when I heard "Stone throwing chimps that learn new behaviors" was that George W. Bush was back in town.

Humans, poo flingers in more formal clothes?

Anime conventions have been doing gatherings for a while successfully.

  I only point to Otakon, since it's the anime con whose practices I'm most familiar . This con started with a few guys putting some seed money together and frankly losing money, because of insurance and liability costs that sometimes need to be acquired for larger venues. Then they went non-profit and things were greatly improved. Also the philosophy was very similar to most other conventions as how to run it.

- Elect your corporate officers and convention president every year. It keeps things from going too stale and political

- Have a group goal and keep to it. Otakon's at least was and should still be a 'By fans for fans' convention while showcasing East Asian culture to the public.

- Improve every year. Regardless of how good or bad you did the mantra should be 'We can do better.'

Those are just the highlights, but years when I thought Otakon would go down it has kept going and growing.

This is exactly the case. This is something Congress can do that might possibly redeem their abysmal approval rating in the public. For the vast majority out there which no nothing about video games, this is a win.

  We know it's a loss and a colossal one. How do we convince people about it? This is no more than the rating system with movies. Back in the day when a movie was rated R kids didn't see it for many reasons:

1) Movies theaters and movie ushers didn't sell tickets to underage kids
2) There was a stigma to even going IN to see an R rated film
3) Parents could make the individual decision when it came out on cable, TV, VHS, Beta, RCA Video Disc etc.

This is the same thing. Parents, if you see a game rating above your child's age - don't buy it! or if you really feel that little Johnny can handle Nun Slashers Effect 3 for the Sony EyeStation then go ahead, but don't blame the video game industry when your son gets busted for assault and ends up living with you until he's 45!

Personally, I'm going to contact my representatives and also call and warn my Congressmen that this bill is a bad idea for these specific reasons. It only takes usually 25 calls per office to make a particular view on an issue stand out. If even part of Slashdot's collective might calls or writes in then this bill can be removed and we can move on with more important issues. Remember to also calmly include that you are a voting constituent and if you are of their party then mention that too.

We have all been seriously owned. The Daily Mail receives website hits and we banter about on a topic that really has no merit nor a drop of reality in it.

I post this as a warning to others. Don't waste anymore brain power on it.

If anyone with influence in the international community takes this seriously it should be struck down and its supporters immediately considered completely out of touch with reality. Then ignored.

"Hey, Mildred, that burger is YOU!" and the resulting LOLS

This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Eat Me!"

A little more Douglas Adams into it.

You got metal fever boy!

DON'T DATE ROBOTS!

Brought to you byyyyyyyyyyyyyy the Space Pope!

For example, the phone feature of the iPhone. The other week I was getting increasingly frustrated that my iPhone doesn't provide any way to block unwanted callers. Some telemarketer was calling a dozen times a day for several days, and it was pissing me off. How hard would it be to implement call blocking?

Uh Chief? . . . I feel for you, but that's something that should be handled by your phone service provider. Not necessarily by the device.

Tackling telemarketers.

Put your cel phone number on the Fed Do Not Call List. Your state might have one too.
https://www.donotcall.gov/

Some telemarketers bypass this by claiming a "business relationship". Calmly tell the telemarketer to take you off his call list and you do not want to receive any more calls.

If they call again then you call your phone service provider (aka Verizon, AT&T etc.) to have the number blocked.

If the provider doesn't do anything then call the police and tell them you are being harassed. Be sure to have the dates and times of all the phone calls.

Yes, it would be more simple if the phone handled it, but sometimes you have to do your own legwork.

[Fade in on a roadhouse bar in a small Washington state logging town.
A singer on stage croons a haunting tune about falling. We pan over to Harrison Ford, Kyle Maclaughlin and Russell Mulcahy
sitting at a table. Harrison is eating sushi with a bottle of whiskey, Kyle is eating pie and Russell is on the phone
with Christopher Lambert.]

Singer: Falling . . . Falling . . .

[The bar goes dark. The band disappears from the stage. A bright white light appears on the trio at the table and
on stage. Russell stops his call and all three stand to look mesmerizingly at the stage. A very tall man in the likeness of Mr. Homn from ST.TNG
fades into view on stage.]

Tall Man: [Speaking to Russell] It is happening again. . .It is happening again.

[A small dwarf in a red suit dances up to Harrison. He hands him a cel phone.]

Dwarf: Âɥɥɥɥn ÉÉÉÉÉ¥ É¥ÉÉ¥ÉÉ¥ÉÉ¥ÉÉ¥ ÉÉu ÂÊÊoÉ"s ÊZÇ×YpÄ±É sı Êı ÂooÊZ ÉoÉY zı ÇuoÉ¥d ÇÉ¥Ê Ë(TM)pÉoÉY Ë(TM)ÉÉ

[Harrison puts it on speaker.]

Ridley Scott: Hey there big guy! Me and the guys at Fox are lookin' to green light a sequel for Blade Runner! Starts a 1.5 Mil with 2.5% in points. Tell me you're in!

[Time slows downs. Russell reaches for the phone.]

Russell: Noooooooo!

[He throws the phone at the back bar wall and shatters the mirrored glass. The bright lights fade and everything returns to normal except the glass.]

Russell: I'm . . . I'm sorry Harrison. I don't know what came over me. I just can't let that happen again.

Kyle: It's OK, Russell, already been there. Done that.

[The trio leaves money on the table and get up to leave as everyone looks at them. Harrison tosses a coin on the bar.]

Harrison: Sorry about the mess.

Well, it's a series of tubes...

What my distinguished colleague really meant is: the internet is a series of Hobbit holes. . .

Agreed.

Maybe they should also look into organizations like the church of scientology. One of the genesis points of Anonymous. If there can be such as thing.

Mobile . . . said
You think you're so creative. You don't know what it's like to really create something; to create a life; to feel it growing inside you. All you know how to create is death...

An Anon Coward said
WTF?

AgentSmith
What? You never saw Terminator 2?
Pfft! Meh. Kids these days!

Now get off my lawn before I let Clint Eastwood out of the house. (10 points for that reference and a shiny new donkey (Another 10 points for that reference, so let me check my notes (Another 10 points for that reference. Auugh help I'm trapped in a recursive loop. (Another 10 points for that reference. No! Seriously! Somebody reboot the Matrix! I'm frickin' trapped! (Another 10 points for that reference . . . ^P)&*(T%*DVUO*^%F&$DRO*&T&^G
^C

Reboot now? Y

AMIBIOS(C) 2007 American Megatrends Inc.
ASUS P5KPL ACPI BIOS Revision 1010
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium Core2Pro Dual CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Speed: 3.01 GHz Count : 2

Press DEL to run Setup
Press F8 for BBS POPUP
Initializing USB Controllers . . Done
4096 OK

Attempting to restart Windows . . .

MBR Failure . . .

ntldr not found

Ha Ha suckers! LULZSEC haxxord you Matrix!!!

A big mirror makes a big beam!

Education

Educate younger programmers to not accept this. Even if it is their "dream job". There are plenty of game development houses out there who do not treat people like this. Whether they are indie game companies or big names. The people I know in the game industry started out programming and creating test games on their own like a portfolio. They shopped themselves around to game companies as either an artist, a programmer or both.

Educate the consumers. Are there not places aside from Labor and Industry departments where a programmer or a collective group of programmers can anonymously report these practices? This should allow the consumer to vote with their wallets! This next part is a little pie-in-the-sky, but consumers also have to care enough about how their games are being made. When a game company's name lands on this 'website' is should be equivalent to saying that someone has B. O. along the lines of the Black Plague. Companies should work hard to get their name off that list not unlike a SPAM blacklist.

Don't forget about Mexican bashing, a la Lou Dobbs,

  Oh bullshit. He just starting talking about the elephant in the room. I don't know every specific word that came out of his mouth, but my viewings of Lou Dobbs usually included his statements concerning 'Illegal Immigrants'. Meaning people who are in this country that have broken (and are breaking) our Federal Immigration and Naturalization laws. A major percentage happen to come from either from Mexico or Central America. (A cursory Google search even found that.)
People who are illegal immigrants are still people, but it's a slap in the face to everyone of my friends who took the time to go legally go through either the naturalization process to become a citizen or to keep their green card status up to date.
    There are many things we can do to secure our border and improve the naturalization and asylum process, but that can't realistically happen until certain people starting recognizing the difference between illegal and legal immigrants. Stop apologizing for an entire population who are continually breaking the law even after multiple amnesty attempts in the past.

As for good ol' mary jane? Legalize it and be done. The great fear of Reefer Madness is over. Marijuana might be a gateway drug, but it still is going to end up like alcohol in its treatment. The really big fear is that someone is going to be stoned on the road or be stoned while they are performing my surgical operation. The real truth is that they already are. Legalization should be a pathway towards getting people off of drugs when possible. It's also a possible side benefit because of human nature. Smoking pot won't be part of the cool counterculture anymore. The forbidden thrill will be gone.

But I tried to go for a +1 funny D:

Standard procedure reply on Slashdot when someone doesn't 'get it' is WHOOOOSH!