With closed proprietary software, you get your information from one person/company (with a vested interest in convincing you to buy their product), and you have limited information that can be used to verify their claims.
With open source, you get information from a community of users and developers. But more importantly, OSS source code is available to be looked at by anyone at any time - including you or a programmer that you trust. This alone strongly discourages behind-the-scenes trickery; it's too easy to get caught.
It's not about trusting a particular random person or group of people - it's about having the information to verify that software does what it claims to do.
Re:I pity the poor astronauts.
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Kimchi in Space
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· Score: 1
I never got up the nerve to try the larvae - next time, maybe.
Re:I pity the poor astronauts.
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Kimchi in Space
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· Score: 1
I'm a caucasian American who has been to Korea twice, and I love kimchi. And I don't recall fouling the air too badly, or at least nobody told me if I did. The smell and taste seem to vary, probably depending on how long it has fermented before you eat it. Kimchi isn't normally cooked, but I've eaten it grilled once and it didn't stink at all (though that kimchi was relatively mild to begin with).
If you RTFA, you'll find that the "space kimchi" has been irradiated to stop the fermentation process, and has been treated in some way to significantly reduce the smell. Those steps should produce a kimchi that is milder and potentially less offensive to the non-Koreans on board.
The US military uses a huge number of hard drives - c'mon, it's 2007, folks. For instance, many military vehicles contain onboard tactical systems which are just hardened PCs. No hard drives means no tactical systems, which would have a huge impact on battlefield effectiveness.
Maybe they're not weapons per se, but they are incredibly important tools used for day to day military operations.
Re:Why no mention?
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BioShock Review
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Game publishers that are in touch with reality understand that every type of copy protection can (and will) be cracked. Some will crack for the fun of it, some because they hate DRM, and some for profit motives - to sell bootlegs.
There is always someone out there with the skill and determination to crack a game. The goal of a reasonable publisher is not to prevent but to DELAY the crack. The theory is that the longer it takes the first cracked copy to reach BT/Usenet/P2P, the fewer sales will be lost to casual downloaders. This is especially important during the first few post-release weeks, which is when many games have the bulk of their total sales.
If you've got time, ability and determination, you will crack the game. I hope you're cracking a copy that you've purchased.
If you're determined to get a free copy of the game, you will wait until a crack is available, and no amount of cajoling, marketing, or DRM will make you buy a copy.
However, what about Joe Gamer, the guy who really wants to play the game and doesn't have the ability or desire to crack it himself? The longer he has to wait for a crack, the more likely he is to just pony up the money and buy a legit copy. This describes the large majority of gamers, and this is the group that copy protection is ultimately aimed at.
I'm not a big fan of DRM - it's a pain to work with, both as a user and as a developer, and it almost always puts burdensome, often anti-fair-use restrictions on what I can do with media that I have purchased/licensed/whatever. But these guys seem to be taking a moderately enlightened approach; lock down copying and number of installs at first, then relax the restrictions when the peak sales period is over. If this approach improves the commercial success of good games and lets developers keep making more, then I can live with it.
(And since the parent put this on record, I am also a computer scientist and a former professional game developer.)
I work for a DoD contractor and possess a security clearance. One of my coworkers lost a clearance based solely on filing for personal bankruptcy protection. It had nothing to do with a "pattern of abuse"; legitimate personal circumstances forced this person to make that decision.
Security clearances are denied or revoked based on risk to the government. Poor credit puts you in a high-risk group because (so the theory goes), you are more vulnerable to take money in exchange for classified information. And individual situations are rarely taken into account - if your credit report fits the profile for vulnerability, you don't get a clearance.
A credit report doesn't just affect your ability to get a loan. In some fields, bad credit (valid or not) can severely limit your employment options. Yet another reason to rebalance the laws in favor of the consumers.
These companies have a business model of selling printers close to cost, then making ridiculously high profit margins on ink refills. What motivation do they have to tell you that an ink cartridge is empty before it really is?
1) We actually do know quite a bit about what the brain does during REM sleep, and there are several theories on why REM sleep is necessary. But yes, these are theories and we don't know for certain which one, if any, is correct.
2) I was unable to find any scientific evidence or reported cases of permanent psychological damage or death due to sleep deprivation, except in the case of an exceedingly rare biological disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia. Of course, sleep deprivation can cause errors in judgment and reduced reaction time that can lead to death, but that wasn't what the parent meant.
3) The radio DJ the parent mentions was a guy named Peter Tripp. Yes, he did a publicity stunt where he stayed awake for about 10 days and hallucinated. However, he lost his job because he was caught accepting thousands of dollars in payola from the record companies. He more likely "faded into obscurity" because of the scandal. Shortly afterwards he got out of the radio business and into other careers where he was more successful.
This doesn't mean I disagree - I think drug-induced sleep deprivation has the potential for serious side effects and needs a heck of a lot more study before we all start taking our morning Modafinil. However, don't support a good argument with bad data.
(Most of this info comes from Wikipedia - see Sleep Deprivation, Peter Tripp, and Fatal Familial Insomnia. All three entries appear to be well-referenced, feel free to spend an afternoon checking it out.)
If you talk to an amateur astronomer (like me), he'll tell you that we humans actually have decent, but not great, night vision. There are two problems, though. First, it takes time to acquire. A minimum of 20-30 minutes in very low light is generally needed for good dark adaptation - for some folks it can take as long as an hour. Also, any relatively bright light, even a brief flash, will break down the accumulated rhodopsin in your retinas, destroying your dark adaptation and forcing you to start over. We use red flashlights because the red wavelengths don't break down rhodopsin as readily, and we also throw large, sharp objects at folks who shine white flashlights during a star party.
But once you're dark adapted, you can see well enough to walk around and do quite a lot in conditions that a non-dark adapted person would consider "pitch black". Could you see a black cat sitting still on a black background? Maybe, maybe not. But could you see well enough to run away from a large predator at night without stumbling into a tree? Most likely yes.
Maybe a little OT, but sometimes a $100 pair of shoes is better than a $20 pair. Years of buying my sneakers at Payless contributed to my development of plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the connective tissues along the bottom of the foot). I made an informed choice to start wearing New Balance, because a) the quality is significantly higher, b) they come in a variety of styles to accommodate different feet, and c) the large majority of them are manufactured in the U.S., not by cheap overseas child labor.
The point I'm trying to make is that there is a difference between spending more money to buy a fashionable name and spending more money to buy higher quality and/or support a company whose business model you like. There are a lot of ways to spend your disposable income, folks. Do a little research, find a company whose products you like and whose business model is reputable, and give them your money. Survival of the fittest ensues.
(And for the record, I'm Best Buy-free for about 4 years now because of their business model. I also don't own a PS2 and will not buy a PS3 largely because of the same issues with Sony Entertainment. It hasn't hurt either company, but it makes me feel good.)
As an Army contractor myself, I've seen a wide quality range in contractors and government employees. In both cases, I've worked with high-quality folks as well as leeches who do the absolute minimum they can get away with while sucking every dollar they can get out of their program. The one difference is that the high-quality government employees often get seduced into becoming contractors. The pay and benefits are better, and the increased risk of being fired/laid off is not a big deal to the good people; they will always be in demand, and another project or company will take them if the current one dries up.
Re:Still can't beat the japanese
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Tree Climbing Robot
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Actually, I *would* call a ballroom dancing robot technologically impressive. It is very difficult to accurately mimic human physiology and movement in a robot. We consider walking on two legs to be simple (and for most people it is), but it is very challenging to develop robust bipedal movement in an artificial system, either real-world or simulated.
The difference between a bomb-disarming robot and a ballroom dancing robot is that the former is focused on practicality, while the latter is focused on showcasing innovative technology in a non-practical (and arguably whimsical) manner.
One thing you forgot to mention...don't rent from U-Haul, ever.
I have also had repeated lousy experiences with them. There is a good chance you will not get your truck/trailer when or where you want it, don't let a silly little thing like a reservation convince you otherwise. I've never had a problem with a trailer, but the quality of the trucks is consistently dismal, especially if you get them from third-party agents ("Joe's Heavy Equipment Rental, Sandwich Shop and U-Haul") as opposed to a U-Haul company store.
I drove a U-Haul from Des Moines to San Francisco a few years ago. Imagine driving I-80 through the mountains of Nevada and eastern California at 30 mph. Fun, fun, fun.
Every single time I rent from U-Haul, I say I will never ever do it again. Then, the next time I need a truck or a trailer, they are the only ones who have what I need. If Penske or other competitors have availability, the cost is usually 3-4 times that of U-Haul. I once got a quote on a one-way rental from Penske, and found that a pack-it-yourself transport service (I think it was ABF) was cheaper! And this didn't include the significant travel expenses like gasoline, hotels and food.
U-Haul's biggest problem is simply that they have no competition. Surprisingly, their prices are reasonable. They make up for this by providing shoddy equipment and abysmal service. Someone with enough money to buy a small fleet and do truck rental the right way could drive U-Haul out of business in a matter of months.
It's just that game publishers can no longer push out "Successful Game XII - the Crappy Sequel" and expect gamers to buy it.
Times are tight for many people, including gamers, and we are more discriminating with our money. When you consider that many outstanding game titles get little or no marketing (two of my favorite examples are Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil for the XBOX) while the tired sequels get the lion's share of advertising dollars, it's not surprising that gamers are spending less.
My general impression in the GBA market is that they have a solid install base, a wider variety of titles, development costs are lower, and retail pricing is lower. These factors may explain why there has been a strong upswing in GBA game sales while console & PC gaming seems rather lackluster.
But since they did advertise it, they had a moral obligation to provide it as long as it was physically possible to do so.
By and large, most companies don't care about moral obligations unless they affect the bottom line. But because of their advertising, they had a legal obligation to sell the system at the advertised price - this was a CYA move on the part of Best Buy, nothing more.
Unfortunatly the reality is 'hates crimes' laws are a product of the modern 'civil rights' movement and just as much of a sham of doublespeak and deceit hatched by Democrats.
So rather than having federal civil rights legislation, you would have us go back to a time when non-whites were intimidated or ignored, had to use separate bathrooms and water fountains, and could be prevented from attending a white school by National Guard troops? If we didn't have this movement and the legislation that grew from it (most importantly the Civil Rights Act of 1964) how far do you think we would have moved from those times?
Secondly, Democrats in the late 50's and early 60's were extremely divided over civil rights legislation. Many Democratic senators from southern states were strongly opposed to it, and even Eisenhower and LBJ weakened the first attempt (the Civil Rights act of 1957) to the point that it was practically useless.
First off I don't think I'm saying anything controversial when I say that those on the books already are applied in a totally bigoted fashion and will only get worse as more are passed
I don't think it's controversial so much as plain false. Can you back this up with some factual data? The FBI 2004 Hate Crime Statistics indicate that about 63% of reported hate crimes with known offenders are committed by whites. Does this mean that hate crime laws are applied disproportionately against whites, or simply that more whites are committing hate crimes? Back up your assertion that the laws are applied in a "bigoted fashion".
Anyone who has watched the antics of the left over the last fifty years knows it is only an intermediate step along the way to their goal of crimethink laws, i.e. making it against the law to disagree with Democrats. It is an old joke that a 'bigot' is someone winning an argument with a liberal. They have realized that just hurling 'bigot' at an opponent isn't enough to win an argument anymore so now they would rather simply jail the opposition like all their heros did. (Stalin, Castro, Mao, etc.)
Anyone who has watched the antics of the Bush Administration over the past five years would think twice about making this statement. Try to get into a Bush "town meeting" if you're a registered Democrat. Try to get federal funding for scientific research that contradicts Bush's theological views. Try to stay out of jail for telling your patrons at the library that the government was snooping through your records. Try to keep from being blacklisted by Karl Rove if you are a Republican that doesn't toe the party line on the warrantless wiretaps issue.
Try to tell Mr. Bush that you are neither with him nor with the terrorists and see what he says.
The Music Man is a perfect example of what's going on here. The crooked salesman (insert your favorite politician or zealous anti-game lawyer here) creates a problem where none exists, solely for the purpose of selling his wares to a bunch of unsuspecting dupes. Of course, unlike Harold Hill, the anti-game zealots will never see that the real problem is bad parenting, not violent games.
For the record, I'm a mid-30s father of two who grew up playing video games, and my two year old has already started. The games that we play (e.g. Winnie the Pooh, Reader Rabbit) are great tools that help her learn and allow us to spend quality time together. We have a firm rule in our home that the kid-unfriendly games like Halo 2 stay in the box until after bedtime.
No problem with the pool table here, Professor Hill. Go talk to the folk in the next town.
Slightly OT point of information - Nixon resigned before they had the chance to impeach him.
That said, it seems that "right" and "left" exist in American politics only to take advantage of that "emotional response" you mention - their meanings are always shifting around.
The behavior of most American politicians today seems to be consistent though - do what you want, try not to get caught, and play on the automatic emotional responses of your base to get yourself (re)elected and make the other guys look bad. The Republicans did this better than the Democrats in 2004, and that was key to the reelection of GWB.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program, says: "It's going to result in everyone, from the 7-Eleven store to the bank and airlines, demanding to see the ID card. They're going to scan it in. They're going to have all the data on it from the front of the card...It's going to be not just a national ID card but a national database."
If the government wants to hunt you down for some reason, they can do it. That's not my fear. I am more afraid of giving up my SSN and other personal data to buy a six-pack, get into a movie, etc. etc. As it is, I have gotten in numerous arguments with doctor's offices who require an SSN on their patient info sheets. When I ask why they need it, the usual answer is "Well, that's our policy." That's not good enough for me.
Currently, I have control over this information. I don't object to showing my ID, for example, to buy beer (even though I passed 21 a long long time ago). A visual check of my birthdate is harmless. However, with a standardized card, businesses will begin scanning your ID "to verify that it is not a fake." And of course, every bit of information they can access will be collected. That takes the control away from me, and that is why I object to this system. There is great potential for the abuse of this type of information, and the more people who have access to it, the higher the chances are that it will be abused.
We see card swipers that are used to copy credit cards all the time today. How long will it be before similar technology is available to criminals who want to scan your RealID (especially if they use RFID)? I believe that within a few months of implementation, we will see the first identity theft cases where criminals got their info from RealID.
Alexey Pajitnov is part owner of The Tetris Company, which handles the licensing for all official Tetris products (though they obviously don't see a dime for the unlicensed clones out there).
You'd be surprised at how much TTC makes in Tetris licensing - several million a year. There are scads of handheld games, games that plug into the TV, cell phone versions, and the PC/console versions. Tetris is still making a LOT of money for Henk Rogers and Alexey is getting his share of it too.
Liberals don't hate this at all. As a Bush-loathing Democrat and a parent, I fully support the labelling of explicit music, the movie ratings system, and the ESRB ratings on video games. These systems protect an adult's right to watch porn, listen to profanity-laden rap, and play violent video games. They also give parents and retailers a yardstick to help determine what is appropriate for children. If I decide it's okay for my kid to see an R movie or play a Mature-rated game, that's MY decision, not the government's.
Don't confuse ratings systems with censorship, to which I am strongly opposed.
I'll second that. I live in Orlando Florida and make a very nice living as a 40-hour-a-week programmer/technical lead. I work on military simulation projects for the Department of Defense, and many of them require me to have a security clearance.
The good: My company values its employees, deathmarches are rare, there is no danger that my work will be outsourced to India or Russia, salary and benefits are fantastic, and the work can be technically challenging.
The bad: The work isn't always technically challenging, you have to play The Game (but then, where don't you?), and eventually you will reach a point where you must take on some management responsibilities. However, if you work it correctly, you can rise as a technical lead, software architect, or some other position which is mostly technical with only a dash of paper-shuffling required.
I used to be a game developer. The work was incredibly fun, but the hours were backbreaking and the paychecks were irregular, if they came at all. As a mid-30s programmer with a wife, two kids, a mortgage and a car payment to worry about, I am willing to take some less exciting work in exchange for a company that treats me like a human being, pays me every two weeks without fail, and will gladly employ me until retirement if I so choose.
I used to work as a game developer, now I'm in Orlando working on simulation tools for a DoD contractor. Every once in a while, I get a notion to apply at EA Tiburon. I really loved making games.
Then I think about the 50% pay cut and the 30-50 additional hours per week that I would spend at my desk instead of with my wife and kids, and making games just doesn't sound that much fun anymore. Of course, I'm in my mid-30s now, so I doubt EA would even look at my resume twice.
Slashdot Mirror
Again, having ****@gmail.com helps weed-out those with unreasonable expectations who might be more headache than they are worth.
I have a funny feeling that you'll be getting a lot more "business offers" in the very near future.
To expand on the parent's argument:
With closed proprietary software, you get your information from one person/company (with a vested interest in convincing you to buy their product), and you have limited information that can be used to verify their claims.
With open source, you get information from a community of users and developers. But more importantly, OSS source code is available to be looked at by anyone at any time - including you or a programmer that you trust. This alone strongly discourages behind-the-scenes trickery; it's too easy to get caught.
It's not about trusting a particular random person or group of people - it's about having the information to verify that software does what it claims to do.
I never got up the nerve to try the larvae - next time, maybe.
I'm a caucasian American who has been to Korea twice, and I love kimchi. And I don't recall fouling the air too badly, or at least nobody told me if I did. The smell and taste seem to vary, probably depending on how long it has fermented before you eat it. Kimchi isn't normally cooked, but I've eaten it grilled once and it didn't stink at all (though that kimchi was relatively mild to begin with).
If you RTFA, you'll find that the "space kimchi" has been irradiated to stop the fermentation process, and has been treated in some way to significantly reduce the smell. Those steps should produce a kimchi that is milder and potentially less offensive to the non-Koreans on board.
The US military uses a huge number of hard drives - c'mon, it's 2007, folks. For instance, many military vehicles contain onboard tactical systems which are just hardened PCs. No hard drives means no tactical systems, which would have a huge impact on battlefield effectiveness.
Maybe they're not weapons per se, but they are incredibly important tools used for day to day military operations.
Game publishers that are in touch with reality understand that every type of copy protection can (and will) be cracked. Some will crack for the fun of it, some because they hate DRM, and some for profit motives - to sell bootlegs.
There is always someone out there with the skill and determination to crack a game. The goal of a reasonable publisher is not to prevent but to DELAY the crack. The theory is that the longer it takes the first cracked copy to reach BT/Usenet/P2P, the fewer sales will be lost to casual downloaders. This is especially important during the first few post-release weeks, which is when many games have the bulk of their total sales.
If you've got time, ability and determination, you will crack the game. I hope you're cracking a copy that you've purchased.
If you're determined to get a free copy of the game, you will wait until a crack is available, and no amount of cajoling, marketing, or DRM will make you buy a copy.
However, what about Joe Gamer, the guy who really wants to play the game and doesn't have the ability or desire to crack it himself? The longer he has to wait for a crack, the more likely he is to just pony up the money and buy a legit copy. This describes the large majority of gamers, and this is the group that copy protection is ultimately aimed at.
I'm not a big fan of DRM - it's a pain to work with, both as a user and as a developer, and it almost always puts burdensome, often anti-fair-use restrictions on what I can do with media that I have purchased/licensed/whatever. But these guys seem to be taking a moderately enlightened approach; lock down copying and number of installs at first, then relax the restrictions when the peak sales period is over. If this approach improves the commercial success of good games and lets developers keep making more, then I can live with it.
(And since the parent put this on record, I am also a computer scientist and a former professional game developer.)
Incorrect.
I work for a DoD contractor and possess a security clearance. One of my coworkers lost a clearance based solely on filing for personal bankruptcy protection. It had nothing to do with a "pattern of abuse"; legitimate personal circumstances forced this person to make that decision.
Security clearances are denied or revoked based on risk to the government. Poor credit puts you in a high-risk group because (so the theory goes), you are more vulnerable to take money in exchange for classified information. And individual situations are rarely taken into account - if your credit report fits the profile for vulnerability, you don't get a clearance.
A credit report doesn't just affect your ability to get a loan. In some fields, bad credit (valid or not) can severely limit your employment options. Yet another reason to rebalance the laws in favor of the consumers.
These companies have a business model of selling printers close to cost, then making ridiculously high profit margins on ink refills. What motivation do they have to tell you that an ink cartridge is empty before it really is?
Oh, yeah...
1) We actually do know quite a bit about what the brain does during REM sleep, and there are several theories on why REM sleep is necessary. But yes, these are theories and we don't know for certain which one, if any, is correct.
2) I was unable to find any scientific evidence or reported cases of permanent psychological damage or death due to sleep deprivation, except in the case of an exceedingly rare biological disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia. Of course, sleep deprivation can cause errors in judgment and reduced reaction time that can lead to death, but that wasn't what the parent meant.
3) The radio DJ the parent mentions was a guy named Peter Tripp. Yes, he did a publicity stunt where he stayed awake for about 10 days and hallucinated. However, he lost his job because he was caught accepting thousands of dollars in payola from the record companies. He more likely "faded into obscurity" because of the scandal. Shortly afterwards he got out of the radio business and into other careers where he was more successful.
This doesn't mean I disagree - I think drug-induced sleep deprivation has the potential for serious side effects and needs a heck of a lot more study before we all start taking our morning Modafinil. However, don't support a good argument with bad data. (Most of this info comes from Wikipedia - see Sleep Deprivation, Peter Tripp, and Fatal Familial Insomnia. All three entries appear to be well-referenced, feel free to spend an afternoon checking it out.)
If you talk to an amateur astronomer (like me), he'll tell you that we humans actually have decent, but not great, night vision. There are two problems, though. First, it takes time to acquire. A minimum of 20-30 minutes in very low light is generally needed for good dark adaptation - for some folks it can take as long as an hour. Also, any relatively bright light, even a brief flash, will break down the accumulated rhodopsin in your retinas, destroying your dark adaptation and forcing you to start over. We use red flashlights because the red wavelengths don't break down rhodopsin as readily, and we also throw large, sharp objects at folks who shine white flashlights during a star party.
But once you're dark adapted, you can see well enough to walk around and do quite a lot in conditions that a non-dark adapted person would consider "pitch black". Could you see a black cat sitting still on a black background? Maybe, maybe not. But could you see well enough to run away from a large predator at night without stumbling into a tree? Most likely yes.
The point I'm trying to make is that there is a difference between spending more money to buy a fashionable name and spending more money to buy higher quality and/or support a company whose business model you like. There are a lot of ways to spend your disposable income, folks. Do a little research, find a company whose products you like and whose business model is reputable, and give them your money. Survival of the fittest ensues.
(And for the record, I'm Best Buy-free for about 4 years now because of their business model. I also don't own a PS2 and will not buy a PS3 largely because of the same issues with Sony Entertainment. It hasn't hurt either company, but it makes me feel good.)
Thanks for the chuckle, I haven't heard Dr. Science in years.
The difference between a bomb-disarming robot and a ballroom dancing robot is that the former is focused on practicality, while the latter is focused on showcasing innovative technology in a non-practical (and arguably whimsical) manner.
I have also had repeated lousy experiences with them. There is a good chance you will not get your truck/trailer when or where you want it, don't let a silly little thing like a reservation convince you otherwise. I've never had a problem with a trailer, but the quality of the trucks is consistently dismal, especially if you get them from third-party agents ("Joe's Heavy Equipment Rental, Sandwich Shop and U-Haul") as opposed to a U-Haul company store.
I drove a U-Haul from Des Moines to San Francisco a few years ago. Imagine driving I-80 through the mountains of Nevada and eastern California at 30 mph. Fun, fun, fun.
Every single time I rent from U-Haul, I say I will never ever do it again. Then, the next time I need a truck or a trailer, they are the only ones who have what I need. If Penske or other competitors have availability, the cost is usually 3-4 times that of U-Haul. I once got a quote on a one-way rental from Penske, and found that a pack-it-yourself transport service (I think it was ABF) was cheaper! And this didn't include the significant travel expenses like gasoline, hotels and food.
U-Haul's biggest problem is simply that they have no competition. Surprisingly, their prices are reasonable. They make up for this by providing shoddy equipment and abysmal service. Someone with enough money to buy a small fleet and do truck rental the right way could drive U-Haul out of business in a matter of months.
Times are tight for many people, including gamers, and we are more discriminating with our money. When you consider that many outstanding game titles get little or no marketing (two of my favorite examples are Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil for the XBOX) while the tired sequels get the lion's share of advertising dollars, it's not surprising that gamers are spending less.
My general impression in the GBA market is that they have a solid install base, a wider variety of titles, development costs are lower, and retail pricing is lower. These factors may explain why there has been a strong upswing in GBA game sales while console & PC gaming seems rather lackluster.
Secondly, Democrats in the late 50's and early 60's were extremely divided over civil rights legislation. Many Democratic senators from southern states were strongly opposed to it, and even Eisenhower and LBJ weakened the first attempt (the Civil Rights act of 1957) to the point that it was practically useless.
I don't think it's controversial so much as plain false. Can you back this up with some factual data? The FBI 2004 Hate Crime Statistics indicate that about 63% of reported hate crimes with known offenders are committed by whites. Does this mean that hate crime laws are applied disproportionately against whites, or simply that more whites are committing hate crimes? Back up your assertion that the laws are applied in a "bigoted fashion". Anyone who has watched the antics of the Bush Administration over the past five years would think twice about making this statement. Try to get into a Bush "town meeting" if you're a registered Democrat. Try to get federal funding for scientific research that contradicts Bush's theological views. Try to stay out of jail for telling your patrons at the library that the government was snooping through your records. Try to keep from being blacklisted by Karl Rove if you are a Republican that doesn't toe the party line on the warrantless wiretaps issue.Try to tell Mr. Bush that you are neither with him nor with the terrorists and see what he says.
The Music Man is a perfect example of what's going on here. The crooked salesman (insert your favorite politician or zealous anti-game lawyer here) creates a problem where none exists, solely for the purpose of selling his wares to a bunch of unsuspecting dupes. Of course, unlike Harold Hill, the anti-game zealots will never see that the real problem is bad parenting, not violent games.
For the record, I'm a mid-30s father of two who grew up playing video games, and my two year old has already started. The games that we play (e.g. Winnie the Pooh, Reader Rabbit) are great tools that help her learn and allow us to spend quality time together. We have a firm rule in our home that the kid-unfriendly games like Halo 2 stay in the box until after bedtime.
No problem with the pool table here, Professor Hill. Go talk to the folk in the next town.
That said, it seems that "right" and "left" exist in American politics only to take advantage of that "emotional response" you mention - their meanings are always shifting around.
The behavior of most American politicians today seems to be consistent though - do what you want, try not to get caught, and play on the automatic emotional responses of your base to get yourself (re)elected and make the other guys look bad. The Republicans did this better than the Democrats in 2004, and that was key to the reelection of GWB.
Currently, I have control over this information. I don't object to showing my ID, for example, to buy beer (even though I passed 21 a long long time ago). A visual check of my birthdate is harmless. However, with a standardized card, businesses will begin scanning your ID "to verify that it is not a fake." And of course, every bit of information they can access will be collected. That takes the control away from me, and that is why I object to this system. There is great potential for the abuse of this type of information, and the more people who have access to it, the higher the chances are that it will be abused.
We see card swipers that are used to copy credit cards all the time today. How long will it be before similar technology is available to criminals who want to scan your RealID (especially if they use RFID)? I believe that within a few months of implementation, we will see the first identity theft cases where criminals got their info from RealID.
You'd be surprised at how much TTC makes in Tetris licensing - several million a year. There are scads of handheld games, games that plug into the TV, cell phone versions, and the PC/console versions. Tetris is still making a LOT of money for Henk Rogers and Alexey is getting his share of it too.
Don't confuse ratings systems with censorship, to which I am strongly opposed.
The good: My company values its employees, deathmarches are rare, there is no danger that my work will be outsourced to India or Russia, salary and benefits are fantastic, and the work can be technically challenging.
The bad: The work isn't always technically challenging, you have to play The Game (but then, where don't you?), and eventually you will reach a point where you must take on some management responsibilities. However, if you work it correctly, you can rise as a technical lead, software architect, or some other position which is mostly technical with only a dash of paper-shuffling required.
I used to be a game developer. The work was incredibly fun, but the hours were backbreaking and the paychecks were irregular, if they came at all. As a mid-30s programmer with a wife, two kids, a mortgage and a car payment to worry about, I am willing to take some less exciting work in exchange for a company that treats me like a human being, pays me every two weeks without fail, and will gladly employ me until retirement if I so choose.
Then I think about the 50% pay cut and the 30-50 additional hours per week that I would spend at my desk instead of with my wife and kids, and making games just doesn't sound that much fun anymore. Of course, I'm in my mid-30s now, so I doubt EA would even look at my resume twice.