Comment Re:meh, keep it simple (Score 1) 387
I couldn't have said it better myself. Its their company, and they'll shoot it in the foot if they want to.
Comment UAV's aren't controlled via satellites.... (Score 1) 245
omni and directional antennas. i suppose a satellite could take over, but that seems sort of retarded to me.
Comment Suprise to me... (Score 1) 108
...I thought the coldest places in the solar system were the moons of Neptune. You know, how like they're much further away from the Sun than our moon, and how they're highly reflective. They have volcanoes of liquid nitrogen on those moons for pete's sake.
Comment Re:What's with the guys head? (Score 1) 54
Avatars "look" where the mouse is pointing. He was probably just clicking buttons on the UI.
Submission + - FCC declares Net Neutrality will be enforced
Unequivocal writes: "FCC's Chairman Genachowski told Congress today that the "Federal Communications Commission plans to keep the Internet free of increased user fees based on heavy Web traffic and slow downloads. Julius Genachowski, the FCC chairman, told The Hill that his agency will support "net neutrality" and go after anyone who violates its tenets. "One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles," Genachowski said when asked what he could do in his position to keep the Internet fair, free and open to all Americans. The statement by Genachowski comes as the commission remains locked in litigation with Comcast. The cable provider is appealing a court decision by challenging the FCC's authority to penalize the company for limiting Web traffic to its consumers."
It looks like the good guys win, unless the appeals court rules against the FCC.."
It looks like the good guys win, unless the appeals court rules against the FCC.."
Submission + - Depression May Provide Cognitive Advantages 1
Hugh Pickens writes: "Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. argue in Scientific American that although depression is considered a mental disorder, depression may in fact be a mental adaptation which provides real benefits. This is not to say that depression is not a problem. Depressed people often have trouble performing everyday activities, they can't concentrate on their work, they tend to socially isolate themselves, they are lethargic, and they often lose the ability to take pleasure from such activities such as eating and sex. So what could be so useful about depression? "Depressed people often think intensely about their problems," write the authors. "These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time." Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas and there is evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test (PDF). "When one considers all the evidence, depression seems less like a disorder where the brain is operating in a haphazard way, or malfunctioning. Instead, depression seems more like the vertebrate eye--an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a specific function.""
Submission + - Second Life Steps Up Its Game with Second Life 2.0 (changingworldsbuildingdreams.com)
Gianna Borgnine writes: "Second Life is trying to change it's image and attract more users including corporate ones. They have made quite a few changes, updated their polices to Protect and Manage Content and Intellectual Property and at the recent Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) they demoed a preview of what's to come for Second Life 2.0
The changes include a new Second Life viewer, which will debut later this year, that was designed with user experience in mind. They also showed a vastly improved Second Life website with a machinima to entice visitors, an interactive keyword searchable map, and an improved XStreet SL shopping experience. They have updated the registration process and provided new users with a PDF quick start guide. The user dashboard is also updated as well and will eventually be your social networking homepage.
Another feature that was previewed was the long awaited mesh support and global illumination. These features look stunning and really bring Second Life visually out of the dark ages and into the light of a modern game engine.
Lastly, they are introducing interactive web media files displayable in SL. These will be in the form of collaboratively documents like being able to work on a Google Doc with other avatars, and in additional Flash-based media applications like YouTube. A "LL Media" API plug-in for these types of media was released and is available to developers."
Comment We have three workstations... (Score 1) 688
Their names are "TootToot", "WootWoot" and "S3xB0vin3"
Submission + - Virtual Relay for Life raises over $270,000 USD (changingworldsbuildingdreams.com)
Reed Steamroller writes: "Relay for Life, the signature fundraising event to benefit the American Cancer Society, recently ended its fifth and most successful campaign in the virtual world of Second Life after having raised over a quarter of a million US dollars in support of cancer research."
Submission + - The Obama Team Officially Gets a Second Life (changingworldsbuildingdreams.com)
Reed Steamroller writes: "The US State Department has actively been researching and testing Virtual Worlds as a way to reach different and diverse online communities. For the most recent example of this, the State Department streamed live footage of President Obama speaking in Ghana to the Virtual Worlds of Second Life and Metaplace. This exercise was carried out in order to see what effect utilizing Virtual Worlds would have on Social Media as a whole. Obviously, the use of Virtual Worlds in conjunction with Social Media tools was a good mix, as "It was one of the most tweeted, facebooked, and SMS discussed events since [President] Obama took office and quickly became viral, even topping the trending topic list on Twitter." The entire event was documented by award winning journalist and machinimatographer Bernhard Drax (Draxtor Despres in Second Life). After excerpts from the event were presented to other members of the US State Department, Beth Noveck, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for the Obama Administration, announced that she also will be be holding an event in Second Life on Monday, July 20th 2009. She will, however, be taking the experience one step further by allowing users to participate in the conversation on their end as well."
Comment Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score 1) 150
I think most of you aren't understanding exactly what it is that they are selling to these kids.
That's ok, I've found the war(s) to be a TV show to most people back here in the states. A movie of the week, at best.
If these people were selling crack-cocaine to kids through this video game, I wouldn't be half as bothered by it.
Comment Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score 1) 150
wow sound familiar.
our company HQ was right across the street from the anaconda PX during OIF1.
and i remember thinking most of the same things.
memories.
sigh.
Comment Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score 1) 150
Yeah, I know, I'm not arguing whether video games are bad for children. In my opinion they aren't. I also realize that every child with access to a computer has that access via the consent of an adult, direct or otherwise.
What I'm arguing is that a recruitment tool in the guise of a game is immoral.
We had our fair share of conscientious objectors as well. This didn't get them out of the war zone, it just got the bolts take out of their rifles. Congratulations, you are no longer able to defend yourself.
And like I said, I made phones work. We weren't the special forces.
Comment Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score 1) 150
And because of this fact children don't play video games?
And like this game isn't aimed directly at them?
Comment Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score 5, Interesting) 150
The recruitment tool that worked for me.... hmm... being bored to tears in college... and planes flying into buildings (that happened in September, I signed up in December). I wanted some adventure. I was young and still stupid enough to think that America's foreign policy might actually do the world some good. Not going to get too political now, but rest assured I don't feel the same way now.
Of course they didn't spend time "drilling the horror of war" while recruiting me. That was my point, recruiters are *supposed* to blind potential recruits with "glory" and "action" and shit like that. A joke is that another name for Army recruiters is "liar." Nothing really wrong with all of this I think, it is how you get people to join the Army after all.
Now, normally I would apply the same thought process to Americas Army, the video game. But I run into a moral conundrum when doing so, because Americas Army is just that, A VIDEO GAME. And who plays video games? Children play video games.
If you, as a legal adult and the Army thinking that war would be anything like what you see in Americas Army (or any other video game for that matter), you are a dumb ass, and you deserve what you get. Either that, or mentally retarded in some way, shape or form. Darwinism at its finest.
On the other hand, children do not have the same cognitive ability as an adult, and therefore should not be held to the same standard. The act of killing people being a fun and relaxing experience in any situation, or being able to reset a match when you get shot in the face, are just bold-faced lies when told to children. This is because children will look at the game as being official, released by the Army itself (and who knows more about war than the Army?) AND THEY WILL BELIEVE IT.
My recruiter told me a story once about how he had been driving down the road in a particular Eastern-European, war-torn nation. The Humvee in front of his (they were of course driving in formation at the time) was unlucky enough to hit a landmine. "Scared the shit out of me" is the way I believe he put it. Other than that, he didn't go into too much detail as to how well (or not) the passengers of that ill-fated Humvee turned out. Now, in this situation, it wasn't really how much he did tell me about what happened as much as it was the expression on his face and the way in which he skirted around my questions that gave me a pretty good understanding of what it was like.
For myself, I don't think I realized what the hell had happened until a year or two AFTER I was out of the Army. There is no thinking about what is going on while you're actually there. No time to stop and say "what in the name of FUCK am I doing here?" Because doing things such as that are counter-productive in the long run, as there really isn't much you can do to get out of the situation anyway (until your time is up).
I hope this answered your questions, asshole.
-Reed
