Yes, it fucking is. Granted, it is 100% the responsibility of the gaming industry to provide information (e.g. ratings) about the content of their games. But it is the parents' responsibility to make decisions for their own children based on that information. Parents are not being deceived here; each game has a recommended age printed on it, along with a laundry list of potentially offensive topics or images that appear in the game.
Any parent who buys Grand Theft Auto for their child (you don't even need ratings - read the title!!!) is a either a goddamn psychopath, or woefully ignorant. Either way, it's their fault for accepting or ignoring the consequences.
What I don't understand is why extinction is a bad thing. Species are eliminated because they're not quite as suited to survive in their ecosystem as others are. So? Why should we interfere with natural selection? Why do we get all emotional because an animal ill-equipped to deal with recent circumstances dies (evolutionarily speaking) off?
The difficulty with GA is defining the all the genes within that genome. Take chess. How many dimensions are there to a player? Aggressiveness, opening moves, favored pieces, spontaneity... I don't even know what else, since I'm terrible at chess.
Point is, yeah, genetic algorithms are fantastic, but only with problems that are easily definable.
Conclusions will be challenged and repudiated, but then those counter-claims could be challenged and repudiated, and THOSE could be challenged, and so on, and the general public will lose interest and/or side with whichever conclusion they're predisposed to accept. The scientific method is swell and it would be perfect if it were utilized by cold, objective automatons. But it's used by emotional, flawed, biased individuals, so it's not like it exists on some higher plane of existence than politics.
Science *should* be objective, but then again, so should journalism.
Except that the whole *point* of DRM is to be in the way.
In general, no, it's not. The point of DRM is to get in the way when someone tries to do something they don't have the right to do - ideally, anyway. The devil is in the details, obviously. But just because someone hasn't created the perfect DRM yet doesn't mean the whole idea is evil.
I think you're kind of comparing apples to oranges here. The overwhelming majority of people have a good foundation of attitudes and values that lead them to the conclusion that violence (at least, unprovoked and wanton) is wrong, and that foundation is not easily shaken - it would probably take a good deal of brainwashing or brain chemistry alteration to change something like that. However, a person's philosophical/political beliefs are much more malleable, and based on several assumptions and past experiences, any of which may be easily overridden by a new experience or thought which appears more reasonable to the individual.
As an example, I know it's wrong to go around punching people. No matter how many times you show me a guy punching random people, it's not really going to change my opinion on the subject, because I am quite certain that punching people hurts them, and I know that if I hurt someone, oftentimes they will hurt me back, and I'm pretty sure I don't like being hurt. However, my beliefs on, say, abortion are much less absolute. I've never gotten an abortion, or given one, or known anyone who has had or given one, nor have I been aborted, so my beliefs are based on stuff I've read, seen, discussed with others, etc. Those experiences are much more subject to change.
Agreed. Not only were they not funny, they were terrible advertising. Budweiser tells me their beer tastes good. Kleenex tells me their tissue is soft. What the fuck is Firefox trying to say? Web browsing is exciting?
Never had a battery problem, but then I haven't used it a ton. There's no good car radio player that I know of for the Nomads, besides a regular tape- or radio-to-headphone adapter. Doesn't have a radio either. I will agree, it sounds great when the headphone jack works and has good EAX options (reverb and EQ and stuff), but again I've never used an iPod so I'm not sure how that compares.
I have a Zen Xtra, and it's a piece of crap. I bought it because it was cheaper than an iPod for the storage (30 gigs for $270 about a year ago). Problems include:
- The headphone jack is screwed up. Occasionally I'll only hear out of one ear (it's not the headphones, I've tried several pairs). The Zen Xtra is notorious for having headphone jack problems. - You need to install drivers and a Windows Explorer extension before you can move files to and from the thing. Why can't it just be a plain USB mass storage device? What about plug and play? - Controls: That stupid scroll wheel/button is a terribly stupid idea. I've gotten used to it, but it's really clumsy to use. - Interface: the lag between pushing a button and its effect is at least half a second, more if a song is playing. It's really irritating to be scrolling through a huge list of artists and stopping when I see the one I want, only to have it keep scrolling another 20 names because it didn't notice that I stopped holding the control down. - The battery cover does not attach snugly. There's about a millimeter gap between the cover and the unit that I can push closed, but it just snaps back out. It's been like that since day one.
I've never used an iPod, so this isn't meant to be a comparison between the two. The Zen Xtra is just plain crap.
Now Avenue Media is crying foul and have filed a lawsuit against DirectRevenue stating that DirectRevenue 'knowingly and with intent to defraud, exceeded its authorized access to users' computers.'
The whole idea behind a representative gov't is that those who are sent should vote the way those that they represent would.
Then what's the point of having representatives? If all they are is a voting proxy, they could just be replaced by a computer, or a bunch of interns with clipboards. Besides, we citizens don't have time to make informed decisions on every single bill that goes through Congress, so we elect people to make those decisions for us. The idea, at least in my mind, is that we elect someone who we believe has the same values and sensibilities as ourselves and would make roughly the same decisions we would given access to the same information. We elect someone we trust to see the bigger picture that we average joes may not be aware of or have the time to care about, and vote according to our best interests.
I would much rather that my congressman/woman actually found out how I (and those around me) feel about the issues...instead of assuming that we support the party line just because they got elected.
That's exactly what getting elected means! They tell you what their stance is on the issues, and you elect them based off of that. If their stance is along party lines, why are you suprised when they vote along them?
It means sex. No seriously, I read a poem with that image in it in high school, and the explanation was something like it's a wheelbarrow on a farm, and since it's raining, there's no work for the farmer and his wife to do but make babies.
Reminds me of an article I found right here at MSN Money, which talks about a new study released by the ITAA that finds that outsourcing will eventually create jobs. The article also talks about how many companies who've outsourced are bringing their work back to the States, such as Dell.
Anybody can disagree with me if they like, but this kind of shit isn't a stretch.
Yes, it is. You just made up some scenario, and passed it off as likely. Your imagination of an event has no bearing on its actual probability of occurring. I'd like to say something like "the plural of anecdote is not data," but this isn't even an anecdote - it's fabricated to suit your agenda. It's propaganda.
Is this a joke? A cross-eyed seagull with crazy hair, wearing a scarf, making the OK sign, and holding a happy red fish. How can anyone take this seriously?
Or you can take a screenshot of just the desktop, set it as the background, and then turn the desktop icons off by right-clicking the desktop and unchecking Arrange Icons By -> Show Desktop Icons (at least in Windows XP, dunno about others...). My roommate got me with that one, since I didn't even consider that there was such a "feature" in Windows.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, it fucking is. Granted, it is 100% the responsibility of the gaming industry to provide information (e.g. ratings) about the content of their games. But it is the parents' responsibility to make decisions for their own children based on that information. Parents are not being deceived here; each game has a recommended age printed on it, along with a laundry list of potentially offensive topics or images that appear in the game.
Any parent who buys Grand Theft Auto for their child (you don't even need ratings - read the title!!!) is a either a goddamn psychopath, or woefully ignorant. Either way, it's their fault for accepting or ignoring the consequences.
Man, I don't think I'll ever get used to the metric system.
What I don't understand is why extinction is a bad thing. Species are eliminated because they're not quite as suited to survive in their ecosystem as others are. So? Why should we interfere with natural selection? Why do we get all emotional because an animal ill-equipped to deal with recent circumstances dies (evolutionarily speaking) off?
That's why mutations are introduced.
Point is, yeah, genetic algorithms are fantastic, but only with problems that are easily definable.
So it's not a civil liberty to deprive oneself of civil liberties if one should choose to do so?
Science *should* be objective, but then again, so should journalism.
In general, no, it's not. The point of DRM is to get in the way when someone tries to do something they don't have the right to do - ideally, anyway. The devil is in the details, obviously. But just because someone hasn't created the perfect DRM yet doesn't mean the whole idea is evil.
As an example, I know it's wrong to go around punching people. No matter how many times you show me a guy punching random people, it's not really going to change my opinion on the subject, because I am quite certain that punching people hurts them, and I know that if I hurt someone, oftentimes they will hurt me back, and I'm pretty sure I don't like being hurt. However, my beliefs on, say, abortion are much less absolute. I've never gotten an abortion, or given one, or known anyone who has had or given one, nor have I been aborted, so my beliefs are based on stuff I've read, seen, discussed with others, etc. Those experiences are much more subject to change.
Agreed. Not only were they not funny, they were terrible advertising. Budweiser tells me their beer tastes good. Kleenex tells me their tissue is soft. What the fuck is Firefox trying to say? Web browsing is exciting?
If someone parks in your driveway, you're denied use of that spot on the driveway. According to you, that's theft.
Never had a battery problem, but then I haven't used it a ton. There's no good car radio player that I know of for the Nomads, besides a regular tape- or radio-to-headphone adapter. Doesn't have a radio either. I will agree, it sounds great when the headphone jack works and has good EAX options (reverb and EQ and stuff), but again I've never used an iPod so I'm not sure how that compares.
I have a Zen Xtra, and it's a piece of crap. I bought it because it was cheaper than an iPod for the storage (30 gigs for $270 about a year ago). Problems include:
- The headphone jack is screwed up. Occasionally I'll only hear out of one ear (it's not the headphones, I've tried several pairs). The Zen Xtra is notorious for having headphone jack problems.
- You need to install drivers and a Windows Explorer extension before you can move files to and from the thing. Why can't it just be a plain USB mass storage device? What about plug and play?
- Controls: That stupid scroll wheel/button is a terribly stupid idea. I've gotten used to it, but it's really clumsy to use.
- Interface: the lag between pushing a button and its effect is at least half a second, more if a song is playing. It's really irritating to be scrolling through a huge list of artists and stopping when I see the one I want, only to have it keep scrolling another 20 names because it didn't notice that I stopped holding the control down.
- The battery cover does not attach snugly. There's about a millimeter gap between the cover and the unit that I can push closed, but it just snaps back out. It's been like that since day one.
I've never used an iPod, so this isn't meant to be a comparison between the two. The Zen Xtra is just plain crap.
Really. You don't say. I was not aware. I did not know that that was not a word. Really.
*brain asplodes from irony*
Why do you hate Macs?
Then what's the point of having representatives? If all they are is a voting proxy, they could just be replaced by a computer, or a bunch of interns with clipboards. Besides, we citizens don't have time to make informed decisions on every single bill that goes through Congress, so we elect people to make those decisions for us. The idea, at least in my mind, is that we elect someone who we believe has the same values and sensibilities as ourselves and would make roughly the same decisions we would given access to the same information. We elect someone we trust to see the bigger picture that we average joes may not be aware of or have the time to care about, and vote according to our best interests.
I would much rather that my congressman/woman actually found out how I (and those around me) feel about the issues...instead of assuming that we support the party line just because they got elected.
That's exactly what getting elected means! They tell you what their stance is on the issues, and you elect them based off of that. If their stance is along party lines, why are you suprised when they vote along them?
Where the hell did you find 30GB drives for only 3 bucks?
It means sex. No seriously, I read a poem with that image in it in high school, and the explanation was something like it's a wheelbarrow on a farm, and since it's raining, there's no work for the farmer and his wife to do but make babies.
Reminds me of an article I found right here at MSN Money, which talks about a new study released by the ITAA that finds that outsourcing will eventually create jobs. The article also talks about how many companies who've outsourced are bringing their work back to the States, such as Dell.
Are you a lawyer, or did you just make that up?
Yes, it is. You just made up some scenario, and passed it off as likely. Your imagination of an event has no bearing on its actual probability of occurring. I'd like to say something like "the plural of anecdote is not data," but this isn't even an anecdote - it's fabricated to suit your agenda. It's propaganda.
Is this a joke? A cross-eyed seagull with crazy hair, wearing a scarf, making the OK sign, and holding a happy red fish. How can anyone take this seriously?
The key word there is "usually". Sure, more often than not that stuff is useless, but I've found useful pages in those entries once or twice before.
Or you can take a screenshot of just the desktop, set it as the background, and then turn the desktop icons off by right-clicking the desktop and unchecking Arrange Icons By -> Show Desktop Icons (at least in Windows XP, dunno about others...). My roommate got me with that one, since I didn't even consider that there was such a "feature" in Windows.