Well, I guess I should have clarified a bit more. When I said read, I mean read normal text (a book, a screen, etc), not just a few giant letters put in the field of view (Which given the resolution --400px-- is a fair assumption about how they define read)...
A suitable arrangement of lenses/electronics could probably be used to focus or widen the field of vision as needed. 20x20 pixels is good enough to recognize letters one or two at a time. Might be a bit slower than normal reading, but...
Besides, once the technology matures, there's no reason why it couldn't be further refined and connected to more sensory nerves, perhaps even optic ones. Those are guaranteed to have the bandwidth for human-level vision:).
The only way that this will end is when the standard of living is equal between the two countries. Since raising the standard in Mexico is impossible because of the culture and financial system, it means that the US has to have the same standard of living as Mexico does today.
Once upon the time, people crossing the border any means possible was a problem for the East, not West, Germany. And once upon the time millions arriving into the country looking to work hard and make their fortune - just like the Mexican immigrants are doing - was considered a boon to the United States.
What the Hell happened?
With 25% real unemployment, very tight credit and a collapsed housing market we are well on our way there.
You'd think that having 25% reserve would be a good thing, leading to shorter workdays/weeks. Instead, they creep ever longer. Ah, the wonders of capitalism.
As I understand it, (again, someone feel free to jump in here and correct me) man is created in God's image, therefore is as close to perfection as you can already make it (i.e. body is temple, etc). To alter your body (tattoos, organ donations) is to desecrate it (the temple of God) is to disrespect God. So you could donate your organs, but you couldn't be buried in a Jewish cemetery, which as far as I can tell is their form of excommunication.
There seems to be a rather large difference between decorative alteration (tattoos) and alteration received as a result of saving someone's life (organ donation). You wouldn't be excommunicated because you received scars while pulling someone out of a burning car, right?
We tend to forget as gamers how unnatural using the gamepad for playing games was at first for many people, you know when our parents tried to pick up the controller and they could barely control the character? The great thing about the Wiimote and other motion is to try to come up with a control scheme that is more natural and integrates into what they already know unconsciously as human being.
And the bad thing about Wiimote is that you have to keep your hand absolutely still or the stupid thing decides you're trying to swing it around. That's the only kind of control Wiimote's motion control really allows. Shake or swing it, and your character does something, usually completely unrelated to the motion; try to replicate the actual motion of the Wiimote in the gameworld, and control becomes an exercise in frustration due to the lack of tactile feedback and the inaccuracy of motion detection.
Wii games use motion control as a gimmick. The actual control is usually done with the joystick (the "nunchaku") and buttons, and shaking either the joystick or the Wiimote is used as one of the buttons - and an inaccurate one at that, with the added bonus of firing randomly whenever you move. That doesn't make anything easier, just more annoying.
I truly wish we can get rid of this motion control craze back to gamepads with joysticks.
If Apple were a person he would be a total douche, but of course we again see some Apple fanboys coming to defend this douchebag.
Apple is a person, according to the Supreme Court. And not just a person, but an aristocrat with rights and no responsibilites. And, just like every other company, Apple is a complete sociopath.
I personally don't know any atheists who adhere to such extremist beliefs, and have only read of a handful who would advocate such things.
You called for the "destruction" of ideology with fanatical supporters. How, exactly speaking, do you think that's going to be done - you outlaw it and everyone meakly obeys?
This is a very sane and ideal way of handling thing. Sadly it doesn't work when people decide to interfere with schools and science, and global politics.
It has worked just fine in pretty much eveery nation that has tried it, resulting in peaceful and prosperous socities whose inhabitant's can freely engage in this kind of conversations without fear of being stoned or sent to Siberia. On the other hand, the societies who's inhabitants dismiss such silly idealism tend to be hellholes which produce nothing but endless mountains of corpses.
If the game AI was running the world, there would be almost constant warfare in every last corner of the globe for the great offense of being neighbors.
I agree, there is some rabid, extremist atheists. Though their theist counterparts FAR out number them, and have far more influence on the world. I find the religious fundamentalists a far larger threat than any degree of atheist.
I challenge your notion that "rabid atheists" are not religious fundamentalists. Fundamentalism is a state of being absolutely convinced that you're right, and everyone who doesn't agree is either evil or stupid. It doesn't have anything to do with what you're absolutely convinced about, just that you are. And the notion that "there is no god" is, of course, a notion about a religious matter.
Atheists, for the most part, are immune to this tyrannical craziness. What are they going to do, stand on street corners screaming "THINK FOR YOURSELF!", or trying to force all children to learn science. The horror.
No, they're going to demand that a religion/ideology "be destroyed". That, of course, demands torturing the adherents until they deconvert and killing those who refuse. Unless, of course, a reliable brainwashing technique to bring their beliefs closer to what you'll accept can be created.
The correct way to treat such people is to give them freedom and demand they give it to you too. This (Finland, and presumably United States as well) is a free country, where everyone is free to worship whatever deity he wishes, or none at all. I'll defend to death your right to choose freely. I'll also defend my right to not choose whatever you want. I'll also defend the rights of people I despise, because to not do so would be to do unto others what I wouldn't want to be done to myself
I honestly don't see any difference between fundamentalis atheists and fundamentalist theists.
That's because there isn't any difference. Fundamentalist ahteists/theists/communists/capitalists/whatever are all absolutely convinced that they are right and everyone who disagrees with them is either evil or stupid or both. This kind of hubris is not limited to any religion or ideology or lack of them.
Just stop attacking people both of you groups and learn to let people have this own thoughts without pressing them towards you own.
And not let them know how great and wise I am? Not likely!
Altought if you want portals you can pass, you'd need to go back to Master of Magic. Perhaps that could be the defining new feature of Civ 5: allow multiple separate maps, to model the colonization of Moon and nearby planets? It doesn't make any sense to send a spaceship to Alfa Centauri, when Mars is closer and pretty close to habitable.
That, and I'd really like to see undersea colonies/tunnel roads. I think one of the Civ II clones had them. That way, the next Fall from Heaven version could actually include the Octopus Overlords as a playable faction;). Or maybe they could be included in the current one - I haven't taken a look at the SDK yet.
DirectX won, because it does sound and HID input handling, and because its on every PC sold to every mouthbreathing, Best Buy shopping, banana eating customer.
DirectX is indeed widely used on Windows, since it handles more things. OpenGL handles just graphics, but is cross-platform; with SDL it's close enough to DirectX that it's often used. And of course you could use OpenGL for graphics and DirectX for everything else.
I like the current situation where the two coexist and force each other to evolve to stay competitive. It's a bit like AMD forced Intel to get off its ass and make good and cost-effective processors again. We'll see if NVidia is able to respond to ATI/AMD's challenge too; but at least we won't see similar stagnation as with 3Dfx after initial Voodoo.
The only good thing about capitalism is that competition forces companies to get off their ass and evolve. A pity it doesn't work anywhere except the tech sector.
How many products are shipped with Mesa as an important, primary component?
If you're using OpenGL, 99% of the products are going to want real hardware acceleration, not Mesa.
According to Linux From Scratch, Mesa is used to as the userspace component of OpenGL acceleration in X.org, at least with DRI drivers. In other words, if Mesa doesn't have it, FOSS drivers in Linux won't have it.
Of course the real solution is to move the project over to software patent free part of the world, rather than meekly remove the "offending" portion, but still...
A well run government often requires passing bills that voters would dislike for the good of the country (tax increases, spending cuts etc.). Fear of voting in line with your views and policies at both top and bottom levels results in a failure of democracy.
True. That doesn't change the fact that the representatives should be accountable to the represented. If a senator/congressman/whatever can keep his votes secret from you, how do you know whether you should vote for him in the next elections? You're only left with his word of what he'll do.
Besides, if your representative is constantly voting against your wishes, then you don't have a representation, but a dictatorship dressed in the rethoric of democracy. Perhaps you feel that you or your fellow citizens are such morons you need the gentle but stern hand of a fatherly authority figure deciding what's good for you - since, ultimately, you are the country - but please understand that once an unaccountable dictatorship has taken root, it'll quickly turn malicious, as this very secret ACTA treaty well demonstrates.
Finally, the worst that can happen to a politician who votes against his voter's wishes is that he won't get re-elected. If the only way you can get people to accept you as their representative is by hiding and lying about your activities, then perhaps you shouldn't be re-elected. The whole idea of representative democracy is that the elected officials should be afraid of how their deeds affect their chances of re-election. If they aren't, then you don't have a democracy, you have a dictatorship run by winners of a charisma contest.
Honestly, why the Hell did you think we have elections in the first place? They're there so leaders can be held accountable for their actions, which is pretty bloody difficult if they're allowed to hide those actions.
They'll just slice it and pass it piece by piece through all the possible loopholes, avoiding any vote by elected officials.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."
Of course the shadow will take shape and grow again. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been defeated for now. Nor does it mean it can't be defeated again, and again, and again, until Copyright Law is unamde and the *AA are reduced to a mere shadows of malice, never to rise again.
Now all we need is a twisted and deformed creature to covet and ultimately destroy copyright. Shouldn't be difficult...
I'm kind of surprised that big pharma arn't getting into the whole stem cell thing.
It's not really all that surprising. Stem cells need to be extracted from the patient himself, then re-implanted; in other words, it's a surgical procedure, not medicine. It could be performed by a doctor with a one-time operation, rather than having the patient keep paying for medicinal treatment for the rest of his life.
It's starting to sound more and more like a miracle cure for everything from paralysis to acne.
And if it really is, once the patent runs out, how will the big bad pharma keep on selling nonworking cures for these conditions?
The world makes a lot more sense when you stop assuming that various businessmen, politicians etc. are trying to further their self-interest in a rational, if ruthless, manner, and instead treat them as villains in a farcical drama movie. That way you don't have to wonder why someone who already has three billions would risk everything to get a fourth, or something to that effect. The implications of that are somewhat... disturbing.
I wonder why the above is unnaceptable. Both views are equally insane and unsupported by science. But you can be harsh to the cellphone radiation crazies but not the religious crazies?
Um... You just were, so obviously you can.
Just thought it interesting that if I posted my rewording of parent's post (in some thread about religion)I'd have been moddded to oblivion but you've been modded up.
That might have something to do with the fact that you just turned an article about possible health effects of a cell phone into complaining that you are being oppressed and then disproved that very claim. Internally inconsistent claims of victimhood tend to get modded down.
Somehow Internet has made people to forget that creating quality content costs money. Often a lot of money. Often with these kind of things I'm really surprised at how dumb nerdy people can be too.
Dumb? Or just indifferent? This is a society which glorifies greed and selfishness, of watching out for number one and putting one's personal gain above all. Time and again do hear that the purpose of business is to generate profits for the owner, not care for the common good. Again and again do "libertarians" argue against public services because they require taxation. Should it really come as a surprise when the rest of us say "fine" and jump in on the bandwagon? And does that really make us dumb?
This is simply normal people emulating the aristocracy, doing what they're told is proper and good over and over again. "Not my problem", says a businessman who fires his employees; "not my problem", says a netizen who deprives a site of any source of revenue. Welcome to the next round of "Consequences of Capitalism"; the sound you heard is the society slowly crumbling around you since no one can be bothered to maintain it and often actively cursing any attempt to force them to.
You know, us who should know better and not be those stupid sheeps who are happy have a "mindless" job and then watch tv for rest of the evening and still enjoy it, even if theres no mentally requiring tasks involved.
I enjoy Jackass. It doesn't mean I'm dumb, it just means I enjoy Jackass.
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Or so the guys with scrawny tongues say, anyway.
Then Boeing leadership couldn't had written it down as profit and given rewarded themselves with bonuses.
Social Security for the rich, Social Darwinism for the poor, and the bill gets sent to the middle class. That's modern capitalism in a nutshell.
Once upon the time, people crossing the border any means possible was a problem for the East, not West, Germany. And once upon the time millions arriving into the country looking to work hard and make their fortune - just like the Mexican immigrants are doing - was considered a boon to the United States.
What the Hell happened?
You'd think that having 25% reserve would be a good thing, leading to shorter workdays/weeks. Instead, they creep ever longer. Ah, the wonders of capitalism.
There seems to be a rather large difference between decorative alteration (tattoos) and alteration received as a result of saving someone's life (organ donation). You wouldn't be excommunicated because you received scars while pulling someone out of a burning car, right?
And the bad thing about Wiimote is that you have to keep your hand absolutely still or the stupid thing decides you're trying to swing it around. That's the only kind of control Wiimote's motion control really allows. Shake or swing it, and your character does something, usually completely unrelated to the motion; try to replicate the actual motion of the Wiimote in the gameworld, and control becomes an exercise in frustration due to the lack of tactile feedback and the inaccuracy of motion detection.
Wii games use motion control as a gimmick. The actual control is usually done with the joystick (the "nunchaku") and buttons, and shaking either the joystick or the Wiimote is used as one of the buttons - and an inaccurate one at that, with the added bonus of firing randomly whenever you move. That doesn't make anything easier, just more annoying.
I truly wish we can get rid of this motion control craze back to gamepads with joysticks.
Apple is a person, according to the Supreme Court. And not just a person, but an aristocrat with rights and no responsibilites. And, just like every other company, Apple is a complete sociopath.
You called for the "destruction" of ideology with fanatical supporters. How, exactly speaking, do you think that's going to be done - you outlaw it and everyone meakly obeys?
It has worked just fine in pretty much eveery nation that has tried it, resulting in peaceful and prosperous socities whose inhabitant's can freely engage in this kind of conversations without fear of being stoned or sent to Siberia. On the other hand, the societies who's inhabitants dismiss such silly idealism tend to be hellholes which produce nothing but endless mountains of corpses.
"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
It turns out that birds, not being blind, are actually pretty good at avoiding windmills.
I just had an ephiphany about metaphysics.
I challenge your notion that "rabid atheists" are not religious fundamentalists. Fundamentalism is a state of being absolutely convinced that you're right, and everyone who doesn't agree is either evil or stupid. It doesn't have anything to do with what you're absolutely convinced about, just that you are. And the notion that "there is no god" is, of course, a notion about a religious matter.
No, they're going to demand that a religion/ideology "be destroyed". That, of course, demands torturing the adherents until they deconvert and killing those who refuse. Unless, of course, a reliable brainwashing technique to bring their beliefs closer to what you'll accept can be created.
The correct way to treat such people is to give them freedom and demand they give it to you too. This (Finland, and presumably United States as well) is a free country, where everyone is free to worship whatever deity he wishes, or none at all. I'll defend to death your right to choose freely. I'll also defend my right to not choose whatever you want. I'll also defend the rights of people I despise, because to not do so would be to do unto others what I wouldn't want to be done to myself
.
For the record, I'm a christian.
That's because there isn't any difference. Fundamentalist ahteists/theists/communists/capitalists/whatever are all absolutely convinced that they are right and everyone who disagrees with them is either evil or stupid or both. This kind of hubris is not limited to any religion or ideology or lack of them.
And not let them know how great and wise I am? Not likely!
Done.
Altought if you want portals you can pass, you'd need to go back to Master of Magic. Perhaps that could be the defining new feature of Civ 5: allow multiple separate maps, to model the colonization of Moon and nearby planets? It doesn't make any sense to send a spaceship to Alfa Centauri, when Mars is closer and pretty close to habitable.
That, and I'd really like to see undersea colonies/tunnel roads. I think one of the Civ II clones had them. That way, the next Fall from Heaven version could actually include the Octopus Overlords as a playable faction ;). Or maybe they could be included in the current one - I haven't taken a look at the SDK yet.
DirectX is indeed widely used on Windows, since it handles more things. OpenGL handles just graphics, but is cross-platform; with SDL it's close enough to DirectX that it's often used. And of course you could use OpenGL for graphics and DirectX for everything else.
I like the current situation where the two coexist and force each other to evolve to stay competitive. It's a bit like AMD forced Intel to get off its ass and make good and cost-effective processors again. We'll see if NVidia is able to respond to ATI/AMD's challenge too; but at least we won't see similar stagnation as with 3Dfx after initial Voodoo.
The only good thing about capitalism is that competition forces companies to get off their ass and evolve. A pity it doesn't work anywhere except the tech sector.
According to Linux From Scratch, Mesa is used to as the userspace component of OpenGL acceleration in X.org, at least with DRI drivers. In other words, if Mesa doesn't have it, FOSS drivers in Linux won't have it.
Of course the real solution is to move the project over to software patent free part of the world, rather than meekly remove the "offending" portion, but still...
When fighting against someone far more powerful than you, bring your friends. It's just plain common sense.
You forgot being 20 years old, single, and having already raised children to adulthood.
True. That doesn't change the fact that the representatives should be accountable to the represented. If a senator/congressman/whatever can keep his votes secret from you, how do you know whether you should vote for him in the next elections? You're only left with his word of what he'll do.
Besides, if your representative is constantly voting against your wishes, then you don't have a representation, but a dictatorship dressed in the rethoric of democracy. Perhaps you feel that you or your fellow citizens are such morons you need the gentle but stern hand of a fatherly authority figure deciding what's good for you - since, ultimately, you are the country - but please understand that once an unaccountable dictatorship has taken root, it'll quickly turn malicious, as this very secret ACTA treaty well demonstrates.
Finally, the worst that can happen to a politician who votes against his voter's wishes is that he won't get re-elected. If the only way you can get people to accept you as their representative is by hiding and lying about your activities, then perhaps you shouldn't be re-elected. The whole idea of representative democracy is that the elected officials should be afraid of how their deeds affect their chances of re-election. If they aren't, then you don't have a democracy, you have a dictatorship run by winners of a charisma contest.
Honestly, why the Hell did you think we have elections in the first place? They're there so leaders can be held accountable for their actions, which is pretty bloody difficult if they're allowed to hide those actions.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."
Of course the shadow will take shape and grow again. That doesn't mean that it hasn't been defeated for now. Nor does it mean it can't be defeated again, and again, and again, until Copyright Law is unamde and the *AA are reduced to a mere shadows of malice, never to rise again.
Now all we need is a twisted and deformed creature to covet and ultimately destroy copyright. Shouldn't be difficult...
Since you aren't driving, let the beer flow and throw an orgy. Now that would give the students some incentive to show up :).
It's not really all that surprising. Stem cells need to be extracted from the patient himself, then re-implanted; in other words, it's a surgical procedure, not medicine. It could be performed by a doctor with a one-time operation, rather than having the patient keep paying for medicinal treatment for the rest of his life.
And if it really is, once the patent runs out, how will the big bad pharma keep on selling nonworking cures for these conditions?
More importantly, how to filter out the answers from those less competent people. I don't really want to fade through the IT equivalent of chiropractors claiming to be able to cure asthma.
There's simply too much incentive to try to fool such search engines about your abilities for this to be useful.
Why would he? He's a CEO, he's supposed to act like a cartoon villain.
The world makes a lot more sense when you stop assuming that various businessmen, politicians etc. are trying to further their self-interest in a rational, if ruthless, manner, and instead treat them as villains in a farcical drama movie. That way you don't have to wonder why someone who already has three billions would risk everything to get a fourth, or something to that effect. The implications of that are somewhat... disturbing.
Um... You just were, so obviously you can.
That might have something to do with the fact that you just turned an article about possible health effects of a cell phone into complaining that you are being oppressed and then disproved that very claim. Internally inconsistent claims of victimhood tend to get modded down.
Dumb? Or just indifferent? This is a society which glorifies greed and selfishness, of watching out for number one and putting one's personal gain above all. Time and again do hear that the purpose of business is to generate profits for the owner, not care for the common good. Again and again do "libertarians" argue against public services because they require taxation. Should it really come as a surprise when the rest of us say "fine" and jump in on the bandwagon? And does that really make us dumb?
This is simply normal people emulating the aristocracy, doing what they're told is proper and good over and over again. "Not my problem", says a businessman who fires his employees; "not my problem", says a netizen who deprives a site of any source of revenue. Welcome to the next round of "Consequences of Capitalism"; the sound you heard is the society slowly crumbling around you since no one can be bothered to maintain it and often actively cursing any attempt to force them to.
I enjoy Jackass. It doesn't mean I'm dumb, it just means I enjoy Jackass.
You fail logic forever. But then again, most people who call others "sheep" do.