Perhaps the people who aren't voting shouldn't be voting. God knows the people who aren't voting are clearly the ones who aren't educated enough on the stakes to know why they should be voting. ...which, when taken with other factors, says to me that it's not just the democracy that is decaying but the entire fabric of what was once a vibrant culture. (I'll resist the urge to rant, as the soapbox prophet archetype isn't my bag.)
They should make a fighting game instead. There's a lot of similarity as both are based on timing, and I have a feeling that the crosstraining would pay off once they can jump back into the rhythm genre.
The things you have faith in are things you THINK are true. The things that science has shown are things everyone KNOWS to be true. A small but important correction: the things that science has shown are things which we believe to be true because the evidence points in that direction. That is to say, science uses evidence to produce a model, and we accept the most accurate model because we have nothing better. The scientific process is always open to new evidence, and if new evidence contradicts our current model then we refine the model to account for the new evidence.
Science is meaningful and helpful, and it would be a real shame if its pursuit were to be abandoned, but calling science truth is just as bad as calling it a lie.
Exactly. Many people think too narrowly about video games in school. There's little point in deathmatch Quake in the classroom, but something like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is almost ideal. Phoenix Wright requires a lot of reading and also makes the player exercise critical thinking, e.g. "what in this witness testimony contradicts the evidence I have?"
We also shouldn't forget multiplayer games - we've been playing those in gym class for years! A fun game with a competetive aspect will be well-received for sure.
As others have stated, I don't like the "less books" part of the bargain. Different things require different teaching methods, and I don't think games are appropriate tools for a whole lot of 'em. Games' strength as a teaching tool lies in logic application, and their weakness in teaching facts. If video games are to be used in school, serious thought needs to be put into finding out where they are appropriate and engaging.
But how do you know the difference? The GPL concept is familiar enough to most of us even without having read it, but think back to the arguments over GPL2 vs. GPL3. If you can't easily read the license and you don't read Slashdot, the differences between the versions could go unnoticed, and (from what I gathered reading the discussions here) the differences are enough to potentially bite someone who doesn't know them in the ass.
Clear language is necessary for clear communication. It could be argued that licensing language is necessarily esoteric and complex because of the way our legal sytem has developed, but if that is the case then there should be a layman's summary in the license preamble. If hundreds of slashdotters can concoct concise, accurate summaries in response to every GPL question posted, why not put one in the license itself so people will actually read it and understand what they're getting into? And aren't we geeks supposed to abhor inefficiency? =)
The GPL is used as an example and is not a specific target - I am arguing that all licenses should clearly inform licensees of their effects, and that even a good license can contain gotchas.
(Lets stop using the SI units when we don't actually mean it.) Fine, but can we please come up with less stupid-sounding names for units than "gibibytes," "tebibits," "exbibytes," and the like?
you need to hold it so the left side of the wiimote faces the sensor bar...I had the same problem until my friend enlightened me. Say what? The relation of wiimote to sensor bar matters not one bit - it's only registering motion once you're out on the links. This goes for all of the Wii Sports games. Now that I think about it, you may be saying to hold the wiimote so that when you swing your arm, the left side of the wiimote swings forward (as opposed to say, bowling, where the top swings forward). If this is the case, you are correct.
Even so, putting is rather finicky. Friends and I have found that the best way to make putts is to start your forward swing very slowly and (slowly!) increase your speed until the power bar moves up to where you want it, and stop. Avoid a sudden stop at the end of your swing, though, because that'll make the bar jump something fierce.
A friend of mine just linked me to Maps & Atlases yesterday. You clarified this in a reply further down, but some form of talent is required for a band to make it using the plan you've outlined in your post. The guys in your brother's band have it in spades. I was quite impressed with their technical abilities as well as the overall sound. I have a feeling they're going to get a lot bigger.
This article should really be tagged "slownewsday." Look, some random Christian group that no one has heard of decided to make a press release that hardly anybody outside of their sphere would have seen. This press release is not geared towards the general public, but towards a subset of Christians who share the group's beliefs about porn. Somebody decided to stir up contention by "leaking" the press release to Kotaku, and somebody else decided it deserved a place on Slashdot. It doesn't.
This is not a Jack Thompsonesque nationwide crusade against Wii or anything like it, which is apparent from reading the actual press release. It's merely a piece written by Christians and for Christians, with the now-typical sensationalist attention-grabbing headline. Most of us recognize sensationalism as such when the topic is more mundane, and I expect that the skewed view of Christianity that is prevalent here on/. is responsible for taking this one more (and too) seriously.
Sometimes Christian groups do things that are worth talking about because they're stepping on the rights of others. This is not one of those times. Nothing to see here, move along.
But doing that makes it lose the TV Guide data, so at least it is doing something with the power. So is Wii. Granted, right now it's mostly Miis wandering to and from your system or the occasional update, but if Nintendo's talk is to be believed it will become an often-used content delivery system.
Gee whillickers, I ain't never heard tell of the Far East! I always thought that was juss the islands off the Carolina shore! Thankee fer larnin' me with yer book smarts...I guess they teach you a little better than us down in Yurope or wherever ya'll are from. After all, it couldn't possibly be that the ambiguous nature of "East" in the headline due to capitalization style, the fact that there are a ton of developers on the US west coast, and the recent headline speaking of NYC (that's New York City; I shouldn't assume you've heard of an uncultured American settlement) as an up-and-coming tech center led me to the logical conclusion that "could drive devs east" actually meant east instead of "west, to the Far East" which is just _so much_ more intuitive. Your additional explanation of what the Far East is was also quite necessary, as even though I expressed my disappointment that I found I was mistaken upon reading the summary, it must have been obvious to you that I still did not connect China with the Far East.
Get off your high horse. Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake and not an indicator of an (admittedly common) American mindset that you and I both find irritating.
I'd ask for an apology, but I understand if it would chafe you to give one to an American...that's just so beneath you.
Yes, it does. I like that it's a floating box, so if you've waded deep into the discussion you can still make a top-level reply and adjust your settings.
I also found that if you click the little button in the top right of the slider box it gets moved to the top of the comments and made horizontal, more like the placement of the old options and buttons. Nice for old times' sake, but I find its floating incarnation to be far superior.
And here I was all excited because I thought more gaming companies would move or form here on the east coast. I'd love to stay in my native area near Philadelphia, and I'd also love to break into game development. I guess that's still going to be very hard - there are a few companies here and there, but it's nothing like Seattle where you can't throw a stick without hitting a few hiring game studios.
If I didn't want to actually write the data to the thing in the first place I wouldn't have plugged it in.
Exactly...so when the progress bar for copying data to the drive disappears, it should mean that the device is ready to be safely removed. Any other behavior is sneaky and unhelpful. If I plug something in and it "just works," it is reasonable to assume that I should be able to unplug it just as easily. Having a little taskbar button that you must right-click, select "safeley remove hardware," run through two or three dialogs, and then pull the drive out is incredibly counterintuitive.
I haven't used a Classic controller yet, but the dpad placement might make it worthwhile for me. I've always thought that the 'cube controller's dpad was a little uncomfortable, and after two hours of Toe Jam & Earl the thought is reinforced. Still, I have 4 Gamecube controllers, so unless they _destroy_ my thumb I'll stick with them. I would say that those with a big interest in Virtual Console games could do worse than to pick up 1 or 2 Classic controllers. -f
More importantly, if it works well and catches on, has anyone looked into what it'll do to the surrounding climate and weather? Or would even vast stretches of urban sprawl built with this system have negligible effects?
Several slashdotters have already pointed out why the car analogies that (apparently) pop up in the article as well as in the comments fail. Ultimately, a comparison between computers and "real-world" devices fails because of interface.
To start a car, you turn the key clockwise. To open a new file, you click with the mouse. To stop a car, you push the brake pedal. To save a file, you click with the mouse. To turn a car off, you turn the key counter-clockwise. To delete a file, you click with the mouse.
A significant factor in the difficulty of software use is that when we speak of "interfaces" we are almost always thinking one level lower than we should be - that is, no matter how nice and clean and useful your GUI is, the real interface for ~90% of software users is the mouse, keyboard, and monitor, regardless of what is displayed on it. In a car, turning the car on or off is an entirely different motion than making a right turn, which is different from putting on the brakes, which is different from putting down a window. We also have years of experience riding in cars and watching parents drive as children to teach us that "when Daddy does X, Y happens."
Computers are fundamentally different. Using only a mouse and keyboard and looking at a monitor is for all intents and purposes the only way to interact with the computer. Watching others use it to learn doesn't work nearly as well because the movements involved are much more precise, less varied, and their effects vary greatly depending on what state the computer is in: moving the mouse in a word processor moves the pointer around, while in Quake it'll change your view of your in-game surroundings.
Encouraging software makers to adhere to user-interface models helps a lot -- once the users are familiar with the model. Our current practices are inconsistent at best - the "desktop" metaphor exists only at the most basic level; once an application is open there is generally a half graphical, half menu-driven approach. From what I've seen, I think the Ribbon interface in Office 2k7 is an improvement, albeit an incremental one. I don't pretend to have a good model that will help ease-of-use, but I think the problem is on the decline anyway.
Those of us who grew up with computers do not have issues with the mouse/keyboard interface; we are familiar with it and the software models underneath. I have a feeling that as younger generations join the workforce, the interface problem will disappear or at least be greatly reduced. As long as some consistent GUI guidelines are followed, I believe that the metric for "ease-of-use" will evolve so that more complexity and control can be folded into the software without complaints from the users.
I believe that scientism or positivism, the belief that "the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge" [wiki], will continue to decline and at a sharper rate. More and more holistic thinkers are gaining respect, or at the very least publicity, and it is only a matter of time before hardcore scientists are in the same position that hardcore creationists occupy today*. Scientific progress will of course continue as it has much value, but more people will realize that science is not the be-all end-all silver bullet of truth that far too many believe it is today.
The trend can be seen even here on Slashdot - in the midst of religious flame wars inspired by inflammatory articles, where before any traces of religion, spirituality, or humanity were treated with scorn, now sensible and rational posts that stand by the claim "science is not everything" are increasingly modded up. Our hearts are finally beating their way into their rightful place currently occupied by our swollen minds. I doubt this will do anything so drastic as to unite humanity (my optimism is tempered by experience), but it will certainly lead to fuller individual lives.
-f
* I'm not a creationist, this is simply a comparison. Hardcore young-earth creationism is on its last legs, with a tiny vocal minority lashing out at all opposition; hardcore scientism will soon follow in its footsteps. Since the topic is optimism, I will state here that my hope is that the latter will be treated more humanely than the former.
are slashdotters really this lazy?....wait dont answer that. Nobody would have anyway. =)
To make my comment a little more worthwhile, it seems as though the submitter chose the worst part of the article to put into the summary. Two metaphors ellipsied together without the content in between? Come on! Here is the original paragraph from the article:
The bubble-era vision of a utopian Internet is dented and dirty. The Pew respondents seem to agree that personal privacy is a thing of the past, and they're split nearly 50-50 on whether the costs will outweigh the benefits. Technophobic refuseniks are likely to carry out violent resistance, and they may have good reason: Out-of-control technology is a distinct risk. The Lexus has collided with the olive tree, and its crumpled hulk spins in a ditch as the orchard smolders. It looks a little more interesting now, doesn't it?
There is a service at lala.com that takes this CD sharing idea to the next level, though they explicitly discourage ripping. You input a list of your CD collection and then you will start to see requests from other users for CDs in your list. If you decide to send a CD, simply put it in the provided shipping case & envelope. When you request a CD and it gets sent to you, you pay $1.70 or thereabouts.
I joined a while ago and haven't even gotten around to uploading my collection, but a friend of mine uses lala exclusively and loves it.
-f
immersive games for people who don't consider themselves gamersThat mandate looks as if it were ripped straight from a Wii marketing promo. Hopefully the fact that fl0w is on PS3 won't preclude this dude from trying his hand at a Wii game; they could be a perfect match.
We'd also have a stream of "wii fl0w" jokes to keep us occupied. -f
Slashdot Mirror
(I'll resist the urge to rant, as the soapbox prophet archetype isn't my bag.)
captcha: vacated
Thanks for fixing that glaring error. Now the rest of the post makes perfect sense.
They should make a fighting game instead. There's a lot of similarity as both are based on timing, and I have a feeling that the crosstraining would pay off once they can jump back into the rhythm genre.
Science is meaningful and helpful, and it would be a real shame if its pursuit were to be abandoned, but calling science truth is just as bad as calling it a lie.
Knock Knock!
;)
Who's there?
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Knock Knock!
Who's there!?
Knock Knock!
Who's there!?
Knock Knock!
WHO'S THERE!?
Philip Glass.
Bloody Fremen zealot...
Exactly. Many people think too narrowly about video games in school. There's little point in deathmatch Quake in the classroom, but something like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is almost ideal. Phoenix Wright requires a lot of reading and also makes the player exercise critical thinking, e.g. "what in this witness testimony contradicts the evidence I have?"
We also shouldn't forget multiplayer games - we've been playing those in gym class for years! A fun game with a competetive aspect will be well-received for sure.
As others have stated, I don't like the "less books" part of the bargain. Different things require different teaching methods, and I don't think games are appropriate tools for a whole lot of 'em. Games' strength as a teaching tool lies in logic application, and their weakness in teaching facts. If video games are to be used in school, serious thought needs to be put into finding out where they are appropriate and engaging.
But how do you know the difference? The GPL concept is familiar enough to most of us even without having read it, but think back to the arguments over GPL2 vs. GPL3. If you can't easily read the license and you don't read Slashdot, the differences between the versions could go unnoticed, and (from what I gathered reading the discussions here) the differences are enough to potentially bite someone who doesn't know them in the ass.
Clear language is necessary for clear communication. It could be argued that licensing language is necessarily esoteric and complex because of the way our legal sytem has developed, but if that is the case then there should be a layman's summary in the license preamble. If hundreds of slashdotters can concoct concise, accurate summaries in response to every GPL question posted, why not put one in the license itself so people will actually read it and understand what they're getting into? And aren't we geeks supposed to abhor inefficiency? =)
The GPL is used as an example and is not a specific target - I am arguing that all licenses should clearly inform licensees of their effects, and that even a good license can contain gotchas.
Even so, putting is rather finicky. Friends and I have found that the best way to make putts is to start your forward swing very slowly and (slowly!) increase your speed until the power bar moves up to where you want it, and stop. Avoid a sudden stop at the end of your swing, though, because that'll make the bar jump something fierce.
A friend of mine just linked me to Maps & Atlases yesterday. You clarified this in a reply further down, but some form of talent is required for a band to make it using the plan you've outlined in your post. The guys in your brother's band have it in spades. I was quite impressed with their technical abilities as well as the overall sound. I have a feeling they're going to get a lot bigger.
This article should really be tagged "slownewsday." Look, some random Christian group that no one has heard of decided to make a press release that hardly anybody outside of their sphere would have seen. This press release is not geared towards the general public, but towards a subset of Christians who share the group's beliefs about porn. Somebody decided to stir up contention by "leaking" the press release to Kotaku, and somebody else decided it deserved a place on Slashdot. It doesn't.
/. is responsible for taking this one more (and too) seriously.
This is not a Jack Thompsonesque nationwide crusade against Wii or anything like it, which is apparent from reading the actual press release. It's merely a piece written by Christians and for Christians, with the now-typical sensationalist attention-grabbing headline. Most of us recognize sensationalism as such when the topic is more mundane, and I expect that the skewed view of Christianity that is prevalent here on
Sometimes Christian groups do things that are worth talking about because they're stepping on the rights of others. This is not one of those times. Nothing to see here, move along.
Gee whillickers, I ain't never heard tell of the Far East! I always thought that was juss the islands off the Carolina shore! Thankee fer larnin' me with yer book smarts...I guess they teach you a little better than us down in Yurope or wherever ya'll are from. After all, it couldn't possibly be that the ambiguous nature of "East" in the headline due to capitalization style, the fact that there are a ton of developers on the US west coast, and the recent headline speaking of NYC (that's New York City; I shouldn't assume you've heard of an uncultured American settlement) as an up-and-coming tech center led me to the logical conclusion that "could drive devs east" actually meant east instead of "west, to the Far East" which is just _so much_ more intuitive. Your additional explanation of what the Far East is was also quite necessary, as even though I expressed my disappointment that I found I was mistaken upon reading the summary, it must have been obvious to you that I still did not connect China with the Far East.
Get off your high horse. Sometimes a mistake is just a mistake and not an indicator of an (admittedly common) American mindset that you and I both find irritating.
I'd ask for an apology, but I understand if it would chafe you to give one to an American...that's just so beneath you.
Yes, it does. I like that it's a floating box, so if you've waded deep into the discussion you can still make a top-level reply and adjust your settings.
I also found that if you click the little button in the top right of the slider box it gets moved to the top of the comments and made horizontal, more like the placement of the old options and buttons. Nice for old times' sake, but I find its floating incarnation to be far superior.
And here I was all excited because I thought more gaming companies would move or form here on the east coast. I'd love to stay in my native area near Philadelphia, and I'd also love to break into game development. I guess that's still going to be very hard - there are a few companies here and there, but it's nothing like Seattle where you can't throw a stick without hitting a few hiring game studios.
If you're using the Discussion2 beta to view comments, the top-level reply button is at the bottom of the slider box.
If I didn't want to actually write the data to the thing in the first place I wouldn't have plugged it in.
Exactly...so when the progress bar for copying data to the drive disappears, it should mean that the device is ready to be safely removed. Any other behavior is sneaky and unhelpful. If I plug something in and it "just works," it is reasonable to assume that I should be able to unplug it just as easily. Having a little taskbar button that you must right-click, select "safeley remove hardware," run through two or three dialogs, and then pull the drive out is incredibly counterintuitive.
I haven't used a Classic controller yet, but the dpad placement might make it worthwhile for me. I've always thought that the 'cube controller's dpad was a little uncomfortable, and after two hours of Toe Jam & Earl the thought is reinforced. Still, I have 4 Gamecube controllers, so unless they _destroy_ my thumb I'll stick with them. I would say that those with a big interest in Virtual Console games could do worse than to pick up 1 or 2 Classic controllers.
-f
More importantly, if it works well and catches on, has anyone looked into what it'll do to the surrounding climate and weather? Or would even vast stretches of urban sprawl built with this system have negligible effects?
Several slashdotters have already pointed out why the car analogies that (apparently) pop up in the article as well as in the comments fail. Ultimately, a comparison between computers and "real-world" devices fails because of interface.
To start a car, you turn the key clockwise. To open a new file, you click with the mouse.
To stop a car, you push the brake pedal. To save a file, you click with the mouse.
To turn a car off, you turn the key counter-clockwise. To delete a file, you click with the mouse.
A significant factor in the difficulty of software use is that when we speak of "interfaces" we are almost always thinking one level lower than we should be - that is, no matter how nice and clean and useful your GUI is, the real interface for ~90% of software users is the mouse, keyboard, and monitor, regardless of what is displayed on it. In a car, turning the car on or off is an entirely different motion than making a right turn, which is different from putting on the brakes, which is different from putting down a window. We also have years of experience riding in cars and watching parents drive as children to teach us that "when Daddy does X, Y happens."
Computers are fundamentally different. Using only a mouse and keyboard and looking at a monitor is for all intents and purposes the only way to interact with the computer. Watching others use it to learn doesn't work nearly as well because the movements involved are much more precise, less varied, and their effects vary greatly depending on what state the computer is in: moving the mouse in a word processor moves the pointer around, while in Quake it'll change your view of your in-game surroundings.
Encouraging software makers to adhere to user-interface models helps a lot -- once the users are familiar with the model. Our current practices are inconsistent at best - the "desktop" metaphor exists only at the most basic level; once an application is open there is generally a half graphical, half menu-driven approach. From what I've seen, I think the Ribbon interface in Office 2k7 is an improvement, albeit an incremental one. I don't pretend to have a good model that will help ease-of-use, but I think the problem is on the decline anyway.
Those of us who grew up with computers do not have issues with the mouse/keyboard interface; we are familiar with it and the software models underneath. I have a feeling that as younger generations join the workforce, the interface problem will disappear or at least be greatly reduced. As long as some consistent GUI guidelines are followed, I believe that the metric for "ease-of-use" will evolve so that more complexity and control can be folded into the software without complaints from the users.
I believe that scientism or positivism, the belief that "the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge" [wiki], will continue to decline and at a sharper rate. More and more holistic thinkers are gaining respect, or at the very least publicity, and it is only a matter of time before hardcore scientists are in the same position that hardcore creationists occupy today*. Scientific progress will of course continue as it has much value, but more people will realize that science is not the be-all end-all silver bullet of truth that far too many believe it is today.
The trend can be seen even here on Slashdot - in the midst of religious flame wars inspired by inflammatory articles, where before any traces of religion, spirituality, or humanity were treated with scorn, now sensible and rational posts that stand by the claim "science is not everything" are increasingly modded up. Our hearts are finally beating their way into their rightful place currently occupied by our swollen minds. I doubt this will do anything so drastic as to unite humanity (my optimism is tempered by experience), but it will certainly lead to fuller individual lives.
-f
* I'm not a creationist, this is simply a comparison. Hardcore young-earth creationism is on its last legs, with a tiny vocal minority lashing out at all opposition; hardcore scientism will soon follow in its footsteps. Since the topic is optimism, I will state here that my hope is that the latter will be treated more humanely than the former.
To make my comment a little more worthwhile, it seems as though the submitter chose the worst part of the article to put into the summary. Two metaphors ellipsied together without the content in between? Come on! Here is the original paragraph from the article: The bubble-era vision of a utopian Internet is dented and dirty. The Pew respondents seem to agree that personal privacy is a thing of the past, and they're split nearly 50-50 on whether the costs will outweigh the benefits. Technophobic refuseniks are likely to carry out violent resistance, and they may have good reason: Out-of-control technology is a distinct risk. The Lexus has collided with the olive tree, and its crumpled hulk spins in a ditch as the orchard smolders. It looks a little more interesting now, doesn't it?
There is a service at lala.com that takes this CD sharing idea to the next level, though they explicitly discourage ripping. You input a list of your CD collection and then you will start to see requests from other users for CDs in your list. If you decide to send a CD, simply put it in the provided shipping case & envelope. When you request a CD and it gets sent to you, you pay $1.70 or thereabouts.
I joined a while ago and haven't even gotten around to uploading my collection, but a friend of mine uses lala exclusively and loves it.
-f
immersive games for people who don't consider themselves gamersThat mandate looks as if it were ripped straight from a Wii marketing promo. Hopefully the fact that fl0w is on PS3 won't preclude this dude from trying his hand at a Wii game; they could be a perfect match.
We'd also have a stream of "wii fl0w" jokes to keep us occupied.
-f