Good points. And in the back of my mind I had wondered if real and virtual property were actually quite similar in terms of devaluation and life span. Like you said, in some ways they are, but in others they are still quite different. Sure, a car or electronics equipment or clothes might become worthless in the marketplace after just a few years, but you can keep them all the way until you die if you want. And some real property increases in value.
Agreed, I'm not interested either. Although I might be interested in making stuff to sell in these virtual worlds and make some money. I have to learn more about what's involved.
No need to pay residuals to the actors and whoever else. Basically, it's disposable/fast-food programming. They make their cash and dump it.
On the other hand, I imagine reality shows in their current form will get old soon, and they'll have to revert to regular episodic shows or come up with something else.
Like one of the comments posted on the article, I also wondered what happens 10 years down the line when the company goes out of business, or the game is no longer profitable and is shut down?
I guess consumerism has reached it's logical conclusion. How long before companies start selling us our own thoughts and emotions? I guess they already have, in indirect forms (entertainment/media). Meanwhile in the real world, millions of people die every year of starvation and disease.
Interesting timing for this story. Just yesterday I was reading about Excelsior College, which seems to be somewhat close to what you are looking for. At first glance I thought it was either a diploma mill or a rip-off commercial school, but the more I read about it, the less it appears to be either of those things.
It started off as an offshoot of the State University of New York in the 70s, and is now a private non-profit institution. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which also provides accreditation to Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Penn State, etc. It is also accredited through ABET, which appears to be the main engineering accreditation body around.
The interesting part that applies to this discussion is that it does not appear to be very expensive, and you don't necessarily need to take your classes through them. They don't seem to have all the nitty-gritty details on their website, but it appears that they will take your credits from other schools, and you can get credits for many if not all classes/subjects through testing, as well as credits from some technical certifications, like from Microsoft, Cisco, and others.
All in all, it looks very interesting. I would love to hear more information from anyone who knows anything about this school.
The College was founded in 1971 on the fundamental philosophy that what you know is more important than where or how you learned it. We recognize that adult learners can attain college-level knowledge in many ways. Our name, which means "Ever Upward," depicts how, with over 100,000 graduates, we propel students just like you toward their goals.
That's one scary looking clippy! It looks like a penis with a barbell piercing through it. I wonder why MS hasn't thought of that as an office assistant before!
Swimming underwater will take a great deal more effort since more body frontal area is exposed to water, which is denser than air.
I'm no physics wiz, but it doesn't seem to me that that is the main reason why swimming underwater is much less efficient than swimming on the surface, given that when you swim on the surface most of your body is submerged anyway.
I would imagine it has to do with half of your stroke cycle when swimming at the surface cutting through air, instead of water for the full cycle. This would force the underwater swimmer to adopt a less efficient stroke than the regular breast(?) stroke. Maybe also a little bit less drag effect on the back of the body exposed to the air as well. Just a guess though.
Absolutely!:) Then they can really put the new consoles' power to good use!
Oh, not to mention that then we won't get a story every week complaining about crates in games.
I'm sure that game artists would love to have the kind of reference pictures you're talking about. After all, we can't expect them to know about all the different types of crates if they don't work in some kind of high-tech industrial warehouse.
If you posted those pictures of the various crates online somewhere and maybe send the link to the authors of the two articles this week complaining about crates in games, you'd be contributing to the improvement of crates in games.:)
Assuming that the emulation/translation would be mostly transparent:
Cheaper motherboards that keep up with Intel/AMD's speed and price competition.
Possibly easier to port PC games to it (lack of games being one reason that a lot of people give for not going with Macs).
Better 3d application performance from what I understand, which would make it easier for people in the 3d creation business to go with Macs (they would probably love to).
For that matter, what if their Intel machines were actually able to run Windows and OS X, while still preventing other clones from running OS X? That would remove another big barrier for people scared to go with Apple because of price/incompatibility. This could also lead to more sales in the business world.
Or what if they actually built-in the ability to run windows (a la virtual PC) or windows applications directly in OS X? Wouldn't this be easier using the same processor?
I can see a lot of short and long-term strategic advantages to doing something like this.
I have to agree with the grandparent poster on the issue of fishy sites. In combination with end-user ignorance, they ARE a problem. We're not talking about illegal sites that are shutdown. We're talking about regular websites with whatever crappy content they try to attract people with, that insert loads of spyware, some of which is very hard to remove, and occasionaly so hard that it's not worth the time (reimage instead).
I have a plain hw firewall at home, a virus scanner, and browse using firefox. No spyware for me. At work, they have firewalls, virus scanners, e-mail virus scanners, websense (to block out inappropriate websites), and people still get tons of spyware.
So, user knowledge is the answer to most of it, both fishy websites and e-mail viruses. Oh, and IE is a major problem as well.
"The Shazam database has almost 1.6 million tracks on it. This is more than twice what you'll find in the UK's largest music store - and it's growing every day."
Which is also more tracks than any of the online music stores out there. But I agree, the Electronic and other instrumental tunes will probably be underrepresented. I have a few songs that I got on a CD from an aquaintance, and have been having a hell of a time finding out what they are. I will have to try this musicbrainz that everyone keeps mentioning here.
My reactions to the design of the new consoles, as they have been unveiled:
Xbox 360: "hahaha, looks like a bent, beige clone PC case! The PS3 is gonna look so much better!"
PS3: "WTF??? Looks like a laminating machine? Or is it the new version of the George Foreman grill?"
Nintendo Revolution: "Hmmm... looks like a squarish black mac mini with a neon disc slot. Not bad."
I own a PS2 and will probably get a PS3. Maybe I'll try hacking the case to make it look better. I've never owned a Nintendo console, but the interesting thing is that they have peaked my curiosity with this one. If this download of the back-catalog of games thing pans out I think I will be buying a Nintendo finally.
As for the Xbox, never, thanks. That's where I draw the line on Microsoft's invasion of [the|my] world.
I figure it's larger not necessarily for the wireless circuitry, but for the batteries to power it. Those two long arms probably have batteries in them.
I wish luck to any ISP that tries this with me. I will be gone to another ISP quicker than they can say "Von...". What the heck, I'm paying them for an IP connection. As long as I'm not doing something shady (DOS, SPAM, etc), they are pushing it if they selectively block my traffic.
I think the market and/or the FCC will quickly put a stop to this.
Yep, google thought of this. Here is the wording in the terms of use for their alerts service:
Personal Use Only
The Google Services are made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the Google Services to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your Web site for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales. You may not take the results from a Google search and reformat and display them, or mirror the Google home page or results pages on your Web site. You may not "meta-search" Google. If you want to make commercial use of the Google Services, you must enter into an agreement with Google to do so in advance. Please contact us for more information.
Your second title, "Buddhism: A Way of Life and Thought" was the book that I read to get an introduction to Buddhism. I would recommend it as a good overview of the history of Buddhism and the different lines of thought within Buddhism.
Slashdot Mirror
Good points. And in the back of my mind I had wondered if real and virtual property were actually quite similar in terms of devaluation and life span. Like you said, in some ways they are, but in others they are still quite different. Sure, a car or electronics equipment or clothes might become worthless in the marketplace after just a few years, but you can keep them all the way until you die if you want. And some real property increases in value.
Agreed, I'm not interested either. Although I might be interested in making stuff to sell in these virtual worlds and make some money. I have to learn more about what's involved.
No need to pay residuals to the actors and whoever else. Basically, it's disposable/fast-food programming. They make their cash and dump it.
On the other hand, I imagine reality shows in their current form will get old soon, and they'll have to revert to regular episodic shows or come up with something else.
Like one of the comments posted on the article, I also wondered what happens 10 years down the line when the company goes out of business, or the game is no longer profitable and is shut down?
I guess consumerism has reached it's logical conclusion. How long before companies start selling us our own thoughts and emotions? I guess they already have, in indirect forms (entertainment/media). Meanwhile in the real world, millions of people die every year of starvation and disease.
It started off as an offshoot of the State University of New York in the 70s, and is now a private non-profit institution. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which also provides accreditation to Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Penn State, etc. It is also accredited through ABET, which appears to be the main engineering accreditation body around.
The interesting part that applies to this discussion is that it does not appear to be very expensive, and you don't necessarily need to take your classes through them. They don't seem to have all the nitty-gritty details on their website, but it appears that they will take your credits from other schools, and you can get credits for many if not all classes/subjects through testing, as well as credits from some technical certifications, like from Microsoft, Cisco, and others.
All in all, it looks very interesting. I would love to hear more information from anyone who knows anything about this school.
That's one scary looking clippy! It looks like a penis with a barbell piercing through it. I wonder why MS hasn't thought of that as an office assistant before!
I'm no physics wiz, but it doesn't seem to me that that is the main reason why swimming underwater is much less efficient than swimming on the surface, given that when you swim on the surface most of your body is submerged anyway.
I would imagine it has to do with half of your stroke cycle when swimming at the surface cutting through air, instead of water for the full cycle. This would force the underwater swimmer to adopt a less efficient stroke than the regular breast(?) stroke. Maybe also a little bit less drag effect on the back of the body exposed to the air as well. Just a guess though.
Absolutely! :) Then they can really put the new consoles' power to good use!
Oh, not to mention that then we won't get a story every week complaining about crates in games.
I'm sure that game artists would love to have the kind of reference pictures you're talking about. After all, we can't expect them to know about all the different types of crates if they don't work in some kind of high-tech industrial warehouse.
:)
If you posted those pictures of the various crates online somewhere and maybe send the link to the authors of the two articles this week complaining about crates in games, you'd be contributing to the improvement of crates in games.
Assuming that the emulation/translation would be mostly transparent:
Cheaper motherboards that keep up with Intel/AMD's speed and price competition.
Possibly easier to port PC games to it (lack of games being one reason that a lot of people give for not going with Macs).
Better 3d application performance from what I understand, which would make it easier for people in the 3d creation business to go with Macs (they would probably love to).
For that matter, what if their Intel machines were actually able to run Windows and OS X, while still preventing other clones from running OS X? That would remove another big barrier for people scared to go with Apple because of price/incompatibility. This could also lead to more sales in the business world.
Or what if they actually built-in the ability to run windows (a la virtual PC) or windows applications directly in OS X? Wouldn't this be easier using the same processor?
I can see a lot of short and long-term strategic advantages to doing something like this.
I have to agree with the grandparent poster on the issue of fishy sites. In combination with end-user ignorance, they ARE a problem. We're not talking about illegal sites that are shutdown. We're talking about regular websites with whatever crappy content they try to attract people with, that insert loads of spyware, some of which is very hard to remove, and occasionaly so hard that it's not worth the time (reimage instead).
I have a plain hw firewall at home, a virus scanner, and browse using firefox. No spyware for me. At work, they have firewalls, virus scanners, e-mail virus scanners, websense (to block out inappropriate websites), and people still get tons of spyware.
So, user knowledge is the answer to most of it, both fishy websites and e-mail viruses. Oh, and IE is a major problem as well.
b%$^&#%@...+++NO CARRIER
"The Shazam database has almost 1.6 million tracks on it. This is more than twice what you'll find in the UK's largest music store - and it's growing every day."
Which is also more tracks than any of the online music stores out there. But I agree, the Electronic and other instrumental tunes will probably be underrepresented. I have a few songs that I got on a CD from an aquaintance, and have been having a hell of a time finding out what they are. I will have to try this musicbrainz that everyone keeps mentioning here.
Yeah, NPR plays a lot of great music in between segments of their shows. You can find out what songs they play on their site though:
http://www.npr.org/templates/music/
Also, they even have a show dedicated to that same great music:
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/index.html
Maybe you'll be able to find what you were looking for. Good luck.
How did you find out that they sold your information?
My reactions to the design of the new consoles, as they have been unveiled:
Xbox 360: "hahaha, looks like a bent, beige clone PC case! The PS3 is gonna look so much better!"
PS3: "WTF??? Looks like a laminating machine? Or is it the new version of the George Foreman grill?"
Nintendo Revolution: "Hmmm... looks like a squarish black mac mini with a neon disc slot. Not bad."
I own a PS2 and will probably get a PS3. Maybe I'll try hacking the case to make it look better. I've never owned a Nintendo console, but the interesting thing is that they have peaked my curiosity with this one. If this download of the back-catalog of games thing pans out I think I will be buying a Nintendo finally.
As for the Xbox, never, thanks. That's where I draw the line on Microsoft's invasion of [the|my] world.
I figure it's larger not necessarily for the wireless circuitry, but for the batteries to power it. Those two long arms probably have batteries in them.
Link(s) please... just curious to see what you are talking about.
Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference Not quick at 1500 pages, but covers three of the ones you listed.
JSSSL and DSSSL - shizzle fo rizzle...
Sorry, couldn't resist. I had never seen those FLAs before and they just look funny.
I think the market and/or the FCC will quickly put a stop to this.
With USWest. Basically it was DSL. They called it VDSL or something similar. Worked exactly like digital cable, nothing special about it.
Personal Use Only The Google Services are made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the Google Services to sell a product or service, or to increase traffic to your Web site for commercial reasons, such as advertising sales. You may not take the results from a Google search and reformat and display them, or mirror the Google home page or results pages on your Web site. You may not "meta-search" Google. If you want to make commercial use of the Google Services, you must enter into an agreement with Google to do so in advance. Please contact us for more information.
Your second title, "Buddhism: A Way of Life and Thought" was the book that I read to get an introduction to Buddhism. I would recommend it as a good overview of the history of Buddhism and the different lines of thought within Buddhism.
Easy way to subsidize your movie collection through ebay sales.
ABM? I Be Apple?