They know perfectly well what they want: what they don't know (or don't understand or don't care about) is how to technically achieve it and which consequences it would bring.
There is nothing Orwellian in that, it's merely the political decision not to give them recognition. It's basically the same some Arab states do with Israel when they refer to it as the Zionist entity.
No, it's not. Don't take my word for it: play with SQL and realise that NULL doesn't behave like a number when used in operations and functions.
2) It's not always unambiguous, hence this story.
It's definitely unambiguous. Again, don't take my word for it, take e.g. a TINYINT and try to figure out which of its possible values is ambiguous with NULL. (Read: SELECT x = NULL results in True, hint: there is no such value).
The story is *not* about NULL having an ambiguous representation: it's about the programmer *not* using NULL to represent the concept of "missing information" (which is exactly why it exists in SQL) and instead (ab)using a specific numerical value.
Hint: the specific internal representation is absolutely irrelevant in the context of the discussion: the point is that whatever representation is used for NULL, it's a different representation from any other valid value. Yes, this means that e.g. if you have in-DB a nullable TINYINT (1 byte number), you have *more* information than what is representable in a C or Java variable of type 'byte' (primitive).
How you'll need to define your programming data model to accurately map all informations you read from the DB is a completely different issue and doesn't change the fact that the DB *does* provide a specific value which represent unambiguously the concept "information is unknown".
Check again. We're talking about a database: "the answer is unknown" is definitely not the same as "the answer is known and is 0". NULL exists as concept exactly to differentiate between the two. From the summary it's pretty clear the answer is not known, so it should have been represented with NULL.
Yeah, but cantons themselves are effectively their own semi-direct democracy: they have their own constitution with their own form of semi-direct democracy features. Actually some of them employ a more direct-democratic system than Switzerland.
You are confusing "republic", which is a very specific form of government, with "representative democracy", which is a more generic concept. Britain is not a republic, it's a constitutional monarchy, but it's still a representative democracy. The USA are a constitutional republic, which is too a form of representative democracy.
If you are not knowledgeable enough, trusting a representative is the quick, simple and wrong solution. The correct solution is to educate yourself so that you can form an educated opinion on the matter. Not being knowledgeable enough is not some immutable condition and you need to form your educated opinion anyway even with representatives, otherwise you wouldn't be able to effectively evaluate whether a they are good or bad.
This is especially true since on most issue there is actually a pretty good agreement about how society should look like, but diametrically opposite theories about how to actually reach that.
Switzerland has only a semi-direct democracy: basically it's still a representative democracy but with much stronger powers given to the citizens, which have instruments to influence or even force their elected representatives to act in a specific way on top of very strong safeguards against laws going in force without their approval.
Why just disguise them? Self driving cars need to be able to accurately monitor what's happening around them, which means the police could easily turn them into mobile, autonomous traffic enforcement cameras...
No, we didn’t notify them. If you will not publish them out, nobody else would do that, right? And I believe you will not publish them out, right?"
They assume only DataBreach has the data, which is something they actually don't know for sure. On top of that, they assume that DataBreach will not publish the data or sell it to the black market. I believe they will not, but if you are responsible for personal informations and the data gets into the hands of a third party you cannot just assume the third party will behave the way most convenient for you just because the alternative makes you unconfortable.
Last time I checked being an hypocrite or an unlikeable person doesn't mean your rights can be violated without repercussion, but maybe nowadays damages get awarded depending on how many funny jokes you can crack instead of whether your rights got infringed.
No, that's nit correct. The Lord If The Rings was actually done with an *extremely* agile process too: Fran Walsh described writing the script for the production as "laying the track down in front of a moving train". As example Aragorn was originally supposed to be played by Stuart Townsend, but during the first month of filming it was deemed too young and Viggo Mortensen became his replacement just before filming Aragorn's first scene. There are also many instances of unplanned stuff getting thrown in, like the orcs stomping their lances during the siege or Aragorn deflecting a knife with his sword.
The craze over frame rate and resolution is due to exclusives being relatively minor. This means that most games a player might be interested in are available on both platforms, but not with exactly the same performance. Most games play slightly better on PS4, which means that unless Xbox One exclusives are what drives your purchase, PS4 tends to be a better choice
I doubt 4K will be the focus of the next generation. This generation already the issue is more frame rate, with games struggling to keep it high enough and constant at 1080p or even lower. Also I'd rather have some breakthrough with VR than 4K.
This is nothing new and older power plants already get a limited insurance which is actually profitable. New power plants would be even more interesting from the insurance's point of view.
This is actually not true. The coverage is limited, but insurance does exist and it's actually profitable. That's why there is no reason new power plants wouldn't get insured: they actually would be sought more than their older, less safe counterparts.
Why wouldn't the insurance industry insure new plants? As you said, they only care about the money and as long as there is a way to price the risk, they're in. If they already price an higher risk power plant, why shouldn't they be able to price a lower risk new one?
As Linus expects others to write proper code, I expect people to conduct proper communication.
Linus expects proper code from those who contribute to his project: what you do in your own project is your business. Similarly, you are free to expect people to conduct "proper communication" within the communities *you* control, but not to force your expectations to communities *other people* control.
The US justice would likely not provide a fair trial in Snowden's case. Until the US justice can provide that, Snowden has all the justifications to remain a fugitive to avoid his fundamental rights being infringed.
Slashdot Mirror
That would mean giving the domain control of the ad, which advertisers do *not* want to do.
They know perfectly well what they want: what they don't know (or don't understand or don't care about) is how to technically achieve it and which consequences it would bring.
There is nothing Orwellian in that, it's merely the political decision not to give them recognition. It's basically the same some Arab states do with Israel when they refer to it as the Zionist entity.
1) That specific value is a number
No, it's not. Don't take my word for it: play with SQL and realise that NULL doesn't behave like a number when used in operations and functions.
2) It's not always unambiguous, hence this story.
It's definitely unambiguous. Again, don't take my word for it, take e.g. a TINYINT and try to figure out which of its possible values is ambiguous with NULL. (Read: SELECT x = NULL results in True, hint: there is no such value).
The story is *not* about NULL having an ambiguous representation: it's about the programmer *not* using NULL to represent the concept of "missing information" (which is exactly why it exists in SQL) and instead (ab)using a specific numerical value.
Hint: the specific internal representation is absolutely irrelevant in the context of the discussion: the point is that whatever representation is used for NULL, it's a different representation from any other valid value. Yes, this means that e.g. if you have in-DB a nullable TINYINT (1 byte number), you have *more* information than what is representable in a C or Java variable of type 'byte' (primitive).
How you'll need to define your programming data model to accurately map all informations you read from the DB is a completely different issue and doesn't change the fact that the DB *does* provide a specific value which represent unambiguously the concept "information is unknown".
Checking pointers in a relational DB? We're talking about this NULL.
Check again. We're talking about a database: "the answer is unknown" is definitely not the same as "the answer is known and is 0". NULL exists as concept exactly to differentiate between the two. From the summary it's pretty clear the answer is not known, so it should have been represented with NULL.
Yeah, but cantons themselves are effectively their own semi-direct democracy: they have their own constitution with their own form of semi-direct democracy features. Actually some of them employ a more direct-democratic system than Switzerland.
You are confusing "republic", which is a very specific form of government, with "representative democracy", which is a more generic concept. Britain is not a republic, it's a constitutional monarchy, but it's still a representative democracy. The USA are a constitutional republic, which is too a form of representative democracy.
If you are not knowledgeable enough, trusting a representative is the quick, simple and wrong solution. The correct solution is to educate yourself so that you can form an educated opinion on the matter. Not being knowledgeable enough is not some immutable condition and you need to form your educated opinion anyway even with representatives, otherwise you wouldn't be able to effectively evaluate whether a they are good or bad.
This is especially true since on most issue there is actually a pretty good agreement about how society should look like, but diametrically opposite theories about how to actually reach that.
Switzerland has only a semi-direct democracy: basically it's still a representative democracy but with much stronger powers given to the citizens, which have instruments to influence or even force their elected representatives to act in a specific way on top of very strong safeguards against laws going in force without their approval.
Why just disguise them? Self driving cars need to be able to accurately monitor what's happening around them, which means the police could easily turn them into mobile, autonomous traffic enforcement cameras...
No, we didn’t notify them. If you will not publish them out, nobody else would do that, right? And I believe you will not publish them out, right?"
They assume only DataBreach has the data, which is something they actually don't know for sure. On top of that, they assume that DataBreach will not publish the data or sell it to the black market. I believe they will not, but if you are responsible for personal informations and the data gets into the hands of a third party you cannot just assume the third party will behave the way most convenient for you just because the alternative makes you unconfortable.
You mean praying on his tomb and asking for guidance?
Last time I checked being an hypocrite or an unlikeable person doesn't mean your rights can be violated without repercussion, but maybe nowadays damages get awarded depending on how many funny jokes you can crack instead of whether your rights got infringed.
No, that's nit correct. The Lord If The Rings was actually done with an *extremely* agile process too: Fran Walsh described writing the script for the production as "laying the track down in front of a moving train". As example Aragorn was originally supposed to be played by Stuart Townsend, but during the first month of filming it was deemed too young and Viggo Mortensen became his replacement just before filming Aragorn's first scene. There are also many instances of unplanned stuff getting thrown in, like the orcs stomping their lances during the siege or Aragorn deflecting a knife with his sword.
The craze over frame rate and resolution is due to exclusives being relatively minor. This means that most games a player might be interested in are available on both platforms, but not with exactly the same performance. Most games play slightly better on PS4, which means that unless Xbox One exclusives are what drives your purchase, PS4 tends to be a better choice
I doubt 4K will be the focus of the next generation. This generation already the issue is more frame rate, with games struggling to keep it high enough and constant at 1080p or even lower. Also I'd rather have some breakthrough with VR than 4K.
That is, if you didn't see the light go from red to green, you have no idea how much time is left on the clock and should be prepared to stop.
After turning green from red, how long will it stay green? 50 seconds? 10 seconds? 4 seconds? Basically you have no idea either.
Actually it's correct: electrons in a typical copper wire move pretty slowly
This is nothing new and older power plants already get a limited insurance which is actually profitable. New power plants would be even more interesting from the insurance's point of view.
This is actually not true. The coverage is limited, but insurance does exist and it's actually profitable. That's why there is no reason new power plants wouldn't get insured: they actually would be sought more than their older, less safe counterparts.
Why wouldn't the insurance industry insure new plants? As you said, they only care about the money and as long as there is a way to price the risk, they're in. If they already price an higher risk power plant, why shouldn't they be able to price a lower risk new one?
As Linus expects others to write proper code, I expect people to conduct proper communication.
Linus expects proper code from those who contribute to his project: what you do in your own project is your business. Similarly, you are free to expect people to conduct "proper communication" within the communities *you* control, but not to force your expectations to communities *other people* control.
The US justice would likely not provide a fair trial in Snowden's case. Until the US justice can provide that, Snowden has all the justifications to remain a fugitive to avoid his fundamental rights being infringed.
From what I understand it's actually 1 kill in 70+ years by the whole police force, not only the special squad.