and people are curious. We do everything we're told not to. It's human nature. If the government bans a movie it's human nature to want to see what was so terrible it caused the movie to be banned. The people of Egypt have got to be a little bit curious. Any Egyptians out there? Cmon? You know you want to see the movie.
I'm a fan of the MMORPG genre, but while it does provide a nice, temporary escape from mundane every-day life, in the end it IS truly a virtual (read, not real) world. Games like Everquest, DAOC, Shadowbane, AO, UO, etc. are great ways to kill some time and be relatively sociable at the same time, but if you took the average gamer's log of online gaming hours and re-invested those same hours in something like The University of Pheonix Online, they would have a Ph. D or two by now. It's easy to lose sight if reality, particularly when reality isn't too pleasant. Unfortunately we all should be wary of just how much our time is being skewed toward a Virtual existence instead of an actual one.
" Finally we get something that, while possibly on the level of freshman philosophy (possibly; I don't agree)"
Granted the philosophy is decidedly Cartesian and is very simplified to fit the venue, however, the numberous religious and historical references that exist in Matrix: Reloaded should not be overlooked.
Consider the Meruvingian: a French-speaking, french culture loving "program" named after the Ruling family in France/Central Europe during the Dark ages ~500 AD or so. Consider that this family claimed to trace its bloodline directly to the child of Mary Magdalane and Jesus Christ. Due to this somewhat "blasphemous" claim, the family was betrayed by the Roman Catholic Church and diposed in favor of Charlemagne and his family (read "betrayed", as humanity arguably was by its machines). Further, their current decendants are believed to be the fabled "Illuminati" and control groups such as the Freemasons. THE Meruvingian is a reference to the eventual heir of their family's bloodline who is storied to rule over a united Europe as a sort of "chosen one" or "savior".
Back to the Matrix...I submit that the Meruvingian was the FIRST "one", just as Neo is now the 6th. Also, his wife Persephone is what seems a possible eventuallity for Trinity.
So maybe the philosophy is a bit heavy-handed, but if you dig a little deeper you'll find some of the more obscure references in the movie hold a lot of "more than Freshman college level" ideas for pondering.
Your boss requires you to work 50-60 hour work weeks without compensation. You and your co-workers are so fed up you want to just walk out. If you don't care if you get fired, and in fact wouldnt mind it as an alternative to quiting(mmmm unemployment) just start working EXACTLY a 40 hour work week to the second. Arrive at your desk promtly at 9AM work until your appointed lunch break, take a full but not long lunch break. Never ever ever ever eat at your desk or order food in. Leave the office for lunch every day. Finally, do just enough of your job to qualify as doing it. If you're in the middle of a line of code when 5PM rolls around stop, save your work, lock your workstation down and walk out the door.
If your employer complains or reprimands you point out that you are doing your job and doing it competently. If they want you to do more they need to compensate you for your work. Also, cite life events and create "plans" that are inflexible and preclude you from randomly working late. Kids/wife/sick family member work very well for this.
Basically, do nothing "wrong" but do nothing extra either. They'll either hook you up with a raise or fire you. Either way its on your terms.
I suppose next we'll be hearing about a new sort of sci-fi device called a "laser". Perhaps this "laser" can be used with the "force field" to sculpt pictures of world leaders onto the face of the moon...
How lousy does your software have to be for India to say, "wow, I dont want to waste my time on this, let's outsource it to some other third world country and just keep the $50 bucks difference"
Taking a recorded track and using it in your own recording in a studio is called sampling. I call it theft. Hiring musicians to play a modification of a song you have made on your own is arranging and IS protected. I.E. it becomes YOUR intillectual property, assuming you cite your sources as creating the original that you then changed. Rap, as a genre is notorious for sampling? Is it because they are not actually musicians? Maybe. *ducks
Excellent point, but not the greatest of analogies. Its more like a kid playing with a supercolider and randomly tossing things into it. We really have little if any understanding of what the broad ramifications of genetic engineering will be. Its not to say that there isnt trememdous potential for benefiting mankind. The problem is that we may in-advertantly be the kid that starts an atomic chain reaction that destroys the planet after hitting our plastic G.I. Joe figure with too many Gluons...
I received an email yesterday detailing a company with infomation about the official "make-your-shlong-longer" gene. Wonder if that would be unethical to mess with...
There are 2 things geeks in college have in abundance: free time and the want to break things. Now that every geek with a heartbeat and a B0x0rz knows there IS a flaw in this card system then they can go ahead and track it down on their own. Free access to EE labs is a beautiful thing. Let's wait and see how long it takes before they are ripped off to the tune of a couple million dollars.
Not every MMORPG is for everyone. Those from the happy smiley love your neighbor world of Everquest might well be put off by the dark, dreary, scary, less-than - friendly world of shadowbane. This is by design. If you want to stay in munchkin land fine. Just understand that some people value more complicated and realistic social interaction a la shadowbane where the "Social Contract", not GMs maintain order in the world.
In all seriousness, for those not familiar with the world of Shadowbane, there exists the ability for any player to attack any other player at any time for any reason. Much like real life, you dont pick a fight unless you really really want to fight. Also, picking on those weaker than you can get your butt kicked by thier big brother. Something known as the Social Contract keeps everyone somewhat in line. I dont hurt you, you dont hurt me, and we're both better off as friends. Sound like real life to anyone? That's becuase it is. Any free society will tend to lean toward the way of order and peace (at least within a community) because it is in the best interest of each member of that community.
A$$holes are we? At least we're educated ones.
The reason a lot of "geeks" like MMORPGs is the ability to be someone else; anyone else. While good role-playing isnt always easy to find online, there are a significant number of mature rpg fans that actually portray a character, not themselves. There are some "powergamers" that run around and just want to be the biggest and the baddest, but there are a substantial number of Dungeons and Dragons converts that value a well role-played [ read "acted"] scenario. Good role-playing is acting. Moreover its an creative and psycological outlet where you can express yourself through a persona you adopt, no strings attached. While some of the kiddies that like the MMORPGs will run around being 1337 Ub3r d00ds you'll find a more substantial community that value the social interaction, and even some combat with other mature role-players with distinctive characters.
I live in Martin County, FL. Let me tell you; This system is a great tool for the simple reason that most people's (and kid's) view of education isnt quite the same as elsewhere in the country. The value placed on quality public education is just not sufficient. This new system provides an easy way parents can proactivaly keep their kids on track with minimal effort. Thanks to great beaches and a great climate its no real suprise that all the kids in Taco bell cant count change for poop.
The entire state of FL has its problems with public education, but giving parents instant involvement in their kids' daily shool life is a great start.
"He copied the MS Bios code, modified it, and sold it."
Fair enough, but how is that a criminal act exactly? Why is this guy in jail? He is certainly infringing on intellectual property rights and can be sued for damages in CIVIL courts. I'm not entirely sure this is a criminal activity at all. Should he have to pay damages to MS? Certainly, but he should not be fined nor should he be in jail.
When you buy an Xbox you buy hardware. Circuit boards, microchips, a hard drive, a GPU, a CPU, RAM. You are not buying the same sort of thing when you buy software, where you are technically buying a license, not a disk with software on it.
You should be able to modify any equipment you own without fear of prosecution because the effect of that modification could possibly, in certain specific circumstances, violate copyright laws.
It's like arresting someone for putting a better engine in their car becuase "They might decide to speed", or worse, arresting the person who sold the performace parts.
Violating the terms of a contract is not necessarily illegal. It's likely a civil matter that would have to be resolved in a persribed manner. In no case would a fine or imprissonment come into the picture because your ISP neither legislates nor enforces LAWS, only business policy. Run all the servers you want. The ISP has the rigth only to terminate your service for breach of contract. This legislation would cause many forms of network security and connection sharing to be illegal. For example: If firewalls are no longer permitted every Major Operating system would have to change their kernel or they would be encouraging lawlessness. Personal Firewall in WinXP anyone? Heck, Linux and the XBSD line have integrated firewall and network security that is at the core of their structure.
To summarize, contract != law. Violating the terms of a contract, such as NAT or running non-permitted personal servers costs you $$$ but you will not wind up in "Federal pound me in the A$$ prison" for it.
The destinction commonly used to define a terrorist act as opposed to a really really bad attack during wartime is the following: A political and diplomatic state of "War". The bombings of dresden and Tokyo involved a horrible loss of life. If the ARMY AIR CORE(not the USAF) had the technology to only destroy military targets they would have (much as the USAF currenlty does with laser guided weapons and cruise missiles). Furthermore, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese when the US and Japan WERE NOT AT WAR (i.e. an act of terrorism) a formal war was begun. As such, attacks on industrial centers should be expected and civilian populations should have evacuated much as the English city of Coventry was evacuated when it was learned that it was going to be bombed durring WWII..
um, there was no USAF until 1947...after WWII which ended in 1945. At the time it was the Army Air Core. I agree, its sad that people have to die in war, but isnt that your point? If you're going to be a tree hugging anti-war hippy at least be an educated one. Huah! First Amendment...
I'd recommend taking some discreet math or logic courses and a junior college. It will ease you into more complex math and most likely allow you to avoid calculus, which tends to turn off people who aren't "into math".
Slashdot Mirror
and people are curious. We do everything we're told not to. It's human nature. If the government bans a movie it's human nature to want to see what was so terrible it caused the movie to be banned. The people of Egypt have got to be a little bit curious. Any Egyptians out there? Cmon? You know you want to see the movie.
and a buck-fifty buys you a cup of coffee.
I'm a fan of the MMORPG genre, but while it does provide a nice, temporary escape from mundane every-day life, in the end it IS truly a virtual (read, not real) world. Games like Everquest, DAOC, Shadowbane, AO, UO, etc. are great ways to kill some time and be relatively sociable at the same time, but if you took the average gamer's log of online gaming hours and re-invested those same hours in something like The University of Pheonix Online, they would have a Ph. D or two by now. It's easy to lose sight if reality, particularly when reality isn't too pleasant. Unfortunately we all should be wary of just how much our time is being skewed toward a Virtual existence instead of an actual one.
" Finally we get something that, while possibly on the level of freshman philosophy (possibly; I don't agree)"
Granted the philosophy is decidedly Cartesian and is very simplified to fit the venue, however, the numberous religious and historical references that exist in Matrix: Reloaded should not be overlooked.
Consider the Meruvingian: a French-speaking, french culture loving "program" named after the Ruling family in France/Central Europe during the Dark ages ~500 AD or so. Consider that this family claimed to trace its bloodline directly to the child of Mary Magdalane and Jesus Christ. Due to this somewhat "blasphemous" claim, the family was betrayed by the Roman Catholic Church and diposed in favor of Charlemagne and his family (read "betrayed", as humanity arguably was by its machines). Further, their current decendants are believed to be the fabled "Illuminati" and control groups such as the Freemasons. THE Meruvingian is a reference to the eventual heir of their family's bloodline who is storied to rule over a united Europe as a sort of "chosen one" or "savior".
Back to the Matrix...I submit that the Meruvingian was the FIRST "one", just as Neo is now the 6th. Also, his wife Persephone is what seems a possible eventuallity for Trinity.
So maybe the philosophy is a bit heavy-handed, but if you dig a little deeper you'll find some of the more obscure references in the movie hold a lot of "more than Freshman college level" ideas for pondering.
Scenario:
Your boss requires you to work 50-60 hour work weeks without compensation. You and your co-workers are so fed up you want to just walk out. If you don't care if you get fired, and in fact wouldnt mind it as an alternative to quiting(mmmm unemployment) just start working EXACTLY a 40 hour work week to the second. Arrive at your desk promtly at 9AM work until your appointed lunch break, take a full but not long lunch break. Never ever ever ever eat at your desk or order food in. Leave the office for lunch every day. Finally, do just enough of your job to qualify as doing it. If you're in the middle of a line of code when 5PM rolls around stop, save your work, lock your workstation down and walk out the door.
If your employer complains or reprimands you point out that you are doing your job and doing it competently. If they want you to do more they need to compensate you for your work. Also, cite life events and create "plans" that are inflexible and preclude you from randomly working late. Kids/wife/sick family member work very well for this.
Basically, do nothing "wrong" but do nothing extra either. They'll either hook you up with a raise or fire you. Either way its on your terms.
I suppose next we'll be hearing about a new sort of sci-fi device called a "laser". Perhaps this "laser" can be used with the "force field" to sculpt pictures of world leaders onto the face of the moon...
omg that was funny...lmao.
They really should just install a chinese masseuse from Ling Ling's massage parlor in each room.
How lousy does your software have to be for India to say, "wow, I dont want to waste my time on this, let's outsource it to some other third world country and just keep the $50 bucks difference"
Taking a recorded track and using it in your own recording in a studio is called sampling. I call it theft. Hiring musicians to play a modification of a song you have made on your own is arranging and IS protected. I.E. it becomes YOUR intillectual property, assuming you cite your sources as creating the original that you then changed. Rap, as a genre is notorious for sampling? Is it because they are not actually musicians? Maybe. *ducks
How much for the hot chick with the rifle?
Excellent point, but not the greatest of analogies. Its more like a kid playing with a supercolider and randomly tossing things into it. We really have little if any understanding of what the broad ramifications of genetic engineering will be. Its not to say that there isnt trememdous potential for benefiting mankind. The problem is that we may in-advertantly be the kid that starts an atomic chain reaction that destroys the planet after hitting our plastic G.I. Joe figure with too many Gluons...
News Flash!
Man builds a better beaver!
I received an email yesterday detailing a company with infomation about the official "make-your-shlong-longer" gene. Wonder if that would be unethical to mess with...
There are 2 things geeks in college have in abundance: free time and the want to break things. Now that every geek with a heartbeat and a B0x0rz knows there IS a flaw in this card system then they can go ahead and track it down on their own. Free access to EE labs is a beautiful thing. Let's wait and see how long it takes before they are ripped off to the tune of a couple million dollars.
Not every MMORPG is for everyone. Those from the happy smiley love your neighbor world of Everquest might well be put off by the dark, dreary, scary, less-than - friendly world of shadowbane. This is by design. If you want to stay in munchkin land fine. Just understand that some people value more complicated and realistic social interaction a la shadowbane where the "Social Contract", not GMs maintain order in the world. In all seriousness, for those not familiar with the world of Shadowbane, there exists the ability for any player to attack any other player at any time for any reason. Much like real life, you dont pick a fight unless you really really want to fight. Also, picking on those weaker than you can get your butt kicked by thier big brother. Something known as the Social Contract keeps everyone somewhat in line. I dont hurt you, you dont hurt me, and we're both better off as friends. Sound like real life to anyone? That's becuase it is. Any free society will tend to lean toward the way of order and peace (at least within a community) because it is in the best interest of each member of that community. A$$holes are we? At least we're educated ones.
The reason a lot of "geeks" like MMORPGs is the ability to be someone else; anyone else. While good role-playing isnt always easy to find online, there are a significant number of mature rpg fans that actually portray a character, not themselves. There are some "powergamers" that run around and just want to be the biggest and the baddest, but there are a substantial number of Dungeons and Dragons converts that value a well role-played [ read "acted"] scenario. Good role-playing is acting. Moreover its an creative and psycological outlet where you can express yourself through a persona you adopt, no strings attached. While some of the kiddies that like the MMORPGs will run around being 1337 Ub3r d00ds you'll find a more substantial community that value the social interaction, and even some combat with other mature role-players with distinctive characters.
I live in Martin County, FL. Let me tell you; This system is a great tool for the simple reason that most people's (and kid's) view of education isnt quite the same as elsewhere in the country. The value placed on quality public education is just not sufficient. This new system provides an easy way parents can proactivaly keep their kids on track with minimal effort. Thanks to great beaches and a great climate its no real suprise that all the kids in Taco bell cant count change for poop.
The entire state of FL has its problems with public education, but giving parents instant involvement in their kids' daily shool life is a great start.
"He copied the MS Bios code, modified it, and sold it."
Fair enough, but how is that a criminal act exactly? Why is this guy in jail? He is certainly infringing on intellectual property rights and can be sued for damages in CIVIL courts. I'm not entirely sure this is a criminal activity at all. Should he have to pay damages to MS? Certainly, but he should not be fined nor should he be in jail.
When you buy an Xbox you buy hardware. Circuit boards, microchips, a hard drive, a GPU, a CPU, RAM. You are not buying the same sort of thing when you buy software, where you are technically buying a license, not a disk with software on it.
You should be able to modify any equipment you own without fear of prosecution because the effect of that modification could possibly, in certain specific circumstances, violate copyright laws.
It's like arresting someone for putting a better engine in their car becuase "They might decide to speed", or worse, arresting the person who sold the performace parts.
Violating the terms of a contract is not necessarily illegal. It's likely a civil matter that would have to be resolved in a persribed manner. In no case would a fine or imprissonment come into the picture because your ISP neither legislates nor enforces LAWS, only business policy. Run all the servers you want. The ISP has the rigth only to terminate your service for breach of contract. This legislation would cause many forms of network security and connection sharing to be illegal. For example: If firewalls are no longer permitted every Major Operating system would have to change their kernel or they would be encouraging lawlessness. Personal Firewall in WinXP anyone? Heck, Linux and the XBSD line have integrated firewall and network security that is at the core of their structure.
To summarize, contract != law. Violating the terms of a contract, such as NAT or running non-permitted personal servers costs you $$$ but you will not wind up in "Federal pound me in the A$$ prison" for it.
Does it complicate matters that Free internet porn and ads of the like are themselves often spam? A = Bad, B = Good, A = B... ????
"...but you know how many false alarms there would be as people pushed buttons on other tables? "
Like beer-tapping gone horibly wrong. Start hitting your buddy's refill buzzer when he's draining the lizard! Wait, I'm seeing a drinking game here...
On the contrary, I'm an American and I like nudity!
The destinction commonly used to define a terrorist act as opposed to a really really bad attack during wartime is the following: A political and diplomatic state of "War". The bombings of dresden and Tokyo involved a horrible loss of life. If the ARMY AIR CORE(not the USAF) had the technology to only destroy military targets they would have (much as the USAF currenlty does with laser guided weapons and cruise missiles). Furthermore, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese when the US and Japan WERE NOT AT WAR (i.e. an act of terrorism) a formal war was begun. As such, attacks on industrial centers should be expected and civilian populations should have evacuated much as the English city of Coventry was evacuated when it was learned that it was going to be bombed durring WWII..
um, there was no USAF until 1947...after WWII which ended in 1945. At the time it was the Army Air Core. I agree, its sad that people have to die in war, but isnt that your point? If you're going to be a tree hugging anti-war hippy at least be an educated one. Huah! First Amendment...
I'd recommend taking some discreet math or logic courses and a junior college. It will ease you into more complex math and most likely allow you to avoid calculus, which tends to turn off people who aren't "into math".