Please. Asking the computer gaming industry to pitch advertising to women is like asking the clothing industry to pitch ads to senior citizens - sure, they represent a significant consumer group, but they are not the primary money makers.
Let me quote the article to illustrate: "Sadly, there is not one "safe" computer gaming magazine I could recommend to my friends who play games like Simcity, Re-Volt, or Myst. Not only do these magazines alienate women, but they also alienate entire groups of non-combative and non-violent gamers."
Which kinds of games create the most profit and have the highest profile? It's not "Casino Hearts" sitting in the bargain basement bin, but rather Quake3 Arena and Unreal Tournament (and their similarly adrenaline- and testosterone-packed counterparts) with their significantly higher price tags and devoted fan bases. Sure, some female gamers enjoy playing these games, but to date they're still a small minority compared to males under 30.
Complaining about the lack of ads geared towards women is not going to change the hard reality that the industry focuses its limited advertising resources to make the most money. Asking any corporation to do otherwise is just plain silly. Change the demographics, and the advertising will change to follow suit.
I happen to be a 21 year old Asian male college student, and I have to say I was pretty miffed at Mr. Katz making the sweeping generalization that technology-oriented discussion is limited mostly to young white males (who may or may not be angry).
/. could do a voluntary poll of registered users as to what ethnic group, age, and sex they are...the results could be interesting, to say the least. I'm inclined to say that a large percentage of the geek crowd is not young white males, and while maybe not the majority, they are underrepresented online simply because they have better things to do with their time.
If the geek crowd was the Republican Party, I think an appropriate analogy would be to compare the angry young men to the hardcore conservatives (Christian Coalition etc.). Not only do they wield disproportionate influence within their own group, but outsiders (Jon Katz springs to mind) tend to identify them as the group (i.e. geek = angry white young male) itself. This is a wrongful perception that definitely needs to be fought.
I think if Linux concentrates too much on developing for too many different types of platforms, they'll end up bloating themselves. It's doing several things good right now, but other packages do embedded systems better and embedded systems should be developed as such.
That's the beauty of open source development; the unneeded fat gets trimmed away in the next recompile. If we were talking about a closed source operating system that tries to do everything (the obvious example being Windows), then yeah, the OS bloats, but with Linux, developers can take an established product that works and streamline it to whatever platform they need.
You know, this debate, as well as the article itself, points out a major deficiency at/. more than anything else: complete lack of journalistic objectivity.
I find this "article" laughable for 3 reasons: A) the only eyewitness account given is John Ramsey's, a blatantly biased source, B) the only opposition viewpoint is given in the form of a hostile interview of John Violanti, and C) the amazing ability of the author to cast the opposing sides as "heroes" and "villains".
The first two are self-explanatory, but maybe the last needs a little explaining. Look how the author tags on descriptions for the two sides. The hero(es), Ramsey Electronics, is described: "In addition to building radio testing equipment, Ramsey Electronics is also a well-known vendor of electronic hobby kits used by organizations like the Boy Scouts of America." Major Cheese Alert! I don't know if the author could shine a more sympathetic light on this corporation short of labeling them "All-American Dream material" or mentioning "...as well as a major contributor to inner-city charities." Moreover, law enforcement officials don't just carry out the search and seizure warrant, they do it in a manner "Like an action movie drug-bust...". Pass the vomit bag, please. Why not quote the "Turner Diaries" while we're putting jack boots and armbands on the cops?
Look, I know this isn't the New York Times (obviously), but is it too much to ask to make even a modicum of effort in making articles like these a bit less inflammatory, and a bit more informative? Communications classes across the country label the internet as the least reliable source of knowledge, and writing like this only perpetuate that conception. I thought that/. was better than that (and hope one day it will be).
Regardless of the right or wrong of either Ramsey Electronics or law enforcement officials, please, PRETTY please with sugar on top get someone with some journalistic integrity to write the news.
How would you like children's toys that come with sharp blades as accessories?
Or how secure would you feel if the United States government suddenly dropped all restrictions on owning firearms?
If the company makes a product, they are liable for the intended uses of it. And just because that M60 machine gun sure is EFFICIENT at bagging DEER doesn't mean the government should allow them to be sold as a "perfectly acceptable hunting tool".
People kill people, and people violate other people's privacy, but the least the government can do is make it harder for the next idiot by taking away the most obvious tools.
The number one reason any city keeps a certain population is desirable employment. People will forgive any number of shortcomings in a city if the job that they want is located there.
Case in point: Dallas, TX. Dallas is by far one of the most boring, vanilla major metropolises in the country - compared to other population centers like San Fran, Miami, or Chicago, Dallas pretty much sucks it up in "things to keep you interested" categories like culture and nightlife. When the West End and Deep Ellum are the high points of living, you know you'll have to work to keep yourself amused there.
Unlike those other cities mentioned, however, Dallas is one of the major focal points of high-tech industry. So what can your city do to emulate Dallas?
For starters, they need to offer some irresistable deals to the high-tech industry. Zoning deals, tax breaks, hell, subsidize their internet access! The primary reasons companies choose locations are desirable labor pool and money (which covers the costs inherent to their choice). Obviously, any major population center is bound to have a desirable labor pool, so competing cities have to kiss up where it counts: the corporate wallets.
Yowza. And you thought AMD had bad yields in its yesteryears...
How does the plant produce the plastic, anyways? Does it supplement the cellulose in the cell walls? Is it present in the sap fluid? What kind of refining and purification processes does this sort of thing take?
You'd think that the biotech scientists would take this research one step further, and splice much more useful genes into the plants. Insulin production leaps to mind.
The use, or threat of use, of a weapon of mass destruction is used primarily for its political impact, not its wanton ability to destroy. Observe the United States bringing imperial Japan to its knees with 2 nuclear devices, or India and Pakistan more recently seeking greater respect on the world stage with nuclear testing. The idea of a covert WMD is pointless, even for terrorist organizations, which would require state backing (and a consequent static target for reprisals) for such a large undertaking.
The US, or its allies, would never use one.
The United States (and the West in general), as the current leader atop the world economy and international politics, has the most to lose from the use of an indiscriminate weapon such as a Tsunami-causing weapon, even covertly, as global trade would be curtailed, not to mention the loss of international backing and support if the culprit was known.
Given the alternative of a much less costly set of precision airstrikes, which could achieve the same effect to a given infrastructure in a short period of time, it's easy to see why there's zero interest in the Tsunami weapon currently.
By laying the charges (shaped, I hope) in a specific direction. Think of how demolition experts use shaped charges to topple skyscrapers while hardly scratching the buildings next to them.
How do I stop a wave that is going where I don't want one?
...With an equal but oppositely-directed charge (or a good approximation thereof).
By the way, how hard is it for people to spell "tidal" right? You'd think a word already in the news header would at least get spelled right. Sheesh.
People are arguing over an unsubstantiated rumor with no sources or even hard facts even quoted.
Look over the article. Does it even say what price Intel is supposedly asking for after the cut per 1000 units? Does it say what "inside source" gave them this lovely tip?
While it does seem credible that it could happen, the best FUDs out there are those that do seem credible.
It never fails to amaze me how many knee-jerk reactionists on slashdot latch onto "codewords" such as "censorship" without understanding one bit what any of them truly means...
Nothing of Elizabeth Dole's proposals have argued for the banning of general publication, expression or distribution of pornographic or other questionable materials. What she has proposed, and what I agree with, is that material acquired at public libraries should be acceptable to the public at large.
Nothing in the proposal prevents you from getting your own PRIVATE T1 and downloading hardcore pics all day. I certainly don't want MY HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS going to some creepy perverts monopolizing the library bandwidth just so they can get their jollies.
Can you find the latest edition of Hustler in print at the library right now? I don't think so. So why should anyone be able to download it from there? There are some pretty wacky ideas about "liberty" running around the messageboards right now, declaring the threatened existence of the 1st Amendment by this proposal. Get a grip, people, go to your local bookstore (or ISP) and buy (or download) all the objectionable material you want to your heart's content, with your OWN MONEY, NOT THE TAXPAYER'S.
The biggest hurdle to implementing bump mapping is artistic. To get the best effect from textures in hardware that doesn't support bump mapping, the light effects must be drawn in by hand in the texture (i.e. drawing the shadows on a brick wall). In a bump mapping-capable system, you want the hardware to do that, so the textures are drawn differently. Supporting both types of systems effectively doubles the workload of the texture artists, which is one of the main reasons why bump mapping isn't in q3a.
Another reason is the non-negligible 20%+ performance hit from enabling env. map bump mapping, as displayed by the Matrox G400. When a Ultra TNT2 is having trouble reaching 60 fps on "Highest Quality" in q3a, it doesn't make sense to devote the extra effort for a feature very few will use. As it is, q3a engine licensees are supposed to be able to easily enable bump mapping in the engine itself, for future games. (I can't remember which id.plan that was in)
Slashdot Mirror
Please. Asking the computer gaming industry to pitch advertising to women is like asking the clothing industry to pitch ads to senior citizens - sure, they represent a significant consumer group, but they are not the primary money makers.
Let me quote the article to illustrate: "Sadly, there is not one "safe" computer gaming magazine I could recommend to my friends who play games like Simcity, Re-Volt, or Myst. Not only do these magazines alienate women, but they also alienate entire groups of non-combative and non-violent gamers."
Which kinds of games create the most profit and have the highest profile? It's not "Casino Hearts" sitting in the bargain basement bin, but rather Quake3 Arena and Unreal Tournament (and their similarly adrenaline- and testosterone-packed counterparts) with their significantly higher price tags and devoted fan bases. Sure, some female gamers enjoy playing these games, but to date they're still a small minority compared to males under 30.
Complaining about the lack of ads geared towards women is not going to change the hard reality that the industry focuses its limited advertising resources to make the most money. Asking any corporation to do otherwise is just plain silly. Change the demographics, and the advertising will change to follow suit.
I happen to be a 21 year old Asian male college student, and I have to say I was pretty miffed at Mr. Katz making the sweeping generalization that technology-oriented discussion is limited mostly to young white males (who may or may not be angry).
/. could do a voluntary poll of registered users as to what ethnic group, age, and sex they are...the results could be interesting, to say the least. I'm inclined to say that a large percentage of the geek crowd is not young white males, and while maybe not the majority, they are underrepresented online simply because they have better things to do with their time.
If the geek crowd was the Republican Party, I think an appropriate analogy would be to compare the angry young men to the hardcore conservatives (Christian Coalition etc.). Not only do they wield disproportionate influence within their own group, but outsiders (Jon Katz springs to mind) tend to identify them as the group (i.e. geek = angry white young male) itself. This is a wrongful perception that definitely needs to be fought.
I think if Linux concentrates too much on developing for too many different types of platforms, they'll end up bloating themselves. It's doing several things good right now, but other packages do embedded systems better and embedded systems should be developed as such.
That's the beauty of open source development; the unneeded fat gets trimmed away in the next recompile. If we were talking about a closed source operating system that tries to do everything (the obvious example being Windows), then yeah, the OS bloats, but with Linux, developers can take an established product that works and streamline it to whatever platform they need.
You know, this debate, as well as the article itself, points out a major deficiency at /. more than anything else: complete lack of journalistic objectivity.
/. was better than that (and hope one day it will be).
I find this "article" laughable for 3 reasons:
A) the only eyewitness account given is John Ramsey's, a blatantly biased source,
B) the only opposition viewpoint is given in the form of a hostile interview of John Violanti, and
C) the amazing ability of the author to cast the opposing sides as "heroes" and "villains".
The first two are self-explanatory, but maybe the last needs a little explaining. Look how the author tags on descriptions for the two sides. The hero(es), Ramsey Electronics, is described: "In addition to building radio testing equipment, Ramsey Electronics is also a well-known vendor of electronic hobby kits used by organizations like the Boy Scouts of America." Major Cheese Alert! I don't know if the author could shine a more sympathetic light on this corporation short of labeling them "All-American Dream material" or mentioning "...as well as a major contributor to inner-city charities." Moreover, law enforcement officials don't just carry out the search and seizure warrant, they do it in a manner "Like an action movie drug-bust...". Pass the vomit bag, please. Why not quote the "Turner Diaries" while we're putting jack boots and armbands on the cops?
Look, I know this isn't the New York Times (obviously), but is it too much to ask to make even a modicum of effort in making articles like these a bit less inflammatory, and a bit more informative? Communications classes across the country label the internet as the least reliable source of knowledge, and writing like this only perpetuate that conception. I thought that
Regardless of the right or wrong of either Ramsey Electronics or law enforcement officials, please, PRETTY please with sugar on top get someone with some journalistic integrity to write the news.
How would you like children's toys that come with sharp blades as accessories?
Or how secure would you feel if the United States government suddenly dropped all restrictions on owning firearms?
If the company makes a product, they are liable for the intended uses of it. And just because that M60 machine gun sure is EFFICIENT at bagging DEER doesn't mean the government should allow them to be sold as a "perfectly acceptable hunting tool".
People kill people, and people violate other people's privacy, but the least the government can do is make it harder for the next idiot by taking away the most obvious tools.
The number one reason any city keeps a certain population is desirable employment. People will forgive any number of shortcomings in a city if the job that they want is located there.
Case in point: Dallas, TX. Dallas is by far one of the most boring, vanilla major metropolises in the country - compared to other population centers like San Fran, Miami, or Chicago, Dallas pretty much sucks it up in "things to keep you interested" categories like culture and nightlife. When the West End and Deep Ellum are the high points of living, you know you'll have to work to keep yourself amused there.
Unlike those other cities mentioned, however, Dallas is one of the major focal points of high-tech industry. So what can your city do to emulate Dallas?
For starters, they need to offer some irresistable deals to the high-tech industry. Zoning deals, tax breaks, hell, subsidize their internet access! The primary reasons companies choose locations are desirable labor pool and money (which covers the costs inherent to their choice). Obviously, any major population center is bound to have a desirable labor pool, so competing cities have to kiss up where it counts: the corporate wallets.
Yowza. And you thought AMD had bad yields in its yesteryears...
How does the plant produce the plastic, anyways? Does it supplement the cellulose in the cell walls? Is it present in the sap fluid? What kind of refining and purification processes does this sort of thing take?
You'd think that the biotech scientists would take this research one step further, and splice much more useful genes into the plants. Insulin production leaps to mind.
A covert Tsunami weapon is useless.
The use, or threat of use, of a weapon of mass destruction is used primarily for its political impact, not its wanton ability to destroy. Observe the United States bringing imperial Japan to its knees with 2 nuclear devices, or India and Pakistan more recently seeking greater respect on the world stage with nuclear testing. The idea of a covert WMD is pointless, even for terrorist organizations, which would require state backing (and a consequent static target for reprisals) for such a large undertaking.
The US, or its allies, would never use one.
The United States (and the West in general), as the current leader atop the world economy and international politics, has the most to lose from the use of an indiscriminate weapon such as a Tsunami-causing weapon, even covertly, as global trade would be curtailed, not to mention the loss of international backing and support if the culprit was known.
Given the alternative of a much less costly set of precision airstrikes, which could achieve the same effect to a given infrastructure in a short period of time, it's easy to see why there's zero interest in the Tsunami weapon currently.
How do you trigger a directed wave?
By laying the charges (shaped, I hope) in a specific direction. Think of how demolition experts use shaped charges to topple skyscrapers while hardly scratching the buildings next to them.
How do I stop a wave that is going where I don't want one?
...With an equal but oppositely-directed charge (or a good approximation thereof).
By the way, how hard is it for people to spell "tidal" right? You'd think a word already in the news header would at least get spelled right. Sheesh.
People are arguing over an unsubstantiated rumor with no sources or even hard facts even quoted.
Look over the article. Does it even say what price Intel is supposedly asking for after the cut per 1000 units? Does it say what "inside source" gave them this lovely tip?
While it does seem credible that it could happen, the best FUDs out there are those that do seem credible.
It never fails to amaze me how many knee-jerk reactionists on slashdot latch onto "codewords" such as "censorship" without understanding one bit what any of them truly means...
Nothing of Elizabeth Dole's proposals have argued for the banning of general publication, expression or distribution of pornographic or other questionable materials. What she has proposed, and what I agree with, is that material acquired at public libraries should be acceptable to the public at large.
Nothing in the proposal prevents you from getting your own PRIVATE T1 and downloading hardcore pics all day. I certainly don't want MY HARD-EARNED TAX DOLLARS going to some creepy perverts monopolizing the library bandwidth just so they can get their jollies.
Can you find the latest edition of Hustler in print at the library right now? I don't think so. So why should anyone be able to download it from there? There are some pretty wacky ideas about "liberty" running around the messageboards right now, declaring the threatened existence of the 1st Amendment by this proposal. Get a grip, people, go to your local bookstore (or ISP) and buy (or download) all the objectionable material you want to your heart's content, with your OWN MONEY, NOT THE TAXPAYER'S.
The biggest hurdle to implementing bump mapping is artistic. To get the best effect from textures in hardware that doesn't support bump mapping, the light effects must be drawn in by hand in the texture (i.e. drawing the shadows on a brick wall). In a bump mapping-capable system, you want the hardware to do that, so the textures are drawn differently. Supporting both types of systems effectively doubles the workload of the texture artists, which is one of the main reasons why bump mapping isn't in q3a.
.plan that was in)
Another reason is the non-negligible 20%+ performance hit from enabling env. map bump mapping, as displayed by the Matrox G400. When a Ultra TNT2 is having trouble reaching 60 fps on "Highest Quality" in q3a, it doesn't make sense to devote the extra effort for a feature very few will use. As it is, q3a engine licensees are supposed to be able to easily enable bump mapping in the engine itself, for future games. (I can't remember which id