I love how it sounds so simple. Just shut the nuclear power plants off, stop generating electricity and bury the fuel forever. Of course, for a country with few natural resources - how are you going to make up for the power generation short-fall. Nuclear power plants are really efficient at generating massive amounts of power, more so than any other power generation technique available today (by size, configuration, and technology). They can't just throw up a handful of wind turbines and hope to call it even. They can't erect coal fired or natural gas plants, especially if their reserves of such resources are marginal at best (Japan is an island, after all). All petroleum-based power generation will just make oil and it's derivatives vastly expensive - it STILL won't make up for the gap.
Are they going to ration power? Black out selected parts of the country to help keep the demand in check with the new available supply? Eliminate enough power generation technology, and you suddenly send your nation back to pre-Industrial Revolution economy... not good for a country that is the current technological leader of the entire planet.
"If you factor out the super-loyal Toyota Prius buyers, the repurchase rate drops to under 25%..." the summary mentions. Would that be kind of like saying, "If you factor out the number of humans alive on Earth right now, the human population of Earth is zero." or another favorite that might ring more bells for people, "Of course it's unlimited data. We only shut it off once you exceed 2GB per month."
...the distinction is clearly not important to EA or what's left of Bioware. I can honestly say that given this news, I have -zero- desire to play the series again as-is. This was a journey best not taken at all, and it has made me reflect on all the time I've wasted playing games in general. If I am being told a narrative, then it should do so - if I am part of the narrative, don't yank the control of it from me at the end because you don't like the possibility I will chose something you don't want to do. Also, you don't go all 'werewolf' and torch everything in the end - it makes people's investment a fruitless one. Until game makers figure that out, I am done with 'interactive fiction' titles - ESPECIALLY from these two.
..if your user can interact with it, they can screw with it. The nature of HTTP and the web is a stateless environment, one has to impress state onto it for things like secure transactions and sessions. Basically, you need to come up with a test that randomly checks to see if the input is coming from a person; all without breaking the experience of the web browser, or the web in general. It's an arms race, and things are even again; another advantage bites the dust.
...you mean...someone -BESIDES- accountants and business analysts, who make absolute decisions based on stock option growth and corporate profitability?
1> He can veto everything that crosses his deck if he is so inclined. An override can be achieved with 2/3 majority vote of House and Senate. They'd simply be deadlocked on a lot of things, but 'vital' items they both agree on would be rammed through anyway. The public, however, would not be amused by an obstructionist president.
2> He could issue the order, but if the military hates him enough - they would disobey him, and possibly overthrow the government. Not good.
3> Nice to think, yeah - so it wouldn't be as abysmally bleak as point #1 or 2, but he'd be hard up to get anything he wanted done. He'd be fighting the political war on both fronts. Democrats hate Republicans, and vise versa - but they'd hate him MORE than they hate each other. Once his presidential term was over, he would never serve in political office ever -ever- again - the powers that be would make sure of it.
+1 to this - wishful thinking given form, they are just creaming their shorts over this. It means we can be violently sexually assaulted while trying to board trains, board airlines. Now all we need is them at every bus depot, every subway terminal, all border crossings. We'll be a police state in fear of our government overlords in no time.
Problem with your plan - how are you going to pay for more games? How are you going to pay for your reviewers? Staff? Bandwidth? Server storage? 'Selling ad copy' only gets you so far, then you have to rely on the charity of either your subscribers (What? You don't force people to pay for your reviews? Bad decision there...) or the publishers of the games - instant conflict of interest.
Even if you could keep up with it without all these things - since you have to purchase all of your games retail - you'd be reviewing a few days after the initial hype and purchase rush, and since your not independently wealthy - you will only be able to review a few games at a time, limiting your site's appeal.
...the real problem is making enemies faster than you can kill them. One could start to argue that you need to kill those who 'could' kill you too - then we'd truly have never-ending war... until some radical nation just decides to end it all, and bring about mutually assured destruction.
Of course, if you listen to the Glen Beck crowd - we will be fighting the race wars, losing out to the feral mud people, and women's rights will cause the downfall of mankind. Oh, and you'd better start buying gold now - as when money is worthless and you will be eating people to survive; you need to protect your portfolio.
You bring up a good point - nix the pure quarters plan, substitute the quarters, dimes, nickels plan. Mix in a few foreign currencies in there for fun, and it can be a scavenger hunt every month of the year - the gift to bored employees that keeps giving the entire year long.
See, what I plan to do is make my payments in person at a store every month if this goes through - in quarters. Every month. Sure, they will charge me a fee - and that will be paid. In quarters. In person. To a customer service representative they have to pay. Every month.
I thought perhaps a method that triggers the release of chlorine gas into the interior of the vehicle if the glass is broken or perhaps something that electrifies all surfaces of the vehicle to 500A@10kV. Ta-death!
...or listening to the radio, needing to use the bathroom, or being an asshole in the near vicinity of a car. Of course, this -really- punishes those who have always used hands-free technologies, used their phones responsibly, and drive safely every day. They HAVE to be a problem - because the NTSB says so...
Oh, how I wish this was how it's supposed to work... many employers really REALLY -MEAN- having ten years of experience in the product that JUST came out. I remember getting through the 'gauntlet' only to have the interviewer get really pissed that I didn't have the experience. Told me I 'wasted his time and mine, and that he would make sure I would NOT be considered for any position in that company EVER, just for being such a liar'.
Needless to say, I told him how awesome he was - and never worried about it again.
Odds are, if there is a disaster large enough to wipe out your office, all of your storage, all of your backups, all of the off-site backups and defeat all of your CBO plans - your out of business. Time to call the insurance agent, notify any surviving employees, set up a mailing for your remaining clients, and see what you might be able to salvage. The IRS doesn't generally bust asses of people who have survived massive disasters like that... but if they do, they can talk to your accountant and insurance agent (you -do- have an accountant who keeps a duplicate of your records, right?).
Putting your confidential information into the hands of some almighty 'cloud' is really irresponsible; especially if that provider has a track records of handling that data in an irresponsible fashion.
They didn't get US Marshals to seize property based on the court judgement - as yes, that is a civil matter. However, a civil judgement has the weight of law behind it to enforce it, which Righthaven ignored, or failed to obey in regards to the court judgement - which was cause for the judge to issue an order to secure the property to force compliance, as well as issuing a contempt charge (most likely). The goods weren't 'seized' as such, only secured so that a trustee could be appointed to sell them to satisfy the judgement.
It's the same principle in that law enforcement secures property in a bankruptcy proceeding during a Sheriff sale (if I remember right), they are not seizing it for direct payment - they are securing it for storage until such time a trustee can sell it to convert the assets into cash money.
IANAL - I believe the legal language is something along the lines of 'The corporate veil (or shield) protecting agents of the corporation from judgements and legal action can be pierced if the agent in question has performed the offending actions while significantly outside the scope of the agent's duties with the employing offending organization.' Basically, it protects employees from personal lawsuits for actions taken by the corporation when the employee was acting as an agent of the corporation in performance of his/her/their job duties, when those duties are in compliance with their stated scope of their duties and those duties do not directly violate the rule of law. So, can't sue a CEO directly for when his towing company accidentally repossesses your car, causing damage - can only sue the corporation. If the CEO was using his towing company to steal cars, then you can 'pierce the corporate veil' and charge him/her directly.
Sounds like something I might have to give a try then. The 'I own the copyright on the ISO image, so you have to pay me to get an installable copy' stuff was bullshit, to be honest.
I remember trying to install this back in the 3.0 days, being thwarted by the fact that one of the authors of the software owned the copyright on the OS in ISO disc format, effectively making it impossible to get a version to install without paying him. After a few failed days of missing this or that file, and corrupt BitTorrent copies, I gave up, went back to FreeBSD (at the time).
As long as we, the people, are not heard in regards to our wishes - this kind of thing will continue. I, for one, have stopped flying because of the security theater; and I will not be forced to drive or walk to avoid being sexually assaulted in my own country - and PAY for the privileged of being mistreated.
When I was attempting to write for mass market, I managed to contact a few of the larger publishers - and were all told the same thing:
If I knew someone in their current stable who could vouch for me, and was willing to take the hit if my books bombed - they'd sign me. If not, they weren't signing new talent - with or without an agent. Sorry, wasn't happening.
Of course, I knew some people in some places - and if push came to shove - I could get published by some place like Tor or Harlequin (if I wanted to write love novels) but their contracts for new writers was indentured servitude (mostly); and they would NOT even review your materials if you EVER published anything through a Publish-on-Demand publisher or self-published. Ever.
It really put a damper on my writing - and I am just now starting to recover to the point of wanting to write again - mostly because I know if I want to put a story out there, I don't have to turn to these people anymore - there ARE now other avenues to get my stories out there, and I don't have to sign my life away to get exposure. If the world of back-room deals to get published is coming to an end, I welcome it with open arms and wild enthusiasm.
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I love how it sounds so simple. Just shut the nuclear power plants off, stop generating electricity and bury the fuel forever. Of course, for a country with few natural resources - how are you going to make up for the power generation short-fall. Nuclear power plants are really efficient at generating massive amounts of power, more so than any other power generation technique available today (by size, configuration, and technology). They can't just throw up a handful of wind turbines and hope to call it even. They can't erect coal fired or natural gas plants, especially if their reserves of such resources are marginal at best (Japan is an island, after all). All petroleum-based power generation will just make oil and it's derivatives vastly expensive - it STILL won't make up for the gap.
Are they going to ration power? Black out selected parts of the country to help keep the demand in check with the new available supply? Eliminate enough power generation technology, and you suddenly send your nation back to pre-Industrial Revolution economy... not good for a country that is the current technological leader of the entire planet.
"If you factor out the super-loyal Toyota Prius buyers, the repurchase rate drops to under 25%..." the summary mentions. Would that be kind of like saying, "If you factor out the number of humans alive on Earth right now, the human population of Earth is zero." or another favorite that might ring more bells for people, "Of course it's unlimited data. We only shut it off once you exceed 2GB per month."
...the distinction is clearly not important to EA or what's left of Bioware. I can honestly say that given this news, I have -zero- desire to play the series again as-is. This was a journey best not taken at all, and it has made me reflect on all the time I've wasted playing games in general. If I am being told a narrative, then it should do so - if I am part of the narrative, don't yank the control of it from me at the end because you don't like the possibility I will chose something you don't want to do. Also, you don't go all 'werewolf' and torch everything in the end - it makes people's investment a fruitless one. Until game makers figure that out, I am done with 'interactive fiction' titles - ESPECIALLY from these two.
..if your user can interact with it, they can screw with it. The nature of HTTP and the web is a stateless environment, one has to impress state onto it for things like secure transactions and sessions. Basically, you need to come up with a test that randomly checks to see if the input is coming from a person; all without breaking the experience of the web browser, or the web in general. It's an arms race, and things are even again; another advantage bites the dust.
...you mean...someone -BESIDES- accountants and business analysts, who make absolute decisions based on stock option growth and corporate profitability?
I think it's because there is no one left to care about it. /. is on life-support administration-wise.
Interesting...WRONG...but interesting.
1> He can veto everything that crosses his deck if he is so inclined. An override can be achieved with 2/3 majority vote of House and Senate. They'd simply be deadlocked on a lot of things, but 'vital' items they both agree on would be rammed through anyway. The public, however, would not be amused by an obstructionist president.
2> He could issue the order, but if the military hates him enough - they would disobey him, and possibly overthrow the government. Not good.
3> Nice to think, yeah - so it wouldn't be as abysmally bleak as point #1 or 2, but he'd be hard up to get anything he wanted done. He'd be fighting the political war on both fronts. Democrats hate Republicans, and vise versa - but they'd hate him MORE than they hate each other. Once his presidential term was over, he would never serve in political office ever -ever- again - the powers that be would make sure of it.
+1 to this - wishful thinking given form, they are just creaming their shorts over this. It means we can be violently sexually assaulted while trying to board trains, board airlines. Now all we need is them at every bus depot, every subway terminal, all border crossings. We'll be a police state in fear of our government overlords in no time.
Problem with your plan - how are you going to pay for more games? How are you going to pay for your reviewers? Staff? Bandwidth? Server storage? 'Selling ad copy' only gets you so far, then you have to rely on the charity of either your subscribers (What? You don't force people to pay for your reviews? Bad decision there...) or the publishers of the games - instant conflict of interest.
Even if you could keep up with it without all these things - since you have to purchase all of your games retail - you'd be reviewing a few days after the initial hype and purchase rush, and since your not independently wealthy - you will only be able to review a few games at a time, limiting your site's appeal.
...the real problem is making enemies faster than you can kill them. One could start to argue that you need to kill those who 'could' kill you too - then we'd truly have never-ending war... until some radical nation just decides to end it all, and bring about mutually assured destruction.
Of course, if you listen to the Glen Beck crowd - we will be fighting the race wars, losing out to the feral mud people, and women's rights will cause the downfall of mankind. Oh, and you'd better start buying gold now - as when money is worthless and you will be eating people to survive; you need to protect your portfolio.
You bring up a good point - nix the pure quarters plan, substitute the quarters, dimes, nickels plan. Mix in a few foreign currencies in there for fun, and it can be a scavenger hunt every month of the year - the gift to bored employees that keeps giving the entire year long.
See, what I plan to do is make my payments in person at a store every month if this goes through - in quarters. Every month. Sure, they will charge me a fee - and that will be paid. In quarters. In person. To a customer service representative they have to pay. Every month.
I thought perhaps a method that triggers the release of chlorine gas into the interior of the vehicle if the glass is broken or perhaps something that electrifies all surfaces of the vehicle to 500A@10kV. Ta-death!
...or listening to the radio, needing to use the bathroom, or being an asshole in the near vicinity of a car. Of course, this -really- punishes those who have always used hands-free technologies, used their phones responsibly, and drive safely every day. They HAVE to be a problem - because the NTSB says so...
Were these stable elements - or did they exist as a product of some super-collision for fractions of a second?
Oh, how I wish this was how it's supposed to work... many employers really REALLY -MEAN- having ten years of experience in the product that JUST came out. I remember getting through the 'gauntlet' only to have the interviewer get really pissed that I didn't have the experience. Told me I 'wasted his time and mine, and that he would make sure I would NOT be considered for any position in that company EVER, just for being such a liar'.
Needless to say, I told him how awesome he was - and never worried about it again.
Some people ARE -those- kind of assholes, though.
Odds are, if there is a disaster large enough to wipe out your office, all of your storage, all of your backups, all of the off-site backups and defeat all of your CBO plans - your out of business. Time to call the insurance agent, notify any surviving employees, set up a mailing for your remaining clients, and see what you might be able to salvage. The IRS doesn't generally bust asses of people who have survived massive disasters like that... but if they do, they can talk to your accountant and insurance agent (you -do- have an accountant who keeps a duplicate of your records, right?).
Putting your confidential information into the hands of some almighty 'cloud' is really irresponsible; especially if that provider has a track records of handling that data in an irresponsible fashion.
They didn't get US Marshals to seize property based on the court judgement - as yes, that is a civil matter. However, a civil judgement has the weight of law behind it to enforce it, which Righthaven ignored, or failed to obey in regards to the court judgement - which was cause for the judge to issue an order to secure the property to force compliance, as well as issuing a contempt charge (most likely). The goods weren't 'seized' as such, only secured so that a trustee could be appointed to sell them to satisfy the judgement.
It's the same principle in that law enforcement secures property in a bankruptcy proceeding during a Sheriff sale (if I remember right), they are not seizing it for direct payment - they are securing it for storage until such time a trustee can sell it to convert the assets into cash money.
IANAL - I believe the legal language is something along the lines of 'The corporate veil (or shield) protecting agents of the corporation from judgements and legal action can be pierced if the agent in question has performed the offending actions while significantly outside the scope of the agent's duties with the employing offending organization.' Basically, it protects employees from personal lawsuits for actions taken by the corporation when the employee was acting as an agent of the corporation in performance of his/her/their job duties, when those duties are in compliance with their stated scope of their duties and those duties do not directly violate the rule of law. So, can't sue a CEO directly for when his towing company accidentally repossesses your car, causing damage - can only sue the corporation. If the CEO was using his towing company to steal cars, then you can 'pierce the corporate veil' and charge him/her directly.
Sounds like something I might have to give a try then. The 'I own the copyright on the ISO image, so you have to pay me to get an installable copy' stuff was bullshit, to be honest.
I remember trying to install this back in the 3.0 days, being thwarted by the fact that one of the authors of the software owned the copyright on the OS in ISO disc format, effectively making it impossible to get a version to install without paying him. After a few failed days of missing this or that file, and corrupt BitTorrent copies, I gave up, went back to FreeBSD (at the time).
As long as we, the people, are not heard in regards to our wishes - this kind of thing will continue. I, for one, have stopped flying because of the security theater; and I will not be forced to drive or walk to avoid being sexually assaulted in my own country - and PAY for the privileged of being mistreated.
Just remember, when they ask for your papers - don't run, otherwise they will shoot you in the back.
When I was attempting to write for mass market, I managed to contact a few of the larger publishers - and were all told the same thing:
If I knew someone in their current stable who could vouch for me, and was willing to take the hit if my books bombed - they'd sign me. If not, they weren't signing new talent - with or without an agent. Sorry, wasn't happening.
Of course, I knew some people in some places - and if push came to shove - I could get published by some place like Tor or Harlequin (if I wanted to write love novels) but their contracts for new writers was indentured servitude (mostly); and they would NOT even review your materials if you EVER published anything through a Publish-on-Demand publisher or self-published. Ever.
It really put a damper on my writing - and I am just now starting to recover to the point of wanting to write again - mostly because I know if I want to put a story out there, I don't have to turn to these people anymore - there ARE now other avenues to get my stories out there, and I don't have to sign my life away to get exposure. If the world of back-room deals to get published is coming to an end, I welcome it with open arms and wild enthusiasm.