"There's some faggot lurker on pad 3." That, of course, is a derogatory term for homosexuals. But what about "There's some fucking lurker on pad 3?" That probably isn't a term I'd use with the cashier at Starbucks or my HR manager. But I can certainly understand a game player using such language (especially if he'd been sniped by the lurker a few times).
When I was a kid, I remember getting punished for using the term "Jeesum Crow."--as in, "Jeesum Crow, Mom, why do I have to come in now?" Of course, it was a term that I'd learned from other kids and was trying out. After all, it doesn't mean anything, right? Of course, it's a substitute for "Jesus Christ"--just like "shoot" is "shit" with two ohs. So if I say, "There's some fargin lurker on pad 3", we all know what you mean. Should those be edited as well?
(A little off-topic, but I'm reminded of the time I saw "Blazing Saddles" on a local broadcast channel. Needless to say, they silenced the word "Nigger" but left in "Faggot" and "Ni".)
As I understand it, it isn't so much the content of the game as those playing it and communicating via it. For example, there may be a game mode in which there is one player versus many. Should the company go to appropriate lengths to make sure people aren't setting up games called "Smear the Queer?"
The thing cost $150 billion dollars, and in terms of research it's produced... what, exactly?
Here's a bunch, as of 2008. But if you prefer the "Top 10" approach, check here.
The thing is, real science is being done on ISS. But let's be honest--real science is pretty boring except for those people who have the knowledge to understand it ("Dark matter? Salmonella? Who cares?!"). So most poo-poo it (TLDR, etc) while we look at the pretty pictures from Mars and go, "Oooh! Real science!"
Driving around on Mars is cool. Seeing evidence of water on Mars is interesting. But I'm not sure I'd call it "real science." It's more observation than anything else.
I remember reading about nano-technology years ago in a car magazine. One use for this was that you could have the paint on your car change color. So you didn't have to worry about getting an appropriate colored car because you could change the color of your car any time you wanted.
Ladies and Gentlemen, new for 2017--The Mood Car!
That's right! Sensors will detect your mood and change the color of your car! Angry? Your car turns a flaming red. Calm and relaxed? A nice deep blue. So if I cut off some other guy and see his car turn red, I know I'd better get out of there!
Also: if the flight lasted hours, why didn't the passengers rebel or at least call on airplane phones like for flight 93?
A few reasons.
First, the flight took off at 1:21AM. Next time you fly a red-eye, check out how many passengers are sleeping.
Second, the flight was mostly over water. Next time you fly a red-eye over water, check out how many passengers are looking out the window in order to verify that they're flying in the right direction.
I'm sure they figured it out maybe 5 hours or so into the flight when they weren't actually landing. By then, it was probably a bit too late. And Malaysia Air may not actually have satellite phones on the aircraft. I've never used them, but I don't know if most airliners have satellite phones--I assume they're cellular or some other radio system.
When was the last time an airliner "disappeared"? It just doesn't happen. That's why this is so intriguing. Airliners file a flight plan. In the event of a crash, you follow the flight plan and, 999 times out of a thousand, you find the remains of the airplane somewhere along there. You're flying places where there's plenty of radar coverage. You have insurance on the airliner and you have coverage in the event of a crash.
So why would you bother with the even minuscule amount of money to add this? It's the equivalent of keeping shark repellent in your car in the event that you have an accident and end up in the ocean where there are sharks.
What are the people going to do? Break into the cockpit? They can't--we added locks on the doors and such because of the terrorists.
Besides, how would the people know? Don't get me wrong--they'd figure it out eventually like several hours into the flight when they weren't over the airport they were going to land at.
If you were taking a flight to Hawaii, would you even bother looking out the window? Even if you did, would it be obvious to you that you were off course--enough that you were raise an alarm to a flight attendant? And that the Flight Attendant wouldn't come back with some appropriate double-talk?
Maybe not the easiest, but it's relatively inexpensive.
Pay off the pilot. Have him fly the plane to wherever. Execute the passengers when you land. Heck, if you want to make it interesting, drown a bunch of the passengers and dump them in the ocean someplace. "We've found bodies from Flight 370!"
Presto! You now have an airplane.
The problem with buying an airplane is that there are usually records which will be traced back.
I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head.
First, Insurance doesn't pay out on suicide. So, once you're gone, your wife and children won't have anyone to take care of. If the plane is not found, that makes it easier to collect on insurance.
Second, suicide is, in some cultures, a shameful act. Even more-so if you're taking a bunch of people with you. Do you really want to put your surviving relatives through that shame? So I'd want to crash the plane somewhere where it wouldn't be found.
Third, of course, is doubt. People will stand on a ledge for hours contemplating suicide. By pointing the plane in an unknown direction and letting it fly off into nowhere, I give myself an opportunity to decide if I really want to do this.
Imagine having a store full of smartphones and nobody is buying them because they just order them online
It depends. Remember back in the late 90s, Gateway had a line of "Gateway Stores" where you could order PCs but they didn't actually have any inventory on hand for you to buy. It wasn't very successful. If people went into a Gateway Store, they actually expected to be able to walk out with a Gateway PC--not just go to a website in the store. They could have done that from home.
It's somewhat debatable, though, in regard to automobiles. I might not worry about blowing $9.99 on a crappy CD. But when it comes to a car, I--at a minimum--want a test drive. What I try to do is rent the model that I'm interested in buying for a weekend to get a real feel for what I'm getting into before I plunk down 20-30 grand.
Yes, it takes a shitload of energy to get the 10 ton vehicle moving, but this is mostly an in town car - lots of stop and go.
You've never had The President visit where you live, I assume. The President Does Not Sit In Traffic. The "stop and go" is mostly after miles of driving.
Well, in the local economy, car dealers can be pretty important.
Car dealerships take up big hunks of land, and pay big hunks of property taxes. So the idea that you could have a car dealership in an extra-wide store in a mall is scary to local politicians because that's going to mean less revenue to the city. When GM closed their Pontiac and Saturn divisions, lots of localities felt the pinch. It was particularly bad in some areas that are zoned exclusively for auto dealerships--it's not like you could replace it with a mall or apartments or something like that.
So besides the dealers saying "We don't want competition," you also have local politicians saying, "if this catches on, we'll lose those property taxes!"
As a lifelong vegetarian, I'm not missing out on anything [...]
Bacon.
'nuff said.
Actually, on a more philosophical note, how can you--as someone who has never eaten meat--say that you're not missing out on anything? I could say, "I've never been to Europe, but I'm not missing out on anything" because I have no idea what interesting things might be in Europe because I've never been there.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, now it gets complicated.
"There's some faggot lurker on pad 3." That, of course, is a derogatory term for homosexuals. But what about "There's some fucking lurker on pad 3?" That probably isn't a term I'd use with the cashier at Starbucks or my HR manager. But I can certainly understand a game player using such language (especially if he'd been sniped by the lurker a few times).
When I was a kid, I remember getting punished for using the term "Jeesum Crow."--as in, "Jeesum Crow, Mom, why do I have to come in now?" Of course, it was a term that I'd learned from other kids and was trying out. After all, it doesn't mean anything, right? Of course, it's a substitute for "Jesus Christ"--just like "shoot" is "shit" with two ohs. So if I say, "There's some fargin lurker on pad 3", we all know what you mean. Should those be edited as well?
(A little off-topic, but I'm reminded of the time I saw "Blazing Saddles" on a local broadcast channel. Needless to say, they silenced the word "Nigger" but left in "Faggot" and "Ni".)
As I understand it, it isn't so much the content of the game as those playing it and communicating via it. For example, there may be a game mode in which there is one player versus many. Should the company go to appropriate lengths to make sure people aren't setting up games called "Smear the Queer?"
Not until bigotry makes your appendages explode will this ever end.
Well, it is a game...
"There's some faggot lurker on pad 3."
(*BOOM*) Player's arm explodes.
Even better if you're playing with a bunch of Brits.
"Hey, enemy player guy! What do you brits call cigarettes?"
"Fags."
(*BOOM*) Enemy player guy's leg explodes.
"Ha ha!"
The thing cost $150 billion dollars, and in terms of research it's produced... what, exactly?
Here's a bunch, as of 2008. But if you prefer the "Top 10" approach, check here.
The thing is, real science is being done on ISS. But let's be honest--real science is pretty boring except for those people who have the knowledge to understand it ("Dark matter? Salmonella? Who cares?!"). So most poo-poo it (TLDR, etc) while we look at the pretty pictures from Mars and go, "Oooh! Real science!"
Driving around on Mars is cool. Seeing evidence of water on Mars is interesting. But I'm not sure I'd call it "real science." It's more observation than anything else.
Perhaps it's more of a Psycho Chicken?
WTF?
I remember reading about nano-technology years ago in a car magazine. One use for this was that you could have the paint on your car change color. So you didn't have to worry about getting an appropriate colored car because you could change the color of your car any time you wanted.
Ladies and Gentlemen, new for 2017--The Mood Car!
That's right! Sensors will detect your mood and change the color of your car! Angry? Your car turns a flaming red. Calm and relaxed? A nice deep blue. So if I cut off some other guy and see his car turn red, I know I'd better get out of there!
I remember seeing an Airport base station flying around.
(Yes, it's a real ad. No, it's not really flying. Yes, I'm joking.)
Why would they have noticed? And what's to say they didn't receive some cock-and-bull story?
"Yeah, we're going to be going off the normal path for this flight--airline orders. So if you notice we're over water rather than land, don't worry."
Oh yeah, some FA is going to tell the Captain of the airplane, "Well, let me see those orders."
Besides, FAs have usually seen the route. When was the last time you saw an FA gazing out the window? They have better things to do.
Also: if the flight lasted hours, why didn't the passengers rebel or at least call on airplane phones like for flight 93?
A few reasons.
First, the flight took off at 1:21AM. Next time you fly a red-eye, check out how many passengers are sleeping.
Second, the flight was mostly over water. Next time you fly a red-eye over water, check out how many passengers are looking out the window in order to verify that they're flying in the right direction.
I'm sure they figured it out maybe 5 hours or so into the flight when they weren't actually landing. By then, it was probably a bit too late. And Malaysia Air may not actually have satellite phones on the aircraft. I've never used them, but I don't know if most airliners have satellite phones--I assume they're cellular or some other radio system.
Actually, you're right. Except it will be used to extort money from nations that would rather not be blown up.
See, there's this guy named Ernst Stavros Blofeld who runs this organization called SPECTRE...
Why bother?
When was the last time an airliner "disappeared"? It just doesn't happen. That's why this is so intriguing. Airliners file a flight plan. In the event of a crash, you follow the flight plan and, 999 times out of a thousand, you find the remains of the airplane somewhere along there. You're flying places where there's plenty of radar coverage. You have insurance on the airliner and you have coverage in the event of a crash.
So why would you bother with the even minuscule amount of money to add this? It's the equivalent of keeping shark repellent in your car in the event that you have an accident and end up in the ocean where there are sharks.
What are the people going to do? Break into the cockpit? They can't--we added locks on the doors and such because of the terrorists.
Besides, how would the people know? Don't get me wrong--they'd figure it out eventually like several hours into the flight when they weren't over the airport they were going to land at.
If you were taking a flight to Hawaii, would you even bother looking out the window? Even if you did, would it be obvious to you that you were off course--enough that you were raise an alarm to a flight attendant? And that the Flight Attendant wouldn't come back with some appropriate double-talk?
Maybe not the easiest, but it's relatively inexpensive.
Pay off the pilot. Have him fly the plane to wherever. Execute the passengers when you land. Heck, if you want to make it interesting, drown a bunch of the passengers and dump them in the ocean someplace. "We've found bodies from Flight 370!"
Presto! You now have an airplane.
The problem with buying an airplane is that there are usually records which will be traced back.
I can think of a few reasons off the top of my head.
First, Insurance doesn't pay out on suicide. So, once you're gone, your wife and children won't have anyone to take care of. If the plane is not found, that makes it easier to collect on insurance.
Second, suicide is, in some cultures, a shameful act. Even more-so if you're taking a bunch of people with you. Do you really want to put your surviving relatives through that shame? So I'd want to crash the plane somewhere where it wouldn't be found.
Third, of course, is doubt. People will stand on a ledge for hours contemplating suicide. By pointing the plane in an unknown direction and letting it fly off into nowhere, I give myself an opportunity to decide if I really want to do this.
Imagine having a store full of smartphones and nobody is buying them because they just order them online
It depends. Remember back in the late 90s, Gateway had a line of "Gateway Stores" where you could order PCs but they didn't actually have any inventory on hand for you to buy. It wasn't very successful. If people went into a Gateway Store, they actually expected to be able to walk out with a Gateway PC--not just go to a website in the store. They could have done that from home.
It's somewhat debatable, though, in regard to automobiles. I might not worry about blowing $9.99 on a crappy CD. But when it comes to a car, I--at a minimum--want a test drive. What I try to do is rent the model that I'm interested in buying for a weekend to get a real feel for what I'm getting into before I plunk down 20-30 grand.
As it was explained to me by a marketing guy, "Unfortunately, 'your machine' is not a sufficiently large market."
Maybe they went back in time. Listen for jet engines.
Just imaging the President on a presidential bike.
George Bush and Bill Clinton.
Okay, the Clinton one is a joke, but George Bush used to ride quite a bit.
Yes, it takes a shitload of energy to get the 10 ton vehicle moving, but this is mostly an in town car - lots of stop and go.
You've never had The President visit where you live, I assume. The President Does Not Sit In Traffic. The "stop and go" is mostly after miles of driving.
Well, in the local economy, car dealers can be pretty important.
Car dealerships take up big hunks of land, and pay big hunks of property taxes. So the idea that you could have a car dealership in an extra-wide store in a mall is scary to local politicians because that's going to mean less revenue to the city. When GM closed their Pontiac and Saturn divisions, lots of localities felt the pinch. It was particularly bad in some areas that are zoned exclusively for auto dealerships--it's not like you could replace it with a mall or apartments or something like that.
So besides the dealers saying "We don't want competition," you also have local politicians saying, "if this catches on, we'll lose those property taxes!"
Now I'm not sure - will probably just go buy a Nexus.
FTFS:
I can understand not reading the article, but not reading the summary?!
you could always try whoring yourself out.
Damn. You beat me to it.
Sell drugs.
Actually, most of LA's subways are above ground.
Of course for the real exploration of the solar system to begin, we'll need nuclear (fusion!) or other such unrealized technologies.
I'm not sure I'd call nuclear "unrealized." From the sounds of it, they had something ready to be assembled.
As a lifelong vegetarian, I'm not missing out on anything [...]
Bacon.
'nuff said.
Actually, on a more philosophical note, how can you--as someone who has never eaten meat--say that you're not missing out on anything? I could say, "I've never been to Europe, but I'm not missing out on anything" because I have no idea what interesting things might be in Europe because I've never been there.