>This guy just sent $60 of his money to the same people who are responsible for his skins being worthless in AH.
I'd say the this is Blizzard's problem and fault. Its their broken economy and the assumption that this won't happen through some purges and EULA is laughable.
I never understood the allure of "crafting." When I fire up WoW I want to do some adventuring ASAP and if the game demands I take on 2 virtual jobs on top of my real one, then they're just cutting out adult gamers. Worse, the 'everyone must have a job in our virtual economy to get greens/repairs' design means crafting is worthless if everyone can do it. Ideally, crafters should be a minority of players who can create some semi-rare or specialized items. Right now Blizzard expects everyone to be a level 200+ something just to get gear to make the game playable.
This is a core and probably unfixable problem with player economies: the real world will step in. Gold farmers will take over. People with twenty bucks will pay them.
I see two solutions. One is to do away with crafting as a necessity and keep it as a rarity. Just put enough gold on the mobs and don't charge players to learn skills. Two: Have max wealth/value per accounts. If all you own is worth more than a certain amount you can't buy more. But that would hurt the 'addiction factor' of MMOs.
I just disenchant and sell to be able to pay trainers and buy the occasional blue from AH. I give extra mats to my guild. It works out, but now mats are inflated.
Low levels should be able to wear quest items and high levels should be able to raid for items. AH should be an exception, not the rule.
So until then, expect more farming, ninja looting, and general economic craziness.
Thus the obligatory "OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN" post.
>..the scary part is, if they do cause ill effects...we're giving mobile communications devices to children younger and younger.
Automobiles cause ill effects when they get into accidents yet we put children in there. In child seats. Don't assume everyone is a this irresponsible ass strawman. If cell phones were linked to harming anyone (elderaly, children, etc) then there would be real efforts to mitigate these dangers. Most states in the US, if not all, have child safety seat laws, seat belt laws, etc.
Comcast is 384kbps up, thats more than enough for VOIP. Hell, Vonage has a low-bandwidth codec option that's incredibly tiny. Now you said "using computer for other things." Well, if you're maxing out that upstream bandwith then all these packets will be in contention. Unless you've got a nice QoS implementation going you can't just sit around running bittorrent, emule, and limewire all the same time while browsing the web and expect quality VOIP service.
>The other.5% are people downloading his books, and not paying for them.
I think the real problem here, and one I don't think has really been addressed, is that the downloaders are a small number soley because it takes some tech skills to be able to find the book, convert it, and load it on some reader. If someone developed a stupid one-click solution to this then that.5% will be 50%. Then a lot of people will be screwed out of the money. Right now Corey's argument makes sense, but once automation is allowed, things change.
This is the 'napster problem.' Once copyright infrigement becomes easy, then everyone will do it. Essentially the RIAA's strategy isn't to stop infringement but to keep pushing it back to the "nerd corner" where they are accepted to take losses.
I think Corey is well meaning, but I don't see a solution to the above problem. Also, I think he can get away with CC books and the such because of his profile. This strategy is just not going to work for some unknown author. In fact I'm sure people are just like me and think "Why is this book being given away for free?"
A good solution to this problem is to ship the deadtree version of the book after the DRM purchase so the consumer has -something- when the DRM becomes unsupported. The actual printing of the book isn't all that expensive. The money has been made from the DRM purchase so it would only add a few dollars to the cost.
Similiarly, I should be able to walk into any record store and show my itunes receipt and get the full CD for media cost.
Of course none of the above will happen, unless it becomes legislation. I doubt DRM is going away, but we can at least demand it be bundled to a non-DRM product .
>I already have one of these. It helps me to live, so I named it a "liver".
I have one of these too and live in a network. I often interface and exchange data with the one called "wife." Its like sneakernet, but you use something other than your feet.
>a critic of Diebold's voting machines - was able to make 65,000 votes disappear simply by changing the memory card
And someone who has physical access to the old paper systems can't make votes disappear almost as easily?
Granted these machines could be a lot better, but the Bev Harris crowd do a really good job in pushing conspiracy theories and doing "tests" which only prove that someone with physical access willing to take a chance on being caught can destroy votes. You dont say?
>I'd rather a recount/do over of past elections in the Chicago area.
Go right ahead. The GOP is a running joke here. In 2004 they sent us Alan "Crazy" Keyes to take on Obama. It was hilarios listening to Keyes scream fire and brimstone for sinners while Obama acted like a, you know, adult.
Locally, Chicago is a democractic machine through culture and politics. There is no need for fraud when a significant portion of the voters are die-hard democrats.
Or is this a "joke" about corruption from the 60's? Lots of things have changed in 40 years and if you seriously think this town is so fraudulant that it steals seats from the GOP then please adjust your tin foil hat when watching your Bill OReily.
How do you "fairly steal" something? As much as I dislike Bush and distrust the companies that make voting machines and the system that allows partisan operators to run them, PLEASE get off the conspiracy theory that Bush and his people are some masterminds who stole the election from "good americans."
First off, there are no moderate/liberal americans in siginificant numbers. Every political poll in the US claims the following:
1. Abortion is unpopular. Only 35-38% of Americans agree with it. 25% would like to outlaw it.
2. Liberalism and secularism is seen as silly and useless, especially after 9.11. Ironic really. Democrats have an image problem about defense. In reality they're as hawkish as the GOP but tell that to joe blue collar who gets his Rush Limbaugh every day.
3. Quality of life issues are ignored or considered anti-free market.
The red states and just about everyone outside of the urban centers in the blue states are hung up on hot button issues, are easy to manipulate, vote against their interests, etc. That's the dark side of democracy. If people arent civically minded then its very easy for a savvy politician to get their votes.
Just the idea that voting machines need to be hacked for a very Christian and very conservative politician to win in the US is laughable. The US is very christian and very conservative. Most people can't admit this to themselves. We like to find a decent place to live and leave the hillbillies to themselves, but come election day their sheer numbers blow us away.
Bush won fairly. If you dont like his campaigning or fear mongering or politics then say so. In 2004 America got to decide whether Bush was worthy of 4 more years and they screamed yes.
This is just like any other country. Conservtives appeal to older folk (who vote), the business sector, and the religious people. That's a lot of votes right there. Now tack on a decent campaign to court the rest and you've got enough to win.
Also, blackboxvoting is not considered a reputable source. If there is a fraud story here it probably wont be found by them after screaming 'the sky is falling' so many times.
>I suspect that reports of MP3's death are, currently, somewhat exaggerated.
While I think you're right for the most part, one of the major problems with an mp3 player we used to sell was that it wouldn't support wma. The return rate was something like 15-20% (perhaps more) just because the users had all these wma files they couldn't play and assumed the device was broken. This was a bottom of the barrel player that was given out for next to free, but still, it showed me that wma is everywhere. At least with technophobes and new portabile music consumers. They really have no idea what drm, lossy, etc all means and just do whatever Windows or iTunes does by default.
MP3 will forever be here and I doubt will be replaced to save a little drive space for another format. LAME encodes incredibly well and 98% of the people cant tell the difference between 128kbps MP3 and source. The rest can't tell the difference between 192kbps. Special cases remain of course, certain kinds of music, passages, sounds, etc.
I also don't buy the "byte for byte" line. ABX testing has shown over and over that the 80kbps AAC or WMA file is noticably worse sounding than 128kbps MP3. So if people are encoding at these low rates in order to pack more music onto their 60gig ipods then they might be in for a surprise when they play this stuff back through anything other than the cheesy apple earbuds. The only reason to use these other formats is if you choose to purchase DRM music. Even then the resellers should be delivering 160 or 192kbps for the money. One dollar per song and no packaging?! And low quality? Err, no thanks.
What MP3 needs is a marketing campaign to tell consumers that it still sounds great and it plays on almost anything. Consumers need to know that if theyre going to spend hours turning all their CDs into "mp3s"to make sure they're acually making mp3s not wmas. Most people who use Windows Media 10 have no clue and call them mp3 when I talk to them. I'm afraid MP3 is too much like tivo. Everyone thinks they know what it is, but when pressed couldnt tell the difference between a tivo and a comcast DVR. The brand is so big that advertising would be silly. Not to mention such a campaign would hurt relations with the RIAA.
I do think mp3 is hurt and will continue to get hurt. Apple's player monopoly position plus Microsoft's OS monopoly position is not good at all for the mp3 format. On the bright side it is the de facto standard and eventually aac and wma users will come across vendor lock-in.
>Why is China the exception to the rule? Morality does not matter unless it's China?
First off the Free Tibet crowd is incredibly well funded and along with other issues like Taiwan, its politcally correct to be anti-Chinese in the US. The righties love it because it fits in with their xenophobia and fear of an emerging superpower and the lefties love it because what seems to be a cult of personality surrounding the dalai lama. Mind you when China invaded tibet the DM was the god king of a theocratic feudal area, he had wealth beyond imagination, monks controlled everything, and there was no such thing as democracy there. Now he sings a different tune and the Free Tibet people have done a good job of convicing college students that China and Tibet is all that matters.
I'm skeptical. The DM can take care of himself, Tibet is not the same tibet of the 40s, and theocracies make me sick (same with much of the middle east).
At its core lies some racism. Remember how mainstream racism as portrayed in old commercials, movies, and cartoons is now funny? Well, future generations will probably see this the same way.
Of course China's government is nothing to applaud, but Africa and the Middle East are much much larger problems. I think the Middle East gets a break because its "religion based" oppression thus the lefties cut them slack. The righties who tend to be very religious dont want to take secularism too seriously as it might bite them back in the ass here in the states.
Africa is largely ignored because it gets no press and is so poor most westerners assume its hopeless. Not to mention China and Google are much sexier to protest about than some warlord no one's ever heard of.
Lastly, this reminds me of all the anti-Japanese sentiment in the 80s. Everyone thought they were going to buy the US's economy and people were freaking out and being anti-japanese openly in public. Michael Crichton wrote an incredibly popular anti-japanese book called Rising Sun which was a big warning about how those "japs" were going to buy us all and control us. It was a best seller and turned into a movie. The events never quite happened. Now Crichton just wrotea book about debunking Global Warming. Like the 80s hate of japan, this may well pass especially as china continues its slow approach to reforms and becomes an more important internatinal player in manufacturing.
These are geek fantasies. In reality WoW is an incredible timesink, has a real learning curve for non-gamers, and players who dont get into helpful guilds don't usually advance. In real life, you can't do a MC run during your 9-5 job and if WoW is the new golf, please tell me who these golfers are so I can avoid their company. Obviously they're over-hiring.
Not to be a jerk, in fact I played WoW when I did support, but I could only play for a little bit at time. So we're talking very basic killing and quick alt-f4's when I needed to get work done or when something came up. If my character died during that period, then so be it.
This idea of "home use" both frightens and confuses me. My "listening environment" is whereever I happen to be. Its pretty rare where I'll just simply listen to music. Usually its on when Im in the car, at the computer, or just in the background. I'll give new albums a good listen but there's a good chance I'm also reading or doing something else at the same time. I don't sit there with my eyes closed and absorb the music in with $200 Grado headphones from a hi fi system and then weep when the CD is done. Granted I have nice headphones and decent speakers, but I'm more the exception than the rule nowadays.
Arguably, one of the neatest things about music lately is its portability. We're no longer slaves to top-40 radio when even a cheap mp3 player on random outperforms that old system. Instead of being completely obsessed with a handful of bands, we're getting exposed to quite a few musical acts and this has kind of devalued music to the background.
The hi-fi audiophile Maxell commercial lifestyle has gone out with the steamship .
>Do you really think people thousands of years ago would be able to grasp the notion of evolution?
Of course they could. Its not that complex. Not to mentiona a god, by definition, can impose this knowledge directly to people. But instead we have stories of floods, angels wrestling men, sinners turned to salt, etc. The typical stuff superstitious man would have imagined.
Not to mention "people thousands of years ago" were still people. In Jesus's time Rome was high civilization with incredibly complex culture, politics, etc. The Greeks were doing science on a level that would make most laymen blush in their ignorance. I really hate this little straw-man of people 2,000 years ago being these ignorant brutes who lived in caves until Jesus came along and told them some parables. Its ignorant of world history and assumes Christianity is the only path to knowledge, which is obviously wrong.
Also, if gods wanted to give us concrete information they could have at least given us basics on germ theory, surgery, etc. Questions that were only answered through some kind of rational inquiry, mind you with the church fighting progress tooth and nail by not allowing dissection of corpses and limiting what could be printed.
So, I'd be careful with the "7 days is a metaphor for science" argument as it just doesnt hold water. Floodwater or otherwise.
We all know that this won't increase security, but now this surveillance company can use this in all their advertising and PR. "Sure, you can go with the other company but they arent half as serious as we are. We put bloody implants into our employess! That's serious!"
Its harmless except for Joe and Jane Datacenter who have to go in for some minor surgery on the weekend to keep their jobs. I hope this "Golden Casino" mentality stops right here after these people get exposed for the dumbasses that they are. Hell, even in the article they did not know the weaknesses of RFID authentication.
I woulndt doubt if this was 100% publicity stunt. I wonder how many people even have to access the datacenter. Depending on the company size it could just be one or two people. Of course all the executives, security, etc will have the old keycards that will work just fine.
>People pressing for peace very rarely form the active mobs that make for interesting news.
Nonsense. Every peace protest against the Iraq war of a decent size was even on the worst of the corporate media channels. This isn't an issue of "balance."
>Just because Bill O'Reilly doesn't tell you about it doesn't mean that is never happened.
You don't need to insult those who might disagree with you by assuming they're some spoon-fed Fox News watchers. Your reply is exactly the same unconvincing stuff we see when large and powerful Christian groups do something extremely conservsative (anti-gay rhetoric, pro-censorship, etc) and someone links to a liberal Christian organization or says "Well, I'm Christian and I'm not like that."
Those are very disingenious arguments. Religion, as it exsits, is how its practiced by the lowest common denominator. In reaily, we don't see mass demonstrations against terrorism. Oddly enough, we see 'death to america' added to random protests like the recent ones over the cartoons. In reality, the Muslim world is living in something akin to the dark ages when you consider the power of religious authorities. In reality, fundamentalism isn't on the decline but on the rise. In reality, secularism is a dirty word in most Islamic cultures. In reality the silent moderate majority in Islam doesn't even exist. In reality, blasphemy is a serious crime in Muslim cultures. In reality, they don't consider it culture-based, but universal. In reality, Salmon Rushdie lived under British intelligence protection because of the fatwa declared on him. In reality, Cat Stevens wanted him dead too. In reality, the fatwa against Rushdie was widely supported. In reality, there is a double standard when it comes to mentioning muhammed -anywhere- for a variety of factors not the least of which is fear.
Reality and sophistry are not the same thing.
>Muslim leaders around the world have issued fatwa after fatwa condemning terrorism
And the pope is against the death penalty, but Catholics don't seem to have a problem with it en masse. Also, I question the sincerity of these fatwas. Not to mention that imams somehow had Danish flags ready to burn and mixed the cartoons with falsied cartoons showing muhammed in sexual situations. Its a bigger issue than just "Oh you're just not looking in the right places." Actually we are. And we've seen failed reform movement and failed reform movement. So I think people are justified in saying that Islam the religion and its followers are largely intolerant of free speech, especially when it comes to muhammed and they react uncivilized when faced with it.
And that's the problem. If you self-censor because you'll get fired, then that's fine in my book. If you self-censor because you don't want to become the next Salmon Rushdie than that is not fine.
This is exactly why they ran these cartoons, the Danish editor wanted to expose the double standard because of the fear of becoming the next Salmon Rushdie after a writer literally could not find someone willing to illustrate a children's book with muhammed as the main character.
I'm glad the Danes took this route. Someone had to expose this double standard. I've even seen Western papers add stuff in like 'blessed he be' when they refer to muhammed, who is just another religious figure. I see the word prophet capitalized for no good reason. A lot of this isn't done out of convention or respect, but out of fear. Fear of having a fatwa declared on you or your family.
Right, liberals like Jack Thompson or the American Family Association. Or all the Christian groups against violent games. Sigh. If anything this is an issue that spans ideology and I'd keep my eye on the conservatives as they're the ones in power right now.
Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the reason the talent is so easy-going is because they have so many hard-working underlings doing everything for them? And if one underling decided "I better take it easy" you can bet your ass that Mr. Cool Guy Laid-back star will be screaming "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CAPPUCINNO YOU NOBODY?!?!?"
These overzealous types are more or less forced to work this way to keep up the star's lazy lifestyle.
Slashdot Mirror
>This guy just sent $60 of his money to the same people who are responsible for his skins being worthless in AH.
I'd say the this is Blizzard's problem and fault. Its their broken economy and the assumption that this won't happen through some purges and EULA is laughable.
I never understood the allure of "crafting." When I fire up WoW I want to do some adventuring ASAP and if the game demands I take on 2 virtual jobs on top of my real one, then they're just cutting out adult gamers. Worse, the 'everyone must have a job in our virtual economy to get greens/repairs' design means crafting is worthless if everyone can do it. Ideally, crafters should be a minority of players who can create some semi-rare or specialized items. Right now Blizzard expects everyone to be a level 200+ something just to get gear to make the game playable.
This is a core and probably unfixable problem with player economies: the real world will step in. Gold farmers will take over. People with twenty bucks will pay them.
I see two solutions. One is to do away with crafting as a necessity and keep it as a rarity. Just put enough gold on the mobs and don't charge players to learn skills. Two: Have max wealth/value per accounts. If all you own is worth more than a certain amount you can't buy more. But that would hurt the 'addiction factor' of MMOs.
I just disenchant and sell to be able to pay trainers and buy the occasional blue from AH. I give extra mats to my guild. It works out, but now mats are inflated.
Low levels should be able to wear quest items and high levels should be able to raid for items. AH should be an exception, not the rule.
So until then, expect more farming, ninja looting, and general economic craziness.
Fallacy: The Bible or any religious book predicts events in the real world.
Thus the obligatory "OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN" post.
>..the scary part is, if they do cause ill effects...we're giving mobile communications devices to children younger and younger.
Automobiles cause ill effects when they get into accidents yet we put children in there. In child seats. Don't assume everyone is a this irresponsible ass strawman. If cell phones were linked to harming anyone (elderaly, children, etc) then there would be real efforts to mitigate these dangers. Most states in the US, if not all, have child safety seat laws, seat belt laws, etc.
Comcast is 384kbps up, thats more than enough for VOIP. Hell, Vonage has a low-bandwidth codec option that's incredibly tiny. Now you said "using computer for other things." Well, if you're maxing out that upstream bandwith then all these packets will be in contention. Unless you've got a nice QoS implementation going you can't just sit around running bittorrent, emule, and limewire all the same time while browsing the web and expect quality VOIP service.
>The other .5% are people downloading his books, and not paying for them.
.5% will be 50%. Then a lot of people will be screwed out of the money. Right now Corey's argument makes sense, but once automation is allowed, things change.
I think the real problem here, and one I don't think has really been addressed, is that the downloaders are a small number soley because it takes some tech skills to be able to find the book, convert it, and load it on some reader. If someone developed a stupid one-click solution to this then that
This is the 'napster problem.' Once copyright infrigement becomes easy, then everyone will do it. Essentially the RIAA's strategy isn't to stop infringement but to keep pushing it back to the "nerd corner" where they are accepted to take losses.
I think Corey is well meaning, but I don't see a solution to the above problem. Also, I think he can get away with CC books and the such because of his profile. This strategy is just not going to work for some unknown author. In fact I'm sure people are just like me and think "Why is this book being given away for free?"
A good solution to this problem is to ship the deadtree version of the book after the DRM purchase so the consumer has -something- when the DRM becomes unsupported. The actual printing of the book isn't all that expensive. The money has been made from the DRM purchase so it would only add a few dollars to the cost.
Similiarly, I should be able to walk into any record store and show my itunes receipt and get the full CD for media cost.
Of course none of the above will happen, unless it becomes legislation. I doubt DRM is going away, but we can at least demand it be bundled to a non-DRM product .
>I already have one of these. It helps me to live, so I named it a "liver".
I have one of these too and live in a network. I often interface and exchange data with the one called "wife." Its like sneakernet, but you use something other than your feet.
>a critic of Diebold's voting machines - was able to make 65,000 votes disappear simply by changing the memory card
And someone who has physical access to the old paper systems can't make votes disappear almost as easily?
Granted these machines could be a lot better, but the Bev Harris crowd do a really good job in pushing conspiracy theories and doing "tests" which only prove that someone with physical access willing to take a chance on being caught can destroy votes. You dont say?
>I'd rather a recount/do over of past elections in the Chicago area.
Go right ahead. The GOP is a running joke here. In 2004 they sent us Alan "Crazy" Keyes to take on Obama. It was hilarios listening to Keyes scream fire and brimstone for sinners while Obama acted like a, you know, adult.
Locally, Chicago is a democractic machine through culture and politics. There is no need for fraud when a significant portion of the voters are die-hard democrats.
Or is this a "joke" about corruption from the 60's? Lots of things have changed in 40 years and if you seriously think this town is so fraudulant that it steals seats from the GOP then please adjust your tin foil hat when watching your Bill OReily.
>Bush stole the election fair and square.
How do you "fairly steal" something? As much as I dislike Bush and distrust the companies that make voting machines and the system that allows partisan operators to run them, PLEASE get off the conspiracy theory that Bush and his people are some masterminds who stole the election from "good americans."
First off, there are no moderate/liberal americans in siginificant numbers. Every political poll in the US claims the following:
1. Abortion is unpopular. Only 35-38% of Americans agree with it. 25% would like to outlaw it.
2. Liberalism and secularism is seen as silly and useless, especially after 9.11. Ironic really. Democrats have an image problem about defense. In reality they're as hawkish as the GOP but tell that to joe blue collar who gets his Rush Limbaugh every day.
3. Quality of life issues are ignored or considered anti-free market.
The red states and just about everyone outside of the urban centers in the blue states are hung up on hot button issues, are easy to manipulate, vote against their interests, etc. That's the dark side of democracy. If people arent civically minded then its very easy for a savvy politician to get their votes.
Just the idea that voting machines need to be hacked for a very Christian and very conservative politician to win in the US is laughable. The US is very christian and very conservative. Most people can't admit this to themselves. We like to find a decent place to live and leave the hillbillies to themselves, but come election day their sheer numbers blow us away.
Bush won fairly. If you dont like his campaigning or fear mongering or politics then say so. In 2004 America got to decide whether Bush was worthy of 4 more years and they screamed yes.
This is just like any other country. Conservtives appeal to older folk (who vote), the business sector, and the religious people. That's a lot of votes right there. Now tack on a decent campaign to court the rest and you've got enough to win.
Also, blackboxvoting is not considered a reputable source. If there is a fraud story here it probably wont be found by them after screaming 'the sky is falling' so many times.
>I suspect that reports of MP3's death are, currently, somewhat exaggerated.
While I think you're right for the most part, one of the major problems with an mp3 player we used to sell was that it wouldn't support wma. The return rate was something like 15-20% (perhaps more) just because the users had all these wma files they couldn't play and assumed the device was broken. This was a bottom of the barrel player that was given out for next to free, but still, it showed me that wma is everywhere. At least with technophobes and new portabile music consumers. They really have no idea what drm, lossy, etc all means and just do whatever Windows or iTunes does by default.
MP3 will forever be here and I doubt will be replaced to save a little drive space for another format. LAME encodes incredibly well and 98% of the people cant tell the difference between 128kbps MP3 and source. The rest can't tell the difference between 192kbps. Special cases remain of course, certain kinds of music, passages, sounds, etc.
I also don't buy the "byte for byte" line. ABX testing has shown over and over that the 80kbps AAC or WMA file is noticably worse sounding than 128kbps MP3. So if people are encoding at these low rates in order to pack more music onto their 60gig ipods then they might be in for a surprise when they play this stuff back through anything other than the cheesy apple earbuds. The only reason to use these other formats is if you choose to purchase DRM music. Even then the resellers should be delivering 160 or 192kbps for the money. One dollar per song and no packaging?! And low quality? Err, no thanks.
What MP3 needs is a marketing campaign to tell consumers that it still sounds great and it plays on almost anything. Consumers need to know that if theyre going to spend hours turning all their CDs into "mp3s"to make sure they're acually making mp3s not wmas. Most people who use Windows Media 10 have no clue and call them mp3 when I talk to them. I'm afraid MP3 is too much like tivo. Everyone thinks they know what it is, but when pressed couldnt tell the difference between a tivo and a comcast DVR. The brand is so big that advertising would be silly. Not to mention such a campaign would hurt relations with the RIAA.
I do think mp3 is hurt and will continue to get hurt. Apple's player monopoly position plus Microsoft's OS monopoly position is not good at all for the mp3 format. On the bright side it is the de facto standard and eventually aac and wma users will come across vendor lock-in.
Haha. The one person who doesn't regret the Bush/Cheney votes!
>Why is China the exception to the rule? Morality does not matter unless it's China?
First off the Free Tibet crowd is incredibly well funded and along with other issues like Taiwan, its politcally correct to be anti-Chinese in the US. The righties love it because it fits in with their xenophobia and fear of an emerging superpower and the lefties love it because what seems to be a cult of personality surrounding the dalai lama. Mind you when China invaded tibet the DM was the god king of a theocratic feudal area, he had wealth beyond imagination, monks controlled everything, and there was no such thing as democracy there. Now he sings a different tune and the Free Tibet people have done a good job of convicing college students that China and Tibet is all that matters.
I'm skeptical. The DM can take care of himself, Tibet is not the same tibet of the 40s, and theocracies make me sick (same with much of the middle east).
At its core lies some racism. Remember how mainstream racism as portrayed in old commercials, movies, and cartoons is now funny? Well, future generations will probably see this the same way.
Of course China's government is nothing to applaud, but Africa and the Middle East are much much larger problems. I think the Middle East gets a break because its "religion based" oppression thus the lefties cut them slack. The righties who tend to be very religious dont want to take secularism too seriously as it might bite them back in the ass here in the states.
Africa is largely ignored because it gets no press and is so poor most westerners assume its hopeless. Not to mention China and Google are much sexier to protest about than some warlord no one's ever heard of.
Lastly, this reminds me of all the anti-Japanese sentiment in the 80s. Everyone thought they were going to buy the US's economy and people were freaking out and being anti-japanese openly in public. Michael Crichton wrote an incredibly popular anti-japanese book called Rising Sun which was a big warning about how those "japs" were going to buy us all and control us. It was a best seller and turned into a movie. The events never quite happened. Now Crichton just wrotea book about debunking Global Warming. Like the 80s hate of japan, this may well pass especially as china continues its slow approach to reforms and becomes an more important internatinal player in manufacturing.
These are geek fantasies. In reality WoW is an incredible timesink, has a real learning curve for non-gamers, and players who dont get into helpful guilds don't usually advance. In real life, you can't do a MC run during your 9-5 job and if WoW is the new golf, please tell me who these golfers are so I can avoid their company. Obviously they're over-hiring.
Not to be a jerk, in fact I played WoW when I did support, but I could only play for a little bit at time. So we're talking very basic killing and quick alt-f4's when I needed to get work done or when something came up. If my character died during that period, then so be it.
This idea of "home use" both frightens and confuses me. My "listening environment" is whereever I happen to be. Its pretty rare where I'll just simply listen to music. Usually its on when Im in the car, at the computer, or just in the background. I'll give new albums a good listen but there's a good chance I'm also reading or doing something else at the same time. I don't sit there with my eyes closed and absorb the music in with $200 Grado headphones from a hi fi system and then weep when the CD is done. Granted I have nice headphones and decent speakers, but I'm more the exception than the rule nowadays.
Arguably, one of the neatest things about music lately is its portability. We're no longer slaves to top-40 radio when even a cheap mp3 player on random outperforms that old system. Instead of being completely obsessed with a handful of bands, we're getting exposed to quite a few musical acts and this has kind of devalued music to the background.
The hi-fi audiophile Maxell commercial lifestyle has gone out with the steamship .
>Of course immature OSS is doomed in the Enterprise.
Yeah, but you know Geordi runs it anyway.
>Do you really think people thousands of years ago would be able to grasp the notion of evolution?
Of course they could. Its not that complex. Not to mentiona a god, by definition, can impose this knowledge directly to people. But instead we have stories of floods, angels wrestling men, sinners turned to salt, etc. The typical stuff superstitious man would have imagined.
Not to mention "people thousands of years ago" were still people. In Jesus's time Rome was high civilization with incredibly complex culture, politics, etc. The Greeks were doing science on a level that would make most laymen blush in their ignorance. I really hate this little straw-man of people 2,000 years ago being these ignorant brutes who lived in caves until Jesus came along and told them some parables. Its ignorant of world history and assumes Christianity is the only path to knowledge, which is obviously wrong.
Also, if gods wanted to give us concrete information they could have at least given us basics on germ theory, surgery, etc. Questions that were only answered through some kind of rational inquiry, mind you with the church fighting progress tooth and nail by not allowing dissection of corpses and limiting what could be printed.
So, I'd be careful with the "7 days is a metaphor for science" argument as it just doesnt hold water. Floodwater or otherwise.
We all know that this won't increase security, but now this surveillance company can use this in all their advertising and PR. "Sure, you can go with the other company but they arent half as serious as we are. We put bloody implants into our employess! That's serious!"
Its harmless except for Joe and Jane Datacenter who have to go in for some minor surgery on the weekend to keep their jobs. I hope this "Golden Casino" mentality stops right here after these people get exposed for the dumbasses that they are. Hell, even in the article they did not know the weaknesses of RFID authentication.
I woulndt doubt if this was 100% publicity stunt. I wonder how many people even have to access the datacenter. Depending on the company size it could just be one or two people. Of course all the executives, security, etc will have the old keycards that will work just fine.
>I still see global warming as a theory.
As opposed to seeing it on tuesday at the local Starbucks?
I see gravity as a thoery too.
>You create a craze by convincing people they are missing out. Remember Beanie Babies?
People are mindless conformists! So what flavor of Linux do you run?
>and every other bombing short of another Uwe Boll film.
How about a Theo van Gogh film?
>People pressing for peace very rarely form the active mobs that make for interesting news.
Nonsense. Every peace protest against the Iraq war of a decent size was even on the worst of the corporate media channels. This isn't an issue of "balance."
>Just because Bill O'Reilly doesn't tell you about it doesn't mean that is never happened.
You don't need to insult those who might disagree with you by assuming they're some spoon-fed Fox News watchers. Your reply is exactly the same unconvincing stuff we see when large and powerful Christian groups do something extremely conservsative (anti-gay rhetoric, pro-censorship, etc) and someone links to a liberal Christian organization or says "Well, I'm Christian and I'm not like that."
Those are very disingenious arguments. Religion, as it exsits, is how its practiced by the lowest common denominator. In reaily, we don't see mass demonstrations against terrorism. Oddly enough, we see 'death to america' added to random protests like the recent ones over the cartoons. In reality, the Muslim world is living in something akin to the dark ages when you consider the power of religious authorities. In reality, fundamentalism isn't on the decline but on the rise. In reality, secularism is a dirty word in most Islamic cultures. In reality the silent moderate majority in Islam doesn't even exist. In reality, blasphemy is a serious crime in Muslim cultures. In reality, they don't consider it culture-based, but universal. In reality, Salmon Rushdie lived under British intelligence protection because of the fatwa declared on him. In reality, Cat Stevens wanted him dead too. In reality, the fatwa against Rushdie was widely supported. In reality, there is a double standard when it comes to mentioning muhammed -anywhere- for a variety of factors not the least of which is fear.
Reality and sophistry are not the same thing.
>Muslim leaders around the world have issued fatwa after fatwa condemning terrorism
And the pope is against the death penalty, but Catholics don't seem to have a problem with it en masse. Also, I question the sincerity of these fatwas. Not to mention that imams somehow had Danish flags ready to burn and mixed the cartoons with falsied cartoons showing muhammed in sexual situations. Its a bigger issue than just "Oh you're just not looking in the right places." Actually we are. And we've seen failed reform movement and failed reform movement. So I think people are justified in saying that Islam the religion and its followers are largely intolerant of free speech, especially when it comes to muhammed and they react uncivilized when faced with it.
>People self-censor.
And that's the problem. If you self-censor because you'll get fired, then that's fine in my book. If you self-censor because you don't want to become the next Salmon Rushdie than that is not fine.
This is exactly why they ran these cartoons, the Danish editor wanted to expose the double standard because of the fear of becoming the next Salmon Rushdie after a writer literally could not find someone willing to illustrate a children's book with muhammed as the main character.
I'm glad the Danes took this route. Someone had to expose this double standard. I've even seen Western papers add stuff in like 'blessed he be' when they refer to muhammed, who is just another religious figure. I see the word prophet capitalized for no good reason. A lot of this isn't done out of convention or respect, but out of fear. Fear of having a fatwa declared on you or your family.
Right, liberals like Jack Thompson or the American Family Association. Or all the Christian groups against violent games. Sigh. If anything this is an issue that spans ideology and I'd keep my eye on the conservatives as they're the ones in power right now.
Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the reason the talent is so easy-going is because they have so many hard-working underlings doing everything for them? And if one underling decided "I better take it easy" you can bet your ass that Mr. Cool Guy Laid-back star will be screaming "WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CAPPUCINNO YOU NOBODY?!?!?"
These overzealous types are more or less forced to work this way to keep up the star's lazy lifestyle.