it is also true that *any* government at any place should be worried that a single company, american or otherwise, holds so much power on its IT infrastructure. Even if MS was the most ethical company in the world, I'd still be worried. Bigger companies have vanished. Come on, weren't Lenovo notebooks banished from US Defense department IIRC (silly, as if all notebooks weren't made in China)? All countries worry about enterprises from other countries up to a certain level. In the case of MS, it is more than justified.
I don't see how you disagree with me. From what you wrote - "humans (and animals more advanced than humans, we don't know of any yet) are fundamentally more important than any other kind of animal" - it seems that the importance is loosely based on intelligence level, or technological advance if you want. So it is only logic that a more advanced/intelligent race of animals would think exactly the same about experimenting/using us - it is just a matter of scale after all. You could say there is treshold for being "important" - and that's exactly what the original article was about, arguments that a chimp is intelligent and humane enough that it should be important.
Of course, I am not expecting people all over the world to be passive in the case of a "War of the Worlds" scenario. I am just saying people which believe intelligence justifies this behavior shouldn't be morally bothered if some more intelligent species did the same to us.
That said, I believe people really just use this argument as a rationalizaton over their actions. There are two instances here: the first is "I am human, and so humans are more important". It doesn't matter if we are more intelligent or not. This is a basic survival instinct (of the species), and as you well said the other animal don't bother with our rights either. The other instance is "I CAN do this, so I will", which relates to the basic survival instinct of the individual. I have to resort to that in order to explain murders, wars, etc. We simply experiment/use animals because we can, everything that we invent to explain why is just that - rationalization. Just like we once did these same very things to humans beings, and still do (slavery, nazism, torture, etc) and usually found very reasonable, rational, accepted reasons for it at the time.
The right question if we do meet a more intelligent race is if it's ok for THEM to experiment on US. Mod me funny if you want, but anyone comfortable with experiments with animals should also be comfortable with the idea of higher species experiment with us.
this is/. after all. But, I agree this is huge. All other big media companies will look bad if they stay defending their old position on DRM. All it takes to brake an oligopoly is a single traitor, and EMI seemed to be it.
I hope people aren't naive enough to think that either EMI, Jobs or Apple Inc. are the "good guys". They simply showed a longer term vision than the other players. It is not unlike the stance on environment friendly production - the organizations aren't supporting it because they truly care about the environment, but instead they foresaw a chance in being different from the rest in the eyes and perception of the public. This anti-DRM stance is the same, and it would have happened much sooner if there weren't so few publishing/recording groups controlling the market. Now the ball is in the consumers court - if we flock to non-DRM formats, then the other publishers will be forced to play the anti-DRM game as well - the last one to jump in will be seriously hurt. If consumers react with apathy, then EMI might have to reconsider - it will be under considerable pressure from its former peers, pressure that only big money can justify.
my girlfriend fired me, ops, dumped me and told me she would still like me to work in the "friend" position, with lower wages, ops, benefits, well, whatever. I said ok, and now she hardly says anything more than hi and goodbye to me. Since I am obviously not in the aforementioned "friend" position, should I sue her for breach of contract?
From the goverment. They say that if I won't let them look at my files, then I am either doing something wrong I don't want they to know about, or I am a terrorist/supporter and I don't want to admit it, or both.
No. as kernel developers are concerned, the PS3 is just another computer. A heck of a powerful one, BTW, even if it's a wild beast to tame, but I digress. This has nothing to do with MS bloat, since MS only support one major platform in Windows, while Linux is known to run in a plethora of different archs, and the support must be in the kernel for it to work. I understand PS3 support might not have been in the kernel main tree, and possibly that's what you talking about, but there is no good reason not to; this way basically any distro can provide a PS3 version with less effort, and the support becomes standart instead of consisting of different patches. As I said, to the kernel devs the PS3 is just another arch; this has nothing to do with game support either. The PS3 is capable of a plethora of things, and having Linux available allows you to use a PS3 as a "general purpose computer". If whether this leads public perception to think of Linux as a "gamer OS"... that is another story, but I highly doubt it. Anyway, can't be much worse than being a "hacker OS" right?
I quite agree. In Miller's TDKR, Batman actually beats Superman... as you pointed out, Batman is a smart and well trained human with a huge disposable income to buy his gadgets. In a Batman game that used real people as NPC, Batman could have armor, gadgets, and who knows else what he brings in his Bat-belt that would allow him to overcome the mobs. Perhaps I am not making myself clear enough: I am not saying that only superhuman characters achieve suspension of desbelief inside games. The question is that to achieve it with an every-man hero in a videogame, the AI has to be dumbed down. You can dumb it down smartly - i.e., make the AI controlled foes look smart even when they aren't - HL and HL2 are pristine examples , the AI feel tough but it isn't really. Or you can use straight dumb NPCs such as the ones in DOOM3. Problem is, either trick won't work with real people behind NPCs. So the characthers have to be actually weak - no more Hellknights or Gunships. Which leads to a game that isn't remotely exciting. That's what I meant: the only games that would be suitable to use people behind NPCs are the ones in which the setting leads to charachters that already are on a superhuman level.
Most expensive nano, most expensive PS3 (the 60GB version was R$8000 at launch - thats 3270 fscking dollars!!!!) And this in retail stores, not eBay or similar. Probably most expensive Macbooks as well. You know, we are all filthy rich here, so we don't mind paying such outrageous prices. Sigh.
Exactly. It is akin to buying into Superman saving a falling airplane. As long as you actually buy that a being such as Superman can exist, it makes sense (and it wasn't even exciting). Now, would it be realistic, inside DC Universe, if Batman would do the same thing? That is how suspension of disbelief works: you choose to believe into a set that may not be realistic per se, but it is somehow coherent as presented to you. But I am probably just stupid in defending a point of view that doesn't fit inside someone's little world. I am ashamed.
Oh, now I get it. You're some kind of anti-Jedi freak, heard about them but never quite believe they were real. Nevermind, your technological prowess are no match to the power of the Force. Just keep peniciline away from their midichlorians and Jedis will kick Marine's and Gordon's ass any day.
But indeed, take a Doom marine and a Hellknight. A Hellknight is stronger, has more health, more firepower (and what prevents him from picking up a BFG anyway?) and he would win if the AI wasn't dumb on purpose. Not even talking about Cyberdemons here. Freeman? So, he can solve FFT transforms without a calculator, and that helps him kicking Combines ass? In the start of HL2 he only got a peashooter and a crownbar (what's the fixation with the crownbar anyways?) and fight a dozen combine guards armed also with peashooter. One peashooter vs dozen of peashoters = Gordon Freeman dead, I am sorry.
I am not talking about Jedis here, just that the feats most charachters perform in their own universe's values are highly unbelievable. If you're not comfortable with Jedis, pick another similarly powered charachter, such as Neo in the Matrix.
Never thought of it that way... but I beg to differ. Most fictional heroes aren't portrayed as significantly more powerful than their counterparts. This particular fictional hero (Jedi) is. This makes a difference in gameplay and suspension of disbelief, since inside the Star Wars universe a Jedi winning against dozens, if not hundreds of lesser enemies is not uncommon. So it'd actually fit within the environment. (most of) The others fictional heroes cited and portrayed in most FPSs do not share this trait.
People usually complain that NPC sucks, the AI isn't advanced enough... so if they set traps, why bother? A single person rushing into a storm of baddies isn't supposed to be easy. Of course, FPS aren't remotely realistic in that aspect - Gordon Freeman beating a crapload of aliens, Doom Marine disposing of hordes of demons, Masterchief, pick your poison. Even the dummiest and underarmored grunts would eventually overwhelm a lonely player. Jedi Knights would probably make an interesting fight though (Clone Wars style, not the pussy they were in movies).
IIRC, Apple says Safari, based on KHTML is being used in the iPhone, so I'd certainly love to see the code if only to know how apps for the iPhone are made. BTW, it looks remarkably similar to Nokia's latest browser featured in N-series smartphones - after all, it is Webkit based as well. Perhaps Apple even used Nokia codebase, who knows.
Because media companies are very happy to not sell you anything and not make any profit just because they can't forcefeed you DRM. If DRM is banned, either they sell you non-DRMed media or they die. If you truly believe they'd rather die then sell you non DRM'ed media... well. DRM is just a way they found to maximize their profits. If they were obliged to have less profits, they would do it anyhow. Unlike us, they do not have any moral instances on DRM.
They didn't want this technology to reach greedy foreigners hands. Mwahahahah! Now that the blockade is lifted everyone will be able to develop his own ping-pong sized electric ball of death and... humm... do something with it.
It *seems* that it blocks only the video, not the whole site. But BrT (large brazilian ISP) has blocked Youtube entirely (maybe because they know you can't effectively block the video, since it will always be reuploaded under a different name). AFAIK, it is the only ocurrence of the blockade, all other ISPs have not blocked anything so far (including mine).
Well, she married footballer Ronaldo (soccer player for americans), one of the wealthiest and most know of the world, though in the last World Cup he became infmaous for being mistaken with the ball. They stayed married for a few weeks. She had (has?) been at brazilian MTV as well.
As for the block, the court order tells (who? ISPs?) to implement "filters", but it doesn't specify whether only the video should be blocked or the whole site.
VIVO, Brazil's largest provider still will disable most Bluetooth functions. Recently, *some* of its smartphones are coming with some fuctions enabled. Not all. Just some, but hey, it is a start right? A few of the GSM providers like Claro (3rd) sometimes also disable functions (i.e., Claro's Nokia E62 cannot work as a modem). We are probably in better shape than US because VIVO, as a CDMA provider, has been losing market here pretty quick, and already 70% of the market belong to GSM providers; and I understand the market in the US is concentrated in CDMA providers, which usually are less open than GSM.
Of course, I have a Nokia 6600 from Claro and I have not (and would not) ever paid for backgrounds or ringtones, but perhaps that's just me. Some people seem pretty comfortable with paying for these, as well as uploading their pics. Go figure.
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it is also true that *any* government at any place should be worried that a single company, american or otherwise, holds so much power on its IT infrastructure. Even if MS was the most ethical company in the world, I'd still be worried. Bigger companies have vanished. Come on, weren't Lenovo notebooks banished from US Defense department IIRC (silly, as if all notebooks weren't made in China)? All countries worry about enterprises from other countries up to a certain level. In the case of MS, it is more than justified.
I don't see how you disagree with me. From what you wrote - "humans (and animals more advanced than humans, we don't know of any yet) are fundamentally more important than any other kind of animal" - it seems that the importance is loosely based on intelligence level, or technological advance if you want. So it is only logic that a more advanced/intelligent race of animals would think exactly the same about experimenting/using us - it is just a matter of scale after all. You could say there is treshold for being "important" - and that's exactly what the original article was about, arguments that a chimp is intelligent and humane enough that it should be important.
Of course, I am not expecting people all over the world to be passive in the case of a "War of the Worlds" scenario. I am just saying people which believe intelligence justifies this behavior shouldn't be morally bothered if some more intelligent species did the same to us.
That said, I believe people really just use this argument as a rationalizaton over their actions. There are two instances here: the first is "I am human, and so humans are more important". It doesn't matter if we are more intelligent or not. This is a basic survival instinct (of the species), and as you well said the other animal don't bother with our rights either. The other instance is "I CAN do this, so I will", which relates to the basic survival instinct of the individual. I have to resort to that in order to explain murders, wars, etc. We simply experiment/use animals because we can, everything that we invent to explain why is just that - rationalization. Just like we once did these same very things to humans beings, and still do (slavery, nazism, torture, etc) and usually found very reasonable, rational, accepted reasons for it at the time.
The right question if we do meet a more intelligent race is if it's ok for THEM to experiment on US. Mod me funny if you want, but anyone comfortable with experiments with animals should also be comfortable with the idea of higher species experiment with us.
this is /. after all. But, I agree this is huge. All other big media companies will look bad if they stay defending their old position on DRM. All it takes to brake an oligopoly is a single traitor, and EMI seemed to be it.
I hope people aren't naive enough to think that either EMI, Jobs or Apple Inc. are the "good guys". They simply showed a longer term vision than the other players. It is not unlike the stance on environment friendly production - the organizations aren't supporting it because they truly care about the environment, but instead they foresaw a chance in being different from the rest in the eyes and perception of the public. This anti-DRM stance is the same, and it would have happened much sooner if there weren't so few publishing/recording groups controlling the market. Now the ball is in the consumers court - if we flock to non-DRM formats, then the other publishers will be forced to play the anti-DRM game as well - the last one to jump in will be seriously hurt. If consumers react with apathy, then EMI might have to reconsider - it will be under considerable pressure from its former peers, pressure that only big money can justify.
no, a better representation would be /. (.|.) - I am sure someone more proficient in ASCII art than me will come up with even better tits soon.
my girlfriend fired me, ops, dumped me and told me she would still like me to work in the "friend" position, with lower wages, ops, benefits, well, whatever. I said ok, and now she hardly says anything more than hi and goodbye to me. Since I am obviously not in the aforementioned "friend" position, should I sue her for breach of contract?
Underestimated or Overestimated?
From the goverment. They say that if I won't let them look at my files, then I am either doing something wrong I don't want they to know about, or I am a terrorist/supporter and I don't want to admit it, or both.
No. as kernel developers are concerned, the PS3 is just another computer. A heck of a powerful one, BTW, even if it's a wild beast to tame, but I digress. This has nothing to do with MS bloat, since MS only support one major platform in Windows, while Linux is known to run in a plethora of different archs, and the support must be in the kernel for it to work. I understand PS3 support might not have been in the kernel main tree, and possibly that's what you talking about, but there is no good reason not to; this way basically any distro can provide a PS3 version with less effort, and the support becomes standart instead of consisting of different patches. As I said, to the kernel devs the PS3 is just another arch; this has nothing to do with game support either. The PS3 is capable of a plethora of things, and having Linux available allows you to use a PS3 as a "general purpose computer". If whether this leads public perception to think of Linux as a "gamer OS"... that is another story, but I highly doubt it. Anyway, can't be much worse than being a "hacker OS" right?
or I should read your comment as an open call to hack Korean's ActiveX based transactions to smitherings?
I quite agree. In Miller's TDKR, Batman actually beats Superman... as you pointed out, Batman is a smart and well trained human with a huge disposable income to buy his gadgets. In a Batman game that used real people as NPC, Batman could have armor, gadgets, and who knows else what he brings in his Bat-belt that would allow him to overcome the mobs. Perhaps I am not making myself clear enough: I am not saying that only superhuman characters achieve suspension of desbelief inside games. The question is that to achieve it with an every-man hero in a videogame, the AI has to be dumbed down. You can dumb it down smartly - i.e., make the AI controlled foes look smart even when they aren't - HL and HL2 are pristine examples , the AI feel tough but it isn't really. Or you can use straight dumb NPCs such as the ones in DOOM3. Problem is, either trick won't work with real people behind NPCs. So the characthers have to be actually weak - no more Hellknights or Gunships. Which leads to a game that isn't remotely exciting. That's what I meant: the only games that would be suitable to use people behind NPCs are the ones in which the setting leads to charachters that already are on a superhuman level.
Looks like I mistyped the price in dollars. It is actually US$3720. I am relieved.
Most expensive nano, most expensive PS3 (the 60GB version was R$8000 at launch - thats 3270 fscking dollars!!!!) And this in retail stores, not eBay or similar. Probably most expensive Macbooks as well. You know, we are all filthy rich here, so we don't mind paying such outrageous prices. Sigh.
Exactly. It is akin to buying into Superman saving a falling airplane. As long as you actually buy that a being such as Superman can exist, it makes sense (and it wasn't even exciting). Now, would it be realistic, inside DC Universe, if Batman would do the same thing? That is how suspension of disbelief works: you choose to believe into a set that may not be realistic per se, but it is somehow coherent as presented to you. But I am probably just stupid in defending a point of view that doesn't fit inside someone's little world. I am ashamed.
Oh, now I get it. You're some kind of anti-Jedi freak, heard about them but never quite believe they were real. Nevermind, your technological prowess are no match to the power of the Force. Just keep peniciline away from their midichlorians and Jedis will kick Marine's and Gordon's ass any day.
But indeed, take a Doom marine and a Hellknight. A Hellknight is stronger, has more health, more firepower (and what prevents him from picking up a BFG anyway?) and he would win if the AI wasn't dumb on purpose. Not even talking about Cyberdemons here. Freeman? So, he can solve FFT transforms without a calculator, and that helps him kicking Combines ass? In the start of HL2 he only got a peashooter and a crownbar (what's the fixation with the crownbar anyways?) and fight a dozen combine guards armed also with peashooter. One peashooter vs dozen of peashoters = Gordon Freeman dead, I am sorry.
I am not talking about Jedis here, just that the feats most charachters perform in their own universe's values are highly unbelievable. If you're not comfortable with Jedis, pick another similarly powered charachter, such as Neo in the Matrix.
Never thought of it that way... but I beg to differ. Most fictional heroes aren't portrayed as significantly more powerful than their counterparts. This particular fictional hero (Jedi) is. This makes a difference in gameplay and suspension of disbelief, since inside the Star Wars universe a Jedi winning against dozens, if not hundreds of lesser enemies is not uncommon. So it'd actually fit within the environment. (most of) The others fictional heroes cited and portrayed in most FPSs do not share this trait.
People usually complain that NPC sucks, the AI isn't advanced enough... so if they set traps, why bother? A single person rushing into a storm of baddies isn't supposed to be easy. Of course, FPS aren't remotely realistic in that aspect - Gordon Freeman beating a crapload of aliens, Doom Marine disposing of hordes of demons, Masterchief, pick your poison. Even the dummiest and underarmored grunts would eventually overwhelm a lonely player. Jedi Knights would probably make an interesting fight though (Clone Wars style, not the pussy they were in movies).
Wrong, KHTML is LGPL. Apple, although after a lot of criticism, has released Webkit/Webcore as well. As I said Nokia's browser is based on Webkit.
IIRC, Apple says Safari, based on KHTML is being used in the iPhone, so I'd certainly love to see the code if only to know how apps for the iPhone are made. BTW, it looks remarkably similar to Nokia's latest browser featured in N-series smartphones - after all, it is Webkit based as well. Perhaps Apple even used Nokia codebase, who knows.
1.Things turn yellow
2.Users get annoyed
3.??
4. Profit!!!
Seriously though, things turning yellow leads to higher replacement rate I believe. Coupled with lower manufacturing costs...
Because media companies are very happy to not sell you anything and not make any profit just because they can't forcefeed you DRM. If DRM is banned, either they sell you non-DRMed media or they die. If you truly believe they'd rather die then sell you non DRM'ed media... well. DRM is just a way they found to maximize their profits. If they were obliged to have less profits, they would do it anyhow. Unlike us, they do not have any moral instances on DRM.
They didn't want this technology to reach greedy foreigners hands. Mwahahahah! Now that the blockade is lifted everyone will be able to develop his own ping-pong sized electric ball of death and... humm... do something with it.
I'd like to know how you found that out, since the case goes under "justice secret" and the details aren't known... as for the court order, read those (portughese, I assume you're brazilian anyways): http://noticias.uol.com.br/bbc/2007/01/05/ult2363u 8993.jhtm
http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Tecnologia/0,,AA14090 12-6174,00.html
It *seems* that it blocks only the video, not the whole site. But BrT (large brazilian ISP) has blocked Youtube entirely (maybe because they know you can't effectively block the video, since it will always be reuploaded under a different name). AFAIK, it is the only ocurrence of the blockade, all other ISPs have not blocked anything so far (including mine).
Well, she married footballer Ronaldo (soccer player for americans), one of the wealthiest and most know of the world, though in the last World Cup he became infmaous for being mistaken with the ball. They stayed married for a few weeks. She had (has?) been at brazilian MTV as well. As for the block, the court order tells (who? ISPs?) to implement "filters", but it doesn't specify whether only the video should be blocked or the whole site.
VIVO, Brazil's largest provider still will disable most Bluetooth functions. Recently, *some* of its smartphones are coming with some fuctions enabled. Not all. Just some, but hey, it is a start right? A few of the GSM providers like Claro (3rd) sometimes also disable functions (i.e., Claro's Nokia E62 cannot work as a modem). We are probably in better shape than US because VIVO, as a CDMA provider, has been losing market here pretty quick, and already 70% of the market belong to GSM providers; and I understand the market in the US is concentrated in CDMA providers, which usually are less open than GSM.
Of course, I have a Nokia 6600 from Claro and I have not (and would not) ever paid for backgrounds or ringtones, but perhaps that's just me. Some people seem pretty comfortable with paying for these, as well as uploading their pics. Go figure.