal sucks, don't buy into it. And if you DO buy into it, shut up.
Look, if you don't like what they're offering, or the price they're asking for it, or the terms under which their offer is extended, exercise your ultimate power.
Don't buy it.
If you REALLY don't like it, personally blacklist all products from that maker.
You have ALL the power. You just have to have the fortitude to exercise it.
Slashdot Mirror
"If shooting someone is justified - they are posing an imminent and deadly threat to the officer or someone else - then shoot them.
I would say that if it's possible, taser them instead. However, tasers are inherently a short-range device, so their usefulness is quite limited. A taser should be a short-range and situational alternative to shooting. I do, however, believe in using lethal force if justified.
I know this is offtopic (somewhat) so I won't mind if it's moderated out of usefulness, but I'll get on my soapbox at this point.
A taser should only ever be used as an alternative to shooting somebody. If you wouldn't shoot them in the same situation, you shouldn't taser them.
Resisting arrest alone should not mean tasering is on the table, even with a difficult struggle. Law enforcement is getting way to used to tasering simply to avoid any kind of physical confrontation.
If tasers didn't have the lethality question hanging over them I would think differently, but according to Amnesty International, at least, 334 people died after taser shocks between 2001 and 2008.
"i hope this isn't just fud. "
If fud is fear, uncertainty, and doubt, then this is anti-fud.
Finally - a good basis for this: http://ergotron.com/Products/tabid/65/PRDID/196/language/en-CA/default.aspx
"By describing "balanced copyright" as "disgusting, the musician's lobby has admitted publicly that current copyright law is unbalanced in their favor."
By that logic anybody who disagrees with the Patriot Act is declaring they are not, in fact, patriots.
"Just because you're family doesn't entitle you to take-advantage of other members."
In my experience, yes, it kind of does. Certainly one shouldn't go too far overboard, but that's one of the perks - and prices - of being family.
"He just kept saying "But Vista's the latest and bestest program..."
I'm sure he wanted the "bestest". I'll tell you what's annoying - reading people who semi-quote others by dumbing down their language to make them look incompetent or clueless.
It happens all the time on slashdot. I maintain that if you lie about "how" they said something you're effectively lying about "what" they said.
"The U.S. has dumbed down education so badly that the citizenry is becoming illeterate and uneducated...
It's almost certainly just a typo, but there's just something funny about seeing "illeterate" in a rant about the educational system.
"You're only thinking of a single person, not for the whole species. If you had some event that would wipe out the entire human race and has the same chance as crashing your car, wouldn't that worry you more?"
Actually, I AM thinking globally. Any significant progress on the climate issue must involve dramatic changes on the part of India and China - a substantial portion of the species. Whether under sanctions or other forms of political pressure, capitulance will be major setbacks to these nations.
So before returning tens (and maybe hundreds) of millions of people to poverty by destroying the industries they work in, I'm saying you have to be pretty darned sure of your claims, and not just suspicious. "What if?" isn't sufficient.
Anything related to global "climate change" - and yes, they still mean "warming" - brings out the inner jackass in nearly 100% of slashdot posters.
"Answer me this: Can you risk being wrong? Do you have a spare planet, just in case?"
No, sir, that's not going to fly. The risk of e-coli doesn't stop you from eating vegetables. The risk of crashing doesn't stop most Americans from driving. The risk of skin cancer doesn't keep everybody hiding in their homes with the shades drawn.
"Can you risk being wrong?" Terrible question. You always must ask, "How likely is that risk?" Otherwise you lead yourself down an unreasonable path. You need to do better than "what if?" if you want to make changes that can bankrupt nations or devastate emerging economies.
"It seems to be more about the drivers than anything else. Porting to linux is very easy if it's working on the mac, and the "binary blob" drivers from nvidia are perfectly viable as a platform (in fact they have the best opengl3 support to date)."
The nice thing about developing for Apple is the heartless, uncompromising lockdown of the software. Make your game for Mac and you aren't dealing with dozens of distributions and a large number of systems that don't have complete, tuned drivers. You also aren't dealing with problems unique to some twat who made some ridiculous change to a conf file somewhere and is complaining that something in the game is glitchy. This strikes me as more likely in linux than it is on either Windows or MacOS.
If you develop an official linux client, you legitimize it and you adopt the requirement of supporting it. For Windows that's acceptable because of the vast and proven customer base. What would be the cost of supporting linux, on a per-copy-sold basis? Would it be low enough (with sufficiently high unit sales) to push the "linux initiative" into a profit?
If not, does it make any sense for a for-profit company to go down that road? In the past the linux community has benefited from what can only be called "generosity" on the part of Id. That's great, on their part, but I'm not surprised that it couldn't go on forever.
"ultimately, software is a form of math"
Software is just a step-by-step instruction list. It's is no more a form of math than is a cookbook. You could give instructions that make software "do" math, but that doesn't make it math any more than a student "is" math when using a calculator.
"After several instances of your company being evil towards the community bnetd & removal of LAN play on your newest titles, please give me a good reason to buy what you are selling.."
Since they clearly aren't going to budge on either position, there's only one reason to buy what they're selling. It's because you think that the entertainment you get is worth the money you spend, and is good enough to overcome your objections. What other reason could there possibly be?
In other words, what kind of answer are you after?
The WoW market will sort it out. If the price is too high, others will undercut it, or people will just go get what they need on their own. If it's high, but sells anyway, then it was priced appropriately.
Just because you can't find what you want for a price you like doesn't mean the prices are artificially high.
"Then there is me, who I scrimp and save even though I don't "Have to". I own my car, lock stock and barrel because I bought a used car. I own my own residence because I scrimped and saved so I could get a decent down payment on it and scrimped some more to pay it off ahead of time. I buy generic food at the grocery store and take other cost cutting measures. I don't buy expensive clothes and don't have an alcohol or drug habit."
When hyperinflation hits, you're the sacrificial lamb. A net debtor like me (vehicle plus mortgage, nothing else) will watch in relief as 30 years of future debt turns into something that can be paid off with change from the purchase of a loaf of bread, while the savings of people like you turns into dust as you watch.
Would be funnier if it wasn't true.
"Trouble is thanks to lawyering, if they actually DID the right thing and admitted a design fault the'd be sued into oblivion becuase they sold a crap device."
What the hell are you talking about? It's an entertainment console, not a pacemaker. Their liability ends at repairing the consoles - which they have, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
On what grounds could they possibly be "sued into oblivion"? It's not burning down houses or causing incorrect medical diagnoses.
"Instead they just say "nothing to see here... move along. Here's a free repair!" and appease the masses."
I would call that "owning up to the problem". In fact, so would most people. Let's face it - the reason that owners of defective units would buy another one is because Microsoft clearly stood behind their product.
We'll see whether or not Sony will do the same if the PS3 Blu-ray drive failure rates keep climbing.
"Knowing (thinking) that something doesn't repeat and PROVING that it doesn't repeat are two ENTIRELY different things. I am guessing your maths/science education either stopped very early or you didn't do too well in either."
I wish I'd noticed this earlier, so I could belittle you proper. I'll leave it to you and your superior science/math brain to figure out why I find this amusing.
While I think that the computing horsepower was misdirected (covered elsewhere), and the last trillion digits could have waited, this post is mostly here for me to be arrogantly dismissive and make dick / vagina jokes.
"Knowing (thinking) that something doesn't repeat and PROVING that it doesn't repeat are two ENTIRELY different things. I am guessing your maths/science education either stopped very early or you didn't do too well in either. If they found out there was a pattern, would I make a change in my life tomorrow? Nope. Am I glad they are actually doing something like this? Yes. Physics, chemistry and mathematics research fields are very much interested in "pure" research. However, the funding behind them generally has excellent applications in mind that we don't know about."
My sciences are fine, thanks for asking. Even if you didn't ask, but chose to infer otherwise. Better than my math, but I know enough to understand they're looking for some pattern.
I have no beef with pure research at all. In fact, I'm in favour of it for the reason you mention - you never know what application some theoretical tidbit will have. However, they've brute-forced out 2.5 trillion digits with pure computing power, and I highly doubt they've actually completed meaningful pattern-searching on any significant portion of that. As you pointed out, the patterns can be, well, anything.
So, other than showing off, why aren't they redirecting all of that computational horsepower with dealing with the first trillion digits? They may have missed the "transistor" already.
These researchers are now in possession of the most useless piece of information in science.
3.14 was very useful. 3.1415? Even more so. But after that it's diminishing returns, baby. 2.5 trillion digits? Good heavens. Of course it never repeats - we kind of knew that already.
Pointless mathematical dick-sizing. Problem is, this dick is so huge no vagina will ever make use of it.
"Why on Earth does a way seal court documents even exist?"
To protect trade secrets under dispute, or to protect the identities of minors. Those are the two reasons that spring directly to mind. I'm sure there are others.
"Yes! And on a related note, if a politician or your country does something you don't like, for chrissakes SHUT UP about it. We don't want to hear your whining. Just vote for someone else the next time it comes up! There's no reason to go around discussing it like some animal."
That's not related at all.
This isn't about who is going to run your country, and consequently part of your life. It's not about food, shelter, utilities, or about anything that you NEED to have. It's about pure entertainment products for comparatively rich folks (and if you can spend money on video games you are comparatively rich). Buy it, or don't buy it. You won't live one second shorter if you don't buy it. In fact, you might live a little longer if you used the time productively. Who knows?
Bitching about how you aren't getting quite as much as you think you should for your video game dollar is just pointless. If the deal sucks, don't buy into it. And if you DO buy into it, shut up.
Look, if you don't like what they're offering, or the price they're asking for it, or the terms under which their offer is extended, exercise your ultimate power.
Don't buy it.
If you REALLY don't like it, personally blacklist all products from that maker.
You have ALL the power. You just have to have the fortitude to exercise it.
"Sometime between the time Clinton left office and Obama entered office the Federal budget surplus disappeared."
That "budget surplus" was a fraud. The national debt grew by $1.4 trillion during his presidency, and it grew larger every year.
Hiding things off-budget does not make you a financial success.
National Debt - Source: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm
1993 4,411,488,883,139.38
1994 4,692,749,910,013.32
1995 4,973,982,900,709.39
1996 5,224,810,939,135.73
1997 5,413,146,011,397.34
1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
And from all across the globe came the sound of geeks crying, for they would soon see their beloved "uptime" reset to zero.