What does the dragon do when I throw my controller up the side of my monitor?
I think maybe you'd find your anger more easily dissipated if you threw your controller *at* your monitor. Double points for throwing it at the *front* of your monitor.
And then there's this whole thing all women have to deal with at work that being aggressive = bitch.
Just as men have to deal with being aggressive == asshole.
I've yet to be in a position where aggressive men in the workplace are tolerated any better than aggressive women -- in fact, my experience has been the opposite. In two of the last three positions I've held, there have been hyperaggressive females whose management style was never questioned, while hyperaggressive male managers have been reprimanded and/or fired.
Yes, the raptors should be brought back... but not to feed the portly. Rather, to cull the herd.
You can bet that more people will stick to their diets (or "lifestyle changes" if "diet" is too non-PC) if their intact survival depends on outrunning velociraptors.
Actually, there would be no possibility of outrunning the raptors. However, the principle still applies, since there would be a need to outrun the poor slob running next to you.
Also, it would be really fucking cool if you could play a game like Zork (snip) Then maybe you could be in an environment where, as the hulking barbarian with the double-bitted axe, you encounter The Locked Door and, instead of having to find The Key, you can just break the damn thing in.
I believe Nethack has been meeting your requirements for over a decade... though, ironically, via less complex physical simulation.
Less than a year ago, there wasnt enough processing power to dynamically generate the movement of water in games
Wow, fluid simulations started less than a year ago? Damn.
Out of curiosity, when did fluid simulation == dynamic generation of water movement in games?
A terrible description of a lousy buzzword
Ah yes, a relatively new term used to describe something is automatically a buzzword? And a lousy one at that? Perhaps you have a different, better description in 50 words or less?
It's fine that you do not like the author's writing (for the record, I wasn't very fond of the piece either), but how about some substantial criticism?
It is a privilege to fly. However, it is a RIGHT to be free from UNREASONABLE SEARCH... regardless of whether you are flying, walking, driving, or sitting like a lump of bituminous.
When dealing with the PHBs, feel free to use the version number instead, as that is the official name -- 7.10 for Gutsy Gibbon.
I just refer to it as Gibbon when necessary; when questioned about why the name Gibbon was chosen, I tell them it's to recognize the hard work of all the codemonkeys.
I haven't yet been challenged on the fact that Gibbons are apes, not monkeys, so I'm sticking to my story.
but even if he was parody is legal so Jack wouldn't even have a case then
Yes and no. If Jack were able to convince a court that he is not a public persona, then Jack could sue successfully.
However, since he has made himself a public persona, usage of his likeness for parody is within the law as long as it does not create a danger to him. His paranoia and fearmongering would likely lead him to believe that this is the case.
At any rate, one of his goals is to draw attention to the violent content in video games. He is succeeding.
I'll start off by saying that I wholeheartedly agree with you. Symbolic protests make people feel good, but they tend to have little effect since they do not hurt the bottom line of the target(s).
However, it does little good to protest the people providing a service (DRM). The people that have to be targeted, whose bottom line needs to be impacted, are the content companies that demand DRM. As you allude to, it doesn't matter what loose or tight DRM scheme you ascribe to, since either way you are contributing to the companies that demand the DRM.
The ONLY protest that will work is to not buy products from companies that demand DRM, along with publicity of said boycott. This means not buying or pirating their music or movies or television shows or games. When people pirate music, they are simply telling the music companies that they want the music, and if (by hook or crook) they can be forced to pay for it, they will.
The lesson that content distributors (and creators) need to learn is that if they support DRM, the demand for their products will flatline.
Unfortunately, this would take mass action by content consumers. And just like voting, most people would not take part because they don't feel their actions make a difference.
My original post in this thread had nothing to do with any grudge or anything. It had to do with what I saw as factually incorrect information... particularly since you made some pretty wild statements in that post ("This is just a company...") that were way off base.
It's one thing to hold a false assumption -- it's another thing to disparage others based on an incorrect assumption. This is why I have previously marked you as a foe, since you had on several occasions done the same to posts of mine.
It's not that I don't like you. It's that I don't like the way you often respond to posts in an extremly arrogant matter (all-caps comes to mind) -- you like to tear people a new one when responding to their posts.
So, speaking of arrogant pricks, I think it takes one to know one.
False. Pee is sterile when it leaves the healthy human body. However, it is toxic when ingested in quantities sufficient to keep a person hydrated. The salts present in urine have a diuretic effect that will further dehydrate the person drinking their own urine. This effect is magnified, since as they become more dehydrated, their urine becomes even saltier. Drinking urine to survive can work in the short term, but will not work in the long run (it might extend survival a day or two at most in warm climes).
Note also that normal urine, while sterile when leaving the body, provides an excellent medium for bacterial growth, so one should drink it as soon as it leaves the body. I would not suggest drinking it directly from the tap, however, as then you might have to deal with a host of other issues.
So, unless you rather wait for a good tasting liquid than survive, there is no problem.
So, what you are saying is to have someone else drink contaminated water, and then you can drink their urine?
Pure genius, but you shouldn't forget that you'll need to feed your biological filtering mechanism, so cost per liter might become ineffective compared to a filter bottle.
While nothing new, this filter represents a vast improvement in the ability of cheap, hand-held filters to remove viral particles. Of course, most water-borne illnesses are bacterial, but not all.
Might help if you read TFA, or even TFS. My first thought on reading the summary was very similar to yours... until I bothered finding out why this is different than the products in the link you provided.
If the international data plan charges $24 per 20MB
If is the important word, there.
Something tells me they charge per session for each 20MB or portion thereof, just as they charge you the full three minutes for a 10-second long-distance phone call (though I'm not sure they do this anymore).
One plan * $24 * 200 sessions. Seems easy to me for them to come up with that number, though that doesn't make it any more fair.
Modern batteries catch fire and explode. Eventually, we'll probably have a nuclear powerplant inside our mp3-players, at which time, they will hopefully include some additional safeguards, such as a fuse.
...Perhaps some ppor word choices there, considering the current (DC) state of affairs; I think you should be expecting a knock on the door from the NSA any moment now.
As if someone wants a 4WD vehicle in which they would have to wait 30 minutes for the front axle to start pulling.
Ah, you whippersnappers. I recall having to flip a control switch on the dash to get a truck into 4WD. Prior to that, I recall having to stop my truck, get out, lock the drive mechanisms via the hubcap, walk around to the other side of the truck, and, get this, lock the drive mechanism for the other front wheel.
Anyway, I digress. Here's a link that describes 2WD and 4WD terms without spin -- note that "real-time 4WD" != AWD, or even Automatic 4WD.
The FSF will only work to enforce the GPL if the GPL code in question is signed over to the FSF. While I can understand that legal logic, I... So you get that they are until then powerless, because they have no legal standing unless they are the legal copyright holder? And that acting as a legal services firm doing pro bono work instead carries its own nightmares of bureaucratic compliance, never mind the necessity of the copyright owner being a part of the process?
If I give an ice cream cone to my brother, I can't dictate to him how he eats it.
The GPL doesn't tell anyone how to eat their ice cream code. It just makes them agree to some conditions before they give that code to someone else. Tell him, "You can have as many of my ice cream cones as you want, BUT you can only give (or sell) them to whoever you want as long as you tell them the cones were originally mine, and you offer to provide the nutritional information and list of ingredients I'm providing you -- this is even if you use my cones to make a banana split. If you don't do those things, then I'm not going to allow you to have any more ice cream cones out of my stash, and I'll get the courts to force you to pay me for the ones you redistributed inappropriately." This is the [very bad analogy version of the] basis for the GPL.
IP and PP are fundamentally different, so it's hard to make an ice cream cone analogy work... but I think that about does it.
So now your workforce is reduced by 25% - oh, wait, 2 of you will also be out caring for sick loved ones, so that's half gone
Meh. Your math is off, since those sets intersect.
If 25% get infected, and 25% need to care for sick loved ones, you're talking about 43.75% reduction in workforce, not 50%.
Doomsayer. Way to blow it out of proportion with your fuzzy maths and your nice round numbers.
Seriously, though, 25% or 50% reduction in workforce, it doesn't matter -- the economy will be crippled. Don't forget that even at 25% reduction, you also need to consider the extra workload of dealing with suppliers/customers/etc that are also understaffed. This effect snowballs among interconnected organizations until the collapse is economy-wide.
I wouldn't bother investing in N95 masks and gloves. I'd invest in farming equipment, seed stocks, and livestock shares.
showing up for work puts you at some risk, especially if you use public transportation or enter a public area like a store, say to pay for gas
Whew, good thing I live in NJ, where we're not allowed to pump our own gas and therefore almost no stores have inside-the-store payment capability. It's nice to know that come the flupocalypse, NJ's air (especially around the gas stations) will be among the most disease-free of any state.
The problem is that even if the big boys beat up on the trolls, the cost of creating a patent troll is so low in comparison to the potential windfall that striking them down also causes another to rise in their place. Too many people in the US are fans of get-rich-quick schemes, and most of them pay no attention to what has come before. Look at all the people who jump on the end of any speculative bandwagon -- they should know that they are likely to lose their shirts, yet they take the gamble anyway, because they've seen others get rich.
People don't remember the less-than-spectacular failures of those that have come before -- they remember the spectacular successes. Same goes for playing the lottery (though I could get into relative value of $1/day vs. being set for life, in which case playing the lottery makes sense, but that's another discussion -- from a purely accounting/mathematical standpont, playing the lottery is a loss).
The only solution is to find a way to prevent patent trolls from acting, while not insitigating the creation of new patent trolls. The most likely to succeed, IMO, is tying them up in lengthy legal battles (while they pay legal fees all along, to make them hemorrhage cash), and when they eventually lose, have them pay your legal fees. In order for this to work, they would have to be forced to enter into escrow your legal fees until settlement in your favor.
Alternatively, as they are trolls, you could just trick them into staying out past daybreak.
Slashdot Mirror
I've yet to be in a position where aggressive men in the workplace are tolerated any better than aggressive women -- in fact, my experience has been the opposite. In two of the last three positions I've held, there have been hyperaggressive females whose management style was never questioned, while hyperaggressive male managers have been reprimanded and/or fired.
Yes, the raptors should be brought back... but not to feed the portly. Rather, to cull the herd.
You can bet that more people will stick to their diets (or "lifestyle changes" if "diet" is too non-PC) if their intact survival depends on outrunning velociraptors.
Actually, there would be no possibility of outrunning the raptors. However, the principle still applies, since there would be a need to outrun the poor slob running next to you.
Just for the sake of completeness...
It's fine that you do not like the author's writing (for the record, I wasn't very fond of the piece either), but how about some substantial criticism?
I always suspected you were a bot. :)
Does your real name perchance happen to be ELIZA?
It is a privilege to fly. However, it is a RIGHT to be free from UNREASONABLE SEARCH... regardless of whether you are flying, walking, driving, or sitting like a lump of bituminous.
When dealing with the PHBs, feel free to use the version number instead, as that is the official name -- 7.10 for Gutsy Gibbon.
I just refer to it as Gibbon when necessary; when questioned about why the name Gibbon was chosen, I tell them it's to recognize the hard work of all the codemonkeys.
I haven't yet been challenged on the fact that Gibbons are apes, not monkeys, so I'm sticking to my story.
However, since he has made himself a public persona, usage of his likeness for parody is within the law as long as it does not create a danger to him. His paranoia and fearmongering would likely lead him to believe that this is the case.
At any rate, one of his goals is to draw attention to the violent content in video games. He is succeeding.
I'll start off by saying that I wholeheartedly agree with you. Symbolic protests make people feel good, but they tend to have little effect since they do not hurt the bottom line of the target(s).
However, it does little good to protest the people providing a service (DRM). The people that have to be targeted, whose bottom line needs to be impacted, are the content companies that demand DRM. As you allude to, it doesn't matter what loose or tight DRM scheme you ascribe to, since either way you are contributing to the companies that demand the DRM.
The ONLY protest that will work is to not buy products from companies that demand DRM, along with publicity of said boycott. This means not buying or pirating their music or movies or television shows or games. When people pirate music, they are simply telling the music companies that they want the music, and if (by hook or crook) they can be forced to pay for it, they will.
The lesson that content distributors (and creators) need to learn is that if they support DRM, the demand for their products will flatline.
Unfortunately, this would take mass action by content consumers. And just like voting, most people would not take part because they don't feel their actions make a difference.
At least we're discussing the issue.
My original post in this thread had nothing to do with any grudge or anything. It had to do with what I saw as factually incorrect information... particularly since you made some pretty wild statements in that post ("This is just a company...") that were way off base.
It's one thing to hold a false assumption -- it's another thing to disparage others based on an incorrect assumption. This is why I have previously marked you as a foe, since you had on several occasions done the same to posts of mine.
It's not that I don't like you. It's that I don't like the way you often respond to posts in an extremly arrogant matter (all-caps comes to mind) -- you like to tear people a new one when responding to their posts.
So, speaking of arrogant pricks, I think it takes one to know one.
Note also that normal urine, while sterile when leaving the body, provides an excellent medium for bacterial growth, so one should drink it as soon as it leaves the body. I would not suggest drinking it directly from the tap, however, as then you might have to deal with a host of other issues.
So, what you are saying is to have someone else drink contaminated water, and then you can drink their urine?
Pure genius, but you shouldn't forget that you'll need to feed your biological filtering mechanism, so cost per liter might become ineffective compared to a filter bottle.
.2 micron != .015 micron.
While nothing new, this filter represents a vast improvement in the ability of cheap, hand-held filters to remove viral particles. Of course, most water-borne illnesses are bacterial, but not all.
Might help if you read TFA, or even TFS. My first thought on reading the summary was very similar to yours... until I bothered finding out why this is different than the products in the link you provided.
Reading comprehension is a useful skill.
Something tells me they charge per session for each 20MB or portion thereof, just as they charge you the full three minutes for a 10-second long-distance phone call (though I'm not sure they do this anymore).
One plan * $24 * 200 sessions. Seems easy to me for them to come up with that number, though that doesn't make it any more fair.
Anyway, I digress. Here's a link that describes 2WD and 4WD terms without spin -- note that "real-time 4WD" != AWD, or even Automatic 4WD.
The GPL doesn't tell anyone how to eat their ice cream code. It just makes them agree to some conditions before they give that code to someone else. Tell him, "You can have as many of my ice cream cones as you want, BUT you can only give (or sell) them to whoever you want as long as you tell them the cones were originally mine, and you offer to provide the nutritional information and list of ingredients I'm providing you -- this is even if you use my cones to make a banana split. If you don't do those things, then I'm not going to allow you to have any more ice cream cones out of my stash, and I'll get the courts to force you to pay me for the ones you redistributed inappropriately." This is the [very bad analogy version of the] basis for the GPL.
IP and PP are fundamentally different, so it's hard to make an ice cream cone analogy work... but I think that about does it.
If 25% get infected, and 25% need to care for sick loved ones, you're talking about 43.75% reduction in workforce, not 50%.
Doomsayer. Way to blow it out of proportion with your fuzzy maths and your nice round numbers.
Seriously, though, 25% or 50% reduction in workforce, it doesn't matter -- the economy will be crippled. Don't forget that even at 25% reduction, you also need to consider the extra workload of dealing with suppliers/customers/etc that are also understaffed. This effect snowballs among interconnected organizations until the collapse is economy-wide.
I wouldn't bother investing in N95 masks and gloves. I'd invest in farming equipment, seed stocks, and livestock shares.
/snicker
The problem is that even if the big boys beat up on the trolls, the cost of creating a patent troll is so low in comparison to the potential windfall that striking them down also causes another to rise in their place. Too many people in the US are fans of get-rich-quick schemes, and most of them pay no attention to what has come before. Look at all the people who jump on the end of any speculative bandwagon -- they should know that they are likely to lose their shirts, yet they take the gamble anyway, because they've seen others get rich.
People don't remember the less-than-spectacular failures of those that have come before -- they remember the spectacular successes. Same goes for playing the lottery (though I could get into relative value of $1/day vs. being set for life, in which case playing the lottery makes sense, but that's another discussion -- from a purely accounting/mathematical standpont, playing the lottery is a loss).
The only solution is to find a way to prevent patent trolls from acting, while not insitigating the creation of new patent trolls. The most likely to succeed, IMO, is tying them up in lengthy legal battles (while they pay legal fees all along, to make them hemorrhage cash), and when they eventually lose, have them pay your legal fees. In order for this to work, they would have to be forced to enter into escrow your legal fees until settlement in your favor.
Alternatively, as they are trolls, you could just trick them into staying out past daybreak.