Indeed, the last boss in FF8 wasn't a big deal, but if you wanted to get all the summons and special items, the optional "Atma Weapon" bosses were a real bitch to win against.
He said what we should be making and giving them cheaply are basically cell phones that you can hook up to a TV and keyboard and use as a computer
Considering that my cellphone here in Canada still has dead zones, and very high data charges - and we're one of the more developed countries for telecommunications - I don't think that this is very likely to happen. Not that it isn't a nice thought, but such things require a lot of work in themselves, and then a constant support-base to keep the network running without interruption.
Cheap computers likely require support too, but on an individual basis, and without as much immediate need.
There is also, of course, the possibility that - in having a fixed-hardware machine that runs linux... and possibly decent driver support from Sony - new and exciting Linux games might be developed on the PS3. There are plenty of existing and many decent dev kits for linux. Knowing what you are working with (resolution, controllers, internal hardware) might make game development a whole lot easier for those that wish to do so, and using 'nix adds some versatility to it as well.
Yes, but I'd imagine that the law enforcement officials were equally upset when they found that reporters had access to data on their restricted website. The important thing here is that due process was falled, a warrant was applied for and obtained. So I don't really see how the reporter's rights were violated, as it applies to them no differently than anyone else. If the cops raided a person's computer (on warrant) during a murder investigation, or busting a kiddy pr0n ring, would it be any less necessary if said hard-drive contained perhaps confidential info such as:
a) Bank records
b) Business/work information
c) Protected source code
You can bet in those cases that the police would want all the evidence they could get. If the ISP records go sour, having the physical drive with additional evidence would be a good secondary. Police don't and shouldn't skimp by on the smallest amount of evidence they can get, but rather put as much together as they can to make a tight case. If they found confidential police records + saved passwords in the cache on that machine, it makes their case that much tigher.
Again, at the moment, the police have followed the rules properly. If later it's found that this case is a sham, and several dozen 'whistleblowers' were arrested using the data from the newspaper hard-drive, then you can start up your conspiracy machines.
you go mano a mano with the big guy, you kick his ass
No, that was part of the problem. You kick somebody's ass (aka leave them with a sharp physical reminded of the incident) and they're going to harbour a grudge. Headlock them, maybe hold their head in the dirt for awhile, etc, and you've demonstrated an ability to defend yourself without giving him a strong reason to want to come hurt you in return. In fact, this happens often enough in the wild, many male animals of a species will engage in physical competition without causing each other actual harm. By subduing an aggressive male counterpart without causing damage, you have on a certain subconscious level established a certain place in the social hierarchy when it comes to such things.
I hate to be devil's advocate here, but it's not that they'll be specifically trying to make it harder for gets to get to porn (as in, they won't be building the actual software changes needed), but they might be looking at introducing new regulations to make the pron sites do so.
Personally, even as an adult I get rather annoying with finding porn sites when I make non-porn related searches. Maybe if they were to throw some law that the sites can use unrelated keywords in white-on-white to troll for search engine hits, and thus have kids searching for 'girls horses' not run into some very bad things (this is example only).
Really, I'm still not sure what business the government has in this, and unfortunately it tends to be a slippery slope regardless. Perhaps a requirement that all pornsites have external links auto-redirect to the "do you want to enter" screen would satisfy them... but no matter what they do in the US, porn is international and plenty of non-US sites could happily ignore this. I'm really not sure what they hope to prove, but if they won't mind their own fucking business one hopes at least they'll do something useful that doesn't impact other legitimate users.
a) Pick your battles. AKA not when the big guy has a dozen buddies with him
b) A lot of the people who get picked are are picked on because they don't have many friends, or even any, or their friends are as weak as they are or at least not very useful in a fight
c) Even when you do have friends, you can't have them with you like a personal bodyguard. "Bullies" will wait for the moment where they can catch you alone.
Sorry bud, but I was a rather small until partway into high school, and suffered all sorts of violence from Gr2 onward. The only thing that toned it down a bit was when I grew some. It didn't stop immediatedly though, people still found me an easy target just because I had always been so. Headlocking a few annoyances for extended periods of time, grinding a few faces into the snow, etc tended to change their minds. After that, I was bothered a whole lot less.
It's a lovely mentality to teach the "walk away" strategy, but the fact is that a determined "bully" will lie in wait for you, or sneak up on you. They don't all respond to school punishment (suspension = time off school), in fact most don't.
I would tend to agree with you that violence begets escalation in some cases, so my advice would be to not start something you don't think you can finish. If somebody needs to be tuned in, make sure you can hold your own, otherwise you're just going to get beaten worse. In fact, as mentioned about, most times it doesn't require that you break somebody's nose, just demonstrate that you can and will handle them. Getting into a full-on fistfight often involves having the guy's friends jump in when he gets hurt... so pick your time to stand wisely.
It seems when something has gone on long enough people or even groups automatically consider it a right. This is something akin to the hockey strike (which was forever in the Canadian headline while it was on). Players, even rookies, were getting exorbitant amounts of money. Yes, they were skilled, but where they *that* skilled. At some point, the game has gone from something that everyone could watch to something that only the wealthy can afford to see (live) on a regular basis. Moreso, most of the big seats are purchased by corportations.
Movies, and many other industries, are the same. The massive multi-million dollar paycheques that movie stars receive, record execs (not the musicians in most cases, unfortunately), and others has gone on for so long that it seems normal, and they consider it a right. You'll see them blowing away that money on private jets, hookers, and crack, and then they will complain that it's our fault when people have had enough of their washed-out lack-of-talent and are no longer willing to pay such increasing amounts.
There is nothing that requires a movie cost $200 million. Go watch some classics like "Clerks," which was popular despite it's rather low budget. Better yet, go download (or if you're really into supporting the true artists, buy) a copy of Star Wreck, at least to view the SFX. You know what... the acting isn't bad at all, and the effects... pretty damn good if you ask me. All that down with hard work and a passion for what was being done. Sorry, but I'm down with paying for a movie in order to see a ruined reversion of a book, a dozen previews/commercials, and some idiot telling me that I shouldn't pirate movies (if I was, would I be sitting in the damn theatre watching that crap) and equating it to stealing a purse.
Look, iTunes is popular, as are ipods. First, one could easily enough say they are independantly popular. They do feed off each other a bit, but both were pioneers that succeeded in their own right.
Secondly, while I could definately seen reasoning that you should be able to format-shift, I don't see why people have an automatic 'right' to conversion. I mean, it shouldn't be illegal to format-shift, but neither should Apple be required to put a sytem in place to do so. There are plenty of ways for me to move to a different format. Generally, some quality loss is involved, but no more than format-shifting between physical mediums had (such as tape to CD, CD to mp3, etc).
And as somebody who had to jump through a whole lot of hoops over time to make them work. I'd have to say that the return answer is "sorta."
Yes, there were Epia drivers. They also tended towards bugginess and being a royal pain in the ass to install. Not to mention that the installer was specific for various distributions but nothing debian-based... much to my annoyance.
I believe it was back in kindergarten/grade 1 where they tried to nail me with the "dyslexic" diagnosis, and later with being the equivilent to ADHD at the time. Ritalin caused me to fall asleep in class or lose concentration on my work, and special lessions for my supposed lower learning level did sweet-F-all. Having two great teachers who actually bothered to get me involved with some good books helped me get off the supposed dyslexic program. Today I have more books on my bookshelf than 90% of the other people I know, and of which I have no problems reading at all.
As for being hyperactive, WTF ever happened to energetic kids? I've seen kids that do need ritalin, they're to the point of being almost insane without it, and tend to have yelling, screaming, and various little other fits without. I see plenty of other kids who are stuck on the magic-behavior-pill who seem like drug addicts, their natural energy and spark dampened by a drug that is far too often overused.
Keep in mind that this is one of the groups that wants to collect "your" personal info in the fight against terrorism. If they can't keep their own private business private... how much trust should I have in them with mine?
But then again, maybe not. I'll play my own "devil's advocate" for a bit here to contradict my previous comments. A full blown VM, probably detectable. But what about something like a changeroot (essentially, for non-'nix users, a subdirectory which for all intents and purposes appears as the drive root).
We have boxes at work which run chrooted... and the SSH server also runs in the changeroot. When you SSH in, you can't tell whether or not you're in the chroot except that we tend to have it labelled. If you were to apply the same trick to the console, but have the overlying layer outside of the changeroot, and some masks to hide various processes, how would you know if you're "in the box" or outside of it?
I've tended to find that one of the big annoyances with virtual environments is that between them and the master, communication with various hardware tends to suffer. Mind you, I haven't worked with the big boys, but will the VM environment still happily let my burners, USB device, etc work normally... or would I start to notice some rather odd and revealing behavior?
Yes, or you could just quit, and then be sued the next week because the company went through your desk and found it "too clean," as if somebody had scrubbed it out with windex wiped it down...
Seriously, this isn't about files being missing, or taken, it's about them not being able to find evidence, and thus concluding the evidence was hidden, and bringing forth charges anyways.
Why should you view the warning that you potentially have 30 or 40 years left any differently than the warning that you have 3 months left?
Exactly... why not party every day, drink lots, eat fatty foods, and spend cash like there's no tomorrow?
Oh, wait, maybe it's because there will be a tomorrow, and perhaps the whole long-term planning aspect of things might be a little important.
Perhaps you've always wanted to vacation in Hawaii... but then you've got the choice between paying your current mortgage or taking the trip. Well, if you're expecting to live another 30-40 years, you've got plenty of time to hit Hawaii and in the short-term... get those bills settled. On the other hand, if you've only got 30-40 days, then chances are you're not going to see much of those sunny skies and coconut drinks unless you make some chances to the plan - perhaps like selling the house and spending your last while happy.
There are other considerations, of course. You can't very well sell the house and uproot if you've got a wife and kids (at least not in most situations), but there are still a lot of lifestyle adjustments to make.
There's something to be said for enjoying the more immediate moments in life, but it's a balance with long-term planning/saving as well. When your longest term is suddenly shortened to about 5% of what you expected, plans must adjust themselves accordingly.
Personally, depending on how long I might have (assuming I was given forenotice of a shortened lifespan), I'd probably work for awhile yet, but dump that intended-for-mortgage cash into heading someplace a little happier for my last bit of sunny enjoyment, before returning home to have my final rest.
Quite often when I read a book, it's to get away from my jobs and all the computer-related things that go with it. Having to deal with an "e-book" won't help that much. However, I've often thought that the idea of the various paper-style technologies that change text would be very useful here... having a simple device with a laminated-style page and a little dongle for a flashcard and page-flipper of some sort.
Really, I just want something small that I can sit back on the couch with, not change batteries, and not strain my eyes stairing at a screen or playing with a clunky UI. At this point, dead-tree format does all I want, and is still quite convenient. In other words, if it ain't broke - it don't need fixin'
My friend, this is why I make my purchases on Visa. If it don't work, backcharge. In most cases, when nobody else supports you, and the big guys are big enough that they can happily screw you, Visa will still bend them over, because they are bigger.
We need some of the anti-pr0n crusading wingnuts in congress to be caught with their own pr0nsite subscriptions...
The first thing they'd probably do is hunt down the info-leaking merchants with a vengeance.... but it would also be nice to see how such things fit with their anti-pr0n crusading.
As an admin at my previous job, I often searched SF.net and freshmeat for open-source/free solutions. At one point, our ISP's caching filter decided to regularly boink the freshmeat site, which resulted in the site autobanning one of the upstream routers.
It was a really fun thing trying to explain to the ISP person why they should put in an caching exemption for a site called "freshmeat", and what the actual content of said site was.
What I'd prefer, is something cross-platform that would let my user's dial me. Really, there's not much need to poke into a user's machine when no help is needed, and for the mostpart I have a heck of a time dealing with friend's who have VNC, but haven't configured the router, etc to let me in.
I control my own inbound routing, so having the ability to control which connections are sent through the routing machine to my PC would make it much easier for me to have other's "dial-out" for assistance from me... rather than having them configure a router to allow me to "dial-in" to their machine.
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Indeed, the last boss in FF8 wasn't a big deal, but if you wanted to get all the summons and special items, the optional "Atma Weapon" bosses were a real bitch to win against.
He said what we should be making and giving them cheaply are basically cell phones that you can hook up to a TV and keyboard and use as a computer
Considering that my cellphone here in Canada still has dead zones, and very high data charges - and we're one of the more developed countries for telecommunications - I don't think that this is very likely to happen. Not that it isn't a nice thought, but such things require a lot of work in themselves, and then a constant support-base to keep the network running without interruption.
Cheap computers likely require support too, but on an individual basis, and without as much immediate need.
There is also, of course, the possibility that - in having a fixed-hardware machine that runs linux... and possibly decent driver support from Sony - new and exciting Linux games might be developed on the PS3. There are plenty of existing and many decent dev kits for linux. Knowing what you are working with (resolution, controllers, internal hardware) might make game development a whole lot easier for those that wish to do so, and using 'nix adds some versatility to it as well.
Yes, but I'd imagine that the law enforcement officials were equally upset when they found that reporters had access to data on their restricted website. The important thing here is that due process was falled, a warrant was applied for and obtained. So I don't really see how the reporter's rights were violated, as it applies to them no differently than anyone else. If the cops raided a person's computer (on warrant) during a murder investigation, or busting a kiddy pr0n ring, would it be any less necessary if said hard-drive contained perhaps confidential info such as:
a) Bank records
b) Business/work information
c) Protected source code
You can bet in those cases that the police would want all the evidence they could get. If the ISP records go sour, having the physical drive with additional evidence would be a good secondary. Police don't and shouldn't skimp by on the smallest amount of evidence they can get, but rather put as much together as they can to make a tight case. If they found confidential police records + saved passwords in the cache on that machine, it makes their case that much tigher.
Again, at the moment, the police have followed the rules properly. If later it's found that this case is a sham, and several dozen 'whistleblowers' were arrested using the data from the newspaper hard-drive, then you can start up your conspiracy machines.
you go mano a mano with the big guy, you kick his ass
No, that was part of the problem. You kick somebody's ass (aka leave them with a sharp physical reminded of the incident) and they're going to harbour a grudge. Headlock them, maybe hold their head in the dirt for awhile, etc, and you've demonstrated an ability to defend yourself without giving him a strong reason to want to come hurt you in return. In fact, this happens often enough in the wild, many male animals of a species will engage in physical competition without causing each other actual harm. By subduing an aggressive male counterpart without causing damage, you have on a certain subconscious level established a certain place in the social hierarchy when it comes to such things.
I hate to be devil's advocate here, but it's not that they'll be specifically trying to make it harder for gets to get to porn (as in, they won't be building the actual software changes needed), but they might be looking at introducing new regulations to make the pron sites do so.
Personally, even as an adult I get rather annoying with finding porn sites when I make non-porn related searches. Maybe if they were to throw some law that the sites can use unrelated keywords in white-on-white to troll for search engine hits, and thus have kids searching for 'girls horses' not run into some very bad things (this is example only).
Really, I'm still not sure what business the government has in this, and unfortunately it tends to be a slippery slope regardless. Perhaps a requirement that all pornsites have external links auto-redirect to the "do you want to enter" screen would satisfy them... but no matter what they do in the US, porn is international and plenty of non-US sites could happily ignore this. I'm really not sure what they hope to prove, but if they won't mind their own fucking business one hopes at least they'll do something useful that doesn't impact other legitimate users.
a) Pick your battles. AKA not when the big guy has a dozen buddies with him
b) A lot of the people who get picked are are picked on because they don't have many friends, or even any, or their friends are as weak as they are or at least not very useful in a fight
c) Even when you do have friends, you can't have them with you like a personal bodyguard. "Bullies" will wait for the moment where they can catch you alone.
Sorry bud, but I was a rather small until partway into high school, and suffered all sorts of violence from Gr2 onward. The only thing that toned it down a bit was when I grew some. It didn't stop immediatedly though, people still found me an easy target just because I had always been so. Headlocking a few annoyances for extended periods of time, grinding a few faces into the snow, etc tended to change their minds. After that, I was bothered a whole lot less.
It's a lovely mentality to teach the "walk away" strategy, but the fact is that a determined "bully" will lie in wait for you, or sneak up on you. They don't all respond to school punishment (suspension = time off school), in fact most don't.
I would tend to agree with you that violence begets escalation in some cases, so my advice would be to not start something you don't think you can finish. If somebody needs to be tuned in, make sure you can hold your own, otherwise you're just going to get beaten worse. In fact, as mentioned about, most times it doesn't require that you break somebody's nose, just demonstrate that you can and will handle them. Getting into a full-on fistfight often involves having the guy's friends jump in when he gets hurt... so pick your time to stand wisely.
It seems when something has gone on long enough people or even groups automatically consider it a right. This is something akin to the hockey strike (which was forever in the Canadian headline while it was on). Players, even rookies, were getting exorbitant amounts of money. Yes, they were skilled, but where they *that* skilled. At some point, the game has gone from something that everyone could watch to something that only the wealthy can afford to see (live) on a regular basis. Moreso, most of the big seats are purchased by corportations.
Movies, and many other industries, are the same. The massive multi-million dollar paycheques that movie stars receive, record execs (not the musicians in most cases, unfortunately), and others has gone on for so long that it seems normal, and they consider it a right. You'll see them blowing away that money on private jets, hookers, and crack, and then they will complain that it's our fault when people have had enough of their washed-out lack-of-talent and are no longer willing to pay such increasing amounts.
There is nothing that requires a movie cost $200 million. Go watch some classics like "Clerks," which was popular despite it's rather low budget. Better yet, go download (or if you're really into supporting the true artists, buy) a copy of Star Wreck, at least to view the SFX. You know what... the acting isn't bad at all, and the effects... pretty damn good if you ask me. All that down with hard work and a passion for what was being done. Sorry, but I'm down with paying for a movie in order to see a ruined reversion of a book, a dozen previews/commercials, and some idiot telling me that I shouldn't pirate movies (if I was, would I be sitting in the damn theatre watching that crap) and equating it to stealing a purse.
Look, iTunes is popular, as are ipods. First, one could easily enough say they are independantly popular. They do feed off each other a bit, but both were pioneers that succeeded in their own right.
Secondly, while I could definately seen reasoning that you should be able to format-shift, I don't see why people have an automatic 'right' to conversion. I mean, it shouldn't be illegal to format-shift, but neither should Apple be required to put a sytem in place to do so. There are plenty of ways for me to move to a different format. Generally, some quality loss is involved, but no more than format-shifting between physical mediums had (such as tape to CD, CD to mp3, etc).
And as somebody who had to jump through a whole lot of hoops over time to make them work. I'd have to say that the return answer is "sorta."
Yes, there were Epia drivers. They also tended towards bugginess and being a royal pain in the ass to install. Not to mention that the installer was specific for various distributions but nothing debian-based... much to my annoyance.
I believe it was back in kindergarten/grade 1 where they tried to nail me with the "dyslexic" diagnosis, and later with being the equivilent to ADHD at the time. Ritalin caused me to fall asleep in class or lose concentration on my work, and special lessions for my supposed lower learning level did sweet-F-all. Having two great teachers who actually bothered to get me involved with some good books helped me get off the supposed dyslexic program. Today I have more books on my bookshelf than 90% of the other people I know, and of which I have no problems reading at all.
As for being hyperactive, WTF ever happened to energetic kids? I've seen kids that do need ritalin, they're to the point of being almost insane without it, and tend to have yelling, screaming, and various little other fits without. I see plenty of other kids who are stuck on the magic-behavior-pill who seem like drug addicts, their natural energy and spark dampened by a drug that is far too often overused.
Keep in mind that this is one of the groups that wants to collect "your" personal info in the fight against terrorism. If they can't keep their own private business private... how much trust should I have in them with mine?
But then again, maybe not. I'll play my own "devil's advocate" for a bit here to contradict my previous comments. A full blown VM, probably detectable. But what about something like a changeroot (essentially, for non-'nix users, a subdirectory which for all intents and purposes appears as the drive root).
We have boxes at work which run chrooted... and the SSH server also runs in the changeroot. When you SSH in, you can't tell whether or not you're in the chroot except that we tend to have it labelled. If you were to apply the same trick to the console, but have the overlying layer outside of the changeroot, and some masks to hide various processes, how would you know if you're "in the box" or outside of it?
I've tended to find that one of the big annoyances with virtual environments is that between them and the master, communication with various hardware tends to suffer. Mind you, I haven't worked with the big boys, but will the VM environment still happily let my burners, USB device, etc work normally... or would I start to notice some rather odd and revealing behavior?
Yes, or you could just quit, and then be sued the next week because the company went through your desk and found it "too clean," as if somebody had scrubbed it out with windex wiped it down...
Seriously, this isn't about files being missing, or taken, it's about them not being able to find evidence, and thus concluding the evidence was hidden, and bringing forth charges anyways.
Why should you view the warning that you potentially have 30 or 40 years left any differently than the warning that you have 3 months left?
Exactly... why not party every day, drink lots, eat fatty foods, and spend cash like there's no tomorrow?
Oh, wait, maybe it's because there will be a tomorrow, and perhaps the whole long-term planning aspect of things might be a little important.
Perhaps you've always wanted to vacation in Hawaii... but then you've got the choice between paying your current mortgage or taking the trip. Well, if you're expecting to live another 30-40 years, you've got plenty of time to hit Hawaii and in the short-term... get those bills settled. On the other hand, if you've only got 30-40 days, then chances are you're not going to see much of those sunny skies and coconut drinks unless you make some chances to the plan - perhaps like selling the house and spending your last while happy.
There are other considerations, of course. You can't very well sell the house and uproot if you've got a wife and kids (at least not in most situations), but there are still a lot of lifestyle adjustments to make.
There's something to be said for enjoying the more immediate moments in life, but it's a balance with long-term planning/saving as well. When your longest term is suddenly shortened to about 5% of what you expected, plans must adjust themselves accordingly.
Personally, depending on how long I might have (assuming I was given forenotice of a shortened lifespan), I'd probably work for awhile yet, but dump that intended-for-mortgage cash into heading someplace a little happier for my last bit of sunny enjoyment, before returning home to have my final rest.
Quite often when I read a book, it's to get away from my jobs and all the computer-related things that go with it. Having to deal with an "e-book" won't help that much. However, I've often thought that the idea of the various paper-style technologies that change text would be very useful here... having a simple device with a laminated-style page and a little dongle for a flashcard and page-flipper of some sort.
Really, I just want something small that I can sit back on the couch with, not change batteries, and not strain my eyes stairing at a screen or playing with a clunky UI. At this point, dead-tree format does all I want, and is still quite convenient. In other words, if it ain't broke - it don't need fixin'
Agreement, nothing. Simply backcharge them for the faulty media which they were not accepting a return on
My friend, this is why I make my purchases on Visa. If it don't work, backcharge. In most cases, when nobody else supports you, and the big guys are big enough that they can happily screw you, Visa will still bend them over, because they are bigger.
We need some of the anti-pr0n crusading wingnuts in congress to be caught with their own pr0nsite subscriptions...
The first thing they'd probably do is hunt down the info-leaking merchants with a vengeance.... but it would also be nice to see how such things fit with their anti-pr0n crusading.
As an admin at my previous job, I often searched SF.net and freshmeat for open-source/free solutions. At one point, our ISP's caching filter decided to regularly boink the freshmeat site, which resulted in the site autobanning one of the upstream routers.
It was a really fun thing trying to explain to the ISP person why they should put in an caching exemption for a site called "freshmeat", and what the actual content of said site was.
Erm... no. If I RTFM on every since application I used I'd be done in about 20 years from now, assuming I didn't find new ones to RTFM from.
I never even realized PuTTY could do port-forwarding for other apps. I generally SSH linux-linux but I'll have to look into this. Thankee!
What I'd prefer, is something cross-platform that would let my user's dial me. Really, there's not much need to poke into a user's machine when no help is needed, and for the mostpart I have a heck of a time dealing with friend's who have VNC, but haven't configured the router, etc to let me in.
I control my own inbound routing, so having the ability to control which connections are sent through the routing machine to my PC would make it much easier for me to have other's "dial-out" for assistance from me... rather than having them configure a router to allow me to "dial-in" to their machine.