Except for the fact there is a difference between simply losing and being told you suck repeatedly from people who have no life other than the game.
The problem is, unless you are part of the "community" and can devote a lot of time to a game, you aren't going to have fun because the majority of people online are assholes.
There is a line between simply being bad at a game and 14 year old kids cursing you out because you can't devote 8 hours a day to the game.
This is essential. In the MMO context, at least in WoW with their random dungeon finder thingy, the difference in these types of people is striking. Take these two examples where someone notices you're 'doing it wrong', they can:
A) Whisper you discretely with either a short tip or an offer to answer any questions you may have...
or
B) Declare to the world how greatly you suck, enjoy a laugh at your expense, and vote to kick you from the group...
FPS games seem dominated by the latter, but the former is very rare in any setting.
Things which don't hurt our capability to reproduce tend to just hang around until such time as they do hurt our chances to reproduce.
Note, though, that with humans being involved the nature of 'reproduce' takes on a slightly different meaning. We may not know how long we humans have had notions of 'love', etc, but these certainly play a role today, and clearly will do so going forward. An individual that was perfectly viable from a biological standpoint may or may not get the opportunity to reproduce if they are not viable from a social standpoint.
(I've always had the weirdest feeling of being able to taste cold air, when it gets down a little below freezing I experience a smoky sensation that doesn't seem to come from anywhere in particular)
That's the moisture in your airways 'steaming up' due to contact with the cold. Same thing that you'd see if you exhaled into that same air, but on the inside...
For years the industry was dominated by ugly, loud, flimsy hardware running buggy, crashy, maddening software. Apple has built a brand around being the alternative to that chaos. Protecting this brand often means locking their users inside a padded room.
Not only do I get it, dear Coward, but I'm predicting this becoming de facto for the Mac in the very near future as well.
You're making certain assumptions and are holding them firm because they suit your argumentative purposes. But this doesn't necessarily make them true.
Points A) Apple is a hardware company. B) App stores don't make money
Counterpoints I) Apple shifted purposes in the previous decade. Their move to Intel was a key indicator, but there are many others. Apple is not designing anything beyond aesthetics - China is doing all the rest. Look at the impact this had on the 'iPhone 4'. This wasn't always the case, but is today. II) Apple's App store concept is still in the honeymoon phase. They can and will ramp up their profit margins as their lock in increases. Every company on the face of the planet has done this, and to assume that Apple is somehow too cool to do so isn't exactly the pinnacle of intellectual honesty.
So, in that light...
In order to keep selling Macs, Apple has to make Macs exactly like iPhones, but bigger. A locked-in store provides this. It will make them tons of money.
This is a forward-looking argument, to be sure. But there is at least a little credence to it, if you're open minded enough to recognize the nuances. Didn't they announce something exactly like a 'locked down app store' for the Mac JUST the other day? And didn't His Jobsness specifically say that it 'was not the only way, but the best way'? All that's required to make my assessment 100% current is to drop that former portion of the statement. And seriously, how long does Jobs typically ALLOW the plebeians to use the not-best way?
People say this as though the App Store is some sort of cash cow for Apple. They run their digital stores at mostly break-even. They aren't trying to lock their users into their App Stores (especially since you used the plural. they are absolutely *not* going to lock Mac OS X into their Mac App Store the way iOS is locked into the current App Store).
Apple gets all of this. Apple is no longer just a "computer company" and is branching out and fixing all the other related edges of technology that has been hamstrung by companies like Microsoft and their limited thinking. Apple is not just Macs any more, and that is a big reason they are the new Microsoft, and #2 in Market Cap, possibly getting to #1 next year sometime.
Close, but no. In all seriousness, Apple does not 'get all of this' in the manner that you suggest. They're not looking for 'superior' so much as they are looking to lock users into their App stores. So to claim that Apple doesn't possess limited thinking is, in my view, patently false. They are just as single minded, but towards a different end. They don't care about the technology in the least (iphone that doesn't work well as a phone, anyone?), but they ARE indeed all about the platform and the vehicle to future sales that it represents.
What's most interesting about this to me is the technology changes themselves. From a few minutes' worth of research I see that Curtiss Wright failed to make the best jet engines. Even their own aircraft wound up getting refit with Westinghouse models. That's not good.
Microsoft could be thus, but there needs to be a jet engine to come along and displace their prop. I'm not seeing what that might be.
Bear in mind, also, that this isn't in any way uncommon. Look at the 1906 caliber change from high power/huge slugs to ultra-high power/tiny slugs. Made all the difference in the world concerning modern firepower, and even today the tiny slugs are the most commonly used type, a century later.
But that was a chemistry change more than anything, and took almost no one by surprise in that industry.
Again, I'm not seeing any great possibilities in the IT world. Not of this magnitude, anyway.
The new crop's memes are more along the lines of atheism and Fox-bashing. Gone are the 'in Soviet Russia's, 'I for one's, and 'insensitive clod's. Long live the 'get off my lawn'.
The bees that didn't knew how to somewhat "solve" that are the dead ones.
This is the part of evolutionary theory that just doesn't seem to mesh. I realize you used the word 'somewhat', but I disagree that it is impossible that mediocrity would cause an entire species to die off. The best processes certainly don't hurt, but there are bound to be millions upon millions of other factors deciding which species make it and which do not. Anyway, I only mean to say that there could be bees that are both better and worse at this, and the fact that they're not dead isn't information of much at all.
Those bees did not do an exhaustive search for the optimal path, only one that is 'good enough'.
How do you know this? I'm not seeing that stated in the article. In fact,
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London and Royal Holloway, University of London have discovered that bees learn to fly the shortest possible route between flowers even if they discover the flowers in a different order.
This seems to directly contradict what you're saying, so I'll assume you have access to more information and will be linking likewise shortly...
I'm somewhat shocked to get all the way to the end of both the article and the slashdot posts to discover that no one has mentioned Thunderbird. So I guess that task falls to me...
Mozilla DOES HAVE a non-browser project - their Thunderbird email client. It is mildly popular, decently functional, and absolutely not the kind of market shakeup being advocated here. So, dear author, not only do you get your wish wherein the power behind Firefox gets used in a non-browser way, but you can already see the result of it. Namely, not all that much, actually.
Since there are so many permutations for individual builds (and some are supposed to be better than others), they’re less worried about 1v1 balance than team balance — a philosophy similar to that for World of Warcraft arenas.
...they're ripping their Arena system from WoW?
I would have like to have seen more information about _why_ they think this is a good idea...
Excellent response, all in one line like that. Where were you earlier?:)
Yeah, that's basically it. The adult factor diminishes things only slightly, as I believe that parents are parents forever, and yes I am a lot more risk adverse with my own kids than I necessarily would be with anyone else's.
Large moving vehicles on a highway, or what have you, unknown condition of the other driver, and car load of family (particularly offspring) adds up to a situation that I'd probably not have intervened in.
Again, I simply can't put a lot of weight into your psychological work up that you're presenting here. I'm narcissistic because I have narcissistic tendencies. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm a coward. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm overly concerned about my kids. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm a racist. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm to stupid to argue with.
Or maybe you're following me all over slashdot like a lost puppy looking for some attention.
Whatever the case, I don't particularly care, and you really can stop.
Oh yes, clearly and obviously. And if they no longer care how pissed I get about it, great. Until I stop having opinions, though, I'll continue to share them. That's just who I am.
Slashdot Mirror
Except for the fact there is a difference between simply losing and being told you suck repeatedly from people who have no life other than the game.
The problem is, unless you are part of the "community" and can devote a lot of time to a game, you aren't going to have fun because the majority of people online are assholes.
There is a line between simply being bad at a game and 14 year old kids cursing you out because you can't devote 8 hours a day to the game.
This is essential. In the MMO context, at least in WoW with their random dungeon finder thingy, the difference in these types of people is striking. Take these two examples where someone notices you're 'doing it wrong', they can:
A) Whisper you discretely with either a short tip or an offer to answer any questions you may have...
or
B) Declare to the world how greatly you suck, enjoy a laugh at your expense, and vote to kick you from the group...
FPS games seem dominated by the latter, but the former is very rare in any setting.
You are exaggerating more than a little. I'll remember to mock you in a few years when macs are still as open as ever.
I'll hold you to that, because it works both ways.
Things which don't hurt our capability to reproduce tend to just hang around until such time as they do hurt our chances to reproduce.
Note, though, that with humans being involved the nature of 'reproduce' takes on a slightly different meaning. We may not know how long we humans have had notions of 'love', etc, but these certainly play a role today, and clearly will do so going forward. An individual that was perfectly viable from a biological standpoint may or may not get the opportunity to reproduce if they are not viable from a social standpoint.
(I've always had the weirdest feeling of being able to taste cold air, when it gets down a little below freezing I experience a smoky sensation that doesn't seem to come from anywhere in particular)
That's the moisture in your airways 'steaming up' due to contact with the cold. Same thing that you'd see if you exhaled into that same air, but on the inside...
People grow the stuff everywhere. Literally everywhere. I doubt that FDA and taxes are going to play a huge role for those who wish to avoid such.
Seriously, I spend more on coffee than Singulair, but the later is by any definition, a miracle drug.
I find it ironic that you could apparently be saving money by simply breathing in your coffee...
For years the industry was dominated by ugly, loud, flimsy hardware running buggy, crashy, maddening software. Apple has built a brand around being the alternative to that chaos. Protecting this brand often means locking their users inside a padded room.
Not only do I get it, dear Coward, but I'm predicting this becoming de facto for the Mac in the very near future as well.
FYI, Windows 8 includes an App store.
You're making certain assumptions and are holding them firm because they suit your argumentative purposes. But this doesn't necessarily make them true.
Points
A) Apple is a hardware company.
B) App stores don't make money
Counterpoints
I) Apple shifted purposes in the previous decade. Their move to Intel was a key indicator, but there are many others. Apple is not designing anything beyond aesthetics - China is doing all the rest. Look at the impact this had on the 'iPhone 4'. This wasn't always the case, but is today.
II) Apple's App store concept is still in the honeymoon phase. They can and will ramp up their profit margins as their lock in increases. Every company on the face of the planet has done this, and to assume that Apple is somehow too cool to do so isn't exactly the pinnacle of intellectual honesty.
So, in that light...
In order to keep selling Macs, Apple has to make Macs exactly like iPhones, but bigger. A locked-in store provides this. It will make them tons of money.
This is a forward-looking argument, to be sure. But there is at least a little credence to it, if you're open minded enough to recognize the nuances. Didn't they announce something exactly like a 'locked down app store' for the Mac JUST the other day? And didn't His Jobsness specifically say that it 'was not the only way, but the best way'? All that's required to make my assessment 100% current is to drop that former portion of the statement. And seriously, how long does Jobs typically ALLOW the plebeians to use the not-best way?
I'm exaggerating. But only a little.
People say this as though the App Store is some sort of cash cow for Apple. They run their digital stores at mostly break-even. They aren't trying to lock their users into their App Stores (especially since you used the plural. they are absolutely *not* going to lock Mac OS X into their Mac App Store the way iOS is locked into the current App Store).
Ah, I see. Here you go, hopefully this will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incrementalism
This would make sense if....
the app store was launched with the iphone. But it was in fact an afterthought.
An afterthought that completely recreated their entire product line and very organization, including the Mac.
Didn't say they were always thus, but they certainly are now.
Okay, you missed it. One more try, then.
Apple is not a "computer company" the way Microsoft is a "Windows" company.
In that light, Apple is an "iTunes company". Period, the end.
Apple gets all of this. Apple is no longer just a "computer company" and is branching out and fixing all the other related edges of technology that has been hamstrung by companies like Microsoft and their limited thinking. Apple is not just Macs any more, and that is a big reason they are the new Microsoft, and #2 in Market Cap, possibly getting to #1 next year sometime.
Close, but no. In all seriousness, Apple does not 'get all of this' in the manner that you suggest. They're not looking for 'superior' so much as they are looking to lock users into their App stores. So to claim that Apple doesn't possess limited thinking is, in my view, patently false. They are just as single minded, but towards a different end. They don't care about the technology in the least (iphone that doesn't work well as a phone, anyone?), but they ARE indeed all about the platform and the vehicle to future sales that it represents.
What's most interesting about this to me is the technology changes themselves. From a few minutes' worth of research I see that Curtiss Wright failed to make the best jet engines. Even their own aircraft wound up getting refit with Westinghouse models. That's not good.
Microsoft could be thus, but there needs to be a jet engine to come along and displace their prop. I'm not seeing what that might be.
Bear in mind, also, that this isn't in any way uncommon. Look at the 1906 caliber change from high power/huge slugs to ultra-high power/tiny slugs. Made all the difference in the world concerning modern firepower, and even today the tiny slugs are the most commonly used type, a century later.
But that was a chemistry change more than anything, and took almost no one by surprise in that industry.
Again, I'm not seeing any great possibilities in the IT world. Not of this magnitude, anyway.
The new crop's memes are more along the lines of atheism and Fox-bashing. Gone are the 'in Soviet Russia's, 'I for one's, and 'insensitive clod's. Long live the 'get off my lawn'.
The bees that didn't knew how to somewhat "solve" that are the dead ones.
This is the part of evolutionary theory that just doesn't seem to mesh. I realize you used the word 'somewhat', but I disagree that it is impossible that mediocrity would cause an entire species to die off. The best processes certainly don't hurt, but there are bound to be millions upon millions of other factors deciding which species make it and which do not. Anyway, I only mean to say that there could be bees that are both better and worse at this, and the fact that they're not dead isn't information of much at all.
Those bees did not do an exhaustive search for the optimal path, only one that is 'good enough'.
How do you know this? I'm not seeing that stated in the article. In fact,
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London and Royal Holloway, University of London have discovered that bees learn to fly the shortest possible route between flowers even if they discover the flowers in a different order.
This seems to directly contradict what you're saying, so I'll assume you have access to more information and will be linking likewise shortly...
I'm somewhat shocked to get all the way to the end of both the article and the slashdot posts to discover that no one has mentioned Thunderbird. So I guess that task falls to me...
Mozilla DOES HAVE a non-browser project - their Thunderbird email client. It is mildly popular, decently functional, and absolutely not the kind of market shakeup being advocated here. So, dear author, not only do you get your wish wherein the power behind Firefox gets used in a non-browser way, but you can already see the result of it. Namely, not all that much, actually.
Blizzard's design staff recently, famously lamented: "Our worst mistake was PvP"
And yet...
Since there are so many permutations for individual builds (and some are supposed to be better than others), they’re less worried about 1v1 balance than team balance — a philosophy similar to that for World of Warcraft arenas.
...they're ripping their Arena system from WoW?
I would have like to have seen more information about _why_ they think this is a good idea...
I'm almost as awesome as you are witty!
Excellent response, all in one line like that. Where were you earlier? :)
Yeah, that's basically it. The adult factor diminishes things only slightly, as I believe that parents are parents forever, and yes I am a lot more risk adverse with my own kids than I necessarily would be with anyone else's.
Large moving vehicles on a highway, or what have you, unknown condition of the other driver, and car load of family (particularly offspring) adds up to a situation that I'd probably not have intervened in.
Again, I simply can't put a lot of weight into your psychological work up that you're presenting here. I'm narcissistic because I have narcissistic tendencies. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm a coward. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm overly concerned about my kids. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm a racist. Or maybe I'm narcissistic because I'm to stupid to argue with.
Or maybe you're following me all over slashdot like a lost puppy looking for some attention.
Whatever the case, I don't particularly care, and you really can stop.
That's not ever how I've used that term, and certainly doesn't apply the level of ridicule that was connotated here.
Well, I'd probably buy new hardware for the performance purposes, and recycle the old for flexibility purposes. With a KVM in between.
Well, no, actually _I_ would have already done something strange and linux-y. But I wouldn't have asked slashdot about it, either.
Oh yes, clearly and obviously. And if they no longer care how pissed I get about it, great. Until I stop having opinions, though, I'll continue to share them. That's just who I am.