Richard Garfield, creator of M:tG, holds the American patent on collectible card games. I expect that WotC would get a cut of Pokemon's sales whether or not WotC is the American publisher.
This another indicator that M:tG is not a good example of the "Skaff Effect." It's hard to compete with a game publisher if you have to get that publisher's permission to create your own game with a similar mechanic.
A secure, private polling location is the only defense against vote coercion.
How secure would a woman's vote be if her husband is standing over her shoulder while she casts her ballot?
Suppose your employer set up a polling station in the office "for the convenience of his employees" and "strongly recommended" that you take advantage of this. Would you feel secure that this "polling station" wasn't recording your keystrokes for the PHB's examination?
Sorry, no. Internet voting cannot be made to work for reasons that are social rather than technological.
This seems like an easy way to introduce digital rights management between the CPU and the display: tell the consumer that DRM will make his devices more secure.
One error in the article: the Pokemon video game, in its many flavors, was not responsible for the "seizure" event. This actually occured during an airing of one of the television series episodes. See snopes for the details.
One of the first rules of a good UI is: don't surprise the user. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't want "exciting" or "radical" changes in their UI, because it would be confusing and create training issues.
Don't forget that the purpose of a UI is to help get stuff done. Adding eye candy or exciting widgets doesn't necessarily help that.
Although, like you, I feel the current "desktop" metaphor is limited, I haven't heard any useful suggestions of what could replace it. Perhaps the real limitation is not in software, but in hardware. What could replace the current monitor/keyboard/mouse configuration?
Please drop CLASH OF THE TITANS and replace with JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. The battle with the Children of the Hydra's Teeth still thrills me after all these years.
Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid that I was the only one who would think of this.
Re:Dr. Adder - Embarrasingly Bad
on
Noir
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· Score: 1
Do yourself a favor and don't read Dr. Adder. It's an extraordinarily poor novel which wasn't even fresh back in the 70's.
The most embarassing thing about the book is the author's deliberately daring effort to include a character who is *gasp* a homosexual. The revelation of the character's sexual preference is presented in a manner that suggests that the author found this shocking, even repulsive. A contemporary reader will be left wondering what the point was.
Anime is a medium, not a genre. Saying that "the entire Anime movement" (whatever *that* is) is driven by a desire to return to pre-Restoration feudalism is like saying that all American movies are Westerns. Certainly true in some cases; completely off the mark in others:
Serial Experiments Lain is a meditation on the nature of reality and godhood.
Cowboy Bebop is a noir-ish melodrama, akin to Hong Kong action theater.
Saber Marionette J is a sly reconsideration of the role of women in traditional Japanese society.
Oh My Goddess! is straight romantic comedy.
Princess Mononoke, for all that it's set during Japan's feudal era, is an essay on the inevitably uneasy relationship between Man and Nature.
The assertion that (salaryman == samurai), though widely believed in the West, is a shallow interpretation of a deep and complex culture. Good anime reflects many facets of that culture.
In the broadest sense, "fan service" is anything added to the story intended to please the fans without necessarily furthering the story. This could be an elaborate dogfight sequence, a pretty "magical girl" transformation or some gratuitous jiggle and bounce.
That said, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a special case. The point, often missed, is that the "fan service" aspect of the series one of the many anime cliches that the viewer is invited to re-consider.
Here's one of the potential problems with open-sourcing software: how many programmers write comments with an eye towards eventual publication?
While IANAL, I am a little anal, so today my comments are OK. But, in my early days, I left a few remarks in my programs that were never intended for eyes other than my own. Ie:
/* Yeah, yeah, I know this would be easier to code recursively, but none of the blockheads in IT understand the concept. */
Today, I wonder if I could get corporate sponsorship for my comments.
/* The following garbage collection routine is powered by *Starbucks*, purveyors of fine caffeinated beverages.*/
OK, I'm curious. If I develop a dialect of C or Java in Hebrew, does the order of evaluation of operators of equal precedence proceed from right-to-left or left-to-right?
I ask this because, from my experience with compiler construction, I believe that switching this around is somewhat more difficult than simply translating the reserved word list. Anyone have any experience with this?
Actually, neither my local telephone company nor my local electric company is a monopoly any more. My cable company will likely have to "open its wires" as well (assuming that DSL doesn't make the point moot).
As you noted, monopolies are granted by the government. When they've outlived their usefulness, they can be taken away by the government as well.
Smart guy. He's not someone I would fight for, except that all the engineers are there because of this guy, and he's got all the knowledge in his head.
Hmmm... let's see. The Chief Technology Officer understands the product. The guys in the know, the engineers, work for him because they respect him. He and his "worker bees" are the only reason that TriStrata has a product but he's not someone to fight for!
TriStrata convinced Benchmark to invest in the cryptographic equivalent of a perpetual motion machine, and no amount of input from the folks who actually understood the technology could divert them.
It frightens me, sometimes, realizing that the reigns of the "New Economy" are held by clueless wonders who imagine that every problem can be solved by handing out free pens and a warm handshake.
Slashdot Mirror
Richard Garfield, creator of M:tG, holds the American patent on collectible card games. I expect that WotC would get a cut of Pokemon's sales whether or not WotC is the American publisher.
This another indicator that M:tG is not a good example of the "Skaff Effect." It's hard to compete with a game publisher if you have to get that publisher's permission to create your own game with a similar mechanic.
"Larry! Put down the sheep and back away!"
Robotron! When I walked by the machine, it would say, "Coin detected in pocket!" and of course I would have to play.
Internet voting is an intrinsically bad idea.
A secure, private polling location is the only defense against vote coercion.
How secure would a woman's vote be if her husband is standing over her shoulder while she casts her ballot?
Suppose your employer set up a polling station in the office "for the convenience of his employees" and "strongly recommended" that you take advantage of this. Would you feel secure that this "polling station" wasn't recording your keystrokes for the PHB's examination?
Sorry, no. Internet voting cannot be made to work for reasons that are social rather than technological.
If end users complained about "code bloat," would anyone buy MS Office?
"gdkpixbuf"
And if the developer says this backwards, he returns to the 5th dimension.
Be fair. If you were a Bush supporter, would you want people to know it?
This seems like an easy way to introduce digital rights management between the CPU and the display: tell the consumer that DRM will make his devices more secure.
Once you've built a time machine, you can go back in time and hand yourself the blueprints. Piece o' cake.
One of the first rules of a good UI is: don't surprise the user. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't want "exciting" or "radical" changes in their UI, because it would be confusing and create training issues.
Don't forget that the purpose of a UI is to help get stuff done. Adding eye candy or exciting widgets doesn't necessarily help that.
Although, like you, I feel the current "desktop" metaphor is limited, I haven't heard any useful suggestions of what could replace it. Perhaps the real limitation is not in software, but in hardware. What could replace the current monitor/keyboard/mouse configuration?
Please drop CLASH OF THE TITANS and replace with JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. The battle with the Children of the Hydra's Teeth still thrills me after all these years.
And, as we all recall from the Illiad, Cassandra's curse was to not be believed.
Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid that I was the only one who would think of this.
Do yourself a favor and don't read Dr. Adder. It's an extraordinarily poor novel which wasn't even fresh back in the 70's.
The most embarassing thing about the book is the author's deliberately daring effort to include a character who is *gasp* a homosexual. The revelation of the character's sexual preference is presented in a manner that suggests that the author found this shocking, even repulsive. A contemporary reader will be left wondering what the point was.Bell Telephone
Pan-Am
Soviet Union
And who, looking at the state of the world then, would have thought that any of those monoliths would vanish away?
Serial Experiments Lain is a meditation on the nature of reality and godhood.
Cowboy Bebop is a noir-ish melodrama, akin to Hong Kong action theater.
Saber Marionette J is a sly reconsideration of the role of women in traditional Japanese society.
Oh My Goddess! is straight romantic comedy.
Princess Mononoke, for all that it's set during Japan's feudal era, is an essay on the inevitably uneasy relationship between Man and Nature.
The assertion that (salaryman == samurai), though widely believed in the West, is a shallow interpretation of a deep and complex culture. Good anime reflects many facets of that culture.
That said, Neon Genesis Evangelion is a special case. The point, often missed, is that the "fan service" aspect of the series one of the many anime cliches that the viewer is invited to re-consider.
Pan-Am (operators of the "space clipper" that conveys Dr. Floyd to the space station): Gone
Bell Telephone (who charged Dr. Floyd for his call home): Gone
The Soviet Union (the "bad guys" from whom Dr. Floyd is concealing the lunar discovery): Gone
Economic and political preditions are at least as hazardous as scientific ones.
While IANAL, I am a little anal, so today my comments are OK. But, in my early days, I left a few remarks in my programs that were never intended for eyes other than my own. Ie:
Today, I wonder if I could get corporate sponsorship for my comments.I ask this because, from my experience with compiler construction, I believe that switching this around is somewhat more difficult than simply translating the reserved word list. Anyone have any experience with this?
As you noted, monopolies are granted by the government. When they've outlived their usefulness, they can be taken away by the government as well.
TriStrata convinced Benchmark to invest in the cryptographic equivalent of a perpetual motion machine, and no amount of input from the folks who actually understood the technology could divert them.
It frightens me, sometimes, realizing that the reigns of the "New Economy" are held by clueless wonders who imagine that every problem can be solved by handing out free pens and a warm handshake.