I don't agree. As others said with the Sony article, they're playing to the lowest common denominator. Most of the country has TVs that can handle your standard video+left/right inputs (the term escapes me at the moment). It makes sense to just include that cable and save costs, and allow those who have the fancier TVs to buy the fancier cables.
It's the same reason that they won't be including the DVD dongle with the set- to keep the price lower. If you want to play DVDs on it, great, go out and buy the dongle. Those who just want to play games, which are the majority of purchasers, won't have to pay extra for features they won't use.
The best way to teach and be tought, in my opinion, is to do. You can read all about making wheels from a book, but to watch someone make a wheel, and then make a wheel yourself with that person guiding you, will give you a much greater amount of knowledge and understanding. This is why job experience is generally more desired than a college degree.
However, cecause of class sizes, time, and limited access to the needed tools to demonstrate each and every topic, that isn't a real possibility except for once-a-week labs. Then there are some classes, like math, where you really can't do much else than have everyone sit and listen.
So to make them pay attention, you need to make them interactive. A lot of students are loathe to participate, because they're worried that they'll answer wrong and look like a fool in front of the professor and other students. To get them away from this idea, you have to get them to interact on a level where there is no wrong answer.
This is more easily accomplished in philosophy and literature classes, where you mainly state opinions. As long as it is thought out, there really is no wrong answer.
So what to do for the rest? Well, a good start would be to take one class a week to only work on example problems. Let's take math as an example. You're working on complex integrals. You can take from the book and get an answer, but it's better to set up some unknown situation and work through it. Get a bunch of small nerf balls, and at the start of each problem throw them at people. The person you throw it at gives a number, range, or math function, and that is put into the equation. Once it's complete, try doing the same for the various steps you would take.
Another way to help interaction is to find things that students can do in the class itself. For instance, if you are talking about center of mass, have everyone take out a pen or pencil and balance it on their ring finger, explaining that where the pencil touches the finger is the center of mass.
There are ways to interact, but they require some creativity, and I applaud you for trying to make class something more than just listening to a speech.
(You could try saying "shit" once in a while for added shock value. Some of my best professors were profane.)
According to an MSNBC article, this information is also accompanied with the fact that there will only be 400K launch units in the U.S., and 100K in Japan.
If you ask me, Sony is setting themselves up for a lot of hurt by short-changing Japan so much. Granted, they have a smaller population than the U.S., but the Japanese (as a culture) are far more likely to pick up the latest and greatest gadgets (which is why they've had full video cell phones for a while now, while we're just getting them). Add this to the fact that Japanese gamers apparently adore games like Final Fantasy, and I would bet that a larger number of Japanese gamers would be willing to shell out $600.
Even so, the American market may yet buy up all 400K units. The Playstation 2 had an initial shipment of 500K units, and sold out on day one. But will there really be enough demand for the PS3, considering how reversed the position is?
So what methods can be used to provide these pod-casts for the students who actually attended class?
The correct answer should be "none".
I've never understood this mentality of many of the professors I have. Everyone learns in different ways- some learn by listening to a guy talk for an hour straight. Others learn by reading a book. Some learn by doing. This is the college level, so why should students be pidgeon-holed into one of these types? If someone can learn the required information and pass the tests without attending the class, more power to them.
Put the pod-casts online for anyone who has a regular university username.
If someone attends the class, they'll be able to use it to review what the professor said.
If someone is sick or busy and doesn't attent the class, they can review what they missed.
If someone doesn't need to attend the class, they can use the videos to see if the professor offers insights into something the book may be a little iffy on.
If someone doesn't care about the class, then this won't matter worth shit to them.
If the companies are looking to release a new product, they should strive for a better, cheaper stand alone DVD Recorder. These are still fairly expensive when compared to a VCR.
I've also noticed that a lot of the DVD Recorder units are big and bulky. They can also work towards making them smaller.
...then listen to my story. Comcast didn't raise my rates, they put a debt on my credit score when they owed me money.
I had recently cancelled Comcast, and checking through my bank records I found that I had paid them for an extra month. I called up, gave my old account number, and said that I overpaid and would like a refund. They rattled off some number that was only about half of what I paid, but I didn't want to deal with the hastle of pushing the issue and accepted it. Soon thereafter, I moved, completely forgetting about the refund check that I should have received.
About three months later I go back to collect any mail that collected for me, only to find three notices from a debt collector- "is due, pay soon", "is due, pay now", and "is due, you're screwed"- on behalf of Comcast. Checking the amount owed, it was exactly the amount that they owed me!
It was Christmas day, I had had surgury less than a week before and was still in pain, so this just made me furious. I called the 800 number for comcast, who said I had to call the local place (they couldn't even provide the local number, feh). I dialed the local area, and, surprisingly, I got an answer. I explained my predicament to the woman on the phone, she saw where they had made mistake, and fixed it, removing the debt. I'll give them credit for being able to take care of my problem on Christmas day, but I will work my hardest to never use their service again.
I should have pushed to get my refund, but I decided that I didn't care that much, and I didn't want to wind up with another debt notice on my credit score. I really should check it to make sure it got scrubbed.
It looks like both are taking in the ideas of consumers during development.
Didn't we have news stories within the last month or two stating that the controls for both Twilight Princess and Red Steel had been changed to allow you to control the actual sword (in a more precise manner)?
I can't for the life of me remember which article stated it, but I read an article talking about the differences in multi-platform games. Apparently, on the 360/PS3, you can map certain actions to certain buttons, but you never have full immediate access to all moves for all characters.
With the Wii, where every movement in a different direction is a mappable button unto itself, you have immediate access to every move for every character based on the motions.
_ Learn from Nintendo. Touchscreen it's the solution.
This is a big misconception.
It's not really that Nintendo included a touchscreen on the handheld that made it a hit, it's that they included something more. Instead of just creating a more powerful Gameboy, they went above your general controller scheme to add in new functionality.
That's why it does so well. It gives the consumer more than the 'standard', while the PSP gives just gives the 'standard' (except with better graphics). If Sony added a light sensor, a motion sensor, some sort of camera with pattern recognization, anything like that into the PSP (or PSP2), then it would catch on better. As it is, the PSP is basically a much more powerful better Game Boy Advance, which is why it lacks sales.
"Sen. Stevens does have a hold on the bill," said the spokesman, who would only speak on the condition he not be named.
While I wouldn't be terribly surprised it was him, an "unnamed spokesman" shouldn't be taken at full face value.
If it is him, then the weight of the interturbes on his shoulders will hopefully make him recant. But don't be surprised if it's not.
TPM has/had a campaign to contact all the Senators to get responses. I don't seem him on the list of updates, but who's to say that someone that is on the list of "not him/hers" isn't lying?
In any case, I hope that whatever prick placed this "secret block" (just what the hell is that, anyway?) lifts it so we can get this database bill passed. We would take a great step forward in repairing this country if we could easily find the frivilous spendatures and who commissions them.
Having impartial juries without media influence sounds like a damn good idea to me; I wouldn't mind seeing similar laws in the States. Too many high-profile cases are now "Trial by Media", where the media puts all sorts or horrible twists on the case to get ratings, and the sheeple (the same ones who can't get out of jury duty) just absorb it and take it with them.
What was that case a few months back, the one with Scott Peterson? I didn't follow it much, but from what I remember most of the evidence was circumstancial, and he just got crucified by the media because he was cheating on his wife.
Both articles are a little scarce with exactly what you can do with the music.
Is it like Yahoo's service, where you can "download" the song and play it whenever you like, but you can't burn it to a CD? And if you want to move it to an external drive, you have to pay extra?
Or will this be a complete file that can be downloaded to my PC and media-shifted? (preferrably CD-burnable, and I'm sure someone will figure out how to get around whatever DRM they put on it).
The bloated workforce of more than 60,000 could be slashed, to the point where the huge resulting increase in cash flow would at last permit the company to borrow mega-billions
If a company can make a profit of a billion a year, yet still be able to afford all of that "bloat", then why cut the costs?
Why have 10,000 people lose their job just so that some investor's porfolio can go up a quarter of a percent? (veiled Office Space reference)
It's a wonder I'm not more cynical.
Bush isn't the reason for unemployment (well, not the full reason), it's people with these kinds of ideas. "We make a lot of money. Let's fire a bunch of people and ruin some lives so we can make even more money!"
This is a decision that the Media Player folks made because there are just too many ways right now for unsigned kernel mode code [to compromise content protection].
So, if it's a Media Player decision, does that mean that this only matters if you use WMP? If that's the case, I'll continue using my vastly superior ZoomPlayer, thankyouverymuch. (Though I don't plan on ever buying HD-DVD or Blu Ray movies.)
The media companies asked us to do this and said they don't want any of their high definition content to play in x32 at all, because of all of the unsigned malware that runs in kernel mode can get around content protection, so we had to do this.
I'm sure the CEOs thought for a good three seconds on whether or not to try and fight this. One CEO probably opened his mouth to yawn, and before it was even half open the media industry had whipped out a big fat check.
Vista keeps looking more and more worthless. I think once (if ever) XP becomes useless to me, I'll just upgrade to Linux.
What they really should do is what Microsoft did- release a "dumbed down" SDK for cheap cheap cheap. Then little garage setups can tinker and release small games, and eventually get enough "cred" to get a real SDK.
Looks like his actual site server is getting trashed, but the last time I was there you could download another song, "You're Pitiful".
It's pretty app when thinking about the steretypical Slashdot person.:o
From what I can remember, he put it online because some copyright/trademark thing kept him from using it on the next album. Not sure what it was, though. It looks like you can at least listen to it on his MySpace page.
One thing I love about Weird Al's songs is that he does his research. In the song from this "article", he mentions such things as Kazaa. In "All about the Pentiums", he throws out a lot of technical terms.
Weird Al is one of my favorite people ever. He's pretty good to his fans, he fights the true fight, and is hilarious to boot. I can't wait for this next album.
Yes. But, try as I might, I just could not find a baby that would dance. I mean, I found one that bobbed its head with the music, but that isn't dancing.
I even tried to get some of them started by moving their arms and legs around a bit in dancing fashion. I had to stop that quickly, though, as the moms apparently don't like me taking the kids out of the stroller.
So, here I am, with no dancing baby.
Instead, I've moved on to owls that say catch phrases repeatedly.
I don't think the problem was over-hyper. Yes, SoaP got attention on a lot of big websites like Fark and Digg, each with a readership numbering a few hundered thousand. But how many people actually stated that they wanted to see this movie?
Not nearly as many as New Line Cinema was guessing, I bet. Even so, SoaP was all the rage for a few months, so it's easy to get into the notion that it was going to be a smashing hit.
But one needs to realize that what you generally see/hear on the Internet isn't necessarily representative of the populace in general. Back in 2004, I was sure that Kerry was going to take the Presidential slot by quite a bit, despite being a Bush supporter (yes, I've realized my mistakes since then). Then Bush barely beat out Kerry, instead.
So what happened, both then and now? A few things.
First, the Internet is a great thing that covers the entire globe. This means that you're going to get opinions from a lot of places whose opinion, frankly, doesn't really matter overall. (Not that they shouldn't state their opinion, but someone from Russia talking about who they would vote for in the American primaries doesn't make a lick of difference.) This residual noise is going to confound the actual outcome to a point.
Second, turn out. While a lot of people say they'll go out and vote for Kerry, or go out and see the movie, that doesn't mean they'll actually do it. In this instance, people on Fark set up SoaP "Parties" for people to get together, drink a bit, then go laugh at the movie. Many of these requested RSVPs, and a lot of the people who hosted such parties said that a good portion of the RSVPs didn't show up.
Third, anonymity and 'fitting in'. People can claim on the internet to do things or to have done things that they will never or have never done. A Bush supporter that is an active member of a website that's predominantly anti-Bush is more likely to make anti-Bush comments so s/he won't be ridiculed. Similarly, someone might say that they are interested in SoaP so they can be part of the online group, but really don't give a damn.
It's the very reason that Slashdot has their little blurb above all polls:
This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.
The internet is wildly inaccurate except under the most precise of circumstances and settings, and even then the numbers can be flubbed.
At least this means that we (hopefully) won't see a lot of studios trying to build internet hype, when all the internet hype was created entirely by fans.
While this was probably meant as funny, I would see it as being too far from a possibility, both in this and other games with musical instruments. With the speaker built into the remote, you would use the A, B, and D-pad buttons for notes, and actually hear it coming out near your hands.
Imagine using this kind of stuff with Guitar Hero.
And if I've learned anything about repetitive physical exercise, it's that the more often you do it, the less tiring it becomes... you know, cardiovascular and muscular conditioning?
Something else to mention is that a lot of these games will have you standing up now and then, just because you either need to for an action (like in certain WarioWare minigames), or because you're getting into what you're doing on screen.
It's been stated time and again (including articles on Slashdot) that you become tired more quickly when sitting, because your body goes lax without having to exert the effort to support itself. So you'd actually be more awake and alert standing up than sitting down.
And has this man not played DDR? That thing is fun as hell, and you look especially spastic doing it.
That's just what I was thinking. There are already a lot of watchdog groups set up to find and out fradulant sellers. Some of these groups have even gotten together to lobby eBay for changes, without success. eBay basically holds a monopoly on online auctions (don't they hold a patent, as well?), and they're acting just like it by increasing fees and decreasing quality/customer service.
In addition to your proposition, a warning should be put on a page to say that it's been marked as such. If a regular user clicks the 'Report Auction' button, a small red line appears reading "This auction has been flagged as potentially fradulant by a regular user". It's not big and staring you right in the face, but it's near the voting box so you know that there could be problems later.
If a trusted volunteer says that there's a good chance of it being fradulant, the warning will get more strict and more noticeable.
While this whole process is going on, an e-mail should be sent to the auction owner telling them that their auction has been marked as fradulant. If they get to it before a volunteer does, they can put in a reply saying why it's not fradulant (reports should include reasons might be fradulant).
If an auction is removed for being fradulant, the user should have X days to counter the decision (assuming they didn't get to the previous e-mail early enough). If they succeed, it goes up with the time remaining when it was taken down. If they don't, or if they don't counter it, they're still charged the fee for posting the auction. Ideally, the account is closed at that point anyway, but if it's not they can't do anything auction-wise until they pay that cost.
Finally, volunteers should be able to mark "trash" auctions, as well. Ones like "Pay me $5 and I'll tell you how to get shit for free!" or that sell AOL CDs to help boost feedback ratings.
If I recall, the Americans waged a guerilla war against the British too.
I would say that's a very different situation.
The American Revolution was the British fighting the British. It could have almost been seen as a civil war, where the French came and lended a hand.
The Iraqis, on the other hand, appeared loathe to try and overthrow their own government. Granted, the post-war Iraqi government treated their people a lot worse than the British treated the colonists, but if the colonists would rise up over some tea taxes, why couldn't the Iraqis rise up over the random murderings of a dictator?
The Iraq situation would be analagous to the American Revolution if it was an internal struggle and we sent over troops to help the "good guys".
Even so, I agree that the war is baseless and we shouldn't have gone in the first place. I'm just bored at work and felt like making a counterpoint.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't agree. As others said with the Sony article, they're playing to the lowest common denominator. Most of the country has TVs that can handle your standard video+left/right inputs (the term escapes me at the moment). It makes sense to just include that cable and save costs, and allow those who have the fancier TVs to buy the fancier cables.
It's the same reason that they won't be including the DVD dongle with the set- to keep the price lower. If you want to play DVDs on it, great, go out and buy the dongle. Those who just want to play games, which are the majority of purchasers, won't have to pay extra for features they won't use.
The best way to teach and be tought, in my opinion, is to do. You can read all about making wheels from a book, but to watch someone make a wheel, and then make a wheel yourself with that person guiding you, will give you a much greater amount of knowledge and understanding. This is why job experience is generally more desired than a college degree.
However, cecause of class sizes, time, and limited access to the needed tools to demonstrate each and every topic, that isn't a real possibility except for once-a-week labs. Then there are some classes, like math, where you really can't do much else than have everyone sit and listen.
So to make them pay attention, you need to make them interactive. A lot of students are loathe to participate, because they're worried that they'll answer wrong and look like a fool in front of the professor and other students. To get them away from this idea, you have to get them to interact on a level where there is no wrong answer.
This is more easily accomplished in philosophy and literature classes, where you mainly state opinions. As long as it is thought out, there really is no wrong answer.
So what to do for the rest? Well, a good start would be to take one class a week to only work on example problems. Let's take math as an example. You're working on complex integrals. You can take from the book and get an answer, but it's better to set up some unknown situation and work through it. Get a bunch of small nerf balls, and at the start of each problem throw them at people. The person you throw it at gives a number, range, or math function, and that is put into the equation. Once it's complete, try doing the same for the various steps you would take.
Another way to help interaction is to find things that students can do in the class itself. For instance, if you are talking about center of mass, have everyone take out a pen or pencil and balance it on their ring finger, explaining that where the pencil touches the finger is the center of mass.
There are ways to interact, but they require some creativity, and I applaud you for trying to make class something more than just listening to a speech.
(You could try saying "shit" once in a while for added shock value. Some of my best professors were profane.)
According to an MSNBC article, this information is also accompanied with the fact that there will only be 400K launch units in the U.S., and 100K in Japan.
If you ask me, Sony is setting themselves up for a lot of hurt by short-changing Japan so much. Granted, they have a smaller population than the U.S., but the Japanese (as a culture) are far more likely to pick up the latest and greatest gadgets (which is why they've had full video cell phones for a while now, while we're just getting them). Add this to the fact that Japanese gamers apparently adore games like Final Fantasy, and I would bet that a larger number of Japanese gamers would be willing to shell out $600.
Even so, the American market may yet buy up all 400K units. The Playstation 2 had an initial shipment of 500K units, and sold out on day one. But will there really be enough demand for the PS3, considering how reversed the position is?
I've never understood this mentality of many of the professors I have. Everyone learns in different ways- some learn by listening to a guy talk for an hour straight. Others learn by reading a book. Some learn by doing. This is the college level, so why should students be pidgeon-holed into one of these types? If someone can learn the required information and pass the tests without attending the class, more power to them.
Put the pod-casts online for anyone who has a regular university username.
If someone attends the class, they'll be able to use it to review what the professor said.
If someone is sick or busy and doesn't attent the class, they can review what they missed.
If someone doesn't need to attend the class, they can use the videos to see if the professor offers insights into something the book may be a little iffy on.
If someone doesn't care about the class, then this won't matter worth shit to them.
If that's true, then why doesn't every college class take attendence?
I thought federal funding was based on how many students were enrolled, not whether or not they actually attend the class.
Of course, I go to a college that relies less on government funding, so perhaps you mean those that rely heavily on it.
If the companies are looking to release a new product, they should strive for a better, cheaper stand alone DVD Recorder. These are still fairly expensive when compared to a VCR.
I've also noticed that a lot of the DVD Recorder units are big and bulky. They can also work towards making them smaller.
...then listen to my story. Comcast didn't raise my rates, they put a debt on my credit score when they owed me money.
I had recently cancelled Comcast, and checking through my bank records I found that I had paid them for an extra month. I called up, gave my old account number, and said that I overpaid and would like a refund. They rattled off some number that was only about half of what I paid, but I didn't want to deal with the hastle of pushing the issue and accepted it. Soon thereafter, I moved, completely forgetting about the refund check that I should have received.
About three months later I go back to collect any mail that collected for me, only to find three notices from a debt collector- "is due, pay soon", "is due, pay now", and "is due, you're screwed"- on behalf of Comcast. Checking the amount owed, it was exactly the amount that they owed me!
It was Christmas day, I had had surgury less than a week before and was still in pain, so this just made me furious. I called the 800 number for comcast, who said I had to call the local place (they couldn't even provide the local number, feh). I dialed the local area, and, surprisingly, I got an answer. I explained my predicament to the woman on the phone, she saw where they had made mistake, and fixed it, removing the debt. I'll give them credit for being able to take care of my problem on Christmas day, but I will work my hardest to never use their service again.
I should have pushed to get my refund, but I decided that I didn't care that much, and I didn't want to wind up with another debt notice on my credit score. I really should check it to make sure it got scrubbed.
It looks like both are taking in the ideas of consumers during development.
Didn't we have news stories within the last month or two stating that the controls for both Twilight Princess and Red Steel had been changed to allow you to control the actual sword (in a more precise manner)?
I can't for the life of me remember which article stated it, but I read an article talking about the differences in multi-platform games. Apparently, on the 360/PS3, you can map certain actions to certain buttons, but you never have full immediate access to all moves for all characters.
With the Wii, where every movement in a different direction is a mappable button unto itself, you have immediate access to every move for every character based on the motions.
It's not really that Nintendo included a touchscreen on the handheld that made it a hit, it's that they included something more. Instead of just creating a more powerful Gameboy, they went above your general controller scheme to add in new functionality.
That's why it does so well. It gives the consumer more than the 'standard', while the PSP gives just gives the 'standard' (except with better graphics). If Sony added a light sensor, a motion sensor, some sort of camera with pattern recognization, anything like that into the PSP (or PSP2), then it would catch on better. As it is, the PSP is basically a much more powerful better Game Boy Advance, which is why it lacks sales.
If it is him, then the weight of the interturbes on his shoulders will hopefully make him recant. But don't be surprised if it's not.
TPM has/had a campaign to contact all the Senators to get responses. I don't seem him on the list of updates, but who's to say that someone that is on the list of "not him/hers" isn't lying?
In any case, I hope that whatever prick placed this "secret block" (just what the hell is that, anyway?) lifts it so we can get this database bill passed. We would take a great step forward in repairing this country if we could easily find the frivilous spendatures and who commissions them.
Having impartial juries without media influence sounds like a damn good idea to me; I wouldn't mind seeing similar laws in the States. Too many high-profile cases are now "Trial by Media", where the media puts all sorts or horrible twists on the case to get ratings, and the sheeple (the same ones who can't get out of jury duty) just absorb it and take it with them.
What was that case a few months back, the one with Scott Peterson? I didn't follow it much, but from what I remember most of the evidence was circumstancial, and he just got crucified by the media because he was cheating on his wife.
Both articles are a little scarce with exactly what you can do with the music.
Is it like Yahoo's service, where you can "download" the song and play it whenever you like, but you can't burn it to a CD? And if you want to move it to an external drive, you have to pay extra?
Or will this be a complete file that can be downloaded to my PC and media-shifted? (preferrably CD-burnable, and I'm sure someone will figure out how to get around whatever DRM they put on it).
Why have 10,000 people lose their job just so that some investor's porfolio can go up a quarter of a percent? (veiled Office Space reference)
It's a wonder I'm not more cynical.
Bush isn't the reason for unemployment (well, not the full reason), it's people with these kinds of ideas. "We make a lot of money. Let's fire a bunch of people and ruin some lives so we can make even more money!"
I'm sure the CEOs thought for a good three seconds on whether or not to try and fight this. One CEO probably opened his mouth to yawn, and before it was even half open the media industry had whipped out a big fat check.
Vista keeps looking more and more worthless. I think once (if ever) XP becomes useless to me, I'll just upgrade to Linux.
What they really should do is what Microsoft did- release a "dumbed down" SDK for cheap cheap cheap. Then little garage setups can tinker and release small games, and eventually get enough "cred" to get a real SDK.
Looks like his actual site server is getting trashed, but the last time I was there you could download another song, "You're Pitiful".
:o
It's pretty app when thinking about the steretypical Slashdot person.
From what I can remember, he put it online because some copyright/trademark thing kept him from using it on the next album. Not sure what it was, though. It looks like you can at least listen to it on his MySpace page.
One thing I love about Weird Al's songs is that he does his research. In the song from this "article", he mentions such things as Kazaa. In "All about the Pentiums", he throws out a lot of technical terms.
Weird Al is one of my favorite people ever. He's pretty good to his fans, he fights the true fight, and is hilarious to boot. I can't wait for this next album.
I even tried to get some of them started by moving their arms and legs around a bit in dancing fashion. I had to stop that quickly, though, as the moms apparently don't like me taking the kids out of the stroller.
So, here I am, with no dancing baby.
Instead, I've moved on to owls that say catch phrases repeatedly.
Not nearly as many as New Line Cinema was guessing, I bet. Even so, SoaP was all the rage for a few months, so it's easy to get into the notion that it was going to be a smashing hit.
But one needs to realize that what you generally see/hear on the Internet isn't necessarily representative of the populace in general. Back in 2004, I was sure that Kerry was going to take the Presidential slot by quite a bit, despite being a Bush supporter (yes, I've realized my mistakes since then). Then Bush barely beat out Kerry, instead.
So what happened, both then and now? A few things.
First, the Internet is a great thing that covers the entire globe. This means that you're going to get opinions from a lot of places whose opinion, frankly, doesn't really matter overall. (Not that they shouldn't state their opinion, but someone from Russia talking about who they would vote for in the American primaries doesn't make a lick of difference.) This residual noise is going to confound the actual outcome to a point.
Second, turn out. While a lot of people say they'll go out and vote for Kerry, or go out and see the movie, that doesn't mean they'll actually do it. In this instance, people on Fark set up SoaP "Parties" for people to get together, drink a bit, then go laugh at the movie. Many of these requested RSVPs, and a lot of the people who hosted such parties said that a good portion of the RSVPs didn't show up.
Third, anonymity and 'fitting in'. People can claim on the internet to do things or to have done things that they will never or have never done. A Bush supporter that is an active member of a website that's predominantly anti-Bush is more likely to make anti-Bush comments so s/he won't be ridiculed. Similarly, someone might say that they are interested in SoaP so they can be part of the online group, but really don't give a damn.
It's the very reason that Slashdot has their little blurb above all polls:
The internet is wildly inaccurate except under the most precise of circumstances and settings, and even then the numbers can be flubbed.
At least this means that we (hopefully) won't see a lot of studios trying to build internet hype, when all the internet hype was created entirely by fans.
While this was probably meant as funny, I would see it as being too far from a possibility, both in this and other games with musical instruments. With the speaker built into the remote, you would use the A, B, and D-pad buttons for notes, and actually hear it coming out near your hands.
Imagine using this kind of stuff with Guitar Hero.
It's been stated time and again (including articles on Slashdot) that you become tired more quickly when sitting, because your body goes lax without having to exert the effort to support itself. So you'd actually be more awake and alert standing up than sitting down.
And has this man not played DDR? That thing is fun as hell, and you look especially spastic doing it.
Here here.
That's just what I was thinking. There are already a lot of watchdog groups set up to find and out fradulant sellers. Some of these groups have even gotten together to lobby eBay for changes, without success. eBay basically holds a monopoly on online auctions (don't they hold a patent, as well?), and they're acting just like it by increasing fees and decreasing quality/customer service.
In addition to your proposition, a warning should be put on a page to say that it's been marked as such. If a regular user clicks the 'Report Auction' button, a small red line appears reading "This auction has been flagged as potentially fradulant by a regular user". It's not big and staring you right in the face, but it's near the voting box so you know that there could be problems later.
If a trusted volunteer says that there's a good chance of it being fradulant, the warning will get more strict and more noticeable.
While this whole process is going on, an e-mail should be sent to the auction owner telling them that their auction has been marked as fradulant. If they get to it before a volunteer does, they can put in a reply saying why it's not fradulant (reports should include reasons might be fradulant).
If an auction is removed for being fradulant, the user should have X days to counter the decision (assuming they didn't get to the previous e-mail early enough). If they succeed, it goes up with the time remaining when it was taken down. If they don't, or if they don't counter it, they're still charged the fee for posting the auction. Ideally, the account is closed at that point anyway, but if it's not they can't do anything auction-wise until they pay that cost.
Finally, volunteers should be able to mark "trash" auctions, as well. Ones like "Pay me $5 and I'll tell you how to get shit for free!" or that sell AOL CDs to help boost feedback ratings.
The American Revolution was the British fighting the British. It could have almost been seen as a civil war, where the French came and lended a hand.
The Iraqis, on the other hand, appeared loathe to try and overthrow their own government. Granted, the post-war Iraqi government treated their people a lot worse than the British treated the colonists, but if the colonists would rise up over some tea taxes, why couldn't the Iraqis rise up over the random murderings of a dictator?
The Iraq situation would be analagous to the American Revolution if it was an internal struggle and we sent over troops to help the "good guys".
Even so, I agree that the war is baseless and we shouldn't have gone in the first place. I'm just bored at work and felt like making a counterpoint.
No, see, it will spin for a minute, but then the side with the most butter will land face-down.
It needs to be a cat/buttered-toast contraption so they have the same coefficient of Downwards Twist pointing in opposite directions.