I'm trying to find the part of your post that has any logical opposition to my point about cynicism usually being correct. I suppose everyone has to fail from time to time, including myself.
Deus ex machina is harder to define in sci-fi works. When the protagonists literally use a machine to resolve the central conflicts of the plot, does that count, or is it only when the solution was painfully obvious from the start? Crichton's Prey is a good example of this gray area.
Remember the lesson of the 90's, the decade in which Bill Clinton gave this country what no Republican President ever really could: A Republican Congress. Does anyone have a good chart of changes in the House and Senate graphed against changes in the White House? I wanted to make one when I got to work this morning, and then forgot, but now I remembered. Save me the effort if you've already done it. =)
This election was different from the last for me because I didn't feel dirty voting for the candidate I voted for, and I would not have felt dirty voting for the other one. In 2004, I didn't vote in the Presidential election because I would have felt dirty voting for either one.
As an American, speaking to a Canadian, let me say that I hope that Obama's healthcare plan works as well as he hopes without the adverse effects that many foresee, especially those who have Canadian friends who come to the US to see doctors without having to wait. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot longer trip, Mr. Canadian, to get to a doctor. As with every new President in my lifetime, I hope for the best but expect much less.
What are the actual numbers? An orbital telescope doesn't burn fuel while it's up there the way a 747 does, and it can take pictures continuously while it's up. But a 747 doesn't need a manned orbital flight to make repairs the way an orbital telescope does and doesn't even need repairs when unused the way an orbital telescope does. I'm sure that this weighs in favor of the 747 method, but by how much?
Your drink doesn't have $10 million worth of shock-mounting. But even so, I'm curious about the same thing, as there is simply no way that this can compete with an orbital telescope as far as a smooth ride goes.
I couldn't resist the reference given the parent's sig. I also want to see Rock Band: Def Leppard. Not because I like Def Leppard, but because I want to see some Rock Band fanatics tying an arm behind their backs, or cutting it off if they're hardcore.;)
The problem is that there are many people who will pay $40 for the bundle even though they only want, say, half the songs. The middle ground leaves that money on the table. Probably the right thing to do is the same thing that restaurants do: You can get an 8oz. drink for $1.00, a 16oz. drink for $1.50, and a 32oz. drink for $2.00, for instance. Why not sell individual songs for $4, the 8 most popular of them for $25, and all 18 for $40, or something like that, to capture both the people who will pay $40 for the full bundle and the people who won't pay $40 just to get the half of it they like?
Then again, I am a mere hourly servant and do not know the first thing about economics, marketing, or the video game industry. Okay, maybe I know the first thing about one of those, but that's it.
One likes to believe in the freedom of music, eh? The question is whether they make more money selling $40 units to fewer people or $2.25 x [1,18] units to more people. I don't know what all AC/DC songs are on the Rock Band game, but here's my guess: If they sold individual tracks, everyone would buy the songs he or she was already familiar with, meaning for most Rock Band players only a couple of songs like You Shook Me All Night Long and Highway to Hell. The only way to sell such people songs like Ride On or Givin' the Dog a Bone is to sell a monolithic game.
Shockingly enough, that even applies to the 80's. If the 80's can have a later reputation for being full of great bands, then no decade is really in danger in those terms. It's mostly a question of what the next generation is exposed to - do their parents play a lot of Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, or will the kids get exposed to actual talent? I have good taste in music despite my mother's bad taste when she was my age, but a lot of that may come from my father so I can't be sure if there are other avenues that my own children would have if I didn't have an unending playlist of good music for them to learn from.
If it wouldn't turn into an impermissible literacy test or be unconstitutional for other reasons, I would be a huge fan of presenting people with an introductory question or a battery of them to test their ability to make proper selections, and discard ballots that get those questions wrong.
1. Are you eligible to vote in this election?
2. Do you intend to vote in this election?
3. Do you understand how to vote in this election?
4. Are you just saying that because you are too arrogant or ashamed to ask for help?
5. Who is the current, sitting President of the United States of America? [Choices would, this time around, be "George W. Bush", "Ralph Nader", and "Jefferson Davis".]
Really, though, pedantry shouldn't be necessary. It's voting. There are challenges in doing it accurately, even today, to the extent that anyone who argues that the electoral college is obsolete on the grounds that accurately counting votes is no longer a problem is wrong. (The other arguments against it are not subject to this point, of course.)
But even with those challenges, it's voting. How hard can this be? What solutions are there to the problem of people who are too prideful to ask for help when they don't understand how to vote? Surely something is possible.
It has the added bonus of people knowing how to use those damn things.
Hello, and welcome to Humanity! You appear to be new here. Please take a complementary copy of our informational brochure, entitled Everyone Else Is An Idiot Who Cannot Be Trusted, Until Proven Otherwise. We hope you enjoy your stay!
Devil's Advocate time: How can you color in a polygonal box with a pencil and not create at least two intersecting line segments in the process? The only way I can think of is what an SAT book I read back in the day called "the moron dot method," in its chapter of how to most efficiently fill in the bubbles on the answer sheet. This method involved stabbing dots into the bubble until it was filled. So, unless people did that or the voting boxes were elliptical (including circular), then coloring them in almost certainly involved drawing in two line segments.
That aside, I agree. You can't make any interface idiot-proof, because the world will just give you a better idiot.
Which Death Star? I can see Halliburton doing the first one, but after the Empire stopped making payments at the end of A New Hope, I just don't see it being characteristic of their business strategy to build the second one.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm trying to find the part of your post that has any logical opposition to my point about cynicism usually being correct. I suppose everyone has to fail from time to time, including myself.
Intelligent people tend to be cynics. This is not because intelligence causes cynicism. It's just because cynicism is usually correct.
Deus ex machina is harder to define in sci-fi works. When the protagonists literally use a machine to resolve the central conflicts of the plot, does that count, or is it only when the solution was painfully obvious from the start? Crichton's Prey is a good example of this gray area.
Remember the lesson of the 90's, the decade in which Bill Clinton gave this country what no Republican President ever really could: A Republican Congress. Does anyone have a good chart of changes in the House and Senate graphed against changes in the White House? I wanted to make one when I got to work this morning, and then forgot, but now I remembered. Save me the effort if you've already done it. =)
There is, of course, an xkcd on point.
This election was different from the last for me because I didn't feel dirty voting for the candidate I voted for, and I would not have felt dirty voting for the other one. In 2004, I didn't vote in the Presidential election because I would have felt dirty voting for either one.
As an American, speaking to a Canadian, let me say that I hope that Obama's healthcare plan works as well as he hopes without the adverse effects that many foresee, especially those who have Canadian friends who come to the US to see doctors without having to wait. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot longer trip, Mr. Canadian, to get to a doctor. As with every new President in my lifetime, I hope for the best but expect much less.
It's a truly self-sustaining economy. Those filthy Patagonians beat us to it!
What are the actual numbers? An orbital telescope doesn't burn fuel while it's up there the way a 747 does, and it can take pictures continuously while it's up. But a 747 doesn't need a manned orbital flight to make repairs the way an orbital telescope does and doesn't even need repairs when unused the way an orbital telescope does. I'm sure that this weighs in favor of the 747 method, but by how much?
Your drink doesn't have $10 million worth of shock-mounting. But even so, I'm curious about the same thing, as there is simply no way that this can compete with an orbital telescope as far as a smooth ride goes.
I couldn't resist the reference given the parent's sig. I also want to see Rock Band: Def Leppard. Not because I like Def Leppard, but because I want to see some Rock Band fanatics tying an arm behind their backs, or cutting it off if they're hardcore. ;)
The problem is that there are many people who will pay $40 for the bundle even though they only want, say, half the songs. The middle ground leaves that money on the table. Probably the right thing to do is the same thing that restaurants do: You can get an 8oz. drink for $1.00, a 16oz. drink for $1.50, and a 32oz. drink for $2.00, for instance. Why not sell individual songs for $4, the 8 most popular of them for $25, and all 18 for $40, or something like that, to capture both the people who will pay $40 for the full bundle and the people who won't pay $40 just to get the half of it they like?
Then again, I am a mere hourly servant and do not know the first thing about economics, marketing, or the video game industry. Okay, maybe I know the first thing about one of those, but that's it.
One likes to believe in the freedom of music, eh? The question is whether they make more money selling $40 units to fewer people or $2.25 x [1,18] units to more people. I don't know what all AC/DC songs are on the Rock Band game, but here's my guess: If they sold individual tracks, everyone would buy the songs he or she was already familiar with, meaning for most Rock Band players only a couple of songs like You Shook Me All Night Long and Highway to Hell. The only way to sell such people songs like Ride On or Givin' the Dog a Bone is to sell a monolithic game.
Hey Jude: Back in the USSR, all you need is love in a Yellow Submarine.
Just so long as I don't have to marry a tuneless cow and then get shot in the back...
On Beginner mode, you only have to do half of those things.
Shockingly enough, that even applies to the 80's. If the 80's can have a later reputation for being full of great bands, then no decade is really in danger in those terms. It's mostly a question of what the next generation is exposed to - do their parents play a lot of Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus, or will the kids get exposed to actual talent? I have good taste in music despite my mother's bad taste when she was my age, but a lot of that may come from my father so I can't be sure if there are other avenues that my own children would have if I didn't have an unending playlist of good music for them to learn from.
If it wouldn't turn into an impermissible literacy test or be unconstitutional for other reasons, I would be a huge fan of presenting people with an introductory question or a battery of them to test their ability to make proper selections, and discard ballots that get those questions wrong.
1. Are you eligible to vote in this election?
2. Do you intend to vote in this election?
3. Do you understand how to vote in this election?
4. Are you just saying that because you are too arrogant or ashamed to ask for help?
5. Who is the current, sitting President of the United States of America? [Choices would, this time around, be "George W. Bush", "Ralph Nader", and "Jefferson Davis".]
Really, though, pedantry shouldn't be necessary. It's voting. There are challenges in doing it accurately, even today, to the extent that anyone who argues that the electoral college is obsolete on the grounds that accurately counting votes is no longer a problem is wrong. (The other arguments against it are not subject to this point, of course.)
But even with those challenges, it's voting. How hard can this be? What solutions are there to the problem of people who are too prideful to ask for help when they don't understand how to vote? Surely something is possible.
Hello, and welcome to Humanity! You appear to be new here. Please take a complementary copy of our informational brochure, entitled Everyone Else Is An Idiot Who Cannot Be Trusted, Until Proven Otherwise. We hope you enjoy your stay!
Well, the math symbols didn't work in the comment box, so I have to write this out in pseudocode instead:
!exist(x,x.is_right_candidate) implies forall(x,x.is_wrong_candidate)
Devil's Advocate time: How can you color in a polygonal box with a pencil and not create at least two intersecting line segments in the process? The only way I can think of is what an SAT book I read back in the day called "the moron dot method," in its chapter of how to most efficiently fill in the bubbles on the answer sheet. This method involved stabbing dots into the bubble until it was filled. So, unless people did that or the voting boxes were elliptical (including circular), then coloring them in almost certainly involved drawing in two line segments.
That aside, I agree. You can't make any interface idiot-proof, because the world will just give you a better idiot.
A car battery? Real men wear wool socks and use static electricity.
I thought xubuntu was aimed at people who like XFCE. Oops.
Which Death Star? I can see Halliburton doing the first one, but after the Empire stopped making payments at the end of A New Hope, I just don't see it being characteristic of their business strategy to build the second one.
What is it about what you are doing that makes you think you are safe with respect to copyright issues?