It's important to understand the difference between a distributor and a game studio. Epic Megagames (and I believe Digital Extremes) are the folks that have actually created the game. They have gone to great lengths to ensure that there is a linux version for folks like us to play without having to boot into windows.
The idiots at GTI are the ones that have decided, for no discernable reason, not to include the linux executables. If you want to snub GT, simply order direct from Epic, if they offer it direct.
In any case, it is GTI that is snubbing linux, not the actual game creators. GTI was purchased by Infogrames this past Tuesday, let's hope the new management has a better clue for future releases.
If you snub them for this, then in the future it's likely they won't bother to create a linux version at all. Far better to bitch to GTI/Infogrames.
While I am in no way sympathetic to Scientology, there is no denying them their right to free speech simply because they are calling germans nazis. Free speech is a principle that protects both the bad and the good. Do away with the bad and you lose the good as well. I think them doing so is rude and displays a marked lack of respect for Germans in general, but I would never seek legal censure to prevent them from saying that.
Realistically, scientology makes so many ridiculous claims that you'd be hard pressed to find a group that hasn't been offended by them. Pretty much the only folks they (supposedly) like are other scientologists.
As far as US politicians asking Germans to be nice to scientologists, do what we do and ignore them (the politicians).
The irony occured to me only after posting it. Immediately after posting it occured to me that "right" should have been replaced with "ability" but that the result was not sufficiently awry to merit a corrective posting. I personally am not affiliated with any political party, being more inclined to pick and choose amongst the lizards (HHGTTG reference) of all parties.
If only the US government spent one tenth of the amount of money they are currently spending to fight encryption to instead promote it. Then projects like this would have ample funding for the next 100 years.
Sometimes I wish taxpayers had the right to tell the government to stop wasting their money.
First of all, I disagree that "technology" is tragic. Technology is an attempt to find practical application for knowledge. If technology is tragic then the quest for knowledge is as well. Unless you buy into the whole concept of hubris, chances are that won't fly with you either.
Technology is just the favorite whipping boy because it's so blatantly obvious. The same tragedies that happen with technological issues can happen without technological issues as well. Just as fusion power is a lofty concept until somebody makes a fusion powered death ray, a human's hands seem to be elegant adaptations until somebody uses them to strangle the life out of an 8 year old kid.
If you're hard set about finding a tragedy, look at human nature. We are the ones that can turn a beneficial invention into a device of destruction. Technology is merely one of the many means to that end.
Examples like coal power producing pollution have nothing to do with technology. What if coal didn't produce pollution? Then we'd still use it as a power source. The fact that coal does pollute has led to the technology of burning coal to be gradually phased out in favor of cleaner fuels.
While I would agree that there is tragedy in Disney's failed legacy, that has everything to do with the politics of corporations and nothing to do with technology. Politics have been around for as long as mankind has been able to impress itself with lies.
I disagree. Ignoring him won't expose him to be a blithering idiot (if such is your aim). This is a perfect opportunity to allow JP to impale himself on one of the most public geek arenas the world has to offer.
If JP gives his typical type of responses then this will be the single most significant way to eliminate any shreds of reputation he has managed to cling to. As posted above this, there are now a lot of mainstream media folks who (sortof) pay attention to/. now. A single editorial in a mainstream mag could completely annihilate him.
Unlike some other things, I don't think network security is an area where any publicity is equivalent to good publicity. Bad publicity can definitely take him down. At the very least, it will spread his name as a crackpot far enough that ISPs won't take down competitors based on his word alone.
If you haven't read it, do so. Like most of Stephenson's other stuff it provides a lot of humor in the midst of some neat scifi exploration that is almost precisely in tune with this sort of thing.
It's even got the implantee freaking out when driving by a microwave relay tower (better shield that implant).
Actually emotional control has been possible for years with the right mix of drugs. Pharmacuticals are capable of producing a wide range of emotions.
About the only positive use I could see for something like this is a sort of "anti-panic" calming device. For folks with strong phobias that want the "blind panic" mode to go away or something like that.
I agree that there are a number of less altruistic methods something like this could be used for.
I'm fairly neutral to Katz. The problem I think a lot of folks have with him is that he (arguably) commits the crime of not researching or not thinking through his arguments. This is a geek forum and it's heavy on the attitude that you should know what the heck you're talking about. I have been justifiably moderated down several times for shooting from the hip, and I'm starting to learn not to open my mouth without having something to back it up.
The problem with Katz is that he often doesn't back himself up. He makes assertions that are sometimes at best speculative, and then he fails to provide proof. Usually (although IMO not for this article) the controversy is created by him since it doesn't exist IRL. It works for mainstream journalism, but this is a forum for those with a little more intellect.
That said, personal attacks are usually in poor taste. It's far more meaningful to show that somebody's arguments are full of crap than to flame them because of it. All personal attacks accomplish is to annoy the target to the point where they most likely won't bother to read anything meaningful you happen to be saying.
The actions of the principal and police in this story seem a tad abrupt to me. Are there any lawyers out there who know if this is indeed the case?
It seems like the kid was jailed without legal representation for a crime that was at best speculative. He's also *way* a minor so I find it difficult to believe that he could be held for 5 days in an actual jail without being transferred to a juvenile facility.
Just how deep did they dig themselves for a mondo damages lawsuit? If I was that kid's parents I'd go for several million and dismissal of the teacher and the principal.
The MPAA was involved in the rating itself. The government allows/requires films to be rated by the MPAA.
The MPAA itself is a conservative institution that rates media on a set of criteria that is fairly puritan. Knowing full well that a rating above R will financially doom a film, they hold the power to coerce a studio into censoring a film.
While the government is not directly involved, they encourage censorship through a ratings system. They are also taking steps to do this with computer games. A few years back the "industry" (aka the major publishers) instituted a so called voluntary ratings system on software, because the government threatened to install a mandatory ratings system. A recent debate on slashdot centered over how some chains are now being pressured to actually enforce these voluntary ratings.
Don't be fooled into thinking the government has no involvement.
Well, increasing evidence points to the brain being more plastic than previously thought as far as forming new synapses. I believe you are correct that some training could be accomplished, but probably not as much as would be required to make full use of such an interface.
To take another approach, perhaps it would be possible to examine the existing interface and come up with something that mimics it well enough that the brain doesn't have to do a lot of rewiring to figure it out. For a damaged eye (using your example) if some of it was still working then perhaps it will someday be possible to observe the way the undamaged portion works and then improve upon that.
Creating a completely new and improved interface might be difficult. To do something like Jordy's visor in STNG would probably not be possible without training from birth.
I could be wrong on this, but from what I understand the problems with replacing a retina are more concerned with the interface to our nervous system than any lack of ability to create an artificial means of input.
I'm not even sure that it would be possible to improve on the optic interface (by making more receptors with small components) since I'm pretty sure most of the way the brain processes optical information is pretty much "set". Maybe if you did it for a baby and they could grow up with it.
Re:The Earth is not a closed control volume
on
Darwin's Radio
·
· Score: 1
Also I've seen arguments that life is an effective assistant to entrophy. How much energy is lost converting sunlight to chemical (photosynthesized) energy? How much energy and order is lost converting plant mass to animal mass? I don't recall the exact numbers, but it takes an extraordinary amount of plant mass to produce even a small amout of animal mass. The resulting waste product is also nicely disordered.
Indeed, I just checked and google has no trouble finding other search engines. To the extent that you can enter "lycos" and click the "I feel lucky" search and end up on their main page.
Should have posted a sarcasm statement next to that one. Really, most of my best friends (and my wife) are christian. Just because I jest about fighting Jesus I get labelled as a troll. It's not like Southpark hasn't done worse.
Nice story Katz, I enjoyed this one more than most of your stuff.
Although it is disturbing, it's also amazingly amusing. Let's hope that if the game does become popular enough to be mentioned in the (mainstream) media that somebody with a sense of irony has a field day with it.
I wonder if the demon path gives you a shot at Jesus or Jehovah, I've always wanted to discuss "creative differences" with them;)
I don't know about source, but there are a lot of old games floating around out there under the category of "abandonware". I recommend Home of the Underdogs, The Gaming Depot, and Gangsters.org for good sources of old software.
Checking those links right now, I see that Underdog's is currently down for maintenance, but I recommend checking them periodically as it is one of the best sources of quality old software. Note that while abandonware is not always sanctioned by the companies who originally created the games, most abandonware sites make an effort not to provide games that are still being marketed or whose manufacturer's request that the games not be made freely available. If you hold extreme negative views regarding what constitues software piracy then you may want to stay away from abandonware. I can't speak for The Gaming Depot, but Underdog always honors requests from game manufacturers requesting removal of games.
The main focus of the pro-ratings enforcement editor seems to be that "industry spokespeople" are merely enforcing an agreed upon ratings system. For those that recall, when the ratings system was first put in place, it was explicitly mentioned that it would not be used to restrict the purchase of games.
Funny how these things work. Ratings are a vehicle that provide an easy target for censorship. Once you can get sales restricted to age groups, none of the major publishers and game company VCs will put money towards a game that isn't rated G. The vast majority of small shops that produce real games (aka games with mature content) will fold or be forced to sell out. It's a very simple process and it's worked before with motion pictures.
Particularly disturbing is the implication that the industry spokespeople actually exist and that they represent the wishes of the consumer and the development shops. When was the last time you saw all the gaming companies agree on something?
Kill the censors, before they make everything "kid safe".
Gee, somebody faked hacking for MTV's fake special on hacking so that people with a fake understanding of technology could fake comprehension of the hacker culture. I'm sensing a trend.
Some of that has to do with the timing. Quake2's cycle was a tad ahead of Unreal partially because they weren't going to great lengths to make it customizable. Also, marketing at Epic was eyeing the market to sell game engines (to other game companies) a little more than I believe JC was.
I liked Q2 when it came out but I avidly followed Unreal for about 2 years prior to release so my judgement may be a bit biased. It seems to me that the entire Unreal engine is geared at being customized.
I'm not familiar enough with Q3A, so I can't really say if iD has regained the ground in that department but I'm sure that at some point in the future JC & iD will embrace it.
I agree about the playability though. Unreal smokes just about everybody in beauty but they definitely need a bit of help with the gameplay.
The page fails on the #1 criteria: Kids won't buy it.
Give your average intelligence hacker (with the correct usage), they will take one look at this page and laugh.
The second point they fail on is the fact that crackers and script kiddies typically don't give a crap about the morality of their actions. This site can't hope to compete with the sites that advocate malicious scripting and cracking. The "Mr. Rodgers" comment in the editorial seems all too apt.
There is one example of punishment being meted out and it goes to the kid that crashed a phone system by accident. While it certainly is prudent to understand the repercussions of your actions it hardly seems like a good example since it is rare that anybody (let alone a child) believes they don't know what they are doing. A better example would have been something involving a deliberate cracking.
Mixed in the lame crap is this little paragraph: "DON'T try to break into computers. It's not a game. It's a crime and it's an invasion of privacy. Computers often contain sensitive information. How would you feel if someone broke into a computer and changed your grades? Deleted your term paper? Cut off your telephone?"
Funny, coming from a group that wants to be able to break into your computer at will. Even if you are able to ignore the hypocrisy, it completely ignores the fact that the only way to be (reasonably) sure a system is secure is to try to hack it. But then if you use NT it's supposed to be solid as a rock right?
Overall, I agree with the editorial. It's phrased a tad more aggresively than I would have done but the points seem to be valid.
It's too bad I don't believe in reincarnation. I'd love to be reborn in a genetically altered form a la Nancy Kress' "Beggars in Spain".
Seriously though, I don't see the article as being overly realistic. Fixes to known defects would theoretically be possible since we have working models of how it should work. Creating new and improved genes however is a different story. DNA code is like billions of lines of obsfucated C. There's no telling if the protein you just coded for bigger brains will also result in a smaller liver and complete lack of pancreas.
Add to this the fact that the chance of political groups allowing folks to make test runs of genetically altered babies that might just keel over and die is rather small. I think the 50 year time frame *might* be realistic in a world without ethics or concern for the welfare of any altered progeny. In other words, multiply by 3 (abritrary number) to get 150 years.
The article actually seems to be focusing on the digital identity verification rather than the distribution of patient records. I'm not really qualified to judge the state of digital certificates but I'm thinking they could pick a worse method for verifying identity.
My major concern is that the article doesn't mention any effort to restrict medical information to doctors who actually have you as a patient. If all licensed doctors have access to this information then all a company has to do to gain access is to employ a real doctor or contract the services of a research company that does.
I can see some possible abuses. Companies trying to get a deal on insurance rates by screening potential employees for health problems is the first thing that comes to mind.
3d gaming is obviously a specialty of yours. All the way back to Wolf3d what has driven the 3d gaming technology has been a combination between hardware technology and innovative programming. With technology advancing at a fast pace and you having a broad understanding of 3d programming issues you are in a very select position of having a good idea of what may happen for the future.
What do you see as the next major advance in 3d gaming? Something like Doom or Quake was to the 3d gaming scene when they came out? Lately it seems that all we do is get prettier graphics and cooler weapons with each new engine. What do you see as being the next advance that has an impact like those games?
Slashdot Mirror
It's important to understand the difference between a distributor and a game studio. Epic Megagames (and I believe Digital Extremes) are the folks that have actually created the game. They have gone to great lengths to ensure that there is a linux version for folks like us to play without having to boot into windows.
The idiots at GTI are the ones that have decided, for no discernable reason, not to include the linux executables. If you want to snub GT, simply order direct from Epic, if they offer it direct.
In any case, it is GTI that is snubbing linux, not the actual game creators. GTI was purchased by Infogrames this past Tuesday, let's hope the new management has a better clue for future releases.
If you snub them for this, then in the future it's likely they won't bother to create a linux version at all. Far better to bitch to GTI/Infogrames.
While I am in no way sympathetic to Scientology, there is no denying them their right to free speech simply because they are calling germans nazis. Free speech is a principle that protects both the bad and the good. Do away with the bad and you lose the good as well. I think them doing so is rude and displays a marked lack of respect for Germans in general, but I would never seek legal censure to prevent them from saying that.
Realistically, scientology makes so many ridiculous claims that you'd be hard pressed to find a group that hasn't been offended by them. Pretty much the only folks they (supposedly) like are other scientologists.
As far as US politicians asking Germans to be nice to scientologists, do what we do and ignore them (the politicians).
The US is the moral leader of the free world?
The irony occured to me only after posting it. Immediately after posting it occured to me that "right" should have been replaced with "ability" but that the result was not sufficiently awry to merit a corrective posting. I personally am not affiliated with any political party, being more inclined to pick and choose amongst the lizards (HHGTTG reference) of all parties.
If only the US government spent one tenth of the amount of money they are currently spending to fight encryption to instead promote it. Then projects like this would have ample funding for the next 100 years.
Sometimes I wish taxpayers had the right to tell the government to stop wasting their money.
First of all, I disagree that "technology" is tragic. Technology is an attempt to find practical application for knowledge. If technology is tragic then the quest for knowledge is as well. Unless you buy into the whole concept of hubris, chances are that won't fly with you either.
Technology is just the favorite whipping boy because it's so blatantly obvious. The same tragedies that happen with technological issues can happen without technological issues as well. Just as fusion power is a lofty concept until somebody makes a fusion powered death ray, a human's hands seem to be elegant adaptations until somebody uses them to strangle the life out of an 8 year old kid.
If you're hard set about finding a tragedy, look at human nature. We are the ones that can turn a beneficial invention into a device of destruction. Technology is merely one of the many means to that end.
Examples like coal power producing pollution have nothing to do with technology. What if coal didn't produce pollution? Then we'd still use it as a power source. The fact that coal does pollute has led to the technology of burning coal to be gradually phased out in favor of cleaner fuels.
While I would agree that there is tragedy in Disney's failed legacy, that has everything to do with the politics of corporations and nothing to do with technology. Politics have been around for as long as mankind has been able to impress itself with lies.
I disagree. Ignoring him won't expose him to be a blithering idiot (if such is your aim). This is a perfect opportunity to allow JP to impale himself on one of the most public geek arenas the world has to offer.
/. now. A single editorial in a mainstream mag could completely annihilate him.
If JP gives his typical type of responses then this will be the single most significant way to eliminate any shreds of reputation he has managed to cling to. As posted above this, there are now a lot of mainstream media folks who (sortof) pay attention to
Unlike some other things, I don't think network security is an area where any publicity is equivalent to good publicity. Bad publicity can definitely take him down. At the very least, it will spread his name as a crackpot far enough that ISPs won't take down competitors based on his word alone.
If you haven't read it, do so. Like most of Stephenson's other stuff it provides a lot of humor in the midst of some neat scifi exploration that is almost precisely in tune with this sort of thing.
It's even got the implantee freaking out when driving by a microwave relay tower (better shield that implant).
Actually emotional control has been possible for years with the right mix of drugs. Pharmacuticals are capable of producing a wide range of emotions.
About the only positive use I could see for something like this is a sort of "anti-panic" calming device. For folks with strong phobias that want the "blind panic" mode to go away or something like that.
I agree that there are a number of less altruistic methods something like this could be used for.
I'm fairly neutral to Katz. The problem I think a lot of folks have with him is that he (arguably) commits the crime of not researching or not thinking through his arguments. This is a geek forum and it's heavy on the attitude that you should know what the heck you're talking about. I have been justifiably moderated down several times for shooting from the hip, and I'm starting to learn not to open my mouth without having something to back it up.
The problem with Katz is that he often doesn't back himself up. He makes assertions that are sometimes at best speculative, and then he fails to provide proof. Usually (although IMO not for this article) the controversy is created by him since it doesn't exist IRL. It works for mainstream journalism, but this is a forum for those with a little more intellect.
That said, personal attacks are usually in poor taste. It's far more meaningful to show that somebody's arguments are full of crap than to flame them because of it. All personal attacks accomplish is to annoy the target to the point where they most likely won't bother to read anything meaningful you happen to be saying.
The actions of the principal and police in this story seem a tad abrupt to me. Are there any lawyers out there who know if this is indeed the case?
It seems like the kid was jailed without legal representation for a crime that was at best speculative. He's also *way* a minor so I find it difficult to believe that he could be held for 5 days in an actual jail without being transferred to a juvenile facility.
Just how deep did they dig themselves for a mondo damages lawsuit? If I was that kid's parents I'd go for several million and dismissal of the teacher and the principal.
The MPAA itself is a conservative institution that rates media on a set of criteria that is fairly puritan. Knowing full well that a rating above R will financially doom a film, they hold the power to coerce a studio into censoring a film.
While the government is not directly involved, they encourage censorship through a ratings system. They are also taking steps to do this with computer games. A few years back the "industry" (aka the major publishers) instituted a so called voluntary ratings system on software, because the government threatened to install a mandatory ratings system. A recent debate on slashdot centered over how some chains are now being pressured to actually enforce these voluntary ratings.
Don't be fooled into thinking the government has no involvement.
Well, increasing evidence points to the brain being more plastic than previously thought as far as forming new synapses. I believe you are correct that some training could be accomplished, but probably not as much as would be required to make full use of such an interface.
To take another approach, perhaps it would be possible to examine the existing interface and come up with something that mimics it well enough that the brain doesn't have to do a lot of rewiring to figure it out. For a damaged eye (using your example) if some of it was still working then perhaps it will someday be possible to observe the way the undamaged portion works and then improve upon that.
Creating a completely new and improved interface might be difficult. To do something like Jordy's visor in STNG would probably not be possible without training from birth.
I could be wrong on this, but from what I understand the problems with replacing a retina are more concerned with the interface to our nervous system than any lack of ability to create an artificial means of input.
I'm not even sure that it would be possible to improve on the optic interface (by making more receptors with small components) since I'm pretty sure most of the way the brain processes optical information is pretty much "set". Maybe if you did it for a baby and they could grow up with it.
Also I've seen arguments that life is an effective assistant to entrophy. How much energy is lost converting sunlight to chemical (photosynthesized) energy? How much energy and order is lost converting plant mass to animal mass? I don't recall the exact numbers, but it takes an extraordinary amount of plant mass to produce even a small amout of animal mass. The resulting waste product is also nicely disordered.
Indeed, I just checked and google has no trouble finding other search engines. To the extent that you can enter "lycos" and click the "I feel lucky" search and end up on their main page.
Woo! Google!
Should have posted a sarcasm statement next to that one. Really, most of my best friends (and my wife) are christian. Just because I jest about fighting Jesus I get labelled as a troll. It's not like Southpark hasn't done worse.
Nice story Katz, I enjoyed this one more than most of your stuff.
;)
Although it is disturbing, it's also amazingly amusing. Let's hope that if the game does become popular enough to be mentioned in the (mainstream) media that somebody with a sense of irony has a field day with it.
I wonder if the demon path gives you a shot at Jesus or Jehovah, I've always wanted to discuss "creative differences" with them
Checking those links right now, I see that Underdog's is currently down for maintenance, but I recommend checking them periodically as it is one of the best sources of quality old software. Note that while abandonware is not always sanctioned by the companies who originally created the games, most abandonware sites make an effort not to provide games that are still being marketed or whose manufacturer's request that the games not be made freely available. If you hold extreme negative views regarding what constitues software piracy then you may want to stay away from abandonware. I can't speak for The Gaming Depot, but Underdog always honors requests from game manufacturers requesting removal of games.
The main focus of the pro-ratings enforcement editor seems to be that "industry spokespeople" are merely enforcing an agreed upon ratings system. For those that recall, when the ratings system was first put in place, it was explicitly mentioned that it would not be used to restrict the purchase of games.
Funny how these things work. Ratings are a vehicle that provide an easy target for censorship. Once you can get sales restricted to age groups, none of the major publishers and game company VCs will put money towards a game that isn't rated G. The vast majority of small shops that produce real games (aka games with mature content) will fold or be forced to sell out. It's a very simple process and it's worked before with motion pictures.
Particularly disturbing is the implication that the industry spokespeople actually exist and that they represent the wishes of the consumer and the development shops. When was the last time you saw all the gaming companies agree on something?
Kill the censors, before they make everything "kid safe".
Gee, somebody faked hacking for MTV's fake special on hacking so that people with a fake understanding of technology could fake comprehension of the hacker culture. I'm sensing a trend.
kill -9 mtv
Some of that has to do with the timing. Quake2's cycle was a tad ahead of Unreal partially because they weren't going to great lengths to make it customizable. Also, marketing at Epic was eyeing the market to sell game engines (to other game companies) a little more than I believe JC was.
I liked Q2 when it came out but I avidly followed Unreal for about 2 years prior to release so my judgement may be a bit biased. It seems to me that the entire Unreal engine is geared at being customized.
I'm not familiar enough with Q3A, so I can't really say if iD has regained the ground in that department but I'm sure that at some point in the future JC & iD will embrace it.
I agree about the playability though. Unreal smokes just about everybody in beauty but they definitely need a bit of help with the gameplay.
The page fails on the #1 criteria: Kids won't buy it.
Give your average intelligence hacker (with the correct usage), they will take one look at this page and laugh.
The second point they fail on is the fact that crackers and script kiddies typically don't give a crap about the morality of their actions. This site can't hope to compete with the sites that advocate malicious scripting and cracking. The "Mr. Rodgers" comment in the editorial seems all too apt.
There is one example of punishment being meted out and it goes to the kid that crashed a phone system by accident. While it certainly is prudent to understand the repercussions of your actions it hardly seems like a good example since it is rare that anybody (let alone a child) believes they don't know what they are doing. A better example would have been something involving a deliberate cracking.
Mixed in the lame crap is this little paragraph:
"DON'T try to break into computers. It's not a game. It's a crime and it's an invasion of privacy. Computers often contain sensitive information. How would you feel if someone broke into a computer and changed your grades? Deleted your term paper? Cut off your telephone?"
Funny, coming from a group that wants to be able to break into your computer at will. Even if you are able to ignore the hypocrisy, it completely ignores the fact that the only way to be (reasonably) sure a system is secure is to try to hack it. But then if you use NT it's supposed to be solid as a rock right?
Overall, I agree with the editorial. It's phrased a tad more aggresively than I would have done but the points seem to be valid.
It's too bad I don't believe in reincarnation. I'd love to be reborn in a genetically altered form a la Nancy Kress' "Beggars in Spain".
Seriously though, I don't see the article as being overly realistic. Fixes to known defects would theoretically be possible since we have working models of how it should work. Creating new and improved genes however is a different story. DNA code is like billions of lines of obsfucated C. There's no telling if the protein you just coded for bigger brains will also result in a smaller liver and complete lack of pancreas.
Add to this the fact that the chance of political groups allowing folks to make test runs of genetically altered babies that might just keel over and die is rather small. I think the 50 year time frame *might* be realistic in a world without ethics or concern for the welfare of any altered progeny. In other words, multiply by 3 (abritrary number) to get 150 years.
The article actually seems to be focusing on the digital identity verification rather than the distribution of patient records. I'm not really qualified to judge the state of digital certificates but I'm thinking they could pick a worse method for verifying identity.
My major concern is that the article doesn't mention any effort to restrict medical information to doctors who actually have you as a patient. If all licensed doctors have access to this information then all a company has to do to gain access is to employ a real doctor or contract the services of a research company that does.
I can see some possible abuses. Companies trying to get a deal on insurance rates by screening potential employees for health problems is the first thing that comes to mind.
3d gaming is obviously a specialty of yours. All the way back to Wolf3d what has driven the 3d gaming technology has been a combination between hardware technology and innovative programming. With technology advancing at a fast pace and you having a broad understanding of 3d programming issues you are in a very select position of having a good idea of what may happen for the future.
What do you see as the next major advance in 3d gaming? Something like Doom or Quake was to the 3d gaming scene when they came out? Lately it seems that all we do is get prettier graphics and cooler weapons with each new engine. What do you see as being the next advance that has an impact like those games?