when their own "Reporters" will interupt their "guests"
Those people (O'Reilly, Hannity, Colmes, etc.) aren't reporters at all. They are commentators or hosts, hired for their commentary and/or hosting ability in much the same way that newspapers hire columnists. The fact is that the only (US) nationally-transmitted 24-hour cable news channel that actually reports news throughout most of the day is Headline News - most of the people you see there are anchors or reporters delivering news without commentary.
Re:The game's most compelling aspect
on
Playing The Escape
·
· Score: 4, Funny
If you have DDR for Playstation, you can plug in a regular Playstation controller instead of using the DDR mats and play it that way. None of that pesky exercise, plus it's way easier to win.
System Shock 2 had a fantastic overarching quest, as you spent a considerable amount of time receiving communications from a scientist named Polito, as she helped direct you in rescuing what was left of the Von Braun from the nightmarish events unfolding on board. I won't give away what happens, on the off-chance that someone here hasn't played the game, but suffice to say it was one of the best plot twists ever in a game.
This is Christian fundamentalism, right-wing Republican bullshit
Which is obviously why such hardcore right-wingers as Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman have been bashing Rockstar Games over the Hot Coffee mod.
Yes, there is a large Christian component to the pro-censorship crowd, but don't believe for a second that nobody on your side of the aisle has a pro-censorship stance.
Sure, you can take any line out of context and make it seem soulless. The point of that particular line was that it was dripping with cynicism. The MCP wasn't giving those programs a place of honor to "serve their systems" at all. Programs were sent to the Game Grid to die. In fact, Sark probably would rather have been doing something else. The only enjoyment he got from his little speech was the opportunity to kick the prisoners in their religious nadgers, which made a nice counterpoint to his later conversation with the MCP:
Sark: I don't know, I mean, users wrote us. A user even wrote you! MCP: No one user wrote me. I'm worth millions of their man-years.
It actually has interesting parallels with Cold War indoctrination and Stalinist gulags, with a hint of medieval religious indoctrination as well.
Another interesting concept brought up by the line you quoted was the staggering difference in time scale between the real world and the computer world. The religious pogrom in the computer world had the flavor of something that had been going on for decades. But actually, users were able to work with their programs right up until the point where the MCP shut down Group 7 access ("just to be safe"). The efforts of the MCP and Sark to eliminate belief in the users must have started after that point, and it was a matter of mere hours from then to the time at which Flynn found himself trapped on the Game Grid.
I'm pretty sure I had one of those motherboards with the bad caps. The top end of some of the caps sort of split open a bit, and goop oozed out, hardening over the split. It worked fine for years, until one day I went into lab and one of my coworkers told me there was a horrible burning smell when he got there that morning. That particular computer had died, and when I opened it up, I found that the mobo had indeed caught fire for a brief moment.
Back in undergraduate circuits lab, we had to build the power supply for a modular breadboard kit. The PS kit gave you pretty much only the parts you needed, with no spares, and the electronics shop at that time was only open a couple days out of the week. So, about 10pm, a bunch of us were working on our kits, when from the other end of the bench I was working at comes a BANG! I look over, and there was a poor guy looking dumbfounded at his kit, knowing that because he had soldered a cap in backwards, he wouldn't be able to finish until after the weekend.
On a side note: Magic smoke, though vital for the operation of any electronic device, is actually odorless. The burning smell that comes from exploded parts is actually added afterwards, like mercaptan is added to natural gas. It's there to warn people that an electronic device has given up the ghost, and it is manufactured from the blood, sweat, and tears of the engineer who designed the part.
Scott (Galstaff, Sorceror of Light): No waaay! His character is carrying Mountain Dew, too?! Graham (The DM): If I roll a ten or higher, then yes. (rolls die) Eleven. (Everyone laughs hysterically.)
I can't work up much moral outrage for some kid who rips off Vivendi or Universal, whether its using bittorrent or a tiny sliver of metal.
I find it much easier to work up moral outrage against kids who shoplift, since retail isn't a particularly high-margin business compared to movie/music publishing. When someone pirates a CD, *maybe* it costs the record label a sale and maybe it doesn't. But when someone lifts a CD from Worst Buy, the record label already has their pound of flesh, while it *definitely* costs the retailer the amount they spent to wholesale the CD that got stolen.
Actually, writing or calling your Congressperson can be more informative than you're giving it credit for.
If your representative has already made up his or her mind, you can tell from the response letter, and then you can plan to vote against them at the next election.
If they're keeping an open mind, you can usually tell from their noncommittal response, and thus you'll know that continued pressure may have a positive effect.
If they (or their office) are completely clueless, or the issue you're concerned about isn't really on their radar, their seemingly off-topic response will clue you in.
For example, my US Representative here in Cleveland, Ohio, is Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She typically puts most of her emphasis into social programs and other issues that the Congressional Black Caucus tends to work on. Not really much of a standard bearer when it comes to technology issues. But when I sent her office an e-mail opposing the Broadcast Flag a while back, the response I got wasn't the usual anti-piracy line that comes from misunderstanding the issue. That tells me that, while the letter didn't indicate a strong position on the issue, the broadcast flag, digital TV, and other consumer issues are gaining in importance with her.
Admittedly, when it comes to action in Congress, the will of the people often takes a back seat to partisan political wrangling, especially for Congresspeople with, er, higher political aspirations. But if you stay cynical and don't do anything at all, don't be surprised when they don't take your opinion into account.
Many of the reshaped genes are involved in taste, smell or digestion, suggesting that East Asians experienced some wrenching change in diet. Since the genetic changes occurred around the time that rice farming took hold, they may mark people's adaptation to a historical event, the beginning of the Neolithic revolution as societies switched from wild to cultivated foods.
By extension, we can expect evolutionary changes in North America within the next couple of centuries to accommodate our fondness for the Double Bacon Cheeseburger.
Picard: Number One? Riker: Yes, Captain? Picard: Let me ask you something. If I whispered in your ear that Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny, would you join me in a laugh? Riker: Yeah, I could get in on that. Picard: All right! Here it comes. (out loud) Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny! (Bridge crew laughs, except for Worf) Worf:You can both suck my ridges!
In many states, such as Ohio, where I live, the presence of legislators is (more or less) required in order for a vote to be counted, because the vote lasts just a few seconds. The chair calls for the vote, a beep goes off, everyone votes, the votes are tabulated immediately on a large display, and another beep a few seconds later signals the end of the vote. None of this nonsense of 15 minutes stretched into 30 and then ended when the majority party leadership likes the outcome, like in the US House.
Bethesda admitted they made a mistake when adding the antipiracy scheme to Morrowind, and the first patch removed all of the CD checks except for when you first start the game.
In recent months, there were numerous threads on the Bethesda Softworks message boards regarding whether TES: Oblivion would be released with Starforce as its copy protection scheme. Most people posting to these threads were steadfastly against the use of Starforce, and many stated that they would outright refuse to buy the product if it included Starforce.
Not too long ago, Neowin.net published a podcast interview with Pete Hines, the PR guy for the Elder Scrolls series. He was asked about the antipiracy scheme that Bethesda and Take Two planned to use on the PC version of Oblivion, and more pointedly, he was asked about Starforce.
He said (paraphrased) that while they couldn't comment on what antipiracy scheme they were going to use, they were not going to use Starforce.
What we need to do is get some meaningful strides made towards legalization so we can cut the flow of cash away from common thugs to farmers who need a crop to grow.
If, by some miraculous event, marijuana were to be legalized in the US, I'm going to laugh my ass off when the same people wanting legalization today end up complaining that the evil Altria and ADM have cornered the market on it and have put the mom-and-pop hydroponic basement pot growers out of business.
But if closed source polls can't get it right, what makes us think that OSS polls can?
The difference is that, with an OSS voting system, if there's a problem with the code, the public will (be able to) know about it.
Compare that to Diebold and ask yourself how likely it is that they'd be forthcoming with crucial details if and when something goes haywire with their electronic voting machines.
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when their own "Reporters" will interupt their "guests"
Those people (O'Reilly, Hannity, Colmes, etc.) aren't reporters at all. They are commentators or hosts, hired for their commentary and/or hosting ability in much the same way that newspapers hire columnists. The fact is that the only (US) nationally-transmitted 24-hour cable news channel that actually reports news throughout most of the day is Headline News - most of the people you see there are anchors or reporters delivering news without commentary.
If you have DDR for Playstation, you can plug in a regular Playstation controller instead of using the DDR mats and play it that way. None of that pesky exercise, plus it's way easier to win.
System Shock 2 had a fantastic overarching quest, as you spent a considerable amount of time receiving communications from a scientist named Polito, as she helped direct you in rescuing what was left of the Von Braun from the nightmarish events unfolding on board. I won't give away what happens, on the off-chance that someone here hasn't played the game, but suffice to say it was one of the best plot twists ever in a game.
I'm partial to the Prairie Chicken quest, myself.
Cluck, cluck, chicken!
This is Christian fundamentalism, right-wing Republican bullshit
Which is obviously why such hardcore right-wingers as Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman have been bashing Rockstar Games over the Hot Coffee mod.
Yes, there is a large Christian component to the pro-censorship crowd, but don't believe for a second that nobody on your side of the aisle has a pro-censorship stance.
Sure, you can take any line out of context and make it seem soulless. The point of that particular line was that it was dripping with cynicism. The MCP wasn't giving those programs a place of honor to "serve their systems" at all. Programs were sent to the Game Grid to die. In fact, Sark probably would rather have been doing something else. The only enjoyment he got from his little speech was the opportunity to kick the prisoners in their religious nadgers, which made a nice counterpoint to his later conversation with the MCP:
Sark: I don't know, I mean, users wrote us. A user even wrote you!
MCP: No one user wrote me. I'm worth millions of their man-years.
It actually has interesting parallels with Cold War indoctrination and Stalinist gulags, with a hint of medieval religious indoctrination as well.
Another interesting concept brought up by the line you quoted was the staggering difference in time scale between the real world and the computer world. The religious pogrom in the computer world had the flavor of something that had been going on for decades. But actually, users were able to work with their programs right up until the point where the MCP shut down Group 7 access ("just to be safe"). The efforts of the MCP and Sark to eliminate belief in the users must have started after that point, and it was a matter of mere hours from then to the time at which Flynn found himself trapped on the Game Grid.
I'm pretty sure I had one of those motherboards with the bad caps. The top end of some of the caps sort of split open a bit, and goop oozed out, hardening over the split. It worked fine for years, until one day I went into lab and one of my coworkers told me there was a horrible burning smell when he got there that morning. That particular computer had died, and when I opened it up, I found that the mobo had indeed caught fire for a brief moment.
Back in undergraduate circuits lab, we had to build the power supply for a modular breadboard kit. The PS kit gave you pretty much only the parts you needed, with no spares, and the electronics shop at that time was only open a couple days out of the week. So, about 10pm, a bunch of us were working on our kits, when from the other end of the bench I was working at comes a BANG! I look over, and there was a poor guy looking dumbfounded at his kit, knowing that because he had soldered a cap in backwards, he wouldn't be able to finish until after the weekend.
On a side note: Magic smoke, though vital for the operation of any electronic device, is actually odorless. The burning smell that comes from exploded parts is actually added afterwards, like mercaptan is added to natural gas. It's there to warn people that an electronic device has given up the ghost, and it is manufactured from the blood, sweat, and tears of the engineer who designed the part.
Scott (Galstaff, Sorceror of Light): No waaay! His character is carrying Mountain Dew, too?!
Graham (The DM): If I roll a ten or higher, then yes. (rolls die) Eleven.
(Everyone laughs hysterically.)
This just takes out the "computer" step.
One would think that the RIAA would be more supportive of this than it would be of CD-ripping in iTunes for that very reason.
Crap! Wish I'd seen that one. Off to TPB with me, I suppose ;)
And here I thought doing our business is what computers are for.
I can't work up much moral outrage for some kid who rips off Vivendi or Universal, whether its using bittorrent or a tiny sliver of metal.
I find it much easier to work up moral outrage against kids who shoplift, since retail isn't a particularly high-margin business compared to movie/music publishing. When someone pirates a CD, *maybe* it costs the record label a sale and maybe it doesn't. But when someone lifts a CD from Worst Buy, the record label already has their pound of flesh, while it *definitely* costs the retailer the amount they spent to wholesale the CD that got stolen.
For example, my US Representative here in Cleveland, Ohio, is Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She typically puts most of her emphasis into social programs and other issues that the Congressional Black Caucus tends to work on. Not really much of a standard bearer when it comes to technology issues. But when I sent her office an e-mail opposing the Broadcast Flag a while back, the response I got wasn't the usual anti-piracy line that comes from misunderstanding the issue. That tells me that, while the letter didn't indicate a strong position on the issue, the broadcast flag, digital TV, and other consumer issues are gaining in importance with her.
Admittedly, when it comes to action in Congress, the will of the people often takes a back seat to partisan political wrangling, especially for Congresspeople with, er, higher political aspirations. But if you stay cynical and don't do anything at all, don't be surprised when they don't take your opinion into account.
An anonymous shill asks, "Try our search engine! Please!!"
Do you have any evidence whatsoever that this is a deliberate plan by the Chinese government?
I think that's why the GP used the phrase, "I have to wonder".
And you've got knuckles left over, so in the event that Thirteenember and Fourteenuary are ever added to the calendar, you're still good to go.
Assuming you stopped to smell the flowers along the way, though, the first 59.9 levels of WoW are actually pretty good.
Picard: Number One?
Riker: Yes, Captain?
Picard: Let me ask you something. If I whispered in your ear that Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny, would you join me in a laugh?
Riker: Yeah, I could get in on that.
Picard: All right! Here it comes. (out loud) Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny!
(Bridge crew laughs, except for Worf)
Worf: You can both suck my ridges!
In many states, such as Ohio, where I live, the presence of legislators is (more or less) required in order for a vote to be counted, because the vote lasts just a few seconds. The chair calls for the vote, a beep goes off, everyone votes, the votes are tabulated immediately on a large display, and another beep a few seconds later signals the end of the vote. None of this nonsense of 15 minutes stretched into 30 and then ended when the majority party leadership likes the outcome, like in the US House.
Bethesda admitted they made a mistake when adding the antipiracy scheme to Morrowind, and the first patch removed all of the CD checks except for when you first start the game.
In recent months, there were numerous threads on the Bethesda Softworks message boards regarding whether TES: Oblivion would be released with Starforce as its copy protection scheme. Most people posting to these threads were steadfastly against the use of Starforce, and many stated that they would outright refuse to buy the product if it included Starforce.
Not too long ago, Neowin.net published a podcast interview with Pete Hines, the PR guy for the Elder Scrolls series. He was asked about the antipiracy scheme that Bethesda and Take Two planned to use on the PC version of Oblivion, and more pointedly, he was asked about Starforce.
He said (paraphrased) that while they couldn't comment on what antipiracy scheme they were going to use, they were not going to use Starforce.
Score one for the consumer.
What we need to do is get some meaningful strides made towards legalization so we can cut the flow of cash away from common thugs to farmers who need a crop to grow.
If, by some miraculous event, marijuana were to be legalized in the US, I'm going to laugh my ass off when the same people wanting legalization today end up complaining that the evil Altria and ADM have cornered the market on it and have put the mom-and-pop hydroponic basement pot growers out of business.
Take that, planned obsolescence!
(In this case, of course, obsolescence by fiat.)
But if closed source polls can't get it right, what makes us think that OSS polls can?
The difference is that, with an OSS voting system, if there's a problem with the code, the public will (be able to) know about it.
Compare that to Diebold and ask yourself how likely it is that they'd be forthcoming with crucial details if and when something goes haywire with their electronic voting machines.