Actually, the way I heard it, he used people blowing money in Vegas or buying a boat when they can't afford to do so as an analogy for the way the US government is spending money. Apparently he should have used a car analogy instead.
Back on topic, I was a little disappointed in Fallout. It was a great game but I'd hoped for a grittier feel. Hehe... no, seriously, I can hardly wait. I love post-apocalyptic stuff like this, especially when there's humor involved.
Damn, beat me to it. It took me a second to realize it wasn't my lack of comprehension due to a lack of coffee but was instead the complete lack of proofreading.
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
Is the Control Panel accessible via the CLI? That would be a reason. Still an awful way to provide CLI access to these functions.
Well, it is, sort of. The control panel applets are easily searched for if you click the start Orb (I hate that name, BTW) and start typing. This assumes you have left the default Start Menu in place instead of Classic. Basically, Start (key or orb) then type Programs (or just P) and you can get to the "Programs and features" applet. Now, granted, this isn't really a command line but it is nearly as handy in many cases. Considering this feature, I fail to see why they left this GUID now known as "Godmode" (shudder) in the final builds. Too much hassle to remove it, I suppose.
As an aside, it took me ages to remember not to look for Add or Remove Programs... hehe.
Oh, and I do like the ability to make a Manage Wireless Networks icon on the Desktop quite easily.:-)
A lot of Japanese are not as smart as you would think. In fact a lot of them are pretty average so I wouldn't expect all of them to make the smartest or most practical decisions.
What were white men doing two or three generations ago?
While some of them were probably benefiting greatly from institutionalized sexism and racism, others were part of the poor, downtrodden masses.
Even today, there are places that are very white and very poor, where there is little opportunity, and crime and poverty runs rampant.
So why do we assume all white men don't need any additional help?
Is it because of the color of their skin and their gender?
While the simple answer is "yes", the reality is far more complex. The reality is a minority in the same situation as a while male tends to have a more difficult time improving their lot. While this is stupid, sad and reprehensible it's also reality.
I hate when I realize I used a particular word too often. I'm too lazy today to look up alternatives, however.:-P
Full disclosure: my soon-to-be-ex wife works at AT&T and often got calls like this when she did billing support.
The variables involved in whether you get an early upgrade are weighted in how much you cost the company. If you're always calling for support or whining and demanding credits here and there you're likely to be told to pound sand on any early upgrade. The agents have a screen that tells them whether you are a profitable customer worth locking in or not.
had done this also? Would they have managed to get their way, one is forced to wonder? Would GM be thriving if they had a cut of every used car sale? Who the F--- do these publishers think they are anyway?! If this happens will I have to pay Dell every time my business sells a refurbished Dell PC? Hell, the pawnbrokers alone will never allow such a thing to go through.
These are somewhat rhetorical questions and the slippery slope fallacy applies a bit. Still, the principle is sound as a reason why the publishers shouldn't get a cut of used game sales, in my opinion.
My current girlfriend is bi. That's a much better solution to the problem.
An excellent point that bears repeating. There is nothing in the world quite like having your wife point out a beautiful woman and verbally rating them as to how do-able they are. It's good to be lucky, sometimes. I keep worrying I'll have to pay back this particular karma in a really bad accident or something.
No, Qwest and Verizon are mutually exclusive. Qwest serves the area of Seattle itself and north a bit (east, I'm sure, also) while Verizon has territory north of Seattle. This is part of the real issue a hand; cable companies do NOT actually compete directly with telcos. They have their own network already laid which is not subject to as many issues, such as distance from the CO, as a telco. To upgrade to a new standard is much cheaper for cable provider than for a telco, as I understand it, although I could be off a bit on this and telcos simply refuse to upgrade in many cases or lag well behind cable.
If you want to compare actual competition, look at Tacoma. This is a city which has two actual cable providers: Comcast and Click Network. Both have service to all addresses within Tacoma and switching between them takes perhaps a couple of days, depending on the time to get a truck to you. Comcast offers virtually the same service in Tacoma as they do in Seattle, albeit with a slightly different lineup on the actual channel numbers. The price for this service in Tacoma costs about 60% of what it costs in Seattle. This is based off of my bill (Seattle) and my mother-in-law's bill (Tacoma) for exactly the same service level that we've each had for over a decade at least.
I realize this is simply anecdotal evidence, but I feel it's compelling evidence that direct competition, not a corrupt duopoly, is key to lowering prices.
Though why anyone should care about the Party of someone running for the local School Board is beyond me (yes, one of the elections in question was for the local School Board).
A lot of politicians got their start in similarly seemingly minor positions. In addition, the school board in many areas (I don't know about the one in question) is in charge of capital projects such as construction and purchase/sale of school real estate. That'd certainly be a good place to be if one were inclined to steal from the public.
Note, I am not suggesting that anything beyond the alleged election fraud occurred. I'm simply pointing out possible reasons (one honest and one dishonest) why a person might want to sit on the school board badly enough to pay for it.
Note, by the way, that what happened was good, old-fashioned, vote-buying. With a twist, in that the people actually handed the money to buy votes in the field decided to keep the money and just change a few votes themselves.
I'm not sure of that. It sounded to me as though the vote buying was involving absentee ballots (also made them commit mail fraud, apparently and allegedly). The vote tampering at the pools themselves didn't involve payouts but instead was just telling voters the "here's your vote" preview screen was final and then changing the votes before actually casting the ballot once the actual voter left the booth.
Which means precisely squat. Software changes over time (duh). It should be obvious to anyone that TomTom alleges Microsoft began infringing at some date in the Streets & Trips app. I'm sure they aren't claiming the entire concept infringes but only a part, minor or otherwise.
So, basically, we have to determine how many "calculations per second" equivalent an average human can manage. Then we have to allow a range on either side of that since not everyone has the same capacity. Once we manage that, game AI would start being more realistic, huh?
Somehow I doubt it's that simplistic but still sort of interesting.
In my country BSA tried to claim, as a scare tactic, you can not have a license free software for office usage, and if you do not have a printed license then there is no license. They performed extensive computer scans in license free offices etc.
And what, exactly, did the BSA give as a reason to perform these scans, I wonder? When they found FOS apps, were they acting on behalf of the free software's "owners" when they said you can't have a license if it's not printed? These BSA goons are insanely ballsy in my experience.
The BSA (I think) tried this sort of crap with one of my clients once. Some guys showed up at my client's office when I happened to be there. They were armed with a blue paper backed document that they told the receptionist was a warrant to inspect any computer and media for "valid licenses". The receptionist, thinking the warrant was valid, let them in but took it back to her boss. The business owner noticed rather quickly that the paperwork wasn't in any way a warrant but, instead, an "agreement" that once signed would grant permission to search everything in the office including personal cell phones. While she was reviewing the document, the goons told me to move away form he PC I was installing a hard drive in and started screwing around with the receptionist's PC without actual permission. The owner was pissed and called 911. The police were rather prompt in responding, too. I guess fake warrants kind of piss them off a bit.
I don't know what, if anything, ever came of it as I had to leave for an appointment with another client. The business owner said the goons left really fast all of a sudden. As best she could tell, a disgruntled employee reported "likely" software piracy. The sad thing is that this was one of the honest people... some of my clients are knowingly using pirated apps.
You didn't watch the vid.... NM. I almost forgot where I was f.or a moment.
In the video, Jason Campbell said they hope to have it changed based on application. I'd presume that would indicate the shape is dictated by what program you're using or, probably at first, by mode buttons of some sort.
My guess is that Oppenheim's barred from negotiations.
He wouldn't be barred from attending. He just won't be in control, as he is normally permitted to be.
The order wasn't that long so I read the entire thing. IANAL but I didn't see anything in there that would prevent each of the parties from appointing Oppenheim as their agent specifically for this proceeding. Maybe I'm missing something, though, due to my lack of familiarity with Oppenheim's historical practices in such conferences.
typical CEO of a large corporation. You know... seriously out of touch with reality. Sony has shown time and time again that it's simply out of touch with the average consumer. It was just a matter of time until they proved themselves out of touch with their critical partners in a business venture such as this. Without developers, there won't be any good games. If the platform is harder to program for, that means fewer good games and slower growth. Not exactly what most CEOs would want... a slow growth in a major product that needs scale to become profitable.
I won't get into the should kids or shouldn't kids buy various games issue. I don't think that's the real question these articles raise. The real issue is why would any politician vote for a law such as this which has already been shown time and again to be an automatic failure then waste money defending the failed law. As far as why judges strike these down, that's an interesting question so I asked a client of mine that happens to also be a judge once.
The main issue for the courts, it seems, is that it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tailor legislation to violence alone in the same manner as it is with pornography. This difficulty of is the real issue from what I can gather. We can say any evidence of bloodshed is obscene but then what about a safety video showing actual injury? By definition, these things are both bloody and violent yet are absolutely something minors should see before they operate certain power tools.
What it boils down to is what is considered obscene, really. Pretty much everyone (I suppose there are some few who'd disagree, thus the qualifier) agrees that nudity can be obscene, although not always. We likewise can agree that certain subject matter such as sexually explicit material are inappropriate for people under a certain age. Not everyone, however, agrees that violence, in and of itself, is necessarily obscene.
I hope this makes sense; I'm neither a lawyer nor a legal expert so I may habve mangled this somewhat.
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Actually, the way I heard it, he used people blowing money in Vegas or buying a boat when they can't afford to do so as an analogy for the way the US government is spending money. Apparently he should have used a car analogy instead.
Back on topic, I was a little disappointed in Fallout. It was a great game but I'd hoped for a grittier feel. Hehe ... no, seriously, I can hardly wait. I love post-apocalyptic stuff like this, especially when there's humor involved.
Damn, beat me to it. It took me a second to realize it wasn't my lack of comprehension due to a lack of coffee but was instead the complete lack of proofreading.
you can eject at over Mach 2 and survive!
What's the point of that? TFA says the plane's top speed is only Mach 1.8
That's called a "safety margin".
Damn, and I was trying to kludge up a car anaology. Hehe.
In other words, what's wrong with the Control Panel interface that hinders developers to the point where they have to hack in these types of kludges?
Is the Control Panel accessible via the CLI? That would be a reason. Still an awful way to provide CLI access to these functions.
Well, it is, sort of. The control panel applets are easily searched for if you click the start Orb (I hate that name, BTW) and start typing. This assumes you have left the default Start Menu in place instead of Classic. Basically, Start (key or orb) then type Programs (or just P) and you can get to the "Programs and features" applet. Now, granted, this isn't really a command line but it is nearly as handy in many cases. Considering this feature, I fail to see why they left this GUID now known as "Godmode" (shudder) in the final builds. Too much hassle to remove it, I suppose.
As an aside, it took me ages to remember not to look for Add or Remove Programs ... hehe.
Oh, and I do like the ability to make a Manage Wireless Networks icon on the Desktop quite easily. :-)
A lot of Japanese are not as smart as you would think. In fact a lot of them are pretty average so I wouldn't expect all of them to make the smartest or most practical decisions.
Uh ... isn't that pretty obvious?
I wonder when we'll find the earliest possible ones now. I always thought it took longer for them to form stars, etc.
Now THIS deserves some "Funny" mod points!
It's also called theft, if by "return it" you mean to extract a refund from a retailer. That's pretty clearly "intent to permanently deprive".
What were white men doing two or three generations ago?
While some of them were probably benefiting greatly from institutionalized sexism and racism, others were part of the poor, downtrodden masses.
Even today, there are places that are very white and very poor, where there is little opportunity, and crime and poverty runs rampant.
So why do we assume all white men don't need any additional help?
Is it because of the color of their skin and their gender?
While the simple answer is "yes", the reality is far more complex. The reality is a minority in the same situation as a while male tends to have a more difficult time improving their lot. While this is stupid, sad and reprehensible it's also reality.
I hate when I realize I used a particular word too often. I'm too lazy today to look up alternatives, however. :-P
Full disclosure: my soon-to-be-ex wife works at AT&T and often got calls like this when she did billing support.
The variables involved in whether you get an early upgrade are weighted in how much you cost the company. If you're always calling for support or whining and demanding credits here and there you're likely to be told to pound sand on any early upgrade. The agents have a screen that tells them whether you are a profitable customer worth locking in or not.
had done this also? Would they have managed to get their way, one is forced to wonder? Would GM be thriving if they had a cut of every used car sale? Who the F--- do these publishers think they are anyway?! If this happens will I have to pay Dell every time my business sells a refurbished Dell PC? Hell, the pawnbrokers alone will never allow such a thing to go through.
These are somewhat rhetorical questions and the slippery slope fallacy applies a bit. Still, the principle is sound as a reason why the publishers shouldn't get a cut of used game sales, in my opinion.
My current girlfriend is bi. That's a much better solution to the problem.
An excellent point that bears repeating. There is nothing in the world quite like having your wife point out a beautiful woman and verbally rating them as to how do-able they are. It's good to be lucky, sometimes. I keep worrying I'll have to pay back this particular karma in a really bad accident or something.
http://www.click-network.com/AboutUs/tabid/88/Default.aspxNot always.
No, Qwest and Verizon are mutually exclusive. Qwest serves the area of Seattle itself and north a bit (east, I'm sure, also) while Verizon has territory north of Seattle. This is part of the real issue a hand; cable companies do NOT actually compete directly with telcos. They have their own network already laid which is not subject to as many issues, such as distance from the CO, as a telco. To upgrade to a new standard is much cheaper for cable provider than for a telco, as I understand it, although I could be off a bit on this and telcos simply refuse to upgrade in many cases or lag well behind cable.
If you want to compare actual competition, look at Tacoma. This is a city which has two actual cable providers: Comcast and Click Network. Both have service to all addresses within Tacoma and switching between them takes perhaps a couple of days, depending on the time to get a truck to you. Comcast offers virtually the same service in Tacoma as they do in Seattle, albeit with a slightly different lineup on the actual channel numbers. The price for this service in Tacoma costs about 60% of what it costs in Seattle. This is based off of my bill (Seattle) and my mother-in-law's bill (Tacoma) for exactly the same service level that we've each had for over a decade at least.
I realize this is simply anecdotal evidence, but I feel it's compelling evidence that direct competition, not a corrupt duopoly, is key to lowering prices.
Though why anyone should care about the Party of someone running for the local School Board is beyond me (yes, one of the elections in question was for the local School Board).
A lot of politicians got their start in similarly seemingly minor positions. In addition, the school board in many areas (I don't know about the one in question) is in charge of capital projects such as construction and purchase/sale of school real estate. That'd certainly be a good place to be if one were inclined to steal from the public.
Note, I am not suggesting that anything beyond the alleged election fraud occurred. I'm simply pointing out possible reasons (one honest and one dishonest) why a person might want to sit on the school board badly enough to pay for it.
Note, by the way, that what happened was good, old-fashioned, vote-buying. With a twist, in that the people actually handed the money to buy votes in the field decided to keep the money and just change a few votes themselves.
I'm not sure of that. It sounded to me as though the vote buying was involving absentee ballots (also made them commit mail fraud, apparently and allegedly). The vote tampering at the pools themselves didn't involve payouts but instead was just telling voters the "here's your vote" preview screen was final and then changing the votes before actually casting the ballot once the actual voter left the booth.
MS mapping existed before TomTom was even borne
Which means precisely squat. Software changes over time (duh). It should be obvious to anyone that TomTom alleges Microsoft began infringing at some date in the Streets & Trips app. I'm sure they aren't claiming the entire concept infringes but only a part, minor or otherwise.
So, basically, we have to determine how many "calculations per second" equivalent an average human can manage. Then we have to allow a range on either side of that since not everyone has the same capacity. Once we manage that, game AI would start being more realistic, huh?
Somehow I doubt it's that simplistic but still sort of interesting.
Now that was funny, in a slightly unsavory way. Well done.
In my country BSA tried to claim, as a scare tactic, you can not have a license free software for office usage, and if you do not have a printed license then there is no license. They performed extensive computer scans in license free offices etc.
And what, exactly, did the BSA give as a reason to perform these scans, I wonder? When they found FOS apps, were they acting on behalf of the free software's "owners" when they said you can't have a license if it's not printed? These BSA goons are insanely ballsy in my experience.
The BSA (I think) tried this sort of crap with one of my clients once. Some guys showed up at my client's office when I happened to be there. They were armed with a blue paper backed document that they told the receptionist was a warrant to inspect any computer and media for "valid licenses". The receptionist, thinking the warrant was valid, let them in but took it back to her boss. The business owner noticed rather quickly that the paperwork wasn't in any way a warrant but, instead, an "agreement" that once signed would grant permission to search everything in the office including personal cell phones. While she was reviewing the document, the goons told me to move away form he PC I was installing a hard drive in and started screwing around with the receptionist's PC without actual permission. The owner was pissed and called 911. The police were rather prompt in responding, too. I guess fake warrants kind of piss them off a bit.
I don't know what, if anything, ever came of it as I had to leave for an appointment with another client. The business owner said the goons left really fast all of a sudden. As best she could tell, a disgruntled employee reported "likely" software piracy. The sad thing is that this was one of the honest people ... some of my clients are knowingly using pirated apps.
You didn't watch the vid .... NM. I almost forgot where I was f.or a moment.
In the video, Jason Campbell said they hope to have it changed based on application. I'd presume that would indicate the shape is dictated by what program you're using or, probably at first, by mode buttons of some sort.
Seeing as there's no Venus Drug listed there. I mean, come ON! That'd sell like commuicator replicas at a convention.
My guess is that Oppenheim's barred from negotiations.
He wouldn't be barred from attending. He just won't be in control, as he is normally permitted to be.
The order wasn't that long so I read the entire thing. IANAL but I didn't see anything in there that would prevent each of the parties from appointing Oppenheim as their agent specifically for this proceeding. Maybe I'm missing something, though, due to my lack of familiarity with Oppenheim's historical practices in such conferences.
typical CEO of a large corporation. You know ... seriously out of touch with reality. Sony has shown time and time again that it's simply out of touch with the average consumer. It was just a matter of time until they proved themselves out of touch with their critical partners in a business venture such as this. Without developers, there won't be any good games. If the platform is harder to program for, that means fewer good games and slower growth. Not exactly what most CEOs would want ... a slow growth in a major product that needs scale to become profitable.
I won't get into the should kids or shouldn't kids buy various games issue. I don't think that's the real question these articles raise. The real issue is why would any politician vote for a law such as this which has already been shown time and again to be an automatic failure then waste money defending the failed law. As far as why judges strike these down, that's an interesting question so I asked a client of mine that happens to also be a judge once.
The main issue for the courts, it seems, is that it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tailor legislation to violence alone in the same manner as it is with pornography. This difficulty of is the real issue from what I can gather. We can say any evidence of bloodshed is obscene but then what about a safety video showing actual injury? By definition, these things are both bloody and violent yet are absolutely something minors should see before they operate certain power tools.
What it boils down to is what is considered obscene, really. Pretty much everyone (I suppose there are some few who'd disagree, thus the qualifier) agrees that nudity can be obscene, although not always. We likewise can agree that certain subject matter such as sexually explicit material are inappropriate for people under a certain age. Not everyone, however, agrees that violence, in and of itself, is necessarily obscene.
I hope this makes sense; I'm neither a lawyer nor a legal expert so I may habve mangled this somewhat.