The rabbit population metrics were actually being used to determine how many rabbits it would take to destroy a dam. The dams the computer was used to build were just intended to be targets.
We haven't had an administration that wasn't bent on keeping the population afraid of something in decades. When I was growing up, we were still afraid of the Soviets and a nuclear war. In my teenage years, we were afraid of terrorists (first WTC), right wing militia-types, and we can never forget the constant undercurrent of fear of drug related gang violence and the like. Oh, and SARS, bird flu, swine flu, drug resistant TB... Throw in the occasional blowing up of aspirin factories just to make sure other countries stay riled up against the "Great Satan" and "decadent West" and the politicians are golden. They've got something to look serious about, and other countries don't have to address their internal problems because it's all the fault of "the West."
The law firm doesn't have to look at the posts for them to be considered.
Let's say you're in charge of hiring, and still have some contacts at the college you're looking to pull from. You call your buddy and tell him that Doe I looks good on paper, what's the story from the school's perspective. You get a long story about various misdeeds from your buddy. Maybe all you get is a cryptic "I wouldn't recommend them" which is probably more in keeping with hiring law/practices. You elect not to hire based on the reports you got from contacts at the school.
You've been above board. You called to check references, got an unfavorable response, and elected not to hire. You don't know that all the negative information came from some rumors or a message board.
How many thousands of children and impressionable adults will never even have the chance to learn basic tenets of logic, reason and science after being indoctrinated by a "museum" like this and the cooing, gentle voice of its proponents, telling children stories about dinosaurs living next to adam and eve and jesus?
It's, essentially, in the middle of no-where in Kentucky. The only people that are likely to visit the museum are people that already have their minds made up, or the children of those people. They'll already be indoctrinated.
If schools start mandatory field trips to the museum, we can talk. Until then, it's not likely to get visited by anybody who is "on the fence." People will either be going to take pictures and mock it, or they'll be going because it's a museum dedicated to what they already believe.
It turns man against man, because of different ancient social mores and savagely ignorant beliefs about the workings of the universe.
Because basic human greed won't turn man against man, amiright? I'll grant you that religion has been a smokescreen used many times to cover up human greed (whether it be for power, money, what have you), but in the absence of religion "might makes right" has stepped up to the plate on more than one occasion throughout human history.
I realize people want to know "should I shell out my hard earned cash for this?" However, reviewing a game that can change every other month and coming to one conclusion (yes/no) is ridiculous at best.
I disagree. Certainly the game can change, and change dramatically on release, but reviewing MMORPGs early is a good way to inform me whether I should care enough to shell out my hard earned cash.
I'm a casual player. The fact that there's no high end content and there's no griping about the quality of low end content tells me that the leveling process is likely to have a decent feel. Players getting to max level relatively quickly also tells me that it's probably not too bad a grind (when "badness" of a grind is measured by the amount of time spent for no other reason than to level up). Multiple classes being able to heal, and healer classes being able to do damage, combined with the assertion that people can solo probably means you can pick a class you like and run with it, without having to have 5 of your best friends by your side all the time.
The crafting system sounds like it was thrown in, more or less, so they could have crafting. Chances are that means it will end up a poor afterthought like in most games.
The deed system sounds like CoH/CoV. Nothing real special there.
There's no mention in the article about instanced areas. There's nothing about any mentoring systems (like in CoH and EQ2) that may or may not be in place. No mention of integrated voice chat systems (not that it's important, with all the other options). I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the game just doesn't have any of those features. Someone will doubtless correct me.
All in all, the review gives me the info I need to make a decision whether to try it out now. It's not being played up as a hardcore system like Vanguard, it sounds geared toward (or at least available to) casual/solo players. It's early enough that mudflation hasn't set in (I'd hope). I'll probably try it out, then figure out whether it's really worth $15 a month.
It's funny, in a sick way, that a lot of the politicians that are quick to place restrictions on video games and music seemingly don't care a bit about violence in the entertainment industry. Like everything else, you only need to look at the money to figure out why.
This shouldn't come as a big surprise. I expect a lot of government offices/officials snake money from areas that still have some cash to pay for other interests. It's one of the biggest reasons agencies tend to spend all their money...if they have some left over, there's a chance someone will decide they don't really need that budget money and shift it to some other agency.
Wouldn't it be better for all the people that watched the show, if they're truely that upset, to just not watch that network anymore? I would think losing number of the people that watch your network because the show they liked was no longer being played would make more of an impact than sending some nuts to the corporate office.
"Since you guys keep cracking our DRM schemes, we're going to be really nice and grant you fair use rights for the stuff you're paying for. See how cool we are!?"
It's odd how the blame essentially everything on Wi-Fi. If only someone would invent a pill that helps the body cope with radiation (like potassium iodide, but for wi-fi) and then sell it to the UK health service at a tremendous markup! Then the children would be safe.
We can even make scary sounding slogans to remind people to take their pills. "Why die for wi-fi? Take PlaceboXL and live!"
It's getting close to an election year, more and more people are using the Internet. It only makes sense to push some feel good "chicken in every pot" sorts of initiatives. If I thought the federal government could and would really cut through the layers of red tape and regulations in place to actually get faster connections to everybody, I'd even almost rise to not being cynical about it.
All too often, it's not quite enough. Ignore would be great if, to use WoW as an example, you could ignore an unlimited number of people AND have it ignore the account as a whole, not just the toon causing the problem. I care less about profanity than I do people spamming channels, but when I/ignore someone...I want them completely ignored.
but then the compulsory grouping to access much of the content turned it into a boring grind for casual players who just want to log on for short periods and get something done.
The sad thing is... People have been telling Brad this for years. It was the big reason a lot of people got fed up with Everquest, and is a huge reason Blizzard claims millions of subscribers. Back when EQ was king, there really wasn't another choice. People that liked MMORPGs continued to play it because it was all there was. People have seen MMORPGs that play a little differently now, and they happen to prefer that by huge numbers.
We already have. Remember all the hate crime legislation that we have? The stuff that says if you do this, you go to jail. If you do this because the victim is you go to jail + get extra time.
Since the hate crime stuff has managed to hang on, there shouldn't be any question that the government will continue to push forward with other thought-crime type legislation.
The current levy only applies to audio media (from what I'm reading). While you can put a lot of MP3's on a DVD, that's not (in the eyes of the board) what primarily goes on there. Chances are another levy will be put on blank video recording media given the chance.
Slashdot Mirror
The rabbit population metrics were actually being used to determine how many rabbits it would take to destroy a dam. The dams the computer was used to build were just intended to be targets.
We haven't had an administration that wasn't bent on keeping the population afraid of something in decades. When I was growing up, we were still afraid of the Soviets and a nuclear war. In my teenage years, we were afraid of terrorists (first WTC), right wing militia-types, and we can never forget the constant undercurrent of fear of drug related gang violence and the like. Oh, and SARS, bird flu, swine flu, drug resistant TB... Throw in the occasional blowing up of aspirin factories just to make sure other countries stay riled up against the "Great Satan" and "decadent West" and the politicians are golden. They've got something to look serious about, and other countries don't have to address their internal problems because it's all the fault of "the West."
Given the content of a lot of news broadcasts, I'm not sure the conclusions one would draw from either are all that different.
Don't leave out pardoning people for political reasons, that seems to be what a lot of the noise is about these days.
They're taxing real money that people make for selling virtual goods.
Because he can't afford the type of attorneys it would take to get away with murder. Jay-walking, maybe...but not murder.
The law firm doesn't have to look at the posts for them to be considered.
Let's say you're in charge of hiring, and still have some contacts at the college you're looking to pull from. You call your buddy and tell him that Doe I looks good on paper, what's the story from the school's perspective. You get a long story about various misdeeds from your buddy. Maybe all you get is a cryptic "I wouldn't recommend them" which is probably more in keeping with hiring law/practices. You elect not to hire based on the reports you got from contacts at the school.
You've been above board. You called to check references, got an unfavorable response, and elected not to hire. You don't know that all the negative information came from some rumors or a message board.
How many thousands of children and impressionable adults will never even have the chance to learn basic tenets of logic, reason and science after being indoctrinated by a "museum" like this and the cooing, gentle voice of its proponents, telling children stories about dinosaurs living next to adam and eve and jesus?
It's, essentially, in the middle of no-where in Kentucky. The only people that are likely to visit the museum are people that already have their minds made up, or the children of those people. They'll already be indoctrinated.
If schools start mandatory field trips to the museum, we can talk. Until then, it's not likely to get visited by anybody who is "on the fence." People will either be going to take pictures and mock it, or they'll be going because it's a museum dedicated to what they already believe.
It turns man against man, because of different ancient social mores and savagely ignorant beliefs about the workings of the universe.
Because basic human greed won't turn man against man, amiright? I'll grant you that religion has been a smokescreen used many times to cover up human greed (whether it be for power, money, what have you), but in the absence of religion "might makes right" has stepped up to the plate on more than one occasion throughout human history.
You don't like earthquakes or being so close to New Jersey?
I realize people want to know "should I shell out my hard earned cash for this?" However, reviewing a game that can change every other month and coming to one conclusion (yes/no) is ridiculous at best.
I disagree. Certainly the game can change, and change dramatically on release, but reviewing MMORPGs early is a good way to inform me whether I should care enough to shell out my hard earned cash.
I'm a casual player. The fact that there's no high end content and there's no griping about the quality of low end content tells me that the leveling process is likely to have a decent feel. Players getting to max level relatively quickly also tells me that it's probably not too bad a grind (when "badness" of a grind is measured by the amount of time spent for no other reason than to level up). Multiple classes being able to heal, and healer classes being able to do damage, combined with the assertion that people can solo probably means you can pick a class you like and run with it, without having to have 5 of your best friends by your side all the time.
The crafting system sounds like it was thrown in, more or less, so they could have crafting. Chances are that means it will end up a poor afterthought like in most games.
The deed system sounds like CoH/CoV. Nothing real special there.
There's no mention in the article about instanced areas. There's nothing about any mentoring systems (like in CoH and EQ2) that may or may not be in place. No mention of integrated voice chat systems (not that it's important, with all the other options). I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the game just doesn't have any of those features. Someone will doubtless correct me.
All in all, the review gives me the info I need to make a decision whether to try it out now. It's not being played up as a hardcore system like Vanguard, it sounds geared toward (or at least available to) casual/solo players. It's early enough that mudflation hasn't set in (I'd hope). I'll probably try it out, then figure out whether it's really worth $15 a month.
It's funny, in a sick way, that a lot of the politicians that are quick to place restrictions on video games and music seemingly don't care a bit about violence in the entertainment industry. Like everything else, you only need to look at the money to figure out why.
This shouldn't come as a big surprise. I expect a lot of government offices/officials snake money from areas that still have some cash to pay for other interests. It's one of the biggest reasons agencies tend to spend all their money...if they have some left over, there's a chance someone will decide they don't really need that budget money and shift it to some other agency.
Wouldn't it be better for all the people that watched the show, if they're truely that upset, to just not watch that network anymore? I would think losing number of the people that watch your network because the show they liked was no longer being played would make more of an impact than sending some nuts to the corporate office.
Why don't we hold corporate america to high standards any more ?
Any more? When did we ever?
"Since you guys keep cracking our DRM schemes, we're going to be really nice and grant you fair use rights for the stuff you're paying for. See how cool we are!?"
I want to make a comment about Sony being on the "Vanguard" of the Game 3.0 economy. But I know that would be wrong. Not enough to stop me, though.
It's odd how the blame essentially everything on Wi-Fi. If only someone would invent a pill that helps the body cope with radiation (like potassium iodide, but for wi-fi) and then sell it to the UK health service at a tremendous markup! Then the children would be safe.
We can even make scary sounding slogans to remind people to take their pills. "Why die for wi-fi? Take PlaceboXL and live!"
We axe y we dont juzt speel foneticly!
It's getting close to an election year, more and more people are using the Internet. It only makes sense to push some feel good "chicken in every pot" sorts of initiatives. If I thought the federal government could and would really cut through the layers of red tape and regulations in place to actually get faster connections to everybody, I'd even almost rise to not being cynical about it.
All too often, it's not quite enough. Ignore would be great if, to use WoW as an example, you could ignore an unlimited number of people AND have it ignore the account as a whole, not just the toon causing the problem. I care less about profanity than I do people spamming channels, but when I /ignore someone...I want them completely ignored.
I would've sworn ZoneAlarm flagged Windows Update attempts. I guess I need to double check when I get home.
but then the compulsory grouping to access much of the content turned it into a boring grind for casual players who just want to log on for short periods and get something done.
The sad thing is... People have been telling Brad this for years. It was the big reason a lot of people got fed up with Everquest, and is a huge reason Blizzard claims millions of subscribers. Back when EQ was king, there really wasn't another choice. People that liked MMORPGs continued to play it because it was all there was. People have seen MMORPGs that play a little differently now, and they happen to prefer that by huge numbers.
You cannot and SHALL not legislate morality.
We already have. Remember all the hate crime legislation that we have? The stuff that says if you do this, you go to jail. If you do this because the victim is you go to jail + get extra time.
Since the hate crime stuff has managed to hang on, there shouldn't be any question that the government will continue to push forward with other thought-crime type legislation.
The current levy only applies to audio media (from what I'm reading). While you can put a lot of MP3's on a DVD, that's not (in the eyes of the board) what primarily goes on there. Chances are another levy will be put on blank video recording media given the chance.