Yeah, I understand your point, I'm just telling how the words are actually being used by publishers and developers. It wouldn't be the first time the definition of words have changed -- "next gen" now is a noun that substitutes for 360/PS3 versus an adjective that describes the forthcoming generation of game consoles. Once the PS2 dies, and there is actually a new series of consoles on the horizon (2011 says hi), I'm sure "next gen" will refer to those systems. But right now, "current gen" refers to the PS2 and Wii and "next gen" is widely uses to refer to the 360 and PS3. I'm not saying I agree with it, I understand why it's stupid, but it is the way it is.
Next-gen is a perfectly legitimate term to describe the PS3 and 360; it distinguishes them from the Wii and PS2, which are consoles that are still viable development platforms, but are not in the same league as the 360/PS3 in terms of graphical power.
When discussing development with publishers or other developers, there are basically three tiers: PS3/360, Wii/PS2/PSP, and DS. The first tier is usually refered to as "next gen" and that's unlikely to change for a while. Sorry if it's not semantically correct, but them's the breaks. Also, PS2 is still selling tons of software. You can hate on it all you want, but no one is going to stop making PS2 games for a while.
(There is also a fourth tier, which is demographically defined verus being capability defined, which is Wii/DS.)
Last I checked, it has Vista as the default option, with the "Lenovo Recommends -->" arrow pointing just below it, to the unchecked Windows XP button. No serious business is using Vista yet, so I doubt Lenovo is forcing people to take ThinkPads with Vista installed.
OK, I just re-checked. You can get XP, but it costs $30 more than Vista Home. ANd MS has bullied Lenovo into claiming that it recommends Vista.
My favorite GPS story was driving cross-country with a friend a few years ago. I was like "we should get Burger King." He was like "there's no Burger King around here. The closest place is a taco bell about 2.1 miles to our east." I was like "let's get Burger King" and he was like "I told you, there's no Burger King around here!" and I was like "Look up" so he did, and realized we were across the street from a Burger King. HAHAHA
GPS is better than a google map, becuase if you mess up there's some ability to recover, but it pales in comparison to actually being able to read a real map, or know your way around someplace. I love maps, and I like my GPS ok, but mostly because I like feeling superior when it's wrong.
I actualy RTFA (well, I didn't, but I read the summary pretty closely) and I think the deal is this. In San Francisco, as an example, you make a very black line across a thingee to mark your choice (it's idiot proof). Then you stick it in a machine, which just checks it (at least) for being filled out correctly (didn't vote for two people for president, etc.). I'm not 100% sure if it actually tallies a vote. If the machine discovers you filled the ballot out wrong, they should revoke your voting privledge for being a total moron, but in fact it spits it out to give you another chance.
In Ohio, they don't want to have to have those checking machines at the voting place, just at the HQ. The ACLU is all "wahwahwah, morons must be given a second chance," but honestly, it's just lip flapping, IMHO. Honestly, if you can't fill out a scantron form, you don't deserve to have your vote counted.
I've read both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Gibson's early (good) cyberpunk stuff, and I can say that for me, there's no question Gibson didn't read DADOES -- which is really a poorly written POS compared to Gibson's briliant Neuromancer series. It's hard to believe Blade Runner is even based on Dick's book, since exactly none of what makes Blade Runner cool (the world, basically) is present at all in the book, which to my mind is classic Dick -- a cool idea, executed poorly.
Right, because Tesla was forbidden from seeking patents on his stuff? Tesla was a genius, but there's no intirsic goodness in being a poor businessman and letting yourself get screwed.
Edison was more commercial, but again, you simply cannot use that fact to discount his contribution or the number of inventions he and his team created. The breakthrough with the lightbulb wasn't knowing how to make a lightbulb -- everyone in the field had the basic idea already -- it was findng a filament that didn't burn out after ten seconds. Edison's team tried THOUSANDS of filaments before they found one that worked. By applying brute force, Edison and his team did more good than any number of people who had great ideas but couldn't productize them.
I've only been a resident of three states (Michigan, Massachusetts, and California), but in all of them, you will get back any parts they replace unless you specifically tell them you don't want them. Even tires! (And if you don't want the tire back, they charge you extra, since they have to pay the disposal fee). It's basically a law that theoretically keeps them honest, because you could call them out if they replaced a working part.
I remember reading an article a few years ago, on various companies' ettiquette for the term "email." Some caled it 'email,' some called it 'electronic mail,' some called it by a quaint brand name ('QuickMail', anyone?). The article noted that at Micorosoft, it was simply refered to as "mail." So the author asked the inevitable question: "What do you call something that comes in a physical envelope?" The answer? "FedEx."
Anyway, there is a good book called The Victorian Internet that, despite its suspect name, is extremely well written and goes into great and fascinating depth on the telegraph (optical and electronic), as well as the pro-tech savvy of the Victorian age. I'm too lazy to put in a link for you, but I assure you, the google or the amazon can give you all the details.
The issue when you try to leave room is that some asshole inevitably slinks into the space. Also, it's really an issue when the freeway is overcapacity; room isn't an issue until there are too many cars on the freeway to begin with.
But also, the problem isn't tailgaters, but also morons who slow down too much, too soon, and too often, because they are not good drivers, or are on the phone, etc. Basically, if everyone would just listen to what I shout in my car every day ("JFC! All of you just speed up!") we'd be ok.
The reason old-school encyclopaedias don't go into crazy depth is, well, physical paper constains. Luckily, the magic of the Internet means Wikipedia can already cover subjects no print encyclopaedia would cover (such as an episdoe guide for the sweet new nerd sitcom The Big Bang Theory ), and there's no reason it can't give a bigger word count on Einstein than Britannica, if the members contribute it. I don't regularly google for math proofs, but if I did, I'd be glad someone jammed them up on wikipedia, and since I don't, I'm never going to notice them, and I don't really think their presence will bring wikipedia to a gringing halt anytime soon.
Wasn't there just a galaxy to galaxy destructive jet of super heated plasma? Clearly we're witness the results of an interstellar war so vast that it even percolates down to our level.
One thing I noticed that was amusing... When I speak to airlines when I am not a member of the flight club, they say "A as in Alpha, B as in Braveo," etc., but when I speak to the people at my normal airline, where I am a billion-mile flyer (they can see this when I call), they just say "Alpha, Bravo" becuase they assume you know what they are talking about.
Anyone who thinks there's some monolithic "US Government" that acts as one and perpetrates conspiracies, or alters Wikipedia as a matter of policy, is a retard. A government is a collection of individuals, all pursuing wildly different agendas simultaneously.
For instance, on the one hand, the CIA is supposedly torturing people. On the other hand, the CIA is leaking info that the CIA is torturing people. Retard conspiracy theorists probably make this work in their heads by fantaszing that by leaking about its own bad actions, the CIA is diverting attention from some other, worse thing, like a Bigfoot-Alien alliance. Normal people think some people in the CIA didn't approve of the torture and leaked word of it (possibly illegally, but that's another subject) to the press.
I guess I would say you proved my point. Look if you're smart, you're smart. The point is, if you know that by working hard you can improve at something, you're better off than somene who doesn't believe they can improve in that manner. And yes, like most people on slashdot, I cruised through all levels of school, working just hard enough to get by when I was bad at a subject, and blowing the curve with no apparent effort when something moderately interested me. I'm just saying, as I have contemplated (many times) the question "how did that dumbass get where he is now," (which isn't a question you ask when you meet someone who is successful and super smart) the answer is almost always "hard work."
There's no way to *guarentee* a smart child, and what worked for you anecdotally may not work for others, who may learn differently, be motiveated differently, etc.
But, what you can do to increase the chances that someone will be SUCCESSFUL in life is to encourage and reward effort and work. For instance, if you kid gets an A, say "wow, you WORKED REALLY HARD to earn that A, great," and don't say "Wow, you're so smart!" Because if the kid later fucks something up, you want their mental arithmatic to be "I need to work harder" -- which anyone can do -- and not "I am a dumbass, which can't be changed." -- which doesn't encourage success. Ditto if they're failing: "you need to work harder at math" is what you should say, according to the latest research (which TFA is about, although I didn't read TFA, but rather another about the same study).
Some of the most successful people (CEOs, high achieving and famous game designers, etc.) I know are not super smart, they are just very motivated and work very hard. Some of the biggest failures I know (suicides, guys actually living in their parents' basement, etc.) are incredibly smart. As I get older, it seems that motivation, effort, and the skills needed to apply effort are way more important than raw IQ.
No, I'm saying just the opposite. After RTFA, it seems Google WASN'T under a court order to comply. That's the actual point. If there's a court order, there's a court order. I wouldn't want some company violating the law, even if I disagreed with the law. But ABSENT a court order, I would like to think that Google would actually not go around showing people what's in my Gmail, what my IP address is, etc. To do differently violates (in my mind) their claimed "do no evil" policy.
I forget what internet law I'm about to violate, or validate, but -- Hitler didn't gas anyone himself, either. It's not about who's hand pulls the trigger, it's about who's running the ship. I can see rolling over with a court order; that's the law. Rolling over without a court order, that seems slimy.
This is very true. My first iPod Nano (G1) was a gift. When I stepped on it and broke the screen, I kept it as a "shuffle" attached to some speakers and bought a G2 Nano. When I left it in a rental car, I was like "well, time to fork out the $200 for a G3 Nano," but then I was like "damn, this is getting expensive, and the 4GB on my broken Nano is more than enough for me," so I just ordered a new screen and battery online. I'm not saving a ton over buying new (and if I had new about Apple's reconditioning program, I'd have done that), but I will save $120 or so. Plus, my inner nerd wants to crack the thing open, and the G3 Nanos are fugly.
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Yeah, I understand your point, I'm just telling how the words are actually being used by publishers and developers. It wouldn't be the first time the definition of words have changed -- "next gen" now is a noun that substitutes for 360/PS3 versus an adjective that describes the forthcoming generation of game consoles. Once the PS2 dies, and there is actually a new series of consoles on the horizon (2011 says hi), I'm sure "next gen" will refer to those systems. But right now, "current gen" refers to the PS2 and Wii and "next gen" is widely uses to refer to the 360 and PS3. I'm not saying I agree with it, I understand why it's stupid, but it is the way it is.
When discussing development with publishers or other developers, there are basically three tiers: PS3/360, Wii/PS2/PSP, and DS. The first tier is usually refered to as "next gen" and that's unlikely to change for a while. Sorry if it's not semantically correct, but them's the breaks. Also, PS2 is still selling tons of software. You can hate on it all you want, but no one is going to stop making PS2 games for a while.
(There is also a fourth tier, which is demographically defined verus being capability defined, which is Wii/DS.)
OK, I just re-checked. You can get XP, but it costs $30 more than Vista Home. ANd MS has bullied Lenovo into claiming that it recommends Vista.
GPS is better than a google map, becuase if you mess up there's some ability to recover, but it pales in comparison to actually being able to read a real map, or know your way around someplace. I love maps, and I like my GPS ok, but mostly because I like feeling superior when it's wrong.
No one's mentioned Hitler yet... Anyway, he didn't sink lower. Just to the same level.
In Ohio, they don't want to have to have those checking machines at the voting place, just at the HQ. The ACLU is all "wahwahwah, morons must be given a second chance," but honestly, it's just lip flapping, IMHO. Honestly, if you can't fill out a scantron form, you don't deserve to have your vote counted.
I've read both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Gibson's early (good) cyberpunk stuff, and I can say that for me, there's no question Gibson didn't read DADOES -- which is really a poorly written POS compared to Gibson's briliant Neuromancer series. It's hard to believe Blade Runner is even based on Dick's book, since exactly none of what makes Blade Runner cool (the world, basically) is present at all in the book, which to my mind is classic Dick -- a cool idea, executed poorly.
Edison was more commercial, but again, you simply cannot use that fact to discount his contribution or the number of inventions he and his team created. The breakthrough with the lightbulb wasn't knowing how to make a lightbulb -- everyone in the field had the basic idea already -- it was findng a filament that didn't burn out after ten seconds. Edison's team tried THOUSANDS of filaments before they found one that worked. By applying brute force, Edison and his team did more good than any number of people who had great ideas but couldn't productize them.
Nintendo seems surprisingly cool about non-commercial art applications of their characters.
I've only been a resident of three states (Michigan, Massachusetts, and California), but in all of them, you will get back any parts they replace unless you specifically tell them you don't want them. Even tires! (And if you don't want the tire back, they charge you extra, since they have to pay the disposal fee). It's basically a law that theoretically keeps them honest, because you could call them out if they replaced a working part.
Yes.
Anyway, there is a good book called The Victorian Internet that, despite its suspect name, is extremely well written and goes into great and fascinating depth on the telegraph (optical and electronic), as well as the pro-tech savvy of the Victorian age. I'm too lazy to put in a link for you, but I assure you, the google or the amazon can give you all the details.
But also, the problem isn't tailgaters, but also morons who slow down too much, too soon, and too often, because they are not good drivers, or are on the phone, etc. Basically, if everyone would just listen to what I shout in my car every day ("JFC! All of you just speed up!") we'd be ok.
The reason old-school encyclopaedias don't go into crazy depth is, well, physical paper constains. Luckily, the magic of the Internet means Wikipedia can already cover subjects no print encyclopaedia would cover (such as an episdoe guide for the sweet new nerd sitcom The Big Bang Theory ), and there's no reason it can't give a bigger word count on Einstein than Britannica, if the members contribute it. I don't regularly google for math proofs, but if I did, I'd be glad someone jammed them up on wikipedia, and since I don't, I'm never going to notice them, and I don't really think their presence will bring wikipedia to a gringing halt anytime soon.
Wasn't there just a galaxy to galaxy destructive jet of super heated plasma? Clearly we're witness the results of an interstellar war so vast that it even percolates down to our level.
It nearly HIT earth. The problem with the sentence is the verb, not the construction.
god help me, i'm typing this on my wii... but does vista even have the ability to turn off the stupid ui effects, as one could with xp?
I was lucky enough to meet the director at a ComicCon a few years ago; she was super cool. Easily my favorite movie of all time.
One thing I noticed that was amusing... When I speak to airlines when I am not a member of the flight club, they say "A as in Alpha, B as in Braveo," etc., but when I speak to the people at my normal airline, where I am a billion-mile flyer (they can see this when I call), they just say "Alpha, Bravo" becuase they assume you know what they are talking about.
For instance, on the one hand, the CIA is supposedly torturing people. On the other hand, the CIA is leaking info that the CIA is torturing people. Retard conspiracy theorists probably make this work in their heads by fantaszing that by leaking about its own bad actions, the CIA is diverting attention from some other, worse thing, like a Bigfoot-Alien alliance. Normal people think some people in the CIA didn't approve of the torture and leaked word of it (possibly illegally, but that's another subject) to the press.
I guess I would say you proved my point. Look if you're smart, you're smart. The point is, if you know that by working hard you can improve at something, you're better off than somene who doesn't believe they can improve in that manner. And yes, like most people on slashdot, I cruised through all levels of school, working just hard enough to get by when I was bad at a subject, and blowing the curve with no apparent effort when something moderately interested me. I'm just saying, as I have contemplated (many times) the question "how did that dumbass get where he is now," (which isn't a question you ask when you meet someone who is successful and super smart) the answer is almost always "hard work."
But, what you can do to increase the chances that someone will be SUCCESSFUL in life is to encourage and reward effort and work. For instance, if you kid gets an A, say "wow, you WORKED REALLY HARD to earn that A, great," and don't say "Wow, you're so smart!" Because if the kid later fucks something up, you want their mental arithmatic to be "I need to work harder" -- which anyone can do -- and not "I am a dumbass, which can't be changed." -- which doesn't encourage success. Ditto if they're failing: "you need to work harder at math" is what you should say, according to the latest research (which TFA is about, although I didn't read TFA, but rather another about the same study).
Some of the most successful people (CEOs, high achieving and famous game designers, etc.) I know are not super smart, they are just very motivated and work very hard. Some of the biggest failures I know (suicides, guys actually living in their parents' basement, etc.) are incredibly smart. As I get older, it seems that motivation, effort, and the skills needed to apply effort are way more important than raw IQ.
No, I'm saying just the opposite. After RTFA, it seems Google WASN'T under a court order to comply. That's the actual point. If there's a court order, there's a court order. I wouldn't want some company violating the law, even if I disagreed with the law. But ABSENT a court order, I would like to think that Google would actually not go around showing people what's in my Gmail, what my IP address is, etc. To do differently violates (in my mind) their claimed "do no evil" policy.
I forget what internet law I'm about to violate, or validate, but -- Hitler didn't gas anyone himself, either. It's not about who's hand pulls the trigger, it's about who's running the ship. I can see rolling over with a court order; that's the law. Rolling over without a court order, that seems slimy.
This is very true. My first iPod Nano (G1) was a gift. When I stepped on it and broke the screen, I kept it as a "shuffle" attached to some speakers and bought a G2 Nano. When I left it in a rental car, I was like "well, time to fork out the $200 for a G3 Nano," but then I was like "damn, this is getting expensive, and the 4GB on my broken Nano is more than enough for me," so I just ordered a new screen and battery online. I'm not saving a ton over buying new (and if I had new about Apple's reconditioning program, I'd have done that), but I will save $120 or so. Plus, my inner nerd wants to crack the thing open, and the G3 Nanos are fugly.