Many people are defending Blizzard's actions based on the principle that it is a private company, with private servers, that people choose to play on, and therefore Blizzard has a right to enforce whatever rules they wish to. My thought on this is that just because one has the right to limit freedoms in their private sphere of influence (in this case in a virtual world), doesn't mean that commonly held rights shouldn't be extended into that sphere as much as possible. I argue that one should err on the side of freedom, and that includes the freedom of association. Blizzard is erring on the side of restriction.
I swear if I hear someone invoke Moore's Law one more time I'll shoot myself in the head. I study electrical engineering and half our seminars start with someone mentioning or explaining in detail, Moore's Law. Always with the damn chart too.
"Memory becomes more dense as time progresses, it's Moore's Law!" "Wasn't Moore a genius to roughly predict the pace of the increasing density of memory? Wasn't he?" "Have you heard about Moore's Law? It predicts the pace of memory density increase."
I don't think that a ranked military themed MMORPG (Star Trek or otherwise) would work. For one, I wouldn't want to play a game where I had to take orders from some 13 year old suburban idiot. I could see a multiplayer game where one person was the chief engineer, another was helmsman, etc. were you had short rounds of combat, that would actually be unique and fun. But how do you handle a game were people log on and log off all the time? What if the helmsman's girlfriend is demanding he spend time with her, or if the Captain's mommy says it's bedtime, what then? Open-ended fantasy games of small, leaderless groups performing quests is a natural setting for a constantly flowing MMORPG, that's why there are so many of them (too many of them probably.) A universe in which you are a member of a military organization and are expected to follow orders would be problematic.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. This is the way I see it:
1. Blizzard has a rule against harrassment of people based on sexual orientation. (great)
2. A guild recruits, essentially emphasizing this rule by saying that guild members cannot break Blizzard's rule about harrassment. (fine, no problem right?)
3. Blizzard punishes the guild based on the rule the guild wants to enforce. (Wha?)
A lot of people that have posted have constructed the classic strawman of "whites-only" membership and the like. Read the article! The recruitment refered to the guild as "GLBT friendly" not "GLBT only". Your strawman is irrelevant.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Japanese obsession with humanoid robots? Say it isn't so! All they will have left is panty vending machines and Boong-Ga Boong-Ga to keep them entertained.
I agree that this more offensive part of his proposal is the abortion tax, but that's not really Slashdot-worthy. This does however expose how seemingly unrelated issues (video game censorship and women's rights) aren't so unrelated at all.
I think the content of what Stallman says, and the content of the GPLv3 should be judged independently of the man himself. You are free to be wary of this content, based on your judgement of his character, but rejecting it for this reason alone is unreasonable. Great people can do terrible things, and flawed people can do great things. It is the things that matter in the end.
You forgot where this was developed: Japan. First step in the Japanese engineering design process is to answer the question: "Can we build a robot to do it?"
What pisses me off is that even PBS's Frontline can only be watched online as streaming WindowsMedia or RealPlayer video. So much for "public" television.
The author made reference to the mythological "McDonald's Coffee" case as an example of a frivolous lawsuit. As hopefully more and more people know, the lawsuit was anything but frivolous:
He also incorrectly states that the plaintiffs won in their lawsuit against McDonald's for the fat content of their food. The fact is that the judge threw the case out:
World of Warcraft is boring (visually) because all the male characters look like all the other male characters. There is no customization of body shape within a race/sex combo. One of my pet peeves about the game. The article got it wrong on that point as well when it referred to WoW. I suppose if you factor in different races there is that level of customizability.
There is even a self-depricating/joke in the game that female humans tell that references their similarity.
I was on a jury once in a questionable civil case about a minor car accident that happed 3 years prior to the trial. We awarded the plaintiff ~$11,000 which was well short of the $2 mil that was asked for by her attorney. Basically we decided that there was some culpability, but the $11,000 was probably not even enough for attorney's fees. Even that would have been covered by the defendant's insurance. So the plaintiff "won", but not really.
You forgot to mention that the first car costs money, and you essentially have to buy a new one when the company decides it is time. The second car is free and you can exchange it or get a new one at no cost. That's my kind of car!
There are only two X's in this product name. I refuse to buy a video card that only has two X's in it's model number. Give it a name like "ATI XXL 81200X XP X-Treme Edition" and I'll consider forking over my money.
Slashdot Mirror
Many people are defending Blizzard's actions based on the principle that it is a private company, with private servers, that people choose to play on, and therefore Blizzard has a right to enforce whatever rules they wish to. My thought on this is that just because one has the right to limit freedoms in their private sphere of influence (in this case in a virtual world), doesn't mean that commonly held rights shouldn't be extended into that sphere as much as possible. I argue that one should err on the side of freedom, and that includes the freedom of association. Blizzard is erring on the side of restriction.
I swear if I hear someone invoke Moore's Law one more time I'll shoot myself in the head. I study electrical engineering and half our seminars start with someone mentioning or explaining in detail, Moore's Law. Always with the damn chart too.
"Memory becomes more dense as time progresses, it's Moore's Law!"
"Wasn't Moore a genius to roughly predict the pace of the increasing density of memory? Wasn't he?"
"Have you heard about Moore's Law? It predicts the pace of memory density increase."
Ahhhhh!
I don't think that a ranked military themed MMORPG (Star Trek or otherwise) would work. For one, I wouldn't want to play a game where I had to take orders from some 13 year old suburban idiot. I could see a multiplayer game where one person was the chief engineer, another was helmsman, etc. were you had short rounds of combat, that would actually be unique and fun. But how do you handle a game were people log on and log off all the time? What if the helmsman's girlfriend is demanding he spend time with her, or if the Captain's mommy says it's bedtime, what then? Open-ended fantasy games of small, leaderless groups performing quests is a natural setting for a constantly flowing MMORPG, that's why there are so many of them (too many of them probably.) A universe in which you are a member of a military organization and are expected to follow orders would be problematic.
I think you hit the nail on the head there. This is the way I see it:
1. Blizzard has a rule against harrassment of people based on sexual orientation. (great)
2. A guild recruits, essentially emphasizing this rule by saying that guild members cannot break Blizzard's rule about harrassment. (fine, no problem right?)
3. Blizzard punishes the guild based on the rule the guild wants to enforce. (Wha?)
A lot of people that have posted have constructed the classic strawman of "whites-only" membership and the like. Read the article! The recruitment refered to the guild as "GLBT friendly" not "GLBT only". Your strawman is irrelevant.
Is this the beginning of the end for the Japanese obsession with humanoid robots? Say it isn't so! All they will have left is panty vending machines and Boong-Ga Boong-Ga to keep them entertained.
MOD PARENT +1 CUTE!
I agree that this more offensive part of his proposal is the abortion tax, but that's not really Slashdot-worthy. This does however expose how seemingly unrelated issues (video game censorship and women's rights) aren't so unrelated at all.
If I didn't see those ?'s, "'s, and that > in your post, I would have assumed your shift keys were broken.
Both Maple and Matlab are available for the Linux platform. I personally run Matlab R14 on my Ubuntu installation.
I think the content of what Stallman says, and the content of the GPLv3 should be judged independently of the man himself. You are free to be wary of this content, based on your judgement of his character, but rejecting it for this reason alone is unreasonable. Great people can do terrible things, and flawed people can do great things. It is the things that matter in the end.
You forgot where this was developed: Japan. First step in the Japanese engineering design process is to answer the question: "Can we build a robot to do it?"
What pisses me off is that even PBS's Frontline can only be watched online as streaming WindowsMedia or RealPlayer video. So much for "public" television.
Somebody needs a nap.
Yes, but Linux won't charge you 12 times for the same OS like Microsoft would.
Add me to the chorus of folks who could read that almost effortlessly. How bizarre.
The author made reference to the mythological "McDonald's Coffee" case as an example of a frivolous lawsuit. As hopefully more and more people know, the lawsuit was anything but frivolous:
/ articles.cfm?ID=785
8 8000/2688065.stm
http://www.citizen.org/congress/civjus/tort/myths
He also incorrectly states that the plaintiffs won in their lawsuit against McDonald's for the fat content of their food. The fact is that the judge threw the case out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/world/newsid_26
...or an unwitting victim of someone who fits that description.
Keith Richards?
Linus:Gnome/KDE::Bill O'Reilly:Holidays/Christmas
World of Warcraft is boring (visually) because all the male characters look like all the other male characters. There is no customization of body shape within a race/sex combo. One of my pet peeves about the game. The article got it wrong on that point as well when it referred to WoW. I suppose if you factor in different races there is that level of customizability.
/joke in the game that female humans tell that references their similarity.
There is even a self-depricating
For the unethical demeaning of our fine institution, in this post, on a website of ill repute, you are hereby suspended from this University!
Wait, did you say you already left?
Sincerely,
The High Holy Dental Commission of Marquette University
I was on a jury once in a questionable civil case about a minor car accident that happed 3 years prior to the trial. We awarded the plaintiff ~$11,000 which was well short of the $2 mil that was asked for by her attorney. Basically we decided that there was some culpability, but the $11,000 was probably not even enough for attorney's fees. Even that would have been covered by the defendant's insurance. So the plaintiff "won", but not really.
You forgot to mention that the first car costs money, and you essentially have to buy a new one when the company decides it is time. The second car is free and you can exchange it or get a new one at no cost. That's my kind of car!
No, he has been watching Battlestar Galactica, specificially the pilot episode and and the second season premiere.
There are only two X's in this product name. I refuse to buy a video card that only has two X's in it's model number. Give it a name like "ATI XXL 81200X XP X-Treme Edition" and I'll consider forking over my money.