"(Spanish Slashdot) has outed two TV stations in Spain..."
How on Earth can two television stations be of homosexual leanings? Also since when was the Spanish Slashdot site an authority on these things? Guess those Spanish speaking nerds just know something we all don't...:)
Quite surprised at the small but concerted amount of people mentioning how flawed the IQ principle test is. Take Gauguin for instance - a genius artist if you ask a lot of persons; and to most he is at least decent...his intelligence was average and he doesn't look particularly enlightened either. However this guy made some brilliant works all from his own "average" mind. So was he just a dude off the street with some talent and enough independence - or was he this plus possessive of a special kind of cleverness?
Also - a funny constant you get when you watch televised IQ programs at least here in the UK is that those who score best overall with 160 or whichever for one thing sound ordinary and boring, like any normal person in the office; plus some of them mention doing these tests as a habit. So how much of the IQ tests mechanisms and questioning can be learnt? Say I sat down and practiced, in a few months I may have raised my IQ ten points and be able to get into whatever high IQ organization likes this stuff, pay a fee for the sake of pride, and go to boring meetings.
In the end its good, old fashioned wisdom that counts over a high IQ or cleverness etc - sooner be a wise man of average intelligence than a brainy guy who is a fool; being wise enough to switch off the TV, read the best books, avoid most films, avoid crappy conflicts, stand up for yourself and not be coerced etc. How about monks in Tibet? They couldn't give jack for their own alleged "intelligence" as a method for ego-stroking; and according to surveys they're amongst the most fulfilled people on Earth.
If you want to know the pretensions of academia, which is partly responsible for the rise of the IQ test from its anti-immigrant origins, read Politics and the English Language by George Orwell; this sort of language goes on to this day in academic papers the world over. Orwell.ru is a great site - not that this is a straw man; but we in the West are amongst the most ego-inflated, pretentious, anxious to seem bright on the globe. Whether it be the pecking order, pandering to people above or below, or just a trained and ingrained crappy nature - people love to seem bright. Recall the Tao te Ching: "Who exalts himself is humbled, he who humbles himself is exalted." - people should quit this crap and show themselves through acheivement and character, AND not boast about it; not some shitty number and how they're a member of this or that.
"I returned and saw under the nuclear winter, that the nukes are not to the wise, nor the silos to the rich, nor the bunkers to the smart, nor testing areas to the islanders; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
But Blizzard did in fact beat out Duke Nukem Forever. Now taking bets on Diablo 3.
Or be it Diablo Zero - recall that at the end of the Diablo II expansion Lords of Destruction every last evil God had been obliterated by the player character & his/her allies. Now save some occult-type ressurection occurence in the depths of Gehennom/Hell or what you will my own view is that a prequel called Diablo Zero or something like that could be designed. Since there isn't much of a time lapse between Diablo I and it's sequel, equally so the game could be set just a decade or so in the past with the same medieval technology.
-
Of course, we have to hope that the Sorceress/Barbarian bias in class choice will not be as pronounced; how many of us Diablo II players have enjoyed a successful Cold-magic based Sorceress? Or for that matter a Fire or (less so here due to damage range) Thunder sorc? Would wager on many, many persons. As for the Barbarian; the past-master of PvP combat - not only the battle cries but the Jump ability, weapons, etc and more. The necromancer class would lose it's effectiveness by Nightmare mode unless one was exceptionally talented at skill choice - recall their physical weakness. Skel/Skel mage hoards decimated in seconds - and without corpses? Well then you, my friend, are royally screwed. Duriel wise I could not see how a Necro could surpass her without major support from other classes.
So yeah my bets are on a prequel here, with each of the Gods either being "injured" somehow and merely driven to another part of the world - leading to an "exile" of sorts to the regions we see in I/II and thereby the corruption of certain areas such as the monestary, by the Gods or their evil minions.
It when we combine both schools then we have a fine career ahead of us. Always head for leisurely work early on; internships, job letters, accent allignment and such. Thus, we can circumvent the bad experiences post-9 to 5 labour!
I have a relatively simple, but vital question for Billy:
Way back when Futurama began in 1999, did the creators and producers specify fairly specifically how they wanted your various parts to sound? Or did you maintain a relative degree of autonomy when coming up with all the great voices we know and love?
Can't wait for the new episodes; if they are nearly as good as the 3rd and 4th seasons we'll all be grateful. The simple, sardonic humor and geek references can draw on so many new phenomena of the past three years. Let's hope the cynicism is utterly dispeled and that Futurama hasn't even thought about the shark, let alone jumped it as some persons say.
Fortunately I live in a habitancy that lacks such a tax - simply make obvious misspellings or omissions and some will appear; you will have to wait awhile before putting it back on (Ie. When there is a supply shortage and after you've had a decent playthrough) but it is entirely possible to profit from it. As mentioned it only really works with older games - games which aren't in massive demand; but rather are hankered after by a niche of old schoolers. The profit margins are relatively low (40-80%) but in any case it is a good feedback builder!
There is some competition too - so getting disheartened is easy, which is why aiming for older titles has a better likelihood of success. Unless one starts a videogame vendor it is hard to profit from newer titles at all through misspellings. I once came across an awfully advertised PSP cart of Tiger Woods 06' and it practically reached the same value as a perfectly advertised cart. Thus; it requires persistance - and can't be relied upon for any cogent income; it is a useful and telling hobby if anything.:)
"Rational thought" per se is related to the economic concept of "perfect information" - that is, that all firms and consumers would be aware of the best deals and the best prices to set based on market conditions and so forth. Unfortunately, perfect information and knowledge at either end is lacking in practically every market - thus, people are overcharged/undercharged more of the time.
Ebay does address matters somewhat by listing lots in a plain and cogent fashion - however you still have multitudes of misspelled, badly titled lots that we astute folks can take advantage of. I sometimes profit from reselling old video games which are advertised badly - this is taking advantage of "imperfect information" and knowledge. So yes, in the end something of a frivalous and obvious concept; but it does seem we are moving closer to the scenario of perfect information via Kelkoo, Froogle and the Internet itself as a purchasing/selling phenomena.
"With regard to the last two paragraphs of your post, my position is that you apply what I've said far too broadly. As usual, it is an all-or-nothing proposition: rationality in all things or in no things is implied to be the complete set of possible states. I argue that rationality is misplaced in any discussion of spiritual health. I make no argument as to the deployment of rationality, for example, in physics problems or the construction of space elevators. Indeed, those are the sorts of things that enlightenment-era thinking has done very well."
Of course; though the word "Compassion" as a post would likely be modded OT within seconds.;) Yes - I applied your principles broadly in the sense that compassion is a wide reaching phenomena that begs to be discussed. My reasons for rambling slightly regards faith were for demonstration purposes. The "new age" is simply too broad a definition now; rational discussion cannot last around it, hence the simple request for clarification on general principle. An interesting study which wouldn't particularly belond here would be an investigation on where these phonies tagged along in chronological terms - we could stretch back that assertion for millenia to those who stalked Socrates and other Greek philosophers in an attempt of finding "meaning" of it all.
So who knows; in the end I'd disagree with your compassion due to its unworkable nature in a competitive world. Call it passive-aggression or conservatism or any -ism; in the end it is down to individual belief, and it is bemusing to see how cynicism plagues us both yet we perservere. Tagging on world phenomena here is fruitless, though we've had a fair discussion and compared worldview which is always fun.
"Yes, and I also want to be there for them when they don't deserve it. The more of us there are, the more likely that we will meet others of the same ilk and if everyone is willing to make the compromise, everyone will have real friends. That is the point of my post, absolutely.
Yes, yes, "Cum-Ba-Ya" and all that shit.
It's very subtle for Americans, somehow. But that's it, in a nutshell. Sounds simple, but it's really rare right now."
Thus; we arrive at simple socialistic hedonism in its purest sense. What about people who prefer to be alone? Don't they fit into this equation? Do we all have to be smiling and friendly until we happen across our true friends? Do we dispense with all those who wish to opt out of this extroverted "Old England" utopia - no, we do not do any of these things as it is simple idealism.
I don't know about you; but I and a fair measure of my own friends get more pleasure out of life merely by being alone, reading much - the existence of modern introversion in the intellectual sense goes against your hypothesis of friendship. At bottom my friend you are no more than a dreamer who occansionally conjures and defends his own vivid fantasies. But hey I am not knocking you - we all want the world to be better; in some peoples' eyes "better" would merely be quiet, calm and unobtrusive as opposed to socializing and economic restriction on the grand scale.
As to subtlety: well it isn't too subtle at all. Life goes on - and we are in the unfortunate positions of being in different locales and of differing social groupings. So in the end we return to the previous point; that the world is in the eye of the beholder - as strictly speaking while being dividable we are all of different opinion regards the social situation today.
"Or at least, no-one has thus far succeeded in any commonly accepted way."
Can something be commonly accepted? 'Commonly accepted' would mean applying a principle or doctrine to the wider community. By mere glance of society at large we observe that unless this doctrine is applied vigorously from early age or after a life crisis (as in religion for instance) then it shan't stick. Even if it did cement itself on soceity; we would get situations like this once more - persons defend concept, before coming to a conclusion that everyone has a difficult view; and then the entire process of societal doctrine versus open ended article begins again. We also, by proxy have a large number of largely accepting followers eitherside who do little more than exercebate a difficult question with clumsy polemic and kneejerk reaction (Religious right/left) - which, at a deep level, is the source of some of our problems.
Were we to apply life principles to the select few then a different story emerges - take philosophers for instance. Some, such as Socrates or Kant construct an entire life's philosophy and roughly adhere to it until death. Now, philosophers are far from ordinary - and have a following amongst academia and are over-intrepreted; we return to your concept of over-education, however I disagree with this phenomena as it is limited. Today, the eras of philosophy are respected and incorporated decently; rather than extrapolited in bad fashion - good philosophers and students avoid this trap. Here we could say that it is merely due to say...shortening attention spans and/or alcohol or drug consumption come time of education; but people do generally become wiser and learned from higher education.
Clarify this; you believe passionately that life is such a randomized, rich and eclectic experience for folks such as ourselves and that (for our masses) set principles do not work? Would you agree that for a select few, a well intepreted individualistic take on life would work for them and close followers?
Which is where I reach my point, and your point to an as yet unclear extent: "self-sacrifice in the interest of making others happier". You have basically arrived at the concept of compassion; something recognised by all of our aforementioned faith systems to some extent. In the purest sense Buddhism alludes to this principle; especially the myth texts which detail enlightenment attained when one say...cleans a rotting dog from the side of a road who thereafter becomes a Buddha incarnation and so forth. Thus, again I request definition - these "sappy new agers"; who are they? Your arguments seem distinctly Buddhist/Hindu in flavour; and yet you have condemned the 'new age' who embraced said philosophy?
I find it faintly ironic that you make the case against logic and reason as a strictly adhered principle on a board which applies both of our "schools" in equal measure - with much passion thrown in for good measure. Thus; a sober conclusion could only be made in the eye of the beholder - to quantify Slashdot with logical principle and indeed the cost benefit principle is pragmatic. And so, your assertion that most would agree is fallacious in the sense that every time we apply logic in terms of result potential in say....work, school or even Slashdot posting we essentially go against your principles. So again clarification - you apply these Buddhistic principles in a play by ear sense? Or would you rather see your ideological stance imposed on relationship terms and kept in key fields of say...business, economics, politics and statistical survey?
So in the end I feel it is sensical to equate your non-chalance to that of a member of an eastern faith - you see globalization and business as a conclusion foregone; but would like everyone to drop the consumption function. So in the end we arrive at the flat field of left wing politics - again I express bafflement at the fact you basically are going against the mould of modern times; but that is just pandering to the cynicism. We'd like your existance; it is seen to some extent in Star Trek or even socialist states - so again; will you define and be coaxed into any solution? Or would you opt for asceticism and mere conversation as a piecemeal solution?
Fluffy commentary my good man; and worthy of a column in a local newspaper. However like said columns it is more a sophisticated whine - with petty vague solutions stretched in meticulous fashion to fit everybody.
Well here's the news: "Everybody" cannot be cohengently administered or instructed to change their lives; not "everybody" can swallow their pride and simply attempt to negate this implied "greed" culture of which you speak; some people are naturally ostentatious and extroverted - others, not so much:
"This mentality of "everything has a price and can be calculated as a cost-benefit" has already ruled American material life for years and led to a kind of spiritual bankruptcy that leads to cults, sappy new-ageism, under/overeducation, and other strange social pathologies and now it is polluting our social lives as well."
Really? What is your philosophical alternative then - that is, assuming you had one when you typed this fuzzy diatribe? It is really so ubiquitous across society? You criticize materialism; and accuse consumerism of breeding nefarious organizations and fail to back it up with hard facts or evidence. Prose like this is lapped up by your own condemned "sappy new agers" - it is attacking but in such a morosely vague way that refuting it is hardly worth the bother.
It is like a troll but without the subdued malice; has the same characteristics of a good troll: The sensical if somewhat fallacious criticisms; the broad assertions and lastly the botched solutions - few would doubt you meant well by this post and simply wanted to make a point; as said it'd be good in some publications. However you cannot make baseless accusations of an entire phenomena and imply causation of all the awful phenomena. I eagerly await a non-hostile, civil response which cogently argues your points beyond the tragedian confines of your current mind; find evidence and make us all believe what you say has some reality behind it.
A closing point; people like you worsen this problem - it is through these pseudo-intelectual rants that Slashdot's cynicism has been refined to a point where it has a sophisty about it. It is more simplistically pleasing to read/. today merely due to this evolution. If persons like yourself stopped writing this then perhaps the world would be a better place? How about thinking more about the consequences of your own actions as opposed to wailing about the crying shame that our postmodern world is in those watery eyes of yours? This is not a flame; nor a troll - back in University they called this a fair rebuke.
Driving the Dodge Viper in NFS down the desert track was as great experience then in early 3D as it likely is now in an Arizona desert. It all felt so "real" - car rendering was, and is, leagues ahead of other fields in terms of 3D. It was oddly new back then - with all the racing sequels we get today the magic has faded slightly; but nothing beats cruising your Lexus, Porsche or Chevy Corvette at 250km/h past the opposition!;)
The Voodoo series is oft-underrated in its adeptness at bringing 3D graphics to the forefront of home PC gaming; this was before Nvidia really took hold, and ATI was relatively distant in terms of market share. Though there is still a core community of fans - somebody linked a story here from Slashdot after Doom 3's release about a guy who downgraded the game to the point where it could run smoothly on two Voodoo cards; a decent accomplishment.
Then 3DFX came out with their Voodoo card which could run GLQuake and 3D gaming was never the same.
True - it is strange really; from the 1998-2000 era it is hard to recall individual fascinations post-initial 3D situation. It is mainly the small details that capture the mind; things such as flame effects; water in pixelated droplets from Lara Croft post-swim; the sky backgrounds of Counter-Strike and Quake III; the intuitive low polygon rendering of varying terrain fixtures - TR II's take on Venice (as in Venice, Italy not the AMD CPU) springs to mind. Freeman's crowbar; headcrabs; massive scripted explosions and well coded military AIs.
It was all a process of easing in - 3D was originally unspectacular except in some cases; of Duke Nukem 3D and it's tongue in cheek flashiness, Wing Commander IV's ambitious filmed sequencing; Blade Runner's haunting atmosphere etc. It was only later that the many perfectionist quirks were additioned - it has become something of a fond familiarity now, what with the tiny details applied to TES and Star Wars canon; small items strewn across environments and so on.
In 2016 when Quake hits 20, no doubt we'll all be playing near-unimaginably dazzling games and recalling the now-quiant factors observed in TES Oblivion or in RTS games like Civ 4.
Absolutely; apologies for that mistake. An intriguing aspect of Quake I is the sprites - they are crafted in full 3D, and it appears ID put much emphasis and precedant on the said sprites. There was a truly fearful air about the chainsaw wielding ogre and the eerily groaning zombies - something which intrigued me for a long time (longer than pre-TES Oblivion nearby details in terms of terrain quirks and items) were the hanging corpses from the walls.
These instiled a macabre fascination - especially when they twitched in grotesque fashion. We can see an evolution of this process in more modern games like the Call of Duty or TES IV - each take the 3D sprite models and elevate to a level where the player is forced to take note. GPUs are of course necessary to truly reap the effects beyond the older Quake series but it is a hugely important part of gameplay today.
Who didn't get a kick when your first zombie in Oblivion flew back into the air immolated after being fireballed? Or when a similar enemy was flung to the ground by a well aimed arrow?;)
Classic quotes
on
Quake is 10
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Some quotes for our own amusement and wistful recollection:);
"Still have 486? Get a Pentium immediately!"
"I have a 486 Dx2/80 with a Diamond Stealth 64 2120 video card and I get 6.2 fps in the start."
"Am I the only person who just can't/stand/ things like heretic/duke's look up/down?"
"Well over 30+ fps at start of Duke3d ? Thats top DX4-100 speed....actually I haven't seen a DX4-100 that tops 28."
"There's an option, r_fullbright (1/0) which turns off all lighting effects and speeds up the FPS tremendously."
Those were the days - further I can recall back to is the Voodoo 2, anyone have any further fond memories of the mid 1990s GPU situation?
To add to this, as an editor of Wikipedia for well over a year now it is always a pleasent surprise how many non-registered users simply commence to fix typos, improve grammar or language wording and so forth.
We may be a destructive species, but we are also very constructive; if Wikipedia is such a great target for destruction, wouldn't the core community of trolls and generally disruptive persons have had more victories by now? You imply that the encyclopedia is teetering on the brink; with a growing team of dedicated persons and articles improving rapidly it is a struggle to see a logical basis for that particular assertion.
"That text was, IIRC, by Socrates, waaaay back in the ancient times."
You are recalling the opening Book of Plato's Republic - one of the earliest and most refined examples of political thought yet written. It is very amusing hearing Socrates and Cephalus (an elderly greek gentleman) speaking of the youth in Plato's narration - nearly 2,500 years later these very sentiments are echoed. It is in these passages we realize that the human condition, while altered, keeps part of its generic style - the elderly criticizing the youth. Socrates himself does not partake in the conversation - rather he hears of it from Cephalus; Socrates has a strange way of making one think he agrees with them - before hitting back. He would have been a supreme lawyer, one only need read Plato's "Apology" which actually features Socrates in the courtroom.
There is even a concept in business regarding the marketing of products. Those so behind with the times to the point of outright refusing to recognise and thus use new technology (in the form of a firm's goods) are deemed "Laggards" - the very last to adapt. Some of "Laggards" would just about be buying a second hand mobile phone now, many wouldn't have one at all, ever. They are the opposite of the "Early adopters" - they who MUST have new technology as soon as it is available (the rich geek type many of us resent, for obvious reasons.)
You sir, ought to be modded redundant. Before you make ridiculous assertions that the legalize marijuana movement ended during the 1970s, I suggest actually reading the Wikipedia article; The legal issues of cannabis. If continual progress each and every month equates to failure in your mind, then I'm sorry but you need to revise your thought processes somewhat. Even in the U.S. at the state level, authorities are seeing the light and legalizing cannabis in small quantities - full legalization is on the way, whether it'll take 2, 5, 10, 20 or 50 years it will undoubtedly arrive.
On topic, the supposed "end" of the Pirate Bay doesn't herald the end of BitTorrent - infact this will merely boost the cause of those hosting the site. Once the Swedish authorities wake up and realize PB has done nothing wrong, then the true campaign to relinquish all copyright law can truly begin.
If this, a raid involving 50 officers, can happen in Sweden, a usually progressive, efficient and liberal nation - what would happen in more authoritarian nations? The sooner as these ridiculous, oligopoly-serving laws are erased from statute books worldwide, the better.
Indeed, there are regional price elasticities in existence in every price point. One economic theorist referred to the phenomena as the "kinked demand" curve - the demand curve is bizarrely curved in these situations. Bear in mind the videogame market is oligopolistic - just a few dominant manufactuers; Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo. Thus, over time consumers have adapted to the pricing process. We expect prices to be reasonable and we're VERY concerned about even the smallest of margins - you can see right here in this topic: $249 or $199?! Luckily for Nintendo, the falling cost of electronics manufacture has exceeded the rate of inflation in Western nations and Japan itself, thus profit on the console unit will occur regardless.
Therefore, the Wii itself may be $200 still - hence a robust demand, and strong demand from cross elastic products such as er....games and the DVD enhancement, extra pads - even Gamecube controllers. The situation looks good for Nintendo eitherway - though on balance $199 seems the better option than $249, as it is certain Nintendo will be able to force down manufacture costs further. We can only hope the traditional sturdyness of their equipment remains.
The more "perfect competition" orientated PC game market however, did not express this elasticity phenomena quite so starkly until recently, with the rise of EA/Ubi Soft making the market oligopolistic - but thats a different argument altogether.
The candid Japanese. Honour takes precedant above all else over there my good man; and taking an opportunity to add to the gargantuan amount of criticism against Sony is not an honourable practice. Iwata knows gamer's are dismayed by Sony; he knows BIZ want him to bash Sony with fervour; but he will not.
Such as it is: Iwata, and all of Nintendo Japan will hold their national traditions and quirks. The only persons from Nintendo you'll hear actively bashing Sony will be execs from Euroland/the U.S.
I personally was surprised the DS Lite official price is £100 - I was expecting more along the lines of £120. If Nintendo are willing to price a handheld at this level, then who knows - the Wii may be merely £130 - £150. In which case, hooray!:)
Slashdot Mirror
Hold the phone here...
"(Spanish Slashdot) has outed two TV stations in Spain..."
How on Earth can two television stations be of homosexual leanings? Also since when was the Spanish Slashdot site an authority on these things? Guess those Spanish speaking nerds just know something we all don't...:)
Quite surprised at the small but concerted amount of people mentioning how flawed the IQ principle test is. Take Gauguin for instance - a genius artist if you ask a lot of persons; and to most he is at least decent...his intelligence was average and he doesn't look particularly enlightened either. However this guy made some brilliant works all from his own "average" mind. So was he just a dude off the street with some talent and enough independence - or was he this plus possessive of a special kind of cleverness?
Also - a funny constant you get when you watch televised IQ programs at least here in the UK is that those who score best overall with 160 or whichever for one thing sound ordinary and boring, like any normal person in the office; plus some of them mention doing these tests as a habit. So how much of the IQ tests mechanisms and questioning can be learnt? Say I sat down and practiced, in a few months I may have raised my IQ ten points and be able to get into whatever high IQ organization likes this stuff, pay a fee for the sake of pride, and go to boring meetings.
In the end its good, old fashioned wisdom that counts over a high IQ or cleverness etc - sooner be a wise man of average intelligence than a brainy guy who is a fool; being wise enough to switch off the TV, read the best books, avoid most films, avoid crappy conflicts, stand up for yourself and not be coerced etc. How about monks in Tibet? They couldn't give jack for their own alleged "intelligence" as a method for ego-stroking; and according to surveys they're amongst the most fulfilled people on Earth.
If you want to know the pretensions of academia, which is partly responsible for the rise of the IQ test from its anti-immigrant origins, read Politics and the English Language by George Orwell; this sort of language goes on to this day in academic papers the world over. Orwell.ru is a great site - not that this is a straw man; but we in the West are amongst the most ego-inflated, pretentious, anxious to seem bright on the globe. Whether it be the pecking order, pandering to people above or below, or just a trained and ingrained crappy nature - people love to seem bright. Recall the Tao te Ching: "Who exalts himself is humbled, he who humbles himself is exalted." - people should quit this crap and show themselves through acheivement and character, AND not boast about it; not some shitty number and how they're a member of this or that.
Ecclesiastes battle!
"I returned and saw under the nuclear winter, that the nukes are not to the wise, nor the silos to the rich, nor the bunkers to the smart, nor testing areas to the islanders; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
I wouldn't go for McCain - word is he left all his campaign song CDs in A rack; surefire loss then.
But Blizzard did in fact beat out Duke Nukem Forever. Now taking bets on Diablo 3. Or be it Diablo Zero - recall that at the end of the Diablo II expansion Lords of Destruction every last evil God had been obliterated by the player character & his/her allies. Now save some occult-type ressurection occurence in the depths of Gehennom/Hell or what you will my own view is that a prequel called Diablo Zero or something like that could be designed. Since there isn't much of a time lapse between Diablo I and it's sequel, equally so the game could be set just a decade or so in the past with the same medieval technology. - Of course, we have to hope that the Sorceress/Barbarian bias in class choice will not be as pronounced; how many of us Diablo II players have enjoyed a successful Cold-magic based Sorceress? Or for that matter a Fire or (less so here due to damage range) Thunder sorc? Would wager on many, many persons. As for the Barbarian; the past-master of PvP combat - not only the battle cries but the Jump ability, weapons, etc and more. The necromancer class would lose it's effectiveness by Nightmare mode unless one was exceptionally talented at skill choice - recall their physical weakness. Skel/Skel mage hoards decimated in seconds - and without corpses? Well then you, my friend, are royally screwed. Duriel wise I could not see how a Necro could surpass her without major support from other classes. So yeah my bets are on a prequel here, with each of the Gods either being "injured" somehow and merely driven to another part of the world - leading to an "exile" of sorts to the regions we see in I/II and thereby the corruption of certain areas such as the monestary, by the Gods or their evil minions.
It when we combine both schools then we have a fine career ahead of us. Always head for leisurely work early on; internships, job letters, accent allignment and such. Thus, we can circumvent the bad experiences post-9 to 5 labour!
I have a relatively simple, but vital question for Billy:
Way back when Futurama began in 1999, did the creators and producers specify fairly specifically how they wanted your various parts to sound? Or did you maintain a relative degree of autonomy when coming up with all the great voices we know and love?
Can't wait for the new episodes; if they are nearly as good as the 3rd and 4th seasons we'll all be grateful. The simple, sardonic humor and geek references can draw on so many new phenomena of the past three years. Let's hope the cynicism is utterly dispeled and that Futurama hasn't even thought about the shark, let alone jumped it as some persons say.
Fortunately I live in a habitancy that lacks such a tax - simply make obvious misspellings or omissions and some will appear; you will have to wait awhile before putting it back on (Ie. When there is a supply shortage and after you've had a decent playthrough) but it is entirely possible to profit from it. As mentioned it only really works with older games - games which aren't in massive demand; but rather are hankered after by a niche of old schoolers. The profit margins are relatively low (40-80%) but in any case it is a good feedback builder!
:)
There is some competition too - so getting disheartened is easy, which is why aiming for older titles has a better likelihood of success. Unless one starts a videogame vendor it is hard to profit from newer titles at all through misspellings. I once came across an awfully advertised PSP cart of Tiger Woods 06' and it practically reached the same value as a perfectly advertised cart. Thus; it requires persistance - and can't be relied upon for any cogent income; it is a useful and telling hobby if anything.
"Rational thought" per se is related to the economic concept of "perfect information" - that is, that all firms and consumers would be aware of the best deals and the best prices to set based on market conditions and so forth. Unfortunately, perfect information and knowledge at either end is lacking in practically every market - thus, people are overcharged/undercharged more of the time.
Ebay does address matters somewhat by listing lots in a plain and cogent fashion - however you still have multitudes of misspelled, badly titled lots that we astute folks can take advantage of. I sometimes profit from reselling old video games which are advertised badly - this is taking advantage of "imperfect information" and knowledge. So yes, in the end something of a frivalous and obvious concept; but it does seem we are moving closer to the scenario of perfect information via Kelkoo, Froogle and the Internet itself as a purchasing/selling phenomena.
Indeed - I have added you to the friends list; perhaps someday we will converse once more in another sociologically aligned topic or in journals. :-P
"With regard to the last two paragraphs of your post, my position is that you apply what I've said far too broadly. As usual, it is an all-or-nothing proposition: rationality in all things or in no things is implied to be the complete set of possible states. I argue that rationality is misplaced in any discussion of spiritual health. I make no argument as to the deployment of rationality, for example, in physics problems or the construction of space elevators. Indeed, those are the sorts of things that enlightenment-era thinking has done very well."
;) Yes - I applied your principles broadly in the sense that compassion is a wide reaching phenomena that begs to be discussed. My reasons for rambling slightly regards faith were for demonstration purposes. The "new age" is simply too broad a definition now; rational discussion cannot last around it, hence the simple request for clarification on general principle. An interesting study which wouldn't particularly belond here would be an investigation on where these phonies tagged along in chronological terms - we could stretch back that assertion for millenia to those who stalked Socrates and other Greek philosophers in an attempt of finding "meaning" of it all.
Of course; though the word "Compassion" as a post would likely be modded OT within seconds.
So who knows; in the end I'd disagree with your compassion due to its unworkable nature in a competitive world. Call it passive-aggression or conservatism or any -ism; in the end it is down to individual belief, and it is bemusing to see how cynicism plagues us both yet we perservere. Tagging on world phenomena here is fruitless, though we've had a fair discussion and compared worldview which is always fun.
"Yes, and I also want to be there for them when they don't deserve it. The more of us there are, the more likely that we will meet others of the same ilk and if everyone is willing to make the compromise, everyone will have real friends. That is the point of my post, absolutely.
Yes, yes, "Cum-Ba-Ya" and all that shit.
It's very subtle for Americans, somehow. But that's it, in a nutshell. Sounds simple, but it's really rare right now."
Thus; we arrive at simple socialistic hedonism in its purest sense. What about people who prefer to be alone? Don't they fit into this equation? Do we all have to be smiling and friendly until we happen across our true friends? Do we dispense with all those who wish to opt out of this extroverted "Old England" utopia - no, we do not do any of these things as it is simple idealism.
I don't know about you; but I and a fair measure of my own friends get more pleasure out of life merely by being alone, reading much - the existence of modern introversion in the intellectual sense goes against your hypothesis of friendship. At bottom my friend you are no more than a dreamer who occansionally conjures and defends his own vivid fantasies. But hey I am not knocking you - we all want the world to be better; in some peoples' eyes "better" would merely be quiet, calm and unobtrusive as opposed to socializing and economic restriction on the grand scale.
As to subtlety: well it isn't too subtle at all. Life goes on - and we are in the unfortunate positions of being in different locales and of differing social groupings. So in the end we return to the previous point; that the world is in the eye of the beholder - as strictly speaking while being dividable we are all of different opinion regards the social situation today.
"Or at least, no-one has thus far succeeded in any commonly accepted way."
Can something be commonly accepted? 'Commonly accepted' would mean applying a principle or doctrine to the wider community. By mere glance of society at large we observe that unless this doctrine is applied vigorously from early age or after a life crisis (as in religion for instance) then it shan't stick. Even if it did cement itself on soceity; we would get situations like this once more - persons defend concept, before coming to a conclusion that everyone has a difficult view; and then the entire process of societal doctrine versus open ended article begins again. We also, by proxy have a large number of largely accepting followers eitherside who do little more than exercebate a difficult question with clumsy polemic and kneejerk reaction (Religious right/left) - which, at a deep level, is the source of some of our problems.
Were we to apply life principles to the select few then a different story emerges - take philosophers for instance. Some, such as Socrates or Kant construct an entire life's philosophy and roughly adhere to it until death. Now, philosophers are far from ordinary - and have a following amongst academia and are over-intrepreted; we return to your concept of over-education, however I disagree with this phenomena as it is limited. Today, the eras of philosophy are respected and incorporated decently; rather than extrapolited in bad fashion - good philosophers and students avoid this trap. Here we could say that it is merely due to say...shortening attention spans and/or alcohol or drug consumption come time of education; but people do generally become wiser and learned from higher education.
Clarify this; you believe passionately that life is such a randomized, rich and eclectic experience for folks such as ourselves and that (for our masses) set principles do not work? Would you agree that for a select few, a well intepreted individualistic take on life would work for them and close followers?
Which is where I reach my point, and your point to an as yet unclear extent: "self-sacrifice in the interest of making others happier". You have basically arrived at the concept of compassion; something recognised by all of our aforementioned faith systems to some extent. In the purest sense Buddhism alludes to this principle; especially the myth texts which detail enlightenment attained when one say...cleans a rotting dog from the side of a road who thereafter becomes a Buddha incarnation and so forth. Thus, again I request definition - these "sappy new agers"; who are they? Your arguments seem distinctly Buddhist/Hindu in flavour; and yet you have condemned the 'new age' who embraced said philosophy?
I find it faintly ironic that you make the case against logic and reason as a strictly adhered principle on a board which applies both of our "schools" in equal measure - with much passion thrown in for good measure. Thus; a sober conclusion could only be made in the eye of the beholder - to quantify Slashdot with logical principle and indeed the cost benefit principle is pragmatic. And so, your assertion that most would agree is fallacious in the sense that every time we apply logic in terms of result potential in say....work, school or even Slashdot posting we essentially go against your principles. So again clarification - you apply these Buddhistic principles in a play by ear sense? Or would you rather see your ideological stance imposed on relationship terms and kept in key fields of say...business, economics, politics and statistical survey?
So in the end I feel it is sensical to equate your non-chalance to that of a member of an eastern faith - you see globalization and business as a conclusion foregone; but would like everyone to drop the consumption function. So in the end we arrive at the flat field of left wing politics - again I express bafflement at the fact you basically are going against the mould of modern times; but that is just pandering to the cynicism. We'd like your existance; it is seen to some extent in Star Trek or even socialist states - so again; will you define and be coaxed into any solution? Or would you opt for asceticism and mere conversation as a piecemeal solution?
Fluffy commentary my good man; and worthy of a column in a local newspaper. However like said columns it is more a sophisticated whine - with petty vague solutions stretched in meticulous fashion to fit everybody.
/. today merely due to this evolution. If persons like yourself stopped writing this then perhaps the world would be a better place? How about thinking more about the consequences of your own actions as opposed to wailing about the crying shame that our postmodern world is in those watery eyes of yours? This is not a flame; nor a troll - back in University they called this a fair rebuke.
Well here's the news: "Everybody" cannot be cohengently administered or instructed to change their lives; not "everybody" can swallow their pride and simply attempt to negate this implied "greed" culture of which you speak; some people are naturally ostentatious and extroverted - others, not so much:
"This mentality of "everything has a price and can be calculated as a cost-benefit" has already ruled American material life for years and led to a kind of spiritual bankruptcy that leads to cults, sappy new-ageism, under/overeducation, and other strange social pathologies and now it is polluting our social lives as well."
Really? What is your philosophical alternative then - that is, assuming you had one when you typed this fuzzy diatribe? It is really so ubiquitous across society? You criticize materialism; and accuse consumerism of breeding nefarious organizations and fail to back it up with hard facts or evidence. Prose like this is lapped up by your own condemned "sappy new agers" - it is attacking but in such a morosely vague way that refuting it is hardly worth the bother.
It is like a troll but without the subdued malice; has the same characteristics of a good troll: The sensical if somewhat fallacious criticisms; the broad assertions and lastly the botched solutions - few would doubt you meant well by this post and simply wanted to make a point; as said it'd be good in some publications. However you cannot make baseless accusations of an entire phenomena and imply causation of all the awful phenomena. I eagerly await a non-hostile, civil response which cogently argues your points beyond the tragedian confines of your current mind; find evidence and make us all believe what you say has some reality behind it.
A closing point; people like you worsen this problem - it is through these pseudo-intelectual rants that Slashdot's cynicism has been refined to a point where it has a sophisty about it. It is more simplistically pleasing to read
Driving the Dodge Viper in NFS down the desert track was as great experience then in early 3D as it likely is now in an Arizona desert. It all felt so "real" - car rendering was, and is, leagues ahead of other fields in terms of 3D. It was oddly new back then - with all the racing sequels we get today the magic has faded slightly; but nothing beats cruising your Lexus, Porsche or Chevy Corvette at 250km/h past the opposition! ;)
The Voodoo series is oft-underrated in its adeptness at bringing 3D graphics to the forefront of home PC gaming; this was before Nvidia really took hold, and ATI was relatively distant in terms of market share. Though there is still a core community of fans - somebody linked a story here from Slashdot after Doom 3's release about a guy who downgraded the game to the point where it could run smoothly on two Voodoo cards; a decent accomplishment.
Then 3DFX came out with their Voodoo card which could run GLQuake and 3D gaming was never the same.
True - it is strange really; from the 1998-2000 era it is hard to recall individual fascinations post-initial 3D situation. It is mainly the small details that capture the mind; things such as flame effects; water in pixelated droplets from Lara Croft post-swim; the sky backgrounds of Counter-Strike and Quake III; the intuitive low polygon rendering of varying terrain fixtures - TR II's take on Venice (as in Venice, Italy not the AMD CPU) springs to mind. Freeman's crowbar; headcrabs; massive scripted explosions and well coded military AIs.
It was all a process of easing in - 3D was originally unspectacular except in some cases; of Duke Nukem 3D and it's tongue in cheek flashiness, Wing Commander IV's ambitious filmed sequencing; Blade Runner's haunting atmosphere etc. It was only later that the many perfectionist quirks were additioned - it has become something of a fond familiarity now, what with the tiny details applied to TES and Star Wars canon; small items strewn across environments and so on.
In 2016 when Quake hits 20, no doubt we'll all be playing near-unimaginably dazzling games and recalling the now-quiant factors observed in TES Oblivion or in RTS games like Civ 4.
Absolutely; apologies for that mistake. An intriguing aspect of Quake I is the sprites - they are crafted in full 3D, and it appears ID put much emphasis and precedant on the said sprites. There was a truly fearful air about the chainsaw wielding ogre and the eerily groaning zombies - something which intrigued me for a long time (longer than pre-TES Oblivion nearby details in terms of terrain quirks and items) were the hanging corpses from the walls.
;)
These instiled a macabre fascination - especially when they twitched in grotesque fashion. We can see an evolution of this process in more modern games like the Call of Duty or TES IV - each take the 3D sprite models and elevate to a level where the player is forced to take note. GPUs are of course necessary to truly reap the effects beyond the older Quake series but it is a hugely important part of gameplay today.
Who didn't get a kick when your first zombie in Oblivion flew back into the air immolated after being fireballed? Or when a similar enemy was flung to the ground by a well aimed arrow?
Some quotes for our own amusement and wistful recollection :);
/stand/ things like heretic/duke's look up/down?"
"Still have 486? Get a Pentium immediately!"
"I have a 486 Dx2/80 with a Diamond Stealth 64 2120 video card and I get 6.2 fps in the start."
"Am I the only person who just can't
"Well over 30+ fps at start of Duke3d ? Thats top DX4-100 speed....actually I haven't seen a DX4-100 that tops 28."
"There's an option, r_fullbright (1/0) which turns off all lighting effects and speeds up the FPS tremendously."
Those were the days - further I can recall back to is the Voodoo 2, anyone have any further fond memories of the mid 1990s GPU situation?
To add to this, as an editor of Wikipedia for well over a year now it is always a pleasent surprise how many non-registered users simply commence to fix typos, improve grammar or language wording and so forth.
We may be a destructive species, but we are also very constructive; if Wikipedia is such a great target for destruction, wouldn't the core community of trolls and generally disruptive persons have had more victories by now? You imply that the encyclopedia is teetering on the brink; with a growing team of dedicated persons and articles improving rapidly it is a struggle to see a logical basis for that particular assertion.
"That text was, IIRC, by Socrates, waaaay back in the ancient times."
You are recalling the opening Book of Plato's Republic - one of the earliest and most refined examples of political thought yet written. It is very amusing hearing Socrates and Cephalus (an elderly greek gentleman) speaking of the youth in Plato's narration - nearly 2,500 years later these very sentiments are echoed. It is in these passages we realize that the human condition, while altered, keeps part of its generic style - the elderly criticizing the youth. Socrates himself does not partake in the conversation - rather he hears of it from Cephalus; Socrates has a strange way of making one think he agrees with them - before hitting back. He would have been a supreme lawyer, one only need read Plato's "Apology" which actually features Socrates in the courtroom.
There is even a concept in business regarding the marketing of products. Those so behind with the times to the point of outright refusing to recognise and thus use new technology (in the form of a firm's goods) are deemed "Laggards" - the very last to adapt. Some of "Laggards" would just about be buying a second hand mobile phone now, many wouldn't have one at all, ever. They are the opposite of the "Early adopters" - they who MUST have new technology as soon as it is available (the rich geek type many of us resent, for obvious reasons.)
There is often a crosshair if one uses a sniper rifle with a mounted scope; telescopic or not.
/pedantry
Furthermore, some pistols and sidearms can be mounted with scopes/laser sights too.
You sir, ought to be modded redundant. Before you make ridiculous assertions that the legalize marijuana movement ended during the 1970s, I suggest actually reading the Wikipedia article; The legal issues of cannabis. If continual progress each and every month equates to failure in your mind, then I'm sorry but you need to revise your thought processes somewhat. Even in the U.S. at the state level, authorities are seeing the light and legalizing cannabis in small quantities - full legalization is on the way, whether it'll take 2, 5, 10, 20 or 50 years it will undoubtedly arrive.
On topic, the supposed "end" of the Pirate Bay doesn't herald the end of BitTorrent - infact this will merely boost the cause of those hosting the site. Once the Swedish authorities wake up and realize PB has done nothing wrong, then the true campaign to relinquish all copyright law can truly begin.
If this, a raid involving 50 officers, can happen in Sweden, a usually progressive, efficient and liberal nation - what would happen in more authoritarian nations? The sooner as these ridiculous, oligopoly-serving laws are erased from statute books worldwide, the better.
Indeed, there are regional price elasticities in existence in every price point. One economic theorist referred to the phenomena as the "kinked demand" curve - the demand curve is bizarrely curved in these situations. Bear in mind the videogame market is oligopolistic - just a few dominant manufactuers; Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo. Thus, over time consumers have adapted to the pricing process. We expect prices to be reasonable and we're VERY concerned about even the smallest of margins - you can see right here in this topic: $249 or $199?! Luckily for Nintendo, the falling cost of electronics manufacture has exceeded the rate of inflation in Western nations and Japan itself, thus profit on the console unit will occur regardless.
Therefore, the Wii itself may be $200 still - hence a robust demand, and strong demand from cross elastic products such as er....games and the DVD enhancement, extra pads - even Gamecube controllers. The situation looks good for Nintendo eitherway - though on balance $199 seems the better option than $249, as it is certain Nintendo will be able to force down manufacture costs further. We can only hope the traditional sturdyness of their equipment remains.
The more "perfect competition" orientated PC game market however, did not express this elasticity phenomena quite so starkly until recently, with the rise of EA/Ubi Soft making the market oligopolistic - but thats a different argument altogether.
The candid Japanese. Honour takes precedant above all else over there my good man; and taking an opportunity to add to the gargantuan amount of criticism against Sony is not an honourable practice. Iwata knows gamer's are dismayed by Sony; he knows BIZ want him to bash Sony with fervour; but he will not.
:)
Such as it is: Iwata, and all of Nintendo Japan will hold their national traditions and quirks. The only persons from Nintendo you'll hear actively bashing Sony will be execs from Euroland/the U.S.
I personally was surprised the DS Lite official price is £100 - I was expecting more along the lines of £120. If Nintendo are willing to price a handheld at this level, then who knows - the Wii may be merely £130 - £150. In which case, hooray!
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