It's the James Bond theory of spying. You walk right in the front door, get captured, the evil doer tells you his fiendish plan, then make a daring escape and return with a large contingent of government troops.
Those are projected using the regular 35mm print. Only to avoid the graininess that you'd see when projecting a 35mm print on a screen that size, they run 3 copies of the film in sync. This works great, but for heavy motion shots, the slight difference in the sync of the three prints becomes aparent.
is that there should be fees... that are based on percent profit.
This was actually the original idea that CARP was going to use. However, one side of the negotiations vehimantly opposed it. Oddly enough, it was the webcasters that opposed it. See, the only webcasters who were able to participate in CARP were the big ones who were willing to pay for that privilege (yahoo, aol, etc). They hate the idea of doing a percentage of revenue since they also have additional revenue streams from talk radio, sports, and the like. One of the reasons the CARP rates are so high is because the webcasters were so adamant that it had to be a flat fee per listener.
If small webcasters had been allowed to voice their opinions, the CARP rates might not be as unreasonable as they currently are.
Does anyone know whether their appeal opens up the possibility for other groups to argue that the rates are too high??
Dunno about the RIAA appeal, but this would. I submitted a story about it last week and it has yet to be rejected or accepted (grrr).
It would basically start the CARP process anew, creating a special classification for businesses who gross less than $6M / year. Those businesses would be allowed to participate in the CARP process for free (the original CARP process required a fee to have your opinions heard.) It would also allow those businesses to have a CARP rate different from the giant webcasters. One of the sponsors of the bill is the tech-savvy Rick Boucher (D-VA).
If you support the bill, go here and fill in your information and it will send a fax to your legislators. The process only takes a minute and if everyone does it, maybe it'll pass.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that we completely do away with Java 2. Heck, how many different 'current' versions of the Linux kernel exist? There's plenty of businesses that still use the 2.2 kernel because that's what they've tested against and trust for their environment. At the same time, those businesses aren't holding back development on the 2.5 kernel, so I get all the cool stuff that they wouldn't have been able to add to the 2.2 kernel.
Something similar could be done here. I'm sure Java 2 could continue to be extended to fit the needs of people with who need backwards compatability. But why should those of us who don't need backwards compatability be held back because you wrote your code for a platform that was still in the early stages of its evolution?
If there are fundamental problems with the language (and I think most people would agree there are), those problems need to be addressed. And if backwards compatability is the price of addressing those problems, so be it. Sun has made a commitment to support businesses who have developed for Java 2. That commitment wouldn't go away with the advent of Java 3.
Maybe you should look at it from someone else's point of view instead of just thinking "how much code would I have to re-write?" I have huge amounts of code written for Java 2. Am I going to re-write it? Hell No! But would I want to have the opportunity to develop new projects in a Java 3 environment? Abso-Freakin'-Lutely!
You can go through point-by-point and poke holes in his suggestions, but are you actually suggesting that Java 2 doesn't have some pretty serious problems that would be easier to fix if it wasn't limited by being backwards compatable? Didn't think so.
...just have the MSNTV units call the 1-800-469-3288 number directly.
Why don't the people who write viruses ever have a sense of humor?
Re:Don't scream
on
.NET for Apache
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Whoah there!!! That's some concentrated FUD you're spreading there (FUD is like vegemite...anything more than a thin layer will leave a bad taste in your mouth).
As for implementations, check out Mono. Pure, open-source.NET. Sure, it's not finished yet, but it proves that competing implementations *are* possible, if someone is motivated enough to get off their ass and code the thing...The specs are publicly available.
I doubt you've been seriously using Java from its inception, 'cause if you had, you would've remembered how long it took before we saw non-Sun JDKs...give.NET time, and we'll see competing implementations.
Sure MS is evil, but this is a win for Apache too. MS is basically conceding that their web server is sub-par...and they have no reason to compete with apache. The evolution of the app server (J2EE,.NET etc) has made Apache a trivial communication layer to implement the HTTP protocol. So MS never has to develop a quality web server (something they are aparently incapable of,) and Apache will run on every computer that isn't running some bass-ackwards NES server.
Frankly, the only loser with this announcement is Sun. The fact that Apache supported J2EE and not.NET was an implicit endorsement of J2EE. Now, with this announcement, Sun loses that endorsement. Frankly, considering how Sun has treated the Apache group, they deserve this.
If it's an American company making content in American and hosting it in France for a French audience, most slashdotters seem to feel that American laws should apply.
I really don't think that's the case. I would guess that most people here would feel that the only laws that apply to a webserver are those of the country in which the webserver resides. It's kinda the principal behind Sealand.
However, the reason that most people here will likely not have a problem with what the Italian police did is because they did it in Italy. The Italians are free to make/enforce whatever laws they choose with regard to using someone else's password. If they choose to allow police to use the password of one of their citizens, more power to them. This might be objectionable to/.ers living in Italy, but the rest of us have no reason to care.
I totally agree...I've used Perforce, SourceSafe, CVS and PVCS and Perforce was (and is) far and away the best I've used. From our senior developers to the front-end html people, everyone could learn it pretty easily.
Plus it has some really cool features. The ones I like most are: integration with Ant, the ability to monitor individual files/directories for changes (it sends email when changes occur...our dba *loved* the ability to be alerted whenever someone else checked in changes to db scripts) and allows grouped check-ins.
Pretty much the only negative thing I can say about it is that it isn't open source.
cable companies could soon offer consumers value that DSL firms won't be able to match.
yeah...like the ability to charge you for each computer you hook up to your connection.
simply make the wireless access proprietary enough to be incompatable with standard 802.11 cards and it's no longer possible to connect without a special piece of hardware. the proprietary 802.11 could even be made to interfere with regular a regular 802.11 setup so you wouldn't be able to share your connection that way anymore.
Not to nitpick, because I basically agree with you that CDs should cost a lot less than they do...
...but CDs don't have the benefit of theater revenues. People don't go out and drop $8.50 to hear a CD played. Also remember that the recording industry feels that spending millions of dollars promoting an album is absolutely necessary. That drives up costs a lot.
I personally don't see this driving sales as a whole, but more driving sales from of one album at the expense of others but this can be beneficial to them because they can encourage the sale of music by acts that have contracts favorable to the record companies.
But your point is basically correct. The record industries need to find a value-add to get us to pay for their product or lower the price significantly. The movie industry has successfully done that...it isn't worth it to pirate a movie for most people.
SomaFM didn't get shut down, they made the decision to shut down in light of the recent LoC decisions on compulsory licensing rates. They're just way too high.
Since SomaFM and many other net radio stations don't make money and are run as hobbies (Rusty has a day job...I work with him;), most aren't willing to keep broadcasting and risk being sued. It's one thing to stick up for a cause, but when you risk being sued by the RIAA, you're risking your house, credit history, etc. Given how high profile Rusty has been, it makes complete sense to shut down for now. Many stations are going to keep broadcasting anyways, and at least one will get pounded on by the RIAA.
The guy who writes the shoutcast server (who's own stream was amazingly cool before it had to shut down last week) is rumored to be at work adding in subscription features so that webcasters will be able to afford to broadcast legally. That will allow others to sign up for accounts and then listen with other shoutcast servers which illegally relay the signal to many other listeners. So, the RIAA would be able to take down your favorite relay, but not your favorite stream.
Oh...as to your allusion the RIAA being mobsters, the term I've seen coined here on/. is Riaacketeering.
I just put together a PC with parts entirely from them. I could have saved a buck or two on some of the items, but it's nice to get everything in one shipment and newegg was pretty close to the lowest price I found on everything. Plus their interface is pretty intuitive and easy to use.
Everything arrived promptly and well-packed via Fedex. I've heard some unpleasant stories about returns on some of their OEM stuff, but I've never had to return any of it, so I can't say first-hand. Also, I didn't see it mentioned any place on the website until the check-out process, but CA residents will have to pay tax on everything they sell.
- PDA's are good for repetive tasks and memorization. - Exams test repetive tasks and memorization.
Therefore: By realizing that they can benefit by using a PDA on an exam, students actually think...Exams testing repetive tasks and memorization test either aptitude in repetive tasks and memorization or the ability to creatively figure out a way to avoid repetive tasks and memorization.
I'm more ill at Apple because their flat panel displays basically don't work with anything except brand new Macs.
My dad has a G3 that is about a year old. He decided to buy an LCD monitor for it (his old CRT died) and, to be safe (or so he thought), decided on the Apple 17" display. The display arrives and he tries to plug it into his G3 and, lo and behold, it now requires a DV plug. No problem, he's told, just get a DVIator for $100 and you're all set. DVIator arrives, plug the monitor into it and plug it into the G3. Power the thing up and there's no video signal. What's the problem now? Oh...the 17" flat panel display is only supported under OS X...classic 9 won't work. OS X is $100 more. But now Photoshop 5.5, through the OS 9 emulation layer, is too slow to use (it was perfectly accepable under OS 9). So now he has to buy a copy of Photoshop 7 to get acceptable performance.
So he's basically out $400 in extra costs that wouldn't have been necessary had Apple decided to support their older computers properly (even Microsoft waits 3 years to declare a product unsupported). He also is now being forced to run an OS that is still going through some growing pains. Sure, the UNIXy features are nice for us geeks, but for your average Mac user, OS 9 was much more thoroughly tested and tweaked.
Would it have been that hard for Apple's new flat panels to support a G3/OS9 system?
Your analogy to cars isn't quite right...we're talking about the creator of the software not the end user. When a car is abandoned, they go after the owner of the car, not the manufacturer. Toyota has no liability for one of their cars that becomes abandoned. The sofware author is the car manufacturer in your analogy, not the car's owner.
Re: Point 1: So...as long as go doesn't involve the same hand movements as using a mouse, it won't contribute to carpal tunnel. Plus, by actually lifting your arm over the board you increase the blood flow to your hand.
Re: Point 2: So schools should concentrate on making sports more accessible to students. That means that any student that wants to participate should be given every oportunity to do so. Schools should expand the diversity of their physical activity programs to include things like martial arts, yoga or, my personal favorite, rockclimbing. All of those activities are accessible to almost anyone and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Re: Point 3: Exercise makes you healthier and less injury prone. The benefits of physical exercise are pretty much universally accepted to outweigh the risks. There are *no* physical benefits to using computers.
Re: Point 4: If you can run a marathon in less than 2:45, then you can outrun me. I'll give you the fighting and weight lifting since I never do that sort of activity (although, from my rockclimbing, I guarantee I can do more one-arm pullups than you can). Ok...now that the "who's is bigger" crap is out of the way, did all those computer games make you able to do all those physical exploits? Didn't think so. Playing computer games *is* physically unhealthy, you just participate in enough physically healthy activities to compensate for your gaming habit. Not all gamers are as responsible, in that respect, as you are.
Addiction in and of itself is not a bad thing, so long as it is recognized as such. It's when the addictive behavior also has negative side effects that there is a need for more concern. If cigarettes didn't cause cancer or heart disease, their addictive qualities would be much less of a concern.
Chess and Go do not carry the same risks of carpal tunnel syndrome and increased eye strain that computer games do. These ailments can be very debilitating for people and cost businesses millions of dollars every year in increased health costs and lost productivity. Basketball and Baseball (as well as all sports) have even greater benefits as exercise has continually been proven to have very positive effects both physically and mentally.
So, the fact that computer games themselves are addictive is only relevant since playing them is also physically unhealthy.
I completely agree with you that Warhammer 40k would be an excellent activity for schools to promote...as would pretty much any physical game (as opposed to virtual). However, there is a distiction to be made between physical games like Warhammer and Virtual games like StarCraft or MechWarrior. Warhammer requires you to move more muscles than just your fingers and eyes. Eye strain and carpal tunnel are real problems for many people (not to mention obesity due to inactivity) and we shouldn't be encouraging any activity that will result in an earlier onset of these problems.
As many others have pointed out, many other things can be addictive. It's when addictions have negative side effects besides the loss of time that they become problematic. It is precisely because of games like Warhammer which teach much the same skills as computer games without the dangers of carpal tunnel or eye strain that schools should not be promoting computer games.
Baseball and Basketball: 1) Exercise. Believe it or not, people are healthier when they exercise. People who exercise regularly have lower incidences of more diseases than I care to enumerate here. 2) The self confidence gained by being in shape. All the geeks on/. who complain about never getting laid probably never exercised in high school.
Chess and Go: 1) These are well researched games that have stood the test of time. Computer games only last until the next 'it game' comes out. By learning to play chess or go, you learn a skill that you'll have the rest of your life. Also, once you reach a certain skill level, you need to start researching documented theory on the game. For example, there are entire books that are devoted to a single chess opening. 2) Ever known anyone to get carpal tunnel from playing chess?
Slashdot Mirror
It's the James Bond theory of spying. You walk right in the front door, get captured, the evil doer tells you his fiendish plan, then make a daring escape and return with a large contingent of government troops.
Those are projected using the regular 35mm print. Only to avoid the graininess that you'd see when projecting a 35mm print on a screen that size, they run 3 copies of the film in sync. This works great, but for heavy motion shots, the slight difference in the sync of the three prints becomes aparent.
is that there should be fees... that are based on percent profit.
This was actually the original idea that CARP was going to use. However, one side of the negotiations vehimantly opposed it. Oddly enough, it was the webcasters that opposed it. See, the only webcasters who were able to participate in CARP were the big ones who were willing to pay for that privilege (yahoo, aol, etc). They hate the idea of doing a percentage of revenue since they also have additional revenue streams from talk radio, sports, and the like. One of the reasons the CARP rates are so high is because the webcasters were so adamant that it had to be a flat fee per listener.
If small webcasters had been allowed to voice their opinions, the CARP rates might not be as unreasonable as they currently are.
Does anyone know whether their appeal opens up the possibility for other groups to argue that the rates are too high??
Dunno about the RIAA appeal, but this would. I submitted a story about it last week and it has yet to be rejected or accepted (grrr).
It would basically start the CARP process anew, creating a special classification for businesses who gross less than $6M / year. Those businesses would be allowed to participate in the CARP process for free (the original CARP process required a fee to have your opinions heard.) It would also allow those businesses to have a CARP rate different from the giant webcasters. One of the sponsors of the bill is the tech-savvy Rick Boucher (D-VA).
If you support the bill, go here and fill in your information and it will send a fax to your legislators. The process only takes a minute and if everyone does it, maybe it'll pass.
IIRC, the formal US gov't recommendation is 8 cups, or 2 quarts / day.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that we completely do away with Java 2. Heck, how many different 'current' versions of the Linux kernel exist? There's plenty of businesses that still use the 2.2 kernel because that's what they've tested against and trust for their environment. At the same time, those businesses aren't holding back development on the 2.5 kernel, so I get all the cool stuff that they wouldn't have been able to add to the 2.2 kernel.
Something similar could be done here. I'm sure Java 2 could continue to be extended to fit the needs of people with who need backwards compatability. But why should those of us who don't need backwards compatability be held back because you wrote your code for a platform that was still in the early stages of its evolution?
If there are fundamental problems with the language (and I think most people would agree there are), those problems need to be addressed. And if backwards compatability is the price of addressing those problems, so be it. Sun has made a commitment to support businesses who have developed for Java 2. That commitment wouldn't go away with the advent of Java 3.
Maybe you should look at it from someone else's point of view instead of just thinking "how much code would I have to re-write?" I have huge amounts of code written for Java 2. Am I going to re-write it? Hell No! But would I want to have the opportunity to develop new projects in a Java 3 environment? Abso-Freakin'-Lutely!
You can go through point-by-point and poke holes in his suggestions, but are you actually suggesting that Java 2 doesn't have some pretty serious problems that would be easier to fix if it wasn't limited by being backwards compatable? Didn't think so.
but wouldn't that make the effects of the in-your-face variety?
...just have the MSNTV units call the 1-800-469-3288 number directly.
Why don't the people who write viruses ever have a sense of humor?
Whoah there!!! That's some concentrated FUD you're spreading there (FUD is like vegemite...anything more than a thin layer will leave a bad taste in your mouth).
.NET. Sure, it's not finished yet, but it proves that competing implementations *are* possible, if someone is motivated enough to get off their ass and code the thing...The specs are publicly available.
.NET time, and we'll see competing implementations.
.NET etc) has made Apache a trivial communication layer to implement the HTTP protocol. So MS never has to develop a quality web server (something they are aparently incapable of,) and Apache will run on every computer that isn't running some bass-ackwards NES server.
.NET was an implicit endorsement of J2EE. Now, with this announcement, Sun loses that endorsement. Frankly, considering how Sun has treated the Apache group, they deserve this.
As for implementations, check out Mono. Pure, open-source
I doubt you've been seriously using Java from its inception, 'cause if you had, you would've remembered how long it took before we saw non-Sun JDKs...give
Sure MS is evil, but this is a win for Apache too. MS is basically conceding that their web server is sub-par...and they have no reason to compete with apache. The evolution of the app server (J2EE,
Frankly, the only loser with this announcement is Sun. The fact that Apache supported J2EE and not
If it's an American company making content in American and hosting it in France for a French audience, most slashdotters seem to feel that American laws should apply.
/.ers living in Italy, but the rest of us have no reason to care.
I really don't think that's the case. I would guess that most people here would feel that the only laws that apply to a webserver are those of the country in which the webserver resides. It's kinda the principal behind Sealand.
However, the reason that most people here will likely not have a problem with what the Italian police did is because they did it in Italy. The Italians are free to make/enforce whatever laws they choose with regard to using someone else's password. If they choose to allow police to use the password of one of their citizens, more power to them. This might be objectionable to
a team of "virgin" programmers
Is there any other kind?
I totally agree...I've used Perforce, SourceSafe, CVS and PVCS and Perforce was (and is) far and away the best I've used. From our senior developers to the front-end html people, everyone could learn it pretty easily.
Plus it has some really cool features. The ones I like most are: integration with Ant, the ability to monitor individual files/directories for changes (it sends email when changes occur...our dba *loved* the ability to be alerted whenever someone else checked in changes to db scripts) and allows grouped check-ins.
Pretty much the only negative thing I can say about it is that it isn't open source.
cable companies could soon offer consumers value that DSL firms won't be able to match.
yeah...like the ability to charge you for each computer you hook up to your connection.
simply make the wireless access proprietary enough to be incompatable with standard 802.11 cards and it's no longer possible to connect without a special piece of hardware. the proprietary 802.11 could even be made to interfere with regular a regular 802.11 setup so you wouldn't be able to share your connection that way anymore.
Not to nitpick, because I basically agree with you that CDs should cost a lot less than they do...
...but CDs don't have the benefit of theater revenues. People don't go out and drop $8.50 to hear a CD played. Also remember that the recording industry feels that spending millions of dollars promoting an album is absolutely necessary. That drives up costs a lot.
I personally don't see this driving sales as a whole, but more driving sales from of one album at the expense of others but this can be beneficial to them because they can encourage the sale of music by acts that have contracts favorable to the record companies.
But your point is basically correct. The record industries need to find a value-add to get us to pay for their product or lower the price significantly. The movie industry has successfully done that...it isn't worth it to pirate a movie for most people.
SomaFM didn't get shut down, they made the decision to shut down in light of the recent LoC decisions on compulsory licensing rates. They're just way too high.
;), most aren't willing to keep broadcasting and risk being sued. It's one thing to stick up for a cause, but when you risk being sued by the RIAA, you're risking your house, credit history, etc. Given how high profile Rusty has been, it makes complete sense to shut down for now. Many stations are going to keep broadcasting anyways, and at least one will get pounded on by the RIAA.
/. is Riaacketeering.
Since SomaFM and many other net radio stations don't make money and are run as hobbies (Rusty has a day job...I work with him
The guy who writes the shoutcast server (who's own stream was amazingly cool before it had to shut down last week) is rumored to be at work adding in subscription features so that webcasters will be able to afford to broadcast legally. That will allow others to sign up for accounts and then listen with other shoutcast servers which illegally relay the signal to many other listeners. So, the RIAA would be able to take down your favorite relay, but not your favorite stream.
Oh...as to your allusion the RIAA being mobsters, the term I've seen coined here on
I completely agree.
I just put together a PC with parts entirely from them. I could have saved a buck or two on some of the items, but it's nice to get everything in one shipment and newegg was pretty close to the lowest price I found on everything. Plus their interface is pretty intuitive and easy to use.
Everything arrived promptly and well-packed via Fedex. I've heard some unpleasant stories about returns on some of their OEM stuff, but I've never had to return any of it, so I can't say first-hand. Also, I didn't see it mentioned any place on the website until the check-out process, but CA residents will have to pay tax on everything they sell.
Aside from that, I'm one happy customer.
...unless you had a great hand...
well, you'd definitely have a straight and you might be a little flush to boot.
...but given the nature of pr0n, you'd probably be looking at a full house (queens over/under kings).
- PDA's are good for repetive tasks and memorization.
- Exams test repetive tasks and memorization.
Therefore:
By realizing that they can benefit by using a PDA on an exam, students actually think...Exams testing repetive tasks and memorization test either aptitude in repetive tasks and memorization or the ability to creatively figure out a way to avoid repetive tasks and memorization.
The Bad News: So much for seeing new screenshots of Star Wars Episode III: Portman Naked and Petrified.
/.ers would gladly re-finance their morgage to pay for this...some things are worth the cost.
Even with metered access, I think most
I'm more ill at Apple because their flat panel displays basically don't work with anything except brand new Macs.
My dad has a G3 that is about a year old. He decided to buy an LCD monitor for it (his old CRT died) and, to be safe (or so he thought), decided on the Apple 17" display. The display arrives and he tries to plug it into his G3 and, lo and behold, it now requires a DV plug. No problem, he's told, just get a DVIator for $100 and you're all set. DVIator arrives, plug the monitor into it and plug it into the G3. Power the thing up and there's no video signal. What's the problem now? Oh...the 17" flat panel display is only supported under OS X...classic 9 won't work. OS X is $100 more. But now Photoshop 5.5, through the OS 9 emulation layer, is too slow to use (it was perfectly accepable under OS 9). So now he has to buy a copy of Photoshop 7 to get acceptable performance.
So he's basically out $400 in extra costs that wouldn't have been necessary had Apple decided to support their older computers properly (even Microsoft waits 3 years to declare a product unsupported). He also is now being forced to run an OS that is still going through some growing pains. Sure, the UNIXy features are nice for us geeks, but for your average Mac user, OS 9 was much more thoroughly tested and tweaked.
Would it have been that hard for Apple's new flat panels to support a G3/OS9 system?
Your analogy to cars isn't quite right...we're talking about the creator of the software not the end user. When a car is abandoned, they go after the owner of the car, not the manufacturer. Toyota has no liability for one of their cars that becomes abandoned. The sofware author is the car manufacturer in your analogy, not the car's owner.
Re: Point 1:
So...as long as go doesn't involve the same hand movements as using a mouse, it won't contribute to carpal tunnel. Plus, by actually lifting your arm over the board you increase the blood flow to your hand.
Re: Point 2:
So schools should concentrate on making sports more accessible to students. That means that any student that wants to participate should be given every oportunity to do so. Schools should expand the diversity of their physical activity programs to include things like martial arts, yoga or, my personal favorite, rockclimbing. All of those activities are accessible to almost anyone and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Re: Point 3:
Exercise makes you healthier and less injury prone. The benefits of physical exercise are pretty much universally accepted to outweigh the risks. There are *no* physical benefits to using computers.
Re: Point 4:
If you can run a marathon in less than 2:45, then you can outrun me. I'll give you the fighting and weight lifting since I never do that sort of activity (although, from my rockclimbing, I guarantee I can do more one-arm pullups than you can). Ok...now that the "who's is bigger" crap is out of the way, did all those computer games make you able to do all those physical exploits? Didn't think so. Playing computer games *is* physically unhealthy, you just participate in enough physically healthy activities to compensate for your gaming habit. Not all gamers are as responsible, in that respect, as you are.
Addiction in and of itself is not a bad thing, so long as it is recognized as such. It's when the addictive behavior also has negative side effects that there is a need for more concern. If cigarettes didn't cause cancer or heart disease, their addictive qualities would be much less of a concern.
Chess and Go do not carry the same risks of carpal tunnel syndrome and increased eye strain that computer games do. These ailments can be very debilitating for people and cost businesses millions of dollars every year in increased health costs and lost productivity. Basketball and Baseball (as well as all sports) have even greater benefits as exercise has continually been proven to have very positive effects both physically and mentally.
So, the fact that computer games themselves are addictive is only relevant since playing them is also physically unhealthy.
I completely agree with you that Warhammer 40k would be an excellent activity for schools to promote...as would pretty much any physical game (as opposed to virtual). However, there is a distiction to be made between physical games like Warhammer and Virtual games like StarCraft or MechWarrior. Warhammer requires you to move more muscles than just your fingers and eyes. Eye strain and carpal tunnel are real problems for many people (not to mention obesity due to inactivity) and we shouldn't be encouraging any activity that will result in an earlier onset of these problems.
As many others have pointed out, many other things can be addictive. It's when addictions have negative side effects besides the loss of time that they become problematic. It is precisely because of games like Warhammer which teach much the same skills as computer games without the dangers of carpal tunnel or eye strain that schools should not be promoting computer games.
Baseball and Basketball: /. who complain about never getting laid probably never exercised in high school.
1) Exercise. Believe it or not, people are healthier when they exercise. People who exercise regularly have lower incidences of more diseases than I care to enumerate here.
2) The self confidence gained by being in shape. All the geeks on
Chess and Go:
1) These are well researched games that have stood the test of time. Computer games only last until the next 'it game' comes out. By learning to play chess or go, you learn a skill that you'll have the rest of your life. Also, once you reach a certain skill level, you need to start researching documented theory on the game. For example, there are entire books that are devoted to a single chess opening.
2) Ever known anyone to get carpal tunnel from playing chess?