This is never going to model real drug addiction for one simple reason - MMORPGs cannot model euphoria, the reason people take addictive drugs. People don't get hooked on crack because they're stupid, they get hooked on crack because it feels better than anything else. No amount of buffs can simulate that kind of incentive.
The site was created as part of a hoax to see if the chinese police would actually buy something like this. They did. The whole sordid affair is documented in this book.
Here in the UK we have this weird system called the NHS, where taxpayers pay for the health service and everyone gets medical treatment for free. We're so crazy over here you know, offering healthcare to poor people.
You have to remember the geograpy of much of the world. In the US, WiFi will never take off outside of cities because of the incredible expense of giving total coverage. Here in the UK, or over in japan however, our population is close to ten times denser, making WiFi a much more attractive prospect.
Japanese cell networks have far more transmitters than US networks because of the density of cellular activity, with transmitters often less than 100ft apart, so it's no great leap of the imagination to see those transmitters being supplimented or even replaced by WiFi.
It all comes down to whether you'd rather pay 50c a minute to do it *right now* or wait a while and do it back at the office, or at starbucks or wherever. Yeah, if the cell companies start offering data traffic for free, you'd be an idiot not to subscribe, but I don't see it being free or even reasonably cheap anytime soon.
You're all missing the real aim of this - to wipe out shoplifting. If there's a RFID tag placed inside a product's packaging during manufacture, It'll make it nigh on impossible for shoplifters to remove. At the moment taking of an anti-theft tag takes 2 seconds and an exacto knife. If they could bury a chip smaller than a grain of rice inside every product, shoplifters would be stopped overnight.
If someone could sort out moltiple monitor support, I'd be happy. Using my quadscreen rig in windows is a joke - I've got 1 monitor and 3 'bulletin boards' to drag windows over to. KDE is useable with multimonitors, but still doesn't do quite what I want without a lot of fiddling.
It's still a pain to set program X to open at point Y on monitor Z, and inputting data when you have 7 windows open is still far from fun.
Still, there's no way I would go back to a single monitor. Dirt cheap too - monitors = $60 each from computer fair, graphics cards under $10 makes a lot or feal estate for very little.
The real killer for PDA use is a bad heyboard, or bad pen input (remember the newton?). My favourite PDA is my Psion 3C, simply because of the great keyboard. The point of owning a PDA is tat it's easier to use than paper. If you're scratching away in graffiti at 3wpm, you might as well use a Day Planner and write at 20wpm.
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Xybernaut sell all sorts of wearable computer gubbins. The MIT Wearables Lab is a fantastic resource for wearable computing.
This is never going to model real drug addiction for one simple reason - MMORPGs cannot model euphoria, the reason people take addictive drugs. People don't get hooked on crack because they're stupid, they get hooked on crack because it feels better than anything else. No amount of buffs can simulate that kind of incentive.
The site was created as part of a hoax to see if the chinese police would actually buy something like this. They did. The whole sordid affair is documented in this book.
Much like when the cuecat was released, it'll take until the next issue of 2600 goes to press.
Here in the UK we have this weird system called the NHS, where taxpayers pay for the health service and everyone gets medical treatment for free. We're so crazy over here you know, offering healthcare to poor people.
You have to remember the geograpy of much of the world. In the US, WiFi will never take off outside of cities because of the incredible expense of giving total coverage. Here in the UK, or over in japan however, our population is close to ten times denser, making WiFi a much more attractive prospect. Japanese cell networks have far more transmitters than US networks because of the density of cellular activity, with transmitters often less than 100ft apart, so it's no great leap of the imagination to see those transmitters being supplimented or even replaced by WiFi.
Unfortunately, most of the world doesn't offer GPRS that cheap. Here in the UK you're looking at $6 a megabyte at least.
It all comes down to whether you'd rather pay 50c a minute to do it *right now* or wait a while and do it back at the office, or at starbucks or wherever. Yeah, if the cell companies start offering data traffic for free, you'd be an idiot not to subscribe, but I don't see it being free or even reasonably cheap anytime soon.
You're all missing the real aim of this - to wipe out shoplifting. If there's a RFID tag placed inside a product's packaging during manufacture, It'll make it nigh on impossible for shoplifters to remove. At the moment taking of an anti-theft tag takes 2 seconds and an exacto knife. If they could bury a chip smaller than a grain of rice inside every product, shoplifters would be stopped overnight.
My two favourite games? Counter-Strike and Anarchy Online.
I downloaded Anarchy Online for free, and pay $14 a month for my account.
I buy a copy of Counter-Strike on a regular basis just for the CD key, which is stolen from me with worrying regularity.
Samir, you're spot on, just make sure you get the security right.
What about a USB bluetooth adaptor and a bluetooth headset? Ebay them for under $120, ViaVoice and a little bit of perl, and there you are. AE
If someone could sort out moltiple monitor support, I'd be happy. Using my quadscreen rig in windows is a joke - I've got 1 monitor and 3 'bulletin boards' to drag windows over to. KDE is useable with multimonitors, but still doesn't do quite what I want without a lot of fiddling. It's still a pain to set program X to open at point Y on monitor Z, and inputting data when you have 7 windows open is still far from fun. Still, there's no way I would go back to a single monitor. Dirt cheap too - monitors = $60 each from computer fair, graphics cards under $10 makes a lot or feal estate for very little.
True, True. Yet another reason why PDA manufacturers shouldn't say their gizmo does things it can't.
The real killer for PDA use is a bad heyboard, or bad pen input (remember the newton?). My favourite PDA is my Psion 3C, simply because of the great keyboard. The point of owning a PDA is tat it's easier to use than paper. If you're scratching away in graffiti at 3wpm, you might as well use a Day Planner and write at 20wpm.