Bingo. I got stuck outside in a sandbox when it was nice, bundled up and given a sled when it was cold. When I was old enough, I was given a pocket knife and a stand of trees to play in. The same with the rest of the kids I knew. We went on adventures, built forts, risked life and limb on rickety moving objects of all types, etc.
I wasn't ever plunked down in front of the TV. The only TV time for me as a child were 2 hrs on a Saturday morning, before we went to the Library. My house was filled with books, and I was read to every night, until I was well able to read to myself.
In great part due to this, I'm not a fan of passive entertainment. I won't collapse in front of a TV and sit there for hours. I need to be doing something most of the time.
I would echo your comment: "Why do parents think that their kids need cartoons and television shows?" All the research shows that they are harmful to childhood development.
A bunch of us are probably spoiled from playing Sins. While those combats aren't at ton more visually interesting, they are definitely better looking than that was. Plus, ships in Sins can fire backwards.
You're telling me that ships in Eve can only fire forward? Did the ship designers learn nothing from the 14th-19th centuries? When my expensive ships in Sins start getting chewed up, they retreat, firing all the way. Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't. But they at least have the option.
Heh...I just got into this exact discussion yesterday with a friend of mine.
Should people memorize the chip serial numbers? Because that seems to be the only way of figuring out what the chip is these days.
That was pretty much our end idea. There's just no categorization in the names anymore. The best you can do is find a processor comparison chart at Tom's and pick one which looks like it will run your specific app well for the price.
It's really unbelievable that we're at this point - there was a time where I was well versed in the specs of each chip and socket. Now, it's a crap shoot when I go to buy a processor. When model numbers and parts of names get reused, and cache sizes and bus speeds change all the time, there's just no good way to keep track of them anymore.
When I fuck with my cat, and he ends up scratching me, I wash it out with soap and fairly sterile water. It comes out of my tap. It doesn't have dead animals in it, feces, nor has it been in contact with organic matter which can harbor all sorts of fun things. And it doesn't have parasites in it either.
Soap and clean water, plus a healthy immune system will take care of 99% of infections. Clean water, a decent diet, some exercise, a non-flea infested bed to sleep in, and a lack of dysentery really makes it easy to recover from infections that a century ago might have been fatal.
I'm looking forward to the entertainment. Religion vs Religion, politicians getting sued, newspapers "publishing matter that is insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion". With all the Protestants going to hell for not receiving communion, it should be an interesting year in Ireland.
I guess I wasn't considering something like a shaped charge or a well manufactured plastic explosive when I said that. The guy tried to mix a binary explosive in a bathroom....not exactly "Any decent high explosive". While the raw materials and formulation might have had potential, the final mixing doomed it. However, had he been able to seal it up, even that much might have had the kick to do some damage.
I went through three airports today, and just had to laugh. (Inside the US all the way.) One guy gets through screening in Amsterdam, and we have a security panic in the US. It's facepalm material. It's almost like we're trying very hard to find a problem here, even when it's shown to not be here.
Nope. We didn't dodge a damn thing. A pile of explosives goes poof with a flash and some flame. That's it. Even a really big pile. A pile of explosives in a very solid tube with one end open is a gun, which can shoot stuff out of the open end. A pile of explosives in a sealed container is a bomb, and can build up enough pressure to blow holes in things.
Sure, he had a great explosive. But without a sealed, solid container to put them in, he's only going to burn his dick off.
And I'm pretty sure that if you took a threaded steel container through security, they'd take an extra look at the rest of what you're carrying.
Not only did I very much explain that it's background knowledge, not raw intelligence, you seem to think that data analysis is some simple task. To cap it off, you talk about great people in science. You do know, that since about 100 years ago, almost all major scientific discoveries were "signed off by my mates"? That's how we weed out truly good ideas from those of uninformed luddites.
I linked to a bunch of data below in this thread. Feel free to amaze the world with your fantastic abilities.
Generally, that's done. They're called data repositories and journals, and they generally have that sort of information.
Of course, it's usually phrased "we treated the data as per Julian (1993) and..." so unless you've read that paper and are intimately familiar with it, it doesn't look like they described their methods at all. As a newbie in the field, I run into this all the time. There are long-standing "tried and true" methods for calibration and interpolation. However, unless you've spent a decade reading and working with such methods, it's not apparent. I still have to ask old-timers what's going on in a lot of papers. It's either that, or read dozens more to find out what's going on in this one.
As for data, there is a shitton available if you go looking. Try the BIOS datasets, the NCAR reanalysis(filtered and interpolated, so it's "nice" data) data, etc. The issue isn't in getting ahold of the data. The issue is in being able to do anything with it. Sure, you can grab the NCAR reanalysis data, and do stats on it. But without knowing about the MJO, ESNO, the NAO, the CTI/AL, Indian Monsoon, etc., you're going to find all sorts of signals. All of which bleed out anything that hasn't been well discovered and documented.
A pure statistician will find tons of stuff in that data. 99% of it will have already been accounted for. However, to understand all the stuff that you're going to find with stats, you need to be immersed in a lot of different publications, spanning the last 90 years or so. And to understand those, you'll need a lot of background knowledge on atmospheric physics, oceanography, etc. And if you're going to wade through 90 years of research, and study atmospheric physics and oceanography, you're probably not going to do so at home in your basement. In fact, there are specialized places to do just that...
For a decade I wasn't doing climate science. I dabbled in it, read papers, thought about stuff, had the same ideas about it as the bulk of/.. Now that I'm in it, my world has been dumped on it's head. I thought I was on firm footing, with my arm-chair climate philosophizing. The reality is far different. It's well on par with being an arm-chair neurosurgeon. The specialization required and the background knowledge needed to accomplish anything is massive. I've never been as dumb as I am now. Not because I got stupider, but because I learned how much I don't know.
I am in no way smarter than everyone else. Nor are a lot of scientists. What I and they have are years and years of specialized training, and background knowledge in an area that few people know about.
Put a brilliant mathematician in climate science, and you'll see him fail. Put a neurosurgeon in climate science, and you'll see him fail. Put a rocket scientist in climate, and he'll fail as well.
Put a climate scientist in any of those roles, and watch them fail also.
It's not the intelligence - it's the specialization. You wouldn't want a cardiac surgeon doing brain surgery, and you wouldn't want a neurosurgeon doing cardiac surgery. It doesn't say anything about their intelligence - it speaks to the years they've dedicated to becoming experts in their respective fields.
Why would you expect that studying something as horrifically complicated as climate dynamics would be any less needing of experts?
Wow, you got that worked up about video games? Seriously, you need a fresh perspective.
The entire context here is video games. Not safe cars, drinking water, food, shelter, or anything that is necessary or even important for life. We're talking about luxury items.
It wouldn't matter if it were diamonds, televisions, baseball bats, or the aforementioned tiger-repellent rocks.If stupid people want to waste their money on poor quality luxury items, it does not matter to me in the least.
if the greater populace doesn't come to understand it's crap and do something about it, you're equally as screwed, buddy
Pray tell how? How in the hell does a bunch of people wasting their money on poor quality luxury items affect me in the least? You call me "mind-numbingly stupid", but that is asinine. If EA implodes today, it doesn't matter to me at all. If EA makes a billion dollars, it doesn't matter to me at all. Either I'm so stupid I can't see how this affects me, or you're the one making pretty stupid statements. Could you enlighten me?
The background knowledge needed to interpret raw climatological data is immense. I'm knee deep in it now, and it's not straight forward. It's not a nice excel spreadsheet. The amount of work that needs to be done to just get the data into the sort of shape where statistics can be done on it is tremendous. A few quick examples:
Arctic measurements. You may already know this, but shit breaks in the cold. All the time. Add in ice melting and thawing, and 50 mph winds, and equipment does not last long. So our data from arctic areas is filled with holes. It's got bogus measurements. Knowing how to spot those bogus results requires an understanding of the equipment being used, how it functions in the cold, and where it's located. You may be able to totally trust a piece of equipment at temperatures over -10C, but have to throw out all data for temperatures below -60C. Just handing out the raw data to anyone will result in some fool taking it as absolute truth.
There are dozens of climatological oscillations in the earth's atmosphere and oceans. El Nino is half of the most famous one. (No, the other half isn't La Nina, it's the Southern Oscillation) When you look at something like temperature data, you see all sorts of ups and downs. When a couple of these oscillations are in phase, you'll have abnormally high or low temperatures. When they're not in phase, you'll have some mixture. If you're trying to analyze temperature patterns on earth and don't know to take these into account, you're just wasting your time, and potentially going to publicize incorrect findings because of it.
Geophysical data is ridiculously hard to work with. You need to understand the engineering of the tools used to collect the data, the tolerances and quirks of them, the areas they're used in, sometimes even HOW they're used to take measurements. On top of that, you need to have a very good understanding of the physical processes of the earth's climate systems to be able to isolate any sort of signal. Otherwise, it's just a chaotic mess.
In short, this requires experts. It's not something that anyone can just hop into Excel with stats 101 under their belt and do. A lot of work is a partnership between engineers, climatologists, AND statisticians. No, your "econometrics heavy MSc" is not enough. Not by a long shot.
Like anything stupidly complicated, it requires the work of experts. If you want to be an expert, you generally need to spend the time studying to BECOME an expert. How does one prove this? Relevant degree and some peer reviewed publications under your belt.
I'd counter that you didn't read and understand mine.
I don't fucking care. I'm not out to change the world. It's not my job to keep a fool and his money together. I'm not required to fix the fact that scammers steal money from stupid people.
For thousands of years scammers have been swindling stupid people from their money. I'm not a stupid person. Ergo, I'm not often parted from my money. I wait and see if what I want to purchase is worth it. I'm not stupid. I don't fall for advertising and hype.
My complaint with the great grandparent was that he apparently does. I've not been burned by a game in years.....after I was burned by a bunch of games. I learned from that, and I don't buy anything that I'm not sure is good.
My real point is this: FUCK ALL THE STUPID PEOPLE, THEY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE. I boycott, not to save them, not to make it so they won't ever have anything bad done to them again, but because I'm not a fool. I don't give a damn about their lack of recourse, because it's their own damn fault for being gullible and easily manipulated by advertising.
That was my real point.
Intelligent consumers buy shit that they've researched and feel is worth it. Stupid consumers buy what the TV tells them to. I have no sympathy for them.
By and large commerce would grind to a halt if companies were allow to produce total trash, sell it off to people and completely ignore any responsibility for what they delivered.
That is utterly untrue. All it takes is for one company to produce a quality good, and that's it. The problem isn't with the companies - it's with the consumers.
If all the wine was poisoned, wine makers would go out of business. We'd revert to drinking other beverages, or making the wine ourselves.
We're not talking about life or death here. These aren't things necessary for survival. These are luxury items which are payed for out of an expendable budget. If nobody "buys it first" because we're all sick of getting burned, guess what? That company goes out of business. If some other company comes along and consistently delivers a quality product, they win.
I'll continue to not support crappy companies which produce crappy products. It doesn't really impact my life to do so. If the rest of you get pissed off enough to do the same, good for you! If not, whatever. It doesn't matter to me.
You don't make any sense at all. There's a big difference between "the bulk of the market" and "what you have to choose from". While the bulk of the market was selling big SUVs, I bought a little toyota. While the bulk of the market was focused on mass-marketed, talentless pop stars, I bought other music. While the bulk of the market focuses on mass-marketed, alpha and beta versions of games, I spend my money on solid, well constructed games.
You're dead wrong. What's made in a free market is NOT what most people choose. What's made in a free market is what will make that person some money. And sometimes, it's something that does NOT make that person money.
Unlike you, I haven't been sold on the "the only good things in life are made by a corporation, and marketed on TV". I'm happy to seek value in all things, and pick that which has the most value for the money (or time) I'm willing to spend on it.
If a few million people want to give their money to corporations in exchange for things that don't work, that's fine with me. It's not my money. I'll either find something that works to spend my money on, or I won't spend it.
We're not talking about shit you need to live here. These are purely optional expenditures.
There are plenty. The problem is that there aren't plenty of brand new, mainstream, shiny, advertised to hell, played by millions of stupids games that aren't buggy.
Expand your horizons beyond what you see commercials for, and you'll find a lot of solid games worth paying for.
Well, apparently stupid me... and like 8 million other people.
To be blunt, yes. I didn't have any issues with the game, because I didn't run out and buy it. Why? Because I don't buy shitty games. How do I know if a game is shitty? I wait for folks like yourself to figure it out and tell me.
You make my point for me. You're one of the millions who don't have a problem with risking your money on garbage. The fact that you're part of this group doesn't bother me at all. I'm not. I'm not going on a crusade to try and get you to change your ways. Some people have been being ripped off ever since bartering was invented. Some of us are more cautious.
In no way can I have any affect on the former group of people.
They can cry that all they want. At the end of the year, they're either profitable, or out of business. As long as we can prevent them from taking our rights away in the process, all is well.
I guess I don't understand your problem. Are you on a crusade to purge the world of the evils of crappy games?
we're powerless to stop the trend of pushing betas onto us
Nobody pushes betas onto me! According to you, they don't push betas onto you either! Sure, they push betas onto other stupid people, but where's the problem?
You and I may never purchase a game again, just like neither of us would buy a tiger repellent rock. I guess I don't understand where your outrage comes from.
Throughout history there have always been suckers. 2000 years ago the Greeks were writing about suckers buying worthless things. Now we as humans have advanced (somewhat, but not entirely) from oracles, prophecies, and "cures" to broken video games and knock-off hardware.
"Caveat emptor" has been around for a long, long, LONG TIME! "There's a sucker borne every minute" not quite so long, but still a long time.
I don't share your outrage, since it's obvious that this is just the same thing that's been done for thousands of years. Either you're a sucker, or you're not. It seems like you and I are in the "not" boat. I just don't assume that I can prevent suckers from being suckered. Thousands of years of human history proves otherwise. If they're not getting suckered into buying crap video games, it will be something else. Four hundred plus years ago, it was:
A foole and his money be soone at debate: which after with sorow repents him too late.
What power do you -we- have? Boycotting is not an options...
Oh, to have mod points to mod you "-1 stupid".
Boycotting IS "an options". Don't buy crap. Period. It does not affect me in the least that everyone else around me is wasting their money on crap. They could be stuffing their closets full of dogshit, and it wouldn't affect me. (Assuming they kept the containers sealed so as to keep it in mint condition and preserve the value.)
I don't buy garbage games from garbage publishers. Boycotting does work for me. It's the power that I have. I'm not required to buy the latest whiz-bang game. I'm not required to buy every game I see a commercial for. I'm not even required to buy a game RIGHT AWAY! I know. madness, huh?
My money goes to good games. I'll happily wait 6 months to find out if it's a good game or not. Now, this doesn't penalize game makers for buggy games, but at the same time, I don't have to deal with buggy games.
there is nothing that we the informed customer can do to fend them off
The informed customer can not buy their games. That's what I do. Until they legislate that I'm required to purchase their crappy games, they really don't affect me in the least.
By any chance, you aren't a slave to hype and buying the newest game all the time, are you? Because that's where I normally see such bitter complaints about buggy games...
Wait....a "date" is where you go and sit in the dark, so you can't see the other person, and don't talk to them for an hour or two? Really?
Mine tend to be more along the lines of inviting someone over for dinner, talking, rubbing elbows during prep work, laughter over wining and dining, and enjoying the ability to see and talk to each other the whole time.
I'd make a joke about typical slashdot ideas of dating revolving around not seeing or talking to the other person, but that'd just be rude.
Slashdot Mirror
Bingo. I got stuck outside in a sandbox when it was nice, bundled up and given a sled when it was cold. When I was old enough, I was given a pocket knife and a stand of trees to play in. The same with the rest of the kids I knew. We went on adventures, built forts, risked life and limb on rickety moving objects of all types, etc.
I wasn't ever plunked down in front of the TV. The only TV time for me as a child were 2 hrs on a Saturday morning, before we went to the Library. My house was filled with books, and I was read to every night, until I was well able to read to myself.
In great part due to this, I'm not a fan of passive entertainment. I won't collapse in front of a TV and sit there for hours. I need to be doing something most of the time.
I would echo your comment: "Why do parents think that their kids need cartoons and television shows?" All the research shows that they are harmful to childhood development.
A bunch of us are probably spoiled from playing Sins. While those combats aren't at ton more visually interesting, they are definitely better looking than that was. Plus, ships in Sins can fire backwards.
You're telling me that ships in Eve can only fire forward? Did the ship designers learn nothing from the 14th-19th centuries? When my expensive ships in Sins start getting chewed up, they retreat, firing all the way. Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't. But they at least have the option.
Heh...I just got into this exact discussion yesterday with a friend of mine.
Should people memorize the chip serial numbers? Because that seems to be the only way of figuring out what the chip is these days.
That was pretty much our end idea. There's just no categorization in the names anymore. The best you can do is find a processor comparison chart at Tom's and pick one which looks like it will run your specific app well for the price.
It's really unbelievable that we're at this point - there was a time where I was well versed in the specs of each chip and socket. Now, it's a crap shoot when I go to buy a processor. When model numbers and parts of names get reused, and cache sizes and bus speeds change all the time, there's just no good way to keep track of them anymore.
Bingo.
When I fuck with my cat, and he ends up scratching me, I wash it out with soap and fairly sterile water. It comes out of my tap. It doesn't have dead animals in it, feces, nor has it been in contact with organic matter which can harbor all sorts of fun things. And it doesn't have parasites in it either.
Soap and clean water, plus a healthy immune system will take care of 99% of infections. Clean water, a decent diet, some exercise, a non-flea infested bed to sleep in, and a lack of dysentery really makes it easy to recover from infections that a century ago might have been fatal.
Nethack.
I'm looking forward to the entertainment. Religion vs Religion, politicians getting sued, newspapers "publishing matter that is insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion". With all the Protestants going to hell for not receiving communion, it should be an interesting year in Ireland.
It doesn't take Y2K to screw planes up at the International Date Line.
I guess I wasn't considering something like a shaped charge or a well manufactured plastic explosive when I said that. The guy tried to mix a binary explosive in a bathroom....not exactly "Any decent high explosive". While the raw materials and formulation might have had potential, the final mixing doomed it. However, had he been able to seal it up, even that much might have had the kick to do some damage.
I went through three airports today, and just had to laugh. (Inside the US all the way.) One guy gets through screening in Amsterdam, and we have a security panic in the US. It's facepalm material. It's almost like we're trying very hard to find a problem here, even when it's shown to not be here.
Nope. We didn't dodge a damn thing. A pile of explosives goes poof with a flash and some flame. That's it. Even a really big pile. A pile of explosives in a very solid tube with one end open is a gun, which can shoot stuff out of the open end. A pile of explosives in a sealed container is a bomb, and can build up enough pressure to blow holes in things.
Sure, he had a great explosive. But without a sealed, solid container to put them in, he's only going to burn his dick off.
And I'm pretty sure that if you took a threaded steel container through security, they'd take an extra look at the rest of what you're carrying.
Your nick is well picked.
Not only did I very much explain that it's background knowledge, not raw intelligence, you seem to think that data analysis is some simple task. To cap it off, you talk about great people in science. You do know, that since about 100 years ago, almost all major scientific discoveries were "signed off by my mates"? That's how we weed out truly good ideas from those of uninformed luddites.
I linked to a bunch of data below in this thread. Feel free to amaze the world with your fantastic abilities.
Generally, that's done. They're called data repositories and journals, and they generally have that sort of information.
/.. Now that I'm in it, my world has been dumped on it's head. I thought I was on firm footing, with my arm-chair climate philosophizing. The reality is far different. It's well on par with being an arm-chair neurosurgeon. The specialization required and the background knowledge needed to accomplish anything is massive. I've never been as dumb as I am now. Not because I got stupider, but because I learned how much I don't know.
Of course, it's usually phrased "we treated the data as per Julian (1993) and..." so unless you've read that paper and are intimately familiar with it, it doesn't look like they described their methods at all. As a newbie in the field, I run into this all the time. There are long-standing "tried and true" methods for calibration and interpolation. However, unless you've spent a decade reading and working with such methods, it's not apparent. I still have to ask old-timers what's going on in a lot of papers. It's either that, or read dozens more to find out what's going on in this one.
As for data, there is a shitton available if you go looking. Try the BIOS datasets, the NCAR reanalysis(filtered and interpolated, so it's "nice" data) data, etc. The issue isn't in getting ahold of the data. The issue is in being able to do anything with it. Sure, you can grab the NCAR reanalysis data, and do stats on it. But without knowing about the MJO, ESNO, the NAO, the CTI/AL, Indian Monsoon, etc., you're going to find all sorts of signals. All of which bleed out anything that hasn't been well discovered and documented.
A pure statistician will find tons of stuff in that data. 99% of it will have already been accounted for. However, to understand all the stuff that you're going to find with stats, you need to be immersed in a lot of different publications, spanning the last 90 years or so. And to understand those, you'll need a lot of background knowledge on atmospheric physics, oceanography, etc. And if you're going to wade through 90 years of research, and study atmospheric physics and oceanography, you're probably not going to do so at home in your basement. In fact, there are specialized places to do just that...
For a decade I wasn't doing climate science. I dabbled in it, read papers, thought about stuff, had the same ideas about it as the bulk of
I am in no way smarter than everyone else. Nor are a lot of scientists. What I and they have are years and years of specialized training, and background knowledge in an area that few people know about.
Put a brilliant mathematician in climate science, and you'll see him fail. Put a neurosurgeon in climate science, and you'll see him fail. Put a rocket scientist in climate, and he'll fail as well.
Put a climate scientist in any of those roles, and watch them fail also.
It's not the intelligence - it's the specialization. You wouldn't want a cardiac surgeon doing brain surgery, and you wouldn't want a neurosurgeon doing cardiac surgery. It doesn't say anything about their intelligence - it speaks to the years they've dedicated to becoming experts in their respective fields.
Why would you expect that studying something as horrifically complicated as climate dynamics would be any less needing of experts?
Wow, you got that worked up about video games? Seriously, you need a fresh perspective.
The entire context here is video games. Not safe cars, drinking water, food, shelter, or anything that is necessary or even important for life. We're talking about luxury items.
It wouldn't matter if it were diamonds, televisions, baseball bats, or the aforementioned tiger-repellent rocks.If stupid people want to waste their money on poor quality luxury items, it does not matter to me in the least.
if the greater populace doesn't come to understand it's crap and do something about it, you're equally as screwed, buddy
Pray tell how? How in the hell does a bunch of people wasting their money on poor quality luxury items affect me in the least? You call me "mind-numbingly stupid", but that is asinine. If EA implodes today, it doesn't matter to me at all. If EA makes a billion dollars, it doesn't matter to me at all. Either I'm so stupid I can't see how this affects me, or you're the one making pretty stupid statements. Could you enlighten me?
Why should that restriction exist at all?
To weed out trolls.
The background knowledge needed to interpret raw climatological data is immense. I'm knee deep in it now, and it's not straight forward. It's not a nice excel spreadsheet. The amount of work that needs to be done to just get the data into the sort of shape where statistics can be done on it is tremendous. A few quick examples:
Arctic measurements. You may already know this, but shit breaks in the cold. All the time. Add in ice melting and thawing, and 50 mph winds, and equipment does not last long. So our data from arctic areas is filled with holes. It's got bogus measurements. Knowing how to spot those bogus results requires an understanding of the equipment being used, how it functions in the cold, and where it's located. You may be able to totally trust a piece of equipment at temperatures over -10C, but have to throw out all data for temperatures below -60C. Just handing out the raw data to anyone will result in some fool taking it as absolute truth.
There are dozens of climatological oscillations in the earth's atmosphere and oceans. El Nino is half of the most famous one. (No, the other half isn't La Nina, it's the Southern Oscillation) When you look at something like temperature data, you see all sorts of ups and downs. When a couple of these oscillations are in phase, you'll have abnormally high or low temperatures. When they're not in phase, you'll have some mixture. If you're trying to analyze temperature patterns on earth and don't know to take these into account, you're just wasting your time, and potentially going to publicize incorrect findings because of it.
Geophysical data is ridiculously hard to work with. You need to understand the engineering of the tools used to collect the data, the tolerances and quirks of them, the areas they're used in, sometimes even HOW they're used to take measurements. On top of that, you need to have a very good understanding of the physical processes of the earth's climate systems to be able to isolate any sort of signal. Otherwise, it's just a chaotic mess.
In short, this requires experts. It's not something that anyone can just hop into Excel with stats 101 under their belt and do. A lot of work is a partnership between engineers, climatologists, AND statisticians. No, your "econometrics heavy MSc" is not enough. Not by a long shot.
Like anything stupidly complicated, it requires the work of experts. If you want to be an expert, you generally need to spend the time studying to BECOME an expert. How does one prove this? Relevant degree and some peer reviewed publications under your belt.
I'd counter that you didn't read and understand mine.
I don't fucking care. I'm not out to change the world. It's not my job to keep a fool and his money together. I'm not required to fix the fact that scammers steal money from stupid people.
For thousands of years scammers have been swindling stupid people from their money. I'm not a stupid person. Ergo, I'm not often parted from my money. I wait and see if what I want to purchase is worth it. I'm not stupid. I don't fall for advertising and hype.
My complaint with the great grandparent was that he apparently does. I've not been burned by a game in years.....after I was burned by a bunch of games. I learned from that, and I don't buy anything that I'm not sure is good.
My real point is this: FUCK ALL THE STUPID PEOPLE, THEY GET WHAT THEY DESERVE. I boycott, not to save them, not to make it so they won't ever have anything bad done to them again, but because I'm not a fool. I don't give a damn about their lack of recourse, because it's their own damn fault for being gullible and easily manipulated by advertising.
That was my real point.
Intelligent consumers buy shit that they've researched and feel is worth it. Stupid consumers buy what the TV tells them to. I have no sympathy for them.
I don't think you get it.
By and large commerce would grind to a halt if companies were allow to produce total trash, sell it off to people and completely ignore any responsibility for what they delivered.
That is utterly untrue. All it takes is for one company to produce a quality good, and that's it. The problem isn't with the companies - it's with the consumers.
If all the wine was poisoned, wine makers would go out of business. We'd revert to drinking other beverages, or making the wine ourselves.
We're not talking about life or death here. These aren't things necessary for survival. These are luxury items which are payed for out of an expendable budget. If nobody "buys it first" because we're all sick of getting burned, guess what? That company goes out of business. If some other company comes along and consistently delivers a quality product, they win.
I'll continue to not support crappy companies which produce crappy products. It doesn't really impact my life to do so. If the rest of you get pissed off enough to do the same, good for you! If not, whatever. It doesn't matter to me.
You don't make any sense at all. There's a big difference between "the bulk of the market" and "what you have to choose from". While the bulk of the market was selling big SUVs, I bought a little toyota. While the bulk of the market was focused on mass-marketed, talentless pop stars, I bought other music. While the bulk of the market focuses on mass-marketed, alpha and beta versions of games, I spend my money on solid, well constructed games.
You're dead wrong. What's made in a free market is NOT what most people choose. What's made in a free market is what will make that person some money. And sometimes, it's something that does NOT make that person money.
Unlike you, I haven't been sold on the "the only good things in life are made by a corporation, and marketed on TV". I'm happy to seek value in all things, and pick that which has the most value for the money (or time) I'm willing to spend on it.
If a few million people want to give their money to corporations in exchange for things that don't work, that's fine with me. It's not my money. I'll either find something that works to spend my money on, or I won't spend it.
We're not talking about shit you need to live here. These are purely optional expenditures.
There are plenty. The problem is that there aren't plenty of brand new, mainstream, shiny, advertised to hell, played by millions of stupids games that aren't buggy.
Expand your horizons beyond what you see commercials for, and you'll find a lot of solid games worth paying for.
Well, apparently stupid me... and like 8 million other people.
To be blunt, yes. I didn't have any issues with the game, because I didn't run out and buy it. Why? Because I don't buy shitty games. How do I know if a game is shitty? I wait for folks like yourself to figure it out and tell me.
You make my point for me. You're one of the millions who don't have a problem with risking your money on garbage. The fact that you're part of this group doesn't bother me at all. I'm not. I'm not going on a crusade to try and get you to change your ways. Some people have been being ripped off ever since bartering was invented. Some of us are more cautious.
In no way can I have any affect on the former group of people.
And?
They can cry that all they want. At the end of the year, they're either profitable, or out of business. As long as we can prevent them from taking our rights away in the process, all is well.
See my reply to him. Let me know if it's not clear. Below.
I guess I don't understand your problem. Are you on a crusade to purge the world of the evils of crappy games?
we're powerless to stop the trend of pushing betas onto us
Nobody pushes betas onto me! According to you, they don't push betas onto you either! Sure, they push betas onto other stupid people, but where's the problem?
You and I may never purchase a game again, just like neither of us would buy a tiger repellent rock. I guess I don't understand where your outrage comes from.
Throughout history there have always been suckers. 2000 years ago the Greeks were writing about suckers buying worthless things. Now we as humans have advanced (somewhat, but not entirely) from oracles, prophecies, and "cures" to broken video games and knock-off hardware.
"Caveat emptor" has been around for a long, long, LONG TIME! "There's a sucker borne every minute" not quite so long, but still a long time.
I don't share your outrage, since it's obvious that this is just the same thing that's been done for thousands of years. Either you're a sucker, or you're not. It seems like you and I are in the "not" boat. I just don't assume that I can prevent suckers from being suckered. Thousands of years of human history proves otherwise. If they're not getting suckered into buying crap video games, it will be something else. Four hundred plus years ago, it was:
A foole and his money be soone at debate: which after with sorow repents him too late.
What power do you -we- have? Boycotting is not an options...
Oh, to have mod points to mod you "-1 stupid".
Boycotting IS "an options". Don't buy crap. Period. It does not affect me in the least that everyone else around me is wasting their money on crap. They could be stuffing their closets full of dogshit, and it wouldn't affect me. (Assuming they kept the containers sealed so as to keep it in mint condition and preserve the value.)
I don't buy garbage games from garbage publishers. Boycotting does work for me. It's the power that I have. I'm not required to buy the latest whiz-bang game. I'm not required to buy every game I see a commercial for. I'm not even required to buy a game RIGHT AWAY! I know. madness, huh?
My money goes to good games. I'll happily wait 6 months to find out if it's a good game or not. Now, this doesn't penalize game makers for buggy games, but at the same time, I don't have to deal with buggy games.
there is nothing that we the informed customer can do to fend them off
The informed customer can not buy their games. That's what I do. Until they legislate that I'm required to purchase their crappy games, they really don't affect me in the least.
By any chance, you aren't a slave to hype and buying the newest game all the time, are you? Because that's where I normally see such bitter complaints about buggy games...
Wait....a "date" is where you go and sit in the dark, so you can't see the other person, and don't talk to them for an hour or two? Really?
Mine tend to be more along the lines of inviting someone over for dinner, talking, rubbing elbows during prep work, laughter over wining and dining, and enjoying the ability to see and talk to each other the whole time.
I'd make a joke about typical slashdot ideas of dating revolving around not seeing or talking to the other person, but that'd just be rude.
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