Actually, I think that LotR is not only NOT incredible, but it has many aspects that can be picked apart as pretty sub-standard.
What makes LotR so great is that it was the first modern fantasy epic - yes, it used lots of elements from many older epics and myths, but it was the first modern epic and included an obsessive level of attention to detail that became the standard for modern fantasy.
In other words, the reason LotR ain't so great in comparison now is because it inspired everyone else to match or exceed the expectations it set.
It seems to me that building a mission and having thousands of real people have a go at finishing it would be a great simulator for planning a REAL mission. But hey, that's just me.
Honestly, I sometimes think about registering Hotmial.com because when I manually enter the url, about 1 in 20 times that's what I end up typing.
Then I think about how many other people with Hotmail accounts might be doing the same thing and how much smoke might start rising from my server, slap myself, and forget the idea for a while.
I remember seeing a PBS show on this - where a doctor would go to the sewage pipe exiting his hospital (directly into the local river, BTW) and hold a large beaker in the stream to collect a sample.
The collected samples would be applied, a drop at a time, into various petri dishes with a harmful bacterial culture. He'd then wait to see if any particular culture started to die, and then look in that dish to see what was doing it. Final stage, feed it more of the original culture until you have lots of the killing agent, make a liquid out of it, and spray it EVERYWHERE you might find the original bacteria. (Open wounds, walls, equipment, whatever)
I may be out of date in my medical knowledge... but I'm pretty sure cancers can only develop an immunity in a single person over a course of treatment, and can't spread like a virus or bacteria to other people carrying the acquired immunity with it.
After all, cancers aren't transmitted between people, they spontaneously appear for a variety of reasons.
This seems to me to BE nanotech. It's just produced by nature instead of someone in a lab coat.
The really cool thing to do with this virus (assuming it really is harmless to normal human cells) would be to create an implant with a hospitible environment that 'feeds' it and keeps a minimum population of viable viruses in your body for an extended period of time to whack cancers as they start.
I think using a popular pre-existing setting leads to people EXPECTING the scripted characters, or at least being able to turn their character into a replica of one of the heroes or villans they remember.
It also tends to invite nitpicking which decreases satisfaction. Just my opinion, of course.
I agree with many of the posts I've already seen - being in a fantasy world built around a few well known characters whose fates are scripted is boring!
For a MMOG to be truly great it must be new, and the well known characters should emerge during game play, from the players.
We DON'T just have the Sun on record, though. We've been looking at various other stars of various other types and ages for quite some time. Admittedly, it's not the same as observing OUR star for its complete lifetime, but it does extend confidence in models explaining its behaviour beyond what we could base on our direct local observations alone. If those models support our limited data, we have justification for considering that data as significant.
The Universe is a big place. It's mostly empty. Does that mean matter is trivial?
I'd suggest that matter is non-trivial, but in the minority when measured by volume occupied. I think we're like that; I think organized matter supporting intelligence is non-trivial, but is certainly in the minority when measured as a percentage of matter in the universe.
Actually, I didn't say it in jest. I just figure I've got bigger issues than data loss if my residence goes up in flames.
Under those circumstances, I'd only want to see myself and my wife get out alive, and I'd be very happy if I managed to save my cats as well. Anything over that is just a bonus - and I have relatives who will attest to that based on personal experience.
However, you can always invest in a safety deposit box at your local bank, and put a tape in it once a week... or possibly set up a wireless link to a dedicated box running in a neighbour's house to which you can send your data in real time.
Well, if you decide that the health of the company requires that you put some of that potential bonus money away for future needs... you better hope none of your employees reads Slashdot and gets bitter that they didn't get the full $1500!
Seriously... I got on eBay and bought an older server (dual PII), with RAID and 5 hot-swap SCSI bays and a tape drive. I bought 6 SCSI drives the same way. Got it all for less than the cost of a new desktop.
I keep all my data on the server, and do backups. Anything short of a house fire or a stupid robber willing to lug a heavy old server and I'm good...
I actually did that, once... and the equipment was worth significantly more than my 10 year old Dodge Spirit.
I used some 1/4" plastic sheet and a heat gun to build a shelf. I mounted an inverter under the dash and rigged a remote power switch that I ran to an available spot above the radio. Then I ran a patch cord from the audio out on the laptop to the aux in on my radio, and added a GPS antenna just for fun. If I were to do it again, I'd also have to hook it up to the car's diagnostic port.
Of course, my laptop screen was invisible in even moderate sunlight from the driver's seat, and extremely dangerous to operate while driving. It was kind of neat to have, though.
I'm not sure you've actually argued against my point - that the dealer should only be allowed to view relevant data from the black box.
As for your example... I'm pretty sure a corrupt dealer and mechanic could either BLANK your black box, or replace it with a blank one without your knowledge, anyway.
That, of course, brings up another possibilty - how long until someone hacks the black box through the standard dataport and starts selling a module to fake the recording to ensure it complies with your version of events?
If I were in a region known to be supportive of militant muslim fanatics, I'd be more like "if you lose sight of me for more than five minutes, drop a nuke on my last known co-ordinates."
The Western version of a suicide bomber is just SO much more effective.
Damn, but I'm going to get flamed for this, aren't I?
Actually, you'd probably want the system to take and transmit a picture every time the car is started. You can discard the images when the car is returned safely.
As a speeder myself, I'm a little wary of having a system that reports my speed, though. You can't drive safely on many highways in my area without exceeding the speed limit by 10-20% - because everyone else is speeding and travelling at a vastly different speed from the majority of traffic is more likely to cause an accident than speeding itself. Forcing drivers of corporate or rental cars might actually increase accident rates.
Your dealer's shop manager just proved those logging systems should either be disabled or subject to some legal protection.
The dealership SHOULD have the right to check those logs for information directly related to a problem reported with the vehicle - and maybe for indicators of impending failures. However, walking through the logs to check out your driving habits is a disgusting invasion of privacy, no matter how harmless it seems.
I've been in a Bruce County blizzard. Damn scary when you only know you haven't lost the road because the brake lights appearing out of nowwhere in front of you aren't shining up out of a ditch.
A self-navigating car that uses GPS, sees by radar, maybe checks position agains magnets embedded in the road every so often and can adjust for extreme road conditions would be pretty sweet in such a situation.
Of course, that doesn't explain why idiots like us are out driving in a Bruce County blizzard.
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Actually, I think that LotR is not only NOT incredible, but it has many aspects that can be picked apart as pretty sub-standard.
What makes LotR so great is that it was the first modern fantasy epic - yes, it used lots of elements from many older epics and myths, but it was the first modern epic and included an obsessive level of attention to detail that became the standard for modern fantasy.
In other words, the reason LotR ain't so great in comparison now is because it inspired everyone else to match or exceed the expectations it set.
It seems to me that building a mission and having thousands of real people have a go at finishing it would be a great simulator for planning a REAL mission. But hey, that's just me.
Honestly, I sometimes think about registering Hotmial.com because when I manually enter the url, about 1 in 20 times that's what I end up typing.
Then I think about how many other people with Hotmail accounts might be doing the same thing and how much smoke might start rising from my server, slap myself, and forget the idea for a while.
I remember seeing a PBS show on this - where a doctor would go to the sewage pipe exiting his hospital (directly into the local river, BTW) and hold a large beaker in the stream to collect a sample.
The collected samples would be applied, a drop at a time, into various petri dishes with a harmful bacterial culture. He'd then wait to see if any particular culture started to die, and then look in that dish to see what was doing it. Final stage, feed it more of the original culture until you have lots of the killing agent, make a liquid out of it, and spray it EVERYWHERE you might find the original bacteria. (Open wounds, walls, equipment, whatever)
Great if it works, but UGHH!
I may be out of date in my medical knowledge... but I'm pretty sure cancers can only develop an immunity in a single person over a course of treatment, and can't spread like a virus or bacteria to other people carrying the acquired immunity with it.
After all, cancers aren't transmitted between people, they spontaneously appear for a variety of reasons.
This seems to me to BE nanotech. It's just produced by nature instead of someone in a lab coat.
The really cool thing to do with this virus (assuming it really is harmless to normal human cells) would be to create an implant with a hospitible environment that 'feeds' it and keeps a minimum population of viable viruses in your body for an extended period of time to whack cancers as they start.
I think using a popular pre-existing setting leads to people EXPECTING the scripted characters, or at least being able to turn their character into a replica of one of the heroes or villans they remember.
It also tends to invite nitpicking which decreases satisfaction. Just my opinion, of course.
I agree with many of the posts I've already seen - being in a fantasy world built around a few well known characters whose fates are scripted is boring!
For a MMOG to be truly great it must be new, and the well known characters should emerge during game play, from the players.
We DON'T just have the Sun on record, though. We've been looking at various other stars of various other types and ages for quite some time. Admittedly, it's not the same as observing OUR star for its complete lifetime, but it does extend confidence in models explaining its behaviour beyond what we could base on our direct local observations alone. If those models support our limited data, we have justification for considering that data as significant.
I don't know about that... I'm addicted to dark carbonated caffinated beverages, but I've never felt like recognizing pop as a society.
I'd be more inclined to define the members of an online game as a society if they interact in meaningful ways and have a shared identity.
Alternate between lots of sex and quiet contemplation. That way, when you die you're 50% happy and 50% solemly dignified. :)
The Universe is a big place. It's mostly empty. Does that mean matter is trivial?
I'd suggest that matter is non-trivial, but in the minority when measured by volume occupied. I think we're like that; I think organized matter supporting intelligence is non-trivial, but is certainly in the minority when measured as a percentage of matter in the universe.
I can't count the number of Flash games freely available on various web sites that star Bin Laden on the knuckle end of a FPS-style environment.
The joke is OLD, and no one ever took it seriously enough to consider including it with a 'legitimate' title.
Actually, I didn't say it in jest. I just figure I've got bigger issues than data loss if my residence goes up in flames.
Under those circumstances, I'd only want to see myself and my wife get out alive, and I'd be very happy if I managed to save my cats as well. Anything over that is just a bonus - and I have relatives who will attest to that based on personal experience.
However, you can always invest in a safety deposit box at your local bank, and put a tape in it once a week... or possibly set up a wireless link to a dedicated box running in a neighbour's house to which you can send your data in real time.
Well, if you decide that the health of the company requires that you put some of that potential bonus money away for future needs... you better hope none of your employees reads Slashdot and gets bitter that they didn't get the full $1500!
Seriously... I got on eBay and bought an older server (dual PII), with RAID and 5 hot-swap SCSI bays and a tape drive. I bought 6 SCSI drives the same way. Got it all for less than the cost of a new desktop.
I keep all my data on the server, and do backups. Anything short of a house fire or a stupid robber willing to lug a heavy old server and I'm good...
I actually did that, once... and the equipment was worth significantly more than my 10 year old Dodge Spirit.
I used some 1/4" plastic sheet and a heat gun to build a shelf. I mounted an inverter under the dash and rigged a remote power switch that I ran to an available spot above the radio. Then I ran a patch cord from the audio out on the laptop to the aux in on my radio, and added a GPS antenna just for fun. If I were to do it again, I'd also have to hook it up to the car's diagnostic port.
Of course, my laptop screen was invisible in even moderate sunlight from the driver's seat, and extremely dangerous to operate while driving. It was kind of neat to have, though.
If I want music in my car, I burn a CD.
Why listen to the radio for music, which is inevitably either playing music I don't want to hear, an ad, or a DJ's inane chatter?
On the other hand, I find my local news station is great listening while I'm commuting and trying to avoid traffic problems.
Actually, shipping small amounts of valuable things (illegal drugs and diamonds come to mind) through domestic post is pretty foolproof.
As long as your package doesn't leak white powder and start an anthrax scare, it's very likely to get to its destination.
I'm not sure you've actually argued against my point - that the dealer should only be allowed to view relevant data from the black box.
As for your example... I'm pretty sure a corrupt dealer and mechanic could either BLANK your black box, or replace it with a blank one without your knowledge, anyway.
That, of course, brings up another possibilty - how long until someone hacks the black box through the standard dataport and starts selling a module to fake the recording to ensure it complies with your version of events?
If I were in a region known to be supportive of militant muslim fanatics, I'd be more like "if you lose sight of me for more than five minutes, drop a nuke on my last known co-ordinates."
The Western version of a suicide bomber is just SO much more effective.
Damn, but I'm going to get flamed for this, aren't I?
Actually, you'd probably want the system to take and transmit a picture every time the car is started. You can discard the images when the car is returned safely.
As a speeder myself, I'm a little wary of having a system that reports my speed, though. You can't drive safely on many highways in my area without exceeding the speed limit by 10-20% - because everyone else is speeding and travelling at a vastly different speed from the majority of traffic is more likely to cause an accident than speeding itself. Forcing drivers of corporate or rental cars might actually increase accident rates.
Your dealer's shop manager just proved those logging systems should either be disabled or subject to some legal protection.
The dealership SHOULD have the right to check those logs for information directly related to a problem reported with the vehicle - and maybe for indicators of impending failures. However, walking through the logs to check out your driving habits is a disgusting invasion of privacy, no matter how harmless it seems.
I've been in a Bruce County blizzard. Damn scary when you only know you haven't lost the road because the brake lights appearing out of nowwhere in front of you aren't shining up out of a ditch.
A self-navigating car that uses GPS, sees by radar, maybe checks position agains magnets embedded in the road every so often and can adjust for extreme road conditions would be pretty sweet in such a situation.
Of course, that doesn't explain why idiots like us are out driving in a Bruce County blizzard.