You can get to the main article page on computerworld.com or whatever but below where you can jump to the (retardly) broken up pages of TFA it just links back to computerworld which is el broko;\
I know someone mentioned the Print something feature let him see the entire document, not spread out amongsest 20 some crap ass html's, total noob question but where/how is that done? (if you're simply refering to actually printing the whole thing, those of us without printers are SOL eh?)
Well to be honest it's not a play style or aspect. It's the enviroment. WoW again for example is a carebear world that in esscense is a 3D graphical chatroom. Maybe back in the day when player versus player combat wasn't the mainstay of an MMORPG, I would have agreed with you. But since the majority of MMO's have moved toward pvp as the endgame content, you can really see how games like WoW are carebear. Don't get me wrong, I think WoW does some things good, the PvE experience in WoW is very thoughtout and well done, as are it's large enviroments (snowy mountains, desert plains etc) but in reality it's just...nothing.
Games like that, like WoW, are basically aimed at the Sims crowd. Sure it definitely isn't for casual gamers (as seen in the grind to lvl 60) but it's one of those games were everyone and their grandmother has heard of or plays. Nothing wrong with that mind you but some how I feel the track record for such games are in the same mindset of a carebear game. Sims for example tons of people played that right. I was into it but if I recall there was no real form of killing another player (other than bugs, exploits etc). Blizzard went for the broad range scale of raking in the bucks as opposed to putting in quality pvp. Same issue there.
Carebear isn't some redirect away from a non-existant arguement. Yes, it's a "derogatory" term to an extent, but honestly it's supposed to be. It's a fact, "carebears" are players who are opposed to open ended pvp OR can't handle the experience as a player either cause they can't kill others as good or they get killed alot. We all aren't "griefers" but we are "player killers", that's the entire point of player versus player...Personally I have my eyes on open pvp games. Vanguard looks nice, but I can't say I'm a fan of it just yet. I've got my eye on stuff like Darkfall, Tabula Rasa, etc (Star Trek Online as well but mainly cause I'm a trekkie)
From what I've seen it's going to be an MMO among the few that aren't for carebears or the lighthearted. Sure instances from WoW and some other games have their place, but in a true MMO world map, loot drops and such don't need instances. You should have to fight it out with others for such things. Remember when WoW was in Beta, the extent of "pvp" was walking up to someone and asking them if they would allow a fight between the two of you.
Games such as WoW are one giant safe zone really. Not counting the "pvp" in it, the fact of Instances takes out alot of such things. This is why games such as Shadowbane, Neocron and the upcoming Darkfall excell at player versus player. Open ended maps where your clan can control towns, you fight other players almost from the start of the game for the rest of the game, no truly safe leveling. The "danger" adds a level of fun, excitment and randomness to it. Theres no Go Here, Kill This and return all in safety. You have to watch your back, you have to time spawns and fight others off for them.
Depending on how Vanguard implements the pvp if any, the no Instances thing for drops/loot would be awesome. Such mechanics have already worked in the aforementioned games. And granted most of those don't have anywhere near the amount of people WoW does, they still have loyal followings and the best pvp I've seen in MMO's.
If you aren't an avid comic reader or casual fan, sure you probably find it awesome. Every major world issue has been explored ten times over in comics since well, the creation of comics. X-Men as mentioned by others, has covered most of them, usually racial hate and intolerance. It's nothing new. At best Marvel will hit two markets with this; people who are either casual andor casual readers to people who hear/see/learn about this story arc specifically and get all into it cause its either controversial or they have a side with one of the sides of the situation.
I mean, honestly (no offense to you or other/.'ers) but it's the same as the original Star Wars dvd's just announced: it's just milking the cash cow. Only difference is using a controversy to spark "interest" aka more people buying it. I really expected more from Marvel. Not I'm not a diehard DC fanboy I would expect the same from them, Image, Darkhorse, etc
Then again this is the company that thought "feral" style Wolverine was a good idea, oh and team him up with a resurrected (for what the umpteenth time?) Elecktra. So yea I don't have much faith in such decisions.
I know, that's why I mentioned her specifically. She's one of the handful of characters who have the power or ability to royally fuck up the universe, at a whim if deemed nesscary. It also opens the door to the whole entire Universe story arcs which half the time suck but thats another issue completely. Either way, characters like her make no sense to register for such a thing, even the government in the comics isn't quick enough or powerful enough to stop such a character from fubaring reality.
Sure it's been done in the X-Men back and forth but in the Marvel Universe there's just too many uber-powerful characters to require Registration.
Scarlet Witch registers, ok cool. So the government now has her on file as a human (or humanoid really for the non human types as well) WMD. That's great. What the fuck does that do to stop a character, like old Scarlet, from going apeshit and destroying the entire fucking universe?
It's already technically done as well in another sense: villians. Example, take Thanos right. Villian, bad guy. Automatically you consider him a humanoid WMD right. Again same situation. Having him on file, does jack and or shit. So Uncle Sam keeps him on file, hell we'll go one step further, keeps GPS and the whole schebang on him 24/7. Yea when he gets a huge powerup like the Infinite Gauntlet, being able to scramble your military ain't shit. The only benefit it would have is if they notified heroes of such things apon villians. But it's not, since they are only doing Hero registration.
Either way it's somewhat of an old storyline that while a good one, seems to be a publicity stunt. Considering the current state of America, we're pretty unhappy with our government, our president and basically how restricted life has become. Leave it to Marvel to sellout for the all mighty $
Assuming I had a PC that could handle at least one decent modern game that was LAN-able, I'd enjoy a nice LAN party. But as it is I don't, nor do I wish to spend money to "rent" one, at one of the few parties that rent machines. Sure I could technically take this machine, all I need is my power strip, the network cabling etc But there would be no games for me to play there.
Not to mention ya know, the public humiliation factor. Who wants to be the guy rolling in with a Celeron pc (made by Compaq) to a LAN party where guys with their homemade rigs are playing current-gen titles? It's not a factor of "hardcore" it's a factor of "hey, I want to live in my apartment this month". As for a hardcore geek, while I may not be able to recite all of Linux's kernel code in my sleep, I love all things technology, I've seen just about every science fiction tv show there is and I've been gaming on the PC and consoles since Mario Bros on NES and Oregon Trail on the Apple II.
Economics doesn't always mean someone isn't "hardcore".
I don't think I've ever met a gamer who hadn't built their own computer.
I haven't. I love gaming especially on the PC, but PC gaming is expensive as hell. Even those nice guides like the $500 "modern" gaming machine from Toms Hardware. Put it this way; if a person can't afford to buy a 360 and 1 game, they can't afford the $500+ PC system built for games either.
That begs the question do you think gamers who don't or can't build their own systems, are "gamers" at all? Rent, food, bills come first. After that I barely make any money at all for anything else. Honestly I carpool alot cause gas is insanely priced atm. If I can't spare the $30 to fill my car up, then it would take me a good year+ to save up even $500+ to build what is probably now, a bottom rung machine (comparing to more up to date hardware intense games like BF2 or Oblivion).
Would I go with a Dell? No. Sure they might be a few steps up from HP/Compaq but they still cut corners, vital corners. Would I go with an Alienware? Sure, if I could afford it. But then again if I could afford an Alienware, I could easily afford to build my own PC. Alienware builds nice machines but they exploit the consumer. It's one of those "they know that you know" ordeals; You as a gamer know you need a semi-beefy machine to at least play your games decently, Alienware knows this and they also know you're probably coming to them cause while you could afford it you might not know how to build one or don't want the hassle. So as such, as we all know, a machine that probably costs $1000 to build via Newegg or Pricewatch ends up being $1600+ from Alienware.
You'd be amazed at how good a console like the 360 or PS3 can look when they only cost around $300 (core 360 for example) while a gaming PC will run you at least $500+. I don't like consoles, sure Xbox Live is nice but hey, I already pay for broadband internet access, that right there should entitle me to free online play for many games (FPS's for example).
Did someone have too much to drink yesterday?
on
The Real Purpose of DRM
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Cause this sure as hell is not "news" of any kind. Mod me down if you want but this was a waste of fucking time to read. Decently hot chick or not, the article was bogus as hell. Who gives a rats ass about this? Sure fighting robots is cool, but some half assed non-true tagline that is full of shit is not cool in the least.
Is it a slow Sunday or what? Is this the best that's come into the old Inbox today?
Ok so the guy has called in sick to work to play his MMO some. Let's say he stops doing that, and goes about his day to day routine of work.
That aside, long as the guy eats, does his laundry etc why can't he sit on his ass playing his MMO 8+ hours every day?
Many have pointed out it's not the addiction to the game, it's how fucking boring real life can be. How tedious and monotonous it can be to get up every morning at the fucking crack of dawn before the sun is even up, to go to work where you'd more than likely be charged with doing some menial task. Often constricted with many rules such as no personal phone calls (you'll see what I mean in a moment) or radio or anything to take your mind off how fucking boring it is to slave away at whatever you are doing. And this is even assuming you have a nice deskjob. Think about the poor bastards doing the manual labor.
So you do your job for 8 hours every day, usually 5 maybe 6 days a week, year round. With no obligations to a personal family or children you are bound only to yourself. Why can't the guy sit at home and play his MMO? Sure, in some similarities, WoW (or other games) can be just as tedious as a real job. But in an MMO, you can chat with friends without being scolded by an employer, you can use any program you want such as Winamp or a voice comm to talk to people. Then there's the actual fun in the game, the tradeskilling/farming aside, I'm sure they find their real fun doing the PvP or end game PvE stuff with guildmates and friends to be the bread & butter of the game.
Let him play. Long as guy understands he needs to go to work, pay his bills, get a decent amount of sleep each day/night then he's good to go. Don't force him to "go out with friends" in real life. Ever consider some of us don't like fucking going out? I personally can't stand bars or bar hopping, or clubs etc And around here thats all there is for people in their mid 20's to do. Sure a girlfriend could benefit him but don't try to force him into something, thats something he and only he will choose to do at some point if he ever does.
For me, at least that holds true. Sure, as many suggested I could get a job in many "trades". And while some of them I would even enjoy doing and make good money doing them, I am not physically able to do them. Construction? Not able to stand on my feet that many hours a day. Plumbing or carpentry? Not able to easily get up and down on my knees if needed (nor excessive bending/squatting for long periods of time).
Basically in college I shot for some kind of desk job. Something that would just pay the bills but allow me to actually do it. Something that didn't require me to be on my feet for 8 hours a day. I mean, literally anyone can get a job at some place like Wal-Mart where they hire anyone from ex-con's to elderly or handicapped people. I could, but I would never be able to do my job as I would need to sit after maybe 30 or 45 minutes.
While I do believe correcting health problems and excersise can fix my health issues in this matter, as Evil said he took time off to do this before going to work. While he was only "on the sidelines" for a short while, it would take me years to get into a position where I could at the very least stand on my legs for 8 hours being a cashier at Wal Mart making my $6 an hour. This is just not an option for some people in similar situations, while it would be more beneficial to your health in the long run, shooting for the job(s) you CAN do in the short term to pay bills and live vs spending a year or more getting into shape just do to a basic job (in which case you'll probably run out of money long before you accomplish that) is the only option you have left.
Which is where I am at. I went to college, and while I didn't get a degree I still say it's the most important thing you can do if you have the time. You don't always need the money, while you may not get grants (money you do not need to pay back) just about anyone can get student loans. In that term if you can make the time you can get the education which in turn gets you the degree.
As I said I went to college, my field of interest was computer science. Not so much IT but IT/Tech. I enjoyed fiddling around the inside of a computer case, fixing hardware, installing new stuff, etc than I did admining a small network. And believe it or not yes you can build a PC/upgrade a PC/repair a PC while sitting down perfect normal as if standing up.
So you know what kind of paper work I needed. At the very least an Associates Degree. Most businesses locally won't even consider your application unless you have a "two year degree" which in this case is an Associates (the lowest you can earn, as most people know) or in some cases a four year degree (Bachelors, Masters etc).
The degree is where I hit a small, personal, snafu. When the RA's and student advisers were explaining what it entails to get a degree, I was fucking shocked. I wouldn't be nesscarily tested on my field of study or knowledge of such field. Instead I would be required to take several extra courses in basically "general knowledge". Such as biology, literature, etc They said colleges do this so students get a more well rounded knowledge of things.
Now while I did understand these courses would be "college level" I was still flabbergasted. I'm not exactly a model student. While I can learn and do not have any learning disabilities, I often require lots of repitition to understand something. So you can imagine how hard highschool was. Now again granted, they were different courses, they still were on subjects I had already studyed and passed in high school. Biology? check, learned all the mitosis meosis and frog dissecting I can handle for a lifetime. Literature? I don't think Dickens or Poe wrote something we didn't get a chance to read and anaylze for weeks at a time (as well as many other authors obviously). While my grammar online may be, lacking, I can easily sit down and write an essay, novella, etc as most tests or classes would require.
The sad part is, I'd venture to guess in the next couple years, more games or even applications are going to require dual, triple or even quad video cards to reach a running state.
Note I didn't say optimal performance or peak effenciey or any other term to make it seem like more cards would just equal "OMFG MORE FPS, YESSZZZ!". No. With games like BF2 that are starting to require specific actual components of stuff coupled with how much things like DirectX are a huge huge factor in games, you are going to need massive amounts of GPU power to get alot of stuff to run.
I mean (not to plug them or anything) but look at games like Project Offset, which plans for real-time rendering of everything no cutscenes nothing. The processing power of that game is going to be astronomical. I bet it will hit at the least a 2 PCI-E card requirement with at least 1.5 or 2 gigs of ram and 3.0+ GHZ processor, probably 3.4+. And we all remember how systematically intense past games like Farcry were, imagine cranking out a game that's five times as powerful as Farcray or even P:O you're going to require so much raw processing power it's insane.
Which itself is within the true nature of computing, technology evolves, advances, grows faster or more powerful or more advanced. I still think it's sad though, I mean you look at some of the top of the line cards these days required for games, they are insanely priced (200,300 even 400-500 or more). And yes while you can go with something slightly slower and save alot of money, as I originally said I think it will hit the point where they simply will not run without X amount of cards or equipment. Just like I can't run modern games like BF2 or HL2 on my current setup, same thing in a few years for people wanting that hot new title that needs quad cards. The price will be fucking outrageous too. You thought $400 for an Xbox 2 was bad, wait until you need to drop $300 per graphics card, two three or four times plus all the other components just to play games.
Nvidia and ATI are wetting themselves awaiting that day. Why sell them one GPU when Game X they want needs quad cards to even execute.
Hear me out before you decide to mod me down. The article in question says why they want students using laptops and all the cool specs of the aforementioned laptops.
Now it also says
"When we announced the Notebook Initiative last September, we pledged that our students would receive high quality, business-grade laptops worthy of the investment they and their parents are making in an ISU education," said C. Jack Maynard
So we are to assume the cost of each laptop, is tacked onto a students tuition fee. Maybe the school will get a bulk discount, maybe not.
Now this brings up some questions and concerns. Based on what I know of my own state, state based universities are generally "cheaper" in terms of tuition, housing, food etc than more popular Ivy League schools. I'm sure it will cost a shit load less to go to Indiana State than it would to go to say, Harvard or Yale. Read on..
Cost is going to be a major factor. Many of us have been college students or still are. Raise of hands how many of us were or still are, on the extremely slim "college budget"? Now while we're still taking a tally of things, how many of us have mom & pop paying for school? And finally of those having mom & pop pay for it, how many of your parents will be able to afford an additional, oh we'll estimate $1000, tacked onto your tution?
Before you answer the last question consider this:
From the ISU website Housing Fees and Advantage Meal Plan:
$2,807.55 per semester
$5,615.10 per year
Indiana Resident:
Above 18 hours = $3,356.00 per semester
12 - 18 hours = $2,878.00 per semester
0 - 11.5 hours = $208.00 per credit hour
Now if you view their website you see it's actually cheaper, to live on campus, by several thousand dollars. They actually charge more, if you live off campus. Based on a 3 month class schedule (off of their site) minus weekends and no holidays there are roughly 66 days of class the school offers. Based on a 3 hour class schedule (this is more of a guess, personally I wouldn't take more than three college courses at once) this comes to slightly less than 22 hours of class time.
So based on their prices, 22 hours would cost at least $3,400 (per semester). Maybe more. Toss in room and food, you are looking at over $12,450 (1 years worth, which is two semesters, of lodging and 1 years worth of classes, again two semesters).
So let's assume, again, that since this is a state school it is cheaper. I'm sure other schools charge much more per year. Now there are probably either three reasons you are going to a State University;
1) it's all your parents could afford other than community college or you got a scholarship/student loans (more on this later)
2) you got rejected by ivy league schools and/or couldn't make the grades for them
3) you for some reason find a program or class or series of classes a State school offers that others don't
If it's two, cost probably isn't an issue. If it's 3, then thats a maybe. But if it's 1, this IS an issue.
If you parent's couldn't afford an top dollar ivy league school, but didn't want you in community college, then this is probably where you end up. So that extra $800-1000 you have to spend on tuition for the laptop could literally be the bank breaker.
Same with scholarships or student loans. I know plenty of people who had to have their own equipment for many science courses, who had most of their tuition paid for by student loans. Loans which would not cover extra costs such as those equipment. Same thing could happen here. Trust me, student loan organizations say they are out to help but they are legalized loan sharks. They aren't going to sink money into something they don't think is nesscary. I needed my own Osciloscope (bad spelling I know) for various digital electronics courses. My student loans would not cover such costs, so I had to pay out of my own pocket (a hefty sum indeed) for it or I failed the cours
I used to have a firm understand of the whole copywritten music stuff, but this is the first time I've heard of selling full iPods on eBay.
Let me just throw in a hypothetical situation and some one can tell me how it goes down:
Say I buy myself an iPod. We'll be specific and say its a nice 60GB, and we'll even say I got it for around $350.00 (including tax and all that good bullshit). Now let's say I use a legitmate service to fill up my iPod like, iTunes or whatever and I buy a few hundred dollars worth of songs and fill it to capacity. After all cost we'll say I spent over $600 on it.
So I no longer want my iPod but being a nice piece of consumer hardware I can recoup all of my monetary value out of it and sell it on eBay. Since I have already paid for the songs once, there should be no legality issues regarding copyrights? The music was already paid for, assuming "they" (RIAA, whomever you wish to use in this example) want either the seller or buyer to pay, again.
I dunno, it's just silly. I mean tons of other mediums don't have these issues, or at least to the point of being noticible in the press. Look at used computers. Walk into any mom&pop style computer store and you can get old used computers, sometimes with their HDD's unwiped so they not only still have their operating system but a good bit of the files and software still installed. Afaik, no law or lawful action is taken aganist people for selling these things. Or at the least, again, none that has warranted news worthy notice on any site including/. (that I have seen).
Mod me down on this one but I'm sorry, I must bitch about this.
Before you go off thinking I'm some digital crack addicted WoW player who has over 2000 hours logged into the game, I don't play the game. I enjoy MMO's but I hate WoW.
People are still fucking shocked that a server crashed? Guess what, the game has been out for over 1.2 years and Blizzard has yet and will probably never fix their colosal fuckup. Think about it, they made good profit on pretty much all previous franchises, then when we want ya know, a sequel to one of the best RTS games from a fucking decade ago, almost, we get "World of Warcraft".
That's great, just what the fucking MMO industry needs, another god damn elven orc sword and shield medievil fantasy MMO. Wow, never seen that before (UO I'm looking at you...eight fucking years ago). Hell just now they are finally coming out soon with D&D Online and Middle Earth Online mmo's. I love a good romp through swords and magic as much as the next guy but when the MMO market is dominated by not just one game (WoW) but one genre, it fucking sucks.
And that is all I hear about in MMO news, WoW this and WoW that. Cool you got 5 million people playing. You know for a god damn fact at $15 USD (change currency depending on country) per month, at 5 million people, Blizzard more than makes enough to come up with a solution to fix a god damn server issue. I once wanted to try WoW, and by now I have, but ya know y ou can't ever really read about it, cause most offical and fan made forums are people just bitching about the downtimes (which I can agree with but it gets tedious ya know) and lag and framerates.
If your MMO can't handle a vast majority of a servers population in a single area, fucking UPGRADE. Come up with a new solution. I hate to use Eve Online as an example since I disliked the tradeskills in the game but they've done a great deal in compression and data transmission. One large server spread out in clusters that so far has held over 20,000 concurrent logins at one given time. That's what like 5 WoW servers? (actual servers in the list not PC's running a particular server).
I too like to see a variety of news on/. it's my god damn homepage. I love seeing shit from space exploration to the latest on the RIAA fucking up day to day life to even game news. But come on, do we really need some half assed submission about a server for a game that really is just a god damn internet penis measuring contest? Thats what WoW is in the end, who wasted enough time to grind and treadmill their way to the level cap, then get the best gear, then the money for the best mount or whatever the personal transportation is (1000 gold if I recall right, or close too it). That's great, you enjoy it? Sure you got the right too but jesus christ on a fucking saltine cracker with Sav Way bought cheese, don't deny it's a fucking eDick measuring contest. It's like walking into an Apple store and watching two iPod owners whip out their storage screens to see whos iPod is bigger in HDD space.
Yea, its a rant. Deal with it. If you can't, go wait five hours in your queue line to join a server.
I value the advice, but I also wonder how you, or any one really, got around this. Take the low level position for example. Technically, while I can't quite type as fast as required, for all other means I am more than qualified for the job, definitely more so than the other candidates that did apply.
Now compare a typical low end job such as that, to other jobs. I'm caught in this tunnel of never ending job search. While I never trained in a real specific area of IT I can do a variety of things on a entry level from PC repair to admin management of a Windows enviroment to even something as simple as data entry. Yet the jobs I wouldn't be 'outclassed' or overqualified for, all require usually 3+ years experience and/or a BS from a 4 year school. Since I'm basically fresh out of my 2 year school, having learned my trade, I have less than a years experience at best, and I don't have the money for a 4 year school (and I've already tapped uncle sam for all the student loans he'd give me). But at the same time the "low end" jobs like data entry, or transcription, I can't get cause for whatever reasons, probably those you listed if I had to guess.
While not nesscarily racist per say, when you go into these low end job interviews and you're the only person of a particular race there out of a dozen people, doing it professionally as you were taught, it sure looks like racism on the end of the HR person. Maybe I've got rose colored glasses on, being a white person raised in the south, I never really had to deal with it much myself obviously. Thus it's strikingly new and unexpected. The funny part is I'd almost prefer if it was racism, at least then I know it was a personal prejudice that cost me a job rather than the fact the other interviewees who while may or may not be poor, still can't make themseles professionally presentable.
I had a situation not long ago that for a short while had me question the hiring practice of a company. It was an out sourcing agency for various things from tech support via phonedesk to your very basics of transcription or data entry.
While most of their other positions were filled, I eager to obtain just about any job computer/IT related, I applied for a data entry position. Being more of a wider variety of people that are hired for such a position I figured I had a shot, since you didn't need a big time degree from a four year school.
So the day of my interview, I do what I was taught to do: I present myself as professional as I could. Freshly ironed dress slack pants, freshly ironed dress shirt with appropriate tie. Polished shoes, and even went as far as to get a hair cut the day before just to keep it all well rounded. With me I brought additional copies of my resume both hard and soft copy. As well as copies of my coverletter and references, all neatly typed up myself as clean and neat as you can make it.
I go through the whole process, interview which I thought went well, the little test they gave me to measure my speed of typing I took pretty well. They wanted 9500 words an hour with 0 mistakes, I got around 7000 which I thought was still a respectable number.
The kicker of the situation is, there must have been at least half a dozen people applying for the same position. They had maybe twenty open spots for this position so I figured 1 out of 20 isn't too bad of odds. Every one else there, was so unprofessional it made me so angry..
With no opinion on race, the other people there to interview where as follows:
- Two middle eastern gentlemen, one somewhat elderly the other middle aged. Neither spoke English very well and often had to ask other interviewee's for assistance when they were filling out their application. Neither was dressed appropriately, wearing denim jackets, jeans, and tennis shoes.
- One young middle eastern woman who wore a partial veil, the one that doesn't cover the face. She appeared to speak English well, but also dressed inappropriately with just a dress and tennis shoes.
- One young african american woman, spoke typical American English yet was dressed horribly. She wore a t-shirt, jeans, a flashy pocketbook and bright colored hairpins. She looked like she was going to hang out at a local mall, not apply for job of this field.
- One middle aged african american woman. Other than myself she was probably the most appropriate for the job, dressed in nice womans dress pants, with a matching blouse. Hair neatly tucked back, appropriate dress shoes.
None of them appeared to have a resume on hand, references or a cover letter. This was a company, here in America so I was quite shocked people who barely spoke English and knew no Spanish were being considered for a job that requires fluent English. While my opinion of race has no bearing on something like this, simple professionalism really means alot in these situations.
I was not chosen for any of the positions, though I don't know if the others I described got one either.
I'm American, born and raised. I'm causasian, "white" as it's always called. While I can understand how some think race will always play a part, alot of times it happens to "white" people too. Even if it was a professionalism ordeal it still can be played aganist "white" people just like it can any other race.
Forgive me if this is a "stupid" question but I honestly don't know the answer:
If some citizens in China hate it so bad because of the political situation, why not just leave China?
Is it a money issue? Can they not afford to travel some where else and start a new life? I know visa's and living in a different country as one of it's citizens might pose an issue depending on the country they move too. However I'm also sure out of all the nations in the world, at least one would help them out if they requested asylum from their former government.
I was maybe, 5 years old when the Tiananmen Square ordeal happened, so what I know of it from a typical American standpoint is just what my parents remember or I can read online. But in the last year or so we all know of the crack down on blocked sites by the Chinese government. Hell/. reports on them all the time. But each time I read a story about them (and they do seem to be getting progressively "worse" as time goes on), I never understand how if the dictatorship is so bad for their freedom and quality of life, why they don't just leave.
Who knows maybe what some people say is just descriptions being blown out of porportions. Maybe what some people say is true and all the insane things said about day to day life in China is true. I can't say, nor I assume can an everyday American who has never traveled or lived there. But I can question why those that hate it have not left.
One thing though, while some might say "Well it's their homeland. That might mean a great deal to them and they don't wish to leave even under the conditions imposed on them." I can understand that, to a degree. I wouldn't want to leave my hometown ever, after having lived all my life here. But I can speak for myself when I say if America or whichever country I was living in, became like China I'd rather move to a place foreign to me than risk my life and the lives of my family.
love the screen shot of the official GOLD game just being spindles after spindles of cd-rw's (note they DID ship just run of the mill burnt cd rw's in a small box with no artwork, as the official game....)
Go read some of the stuff on mmorpg.com (mainly the forums). There was like a hundred page thread where players who had been with the game since beta, explained some of the stuff this game went through...
From never recieving pre ordered copies of the game, to the game shipping on just run of the mill blank cd-r's, the game was plaqued with horrendus management.
Go try to read the official Mourning forums. Notice how they only go back to a certain date? They've deleted their forum database more than once. Not just a typical pruning but completely cleaned it cause so many of the fans, players, and even development team staff & moderators spoke out aganist it.
Imagine if one day a huge portion of say, SOE's player base (for any game, just as an example) spoke out aganist a huge list of problems, failures and broken promises. In this huge group of people is several key people in your production team, a good portion of your long time forum and community moderators, and even some of your own sponsors. Now imagine SOE just basically giving all those people a big middle finger, deleting the forums, and then rule over the "new" forums with an iron nazi fist (quite literally, meaning NO negative opinions). If you can piture all that, that is exactly what it was like for the Mourning players.
Occasionally there's some miswordings in article titles or you have to RTFA to really understand what the brief summary was trying to convey.
But this is the first/. I've read that is totally, wrong. Sure you can make a cool macro lens out of a Pringles can for less than $1 but you forgot the important part you need a lens slash full normal 35mm camera already to pull this off.
Totally misleading summary. Mod me down if you want, I'm not trying to flame but seriously this is just hitting a low for/.
Christmas is looking more depressing as each year goes on. Games cost more and more. I'm more of an MMO fan and there's several I'd like to play and others that run like ass on my system. A new system is out of the question, and the rest I just cannot afford to play. Not into console games and most non-MMO games require more than my little system can handle, again those that don't are often in the higher price range.
Occasionally I'll find good deals. If I do get a game for christmas it might be something off the $10 shelf at Walmart.
While I feel for the guy who got beaten, it's fucking hilarious as can be.
If you've ever lived in the "bible belt" of America you know how bad people can get some times. Especially when it comes to southern Baptists.
The hilarity comes from watching them turning red in the face when you hit them up with logic and science. Try discussing the concept of free will vs it being the "right" thing to do by worshiping a god (kinda of a double standard to be forced to believe in something when you've been given free will to do as you please). Man some of these religious people down here will get so angry if you weren't in a public place you'd probably get beaten to an inch of your life or in some cases killed. (deadly serious here)
I call'em religious zealots cause they are. While I keep an open mind and let people do as they want in their own homes and churches, I cannot stand a bible thumper trying to impose their beliefs on me.
Slashdot Mirror
I know someone mentioned the Print something feature let him see the entire document, not spread out amongsest 20 some crap ass html's, total noob question but where/how is that done? (if you're simply refering to actually printing the whole thing, those of us without printers are SOL eh?)
Games like that, like WoW, are basically aimed at the Sims crowd. Sure it definitely isn't for casual gamers (as seen in the grind to lvl 60) but it's one of those games were everyone and their grandmother has heard of or plays. Nothing wrong with that mind you but some how I feel the track record for such games are in the same mindset of a carebear game. Sims for example tons of people played that right. I was into it but if I recall there was no real form of killing another player (other than bugs, exploits etc). Blizzard went for the broad range scale of raking in the bucks as opposed to putting in quality pvp. Same issue there.
Carebear isn't some redirect away from a non-existant arguement. Yes, it's a "derogatory" term to an extent, but honestly it's supposed to be. It's a fact, "carebears" are players who are opposed to open ended pvp OR can't handle the experience as a player either cause they can't kill others as good or they get killed alot. We all aren't "griefers" but we are "player killers", that's the entire point of player versus player...Personally I have my eyes on open pvp games. Vanguard looks nice, but I can't say I'm a fan of it just yet. I've got my eye on stuff like Darkfall, Tabula Rasa, etc (Star Trek Online as well but mainly cause I'm a trekkie)
Games such as WoW are one giant safe zone really. Not counting the "pvp" in it, the fact of Instances takes out alot of such things. This is why games such as Shadowbane, Neocron and the upcoming Darkfall excell at player versus player. Open ended maps where your clan can control towns, you fight other players almost from the start of the game for the rest of the game, no truly safe leveling. The "danger" adds a level of fun, excitment and randomness to it. Theres no Go Here, Kill This and return all in safety. You have to watch your back, you have to time spawns and fight others off for them.
Depending on how Vanguard implements the pvp if any, the no Instances thing for drops/loot would be awesome. Such mechanics have already worked in the aforementioned games. And granted most of those don't have anywhere near the amount of people WoW does, they still have loyal followings and the best pvp I've seen in MMO's.
I mean, honestly (no offense to you or other /.'ers) but it's the same as the original Star Wars dvd's just announced: it's just milking the cash cow. Only difference is using a controversy to spark "interest" aka more people buying it. I really expected more from Marvel. Not I'm not a diehard DC fanboy I would expect the same from them, Image, Darkhorse, etc
Then again this is the company that thought "feral" style Wolverine was a good idea, oh and team him up with a resurrected (for what the umpteenth time?) Elecktra. So yea I don't have much faith in such decisions.
I know, that's why I mentioned her specifically. She's one of the handful of characters who have the power or ability to royally fuck up the universe, at a whim if deemed nesscary. It also opens the door to the whole entire Universe story arcs which half the time suck but thats another issue completely. Either way, characters like her make no sense to register for such a thing, even the government in the comics isn't quick enough or powerful enough to stop such a character from fubaring reality.
Scarlet Witch registers, ok cool. So the government now has her on file as a human (or humanoid really for the non human types as well) WMD. That's great. What the fuck does that do to stop a character, like old Scarlet, from going apeshit and destroying the entire fucking universe?
It's already technically done as well in another sense: villians. Example, take Thanos right. Villian, bad guy. Automatically you consider him a humanoid WMD right. Again same situation. Having him on file, does jack and or shit. So Uncle Sam keeps him on file, hell we'll go one step further, keeps GPS and the whole schebang on him 24/7. Yea when he gets a huge powerup like the Infinite Gauntlet, being able to scramble your military ain't shit. The only benefit it would have is if they notified heroes of such things apon villians. But it's not, since they are only doing Hero registration.
Either way it's somewhat of an old storyline that while a good one, seems to be a publicity stunt. Considering the current state of America, we're pretty unhappy with our government, our president and basically how restricted life has become. Leave it to Marvel to sellout for the all mighty $
Not to mention ya know, the public humiliation factor. Who wants to be the guy rolling in with a Celeron pc (made by Compaq) to a LAN party where guys with their homemade rigs are playing current-gen titles? It's not a factor of "hardcore" it's a factor of "hey, I want to live in my apartment this month". As for a hardcore geek, while I may not be able to recite all of Linux's kernel code in my sleep, I love all things technology, I've seen just about every science fiction tv show there is and I've been gaming on the PC and consoles since Mario Bros on NES and Oregon Trail on the Apple II.
Economics doesn't always mean someone isn't "hardcore".
I haven't. I love gaming especially on the PC, but PC gaming is expensive as hell. Even those nice guides like the $500 "modern" gaming machine from Toms Hardware. Put it this way; if a person can't afford to buy a 360 and 1 game, they can't afford the $500+ PC system built for games either.
That begs the question do you think gamers who don't or can't build their own systems, are "gamers" at all? Rent, food, bills come first. After that I barely make any money at all for anything else. Honestly I carpool alot cause gas is insanely priced atm. If I can't spare the $30 to fill my car up, then it would take me a good year+ to save up even $500+ to build what is probably now, a bottom rung machine (comparing to more up to date hardware intense games like BF2 or Oblivion).
Would I go with a Dell? No. Sure they might be a few steps up from HP/Compaq but they still cut corners, vital corners. Would I go with an Alienware? Sure, if I could afford it. But then again if I could afford an Alienware, I could easily afford to build my own PC. Alienware builds nice machines but they exploit the consumer. It's one of those "they know that you know" ordeals; You as a gamer know you need a semi-beefy machine to at least play your games decently, Alienware knows this and they also know you're probably coming to them cause while you could afford it you might not know how to build one or don't want the hassle. So as such, as we all know, a machine that probably costs $1000 to build via Newegg or Pricewatch ends up being $1600+ from Alienware.
You'd be amazed at how good a console like the 360 or PS3 can look when they only cost around $300 (core 360 for example) while a gaming PC will run you at least $500+. I don't like consoles, sure Xbox Live is nice but hey, I already pay for broadband internet access, that right there should entitle me to free online play for many games (FPS's for example).
Is it a slow Sunday or what? Is this the best that's come into the old Inbox today?
That aside, long as the guy eats, does his laundry etc why can't he sit on his ass playing his MMO 8+ hours every day?
Many have pointed out it's not the addiction to the game, it's how fucking boring real life can be. How tedious and monotonous it can be to get up every morning at the fucking crack of dawn before the sun is even up, to go to work where you'd more than likely be charged with doing some menial task. Often constricted with many rules such as no personal phone calls (you'll see what I mean in a moment) or radio or anything to take your mind off how fucking boring it is to slave away at whatever you are doing. And this is even assuming you have a nice deskjob. Think about the poor bastards doing the manual labor.
So you do your job for 8 hours every day, usually 5 maybe 6 days a week, year round. With no obligations to a personal family or children you are bound only to yourself. Why can't the guy sit at home and play his MMO? Sure, in some similarities, WoW (or other games) can be just as tedious as a real job. But in an MMO, you can chat with friends without being scolded by an employer, you can use any program you want such as Winamp or a voice comm to talk to people. Then there's the actual fun in the game, the tradeskilling/farming aside, I'm sure they find their real fun doing the PvP or end game PvE stuff with guildmates and friends to be the bread & butter of the game.
Let him play. Long as guy understands he needs to go to work, pay his bills, get a decent amount of sleep each day/night then he's good to go. Don't force him to "go out with friends" in real life. Ever consider some of us don't like fucking going out? I personally can't stand bars or bar hopping, or clubs etc And around here thats all there is for people in their mid 20's to do. Sure a girlfriend could benefit him but don't try to force him into something, thats something he and only he will choose to do at some point if he ever does.
For me, at least that holds true. Sure, as many suggested I could get a job in many "trades". And while some of them I would even enjoy doing and make good money doing them, I am not physically able to do them. Construction? Not able to stand on my feet that many hours a day. Plumbing or carpentry? Not able to easily get up and down on my knees if needed (nor excessive bending/squatting for long periods of time).
Basically in college I shot for some kind of desk job. Something that would just pay the bills but allow me to actually do it. Something that didn't require me to be on my feet for 8 hours a day. I mean, literally anyone can get a job at some place like Wal-Mart where they hire anyone from ex-con's to elderly or handicapped people. I could, but I would never be able to do my job as I would need to sit after maybe 30 or 45 minutes.
While I do believe correcting health problems and excersise can fix my health issues in this matter, as Evil said he took time off to do this before going to work. While he was only "on the sidelines" for a short while, it would take me years to get into a position where I could at the very least stand on my legs for 8 hours being a cashier at Wal Mart making my $6 an hour. This is just not an option for some people in similar situations, while it would be more beneficial to your health in the long run, shooting for the job(s) you CAN do in the short term to pay bills and live vs spending a year or more getting into shape just do to a basic job (in which case you'll probably run out of money long before you accomplish that) is the only option you have left.
Which is where I am at. I went to college, and while I didn't get a degree I still say it's the most important thing you can do if you have the time. You don't always need the money, while you may not get grants (money you do not need to pay back) just about anyone can get student loans. In that term if you can make the time you can get the education which in turn gets you the degree.
As I said I went to college, my field of interest was computer science. Not so much IT but IT/Tech. I enjoyed fiddling around the inside of a computer case, fixing hardware, installing new stuff, etc than I did admining a small network. And believe it or not yes you can build a PC/upgrade a PC/repair a PC while sitting down perfect normal as if standing up.
So you know what kind of paper work I needed. At the very least an Associates Degree. Most businesses locally won't even consider your application unless you have a "two year degree" which in this case is an Associates (the lowest you can earn, as most people know) or in some cases a four year degree (Bachelors, Masters etc).
The degree is where I hit a small, personal, snafu. When the RA's and student advisers were explaining what it entails to get a degree, I was fucking shocked. I wouldn't be nesscarily tested on my field of study or knowledge of such field. Instead I would be required to take several extra courses in basically "general knowledge". Such as biology, literature, etc They said colleges do this so students get a more well rounded knowledge of things.
Now while I did understand these courses would be "college level" I was still flabbergasted. I'm not exactly a model student. While I can learn and do not have any learning disabilities, I often require lots of repitition to understand something. So you can imagine how hard highschool was. Now again granted, they were different courses, they still were on subjects I had already studyed and passed in high school. Biology? check, learned all the mitosis meosis and frog dissecting I can handle for a lifetime. Literature? I don't think Dickens or Poe wrote something we didn't get a chance to read and anaylze for weeks at a time (as well as many other authors obviously). While my grammar online may be, lacking, I can easily sit down and write an essay, novella, etc as most tests or classes would require.
Having already aquired over $10,000
Note I didn't say optimal performance or peak effenciey or any other term to make it seem like more cards would just equal "OMFG MORE FPS, YESSZZZ!". No. With games like BF2 that are starting to require specific actual components of stuff coupled with how much things like DirectX are a huge huge factor in games, you are going to need massive amounts of GPU power to get alot of stuff to run.
I mean (not to plug them or anything) but look at games like Project Offset, which plans for real-time rendering of everything no cutscenes nothing. The processing power of that game is going to be astronomical. I bet it will hit at the least a 2 PCI-E card requirement with at least 1.5 or 2 gigs of ram and 3.0+ GHZ processor, probably 3.4+. And we all remember how systematically intense past games like Farcry were, imagine cranking out a game that's five times as powerful as Farcray or even P:O you're going to require so much raw processing power it's insane.
Which itself is within the true nature of computing, technology evolves, advances, grows faster or more powerful or more advanced. I still think it's sad though, I mean you look at some of the top of the line cards these days required for games, they are insanely priced (200,300 even 400-500 or more). And yes while you can go with something slightly slower and save alot of money, as I originally said I think it will hit the point where they simply will not run without X amount of cards or equipment. Just like I can't run modern games like BF2 or HL2 on my current setup, same thing in a few years for people wanting that hot new title that needs quad cards. The price will be fucking outrageous too. You thought $400 for an Xbox 2 was bad, wait until you need to drop $300 per graphics card, two three or four times plus all the other components just to play games.
Nvidia and ATI are wetting themselves awaiting that day. Why sell them one GPU when Game X they want needs quad cards to even execute.
Now it also says
"When we announced the Notebook Initiative last September, we pledged that our students would receive high quality, business-grade laptops worthy of the investment they and their parents are making in an ISU education," said C. Jack Maynard
So we are to assume the cost of each laptop, is tacked onto a students tuition fee. Maybe the school will get a bulk discount, maybe not.
Now this brings up some questions and concerns. Based on what I know of my own state, state based universities are generally "cheaper" in terms of tuition, housing, food etc than more popular Ivy League schools. I'm sure it will cost a shit load less to go to Indiana State than it would to go to say, Harvard or Yale. Read on..
Cost is going to be a major factor. Many of us have been college students or still are. Raise of hands how many of us were or still are, on the extremely slim "college budget"? Now while we're still taking a tally of things, how many of us have mom & pop paying for school? And finally of those having mom & pop pay for it, how many of your parents will be able to afford an additional, oh we'll estimate $1000, tacked onto your tution?
Before you answer the last question consider this:
From the ISU website
Housing Fees and Advantage Meal Plan:
$2,807.55 per semester
$5,615.10 per year
Indiana Resident:
Above 18 hours = $3,356.00 per semester
12 - 18 hours = $2,878.00 per semester
0 - 11.5 hours = $208.00 per credit hour
Now if you view their website you see it's actually cheaper, to live on campus, by several thousand dollars. They actually charge more, if you live off campus. Based on a 3 month class schedule (off of their site) minus weekends and no holidays there are roughly 66 days of class the school offers. Based on a 3 hour class schedule (this is more of a guess, personally I wouldn't take more than three college courses at once) this comes to slightly less than 22 hours of class time.
So based on their prices, 22 hours would cost at least $3,400 (per semester). Maybe more. Toss in room and food, you are looking at over $12,450 (1 years worth, which is two semesters, of lodging and 1 years worth of classes, again two semesters).
So let's assume, again, that since this is a state school it is cheaper. I'm sure other schools charge much more per year. Now there are probably either three reasons you are going to a State University;
1) it's all your parents could afford other than community college or you got a scholarship/student loans (more on this later)
2) you got rejected by ivy league schools and/or couldn't make the grades for them
3) you for some reason find a program or class or series of classes a State school offers that others don't
If it's two, cost probably isn't an issue. If it's 3, then thats a maybe. But if it's 1, this IS an issue.
If you parent's couldn't afford an top dollar ivy league school, but didn't want you in community college, then this is probably where you end up. So that extra $800-1000 you have to spend on tuition for the laptop could literally be the bank breaker.
Same with scholarships or student loans. I know plenty of people who had to have their own equipment for many science courses, who had most of their tuition paid for by student loans. Loans which would not cover extra costs such as those equipment. Same thing could happen here. Trust me, student loan organizations say they are out to help but they are legalized loan sharks. They aren't going to sink money into something they don't think is nesscary. I needed my own Osciloscope (bad spelling I know) for various digital electronics courses. My student loans would not cover such costs, so I had to pay out of my own pocket (a hefty sum indeed) for it or I failed the cours
Let me just throw in a hypothetical situation and some one can tell me how it goes down:
Say I buy myself an iPod. We'll be specific and say its a nice 60GB, and we'll even say I got it for around $350.00 (including tax and all that good bullshit). Now let's say I use a legitmate service to fill up my iPod like, iTunes or whatever and I buy a few hundred dollars worth of songs and fill it to capacity. After all cost we'll say I spent over $600 on it.
So I no longer want my iPod but being a nice piece of consumer hardware I can recoup all of my monetary value out of it and sell it on eBay. Since I have already paid for the songs once, there should be no legality issues regarding copyrights? The music was already paid for, assuming "they" (RIAA, whomever you wish to use in this example) want either the seller or buyer to pay, again.
I dunno, it's just silly. I mean tons of other mediums don't have these issues, or at least to the point of being noticible in the press. Look at used computers. Walk into any mom&pop style computer store and you can get old used computers, sometimes with their HDD's unwiped so they not only still have their operating system but a good bit of the files and software still installed. Afaik, no law or lawful action is taken aganist people for selling these things. Or at the least, again, none that has warranted news worthy notice on any site including /. (that I have seen).
Before you go off thinking I'm some digital crack addicted WoW player who has over 2000 hours logged into the game, I don't play the game. I enjoy MMO's but I hate WoW.
People are still fucking shocked that a server crashed? Guess what, the game has been out for over 1.2 years and Blizzard has yet and will probably never fix their colosal fuckup. Think about it, they made good profit on pretty much all previous franchises, then when we want ya know, a sequel to one of the best RTS games from a fucking decade ago, almost, we get "World of Warcraft".
That's great, just what the fucking MMO industry needs, another god damn elven orc sword and shield medievil fantasy MMO. Wow, never seen that before (UO I'm looking at you...eight fucking years ago). Hell just now they are finally coming out soon with D&D Online and Middle Earth Online mmo's. I love a good romp through swords and magic as much as the next guy but when the MMO market is dominated by not just one game (WoW) but one genre, it fucking sucks.
And that is all I hear about in MMO news, WoW this and WoW that. Cool you got 5 million people playing. You know for a god damn fact at $15 USD (change currency depending on country) per month, at 5 million people, Blizzard more than makes enough to come up with a solution to fix a god damn server issue. I once wanted to try WoW, and by now I have, but ya know y ou can't ever really read about it, cause most offical and fan made forums are people just bitching about the downtimes (which I can agree with but it gets tedious ya know) and lag and framerates.
If your MMO can't handle a vast majority of a servers population in a single area, fucking UPGRADE. Come up with a new solution. I hate to use Eve Online as an example since I disliked the tradeskills in the game but they've done a great deal in compression and data transmission. One large server spread out in clusters that so far has held over 20,000 concurrent logins at one given time. That's what like 5 WoW servers? (actual servers in the list not PC's running a particular server).
I too like to see a variety of news on /. it's my god damn homepage. I love seeing shit from space exploration to the latest on the RIAA fucking up day to day life to even game news. But come on, do we really need some half assed submission about a server for a game that really is just a god damn internet penis measuring contest? Thats what WoW is in the end, who wasted enough time to grind and treadmill their way to the level cap, then get the best gear, then the money for the best mount or whatever the personal transportation is (1000 gold if I recall right, or close too it). That's great, you enjoy it? Sure you got the right too but jesus christ on a fucking saltine cracker with Sav Way bought cheese, don't deny it's a fucking eDick measuring contest. It's like walking into an Apple store and watching two iPod owners whip out their storage screens to see whos iPod is bigger in HDD space.
Yea, its a rant. Deal with it. If you can't, go wait five hours in your queue line to join a server.
Now compare a typical low end job such as that, to other jobs. I'm caught in this tunnel of never ending job search. While I never trained in a real specific area of IT I can do a variety of things on a entry level from PC repair to admin management of a Windows enviroment to even something as simple as data entry. Yet the jobs I wouldn't be 'outclassed' or overqualified for, all require usually 3+ years experience and/or a BS from a 4 year school. Since I'm basically fresh out of my 2 year school, having learned my trade, I have less than a years experience at best, and I don't have the money for a 4 year school (and I've already tapped uncle sam for all the student loans he'd give me). But at the same time the "low end" jobs like data entry, or transcription, I can't get cause for whatever reasons, probably those you listed if I had to guess.
While not nesscarily racist per say, when you go into these low end job interviews and you're the only person of a particular race there out of a dozen people, doing it professionally as you were taught, it sure looks like racism on the end of the HR person. Maybe I've got rose colored glasses on, being a white person raised in the south, I never really had to deal with it much myself obviously. Thus it's strikingly new and unexpected. The funny part is I'd almost prefer if it was racism, at least then I know it was a personal prejudice that cost me a job rather than the fact the other interviewees who while may or may not be poor, still can't make themseles professionally presentable.
While most of their other positions were filled, I eager to obtain just about any job computer/IT related, I applied for a data entry position. Being more of a wider variety of people that are hired for such a position I figured I had a shot, since you didn't need a big time degree from a four year school.
So the day of my interview, I do what I was taught to do: I present myself as professional as I could. Freshly ironed dress slack pants, freshly ironed dress shirt with appropriate tie. Polished shoes, and even went as far as to get a hair cut the day before just to keep it all well rounded. With me I brought additional copies of my resume both hard and soft copy. As well as copies of my coverletter and references, all neatly typed up myself as clean and neat as you can make it.
I go through the whole process, interview which I thought went well, the little test they gave me to measure my speed of typing I took pretty well. They wanted 9500 words an hour with 0 mistakes, I got around 7000 which I thought was still a respectable number.
The kicker of the situation is, there must have been at least half a dozen people applying for the same position. They had maybe twenty open spots for this position so I figured 1 out of 20 isn't too bad of odds. Every one else there, was so unprofessional it made me so angry..
With no opinion on race, the other people there to interview where as follows:
- Two middle eastern gentlemen, one somewhat elderly the other middle aged. Neither spoke English very well and often had to ask other interviewee's for assistance when they were filling out their application. Neither was dressed appropriately, wearing denim jackets, jeans, and tennis shoes.
- One young middle eastern woman who wore a partial veil, the one that doesn't cover the face. She appeared to speak English well, but also dressed inappropriately with just a dress and tennis shoes.
- One young african american woman, spoke typical American English yet was dressed horribly. She wore a t-shirt, jeans, a flashy pocketbook and bright colored hairpins. She looked like she was going to hang out at a local mall, not apply for job of this field.
- One middle aged african american woman. Other than myself she was probably the most appropriate for the job, dressed in nice womans dress pants, with a matching blouse. Hair neatly tucked back, appropriate dress shoes.
None of them appeared to have a resume on hand, references or a cover letter. This was a company, here in America so I was quite shocked people who barely spoke English and knew no Spanish were being considered for a job that requires fluent English. While my opinion of race has no bearing on something like this, simple professionalism really means alot in these situations.
I was not chosen for any of the positions, though I don't know if the others I described got one either.
I'm American, born and raised. I'm causasian, "white" as it's always called. While I can understand how some think race will always play a part, alot of times it happens to "white" people too. Even if it was a professionalism ordeal it still can be played aganist "white" people just like it can any other race.
If some citizens in China hate it so bad because of the political situation, why not just leave China?
Is it a money issue? Can they not afford to travel some where else and start a new life? I know visa's and living in a different country as one of it's citizens might pose an issue depending on the country they move too. However I'm also sure out of all the nations in the world, at least one would help them out if they requested asylum from their former government.
I was maybe, 5 years old when the Tiananmen Square ordeal happened, so what I know of it from a typical American standpoint is just what my parents remember or I can read online. But in the last year or so we all know of the crack down on blocked sites by the Chinese government. Hell /. reports on them all the time. But each time I read a story about them (and they do seem to be getting progressively "worse" as time goes on), I never understand how if the dictatorship is so bad for their freedom and quality of life, why they don't just leave.
Who knows maybe what some people say is just descriptions being blown out of porportions. Maybe what some people say is true and all the insane things said about day to day life in China is true. I can't say, nor I assume can an everyday American who has never traveled or lived there. But I can question why those that hate it have not left.
One thing though, while some might say "Well it's their homeland. That might mean a great deal to them and they don't wish to leave even under the conditions imposed on them." I can understand that, to a degree. I wouldn't want to leave my hometown ever, after having lived all my life here. But I can speak for myself when I say if America or whichever country I was living in, became like China I'd rather move to a place foreign to me than risk my life and the lives of my family.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/load/forums/l oadforum/51/loadthread/37720/setstart/1/loadclass/ 35
love the screen shot of the official GOLD game just being spindles after spindles of cd-rw's (note they DID ship just run of the mill burnt cd rw's in a small box with no artwork, as the official game....)
From never recieving pre ordered copies of the game, to the game shipping on just run of the mill blank cd-r's, the game was plaqued with horrendus management.
Go try to read the official Mourning forums. Notice how they only go back to a certain date? They've deleted their forum database more than once. Not just a typical pruning but completely cleaned it cause so many of the fans, players, and even development team staff & moderators spoke out aganist it.
Imagine if one day a huge portion of say, SOE's player base (for any game, just as an example) spoke out aganist a huge list of problems, failures and broken promises. In this huge group of people is several key people in your production team, a good portion of your long time forum and community moderators, and even some of your own sponsors. Now imagine SOE just basically giving all those people a big middle finger, deleting the forums, and then rule over the "new" forums with an iron nazi fist (quite literally, meaning NO negative opinions). If you can piture all that, that is exactly what it was like for the Mourning players.
Apparrently bandwidth wasn't part of that ;p
Nothing aganist Korean of Chinese gamers, just personally every article I've seen on /. and other sites always is about a gamer in a different country.
But this is the first /. I've read that is totally, wrong. Sure you can make a cool macro lens out of a Pringles can for less than $1 but you forgot the important part you need a lens slash full normal 35mm camera already to pull this off.
Totally misleading summary. Mod me down if you want, I'm not trying to flame but seriously this is just hitting a low for /.
Occasionally I'll find good deals. If I do get a game for christmas it might be something off the $10 shelf at Walmart.
If you've ever lived in the "bible belt" of America you know how bad people can get some times. Especially when it comes to southern Baptists.
The hilarity comes from watching them turning red in the face when you hit them up with logic and science. Try discussing the concept of free will vs it being the "right" thing to do by worshiping a god (kinda of a double standard to be forced to believe in something when you've been given free will to do as you please). Man some of these religious people down here will get so angry if you weren't in a public place you'd probably get beaten to an inch of your life or in some cases killed. (deadly serious here)
I call'em religious zealots cause they are. While I keep an open mind and let people do as they want in their own homes and churches, I cannot stand a bible thumper trying to impose their beliefs on me.