joltan

Yeah, but not all of the cathegorial values have to be used for the clustering. They might just be used to analyse the results. For example the question wether there are actually more smokers in Europe/the rest of the world than in the US (as far as forum members are concerned), etc. Good for data mining - not for clustering, right.

Spiegel Online: description of the new nationalist members of the saxonian parliament (in German only) Jez, just reading through that list makes me wanna puke!

Possible questions for a new census: First, the basics again: Age? where do you come from? Religion: - Do you consider yourself religious? - Which of the following describes your believes best: Christianism, Islam, Buddhism/Hinduism, Atheism, other? OFP: - how long have you been playing OFP? - how often do you play OFP? - do you play more SP or MP? (Options: Only SP, mostly SP, both, more MP, Only MP) - as for MP games do you prefer COOP, CTF, CTI, A&D or DM? Misc stuff: - Do you smoke? - Do you have a drivers license (cars only)? - What's your major news source (not game oriented): TV, Radio, Internet, Newspapers? - How many books do you read per year: 50+, 20-50, 5-20, 0-5 (comics don't count)? As for the politics stuff: I'm sure you'll come up with many good proposals yourself. ;)

Look whoever believes those Hartz IV demonstrations were 'spontaneous' is blind. As you might be aware there were just elections (which is what this thread is about). Notice how this week there were only a handfull of people compared to the last weeks? All that 'the polish find enough jobs here' crap is utter bullshit. Notice how they don't have to live here, but just work here for a short time: most are seasonal workers in agriculture or in construction - the latter are there because german construction companies subcontract the actual work out to cheaper polish companies. The latter leading to the ruin of german companies and more people on the dole. Now you could say that this is just because german workers are too expensive: well, thanks to the secondary costs (health insurance, pensions, etc) they are. Do you want the state to pay for that so they can compete? The polish worker returns home after some time and there the money's much more worth (in what you get for the same sum) than in Germany. Costs of living are much lower there and thus it's good money for hard work. Here it's less than you get on the dole and not enough to feed your family anyways. With Hartz IV many people get even less than social security (which is supposed to define the minimum living standard and is everything but comfortable wealth). Of course people are fed up. I even know a few people who will suffer from that - they lost their jobs years ago and can't find anything new: too old (40+), not qualified, and therefore no jobs anywhere for them. Stop reading Bild and watching too much 'Explosiv' or how all that other bull... on tv is called. Look out there - it's not so simple as some media (and politicians when they want votes somewhere else) want to make it look. Anyways: the basic problem is definitely not wether Hartz IV forces some more people to work for low wages or not. Nor is it wether people want to work (they do) or not. It's (and that's the same in the West) that we need new jobs for those people who have been laid off whereever big production sites closed be it because of the reunification or globalization. What do you think happens when GM finally closes down Opel in Germany (Rüsselsheim, Bochum, etc.) in a few years (a very likely scenario atm)? Some tens of thousand more longterm unemployed who won't find a job because no alternative places to work are available to them. But they are just lazy, eh? How many cheap labour jobs do you think there really are? Not many because those are the first that can bet rationalized away and done even better and cheaper by machines anyways.

I'll answer with a quesion, too: and where should those people work? Moving over to the west won't help them much: jobs are as rare in Bayern and Baden-Württemberg as they are in Sachsen or Brandenburg. People had work and lost it when the industries that employed them got 'abgewickelt'. What has been missing since then was the massive creation of sufficient jobs for all those people. That's why you have 10% more people without a job than in most other regions. But I cited the example of Ostfriesland: it's in the west, they have 30% unemployment - and once the Mayer-Werft shuts its doors and moves to where they can build even bigger ships the rate will rise even more. Of course, people there are lazy, too. Right....

You know, I was actually thinking about buying the console and the game. But considering the uncertain release date for the XBox version and the new OFP2 release date me and my buddies instead packed some cash on top and went for VBS. That'll keep us going - and when OFP2 with all those nifty extras is finally out, we'll be ready for it.

Right, but if it hadn't been for Dresden or Leipzig the right wing NPD would have been second strongest party in that state. Not to mention the PDS in Brandenburg... We're not talking about radicals getting just a few seats, but being strong enough to constute a faction ('Fraktion') and thus having quite some influence (seats in all important comitees, etc.). It's something to watch out for. With some luck they will prove that there's nothing more than words to their slogans (like they did in Baden-Württemberg). But if the governing parties continue to fail the radicals will stabilize and continue to build up more support.

Bals & Albert: That kind of attitude is exactly what drove the people to the extremist parties (be it left or right). Callling Sachsen a 'useless state' (with Dresden & Leipzig being among the few 'boom towns' in the whole East) and the people there 'lazy' or 'stupid' is plain ignorance. People don't get any work because there isn't - not because they wouldn't want to. You don't have any more people abusing the social security there than you have in the West. If they get work they get paid less, but everything else costs about the same (housing is a bit cheaper usually). People in western Germany - even in comparable poor regions with 30% unemplyment like Ostfriesland - get higher wages and pensions. Politicians lied far to long about the 'blühenden Landschaften' etc. - and since then also failed to address the problems we have in this country everywhere (and not just in the former GDR). They got their payment in these elections. Since my girl started working in the former East I've had some insights there that made me fundamentally rethink my own prejudices. Prejudices that many people from western Germany have - especially if they (like me) never had any family over there. It's sad that people resorted to voting for demagoges (sp?) and radikals like the DVU or NPD, but don't paint them as stupid or start thinking 'typically Ossies'. The DVU headquarters are in Munich from where the party is controlled in a very direct manner. Also don't forget the Republikaner in the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg a few years ago... Voting for radicals in elections out of revenge is nothing new or limited to any region in Germany (or to Germany itself - just look at France or the UK). Edit: the real problem is when what starts as a protest gains widespread acceptance and momentum. That is how Hitler came into power, remember?

Anyways, hunting 1 fox with a dozen horses, a bunch of dogs and 50 helpers is not what I'd call efficient population control. It's just done for the fun. If you want to control a population seriously you can't waste your time riding around on horses looking stupid.

Sounds great - and there's me thinking you couldn't stand 'Nam... ;)

So any games tonight?

http://www.pcgames.de/screenshots/medium/o_screen2_large.jpg This doesn't really look like a good location to fire a rocket launcher...

I think the problem is that these aren't 'retro' but 'antique'...

I'm sure he'll write you a recipe if you buy one... Â Anyways, good work. I was really wondering why you had two very similar clusters the last time (the ones that got now merged to cluster 2). This is really interesting.

It's still irritating when both official sites (main BIS website and the OFP2 news website) still show 'end of 2004' as the release date. We all know by now that it will be 2006 anyways, but is it really that much work to update a bit of text and a few graphics to show the real release date?

Well, I play EVE Online on a regular base - but it's missing on your poll.

I'm back on dsl - so expect me sunday night for some nice gaming!

[sarcasm]You know, the good thing about foreigners is that they are usually far away and quite irelevant.[/sarcasm]

How about simply using the topography cheat and then converting the resulting vector image into a pdf? I guess that's how BIS did it themselves.

Haven't played it myself yet, but I've heard good things about it - and submarine sims have their own appeal. You need a lot of patience and you need to plan a lot. And just when you line up for the shot at the fat merchant a destroyer makes a dead run for you... I've enjoyed sub sims since the first Silent Service came out ages ago, but mind it's no fast action you can expect.

I'd say the two countries are simply the biggest markets in Europe for computer games in general considering their population sizes and IT infrastructure.

Freiburg im Breisgau / Germany Nice idea with that map!

Hehe, some years ago they build a new IKEA in my hometown (the old shop was too small) and when they reopened they had a lot of special offers (like a wardrobe for 25 Euros). People camped in front of the shop to be the first to get one of those... IKEA's great - good quality at good prizes. At least if you like pine wood and don't have two left hands...

What about the two greek athletes who had that 'moto accident'? Any news what became of them or about any proof that they were really trying to avoid the doping tests?

BTW: N24 (a german satellite news service) will have a special report on them in about half an hour (13:30 CEST).