It's rumored (I don't know how accurate the rumor is) that the original Warcraft was originally going to be a Warhammer game. The deal supposedly fell through, and Blizzard kept the gameplay and units intact and instead came up with an original story, taking it out of the Warhammer universe. If this rumor is accurate, perhaps this is the very reason that happened (GW wanting complete control over it). There's a similar rumor about Starcraft/Warhammer 40K.
I know I'm nitpicking, but memory sticks are physical media...I think you meant to say no moving parts = no skipping. Just couldn't resist. You made some good points though.
I also really doubt that Circuit City is taking a loss on consoles. We all remember what happened to the last console where the manufacturer asked the retail stores to take a loss for its benefit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_saturn However, I have no doubt that *Sony* is taking a huge loss on the PS3.
We can probably thank cartoons (Loony Toons in particular) and one of the Lethal Weapon movies for perpetuating this myth. I wouldn't even really call it a hypnotic agent. It's an anesthetic...it tends to make you really lightheaded and groggy. I've only had it twice, both right before a complicated dental procedure like a root canal. I guess some people can get giggly when they get lightheaded/groggy...but that's a function of that person, not the "laughing gas". They'd get just as giggly when really tired as they would under the anesthetic. Plus it tends to (at least with me) make me fall asleep pretty quick anyway, so there really isn't time for giggles. I never felt the slightest bit giggly when under it.
If the ads are appropriate for the setting the game is in, then they become part of the environment of the game. For example, seeing real-life ads on billboards in a game like Grand Theft Auto does not detract from the game at all. It takes place in a modern day city, and you would expect to see such billboards if you were really there. However, placing things like this in a futuristic or fantasy game would destroy it.
AMD bought ATI a short time back. The products are still called "ATI Radeon blah blah", but if you go to www.ati.com, you'll notice that they're in the process of changing the company name on things from ATI to AMD.
On my cell phone, I set custom rings for everyone in my address book. I can turn off the default ring on my phone by setting it to "alarm only". Anyone in my address book will still ring, anything else is silent. I just use this setting when I don't want to be disturbed. The only time I answer an unrecognized phone number is when I'm expecting to possibly get calls, for example right now when I'm looking for a job in another state. If it really is important, and I don't answer it because it's an unrecognize number, well that's what my voice mail is for. If it's really important, they'll leave a message and I'll call them back. I haven't had a telemarketing call in many years. In fact, I haven't even had to use my "alarm only" setting...only time I tried it was to test it.
Take cost of living into account also. $1.25 US/hr is a LOT more money in China than it would be in the US, due to the cost of living being a lot lower. It's not going to make anyone rich, but it's enough to live on...probably more relative to the cost of living than you'd make working at McDonald's in the US.
Close, but you've got it backwards. The sensors are in the controller and the LED's are in the bar. The "sensor bar" is misnamed, it's really just a plastic bar with 10 IR LED's in it...no sensors at all. The sensing hardware is *all* in the controller. How it works is very easy to see with a digital camera, as virtually all digital cameras can see IR very well:
I don't understand all of the uproar against Yahoo/etc. Sure we can argue that there are a lot of moral issues with Chinese laws, at least compared with "western" values. But directing anger at Yahoo for obeying local laws will not solve the underlying problem. All that will do is cause either 1) Yahoo to be kicked out of China, or 2) Local employees to be prosecuted under local laws. We can argue that choosing to not do business in China rather than obey morally questionable laws is a good thing, it would indicate that the executives are placing morals ahead of money. But that wouldn't help the Chinese people...the Chinese govt would continue as it always has and all it would do is deny the Chinese citizens a service. Efforts should instead be directed at the Chinese govt to change its policies or, if that fails, at the Chinese citizens to enact changes in their govt. Change has to come from within, Yahoo isn't in a position to change Chinese law.
> What about massive radiation caused by human presence?
Point taken, but the human presence is almost completely gone from the area now, thus allowing the wildlife to take over. Empty area + radiation = more wildlife than human presence + no radiation.
It's hard for even high radiation levels to kill *everything*. Life adapts and survives. Radiation is far less damaging to wildlife than human presence is.
Yeah, you're right...I should rephrase that to "All distributions that I have used, except possibly Slackware which I haven't used in awhile (and thus don't know), have custom kernels with a lot of patches." Having not tried LFS myself, I can't say for sure if it does or not. Of course, it is possible to use a vanilla kernel in any distribution, my only point was that in at least most of them, this is not the default, and the default will have a lot of custom patches.
Afaik, all distributions (except possibly Slackware, which I haven't used for awhile) have their own kernel patches. I use Gentoo, and gentoo-sources does have a lot of patches. I've never had any luck with any of the distro "custom" kernels. I've had stability issues with every one of them, Gentoo included. I've been running Gentoo as my primary OS on 4 computers for 4 years now, been using vanilla-sources (stock kernel) the whole time, without missing out on anything except possibly bootsplash, which I don't use.
Gentoo by default does not allow normal user accounts to su to root. If you want a normal user account to be able to su to root, you have to add them to the "wheel" group.
Well, if you really want to get technical, you could say the accounts were hacked. Just because Blizzard's servers weren't compromised doesn't mean the accounts themselves couldn't be "hacked" from their owners via social engineering (keyloggers, etc). Social engineering is still hacking.
Straight from the text of the GPL:
"You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it."
Nitpicking here, but you can't be convicted of "violating the GPL". The GPL works totally different from EULA's. EULA's are an attempt to enforce "restrictions" in addition to standard copyright (whether these are even legal is beyond the scope of this argument). On the contrary, the GPL is merely a license to modify and redistribute (things copyright doesn't normally allow). The GPL is the only thing that gives you the right to do this...if you violate the agreement, the GPL no longer applies, and regular copyright applies. Thus, if you violate the terms of the GPL and are convicted, you aren't convicted of "violating the GPL", but copyright infringement (since you redistributed without a license). I wish more people would understand the difference, but too many people make it sound like the GPL is an EULA.
Ukraine was never in Russia. Ukraine was a state of the USSR, which Russia controlled until it fell apart, but that doesn't mean it was part of Russia. Ukraine wasn't part of Russia any more than New York is part of California.
There's another factor here too that many people don't consider. Even if the vest *were* to completely stop the penetration of a high powered rifle round, there would still be severe injuries to the person. All the kinetic energy from the bullet has to go somewhere...the vest may stop penetration but all that energy can't just mysteriously disappear. That's why when someone gets hit with a high powered round, even if the vest completely stops the bullet, they often get burns, bruises, and sometimes broken bones. There's no way around this until someone invents inertial dampeners.
TFA isn't really clear on the coffee shop owner's reaction:
Indeed, neither did Donna May, the owner of the Union Street Cafe. "I didn't know it was really illegal, either," she told the TV station. "If he would have come in (to the coffee shop), it would have been fine."
However, the fact that the coffee shop owner is pointing out that she didn't know it was illegal tells me that the coffee shop had nothing to do with the actions of the police. TFA doesn't say of the involvement of the coffee shop beyond that point though...more information is needed.
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It's rumored (I don't know how accurate the rumor is) that the original Warcraft was originally going to be a Warhammer game. The deal supposedly fell through, and Blizzard kept the gameplay and units intact and instead came up with an original story, taking it out of the Warhammer universe. If this rumor is accurate, perhaps this is the very reason that happened (GW wanting complete control over it). There's a similar rumor about Starcraft/Warhammer 40K.
I know I'm nitpicking, but memory sticks are physical media...I think you meant to say no moving parts = no skipping. Just couldn't resist. You made some good points though.
I also really doubt that Circuit City is taking a loss on consoles. We all remember what happened to the last console where the manufacturer asked the retail stores to take a loss for its benefit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_saturn However, I have no doubt that *Sony* is taking a huge loss on the PS3.
We can probably thank cartoons (Loony Toons in particular) and one of the Lethal Weapon movies for perpetuating this myth. I wouldn't even really call it a hypnotic agent. It's an anesthetic...it tends to make you really lightheaded and groggy. I've only had it twice, both right before a complicated dental procedure like a root canal. I guess some people can get giggly when they get lightheaded/groggy...but that's a function of that person, not the "laughing gas". They'd get just as giggly when really tired as they would under the anesthetic. Plus it tends to (at least with me) make me fall asleep pretty quick anyway, so there really isn't time for giggles. I never felt the slightest bit giggly when under it.
If the ads are appropriate for the setting the game is in, then they become part of the environment of the game. For example, seeing real-life ads on billboards in a game like Grand Theft Auto does not detract from the game at all. It takes place in a modern day city, and you would expect to see such billboards if you were really there. However, placing things like this in a futuristic or fantasy game would destroy it.
AMD bought ATI a short time back. The products are still called "ATI Radeon blah blah", but if you go to www.ati.com, you'll notice that they're in the process of changing the company name on things from ATI to AMD.
On my cell phone, I set custom rings for everyone in my address book. I can turn off the default ring on my phone by setting it to "alarm only". Anyone in my address book will still ring, anything else is silent. I just use this setting when I don't want to be disturbed. The only time I answer an unrecognized phone number is when I'm expecting to possibly get calls, for example right now when I'm looking for a job in another state. If it really is important, and I don't answer it because it's an unrecognize number, well that's what my voice mail is for. If it's really important, they'll leave a message and I'll call them back. I haven't had a telemarketing call in many years. In fact, I haven't even had to use my "alarm only" setting...only time I tried it was to test it.
Take cost of living into account also. $1.25 US/hr is a LOT more money in China than it would be in the US, due to the cost of living being a lot lower. It's not going to make anyone rich, but it's enough to live on...probably more relative to the cost of living than you'd make working at McDonald's in the US.
Close, but you've got it backwards. The sensors are in the controller and the LED's are in the bar. The "sensor bar" is misnamed, it's really just a plastic bar with 10 IR LED's in it...no sensors at all. The sensing hardware is *all* in the controller. How it works is very easy to see with a digital camera, as virtually all digital cameras can see IR very well:
s ensor_bar_in_ir.jpg
http://akaihiryuu.dyndns.org:8008/~akai/pictures/
You do realize the IIGS had two modes: "Normal" for Apple II software, and "Fast" for Apple IIGS software right?
I don't understand all of the uproar against Yahoo/etc. Sure we can argue that there are a lot of moral issues with Chinese laws, at least compared with "western" values. But directing anger at Yahoo for obeying local laws will not solve the underlying problem. All that will do is cause either 1) Yahoo to be kicked out of China, or 2) Local employees to be prosecuted under local laws. We can argue that choosing to not do business in China rather than obey morally questionable laws is a good thing, it would indicate that the executives are placing morals ahead of money. But that wouldn't help the Chinese people...the Chinese govt would continue as it always has and all it would do is deny the Chinese citizens a service. Efforts should instead be directed at the Chinese govt to change its policies or, if that fails, at the Chinese citizens to enact changes in their govt. Change has to come from within, Yahoo isn't in a position to change Chinese law.
> What about massive radiation caused by human presence? Point taken, but the human presence is almost completely gone from the area now, thus allowing the wildlife to take over. Empty area + radiation = more wildlife than human presence + no radiation.
It's hard for even high radiation levels to kill *everything*. Life adapts and survives. Radiation is far less damaging to wildlife than human presence is.
Yeah, you're right...I should rephrase that to "All distributions that I have used, except possibly Slackware which I haven't used in awhile (and thus don't know), have custom kernels with a lot of patches." Having not tried LFS myself, I can't say for sure if it does or not. Of course, it is possible to use a vanilla kernel in any distribution, my only point was that in at least most of them, this is not the default, and the default will have a lot of custom patches.
Sure, some people think he sounds paranoid...but he's right. It'll take time for things to get really bad...but they will get there, slowly.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Afaik, all distributions (except possibly Slackware, which I haven't used for awhile) have their own kernel patches. I use Gentoo, and gentoo-sources does have a lot of patches. I've never had any luck with any of the distro "custom" kernels. I've had stability issues with every one of them, Gentoo included. I've been running Gentoo as my primary OS on 4 computers for 4 years now, been using vanilla-sources (stock kernel) the whole time, without missing out on anything except possibly bootsplash, which I don't use.
Gentoo by default does not allow normal user accounts to su to root. If you want a normal user account to be able to su to root, you have to add them to the "wheel" group.
Well, if you really want to get technical, you could say the accounts were hacked. Just because Blizzard's servers weren't compromised doesn't mean the accounts themselves couldn't be "hacked" from their owners via social engineering (keyloggers, etc). Social engineering is still hacking.
Straight from the text of the GPL: "You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it."
Nitpicking here, but you can't be convicted of "violating the GPL". The GPL works totally different from EULA's. EULA's are an attempt to enforce "restrictions" in addition to standard copyright (whether these are even legal is beyond the scope of this argument). On the contrary, the GPL is merely a license to modify and redistribute (things copyright doesn't normally allow). The GPL is the only thing that gives you the right to do this...if you violate the agreement, the GPL no longer applies, and regular copyright applies. Thus, if you violate the terms of the GPL and are convicted, you aren't convicted of "violating the GPL", but copyright infringement (since you redistributed without a license). I wish more people would understand the difference, but too many people make it sound like the GPL is an EULA.
I was beginning to wonder if *anyone* would recognize that. I mean sheesh, this is Slashdot, and it took 4 replies before someone recognized it?
Ukraine was never in Russia. Ukraine was a state of the USSR, which Russia controlled until it fell apart, but that doesn't mean it was part of Russia. Ukraine wasn't part of Russia any more than New York is part of California.
There's another factor here too that many people don't consider. Even if the vest *were* to completely stop the penetration of a high powered rifle round, there would still be severe injuries to the person. All the kinetic energy from the bullet has to go somewhere...the vest may stop penetration but all that energy can't just mysteriously disappear. That's why when someone gets hit with a high powered round, even if the vest completely stops the bullet, they often get burns, bruises, and sometimes broken bones. There's no way around this until someone invents inertial dampeners.
TFA isn't really clear on the coffee shop owner's reaction:
Indeed, neither did Donna May, the owner of the Union Street Cafe. "I didn't know it was really illegal, either," she told the TV station. "If he would have come in (to the coffee shop), it would have been fine."
However, the fact that the coffee shop owner is pointing out that she didn't know it was illegal tells me that the coffee shop had nothing to do with the actions of the police. TFA doesn't say of the involvement of the coffee shop beyond that point though...more information is needed.
Wow, a Pointer Sisters reference in a comment about chipsets.