Sorry, Apple fanbois, the iPhone is not the best selling camera of all time. It may be the best selling "device with a camera" of all time, but it is not a "camera".
Furthermore: bic pens? razors? pine tree-shaped air-fresheners... I would wager a bet these all sold more.
It has sold very well, yes, but let's not blow our load over it.
I have tried to help numerous people who just don't "get it", and have reached the conclusion that they never will. That doesn't mean that they're incapable of it. It just shows that it's more difficult than they'd like and they don't wish to expend the necessary effort on it-- and they often give up before joining the ranks of us that "get it". Yes, anyone can learn how to do basic things with programming. But thinking about complex systems it not something that is easy to do for any of us. If you think it is, you've obviously never worked on anything very complex.
Second: I'm not "proud" of my skills as a programmer. I'm quite competent, with a significant amount of experience, but unless you're working in a research lab somewhere it's mostly regurgitation of the same crap that you've already written ten times and therefor there's nothing to really be all that proud of. I aspire to something more challenging and am headed in that direction. But I'm not going to lie to people and tell them that programming is "easy" in the mean time, much as I won't tell them that "math" is easy. These things *are not easy*. They are hard. Both worth the effort to learn.
I frequently use StackOverflow. You're not exactly comparing apples to apples.
SO is inherently nonlinear. People can ask problems when they encounter them (or, better, just search for others that have asked the same questions). You'll find people get a much greater benefit from learning something when they want to know the answer rather than when they just happened to stumble upon some bit of knowledge. Problem-solving is not a skill you learn by watching --you learn it by doing-- and it's problem-solving that is the important bit of programming, not coding. Any programmer worth their salt knows that.
In contrast, by watching a stream of some [hopefully knowledgeable] developer, the viewer must be "learning" to solve either inherently simple problems or problems that are impossible to follow in a short period of time. (In the same way that you can't just pick up a new codebase and instantly know what's going on, how is the viewer to follow anything more than the same simple examples they can easily find in text form anywhere on the web?)
This type of thinking is exactly the same as the folks pushing the "everyone can/should learn how to program" idiocy. Programming is not easy. Watching a video of someone coding some random thing will not make it easier. Ease comes with practice and reading a *lot* of code, both good and bad.
Do you honestly think it is possible to show anything but the most facile examples in a video that someone will actually be able to follow?
This is even worse than a stream watching someone play a game. Who wastes their time with these things?
If you want to improve your coding skill you're better off practicing and reviewing code written by those more experienced than you, not watching someone "in the act" of doing it.
They did just censor search results for merchandise branded with a particular logo that has a negative connotation for most enlightened humans, despite the fact that other merchandise branded with similarly offensive logos is still easily found through them.
I'm beginning to lose a lot of faith in Google. I think the business idiots have run the engineers out of there.
Maybe you should do some research before plodding around with your opinions.
Musk co-founded Zip2 in '95 and made bank on that in '99. Co-founded X.com in '99, which after mergers and whatnot made bank for him in '02. Now he's grown SpaceX to a valuation of $12 billion (and that's not dot-com fake money like Twitter, et al.). And Tesla is pretty close to breaking even. (all of this according to Wikipedia)
I'd say that's a much better track record than the vast majority of people on the planet.
Since you don't mind it, you can go ahead and watch them on your own time without ruining my experience. I'm not interested. I have netflix so I don't have to watch ads. Looks like I'll be abandoning that type of entertainment entirely at some point...
I'm just waiting for drones that will simultaneously cut my lawn and deter burglars.
Why not drones that *cut burglars* and *deter the lawn* from growing? Oh right, that would involve harming humans. Seems like a much more interesting solution to me, though.
Try looking at the changes in the lives of people living in the parts of the world I cited over the past 40 years and then tell me that the growing GDP has not improved the lives of almost everyone there.
I've been to rural China, and I've been to cities all over that part of the world. The folks in the cities, who have taken advantage of (and been a part of) the growth in GDP, have much better lives-- and are thankful for that!
Go see the world a bit, then come back and talk like an intelligent person.
You obviously have a dangerously skewed world-view. Have you seen first-hand how people work in other countries?
I've traveled pretty extensively, and let me tell you-- Asians (specifically the "Oriental" variety) work *much* harder than most Americans. That's why their economies have done so well over the past N years. Europeans are even lazier than Americans for the most part. That's why their economies, well, don't do so well. (There are exceptions, of course.)
What type of distorted conception of "work" and "output" and "good economy" could make you think that working "too hard" is *bad* for the economy?
Why.... is this government completely inept? This would totally work. Except for WiFi, 433mhz industrial radios (easily available), CBs, ham radios, family band radios (from walmart, target, etc.), never mind anyone who was really serious about whatever they wanted to do and went through the effort of acquiring wireless communication gear not so commonly available.
This is a fine example of how DHS is *reactionary* and a complete waste of my tax dollars.
That's all well and good, but we don't [yet] live in the world where everyone is *choosing* to make that clean factory, although the vast majority of Americans seem to think that all of these technologies come from it. At least you accept and understand the situation. My point is that the vast majority of people don't, and that's why I'm glad to see an article like this.
I've found such people exist primarily in the imaginations of the people who complain about them.
Not so. While I'm a nuclear power proponent, I have nothing against wind and solar power. I even like them in concept. However, I've never seen a single reference to a study of the effects of windmills on regional wind patterns, massive areas of solar panels on regional temperature/wind/etc., let alone manufacturing of these things. Are they issues? Perhaps not. Maybe even "probably not". But the "green" community doesn't even entertain the possibility that they could be problems. It's just as bad as the hard-headed idiots that don't see issues with continuing heavy fossil-fuel use.
yes, [the Prius] is greener than your pickup
Nice try there. I actually use two-wheel transportation (motorized and otherwise). I'm not saying the Prius is necessarily bad. But as we seem to be heading inexorably in the direction of battery/electric transportation, is that really the best option? Alternatives such as Hydrogen (Toyota seems to be making progress there) have their trade-offs as well, but perhaps it is better in the long run to stay technology-neutral as this technology takes root rather than building a huge infrastructure for battery/electric cars? Again, I don't know the answer, but I don't think the vast majority of people even consider the question. That's the problem. Incidentally, the articles you linked to didn't have references to much supporting independent research. The KPBS article linked to research conducted by the "Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership", and the Car Connection article compares a Prius to a HUMMER-- How would you even think that is relevant to my point? Thank god it's more green than a hummer! I never would have imagined that! The HowStuffWorks article is based on a single, albeit reputable, paper, and points to another paper from the same laboratory which concluded that plug-in hybrids could emit 10% more greenhouse gases than some conventional vehicles (according to the HowStuffWorks summary). So as much as you obviously buy into this stuff pretty easily, I would caution you and others to use a more critical eye before just assuming you know the answer. Is the Prius better than every conventional vehicle on the road? Perhaps. But your understanding of the answer is based entirely on a single paper that has been hyped up by a single website. (I won't consider the KPBS and Car Connection articles to be part of your argument, because they are non-sequiturs.)
when my two years with AT&T was up I got a new contract that gave me a break for using my old phone
Indeed (though was that because you were no longer making subsidy payments or because AT&T loves the environment?). It's not the carriers that need to make the change though. People need to make better use of what they have rather than buying the fancy new gadget because it is cooler than theirs. You and I have overcome that. Most people haven't.
In this case I'm pretty sure you've done a good job of following your sig to great detail, seeing as how you haven't provided much useful data.
Slashdot Mirror
The Dark Forest.
I love the Cixin Liu books... refreshing sci-fi.
Sorry, Apple fanbois, the iPhone is not the best selling camera of all time.
It may be the best selling "device with a camera" of all time, but it is not a "camera".
Furthermore: bic pens? razors? pine tree-shaped air-fresheners ... I would wager a bet these all sold more.
It has sold very well, yes, but let's not blow our load over it.
If you punch me in the face for an hour, should your grandchildren apologize to my grandchildren for you being an idiot?
Mod parent up
Imagine that.
Differences in pay exist for a reason: Because different people perform functions of different value to the company.
Building the end product is entirely different than seeing it built step by step.
Fixed that for you.
First of all: Bullshit....
I have tried to help numerous people who just don't "get it", and have reached the conclusion that they never will.
That doesn't mean that they're incapable of it. It just shows that it's more difficult than they'd like and they don't wish to expend the necessary effort on it-- and they often give up before joining the ranks of us that "get it".
Yes, anyone can learn how to do basic things with programming. But thinking about complex systems it not something that is easy to do for any of us. If you think it is, you've obviously never worked on anything very complex.
Second: I'm not "proud" of my skills as a programmer.
I'm quite competent, with a significant amount of experience, but unless you're working in a research lab somewhere it's mostly regurgitation of the same crap that you've already written ten times and therefor there's nothing to really be all that proud of.
I aspire to something more challenging and am headed in that direction.
But I'm not going to lie to people and tell them that programming is "easy" in the mean time, much as I won't tell them that "math" is easy. These things *are not easy*. They are hard. Both worth the effort to learn.
I frequently use StackOverflow. You're not exactly comparing apples to apples.
SO is inherently nonlinear. People can ask problems when they encounter them (or, better, just search for others that have asked the same questions). You'll find people get a much greater benefit from learning something when they want to know the answer rather than when they just happened to stumble upon some bit of knowledge. Problem-solving is not a skill you learn by watching --you learn it by doing-- and it's problem-solving that is the important bit of programming, not coding. Any programmer worth their salt knows that.
In contrast, by watching a stream of some [hopefully knowledgeable] developer, the viewer must be "learning" to solve either inherently simple problems or problems that are impossible to follow in a short period of time. (In the same way that you can't just pick up a new codebase and instantly know what's going on, how is the viewer to follow anything more than the same simple examples they can easily find in text form anywhere on the web?)
This type of thinking is exactly the same as the folks pushing the "everyone can/should learn how to program" idiocy.
Programming is not easy. Watching a video of someone coding some random thing will not make it easier. Ease comes with practice and reading a *lot* of code, both good and bad.
Do you honestly think it is possible to show anything but the most facile examples in a video that someone will actually be able to follow?
Insomniacs maybe?
That's what ASMR videos are for ;)
https://www.youtube.com/result...
This is even worse than a stream watching someone play a game. Who wastes their time with these things?
If you want to improve your coding skill you're better off practicing and reviewing code written by those more experienced than you, not watching someone "in the act" of doing it.
"Dead recognition" -- That's like that TV show with the nice man that talks to dead people, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I thought Google was smarter, though.
They did just censor search results for merchandise branded with a particular logo that has a negative connotation for most enlightened humans, despite the fact that other merchandise branded with similarly offensive logos is still easily found through them.
I'm beginning to lose a lot of faith in Google. I think the business idiots have run the engineers out of there.
https://insights.ubuntu.com/20...
but the link to the Meizu website provided there is broken right now: http://www.meizu.com/en/ubuntu...
Maybe you should do some research before plodding around with your opinions.
Musk co-founded Zip2 in '95 and made bank on that in '99.
Co-founded X.com in '99, which after mergers and whatnot made bank for him in '02.
Now he's grown SpaceX to a valuation of $12 billion (and that's not dot-com fake money like Twitter, et al.).
And Tesla is pretty close to breaking even.
(all of this according to Wikipedia)
I'd say that's a much better track record than the vast majority of people on the planet.
+1 - Mod parent up.
Since you don't mind it, you can go ahead and watch them on your own time without ruining my experience.
I'm not interested. I have netflix so I don't have to watch ads. Looks like I'll be abandoning that type of entertainment entirely at some point...
I'm just waiting for drones that will simultaneously cut my lawn and deter burglars.
Why not drones that *cut burglars* and *deter the lawn* from growing?
Oh right, that would involve harming humans. Seems like a much more interesting solution to me, though.
Is anyone else curious how the guy fit his [presumably 3-dimensional] son into a two-dimensional (6'x8') "box"?
Try looking at the changes in the lives of people living in the parts of the world I cited over the past 40 years and then tell me that the growing GDP has not improved the lives of almost everyone there.
I've been to rural China, and I've been to cities all over that part of the world. The folks in the cities, who have taken advantage of (and been a part of) the growth in GDP, have much better lives-- and are thankful for that!
Go see the world a bit, then come back and talk like an intelligent person.
You obviously have a dangerously skewed world-view. Have you seen first-hand how people work in other countries?
I've traveled pretty extensively, and let me tell you-- Asians (specifically the "Oriental" variety) work *much* harder than most Americans. That's why their economies have done so well over the past N years.
Europeans are even lazier than Americans for the most part. That's why their economies, well, don't do so well. (There are exceptions, of course.)
What type of distorted conception of "work" and "output" and "good economy" could make you think that working "too hard" is *bad* for the economy?
Please mod up parent!
Why.... is this government completely inept?
This would totally work. Except for WiFi, 433mhz industrial radios (easily available), CBs, ham radios, family band radios (from walmart, target, etc.), never mind anyone who was really serious about whatever they wanted to do and went through the effort of acquiring wireless communication gear not so commonly available.
This is a fine example of how DHS is *reactionary* and a complete waste of my tax dollars.
That's all well and good, but we don't [yet] live in the world where everyone is *choosing* to make that clean factory, although the vast majority of Americans seem to think that all of these technologies come from it.
At least you accept and understand the situation. My point is that the vast majority of people don't, and that's why I'm glad to see an article like this.
I've found such people exist primarily in the imaginations of the people who complain about them.
Not so. While I'm a nuclear power proponent, I have nothing against wind and solar power. I even like them in concept. However, I've never seen a single reference to a study of the effects of windmills on regional wind patterns, massive areas of solar panels on regional temperature/wind/etc., let alone manufacturing of these things. Are they issues? Perhaps not. Maybe even "probably not". But the "green" community doesn't even entertain the possibility that they could be problems. It's just as bad as the hard-headed idiots that don't see issues with continuing heavy fossil-fuel use.
yes, [the Prius] is greener than your pickup
Nice try there. I actually use two-wheel transportation (motorized and otherwise).
I'm not saying the Prius is necessarily bad. But as we seem to be heading inexorably in the direction of battery/electric transportation, is that really the best option? Alternatives such as Hydrogen (Toyota seems to be making progress there) have their trade-offs as well, but perhaps it is better in the long run to stay technology-neutral as this technology takes root rather than building a huge infrastructure for battery/electric cars? Again, I don't know the answer, but I don't think the vast majority of people even consider the question. That's the problem.
Incidentally, the articles you linked to didn't have references to much supporting independent research. The KPBS article linked to research conducted by the "Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership", and the Car Connection article compares a Prius to a HUMMER-- How would you even think that is relevant to my point? Thank god it's more green than a hummer! I never would have imagined that!
The HowStuffWorks article is based on a single, albeit reputable, paper, and points to another paper from the same laboratory which concluded that plug-in hybrids could emit 10% more greenhouse gases than some conventional vehicles (according to the HowStuffWorks summary).
So as much as you obviously buy into this stuff pretty easily, I would caution you and others to use a more critical eye before just assuming you know the answer. Is the Prius better than every conventional vehicle on the road? Perhaps. But your understanding of the answer is based entirely on a single paper that has been hyped up by a single website. (I won't consider the KPBS and Car Connection articles to be part of your argument, because they are non-sequiturs.)
when my two years with AT&T was up I got a new contract that gave me a break for using my old phone
Indeed (though was that because you were no longer making subsidy payments or because AT&T loves the environment?).
It's not the carriers that need to make the change though. People need to make better use of what they have rather than buying the fancy new gadget because it is cooler than theirs. You and I have overcome that. Most people haven't.
In this case I'm pretty sure you've done a good job of following your sig to great detail, seeing as how you haven't provided much useful data.