I work in a DoD installation which uses Common Access Cards to sign in to webpages. Some pages require use of the CAC when I bring them up in IE, but let me straight through with FireFox. Then again, FireFox is the only one that warns me that the sites' security certificates are incorrect or obsolete.
For now, I've got our IT guy's blessing on running FireFox on my computer, but if they find out that it bypasses their fancy card-based security system...
Here, here! Or, for that matter, the magazines that release a review two days after they receive their copy of the game, acting as if they're doing us a favor by submitting a review based upon either rushing through the game without diverging from the main path, or getting only partway through the game. Computer Games Magazine, IMO, does a fairly good job at giving enough time to games rather than rushing out reviews. On the flipside of things, this means that their review typically comes out a month or so after the game's release, but they at least properly test drive it. And I've found few cases where I disagreed with their reviews.
^_^ Kodomo no Omocha, a piece of Japanese anime, was released under that title. (It's also been released as "Child's Toy" and "Kodocha" that I know of)
Honestly, I don't know what the significance of the name is in Tycho and Gabe's heads. (Can't read the article here at work, as their site is flagged as Mature/Gaming) I would be mildly surprised if they hadn't realized the immediate association in people's heads to the horror movie, but maybe they simply wrote up the title as a literal rendition of what they planned the drive to be about, children getting joy through playing.
That said, I was a contributor last year. Twenty bucks went that some kid out there got an art kit that I would have killed to have had as a child. *wry grin* And then to balance things out, I gave $20 to a chairty providing food and shelter so I guess I was out $40, but eh...
Most useful to me is that it logs all 4 services that I use in one easy-to-read-and-search HTML format. The propietary formats for searching mean that you often have to fire up the messenging client (and quickly set your status to offline if you don't want random friends pouncing you) and use their interface. And if versions change, you may lose that history.
Also useful from a legal viewpoint is that Gaim by default logs all conversations. There was some ruling several months ago that IM chat logging could be considered as analagous to recording phone calls and therefore may not be legal without both parties being aware of said recording. However, they also said that any service which logged conversations by default was exempt as there was a reasonable doubt that the user intentionally logged said conversations. As a result, you can log legally with Gaim, but turning on chat logging for any of the services which don't come with it on by default could potentially put you into sticky political waters. (And no, I have no desire to know what's in politcal waters that always makes them so sticky...)
Try using GAIM. It's a chat client that allows you to use a variety of protocols, including AIM. No ads, no bloat, and if you have multiple messenger services, it can cut the number of extraneous icons in your taskbar. Only drawback IMO is the lack of video and sound options and the occasional interruption of service when one of the messenger services decides to get clever with their protocol. However, Gaim tends to catch up within about 24 hours on the latter case.
And I agree with you on carbon monoxide being one of the best ways to die. You just get drowsy/dizzy and pass out. About the only die better than that would be a recreational drug overdose during sex, chuckle.
I know we're getting terribly off-topic here, but I seem to remember that one of those books on suicide stated that the top two most comfortable ways to die were drug overdoses or freezing to death. At that, I believe they recommended the freezing, as humans will often have their stomachs reject amounts of drugs large enough to kill them whereas if you take a large amount of alcohol then fall asleep in a wide-open house in the middle of winter, you're likely to fall into a deep sleep from which you'll die a very painless death.
On a side note, I also heard somewhere that current emission standards has led to a decrease in carbon monoxide poisonings, as people are simply finding it harder to get their car to produce enough carbon monoxide to suffocate, at least before some well-meaning relative stops by.
For sake of reference, the suffocation incident was at Lake Nyos in Cameroon and is documented at http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/smother.asp. 1,746 people killed in a matter of minutes... evidence of how scary Mother Nature can be. Although, to be fair, death was apparently very swift and likely painless.
Ironically enough, it was playing Goldeneye on the N64 that convinced me to learn to use the WASD/Mouse configuration on the computer. I got used to using the strafe buttons and came to realize how much I was missing in FPS games but not using strafes with mouse-look. Although, admittedly, in earlier games like Doom, using the mouse and keyboard connection wasn't quite as easy with current games. It just doesn't feel right to me.
But yeah, Goldeneye inspired me to go through the training course in Half-Life using the mouse/keyboard connection and the rest was history.
The fact is that most people believe that right and wrong are independant of the laws that we pass. Usually the reason for this is that people ultimately believe themselves to be accountable for their actions to some higher power than civil authority. That is a fundamentally religious issue.
I would agree that perhaps a majority of people eventually cite divine law as authority for their position, but I would argue that often said divine law also has a logical moral background behind it similar to Kantianism where it is found that the law makes sense from the perspective that it is necessary for a functioning society and that one is never exploiting humanity as a means for gain. In the end, quoting scripture is little different from quoting legal code, simply a shorthand to show that others have carefully considered the issue and that you understand at least enough of their reasoning to follow it.
Personally, I oppose human cloning on the level of religion such as the sanctity of life and the creation of souled beings to study then destroy them. I also oppose it on the level that its practice demeans the value of human life, saying that in some instances, it's Ok to take a human life to further scientific progress. (And believe me, it would be so tempting to quote examples that would invoke Godwin's law here...) It's a slippery slope and I would prefer to fight the good cause now rather than leaving it to my children to deal with it when human eugenics might be more pervasive.
Science is never at fault. It is the people who handle it.
Exactly. Which is why some people are already handling it by protesting. Sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Then there was the incredibly variable customer service. GMs were given an extremely wide latitude about how they could do things, which led to a lot of situations where someone did X, and was told it was okay, and someone else later also did exactly X, and was warned/suspended/banned for it. I was a Guide for six months on Brell Serilis (Tovarax Two Tone, troll bard), and we had a cool GM (Hi Oribi!) but a lot of other servers weren't so lucky. Even some of our guides were anal-retentive assholes, while others were easygoing. This kind of thing led directly to the impression that EQ customer service was capricious and cruel.
^_^ Makes one wonder why they don't just still call them Wizards. After all, that's half the fun of a fantasy world, knowing that the most powerful beings of the universe, the archmages and dragons, are also extremely dangerous because while they may decide to help you on a whim (or to suit their longterm plans), but they may slo decide to obliterate you (or at the least try. A good DM gives his players a chance to escape by smart roleplaying if not dumb luck or skills) because they have a headache and their mistress is ragging. Not, of course, that I think that administrators should be required to be capricious of course, but that namign them Wizards would at least be truth in advertising. Right, digression done, back to topic.
It is my personal opinion that while they should get professionals for voice-acting, they're better off giving some amateurs their big break rather than trying to get some celebrity voice actor. Honestly, it's likely that either the actor's voice will not fit in (Can you imagine Keanu Reeves dubbing a barbarian or peasant?) or the voice will be unrecognizable enough from what we believe to be the actor's "real voice" that the only reason we'll know it's them is due to the press and the user's manual. So in short, yes to professional voice-acting but no to the celibrity part.
Isn't it more important to vote for someone who has shown experience? That's how the job market works. Can we really believe what politicians say, we need to look at what they have done.
But you see, that runs counter to how politics works. If you do something definite, you will likely get 10% of the people with you for it and 90% against you for it. If you do nothing, you've not offended the 90% for all that you didn't court the 10%. The fact of the matter is that issues are not black-and-white. Just like that old truism that red lights last longer than green lights (true over all traffic lights given that for an even amount of traffic going each direction, the green light must be interrupted by the yellow light), making a stand on the issue is bound to piss off more people than you make happy. Therefore, the best political stance is one where you can change your mind and side-step the issue at any time.
I'm just going to cast my votes to maximize gridlock. I want the good old days, when the Republican-controlled legislature didn't have enough votes to override a veto and Bill Clinton was President. Neither side could get much done, so we ended up with huge economic growth, low interest rates, and very low unemployment.
Except, well, this time there was a Republican president and a Republican-controlled legislature and still there was massive amounts of gridlock. I think it may be inherent in the system. On one hand, I like that because it means they screw with our lives less, but on the other hand, it means that actually helpful legislation will be revised to be so bland that it will appeal to a majority but will be so weak as to do nothing. (Or worse, it will be filled with little side-amendments that wind up supporting entirely opposing causes. Is it any wonder that all the pay raises get attached to major bills that must go through?)
Bush declined to answer, how how do you find that a respectable position. He's effectively saying he's not answerable to anyone but God and that's simply not true.
Honestly, you seem to be taking a large leap of logic going from him declining to answer the question to saying that he feels he's God's mouthpiece. He was facing a rather hostile climate and was likely aware that anything he said there was going to be twisted horribly, so he declined to answer. It's analagous to turning and walking away from a co-worker who walks up to you with cheap whiskey on their breath and asks how long you've been sleeping with his wife. Nothing you say is going to budge them, so the best thing to do in that situation is to back away.
^_^ Ok, probably a fairly extreme example, but I've found hyperbole is handy for getting points across. Nevertheless, I'm sure you've been in situations where you knew the other person asked a question when they'd already decided the answer. There's nothing you can say in your defense in such a situation. Just best not to give them ammunition.
Honestly, yes, I do think having actors in a game is good. Voice acting, when done well, brings you deep into the game, immersing you because the audio cues are all there. Bad voice acting... yanks you out and bitchslaps you with the fact that this is just a game. There's nothing like having the princess in peril open her mouth and say, in a disinterested valley-girl voice, "Oh wise prince save me." to make you realize that these are just pixels on a screen. (Although a close second involves badly programmed voice acting where the character in question spurts the same soundbite over and over again no matter what the circumstances, sometimes stepping on his own lines if you step away and back fast enough) And honestly, voice acting tends to be pretty bad in many games. Why? Because it's one of those things that often gets put off until the end, whereupon the programmers or their friends get pressed into voicing characters.
My disagreement here is getting the name-brand actors. Honestly, I could not care less that Christopher Lee is doing the voice. I just want someone who can do good accents and put proper emotions into their performance. Heck, head out to your local theater and you can probably get voice acting just as good for the price of dinner. At that, some will do it just for notoriety and another entry for the acting resume.
Well, except that diamonds aren't inherently rare. The DeBeers Consortioum carefully controls how many diamonds enter the market each year so that they can keep the price artificially high.
Very good point. And honestly, I think they've got some good tactics there. I bet 90% of the people out there will breathe a sigh of relief thinking "Oh gosh, well that's simple enough" and turn off sharing. Get enough people not sharing and the network falls apart because all that's left is leechers and legitimate files. It preys on that fundamental selfishness in human nature.
I still think they're pondscum for some of the intimidation tactics they've used, particularly the wildcard searches in which they claim rights to files they don't even own, but where ISPs are forced to fold because of (justifiable) fear of lawsuit. But good tactics on attacking the sharers rather than downloaders...
Oh goodness... I think you misunderstand the pettiness of most people. True, requiring pushing an extra button will deter one or two nice people who'll decide to call back in an hour or so until their friend is available, but I'd wager a fair amount of them would consider their situation "an emergency" and the rest would fake it to get through to their friends.
I'm not really a pessimist but I do play one on stage...
You're right, and hasn't there been cases where someone goes and rapes someone simply because they couldn't get their hands on some pr0n? (At least I think I remember reading something along those lines...) So I say, increase the porn, the number of rape cases will go down!
Oddly enough, the opposite argument is the reasoning behind the enhancements to the child pornography laws that made all media that could be reasonably be interpretted as involving children just as illegal. Although no actual children are involved when a company uses a 31-year-old midget or draws their work, someone out there might get incited by the material and either decide to act upon the themese involved, or to make their own pornography with a cheap camera, some candy, and the kids in their neighborhood.
It's not like you are dead meat once you get a takedown notice. There's no court case running against you yet, and you can still inform the *AA that what you're doing is, in fact, completely legal. Then maybe they'll do an actual assesment, or they might just drop the case and go after an easier target.
Thing is, in a lot of current cases, they aren't suing. Rather, they simply call up your ISP and say that they have evidence of these files being shared and gosh, they'd hate to have to pursue legal action... *sigh* And currently ISPs can be held fully liable for the activities of their subscribers, or at least they're convinced they can, so they fold like a cheap card table. Even though I've proved to Adelphia that the claims they made were on bogus material that is legal to distribute, and that the accusers had no ownership of, I still have a black mark on my record which means that a second person accusing me is grounds for immediate termination, no questions asked. It's Adelphia's right to do so. It's also my right to publicize the case and convince all my friends to boycott Adelphia, but I certainly hope it doesn't come to that.
*wry grin* Yeah, with proper application, you can reduce your risk by about 3/4. Like getting pregnant, catching AIDS is not a guaranteed matter even with unprotected sex. Condoms reduce the risk, but it's still a gamble to have sex with anyone who you don't know for sure isn't HIV positive. And honestly, I think that's why the problem is not licked in developed countries. People will always play the odds, believing they won't be a statistic.
I read that series growing up. They had the bound trilogy-as-one-book and I reread it several times. Unfortunately, the only other book I ran into in the series was the 5th or 6th or so, The Warrior's Son maybe? Eh, anyhow, good stuff. I particularly liked the fact that you had some feeling of realism in it despite the fantasy setting. One of the members of the party died within the first day or so in the new world and a few others die later. Sure, the remaining party members seemed at times to be slightly overpowered compared to the world compatriots, but not such that they couldn't lose teeth, appendages, their lives, etc if they weren't careful and/or were unlucky.
"The lawsuit alleged that the driver emptied the contents of the bus' septic tank into the river below" would do just fine
Ah, but what if you quoted the lawsuit incorrectly? And misquoting lawyers could be like playing snatch with a pit bull. Might leave you with less fingers at that...
Eh... I'd be careful on the listing the police department number as your own. Too many phone calls to their number asking for John Gaughan and you may up for charges ranging from "false representation as an officer" to "obstruction of justice" to "being a public nuisance." Sure, the charges may not be too terribly applicable, but how many courts are going to argue for you forwarding all business calls to a target, thereby tying up phone lines that are needed for the work of justice?
Slashdot Mirror
For now, I've got our IT guy's blessing on running FireFox on my computer, but if they find out that it bypasses their fancy card-based security system...
Here, here! Or, for that matter, the magazines that release a review two days after they receive their copy of the game, acting as if they're doing us a favor by submitting a review based upon either rushing through the game without diverging from the main path, or getting only partway through the game. Computer Games Magazine, IMO, does a fairly good job at giving enough time to games rather than rushing out reviews. On the flipside of things, this means that their review typically comes out a month or so after the game's release, but they at least properly test drive it. And I've found few cases where I disagreed with their reviews.
Honestly, I don't know what the significance of the name is in Tycho and Gabe's heads. (Can't read the article here at work, as their site is flagged as Mature/Gaming) I would be mildly surprised if they hadn't realized the immediate association in people's heads to the horror movie, but maybe they simply wrote up the title as a literal rendition of what they planned the drive to be about, children getting joy through playing.
That said, I was a contributor last year. Twenty bucks went that some kid out there got an art kit that I would have killed to have had as a child. *wry grin* And then to balance things out, I gave $20 to a chairty providing food and shelter so I guess I was out $40, but eh...
Also useful from a legal viewpoint is that Gaim by default logs all conversations. There was some ruling several months ago that IM chat logging could be considered as analagous to recording phone calls and therefore may not be legal without both parties being aware of said recording. However, they also said that any service which logged conversations by default was exempt as there was a reasonable doubt that the user intentionally logged said conversations. As a result, you can log legally with Gaim, but turning on chat logging for any of the services which don't come with it on by default could potentially put you into sticky political waters. (And no, I have no desire to know what's in politcal waters that always makes them so sticky...)
Try using GAIM. It's a chat client that allows you to use a variety of protocols, including AIM. No ads, no bloat, and if you have multiple messenger services, it can cut the number of extraneous icons in your taskbar. Only drawback IMO is the lack of video and sound options and the occasional interruption of service when one of the messenger services decides to get clever with their protocol. However, Gaim tends to catch up within about 24 hours on the latter case.
On a side note, I also heard somewhere that current emission standards has led to a decrease in carbon monoxide poisonings, as people are simply finding it harder to get their car to produce enough carbon monoxide to suffocate, at least before some well-meaning relative stops by.
For sake of reference, the suffocation incident was at Lake Nyos in Cameroon and is documented at http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/smother.asp . 1,746 people killed in a matter of minutes... evidence of how scary Mother Nature can be. Although, to be fair, death was apparently very swift and likely painless.
But yeah, Goldeneye inspired me to go through the training course in Half-Life using the mouse/keyboard connection and the rest was history.
I would agree that perhaps a majority of people eventually cite divine law as authority for their position, but I would argue that often said divine law also has a logical moral background behind it similar to Kantianism where it is found that the law makes sense from the perspective that it is necessary for a functioning society and that one is never exploiting humanity as a means for gain. In the end, quoting scripture is little different from quoting legal code, simply a shorthand to show that others have carefully considered the issue and that you understand at least enough of their reasoning to follow it.
Personally, I oppose human cloning on the level of religion such as the sanctity of life and the creation of souled beings to study then destroy them. I also oppose it on the level that its practice demeans the value of human life, saying that in some instances, it's Ok to take a human life to further scientific progress. (And believe me, it would be so tempting to quote examples that would invoke Godwin's law here...) It's a slippery slope and I would prefer to fight the good cause now rather than leaving it to my children to deal with it when human eugenics might be more pervasive.
Science is never at fault. It is the people who handle it.
Exactly. Which is why some people are already handling it by protesting. Sometimes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
It is my personal opinion that while they should get professionals for voice-acting, they're better off giving some amateurs their big break rather than trying to get some celebrity voice actor. Honestly, it's likely that either the actor's voice will not fit in (Can you imagine Keanu Reeves dubbing a barbarian or peasant?) or the voice will be unrecognizable enough from what we believe to be the actor's "real voice" that the only reason we'll know it's them is due to the press and the user's manual. So in short, yes to professional voice-acting but no to the celibrity part.
Isn't it more important to vote for someone who has shown experience? That's how the job market works. Can we really believe what politicians say, we need to look at what they have done. But you see, that runs counter to how politics works. If you do something definite, you will likely get 10% of the people with you for it and 90% against you for it. If you do nothing, you've not offended the 90% for all that you didn't court the 10%. The fact of the matter is that issues are not black-and-white. Just like that old truism that red lights last longer than green lights (true over all traffic lights given that for an even amount of traffic going each direction, the green light must be interrupted by the yellow light), making a stand on the issue is bound to piss off more people than you make happy. Therefore, the best political stance is one where you can change your mind and side-step the issue at any time.
Honestly, you seem to be taking a large leap of logic going from him declining to answer the question to saying that he feels he's God's mouthpiece. He was facing a rather hostile climate and was likely aware that anything he said there was going to be twisted horribly, so he declined to answer. It's analagous to turning and walking away from a co-worker who walks up to you with cheap whiskey on their breath and asks how long you've been sleeping with his wife. Nothing you say is going to budge them, so the best thing to do in that situation is to back away.
^_^ Ok, probably a fairly extreme example, but I've found hyperbole is handy for getting points across. Nevertheless, I'm sure you've been in situations where you knew the other person asked a question when they'd already decided the answer. There's nothing you can say in your defense in such a situation. Just best not to give them ammunition.
My disagreement here is getting the name-brand actors. Honestly, I could not care less that Christopher Lee is doing the voice. I just want someone who can do good accents and put proper emotions into their performance. Heck, head out to your local theater and you can probably get voice acting just as good for the price of dinner. At that, some will do it just for notoriety and another entry for the acting resume.
Well, except that diamonds aren't inherently rare. The DeBeers Consortioum carefully controls how many diamonds enter the market each year so that they can keep the price artificially high.
I still think they're pondscum for some of the intimidation tactics they've used, particularly the wildcard searches in which they claim rights to files they don't even own, but where ISPs are forced to fold because of (justifiable) fear of lawsuit. But good tactics on attacking the sharers rather than downloaders...
I'm not really a pessimist but I do play one on stage...
Oddly enough, the opposite argument is the reasoning behind the enhancements to the child pornography laws that made all media that could be reasonably be interpretted as involving children just as illegal. Although no actual children are involved when a company uses a 31-year-old midget or draws their work, someone out there might get incited by the material and either decide to act upon the themese involved, or to make their own pornography with a cheap camera, some candy, and the kids in their neighborhood.
Similar to how sickle-cell anemia is more prevalent in black people. The reason? Having partial sickle-cell anemia makes you nearly immune to malaria.
*wry grin* Yeah, with proper application, you can reduce your risk by about 3/4. Like getting pregnant, catching AIDS is not a guaranteed matter even with unprotected sex. Condoms reduce the risk, but it's still a gamble to have sex with anyone who you don't know for sure isn't HIV positive. And honestly, I think that's why the problem is not licked in developed countries. People will always play the odds, believing they won't be a statistic.
I read that series growing up. They had the bound trilogy-as-one-book and I reread it several times. Unfortunately, the only other book I ran into in the series was the 5th or 6th or so, The Warrior's Son maybe? Eh, anyhow, good stuff. I particularly liked the fact that you had some feeling of realism in it despite the fantasy setting. One of the members of the party died within the first day or so in the new world and a few others die later. Sure, the remaining party members seemed at times to be slightly overpowered compared to the world compatriots, but not such that they couldn't lose teeth, appendages, their lives, etc if they weren't careful and/or were unlucky.
"The lawsuit alleged that the driver emptied the contents of the bus' septic tank into the river below" would do just fine
Ah, but what if you quoted the lawsuit incorrectly? And misquoting lawyers could be like playing snatch with a pit bull. Might leave you with less fingers at that...
Eh... I'd be careful on the listing the police department number as your own. Too many phone calls to their number asking for John Gaughan and you may up for charges ranging from "false representation as an officer" to "obstruction of justice" to "being a public nuisance." Sure, the charges may not be too terribly applicable, but how many courts are going to argue for you forwarding all business calls to a target, thereby tying up phone lines that are needed for the work of justice?