Now that I think of it, that would be cool if I could fold AOL discs like that without them shattering...
WITHOUT them shattering? What's the fun in that?
What getting a bunch of AOL CD's that were mailed to you in magazines and newspapers and just breaking them with your bare hands or throwing them at walls? Of course you must do that in the middle of the office so everyone knows what a freak you are =)
> Flav, you're a troll but I'll respond to you anyway. Call me an iconoclast. I attack large groups of people who piss me off, and I believe I'm right. Sometimes I get people that sympathize with my actions. Sometimes, like now, no one seems to give a damn.
But I'm not a troll just because you say so.
Ich auch. Aber wenn Sie sagen dass unsere Sprache schlecht ist, dann habe ich ein klein Problem.
"When you say your language is bad, I have a problem." You've just made a fool out of yourself.
English is nice by not being formulaic, but it's not nearly as germanic as you think. Having some common roots doesn't make a language germanic, and above all, a language isn't germanic because you say so.
>> You obviously have no base of comparison and fail to observe I speak of vulgar English!
> Poorly constructed thought, but ok.
A thought isn't poorly constructed because you say so without proof. Let me rewrite it again with an addition: You obviously have no base of comparison and that pisses you off, because you know I'm right. Your inaptitude to deal with your ignorance makes you desperately want to lash out on me.
> Still, you were actually talking about a language, and when you talk about a language, you are speaking whollistically, and I stand by the original point.
You can't disprove a rule by presenting an exception. It's incorrect to compare epitomes instead of averages. As a matter of fact, this "epitome presentation" is typical of people who have no tangible facts to show and resort to false propaganda.
>> I didn't marginalize it, otherwise I wouldn't read so many books in English or even try to learn it.
> Yes you did. You said my language was simplistic,
Well, isn't it?
you said it lacked "inner" logic (as opposed the the outer logic?)
I concede: "inner logic" is a bad term, but I believe you understand what i mean if and only if you know German. If you don't, I'll summarize it: German requires a logical, calculating mind, starting by the fact it has rigid syntax and "unusual" word construction methods. Subordinate clauses are just very cool, IMHO. I believe the closest you can get to them is with participle-reduced subordination in Portuguese and Spanish.
But I digress and you digress.
and you said it was "baby-talk."
Well, yeah, that I did say =)
You, sir, are wrong. I challenge you to prove that you are not wrong.
That'd take too much time. I don't believe I'll ever be able to do it because you don't want to agree with me.
If you do want to talk about it, email me.
How, for example, is English less "precise" in general, than German? Or Spanish? How, Flavio, you piece of shit troll? Just curious.
Verb tenses, to start. Try a romance language and be amazed by its quality. I enjoy the subjunctive and wouldn't live without it, not to speak of variants of the future and perfect past. I notice less people use the subjunctive every day, including in romance languages, thus making mistakes. Could this be a reflex of English? I don't know, and I'm not going to cast the blame on anything or anyone.
Now regarding that adjective you attributed me. Note that I'm posting with a normal slashdot account. You see my email, my web site. Go to my post history and see I'm not filled with -1, Troll comments. I've spent a lot of time in writing these comments with ideas I truly believe. If I were a troll, I guarantee you I'd be the first to curse and call you a piece of shit.
Now I could go on this discussion forever with you if it weren't for that. I don't mind reading a comment that attacks my beliefs. Sometimes I'm disturbed by the ideas I see, but most of the times I reply and state my opinion. But you have crossed the line. You have offended me directly without the use of reason.
Speaking of reason, that's one thing you haven't got. Your pseudostudies have made you lose logic in the way.
You seem to think you're quite smart, otherwise you wouldn't be so self-righteous. Let me tell you something: you don't have the right to call me a piece of shit.
Some final comments:
a. Write each of these words 100 times so you learn to spell them right: tongue and elitist.
b. Why do you criticize me because of my web site? You have obviously judged the book by the cover.
c. Why do you start commenting about Spanish authors after I mentioned Luis Vaz de Camoes? This man is considered to be the greatest Portuguese author, up to par with your Shakespeare. Perhaps talking about Spanish authors was just a coincidence.
d. I knew about the grammar rules on quoting. I made the mistake because I was in a hurry, but you should stop digressing.
e. I dislike you for offending me.
f. Arguments against you present no challenge. You're intellectually one notch above the average but you still suck.
I assume by "people" you mean Americans and by "reject" you mean choose not to learn adequately or at all.
If I wanted to say Americans I would've said it. I mean people in general. Practically everyone around me knows English as a second language and is satisfied with that. They also think English is cool as a result of USian propaganda and that contributes to the final effect.
I believe that by teaching English as a first language one contributes indirectly but strongly to future intellectual stagnation. I'm not saying English corrupts people _as a language_. I'm just saying that by learning English you receive a cultural/social baggage that might interfere with the learning of other languages.
English speakers frequently have the idea that basic communication is all there is to a language. I attribute part of the blame to the cultural/social baggage and another part to the language's inherent simplicity.
Reject does mean "not learn adequately or at all".
In which case I can assure you that many Americans "reject" other languages because environmentally and politically it's easy to do so.
It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure that out.
We don't live in an environment, many of us, in which being multilingual is particularly valuable, and our society doesn't really demand it.
I agree.
Am I proud of that, as an American? No. I think it's pathetic.
I'm glad we didn't have to start the flag waiving process.
Language is an inherently complex phenomenon. We could debate all day the relative complexities of our mother tounges.
Yes, but some are much more elaborate and complex than others.
How would you compare the complexity of South American indigenous languages to that of romance languages, for example?
The same type of comparison is valid between English and other languages.
However, it's a-whole-nother fucking thing to call someone elses mother tounge "baby-talk."
tee hee.
I suppose you may feel juvenille speaking our mother tounge sometimes becuase you don't speak it as well as a native speaker does.
Wrong. I have this attitude precisely because I speak and write much better than the natives. And English isn't my mother "toungue". [Off the record, I've never heard of "spelling contests" in other countries and in other languages. It's ironic that American children turn out to be the worst spellers.]
I have this experience in my second langage.
Well, I DON'T. And not in my third or fourth either.
But you forget that's beside the point. I'm criticising English for being too simple, not because I suck at it.
For example, I think German kicks serious ass. Why? Because it has this inner logic and structure that English is just pathetic at.
As another example, have you ever compared the verbal structure from English (or German, even) to a romance language's? Latin kicks ass.
But that doesn't mean you have the right to marginalize our langauage.
I didn't marginalize it, otherwise I wouldn't read so many books in English or even try to learn it.
This isn't a question of pride. It's an objective comment on a language's characteristic.
I'm sorry if you feel any Americans have insulted your language by action or directly through speech.
They have not. That's not the point.
That's reprehensible. Unfortunately, you're doing it to my language, and so you're the reprehensible one now.
Anyone who honestly believes the language of Shakespeare and Joyce is "babytalk" is a fool.
You obviously have no base of comparison and fail to observe I speak of vulgar English!
One can find practically every latin root in every occidental language and syntax can be manipulated to extreme limits, thus creating the "Shakespeare effect" in any language, no matter how infantile it is.
Go read unabridged Goethe or unabridged Luis Vaz de Camoes. Shakespeare barely hits the average and is only acceptable in comparison.
There's no real IT worker shortage. The media keeps claiming this so that some markets get flooded with IT people looking for jobs, thus bringing down wages.
You've commented most IT people you know speak bad English. Companies still hire these people because they're willing to work for food (relatively speaking).
I commented on jobs with standard wages, which is what the Ask Slashdot guy wants to know about. He's not going to France to work for food, as far as I know.
[Note: I'm being realistic here. Don't mark it as flamebait, because my comment, as the life, isn't supposed to be fair.]
How hard is it to study or to work in the US?
Pretty hard for the foreign version of you, pmancini, considering a decent company or decent college won't accept a worker/student who doesn't speak English or doesn't have the standards you require.
I don't see a lot of confidence in your statement that your French "is awful, but you do want to learn it". The trouble is most Americans don't know other languages, while the rest of the world usually speaks *at least* two languages.
As a starter, learn the language where you are. Don't expect infinite indulgence from your potential employer because your proposal is flaky.
Once you know the language, apply for the job. If your technical knowledge is adequate there shouldn't be any major problems.
Consider that your foreigner counterpart would be laughed at if he came to an American company wanting a job and speaking awful English.
Some may say that Europe doesn't have many people with technical skills, but they're not that desperate.
> Well, they're calling it a vrisu, but its a trojan
Well, whatever it is, it certainly isn't a "vrisu". Isn't that a Hindu God for something?
No, actually that's vishnu, the "preserver". This god would be responsible for the maintaining of the universe and for making sure everything goes on well and that evil doesn't prevail.
I've been using NS6 since it was released and even though I hadn't used Mozilla for more than 20 minutes before then, I've downloaded nightly builds at least twice a month since... well, since nightly builds started, I suppose.
other than what the author mentioned, 3 things bother me a lot:
1. the amount of time it takes for a new window to open up, be that a navigator, composer or "new message" window.
2. the fact you can't minimize the file download window, despite the fact this has been in bugzilla for more than a year
3. the window positioning. new windows don't get put into the right places in Linux, and in Windows a new window is never maximized.
Right now all these super-powered graphics cards are doing is raising the price of the console,which doesn't go too well with the consumer.
Perhaps that's what the consumer wants.
Either way, that's what sells. You can't make a standard, "classic" console nowadays and expect to sell it.
The console industry is even more savage than the PC hardware industry. At least with PC hardware you can make slower versions that are better in specific aspects, like power consumption/heat dissipation or simplicity (code- or hardware-wise).
You just don't have options with consoles. Companies like Nintendo MUST develop outrageously overpowered hardware if they want to sell, for that's all they advertise.
Of course the older gamers usually think about the games that are available and their quality, but the younger market wants the newest equipment there is because it's cool.
It's all about marketing... and we've got plenty of costumers willing to spend their money on this. At least to stop making their kids beg for a $3000 upgrade that makes their computers the ultimate gaming boxen. (fathers all around aren't expected to have 3D cards and 1200 MHz athlons to run MS Office, are they?)
Every programmer knows that no matter how determined one is, debugging and pieces of "work in progress" (that'll be canned for some reason) are major time spenders.
I assume that study is targeted for management audiences with no technical knowledge so I won't slander it.
I believe it's pretty clear that simpler is the way to go. Compare Linux to the proprietary OS with the largest desktop market share and you'll see the largest example of this.
Furthermore, a "light-weight word-processor that imports foreign formats correctly" is an oxymoron. If your word processor is so light-weight it'll end up discarding most of the features that advanced processors use, so the file importation won't be that correct.
I can safely state that this "faster, lighter, simpler" idea is nothing new at all and has been used for eons by competent programmers. Every simple piece of software that stays simple is an example (look at vi and all basic unix tools).
If you want something newer, I'll mention abiword and xmms.
This revolutionary concept is summarized in one term: focus.
There are several blatant flaws here that make the system practically useless if you want security:
1. Your data travels unencrypted to Yahoo, including your passphrase.
2. There's no guarantee they'll decrypt it if asked, but I'm assuming YES, they will.
3. What's exactly "encryption" here?
I see your point, but I find it highly illogical that Hewlett Packard should be the one to pay for their customers' crimes.
It's pretty obvious that without so much will to pirate HP would've sold much less media and CD burners, but I don't think that's any argument to convict them.
HP wasn't peddling illegal MP3's or inducing people to pirate music on the internet. They have profited on that, true, but they haven't done anything wrong.
Put yourself in HP's place. I'd be pissed, that's for sure.
If you're like me and I didn't know what Sin is about:
Prepare yourself for a whole new type of action game coming from Hyperion thanks to Activision and Ritual. Always expect the unexpected. With levels and characters that change depending on the decisions you make and the path that you choose. Never before has a 3D action game ever been produced with this level of reactive technology and innovation. Sin uses the best of the Quake II engine to offer great sensations and gorgeous 3D graphics levels. Get ready for a new era in 3D action gaming. Get ready for Sin.
The story...
Ten years ago in 2027, the city of Freeport was on the verge of collapse. The inefficient and under-manned police forces were losing in the long, hard battle against crime. The city needed help, but the overburdened government could no longer cope with maintaining peace on the streets. The government proposed a new bill giving individual corporations the right to form their own private security forces, called sec-forces. These sec-forces would be able to provide private protection to the corporations and citizens of the cities. This bill was passed and a new order of law enforcement was born.
Several well respected sec-forces emerged and one hard hitting group calling themselves HARDCORPS led the way in crime prevention and elimination. The chaos slowly subsided as the sec-forces brought peace and order back to the city.
Colonel John Blade, the owner of HARDCORPS, and his sec-force teams are currently investigating the source of a highly addictive drug called "U4". This drug has been around for some time now, but lately, strange things have been happening to its users. It is up to Blade to figure out who or what is behind this unexplained phenomenon now plaguing the streets and put a stop to it.
The elaborate puzzle slowly unfolds and points towards the brilliant biochemist Elexis Sinclaire. Elexis is an enigma, a maverick in the business world who shows no mercy behind those gorgeous features. She works in the shadows at times and this mysterious vixen is attempting to push the evolution of mankind ahead by a thousand generations and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
For someone who's had a Palm Pilot (the original 512 kb one) and has played with some future generations of these PDA's and dislikes them, I can safely say I'll not be using one in the near future, even if it has a head mounted display.
Sure, the new displays makes it closer to the ultimate geek device and I would like to play with it in a non-public place if it had a decent resolution and decent processing capabilities, but nothing beats a laptop.
If I need decent processing capabilities, I can wait and get to a desktop. If I'm on a plane or on the road and don't want to waste time, I can certainly carry something as heavy and big as a laptop. If I'm bound to stay up all day and can't handle something as big as a notebook computer, I use paper.
Am I that different from the rest of the world?
I don't think I'm alone when I say these small machines are unpractical, even though most people claim that's exactly what they aren't.
How sure are you guys that you haven't just followed marketing schemes all along?
I agree that the technology behind these things is very nice indeed and that these are very well built machines, but do you truly need them?
I have this feeling everyone's against Intel and is making sure this viewpoint gets through.
People openly say "I want Intel to crash and burn" ALL THE TIME!, even though this isn't Tom Pabst's or/.'s point of view.
Most of you who curse Intel are hypocrites. You'll be buying Intel processors if they come back and saying "Intel rules".
You seem to disconsider Intel has developed good products and technologies despite its failures. Please don't send me Intel's top 10 (or 50, or 100) top mistakes list. I'm well aware of those.
If you think Intel charges way too much for their processors (and they do), fine, just don't buy them. You shouldn't run around screaming antipropaganda simply because they're on top.
A similar phenomena has happened to 3dfx and Netscape. They also have made bad, wrong decisions. But haven't they also broken huge amounts of ground?
So lay off Intel a bit. Cut them a little slack. Do you think RAMBUS's debacle and design difficulties all over are done on purpose?
Here's an analogy for you guys (you say if it's bad or good). Most of you (the ones from the US, at least) sometimes agree with Jon Katz about the geek kids who are made fun of by the jocks.
Intel started playing really bad american football for some reason and is like a geek kid. Don't kick them when they're down, at least not that hard. You have your reasons, I know, but enough is enough.
Flavio
P.S.: I don't work for Intel, never have and don't expect to. I wouldn't mind to, though.
...one could actually make bionic legs for people who can't walk anymore due to nerve damage.
Now unfortunately we're restricted to dealing with individual _nerves_... People who have had spinal cord damage are in a worse situation, similar (but simpler, of course) to the ones who have lost vision due to a damaged optic nerve.
Some day we may know how to make neurons reproduce at an acceptable rate, but will we ever be able to attain precision high enough to, say, restore vision to acceptable standards?
The article doesn't mention nerve wear on their connections to subcutaneous electrodes, but that should be a point to consider as well.
[root@flavio/root]# ping -c21 www.jhu.edu
PING jhuniverse.hcf.jhu.edu (128.220.2.80) from 200.221.18.79 : 56(84) bytes of data.
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
I don't think salmonella kills, but it's a huge source of food poisoning.
Both salmonella and E. coli are found in intestines from birds and mammals, and E. coli are by far the most studied bacteria. I don't know why these are specially interesting to dump into one's bloodstream, though.
I've never seen someone shoot their own argument down so quickly.
You wish!
Slash is a replacement for NNTP like a 14.4 modem is a replacement for an T-1. (Not an OC-3, but definately a T-1.)
So you mean Slash is the archaic, obsolete, low end version of NNTP? I think not! The analogy fails.
Is slash distributable? Think how nice it'd be nice to access the local Slash node next time Slashdot is slow for you.
No, and that's excellent. You want to keep discussions localized to preserve resources. It's precisely this distribution that makes Usenet such a pain to ISPs. Even when you stop getting binary groups, the amount of transfer per day is huge.
And that's not talking about posts that are simply lost because of this inefficient, distributed approach.
NOTE: I'm not saying distribution is bad, just that once it gets too large it starts to fail and that it's the wrong solution for/.
Can Slash sustain long-term conversation, like over a period of weeks rather then about 4 hours per article on a high-traffic site?
No and that's excellent. I want to discuss a bit over an article and let it drop. I'm not willing to argue over the same thing over and over as time goes by. Bring on the new, take away the old.
Can it be accessed by a myriad of different clients (there's a big HELL NO!)?
Excuse me? Isn't the web large enough for you?
Distributing binaries?
What about them? Weren't you so fervorous about discussions? IMHO, you should only care about binaries if you want to trade porn or post warez, for I have yet to find a legitimate use for those on Usenet.
How do you DOS Usenet?
That's a minor issue considering/.'s size and its link. If you considering serious DOS'ing, the whole web is on danger of falling apart. The only way to reduce these threats is either to kill usability by reworking protocols like ICMP and UDP or to kill anonymity.
Using gopher instead of http is like using nntp instead of slash.
There was a time I thought that perhaps nttp instead of slash would actually be a good idea, specially due to/.'s issues with server stability. Slash turned out to be much better because it's so convenient.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone else see floppy AOL CDs covering the landscape?
If these new CD's are so cheap, *perhaps* free software distribution will get even simpler.
It would be a step easier to package free cd's with ANY magazine or newspaper and perhaps cheapbytes could rename themselves to dirtcheapbytes.
Flavio
Now that I think of it, that would be cool if I could fold AOL discs like that without them shattering...
WITHOUT them shattering? What's the fun in that?
What getting a bunch of AOL CD's that were mailed to you in magazines and newspapers and just breaking them with your bare hands or throwing them at walls? Of course you must do that in the middle of the office so everyone knows what a freak you are =)
Flavio
> Flav, you're a troll but I'll respond to you anyway.
Call me an iconoclast. I attack large groups of people who piss me off, and I believe I'm right. Sometimes I get people that sympathize with my actions. Sometimes, like now, no one seems to give a damn.
But I'm not a troll just because you say so.
Ich auch. Aber wenn Sie sagen dass unsere Sprache schlecht ist, dann habe ich ein klein Problem.
"When you say your language is bad, I have a problem." You've just made a fool out of yourself.
English is nice by not being formulaic, but it's not nearly as germanic as you think. Having some common roots doesn't make a language germanic, and above all, a language isn't germanic because you say so.
>> You obviously have no base of comparison and fail to observe I speak of vulgar English!
> Poorly constructed thought, but ok.
A thought isn't poorly constructed because you say so without proof. Let me rewrite it again with an addition: You obviously have no base of comparison and that pisses you off, because you know I'm right. Your inaptitude to deal with your ignorance makes you desperately want to lash out on me.
> Still, you were actually talking about a language, and when you talk about a language, you are speaking whollistically, and I stand by the original point.
You can't disprove a rule by presenting an exception. It's incorrect to compare epitomes instead of averages. As a matter of fact, this "epitome presentation" is typical of people who have no tangible facts to show and resort to false propaganda.
>> I didn't marginalize it, otherwise I wouldn't read so many books in English or even try to learn it.
> Yes you did. You said my language was simplistic,
Well, isn't it?
you said it lacked "inner" logic (as opposed the the outer logic?)
I concede: "inner logic" is a bad term, but I believe you understand what i mean if and only if you know German. If you don't, I'll summarize it: German requires a logical, calculating mind, starting by the fact it has rigid syntax and "unusual" word construction methods. Subordinate clauses are just very cool, IMHO. I believe the closest you can get to them is with participle-reduced subordination in Portuguese and Spanish.
But I digress and you digress.
and you said it was "baby-talk."
Well, yeah, that I did say =)
You, sir, are wrong. I challenge you to prove that you are not wrong.
That'd take too much time. I don't believe I'll ever be able to do it because you don't want to agree with me.
If you do want to talk about it, email me.
How, for example, is English less "precise" in general, than German? Or Spanish? How, Flavio, you piece of shit troll? Just curious.
Verb tenses, to start. Try a romance language and be amazed by its quality. I enjoy the subjunctive and wouldn't live without it, not to speak of variants of the future and perfect past. I notice less people use the subjunctive every day, including in romance languages, thus making mistakes. Could this be a reflex of English? I don't know, and I'm not going to cast the blame on anything or anyone.
Now regarding that adjective you attributed me. Note that I'm posting with a normal slashdot account. You see my email, my web site. Go to my post history and see I'm not filled with -1, Troll comments. I've spent a lot of time in writing these comments with ideas I truly believe. If I were a troll, I guarantee you I'd be the first to curse and call you a piece of shit.
Now I could go on this discussion forever with you if it weren't for that. I don't mind reading a comment that attacks my beliefs. Sometimes I'm disturbed by the ideas I see, but most of the times I reply and state my opinion. But you have crossed the line. You have offended me directly without the use of reason.
Speaking of reason, that's one thing you haven't got. Your pseudostudies have made you lose logic in the way.
You seem to think you're quite smart, otherwise you wouldn't be so self-righteous. Let me tell you something: you don't have the right to call me a piece of shit.
Some final comments:
a. Write each of these words 100 times so you learn to spell them right: tongue and elitist.
b. Why do you criticize me because of my web site? You have obviously judged the book by the cover.
c. Why do you start commenting about Spanish authors after I mentioned Luis Vaz de Camoes? This man is considered to be the greatest Portuguese author, up to par with your Shakespeare. Perhaps talking about Spanish authors was just a coincidence.
d. I knew about the grammar rules on quoting. I made the mistake because I was in a hurry, but you should stop digressing.
e. I dislike you for offending me.
f. Arguments against you present no challenge. You're intellectually one notch above the average but you still suck.
Flavio
If I wanted to say Americans I would've said it. I mean people in general. Practically everyone around me knows English as a second language and is satisfied with that. They also think English is cool as a result of USian propaganda and that contributes to the final effect.
I believe that by teaching English as a first language one contributes indirectly but strongly to future intellectual stagnation. I'm not saying English corrupts people _as a language_. I'm just saying that by learning English you receive a cultural/social baggage that might interfere with the learning of other languages.
English speakers frequently have the idea that basic communication is all there is to a language. I attribute part of the blame to the cultural/social baggage and another part to the language's inherent simplicity.
Reject does mean "not learn adequately or at all".
It doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure that out.
I agree.
I'm glad we didn't have to start the flag waiving process.
Yes, but some are much more elaborate and complex than others.
How would you compare the complexity of South American indigenous languages to that of romance languages, for example?
The same type of comparison is valid between English and other languages.
tee hee.
Wrong. I have this attitude precisely because I speak and write much better than the natives. And English isn't my mother "toungue". [Off the record, I've never heard of "spelling contests" in other countries and in other languages. It's ironic that American children turn out to be the worst spellers.]
Well, I DON'T. And not in my third or fourth either.
But you forget that's beside the point. I'm criticising English for being too simple, not because I suck at it.
For example, I think German kicks serious ass. Why? Because it has this inner logic and structure that English is just pathetic at.
As another example, have you ever compared the verbal structure from English (or German, even) to a romance language's? Latin kicks ass.
I didn't marginalize it, otherwise I wouldn't read so many books in English or even try to learn it.
This isn't a question of pride. It's an objective comment on a language's characteristic.
They have not. That's not the point.
That's reprehensible. Unfortunately, you're doing it to my language, and so you're the reprehensible one now.
You obviously have no base of comparison and fail to observe I speak of vulgar English!
One can find practically every latin root in every occidental language and syntax can be manipulated to extreme limits, thus creating the "Shakespeare effect" in any language, no matter how infantile it is.
Go read unabridged Goethe or unabridged Luis Vaz de Camoes. Shakespeare barely hits the average and is only acceptable in comparison.
Flavio
That's another side of the story.
There's no real IT worker shortage. The media keeps claiming this so that some markets get flooded with IT people looking for jobs, thus bringing down wages.
You've commented most IT people you know speak bad English. Companies still hire these people because they're willing to work for food (relatively speaking).
I commented on jobs with standard wages, which is what the Ask Slashdot guy wants to know about. He's not going to France to work for food, as far as I know.
Flavio
[Note: I'm being realistic here. Don't mark it as flamebait, because my comment, as the life, isn't supposed to be fair.]
How hard is it to study or to work in the US?
Pretty hard for the foreign version of you, pmancini, considering a decent company or decent college won't accept a worker/student who doesn't speak English or doesn't have the standards you require.
I don't see a lot of confidence in your statement that your French "is awful, but you do want to learn it". The trouble is most Americans don't know other languages, while the rest of the world usually speaks *at least* two languages.
As a starter, learn the language where you are. Don't expect infinite indulgence from your potential employer because your proposal is flaky.
Once you know the language, apply for the job. If your technical knowledge is adequate there shouldn't be any major problems.
Consider that your foreigner counterpart would be laughed at if he came to an American company wanting a job and speaking awful English.
Some may say that Europe doesn't have many people with technical skills, but they're not that desperate.
Flavio
> Well, they're calling it a vrisu, but its a trojan
Well, whatever it is, it certainly isn't a "vrisu". Isn't that a Hindu God for something?
No, actually that's vishnu, the "preserver". This god would be responsible for the maintaining of the universe and for making sure everything goes on well and that evil doesn't prevail.
Flavio
What more can I say?
Flavio
It's about time someone said that!
I've been using NS6 since it was released and even though I hadn't used Mozilla for more than 20 minutes before then, I've downloaded nightly builds at least twice a month since... well, since nightly builds started, I suppose.
other than what the author mentioned, 3 things bother me a lot:
1. the amount of time it takes for a new window to open up, be that a navigator, composer or "new message" window.
2. the fact you can't minimize the file download window, despite the fact this has been in bugzilla for more than a year
3. the window positioning. new windows don't get put into the right places in Linux, and in Windows a new window is never maximized.
Well, those are my complaints.
Flavio
Right now all these super-powered graphics cards are doing is raising the price of the console,which doesn't go too well with the consumer.
Perhaps that's what the consumer wants.
Either way, that's what sells. You can't make a standard, "classic" console nowadays and expect to sell it.
The console industry is even more savage than the PC hardware industry. At least with PC hardware you can make slower versions that are better in specific aspects, like power consumption/heat dissipation or simplicity (code- or hardware-wise).
You just don't have options with consoles. Companies like Nintendo MUST develop outrageously overpowered hardware if they want to sell, for that's all they advertise.
Of course the older gamers usually think about the games that are available and their quality, but the younger market wants the newest equipment there is because it's cool.
It's all about marketing... and we've got plenty of costumers willing to spend their money on this. At least to stop making their kids beg for a $3000 upgrade that makes their computers the ultimate gaming boxen. (fathers all around aren't expected to have 3D cards and 1200 MHz athlons to run MS Office, are they?)
Flavio
I somehow fail to find that surprising.
Every programmer knows that no matter how determined one is, debugging and pieces of "work in progress" (that'll be canned for some reason) are major time spenders.
I assume that study is targeted for management audiences with no technical knowledge so I won't slander it.
I believe it's pretty clear that simpler is the way to go. Compare Linux to the proprietary OS with the largest desktop market share and you'll see the largest example of this.
Furthermore, a "light-weight word-processor that imports foreign formats correctly" is an oxymoron. If your word processor is so light-weight it'll end up discarding most of the features that advanced processors use, so the file importation won't be that correct.
I can safely state that this "faster, lighter, simpler" idea is nothing new at all and has been used for eons by competent programmers. Every simple piece of software that stays simple is an example (look at vi and all basic unix tools).
If you want something newer, I'll mention abiword and xmms.
This revolutionary concept is summarized in one term: focus.
Flavio
I quote: Yahoo's free encryption option handles outgoing email messages in a multi-step procedure that the portal warns is not foolproof.
"Not foolproof" is actually an euphemism for "absolutely useless".
Apparently you and most people fail to see that only HALF of the transmission is encrypted. That's equivalent to nothing in practical terms.
The fact you must trust the recipient doesn't even begin to be an argument against encryption.
Flavio
There are several blatant flaws here that make the system practically useless if you want security:
1. Your data travels unencrypted to Yahoo, including your passphrase.
2. There's no guarantee they'll decrypt it if asked, but I'm assuming YES, they will.
3. What's exactly "encryption" here?
So there.
Flavio
I've always had much more fun playing NES and Super NES games than with these modern systems like the N64 and the Dreamcast.
New games are either clones of great ideas from the past or lame adaptations from computer games. They don't cut it and probably never will.
Most of the times you just need simplicity. For an analogy, just look at Microsoft and their need for more features.
It's all in your head, not in your optic nerves.
Flavio
It's pretty obvious that without so much will to pirate HP would've sold much less media and CD burners, but I don't think that's any argument to convict them.
HP wasn't peddling illegal MP3's or inducing people to pirate music on the internet. They have profited on that, true, but they haven't done anything wrong.
Put yourself in HP's place. I'd be pissed, that's for sure.
Flavio
If you're like me and I didn't know what Sin is about:
Prepare yourself for a whole new type of action game coming from Hyperion thanks to Activision and Ritual. Always expect the unexpected. With levels and characters that change depending on the decisions you make and the path that you choose. Never before has a 3D action game ever been produced with this level of reactive technology and innovation. Sin uses the best of the Quake II engine to offer great sensations and gorgeous 3D graphics levels. Get ready for a new era in 3D action gaming. Get ready for Sin.
The story...
Ten years ago in 2027, the city of Freeport was on the verge of collapse. The inefficient and under-manned police forces were losing in the long, hard battle against crime. The city needed help, but the overburdened government could no longer cope with maintaining peace on the streets. The government proposed a new bill giving individual corporations the right to form their own private security forces, called sec-forces. These sec-forces would be able to provide private protection to the corporations and citizens of the cities. This bill was passed and a new order of law enforcement was born.
Several well respected sec-forces emerged and one hard hitting group calling themselves HARDCORPS led the way in crime prevention and elimination. The chaos slowly subsided as the sec-forces brought peace and order back to the city.
Colonel John Blade, the owner of HARDCORPS, and his sec-force teams are currently investigating the source of a highly addictive drug called "U4". This drug has been around for some time now, but lately, strange things have been happening to its users. It is up to Blade to figure out who or what is behind this unexplained phenomenon now plaguing the streets and put a stop to it.
The elaborate puzzle slowly unfolds and points towards the brilliant biochemist Elexis Sinclaire. Elexis is an enigma, a maverick in the business world who shows no mercy behind those gorgeous features. She works in the shadows at times and this mysterious vixen is attempting to push the evolution of mankind ahead by a thousand generations and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Forgive me Father, for I have Sinned...
For someone who's had a Palm Pilot (the original 512 kb one) and has played with some future generations of these PDA's and dislikes them, I can safely say I'll not be using one in the near future, even if it has a head mounted display.
Sure, the new displays makes it closer to the ultimate geek device and I would like to play with it in a non-public place if it had a decent resolution and decent processing capabilities, but nothing beats a laptop.
If I need decent processing capabilities, I can wait and get to a desktop. If I'm on a plane or on the road and don't want to waste time, I can certainly carry something as heavy and big as a laptop. If I'm bound to stay up all day and can't handle something as big as a notebook computer, I use paper.
Am I that different from the rest of the world?
I don't think I'm alone when I say these small machines are unpractical, even though most people claim that's exactly what they aren't.
How sure are you guys that you haven't just followed marketing schemes all along?
I agree that the technology behind these things is very nice indeed and that these are very well built machines, but do you truly need them?
Flavio
I have this feeling everyone's against Intel and is making sure this viewpoint gets through.
/.'s point of view.
People openly say "I want Intel to crash and burn" ALL THE TIME!, even though this isn't Tom Pabst's or
Most of you who curse Intel are hypocrites. You'll be buying Intel processors if they come back and saying "Intel rules".
You seem to disconsider Intel has developed good products and technologies despite its failures. Please don't send me Intel's top 10 (or 50, or 100) top mistakes list. I'm well aware of those.
If you think Intel charges way too much for their processors (and they do), fine, just don't buy them. You shouldn't run around screaming antipropaganda simply because they're on top.
A similar phenomena has happened to 3dfx and Netscape. They also have made bad, wrong decisions. But haven't they also broken huge amounts of ground?
So lay off Intel a bit. Cut them a little slack. Do you think RAMBUS's debacle and design difficulties all over are done on purpose?
Here's an analogy for you guys (you say if it's bad or good). Most of you (the ones from the US, at least) sometimes agree with Jon Katz about the geek kids who are made fun of by the jocks.
Intel started playing really bad american football for some reason and is like a geek kid. Don't kick them when they're down, at least not that hard. You have your reasons, I know, but enough is enough.
Flavio
P.S.: I don't work for Intel, never have and don't expect to. I wouldn't mind to, though.
...one could actually make bionic legs for people who can't walk anymore due to nerve damage.
Now unfortunately we're restricted to dealing with individual _nerves_... People who have had spinal cord damage are in a worse situation, similar (but simpler, of course) to the ones who have lost vision due to a damaged optic nerve.
Some day we may know how to make neurons reproduce at an acceptable rate, but will we ever be able to attain precision high enough to, say, restore vision to acceptable standards?
The article doesn't mention nerve wear on their connections to subcutaneous electrodes, but that should be a point to consider as well.
Flavio
[root@flavio /root]# ping -c21 www.jhu.edu
PING jhuniverse.hcf.jhu.edu (128.220.2.80) from 200.221.18.79 : 56(84) bytes of data.
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
From 12.125.44.94: Packet filtered
--- jhuniverse.hcf.jhu.edu ping statistics ---
21 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, +14 errors, 100% packet loss
That's an awesome idea. I commend you on your creativity.
Flavio
I don't think salmonella kills, but it's a huge source of food poisoning.
Both salmonella and E. coli are found in intestines from birds and mammals, and E. coli are by far the most studied bacteria. I don't know why these are specially interesting to dump into one's bloodstream, though.
Flavio
What exactly would happen to me when thousands of salmonella or E. Coli are pumped into my blood?
And furthermore, how would they know where to go?
And even further more, what would possibly prevent them from dying by simple starvation?
I believe these questions were the first to be addressed by these researchers, but the article isn't close to giving us real information.
Flavio
You wish!
Slash is a replacement for NNTP like a 14.4 modem is a replacement for an T-1. (Not an OC-3, but definately a T-1.)
So you mean Slash is the archaic, obsolete, low end version of NNTP? I think not! The analogy fails.
Is slash distributable? Think how nice it'd be nice to access the local Slash node next time Slashdot is slow for you.
No, and that's excellent. You want to keep discussions localized to preserve resources. It's precisely this distribution that makes Usenet such a pain to ISPs. Even when you stop getting binary groups, the amount of transfer per day is huge. And that's not talking about posts that are simply lost because of this inefficient, distributed approach.
NOTE: I'm not saying distribution is bad, just that once it gets too large it starts to fail and that it's the wrong solution for /.
Can Slash sustain long-term conversation, like over a period of weeks rather then about 4 hours per article on a high-traffic site?
No and that's excellent. I want to discuss a bit over an article and let it drop. I'm not willing to argue over the same thing over and over as time goes by. Bring on the new, take away the old.
Can it be accessed by a myriad of different clients (there's a big HELL NO!)?
Excuse me? Isn't the web large enough for you?
Distributing binaries?
What about them? Weren't you so fervorous about discussions? IMHO, you should only care about binaries if you want to trade porn or post warez, for I have yet to find a legitimate use for those on Usenet.
How do you DOS Usenet?
That's a minor issue considering /.'s size and its link. If you considering serious DOS'ing, the whole web is on danger of falling apart. The only way to reduce these threats is either to kill usability by reworking protocols like ICMP and UDP or to kill anonymity.
Flavio
Using gopher instead of http is like using nntp instead of slash.
/.'s issues with server stability. Slash turned out to be much better because it's so convenient.
There was a time I thought that perhaps nttp instead of slash would actually be a good idea, specially due to
Gopher isn't convenient at all. Drop it.
Flavio