Those illegal workers do work that Americans don't want to do for the wages which are required to support the prices they want to pay.
Behold! Ignorance at work! Did you ever consider, EVEN ONCE that perhaps the reason that Americans won't take those jobs is because the massive Illegal immigration over the last 30 years has reduced the wage levels for those jobs so low that no American could afford to take them?
I have a friend who used to live in the southwest (New Mexico) in the 80's. He owned a Housing construction and subcontracting company, and was an honest man. He refused to hire anyone who couldn't pass a full background check. As Illegal immigration began to become more and more of an issue, his competitors, some of whom were less scrupulous than he, started to hire the Illegals to work for them. The Illegals would work so cheap that he was literally priced right out of the market. By the time his business folded, every single one of his employees had either left the state, or left the trade. Illegal Immigration killed his business.
He had roots in the Northeast, and moved back here and re-started his life. He recently told me that he was starting to see the same kinds of issues with Illegal Immigrants here in the northeast that he saw back in the southwest in the 80's. He's nearing retirement age, and just hopes to survive long enough to be able to retire semi-comfortably.
Don't want illegal immigrants working on farms? Expect to pay more for your groceries. Don't want legal immigrants? Be prepared to live with a lower standard of living.
This is what Illegal Immigration does: It doesn't HELP the economy, it HURTS it. Illegal Immigrants take jobs that American WILL DO, and increase the rolls of the working poor. This puts an ever-increasing burden on the already strained social services, and put the American economy in danger of going into a tailspin of plummeting wage rates and skyrocketing inflation.
Now, this is VERY different from LEGAL Immigration, which brings in high-skilled labor and improves the economy. But, of course, this is too fine a distinction to make for some, who would rather demagouge the issue and simply call those who want the laws to be respected "bigots".
Stop painting the issue with such a broad and incorrect brush. All most Americans want is for the LAWS TO BE OBEYED. If you can't respect and obey our laws in coming here, then we don't want you. It's that simple.
As far as the chipping thing, I'd only be comfortable with it being done with parolees and ex-cons. I'm not comfortable with chipping otherwise law-abiding citizens.
Yeah, I know my opinions on Illegal Immigration won't win me any mod points, but I don't care. It's the truth, wether you mod me down for it or not.
My Asus A8V-Deluxe had 4 SATA Channels. They have an optional setup for RAID 10 (a mirror with one parity drive) and a hot spare.
I'm not currently using it, as I have no need for that kind of data redundancy on my desktop. But once this machine gets older and is demoted to server status to replace my current server, it's RAID 10 all the way baby!
I'm sorry, But your answer must pertain to the current century, and come in the form of a question.
--------
You see, Islam has been around nearly as long as Christianity. While yes, Christianity as an organized religion did have it's low points, it has long since left the barbarism and brutality of the 4th century behind.
Islam doesn't seem to have fared so well. Despite having access to all the technology and information that is available to Western society, Islam (particularly the Wahabbist sect, which dominates much of Saudi Arabia and Iran) seems to still be stuck in a 4th century model of behavior. This is what the GP is talking about, and what many of the sites that have been stricken from Google talk about.
While I can agree that one should take care with what one prints, Google has been showing blatant bias here. Especially since every single article that Google cites as Racist is STILL available through Googlenews on OTHER sites! This makes it appear that Googlenews is simply using these articles as an excuse to eliminate American-style Conservative news sites from it's lineup.
I can't blame newmediajournal for getting upset. Seems they have good reason to be.
Yet another uneducated, irresponsible, politics driven media outlet that thinks it knows better than a highly trained and experienced judge and lawyers.
At what point will journalists in this country realize that we are a nation of laws? Those laws apply whether you politically disagree with what the current administration is doing or not. You don't get to flaunt them just because you think you know better. I personally hope that Wired gets it's ass handed to it for this one.
For those who would try and turn this around to point at the current administration, Let us all keep in mind that everything going on with the NSA is perfectly LEGAL. NO laws have been broken in the process here. Now, we may not LIKE what is going on, but not liking it doesn't make it illegal.
Besides, you don't make your point that someone else is breaking the law by breaking it yourself.
Perhaps you should try reading the OP next time. Th OP said he wants it for LINUX, not for Windows! That said, any of the Thinkpads are FANTASTIC for Linux. I have an Ancient i1400 with a 400 MGZ Celeron Processor in it. I slapped some spare SODIMMS in it and bumped the RAM up to 512 MB, and it works fine.
I wish I the Thinkpad prices were what they are today on E-bay back when I was ready for a new machine. I bought an Asus 1300i, and while it works ok on Linux, I had to buy a new battery due to the included one being only a 4 cell model, and The freaky BIOS keeps any version of Linux from being able to properly read the battery. So when I run linux on it, it is as a plugged-in mini desktop. My next laptop will probably be a Thinkpad.
Sorry buddy. You are DEAD wrong on this one. The only, and I mean ONLY places where ads MIGHT fit in, MAYBE is in games set in modern-day settings, and in places where one would expect to see ads. Which basically means Sports titles, and THAT IS ALL.
Frankly, I'm with the guy above you. I HAVE ALREADY PAID a pretty penny to play that game, and I'll be DAMNED If I'm going to allow my expensive Cable Modem Bandwidth be used so someone else can make a buck!
Don't even get me STARTED on the privacy issues involved here. What most people here fail to understand is that the companies are collecting personally identifiable information via the game that they can then use to sell and make more money, or spam you with more ads!
Think about it. Let's take a game like Planetside. Massive, the ad company, has placed thier putrescent ad engine into that game. The ad engine generates a unique SID based on hardware and software information on the PC. This SID accompanies any and all "viewing" information that is sent back to Massive regarding which ads you looked at and for how long. This info can be tied to your login to the game, which is tied to your billing information and your e-mail address.
Let's say you have a Fanta ad in the game (Planetside did actually have those for awhile) and you spend a large amount of time looking at those ads. Massive can work with SOE (the Planetside game company) and it's advertisers to then send you SPAM e-mail with Fanta offers and ads, or send them directly to your home or billing address!
This becomes a HUGE invasion of privacy, done on the backs of gamers, so some greedy corporations can make another buck pissing us all off with invasive and annoying ads. (Don't even get me started on what all those ads do to your framerates!)
We gamers need to tell advertisers that we can't stand the ads, or there will only be more of them, and they will be more intrusive and obnoxious. And we will still have to pay top dollar for the games, just to be annoyed.
(No ads on my blog, BTW. I would never do that to/.ers.)
Well Jeremy, you managed to COMPLETELY miss the point of my post. Wow.
Fine YOU have spent over $6000.00 on a fancy HDTV setup. Guess what? MOST PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD THAT! Or they can afford it, but have other priorities, so a fancy HDTV setup isn't really a smart option.
Obviously, I wasn't speaking to individuals such as yourself, who have the disposable income to spend on a big-ticket item like that. For those that do not already HAVE an HDTV setup, the prospect of spending that kind of cash is rather daunting, and not something to be taken lightly.
Did you consider that perhaps, just maybe, while those game-cube only games might be very fine indeed, The idea of dropping some serious coin on an HD setup just to play those games might not be something most people want to do? Especially if they have already invested a significant amount of money in a PC platform?
Lastly, Where do you get off putting words in my mouth saying that I think you should give up a game just because I don't want to buy it? I am speaking about persons such as myself, who have a mortgage, car payment, 2 kids, credit card bills, and a job that just barely covers it all with almost nothing left to spare at the end of the month.
Maybe a snotty rude big shot like yourself with more money than sense can afford to waste money on a fancy 6-grand HDTV setup and all the console toys to go with it, but the rest of us peons have families and lives to pay for, and aren't about to waste money on an overpriced console that, with the current HD wars, stands a better than average chance of becoming an expensive White Elephant.
Maybe, but why would I want to spend somewhere between $200 - $600 US on a gaming-only machine, When I could spend that same amount on an upgraded video card, and an Athlon X2 Processor. Then I can play the latest PC games, AND word-process, spreadsheet, surf, e-mail, Dual-boot with the latest Linux Distro, run a few virtual machines with VM-Ware, Photoshop or Gimp some artwork, etc.
The point is, with the cost of HD TV's and these new consoles combined, there just isn't the justification to buy one. Many of the better games for the consoles are also out for the PC, and the PC is just so much more versatile that it makes console gaming nothing more than a waste of money.
I just can't justify spending all that money on a game console, and then on top of that, having to shell out THOUSANDS for an HDTV set just so I can see Solid Snake in Hi-Def? Ummm.. NO.
I'm sticking with my old-fashioned Tube T.V. as long as I possibly can, and I'm not buying any new HD or Blue-ray DVD players until the format war is good and over and prices come down to something reasonable. Which means I won't be getting an HD TV or DVD players for probably 5-10 years.
I don't think you RTFA, OR read my post. THE HUXLEY DEVS said that higher levels player WILL be UNABLE to fight lower level players. THEY are putting the restrictions in.
Ironically, they already have an excellent model to build off of, if they would pay attention. In Planetside, a complete newbie can go out and kill a maxed out character. Not only can they, but IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY in Planetside.
Why? Because levels only give you certification points that you can spend on abilities. There are a finite number of points available for any character, and none of the abilities are out of reach of even a first-day player. More points just means more flexibility. So a First day player can go certify in Heavy Assault, jump a transport to a battle, bail out of the transport on a High-level player and defeat him handily.
Huxley will NOT be employing a system anything like this. They will be using the outdated RPG style of leveling, where your power levels and weapons availability go up as you level up. Making fights between newbies and high-level players inherently unbalanced.
This is why Huxley is going to fail. RPG players won't like it because they have to use twitch skills to win evenly matched battles. This is a skill they generally haven't worked on developing, so they won't enjoy the fights.
FPS player won't like it because they can't just kit up and go fight like they are used to in traditional arena-style FPSes. The level grinding just to fight will bore them to tears.
I understand Huxley completely. Which is why I'm sticking with Planetside.
I've been reading all the hype about Huxley, and frankly I'm not impressed.
Now, don't get me wrong. The graphics are very impressive. The Unreal Engine pretty much assures this. It's the whole concept that doesn't impress me.
This is a game that's not sure what it wants to be.
It wants to be an RPG, so it has NPC vendors, and "living quarters" for your character, and Classes.
It wants to be an FPS, so it has First Person style battles that require FPS Twitch skills to win with.
But it doesn't seem to want to be fully either one. For example, it still fails at one of the major stumbling blocks with all RPG games. Level Grinding. In order to keep high level players from stomping the newbies, they aren't going to let the newbies and high-levels fight one-another. How are they going to manage that? Instanced combat. Basically fighting in a box. If I wanted fighting in a box, I could go play UT or CS, or any other arena-based FPS game.
An MMOFPS is supposed to be LARGE SCALE. Fighting that takes place over an entire Continent or Planet. Not fighting in some goofy instanced arena that others can't enter. An MMOFPS should allow a complete newbie to kit up with his weapons of choice, go out on the field, and if he's skilled enough, take out the highest level player in the game. An MMOFPS should NEVER restrict the players ability to fight anyone, anywhere, with anything he chooses.
RPG's on the other hand, are all about Levels, Classes, grinding up the scale until you have your "Uber-sword of l33tness +15" that lets you go out and defeat anything you come up against. Huxley, from everything I read, is all about this. You can level grind up to level 50, gain your Uber armor with a gagillion expansion slots in it, get the noobpwner cannon of d00m, and go out and then fight in an instanced box against a predetermined number of opponents. (SNORE!)
So all Huxley gives you is a goofy taped together "mostly-RPG-with-FPS-elements" combo game, that looks pretty, but doesn't do RPG and especially not FPS really well.
No thanks, I'll stick with the first and only MMOFPS in existence, Planetside.
No, the fact that this is an issue shows that many people have a political axe to grind and are more interested in that, and sensationalism, than the truth or law.
It's the ONLY MMOFPS out there. And despite what one of your respondents said, while there is leveling available, it is NOT required to play anywhere in the game. You can start out as a new recruit, and using the (very well setup) default character loadouts, go and kick some butt right off.
Now, I would recommend spending some time in the VR training facilities to familiarize yourself with the weapons, how they fire, how quickly they reload, thier damage capabilities, etc. And the VR driving range where you can drive / fly anything you want without having to be "certifed" in it's use. But again, you DO NOT HAVE TO.
Just USING the equipment will usually get you a pile of points that will "level you up" but that isn't even necessary. You can hit the "Intstant action" button, and be immediately transported to a hot battle arena anywhere in the universe. No waiting, no training, no spending 3 days killing rats in a dungeon just so you can go look at the scenery without getting ganked.
I have even known some newbies to certify in the fast air transport (the Mosquito) and just use that to go sightseeing. it's usually fast enough to get away from just about anything, and as long as you stay away from hot battles with lots of Anti-Air firing off, you can see all the world in Planetside with no great risk to yourself.
If you like FPS'es, but are sick of fighting in a 8vs8 fight, Planetside is probably for you. You can make an account FOR FREE and play FOR FREE over at www.planetside.com right now.
If you chose to play on the Emerald server, look me up. I'm Bishounen, and I play with the D2A outfit.
If you had actually RTFA, you would have seen this paragraph:
"If the models are correct, global warming reduces the temperature differences between the poles and the equator. When you have less difference in temperature, you have less excitation of extratropical storms, not more. And, in fact, model runs support this conclusion."
In other words, the dramatic storms and milder Winters you are seeing in your area don't have anything to do with Global Warming, and actually point to it NOT occuring.
He's right. Free Speech in America is trumped by Political Correctness. It makes me sick to see how far we have fallen as a nation, and even sicker to see other countries following our lead. (on this issue, anyway.)
Before the Mac-o-philes here start getting all bent out of shape, perhaps reading the article in question would be a good start...
Here's a salient quote:
"The rm-my-mac challenge was setup similar to how you would have a Mac acting as a server -- with various remote services running and local access to users... There are various Mac OS X hardening guides out there that could have been used to harden the machine, however, it wouldn't have stopped the vulnerability I used to gain access.
"There are only limited things you can do with unknown and unpublished vulnerabilities. One is to use additional hardening patches -- good examples for Linux are the PaX patch and the grsecurity patches. They provide numerous hardening options on the system, and implement non-executable memory, which prevent memory based corruption exploits," said gwerdna.
THOSE in the Western world. As in SOME people, NOT ALL.
Your second comment regarding the cartoon related violence is what prompted the follow-up question. How does one function as a concientious objector to this type of violence when it takes place inside one's own culture, or as part of a subculture to your own culture?
1)As an Arab in today's world, how do you deal with those in the Western world who further the stereotype of "Arabs As Radicals"?
2) In addition how do you, as a forward-thinking Arab, address the issue of those in the Middle Eastern world that would seek to further the radical elements of Islam for thier own purposes, regardless of the consequences or the stereotypes this may create in the West? In other words, how does one function as a concientious objector in Middle Eastern Society?
Why does every game like that have to be riddled with scantily clad females?
Personally, I like my females scantily clad, or not clad at all. Assuming they are good looking, of course. Margaret Thatcher has my permission to remain fully clothed at all times, thank you very much.
Slashdot Mirror
Those illegal workers do work that Americans don't want to do for the wages which are required to support the prices they want to pay.
Behold! Ignorance at work! Did you ever consider, EVEN ONCE that perhaps the reason that Americans won't take those jobs is because the massive Illegal immigration over the last 30 years has reduced the wage levels for those jobs so low that no American could afford to take them?
I have a friend who used to live in the southwest (New Mexico) in the 80's. He owned a Housing construction and subcontracting company, and was an honest man. He refused to hire anyone who couldn't pass a full background check. As Illegal immigration began to become more and more of an issue, his competitors, some of whom were less scrupulous than he, started to hire the Illegals to work for them. The Illegals would work so cheap that he was literally priced right out of the market. By the time his business folded, every single one of his employees had either left the state, or left the trade. Illegal Immigration killed his business.
He had roots in the Northeast, and moved back here and re-started his life. He recently told me that he was starting to see the same kinds of issues with Illegal Immigrants here in the northeast that he saw back in the southwest in the 80's. He's nearing retirement age, and just hopes to survive long enough to be able to retire semi-comfortably.
Don't want illegal immigrants working on farms? Expect to pay more for your groceries. Don't want legal immigrants? Be prepared to live with a lower standard of living.
This is what Illegal Immigration does: It doesn't HELP the economy, it HURTS it. Illegal Immigrants take jobs that American WILL DO, and increase the rolls of the working poor. This puts an ever-increasing burden on the already strained social services, and put the American economy in danger of going into a tailspin of plummeting wage rates and skyrocketing inflation.
Now, this is VERY different from LEGAL Immigration, which brings in high-skilled labor and improves the economy. But, of course, this is too fine a distinction to make for some, who would rather demagouge the issue and simply call those who want the laws to be respected "bigots".
Stop painting the issue with such a broad and incorrect brush. All most Americans want is for the LAWS TO BE OBEYED. If you can't respect and obey our laws in coming here, then we don't want you. It's that simple.
As far as the chipping thing, I'd only be comfortable with it being done with parolees and ex-cons. I'm not comfortable with chipping otherwise law-abiding citizens.
Yeah, I know my opinions on Illegal Immigration won't win me any mod points, but I don't care. It's the truth, wether you mod me down for it or not.
Sounds great.
Then, as his loving son, you wouldn't mind posting a link or two to his site so we can send some business his way, would you?
For thematic correctness, Shouldn't that be theninjadojo.org?
If I hadn't already replied to someone else in this story, I would use one of my 5 Mod points to mod you up JUST for having a Veggietales related sig.
Now, where IS my hairbrush?...
My Asus A8V-Deluxe had 4 SATA Channels. They have an optional setup for RAID 10 (a mirror with one parity drive) and a hot spare.
I'm not currently using it, as I have no need for that kind of data redundancy on my desktop. But once this machine gets older and is demoted to server status to replace my current server, it's RAID 10 all the way baby!
BZZZZT!
I'm sorry, But your answer must pertain to the current century, and come in the form of a question.
--------
You see, Islam has been around nearly as long as Christianity. While yes, Christianity as an organized religion did have it's low points, it has long since left the barbarism and brutality of the 4th century behind.
Islam doesn't seem to have fared so well. Despite having access to all the technology and information that is available to Western society, Islam (particularly the Wahabbist sect, which dominates much of Saudi Arabia and Iran) seems to still be stuck in a 4th century model of behavior. This is what the GP is talking about, and what many of the sites that have been stricken from Google talk about.
While I can agree that one should take care with what one prints, Google has been showing blatant bias here. Especially since every single article that Google cites as Racist is STILL available through Googlenews on OTHER sites! This makes it appear that Googlenews is simply using these articles as an excuse to eliminate American-style Conservative news sites from it's lineup.
I can't blame newmediajournal for getting upset. Seems they have good reason to be.
Yet another uneducated, irresponsible, politics driven media outlet that thinks it knows better than a highly trained and experienced judge and lawyers.
At what point will journalists in this country realize that we are a nation of laws? Those laws apply whether you politically disagree with what the current administration is doing or not. You don't get to flaunt them just because you think you know better. I personally hope that Wired gets it's ass handed to it for this one.
For those who would try and turn this around to point at the current administration, Let us all keep in mind that everything going on with the NSA is perfectly LEGAL. NO laws have been broken in the process here. Now, we may not LIKE what is going on, but not liking it doesn't make it illegal.
Besides, you don't make your point that someone else is breaking the law by breaking it yourself.
Perhaps you should try reading the OP next time. Th OP said he wants it for LINUX, not for Windows! That said, any of the Thinkpads are FANTASTIC for Linux. I have an Ancient i1400 with a 400 MGZ Celeron Processor in it. I slapped some spare SODIMMS in it and bumped the RAM up to 512 MB, and it works fine.
I wish I the Thinkpad prices were what they are today on E-bay back when I was ready for a new machine. I bought an Asus 1300i, and while it works ok on Linux, I had to buy a new battery due to the included one being only a 4 cell model, and The freaky BIOS keeps any version of Linux from being able to properly read the battery. So when I run linux on it, it is as a plugged-in mini desktop. My next laptop will probably be a Thinkpad.
Somewhere between ZERO and ZERO.
Advertisers, we hate you.
Sorry buddy. You are DEAD wrong on this one. The only, and I mean ONLY places where ads MIGHT fit in, MAYBE is in games set in modern-day settings, and in places where one would expect to see ads. Which basically means Sports titles, and THAT IS ALL.
- and-videogames.html
/.ers.)
Frankly, I'm with the guy above you. I HAVE ALREADY PAID a pretty penny to play that game, and I'll be DAMNED If I'm going to allow my expensive Cable Modem Bandwidth be used so someone else can make a buck!
Don't even get me STARTED on the privacy issues involved here. What most people here fail to understand is that the companies are collecting personally identifiable information via the game that they can then use to sell and make more money, or spam you with more ads!
Think about it. Let's take a game like Planetside. Massive, the ad company, has placed thier putrescent ad engine into that game. The ad engine generates a unique SID based on hardware and software information on the PC. This SID accompanies any and all "viewing" information that is sent back to Massive regarding which ads you looked at and for how long. This info can be tied to your login to the game, which is tied to your billing information and your e-mail address.
Let's say you have a Fanta ad in the game (Planetside did actually have those for awhile) and you spend a large amount of time looking at those ads. Massive can work with SOE (the Planetside game company) and it's advertisers to then send you SPAM e-mail with Fanta offers and ads, or send them directly to your home or billing address!
This becomes a HUGE invasion of privacy, done on the backs of gamers, so some greedy corporations can make another buck pissing us all off with invasive and annoying ads. (Don't even get me started on what all those ads do to your framerates!)
You can read more about it at my blog, http://wearyman.blogspot.com/2005/08/privacy-lies
We gamers need to tell advertisers that we can't stand the ads, or there will only be more of them, and they will be more intrusive and obnoxious. And we will still have to pay top dollar for the games, just to be annoyed.
(No ads on my blog, BTW. I would never do that to
Well Jeremy, you managed to COMPLETELY miss the point of my post. Wow.
Fine YOU have spent over $6000.00 on a fancy HDTV setup. Guess what? MOST PEOPLE CAN'T AFFORD THAT! Or they can afford it, but have other priorities, so a fancy HDTV setup isn't really a smart option.
Obviously, I wasn't speaking to individuals such as yourself, who have the disposable income to spend on a big-ticket item like that. For those that do not already HAVE an HDTV setup, the prospect of spending that kind of cash is rather daunting, and not something to be taken lightly.
Did you consider that perhaps, just maybe, while those game-cube only games might be very fine indeed, The idea of dropping some serious coin on an HD setup just to play those games might not be something most people want to do? Especially if they have already invested a significant amount of money in a PC platform?
Lastly, Where do you get off putting words in my mouth saying that I think you should give up a game just because I don't want to buy it? I am speaking about persons such as myself, who have a mortgage, car payment, 2 kids, credit card bills, and a job that just barely covers it all with almost nothing left to spare at the end of the month.
Maybe a snotty rude big shot like yourself with more money than sense can afford to waste money on a fancy 6-grand HDTV setup and all the console toys to go with it, but the rest of us peons have families and lives to pay for, and aren't about to waste money on an overpriced console that, with the current HD wars, stands a better than average chance of becoming an expensive White Elephant.
Jerk.
Maybe, but why would I want to spend somewhere between $200 - $600 US on a gaming-only machine, When I could spend that same amount on an upgraded video card, and an Athlon X2 Processor. Then I can play the latest PC games, AND word-process, spreadsheet, surf, e-mail, Dual-boot with the latest Linux Distro, run a few virtual machines with VM-Ware, Photoshop or Gimp some artwork, etc.
The point is, with the cost of HD TV's and these new consoles combined, there just isn't the justification to buy one. Many of the better games for the consoles are also out for the PC, and the PC is just so much more versatile that it makes console gaming nothing more than a waste of money.
I'm sticking with PC gaming.
I just can't justify spending all that money on a game console, and then on top of that, having to shell out THOUSANDS for an HDTV set just so I can see Solid Snake in Hi-Def? Ummm.. NO.
I'm sticking with my old-fashioned Tube T.V. as long as I possibly can, and I'm not buying any new HD or Blue-ray DVD players until the format war is good and over and prices come down to something reasonable. Which means I won't be getting an HD TV or DVD players for probably 5-10 years.
I'm sure I won't miss it either.
Jack9,
My apologies, I wasn't responding to you. I was responding to the poster immediately above me. Sorry, I should have been more specific.
Dude,
I don't think you RTFA, OR read my post. THE HUXLEY DEVS said that higher levels player WILL be UNABLE to fight lower level players. THEY are putting the restrictions in.
Ironically, they already have an excellent model to build off of, if they would pay attention. In Planetside, a complete newbie can go out and kill a maxed out character. Not only can they, but IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY in Planetside.
Why? Because levels only give you certification points that you can spend on abilities. There are a finite number of points available for any character, and none of the abilities are out of reach of even a first-day player. More points just means more flexibility. So a First day player can go certify in Heavy Assault, jump a transport to a battle, bail out of the transport on a High-level player and defeat him handily.
Huxley will NOT be employing a system anything like this. They will be using the outdated RPG style of leveling, where your power levels and weapons availability go up as you level up. Making fights between newbies and high-level players inherently unbalanced.
This is why Huxley is going to fail. RPG players won't like it because they have to use twitch skills to win evenly matched battles. This is a skill they generally haven't worked on developing, so they won't enjoy the fights.
FPS player won't like it because they can't just kit up and go fight like they are used to in traditional arena-style FPSes. The level grinding just to fight will bore them to tears.
I understand Huxley completely. Which is why I'm sticking with Planetside.
www.planetside.com
I've been reading all the hype about Huxley, and frankly I'm not impressed.
Now, don't get me wrong. The graphics are very impressive. The Unreal Engine pretty much assures this. It's the whole concept that doesn't impress me.
This is a game that's not sure what it wants to be.
It wants to be an RPG, so it has NPC vendors, and "living quarters" for your character, and Classes.
It wants to be an FPS, so it has First Person style battles that require FPS Twitch skills to win with.
But it doesn't seem to want to be fully either one. For example, it still fails at one of the major stumbling blocks with all RPG games. Level Grinding. In order to keep high level players from stomping the newbies, they aren't going to let the newbies and high-levels fight one-another. How are they going to manage that? Instanced combat. Basically fighting in a box. If I wanted fighting in a box, I could go play UT or CS, or any other arena-based FPS game.
An MMOFPS is supposed to be LARGE SCALE. Fighting that takes place over an entire Continent or Planet. Not fighting in some goofy instanced arena that others can't enter. An MMOFPS should allow a complete newbie to kit up with his weapons of choice, go out on the field, and if he's skilled enough, take out the highest level player in the game. An MMOFPS should NEVER restrict the players ability to fight anyone, anywhere, with anything he chooses.
RPG's on the other hand, are all about Levels, Classes, grinding up the scale until you have your "Uber-sword of l33tness +15" that lets you go out and defeat anything you come up against. Huxley, from everything I read, is all about this. You can level grind up to level 50, gain your Uber armor with a gagillion expansion slots in it, get the noobpwner cannon of d00m, and go out and then fight in an instanced box against a predetermined number of opponents. (SNORE!)
So all Huxley gives you is a goofy taped together "mostly-RPG-with-FPS-elements" combo game, that looks pretty, but doesn't do RPG and especially not FPS really well.
No thanks, I'll stick with the first and only MMOFPS in existence, Planetside.
www.planetside.com
No, the fact that this is an issue shows that many people have a political axe to grind and are more interested in that, and sensationalism, than the truth or law.
Planetside.
It's the ONLY MMOFPS out there. And despite what one of your respondents said, while there is leveling available, it is NOT required to play anywhere in the game. You can start out as a new recruit, and using the (very well setup) default character loadouts, go and kick some butt right off.
Now, I would recommend spending some time in the VR training facilities to familiarize yourself with the weapons, how they fire, how quickly they reload, thier damage capabilities, etc. And the VR driving range where you can drive / fly anything you want without having to be "certifed" in it's use. But again, you DO NOT HAVE TO.
Just USING the equipment will usually get you a pile of points that will "level you up" but that isn't even necessary. You can hit the "Intstant action" button, and be immediately transported to a hot battle arena anywhere in the universe. No waiting, no training, no spending 3 days killing rats in a dungeon just so you can go look at the scenery without getting ganked.
I have even known some newbies to certify in the fast air transport (the Mosquito) and just use that to go sightseeing. it's usually fast enough to get away from just about anything, and as long as you stay away from hot battles with lots of Anti-Air firing off, you can see all the world in Planetside with no great risk to yourself.
If you like FPS'es, but are sick of fighting in a 8vs8 fight, Planetside is probably for you. You can make an account FOR FREE and play FOR FREE over at www.planetside.com right now.
If you chose to play on the Emerald server, look me up. I'm Bishounen, and I play with the D2A outfit.
If you had actually RTFA, you would have seen this paragraph:
"If the models are correct, global warming reduces the temperature differences between the poles and the equator. When you have less difference in temperature, you have less excitation of extratropical storms, not more. And, in fact, model runs support this conclusion."
In other words, the dramatic storms and milder Winters you are seeing in your area don't have anything to do with Global Warming, and actually point to it NOT occuring.
I wish I had mod points, I would mod you up.
He's right. Free Speech in America is trumped by Political Correctness. It makes me sick to see how far we have fallen as a nation, and even sicker to see other countries following our lead. (on this issue, anyway.)
Before the Mac-o-philes here start getting all bent out of shape, perhaps reading the article in question would be a good start...
w s_leave_OS_X_vulnerable_/0,2000061744,39234678,00. htm
Here's a salient quote:
"The rm-my-mac challenge was setup similar to how you would have a Mac acting as a server -- with various remote services running and local access to users... There are various Mac OS X hardening guides out there that could have been used to harden the machine, however, it wouldn't have stopped the vulnerability I used to gain access.
"There are only limited things you can do with unknown and unpublished vulnerabilities. One is to use additional hardening patches -- good examples for Linux are the PaX patch and the grsecurity patches. They provide numerous hardening options on the system, and implement non-executable memory, which prevent memory based corruption exploits," said gwerdna.
Bad anagram for a name or not, the guy sounds like he knows what he is talking about. There is a link to another article as well that talks about Apple's lack of diligence on security issues. Here's a link:
http://zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Ancient_fla
The point is that Security is everybody's business, and no company can afford to slack. Not even the lily-white Apple is immune.
Perhaps you should re-read my question again...
THOSE in the Western world. As in SOME people, NOT ALL.
Your second comment regarding the cartoon related violence is what prompted the follow-up question. How does one function as a concientious objector to this type of violence when it takes place inside one's own culture, or as part of a subculture to your own culture?
Ok, Two-parter here...
1)As an Arab in today's world, how do you deal with those in the Western world who further the stereotype of "Arabs As Radicals"?
2) In addition how do you, as a forward-thinking Arab, address the issue of those in the Middle Eastern world that would seek to further the radical elements of Islam for thier own purposes, regardless of the consequences or the stereotypes this may create in the West? In other words, how does one function as a concientious objector in Middle Eastern Society?
Why does every game like that have to be riddled with scantily clad females?
Personally, I like my females scantily clad, or not clad at all. Assuming they are good looking, of course. Margaret Thatcher has my permission to remain fully clothed at all times, thank you very much.
Auto Assault. http://www.autoassault.com/index.html
Enjoy!