I wish I could agree with you, I really do. But far too often I see this kind of mental hypocrisy run amuck in older people. In their youth they're vibrant and easily accepting of new ideas.
But as they age they become set in their ways, intolerant, and bigoted. This has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the psychology of an aging human mind.
By this reasoning, then most Slashdot contributors must be in their seventies.
Re:Yeah, an we feed the beast that will bite our h
on
In the Year 2020
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· Score: 1
Just because something is unpalatable doesn't make it wrong.
Your quote by Lincoln is interesting, and reasonably correct. But... who is driving the quest for lower costs, is it the corporate fatcats who want bigger paychecks, the shareholders (many of whom are smaller investors) who want investment growth, or the consumers who want lower prices?
I submit that it is all three groups, and a 'Buy American' policy needs to be supported by every American.
I played AC for about a year ending a couple of months after the Crystal Defence episode. The DT players were always giving the regular players a hard time calling them carebears, so the regular players called DT, Dorktide.:) I gave DT a go once... appropriate name I thought.
Darktide, or Dorktide as it was commonly known, had far fewer players on it than the other servers. IIRC, the more popular servers had 1500+ players on at peaktimes, DT didn't have much more than 500.
It's also fairly unlikely that Blizzard will be buying new servers outright. These sort of expenses are usually done using credit and then deducting them as monthly costs rather than upfront costs.
Even if they did use cash to buy the servers outright, the accountants will amortize (I think that's the correct term) them over their expected lifetime.
As for the other expenses, well I don't have the foggiest idea what they are. Electricity, bandwidth, payroll, and the other expenses would be too hard to guess at.
The whole concept of The Matrix lends itself to a vast array of possibilities. Just because you aren't working for/against Neo or Smith doesn't mean the designers can't come up with a series of stories, heroes, and villians that rival the original story.
It very much depends on how well the developers do in getting it right. Just because the Matrix universe opens itself to possibilities, it doesn't mean that those possibilities will be realised in this game. Personally, I really hope they get it right.
Having said that. I haven't played any of the betas and I'll probably wait a while before I buy the game. I'd like to see how the launch goes, and what the general feeling is.
And of course, a MMO generally takes a lot of time to get anywhere. Unfortunately, I don't have as much of that particular commodity to burn anymore.
Re:My favorite thing about Antarctica
on
Exploring Antarctica
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· Score: 2, Informative
I had cable back in Oz, not DSL, and on several occasions got around 500k download speeds. I remember downloading a 130MB install in under four minutes. This was just after I went from dialup to cable, so I was mightily impressed.
They did have the usage caps though. My package at that time was 1GB a month which generally was enough. However, I believe that those caps have now been removed.
I'm not a view of NYPD Blue, so fortunately, I don't get to see Denis Franzes arse. [Insert Sideshow Bob shudder here]
Having said that, I don't think I have seen an unpixelated boobie, arse, or finger (used rudely) since I have been here. Ok, maybe once or twice, but the general rule is that scenes with these things are either completely missing, or heavily edited.
Unfortunately, it seems that they are editing even those things that are to do with the story. Case in point. I was watching the Matrix the other day. In the scene in the interrogation room, Neo tells Smith, "How about I give you the finger, and you give me my phone call" (or something like that.) It was changed to "How about I give you the flipper..." and the finger was blurred out. I'm glad I wasn't drinking coffee at the time!
That appears to be the case with most of the movies and TV I have seen. They even sanitise Jacks more colourful expressions in Stargate on the SciFi channel!
The heavy restrictions placed on content in a country that exalts free speech was one of the anomalies bewildered me when I first moved to the US. Very strange!
But... nowhere as near conservative as the residents of the USA. Some examples...
Janet Jacksons boobie would have raised some eyebrows, but would have caused nowhere near the shitstorm that occured in the US.
TV after 9pm is about as unrestricted as you can get. While some stations blank words and edit content, thats somewhat optional, and you'll still see quite a few titties and hear a bit of cussin too! And... when someone gives someone else the finger, it doesn't get blurred out!
The big difference between Oz and the US is that the US has this neat little constitional thingy that lets people say what they want (within reason.) Australians, while no one restricts the right of free speech, actually have no guarantee that it won't be restricted by an act of parliment.
We also have a fairly conservative government in power at the moment, and up to a short time ago, the balance of power in the senate was held by a very conservative senator who wanted all sorts of restrictions on the internet. Unfortunately pro-censorship issues get far more consideration than they deserve in this sort of political climate.
I don't know if it is that common. There have just been a couple of high profile games banned lately LSL, and if this report is true, HL2.
Games do seem to be put in a different category than film and literature. I suspect that it is the belief that 'games are for children, not adults.' Notice also that it is the Office of Film and Literature Classification, not the Office of Film, Literature, and Games Classification. There's probably no one in that department who understands computer games, while there would be plenty of folks who love films and books.
Of course Valve could do what 3DRealms did with Duke Nukem 3D (was it in 1995?) The OFLC banned that as well, so 3DR permanently enabled the Adult Content Disabled flag in the Australian version. No blood. No Strippers. The game then entered the Aussie market. A little later a number of 'unofficial' patches appeared, allowing players to turn off the Adult Content flag. Blood and strippers galore!
However, with Steam, it shouldn't be too hard to bypass the retail channel and get HL2 directly from Valve.
I agree. This is something we should have been doing, or at least looking at doing, in Australia for years. Unfortunately, the cost of building desalination plants causes the government to stick its collective head in the sand. They only want cheap solutions that bring in short term political payoffs.
Unfortunately, sometimes the actions with greater longer term benefits cost more to do. And nobody wants to pay that cost.
Except for the fact that the US is currently outsourcing it's service industries, as it has done previously with much of the manufacturing of consumer goods. Even if the economy gives these industries a boost, so much has been lost to the rest of the world that the US is in a much weaker position than before.
It's true that there are exceptions to the rule. But lately it's been pretty much the case that Hollywood has taken some decent stories and completely butchered them.
The thing is, there are plenty of us here who aren't like that. That's my point....or are you being willfully dense? Is this just flamebait, or are you trying to engage in an actual productive exchange of ideas?
No, not just flamebait. Perhaps some, bit not all.
The point that I was trying to make with my reply was that your rant goes both ways. There are so many Americans who have no idea that the world is far more than the pinhole view that they see on their media. As an Australian living on the East Coast of the US, I was astounded by the number of people who asked me about Kangaroos roaming the streets of Australian cities, and who had no idea about the size of the country. I've seen on more than one occassion, on the news and weather, Australian cities in the wrong position on the map. It's certainly not a small proportion of the US that is ignorant of the rest of the world.
You've also got to realise that America 'promotes' itself to the rest of the world through Hollywood. You are in effect telling us what you are like through TV and movies. Since you are correct that ignorance abounds everywhere, can you blame people around the world for believing what they are being told by the US?
I think also that much of the rest of the world is pretty much sick of the US media telling them how much they've done for them. Sure, WWII would have been a lot more difficult (if not impossible) to win without the assistance of the US, but you guys didn't just march in and save the day. Without Britain there would have been nowhere to launch the D-Day invasion from. Without the French Resistance much valuable intelligence would have been missing. Without the Russians, Germany would have been undivided and a much stronger foe. Australians in North Africa (The Desert Rats) harried Rommel, and in the Pacific also fought the Japanese. And those are just small parts of the contributions of the other Allied nations.
Hollywood would have us believe that the US fought alone, or that the US won WWII. They didn't, the Allies won WWII.
I suppose the thing that amuses me about this discussion is, so many Americans think they understand the rest of the World because they see American films, or American tv, or watch Fox News or something. The World is an incredibly diverse place. Those of us in Europe are really nothing like Asians, much less someone from the Middle East. There is no way in hell you've experienced a realistic crosssection of our various cultures through the media pinhole you have available to you. And yet, making these broad, stereotypical generalizations of World citizens is perfectly socially acceptable. I swear to god, you see an Fox News broadcast or two and you think you know everything about this wonderful planet.
I hate to tell you this, but following orders is no excuse for committing war crimes.
...
If a commanding officer tells a soldier to rape women, torture innocent children, etc, then is that soldier is completely innocent of any crime, simply because he was ordered to do so??
I do agree with you. But what about the soldier being ordered to do these things by his CO when a gun is being pointed at him?
I wonder what any of us would do in that situation.
Slashdot Mirror
Your quote by Lincoln is interesting, and reasonably correct. But... who is driving the quest for lower costs, is it the corporate fatcats who want bigger paychecks, the shareholders (many of whom are smaller investors) who want investment growth, or the consumers who want lower prices?
I submit that it is all three groups, and a 'Buy American' policy needs to be supported by every American.
Walt fucked his good old uncle? Shocking!
I played AC for about a year ending a couple of months after the Crystal Defence episode. The DT players were always giving the regular players a hard time calling them carebears, so the regular players called DT, Dorktide. :) I gave DT a go once... appropriate name I thought.
Darktide, or Dorktide as it was commonly known, had far fewer players on it than the other servers. IIRC, the more popular servers had 1500+ players on at peaktimes, DT didn't have much more than 500.
So. Does this mean that EA employees will no longer be forced to work seventy and eighty hour seven day weeks?
Nah. That would be more confusing!
Even if they did use cash to buy the servers outright, the accountants will amortize (I think that's the correct term) them over their expected lifetime.
As for the other expenses, well I don't have the foggiest idea what they are. Electricity, bandwidth, payroll, and the other expenses would be too hard to guess at.
It very much depends on how well the developers do in getting it right. Just because the Matrix universe opens itself to possibilities, it doesn't mean that those possibilities will be realised in this game. Personally, I really hope they get it right.
Having said that. I haven't played any of the betas and I'll probably wait a while before I buy the game. I'd like to see how the launch goes, and what the general feeling is.
And of course, a MMO generally takes a lot of time to get anywhere. Unfortunately, I don't have as much of that particular commodity to burn anymore.
See http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ay.html
It's the Artic (North Polar Icecap) that is not over a landmass. Except for where it intersects the top edges of North America, Siberia, and Asia.
Yep. Misread that part. Still it's a pity that there is such a possibility.
They did have the usage caps though. My package at that time was 1GB a month which generally was enough. However, I believe that those caps have now been removed.
Having said that, I don't think I have seen an unpixelated boobie, arse, or finger (used rudely) since I have been here. Ok, maybe once or twice, but the general rule is that scenes with these things are either completely missing, or heavily edited.
Unfortunately, it seems that they are editing even those things that are to do with the story. Case in point. I was watching the Matrix the other day. In the scene in the interrogation room, Neo tells Smith, "How about I give you the finger, and you give me my phone call" (or something like that.) It was changed to "How about I give you the flipper..." and the finger was blurred out. I'm glad I wasn't drinking coffee at the time!
That appears to be the case with most of the movies and TV I have seen. They even sanitise Jacks more colourful expressions in Stargate on the SciFi channel!
The heavy restrictions placed on content in a country that exalts free speech was one of the anomalies bewildered me when I first moved to the US. Very strange!
But... nowhere as near conservative as the residents of the USA. Some examples...
Janet Jacksons boobie would have raised some eyebrows, but would have caused nowhere near the shitstorm that occured in the US.
TV after 9pm is about as unrestricted as you can get. While some stations blank words and edit content, thats somewhat optional, and you'll still see quite a few titties and hear a bit of cussin too! And... when someone gives someone else the finger, it doesn't get blurred out!
The big difference between Oz and the US is that the US has this neat little constitional thingy that lets people say what they want (within reason.) Australians, while no one restricts the right of free speech, actually have no guarantee that it won't be restricted by an act of parliment.
We also have a fairly conservative government in power at the moment, and up to a short time ago, the balance of power in the senate was held by a very conservative senator who wanted all sorts of restrictions on the internet. Unfortunately pro-censorship issues get far more consideration than they deserve in this sort of political climate.
Games do seem to be put in a different category than film and literature. I suspect that it is the belief that 'games are for children, not adults.' Notice also that it is the Office of Film and Literature Classification, not the Office of Film, Literature, and Games Classification. There's probably no one in that department who understands computer games, while there would be plenty of folks who love films and books.
Of course Valve could do what 3DRealms did with Duke Nukem 3D (was it in 1995?) The OFLC banned that as well, so 3DR permanently enabled the Adult Content Disabled flag in the Australian version. No blood. No Strippers. The game then entered the Aussie market. A little later a number of 'unofficial' patches appeared, allowing players to turn off the Adult Content flag. Blood and strippers galore!
However, with Steam, it shouldn't be too hard to bypass the retail channel and get HL2 directly from Valve.
Unfortunately, sometimes the actions with greater longer term benefits cost more to do. And nobody wants to pay that cost.
Except for the fact that the US is currently outsourcing it's service industries, as it has done previously with much of the manufacturing of consumer goods. Even if the economy gives these industries a boost, so much has been lost to the rest of the world that the US is in a much weaker position than before.
Yeah, but then someone would try and put Jeb Bush on your launch booster and that would really suck!
It's true that there are exceptions to the rule. But lately it's been pretty much the case that Hollywood has taken some decent stories and completely butchered them.
That's because the movie didn't have the crappy camera angles from the game.
Pity that it isn't an international competition.
I like this. Wish I had mod points. I've heard this another way: It's not a tragedy to die doing something you love.
No, not just flamebait. Perhaps some, bit not all.
The point that I was trying to make with my reply was that your rant goes both ways. There are so many Americans who have no idea that the world is far more than the pinhole view that they see on their media. As an Australian living on the East Coast of the US, I was astounded by the number of people who asked me about Kangaroos roaming the streets of Australian cities, and who had no idea about the size of the country. I've seen on more than one occassion, on the news and weather, Australian cities in the wrong position on the map. It's certainly not a small proportion of the US that is ignorant of the rest of the world.
You've also got to realise that America 'promotes' itself to the rest of the world through Hollywood. You are in effect telling us what you are like through TV and movies. Since you are correct that ignorance abounds everywhere, can you blame people around the world for believing what they are being told by the US?
I think also that much of the rest of the world is pretty much sick of the US media telling them how much they've done for them. Sure, WWII would have been a lot more difficult (if not impossible) to win without the assistance of the US, but you guys didn't just march in and save the day. Without Britain there would have been nowhere to launch the D-Day invasion from. Without the French Resistance much valuable intelligence would have been missing. Without the Russians, Germany would have been undivided and a much stronger foe. Australians in North Africa (The Desert Rats) harried Rommel, and in the Pacific also fought the Japanese. And those are just small parts of the contributions of the other Allied nations.
Hollywood would have us believe that the US fought alone, or that the US won WWII. They didn't, the Allies won WWII.
I suppose the thing that amuses me about this discussion is, so many Americans think they understand the rest of the World because they see American films, or American tv, or watch Fox News or something. The World is an incredibly diverse place. Those of us in Europe are really nothing like Asians, much less someone from the Middle East. There is no way in hell you've experienced a realistic crosssection of our various cultures through the media pinhole you have available to you. And yet, making these broad, stereotypical generalizations of World citizens is perfectly socially acceptable. I swear to god, you see an Fox News broadcast or two and you think you know everything about this wonderful planet.
I wonder what any of us would do in that situation.