It's the underage thing. *Any* association with "Kiddie Porn" will trigger the Sex Predator label. That doesn't prove anything one way or the other about his conduct, and in fact since he only served 20 days in prison, I'd have to bet that there was nothing other than the pictures to convict him of.
I don't read anything into the fact that they were negotiating with the DA on a plea bargain, that's pretty standard. And you can criticize his legal advice, but the sad thing is, it was probably correct. Trying to build this defense case would be extremely difficult, and was likely beyond this guy's financial means. And once the people in the system believe that you are a sex offendor, you will have *no* margin of error.
Not to say that this isn't all BS; but you can't tell that from this synopsis.
You're right it is a crappy defense. It doesn't work. If you believe the guy's story, he was unjustly convicted. Not a happy outcome for him, so I would not recommend trying to replicate it.
The real problem is that if you are technologically challenged enough to have this happen to you, you aren't going to know how to prove that this was what happened. And if you *can* prove that it happened, people are going to doubt that you were stupid enough to fall for it in the first place.
A game is a larger investment of time and money for the consumer, so you should expect that they would be less willing to take a chance on an unknown quantity. That has to be at least part of the equation. You just lose more from buying a bad game than from seeing a bad movie.
Of course, it is arguable that a game sequel is really a "known quantity," but that's a different discussion...
You know, I tried to explain this again, as I remembered the explanation better, but then I realized I could boil what I was trying to say pretty simply.
It doesn't matter how good your hardware is, if the code that is running on it is poorly written for that platform. If what the original poster says is true, the Mac version of the game probably makes better use of the hardware it has than the PC version did. (This is actually often the case with Mac games--because they come out later, the release version is often cleaner, cause they killed most of the bugs that were in the PC release.)
The argument I was trying to make (and which I admit is over my head) was about differences in how OpenGL is implemented on the Mac & PC side (even though it is a standard, it is not identical), and is probably not at all relevent to this discussion.
I am not a developer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been told by an actual cross-platform developer that the way that Windows and OS X handle graphics are very different. The bottom line (which was all I was really qualified to understand) was that the quality of the graphics card is less important on the Mac then it is on the PC, but the speed of the CPU is more important. Which is why I can play Shadowbane with an 8MB graphics card (ugly as sin, but it works), while a PC user who tries it with less than a 32MB graphics can't do a thing.
So I think what he's really suggesting is that the performance of the standard graphics card on the Mac side is better than the performance of the standard graphics card on the PC side, even if objectively speaking the Mac card is worse. Now if only we could get good cards over to the Mac faster, then we'd be set! (Oh, and of course, games to play on them.)
Doves want to feed and make nice with the terrorists *neighbors* so that they decide they would rather not be terrorists themselves.
The War on Drugs equivalent would be funding after-school programs so that kids have something to do besides using drugs. (Hows that for an oversimplification?)
It still might not work, but it's not as nonsensical as you made it sound.
That's the way Costco works. They want you to know that there inventory is a crap-shoot, so that if you see something there you want, you better buy it right then, cause next time you're there, they may not have it.
There goal is to drive up impulse purposes, and it works pretty well.
If you don't like either choice for president, the obvious thing to do is support the candidate from the party you think will *not* control Congress. That way naturally limiting the damage he can do.
The government only starts doing truly scary things when the same party controls the White House and both branches of Congress.
Agreed. I *reluctantly* bought the strat guide to Shadowbane shortly after it released. I knew that a lot of the info was incorrect (and yet, not all that much worse than their website), but it was vitally important for my guild to have the build costs and maintenance costs of the various buildings, so we could get our city going, and the info was not (reliably) available on the net yet.
Two weeks later, Wolfpack changed all those costs. (And didn't bother to say more than that they "lowered" them.) Effectively making the whole strat guide useless for me.
At least Meridian had some interesting stories in there.
Re:Question from an "outsider"
on
D&D Is 30
·
· Score: 1
You know, I was thinking about the core MERP rules, which barely referenced Rolemaster at all. (At least the first edition; don't know about any others.) That's cause we primarily ran our own adventures instead of any pre-packaged ones. Now that I think about it, things like the NPC guides did refer to the Rolemaster rules a lot. But since we only used those for the background info, I wasn't even considering those.
You're assuming a certain level of computer knowledge to get that working though. And if the average Slashdotter's parents can't keep a computer running by themselves, how do you expect your typical working-class or lower non-geek to do it. I mean, most people with those skills are making more money than that.
I spent the last two years as tech-support for one of my neighbors, a recently homeless man. Yeah, he'd managed to get a 486 from a pawn shop, but he didn't even know how to turn the thing on, let alone be able to tell a floppy drive from a CD. It's not that he was stupid, it was just so far beyond his experience that there was no we he was ever going to learn more than the very basics, and believe me, he tried.
Re:Question from an "outsider"
on
D&D Is 30
·
· Score: 1
Actually, the nice thing about MERP is that it is a simplified version of Rolemaster. They greatly reduced the number of classes, and stats, and spells, so you don't need to get all the Rolemaster supplements. (Believe me, they had plenty of MERP supplements you could buy though. Very in-depth information on every single Middle-Earth region. Excellent research, too, even if it's all not-quite-Tolkien official.) You *can* expand it out to full-blown Rolemaster if you want to (I've played it both ways), but honestly, the simpler MERP version worked better.
It's also worth mentioning that there is a commercial PBM game which was based on MERP -- Middle-Earth Play-by-Mail. It's actually a fantastic game if you like pbm's.
I was surprised, too. And I overall agree with it.
I've played Shadowbane since beta, and I love it. And hate it. But my guild is great, so I'm staying with it for a while longer.
One thing that wasn't mentioned was the opportunity they missed with the Mac market. They could have *owned* the Mac MMORPG market if they had decently supported it, because they were the only MMORPG (outside of Lineage) which let Mac & PC users play together. But the Mac client has been slowly deteriorating (it used to be more stable than the PC version) and is now unplayable for a lot of people. All these Mac people will go to WoW as soon as it's out. And Shadowbane could have had them.
Sorry, for that little rant. But yes, I think Shadowbane will be able to limp along indefinitely, and at least generate good cash flow. The things it does well, no other current game can compare to.
In Seattle, it is illegal to park at a broken meter. Doing what you just said would *ensure* that you got a ticket. And that you had no way to fight it.
Their reasoning is that if parking at a broken meter is free, then people will break meters just to get free parking.
Actually, there was an article in the local Seattle paper about them today...we are just starting to use them. Apparently Portland (OR) has had them for a while, and that is where they got the idea.
The thing I wonder about though, is the new meters in Seattle take credit cards, which they verify with their wireless connection. That sounds just a wee bit insecure to me, though maybe I'm just paranoid.
A method of divination using the random play feature.
I used to ritually load up the old CD changer, and then use the first three songs played to predict the future.Now it's much easier, and more diverse, because I have my entire library of songs to draw from, at the push of a button.
I always figured it makes at least as much sense as reading Tarot cards...
Some people like Friends. I sometimes take a moment to wonder why.
Years ago, my mother was visiting my wife and me. We don't generally watch much TV, but it was Babylon 5 night, so she watched it with us, companionably. She claimed to enjoy it.
Then later that week, Friends was on (I think in its first season, since I had never heard of it before), and she made us watch it, saying
"You should watch this show! These people are like you."
I still have no idea what she meant by that. But I guess those are the people who watch Friends...people who are *just like them*. (Or who think their kids are just like them.)
Of course, this is the same woman who said to me, "I watched that Brazil movie you were talking about, and I was wondering...are you depressed?"
Slashdot Mirror
I don't read anything into the fact that they were negotiating with the DA on a plea bargain, that's pretty standard. And you can criticize his legal advice, but the sad thing is, it was probably correct. Trying to build this defense case would be extremely difficult, and was likely beyond this guy's financial means. And once the people in the system believe that you are a sex offendor, you will have *no* margin of error.
Not to say that this isn't all BS; but you can't tell that from this synopsis.
The real problem is that if you are technologically challenged enough to have this happen to you, you aren't going to know how to prove that this was what happened. And if you *can* prove that it happened, people are going to doubt that you were stupid enough to fall for it in the first place.
OF course, Everquest has a Mac version as well, but it is on separate servers from the PC players.
Of course, it is arguable that a game sequel is really a "known quantity," but that's a different discussion...
It doesn't matter how good your hardware is, if the code that is running on it is poorly written for that platform. If what the original poster says is true, the Mac version of the game probably makes better use of the hardware it has than the PC version did. (This is actually often the case with Mac games--because they come out later, the release version is often cleaner, cause they killed most of the bugs that were in the PC release.)
The argument I was trying to make (and which I admit is over my head) was about differences in how OpenGL is implemented on the Mac & PC side (even though it is a standard, it is not identical), and is probably not at all relevent to this discussion.
So I think what he's really suggesting is that the performance of the standard graphics card on the Mac side is better than the performance of the standard graphics card on the PC side, even if objectively speaking the Mac card is worse. Now if only we could get good cards over to the Mac faster, then we'd be set! (Oh, and of course, games to play on them.)
Doves want to feed and make nice with the terrorists *neighbors* so that they decide they would rather not be terrorists themselves.
The War on Drugs equivalent would be funding after-school programs so that kids have something to do besides using drugs. (Hows that for an oversimplification?)
It still might not work, but it's not as nonsensical as you made it sound.
There goal is to drive up impulse purposes, and it works pretty well.
I think what you're trying to say is that only members of Congress can submit them for a vote.
The government only starts doing truly scary things when the same party controls the White House and both branches of Congress.
Of course, in writing classes, you get to use bigger words.
You can get them for less if you're willing to go used.
Two weeks later, Wolfpack changed all those costs. (And didn't bother to say more than that they "lowered" them.) Effectively making the whole strat guide useless for me.
At least Meridian had some interesting stories in there.
I spent the last two years as tech-support for one of my neighbors, a recently homeless man. Yeah, he'd managed to get a 486 from a pawn shop, but he didn't even know how to turn the thing on, let alone be able to tell a floppy drive from a CD. It's not that he was stupid, it was just so far beyond his experience that there was no we he was ever going to learn more than the very basics, and believe me, he tried.
It's also worth mentioning that there is a commercial PBM game which was based on MERP -- Middle-Earth Play-by-Mail. It's actually a fantastic game if you like pbm's.
I've played Shadowbane since beta, and I love it. And hate it. But my guild is great, so I'm staying with it for a while longer.
One thing that wasn't mentioned was the opportunity they missed with the Mac market. They could have *owned* the Mac MMORPG market if they had decently supported it, because they were the only MMORPG (outside of Lineage) which let Mac & PC users play together. But the Mac client has been slowly deteriorating (it used to be more stable than the PC version) and is now unplayable for a lot of people. All these Mac people will go to WoW as soon as it's out. And Shadowbane could have had them.
Sorry, for that little rant. But yes, I think Shadowbane will be able to limp along indefinitely, and at least generate good cash flow. The things it does well, no other current game can compare to.
Their reasoning is that if parking at a broken meter is free, then people will break meters just to get free parking.
The thing I wonder about though, is the new meters in Seattle take credit cards, which they verify with their wireless connection. That sounds just a wee bit insecure to me, though maybe I'm just paranoid.
I used to ritually load up the old CD changer, and then use the first three songs played to predict the future.Now it's much easier, and more diverse, because I have my entire library of songs to draw from, at the push of a button.
I always figured it makes at least as much sense as reading Tarot cards...
Strangely enough, I can do that, and still watch the same amount of TV as before.
Negative numbers need never enter into it.
Years ago, my mother was visiting my wife and me. We don't generally watch much TV, but it was Babylon 5 night, so she watched it with us, companionably. She claimed to enjoy it.
Then later that week, Friends was on (I think in its first season, since I had never heard of it before), and she made us watch it, saying
"You should watch this show! These people are like you."
I still have no idea what she meant by that. But I guess those are the people who watch Friends...people who are *just like them*. (Or who think their kids are just like them.)
Of course, this is the same woman who said to me, "I watched that Brazil movie you were talking about, and I was wondering...are you depressed?"