Then there was the whole vulnerability factor. Halo 2 allowed you to charge into enemy fire taking masive hits one after the other with little or no effect on your life. This doesn't offer much appeal or challenge for me. It's almost like playing with a God cheat. I know some lamers get off on that type of play but, that really doesn't thrill me.
Play on Legendary. You have less life than your marine buddies and the enemies fire much more rapidly and more accurately. I guarantee the "charge into enemy fire" technique will get you killed very fast on this difficulty.
No offense. But it sounds like people are searching for things to dismiss this study. Um, yes, a Linux guy changed his mind after seeing the conclusions of the study. That means it's not a valid study?
When a study is contradictory to most peoples direct experience and observations they tend to be heavily skeptical. If a study was released saying the sky is really mauve, not blue, people are also going to be pretty dismissive. When was the last time you read about a Unix/Linux worm or virus on a nontechnical site like CNN? Or heard about it on the evening news? Ever heard these things about Windows? This isn't to say that the study is invalid, just that they better have a damn good case if they expect to convice anyone.
Because crop production depends heavily on fossil fuels (for tractors, transportation and fertilizers). It takes more fossil fuel energy to produce ethanol than you get back in energy from it. Ethanol is a big subsidy program for corn farmers, not an energy source.
Did you even read the link I gave? Silly question, your response proves you didn't. The net energy balance for current corn ethanol production is 1.34, which is positive, and the article says it can easily go higher. Of course, corn is not paricularly well suited to this, other crops have higher energy balances, and these will only increase as the industry matures and developes better techniques. Biodiesel also has much higher energy balances than bioethanol production as well. Your claim has not been true for a long time.
Of course, the real reason that these industries have not taken off is that it is still cheaper to produce petroleum based ethanol and diesel. Once oil costs really start to surge, expect a huge boom in these industries. In the meantime, electric cars and the hydrogen economy will still be the proverbial "15 years away."
I believe that one day we _will_ all be driving electrical cars because there simply isn't any oil left to burn.
And where will the electricity come from, all those clean burning coal plants we currently use? Besides, electric cars are crap. They have no range and take forever to recharge. Meanwhile, my current car goes 300 miles on one tank and takes about 5 minutes to refuel. Electric cars won't get any better either unless there is a breakthrough in battery technology, unlikely since there's really only so much you can do, the energy density just isn't there. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (maybe that's what you mean by electric) aren't much better, hydrogen storage is not an easy thing, there is no infrastructure in place, and you still have the problem of producing the hydrogen.
IMHO the best solution is biomass, either bioethanol or biodiesel. These are compatible with existing technologies (all Windows users know how important backwards compatibility is) and they can be used right now (no fantastic technological breakthroughs required). I don't understand why programs like this are not being pursued more aggressively.
Then run a different distribution. On Debian a new kernel is just an apt-get away, no compiling required (unless you need something special of course). I'm sure other distros are similar.
What exactly is the definition of a robot here? Why is a machine that washes your dishes an "appliance" while a machine that mows your lawn is a "robot"? How about washers/dryers (some even have advanced computer control)? What if you put a sophisticated computer in a toaster or a fridge? Where is the line drawn?
From a moral point of view: people who distribute copyrighted material are violating both the letter and spirit of the law, and deserve to be punished.
Who happen to be sharing copyrighted material, i.e. breaking the law.
At least in the US we have a delightful legal fiction called "innocent until proven guilty." Since none of the RIAA suits have gone to trial guilt has not been established, so the accused can still be considered innocent.
On a bit more realistic note, while YOU may be confident that the RIAA has made absolutely no mistakes in its acusations and would never accuse someone without proper fact checking others are not.
Provided you make sure that the initial hole is deep enough to be well under the water table, this form of disposal should be both cheap and entirely safe.
Do you really think that drilling a very deep hole almost to the mantle will be either cheap or safe?
It really amazes me that so many people claim ownership to someone elses work. This is and was His deal. George Lucas created it, made it, brought it to life. We are and were just along for the ride. Passengers on the train, if you will. You can always get on or off the train, but only the Engineer gets to drive, and none of us are the Engineer.
I disagree. I believe that you cannot own a creative work or idea once you release it to the public. How is it possible to own something so intangible anyway? For example, I can replay many scenes from Star Wars in my head right now. Does Lucas own the very thoughts in my head? What a truly frightening and ultimately ridiculous idea.
Even the law does not say that creators own their works. What they do own is a set of rights regarding those works, such as the right to distribute, make copies, and create derivative works. This is a subtle yet important distinction! Also, it is important to remember that these rights are temporary and will fully revert to the public eventually (for the sake of argument I am assuming that copyrights will eventually expire). So it could be argued that creators don't even own these rights, they are merely holding them in trust for the public.
Yet another point is that no one exists in a creative vacuum. Lucas used many sources as inspiration for the films, some of which he even outlined in the article. In addition, the movies were not made by one person. Many, many other people contributed to making Star Wars what it is (or was), attempting to assign total ownership to one man (as you are doing) is ludicrous. So enough of this bullshit that Lucas owns the works and he can do whatever he wants. Like any creative work, it now belongs to everyone and no one, Lucas's temporary privileges notwithstanding. Furthermore, Star Wars is now a part of our culture, just as the ancient mythology it is partly based of off was a part of the culture at the time. While I do not claim personal ownership of Star Was, I don't think Lucas can either.
And notice how the TCO issue is spun... "oh the real Linux TCO issue is versus Unix"...
This seems very disingenuous to me. On the one hand they say that Linux really isn't a threat to Microsoft, but if that was true, then why does this "Microsoft (anti-)Linux Strategist" even have a job?
On the contrary, it shows why the electoral college was established in the first place. It insures that smaller states like North Dakota and Alaska have a stake in deciding our national destiny, and keeps it from being steered entirely from California, Texas, and New York.
Out of curiosity, why do you feel that citizens in Alaska or North Dakota should have a greater say in who the president is then citizens in California or New York? Are some citizens "more equal" than others?
Aaarrrggghhh.....Why can't I program Lego with the keyboard.....
You can, check out brickOS or NQC. Of course, your school is probably trying to keep things simple for the non-programmers. High school is like that, the slow kids don't care about learning anyway, and the advanced people are bored out of their gourd.
Slashdot Mirror
Play on Legendary. You have less life than your marine buddies and the enemies fire much more rapidly and more accurately. I guarantee the "charge into enemy fire" technique will get you killed very fast on this difficulty.
When a study is contradictory to most peoples direct experience and observations they tend to be heavily skeptical. If a study was released saying the sky is really mauve, not blue, people are also going to be pretty dismissive. When was the last time you read about a Unix/Linux worm or virus on a nontechnical site like CNN? Or heard about it on the evening news? Ever heard these things about Windows? This isn't to say that the study is invalid, just that they better have a damn good case if they expect to convice anyone.
Did you even read the link I gave? Silly question, your response proves you didn't. The net energy balance for current corn ethanol production is 1.34, which is positive, and the article says it can easily go higher. Of course, corn is not paricularly well suited to this, other crops have higher energy balances, and these will only increase as the industry matures and developes better techniques. Biodiesel also has much higher energy balances than bioethanol production as well. Your claim has not been true for a long time.
Of course, the real reason that these industries have not taken off is that it is still cheaper to produce petroleum based ethanol and diesel. Once oil costs really start to surge, expect a huge boom in these industries. In the meantime, electric cars and the hydrogen economy will still be the proverbial "15 years away."
This is incorrect.
And where will the electricity come from, all those clean burning coal plants we currently use? Besides, electric cars are crap. They have no range and take forever to recharge. Meanwhile, my current car goes 300 miles on one tank and takes about 5 minutes to refuel. Electric cars won't get any better either unless there is a breakthrough in battery technology, unlikely since there's really only so much you can do, the energy density just isn't there. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (maybe that's what you mean by electric) aren't much better, hydrogen storage is not an easy thing, there is no infrastructure in place, and you still have the problem of producing the hydrogen.
IMHO the best solution is biomass, either bioethanol or biodiesel. These are compatible with existing technologies (all Windows users know how important backwards compatibility is) and they can be used right now (no fantastic technological breakthroughs required). I don't understand why programs like this are not being pursued more aggressively.
Then run a different distribution. On Debian a new kernel is just an apt-get away, no compiling required (unless you need something special of course). I'm sure other distros are similar.
What exactly is the definition of a robot here? Why is a machine that washes your dishes an "appliance" while a machine that mows your lawn is a "robot"? How about washers/dryers (some even have advanced computer control)? What if you put a sophisticated computer in a toaster or a fridge? Where is the line drawn?
Since when do laws equate to morals?
At least in the US we have a delightful legal fiction called "innocent until proven guilty." Since none of the RIAA suits have gone to trial guilt has not been established, so the accused can still be considered innocent.
On a bit more realistic note, while YOU may be confident that the RIAA has made absolutely no mistakes in its acusations and would never accuse someone without proper fact checking others are not.
You don't believe that the average layman cares about the difference between paying a fine vs serving jail time and having a crimnal record?
IT'S ILLEGAL AND THEY SHOULD BE PUNISHED!
Because all laws are fair, moral and just.
You are certainly correct. I'm sure there was never any violent acts directed towards Tories.
Format painter in Excel (and Word to a lesser extent). OOo's styles are much clunkier and do not do the same thing.
Do you really think that drilling a very deep hole almost to the mantle will be either cheap or safe?
I think you've just hit the nail on the head. Such apps are obviously now illegal in California.
Don't rent DVDs much do you?
Holy crap! Did you really just compare copyright infringement to mass murder? And I thought calling copyright infringement "theft" was bad enough.
I disagree. I believe that you cannot own a creative work or idea once you release it to the public. How is it possible to own something so intangible anyway? For example, I can replay many scenes from Star Wars in my head right now. Does Lucas own the very thoughts in my head? What a truly frightening and ultimately ridiculous idea.
Even the law does not say that creators own their works. What they do own is a set of rights regarding those works, such as the right to distribute, make copies, and create derivative works. This is a subtle yet important distinction! Also, it is important to remember that these rights are temporary and will fully revert to the public eventually (for the sake of argument I am assuming that copyrights will eventually expire). So it could be argued that creators don't even own these rights, they are merely holding them in trust for the public.
Yet another point is that no one exists in a creative vacuum. Lucas used many sources as inspiration for the films, some of which he even outlined in the article. In addition, the movies were not made by one person. Many, many other people contributed to making Star Wars what it is (or was), attempting to assign total ownership to one man (as you are doing) is ludicrous. So enough of this bullshit that Lucas owns the works and he can do whatever he wants. Like any creative work, it now belongs to everyone and no one, Lucas's temporary privileges notwithstanding. Furthermore, Star Wars is now a part of our culture, just as the ancient mythology it is partly based of off was a part of the culture at the time. While I do not claim personal ownership of Star Was, I don't think Lucas can either.
This seems very disingenuous to me. On the one hand they say that Linux really isn't a threat to Microsoft, but if that was true, then why does this "Microsoft (anti-)Linux Strategist" even have a job?
FUD and spin, FUD and spin.
FOSS == Free / Open Source Software. What's the "L" for in FLOSS? Are you just really keen on dental hygeine?
It's been done.
Out of curiosity, why do you feel that citizens in Alaska or North Dakota should have a greater say in who the president is then citizens in California or New York? Are some citizens "more equal" than others?
Relax, it was a joke.
The mind boggles.
KDE 3.3 is in Debian unstable. Who says Debian's release cycle is too slow ;).
You can, check out brickOS or NQC. Of course, your school is probably trying to keep things simple for the non-programmers. High school is like that, the slow kids don't care about learning anyway, and the advanced people are bored out of their gourd.