There should be a "3) Things that are logically impossible to prove, and therefore should be considered outside of the domain of science."
Science is great - incredibly great - but only when applied to areas that are amenable to a scientific approach.
Trying to apply science to humanistic questions - questions that are so far outside of the boundaries of scientific-methodology that they can't even be expressed in concrete fashion - would be folly.
I'm not a religious person by any means, but I do recognize that there are humanistic questions that are every bit as important as the scientific ones, and that require different approaches.
Really? Because from what I can see, science has absolutely nothing to say one way or the other on the question of whether god/gods exist.
Science talks about the "how" of things, Faith is about the "why." They aren't at odds except when people try to misuse them. And that happens on both sides.
I know "scientists" who think that evolution disproves God - huh? Evolution has nothing to do with god, unless one takes an incredibly limited and literal interpretation of events normally attributed to god.
Mind you, I'm an apatheist - there may or may not be a god or gods, but I don't particularly care. But that doesn't prevent me from appreciating the genuine arguments from both scientific and faith camps.
You mean to say "some MMO gamers" want those things, I'm sure.
I'm an MMO gamer and I don't really give a shit about those particular issues.
I want: Cooperative play that rewards good teamwork, and where the outcome of a fight is in doubt right up until the end.
Multiple ways to achieve a goal or quest. Maybe I can just charge in and whack some Lieutenant Dorkmeir to get the Symbol of Snazziness. Or maybe I can sneak in, pick his pocket and take off without a fight. Maybe I can walk in and simply persuade him to give it up. Maybe I can not bother with any of that and simply forge one and turn that in to the quest giver.
Some kind of game-world change to reflect accomplishments - even if it's just NPC's greeting you by saying "Oh, it's Kimmie the Dragonslayer!" Atmospheric type stuff.
An "interesting" economy - player driven and with interesting things to do. Maybe a future's market for crafting ingredients and so on (which there kind of is now, but I mean something official). I really liked many aspects of SWG's economic game (despite the rest of the game being incredibly simple and easy)
That's what *I* want. I wouldn't presume to speak for all MMO gamers - you clearly want something different.
I wouldn't mind rep grinds for good gear - a person can spend an hour or less at a time farming, rather than having to spend 4-5 hours at a shot (or more) raiding.
I'm lucky - in my guild, we don't have any "forced attendance" or bullshit like that, and it's cool that I make a raid maybe every other weekend - but I like this idea too. There should be multiple paths for players to take, ones that accomodate everyone's play-style.
I live in Illinois - I didn't vote for Blago, nor did any of the candidates I voted for have anything to do with this stupid law (how do I know? Every single one of them lost!) - remember, it's not just the "fools" who voted for someone who're paying, but everyone who did their best to keep schmucks like that out of office.
Forget making the voters pay for it - they voted for the guy, but once he's in office they have no real control over him until election day. I say make the person/people who author a bill that's ultimately found to be unconstitutional pay for half of the costs and split up the other half among the assholes who voted it into law. Make 'em pay out of their own pockets - clearly upholding the constitution isn't important to them, but maybe not having to shell out thousands of dollars is.
I definitely agree with you that porn is not a "complete" picture of sexuality by any stretch. There are many vectors to approach sex ed. from. I was just addressing this one specific aspect since the question was "Would I let kids buy porn, and if so, why?"
About the burden on retailers:
Why should a retailer have to shoulder the burden because some people don't want their kids exposed to porn? Should a convenience store be required to call a kid's parents and ask if it's okay for Little Johnny to buy a chocolate bar if the parents might not want the kid eating candy? Should McDonald's demand proof that a kid isn't being raised vegan before serving up a (barf!) McRib?
One might say that those things are different than porn, and one would be right: it has been *proven* that unhealthy eating habits can cause harm to kids, while there is no such proof that viewing pornography has any negative effect what-so-ever.
So, if the goal is "make kids feel that sex is something dirty and naughty" then restricting the stuff like it's radioactive makes sense. But if the goal is "protecting kids from things that are harmful" then it makes no sense at all - in fact might be a negative to that goal - and efforts should be focused on things that have been proven to actually hurt kids, no?
If I spend 1 minute organizing things, that is a wasted minute - I can easily find exactly what I'm looking for with the search. I have one account for personal email and another for work/school related email. I have about 3k work/school emails and probably twice that number of personal emails saved up - and it never takes me more than 10-15 seconds to find something if I need it. So what benefit would expending any energy at all on organization beyond what I do (not doing anything at all, other than reading/responding appropriately) provide?
Now I'm in school again. I'm taking 6 classes this upcoming semester, all but one of them will have pretty hefty reading, writing and research requirements. My approach to school is similar to my approach to email: I'm lazy as hell. I have a tablet pc, I write my notes on it, convert my scribbles to handwriting, and then use keyword searches later on when I need to look something up. What's very interesting is that I've found a lot of serendipitous connections between things I'm learning that I might not really have noticed had I taken a more structured approach to taking notes and so on. I've never missed an assignment, never had an "oh shit!" moment where I forgot a test was coming. What I do is a few seconds every evening searching for "test" and "paper due" and then put any relevant results into my calendaring software.
For me, the minimalist approach works. For someone else, maybe they need all kinds of structures in place to be able to get work done. No one method will work for all people, however - I know that I am MUCH less efficient if I attempt to use a system beyond "whatever is easiest at the time" I become really bogged down in pointless minutae. But, when I go with what is simplest for me, life is good.
There's a difference between a violent video game and cigarettes/alcohol - tobacco and alcohol have been proven to have detrimental effects on a person's health, especially a growing person, while there is no such proven link between violent video games/movies/porn and poor behavior. Kids are also generally less capable than adults of making wise choices when it comes to that stuff, and are more susceptable to pressure in many cases - so keeping PROVEN harmful substances out of their hands makes sense.
As for the other materials:
Do I think children should be able to buy porn? Sure - why not? Kids are gonna get their hands on it anyway - whether from the net or other friends - and I think that it being freely available will make exploring sexuality less stimatizing. Keeping it locked away from curious eyes doesn't keep kids from finding it, doesn't keep them from having sex if they want, and seems to just be a pointless burden for retailers.
Violent movies and so on? Sure - again, why not? They're going to see them anyway. Parents CANNOT watch their kids 24/7 (and even if they could, that would be remarkably unhealthy). It's better that a kid have the kind of relationship with there parents where they can say "Hey, mom - I wanna see Hyper-violent Ninja Movie X" and the parent either goes with them, or is able to discuss it with them so they process it as needed.
Putting restrictions on things like this doesn't really help anyone, and seems to be a waste of resources.
Things like a crisis situation or something completely out of the ordinary can be handled by having a number an employee can contact - or by having certain "extraordinary circumstances" modes that the system can be tripped into.
With regard to the supply checking issues - actually, I would trust the minimum-wage fry-cook because things not being in good order will make his life more difficult.
Honestly, I think much of the reason staff at these places are so bad is because they're micro-managed. Give them a little more leeway in how they get things done while simultaneously making them more accountable, and it would not surprise me a bit if they did a better job. (More accountable: having regional managers/inspectors who don't play favorites, and could give a shit about the "politics" at one store = employees getting a lot less slack when they don't do their jobs)
It isn't that it's so difficult - it's that it's so easy. Fast food restaurants are pretty predictable environments for many of the tasks of a manager: Scheduling worker's shifts, determining how much of what needs to be cooked when, organizing inventory, etc. A simple program using a bit of historical data would be able to handle much of that, while an intelligent inventory management system can handle the rest.
For things that a computer cannot handle, such as dispute resolution or angry customers - a change in policy allowing employees a bit more latitude in handling customer complaints or a centralized number for disgruntled customers to contact would handle quite a bit. For disputes, a single trained mediator could handle disputes arising across a wide region. To keep employees from slacking off too much, random inspections (but at least once a week) could be done - someone goes into a place and spends an hour going over a checklist.
From an expense standpoint, this would also be cheaper - no manager salaries, no assistant manager salaries. From an employee standpoint, this would be a win: service employees would be able to take a more direct approach to handling customer issues, and would need to spend less time dealing with stupid dictator manager-guy at what is already a shit job.
Personally, I think this is exactly the kind of place to do this.
What makes gaming for that length of time any different than doing any other activity for 4-5 hours?
I spend 4-5 hours every other weekend going to the movies or a play (well, lunch and movies, or dinner after a show) - does that raise an eyebrow? I might spend 4-5 hours every other Friday going out with friends to chat and drink - is that questionable? I spent 4-5 hours last Sunday at WizardWorld wandering around and talking comix with people - what about that? Tonight I'm probably going to spend 4-5 hours with some friends playing table-top games, and on Thursday I have 4-5 hours that I'll be spending at art classes and working on clay. Yesterday I spent 4-5 hours in the evening reading, and this Friday night I think I'll probably spend 4-5 hours playing video games (WoW if there's a raid, Civ4 if there isn't). Now, maybe sometimes I spend as few as 3 hours doing any of the above mentioned things, or, on occasion I'll go hog-wild and spend a decadent 6 hours, but generally, my attention span for a single voluntary activity is about 4-5 hours.
Heck, back before I returned to school, I would spend 8-10 hours a day coding or doing design, sometimes up to 12 or 14 if it was crunch time, pretty much 5-6 days a week. Every week, for 48-50 weeks in a row, repeating over and over, for about 10 years. Now THAT was really unbalanced! And now that I'm in school? I spend 4-5 hours a day sitting on a really uncomfortable chair, listening to a series of really poor public speakers drone on and on and on and on and on and on about various subjects. Or, some days, I spend 4-5 hours practicing interviewing and testing techniques. On occasion I'll spend 10-16 hours writing, or researching, or studying.
Some of those activities are about as interactive as watching grass grow - sitting in a darkened theater watching LOTR, eating ridiculously unhealthy snacks and hearing mumbles of nerd-rage is a hell of a lot less stimulating than sitting in a well lit den, chatting with people via ventrillo while working out a strategy for beating the crap out of some dragon and making dopey in-jokes.
I guess my point is, you're saying "Gee, 4-5 hours gaming in one go sure seems like a long time..." but the fact is, compared to many other activities people do, it isn't. And, IMO it'd only be unhealthy if it was 4-5 hours gaming in one go, repeatedly and to the point where it was making it impossible to engage in other activities.
It would probably be more correct to say that one can't experience 100% of the game's content without spending a few long sessions on occasion.
I routinely play for less than an hour at a shot. On weekends, if I've nothing else to do, I'll join a raid. Figure 2-3 hours (total) during the weekdays and maybe 4-5 hours in one shot, every other weekend. That's hardly addict level play.
Yet, I've gone through everything up to BWL (and might be doing that this weekend), I'm decently geared, and I don't have anyone pitching a fit at me because I couldn't attend a raid or have to go deal with Real Life.
Of course, one huge factor is that I'm in a guild with people who are all mature - they know that the real world is important, they have perspective on things and are aware that this is just a game, and we aggressively kick out anyone who even hints that they're about to have a hissy-fit over a piece of gear. We don't progress as quickly as everyone else, we don't have all the purples that other guilds might have, but we genuinely have a good time hanging out with each other when we do play, and that's what counts.
A friend and I were wandering through a video store, looking for something to rent. We walked past "Bend it like Beckham" and this one woman said "This must be important: it's English!" I think I peed a little, laughing.
"High-brow" and "really fucking expensive" do not go together.
Tacky shit, even really fucking expensive tacky shit, is not high-brow. High-brow is a culture/education thing, not a class/economic thing. While many wealthy people might like to think that money = sophistication, this obviously isn't the case.
Paris Hilton may be high maintenance or just high, but she is by no means high-brow.
It's like those people who say "*I* don't own a tv" as if that somehow elevates them. Those people seem to be so stuck in the mode of being elitist pricks about the big-bad TV that they're completely unaware that *gasp* there is some pretty good stuff around. It's not all Saved By the Bell: Just Fucking Kill Us Already.
What I don't get are all these style/design criticisms about machines announced at a DEVELOPER conference.
While certainly a large part of Apple stuff is the design, I don't honestly see the developer audience saying "Okay, the specs are nice, but... It's not PRETTY enough to handle my development work."
Release the heavy-duty stuff at developer conferences, and release the pretty stuff at consumer oriented shows - makes sense to me.
Sorry, that was rude of me. Please forget my previous post.
It is just a matter of plugging your iPod into your computer - iTunes does all the rest. If it doesn't do it automatically, check your preferences - make it sync video and music.
RandomTotaliarianGovernmentX declares that avowing oneself - publically - to be a homosexual is a crime.
American goes on craigslist and says he wants to hook up for some play. Some girl decides she wants to try her hand with another girl.
Enter the US State Dept. which contacts RTGX and says "Hey, you know how we have those sanctions on you? We'll drop 'em if you agree to insist that we extradite all the publically avowed homosexuals to you..."
Think it's crazy? They cane you for spitting in Singapore...
Damn right I'd be cheering. I'd MUCH rather have two gigantic and deep pocketed corporations fighting each other as opposed to working together to fuck me.
Not to sound like a troll, but if this is the attitude at NASA, I'll be surprised if you manage to launch the next space shuttle. If you said something like that in the sixties, you'd have probably been fired.
And if you'd said "I'm a communist" back then, you'd have been beaten or jailed or both. This isn't the 1960's: We have different priorities and different realities now.
Every game I tried under Cedega worked. City of Heroes was probably the most graphically intense, and it ran a little better for me under Cedega than under windows, oddly enough.
The only thing I dislike about Cedega is the licensing issue - ultimately, that's why I stopped using it.
I remember when Apple first chose Intel over AMD and people were screeching that they were stupid to do so because AMD chips at the time were far superior. Jobs had said something about seeing what Intel had coming up - and I have to say, for Apple's purposes and needs (fast chips, abundant supply) the Intel switch was the exact right idea. Had they gone with AMD, they'd have the lesser (at this point) of two options for their desktop/portables and possibly some supply concerns. I love AMD stuff, but they are not the production powerhouse that Intel is, and their current offerings for desktop/portables don't really touch the new Intel stuff.
As for their lack of neutrality - they can't be neutral because of the differences between AMD and Intel optimizations etc. Yeah, they're both x86, but Apple likes to be able to know EXACTLY what they're shooting for, hardware-wise, and to integrate hardware and software as fully as possible to make their stuff "just work." I'm sure they *could* handle using either Intel or AMD stuff, but there would be more overhead, and I am sure that, due to the exclusivity, they're getting a little extra help from Intel when it comes to optimizing OSX & other applications.
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There should be a "3) Things that are logically impossible to prove, and therefore should be considered outside of the domain of science."
Science is great - incredibly great - but only when applied to areas that are amenable to a scientific approach.
Trying to apply science to humanistic questions - questions that are so far outside of the boundaries of scientific-methodology that they can't even be expressed in concrete fashion - would be folly.
I'm not a religious person by any means, but I do recognize that there are humanistic questions that are every bit as important as the scientific ones, and that require different approaches.
Really? Because from what I can see, science has absolutely nothing to say one way or the other on the question of whether god/gods exist.
Science talks about the "how" of things, Faith is about the "why." They aren't at odds except when people try to misuse them. And that happens on both sides.
I know "scientists" who think that evolution disproves God - huh? Evolution has nothing to do with god, unless one takes an incredibly limited and literal interpretation of events normally attributed to god.
Mind you, I'm an apatheist - there may or may not be a god or gods, but I don't particularly care. But that doesn't prevent me from appreciating the genuine arguments from both scientific and faith camps.
You mean to say "some MMO gamers" want those things, I'm sure.
I'm an MMO gamer and I don't really give a shit about those particular issues.
I want:
Cooperative play that rewards good teamwork, and where the outcome of a fight is in doubt right up until the end.
Multiple ways to achieve a goal or quest. Maybe I can just charge in and whack some Lieutenant Dorkmeir to get the Symbol of Snazziness. Or maybe I can sneak in, pick his pocket and take off without a fight. Maybe I can walk in and simply persuade him to give it up. Maybe I can not bother with any of that and simply forge one and turn that in to the quest giver.
Some kind of game-world change to reflect accomplishments - even if it's just NPC's greeting you by saying "Oh, it's Kimmie the Dragonslayer!" Atmospheric type stuff.
An "interesting" economy - player driven and with interesting things to do. Maybe a future's market for crafting ingredients and so on (which there kind of is now, but I mean something official). I really liked many aspects of SWG's economic game (despite the rest of the game being incredibly simple and easy)
That's what *I* want. I wouldn't presume to speak for all MMO gamers - you clearly want something different.
I wouldn't mind rep grinds for good gear - a person can spend an hour or less at a time farming, rather than having to spend 4-5 hours at a shot (or more) raiding.
I'm lucky - in my guild, we don't have any "forced attendance" or bullshit like that, and it's cool that I make a raid maybe every other weekend - but I like this idea too. There should be multiple paths for players to take, ones that accomodate everyone's play-style.
I live in Illinois - I didn't vote for Blago, nor did any of the candidates I voted for have anything to do with this stupid law (how do I know? Every single one of them lost!) - remember, it's not just the "fools" who voted for someone who're paying, but everyone who did their best to keep schmucks like that out of office.
Forget making the voters pay for it - they voted for the guy, but once he's in office they have no real control over him until election day. I say make the person/people who author a bill that's ultimately found to be unconstitutional pay for half of the costs and split up the other half among the assholes who voted it into law. Make 'em pay out of their own pockets - clearly upholding the constitution isn't important to them, but maybe not having to shell out thousands of dollars is.
I definitely agree with you that porn is not a "complete" picture of sexuality by any stretch. There are many vectors to approach sex ed. from. I was just addressing this one specific aspect since the question was "Would I let kids buy porn, and if so, why?"
About the burden on retailers:
Why should a retailer have to shoulder the burden because some people don't want their kids exposed to porn? Should a convenience store be required to call a kid's parents and ask if it's okay for Little Johnny to buy a chocolate bar if the parents might not want the kid eating candy? Should McDonald's demand proof that a kid isn't being raised vegan before serving up a (barf!) McRib?
One might say that those things are different than porn, and one would be right: it has been *proven* that unhealthy eating habits can cause harm to kids, while there is no such proof that viewing pornography has any negative effect what-so-ever.
So, if the goal is "make kids feel that sex is something dirty and naughty" then restricting the stuff like it's radioactive makes sense. But if the goal is "protecting kids from things that are harmful" then it makes no sense at all - in fact might be a negative to that goal - and efforts should be focused on things that have been proven to actually hurt kids, no?
My inbox is gmail.
If I spend 1 minute organizing things, that is a wasted minute - I can easily find exactly what I'm looking for with the search. I have one account for personal email and another for work/school related email. I have about 3k work/school emails and probably twice that number of personal emails saved up - and it never takes me more than 10-15 seconds to find something if I need it. So what benefit would expending any energy at all on organization beyond what I do (not doing anything at all, other than reading/responding appropriately) provide?
Now I'm in school again. I'm taking 6 classes this upcoming semester, all but one of them will have pretty hefty reading, writing and research requirements. My approach to school is similar to my approach to email: I'm lazy as hell. I have a tablet pc, I write my notes on it, convert my scribbles to handwriting, and then use keyword searches later on when I need to look something up. What's very interesting is that I've found a lot of serendipitous connections between things I'm learning that I might not really have noticed had I taken a more structured approach to taking notes and so on. I've never missed an assignment, never had an "oh shit!" moment where I forgot a test was coming. What I do is a few seconds every evening searching for "test" and "paper due" and then put any relevant results into my calendaring software.
For me, the minimalist approach works. For someone else, maybe they need all kinds of structures in place to be able to get work done. No one method will work for all people, however - I know that I am MUCH less efficient if I attempt to use a system beyond "whatever is easiest at the time" I become really bogged down in pointless minutae. But, when I go with what is simplest for me, life is good.
There's a difference between a violent video game and cigarettes/alcohol - tobacco and alcohol have been proven to have detrimental effects on a person's health, especially a growing person, while there is no such proven link between violent video games/movies/porn and poor behavior. Kids are also generally less capable than adults of making wise choices when it comes to that stuff, and are more susceptable to pressure in many cases - so keeping PROVEN harmful substances out of their hands makes sense.
As for the other materials:
Do I think children should be able to buy porn? Sure - why not? Kids are gonna get their hands on it anyway - whether from the net or other friends - and I think that it being freely available will make exploring sexuality less stimatizing. Keeping it locked away from curious eyes doesn't keep kids from finding it, doesn't keep them from having sex if they want, and seems to just be a pointless burden for retailers.
Violent movies and so on? Sure - again, why not? They're going to see them anyway. Parents CANNOT watch their kids 24/7 (and even if they could, that would be remarkably unhealthy). It's better that a kid have the kind of relationship with there parents where they can say "Hey, mom - I wanna see Hyper-violent Ninja Movie X" and the parent either goes with them, or is able to discuss it with them so they process it as needed.
Putting restrictions on things like this doesn't really help anyone, and seems to be a waste of resources.
Things like a crisis situation or something completely out of the ordinary can be handled by having a number an employee can contact - or by having certain "extraordinary circumstances" modes that the system can be tripped into.
With regard to the supply checking issues - actually, I would trust the minimum-wage fry-cook because things not being in good order will make his life more difficult.
Honestly, I think much of the reason staff at these places are so bad is because they're micro-managed. Give them a little more leeway in how they get things done while simultaneously making them more accountable, and it would not surprise me a bit if they did a better job. (More accountable: having regional managers/inspectors who don't play favorites, and could give a shit about the "politics" at one store = employees getting a lot less slack when they don't do their jobs)
It isn't that it's so difficult - it's that it's so easy. Fast food restaurants are pretty predictable environments for many of the tasks of a manager: Scheduling worker's shifts, determining how much of what needs to be cooked when, organizing inventory, etc. A simple program using a bit of historical data would be able to handle much of that, while an intelligent inventory management system can handle the rest.
For things that a computer cannot handle, such as dispute resolution or angry customers - a change in policy allowing employees a bit more latitude in handling customer complaints or a centralized number for disgruntled customers to contact would handle quite a bit. For disputes, a single trained mediator could handle disputes arising across a wide region. To keep employees from slacking off too much, random inspections (but at least once a week) could be done - someone goes into a place and spends an hour going over a checklist.
From an expense standpoint, this would also be cheaper - no manager salaries, no assistant manager salaries. From an employee standpoint, this would be a win: service employees would be able to take a more direct approach to handling customer issues, and would need to spend less time dealing with stupid dictator manager-guy at what is already a shit job.
Personally, I think this is exactly the kind of place to do this.
What makes gaming for that length of time any different than doing any other activity for 4-5 hours?
I spend 4-5 hours every other weekend going to the movies or a play (well, lunch and movies, or dinner after a show) - does that raise an eyebrow? I might spend 4-5 hours every other Friday going out with friends to chat and drink - is that questionable? I spent 4-5 hours last Sunday at WizardWorld wandering around and talking comix with people - what about that? Tonight I'm probably going to spend 4-5 hours with some friends playing table-top games, and on Thursday I have 4-5 hours that I'll be spending at art classes and working on clay. Yesterday I spent 4-5 hours in the evening reading, and this Friday night I think I'll probably spend 4-5 hours playing video games (WoW if there's a raid, Civ4 if there isn't). Now, maybe sometimes I spend as few as 3 hours doing any of the above mentioned things, or, on occasion I'll go hog-wild and spend a decadent 6 hours, but generally, my attention span for a single voluntary activity is about 4-5 hours.
Heck, back before I returned to school, I would spend 8-10 hours a day coding or doing design, sometimes up to 12 or 14 if it was crunch time, pretty much 5-6 days a week. Every week, for 48-50 weeks in a row, repeating over and over, for about 10 years. Now THAT was really unbalanced! And now that I'm in school? I spend 4-5 hours a day sitting on a really uncomfortable chair, listening to a series of really poor public speakers drone on and on and on and on and on and on about various subjects. Or, some days, I spend 4-5 hours practicing interviewing and testing techniques. On occasion I'll spend 10-16 hours writing, or researching, or studying.
Some of those activities are about as interactive as watching grass grow - sitting in a darkened theater watching LOTR, eating ridiculously unhealthy snacks and hearing mumbles of nerd-rage is a hell of a lot less stimulating than sitting in a well lit den, chatting with people via ventrillo while working out a strategy for beating the crap out of some dragon and making dopey in-jokes.
I guess my point is, you're saying "Gee, 4-5 hours gaming in one go sure seems like a long time..." but the fact is, compared to many other activities people do, it isn't. And, IMO it'd only be unhealthy if it was 4-5 hours gaming in one go, repeatedly and to the point where it was making it impossible to engage in other activities.
It would probably be more correct to say that one can't experience 100% of the game's content without spending a few long sessions on occasion.
I routinely play for less than an hour at a shot. On weekends, if I've nothing else to do, I'll join a raid. Figure 2-3 hours (total) during the weekdays and maybe 4-5 hours in one shot, every other weekend. That's hardly addict level play.
Yet, I've gone through everything up to BWL (and might be doing that this weekend), I'm decently geared, and I don't have anyone pitching a fit at me because I couldn't attend a raid or have to go deal with Real Life.
Of course, one huge factor is that I'm in a guild with people who are all mature - they know that the real world is important, they have perspective on things and are aware that this is just a game, and we aggressively kick out anyone who even hints that they're about to have a hissy-fit over a piece of gear. We don't progress as quickly as everyone else, we don't have all the purples that other guilds might have, but we genuinely have a good time hanging out with each other when we do play, and that's what counts.
A friend and I were wandering through a video store, looking for something to rent. We walked past "Bend it like Beckham" and this one woman said "This must be important: it's English!" I think I peed a little, laughing.
"High-brow" and "really fucking expensive" do not go together.
Tacky shit, even really fucking expensive tacky shit, is not high-brow. High-brow is a culture/education thing, not a class/economic thing. While many wealthy people might like to think that money = sophistication, this obviously isn't the case.
Paris Hilton may be high maintenance or just high, but she is by no means high-brow.
Bingo.
It's like those people who say "*I* don't own a tv" as if that somehow elevates them. Those people seem to be so stuck in the mode of being elitist pricks about the big-bad TV that they're completely unaware that *gasp* there is some pretty good stuff around. It's not all Saved By the Bell: Just Fucking Kill Us Already.
What I don't get are all these style/design criticisms about machines announced at a DEVELOPER conference.
While certainly a large part of Apple stuff is the design, I don't honestly see the developer audience saying "Okay, the specs are nice, but... It's not PRETTY enough to handle my development work."
Release the heavy-duty stuff at developer conferences, and release the pretty stuff at consumer oriented shows - makes sense to me.
Unless they do something obvious like give it a "plane mode" that turns off all phone functionality.
Sorry, that was rude of me. Please forget my previous post.
It is just a matter of plugging your iPod into your computer - iTunes does all the rest. If it doesn't do it automatically, check your preferences - make it sync video and music.
This is informative? He can't figure out how to use an iPod, for fuck's sake...
Let's make it even more scary...
RandomTotaliarianGovernmentX declares that avowing oneself - publically - to be a homosexual is a crime.
American goes on craigslist and says he wants to hook up for some play. Some girl decides she wants to try her hand with another girl.
Enter the US State Dept. which contacts RTGX and says "Hey, you know how we have those sanctions on you? We'll drop 'em if you agree to insist that we extradite all the publically avowed homosexuals to you..."
Think it's crazy? They cane you for spitting in Singapore...
Damn right I'd be cheering. I'd MUCH rather have two gigantic and deep pocketed corporations fighting each other as opposed to working together to fuck me.
Not to sound like a troll, but if this is the attitude at NASA, I'll be surprised if you manage to launch the next space shuttle. If you said something like that in the sixties, you'd have probably been fired.
And if you'd said "I'm a communist" back then, you'd have been beaten or jailed or both. This isn't the 1960's: We have different priorities and different realities now.
Every game I tried under Cedega worked. City of Heroes was probably the most graphically intense, and it ran a little better for me under Cedega than under windows, oddly enough.
The only thing I dislike about Cedega is the licensing issue - ultimately, that's why I stopped using it.
Huntsville can be an odd place sometimes; mixing rocket scientists and rednecks has interesting results.
I now can't help but imagine Von Braun after he'd been acculturated to the south...
"Achtung! Achtung! Holden sie mein Bier und vatch dis!"
I remember when Apple first chose Intel over AMD and people were screeching that they were stupid to do so because AMD chips at the time were far superior. Jobs had said something about seeing what Intel had coming up - and I have to say, for Apple's purposes and needs (fast chips, abundant supply) the Intel switch was the exact right idea. Had they gone with AMD, they'd have the lesser (at this point) of two options for their desktop/portables and possibly some supply concerns. I love AMD stuff, but they are not the production powerhouse that Intel is, and their current offerings for desktop/portables don't really touch the new Intel stuff.
As for their lack of neutrality - they can't be neutral because of the differences between AMD and Intel optimizations etc. Yeah, they're both x86, but Apple likes to be able to know EXACTLY what they're shooting for, hardware-wise, and to integrate hardware and software as fully as possible to make their stuff "just work." I'm sure they *could* handle using either Intel or AMD stuff, but there would be more overhead, and I am sure that, due to the exclusivity, they're getting a little extra help from Intel when it comes to optimizing OSX & other applications.