I agree whole-heartedly about it being much much better to be able to hold the controller however you want. And I can also see the benefit of being able to do the spin attack without having to charge it. I suppose my only beef there is that when I charge it I know exactly how long it will delay, but when I shake the nunchuck it might go off the first time, or it might take until the third or fourth try.
I'm not trying to be derogatory, it's just that Zelda lovers REALLY love Zelda.
I have to plead guilty here. I beat Twilight Princess while I was home for Thanksgiving on my little brother's Wii, then still had to buy it when it came out 2 weeks later on the GameCube (which I own). So I think your point is valid, that Zelda is probably driving a huge percentage of Wii purchases at the moment. However, as someone who's beaten the game on both consoles, I prefer the GameCube version. The Wii remote has a slight latency that I've seen on other wireless controllers, but in addition to that it takes it a second to "figure out" that you've shaken it to swing your sword. This wasn't a problem through most of the game, but could get frustrating during the intense battles. It was also difficult to get it to do the spin attack by shaking the nunchuck, and it was just horrible at detecting a jab of the nunchuck for a shield thrust. By contrast, the GameCube controller had no latency and it was it was much simpler to perform the special moves. The only other Wii game I've played was Wii Sports, and that worked beautifully, but if even Nintendo can't get the motion sensing working right on their games like Zelda it makes me really fear for future third party games.
I don't know where you're getting your definition, but essentially "performing a task well and efficiently" is not intelligence. Intelligence is being able to reason about abstract concepts. Here's some help from Google define.
I don't think your mosquito example is valid. I don't know of anyone who would classify a mosquito as "intelligent" under any reasonable definition of the word. I would argue that every intelligent creature we know of has emotions, though that's not to say the two are linked.
...or does vaporizing trash and sewage sludge sound, oh, I dunno, maybe a little bad for the environment? I mean seriosly, who knows what kinds of chemicals are in that stuff (especially the trash)?
According to the new IAU definition of a Planet, an Earth-like planet must orbit our Sun.
Read the definition (PDF warning) more closely. That definition of planets only applied to objects within our Solar System. Bodies in other Solar Systems have no definitions. Not that that isn't a problem in itself, but since they have no definitions we can call them whatever we want. I will hereby refer to these objects as Earth-like starorbliographs.
Well I didn't say *a* perfect number, I said *the* perfect number... however, to be honest, I don't even remember what my reasoning was for choosing that number.
You're missing the point. Playing against an NPC that never misses, always knows where you are, etc, isn't any fun. What makes it fun is when that NPC is "smart" (it adapts to changing conditions) but still has the same limitations as a human (less than perfect aim, slow reflexes, can only "see" a small portion of the area around him, etc). The goal of AI in computer games is not to be completely unbeatable, but to be fun to play against so people actually want your game.
However, Biewener's direct measurements of bone deformations as an animal walks or runs show that the safety factor (the ratio of breaking stress to working stress) only ranges from three to five. This is remarkably risky design--most things that humans build have safety factors from ten to several hundred.
Safety factor is determined by taking the ultimate stress, the amount of stress at which a material will fail, and dividing it by the working stress, or the amount of stress under normal loading conditions. That's not to say what the average load is, but rather the maximum load the object/structure is meant to withstand; so when an elevator says maximum capacity of 1000 lbs, that's the load for which working stress is calculated. If he's right about bones having a safety factor of 3 to 5, then that puts them right about at the level of most things humans design which have peoples lives resting on them (ie elevators, overhead walkways, fork lifts, etc). A safety factor of 10 would be rather extreme.
Today you can easily fork over $80/month to your cable company and the majority of stations will still be displaying pure advertising 15% of the time or so.
15% is very conservative, it's actually about 33%. I've got a PVR running Myth and it automatically removes commercials on recorded programs, and a 30 min (on TV program) is usally about 20 mins with the commercials removed, a 2 hour program is 1 hour 20 mins, etc. The ammount of advertising you're paying to watch on TV is really ridiculous.
Not ironic at all. Sure, companies have freedom, but no one has the freedom to endanger the lives of others, and that's exactly what VoIP companies are doing by not providing 911. People have come to expect 911 service, and while the more technical crowd on Slashdot may be aware that the VoIP providers aren't providing it, the laymen are far less likely to realize that. So, if they're making it clear to potential customers (clear as in more than a tiny-ass disclaimer at the bottom of an ad, more along the lines of someone saying before you sign up "I'm required to inform you that we do not have 911 service currently in your area.") that there is not 911 service available in all areas, then sure the FCC should just say "Get 911 working" and leave it at that. I'm not sure if I made it clear that that wether or not they're making it clear was the hinge of my arguement (I know, that's not a horribly clear sentence;-)).If they weren't making it clear then even four months is a ridiculous amount of time.
VoIP providers only had four months to provide E911 services to all of their customers. Wireless carriers (who have considerably more clout and better paid lobbyists), were given ten years to comply. Still think it's fair to start slapping fines on an industry that's barely out of the gate?
I sure as hell still think it's fair. The better question to ask would have been "Do you think it's right that cell companies had so long?" To that the answer would be a resounding "No." Personally, I think that four months was overly generous. Do I think it's feasible to get 911 working 100% in that time? Probably not, but that's not the question. 911 service is needed, and especially if the companies aren't making it clear to consumers that it may not work in all areas (I don't know if they are making that clear or not), I think they should have had instant blocks on new customers, at least in the areas that it wasn't working, until such time as they got it working.
This really is amazingly pathetic. I used to have a laptop that had a very comparable power supply (it was a Dell Inspiron 9100... basically a desktop packed into a smaller case, called for an enormous external power supply) and the only time my power supply ever overheated was once when I had it sitting on my bed and accidentally threw a pillow on top of it, and then it still ran for about another 45 minutes before cutting out. Microsoft really needs to do some more quality testing.
Re:Feasibility of Panspermia
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Space Lichens
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· Score: 1
Inteligent Design should not be given 'fair weight' in a scientific context, as it has nothing but the slimmest scientific backing.
Slimmest scientific backing? You, sir, give them far too much credit. Try "Creationism that cannot be disproved and is therefore not even remotely related to science in any way."
Yes, but that wasn't the point of the original post. The point of the original post was that this shows that large companies aren't necessarily evil, and I was just pointing out that it wasn't a large company making the donation.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree whole-heartedly about it being much much better to be able to hold the controller however you want. And I can also see the benefit of being able to do the spin attack without having to charge it. I suppose my only beef there is that when I charge it I know exactly how long it will delay, but when I shake the nunchuck it might go off the first time, or it might take until the third or fourth try.
I have to plead guilty here. I beat Twilight Princess while I was home for Thanksgiving on my little brother's Wii, then still had to buy it when it came out 2 weeks later on the GameCube (which I own). So I think your point is valid, that Zelda is probably driving a huge percentage of Wii purchases at the moment. However, as someone who's beaten the game on both consoles, I prefer the GameCube version. The Wii remote has a slight latency that I've seen on other wireless controllers, but in addition to that it takes it a second to "figure out" that you've shaken it to swing your sword. This wasn't a problem through most of the game, but could get frustrating during the intense battles. It was also difficult to get it to do the spin attack by shaking the nunchuck, and it was just horrible at detecting a jab of the nunchuck for a shield thrust. By contrast, the GameCube controller had no latency and it was it was much simpler to perform the special moves. The only other Wii game I've played was Wii Sports, and that worked beautifully, but if even Nintendo can't get the motion sensing working right on their games like Zelda it makes me really fear for future third party games.
Touché.
I don't know where you're getting your definition, but essentially "performing a task well and efficiently" is not intelligence. Intelligence is being able to reason about abstract concepts. Here's some help from Google define.
I don't think your mosquito example is valid. I don't know of anyone who would classify a mosquito as "intelligent" under any reasonable definition of the word. I would argue that every intelligent creature we know of has emotions, though that's not to say the two are linked.
I was under the impression that that's exactly what they'd done...
I'll tell you something my engineering profs are fond of telling me: the effect is negligible, so you can ignore it.
...or does vaporizing trash and sewage sludge sound, oh, I dunno, maybe a little bad for the environment? I mean seriosly, who knows what kinds of chemicals are in that stuff (especially the trash)?
Read the definition (PDF warning) more closely. That definition of planets only applied to objects within our Solar System. Bodies in other Solar Systems have no definitions. Not that that isn't a problem in itself, but since they have no definitions we can call them whatever we want. I will hereby refer to these objects as Earth-like starorbliographs.
Mkm. Hmmmm, I've never heard of such a unit. I believe the proper SI unit you were looking for is Gm.
/unit Nazi
Thank you, I knew it was something along those lines, but I could only think of (3^3)^3, 3^(3^3) didn't occur to me.
Well I didn't say *a* perfect number, I said *the* perfect number... however, to be honest, I don't even remember what my reasoning was for choosing that number.
Didn't you ever read Dr. Seuss? The Lorax speaks for the trees. Geez...
You're missing the point. Playing against an NPC that never misses, always knows where you are, etc, isn't any fun. What makes it fun is when that NPC is "smart" (it adapts to changing conditions) but still has the same limitations as a human (less than perfect aim, slow reflexes, can only "see" a small portion of the area around him, etc). The goal of AI in computer games is not to be completely unbeatable, but to be fun to play against so people actually want your game.
However, Biewener's direct measurements of bone deformations as an animal walks or runs show that the safety factor (the ratio of breaking stress to working stress) only ranges from three to five. This is remarkably risky design--most things that humans build have safety factors from ten to several hundred.
Safety factor is determined by taking the ultimate stress, the amount of stress at which a material will fail, and dividing it by the working stress, or the amount of stress under normal loading conditions. That's not to say what the average load is, but rather the maximum load the object/structure is meant to withstand; so when an elevator says maximum capacity of 1000 lbs, that's the load for which working stress is calculated. If he's right about bones having a safety factor of 3 to 5, then that puts them right about at the level of most things humans design which have peoples lives resting on them (ie elevators, overhead walkways, fork lifts, etc). A safety factor of 10 would be rather extreme.
15% is very conservative, it's actually about 33%. I've got a PVR running Myth and it automatically removes commercials on recorded programs, and a 30 min (on TV program) is usally about 20 mins with the commercials removed, a 2 hour program is 1 hour 20 mins, etc. The ammount of advertising you're paying to watch on TV is really ridiculous.
Not ironic at all. Sure, companies have freedom, but no one has the freedom to endanger the lives of others, and that's exactly what VoIP companies are doing by not providing 911. People have come to expect 911 service, and while the more technical crowd on Slashdot may be aware that the VoIP providers aren't providing it, the laymen are far less likely to realize that. So, if they're making it clear to potential customers (clear as in more than a tiny-ass disclaimer at the bottom of an ad, more along the lines of someone saying before you sign up "I'm required to inform you that we do not have 911 service currently in your area.") that there is not 911 service available in all areas, then sure the FCC should just say "Get 911 working" and leave it at that. I'm not sure if I made it clear that that wether or not they're making it clear was the hinge of my arguement (I know, that's not a horribly clear sentence ;-)).If they weren't making it clear then even four months is a ridiculous amount of time.
I sure as hell still think it's fair. The better question to ask would have been "Do you think it's right that cell companies had so long?" To that the answer would be a resounding "No." Personally, I think that four months was overly generous. Do I think it's feasible to get 911 working 100% in that time? Probably not, but that's not the question. 911 service is needed, and especially if the companies aren't making it clear to consumers that it may not work in all areas (I don't know if they are making that clear or not), I think they should have had instant blocks on new customers, at least in the areas that it wasn't working, until such time as they got it working.
This really is amazingly pathetic. I used to have a laptop that had a very comparable power supply (it was a Dell Inspiron 9100... basically a desktop packed into a smaller case, called for an enormous external power supply) and the only time my power supply ever overheated was once when I had it sitting on my bed and accidentally threw a pillow on top of it, and then it still ran for about another 45 minutes before cutting out. Microsoft really needs to do some more quality testing.
Parent is insightful, not funny... or maybe both.
No it's not. Haven't you heard, the Kansas Board of Education/Word Definitions just redifined science. No problem here. :-D
Slimmest scientific backing? You, sir, give them far too much credit. Try "Creationism that cannot be disproved and is therefore not even remotely related to science in any way."
Kansans.
We're whalers on the moon we carry our harpoon but there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whalin' tune.
Yes, but that wasn't the point of the original post. The point of the original post was that this shows that large companies aren't necessarily evil, and I was just pointing out that it wasn't a large company making the donation.