it is a pretty valid point that countries whose wars don't reach their soil tend to prosper - look at japan. in ww2 they created a vast military production system that remained mostly intact (except for some bombing, but compared to europe, japan made out nicely). now look at the level of economic dominance they've achieved.
That's true - there are details to iron out. But, as you said, a Boy Scout can figure it out with nothing but a little social engineering. What could a determined someone with a degree in physics, electrical engineering, or chemistry do?
If one actually wants to build a nuclear bomb, it's really not all so terribly difficult... in the most basic form, a nuclear bomb can consist of two "rifles" that fire fissile material at each other.
I'm not saying that that's a trivial problem... but if you have the expertise to actually build it using the instructions, I'm fairly certain that you also have the expertise to figure it out yourself.
So is this really important news? Nah. Nuke plans on the web are for self-styled anarchist wannabes and physics geeks. Terrorists don't need them.
The idea has occurred to me a few times, and it occurs to me again. What if all the vitriol JT spews is really just a clever marketing ploy?
It's brilliant! How better to create a bad boy image and a loyal fanbase than to have some loathsome starched collar attack your game (and videogames in general, but that's just for believability.)
I agree. My 360 sits upright next to my television, and unlike any other console I've owned, actually adds to the aesthetic of the entertainment center. It looks GOOD, it looks COOL, and I don't care if it's not instantly recognizable by everyone in the world as a game console.
Orwell's "1984" is the reflexive thought that comes to mind when one thinks of Big Brother-ish tracking of our everyday activities. However, I'd say that the truth is something closer to Walter Mosley's vision of a future where corporations keep tabs on every citizen. The point is that most of this "information-gathering" is profit-motivated.
And the scary part is that a profit-motivated organization is a lot less likely to exercise restraint in the violations of privacy that it is willing to make in order to increase the amount of information it has on each and every customer, employee, and stakeholder.
I agree, but I'd extend it to whichever ones has all of the features you like.
For me, the 360 is an easy choice because:
a.) It's out now.
b.) It has lots of nice sports games, and I like sports games.
c.) I don't have to pay $200 extra for a BluRay drive that I won't use.
d.) I like Halo. Everyone I know likes Halo. There's only one console that has Halo.
If I was in a different situation - namely, a much more affluent situation - I'd go PS3. I don't really see how one is "superior" to the other, they're just suited to different sets of desires.
tomshardware.com, hardocp.com, etc. frequently run articles on what their "perfect" rig would be.
if you're looking for advice on how to actually go about it, my advice is to find a friend who's done it before and have him talk you through it the first time. it's really not such a tough process - you just have to know the steps.
We're talking about a game system that's competing head-to-head with lower-priced machines.
As nice as it is to say, "It's okay because it'll be worth it," there will still be a huge market who says, "We disagree," and buys someone else's product. Case in point: Wal-Mart. You could shop anywhere, why shop at Wal-Mart? America says, "Because it's cheap," and doesn't care if the quality is a little lower or the manufacturing is a little shadier. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I think the same principle will apply to some degree.
That's frequently true, but in a lot of cases it is more economical to buy a PC to suit your serious needs as well as your recreational needs. For example, my classes require that I use programs like MatLab, Cadence/OrCad, and Maple. In order to use these programs, a powerful computer is a virtual must, as the processing times on slower processors are unbearable.
So, the coincidental benefit of having a powerful PC to play games on is definitely there.
Also, were I to want the same picture experience on a console as I get from my PC, it would cost me an arm and a leg - I play games at 1600x1200 on a 21" monitor that cost me $75. Achieving even a similar experience with a television would be stupendously expensive. Adjusting for viewing distance, I'd need a much bigger TV, not to mention all the assorted hardware to get the HD signal to it.
Plus, the mouse-keyboard combo can't be beat for many of the games I play - UT2K4, Far Cry, etc... the experience is simply not the same with a clunky analog stick.
I work with the technology department at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. We require every new student to buy a laptop - each year gets the same kind. The tech support system required to support the laptops is pretty serious. We have between 5 and 7 full-time employees working year-round with the laptops, as well as about a dozen part-time student workers during the year to deal with the day-to-day maintenence of the laptops.
Your first move should be to find yourself a few certified laptop technicians for your brand of laptop. Every computer breaks. Laptops break more often. Students break computers more often. The number of problems you'll encounter will, I expect, vastly exceed the predictions of the manufacturer.
Re:What's the... point?
on
Africa, The MMOG
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
That's correct, Africa is a friggin' continent. So's North America. Can you imagine trying to create a single game that captures North America? It's a silly concept.
Why does everyone not from America assume that every American is completely ignorant of the rest of the world? You can complain about America in as many ways as you like, but the fact remains that our humanitarian efforts for the rest of the world outweight the contributions of every other country on Earth combined. As soon as your country exceeds, say, the many billions of dollars that America has put towards fighting AIDS in Africa, let's talk about my ignorance.
I'm not saying there's nothing more to Africa than its problems. However, video games require a conflict in order to be interesting. I don't mean violent conflict - I mean there has to be a problem to be solved or else it's just a screensaver.
The unfortunate fact that I'm trying to convey is that the majority of the civilized world is going to look at an MMO based on a mythology they've never heard of, shrug, and walk away.
To actually educate about Africa, now, for real, absolutely requires a treatment of the problems there.
What's the... point?
on
Africa, The MMOG
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The things most worth talking about in Africa are unfortunately pretty nasty... things like ethnic cleansing and the yearly starvation of hundreds of thousands. Somehow I don't think that's what they have in mind here...
It looks like the goal is more something along the lines of stereotypical Africa... a lot of elephants and odd piercings. That, somehow, doesn't seem educational either.
I'm just confused. It's to be a fantasy game, but it's still somehow supposed to teach about Africa? Did anyone learn about Europe from LOTR? Raise your hands, now...
...is who watched CSI:Miami, anyway? This is just another in a long string of ploys intended to try to drag viewership into what is, really, a terrible show.
The last one, I believe, was an attempt to combine CSI:NY and CSI:Miami for an episode... all it achieved was to take away from CSI:NY.
Ignore the lame hate-mongerers. They can try to take away our games, but as long as game companies keep making money, they'll stay in business. Look at smoking. That's actually scientifically proven to be consistently deadly, but cigarettes are still on the market.
I've got Time Warner's digital cable service at home, which offers a similar On-Demand feature. Unfortunately, it's essentially worthless due to a constant "service is very popular. Please try again later." message. I've watched a couple (completely free) episodes of The Sopranos that way, but only at about 3am when bandwidth allows.
All in all, I find it amusing but mostly worthless. If it was fast, easy to use and navigate, and priced the way it is now (from free to slightly-more-than-competitive) it might be worthwhile.
It's really too bad that more people don't hear about this sort of thing.
I've recently stopped buying commercial music. I had been buying it from the iTunes music store, but the actions of the RIAA have been so asinine as of late that I've turned to buying only from independent artists or taking what's free. I'm not downloading copyrighted material in violation of law; breaking the law is not the solution. I am, however, listening to a lot more Harvey Danger (to whom I'm sending money. Got to support a good thing.)
If more people would move towards this model - the "screw-the-man" model of music acquisition - without breaking the law, I think change could happen, gradually. As it is now, though, it's hard to speak from the moral high ground because there are so many out there who are, in fact, breaking the law. If just 10% of the population started getting their music only from non-RIAA sources, it could be a huge blow to the evil side of the music industry.
I buy a lot of music from iTunes... I have an iPod, and the price is fair. Raising the price would, in my mind, make it unfairly high.
It seems logical to me to think that if a retailer wishes to sell songs for a dollar, that's their right. What is forcing a retailer to raise prices, if not price fixing?
The music industry needs to be thoroughly investigated. Everything they do lately smacks of anti-trust behavior.
the reason that people sit in there with their laptops is scarcity. if every restaurant and coffee shop had free wireless it'd cease to be an issue. further, loitering=loitering, whether you're doing it with a laptop open or not. people taking up spaces inside businesses is nothing new - what about sheltering from rain or cold? i've seen it many times.
the key, as i see it, is to just kick out those who are just loitering. i can't afford to pay for wireless, i would say many people can't, so i for one am glad to see places with free wireless.
programming is like construction work. some programming is simple - just laying one brick atop another. other programming is harder - skyscraping projects. still other programming requires elegance - like a fine architectural piece.
i'm a warehouse-builder, now. i consider it quite on a par with construction work.
I have the pirated copy of the movie, but then I already went to see the movie at the midnight showing. I'm sure I'm not alone.
When the movie comes out on DVD, I'll be buying it in that format too.
So what, exactly, is the harm in my having a low-rez copy with garbled sound and numbers across the top half in the meantime?
Amen! That's all I ever carry for basic maintenence. One Phillips-head screwdriver and the realization that no matter what the customer says, the problem is spyware.
...as well as my current job as a help desk technician, I have had a lot of experience with 'puternoobs.
I did some work this summer for $35 an hour on my own, which is great when you can get it, and absolutely silly when you consider the utter simplicity of the tasks (install spyware killers, run them, drink Mountain Dew.)
I, for one, hope people don't figure out how easy computers can be if you just try. I learned most of what I know by trial and error. If everyone knew that, I'd be out of a job.
Okay... Hmm, what's that note on their page here...
"We finally got our database server replaced. It hasnt crashed since!
It appears that all problems are now fixed."
Yeah...
The real revolution will occur when Napster and similar services become cheap enough that people would rather just sign up and have an easy way to download music that's fast, reliable, and high-quality instead of shaky, low-quality, and (oh yeah) illegal file-sharing services.
I could theoretically build myself a car, and it would be cheaper and built entirely my way, but it's easier for me to just buy a car because the product that the big manufacturers offer is affordable, quick, reliable, and high-quality.
The same model applies to music. If I wasn't worried about quality, selection, or, most importantly, portability with Napster I would be there already.
Slashdot Mirror
it is a pretty valid point that countries whose wars don't reach their soil tend to prosper - look at japan. in ww2 they created a vast military production system that remained mostly intact (except for some bombing, but compared to europe, japan made out nicely). now look at the level of economic dominance they've achieved.
That's true - there are details to iron out. But, as you said, a Boy Scout can figure it out with nothing but a little social engineering. What could a determined someone with a degree in physics, electrical engineering, or chemistry do?
If one actually wants to build a nuclear bomb, it's really not all so terribly difficult... in the most basic form, a nuclear bomb can consist of two "rifles" that fire fissile material at each other.
I'm not saying that that's a trivial problem... but if you have the expertise to actually build it using the instructions, I'm fairly certain that you also have the expertise to figure it out yourself.
So is this really important news? Nah. Nuke plans on the web are for self-styled anarchist wannabes and physics geeks. Terrorists don't need them.
The idea has occurred to me a few times, and it occurs to me again. What if all the vitriol JT spews is really just a clever marketing ploy? It's brilliant! How better to create a bad boy image and a loyal fanbase than to have some loathsome starched collar attack your game (and videogames in general, but that's just for believability.)
I agree. My 360 sits upright next to my television, and unlike any other console I've owned, actually adds to the aesthetic of the entertainment center. It looks GOOD, it looks COOL, and I don't care if it's not instantly recognizable by everyone in the world as a game console.
Orwell's "1984" is the reflexive thought that comes to mind when one thinks of Big Brother-ish tracking of our everyday activities. However, I'd say that the truth is something closer to Walter Mosley's vision of a future where corporations keep tabs on every citizen. The point is that most of this "information-gathering" is profit-motivated.
And the scary part is that a profit-motivated organization is a lot less likely to exercise restraint in the violations of privacy that it is willing to make in order to increase the amount of information it has on each and every customer, employee, and stakeholder.
I agree, but I'd extend it to whichever ones has all of the features you like.
For me, the 360 is an easy choice because:
a.) It's out now.
b.) It has lots of nice sports games, and I like sports games.
c.) I don't have to pay $200 extra for a BluRay drive that I won't use.
d.) I like Halo. Everyone I know likes Halo. There's only one console that has Halo.
If I was in a different situation - namely, a much more affluent situation - I'd go PS3. I don't really see how one is "superior" to the other, they're just suited to different sets of desires.
tomshardware.com, hardocp.com, etc. frequently run articles on what their "perfect" rig would be.
if you're looking for advice on how to actually go about it, my advice is to find a friend who's done it before and have him talk you through it the first time. it's really not such a tough process - you just have to know the steps.
We're talking about a game system that's competing head-to-head with lower-priced machines.
As nice as it is to say, "It's okay because it'll be worth it," there will still be a huge market who says, "We disagree," and buys someone else's product. Case in point: Wal-Mart. You could shop anywhere, why shop at Wal-Mart? America says, "Because it's cheap," and doesn't care if the quality is a little lower or the manufacturing is a little shadier. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I think the same principle will apply to some degree.
Yeah... wouldn't there have to be 360s ON the shelves in order for them to be pulled FROM the shelves?
That's frequently true, but in a lot of cases it is more economical to buy a PC to suit your serious needs as well as your recreational needs. For example, my classes require that I use programs like MatLab, Cadence/OrCad, and Maple. In order to use these programs, a powerful computer is a virtual must, as the processing times on slower processors are unbearable.
So, the coincidental benefit of having a powerful PC to play games on is definitely there.
Also, were I to want the same picture experience on a console as I get from my PC, it would cost me an arm and a leg - I play games at 1600x1200 on a 21" monitor that cost me $75. Achieving even a similar experience with a television would be stupendously expensive. Adjusting for viewing distance, I'd need a much bigger TV, not to mention all the assorted hardware to get the HD signal to it.
Plus, the mouse-keyboard combo can't be beat for many of the games I play - UT2K4, Far Cry, etc... the experience is simply not the same with a clunky analog stick.
I work with the technology department at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. We require every new student to buy a laptop - each year gets the same kind. The tech support system required to support the laptops is pretty serious. We have between 5 and 7 full-time employees working year-round with the laptops, as well as about a dozen part-time student workers during the year to deal with the day-to-day maintenence of the laptops.
Your first move should be to find yourself a few certified laptop technicians for your brand of laptop. Every computer breaks. Laptops break more often. Students break computers more often. The number of problems you'll encounter will, I expect, vastly exceed the predictions of the manufacturer.
That's correct, Africa is a friggin' continent. So's North America. Can you imagine trying to create a single game that captures North America? It's a silly concept.
Why does everyone not from America assume that every American is completely ignorant of the rest of the world? You can complain about America in as many ways as you like, but the fact remains that our humanitarian efforts for the rest of the world outweight the contributions of every other country on Earth combined. As soon as your country exceeds, say, the many billions of dollars that America has put towards fighting AIDS in Africa, let's talk about my ignorance.
I'm not saying there's nothing more to Africa than its problems. However, video games require a conflict in order to be interesting. I don't mean violent conflict - I mean there has to be a problem to be solved or else it's just a screensaver.
The unfortunate fact that I'm trying to convey is that the majority of the civilized world is going to look at an MMO based on a mythology they've never heard of, shrug, and walk away.
To actually educate about Africa, now, for real, absolutely requires a treatment of the problems there.
The things most worth talking about in Africa are unfortunately pretty nasty... things like ethnic cleansing and the yearly starvation of hundreds of thousands. Somehow I don't think that's what they have in mind here...
It looks like the goal is more something along the lines of stereotypical Africa... a lot of elephants and odd piercings. That, somehow, doesn't seem educational either.
I'm just confused. It's to be a fantasy game, but it's still somehow supposed to teach about Africa? Did anyone learn about Europe from LOTR? Raise your hands, now...
...is who watched CSI:Miami, anyway? This is just another in a long string of ploys intended to try to drag viewership into what is, really, a terrible show. The last one, I believe, was an attempt to combine CSI:NY and CSI:Miami for an episode... all it achieved was to take away from CSI:NY. Ignore the lame hate-mongerers. They can try to take away our games, but as long as game companies keep making money, they'll stay in business. Look at smoking. That's actually scientifically proven to be consistently deadly, but cigarettes are still on the market.
I've got Time Warner's digital cable service at home, which offers a similar On-Demand feature. Unfortunately, it's essentially worthless due to a constant "service is very popular. Please try again later." message. I've watched a couple (completely free) episodes of The Sopranos that way, but only at about 3am when bandwidth allows.
All in all, I find it amusing but mostly worthless. If it was fast, easy to use and navigate, and priced the way it is now (from free to slightly-more-than-competitive) it might be worthwhile.
It's really too bad that more people don't hear about this sort of thing.
I've recently stopped buying commercial music. I had been buying it from the iTunes music store, but the actions of the RIAA have been so asinine as of late that I've turned to buying only from independent artists or taking what's free. I'm not downloading copyrighted material in violation of law; breaking the law is not the solution. I am, however, listening to a lot more Harvey Danger (to whom I'm sending money. Got to support a good thing.)
If more people would move towards this model - the "screw-the-man" model of music acquisition - without breaking the law, I think change could happen, gradually. As it is now, though, it's hard to speak from the moral high ground because there are so many out there who are, in fact, breaking the law. If just 10% of the population started getting their music only from non-RIAA sources, it could be a huge blow to the evil side of the music industry.
I buy a lot of music from iTunes... I have an iPod, and the price is fair. Raising the price would, in my mind, make it unfairly high.
It seems logical to me to think that if a retailer wishes to sell songs for a dollar, that's their right. What is forcing a retailer to raise prices, if not price fixing?
The music industry needs to be thoroughly investigated. Everything they do lately smacks of anti-trust behavior.
the reason that people sit in there with their laptops is scarcity. if every restaurant and coffee shop had free wireless it'd cease to be an issue. further, loitering=loitering, whether you're doing it with a laptop open or not. people taking up spaces inside businesses is nothing new - what about sheltering from rain or cold? i've seen it many times.
the key, as i see it, is to just kick out those who are just loitering. i can't afford to pay for wireless, i would say many people can't, so i for one am glad to see places with free wireless.
programming is like construction work. some programming is simple - just laying one brick atop another. other programming is harder - skyscraping projects. still other programming requires elegance - like a fine architectural piece.
i'm a warehouse-builder, now. i consider it quite on a par with construction work.
I have the pirated copy of the movie, but then I already went to see the movie at the midnight showing. I'm sure I'm not alone.
When the movie comes out on DVD, I'll be buying it in that format too.
So what, exactly, is the harm in my having a low-rez copy with garbled sound and numbers across the top half in the meantime?
Amen! That's all I ever carry for basic maintenence. One Phillips-head screwdriver and the realization that no matter what the customer says, the problem is spyware.
...as well as my current job as a help desk technician, I have had a lot of experience with 'puternoobs.
I did some work this summer for $35 an hour on my own, which is great when you can get it, and absolutely silly when you consider the utter simplicity of the tasks (install spyware killers, run them, drink Mountain Dew.)
I, for one, hope people don't figure out how easy computers can be if you just try. I learned most of what I know by trial and error. If everyone knew that, I'd be out of a job.
Okay... Hmm, what's that note on their page here... "We finally got our database server replaced. It hasnt crashed since! It appears that all problems are now fixed." Yeah...
The real revolution will occur when Napster and similar services become cheap enough that people would rather just sign up and have an easy way to download music that's fast, reliable, and high-quality instead of shaky, low-quality, and (oh yeah) illegal file-sharing services.
I could theoretically build myself a car, and it would be cheaper and built entirely my way, but it's easier for me to just buy a car because the product that the big manufacturers offer is affordable, quick, reliable, and high-quality.
The same model applies to music. If I wasn't worried about quality, selection, or, most importantly, portability with Napster I would be there already.
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