I used a semi-3d irc type program many many years ago. I think it was on MSN. It was like a Star Trek chat room or something, anyway, you could select a body and walk around and talk to people. It was sorta neat.
The idea sure isn't very novel as this type of thing has been written about in zillions of books etc., and has already been done.
But whatever, the patent office seems to know what's best.
Yes, you're right about the coffee burn case. Maintaining coffee at 180F is extremely dangerous and quite negligent. A normal cup of _HOT_ coffee is about 150F, that can burn you too, but not nearly as severe as coffee at 180F.
People spill hot coffee on themselves all the time, no normal person would assume that the McDonald's coffee they were holding in their hand would be that dangerous.
But the other examples I gave still stand, people _DO_ win ridiculous lawsuits in this country, however, you're right that the case with the game companies would probably just be thrown out.
These kinds of lawsuits get heard more than you would think. That is why our legal system is getting so fucked up, people _WIN_ stupid lawsuits like this.
That is why, in America, you can sue when you burn yourself with coffee. That is why, in America, you can sue someone who saved your life with CPR for breaking your rib. That is why, in America, you can sue someone who saved you from a burning building because you will have to live the rest of your life with scars. That is why, in America, you can sue gun manufacturers because someone murdered someone with their brand of gun. And the list goes on...
That is why, in America, you can sue game manufacturers for making violent games, and you have a chance of winning.
Get your head out of your ass and see the world around you.
I just don't know it yet. But when I consider everything I do for entertainment, it is the only conclusion I can come to.
1. I play nothing but extremely violent video games. Q3A, UT, Fighting games, I even got a real kick out of playing Grand Theft Auto.
2. I listen to mostly metal. Bands I like include, Nothingface(the best fucking band ever, check them out), Spineshank, Slipknot(crazy fuckers), Metallica, Pantera, Ultraspank(not so heavy), Godsmack(oh my, Blasphemy!), Staind, Korn(although I can't really stand them anymore, their first album was good though).
3. I am a geek. I really like the Internet. I have a job doing Internet stuff. I was picked on in school for a long time.
4. I suffer from pretty severe depression. I even contemplated suicide at a really young age. I have it under control now, but OMG, I could snap any time and go postal! Woohoo! Fear me, I am mentally FUCKED IN THE HEAD!
5. I've spent a great many hours killing my friends in video games. Sometimes I even get really into it and say stuff like, "Eat shit and die Fucker!!!" when I'm about to make a kill. Man, I must be warped, killing my friends and all.
REALITY:
1. Violent games are just entertainment. Why so much violence? Well, it's pretty simple, there is nothing in life as thrilling as the fear of death, as well as fighting for survival. In a video game you can capture part of this thrill without the unpleasant stress you'd experience IRL. You'd have to be extremely mentally disturbed to confuse video games with real life, this is not the responsibility of video game makers, it is the responsibility of parents.
2. Listening to Metal is a great way to release aggression, at least for me. I promise, I'm not evil... *evil grin* ; )
3. Geeks are smart, we don't go on killing sprees. Assholes who wish they could be in the "In crowd" and be bullies do. They are the same kind of people as the worst bullies, just dealt a different hand of cards in life.
4. Clinical Depression is a physical problem. It is a chemical imbalance in the brain. It does not make someone insane, it does not make someone want to kill other people, it does not make someone overly aggressive. The only danger depression causes is to one's self. Depression can be treated and controlled in many ways. One can adjust one's attitude and find things to cheer them up. Drugs! There are great drugs today that correct the chemical imbalance that causes depression, usually one drug or another will work with no side effects for an individual.
5. They're just games! Good God people, get a fucking grip! The only people living in a fantasy world are the dumb fuckers blaming shit on other people. Learn some fucking parenting skills. Lesson 1, don't use the foul language I keep using ; ) Lesson 2, DON'T FUCKING SHELTER YOUR CHILDREN TOO MUCH, THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH REAL LIFE!!
Seriously, real life is not all peachy and happy. People are murdered every day. People are raped, beaten, robbed, etc. etc. IMHO, children NEED to be exposed to sex and violence, and along with that they need to be shown compassion and kindness. That's how people learn! My parents didn't censor me at all, I played violent games all my life. I watched violent films all my life. I saw films with sexual content at a fairly early age. I am not violent, and I am not a rapist. Murder or rape has NEVER crossed my mind, even in the most extreme of circumstances. However, I have used violence to defend myself(not often). I have also had violent acts committed against me when I was young, but because I was mature enough and understood it, I was able to deal with it and was not affraid to go out in public again. Everyone I know who has lived an extremely sheltered life cannot deal with any type of confrontation, is extremely affraid of slightly bad neighborhoods/crowds etc., and have difficulty dealing with injured/sick people etc. THAT IS NOT GOOD!
Sheltering does not create gentle kind human beings, it creates cowards.
Five billion dollars. That is an absolutely insane amount of money. Not to be insensitive, but all the people who were killed at Columbine are NOT WORTH THAT MUCH. 5 billion dollars is enough money for thousands of people to live off of their whole lives.
Now, I honestly don't believe a human life is something you can place a value on, but when you are forced to, 5 billion is insanely excessive.
This is all completely ignoring the fact that the game companies are not responsible for the actions of Harris and Klebold. That is just in-fucking-sane.
I agree, parents can't ALWAYS be held responsible for their childrens' actions. There comes a point where the child acts completely independently and should be held fully responsible for his/her own actions. Usually when someone is capable of contemplating murder, they are at that point.
However, in this case, the parents were DEFINATELY party responsible, as the kids built bombs in their house and left plenty of evidence around for the parents to pick up on. That doesn't mean they are responsible for the actions of their children though, just letting them use their homes to buld bombs and stock up weapons and ammo.
Unfortuneately, it appears that our society has now fully accepted blaming everyone and everything for anything that goes wrong as acceptable.
This is not about someone shooting up a school, this is about a geek getting kicked out of school because everyone is affraid of their own fucking shadow.
Geeks are not the ones who retaliate with guns, dumb ass fucks who are just as stupid as the fuckers who bully them are the ones that resort to such insane violence. These people are the same as the people who bully them and just were never able to get into the "in crowd" for one reason or another. Think about all the bullies you knew in high school, how many of them do you think would have gone on a rampage had they been picked on? I can think of at least 3 immediately.
Geeks who are being pushed around by bullies, and now fucking school administrators are innocent, STFU and leave them alone.
You must smoke some serious crack! QT looks like windows widgets, not GTK. GTK looks nothing like windows, so how the hell can it feel like a broken windows machine? QT feels that way to me, because it's so windows like.
I'm glad your vocabulary is better than mine, I agree with you. I am arrogant, egocentric and egotistical ; )
Ok, there's only one thing I really have left to say about abortion and why I consider it wrong. After less than a month a baby has measurable brain waves, a beating heart, and it just plain looks like a small human(not that that is relevant). When it is aborted (depending on how, there's so many ways for it to be done) it kicks and jerks around, seemingly in response to pain. Now, it is very possible that it is not actually self aware, and that the response is only a natural reaction. But until it can be proven whether an unborn baby is actually self aware I think it is unacceptable to kill it when there's just no way to know.
With that said, I understand how people can see things differently therefore I do not support killing pro-abortion advocates. In fact, I do not even dislike people who are pro-abortion, I will just let my opinion be known from time to time.
Thank you for improving my vocabulary and making good arguments.
Just a few comments about some of your arguments...
Saying that something is alive when it's self sustaining is hogwash. Children up to toddlers are not self sustaining, does that mean parents should be allowed to have them killed? If your answer to that question is yes, then this conversation is over, please move to another planet. It's a moot point anyway (IMHO) because whether something fits a scientific definition or not is really not the point. If an unborn baby is aware of itself, how can you justify killing it?
My opinion is not egocentric, it is arrogant. It is not based on personal experience, as I have never impregnated anyone. It is based on my opinion of other people and their reasoning for getting abortions and how I feel like I am a better more responsible person than they are. I feel superior, that is being extremely arrogant (I'm being honest here...).
I really don't know enough about this particular case to make a sound judgement, however it was my understanding that these people really were trying to get these doctors killed. That is not free speech. It really depends on intent. If you intend to influence someone to kill someone else, that is the same as hiring a hitman. Hiring a hitman is just influencing someone through monitary gain. Saying that you wish someone was dead is free speech though.
>> They have shown that they are no better than
>> their enemies. I say make a website and
>> encourage people to kill them...
>...and show that you're no better than them.
>A really good plan to perpetuate that cycle.
Margaret Sanger is the woman who founded Planned Parenthood. What's funny is she actually was a supporter of the Nazi Party. Do a search on google and you can find tons of information about her. Her magazines and journals were filled
with articles by well-known members of the Nazi Party.
She was also very racist and wanted to control the Negro population.
Funny that liberals claim she was this great wonderful person who liberated women. The truth is she was a racist/nazi bitch who left her husband and children for her "cause".
Does that mean that liberals are Nazis? ; ) (I'm only kidding, they're just stupid... ok, kidding again)
Free speech is about speaking your mind. But that's not what this case was about. These people were trying to encourage people to commit violent acts, that's not really any different than hiring a hitman.
What it comes down to is intent. It is quite clear that in this particular case the intent was to get these doctors killed. This is probably hard to prove in most cases, which is as it should be in order to protect free speech. But when it can be clearly proven then it should no longer be considered free speech.
This is similar to the DeCSS case. The intent of DeCSS was not clearly proven to be for the "pirating" of DVDs, which is why the verdict was (IMHO) wrong. (not to mention that it is absolutely ridiculous that a corporation's monitary interests should weigh so heavily in court when people are getting away with murder all the time..., but that's getting offtopic)
Why is it that the debate of abortion is always turned into a religious thing, or a "Pro Choice" thing. It's all bullshit! It has nothing to do with religion (to the non-religious), or choice(just as much as the right to murder is about choice).
What it boils down to is whether or not an unborn baby is a living human being that has a right to live. The obvious answer is yes. Fairly early on in pregnancy the baby has measurable brainwaves, a beating heart, etc. It even appears to be aware of itself. When it's killed it struggles and kicks.
The way I see it, an unborn baby has as much right to live as you or I. Some people say that a mother has the right to stop something from growing inside her body. Bullshit, the baby didn't choose to be there, it's there because the stupid bitch/asshole wasn't responsible enough to use birth control. Abortion is the absolute epitome of the irresponsible nature of our society today.
With my (admittedly arrogant) opinion out of the way, I disagree with the decision. These people were encouraging others to kill these doctors. That's not free speech any more than hiring a hitman is. They have shown that they are no better than their enemies. I say make a website and encourage people to kill them...
The number of homosexuals is so completely dwarfed by the number of heterosexuals that it's hardly worth considering with the subject at hand.
I want to know how aids in Africa is supposedly largely a women's health issue and not just a gender neutral health issue. How the hell is it more a women's health issue?
Geez! For all youse who were saying that SSH should use some kind of public key authority, THIS is the argument against it. You can NEVER trust ANYONE, EVER! ESPECIALLY if money is involved. The only one you can trust is yourself. Security that relies on a third party isn't secure at all.
Riiiigght. Somehow, I doubt it's a bigger problem for women than for men, I just don't see how that's possible. I mean, every woman with aids got it from a man with aids, and every man with aids got it from a woman. And it's no worse for either gender, it's almost always fatal.
Please explain how this is being turned into a woman's health issue, and not just a gender neutral health issue.
The AC who posted the original comment did more to harm scientology than he would ever have hoped. Also, everyone who sees this spectacle who was ignorant of the practices of scientology and was a potential brain washing victim has now seen what scientology is really about, so they are winners as well.
All in all, I'd say this whole thing has turned out remarkably well for all except Slashdot and the Cult of Scientology.
Slashdot Mirror
I used a semi-3d irc type program many many years ago. I think it was on MSN. It was like a Star Trek chat room or something, anyway, you could select a body and walk around and talk to people. It was sorta neat.
The idea sure isn't very novel as this type of thing has been written about in zillions of books etc., and has already been done.
But whatever, the patent office seems to know what's best.
Yes, you're right about the coffee burn case. Maintaining coffee at 180F is extremely dangerous and quite negligent. A normal cup of _HOT_ coffee is about 150F, that can burn you too, but not nearly as severe as coffee at 180F.
People spill hot coffee on themselves all the time, no normal person would assume that the McDonald's coffee they were holding in their hand would be that dangerous.
But the other examples I gave still stand, people _DO_ win ridiculous lawsuits in this country, however, you're right that the case with the game companies would probably just be thrown out.
These kinds of lawsuits get heard more than you would think. That is why our legal system is getting so fucked up, people _WIN_ stupid lawsuits like this.
That is why, in America, you can sue when you burn yourself with coffee. That is why, in America, you can sue someone who saved your life with CPR for breaking your rib. That is why, in America, you can sue someone who saved you from a burning building because you will have to live the rest of your life with scars. That is why, in America, you can sue gun manufacturers because someone murdered someone with their brand of gun. And the list goes on...
That is why, in America, you can sue game manufacturers for making violent games, and you have a chance of winning.
Get your head out of your ass and see the world around you.
I just don't know it yet. But when I consider everything I do for entertainment, it is the only conclusion I can come to.
1. I play nothing but extremely violent video games. Q3A, UT, Fighting games, I even got a real kick out of playing Grand Theft Auto.
2. I listen to mostly metal. Bands I like include, Nothingface(the best fucking band ever, check them out), Spineshank, Slipknot(crazy fuckers), Metallica, Pantera, Ultraspank(not so heavy), Godsmack(oh my, Blasphemy!), Staind, Korn(although I can't really stand them anymore, their first album was good though).
3. I am a geek. I really like the Internet. I have a job doing Internet stuff. I was picked on in school for a long time.
4. I suffer from pretty severe depression. I even contemplated suicide at a really young age. I have it under control now, but OMG, I could snap any time and go postal! Woohoo! Fear me, I am mentally FUCKED IN THE HEAD!
5. I've spent a great many hours killing my friends in video games. Sometimes I even get really into it and say stuff like, "Eat shit and die Fucker!!!" when I'm about to make a kill. Man, I must be warped, killing my friends and all.
REALITY:
1. Violent games are just entertainment. Why so much violence? Well, it's pretty simple, there is nothing in life as thrilling as the fear of death, as well as fighting for survival. In a video game you can capture part of this thrill without the unpleasant stress you'd experience IRL. You'd have to be extremely mentally disturbed to confuse video games with real life, this is not the responsibility of video game makers, it is the responsibility of parents.
2. Listening to Metal is a great way to release aggression, at least for me. I promise, I'm not evil... *evil grin* ; )
3. Geeks are smart, we don't go on killing sprees. Assholes who wish they could be in the "In crowd" and be bullies do. They are the same kind of people as the worst bullies, just dealt a different hand of cards in life.
4. Clinical Depression is a physical problem. It is a chemical imbalance in the brain. It does not make someone insane, it does not make someone want to kill other people, it does not make someone overly aggressive. The only danger depression causes is to one's self. Depression can be treated and controlled in many ways. One can adjust one's attitude and find things to cheer them up. Drugs! There are great drugs today that correct the chemical imbalance that causes depression, usually one drug or another will work with no side effects for an individual.
5. They're just games! Good God people, get a fucking grip! The only people living in a fantasy world are the dumb fuckers blaming shit on other people. Learn some fucking parenting skills. Lesson 1, don't use the foul language I keep using ; ) Lesson 2, DON'T FUCKING SHELTER YOUR CHILDREN TOO MUCH, THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH REAL LIFE!!
Seriously, real life is not all peachy and happy. People are murdered every day. People are raped, beaten, robbed, etc. etc. IMHO, children NEED to be exposed to sex and violence, and along with that they need to be shown compassion and kindness. That's how people learn! My parents didn't censor me at all, I played violent games all my life. I watched violent films all my life. I saw films with sexual content at a fairly early age. I am not violent, and I am not a rapist. Murder or rape has NEVER crossed my mind, even in the most extreme of circumstances. However, I have used violence to defend myself(not often). I have also had violent acts committed against me when I was young, but because I was mature enough and understood it, I was able to deal with it and was not affraid to go out in public again. Everyone I know who has lived an extremely sheltered life cannot deal with any type of confrontation, is extremely affraid of slightly bad neighborhoods/crowds etc., and have difficulty dealing with injured/sick people etc. THAT IS NOT GOOD!
Sheltering does not create gentle kind human beings, it creates cowards.
Enough of my ramblings....
Five billion dollars. That is an absolutely insane amount of money. Not to be insensitive, but all the people who were killed at Columbine are NOT WORTH THAT MUCH. 5 billion dollars is enough money for thousands of people to live off of their whole lives.
Now, I honestly don't believe a human life is something you can place a value on, but when you are forced to, 5 billion is insanely excessive.
This is all completely ignoring the fact that the game companies are not responsible for the actions of Harris and Klebold. That is just in-fucking-sane.
I agree, parents can't ALWAYS be held responsible for their childrens' actions. There comes a point where the child acts completely independently and should be held fully responsible for his/her own actions. Usually when someone is capable of contemplating murder, they are at that point.
However, in this case, the parents were DEFINATELY party responsible, as the kids built bombs in their house and left plenty of evidence around for the parents to pick up on. That doesn't mean they are responsible for the actions of their children though, just letting them use their homes to buld bombs and stock up weapons and ammo.
Unfortuneately, it appears that our society has now fully accepted blaming everyone and everything for anything that goes wrong as acceptable.
This is not about someone shooting up a school, this is about a geek getting kicked out of school because everyone is affraid of their own fucking shadow.
Geeks are not the ones who retaliate with guns, dumb ass fucks who are just as stupid as the fuckers who bully them are the ones that resort to such insane violence. These people are the same as the people who bully them and just were never able to get into the "in crowd" for one reason or another. Think about all the bullies you knew in high school, how many of them do you think would have gone on a rampage had they been picked on? I can think of at least 3 immediately.
Geeks who are being pushed around by bullies, and now fucking school administrators are innocent, STFU and leave them alone.
Dumb ass...
You must smoke some serious crack! QT looks like windows widgets, not GTK. GTK looks nothing like windows, so how the hell can it feel like a broken windows machine? QT feels that way to me, because it's so windows like.
Please mod the parent up. The story the link links to is absolutely "PRICELESS".
OS X and OS 9 running on top of Darwin running on top of Mach. Sheesh, it's amazing it can even run on current hardware at all!
note: I'm only kidding, I haven't tried it yet, but I do plan to soon on the beast of a mac we have here at the office.
Thanks for explaining why the system requirements for Mac OSX are so ludicrous.
I'm glad your vocabulary is better than mine, I agree with you. I am arrogant, egocentric and egotistical ; )
Ok, there's only one thing I really have left to say about abortion and why I consider it wrong. After less than a month a baby has measurable brain waves, a beating heart, and it just plain looks like a small human(not that that is relevant). When it is aborted (depending on how, there's so many ways for it to be done) it kicks and jerks around, seemingly in response to pain. Now, it is very possible that it is not actually self aware, and that the response is only a natural reaction. But until it can be proven whether an unborn baby is actually self aware I think it is unacceptable to kill it when there's just no way to know.
With that said, I understand how people can see things differently therefore I do not support killing pro-abortion advocates. In fact, I do not even dislike people who are pro-abortion, I will just let my opinion be known from time to time.
Thank you for improving my vocabulary and making good arguments.
Just a few comments about some of your arguments...
Saying that something is alive when it's self sustaining is hogwash. Children up to toddlers are not self sustaining, does that mean parents should be allowed to have them killed? If your answer to that question is yes, then this conversation is over, please move to another planet. It's a moot point anyway (IMHO) because whether something fits a scientific definition or not is really not the point. If an unborn baby is aware of itself, how can you justify killing it?
My opinion is not egocentric, it is arrogant. It is not based on personal experience, as I have never impregnated anyone. It is based on my opinion of other people and their reasoning for getting abortions and how I feel like I am a better more responsible person than they are. I feel superior, that is being extremely arrogant (I'm being honest here...).
I really don't know enough about this particular case to make a sound judgement, however it was my understanding that these people really were trying to get these doctors killed. That is not free speech. It really depends on intent. If you intend to influence someone to kill someone else, that is the same as hiring a hitman. Hiring a hitman is just influencing someone through monitary gain. Saying that you wish someone was dead is free speech though.
>> They have shown that they are no better than
>> their enemies. I say make a website and
>> encourage people to kill them...
>...and show that you're no better than them.
>A really good plan to perpetuate that cycle.
I was being sarcastic.
Margaret Sanger is the woman who founded Planned Parenthood. What's funny is she actually was a supporter of the Nazi Party. Do a search on google and you can find tons of information about her. Her magazines and journals were filled
with articles by well-known members of the Nazi Party.
She was also very racist and wanted to control the Negro population.
Funny that liberals claim she was this great wonderful person who liberated women. The truth is she was a racist/nazi bitch who left her husband and children for her "cause".
Does that mean that liberals are Nazis? ; ) (I'm only kidding, they're just stupid... ok, kidding again)
Free speech is about speaking your mind. But that's not what this case was about. These people were trying to encourage people to commit violent acts, that's not really any different than hiring a hitman.
What it comes down to is intent. It is quite clear that in this particular case the intent was to get these doctors killed. This is probably hard to prove in most cases, which is as it should be in order to protect free speech. But when it can be clearly proven then it should no longer be considered free speech.
This is similar to the DeCSS case. The intent of DeCSS was not clearly proven to be for the "pirating" of DVDs, which is why the verdict was (IMHO) wrong. (not to mention that it is absolutely ridiculous that a corporation's monitary interests should weigh so heavily in court when people are getting away with murder all the time..., but that's getting offtopic)
If the film ENCOURAGED the violent act then yes, they are in part responsible. But the person who committed the violent act is ALSO responsible.
Why the hell do we always try to pin the responsibility on a singler person/entity in cases like this.
Why is it that the debate of abortion is always turned into a religious thing, or a "Pro Choice" thing. It's all bullshit! It has nothing to do with religion (to the non-religious), or choice(just as much as the right to murder is about choice).
What it boils down to is whether or not an unborn baby is a living human being that has a right to live. The obvious answer is yes. Fairly early on in pregnancy the baby has measurable brainwaves, a beating heart, etc. It even appears to be aware of itself. When it's killed it struggles and kicks.
The way I see it, an unborn baby has as much right to live as you or I. Some people say that a mother has the right to stop something from growing inside her body. Bullshit, the baby didn't choose to be there, it's there because the stupid bitch/asshole wasn't responsible enough to use birth control. Abortion is the absolute epitome of the irresponsible nature of our society today.
With my (admittedly arrogant) opinion out of the way, I disagree with the decision. These people were encouraging others to kill these doctors. That's not free speech any more than hiring a hitman is. They have shown that they are no better than their enemies. I say make a website and encourage people to kill them...
For answering my question. I was not aware that it was easier for a female to contract HIV from a man than vice versa.
The number of homosexuals is so completely dwarfed by the number of heterosexuals that it's hardly worth considering with the subject at hand.
I want to know how aids in Africa is supposedly largely a women's health issue and not just a gender neutral health issue. How the hell is it more a women's health issue?
Whatever...
Geez! For all youse who were saying that SSH should use some kind of public key authority, THIS is the argument against it. You can NEVER trust ANYONE, EVER! ESPECIALLY if money is involved. The only one you can trust is yourself. Security that relies on a third party isn't secure at all.
Riiiigght. Somehow, I doubt it's a bigger problem for women than for men, I just don't see how that's possible. I mean, every woman with aids got it from a man with aids, and every man with aids got it from a woman. And it's no worse for either gender, it's almost always fatal.
Please explain how this is being turned into a woman's health issue, and not just a gender neutral health issue.
DivX ;) is a hacked version of microsoft's mpeg 4 codec. Divx was a pay-per-play DVD type medium for movies.
They are completely different and are not related.
The AC who posted the original comment did more to harm scientology than he would ever have hoped. Also, everyone who sees this spectacle who was ignorant of the practices of scientology and was a potential brain washing victim has now seen what scientology is really about, so they are winners as well.
All in all, I'd say this whole thing has turned out remarkably well for all except Slashdot and the Cult of Scientology.
And finally, teach your kids soccer :)
No no no! That will ruin their lives! Teach them hockey! ; )
Sorry, I played soccer when I was like 12 and I hated it and still have flashbacks today.
I don't think /.'s "hiccups" are the result of MySQL problems, more like...
"'DELETE FROM tablename;' Oops, SHIT, I forgot the WHERE clause! Where's that damn backup?!?!"