I'm convinced that the only people "playing" second life are the people writing these articles. I think that technology columnists are fascinated with the idea of second life, and love to write about it. I can't fault them for that, because the idea does have interesting implications, but I think they do us all a disservice by continually giving attention to a "phenomenon" that no one actually cares about.
After reading countless articles about this wonderful new world of second life, I decided to check it out. What a piece of bloated crap-ware. I don't think the idea behind second life is worthless, but it's current incarnation is a joke.
I don't have a PS3, and have no plans currently to purchase one, but I think their new "Home" has a better chance of becoming popular than second life ever will.
I'm guessing all of the comments about it being too different from the real thing haven't played much Gran Turismo. I have no doubt that I made a conscience decision to drive more aggressively after playing that driving simulator. I always wanted to, but I didn't want to learn more about the limits of my automobile while actually driving. Gran Turismo taught me a lot about how you can expect a standard car to perform under racing conditions.
Two things to note here. I wanted to learn how to drive more aggressively, and I was playing a driving simulator rather than a game. It isn't the real thing, but it attempts to do its best at simulating it (most driving games aim for fun rather than realism, as they are games after all). To be fair it is more like Gran Turismo taught me more about driving, and I chose to use that information to drive more aggressively. Don't blame games for choices we make. It is disrespectful to humanity to suggest that our creations control us.
As a disclaimer, I'm not a wild driver anymore, but it sure was fun.
The people who could afford to leave the area using their own transport by-and-large did so, and were therefore not at risk of death.
First of all, as I originally stated, the GOVERMENT's response in the immediate aftermath was not contingent on ability to pay. How is it that the wealthy leaving is the government discriminating against the poor?
That said I think it is interesting that just like in health care, those who can afford to provide for themselves, are able to do so in a better fashion than those who look to the government to help them. Looks like you proved the point that leaving things to the government leads to massive incompetence and inefficiency.
Why would it be a right? It is nice to have, I'll grant you that, but no one owes me anything. Rights should be limited to those things which can not be taken away from me, not those things which must be given to me.
Health care is a luxury that some wealthy nations have decided to share amongst all of their citizens. That is a fair choice, and one which I don't particularly disagree with. In making such a choice, that nation must understand that as with socializing anything, they are introducing a bureaucracy that has no real incentive to do a good job. There is a danger that such a system will be less effective than a market driven system, but I will admit that it doesn't guarantee that.
I oppose socializing anything that doesn't have to be, because every socialized institution I've been exposed to has been severely flawed. If your nation has been successful in socializing medicine, then more power to you.
But please do explain to me how something others provide to you can be your right?
While the government's response to Katrina was slow and poorly executed, it was not contingent upon ability to pay. If there was a pandemic illness sweeping the nation, a national emergency would be declared, and people would get the immediate attention they required. If I can count on my government for anything, I can count on it to blow through money in a panic.
Hmm... it seems that quite a few Americans find a way to obtain health care despite not having it provided by their government. Obviously not everyone gets everything they need, but I'd suspect a lot more than 0.0000001% are getting damn fine health care.
Health care is not a right.
Well we certainly wouldn't want to encourage innovation in heath care with a competitive market would we? Heavens, we might accidentally develop something helpful for the species. Money is such a terrible motivator.
I find it unlikely that in the event of a major pandemic folks would be denied medical assistance due to lack of insurance coverage. Besides, I'd suspect that medical bills would be the least of our concerns were that to happen.
In good faith or otherwise, it is in the public interest for people to have basic health care. The fewer sick people there are, the less likely you are to contract something.
The vast majority of health care costs are related to noncommunicable diseases (heart disease, cancer, etc.).
We are talking about different "orbits" here. The post I was responding to seemed to indicate that for some reason the black hole would stop orbiting the sun "with the earth." I got the impression they were suggesting that there is some kind of fixed reference frame, and if you create a black hole, it will remain fixed in that reference frame, where as earth, the solar system, the rest of the galaxy, etc. will keep on moving leaving the black hole where it was created. I was merely trying to point out that there isn't anything special about a black hole. It will "continue orbiting with the earth" just like anything else with mass. It's a singularity, but it isn't magic.
Umm... no. You should read up on reference frames. There is no such thing as "staying where it was created." Furthermore, why wouldn't it "continue orbiting with the earth?" Black holes obey the laws of gravity just like everything else with mass.
A. D&D is still very much looked down on by people who have never played it.
B. WoW is still very much looked down on by people who have never played it.
C. A & B will always be true, because fantasy will always be looked down on.
D. To those who don't play the games, fantasy is considered to be associated with a desire to live a life different the one someone is currently living. To those in the mainstream, this desire is a sign of weakness.
E. The reality is that both D&D and WoW are probably more about socializing than fantasy, but people who have never played the games will never know that.
Disclaimer: I played D&D a couple of times when I was a teenager. I've never played WoW, but seeing as people wont shut up about it on Slashdot and Digg, I feel like I have some idea what it is.
Blog is not appropriate because it implies that she was expressing her opinion to the general public. The story is more interesting because she got into trouble for expressing her opinion in-house. It would be one thing if she was in trouble for bad mouthing the CIA to the general public, but if you can't even raise questions within the confines of the organization, then there are some serious problems that need to be addressed.
And I can see how you must be such a huge coward, that you would be well served by never leaving your home again. People who live in fear of anything and everything are not healthy.
Excuse me while I hide from: Terrorists, SARS, the bird flu, west nile virus, mad cows disease, video game violence corrupting the youth, school shootings, anthrax, and gays some how destroying traditional marriage. Oh yeah, and now anonymous website postings that may or may not be threats.
While I agree that this is promising technology, it seems as though it could only replace a traditional pacemaker in the case of AV node block (which is only one of the many heart problems that traditional pacemaker devices can treat).
Essentially this technology would create an artificial bridge from the atrium to the ventricle, replacing the AV node. The AV node creates a delay between the signal propagation in the atrium to the ventricle which causes them to beat separately (the lub-lub sound you hear from your heart is atrium contracting, followed by ventricle). If this artificial replacement was not able to delay the signal properly it could lead to erratic heart rhythms (like the ventricle pumping at the same time as the atrium, which would severely diminish heart output).
I wish the scientists and doctors working on this project the best of luck. Hopefully if they can grow conductive tissue, they could also use it to repair dead tissue found in hearts that have suffered from a heart attack.
Except people's moms, and they usually get laughed at.
My mom is the only person I know who uses the LCD.
The LCD is much more convenient
If by convenient, you mean annoying.
and accurately portrays what the picture will be
That is flat out wrong. The resolution is so bad, you have no idea what kind of details are in the shot you are taking. The viewfinder lets you see with your own eye.
You've summed up not just this article, but the majority of what Dvorak says.
I don't even know where he is coming from on this. Do people really take pictures using the preview LCD? You can barely even see those things in the sunlight (not to mention you are limited by the terrible resolution). I still use the viewfinder, and it seems like most of the people I see taking pictures do too. Unless of course they have one of those awful cameras that doesn't have one.
Don't get me wrong though, I like Dvorak. Everything he says is so forcefully opinionated I can't help but laugh. It doesn't matter that I rarely agree with him. He is entertaining none-the-less.
I'm not a grammar/spelling nazi. Still, I had to wonder about how it was that you spelled site correctly at several points in your post, and mispelled it as sight in several other places. Did you have few beers with lunch? Be honest. I won't tell your boss.
Hugely off topic, but Communism is a horrible ideal. People aren't equal. Those who are willing to work harder and/or smarter should be rewarded as such.
I for one would hate to live in an "ideal" communist society. Even the broken corrupt incarnations of Communism that have been established so far would be preferable to me. Communism is for whiners and losers.
They NEED a shiny GUI that pops up when the device is connected and holds their hands.
Get off your high horse. In my opinion, directory structures are not the optimal way to organize music collections, as they lock you into sorting by a preset criteria (generally, artist/album/song). Using an organizer like iTunes allows me more flexibility. The standard artist/album/song directory structure really annoys me on compilation albums and sound tracks, because it scatters an album everywhere.
Using a general purpose tool like "explorer" to organize your music collection is fine, but don't assume ignorance is the motivation for people to use a more application specific tool.
The Algebra class being refered to was dealing with even vs. odd functions. While it is possible that the course was just reviewing such concepts, I have a hard time believing that reviewing the concept of an even function would take a whole class period. That said, it sounded quite a bit like a middle-school Algebra class rather than a more advanced one.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm convinced that the only people "playing" second life are the people writing these articles. I think that technology columnists are fascinated with the idea of second life, and love to write about it. I can't fault them for that, because the idea does have interesting implications, but I think they do us all a disservice by continually giving attention to a "phenomenon" that no one actually cares about.
After reading countless articles about this wonderful new world of second life, I decided to check it out. What a piece of bloated crap-ware. I don't think the idea behind second life is worthless, but it's current incarnation is a joke.
I don't have a PS3, and have no plans currently to purchase one, but I think their new "Home" has a better chance of becoming popular than second life ever will.
I'm guessing all of the comments about it being too different from the real thing haven't played much Gran Turismo. I have no doubt that I made a conscience decision to drive more aggressively after playing that driving simulator. I always wanted to, but I didn't want to learn more about the limits of my automobile while actually driving. Gran Turismo taught me a lot about how you can expect a standard car to perform under racing conditions. Two things to note here. I wanted to learn how to drive more aggressively, and I was playing a driving simulator rather than a game. It isn't the real thing, but it attempts to do its best at simulating it (most driving games aim for fun rather than realism, as they are games after all). To be fair it is more like Gran Turismo taught me more about driving, and I chose to use that information to drive more aggressively. Don't blame games for choices we make. It is disrespectful to humanity to suggest that our creations control us. As a disclaimer, I'm not a wild driver anymore, but it sure was fun.
The people who could afford to leave the area using their own transport by-and-large did so, and were therefore not at risk of death.
First of all, as I originally stated, the GOVERMENT's response in the immediate aftermath was not contingent on ability to pay. How is it that the wealthy leaving is the government discriminating against the poor?
That said I think it is interesting that just like in health care, those who can afford to provide for themselves, are able to do so in a better fashion than those who look to the government to help them. Looks like you proved the point that leaving things to the government leads to massive incompetence and inefficiency.
Why would it be a right? It is nice to have, I'll grant you that, but no one owes me anything. Rights should be limited to those things which can not be taken away from me, not those things which must be given to me.
Health care is a luxury that some wealthy nations have decided to share amongst all of their citizens. That is a fair choice, and one which I don't particularly disagree with. In making such a choice, that nation must understand that as with socializing anything, they are introducing a bureaucracy that has no real incentive to do a good job. There is a danger that such a system will be less effective than a market driven system, but I will admit that it doesn't guarantee that.
I oppose socializing anything that doesn't have to be, because every socialized institution I've been exposed to has been severely flawed. If your nation has been successful in socializing medicine, then more power to you.
But please do explain to me how something others provide to you can be your right?
While the government's response to Katrina was slow and poorly executed, it was not contingent upon ability to pay. If there was a pandemic illness sweeping the nation, a national emergency would be declared, and people would get the immediate attention they required. If I can count on my government for anything, I can count on it to blow through money in a panic.
Hmm... it seems that quite a few Americans find a way to obtain health care despite not having it provided by their government. Obviously not everyone gets everything they need, but I'd suspect a lot more than 0.0000001% are getting damn fine health care. Health care is not a right.
Well we certainly wouldn't want to encourage innovation in heath care with a competitive market would we? Heavens, we might accidentally develop something helpful for the species. Money is such a terrible motivator.
I find it unlikely that in the event of a major pandemic folks would be denied medical assistance due to lack of insurance coverage. Besides, I'd suspect that medical bills would be the least of our concerns were that to happen.
In good faith or otherwise, it is in the public interest for people to have basic health care. The fewer sick people there are, the less likely you are to contract something.
The vast majority of health care costs are related to noncommunicable diseases (heart disease, cancer, etc.).
We are talking about different "orbits" here. The post I was responding to seemed to indicate that for some reason the black hole would stop orbiting the sun "with the earth." I got the impression they were suggesting that there is some kind of fixed reference frame, and if you create a black hole, it will remain fixed in that reference frame, where as earth, the solar system, the rest of the galaxy, etc. will keep on moving leaving the black hole where it was created. I was merely trying to point out that there isn't anything special about a black hole. It will "continue orbiting with the earth" just like anything else with mass. It's a singularity, but it isn't magic.
Umm... no. You should read up on reference frames. There is no such thing as "staying where it was created." Furthermore, why wouldn't it "continue orbiting with the earth?" Black holes obey the laws of gravity just like everything else with mass.
A. D&D is still very much looked down on by people who have never played it. B. WoW is still very much looked down on by people who have never played it. C. A & B will always be true, because fantasy will always be looked down on. D. To those who don't play the games, fantasy is considered to be associated with a desire to live a life different the one someone is currently living. To those in the mainstream, this desire is a sign of weakness. E. The reality is that both D&D and WoW are probably more about socializing than fantasy, but people who have never played the games will never know that. Disclaimer: I played D&D a couple of times when I was a teenager. I've never played WoW, but seeing as people wont shut up about it on Slashdot and Digg, I feel like I have some idea what it is.
VMware server is now free as well.
Blog is not appropriate because it implies that she was expressing her opinion to the general public. The story is more interesting because she got into trouble for expressing her opinion in-house. It would be one thing if she was in trouble for bad mouthing the CIA to the general public, but if you can't even raise questions within the confines of the organization, then there are some serious problems that need to be addressed.
And I can see how you must be such a huge coward, that you would be well served by never leaving your home again. People who live in fear of anything and everything are not healthy.
Excuse me while I hide from: Terrorists, SARS, the bird flu, west nile virus, mad cows disease, video game violence corrupting the youth, school shootings, anthrax, and gays some how destroying traditional marriage. Oh yeah, and now anonymous website postings that may or may not be threats.
While I agree that this is promising technology, it seems as though it could only replace a traditional pacemaker in the case of AV node block (which is only one of the many heart problems that traditional pacemaker devices can treat).
Essentially this technology would create an artificial bridge from the atrium to the ventricle, replacing the AV node. The AV node creates a delay between the signal propagation in the atrium to the ventricle which causes them to beat separately (the lub-lub sound you hear from your heart is atrium contracting, followed by ventricle). If this artificial replacement was not able to delay the signal properly it could lead to erratic heart rhythms (like the ventricle pumping at the same time as the atrium, which would severely diminish heart output).
I wish the scientists and doctors working on this project the best of luck. Hopefully if they can grow conductive tissue, they could also use it to repair dead tissue found in hearts that have suffered from a heart attack.
Except people's moms, and they usually get laughed at.
My mom is the only person I know who uses the LCD.
The LCD is much more convenient
If by convenient, you mean annoying.
and accurately portrays what the picture will be
That is flat out wrong. The resolution is so bad, you have no idea what kind of details are in the shot you are taking. The viewfinder lets you see with your own eye.
You've summed up not just this article, but the majority of what Dvorak says.
I don't even know where he is coming from on this. Do people really take pictures using the preview LCD? You can barely even see those things in the sunlight (not to mention you are limited by the terrible resolution). I still use the viewfinder, and it seems like most of the people I see taking pictures do too. Unless of course they have one of those awful cameras that doesn't have one.
Don't get me wrong though, I like Dvorak. Everything he says is so forcefully opinionated I can't help but laugh. It doesn't matter that I rarely agree with him. He is entertaining none-the-less.
Good work covering your tracks.
I'm not a grammar/spelling nazi. Still, I had to wonder about how it was that you spelled site correctly at several points in your post, and mispelled it as sight in several other places. Did you have few beers with lunch? Be honest. I won't tell your boss.
Hugely off topic, but Communism is a horrible ideal. People aren't equal. Those who are willing to work harder and/or smarter should be rewarded as such.
I for one would hate to live in an "ideal" communist society. Even the broken corrupt incarnations of Communism that have been established so far would be preferable to me. Communism is for whiners and losers.
I saw that movie. It was called Spys Like Us.
DMCA
I hear that it is kind of hard to enforce in the UK.
They NEED a shiny GUI that pops up when the device is connected and holds their hands.
Get off your high horse. In my opinion, directory structures are not the optimal way to organize music collections, as they lock you into sorting by a preset criteria (generally, artist/album/song). Using an organizer like iTunes allows me more flexibility. The standard artist/album/song directory structure really annoys me on compilation albums and sound tracks, because it scatters an album everywhere.
Using a general purpose tool like "explorer" to organize your music collection is fine, but don't assume ignorance is the motivation for people to use a more application specific tool.
The Algebra class being refered to was dealing with even vs. odd functions. While it is possible that the course was just reviewing such concepts, I have a hard time believing that reviewing the concept of an even function would take a whole class period. That said, it sounded quite a bit like a middle-school Algebra class rather than a more advanced one.