I completely agree with you. There are many Slashdotters on here (i'm sure many of them parents themselves) who will immediately jump in and say that the judge was right to do this, but think for a second...what child was harmed by this man? He is being charged for a fucking Thought Crime! The officer PRETENDED to be a 13 year old. There was never any real 13 year old involved in thiis.
Why can't the defendent just say "oh, I knew it was a cop, I was aroused by the idea of someone lying about their identity, not the fact that they were pretending to be a child"?
How exactly is this not entrapment? I'd love for those with a legal education to explain to me how and why this is not a Thought Crime.
From a tactical standpoint isn't it a major downside in air-to-air combat to have that giant cloud behind you? Wouldn't that completely block your rear view? Also, wouldn't it increase the aircraft's visual profile? What does this do to its radar profile?
"and even the ability to convert 2D live television into 3D live television" I hear their also adding a feature to 'zoom' and 'enhance' grainy pixelated feeds into high quality 1080p as well.
Can't wait to see this in action on the next season of CSI!
This reads like something from Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".
I never thought we'd get real systems vulnerable to attacks with 3D visual components as an integral part of the attack. This is much closer to SF than expected.
No kidding. And while this definitely sucks for Linden and the players, I can't help but think "holy crap this is cool!" much in the same way I read in awe the story of the scammer from EVE who scammed all that money out of people.
Yeah, this sort of thing sucks, but we're learning some interesting things about human behavior (especially in virtual worlds) and we're learning some technical things as well.
I wonder....should they call this the Sonic Worm due to the ring-like nature of the worm?
This brings up an interesting and very related question. Where did the modern-day "w00t" come from? Obviously it didn't come from this, it couldn't have...the people who use this phrase tend to be too young/immature to learn about this kind of thing to introduce it into gamer culture!
Look, this isn't really a 'mad loot' or 'MASSIVE DAMAGE' moment so please, so try to speak and write proper English.
And uh...why is that exactly? Oh, because you said so. I'm sorry.
Those of us with a sense of humor will continue to enjoy the irony of this article and will have a good chuckle. But please, do let me know if you need any help removing the rod from your ass.
Just because we can prove something is true in quantum physics doesn't mean it can be "upscaled" to the macro-universe. In short, even if this works it's a far cry from *you* being able to go back in time.
Personally, I'd settle for there being proof that something that was thought to be physically impossible is actually quite probable. We can worry about the whole sending ME back in the past later.
I don't really care if they air these VNRs as long as they have something like a box onscreen at all times throughout it identifying it as an advertisement so I know I should change the channel. And that CERTAINLY needs to be displayed at the beginning, but I'm more of a fan of making it illegal to not show it during the entire length because if someone starts watching in the middle of it they'd have no idea it was paid for.
This is something that happens in print too with advertorials. Recently in PC Gamer there was a huge section in there about cellphone games. I'm in advertising, and thus have pretty finely honed ad senses so I could tell pretty quickly it was sponsored by Cingular, but the section was HUGE, and the ONLY indication I had of this was the TINY TINY black text on dark background on the very front page that said "ADVERTISEMENT". Absolutely disgusting.
If you find this sort of crap on TV or in print, feel free to call the station/publisher and let them know your feelings about being misled by their content and explain how you are going to be perusing their competitors media instead.
My comment was more pointing at the fact that I could picture him declaring martial law shortly before his second term is up and saying "yeah...um....I'm not leaving. All your states are belong to us."
Apologies if this is a bit off-topic, but I have to wonder...could it be workable/profitable to set up a bank of computers, powered completely by bicycle pedals or something, provide them with a net connection, and allow gamers to play WoW for free by selling the electricity they could generate? Think about it...who wouldn't want to get paid for sitting on their ass playing WoW all day...and not gold-farming, actually playing it and doing whatever the hell they wanted as long as they pedaled. How feasible is that?
I'm curious what is being done about some of the ridiculous voting issues that occured. There were glitches favoring both Dems and Reps, and NEITHER is acceptable. I know the Feds are actually following up on this and investigating, but with our government I'm wondering if that will actually mean anything, and even if they arrest a couple people, will they actually demand a recount?
One of the "bigger picture" questions I'm wondering about is when we inevitably vote Bush out of office in 2 years (assuming he'll actually LEAVE and assuming we don't impeach his ass first), is will whoever is in next actually get rid of the powers Bush has consolidated for them? Are we stuck with this crap forever? Politicians, whether right or left do not like to give up power of any sort.
Going from the best search technology to just another ad agency.
Sorry, hate to nitpick here, but they are most certainly not an ad agency. I work in advertising (at an ad agency) and what Google has become (and has been for most of its life) is a media property with a sales force. Just like ClearChannel et. al.
And for anybody who thinks "ooo, they're paying 50% above prevailing salaries!" you need to gain a basic understanding of how this industry works. Their sales force gets a commission. Anybody in ad sales worth their salt is going to wait and see how in-demand this radio venture of theirs is before they jump ship because frankly, media reps get a crappy salary. The money is really made in the commission. So if this bombs, yeah, they might be making a bit more base from their salary, but they'll be screwed from commission.
Of course, I'm sure that won't stop all of the sexy sexy media girls (fortunately a very true industry stereotype) from trying to work there. Can't wait to do business with them!
Actually, there was a Google Ad Sales office directly below mine in Chicago here before it closed, and they had some very cute girls working there....but I have to tell you that the Google backpacks don't look as sexy on them as you think they would.
Doesn't this method require a government willing to hold itself up to scrutiny? I love the fact that people are coming up with excellent ways to ensure a secure vote, but the fact of the matter is, nothing has been done to fix the existing holes that have been found in the voting machines that are being used, even after widespread media coverage. New methods of voting aren't going to solve things, getting the existing government out of power so that we can actually implement these ideas will.
I don't buy the ones that nickle and dime...but unfortunately I will not be buying this one since I'm one of the rare few who is not a huge fan of Sam and Max. I will definitely cheer them on though.
Seriously, if you people don't get out and vote these facists out of office, you're going to be just like the guy from WWII who wrote the poem about how, when there was no one else left, they came for him, and there was no one left to stop them.
And what makes you think that if we take the House and the Senate and eventually the Presidency back in 2 years that they'll reverse or change any of this? Why would they want to give up that kind of power? They might alter it a bit to tone it down a little, but I'm willing to bet that things like these will remain as laws in some form of another even after we get rid of the damn neocons....because eventually they'll be back, ready to pick up where they left off.
You might want to try Fable if you haven't already. While not online and not an MMO, the pacing of the story is excellent and there's is little to no grind in it. Just as I think I've played too much for a night...another cliffhanger pops up that I HAVE to complete.
No kidding, talk about an extremely misleading Slashdot story title. Should be "Cingular's $15/mo Music". The only difference between Cingular's overpriced monthly music service and that of other providers monthly music service is the pricing structure.
Out of curiosity, can anybody please explain why for the love of god cell phone data transfers and media services are so damn expensive? It seems a bit strange to me that I can get a ridiculous amount of transferring my voice over the air for free, yet it costs a fortune to send a text message.
Its simple. If you're 100% up front that you are part of the company you're posting about, and by part of I mean being paid by them to post about them, then people won't have a problem as they can easily ignore you once they realize your bias.
The issue comes about when people do NOT disclose this and try to trick readers into thinking they are something they are not. If I want to get exclusive pics and videos, I might check your site out since I'd know you were sponsored by the company and thus would have exclusive stuff, however I would avoid your site at all costs for impartial reviews for example.
And woe to any company that tries to hide it, because the truth WILL be found out as happened here and as also happened with WalMart's blog. And it will bite you in the ass PR wise. We don't care if you're a sponsored blog, just inform us so we can make proper decisions about how we weight the value of your information. We don't react well to being deceived.
Honestly, when it comes to story-driven games, I don't understand why the game publishers are criticized.
Because the vast majority of them use it as an attempt to nickle and dime us with these episodes and ultimately charge us more for less. This game might be an exception, but it is certainly not the rule.
The most valuable asset of Wikipedia for future archaeologists will indeed be the meta discussion. There is so much lost from the past when all we see is the final outcome of something. This goes hand in hand with the saying that history is written by whoever wins the war. I think the current articles on our situation with Iraq and "the war on terror" are perfect examples of this.
I think communication and information are some of the most dangerous weapons humanity has at its disposal right now, and some of its most powerful tools. It is so very interesting to see the aggregate effect of people realizing that information is not always 100% black and white, 1's and 0's. It can indeed be quite gray, and the reasons for the differences in opinion are as varied as the opinions themselves.
Slashdot Mirror
How exactly is this not entrapment? I'd love for those with a legal education to explain to me how and why this is not a Thought Crime.
Can't wait to see this in action on the next season of CSI!
No kidding. And while this definitely sucks for Linden and the players, I can't help but think "holy crap this is cool!" much in the same way I read in awe the story of the scammer from EVE who scammed all that money out of people.
Yeah, this sort of thing sucks, but we're learning some interesting things about human behavior (especially in virtual worlds) and we're learning some technical things as well.
I wonder....should they call this the Sonic Worm due to the ring-like nature of the worm?
And uh...why is that exactly? Oh, because you said so. I'm sorry.
Those of us with a sense of humor will continue to enjoy the irony of this article and will have a good chuckle. But please, do let me know if you need any help removing the rod from your ass.
If we got that message I'd have to assume it was some drunk physicist doing the equivelant of "Hit Alt-F4 for cheats!"
Personally, I'd settle for there being proof that something that was thought to be physically impossible is actually quite probable. We can worry about the whole sending ME back in the past later.
This is something that happens in print too with advertorials. Recently in PC Gamer there was a huge section in there about cellphone games. I'm in advertising, and thus have pretty finely honed ad senses so I could tell pretty quickly it was sponsored by Cingular, but the section was HUGE, and the ONLY indication I had of this was the TINY TINY black text on dark background on the very front page that said "ADVERTISEMENT". Absolutely disgusting.
If you find this sort of crap on TV or in print, feel free to call the station/publisher and let them know your feelings about being misled by their content and explain how you are going to be perusing their competitors media instead.
Sorry...there are MUCH more important uses for thorium and the cost of it is ridiculous. How else am I going to make my Runic gear
I think the second sentence answers the quest of the first sentence.
One of the "bigger picture" questions I'm wondering about is when we inevitably vote Bush out of office in 2 years (assuming he'll actually LEAVE and assuming we don't impeach his ass first), is will whoever is in next actually get rid of the powers Bush has consolidated for them? Are we stuck with this crap forever? Politicians, whether right or left do not like to give up power of any sort.
Sorry, hate to nitpick here, but they are most certainly not an ad agency. I work in advertising (at an ad agency) and what Google has become (and has been for most of its life) is a media property with a sales force. Just like ClearChannel et. al.
And for anybody who thinks "ooo, they're paying 50% above prevailing salaries!" you need to gain a basic understanding of how this industry works. Their sales force gets a commission. Anybody in ad sales worth their salt is going to wait and see how in-demand this radio venture of theirs is before they jump ship because frankly, media reps get a crappy salary. The money is really made in the commission. So if this bombs, yeah, they might be making a bit more base from their salary, but they'll be screwed from commission.
Of course, I'm sure that won't stop all of the sexy sexy media girls (fortunately a very true industry stereotype) from trying to work there. Can't wait to do business with them!
Actually, there was a Google Ad Sales office directly below mine in Chicago here before it closed, and they had some very cute girls working there....but I have to tell you that the Google backpacks don't look as sexy on them as you think they would.
And what makes you think that if we take the House and the Senate and eventually the Presidency back in 2 years that they'll reverse or change any of this? Why would they want to give up that kind of power? They might alter it a bit to tone it down a little, but I'm willing to bet that things like these will remain as laws in some form of another even after we get rid of the damn neocons....because eventually they'll be back, ready to pick up where they left off.
Out of curiosity, can anybody please explain why for the love of god cell phone data transfers and media services are so damn expensive? It seems a bit strange to me that I can get a ridiculous amount of transferring my voice over the air for free, yet it costs a fortune to send a text message.
The issue comes about when people do NOT disclose this and try to trick readers into thinking they are something they are not. If I want to get exclusive pics and videos, I might check your site out since I'd know you were sponsored by the company and thus would have exclusive stuff, however I would avoid your site at all costs for impartial reviews for example.
And woe to any company that tries to hide it, because the truth WILL be found out as happened here and as also happened with WalMart's blog. And it will bite you in the ass PR wise. We don't care if you're a sponsored blog, just inform us so we can make proper decisions about how we weight the value of your information. We don't react well to being deceived.
Because the vast majority of them use it as an attempt to nickle and dime us with these episodes and ultimately charge us more for less. This game might be an exception, but it is certainly not the rule.
I think communication and information are some of the most dangerous weapons humanity has at its disposal right now, and some of its most powerful tools. It is so very interesting to see the aggregate effect of people realizing that information is not always 100% black and white, 1's and 0's. It can indeed be quite gray, and the reasons for the differences in opinion are as varied as the opinions themselves.