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Comment Re:fondly remembering bullshit (Score 1) 255

Same age as her and that was the year we got an apple IIe from a fire sale (literal, some kids tried to end school forever), cleaned it up, and upgraded from the C-64.

I'd have to agree with that 95% part. Given the opportunity any kids can learn the basics of a command line interface once they start to learn to read, and earlier with a GUI. My 6 year old loves playing on computers.
Heck my 18 month has figured out how to unlock my phone and loves seeing the screen change when she pushes buttons. That's a fascination that will bloom into true geekdom as she grows.

Comment Re:Blizzard Shizzard (Score 1) 252

I know. What I'm saying is I think in the near future those effectively merged servers will become actually merged.
Currently they have to run 6 character databases and 6 worldspace instances to run those 6 servers even though the players play as if they are on one server.
All they will have to do is amend the database to include homeserver, merge those 6 databases together, run a couple checks based on that homeserver field for server first achievements, and they'll have one large pop server and 5 servers worth of hardware to save on upgrade costs. All without actually announcing they're merging servers for real, since the line in the sand drawn by the hardcore players seems to be that border between virtual merges and actual merges.

Comment Re:Blizzard Shizzard (Score 3, Interesting) 252

Last I checked WoW had a system that effectively merged servers by adding automatic cross-server gameplay to low pop servers. So your character from low pop server #1 would actually be playing on low pop server #2 in some or all zones so you would have other people to play with.
They decided on this because the idea of them actually merging servers to reduce host footprint would spark a massive panic as The One True MMO all others aspire to replace would be in perceived death spiral.

Personally I expect there is a little more to the cross server feature than they're letting on, and eventually the part that differentiated players by their server ( in chat) will be set to fake that info and many servers will actually be fully merged at that point.
All it would take is an extra field in the server database to denote which fake server their character is a member of and adding a check to the "server first" achievements to respect those groups.
Not only would that let them avoid the whole "OMG WoW is dying!!!" panic from the fanboys while actually cutting underused hardware, but paid server moves become even more of a cash grab as in many cases it would be a quick field switch in a single server's database.

Comment Re: I'm curious (Score 1) 85

My problem is while we have very good insurance, we just don't have any other option. The only clinic here works 8-4 m-f and that's it, anything else has to go to the ER.

We had a small clinic open on the weekends for a short time, but the doctor running it was shunned by the other doctors in the area and died after 9 months of heart attack linked to work stress.
Guy had a full workload all weekend long so there is a need for weekend care, but the other doctors in the area apparently find it more profitable to force people into ER visits.

Comment Re: I'm curious (Score 1) 85

If I thought it possible you might one day breed I would tell you to wait till you have a 3 year old with a fever of 104-105, 102 after both tylenol and ibuprophen, who sits quietly whimpering because everything hurts, and see if you feel comfortable waiting two days to see if it's serious.

But we both know that's never going to happen, so go ahead and fume over some mythical worldwide rate increase caused by my daughter's 4 ER visits over a 6 year period.

Comment Re: I'm curious (Score 1) 85

If we know it's the flu we can care for her normally without the looming fear it's something worse. Gives you the chance to wait till the clinic is open instead of wasting a trip to an ER that has the motto "If it ain't broken bones, don't fix it."

That's half our doctors trips, finding out it's something we just have to let run its course. But we still need to get those tests done to know that.

Comment Re: Motivated rejection of science (Score 5, Interesting) 661

Couple years ago the University of Wyoming took down a large sculpture on campus well before its planned exhebition run was done because the oil industry felt it was insulting. I'm pretty sure "don't bite the hand that feeds you" was an exact quote from a state official demanding it be taken down immediately.

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