The odds aren't "rigged" in any game where a human is in control. The house is always going to win due to statistics. A dealer would quickly be caught if he/she "rigged" the game in a persons favor.
The guy in question just figured out a method of pushing existing buttons that "rigged" the game in his favor.
The game maker is at fault, not the person who figured out how to take advantage of it. They let the bug into the system. No hacking was involved, just pressing the buttons that were available.
A counter-suit to reclaim defense expenses would be the appropriate measure in my opinion, not that my opinion regarding legal issues is worth event 2 cents...
Sorry to hear, but not unexpected. When I was there, campground at the YMCA looked like a battlefield with fallen trees all around (not a single one standing). Just Earth pocked with stumps and piles of trees (and people attempting to camp around it).
The beetles were always there, it's just that the temperature isn't getting cold enough for long enough to hold them back.
I was just west of the Rockies about 4 years ago (YMCA of the Rockies off 40), it was a wasteland just waiting to catch on fire (dead pines stacked five high all around the hiking paths, others just waiting to fall).
Sad. But hey, all of the warming has to be natural...
At one point I had a game room consisting of: 1. Ms. Pac-Man original arcade game 2. Pool table. 3. Ping pong table 4. Atari 2600 console with TV and 80 or so games.
It helped that the first floor of my house had previously been retail space (art gallery).
Quote: "[it] is possible that people will prefer to pay a flat fee and see no ads?"
You are describing cable in the early 1980s, there were no commercials. Where are we now?
As long as there is something to market, there will be ads. Shoot, I was paying $100 a year for the Wall Street Journal online (great newspaper) and there were still ads (not that I saw them much thanks to AdBlock and Ghostery).
Even the premium cable channels have ads, except they are for their own shows/movies so it's not so bad (in this case it's nice to know when True Blood will start back up).
Now if you can make advertisements entertaining (think Old Spice, I would never use the stuff but I watch their commercials) then that's another story. It's basically reverse product-placement, and sometimes quite watchable.
Not really. It's more like requiring electricity to run the system. Or water to use your toilet.
Internet service is basically comparable to electricity or water. They are general services used for a variety of purposes. Do you restrict use of your internet connection to only gaming, or is it restricted to only provide gaming through MS? Of course not.
There are people in the US that don't have electricity or access to clean water (a microwave isn't "bundled" with electricity, it is only useful if electricity is available). The US treats it's prisoners (of which there are close to XXX) far better than our homeless, a terrible situation that goes against the grain of being "civilized." Sorry for the rant, just pointing out that not everyone has internet, electricity, or even water.
All that said, I've switched from a 360 to the PC for games, and new consoles do not interest me unless they provide very compelling home media integration (Windows Media Center, with the 360 this requires a dedicated PC, which is stupid).
What's wrong with being a Malthusian (it is a proper word)?
We are at war with nature. Your living space used to be occupied by nature. But when it was built, nature was evicted. Every new person needs some space and resources that nature would have otherwise occupied and used.
How much space can homo-sapiens occupy before the natural ecosystems start to fail?
At this point the Commons are a sewer, and eventually it will be a Tragedy (it is already for people living in the slums of large cities, at least a billion or so people, I've seen it in Quito, Ecuador). Population control will not be voluntary; it will be enforced through war, disease, economic collapse, and starvation.
Act like you are shopping, select a plan and then a page with phones comes up.
The first one is $99 for an iPhone 5 - 16gb. But, the not so small print says: Qualifying rate plan required.SRP $579.99. 0% APR On Approved Credit for well-qualified buyer. Device loan balance due on service cancellation.
Every phone has the same text, with the price for that phone.
I'm sure there's a clause in the phone purchase contract that says the balance is due if coverage is canclled. It sounds like it's a 0% interest loan (sum of payments = cost of the phone). They lose all "business" interest in you if you cancel their coverage. Why should you get a free loan? Maybe they could rework the contract and have the phone contract become a 20% interest rate loan? At that point they have a vested interest in the consumer, and 20% isn't unreasonable these days (for debt, certainly not for savings...).
They'll just make this more clear and be done with it.
It would be comical if this came anywhere near count. Except that court is expensive for all parties, and I don't think the AG has a leg to stand on, not that I would know.
Start by prototyping before the project is funded. This helps the business parties see what is possible and also gives the developers a much better understanding of functional requirements than any document ever could. Do UX testing sessions (test using your best developers - they find cool hacks, and business people, and anyone). Evolve the prototype, if even over a couple of weeks (I'm pretty good at rapid prototyping, two weeks is usually enough for 2-3 revisions resulting in a reasonably functional prototype for 5-10 screens). Prototyping and UX testing take experience, try them on a pilot project. Note, estimating hasn't begun yet. But do these things first, it's very important.
Then, once funded, start estimating. If the project is large (>1 person year), break it into logical functional components with a goal of at most 1 person year of "high" level estimated time (better estimates come next). Treat each of the functional components as a separate project. Large projects fail a lot, small projects are surprisingly successful (I don't have the article links handy at the moment, my anecdotal experience supports this as well).
Then, for each logical component, estimate. Estimating sucks, but I have seen the value in it, as has management where I work. It means sitting in a meeting room for multiple days per component. You will need at least one business representative, the development team, and a DBA, at minimum. Use the prototype to explore the functionality and system requirements. Start namespace/class definitions (helps a lot to categorize/define functionality boundaries). For each namespace/class, estimate the number and complexity of methods. Same for database stuff. Again, the prototype is a useful tool (never DB connected, generate data manually, Excel is a great code generator for such purposes).
Then put some time estimates on all of the tasks (think of it is as backlog, but for the project, not a sprint).
Continue estimating for each functional component (don't forget integration time between components, I pad these, it's always harder than you expect).
If you can't do this level of estimating then you do not understand software at a level required to make the project a success.
Then decide if the project should move forward. I've been involved in two hard estimating efforts (2-3 weeks each, huge projects, one that wasn't considered that big until we did detailed estimation) that resulted in management deciding against moving forward, it was obvious to us that this would be the result given the results of the estimation. Millions of dollars probably saved, large projects fail a lot.
As for daily work, we do two-week sprints, spending the first Monday doing nothing but backlog grooming (the crappiest day, but again, valuable). We strive to breakdown tasks to less than 8 hours, with 2-4 hours being the target (.5 hour tasks as very common, such as create Widget.Cache and Widget.Cache.Test projects). The sprint tasks are sacrosanct, they are the focus. If production support rears it head remove sprint tasks. We only schedule 50 hours of work time per 2 week sprint.
We do UX testing at the end of each sprint, enables us to be reactive to the results during the next sprint.
Yes, we are targeting agile methods and I'm not sure if they would scale too far. But, if a project is broken into functional components I don't see why it wouldn't scale, a large team would simply be composed of several smaller teams. Remember integration! It's usually a big part of the 20% of my 80/20 rule (where 80% of development takes 20% of the time, and the remaining 20% takes 80% of the time). Enhancement/support situations are something we haven't worked with much yet.
When starting a project, focus on "project killers" first. This includes things that are unknown, known to be hard or particularly complicated, or external integrations. Project killers are the things most likely to kill a project or directly impact the delivery date/budget.
I think there were two unspoken reasons Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize before being able to actually justify such an award (wasn't his fault, he didn't have a chance to earn it).
First, and foremost, he is the first black President of the United States. That is/was a huge deal. The end of the US Civil War (1865) was almost 150 years ago, or 6 to 7 generations using an average birth age of 20-25. Racism is still an issue, but we've moved forward a lot. People can be bigoted but it generally doesn't lead to crime these days (fair labor treatment, not necessarily), black-on-black crime is another story, and is far too common.
The second reason was an intention to influence Obama's approach to potentially starting more wars. The Bush 2 doctrine was terrible in terms of human lives and dollars down the drain, and for what? The wars last/lasted far too long; certainly a bad decision to invade Iraq, Afghanistan is more complicated and justifiable.
The Nobel was a preemptive strike on Obama's foreign policy, in favor of peace.
From my non-party affiliated position he's done a decent job. We're mostly out of Iraq but I'm not sure of the status of the Afghanistan war. It wasn't his fault he couldn't close Guantanamo (a first rate terrorist creation machine if ever there was one, how would you or your family or friends like you to be locked up for many years without justice?).
Could he have done better? Probably. Could he have done worse? Certainly.
I'm also a hopelessly addicted Steven King addict. Each novel lasts a while as I usually only read while camping. It took a year to read the Gunslinger series, well worth it.
I also read Thoreau's Walden only while camping. Very satisfying.
And, selfishly, I read Darwin's On the Origin of Species while on a Galapagos trip (along with Ernst Mayr's What Evolution Is, a better book, but only because it was vastly more recent).
Hammocks rock, I always have one setup when the weather is favorable. The best place to read, and to doze off.
I like to read when tent camping, and I camp a lot (30+ nights a year). While I do often bring a laptop (and a 30 amp-hour 12 volt battery with some set of 12 volt accessories, including: computer PSU, lights, air pump, electric blanket, bug zapper, fans, etc.). I never have internet access.
Yes, I car camp, usually at my favorite spot where everybody knows my name (it's my Cheers).
We subscribe to: 1. Smithsonian 2. National Geographic 3. Arizona Highways (used to live in AZ, beautiful magazine) 4. Cook's Illustrated 5. Scientific American
I prefer all of those in their physical periodical form.
From the Editorial Review: Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.
This is why we have the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act.
Brush with a fluoride toothpaste at least once a day.
Then brush 1 or 2 additional times with a toothpaste containing Novamin. It is a remineralizing agent (your teeth will feel very smooth). I use Restore toothpaste, it's available on Amazon. There is a fluoride toothpaste that has Novamin, but I can't recall what it is.
Then floss a couple of times a day.
Keep some kit at work, be that strange person who brushes in the bathroom after lunch (the usual response is, "I should do that", but they never do)... I only floss at work, at my desk.
It won't fix cavities (doing that takes a dental drill and a filling), but it will prevent them.
Your teeth will be whiter and smoother, and your gums will be healthier.
Here are my answers to your questions from the US position:
1. Iraq War - We knew they didn't have WMD (we wouldn't have attacked otherwise, I guarantee). It was about oil and "sins of the father" for not finishing the job (the elder Bush showed much wisdom in not finishing the job). 2. Afghanistan War - Reasonably justified as a response to 9/11 as terrorist were training there. Maybe the US just wanted more heroin on the world market... 3. Not attacking Saudi Arabia, the source of 19 out of 20 of the 9/11 terrorists - Oil. And heavy-handed monarchies are our friends, if they have oil. 4. Not attacking North Korea - No oil, no resources; nothing to gain. South Korea probably pushed the US to not attack due to potential damage to Seoul (after the stupidity of the "Axis-of-Evil" State of the Union address, like something out of a comic book). 5. Our Obsession with Iran - They share a border with Israel, there is no other reason.
Why does China provide fuel and resources to North Korea? To keep them from doing shit like they have been doing lately...
I'm not sure why North Korea is acting as they are, I believe the new leader is trying to assert himself and prove to his military that he is capable (of what I do not know).
Slashdot Mirror
It's like a secret code, just for us: RMS Urges W3C To Reject On Principle DRM In HTML5
Fantastic statement:
Sufficently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
That is all.
The odds aren't "rigged" in any game where a human is in control. The house is always going to win due to statistics. A dealer would quickly be caught if he/she "rigged" the game in a persons favor.
The guy in question just figured out a method of pushing existing buttons that "rigged" the game in his favor.
The game maker is at fault, not the person who figured out how to take advantage of it. They let the bug into the system. No hacking was involved, just pressing the buttons that were available.
A counter-suit to reclaim defense expenses would be the appropriate measure in my opinion, not that my opinion regarding legal issues is worth event 2 cents...
Sorry to hear, but not unexpected. When I was there, campground at the YMCA looked like a battlefield with fallen trees all around (not a single one standing). Just Earth pocked with stumps and piles of trees (and people attempting to camp around it).
The beetles were always there, it's just that the temperature isn't getting cold enough for long enough to hold them back.
I was just west of the Rockies about 4 years ago (YMCA of the Rockies off 40), it was a wasteland just waiting to catch on fire (dead pines stacked five high all around the hiking paths, others just waiting to fall).
Sad. But hey, all of the warming has to be natural...
At one point I had a game room consisting of:
1. Ms. Pac-Man original arcade game
2. Pool table.
3. Ping pong table
4. Atari 2600 console with TV and 80 or so games.
It helped that the first floor of my house had previously been retail space (art gallery).
Full sized arcade machines are awesome fun.
I submit Hebrew National Kosher hot dogs as a potential non-atheist food. Great hot dogs, the only ones I will feed my children (no chemicals).
And of course Christians should avoid apples (see Genesis), and Johnny Appleseed was in reality Satan.
Quote: "[it] is possible that people will prefer to pay a flat fee and see no ads?"
You are describing cable in the early 1980s, there were no commercials. Where are we now?
As long as there is something to market, there will be ads. Shoot, I was paying $100 a year for the Wall Street Journal online (great newspaper) and there were still ads (not that I saw them much thanks to AdBlock and Ghostery).
Even the premium cable channels have ads, except they are for their own shows/movies so it's not so bad (in this case it's nice to know when True Blood will start back up).
Now if you can make advertisements entertaining (think Old Spice, I would never use the stuff but I watch their commercials) then that's another story. It's basically reverse product-placement, and sometimes quite watchable.
It must have been Doogie Howser, JD.
Forgot to replace XXX with a value, in 2010 there were about 2.26 million people incarcerated in the US.
Not really. It's more like requiring electricity to run the system. Or water to use your toilet.
Internet service is basically comparable to electricity or water. They are general services used for a variety of purposes. Do you restrict use of your internet connection to only gaming, or is it restricted to only provide gaming through MS? Of course not.
There are people in the US that don't have electricity or access to clean water (a microwave isn't "bundled" with electricity, it is only useful if electricity is available). The US treats it's prisoners (of which there are close to XXX) far better than our homeless, a terrible situation that goes against the grain of being "civilized." Sorry for the rant, just pointing out that not everyone has internet, electricity, or even water.
All that said, I've switched from a 360 to the PC for games, and new consoles do not interest me unless they provide very compelling home media integration (Windows Media Center, with the 360 this requires a dedicated PC, which is stupid).
What's wrong with being a Malthusian (it is a proper word)?
We are at war with nature. Your living space used to be occupied by nature. But when it was built, nature was evicted. Every new person needs some space and resources that nature would have otherwise occupied and used.
How much space can homo-sapiens occupy before the natural ecosystems start to fail?
At this point the Commons are a sewer, and eventually it will be a Tragedy (it is already for people living in the slums of large cities, at least a billion or so people, I've seen it in Quito, Ecuador). Population control will not be voluntary; it will be enforced through war, disease, economic collapse, and starvation.
I'm a pessimistic optimistic realist...
Act like you are shopping, select a plan and then a page with phones comes up.
The first one is $99 for an iPhone 5 - 16gb. But, the not so small print says:
Qualifying rate plan required.SRP $579.99. 0% APR On Approved Credit for well-qualified buyer. Device loan balance due on service cancellation.
Every phone has the same text, with the price for that phone.
Due diligence done.
I wonder if they added that small print today???
I'm sure there's a clause in the phone purchase contract that says the balance is due if coverage is canclled. It sounds like it's a 0% interest loan (sum of payments = cost of the phone). They lose all "business" interest in you if you cancel their coverage. Why should you get a free loan? Maybe they could rework the contract and have the phone contract become a 20% interest rate loan? At that point they have a vested interest in the consumer, and 20% isn't unreasonable these days (for debt, certainly not for savings...).
They'll just make this more clear and be done with it.
It would be comical if this came anywhere near count. Except that court is expensive for all parties, and I don't think the AG has a leg to stand on, not that I would know.
Start by prototyping before the project is funded. This helps the business parties see what is possible and also gives the developers a much better understanding of functional requirements than any document ever could. Do UX testing sessions (test using your best developers - they find cool hacks, and business people, and anyone). Evolve the prototype, if even over a couple of weeks (I'm pretty good at rapid prototyping, two weeks is usually enough for 2-3 revisions resulting in a reasonably functional prototype for 5-10 screens). Prototyping and UX testing take experience, try them on a pilot project. Note, estimating hasn't begun yet. But do these things first, it's very important.
Then, once funded, start estimating. If the project is large (>1 person year), break it into logical functional components with a goal of at most 1 person year of "high" level estimated time (better estimates come next). Treat each of the functional components as a separate project. Large projects fail a lot, small projects are surprisingly successful (I don't have the article links handy at the moment, my anecdotal experience supports this as well).
Then, for each logical component, estimate. Estimating sucks, but I have seen the value in it, as has management where I work. It means sitting in a meeting room for multiple days per component. You will need at least one business representative, the development team, and a DBA, at minimum. Use the prototype to explore the functionality and system requirements. Start namespace/class definitions (helps a lot to categorize/define functionality boundaries). For each namespace/class, estimate the number and complexity of methods. Same for database stuff. Again, the prototype is a useful tool (never DB connected, generate data manually, Excel is a great code generator for such purposes).
Then put some time estimates on all of the tasks (think of it is as backlog, but for the project, not a sprint).
Continue estimating for each functional component (don't forget integration time between components, I pad these, it's always harder than you expect).
If you can't do this level of estimating then you do not understand software at a level required to make the project a success.
Then decide if the project should move forward. I've been involved in two hard estimating efforts (2-3 weeks each, huge projects, one that wasn't considered that big until we did detailed estimation) that resulted in management deciding against moving forward, it was obvious to us that this would be the result given the results of the estimation. Millions of dollars probably saved, large projects fail a lot.
As for daily work, we do two-week sprints, spending the first Monday doing nothing but backlog grooming (the crappiest day, but again, valuable). We strive to breakdown tasks to less than 8 hours, with 2-4 hours being the target (.5 hour tasks as very common, such as create Widget.Cache and Widget.Cache.Test projects). The sprint tasks are sacrosanct, they are the focus. If production support rears it head remove sprint tasks. We only schedule 50 hours of work time per 2 week sprint.
We do UX testing at the end of each sprint, enables us to be reactive to the results during the next sprint.
Yes, we are targeting agile methods and I'm not sure if they would scale too far. But, if a project is broken into functional components I don't see why it wouldn't scale, a large team would simply be composed of several smaller teams. Remember integration! It's usually a big part of the 20% of my 80/20 rule (where 80% of development takes 20% of the time, and the remaining 20% takes 80% of the time). Enhancement/support situations are something we haven't worked with much yet.
When starting a project, focus on "project killers" first. This includes things that are unknown, known to be hard or particularly complicated, or external integrations. Project killers are the things most likely to kill a project or directly impact the delivery date/budget.
I think there were two unspoken reasons Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize before being able to actually justify such an award (wasn't his fault, he didn't have a chance to earn it).
First, and foremost, he is the first black President of the United States. That is/was a huge deal. The end of the US Civil War (1865) was almost 150 years ago, or 6 to 7 generations using an average birth age of 20-25. Racism is still an issue, but we've moved forward a lot. People can be bigoted but it generally doesn't lead to crime these days (fair labor treatment, not necessarily), black-on-black crime is another story, and is far too common.
The second reason was an intention to influence Obama's approach to potentially starting more wars. The Bush 2 doctrine was terrible in terms of human lives and dollars down the drain, and for what? The wars last/lasted far too long; certainly a bad decision to invade Iraq, Afghanistan is more complicated and justifiable.
The Nobel was a preemptive strike on Obama's foreign policy, in favor of peace.
From my non-party affiliated position he's done a decent job. We're mostly out of Iraq but I'm not sure of the status of the Afghanistan war. It wasn't his fault he couldn't close Guantanamo (a first rate terrorist creation machine if ever there was one, how would you or your family or friends like you to be locked up for many years without justice?).
Could he have done better? Probably. Could he have done worse? Certainly.
I'm also a hopelessly addicted Steven King addict. Each novel lasts a while as I usually only read while camping. It took a year to read the Gunslinger series, well worth it.
I also read Thoreau's Walden only while camping. Very satisfying.
And, selfishly, I read Darwin's On the Origin of Species while on a Galapagos trip (along with Ernst Mayr's What Evolution Is, a better book, but only because it was vastly more recent).
Hammocks rock, I always have one setup when the weather is favorable. The best place to read, and to doze off.
I like to read when tent camping, and I camp a lot (30+ nights a year). While I do often bring a laptop (and a 30 amp-hour 12 volt battery with some set of 12 volt accessories, including: computer PSU, lights, air pump, electric blanket, bug zapper, fans, etc.). I never have internet access.
Yes, I car camp, usually at my favorite spot where everybody knows my name (it's my Cheers).
We subscribe to:
1. Smithsonian
2. National Geographic
3. Arizona Highways (used to live in AZ, beautiful magazine)
4. Cook's Illustrated
5. Scientific American
I prefer all of those in their physical periodical form.
It's call the Shock Doctrine.
There's even a book about it (called the Shock Doctrine):
http://www.amazon.com/The-Shock-Doctrine-Disaster-Capitalism/dp/0312427999
From the Editorial Review:
Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.
This is why we have the Department of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act.
There are a lot of human bodies on Everest...
Thank you for your sig, I use it at work quite a bit.
Brush with a fluoride toothpaste at least once a day.
Then brush 1 or 2 additional times with a toothpaste containing Novamin. It is a remineralizing agent (your teeth will feel very smooth). I use Restore toothpaste, it's available on Amazon. There is a fluoride toothpaste that has Novamin, but I can't recall what it is.
Then floss a couple of times a day.
Keep some kit at work, be that strange person who brushes in the bathroom after lunch (the usual response is, "I should do that", but they never do)... I only floss at work, at my desk.
It won't fix cavities (doing that takes a dental drill and a filling), but it will prevent them.
Your teeth will be whiter and smoother, and your gums will be healthier.
At least mine are.
My bad, make that:
5. Our Obsession with Iran - They are close enough to Israel to be a threat.
I suck at geography (shoot, I looked at a map and still got it wrong).
Here are my answers to your questions from the US position:
1. Iraq War - We knew they didn't have WMD (we wouldn't have attacked otherwise, I guarantee). It was about oil and "sins of the father" for not finishing the job (the elder Bush showed much wisdom in not finishing the job).
2. Afghanistan War - Reasonably justified as a response to 9/11 as terrorist were training there. Maybe the US just wanted more heroin on the world market...
3. Not attacking Saudi Arabia, the source of 19 out of 20 of the 9/11 terrorists - Oil. And heavy-handed monarchies are our friends, if they have oil.
4. Not attacking North Korea - No oil, no resources; nothing to gain. South Korea probably pushed the US to not attack due to potential damage to Seoul (after the stupidity of the "Axis-of-Evil" State of the Union address, like something out of a comic book).
5. Our Obsession with Iran - They share a border with Israel, there is no other reason.
Why does China provide fuel and resources to North Korea? To keep them from doing shit like they have been doing lately...
I'm not sure why North Korea is acting as they are, I believe the new leader is trying to assert himself and prove to his military that he is capable (of what I do not know).
Are the contents of my safety deposit box available to the IRS? That represents "data" stored on "other people's equipment".