that's not what that phrase means. (different uses of "obscurity.")
it's like saying writing your password on a post-it stuck to your monitor is a good security practice because security by obscurity doesn't work.
the best way to protect your privacy _is_ by remaining private. however, i don't think that necessarily precludes social interaction or using web applications like gmail. it really depends on how each particular site handles user privacy. some sites might sell your private info to 3rd parties. google doesn't do that. some companies might give their server logs over to government agencies--google only does this if you're Chinese.
yea, i wrote that before reading the link mrraven posted. in it the author discusses how SUVs are made to much lower safety standards (because they're classified as trucks) than regular cars or minivans made with unit-body construction. and because of this, popular SUVs have some of the worse passenger safety statistics of top-selling vehicles.
FTA (paraphrased for brevity): Cadillac Escalade crash test @35 mph: 16% chance of a life-threatening head injury 20% chance of a life-threatening chest injury 35% chance of a leg injury. The same numbers in a Ford Windstar minivan: 2%, 4%, and 1%.
with less than 1% of earth's atmosphere, those Hellfire missiles would probably fly a whole 5 feet before plummeting to the ground and taking out the robot that launched it. =P
thanks for posting that article. it was quite an interesting read. i'd heard about Rapaille's marketing "codes" in a PBS documentary called "The Persuaders," but that gladwell.com article illustrates the detrimental effects of advertising & marketing even more clearly. it's a rather sad situation when our consumer culture has reverted human beings back to our primitive and irrational reptilian mindsets.
people say that capitalist competition and the free market will drive our society/technology/culture forward. but it's not the technological merits of a product that determines its success; it's not even the usefulness of the product. these days marketing and advertising are what determine commercial success. that is clearly illustrated by the success of the "family SUV."
the article's discussion about consumers' association between cupholders and "safety" also reminds me of another study i read about in which researchers found that people will often make up reasons to justify their purchase choices after the fact. for instance, playing different styled music in a store prompted shoppers to select different types of wine, but when asked about their purchases, consumers inevitably gave their own manufactured reasons for their decision.
better for people who want to realize a direct democracy. without e-voting, you can't overcome the logistical problems that prevent a nation as large as the U.S. from implementing mass referendums, which are key to a true participatory democracy.
part of the problem in America is that the people are so removed from the political process that the government no longer serves an an extension of the will of the people. people don't care about politics because they have little say or control over public policy. but if legislation were passed via broad-based referendums people would become directly involved in policy decisions that affect their everyday lives.
the bipartisan system simply does not work. it only creates the illusion of choice by letting citizens choose which of the two factions of the American business party they want to rule over them. in a participatory democracy, rather than the trash talking about politicians that dominants current political discourse, people would actually discuss the issues that they now get to vote on. this would encourage the public to be more informed and pay more attention to current issues.
besides, if the congressmen who are supposed to represent us don't even bother to read the bills they vote on and pass into law, then we might as well vote on new legislation ourselves. currently the government is run by a political aristocracy that is completely out of touch with the average person. they have no incentive, nor desire, to serve public interest. and with the current campaign financing system, corporate interests are increasingly being placed above the interests of the working class.
so unless you want America t descend into a corporate plutocracy, it is critical that we develop the technology needed to realize a direct participatory-democracy where everyday citizens can vote on everyday issues. the government isn't going to reform itself, so it's up to the people to make those reforms. and the best way to do that is by empowering individuals with the vote--not just every 4 years, and not just for who we want to be our political representative, but actually vote on issues of public policy.
heh, i guess i do go off on a lot of tangents in my posts.
and yea, you're probably right about most fields not requiring textbooks with lots of color. as with most learning technologies, it will probably be adopted gradually, with the disciplines most suitable for B&W texts going first. i'm just skeptical that textbook publishers will pass savings from the absence of printing costs onto the students. they'll probably charge $200 for a hardcover book, and $180 for the e-book.
and if they do go with a subscription model, it'll likely be more expensive than a conventional textbook. i mean, the publishers already have the resale problem covered by releasing new editions every year that have different page numbers, practice problems, etc., forcing students to buy new books each year. what should really be happening is that Universities include textbooks with the cost of tuition and simply buy textbook subscriptions in bulk from the publishers. buying all student textbooks together through the university will give students more leverage to negotiate prices.
most textbooks will only be used by students for one semester anyway, so why not just have the university issue etextbooks to students when they sign up for a class? this way students will always have up-to-date textbooks, and the cost of higher learning would be less prohibitive for a lot of people.
also, i wonder if it'd be possible to build an e-ink display into the top of a standard laptop, so that when the laptop is closed it's put into power-saving mode and just acts like a normal e-book reader. the e-ink display could also be used to display things like new e-mail messages, a calendar/organizer, to-do list, etc.
that's a good point. perhaps they should borrow from existing body designs in nature. of course, things like feathers and the articulation of their wings and shoulders (do birds have shoulders?) would probably be difficult to emulate. and do cormorants have ballasting mechanisms that allow them to dive, or do they simply use downward momentum from a dive to go as deep as they can and then float back up to the surface?
i haven't had much luck with video converters, but if you don't need super high quality and have access to WiFi, PiMPStreamer seems to work on most video formats. you simply run the server on your PC, and the PiMP client on your PSP will let you browse through the video files you've added to the server and let you stream them over WiFi.
i haven't tried it over a WAN connection, but it's pretty convenient when i want to watch movies/shows off of my hard drive from the living room or on the balcony (my bedroom gets really hot during the summer). it also means i don't have to convert and copy each file i want to watch.
of course, if you're going to go somewhere without WiFi this isn't of much use. but that's just one more reason to support municipal wi-fi initiatives. =P
oh, i have no doubt that your ford escort saved your life. especially if it was totaled and you survived. i just mean in general more steel doesn't necessarily equate to more safety.
but it's sorta like the prisoner's dilemma. i mean, if you drive a small light vehicle and you get hit by a big heavy SUV, you'll get a lot more messed up than the SUV driver. and that's the scenario a lot of people focus on. but that kind of thinking would lead to everyone driving bigger and heavier vehicles, which would result in deadlier accidents. whereas, if everyone realized that safety has more to do with things like seat belts, ECS, crumple zones, etc. in addition to driving responsibly (and choosing vehicles responsibly), then the roads would be a lot safer, and accidents would be less deadly. but as it stands right now, people who buy big heavy SUVs only thinking of their own safety just ruin things for people driving more sensible vehicles (and puts them in danger).
now, wanting a more protective bumper is perfectly sensible. and there are lot of other ways of protecting yourself on the road that don't create more hazardous driving conditions. that's what concerned car buyers should focus on.
XviD is an open source codec. and i don't know about yours, but my PSP plays MP3s just fine.
besides, comparing a proprietary entertainment device with an open source operating system is kinda silly. Ubuntu isn't going to come with proprietary codecs for obvious reasons. the PSP isn't marketed as an open source gaming platform, and it already contains a ton of licensed software.
i think distracted drivers are far more likely to kill someone's kids than a governor chip preventing them from getting off of a bridge during an earthquake.
this might be a dumb question, but what's a 5mph bumper? i'm not really a car guy.
also, wouldn't it be better for people to drive in lighter cars with well-designed crumple zones to absorb impacts rather than cars with big heavy steel frames that add momentum/energy to a collision?
just because the car's body holds together during a collision doesn't mean the driver's will. the stronger the car is built the less energy it will absorb in a collision, thus the driver is more likely to be injured. so the idea that you need a big heavy car to protect yourself on the road seems out of line with reality--and it's actually counterproductive as it just makes roads more dangerous.
and despite the perceived trend of cars being built less sturdy than they used to be, car safety has gone up significantly in the past few decades. occupant fatality rates (per 100,000 population) declined 22.7% from 1975 to 1992. and that trend has pretty much continued. occupant injury rate has declined 23.6% from 1992 to 2005.
it's pretty much impossible to permanently brick your PSP nowadays. even if you do something stupid like turn off the PSP while flashing the firmware, you can unbrick it with a Pandora's battery.
right now i mostly use my PSP to read ebooks, listen to audiobooks (i find the PSP's built-in media player too basic for use as a music player), or play PSX games. and with CFW, you don't need to repurchase your PSX games from the playstation store. you can just rip your discs onto your hard drive and convert them into POPS format.
but even if you choose not to go with CFW, i would recommend these under appreciated lesser-known titles: Bounty Hounds - a very well executed sci-fi Action-RPG with stunning graphics and equally great gameplay. the PSP has suffered a dearth of sci-fi RPGs since its launch, so Bounty Hounds is certainly a welcome addition. Field Commander - a fun turn-based strategy game similar in theme to Command & Conquer, but without having to mine for resources. Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command - probably one of the most underrated and original strategy games for the PSP. Squad Command, as its name suggests is centered around squad tactics and is set in the gritty WH40K universe. it's almost like a hybrid of Killzone: Liberation and an SRPG. S.W.A.T. Target Liberty - admittedly, this game isn't for everyone. it's really more of a S.W.A.T. sim than a shooter. and unlike typical shooters, you're rewarded points based on how many people you save (including suspects) rather than how many you kill, which makes it far more challenging than the average run and gun shooter. you'll have to be resourceful, think tactically, and make use less-than-lethal weapons such as flashbangs, smoke grenades, tasers, pepper ball rounds, rubber bullets, C2 charges, etc.
and i know you said you don't like Japanese games, but i think others might enjoy these particular import titles: Gundam Battle Tactics/Royale/Chronicle/Universe - whether you're into Gundam or not, the Gundam Battle series contains some of the best original titles developed exclusively for the PSP. i personally much prefer the Gundam Battle series to Armored Core: Formula Front. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. - Gundam video games have always been notoriously bad, which makes it even more ironic that the PSP has two great Gundam series. well, this one is actually a port of an arcade series, but the original experience seems to have brought over fully intact. Federation vs. ZAFT really pushes the graphical capabilities of the PSP, and the game is much faster-paced than the Gundam Battle series. you'll need to find an online menu translation if you want to try this import though, as its menus are pretty much entirely in Japanese. but the intense gameplay and stunning graphics are definitely worth the effort. Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai/Shin Budokai 2 Another Road - this is a cell shaded 3D fighting game based on the DBZ series. the fighting system isn't as deep as, say, Tekken or SoulCalibur, but that also makes it easier to pick up and get into. the automatic camera movements make the action much more dramatic and also make you feel like you're watching the anime series. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - this really isn't an underrated title like the others, but it is a translated Japanese SRPG. the reason i'm mentioning Disgaea is because it's simply one of the best games for the PSP, and if you haven't bought it yet, you need to do so immediately. forget Final Fantasy Tactics or Jeanne D'Arc. if you like SRPGs, you need this.
honestly, there have been a ton of great games released for the PSP, you just have to look around and find some non-mainstream game review sites. heck, there are a ton of big mainstream titles that are pretty fun too, but there are simply too many to list. anyone still complaining about the PSP lacking good games either isn't looking, or perhaps they should have bought a different console.
unfortunately, almost all mainstream music acts are signed to one of the big four majors. and even lesser known indie artists that are signed to indie labels have to get their distribution through one of the majors.
anything you can buy at Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Megastores, even iTunes, is in some way affiliated with the big four labels, even if the bands themselves aren't signed to Sony/EMI/Universal/Warner Music Group or one of their subsidiaries.
so unless you only get your music from small mom & pop type record stores, you're supporting the RIAA. they get a cut of everything that goes through traditional distribution channels. the only other alternative is to buy music directly from indie artists from their online store (if they have one).
and that's probably one of the greatest things about the internet. it's completely restructured the power dynamics within the media and of the entertainment industry.
what's wrong with comets? aren't they just chunks of dirty ice? they aren't classified differently depending on whether they're in space, in the atmosphere, or on the ground. there's nothing confusing about comets, and it's a useful definition IMO.
audiobooks usually range from 200 MB up to 700-800 MB for a single volume. with educational audio books such as the TTC lectures, a single series can easily run well over 1-2 GB for a single subject--some series even run up to 10 GB.
the GP was simply sharing his personal experience. you're the one extrapolating your habits on to everyone else.
they wouldn't be selling 80 GB and 120 GB iPods if people didn't have 100+ GB mp3 collections.
RTFA. that's what previous attempts have tried to do, and failed.
though i don't see how they're going to have any better luck trying to get a plane to act as a sub. perhaps if they created a vehicle that could radically reconfigure its shape to suit the two different environments it might have a chance of success. but their current design just seems like it would perform poorly in both environments.
as the article stated, the two goals are diametrically opposed. you can't create a single design that will operate both in the air and under water.
i'm not sure what that's supposed to prove. if you panic a large crowd of people by say, threatening their life, you could herd them towards a cliff too. such tactics have been used in many historic battles to corner enemy troops. it's probably one of the more obvious tactics for using terrain to your advantage.
when a large group of individuals/herd of bison/whatever are running from danger, they tend to move as a single mass. this may be an evolutionarily learned trait since in the wild, if a predator is chasing a herd, the animal that is separated from the heard is singled out. aside from protection in numbers, this strategy also allows the mature animals to form a protective wall around the more vulnerable young, so this is a good defense usually.
but large groups of panicked animals, and this includes humans, can be easily herded by a smaller group of coordinated attackers. and once you have a stampede effect where individuals are bunched together, then the individuals at the back are simply following the stampede and cannot see what's ahead, and by the time the individuals at the front can see that there's a cliff they can't stop and simply get pushed over the cliff by the individuals behind them.
i think the issue has become somewhat clouded by the fact that copyright holders are demanding power and control above and beyond what copyright was initially meant to grant (particularly with things like software EULAs). a game developer has the right to control the distribution of their work, but after a work is sold they have no control over how that particular copy is used. reselling naturally shouldn't be considered an infringement of copyrights.
"Fair Use," IMO, ought to cover anything not directly qualifying as copyright infringement. but in its current legal context, it seems to primarily refer to the limited reproduction of a copyrighted work. but just because a particular use of copyrighted materials isn't explicitly listed under fair use doesn't mean that copyright holders can restrict such usage.
for instance, the right to run purchased software on the operating system of one's choosing isn't explicitly covered by fair use. but it has nothing to do with copyright infringement, thus such decisions should not be put in the hands of copyright holders.
where the hell do you live that you actually get to "pick" your ISP? i live about 30 minutes east of L.A. and here we used to only get Adelphia (now Time Warner i think) cable internet. for about 2-3 years we regularly experienced 75% downtime on a daily basis. when Verizon DSL came to our area, we switched over immediately. we still lose connection about 4-5 times a day and sometimes for several hours at a time, and don't get anything close to the advertised speeds, but it's acceptable (we don't really have any choice but to accept it).
the point is, most people don't get to choose who their ISP is. if you're lucky you can choose between cable or DSL, but you're stuck with the provider that is in your area. unless of course you expect people to move to a different city in order to choose a decent ISP.
anyone here ever use the iReport website? i just checked it out expecting it to be like digg or kuro5hin, but the front page "articles" were just vacation photos with descriptions like:
This photo was taken at the Honokalani Black Sand Beach, located in the Wainapanapa State Park on the road to Hana, Maui.
After the photo was taken, our camera was lost in the parking lot. An older couple walked around the State Park with it, waiting for someone to identify the camera case.... Thank heavens for such wonderful people, so we could preserve and share the memories of our trip.
scrolling down i did find some 2-3 paragraph submissions which were editorializing more than reporting on news. and while users are allowed to vote on submissions (it uses a 5 star rating system like youtube), there doesn't seem to be any kind of collaborative filtering system to speak of. even the "highest rated" section only has articles with 10 votes or less.
quite honestly, the demographic of this site seems to be a mix of typical forum trolls mostly posting poorly photoshopped images attempting to be funny, technologically clueless grandmas and grampas who think they're on flickr, and the occasional armchair politician or college pseuodointellectual. there appears to be very little quality control on this site. i mean, the user submissions aren't quite as bad as youtube comments, but it stands in stark contrast to the user-generated content of sites like Wikipedia, E2, Kuro5hin, and even Slashdot.
IMO the problem is not just their poor implementation of collaborative filtering/peer moderation, but also due to companies like CNN/IGN/Sony/etc. not knowing how to seed an online community. quality online communities need to grow in an organic fashion similar to social/cultural movements. sites like E2 or Slashdot start as niche cultures similar to a grassroots movement. they're usually a small tightly knit group of passionate people who are dedicated to the growth and upkeep of the site. these starting members shape the culture of the site and determine the direction of the site's growth. once a viable community has been seeded and a unique subculture established, it will attract new like-spirited members and grow into a larger community.
how CNN has created iReport.com is analogous to astroturfing. rather than a passionate web developer (or group of web developers) coming up with an innovative idea for a new social web app that is fostered and gradually grown into a large online community over the span of a few years, CNN's site was likely conceived of in a board meeting by some marketing consultant to help the company gain street cred or tap into the Web 2.0 craze. in any case, it was created by people who are out of touch with the internet community at large, and who were concerned mainly with increasing CNN's stock value rather than establishing a quality online community.
you can't just create an online community overnight. you can try by spending a ton of money advertising the site. but what you'll end up with is something like iReport. there's no real sense of community, and the signal to noise ratio is incredibly low. it's really no surprise that the quality of the submissions is extremely poor. i don't see how anyone can call the content generated on that site "reporting."
Slashdot Mirror
that's not what that phrase means. (different uses of "obscurity.")
it's like saying writing your password on a post-it stuck to your monitor is a good security practice because security by obscurity doesn't work.
the best way to protect your privacy _is_ by remaining private. however, i don't think that necessarily precludes social interaction or using web applications like gmail. it really depends on how each particular site handles user privacy. some sites might sell your private info to 3rd parties. google doesn't do that. some companies might give their server logs over to government agencies--google only does this if you're Chinese.
yea, i wrote that before reading the link mrraven posted. in it the author discusses how SUVs are made to much lower safety standards (because they're classified as trucks) than regular cars or minivans made with unit-body construction. and because of this, popular SUVs have some of the worse passenger safety statistics of top-selling vehicles.
FTA (paraphrased for brevity):
Cadillac Escalade crash test @35 mph:
16% chance of a life-threatening head injury
20% chance of a life-threatening chest injury
35% chance of a leg injury.
The same numbers in a Ford Windstar minivan: 2%, 4%, and 1%.
with less than 1% of earth's atmosphere, those Hellfire missiles would probably fly a whole 5 feet before plummeting to the ground and taking out the robot that launched it. =P
thanks for posting that article. it was quite an interesting read. i'd heard about Rapaille's marketing "codes" in a PBS documentary called "The Persuaders," but that gladwell.com article illustrates the detrimental effects of advertising & marketing even more clearly. it's a rather sad situation when our consumer culture has reverted human beings back to our primitive and irrational reptilian mindsets.
people say that capitalist competition and the free market will drive our society/technology/culture forward. but it's not the technological merits of a product that determines its success; it's not even the usefulness of the product. these days marketing and advertising are what determine commercial success. that is clearly illustrated by the success of the "family SUV."
the article's discussion about consumers' association between cupholders and "safety" also reminds me of another study i read about in which researchers found that people will often make up reasons to justify their purchase choices after the fact. for instance, playing different styled music in a store prompted shoppers to select different types of wine, but when asked about their purchases, consumers inevitably gave their own manufactured reasons for their decision.
better for people who want to realize a direct democracy. without e-voting, you can't overcome the logistical problems that prevent a nation as large as the U.S. from implementing mass referendums, which are key to a true participatory democracy.
part of the problem in America is that the people are so removed from the political process that the government no longer serves an an extension of the will of the people. people don't care about politics because they have little say or control over public policy. but if legislation were passed via broad-based referendums people would become directly involved in policy decisions that affect their everyday lives.
the bipartisan system simply does not work. it only creates the illusion of choice by letting citizens choose which of the two factions of the American business party they want to rule over them. in a participatory democracy, rather than the trash talking about politicians that dominants current political discourse, people would actually discuss the issues that they now get to vote on. this would encourage the public to be more informed and pay more attention to current issues.
besides, if the congressmen who are supposed to represent us don't even bother to read the bills they vote on and pass into law, then we might as well vote on new legislation ourselves. currently the government is run by a political aristocracy that is completely out of touch with the average person. they have no incentive, nor desire, to serve public interest. and with the current campaign financing system, corporate interests are increasingly being placed above the interests of the working class.
so unless you want America t descend into a corporate plutocracy, it is critical that we develop the technology needed to realize a direct participatory-democracy where everyday citizens can vote on everyday issues. the government isn't going to reform itself, so it's up to the people to make those reforms. and the best way to do that is by empowering individuals with the vote--not just every 4 years, and not just for who we want to be our political representative, but actually vote on issues of public policy.
heh, i guess i do go off on a lot of tangents in my posts.
and yea, you're probably right about most fields not requiring textbooks with lots of color. as with most learning technologies, it will probably be adopted gradually, with the disciplines most suitable for B&W texts going first. i'm just skeptical that textbook publishers will pass savings from the absence of printing costs onto the students. they'll probably charge $200 for a hardcover book, and $180 for the e-book.
and if they do go with a subscription model, it'll likely be more expensive than a conventional textbook. i mean, the publishers already have the resale problem covered by releasing new editions every year that have different page numbers, practice problems, etc., forcing students to buy new books each year. what should really be happening is that Universities include textbooks with the cost of tuition and simply buy textbook subscriptions in bulk from the publishers. buying all student textbooks together through the university will give students more leverage to negotiate prices.
most textbooks will only be used by students for one semester anyway, so why not just have the university issue etextbooks to students when they sign up for a class? this way students will always have up-to-date textbooks, and the cost of higher learning would be less prohibitive for a lot of people.
also, i wonder if it'd be possible to build an e-ink display into the top of a standard laptop, so that when the laptop is closed it's put into power-saving mode and just acts like a normal e-book reader. the e-ink display could also be used to display things like new e-mail messages, a calendar/organizer, to-do list, etc.
that's a good point. perhaps they should borrow from existing body designs in nature. of course, things like feathers and the articulation of their wings and shoulders (do birds have shoulders?) would probably be difficult to emulate. and do cormorants have ballasting mechanisms that allow them to dive, or do they simply use downward momentum from a dive to go as deep as they can and then float back up to the surface?
i haven't had much luck with video converters, but if you don't need super high quality and have access to WiFi, PiMPStreamer seems to work on most video formats. you simply run the server on your PC, and the PiMP client on your PSP will let you browse through the video files you've added to the server and let you stream them over WiFi.
i haven't tried it over a WAN connection, but it's pretty convenient when i want to watch movies/shows off of my hard drive from the living room or on the balcony (my bedroom gets really hot during the summer). it also means i don't have to convert and copy each file i want to watch.
of course, if you're going to go somewhere without WiFi this isn't of much use. but that's just one more reason to support municipal wi-fi initiatives. =P
oh, i have no doubt that your ford escort saved your life. especially if it was totaled and you survived. i just mean in general more steel doesn't necessarily equate to more safety.
but it's sorta like the prisoner's dilemma. i mean, if you drive a small light vehicle and you get hit by a big heavy SUV, you'll get a lot more messed up than the SUV driver. and that's the scenario a lot of people focus on. but that kind of thinking would lead to everyone driving bigger and heavier vehicles, which would result in deadlier accidents. whereas, if everyone realized that safety has more to do with things like seat belts, ECS, crumple zones, etc. in addition to driving responsibly (and choosing vehicles responsibly), then the roads would be a lot safer, and accidents would be less deadly. but as it stands right now, people who buy big heavy SUVs only thinking of their own safety just ruin things for people driving more sensible vehicles (and puts them in danger).
now, wanting a more protective bumper is perfectly sensible. and there are lot of other ways of protecting yourself on the road that don't create more hazardous driving conditions. that's what concerned car buyers should focus on.
XviD is an open source codec. and i don't know about yours, but my PSP plays MP3s just fine.
besides, comparing a proprietary entertainment device with an open source operating system is kinda silly. Ubuntu isn't going to come with proprietary codecs for obvious reasons. the PSP isn't marketed as an open source gaming platform, and it already contains a ton of licensed software.
i think distracted drivers are far more likely to kill someone's kids than a governor chip preventing them from getting off of a bridge during an earthquake.
so save your righteous indignation.
this might be a dumb question, but what's a 5mph bumper? i'm not really a car guy.
also, wouldn't it be better for people to drive in lighter cars with well-designed crumple zones to absorb impacts rather than cars with big heavy steel frames that add momentum/energy to a collision?
just because the car's body holds together during a collision doesn't mean the driver's will. the stronger the car is built the less energy it will absorb in a collision, thus the driver is more likely to be injured. so the idea that you need a big heavy car to protect yourself on the road seems out of line with reality--and it's actually counterproductive as it just makes roads more dangerous.
and despite the perceived trend of cars being built less sturdy than they used to be, car safety has gone up significantly in the past few decades. occupant fatality rates (per 100,000 population) declined 22.7% from 1975 to 1992. and that trend has pretty much continued. occupant injury rate has declined 23.6% from 1992 to 2005.
it's pretty much impossible to permanently brick your PSP nowadays. even if you do something stupid like turn off the PSP while flashing the firmware, you can unbrick it with a Pandora's battery.
right now i mostly use my PSP to read ebooks, listen to audiobooks (i find the PSP's built-in media player too basic for use as a music player), or play PSX games. and with CFW, you don't need to repurchase your PSX games from the playstation store. you can just rip your discs onto your hard drive and convert them into POPS format.
but even if you choose not to go with CFW, i would recommend these under appreciated lesser-known titles:
Bounty Hounds - a very well executed sci-fi Action-RPG with stunning graphics and equally great gameplay. the PSP has suffered a dearth of sci-fi RPGs since its launch, so Bounty Hounds is certainly a welcome addition.
Field Commander - a fun turn-based strategy game similar in theme to Command & Conquer, but without having to mine for resources.
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command - probably one of the most underrated and original strategy games for the PSP. Squad Command, as its name suggests is centered around squad tactics and is set in the gritty WH40K universe. it's almost like a hybrid of Killzone: Liberation and an SRPG.
S.W.A.T. Target Liberty - admittedly, this game isn't for everyone. it's really more of a S.W.A.T. sim than a shooter. and unlike typical shooters, you're rewarded points based on how many people you save (including suspects) rather than how many you kill, which makes it far more challenging than the average run and gun shooter. you'll have to be resourceful, think tactically, and make use less-than-lethal weapons such as flashbangs, smoke grenades, tasers, pepper ball rounds, rubber bullets, C2 charges, etc.
and i know you said you don't like Japanese games, but i think others might enjoy these particular import titles:
Gundam Battle Tactics/Royale/Chronicle/Universe - whether you're into Gundam or not, the Gundam Battle series contains some of the best original titles developed exclusively for the PSP. i personally much prefer the Gundam Battle series to Armored Core: Formula Front.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Rengou vs. Z.A.F.T. - Gundam video games have always been notoriously bad, which makes it even more ironic that the PSP has two great Gundam series. well, this one is actually a port of an arcade series, but the original experience seems to have brought over fully intact. Federation vs. ZAFT really pushes the graphical capabilities of the PSP, and the game is much faster-paced than the Gundam Battle series. you'll need to find an online menu translation if you want to try this import though, as its menus are pretty much entirely in Japanese. but the intense gameplay and stunning graphics are definitely worth the effort.
Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai/Shin Budokai 2 Another Road - this is a cell shaded 3D fighting game based on the DBZ series. the fighting system isn't as deep as, say, Tekken or SoulCalibur, but that also makes it easier to pick up and get into. the automatic camera movements make the action much more dramatic and also make you feel like you're watching the anime series.
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - this really isn't an underrated title like the others, but it is a translated Japanese SRPG. the reason i'm mentioning Disgaea is because it's simply one of the best games for the PSP, and if you haven't bought it yet, you need to do so immediately. forget Final Fantasy Tactics or Jeanne D'Arc. if you like SRPGs, you need this.
honestly, there have been a ton of great games released for the PSP, you just have to look around and find some non-mainstream game review sites. heck, there are a ton of big mainstream titles that are pretty fun too, but there are simply too many to list. anyone still complaining about the PSP lacking good games either isn't looking, or perhaps they should have bought a different console.
big 4 = RIAA. it's the same people.
unfortunately, almost all mainstream music acts are signed to one of the big four majors. and even lesser known indie artists that are signed to indie labels have to get their distribution through one of the majors.
anything you can buy at Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Megastores, even iTunes, is in some way affiliated with the big four labels, even if the bands themselves aren't signed to Sony/EMI/Universal/Warner Music Group or one of their subsidiaries.
so unless you only get your music from small mom & pop type record stores, you're supporting the RIAA. they get a cut of everything that goes through traditional distribution channels. the only other alternative is to buy music directly from indie artists from their online store (if they have one).
and that's probably one of the greatest things about the internet. it's completely restructured the power dynamics within the media and of the entertainment industry.
what's wrong with comets? aren't they just chunks of dirty ice? they aren't classified differently depending on whether they're in space, in the atmosphere, or on the ground. there's nothing confusing about comets, and it's a useful definition IMO.
neither are you.
audiobooks usually range from 200 MB up to 700-800 MB for a single volume. with educational audio books such as the TTC lectures, a single series can easily run well over 1-2 GB for a single subject--some series even run up to 10 GB.
the GP was simply sharing his personal experience. you're the one extrapolating your habits on to everyone else.
they wouldn't be selling 80 GB and 120 GB iPods if people didn't have 100+ GB mp3 collections.
RTFA. that's what previous attempts have tried to do, and failed.
though i don't see how they're going to have any better luck trying to get a plane to act as a sub. perhaps if they created a vehicle that could radically reconfigure its shape to suit the two different environments it might have a chance of success. but their current design just seems like it would perform poorly in both environments.
as the article stated, the two goals are diametrically opposed. you can't create a single design that will operate both in the air and under water.
keep your britches on. no one's trying to take away your steak. he was simply making an observation.
i'm not sure what that's supposed to prove. if you panic a large crowd of people by say, threatening their life, you could herd them towards a cliff too. such tactics have been used in many historic battles to corner enemy troops. it's probably one of the more obvious tactics for using terrain to your advantage.
when a large group of individuals/herd of bison/whatever are running from danger, they tend to move as a single mass. this may be an evolutionarily learned trait since in the wild, if a predator is chasing a herd, the animal that is separated from the heard is singled out. aside from protection in numbers, this strategy also allows the mature animals to form a protective wall around the more vulnerable young, so this is a good defense usually.
but large groups of panicked animals, and this includes humans, can be easily herded by a smaller group of coordinated attackers. and once you have a stampede effect where individuals are bunched together, then the individuals at the back are simply following the stampede and cannot see what's ahead, and by the time the individuals at the front can see that there's a cliff they can't stop and simply get pushed over the cliff by the individuals behind them.
hrmm... thanks for bringing that to my attention.
i think the issue has become somewhat clouded by the fact that copyright holders are demanding power and control above and beyond what copyright was initially meant to grant (particularly with things like software EULAs). a game developer has the right to control the distribution of their work, but after a work is sold they have no control over how that particular copy is used. reselling naturally shouldn't be considered an infringement of copyrights.
"Fair Use," IMO, ought to cover anything not directly qualifying as copyright infringement. but in its current legal context, it seems to primarily refer to the limited reproduction of a copyrighted work. but just because a particular use of copyrighted materials isn't explicitly listed under fair use doesn't mean that copyright holders can restrict such usage.
for instance, the right to run purchased software on the operating system of one's choosing isn't explicitly covered by fair use. but it has nothing to do with copyright infringement, thus such decisions should not be put in the hands of copyright holders.
they did, it's called "Infernal Affairs." there's actually a whole series of them that came out long before The Departed was made.
where the hell do you live that you actually get to "pick" your ISP? i live about 30 minutes east of L.A. and here we used to only get Adelphia (now Time Warner i think) cable internet. for about 2-3 years we regularly experienced 75% downtime on a daily basis. when Verizon DSL came to our area, we switched over immediately. we still lose connection about 4-5 times a day and sometimes for several hours at a time, and don't get anything close to the advertised speeds, but it's acceptable (we don't really have any choice but to accept it).
the point is, most people don't get to choose who their ISP is. if you're lucky you can choose between cable or DSL, but you're stuck with the provider that is in your area. unless of course you expect people to move to a different city in order to choose a decent ISP.
$output =~ tr/[l,r]/[r,l]/ig;
anyone here ever use the iReport website? i just checked it out expecting it to be like digg or kuro5hin, but the front page "articles" were just vacation photos with descriptions like:
scrolling down i did find some 2-3 paragraph submissions which were editorializing more than reporting on news. and while users are allowed to vote on submissions (it uses a 5 star rating system like youtube), there doesn't seem to be any kind of collaborative filtering system to speak of. even the "highest rated" section only has articles with 10 votes or less.
quite honestly, the demographic of this site seems to be a mix of typical forum trolls mostly posting poorly photoshopped images attempting to be funny, technologically clueless grandmas and grampas who think they're on flickr, and the occasional armchair politician or college pseuodointellectual. there appears to be very little quality control on this site. i mean, the user submissions aren't quite as bad as youtube comments, but it stands in stark contrast to the user-generated content of sites like Wikipedia, E2, Kuro5hin, and even Slashdot.
IMO the problem is not just their poor implementation of collaborative filtering/peer moderation, but also due to companies like CNN/IGN/Sony/etc. not knowing how to seed an online community. quality online communities need to grow in an organic fashion similar to social/cultural movements. sites like E2 or Slashdot start as niche cultures similar to a grassroots movement. they're usually a small tightly knit group of passionate people who are dedicated to the growth and upkeep of the site. these starting members shape the culture of the site and determine the direction of the site's growth. once a viable community has been seeded and a unique subculture established, it will attract new like-spirited members and grow into a larger community.
how CNN has created iReport.com is analogous to astroturfing. rather than a passionate web developer (or group of web developers) coming up with an innovative idea for a new social web app that is fostered and gradually grown into a large online community over the span of a few years, CNN's site was likely conceived of in a board meeting by some marketing consultant to help the company gain street cred or tap into the Web 2.0 craze. in any case, it was created by people who are out of touch with the internet community at large, and who were concerned mainly with increasing CNN's stock value rather than establishing a quality online community.
you can't just create an online community overnight. you can try by spending a ton of money advertising the site. but what you'll end up with is something like iReport. there's no real sense of community, and the signal to noise ratio is incredibly low. it's really no surprise that the quality of the submissions is extremely poor. i don't see how anyone can call the content generated on that site "reporting."
ok, did that second sentence make absolutely no sense to anyone else until they actually looked up the word "therblig?"
and who the hell makes up a new word by reversing their last name? honestly, who does that?