and other hilarious quotes from people with more money than common sense. The worst if it is that I can't go to a bar or a restaurant without seeing another HDTV flatscreen stretching out an NTSC signal so everyone looks short and chubby.
Seriously, they're doing what yahoo and hotmail have been doing for a couple years now. Not terribly newsworthy, but hey, its google. I wonder how our kids and grandkids will see the google hype which so far has been one good search engine and lots of aquisitions and me too projects.
>They have a lot to prove before I even think about using this application.
Right on! And lets block google at the router because of the concessions they've made for various governments, the DMCA, etc. Wait, lets toss the router because Cicso has had a hand in the great Chinese firewall. Wait, lets toss Slashdot because of the bias of ownership and dupes.
If you keep thinking like that, you'll end up naked in the forest. Good thing you have double standards, eh?
Just about anything that helps Joe and Jane Everyperson secure their PC is fairly good in my book and might just push the AV vendors into producing something other than bloaty, messy, crappy apps.
I've noticed the same thing on my machine at work. Just terrible pop-ups, even with firefox, some of which mimick MS's security center or are just more 'punch the monkey' ads. I've seen flash embedded spam with voice-overs, which are unintentionaly hilarious with this dead-pan 1950's voice.
Screw the return of the bad old days, I block using a host file so no matter what browser, mailer, etc I'm using, a lot of this stuff doesn't get through. Funny, I still spend an incredible amount of money on purchases and actaully might do some research before buying a large ticket item. I dont feel a flashy ad or an expensive TV campaign has anything to say other than "Look at how we're pissing away our money!"
The GUI matters because lets face it, these are fluff articles about a game system which isn't anything but first to the market.
So you see articles about GUIs, and pricing, supply chain management, and schedules. Its like working at Microsoft and sitting through a boring meeting on xbox360. I can't wait for it to come out so I can stop hearing the rumors.
Not to mention all the live demos I've seen have been attached to nice HDTV's. Those killer game graphics the reviewers rave about isnt going to look nearly as good on the old fashioned NTSC tv in the bedroom.
Its, umm, Bladerunner. Right before he left Novell he reportedly also said, "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."
>I'd like a game with a really good crafting system.
I never understood this mentality. To me its like saying "I would also like a game where I have to put in 9 hours of work, eat, and poop." At this point you might as well admit you're Sims 2 material.
>Did you guys really vote for all this, um, stuff? Take your country back.
Do you really think the average voter has any idea what a national security letter might be and if they did the proper checks and balances such a thing would need. Or if they are even aware of the big privacy debate going on? They don't. During the last election, from what I was told first hand, people voted on:
1. Terrorism: Usually "Bush will teach them 'Rabs" kind of attitude. 2. Gay marriage: This was surprisingly everywhere before the election and no where now. Funny how that works. 3. Abortion: The usual crap here. 4. Vietnam: Kerry's status as a vet opened up the old vietnam wounds.
Only political junkies cared about privacy, civil rights, economic stability, social security, judge appointments, etc.
I don't think most countries are too different, the LCD tend to vote on hot button issues and the educated and elitist classes take on everything else. Asking "Did you people really vote for this stuff" is kinda non-starter. People don't even vote on this stuff, they vote for what they know.
Essentially this is your classic "raise the discourse" argument, but one of the nice things of being at the top of the world as a superpower in about a dozen different ways is that there's little incentive to learn about foreign policy, civil issues, other countries, other systems, etc. As long as there is wealth and safety one can remain fairly ignorant of a lot of things. This eventually does bite one in the ass and will probably coincide with the loss of a superpower status as Europe and Asia keep rising.
I've worked with many credulous people and our offices are haunted. After a little investigation I've found the ghosts:
1. Mysterious cold draft: The HVAC vents
2. Mysterious shaking: Skyscrapers are designed to sway a little in the wind.
3. Mysterious misc: humans are spending more time indoors than outdoors thus the ghosts have "moved" with them. No, people are just letting their imaginations run wild wherever they go.
4. Mysterious flicker of the light: florescents going out.
Above mixed with "it only happens when..." thus it must be supernatural is nothing but selective thinking.
The only truly ghoulish things I've found in my office ironically were:
1. The jehovah's witness who keeps the Watchtower laying around and preaches to new hires. Sorry, but missionary work on the job should be grounds for an immediate firing. Period. Unfortunately, I would think american politicians and judges would quickly call this some sort of discrimination due to vested interests.
2. Setting up a special prayer room for a muslim students at my old school. Hey, I'm all for it, but say I declare myself a discordian tomorrow can I get a chaos room full of nerf guns and classic videogames? Thought not. Double BS standard. My imaginary friend is just as real as yours.
3. Email chains full of "pray for so-and-so." Well, if so-and-so's kid is dead or if they have cancer I doubt some clasped hands are going to make any difference. Sorry, but life is rough. Sometimes really rough, and people have my sympathy, but I won't "share in a prayer with you" thank you ever much. Not to mention, the root question of begging the god who gave so-and-so cancer to take it away seems to spit the face of the whole allowing god(s) to control human affairs. The religious never seem to see it this way.
4. Email chains from the Dali Lama. Oh please, just because you're into Eastern religion doesnt make you *any* different than the Catholic down the hall. The snobby white suburban buddists have more disdain for Christianity than I do. You're both on par with my imaginary friend Eris, but just afraid to really admit it.
I may seem anti-religious, but I just wish people would keep it to themselves for once.
Actually, its not fair to give credit to the onion for the Harry Potten is Satanism for kids meme. According to various religious groups the following have either sparked satanism or are satanic in themselves (from memory, but im sure there's a big list somewhere). I was around in the 80s when these mainstream groups were still considered fringe. Now they're respected guests on all the news shows.
Heavy metal music (ozzy) or Rock music (AC/DC)
Tolkien and tons of other fantasy writers
Role Playing Games (mostly D&D)
Scientology (not Christian, but not satanic other)
If someone is stupid enough to be fooled by "Study Reveals Pittsburgh Unprepared For Full-Scale Zombie Attack" or "Bush Disappointed To Learn Chinese Foreign Minister Doesn't Know Karate" then something tells me a slight modification to the presidential seal isnt going to make any difference.
>What is happening is that several countries (not the UN)
Remember, we'll dealing with a loudmouth Republican senator here whose career is pretty much badmouthing the UN. Facts are secondary.
Essentially, from what I've read about this issue is that these foreign economies are a bit nervous of doing all this business on a US controlled network, so they write up a few requests and papers for somehow decentralizing DNS or at least sharing root servers. Some of these papers may have come from UN letterhead. Oh, the horrors. New World Order. Microchips in our hands, the second coming, etc.
Back on planet earth, these are serious concerns and someone might make a break for a seperate DNS system or some kinda of solution if the US won't play ball. We're already seeing it in Europe's Galileo system because the EU doesnt want to be investing in GPS technologies considering the US can shut them off anytime it feels like it.
Currently, the US has been a gracious host, but as internet activities become more and more important its simply a good idea for foreign countries to look after their own. The recent spat between level3 communications and SBC (?) is showing people that the current stability of the net is not something to take for granted.
> The ESRB is a board set up by the game industry itself. It is self-policing. The government has no involvement in it
First off, the content industry learned long ago if they don't self-police then the government will step in and police them. This is why you have stuff like the Comics Code Authority, TV ratings, warning stickers on music, etc.
Now these ratings systems are used and abused by retailers. Many stores simply wont sell games rated violent to people under 18 for the very same fear. Other companies abuse this leverage. For instance Walmart sells so many magazines, it can dictate content such as what goes on the cover. Many publishers submit their covers to Walmart first to make sure the Walmart moralists are happy with it. Not to mention editing of tracks on music.
So, its really disingenious to say that the US lacks censorship because its not done by the government per se. Also, I would like to remind some of the posters here that the FCC does censor content over public airwaves, usually to the wishes of religious moralists. Also state and municipal governments pull books from libraries all the time due to trivial complaints and lately some states have been working hard to erase other "threatening" ideas like biological evolution.
The European criticism is a strong one, but like someone said all censorship is local. These are the countries that are still healing from the horrors of WWII, which to me is a much more compelling reason to limit access to something than the American "Jesus told me he doesn't like it" culture-war bullshit reasons. Also, I'd like to mention that finding a copy of Mein Kampf isn't hard to do in Europe, but libraries in my own town have pulled books for "homosexual" or "anti-family" content.
Also, the US is no more pro-speech on the internet than any other country and all the bills that barely failed to pass as laws to censor the crap out of the internet should give Americans pause about censorship. I don't care if the Germans are "worse," it shouldnt be happening period. Now toss in Utah's big porn control law which is still in effect and you've obviously got real unresolved censorship issues.
Videogames are still new media and the "We'll censor ourselves" approach has worked pretty well, but its still a hot-button issue and people like Jack Thompson and his millions of followers (or at least people who agree with him) are a strong influence in American culture and possibly law. Expect further tightening of "self-censoring" and retailers refusing to sell to minors for more trivial reasons.
Yes! Except the recent batch of lies from the executive office went like so:
1. Someone lied about sex after a tax-payer funded out of control witch hunt. No one was killed or injured.
2. Someone lied about a whole mess of things and 2,000 US soldiers are dead in an unpopular who knows how many billoins of dollars war.
Hmm, I'm starting to see some differences.
How about that sweet bankrupcy law change (think big hand out to the credit card companies) that only could get passed with a GOP controlled government?
Look closer, you'll notice a real difference. I know its cool to take the "everyone is corrupt, the same, and life is hopeless" stance here at slashdot and pretend libertarianism works, so enjoy your mod points.
>I make about $25/hour. Now, if I really want equipment X, and it's on eBay for $50, what makes more sense? Spend 6 hours farming/questing for it, or put another two hours in at the office and call it even?
The catch is that after about 5 more hours of gameplay, that dagger of super-killing is suddenly average equipment for your level. So to remain in gear that slightly better than the average user user, you need to add 2 hours of real work (the fifty dollars) for about every 5 hours of playing. This adds up, obviously.
I learned this by keeping my WoW alt in really nice gear by draining the bank account of my higher up. Its a waste, unless you're going to keep that armor or weapon for a serious amount of time.
Worse, that weapon will help you level even faster, thus making it obselete even quicker. Usually its only worth buying items that are extremely rare, knowing the purchase you've made is permanent and saves you 100 hours of attempts to get some piece of armor off some major mob, but that welcomes the question of why are you even playing these kinds of games? If you dont want to burn 10 hours with a group to kill that major mob then what are you doing?
This kind of thing reminds me of those people with really nice $2,000 guitars who couldnt play themselves out of a wet paper bag, but it does look cool on the wall. Not to insult you, but good game balance should force users to fight and work for their gear. If you dont like this, then don't play these type of RPG games. One of the real allures of these games is the time it takes. To a lot of players its like a rite of passage to have finished some game or to have hit level 50 or whatever. Its also fun to take on challenge. A little help here and there is nice, but opening up the economy completely and buying your way into everything really does contradict the purpose of the game. Unless MMOs are just online equivalants of pissing contests where people can brag, "Oh and I have the stick of beating for my priest!!" Like the $2000 guitar, it looks good, but this is more a collector's mentality than a player's mentality.
>"The right of the people to keep and arm bears shall not be infringed!" - Amendment IIb
Funny, the real constitution doesn't have an exclamation point. Also, your quote is misleading as its not even its own full sentence, its part of a line about militias:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
>Would this be a bad time to mention that all digital audio is by definition lossey?
Wait. What makes "digital" lossy but non-digital non-lossy?
Pick any analog method of recording and duplication. Its lossy. Now toss in playback equipment, speakers, ears, etc.
I don't see how your neo-luddite comment applies nor why it should be modded up.
Arguably, digital methods are non-lossy over time considering current analog recordings (tapes, LPs) over time simply disintegrate causing all sorts of loss, while digital data can be reproduced without loss over generations and onto different digital media thus avoiding the aging problem. Copy that Office 2000 CD all you like, after the 8th generation you arent suddenly going to lose spell checker. Same with digital audio. Now copy that audio tape 8 times and tell me its not lossy.
>A partial solution can be worse than no solution at all, especially if you keep telling the patient that it's all the patient's fault/responsibility.
Who the hell does this? Im so sick of these ill-informed attacks on psychology a la Tom Cruise.
When a person is diagnosed with, say, generalized anxiety disorder (something many anti-social types may have) the last thing that is done is some blame game. Figuring out a treatment schedule is what's done. And no, its not some big "$200 per hour" scam, its Behavioral Cognitive therapy and perhaps medication to treat short term symptoms. Believing in conspiracy theories, marginizing treatment, and pissing on doctors in general only hurts patients who hear all this and then never bother seeking treatment. "See a head shrinker? Not me, I'm not some loon," is heard all too often. Meanwhile, millions suffer in silence and friends and loved ones can't figure out what's wrong with someone they care about, but who can't manage to hold down a job, finish school, etc.
I hate to break it to you, but depending on the causes of the disorder stuff like "talk" therapy and CBT actually work (CBT clocking in at 90% success rate) and have helped millions of people.
Lastly, ff you have issues with what doctors' charge, then that's a political issue on whether governments should be subsidizing or socializing medicine. Or a commercial issue on whether your insurance is actually serving you or not.
Actually, you need 11 megabytes free on the device to upgrade the firmware. Arguably, execs on the go shouldnt even be doing this, their IT departments should be handling system updates. You wouldnt want them to upgrade from 2000 to XP on their own would you?
Granted, it is overhyped, but it does a lot of things people want. I just wish it wasnt so big and ugly.
1. Hybrid owners most likely will *not* keep the car past warranty. They fully know its going to be a maintance nightmare.
2. Hybrid owners were going to spend that much anyway on a car, and now enjoy higher MPG without buying a cheesy 100-120 hp Geo/Kia/whatever.
3. Hybrid owners may be getting subsidies from the state, thus lowering the overall cost.
I think point 2 is the most important. If someone was planning on spending that much on a car anyway then its already a sunk cost.
One could easily argue that air conditioning is never worth it and should be abandoned because of how much gas it uses, maintenance, etc compared to rolling down the windows and dealing with the heat. But people can afford AC units in cars and will give up one convience (MPG) for another (AC). The same is true with hybrids. You give up the best MPG deal (a Kia or a Scion) for a nicer car (an Accord or Prius) with very good MPG.
As long as Honda and the rest keep attracting this demographic the more mainstream the hybrid comes and arguable lower costs and eventually a hybrid which can outperform Kia on cost. At first all things are expensive.
>Find hobbies that have nothing to do with technology. Ride bikes, run, lift weights, camp, geocache, buy a gun,
Just about every example you listed is technological.
Riding bikes: ever try buying a bike? Its a highly technical piece of equipment. The act of riding may not be very technical, but this certainly has to do with technology.
Lift weights: This is highly technological. At the gym I had my workout down to a science using various weight training machines and burning the right amount of calories on cardio.
camp: See riding bikes.
buy a gun: Same as riding bikes, if not more technical. Talk to a gun nerd/nut sometime.
The point I'm trying to make is that you just can't unplug from technology. You just switch from one form (computers) to another. If anything you're advocating variety, not balance.
Slashdot Mirror
>FFS.
Fat Father Syndrome? Wasn't that in an episode of Home Movies?
and other hilarious quotes from people with more money than common sense. The worst if it is that I can't go to a bar or a restaurant without seeing another HDTV flatscreen stretching out an NTSC signal so everyone looks short and chubby.
>actually scanning for virii?
Virii isn't a word. So no, they're not.
Seriously, they're doing what yahoo and hotmail have been doing for a couple years now. Not terribly newsworthy, but hey, its google. I wonder how our kids and grandkids will see the google hype which so far has been one good search engine and lots of aquisitions and me too projects.
>They have a lot to prove before I even think about using this application.
Right on! And lets block google at the router because of the concessions they've made for various governments, the DMCA, etc. Wait, lets toss the router because Cicso has had a hand in the great Chinese firewall. Wait, lets toss Slashdot because of the bias of ownership and dupes.
If you keep thinking like that, you'll end up naked in the forest. Good thing you have double standards, eh?
Just about anything that helps Joe and Jane Everyperson secure their PC is fairly good in my book and might just push the AV vendors into producing something other than bloaty, messy, crappy apps.
I've noticed the same thing on my machine at work. Just terrible pop-ups, even with firefox, some of which mimick MS's security center or are just more 'punch the monkey' ads. I've seen flash embedded spam with voice-overs, which are unintentionaly hilarious with this dead-pan 1950's voice.
Screw the return of the bad old days, I block using a host file so no matter what browser, mailer, etc I'm using, a lot of this stuff doesn't get through. Funny, I still spend an incredible amount of money on purchases and actaully might do some research before buying a large ticket item. I dont feel a flashy ad or an expensive TV campaign has anything to say other than "Look at how we're pissing away our money!"
The GUI matters because lets face it, these are fluff articles about a game system which isn't anything but first to the market.
So you see articles about GUIs, and pricing, supply chain management, and schedules. Its like working at Microsoft and sitting through a boring meeting on xbox360. I can't wait for it to come out so I can stop hearing the rumors.
Not to mention all the live demos I've seen have been attached to nice HDTV's. Those killer game graphics the reviewers rave about isnt going to look nearly as good on the old fashioned NTSC tv in the bedroom.
> What is the "too late for me" in reference to?
Its, umm, Bladerunner. Right before he left Novell he reportedly also said, "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."
Dramatic fellow. Maybe he should be an actor.
>I'd like a game with a really good crafting system.
I never understood this mentality. To me its like saying "I would also like a game where I have to put in 9 hours of work, eat, and poop." At this point you might as well admit you're Sims 2 material.
>Did you guys really vote for all this, um, stuff? Take your country back.
Do you really think the average voter has any idea what a national security letter might be and if they did the proper checks and balances such a thing would need. Or if they are even aware of the big privacy debate going on? They don't. During the last election, from what I was told first hand, people voted on:
1. Terrorism: Usually "Bush will teach them 'Rabs" kind of attitude.
2. Gay marriage: This was surprisingly everywhere before the election and no where now. Funny how that works.
3. Abortion: The usual crap here.
4. Vietnam: Kerry's status as a vet opened up the old vietnam wounds.
Only political junkies cared about privacy, civil rights, economic stability, social security, judge appointments, etc.
I don't think most countries are too different, the LCD tend to vote on hot button issues and the educated and elitist classes take on everything else. Asking "Did you people really vote for this stuff" is kinda non-starter. People don't even vote on this stuff, they vote for what they know.
Essentially this is your classic "raise the discourse" argument, but one of the nice things of being at the top of the world as a superpower in about a dozen different ways is that there's little incentive to learn about foreign policy, civil issues, other countries, other systems, etc. As long as there is wealth and safety one can remain fairly ignorant of a lot of things. This eventually does bite one in the ass and will probably coincide with the loss of a superpower status as Europe and Asia keep rising.
> I'm sure Google is completely innocent of spyware
The price for the toolbar with pagerank is spyware. Google is a data-mining company, not a charity. Its in the TOS.
I've worked with many credulous people and our offices are haunted. After a little investigation I've found the ghosts:
1. Mysterious cold draft: The HVAC vents
2. Mysterious shaking: Skyscrapers are designed to sway a little in the wind.
3. Mysterious misc: humans are spending more time indoors than outdoors thus the ghosts have "moved" with them. No, people are just letting their imaginations run wild wherever they go.
4. Mysterious flicker of the light: florescents going out.
Above mixed with "it only happens when..." thus it must be supernatural is nothing but selective thinking.
The only truly ghoulish things I've found in my office ironically were:
1. The jehovah's witness who keeps the Watchtower laying around and preaches to new hires. Sorry, but missionary work on the job should be grounds for an immediate firing. Period. Unfortunately, I would think american politicians and judges would quickly call this some sort of discrimination due to vested interests.
2. Setting up a special prayer room for a muslim students at my old school. Hey, I'm all for it, but say I declare myself a discordian tomorrow can I get a chaos room full of nerf guns and classic videogames? Thought not. Double BS standard. My imaginary friend is just as real as yours.
3. Email chains full of "pray for so-and-so." Well, if so-and-so's kid is dead or if they have cancer I doubt some clasped hands are going to make any difference. Sorry, but life is rough. Sometimes really rough, and people have my sympathy, but I won't "share in a prayer with you" thank you ever much. Not to mention, the root question of begging the god who gave so-and-so cancer to take it away seems to spit the face of the whole allowing god(s) to control human affairs. The religious never seem to see it this way.
4. Email chains from the Dali Lama. Oh please, just because you're into Eastern religion doesnt make you *any* different than the Catholic down the hall. The snobby white suburban buddists have more disdain for Christianity than I do. You're both on par with my imaginary friend Eris, but just afraid to really admit it.
I may seem anti-religious, but I just wish people would keep it to themselves for once.
>Forbes, which caters to the very rich, is shocked and appalled that suddenly people who aren't rich are getting heard.
Exactly. This article is best read in a Thurston Howell III voice and perhaps should end with, "then let them eat cake!"
I wish this was just satire.
If someone is stupid enough to be fooled by "Study Reveals Pittsburgh Unprepared For Full-Scale Zombie Attack" or "Bush Disappointed To Learn Chinese Foreign Minister Doesn't Know Karate" then something tells me a slight modification to the presidential seal isnt going to make any difference.
>What is happening is that several countries (not the UN)
Remember, we'll dealing with a loudmouth Republican senator here whose career is pretty much badmouthing the UN. Facts are secondary.
Essentially, from what I've read about this issue is that these foreign economies are a bit nervous of doing all this business on a US controlled network, so they write up a few requests and papers for somehow decentralizing DNS or at least sharing root servers. Some of these papers may have come from UN letterhead. Oh, the horrors. New World Order. Microchips in our hands, the second coming, etc.
Back on planet earth, these are serious concerns and someone might make a break for a seperate DNS system or some kinda of solution if the US won't play ball. We're already seeing it in Europe's Galileo system because the EU doesnt want to be investing in GPS technologies considering the US can shut them off anytime it feels like it.
Currently, the US has been a gracious host, but as internet activities become more and more important its simply a good idea for foreign countries to look after their own. The recent spat between level3 communications and SBC (?) is showing people that the current stability of the net is not something to take for granted.
> The ESRB is a board set up by the game industry itself. It is self-policing. The government has no involvement in it
First off, the content industry learned long ago if they don't self-police then the government will step in and police them. This is why you have stuff like the Comics Code Authority, TV ratings, warning stickers on music, etc.
Now these ratings systems are used and abused by retailers. Many stores simply wont sell games rated violent to people under 18 for the very same fear. Other companies abuse this leverage. For instance Walmart sells so many magazines, it can dictate content such as what goes on the cover. Many publishers submit their covers to Walmart first to make sure the Walmart moralists are happy with it. Not to mention editing of tracks on music.
So, its really disingenious to say that the US lacks censorship because its not done by the government per se. Also, I would like to remind some of the posters here that the FCC does censor content over public airwaves, usually to the wishes of religious moralists. Also state and municipal governments pull books from libraries all the time due to trivial complaints and lately some states have been working hard to erase other "threatening" ideas like biological evolution.
The European criticism is a strong one, but like someone said all censorship is local. These are the countries that are still healing from the horrors of WWII, which to me is a much more compelling reason to limit access to something than the American "Jesus told me he doesn't like it" culture-war bullshit reasons. Also, I'd like to mention that finding a copy of Mein Kampf isn't hard to do in Europe, but libraries in my own town have pulled books for "homosexual" or "anti-family" content.
Also, the US is no more pro-speech on the internet than any other country and all the bills that barely failed to pass as laws to censor the crap out of the internet should give Americans pause about censorship. I don't care if the Germans are "worse," it shouldnt be happening period. Now toss in Utah's big porn control law which is still in effect and you've obviously got real unresolved censorship issues.
Videogames are still new media and the "We'll censor ourselves" approach has worked pretty well, but its still a hot-button issue and people like Jack Thompson and his millions of followers (or at least people who agree with him) are a strong influence in American culture and possibly law. Expect further tightening of "self-censoring" and retailers refusing to sell to minors for more trivial reasons.
>They are interchangable.
Yes! Except the recent batch of lies from the executive office went like so:
1. Someone lied about sex after a tax-payer funded out of control witch hunt. No one was killed or injured.
2. Someone lied about a whole mess of things and 2,000 US soldiers are dead in an unpopular who knows how many billoins of dollars war.
Hmm, I'm starting to see some differences.
How about that sweet bankrupcy law change (think big hand out to the credit card companies) that only could get passed with a GOP controlled government?
Look closer, you'll notice a real difference. I know its cool to take the "everyone is corrupt, the same, and life is hopeless" stance here at slashdot and pretend libertarianism works, so enjoy your mod points.
> I guess the name "Freedom Wireless" is an ironic choice.
Only in pre 9/11 America.
*rimshot*
Not as catchy as "In Soviet Russia" but it has potential. In post 9/11 America, freedom wireless takes your phone!
>I make about $25/hour. Now, if I really want equipment X, and it's on eBay for $50, what makes more sense? Spend 6 hours farming/questing for it, or put another two hours in at the office and call it even?
The catch is that after about 5 more hours of gameplay, that dagger of super-killing is suddenly average equipment for your level. So to remain in gear that slightly better than the average user user, you need to add 2 hours of real work (the fifty dollars) for about every 5 hours of playing. This adds up, obviously.
I learned this by keeping my WoW alt in really nice gear by draining the bank account of my higher up. Its a waste, unless you're going to keep that armor or weapon for a serious amount of time.
Worse, that weapon will help you level even faster, thus making it obselete even quicker. Usually its only worth buying items that are extremely rare, knowing the purchase you've made is permanent and saves you 100 hours of attempts to get some piece of armor off some major mob, but that welcomes the question of why are you even playing these kinds of games? If you dont want to burn 10 hours with a group to kill that major mob then what are you doing?
This kind of thing reminds me of those people with really nice $2,000 guitars who couldnt play themselves out of a wet paper bag, but it does look cool on the wall. Not to insult you, but good game balance should force users to fight and work for their gear. If you dont like this, then don't play these type of RPG games. One of the real allures of these games is the time it takes. To a lot of players its like a rite of passage to have finished some game or to have hit level 50 or whatever. Its also fun to take on challenge. A little help here and there is nice, but opening up the economy completely and buying your way into everything really does contradict the purpose of the game. Unless MMOs are just online equivalants of pissing contests where people can brag, "Oh and I have the stick of beating for my priest!!" Like the $2000 guitar, it looks good, but this is more a collector's mentality than a player's mentality.
>"The right of the people to keep and arm bears shall not be infringed!" - Amendment IIb
Funny, the real constitution doesn't have an exclamation point. Also, your quote is misleading as its not even its own full sentence, its part of a line about militias:
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
>Would this be a bad time to mention that all digital audio is by definition lossey?
Wait. What makes "digital" lossy but non-digital non-lossy?
Pick any analog method of recording and duplication. Its lossy. Now toss in playback equipment, speakers, ears, etc.
I don't see how your neo-luddite comment applies nor why it should be modded up.
Arguably, digital methods are non-lossy over time considering current analog recordings (tapes, LPs) over time simply disintegrate causing all sorts of loss, while digital data can be reproduced without loss over generations and onto different digital media thus avoiding the aging problem. Copy that Office 2000 CD all you like, after the 8th generation you arent suddenly going to lose spell checker. Same with digital audio. Now copy that audio tape 8 times and tell me its not lossy.
>A partial solution can be worse than no solution at all, especially if you keep telling the patient that it's all the patient's fault/responsibility.
Who the hell does this? Im so sick of these ill-informed attacks on psychology a la Tom Cruise.
When a person is diagnosed with, say, generalized anxiety disorder (something many anti-social types may have) the last thing that is done is some blame game. Figuring out a treatment schedule is what's done. And no, its not some big "$200 per hour" scam, its Behavioral Cognitive therapy and perhaps medication to treat short term symptoms. Believing in conspiracy theories, marginizing treatment, and pissing on doctors in general only hurts patients who hear all this and then never bother seeking treatment. "See a head shrinker? Not me, I'm not some loon," is heard all too often. Meanwhile, millions suffer in silence and friends and loved ones can't figure out what's wrong with someone they care about, but who can't manage to hold down a job, finish school, etc.
I hate to break it to you, but depending on the causes of the disorder stuff like "talk" therapy and CBT actually work (CBT clocking in at 90% success rate) and have helped millions of people.
Lastly, ff you have issues with what doctors' charge, then that's a political issue on whether governments should be subsidizing or socializing medicine. Or a commercial issue on whether your insurance is actually serving you or not.
>And a PDA that needs a 30 meg update download?
Actually, you need 11 megabytes free on the device to upgrade the firmware. Arguably, execs on the go shouldnt even be doing this, their IT departments should be handling system updates. You wouldnt want them to upgrade from 2000 to XP on their own would you?
Granted, it is overhyped, but it does a lot of things people want. I just wish it wasnt so big and ugly.
A couple points:
1. Hybrid owners most likely will *not* keep the car past warranty. They fully know its going to be a maintance nightmare.
2. Hybrid owners were going to spend that much anyway on a car, and now enjoy higher MPG without buying a cheesy 100-120 hp Geo/Kia/whatever.
3. Hybrid owners may be getting subsidies from the state, thus lowering the overall cost.
I think point 2 is the most important. If someone was planning on spending that much on a car anyway then its already a sunk cost.
One could easily argue that air conditioning is never worth it and should be abandoned because of how much gas it uses, maintenance, etc compared to rolling down the windows and dealing with the heat. But people can afford AC units in cars and will give up one convience (MPG) for another (AC). The same is true with hybrids. You give up the best MPG deal (a Kia or a Scion) for a nicer car (an Accord or Prius) with very good MPG.
As long as Honda and the rest keep attracting this demographic the more mainstream the hybrid comes and arguable lower costs and eventually a hybrid which can outperform Kia on cost. At first all things are expensive.
Not to nitpick but....
>Find hobbies that have nothing to do with technology. Ride bikes, run, lift weights, camp, geocache, buy a gun,
Just about every example you listed is technological.
Riding bikes: ever try buying a bike? Its a highly technical piece of equipment. The act of riding may not be very technical, but this certainly has to do with technology.
Lift weights: This is highly technological. At the gym I had my workout down to a science using various weight training machines and burning the right amount of calories on cardio.
camp: See riding bikes.
buy a gun: Same as riding bikes, if not more technical. Talk to a gun nerd/nut sometime.
The point I'm trying to make is that you just can't unplug from technology. You just switch from one form (computers) to another. If anything you're advocating variety, not balance.