It's true that you lose some anonymity, but there is so much to gain. To be perfectly honest, I'm completely fine with rating products on Amazon.com and Netflix - I only go to these sites to shop for products and movies, so why not take full advantage of their recommendation system? If I am in consumer mode, I want the salesman to be as competent as possible.
Anyways, if you're paranoid about data on you being used - there's a less well-known field of recommender systems which uses implicit data gathering which can be easily setup on any site. For example, it might say that because you clicked on product X many times today, you're probably in want of it and they can use that data. Of course, implicit data gathering is more faulty than explicit data gathering, but it just goes to show that if you spend time on the internet, websites can always use your data for their own means.
I think it heavily depends on what you're kind of data your mining.
I worked for a while on the Netflix prize, and if there's one thing I learned it's that a recommender system almost always gets better the more data you put into it, so I'm not sure if this one case study is enough to apply the idea to all algorithms.
Though, in a way, this is sort of a "duh" result - data mining relies on lots of good data, and the more there is generally the better a fit you can make with your algorithm.
Does the advent of the Internet mean that a politician can win elections without requiring as much financial support? Or is it simply another media out of the many already used (radio, televsion, etc.) that one must now campaign on, making campaigning more expensive than before?
I believe you've misinterpreted the point of my comment. My comment was a question. It was not a flame. Just like I said in my post.
In fact, you've perfectly hit upon why I asked the question - I had no concrete reasons, beyond personal observations that Apple seems to push their software pretty hard for Apple buyers, for thinking that Apple is different from Microsoft. That's why it was a question, and not a flame. I was querying the Slashdot crowd for more information.
I kindly ask that in the future, take this in mind: when someone asks a question about Apple's legitimacy, it's not always an accusation. Sometimes it's an honest request for information.
Also, for a "terse" answer your response is pretty long...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't FRAPS have some sort of overhead while running?
I certainly don't disagree with their findings, but it seems to be a factor they didn't account for between the traditional timedemo benchmarks and their FRAPS-ified benchmarks.
To whoever tagged this "inthishouseweobeythelawsofthermodynamics"...
If you RTFA (or knew about it beforehand, like I did) they're saying the amount of energy WE put in returns a 540% yield. That does not count the energy the sun power added to the plants, or other things that we aren't actively putting energy in.
This guy's arguments are too generic for me. I don't personally use RoR, nor do I do web development, but I do program, and it seems to me that this guy's arguments can just as easily be applied to any free programming language:
1. (Programming language) owes you nothing 2. (Programming language) isn't perfect 3. (Programming language) isn't suited for all applications 4. (Programming language) isn't suited for all people
The only point he has that doesn't necessarily apply to all languages is:
5. Rails is extremely flexible
I take the first four points as being self-evident for any programming language. It's actually a good list for explaining why there are tons of different languages out there. The reasons stated in the article explain *how* Rails matches with the first four points, but don't really explain why that makes it objectively *does not suck*.
The fifth is the only one that seems to have any sort of Rails-specific content to it; and like I said before, I'm not a web dev so I can't comment on it's validity.
Ultimately, I think the message that can be gleaned is this: that like every other programming language in existence, it is good for some and bad for others.
"redundant/rdndnt/ Pronunciation[ri-duhn-duhnt] -adjective 1. characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; prolix: a redundant style."
Here's what I think happened: people who register new accounts only do so once. The vast majority of a normal user's time is spent playing games. So of course they're not used to a huge influx of new registrations at once - it's not the normal usage of the system. They're ready for everyone once they're all on board, but getting on board is a hassle (registering with secure servers, downloading updates, etc.) It'll go back to normal in very short order I assume.
If I fired a gun out of my car and it happened to put a dent in someone else's windshield, I'd still get in trouble. Still, I wouldn't get as much punishment as if I was trying to kill the other driver. I'm assuming this is the same - intent may determine the extent of punishment, but that they caused damage unintentionally is still problematic.
Just because someone didn't mean to do it doesn't mean it should go unpunished.
It's legit, along with "the machine that prints gold" that I hear everyone wants. No one knows who is making it or if it even exists, but it's totally vaporware.
This is exactly the sort of thinking Totilo is arguing against, though. The idea that a game has to be X, Y, or Z before it can be considered for GOTY.
I say, if it was the game that brought you the most fun this year, stood out the most as excellent, inspired you the most - that's your GOTY.
Regardless, by your argument, none of the typical GOTY candidates come even close to being original. Halo 3, while being quite polished, is definitely just a standard FPS. Same with The Orange Box (besides Portal), and Call of Duty 4. God of War 2 is a sequel, so we have to write off the originality right there (as well as new Legend of Zelda/Ace of Combat games). Rock Band builds on a decade of music games (and directly lifts gameplay out of GuitarFreaks/GuitarHero/KaroakeRevolution), so that's not eligible. Mass Effect is an RPG - let's not even go there. Super Mario Galaxy is a platformer, one of the oldest themes out there, and even its "small planet" concept is unoriginal (see Ratchet & Clank). Care for me to go on?
Totilo gets +10 respect points from me. I hate how GOTY always revolves around big name titles.
What really frustrated me was a GOTY thread that was started about a month and a half ago on a forum I frequent. People kept listing games that hadn't even been released yet. Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, Mass Effect... these all had yet to be released and the masses were all ready to give it the GOY award!
When I argued that hype does not a game make, they replied, "Well, most of the time the big games are good." To that I laughed - had they never heard of the gigantic flop that was Daikatana? I remember being crushed by how awful Black and White was, one of the most hyped games that year.
It sickens me, because this sort of mentality is exactly what marketers are going for... a blind, consumerist society that buys what they are told, rather than considering the pros and cons of any item before getting it.
"Finish" his novels? Wouldn't it be more to Jordan's liking if Brandon Sanderson just kept writing book after book on the Wheel of Time until he dies, too?
I respect that they admit they are wrong, but I find it scary that it took them so long to realize what a privacy issue this is. For an organization with so much information, I had hoped they would put privacy #1 on their priority list.
True, but in the real world, it's not as simple as that. There are cases of publicly available databases that you gave no permission to grant access to (for example, AOL's release of their search queries). There are other cases when a database has restricted access, but a person with access to it takes it and uses it in comparison with other databases available. Hackers are always a trouble; since some have gotten into such "secure" areas as the CIA and IRS, what's to keep them from potentially getting into any database?
The problem is one of privacy - in the worst case (or, for those who are cynical, common case) we have none. There's been some answers proposed to solve this. If you're interested, I'd start by reading the original paper on k-anonymity, which attempts to create privacy in a world where one can possibly have access to any database, ever. It can be found here: http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/people/sweeney/kanonymity.html. (There are, of course, a multitude of other methods; k-anonymity is just a good starting point.)
FTA: "With the clock ticking, EA has a limited amount of time to fix the glaring issues which plague this port of The Orange Box."
Yeah, they sure don't seem to understand "pre-release" at all. Oh wait, they DO acknowledge the possibility of fixing the product before release. My bad.
Besides, what is 1UP supposed to do if they play such buggy code? Say everything his A-okay and assume it will be fine by release? No, they told it like it is - the port is currently in an awful state, and EA is going to have to haul ass to make it halfway decent for a PS3 release.
Slashdot Mirror
It's true that you lose some anonymity, but there is so much to gain. To be perfectly honest, I'm completely fine with rating products on Amazon.com and Netflix - I only go to these sites to shop for products and movies, so why not take full advantage of their recommendation system? If I am in consumer mode, I want the salesman to be as competent as possible.
Anyways, if you're paranoid about data on you being used - there's a less well-known field of recommender systems which uses implicit data gathering which can be easily setup on any site. For example, it might say that because you clicked on product X many times today, you're probably in want of it and they can use that data. Of course, implicit data gathering is more faulty than explicit data gathering, but it just goes to show that if you spend time on the internet, websites can always use your data for their own means.
I think it heavily depends on what you're kind of data your mining.
I worked for a while on the Netflix prize, and if there's one thing I learned it's that a recommender system almost always gets better the more data you put into it, so I'm not sure if this one case study is enough to apply the idea to all algorithms.
Though, in a way, this is sort of a "duh" result - data mining relies on lots of good data, and the more there is generally the better a fit you can make with your algorithm.
Does the advent of the Internet mean that a politician can win elections without requiring as much financial support? Or is it simply another media out of the many already used (radio, televsion, etc.) that one must now campaign on, making campaigning more expensive than before?
I believe you've misinterpreted the point of my comment. My comment was a question. It was not a flame. Just like I said in my post.
In fact, you've perfectly hit upon why I asked the question - I had no concrete reasons, beyond personal observations that Apple seems to push their software pretty hard for Apple buyers, for thinking that Apple is different from Microsoft. That's why it was a question, and not a flame. I was querying the Slashdot crowd for more information.
I kindly ask that in the future, take this in mind: when someone asks a question about Apple's legitimacy, it's not always an accusation. Sometimes it's an honest request for information.
Also, for a "terse" answer your response is pretty long...
"it's looking at whether Windows 7 favors Microsoft apps over third party programs"
Doesn't Apple very heavily lean towards Apple software?
(This isn't starting flaming, this is a legitimate question - what separates Apple from Microsoft in these regards?)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't FRAPS have some sort of overhead while running? I certainly don't disagree with their findings, but it seems to be a factor they didn't account for between the traditional timedemo benchmarks and their FRAPS-ified benchmarks.
What makes an Internet turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or was it just born with a tube full of neutrality?
To whoever tagged this "inthishouseweobeythelawsofthermodynamics"... If you RTFA (or knew about it beforehand, like I did) they're saying the amount of energy WE put in returns a 540% yield. That does not count the energy the sun power added to the plants, or other things that we aren't actively putting energy in.
I don't remember this article being on Slashdot before... but then again I keep forgetting to take my Alzheimer's pills. I think.
This guy's arguments are too generic for me. I don't personally use RoR, nor do I do web development, but I do program, and it seems to me that this guy's arguments can just as easily be applied to any free programming language:
1. (Programming language) owes you nothing
2. (Programming language) isn't perfect
3. (Programming language) isn't suited for all applications
4. (Programming language) isn't suited for all people
The only point he has that doesn't necessarily apply to all languages is:
5. Rails is extremely flexible
I take the first four points as being self-evident for any programming language. It's actually a good list for explaining why there are tons of different languages out there. The reasons stated in the article explain *how* Rails matches with the first four points, but don't really explain why that makes it objectively *does not suck*.
The fifth is the only one that seems to have any sort of Rails-specific content to it; and like I said before, I'm not a web dev so I can't comment on it's validity.
Ultimately, I think the message that can be gleaned is this: that like every other programming language in existence, it is good for some and bad for others.
...He's nothing compared to Bender and a little bit of his "confidence".
To quote night_flyer:
/rdndnt/ Pronunciation[ri-duhn-duhnt]
"redundant
-adjective
1. characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; prolix: a redundant style."
Here's what I think happened: people who register new accounts only do so once. The vast majority of a normal user's time is spent playing games. So of course they're not used to a huge influx of new registrations at once - it's not the normal usage of the system. They're ready for everyone once they're all on board, but getting on board is a hassle (registering with secure servers, downloading updates, etc.) It'll go back to normal in very short order I assume.
The outages in service hasn't stopped the usual flood of people (I mean, morons) I don't know trying to friend me on Live.
Anyways, anyone that expects 100% uptime out of a network is kidding themselves.
If I fired a gun out of my car and it happened to put a dent in someone else's windshield, I'd still get in trouble. Still, I wouldn't get as much punishment as if I was trying to kill the other driver. I'm assuming this is the same - intent may determine the extent of punishment, but that they caused damage unintentionally is still problematic.
Just because someone didn't mean to do it doesn't mean it should go unpunished.
No, it was attached to frikkin' sharks.
It's legit, along with "the machine that prints gold" that I hear everyone wants. No one knows who is making it or if it even exists, but it's totally vaporware.
This is exactly the sort of thinking Totilo is arguing against, though. The idea that a game has to be X, Y, or Z before it can be considered for GOTY.
I say, if it was the game that brought you the most fun this year, stood out the most as excellent, inspired you the most - that's your GOTY.
Regardless, by your argument, none of the typical GOTY candidates come even close to being original. Halo 3, while being quite polished, is definitely just a standard FPS. Same with The Orange Box (besides Portal), and Call of Duty 4. God of War 2 is a sequel, so we have to write off the originality right there (as well as new Legend of Zelda/Ace of Combat games). Rock Band builds on a decade of music games (and directly lifts gameplay out of GuitarFreaks/GuitarHero/KaroakeRevolution), so that's not eligible. Mass Effect is an RPG - let's not even go there. Super Mario Galaxy is a platformer, one of the oldest themes out there, and even its "small planet" concept is unoriginal (see Ratchet & Clank). Care for me to go on?
Totilo gets +10 respect points from me. I hate how GOTY always revolves around big name titles.
What really frustrated me was a GOTY thread that was started about a month and a half ago on a forum I frequent. People kept listing games that hadn't even been released yet. Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, Mass Effect... these all had yet to be released and the masses were all ready to give it the GOY award!
When I argued that hype does not a game make, they replied, "Well, most of the time the big games are good." To that I laughed - had they never heard of the gigantic flop that was Daikatana? I remember being crushed by how awful Black and White was, one of the most hyped games that year.
It sickens me, because this sort of mentality is exactly what marketers are going for... a blind, consumerist society that buys what they are told, rather than considering the pros and cons of any item before getting it.
This makes me never want to buy a game from Gamecock, apology or no.
"Finish" his novels? Wouldn't it be more to Jordan's liking if Brandon Sanderson just kept writing book after book on the Wheel of Time until he dies, too?
I respect that they admit they are wrong, but I find it scary that it took them so long to realize what a privacy issue this is. For an organization with so much information, I had hoped they would put privacy #1 on their priority list.
True, but in the real world, it's not as simple as that. There are cases of publicly available databases that you gave no permission to grant access to (for example, AOL's release of their search queries). There are other cases when a database has restricted access, but a person with access to it takes it and uses it in comparison with other databases available. Hackers are always a trouble; since some have gotten into such "secure" areas as the CIA and IRS, what's to keep them from potentially getting into any database?
The problem is one of privacy - in the worst case (or, for those who are cynical, common case) we have none. There's been some answers proposed to solve this. If you're interested, I'd start by reading the original paper on k-anonymity, which attempts to create privacy in a world where one can possibly have access to any database, ever. It can be found here: http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/people/sweeney/kanonymity.html. (There are, of course, a multitude of other methods; k-anonymity is just a good starting point.)
FTA: "With the clock ticking, EA has a limited amount of time to fix the glaring issues which plague this port of The Orange Box."
Yeah, they sure don't seem to understand "pre-release" at all. Oh wait, they DO acknowledge the possibility of fixing the product before release. My bad.
Besides, what is 1UP supposed to do if they play such buggy code? Say everything his A-okay and assume it will be fine by release? No, they told it like it is - the port is currently in an awful state, and EA is going to have to haul ass to make it halfway decent for a PS3 release.
I'll take what I can get; better that we have any new Futurama than no new Futurama at all.