Amazing, bread and circuses, it still works after 2000+ years.
It may become time to end the secret ballot. Else we keep getting people like this elected because people vote for their wallets thinking everyone else will save their freedom.
Democracy is the worsed system except for all the others is a common bit of dogma, I think it has made us lazy. Keep us from trying to find something better. Because democracy sure as hell doesn't seem to be working anymore.
Governments are rarely evil, in real life they are misguided trying to do what they think is the right thing but going about it wrong.
Terry Pratchett's "May you life in intresting times" touches on it briefly. A rebellion is forming in the counterweight continent (china) seeking to overthrow the government and liberate the peasants... and who will then lead those peasants? The leaders of the rebellion, who will for the greater good of the peasants tell the peasants how to lead their life, how to farm, despite those peasants have hundreds of years more experience with farming.
Leaders have a plan for the future, they see it not working, human nature then tries to find something that is wrong without looking at the plan itself. China needs it people to work hard, without demanding more then can be given, and do so effeciently and properly within the limits of society and available resources. This is all perfectly sensible and reasonable. Take the one-child policy. Westerners often critize it, but what else are China leaders supposed to do? Have the population explode? Invade other countries to be able to feed its out of control population? Allow mass starvation? The one-child police, with all its problems is the only workable solution. But it only works if everyone follows it, to many exceptions and things break down and you MUST control it. What happens if you do NOT control your people is clear, look at the US where the average citizen consumes 9 times the average amount of a world citizen. People starve because americans binge eat (europeans do the same but slightly less). The US has the resources to have this happen, China does not.
And when you got a plan and are convinced the plan is right and the people don't follow your plan, you start looking for reasons. Any reason. Maybe they are being subverted by hostile agents (the examples are countless. Recently shown in Iran but of course the famous McCarthy witch hunts in the US are very much the same. Later anti-vietnam protests could only have been organized by communist agents, free will of the people? Only when they do what you want them to do, the Chinese ain't unique at all).
Sex, sex is just one of those things where people are very disruptive, almost no idea about sexual activity held by the ruling elite is correct. 30+% of children are not of the father that thinks he is the father. The fast majority of teenage girls got an STD... these are not the figures you want when you are plotting the future of your country.
Sex, drugs and Rock&Roll are the enemy of the planners all over the world. Every leader who has had a vision for the future has sought to control them. And in a way, you got to. Take again, the one-child policy. Would be a far greater problem with rampant teenage pregnancy. Women who have children by multiple fathers are a problem in a one-child culture. Would you marry a woman who already has a kid if she is not allowed to have yours?
This is why a clamp down on sex and drugs and music is always a part of a government that has a plan for its population. Check history (and don't forget to check your own) and you will this is true.
And history has also shown that there is precious little opposition to it.
Else, why did the US not rebel after nipple-gate? You are probably an American, protesting about censorship in a country where the word "fuck" is not just bleeped out, but a mosaic put over the mouth of the person who said it. Why does the US government fear porn?
It has nothing to do with decency of puritanism, it has to do with the idea that it is corrupting/influencing the population away from the destiny you have planned for them.
China is undergoing great changes, and the government seeks and needs control to keep it all together. Don't forget that China KNOWS its own history. Almost conquered by the Japanese a tiny primitive nation that was so insignificant that it never developed its own language. 2000+ years it was nothing and then it almost steam rolled over them. The
Everyone mandatory implanted ID that can't be removed or altered without dying, say a chip implanted in the brain that extends barbs.
Tracking posts everywhere. All travel recorded and logged.
1 computer system, can only be activated with ID. No 3rd party software let alone your own stuff, every access is recorded and logged for 10 years minimum.
Should I go on? It is easy to implement and will eliminate all security problems. Feel free to take these ideas for when you run for election.
Security is easy, freedom and security ain't. To be honest, I prefer my government to be a bit slow and inefficient. The alternative is far more scarier.
People are so upset about that illegal immigrant who got shot on the tube when he tried to run. I would be far more worried if that guy had NEVER been able to make it into the country or if they had shot the right guy with a sniper efficiently. The whole mess shows there is still freedom. Freedom to get shot for sure, but also the freedom for journalists to still find leaks.
Ooh. Go to Scotland and say it is your favorite part of england. Hope you can run fast. Then do it in the wrong parts of northern Ireland.
Many Indians (the sub continent, not the race the USA practically wiped out) fought WITH the nazi's to dismantle the British empire. The palestines worked together with the nazi's as well, again to get the British out (and this is one of the reasons britain has had such a dubious role in the entire conflict, basically both Israelis and Palestinians fought them).
Now the british empire or commonwealth is not all overrun by hate, but neither is the US "empire". Why do you think the US does so well with its movies? Because people around the world love them. If the US was truly so hated, McDonalds etc would not be able to sell their products world-wide.
And of course, your logic fails to account for terrorist attacks in other parts of the world. Why all the attacks in Iraq against muslims? Why does Morocco have a fence? Why is India attacked by terrorists from Pakistan?
No, you got pet peeve with the US, fine but it is clouding your vision. The enemy of my enemy is not your friend.
So you say that leading a guild is worth nothing, but being captain of a football team is... because everyone in IT is apparently a jock and responds the same as a football team?
Both of these activities are NOT the same as leading a business team, because the first two are VOLUNTEER teams.
I see three different forms of leadership experience can have.
The volunteer team, this is most often experienced in peoples youths and includes in my opinion school project experience and game/sport leadership. You lead people who more or less agree to be lead but can walk out at any moment. On the other hand, you can also get rid of people more easily.
The army team, in the army if you lead a team, then you are in charge, no question about it. It is very different (I was the rank of sergeant when drafted ages ago) to the first, you don't get to pick the members of your team, not the person giving you orders. More or less, everyone accepts the situation as it is and simply does as ordered and as such, the leading process is very simple. You really don't have to worry about the ego of your corporal and a private... are they even sentient? Who cares?
In business, what you would call the real world, because apparently the other two experiences ain't real in your eyes (which says a lot about you) leadership is a mix of the two. Your boss is your boss but you can always switch jobs and discipline is far less rigid. As a leader, you got to think of the feelings of the people you are trying to lead or you will soon find them seeking to be in a different group, they are not as free as volunteers but they haven't sworn an oath to you.
Experience in either the army method or the volunteer method can prepare you for the complexities of leading people who have different motivations and loyalties, but it is not the same.
So I think game leadership experience CAN be succesful. You say most WoW players have no sense of responsibility. Could be true (although this might more accurately reflect the people you played with and therefore reflect on you). But even if you take your opinion as fact, then how is leading a raid of selfish teenagers different from managing the same teenagers in the real world? Or do you think good leaders only get to lead highly motivated followers?
In some ways, I would be more impressed with someone who manages to lead massive PUG raids succesfully, then an officer who leads an army. What is harder? Herding cats or marching an army band? In IT, where you got to deal with people who have taken individualism to a new level, experience with leading the socially inept is an advantage. You say your WoW guild has no responsibilty but at the same time label those that do as elitist. Hard man to please ain't you?
In the real world, the hardest thing about leadership is NOT leading but getting people to follow in the first place. Anyone can shout orders, but getting people willing to listen to those orders is the real trick.
Getting 23 complete strangers, who don't know each other, don't speak the same language, got their own goals to function together for even a few hours, now that requires people skills. And the lack of direct interaction makes it only HARDER, not easier. People feel free to be real assholes online, something they would never dare to be face to face.
You seem to think good leadership comes from leading people who are easy to lead. I think a good leader is shaped by being able to manage people who are downright hostile to your leadership. The more opposition you face and still manage to make a success, the better you are.
In a MMORPG the rules are clear and you know what you can and cannot do. Follow the strategy and everything will come together, there are few surprises and the AI has no emotion, no ego. No raid boss will deny you victory because you stepped on its toes.
In the real world, that is not the case, you might have followed the right guide to grind your career to the next level and still never ping because the AI has decided that they shall promote the girl because she is prettier or the guy because he is not a girl. Or the minority because there ain't enough of them or the majority because everyone knows minorities can't cut it.
What I have noted is that younger people are very good at being assertive but not very good at being meek. They know how to succeed but not how to fail. And yet, when they finish school where many seem to believe they employ the teachers they are suddenly put in an environment where they are not the top, worse, the top positions are already taken and you will have to compete for them with people who got more experience.
If I would be hiring a new person fresh from school, then I would not be impressed with your raid leading capabilty. Now if you put on your CV that you are a good raid follower, that would matter a whole lot more. Anyone can shout orders, following them is a lot harder. Who needs the other more? Generals vs Soldiers? A simple head count will give you the answer. A new employer will not need another manager, another boss especially one who has not yet proven himself, but they will need people who can do the stuff that is required. And doing that stuff is often boring and unrewarding with you requiring years of grinding away at menial tasks to get anywhere, and there is no progress bar to follow.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate that gaming experience can enhance abilities in the real world. If you can organize your guilds supply chain (who crafts what) then you might be a good organizer in the real world. But say that you are REALLY good in arranging that harvested materials make their way to the crafters, does that make you a good procurer in the real world? No...
Why? Because the game world is consistent, eternally the same. If you want more light hides, you just go out an get them and you can just grind them in a respawn rich area. There are no government quatas, no competition, no disease or enviromental factors. It is, simple. The real world is everything but simple. Some of you might mentions Star Wars Galaxies resource system which changed quality. True, but you could freely travel and harvest all over the universe. As shown by a recent story, in the real world a rare mineral simply might no longer become available in the real world (China restricting exports or rare earth minerals).
Gaming experience is no more the playing experience. Sure, if you played with blocks as a small child, you MIGHT one day become an architect BUT if you are going for your first job interview as an architect I wouldn't list "block building" on my CV. You might mention it during your background story, "why do you want to be an architect" "Well I always liked the idea of building something, even as a small child when I made bridges with blocks". But it is PLAYING experience, not real world.
Being a raid leader does NOT make you a leader, it just gives you some play experience at doing it. If you use it at just a light intro to the real thing, then you will do fine. But if you think it prepares you for the real thing or even is the same as the real thing, then you will fail horribly.
I don't think you buy B&O for quality but for the looks, they got very nice designs. Frankly, I am not really all that upset about all this, but then I have been used to PC's doing the same for ever.
Personally I always smiled when people wanted Compaq over Dell because it was a better brandname... guess it is, if you want a cheap IBM clone, go to the one who created the first.
Apple is really just an intel PC but with a "nice" design on it. I say "nice because my arm is resting on the edge of a macbook and OUCH. Sharp plastic edge, who thought that was a good idea?
Open up your brandname computer, and see what is inside that makes your X an X. Wanna bet it is almost entirely the casing, and even that is probably desinged by the same laptop company as its competitor.
It ain't much different in the food sector, the cheap no-name brand comes from the same production line.
About half a year ago I was shopping with a friend, who insisted on buying the "brandname" sugar because it was better... It is SUGAR even if it came from different factories, which it doesn't, the LAW dictates EXACTLY what sugar must be. There is no room for quality difference. If there was any, the quality control from the government would be all over them. The only difference is that for the cheap stuff, they use whatever granular size they got in surplus, but for thee and coffee that hardly matters. For some tasks, grain size matters, so what they do is they produce a certain granular size, fill the order they got and then anything left over is put in the cheap consumer bags. If you are making certain cookies (arnhemse meisjes) you need a large grain. Of course if you need that, just shake the cheap bag to see if you got lucky.
Rebadging the same crap to charge more is nothing unusual. I am just amazed they had the balls to do it so blatantly, come on, they could at least have insisted on having a new batch of components made in a different color, and put them in indivudual boxes to hide the layout.
In holland we got "Bakellende", a prime minister who is best described as George W. Bush without the razor sharp intellect and Blair without the integrity. The guy is called the teflon president because everything just slides off him, thanks to the coalition nature of the dutch system.
The left (well supposedly) PvDA is so horny for government they constantly bend over backwards rather then just saying "enough is enough" and forcing new elections. The Christian Union is a tiny part that has no business being in a government but was allowed in because it gives the CDA a partner that will bend over even more because without this arrangement there is no way in hell they would ever have a say on anything.
And to fight it all, the bright new hope? We got the SP (Socialist Party) who was ONCE led by the only guy you could trust even if you didn't agree with him and is now being led by a woman who doesn't want to offend anyone and is about as much a socialist as Blair (being left wing does NOT mean you have to be a bleeding heart but it does mean you have to LISTEN to the voter, the worker, not just your elitist friends, armchair socialists).
And on the right, there is Wilders, that some of you might have heard off. His bright idea for the future? To back the CDA even if the CDA doesn't want to work with him... oh yeah, 4 more years of Bakellende. Seems the guy learned nothing from the party that preceded him, LPF, who lost all votes after working with CDA. Everyone who ever worked with the CDA lost votes.
And you wish to complain to me about the US system? At least you guys got a chance. Things are so bad in the US, it can only get better. In holland the CDA has succeeded for years to slide ever downwards but push the blame on everyone else.
Sometimes I think WWIII wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. Get a fresh start.
Lets assume I have sex with a different woman each day, then that means I am so good, I can charge for it. Say, a thousand euro per bonk. That makes 5000 euro per evening. But because I instead posted on slashdot to comment on your post, I missed tonights income. You owe me 5000 euro.
Check is acceptable. Thank you.\
Anyone bothered to read the article when the second sentence of the summary starts the argument with "lets assume". Lets assume the moon is made of gold, why is NASA then not rich?
And when exactly has google EVER been the default search engine on IE? When google started, IE didn't have a setting to change default search engine and yet word of mouth got millions of IE users to set their homepage away from MSN to Google.
Google blocking IE would probably hurt them (although if it worked out, the profit would be enormous) but not for the reason you give.
You claim he did fine because he delayed in the inevitable. A good CEO would have avoided the inevitable. It is like saying the captain of the Titanic was good because he got so far before sinking. Sorry, a good captain would have avoided the icebergs altogether.
MS has in many ways been playing catchup and using delay tactics. Fine, but that is something a crap ceo does because he can't do any better. A good CEO would have made everyone WANT to use IE and make it the best browser around. It isn't hard. ALL other browser makers have done that successfully. It takes a REALLY crap CEO to put billions into research and come out with Vista and IE8.
Had that money been given to Steve Jobs, we would have a REALLY slick computer (but with half the keys missing) and had we given it to the banks, they would have given themselves really big bonusses... Sony would have spent it on yet another piece of tech that they can't sell. Nintendo would have released a color Virtual Boy.
I think as a CEO Ballmer has actually been cursed, when you are on the bottom, the only way is up, but when you are at the top, it takes real skill to go even higher. And he doesn't have it, he was probably good in the earlier days of MS, but not the man to take the company further.
Google had a great reputation with its "Do no evil" motto. And then they went into China and they lost it.
What is worth more to google. A great reputation in the west and no business in China, or a sullied reputation in the west and lousy business in China that may be cut off any day when the government chances its mind? You seem to assume like many others that doing business in China is easy, just follow the rules and you make a profit. But that is not the case. You IP is an open target, the government can change the rules whenever it wants and the local competition is heavily entwined with the state.
That makes for a difficult operating environment. It is indeed a brave move by Google to go against the Wall Street mentality of "a penny today" but long term it might be the wisest move they ever make. At least they are sending a signal that there are limits. It seems that at the end of the crisis, something might be changing. Even the US seems to be considering to tax banks... unthinkable in the past. New firms are starting up that claim they will things different and now google being the first to question the Wall Street wisdom that doing business in China is worth everything.
And as for enormous. China only passed Germany this year in exports. The market really ain't all that large. Large parts of it are dirt poor and the rest works for pennies. India is equal in population size and a lot more open. You don't see everyone bending over backwards for India do you? Wall Street loves China, no meddling human rights to upset things, simple rules. But Wall Street has shown it doesn't know shit.
I am frankly surprised at reading this story. Either we soon will get an update that this guy was fired or Google is very serious about this. Because somewhere in China, someone just fainted. The Chinese government does NOT want google to just disappear because of its actions, the average Chinese person doesn't really believe that censorship affects him/her personally. It is just for troublemakers. When google goes (and with that youtube etc etc) it will be noticed far more clearly then some dissident being locked up.
Who knew, Google might actually life up to its motto "Do no evil". Wonder what other companies will do... If Google follows-up on this, MS apologists lost a major piece of ammunition.
The headline and summary has to attract eyeballs, more eyeballs, more posts, more activity more ads being viewed, more income.
I believe Miranda Hart's christmas special had a parody on a BBC prog, "Can twitter kill you". Reporter going around with ever more suggestive overvoice "do you know that right now your child is dying from twitter in this school", Worried Mom: "This isn't my child's school".
Simply stating that you can now store 250mb on your google account in a single file (wonder what the total limit will be) is amazing. Some HD maker must have had a very nice christmas.
I would agree but that would mean acknowledging that DS9 ever happened, it never did so I can't. "Soap Trek: As the spacestation turns" does not exist in this timeline.
The eurogamer preview makes it clear, this MMO is for people that thought Enterprise was a great series, finally space boobies and big battles instead of all the soul searching and boring talking...
If you want your Star Trek to be "The city on the edge of forever" (If I have to explain, I must kill you) or "The measure of a man", then just forget it. There are no moral questions in this game. No Sci-fi to question the nature of humankind.
Even adventure trek like "Starship mine" (Picard does "Die hard") which would translate well to a "Deus Ex/Thief/System shock" style gameplay is beyond this game.
"Yesterday's Enterprise" or even "The inner light", story telling you can forget as well.
So what is left? Simplistic combat and being overrun by thousands of Wesley's. This has about as much to do with Star Trek as "Star Trek: Elite Force". And at least that was based on an element of Voyager (google "worsed voyager episode" common answer? Every single one of them.)
If you think the best of Trek was when Janeway tried to do Ripley (badly) then this might be the game for you.
For non trek fans, you will like this if you liked Champions Online in which case I am suprised you managed to read this far without shortcircuiting your keyboard with your drool.
For trekkies, it is an amusing romp and a bit of fun to hear and see all those sounds again, but it is like having sex with a hooker, the sex ain't worth the eternal regret and feelings of self-loathing.
If you do give it a try, make sure you have the best of trek on a playlist ready to sooth your ravaged mind. Just so that you won't think Trek is "blow everything up". I recommend "The measure of a man", not a blaster fired, no ships blowing up, just Star Trek as it was meant to be.
I disagree with SMS being easier to multi-task, but then I can't blind type, but I could talk to someone while typing this post.
But the second point is interesting and never occurred to me. "I am not going to do it" over the phone almost invites an argument, with SMS it has been a statement of fact.
SOE sold a lot of copies of Everquest, it didn't need to improve the game, it was succesful.
And then Blizzard changed the game and redefined what success meant for a MMO.
Rougly the same thing the happened to Apple earlier by the way. Apple did fine with its first Mac's. And then WinTel (compaq) showed what success really meant as they broke all sales records everyone had made before.
Slashdot Mirror
Amazing, bread and circuses, it still works after 2000+ years.
It may become time to end the secret ballot. Else we keep getting people like this elected because people vote for their wallets thinking everyone else will save their freedom.
Democracy is the worsed system except for all the others is a common bit of dogma, I think it has made us lazy. Keep us from trying to find something better. Because democracy sure as hell doesn't seem to be working anymore.
Governments are rarely evil, in real life they are misguided trying to do what they think is the right thing but going about it wrong.
Terry Pratchett's "May you life in intresting times" touches on it briefly. A rebellion is forming in the counterweight continent (china) seeking to overthrow the government and liberate the peasants... and who will then lead those peasants? The leaders of the rebellion, who will for the greater good of the peasants tell the peasants how to lead their life, how to farm, despite those peasants have hundreds of years more experience with farming.
Leaders have a plan for the future, they see it not working, human nature then tries to find something that is wrong without looking at the plan itself. China needs it people to work hard, without demanding more then can be given, and do so effeciently and properly within the limits of society and available resources. This is all perfectly sensible and reasonable. Take the one-child policy. Westerners often critize it, but what else are China leaders supposed to do? Have the population explode? Invade other countries to be able to feed its out of control population? Allow mass starvation? The one-child police, with all its problems is the only workable solution. But it only works if everyone follows it, to many exceptions and things break down and you MUST control it. What happens if you do NOT control your people is clear, look at the US where the average citizen consumes 9 times the average amount of a world citizen. People starve because americans binge eat (europeans do the same but slightly less). The US has the resources to have this happen, China does not.
And when you got a plan and are convinced the plan is right and the people don't follow your plan, you start looking for reasons. Any reason. Maybe they are being subverted by hostile agents (the examples are countless. Recently shown in Iran but of course the famous McCarthy witch hunts in the US are very much the same. Later anti-vietnam protests could only have been organized by communist agents, free will of the people? Only when they do what you want them to do, the Chinese ain't unique at all).
Sex, sex is just one of those things where people are very disruptive, almost no idea about sexual activity held by the ruling elite is correct. 30+% of children are not of the father that thinks he is the father. The fast majority of teenage girls got an STD... these are not the figures you want when you are plotting the future of your country.
Sex, drugs and Rock&Roll are the enemy of the planners all over the world. Every leader who has had a vision for the future has sought to control them. And in a way, you got to. Take again, the one-child policy. Would be a far greater problem with rampant teenage pregnancy. Women who have children by multiple fathers are a problem in a one-child culture. Would you marry a woman who already has a kid if she is not allowed to have yours?
This is why a clamp down on sex and drugs and music is always a part of a government that has a plan for its population. Check history (and don't forget to check your own) and you will this is true.
And history has also shown that there is precious little opposition to it.
Else, why did the US not rebel after nipple-gate? You are probably an American, protesting about censorship in a country where the word "fuck" is not just bleeped out, but a mosaic put over the mouth of the person who said it. Why does the US government fear porn?
It has nothing to do with decency of puritanism, it has to do with the idea that it is corrupting/influencing the population away from the destiny you have planned for them.
China is undergoing great changes, and the government seeks and needs control to keep it all together. Don't forget that China KNOWS its own history. Almost conquered by the Japanese a tiny primitive nation that was so insignificant that it never developed its own language. 2000+ years it was nothing and then it almost steam rolled over them. The
But of course, you are right, and they are wrong. Funny that, they also think EXACTLY the same thing.
It could happen to any browser to have the same security flaw in 3 different versions DESPITE claimed complete rewrites of the code.
MS apologists, you got to admire their dedication. The Iraqi minister of information used windows as well.
Making a country secure is easy.
Everyone mandatory implanted ID that can't be removed or altered without dying, say a chip implanted in the brain that extends barbs.
Tracking posts everywhere. All travel recorded and logged.
1 computer system, can only be activated with ID. No 3rd party software let alone your own stuff, every access is recorded and logged for 10 years minimum.
Should I go on? It is easy to implement and will eliminate all security problems. Feel free to take these ideas for when you run for election.
Security is easy, freedom and security ain't. To be honest, I prefer my government to be a bit slow and inefficient. The alternative is far more scarier.
People are so upset about that illegal immigrant who got shot on the tube when he tried to run. I would be far more worried if that guy had NEVER been able to make it into the country or if they had shot the right guy with a sniper efficiently. The whole mess shows there is still freedom. Freedom to get shot for sure, but also the freedom for journalists to still find leaks.
So you are the one that has sales demanding we support old browsers.
Right men, we got its location, capture is imminent.
Anyone want to set up a poll what do with him?
It better have a cowboyNeal option.
Everyone knows girls need longer.
Ooh. Go to Scotland and say it is your favorite part of england. Hope you can run fast. Then do it in the wrong parts of northern Ireland.
Many Indians (the sub continent, not the race the USA practically wiped out) fought WITH the nazi's to dismantle the British empire. The palestines worked together with the nazi's as well, again to get the British out (and this is one of the reasons britain has had such a dubious role in the entire conflict, basically both Israelis and Palestinians fought them).
Now the british empire or commonwealth is not all overrun by hate, but neither is the US "empire". Why do you think the US does so well with its movies? Because people around the world love them. If the US was truly so hated, McDonalds etc would not be able to sell their products world-wide.
And of course, your logic fails to account for terrorist attacks in other parts of the world. Why all the attacks in Iraq against muslims? Why does Morocco have a fence? Why is India attacked by terrorists from Pakistan?
No, you got pet peeve with the US, fine but it is clouding your vision. The enemy of my enemy is not your friend.
So you say that leading a guild is worth nothing, but being captain of a football team is... because everyone in IT is apparently a jock and responds the same as a football team?
Both of these activities are NOT the same as leading a business team, because the first two are VOLUNTEER teams.
I see three different forms of leadership experience can have.
The volunteer team, this is most often experienced in peoples youths and includes in my opinion school project experience and game/sport leadership. You lead people who more or less agree to be lead but can walk out at any moment. On the other hand, you can also get rid of people more easily.
The army team, in the army if you lead a team, then you are in charge, no question about it. It is very different (I was the rank of sergeant when drafted ages ago) to the first, you don't get to pick the members of your team, not the person giving you orders. More or less, everyone accepts the situation as it is and simply does as ordered and as such, the leading process is very simple. You really don't have to worry about the ego of your corporal and a private... are they even sentient? Who cares?
In business, what you would call the real world, because apparently the other two experiences ain't real in your eyes (which says a lot about you) leadership is a mix of the two. Your boss is your boss but you can always switch jobs and discipline is far less rigid. As a leader, you got to think of the feelings of the people you are trying to lead or you will soon find them seeking to be in a different group, they are not as free as volunteers but they haven't sworn an oath to you.
Experience in either the army method or the volunteer method can prepare you for the complexities of leading people who have different motivations and loyalties, but it is not the same.
So I think game leadership experience CAN be succesful. You say most WoW players have no sense of responsibility. Could be true (although this might more accurately reflect the people you played with and therefore reflect on you). But even if you take your opinion as fact, then how is leading a raid of selfish teenagers different from managing the same teenagers in the real world? Or do you think good leaders only get to lead highly motivated followers?
In some ways, I would be more impressed with someone who manages to lead massive PUG raids succesfully, then an officer who leads an army. What is harder? Herding cats or marching an army band? In IT, where you got to deal with people who have taken individualism to a new level, experience with leading the socially inept is an advantage. You say your WoW guild has no responsibilty but at the same time label those that do as elitist. Hard man to please ain't you?
In the real world, the hardest thing about leadership is NOT leading but getting people to follow in the first place. Anyone can shout orders, but getting people willing to listen to those orders is the real trick.
Getting 23 complete strangers, who don't know each other, don't speak the same language, got their own goals to function together for even a few hours, now that requires people skills. And the lack of direct interaction makes it only HARDER, not easier. People feel free to be real assholes online, something they would never dare to be face to face.
You seem to think good leadership comes from leading people who are easy to lead. I think a good leader is shaped by being able to manage people who are downright hostile to your leadership. The more opposition you face and still manage to make a success, the better you are.
In a MMORPG the rules are clear and you know what you can and cannot do. Follow the strategy and everything will come together, there are few surprises and the AI has no emotion, no ego. No raid boss will deny you victory because you stepped on its toes.
In the real world, that is not the case, you might have followed the right guide to grind your career to the next level and still never ping because the AI has decided that they shall promote the girl because she is prettier or the guy because he is not a girl. Or the minority because there ain't enough of them or the majority because everyone knows minorities can't cut it.
What I have noted is that younger people are very good at being assertive but not very good at being meek. They know how to succeed but not how to fail. And yet, when they finish school where many seem to believe they employ the teachers they are suddenly put in an environment where they are not the top, worse, the top positions are already taken and you will have to compete for them with people who got more experience.
If I would be hiring a new person fresh from school, then I would not be impressed with your raid leading capabilty. Now if you put on your CV that you are a good raid follower, that would matter a whole lot more. Anyone can shout orders, following them is a lot harder. Who needs the other more? Generals vs Soldiers? A simple head count will give you the answer. A new employer will not need another manager, another boss especially one who has not yet proven himself, but they will need people who can do the stuff that is required. And doing that stuff is often boring and unrewarding with you requiring years of grinding away at menial tasks to get anywhere, and there is no progress bar to follow.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate that gaming experience can enhance abilities in the real world. If you can organize your guilds supply chain (who crafts what) then you might be a good organizer in the real world. But say that you are REALLY good in arranging that harvested materials make their way to the crafters, does that make you a good procurer in the real world? No...
Why? Because the game world is consistent, eternally the same. If you want more light hides, you just go out an get them and you can just grind them in a respawn rich area. There are no government quatas, no competition, no disease or enviromental factors. It is, simple. The real world is everything but simple. Some of you might mentions Star Wars Galaxies resource system which changed quality. True, but you could freely travel and harvest all over the universe. As shown by a recent story, in the real world a rare mineral simply might no longer become available in the real world (China restricting exports or rare earth minerals).
Gaming experience is no more the playing experience. Sure, if you played with blocks as a small child, you MIGHT one day become an architect BUT if you are going for your first job interview as an architect I wouldn't list "block building" on my CV. You might mention it during your background story, "why do you want to be an architect" "Well I always liked the idea of building something, even as a small child when I made bridges with blocks". But it is PLAYING experience, not real world.
Being a raid leader does NOT make you a leader, it just gives you some play experience at doing it. If you use it at just a light intro to the real thing, then you will do fine. But if you think it prepares you for the real thing or even is the same as the real thing, then you will fail horribly.
I don't think you buy B&O for quality but for the looks, they got very nice designs. Frankly, I am not really all that upset about all this, but then I have been used to PC's doing the same for ever.
Personally I always smiled when people wanted Compaq over Dell because it was a better brandname... guess it is, if you want a cheap IBM clone, go to the one who created the first.
Apple is really just an intel PC but with a "nice" design on it. I say "nice because my arm is resting on the edge of a macbook and OUCH. Sharp plastic edge, who thought that was a good idea?
Open up your brandname computer, and see what is inside that makes your X an X. Wanna bet it is almost entirely the casing, and even that is probably desinged by the same laptop company as its competitor.
It ain't much different in the food sector, the cheap no-name brand comes from the same production line.
About half a year ago I was shopping with a friend, who insisted on buying the "brandname" sugar because it was better... It is SUGAR even if it came from different factories, which it doesn't, the LAW dictates EXACTLY what sugar must be. There is no room for quality difference. If there was any, the quality control from the government would be all over them. The only difference is that for the cheap stuff, they use whatever granular size they got in surplus, but for thee and coffee that hardly matters. For some tasks, grain size matters, so what they do is they produce a certain granular size, fill the order they got and then anything left over is put in the cheap consumer bags. If you are making certain cookies (arnhemse meisjes) you need a large grain. Of course if you need that, just shake the cheap bag to see if you got lucky.
Rebadging the same crap to charge more is nothing unusual. I am just amazed they had the balls to do it so blatantly, come on, they could at least have insisted on having a new batch of components made in a different color, and put them in indivudual boxes to hide the layout.
In holland we got "Bakellende", a prime minister who is best described as George W. Bush without the razor sharp intellect and Blair without the integrity. The guy is called the teflon president because everything just slides off him, thanks to the coalition nature of the dutch system.
The left (well supposedly) PvDA is so horny for government they constantly bend over backwards rather then just saying "enough is enough" and forcing new elections. The Christian Union is a tiny part that has no business being in a government but was allowed in because it gives the CDA a partner that will bend over even more because without this arrangement there is no way in hell they would ever have a say on anything.
And to fight it all, the bright new hope? We got the SP (Socialist Party) who was ONCE led by the only guy you could trust even if you didn't agree with him and is now being led by a woman who doesn't want to offend anyone and is about as much a socialist as Blair (being left wing does NOT mean you have to be a bleeding heart but it does mean you have to LISTEN to the voter, the worker, not just your elitist friends, armchair socialists).
And on the right, there is Wilders, that some of you might have heard off. His bright idea for the future? To back the CDA even if the CDA doesn't want to work with him... oh yeah, 4 more years of Bakellende. Seems the guy learned nothing from the party that preceded him, LPF, who lost all votes after working with CDA. Everyone who ever worked with the CDA lost votes.
And you wish to complain to me about the US system? At least you guys got a chance. Things are so bad in the US, it can only get better. In holland the CDA has succeeded for years to slide ever downwards but push the blame on everyone else.
Sometimes I think WWIII wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. Get a fresh start.
Lets assume I have sex with a different woman each day, then that means I am so good, I can charge for it. Say, a thousand euro per bonk. That makes 5000 euro per evening. But because I instead posted on slashdot to comment on your post, I missed tonights income. You owe me 5000 euro.
Check is acceptable. Thank you.\
Anyone bothered to read the article when the second sentence of the summary starts the argument with "lets assume". Lets assume the moon is made of gold, why is NASA then not rich?
Well, we got legalized pot in Holland and all the same problems. Well, not all the same (unemployment rate is 3.9% and we ain't as fat yet) but close.
I think Douglas Adams said it best. People are a problem.
And when exactly has google EVER been the default search engine on IE? When google started, IE didn't have a setting to change default search engine and yet word of mouth got millions of IE users to set their homepage away from MSN to Google.
Google blocking IE would probably hurt them (although if it worked out, the profit would be enormous) but not for the reason you give.
I think you need to read up on history.
You claim he did fine because he delayed in the inevitable. A good CEO would have avoided the inevitable. It is like saying the captain of the Titanic was good because he got so far before sinking. Sorry, a good captain would have avoided the icebergs altogether.
MS has in many ways been playing catchup and using delay tactics. Fine, but that is something a crap ceo does because he can't do any better. A good CEO would have made everyone WANT to use IE and make it the best browser around. It isn't hard. ALL other browser makers have done that successfully. It takes a REALLY crap CEO to put billions into research and come out with Vista and IE8.
Had that money been given to Steve Jobs, we would have a REALLY slick computer (but with half the keys missing) and had we given it to the banks, they would have given themselves really big bonusses... Sony would have spent it on yet another piece of tech that they can't sell. Nintendo would have released a color Virtual Boy.
I think as a CEO Ballmer has actually been cursed, when you are on the bottom, the only way is up, but when you are at the top, it takes real skill to go even higher. And he doesn't have it, he was probably good in the earlier days of MS, but not the man to take the company further.
This wouldn't be a problem for Russian TV. They can guarantee filming starts on time.
Google had a great reputation with its "Do no evil" motto. And then they went into China and they lost it.
What is worth more to google. A great reputation in the west and no business in China, or a sullied reputation in the west and lousy business in China that may be cut off any day when the government chances its mind? You seem to assume like many others that doing business in China is easy, just follow the rules and you make a profit. But that is not the case. You IP is an open target, the government can change the rules whenever it wants and the local competition is heavily entwined with the state.
That makes for a difficult operating environment. It is indeed a brave move by Google to go against the Wall Street mentality of "a penny today" but long term it might be the wisest move they ever make. At least they are sending a signal that there are limits. It seems that at the end of the crisis, something might be changing. Even the US seems to be considering to tax banks... unthinkable in the past. New firms are starting up that claim they will things different and now google being the first to question the Wall Street wisdom that doing business in China is worth everything.
And as for enormous. China only passed Germany this year in exports. The market really ain't all that large. Large parts of it are dirt poor and the rest works for pennies. India is equal in population size and a lot more open. You don't see everyone bending over backwards for India do you? Wall Street loves China, no meddling human rights to upset things, simple rules. But Wall Street has shown it doesn't know shit.
I am frankly surprised at reading this story. Either we soon will get an update that this guy was fired or Google is very serious about this. Because somewhere in China, someone just fainted. The Chinese government does NOT want google to just disappear because of its actions, the average Chinese person doesn't really believe that censorship affects him/her personally. It is just for troublemakers. When google goes (and with that youtube etc etc) it will be noticed far more clearly then some dissident being locked up.
Who knew, Google might actually life up to its motto "Do no evil". Wonder what other companies will do... If Google follows-up on this, MS apologists lost a major piece of ammunition.
The headline and summary has to attract eyeballs, more eyeballs, more posts, more activity more ads being viewed, more income.
I believe Miranda Hart's christmas special had a parody on a BBC prog, "Can twitter kill you". Reporter going around with ever more suggestive overvoice "do you know that right now your child is dying from twitter in this school", Worried Mom: "This isn't my child's school".
Simply stating that you can now store 250mb on your google account in a single file (wonder what the total limit will be) is amazing. Some HD maker must have had a very nice christmas.
The hardcore Trekkies (those that liked TOS and TNG, disliked DS9, hated Voyager and deny Enterprise) will be back in 1 month.
1 day to play the game.
30 days to rant about how it raped the license.
I am in beta, I played the 1 day. See you in 30 days when I am done ranting.
I would agree but that would mean acknowledging that DS9 ever happened, it never did so I can't. "Soap Trek: As the spacestation turns" does not exist in this timeline.
Picard: I want suggestions.
Worf: Lets kill everyone and everything!
Picard: Capital idea, make it so.
The eurogamer preview makes it clear, this MMO is for people that thought Enterprise was a great series, finally space boobies and big battles instead of all the soul searching and boring talking...
If you want your Star Trek to be "The city on the edge of forever" (If I have to explain, I must kill you) or "The measure of a man", then just forget it. There are no moral questions in this game. No Sci-fi to question the nature of humankind.
Even adventure trek like "Starship mine" (Picard does "Die hard") which would translate well to a "Deus Ex/Thief/System shock" style gameplay is beyond this game.
"Yesterday's Enterprise" or even "The inner light", story telling you can forget as well.
So what is left? Simplistic combat and being overrun by thousands of Wesley's. This has about as much to do with Star Trek as "Star Trek: Elite Force". And at least that was based on an element of Voyager (google "worsed voyager episode" common answer? Every single one of them.)
If you think the best of Trek was when Janeway tried to do Ripley (badly) then this might be the game for you.
For non trek fans, you will like this if you liked Champions Online in which case I am suprised you managed to read this far without shortcircuiting your keyboard with your drool.
For trekkies, it is an amusing romp and a bit of fun to hear and see all those sounds again, but it is like having sex with a hooker, the sex ain't worth the eternal regret and feelings of self-loathing.
If you do give it a try, make sure you have the best of trek on a playlist ready to sooth your ravaged mind. Just so that you won't think Trek is "blow everything up". I recommend "The measure of a man", not a blaster fired, no ships blowing up, just Star Trek as it was meant to be.
I disagree with SMS being easier to multi-task, but then I can't blind type, but I could talk to someone while typing this post.
But the second point is interesting and never occurred to me. "I am not going to do it" over the phone almost invites an argument, with SMS it has been a statement of fact.
I can think of two reasons why it would be more succesful, and at least it is an existing comic-book character.
Apple sells a lot, but could it sell more?
SOE sold a lot of copies of Everquest, it didn't need to improve the game, it was succesful.
And then Blizzard changed the game and redefined what success meant for a MMO.
Rougly the same thing the happened to Apple earlier by the way. Apple did fine with its first Mac's. And then WinTel (compaq) showed what success really meant as they broke all sales records everyone had made before.
Success is relative.