When you sue for punitive damages, you want an award that will hurt the company you're suing. That's the whole intent of most lawsuits: send a message saying "We will hurt you if you hurt us". $5,000,000,000 is a hefty chunk of change for Microsoft. A smaller company would almost certainly be hit with a smaller lawsuit.
Don't take this as a troll or flamebait--not my intent. I am honestly curious.
I only played Thief a little bit and found it boring. I'd be interested, seriously, to know why you find it more influential--whatever that might mean--than, say, Wolf3D or Doom (or whatever you'd take off the list to make room for Thief). What subsequent games has it had an effect on?
Yeah, I was playing Maze Wars+ on the Macintosh in '88. MW looks like it was a port or an outright rip-off of Midi Maze, at least based on the screen shot from gamecenter. I have never thought about it as a first-person shooter...but of course, it was.
The thing is, doesn't "influential" mean "people played it"? Being completely honest with myself, I'm not too entirely sure that anybody besides me and my roommate played Maze Wars. Not too sure how influential that makes it.
Personally, the Realms of Despair MUD was the most addicting game I've ever been a part of. I went through about a year when it was a second full-time job--more than full-time, in fact, it was like having a second job that you worked 60 hours a week at. Seriously; most weekdays I was on for about eight hours--including some at my regular, paying job, and all day Saturday and Sunday.
There has never, ever been anything that I've played as long or as intensely. I almost got sucked in again recently. It took a tremendous effort to pull myself away--in fact it took my wife saying "I'm not going to put up with this again" to do it. (This after I had put in several entire days at work and hours at home playing.)
Oh man, we *still* throw that one around in my circle of friends. "Here's to us! Who's like us? Damn few! And they're all dead!" Or whatever that toast was.
I played "Return to Zork" over and over again just to see Rebecca Snoot. *sigh*
(Ooh, how about: "Go AWAY! I haven't got anything FORRRR yeh! I've only got ONE milk cow, an' SHE only eats CARROTS! So just go AWAY!")
I don't know Latin, and it hasn't hurt. It is one of the more insane inflected languages, though. Too damn many cases--although I will say this: each one makes absolutely perfect damn sense. Or at least the ones that I know about do. It might help, though--with all of those cases, you'll be able to relate what you learn in other languages to what you've already learned in Latin.
Personally, I think the more languages you *do* learn, regardless of what they are, the easier it becomes to pick up a new one, just because of the understanding you gain in learning a new grammar. For example, learning Russian reinforced my understanding of English, learning German reinforced my understanding of Russian and English, learning Hawaiian...well, okay, learning Hawaiian hasn't helped much:) No, I'm kidding about that.
In what wise do you find those languages difficult or easy? Maybe it depends on what your native language is, to a certain extent. For example, I found German to be a piece of cake after taking far too many years of Russian in school than I care to admit to (okay, it was six), and I can't imagine that any inflected language would be too difficult after learning Latin or Russian. Tonal languages, on the other hand--Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian--are a different beast altogether. I'd put them all at the "hard" end of the spectrum, especially with cultural differences thrown into the mix. But if your native language is tonal, then Japanese might really be easy.
I guess what I'm saying is that for me, I'd put Russian and Latin as hard, any tonal language as most difficult, and any Romance or Germanic language as easy, provided you know one of the hard ones.
It's my understanding that in this case, computer-generated doesn't mean "created entirely with Adobe Illustrator (or whatever)", it means either a.gif or a.jpeg *or* a composited image featuring, say, Haley Joel Osment's head next to a ten-foot-long johnson. In the case I spoke about below, we were talking gifs and jpegs.
The defendant was able to receive only probation, no jail time, even though he had hundreds of megs of kidporn on his computer.
Also "only appear to be of a minor" means that you have an 18-year-old who looks 12.
I don't think computer graphics comes into this, to be honest. At least, that's not the impression I get from reading the article.
I was involved (on the side of good) in a case where the defendant got off with one count of posession of child pornography even though he had hundreds of megs of images. The reason? "Computer-generated images" are not the same as pictures.
I'd have to say, if that kind of thing were prevented from ever happening again, that would be very very good.
I'd be interested to know if the book mentions Kilauea and Hawai'i Volcano National Park at all, since Kilauea is still active and has been in an eruption cycle for a long-ass time. I mean, sure, stuff blowing up is interesting, but I would think that it would be just as interesting to hear about studies being done on non-explosive volcanoes.
Re:"This is Unix! I KNOW this!"
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That's cool, I didn't know it was real(ish). Maybe I'll stop making fun of the scene now.
Well, maybe not.:) But seriously, that's pretty neat.
"This is Unix! I KNOW this!"
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God, that breaks me up every time I think about it. Hey, maybe they can try and get Hollywood to use this the next time they want to make a movie about "hackers". Then at least we'd be seeing something real.
All I can say is, you're a lucky bastard if it's true that you wouldn't have had to deal with the consequences. When I worked for a public school district, we were expected to support every single computer in the schools, no matter where it came from or who nominally owned it. Every time we refused to support something like this, word came down from on high: "Yes, you will."
Did it look to anyone else like Browne's answer to the trade question was just cut out of some Libertarian party document and pasted in there? It even had section headings.
Also, it seems to me like his trade arguments are wrong anyway. Japanese trade and investment was encouraged in Hawaii in the '80s, for example, and all it did was put most of the tourist industry into the hands of the Japanese and drive land prices through the roof. It basically ruined Hawaii's economy, and only now is it even attempting to rebound (and failing miserably, by all accounts).
Also, I'd like to know how the hell McReynolds can justify a 50% cut in defense spending when
There's not enough money to fund basic readiness now--planes sitting on runways for lack of spare parts, severely limited training budgets, poorly-paid soldiers, etc.
Congress seems to be only too happy to send the US armed forces pretty much anywhere to do pretty much anything.
Well, I don't remember what the POKEs do, but I do remember my old favorite SYS 64738, which does a reboot. I used to love to stick that into programs. Wrong password? REBOOT! Hee.
Hey, I was twelve.
Anyway, given the reboot, I'd bet that those commands can't be run that way.
and the ability to occasionally slack-off without
someone glaring at me for not 'looking busy'
Amen to that. My first job out of college was in a shipping/receiving department of a music store. Part of my job involved entering purchase orders into the receiving system. Apparently, even though I increased the department's throughput by about a third, I was 'never busy' and 'not working' when I was sitting at my desk entering p.o. information. (And let me mention that this was at a dumb terminal, so it's not like there was anything else I could be doing, like surfing for pr0n or something.)
Of course, it was far worse when the owner of the company told me, to my face, that I was lazy and that my race had something to do with it. I started my tech career not long after that.
See "The Trouble With Dilbert" by Solomon (I think that's the author's name). In a nutshell, the author's thesis is that having Dilbert to laugh at keeps workers in line, fostering, paradoxically, the same kinds of values it purports to reject.
Note that I'm not saying I agree or disagree with what Solomon has to say; it's an interesting book, though.
An algorithm, in any language, computer, human or otherwise, that causes the text "Hello World!", with or without a terminating null or carriage return, to be generated using any method of display or representation, including but not limited to synthesized or actual speech, videotext/CRT display, printed in any fashion available now or in the future, for the purpose of instructing students or professionals in basic or advanced features of said language, computer, human or otherwise. Patent shall not be limited to any currently existing language, computer, human, or otherwise, but shall extend forward to any language, computer, human or otherwise that shall be developed from here forward.
I think that Neville Chamberlain showed us a really, really great reason not to appease grabby dictators. Today, $5, tomorrow they're gonna want Poland and then watch the hell out.
They say it over and over again in the article, but I'm still skeptical: does this technology really make parts strong enough to be used in high-stress mechanical environments, like washing-machine parts or tank bogies or treads or whatever the example was? I didn't think sintered metal was that strong.
Well, the good thing about B:Y1 is that it is most certainly NOT about neon-pain and nipple costumes. IIRC, the costume is barely even in it, and when Bruce (or whoever) makes the first costume, it looks like a 12-year-old made it. So we'll be spared the S&M-fetish version of the Bat, at the very least.
Assuming that the album or albums in question sold enough that Hole is entitled to more royalties, yes, you're wrong.
In other words, artists are entitled to royalties beyond the advance, if there are any royalties to be had, just as they are liable to the record company for any deficit between the advance and the actual royalties.
By RIAA logic, any copied song or album is equal to one lost sale (never mind that that's in no way true). One lost sale means a few cents that the artist doesn't get, and a few dollars that the company doesn't get. So yeah, it seems logical that Universal's artists should have a share in the settlement, either reducing their deficit or increasing their profit.
I have records from these companies on my desk, and they're not on the RIAA membership list:
Poki Records
Roy Sakuma Productions
Four Strings Productions
Mountain Apple Company
Bluewater Records
So if you're into Hawaiian music, you might want to check out Tropical Disc. Most of the discs you can buy there are going to be from non-RIAA member labels. Beware of the Dancing Cat slack key records, though, since DC is an RIAA member.
And if you're not into Hawaiian music, now's the time.
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A computer-generated Keanu Reeves would almost certainly be a better actor than the real thing, so this might not be a bad idea at all.
It's the least we can do, if we're going to go to Mars!
When you sue for punitive damages, you want an award that will hurt the company you're suing. That's the whole intent of most lawsuits: send a message saying "We will hurt you if you hurt us". $5,000,000,000 is a hefty chunk of change for Microsoft. A smaller company would almost certainly be hit with a smaller lawsuit.
I only played Thief a little bit and found it boring. I'd be interested, seriously, to know why you find it more influential--whatever that might mean--than, say, Wolf3D or Doom (or whatever you'd take off the list to make room for Thief). What subsequent games has it had an effect on?
The thing is, doesn't "influential" mean "people played it"? Being completely honest with myself, I'm not too entirely sure that anybody besides me and my roommate played Maze Wars. Not too sure how influential that makes it.
There has never, ever been anything that I've played as long or as intensely. I almost got sucked in again recently. It took a tremendous effort to pull myself away--in fact it took my wife saying "I'm not going to put up with this again" to do it. (This after I had put in several entire days at work and hours at home playing.)
Nothing else comes close.
I played "Return to Zork" over and over again just to see Rebecca Snoot. *sigh*
(Ooh, how about: "Go AWAY! I haven't got anything FORRRR yeh! I've only got ONE milk cow, an' SHE only eats CARROTS! So just go AWAY!")
Personally, I think the more languages you *do* learn, regardless of what they are, the easier it becomes to pick up a new one, just because of the understanding you gain in learning a new grammar. For example, learning Russian reinforced my understanding of English, learning German reinforced my understanding of Russian and English, learning Hawaiian...well, okay, learning Hawaiian hasn't helped much :) No, I'm kidding about that.
In what wise do you find those languages difficult or easy? Maybe it depends on what your native language is, to a certain extent. For example, I found German to be a piece of cake after taking far too many years of Russian in school than I care to admit to (okay, it was six), and I can't imagine that any inflected language would be too difficult after learning Latin or Russian. Tonal languages, on the other hand--Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian--are a different beast altogether. I'd put them all at the "hard" end of the spectrum, especially with cultural differences thrown into the mix. But if your native language is tonal, then Japanese might really be easy.
I guess what I'm saying is that for me, I'd put Russian and Latin as hard, any tonal language as most difficult, and any Romance or Germanic language as easy, provided you know one of the hard ones.
IMNSHFO, of course.
Also "only appear to be of a minor" means that you have an 18-year-old who looks 12.
I don't think computer graphics comes into this, to be honest. At least, that's not the impression I get from reading the article.
I'd have to say, if that kind of thing were prevented from ever happening again, that would be very very good.
I'd be interested to know if the book mentions Kilauea and Hawai'i Volcano National Park at all, since Kilauea is still active and has been in an eruption cycle for a long-ass time. I mean, sure, stuff blowing up is interesting, but I would think that it would be just as interesting to hear about studies being done on non-explosive volcanoes.
Well, maybe not. :) But seriously, that's pretty neat.
God, that breaks me up every time I think about it. Hey, maybe they can try and get Hollywood to use this the next time they want to make a movie about "hackers". Then at least we'd be seeing something real.
All I can say is, you're a lucky bastard if it's true that you wouldn't have had to deal with the consequences. When I worked for a public school district, we were expected to support every single computer in the schools, no matter where it came from or who nominally owned it. Every time we refused to support something like this, word came down from on high: "Yes, you will."
Also, it seems to me like his trade arguments are wrong anyway. Japanese trade and investment was encouraged in Hawaii in the '80s, for example, and all it did was put most of the tourist industry into the hands of the Japanese and drive land prices through the roof. It basically ruined Hawaii's economy, and only now is it even attempting to rebound (and failing miserably, by all accounts).
Also, I'd like to know how the hell McReynolds can justify a 50% cut in defense spending when
Hey, I was twelve.
Anyway, given the reboot, I'd bet that those commands can't be run that way.
Amen to that. My first job out of college was in a shipping/receiving department of a music store. Part of my job involved entering purchase orders into the receiving system. Apparently, even though I increased the department's throughput by about a third, I was 'never busy' and 'not working' when I was sitting at my desk entering p.o. information. (And let me mention that this was at a dumb terminal, so it's not like there was anything else I could be doing, like surfing for pr0n or something.)
Of course, it was far worse when the owner of the company told me, to my face, that I was lazy and that my race had something to do with it. I started my tech career not long after that.
Note that I'm not saying I agree or disagree with what Solomon has to say; it's an interesting book, though.
An algorithm, in any language, computer, human or otherwise, that causes the text "Hello World!", with or without a terminating null or carriage return, to be generated using any method of display or representation, including but not limited to synthesized or actual speech, videotext/CRT display, printed in any fashion available now or in the future, for the purpose of instructing students or professionals in basic or advanced features of said language, computer, human or otherwise. Patent shall not be limited to any currently existing language, computer, human, or otherwise, but shall extend forward to any language, computer, human or otherwise that shall be developed from here forward.
How about 3D nethack or something?
Where's our Churchill?
'Cuz if it does, sign me up!
Well, the good thing about B:Y1 is that it is most certainly NOT about neon-pain and nipple costumes. IIRC, the costume is barely even in it, and when Bruce (or whoever) makes the first costume, it looks like a 12-year-old made it. So we'll be spared the S&M-fetish version of the Bat, at the very least.
Assuming that the album or albums in question sold enough that Hole is entitled to more royalties, yes, you're wrong.
In other words, artists are entitled to royalties beyond the advance, if there are any royalties to be had, just as they are liable to the record company for any deficit between the advance and the actual royalties.
By RIAA logic, any copied song or album is equal to one lost sale (never mind that that's in no way true). One lost sale means a few cents that the artist doesn't get, and a few dollars that the company doesn't get. So yeah, it seems logical that Universal's artists should have a share in the settlement, either reducing their deficit or increasing their profit.
Poki Records
Roy Sakuma Productions
Four Strings Productions
Mountain Apple Company
Bluewater Records
So if you're into Hawaiian music, you might want to check out Tropical Disc. Most of the discs you can buy there are going to be from non-RIAA member labels. Beware of the Dancing Cat slack key records, though, since DC is an RIAA member.
And if you're not into Hawaiian music, now's the time.