in fact I'd think a game where you have to perform the perfect murder would be interesting
That's why we have Thief, Hitman, Assassin's Creed etc. "Johnny invites his neighbour to dinner so he can murder him" does sound a bit sick. At least assassins are doing it for money.
German physicists say they can trick a pair of cobalt atoms into thinking they are in a hexagonal close packing structure by bonding them to a hexagonal carbon ring such as graphene or benzene
I have a friend who was tricked into thinking he was a hexagonal close packing structure after spending a bit too much time around benzene.
Frustrating for some, enjoyable for others. Most people are quite resistant to change by the time they reach 'maturity', but in the end it is change/variety that keeps life interesting.
I suppose the reason is that those who mature quicker will reproduce faster.. and when the older ones die off it gives the younger ones more resources to survive? If they could understand the genetics involved here, it would be a very good base for a race of 'superhumans'. There would probably have to be strict laws on reproducing though, and unfortunately it probably won't be developed properly anytime soon. Even if we cracked the technical problems, social/political factors would probably ensure that only the rich can afford it.. though if you're going to live for thousands of years it's probably worth taking out a massive loan to pay for the procedure!
Why do you think that Jesus' brothers were meant to be gods too? The whole idea is that God was Jesus' father and Mary was his mother. The rest of Jesus' siblings were 100% human via Joseph and Mary.
While the OT may call the angels sons of God, it's not in the same way that Christians believe Jesus is the son of God.
Yes I have read the old testament twice and the new testament countless times. And no, I don't believe in it anymore.
Well, it could mean "not around my back yard" which is even more accurate since most likely people will not have them forcibly installed right in their back yards.
Also it works well with the phrase "namby pamby", ie pansy/wuss-like.
I can't always tell when my wife has her belt on in the car when I'm sitting next to her (it blends in with the color of clothing she wears most frequently), how the fuck is the cop going to do so from afar?
Method 1: 12 foot rapidly inflatable monster that pops out of the road in front of you, causing you to freak out and slam on the brakes, or possibly just barrel into it?
What happens when all the burger flipping and other low paid jobs are already taken by "outsiders", as they seem to be more and more whenever I go to a supermarket or fast food place? I'm not really sure why but we seem to have had a large influx of Polish people here in Aberdeen*, and judging from some of the jokes on the TV news satire programs I watch (which is generally the only way I actually will actually find out about any news that I don't get via word of mouth or from slashdot) it is the same throughout most of the UK.
* We had a Polish engineer here at work for a year or so, our cleaner (at work, not at home!) is Polish, and every time I walk along the beach front there are Polish couples or groups chatting to each other. My flatmate was born and raised here in Scotland, but has a Polish surname because his grandfather came here from Poland. A couple of years ago while he was unemployed our local council actually tried to deport him until he proved that he really was a British citizen. Very strange..
I think that's partially because many of them don't get enough of a sense of accomplishment from the rest of their life. That's not universal, of course, but I've gone through a couple of low points in my life in which I fell into a bit of a game addiction. Life sucked; games gave me some small sense of accomplishment and let me be important/powerful somewhere to make up for what was missing elsewhere.
Definitely agree there - the times when I've really been into RPGs coincided with me trying to work myself out of some very low points in my life.
I don't think that everyone should use a social networking site as their only means of online communication, and if the sites interoperated with email and jabber etc it would definitely improve the situation for people like the question submitter. Still, each place has stuff to offer and can be worth joining depending on what you and your friends are looking for.
In that case, what does that say about a pedant of pedants?;)
I'm assuming I have hit a nerve, and it probably was you who picked up on me for being a pedant last time. It does seem a little strange to me that you are berating me for apparently trying to make myself seem smarter by pointing out others' errors, but I digress..
I haven't assumed that no extra meaning is possible. I have looked for the extra meaning and obviously figured the correct meaning probably within a tenth of a second as everyone else will have, buuuuut the sentence is quite simply wrong from a logical standpoint no matter how fuzzy you make the meaning of individual words. You would have to change or add words to have it make true sense. I just found it funny at first and assumed that all other slashdotters would too, but when someone was actually trying to defend it with a rather poor example I couldn't help but get involved. People shouldn't put so much effort into defending poor reporting.
Note that I don't take issue with poor communication to make myself feel smarter, not on a conscious level at least, perhaps I do have a need for that though (I certainly enjoy when my comments are modded up). I already know roughly how smart (and dumb) I am in most areas of my life. I don't correct most of my friends when they make grammatical or spelling errors. I know that most of them don't consider it important, and that some of them have problems with dyslexia or whatever. I'm not trying to be a dick and rub their faces in it.
I know that a couple of my friends actually appreciate me pointing out spelling mistakes, and others who I wouldn't usually correct directly ask me for spelling help because they know I'm a geek. I am one of those who prefers to have my spelling and grammar corrected if I am doing things wrong, especially if I'm getting them wrong consistently and it wasn't just an obvious typo or whatever. I like to do things properly where I can. Yes, I probably do have mental problems that sometimes result in me being overly picky. Yes, I probably have made mistakes in this post because I edit and re-edit sentences far too many times in my very poor attempts to keep things brief (hah).
Why do I have to play ten hours of a shitty single player to unlock a mode in Super Smash Bros.? Why are all of the good courses locked off until you sell your goddamn soul to the game?
With nothing to aim for or look forward to, life gets boring pretty quickly.
Imagine how much more enjoyment someone who had to work months/years to afford their car gets out of it than someone who was born into an incredibly rich family and has everything handed to them on a plate.
With Uncharted there were a lot of unlockables that I had fun with which would have made the game incredibly boring and easy if I had had them since the start of the game. I never activate the cheats on a game until I have completed it for example, but you strike me as someone who would just cheat as soon as you can so you can get to the "good" parts (maybe even one of those people who plays online games with cheats? What the hell is the point in that? I don't understand how it can be rewarding in the least, unless you get your jollies off on pissing people off).
I'm not saying that games should always operate like that, but it is a valid way of making you appreciate the rewards more. It probably will force you to explore elements that you otherwise would have missed, which in the long run will increase your enjoyment of the game ("kill 30 enemies with the grenade launcher" type stuff despite the fact that you usually would just not bother with that weapon, but it turns out to be good in this game, etc).
I generally agree with your last paragraph, was going to mention a couple of things but realised I do play devil's advocate far too much (as with my original comment, when I knew as I was typing that having to spend hours to get to an unlockable could cause you to dislike something you would have otherwise enjoyed if you build up too high expectations of how fun it's really going to be)..
Some scientists also believe that the technical hurdles to fusion have become more difficult to overcome
No matter how many times I read it, I can't picture it being fine. Without massaging the meaning in your head, it is like saying "some people also believe that it is getting more difficult to solve a Rubik's Cube" just because those people have never actually tried to solve one before. It's stupid.
If they said "some people believe that the remaining technical hurdles to fusion are more difficult to overcome" it would have been better, but without some input from a genius or a serious stroke of luck, that's what you'd expect anyway!
Fair enough, if the mini-game itself truly is that much fun. I guess I'm just wondering if the drudgery beforehand makes the game actually seem more fun whereas in reality the mini-game isn't much better than any other game, it only seems fun compared to the rest. I just don't know any games that have mini-games that are better than the actual game. Probably because I don't usually play games that take 25 hours of grinding to get anywhere, with the exception being a couple of MUDs and MapleStory.
You may find that the reward doesn't seem as valuable if you haven't had to spend 25 hours of your life working so hard just to get it.. of course, some games do take the grinding too far in an effort to make things more valuable, but there will always be plenty of unemployed or people or kids willing to waste their entire holidays to get something and then the developers have to make the next reward even more difficult to get to keep it rare/valuable..:s
These social networking sites give a much wider range of communication possibilities than email, and the only real way to do that easily is for some third party to run servers that host everything for you. The hard way is for everyone to have their own web server running an email server, webserver (for forums, blogs and pictures), and some instant messaging node based on an open standard. Social networking sites integrate all of these into one place. When it comes to staying in touch with friends, email is a pretty poor medium compared to all of that. Him forcing them back to email communication is very unlikely.
To me this is kind of like someone refusing to get a telephone when they can so easily write letters, or refuse to get email when they can telephone. I understand that he doesn't like that social networks are proprietary solutions that don't interact with each other, forcing you to one provider, but how else are you going to get all of that functionality without setting up all your friends with their own personal servers and a pain-free way to administer them? Maybe in 10 years everyone will have their own communication servers sold by Google and other companies, or some open standard will have sprung up to make social networking sites interoperable, and thus give some kind of element of choice that the GP seems to want, but I wouldn't put money on it.
I just realised actually, a useful feature to have on these sites would be to have an email address @ myspace/facebook/whatever. It seems strange that they don't already do this. You wouldn't want it enabled by default because of all the spam, but it would help almost-dinosaurs like this guy communicate with his friends, because these sites already have private messaging systems analogous to email.
Good thing that we pointed it out to them then.. just because you know what someone means doesn't mean that the original wording wasn't stupid. Yes, I'm a pedant.
Slashdot Mirror
in fact I'd think a game where you have to perform the perfect murder would be interesting
That's why we have Thief, Hitman, Assassin's Creed etc. "Johnny invites his neighbour to dinner so he can murder him" does sound a bit sick. At least assassins are doing it for money.
German physicists say they can trick a pair of cobalt atoms into thinking they are in a hexagonal close packing structure by bonding them to a hexagonal carbon ring such as graphene or benzene
I have a friend who was tricked into thinking he was a hexagonal close packing structure after spending a bit too much time around benzene.
It's such a crazy idea that it just might work! The laser won't even see it coming!
Frustrating for some, enjoyable for others. Most people are quite resistant to change by the time they reach 'maturity', but in the end it is change/variety that keeps life interesting.
I suppose the reason is that those who mature quicker will reproduce faster.. and when the older ones die off it gives the younger ones more resources to survive? If they could understand the genetics involved here, it would be a very good base for a race of 'superhumans'. There would probably have to be strict laws on reproducing though, and unfortunately it probably won't be developed properly anytime soon. Even if we cracked the technical problems, social/political factors would probably ensure that only the rich can afford it.. though if you're going to live for thousands of years it's probably worth taking out a massive loan to pay for the procedure!
Why do you think that Jesus' brothers were meant to be gods too? The whole idea is that God was Jesus' father and Mary was his mother. The rest of Jesus' siblings were 100% human via Joseph and Mary.
While the OT may call the angels sons of God, it's not in the same way that Christians believe Jesus is the son of God.
Yes I have read the old testament twice and the new testament countless times. And no, I don't believe in it anymore.
I fucking hate idiots.
Quite.
Well, it could mean "not around my back yard" which is even more accurate since most likely people will not have them forcibly installed right in their back yards.
Also it works well with the phrase "namby pamby", ie pansy/wuss-like.
Terminal* as in the end of the line (in this case, death).
*From the latin Terminae, meaning "cyborg sent from the future to destroy the leader of the resistance before he is ever born"
I can't always tell when my wife has her belt on in the car when I'm sitting next to her (it blends in with the color of clothing she wears most frequently), how the fuck is the cop going to do so from afar?
Method 1: 12 foot rapidly inflatable monster that pops out of the road in front of you, causing you to freak out and slam on the brakes, or possibly just barrel into it?
What happens when all the burger flipping and other low paid jobs are already taken by "outsiders", as they seem to be more and more whenever I go to a supermarket or fast food place? I'm not really sure why but we seem to have had a large influx of Polish people here in Aberdeen*, and judging from some of the jokes on the TV news satire programs I watch (which is generally the only way I actually will actually find out about any news that I don't get via word of mouth or from slashdot) it is the same throughout most of the UK.
* We had a Polish engineer here at work for a year or so, our cleaner (at work, not at home!) is Polish, and every time I walk along the beach front there are Polish couples or groups chatting to each other. My flatmate was born and raised here in Scotland, but has a Polish surname because his grandfather came here from Poland. A couple of years ago while he was unemployed our local council actually tried to deport him until he proved that he really was a British citizen. Very strange..
Everything was going so well until I found out she enjoys creating entirely flash-based websites.. *sob*
I think that's partially because many of them don't get enough of a sense of accomplishment from the rest of their life. That's not universal, of course, but I've gone through a couple of low points in my life in which I fell into a bit of a game addiction. Life sucked; games gave me some small sense of accomplishment and let me be important/powerful somewhere to make up for what was missing elsewhere.
Definitely agree there - the times when I've really been into RPGs coincided with me trying to work myself out of some very low points in my life.
I don't think that everyone should use a social networking site as their only means of online communication, and if the sites interoperated with email and jabber etc it would definitely improve the situation for people like the question submitter. Still, each place has stuff to offer and can be worth joining depending on what you and your friends are looking for.
Google - nicer than most of those other bastards.
I do really hate when that happens.
In that case, what does that say about a pedant of pedants? ;)
I'm assuming I have hit a nerve, and it probably was you who picked up on me for being a pedant last time. It does seem a little strange to me that you are berating me for apparently trying to make myself seem smarter by pointing out others' errors, but I digress..
I haven't assumed that no extra meaning is possible. I have looked for the extra meaning and obviously figured the correct meaning probably within a tenth of a second as everyone else will have, buuuuut the sentence is quite simply wrong from a logical standpoint no matter how fuzzy you make the meaning of individual words. You would have to change or add words to have it make true sense. I just found it funny at first and assumed that all other slashdotters would too, but when someone was actually trying to defend it with a rather poor example I couldn't help but get involved. People shouldn't put so much effort into defending poor reporting.
Note that I don't take issue with poor communication to make myself feel smarter, not on a conscious level at least, perhaps I do have a need for that though (I certainly enjoy when my comments are modded up). I already know roughly how smart (and dumb) I am in most areas of my life. I don't correct most of my friends when they make grammatical or spelling errors. I know that most of them don't consider it important, and that some of them have problems with dyslexia or whatever. I'm not trying to be a dick and rub their faces in it.
I know that a couple of my friends actually appreciate me pointing out spelling mistakes, and others who I wouldn't usually correct directly ask me for spelling help because they know I'm a geek. I am one of those who prefers to have my spelling and grammar corrected if I am doing things wrong, especially if I'm getting them wrong consistently and it wasn't just an obvious typo or whatever. I like to do things properly where I can. Yes, I probably do have mental problems that sometimes result in me being overly picky. Yes, I probably have made mistakes in this post because I edit and re-edit sentences far too many times in my very poor attempts to keep things brief (hah).
Why do I have to play ten hours of a shitty single player to unlock a mode in Super Smash Bros.? Why are all of the good courses locked off until you sell your goddamn soul to the game?
With nothing to aim for or look forward to, life gets boring pretty quickly.
Imagine how much more enjoyment someone who had to work months/years to afford their car gets out of it than someone who was born into an incredibly rich family and has everything handed to them on a plate.
With Uncharted there were a lot of unlockables that I had fun with which would have made the game incredibly boring and easy if I had had them since the start of the game. I never activate the cheats on a game until I have completed it for example, but you strike me as someone who would just cheat as soon as you can so you can get to the "good" parts (maybe even one of those people who plays online games with cheats? What the hell is the point in that? I don't understand how it can be rewarding in the least, unless you get your jollies off on pissing people off).
I'm not saying that games should always operate like that, but it is a valid way of making you appreciate the rewards more. It probably will force you to explore elements that you otherwise would have missed, which in the long run will increase your enjoyment of the game ("kill 30 enemies with the grenade launcher" type stuff despite the fact that you usually would just not bother with that weapon, but it turns out to be good in this game, etc).
I generally agree with your last paragraph, was going to mention a couple of things but realised I do play devil's advocate far too much (as with my original comment, when I knew as I was typing that having to spend hours to get to an unlockable could cause you to dislike something you would have otherwise enjoyed if you build up too high expectations of how fun it's really going to be)..
Some scientists also believe that the technical hurdles to fusion have become more difficult to overcome
No matter how many times I read it, I can't picture it being fine. Without massaging the meaning in your head, it is like saying "some people also believe that it is getting more difficult to solve a Rubik's Cube" just because those people have never actually tried to solve one before. It's stupid.
If they said "some people believe that the remaining technical hurdles to fusion are more difficult to overcome" it would have been better, but without some input from a genius or a serious stroke of luck, that's what you'd expect anyway!
Fair enough, if the mini-game itself truly is that much fun. I guess I'm just wondering if the drudgery beforehand makes the game actually seem more fun whereas in reality the mini-game isn't much better than any other game, it only seems fun compared to the rest. I just don't know any games that have mini-games that are better than the actual game. Probably because I don't usually play games that take 25 hours of grinding to get anywhere, with the exception being a couple of MUDs and MapleStory.
Thankfully you can also block notifications from applications like Mafia Wars, or even notifications from certain people entirely IIRC :)
Laudable actually means praiseworthy btw, I'm guessing you meant laughable.
That would be too easy.
You may find that the reward doesn't seem as valuable if you haven't had to spend 25 hours of your life working so hard just to get it.. of course, some games do take the grinding too far in an effort to make things more valuable, but there will always be plenty of unemployed or people or kids willing to waste their entire holidays to get something and then the developers have to make the next reward even more difficult to get to keep it rare/valuable.. :s
These social networking sites give a much wider range of communication possibilities than email, and the only real way to do that easily is for some third party to run servers that host everything for you. The hard way is for everyone to have their own web server running an email server, webserver (for forums, blogs and pictures), and some instant messaging node based on an open standard. Social networking sites integrate all of these into one place. When it comes to staying in touch with friends, email is a pretty poor medium compared to all of that. Him forcing them back to email communication is very unlikely.
To me this is kind of like someone refusing to get a telephone when they can so easily write letters, or refuse to get email when they can telephone. I understand that he doesn't like that social networks are proprietary solutions that don't interact with each other, forcing you to one provider, but how else are you going to get all of that functionality without setting up all your friends with their own personal servers and a pain-free way to administer them? Maybe in 10 years everyone will have their own communication servers sold by Google and other companies, or some open standard will have sprung up to make social networking sites interoperable, and thus give some kind of element of choice that the GP seems to want, but I wouldn't put money on it.
I just realised actually, a useful feature to have on these sites would be to have an email address @ myspace/facebook/whatever. It seems strange that they don't already do this. You wouldn't want it enabled by default because of all the spam, but it would help almost-dinosaurs like this guy communicate with his friends, because these sites already have private messaging systems analogous to email.
Good thing that we pointed it out to them then.. just because you know what someone means doesn't mean that the original wording wasn't stupid. Yes, I'm a pedant.