This is obviously easier than them looking at you carrying bags full of clothes and deducing you've spent a lot of money on clothes, right?
I would say you need a far more active imagination to determine exactly how this is 'wide open to abuse', but to be honest you're paranoid enough for all of us already.
As I mentioned below, my skepticism runs both ways. Unfortunately I normally do have the time to evaluate this kind of thing. As someone once said, "if you do not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you are not learning at all; you are merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which is no improvement."
Just because I said that he is not authoritative as a source, doesn't mean I'm attacking him as a person. If I said he was a blithering idiot with no clue as to how environmental science works let alone the effects of carbon dioxide on global temperature, I would agree with you.
I am merely practicing skepticism in the face of what is basically a man being paid to sell oil and cigarettes. That is a man who in most cases would not come forward pushing the credibility of moving to renewable power sources, though if he did, the conflict of interest in his job and his opinion would make him a far more credible source. I would be just as skeptical, as I always am, of environmental scientists on the payroll of Greenpeace.
I'm hoping that was a joke, because I thought it was fairly common knowledge (amongst those interested in this kind of thing, anyway) that JunkScience is maintained by someone in the employ of ExxonMobil and Philip Morris, a Mr. Steven Milloy, who also works for Fox News. Hardly a neutral point of view, or an authoritative source.
There are plenty more reputable sources to find your debunkings, most of them far preferable than "JunkScience".
A convenient reminder that M$ is still taxing the world $40,000,000,000+ per year for a dozen programs mostly written more than a decade ago with the most difficult bits, the device drivers, being written by third parties
Taxes aren't optional. Use of MS products is. You have no excuse to use anything by MS if you don't want to, with the advent of Oo.o (which I have found has no problem opening MS files) and Linux.
And of course, you've proved your knowledge of OS design immensely! Of course writing device drivers for every single piece of equipment that exists is tough, which is why MS should have to do it anyway! Not to mention that no install of Windows has ever come with drivers for popular hardware that already exists. Why, when I installed Linux that time, all of my hardware worked out of the box! And I didn't have to go to the manufacturer for Linux drivers for my graphics card, either, They just magically appeared.
(All or part of that previous paragraph may have been sarcasm)
And the Windows key is marketing now? That's the funniest thing I've seen all day. I can just imagine this guy walking into a PC store and going "Oh wow, this keyboard has a Windows key on it! I must buy Windows to go with it!".
The person who marked you 'insightful' needs a lobotomy more than you do, and on evidence that's saying something.
It's more like the guy being beaten up has either access to no weapon or a broken stick. Wouldn't it be better to supply something rather than nothing at all just in case?
As far as I'm concerned, the article invalidated it's own point and yours.
There is outrage at how much these trinkets cost to get, and then they reveal that there's no competitive advantage to having one, which invalidates the pricing of them because they are vanity only.
Let me qualify that. If they were 'forcing', by game mechanic or otherwise, subscribers to get these cards to get a nominal in-game advantage then I would agree wholeheartedly that allowing people to buy an advantage is creating an inherent divide between the wealthy players and the less wealthy. However, seeing as the items themselves are totally pointless and confer no advantage to the player, then why aren't they just treated as a bonus to people who want to collect the card game?
Just because some Joe Nerd wants to spend this amount of money on cards to get a trinket that does nothing (like, say, spending an extra million bucks to get a diamond studded mobile phone instead of a plain plastic one) then why should anyone stop them? Just because it's a waste of their money, we have no obligation to complain at the manufacturer for selling something at a price which people will pay to get them.
The other thing is, why are people pretending that this huge amount of money doesn't include a lot of trading cards with which you can play a different game entirely? It's like complaining to McDonalds that their Happy Meal toy costs the price of a Happy Meal.
That's an in-joke in our office after we watched particularly dodgy anime. So, no, I'm not a slashdotter who 'throws Japanese into sentences at random'. I was stuck for a title so I just chucked it on.
Oh, and I'll be sure to relay your pessimism regarding my sexual prospects to my boyfriend.
P.S. Your screen name is paraphrased from a sci-fi film. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Of course it matters. Their profits are STILL down by 92%, regardless of how many PS2s they're pushing out the door. Not to mention comparisons to the 360 are completely by the by because that's not even what we're talking about.
Nintendo have a more than thriving DS business and are still selling GBA units and games. Sony have the PSP which is being outsold in most markets and an entire movie format that nobody wants to release for.
Sony still have a business outside of gaming but they keep making exploding batteries and sub-standard music/video products, not to mention their substantial investments in technologies which have a history of going down the pan.
Sony have had a big run of bad luck and bad judgement, and this is being reflected now. Nintendo, however, seem to be able to do no wrong. How else could you name a console 'Wii' and get away with it?
I'll put that down as my "thing learnt today"! Wasn't aware that SATA had that kind of ability, which is why (so far) I haven't taken the plunge to upgrade to it. All my drives are still good ol' PATA.
SATA is a relatively new thing and the XP CD just doesn't include SATA drivers on it. So you need a floppy with SATA drivers on it so that it can actually read/write to the HD. It's nothing sinister.
I'm confused about Win2k working though. I'm not sure of the chronology with regards to Vista releases so I'm guessing it could just be that the Win2k disc you were using is just more up to date.
Slashdot Mirror
I still maintain that VG Cats say it best.
Wow, this is a level of cynicism that I can only aspire to.
I salute you, sir!
This is obviously easier than them looking at you carrying bags full of clothes and deducing you've spent a lot of money on clothes, right?
I would say you need a far more active imagination to determine exactly how this is 'wide open to abuse', but to be honest you're paranoid enough for all of us already.
Because he knows math better than you do?
Original user: 1 = 4^0 = 1
1st level: 1*4 = 4^1 = 4
2nd level: 4*4 = 4^2 = 16
3rd level: 16*4 = 4^3 = 64
4th level: 64*4 = 4^4 = 256
Same damn thing as you said, he just put it in a different order, adding 4th level to 3rd to 2nd to 1st to original user.
Insightful - perceptive
Inciteful - provocative
Inciteful isn't technically a word, to be fair. The pun wouldn't have worked otherwise and some sacrifices do have to be made for comedy.
Can someone point out to the moderator that there is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful"?
Thanks!
I couldn't agree with you more.
As I mentioned below, my skepticism runs both ways. Unfortunately I normally do have the time to evaluate this kind of thing. As someone once said, "if you do not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you are not learning at all; you are merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which is no improvement."
Just because I said that he is not authoritative as a source, doesn't mean I'm attacking him as a person. If I said he was a blithering idiot with no clue as to how environmental science works let alone the effects of carbon dioxide on global temperature, I would agree with you.
I am merely practicing skepticism in the face of what is basically a man being paid to sell oil and cigarettes. That is a man who in most cases would not come forward pushing the credibility of moving to renewable power sources, though if he did, the conflict of interest in his job and his opinion would make him a far more credible source. I would be just as skeptical, as I always am, of environmental scientists on the payroll of Greenpeace.
I'm hoping that was a joke, because I thought it was fairly common knowledge (amongst those interested in this kind of thing, anyway) that JunkScience is maintained by someone in the employ of ExxonMobil and Philip Morris, a Mr. Steven Milloy, who also works for Fox News. Hardly a neutral point of view, or an authoritative source.
There are plenty more reputable sources to find your debunkings, most of them far preferable than "JunkScience".
You had that response all planned out didn't you?
It was made obvious by the fact that he didn't accuse you of anything.
A convenient reminder that M$ is still taxing the world $40,000,000,000+ per year for a dozen programs mostly written more than a decade ago with the most difficult bits, the device drivers, being written by third parties
Taxes aren't optional. Use of MS products is. You have no excuse to use anything by MS if you don't want to, with the advent of Oo.o (which I have found has no problem opening MS files) and Linux.
And of course, you've proved your knowledge of OS design immensely! Of course writing device drivers for every single piece of equipment that exists is tough, which is why MS should have to do it anyway! Not to mention that no install of Windows has ever come with drivers for popular hardware that already exists. Why, when I installed Linux that time, all of my hardware worked out of the box! And I didn't have to go to the manufacturer for Linux drivers for my graphics card, either, They just magically appeared.
(All or part of that previous paragraph may have been sarcasm)
And the Windows key is marketing now? That's the funniest thing I've seen all day. I can just imagine this guy walking into a PC store and going "Oh wow, this keyboard has a Windows key on it! I must buy Windows to go with it!".
The person who marked you 'insightful' needs a lobotomy more than you do, and on evidence that's saying something.
Someone mod this bugger up.
/. without somebody resorting to what is tantamount to name-calling?
We all know you don't like MS - you're posting on Slashdot and there's a really good chance you hate MS. But replacing the S with a $ is
a) terrible English,
b) seriously immature, and
c) really, really fucking stupid.
Is it not possible to have a grown-up conversation on
(cue "You must be new here" comment)
It's more like the guy being beaten up has either access to no weapon or a broken stick. Wouldn't it be better to supply something rather than nothing at all just in case?
If your network can't handle the "overhead" of a ping like this once every 90 days, then you need better equipment.
I'm sure CNN are quite offended now. I'm pretty sure that's not a fair comparison.
I also think that a lot of Chinese bloggers would like to argue your point regarding censorship. From beyond the grave.
As far as I'm concerned, the article invalidated it's own point and yours.
There is outrage at how much these trinkets cost to get, and then they reveal that there's no competitive advantage to having one, which invalidates the pricing of them because they are vanity only.
Let me qualify that. If they were 'forcing', by game mechanic or otherwise, subscribers to get these cards to get a nominal in-game advantage then I would agree wholeheartedly that allowing people to buy an advantage is creating an inherent divide between the wealthy players and the less wealthy. However, seeing as the items themselves are totally pointless and confer no advantage to the player, then why aren't they just treated as a bonus to people who want to collect the card game?
Just because some Joe Nerd wants to spend this amount of money on cards to get a trinket that does nothing (like, say, spending an extra million bucks to get a diamond studded mobile phone instead of a plain plastic one) then why should anyone stop them? Just because it's a waste of their money, we have no obligation to complain at the manufacturer for selling something at a price which people will pay to get them.
The other thing is, why are people pretending that this huge amount of money doesn't include a lot of trading cards with which you can play a different game entirely? It's like complaining to McDonalds that their Happy Meal toy costs the price of a Happy Meal.
You are suffering from a frighteningly advanced case of "Two-tone perception disorder".
Just because he doesn't want security taking away his toothpaste doesn't mean he advocates allowing firearms on a plane.
That's an in-joke in our office after we watched particularly dodgy anime. So, no, I'm not a slashdotter who 'throws Japanese into sentences at random'. I was stuck for a title so I just chucked it on.
Oh, and I'll be sure to relay your pessimism regarding my sexual prospects to my boyfriend.
P.S. Your screen name is paraphrased from a sci-fi film. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Dammit! Now my pen15 will never get any larger!
Of course it matters. Their profits are STILL down by 92%, regardless of how many PS2s they're pushing out the door. Not to mention comparisons to the 360 are completely by the by because that's not even what we're talking about.
Nintendo have a more than thriving DS business and are still selling GBA units and games. Sony have the PSP which is being outsold in most markets and an entire movie format that nobody wants to release for.
Sony still have a business outside of gaming but they keep making exploding batteries and sub-standard music/video products, not to mention their substantial investments in technologies which have a history of going down the pan.
Sony have had a big run of bad luck and bad judgement, and this is being reflected now. Nintendo, however, seem to be able to do no wrong. How else could you name a console 'Wii' and get away with it?
The google search points to a lot of articles by known Linux 'zealots' bashing Daniel Lyon's opinions.
To put this from a Wikipedia perspective, I don't think this counts as a neutral point-of-view resource.
I'll put that down as my "thing learnt today"! Wasn't aware that SATA had that kind of ability, which is why (so far) I haven't taken the plunge to upgrade to it. All my drives are still good ol' PATA.
I take it to the next level by flying, because flying is a martial art!
I usually then follow up with a totally sweet barrage of fireballs.
SATA is a relatively new thing and the XP CD just doesn't include SATA drivers on it. So you need a floppy with SATA drivers on it so that it can actually read/write to the HD. It's nothing sinister.
I'm confused about Win2k working though. I'm not sure of the chronology with regards to Vista releases so I'm guessing it could just be that the Win2k disc you were using is just more up to date.
How does that stop it being addictive and how does that stop people getting addicted to it?
Just because it's psychological rather than chemical doesn't change a thing.