The REAL enemy is NOT the banks/Wall Street/Big Corps...Its FUCKING BIG GOVERNMENT!! The government that practically FORCED banks to make loans to people who had ZERO capability of repaying the loans.
Irregardless of the [citation needed] aspect of this statement, did the government force the rating agencies and banks to repackage said loans as A, AA, AAA packages and sell them to investors? That, if anything, was a LACK of government oversight (i.e. regulators.)
The government that falls all over itself to pass laws that are written by 4-letter groups who are part/parcel of the mass media, with said laws being totally against the Constitution.
And who owns the mass media? (I'll give you a hint, it's not the government.)
With the shellacking that the "New American Communist Party" got in 2008, I strongly doubt Dear Leader is going to risk allowing another debacle like that.. Knowing how corrupt this regime is, I'd not put it past him to stage a false-flag "incident" that inflames the country, giving him the ammo he needs to declare martial law, shut down ANY sources of info besides his pet media, better known now as Pravda or the Ministry of Propaganda.
While I have no great love for our current president; I really don't get the fear that he's angling for martial law and some kind of communist agenda. He has waaay to many corporate benefactors for that to be true. You really think goldman sachs is interested in a president that wants to claim their money "for the people"?
I highly recommend you spend some time studying socialism and communism before accusing the democratic party of being interested in them. No doubt there are socialists in the party, but the laws the government passes are more in line with a corporateocracy than any of the "isms."
Global warming is a done discussion. Governments and corporations are already moving to adapt -- except for a few parasites like the Koch brothers (who are funding much of the anti-science "research" that you are lapping up so eagerly), who simply need to be pried off our nation's neck and burned like the blood-ticks that they are.
This has absolutely nothing to do with light, and instead has absolutely incredible implications for power generation. Graphene geothermal probes for more efficiency, graphene cooling tubes for maximum gas/oil/coal electric power generation, nuclear power (bonus: extra radiation protection)... Hell, strap graphene to just about any process that involves waste heat and get power for "free!"
This would be perfect in a car if they could use it to cool the engine as well as generate elecity without a generator.
From TFA:
In most materials, superheated electrons would transfer energy to the lattice around them. In the case of graphene, however, that’s exceedingly hard to do, since the material’s strength means it takes very high energy to vibrate its lattice of carbon nuclei — so very little of the electrons’ heat is transferred to that lattice.
Perhaps I'm reading that wrong, but it sounds like it captures heat. Unless it rapidly converts said heat to electricity that strikes me as a good way to increase the heat in your engine compartment, not reduce it.
The costs of education are definately rising faster than general inflation.
Filler classes definately suck.
I'm assuming (dangerous I know) that you're referring to liberal arts eduction. I say this because technical schools and job training programs focus only on 'work place based class work.'
Personally, I prefer working with those with liberal arts style training. All those theory based classes (if well done) train someone to wrap their head around abstract concepts. For example, a business person with some basic understanding of scientific theory will know the difference between causation and correlation. Similarly, a tech or research person with a basic understanding of finance can understand and make a better case for using X high cost method over Y low cost method.
Put another way, the cross training involved in liberal arts education gives all those involved a common language to speak. Something that someone who focuses only on their particular 'work place' will not share.
Wasn't there a guy in Ohio who found a cheap, rapid way to turn water into hydrogen and made a water powered ICE? Anyone have a clue why we're not taking advantage of that invention? Or have I just recalled some old hoax?
"Any man who is willing to sacrifice a little liberty to gain a little security deserves neither and will lose both."
Many people I speak with deny this quote applies to the activities of the U.S. government during the War on * (currently Terrorism) because law abiding citizens are not effected. The claim is, "Only those who break the law will be concerned about this, do you break the law?"
No, I do not break the law, but I do study history.
Typically change comes about slowly. Honestly I trust the current administration to use these powers as they advertise, to combat terrorism. Pretty "soon" (10-50 yrs.) citizens will consider these monitoring activities normal. The controversy will be about other bits of liberty that citizens must give up to make their nation more secure. People in power have a tendency to increase their power for various reasons. Unless the U.S. is truly blessed by God we will eventually get a truly evil or truly incompetent (or both) leader who will use the power others have built up improperly. (e.g. A religious nut who will institute thought crime, a hawk who will attempt to take over the world, a despot who will abolish our Federation, whatever else you can think of.) They will have the tools to crush opposition, given to them by generations of politicians with noble causes. Monitoring phone calls/transcripts is just one of those tools and I personally don't think the government should have it in their toolbox.
Rogue_LeaderX
Note: I'm made many statements here without providing concrete examples. I highly recommend studying China's dynastic cycles and/or European political history since the fall of Rome (especially after Louis the XIV in France.) Another good resource is Winston Churchill's volumes on WWII. Please don't just skim Wikipedia's entries. Wikipedia's overviews due show the changes, but lack any description of how they came about which, in my opinion, is more relevant to our current political debate.
But keep in mind, most people who game for hours on end aren't necessarily looking to move around much. - MaWeiTao
But keep in mind, Nintendo isn't targeting 'most people who game for hours' with Wii; they're trying to break in to the 'I'd never play a stupid video game' market.
I've got to jump in here: I work at a place that was a compaq shop, then hp/compaq, and now corporate accountants decided that Dell's price makes them the best. The switch from HP to Dell has happened within the six months, so this is a very recent take on the two companies.
1. Server Room
- Techs have taken to calling the server's 'Turkey Roasters.' The current plan for next Thanksgiving is to setup a box with Dell servers and bake a turkey for the office grunts.
- Since installing Dell servers we need to purchase another airconditioner, we had an industrial one installed shortly before the switch. The room is getting so hot the fire department comes out periodically because the heat alarms are tripped. In fact, the fire department got so pissed with us they upped the temp on our alarms. (Note: these are not fire alarms; I'm not certain why the fire department even comes out for it. Working at a factory my guess is that it is hot enough to combust some of the matiels they work with on the other side of the wall.)
2. WorkStations - Shortly after the switch we got some brand new HP/AMD dual-core workstations for some of our engineers. Management wasn't too happy, but they couldn't return them. The engineers love them; they're noticeably faster than the Dell workstation purchased for them a year earlier, especially w/ the CAD software. We've also purchased slightly better specced Dell workstations. The purchaser is pissed, he doesn't really have room for the case (Think the old full-size cases for AT MB servers, the really big ones. It's wider and just as tall) in their department and having used one of the HP's prior to the purchase he doesn't understand why the product he paid for is slower than the one bought a few months earlier. Plus we've had trouble getting our CAD software to work properly on the new Dell's, and their tech support is clueless once they run out of script to read.
3. PC's
I'm sorry my friend but I believe your information is dated. HP has begun using ASUS motherboards in their PC's. I recently purchased one for home because it was dirt cheap, ~$250 with a 17" CRT after rebates, which I've gotten, and a Compaq only model of one of Asus' newest MB lines. It was pretty much the MB I wanted to purchase with some memory, a case, SATA HD, and CRT for 2x the cost of the MB. Don't know what you think of ASUS, but their MB's have served me well. One lasted 6 yrs before I gave it away, from what I understand it's still going strong. While I did have to pay the MS tax, I was able to install a clean copy of XP with compaq's disk and choose, yes choose to install the 'value added' software from a seperate disk. Oddly enough, I chose not to install most of it...
I will say this, my father-in-law loves Dell, even after having trouble with recent PC purchases and complaining about their (lack of) tech support. What he really loves is his 10-25% discount through the AAA, at least that's what I think. My brother-in-law used to love Dells. Then he got into FPS's (First Person Shooter's for the unitiated) and started getting blown away by his friends. He solved this problem by gutting the Dell and building his own computer w/i the case. He likes his new Dual Core AMD powered box, and now fights on even grounds w/ his friends. No word on his winning or losing though.
Or they could find a prominent proponent of the hoax theory and bring him or her with. It would have to be someone who had a solid repution in the lunar hoax community, though people will probably still accuse them of being bought out. I have no idea who this person might be, but I'm certain with a little research and some personal contact they could find the right guy/gal to take with.
It appears that the U.S. reaching the moon meant their victory in the space race (to the U.S. at least.) Wonder if the first private company to reach the moon will win the private sector space race.
Agreed, the big difference is that a greater % of people attend University (or college if you prefer.) This means that a greater % of the illiterate are attending University, especially as education become increasingly commoditized. 'Corporate' educators care more about your ability to pay tuition then your ability to add correctly. Fortunately, I do not think most universities are 'corporate' yet, but that could be my youthful optimism.
Sigh... you realize that Adblock is going to switch the primary costs for the internet from advertisers to users.
Please stop using for the rest of us. I for one cannot afford to pay for all the content I look at daily. Can you?
A question for you:
Are you willing to pay for the content you browse for on the internet? Currently advertisers pay for the majority of the 'free' content; however, if everyone stips these adverts out then those hosting the content will need to make money somehow. So, are you willing to pay for your online content? If not, I highly recommend you stop filtering your internet, consider showing up to the movie on time (movie tickets are expensive enough) and consider buying your games for playability, content, and general 'funness' irregardless of any advertising in the game.
Granted, adverts can destroy the feel for a game. I'd hate to see a glowing nike swoosh near alpha centurai as the first human to explore the system. Or the Pizza Hut advert in the ancient Mayan ruins.
I agree with the sentiment of 'done well, this could be a very good thing. Done poorly, I won't be buying the game.' - But I try to avoid poorly done games anyway.
Giving this protest group the benefit of the doubt considering the ridiculous demands they are making I have come up with an alternate theory:
Peacoholics is actually a group funded by Rockstar to generate press about their games via protest. I imagine that funding a volunteer organization is much cheaper than bying advertisement in all the major gaming mags and websites. And not only is this method cheaper, but it reaches a wider audience! Ingenious, way to go Rockstar. They should patent the idea and sell it to EA. EA could fund a protest group of disgruntled NFL fans to protest 'Football Simulater xx23 - with even better graphics!' Wait, I'll patent the idea and sell it to EA. None of ya'll tell anyone, ok?
1. China still has a huge number of farmers who do not have electricity.
1. China has a huge number of wealthy city dwellers who have electricity.
2. Most of the people living outside of the major cities have hardly any money at all and get most of their news from radios or TVs which are run by generator and are communal radios/TVs.
2. China has a growing, urban middle class who have extra cash to spend and want the same luxuries as many 'westerners.' This may be Hollywood's biggest success story.
3. Unlike the US - the people of China do not have the "I've gotta have it!" kind of outlook. It is more like how the US used to be. The "If it won't solve my problems I don't want it." kind of outlook. And their major problems are food, clean water, medicines, and shelter. Electricity would be nice but just having enough fuel to keep the fire burning is better in some areas. (I'm not saying all of China is backwards or anything like that. Just that in some areas they live with the land and have more basic needs than some electronic gadget.)
3. Remember, China has roughly 1.1 billion people. Even if this is true for 1 billion of their residents, 100 million is still a lot of Shandras to sell. Could this money be better invested? Oh yeah. There is a rising, younger generation that lacks the patriotic ideals that fueled their parents financial decisions. How do I know this? I witnessed it first hand. I am not claiming that there are 100 million Chinese who would buy a shandra rather than save their money or invest it in an initiative to improve their country. I am saying that the number of people who view part of their income as 'disposable' is growing. I personally think the shandra could do well. You've got to remember, China's urban population alone rivals the population of the U.S.
It'd be good for the US and China to get into a trade war NOW while China still doesn't have too much leverage against us. Yeah, they could do a good bit of damage, but nothing we couldn't recover from within five to ten years from.
I happen to work IT in the manufacturing industry. We actually still have factories in the U.S. But, many factories in the area I live (Chicago-land) are being turned into condos. We've had to find new suppliers because many don't have enough business to stay afloat. Just rebuilding the U.S.'s manufacturing capability would take 10+ years, and there's no guarantee that the economy would recover with it. Also, if it looks like the U.S. is going to tank, how likely are all our foreign creditors to pull out? We might have to sell off our military hardware to pay off the trillions of dollars we owe. I still don't understand why people aren't more pissed off about the debt their representatives have run up. Then again, it's an apt reflection of many American's spending habits.
I happen to be related to a guild actor who does work for Ubisoft. He's informed me that most of the voice talent the industry uses is non-union. In fact, many of the voices are programmers who get no bonuses or royalties for adding their voice. (This may explain many of the terrible voice overs.) My relative charges what he needs to make a living doing this, and, according to him, typically costs less than non-union talent. Why? Because he gets done in 1 hour what takes them 2 or 3.
I'd work for dirt-cheap as a Linux admin, because I don't really know what I'm doing. I could FAQ my way around, but it'd take me 3-4x as long as an experienced professional. In the end, I'd cost more even though I get paid less.
Is my uncle famous? Does his name help sell video games? I doubt it, but, did you like the voice acting for the moniter in HALO?
One quick question: how many kids know how a book is made, or how it 'works?' Yet these kids still learn from books. They even learn how books are made and work from books! Why should flash, video games, and propreitary applications be any different from books? You can use them to teach things other than how they work.
Just last year the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to a private corporation, so privately run tollways = already exists.
http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2004/10/28/skyw ay_lease_finalized.php
Coincidentally, I no longer use the skyway...
Let's consider a hypopethetical world where software patents are illegal and Microsoft tried this.
Alacritech sues Microsoft for breach of contract and wins.
Some result, no messy patent system.
Not a critique of your statement, a critique of the patent system.
If you want endgame content play FFXI. If you can get to level 60 in three weeks I'll be shocked (unless all you do is play the game for 16 hrs a day) and there's so much to do that after ~9 mo. of playing i'm not even through 1/2 of the ever expanding content.
The fipside of this coin for a game designed to take awhile is that it takes awhile to occomplish things. For those who are impatient and want a high level warrior with a sword of uberness +1 easily this is not the game for you.
I agree with those who view this as a smart move by IBM. Here's why:
1. They sell a branch of the company that was often losing money for cold hard cash.
2. They get 19% of a Chinese company, giving them a way past China's trade barriars. They get a headstart on everyone else providing high end technology services to a booming Chinese economy that lacks said expertese and has the means to pay for it. Meanwhile HP languishes under two divisions of PC manufacturing (HP & Compaq.) Way to go Carly... but I digress.
3. Did I mention that this gives IBM a way to sell products and services to the Chinese? Potentially billions to be made before the Chinese technology providers mature to IBM's level. (Note: I'm not saying that China lacks intelligent people, it's just that the US/Western world has spents decades longer training thousands more techs. It won't take them long to catchup though.)
4. If the US screws up their economy too bad IBM has a lifeline! I really hope that letting the dollar fall in value helps with the trade gap and makes it possible for US manufacturing to pick back up. I do not think that the US economy will crash in 10 or 20 years. I do worry that it will crash in 50 to 100 years. I also fear that the US will decide the best thing to do is plunder a few countries via conquest with their surplus military equipment... anyway, that's hopeless speculation. Although, economically we are similar to Rome militarily. The Romans were so confident in their legions that they stopped inovating. After all, they conquered everyone worth conquering, right? Wrong, they got beat by wandering nomads who actually fought differently than the Romans were used to: how dare they?! Western based companies, often spear headed by American companies, have dominated the economy for fifty years now, but people are starting to play by their own rules. Will they be able to compete or will the 'barbarians' decimate their legions with unorthodox tactics. I honestly hope something in the middle happens... but now this is just the rambling of an IT guy who majored in History.
Slashdot Mirror
The REAL enemy is NOT the banks/Wall Street/Big Corps...Its FUCKING BIG GOVERNMENT!! The government that practically FORCED banks to make loans to people who had ZERO capability of repaying the loans.
Irregardless of the [citation needed] aspect of this statement, did the government force the rating agencies and banks to repackage said loans as A, AA, AAA packages and sell them to investors? That, if anything, was a LACK of government oversight (i.e. regulators.)
The government that falls all over itself to pass laws that are written by 4-letter groups who are part/parcel of the mass media, with said laws being totally against the Constitution.
And who owns the mass media? (I'll give you a hint, it's not the government.)
With the shellacking that the "New American Communist Party" got in 2008, I strongly doubt Dear Leader is going to risk allowing another debacle like that.. Knowing how corrupt this regime is, I'd not put it past him to stage a false-flag "incident" that inflames the country, giving him the ammo he needs to declare martial law, shut down ANY sources of info besides his pet media, better known now as Pravda or the Ministry of Propaganda.
While I have no great love for our current president; I really don't get the fear that he's angling for martial law and some kind of communist agenda. He has waaay to many corporate benefactors for that to be true. You really think goldman sachs is interested in a president that wants to claim their money "for the people"? I highly recommend you spend some time studying socialism and communism before accusing the democratic party of being interested in them. No doubt there are socialists in the party, but the laws the government passes are more in line with a corporateocracy than any of the "isms."
Try to make it through one day without breaking at least one law, I dare you.
Global warming is a done discussion. Governments and corporations are already moving to adapt -- except for a few parasites like the Koch brothers (who are funding much of the anti-science "research" that you are lapping up so eagerly), who simply need to be pried off our nation's neck and burned like the blood-ticks that they are.
Except the Koch brothers latest efforts were less than fruitful: http://www.berkeleyearth.org/Resources/Berkeley_Earth_Averaging_Process
This has absolutely nothing to do with light, and instead has absolutely incredible implications for power generation. Graphene geothermal probes for more efficiency, graphene cooling tubes for maximum gas/oil/coal electric power generation, nuclear power (bonus: extra radiation protection)... Hell, strap graphene to just about any process that involves waste heat and get power for "free!"
This would be perfect in a car if they could use it to cool the engine as well as generate elecity without a generator.
From TFA:
In most materials, superheated electrons would transfer energy to the lattice around them. In the case of graphene, however, that’s exceedingly hard to do, since the material’s strength means it takes very high energy to vibrate its lattice of carbon nuclei — so very little of the electrons’ heat is transferred to that lattice.
Perhaps I'm reading that wrong, but it sounds like it captures heat. Unless it rapidly converts said heat to electricity that strikes me as a good way to increase the heat in your engine compartment, not reduce it.
The costs of education are definately rising faster than general inflation. Filler classes definately suck. I'm assuming (dangerous I know) that you're referring to liberal arts eduction. I say this because technical schools and job training programs focus only on 'work place based class work.' Personally, I prefer working with those with liberal arts style training. All those theory based classes (if well done) train someone to wrap their head around abstract concepts. For example, a business person with some basic understanding of scientific theory will know the difference between causation and correlation. Similarly, a tech or research person with a basic understanding of finance can understand and make a better case for using X high cost method over Y low cost method. Put another way, the cross training involved in liberal arts education gives all those involved a common language to speak. Something that someone who focuses only on their particular 'work place' will not share.
Wasn't there a guy in Ohio who found a cheap, rapid way to turn water into hydrogen and made a water powered ICE? Anyone have a clue why we're not taking advantage of that invention? Or have I just recalled some old hoax?
"Any man who is willing to sacrifice a little liberty to gain a little security deserves neither and will lose both." Many people I speak with deny this quote applies to the activities of the U.S. government during the War on * (currently Terrorism) because law abiding citizens are not effected. The claim is, "Only those who break the law will be concerned about this, do you break the law?" No, I do not break the law, but I do study history. Typically change comes about slowly. Honestly I trust the current administration to use these powers as they advertise, to combat terrorism. Pretty "soon" (10-50 yrs.) citizens will consider these monitoring activities normal. The controversy will be about other bits of liberty that citizens must give up to make their nation more secure. People in power have a tendency to increase their power for various reasons. Unless the U.S. is truly blessed by God we will eventually get a truly evil or truly incompetent (or both) leader who will use the power others have built up improperly. (e.g. A religious nut who will institute thought crime, a hawk who will attempt to take over the world, a despot who will abolish our Federation, whatever else you can think of.) They will have the tools to crush opposition, given to them by generations of politicians with noble causes. Monitoring phone calls/transcripts is just one of those tools and I personally don't think the government should have it in their toolbox. Rogue_LeaderX Note: I'm made many statements here without providing concrete examples. I highly recommend studying China's dynastic cycles and/or European political history since the fall of Rome (especially after Louis the XIV in France.) Another good resource is Winston Churchill's volumes on WWII. Please don't just skim Wikipedia's entries. Wikipedia's overviews due show the changes, but lack any description of how they came about which, in my opinion, is more relevant to our current political debate.
But keep in mind, most people who game for hours on end aren't necessarily looking to move around much. - MaWeiTao But keep in mind, Nintendo isn't targeting 'most people who game for hours' with Wii; they're trying to break in to the 'I'd never play a stupid video game' market.
I've got to jump in here: I work at a place that was a compaq shop, then hp/compaq, and now corporate accountants decided that Dell's price makes them the best. The switch from HP to Dell has happened within the six months, so this is a very recent take on the two companies.
1. Server Room
2. WorkStations - Shortly after the switch we got some brand new HP/AMD dual-core workstations for some of our engineers. Management wasn't too happy, but they couldn't return them. The engineers love them; they're noticeably faster than the Dell workstation purchased for them a year earlier, especially w/ the CAD software. We've also purchased slightly better specced Dell workstations. The purchaser is pissed, he doesn't really have room for the case (Think the old full-size cases for AT MB servers, the really big ones. It's wider and just as tall) in their department and having used one of the HP's prior to the purchase he doesn't understand why the product he paid for is slower than the one bought a few months earlier. Plus we've had trouble getting our CAD software to work properly on the new Dell's, and their tech support is clueless once they run out of script to read.- Techs have taken to calling the server's 'Turkey Roasters.' The current plan for next Thanksgiving is to setup a box with Dell servers and bake a turkey for the office grunts.
- Since installing Dell servers we need to purchase another airconditioner, we had an industrial one installed shortly before the switch. The room is getting so hot the fire department comes out periodically because the heat alarms are tripped. In fact, the fire department got so pissed with us they upped the temp on our alarms. (Note: these are not fire alarms; I'm not certain why the fire department even comes out for it. Working at a factory my guess is that it is hot enough to combust some of the matiels they work with on the other side of the wall.)
3. PC's ...
I'm sorry my friend but I believe your information is dated. HP has begun using ASUS motherboards in their PC's. I recently purchased one for home because it was dirt cheap, ~$250 with a 17" CRT after rebates, which I've gotten, and a Compaq only model of one of Asus' newest MB lines. It was pretty much the MB I wanted to purchase with some memory, a case, SATA HD, and CRT for 2x the cost of the MB. Don't know what you think of ASUS, but their MB's have served me well. One lasted 6 yrs before I gave it away, from what I understand it's still going strong. While I did have to pay the MS tax, I was able to install a clean copy of XP with compaq's disk and choose, yes choose to install the 'value added' software from a seperate disk. Oddly enough, I chose not to install most of it
I will say this, my father-in-law loves Dell, even after having trouble with recent PC purchases and complaining about their (lack of) tech support. What he really loves is his 10-25% discount through the AAA, at least that's what I think. My brother-in-law used to love Dells. Then he got into FPS's (First Person Shooter's for the unitiated) and started getting blown away by his friends. He solved this problem by gutting the Dell and building his own computer w/i the case. He likes his new Dual Core AMD powered box, and now fights on even grounds w/ his friends. No word on his winning or losing though.
Or they could find a prominent proponent of the hoax theory and bring him or her with. It would have to be someone who had a solid repution in the lunar hoax community, though people will probably still accuse them of being bought out. I have no idea who this person might be, but I'm certain with a little research and some personal contact they could find the right guy/gal to take with.
It appears that the U.S. reaching the moon meant their victory in the space race (to the U.S. at least.) Wonder if the first private company to reach the moon will win the private sector space race.
Agreed, the big difference is that a greater % of people attend University (or college if you prefer.) This means that a greater % of the illiterate are attending University, especially as education become increasingly commoditized. 'Corporate' educators care more about your ability to pay tuition then your ability to add correctly. Fortunately, I do not think most universities are 'corporate' yet, but that could be my youthful optimism.
Sigh ... you realize that Adblock is going to switch the primary costs for the internet from advertisers to users.
Please stop using for the rest of us. I for one cannot afford to pay for all the content I look at daily. Can you?
A question for you: Are you willing to pay for the content you browse for on the internet? Currently advertisers pay for the majority of the 'free' content; however, if everyone stips these adverts out then those hosting the content will need to make money somehow. So, are you willing to pay for your online content? If not, I highly recommend you stop filtering your internet, consider showing up to the movie on time (movie tickets are expensive enough) and consider buying your games for playability, content, and general 'funness' irregardless of any advertising in the game. Granted, adverts can destroy the feel for a game. I'd hate to see a glowing nike swoosh near alpha centurai as the first human to explore the system. Or the Pizza Hut advert in the ancient Mayan ruins. I agree with the sentiment of 'done well, this could be a very good thing. Done poorly, I won't be buying the game.' - But I try to avoid poorly done games anyway.
Giving this protest group the benefit of the doubt considering the ridiculous demands they are making I have come up with an alternate theory: Peacoholics is actually a group funded by Rockstar to generate press about their games via protest. I imagine that funding a volunteer organization is much cheaper than bying advertisement in all the major gaming mags and websites. And not only is this method cheaper, but it reaches a wider audience! Ingenious, way to go Rockstar. They should patent the idea and sell it to EA. EA could fund a protest group of disgruntled NFL fans to protest 'Football Simulater xx23 - with even better graphics!' Wait, I'll patent the idea and sell it to EA. None of ya'll tell anyone, ok?
I happen to be related to a guild actor who does work for Ubisoft. He's informed me that most of the voice talent the industry uses is non-union. In fact, many of the voices are programmers who get no bonuses or royalties for adding their voice. (This may explain many of the terrible voice overs.) My relative charges what he needs to make a living doing this, and, according to him, typically costs less than non-union talent. Why? Because he gets done in 1 hour what takes them 2 or 3. I'd work for dirt-cheap as a Linux admin, because I don't really know what I'm doing. I could FAQ my way around, but it'd take me 3-4x as long as an experienced professional. In the end, I'd cost more even though I get paid less. Is my uncle famous? Does his name help sell video games? I doubt it, but, did you like the voice acting for the moniter in HALO?
One quick question: how many kids know how a book is made, or how it 'works?' Yet these kids still learn from books. They even learn how books are made and work from books! Why should flash, video games, and propreitary applications be any different from books? You can use them to teach things other than how they work.
Just last year the city of Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to a private corporation, so privately run tollways = already exists. http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2004/10/28/skyw ay_lease_finalized.php
Coincidentally, I no longer use the skyway ...
Let's consider a hypopethetical world where software patents are illegal and Microsoft tried this. Alacritech sues Microsoft for breach of contract and wins. Some result, no messy patent system. Not a critique of your statement, a critique of the patent system.
If you want endgame content play FFXI. If you can get to level 60 in three weeks I'll be shocked (unless all you do is play the game for 16 hrs a day) and there's so much to do that after ~9 mo. of playing i'm not even through 1/2 of the ever expanding content. The fipside of this coin for a game designed to take awhile is that it takes awhile to occomplish things. For those who are impatient and want a high level warrior with a sword of uberness +1 easily this is not the game for you.
I agree with those who view this as a smart move by IBM. Here's why:
... but I digress.
... anyway, that's hopeless speculation. Although, economically we are similar to Rome militarily. ... but now this is just the rambling of an IT guy who majored in History.
1. They sell a branch of the company that was often losing money for cold hard cash.
2. They get 19% of a Chinese company, giving them a way past China's trade barriars. They get a headstart on everyone else providing high end technology services to a booming Chinese economy that lacks said expertese and has the means to pay for it. Meanwhile HP languishes under two divisions of PC manufacturing (HP & Compaq.) Way to go Carly
3. Did I mention that this gives IBM a way to sell products and services to the Chinese? Potentially billions to be made before the Chinese technology providers mature to IBM's level. (Note: I'm not saying that China lacks intelligent people, it's just that the US/Western world has spents decades longer training thousands more techs. It won't take them long to catchup though.)
4. If the US screws up their economy too bad IBM has a lifeline! I really hope that letting the dollar fall in value helps with the trade gap and makes it possible for US manufacturing to pick back up. I do not think that the US economy will crash in 10 or 20 years. I do worry that it will crash in 50 to 100 years. I also fear that the US will decide the best thing to do is plunder a few countries via conquest with their surplus military equipment
The Romans were so confident in their legions that they stopped inovating. After all, they conquered everyone worth conquering, right? Wrong, they got beat by wandering nomads who actually fought differently than the Romans were used to: how dare they?! Western based companies, often spear headed by American companies, have dominated the economy for fifty years now, but people are starting to play by their own rules. Will they be able to compete or will the 'barbarians' decimate their legions with unorthodox tactics. I honestly hope something in the middle happens