yea... that jitlov presentation was amazing... well worth it... (oh yea... and thanks againg for the STAP speaking of SW toys)
anyway, onto the meat... how many starwars ads have you seen... I mean actual adds for the movie... Ive seen exactly 1.
I dont think lucas is overhyping... its the media thats doing it (and complaining about it too I might add). yea, the hangers on like thumb wars are bad but thats not lucas. the toys and merchandizing is bad (esp. the pepsi subsidiary adds) but fox wants to hedge its bets and raise some serious money (I realy cant blame them for wanting more money, although it would be nice if things were different)
so there ya go.. no starwars adds but a shitload of media genrated hype and hangers on... I cant blame lucas for much of the worst of the hype (and I wont blame him for making the movie in the first place:)
being a contractor puts you in a unique position... im not sure what the best way to handle that situation would be, but if it got bad enought you could concievably leave you firm and perhaps persue a non contracting position... this would be extreem though
you have a good point. you dont want to go jumping from job to job... that is a bad thing, but staying at a company where you are unhappy is even worse, for instance... I left my last job after only 6 months... why? well, not for any reason like your talking about... I left because they didnt have enough work to go around to the engineers in the group (government contractor anybody)... not enough work make me bored (though I spent more time on slashdot then)
staying would have made me miserable and hurt my carreer, so I left... if you are in a position where staying at a company will make you miserable (doing the Wrong Thing) and hurt your career (scapegoats often have trouble finding new jobs) then you have to leave... Im not recomending anyone ever take such a decision lightly, but it is an option and must be considered under some circumstances...
it is unfortuante that all employers are not good employers... hopefully Darwinisim will prevail, my last employer is currently up for sale, hopefully the company that buys them will be better at managing their resources, but im not counting on it:)
you have to decide where your comprimize point is... obviously supporting ones children is the most important thing you can do, and you should perhaps be willing to put up with more from you job because of youre obligation...
There is, never the less, a line for everybody... if that line is crossed, and your employer askes you to do something you find unacceptable (and I mean completely unacceptable here, lets be reasonable) then you have to ask yourself some damn tough questions...
everybodys situation is different... everyperson must make their own decisions... but there are always choices, its just a matter of finding the choice which is best (or rather least bad)
>The PSX2 may be a cool game only machine, it may be a nice game/DVD machine, but it's not a computer. It doesn't have the power of flexability that a computer has.
according to your credentials you are highly qualified, you could easily get a job anywhere you want.
If an employer asks you to do something that you find objectionable... leave...
thats all there is too it...
maby Im being a little nieve here, but thats my phillosophy... I have made solid decisions about what I will and will not do in my carreer (Im sure there are some cases that I havent run accorss yet, cant be prepared for everything) and I feel strongly about them...
if you feel this strongly you might want to reconsider your employment
the response to my earlier comment said something that is relevent here...
have code for life and death systems be checked by an outside angency... its the customers job to make sure that the workmanship they get is acceptable.
Im sure that the people that designed and built the house im going to buy were certified, so I guess there is realy no reason to get it throughly inspected before I sign a $200,000 mortgae...
if anyone believes that I have a lovely house to sell you:)
theres a bug in the compiler.... or the library... or the os... or in the hardware... or in the microcode
it was due to radiation screwing with the chip
computers crash for many reasons... course, if the reasons above were the only ones Id be thrilled... but still, certification is impossible, there are too many places for things to go wrong
well, in the cases im talking about marketing shouldnt apply (radar, weapons, life support systems... ect...) and a certified progect leader (whoes ass is on the line) wouldnt allow that to be the case
(I wouldnt even try this with commercial software, too many market pressures, not enought need)
with regards to outside agencys, that might be a good idea... although internal code reviews and testing are essential... its all a matter of process, not of programming style.
the question here is... who makes the test... who decides what "good programming practices" are.
I dont know about you, but I realy dont want to see a world where everyone writes code the same way... its unproductive and stifles creativity and innovation. (esp if everyone wrote code like MS:)
on the otherhand, if I had faith that it could be done right it would not be so bad...
the most important thing to remember though is that quaility of code does not come from the skill of the programmer, everyone makes mistakes (hey, even Mel had a bug in his code, what make you so special) quality code comes from a good process of design implementation and testing, including CODE REVIEWS!
I dont know about you, but I certainly wouldnt want to write code for a life support system and not have someone review my work heavily before it was put into use.
perhaps it would be better to focus on certifying companies (or project leaders) in this way... focusing on process... of course certification is only necessary for "important" progects, ie life and death... cases where liability is a serious issue (much like the engineering profession)
The same is very true (or at least was) at Brandeis University... the CS department there ballooned to the point where there were 150 perspectives a year (alot for such a small university) of course the vast majority of them chage majors but the number of majors graduating each year has been rising steadily...
then again, given the new government funded AI lab (the volen center for complex systems) I think alot more serious perspecitve CS students are going to brandeis than before... perhaps this is off setting the drain for brandeis.
It has been shown that public executions are not a deturent (fucoult I belive) but I understand your point.
OK, lets say that the knowledge that a teacher might have a gun wouldnt have stoped them... the teacher still might have been able to stop them before they killed all thoes kids... sure, there would have been death, but Id make the trade for fewer deaths anyday
also.. . the games that the previous poster was speaking of were not doom and quake, but the terrible sadistic manner in which the shooters taunted and killed their victims... I belive you misunderstood him... understandable under the circumstances
I agree... untrained persons should not be allowed to own or carry guns... thats why a licence to carry comes with a comprehensive training course... including such topics as the nature of intuition and target recognition... threat assessment and other necessary skills.
so what about trained people with guns, can they do any good... what about the security gaurd (NOT A COP... no more training than any other perosn with a licence to carry) up in boston who held off a nutcase with a rifel who was trying to shoot women in an abortion clinic...
unfortunately he was killed as a result, but how many innocent women would have died if he hadt been carrying a gun (and chosen to use it)
Guns are not inherently bad... in the wrong hands they can be devistating, in the right hands they can save lives...
and if your going to go on about where did the nutcase get the gun... there are alwyas going to be ways to get a gun...no matter what you do
for the record... I do not own a gun... I am not a member of the NRA and actualy... I rather hate guns... but I dont want to see them gone
Gun controll is onething... elimination is another
I realy liked it... all based on metadata (which was what the demo was demoing) there is supposed to be more use of metadata in MacOS X (there was going to be allot of it according to that rhapsody UI guide that was on the web...)
I hope that someone eventualy does something cool with it, but Im expecting it to go the way of opendoc... cool concept the power of which only a very few people realy understood.
eh... what can you do... when the worlds not ready... its just not ready:)
The reason they dont support anyother platforms is the shear dificulty of porting Quicktime... its not a player... its service, its bigger than you think.
Inorder to get quicktime onto windows apple ported a huge percentage of the MacOS Toolbox (system level apis) to windows, most of what makes the mac the mac is in quicktime for windows, thats how big quicktime is... its a huge effort to port.
sure, it would be great if they could do it but right now its not part of their plan... maby, if all the open source stuff goes well for them, they will open quicktime(client)... but due to the size and the level of integration, dont expect it tomorrow...
in addition if sorenson doesnt open their code, thats not apples fault... they can only do so much... if you want sorenson video, talk to sorenson
The reason they dont support anyother platforms is the shear dificulty of porting Quicktime... its not a player... its service, its bigger than you think.
Inorder to get quicktime onto windows apple ported a huge percentage of the MacOS Toolbox (system level apis) to windows, most of what makes the mac the mac is in quicktime for windows, thats how big quicktime is... its a huge effort to port.
sure, it would be great if they could do it but right now its not part of their plan... maby, if all the open source stuff goes well for them, they will open quicktime(client)... but due to the size and the level of integration, dont expect it tomorrow...
in addition if sorenson doesnt open their code, thats not apples fault... they can only do so much... if you want sorenson video, talk to sorenson
If spreadsheets and wordprocessors are such simple apps that can be developed for free than why does MS charge such an insane price for Office (which is one of their biggest money makers)
If they are so simple, maby gates should make them open source... Im mean after all, they cant be worth much and it would be a great pr move;)
No... what you read was an opinion peice on a macOpinion (linked here) about the possibility in an attempt to kill windows (and about the adverse effect this could have on the mac... ect ect)
its a pretty good article and it is available here
of course your absolutely right... but the primary driving force here is money... USB speakers will take over because they will be a cheaper solution...
you want a traditional solution... pay a premium...
welcom to the wonderfull world of comodity class computers...
As for your "extremely well informed" bit, what you really mean is relatively well informed for your industry. Being aware of a product in a field of people unaware of a product does not make you "extremely well informed".
I understand... why listen to him... but Ill tell you this... I know him, and he is
well MP3 doesnt even keep up with CD quality, but it comes close.
but when everyone in the world is used to this new kick ass higher quality sound MP3 just isnt gonna cut it anymore... it only scales so high
hence there is now a reason to buy music (beter quality) MP3 may still be around (convinience) but when consumers can have higer quality they will want it
actualy, its much like tapes and CD's tapes can be easily pirated, but CD's are better quality... people still use tapes for convinience (we dont all have car CD players) but will buy CD's
Slashdot Mirror
when, precicely, did isriel steal our nuclear technology
I belive it is widely held that we _gave_ it to them
yea... that jitlov presentation was amazing... well worth it... (oh yea... and thanks againg for the STAP speaking of SW toys)
:)
anyway, onto the meat... how many starwars ads have you seen... I mean actual adds for the movie... Ive seen exactly 1.
I dont think lucas is overhyping... its the media thats doing it (and complaining about it too I might add). yea, the hangers on like thumb wars are bad but thats not lucas. the toys and merchandizing is bad (esp. the pepsi subsidiary adds) but fox wants to hedge its bets and raise some serious money (I realy cant blame them for wanting more money, although it would be nice if things were different)
so there ya go.. no starwars adds but a shitload of media genrated hype and hangers on... I cant blame lucas for much of the worst of the hype (and I wont blame him for making the movie in the first place
being a contractor puts you in a unique position... im not sure what the best way to handle that situation would be, but if it got bad enought you could concievably leave you firm and perhaps persue a non contracting position... this would be extreem though
:)
you have a good point. you dont want to go jumping from job to job... that is a bad thing, but staying at a company where you are unhappy is even worse, for instance... I left my last job after only 6 months... why? well, not for any reason like your talking about... I left because they didnt have enough work to go around to the engineers in the group (government contractor anybody)... not enough work make me bored (though I spent more time on slashdot then)
staying would have made me miserable and hurt my carreer, so I left... if you are in a position where staying at a company will make you miserable (doing the Wrong Thing) and hurt your career (scapegoats often have trouble finding new jobs) then you have to leave... Im not recomending anyone ever take such a decision lightly, but it is an option and must be considered under some circumstances...
it is unfortuante that all employers are not good employers... hopefully Darwinisim will prevail, my last employer is currently up for sale, hopefully the company that buys them will be better at managing their resources, but im not counting on it
you have to decide where your comprimize point is... obviously supporting ones children is the most important thing you can do, and you should perhaps be willing to put up with more from you job because of youre obligation...
There is, never the less, a line for everybody... if that line is crossed, and your employer askes you to do something you find unacceptable (and I mean completely unacceptable here, lets be reasonable) then you have to ask yourself some damn tough questions...
everybodys situation is different... everyperson must make their own decisions... but there are always choices, its just a matter of finding the choice which is best (or rather least bad)
>The PSX2 may be a cool game only machine, it may be a nice game/DVD machine, but it's not a computer. It doesn't have the power of flexability that a computer has.
isnt that what they said about PCs
I see your point, but here is my question
according to your credentials you are highly qualified, you could easily get a job anywhere you want.
If an employer asks you to do something that you find objectionable... leave...
thats all there is too it...
maby Im being a little nieve here, but thats my phillosophy... I have made solid decisions about what I will and will not do in my carreer (Im sure there are some cases that I havent run accorss yet, cant be prepared for everything) and I feel strongly about them...
if you feel this strongly you might want to reconsider your employment
the response to my earlier comment said something that is relevent here...
:)
have code for life and death systems be checked by an outside angency... its the customers job to make sure that the workmanship they get is acceptable.
Im sure that the people that designed and built the house im going to buy were certified, so I guess there is realy no reason to get it throughly inspected before I sign a $200,000 mortgae...
if anyone believes that I have a lovely house to sell you
PS josh, im up this weekend, see you then
Its not my fault
theres a bug in the compiler.... or the library... or the os... or in the hardware... or in the microcode
it was due to radiation screwing with the chip
computers crash for many reasons... course, if the reasons above were the only ones Id be thrilled... but still, certification is impossible, there are too many places for things to go wrong
well, in the cases im talking about marketing shouldnt apply (radar, weapons, life support systems... ect...) and a certified progect leader (whoes ass is on the line) wouldnt allow that to be the case
(I wouldnt even try this with commercial software, too many market pressures, not enought need)
with regards to outside agencys, that might be a good idea... although internal code reviews and testing are essential... its all a matter of process, not of programming style.
fnord!
as what Im not sure
the question here is... who makes the test... who decides what "good programming practices" are.
I dont know about you, but I realy dont want to see a world where everyone writes code the same way... its unproductive and stifles creativity and innovation. (esp if everyone wrote code like MS:)
on the otherhand, if I had faith that it could be done right it would not be so bad...
the most important thing to remember though is that quaility of code does not come from the skill of the programmer, everyone makes mistakes (hey, even Mel had a bug in his code, what make you so special) quality code comes from a good process of design implementation and testing, including CODE REVIEWS!
I dont know about you, but I certainly wouldnt want to write code for a life support system and not have someone review my work heavily before it was put into use.
perhaps it would be better to focus on certifying companies (or project leaders) in this way... focusing on process... of course certification is only necessary for "important" progects, ie life and death... cases where liability is a serious issue (much like the engineering profession)
The same is very true (or at least was) at Brandeis University... the CS department there ballooned to the point where there were 150 perspectives a year (alot for such a small university) of course the vast majority of them chage majors but the number of majors graduating each year has been rising steadily...
then again, given the new government funded AI lab (the volen center for complex systems) I think alot more serious perspecitve CS students are going to brandeis than before... perhaps this is off setting the drain for brandeis.
It has been shown that public executions are not a deturent (fucoult I belive) but I understand your point.
OK, lets say that the knowledge that a teacher might have a gun wouldnt have stoped them... the teacher still might have been able to stop them before they killed all thoes kids... sure, there would have been death, but Id make the trade for fewer deaths anyday
also.. . the games that the previous poster was speaking of were not doom and quake, but the terrible sadistic manner in which the shooters taunted and killed their victims... I belive you misunderstood him... understandable under the circumstances
I agree... untrained persons should not be allowed to own or carry guns... thats why a licence to carry comes with a comprehensive training course... including such topics as the nature of intuition and target recognition... threat assessment and other necessary skills.
so what about trained people with guns, can they do any good... what about the security gaurd (NOT A COP... no more training than any other perosn with a licence to carry) up in boston who held off a nutcase with a rifel who was trying to shoot women in an abortion clinic...
unfortunately he was killed as a result, but how many innocent women would have died if he hadt been carrying a gun (and chosen to use it)
Guns are not inherently bad... in the wrong hands they can be devistating, in the right hands they can save lives...
and if your going to go on about where did the nutcase get the gun... there are alwyas going to be ways to get a gun...no matter what you do
for the record... I do not own a gun... I am not a member of the NRA and actualy... I rather hate guns... but I dont want to see them gone
Gun controll is onething... elimination is another
That was a kick ass little demo...
:)
I realy liked it... all based on metadata (which was what the demo was demoing) there is supposed to be more use of metadata in MacOS X (there was going to be allot of it according to that rhapsody UI guide that was on the web...)
I hope that someone eventualy does something cool with it, but Im expecting it to go the way of opendoc... cool concept the power of which only a very few people realy understood.
eh... what can you do... when the worlds not ready... its just not ready
What registration key...
I installed last night with no registration at all... got the editors version too
I thought it was just because it was a beta version?
The reason they dont support anyother platforms is the shear dificulty of porting Quicktime... its not a player... its service, its bigger than you think.
Inorder to get quicktime onto windows apple ported a huge percentage of the MacOS Toolbox (system level apis) to windows, most of what makes the mac the mac is in quicktime for windows, thats how big quicktime is... its a huge effort to port.
sure, it would be great if they could do it but right now its not part of their plan... maby, if all the open source stuff goes well for them, they will open quicktime(client)... but due to the size and the level of integration, dont expect it tomorrow...
in addition if sorenson doesnt open their code, thats not apples fault... they can only do so much... if you want sorenson video, talk to sorenson
The reason they dont support anyother platforms is the shear dificulty of porting Quicktime... its not a player... its service, its bigger than you think.
Inorder to get quicktime onto windows apple ported a huge percentage of the MacOS Toolbox (system level apis) to windows, most of what makes the mac the mac is in quicktime for windows, thats how big quicktime is... its a huge effort to port.
sure, it would be great if they could do it but right now its not part of their plan... maby, if all the open source stuff goes well for them, they will open quicktime(client)... but due to the size and the level of integration, dont expect it tomorrow...
in addition if sorenson doesnt open their code, thats not apples fault... they can only do so much... if you want sorenson video, talk to sorenson
If spreadsheets and wordprocessors are such simple apps that can be developed for free than why does MS charge such an insane price for Office (which is one of their biggest money makers)
;)
If they are so simple, maby gates should make them open source... Im mean after all, they cant be worth much and it would be a great pr move
No... what you read was an opinion peice on a macOpinion (linked here) about the possibility in an attempt to kill windows (and about the adverse effect this could have on the mac... ect ect)
t opia/
its a pretty good article and it is available here
http://www.macopinion.com/fi.cgi?url=/columns/u
WOW... flashback to didgital electronics lab
thnaks... that was cool
of course your absolutely right... but the primary driving force here is money... USB speakers will take over because they will be a cheaper solution...
you want a traditional solution... pay a premium...
welcom to the wonderfull world of comodity class computers...
get used to it buddy... your gonna see more of it
ever wonder why the folks at soundblaster bought Cambridge soundworks (one of the best comercial speaker companies around)
hummm could it be because the saw the witing on the wall... soundcards are our... digital is in... it just make more sense
hell its cheaper to put a dedicated usb port and usb speakers in then a sound card.
I love hot plugable....
:)
the other day I was working on an iMac and I unpluged and repluged the mouse just for fun
its was a surprisingly liberating experience
I understand... why listen to him... but Ill tell you this... I know him, and he is
well MP3 doesnt even keep up with CD quality, but it comes close.
but when everyone in the world is used to this new kick ass higher quality sound MP3 just isnt gonna cut it anymore... it only scales so high
hence there is now a reason to buy music (beter quality) MP3 may still be around (convinience) but when consumers can have higer quality they will want it
actualy, its much like tapes and CD's tapes can be easily pirated, but CD's are better quality... people still use tapes for convinience (we dont all have car CD players) but will buy CD's
thats how this could kill MP3..