Sun, while having more than it's own share of problems in it's refusal to accept that it stopped being a hardware company of any relivance some time ago, has known for 10 years that "The network is the computer." They get it. Because they get it, we have Java. Because we had java when we did, internet applications were developed.
Will Sun be anything more than the company that happens to have the office suite that Google uses, once the history is written? Maybe. But don't for a minute think that Sun's failure is because it doesn't understand the marketplace, they do. What they don't get is what it is they do within that marketplace.
Which, while still a potentially fatal problem, is not nearly so severe as Microsoft's (or IBM's past) failure to even grasp what the market is asking for.
A few years ago, the world's leading computer company almost went under because it didn't understand the paradigm shift that had happened.
Because IBM didn't understand the value of the desktop to the user, and Microsoft did, IBM lost big time. Only by totally reinventing themselves as a service provider FIRST and a computer company second did IBM survive.
Today, Sun and Google understand the value of the internet to the user, and Microsoft doesn't. They never have. That's why to this day, despite numerous losses and being forced to bow to consummer demands, MS thinks "embracing and extending" open network protocol standards is a good thing. Microsoft can not survive a market place they don't understand. No business can.
You either make money, or eventually you fail, that's the reality of business. In a world where computer software production is becomming more and more commodity production, MS doesn't know how to survive. Sun and Google do. So, Bill, meet Sam Palmisano, he can teach you a bit about what you will need to do after the bankrupcy . . .
Freeze dried food requires cooking which uses water and fuel which should be conserved jealously.
Not true. It may not taste great, but it is edible without cooking or rehydration.
The fabric is not to save space. It is because it is more useful than tailored clothing and it is "actuall clothes." I wear them every day.
Also not true, or at least an incomplete view. Buttons, snaps, elastic and other materials in tailored clothes can be cannibalized for other uses. For every advantage you can give me of having raw cloth, I can give you a like advantage for having the extras that real clothes bring you.
This largely comes down to a simple question: which are you more likely going to be required to survive -- the end of civilization as we know it, or a localized disaster event? The answer is obvious.
The difficulty in identifying edible mushrooms depends on your geographical region. Here in the upper midwest, for example, there are several very easily identified edible mushrooms that have no poisonous look alikes. The same is definitely not true everywhere.
In a survival situation, however, mushrooms are a very abundant food source. I agree if you're not 100% sure, stay away. But there are places where even novices can collect some species of mushrooms in safety.
I'd personally invest a few bucks in some good waterproof compression sacks over the ziplocks.
Ziplocks tear. Torn ziplocks don't do any of the nice things you want them to do -- they dont' stay dry, they don't keep bugs out, they don't stay dry, etc.
A heavy nylon compression sack (the kind made with individual fibers coated in silicon so they stay waterproof forever) will last 1000 times longer than a ziplock. In addition, you can pack actuall clothes in it instead of raw fabric and it will take up the same space or less once you cinch the straps.
I disagree about the knife. A quality multitool is a far better choice. Having a screwdriver, pliers, saw, awl, tweezers, can opener, etc., as well as a high quality knife blade for only a few ounces more is a win. The key here is "quality." Never skimp on survivial gear.
Gorp is also a poor choice for a survival kit. Gorp goes stale. It goes bad. It takes a while, but if you pack all this up this year and don't have to use it for several years, you'll find you have a lot of inedible nuts.
Invest in a dehydrator and a vacuum packer. Better yet, buy some freezedried foods in bulk and vacuum pack them yourself. Per unit energy it will weigh far less than the gorp, and it will keep forever.
You're also missing a good first aide kit. An ace bandage, some butterfly bandaids, sterile 4x4 pads, tape, iodine, antibacterial gel, an eye cup and sterile saline wash and a few other potential life savers adds very little in terms of bulk or weight, but can be essential in a bad situation. If you're in places where there are nasty bugs or snakes, include snake bite kits and major antihystimines as well.
Lastly, it's not in the list, but it should be:
Get a good hand gun. Spend time on the range with it. Learn to be proficient. Pack a like model with a few hundred rounds of ammo. Excellent for both for self defense and for hunting. A handgun so that it's easy to carry and realitivley light weight A small emergency first aide card to help you figure out how to treat various wounds in case you aren't 100% positive (and if you're not an emergency medicine specialist, you aren't!) A small field guide identifying edible plants and mushrooms in your geographic area.
A prospective customer or employer has a limited amount of time to find a consultant or employee with the skill set necessary to perform the job. The customer or employer may also not have the expertise necessary to properly evaluate skill sets.
Certifications give the employer or customer a quick method of culling the resume pile to find a subset of people who will more likely be able to succeed at the task technically.
This is no different than a degree from a university, every university has bestowed a degree on someone who just simply doesn't know enough to warrant graduating. But it's a usefull indicator of someone who is more probably qualified for some particular tasks.
Is there a reason to pay for certification? Maybe. If to apply to the companies you want to work for, your resume has to pass through an HR screener, then absolutely. You won't get past the HR screener without all the right keywords on the resume. If you're a consultant who is frequently changing gigs, then again, it's a necessary part of your sales toolkit.
It's stupid. It's a waste of money. But it's not true that it brings no value to the person getting the certification. The value it brings is that it allows you to play the employment game on the terms the game is currently being played.
The school I'm specifically describing is a small private school that used to have a very credible CS department and continues to try and make points on that past performance.
I have seen the same thing in a number of other schools. It's been very common and oft repeated mistake in smaller schools who think they can attract more students by pleasing local industry's percieved "needs" rather than maintaining standards. It's also happened in community colleges as well, but it's the small, formerly rigorous schools that bother me.
When I took my CS degree, it was a scientific approach to problem solving, there was rigor and a solid basis for always being able to understand digital systems. We learned everything from the circuitry up to assembly language. We got a survey of higher level languages, from scheme and lisp to C and Fortran, but the focus was on COMPUTER SCIENCE.
The Universities found that such a program was difficult for many students, so instead of maintaining a culture of excellence, they started offering "industry requested" courses. Pretty soon all the rigor was gone and it was 4 years of learning visual basic and java from within Windows based IDE's without gaining any real insight into how computers work or the nature of algorithmic design, data structure or any other consideration.
We aren't outsourcing to India because it's cheaper. We're outsourcing to India because by and large they're better at it than we are. You can find entry level programmers in India who KNOW HOW A COMPUTER WORKS. That's not something you can find coming out of US schools.
These students may well be trying to leave their options open for other careers, but at least some of them are probably just trying to keep some science in their BS program.
In football "real aggression" is taught. It's also taught that for aggression to be usefull, it needs to be controlled and directed and timely.
Hitting after the whistle incurs a penalty. Hitting the wrong way incurs a penalty. Hitting the wrong guy let's someone gain yards or score. Going outside the boundaries hurts not only you, but your team.
Yes, football is a very aggressive game. But at the end of the game, you're going to go party, and often with members of the other team (unless they're your arch-rivals but even at the end of the season you'll be laughing with those guys over the last game).
All of which are valuable real life lessons. There's a place and a time in real life for aggressive action (not necessarily physical, but sometimes), but if it's not controlled, you'll quickly find yourself on the wrong end of the moral (and often legal) line.
Mostly what football teaches, though, is that you can push past whatever limitations you percieve given the dedication and time.
I'm not sure that GTA has similarly positive lessons to be learned from it. GTA has the advantage that the aggression is pretend, but has, from what I've seen, no corresponding lessons about control and responsibility to teach.
As someone who does a lot of hiring (my department went from 35 to 70 people in the last year), and who has a very good view of what allows people to succeed, I think grad school is a very good indicator of job performance.
But it's not the tech degree I'm looking to see. I want to see a grad degree in a field that demands people to think in a variety of ways. BSc. in Comp Sci is a dime a dozen in any major city.
Pair that with a MA in philosophy, theology, history, linguistics, sociology . . . anything that is vastly different from the comp. sci. degree.
Why?
Because those people are going to have a broad range of problem solving skills and are going to be able to understand when technical issues should be subordinated to other considerations. They'll also, after a few years, be the guys that I'll really listen too when they knock on my door to say that the suits are going to really screw the pooch if we don't push the techniical issue on this one.
That doesn't mean that you should just pick an advanced degree and go for it if you have no passion for the field. But if you have something that interests you, go for it.
Further, you mom, like everyone else, must understand that the police are under no obligation to come to her aide in the event someone does break into her house.
I'd disagree about a 12-guage, though. That's too much weapon for an older person to handle. A nice.38 revolver is an easy to keep, easy to use, effective choice for home defense.
Load it up with hollow-points, teach her to shoot center mass, and then get a nice monitored alarm system that automatically calls the police.
Ok, I love Linux. I use it at work. I work in a really big, international company.
Here's my take ...
If it's not supported/approved by IBM and you are dealing with IBM then find out what they support and use that.
Why?
Because 1) it's easier, and 2) you want to succeed.
Your job is not to move the organization. Your job is to make your boss look good. IBM is very very talented at making their customers look good at very reasonable prices. You will make your boss look better with IBM's willing help than by trying to fly it yourself.
Apt-get is nice and all, but frankly, support is nicer. If you don't understand that, btw, then you are not experienced enough to be making the decission on what to move forward with. I'm not saying this to be an ass . . . but simply because it's true. Moving them to Linux is smart, but moving them to something the hardware vendor doesn't support is stupid
They "declare under penalty of perjury" that they have the right to act on behalf of the identified infringing works.
Seems to me since they don't have that authority, they've committed perjury. This isn't even really contestable, it's a fact that they don't ahve the right to do what they claim . . . so why not call them down on it?
Gentoo packages provide a checksum of the tarball so that you can be sure that you are downloading a legitimate piece of software and not something that has been tampered with by others.
Since the checksum changes when you have watermarking, this means that every legitimate download will have a different checksum. Thus it is not an inadequacy in Gentoo's packaging system, it's an technological limitation of watermarking.
Moreover, it's faux security at best. Legitimate users are denied the ability to validate the integrity of the file they are downloading while pirates are completely unfazed.
I wonder how many of these people who complain about people correcting fairly major improper use of natural languages get a bit pissy when someone makes improper technical statements?
It is after all, an exactly equivillent gaff.
We bitch and moan when editors at the NY Times don't understand the relatively technical difference between free and open source software licenses, yet we aren't entitled to bitch and moan when the editors of slashdot don't understand the proper use of common phrases?
I'm currently hiring about a dozen high level network security engineers. One of the biggest headaches I've had to deal with in the last month has been people who think "resume true" is what I care about.
When I schedule a technical interview for a candidate, and they arrive, and two minutes into the interview session I realize that this candidate has never done half of the items on their resume (heck, some haven't even bothered to read their resume) I do three things.
1) I end the interview abruptly, inform the candidate that I'm sorry for wasting his time, and send them packing.
2) I throw out every resume I received from whatever source provided me with that resume, call that head-hunter, and let them know that they wasted my time, and the time of my team members who I pulled in for the interview. I not-so-politely let them know that they are black-listed from my group and that I really would appreciate them never contacting me again.
3) I let the other managers I work with in the international, 200k employee company I am part of know both the name of the recruiter and the name of the lying applicant so that they won't be bothered wasting their time in the near future either.
So.. take this guy's advice if you want to. But don't end up on my doorstep.
For real advice I'd do the following -- by your junior year, find a part-time job someplace doing anything related to your field. Work your ass off, get good grades, apply for a fellowship or research position and get it. Find local contractors who do short-term and part-time work for large companies. Get on a team and get some experience. It really doesn't matter what you do -- make connections with people of influence in your field. Those connections will be your lifeline to meaningful positions as you advance.
I personally hope that a CD I buy installs something on my computer. Really. 'Cuase I'm walking into the DA's office and demanding prosecution under 609.88 the next day. And as a highly paid professional, I know I can bill my time that any 10 second problem will turn into the maximum allowable penalty pretty darn quick...
609.88 Computer damage.
Subdivision 1. Acts. Whoever does any of the following is guilty of computer damage and may be sentenced as provided in subdivision 2:
(b) intentionally and without authorization or with intent to injure or defraud alters any computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, or any other property specifically defined in section 609.87, subdivision 6;
Subd. 2. Penalty. Whoever commits computer damage may be sentenced as follows:
(a) To imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $50,000, or both, if the damage, destruction or alteration results in a loss in excess of $2,500, to the owner, or the owner's agent, or lessee;
(b) To imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both, if the damage, destruction or alteration results in a loss of more than $500, but not more than $2,500 to the owner, or the owner's agent or lessee; or
(c) In all other cases to imprisonment for not more than 90 days or to payment of a fine of not more than $700, or both.
RFID tags are not the big intrusive privacy issue people seem to think they are except for one thing -- there's no easy, clean, certain way for the average person to shut the damn things off.
In the retail supply chain, RFID tags have a huge promise to be a win-win for everyone. They should be able to lower costs, increase service levels, cut losses, and solve many supply-chain issues in a way that is very good for the end consumer.
The problem is, when the end consumer gets the final product into his or her hot little hands and leaves the check-out counter, how do they deactivate the little spy tag?
That part of the equation needs to be answered for the average consumer (not just the ultra-savy geeks) prior to these things being main-streamed or the level of abuse likely to ensue will be really nasty.
Given that any company of reasonable size can hire an experienced programmer with a masters degree in India for about 24k a year, I would think you shouldn't expect much more than that.
If that seems to little for you, try moving to India. Seriously. The 15k or so you'll make there as a starting salary translates into roughly a 45k a year job here in terms of standard of living.
Numerous laws already cover the unauthorized use of private computing resources.
It would be interesting to see what the Utah AG would do to WhenU.com if some citizen sent a certified letter to WhenU refusing them permission to further run their software on your system should it be discovered that WhenU continued to abuse those unauthorized computing resources.
The author of the article was wrong on nearly every point he brings up. Or, more correctly, he wasn't even wrong, he just didn't know what the hell he was talking about.
He makes several comments about how the computer "wants things" simple and people are "want things" complex. When it comes to things like rules for an RPG, that's exactly backwards. People need to have the rules simplified so that they can be handled relatively quickly in the context of the storyline by the relatively inefficient random number generation method of rolling dice, adding modifiers, doing a little math, and continuing with the story.
In that context, the ideal rules are as simple as possible.
Computers, on the other hand, are capable of doing a whole lot more math a whole lot more quickly. There's no reason, while using a computer, to break down the possible outcomes of an encounter to a simulated die roll divided on 5% increments to see if you hit someone followed by a random 1d4+2 for how much damage was done.
In a computer RPG it is possible to have extremely complicated combat tables. Combat tables like those in Rolemaster, or other games that strived to inject realism into the RPG at the cost of complexity become possible. It becomes possible to simulate combat using intersections of probability fields -- things that outside of a computer require long minutes of hand calculations can be done nearly instantly.
He also showed his ignorance by talking about how paper rules aren't designed for "distributed databases." Ummmm, are there ANY games out there that run as distributed databases? Even the big massively multiplayer things like EQ aren't using distributed databases as everything really important happens server-side.
Slashdot Mirror
The Initiative for Software Choice is backed by Microsoft.
Yet another shill decrying the evil of sharing information.
Gee, isn't this the same argument publishing cartels had about public libraries a few centuries ago?
"Hey, we'll only sell a copy of our book to the library, and everyone else will just go there and read it for free. No fair! Stop!"
Yet, amazingly, somehow content still got produced all these years.
Sun, while having more than it's own share of problems in it's refusal to accept that it stopped being a hardware company of any relivance some time ago, has known for 10 years that "The network is the computer." They get it. Because they get it, we have Java. Because we had java when we did, internet applications were developed.
Will Sun be anything more than the company that happens to have the office suite that Google uses, once the history is written? Maybe. But don't for a minute think that Sun's failure is because it doesn't understand the marketplace, they do. What they don't get is what it is they do within that marketplace.
Which, while still a potentially fatal problem, is not nearly so severe as Microsoft's (or IBM's past) failure to even grasp what the market is asking for.
A few years ago, the world's leading computer company almost went under because it didn't understand the paradigm shift that had happened.
Because IBM didn't understand the value of the desktop to the user, and Microsoft did, IBM lost big time. Only by totally reinventing themselves as a service provider FIRST and a computer company second did IBM survive.
Today, Sun and Google understand the value of the internet to the user, and Microsoft doesn't. They never have. That's why to this day, despite numerous losses and being forced to bow to consummer demands, MS thinks "embracing and extending" open network protocol standards is a good thing. Microsoft can not survive a market place they don't understand. No business can.
You either make money, or eventually you fail, that's the reality of business. In a world where computer software production is becomming more and more commodity production, MS doesn't know how to survive. Sun and Google do. So, Bill, meet Sam Palmisano, he can teach you a bit about what you will need to do after the bankrupcy . . .
Not true. It may not taste great, but it is edible without cooking or rehydration.
Also not true, or at least an incomplete view. Buttons, snaps, elastic and other materials in tailored clothes can be cannibalized for other uses. For every advantage you can give me of having raw cloth, I can give you a like advantage for having the extras that real clothes bring you.
This largely comes down to a simple question: which are you more likely going to be required to survive -- the end of civilization as we know it, or a localized disaster event? The answer is obvious.
The difficulty in identifying edible mushrooms depends on your geographical region. Here in the upper midwest, for example, there are several very easily identified edible mushrooms that have no poisonous look alikes. The same is definitely not true everywhere.
In a survival situation, however, mushrooms are a very abundant food source. I agree if you're not 100% sure, stay away. But there are places where even novices can collect some species of mushrooms in safety.
Yup -- which means unless you know someone with an apiary, in the USA you don't need the honey. YOu'd be much better off with some iodine solution.
I'd personally invest a few bucks in some good waterproof compression sacks over the ziplocks.
Ziplocks tear. Torn ziplocks don't do any of the nice things you want them to do -- they dont' stay dry, they don't keep bugs out, they don't stay dry, etc.
A heavy nylon compression sack (the kind made with individual fibers coated in silicon so they stay waterproof forever) will last 1000 times longer than a ziplock. In addition, you can pack actuall clothes in it instead of raw fabric and it will take up the same space or less once you cinch the straps.
I disagree about the knife. A quality multitool is a far better choice. Having a screwdriver, pliers, saw, awl, tweezers, can opener, etc., as well as a high quality knife blade for only a few ounces more is a win. The key here is "quality." Never skimp on survivial gear.
Gorp is also a poor choice for a survival kit. Gorp goes stale. It goes bad. It takes a while, but if you pack all this up this year and don't have to use it for several years, you'll find you have a lot of inedible nuts.
Invest in a dehydrator and a vacuum packer. Better yet, buy some freezedried foods in bulk and vacuum pack them yourself. Per unit energy it will weigh far less than the gorp, and it will keep forever.
You're also missing a good first aide kit. An ace bandage, some butterfly bandaids, sterile 4x4 pads, tape, iodine, antibacterial gel, an eye cup and sterile saline wash and a few other potential life savers adds very little in terms of bulk or weight, but can be essential in a bad situation. If you're in places where there are nasty bugs or snakes, include snake bite kits and major antihystimines as well.
Lastly, it's not in the list, but it should be:
Get a good hand gun. Spend time on the range with it. Learn to be proficient. Pack a like model with a few hundred rounds of ammo. Excellent for both for self defense and for hunting. A handgun so that it's easy to carry and realitivley light weight A small emergency first aide card to help you figure out how to treat various wounds in case you aren't 100% positive (and if you're not an emergency medicine specialist, you aren't!) A small field guide identifying edible plants and mushrooms in your geographic area.
A prospective customer or employer has a limited amount of time to find a consultant or employee with the skill set necessary to perform the job. The customer or employer may also not have the expertise necessary to properly evaluate skill sets.
Certifications give the employer or customer a quick method of culling the resume pile to find a subset of people who will more likely be able to succeed at the task technically.
This is no different than a degree from a university, every university has bestowed a degree on someone who just simply doesn't know enough to warrant graduating. But it's a usefull indicator of someone who is more probably qualified for some particular tasks.
Is there a reason to pay for certification? Maybe. If to apply to the companies you want to work for, your resume has to pass through an HR screener, then absolutely. You won't get past the HR screener without all the right keywords on the resume. If you're a consultant who is frequently changing gigs, then again, it's a necessary part of your sales toolkit.
It's stupid. It's a waste of money. But it's not true that it brings no value to the person getting the certification. The value it brings is that it allows you to play the employment game on the terms the game is currently being played.
The school I'm specifically describing is a small private school that used to have a very credible CS department and continues to try and make points on that past performance.
I have seen the same thing in a number of other schools. It's been very common and oft repeated mistake in smaller schools who think they can attract more students by pleasing local industry's percieved "needs" rather than maintaining standards. It's also happened in community colleges as well, but it's the small, formerly rigorous schools that bother me.
When I took my CS degree, it was a scientific approach to problem solving, there was rigor and a solid basis for always being able to understand digital systems. We learned everything from the circuitry up to assembly language. We got a survey of higher level languages, from scheme and lisp to C and Fortran, but the focus was on COMPUTER SCIENCE.
The Universities found that such a program was difficult for many students, so instead of maintaining a culture of excellence, they started offering "industry requested" courses. Pretty soon all the rigor was gone and it was 4 years of learning visual basic and java from within Windows based IDE's without gaining any real insight into how computers work or the nature of algorithmic design, data structure or any other consideration.
We aren't outsourcing to India because it's cheaper. We're outsourcing to India because by and large they're better at it than we are. You can find entry level programmers in India who KNOW HOW A COMPUTER WORKS. That's not something you can find coming out of US schools.
These students may well be trying to leave their options open for other careers, but at least some of them are probably just trying to keep some science in their BS program.
In football "real aggression" is taught. It's also taught that for aggression to be usefull, it needs to be controlled and directed and timely.
Hitting after the whistle incurs a penalty. Hitting the wrong way incurs a penalty. Hitting the wrong guy let's someone gain yards or score. Going outside the boundaries hurts not only you, but your team.
Yes, football is a very aggressive game. But at the end of the game, you're going to go party, and often with members of the other team (unless they're your arch-rivals but even at the end of the season you'll be laughing with those guys over the last game).
All of which are valuable real life lessons. There's a place and a time in real life for aggressive action (not necessarily physical, but sometimes), but if it's not controlled, you'll quickly find yourself on the wrong end of the moral (and often legal) line.
Mostly what football teaches, though, is that you can push past whatever limitations you percieve given the dedication and time.
I'm not sure that GTA has similarly positive lessons to be learned from it. GTA has the advantage that the aggression is pretend, but has, from what I've seen, no corresponding lessons about control and responsibility to teach.
I'd say I really disagree with this.
As someone who does a lot of hiring (my department went from 35 to 70 people in the last year), and who has a very good view of what allows people to succeed, I think grad school is a very good indicator of job performance.
But it's not the tech degree I'm looking to see. I want to see a grad degree in a field that demands people to think in a variety of ways. BSc. in Comp Sci is a dime a dozen in any major city.
Pair that with a MA in philosophy, theology, history, linguistics, sociology . . . anything that is vastly different from the comp. sci. degree.
Why?
Because those people are going to have a broad range of problem solving skills and are going to be able to understand when technical issues should be subordinated to other considerations. They'll also, after a few years, be the guys that I'll really listen too when they knock on my door to say that the suits are going to really screw the pooch if we don't push the techniical issue on this one.
That doesn't mean that you should just pick an advanced degree and go for it if you have no passion for the field. But if you have something that interests you, go for it.
Further, you mom, like everyone else, must understand that the police are under no obligation to come to her aide in the event someone does break into her house.
.38 revolver is an easy to keep, easy to use, effective choice for home defense.
I'd disagree about a 12-guage, though. That's too much weapon for an older person to handle. A nice
Load it up with hollow-points, teach her to shoot center mass, and then get a nice monitored alarm system that automatically calls the police.
Ok, I love Linux. I use it at work. I work in a really big, international company.
..
Here's my take .
If it's not supported/approved by IBM and you are dealing with IBM then find out what they support and use that.
Why?
Because 1) it's easier, and 2) you want to succeed.
Your job is not to move the organization. Your job is to make your boss look good. IBM is very very talented at making their customers look good at very reasonable prices. You will make your boss look better with IBM's willing help than by trying to fly it yourself.
Apt-get is nice and all, but frankly, support is nicer. If you don't understand that, btw, then you are not experienced enough to be making the decission on what to move forward with. I'm not saying this to be an ass . . . but simply because it's true. Moving them to Linux is smart, but moving them to something the hardware vendor doesn't support is stupid
They "declare under penalty of perjury" that they have the right to act on behalf of the identified infringing works.
Seems to me since they don't have that authority, they've committed perjury. This isn't even really contestable, it's a fact that they don't ahve the right to do what they claim . . . so why not call them down on it?
You have failed to understand the issue.
Gentoo packages provide a checksum of the tarball so that you can be sure that you are downloading a legitimate piece of software and not something that has been tampered with by others.
Since the checksum changes when you have watermarking, this means that every legitimate download will have a different checksum. Thus it is not an inadequacy in Gentoo's packaging system, it's an technological limitation of watermarking.
Moreover, it's faux security at best. Legitimate users are denied the ability to validate the integrity of the file they are downloading while pirates are completely unfazed.
I wonder how many of these people who complain about people correcting fairly major improper use of natural languages get a bit pissy when someone makes improper technical statements?
It is after all, an exactly equivillent gaff.
We bitch and moan when editors at the NY Times don't understand the relatively technical difference between free and open source software licenses, yet we aren't entitled to bitch and moan when the editors of slashdot don't understand the proper use of common phrases?
I'm currently hiring about a dozen high level network security engineers. One of the biggest headaches I've had to deal with in the last month has been people who think "resume true" is what I care about.
.. take this guy's advice if you want to. But don't end up on my doorstep.
When I schedule a technical interview for a candidate, and they arrive, and two minutes into the interview session I realize that this candidate has never done half of the items on their resume (heck, some haven't even bothered to read their resume) I do three things.
1) I end the interview abruptly, inform the candidate that I'm sorry for wasting his time, and send them packing.
2) I throw out every resume I received from whatever source provided me with that resume, call that head-hunter, and let them know that they wasted my time, and the time of my team members who I pulled in for the interview. I not-so-politely let them know that they are black-listed from my group and that I really would appreciate them never contacting me again.
3) I let the other managers I work with in the international, 200k employee company I am part of know both the name of the recruiter and the name of the lying applicant so that they won't be bothered wasting their time in the near future either.
So
For real advice I'd do the following -- by your junior year, find a part-time job someplace doing anything related to your field. Work your ass off, get good grades, apply for a fellowship or research position and get it. Find local contractors who do short-term and part-time work for large companies. Get on a team and get some experience. It really doesn't matter what you do -- make connections with people of influence in your field. Those connections will be your lifeline to meaningful positions as you advance.
I personally hope that a CD I buy installs something on my computer. Really. 'Cuase I'm walking into the DA's office and demanding prosecution under 609.88 the next day. And as a highly paid professional, I know I can bill my time that any 10 second problem will turn into the maximum allowable penalty pretty darn quick...
609.88 Computer damage.
Subdivision 1. Acts. Whoever does any of the following is guilty of computer damage and may be sentenced as provided in subdivision 2:
(b) intentionally and without authorization or with intent to injure or defraud alters any computer, computer system, computer network, computer software, or any other property specifically defined in section 609.87, subdivision 6;
Subd. 2. Penalty. Whoever commits computer damage may be sentenced as follows:
(a) To imprisonment for not more than ten years or to payment of a fine of not more than $50,000, or both, if the damage, destruction or alteration results in a loss in excess of $2,500, to the owner, or the owner's agent, or lessee;
(b) To imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both, if the damage, destruction or alteration results in a loss of more than $500, but not more than $2,500 to the owner, or the owner's agent or lessee; or
(c) In all other cases to imprisonment for not more than 90 days or to payment of a fine of not more than $700, or both.
RFID tags are not the big intrusive privacy issue people seem to think they are except for one thing -- there's no easy, clean, certain way for the average person to shut the damn things off.
In the retail supply chain, RFID tags have a huge promise to be a win-win for everyone. They should be able to lower costs, increase service levels, cut losses, and solve many supply-chain issues in a way that is very good for the end consumer.
The problem is, when the end consumer gets the final product into his or her hot little hands and leaves the check-out counter, how do they deactivate the little spy tag?
That part of the equation needs to be answered for the average consumer (not just the ultra-savy geeks) prior to these things being main-streamed or the level of abuse likely to ensue will be really nasty.
Given that any company of reasonable size can hire an experienced programmer with a masters degree in India for about 24k a year, I would think you shouldn't expect much more than that.
If that seems to little for you, try moving to India. Seriously. The 15k or so you'll make there as a starting salary translates into roughly a 45k a year job here in terms of standard of living.
Numerous laws already cover the unauthorized use of private computing resources.
It would be interesting to see what the Utah AG would do to WhenU.com if some citizen sent a certified letter to WhenU refusing them permission to further run their software on your system should it be discovered that WhenU continued to abuse those unauthorized computing resources.
The author of the article was wrong on nearly every point he brings up. Or, more correctly, he wasn't even wrong, he just didn't know what the hell he was talking about.
He makes several comments about how the computer "wants things" simple and people are "want things" complex. When it comes to things like rules for an RPG, that's exactly backwards. People need to have the rules simplified so that they can be handled relatively quickly in the context of the storyline by the relatively inefficient random number generation method of rolling dice, adding modifiers, doing a little math, and continuing with the story.
In that context, the ideal rules are as simple as possible.
Computers, on the other hand, are capable of doing a whole lot more math a whole lot more quickly. There's no reason, while using a computer, to break down the possible outcomes of an encounter to a simulated die roll divided on 5% increments to see if you hit someone followed by a random 1d4+2 for how much damage was done.
In a computer RPG it is possible to have extremely complicated combat tables. Combat tables like those in Rolemaster, or other games that strived to inject realism into the RPG at the cost of complexity become possible. It becomes possible to simulate combat using intersections of probability fields -- things that outside of a computer require long minutes of hand calculations can be done nearly instantly.
He also showed his ignorance by talking about how paper rules aren't designed for "distributed databases." Ummmm, are there ANY games out there that run as distributed databases? Even the big massively multiplayer things like EQ aren't using distributed databases as everything really important happens server-side.
but of course, almost all of them are direct from the artist purchases.
The remainder are bought per-track off of Rhapsody and burned by me.
It's not that music sales are lagging, it's that the RIAA, and to a smaller extent, the record companies, doesn't need to be involved in them anymore.