Agreed. I'm 51 and have been playing video games since the grandady of them all "Pong" appeared next to the pinball machines in the local bowling alley. I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Games are like movies and books, maximum of one or two genuine classics per year, the rest are either good variations of an existing classic or just rubbish.
As to the question posed in the summary; I find games with a simple interface and rules are the best ones to leave and come back to later. I have been playing the popular flash game "gemcraft - chapter 0" since the start of the year, I keep coming back in the hope of finishing the last few feindishly frustrating levels.
OTOH if the poster genuinely cannot find anything to play he could do what my 77yo dad did and find enjoyment from learning to write his own games.
If your willing to die you don't need to be McGyver to bring down a plane - stick a rag into your bottle of duty free spirits, light it, and throw it at the cockpit door.
It was a joke, in the 60's people advertised "transistor radios" to distinguish them from the old valve technology and often told you how many transitors there were indside it. A "9 transitor radio" was a common selling point similar to how people still sometimes advertise how many "jewels" are inside a clockwork wrist watch. The practice died out when IC's became common in the 70's.
"Actually this kid's best bet is to save the locket and auction it in 20 years' time, or whenever he's ready for the money."
If they invest the money in a trust fund it will return a handsome profit over and above inflation. Sure you have to pay tax on the profit but it won't gain anything in real value if they stuff it under the mattress.
"it's not the government's job to prevent some unknown harm through force, but wait until it happens and then respond"
Yes, I found that to be a common theame, also the ironically hippie like fantasy that if government got out of the way and let us go back to bartering eggs for milk we would all suddenly start being nice to each other.
"Really, how did that intervention to increase home ownership and decrease renting work out?"
The first home buyers grant has worked out pretty well here in Oz, it helped me get my first house and did the same for both my adult children. OTOH here in Oz in addition to the first homeowners grant you also need a sizable deposit from personal savings and a regular income to get a home loan. The last two requirements (plus the tax incentive of negative gearing) is what keeps the rental market strong.
The last time there was serious trouble in the OZ residential market was in the early 90's when interest rates jumped from 7% to 17% in a couple of years (due mainly to the '87 stock market crash). The government actually helped out somewhat by mandating that banks could not lift the interest rate above 13% on existing loans but even 5% is a big jump in repayments and a lot of people still lost their homes.
Moderate assistance to get people (who want to) in their own home and/or protect them from interest rate gouging helps to keep the economy ticking over, piling them up in trailer parks does not. Worst of all is providing dodgy loans to people who have neither a deposit nor the means to meet the repayments, that is a recipie for the housing industry disaster the US is currently struggling with.
You bet I want services in exchange for my taxes and I want enough of them to build and maintain an entire civilization! I want a military service to defend the nation not one that extends the nation, I want transport services to build bridges to somewhere rather than nowhere, I want sewers and levees maintained not left to fall apart, I want pot holes filled in, I want someone to collect my garbage, I want a heath care system where I don't have to worry about bankruptcy.
It's not how big the government is, it's how effective they are at providing the infrastructure and services that underpin modern life. Truth be told I already have most of the things in the above list because I don't live in a superpower that spends half it's tax revenue on military dick swinging and the other half on narcarsistic corporate welfare.
As for freedom; it's is a state of mind and what I really don't need or want is a government service to provide my state of mind.
Off the top of my head, the only Oxford graduates I can think of are Christopher Hitchens and Maggie Thatcher, neither strike me as the type of people to be groomed or plucked by anyone.
"It really is like each response after the next is competing to think of a more convoluted, absurd way that someone you don't suspect could be involved in it."
Informative? It has nothing to do with pressure. Balloons float for exactly the same reason that rocks don't, ie: buoyancy due to a difference in density.
Yeah, every time there is a story on these machines I'm reminded of the toaster in Red Dwarf.
"How about a cola"
No.
"Lemonade"
No, I'm not thirsty.
"Some sort of sweetened cabonated water"
I don't want a drink
"Maybe some iced tea will change your mind?"
No it won't.
"You don't like iced tea?"
I like iced tea.
"Please deposit $2 for your iced tea."
Aircraft fuel is based on kerosene which can be distilled from synthetic oil made from coal, this may help sustain the economics for a bit longer but it won't do much for the environment.
I wasn't picking on you personally, I was picking on the oxymoron that has been in common use since (at least) the Reagan/Thatcher years. It's economic doublespeak designed to con people into voting against their own best interest.
"an unregulated free market is intrinsically unstable"
Actually an "unregulated free market" is an oxymoron, the "market" is not a physical thing it's a set of regulations that govern trade. Therefore an "unregulated market" doesn't make sense since it translates to a set of rules with no rules. "Free" simply means everyone is free to partcipate provided they play by the rules.
Contract law, property rights, legal tender, etc, are all part of the regulations that go into making the internet a "market", the fact that (theorectically) anyone can use the internet makes it a "free market".
Do you really think that the secular democracies in Indonesia and Turkey are in the same extremist basket as the Saudi kingdom and Syrian dictatorship?
Slashdot Mirror
1. You are allowed to carry a disposable lighter on board.
2. Use sambuka.
3-8. Spoil sport.
Agreed. I'm 51 and have been playing video games since the grandady of them all "Pong" appeared next to the pinball machines in the local bowling alley. I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. Games are like movies and books, maximum of one or two genuine classics per year, the rest are either good variations of an existing classic or just rubbish.
As to the question posed in the summary; I find games with a simple interface and rules are the best ones to leave and come back to later. I have been playing the popular flash game "gemcraft - chapter 0" since the start of the year, I keep coming back in the hope of finishing the last few feindishly frustrating levels.
OTOH if the poster genuinely cannot find anything to play he could do what my 77yo dad did and find enjoyment from learning to write his own games.
If your willing to die you don't need to be McGyver to bring down a plane - stick a rag into your bottle of duty free spirits, light it, and throw it at the cockpit door.
"Cats have convinced us to keep them around and feed them without them having to do anything for us, that seems pretty smart."
Cats are employed by humans to keep rodents at bay, it's been that way for millenia.
It was a joke, in the 60's people advertised "transistor radios" to distinguish them from the old valve technology and often told you how many transitors there were indside it. A "9 transitor radio" was a common selling point similar to how people still sometimes advertise how many "jewels" are inside a clockwork wrist watch. The practice died out when IC's became common in the 70's.
"more than half of [the US] federal budget goes towards social services"
[citation needed]
"Actually this kid's best bet is to save the locket and auction it in 20 years' time, or whenever he's ready for the money."
If they invest the money in a trust fund it will return a handsome profit over and above inflation. Sure you have to pay tax on the profit but it won't gain anything in real value if they stuff it under the mattress.
1.3 billion transitors!!! When I was a kid we had 9 and you could open the box and count 'em.
I second the cardboard box for little kids, my 2yo grand daughter has one with flaps cut out for windows and a door, she loves it.
"Switzerland relies on private citizens to defend it"
How do explain this?.
"it's not the government's job to prevent some unknown harm through force, but wait until it happens and then respond"
Yes, I found that to be a common theame, also the ironically hippie like fantasy that if government got out of the way and let us go back to bartering eggs for milk we would all suddenly start being nice to each other.
"Really, how did that intervention to increase home ownership and decrease renting work out?"
The first home buyers grant has worked out pretty well here in Oz, it helped me get my first house and did the same for both my adult children. OTOH here in Oz in addition to the first homeowners grant you also need a sizable deposit from personal savings and a regular income to get a home loan. The last two requirements (plus the tax incentive of negative gearing) is what keeps the rental market strong.
The last time there was serious trouble in the OZ residential market was in the early 90's when interest rates jumped from 7% to 17% in a couple of years (due mainly to the '87 stock market crash). The government actually helped out somewhat by mandating that banks could not lift the interest rate above 13% on existing loans but even 5% is a big jump in repayments and a lot of people still lost their homes.
Moderate assistance to get people (who want to) in their own home and/or protect them from interest rate gouging helps to keep the economy ticking over, piling them up in trailer parks does not. Worst of all is providing dodgy loans to people who have neither a deposit nor the means to meet the repayments, that is a recipie for the housing industry disaster the US is currently struggling with.
You bet I want services in exchange for my taxes and I want enough of them to build and maintain an entire civilization! I want a military service to defend the nation not one that extends the nation, I want transport services to build bridges to somewhere rather than nowhere, I want sewers and levees maintained not left to fall apart, I want pot holes filled in, I want someone to collect my garbage, I want a heath care system where I don't have to worry about bankruptcy.
It's not how big the government is, it's how effective they are at providing the infrastructure and services that underpin modern life. Truth be told I already have most of the things in the above list because I don't live in a superpower that spends half it's tax revenue on military dick swinging and the other half on narcarsistic corporate welfare.
As for freedom; it's is a state of mind and what I really don't need or want is a government service to provide my state of mind.
Worked for France......right up until they handed the job to the short guy with the dodgy arm.
Off the top of my head, the only Oxford graduates I can think of are Christopher Hitchens and Maggie Thatcher, neither strike me as the type of people to be groomed or plucked by anyone.
"It really is like each response after the next is competing to think of a more convoluted, absurd way that someone you don't suspect could be involved in it."
It was Boris in the library with a commodore 64.
Informative? It has nothing to do with pressure. Balloons float for exactly the same reason that rocks don't, ie: buoyancy due to a difference in density.
Yeah, every time there is a story on these machines I'm reminded of the toaster in Red Dwarf.
"How about a cola"
No.
"Lemonade"
No, I'm not thirsty.
"Some sort of sweetened cabonated water"
I don't want a drink
"Maybe some iced tea will change your mind?"
No it won't.
"You don't like iced tea?"
I like iced tea.
"Please deposit $2 for your iced tea."
Aircraft fuel is based on kerosene which can be distilled from synthetic oil made from coal, this may help sustain the economics for a bit longer but it won't do much for the environment.
I wasn't picking on you personally, I was picking on the oxymoron that has been in common use since (at least) the Reagan/Thatcher years. It's economic doublespeak designed to con people into voting against their own best interest.
The guy who writes the prospectus and annual reports.
"an unregulated free market is intrinsically unstable"
Actually an "unregulated free market" is an oxymoron, the "market" is not a physical thing it's a set of regulations that govern trade. Therefore an "unregulated market" doesn't make sense since it translates to a set of rules with no rules. "Free" simply means everyone is free to partcipate provided they play by the rules.
Contract law, property rights, legal tender, etc, are all part of the regulations that go into making the internet a "market", the fact that (theorectically) anyone can use the internet makes it a "free market".
No I mean the un-elected military junta that declared "emergency law" and suspended the Syrian constitution in 1963.
Here is how the "ordinary person" reacts to terrorisim in the UK.
Do you really think that the secular democracies in Indonesia and Turkey are in the same extremist basket as the Saudi kingdom and Syrian dictatorship?