The article title states that under the proposed plans the TV license would be replaced by some form of computer taxation. Thus unless you maintained a computer, or more likely internet access at more than one location, you wouldn't have to pay twice, or thrice for that matter.
Just to clarify, the license fee doesn't apply to those aged over 75. TV broadcast watching pensioners under this age must still pay.
I pay £25 to my ISP each month for Net access, it would seem unreasonable for the government to demand more on top of this fee. A solution would be to simply apply greater taxation to ISPs. Sure, it'll be passed onto consumers in the form of higher monthly fees, but at least then the BBC won't be derided as much for its source of income. Greater price competition might ensue in this situation - so much of the tax may stay with the firms.
This probably won't happen though, the ISP market is already fairly oligopolistic, non-price competition is more of an incentive to firms than price, Ie. Bandwidth upgrades, better tech support, etc.:(
Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullpoop sophistry! Get me a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how that plays in court!
Oh come on, a man so injured would most certainly be in no position to joke like that, especially in the face of such a serious issue *cough*.
Drugs don't really make people happy. Happiness must come from within.
Absolutely. If we look back through the postings on this topic, you can see a lot of people think that happiness works on two levels, basically : True Happiness - Ie. a general feeling of contentment, well being. And False Happiness - Ie. a general feeling of contentment, well being, but with overtones of guilt, fear etc.
This, in my view as a practicing Buddhist, is wrong. Generally, when one is attached to something, that is where unhappiness and suffering- even for a split second - arises. A person may feel more or less content while using Prozac for instance - but they are in essence attached to said drug. Okay you could layer on a few emotions and call it "false" happiness (some even cite stigmas alone as warrant for this), or even go so far as to call it temporary, but one must cast ones gaze to attachment to fully appreciate a de-layered, simple and generally mindful view.
In this way, one could infer that SSRI's are no different than say...some material goods such as a fast car or a CD collection! One may be attached to material items such as these, too.
For those outside the UK let's make it clear that the BBC promotes using the "Have your say" section all over its news stations. Mostly just its 24 hour channel - News 24,but also of late "Have your say" has featured on the 6 o clock news, which is watched by millions every night. My point being is that ANYONE can add to this - and the chief contributors are the ignorant masses. The sort of people who got online within the last two years with XP SP2. The sort of people who haven't even had a BSOD or recall the days when 56k was the best around. Even if they had a problem with Windows in particular (as opposed to the more common spyware/adware woes) they'd simply call someone to fix it rather than festering dislike for the corporate entity behind the software itself - its simply another machine to be fixed, like the washing machine or the gas boiler.
To them, Microsoft is the big corporation headed by everyones famed, friendly geek Bill Gates - and hes a philantropic rich dude, awesome!!! It sounds slightly elitist to say we know the "truth" behind this perceived facade...but really it works on two levels. On one level are the aforementioned Joe Sixpacks, who use computers (and many other things) casually. On another are us, the techies, geeks, nerds, whatever - who use computers several hours a day and are relatively experienced in the craft - we have encountered problems, and want to solve them as opposed to hiring somebody to solve it for us. Microsoft would have to be flawless to avoid criticism from us, and I don't just mean its software - I mean its whole persona, its business practices and its bosses.
What I am trying to say is is that its time we faced up to the fact that one of Microsoft's long term aims was to make its software central to the mainstream market and to satisfy the masses with it. That Have Your Say page is solid proof it has accomplished that particular goal, that and the fact millions of homes in the UK and elsewhere now run Windows contently.
I'm sure a good proportion of slashdot was enthused about this interview, and all we got back was a huge friggin' depository of PR crap. After initial bemusement from reading the first couple of questions...you scroll down and realize they are ALL of similar length, ALL regimented, ALL inane babble, and most importantly lacking in any substance whatsoever.
The question is though, were there any devs there to answer questions in the first place? Or did the editors just acquire some internal blizzard address and send our questions straight to the Class D marketing droids? I'd feel more comfortable knowing that at least somebody at Blizzard wanted to answer our queries.
A point a lot of dudes have been making is that there were some defections of devs to NCsoft/ArenaNet, who recently released Guild Wars. Now, every single WEEK the Guild Wars homepage links to informative and seriously written answers to questions directly from the userbase. Compare that to Blizzard who take over a month to pull a few paragraphs of nothingness out of their overly large marketing department. For shame, this is hands down the worst "interview" slashdot has ever received back.
Seriously, whenever I start thinking that maybe we nerds are just elitist with our snotty attitude about the ignorant, uneducated masses... such a study comes along and proves it in hard numbers and percentages that we _are_ right, after all. The majority really _is_ that dumb and uneducated.
It goes without saying really. I recall reading Orwell's Animal Farm a few years ago. The horse within that novel, Boxer, was the "majority" incarnate - doing most of the work for Animal farm, and possessing a great deal of strength, yet ultimately too trusting and ill educated. To your average tyrant state the majority are there to be moulded, to serve with their power - and to believe what is "fed" to them by the media. Orwell took that concept further in 1984 with "prolefeed".
Take reality TV, the proletariat, after roughly 5 years of that crap enjoying wild popularity, STILL watches it in droves and yes, actually enjoys it! Many things that repulse us but are liked/accepted among the masses. Its hard for us nerds to understand their mentality, even the most intelligent among us have a hard time imagining what it is like to be...less bright. We often favour open source like Linux over Microsoft - Joe Sixpack will buy a computer with Windows no question. Not many of us would consider downloading the Crazy Frog ringtone or listening to manufactured pop music, that stuff really is, as Orwell stated, prolefeed.
But there we are. On the bright side though, I'd say our numbers will grow as computers enter the mainstream further. The Internet is a gateway to knowledge, and more importantly, the truth and information. The masses will never go away or magically gain insight and be able to distinguish what is in our view "bad" from what is "good", no with any amount of increased wealth or privilege - only something as outlandish as breeding "designer" humans could ever change that, but then thats a whole new discussion entirely.
Well of course its critical...
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Pornified
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It was written by Pamela and Paul! They're obviously a happily married couple with a quiet disdain for pr0n.:)
Ultima Online was a game EA pretty much turned into a failure inside of a year. It originally belonged to a smallish firm called OSI, which was tied to Richard Garriot, who invented most of Ultima's concepts. UO was one of the first MMORPG's and was very popular...until EA took over.
As soon as Richard Garriot sold up, OSI was referred to sarcastically as O$I by a great deal of UO's playerbase, it was a joke at first...till the real changes began. One of EA's first updates to the game was "Publish 16", a large patch that basically Diablo-ified much of UO, changing the game mechanics profoundly. It also encouraged farming/hyperinflation, you had to have like a million coins for decent armor. Then came Age of Shadows, which pushed these changes further, introduced materialist crap like Bulk Ordering and customizable housing. One of the sole good EA-additions in my opinion was champ hunts - you gather up like 5-8 people and spent like 3 hours in Felluca (Pvp realm) fighting tonnes of monsters.
Not to say that the playerbase weren't fussed before that. I knew a lot of dudes in UO that believed that 1998-9 was its "Golden Age", anything after that was just spoiling what was the first truly brilliant PVP game. Anyway, by 2004, nothing was untouched by EA, even the previously tough gain system was fucked with...and users began to leave. An employee at EA was sacked for duping in game and selling gold/items on eBay. A lot of the guys I spoke with before I quit in spring were just staying for the 7th year vet rewards (I think they turned out to suck aswell). Since then they've brought out more expansions, andcreated more crappy incentive items/clothes (pixel-crack as many users called em':).
Point is, is that EA generally fuck most things up, usually after a decent start. Take Medal of Honour Allied Assault, it was EA produced and marked the beginning of a swathe of WW-2 (later Vietnam/Gulf war) themed FPS's. But it was a geniunely good game, and if EA hadn't made about 2 expansions and then another 3 or 4 MOH games to follow it then it would have been remembered as a standalone hit, not just the start of something which would later come to derision among many magazines and websites.
Here's my suggestions to how games can improve :
Cut the budgets to about 1/10 their current size.
Keep staffing teams very high, allow brainstorming sessions within dev teams. In the case of RPG's, use literature as inspiration - all a good RPG needs is a story and gameplay. If you care for the characters/plot twists then your playing a great RPG.
Stop making sequels. Even GTA is starting to get somewhat spoiled now - because labels just force programmers to make sequels too soon and too quickly. Make a maximum of 3 games in a series. Further to this, stop making copycat FPS's.
Do away with lengthy working hours, and put little or no pressure on the devs. EA's games suck for a reason - too many wage-slave caffiene fueled all night coding sessions.
Yeah, bring Wing Commander back, and also bring back real-cinema cutscenes like we saw in C&C Tiberian Sun. Who cares if the actings a little cheesy? Wing Commander IV rocked because Mark Hamill and that dude from Back to the Future put their all into a canceled TV series. If a canceled TV series can do that much for a games cred, think of what a well-planned, filmed production could make - a legend perhaps?
Petition for EA's breakup. Its too large, too cumbersome and obsessed with profit over innovation. Gaming can't be allowed to go the way of music - where big firms make crap...and get away with it.
Lastly, stop paying attention to graphics. Focus 60% on gameplay/plot, 25% on sound and 15% on graphics/overall look, scenary etc. I'd prefer a plot akin to FF7's than some shiny windscreens and nice scenic views.
Japan doesn't have in excess of 1.3 billion people to make use of. It didn't have access to raw materials from within. And perhaps most obviously, Japan only really produces motor vehicles and electronics. Japan has only just attempted to regain some military strength, China has an army of millions, with some 200 million able bodied men to conscript should need arise.
Culturally, both nations are like chalk and cheese. Taoism/Buddhism is more prevalent in China, while religion in Japan is largely ignored...perhaps due to more materialism but that open to debate. Before about 1982 the PRC was very restrictive on culture as a whole. Their socialist culture is still quite prevalent even today...Tianemen Square is designed to make those within it seem small, almost forcing people to cower beneath the intense power of the Chinese state, none of thats present over in Japan.
They simply aren't very comparable...the only true thing China and Japan have in common is the fact that they're both home to some incredibly intelligent people who are able to regulate and nurture the economy. Quite simply, if China's economy goes under, they won't be the only ones to feel it. Prices will rise as their production lowers, discouraging global consumer spending etc etc...Wouldn't happen with Japan, people can do without Mitsubishi's and PS3's, they can't do without clothing.
I don't think the Chinese will allow too much US investment. They regard the US as rivals in a sense... though the US produces less in terms of materials and more in terms of services. But only time will tell of course.
Exactly. Thats one of the problems scientists face with fusion power for example. Fusion as a means of an energy source was proposed back in the fifties. When old Albert was barely in the grave infact. Since then they've made modest progress, as many on/. have no doubt heard, a fusion reactor named ITER was approved for construction in France.
Thing is, though ITER is widely expected to be relatively (ha-ha) more efficient than past fusion reactors, it'll still be experimental. By that I mean it'll still be inefficient in terms of energy produced from materials used. We have a heck of a long time to go before we can even make an energy "profit" from materials put in. The most optimistic scientists predict 2040 as the crossover point. But then, only time will tell.
A second problem is that some environmentalists believe all E=MC^2 ever acheived was "The Bomb" and as such try to obstruct progress through protesting etc. It is true that fusion can pollute, but to a much lesser degree than nuclear fission. Still, perhaps in fifty, a hundred, two hundred years time when fusion becomes widely used they'll be chaining themselves to trees and whatnot.
We'll no doubt find that development in fusion and other methods of power will speed rapidly once oil/natural gas become scarce enough. And with that, hopefully, journeys to Mars, to the Centuari system, and beyond on fusion powered craft.
Back in 2001 when I played UO, I remember hearing of a dude who committed suicide over being scammed out of some valuable possessions worth (back then) about a thousand bucks on eBay. I was scammed a few times in UO myself, and it sucked and I got pissed off over it for awhile - like you would if you were a victim of minor theft. Its pheasable to imagine - if your loss was much greater (equates to bankruptcy/major theft) - that some may kill/assault/commit suicide over it.
I read somewhere that that dudes sword was worth about $600-700 via Ebay, and was very, very rare within the game. My point being is that a lot of people have been killed over non-virtual possessions worth a heck of a lot less, and a lot easier to come by too.
Oh and also, the linked article is just a bunch of incoherant rambling with some bad jokes and satire to boot. Hence, pointlesswasteoftime.com .:P
There are a few reasons why Democrats playing to centre and hardline Repub's won't criticize modding...
Firstly, it's unlikely persons using these mods will release their work and charge money for it. It'll likely be on some random mod site. Thus it'll be obscure, and downloaded by thousands...as opposed to bought by millions.
Second, most modders will likely map out the content and include an age warning, EBRSM or not.
Third, FPS games don't often include nudity/sex (which is what sets the vultures off nowadays), the only FPS i remember having some pixelated nudity was Duke Nukem 3D which is now a decade old. When they do, its as a bit of humour, not as a minigame or other unlockable feature.
And lastly, the whole matter of criticizing games made from scratch by a fan/group of fans is too obscure. Joe Sixpack will more likely be scratching his head wondering how/what the Quake 3 Source code even is...let alone how people use it. I mean even the Hot Coffee "scandal" wasn't that big a story, it was more slow news day material than anything else. And besides, most US networks are too busy scaremongering to give a wooden nickel about modified game sex.
Oh and to close, in the unlikely chance of any small-time mod game is reported on as contravertial, tonnes more people will download it to see what all the fuss it about! Its a winning situation from the modders point of view anyhow.
This'll stop eventually. This whole terrorism as a product has really hit saturation point. I use that term because it is in essence a product, of both governments and various media agencys. All products are born (in this case in Autumn 2001), reach their peak (Pre-Iraq), then saturation (about now) and following that they simply die off.
These fears are a constant of modern times, consistantly there since the West became officially developed...
The first Red scare came in the early 1920's. It was mainly centered around immigration/crime paranoia (which curiously is still quite prevalent in some nations). It peaked as the final stages of the Bolshevik revolution were complete and the Soviet state formed. Then it died down, and the Soviets were considered our friends during 42-45' friends due to their help in WW2 and relative co-operation in Potsdam and Yalta.
Then came the beginnings of the Cold War, and "The Bomb". The second red scare began, complete with surveillance on "suspected communists" and a media hate for commie sympathizers, it was personified by McCarthyism. Eventually "The Bomb" became an object for satire (Ie. Dr. Strangelove) and the second red scare was over by the mid sixties. With its departure came improved relations and a much more relaxed atmosphere - a freer soceity occured, personified by a new generation, new music and ideas.
Then communism collapsed in the late 80's/early 90's. And, for a time Saddam Hussain was the new boogieman, the new figurehead for the culture of fear - now hitting the stratosphere due to the proliferation of the mass media and the non-stop force of globalization. Then people got sick of that, Saddam was also parodied (South Park movie, The Simpsons, etc) and made an utter joke of - the people rejected him just like they rejected the red scares.
And now, terrorism. Again, after a time, it has been parodied, made fun of and mocked (Team America) and as evidenced by many comments here people are sick to the death of the "Axis of evil" or "War on Terror". Terrorist attacks perpetuate it, but then the War in Iraq becomes a counterbalance to that. The fear of The Bomb perpetuated the red scares, actually talking to the Russians reasonably counterbalanced this fear.
If the Internet would have been around back in 1964, we'd all be pointing out the stupidity of it all. Referencing Dr. Strangelove and pondering on how close apocalypse was in the Cuban missile crisis, wondering why we let these governments go on deciding the fate of a planet that isn't theirs. A planet that belongs to billions of people.
But the real question is...what will be the next big fear, the next "omnipresent" enemy? The next object of cheesy politican-conjured terms and farcical media reports? You can bet your bottom dollar it'll go out of favour in a matter of years and we'll be there, pointing out the ludricous nature of it all. Groaning with every passing headline, wondering when it'll cease...
I'm not trying to be critical or troll here, but I fail to see how satellite images some of which are over a decade old, and almost all covering urban areas qualifys as allowing the general public to "watch the watchers" as you put it. The maps are meant for geographical/travel purposes, and can be used for little else, (with the exception of pissing off panicky politicians of course:) ).
I agree though, this is a fear-happy world now, though the worlds governments are partly responsible for this, its the media that plays the largest role - they have a responsibility to inform people, and in my opinion they abuse their powers to induce fear. The media would gladly report on that reactor if Aus's government failed to get it censored, and they would sensationalize it to shit. This is different from the Cold War, as one of the main motives behind this reporting is money - advert laden "news" will earn the networks/papers/radio stations money via consumption - guns and ammo sales rocketed after 9/11 for example.
The Cold War was a geniunely fearful time, this culture of fear has an air of utter manipulation, a farce to (as you said) keep control on the masses, keep them consuming, perhaps depressed, and fearful of what was previously a minor threat...a passive hazard.
Marilyn Manson sums it up pretty well : "Its just an endless cycle of fear and consumption...Terror alert changes, cut to commercial, buy our product, if you don't people won't wanna talk to you, buy this otherwise a girl won't wanna fuck you..."
The idea that theres a huge dilemma facing practically everyone involved in wikipedia is somewhat of an exagurration. The destructive trolls, casual users, casual editors and the mods and admins of wikipedia itself.
In the past year, the growth of English language articles has been approximately exponential, the user (and especially administrator) growth will soon be outstripped. Over 50,000 new articles have been created in the past two months - and you can bet these new articles will be of obscurer and obscurer content. However an introduction of "stable" fixed pages will counter this - a single person accomplished in study of the Dark Ages could single-handedly create a couple of articles and request a stablization of said pages.
Wikipedia is self advertised free encyclopedia. This is evidenced by the extensive arguments on the talk pages. How can one prevent trolls and malicious users from screwing up wikis while allowing them to be constantly improved upon? Its a tough problem that only a complex system could fix.
If one looks at all the major articles, they seem pretty much complete. Eg. The article on marijuana is practically perfect and all encompassing. It could be rendered "stable". But what of its legality? Thoughtful editors have even created a "legal issues" page that can be edited once marijuana is legalized (while only a very minor mention is required on the stable page - easily obtained upon request to an admin). This sort of catagorizing could help more and more pages become "stable", thus preventing any trolls.
As somebody who has created about 10 articles, I've only once ran into a troll. A grammar troll specifically, who took a joy in subtly entering some typos in the article for "Earth 2160" a soon-to-be-released Polish game. I corrected his edit and all was well after that. Controversial topics (Ie. George W. Bush, War in Iraq, Michael Moore) will have a greatly increased amount of trolls, but reversals occur within minutes, even seconds, the editors have all this under control.
Stable pages are a fine idea, while sacrificing a minimal amount of freedom. Most minor, obscure pages should be rendered stable immediately, and some major pages too.
The idea of trolls overrunning wikipedia is invalid. I'd wager that the majority of trolls have already impacted the site (a lot of trolls are quite net savvy, and would be aware of wikipedia by now), though wikipedia's popularity is skyrocketing, the vast majority of new users will be there to help/use rather than to hinder - in the long run it seems.
Wikipedia is very close to becoming the finest encyclopedia in the world. Its much better than a lot of its counterparts already, and as time passes, the amount of new articles will inevitably stabilize. By 2008 the encyclopedia should have attained near-perfect status in all but the current events (which is a constant process obviously), and should be renowned everywhere for its content.
Intelligent Design is not a science in any sense, but a theology
Theology is the study of God, religious texts and religions in general, from Anglicanism to Zionism. It is not, as you heavily implied, a component of any religion's beliefs. Theologians reason about religion and the countless different beliefs across the globe, not create new ones. If one creates a new idea they are acting outside of the field. Intelligent Design is a religious idea put forward by some Christians, simple as that.
I totally agree with everything else you said, religious doctrine should not be taught in school. Furthermore, with the now prevalent multi-ethnic/multi-faith soceity we live in, school prayer is completely unnessesary and could be considered disrespectful to others belief.
However i'm all for theology/religious study as a whole, as its an inherant part of history and is vital to society, and shall be forever. From the Crusades to the life of the soon to be Saint John Paul II. For some its a fascinating subject, regardless of whether you are of any faith or none. As with many other subjects their should obviously be a choice involved.
This sort of thing is fairly common for shuttle launches in general, in a process which requires many component parts falling debris is inevitable. Of course, the close scrutiny of this launch will have made this coverage equally as inevitable. It appears to be some of the black undercovering of the shuttle just peeled away and fell to Earth. But NASA, ever cautious, says its might be the orbiters tiles themselves that are damage...needless to say its wise to take NASA's comments with a pinch of salt.
I'm curious as to the mass market appeal this technology possesses. I mean one need have around 5 or 6 Mbps to get an ultra low (>20) ping in game servers reasonably close to home. Also, one can get songs off of iTunes often in under a minute with just a 2 Mbps connection.
Then again, regardless of the blistering speeds this technology (if it ever arrives on Oceanic shores) it will be marketed like crazy. When broadband became seriously commercial in about 2000 the prices were high. Now however, you can get a 1/2 Mbp connection for a fractional amount above your standard 56k connection.
Thus, our current 1/2 - 6Mbps connections could be rendered seemingly obselete by marketers, thus allowing telecommunication companys to make some good cash off of high charges for 50, 80, 100, 200 Mbp connections, a repeat of 2000-2004. It should be profitable, as Joe Sixpack isn't going to be downloading stuff from bittorrent all day long at max speeds...only your niche market geeks would partake in that.
But yeah, as the parent said, this topic is wishful thinking by some anomymous manufacturer. Its not quite hit the "flying car" speculation yet, but its almost certain 100Mbps is quite a long way off anyhow.
Some Lego, especially the more kid orientated stuff, ie. pirate ships, bionicle, duplo and most smaller kits, etc, can be done without even so much at a glance at the instructions.
I think for kits as large as the Star Destroyer you do need to look at the instructions at least a little, at one stage late in the video they hadn't assembled the top turret of the ship correctly - thus they had to look again and attach some pieces they'd forgot.
When I was a kid I assembled a lot of Lego Technic kits, the ones with a lot of gears and moving parts. Completing a large technic kit without instructions is near enough Impossible. Most of the larger technic models are totally screwed up if a few pieces are out of place, due to the nature of the gears, shafts etc.
This is quite likely the finest result Nasa has had for a long time. To quote a professor who was quite surprised by the event:
"It was like mosquito hitting a 747. What we've found is that the mosquito didn't splat on the surface, it's actually gone through the windscreen."
The photos too, are quite amazing. A huge amount of stellar dust, ice, and rock exploded out of Tempel 1's surface. All from the impact of a probe just the size of a washing machine.
Over the following few days, the second module of the mission will further analyse the materials ejected from the comet, and it is believed scientists will discover much about the creation of the universe (some of the material hasn't been disturbed in over 4 billion years) and the composition of comets in general over the next few months as they complete their analysis of this great event.
Slashdot Mirror
The article title states that under the proposed plans the TV license would be replaced by some form of computer taxation. Thus unless you maintained a computer, or more likely internet access at more than one location, you wouldn't have to pay twice, or thrice for that matter.
With the exception of pensioners
:(
Just to clarify, the license fee doesn't apply to those aged over 75. TV broadcast watching pensioners under this age must still pay.
I pay £25 to my ISP each month for Net access, it would seem unreasonable for the government to demand more on top of this fee. A solution would be to simply apply greater taxation to ISPs. Sure, it'll be passed onto consumers in the form of higher monthly fees, but at least then the BBC won't be derided as much for its source of income. Greater price competition might ensue in this situation - so much of the tax may stay with the firms.
This probably won't happen though, the ISP market is already fairly oligopolistic, non-price competition is more of an incentive to firms than price, Ie. Bandwidth upgrades, better tech support, etc.
Intelligent Design advocate: That's a load of bullpoop sophistry! Get me a doctor and a lawyer, not necessarily in that order, and we'll see how that plays in court!
Oh come on, a man so injured would most certainly be in no position to joke like that, especially in the face of such a serious issue *cough*.
Oh wait...
Absolutely. If we look back through the postings on this topic, you can see a lot of people think that happiness works on two levels, basically : True Happiness - Ie. a general feeling of contentment, well being. And False Happiness - Ie. a general feeling of contentment, well being, but with overtones of guilt, fear etc.
This, in my view as a practicing Buddhist, is wrong. Generally, when one is attached to something, that is where unhappiness and suffering- even for a split second - arises. A person may feel more or less content while using Prozac for instance - but they are in essence attached to said drug. Okay you could layer on a few emotions and call it "false" happiness (some even cite stigmas alone as warrant for this), or even go so far as to call it temporary, but one must cast ones gaze to attachment to fully appreciate a de-layered, simple and generally mindful view.
In this way, one could infer that SSRI's are no different than say...some material goods such as a fast car or a CD collection! One may be attached to material items such as these, too.
For those outside the UK let's make it clear that the BBC promotes using the "Have your say" section all over its news stations. Mostly just its 24 hour channel - News 24 ,but also of late "Have your say" has featured on the 6 o clock news, which is watched by millions every night. My point being is that ANYONE can add to this - and the chief contributors are the ignorant masses. The sort of people who got online within the last two years with XP SP2. The sort of people who haven't even had a BSOD or recall the days when 56k was the best around. Even if they had a problem with Windows in particular (as opposed to the more common spyware/adware woes) they'd simply call someone to fix it rather than festering dislike for the corporate entity behind the software itself - its simply another machine to be fixed, like the washing machine or the gas boiler.
To them, Microsoft is the big corporation headed by everyones famed, friendly geek Bill Gates - and hes a philantropic rich dude, awesome!!! It sounds slightly elitist to say we know the "truth" behind this perceived facade...but really it works on two levels. On one level are the aforementioned Joe Sixpacks, who use computers (and many other things) casually. On another are us, the techies, geeks, nerds, whatever - who use computers several hours a day and are relatively experienced in the craft - we have encountered problems, and want to solve them as opposed to hiring somebody to solve it for us. Microsoft would have to be flawless to avoid criticism from us, and I don't just mean its software - I mean its whole persona, its business practices and its bosses.
What I am trying to say is is that its time we faced up to the fact that one of Microsoft's long term aims was to make its software central to the mainstream market and to satisfy the masses with it. That Have Your Say page is solid proof it has accomplished that particular goal, that and the fact millions of homes in the UK and elsewhere now run Windows contently.
I'm sure a good proportion of slashdot was enthused about this interview, and all we got back was a huge friggin' depository of PR crap. After initial bemusement from reading the first couple of questions...you scroll down and realize they are ALL of similar length, ALL regimented, ALL inane babble, and most importantly lacking in any substance whatsoever.
The question is though, were there any devs there to answer questions in the first place? Or did the editors just acquire some internal blizzard address and send our questions straight to the Class D marketing droids? I'd feel more comfortable knowing that at least somebody at Blizzard wanted to answer our queries.
A point a lot of dudes have been making is that there were some defections of devs to NCsoft/ArenaNet, who recently released Guild Wars. Now, every single WEEK the Guild Wars homepage links to informative and seriously written answers to questions directly from the userbase. Compare that to Blizzard who take over a month to pull a few paragraphs of nothingness out of their overly large marketing department. For shame, this is hands down the worst "interview" slashdot has ever received back.
Don't you mean WCD's? Weapons of Cat Destruction?
Seriously, whenever I start thinking that maybe we nerds are just elitist with our snotty attitude about the ignorant, uneducated masses... such a study comes along and proves it in hard numbers and percentages that we _are_ right, after all. The majority really _is_ that dumb and uneducated.
It goes without saying really. I recall reading Orwell's Animal Farm a few years ago. The horse within that novel, Boxer, was the "majority" incarnate - doing most of the work for Animal farm, and possessing a great deal of strength, yet ultimately too trusting and ill educated. To your average tyrant state the majority are there to be moulded, to serve with their power - and to believe what is "fed" to them by the media. Orwell took that concept further in 1984 with "prolefeed".
Take reality TV, the proletariat, after roughly 5 years of that crap enjoying wild popularity, STILL watches it in droves and yes, actually enjoys it! Many things that repulse us but are liked/accepted among the masses. Its hard for us nerds to understand their mentality, even the most intelligent among us have a hard time imagining what it is like to be...less bright. We often favour open source like Linux over Microsoft - Joe Sixpack will buy a computer with Windows no question. Not many of us would consider downloading the Crazy Frog ringtone or listening to manufactured pop music, that stuff really is, as Orwell stated, prolefeed.
But there we are. On the bright side though, I'd say our numbers will grow as computers enter the mainstream further. The Internet is a gateway to knowledge, and more importantly, the truth and information. The masses will never go away or magically gain insight and be able to distinguish what is in our view "bad" from what is "good", no with any amount of increased wealth or privilege - only something as outlandish as breeding "designer" humans could ever change that, but then thats a whole new discussion entirely.
It was written by Pamela and Paul! They're obviously a happily married couple with a quiet disdain for pr0n. :)
As soon as Richard Garriot sold up, OSI was referred to sarcastically as O$I by a great deal of UO's playerbase, it was a joke at first...till the real changes began. One of EA's first updates to the game was "Publish 16", a large patch that basically Diablo-ified much of UO, changing the game mechanics profoundly. It also encouraged farming/hyperinflation, you had to have like a million coins for decent armor. Then came Age of Shadows, which pushed these changes further, introduced materialist crap like Bulk Ordering and customizable housing. One of the sole good EA-additions in my opinion was champ hunts - you gather up like 5-8 people and spent like 3 hours in Felluca (Pvp realm) fighting tonnes of monsters.
Not to say that the playerbase weren't fussed before that. I knew a lot of dudes in UO that believed that 1998-9 was its "Golden Age", anything after that was just spoiling what was the first truly brilliant PVP game. Anyway, by 2004, nothing was untouched by EA, even the previously tough gain system was fucked with...and users began to leave. An employee at EA was sacked for duping in game and selling gold/items on eBay. A lot of the guys I spoke with before I quit in spring were just staying for the 7th year vet rewards (I think they turned out to suck aswell). Since then they've brought out more expansions, andcreated more crappy incentive items/clothes (pixel-crack as many users called em'
Point is, is that EA generally fuck most things up, usually after a decent start. Take Medal of Honour Allied Assault, it was EA produced and marked the beginning of a swathe of WW-2 (later Vietnam/Gulf war) themed FPS's. But it was a geniunely good game, and if EA hadn't made about 2 expansions and then another 3 or 4 MOH games to follow it then it would have been remembered as a standalone hit, not just the start of something which would later come to derision among many magazines and websites.
Here's my suggestions to how games can improve :
Cut the budgets to about 1/10 their current size.
Keep staffing teams very high, allow brainstorming sessions within dev teams. In the case of RPG's, use literature as inspiration - all a good RPG needs is a story and gameplay. If you care for the characters/plot twists then your playing a great RPG.
Stop making sequels. Even GTA is starting to get somewhat spoiled now - because labels just force programmers to make sequels too soon and too quickly. Make a maximum of 3 games in a series. Further to this, stop making copycat FPS's.
Do away with lengthy working hours, and put little or no pressure on the devs. EA's games suck for a reason - too many wage-slave caffiene fueled all night coding sessions.
Yeah, bring Wing Commander back, and also bring back real-cinema cutscenes like we saw in C&C Tiberian Sun. Who cares if the actings a little cheesy? Wing Commander IV rocked because Mark Hamill and that dude from Back to the Future put their all into a canceled TV series. If a canceled TV series can do that much for a games cred, think of what a well-planned, filmed production could make - a legend perhaps?
Petition for EA's breakup. Its too large, too cumbersome and obsessed with profit over innovation. Gaming can't be allowed to go the way of music - where big firms make crap...and get away with it.
Lastly, stop paying attention to graphics. Focus 60% on gameplay/plot, 25% on sound and 15% on graphics/overall look, scenary etc. I'd prefer a plot akin to FF7's than some shiny windscreens and nice scenic views.
Japan doesn't have in excess of 1.3 billion people to make use of. It didn't have access to raw materials from within. And perhaps most obviously, Japan only really produces motor vehicles and electronics. Japan has only just attempted to regain some military strength, China has an army of millions, with some 200 million able bodied men to conscript should need arise.
Culturally, both nations are like chalk and cheese. Taoism/Buddhism is more prevalent in China, while religion in Japan is largely ignored...perhaps due to more materialism but that open to debate. Before about 1982 the PRC was very restrictive on culture as a whole. Their socialist culture is still quite prevalent even today...Tianemen Square is designed to make those within it seem small, almost forcing people to cower beneath the intense power of the Chinese state, none of thats present over in Japan.
They simply aren't very comparable...the only true thing China and Japan have in common is the fact that they're both home to some incredibly intelligent people who are able to regulate and nurture the economy. Quite simply, if China's economy goes under, they won't be the only ones to feel it. Prices will rise as their production lowers, discouraging global consumer spending etc etc...Wouldn't happen with Japan, people can do without Mitsubishi's and PS3's, they can't do without clothing.
I don't think the Chinese will allow too much US investment. They regard the US as rivals in a sense... though the US produces less in terms of materials and more in terms of services. But only time will tell of course.
Its E=MC Hawking by MC Hawking. It and many other of his amusing tunes are located at http://www.mchawking.com/.
Exactly. Thats one of the problems scientists face with fusion power for example. Fusion as a means of an energy source was proposed back in the fifties. When old Albert was barely in the grave infact. Since then they've made modest progress, as many on /. have no doubt heard, a fusion reactor named ITER was approved for construction in France.
Thing is, though ITER is widely expected to be relatively (ha-ha) more efficient than past fusion reactors, it'll still be experimental. By that I mean it'll still be inefficient in terms of energy produced from materials used. We have a heck of a long time to go before we can even make an energy "profit" from materials put in. The most optimistic scientists predict 2040 as the crossover point. But then, only time will tell.
A second problem is that some environmentalists believe all E=MC^2 ever acheived was "The Bomb" and as such try to obstruct progress through protesting etc. It is true that fusion can pollute, but to a much lesser degree than nuclear fission. Still, perhaps in fifty, a hundred, two hundred years time when fusion becomes widely used they'll be chaining themselves to trees and whatnot.
We'll no doubt find that development in fusion and other methods of power will speed rapidly once oil/natural gas become scarce enough. And with that, hopefully, journeys to Mars, to the Centuari system, and beyond on fusion powered craft.
In response to this momentous occasion...I can only quote the great MC Hawking. :)
"I explode like a bomb. No-one is spared. My power is my mass times the speed of light squared."
Back in 2001 when I played UO, I remember hearing of a dude who committed suicide over being scammed out of some valuable possessions worth (back then) about a thousand bucks on eBay. I was scammed a few times in UO myself, and it sucked and I got pissed off over it for awhile - like you would if you were a victim of minor theft. Its pheasable to imagine - if your loss was much greater (equates to bankruptcy/major theft) - that some may kill/assault/commit suicide over it.
:P
I read somewhere that that dudes sword was worth about $600-700 via Ebay, and was very, very rare within the game. My point being is that a lot of people have been killed over non-virtual possessions worth a heck of a lot less, and a lot easier to come by too.
Oh and also, the linked article is just a bunch of incoherant rambling with some bad jokes and satire to boot. Hence, pointlesswasteoftime.com .
There are a few reasons why Democrats playing to centre and hardline Repub's won't criticize modding...
Firstly, it's unlikely persons using these mods will release their work and charge money for it. It'll likely be on some random mod site. Thus it'll be obscure, and downloaded by thousands...as opposed to bought by millions.
Second, most modders will likely map out the content and include an age warning, EBRSM or not.
Third, FPS games don't often include nudity/sex (which is what sets the vultures off nowadays), the only FPS i remember having some pixelated nudity was Duke Nukem 3D which is now a decade old. When they do, its as a bit of humour, not as a minigame or other unlockable feature.
And lastly, the whole matter of criticizing games made from scratch by a fan/group of fans is too obscure. Joe Sixpack will more likely be scratching his head wondering how/what the Quake 3 Source code even is...let alone how people use it. I mean even the Hot Coffee "scandal" wasn't that big a story, it was more slow news day material than anything else. And besides, most US networks are too busy scaremongering to give a wooden nickel about modified game sex.
Oh and to close, in the unlikely chance of any small-time mod game is reported on as contravertial, tonnes more people will download it to see what all the fuss it about! Its a winning situation from the modders point of view anyhow.
This'll stop eventually. This whole terrorism as a product has really hit saturation point. I use that term because it is in essence a product, of both governments and various media agencys. All products are born (in this case in Autumn 2001), reach their peak (Pre-Iraq), then saturation (about now) and following that they simply die off.
These fears are a constant of modern times, consistantly there since the West became officially developed...
The first Red scare came in the early 1920's. It was mainly centered around immigration/crime paranoia (which curiously is still quite prevalent in some nations). It peaked as the final stages of the Bolshevik revolution were complete and the Soviet state formed. Then it died down, and the Soviets were considered our friends during 42-45' friends due to their help in WW2 and relative co-operation in Potsdam and Yalta.
Then came the beginnings of the Cold War, and "The Bomb". The second red scare began, complete with surveillance on "suspected communists" and a media hate for commie sympathizers, it was personified by McCarthyism. Eventually "The Bomb" became an object for satire (Ie. Dr. Strangelove) and the second red scare was over by the mid sixties. With its departure came improved relations and a much more relaxed atmosphere - a freer soceity occured, personified by a new generation, new music and ideas.
Then communism collapsed in the late 80's/early 90's. And, for a time Saddam Hussain was the new boogieman, the new figurehead for the culture of fear - now hitting the stratosphere due to the proliferation of the mass media and the non-stop force of globalization. Then people got sick of that, Saddam was also parodied (South Park movie, The Simpsons, etc) and made an utter joke of - the people rejected him just like they rejected the red scares.
And now, terrorism. Again, after a time, it has been parodied, made fun of and mocked (Team America) and as evidenced by many comments here people are sick to the death of the "Axis of evil" or "War on Terror". Terrorist attacks perpetuate it, but then the War in Iraq becomes a counterbalance to that. The fear of The Bomb perpetuated the red scares, actually talking to the Russians reasonably counterbalanced this fear.
If the Internet would have been around back in 1964, we'd all be pointing out the stupidity of it all. Referencing Dr. Strangelove and pondering on how close apocalypse was in the Cuban missile crisis, wondering why we let these governments go on deciding the fate of a planet that isn't theirs. A planet that belongs to billions of people.
But the real question is...what will be the next big fear, the next "omnipresent" enemy? The next object of cheesy politican-conjured terms and farcical media reports? You can bet your bottom dollar it'll go out of favour in a matter of years and we'll be there, pointing out the ludricous nature of it all. Groaning with every passing headline, wondering when it'll cease...
I'm not trying to be critical or troll here, but I fail to see how satellite images some of which are over a decade old, and almost all covering urban areas qualifys as allowing the general public to "watch the watchers" as you put it. The maps are meant for geographical/travel purposes, and can be used for little else, (with the exception of pissing off panicky politicians of course :) ).
I agree though, this is a fear-happy world now, though the worlds governments are partly responsible for this, its the media that plays the largest role - they have a responsibility to inform people, and in my opinion they abuse their powers to induce fear. The media would gladly report on that reactor if Aus's government failed to get it censored, and they would sensationalize it to shit. This is different from the Cold War, as one of the main motives behind this reporting is money - advert laden "news" will earn the networks/papers/radio stations money via consumption - guns and ammo sales rocketed after 9/11 for example.
The Cold War was a geniunely fearful time, this culture of fear has an air of utter manipulation, a farce to (as you said) keep control on the masses, keep them consuming, perhaps depressed, and fearful of what was previously a minor threat...a passive hazard.
Marilyn Manson sums it up pretty well : "Its just an endless cycle of fear and consumption...Terror alert changes, cut to commercial, buy our product, if you don't people won't wanna talk to you, buy this otherwise a girl won't wanna fuck you..."
The idea that theres a huge dilemma facing practically everyone involved in wikipedia is somewhat of an exagurration. The destructive trolls, casual users, casual editors and the mods and admins of wikipedia itself.
In the past year, the growth of English language articles has been approximately exponential, the user (and especially administrator) growth will soon be outstripped. Over 50,000 new articles have been created in the past two months - and you can bet these new articles will be of obscurer and obscurer content. However an introduction of "stable" fixed pages will counter this - a single person accomplished in study of the Dark Ages could single-handedly create a couple of articles and request a stablization of said pages.
Wikipedia is self advertised free encyclopedia. This is evidenced by the extensive arguments on the talk pages. How can one prevent trolls and malicious users from screwing up wikis while allowing them to be constantly improved upon? Its a tough problem that only a complex system could fix.
If one looks at all the major articles, they seem pretty much complete. Eg. The article on marijuana is practically perfect and all encompassing. It could be rendered "stable". But what of its legality? Thoughtful editors have even created a "legal issues" page that can be edited once marijuana is legalized (while only a very minor mention is required on the stable page - easily obtained upon request to an admin). This sort of catagorizing could help more and more pages become "stable", thus preventing any trolls.
As somebody who has created about 10 articles, I've only once ran into a troll. A grammar troll specifically, who took a joy in subtly entering some typos in the article for "Earth 2160" a soon-to-be-released Polish game. I corrected his edit and all was well after that. Controversial topics (Ie. George W. Bush, War in Iraq, Michael Moore) will have a greatly increased amount of trolls, but reversals occur within minutes, even seconds, the editors have all this under control.
Stable pages are a fine idea, while sacrificing a minimal amount of freedom. Most minor, obscure pages should be rendered stable immediately, and some major pages too.
The idea of trolls overrunning wikipedia is invalid. I'd wager that the majority of trolls have already impacted the site (a lot of trolls are quite net savvy, and would be aware of wikipedia by now), though wikipedia's popularity is skyrocketing, the vast majority of new users will be there to help/use rather than to hinder - in the long run it seems.
Wikipedia is very close to becoming the finest encyclopedia in the world. Its much better than a lot of its counterparts already, and as time passes, the amount of new articles will inevitably stabilize. By 2008 the encyclopedia should have attained near-perfect status in all but the current events (which is a constant process obviously), and should be renowned everywhere for its content.
Intelligent Design is not a science in any sense, but a theology
Theology is the study of God, religious texts and religions in general, from Anglicanism to Zionism. It is not, as you heavily implied, a component of any religion's beliefs. Theologians reason about religion and the countless different beliefs across the globe, not create new ones. If one creates a new idea they are acting outside of the field. Intelligent Design is a religious idea put forward by some Christians, simple as that.
Heres the wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology
I totally agree with everything else you said, religious doctrine should not be taught in school. Furthermore, with the now prevalent multi-ethnic/multi-faith soceity we live in, school prayer is completely unnessesary and could be considered disrespectful to others belief.
However i'm all for theology/religious study as a whole, as its an inherant part of history and is vital to society, and shall be forever. From the Crusades to the life of the soon to be Saint John Paul II. For some its a fascinating subject, regardless of whether you are of any faith or none. As with many other subjects their should obviously be a choice involved.
This sort of thing is fairly common for shuttle launches in general, in a process which requires many component parts falling debris is inevitable. Of course, the close scrutiny of this launch will have made this coverage equally as inevitable. It appears to be some of the black undercovering of the shuttle just peeled away and fell to Earth. But NASA, ever cautious, says its might be the orbiters tiles themselves that are damage...needless to say its wise to take NASA's comments with a pinch of salt.
For those interested, heres the BBC article;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4719847.stm/
This gentleman speaks the truth! Mod up.
I'm curious as to the mass market appeal this technology possesses. I mean one need have around 5 or 6 Mbps to get an ultra low (>20) ping in game servers reasonably close to home. Also, one can get songs off of iTunes often in under a minute with just a 2 Mbps connection.
Then again, regardless of the blistering speeds this technology (if it ever arrives on Oceanic shores) it will be marketed like crazy. When broadband became seriously commercial in about 2000 the prices were high. Now however, you can get a 1/2 Mbp connection for a fractional amount above your standard 56k connection.
Thus, our current 1/2 - 6Mbps connections could be rendered seemingly obselete by marketers, thus allowing telecommunication companys to make some good cash off of high charges for 50, 80, 100, 200 Mbp connections, a repeat of 2000-2004. It should be profitable, as Joe Sixpack isn't going to be downloading stuff from bittorrent all day long at max speeds...only your niche market geeks would partake in that.
But yeah, as the parent said, this topic is wishful thinking by some anomymous manufacturer. Its not quite hit the "flying car" speculation yet, but its almost certain 100Mbps is quite a long way off anyhow.
Unfortunately NASA just announced the launch was postphoned, due to a faulty fuel tank sensor.
:
Article here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4680687.stm/
Let's hope they can launch it next week, perhaps sooner.
Some Lego, especially the more kid orientated stuff, ie. pirate ships, bionicle, duplo and most smaller kits, etc, can be done without even so much at a glance at the instructions.
I think for kits as large as the Star Destroyer you do need to look at the instructions at least a little, at one stage late in the video they hadn't assembled the top turret of the ship correctly - thus they had to look again and attach some pieces they'd forgot.
When I was a kid I assembled a lot of Lego Technic kits, the ones with a lot of gears and moving parts. Completing a large technic kit without instructions is near enough Impossible. Most of the larger technic models are totally screwed up if a few pieces are out of place, due to the nature of the gears, shafts etc.
This is quite likely the finest result Nasa has had for a long time. To quote a professor who was quite surprised by the event :
"It was like mosquito hitting a 747. What we've found is that the mosquito didn't splat on the surface, it's actually gone through the windscreen."
The photos too, are quite amazing. A huge amount of stellar dust, ice, and rock exploded out of Tempel 1's surface. All from the impact of a probe just the size of a washing machine.
Over the following few days, the second module of the mission will further analyse the materials ejected from the comet, and it is believed scientists will discover much about the creation of the universe (some of the material hasn't been disturbed in over 4 billion years) and the composition of comets in general over the next few months as they complete their analysis of this great event.