just to see what the differences are between it and Mental Ray and / or V-Ray. ( I own both ) Unless it adds some serious " just gotta have it " reasons over Mental Ray or the other commercial renderers, then most folks probably won't bother with it.
The new hotness, however, is GPU rendering. ( eg: I-Ray or Octane )
If Renderman supports GPU rendering, then it will gain a lot more interest as it won't be considered a deprecated rendering solution.
I used to think otherwise, but have recently come to the revelation that even the most incapable member of a team can be useful under the right circumstances.
Example: One of my team members has been with us a few years. Their capabilities are limited to the most basic of tasks and the odds of their learning the more advanced concepts are slim. Yet, the way our company is structured, their compensation is the exact same as the most capable team members. Creates an odd environment to work in when the most capable are paid the same as the least. . . but that's another story.
One day I realized our LSTM ( Least significant team member ) had a very powerful hidden ability. They now have a code-name: Agent ITWMD. ( Yes, the Information Technology Weapon of Mass Destruction )
Anytime we get an overly pushy marketing department or someone trying to force unrealistic time-lines upon us, we simply deploy the IT WMD to handle that project, sit back and watch the chaos unfold. To give you an idea, what should take two hours will take TWO DAYS with our secret weapon. Imagine sitting on a conference call for two days on a project that any other team member can complete in their sleep in a fraction of the time. It's like being told it will take a week to rotate the tires on your car:D
After one or two of those sessions, the formerly pushy and obnoxious groups will all but BEG us to spare them the horror of such a weapon. We kindly tell them to behave and give us realistic timelines to work with and we'll provide them with a more than capable tech to work with. They usually learn rather quickly. We need only mention the IT WMD on the call when they start to go stupid again and they will instantly understand the direction they are going is the wrong one.
Keep this in mind the next time you have a LSTM of your own.:D
Terrorism doesn't come to this country because they hate our way of life, our religion, or beliefs. It comes to this country because our foreign policy is, and has been, bomb everyone that doesn't doesn't agree with us as a means of control.
In the eyes of the rest of the world, the United States is the primary exporter of terrorism. We're pretty much the bully of the planet. It's obvious why we don't have daily drone strikes against Russia or China. They won't put up with it and a conflict between Super-Powers doesn't have a guaranteed or predictable outcome. So we pick on the little countries instead.
We kill some folks with a drone strike, they gun down an embassy, we stomp our feet and point " Look, look ! Teh terrorists ! " and we launch another drone.:|
Americans like to think we are the just ones here. We right the wrongs of the world and that we're the shining example of how things are supposed to be. That's what has been burned into our heads since day one. It's starting to become crystal clear just how incorrect that line of thinking really is. Sadly, outside of an armed revolution*, it's unlikely we'll be able to remove enough of the established government to make any real change in how things work here. It would basically take a complete removal of our elected leadership with some major changes to the existing laws and rules to get us back on the right track.
I sincerely hope there is more to come from Mr. Snowdens documents. I also hope the information contained therein is horrific enough to snap the average American out of the " everything is ok " daze we've been in for the last several decades. Because it will take something along those lines to get the engine of true change running.
*For the inevitable " good luck with your guns vs the military might " post that always seems to show up, I'll simply point out the last several conflicts the US has been involved with were against a much weaker military opponent who used basic guns and IED's. No tanks. No ships or aircraft to speak of. We haven't " won " any of those conflicts in recent history unless you believe the propaganda. Just food for thought before you post it.
At some point, the world will completely lose trust in the United States and when that happens, our existence and / or relevance as a country will cease to be.
when our government can trump them with their " think of the terrorists / kids / national security / state secrets " bullshit.
They're already breaking constitutional laws on an epic scale, do you really think they give two shits about breaking some more ?
It's akin to thinking the " no guns " sign on the front door of a bank will somehow magically avert a bank robbery:/
A nice symbolic gesture perhaps, but laughable if anyone believes it will make any difference.
The only way this gets fixed is when the companies realize that being in bed with the US govt is great, until you get caught. At which point you've eroded public trust to the point you can't GIVE away your product. You may as well blow out the candles and go home.
Google: We're going to give you a super-car for the price of a consumer model. The caveat is we're going to install cameras, microphones and gps into it so anytime you use it, we get to collect all your " meta-data " for use as we see fit. We swear we won't sell it to third parties and certainly won't let the government -cough-NSA-cough- ever use it. Really:)
Not that AT&T is the champion of digital privacy by any means, but Google isn't exactly a savior either. The old saying " Beware of strangers bearing gifts " comes to mind.
It is to their business customers. Fiber systems terminating directly to the customer site breaking out into gigabit eth connection points. Need a gigabit connection ? No problem, can just connect your office to the shiny new unit in the basement with some cat-5e and you're good to go.
All the telecoms pretty much own the backbone and long haul systems that move all that precious data around. Those high capacity Sonet systems are not cheap, nor is the fiber infrastructure they ride upon.
The telcos don't have to own the ' last mile ' to get it to your business or home as long as they own the rest of it.
Though, while they won't admit it, Google IS the reason behind this. AT&T has never been a pro-active company, but rather a reflexive one. They're pushing fiber to the business very hard right now, since they don't want to lose their business customers.
Fiber to the home will be selective markets only as I doubt their plans include retrofitting fiber into neighborhoods that would never pay for such services to begin with.
As for the telcos going away, all of them are selling off or have plans to sell off the wireline side of things. ( copper facilities ) They want to get out of that business anyway since it's a pita to maintain and everyone is transitioning to wireless.
Want to know what scares the telcos ?
Anything that undermines the cellular business model since that is their bread and butter going forward. I would think that municipal owned wi-fi networks and wi-fi capable voip phones would scare the hell out of them as it would negate the need for cellular at all for large swaths of folks within range of those systems.
Heh, think about why the telcos fight the deployment of such systems so fiercely:)
Take away " guns " and replace it with " smartphones ". Use the same tech as the watch, to prevent any use of a smartphone ( other than emergency calls ) while inside a running vehicle. No exceptions.
Watch how fast folks lose their MINDS when you try to change something. Even if you're only trying to do the right thing. ( prevent deaths )
I would say 75% know not to use their phones while driving, yet the tech will impact 100% of all drivers. ( So, to fix what is clearly an issue with a minority of users, we'll just screw everyone over )
Anyone who still retains even a shred of common sense knows that driving while texting / talking / playing Angry Birds on the damn phone is stupid. Yet, I would guesstimate somewhere around one in four do it anyway. Next time you're at a red light, watch crossing traffic and count how many are on their damn phones as they go by:|
Their stupidity puts more people at risk and kills / injures far more people every year ( accidents due to driving while distracted ) than any Jammer will ever come close to touching. Ever heard of a fatality pile up on the freeway because someone was running a jammer ? Yeah, me either:| Compare it to how many we hear about because they CAN'T PUT THE FUCKING PHONE DOWN for even a moment of their life. I mean really ? Driving. The ONE thing you need to do while driving is pay attention full time to the environment around you and a good portion of folks are completely incapable of it.
The reason the guy resorted to such measures is simple. Inaction to stop the practice from the usual legal and / or technological channels. Wasn't very smart about it in that he let it run full time ( put a switch on it, trigger as you need to, much harder to find ) but, the world is full of folks who don't think things through very well before acting.
The fine is excessive IMO as you can drive down the highway snot-slinging drunk ( a certifiable hazard if ever there was one ) get pulled over, arrested and your fine will be a fraction of what this guys is. The masses cheer and rejoice about the guy getting hit with such a fine. Maybe we should start hitting folks with a $50,000 fine any time you're spotted driving and fiddling with your phone. After all, it's a non-argument that driving while distracted is a danger to everyone yet, nothing is done about it. Thus, this guy decided to take matters on himself.
Hell, I would give him a medal if I had any to give.
The human species overall is pretty stupid. We're one of the few ( if not the only ) that is intelligent enough to know when something is probably a dumb idea, but do it anyway. Then question when the outcome is a negative one.
Some of the data storage units we had would put the 8" floppy to shame.
They were called DTD's and were the size of a medium Igloo cooler. Kinda cool in that the case was see through and you could watch the platter mechanism and read / write heads do their thing while it was operating. They weighed ~40 pounds or so and were hot-swappable. They were kept in two person control safes ( yes, two combos, no one ever had both combos ) and were loaded into the system as needed depending on mission and where in the world we were at the time.
To transport them, they were placed into a larger DOD approved case ( like a big Pelican case, just DOD approved ) locked, then sealed in with tamper seals. Big enough to require two persons to carry which was convenient since they were two-person control items.
Unlikely it is still the same today, but this was only back as far as the mid-90's.
New tech is great, but you can't toss one of those things in your bag, throw it over your shoulder and walk off with it:D
While AT&T isn't pushing to run fiber to your home, they ARE pushing damned hard to get fiber to the businesses. Very, very hard. In fact, a huge chunk of money is being thrown at this project to have 10,000 plus sites access to Gigabit eth speeds. ( Officially it's known as Project VelocityIP ) Emphasis on BUSINESSES, not consumers.
ALL companies offering bandwidth will always be selective in what markets they deploy into. It isn't profitable to run fiber to neighborhoods where the majority of those living there will never pay for the service being offered. Akin to not seeing very many Ferrari dealerships in blue collar neighborhoods. The customer base just isn't there.
Initially, they will all concentrate on those areas where they can get the biggest bang for their buck.
I'm pretty sure I would decline the service ( even if offered for free ) if it came with the deep packet inspection stipulations intact for targeted advertising.
At this point Russia can demand whatever it wants from Mr. Snowden and he really isn't in any position to say no. If he does, Russia simply puts him on a plane back to the US and that's the end of the story.
He has nothing to fall back upon unless another country offers him asylum as well. Though the same rules will apply there I'm afraid.
Perhaps, but if you try to shift the blame and throw company X under the bus while doing so, watch how much cooperation you get from that company in the future. ( assuming the whole thing isn't a comete sham )
While company X isn't allowed to discuss anything related to the gag orders, I would simply leak the entire thing out to ( insert some torrent site here ) and blame it on bad security, some zero day exploit at the hands of some evil hacker.
Technically, they DIDN'T discuss it, the data was stolen from their servers:)
"Black culture doesn't reward or encourage intelligence. "
To be honest, AMERICAN culture doesn't either. Is why celebrities, athletes, and entertainers are paid dump truck loads of cash while the really intelligent folks ( scientists, reaearchers, you know folks who actually create the world as we know it today ) are compensated at a much lower level.
Given that, if you're growing up in America are you going to strive to be a math whiz or a pro-athlete ? Which gives you the ideal " American " lifestyle ?
Here in the good ol US of A, we glorify a lot of things: War, wealth, and power to name but a few. Intelligence is way, Way, WAY down the list.
In fact, if you're TOO good at say, Math, in school, you become a target and an outcast because you don't fit in with the cool crowd folks now. Your life will become a living hell.
Sorry you had to endure that, I'm not sure what EA is thinking these days but it sounds like they can't dig the hole they're in fast enough.
Short sighted/term thinking maybe. They don't realize that a few bad experiences leads to less folks willing to play their product at all. There will always be those who don't know any better and must have it at any cost but there exists no better teacher than experience and in this day and age, word travels very quickly indeed.
Burn your bridges to those who finance your business and the outcome becomes obvious.
Grant you that. Up unil recently, Steam was a trainwreck too. It's finally to the point where it's actually pretty nice to use now and offline mode finally works the way it should have from the beginning. See a game you want ? Buy it, download and play. Done.
Though I still wait for them to have a sale for any games I want to play. Done paying $60 a pop for what will basically be Beta II. By the time I pick it up, it's ~$20 and fully patched and tested by millions of others.
Chuckle. Anyone who has been playing PC games ( and console games for that matter ) knows that within a month of launch, you can expect one or more patches to fix the product they rushed out the door to meet some deadline. Guaranteed.
I'm pretty much done with jumping through all the hoops for this. If you want to make it a pain in the ass just to play it, then I just won't play it. Pretty simple really.
Not that they care as they have legions of folks who are willing to put up with the BS to play at any cost, but in time they too will become jaded with the system and become ex-gamers as well.
Steam seems to have finally got it right in my opinion. I have zero issues with that platform now and the majority of my games come from there.
I have a strong gaming rig and I won't bother with Titanfall for one simple fact: The PC version requires Origin to play it.
I tried it with Battlefield the last Battlefield game and it was such a trainwreck I uninstalled it and tossed the game in the trash before ever getting to play it. It went something like this:
Buy the physical media ( dvd ) install game. Try to play, find out you have to install Origin, cuss, install Origin, register and do all the BS required. Try to play, find out there is a multi GB PATCH to install before I can play, cuss some more, start download ( which takes HOURS coming from their servers ) finally get it all downloaded, try to play, discover my browser opens up instead of the game, Origin now wants to install some plugin to the damn browser. At which point I gave up from sheer anger and uninstalled the entire thing, Origin and all.
I put the Battlefield disc in the microwave then ran it through the shredder resolving to never again touch any game that had an Origin requirement.
So, Titanfall may be the most amazing game ever made but due to the Origin requirement, it is a game I will never play.
XSI users have seen this coming for a long time now. I myself am a longtime XSI user and while the platform is damned powerful, it is silly to spread your development teams across three applications all trying to do the same thing. If they could sim
This possibility is why I don't OWN an X-Box One and why my existing gaming console ( which lacks a video camera and microphone ) is isolated to its own VLAN on my home network. For that matter, all the phones are on their own VLAN, the gaming console on another, the alarm system a third. I don't allow them to talk to anything other than the internet or ( in the case of the phones ) each other.
Don't really want the X-Box camera watching me when I walk through the house, the mic picking up my conversations, or any of the other devices being used as a jump off point of entry to the rest of my network.
Then I'll be damned if I do it with a measly laser pointer.
I'll go buy 500 of the suckers from Wicked Lasers ( or the highest wattage output I can find ), build these suckers into some crazy array, add a focusing lens to this , paint it green, name it Lazilla, tie it into a passive motion tracking system, mount it on the rooftop and have a grand time pointing it at satellites, the neighbors dog, any aircraft within fifty miles and the FBI helicopters when they show up.
I mean, if you're going to go to jail for something, you may as well try and set the bar up as high as you can:D
This will bounce back and forth until it reaches the Supreme Court. I'm sure they are already dreading it.
Were I in possession of the Snowden documents, I would simply wait and see how this plays out. If it simply goes back to "business as usual" for the NSA by being declared completely legal by our bought-and-paid-for judicial system, I would simply pull another juicy document or two out of the pile and add it to the growing pool of public knowledge. Wash, rinse and repeat until the government finally does the right thing ( or you run out of documents I suppose )
Either way, it's a win for privacy. ( We get a little bit of it back, or learn how much of it we've lost )
the games we played pushed the envelope of PC hardware. More detail, better graphics, physics engines, etc. That, IMO, is what drove the PC hardware market.
However, we've reached a point where the games are pretty damned impressive now ( visually anyway ) and the hardware from a few years ago is sufficient to run them. Couple that with the COSTS to create a game anyone wants to play that will push the hardware to the current limit and you can understand the decline in PC hardware sales. They haven't given up on them, there is just less reason to upgrade as often now.
As bad as it sounds, I would rather play a game on console rather than deal with the DRM bullshit that comes with PC gaming anymore. ( Notable exceptions are Steam and those games that just don't play well on a console )
The market for current generation hardware is just smaller now but we've always known the manority of the market really didn't need their desktop anyway. ( eg, my parents. They can make do with an Ipad for what they need it for. It's great for me as I don't have to make a four hour drive to "fix" it every six months because they don't understand the concept of not clicking the "You Win!" banners and opening up emails that remotely resemble something legitimate.
Last, but not least, I could have typed this whole thing in record time were I not posting this via a tiny ass smartphone keyboard:/
What he's hoping for here is that the folks who act to keep such laws on the books also get to experience the same end-of-life torture his father has to endure because of their actions. Trust me when I tell you it's one of the most painful things you'll ever experience and pulling someone you love off of life support is one of the toughest decisions you'll ever make.
It's a difficult decision to make, ending someones life. Even though the outcome is eventually inevitable, I would rather go quickly than waste away slowly knowing what my fate is to be. I want my estate to pass to those I want to have it, not to the billing department of some Hospital or facility who is trying to wring every dime they can from me before I go.
When you death vs the suffering they will endure by keeping them alive, you'll ultimately come to the same conclusion I think. Those who support keeping them alive at all costs have obviously never experienced this for themselves. So I say to them, " Walk a mile in those shoes, and tell me how you feel afterwards. "
While I agree the health care system certainly needs to be revamped, I don't believe the method they came up with is the best way to go about doing so.
Why make it so damn complicated ? Four levels of plans, different levels of coverage / premiums, availability determined by regional areas, IRS involvement, etc. Really ?
There are more than a few countries who already have national health care systems in place ( France and Canada right off the top of my head ) so why would we try to reinvent the wheel here when systems already exist ( and have for many, many years ) that work ? I would rather pay a slightly higher Federal Tax and be totally covered than deal with the debacle that we now have. I know they were trying their best to get folks to believe that this wasn't a new " tax ", but only the naive still believe that. Hell, even the Supreme Court allowed it to stand because:
"The Affordable Care Act's requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling. "Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness."
So, now that the cat is out of the bag and it's officially a tax, just raise the overall Tax on everyone to pay for it already. Would be far easier than the debacle we now have.
I don't see where the current implementation is going to do much good. When, in the entire HISTORY of the United States Government, has ANYTHING ever came in at or under budget projections ? Ever ? Anyone ? So when this monstrosity does what I think it will, what do you think the premium prices are going to do ? ( Hint, they're not going to go down and guess whose pocket it will be coming out of )
Another thought I've had is the coverage itself is woefully inadequate without one other "fix" in place.
Here's why:
Years ago I had a family member who had a heart bypass performed. He was in the hospital for about a month. When it was all said and done, the bill came in and checked in at just shy of HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.
Assume the health plan picks up a generous 75% of that bill. That leaves us with roughly $125k. Annual limit out of pocket expenses are $6k. So the remaining $119k the hospital is going to harass you for -eternity- to get because when you get admitted to the hospital, you sign a form that agrees YOU will pick up any costs the insurance doesn't cover. If you don't sign it, you don't get admitted. Failure to pay it will result in debt collectors, phone calls, letters, threats of litigation, etc. etc.
Does anyone really think that folks who are utilizing last resort government health care plans can EVER pay off a debt like that ? Hell, can you ?
And should you ? This is the real fix that needs to happen. Health care industry pricing is the ENTIRE reason we even have to HAVE insurance to begin with. No one can possibly afford the prices they charge without insurance. ( You 1% types don't count ) It's just insanity. Anyone who has ever looked at their hospital bill will agree. ( Really ? $5 for a Q-Tip ? )
So the easier fix for this is two-fold:
1) One plan that covers everything for everyone paid for by an increase in the Federal Tax and 2) The regulation of the health care industries out of control price gouging.
Hell, maybe we can help pay for this with some of the NSA's budget:D Punishment for their questionable behavior as of late. If we quit playing World Policeman, we could also cut our defense budget in HALF and use that to help pay for this thing. ( Hint, it's how the other countries pay for theirs. They don't have the largest defense budget on the planet:D )
Slashdot Mirror
just to see what the differences are between it and Mental Ray and / or V-Ray. ( I own both ) Unless it adds some serious " just gotta have it " reasons over Mental Ray or the other commercial renderers, then most folks probably won't bother with it.
The new hotness, however, is GPU rendering. ( eg: I-Ray or Octane )
If Renderman supports GPU rendering, then it will gain a lot more interest as it won't be considered a deprecated rendering solution.
I used to think otherwise, but have recently come to the revelation that even the most incapable member of a team can be useful under the right circumstances.
:D
:D
Example: One of my team members has been with us a few years. Their capabilities are limited to the most basic of tasks and the odds of their learning the more advanced concepts are slim. Yet, the way our company is structured, their compensation is the exact same as the most capable team members. Creates an odd environment to work in when the most capable are paid the same as the least. . . but that's another story.
One day I realized our LSTM ( Least significant team member ) had a very powerful hidden ability. They now have a code-name: Agent ITWMD. ( Yes, the Information Technology Weapon of Mass Destruction )
Anytime we get an overly pushy marketing department or someone trying to force unrealistic time-lines upon us, we simply deploy the IT WMD to handle that project, sit back and watch the chaos unfold. To give you an idea, what should take two hours will take TWO DAYS with our secret weapon. Imagine sitting on a conference call for two days on a project that any other team member can complete in their sleep in a fraction of the time. It's like being told it will take a week to rotate the tires on your car
After one or two of those sessions, the formerly pushy and obnoxious groups will all but BEG us to spare them the horror of such a weapon. We kindly tell them to behave and give us realistic timelines to work with and we'll provide them with a more than capable tech to work with. They usually learn rather quickly. We need only mention the IT WMD on the call when they start to go stupid again and they will instantly understand the direction they are going is the wrong one.
Keep this in mind the next time you have a LSTM of your own.
Terrorism doesn't come to this country because they hate our way of life, our religion, or beliefs. It comes to this country because our foreign policy is, and has been, bomb everyone that doesn't doesn't agree with us as a means of control.
:|
In the eyes of the rest of the world, the United States is the primary exporter of terrorism. We're pretty much the bully of the planet. It's obvious why we don't have daily drone strikes against Russia or China. They won't put up with it and a conflict between Super-Powers doesn't have a guaranteed or predictable outcome. So we pick on the little countries instead.
We kill some folks with a drone strike, they gun down an embassy, we stomp our feet and point " Look, look ! Teh terrorists ! " and we launch another drone.
Americans like to think we are the just ones here. We right the wrongs of the world and that we're the shining example of how things are supposed to be. That's what has been burned into our heads since day one. It's starting to become crystal clear just how incorrect that line of thinking really is. Sadly, outside of an armed revolution*, it's unlikely we'll be able to remove enough of the established government to make any real change in how things work here. It would basically take a complete removal of our elected leadership with some major changes to the existing laws and rules to get us back on the right track.
I sincerely hope there is more to come from Mr. Snowdens documents. I also hope the information contained therein is horrific enough to snap the average American out of the " everything is ok " daze we've been in for the last several decades. Because it will take something along those lines to get the engine of true change running.
*For the inevitable " good luck with your guns vs the military might " post that always seems to show up, I'll simply point out the last several conflicts the US has been involved with were against a much weaker military opponent who used basic guns and IED's. No tanks. No ships or aircraft to speak of. We haven't " won " any of those conflicts in recent history unless you believe the propaganda. Just food for thought before you post it.
At some point, the world will completely lose trust in the United States and when that happens, our existence and / or relevance as a country will cease to be.
when our government can trump them with their " think of the terrorists / kids / national security / state secrets " bullshit.
:/
They're already breaking constitutional laws on an epic scale, do you really think they give two shits about breaking some more ?
It's akin to thinking the " no guns " sign on the front door of a bank will somehow magically avert a bank robbery
A nice symbolic gesture perhaps, but laughable if anyone believes it will make any difference.
The only way this gets fixed is when the companies realize that being in bed with the US govt is great, until you get caught. At which point you've eroded public trust to the point you can't GIVE away your product. You may as well blow out the candles and go home.
Google: We're going to give you a super-car for the price of a consumer model. The caveat is we're going to install cameras, microphones and gps into it so anytime you use it, we get to collect all your " meta-data " for use as we see fit. We swear we won't sell it to third parties and certainly won't let the government -cough-NSA-cough- ever use it. Really :)
Not that AT&T is the champion of digital privacy by any means, but Google isn't exactly a savior either. The old saying " Beware of strangers bearing gifts " comes to mind.
It is to their business customers. Fiber systems terminating directly to the customer site breaking out into gigabit eth connection points. Need a gigabit connection ? No problem, can just connect your office to the shiny new unit in the basement with some cat-5e and you're good to go.
All the telecoms pretty much own the backbone and long haul systems that move all that precious data around. Those high capacity Sonet systems are not cheap, nor is the fiber infrastructure they ride upon.
:)
The telcos don't have to own the ' last mile ' to get it to your business or home as long as they own the rest of it.
Though, while they won't admit it, Google IS the reason behind this. AT&T has never been a pro-active company, but rather a reflexive one. They're pushing fiber to the business very hard right now, since they don't want to lose their business customers.
Fiber to the home will be selective markets only as I doubt their plans include retrofitting fiber into neighborhoods that would never pay for such services to begin with.
As for the telcos going away, all of them are selling off or have plans to sell off the wireline side of things. ( copper facilities ) They want to get out of that business anyway since it's a pita to maintain and everyone is transitioning to wireless.
Want to know what scares the telcos ?
Anything that undermines the cellular business model since that is their bread and butter going forward. I would think that municipal owned wi-fi networks and wi-fi capable voip phones would scare the hell out of them as it would negate the need for cellular at all for large swaths of folks within range of those systems.
Heh, think about why the telcos fight the deployment of such systems so fiercely
Take away " guns " and replace it with " smartphones ". Use the same tech as the watch, to prevent any use of a smartphone ( other than emergency calls ) while inside a running vehicle. No exceptions.
Watch how fast folks lose their MINDS when you try to change something. Even if you're only trying to do the right thing. ( prevent deaths )
I would say 75% know not to use their phones while driving, yet the tech will impact 100% of all drivers. ( So, to fix what is clearly an issue with a minority of users, we'll just screw everyone over )
Would you be ok with this ?
Anyone who still retains even a shred of common sense knows that driving while texting / talking / playing Angry Birds on the damn phone is stupid. Yet, I would guesstimate somewhere around one in four do it anyway. Next time you're at a red light, watch crossing traffic and count how many are on their damn phones as they go by :|
:| Compare it to how many we hear about because they CAN'T PUT THE FUCKING PHONE DOWN for even a moment of their life. I mean really ? Driving. The ONE thing you need to do while driving is pay attention full time to the environment around you and a good portion of folks are completely incapable of it.
Their stupidity puts more people at risk and kills / injures far more people every year ( accidents due to driving while distracted ) than any Jammer will ever come close to touching. Ever heard of a fatality pile up on the freeway because someone was running a jammer ? Yeah, me either
The reason the guy resorted to such measures is simple. Inaction to stop the practice from the usual legal and / or technological channels. Wasn't very smart about it in that he let it run full time ( put a switch on it, trigger as you need to, much harder to find ) but, the world is full of folks who don't think things through very well before acting.
The fine is excessive IMO as you can drive down the highway snot-slinging drunk ( a certifiable hazard if ever there was one ) get pulled over, arrested and your fine will be a fraction of what this guys is. The masses cheer and rejoice about the guy getting hit with such a fine. Maybe we should start hitting folks with a $50,000 fine any time you're spotted driving and fiddling with your phone. After all, it's a non-argument that driving while distracted is a danger to everyone yet, nothing is done about it. Thus, this guy decided to take matters on himself.
Hell, I would give him a medal if I had any to give.
The human species overall is pretty stupid. We're one of the few ( if not the only ) that is intelligent enough to know when something is probably a dumb idea, but do it anyway. Then question when the outcome is a negative one.
Some of the data storage units we had would put the 8" floppy to shame.
:D
They were called DTD's and were the size of a medium Igloo cooler. Kinda cool in that the case was see through and you could watch the platter mechanism and read / write heads do their thing while it was operating. They weighed ~40 pounds or so and were hot-swappable. They were kept in two person control safes ( yes, two combos, no one ever had both combos ) and were loaded into the system as needed depending on mission and where in the world we were at the time.
To transport them, they were placed into a larger DOD approved case ( like a big Pelican case, just DOD approved ) locked, then sealed in with tamper seals. Big enough to require two persons to carry which was convenient since they were two-person control items.
Unlikely it is still the same today, but this was only back as far as the mid-90's.
New tech is great, but you can't toss one of those things in your bag, throw it over your shoulder and walk off with it
While AT&T isn't pushing to run fiber to your home, they ARE pushing damned hard to get fiber to the businesses. Very, very hard. In fact, a huge chunk of money is being thrown at this project to have 10,000 plus sites access to Gigabit eth speeds. ( Officially it's known as Project VelocityIP ) Emphasis on BUSINESSES, not consumers.
ALL companies offering bandwidth will always be selective in what markets they deploy into. It isn't profitable to run fiber to neighborhoods where the majority of those living there will never pay for the service being offered. Akin to not seeing very many Ferrari dealerships in blue collar neighborhoods. The customer base just isn't there.
Initially, they will all concentrate on those areas where they can get the biggest bang for their buck.
I'm pretty sure I would decline the service ( even if offered for free ) if it came with the deep packet inspection stipulations intact for targeted advertising.
Exactly.
At this point Russia can demand whatever it wants from Mr. Snowden and he really isn't in any position to say no. If he does, Russia simply puts him on a plane back to the US and that's the end of the story.
He has nothing to fall back upon unless another country offers him asylum as well. Though the same rules will apply there I'm afraid.
Perhaps, but if you try to shift the blame and throw company X under the bus while doing so, watch how much cooperation you get from that company in the future. ( assuming the whole thing isn't a comete sham )
:)
While company X isn't allowed to discuss anything related to the gag orders, I would simply leak the entire thing out to ( insert some torrent site here ) and blame it on bad security, some zero day exploit at the hands of some evil hacker.
Technically, they DIDN'T discuss it, the data was stolen from their servers
"Black culture doesn't reward or encourage intelligence.
"
To be honest, AMERICAN culture doesn't either. Is why celebrities, athletes, and entertainers are paid dump truck loads of cash while the really intelligent folks ( scientists, reaearchers, you know folks who actually create the world as we know it today ) are compensated at a much lower level.
Given that, if you're growing up in America are you going to strive to be a math whiz or a pro-athlete ? Which gives you the ideal " American " lifestyle ?
Here in the good ol US of A, we glorify a lot of things: War, wealth, and power to name but a few. Intelligence is way, Way, WAY down the list.
In fact, if you're TOO good at say, Math, in school, you become a target and an outcast because you don't fit in with the cool crowd folks now. Your life will become a living hell.
Sorry you had to endure that, I'm not sure what EA is thinking these days but it sounds like they can't dig the hole they're in fast enough.
Short sighted/term thinking maybe. They don't realize that a few bad experiences leads to less folks willing to play their product at all. There will always be those who don't know any better and must have it at any cost but there exists no better teacher than experience and in this day and age, word travels very quickly indeed.
Burn your bridges to those who finance your business and the outcome becomes obvious.
Grant you that. Up unil recently, Steam was a trainwreck too. It's finally to the point where it's actually pretty nice to use now and offline mode finally works the way it should have from the beginning. See a game you want ? Buy it, download and play. Done.
Though I still wait for them to have a sale for any games I want to play. Done paying $60 a pop for what will basically be Beta II. By the time I pick it up, it's ~$20 and fully patched and tested by millions of others.
Chuckle. Anyone who has been playing PC games ( and console games for that matter ) knows that within a month of launch, you can expect one or more patches to fix the product they rushed out the door to meet some deadline. Guaranteed.
I'm pretty much done with jumping through all the hoops for this. If you want to make it a pain in the ass just to play it, then I just won't play it. Pretty simple really.
Not that they care as they have legions of folks who are willing to put up with the BS to play at any cost, but in time they too will become jaded with the system and become ex-gamers as well.
Steam seems to have finally got it right in my opinion. I have zero issues with that platform now and the majority of my games come from there.
I have a strong gaming rig and I won't bother with Titanfall for one simple fact: The PC version requires Origin to play it.
I tried it with Battlefield the last Battlefield game and it was such a trainwreck I uninstalled it and tossed the game in the trash before ever getting to play it. It went something like this:
Buy the physical media ( dvd ) install game. Try to play, find out you have to install Origin, cuss, install Origin, register and do all the BS required. Try to play, find out there is a multi GB PATCH to install before I can play, cuss some more, start download ( which takes HOURS coming from their servers ) finally get it all downloaded, try to play, discover my browser opens up instead of the game, Origin now wants to install some plugin to the damn browser. At which point I gave up from sheer anger and uninstalled the entire thing, Origin and all.
I put the Battlefield disc in the microwave then ran it through the shredder resolving to never again touch any game that had an Origin requirement.
So, Titanfall may be the most amazing game ever made but due to the Origin requirement, it is a game I will never play.
XSI users have seen this coming for a long time now. I myself am a longtime XSI user and while the platform is damned powerful, it is silly to spread your development teams across three applications all trying to do the same thing. If they could sim
This possibility is why I don't OWN an X-Box One and why my existing gaming console ( which lacks a video camera and microphone ) is isolated to its own VLAN on my home network. For that matter, all the phones are on their own VLAN, the gaming console on another, the alarm system a third. I don't allow them to talk to anything other than the internet or ( in the case of the phones ) each other.
Don't really want the X-Box camera watching me when I walk through the house, the mic picking up my conversations, or any of the other devices being used as a jump off point of entry to the rest of my network.
Then I'll be damned if I do it with a measly laser pointer.
:D
I'll go buy 500 of the suckers from Wicked Lasers ( or the highest wattage output I can find ), build these suckers into some crazy array, add a focusing lens to this , paint it green, name it Lazilla, tie it into a passive motion tracking system, mount it on the rooftop and have a grand time pointing it at satellites, the neighbors dog, any aircraft within fifty miles and the FBI helicopters when they show up.
I mean, if you're going to go to jail for something, you may as well try and set the bar up as high as you can
This will bounce back and forth until it reaches the Supreme Court. I'm sure they are already dreading it.
Were I in possession of the Snowden documents, I would simply wait and see how this plays out. If it simply goes back to "business as usual" for the NSA by being declared completely legal by our bought-and-paid-for judicial system, I would simply pull another juicy document or two out of the pile and add it to the growing pool of public knowledge. Wash, rinse and repeat until the government finally does the right thing ( or you run out of documents I suppose )
Either way, it's a win for privacy. ( We get a little bit of it back, or learn how much of it we've lost )
the games we played pushed the envelope of PC hardware. More detail, better graphics, physics engines, etc. That, IMO, is what drove the PC hardware market.
:/
However, we've reached a point where the games are pretty damned impressive now ( visually anyway ) and the hardware from a few years ago is sufficient to run them. Couple that with the COSTS to create a game anyone wants to play that will push the hardware to the current limit and you can understand the decline in PC hardware sales. They haven't given up on them, there is just less reason to upgrade as often now.
As bad as it sounds, I would rather play a game on console rather than deal with the DRM bullshit that comes with PC gaming anymore. ( Notable exceptions are Steam and those games that just don't play well on a console )
The market for current generation hardware is just smaller now but we've always known the manority of the market really didn't need their desktop anyway. ( eg, my parents. They can make do with an Ipad for what they need it for. It's great for me as I don't have to make a four hour drive to "fix" it every six months because they don't understand the concept of not clicking the "You Win!" banners and opening up emails that remotely resemble something legitimate.
Last, but not least, I could have typed this whole thing in record time were I not posting this via a tiny ass smartphone keyboard
What he's hoping for here is that the folks who act to keep such laws on the books also get to experience the same
end-of-life torture his father has to endure because of their actions. Trust me when I tell you it's one of the most painful
things you'll ever experience and pulling someone you love off of life support is one of the toughest decisions you'll ever make.
It's a difficult decision to make, ending someones life. Even though the outcome is eventually inevitable, I would rather go quickly
than waste away slowly knowing what my fate is to be. I want my estate to pass to those I want to have it, not to the billing department
of some Hospital or facility who is trying to wring every dime they can from me before I go.
When you death vs the suffering they will endure by keeping them alive, you'll ultimately come to the same conclusion I think. Those
who support keeping them alive at all costs have obviously never experienced this for themselves. So I say to them, " Walk a mile in those
shoes, and tell me how you feel afterwards. "
While I agree the health care system certainly needs to be revamped, I don't believe the method they came up with is the best way to go about doing so.
:D Punishment for their questionable behavior as of late. If we quit playing World Policeman, we could also cut our defense budget in HALF and use that to help pay for this thing. ( Hint, it's how the other countries pay for theirs. They don't have the largest defense budget on the planet :D )
Why make it so damn complicated ? Four levels of plans, different levels of coverage / premiums, availability determined by regional areas, IRS involvement, etc.
Really ?
There are more than a few countries who already have national health care systems in place ( France and Canada right off the top of my head ) so why would we try to reinvent the wheel here when systems already exist ( and have for many, many years ) that work ? I would rather pay a slightly higher Federal Tax and be totally covered than deal with the debacle that we now have. I know they were trying their best to get folks to believe that this wasn't a new " tax ", but only the naive still believe that. Hell, even the Supreme Court allowed it to stand because:
"The Affordable Care Act's requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling. "Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness."
So, now that the cat is out of the bag and it's officially a tax, just raise the overall Tax on everyone to pay for it already. Would be far easier than the debacle we now have.
I don't see where the current implementation is going to do much good. When, in the entire HISTORY of the United States Government, has ANYTHING ever came in at or under budget projections ? Ever ? Anyone ? So when this monstrosity does what I think it will, what do you think the premium prices are going to do ? ( Hint, they're not going to go down and guess whose pocket it will be coming out of )
Another thought I've had is the coverage itself is woefully inadequate without one other "fix" in place.
Here's why:
Years ago I had a family member who had a heart bypass performed. He was in the hospital for about a month. When it was all said and done, the bill came in and checked in at just shy of HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.
Assume the health plan picks up a generous 75% of that bill. That leaves us with roughly $125k. Annual limit out of pocket expenses are $6k. So the remaining $119k the hospital is going to harass you for -eternity- to get because when you get admitted to the hospital, you sign a form that agrees YOU will pick up any costs the insurance doesn't cover. If you don't sign it, you don't get admitted. Failure to pay it will result in debt collectors, phone calls, letters, threats of litigation, etc. etc.
Does anyone really think that folks who are utilizing last resort government health care plans can EVER pay off a debt like that ? Hell, can you ?
And should you ? This is the real fix that needs to happen. Health care industry pricing is the ENTIRE reason we even have to HAVE insurance to begin with. No one can possibly afford the prices they charge without insurance. ( You 1% types don't count ) It's just insanity. Anyone who has ever looked at their hospital bill will agree. ( Really ? $5 for a Q-Tip ? )
So the easier fix for this is two-fold:
1) One plan that covers everything for everyone paid for by an increase in the Federal Tax and
2) The regulation of the health care industries out of control price gouging.
Hell, maybe we can help pay for this with some of the NSA's budget