This is good. I liked what I saw when the Macworld Expo news was coming out. I own a e button Logitech optical mouse and it is *sweet* (especially for it's list price $29.99). The sensor response is great and the no cleaning thing is a no-brainer.
I do wonder about the clicking by pressure point. I've brainwashed my hands into thinking clicking by fingers is correct but some seem to question whether this is ergonomically a good thing or not. Well, I can say from experience that using a mouse for hours without a break (Quake) is *not* a good thing. I'm not sure whether this would fix that problem or even alleviate it, but I'm sure I'm already dis-obeying ergo-guidlines by not taking frequent 5 minute breaks.
Anyways, I'm so glad we're getting mroe optical mice. Now my question is: When will we be seeing WIRELESS optical mice. I'd snatch those up in almost a hearbeat.
I completely disagree about your point on technical matters. There are few products that stand exclusively on their technical points. These few products are ususally technical in nature (medical equipment, scientific instruments, CAD software, 3D modelling etc). Browsers are not technical... their user distribution includes millions of people who don't give about any technical properties.
Mozilla won't fail because too many developers have invested their time and effort into it. It won't fail because non Mac/Win _need_ a free browser that can be upgraded and worked on. But they *needed* to get a stripped down browser out a year ago. They should have had a subteam that worked almost exclusively on just the browser.
Why? Because the browser market is all about marketshare. IE owns the market and whatever people say about it, IE 'only' features are rapidly creeping into web pages. Standard response from webmasters is to 'upgrade' to IE5.x. Just as many commercial vendors won't develop for *ix/BeOS/*BSD/etc because of lack of marketshare more and more webmasters will eventually ignore any complaints.
I don't think it's ever going to totally crap out unless MS releases a *ix version of IE (now *THAT* would destroy Mozilla). Having more than Mac/Win targetted is probably a key part of Mozilla's success.
There's basically two ways to go about software: theirs the idea that you get it out fast (this is a Mantra in Net business) and polish it up, or you 'do it right' and get it out "when it's done" (eg. Half-Life). Without either a) strong community support or b) a _stunning_ product any delays in the second method are going to result in weak acceptance. Remember that bugs are going to be present even in the "when it's done" approach.
The first approach has several things going for it. The necessary frequent releases to make things better give a good sense of *progress*. This is sorely lacking in the second model no matter how open your process. Why? for the most part people will trumpet about new releases and generate lots of news. Internal milestones or beta builds don't have the same impact. Also, this approach goes with the "foot in the door" principle. The more you make your presence felt the harder it is to ignore you. MS uses this approach to *great* success.
I just downloaded Mozilla and tried it out. First time since M13 or so. It looks nice and works alright. It's not very polished or optimized yet. I haven't tried any of the other modules that it has and I don't care about those. I wish we'd have had this one year ago. It's such a shame.
Yes, in gaming terms it's called play balancing =) The desire for realism tempered by what's actually fun. All of this is tempered by what is physically possible with todays graphics, memory, storage, and CPU capabilities.
I'm all the way with you on ambience (Thief, Hidden & Dangerous, etc.) This appeals to people who love fantasy and/or science fiction and even some anime fans.
Mostly non-predictableness in the story is largely gone by the time you have played it. The standard ways of doing it have been to have a large forking tree or to have NPC (guards, allies, enemies, etc.) behaviors randomized or in tune with your reaction. Deus Ex is supposed to have a good deal of non-repetition; I haven't checked it out yet but my friends say good things about it in that respect.
To have a truly non-linear story line requires a mini world that continues on while you 'do your thing'. It would be more like modelling an entire city with a large plot but with the interaction possibilites of a MMORPG. Nothing that I am aware of does this in a graphical format although I'm sure such things exist in MUDs. The level of interaction in Black & White may come closer to what is necessary.
I'm sure there's more to say or other ways to do it but that's all I've thought about in the meantime.
It's topping the web and multiplayer charts now but it sold because of it's single player. We who live on the web should not be deceive3d into thinking that we're a majority of buyers.
LookingGlass proved that *story* is key to a spellbinding game. Most of the highly acclaimed games on the gaming web sites (HL, Thief, etc) are all extremely story oriented save for things like Tribes/UT.
Games like Thief and System Shock proved something that movie makers have forgotten, that the ultimate suspence can be resounding silence. Instead we get predictable sound tracks that give away the next move... beh. Sound effects, especially ambient sound effects can drag you into the game and keep you on your toes for hours.
Being enthralled by the atmosphere in the game is what keeps people like me fascinated by the game. Trying to kill the humungous boss with an arsenal of weapons at the end of a level is rather boring in comparison to having to inch across a narrow beam 50 feet up in the wair above a pair of guards.
With the proper AI and randomnization (this is extremely difficult from what I gather), you can make sure that the game has replayability. This is one of the key elements that make RTS games and some FPSs fun.
Anyways, back to my original point... Story. Thief, SS2, and Thief2 were obviously second rate technological pieces in comparison to things like Q3. Yet most of my friends loved those games. It shows how the wherewithal to create an *experience* can be rewarding. Sadly this courage has gone to waste with LG's shutdown.
Hopefully these more carefully crafted games will increase in number and begin to be as numerous as other 'engine' games.
It looks like the biggest pseudo-legal movement since the moonshiners of Prohibition... Sure does say a lot about how fast things move in this day and age.
I hate staying offtopic like this but where do you factor in the *intent* of a product? I mean it's all good to say that the use of a gun is determined by the person but the gun's original intent is to kill.
afaik none of the above listed items were created with an illegal purpose in mind whereas in the case of Napster it is (in many peoples opinion) much cloudier.
Someone else will no doubt come along and give more detail but the FreeBSD used to have much superior networking than other OSes. That's not the case anymore as most everyone has 'caught up'. It was also used by and developed by a lot of people in the ISP/networking business (i386 and alpha ports).
It's also centrally organized with a strong core team which gives it focus and prevents a lot of splintering (exceptions being Net and Open which are strongly focussed in their own right). I suppose some consider this to be a drawback but most people seem happy with the end products.
Also it has a great ports system where people maintain src and binary pacakges for easy installation. I've seen the Debian package system and it's exactly like that. Not sure which came first but BSD is where I first saw it. You install a hierachry of application skeletons. The it's run by a system of Makefiles. You want openssh on your system? You go to/usr/ports/security/openssh and type make install. It will download teh source and any dependencies and compile build, install and register man pages etc. All from one command, incredibly neat. You can also do binaries using the pkg_add command.
More info at http://www.freebsd.org/ports/
You can also upgrade your whole system via cvsup. Similar in simplicity to the ports collection you automatically download any sources that are needed and diff and patch things until your system is upgraded.
Lots of info at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/
There's also NetBSD and OpenBSD which focu on running on multiple architectures and security respectively. They're all great server OSes imo.
From what I gather while sitting in irc it's amazingly simple once you've "cut your teeth" on it. btw: a good number of Debian like features seem to be modelled after *bsd features (I hope I got that right and not backwards).
Not having as many drivers as Linux doesn't sounds like a good reason to NOT install it (unless you plan on adding new and weird parts all the time). If it supports what you have and it does what you want then there's nothing keeping you from installing it and using it (especially if you're making it a server).
If you need the newest spanking video or sound though, then that sounds more like valid reasoning.
All that said I can offer no insight into the status of driver development.
Actually, on the Mac most "good software" has been originally designed for the Mac (duh). Stuff like graphics apps and sound stuff. And if it existed on windows it already probably has a good counterpart on the Mac side.
It's not like all of a sudden there's an brand new MacOS that doesn't run any GUI apps. Don't forget that Macs have done quite well in their own niche for a long time.
And despite what a lot of people may say it is at least still perceived that developing on Windows/Mac/etc is easier than developing on *ix.
Also, 'we' don't want a MS distro od Linux do we? I didn't think 'we' wanted a port of IE and office either. Just look at the hate directed towards MS and these products and say otherwise. You make it sound like it would be a good thing for MS to do more *ix work (it may be, I dunno) but 'we' sure would hate them a lot if they did.
Well, these zealots aren't likely to even buy such a machine unless they are in love with the Apple hardware. If you're going to be using MacOS then you'll be stuck with whatever is handed down to you, if you don't like it then no one's making you use it, in fact, you're probbaly on a PC happily running some console only distro. Why bitch and moan and go around dropping flies into other peoples soup if you don't even want to be a part of it in the first place? Oh yeah, we like to whine ;
I'm gonna like Aqua provided it's fast enough. And with it's ties to BSD I hope to like it a LOT.
Half the reason these people do reviews is because 'they can do it better' than the competition. Sharing would not be a palatable idea. Also, on-up-manship and being 'on the inside' is a big ego booster and can attract more of an audience (thus more hits, prestige, money). It just wouldn't work unless you wanted to limit the number of reviewers to a handful.
Well it would depend on the person. A person who whimsicially chooses a handle or changes frequently didn't have any particular attachment to that persona, yet others have had the same one for decades and are more attuned to the handle than their 'real' self.
Some people will use the handle for 'shielding' things, other people in real life wouldn't tell you anything personal either. It's entirely a personal and psycological choice.
Some people don't hide anything and spill their whole life on the net, others have more restraint and want to be more private.
First of all, you've owned and used one of these and then thrown it away right?
I for one don't have connectivity built into mine (Visor) except for my hotsync cradle. I use mine as a portable to-do list, address book, and scheduler. All the other frills are nice, like readin some document/book when stuck waiting in a restaraunt, etc.
I couldn't take notes in a meeting. People would (still) stare, and either it's not good enough or my graphitit still sucks enough that it's unfeasable. And memos to hospitals etc... that's what cell phones are for (you know of the email addresses to the right address for hospitals??? or maybe this is a new 'feature'). You seem to be lumping pagers, PDAs, cell phones all into the same category.
And just remember this... just because maybe you or the people you know can't control themselves it doesn't mean *everyone* can't use PDAs effectively. After all we have workaholics, alcoholics, gambling addicts, and so on and we also have very well adjusted people. You either have an addiction problem or you generally *choose* to live your life that way.
And you're going to be disappointed in the future. Everything is going to be connected, everything will get smaller, and short of moving to a log cabin in the Yukon you will be in contact with these developments.
You definitely need to go check out some security sites like bugtraq (securityfocus.com) and then think about what you said. Given that software is constantly being upgrades and patched (which can indtroduce new bugs) are you really sure that stuff is secure?
An yes, the only safe uncrackable configuration is to have your system welded shut in a steel box with no connectivity. Well, even that could be broken into with enough gumption.
And this is the reason that OpenBSD exists. Security 'out of the box'. I don' tknow if their security claims are still valid but 2 years (whilst continuing development) of no remote exploits is pretty darn impressive. No futzing around unless you begin to install lots of custom servers or daemons. Yes, it has and will continue to have vulnerabilities but with the kind of philosophy the developers and most of the users have it's not that much of a problem.
It's like having good multiplayer network code 'out of the box' or having to download a patch to play it right. "What real gamer doesn't expect to patch their game!!!" --- bah, it's reality but which would you rather have?
Really? Microsoft'ed? I've seen.tgz's for some time now. FreeBSd packages are made with them. I always thought it was in the UNIX tradition of shotening file names when possible.
Yet by almost any logic and currently known science it would take much longer than the time it would take for a NEO to arrive than for us to event begin to be able to communicate or travel to other intelligent life forms. Sure, intelligent non-human life on other star systems would shatter our perceptions of everything. But it does not good if you are extinct. You're talking about finding out what wonders might be beyond the horizon while war parties dot the immediate landscape. We continue to wonder and it's obvious by the SETI@Home's participation statistics that many people want to at least try to look. No biggie, but I would still insist that something like NEO searching is more practical and useful and more immediately necessary. Your view is obviously different and for reasons that are good and valid but, in my view, less pragmatic and immediately applicable.
Or from another point of view, you're playing the long odds for the high payoff and I'm playing the lower odds for a chance at survival.
Of course any parent wants for their children to be at least 'normal' in terms of physical and mental condition but I'd put a high priority on being a good parent and having taught my children to be good people and even better parents. And (*cliche*) no amount of money can substitute for that. Strange that that rarely gets mentioned in genetics. All of a sudden our children become raw pieces of meat to be molded and sculptured.
NOTE: I'm all for using genetics to cure problems like retardation, life threatening illnesses, hereditary conditions, etc. I get a bit leary when we start giving them not only advantages but 'super' enhancements. I'm sure that society in a century or two may see these things as normal but I'm not quite comfortable with it yet. Of course, maybe we'll one day 'live' in a perfect "Brave New World".
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This is good. I liked what I saw when the Macworld Expo news was coming out. I own a e button Logitech optical mouse and it is *sweet* (especially for it's list price $29.99). The sensor response is great and the no cleaning thing is a no-brainer.
I do wonder about the clicking by pressure point. I've brainwashed my hands into thinking clicking by fingers is correct but some seem to question whether this is ergonomically a good thing or not. Well, I can say from experience that using a mouse for hours without a break (Quake) is *not* a good thing. I'm not sure whether this would fix that problem or even alleviate it, but I'm sure I'm already dis-obeying ergo-guidlines by not taking frequent 5 minute breaks.
Anyways, I'm so glad we're getting mroe optical mice. Now my question is: When will we be seeing WIRELESS optical mice. I'd snatch those up in almost a hearbeat.
I completely disagree about your point on technical matters. There are few products that stand exclusively on their technical points. These few products are ususally technical in nature (medical equipment, scientific instruments, CAD software, 3D modelling etc). Browsers are not technical... their user distribution includes millions of people who don't give about any technical properties.
Mozilla won't fail because too many developers have invested their time and effort into it. It won't fail because non Mac/Win _need_ a free browser that can be upgraded and worked on. But they *needed* to get a stripped down browser out a year ago. They should have had a subteam that worked almost exclusively on just the browser.
Why? Because the browser market is all about marketshare. IE owns the market and whatever people say about it, IE 'only' features are rapidly creeping into web pages. Standard response from webmasters is to 'upgrade' to IE5.x. Just as many commercial vendors won't develop for *ix/BeOS/*BSD/etc because of lack of marketshare more and more webmasters will eventually ignore any complaints.
I don't think it's ever going to totally crap out unless MS releases a *ix version of IE (now *THAT* would destroy Mozilla). Having more than Mac/Win targetted is probably a key part of Mozilla's success.
There's basically two ways to go about software: theirs the idea that you get it out fast (this is a Mantra in Net business) and polish it up, or you 'do it right' and get it out "when it's done" (eg. Half-Life). Without either a) strong community support or b) a _stunning_ product any delays in the second method are going to result in weak acceptance. Remember that bugs are going to be present even in the "when it's done" approach.
The first approach has several things going for it. The necessary frequent releases to make things better give a good sense of *progress*. This is sorely lacking in the second model no matter how open your process. Why? for the most part people will trumpet about new releases and generate lots of news. Internal milestones or beta builds don't have the same impact. Also, this approach goes with the "foot in the door" principle. The more you make your presence felt the harder it is to ignore you. MS uses this approach to *great* success.
I just downloaded Mozilla and tried it out. First time since M13 or so. It looks nice and works alright. It's not very polished or optimized yet. I haven't tried any of the other modules that it has and I don't care about those. I wish we'd have had this one year ago. It's such a shame.
Yes, in gaming terms it's called play balancing =) The desire for realism tempered by what's actually fun. All of this is tempered by what is physically possible with todays graphics, memory, storage, and CPU capabilities.
I'm all the way with you on ambience (Thief, Hidden & Dangerous, etc.) This appeals to people who love fantasy and/or science fiction and even some anime fans.
Mostly non-predictableness in the story is largely gone by the time you have played it. The standard ways of doing it have been to have a large forking tree or to have NPC (guards, allies, enemies, etc.) behaviors randomized or in tune with your reaction. Deus Ex is supposed to have a good deal of non-repetition; I haven't checked it out yet but my friends say good things about it in that respect.
To have a truly non-linear story line requires a mini world that continues on while you 'do your thing'. It would be more like modelling an entire city with a large plot but with the interaction possibilites of a MMORPG. Nothing that I am aware of does this in a graphical format although I'm sure such things exist in MUDs. The level of interaction in Black & White may come closer to what is necessary.
I'm sure there's more to say or other ways to do it but that's all I've thought about in the meantime.
It's topping the web and multiplayer charts now but it sold because of it's single player. We who live on the web should not be deceive3d into thinking that we're a majority of buyers.
LookingGlass proved that *story* is key to a spellbinding game. Most of the highly acclaimed games on the gaming web sites (HL, Thief, etc) are all extremely story oriented save for things like Tribes/UT.
Games like Thief and System Shock proved something that movie makers have forgotten, that the ultimate suspence can be resounding silence. Instead we get predictable sound tracks that give away the next move... beh. Sound effects, especially ambient sound effects can drag you into the game and keep you on your toes for hours.
Being enthralled by the atmosphere in the game is what keeps people like me fascinated by the game. Trying to kill the humungous boss with an arsenal of weapons at the end of a level is rather boring in comparison to having to inch across a narrow beam 50 feet up in the wair above a pair of guards.
With the proper AI and randomnization (this is extremely difficult from what I gather), you can make sure that the game has replayability. This is one of the key elements that make RTS games and some FPSs fun.
Anyways, back to my original point... Story. Thief, SS2, and Thief2 were obviously second rate technological pieces in comparison to things like Q3. Yet most of my friends loved those games. It shows how the wherewithal to create an *experience* can be rewarding. Sadly this courage has gone to waste with LG's shutdown.
Hopefully these more carefully crafted games will increase in number and begin to be as numerous as other 'engine' games.
It looks like the biggest pseudo-legal movement since the moonshiners of Prohibition... Sure does say a lot about how fast things move in this day and age.
I hate staying offtopic like this but where do you factor in the *intent* of a product? I mean it's all good to say that the use of a gun is determined by the person but the gun's original intent is to kill.
afaik none of the above listed items were created with an illegal purpose in mind whereas in the case of Napster it is (in many peoples opinion) much cloudier.
Probably got the BSD reference from the blurb that says it sits behind a BSD box doing firewalling.
Someone else will no doubt come along and give more detail but the FreeBSD used to have much superior networking than other OSes. That's not the case anymore as most everyone has 'caught up'. It was also used by and developed by a lot of people in the ISP/networking business (i386 and alpha ports).
/usr/ports/security/openssh and type make install. It will download teh source and any dependencies and compile build, install and register man pages etc. All from one command, incredibly neat. You can also do binaries using the pkg_add command.
It's also centrally organized with a strong core team which gives it focus and prevents a lot of splintering (exceptions being Net and Open which are strongly focussed in their own right). I suppose some consider this to be a drawback but most people seem happy with the end products.
Also it has a great ports system where people maintain src and binary pacakges for easy installation. I've seen the Debian package system and it's exactly like that. Not sure which came first but BSD is where I first saw it. You install a hierachry of application skeletons. The it's run by a system of Makefiles. You want openssh on your system? You go to
More info at http://www.freebsd.org/ports/
You can also upgrade your whole system via cvsup. Similar in simplicity to the ports collection you automatically download any sources that are needed and diff and patch things until your system is upgraded.
Lots of info at http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/
There's also NetBSD and OpenBSD which focu on running on multiple architectures and security respectively. They're all great server OSes imo.
http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/cutting-edge.html
From what I gather while sitting in irc it's amazingly simple once you've "cut your teeth" on it. btw: a good number of Debian like features seem to be modelled after *bsd features (I hope I got that right and not backwards).
Not having as many drivers as Linux doesn't sounds like a good reason to NOT install it (unless you plan on adding new and weird parts all the time). If it supports what you have and it does what you want then there's nothing keeping you from installing it and using it (especially if you're making it a server).
If you need the newest spanking video or sound though, then that sounds more like valid reasoning.
All that said I can offer no insight into the status of driver development.
Aren't most .1 releases basically maintenance and fixes? And I'd count the pure IPv6 as somewhat significant (for the future, maybe not immediately).
Anyways, not too much reason for most people to cvsup other than to be leading edge.
Actually, on the Mac most "good software" has been originally designed for the Mac (duh). Stuff like graphics apps and sound stuff. And if it existed on windows it already probably has a good counterpart on the Mac side.
It's not like all of a sudden there's an brand new MacOS that doesn't run any GUI apps. Don't forget that Macs have done quite well in their own niche for a long time.
And despite what a lot of people may say it is at least still perceived that developing on Windows/Mac/etc is easier than developing on *ix.
Also, 'we' don't want a MS distro od Linux do we? I didn't think 'we' wanted a port of IE and office either. Just look at the hate directed towards MS and these products and say otherwise. You make it sound like it would be a good thing for MS to do more *ix work (it may be, I dunno) but 'we' sure would hate them a lot if they did.
Well, these zealots aren't likely to even buy such a machine unless they are in love with the Apple hardware. If you're going to be using MacOS then you'll be stuck with whatever is handed down to you, if you don't like it then no one's making you use it, in fact, you're probbaly on a PC happily running some console only distro. Why bitch and moan and go around dropping flies into other peoples soup if you don't even want to be a part of it in the first place? Oh yeah, we like to whine ;
I'm gonna like Aqua provided it's fast enough. And with it's ties to BSD I hope to like it a LOT.
Half the reason these people do reviews is because 'they can do it better' than the competition. Sharing would not be a palatable idea. Also, on-up-manship and being 'on the inside' is a big ego booster and can attract more of an audience (thus more hits, prestige, money). It just wouldn't work unless you wanted to limit the number of reviewers to a handful.
Well it would depend on the person. A person who whimsicially chooses a handle or changes frequently didn't have any particular attachment to that persona, yet others have had the same one for decades and are more attuned to the handle than their 'real' self.
Some people will use the handle for 'shielding' things, other people in real life wouldn't tell you anything personal either. It's entirely a personal and psycological choice.
Some people don't hide anything and spill their whole life on the net, others have more restraint and want to be more private.
What's the battery life on this thing? Especially if you play MP3s or media files... I took at look at their FAQ and specs and didn't spot it.
First of all, you've owned and used one of these and then thrown it away right?
I for one don't have connectivity built into mine (Visor) except for my hotsync cradle. I use mine as a portable to-do list, address book, and scheduler. All the other frills are nice, like readin some document/book when stuck waiting in a restaraunt, etc.
I couldn't take notes in a meeting. People would (still) stare, and either it's not good enough or my graphitit still sucks enough that it's unfeasable. And memos to hospitals etc... that's what cell phones are for (you know of the email addresses to the right address for hospitals??? or maybe this is a new 'feature'). You seem to be lumping pagers, PDAs, cell phones all into the same category.
And just remember this... just because maybe you or the people you know can't control themselves it doesn't mean *everyone* can't use PDAs effectively. After all we have workaholics, alcoholics, gambling addicts, and so on and we also have very well adjusted people. You either have an addiction problem or you generally *choose* to live your life that way.
And you're going to be disappointed in the future. Everything is going to be connected, everything will get smaller, and short of moving to a log cabin in the Yukon you will be in contact with these developments.
Ahh makes much sense now since you can install FreeBSD off a DOS partition, the 8.3 would help a lot for that =)
You definitely need to go check out some security sites like bugtraq (securityfocus.com) and then think about what you said. Given that software is constantly being upgrades and patched (which can indtroduce new bugs) are you really sure that stuff is secure?
An yes, the only safe uncrackable configuration is to have your system welded shut in a steel box with no connectivity. Well, even that could be broken into with enough gumption.
And this is the reason that OpenBSD exists. Security 'out of the box'. I don' tknow if their security claims are still valid but 2 years (whilst continuing development) of no remote exploits is pretty darn impressive. No futzing around unless you begin to install lots of custom servers or daemons. Yes, it has and will continue to have vulnerabilities but with the kind of philosophy the developers and most of the users have it's not that much of a problem.
It's like having good multiplayer network code 'out of the box' or having to download a patch to play it right. "What real gamer doesn't expect to patch their game!!!" --- bah, it's reality but which would you rather have?
Really? Microsoft'ed? I've seen .tgz's for some time now. FreeBSd packages are made with them. I always thought it was in the UNIX tradition of shotening file names when possible.
Yet by almost any logic and currently known science it would take much longer than the time it would take for a NEO to arrive than for us to event begin to be able to communicate or travel to other intelligent life forms. Sure, intelligent non-human life on other star systems would shatter our perceptions of everything. But it does not good if you are extinct. You're talking about finding out what wonders might be beyond the horizon while war parties dot the immediate landscape. We continue to wonder and it's obvious by the SETI@Home's participation statistics that many people want to at least try to look. No biggie, but I would still insist that something like NEO searching is more practical and useful and more immediately necessary. Your view is obviously different and for reasons that are good and valid but, in my view, less pragmatic and immediately applicable.
Or from another point of view, you're playing the long odds for the high payoff and I'm playing the lower odds for a chance at survival.
Of course any parent wants for their children to be at least 'normal' in terms of physical and mental condition but I'd put a high priority on being a good parent and having taught my children to be good people and even better parents. And (*cliche*) no amount of money can substitute for that. Strange that that rarely gets mentioned in genetics. All of a sudden our children become raw pieces of meat to be molded and sculptured.
NOTE: I'm all for using genetics to cure problems like retardation, life threatening illnesses, hereditary conditions, etc. I get a bit leary when we start giving them not only advantages but 'super' enhancements. I'm sure that society in a century or two may see these things as normal but I'm not quite comfortable with it yet. Of course, maybe we'll one day 'live' in a perfect "Brave New World".