Lets look at the series of events here:
1. Microsoft releases a patch a month before a virus hits.
2. People do not install the patch.
3. The virus hits affecting thousands of machines.
4. Microsoft comes under heavy criticism.
5. Seeing that a lot of people won't install patches manually, they look into automatic updates so that they can avoid wide-spread virus infections in the future.
Seems like MS is in a catch 22. People will criticize them for having manual patches available or for automatic updates. It seems like they would have to create the world's first flawless OS for everyone to be happy.
All OS's require security patches at some time or another. It just so happens that Windows has such a large customer base that their viri have a wide-spread effect while viri for another OS might not be as major. So I ask, what can MS do realistically to announce and distribute security patches?
After a summer internship at a software company, I asked what degrees they look for when hiring people for full-time positions. The hiring manager said that people with a Bachelor's degree usually don't have the specialized training required for a lot of job positions. However, people with a PhD are usually too research oriented and are not always very good in production environments. The sweet spot seems to be the masters degree where you've taken more specialized classes in a specific area, but have not spent too much time in academia. Furthermore, it was this hiring manager's opinion that a lot of PhD people aren't as good working in a team environment since they liked to do everything their way since they're the ones with the most education.
Depending on your area of study, a PhD might not gain you anything more than what a masters + job experience will get you. And if you're looking at salary, will the pay increase really be worth the extra 7 years of college tuition?
Isn't this what some congressman is trying to get passed for P2P networks? He thinks that it is perfectly acceptable for copyright holders to hack P2P networks and bring down machines that are suspected of having illegally obtained copyrighted material. Now we propose this for spam and suddenly this is a good thing? I know, nobody likes spammers, but that can't be the foundation to allowing people to hack other's systems. If filters were allowed to strike back at spammers, that would give the RIAA and MPAA all the ammo they need to lobby for new laws that allow disabling people's service. As many people have said in other posts, it sets a very slippery slope that will probably have consequences beyond what we initially invision, not just for email, but for anything that someone does over the internet that is "unwanted".
I couldn't agree more. On slow days in college, my friends and I would go browsing through Frys just looking at various computers, cards, and consumer electronics. It's funny, but we also referred to it as the candy store. It is a great place if you want a ton of selection so that you can do comparisons. But don't ask the sales people for help, and if you do, tell them what exactly to do and don't ask for advice. Do your homework online, go to Frys and try the stuff out. They have a very liberal return policy where you can just about return anything within 30 days of purchase for just about any reason. Too bad I don't live on the West Coast anymore, I miss my frys fix:-(.
I have never played a MMORPG, but I thought the point of them was to exist in a world that has limited resources and that you fight and barter to make an existence in those games. I read somewhere before SW Galaxies was released that you could smuggle goods for someone or be a bounty hunter and track down people who have skipped out on payments to crime lords. Or, if you didn't want the high stakes life, you could exist as a bar keep or hair dresser. Even if there was no real money at stake, I think having people compete for limited resources is the reason why people play MMORPG's. If there is no micro-economy in these games do people just walk around killing small furry animals all day long? Where's the fun in that?
Secondly, this promotes very anti-social behavior--people crouching away at their computers, beating wombat after wombat to get the extra gold and items.
The article addresses this issue of how to prevent the publisher from going bankrupt. The game would have to be balanced in a way where the energy and resources spent beating wombat after wombat would be greater than or equal to the actual gold you get from them. Beating small animals for extra cash in the game should be the equivilent of walking around the street looking for money in the gutter. Sure you'll find it, but without a lot of excitement and you definitely won't make enough to substain yourself for very long. Eventually, after making a net profit of $1.00 after three months of play (and giving $30 dollars to the publisher for a subscription), you would go and try higher stakes ventures and leave the poor wombats alone.
I have found a small pocket mirror to be very helpful. I have worked in a lot of small dorm room environments where you can't move someone's computer very easily. Having a mirror to see the back of someone's computer is helpful to check that cables are plugged in correctly and such.
I also like a can of compressed air. People are always surprised to see just how much dust collects inside a computer after a year. If I'm opening up the computer, might as well give it a quick brush of air.
Depending on the type of work you usually do on computers, a cable tester might be a good investment. This is particularly important if you make you own ethernet cable. They cost about $50, but if you're dealing with networking issues all the time it is worth it.
It's pretty much legal to circumvent copy restrictions when you're the copyright holder, correct?
Well let me ask you this. Is it legal to crack and XBox to play a disk that you legally own and have a copyright for (say a game that you have created)? Is it legal to hack DVD encryption to play a DVD that you have created with original content? This seems similar to cracking open a Ritz camera and pulling out your pics. I'm not an expert on the DMCA, but I think all of these practices violate it.
I'm one of those people who find working out at the gym incredibly boring. I can't bike or run to work since I need to keep a clean and orderly appearance and don't have time to shower and change clothes at work. However, I started to notice just how much time I spend watching television and realize that there a whole lot of things you can do instead of just sitting on the couch. I've now started doing pushups and situps while watching my sitcoms. So, I still watch TV, but am also doing something good for my body. Just try lifting some weights or something while watching your daily episode of "The Simpsons" and you'll notice some improvement.
BTW, thanks to everyone talking about how bad the soda is. I never had any idea that my liquid fuel was so bad for me. As of now, I'm cutting soda out of my daily routine except for one every once in a while (I'm not a machine or anything, I have needs!).
I for one don't see how any search engine can read the minds of an individual user. If I type in "apple", how is Google supposed to know what I mean? It's like going up to someone in the street and asking where the "restaurant" is. The first thing the person will ask is, "which one?". Or going to the car dealership and asking for the "car".
I think our society still has the mentality that computers should be able to do anything and everything and when they don't, something must be broken. People always complain that their computer doesn't do what they want it to do and so it must be flawed. We've all heard it..."web pages load to slowly, I can't find what I'm looking for, this program has too many menus", etc. Well, I would like my car to lift off and fly during rush hour, but it's not. Do I complain that my car is flawed? No, I just accept that there are limitations as to what certain things can do at present. Perhaps my car will one day be able to take off and fly much like someday a search engine will have a better idea of what you are looking for.
I can't really imagine him as the voice in a cartoon. Does this mean that he is moving into the kids movie realm now?
Actually, take a look at all the high profile actors that do voice-over work for animated and CG films. A lot of big name actors lend their voices to kids movies, but that doesn't mean they are moving into that realm. It's just another job (and another paycheck).
Or maybe he just likes Linux
Anyone want to take me up on a bet that he doesn't know what Linux is? For some reason I don't see actors choosing to work on this movie because they have some heart-felt connection with Linux advocates.
I don't recall seeing anything in the RIAA's campaign against fair use - ie people swapping music with friends, people loaning music, people redistributing works with the full permission of the copyright holders, etc, etc.
However, before the RIAA was shut down in the courts regarding sueing the companies that provide p2p clients, this is exactly what they were doing. If the RIAA would have won against these companies, we would not be able to share music with our friends, or loan music, etc. using p2p technology. The RIAA is all about limiting fair use of music. They want to tell you how you can and cannot use a music CD so that it fits their definition of fair use which seems to change as time goes along.
Just because the RIAA lost in the courts and is trying a new strategy doesn't mean their overall goal is different. They showed us their hand in their lawsuits with the various p2p companies as to what they really want to do -- reshape fair use to fit their model, not what makes sense in reality.
XBox == Hardware, which means it's mine. If I want to flash the BIOS, that's my thing. Microsoft should allow a signed Linux bootloader so they can control what it actually boots (instead of botting pirated games.)
I think there are two different issues at play here. One is allowing people to do what they want with the hardware they bought. I'm all in favor of that. If someone wants to void the warranty of a product, fine...it's their nickel. They bought it, they broke it, it's not Microsoft's problem anymore.
However, what the group in the article is proposing is that Microsoft has to go out of their way to support different configurations. Do they want Microsoft to hire a new development team for an Xbox-Linux project? Do they want Microsoft to spend millions of dollars for a product they do not have a need for in their particular business strategy? What are they going to do next? Are they going to force every consumer electronics product to support Linux or else? Give me a break!
In conclusion, if Microsoft doesn't want to support a particular configuration, they don't have to. However, they also shouldn't be able to stop people from using hardware they have purchased anyway they please.
The thumbs of today's electronic-gadget generation of children have become more muscled, more dextrous and often more used than fingers.
Last time I checked, the thumb already was used more often than fingers. The thumb was one of the great feats of human evolution wasn't it? To get a feel for how important the thumb already is, tape your thumb to the palm of your hand and try to do just about any daily activity. I don't think the average person says, "Hey, I will use 8 fingers for this task instead of 10" and the thumb-gadget people think, "You know, this looks like a good task for my thumb". Show me a non-thumb-gadget activity that thumb-gadget people use their thumbs more than other people (say that sentence 10 times fast).
I see $30 one all the time at the local KMart but are they worth it? Why the big difference in price?
For $30 dollars you do get a non-upgradable PIM. You get a calendar and an address book and that's about it (maybe a game or two as well?). You cannot install any new applications. Of course, right now my once-mighty Palm Vx has taken a place in my backpack and only used as an expensive address book anyway. So yeah, spend the $30 since most PDA functionality goes unused by the common person anyway. Before you spend $300+ on a PDA, use the cheap one to see if you would even integrate a PDA into your normal routine.
I own a ReplayTV 5000 series. There is a lot of open source software available for it to allow for endless uses. The best is DVArchive. This software basically emulates a new ReplayTV on your network. It allows you to have an unlimited amount of space for shows (limited by your available HD space) without having to "hack" your ReplayTV. These shows play in real time from your computer just as if they were on the local box. They are saved as MPEGs, so you can easily burn an SVCD or convert to another format.
I also own a ReplayTV and I whole-hearted agree with the statement above. Not only can I store shows on my PC's harddrive, but I can also stream shows directly from my ReplayTV to my computer using DVArchive. So I can be doing some work on my computer while watching a show in a small window. So there is no need for a TV-tuner card on my machine. Furthermore, if space is an issue, I can also take all those downloaded tv programs and compress them into nice, small DivX files and put them on CD's. Heck, I can even watch those DivX files on my TV from my computer using X10's Entertainment Anywhere.
I too think we should scrap the current shuttle program, but not because of the risk involved. There will always be risk in space travel due to the number of unknowns in an area that we do not know much about (relatively). I think it should be scrapped and the money that goes into the upkeep of the shuttles should go toward researching new technology in space travel. I've read countless times how the technology on the space shuttle is seriously outdated and keeping the parts in stock is becoming really difficult. There are a number of toxic components in the shuttle's design that we now have non-toxic alternative too. We have much better computer technology that can be integrated into a new shuttle design. What we need is to explore some of these new technologies that have come about in the past 30 years. We need to say that these baby steps were great, but it's time to embark on a new adventure of Apollo-like proportions. If that means grounding or scrapping the shuttle fleet for 10-20 years, so be it.
I can't understand these comments from people who actually liked "Temple of Doom."
I think the reason why people like the first and third episodes is because it is based on themes and places that Western culture can relate to. A lot of people understand what the ark and the grail are and the Nazis make great representation of evil forces trying to use these holy artifacts for their own power.
On the other hand, Western culture does not have a good grasp on the themes and culture presented in the 2nd movie. The idea of recoverying some sacred rock seems silly, but the idea of recovering a big box or a cup seems perfectly fine because we have a context for them. We have a context for Nazis, but not so much for cult-like rituals.
It is for this reason that I think most people just can't wrap their heads around the 2nd movie. Since we feel lost in an unfamiliar world, we start to dismiss it as silly.
To understand my motivation it's probably important to understand my belief in personal ownership. I believe that if you purchase a product, you should have the right to change it, move it, or alter it for your own personal needs. The seller should have the right to say that you void the warranty or refuse to support it if you change it, but you should still have right as the purchaser to make that choice. This goes for music, software and personal computers. My belief is that as long as consumers have this right, then they'll use that freedom to make choices which steer our society in a generally positive direction.
I have had such a hard time trying to explain to my non-techie friends why the DMCA and all this copyright stuff is bad news for everyone. His few paragraphs on the Xbox did a great job of summarizing why all this locking, closed-boxed technology leads us down the wrong road. I have to remember this one for the future...
So, as far as I could tell, the CS AP basically did nothing for you. Perhaps times have changed.
In terms of the classes you take, yeah maybe it won't do anything for you. However, if you college accepts the CS AP score for credit, then it's all worth it. Credit is credit no matter how you cut it so you can get a 5 on the CS AP test or have to take a 5-unit class on the evolution of the the paper clip your senior year of college while all your friends are out partying. Also, as far as college applications go, having an extra AP score with a 5 next to it always helps grease the wheels.
"One of the most important parts of an education is to learn how to learn things on your own. You need to learn to research from available materials and to observe and analyze the real world.
Video games don't teach this way"
I'm not too sure that is entirely accurate. I think some video games are great tools in teaching people, especially children, how to analyze your environment, look at your available resources, and create a plan for moving forward. I know that when I was young, I played tons of Sierra "Quest" games that forced me to be creative, innovative, and look at a puzzle at different angles (not to mention it really helped my typing skills before they moved to a more point-and-click style). Sure, it's not the "real world" on the computer screen, but those skills do have real world uses.
I have never liked the argument that some parents give that in order to teach their children about technology you can't use games. They think that by sticking a child in front of a word processing or spreadsheet program that the child will get much more benefit than playing a good computer game. However, children are not interested in spreadsheets or word processing, but they are interested in games. Let them play games on the machine, let them get a feel for how a computer works, make them install the game themselves (that is how I learned DOS and OS basics), and basically let them explore the computer letting them do what they want to do, not what you hope they will do. Believe me, the word processing, spreadsheets, and programming languages will come in the future if the child doesn't have horrible memories of it being shoved down their throats (like piano lessons).
I saw a video of his demo in a UI class I took in college. The interesting thing about it was that he was using a one-handed keyboard. It essentially had piano-like keys that when pressed down in different patterns would produce different letters. It was quite cool since he could type without taking his hand off mouse (he looked like he was playing a FPS). I remember reading that he thought that the one-handed keyboard would have a much greater impact than the mouse ever would... oh well, it looks like you can lead the invention to water, but you can't make it drink
I have a five-year old computer collecting dust in my room right now. It plays DVD's, mp3's, and CD's all at decent quality (a little stuttering, but it is an old DVD player). It is pretty much instant access in that I stick in a disk and the appropriate media player comes up. And, it has a video and two-channel audio ouput so I can hook it up to my television and speaker system.
Now lets look at the media-center Lindows machine. Horrible DVD playback, only a single-channel audio output, and no video output. To me, this is nothing but a low-end desktop computer. Even the reviewer had to hook up a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to get it to work since it doesn't have a TV-out or a remote control interface. It doesn't have any recording features at all (no CD-R drive or TiVo-like functionality). So how is this a media-PC compared to my "non-media" PC?
Please don't tell me that "media center" will become another buzz-word to describe any computer that has a DVD player attached to it. If it is, then most of us have had media centers for quite a while.
What's not to like about knights, castles, magicians, magic, and all that other cool stuff inspired by Arthurian Legend? Sure it's no LOTR, but it has it's charm. Plus, it was one of the first movies to use digital effects during that morphing sequence. In fact, the DVD commentary is quite entertaining about that aspect.
Ron Howard: "So we're going to use smoke and cutaways right?"
ILM: "No, we aren't going to cutaway at all... we're going to see the transformations on screen. It will be all done on a computer."
Ron Howard: "I don't get it."
"Can you drop my phone on my doorstep on your way?"
So what was your plan when you parents check up on you and notice that your phone is home (in the bushes somewhere I presume), but you are nowhere to be seen? Sure you could use some inventive lie, but now you have to lie about your whereabouts and why the phone was home before you were. Back in the good 'ole days you only had to make up a lie about the former. Just another case of technology making more work for you, not less.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Microsoft releases a patch a month before a virus hits.
2. People do not install the patch.
3. The virus hits affecting thousands of machines.
4. Microsoft comes under heavy criticism.
5. Seeing that a lot of people won't install patches manually, they look into automatic updates so that they can avoid wide-spread virus infections in the future.
Seems like MS is in a catch 22. People will criticize them for having manual patches available or for automatic updates. It seems like they would have to create the world's first flawless OS for everyone to be happy.
All OS's require security patches at some time or another. It just so happens that Windows has such a large customer base that their viri have a wide-spread effect while viri for another OS might not be as major. So I ask, what can MS do realistically to announce and distribute security patches?
Depending on your area of study, a PhD might not gain you anything more than what a masters + job experience will get you. And if you're looking at salary, will the pay increase really be worth the extra 7 years of college tuition?
Isn't this what some congressman is trying to get passed for P2P networks? He thinks that it is perfectly acceptable for copyright holders to hack P2P networks and bring down machines that are suspected of having illegally obtained copyrighted material. Now we propose this for spam and suddenly this is a good thing? I know, nobody likes spammers, but that can't be the foundation to allowing people to hack other's systems. If filters were allowed to strike back at spammers, that would give the RIAA and MPAA all the ammo they need to lobby for new laws that allow disabling people's service. As many people have said in other posts, it sets a very slippery slope that will probably have consequences beyond what we initially invision, not just for email, but for anything that someone does over the internet that is "unwanted".
I couldn't agree more. On slow days in college, my friends and I would go browsing through Frys just looking at various computers, cards, and consumer electronics. It's funny, but we also referred to it as the candy store. It is a great place if you want a ton of selection so that you can do comparisons. But don't ask the sales people for help, and if you do, tell them what exactly to do and don't ask for advice. Do your homework online, go to Frys and try the stuff out. They have a very liberal return policy where you can just about return anything within 30 days of purchase for just about any reason. Too bad I don't live on the West Coast anymore, I miss my frys fix :-(.
I have never played a MMORPG, but I thought the point of them was to exist in a world that has limited resources and that you fight and barter to make an existence in those games. I read somewhere before SW Galaxies was released that you could smuggle goods for someone or be a bounty hunter and track down people who have skipped out on payments to crime lords. Or, if you didn't want the high stakes life, you could exist as a bar keep or hair dresser. Even if there was no real money at stake, I think having people compete for limited resources is the reason why people play MMORPG's. If there is no micro-economy in these games do people just walk around killing small furry animals all day long? Where's the fun in that?
The article addresses this issue of how to prevent the publisher from going bankrupt. The game would have to be balanced in a way where the energy and resources spent beating wombat after wombat would be greater than or equal to the actual gold you get from them. Beating small animals for extra cash in the game should be the equivilent of walking around the street looking for money in the gutter. Sure you'll find it, but without a lot of excitement and you definitely won't make enough to substain yourself for very long. Eventually, after making a net profit of $1.00 after three months of play (and giving $30 dollars to the publisher for a subscription), you would go and try higher stakes ventures and leave the poor wombats alone.
I also like a can of compressed air. People are always surprised to see just how much dust collects inside a computer after a year. If I'm opening up the computer, might as well give it a quick brush of air.
Depending on the type of work you usually do on computers, a cable tester might be a good investment. This is particularly important if you make you own ethernet cable. They cost about $50, but if you're dealing with networking issues all the time it is worth it.
Well let me ask you this. Is it legal to crack and XBox to play a disk that you legally own and have a copyright for (say a game that you have created)? Is it legal to hack DVD encryption to play a DVD that you have created with original content? This seems similar to cracking open a Ritz camera and pulling out your pics. I'm not an expert on the DMCA, but I think all of these practices violate it.
I'm one of those people who find working out at the gym incredibly boring. I can't bike or run to work since I need to keep a clean and orderly appearance and don't have time to shower and change clothes at work. However, I started to notice just how much time I spend watching television and realize that there a whole lot of things you can do instead of just sitting on the couch. I've now started doing pushups and situps while watching my sitcoms. So, I still watch TV, but am also doing something good for my body. Just try lifting some weights or something while watching your daily episode of "The Simpsons" and you'll notice some improvement.
BTW, thanks to everyone talking about how bad the soda is. I never had any idea that my liquid fuel was so bad for me. As of now, I'm cutting soda out of my daily routine except for one every once in a while (I'm not a machine or anything, I have needs!).
I for one don't see how any search engine can read the minds of an individual user. If I type in "apple", how is Google supposed to know what I mean? It's like going up to someone in the street and asking where the "restaurant" is. The first thing the person will ask is, "which one?". Or going to the car dealership and asking for the "car".
I think our society still has the mentality that computers should be able to do anything and everything and when they don't, something must be broken. People always complain that their computer doesn't do what they want it to do and so it must be flawed. We've all heard it..."web pages load to slowly, I can't find what I'm looking for, this program has too many menus", etc. Well, I would like my car to lift off and fly during rush hour, but it's not. Do I complain that my car is flawed? No, I just accept that there are limitations as to what certain things can do at present. Perhaps my car will one day be able to take off and fly much like someday a search engine will have a better idea of what you are looking for.
Actually, take a look at all the high profile actors that do voice-over work for animated and CG films. A lot of big name actors lend their voices to kids movies, but that doesn't mean they are moving into that realm. It's just another job (and another paycheck).
Or maybe he just likes Linux
Anyone want to take me up on a bet that he doesn't know what Linux is? For some reason I don't see actors choosing to work on this movie because they have some heart-felt connection with Linux advocates.
However, before the RIAA was shut down in the courts regarding sueing the companies that provide p2p clients, this is exactly what they were doing. If the RIAA would have won against these companies, we would not be able to share music with our friends, or loan music, etc. using p2p technology. The RIAA is all about limiting fair use of music. They want to tell you how you can and cannot use a music CD so that it fits their definition of fair use which seems to change as time goes along.
Just because the RIAA lost in the courts and is trying a new strategy doesn't mean their overall goal is different. They showed us their hand in their lawsuits with the various p2p companies as to what they really want to do -- reshape fair use to fit their model, not what makes sense in reality.
I think there are two different issues at play here. One is allowing people to do what they want with the hardware they bought. I'm all in favor of that. If someone wants to void the warranty of a product, fine...it's their nickel. They bought it, they broke it, it's not Microsoft's problem anymore.
However, what the group in the article is proposing is that Microsoft has to go out of their way to support different configurations. Do they want Microsoft to hire a new development team for an Xbox-Linux project? Do they want Microsoft to spend millions of dollars for a product they do not have a need for in their particular business strategy? What are they going to do next? Are they going to force every consumer electronics product to support Linux or else? Give me a break!
In conclusion, if Microsoft doesn't want to support a particular configuration, they don't have to. However, they also shouldn't be able to stop people from using hardware they have purchased anyway they please.
Last time I checked, the thumb already was used more often than fingers. The thumb was one of the great feats of human evolution wasn't it? To get a feel for how important the thumb already is, tape your thumb to the palm of your hand and try to do just about any daily activity. I don't think the average person says, "Hey, I will use 8 fingers for this task instead of 10" and the thumb-gadget people think, "You know, this looks like a good task for my thumb". Show me a non-thumb-gadget activity that thumb-gadget people use their thumbs more than other people (say that sentence 10 times fast).
For $30 dollars you do get a non-upgradable PIM. You get a calendar and an address book and that's about it (maybe a game or two as well?). You cannot install any new applications. Of course, right now my once-mighty Palm Vx has taken a place in my backpack and only used as an expensive address book anyway. So yeah, spend the $30 since most PDA functionality goes unused by the common person anyway. Before you spend $300+ on a PDA, use the cheap one to see if you would even integrate a PDA into your normal routine.
I also own a ReplayTV and I whole-hearted agree with the statement above. Not only can I store shows on my PC's harddrive, but I can also stream shows directly from my ReplayTV to my computer using DVArchive. So I can be doing some work on my computer while watching a show in a small window. So there is no need for a TV-tuner card on my machine. Furthermore, if space is an issue, I can also take all those downloaded tv programs and compress them into nice, small DivX files and put them on CD's. Heck, I can even watch those DivX files on my TV from my computer using X10's Entertainment Anywhere.
I too think we should scrap the current shuttle program, but not because of the risk involved. There will always be risk in space travel due to the number of unknowns in an area that we do not know much about (relatively). I think it should be scrapped and the money that goes into the upkeep of the shuttles should go toward researching new technology in space travel. I've read countless times how the technology on the space shuttle is seriously outdated and keeping the parts in stock is becoming really difficult. There are a number of toxic components in the shuttle's design that we now have non-toxic alternative too. We have much better computer technology that can be integrated into a new shuttle design. What we need is to explore some of these new technologies that have come about in the past 30 years. We need to say that these baby steps were great, but it's time to embark on a new adventure of Apollo-like proportions. If that means grounding or scrapping the shuttle fleet for 10-20 years, so be it.
I think the reason why people like the first and third episodes is because it is based on themes and places that Western culture can relate to. A lot of people understand what the ark and the grail are and the Nazis make great representation of evil forces trying to use these holy artifacts for their own power.
On the other hand, Western culture does not have a good grasp on the themes and culture presented in the 2nd movie. The idea of recoverying some sacred rock seems silly, but the idea of recovering a big box or a cup seems perfectly fine because we have a context for them. We have a context for Nazis, but not so much for cult-like rituals.
It is for this reason that I think most people just can't wrap their heads around the 2nd movie. Since we feel lost in an unfamiliar world, we start to dismiss it as silly.
I have had such a hard time trying to explain to my non-techie friends why the DMCA and all this copyright stuff is bad news for everyone. His few paragraphs on the Xbox did a great job of summarizing why all this locking, closed-boxed technology leads us down the wrong road. I have to remember this one for the future...
In terms of the classes you take, yeah maybe it won't do anything for you. However, if you college accepts the CS AP score for credit, then it's all worth it. Credit is credit no matter how you cut it so you can get a 5 on the CS AP test or have to take a 5-unit class on the evolution of the the paper clip your senior year of college while all your friends are out partying. Also, as far as college applications go, having an extra AP score with a 5 next to it always helps grease the wheels.
I'm not too sure that is entirely accurate. I think some video games are great tools in teaching people, especially children, how to analyze your environment, look at your available resources, and create a plan for moving forward. I know that when I was young, I played tons of Sierra "Quest" games that forced me to be creative, innovative, and look at a puzzle at different angles (not to mention it really helped my typing skills before they moved to a more point-and-click style). Sure, it's not the "real world" on the computer screen, but those skills do have real world uses.
I have never liked the argument that some parents give that in order to teach their children about technology you can't use games. They think that by sticking a child in front of a word processing or spreadsheet program that the child will get much more benefit than playing a good computer game. However, children are not interested in spreadsheets or word processing, but they are interested in games. Let them play games on the machine, let them get a feel for how a computer works, make them install the game themselves (that is how I learned DOS and OS basics), and basically let them explore the computer letting them do what they want to do, not what you hope they will do. Believe me, the word processing, spreadsheets, and programming languages will come in the future if the child doesn't have horrible memories of it being shoved down their throats (like piano lessons).
I saw a video of his demo in a UI class I took in college. The interesting thing about it was that he was using a one-handed keyboard. It essentially had piano-like keys that when pressed down in different patterns would produce different letters. It was quite cool since he could type without taking his hand off mouse (he looked like he was playing a FPS). I remember reading that he thought that the one-handed keyboard would have a much greater impact than the mouse ever would... oh well, it looks like you can lead the invention to water, but you can't make it drink
Now lets look at the media-center Lindows machine. Horrible DVD playback, only a single-channel audio output, and no video output. To me, this is nothing but a low-end desktop computer. Even the reviewer had to hook up a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to get it to work since it doesn't have a TV-out or a remote control interface. It doesn't have any recording features at all (no CD-R drive or TiVo-like functionality). So how is this a media-PC compared to my "non-media" PC?
Please don't tell me that "media center" will become another buzz-word to describe any computer that has a DVD player attached to it. If it is, then most of us have had media centers for quite a while.
Ron Howard: "So we're going to use smoke and cutaways right?"
ILM: "No, we aren't going to cutaway at all... we're going to see the transformations on screen. It will be all done on a computer."
Ron Howard: "I don't get it."
"Yeah"
"Can you drop my phone on my doorstep on your way?"
So what was your plan when you parents check up on you and notice that your phone is home (in the bushes somewhere I presume), but you are nowhere to be seen? Sure you could use some inventive lie, but now you have to lie about your whereabouts and why the phone was home before you were. Back in the good 'ole days you only had to make up a lie about the former. Just another case of technology making more work for you, not less.