If (Net Calories) > 0, Weight++ If (Net Calories) 0, Weight--
McDonald's could negatively contribute to the (Calories In) part of the equation. Video games could negatively contribute to the (Calories Burned) part of the equation, if video games edge out enough physical activity.
You may want to rethink your opinion of PC Gamer. Check out the review for Hellgate: London. PC Gamer gave it an 89, the average on metacritic is 70 now.
Just read the tone of the articles. It makes the PC Gamer review sound like a puff piece.
I for one got a dead Wii. I got to play about an hour before the power just flat out went off and would not come back on. Called Nintendo tech support, he had me try a couple of things like unplugging the power adapter for 2 minutes, reseating the connectors, try with just the power adapter, nothing else attached. After 10 minutes or so, he concluded it was dead. Since my copy of Zelda is stuck in the Wii, I have to send it in for repair. Estimated time: 2 weeks. At least I only waited in line about an hour.
As for other links, check the gamefaqs message boards, the nintendo message boards.. I'm sure there are plenty others. I don't think it is wide-spread, but it is out there.
It is true SIS only saves spaces inside a single storage group, but the rules for what replicates a new copy is a bit more complex. Taking a message with an attachment and forwarding it on to more users in the same storage group does not create another copy of the attachment in the store. If you saved the attachment to your local drive and then reattached it to a new email, it would create a new copy of the attachment in the database.
For the non-Exchange tech speakers, SIS stands for Single Instance Storage and applies to messages and attachments in Exchange. Exchange tries to be smart about storing messages and attachments by storing only a single copy of an email no matter how many people it is sent to. All the messages or attachments are really just references back to the original message/attachment. As stated above, it breaks down across storage groups, but does save quite a bit of space in each storage group.
The main solution the backup industry seems to be header towards is automatic email archiving. I know for sure Veritas (I mean Symantec), CommVault, Legato and ARCserve all offer email archive solutions for Exchange. They all tend to work in the same way, by removing the real email message from the database and putting in a stub. The real email is then stored in the backup system (either in a another database server, in a backup file, or on tape). Whenever the user goes to access one of these really only emails, the system sees the stub, notifies the user it may take a minute, and retrieves the real one and hands it back to the user.
So I recommend contacting who ever you happen to use for your backup software and see what solutions they can give you. I've seen some reports that say they are able to shrink their data stores by 50% or more.
The only word of caution I can give for these solutions is it does modify your datastore at a very low level. If you ever lose your exchange archive, you're pretty much toast. The data store no longer has the complete message. Just something to keep in mind.
Exchange uses SIS in that situation, so only 1 copy of the 1.3 MB file is in the database, no matter how many users you sent it to or how many replied or how many forwarded the attachment on.
Bring a notebook, have your questions written in advanced. Take notes during the whole interview.
If they did not give you a tour of the office, ask if you can have a tour. If not a tour, ask if you can at least see the area you'd work in. This'll give you a good idea of the office/cube size, how up-to-date the equipment is, and maybe even get you introduced to a few of the members on your future team.
Ask about the benefits if they were not adequately explained. Ask how much the benefits are per pay period. Ask how often they change. One of the more interesting things at my current job is how often we change benefits. I'm not just talking how often benefit costs go up, but totally changing providers. A good question in discussing the pay is asking how many starting vacation days you'd have. Vacation time can be a good bargining tactic if the pay is not what you want and they are not willing to budge on starting pay. Never go into an interview without a base idea of what you want to make in terms of either hourly or yearly pay. Be sure to adjust this based on the cost of their benefits.
Ask if this is a new hire or a replacement position. This can lead you to interesting information too, if it's a replacement. It can also touch a nerve if it is a replacement.
If you care about the ability to work from home, ask if that is available and how usable it is, in terms of being able to work 1-2 days a week/month etc.
If you are a member of Toast Masters, ask if they have a Toast Masters chapter for the company. You'll earn brownie points for sure if they do and you are a member. Don't ask if you aren't a member though.
Do research about the company before hand and ask questions about the company. This'll show interest in the company and diligence on your part. Make sure they are not brain-dead easy questions though, they'll just make you look stupid.
If you like to work on open source / free software, ask if there is anything that will prevent you from continuing to do so.
But that's not true. According to a May 2004 article in SciAm (sorry, only available for purchase, check it out at your local library instead) says the total green house gases produced by coal plants used to generate the electricity needed to generate the hydrogen produces more green house gases than used by current gasoline engines.
They even include the supply chain side of transporting and storing hydrogen vs gasoline. They found that a fuel cell driven by gasoline actually produces less emissions than a fuel cell driven by coal.
The problem is the loss of effiency. To convert water to hydrogen via electrolysis from coal, the loss from coal to tank is 78%. After the hydrogen is used in a fuel cell, it loses an additional 43%, for a total loss of 92%.
Compared to gasoline.. pumping a gallon of oil, transporting to a refinery, turning it to gas, and transporting the gas to a filling station takes away 21% of the energy potential of the oil. For a conventional IC engine, 85% of the energy in the gas tank is lost. That brings it to a total of only 88%.
The question is why do they? I love Microsoft. Absolutely adore it and what's more, I hate Linux. I think it's the most over rated piece of software ever built and survives simply out of spite and not because it is terribly good at doing something because it is not!
Anyone else find it funny cooltechzone is run on apache and linux?
Platforming in a FPS is probably one of the dumbest additions to shooters. Honestly, jumping puzzles in a game where I can't see my own feet? WTF? Who thought that was a good idea?
I like that article from SciAm about new stickers for books. Some of my favorites:
Sticker in Introduction to Cosmology: "Astronomers estimate the age of the universe to be approximately 13 billion years. If evolution ticks you off because you believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old, cosmology should really make smoke come out of your ears. There's a fire extinguisher next to the telescope."
Sticker in Earth Science: "You are free to exercise your First Amendment rights in this class and to identify all stratigraphic layers as being 6,000 years old. We are free to flunk you."
Sticker in Our Solar System: "Remember they said in chemistry class that electrons fly around the nucleus like planets orbit the sun? Some people think the sun and other planets go around the earth. You'll have a much easier time with the math if you just let everybody go around the sun, trust me."
Sticker in Creationism for Dummies: "Religious belief rests on a foundation of faith. Seeking empirical evidence for support of one's faith-based beliefs therefore could be considered pointless. Or even blasphemous."
Additonally: Ninety-two percent of parents surveyed who have children under the age of 18 said they monitor the content of the computer and video games their children play.
You're talking about annoying 92% of parents who already monitor the content of games for their children to cover the responsibility of the 8% who don't. And quite frankly, game-selling-retail-person is not going to make much of a difference to the 8% of parents who don't monitor what 'little johnny' is playing.
1: Good taste is very subjective. Pushing the limit usually results in new and exciting games. No one forces people to buy and play these games. People buy and play these games because they are fun and entertaining.
2: Your tolerance for annoyance must be much higher than mine. I don't think it would be so bad to do this in reality. As long as the fines and fees are more inline with selling cigs or beer to minors.
3: The average game player is 30 years old and has been playing games for 9.5 years. The average game buyer is 37 years old. In 2005, 95 percent of computer game buyers and 84 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18. In 2004, 19 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999. Forty-three percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (28 percent) than boys from ages 6 to 17 (21 percent). (all statistics from http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php) What's your cutoff age? I don't think you can clearly define a store policy to inform parents who are purchasing games for children because it's simply too hard to tell in all cases. Maybe the parents could, you know, take the initiative to ask the store clerk? Why shift the responsibility?
4: Parents should be able to trust their kids, but they are kids and should understand the lengths kids will go to to get the things they want. Obviously, every family will be different, but it will not kill the parent to spend an extra 5 minutes to quickly research a game before purchase , if the kid says its appropriate for them.
Game developers should be free to make whatever game they want. Regulating creation of games is stupid and probably unconstitutional.
Re: Manhunt. Yeah, Rockstar needed to make a game who's basis is to sneak up and kill people. People bought it, played, and enjoyed it. It was a game, people had fun.
Fines: sure, fine people for selling video games to people underage for the rating. Just be sure to do the same damn thing with movies, cds, books and magazines. I can't wait to get carded every time I buy a new game.
Stores getting involved. I hate when store employees try to either convince me to buy more stuff or try to convince me to buy different stuff than what I have. If I didn't want the game, I wouldn't have picked it. If it's store policy to question every purchase of an M game, I'll stop doing business there. I'm a perfectly sane adult who can deal with violence and sex in my entertainment. I do not need some do-gooder store clerk try to convince me not to buy a M game or even question my decision about a purchase.
The Kids themselves: WTF would a parent just take their kids words for granted when they say a M rated game is ok for people not over 17? Kids constantly lie to their parents, either bald-face lies, lies of ommission, or exaggerating. Parents have to be skeptics when it comes to the things their kids tell them, its part of being a parent.
I'll raise my hand and say yes, I've convinced my parents to buy what would have been an M game long before I was 17. But you know what? I was mature enough to handle the games and my parents knew it. That's the way the system is supposed to work. Same way the movie ratings work. Parents are supposed to be allowed to bring their child to an R movie if they deem it OK.
People do make it easier, ESRB ratings work just perfectly fine. Otherwise, a quick internet search on a game title to find reviews and screenshots would quickly tell you the content of any game out there.
Please don't try to dumb down gaming and make games 'kid safe' and ruin my entertainment choices. I'm an adult, I can handle it. And quite frankly, the target market of many video games is not children anymore, its adults.
Try reading the ratings. They have "content descriptors" that give a better idea of why a game gets the rating it gets. These usually appear on the back next to the big M and have things such as:
Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity
Strong Lyrics - Explicit and/or frequent references to profanity, sex, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music
Mature Humor - Depictions or dialogue involving "adult" humor, including sexual references
Or the more mundane, less 'Mature' ratings like:
Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life
Informational - Overall content of product contains data, facts, resource information, reference materials or instructional text
So in your example, the first game would get an M: Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity, Strong Sexual Content - Graphic references to and/or depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
Whereas the second game would get an AO, mostly because of the whole "playing the role of Hitler" part.
I'm guessing it would get the Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death tag, making it M at a minimum.
Wal-Mart employees are supposed to card anyone who does not appear 17 trying to purchase M rated games as it stands today. The register even briefly flashes "CHECK ID" and you have to hit enter to go past it, if I remember correctly.
It's supposedly grounds for termination, although I never saw that happen in my 3 months working at Wal-Mart in the electronics department. The few kids I did card and said "no" to just got their parents to come buy the game for them.
Slashdot Mirror
(Calories In) - (Calories Burned) = (Net Calories)
If (Net Calories) > 0, Weight++
If (Net Calories) 0, Weight--
McDonald's could negatively contribute to the (Calories In) part of the equation.
Video games could negatively contribute to the (Calories Burned) part of the equation, if video games edge out enough physical activity.
You may want to rethink your opinion of PC Gamer. Check out the review for Hellgate: London. PC Gamer gave it an 89, the average on metacritic is 70 now.
Just read the tone of the articles. It makes the PC Gamer review sound like a puff piece.
In that case, 5 weeks is not enough time for a marketing team to decide on a new name.
DUI is not a menial conviction. If you don't believe me, try convincing the families with loved ones who have been murdered by intoxicated drivers.
I for one got a dead Wii. I got to play about an hour before the power just flat out went off and would not come back on. Called Nintendo tech support, he had me try a couple of things like unplugging the power adapter for 2 minutes, reseating the connectors, try with just the power adapter, nothing else attached. After 10 minutes or so, he concluded it was dead. Since my copy of Zelda is stuck in the Wii, I have to send it in for repair. Estimated time: 2 weeks. At least I only waited in line about an hour.
As for other links, check the gamefaqs message boards, the nintendo message boards.. I'm sure there are plenty others. I don't think it is wide-spread, but it is out there.
Slashdot, where flamebait goes to 11.
Here's how the NSA recommends redacting files:
5 .PDF
http://www.nsa.gov/snac/vtechrep/I333-TR-015R-200
Most politicial campaigns?
It is true SIS only saves spaces inside a single storage group, but the rules for what replicates a new copy is a bit more complex. Taking a message with an attachment and forwarding it on to more users in the same storage group does not create another copy of the attachment in the store. If you saved the attachment to your local drive and then reattached it to a new email, it would create a new copy of the attachment in the database.
For the non-Exchange tech speakers, SIS stands for Single Instance Storage and applies to messages and attachments in Exchange. Exchange tries to be smart about storing messages and attachments by storing only a single copy of an email no matter how many people it is sent to. All the messages or attachments are really just references back to the original message/attachment. As stated above, it breaks down across storage groups, but does save quite a bit of space in each storage group.
The main solution the backup industry seems to be header towards is automatic email archiving. I know for sure Veritas (I mean Symantec), CommVault, Legato and ARCserve all offer email archive solutions for Exchange. They all tend to work in the same way, by removing the real email message from the database and putting in a stub. The real email is then stored in the backup system (either in a another database server, in a backup file, or on tape). Whenever the user goes to access one of these really only emails, the system sees the stub, notifies the user it may take a minute, and retrieves the real one and hands it back to the user.
So I recommend contacting who ever you happen to use for your backup software and see what solutions they can give you. I've seen some reports that say they are able to shrink their data stores by 50% or more.
The only word of caution I can give for these solutions is it does modify your datastore at a very low level. If you ever lose your exchange archive, you're pretty much toast. The data store no longer has the complete message. Just something to keep in mind.
Exchange uses SIS in that situation, so only 1 copy of the 1.3 MB file is in the database, no matter how many users you sent it to or how many replied or how many forwarded the attachment on.
Bring a notebook, have your questions written in advanced. Take notes during the whole interview.
If they did not give you a tour of the office, ask if you can have a tour. If not a tour, ask if you can at least see the area you'd work in. This'll give you a good idea of the office/cube size, how up-to-date the equipment is, and maybe even get you introduced to a few of the members on your future team.
Ask about the benefits if they were not adequately explained. Ask how much the benefits are per pay period. Ask how often they change. One of the more interesting things at my current job is how often we change benefits. I'm not just talking how often benefit costs go up, but totally changing providers. A good question in discussing the pay is asking how many starting vacation days you'd have. Vacation time can be a good bargining tactic if the pay is not what you want and they are not willing to budge on starting pay. Never go into an interview without a base idea of what you want to make in terms of either hourly or yearly pay. Be sure to adjust this based on the cost of their benefits.
Ask if this is a new hire or a replacement position. This can lead you to interesting information too, if it's a replacement. It can also touch a nerve if it is a replacement.
If you care about the ability to work from home, ask if that is available and how usable it is, in terms of being able to work 1-2 days a week/month etc.
If you are a member of Toast Masters, ask if they have a Toast Masters chapter for the company. You'll earn brownie points for sure if they do and you are a member. Don't ask if you aren't a member though.
Do research about the company before hand and ask questions about the company. This'll show interest in the company and diligence on your part. Make sure they are not brain-dead easy questions though, they'll just make you look stupid.
If you like to work on open source / free software, ask if there is anything that will prevent you from continuing to do so.
I cited mine, Scientific American, May 2004, "Do Fuel Cells Make Environmental Sense?" No web link available, feel free to check your local library.
But that's not true. According to a May 2004 article in SciAm (sorry, only available for purchase, check it out at your local library instead) says the total green house gases produced by coal plants used to generate the electricity needed to generate the hydrogen produces more green house gases than used by current gasoline engines.
They even include the supply chain side of transporting and storing hydrogen vs gasoline. They found that a fuel cell driven by gasoline actually produces less emissions than a fuel cell driven by coal.
The problem is the loss of effiency. To convert water to hydrogen via electrolysis from coal, the loss from coal to tank is 78%. After the hydrogen is used in a fuel cell, it loses an additional 43%, for a total loss of 92%.
Compared to gasoline.. pumping a gallon of oil, transporting to a refinery, turning it to gas, and transporting the gas to a filling station takes away 21% of the energy potential of the oil. For a conventional IC engine, 85% of the energy in the gas tank is lost. That brings it to a total of only 88%.
It was there under "Write in" if you filled in "Mickey Mouse".
Another good article about the CSI Effect. It talks about how jurors in cases expect the forensics in a case to be exactly like a CSI episode.
The question is why do they? I love Microsoft. Absolutely adore it and what's more, I hate Linux. I think it's the most over rated piece of software ever built and survives simply out of spite and not because it is terribly good at doing something because it is not!
/ /www.cooltechzone.com
Anyone else find it funny cooltechzone is run on apache and linux?
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:
Platforming in a FPS is probably one of the dumbest additions to shooters. Honestly, jumping puzzles in a game where I can't see my own feet? WTF? Who thought that was a good idea?
http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php
Actually, 55% of gamers are male, 43% are female (other 2% choose not to give gender).
I'd say the reason there are so many big breasted women in games is it attracts males and offends few women.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?colID=15&articleI D=00022DE1-0C15-11E6-B75283414B7F0000
I like that article from SciAm about new stickers for books. Some of my favorites:
Sticker in Introduction to Cosmology: "Astronomers estimate the age of the universe to be approximately 13 billion years. If evolution ticks you off because you believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old, cosmology should really make smoke come out of your ears. There's a fire extinguisher next to the telescope."
Sticker in Earth Science: "You are free to exercise your First Amendment rights in this class and to identify all stratigraphic layers as being 6,000 years old. We are free to flunk you."
Sticker in Our Solar System: "Remember they said in chemistry class that electrons fly around the nucleus like planets orbit the sun? Some people think the sun and other planets go around the earth. You'll have a much easier time with the math if you just let everybody go around the sun, trust me."
Sticker in Creationism for Dummies: "Religious belief rests on a foundation of faith. Seeking empirical evidence for support of one's faith-based beliefs therefore could be considered pointless. Or even blasphemous."
Additonally:
Ninety-two percent of parents surveyed who have children under the age of 18 said they monitor the content of the computer and video games their children play.
You're talking about annoying 92% of parents who already monitor the content of games for their children to cover the responsibility of the 8% who don't. And quite frankly, game-selling-retail-person is not going to make much of a difference to the 8% of parents who don't monitor what 'little johnny' is playing.
1: Good taste is very subjective. Pushing the limit usually results in new and exciting games. No one forces people to buy and play these games. People buy and play these games because they are fun and entertaining.
2: Your tolerance for annoyance must be much higher than mine. I don't think it would be so bad to do this in reality. As long as the fines and fees are more inline with selling cigs or beer to minors.
3: The average game player is 30 years old and has been playing games for 9.5 years. The average game buyer is 37 years old. In 2005, 95 percent of computer game buyers and 84 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18. In 2004, 19 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999. Forty-three percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (28 percent) than boys from ages 6 to 17 (21 percent). (all statistics from http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php) What's your cutoff age? I don't think you can clearly define a store policy to inform parents who are purchasing games for children because it's simply too hard to tell in all cases. Maybe the parents could, you know, take the initiative to ask the store clerk? Why shift the responsibility?
4: Parents should be able to trust their kids, but they are kids and should understand the lengths kids will go to to get the things they want. Obviously, every family will be different, but it will not kill the parent to spend an extra 5 minutes to quickly research a game before purchase , if the kid says its appropriate for them.
Game developers should be free to make whatever game they want. Regulating creation of games is stupid and probably unconstitutional.
Re: Manhunt. Yeah, Rockstar needed to make a game who's basis is to sneak up and kill people. People bought it, played, and enjoyed it. It was a game, people had fun.
Fines: sure, fine people for selling video games to people underage for the rating. Just be sure to do the same damn thing with movies, cds, books and magazines. I can't wait to get carded every time I buy a new game.
Stores getting involved. I hate when store employees try to either convince me to buy more stuff or try to convince me to buy different stuff than what I have. If I didn't want the game, I wouldn't have picked it. If it's store policy to question every purchase of an M game, I'll stop doing business there. I'm a perfectly sane adult who can deal with violence and sex in my entertainment. I do not need some do-gooder store clerk try to convince me not to buy a M game or even question my decision about a purchase.
The Kids themselves: WTF would a parent just take their kids words for granted when they say a M rated game is ok for people not over 17? Kids constantly lie to their parents, either bald-face lies, lies of ommission, or exaggerating. Parents have to be skeptics when it comes to the things their kids tell them, its part of being a parent.
I'll raise my hand and say yes, I've convinced my parents to buy what would have been an M game long before I was 17. But you know what? I was mature enough to handle the games and my parents knew it. That's the way the system is supposed to work. Same way the movie ratings work. Parents are supposed to be allowed to bring their child to an R movie if they deem it OK.
People do make it easier, ESRB ratings work just perfectly fine. Otherwise, a quick internet search on a game title to find reviews and screenshots would quickly tell you the content of any game out there.
Please don't try to dumb down gaming and make games 'kid safe' and ruin my entertainment choices. I'm an adult, I can handle it. And quite frankly, the target market of many video games is not children anymore, its adults.
http://www.esrb.org/esrbratings_guide.asp
Try reading the ratings. They have "content descriptors" that give a better idea of why a game gets the rating it gets. These usually appear on the back next to the big M and have things such as:
Blood and Gore - Depictions of blood or the mutilation of body parts
Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity
Strong Lyrics - Explicit and/or frequent references to profanity, sex, violence, alcohol, or drug use in music
Mature Humor - Depictions or dialogue involving "adult" humor, including sexual references
Or the more mundane, less 'Mature' ratings like:
Fantasy Violence - Violent actions of a fantasy nature, involving human or non-human characters in situations easily distinguishable from real life
Informational - Overall content of product contains data, facts, resource information, reference materials or instructional text
So in your example, the first game would get an M: Nudity - Graphic or prolonged depictions of nudity, Strong Sexual Content - Graphic references to and/or depictions of sexual behavior, possibly including nudity
Whereas the second game would get an AO, mostly because of the whole "playing the role of Hitler" part.
I'm guessing it would get the Intense Violence - Graphic and realistic-looking depictions of physical conflict. May involve extreme and/or realistic blood, gore, weapons, and depictions of human injury and death tag, making it M at a minimum.
Wal-Mart employees are supposed to card anyone who does not appear 17 trying to purchase M rated games as it stands today. The register even briefly flashes "CHECK ID" and you have to hit enter to go past it, if I remember correctly.
It's supposedly grounds for termination, although I never saw that happen in my 3 months working at Wal-Mart in the electronics department. The few kids I did card and said "no" to just got their parents to come buy the game for them.