Any chance to see former Monty Ptyhon members with their favourite bits hanging out, with new material added, is a good thing.
Well, except for that dead guy - hope they don't trot out his moldy corpse, wire its jaw to a computer, and make him some kind of animatronic "I'm feeling better" kind of bit.
That would bring me down just a tad.
Care for a cup of tea? I hear Sartre's going to pop in today...
Sometimes, and far worse, you have intelligent people who can't understand consequences of loony ideas but are very good at pushing out enough frak that noone understands they're really loony people.
I agree wholeheartedly. I remember the days of the old Origin games, where you got full color maps, supplements, a history to read, etc. It was just fun, and made you feel like you'd got your money's worth. Now, PC games just throw a reference card in (if you're lucky) and have a CD booklet with install instructions. Console games have 5 page manuals, 3 of which include seizure warnings, a blank "notes" page (what the hell for?), and a diagram showing the buttons on the controller that DOESN'T even show what the buttons are used for in that game (it just shows the controller so you know what "A" and "B" refer to). The 2 pages of actual game material are in 20pt font and mostly tell you how to put the disc in the drive.
I remember that too. My recent purchase of Sims 2 for the xBox was very disappointing - they don't even give you any useful cheats, or tell you the basic rules of the game in the console version.
Everyone assumes you're going to buy the book to play it.
I usually do buy the book, but I hate being told I have to. When I got the book for Sims: The Urbz, it turned out half the book was for a PSP/GameBoy version that I wasn't going to be buying. Man, I felt gypped.
The game developers have been trying to figure out how to dip into the used game market that the retailers have exclusively owned. This has a lot to do with that, even though the article doesn't mention it. They want people to think it is all about convenience, but a lot of it has to do with defending their ability to sell you the games and not getting taken out of the loop.
But that would take out the whole purpose of having friends in middle school and high school!
My son and his friends probably spend more time showing each other games, giving each other their old games, and trading them than they do playing the games together.
We used to use it in Army purification tanks, when we set up fresh water supplies for troops, and it traps everything and filters out most contaminants, even the microscopic ones.
Most "high-tech solutions" actually use it, they just repackage it, give it a fancy name and brand, and make you think it's better than what actually is doing all the work.
Nintendo needs something like The Sims or some female friendly game that makes good use of the innovative controller. Reaching out to women is how they can really blow-out the X-Box.
I tend to agree. It's actually for that reason alone that I'm not willing to count out Nintendo, even tho I sold my shares in them, as every market study i've seen in the Wall Street Journal says that this is going to be an exploding game sector (women and girls).
For some reason, I tend to like a lot of the same games that many women and girls choose, even tho I'm a guy - heck, I'm ex-Army, used to shoot real people, but I'm so over FPS...
Maybe it's cause I've been watching too much Japanimation with my son - he's 14 - and he's heavily into anime and manga, so that may be influencing me - or maybe it's the university crowd I hang out with, who come from many nations, and half of our scientists are women (yes, a lot of really beautiful ones too, if you must know).
But I'm waiting till all three platforms are out before I start thinking of buying my next console - already have GameCube and xBox for now, wish I'd gotten PS2.
Gameplay is important, but if you can get the same game on two different consoles, which would you choose. Most people would choose the one with more power.
Now, there is some truth in that.
I bought the xBox version of Lego Star Wars and Sims 2 - both multi-platform - because the graphics are better for the xBox version than the GameCube.
But, overall, I've bought way more GameCube games, cause they're just plain more fun! And, in the end, that matters more.
So how does all this work internationally, then? Does this mean that in 2013, in the U.S., I'll be able to legally copy an import of "Please Please Me"? Or that if I'm in the U.K., I'll be able to copy any copy of "Please Please Me", regardless of origin? Or some other variation?
No, it means that in 2013, you can go to an EU country and make a legal copy of the Beatles song, and not pay royalties.
But if you make it or sell it in the USA, you'll be liable for royalties.
Not to worry, I'll have patented your genome too by that point, and start charging you royalties if you have any kids...
make sure you save your code to a CD or DVD and mail it in to the Library of Congress, securing your copyright to it.
Or copyleft it.
But even though your right of copyright remains with the author by creation, never assume unregistered code won't be stolen by someone like Gill B at Microsnuff who believes all code is his...
US copyright law does not apply to the EU, or to International Copyright Law.
We have a never-expiring copyright.
Luckily for me, when I published stuff years ago in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, I sent a copy to the US Library of Congress, so my copyright will never die.
Now if I could just do something about patenting my own genome, I'd be set.
Which is why I'm waiting until the PS3 and NR come out, before I waste money on a new console.
So far, all I've seen is stuff that's cross-platform, so I can't get excited by xBox360. And all I hear about for the 360 is pretty boring. yet more FPS, yet more racing, nothing that makes fun.
Until they come out with GTA:Cascadia or GT5:Emerald City (the Seattle versions), I'm not buying yet another cross-platform.
I think we may be talking past each other a bit here. Again, I have no doubts about him or his lab; that's not what worries me. In fact, it looks like just the kind of place I'd want to work in. To put it this way, even if you were he - even if I were he - I would still not trust this fully. He (you|me) is not in control of what his superiors may get into their heads to do if the project turns up something that is economically hugely valuable.
True, but actually his lab provides Protein Folding prediction software to other research projects, so he has even less ability to stop people from using it for nefarious (patent) purposes. Anyone can submit their data to the lab and get predictions from it, and that's the beauty of it, it's open.
It's your call if you wish to participate. I can only tell you what percentage of submitted works are for public research (non-patentable, since they become public), there's no real control over who uses it.
At some point you have to trust that science will be used for good by most scientists - sure, there are unethical or profit-driven scientists, but they're a minority in my experience.
you could always email Nikolaos Scarmeas at ns257@columbia.edu - the author of the original article - I found his email in a 2005 poster display on Science Direct, an educational research tool that most major libraries subscribe to at the university level.
Apparently he displayed a poster on this work back in June 2005, and it took his team this long to get it published - peer review can be a slow process - there's a paper I contributed to back in August 2005 and it's only in revision 47, still not accepted in Science, but should be showing up there.
The first thought that came into my mind when I read this: if you have more (mental ability) and the end result of Alzheimer is the same for all people, then you will lose it (mental ability) faster...
That's assuming they get to the end point at the same time, which may not be true.
The end point of Alzheimers is death. Yes, it's true.
But you raise a good followup research study question there.
Remember that the data is observed over many years, partially through other people's observations, and measurements are separated by years.
But, in the end, the end result is death.
Now, if we could just get more people to donate their brains after they die, we could study what it looks like more easily. It's not like they're using it...
Well, it is already established that more educated people have a lower risk of Alzheimer's, and a later onset. This study, however, follows a few hundred already diagnosed patients for five years, and notes that the rate of cognitive decline is faster in the more educated patients. Probably they just didn't have enough coffee Be a little more interesting when the study itself is available instead of the press release.
Personally, I think they should all just move to Seattle and drink more coffee.
Oh, wait, then it would be crowded around here.
Ok, maybe they should just drink more coffee - prefereably from Tully's, Starbucks, or Seattle's Best Coffee. Or Peet's.
Slashdot Mirror
"new material".
...
Any chance to see former Monty Ptyhon members with their favourite bits hanging out, with new material added, is a good thing.
Well, except for that dead guy - hope they don't trot out his moldy corpse, wire its jaw to a computer, and make him some kind of animatronic "I'm feeling better" kind of bit.
That would bring me down just a tad.
Care for a cup of tea? I hear Sartre's going to pop in today
thinks outsourcing is good for America.
Sometimes, you have loony people.
Sometimes, you have intelligent people.
Sometimes, and far worse, you have intelligent people who can't understand consequences of loony ideas but are very good at pushing out enough frak that noone understands they're really loony people.
Sadly, Dyson's in the third category.
I agree wholeheartedly. I remember the days of the old Origin games, where you got full color maps, supplements, a history to read, etc. It was just fun, and made you feel like you'd got your money's worth. Now, PC games just throw a reference card in (if you're lucky) and have a CD booklet with install instructions. Console games have 5 page manuals, 3 of which include seizure warnings, a blank "notes" page (what the hell for?), and a diagram showing the buttons on the controller that DOESN'T even show what the buttons are used for in that game (it just shows the controller so you know what "A" and "B" refer to). The 2 pages of actual game material are in 20pt font and mostly tell you how to put the disc in the drive.
I remember that too. My recent purchase of Sims 2 for the xBox was very disappointing - they don't even give you any useful cheats, or tell you the basic rules of the game in the console version.
Everyone assumes you're going to buy the book to play it.
I usually do buy the book, but I hate being told I have to. When I got the book for Sims: The Urbz, it turned out half the book was for a PSP/GameBoy version that I wasn't going to be buying. Man, I felt gypped.
The game developers have been trying to figure out how to dip into the used game market that the retailers have exclusively owned. This has a lot to do with that, even though the article doesn't mention it. They want people to think it is all about convenience, but a lot of it has to do with defending their ability to sell you the games and not getting taken out of the loop.
But that would take out the whole purpose of having friends in middle school and high school!
My son and his friends probably spend more time showing each other games, giving each other their old games, and trading them than they do playing the games together.
That's what friends are for
I predict such efforts will be quickly circumvented, using either very cheap materials or practical and easy to use methods.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way of Life?
Last I checked, we're pushing Lies, we Torture and have been called on it by the UN and most countries, and the Middle Class is under attack.
The military can't win if people refuse to deal with reality.
As everyone knows, the only solution to Global Warming is getting more pirates. Explanation here.
I was worried Yahoo would ban my religion.
Wonder what they'll do to all those guys named Jesus?
What are you talking about, it's all of them that IS left.
Nah, the Flying Spaghetti Monster already welcomed their souls into Heaven.
The brains are merely empty vessels - you don't keep old baby sipping mugs around when you grow up, do you?
We used to use it in Army purification tanks, when we set up fresh water supplies for troops, and it traps everything and filters out most contaminants, even the microscopic ones.
Most "high-tech solutions" actually use it, they just repackage it, give it a fancy name and brand, and make you think it's better than what actually is doing all the work.
it's just reprinted on CNN/Money
from the article: "By Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0 Magazine editor-at-large"
I used to subscribe to the print edition of Business 2.0, last century.
Nintendo needs something like The Sims or some female friendly game that makes good use of the innovative controller. Reaching out to women is how they can really blow-out the X-Box.
...
I tend to agree. It's actually for that reason alone that I'm not willing to count out Nintendo, even tho I sold my shares in them, as every market study i've seen in the Wall Street Journal says that this is going to be an exploding game sector (women and girls).
For some reason, I tend to like a lot of the same games that many women and girls choose, even tho I'm a guy - heck, I'm ex-Army, used to shoot real people, but I'm so over FPS
Maybe it's cause I've been watching too much Japanimation with my son - he's 14 - and he's heavily into anime and manga, so that may be influencing me - or maybe it's the university crowd I hang out with, who come from many nations, and half of our scientists are women (yes, a lot of really beautiful ones too, if you must know).
But I'm waiting till all three platforms are out before I start thinking of buying my next console - already have GameCube and xBox for now, wish I'd gotten PS2.
Gameplay is important, but if you can get the same game on two different consoles, which would you choose. Most people would choose the one with more power.
Now, there is some truth in that.
I bought the xBox version of Lego Star Wars and Sims 2 - both multi-platform - because the graphics are better for the xBox version than the GameCube.
But, overall, I've bought way more GameCube games, cause they're just plain more fun! And, in the end, that matters more.
So how does all this work internationally, then? Does this mean that in 2013, in the U.S., I'll be able to legally copy an import of "Please Please Me"? Or that if I'm in the U.K., I'll be able to copy any copy of "Please Please Me", regardless of origin? Or some other variation?
...
No, it means that in 2013, you can go to an EU country and make a legal copy of the Beatles song, and not pay royalties.
But if you make it or sell it in the USA, you'll be liable for royalties.
Not to worry, I'll have patented your genome too by that point, and start charging you royalties if you have any kids
make sure you save your code to a CD or DVD and mail it in to the Library of Congress, securing your copyright to it.
...
Or copyleft it.
But even though your right of copyright remains with the author by creation, never assume unregistered code won't be stolen by someone like Gill B at Microsnuff who believes all code is his
Let's be careful out there.
US copyright law does not apply to the EU, or to International Copyright Law.
We have a never-expiring copyright.
Luckily for me, when I published stuff years ago in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, I sent a copy to the US Library of Congress, so my copyright will never die.
Now if I could just do something about patenting my own genome, I'd be set.
me too. I just don't see the point in paying good money for trash talk.
it's a waste from my viewpoint - and I used to swear like a stove when I was in the Army, until I made a higher rank than Corporal.
but prefer Diablo II for FRP games.
They swear too much online, but the Diablo II crowd tends to swear less.
It's also why I'm not interested in online play, so much as neighborhood play.
If it's a neighbor and they trash-talk, I can hunt them down and knock on their door and give them what for.
if it's someone thousands of miles away, I usually can't be bothered.
Which is why I'm waiting until the PS3 and NR come out, before I waste money on a new console.
So far, all I've seen is stuff that's cross-platform, so I can't get excited by xBox360. And all I hear about for the 360 is pretty boring. yet more FPS, yet more racing, nothing that makes fun.
Until they come out with GTA:Cascadia or GT5:Emerald City (the Seattle versions), I'm not buying yet another cross-platform.
Everyone seems to think the PS3 is going to be so much better than the Xbox3.
Because, in the end, it's all about the games.
Sure, xBox and xBox360 might do well for FPS and sports sims.
But that's about it. sadly.
[caveat - I own MSFT shares, have owned Sony & Nintendo shares, and own Konami shares - and own an xBox and a GameCube]
I think we may be talking past each other a bit here. Again, I have no doubts about him or his lab; that's not what worries me. In fact, it looks like just the kind of place I'd want to work in. To put it this way, even if you were he - even if I were he - I would still not trust this fully. He (you|me) is not in control of what his superiors may get into their heads to do if the project turns up something that is economically hugely valuable.
True, but actually his lab provides Protein Folding prediction software to other research projects, so he has even less ability to stop people from using it for nefarious (patent) purposes. Anyone can submit their data to the lab and get predictions from it, and that's the beauty of it, it's open.
It's your call if you wish to participate. I can only tell you what percentage of submitted works are for public research (non-patentable, since they become public), there's no real control over who uses it.
At some point you have to trust that science will be used for good by most scientists - sure, there are unethical or profit-driven scientists, but they're a minority in my experience.
you could always email Nikolaos Scarmeas at ns257@columbia.edu - the author of the original article - I found his email in a 2005 poster display on Science Direct, an educational research tool that most major libraries subscribe to at the university level.
Apparently he displayed a poster on this work back in June 2005, and it took his team this long to get it published - peer review can be a slow process - there's a paper I contributed to back in August 2005 and it's only in revision 47, still not accepted in Science, but should be showing up there.
The first thought that came into my mind when I read this: if you have more (mental ability) and the end result of Alzheimer is the same for all people, then you will lose it (mental ability) faster...
...
That's assuming they get to the end point at the same time, which may not be true.
The end point of Alzheimers is death. Yes, it's true.
But you raise a good followup research study question there.
Remember that the data is observed over many years, partially through other people's observations, and measurements are separated by years.
But, in the end, the end result is death.
Now, if we could just get more people to donate their brains after they die, we could study what it looks like more easily. It's not like they're using it
Well, it is already established that more educated people have a lower risk of Alzheimer's, and a later onset. This study, however, follows a few hundred already diagnosed patients for five years, and notes that the rate of cognitive decline is faster in the more educated patients. Probably they just didn't have enough coffee Be a little more interesting when the study itself is available instead of the press release.
Personally, I think they should all just move to Seattle and drink more coffee.
Oh, wait, then it would be crowded around here.
Ok, maybe they should just drink more coffee - prefereably from Tully's, Starbucks, or Seattle's Best Coffee. Or Peet's.
That would be good.
good expanations