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Comment Re:Playing devil's advocate here... (Score 5, Insightful) 668

The problem with labelling something no better than a placebo as "healthcare" is that people who could benefit from real treatments can be led to use a placebo as a replacement for actual effective treatments; if the placebos don't work, they may have just aggravated the health issue by delaying real treatment.

It's like saying "Scientology worked for me"; you are promoting a very dubious form of (mental) health care, instead of scientifically proven options. If your medical doctor wants to prescribe a placebo, fine, but make sure you go to a real doctor for that.

Submission + - IMAX Tries To Censor Arstechnica over SteamVR Comparison

Cutting_Crew writes: From the article:

"Last week, Ars published a story about the newest version of SteamVR, a virtual reality system made by Valve Software. The piece includes interviews with game designers praising the new system as well as writer Sam Machkovech's own experience using SteamVR at Valve's office in Bellevue, Washington. On June 16, Ars Technica was contacted by IMAX Corporation. The company said our story required a retraction because it included a brief reference to IMAX—included without IMAX's permission. "Any unauthorized use of our trademark is expressly forbidden"

If you look at the letter from the lawyer you will notice that it mentioned trademark and seems to think that merely using the name "IMAX" is somehow an infringement of that trademark. It sounds like someone is a little too scared of Valve. Apparently, they(IMAX) has never heard of or experienced the Streisand Effect. Here is a quick link to the PDF sent by the 'lawyer'.

Comment Re:boring (Score 1) 126

Most people should grow out of that at what, eight years old when they learn how to play most games themselves?

So most people should grow out of watching soccer at age eight? Because, *anyone* can play soccer, right?
People don't just watch video games on Twitch because they are scared of playing them...I'd say those numbers are insignificantly low. People watch video games on Twitch for a variety of reasons: they like watching people play the game who are way better than they are, or are worse than they are (slapstick funny), or to learn strategies, or just for plain straightforward enjoyment of the medium on it's own.
As Kaytoue et al[2012] state: "watching video game live streams tends more and more towards becoming a new kind of entertainment on its own."
As Marshall Mcluhan said: "The medium is the message".

Kaytoue, Mahdi, Arlei Silva, Loïc Cerf, Wagner Meira, Jr., and Chedy Raïssi.
“Watch me Playing, I am a Professional: a First Study on Video Game Live
Streaming.” Proceedings of the 21st international conference companion on
World Wide Web. New York: ACM, 2012: 1181-1188.

Comment Re:Answer (Score 3, Insightful) 336

In the field I work in, we aren't allowed to use RAII; we compile with it turned off. Same for exceptions (this is not exactly unique; Google coding practices require this as well, as do many other companies). Performance-critical real-time code shuns that stuff. We haven't used C for 20 years, because C++ offers the stuff mentioned in summary, and what we need is all that power PLUS the ability to manipulate memory directly, and all as fast as possible. There are huge swaths of industry that need more than "C with classes", but less than Java/C#.

Of course, what it boils down to is the old joke about C++: get 5 experts on the language in one room, and you discover that each of them only is comfortable with 40% of the language...and it is a DIFFERENT 40% for each of them!

Comment Re:Cinematographers rejoice (Score 1) 134

They are seeing even more use on large budget Hollywood movies because of 3D; a regular Steadicam is very very difficult to work with if you strap the large 3D cameras to it, so the pros who specialize in Steadicam shots have been using Segway/Steadicam combos, where the weight of the Steadicam is supported by the Segway. It is, in fact, extremely common.

Since you want examples from crappy crass mass-media: Eurovision! https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
That demonstrates the "step-off" maneuver, where the Segway is used for the intro rolling shot, then the operator steps off the Segway and continues the smooth shot on foot. Good for chase scenes into forest etc as well, where they use off-road tires and ride the Segway down a path until it's time to step off into the woods.

Here is pro Steadicam operator Larry McConkey, talking about his first use of a Segway, for Martin Scorcese's "Hugo":
"The crane on the electric camera car with the stabilized head at the front was a scary-looking machine. It took a lot of time to safely get a shot up to speed. I was looking for a way to move my much smaller rig quickly through the set, without running—that just wasn’t going to happen with this beast. I called Chris Fawcett, a Steadicam Operator in Holland. Chris brought his Handsfree Transporter 2, a Segway modified for Steadicam use, and taught me how to ride it. We then made some modifications: a seat to allow a very low operating position, fenders to protect the 3D rig (courtesy of the extremely skillful special effects department), and mounting for video transmitter, batteries and my gyro kit. Chris now offers his own modified version of a Segway, the Steadiseg, based partly on those mods.

When it came time to do a POV of the dog racing through the station, I told Bob I could do it. Could I? This was a big movie, and the rig was very heavy and I was inexperienced with the Segway should I really be trying this? I took a deep breath and went for it. Marty was at the other end of the stage. After several rehearsals, building up speed with each one, I did the first take, and I immediately heard yelling. “What’s that?” I asked Bob, as he met me returning from the run.

“I guess it’s not working out”, he said, “Marty’s not happy”.

I was crestfallen. Then a moment later: “Just kidding—he loved it!” Marty was excited to shoot so quickly and easily. Up to then camera car shots through crowds with the 3D rigs had been an exercise in extreme patience."

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