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Old 2012-05-24, 17:33   Link #21601
Xagzan
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by AnimeFan188 View Post
"Introduced by New York State Sen. Thomas F. O'Mara (R—Big Flats), S6779
would require that any anonymous post online is subject to removal if the poster
refuses to post — and verify — their legal name, their IP address, and their home
address."

See:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technolo...162549128.html
Oh my god, this has provided me with my biggest laugh of the whole day.

It's so absurd it's almost like a parody of the normally already internet-ignorant politicians
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Old 2012-05-24, 18:46   Link #21602
DonQuigleone
Knight Errant
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
To be honest, the inevitable end point of a technocracy is a self-serving oligarchic dictatorship. China is a country ruled by scientists and engineers, and while they haven't done the worst job ever, they're not exactly stellar when it comes to matters of corruption, and civil rights. They'll build you a nice bridge, and get a nice factory district going, but they're still ultimately more concerned with preserving their own position then serving the public. When it comes to serving the public, their emphasis is on keeping them weak and disorganized.

At least in a democracy the elected representatives have a healthy fear of of being booted out of office.
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Old 2012-05-24, 18:50   Link #21603
Xellos-_^
Not Enough Sleep
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DonQuigleone View Post
To be honest, the inevitable end point of a technocracy is a self-serving oligarchic dictatorship. China is a country ruled by scientists and engineers, and while they haven't done the worst job ever, they're not exactly stellar when it comes to matters of corruption, and civil rights. They'll build you a nice bridge, and get a nice factory district going, but they're still ultimately more concerned with preserving their own position then serving the public. When it comes to serving the public, their emphasis is on keeping them weak and disorganized.
no different then politicos in DC.

Quote:
At least in a democracy the elected representatives have a healthy fear of of being booted out of office.
not particularly, in most cases a incumbent has near 100% chance of being reelected as long he at least appear competent and can act as if he feels your pain.
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Old 2012-05-24, 19:00   Link #21604
mangamuscle
formerly ogon bat
 
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Mexico
Age: 53
Corruption has been called the 5th horseman of the apocalypse for good reasons, no goverment system is immune or inherently resistant to its effects. Thank goodness in the 21st century we have the internet, wiht it, it is feasible to make clear to the public at large [b]any goverment expediture[b]; only complete transparecy with goverment resources can win the war against corruption.
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Old 2012-05-24, 19:25   Link #21605
mangamuscle
formerly ogon bat
 
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Mexico
Age: 53
FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit
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Old 2012-05-25, 04:05   Link #21606
ganbaru
books-eater youkai
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
Churches to raise money to fight gay marriage
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-25-03-03-16
Quote:
Scores of Maine churches will pass the collection plate a second time at Sunday services on Father's Day to kick off a fundraising campaign for the lead opposition group to November's ballot question asking voters to legalize same-sex marriages.
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Old 2012-05-25, 06:19   Link #21607
Zakoo
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Gensokyo
Christianism, not a change in 2000 years of history.
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Old 2012-05-25, 06:56   Link #21608
DonQuigleone
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Join Date: Dec 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Zakoo View Post
Christianism, not a change in 2000 years of history.
Actually, Christianity only started being anti-homosexuality during the medieval period.

For instance, during the period after the Roman Empire converted to Christianity, homosexual brothels were widespread and legal.
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Old 2012-05-25, 07:10   Link #21609
Zakoo
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Nah i don't care about such a little thing, it was towards the fact they truly are thickheaded when it comes of things that doesn't follow what the sacred book says.
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Old 2012-05-25, 08:17   Link #21610
Mr Hat and Clogs
Did someone call a doctor
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Age: 40
Australian Government to have inquiry about excessive game and electronic services pricing.

Excuse the french but, about fucking time!
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Old 2012-05-25, 08:35   Link #21611
ganbaru
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs View Post
I am curious about the ''why'' of this overpricing; shipping shouldn't be that high and specific marketing for that region seem to be a bad excuse for me.
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Old 2012-05-25, 08:37   Link #21612
Mr Hat and Clogs
Did someone call a doctor
 
 
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Especially when you consider digital distribution more or less removes the whole 'shipping and regional' issues.
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Old 2012-05-25, 08:40   Link #21613
mangamuscle
formerly ogon bat
 
 
Join Date: May 2011
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Age: 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by ganbaru View Post
I am curious about the ''why'' of this overpricing
pure undiluted greed?
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Old 2012-05-25, 08:53   Link #21614
Mr Hat and Clogs
Did someone call a doctor
 
 
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Age: 40
OzGameShop price for Diablo 3 is $59 that's a company based out of the UK and has free shipping, however compared to a local store such as Electronics Boutique at $88 (my only 'local' store) it's crazy, admittedly JB hifi at $69 isn't to bad, a lot of their prices have been reasonably better recently. Still have to pay for shipping though from them. But still, why can I order it from Brittan cheaper than what I can get it for from walking the 3KM's down the street to the store. That's physical copies, I don't want to get started on Battle.net asking $80 for a digital copy.

Quote:
Having a high dollar is quite bad for a Country. In order for the economy to function normally when dealing with a high dollar you must be able to import things for a much lower price than you would with a low dollar. This is because when exporting products with a high dollar, you have to sell things a lot cheaper internationally than you would with a low dollar.

For example if we ship off some wool to the US for US$50 when our dollar was 0.5 to your 1, we have essentially made $100 AUD. When our dollar is 1-1 or higher we have made only $50. Obviously this is quite bad for businesses that rely on exportation. The upside to this is we can import goods a lot more cheaply. It is a balance that has to be maintained, otherwise it can have a negative effect on the economy. This is why China, the biggest exporter in the world, refuses to list their currency and instead keeps it low because it is much better for internal growth.

Also the people linking the higher minimum wage are clueless. We are much more of a socialist country than the US, our minimum wage is quite high because we look after the bottom class a lot more than you do in the US. The average wage is a lot closer than the minimum wage is (though still higher) to the US. We pay FAR more in taxes, the median price of a house in Sydney is $577000 (this is not the inner city, it also includes our huge urban sprawl which goes out like 50km), the cost of living in Australia is one of the highest places in the world (5th actually, the US isn't even in the top 25). We are not a comfortable nation compared to the US, especially for new home buyers or people who rent.

We don't pay as much in comparison to the US for any other products except software, books and electronics (though they are still higher than what you pay in the US). If we go off of how much we should be paying for games depending on cost of living and average wage, we should be paying around $70-75 for new release games. However even that is stupid, as this will negatively affect the economy, since we will be making less than we would in exports, while paying the same in imports.
I kinda liked this post on the subject. But even if the games were $70-$75 I'd still order from OzGameShop.
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Old 2012-05-25, 11:55   Link #21615
Vexx
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
*Author
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
It has more to do with collusion with brick'n'mortar retailers not to undercut them until something else is done (like collector's editions with actual swag in the box becomes something they can sell). If you're "Blizvalve" and you sell a game for $20 digital and tell Targetogamestop to sell it for $39.... well, then there's a problem. But if that physical copy came with, say, posters, figures, etc. then bingo the retailer is no longer out in the cold.

I will say though - I still prefer buying a physical game for games that are more than 10GB in size just to keep my ISP happier. If you have to "re-install the game" more than a couple of times as seems more often the "fix" for newer games then you can blast through a data cap in no time.
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Old 2012-05-25, 12:05   Link #21616
Ithekro
Gamilas Falls
 
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Republic of California
Age: 46
If games came with one of those beefy manuals that had all sorts of backstory, art, and other fluff in it, buying the game in box might be totally worth it. I bought games in the 1980s and 1990s that had manuals that told stories about what was going on, or gave background details for the heroes and villians of the story. Some of it was actaully better than the game it came with.

The Lucasarts World War II flight sims came with awesome background material books.
The game The Ancient Art of War at Sea by Brøderbund came with an awesome manual with stories about the captains you could play against.
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Old 2012-05-25, 12:41   Link #21617
Endless Soul
Megane girl fan
 
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Diagonally parked in a parallel universe.
Age: 55
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro View Post
If games came with one of those beefy manuals that had all sorts of backstory, art, and other fluff in it, buying the game in box might be totally worth it. I bought games in the 1980s and 1990s that had manuals that told stories about what was going on, or gave background details for the heroes and villians of the story. Some of it was actaully better than the game it came with.

The Lucasarts World War II flight sims came with awesome background material books.
The game The Ancient Art of War at Sea by Brøderbund came with an awesome manual with stories about the captains you could play against.
Yep, a lot of older games were like this. I still have some of them including Aces of the Pacific (pictured below) which came with a pretty thick manual which included stats and development history of each aircraft featured in the game, and bios on some of the aces that appear in the game.

Spoiler for My copy of Aces of the Pacific:


I had that poster that came with the game on my wall for several years. Note the 5" floppy.

Endless "Old gamer" Soul
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Old 2012-05-25, 12:45   Link #21618
Xagzan
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro View Post
If games came with one of those beefy manuals that had all sorts of backstory, art, and other fluff in it, buying the game in box might be totally worth it.
Oh boy do I miss those. I loved the detailed manuals that told you about the game's characters, the world, story, all that good stuff. Now it's like 2 page pamphlets that give you the table of contents, control scheme, and the goddamn warranty information.

Truly riveting stuff.
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Old 2012-05-25, 13:04   Link #21619
Xellos-_^
Not Enough Sleep
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
Quote:
The millionaire founder of internet security firm McAfee has gone on the run from authorities in Belize after he was arrested for allegedly possessing illegal drugs and weapons.
Posting on the internet from a secret location Gloucestershire-born John McAfee, 66, alleged the dawn raid at his home in the tiny Central American country and his subsequent arrest earlier this month were because he refused to donate money to a local politician.
...
As he became a Belize resident, he could secure his remaining assets there, safe in the knowledge that the country would not recognise any court judgement passed down from a US judge.

Certainly, people who visited him on the island said he did not seem that impoverished, and that he had set up a high-speed ferry company, a rickshaw firm, a water sports facility and an internet company.

But McAfee claims he moved to Belize because he had a passion for developing medicines based on the herbs found in the rainforests, including a herbal viagra for women.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-meth-lab.html
i wonder how many of these guys who think the US tax rate is too high. Will realize that while the official tax rate is lot lower in these 3rd world countries they are moving to, have a much higher unofficial tax rate.
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Old 2012-05-25, 13:04   Link #21620
SaintessHeart
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
 
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
Quote:
Originally Posted by Endless Soul View Post
Yep, a lot of older games were like this. I still have some of them including Aces of the Pacific (pictured below) which came with a pretty thick manual which included stats and development history of each aircraft featured in the game, and bios on some of the aces that appear in the game.

Spoiler for My copy of Aces of the Pacific:


I had that poster that came with the game on my wall for several years. Note the 5" floppy.

Endless "Old gamer" Soul
I forgot you are 43.
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