The higher level languages let you program without all the tedious details.
Which is exactly my point. It's not so much programming as it is data entry. The problem with people who don't learn those low levels of programming make poorer programmers, in general, than those that do. I hate to even say in general, I don't want a blanket statement that offends someone, but if you know what's really going on you have an edge, it's that simple.
It's kinda of funny you say that. Personally I find programming in languages like VB and Java less pregramming and more data entry. I don't know many VB programmers, but the overwhelming theme among Java programmers, in my experience, is grab components glue them together and you're done. While I apreciate that this is what these types of languages are for, it's not why I got into computer science. What scares me is that an alarming number of software engingeers that I've met can barely code well in C much less assembler. I saw it in school and I've seen it in the workplace. It amazed me that we graduate people who can barely pass an assembly language course because it's "too hard", and "doesn't make any sense". Programming in C, assembler, and lower level langauges teaches more about how a computer works that do the higher level languages, which is something IMHO that a good programmer needs in order to write solid code. And nowadays with universities considering (or allready have) switching to Java as their teaching language, the problem will only get worse. Of course, it's probably not the best idea to focus on only one language in any event. A much more effective education could be had by teaching a variety of languages, high and low level at the same time. The important thing in early computer education is understanding the concepts, but it's just as important to show how different languages handle those concepts from an early level. And not wait until a higher level course in programming languages. I've always thought that it would be a good idea instead of having deiscrete classes (and only (usually) two Intro to CS classes, to require students to take a series of courses everysemester in CS along with the subject specific classes that make up the degree. Come of the subject classes should be combined as well. I would have loved it had my architecture and operating systems classes combines into one year long class. It's not impossible that a class like that could be structured so that in the first semester you learn architecture and design or (even better build) a small computer and in the second half write an OS for it. In my school experience, however, the upper level classes were filled with kids that didn't have the slightest idea how to program Unix, much less be prepared for a course more intense.
I'm not saying Java like languages don't have their place. They're great for building GUI's. But half the time it doesn't even seem like programming.
Let me start by saying that I think this Ausiie bill is ridiculous, and must have been proposed by some severely tech-illiterate people. But I think that your comparison of the bill to child pornography laws is not valid. In the case of child pornography the possession occurs after the fact, the actual material is a consequence of someone commiting th (IMHO disgusting) crime of forcing a child to participate. And obtaining this consequence of that crime encourages more criminal activity to produce more child pornography thus perpetuating the original crime.
In the case of hacking tools (which I'll spare everyone the rant on why they should not be called 'hacking' tools in the spirit that is intended) you have a case where possession of the material in question comes before a crime. Yes it is possible to commit a crime with these tools it is not a necessary consequence of possession. Additionally it is even in question whther or not the use of many of these tools is criminal. For exapmple, take port scanning, I fail to see how this is an illegal activity. If you choose to place a server on a public network, you have no right to complain when people 'look' at it.
The fact has already been mentioned that there are numerous legitimate uses of these tools. Namely to help protect a network from attack. As a software engineer I use these tools to track down flaws in software design when it doesn't work across a network. While these tools do have very real reasons why people would use them there is no reason to own child pornography. In our society child pronography is taboo, not necessarily because of any inherent wrongness in the act itself but because that's a pattern of behavior we, as a whole, believe is destructive to our culture. You mention that some child pornography is worthy of artistic value, this is a faulty statement by the definition of the word pornography. There is a world of difference between a sexually explicit picture of children and an peice of art that contains a nude child as the subject matter. The line is very thin and I'd imagine easy to cross I'm sure but it does exist.
Besides all of this we have the free speech issue. The creation of cracking tools is my right. I have not harmed anyone in the process, especially if I have not distributed or used the tools in any way (though should I choose to distribute them I believe that that is also my perogative). Should I choose to create child pornography, while I am expressing myself how I choose, I am taking my free speech to a level where there is in-escapable implicit harm being done, the exploitation of children.
YESSS! Cheap Ass games. I own Lord of the Fries and Pass the Brain. Those games are a riot. Some other good ones are Awful Green Things from Outer Space, Coup (to mention two SJG products), Che Geek it a pretty entertaining card game. Those quick and dirty games are fun (and some of them can be more in depth than would be expected). But I still have the urge to geek out on all day Civilistion, Titan, or even Axis and Allies.
Re:How is the pencil-n-paper business these days?
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· Score: 5
I started getting out of it five or six years ago but I have some friends that owned a game shop. It was pretty much downhill when Magic came along. Games companies tried to go more mainstream and target kids (who had parents with disposable incomes) with games like Magic. The aim was to get parents to continuosly buy their kids 5 or 10 dollars worth of stuff a week. A kid could bring his allowance in every week to spend it. Unlike traditional rpg where you could save up, buy everything you needed and not have to go back. Games Workshop (which I'm ashamed to say I was addicted to) took the same path. Taget kids who will spend all their money. So the games became much less involved and a lot more 'cartoony'. Contrast that with the mid to late eighties when you would see biker types jumping over the bar when the beer went on sale at Golden Demon every year.
The game insustry has always worked in cycles though, although a lot of the quality games are dissapearing it seems to me (GW giving up Fantasy Roleplay was a killer for me, arguably one of the best fantasy rpg's ever made). But a lot of that may be a function of getting older. Along with feeling silly sitting around a table an basically just telling stories with other adults starts to lose it's appeal. Akthough I personally still long for those all day sessions once in a while, the few times I've tried playing as I got older the magic of the game seems to have faded away with my youth. And it's like you said, it's hard to get players together regularly to play an rpg. Nowadays I keep a collection of one night games (Settlers of Cataan ect.) that anyone, even non gamers can sit down and have fun with. I don't know it seems to me that the older I get the more 'beer and pretzels' games take over. If I want to play an RPG I just duck into a pc game. (But from what I've see of Neverwinter Nights it looks as though some of pen and paper rpg elements may make it to the pc screen)
Hell make that a note to everybody, that's why I quickly posted a correction to my first "kidding around" post. Otherwise I'd have been marked as flamebait in minutes. I guess that's the price we pay for moderation though. Truth be told, not everyone is intelligent enough to moderate. On the other hang it certainly offends my sense of equality to think that only certain people should be allowed moderation points. I guess it all probably equals out in the end.
... I was about to subscribe right before all the trouble before, so I held off. But now I can finally get a subscription. And get a quality magazine to my second favorite language.
Stupid me, I forgot that it was html formatted and my didn't show up. That post was supposed to be good natured, that'll teach me to use preview more often.
I frankly just don't believe you spent more than 3 seconds on that page. The list are for the top ten gaining queries and declining queries. There's no list of top ten overall queries.
Besides who needs to search for porn? All ya hafta do is enter a likely URL in your browser (http://buttcheeks.com) and you'll instantly have forty windows open all pointing you at 'the best porn on the net'.
Ah that would explain the outburst, I have friends that are helpdesk weenies . Everyone runs Linux because it's cool. They question is why each person thinks it's cool. For the trendy who cares, but most of us run it and have been running it for years, because it is technically superior and we can change it however we want.
Of course I can understand your canned reaction to what appears to be a standard/. elitism post. I feel the same when I post about other topics that run contrary to popular opinion on/..
(That's not to say that I don't have a little elitism running in me, Windows is a toy, Linux is for real work. Of course I can back that up, I can get ten times as much done in (U|Li)nux than others can get done in windows.)
Which is why he said he works to live because money isn't his priority. Read the post. Or better yet, just because you thought of something that you thought was funny, don't try and force it on the first post you see that comes close, save it for sometime that's appropriate. Timing is everything in comedy my friend.
Besides, you need to work on the content as well, I can think of ways for most if not all of your little activity price tags to do the same thing for free.
Re:Make a decision, folks
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ORBS Forks
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· Score: 2
It's completely justifiable to censor your mailbox, I wouldn't have it any other way. Any attempt to censor the internet at large is number one doomed to failure and two a step away from opening the avenue for the government to come in full force and take over. Before someone thinks they're smart yes I know the internet was started by the government, but it is not the governments possesion. My worst fear is that one day we have an MVA type organization governing the net.
I hate to say it but it's just too bad that you didn't ask for it. You have a address in a public medium, that means that anyone who wants can use it. You can filter it all you want, and you have every right to, but you cannot prevent, or ask anyone else to prevent access for you. That's like giving everyone in the world a key to your house and getting angry when people you don't want in there come in anyway. It's not someone elses responsibility to filter who comes in, it's yours. If you're so concerned with privacy only give keys to those you want to have access.
Re:Spam is *not* free speech!
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Again, I said nothing about keeping relays open, try reading the post. If you have a comment about open relays, respond to a post that is discussing them, not to one that's looking at the larger issues.
Re:Make a decision, folks
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ORBS Forks
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· Score: 2
Insightful?? What an odd moderation for a post that entirely misses the point. I never said open relays were good, my comment was based on the thread that said censorship is good or bad you have to choose. If you read first, and thought before posting and maybe you would have seen that I was talking about the hypocrisy over getting mad that RBL ORBS sites were censored, and celebrating when spammers are censored.
Yes, I find it hard to believe that anyone could get an injuction on an organization like this. It doesn't seem much different, to me, than an organization like PETA providing a list of all those companies that are known to be dolphin un-friendly, so that concered people could boycott their products.
Organizations like this are GOOD, they allow freedom of choice on the personal level by providing information to anyone who wants it.
And additionally, you empower yourself, not some other agency that may one day not act as you'd prefer.
Re:Make a decision, folks
on
ORBS Forks
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· Score: 1
This is no troll, it's the truth, the overall sentiment that I've seen in comments on the site in the last several years is "Oh my God they're trying to stop us from saying what we want" on one day and "We must censor spammers" on the next. It seems to be a recurring theme that censorship is bad only when it applies to something you want and good when it's something you don't. People this is a ridiculous, although most likely natural as far as human nature goes, way to view things. For a thinking adult. A little common sense would tell you that number one, freedom of speech must apply equally to all, and number two, if you are able to stop someone else from saying what they want, how long will it be before someone stifles you?
In a way that's kind of cool, on the one hand it's a good way to ensure that passwords aren't easily reused. Of course, on the other hand one of the other replies to this post makes a lot of sense, it's definitly a hindrance to maintaining security to keep lists of old passwords around.
Luckily, I don't have to care about Joe User's needs anymore than Joe User has to care about being responsible. I'm not saying that there is one true user, all I'm saying is that when people are willing to take responsibility for their actions they shouldn't participate in that activity. And when they get burned, it's too bad for them.
On a tangent, I find it amazing how again and again opinions that differ from the norm are marked as flamebait.
I'm tired of pandering to Joe User. If he can't pick a decent password and remember it, he's doing nothing but wasting my time burning up cycles for some moronic activity or another.
Slashdot Mirror
My point exactly, it's frustrating just going to class with these people much less having to work with them.
Which is exactly my point. It's not so much programming as it is data entry. The problem with people who don't learn those low levels of programming make poorer programmers, in general, than those that do. I hate to even say in general, I don't want a blanket statement that offends someone, but if you know what's really going on you have an edge, it's that simple.
I'm not saying Java like languages don't have their place. They're great for building GUI's. But half the time it doesn't even seem like programming.
In the case of hacking tools (which I'll spare everyone the rant on why they should not be called 'hacking' tools in the spirit that is intended) you have a case where possession of the material in question comes before a crime. Yes it is possible to commit a crime with these tools it is not a necessary consequence of possession. Additionally it is even in question whther or not the use of many of these tools is criminal. For exapmple, take port scanning, I fail to see how this is an illegal activity. If you choose to place a server on a public network, you have no right to complain when people 'look' at it.
The fact has already been mentioned that there are numerous legitimate uses of these tools. Namely to help protect a network from attack. As a software engineer I use these tools to track down flaws in software design when it doesn't work across a network. While these tools do have very real reasons why people would use them there is no reason to own child pornography. In our society child pronography is taboo, not necessarily because of any inherent wrongness in the act itself but because that's a pattern of behavior we, as a whole, believe is destructive to our culture. You mention that some child pornography is worthy of artistic value, this is a faulty statement by the definition of the word pornography. There is a world of difference between a sexually explicit picture of children and an peice of art that contains a nude child as the subject matter. The line is very thin and I'd imagine easy to cross I'm sure but it does exist.
Besides all of this we have the free speech issue. The creation of cracking tools is my right. I have not harmed anyone in the process, especially if I have not distributed or used the tools in any way (though should I choose to distribute them I believe that that is also my perogative). Should I choose to create child pornography, while I am expressing myself how I choose, I am taking my free speech to a level where there is in-escapable implicit harm being done, the exploitation of children.
YESSS! Cheap Ass games. I own Lord of the Fries and Pass the Brain. Those games are a riot. Some other good ones are Awful Green Things from Outer Space, Coup (to mention two SJG products), Che Geek it a pretty entertaining card game. Those quick and dirty games are fun (and some of them can be more in depth than would be expected). But I still have the urge to geek out on all day Civilistion, Titan, or even Axis and Allies.
The game insustry has always worked in cycles though, although a lot of the quality games are dissapearing it seems to me (GW giving up Fantasy Roleplay was a killer for me, arguably one of the best fantasy rpg's ever made). But a lot of that may be a function of getting older. Along with feeling silly sitting around a table an basically just telling stories with other adults starts to lose it's appeal. Akthough I personally still long for those all day sessions once in a while, the few times I've tried playing as I got older the magic of the game seems to have faded away with my youth. And it's like you said, it's hard to get players together regularly to play an rpg. Nowadays I keep a collection of one night games (Settlers of Cataan ect.) that anyone, even non gamers can sit down and have fun with. I don't know it seems to me that the older I get the more 'beer and pretzels' games take over. If I want to play an RPG I just duck into a pc game. (But from what I've see of Neverwinter Nights it looks as though some of pen and paper rpg elements may make it to the pc screen)
Hell make that a note to everybody, that's why I quickly posted a correction to my first "kidding around" post. Otherwise I'd have been marked as flamebait in minutes. I guess that's the price we pay for moderation though. Truth be told, not everyone is intelligent enough to moderate. On the other hang it certainly offends my sense of equality to think that only certain people should be allowed moderation points. I guess it all probably equals out in the end.
... I was about to subscribe right before all the trouble before, so I held off. But now I can finally get a subscription. And get a quality magazine to my second favorite language.
Stupid me, I forgot that it was html formatted and my didn't show up. That post was supposed to be good natured, that'll teach me to use preview more often.
Besides who needs to search for porn? All ya hafta do is enter a likely URL in your browser (http://buttcheeks.com) and you'll instantly have forty windows open all pointing you at 'the best porn on the net'.
Of course I can understand your canned reaction to what appears to be a standard /. elitism post. I feel the same when I post about other topics that run contrary to popular opinion on /..
(That's not to say that I don't have a little elitism running in me, Windows is a toy, Linux is for real work. Of course I can back that up, I can get ten times as much done in (U|Li)nux than others can get done in windows.)
Uhh, that's a pretty shitty reply to a joke. Sounds like someone is bitter because he can understand quality software.
Yeah I like that idea too. I especially liked it the first time I saw it in The Gimp.
Besides, you need to work on the content as well, I can think of ways for most if not all of your little activity price tags to do the same thing for free.
I hate to say it but it's just too bad that you didn't ask for it. You have a address in a public medium, that means that anyone who wants can use it. You can filter it all you want, and you have every right to, but you cannot prevent, or ask anyone else to prevent access for you. That's like giving everyone in the world a key to your house and getting angry when people you don't want in there come in anyway. It's not someone elses responsibility to filter who comes in, it's yours. If you're so concerned with privacy only give keys to those you want to have access.
Again, I said nothing about keeping relays open, try reading the post. If you have a comment about open relays, respond to a post that is discussing them, not to one that's looking at the larger issues.
Insightful?? What an odd moderation for a post that entirely misses the point. I never said open relays were good, my comment was based on the thread that said censorship is good or bad you have to choose. If you read first, and thought before posting and maybe you would have seen that I was talking about the hypocrisy over getting mad that RBL ORBS sites were censored, and celebrating when spammers are censored.
Organizations like this are GOOD, they allow freedom of choice on the personal level by providing information to anyone who wants it.
And additionally, you empower yourself, not some other agency that may one day not act as you'd prefer.
This is no troll, it's the truth, the overall sentiment that I've seen in comments on the site in the last several years is "Oh my God they're trying to stop us from saying what we want" on one day and "We must censor spammers" on the next. It seems to be a recurring theme that censorship is bad only when it applies to something you want and good when it's something you don't. People this is a ridiculous, although most likely natural as far as human nature goes, way to view things. For a thinking adult. A little common sense would tell you that number one, freedom of speech must apply equally to all, and number two, if you are able to stop someone else from saying what they want, how long will it be before someone stifles you?
In a way that's kind of cool, on the one hand it's a good way to ensure that passwords aren't easily reused. Of course, on the other hand one of the other replies to this post makes a lot of sense, it's definitly a hindrance to maintaining security to keep lists of old passwords around.
On a tangent, I find it amazing how again and again opinions that differ from the norm are marked as flamebait.
I doubt it.
I'm tired of pandering to Joe User. If he can't pick a decent password and remember it, he's doing nothing but wasting my time burning up cycles for some moronic activity or another.
Those numbers are kind of low, are you sure you're a geek?