Why should we keep running trade deficits with every country?
We actually do have a trade surplus with North Korea, roughly equal to our trade deficit with India
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5790. html
Actually, the Bush administration was trying to push this as something called flex time, employers nationwide would only have to pay overtime if they went over 80 hours over 2 weeks. Naturally, the Orwellian administration plugged it as being "pro-family" saying that now employees would have more flexibility in scheduling etc except for the fact that it was a mandatory program, and employers can still schedule them for whenever they want.
Not sure about the final outcome though, like a lot of US news, it just kinda gets hot for a while then fizzles out and people lose track of it.
Because if you read the article you would see that the cars are not fully automatic, they just have some automatic safety features, the DARPA challenge is/was for fully automatic cars...
or japanese that want to be millionaires.
BTW, there is a version of Who wants to be a Millionaire in Japan that is even more annoying than the American version(you can win 10 million yen, not even 1/10th the American top prize) and they frequently take commercial breaks in between the contestant answering and the host(who looks exactly like one would expect a Japanese Regis to look like) giving the answer. They also isolate the family in a booth and frequently pan back to them. Much worse than the American version.
Ack! You don't realize the significance of the date of the first bomb at all! Very few people do, and that is why I think we have a lot more people complaining about Hiroshima! The Soviet Union agreed(I think in Potsdamn, but I'm not 100% sure on that one) to enter the war in the Pacific 90 days after the official end of war in Europe, or August 6th, Stalin was sending waves of troops to the east to conquer Japan(they actually did get a few islands in the far north of Japan, still disputed today) Would Japan have been better off had the Soviets fought a very bloody(and they didn't give a fuck about civilians) battle there? I don't think that the nuclear bomb should have been dropped, but I REALLY wish people would actually bother to study the situation at least enough to realize that it was probably the most humane thing to do(Nagasaki is another story, but the idea was Soviet containment)
that they are talking about. Could people finally actually want to communicate in a slightly social setting instead of getting the one-way communication that television offers us.
I still personally would prefer a trip out to a local eatery etc for my social interaction, but it's definately interesting to see how much better people respond to playing other people(or at least what they think are other people, I wonder how many people have an internet buddy that is actually a chatbot)
What I really liked about FFX was that the main game was pretty easy(had to be since it was like a movie!) and somewhat straightforward. This allows even the most casual gamer to get some enjoyment out of it.
However, there were a decent amount of very difficult mini games(chocobo taming?) and all sorts of extra aeons, ultimate weapons, etc that entertained the hardcore gamer. I never bothered with most of this, but I know people who have just insane amounts of this stuff and can beat those monsters in the arena. I think that the main game should be easy, but there should be enough optional, challenging(and of course rewarding!) side quests/mini-games etc to satisfy the more hardcore gamer like this author.
Kudos to Square.
They do this in Japan. I have a phone that I bought for about $60, they have an over the air provisioning service, but they also allow you to load custom apps just by visiting a URL. They prevent piracy by refusing to allow you to access content on the phone(it's probably possible, but most people just don't bother with it)
Meanwhile Verizon doesn't allow you to run custom apps on the hardware you bought.
Now I gotta go back and use their crappy service again, really blows!
Thats actually what I was saying, 6 or 7 years ago a lot of the search engines did return a lot of crap, but they are they quickly becoming much more useful now. BTW, it was the period before Blogging became a fad that I was alluding to, back when a lot of people used to learn some basic HTML(or even worse, Frontpage!) and create this crappy little website that was just a tangled mess of links and pointless crap they stole off other sites.
You really have to wonder what specifically is for the asian market? Maybe it's just that asians are more accepting of MMO's than the general public, so they can slim down the newbie station? Or is it that they tend to have greater tolerance for random monsters so they jack up the monster count. Or they love very cartoony looks so they overhaul some of the outfits? Or is it that they love collecting very rare items so the price skyrockets? A lot of it sounds like catering to hardcore gamers versus the hobbyist public than anything specifically asian, but maybe thats just my take on it.
Maybe someone more familiar with the asian gaming market can tell me what cultural aspects make this stuff more appealing. I guess as a regular dumb American I just see a lot of these features as a way to take up more time that could be spent doing something else, like FPing on/.
It's amazing though how many people create these wonderful(or not so wonderful as your opinion may be) websites, then just abandon them. There was an article in the NYT a while ago(now it costs money) about how many bloggers haven't updated in a few months(the number was almost 50% IIRC) and how about 20% or so never got updated past the first post!
At least we have better search engines than we had a few years ago, I'm sure your all well aware of the frustration you encountered when searching for something meaningful and getting, "Jim's cool page of pics" etc.
With all ya read about how the government is subverting science etc. It's nice to see that the governmnent is promoting open source which will allow it's citizens to get access to the best/cheapest/open technology rather than promoting what the corprate overlords suggest.
It's also interesting to note that(unlike some other governments) this isn't exactly an endorsement of use for OSS software, but rather a flag telling agencies that it's ok to go ahead with OSS projects you planned, and here are some resources OSS.
It would be interesting though for the government to fund more OSS projects who have a significant amount of dedicated US citizen contributors, but with the deficits and tax cuts, it's probably a pipe dream.
They actually released a smaller version for the Japanese market, but since nobody in Japan bought an XBox, I guess it didn't matter much.
I have yet to see one of the Japanese controllers.
If only other record holders would use the emulator instead, we all could see just exactly how he did it instead of just watching a video.
With a game like Mario, you could even try to save state(works with metroid too, but less intuitive) at certain parts and see if you can do it faster.
There are already(at least here in Japan) a lot of GPS enabled systems that do that(they can even voice when you are supposed to turn), I've taken a few trips with them(alas to poor to drive) and they are really neat.
As for why your phone can't do it, well, it might be a privacy issue. Imagine some dumb user randomly installing an app on their cellphone(as the installers get easier) that constantly broadcasts your position....somebody who may or may not deserve it, may get robbed/hurt/taken away to the evil layer of the super-squirell.
In the meantime, maybe you should invest in one of those car units, or like the other poster said, if possible, start an OSS project to share with the world.
If the beast of redmond was infuriated by the linux xbox project. Putting a hd there gave the linux distro much more power(ability to store large amounts of data, a fast swap etc), this way they can still get the convience of having all your saved games on one(hopefully quick) memory device, while eliminating the need for a hard drive. Linux will still find it's way to the box^2 of the beast, it just might not be as useful next time around, provided that ms doesn't do anything stupid...though I guess if it has USB that kinda defeats my whole post. Ah fuck it!
Free Weird Al!
That this game won't dunk you in orange juice while a digital crowd mocks your worth as a human being.
ah Simpsons, is there anything that can't be related to them on Slashdot?
Why not combine movie/tv/games nostalgia?
Make new games based on old concepts but with new graphics/mechanics. I mean, who wouldn't want to play a 3d game based on M*A*S*H(much better than the hilariously inept Atari 2600 game) or ET, or countless other 80's franchises that have been thrown by the wayside. I mean, come on, if you can make a game based on the matrix, the least you can do is give Fred Savage a voiceover part in the reality sim based on the Wonder Years.(He needs the work!)
Oh well, I guess if you really want classic gaming with a new twist there is always homestarrunner.
It's interesting to see yet another government try to circumvent web sites that don't agree with their particular world view. And even better when the web-sites re-appear under different names. Sounds exactly like the situation in China. I wonder if the Iranian geeks are learning from what happened to the Falun Gong et al. They are obviously realizing that the filters are almost worthless to people who really want to get at the material.
However, I still think the filters are effective because they have a very powerful psychological effect. If the government says you shouldn't be viewing said material, and if caught(even though it's almost impossible to catch you, but how many people realize the true power of the government) there will be big trouble. Thus I think most banned sites just wind up preaching to the choir, very sad indeed.
It's sexism pure and simple. Mars is the male god of war, and Venus is a goddess. The male chauvenists are the REAL reason almost nobody cares about Venus, and to think, I thought sexism was dead. It's a male dominated solar system.
We need something akin to those, "Heros don't use drugs" screens on arcades in between the demos when nobody was playing. My suggestion is an FBI agent pointing and saying, "Heros respect intellectual property!"
Slashdot Mirror
Why should we keep running trade deficits with every country?. html
We actually do have a trade surplus with North Korea, roughly equal to our trade deficit with India
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5790
Actually, the Bush administration was trying to push this as something called flex time, employers nationwide would only have to pay overtime if they went over 80 hours over 2 weeks. Naturally, the Orwellian administration plugged it as being "pro-family" saying that now employees would have more flexibility in scheduling etc except for the fact that it was a mandatory program, and employers can still schedule them for whenever they want.
Not sure about the final outcome though, like a lot of US news, it just kinda gets hot for a while then fizzles out and people lose track of it.
Because if you read the article you would see that the cars are not fully automatic, they just have some automatic safety features, the DARPA challenge is/was for fully automatic cars...
or japanese that want to be millionaires.
BTW, there is a version of Who wants to be a Millionaire in Japan that is even more annoying than the American version(you can win 10 million yen, not even 1/10th the American top prize) and they frequently take commercial breaks in between the contestant answering and the host(who looks exactly like one would expect a Japanese Regis to look like) giving the answer. They also isolate the family in a booth and frequently pan back to them. Much worse than the American version.
Ack! You don't realize the significance of the date of the first bomb at all! Very few people do, and that is why I think we have a lot more people complaining about Hiroshima! The Soviet Union agreed(I think in Potsdamn, but I'm not 100% sure on that one) to enter the war in the Pacific 90 days after the official end of war in Europe, or August 6th, Stalin was sending waves of troops to the east to conquer Japan(they actually did get a few islands in the far north of Japan, still disputed today) Would Japan have been better off had the Soviets fought a very bloody(and they didn't give a fuck about civilians) battle there? I don't think that the nuclear bomb should have been dropped, but I REALLY wish people would actually bother to study the situation at least enough to realize that it was probably the most humane thing to do(Nagasaki is another story, but the idea was Soviet containment)
that they are talking about. Could people finally actually want to communicate in a slightly social setting instead of getting the one-way communication that television offers us.
I still personally would prefer a trip out to a local eatery etc for my social interaction, but it's definately interesting to see how much better people respond to playing other people(or at least what they think are other people, I wonder how many people have an internet buddy that is actually a chatbot)
What I really liked about FFX was that the main game was pretty easy(had to be since it was like a movie!) and somewhat straightforward. This allows even the most casual gamer to get some enjoyment out of it.
However, there were a decent amount of very difficult mini games(chocobo taming?) and all sorts of extra aeons, ultimate weapons, etc that entertained the hardcore gamer. I never bothered with most of this, but I know people who have just insane amounts of this stuff and can beat those monsters in the arena. I think that the main game should be easy, but there should be enough optional, challenging(and of course rewarding!) side quests/mini-games etc to satisfy the more hardcore gamer like this author.
Kudos to Square.
They do this in Japan. I have a phone that I bought for about $60, they have an over the air provisioning service, but they also allow you to load custom apps just by visiting a URL. They prevent piracy by refusing to allow you to access content on the phone(it's probably possible, but most people just don't bother with it)
Meanwhile Verizon doesn't allow you to run custom apps on the hardware you bought.
Now I gotta go back and use their crappy service again, really blows!
Thats actually what I was saying, 6 or 7 years ago a lot of the search engines did return a lot of crap, but they are they quickly becoming much more useful now.
BTW, it was the period before Blogging became a fad that I was alluding to, back when a lot of people used to learn some basic HTML(or even worse, Frontpage!) and create this crappy little website that was just a tangled mess of links and pointless crap they stole off other sites.
You really have to wonder what specifically is for the asian market? Maybe it's just that asians are more accepting of MMO's than the general public, so they can slim down the newbie station? Or is it that they tend to have greater tolerance for random monsters so they jack up the monster count. Or they love very cartoony looks so they overhaul some of the outfits? Or is it that they love collecting very rare items so the price skyrockets? A lot of it sounds like catering to hardcore gamers versus the hobbyist public than anything specifically asian, but maybe thats just my take on it. /.
Maybe someone more familiar with the asian gaming market can tell me what cultural aspects make this stuff more appealing. I guess as a regular dumb American I just see a lot of these features as a way to take up more time that could be spent doing something else, like FPing on
It's amazing though how many people create these wonderful(or not so wonderful as your opinion may be) websites, then just abandon them. There was an article in the NYT a while ago(now it costs money) about how many bloggers haven't updated in a few months(the number was almost 50% IIRC) and how about 20% or so never got updated past the first post!
At least we have better search engines than we had a few years ago, I'm sure your all well aware of the frustration you encountered when searching for something meaningful and getting, "Jim's cool page of pics" etc.
3 Cheers for google!
Hip, hip, hooray!
With all ya read about how the government is subverting science etc. It's nice to see that the governmnent is promoting open source which will allow it's citizens to get access to the best/cheapest/open technology rather than promoting what the corprate overlords suggest.
It's also interesting to note that(unlike some other governments) this isn't exactly an endorsement of use for OSS software, but rather a flag telling agencies that it's ok to go ahead with OSS projects you planned, and here are some resources OSS.
It would be interesting though for the government to fund more OSS projects who have a significant amount of dedicated US citizen contributors, but with the deficits and tax cuts, it's probably a pipe dream.
Oh well, a step in the right direction anyway.
Have a slashdot poll on the subject. there can be no debate to /. authority!
They actually released a smaller version for the Japanese market, but since nobody in Japan bought an XBox, I guess it didn't matter much.
I have yet to see one of the Japanese controllers.
If only other record holders would use the emulator instead, we all could see just exactly how he did it instead of just watching a video.
With a game like Mario, you could even try to save state(works with metroid too, but less intuitive) at certain parts and see if you can do it faster.
There are already(at least here in Japan) a lot of GPS enabled systems that do that(they can even voice when you are supposed to turn), I've taken a few trips with them(alas to poor to drive) and they are really neat.
As for why your phone can't do it, well, it might be a privacy issue. Imagine some dumb user randomly installing an app on their cellphone(as the installers get easier) that constantly broadcasts your position....somebody who may or may not deserve it, may get robbed/hurt/taken away to the evil layer of the super-squirell.
In the meantime, maybe you should invest in one of those car units, or like the other poster said, if possible, start an OSS project to share with the world.
If the beast of redmond was infuriated by the linux xbox project. Putting a hd there gave the linux distro much more power(ability to store large amounts of data, a fast swap etc), this way they can still get the convience of having all your saved games on one(hopefully quick) memory device, while eliminating the need for a hard drive. Linux will still find it's way to the box^2 of the beast, it just might not be as useful next time around, provided that ms doesn't do anything stupid...though I guess if it has USB that kinda defeats my whole post. Ah fuck it! Free Weird Al!
That this game won't dunk you in orange juice while a digital crowd mocks your worth as a human being. ah Simpsons, is there anything that can't be related to them on Slashdot?
Now all they need is an on-cartridge track editor and they have the first truly replayable 2600 game. :)
But that would require a.......menu..... An atari 2600 game with a menu? Heritic! Heretic! Burn them at the stake!
Why not combine movie/tv/games nostalgia?
Make new games based on old concepts but with new graphics/mechanics. I mean, who wouldn't want to play a 3d game based on M*A*S*H(much better than the hilariously inept Atari 2600 game) or ET, or countless other 80's franchises that have been thrown by the wayside. I mean, come on, if you can make a game based on the matrix, the least you can do is give Fred Savage a voiceover part in the reality sim based on the Wonder Years.(He needs the work!)
Oh well, I guess if you really want classic gaming with a new twist there is always homestarrunner.
Why not just have them read slashdot at -1, that usually makes me forget about my painful, painful life....ow...existance
It's interesting to see yet another government try to circumvent web sites that don't agree with their particular world view. And even better when the web-sites re-appear under different names. Sounds exactly like the situation in China. I wonder if the Iranian geeks are learning from what happened to the Falun Gong et al. They are obviously realizing that the filters are almost worthless to people who really want to get at the material.
However, I still think the filters are effective because they have a very powerful psychological effect. If the government says you shouldn't be viewing said material, and if caught(even though it's almost impossible to catch you, but how many people realize the true power of the government) there will be big trouble. Thus I think most banned sites just wind up preaching to the choir, very sad indeed.
It's sexism pure and simple. Mars is the male god of war, and Venus is a goddess. The male chauvenists are the REAL reason almost nobody cares about Venus, and to think, I thought sexism was dead. It's a male dominated solar system.
We need something akin to those, "Heros don't use drugs" screens on arcades in between the demos when nobody was playing. My suggestion is an FBI agent pointing and saying, "Heros respect intellectual property!"
You got me, comment withdrawn...next time I'll think before posting.