There would be far fewer atheists and agnostics out there if there weren't so many loons pushing people to realize that perhaps the answers aren't always found in the local church.
How many Hari Krishners do you know? Jehova's Witnesses?
In a latteral move, how many people do you know who aren't geeks (and thus tend to wear their differences as badges of honor) who are willing to admit a love for Star Trek or Star Wars?
Having fanatics definately does hurt your chances, it's just that it isn't the killing blow. Most groups can grow and offset the loss created by people being put off by it.
FPS's are the very definition of attempting to bring reality (or whatever fantasty derived version you prefer) to your games. Advancement in this genre may sometimes be stalled by blocks in hardware development, but it will never be finished till we reach the plateau where you can't tell the difference between the game and life without the game telling you.
Yes, things have slowed down, they have in the past. They will periodicly in the future.
That's the nature of the game. Someone comes up with a cool idea and everyone else beats it to death till the next cool idea comes along.
That doesn't mean things have stagnated, it means we are waiting for the next big thing to come along.
Quake 4 will inovate the FPS genre with the built-in addition of having enough light to actually see! No longer will you be forced to install a Duct-Tape mod to be able to use a flashlight!
I did too, it was one of the few two player games for the Atari 2600 that actually let both people play at once and didn't have horrible glitches like Combat! did. I remember spending hours playing Jedi Arena with my brother.
I have no problem with a Google empire. I would have had no problem with a Microsoft empire, if they hadn't built theirs Robber Baron style.
Google is, so far, the perfect example that you CAN be a successful company and NOT lie, steal, and cheat your way there.
For decades, I've had to deal with MBA types who revered Bill Gates, not because he was a good guy but because he was successful. They didn't care how he did it, they cared that he had done it.
Let Google take over; let them be so pervasive that you can't go anywhere without seeing their brand; AS LONG AS THEY REMAIN THE COMPANY THEY ARE NOW.
I'd rather spend the rest of my life dealing with business oriented types that realize it's possible to get ahead without being backstabbing, manipulative, lying, sacks of excrement than with the ones today that think their actions should only be guided by whether the potential profit outweighs the potential fees if they get caught.
Default Google behavior when they can't serve up an internal page is to forward you to the main search page. There are some spots that actually give you an error message for the page, however the bulk of the site defaults to the redirect. It's possible they were just monkeying around with the page (or perhaps Slashdot is even more powerful than Google!;) )
More interesting perhaps, would be designing a system that _used_ mouse data as the password. Something like mouse gestures where you have to make a complicted gesture using the mouse to get in. Sure they could still capture the data, but how would they know you were entering anything as opposed to simply waving the mouse around?
If you have the money to buy pretty things, then by all means, buy pretty things.
I've never understood this additude that among certain circles of geeks where not having the time to devote your life to building your own equates to being required to live without.
Is building your own rewarding to some? Damn straight it is.
Is building your own sometimes less expensive? Yes, more often than not.
Is building your own a better way to get the look YOU want? Only if you happen to have that creative streak in you that lets you be both geek and artist.
Is building your own the ONLY way to do? HELL NO!
Look, doctors, dentists, and other people with money enough to throw away on pretty things typcially have better things to do with their time than spend it mucking around building their own version of every pretty toy they can afford. Usually, this better thing happens to be MAKING MONEY.
Yes, it's nice that you spent your life building everything you own, from the misshappen, mangled shirt on your back to the chair your butt is resting on.
But the rest of us, those of us with lives, happen to only find building our own stuff fun if it's being done as a hobby. Which means, the rest of the stuff we own we BUY.
Get off the high horse and join the rest of civilization.
To put this politely, if they can't be bothered to keep their system clean, they can't have access to the free network.
To say that 'they have work that must be done' is ignoring the fact that the umpteen (insert hyperbolic number) other users ALSO have work to that must be done and in this case the good of the many out weighs the good of the few or one (damn, did I actually find a good excuse to use that line?).
Yes, by all means, research methods to contain and control any outbreaks to reduce the issue when they do occur; but in this case prevention is far, far, more effective than mitigation.
Case in point, I've spent days trying to get unsubscribed to the newsletters that come from OSDN.
However because I've forgotten the password I used, and because for some reason my attempts to reset it have always failed, I've resorted to sorting anything I receive from that domain into the trash.
Anyone notice the latest version of Adobe Reader installs a shell handler in WinXP to enable thumbnails, just as WinXp natively handles jpg's and avi's?
I don't think they've been caught napping on this one, I expect them to put up a pretty good fight on this front.
I just re-watched the original trilogy recently, I'd have to say this is less of a dimming star failing to retire from the stage gracefully as people realizing that the star was just a flashlight from the start.
This is the same issue I've got with people who act as if the last two Matrix movies are a complete disappointment compared to the first.
People have put the early works on a high pedestal and have allowed memory pump them up to be far larger than the works really were, or are.
Yes, these were works that had a huge impact on our lives. But really, go back and watch them again, objectively, and you'll realize that part of their power had nothing to do with their quality but with when and where they occurred.
Since Episode I atleast, I remember everyone I knew whining about how he really should do the full nine movies back when we only had III-V. I guess it's one of those 'beware of what you wish for' deals.
Even if the common user's interface is some sort of stylied 3-D world (and really, while it would be cool for games, who would actually want to try to work using something like that), a real 'hacker'/power-user/informed user is going to stick to the minimalist text UI as it gives you more direct access to the underpinnings of the system.
People who are already ganking lowbies are doing so for one of two reasons. Either they like being a-holes, or they are bored and have no incentive to do otherwise.
People who are interested in gaining Honor are going to do so for two reasons. They want recognition and they want phat loot.
If someone is already ganking, then the Honor system currently gives them incentive to concentrate on higher targets. So the majority of the bored ones are more than likely going to switch.
If someone isn't already ganking, then the Honor system gives them a reason not to. Not because they will be directly penalized by it, but because wasting time on killing lowbies when others are going for real kills is going to drop them lower in the rankings.
You will never lose the a-holes. Even if you instituted an insta-perma-ban on people who killed anyone grey to them, you'd still have people with too much time on their hands and a fist full of momma's credit cards who are willing to level someone up and get that one kill just to be a dick. But I don't see how this is going to increase their numbers at all.
What I'm really waiting to see is what happens when they finally introduce the Battlegrounds. Once those are in, you really won't have time to PvP outside of them unless you are just waiting for your turn to go in. From what I can tell, the oportunities to gain honor inside the BG will more than outstrip the opportunities outside.
Say what you want about the Windows UI. In my opinion it is far better than the OS X UI, NOT because of its inherent functionalty, but because its far more customizable than the Mac UI.
The ironic part of this statement, is that when I was still in college and using Macs (System 7- System 8 days), the Mac GUI was almost like Play Doh to me. Give me two floppies and 10 min with any of the Macs in the computer labs and the next person to sit down at the computer wouldn't even recognize it as an Apple Computer.
When I graduated, realized I couldn't afford my Mac habit and went to the PC, one of the things I sorely missed was the ultra customability that the Mac provided. I've yet to see anything for Windows that provided the ease of extending/customizing the base OS as Extensions for the Mac and was only with XP that you started geting the ability to do themes as well as you could with System 7.5 and Kalidescope.
On the PvP servers, maybe. But if you are wandering around without backup on one of those, then you really are asking for a ganking anyway. And remember that Blizzard has implemented diminishing returns on the points you get for killing the same person over and over again.
For the RP and PvE servers, I only see good. Remember, except for certain areas, you aren't forced to PvP unless you want to. Ganking a person is hard when they have the ability not to consent to it.
Slashdot Mirror
There would be far fewer atheists and agnostics out there if there weren't so many loons pushing people to realize that perhaps the answers aren't always found in the local church.
How many Hari Krishners do you know? Jehova's Witnesses?
In a latteral move, how many people do you know who aren't geeks (and thus tend to wear their differences as badges of honor) who are willing to admit a love for Star Trek or Star Wars?
Having fanatics definately does hurt your chances, it's just that it isn't the killing blow. Most groups can grow and offset the loss created by people being put off by it.
FPS's are the very definition of attempting to bring reality (or whatever fantasty derived version you prefer) to your games. Advancement in this genre may sometimes be stalled by blocks in hardware development, but it will never be finished till we reach the plateau where you can't tell the difference between the game and life without the game telling you.
Yes, things have slowed down, they have in the past. They will periodicly in the future.
That's the nature of the game. Someone comes up with a cool idea and everyone else beats it to death till the next cool idea comes along.
That doesn't mean things have stagnated, it means we are waiting for the next big thing to come along.
Quake 4 will inovate the FPS genre with the built-in addition of having enough light to actually see! No longer will you be forced to install a Duct-Tape mod to be able to use a flashlight!
Do you know what most people do when a security camera goes blank? That's right, they send security over to check it out.
What do you think will happen when one of the cafe's loggers suddenly stops logging?
That's right, they send over the security.
Not exactly the best way to avoid drawing attention to your actions.
Do you have a thought-provoking or complicated question that could benefit a large group of people?
If not, why are you kicking about someone else who just has a normal question?
I did too, it was one of the few two player games for the Atari 2600 that actually let both people play at once and didn't have horrible glitches like Combat! did. I remember spending hours playing Jedi Arena with my brother.
I have no problem with a Google empire. I would have had no problem with a Microsoft empire, if they hadn't built theirs Robber Baron style.
Google is, so far, the perfect example that you CAN be a successful company and NOT lie, steal, and cheat your way there.
For decades, I've had to deal with MBA types who revered Bill Gates, not because he was a good guy but because he was successful. They didn't care how he did it, they cared that he had done it.
Let Google take over; let them be so pervasive that you can't go anywhere without seeing their brand; AS LONG AS THEY REMAIN THE COMPANY THEY ARE NOW.
I'd rather spend the rest of my life dealing with business oriented types that realize it's possible to get ahead without being backstabbing, manipulative, lying, sacks of excrement than with the ones today that think their actions should only be guided by whether the potential profit outweighs the potential fees if they get caught.
I'm all for freezing her, but I'm not sure how having a frozen corpse would help us figure out the issue. Wouldn't be better to thaw her instead?
Default Google behavior when they can't serve up an internal page is to forward you to the main search page. There are some spots that actually give you an error message for the page, however the bulk of the site defaults to the redirect. It's possible they were just monkeying around with the page (or perhaps Slashdot is even more powerful than Google! ;) )
Why didn't you just tell it not to get in ivolved when browsing that domain? It does have exclusion rules built in.
Are their names Louise and Rosey?
More interesting perhaps, would be designing a system that _used_ mouse data as the password. Something like mouse gestures where you have to make a complicted gesture using the mouse to get in. Sure they could still capture the data, but how would they know you were entering anything as opposed to simply waving the mouse around?
Don't underestimate the Shock and Awe effect of having 12 tonnes of pasty white flesh roling your way.
In iTunes, there is an option to store Compliations under a seperate folder by Album. i.e. Compliations/Godzilla - The Soundtrack/
Turn that on and then use the built in tag editor for those songs and mark them as a compliation.
If you have the money to buy pretty things, then by all means, buy pretty things.
I've never understood this additude that among certain circles of geeks where not having the time to devote your life to building your own equates to being required to live without.
Is building your own rewarding to some? Damn straight it is.
Is building your own sometimes less expensive? Yes, more often than not.
Is building your own a better way to get the look YOU want? Only if you happen to have that creative streak in you that lets you be both geek and artist.
Is building your own the ONLY way to do? HELL NO!
Look, doctors, dentists, and other people with money enough to throw away on pretty things typcially have better things to do with their time than spend it mucking around building their own version of every pretty toy they can afford. Usually, this better thing happens to be MAKING MONEY.
Yes, it's nice that you spent your life building everything you own, from the misshappen, mangled shirt on your back to the chair your butt is resting on.
But the rest of us, those of us with lives, happen to only find building our own stuff fun if it's being done as a hobby. Which means, the rest of the stuff we own we BUY.
Get off the high horse and join the rest of civilization.
To put this politely, if they can't be bothered to keep their system clean, they can't have access to the free network.
To say that 'they have work that must be done' is ignoring the fact that the umpteen (insert hyperbolic number) other users ALSO have work to that must be done and in this case the good of the many out weighs the good of the few or one (damn, did I actually find a good excuse to use that line?).
Yes, by all means, research methods to contain and control any outbreaks to reduce the issue when they do occur; but in this case prevention is far, far, more effective than mitigation.
Case in point, I've spent days trying to get unsubscribed to the newsletters that come from OSDN.
However because I've forgotten the password I used, and because for some reason my attempts to reset it have always failed, I've resorted to sorting anything I receive from that domain into the trash.
Simple solution, don't publish who you trust, just publish the results.
Anyone notice the latest version of Adobe Reader installs a shell handler in WinXP to enable thumbnails, just as WinXp natively handles jpg's and avi's?
I don't think they've been caught napping on this one, I expect them to put up a pretty good fight on this front.
I just re-watched the original trilogy recently, I'd have to say this is less of a dimming star failing to retire from the stage gracefully as people realizing that the star was just a flashlight from the start.
This is the same issue I've got with people who act as if the last two Matrix movies are a complete disappointment compared to the first.
People have put the early works on a high pedestal and have allowed memory pump them up to be far larger than the works really were, or are.
Yes, these were works that had a huge impact on our lives. But really, go back and watch them again, objectively, and you'll realize that part of their power had nothing to do with their quality but with when and where they occurred.
Since Episode I atleast, I remember everyone I knew whining about how he really should do the full nine movies back when we only had III-V. I guess it's one of those 'beware of what you wish for' deals.
They were jokes.
Even if the common user's interface is some sort of stylied 3-D world (and really, while it would be cool for games, who would actually want to try to work using something like that), a real 'hacker'/power-user/informed user is going to stick to the minimalist text UI as it gives you more direct access to the underpinnings of the system.
Consider this:
People who are already ganking lowbies are doing so for one of two reasons. Either they like being a-holes, or they are bored and have no incentive to do otherwise.
People who are interested in gaining Honor are going to do so for two reasons. They want recognition and they want phat loot.
If someone is already ganking, then the Honor system currently gives them incentive to concentrate on higher targets. So the majority of the bored ones are more than likely going to switch.
If someone isn't already ganking, then the Honor system gives them a reason not to. Not because they will be directly penalized by it, but because wasting time on killing lowbies when others are going for real kills is going to drop them lower in the rankings.
You will never lose the a-holes. Even if you instituted an insta-perma-ban on people who killed anyone grey to them, you'd still have people with too much time on their hands and a fist full of momma's credit cards who are willing to level someone up and get that one kill just to be a dick. But I don't see how this is going to increase their numbers at all.
What I'm really waiting to see is what happens when they finally introduce the Battlegrounds. Once those are in, you really won't have time to PvP outside of them unless you are just waiting for your turn to go in. From what I can tell, the oportunities to gain honor inside the BG will more than outstrip the opportunities outside.
The ironic part of this statement, is that when I was still in college and using Macs (System 7- System 8 days), the Mac GUI was almost like Play Doh to me. Give me two floppies and 10 min with any of the Macs in the computer labs and the next person to sit down at the computer wouldn't even recognize it as an Apple Computer. When I graduated, realized I couldn't afford my Mac habit and went to the PC, one of the things I sorely missed was the ultra customability that the Mac provided. I've yet to see anything for Windows that provided the ease of extending/customizing the base OS as Extensions for the Mac and was only with XP that you started geting the ability to do themes as well as you could with System 7.5 and Kalidescope.
On the PvP servers, maybe. But if you are wandering around without backup on one of those, then you really are asking for a ganking anyway. And remember that Blizzard has implemented diminishing returns on the points you get for killing the same person over and over again. For the RP and PvE servers, I only see good. Remember, except for certain areas, you aren't forced to PvP unless you want to. Ganking a person is hard when they have the ability not to consent to it.