Silly thoughts

http://web.archive.org/web/20140209180204/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2428
The earth is god's sketch book :P

Question:

Does Solar power actually help reduce global warming?

The reason I ask is that Solar power essentially catches energy from the sun. The sun's energy is also what heats the earth. So I wonder if the reduction in green house gas emissions is enough to make up for the increase in solar energy absorbed (as compared to just building solar reflectors).

Regarding Iraq

2007 0116

I have heard that it is in America's best interest to pull out of Iraq. I have yet to hear someone claim it is in Iraq's interest that we pull out. From what I have read, it sounds like leaving Iraq would doom it to anarchy and civil war. Some say we cannot stop it, and might as well leave now, before more of our own troops die. Others say we can stop it. Personally, I think it is in Iraq's interest that we stay. I believe our soldiers can do more good in Iraq, than at home. Since Gorge Bush seems to believe it as well, I now just hope this belief is true.

Summary:
Pulling troops out of Iraq will not help the Iraqi people.
Leaving troops in Iraq might help the Iraqi people.
Therefore, it is in Iraq's interest for our troops to stay in Iraq.

Pulling troops out of Iraq will (probably) reduce the number of American lives lost.
Leaving troops in Iraq will almost certainly result in more American soldiers dead or wounded.
Therefore, it is in America's interest to pull its troops out of Iraq.

End summary.

Personally, I think it is more important to serve the Iraqi people's interests than to serve the American people's interests in this matter. Why? Because we started this whole mess, and it is our responsibility.

Basic MMORPG requirements

1) Provide an objective people will desire.
2) Provide an entertaining/enjoyable/satisfying means of reaching the objective.
3) Profit! :P

Happiness

1) Stop believing you are supposed to be happy. If you are happy, you're lucky. If you aren't, you're not. If you believe you're supposed to be happy when you aren't happy, you're just gonna feel like a miserable failure. You aren't supposed to be happy, you're just supposed to live (even that can be optional).

The level grind...

I'm inclined to believe that MMORPGs suffer from a fundamental problem: The level grind makes it difficult for people to always be able to play together. However, without the level grind, there is no longer a reason to play. MMORPGs need an objective for friends to get together and help each other with that doesn't get in the way of getting together and helping each other.

What everyone wants:

Pretty much everyone wants the same thing: love and appreciation. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Other things that help:
Acceptance - this is different from mere tolerance, and not exactly plentiful. It's basically when people who care, stop wanting you to be different from what you are.
Understanding - I can't really describe this. It's basically the sense that you are not alone.
Freedom - this is often tied in with acceptance. Basically, it's the absence of restrictions, and in many cases the absence of fear. Not everyone really cares about freedom, so long as they can enjoy themselves.
Safety - Not sure what else to say about it. Just that a lot of things can make a person feel unsafe, and that there are many kinds of harm.
Joy - Something to do to pass the time. Something to stave off boredom and make life interesting (or at least entertaining).

Suicide...

The horrid pain and anger that sends people into depression can also send them to the depths of depravity. It drives people into acts of extreme violence and desperation. They'll grab a gun and kill dozens in a school, or strap a bomb to their chest and explode in the name of god. In an effort to make the world a better place, they highlight just how fucked up it really is, hoping that someone will find a way to fix it. Religious extremism isn't what creates suicide bombers. Suicide bombers create religious extremism.

Human desires

Almost all human interaction, begins with one person's desire to elicit a certain kind of response in another person.

Unfortuneately, this statement is too vague to be of much use to anyone.

Future thoughts, predictions

I believe that someday we will have programs for predicting human behavior, just like we do the weather, and they will be just as innacurate.

An annoyance with MTG

In Magic the Gathering, I find my favorite tricks are card draw and mana acceleration. Unfortuneately, these will not win a game by themselves, so I often struggle to build an effective deck that I like. One thing that makes it especially difficult, is that I don't like using counterspells, and counterspells seem to be the most powerful aspect of Blue. So it's like playing with a major handicap, doesn't lend itself well to fun when playing with strangers.

RTS thoughts

I think a large part of what makes starcraft a great game, is that it isn't a game of rock-paper-scissors. Most units work well in many situations, not just one, and very few hard counters exist. Additionally, every battle is likely to cost resources, even when you win. The higher the cost of victory (relative to the one you defeat) the more likely it is for a game to be close, and the more likely for the loser to make a comeback.

Warcraft 3 added upkeep for large armies, which helps to increase the cost of victory over an enemy (the victor keeps paying upkeep, while the loser rebuilds without) but this added cost was more than made up for by the availability of healing which reduced the cost of the battle itself.

In Anime...

I think I know what is behind all the shows with Super Sayajin style fights. It's peoples desire to unleash all their rage upon an enemy. The punishment the heros take and endure is like all the pain they feel they have aquired over the years, and the final assault/big climax, is the final release of all that pain and anger upon it's source. It's the solution they dream of, being able to send all their pain back to the source, and never deal with it again. If only life's real problems were so simple.

Trust in EVE

It's kinda odd how EVE seems to create a world where no one can be trusted, and no great progress can be achieved without trust. As a result, there is this competing dichotomy of needing to trust, and not being able to. I wonder how often peoples trust is rewarded, and how often it is not. It would be interesting to see the numbers.

Second Life (and money)

I haven't actually spent much time in Second Life, but when I first heard of it 10 months ago, I decided to try a gamble. I signed up for a full year subscription for 72 USD. Selling my Linden Allowance, I have thus far, gotten my US balance up to 62 USD, and expect it to reach 80 by the time the next payment is due.

I plan to keep the account as long as it can pay for itself, and hope that someday, I can make some real money off of it (and not just 10 USD a year).

EVE is harsh

I guess a part of enjoying eve, is learning to love a game that will bite your hand off when you try to feed it. It's not the sort of game for safe fun, but instead more like a constant high stakes gamble. No one can ever truly be trusted, and you are never truly safe. Everytime you leave the station, someone could kill you. Everytime you open a trade, someone could scam you. And everytime you talk with someone, they could lie to you.

Try not to ever fly with more than you can afford to lose.

Another link

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=922456 (the upper left of the page will have a link to download the whole paper)

Maybe someday, all people will be able to enjoy their work, as they do their play, or be as productive at play as they are at work.

Perhaps, the ultimate goal of all gamers, is to get in the game, what they cannot in life.
Perhaps the ultimate game, is the one that is as much like real life as possible, while allowing (and in fact, making it easier) for people to succeed (meet the needs they don't get met elsewhere).

Care

When you say that it is none of your buisness, you are telling people that you don't care. If you really cared, it would become your buisness, because any event affects all who care.

Crazy trading

This is what my map looks like in EVE when set to show my assets. Every glowing orange or yellow dot, is a system where I have stuff. Region wide buy orders can really clutter things. 

A link

http://crimethinc.com/texts/harbinger/definition.php