I'd say it's more like, "His campaign managers and administration aren't clueless. They won him the election. They know what the public wants to hear."
Sometimes he starts to sound convincing, but then he finishes his prepared-beforehand speech and starts to (attempt to) answer live questions. Just so we are clear, what I'm implying is that he is essentially a trained monkey. He can stand upright, wear a suit, and repeat learned phrases, but he hasn't shown any ability to understand complex ideas. He can barely form a complete sentence on his own.
As for how he gets away with it: the public is mostly disinterested, uneducated, and sympathetic to what they perceive to be a "traditional", God-fearing politician. And at risk of repeating myself, his administration is quite adept at manipulating situations to his advantage.
But you forget that evolution is not necessarily "improvement", but adaptation to the environment. In this sense, big game companies are already adapted to the environment (i.e. game market), which currently favors mind-numbing re-hashes of old concepts.
If game companies are going to evolve away from that, and towards something more creative, it will only be because the enviroment (i.e. game market) changes to favor more creative games.
"...combining a pda-style touchscreen with a console is very radical..."
Not to belittle the DS, but: am I the only one who remembers a handheld console by Tiger Electronics in the mid-to-late '90s? It had grayscale graphics, a touch screen, and a bunch of PDA applications (and was a total flop). It was essentially a PDA that looked like a handheld game console.
Granted, the DS seems to me doing a lot more than that console ever did in terms of "innovative" control schemes (see also: Wario Ware: Touched!). But the DS certainly isn't the _first_ console to have a touch screen.
Now if only the game selection weren't so poor! Even a minor fanboy such as myself cannot help but notice that there are only 2 or 3 games worth playing on the DS right now. If they sent me a free DS developers kit, I'd make a cool game for them...
(PS. Here's a Wired article that Google found for me about that old Tiger PDA/console.)
Clothing is ~100/month, Gifts is ~50/month, Dates is ~200/month (or ~50/date, assuming 4 dates/month). Month is not a variable, nor are any of the lines referring to the same cost. Given how closely you analyzed the parent to perform your calculations, I'm impressed that you managed to miss that.
Alternatively, if we choose to be excessively literal, and also interpret the colons as equals signs, we get:
In which case no line agrees with any other line, and we can conclude that month is not the same on any line, much as x is not the same in every problem in a math textbook.
If you're going to be picky like this, at least put in the effort to get it right!
True, it's not like it "shoots" out, but it does seem to be spinning quite rapidly. Imagine the damage that could be done with a saw-blade shaped minidisc! Fanstastic!
Perhaps someone could mod the PSP to launch it with more velocity? Then, it would truly be a multi-function device.
I have a Graphire 2 that's a couple years old, but it looks like the current models haven't changed much. The pen has a "button" which can be rolled forward or backward to allow two extra buttons. Here's a pic to supplement my crappy descriptive skills.
The long and the short of it is: I find it *extremely* awkward to use that button to right click. Maybe I'm holding the pen wrong, but I have to change how I'm holding it just to press the button, and I tend to press it accidently, disrupting my work. I don't even know which digit (finger/thumb, not 0/1) I'm supposed to press it with...
I would much rather have a modifier button on the tablet itself, which I could press with my other hand, and then tap with the pen as normal to right click. Ideally, the button would be placed so that if I held the tablet like a book with my left hand, my thumb would be right next to it...
For me, a button on the pen device is much worse than a key on the tablet.
1. Do prescription drugs like cholestorol-reducing medicines, insulin, and Viagra make people less likely to go to war over an issue? For that matter, do anti-depressants make it less likely? I'd think that the effect would be the opposite: people would be too depressed to get out of bed and kill each other. As for alcohol: if its mind-numbing effects would prevent a civil war, why do drunk people beat each other up for cheering for a different *sports team*?
2. I'll get to this one below.
3. Lack of education didn't stop the last civil war -- why would it stop the next one? The average level of education of someone today is considerably higher than it was then. As for falling behind other countries: they may be able to integrate our asses off, but what does that have to do with with preventing a civil war in this country?
4. Threat of ridicule hasn't stopped vocal people on either side from expressing their opinions. If you get someone upset enough over an issue, they stop caring that someone might point and laugh. Fear of ridicule is a major factor in junior high school, but it won't stop adults who care about something.
Back to #2: Of all your points, this one is may have some merit. Large media corporations can sometimes be somewhat cautious about reporting "dissenting" viewpoints, for fear of offending (and losing) viewers. That said, smaller and/or independent media groups generally report such things in detail. There's more information out there than just what's show on CNN, and people who have opinions about a subject tend to get access to alternative information sources.
You did, however, hit on an important idea: democratic participation is lower than many people would like. Many people simply have other things to worry about than which guy in a suit is in DC. But this acts as something of a balancing mechanism: as politics leans to one side, people on the other side get stirred up and participate, thus pushing it back towards center.
First of all, while an open-source voting system *might* not prevent voting fraud, it *would* make it much easier to fix problems. Diebold's software is backward -- it suffers from stupid buffer overflows, unprotected databases, and other mistakes that a first-year CS major probably wouldn't even make.
If you open-source the code, the hackers can fix it. The leaked Diebold code hadn't even fixed problems that were pointed out to them over 6 years ago by code inspection commitees (ie, Diebold offered to let potential clients have a peek at the source code before buying). They don't care about their software being *good*, only about being able to convince people to buy from them.
Second, it's an easy task for a *single* election official to tamper with the election machine, and leave no records of the tampering behind. Given that many polling places will use over 100 people (not all of them rigorously screened) doing various things to keep the election running, the chances of one of them being motivated or persuaded (both major parties have plenty of money with which to bribe) are rather high. With paper ballots, you'd have to bribe an elected official and the security guards to look the other way whilst you shredded some ballots. It's much easier to just pose as a computer technician and use the buffer overflow trick with the smart-card reader to make the machine do whatever you want.
Third, there are more than just two parties:P If some of the Nader votes are mysteriously transferred to one or both major parties, who would object?
Of course, there are problems with the paper ballots, but fraud is just *so much easier* with these new-fangled electronic Diebold doo-dads.
...how would you describe it some 30+ years ago, when it was first created.
Very young? A newborn infant? Useful only to academics and the military?
The internet was "young" eight years ago because not everyone and their mothers was online. Heck, script kiddies were hardly out of diapers 8 years ago, and they have brought the most maturity to the internet scene.
Really though, this is just the thing to get people to spend more money on the PS2 before they release the PS3. I was planning on getting one anyway, just for Katamari Damacy... now I'll be compelled to spend more so I can get a new one, instead of an old used one! Way to go, Sony!
-Jacius
Re:Its the fault of the electoral system
on
The Nader Factor
·
· Score: 1
9/11 has turned our older generation into a bunch of nationalists.
Too true. On the plus side, "Rah Rah A-mer-i-cah!" has a nice ring to it...?
if [Bush] drags this country through the dirt even more, maybe... the masses will wake the hell up.
Again, very true. Unfortunately, there is the possibility that everything will go to hell before enough people realize it.
And even if Bush wins and ruins everything, unless the electoral system is reformed, the Democrats will just win in the next election anyway, even if Nader runs yet again.
How about we try a little social experiment:
-Limit the Republicrats' campaign spending so that third parties have a comparable ability to advertise
-Allow third parties to debate on national TV
-Change to a proportional electorate system and/or a Condorcet (or at least instant runoff) voting system
Even the playing field for a generation, and then see how the third parties stand compared to the Republicrats. When the only thing most people hear about Nader is that he is supposedly stealing (that thief!) votes from Democrats, and rarely about what he actually stands for, of course he doesn't get many votes.
First: I'm sure the idea behind 3D Desktop is not 'increasing your productivity.' The idea is to have more eye candy! Yummy!
Second: Just because a developer can make a 3D pager doesn't mean they would necessarily be useful for making a game. The required skills are very different, especially seeing as there are probably more 'proof of concept' 3D game engines for Linux than there are 3D games. Linux has quite a lot of programmers already, the real lack is people with experience in graphic and audio design, writing, creating fun game scenarios, etc.
There is still demand for programmers, to create better tools and libraries for game designers to use, but the limiting factor is game _content_, which programmers have historically been.. err, not the best at creating;)
While the two may be connected, the gene in question seems to affect metabolism, not cognative laziness. So people who are mentally 'lazy' (that is, believe that work should only need to be done once) will probably still be able to come up with nifty perl scripts. The only difference is, they'll burn fat and lose pounds doing it! (Call to order now for only...)
I can't actually name a single Phantom exclusive game, if indeed such a thing exists.
I doubt anyone could name any game for Phantom, let alone a Phantom-exclusive, as they haven't even named developers who are working on games for it. I haven't even seen a photograph of the console, let alone screenshots of the games it can run.
I have very strong doubts that the Phantom console will even appear on the market at all, let alone sell more than a few thousand units (mostly to curious people with money to burn), especially as they seem to be big on claims and prices, and low on anything substantial or tangible.
In short, unless Infinium comes up with a SUPER-killer game, there will be no reason for anyone to spend $300-400 (plus money for games and further subscription) on a console when they probably have on Xbox or Gamecube or PS2 -- consoles that actually have *games*, not just claims -- sitting in their home already.
I apologize if this is redundant; I scanned the comments and didn't notice anyone saying this, but I might have missed it.
"There are not really occasions in their daily lives where the Pirahã need to count," explains Gordon.
This seems to me to be a likely candidate for the *cause* of both the language not having words for numbers >2, and the apparent inability of the tribespeople to tell the difference between 4 objects and 5 objects.
That is to say, that because the tribespeople have no need to count higher, it would not make sense for the laguage to have words for larger, specific numbers. Similarly, the brains of the tribespeople have little or no experience with counting such specific numbers, and thus they have a hard time doing it. This is a result of the incredible plasticity of the brain: if you don't do something for a very long time, the neuron connections involved in doing that thing often die; of course, if you never do something at all or have even seen it done before, the neuron connections will likely not even be formed!
So in short, I think that the language is not the cause of the limitation in counting abitily. Instead, both the language and the limitation are a result of a common cause, that being that the tribespeople have no need of the numbers.
Perhaps the military adopting Linux is part of the plan for Linux's world domination?;)
I suspect that there will be war whether or not Linux is used by the military. But by using the best, most reliable software for the military, maybe we can cut down on the costs of war (in terms of money, time, and human lives).
Slashdot Mirror
I'd say it's more like, "His campaign managers and administration aren't clueless. They won him the election. They know what the public wants to hear."
Sometimes he starts to sound convincing, but then he finishes his prepared-beforehand speech and starts to (attempt to) answer live questions. Just so we are clear, what I'm implying is that he is essentially a trained monkey. He can stand upright, wear a suit, and repeat learned phrases, but he hasn't shown any ability to understand complex ideas. He can barely form a complete sentence on his own.
As for how he gets away with it: the public is mostly disinterested, uneducated, and sympathetic to what they perceive to be a "traditional", God-fearing politician. And at risk of repeating myself, his administration is quite adept at manipulating situations to his advantage.
But you forget that evolution is not necessarily "improvement", but adaptation to the environment. In this sense, big game companies are already adapted to the environment (i.e. game market), which currently favors mind-numbing re-hashes of old concepts.
If game companies are going to evolve away from that, and towards something more creative, it will only be because the enviroment (i.e. game market) changes to favor more creative games.
"...combining a pda-style touchscreen with a console is very radical..."
Not to belittle the DS, but: am I the only one who remembers a handheld console by Tiger Electronics in the mid-to-late '90s? It had grayscale graphics, a touch screen, and a bunch of PDA applications (and was a total flop). It was essentially a PDA that looked like a handheld game console.
Granted, the DS seems to me doing a lot more than that console ever did in terms of "innovative" control schemes (see also: Wario Ware: Touched!). But the DS certainly isn't the _first_ console to have a touch screen.
Now if only the game selection weren't so poor! Even a minor fanboy such as myself cannot help but notice that there are only 2 or 3 games worth playing on the DS right now. If they sent me a free DS developers kit, I'd make a cool game for them...
(PS. Here's a Wired article that Google found for me about that old Tiger PDA/console.)
Clothing is ~100/month, Gifts is ~50/month, Dates is ~200/month (or ~50/date, assuming 4 dates/month). Month is not a variable, nor are any of the lines referring to the same cost. Given how closely you analyzed the parent to perform your calculations, I'm impressed that you managed to miss that.
Alternatively, if we choose to be excessively literal, and also interpret the colons as equals signs, we get:
1] dates = 4 * month = ~200
2] gifts = 1 / month = ~50
3] clothing = 1 / month = ~100
4] flowers = 2 / month = 10
5] misc = 75
In which case, solving for month, we get:
1] month = ~50 = dates / 4
2] month = ~0.02 = 1 / gifts
3] month = ~0.01 = 1 / clothing
4] month = 0.2 = 2 / flowers
In which case no line agrees with any other line, and we can conclude that month is not the same on any line, much as x is not the same in every problem in a math textbook.
If you're going to be picky like this, at least put in the effort to get it right!
Perhaps someone could mod the PSP to launch it with more velocity? Then, it would truly be a multi-function device.
-Jacius
The long and the short of it is: I find it *extremely* awkward to use that button to right click. Maybe I'm holding the pen wrong, but I have to change how I'm holding it just to press the button, and I tend to press it accidently, disrupting my work. I don't even know which digit (finger/thumb, not 0/1) I'm supposed to press it with...
I would much rather have a modifier button on the tablet itself, which I could press with my other hand, and then tap with the pen as normal to right click. Ideally, the button would be placed so that if I held the tablet like a book with my left hand, my thumb would be right next to it...
For me, a button on the pen device is much worse than a key on the tablet.
2. I'll get to this one below.
3. Lack of education didn't stop the last civil war -- why would it stop the next one? The average level of education of someone today is considerably higher than it was then. As for falling behind other countries: they may be able to integrate our asses off, but what does that have to do with with preventing a civil war in this country?
4. Threat of ridicule hasn't stopped vocal people on either side from expressing their opinions. If you get someone upset enough over an issue, they stop caring that someone might point and laugh. Fear of ridicule is a major factor in junior high school, but it won't stop adults who care about something.
Back to #2: Of all your points, this one is may have some merit. Large media corporations can sometimes be somewhat cautious about reporting "dissenting" viewpoints, for fear of offending (and losing) viewers. That said, smaller and/or independent media groups generally report such things in detail. There's more information out there than just what's show on CNN, and people who have opinions about a subject tend to get access to alternative information sources.
You did, however, hit on an important idea: democratic participation is lower than many people would like. Many people simply have other things to worry about than which guy in a suit is in DC. But this acts as something of a balancing mechanism: as politics leans to one side, people on the other side get stirred up and participate, thus pushing it back towards center.
-Jacius
First of all, while an open-source voting system *might* not prevent voting fraud, it *would* make it much easier to fix problems. Diebold's software is backward -- it suffers from stupid buffer overflows, unprotected databases, and other mistakes that a first-year CS major probably wouldn't even make.
:P If some of the Nader votes are mysteriously transferred to one or both major parties, who would object?
If you open-source the code, the hackers can fix it. The leaked Diebold code hadn't even fixed problems that were pointed out to them over 6 years ago by code inspection commitees (ie, Diebold offered to let potential clients have a peek at the source code before buying). They don't care about their software being *good*, only about being able to convince people to buy from them.
Second, it's an easy task for a *single* election official to tamper with the election machine, and leave no records of the tampering behind. Given that many polling places will use over 100 people (not all of them rigorously screened) doing various things to keep the election running, the chances of one of them being motivated or persuaded (both major parties have plenty of money with which to bribe) are rather high. With paper ballots, you'd have to bribe an elected official and the security guards to look the other way whilst you shredded some ballots. It's much easier to just pose as a computer technician and use the buffer overflow trick with the smart-card reader to make the machine do whatever you want.
Third, there are more than just two parties
Of course, there are problems with the paper ballots, but fraud is just *so much easier* with these new-fangled electronic Diebold doo-dads.
Very young? A newborn infant? Useful only to academics and the military?
The internet was "young" eight years ago because not everyone and their mothers was online. Heck, script kiddies were hardly out of diapers 8 years ago, and they have brought the most maturity to the internet scene.
"It's not ugly... it's advanced!"
Really though, this is just the thing to get people to spend more money on the PS2 before they release the PS3. I was planning on getting one anyway, just for Katamari Damacy... now I'll be compelled to spend more so I can get a new one, instead of an old used one! Way to go, Sony!
-Jacius
9/11 has turned our older generation into a bunch of nationalists.
... the masses will wake the hell up.
Too true. On the plus side, "Rah Rah A-mer-i-cah!" has a nice ring to it...?
if [Bush] drags this country through the dirt even more, maybe
Again, very true. Unfortunately, there is the possibility that everything will go to hell before enough people realize it.
And even if Bush wins and ruins everything, unless the electoral system is reformed, the Democrats will just win in the next election anyway, even if Nader runs yet again.
How about we try a little social experiment:
-Limit the Republicrats' campaign spending so that third parties have a comparable ability to advertise
-Allow third parties to debate on national TV
-Change to a proportional electorate system and/or a Condorcet (or at least instant runoff) voting system
Even the playing field for a generation, and then see how the third parties stand compared to the Republicrats. When the only thing most people hear about Nader is that he is supposedly stealing (that thief!) votes from Democrats, and rarely about what he actually stands for, of course he doesn't get many votes.
First: I'm sure the idea behind 3D Desktop is not 'increasing your productivity.' The idea is to have more eye candy! Yummy!
;)
Second: Just because a developer can make a 3D pager doesn't mean they would necessarily be useful for making a game. The required skills are very different, especially seeing as there are probably more 'proof of concept' 3D game engines for Linux than there are 3D games. Linux has quite a lot of programmers already, the real lack is people with experience in graphic and audio design, writing, creating fun game scenarios, etc.
There is still demand for programmers, to create better tools and libraries for game designers to use, but the limiting factor is game _content_, which programmers have historically been.. err, not the best at creating
While the two may be connected, the gene in question seems to affect metabolism, not cognative laziness. So people who are mentally 'lazy' (that is, believe that work should only need to be done once) will probably still be able to come up with nifty perl scripts. The only difference is, they'll burn fat and lose pounds doing it! (Call to order now for only...)
I have very strong doubts that the Phantom console will even appear on the market at all, let alone sell more than a few thousand units (mostly to curious people with money to burn), especially as they seem to be big on claims and prices, and low on anything substantial or tangible.
In short, unless Infinium comes up with a SUPER-killer game, there will be no reason for anyone to spend $300-400 (plus money for games and further subscription) on a console when they probably have on Xbox or Gamecube or PS2 -- consoles that actually have *games*, not just claims -- sitting in their home already.
That is to say, that because the tribespeople have no need to count higher, it would not make sense for the laguage to have words for larger, specific numbers. Similarly, the brains of the tribespeople have little or no experience with counting such specific numbers, and thus they have a hard time doing it. This is a result of the incredible plasticity of the brain: if you don't do something for a very long time, the neuron connections involved in doing that thing often die; of course, if you never do something at all or have even seen it done before, the neuron connections will likely not even be formed!
So in short, I think that the language is not the cause of the limitation in counting abitily. Instead, both the language and the limitation are a result of a common cause, that being that the tribespeople have no need of the numbers.
-Jacius
Perhaps the military adopting Linux is part of the plan for Linux's world domination? ;)
I suspect that there will be war whether or not Linux is used by the military. But by using the best, most reliable software for the military, maybe we can cut down on the costs of war (in terms of money, time, and human lives).