How many of those countries like Liechtenstein or Panama have been invaded since they abolished their armies?
I agree: Not everyone believes in free love and peace. That doesn't mean that if you don't have an army you're just asking to be taken over. Moreover, having an army doesn't guarantee anything: if the Israel-Lebanon conflict proved something, it was that being "second best" in the army race is just as well as not having ran at all. Meanwhile, the Lebanese people could have enjoyed the benefits of those hundreds of millions of dollars yearly expenditure in something that actually benefited them, such as education and health.
Costa Rica has done well enough defending itself the very few times it has been invaded in the past, by using volunteers and police. We'd much rather not starve our people or tax them even further because of hypothetical wolves in the forest.
Wow, that's myopic. Costa Rica has actually had a stable governments in the 57 years since we abolished the army. Not a single president has been assassinated nor has been forced to resign in that time. And while costarricans might not have always chosen the best people for the presidency, the elections have always been fair, with no claims of adulteration.
Not every country needs to hold their own people at gunpoint, nor thinks that the neighbors are going to invade the moment they look the wrong way.
The book for The Shinning is rather good, with some scary moment, but the movie just blows it out of the water as far as I'm concerned. The same goes for Carrie, and John Carpenter's The Thing.
Fight Club and Blade Runner have already been metioned.
Clint Eastwood managed to craft a moving, brlliant movie out of The Bridges of Madison County, a book with prose as terse as a cement block but not half as entertaining.
And I personally preferr the movie version of The Talented Mr. Ripley to the book, but that's mostly personal taste.
The "tinfoil hat" potential would be the possibility of the government using this technology for recognition of any other sound-related patterns, such as voice recognition. If that were the case, it would be capable of logging every time somebody on its vicinity says, for instance, "tax evasion".
Such voice recognition wouldn't need to be precise: you're not dictating a document, just approximating a phrase. "Good enough" would be easier to achieve.
You'll massively loose out if you don't ship a football game until the week before the Super Bowl. The NBA, FIFA, AFL, Rugby, Cricket and other sports series probably suffer from the same fate. Maybe the crunch would be different if working on a game that didn't have to coincide with a real-world component.
I disagree.
While not on the game industry, I've worked with banking, e-business and other areas were a project has to be done for a very specific date or the client will lose money and we'll be in default of contract. How about a project that has to be done by October, in order to accommodate the holiday season? Or by a date where a publicity campaign has stated a service will be available? Or the tourist season? Or just to beat the client's competition to market by a certain time window?
Were the crunch something necessary for course correction or getting the project inline with the estimates it would be one thing. A crunch like what's described has nothing to do with needing the product for a specific window of time: it has to do with project planning that is either horrendously bad, requiring people to work 300+ hours per month from the get go in order to deliver by the original estimated date, or just plain horrendous, where the project director assumes that such a schedule is something he can normally exact from people he doesn't consider a team but galley slaves.
The *only* entity you're helping when you purchase used music is the store you're buying from. Might as well just download the music for what it's worth.
Precisely, in my case. I'd rather support my local used book and CD store than the RIAA.
As far as bands go, I have a few whose music I consistently enjoy (Tool, The Mars Volta, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets) and whose CDs I buy new, RIAA or not. The rest, from which I may enjoy half the CD, I either don't but at all but just listen to intermittently when I stumble upon the song on the radio, or I just buy used.
Not only that, but it's likely it was supposed to be only one movie, despite Lucas' later comments about always envisioning a trilogy. I can't find the original link now, but I read once an interview with (I believe) Gary Kurtz where he said that originally it was going to be a single film, and was then extended into a trilogy when it was a success. Also, from imdb:
The episode number and subtitle "A New Hope" did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added to the April 10, 1981 re-release to be consistent with those seen in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Interesting, thanks for the link. However, I already have an USB compactflash reader and my camera does support USB connection, so it seems that the iPod + Reader would be less cost effective than simply connecting the USB reader to the iRiver.
I'll wait for actual reviews, see if it really works.
Does anybody know if it allows copying images directly from a compact flash card? That is, can I just plug an USB compactflash card reader to it and transfer the pictures? That alone would justify the purchase, since it would replace the need to carry a laptop or a bunch of flash cards.
Come to think of it, any other player that does support that? I don't need a fancy color screen, just the storage capability.
Thanks for the link, I should have added it. I am aware of them, and try to evangelize as many people as possible.
It will happen - eventually. It's just too damned slow.
In Costa Rica, my access is government owned and it is certainly not cheaper. You get dial-up internet access from the government's company, RACSA, or cable internet access from your local cable company (that has to pay RACSA a cut). The cost of cable at 128kpbs is $40 a month, plus you have to pay extra $20 for your cable TV (so it's actually $60 a month). Don't want cable TV? You're out of luck, you have to buy it to get cable Internet access. Want DSL? Wait until it goes through all the government red tape so that they approve the purchase of the necessary equipment and you may get it - after being 9 months on a waitlist.
Why not just use the phone-based access? It might be that phone lines were you live are so damned noisy that it is impossible. Phone is government owned too, by the way.
Don't get me started on cellphones.
As this and the poster from Jamaice exemplify, it is actually the lack of choices that drives up prices.
Slashdot Mirror
You may want to just check Wikipedia:
t hout_an_army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_wi
How many of those countries like Liechtenstein or Panama have been invaded since they abolished their armies?
I agree: Not everyone believes in free love and peace. That doesn't mean that if you don't have an army you're just asking to be taken over. Moreover, having an army doesn't guarantee anything: if the Israel-Lebanon conflict proved something, it was that being "second best" in the army race is just as well as not having ran at all. Meanwhile, the Lebanese people could have enjoyed the benefits of those hundreds of millions of dollars yearly expenditure in something that actually benefited them, such as education and health.
Costa Rica has done well enough defending itself the very few times it has been invaded in the past, by using volunteers and police. We'd much rather not starve our people or tax them even further because of hypothetical wolves in the forest.
Wow, that's myopic. Costa Rica has actually had a stable governments in the 57 years since we abolished the army. Not a single president has been assassinated nor has been forced to resign in that time. And while costarricans might not have always chosen the best people for the presidency, the elections have always been fair, with no claims of adulteration.
Not every country needs to hold their own people at gunpoint, nor thinks that the neighbors are going to invade the moment they look the wrong way.
The book for The Shinning is rather good, with some scary moment, but the movie just blows it out of the water as far as I'm concerned. The same goes for Carrie, and John Carpenter's The Thing. Fight Club and Blade Runner have already been metioned. Clint Eastwood managed to craft a moving, brlliant movie out of The Bridges of Madison County, a book with prose as terse as a cement block but not half as entertaining. And I personally preferr the movie version of The Talented Mr. Ripley to the book, but that's mostly personal taste.
Hmm, Naked Lunch and SportsNight references in the same post. Must check again if I'm really in slashdot.
The "tinfoil hat" potential would be the possibility of the government using this technology for recognition of any other sound-related patterns, such as voice recognition. If that were the case, it would be capable of logging every time somebody on its vicinity says, for instance, "tax evasion". Such voice recognition wouldn't need to be precise: you're not dictating a document, just approximating a phrase. "Good enough" would be easier to achieve.
It's actually a joke. A reference to one of their posts.
A chimp can hack Diebold electronic voting system
More Diebold e-voting vulnerabilities
California AG says he'll sue Diebold because it defrauded the state with false claims about its products
And the best for last:
Diebold voting machine owner commited to give votes to Bush in 2004
I disagree.
While not on the game industry, I've worked with banking, e-business and other areas were a project has to be done for a very specific date or the client will lose money and we'll be in default of contract. How about a project that has to be done by October, in order to accommodate the holiday season? Or by a date where a publicity campaign has stated a service will be available? Or the tourist season? Or just to beat the client's competition to market by a certain time window?
Were the crunch something necessary for course correction or getting the project inline with the estimates it would be one thing. A crunch like what's described has nothing to do with needing the product for a specific window of time: it has to do with project planning that is either horrendously bad, requiring people to work 300+ hours per month from the get go in order to deliver by the original estimated date, or just plain horrendous, where the project director assumes that such a schedule is something he can normally exact from people he doesn't consider a team but galley slaves.
Precisely, in my case. I'd rather support my local used book and CD store than the RIAA.
As far as bands go, I have a few whose music I consistently enjoy (Tool, The Mars Volta, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets) and whose CDs I buy new, RIAA or not. The rest, from which I may enjoy half the CD, I either don't but at all but just listen to intermittently when I stumble upon the song on the radio, or I just buy used.
The episode number and subtitle "A New Hope" did not originally appear in the film's opening crawl. These were added to the April 10, 1981 re-release to be consistent with those seen in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
I'll wait for actual reviews, see if it really works.
Come to think of it, any other player that does support that? I don't need a fancy color screen, just the storage capability.
Thanks for the link, I should have added it. I am aware of them, and try to evangelize as many people as possible. It will happen - eventually. It's just too damned slow.
In Costa Rica, my access is government owned and it is certainly not cheaper. You get dial-up internet access from the government's company, RACSA, or cable internet access from your local cable company (that has to pay RACSA a cut). The cost of cable at 128kpbs is $40 a month, plus you have to pay extra $20 for your cable TV (so it's actually $60 a month). Don't want cable TV? You're out of luck, you have to buy it to get cable Internet access. Want DSL? Wait until it goes through all the government red tape so that they approve the purchase of the necessary equipment and you may get it - after being 9 months on a waitlist.
Why not just use the phone-based access? It might be that phone lines were you live are so damned noisy that it is impossible. Phone is government owned too, by the way.
Don't get me started on cellphones.
As this and the poster from Jamaice exemplify, it is actually the lack of choices that drives up prices.