A while back someone made a nifty little executable that when executed would create a duplicate of itself and then after a time execute the duplicate (I think it was 60 seconds or something).
The twist is that the program would have random chance of mixing up bits of itself when duplicating itself (mutating if you will). Some mutations would break the resulting executable rendering it 'sterile', some mutations cause the filename of the executable to be different than expected etc etc. The point is the mutation was pretty much random in what code it changed. This process would continue untill the computer froze after being overrun by thousands of little executables running and duplicating themselves every 60 seconds. All that was needed was a simple reboot and the system would be working fine again (albeit there would be a directory full of executables).
I believe the original creator found some interesting results after leaving his machine on for a while... some of the progranisms were in different directories, others had weird names, and a bunch of other stuff I'm probably forgetting.
I'd imagine a super computer would yield some pretty cool results...
Or of course, you could always do what I'd be tempted to do... Install WoW (using wine if needed) and then brag in trade channel about massive your computer is...
My apartment (in Canada) had an outlet (power socket?) that was controlled by a switch. The switch wasn't located on the actual outlet though, it was on the wall like a light switch. The idea was to plug a lamp into the outlet for use as primary lighting for the room.
That doesn't seem to be common practice here though. I see it done more at camps and older style housing...
It doesn't even really need to be that complicated. Blizzard allows you to download the game free. You just need to account information (tied to the CD-Key) to log in and play.
Very sage advice, I agree wholeheartedly. It's the people who are miserable about helping someone who knows less than they do that stay on the floor the longest. I always treated my customers with respect and tried to explain things as best I could. I ultimately wound up with a few promotions and raises before I got my current job as a programmer.
Either way, call centers / tech support can be a pretty cut-throat business, no matter how you play the game. (At least in this area for said companies). I'm glad to be out of it.
I worked tech. support for Compaq for 4 years. On the Canadian Bilingual queue, we did everything... printers, computers, laptops; only networking and servers were done at a different location. Not once did I ever have a call like you're describing. About the closest to that I ever got was in the early days of Windows XP... a customer had just bought a Compaq computer after literally throwing his brand new HP out the 3rd floor window. Why? Because HP tech. support couldn't get his printer working... they hadn't come up with XP drivers for it yet. The funny part? With my supervisor's permission, I gave it a "best effort", and told him to download the Windows 2000 drivers... they worked, and his computer, printer and all, was up and running in the time it took him to download them from the website. The *truly* funny part? Shortly thereafter we were bought out by HP and my job was moved to India. Ahh, Carly Fiorina, how we love you.... >.>
If that was your worst (most naive/ignorant) customer you ever had to deal with then consider yourself extremely lucky.
I worked for Gateway and later for Dell (on their Dell On Call) campaign. For both companies I handled only American customers, and I found that users of both brands tended to make the same mistakes. Dell On Call was only software support that had already been escalated by hardware techs (almost all of which were in India), which I suppose in some cases added to the customer's aggravation making them seem more hostile. I've had tons of customer's refer to their monitors as the "TV part" the computer as the "Hard Drive". I've dealt with people that refuse to believe that the internet is not part of Windows and all sorts of other crazy situations where you can't understand how a customer could believe what they did.
The impression I get based on my experience is that a large percentage of people would probably buy Windows software (at least once) and try to run it on a cheap Linux PC they picked up at Wallmart (assuming they just grabbed the cheapest machine without consulting a Wallmat associate about it first).
I also get the impression amongst peers and (even here on slashdot) that most tech savvy people seem to overestimate the computer proficiency of people who have nothing to do with IT.
I guess you and I have simply seen very different sides of the same coin.
My 3 years working in tech support beg to differ. Frequently (at least once or twice a week), I'd receive a call which basically boiled down to the customer being down right ticked off because they had been trying to install their printer software using the disc clearly labeled "Macintosh" on their Windows XP/Vista computer. They would then blame us because our computer was faulty, because the manufacturer of the printer told them so.
I haven't worked in tech support for over a year, but I still hear my friends laughing about hours these people supposedly spend resolving issues that could have easily been solved by reading the manual, or heaven forbid... the quick start instructions designed to get you up and running in as little as possible.
Actually the OxyContin was prescribed for extreme back pain that was compounded by a botched surgery to correct said back pain.
It had nothing to do with his hearing loss.
He's been passing regular drug tests since 2003. It was wrong of him to get addicted to prescription painkillers I know, but seriously, why can't people just let it go and move on?
I had a Thrustmaster Fox 2 Pro joystick and man that thing was sweet. It was both the best and worst thing ever. It was the best because it made playing BF1942 sooo much fun at LAN Parties and whatnot. It was the worst because the stock driver was not compatible with Windows XP and would cause the sytem to randomly reboot (no errors, no freezing, just reboot). I troubleshot everything, RAM, Video Card, CPU, hard drive. I determined it was the joystick through process of elimination.
I think I still have it too, although I don't have any use for it anymore.
Maybe from where you're from the majority of people know about DRM, or could it just be that you hang around mostly tech-savvy people who understand DRM and why it's a bad thing.
At any rate, I would probably say somewhere around 80 to 90 percent of people I know don't have a clue as to what DRM is. This percentage includes friends and colleagues who also happen to be computer programmers. Most of them are completely ignorant that Vista includes DRM stuff. I've actually gotten into arguments with several of my friends (after describing briefly what DRM was) over whether said DRM is evil or not.
I'm thinking that IBM and many other FOSS friendly companies probably hold a huge number of software patents as well. Perhaps (and this is just a theory) Microsoft knows that if they actually did anything more specific than spread FUD, there would be a patent war to end all patent wars.
"And they plan to accomplish this by suppressing the free speech that the Church of Scientology is entitled to?? How enlightened they are and what an embarrassment to people who REALLY fight for freedom."
Anon isn't fighting the CoS and attempting to suppress their free speech simply because it is a cult (although that IS part of the reason I'm sure). They are fighting the CoS because it was the CoS who struck first with all those crazy lawsuits, cease and desists, harassments, etc. Anon is technically reacting in this case.
As others have said before in this thread, two wrongs don't make a right.
I was introduced to a cousin's Nintendo. I was about 3 or 4 at the time. Those are my first memories of video games. I was never really "into" video games until I was 12 or 13 and played Warcraft II at a friends house. We were killing time because it was raining outside.
Now I enjoy pretty much every genre of games:)
Slashdot Mirror
Not a PHP-1 as the article would have you believe 0_o
A while back someone made a nifty little executable that when executed would create a duplicate of itself and then after a time execute the duplicate (I think it was 60 seconds or something).
The twist is that the program would have random chance of mixing up bits of itself when duplicating itself (mutating if you will). Some mutations would break the resulting executable rendering it 'sterile', some mutations cause the filename of the executable to be different than expected etc etc. The point is the mutation was pretty much random in what code it changed. This process would continue untill the computer froze after being overrun by thousands of little executables running and duplicating themselves every 60 seconds. All that was needed was a simple reboot and the system would be working fine again (albeit there would be a directory full of executables).
I believe the original creator found some interesting results after leaving his machine on for a while... some of the progranisms were in different directories, others had weird names, and a bunch of other stuff I'm probably forgetting.
I'd imagine a super computer would yield some pretty cool results...
Or of course, you could always do what I'd be tempted to do... Install WoW (using wine if needed) and then brag in trade channel about massive your computer is...
My apartment (in Canada) had an outlet (power socket?) that was controlled by a switch. The switch wasn't located on the actual outlet though, it was on the wall like a light switch. The idea was to plug a lamp into the outlet for use as primary lighting for the room. That doesn't seem to be common practice here though. I see it done more at camps and older style housing...
I wish I could mod you up for that. I loved that movie.
It doesn't even really need to be that complicated. Blizzard allows you to download the game free. You just need to account information (tied to the CD-Key) to log in and play.
I've used this method before.
Very sage advice, I agree wholeheartedly. It's the people who are miserable about helping someone who knows less than they do that stay on the floor the longest. I always treated my customers with respect and tried to explain things as best I could. I ultimately wound up with a few promotions and raises before I got my current job as a programmer.
Either way, call centers / tech support can be a pretty cut-throat business, no matter how you play the game. (At least in this area for said companies). I'm glad to be out of it.
If that was your worst (most naive/ignorant) customer you ever had to deal with then consider yourself extremely lucky.
I worked for Gateway and later for Dell (on their Dell On Call) campaign. For both companies I handled only American customers, and I found that users of both brands tended to make the same mistakes. Dell On Call was only software support that had already been escalated by hardware techs (almost all of which were in India), which I suppose in some cases added to the customer's aggravation making them seem more hostile. I've had tons of customer's refer to their monitors as the "TV part" the computer as the "Hard Drive". I've dealt with people that refuse to believe that the internet is not part of Windows and all sorts of other crazy situations where you can't understand how a customer could believe what they did.
The impression I get based on my experience is that a large percentage of people would probably buy Windows software (at least once) and try to run it on a cheap Linux PC they picked up at Wallmart (assuming they just grabbed the cheapest machine without consulting a Wallmat associate about it first).
I also get the impression amongst peers and (even here on slashdot) that most tech savvy people seem to overestimate the computer proficiency of people who have nothing to do with IT.
I guess you and I have simply seen very different sides of the same coin.
My 3 years working in tech support beg to differ. Frequently (at least once or twice a week), I'd receive a call which basically boiled down to the customer being down right ticked off because they had been trying to install their printer software using the disc clearly labeled "Macintosh" on their Windows XP/Vista computer. They would then blame us because our computer was faulty, because the manufacturer of the printer told them so. I haven't worked in tech support for over a year, but I still hear my friends laughing about hours these people supposedly spend resolving issues that could have easily been solved by reading the manual, or heaven forbid... the quick start instructions designed to get you up and running in as little as possible.
Actually the OxyContin was prescribed for extreme back pain that was compounded by a botched surgery to correct said back pain. It had nothing to do with his hearing loss.
He's been passing regular drug tests since 2003. It was wrong of him to get addicted to prescription painkillers I know, but seriously, why can't people just let it go and move on?
I had a Thrustmaster Fox 2 Pro joystick and man that thing was sweet. It was both the best and worst thing ever. It was the best because it made playing BF1942 sooo much fun at LAN Parties and whatnot. It was the worst because the stock driver was not compatible with Windows XP and would cause the sytem to randomly reboot (no errors, no freezing, just reboot). I troubleshot everything, RAM, Video Card, CPU, hard drive. I determined it was the joystick through process of elimination. I think I still have it too, although I don't have any use for it anymore.
Maybe from where you're from the majority of people know about DRM, or could it just be that you hang around mostly tech-savvy people who understand DRM and why it's a bad thing. At any rate, I would probably say somewhere around 80 to 90 percent of people I know don't have a clue as to what DRM is. This percentage includes friends and colleagues who also happen to be computer programmers. Most of them are completely ignorant that Vista includes DRM stuff. I've actually gotten into arguments with several of my friends (after describing briefly what DRM was) over whether said DRM is evil or not.
How could they overlook the original designer of SimCity, The Sims and soon to be Spore?
I'm thinking that IBM and many other FOSS friendly companies probably hold a huge number of software patents as well. Perhaps (and this is just a theory) Microsoft knows that if they actually did anything more specific than spread FUD, there would be a patent war to end all patent wars.
"And they plan to accomplish this by suppressing the free speech that the Church of Scientology is entitled to?? How enlightened they are and what an embarrassment to people who REALLY fight for freedom."
Anon isn't fighting the CoS and attempting to suppress their free speech simply because it is a cult (although that IS part of the reason I'm sure). They are fighting the CoS because it was the CoS who struck first with all those crazy lawsuits, cease and desists, harassments, etc. Anon is technically reacting in this case.
As others have said before in this thread, two wrongs don't make a right.
I think thats called "Salami Slicing". I love it! Just make sure your calculations are correct so you don't slice off too much money :)
I was introduced to a cousin's Nintendo. I was about 3 or 4 at the time. Those are my first memories of video games. I was never really "into" video games until I was 12 or 13 and played Warcraft II at a friends house. We were killing time because it was raining outside. Now I enjoy pretty much every genre of games :)
ah ha! It would have to be a gif, or have an image map to pass the rollover effect thingy!
I agree it would be quite fun to "print" your own chocolate bar. As already mentioned chocolate is quite a popular material. Check it out: http://fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Materials:Chocolate