I've always liked the Total War series (since Shogun) but must admit to having been caught referring to some of the "history" I learned from the games. Rome:TW is particularly bad in this regard. Granted that the player can drastically alter the outcome of history, for instance by having a massive Portuguese empire take over all of Europe by 1250 A.D., but it would still be nice to be playing with actual historically significant events and persons.
There was a big debate over on the Europa Universalis 3 (a strategy game that takes place from 1399 to 1821) forums about the same issue.
You had people who wanted the historical characters and events on one side, but then you have the side who wants historical plausibility without being straight jacketed into events that still happen regardless of the geopolitical situation.
The developers did favor the historical plausibility side by having events that had triggers that did not rely on dates alone, but they of course compromised by having the option to turn on hard coded rulers.
One of the biggest complaints about EU2 is that nations who historically were conquered or collapsed would case to have new leaders after a certain date and you'd have an immortal leader with no change of government until the end of the game.
So if you, as the player, were able to make say the Golden Khanate survive the Moskovy invasion, then you'd run into this problem real quick in the 1500s.
The same thing would happen for events such as Austria inheriting Hungary. If you were playing multiplayer against other players, you simply have this knowledge that at a particular date you'll get all of Hungary's provinces regardless of how well you are they were doing.
You could be a one province Austria and still inherit a 100 province Hungary.
Anyways... The gist of the matter is that you can't really have events that just happen regardless of the game situation. It has to take into the fact the player can change history quite drastically.
I mean, would you imagine George Washington ever being important or alive had the French or Spanish took over the English colonies in the early 1700's?
What if Napoleon died early in his career? Or if Nelson didn't get shot by a stray bullet.
One thing that would annoy me if one of my Generals always died on a certain hard coded date no matter what I did.
You can argue over all the variables of crop yields, oil reserves, etc, and it only changes when, not if, mass global food shortages will come.
I don't see what the problem is. Overpopulation is a self correcting system.
Either technology will be improved to allow for the new population numbers or a war will ensue thereby creating more technology in the process (ie WWII)
To say technology can't solve the problem is a bit small minded. It has been solving the problem for over 500 years in advancements in agricultural and industrial production. In fact, even with population increase, last decade there were more than 100 million less people in extreme poverty.
Now it is not sustainable with current technology, but technology constantly improves because there is a demand for it.
To say the world going to fall apart into anarchy is just dumb. If it would have, it would have done so in the 1930's or 1970's when the global situation is quite worse..
Doesn't mean people should stop breeding, but that its not doom and gloom as people put it.
This bullshit is exactly what's wrong with our entire capitalist system.
The problem is that companies that don't leverage their money (instead of sitting on it) will be beaten by their competitors that do when done wisely.
Therefore... Public companies that don't do this will be run out of business or berated by their shareholders.
Sure it sucks, but its like arguing that guns are unfair to bring to a knife fight. You use whatever tools are at your disposal or you get eaten by the other guy who does.
The biggest thing at the end of the Wikipedia article you read is that, whatever the reason the money is needed, it's cheaper than getting it from a bank. If a corporation is big enough and has good enough credit, they can issue corporate paper, at a lower interest rate, instead of paying interest to a bank.
Just wanted to chime in that Corporations avoid bank loans like the plague simply because they don't want the strings attached with what they can do with that loan money.
With stocks and bonds, they basically have free hand to do whatever they want with the money.
That's too much exercise. The mouse is perfect for a lazy engineer like me. I just prop my arm on the desk and move my hand left or right. I barely move at all!
I saw an article a while back about helping paralyzed people communicate or move around and there was this development in which they could put a device much like a hearing aid in their ear and they could move a mouse by simply moving their tongue and the device would detect tongue movement based of the change in air pressure in the ear canal.
If it turns out to be that sensitive, then I don't see why we can't start using that and get even less movement at all.:)
If you spend 10 mins per day turning you pc on and setting up your work environment, and 5 mins closing everything, the cost of your time spent on this task will negate $25 saved ten times.
Actually, I worked business who was very conscious about electricity costs and security issues (aka people using bittorrent on work machines over night).
Basically, the rule was, if you didn't have a business reasons for leaving your computer on overnight you were required to shut it off after you left. If you didn't, then the closing manager would do so at the expense of whatever you were currently running.
Then in the morning, the opening manager (the guy who turned the alarm off) would come in and turn on all the machines before the employees came in so they couldn't use the excuse that they were wasting time in the morning waiting for it to boot.
So anyone complaining that booting their computer in the morning takes too long either needs to set an auto-boot schedule or just have the first person who comes in the office turn everyone's computer on.
Other sources have been tried (electricity was the first) but gasoline took precedence because it was cheap and efficient, and I don't see any reason to change that.
Economic failures aside, there may come another time when gasoline is no longer cheap again.
Specifically, excessive attempts to elminate germs can, in addition to creating super-bugs, cause our immune system to malfunction. Without the constant exercisng of our immune system by germs, our immune system goes into overdrive by generating an immune response to things (e.g., pollen) that are not germs.
No, its the overuse and abuse of prescribed anti-biotics that are creating the superbugs. Not the over use of hand sanitizers.
Hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial soap do not create superbugs. They may create bugs that are more resistant to those products, but a bug resistant to those will find different conditions in the human body. (It can be argued that no bacteria could possible evolve to withstand rubbing alcohol and then survive the PH of the human body)
That said, the real concern is that when you do become infected that the bacteria is resistant to anti-biotics. After all, we do not drink a bottle of Purell or drink hand soap when we have strep throat. We get a prescription of penicillin which is our last line of defense.
We can't ingest bleach or anything else once our body becomes infect.
No, soaps and hand-sanitizers are not the root cause of the "super-bug" but rather over prescription of anti-biotics which once a bacteria becomes immune too, there is nothing you can do to fight it.
I think he neglects to mention an underlying assumption that no software is perfect, and given enough time and effort, the chances of finding a security flaw that can be exploited is greater than zero in ANY piece of software.
I don't believe this to be true if enough focus on security is made.
Software can be made secure at the expense of functionality. Now this doesn't ever solve the problem of local access, but if you made your OS into a glorified terminal server, you can prevent automated attacks by restricted what the user can do by default.
Of course the user might be hindered somewhat, but sometimes that is the price to pay.
During the internet bubble, real businesses that produced real goods that real people bought with real money were considered to be worthless.
Here is a bit of economic theory I like to throw around on discussion on the value of gold.
In reality, those real businesses producing real goods with real money is still as valuable as the rest of the world thinks it is. It is the key reason that gold is no longer a true blue intrinsic commodity.
If you have a thousands pounds of gold stranded on an island and another guy has food and water, who do you think is going to be more popular?
I mean you can't eat gold or make it work for you like stocks and bonds.
In reality, the economy has shifted towards a productivity and energy market while commodities (unless energy specific) aren't as important as they once were.
So if everyone got up tomorrow and declared that nickels were worth more than quarters and people were paying for them at a higher price then it would be so. That is how the market works.
If someone simply believes something is valuable and has something to back that up with (money, productivity, and other resources) then it is so.
I use ClamX. In fact I ran it last night though I wonder if it only looks for windows specific viruses.
As precaution I usually look at what programs are set to automatically start up and the file sharing security.
From my understanding, the only Mac viruses are really just trojans which manually have to be run instead of just browsing to a webpage and then being hit with it.
While your stapler remains locked in your drawer there is no security issue with your stapler, however as soon as you let "Bob" use it it will get lost. He'll give it to Eve, who'll promise to hand it on to you untouched but...
You could attach an 10ft electrified chain to the stapler, which when cut would cause the stapler to explode killing everyone in 20ft.
I know it would be extreme, but wouldn't it be worth it?
I know it's incredibly in vogue these days to blame everything on selfish people who make more money than you, especially the evil CEOs, but sometimes companies fail and it's not the CEO's fault.
It is from the view of the shareholders. The CEO is elected/appointed to his position to do one thing only... Make the price of the company shares go up.
If it does not do so, he is not doing his job right.
Respectfully, no, it doesn't. I'm able to hear the channel I want during a whole drive across the US and even into parts of Canada.
Actually, for those of us enterprising fellows with a 3G iPhone, there is a non-free appout there that lets me listen to internet radio anywhere I have 3G.
In fact, I use it all the time on the road.
The downside is that its fairly bandwidth intensive and I have a hunch that Apple/ATT might pull the plug on it someday so I'm not going to mention it by name in case it gets too popular.
The downside is that it does cut in and out in areas with poor coverage and the station has to be streaming through shout cast or something similar, but listening to European radio in the states is worth it.
The advantage to a killing robot is that it has no emotions. The disadvantage to a killing robot is ironically that it has no emotions.
More than not, most face to face civilian casualties on the battlefield happen due to fatigue, emotional related issues (my buddy just died!), or miscommunication.
Not because the soldiers had lack of emotion or humanity.
The other kind in which a bomb, mortar, or arty shell lands on a house full of civilians because someone typed in the wrong address in GPS are so separated from the battlefield anyway, it won't really make a difference if the guy pushing the button is man or machine.
And before you security nuts go crazy about telling other people your passwords, keep in mind this is a person I trust above anyone else...even my own close relatives. If I can't trust him, then I must live a truely miserable life of denial full of people who dislike me.
Not to burst your bubble, but have you ever considered your BFF might be tortured to have your passwords extracted from him?
Not that you'd be keeping information that the CIA maybe interested in but honest and trustworthy people can be made to divulge information either through duress or intoxication.
Its like giving your loved ones a bank account pin and someone holds them up at gunpoint and now they have to decide whether to break your trust or keep their lives. I personally don't like to let people deal with that scenario.
Not that you or I have anything worth that valuable... But people have been beaten up over stupid things like account credentials to online games. Might as well not burden other people with it.
This technology will not stop a professional. In fact, nothing will stop a professional.
Professional? Who pray tell defines a professional thief?
Is there a guild? A union?
Have you ever met one in person and he showed you his business card?
And then... If such a person was so intelligent and so skilled, would he be so interested to go after your laptop for a few paltry hundred dollars? He's going after bulk shipments or valuables worth thousands. If he is smart, he is going after something that is worth his jail time if he gets caught (otherwise he wouldn't be smart would he?)
Seriously, there are only two types of professional thieves:
People who are that skilled tend to actually work as security persons or they are going after bigger stuff.
If you are going to run into a thief, statically its going to be the dumb one.
I think you are missing the point. The key benefit of solar energy is that it can be micro-generation.
You don't need a centralized massive power plant if everyone had a solar panel on their roof.
This also helps with the issue of central point of failures and power line distribution. If energy can be gathered locally, then you aren't wasting efficiency on power lines.
So yes, overall its just a drop in the bucket, but if over time if you have a couple million drops then it adds up.
Slashdot Mirror
Changing language in the means mentioned primarily distracts and confuses the intention of the speaker.
Unless that is what the speaker wanted to achieve in the first place or that his audience had changed the meaning first.
I've always liked the Total War series (since Shogun) but must admit to having been caught referring to some of the "history" I learned from the games. Rome:TW is particularly bad in this regard. Granted that the player can drastically alter the outcome of history, for instance by having a massive Portuguese empire take over all of Europe by 1250 A.D., but it would still be nice to be playing with actual historically significant events and persons.
There was a big debate over on the Europa Universalis 3 (a strategy game that takes place from 1399 to 1821) forums about the same issue.
You had people who wanted the historical characters and events on one side, but then you have the side who wants historical plausibility without being straight jacketed into events that still happen regardless of the geopolitical situation.
The developers did favor the historical plausibility side by having events that had triggers that did not rely on dates alone, but they of course compromised by having the option to turn on hard coded rulers.
One of the biggest complaints about EU2 is that nations who historically were conquered or collapsed would case to have new leaders after a certain date and you'd have an immortal leader with no change of government until the end of the game.
So if you, as the player, were able to make say the Golden Khanate survive the Moskovy invasion, then you'd run into this problem real quick in the 1500s.
The same thing would happen for events such as Austria inheriting Hungary. If you were playing multiplayer against other players, you simply have this knowledge that at a particular date you'll get all of Hungary's provinces regardless of how well you are they were doing.
You could be a one province Austria and still inherit a 100 province Hungary.
Anyways... The gist of the matter is that you can't really have events that just happen regardless of the game situation. It has to take into the fact the player can change history quite drastically.
I mean, would you imagine George Washington ever being important or alive had the French or Spanish took over the English colonies in the early 1700's?
What if Napoleon died early in his career? Or if Nelson didn't get shot by a stray bullet.
One thing that would annoy me if one of my Generals always died on a certain hard coded date no matter what I did.
To give and example of the problem with EU2 is
You can argue over all the variables of crop yields, oil reserves, etc, and it only changes when, not if, mass global food shortages will come.
I don't see what the problem is. Overpopulation is a self correcting system.
Either technology will be improved to allow for the new population numbers or a war will ensue thereby creating more technology in the process (ie WWII)
To say technology can't solve the problem is a bit small minded. It has been solving the problem for over 500 years in advancements in agricultural and industrial production. In fact, even with population increase, last decade there were more than 100 million less people in extreme poverty.
Now it is not sustainable with current technology, but technology constantly improves because there is a demand for it.
To say the world going to fall apart into anarchy is just dumb. If it would have, it would have done so in the 1930's or 1970's when the global situation is quite worse..
Doesn't mean people should stop breeding, but that its not doom and gloom as people put it.
The only upside that I can see to a spinning disc would be noise, and if you're watching TV, how could you hear it?
I watch silent films you insensitive clod!
This bullshit is exactly what's wrong with our entire capitalist system.
The problem is that companies that don't leverage their money (instead of sitting on it) will be beaten by their competitors that do when done wisely.
Therefore... Public companies that don't do this will be run out of business or berated by their shareholders.
Sure it sucks, but its like arguing that guns are unfair to bring to a knife fight. You use whatever tools are at your disposal or you get eaten by the other guy who does.
The biggest thing at the end of the Wikipedia article you read is that, whatever the reason the money is needed, it's cheaper than getting it from a bank. If a corporation is big enough and has good enough credit, they can issue corporate paper, at a lower interest rate, instead of paying interest to a bank.
Just wanted to chime in that Corporations avoid bank loans like the plague simply because they don't want the strings attached with what they can do with that loan money.
With stocks and bonds, they basically have free hand to do whatever they want with the money.
That's too much exercise. The mouse is perfect for a lazy engineer like me. I just prop my arm on the desk and move my hand left or right. I barely move at all!
I saw an article a while back about helping paralyzed people communicate or move around and there was this development in which they could put a device much like a hearing aid in their ear and they could move a mouse by simply moving their tongue and the device would detect tongue movement based of the change in air pressure in the ear canal.
If it turns out to be that sensitive, then I don't see why we can't start using that and get even less movement at all. :)
If you spend 10 mins per day turning you pc on and setting up your work environment, and 5 mins closing everything, the cost of your time spent on this task will negate $25 saved ten times.
Actually, I worked business who was very conscious about electricity costs and security issues (aka people using bittorrent on work machines over night).
Basically, the rule was, if you didn't have a business reasons for leaving your computer on overnight you were required to shut it off after you left. If you didn't, then the closing manager would do so at the expense of whatever you were currently running.
Then in the morning, the opening manager (the guy who turned the alarm off) would come in and turn on all the machines before the employees came in so they couldn't use the excuse that they were wasting time in the morning waiting for it to boot.
So anyone complaining that booting their computer in the morning takes too long either needs to set an auto-boot schedule or just have the first person who comes in the office turn everyone's computer on.
Other sources have been tried (electricity was the first) but gasoline took precedence because it was cheap and efficient, and I don't see any reason to change that.
Economic failures aside, there may come another time when gasoline is no longer cheap again.
I've been too busy grinding my Knight of the Blazing sun in Warhammer Online.
Now if they'd only hurry up and release 1.1
Specifically, excessive attempts to elminate germs can, in addition to creating super-bugs, cause our immune system to malfunction. Without the constant exercisng of our immune system by germs, our immune system goes into overdrive by generating an immune response to things (e.g., pollen) that are not germs.
No, its the overuse and abuse of prescribed anti-biotics that are creating the superbugs. Not the over use of hand sanitizers.
Hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial soap do not create superbugs. They may create bugs that are more resistant to those products, but a bug resistant to those will find different conditions in the human body. (It can be argued that no bacteria could possible evolve to withstand rubbing alcohol and then survive the PH of the human body)
That said, the real concern is that when you do become infected that the bacteria is resistant to anti-biotics. After all, we do not drink a bottle of Purell or drink hand soap when we have strep throat. We get a prescription of penicillin which is our last line of defense.
We can't ingest bleach or anything else once our body becomes infect.
No, soaps and hand-sanitizers are not the root cause of the "super-bug" but rather over prescription of anti-biotics which once a bacteria becomes immune too, there is nothing you can do to fight it.
Guess what? You went to a school? You PAY for a school! Otherwise, go live in a third world country.
I went to Catholic School you insensitive clod!
(And I've got the mental and physical scars to prove it!)
I think he neglects to mention an underlying assumption that no software is perfect, and given enough time and effort, the chances of finding a security flaw that can be exploited is greater than zero in ANY piece of software.
I don't believe this to be true if enough focus on security is made.
Software can be made secure at the expense of functionality. Now this doesn't ever solve the problem of local access, but if you made your OS into a glorified terminal server, you can prevent automated attacks by restricted what the user can do by default.
Of course the user might be hindered somewhat, but sometimes that is the price to pay.
During the internet bubble, real businesses that produced real goods that real people bought with real money were considered to be worthless.
Here is a bit of economic theory I like to throw around on discussion on the value of gold.
In reality, those real businesses producing real goods with real money is still as valuable as the rest of the world thinks it is. It is the key reason that gold is no longer a true blue intrinsic commodity.
If you have a thousands pounds of gold stranded on an island and another guy has food and water, who do you think is going to be more popular?
I mean you can't eat gold or make it work for you like stocks and bonds.
In reality, the economy has shifted towards a productivity and energy market while commodities (unless energy specific) aren't as important as they once were.
So if everyone got up tomorrow and declared that nickels were worth more than quarters and people were paying for them at a higher price then it would be so. That is how the market works.
If someone simply believes something is valuable and has something to back that up with (money, productivity, and other resources) then it is so.
Eye of the beholder still applies today.
I use ClamX. In fact I ran it last night though I wonder if it only looks for windows specific viruses.
As precaution I usually look at what programs are set to automatically start up and the file sharing security.
From my understanding, the only Mac viruses are really just trojans which manually have to be run instead of just browsing to a webpage and then being hit with it.
While your stapler remains locked in your drawer there is no security issue with your stapler, however as soon as you let "Bob" use it it will get lost. He'll give it to Eve, who'll promise to hand it on to you untouched but ...
You could attach an 10ft electrified chain to the stapler, which when cut would cause the stapler to explode killing everyone in 20ft.
I know it would be extreme, but wouldn't it be worth it?
I know it's incredibly in vogue these days to blame everything on selfish people who make more money than you, especially the evil CEOs, but sometimes companies fail and it's not the CEO's fault.
It is from the view of the shareholders. The CEO is elected/appointed to his position to do one thing only... Make the price of the company shares go up.
If it does not do so, he is not doing his job right.
It's just how business works.
Respectfully, no, it doesn't. I'm able to hear the channel I want during a whole drive across the US and even into parts of Canada.
Actually, for those of us enterprising fellows with a 3G iPhone, there is a non-free appout there that lets me listen to internet radio anywhere I have 3G.
In fact, I use it all the time on the road.
The downside is that its fairly bandwidth intensive and I have a hunch that Apple/ATT might pull the plug on it someday so I'm not going to mention it by name in case it gets too popular.
The downside is that it does cut in and out in areas with poor coverage and the station has to be streaming through shout cast or something similar, but listening to European radio in the states is worth it.
Don't confuse traits girls may look for in a friend with traits they look for in someone they actually want to have sex with.
This is why god invented alcohol.
The advantage to a killing robot is that it has no emotions. The disadvantage to a killing robot is ironically that it has no emotions.
More than not, most face to face civilian casualties on the battlefield happen due to fatigue, emotional related issues (my buddy just died!), or miscommunication.
Not because the soldiers had lack of emotion or humanity.
The other kind in which a bomb, mortar, or arty shell lands on a house full of civilians because someone typed in the wrong address in GPS are so separated from the battlefield anyway, it won't really make a difference if the guy pushing the button is man or machine.
And before you security nuts go crazy about telling other people your passwords, keep in mind this is a person I trust above anyone else...even my own close relatives. If I can't trust him, then I must live a truely miserable life of denial full of people who dislike me.
Not to burst your bubble, but have you ever considered your BFF might be tortured to have your passwords extracted from him?
Not that you'd be keeping information that the CIA maybe interested in but honest and trustworthy people can be made to divulge information either through duress or intoxication.
Its like giving your loved ones a bank account pin and someone holds them up at gunpoint and now they have to decide whether to break your trust or keep their lives. I personally don't like to let people deal with that scenario.
Not that you or I have anything worth that valuable... But people have been beaten up over stupid things like account credentials to online games. Might as well not burden other people with it.
This technology will not stop a professional. In fact, nothing will stop a professional.
Professional? Who pray tell defines a professional thief?
Is there a guild? A union?
Have you ever met one in person and he showed you his business card?
And then... If such a person was so intelligent and so skilled, would he be so interested to go after your laptop for a few paltry hundred dollars? He's going after bulk shipments or valuables worth thousands. If he is smart, he is going after something that is worth his jail time if he gets caught (otherwise he wouldn't be smart would he?)
Seriously, there are only two types of professional thieves:
People who are that skilled tend to actually work as security persons or they are going after bigger stuff.
If you are going to run into a thief, statically its going to be the dumb one.
The smart ones think you aren't worth their time.
I think you are missing the point. The key benefit of solar energy is that it can be micro-generation.
You don't need a centralized massive power plant if everyone had a solar panel on their roof.
This also helps with the issue of central point of failures and power line distribution. If energy can be gathered locally, then you aren't wasting efficiency on power lines.
So yes, overall its just a drop in the bucket, but if over time if you have a couple million drops then it adds up.
Dawn of War did have a play back feature, but I don't know of anyone who bothered watching the game over again.
There was a planned instant replay window in the Winter expansion for sync kills but nothing ever came of it. Hopeful DoW2 will handle it better.
You take the mind/soul out of the equation and you'll see me turn my ticket in by the door as I leave the venue.
Are you saying a human didn't program the machine?
The same could be said about musical notation and people who play on electronic instruments. Its only one step of separation.
As many of a programmer and hardware engineer can attest... Sometimes code and technology is art in itself.