Actually, I'm a kidney transplantee and thus continuously immunosuppressed to keep me from rejecting. We don't worry about surface bacteria any more than people with normal immune systems.
I've often wondered about that. I don't know anybody who takes any immunosuppressants; what sort of extra everyday precautions do you take (if any)? Personally I catch a cold or a light flu usually about once or twice a year for a few days. I presume you have to make some extra effort to avoid stuff like that?
It's taking on a role enacting things you don't normally do
That definition applies to, like, 90% of all games. It would apply to all FP games (from DOOM, to Halo, to Spliter Cell); it would apply to all sports games (if you don't play those games in RL); basically it applies to pretty much everything, except puzzle games and such. And, yes, technically all these games (e.g. Halo, etc..) are "role-playing", but they aren't RPGs. And the parent poster's defition: 'Roleplaying is taking all the good and the bad of a character and making due with it' is extremely narrow. That's a part of role-playing, but it's not the defintion.
A distinction needs to be made between 'role-playing' and the RPG genre. People can have differing opinions about what constitutes 'role'playing', but the defintion of the RPG genre is a lot more well established. In the RPG genre there are two extremes. On one side are the adventure games (e.g. Sierra King's Quest), and on the other side are the hack-and-slash games (e.g. Diablo). What do these games have in common? Uh.. nothing. Currently the RPG label is applied to everything that falls somewhere between those two. Personally, I think there should be three separate genres here, one for each of the extremes and one for the middle (when a game contains both elements). Those divisions sortof exist today ('Adventure RPG', 'Hack-and-Slash RPG), but everybody always uses the term RPG to refer to one or all of them.
People shouldn't get all riled up if a game labeled an 'RPG' doesn't have enough role-playing elements for thier taste. The RPG genre and the defintion of 'role-playing' diverged a long time ago.
if the 7 female teams played in the male league, together with the 50 male teams, they would very likely end up grind into dust.
Perhaps, but even assuming so, that's not because they're female. It's because they don't have the skills. They don't have the skills because they don't practice as much. It has nothing to do with gender.
but my guess is that they would all be in the bottom half
50% of male teams in an all male tourny would finish in the bottom half also. Yet that isn't used as a argument to disqualfy them from playing. So what's your point? All of your arguments for not letting girls participate can also be applied to guys who suck. By your arguments, "guys who suck" shouldn't be allowed to play in these tournemnts. Good luck implementing that rule. If there are going to be any divisions at all, then they should be based on skill, not gender. i.e. There should be beginner, intermediate, and advanced level tournements; none of which should discriminate based on gender. Divisions based on gender make absolutly no sense.
The same is true in any number of other sports where physical size and strength in principle should not play a role. Snooker. Dart. Shooting. Racing, hell even Chess.
And all my arguments apply in those cases as well. If I was active in any of those sports, and had free time, I would lobby to have the situation changed.
I used to be an avid gamer, but since I 'grew up' (left the 20's, so to speak) I've found that its just not worth it.
So you never watch television or movies either then right? If you do, then you're a hypocrite. On a "wanking" scale, television is definetly higher than video games. Television is just a mindless, non-interactive entertainment feed. I don't even have cable and I don't feel bad at all that I spend part of my free time playing video games instead of watching American Idol.
Language makes for a convenient labeling system, but it doesn't define your thoughts
I suspect that you don't speak more than one language right? I have a Chinese friend who (though she speaks near fluent English) constanly has trouble expressing her thoughts precisely in Engligh, simply because the correct words dont exists. English people have that problem occasionally, but not nearly as often she, or others learing English (or any second language) do. It's obvious that Chinese has signifigantly affected her thought process.
Have you ever tried formulating some thoughts without using language internally? Try it now. Pretend you don't know any language and try and consider some complicated idea or thought. It's pretty hard. Without language, all that's left to draw upon are primitive emotions and senses. You'll be able to summon up emotions, images, sounds, smells etc., but that's about it. Without language, high level thought is pretty much impossible.
What happens if you live your live believing in the christian god, and it turns out that in fact the gods are norse?
Did you miss this sentence: If you believe and you are wrong, you've at least led a good life;? Or maybe you didn't understand it. Religion is about faith, not truth. The point is that it enriches your life.
This is one of the most important reasons why the engineering community her in the US will continue using Englinsh units for the foreseeable future
Really? Well, his argument was that the Imperial system is easier to eyeball. That's fine for casual use, but if you have Engineers who eyeball measurements then they should be fired.
Well, $50M is a bit of an exaggeration -- you're not going to find many (any?) examples of that high a figure
Actually, if you include profit sharing (for the big name actors) then the numbers go way up. Take for example Tom Cruise, who has a profit sharing clause in his contracts. For Mission Impossible 2 he got a salary of about $25M and his share of the profit was around $75M.
The PS2 roll-out [in China] seems very low-key indeed
Many Chinese (including those under 30) are still quite upset at the Japanese over the Sino-Japan War atrocities they committed, and would never consider buying a legit PS2 from Sony when they could easily get a black market, pre-modded one for a fraction of the price.
What if a company comes out this year with a new blockbuster game where you serially rape women and then must dump the bodies?
Well, what if a movie studio makes a big budget movie where the hero (not the bad guy) goes around serially raping women?
Where do we draw the line people? what is acceptable and what is not?
Ofcorse there is a line. Nobody is suggesting that there isn't, but I can't think of a game that crosses it (though Postal 2 might be close). GTA doesn't IMO. Simply put, people have to start understanding that games today are like movies; some are suitable for kids and some are not.
The original strawman was "free ebooks" and now you worry about a distribution mechanism?
When I say distribution mechanism, I'm referring to the ebook format.
Even without DMCA either the mechanism is copyrighted
Yes, but they're not copying the mechanism, so the copyright doesn't matter. They're cracking through it.
or the compilation of the mechanism and the content is protected
They're not copying that either. All they're copying is the content, which I've said before might already be public domain.
Besides, even if the content of the ebook was copyrighted, creating and distributing a tool to crack the encryption would not infringe that copyright. Only using the tool would. You wouldn't be able to use copyright law to sue the maker of the tool, you'd have to sue the users. The DMCA allows Adobe to sue the creator.
I'm talking about the reverse engineering of things that are legitimately protected by the DMCA. Not reverse engineering in general. Then the question goes back to what is legitimately protected which is the original focus of the argument.
But at least the small guy can now point to those cases in his defense. The more cases like those that come up the more protected the littly guy will be from threats.
The DMCA really needs a few more years in the courts before it matures. Remember, from a legal standpoint, you can't just look at the original Act itself, you have to look at all the rulings related to it in the courts. Every time there's a court case ruling then that changes the DMCA a little.
It is sorta like the government throwing out a bunch of boards and a sail and saying that this is a boat; it will take you places across water. It's up to the courts to take that and actually make a real boat, meanwhile everybody is complaining that it's horrible because those boards could be used to make spears to kill people.
That's kind of an odd analogy, but I think you get my point. (lame pun alert!)
Copying, distributing, etc. was protected by copyright prior to the DMCA and still is. The only thing DMCA changes in the equation, is the addition of extra punishment.
It's a little more complicated then that in this case because Adobe doesn't own the copyright on the content. They're using the DMCA to protect the distribution mechanism. It's perfectly reasonable for someone to take public domain content and package it in an ebook. Under the DMCA, cracking that ebook is illegal, even if the content is public.
Just like a robbery vs a robbery with a gun -- using the gun is a special condition that allows additional punishment for the illegal act of robbery even if everything else is exactly the same.
I'm certain any manufacturer of embedded products could use FAT32 for embedded drive formats, but use some kind of reverse-engineering crap in the DMCA to prohibit you from knowing it's FAT32.
I really wish you people would stop pretending that the DMCA is some magical wand that allows coporations to do whatever they want. There's no way anybody could use the DMCA to shield them in a situation like that; it's laughable. The purpose of the DMCA is for situations like Adobe's ebook, where if someone cracks the encryption they'd get free ebooks. In that situation the DMCA is a Good Thing. Coporations can't use the DMCA to cover up illegal activity or to stifle competition (garage door remote, Lexmark ink cartridge), or a dozen other things that/.ers are trying to claim they will use it for.
An rpm package will have a dependancy list consisting of various items that are found in other rpm packages.
A deb package will have a dependacy list consisting of other deb packages.
Both systems can work, but the rpm one is a little more work to manage and is more prone to dependancy conflicts. However, most of the extra hassle will be on the shoulder's of the package maintainers, so if they stay on the ball, then to the user there's not going to be much difference.
Of course, the entire human being = coppertop idea violates a fundamental law of thermodynamics
Perhaps you're thinking of the law that says you can't get more energy out of a system then what you put in? If so, then you're confused because that law is never broken. The 'human being = coppertop' idea is a bad analogy, but they used it because they needed a really simply way to explain the situation to the general audience. If you ignore that analogy, then the premise of the movie is still sound.
The power plant uses humans as a catalyst to convert protiens, carbohydrates, fat and other organic materials (i.e. food), plus oxygen into heat and electricty. It works the same way as any real power plant; fuel goes in, electricty comes out. No laws are broken.
Ofcorse, where they get this fuel is another question. We have to assume that they have a cheap source of organic material, otherwise the whole thing doesn't work. We know they liquify the dead as one source, but they would need others as well. I'm assuming they have them.
Based on the last paragraph in your post, I conclude that you don't necessary believe the "real world" which is another matrix, is "on top" of the-matrix-as-we-know-it-from-first-episode, but rather a parallel matrix, an outlet for dissatisfied people, who now think they're free.
That's possible. It's also possible that both worlds are part of one big Matrix. The best analogy I can think of is to compare the Matrix to a modern day computer, and the virtual worlds in the Matrix to programs running on the computer. You could have separate computers talking to each other (parallel model), or you could have all the programs on the same computer (big Matrix model) because separate programs don't necessarially have to know about each other even when they're running on the same computer. Now that I think about it, I kinda like this 'one big Matrix' model the most because it seems like it would give the Architect the most flexible control over the whole system. The nested model seems like it would be an unnecessarially complicated implementation. Ofcorse, there is no 'correct' answer because this topic is well beyond anything that was referred to in the movie, but it's still fun to ponder.:)
Hey, btw, what do you think about the metamorphosis of Oracle? I didn't catch the explanation for that, did you?
They didn't give a good explanation. They basically just said that the Merovingian did something to her (because he was pissed at losing the keymaker) that forced her to find a new body. I'm not concerned about it though, because it was a 'hacked' addition to the plot. The real reason she transformed is because the actress who played the first Oracle (Gloria Foster) passed away durring the filming of the movie.
I don't know where else is this massive thread I should post my theory, so I'll just do it here.:)
Number 2 has been already answered: Neo has supernatural powers, which transcend the Matrix/real world boundaries. As Oracle said, he is The One, and not only in the matrix.
Hehe. Supernatural powers huh? There is no conclusive evidence of this. It is much more logical to conclude that the 'real world' is a second Matrix.
First, the Oracle didn't say ".. not only in the Matrix", she said "not only in this world". "This world" could mean this Matrix versus the other Matrix. She also said something cryptic about "his powers reaching back to the source", which doesn't explain anything.
Second, it is the best explanation for how Neo could enter the Matrix without being plugged in. You may be able to come up with wacky supernatural explanations, but the conclusion that the 'real work' is another Matrix is the best logical explanation. Then they're always 'plugged-in' in the real real world, and everything makes sense.
Third, his Matrix powers were not supernatural in the first place. During the Architect's speech in Reloaded he says something like "You must return to the source for a dissemination of the code you carry". At no other time (even in Revolutions) is there any reference to Neo "carring code". The only logical explanation is that this code is what gives Neo his powers. There's nothing supernatural about it. He's half program. This code is "one half of the balanced equation". There is no way this code could possibly give him power in the real world.
Fourth, there is a constant theme about free will versus the illusion of free will. The idea of the Matrix prison itself exemplifies this. But the movie expresses it more subtly in other ways, such as the Oracle saying: "You've already made the choice, now you have to understand it". Neo believes he has free will, but he doesn't. Even before any questions arise, the choices were made subconsciously, emotionally, based on who he is, not out of free will. The idea shows up in the first Matrix, when Neo was choosing between the red pill and the blue pill. Ofcorse he will choose the red, it's not a real choice. It's the same thing at the end of Revolutions with Niobe choosing to "help Neo, or not". That's not a real choice, her decision was guranteed; it's the illusion of free will. Even less subtly, is the scene with the Merovingian in Reloaded. He rips into them for not understanding why they're doing any of the things they're doing. They believe they're exercising free will, but they're not; they're just doing what the Oracle tells them. The Oracle, and the Architect, are exericising a level of control over these people in a way similar to how Isaac Asimov's psychohistorians guided the fate of the Foundation. If you haven't read Foundation then you should; it's excellent.
The point is, that it's all about the illusion of free will. One of the themes is that true free will doesn't exist. People don't need to actually have free will, they just need to believe that they do. The same thing is true of escaping the Matrix (which is a metaphor for gaining free will). People don't need to actually escape the Matrix, they just need to believe that they've escaped. That's all that's requried in order for "the equation to balance", and the Architect and the Oracle know this, and that's how they've engineered everything.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I'm a kidney transplantee and thus continuously immunosuppressed to keep me from rejecting. We don't worry about surface bacteria any more than people with normal immune systems.
I've often wondered about that. I don't know anybody who takes any immunosuppressants; what sort of extra everyday precautions do you take (if any)? Personally I catch a cold or a light flu usually about once or twice a year for a few days. I presume you have to make some extra effort to avoid stuff like that?
It's taking on a role enacting things you don't normally do
That definition applies to, like, 90% of all games. It would apply to all FP games (from DOOM, to Halo, to Spliter Cell); it would apply to all sports games (if you don't play those games in RL); basically it applies to pretty much everything, except puzzle games and such. And, yes, technically all these games (e.g. Halo, etc..) are "role-playing", but they aren't RPGs. And the parent poster's defition: 'Roleplaying is taking all the good and the bad of a character and making due with it' is extremely narrow. That's a part of role-playing, but it's not the defintion.
A distinction needs to be made between 'role-playing' and the RPG genre. People can have differing opinions about what constitutes 'role'playing', but the defintion of the RPG genre is a lot more well established. In the RPG genre there are two extremes. On one side are the adventure games (e.g. Sierra King's Quest), and on the other side are the hack-and-slash games (e.g. Diablo). What do these games have in common? Uh.. nothing. Currently the RPG label is applied to everything that falls somewhere between those two. Personally, I think there should be three separate genres here, one for each of the extremes and one for the middle (when a game contains both elements). Those divisions sortof exist today ('Adventure RPG', 'Hack-and-Slash RPG), but everybody always uses the term RPG to refer to one or all of them.
People shouldn't get all riled up if a game labeled an 'RPG' doesn't have enough role-playing elements for thier taste. The RPG genre and the defintion of 'role-playing' diverged a long time ago.
This looks like a troll. I'll answer anyway.
if the 7 female teams played in the male league, together with the 50 male teams, they would very likely end up grind into dust.
Perhaps, but even assuming so, that's not because they're female. It's because they don't have the skills. They don't have the skills because they don't practice as much. It has nothing to do with gender.
but my guess is that they would all be in the bottom half
50% of male teams in an all male tourny would finish in the bottom half also. Yet that isn't used as a argument to disqualfy them from playing. So what's your point? All of your arguments for not letting girls participate can also be applied to guys who suck. By your arguments, "guys who suck" shouldn't be allowed to play in these tournemnts. Good luck implementing that rule. If there are going to be any divisions at all, then they should be based on skill, not gender. i.e. There should be beginner, intermediate, and advanced level tournements; none of which should discriminate based on gender. Divisions based on gender make absolutly no sense.
The same is true in any number of other sports where physical size and strength in principle should not play a role. Snooker. Dart. Shooting. Racing, hell even Chess.
And all my arguments apply in those cases as well. If I was active in any of those sports, and had free time, I would lobby to have the situation changed.
I used to be an avid gamer, but since I 'grew up' (left the 20's, so to speak) I've found that its just not worth it.
So you never watch television or movies either then right? If you do, then you're a hypocrite. On a "wanking" scale, television is definetly higher than video games. Television is just a mindless, non-interactive entertainment feed. I don't even have cable and I don't feel bad at all that I spend part of my free time playing video games instead of watching American Idol.
Language makes for a convenient labeling system, but it doesn't define your thoughts
I suspect that you don't speak more than one language right? I have a Chinese friend who (though she speaks near fluent English) constanly has trouble expressing her thoughts precisely in Engligh, simply because the correct words dont exists. English people have that problem occasionally, but not nearly as often she, or others learing English (or any second language) do. It's obvious that Chinese has signifigantly affected her thought process.
Have you ever tried formulating some thoughts without using language internally? Try it now. Pretend you don't know any language and try and consider some complicated idea or thought. It's pretty hard. Without language, all that's left to draw upon are primitive emotions and senses. You'll be able to summon up emotions, images, sounds, smells etc., but that's about it. Without language, high level thought is pretty much impossible.
What happens if you live your live believing in the christian god, and it turns out that in fact the gods are norse?
Did you miss this sentence: If you believe and you are wrong, you've at least led a good life;? Or maybe you didn't understand it. Religion is about faith, not truth. The point is that it enriches your life.
Come on monderators, grow up. You shouldn't be modding stuff down just because you don't agree with it.
This is one of the most important reasons why the engineering community her in the US will continue using Englinsh units for the foreseeable future
Really? Well, his argument was that the Imperial system is easier to eyeball. That's fine for casual use, but if you have Engineers who eyeball measurements then they should be fired.
they're next to useless for any kind of concrete manipulation
Bullshit. Do you have an argument to back that up?
Well, $50M is a bit of an exaggeration -- you're not going to find many (any?) examples of that high a figure
Actually, if you include profit sharing (for the big name actors) then the numbers go way up. Take for example Tom Cruise, who has a profit sharing clause in his contracts. For Mission Impossible 2 he got a salary of about $25M and his share of the profit was around $75M.
The PS2 roll-out [in China] seems very low-key indeed
Many Chinese (including those under 30) are still quite upset at the Japanese over the Sino-Japan War atrocities they committed, and would never consider buying a legit PS2 from Sony when they could easily get a black market, pre-modded one for a fraction of the price.
What if a company comes out this year with a new blockbuster game where you serially rape women and then must dump the bodies?
Well, what if a movie studio makes a big budget movie where the hero (not the bad guy) goes around serially raping women?
Where do we draw the line people? what is acceptable and what is not?
Ofcorse there is a line. Nobody is suggesting that there isn't, but I can't think of a game that crosses it (though Postal 2 might be close). GTA doesn't IMO. Simply put, people have to start understanding that games today are like movies; some are suitable for kids and some are not.
I love how I get modded down as troll just because I express an opinion that's not mainstream. Slashdot: News for Robots. Opinions don't matter.
The original strawman was "free ebooks" and now you worry about a distribution mechanism?
When I say distribution mechanism, I'm referring to the ebook format.
Even without DMCA either the mechanism is copyrighted
Yes, but they're not copying the mechanism, so the copyright doesn't matter. They're cracking through it.
or the compilation of the mechanism and the content is protected
They're not copying that either. All they're copying is the content, which I've said before might already be public domain.
Besides, even if the content of the ebook was copyrighted, creating and distributing a tool to crack the encryption would not infringe that copyright. Only using the tool would. You wouldn't be able to use copyright law to sue the maker of the tool, you'd have to sue the users. The DMCA allows Adobe to sue the creator.
I'm talking about the reverse engineering of things that are legitimately protected by the DMCA. Not reverse engineering in general. Then the question goes back to what is legitimately protected which is the original focus of the argument.
But at least the small guy can now point to those cases in his defense. The more cases like those that come up the more protected the littly guy will be from threats.
The DMCA really needs a few more years in the courts before it matures. Remember, from a legal standpoint, you can't just look at the original Act itself, you have to look at all the rulings related to it in the courts. Every time there's a court case ruling then that changes the DMCA a little.
It is sorta like the government throwing out a bunch of boards and a sail and saying that this is a boat; it will take you places across water. It's up to the courts to take that and actually make a real boat, meanwhile everybody is complaining that it's horrible because those boards could be used to make spears to kill people.
That's kind of an odd analogy, but I think you get my point. (lame pun alert!)
Sorry. Reverse engineering *is* one way to go about making compatible tools
And it's nearly always illegal.
Copying, distributing, etc. was protected by copyright prior to the DMCA and still is. The only thing DMCA changes in the equation, is the addition of extra punishment.
It's a little more complicated then that in this case because Adobe doesn't own the copyright on the content. They're using the DMCA to protect the distribution mechanism. It's perfectly reasonable for someone to take public domain content and package it in an ebook. Under the DMCA, cracking that ebook is illegal, even if the content is public.
Just like a robbery vs a robbery with a gun -- using the gun is a special condition that allows additional punishment for the illegal act of robbery even if everything else is exactly the same.
So why is this 'Nonsense'?
Prohibiting the creation of Free Software PDF readers is undeniably stifling competition.
That has nothing to do with the DMCA. If people want to make compatible tools, then they have to license the technology, not reverse engineer it.
I'm certain any manufacturer of embedded products could use FAT32 for embedded drive formats, but use some kind of reverse-engineering crap in the DMCA to prohibit you from knowing it's FAT32.
/.ers are trying to claim they will use it for.
I really wish you people would stop pretending that the DMCA is some magical wand that allows coporations to do whatever they want. There's no way anybody could use the DMCA to shield them in a situation like that; it's laughable. The purpose of the DMCA is for situations like Adobe's ebook, where if someone cracks the encryption they'd get free ebooks. In that situation the DMCA is a Good Thing. Coporations can't use the DMCA to cover up illegal activity or to stifle competition (garage door remote, Lexmark ink cartridge), or a dozen other things that
The difference as I understand it is this:
An rpm package will have a dependancy list consisting of various items that are found in other rpm packages.
A deb package will have a dependacy list consisting of other deb packages.
Both systems can work, but the rpm one is a little more work to manage and is more prone to dependancy conflicts. However, most of the extra hassle will be on the shoulder's of the package maintainers, so if they stay on the ball, then to the user there's not going to be much difference.
Of course, the entire human being = coppertop idea violates a fundamental law of thermodynamics
Perhaps you're thinking of the law that says you can't get more energy out of a system then what you put in? If so, then you're confused because that law is never broken. The 'human being = coppertop' idea is a bad analogy, but they used it because they needed a really simply way to explain the situation to the general audience. If you ignore that analogy, then the premise of the movie is still sound.
The power plant uses humans as a catalyst to convert protiens, carbohydrates, fat and other organic materials (i.e. food), plus oxygen into heat and electricty. It works the same way as any real power plant; fuel goes in, electricty comes out. No laws are broken.
Ofcorse, where they get this fuel is another question. We have to assume that they have a cheap source of organic material, otherwise the whole thing doesn't work. We know they liquify the dead as one source, but they would need others as well. I'm assuming they have them.
Based on the last paragraph in your post, I conclude that you don't necessary believe the "real world" which is another matrix, is "on top" of the-matrix-as-we-know-it-from-first-episode, but rather a parallel matrix, an outlet for dissatisfied people, who now think they're free.
:)
That's possible. It's also possible that both worlds are part of one big Matrix. The best analogy I can think of is to compare the Matrix to a modern day computer, and the virtual worlds in the Matrix to programs running on the computer. You could have separate computers talking to each other (parallel model), or you could have all the programs on the same computer (big Matrix model) because separate programs don't necessarially have to know about each other even when they're running on the same computer. Now that I think about it, I kinda like this 'one big Matrix' model the most because it seems like it would give the Architect the most flexible control over the whole system. The nested model seems like it would be an unnecessarially complicated implementation. Ofcorse, there is no 'correct' answer because this topic is well beyond anything that was referred to in the movie, but it's still fun to ponder.
Hey, btw, what do you think about the metamorphosis of Oracle? I didn't catch the explanation for that, did you?
They didn't give a good explanation. They basically just said that the Merovingian did something to her (because he was pissed at losing the keymaker) that forced her to find a new body. I'm not concerned about it though, because it was a 'hacked' addition to the plot. The real reason she transformed is because the actress who played the first Oracle (Gloria Foster) passed away durring the filming of the movie.
I don't know where else is this massive thread I should post my theory, so I'll just do it here. :)
Number 2 has been already answered: Neo has supernatural powers, which transcend the Matrix/real world boundaries. As Oracle said, he is The One, and not only in the matrix.
Hehe. Supernatural powers huh? There is no conclusive evidence of this. It is much more logical to conclude that the 'real world' is a second Matrix.
First, the Oracle didn't say ".. not only in the Matrix", she said "not only in this world". "This world" could mean this Matrix versus the other Matrix. She also said something cryptic about "his powers reaching back to the source", which doesn't explain anything.
Second, it is the best explanation for how Neo could enter the Matrix without being plugged in. You may be able to come up with wacky supernatural explanations, but the conclusion that the 'real work' is another Matrix is the best logical explanation. Then they're always 'plugged-in' in the real real world, and everything makes sense.
Third, his Matrix powers were not supernatural in the first place. During the Architect's speech in Reloaded he says something like "You must return to the source for a dissemination of the code you carry". At no other time (even in Revolutions) is there any reference to Neo "carring code". The only logical explanation is that this code is what gives Neo his powers. There's nothing supernatural about it. He's half program. This code is "one half of the balanced equation". There is no way this code could possibly give him power in the real world.
Fourth, there is a constant theme about free will versus the illusion of free will. The idea of the Matrix prison itself exemplifies this. But the movie expresses it more subtly in other ways, such as the Oracle saying: "You've already made the choice, now you have to understand it". Neo believes he has free will, but he doesn't. Even before any questions arise, the choices were made subconsciously, emotionally, based on who he is, not out of free will. The idea shows up in the first Matrix, when Neo was choosing between the red pill and the blue pill. Ofcorse he will choose the red, it's not a real choice. It's the same thing at the end of Revolutions with Niobe choosing to "help Neo, or not". That's not a real choice, her decision was guranteed; it's the illusion of free will. Even less subtly, is the scene with the Merovingian in Reloaded. He rips into them for not understanding why they're doing any of the things they're doing. They believe they're exercising free will, but they're not; they're just doing what the Oracle tells them. The Oracle, and the Architect, are exericising a level of control over these people in a way similar to how Isaac Asimov's psychohistorians guided the fate of the Foundation. If you haven't read Foundation then you should; it's excellent.
The point is, that it's all about the illusion of free will. One of the themes is that true free will doesn't exist. People don't need to actually have free will, they just need to believe that they do. The same thing is true of escaping the Matrix (which is a metaphor for gaining free will). People don't need to actually escape the Matrix, they just need to believe that they've escaped. That's all that's requried in order for "the equation to balance", and the Architect and the Oracle know this, and that's how they've engineered everything.
*Sigh*. That looks like you did a google search for WOPR. Have you people not seen WarGames? I'm not that old.