The historic problem with this approach is also accountability - ballot stuffing (i.e. putting lots of extra paper ballots in the box) has always been a problem with paper ballots. If there are a suspicious number of votes in the box, how do you tell who put the extras in, which candidate they were voting for, etc?
There is a bit of info on this page about the problem. The parties used to actually force people to vote on coloured paper depending on who they were supporting, and they made the ballot box transparent - so they could always tell who you were voting for! Of course, if all the officials at a particular voting station were corrupt, then practically anything could happen.
Political Commentator: And now it's time, I think, for a result, and tension is running very high here. Mr. Blackadder assures me that this will be the first honest vote ever in a rotten borough. And I think we all hope for a result which reflects the real needs of the constituency. And behind me...yes, I can just see the Returning Officer moving to the front of the platform.
Blackadder: As the Acting Returning Officer of Dunny-on-the-World...
Commentator: The acting Returning Officer, Mr. E. Blackadder, of course. And we're all very grateful, indeed, that he stepped in at the last minute, when the previous Returning Officer accidently brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving.
Blackadder: I now announce the number of votes cast as follows: Brigadier General Horace Bolsom...
(Pitt the Even Younger turns to his mum and cries)
Blackadder: Mr. S. Baldrick...
Commentator: Adder Party...
Blackadder: Sixteen thousand, four hundred, and seventy-two.
(Cheers are heard.)
...
Commentator: And now, finally, a word with the man who is at the center of this bi- election mystery: the voter himself. And his name is Mr. E. Bla-- Mr. Blackadder, *you* are the only voter in this rotten borough...?
Blackadder: Yes, that's right.
Commentator: How long have you lived in this constituency?
Blackadder: Since Wednesday morning. I took over the previous electorate when he, very sadly, accidently brutally cut his head off while combing his hair.
Commentator: One voter; 16,472 votes. A slight anomaly...?
Blackadder: Not really -- you see, Baldrick may look like a monkey who's been put in a suit and then strategically shaved, but he is a brilliant politician. The number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in his policies.
...the flamebait mod-squad is on your ass like stink on a monkey!
I mean, I would say its relatively, well, 'insightful' to compare MS withdrawing from a UN software group with the US withdrawing from the international community. The motives and consequences could be realistically compared and the likely outcomes considered. We could then discuss multilateralism as a business/technology concept as well as a purely political notion, and maybe make a few connections with the idea of the GPL.
But, hey, what would I know? I'm just a regular, informed followed of technology news and international politics. Not a suburban geek ha>or g0d like most of our moderator betters.
"It's like that drug trip in that movie I saw when I was on that drug trip."
Seriously though, what is this p.o.s? My first photoshop day? Or have the olympics inspired a world record attempt for the destruction of a perfectly good web server in the shortest time possible by linking to a high resolution image directly in a./ headline?
999X DIGITAL ZOOM! Actually creates data out of nothing WHILE YOU ARE ZOOMING! Who needs those fancy optics and lenses and whotnot?! DIGITAL is part of the WORLD OF TOMORROW!
Seriously, though, without an extra lens how could it be anything but 'digital zoom' (i.e. 'magnification')?
On the other hand, most people nowadays appear to be dumb enough to buy anything so long as it is digital or contains the prefix i- or e-, so maybe we can just market these as "eYes : now with DIGITAL zoom."
But the audio is seriously changed in places. For example, in Jabba's palace you have that stupid singing critter over the top of the rest of the sounds. It would take an absolute sound-ninja to fix all the little places where Lucas has fucked over the original soundtrack to match his 'vision' for the series.
It looks incredible, doesn't it. For my money, the 'squeezing' compression produces one of the best images I've seen for non-hardcore home theatre. With a good DVD player running component video, it's a sight to behold, and as you rightly observe ordinary TV, sport, etc. it's in glorious big-screen.
Me too! I think I probably have a very similar setup, right down to the same sized Wega, and I estimate it cost me less than half what it would have with a 'true' widescreen.
The thing that really rips is that 'widescreen' is not even true cinema widescreen. Why not go the whole hog?!
Is it true that in the US you are being shown a medal tally that is the sum total of all medals? In Australia we see nations ranked by Gold, then Silver, then Bronze.
Perhaps this is a little off topic, but can someone explain to me why there is such a huge price discrepency between standard 4:3 televisions and standard widescreen televisions? For instance, here in Australia a 68cm 4:3 Sony TV costs around A$850-900. A 76cm widescreen costs about A$2000-2500.
Am I missing something obvious, or is this just blatant pimping of the market while demand for widescreens is high? I can't see why there would be much more tech involved in a widescreen vs. standard ratio screen.
As a secondary question (for extra credit), are people really so dumb that they don't realise that a large 4:3 TV is the same *width* as a marginally smaller 'widescreen' TV at a fraction of the price? If consumers are this dumb, what hope is there for market-driven 'evolution' of technology?
I remember the halcyon days of my youth, stomping across the countryside, totally annihilating things in this baby. I never thought I see her again, but there she is in all her OpenGL glory!
* High resolution maps, viewable from all angles and ranges
* Dynamic map with craters from weapon and unit explosions
* Work with unit files from Total annihilation
* Realistic 3D trajectories for weapons
* Fully 3D aircombat
* Several camera modes to suit different tastes
If at all possible, they should run the game engine from TA with the new, 3D interface over the top. I realise this may not be possible, but it should be possible to emulate it with a very high degree of precision, because every single thing in TA was logically structured. For example, any unit could guard any other object in the game. If I set unit A to guard unit B, and B to guard C, the game could handle this with ease.
Furthermore, the use of actual ballistics for the guns was very cool - your units had to move their weapons, aim, and fire at an angle that would reach the destination. If there were obstacles in the way, the shots would fly across the map and smash into the hills around the target structure. And, as you would expect, the further away something was, the harder it got to hit.
If they can just take the game and give it 3D terrain, DirectX or OpenGL support, updated (but not redesigned) models and effects and modern multiplayer, I'll be in heaven. So will anyone else who likes RTS for the sake of playing.
In the mean time, if you have been into RTS games for a relatively short period of time, I urge you to go and get hold of Total Annihilation, Red Alert 1 and Red Alert 2. You don't know what you're missing!
WC3 was not particularly innovative IMHO, even in the graphics department. Ground Control was waaay prettier and had better controls etc.
Even after playing WC3 I still return to Total Annihilation and Red Alert 2, surely two of the very best RTS games. I wish developers would realise that it is the gameplay and character of a RTS game that is crucial, not the pandering to D&D nerds with 'super' characters or allowing/forcing you to view the action from about 2 feet off the ground.
If I could change one thing about current RTS games, it would be to let me see the action from the same altitude as Total Annihilation running at 1280x1024... I want command and control, dammit, not a nice view of my soldiers faces as they get slaughtered because I am not zoomed out enough to see attacks coming. C&C Generals and WC3 were both particularly guilty of this - in Generals you can barely fit 3 buildings in one screen. In TA I could fit dozens of buildings in a screen and still know wtf was going on.
Well, the RAM in your computer works on a similar principle and tolerates an absolute shitload more reads and writes in its lifetime than your hard disk will. And in my experience a hard disk is WAY more likely to fail due to usage than RAM, which tends to either break straight away (i.e. manufacturing defect) or live forever, relatively.
Ok, point taken, I guess I missed the point of your post to a certain extent. I get very frustrated when people support Apple, all other things being equal, because they are 'better'.
However, I agree, no question Dell would probably screw it up design wise. And then blame Microsoft.
Flamebait is not me posting something that you, the moderator, disagree with. It is posting something deliberately designed to attract flaming... flame... bait. See how that works?
So for example, if I were to say, "you are a fucktard Apple fanboy who thinks that a woman is more interested in the inches of your Powerbook than the inches in your pants", THAT would be '-1 flamebait' territory. On the other hand, if I were to assert that Apple does not deserve mindless adulation and any company that comes up with a good idea should be praised, be they Apple or Dell or whoever, that would be an OPINION THAT DIFFERS FROM YOURS and I should be allowed to express it here.
MODERATION IS NOT DESIGNED TO LET YOU ENFORCE YOUR VIEWS ON OTHERS. It is designed to maintain a decent standard of conversation here. You are contributing to a pathetic cooperative censorship operation by Apple devotees that routinely obliterates any post that does not praise Apple.
Did it occur to you (a) that noone has flamed my post prior to your helpful censoring of its harmful content or (b) that someone else had already modded it up as 'insightful'? Maybe, just maybe, you are wrong. Think about it, please.
How about this? It may not do stripes but it pretty much does everything else we seem to be talking about - computing device, unlimited range of colours, programmable by software, entire outer surface changes, can be configured to represent various data sources...
At the very least, I would say this makes Apple's 'idea' a semi-obvious one, which might defeat its patent.
Perhaps it just shows how important a mindlessly biased and unquestioning fanbase is.
If Dell did it and not Apple, I would still think it was pretty nifty. But apparently you would turn up your nose and possibly publish a mini-thesis here about how coloured lights are a tacky, show off Windoze thing and no substitute for a nice white egg-shaped thing that can run OS-X.
I imagine a debate about how PC gaming lusers are the only target market for something so stupid would then ensue.
Your comment is quite depressing. Like Apple, don't deify it.
Let's not forget that this *is* Slashdot. So for most people here you are certainly not going to need a whole disc.
Exhibit A: the number of 'how much of my p0rn collection would fit on one of these babies' jokes posted in the first 0.025 nanoseconds after the story was posted.
Slashdot Mirror
The historic problem with this approach is also accountability - ballot stuffing (i.e. putting lots of extra paper ballots in the box) has always been a problem with paper ballots. If there are a suspicious number of votes in the box, how do you tell who put the extras in, which candidate they were voting for, etc?
R esidents Party...
- Stupid Party...
There is a bit of info on this page about the problem. The parties used to actually force people to vote on coloured paper depending on who they were supporting, and they made the ballot box transparent - so they could always tell who you were voting for! Of course, if all the officials at a particular voting station were corrupt, then practically anything could happen.
And, while I agree that without the correct technology paper voting as it is used in the UK and Australia is a much better plan, it's not as though the British system hasn't been the home of massive electoral fraud over the years. Blackadder probably sums it up pretty well:
Political Commentator: And now it's time, I think, for a result, and tension is running very high here. Mr. Blackadder assures me that this will be the first honest vote ever in a rotten borough. And I think we all hope for a result which reflects the real needs of the constituency. And behind me...yes, I can just see the Returning Officer moving to the front of the platform.
Blackadder: As the Acting Returning Officer of Dunny-on-the-World...
Commentator: The acting Returning Officer, Mr. E. Blackadder, of course. And we're all very grateful, indeed, that he stepped in at the last minute, when the previous Returning Officer accidently brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving.
Blackadder: I now announce the number of votes cast as follows: Brigadier General Horace Bolsom...
Commentator: Cheap-Royalty-White-Rat-Catching-And-Safe-Sewage-
Blackadder: No votes.
Blackadder: Ivor Jest-ye-not-madam Biggun...
Commentator: Standing-At-The-Back-Dressed-Stupidly-And-Looking
Blackadder: No votes.
Blackadder: Pitt, the Even Younger...
Commantator: Whig...
Blackadder: No votes.
Commentator: Oh, there's a shock.
(Pitt the Even Younger turns to his mum and cries)
Blackadder: Mr. S. Baldrick...
Commentator: Adder Party...
Blackadder: Sixteen thousand, four hundred, and seventy-two.
(Cheers are heard.)
...
Commentator: And now, finally, a word with the man who is at the center of this bi- election mystery: the voter himself. And his name is Mr. E. Bla-- Mr. Blackadder, *you* are the only voter in this rotten borough...?
Blackadder: Yes, that's right.
Commentator: How long have you lived in this constituency?
Blackadder: Since Wednesday morning. I took over the previous electorate when he, very sadly, accidently brutally cut his head off while combing his hair.
Commentator: One voter; 16,472 votes. A slight anomaly...?
Blackadder: Not really -- you see, Baldrick may look like a monkey who's been put in a suit and then strategically shaved, but he is a brilliant politician. The number of votes I cast is simply a reflection of how firmly I believe in his policies.
...the flamebait mod-squad is on your ass like stink on a monkey!
I mean, I would say its relatively, well, 'insightful' to compare MS withdrawing from a UN software group with the US withdrawing from the international community. The motives and consequences could be realistically compared and the likely outcomes considered. We could then discuss multilateralism as a business/technology concept as well as a purely political notion, and maybe make a few connections with the idea of the GPL.
But, hey, what would I know? I'm just a regular, informed followed of technology news and international politics. Not a suburban geek ha>or g0d like most of our moderator betters.
I see you at the bottom of the mod pit.
"It's like that drug trip in that movie I saw when I was on that drug trip."
./ headline?
Seriously though, what is this p.o.s? My first photoshop day? Or have the olympics inspired a world record attempt for the destruction of a perfectly good web server in the shortest time possible by linking to a high resolution image directly in a
So in other words you would cripple the device in its basic mode, then 'enhance' the image by un-crippling it to make full use of its resolution?
Not really a zoom in my book.
By the way, don't tell digital camera companies or they'll start with a default image size of 30x40 pixels and a 100x 'optical sensor' zoom.
999X DIGITAL ZOOM! Actually creates data out of nothing WHILE YOU ARE ZOOMING! Who needs those fancy optics and lenses and whotnot?! DIGITAL is part of the WORLD OF TOMORROW!
Seriously, though, without an extra lens how could it be anything but 'digital zoom' (i.e. 'magnification')?
On the other hand, most people nowadays appear to be dumb enough to buy anything so long as it is digital or contains the prefix i- or e-, so maybe we can just market these as "eYes : now with DIGITAL zoom."
Some info about the various types of bionic eyes currently being built can be found on Wired.
Brain implant anyone?
But the audio is seriously changed in places. For example, in Jabba's palace you have that stupid singing critter over the top of the rest of the sounds. It would take an absolute sound-ninja to fix all the little places where Lucas has fucked over the original soundtrack to match his 'vision' for the series.
Laserdisc is non-digital, though - correct?
It looks incredible, doesn't it. For my money, the 'squeezing' compression produces one of the best images I've seen for non-hardcore home theatre. With a good DVD player running component video, it's a sight to behold, and as you rightly observe ordinary TV, sport, etc. it's in glorious big-screen.
Me too! I think I probably have a very similar setup, right down to the same sized Wega, and I estimate it cost me less than half what it would have with a 'true' widescreen.
The thing that really rips is that 'widescreen' is not even true cinema widescreen. Why not go the whole hog?!
Actually, I will lay claim to having predicted this, right here.
...and they called me crazy! Well, who's a high paid consultant at PwC now? Hahahahahahaaa!
Is it true that in the US you are being shown a medal tally that is the sum total of all medals? In Australia we see nations ranked by Gold, then Silver, then Bronze.
Correct. Being 'good' is just an amalgam of money, population from which to select specimens, logistics, mentality of competitors etc. etc.
Unless you would care to assert that there is a genetic (i.e. racial) reason for 'goodness', in which case you are a braver person than I.
Perhaps this is a little off topic, but can someone explain to me why there is such a huge price discrepency between standard 4:3 televisions and standard widescreen televisions? For instance, here in Australia a 68cm 4:3 Sony TV costs around A$850-900. A 76cm widescreen costs about A$2000-2500.
Am I missing something obvious, or is this just blatant pimping of the market while demand for widescreens is high? I can't see why there would be much more tech involved in a widescreen vs. standard ratio screen.
As a secondary question (for extra credit), are people really so dumb that they don't realise that a large 4:3 TV is the same *width* as a marginally smaller 'widescreen' TV at a fraction of the price? If consumers are this dumb, what hope is there for market-driven 'evolution' of technology?
I do belive this is a Krogoth Experimental Assault Kbot.
Ah, memories...
I remember the halcyon days of my youth, stomping across the countryside, totally annihilating things in this baby. I never thought I see her again, but there she is in all her OpenGL glory!
Current features:
* High resolution maps, viewable from all angles and ranges
* Dynamic map with craters from weapon and unit explosions
* Work with unit files from Total annihilation
* Realistic 3D trajectories for weapons
* Fully 3D aircombat
* Several camera modes to suit different tastes
Knees buckle... oooooohhhh yeeeeeaaaahhhh!
If at all possible, they should run the game engine from TA with the new, 3D interface over the top. I realise this may not be possible, but it should be possible to emulate it with a very high degree of precision, because every single thing in TA was logically structured. For example, any unit could guard any other object in the game. If I set unit A to guard unit B, and B to guard C, the game could handle this with ease.
Furthermore, the use of actual ballistics for the guns was very cool - your units had to move their weapons, aim, and fire at an angle that would reach the destination. If there were obstacles in the way, the shots would fly across the map and smash into the hills around the target structure. And, as you would expect, the further away something was, the harder it got to hit.
If they can just take the game and give it 3D terrain, DirectX or OpenGL support, updated (but not redesigned) models and effects and modern multiplayer, I'll be in heaven. So will anyone else who likes RTS for the sake of playing.
In the mean time, if you have been into RTS games for a relatively short period of time, I urge you to go and get hold of Total Annihilation, Red Alert 1 and Red Alert 2. You don't know what you're missing!
WC3 was not particularly innovative IMHO, even in the graphics department. Ground Control was waaay prettier and had better controls etc.
Even after playing WC3 I still return to Total Annihilation and Red Alert 2, surely two of the very best RTS games. I wish developers would realise that it is the gameplay and character of a RTS game that is crucial, not the pandering to D&D nerds with 'super' characters or allowing/forcing you to view the action from about 2 feet off the ground.
If I could change one thing about current RTS games, it would be to let me see the action from the same altitude as Total Annihilation running at 1280x1024... I want command and control, dammit, not a nice view of my soldiers faces as they get slaughtered because I am not zoomed out enough to see attacks coming. C&C Generals and WC3 were both particularly guilty of this - in Generals you can barely fit 3 buildings in one screen. In TA I could fit dozens of buildings in a screen and still know wtf was going on.
You know, I would, but despite have 'excellent' karma for as long as I can remember, I have never, EVER had mod points. Any idea why this would be?
Well, the RAM in your computer works on a similar principle and tolerates an absolute shitload more reads and writes in its lifetime than your hard disk will. And in my experience a hard disk is WAY more likely to fail due to usage than RAM, which tends to either break straight away (i.e. manufacturing defect) or live forever, relatively.
Ok, point taken, I guess I missed the point of your post to a certain extent. I get very frustrated when people support Apple, all other things being equal, because they are 'better'.
However, I agree, no question Dell would probably screw it up design wise. And then blame Microsoft.
Flamebait is not me posting something that you, the moderator, disagree with. It is posting something deliberately designed to attract flaming ... flame... bait. See how that works?
So for example, if I were to say, "you are a fucktard Apple fanboy who thinks that a woman is more interested in the inches of your Powerbook than the inches in your pants", THAT would be '-1 flamebait' territory. On the other hand, if I were to assert that Apple does not deserve mindless adulation and any company that comes up with a good idea should be praised, be they Apple or Dell or whoever, that would be an OPINION THAT DIFFERS FROM YOURS and I should be allowed to express it here.
MODERATION IS NOT DESIGNED TO LET YOU ENFORCE YOUR VIEWS ON OTHERS. It is designed to maintain a decent standard of conversation here. You are contributing to a pathetic cooperative censorship operation by Apple devotees that routinely obliterates any post that does not praise Apple.
Did it occur to you (a) that noone has flamed my post prior to your helpful censoring of its harmful content or (b) that someone else had already modded it up as 'insightful'? Maybe, just maybe, you are wrong. Think about it, please.
Seriously, fuck you.
How about this? It may not do stripes but it pretty much does everything else we seem to be talking about - computing device, unlimited range of colours, programmable by software, entire outer surface changes, can be configured to represent various data sources...
At the very least, I would say this makes Apple's 'idea' a semi-obvious one, which might defeat its patent.
Perhaps it just shows how important a mindlessly biased and unquestioning fanbase is.
If Dell did it and not Apple, I would still think it was pretty nifty. But apparently you would turn up your nose and possibly publish a mini-thesis here about how coloured lights are a tacky, show off Windoze thing and no substitute for a nice white egg-shaped thing that can run OS-X.
I imagine a debate about how PC gaming lusers are the only target market for something so stupid would then ensue.
Your comment is quite depressing. Like Apple, don't deify it.
Let's not forget that this *is* Slashdot. So for most people here you are certainly not going to need a whole disc.
Exhibit A: the number of 'how much of my p0rn collection would fit on one of these babies' jokes posted in the first 0.025 nanoseconds after the story was posted.