But typically the national interest of the USA does not translate out to invading peaceful nations, or forbidding the use of space to anyone else with peaceful intent.
Unfortunately the former point is debatable and the second point open to interpretation - and if the US' recent example of how it interprets its intelligence is anything to go by, then your idealism is at much at risk as mine.
"US misuse of space" is not sanctimonious. It's a fact. I'll quote JFK to help illustrate my point if you don't mind: "We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding."
So you see, it's absolutely nothing to do with paranoia or "what's in my back yard". It's very simple really. I object to weapons in space. I object to any kind of nationalism in space. I object to any nation believing it has the right to dominate, militarily or otherwise, space. I'm entirely expecting to repeatedly get modded down by US patriots but frankly this is the kind of thing that I'll always happily burn karma on.
the last Titan to be launched from Florida just took off with a classified military payload
I can't be the only foreigner wondering what the hell the US military is doing putting something so big and heavy that it requires a Titan into space. So much for Kennedy's speech at Rice about keeping weapons of mass destruction out of space, eh? China you watching this?
Re:For anyone who is sick and tired of MMORPGs...
on
Guild Wars Launches
·
· Score: 1
You will only be playing with friends and never have to worry about your adventure getting interrupted by anyone else.
To me that sounds a lot like a good RPG and nothing like a MMORPG. =P
... this is not like any MMORPG you have seen yet.
The reason the MMORPG is a nich genre is because nobody in their right mind is going to subscribe to more than possible two titles at a time, whereas most people wouldn't think twice about buying another FPS, even if they already own a few.
That's the problem really. The value of an object is rated by how rare it is in the real world. Supply and demand. The virtual objects in the game are not real and can easily be modified or cloned.
Ahem, global banking is mostly electronic these days. If you'll excuse the weak-ass pun, there's an awful lot of stock and trust placed in "records in a database" these days.
... has been an anathema to them and remains so to just about every other MMORPG company in the industry.
Umm, I can, think ofseveralthat are quite happy to associate in-game goods/wealth with real world money. I'm too lazy to post all the links - google it up Mr Jacobs - you're missing some important market research.;-)
And people wonder why Linux has a hard time cracking the mainstream. For all the MS flaming that we like to do here, and I include myself naturally, we're not very good at recognising their achievements. Instructions including the words "you should know what to do from here" and advice such as "find someone to fix it for a few dollars" or the implied, "just learn how to fix it", may well garner the respect and sympathy of us/. readers but it's not doing much to help the OSS movement now is it?
DirectX has become a lot more than an API - it is Windows gaming and Windows gaming is pretty much still the only superpower when it comes to non-console gaming.
Not to put too fine a point on it, we need a 'black box' solution. We need a linux distro that installs out of the box with support for DirectX gaming - and hopefully one that doesn't need one of us to fix it every so often.
Yet that implies a certaintly, surely no weaker than that of those you speak against, that you know the One True Way and everyone else is mistaken.
Nope - I'm not a Christian and have never claimed to be. However that does not prevent me from observing as an outsider that Christians hardly ever practise what they preach.
I certainly don't claim to know the One True Way as you put it. You don't need to have a degree in theology to observe that Jesus Christ was a peaceful man and that many that call themselves "Christians" (be it medieval Papal Crusaders or modern-day fundamentalist Evangelicals) are really rather bloodthirsty in comparison. A shallow example I'll grant you but there's plenty more in the texts if you go looking.
The best thing that anyone currently calling themselves Christian could do would be research their gospels, find out how the man lived and what he said and taught - at least what is known of it. Read the words thoroughly and challenge yourself by asking whether you actually live by those words, which is after all a very very challenging proposal - far too challenging for me I'll readily admit. But if I can acknowledge that I'm a good person that tries his best then in my mind I'm actually a great deal more honest than someone who simply holds up a placard firmly stating that they're a Christian and thereby fooling themselves into thinking that their own personal moral code is superior.
Why is it that prejudice against Christians is the last remaining acceptable prejudice? Could it be that those screaming loudest for tolerance are in fact the least tolerant of differences?
Or could it be that those professing to follow the teachings of a supremely tolerant philosopher are in fact supremely failing to be tolerant. After all we're responding to a an article about Christian intolerance aren't we?
To this day I've yet to come across a "Christian" - ordained or otherwise - that truly understands and practises the teachings of Jesus Christ himself - and I really am looking.
I've had no trouble with using this source on my sarge boxes, which are all running PHP5 and MySQL 4.1 with Apache 2 on the 2.6.8-10-amd64-k8-smp kernel. Actually they've been configured like that for quite a while now and have performed really well without incident.
Don't worry - D&D players feel the same way about the IDF. =P Seriously though, I always thought that all the numbers and stats floating around in D&D were probably helpful to intellectual development. With absolutely nothing to back up my case (much like TFA) I'd tend to believe that D&D veterans actually have an intellectual edge over people that simply run around a track or kick a ball around a field throughout their education. And if they are smarter then perhaps they really do frown upon the IDF.;-)
So, these folks put their LIVES on the line for their country, yet they're still raped on phone charges for calling their loved ones at home?
Something is really, really wrong with this picture.
$1 per minute? Sheesh. That's obscene.
Calls home should be free.
I have nothing but respect for these courageous people - understand that before you flame. However I feel obliged to point out that sadly they are not exactly putting their lives on the line for their country. Iraqi soldiers and policemen are putting their lives on the line for their country - and frankly so are the "insurgents". These fine U.S. soldiers of which we speak are in fact putting their lives on the line for the current administration's own geopolitical goals, which is not the same thing as fighting for your country.
All that having been said, it actually adds weight to your argument. If these guys are effectively fighting for someone or something other than the defense of their lands and families then surely they should be extremely well compensated. I wholeheartedly agree with you that calls home should be provided free of charge by the financiers of the campaign.
Instead they're overcharged by corporations that shouldn't really be involved in the campaign in the first place.
When the MMORPG publishers realize that they can sell the virtual items with zero overhead. They can be a broker and have no acquasition costs. Some are doing this now - Second Life?
RV's entire revenue model is based around that principal.
I wish a game was open-ended where you could dabble in different areas as you went on, before deciding what to actually stick to. I want game rules like PvP that are determined by in-game repurcussions, not by hard-coded limits by the developers.
I feel (see sig) obliged to point you in the direction of this, which certainly fits that description.
It would be pointless for them to sue a site owner they really don't have a case against...
It would also be pointless, or at the very least outside the realms of cost/risk-benefit, to sue site owners that they simply can't sue because they're in countries outside the American Corporate Empire's reach - they do still exist you know.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
But typically the national interest of the USA does not translate out to invading peaceful nations, or forbidding the use of space to anyone else with peaceful intent.
Unfortunately the former point is debatable and the second point open to interpretation - and if the US' recent example of how it interprets its intelligence is anything to go by, then your idealism is at much at risk as mine.
"US misuse of space" is not sanctimonious. It's a fact. I'll quote JFK to help illustrate my point if you don't mind: "We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding."
So you see, it's absolutely nothing to do with paranoia or "what's in my back yard". It's very simple really. I object to weapons in space. I object to any kind of nationalism in space. I object to any nation believing it has the right to dominate, militarily or otherwise, space. I'm entirely expecting to repeatedly get modded down by US patriots but frankly this is the kind of thing that I'll always happily burn karma on.
I think it's because I implied that the US misuse of space was nefarious and bullish. Must have touched a nerve.
we've used titans for 50 years now to put spy satellites in polar orbit.
Ah that's OK then. Silly me.
the last Titan to be launched from Florida just took off with a classified military payload
I can't be the only foreigner wondering what the hell the US military is doing putting something so big and heavy that it requires a Titan into space. So much for Kennedy's speech at Rice about keeping weapons of mass destruction out of space, eh? China you watching this?
You will only be playing with friends and never have to worry about your adventure getting interrupted by anyone else.
To me that sounds a lot like a good RPG and nothing like a MMORPG. =P
Oh I see - fair enough.
The reason the MMORPG is a nich genre is because nobody in their right mind is going to subscribe to more than possible two titles at a time, whereas most people wouldn't think twice about buying another FPS, even if they already own a few.
What we need is MMORPG's that don't require monthly subscription fees. There are plenty more out there if you go looking.
That's the problem really. The value of an object is rated by how rare it is in the real world. Supply and demand. The virtual objects in the game are not real and can easily be modified or cloned.
Ahem, global banking is mostly electronic these days. If you'll excuse the weak-ass pun, there's an awful lot of stock and trust placed in "records in a database" these days.
Umm, I can, think of several that are quite happy to associate in-game goods/wealth with real world money. I'm too lazy to post all the links - google it up Mr Jacobs - you're missing some important market research.
Best...Sword&Sorcery Writer...Ever
Nah, that's David Gemmell.
People already do stuff like that.
People like RV.
Euripides papyri you pay for 'em.
And people wonder why Linux has a hard time cracking the mainstream. For all the MS flaming that we like to do here, and I include myself naturally, we're not very good at recognising their achievements. Instructions including the words "you should know what to do from here" and advice such as "find someone to fix it for a few dollars" or the implied, "just learn how to fix it", may well garner the respect and sympathy of us
DirectX has become a lot more than an API - it is Windows gaming and Windows gaming is pretty much still the only superpower when it comes to non-console gaming.
Not to put too fine a point on it, we need a 'black box' solution. We need a linux distro that installs out of the box with support for DirectX gaming - and hopefully one that doesn't need one of us to fix it every so often.
Yet that implies a certaintly, surely no weaker than that of those you speak against, that you know the One True Way and everyone else is mistaken.
Nope - I'm not a Christian and have never claimed to be. However that does not prevent me from observing as an outsider that Christians hardly ever practise what they preach.
I certainly don't claim to know the One True Way as you put it. You don't need to have a degree in theology to observe that Jesus Christ was a peaceful man and that many that call themselves "Christians" (be it medieval Papal Crusaders or modern-day fundamentalist Evangelicals) are really rather bloodthirsty in comparison. A shallow example I'll grant you but there's plenty more in the texts if you go looking.
The best thing that anyone currently calling themselves Christian could do would be research their gospels, find out how the man lived and what he said and taught - at least what is known of it. Read the words thoroughly and challenge yourself by asking whether you actually live by those words, which is after all a very very challenging proposal - far too challenging for me I'll readily admit. But if I can acknowledge that I'm a good person that tries his best then in my mind I'm actually a great deal more honest than someone who simply holds up a placard firmly stating that they're a Christian and thereby fooling themselves into thinking that their own personal moral code is superior.
Here, as they say, endeth the lesson. =D
Why is it that prejudice against Christians is the last remaining acceptable prejudice? Could it be that those screaming loudest for tolerance are in fact the least tolerant of differences?
Or could it be that those professing to follow the teachings of a supremely tolerant philosopher are in fact supremely failing to be tolerant. After all we're responding to a an article about Christian intolerance aren't we?
To this day I've yet to come across a "Christian" - ordained or otherwise - that truly understands and practises the teachings of Jesus Christ himself - and I really am looking.
I've had no trouble with using this source on my sarge boxes, which are all running PHP5 and MySQL 4.1 with Apache 2 on the 2.6.8-10-amd64-k8-smp kernel. Actually they've been configured like that for quite a while now and have performed really well without incident.
deb http://people.debian.org/~dexter php5 sid-old
Like, what else did you expect from a site named SPAMALOT!!
Zoiks Shaggy what are you doing out of the Mystery Machine?
Don't worry - D&D players feel the same way about the IDF. =P Seriously though, I always thought that all the numbers and stats floating around in D&D were probably helpful to intellectual development. With absolutely nothing to back up my case (much like TFA) I'd tend to believe that D&D veterans actually have an intellectual edge over people that simply run around a track or kick a ball around a field throughout their education. And if they are smarter then perhaps they really do frown upon the IDF.
This sort of thing has been around since the early 90's.
So, these folks put their LIVES on the line for their country, yet they're still raped on phone charges for calling their loved ones at home?
Something is really, really wrong with this picture.
$1 per minute? Sheesh. That's obscene.
Calls home should be free.
I have nothing but respect for these courageous people - understand that before you flame. However I feel obliged to point out that sadly they are not exactly putting their lives on the line for their country. Iraqi soldiers and policemen are putting their lives on the line for their country - and frankly so are the "insurgents". These fine U.S. soldiers of which we speak are in fact putting their lives on the line for the current administration's own geopolitical goals, which is not the same thing as fighting for your country.
All that having been said, it actually adds weight to your argument. If these guys are effectively fighting for someone or something other than the defense of their lands and families then surely they should be extremely well compensated. I wholeheartedly agree with you that calls home should be provided free of charge by the financiers of the campaign.
Instead they're overcharged by corporations that shouldn't really be involved in the campaign in the first place.
When the MMORPG publishers realize that they can sell the virtual items with zero overhead. They can be a broker and have no acquasition costs. Some are doing this now - Second Life?
RV's entire revenue model is based around that principal.
Here's a group of them out on patrol.
Has anyone ever heard of a MMOG with a more "real" based environment?
:)
I feel guilty plugging away in this thread but your answer really does lie in my sig.
I wish a game was open-ended where you could dabble in different areas as you went on, before deciding what to actually stick to. I want game rules like PvP that are determined by in-game repurcussions, not by hard-coded limits by the developers.
I feel (see sig) obliged to point you in the direction of this, which certainly fits that description.
It would be pointless for them to sue a site owner they really don't have a case against...
It would also be pointless, or at the very least outside the realms of cost/risk-benefit, to sue site owners that they simply can't sue because they're in countries outside the American Corporate Empire's reach - they do still exist you know.