Comment Re:No gratitude? (Score 1) 909
At the time I posted the comment (4:09 PM, about 15 minutes after the original post), only the negative tags were there.
Comment No gratitude? (Score 5, Insightful) 909
I see the tags 'butthurt' and 'whaaaaaaaaa', but no 'thanksforyourtime'. Why won't anyone show any gratitude for the years of work he's generously offered to the project?
Comment Re:Because of overcrowding (Score 1) 337
That example is very apropos. However, in Ultima Online, there is a good counterexample: recall (teleporting) to a location that was outside a city was very often risky, especially to popular spots. For instance, it was rather stupid to mark runes right outside of mines because usually there would be someone there waiting for you.
Comment How about Haskell? (Score 1) 301
FPGAs, you say? How about prototyping in Haskell?
Here is a link to some videos describing the process.
Comment Progress visualizing "spooky" effects of physics (Score 1) 131
There has been some interesting progress in visualizing some of the interesting (or spooky) quantum mechanical effects.
http://visualphysics.org
The software which generates it is available for free. It uses mathematics based in Quaternions to visualize the mathematics behind spacetime, standard model groups,etc.
Comment Re:Egypt has never been a democracy (Score 1) 575
When all things are at stake, than all things remain possible.
The previous situations where the 4th amendment protections were subverted or revoked, or habeas corpus was revoked - all of them potentially threatened our existence (Revolutionary War, Civil War, 1st and 2nd World War - and even the Cold War). Neither the Iraq war or the war on terror is one of existence. We are fighting wholly inferior opponents with wholly inferior technology. If the war turns badly, we can annihilate our opponent thousands of times over. Even if they succeed in a major (nuclear, biological, chemical) terror attack, it will still very likely be a small scale event. You can be certain the retaliation will instead measure on the Richter scale.
I disagree with Benjamin Franklin's above quote. It should read:
"... those who desire total security at the expense of some liberty, deserve neither."
It's a sensible thing to give up the right to be individually free to build nuclear weapons or superviruses: the resulting insecurity from allowing lots of these things can result in a total loss of everything - security, liberty, and life. It is not a sensible thing to give up private communication and search and seizure because of (relatively) cheap, regional war halfway across the glove.
Are Micro-Transactions the Future of Online Game Business Models? 68
Last week we discussed news of Sony Online Entertainment's unveiling of a store that would allow players to purchase in-game Everquest items for real money. Massively spoke with John Smedley, SOE's CEO, about the system and what their goals were. He made the point that they were limiting sales to things that wouldn't unbalance the game. "They're fun and they're convenient. That's all they are. We're not selling power. There are a lot of respectable viewpoints on this, and a lot of reasonable people can disagree on them. Our view is that nothing here is gamebreaking." Edge Magazine has a related piece about Mytheon, an upcoming action-strategy game that will rely on micro-transactions to support its otherwise free-to-play business model. The game's producer suggests that micro-transactions are "a model that really gets us closer to the end user, and that's the way things need to be in the future, online."
Researchers Test Whether Sharks Enjoy Christmas Songs 142
Scientists plan to test whether sharks enjoy listening to Christmas pop songs, after US research showed fish could recognize melody. Chris Brown, senior marine biologist at the Loch Lomond aquarium, said seasonal music would be played through walkthrough underwater tunnels where they can be heard by dozens of nurse sharks, black-tip reef sharks, and ray species. Experts will then monitor the sharks' reactions to different songs. We'll play everything from Kim Wilde and Mel Smith's Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade to Wham's Last Christmas. We may find they prefer something softer like White Christmas by Bing Crosby," Brown said. Thank you for answering this question science.
Comment Why did they do this? (Score 1) 85
Is it because if they had a proper disclaimer which asked the user's age before use of a particular Sony product, it would raise suspicion about what exactly the product was doing behind the scenes?
Steam To Begin Hosting Game Mods 81
Valve made a brief announcement on Friday that they will be allowing the download of user-created game mods directly from Steam. "Once installed, these MODs will appear in your 'My Games' list and will receive automatic updates just like other games on Steam. Also, these MODs now take advantage of Steamworks, which provides stat tracking and tighter integration with the Steam community." Mods will be available for five different games to start, and more in the future.
