Canada is arguing with the US about the Northwest Passage. The US claims it's international waters, and Canada claims it's within it's boundries, and thus internal waters.
Make a slip in international law once, and it may haunt you for all times. The maritime border between the Yukon and Alaska is under dispute, as is Canada's claim to the continental shelf in the Artic. Canada can't concede here, or it may have to concede elsewhere, when it's more important.
Of course, Canada has no ability to patrol it's northern border. The Canadian Coast Guard is a fine institution stuck with aging ships, few of which have ice-strengthened hulls.
In the spirit of french-fries becoming freedom fries, I ask all fellow Canadians to stop using the word danish for that flakey, overly sweet pastry, and instead use the term freedom-pastry.
I wasn't saying anything about Katamari Damacy (never even heard of it). I was commenting on what he said about the inability to apply any adjective to a game other than "fun":
"Credit to the GROWTH of the industry? I, and a lot of people, would argue that it's indicative of the downfall of the industry."
In otherwords, the gaming industry is in decline because there are games out there that cannot be described by what's come before, and thus the only description you can use is "fun".
I say that if a game is so unique that you can't talk about how it compares to other games in the genre (because there are none), then that's a good thing. The parent to my original post implied that it's a bad thing.
Interesting to see how the DS is going. I thought it was going to die a slow and painful death.
Two small screens, and you can write on them? I got a PSP instead.
The graphics are great, there are some great games, but it's all racing, puzzles and sports. It's a limited version of a PS2 or XBox.
When I go to my local electronics warehouse, I've noticed that the PSP is being relegated to a crappy, out-of-the-way location. The DS is way more noticable.
On the flip side, I'll be watching Battlestar Galactica episode 3, season 2, on my PSP on my train-ride into work on Monday morning.
He's not saying, "It's a first person shooter that pushes the genre by adding bump-mapped surfaces that make the reflections in the water look amazing..."
He's saying it's a game with no genre; it's not a "me-too, look what features we have if your computer sports a $400 video card"
Revolutionary ideas can't be quantified into categories defined in the past. Evolutionary games can.
This game is not the evolution of some other game with a few interesting twists.
I have a web service application that resides as a seperate module in CVS. I needed the ability to build a JAR, and move it either to local qa application servers, or a remote server.
I thought I'd try Maven. After spending 4 hours looking for and reading what passes for documentation on the Apache site, I gave up, and wrote a batch script to do it in 15 minutes.
The Apache docs suck for many of their projects (Tomcat, Maven, Axis). Do the developers do it on purpose so that they can make money writing books explaining the tools? I have no idea.
To be fair, some Apache documentation is good (in the commons projects, like CLI and HttpClient).
Their bottom line would be alot better if they hadn't bought that dog of a company, Compaq.
I wonder how many employees that they brought on with Compaq vs how many they are laying off now.
People always complain about inefficiency in government, but I've seen big public companies waste millions and millions. Most of these employees will get a decent severence package, and have their health insurance paid for by HP for a while. Next year, they'll announce that they are hiring 10,000 to keep up with the new boom in the technology industry.
Spelling "definitely" incorrectly is one thing. Writing all in lower or upper case with no puctuation is another.
Email lacks body language, inflection, and a bunch of other things that help understanding. If you are missing key gramatical elements, clarity drops dramatically; punctuation, grammar and capitilization all go a long way towards understanding.
Once in a while, I get an email that takes an extra minute to decipher, and I'm often still not sure of the meaning. The result is that I assume the person who wrote it is a moron until he or she proves otherwise. And some of these emails are work-related.
And you know what - it's the job of the writer to convince the reader, and I don't have to read anything I don't want to.
If anything, you've convinced me to respond, "Please resend in English." Normally I try to work my way through it; no more. I guess I'm another convert to the Grammar Nazi party.
The parent said (to paraphrase), that the workers should own the means of production. That's communism.
In the USSR, the state owned the means of production. Technically, it was state-capitalism.
And yes, a change in the "current socio-economic environment" could mean you turn communist, depending on the change. It's like saying, "painting my car doesn't mean it's blue", but it is if you use blue paint.
Of course, if workers owned and had control over the machines they work with, mechanization would be a great thing, it would mean a choice of either shorter hours or a higher standard of living. But four out of five workers do not own or control the machines they work with, thus mechanization means higher unemployment, lower wages and so forth. Mechanization is only harmful due to the current socio-economic environment.
Sounds like your advocating communism, there, partner.
If the union had all these great ideas for cost cutting, why didn't they suggest them earlier, at some point before the axe was in it's downward swing?
I understand why sometimes the labour and capital components of business have to have an adversarial relationship, but I also know that they need to have a co-operative relationship as well.
It's as if the union had these great ideas for saving IBM money, but kept them quiet until IBM started to cut jobs, and they said, "Wait wait wait...".
In the original black-and-blue article, the union made the point that IBM's "first quarter profit for 2005 was $1.4 billion, and $9 billion for the whole of 2004". Unfortunately, a corporation has a legal imperitive to make as much money as possible for the shareholders. The problem is not IBM, but rather corporations in general.
Some of the more interesting books on the subject are,
Maybe the success of Battlestar Galactica (the second season of which starts July 15th - they've been filming here in Vancouver all spring) will give them the courage and the money to start producing new episodes. Hopefully Joss will be on board.
To combat the labour shortage, India should outsource the work to North America and Europe. Lots of surplus labour. And the way wages are climbing in India, the West might be able to do it cheaper.
I Wonder About the Classics
on
Pac-Man Turns 25
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
People wax on poetically about all the classic video games (Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Space Invaders, etc), but I suspect their popularity was due to their novelty rather than their appeal.
They were fun, colorful, but there's too much meaning being attached to them. It appealed to the future-nerds (myself included).
If you had the option of being trapped on a deserted island for a year with one video game (and the hardware and electricity to play it), would it be Pac Man (all safe and colorful), or Empire Earth II in all it's glory and challenge?
You have 500 computers, and each user could be a customer for a local hardware/software reseller.
See if you can get a deal on a router for each computer (close to cost). Students who install will probably get few if any viruses. At least you'll help those willing to do a bit of work (they'll probably also have virus scanners installed).
I agree with the other posts - users should have their network drop disconnected if their machine is spewing viruses. They can reconnect once their OS is installed, once they have a virus scanner installed, and they have automatic updates turned on.
Would a packet sniffer like Ethereal help track down the guilty computers?
1) SQL Server is an enterprise-class database used to store critical information, like your credit card number, your email address, your street address, your bank info. Would you feel comfortable if your bank was using this to keep track of your account? "Mr Grip3n, our database crashed, and we lost all your transactions for the last three days... it might take a month to restore your account....". Someone clueless is going to use this to keep track of something important.
2) Visual Studio *beta* might be used to compile the next Windows XP service pack that hoses your moms computer.
3) Firefox is a browser. If there's a bug that crashes it, you avoid that feature, or switch to something else.
I live in Vancouver, and a few months ago, my wife and I were heading out to meet friends for dinner. We walked through a section where they were filming the Fantastic 4
I saw a NYC garbage truck, and NYC police car, flipped on it's back, all beat up.
They'd also added a fake subway entrance (it looked way too small), and changed some signage on some shops.
Unfort, Vancouver does look quite different from New York; I remember seeing Ebert review one of the first Jackie Chan movies that made it over here, and it was supposed to take place in New York. Ebert said something to the effect that he'd never seen New York without trash covering the street. It was Vancouver, of course.
Interesting that you bring up X-Men as a great movie, and complain that location is important. Both X-Men movies were filmed in Vancouver.
I thought so too. What concerned me most was no mention of the Heisenberg compensators. I know it's a Do-It-Yourself project, but if you're going to do something, do it right.
Slashdot Mirror
It sets a precedent.
Canada is arguing with the US about the Northwest Passage. The US claims it's international waters, and Canada claims it's within it's boundries, and thus internal waters.
Make a slip in international law once, and it may haunt you for all times. The maritime border between the Yukon and Alaska is under dispute, as is Canada's claim to the continental shelf in the Artic. Canada can't concede here, or it may have to concede elsewhere, when it's more important.
Of course, Canada has no ability to patrol it's northern border. The Canadian Coast Guard is a fine institution stuck with aging ships, few of which have ice-strengthened hulls.
A good description is here
In the spirit of french-fries becoming freedom fries, I ask all fellow Canadians to stop using the word danish for that flakey, overly sweet pastry, and instead use the term freedom-pastry.
I wasn't saying anything about Katamari Damacy (never even heard of it). I was commenting on what he said about the inability to apply any adjective to a game other than "fun":
"Credit to the GROWTH of the industry? I, and a lot of people, would argue that it's indicative of the downfall of the industry."
In otherwords, the gaming industry is in decline because there are games out there that cannot be described by what's come before, and thus the only description you can use is "fun".
I say that if a game is so unique that you can't talk about how it compares to other games in the genre (because there are none), then that's a good thing. The parent to my original post implied that it's a bad thing.
Interesting to see how the DS is going. I thought it was going to die a slow and painful death.
Two small screens, and you can write on them? I got a PSP instead.
The graphics are great, there are some great games, but it's all racing, puzzles and sports. It's a limited version of a PS2 or XBox.
When I go to my local electronics warehouse, I've noticed that the PSP is being relegated to a crappy, out-of-the-way location. The DS is way more noticable.
On the flip side, I'll be watching Battlestar Galactica episode 3, season 2, on my PSP on my train-ride into work on Monday morning.
I think you miss the point of "fun".
He's not saying, "It's a first person shooter that pushes the genre by adding bump-mapped surfaces that make the reflections in the water look amazing..."
He's saying it's a game with no genre; it's not a "me-too, look what features we have if your computer sports a $400 video card"
Revolutionary ideas can't be quantified into categories defined in the past. Evolutionary games can.
This game is not the evolution of some other game with a few interesting twists.
Again, you've missed the point.
So... in New York, does the World Trade Center still stand tall, proud and defiant?
I have a web service application that resides as a seperate module in CVS. I needed the ability to build a JAR, and move it either to local qa application servers, or a remote server.
I thought I'd try Maven. After spending 4 hours looking for and reading what passes for documentation on the Apache site, I gave up, and wrote a batch script to do it in 15 minutes.
The Apache docs suck for many of their projects (Tomcat, Maven, Axis). Do the developers do it on purpose so that they can make money writing books explaining the tools? I have no idea.
To be fair, some Apache documentation is good (in the commons projects, like CLI and HttpClient).
no sense.
Was Zonk out on a bender last night?
Their bottom line would be alot better if they hadn't bought that dog of a company, Compaq.
I wonder how many employees that they brought on with Compaq vs how many they are laying off now.
People always complain about inefficiency in government, but I've seen big public companies waste millions and millions. Most of these employees will get a decent severence package, and have their health insurance paid for by HP for a while. Next year, they'll announce that they are hiring 10,000 to keep up with the new boom in the technology industry.
Spelling "definitely" incorrectly is one thing. Writing all in lower or upper case with no puctuation is another.
Email lacks body language, inflection, and a bunch of other things that help understanding. If you are missing key gramatical elements, clarity drops dramatically; punctuation, grammar and capitilization all go a long way towards understanding.
Once in a while, I get an email that takes an extra minute to decipher, and I'm often still not sure of the meaning. The result is that I assume the person who wrote it is a moron until he or she proves otherwise. And some of these emails are work-related.
And you know what - it's the job of the writer to convince the reader, and I don't have to read anything I don't want to.
If anything, you've convinced me to respond, "Please resend in English." Normally I try to work my way through it; no more. I guess I'm another convert to the Grammar Nazi party.
Congrats.
Good point - and MySQL 4.0, 4.1 (sub-selects) or 5.0 (in beta - stored procedures, triggers)
Programmers are nerds, and I'd bet most people on this site are aware of what Eclipse is.
It's a phenomenal IDE, capable of doing stuff that Visual C++ users are envious of. The configuration is a bit of a beast, however.
Intellij is also a very good IDE, but not free as in not-free-beer.
The link to Arstechnica (http://arstechnica.net/) is not really to the correct site, Arstechnica...
Instead, you'll get a parked domain rife with popups.
The parent said (to paraphrase), that the workers should own the means of production. That's communism.
In the USSR, the state owned the means of production. Technically, it was state-capitalism.
And yes, a change in the "current socio-economic environment" could mean you turn communist, depending on the change. It's like saying, "painting my car doesn't mean it's blue", but it is if you use blue paint.
Of course, if workers owned and had control over the machines they work with, mechanization would be a great thing, it would mean a choice of either shorter hours or a higher standard of living. But four out of five workers do not own or control the machines they work with, thus mechanization means higher unemployment, lower wages and so forth. Mechanization is only harmful due to the current socio-economic environment.
Sounds like your advocating communism, there, partner.
If the union had all these great ideas for cost cutting, why didn't they suggest them earlier, at some point before the axe was in it's downward swing?
I understand why sometimes the labour and capital components of business have to have an adversarial relationship, but I also know that they need to have a co-operative relationship as well.
It's as if the union had these great ideas for saving IBM money, but kept them quiet until IBM started to cut jobs, and they said, "Wait wait wait...".
In the original black-and-blue article, the union made the point that IBM's "first quarter profit for 2005 was $1.4 billion, and $9 billion for the whole of 2004". Unfortunately, a corporation has a legal imperitive to make as much money as possible for the shareholders. The problem is not IBM, but rather corporations in general.
Some of the more interesting books on the subject are,
Myth of the Good Corporate Citizen
The Corporation (the book that the documentary was based on)
Confessions Of an Economic Hit Man
Maybe the success of Battlestar Galactica (the second season of which starts July 15th - they've been filming here in Vancouver all spring) will give them the courage and the money to start producing new episodes. Hopefully Joss will be on board.
to WindowsXP on my game machine at home.
The reason was Battlefield 2, which runs on XP only.
I'd suspect that it's going to create a small jump in the # of Windows XP installs (legitimate or not).
David
To combat the labour shortage, India should outsource the work to North America and Europe. Lots of surplus labour. And the way wages are climbing in India, the West might be able to do it cheaper.
People wax on poetically about all the classic video games (Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Space Invaders, etc), but I suspect their popularity was due to their novelty rather than their appeal.
They were fun, colorful, but there's too much meaning being attached to them. It appealed to the future-nerds (myself included).
If you had the option of being trapped on a deserted island for a year with one video game (and the hardware and electricity to play it), would it be Pac Man (all safe and colorful), or Empire Earth II in all it's glory and challenge?
You have 500 computers, and each user could be a customer for a local hardware/software reseller.
See if you can get a deal on a router for each computer (close to cost). Students who install will probably get few if any viruses. At least you'll help those willing to do a bit of work (they'll probably also have virus scanners installed).
I agree with the other posts - users should have their network drop disconnected if their machine is spewing viruses. They can reconnect once their OS is installed, once they have a virus scanner installed, and they have automatic updates turned on.
Would a packet sniffer like Ethereal help track down the guilty computers?
It's terrible because,
1) SQL Server is an enterprise-class database used to store critical information, like your credit card number, your email address, your street address, your bank info. Would you feel comfortable if your bank was using this to keep track of your account? "Mr Grip3n, our database crashed, and we lost all your transactions for the last three days... it might take a month to restore your account....". Someone clueless is going to use this to keep track of something important.
2) Visual Studio *beta* might be used to compile the next Windows XP service pack that hoses your moms computer.
3) Firefox is a browser. If there's a bug that crashes it, you avoid that feature, or switch to something else.
Actually, if you look at the window to the right (exactly where the arrow is pointing), you can see the reflection of an LCD monitor in the window.
If he was sitting in the chair at the bottom left of the picture, he'd be at the keyboard you can also see reflected in the window.
I live in Vancouver, and a few months ago, my wife and I were heading out to meet friends for dinner. We walked through a section where they were filming the Fantastic 4
I saw a NYC garbage truck, and NYC police car, flipped on it's back, all beat up.
They'd also added a fake subway entrance (it looked way too small), and changed some signage on some shops.
Unfort, Vancouver does look quite different from New York; I remember seeing Ebert review one of the first Jackie Chan movies that made it over here, and it was supposed to take place in New York. Ebert said something to the effect that he'd never seen New York without trash covering the street. It was Vancouver, of course.
Interesting that you bring up X-Men as a great movie, and complain that location is important. Both X-Men movies were filmed in Vancouver.
I thought so too. What concerned me most was no mention of the Heisenberg compensators. I know it's a Do-It-Yourself project, but if you're going to do something, do it right.
I do it all the time. I usually catch it, but if you can't make a spelling mistake on Slashdot, where can you make it?
I also realized a few months back that I've been spelling tommorow incorrectly most of my life.