Seeing them play day in and day out just made me hate the game
Nowadays each time I hang out with hardcore gamers they manage to make me hate their game in a matter of minutes, whatever the game is. They're involved into it to the point that they ruin the fun for everybody else. I'd rather watch tv than being assimilated in their tiny meaningless world. A game is still just a game to me, you know, something you do to distract yourself a little. Sure if the game is good I can understand (and have ) spending a whole weekend, maybe even a whole week immersed into it once in a while. But those guys... it seems the only thing they can talk , and care about is their fucking games. They're just depressing...
Damnit, it's supposed to be a game, not work. Worse thing is those games where you *have* to join a guild, then be harassed to to this and that, and even have a those fuckin' cops who will yell at you in pv if you close the guild chat channel. Aaaarg ok i'll just play a pong game it'll be more fun, thanks.
I'd love to have an alternative to the BIOS which is open source, or free software, or both. That way I can finally claim to have a computer completely free of closed, proprietary software. And maybe have a chance of configuring the hardware a little better as well.
How would it work ? If such a bios existed, it would have to be pretty generic, right ? Unless the makers of the bios know more about each existing motherboard than the manufacturers, which is,well, not likely... Having a higher level "bios" which sits on top of the manufacturer's, is stored in flash ram and gives additionnal functionnalities might be more realistic.
Maybe it's too tight. I mean, since IBM started to embrace free software, they haven't done a bad move. On the contrary, they make very intelligent moves. Of course we all know that their purpose is not to make the world better, whatever that means. But it seems that for now the people taking decisions concerning free software at IBM are always trying to do things the right way. I mean, when you think about it, does IBM really care if project X'sources, funded by them, are downloadable by everybody ? Oponents have their own solutions anyway, and are too intrically tied to it. Corporations are happy because they have IBM behind the project, and will buy IBM's support on a particular project if they need it. Plus, they know the code is really free. I think this is a big plus in a lot of smaller shops, who were typically afraid of IBM's known habit to gradually dig his customers into closed solutions. And on top of that, IBM knows that if it plays the game well, free software developpers will help them, and push them into their own shops. So it's really a win-win situation for everybody, and they have no interest in cheating. Transparency is the key in this game, and they know it.
Consider that many of the people who read slashdot are (or like to think they are) more intelligent than the average person
Not more intelligent, more nerdy... most of my friends are not technically savvy at all, but at least I can have really interesting conversations with them. In fact I consider them to be a lot more intelligent than your typical slashdoter, who looks most of the time more like a dork who would have eaten an Unix manual... Remember, only the stupid thinks he knows everything and that every people around him is a retard. Someone intelligent understands that he knows almost nothing compared to what can be learned, and is smart enough to understand that someone who thinks in a different way than him is not necesserally a retard. He's just someone who thinks differently.
Besides, is you mom less intelligent than you because she doesn't use an ad blocker ? No, she probably just doesn't care but still she could Pwn you at a domino game if that's her thing.
Oh and I know you weren't really thinking that./ers are more intelligent than anybody else, your post was just an excuse for me to try to fight this common slashdot myth;)
Probably the age old case of job-security through code-obscurity.
Well when you play this game you write obscure code, not obscure GUIs.
And as a writer of a general purpose CMS myself, i'd say that writing such beasts in a way that allows each clients to do his own thing, and keep it easy for everyone is often something really hard to do. Since each client seems to have different needs, you end up coding a sort of meta CMS where everything is configurable. But it still has to allow the webdeveloppers to build the website in a few hours, and have a GUI that makes the client thinks that it was done so solve his own particular problems (if it doesn't look like that, the client *will* be confused). And on top of that, the PHB tries to push specific developpments for each client, totally breaking all the efforts you make to keep the things as general and "meta" as possible, just because the client wants an image to do x instead of a link, or whatever.
Bah, don't fear. Try it, realize after 10 hours that MMORPGs have absolutly nothing to offer when you compare them to a real p&p rpg, or even to a single player rpg, or even to mario 1, and have a good laugh.
Seriously, the idea of a MMORPG drove me nuts when it was announced at first. I imagined how i could be and in my mind it was something fantastic, the ultimate game, the game that i couldn't even imagine as a child. I was actually scared, like you, to spend my life on UO so i didn't even tried it. Plus UO seemed to have a lot of problems when you asked to the players. Anyway, a few years latter i tried several of them, and laughed when i realized that those games are at the level 0 of entertainment. They have *nothing* to offer, but quests like "kill ten kobolds and bring me their head" to gain more xps. More xps to level up. Level up to.... have fun ? well... Actually i finally tried UO on fan servers after those bad experiences and found out it was the most interesting of all. Probably because the 2d view is "iconic", you don't really see your character, but a sprite which represents your character. so your imagination has to actually work. Same thing when you interact with other characters, it's much more interesting if your avatar can't actually make any smile or whatever, because you have to roleplay them. When you have a panel of 10 differents smiles on your 3d character well, you don't need to roleplay, but everyone looks at you with the same stupid smile and it doesn't mean anything anymore.
Until you understand the difference between "fossil records" and "climate data", you will never understand the debate
Yeah, but what about determining the climate data from the fossil records ? because that's exactly what climat scientists are doing... maybe not with fossils actually, but it seems with ice "carrots" they can clearly determine the evoltion of the climate. And this is precisely the data which caused the "the global warming is bullshit" movment, btw. Because a lot of climatologists knew from that data that the earth's temperature had always been cycling, and not just a little. But nobody was listening since the medias make more money by stating that we will all die in 50 year than objective and apaising statements. Now, the climatologists say from the same data that in fact after a deeper look at it the spike we are actually in is still abnormal. It's an interesting turn...
About the food: okay you have some tasty things, the only problem is when you try to mix them together:^) . And english beer is water (but it can taste really good nonetheless, it's just that getting drunk with it is kinda hard).
But I love england, because it's the only country in the world where you can see naked guys run around a gulf course with a stupid thing written on his bottom, while some security guy tries to race him and everyone in the public is giggling because the situation looks so stupid. You guys kinda make the world a more poetic place to live in, where some totally irrationnal things can still happen, just because it's crazy. So i can say that yes, watching naked mans running around in stades gives me hope in humanity ! More power to you !
Err come on, it's only theft we're talking about. 11 months of jail is certainly not a little vacation you know, it's enough to have a big impact on your life actually. Besides, it's not uncommon to see murderers take something like 7 years (in passion driven crimes particuraly). And of course if he was a white collar burglar who had stolen several millions by doing fraudulent transactions and ruined life time savings of thousands of persons he would probably have been seen by the court as a smart guy who needed a tap on the bottom and would have no more than 6 months...
Yes, so a good system might be: only allow a company to own patents if it doesn't earn more than X. Once the company cross the treshold, all its patents become public domain... Yeah, i'm a communistico-idealistico fool
So what are you saying, if I don't change my mind and decide to have kids that I'm an idiot???
Hum no, it's a poor translation of an expression in my native language, and futhermore used in the wrong context;). In fact we have another one which would have suited the situation better: "never say never". I should have written only idiots don't change their mind if they ever realize they are wrong. Which really means that nobody can't be 100% sure of anything, so one should accept the possibility of changing his mind later. And given that, shouldn't close doors that could have easily stayed open, to keep the possibility of changing his mind.
What you say about adoption or sperm bank is true, but it's probably not the easiest path (psychologically, and for lots of reasons). So my point is : If you're young, have no special disabilities, no children, and have the choice of doing a vasectomy or not, why do it when you have nothing to gain from it and possibly things to loose ? It's not like there are no other contraceptive methods...
Tell me, why does the world care if I have kids? My doc said no on a vasectomy for a few years, as I am "still young (I'm almost 26), and will likely change my mind." and the possibility of a lawsuite is too great when it turns out to be irreversable.
The world doesn't care. But your doc would be right even if a lawsuit or medical problems were not a possibility. Only the worse idiot doesn't change his mind. Maybe in 20 years you'll be in a totally different state of mind, maybe you'll be a great parent then. In 20 years, a *lot* of things can happen to you, or maybe nothing if you really want nothing to happen during those years. But don't shut the door too soon, what do you have to loose anyway ? And you even earn some money by not doing the surgery !
I've found out that if I put my laptop on my lap, my balls will start to hurt a little after only a few minuts. Nothing intolerable, but they definitly don't like it. At least it rings an alarm when I forget that I should avoid putting the laptop there...
Having Apple II(s) in your house meant you were encouraged to learn stuff, how to program in basic and how computer worked. It could open your mind to new paradigms and all.
For 99% of the child/teenagers, having PCs in your house means you can chat all day about silly things with your friends and that's about it. It's just glorified sms to them. The relation this generation has with the internet is frightening, it doesn't encourage them to learn things, but rather to close themselves even more to the things they don't want to hear about by allowing them to have a permanent "cocoon" of people thinking the same way they do. It closes their mind even more instead of opening it...
Mmmm, given the spam ratio on hotmail accounts, i'd say MS uses hotmail to sell adresses to spammers. Besides, how would it be profitable for them if they didn't ? Or are you taking of MS own internal email system ?
Or maybe they just figured out the most machiavelic business plan ever:
1. sell thousands of hotmail accounts to spammers
2. profit !
3. sue spammers because they cost them money
4. profit !
5. goto 1
6. ???
But that makes the thing even funnier, because the moderation itself is funny. Someone suggesting to have hot chicks next big servers is funny, but someone in the crowd who stands up to say it's the best idea since sliced bred makes the whole scene bascule into monthy python land;)
It isn't a troll ? I guess you had bad scores at text explanations at schools, heh;) ?
Question: How can I refrain my child from messing with my computer ?
Answer: Buy a mac, and you won't have to deal with 10 years old software. You'll have to relearn a new things blah blah you'll ask yourself why you didn't do it sooner...
The question is not i'm bored with my current OS, what could I try next ? It's how can I physically lock a computer to be sure the 1 year old kid won't hurt himself with it, or hurt the computer. Explain where a mac would even remotly help more that any computer with that... It's not like the one year old kid is gonna surf porn and root the box with spywares It's not really a troll, but as offtopic as a post can possibly be...
That's not the point. The purpose of this is to compress surround sound, which was alerady mixed and mastered with surround in mind. Compressing standard stereo audio with this thing would be kind of silly, just like compressing to mp3 and equalizing the source at the same time would be. I mean this type of things require skills in mastering and the like, and what you'd end up with on your cheap computer speakers might sound better than the original recording, but would sound like shit on better speakers, or just a different setup.
For the black part i don't know, but AFAIK you can make any DVD player silent by using one of those little resident programs which will make sure the drive don't spin faster that it needs to watch a movie. I know my toshiba laptop has such a program in the bundled software, and once it's turned on the thing is nearly dead silent. This particular program is maybe hardware specific, but IIRC i've seen some generic ones as sharewares or freewares. I'm taking windows here, but i'd be surprised if the same thing didn't exists for linux...
It's supposed to be a general use media box. For watching a movie, the fan noise is not that important. For those moments when you're listening to music at night for example, it is. You can hear the fan noise as much as the music, and it sucks.
Anyhow i don't want a single fan in my friggin living room. I'm sooo tired of those things. Even gaming consoles makes too much noise now. Can't we have *silence* in this techno centric world ?
But it seems solutions are coming, there are wifi/cat5 boxes you can hook on you tv and stereo that look basically like a vcr and use a remote control and a tv interface to access your divx, mp3 whatever. And no fans, of course... Now i'd like one of those to be sufficiently open to have alternatives to their proprietary interface. Because they never think of everything. I want really good playlist support, and APE image tag viewer for my mp3s for instance. I want lots of things, but it seems you can't have it all at once...
But at least, it's aiming in the good direction. That way you can have a big ass file server hidden somewhere, and just hook one of those terminals in the places you want to listen to music / watch movies. Ideally the terminal should have a DVD/audio cd player too so you don't need to walk to your server to load a disk. Then you have the perfect solution for digital medias, imho.
Well it's a basic rule of security: never use the same password for two different things. If you wow password is compromised for whatever reason, maybe a determined person could log onto your machine with it ? or make bank transactions ? Sure that would require knowing your identity, or ip, but just posting to a web board or chatting on irc with your wow nick could reveal your ip for instance.
But i agree with you for things where security is not that important (I use the same password for my slashdot account, and hundreds of other "not so important" accounts).
Slashdot Mirror
Seeing them play day in and day out just made me hate the game
Nowadays each time I hang out with hardcore gamers they manage to make me hate their game in a matter of minutes, whatever the game is. They're involved into it to the point that they ruin the fun for everybody else. I'd rather watch tv than being assimilated in their tiny meaningless world.
A game is still just a game to me, you know, something you do to distract yourself a little. Sure if the game is good I can understand (and have ) spending a whole weekend, maybe even a whole week immersed into it once in a while. But those guys... it seems the only thing they can talk , and care about is their fucking games. They're just depressing...
Guilds are the sux0r !
Damnit, it's supposed to be a game, not work. Worse thing is those games where you *have* to join a guild, then be harassed to to this and that, and even have a those fuckin' cops who will yell at you in pv if you close the guild chat channel. Aaaarg ok i'll just play a pong game it'll be more fun, thanks.
'nuff said
How would it work ? If such a bios existed, it would have to be pretty generic, right ? Unless the makers of the bios know more about each existing motherboard than the manufacturers, which is ,well, not likely... Having a higher level "bios" which sits on top of the manufacturer's, is stored in flash ram and gives additionnal functionnalities might be more realistic.
Maybe it's too tight. I mean, since IBM started to embrace free software, they haven't done a bad move. On the contrary, they make very intelligent moves. Of course we all know that their purpose is not to make the world better, whatever that means. But it seems that for now the people taking decisions concerning free software at IBM are always trying to do things the right way.
I mean, when you think about it, does IBM really care if project X'sources, funded by them, are downloadable by everybody ? Oponents have their own solutions anyway, and are too intrically tied to it. Corporations are happy because they have IBM behind the project, and will buy IBM's support on a particular project if they need it. Plus, they know the code is really free. I think this is a big plus in a lot of smaller shops, who were typically afraid of IBM's known habit to gradually dig his customers into closed solutions.
And on top of that, IBM knows that if it plays the game well, free software developpers will help them, and push them into their own shops. So it's really a win-win situation for everybody, and they have no interest in cheating. Transparency is the key in this game, and they know it.
Not more intelligent, more nerdy... most of my friends are not technically savvy at all, but at least I can have really interesting conversations with them. In fact I consider them to be a lot more intelligent than your typical slashdoter, who looks most of the time more like a dork who would have eaten an Unix manual...
./ers are more intelligent than anybody else, your post was just an excuse for me to try to fight this common slashdot myth ;)
Remember, only the stupid thinks he knows everything and that every people around him is a retard. Someone intelligent understands that he knows almost nothing compared to what can be learned, and is smart enough to understand that someone who thinks in a different way than him is not necesserally a retard. He's just someone who thinks differently.
Besides, is you mom less intelligent than you because she doesn't use an ad blocker ? No, she probably just doesn't care but still she could Pwn you at a domino game if that's her thing.
Oh and I know you weren't really thinking that
Well when you play this game you write obscure code, not obscure GUIs.
And as a writer of a general purpose CMS myself, i'd say that writing such beasts in a way that allows each clients to do his own thing, and keep it easy for everyone is often something really hard to do. Since each client seems to have different needs, you end up coding a sort of meta CMS where everything is configurable. But it still has to allow the webdeveloppers to build the website in a few hours, and have a GUI that makes the client thinks that it was done so solve his own particular problems (if it doesn't look like that, the client *will* be confused).
And on top of that, the PHB tries to push specific developpments for each client, totally breaking all the efforts you make to keep the things as general and "meta" as possible, just because the client wants an image to do x instead of a link, or whatever.
Of course, women's life is much better since the invention of the portable dildo !
Bah, don't fear. Try it, realize after 10 hours that MMORPGs have absolutly nothing to offer when you compare them to a real p&p rpg, or even to a single player rpg, or even to mario 1, and have a good laugh. .... have fun ? well...
Seriously, the idea of a MMORPG drove me nuts when it was announced at first. I imagined how i could be and in my mind it was something fantastic, the ultimate game, the game that i couldn't even imagine as a child. I was actually scared, like you, to spend my life on UO so i didn't even tried it. Plus UO seemed to have a lot of problems when you asked to the players. Anyway, a few years latter i tried several of them, and laughed when i realized that those games are at the level 0 of entertainment. They have *nothing* to offer, but quests like "kill ten kobolds and bring me their head" to gain more xps. More xps to level up. Level up to
Actually i finally tried UO on fan servers after those bad experiences and found out it was the most interesting of all. Probably because the 2d view is "iconic", you don't really see your character, but a sprite which represents your character. so your imagination has to actually work. Same thing when you interact with other characters, it's much more interesting if your avatar can't actually make any smile or whatever, because you have to roleplay them. When you have a panel of 10 differents smiles on your 3d character well, you don't need to roleplay, but everyone looks at you with the same stupid smile and it doesn't mean anything anymore.
Yeah, but what about determining the climate data from the fossil records ? because that's exactly what climat scientists are doing... maybe not with fossils actually, but it seems with ice "carrots" they can clearly determine the evoltion of the climate.
And this is precisely the data which caused the "the global warming is bullshit" movment, btw. Because a lot of climatologists knew from that data that the earth's temperature had always been cycling, and not just a little. But nobody was listening since the medias make more money by stating that we will all die in 50 year than objective and apaising statements. Now, the climatologists say from the same data that in fact after a deeper look at it the spike we are actually in is still abnormal. It's an interesting turn...
About the food: okay you have some tasty things, the only problem is when you try to mix them together :^) . And english beer is water (but it can taste really good nonetheless, it's just that getting drunk with it is kinda hard).
But I love england, because it's the only country in the world where you can see naked guys run around a gulf course with a stupid thing written on his bottom, while some security guy tries to race him and everyone in the public is giggling because the situation looks so stupid. You guys kinda make the world a more poetic place to live in, where some totally irrationnal things can still happen, just because it's crazy. So i can say that yes, watching naked mans running around in stades gives me hope in humanity ! More power to you !
Err come on, it's only theft we're talking about. 11 months of jail is certainly not a little vacation you know, it's enough to have a big impact on your life actually. Besides, it's not uncommon to see murderers take something like 7 years (in passion driven crimes particuraly). And of course if he was a white collar burglar who had stolen several millions by doing fraudulent transactions and ruined life time savings of thousands of persons he would probably have been seen by the court as a smart guy who needed a tap on the bottom and would have no more than 6 months...
Yes, so a good system might be: only allow a company to own patents if it doesn't earn more than X. Once the company cross the treshold, all its patents become public domain...
Yeah, i'm a communistico-idealistico fool
So what are you saying, if I don't change my mind and decide to have kids that I'm an idiot???
;). In fact we have another one which would have suited the situation better: "never say never".
Hum no, it's a poor translation of an expression in my native language, and futhermore used in the wrong context
I should have written only idiots don't change their mind if they ever realize they are wrong. Which really means that nobody can't be 100% sure of anything, so one should accept the possibility of changing his mind later. And given that, shouldn't close doors that could have easily stayed open, to keep the possibility of changing his mind.
What you say about adoption or sperm bank is true, but it's probably not the easiest path (psychologically, and for lots of reasons).
So my point is : If you're young, have no special disabilities, no children, and have the choice of doing a vasectomy or not, why do it when you have nothing to gain from it and possibly things to loose ? It's not like there are no other contraceptive methods...
Tell me, why does the world care if I have kids? My doc said no on a vasectomy for a few years, as I am "still young (I'm almost 26), and will likely change my mind." and the possibility of a lawsuite is too great when it turns out to be irreversable.
The world doesn't care. But your doc would be right even if a lawsuit or medical problems were not a possibility. Only the worse idiot doesn't change his mind. Maybe in 20 years you'll be in a totally different state of mind, maybe you'll be a great parent then. In 20 years, a *lot* of things can happen to you, or maybe nothing if you really want nothing to happen during those years. But don't shut the door too soon, what do you have to loose anyway ? And you even earn some money by not doing the surgery !
I've found out that if I put my laptop on my lap, my balls will start to hurt a little after only a few minuts.
Nothing intolerable, but they definitly don't like it. At least it rings an alarm when I forget that I should avoid putting the laptop there...
Having Apple II(s) in your house meant you were encouraged to learn stuff, how to program in basic and how computer worked. It could open your mind to new paradigms and all.
For 99% of the child/teenagers, having PCs in your house means you can chat all day about silly things with your friends and that's about it. It's just glorified sms to them. The relation this generation has with the internet is frightening, it doesn't encourage them to learn things, but rather to close themselves even more to the things they don't want to hear about by allowing them to have a permanent "cocoon" of people thinking the same way they do. It closes their mind even more instead of opening it...
Mmmm, given the spam ratio on hotmail accounts, i'd say MS uses hotmail to sell adresses to spammers. Besides, how would it be profitable for them if they didn't ?
Or are you taking of MS own internal email system ?
Or maybe they just figured out the most machiavelic business plan ever:
1. sell thousands of hotmail accounts to spammers
2. profit !
3. sue spammers because they cost them money
4. profit !
5. goto 1
6. ???
But that makes the thing even funnier, because the moderation itself is funny. ;)
Someone suggesting to have hot chicks next big servers is funny, but someone in the crowd who stands up to say it's the best idea since sliced bred makes the whole scene bascule into monthy python land
It isn't a troll ? I guess you had bad scores at text explanations at schools, heh ;) ?
Question: How can I refrain my child from messing with my computer ?
Answer: Buy a mac, and you won't have to deal with 10 years old software. You'll have to relearn a new things blah blah you'll ask yourself why you didn't do it sooner...
The question is not i'm bored with my current OS, what could I try next ? It's how can I physically lock a computer to be sure the 1 year old kid won't hurt himself with it, or hurt the computer. Explain where a mac would even remotly help more that any computer with that... It's not like the one year old kid is gonna surf porn and root the box with spywares It's not really a troll, but as offtopic as a post can possibly be...
That's not the point. The purpose of this is to compress surround sound, which was alerady mixed and mastered with surround in mind. Compressing standard stereo audio with this thing would be kind of silly, just like compressing to mp3 and equalizing the source at the same time would be. I mean this type of things require skills in mastering and the like, and what you'd end up with on your cheap computer speakers might sound better than the original recording, but would sound like shit on better speakers, or just a different setup.
Dude, do you really think i use the same password for slashdot and really important things, like porn ?
For the black part i don't know, but AFAIK you can make any DVD player silent by using one of those little resident programs which will make sure the drive don't spin faster that it needs to watch a movie. I know my toshiba laptop has such a program in the bundled software, and once it's turned on the thing is nearly dead silent. This particular program is maybe hardware specific, but IIRC i've seen some generic ones as sharewares or freewares. I'm taking windows here, but i'd be surprised if the same thing didn't exists for linux...
It's supposed to be a general use media box. For watching a movie, the fan noise is not that important. For those moments when you're listening to music at night for example, it is. You can hear the fan noise as much as the music, and it sucks.
Anyhow i don't want a single fan in my friggin living room. I'm sooo tired of those things. Even gaming consoles makes too much noise now. Can't we have *silence* in this techno centric world ?
But it seems solutions are coming, there are wifi/cat5 boxes you can hook on you tv and stereo that look basically like a vcr and use a remote control and a tv interface to access your divx, mp3 whatever. And no fans, of course... Now i'd like one of those to be sufficiently open to have alternatives to their proprietary interface. Because they never think of everything. I want really good playlist support, and APE image tag viewer for my mp3s for instance. I want lots of things, but it seems you can't have it all at once...
But at least, it's aiming in the good direction. That way you can have a big ass file server hidden somewhere, and just hook one of those terminals in the places you want to listen to music / watch movies. Ideally the terminal should have a DVD/audio cd player too so you don't need to walk to your server to load a disk. Then you have the perfect solution for digital medias, imho.
Well it's a basic rule of security: never use the same password for two different things. If you wow password is compromised for whatever reason, maybe a determined person could log onto your machine with it ? or make bank transactions ? Sure that would require knowing your identity, or ip, but just posting to a web board or chatting on irc with your wow nick could reveal your ip for instance.
But i agree with you for things where security is not that important (I use the same password for my slashdot account, and hundreds of other "not so important" accounts).