"WTF is wrong with our government. Does anybody remember the post-9/11 homeland security debacle with Tom Ridge reccomending people use duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect themselves from terrorists.. and then several people dying by asphyxiating themselves in their own homes?"
Anyone have a link to an example of anyone asphyxiating themself after duct taping their house? (And there's a sentence I didn't think I'd be typing when I got up this morning.) I did a quick google but ashpxiating and duct tape seems to get a lot of stories about all sorts of oxygen-deprivation sex acts.
"Maybe I'm just not "with it", but the idea of reading more than a few paragraphs on a PDA makes me want to shoot myself in the head."
The idea? But have you actually tried it? I've read about a dozen or more ebooks on my PDA (lying on my side in bed) and find it far more convenient than a "real" book because I just turn on autoscroll and I don't even have to hold the PDA - I prop it on a cushtie pillow FWIW. I also made a rig for my cross-trainer to hold my PDA and now train while reading (again no page turning) although it has to be said at a slower pace (the reading that is). Then there's the size - I'm still waiting to get round to reading the hardback Dark Materials trilogy I bought on a whim because it's the size of my house. Wrestling a book the weight of a brick is not much fun (unless it's the Book Wrestling 101 handbook, in which case it's not only fun but educational).
And yeah the article is MILES off about the effectiveness of the book as an example of effective DRM.
"That is why Britain (a mostly agnostic and atheist country) seems to have more of them per capita than the US"
That would explain why our free to air TV is so bland and safe and not at all full of swearing and nudity. Oh wait a minute....
But seriously, aside from the Jerry Springer Opera fiasco which was an extremely organised campaign, we don't have anything like the Mary Whitehouse movement given any mainstream credibility. And the religious movements that there are react to perceived threats to their religion (the Jerry Springer Opera again...) which is as expected and don't seem to bother much with lewdity in general. Is lewdity a word? It should be.
I've been reading off a Tungsten E2 palmos device using Palmfiction ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/palmfiction ) (handles txt and rtf better than the built in e-reader) for a while now and I'm pretty happy with it. These e-ink screens are fine but they need a light source so it's not an automatically better choice. The only freaky thing is reading off a PDA with autoscroll on for an hour and then when you stop the text still seems to keep moving.
but can I add I don't think for a minute that it'll get this far but I'm currently half way through Pat Frank's Alas Babylon about the effects of a nuclear war on the US, written in 1959.
Well yeah. The issue is that if things did get to a point where the Chinese were knocking out US satellites at will then the US has nothing short of a Nuclear strike to counter with. And if the US was to knock out the whole Chinese army there probably wouldn't be much left of the world as we know it in a decades time so everybody loses (think Nuclear Winter). US can fight hedge wars in stone age countries where casualties in the few thousands are barely acceptable. How would the annhilation of mankind play at the polls?
RTFA - they run on average at 3W and will include a hand or foot cranked "Yoyo" for charging. Presumably in the countries they're going to solar power would be an option too.
These researchers don't work for a drug company they work at a university. What they're saying is that most research is now commercialised and findings like this would normally be licensed to a big company. This is at odds with the traditional view of public research which was for the benefit of everybody. Pretty rare to find any serious research going on nowadays that isn't either sold to or spun off into a commercial enterprise. Licensing the technology to all takers for a modest amount means they don't have to find anybody to make and market these drugs because the need will inevitably lead to somebody picking it up be it a government or charitable organisation.
From the link - "If you don't make money, we don't make money. And importantly, if you never charge anything, you never have to pay us anything." Now don't get me wrong I tried their demo server and it has a long way to go before it's anything close to what Ryzom offers. But Ryzom has been hardcoded for one game so the idea that it'll be non-trivial to make it run another type of game seems optimistic.
You're missing the point! The scores have been set free in a victory against the RIAA! Now all I have to do is organise my own orchestra and I'm really going to be sticking it to the man...
"Basically a Fallout MMORPG would be unquestionably cool"
What about it would be cool? What was cool about Fallout was the non-linear nature of the map, random encounters, NPC party interaction etc etc. The tactical combat had its charm (though I preferred FO Tactics version that gave you more control. One of my favourite games that and I don't care what people say.) Above all the feeling that what you were doing had an impact on the gameworld. You'll have none of that with an MMO. This may even be a MMO in the vein of the console action RPG that came out (the OTHER "BOS" I think it was.)
As somebody already said this sounds a lot like talking up the share price to keep money coming in to pay whatever salaries are still left at Interplay. Logically Interplay shouldn't be making an MMO(RPG) because everything they've touched lately has turned to crap. I'd have more faith in this actually happening (see the Phantom or the Gizmondo(sp) if you want to see how capital can be raised to grow lemons or just plant lemon seeds) if they were partnering with NCSoft or similar (or even Turbine...)
"However, as a gamer and advocate of freedom of expression, I'm glad to see a win for our side."
Our side? I'm a gamer and advocate of free expression too (though I think if I told my friends I was an advocate of free expression they'd shun me. Honest to god shun me...) but are WE really against selling violent games to minors? I know I'm not. I love my violent games and would rather kids were taken out of the picture so I could enjoy them in peace without some nut job trying to ban them outright every few months. Just make it illegal for shops to sell violent games to kids and provided they follow the rules the only people buying violent games for kids will be their parents and then who do they have to blame?
I got my Wii from Play.com as well and had it delivered TO work. We're pretty much writing this afternoon off. No extra controllers OR Zelda off Play though - all back-ordered. Amazon.co.uk still had Zelda so I've ordered from there.
That Wii boxing has to be the best stress reliever since internet porn.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe this is what he's referring to:
http://www.dyewell.com/saveboston/
Though all that screen tells me to do is update my flash player...
Anyone have a link to an example of anyone asphyxiating themself after duct taping their house? (And there's a sentence I didn't think I'd be typing when I got up this morning.) I did a quick google but ashpxiating and duct tape seems to get a lot of stories about all sorts of oxygen-deprivation sex acts.
Surely. .01% would be 4cents.
The idea? But have you actually tried it? I've read about a dozen or more ebooks on my PDA (lying on my side in bed) and find it far more convenient than a "real" book because I just turn on autoscroll and I don't even have to hold the PDA - I prop it on a cushtie pillow FWIW. I also made a rig for my cross-trainer to hold my PDA and now train while reading (again no page turning) although it has to be said at a slower pace (the reading that is). Then there's the size - I'm still waiting to get round to reading the hardback Dark Materials trilogy I bought on a whim because it's the size of my house. Wrestling a book the weight of a brick is not much fun (unless it's the Book Wrestling 101 handbook, in which case it's not only fun but educational).
And yeah the article is MILES off about the effectiveness of the book as an example of effective DRM.
Or use the domain to generate a lot of traffic to make it more attractive to sell on as an ad-portal eventually.
That would explain why our free to air TV is so bland and safe and not at all full of swearing and nudity. Oh wait a minute....
But seriously, aside from the Jerry Springer Opera fiasco which was an extremely organised campaign, we don't have anything like the Mary Whitehouse movement given any mainstream credibility. And the religious movements that there are react to perceived threats to their religion (the Jerry Springer Opera again...) which is as expected and don't seem to bother much with lewdity in general. Is lewdity a word? It should be.
Should probably be ext:torrent ...
I've been reading off a Tungsten E2 palmos device using Palmfiction ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/palmfiction ) (handles txt and rtf better than the built in e-reader) for a while now and I'm pretty happy with it. These e-ink screens are fine but they need a light source so it's not an automatically better choice. The only freaky thing is reading off a PDA with autoscroll on for an hour and then when you stop the text still seems to keep moving.
but can I add I don't think for a minute that it'll get this far but I'm currently half way through Pat Frank's Alas Babylon about the effects of a nuclear war on the US, written in 1959.
Well yeah. The issue is that if things did get to a point where the Chinese were knocking out US satellites at will then the US has nothing short of a Nuclear strike to counter with. And if the US was to knock out the whole Chinese army there probably wouldn't be much left of the world as we know it in a decades time so everybody loses (think Nuclear Winter). US can fight hedge wars in stone age countries where casualties in the few thousands are barely acceptable. How would the annhilation of mankind play at the polls?
Unfortunately the price of land isn't coming down any time soon.
RTFA - they run on average at 3W and will include a hand or foot cranked "Yoyo" for charging. Presumably in the countries they're going to solar power would be an option too.
These researchers don't work for a drug company they work at a university. What they're saying is that most research is now commercialised and findings like this would normally be licensed to a big company. This is at odds with the traditional view of public research which was for the benefit of everybody. Pretty rare to find any serious research going on nowadays that isn't either sold to or spun off into a commercial enterprise. Licensing the technology to all takers for a modest amount means they don't have to find anybody to make and market these drugs because the need will inevitably lead to somebody picking it up be it a government or charitable organisation.
When you're talking gaming that isn't actually much of a limit but I grok what you're saying.
From the link - "If you don't make money, we don't make money. And importantly, if you never charge anything, you never have to pay us anything." Now don't get me wrong I tried their demo server and it has a long way to go before it's anything close to what Ryzom offers. But Ryzom has been hardcoded for one game so the idea that it'll be non-trivial to make it run another type of game seems optimistic.
Which I think is how Guild Wars can afford to scrub the monthly sibscription model and make its money selling (standalone) expansions packs.
You mean like Multiverse? http://www.multiverse.net/licensing/index.jsp?cid= 4&scid=3
But it will only kill off the stupid sea birds. I for one welcome our... oh god just shoot me....
Well for one thing hopefully it'll work with SATA drives without having to jump through hoops.
Yeah but once a Christian takes up arms to defend his faith he's not actually a Christian anymore is he?
What's needed (and may even be available) is a google search term -shop.
You're missing the point! The scores have been set free in a victory against the RIAA! Now all I have to do is organise my own orchestra and I'm really going to be sticking it to the man...
What about it would be cool? What was cool about Fallout was the non-linear nature of the map, random encounters, NPC party interaction etc etc. The tactical combat had its charm (though I preferred FO Tactics version that gave you more control. One of my favourite games that and I don't care what people say.) Above all the feeling that what you were doing had an impact on the gameworld. You'll have none of that with an MMO. This may even be a MMO in the vein of the console action RPG that came out (the OTHER "BOS" I think it was.)
As somebody already said this sounds a lot like talking up the share price to keep money coming in to pay whatever salaries are still left at Interplay. Logically Interplay shouldn't be making an MMO(RPG) because everything they've touched lately has turned to crap. I'd have more faith in this actually happening (see the Phantom or the Gizmondo(sp) if you want to see how capital can be raised to grow lemons or just plant lemon seeds) if they were partnering with NCSoft or similar (or even Turbine...)
Our side? I'm a gamer and advocate of free expression too (though I think if I told my friends I was an advocate of free expression they'd shun me. Honest to god shun me...) but are WE really against selling violent games to minors? I know I'm not. I love my violent games and would rather kids were taken out of the picture so I could enjoy them in peace without some nut job trying to ban them outright every few months. Just make it illegal for shops to sell violent games to kids and provided they follow the rules the only people buying violent games for kids will be their parents and then who do they have to blame?
That Wii boxing has to be the best stress reliever since internet porn.