Clearly it's time for the CEO to put a stop to employees wasting all day bathing in bathtubs full of $100 bills, at least until Diablo III is finished.
I'm way more worried about a government which now has free reign to spy on my phone calls, emails, etc. with no warrants and even gives retroactive immunity to protect the telco's from any nasty civil rights lawsuits over this than I am about Facebook sending me some targeted ads.
In short, a government that treats the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution like a piece of toilet paper is a lot more important a concern than Mark Zuckerberg trying to make a quick buck.
ISSA represents a district with Google and Microsoft as some of his biggest constituents (and donors). He's not doing this out of any streak of nobility. He's just doing what his corporate masters want him to do. The only major difference between SOPA and his proposed bill is that his exempts search engines like Google and Bing from liability.
EFF: This bill will infringe on users' rights, burden ISP's and search engines, and create a climate where corporations and the media industry completely control the internet with no oversight.
Representative: Well, you've made an excellent point--well argued, reasonable, and strongly supported. Does anyone else have a response?
Entertainment Industry: Yes sir, in rebuttal, we would like to offer you this $50,000 donation to your reelection campaign.
Representative: Well, you've made an even *better* point.
Ditto for me. The Hobbit was the only book in which Tolkien exhibited efficient prose. On the LOTR trilogy, it's quite clear that he is a very undisciplined writer (one who has obviously never heard the phrase Brevity is a virtue"). As a result, I find the LOTR trilogy to be tedious, long-winded, and boring as shit. Every time I see that scene in Clerks 2 where Randall launches into his "Just a lot of walking" criticism of LOTR, I laugh and think of the time I tried to read the LOTR trilogy as a kid (and feel asleep not even midway through the first book).
I wish there were a "mod to infinity" option. If there were, I would give it to you.
Too many programmers think of a UI like some needless accessory (or worse yet, think *they* know how to design a great UI, which usually leads to disaster). This is why so many open source apps have such godawful UI's. GIMP, Blender, etc. have a lot of great work under the hood, from a lot of very dedicated and skilled programmers. Too bad they've traditionally been buried beneath a *horrid* UI that would have made Steve Jobs commit seppuku.
Here's a tip. If your open source project is worth a bunch of programmers, it's worth at least one decent designer too.
The true believer believes what he wants to believe. If you want to believe that this guy had nothing to do with the CIA, that it's just a coincidence that his company suddenly started designing Arabic games, that he was just on vacation to see grandma, etc. then more power to you, buddy. I bet you think those three jews they caught on the Iranian border a while back were really just on a "nature hike" too, and that spy drone just accidentally strayed across the border, and all those Iranian nuclear scientists who started turning up dead just accidentally fell onto bullets and shrapnel, and Stuxnet just happened to sabotage a bunch of Iranian uranium centrifuges.
even though there don't seem to be more than a single game that would align itself with Western interests.
Did you even read their Wikipedia entry? Their last two games were both in Arabic and aimed at a middle eastern audience. And in one of them, the entire goal of the game is to fight "political corruption." That's a pretty odd turn for a company that did English speaking games exclusively until a few years ago.
What kind of idiot American actually travels to Iran anymore?
The same kind that goes on a "nature hike" on the Iranian border: a spy.
Re:Why is /. repeating Iran's propaganda for them?
on
Video Games As Propaganda
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If you had bothered to look at their wikipedia entry, you would see that Kuma Reality Games suddenly took a turn a couple of years ago, designing Middle Eastern-oriented games in Arabic exclusively. You'll also see that these new games focus on things like fighting "political corruption." Seems to strongly bolster his confession. The CIA has done stuff like this for decades, of course. IIRC they even did special comic books back in the 60's with anti-Russkie propaganda that they spread behind the iron curtain.
Unfortunately, this kid decided to go into field operations too. And Iran is hunting down CIA and Mossad operatives pretty hard right now (probably pissed about all those dead nuclear scientists). I suspect the death sentence is just a bargaining ploy for Iran, though. I hope they don't actually execute him.
Ah, that takes me back. I was such a pathetic nerd as a kid that I used to buy all the D&D guides and modules and read them even though I didn't have any friends to actually play it with. If there were any other kids at my school into D&D back in those early days, they certainly would never have publicly admitted it. I remember watching the movie Taps, and seeing the scene where the cadets are playing D&D and being so jealous that they had other people to play with.
Needless to say, I got my ass kicked a lot as a kid.
So you're saying that a *modern* IR blaster will let me record one thing and watch another (or record two shows at once) without buying multiple cable boxes, setting up multiple IR blasters, etc.? That's a neat trick.
I'm frankly surprised that you can still type in thepiratebay.org in the U.S. and still get anything other than "Sorry, this site has been blocked by your ISP due to legal requirements." Hell, I'm surprised it's still even legal to show it in a search engine. Years ago, I expected the blocking to start much sooner. It's still coming though. Of course, when it is blocked, this will just set off an arms race where proxy sites and government/ISP's battle it out for a while, possibly leading as far as proxy blocking and maybe even deep packet inspection. But it's nice to have it without having to hack around a block, at least for now.
And it's particularly sad to see a country like Finland, traditionally pretty strong on free speech and consumer rights, sink to this level. Of course, the Finnish reputation for has become somewhat tarnished in recent years, with the unfortunate prosecution of Jussi Halla-aho, and the government's increasing deference to the EU and U.S. on intellectual property issues.
Any "DVR" that doesn't support cablecards is worthless to me. IR blasters are a kludgy "solution" that won't even let me watch something and record something else at the same time (much less record two different shows at once). Digital cable and satellite are my only options for watching anything other than crappy network shows. And so my only options at present are the DVR from my cableco and Tivo.
In other breaking news, U.S. manufacturing has mostly been outsourced overseas, government regulation has been largely thrown out the window since the 80's, the deficit is too high, and we spend too much on our military.
Whenever there is an article pointing out an obvious spy mission, there is always the apologist who chimes in with "the U.S. isn't spying on so-and-so." Sometimes I wonder what the hell you apologists think that all those CIA staffers and operatives do all day. Do you think everyone just shows up at the CIA and stares at a wall until it's time to go home?
Slashdot Mirror
It's for everyone but you.
Clearly it's time for the CEO to put a stop to employees wasting all day bathing in bathtubs full of $100 bills, at least until Diablo III is finished.
It will be released when you BELIEVE in it enough.
I'm way more worried about a government which now has free reign to spy on my phone calls, emails, etc. with no warrants and even gives retroactive immunity to protect the telco's from any nasty civil rights lawsuits over this than I am about Facebook sending me some targeted ads.
In short, a government that treats the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution like a piece of toilet paper is a lot more important a concern than Mark Zuckerberg trying to make a quick buck.
ISSA represents a district with Google and Microsoft as some of his biggest constituents (and donors). He's not doing this out of any streak of nobility. He's just doing what his corporate masters want him to do. The only major difference between SOPA and his proposed bill is that his exempts search engines like Google and Bing from liability.
EFF: This bill will infringe on users' rights, burden ISP's and search engines, and create a climate where corporations and the media industry completely control the internet with no oversight.
Representative: Well, you've made an excellent point--well argued, reasonable, and strongly supported. Does anyone else have a response?
Entertainment Industry: Yes sir, in rebuttal, we would like to offer you this $50,000 donation to your reelection campaign.
Representative: Well, you've made an even *better* point.
Methinks you're confused here. The U.S. most definitely hasn't supported any regime in Iran since the Shah fell in 1979.
Ditto for me. The Hobbit was the only book in which Tolkien exhibited efficient prose. On the LOTR trilogy, it's quite clear that he is a very undisciplined writer (one who has obviously never heard the phrase Brevity is a virtue"). As a result, I find the LOTR trilogy to be tedious, long-winded, and boring as shit. Every time I see that scene in Clerks 2 where Randall launches into his "Just a lot of walking" criticism of LOTR, I laugh and think of the time I tried to read the LOTR trilogy as a kid (and feel asleep not even midway through the first book).
no way graphical UIs are faster than using command-line tools.
They are if you don't know the commands.
I wish there were a "mod to infinity" option. If there were, I would give it to you.
Too many programmers think of a UI like some needless accessory (or worse yet, think *they* know how to design a great UI, which usually leads to disaster). This is why so many open source apps have such godawful UI's. GIMP, Blender, etc. have a lot of great work under the hood, from a lot of very dedicated and skilled programmers. Too bad they've traditionally been buried beneath a *horrid* UI that would have made Steve Jobs commit seppuku.
Here's a tip. If your open source project is worth a bunch of programmers, it's worth at least one decent designer too.
The true believer believes what he wants to believe. If you want to believe that this guy had nothing to do with the CIA, that it's just a coincidence that his company suddenly started designing Arabic games, that he was just on vacation to see grandma, etc. then more power to you, buddy. I bet you think those three jews they caught on the Iranian border a while back were really just on a "nature hike" too, and that spy drone just accidentally strayed across the border, and all those Iranian nuclear scientists who started turning up dead just accidentally fell onto bullets and shrapnel, and Stuxnet just happened to sabotage a bunch of Iranian uranium centrifuges.
even though there don't seem to be more than a single game that would align itself with Western interests.
Did you even read their Wikipedia entry? Their last two games were both in Arabic and aimed at a middle eastern audience. And in one of them, the entire goal of the game is to fight "political corruption." That's a pretty odd turn for a company that did English speaking games exclusively until a few years ago.
What kind of idiot American actually travels to Iran anymore?
The same kind that goes on a "nature hike" on the Iranian border: a spy.
If you had bothered to look at their wikipedia entry, you would see that Kuma Reality Games suddenly took a turn a couple of years ago, designing Middle Eastern-oriented games in Arabic exclusively. You'll also see that these new games focus on things like fighting "political corruption." Seems to strongly bolster his confession. The CIA has done stuff like this for decades, of course. IIRC they even did special comic books back in the 60's with anti-Russkie propaganda that they spread behind the iron curtain.
Unfortunately, this kid decided to go into field operations too. And Iran is hunting down CIA and Mossad operatives pretty hard right now (probably pissed about all those dead nuclear scientists). I suspect the death sentence is just a bargaining ploy for Iran, though. I hope they don't actually execute him.
If Mars were made of solid gold it would still be too expensive for any private venture to go there.
Ah, that takes me back. I was such a pathetic nerd as a kid that I used to buy all the D&D guides and modules and read them even though I didn't have any friends to actually play it with. If there were any other kids at my school into D&D back in those early days, they certainly would never have publicly admitted it. I remember watching the movie Taps, and seeing the scene where the cadets are playing D&D and being so jealous that they had other people to play with.
Needless to say, I got my ass kicked a lot as a kid.
So you're saying that a *modern* IR blaster will let me record one thing and watch another (or record two shows at once) without buying multiple cable boxes, setting up multiple IR blasters, etc.? That's a neat trick.
Free speech is when you can say something wrong without being prosecuted for it.
Well, he is royalty after all.
I'm frankly surprised that you can still type in thepiratebay.org in the U.S. and still get anything other than "Sorry, this site has been blocked by your ISP due to legal requirements." Hell, I'm surprised it's still even legal to show it in a search engine. Years ago, I expected the blocking to start much sooner. It's still coming though. Of course, when it is blocked, this will just set off an arms race where proxy sites and government/ISP's battle it out for a while, possibly leading as far as proxy blocking and maybe even deep packet inspection. But it's nice to have it without having to hack around a block, at least for now.
And it's particularly sad to see a country like Finland, traditionally pretty strong on free speech and consumer rights, sink to this level. Of course, the Finnish reputation for has become somewhat tarnished in recent years, with the unfortunate prosecution of Jussi Halla-aho, and the government's increasing deference to the EU and U.S. on intellectual property issues.
Any "DVR" that doesn't support cablecards is worthless to me. IR blasters are a kludgy "solution" that won't even let me watch something and record something else at the same time (much less record two different shows at once). Digital cable and satellite are my only options for watching anything other than crappy network shows. And so my only options at present are the DVR from my cableco and Tivo.
When asked who would actually be manufacturing it, a Canonical spokesperson responded "Hey, look over there!" and ran out a nearby exit.
I'll tell you what I told those bastards at Tesla Motors: I don't want to see it in action, I want to see it in PRODUCTION.
In other breaking news, U.S. manufacturing has mostly been outsourced overseas, government regulation has been largely thrown out the window since the 80's, the deficit is too high, and we spend too much on our military.
not point a finger on X37 spying on Tiangong
Whenever there is an article pointing out an obvious spy mission, there is always the apologist who chimes in with "the U.S. isn't spying on so-and-so." Sometimes I wonder what the hell you apologists think that all those CIA staffers and operatives do all day. Do you think everyone just shows up at the CIA and stares at a wall until it's time to go home?