You state a good case though. Your aggression and ad hominem attacks demonstrate your humanity and mental good health. Being able to debate subjects with a cold logicality is, I believe, an aberration of true human nature, and a burden I shall have to accept.
This has been the best comeback statement I have seen for a reply in a long time...
But I think it comes down to two people arguing anecdotal evidence.
However, if one takes a natural selection review of who works what job, people who do not like to be social will tend to quit jobs that require them to be social and persons who enjoy being sociable will tend to keep working at jobs that have a great deal of socializing.
But that doesn't mean there are other factors involved such as pay and location that determines if someone will work a particular career.
On a side note, I'd argue that a certain category of persons are attracted to computer technology as a child due to the fact it doesn't involve other persons. This will later drive them towards a career in coding or computers because they are familiar with it. Doesn't mean there aren't exceptions.
It always seemed a major problem that companies must be devoted to profit... and that leads to issues
I remember a press release somewhere about a non-profit pharmaceutical company created specially because of the issues you refer to. Ah here it is... http://www.oneworldhealth.org/
Anyways, some type of issues that the world deals with doesn't fit well with the corporate business model. Just because a profit cannot be made, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
Because it's a subscription game, and if a player dies, there's a good chance they'll say to hell with it and quit.
But the problem is that these games aren't realistic in a sense that the player just follows one character through the game and thats that.
Which a better model for an RPG might be a dynasty or heir system. A strategy game called Crusader Kings basic premise is managing a dynasty and having heirs.
Its not an MMO and is mostly single player but I have to admit I have gotten sad when a character dies after so many (game) years of playing. But unlike the permadeath most people in MMO's envision, your character's death is not the end and based off your inheritance laws you'll have a suitable heir.
Usually based on how well you raised them they are just about as good but sometimes randomness makes the game a bit fun (So my son turned out to be a heretic and got himself excommunicated and so on)
Something like this might work for permadeath if that if you did die that you'd have some sort of heir to fall back on so you didn't have to start from square one and make it possible better so that sometimes you're child might be smarter and quicker learning that his parents.
But its a English terminology thing... I can't seem to find the Churchill quote but he stated that German villians use U-boats wheras their British Heroes ride in Submarines.
Same thing with the usage of the Germans Panzer Tank.
People modify their behavior, compassion, etc depending on context.
True, that is the nature of human intelligence, but there are always genetic and chemical dispositions.
Take hunger for example. Imagine if you simply had a genetic defect that your brain kept telling you that you were hungry all the time even with a full stomach or the reverse in which your brain simply could not fire the neurons to tell you that you need food or you're going to starve to death.
Now most healthy humans are somewhere in between but there are plenty that have either issue.
Now lets take altruism and sociopaths.
Imagine if your brain did not have the chemical that made you feel guilty. Much like a person who has no sense of hunger, your brain simply does not feel guilt. Your parents can spank you all day long and be the best parents in the world but if you are a sociopath (in the true sense) then you will never feel guilty about doing anything bad because your brain doesn't work like normal humans. (Most notably politicians)
Now a sociopath might be able to live in a normal society through other emotions (fear, greed) but they simply will never have any emotional incentive to not be bad towards others.
I agree with him, I personally don't believe a boycott of the current olympics or advertisers is warranted in this case.
I'd still boycott because of the commercialism involved in the Olympics. The IoC basically acts like a corporation for profit and sells its content just like any professional sports franchise.
What about all of us that want to be on Google maps? I thought it was cute that our street was on Google maps. There is nothing invasive about taking a picture of your house. Unless, they stick a camera in your window or hope a fence then most persons will have no problem with someone just taking a picture of their house.
I think the sticking picture of this incident was that in order to take a picture they had to go past a sign that said "Private Property" which is trespassing.
It's like doing an article summary saying "having a gun in your room is dangerous", when it really means "a gunfight is something that might happen".
If you mean that by if your gun misfires and then an automated system kicks in putting all your guns into auto-sentry mode shooting everything that moves which also causes your neighbors sentry guns to start shooting causing a chain reaction with your neighbors then by what you mean... Yes.
The key thing about a nuclear weapon mishap is that there is the chance that a single detonation or incident might result in an automated response (by automated I mean computer systems and persons are just doing the job they spent years training for) which will escalate into the worst case scenario.
Imagine if you would a nuclear storage facility in Russia which during a routine disposal of a weapon something goes horribly wrong and it goes off (in America they actually have those facilities in huge concrete domes but I'm not so sure about Russia) and in the confusion an independent facility assumes an attack from the US is happening and starts launching ICBMs (heck they thought a Norwegian rocket was an attack for a bit).
Now there are rumors that the Russians or American have systems that can detect nuclear explosions on their soil which was designed to counter a 3 minute sub attack off the coast which could possible start the chain of events to go to full scale nuclear war.
We aren't talking about simple gun fights here... We're talking about guns that blow up entire houses.
Aside from "the goggles problem" (no one likes to wear geeky equipment), we're already in the/real/ cyberspace. William Gibson has suggested things along these lines.
I think the biggest problem with VR goggles is that they weigh 20 pounds, wires going everywhere, and give you a headache after an hours use. If they were the size of sunglasses, wireless, and usable for hours on end without eyestrain then a good deal more people would be interested in VR.
My old(as in previous) boss is finally retiring at the age of 80. he was still working a 55-60 hour work week.
Did your boss work in a cubicle? I should have highlighted that as well because if I'm 80 and still sitting in a cubicle... Well... I just hope they have suicide booths in the future like they do on TV.
If I'm in an office... Well I wouldn't mind so much. Of course we might have to work from coffins in the future so a cubicle might be an office at that point.
More likely, the people with secrets would just use some other method to communicate them.
Most likely with the lowest tech available like passing physical notes across the table and then burning them after the recipient reads them.
If people want to pass secret communication around they will and man in the middle attacks aren't as effective as just having a man at the end attack (you know just bribe one of the intended recipients to tell you what it means).
honestly, internet access is very nearly a commodity, why not bill it as such?
Because water, gas, and electricity are limited physical phenomenon whereas data on the internet is not.
Yes, you get electrons or photons (depending on if you have FiOS) but compared to the energy the power company pumps down its line to you, your ISPs gift of energy to you is very small.
Secondly, internet data is often not content owned by the ISPs and it would be like your water company went to someones house and got water for free and then sold it to you.
Lastly, even cell phone plans are going to a flat rate... Its what people want and what people will buy. The ISPs have been trying to get around that by fudging on their advertising, but the ISP that sells flat internet will always win out over those who sell at a tiered rate.
Which is why all the cell phone companies just started those flat rate campaigns... Its probaly cheaper for the consumer to pay by the minute but that is too complicated for most people so they'll go with the flat rate.
In the same way, would we prefer the army to use propaganda on its own citizens to convince us of its message or perhaps we would prefer being thrown in a secret prison for descent?
I'd prefer they'd do neither. There is no reason any military anywhere should be involved in politics at all. Period.
The military should be separate from the civilian government and should have no need to get the people to go along with it. In fact, the military should be be under the command of the civilians government which should be controlled by the people.
Not the other way around.
When the military is proactive trying to influence the ballot box then you no longer live in a democracy.
Am I the only one that finds it ironic that China, which has a totalitarian one party politcal system (the ULTIMATE monopoly) is implementing anti-monopoly laws?
What you will also find ironic is China is the only nation which the Walmarts have unions. Of course its the Communist Party Worker's Union, but a union nonetheless.
If you're creating some legitimate program that requires WoW, you think you should have to request Blizzard's permission just to say on the packaging that you require World of Warcraft?
If I'm not mistaken, back in the late 90's someone (it could have been Blizzard or Westwood) sued some 3rd party developer of an expansion pack that was being sold in stores (was it the Hellfire expansion for Diablo or something for Command and Conquer? I can't remember) and the court ruled that it was legal to sell an expansion pack because it did not contain any copyrighted or trademark violated material.
As in you can only copyright the source, art, and sounds and if the expansion pack data only contained original art that it could be tacked on and sold legally.
In effect, anyone who creates 3rd party software for WoW can legally do so as long as they don't include art or code that Blizzard created. Now if the guy published something called "World of Warcraft Bot" he can get sued for trademark violation and also be sued for breaking a EULA if he currently plays WoW, but I believe as long as he didn't include WoW content then he is in the clear (IANAL)
Cutting your child is a crime; why should making them fat and giving them life threatening illnesses be fine?
True, but where do you draw the line? Many parents have children when its obvious that they are going to pass on genetic problems and bad habits. Should that be outlawed?
If you have a 75% chance of passing Diabetes to your children should be the government be able to order people to report for mandatory vasectomies?
Logically, if one took emotion out of your view it might actually be good for society in the long run in several hundred years but I don't think you could sell this idea to anyone who thinks like a regular human.
1. Have friend hide in bushes with a BB gun 2. Have friend shoot drone 3. You run out underneath drone 4. ???? (Survive impact to head most likley) 5. Sue the city 6. Profit!!!
I can't seem to figure out why it was being reported at all. The story as it's published is "nothing much happened, somebody filled out the shipping form wrong, we returned it all to sender." So in whose interest is this story being reported?
The fact that it happened at all is newsworthy. Of course no nuclear material was sent, but the parties that would be interested in it already have the ability to make nuclear material and would be more interested in the detonation technologies.
Its not farfected to think if a helicopter engineer realized what they had in that crate to call a friend on the mainland and offer to deliver them via FedEx for a few smooth million dollars. Heck... Russia would be interested too.
But the point of [H]'s article was that compared to the next set of video cards (the Geforce 8800 GTX SLI and the ATI Radeon 8730) the difference in performance doesn't justify the cost. Its not comparing the PC to the console but rather you'd get more bang for the buck for a card slightly lower on ladder.
I would be surprised if the government of China would throw away the last fifty years of economic progress in their country over something like Tibet or Taiwan.
If Taiwan did declare independence (officially) there would be military action from China even if it means war with the US.
Where do you work that people are stealing stuff all the time?
I worked for large company with hundreds of employees and theft was always a concern.
Of course, it never was the employees but rather either the people who cleaned the building (and sometimes people pretended to be cleaners) and people who sneaked in off the street. It wasn't the employees because we all knew about the cameras used for other things;)
Of course their office building was down town in a major city and so many people worked in the building someone could walk in off the street with a package in their hands and tail gate through the elevator and the door (both required a key card with photo id on it) and not to mention walk past security.
Anyways... Laptops were stolen. Purses. And cell phones...
We got monthly emails berating us to question everyone who didn't have a badge and if you lost yours you were required to go to security and have them issue a temporary one.
Now if you work outside the down town of city and there is only one business in the building then its easier to defend against walk ins like this.
As long as we don't go back to the gold standard I'm good. Because the moment someone figures out how to make gold out of a less expensive material we are all screwed. If I can make something with 79 electrons, 79 protons and 79 neutrons out of my basement we will have a real crisis on our hands.
Huh? What you are describing is the technological ability to end all arbitrary supply limitations of the human race. Of course at that moment in time capitalism will collapse because no one needs to trade with anyone because they can throw in some junk into a replicator and make whatever they want so their isn't a need to trade with anyone else, but would that be a bad thing?
You could make whatever you wanted whenever and you would not have any starving people nor would you ever run out of things to entertain yourself.
If capitalism still exists at that point it will be about land ownership which maybe will encourage space travel due to the fact the only way to get free land is to go out into the stars and get it...
But personally I really doubt this scenario you mention. We're more likley to have AI and robotics with virtual reality (which by the way would make real dollars less valuable than say Second Life or WoW gold because if you are neurally connected to the net more than you spend time in the real world. Of course as soon as I can day trade while sleeping... I'm quitting my job but thats decades away)
Slashdot Mirror
You state a good case though. Your aggression and ad hominem attacks demonstrate your humanity and mental good health. Being able to debate subjects with a cold logicality is, I believe, an aberration of true human nature, and a burden I shall have to accept.
This has been the best comeback statement I have seen for a reply in a long time...
But I think it comes down to two people arguing anecdotal evidence.
However, if one takes a natural selection review of who works what job, people who do not like to be social will tend to quit jobs that require them to be social and persons who enjoy being sociable will tend to keep working at jobs that have a great deal of socializing.
But that doesn't mean there are other factors involved such as pay and location that determines if someone will work a particular career.
On a side note, I'd argue that a certain category of persons are attracted to computer technology as a child due to the fact it doesn't involve other persons. This will later drive them towards a career in coding or computers because they are familiar with it. Doesn't mean there aren't exceptions.
It always seemed a major problem that companies must be devoted to profit... and that leads to issues
I remember a press release somewhere about a non-profit pharmaceutical company created specially because of the issues you refer to. Ah here it is... http://www.oneworldhealth.org/
Anyways, some type of issues that the world deals with doesn't fit well with the corporate business model. Just because a profit cannot be made, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
Because it's a subscription game, and if a player dies, there's a good chance they'll say to hell with it and quit.
But the problem is that these games aren't realistic in a sense that the player just follows one character through the game and thats that.
Which a better model for an RPG might be a dynasty or heir system. A strategy game called Crusader Kings basic premise is managing a dynasty and having heirs.
Its not an MMO and is mostly single player but I have to admit I have gotten sad when a character dies after so many (game) years of playing. But unlike the permadeath most people in MMO's envision, your character's death is not the end and based off your inheritance laws you'll have a suitable heir.
Usually based on how well you raised them they are just about as good but sometimes randomness makes the game a bit fun (So my son turned out to be a heretic and got himself excommunicated and so on)
Something like this might work for permadeath if that if you did die that you'd have some sort of heir to fall back on so you didn't have to start from square one and make it possible better so that sometimes you're child might be smarter and quicker learning that his parents.
Would it boil you if I said:
;)
"Hey look at the replica U-Boat submarine!"
But its a English terminology thing... I can't seem to find the Churchill quote but he stated that German villians use U-boats wheras their British Heroes ride in Submarines.
Same thing with the usage of the Germans Panzer Tank.
People modify their behavior, compassion, etc depending on context.
True, that is the nature of human intelligence, but there are always genetic and chemical dispositions.
Take hunger for example. Imagine if you simply had a genetic defect that your brain kept telling you that you were hungry all the time even with a full stomach or the reverse in which your brain simply could not fire the neurons to tell you that you need food or you're going to starve to death.
Now most healthy humans are somewhere in between but there are plenty that have either issue.
Now lets take altruism and sociopaths.
Imagine if your brain did not have the chemical that made you feel guilty. Much like a person who has no sense of hunger, your brain simply does not feel guilt. Your parents can spank you all day long and be the best parents in the world but if you are a sociopath (in the true sense) then you will never feel guilty about doing anything bad because your brain doesn't work like normal humans. (Most notably politicians)
Now a sociopath might be able to live in a normal society through other emotions (fear, greed) but they simply will never have any emotional incentive to not be bad towards others.
I agree with him, I personally don't believe a boycott of the current olympics or advertisers is warranted in this case.
I'd still boycott because of the commercialism involved in the Olympics. The IoC basically acts like a corporation for profit and sells its content just like any professional sports franchise.
Then maybe they shouldn't do that?
What about all of us that want to be on Google maps? I thought it was cute that our street was on Google maps. There is nothing invasive about taking a picture of your house. Unless, they stick a camera in your window or hope a fence then most persons will have no problem with someone just taking a picture of their house.
I think the sticking picture of this incident was that in order to take a picture they had to go past a sign that said "Private Property" which is trespassing.
It's like doing an article summary saying "having a gun in your room is dangerous", when it really means "a gunfight is something that might happen".
If you mean that by if your gun misfires and then an automated system kicks in putting all your guns into auto-sentry mode shooting everything that moves which also causes your neighbors sentry guns to start shooting causing a chain reaction with your neighbors then by what you mean... Yes.
The key thing about a nuclear weapon mishap is that there is the chance that a single detonation or incident might result in an automated response (by automated I mean computer systems and persons are just doing the job they spent years training for) which will escalate into the worst case scenario.
Imagine if you would a nuclear storage facility in Russia which during a routine disposal of a weapon something goes horribly wrong and it goes off (in America they actually have those facilities in huge concrete domes but I'm not so sure about Russia) and in the confusion an independent facility assumes an attack from the US is happening and starts launching ICBMs (heck they thought a Norwegian rocket was an attack for a bit).
Now there are rumors that the Russians or American have systems that can detect nuclear explosions on their soil which was designed to counter a 3 minute sub attack off the coast which could possible start the chain of events to go to full scale nuclear war.
We aren't talking about simple gun fights here... We're talking about guns that blow up entire houses.
Aside from "the goggles problem" (no one likes to wear geeky equipment), we're already in the /real/ cyberspace. William Gibson has suggested things along these lines.
I think the biggest problem with VR goggles is that they weigh 20 pounds, wires going everywhere, and give you a headache after an hours use. If they were the size of sunglasses, wireless, and usable for hours on end without eyestrain then a good deal more people would be interested in VR.
My old(as in previous) boss is finally retiring at the age of 80. he was still working a 55-60 hour work week.
Did your boss work in a cubicle? I should have highlighted that as well because if I'm 80 and still sitting in a cubicle... Well... I just hope they have suicide booths in the future like they do on TV.
If I'm in an office... Well I wouldn't mind so much. Of course we might have to work from coffins in the future so a cubicle might be an office at that point.
I have a 72 years old guy in a next cubicle ...I don't think the man knows the difference between a CPU and motherboard ..
I don't think he knows the difference between a 401K and lottery tickets either.
More likely, the people with secrets would just use some other method to communicate them.
Most likely with the lowest tech available like passing physical notes across the table and then burning them after the recipient reads them.
If people want to pass secret communication around they will and man in the middle attacks aren't as effective as just having a man at the end attack (you know just bribe one of the intended recipients to tell you what it means).
honestly, internet access is very nearly a commodity, why not bill it as such?
Because water, gas, and electricity are limited physical phenomenon whereas data on the internet is not.
Yes, you get electrons or photons (depending on if you have FiOS) but compared to the energy the power company pumps down its line to you, your ISPs gift of energy to you is very small.
Secondly, internet data is often not content owned by the ISPs and it would be like your water company went to someones house and got water for free and then sold it to you.
Lastly, even cell phone plans are going to a flat rate... Its what people want and what people will buy. The ISPs have been trying to get around that by fudging on their advertising, but the ISP that sells flat internet will always win out over those who sell at a tiered rate.
Which is why all the cell phone companies just started those flat rate campaigns... Its probaly cheaper for the consumer to pay by the minute but that is too complicated for most people so they'll go with the flat rate.
In the same way, would we prefer the army to use propaganda on its own citizens to convince us of its message or perhaps we would prefer being thrown in a secret prison for descent?
I'd prefer they'd do neither. There is no reason any military anywhere should be involved in politics at all. Period.
The military should be separate from the civilian government and should have no need to get the people to go along with it. In fact, the military should be be under the command of the civilians government which should be controlled by the people.
Not the other way around.
When the military is proactive trying to influence the ballot box then you no longer live in a democracy.
Am I the only one that finds it ironic that China, which has a totalitarian one party politcal system (the ULTIMATE monopoly) is implementing anti-monopoly laws?
What you will also find ironic is China is the only nation which the Walmarts have unions. Of course its the Communist Party Worker's Union, but a union nonetheless.
Given how trivial it was to conduct this attack,
Did someone forget to disable the [img][/img] tags on their PHPBB forum?
To be fair, imagine what Slashdot would look like if you could post images.
If you're creating some legitimate program that requires WoW, you think you should have to request Blizzard's permission just to say on the packaging that you require World of Warcraft?
If I'm not mistaken, back in the late 90's someone (it could have been Blizzard or Westwood) sued some 3rd party developer of an expansion pack that was being sold in stores (was it the Hellfire expansion for Diablo or something for Command and Conquer? I can't remember) and the court ruled that it was legal to sell an expansion pack because it did not contain any copyrighted or trademark violated material.
As in you can only copyright the source, art, and sounds and if the expansion pack data only contained original art that it could be tacked on and sold legally.
In effect, anyone who creates 3rd party software for WoW can legally do so as long as they don't include art or code that Blizzard created. Now if the guy published something called "World of Warcraft Bot" he can get sued for trademark violation and also be sued for breaking a EULA if he currently plays WoW, but I believe as long as he didn't include WoW content then he is in the clear (IANAL)
Cutting your child is a crime; why should making them fat and giving them life threatening illnesses be fine?
True, but where do you draw the line? Many parents have children when its obvious that they are going to pass on genetic problems and bad habits. Should that be outlawed?
If you have a 75% chance of passing Diabetes to your children should be the government be able to order people to report for mandatory vasectomies?
Logically, if one took emotion out of your view it might actually be good for society in the long run in several hundred years but I don't think you could sell this idea to anyone who thinks like a regular human.
Get rich quick in Miami:
1. Have friend hide in bushes with a BB gun
2. Have friend shoot drone
3. You run out underneath drone
4. ???? (Survive impact to head most likley)
5. Sue the city
6. Profit!!!
I can't seem to figure out why it was being reported at all. The story as it's published is "nothing much happened, somebody filled out the shipping form wrong, we returned it all to sender." So in whose interest is this story being reported?
The fact that it happened at all is newsworthy. Of course no nuclear material was sent, but the parties that would be interested in it already have the ability to make nuclear material and would be more interested in the detonation technologies.
Its not farfected to think if a helicopter engineer realized what they had in that crate to call a friend on the mainland and offer to deliver them via FedEx for a few smooth million dollars. Heck... Russia would be interested too.
But the point of [H]'s article was that compared to the next set of video cards (the Geforce 8800 GTX SLI and the ATI Radeon 8730) the difference in performance doesn't justify the cost. Its not comparing the PC to the console but rather you'd get more bang for the buck for a card slightly lower on ladder.
I would be surprised if the government of China would throw away the last fifty years of economic progress in their country over something like Tibet or Taiwan.
If Taiwan did declare independence (officially) there would be military action from China even if it means war with the US.
Where do you work that people are stealing stuff all the time?
;)
I worked for large company with hundreds of employees and theft was always a concern.
Of course, it never was the employees but rather either the people who cleaned the building (and sometimes people pretended to be cleaners) and people who sneaked in off the street. It wasn't the employees because we all knew about the cameras used for other things
Of course their office building was down town in a major city and so many people worked in the building someone could walk in off the street with a package in their hands and tail gate through the elevator and the door (both required a key card with photo id on it) and not to mention walk past security.
Anyways... Laptops were stolen. Purses. And cell phones...
We got monthly emails berating us to question everyone who didn't have a badge and if you lost yours you were required to go to security and have them issue a temporary one.
Now if you work outside the down town of city and there is only one business in the building then its easier to defend against walk ins like this.
As long as we don't go back to the gold standard I'm good. Because the moment someone figures out how to make gold out of a less expensive material we are all screwed. If I can make something with 79 electrons, 79 protons and 79 neutrons out of my basement we will have a real crisis on our hands.
Huh? What you are describing is the technological ability to end all arbitrary supply limitations of the human race. Of course at that moment in time capitalism will collapse because no one needs to trade with anyone because they can throw in some junk into a replicator and make whatever they want so their isn't a need to trade with anyone else, but would that be a bad thing?
You could make whatever you wanted whenever and you would not have any starving people nor would you ever run out of things to entertain yourself.
If capitalism still exists at that point it will be about land ownership which maybe will encourage space travel due to the fact the only way to get free land is to go out into the stars and get it...
But personally I really doubt this scenario you mention. We're more likley to have AI and robotics with virtual reality (which by the way would make real dollars less valuable than say Second Life or WoW gold because if you are neurally connected to the net more than you spend time in the real world. Of course as soon as I can day trade while sleeping... I'm quitting my job but thats decades away)
how will dust be solved?
;)
Why don't you crack open your 3.5" hard disk drive and find out why dust doesn't bother those sensitive platters?