I think one thing the article didn't mention in social networking sites' options is to simply have an account "deceased" status. Pretty straightforward - it would have a tombstone picture (or something more tasteful) prominently displayed on the profile, and it wouldn't bug other users to reconnect with them. People would still be able to post to the wall, etc, but they would also get a notification that the user has died the first time they tried to send a message, etc.
For years I watched younger family members grow up from wee lads and thought to myself, oh boy, next generation, they're going to make me look like a Luddite. Yet the outcome I had feared - finding myself suddenly behind the curve, no longer able to catch up with technology, maybe even "average"... deep down, I think would have preferred that. Having 20 year olds ask me for computer help makes me sad. It makes me want to say, you kids were supposed to charge ahead. But I don't see you charging anywhere. You don't even vote.
Spacing is a function of formatting, not content. You had both mixed together when you used a typewriter, but now that you're using a computer you should treat them as separate concerns. For basic issues such as this you also need to assume that your word processing software's behavior is correct by default. Let it do what it was designed to do.
To make these buses safe, they must stop at every intersection that allows turning from either the traveling or oncoming lanes. That's right - they must stop at practically every green light, wait for the whole intersection to have red lights in all directions, then go. The real problem is, pedestrians must not mistake this new intersection state for a walk condition.
I think the traffic flow engineering can be done well enough where we won't see accidents (even if it's ungodly slow when there are a lot of lights), but we may hear a lot of reports of people getting cut in half.
For who the author is and what he's asking, I would say that suggesting that he learn UNIX is obviously ridiculous (and I come from the same background, did the UNIX / LISP thing in college myself) and certainly not insightful.
Unless you decide to do it full time, anything that you develop that actually sees production will eventually need to be rewritten by someone else. If you're OK with that, go for it.
If you're serious about learning how to program, start with a strongly-typed language. Microsoft's Visual Studio has a wonderful (and possibly the best) integrated development environment. I recommend VB.Net, which you can get for free.
Good point. I'm not a newbie, but I find that I still need deadlines to get things done unless what I'm working on is really interesting. And most of the projects I've worked on haven't been even remotely interesting.
A common misinterpretation of paradigms is the belief that the discovery of paradigm shifts and the dynamic nature of science (with its many opportunities for subjective judgments by scientists) is a case for relativism: the view that all kinds of belief systems are equal, such that magic, religious concepts or pseudoscience would be of equal working value to true science. Kuhn vehemently denies this interpretation and states that when a scientific paradigm is replaced by a new one, albeit through a complex social process, the new one is always better, not just different.
Very well said. I would like to see a shift to flexibility, engineering, and creativity in government too, but the nature of human-based systems is that those made powerful by them will fight to maintain the status quo. As long as society at large has changing needs, the powerful will ever have their boots on the neck of public interest.
I am a mechanical engineer (MIT) by schooling, and one of the first things we learned when actually *designing* and *building* something (as opposed to just messing around with equations) is that you should avoid over-constraining your design both in the dimensions you specify on your drawing, and how you actually bolt things together. Alas, the Wikipedia article is woefully lacking on the subject, so I shall briefly try to explain what this means: if plate A and plate B are bolted together in one spot, and this bolt constrains the plates from moving relative to one another in the X direction, that means that if you place another bolt further down in the X direction, one of the holes it passes through should not be a hole, but a slot oriented in the X direction. This is necessary because you can only drill holes with limited precision. I'm sure many of you have seen first hand why over-constraining with fasteners is bad if you've ever tried to mount a motherboard and use all the screw holes.
The problem this article talks about is industry-wide and not just limited to games development. One thing I have tried to pound into people's heads (but nobody listens) is, you can constrain the feature set you want, or you can constrain a release date, but you can't constrain both. You need to pick either one or the other. Without even checking, I would guess that game developers at Blizzard are happier than elsewhere, because this is a company that clearly has a grasp of this concept - they hold their guns on quality and features, but do NOT stick with release dates. They only announce them when they've entered the polishing phase (and boy do they polish), when almost all the serious development is complete.
Many of us developers are made to suffer at the hands of those who do not appreciate the inherent unreliability of estimation. We are just expected to suck it up, work very long hours, stress out, and - WRONGFULLY - accept responsibility that the project is falling behind schedule. Being a happy developer requires that you grow a pair and just say no, I will not give up my life, and work insane hours, simply because someone doesn't understand that they can hold a schedule, or hold a feature set, but not both.
Anywhere you see a branding that works, you can be sure it will eventually change to something that doesn't if the marketing department isn't kept check. These people need to justify their existence, and that means always pushing change for the sake of change, rhyme or reason be damned. It's quite similar to what happens in the fashion industry.
I agree that SVG is a good thing, but the ubiquitous attitude of "its in XML, we don't need to have a proper application with a UI that writes it for the user" needs to go strait to hell. HTML can go there, too.
The problem with the word "hip" is that the act of using it is the very opposite of its definition; nobody has seriously used this word for what it means for decades, and the people who try signal that they are very out of touch with the subject they're trying to talk about. Use this word and you automatically damage the credibility of anything you say.
Production applications would almost certainly integrate the material into MEMS arrays. With the right funding this tech is only a couple of years away.
For those of us that can actually use the speed, having a desktop is all benefit and no drawback. I don't want to lug a laptop back and forth to work every day and risk the Drive of Shame by forgetting it, or worse, lose or drop it. What about when I work in the office? That's what subversion is for. Yeah a laptop has its uses, but these in large part are now better served by smaller devices. When my old one dies, I'm not replacing it.
With voice recognition we can use Voyager's Doctor as the screen UI. Maybe use the built-in camera so he can actually take a look, too.
I say it's a bit early for this, but we're close.
Slashdot Mirror
I think one thing the article didn't mention in social networking sites' options is to simply have an account "deceased" status. Pretty straightforward - it would have a tombstone picture (or something more tasteful) prominently displayed on the profile, and it wouldn't bug other users to reconnect with them. People would still be able to post to the wall, etc, but they would also get a notification that the user has died the first time they tried to send a message, etc.
This will let teachers troll for payoff kickbacks, a good-size scandal is almost certain.
At least if they violate our contract, I can sue them.
No you can't.
I wish there were a (-1 Grammar Error) mod.
For years I watched younger family members grow up from wee lads and thought to myself, oh boy, next generation, they're going to make me look like a Luddite. Yet the outcome I had feared - finding myself suddenly behind the curve, no longer able to catch up with technology, maybe even "average"... deep down, I think would have preferred that. Having 20 year olds ask me for computer help makes me sad. It makes me want to say, you kids were supposed to charge ahead. But I don't see you charging anywhere. You don't even vote.
Oh really. And are you going to share the key with the rest of the class, mister?
Yeah baby, we can now create an efficient way to break AES256 and decrypt the Wikileaks "insurance" file!
Spacing is a function of formatting, not content. You had both mixed together when you used a typewriter, but now that you're using a computer you should treat them as separate concerns. For basic issues such as this you also need to assume that your word processing software's behavior is correct by default. Let it do what it was designed to do.
To make these buses safe, they must stop at every intersection that allows turning from either the traveling or oncoming lanes. That's right - they must stop at practically every green light, wait for the whole intersection to have red lights in all directions, then go. The real problem is, pedestrians must not mistake this new intersection state for a walk condition.
I think the traffic flow engineering can be done well enough where we won't see accidents (even if it's ungodly slow when there are a lot of lights), but we may hear a lot of reports of people getting cut in half.
For who the author is and what he's asking, I would say that suggesting that he learn UNIX is obviously ridiculous (and I come from the same background, did the UNIX / LISP thing in college myself) and certainly not insightful.
Unless you decide to do it full time, anything that you develop that actually sees production will eventually need to be rewritten by someone else. If you're OK with that, go for it.
If you're serious about learning how to program, start with a strongly-typed language. Microsoft's Visual Studio has a wonderful (and possibly the best) integrated development environment. I recommend VB.Net, which you can get for free.
Good point. I'm not a newbie, but I find that I still need deadlines to get things done unless what I'm working on is really interesting. And most of the projects I've worked on haven't been even remotely interesting.
A common misinterpretation of paradigms is the belief that the discovery of paradigm shifts and the dynamic nature of science (with its many opportunities for subjective judgments by scientists) is a case for relativism: the view that all kinds of belief systems are equal, such that magic, religious concepts or pseudoscience would be of equal working value to true science. Kuhn vehemently denies this interpretation and states that when a scientific paradigm is replaced by a new one, albeit through a complex social process, the new one is always better, not just different.
LOL the site made me hit CTRL-0
Very well said. I would like to see a shift to flexibility, engineering, and creativity in government too, but the nature of human-based systems is that those made powerful by them will fight to maintain the status quo. As long as society at large has changing needs, the powerful will ever have their boots on the neck of public interest.
I am a mechanical engineer (MIT) by schooling, and one of the first things we learned when actually *designing* and *building* something (as opposed to just messing around with equations) is that you should avoid over-constraining your design both in the dimensions you specify on your drawing, and how you actually bolt things together. Alas, the Wikipedia article is woefully lacking on the subject, so I shall briefly try to explain what this means: if plate A and plate B are bolted together in one spot, and this bolt constrains the plates from moving relative to one another in the X direction, that means that if you place another bolt further down in the X direction, one of the holes it passes through should not be a hole, but a slot oriented in the X direction. This is necessary because you can only drill holes with limited precision. I'm sure many of you have seen first hand why over-constraining with fasteners is bad if you've ever tried to mount a motherboard and use all the screw holes.
The problem this article talks about is industry-wide and not just limited to games development. One thing I have tried to pound into people's heads (but nobody listens) is, you can constrain the feature set you want, or you can constrain a release date, but you can't constrain both. You need to pick either one or the other. Without even checking, I would guess that game developers at Blizzard are happier than elsewhere, because this is a company that clearly has a grasp of this concept - they hold their guns on quality and features, but do NOT stick with release dates. They only announce them when they've entered the polishing phase (and boy do they polish), when almost all the serious development is complete.
Many of us developers are made to suffer at the hands of those who do not appreciate the inherent unreliability of estimation. We are just expected to suck it up, work very long hours, stress out, and - WRONGFULLY - accept responsibility that the project is falling behind schedule. Being a happy developer requires that you grow a pair and just say no, I will not give up my life, and work insane hours, simply because someone doesn't understand that they can hold a schedule, or hold a feature set, but not both.
You, sir, are one of the reasons I actually read the comments here :)
Anywhere you see a branding that works, you can be sure it will eventually change to something that doesn't if the marketing department isn't kept check. These people need to justify their existence, and that means always pushing change for the sake of change, rhyme or reason be damned. It's quite similar to what happens in the fashion industry.
I agree that SVG is a good thing, but the ubiquitous attitude of "its in XML, we don't need to have a proper application with a UI that writes it for the user" needs to go strait to hell. HTML can go there, too.
Nobody mentions that this study's finding must also mean that spending time *away* from natural environments is remarkably *unhealthy*.
And I've known this all my life.
The problem with the word "hip" is that the act of using it is the very opposite of its definition; nobody has seriously used this word for what it means for decades, and the people who try signal that they are very out of touch with the subject they're trying to talk about. Use this word and you automatically damage the credibility of anything you say.
Production applications would almost certainly integrate the material into MEMS arrays. With the right funding this tech is only a couple of years away.
Pakistan needs to be flooded with derogatory comments about Mohammed. Pounded relentlessly. Anonymous would be perfect for the job.
For those of us that can actually use the speed, having a desktop is all benefit and no drawback. I don't want to lug a laptop back and forth to work every day and risk the Drive of Shame by forgetting it, or worse, lose or drop it. What about when I work in the office? That's what subversion is for. Yeah a laptop has its uses, but these in large part are now better served by smaller devices. When my old one dies, I'm not replacing it.
With voice recognition we can use Voyager's Doctor as the screen UI. Maybe use the built-in camera so he can actually take a look, too. I say it's a bit early for this, but we're close.