That is really interesting... I saw a kid at Target (9-11 for my best guess) walk up, ask a salesman for it, walk to the counter, and buy it. I really do think that ID should be enforced on those games, even though it really isn't.
While the bacteria example has been around for a very long time and is commonly known, it is not very often that the same trend is extrapolated to the larger, more relavent world.
What we have to ask ourselves though, is, are we doing this to any other animals as well? Forcing evolution, as it could be called? What will be the long term effects? Tuskless elephants is one thing, but there could potentially be something very dangerous coming, besides super bacteria, of course.
JASON AINSWORTH plays the online game Second Life at least four hours a day. In the game, he runs a virtual real estate development business. But his after-tax profit - about $1,800 a month - is real, and it's enough to pay the mortgage on his home in Las Vegas.
For many people, what are known as massively multiplayer online games have become significant sources of income.
Web sites have sprung up that allow players to use real currency to buy items - like weapons or real estate - that they may want or need for the games
Games like Second Life, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and dozens of others offer the opportunity to interact with thousands of players worldwide in virtual environments that continue to exist whether or not any particular person is playing at the moment. The virtual broadsword you found in the dragon's cave (or that dream house you built) before logging off on Tuesday will be right there on Wednesday.
Acquiring those items, however, requires work. In Ultima Online, it can take weeks to amass enough virtual gold to buy a superior weapon. It can take just as long to earn enough "simoleans," the virtual currency of The Sims Online - the online version of Electronic Arts' best-selling role-playing games - to buy and furnish a house.
But not everyone cares to spend time toiling in pursuit of game money. This provides an opportunity for people like Mr. Ainsworth. A thriving market has sprung up in which players spend real-world cash to buy game currency or desirable items from other players. Transactions take place on eBay or on sites like gamingopenmarket.com or www.ige.com. Payments are made through PayPal and other online services. Players then log into the game and transfer the virtual goods or currency.
Mr. Ainsworth, 36, was not a fan of online games until his 10-year-old daughter became interested in The Sims Online. He then noticed that a large number of simoleans were for sale on eBay. "I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets," he said, "so I figured, buy low, sell high."
But Mr. Ainsworth found his moneymaking options in The Sims "very limited"; he switched to Second Life, a virtual world that is less a game than a three-dimensional environment in which players can do whatever they choose. There, he has leveraged his real-life experience - he is a developer and contractor - into an online business. In 14 locations in Second Life's virtual world, he owns enough "land" to rent space to nearly 50 retailers, who in turn earn virtual money selling everything from jewelry to clothing to art (all nonexistent, of course). Mr. Ainsworth converts his game profits into real money on sites like eBay, Ige and gamingopenmarket, which charge a small fee, and he includes that income on his tax returns.
"A lot of your success or failure depends on your ability to keep the fire lit," he said. "I have good months and bad months, but the work is fun."
Earnings can be considerable. Ailin Graef, who goes by the screen name Anshe Chung in Second Life, said she was on track to earn about $100,000 in real money in her first year in the game's real estate business.
Hundreds of people who play Second Life make a profit on it, said Philip Rosedale, chief executive and founder of Linden Lab, the game's developer. The value of the average player's transactions, if converted to real money, is more than $1,000 a year and has been growing nearly 25 percent a month, Mr. Rosedale said.
Who buys this stuff? One Second Life resident, who asked to be identified only by her screen name, Diamond Hope, said she spent $10 to $15 a month on clothing and other accessories in Secon
I personally don't understand what the author is talking about. Yes, there is some development by the community (both public and private) of the wireless network in the city, but it is very limited. Currently, we have some cafes, various public buildings, and a scattering of parks that have free access.
Overall though, I wouldn't put the percentage at higher then _maybe_ 2% of the city as being truly wireless. And I'm not talking about putting wireless way out in the fringe neighborhoods and suburbs, I'm talking about right smack in the middle of down town, and in various big commercial centers, like the malls.
But that being said, it is nice to know that there is an effort to do this, even if the effects are negligible at best right now. After all, progress always starts off slow, and it may end up increasing dramatically in the next months/years.
It seems to me that this is a first step by IBM to try and move the Cell more into the foreground of computing i.e. to start transitioning computers over to start using Cell instead of x86. Going to the open source community with this project is the only feasible way to do this anymore, really. As much as big companies might like to, they will not be able to put in near the amount of effort or creativity that open source can provide.
As well, I think that moving to Cell would be a very positive step for the computer industry as a whole, helping it to get out of a rut that it seems to have fallen into. The benefits are enormous, the least of which is that if Cell starts becoming standard, average computing power of a desktop will skyrocket, allowing for brand new, highly computing intensive applications to be developed.
A better idea for the poll may have been to say: Pick all of the following that you feel are highly important. And then let the users have multiple checkboxes, instead of a checkbox group where only one option can be selected.
It seems to me that while, as several users have pointed out, Paul doesn't really present anything new; what he does do is to point out things that most people don't see. While some people already know in detail what he is talking about, many do not, and he is opening the eyes of these people.
Having read about 2/3 of his articles, I have realized that most of what he talks about, I already, at some level, know. The article helps to see a topic in a new light though. Yes, some of his articles aren't all that great, and are stuff that is generally know, but very few writers are always successful.
It is the same reason that we have books on science or programming or how to use Windows, or any other number of topics. A subset of the population already intimately understands these ideas. However, to the rest of us, it lets us understand and explore the ideas in ways that never would have occurred to us/been possible.
If you really don't like Paul's articles, then don't read them. They only come up every few weeks. It's not like he posts a new one every other day.
It's been my experience that it is almost impossible to get ordinary (read: non-computer) people to update their machines, be it Windows or Norton Virus updates. The only way that most of them will get these updates, ever, is if 1. Someone does it for them, or 2. If it is automated, and does it for them.
Otherwise, they just don't see the reason to, don't have the motivation to, and just plain don't care.
This is the first step in P2P being declared legal. Although it may seem like an obvious decision to the people here, remember that not everyone understands the issues so well- i.e. Politicians who make these decisions.
You do have a good point there. But on the flip side, how many people do you know that do jobs like that for 20 hours a day, for several weeks at a time?
I know several nurses. In and of itself, it can be very demanding work, both physically and mentally, especially depending on what subfield one goes into. However, even with the great shortage of nurses, they do not have to work overtime.
Some of the game programmers I know have to though. And it isn't the fact that the work is fundamentally different. It's the fact that working conditions like this (18-20 hour days, for several weeks) are extremely detrimental to a person's health.
The wife of a ex-gametester has talked to me about visiting the company during crunch time. People there would be wearing jackets and several comforters off of beds, while they were working in a normal temperature room. Do you know why? Because they had been awake and working for so long, there body was starting to shut down. They could no longer produce sufficient body heat.
Anyone who says that the video game industry doesn't need to change, or that makes light of the problems in it doesn't fully realize what those problems are, and how drastically major changes are needed.
That may be so, but videogame developers are often the only ones that speak out. I agree that high tech workers don't really need to be unionized, but that doesn't mean that companies should be allowed to run roughshod over the developers. I personally know several people who have worked both in video game testing and development, and conditions are often very, very bad. They may not need unions like laborers, but they deserve the same humane working conditions of other fields. Having to work 18-20 hour days for several weeks should not be allowed.
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But I was always under the assumption that the GPL that Linux is developed under generally extended to the name as well.
Does anyone have any legal expertise in this area that can help us out?
If you aren't careful, all the scifi/fantasy geeks who are in science/research will do this...
Not that this would necessarily be a bad thing though... It would most certainly be better than the NEW-TIES AI project from a few days ago.
That is really interesting... I saw a kid at Target (9-11 for my best guess) walk up, ask a salesman for it, walk to the counter, and buy it. I really do think that ID should be enforced on those games, even though it really isn't.
While the bacteria example has been around for a very long time and is commonly known, it is not very often that the same trend is extrapolated to the larger, more relavent world.
What we have to ask ourselves though, is, are we doing this to any other animals as well? Forcing evolution, as it could be called? What will be the long term effects? Tuskless elephants is one thing, but there could potentially be something very dangerous coming, besides super bacteria, of course.
The Game Is Virtual. The Profit Is Real.
By MARK WALLACE Published: May 29, 2005
JASON AINSWORTH plays the online game Second Life at least four hours a day. In the game, he runs a virtual real estate development business. But his after-tax profit - about $1,800 a month - is real, and it's enough to pay the mortgage on his home in Las Vegas.
For many people, what are known as massively multiplayer online games have become significant sources of income.
Web sites have sprung up that allow players to use real currency to buy items - like weapons or real estate - that they may want or need for the games
Games like Second Life, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and dozens of others offer the opportunity to interact with thousands of players worldwide in virtual environments that continue to exist whether or not any particular person is playing at the moment. The virtual broadsword you found in the dragon's cave (or that dream house you built) before logging off on Tuesday will be right there on Wednesday.
Acquiring those items, however, requires work. In Ultima Online, it can take weeks to amass enough virtual gold to buy a superior weapon. It can take just as long to earn enough "simoleans," the virtual currency of The Sims Online - the online version of Electronic Arts' best-selling role-playing games - to buy and furnish a house.
But not everyone cares to spend time toiling in pursuit of game money. This provides an opportunity for people like Mr. Ainsworth. A thriving market has sprung up in which players spend real-world cash to buy game currency or desirable items from other players. Transactions take place on eBay or on sites like gamingopenmarket.com or www.ige.com. Payments are made through PayPal and other online services. Players then log into the game and transfer the virtual goods or currency.
Mr. Ainsworth, 36, was not a fan of online games until his 10-year-old daughter became interested in The Sims Online. He then noticed that a large number of simoleans were for sale on eBay. "I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets," he said, "so I figured, buy low, sell high."
But Mr. Ainsworth found his moneymaking options in The Sims "very limited"; he switched to Second Life, a virtual world that is less a game than a three-dimensional environment in which players can do whatever they choose. There, he has leveraged his real-life experience - he is a developer and contractor - into an online business. In 14 locations in Second Life's virtual world, he owns enough "land" to rent space to nearly 50 retailers, who in turn earn virtual money selling everything from jewelry to clothing to art (all nonexistent, of course). Mr. Ainsworth converts his game profits into real money on sites like eBay, Ige and gamingopenmarket, which charge a small fee, and he includes that income on his tax returns.
"A lot of your success or failure depends on your ability to keep the fire lit," he said. "I have good months and bad months, but the work is fun."
Earnings can be considerable. Ailin Graef, who goes by the screen name Anshe Chung in Second Life, said she was on track to earn about $100,000 in real money in her first year in the game's real estate business.
Hundreds of people who play Second Life make a profit on it, said Philip Rosedale, chief executive and founder of Linden Lab, the game's developer. The value of the average player's transactions, if converted to real money, is more than $1,000 a year and has been growing nearly 25 percent a month, Mr. Rosedale said.
Who buys this stuff? One Second Life resident, who asked to be identified only by her screen name, Diamond Hope, said she spent $10 to $15 a month on clothing and other accessories in Secon
I personally don't understand what the author is talking about. Yes, there is some development by the community (both public and private) of the wireless network in the city, but it is very limited. Currently, we have some cafes, various public buildings, and a scattering of parks that have free access.
Overall though, I wouldn't put the percentage at higher then _maybe_ 2% of the city as being truly wireless. And I'm not talking about putting wireless way out in the fringe neighborhoods and suburbs, I'm talking about right smack in the middle of down town, and in various big commercial centers, like the malls.
But that being said, it is nice to know that there is an effort to do this, even if the effects are negligible at best right now. After all, progress always starts off slow, and it may end up increasing dramatically in the next months/years.
It seems to me that this is a first step by IBM to try and move the Cell more into the foreground of computing i.e. to start transitioning computers over to start using Cell instead of x86. Going to the open source community with this project is the only feasible way to do this anymore, really. As much as big companies might like to, they will not be able to put in near the amount of effort or creativity that open source can provide.
As well, I think that moving to Cell would be a very positive step for the computer industry as a whole, helping it to get out of a rut that it seems to have fallen into. The benefits are enormous, the least of which is that if Cell starts becoming standard, average computing power of a desktop will skyrocket, allowing for brand new, highly computing intensive applications to be developed.
A better idea for the poll may have been to say: Pick all of the following that you feel are highly important. And then let the users have multiple checkboxes, instead of a checkbox group where only one option can be selected.
It seems to me that while, as several users have pointed out, Paul doesn't really present anything new; what he does do is to point out things that most people don't see. While some people already know in detail what he is talking about, many do not, and he is opening the eyes of these people.
Having read about 2/3 of his articles, I have realized that most of what he talks about, I already, at some level, know. The article helps to see a topic in a new light though. Yes, some of his articles aren't all that great, and are stuff that is generally know, but very few writers are always successful.
It is the same reason that we have books on science or programming or how to use Windows, or any other number of topics. A subset of the population already intimately understands these ideas. However, to the rest of us, it lets us understand and explore the ideas in ways that never would have occurred to us/been possible.
If you really don't like Paul's articles, then don't read them. They only come up every few weeks. It's not like he posts a new one every other day.
It's been my experience that it is almost impossible to get ordinary (read: non-computer) people to update their machines, be it Windows or Norton Virus updates. The only way that most of them will get these updates, ever, is if 1. Someone does it for them, or 2. If it is automated, and does it for them.
Otherwise, they just don't see the reason to, don't have the motivation to, and just plain don't care.
This is the first step in P2P being declared legal. Although it may seem like an obvious decision to the people here, remember that not everyone understands the issues so well- i.e. Politicians who make these decisions.
Like maybe the NSA? Or the 15 or so super-secret organizations that don't officially exist?
You do have a good point there. But on the flip side, how many people do you know that do jobs like that for 20 hours a day, for several weeks at a time?
I know several nurses. In and of itself, it can be very demanding work, both physically and mentally, especially depending on what subfield one goes into. However, even with the great shortage of nurses, they do not have to work overtime.
Some of the game programmers I know have to though. And it isn't the fact that the work is fundamentally different. It's the fact that working conditions like this (18-20 hour days, for several weeks) are extremely detrimental to a person's health.
The wife of a ex-gametester has talked to me about visiting the company during crunch time. People there would be wearing jackets and several comforters off of beds, while they were working in a normal temperature room. Do you know why? Because they had been awake and working for so long, there body was starting to shut down. They could no longer produce sufficient body heat.
Anyone who says that the video game industry doesn't need to change, or that makes light of the problems in it doesn't fully realize what those problems are, and how drastically major changes are needed.
That may be so, but videogame developers are often the only ones that speak out. I agree that high tech workers don't really need to be unionized, but that doesn't mean that companies should be allowed to run roughshod over the developers. I personally know several people who have worked both in video game testing and development, and conditions are often very, very bad. They may not need unions like laborers, but they deserve the same humane working conditions of other fields. Having to work 18-20 hour days for several weeks should not be allowed.