In a capitalist society, desire *is* demand. There is a strong cultural link between beauty and diamonds, between love and diamonds, and between (especially) marriage and diamonds. None of these -- especially not the latter -- were there before DeBeers. Study a little history, and you'll see this.
>I don't understand how anyone could possibly spend more than a short while in there before becoming completely frustrated with the hideous performance.
People tolerate it because there is *nothing* else like it on the Net.
Which is a pity.
Daniel
One thing that is missing is you have a very limited ability to introduce your own 3D content in to these worlds, being mostly confined to picking wardrobe and hair styles from a predefined set. If I recall the world in Snowcrash was a lot more dynamic, complex and interesting.
Two words: Second Life.
The problem, as I see it, is that these are all proprietary technologies. We are seeing some incredible things, and have seen some incredible things, emerge on the WWW precisely because even though it is horrible, badly-designed, and poorly-conceived, it's open. And that allows people to extend it and interact with it in ways its designers never imagined. Which is why its now such an integral part of life. The problem with WoW, SimsOnline, and to a much lesser extent SecondLife, is that its all proprietary, so although it'll be a good toy, its usefulness may not take off like the WWW. LindenLabs say they are reworking the internals of SL to use open technologies (Jabber for IM, for example) and will release SL's source code in 2010. Then, it should be awesome.
I should have read the rest of your post before replying. You obviously don't know much about the Troubles, or else you are part of them. The UK held a referendum in Ireland. Southern Ireland decided they wanted out, the UK let them go. Northern Ireland decided they wanted to remain part of the UK, so we let them stay part of the UK.
Or don't you respect people's choice in the matter?
I think the grandparent's point, and he is correct, is that the West removed a democratically-elected leader to install a dictator. Same thing happened in Chile, in Iraq (in case you didn't know, Saddam was originally a CIA operative, albeit an incompetent one), in Niceragua, each time leading to the deaths of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians.
I think Kurzweil's position is that it is an historical inevitability (read his thesis on the Law of Accelerating Returns) that these things will happen, within our lifetimes even, whatever he does -- and he'd rather they happen safely than dangerously.
What if there's alot of money to be made from "deadly nanotechnology"? What if the buyer buys the company *specificly* to market and fund this dead nanotechnology?
Sorry but your argument simply doesn't hold up. The market will go wherever it is most profitable to go... this has always been true and always will be true. Just look at some very succesfulcompanies and tell me there's no profit in killing people.
The market is least trustworthy option when it comes to policing.
It is because people like YOU (whom unfortunately represent the majority in this nation) refuse to keep any sense of perspective. Around 3,000 people died on 9/11. Now contrast that to the tens of thousands that die of car accidents and heart disease.
The government has its heart in the right place though, you've gotta admit. What we really need is to start a WAR ON CARS and a WAR ON HEART DISEASE. Considering how the war effort has helped the economy* I think this could really do some good, not to mention the fact that ITS GOD'S WILL THAT WE OPPOSE THE CARS.
*Oh, wait it hasn't.
Sarcasm aside, I'm glad to see not everyone's lost their perspective. Thank you.
Yes, I tried one of those a few weeks ago. £20, why not! Unfortunately, you've been misled -- that £20 was one of the worst spent £20 I ever spent: the firm is a pure rip-off.
First of all, I was told I was working on Wednesday at 9 so I pencilled that in, and yes, it was slightly faster (but only slightly) than my Nokia. But then I hit my first snag: nowhere could I find an alarm function to remind me. Thinking it was an extra module that had to be purchased seperately (which is really bad value for money, IMO) I spent ages on Google looking for it... to no avail. Thankfully I didnt miss work because I went back to my old Nokia's calendar to remind me. (Of course, it auto-synch'd via BT next time the computer was one.)
The second problem I had was when I needed to record a complicated series of directions to get to a friend's house -- it was quite a way away and in the end my hand just got tired of writing (Oh, how I longed for a keypad). Again, the old Nokia came to the rescue and I used the record voice function to succesfully record directions -- I was very disapointed at the new solutions lack of audio recording or even a rudiumentary camera (640x480 even?)
Another problem I kept running into was the lack of any audio player (perhaps thats another module)? I mean, I dont like having to carry around 3 devices with me everytime I go out when my Nokia was very much an all-in-one. Sure, I could have written out the OGG files in HEX and hummed them back to myself but I'm a student and to be honest, I don't really have that kind of time anymore.
Another problem (they were really bugging me by this point) was no way to transfer e-books to the new solution save by hand. I tried transcribing Zarathustra but gave up only a few pages into the book -- it really wasnt worth it, so I just coppied it over BT to my Nokia. I could have bought the dead-tree with me (which I also owned) but I needed to take a few other books as well and it didnt fit into my bag.
Finally the trial was bought to an abrupt halt when I dropped it. Yes, I'd been dropping it all week with no adverse affects but it had been raining and I dropped it in a puddle -- all my appointments, all my shopping and to-do lists, gone in a slimey mess of sticky paper. Now if I'd dropped my Nokia, sure, I'd have lost those but only temporarily thanks to the automatic bluetooth sync. I was so angry! I mean, what kind of device is built in this day and age without any kind of easy backup facilities?
Folks, stay away from this -- its nothing but a sham and a waste of money.
(Disclaimer: I am a meat-eater. Prior to writing this I did a quick google image search for "abattoir" and... did not like what I saw. But I'm still a meat-eater.)
The grand-parent said,
See if they'd be willing (not even "curious", just *willing*) to see how the fowl are slaughtered. They won't do it -- they will almost always prefer ignorance, and they'll probably also get mad at you for "trying to ruin their day".
Isn't this exactly you're doing (Go try to push your morals and ethics off on someone else.)? The grand-parent was merely commenting, not trying to "push his ethics" on you. And you go and get angry, defensive, precisely in the veign of the post you were replying to.
The font tag is deprecated, yes, and storing CSS externaly is a huge improvement over... any other way of doing it. (I take it you've never had to manage a website of any size at all, then?) But its not always practical to do so, so this...
And this happened in Britain? Christ, I'm out of touch here in the deep South-West. I think you were too generous with the taxi driver: I would have had that huge argument, after I'd have demanded he let me out right there and not paid him.
I meant liberal meaning "on the left of the political spectrum", which I believe they are, by virtue of proposing non-traditional approaches to government. Other than that, a very insightful post -- the reasons you cite are exactly the same reasons I do not count myself as an anti-libertarian.
Actually, there are liberals who support both economic freedom and personal freedom -- the libertarians, a sizeable faction of whom make up slashdot. (I dont subscribe to their ideas though: the free market benefits everyone, alright, except for the poorer 25% of the population.)
Otherwise, an insightful post. I do not find money matters to me -- far more important is my own personal freedom, which is why I am an ardent liberal.
Eh? A region-free player will play any disc from any region (hence the use of the phrase region-free). In other words, if you bought a region-free player here, you could watch your US imports and your local British releases and, when you move back, you can bring your player and your films and carry on as normal. I completely agree with you though: I hate the way they've screwed us (the consumers) on this issue and would dearly like to kick the person or people directly responsible for this fuckup in the balls. Repeatedly.
Hmm. Speaking as a member of the younger generation (19), I'm not sure Zork is the best example of text-based gaming you could be showing him. When I found Zork I was 9, and found it tedious and hard. It was not, however, boring. Zork: Grand Inquisiter, while not being a text-based game, is one of my favorite games ever. Very funny.
You may find a better title to show is my all-time favorite text-based/IF game, Babel. The game exudes atmosphere. The gameplay and puzzles, while challenging, never get in the way of the superb storyline. The game is short, very short, but like a good espresso, very black and very sweet.
However, you'll have a hard time sitting a 13-year-old in front of a terminal if he doesn't already have a good appreciation of the written word. I consider myself very, very lucky that I've always had a deep love of literature. I discovered Babel, also when I was 9, at about the same time I was reading H2G2 and other classics. I recently downloaded it again, and this time, finished it!
Slashdot Mirror
In a capitalist society, desire *is* demand. There is a strong cultural link between beauty and diamonds, between love and diamonds, and between (especially) marriage and diamonds. None of these -- especially not the latter -- were there before DeBeers. Study a little history, and you'll see this.
Daniel
>I don't understand how anyone could possibly spend more than a short while in there before becoming completely frustrated with the hideous performance. People tolerate it because there is *nothing* else like it on the Net. Which is a pity. Daniel
It's a good idea but what do you do in circumstances when there is only one person on the grid?
Daniel
One thing that is missing is you have a very limited ability to introduce your own 3D content in to these worlds, being mostly confined to picking wardrobe and hair styles from a predefined set. If I recall the world in Snowcrash was a lot more dynamic, complex and interesting.
Two words: Second Life.
The problem, as I see it, is that these are all proprietary technologies. We are seeing some incredible things, and have seen some incredible things, emerge on the WWW precisely because even though it is horrible, badly-designed, and poorly-conceived, it's open. And that allows people to extend it and interact with it in ways its designers never imagined. Which is why its now such an integral part of life. The problem with WoW, SimsOnline, and to a much lesser extent SecondLife, is that its all proprietary, so although it'll be a good toy, its usefulness may not take off like the WWW. LindenLabs say they are reworking the internals of SL to use open technologies (Jabber for IM, for example) and will release SL's source code in 2010. Then, it should be awesome.
Referendum on Northern Ireland, 1973. Referendum on the Good Friday Agreement, 1998 .
You're kidding, right?
I don't know anything about this, but why couldn't they apply some kind of ABS anti-brake-locking technology?
Or don't you respect people's choice in the matter?
Good article here.
I think Kurzweil's position is that it is an historical inevitability (read his thesis on the Law of Accelerating Returns) that these things will happen, within our lifetimes even, whatever he does -- and he'd rather they happen safely than dangerously.
Sorry but your argument simply doesn't hold up. The market will go wherever it is most profitable to go... this has always been true and always will be true. Just look at some very succesful companies and tell me there's no profit in killing people.
The market is least trustworthy option when it comes to policing.
It is because people like YOU (whom unfortunately represent the majority in this nation) refuse to keep any sense of perspective. Around 3,000 people died on 9/11. Now contrast that to the tens of thousands that die of car accidents and heart disease.
The government has its heart in the right place though, you've gotta admit. What we really need is to start a WAR ON CARS and a WAR ON HEART DISEASE. Considering how the war effort has helped the economy* I think this could really do some good, not to mention the fact that ITS GOD'S WILL THAT WE OPPOSE THE CARS.
*Oh, wait it hasn't.
Sarcasm aside, I'm glad to see not everyone's lost their perspective. Thank you.
First of all, I was told I was working on Wednesday at 9 so I pencilled that in, and yes, it was slightly faster (but only slightly) than my Nokia. But then I hit my first snag: nowhere could I find an alarm function to remind me. Thinking it was an extra module that had to be purchased seperately (which is really bad value for money, IMO) I spent ages on Google looking for it... to no avail. Thankfully I didnt miss work because I went back to my old Nokia's calendar to remind me. (Of course, it auto-synch'd via BT next time the computer was one.)
The second problem I had was when I needed to record a complicated series of directions to get to a friend's house -- it was quite a way away and in the end my hand just got tired of writing (Oh, how I longed for a keypad). Again, the old Nokia came to the rescue and I used the record voice function to succesfully record directions -- I was very disapointed at the new solutions lack of audio recording or even a rudiumentary camera (640x480 even?)
Another problem I kept running into was the lack of any audio player (perhaps thats another module)? I mean, I dont like having to carry around 3 devices with me everytime I go out when my Nokia was very much an all-in-one. Sure, I could have written out the OGG files in HEX and hummed them back to myself but I'm a student and to be honest, I don't really have that kind of time anymore.
Another problem (they were really bugging me by this point) was no way to transfer e-books to the new solution save by hand. I tried transcribing Zarathustra but gave up only a few pages into the book -- it really wasnt worth it, so I just coppied it over BT to my Nokia. I could have bought the dead-tree with me (which I also owned) but I needed to take a few other books as well and it didnt fit into my bag.
Finally the trial was bought to an abrupt halt when I dropped it. Yes, I'd been dropping it all week with no adverse affects but it had been raining and I dropped it in a puddle -- all my appointments, all my shopping and to-do lists, gone in a slimey mess of sticky paper. Now if I'd dropped my Nokia, sure, I'd have lost those but only temporarily thanks to the automatic bluetooth sync. I was so angry! I mean, what kind of device is built in this day and age without any kind of easy backup facilities?
Folks, stay away from this -- its nothing but a sham and a waste of money.
The grand-parent said,
See if they'd be willing (not even "curious", just *willing*) to see how the fowl are slaughtered. They won't do it -- they will almost always prefer ignorance, and they'll probably also get mad at you for "trying to ruin their day".
Isn't this exactly you're doing (Go try to push your morals and ethics off on someone else.)? The grand-parent was merely commenting, not trying to "push his ethics" on you. And you go and get angry, defensive, precisely in the veign of the post you were replying to.
Because it's not a war.
The font tag is deprecated, yes, and storing CSS externaly is a huge improvement over... any other way of doing it. (I take it you've never had to manage a website of any size at all, then?) But its not always practical to do so, so this...
<span style="color: #FF0000; font-weight: bold;">
works just as well.
And this happened in Britain? Christ, I'm out of touch here in the deep South-West. I think you were too generous with the taxi driver: I would have had that huge argument, after I'd have demanded he let me out right there and not paid him.
Should have previewed. I meant, of course, I count myself as an anti-libertarian, or put another way, I do not count myself as a libertarian.
I meant liberal meaning "on the left of the political spectrum", which I believe they are, by virtue of proposing non-traditional approaches to government. Other than that, a very insightful post -- the reasons you cite are exactly the same reasons I do not count myself as an anti-libertarian.
Otherwise, an insightful post. I do not find money matters to me -- far more important is my own personal freedom, which is why I am an ardent liberal.
there are too many political interests that absolutely hate that because it leads to a stable family system
Yep. That's what every problem in the world comes down too: the liberal's hatred of the stable family system.
I am not responsible for any failure to observe sarcasm in the above post.
... and still only gets around 3000. (1 GB RAM / Athlon Dual 4400 / 7800 GTX.) I don't like 3dmark anymore :-(
Lamer. Use brainfuck, Shakespeare, or Chef
Eh? A region-free player will play any disc from any region (hence the use of the phrase region-free). In other words, if you bought a region-free player here, you could watch your US imports and your local British releases and, when you move back, you can bring your player and your films and carry on as normal. I completely agree with you though: I hate the way they've screwed us (the consumers) on this issue and would dearly like to kick the person or people directly responsible for this fuckup in the balls. Repeatedly.
You may find a better title to show is my all-time favorite text-based/IF game, Babel. The game exudes atmosphere. The gameplay and puzzles, while challenging, never get in the way of the superb storyline. The game is short, very short, but like a good espresso, very black and very sweet.
However, you'll have a hard time sitting a 13-year-old in front of a terminal if he doesn't already have a good appreciation of the written word. I consider myself very, very lucky that I've always had a deep love of literature. I discovered Babel, also when I was 9, at about the same time I was reading H2G2 and other classics. I recently downloaded it again, and this time, finished it!