If the publishers really aren't making enough money, they should just charge everyone the extra $1 per unit or whatever it takes, and let the market decide.
Would a book publisher seriously consider adding in some full page adds in the middle of a novel? Of course not, so why do they think they can get away with it games?
I'll happily pay the extra $1-2 per unit for a game that isn't offered at a lower price without ads.
Whereas I will not even consider purchasing a game with ingame ads for real world products.
And I doubt this is a matter of publishers not being able to finance their games and make a reasonable profit. This is a matter of publishers being greedy, and I hope customers will make them pay for their greed by refusing to purchase products in which they introduce this crap.
Presidents adding oral ammendments to bills and unelected agencies enacting legislation.
This is just yet another example; it is rediculous. Where is the mass outrage? Shouldn't Republicans be outraged by our government wiping its ass with the Constitution - limited government and separation of powers? Shouldn't Democrats be outraged as the government continues to redistribute our hard earned money into the pockets of its corporate sponsors?
I mean ordinary people. I'd like to think I'm an ordinary person, but polls say otherwise. Why aren't ordinary people outraged when they see these abuses and corruptions?
The release managers are not worth 6000 times more than the developers.
Why should the release managers be surprised? Afterall, they were paid money to improve their own work ethic. Are the developers, who are arguably doing more *actual* work, not worth as much as the release managers, or held to a higher standard than the release managers?
If they can't find developers to replace those who have reduced their contributions, and the lack of development contributions is the primary cause of the delay, then very likely the developers ARE worth more than the release managers. So you can suggest they just replace them all you want, but I hope it won't come as a surprise to you that the free labor market isn't exactly full of high quality talent willing to work long hours to come onto an already late project.
Perhaps the release managers should distribute some of their new found resources to developers in exchange for additional contribution.
"The choice is simple - either continue to accept the old business model, or don't. It is up to all of us to make that choice for ourselves."
I couldn't agree more. People who respond to DRM in products with grandiose statements about inalienable rights, to me come off as perhaps in the same situation as heroin addicts complaining about the hassle of getting clean needles - the difference being I feel more sympathy for the heroin addicts.
These people are addicted to the very products they deride and claim are ethically deficient.
And they continue to pour billions of dollars of their hardearned money into these morally bankrupt companies just to get another fix of the product.
It is very hypocritical and it is working at cross-purposes to their cause.
"There are some people who do not use force and for whom no force is expended to adhere rights to them. Victims of genocide come to mind as the easiest example. They are deprived of rights; literally, they do not possess any."
You suggest, "They are deprived of rights; literally, they do not possess any."
Your twisted language does nothing whatsoever to clarify the matter. I fail to see what is accomplished by attempting to ascertain the ontological status of rights. I do not believe we can ascertain the ontological status of rights; I'm not even sure what it would mean to do so.
Instead of trying to tell other people what they can and can not mean by what they say, why don't you try listening to what they have to say? Or perhaps you were more interested in trying to assert a little control and power over others than trying to understand them.
There are many different senses in which the word seems to be used.
We might say that I have a limited right to freedom of speech. We might say I have this right even - especially - when the government jails me for attempting to exercise it. In this scenario the point of concern, it seems, is not that I do not have the right. The point of concern is precisely that I have this right but have been prevented from exercising it, in a way that we agree is illegitimate. This seems to be the common usage.
If it were not the case that we agree I have this right, it is not clear what might be the point of concern. We might say, "I ought to have the right, but do not," but that is not how the word is typically used in a scenario like this. In the scenario in which the law is changed to make no mention of a right to freedom of speech, and in which we believe that the right to freedom of speech derives from the law, I suppose we might say, "I ought to have the right, but do not." But this doesn't seem helpful, as I do not often encounter people who express the belief that whether someone has the right to freedom of speech is dependent upon the law of the land, and I do not believe anyone in this dicussion has expressed this view, yourself included.
Following back to your example, I, like the poster you responded to, believe that a victim of genocide has rights. When I say that a victim of genocide has inherent rights, I mean first that I believe the victim of genocide ought to be able to exercise those right. I mean second that a victim of genocide ought to be able to exercise those rights even if I and everyone else in the world stop believing that he or she ought to be able to. Would the victim of genocide be able to exercise those rights in such a world? Maybe not, but that does not change my belief that he or she ought to be able to; that he or she ought to be able to is precisely my meaning.
It is you who are going off about the ontological status of rights. It is you who are exhibiting metaphysical arrogance, by your own criteria.
No one outside your freshman philosophy course is interested in playing word games about the ontological status of rights and epistemological basis for belief in rights. Maybe you should go get a paper towel to clean up after yourself now.
"Wow. This is the first time I read an article about Google and, for a second, find myself thinking "Google appears to be Evil and driven by Greed. This isn't happening. This is just a mistake. Google will see the light. Google is Good.""
Google provides you a wide range of services, which you value, at aboslutely no cost to yourself.
?
*boggle*
So did you just need to take a break from bashing the Salvation Army, or what?
If you need to edit and compose - especially collaboratively - Word-compatible documents professionally, you should be using Word. It is not possible to produce a product with 100% Office document compatibility for less than what it costs Microsoft to produce Office in the first place. The cost of reverse engineering every aspect of obscure, undocumented, and misdocumented functionality is prohibitive.
As a teenager I remember looking at the price of Microsoft Office and thinking that I could code an office suite (at least a word processor) "way cheaper". Who else? Many people have. But Microsoft Office still reigns supreme.
In a professional environment you can not afford 99% compatible. You might botch the formatting on export to.doc just once on a proposal you are sending to a client, and if that screwup costs you the client, you might have just lost in potential revenue the cost of a business wide Office deployment. It isn't worth it. What are you going to tell the client? "Please resubmit this document in a different format. We don't use Office because it doesn't satisfy the FSF requirements for Free Software?" Yeah, right; good luck with that. I don't think that would even fly in Cuba (ooooh, *burn*). Or maybe, "We don't use Office because it is too expensive." That isn't going to cut it. Now the client thinks you are willing to cut corners on quality and infrastructure at the cost of customer relationships. Good one. You just lost all the money you saved by not deploying Office.
Now, maybe they have a niche market in Europe. That's fine. I don't see why anyone would choose this over Star Office (or even Open Office). But anyone in IT looking at this as a way to cut costs is probably about to make a huge mistake.
"IT should only be involved in the maintenance of your company's network. The developers need to own the entire product, and if that means bringing in some database experts who can handle deployments, then that's a must."
Absolutely not! Been there, done that. Development needs to be doing development. If Development are the only ones who know how to deploy, manage, and upgrade apps, then that is what they will spend much of their time doing. And because any failure in a production app is an immediate emergency, any issue that comes up will mean developers will have to drop whatever they are doing to fix it.
If IT can nothandle deploying, managing, and upgrading the app, then either IT is incompetent, or more likely, development has not spent or been given sufficient time to generate the necessary documentation, or worked with IT to develop the necessary processes and infrastructure for deployments.
What you describe might "work" in a 5 person development shop where by necessity development is also IT and maybe customer support too, but it does not scale.
As Colbert would say, "Reality has a well known liberal bias."
I strongly resent our tax dollars funding cherry picked "research" and propaganda. I don't want this administration in office, I don't want their cronies in Congress, and more than 50% of the American people agree. And yet our tax dollars are being used to suppress research and facts at odds with their faith based "science" and policy, while filtering and twisting that same research to produce a "knowledge" base of faux-scientific papers and documents to be used as propaganda against their opponents and against the will of the American people to keep them in office and keep us bent over.
Just another 2 years of trying to weather the storm and they will be out. The scary thing is what they can still do in the time they have left, considering what they have done in so short a time already. We could be bombing Iran and have lost another 2,000 troops and hundreds of thousands more civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran before they leave. We could be drilling in Alaska and doubling our logging in protected forests. And there seems to be very little we can do about any of it. The administration seems to do whatever it wants, regardless of what Congress says. And the Supreme Court is now stacked with pro-Executive judges. A large majority of the American people strongly disapprove of what they are doing, but it seems we are powerless to do anything but wait and hope we still have the liberties and the economy to start to clean up when they leave.
It's as though we are under siege, and a majority of us agree, but can't seem to do anything about it. Something is wrong.
Perhaps if OS X users spent more time helping and welcoming new users instead of bashing them and the platforms they are coming from as you are, OS X wouldn't have - at best - only marginally more market share than GNU/Linux variants.
I use OS X at home almost exclusively because as I've become older, I've realized that life is too short and free time too valuable to spend fiddling with computer drivers and configuration files and *especially* media codecs and plugins. It looks nice, the hardware looks nice, it is high quality from hardware to software, and it has a great service contract. I use the web browser, the email app, and itunes. That's about it. I've never been happier with an OS for personal use. I reboot into Windows (Boot Camp) every now and then to play a PC game or two that have no OS X versions. It all looks beautiful on a cinema display, and the ipod integration is nearly flawless.
Whereas at work I run Debian GNU/Linux, and wouldn't have it any other way.
If what you want is a Unix/XWindows development workstation, a GNU/Linux distribution gets you much closer, in a much more streamlined way, than OS X. Systems such as "fink" for OS X are a disaster compared to the ease of use of any modern, mainstream GNU/Linux system. If there were an officially supported package managed repository providing the applications you expect in a modern UNIX or UNIX-like environment, I might even consider using OS X for development. But as it stands, for providing that, Debian GNU/Linux (and all the other biggies) are far and away superior. OS X feels more like a toy than a serious technical development workstation, and I think the same can be said of its use as a server.
Unlike a vocal minority of OS X users, I don't think for an instant that I am somehow hip or cool or more intelligent for using a Mac. Those people are asshats, no matter what platform they use. It's unfortunate that the Apple marketing hype seems intentionally designed to feed their egos. The company can go to hell for all I care. I just find the product meets my simple needs very elegantly, and that's good enough for me.
How about the fact that we the people paid for this data to be collected, compiled, analyzed and stored?
How ass backwards is it when you are making up excuses why a government of the people, by the people, is witholding the work of our hard earned tax dollars, conducted under the direction of our democratically elected representatives... from we the people?
Who the hell decided this was a good idea? Who do they work for if not us? And you're making up excuses for them?
Microsoft was let off the legal hook by a fortunate change in administrations - more like a fortunate failure to honor the democratic will of the people.
Microsoft spends billions of dollars around the world lobbying for initiatives that restrict and suppress open standards and free software, guaranteeing expansion of its monopoly worldwide and into emerging and developing markets.
Bill Gates may be attempting to use his money to make a positive impact in this world in order to whitewash his legacy in his old age, but had governments and businesses and people invested in open standards and free software instead of the monopolist's products, we would still have Bill's money in our collective pockets, developing our economies, educating our children, and feeding our families.
The insecurities of an aging robber baron are little consolation for the great human and natural resources he has squandered through ruthless malice, contempt for law, personal aggrandizement, and cronyism.
As a module developer, I am pleased with the NWN 2 toolset. It is significantly more powerful than the original in many respects. You have to be willing to work and relearn some of what you did with the NWN 1 toolset, but it is worth it.
Where else are you as an ordinary joe going to get a development platform with an officially endorsed 3.5ed D&D implementation, multiplayer support, a built-in 3d terrain modeler that looks great, and a DM (Dungeon Master) client? The answer is: no where. Not in Oblivion. Not in any MMORPG. No where else besides the first NWN 1, and this one is a nice update.
Give the custom content community a few more months and you will start to see some really exciting and well done modules: persistent worlds, single player, co-op, etc.
If you're sick of playing MMORPGs by someone else's rules, go reinstall NWN 1 and try playing some persistent world modules. NWN 2 modules aren't there yet, but many are under development, often by the same teams as produced great NWN 1 modules.
1. If the U.S. founders and revolutionary army had put their fate in the hands of protest songs and peaceful sit-ins rather than armed rebellion, we might very well today still be paying our taxes to the U.K. 2. Iraq is a vivid demonstration of the effectiveness of armed citizen resistance. The Iraqi people are better armed than us.
I strongly support liberal social programs, but when it comes to certain essential personal freedoms I find they are hypocritical cowards.
Western liberals have developed a false sense of security through years of living under impotent administrations permitting open dissent and demonstration. They take this for granted, believing their disssent and peaceful demonstration have secured their rights.
In reality, we are always one election cycle away from tyranny.
Bush is no tyrant (*shock*, but hey, this is Slashdot). In fact he's downright moderate compared to some past wartime administrations. But if you doubt the difference a single election cycle can make, look no further than the 2000 elections. Had a statewide recount been conducted in Florida - had all the votes been counted - the world today would be a very different place.
Think long and hard before you give up the guaranteer of your liberty. Once you have, it is too late.
As popular as YouTube is, how long before video cell phones can provide 1-click uploads directly to YouTube? While it would be in the hands of a private corporation (Google), this would provide for what the poster is suggesting in a way that would be popularly accessible and justifiable from a business perspective. More compelling user-made video content means more un-incumbered video to serve ads with.
Of course by off-site hosting the poster presumably means getting the video persisted somewhere off the recording device so that even when the abuser or oppressor confiscates or destroys the device, the testimony is not lost.
Honking first gives your normal finger attack a +2 bonus to hit and grants a 30% chance to daze your target for 1 round on a successful attack.
Just the other day some level 3 Accord merged in front of me from the shoulder on an on ramp. I was all like "WTF N00B?!" I broke out the honk+finger. Finger connected and I won the roll on the daze. Passed that n00b up and he didn't know what hit him. PWN3D!
"I hate to tell you this, but 35 in a 45 zone is not impeding traffic. 45 is the absolute limit under optimal conditions."
And I hate to tell you this, but apart from emergencies and hazardous weather, if you can not safely drive faster than 35 in a 45, you should not be on the road. It's as simple as that. With the technology in modern vehicles, if you, presumably a fully functioning adult human being can not drive 45 in a 45, not only are you a nuissance, you are a risk to the lives of other drivers on the road.
If you must drive, in the interests of safety I recommend you mark your car as a slow moving vehicle following the regulations in your jurisdication for the transportation of implements of hubandry.
Have you considered arranging for transporation? If you feel that you can not safely operate a motor vehicle, there are public and private services available in most areas to help you meet your transportation needs. A good place to get started would be a local nursing home or retirement housing complex.
"I always wanted a little TV in my car's back window, so I could show video of cars smashing into each other, bloody bodies flying into the air, etc which could be played when people follow me too closely. Either that or a pneumatic arm with a ballpeen hammer on the end to put holes into the hood of cars following too closely."
How about instead you move to the right and allow him to overtake?
If you are imeding the flow of traffic, you are part of the problem. It doesn't matter of the car behind you is speeding. It isn't your job to enforce traffic laws. In fact, attempting to do so can get you put in jail.
In traffic, leaving more than a single car length between you and the guy in front of you gets you cut off. It's an invitation for some asshat in the next lane over to cut in. You know the type.
I tell ya... roof-mounted laser gun turrents. "We've got a Jetta at 3 o'clock! Get in there and keep him occupied until I can engage the damned lightdrive!"
That and enemy symphathizers - traitors. You rode that bumper like an animal in heat and kept the Jetta out of your lane. But what's this? The Jetta pulls ahead and that weak-willed pansy Corolla two cars ahead lets him in, after all your work! "Dammit man, we're trying to hold a line here. Get on that fucking bumper and ride it for all you're worth you fucking pussy!"
Where did these people learn to drive? Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood?
"I havent heard a decently mastered CD in decades..."
ORLY? Would that be two, or three decades? Let's see. This is 2006... so 10, 20, carry the zero, ah ha! Well, I guess if you say so. It's technically possible I suppose. Would you care to name which pre-1986 CDs struck you so profoundly?
Do forgive us if we're skeptical of your... "high" opinion of yourself.
"I've tried it, altough only with the higher (128+) bitrate samples. What I found is that it all depends on the system your playing it through.
On my computer speakers it all sopunded the same after about 128, on headphone it was more nociteable (around 198). But if hooked it up to my home stereo I could easily tell the difference even at 256 to 320."
O RLY?
You've conducted a double-blind listening test on encoded audio at 128 to 320 bitrates?
I would like to see a writeup on your testing methodology and sample size, because I seriously doubt you have performed such a test.
In fact, I find it quite likely that you can't even describe for us what the methodology might be for a legitimate double-blind audio encoding bitrate test, because odds are you, like most audio-elitsts, are talking out of your ass.
But by all means, keep pumping that money into the economy. It probably helps to subsidize audio equipment for us mere mortals.
Yes the U.S. has plenty of corrupt leaders. Yes the U.S. has plenty of lazy and apathetic people who do not think for themselves.
BUT:
We found out that we were lied to.
We have people on national television and in national publications expousing as matter of fact that we were and are being lied to and misled.
It is commonly reported public knowledge that more citizens disapprove of the current regime than approve of it.
The competence of the administration is openly ridiculed in national broadcasts and publications.
WE VOTED OUT THE PARTY IN POWER. I hope you appreciate how important this. In some countries past and present this is the thing of revolutionary dreams.
Why do I care that people appreciate how good they have things here? Not because I want them to be nationalists or even to be proud of what we do have. But rather because if people do not see the great freedom and opportunity they have, they may fail to take hold of it and use it to better themselves and our society as they can and should.
You do not think we are in a position to criticize suppression of freedom in other countries? You aren't if you can't see past your own problems. You aren't if you are more concerned about your own national pride than you are about freedom at home and around the world. Start standing up for your fellow human beings, and stop limiting yourself by your national pride or shame. I don't know about you, but my nationality is human being.
Slashdot Mirror
If the publishers really aren't making enough money, they should just charge everyone the extra $1 per unit or whatever it takes, and let the market decide.
Would a book publisher seriously consider adding in some full page adds in the middle of a novel? Of course not, so why do they think they can get away with it games?
I'll happily pay the extra $1-2 per unit for a game that isn't offered at a lower price without ads.
Whereas I will not even consider purchasing a game with ingame ads for real world products.
And I doubt this is a matter of publishers not being able to finance their games and make a reasonable profit. This is a matter of publishers being greedy, and I hope customers will make them pay for their greed by refusing to purchase products in which they introduce this crap.
Presidents adding oral ammendments to bills and unelected agencies enacting legislation.
This is just yet another example; it is rediculous. Where is the mass outrage? Shouldn't Republicans be outraged by our government wiping its ass with the Constitution - limited government and separation of powers? Shouldn't Democrats be outraged as the government continues to redistribute our hard earned money into the pockets of its corporate sponsors?
I mean ordinary people. I'd like to think I'm an ordinary person, but polls say otherwise. Why aren't ordinary people outraged when they see these abuses and corruptions?
The release managers are not worth 6000 times more than the developers.
Why should the release managers be surprised? Afterall, they were paid money to improve their own work ethic. Are the developers, who are arguably doing more *actual* work, not worth as much as the release managers, or held to a higher standard than the release managers?
If they can't find developers to replace those who have reduced their contributions, and the lack of development contributions is the primary cause of the delay, then very likely the developers ARE worth more than the release managers. So you can suggest they just replace them all you want, but I hope it won't come as a surprise to you that the free labor market isn't exactly full of high quality talent willing to work long hours to come onto an already late project.
Perhaps the release managers should distribute some of their new found resources to developers in exchange for additional contribution.
"The choice is simple - either continue to accept the old business model, or don't. It is up to all of us to make that choice for ourselves."
I couldn't agree more. People who respond to DRM in products with grandiose statements about inalienable rights, to me come off as perhaps in the same situation as heroin addicts complaining about the hassle of getting clean needles - the difference being I feel more sympathy for the heroin addicts.
These people are addicted to the very products they deride and claim are ethically deficient.
And they continue to pour billions of dollars of their hardearned money into these morally bankrupt companies just to get another fix of the product.
It is very hypocritical and it is working at cross-purposes to their cause.
"There are some people who do not use force and for whom no force is expended to adhere rights to them. Victims of genocide come to mind as the easiest example. They are deprived of rights; literally, they do not possess any."
You suggest, "They are deprived of rights; literally, they do not possess any."
Your twisted language does nothing whatsoever to clarify the matter. I fail to see what is accomplished by attempting to ascertain the ontological status of rights. I do not believe we can ascertain the ontological status of rights; I'm not even sure what it would mean to do so.
Instead of trying to tell other people what they can and can not mean by what they say, why don't you try listening to what they have to say? Or perhaps you were more interested in trying to assert a little control and power over others than trying to understand them.
There are many different senses in which the word seems to be used.
We might say that I have a limited right to freedom of speech. We might say I have this right even - especially - when the government jails me for attempting to exercise it. In this scenario the point of concern, it seems, is not that I do not have the right. The point of concern is precisely that I have this right but have been prevented from exercising it, in a way that we agree is illegitimate. This seems to be the common usage.
If it were not the case that we agree I have this right, it is not clear what might be the point of concern. We might say, "I ought to have the right, but do not," but that is not how the word is typically used in a scenario like this. In the scenario in which the law is changed to make no mention of a right to freedom of speech, and in which we believe that the right to freedom of speech derives from the law, I suppose we might say, "I ought to have the right, but do not." But this doesn't seem helpful, as I do not often encounter people who express the belief that whether someone has the right to freedom of speech is dependent upon the law of the land, and I do not believe anyone in this dicussion has expressed this view, yourself included.
Following back to your example, I, like the poster you responded to, believe that a victim of genocide has rights. When I say that a victim of genocide has inherent rights, I mean first that I believe the victim of genocide ought to be able to exercise those right. I mean second that a victim of genocide ought to be able to exercise those rights even if I and everyone else in the world stop believing that he or she ought to be able to. Would the victim of genocide be able to exercise those rights in such a world? Maybe not, but that does not change my belief that he or she ought to be able to; that he or she ought to be able to is precisely my meaning.
It is you who are going off about the ontological status of rights. It is you who are exhibiting metaphysical arrogance, by your own criteria.
No one outside your freshman philosophy course is interested in playing word games about the ontological status of rights and epistemological basis for belief in rights. Maybe you should go get a paper towel to clean up after yourself now.
"Wow. This is the first time I read an article about Google and, for a second, find myself thinking "Google appears to be Evil and driven by Greed. This isn't happening. This is just a mistake. Google will see the light. Google is Good.""
Google provides you a wide range of services, which you value, at aboslutely no cost to yourself.
?
*boggle*
So did you just need to take a break from bashing the Salvation Army, or what?
If you need to edit and compose - especially collaboratively - Word-compatible documents professionally, you should be using Word. It is not possible to produce a product with 100% Office document compatibility for less than what it costs Microsoft to produce Office in the first place. The cost of reverse engineering every aspect of obscure, undocumented, and misdocumented functionality is prohibitive.
.doc just once on a proposal you are sending to a client, and if that screwup costs you the client, you might have just lost in potential revenue the cost of a business wide Office deployment. It isn't worth it. What are you going to tell the client? "Please resubmit this document in a different format. We don't use Office because it doesn't satisfy the FSF requirements for Free Software?" Yeah, right; good luck with that. I don't think that would even fly in Cuba (ooooh, *burn*). Or maybe, "We don't use Office because it is too expensive." That isn't going to cut it. Now the client thinks you are willing to cut corners on quality and infrastructure at the cost of customer relationships. Good one. You just lost all the money you saved by not deploying Office.
As a teenager I remember looking at the price of Microsoft Office and thinking that I could code an office suite (at least a word processor) "way cheaper". Who else? Many people have. But Microsoft Office still reigns supreme.
In a professional environment you can not afford 99% compatible. You might botch the formatting on export to
Now, maybe they have a niche market in Europe. That's fine. I don't see why anyone would choose this over Star Office (or even Open Office). But anyone in IT looking at this as a way to cut costs is probably about to make a huge mistake.
"IT should only be involved in the maintenance of your company's network. The developers need to own the entire product, and if that means bringing in some database experts who can handle deployments, then that's a must."
Absolutely not! Been there, done that. Development needs to be doing development. If Development are the only ones who know how to deploy, manage, and upgrade apps, then that is what they will spend much of their time doing. And because any failure in a production app is an immediate emergency, any issue that comes up will mean developers will have to drop whatever they are doing to fix it.
If IT can nothandle deploying, managing, and upgrading the app, then either IT is incompetent, or more likely, development has not spent or been given sufficient time to generate the necessary documentation, or worked with IT to develop the necessary processes and infrastructure for deployments.
What you describe might "work" in a 5 person development shop where by necessity development is also IT and maybe customer support too, but it does not scale.
"It's less a fallacy and more "OMG I watched the Matirx, and like, it was deeeeeep, man!""
But using the word "fallacy" to describe another's assertion does seem to make idiots feel smarter than they actually are.
As Colbert would say, "Reality has a well known liberal bias."
I strongly resent our tax dollars funding cherry picked "research" and propaganda. I don't want this administration in office, I don't want their cronies in Congress, and more than 50% of the American people agree. And yet our tax dollars are being used to suppress research and facts at odds with their faith based "science" and policy, while filtering and twisting that same research to produce a "knowledge" base of faux-scientific papers and documents to be used as propaganda against their opponents and against the will of the American people to keep them in office and keep us bent over.
Just another 2 years of trying to weather the storm and they will be out. The scary thing is what they can still do in the time they have left, considering what they have done in so short a time already. We could be bombing Iran and have lost another 2,000 troops and hundreds of thousands more civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran before they leave. We could be drilling in Alaska and doubling our logging in protected forests. And there seems to be very little we can do about any of it. The administration seems to do whatever it wants, regardless of what Congress says. And the Supreme Court is now stacked with pro-Executive judges. A large majority of the American people strongly disapprove of what they are doing, but it seems we are powerless to do anything but wait and hope we still have the liberties and the economy to start to clean up when they leave.
It's as though we are under siege, and a majority of us agree, but can't seem to do anything about it. Something is wrong.
Perhaps if OS X users spent more time helping and welcoming new users instead of bashing them and the platforms they are coming from as you are, OS X wouldn't have - at best - only marginally more market share than GNU/Linux variants.
I use OS X at home almost exclusively because as I've become older, I've realized that life is too short and free time too valuable to spend fiddling with computer drivers and configuration files and *especially* media codecs and plugins. It looks nice, the hardware looks nice, it is high quality from hardware to software, and it has a great service contract. I use the web browser, the email app, and itunes. That's about it. I've never been happier with an OS for personal use. I reboot into Windows (Boot Camp) every now and then to play a PC game or two that have no OS X versions. It all looks beautiful on a cinema display, and the ipod integration is nearly flawless.
Whereas at work I run Debian GNU/Linux, and wouldn't have it any other way.
If what you want is a Unix/XWindows development workstation, a GNU/Linux distribution gets you much closer, in a much more streamlined way, than OS X. Systems such as "fink" for OS X are a disaster compared to the ease of use of any modern, mainstream GNU/Linux system. If there were an officially supported package managed repository providing the applications you expect in a modern UNIX or UNIX-like environment, I might even consider using OS X for development. But as it stands, for providing that, Debian GNU/Linux (and all the other biggies) are far and away superior. OS X feels more like a toy than a serious technical development workstation, and I think the same can be said of its use as a server.
Unlike a vocal minority of OS X users, I don't think for an instant that I am somehow hip or cool or more intelligent for using a Mac. Those people are asshats, no matter what platform they use. It's unfortunate that the Apple marketing hype seems intentionally designed to feed their egos. The company can go to hell for all I care. I just find the product meets my simple needs very elegantly, and that's good enough for me.
How about the fact that we the people paid for this data to be collected, compiled, analyzed and stored?
... from we the people?
How ass backwards is it when you are making up excuses why a government of the people, by the people, is witholding the work of our hard earned tax dollars, conducted under the direction of our democratically elected representatives
Who the hell decided this was a good idea? Who do they work for if not us? And you're making up excuses for them?
Throw the worthless bums out.
Microsoft is a convicted illegal monopolist.
Microsoft was let off the legal hook by a fortunate change in administrations - more like a fortunate failure to honor the democratic will of the people.
Microsoft spends billions of dollars around the world lobbying for initiatives that restrict and suppress open standards and free software, guaranteeing expansion of its monopoly worldwide and into emerging and developing markets.
Bill Gates may be attempting to use his money to make a positive impact in this world in order to whitewash his legacy in his old age, but had governments and businesses and people invested in open standards and free software instead of the monopolist's products, we would still have Bill's money in our collective pockets, developing our economies, educating our children, and feeding our families.
The insecurities of an aging robber baron are little consolation for the great human and natural resources he has squandered through ruthless malice, contempt for law, personal aggrandizement, and cronyism.
How'd I do?
As a module developer, I am pleased with the NWN 2 toolset. It is significantly more powerful than the original in many respects. You have to be willing to work and relearn some of what you did with the NWN 1 toolset, but it is worth it.
Where else are you as an ordinary joe going to get a development platform with an officially endorsed 3.5ed D&D implementation, multiplayer support, a built-in 3d terrain modeler that looks great, and a DM (Dungeon Master) client? The answer is: no where. Not in Oblivion. Not in any MMORPG. No where else besides the first NWN 1, and this one is a nice update.
Give the custom content community a few more months and you will start to see some really exciting and well done modules: persistent worlds, single player, co-op, etc.
If you're sick of playing MMORPGs by someone else's rules, go reinstall NWN 1 and try playing some persistent world modules. NWN 2 modules aren't there yet, but many are under development, often by the same teams as produced great NWN 1 modules.
1. If the U.S. founders and revolutionary army had put their fate in the hands of protest songs and peaceful sit-ins rather than armed rebellion, we might very well today still be paying our taxes to the U.K.
2. Iraq is a vivid demonstration of the effectiveness of armed citizen resistance. The Iraqi people are better armed than us.
I strongly support liberal social programs, but when it comes to certain essential personal freedoms I find they are hypocritical cowards.
Western liberals have developed a false sense of security through years of living under impotent administrations permitting open dissent and demonstration. They take this for granted, believing their disssent and peaceful demonstration have secured their rights.
In reality, we are always one election cycle away from tyranny.
Bush is no tyrant (*shock*, but hey, this is Slashdot). In fact he's downright moderate compared to some past wartime administrations. But if you doubt the difference a single election cycle can make, look no further than the 2000 elections. Had a statewide recount been conducted in Florida - had all the votes been counted - the world today would be a very different place.
Think long and hard before you give up the guaranteer of your liberty. Once you have, it is too late.
As popular as YouTube is, how long before video cell phones can provide 1-click uploads directly to YouTube? While it would be in the hands of a private corporation (Google), this would provide for what the poster is suggesting in a way that would be popularly accessible and justifiable from a business perspective. More compelling user-made video content means more un-incumbered video to serve ads with.
Of course by off-site hosting the poster presumably means getting the video persisted somewhere off the recording device so that even when the abuser or oppressor confiscates or destroys the device, the testimony is not lost.
It seems win-win.
"gas, brake, honk... gas, brake, honk... honk, honk, punch... gas, gas, gas"
But don't forget the finger!
brake, honk, finger, gas.
The honk+finger strike is a well known combo.
Honking first gives your normal finger attack a +2 bonus to hit and grants a 30% chance to daze your target for 1 round on a successful attack.
Just the other day some level 3 Accord merged in front of me from the shoulder on an on ramp. I was all like "WTF N00B?!" I broke out the honk+finger. Finger connected and I won the roll on the daze. Passed that n00b up and he didn't know what hit him. PWN3D!
"I hate to tell you this, but 35 in a 45 zone is not impeding traffic. 45 is the absolute limit under optimal conditions."
And I hate to tell you this, but apart from emergencies and hazardous weather, if you can not safely drive faster than 35 in a 45, you should not be on the road. It's as simple as that. With the technology in modern vehicles, if you, presumably a fully functioning adult human being can not drive 45 in a 45, not only are you a nuissance, you are a risk to the lives of other drivers on the road.
If you must drive, in the interests of safety I recommend you mark your car as a slow moving vehicle following the regulations in your jurisdication for the transportation of implements of hubandry.
Have you considered arranging for transporation? If you feel that you can not safely operate a motor vehicle, there are public and private services available in most areas to help you meet your transportation needs. A good place to get started would be a local nursing home or retirement housing complex.
The exceptions are not the rule.
"I always wanted a little TV in my car's back window, so I could show video of cars smashing into each other, bloody bodies flying into the air, etc which could be played when people follow me too closely. Either that or a pneumatic arm with a ballpeen hammer on the end to put holes into the hood of cars following too closely."
How about instead you move to the right and allow him to overtake?
If you are imeding the flow of traffic, you are part of the problem. It doesn't matter of the car behind you is speeding. It isn't your job to enforce traffic laws. In fact, attempting to do so can get you put in jail.
In traffic, leaving more than a single car length between you and the guy in front of you gets you cut off. It's an invitation for some asshat in the next lane over to cut in. You know the type.
I tell ya... roof-mounted laser gun turrents. "We've got a Jetta at 3 o'clock! Get in there and keep him occupied until I can engage the damned lightdrive!"
That and enemy symphathizers - traitors. You rode that bumper like an animal in heat and kept the Jetta out of your lane. But what's this? The Jetta pulls ahead and that weak-willed pansy Corolla two cars ahead lets him in, after all your work! "Dammit man, we're trying to hold a line here. Get on that fucking bumper and ride it for all you're worth you fucking pussy!"
Where did these people learn to drive? Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood?
"I havent heard a decently mastered CD in decades..."
ORLY? Would that be two, or three decades? Let's see. This is 2006... so 10, 20, carry the zero, ah ha! Well, I guess if you say so. It's technically possible I suppose. Would you care to name which pre-1986 CDs struck you so profoundly?
Do forgive us if we're skeptical of your... "high" opinion of yourself.
As they say, "Garbage In, Garbage Out."
"I've tried it, altough only with the higher (128+) bitrate samples.
What I found is that it all depends on the system your playing it through.
On my computer speakers it all sopunded the same after about 128, on headphone it was more nociteable (around 198). But if hooked it up to my home stereo I could easily tell the difference even at 256 to 320."
O RLY?
You've conducted a double-blind listening test on encoded audio at 128 to 320 bitrates?
I would like to see a writeup on your testing methodology and sample size, because I seriously doubt you have performed such a test.
In fact, I find it quite likely that you can't even describe for us what the methodology might be for a legitimate double-blind audio encoding bitrate test, because odds are you, like most audio-elitsts, are talking out of your ass.
But by all means, keep pumping that money into the economy. It probably helps to subsidize audio equipment for us mere mortals.
Get over your self loathing.
Yes the U.S. has plenty of corrupt leaders. Yes the U.S. has plenty of lazy and apathetic people who do not think for themselves.
BUT:
We found out that we were lied to.
We have people on national television and in national publications expousing as matter of fact that we were and are being lied to and misled.
It is commonly reported public knowledge that more citizens disapprove of the current regime than approve of it.
The competence of the administration is openly ridiculed in national broadcasts and publications.
WE VOTED OUT THE PARTY IN POWER. I hope you appreciate how important this. In some countries past and present this is the thing of revolutionary dreams.
Why do I care that people appreciate how good they have things here? Not because I want them to be nationalists or even to be proud of what we do have. But rather because if people do not see the great freedom and opportunity they have, they may fail to take hold of it and use it to better themselves and our society as they can and should.
You do not think we are in a position to criticize suppression of freedom in other countries? You aren't if you can't see past your own problems. You aren't if you are more concerned about your own national pride than you are about freedom at home and around the world. Start standing up for your fellow human beings, and stop limiting yourself by your national pride or shame. I don't know about you, but my nationality is human being.
"whether the release will [a]ffect PC sales, peripherals ... or even Microsoft."\
I've paid for all the music on my iPod. It's all on the up and up. I've purchased a good portion of it through the iTunes Store.
If I had known that instead of valuing me as a customer they would treat me as just another "pirate", I wouldn't have paid for any of this shit.
And now they want to tax good paying customers like me for migrating to the latest platform?
Fuck you. Why don't I just pirate it from now on if it's all the same to you?