Comment Re:And it's fucking irritating (Score 2) 321
What are movies if not advertisements for the entertainment industry? It's ALL advertising, movies included, as McLuhan would say.
Comment Re:The Mythbusters should try to win this! (Score 3, Informative) 189
Masters of cinematic effects != rocket scientists.
Comment Re:Yes, you are right (Score 1) 804
Actually you are 100% wrong.
How can somebody say this and claim to be educated? Is it part of those "conflict resolution skills" you're talking about?
I'm glad you've had success, but there are simply too many people to ask each one nicely. And sure, some might say yes, but some will not. And dragging the whole class to a halt and assuming that the class as a whole will agree on ANYTHING is both an unproductive use of class time and naive.
Comment Re:Yes, you are right (Score 1) 804
Afraid of what? Do you think that by "respectfully" asking somebody to stop using their computer they are going to do it? Preposterous. As equals in the classroom we hold exactly no leverage and they have no incentive to comply. People feel entitled to use whatever they see fit, and they will continue to do so unless the school as an organization takes a stand.
My program (not CS) has a no-laptop policy in the classroom. In other classes that are small enough, the prof can walk around the class and check to see what students are doing with their computer. But in large lectures of 40+ people, the amount of things happening on computer screens from the student's perspective is shocking. It is NOT just a "handful of bozos".
Modern Warfare 2 Surpasses $1 Billion Mark; Dedicated Servers What? 258
The Opposable Thumbs blog is running an interesting article contrasting everything Activision did "wrong" in creating and marketing Modern Warfare 2 with the game's unqualified success. Despite price hikes, somewhat shady review practices, exploit frustrations, and the dedicated server fiasco, the game has raked in over a billion dollars in sales.
"There was only one way to review Modern Warfare 2: on the Xbox 360, in Santa Barbara, under the watchful eye of Activision. Accepting the paid trip, along with room and board, was the only way you were going to get a review before launch. Joystiq noted that this broke their ethics policy, but they went anyway. Who can say no to a review destined to bring in traffic? Shacknews refused to call their coverage a 'review' because of the ethical issues inherent in the situation, but that stance was unique. The vast majority of news outlets didn't disclose how the review was conducted, or added a disclaimer after the nature of the review was made public. This proved to Activision that if you're big enough, you can dictate the exact terms of any review, and no ethics policy will make news outlets turn you down."
