"Just like weaning yourself off unhealthy food, weaning ourselves off of carbon-emitting fuels is going to take a lot of time and effort, without any obvious short-term results. Which is why it's going to take a lot of determination and willpower to see it through. That doesn't mean it isn't necessary or wise to do it."
Unfortunately because of this it might be too late to turn this around, how long would it take to go from increasing CO2 output to a neutral footprint (using emissions currently output today as the measure) and then to a negative footprint where we slowly decrease the output?
Compare that to how long we have before major climate change makes living a lot harder, i doubt we have enough time if we started today.
This is of course if we even are right about what is happening and how to fix it, can the world recover from the current level of greenhouse gases if their production stops increasing at this very moment (and just stays "neutral")? That's the big question (imho).
There was another CS type mod (as this is the closest comparison) on Unreal Tournament's engine.. it was called Tactical Ops, maybe this is what you were thinking of?
I felt bad when i read your post as you obviously ran out of page breaks.. here are a few, they are good for breaking up long posts into smaller paragraphs:
This is probably because you "think" you're living in a house when actually you're living in a walmart, the low wages just give the impression of not being paid.
The install/patches/drivers only take a few hours, maybe 4 at the most for all of the latest of each, but then I have to transfer over my games/music/iso/favorite proggy collection from the network store and run the various registry entry scripts i have to make the games/programs work.
Over all it isn't too bad, as i have the main system up within a few hours so i can start the transfer of the rest and go to bed, by the next morning I am good to go...
"If you are a compulsive gambler, its arguable whether or not you freely accepted the risks, because its arguable whether you had actual capacity to refrain."
So then we are talking about addiction, is there anyone who thinks that incarceration is a better solution that therapy?
"and seek thereby to discourage, behavior to which harm to uninvolved third parties frequently"
And if we can agree therapy is a better deterrent/solution to addiction than incarceration, then why are we criminalizing gambling, drugs, etc?
"they did not look at the actual cause of the problem and so we have the same vulnerability with a twist come out two years later."
Cue M. Night Shyamalan, sounds like a new movie opportunity...
"Some players do stuff entirely to piss off other players. It doesn't matter if you don't give them any score for it. These are the so called "griefers"."
Some problems can only be solved by in game admins, unfortunately.
"I think if you are good at a game, you almost have a duty to help balance the fun. if my COD2 team is winning CTF 6-0, then I always swap teams to help out the side losing"
This is the real solution to people who are not cheating, balance the players out to give everyone a chance, this is also the solution i think is best. There are mods that do this automatically.
The reason I think this is best (from personal experience) is that if you remove all of the good players from a server then the "bad" players will NEVER get any better.
I used to play on a server back in the CS1.6 days of a clan called [OHG] (over the hill gang), when I first started playing there it was obvious i was better than everyone on the server, i would frequently change sides and play "easier" to make it more of a level playing field but still challenging... I often got accused of hacking so I started recording all of my play sessions in case I got banned to submit for proof of my innocence, the day came, I got banned, submitted my demos but they still wouldn't believe I was playing honestly.
Flash forward to today, I found a CS source server they run, and still all of the old players are there and they still "suck". By weeding out any players above a certain level they have assured that they will never get any better at the game.
At the same time i used to run a server and would only ban hackers, anyone of any skill could play as long as they tried to make the teams balanced (no stacking). As time went on even the lowliest of players gained in skill and enjoyed a competitive but fair level of play...
For the cheat reporting I think it is a good idea but should be met with some form of in game recording such as screenshots or demos so that someone can review and make a determination.. some of the CS blacklisting sites did this and shared their global ban list with server admins.. they even had a way for "hackers" to plead their case...
Pretty much all online play and MMORPGs are piracy proof if they take the current model of CD key needed to access online servers, this is just as true for FPS and RTS as it is for MMORPG.
Quake3/4, battlefield, CS (steam), C&C Generals, Warcraft, etc.. all need valid CD keys to play online... the only way to pirate these games are their single player counter points.
The biggest problem I see that develops from an online model is the one of cheating.. where there ISN'T a definitive way to stop people from cheating. Compared to cheating stopping piracy (in online play) is simple.
"I'm not a big FPS fanatic so maybe I don't know what i'm talking about, but the Counterstrike bots seem pretty good to me."
Bah, they suck, they never walk so just walk and listen for their footsteps, as soon as they are close, FB and you can take them all out as they are frozen till the FB "effect" wears off.
what impressed me most about F.E.A.R.'s AI is that it was variable, so if you replayed a section 5 times, the bots would do 5 different maneuvers.
In other single player FPS, I could learn what the AI would do and then restart the level, or section and plan for those actions.. this is not true with F.E.A.R. so even though it is AI that is dependent on reaction to events and small changes in those events produce widely different actions, it still "seemed" a lot smarter to me and made it more enjoyable.
Sure, Intel's graphics hardware might not be that good, but nVidia's drivers are utter shit. I'd rather have slow, low-powered, reliable graphics than fast, hot, and unreliable.
Hmm, I have owned and used 8+ different Nvidia cards and versions, as well as the standalone vs their current all-in one drivers..
I have also used ATI video cards/chips and intel video chips as well as having to use their drivers.
I must say Nvidia's support has consistently been better in performance, ease of use, and stability. The onyl thing ATI consistently does better is in the area of image quality. If I could have the best of both worlds I'd have Nvidia's driver support with ATI's image quality.
Might I suggest that either:
A. you have no idea what you are talking about
OR
B. you are anti-nvidia.
"Hopefully, we'll stop having to hear these assholes talk about how the Wii is "kiddy". "
I actually prefer to hear them refer to myself (34) and my wife (also 34) as "kiddies" who don't value their $600+ consoles, it helps to clarify that these console makers are out of touch with what consumers want, and therefore helps me to avoid their products.
Any company that is that out of touch with gamers and their desires in gaming (who think derogatory comments will shame people into purchasing) obviously won't be putting our desires first but instead relying on hype and marketing to promote their products and the software written for those products.
FYI, I bought a Wii because of the word of mouth promotion (friends, co-workers, etc..) which I trust many times more than any viral adverts (e.g. alliwantisapsp), guerilla marketing (corp sponsored graffitti) or TV adverts.
Same way I decide what video games to buy (other than downloading them first to try).
"I for one welcome our Chines*BLAM* *thud*"
I, for one, welcome the new Slashdot cliche eradication squad, although i don't envy the size of your task.
"Really, what's the significance of gold? What good would it do you or anyone else? Why does it have value? "
Because there is a finite amount of Gold, attempts to make gold (until recently it seems) have always failed, even though the possibility of making gold is now feasible it is cost prohibitive.
This is why there wasn't a sand standard, or water standard... Precious metals are finite (without space exploration at least).
"6) Those who joined the army after 9/11 (yeah, you probably think you're fighting "terrorists" or bringing "freedom to the people", but you're just a tool of an evil, corrupt government)"
I agree with your other listed points (1-5) but on this one i would only agree if you modified it to those who joined the army after the declaration of war against Iraq (and to be fair maybe post-first year of the invasion) because in my estimation anyone who joined after that period really has no excuse for not knowing full well what they are supporting (and prior to Iraq we WERE trying to get Bin Laden, or at least looking in the "right" places).
In my experience, intel graphic chips and chipsets have always sucked in relation to performance AND functionality, it's nice they are integrating and this seems to be the direction most chip companies are heading (intel, amd, nvida, ati, etc..) but unless they have made some leaps in graphics capabilities recently I don't see any benefit of pairing their graphics with their CPUS, other than maybe the OLPC project.
Anyone want a car analogy for my viewpoint? No? Anyone? ok nvm...
Slashdot Mirror
"Just like weaning yourself off unhealthy food, weaning ourselves off of carbon-emitting fuels is going to take a lot of time and effort, without any obvious short-term results. Which is why it's going to take a lot of determination and willpower to see it through. That doesn't mean it isn't necessary or wise to do it."
Unfortunately because of this it might be too late to turn this around, how long would it take to go from increasing CO2 output to a neutral footprint (using emissions currently output today as the measure) and then to a negative footprint where we slowly decrease the output?
Compare that to how long we have before major climate change makes living a lot harder, i doubt we have enough time if we started today.
This is of course if we even are right about what is happening and how to fix it, can the world recover from the current level of greenhouse gases if their production stops increasing at this very moment (and just stays "neutral")? That's the big question (imho).
There was another CS type mod (as this is the closest comparison) on Unreal Tournament's engine.. it was called Tactical Ops, maybe this is what you were thinking of?
That's a good point, i'll start doing that in the future, i was just mad because _I_ wanted somebody@gmail.com!!
I felt bad when i read your post as you obviously ran out of page breaks.. here are a few, they are good for breaking up long posts into smaller paragraphs:
I guess somebody@gmail.com is really pissed too...
WTF?!?! That was you?!? That ad was a fake and you stole _MY_ TV!!!
Please return it asap, I have moved though, so you will need to bring it to my new address, no hard feelings if you hurry.
This is probably because you "think" you're living in a house when actually you're living in a walmart, the low wages just give the impression of not being paid.
The install/patches/drivers only take a few hours, maybe 4 at the most for all of the latest of each, but then I have to transfer over my games/music/iso/favorite proggy collection from the network store and run the various registry entry scripts i have to make the games/programs work.
Over all it isn't too bad, as i have the main system up within a few hours so i can start the transfer of the rest and go to bed, by the next morning I am good to go...
So then we are talking about addiction, is there anyone who thinks that incarceration is a better solution that therapy?
"and seek thereby to discourage, behavior to which harm to uninvolved third parties frequently"
And if we can agree therapy is a better deterrent/solution to addiction than incarceration, then why are we criminalizing gambling, drugs, etc?
"It's not "marketing friendly" to anyone with half a brain,"
But see that is the problem, we are talking about people who work in Marketing, brains don't even figure into the equation.
Cue M. Night Shyamalan, sounds like a new movie opportunity...
"Some players do stuff entirely to piss off other players. It doesn't matter if you don't give them any score for it. These are the so called "griefers"."
Some problems can only be solved by in game admins, unfortunately.
"I think if you are good at a game, you almost have a duty to help balance the fun. if my COD2 team is winning CTF 6-0, then I always swap teams to help out the side losing"
This is the real solution to people who are not cheating, balance the players out to give everyone a chance, this is also the solution i think is best. There are mods that do this automatically.
The reason I think this is best (from personal experience) is that if you remove all of the good players from a server then the "bad" players will NEVER get any better.
I used to play on a server back in the CS1.6 days of a clan called [OHG] (over the hill gang), when I first started playing there it was obvious i was better than everyone on the server, i would frequently change sides and play "easier" to make it more of a level playing field but still challenging... I often got accused of hacking so I started recording all of my play sessions in case I got banned to submit for proof of my innocence, the day came, I got banned, submitted my demos but they still wouldn't believe I was playing honestly.
Flash forward to today, I found a CS source server they run, and still all of the old players are there and they still "suck". By weeding out any players above a certain level they have assured that they will never get any better at the game.
At the same time i used to run a server and would only ban hackers, anyone of any skill could play as long as they tried to make the teams balanced (no stacking). As time went on even the lowliest of players gained in skill and enjoyed a competitive but fair level of play...
For the cheat reporting I think it is a good idea but should be met with some form of in game recording such as screenshots or demos so that someone can review and make a determination.. some of the CS blacklisting sites did this and shared their global ban list with server admins.. they even had a way for "hackers" to plead their case...
Pretty much all online play and MMORPGs are piracy proof if they take the current model of CD key needed to access online servers, this is just as true for FPS and RTS as it is for MMORPG.
Quake3/4, battlefield, CS (steam), C&C Generals, Warcraft, etc.. all need valid CD keys to play online... the only way to pirate these games are their single player counter points.
The biggest problem I see that develops from an online model is the one of cheating.. where there ISN'T a definitive way to stop people from cheating. Compared to cheating stopping piracy (in online play) is simple.
"I'm not a big FPS fanatic so maybe I don't know what i'm talking about, but the Counterstrike bots seem pretty good to me."
Bah, they suck, they never walk so just walk and listen for their footsteps, as soon as they are close, FB and you can take them all out as they are frozen till the FB "effect" wears off.
what impressed me most about F.E.A.R.'s AI is that it was variable, so if you replayed a section 5 times, the bots would do 5 different maneuvers.
In other single player FPS, I could learn what the AI would do and then restart the level, or section and plan for those actions.. this is not true with F.E.A.R. so even though it is AI that is dependent on reaction to events and small changes in those events produce widely different actions, it still "seemed" a lot smarter to me and made it more enjoyable.
"* Just for a point of reference, I'm picturing Warcraft III here (or Warcraft: Heroes of Azeroth, which BTW I totally want)."
:P)
BTW * Just for a point of reference Warcraft:HOA was an april fools joke.
(just in case you didn't get it, hopefully it isn't my lack of joke detection
Hmm, I have owned and used 8+ different Nvidia cards and versions, as well as the standalone vs their current all-in one drivers..
I have also used ATI video cards/chips and intel video chips as well as having to use their drivers.
I must say Nvidia's support has consistently been better in performance, ease of use, and stability. The onyl thing ATI consistently does better is in the area of image quality. If I could have the best of both worlds I'd have Nvidia's driver support with ATI's image quality.
Might I suggest that either:
A. you have no idea what you are talking about
OR
B. you are anti-nvidia.
"Hopefully, we'll stop having to hear these assholes talk about how the Wii is "kiddy". "
I actually prefer to hear them refer to myself (34) and my wife (also 34) as "kiddies" who don't value their $600+ consoles, it helps to clarify that these console makers are out of touch with what consumers want, and therefore helps me to avoid their products.
Any company that is that out of touch with gamers and their desires in gaming (who think derogatory comments will shame people into purchasing) obviously won't be putting our desires first but instead relying on hype and marketing to promote their products and the software written for those products.
FYI, I bought a Wii because of the word of mouth promotion (friends, co-workers, etc..) which I trust many times more than any viral adverts (e.g. alliwantisapsp), guerilla marketing (corp sponsored graffitti) or TV adverts.
Same way I decide what video games to buy (other than downloading them first to try).
I, for one, welcome the new Slashdot cliche eradication squad, although i don't envy the size of your task.
and behold the TRUE power of the Comet Cursor! Bwhahahaha
"Really, what's the significance of gold? What good would it do you or anyone else? Why does it have value? "
Because there is a finite amount of Gold, attempts to make gold (until recently it seems) have always failed, even though the possibility of making gold is now feasible it is cost prohibitive.
This is why there wasn't a sand standard, or water standard... Precious metals are finite (without space exploration at least).
"6) Those who joined the army after 9/11 (yeah, you probably think you're fighting "terrorists" or bringing "freedom to the people", but you're just a tool of an evil, corrupt government)"
I agree with your other listed points (1-5) but on this one i would only agree if you modified it to those who joined the army after the declaration of war against Iraq (and to be fair maybe post-first year of the invasion) because in my estimation anyone who joined after that period really has no excuse for not knowing full well what they are supporting (and prior to Iraq we WERE trying to get Bin Laden, or at least looking in the "right" places).
In my experience, intel graphic chips and chipsets have always sucked in relation to performance AND functionality, it's nice they are integrating and this seems to be the direction most chip companies are heading (intel, amd, nvida, ati, etc..) but unless they have made some leaps in graphics capabilities recently I don't see any benefit of pairing their graphics with their CPUS, other than maybe the OLPC project.
Anyone want a car analogy for my viewpoint? No? Anyone? ok nvm...
Maybe i wasn't clear, sorry, I was saying:
actually you are confusing "efforts made by religious groups acting on their own behalf" with "a concerted effort by the USA".
Those 2 quotes are what is being confused.
Does that help?