I lived in a border city for years (I literally lived < 1km from the U.S.). I worked in an office that was 50% American. All of the Americans I worked with were fantastic people. Sure, we'd exchange jabs, but always in a friendly way.
I think the only time I ever saw an American at my work get really defensive was when one of the Canadians called Americans a bunch of commies (this was about the time they were bailing banks out and giving people crap loads of money for junking old cars).
As far as money; "why did you give me Canadian change? I'm American, I want American money!"... please! Just about the only thing I saw in this regard was the first time our dollar went over parity, and an American was short on change at a Tim Horton's (the "exchange rate" at most stores were "at par" for the last several months). He just laughed, made a joke at America's expense, and the clerk let him off and gave him the coffee.
Of course, most of the people, both Canadians and Americans, around where I lived understood the relationship between US and Canada is hugely beneficial for all parties involved, knew that we were more similar than different, and respected each other.
Personally, I think your attitude towards Americans is far worse than the attitude of any American that I've met.
That's true, but I think the question is bad on principle. I think a better question would be to give the interviewee a problem, and ask them what algorithm they'd use to solve it and why. For instance, what sorting algorithm (or data structure) would you use in the following situations, and why?
Handle online sorting of packets that are usually in-order already, but occasionally not?
Sort a terrabyte of data?
Sort a list of ~1000 items in memory?
This is better because it doesn't require the person to remember specific details, but just understand the underlying concepts (which are much harder to forget).
Please don't just pull stuff out of your ass; nothing about your statement is true. The *IAA's 2 biggest weapons, right now, are the DMCA and the threat of statutory damages. Both of these were first pioneered (or only exist) in the U.S. We don't have anything like the DMCA (they've tried, it is just that we fought back). Statutory damages are set to be reduced in Canada. This is, in part, to prevent the abuse of the law like what has happened in the states. If you want to learn some actual facts about copyright in Canada, subscribe to Michael Geist's blog: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/
I'd say a "great" package manager is a default requirement for a "great" operating system in my books. I like my Mac (work), but still prefer Ubuntu at home. YMMV.
I don't get it either. My last job was doing Python web development (like the author), but our systems were reversed; I developed on Linux and deployed to BSD. Only advice I can give; use virtualenv, easy_install, and buildout as needed and liberally when doing any sort of non-trivial web development. Do not use Fink, MacPorts, or Homebrew to manage your python libraries. I develop on a Mac now (our web server runs Linux) and Python is no longer a big part of my current job, but I still use a separately installed Python than the Mac system default, along with its own set of packages.
Aside from you missing the point (and the fact he mentioned 2 other blocks), the 172.16.0.0/12 address space only defines the first 12 bits, so 172.16.0.0/12 actually provides over 2^20 addresses, which is over 666000.
Uh huh, let me tell you a little story bud. My friend did his civic duty, but didn't have to use up his vacation time as his employer is socially responsible and gives paid leave for Jury Duty. Afterward he came to me looking satisfied. He thought the experience was rewarding in its own way, while being annoyingly tedious at some points. The crown had brought a good case and there was no doubt in their mind that the accused had committed the crime (rape). They sent a bad guy to jail and he got to learn about an interesting system.
Amazon is a bookstore. If you want a book not available at one bookstore you can just go to the next... or go to the library, which conveniently also has e-books you can borrow. Considering that about 1.5h of my day is spent reading during my workday commute, e-Reader convenience (purchasing, size, and weight) will most always beat out the freedom that several hundred sheets of paper gives me.
The caveat that you (currently) can't lend out e-books bought from Amazon is a small issue for me. I VERY rarely lend out books to people. I'm not an asshole, it just isn't something my friends often ask of me (or accept when I offer). If I saved $0.25 on every e-book I ever buy (vs. paper edition), then I'd save more than enough cash to simply buy my friends the books they wish to borrow from me.
Back in the day when cable internet first came out, they tried to get people to pay per computer attached (at least in Canada). They used to specifically try to foil routers by checking their MAC addresses to see if the traffic was coming from a PC NIC or a router; if it was a router, it wouldn't work. Their "solution" was to pay for service for each computer! Needless to say, router's started coming with the ability to clone your PC's MAC address and within a few years the cable company was SELLING the routers to customers. If this didn't work a decade ago, I have no idea why they think it'd work now.
It seems like some people like to define art deductively: "I don't know what art is, but that isn't it." Apparently they feel their word is final. I think your definition is the most correct one.
Some encrypted systems actually specify how much data can be "leaked" out per some amount of time. The idea is that, practically, you'll always lose something, so you need to determine a limit that is acceptable. I guess that while voice/sound "data" is very complex, speech is much less so and it doesn't take much data being leaked to get the gist of what was said. Since their method is essentially looking at a sequence of numbers, the more obvious solution may be to add some padding to the packets to foil this attack (perhaps to align on certain boundaries of X-number of bytes); this would reduce the number of bits of information leaked per packet. The hard part would be to figure out how much is need to degrade the signal:noise ratio to a good security vs. efficiency trade-off.
There is something very satisfying about shooting things in parabolic trajectories to hit a target. I'm sure there are many people who'd bash Angry Birds, calling it boring, then go watch a bunch of other people throw things in parabolic trajectories to hit a target on TV and call it great entertainment (I like sports, not bashing).
I read a book on computer security, and it mentioned that somethings only become sensitive when aggregated. I couldn't really grok a good example until I started seeing stuff like this. When people use Twitter and FB and whatnot, they don't consider the information they put out there as being "sensitive" or private. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't become so when aggregated. These people signed up for it, I know, but I think the vast majority of social media users out there don't quite understand just how scary the information about them becomes when it is all aggregated together.
Perhaps the lesson here is it's better to keep your money in the bank rather than toss it at the open market.
Or, better yet, understand the risks, and put your money into an appropriate mix of assets, federally backed savings/investments, and higher risk investments. Obviously what you do depends largely on your financial situation and age.
What? Every computer nerd (no offence) in existence has had a person they don't know too well ask them for help. It is an awkward situation for many of us, because we sometimes have a hard time saying "no." I don't think the person is an ass wipe; if I did, it would be easy to say no and I wouldn't have a problem. It's the people you like whose expectation you don't want to ruin.
I have no idea where you are coming from, because your response in no way reflects the content of my post. No one mocks me for liking comics or computers. I was one of the biggest (open) computer nerds in my highschool and had plenty of friends (jocks included).
Further, the point about expectations is important. Slashdot of all places should realize the value in not sharing with everyone that you're a computer nerd, lest they start requesting your help/input every time their computer goes bonkers. The same can go with homework or car troubles.
Yes, exactly, which is why Adobe wants to move into the HTML5 territory. Remember, HTML5 is only a threat to Flash as a platform, not Flash as a development tool. Adobe has relied on Flash's ubiquity to sell their development platform for a while now. However, it is only a matter of time before there are more HTML5 compliant browsers out there than there are browsers with the Flash plugin. Since HTML5 offers a comparable feature set to Adobe Flash, the Platform, the only thing Adobe really has over HTML5 is Flash, the Development Tool. So, why try and fight a losing battle with HTML5, when their profit comes from their development tool anyways. The longer they wait to switch to HTML5, the higher the chance that a competitor will step in and steal their (paying) customers away with promises of a graphical development tool that'll work on all browsers and smartphones - no plugin required.
What, exactly, about Flash do you think Adobe makes money on? It isn't the free Adobe flash player, but rather the tools to create content for the flash player. Adobe knows that HTML5 will be a mean competitor, so why wait while it gains momentum? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. They'll still get lots of sales for their HTML5 compliant authoring tool that lets artists make cool, inaccessible, fancy things, rather than forcing companies to hire a JavaScript Guru to do the same thing.
Keep in mind that SOCAN collects money for public performances; they represent artists, not the record publishers. Perhaps SOCAN won't sue you for playing music you download to your friends, but the various publishers probably still will. So, we would be paying $10/m to not be sued by the artists... but who worries about being sued by the artists? The big baddies are the record companies with the deep pockets.
I have a Mac for work and have never minimised anything either. Between "expose" (tiling the windows for easy picking) and workspaces I've never had to minimise. The biggest thing I miss on my home laptop (Lenovo T60 + Ubuntu) is the 4 finger gesture for expose that the MacBook Pro has.
In all fairness we only pay on blank CDs and tapes. There was a tax, briefly, on MP3 players but that was removed. The problem is that the media is now much less important than the format. For example, people buy CD players to play music CDs, but they don't buy SD card players to MP3s, they buy MP3 players. These MP3 players can use many types of media, from wires to SD cards to hard disks to radiation. Levying a tax on the storage medium no longer makes sense as it doesn't determine the playability of the data.
In today's world DRM has taken the place of traditional media (ie. CDs). It has also made it very easy to identify what entities "enable" the copying of copyrighted material: programs (and people) that bypass these DRMs protection schemes. A straight application of the previous blank media levy may be to impose a levy on all software that bypasses DRM. Of course, the U.S. approach was to just make it illegal, but this makes no sense. How is it that I can be entitled to own backups of copyrighted material I own, but I cannot be allowed to actually create the backup?
Slashdot Mirror
US Sending Robots to Fukushima - Radiation-hardened Robots to Assist at Stricken Plant
I lived in a border city for years (I literally lived < 1km from the U.S.). I worked in an office that was 50% American. All of the Americans I worked with were fantastic people. Sure, we'd exchange jabs, but always in a friendly way.
I think the only time I ever saw an American at my work get really defensive was when one of the Canadians called Americans a bunch of commies (this was about the time they were bailing banks out and giving people crap loads of money for junking old cars).
As far as money; "why did you give me Canadian change? I'm American, I want American money!"... please! Just about the only thing I saw in this regard was the first time our dollar went over parity, and an American was short on change at a Tim Horton's (the "exchange rate" at most stores were "at par" for the last several months). He just laughed, made a joke at America's expense, and the clerk let him off and gave him the coffee.
Of course, most of the people, both Canadians and Americans, around where I lived understood the relationship between US and Canada is hugely beneficial for all parties involved, knew that we were more similar than different, and respected each other.
Personally, I think your attitude towards Americans is far worse than the attitude of any American that I've met.
That's true, but I think the question is bad on principle. I think a better question would be to give the interviewee a problem, and ask them what algorithm they'd use to solve it and why. For instance, what sorting algorithm (or data structure) would you use in the following situations, and why?
This is better because it doesn't require the person to remember specific details, but just understand the underlying concepts (which are much harder to forget).
Please don't just pull stuff out of your ass; nothing about your statement is true. The *IAA's 2 biggest weapons, right now, are the DMCA and the threat of statutory damages. Both of these were first pioneered (or only exist) in the U.S. We don't have anything like the DMCA (they've tried, it is just that we fought back). Statutory damages are set to be reduced in Canada. This is, in part, to prevent the abuse of the law like what has happened in the states. If you want to learn some actual facts about copyright in Canada, subscribe to Michael Geist's blog: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/
I'd say a "great" package manager is a default requirement for a "great" operating system in my books. I like my Mac (work), but still prefer Ubuntu at home. YMMV.
I don't get it either. My last job was doing Python web development (like the author), but our systems were reversed; I developed on Linux and deployed to BSD. Only advice I can give; use virtualenv, easy_install, and buildout as needed and liberally when doing any sort of non-trivial web development. Do not use Fink, MacPorts, or Homebrew to manage your python libraries. I develop on a Mac now (our web server runs Linux) and Python is no longer a big part of my current job, but I still use a separately installed Python than the Mac system default, along with its own set of packages.
Aside from you missing the point (and the fact he mentioned 2 other blocks), the 172.16.0.0/12 address space only defines the first 12 bits, so 172.16.0.0/12 actually provides over 2^20 addresses, which is over 666000.
I use rdio.com, which is available in Canada, as well as the U.S. For $5 CAD / month, I think it is worth it.
Uh huh, let me tell you a little story bud. My friend did his civic duty, but didn't have to use up his vacation time as his employer is socially responsible and gives paid leave for Jury Duty. Afterward he came to me looking satisfied. He thought the experience was rewarding in its own way, while being annoyingly tedious at some points. The crown had brought a good case and there was no doubt in their mind that the accused had committed the crime (rape). They sent a bad guy to jail and he got to learn about an interesting system.
Amazon is a bookstore. If you want a book not available at one bookstore you can just go to the next... or go to the library, which conveniently also has e-books you can borrow. Considering that about 1.5h of my day is spent reading during my workday commute, e-Reader convenience (purchasing, size, and weight) will most always beat out the freedom that several hundred sheets of paper gives me.
The caveat that you (currently) can't lend out e-books bought from Amazon is a small issue for me. I VERY rarely lend out books to people. I'm not an asshole, it just isn't something my friends often ask of me (or accept when I offer). If I saved $0.25 on every e-book I ever buy (vs. paper edition), then I'd save more than enough cash to simply buy my friends the books they wish to borrow from me.
Well, perhaps the news could then do a real comparison and focus on why this isn't like Chernobyl. The Christian Science Monitor has a more reasoned article: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0317/Fear-of-Japan-s-nuclear-crisis-far-exceeds-actual-risks-say-scientists
Back in the day when cable internet first came out, they tried to get people to pay per computer attached (at least in Canada). They used to specifically try to foil routers by checking their MAC addresses to see if the traffic was coming from a PC NIC or a router; if it was a router, it wouldn't work. Their "solution" was to pay for service for each computer! Needless to say, router's started coming with the ability to clone your PC's MAC address and within a few years the cable company was SELLING the routers to customers. If this didn't work a decade ago, I have no idea why they think it'd work now.
It seems like some people like to define art deductively: "I don't know what art is, but that isn't it." Apparently they feel their word is final. I think your definition is the most correct one.
Some encrypted systems actually specify how much data can be "leaked" out per some amount of time. The idea is that, practically, you'll always lose something, so you need to determine a limit that is acceptable. I guess that while voice/sound "data" is very complex, speech is much less so and it doesn't take much data being leaked to get the gist of what was said. Since their method is essentially looking at a sequence of numbers, the more obvious solution may be to add some padding to the packets to foil this attack (perhaps to align on certain boundaries of X-number of bytes); this would reduce the number of bits of information leaked per packet. The hard part would be to figure out how much is need to degrade the signal:noise ratio to a good security vs. efficiency trade-off.
There is something very satisfying about shooting things in parabolic trajectories to hit a target. I'm sure there are many people who'd bash Angry Birds, calling it boring, then go watch a bunch of other people throw things in parabolic trajectories to hit a target on TV and call it great entertainment (I like sports, not bashing).
I read a book on computer security, and it mentioned that somethings only become sensitive when aggregated. I couldn't really grok a good example until I started seeing stuff like this. When people use Twitter and FB and whatnot, they don't consider the information they put out there as being "sensitive" or private. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't become so when aggregated. These people signed up for it, I know, but I think the vast majority of social media users out there don't quite understand just how scary the information about them becomes when it is all aggregated together.
I use it at work. Once you get used to it, it is hard to not use it in projects. Seriously, I couldn't imagine adding search to a site without it.
Perhaps the lesson here is it's better to keep your money in the bank rather than toss it at the open market.
Or, better yet, understand the risks, and put your money into an appropriate mix of assets, federally backed savings/investments, and higher risk investments. Obviously what you do depends largely on your financial situation and age.
What? Every computer nerd (no offence) in existence has had a person they don't know too well ask them for help. It is an awkward situation for many of us, because we sometimes have a hard time saying "no." I don't think the person is an ass wipe; if I did, it would be easy to say no and I wouldn't have a problem. It's the people you like whose expectation you don't want to ruin.
I have no idea where you are coming from, because your response in no way reflects the content of my post. No one mocks me for liking comics or computers. I was one of the biggest (open) computer nerds in my highschool and had plenty of friends (jocks included).
Further, the point about expectations is important. Slashdot of all places should realize the value in not sharing with everyone that you're a computer nerd, lest they start requesting your help/input every time their computer goes bonkers. The same can go with homework or car troubles.
Yes, exactly, which is why Adobe wants to move into the HTML5 territory. Remember, HTML5 is only a threat to Flash as a platform, not Flash as a development tool. Adobe has relied on Flash's ubiquity to sell their development platform for a while now. However, it is only a matter of time before there are more HTML5 compliant browsers out there than there are browsers with the Flash plugin. Since HTML5 offers a comparable feature set to Adobe Flash, the Platform, the only thing Adobe really has over HTML5 is Flash, the Development Tool. So, why try and fight a losing battle with HTML5, when their profit comes from their development tool anyways. The longer they wait to switch to HTML5, the higher the chance that a competitor will step in and steal their (paying) customers away with promises of a graphical development tool that'll work on all browsers and smartphones - no plugin required.
What, exactly, about Flash do you think Adobe makes money on? It isn't the free Adobe flash player, but rather the tools to create content for the flash player. Adobe knows that HTML5 will be a mean competitor, so why wait while it gains momentum? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. They'll still get lots of sales for their HTML5 compliant authoring tool that lets artists make cool, inaccessible, fancy things, rather than forcing companies to hire a JavaScript Guru to do the same thing.
Keep in mind that SOCAN collects money for public performances; they represent artists, not the record publishers. Perhaps SOCAN won't sue you for playing music you download to your friends, but the various publishers probably still will. So, we would be paying $10/m to not be sued by the artists... but who worries about being sued by the artists? The big baddies are the record companies with the deep pockets.
I have a Mac for work and have never minimised anything either. Between "expose" (tiling the windows for easy picking) and workspaces I've never had to minimise. The biggest thing I miss on my home laptop (Lenovo T60 + Ubuntu) is the 4 finger gesture for expose that the MacBook Pro has.
In all fairness we only pay on blank CDs and tapes. There was a tax, briefly, on MP3 players but that was removed. The problem is that the media is now much less important than the format. For example, people buy CD players to play music CDs, but they don't buy SD card players to MP3s, they buy MP3 players. These MP3 players can use many types of media, from wires to SD cards to hard disks to radiation. Levying a tax on the storage medium no longer makes sense as it doesn't determine the playability of the data.
In today's world DRM has taken the place of traditional media (ie. CDs). It has also made it very easy to identify what entities "enable" the copying of copyrighted material: programs (and people) that bypass these DRMs protection schemes. A straight application of the previous blank media levy may be to impose a levy on all software that bypasses DRM. Of course, the U.S. approach was to just make it illegal, but this makes no sense. How is it that I can be entitled to own backups of copyrighted material I own, but I cannot be allowed to actually create the backup?