Sadly, his comment is in line with stuff I've seen in the wild. Not *exclusively*, mind. I'm sure there's plenty of normal Rust coders, but it doesn't take a particularly large coterie of insufferable douchenozzles to leave an impression that is really difficult to overcome (in part because, at least for that coterie and those who accommodate them, it's a true impression.)
I'm sure many progressives have their heart in the right place, but then so did many right-wing religious whackos. The worst tyrants are those who think they're doing it for your own good, after all.
The welfare of humanity has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~ A. Camus
I'm halfway tempted to apply for a job where you are just so I could experience this. Most interviews I've had have clearly (and sadly) been conducted by people who have little technical knowledge, but lots of HR experience and are working off a script put together by some more technically inclined person.
Most bittorrent clients have to connect to the tracker at least once to get an initial peer list. Subsequent peer list requests usually include upload/download byte counts and whatnot, but that data isn't verifiable.
So you may not be able to get a reliable count of the total number of people who finished downloading your file, but you can get a reasonable estimate of how many people tried to... presuming there isn't someone trying to jigger the numbers by connecting to the swarm without doing any data transfer just to bump the numbers up.
Most torrent clients require at least one connection to the tracker in order to get a peer list, and most will send updates of total data sent/received while re-polling for new peers.
The data isn't authenticated or anything, you can't depend on the values for uploads or downloads, nor can you depend on the client to accurately report a completed download, but you CAN get a reasonably accurate count of the total number of people who shared in the swarm.
And absolutely, singing the Ballad of the Star-crossed Miner to Floyd as he died, that was emotionally intense. Of course, I was something like 12 at the time so hormones had their say.
I also greatly enjoyed Planescape: Torment. It's a work of art in its own way, in my opinion (less so about the graphics and interface, more so for the experience).
Actually, slowing uptake DOES reduce holdings. Old 10 and 20 year bonds all come due (in either 10 or 20 years, not coincidentally;). Instead of turning those over directly into new bonds, they're turning over some and taking the payout on others. It's not a huge amount, but it's an overall 'negative growth'.
And when I say debt is back to WW2 levels, I'm talking debt-to-GDP ratio, not actual dollars. Debt-to-GDP is a (somewhat) more reliable gauge of actual debtload in terms of ability to repay the debt.
If you mean "Asian Central Banks" when you say "The World", that's already happening. If you take a look at recent purchases of 10 year and 20 year federal bonds, those banks are slowing their uptake (ie. reducing their holdings), with the slack taken up by private investors and odd little financial groups that magically materialized in the carribean.
The credit card is running dry. The dependable, long-view institutions are closing the purse and leaving the bulk to be handled by the short-view private investor. And this year alone, debt has grown by $300 billion beyond GDP, increasing for the 5th year in a row the debt/GDP ratio. It's nearly at WW2 levels now.
When you have an economy 70% fueled by consumer spending and the credit cards are running dry due to massive debt buildup and leverage of overpriced real estate... well, the ultimate results don't sound terribly appealing.
One thing that could help resolve some of these issues is if immigration canada could take some time and evaluate foreign accreditations better than they currently do. Help solve the woeful issue of emergency room doctors from senegal driving cabs for years waiting for equivalency to practice over here, for sure.
6 months to 2 years? Hardly. I'd be hard pressed to think of any gadget that took longer to get to Canada than the US by any stretch longer than perhaps 2 weeks. When I bought my Canon S-40, I got it in a store here before it was available in the US (Carsand-Mosher has got the hookups!) The device itself was not more expensive than the US version after taking into account exchange (in fact, it was about $10 cheaper... and local bought). GST was added, but that's hardly the 25% premium after 2 year wait you're trying to push.
Considering places like California have between 7.75%-8.75% state sales tax randomly based on a county-by-county basis, GST seems pretty straightforward. For the consumer, anyways.
Gas is more expensive. Not much, but some. During the big gas price spike, there was roughly a 10%-15% difference between the average price in Canada and the US (that was the time I was paying attention to it. I dunno what the difference is at the moment).
As for median incomes, your numbers are way off. The median household income in the US is currently around $44kUSD (~$51kCAD). The median household income in Canada is currently ~$56kCAD (~$48kUSD) and the median household income in vancouver, as of the 2000 Canada Census is ~$77k. Moreover, the downtowns of Vancouver and Toronto are currently in a speculatory bubble environment, not unlike that of Miami, LA, et al. You can get 2000+ sq.ft out in the burbs (maple ridge, for instance) at $100-$200sq ft.
Yeesh, so much intellectual dishonesty. Are you so afraid of an apples-to-apples comparison that you have to be deliberately misleading?
- GDP is a pointless number to base anything on. It counts all the cash that moves around, regardless of whether that cash is spent doing anything productive. You could dig a $1 million dollar hole, then spend another $1 million filling it, and that would increase your GDP by $2 million. Try using purchase price parity or something less... random. Moreover, GDP has basically no effect on the population whatsoever. Median household income is far more pertinent, and currently median household income in Canada (~$56k CAD/year) is around 9% higher than that of the US (~$44k USD/year, or around ~$51k CAD).
- Average total taxation is out of date. The tax situation has changed pretty substantially both north and south of the border since 1998 (for example, exemptions are now indexed to CPI in Canada, dividend income is nontaxable up to 25k, etc). I would love to see an up-to-date version.
- Unemployment rates are calculated completely differently between the US and Canada. Add the 'discouraged' rates to current US unemployment rates, and take into account the difference in labour force utilization (canada routinely has a couple % higher utilization, mostly due to people magically disappearing from US labour force when they don't fall under the specific categories that allows them to be considered employable). Sadly, neither country tracks underemployed people, but I suppose it's a difficult measure to gauge.
- Violent crime statistics in the US are calculated differently than those in Canada. In the US, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crime in the US is comprised of "The number of persons arrested for homicide, forcible rape, robbery or aggravated assault as reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI." Notice that there is no mention of basic assaults (ie. bar fights) that ARE included in the canadian statistics you provided, and which account for the vast vast majority of incidents reported. However, an apples-to-apples comparison is here. In summary: Violent crime in canada is substantially less, whereas property crime is essentially parallel.
If comparisons MUST be made, at the very least they should be intellectually honest.
Dr. Andrew Johnson, an infectious diseases specialist, said he left Canada six years ago to pursue his career in the U.S.
"At the time it was really just the opportunity to perform research," he told CTV News.
Now with two children of his own, Johnson has returned to live in Calgary.
"Canada is a great place to raise children and has a good education system," he said. "We don't have quite the same problems like violence and hand guns."
Which brings us full circle to the point of the article. Obviously, Canada has attractions that money can't buy. A general sense of safety, for instance, as exemplified by the people coming home. Thus it's wise (election posturing or no) to give additional incentives to people worthy of being here. Combine that with higher median per-houshold income, not having to worry about declaring bankruptcy if you happen to get sick (oh yes, did you know that half of the bankruptcies in the US are medically related, and that 75% of those bankrupts HAD INSURANCE? Some great coverage, there!), a socially liberal atmosphere and not being in a country that has a leader threatening to veto anti-torture legislation.... well, Canada's lookin' pretty good these days.
Not that it'd matter much to you "Hate Canada First" types.
Indeed. You hear about the MRI anecdotes often in heavily taxed areas, but in other places it's a complete nonissue. My mother got an MRI within 1 week here in Halifax. My youngest son was able to get a same-day CAT scan for a relatively innocuous issue involving his sinuses.
Therein lies the rub though, Canadian media does have myopia... they consider the big cities (particularly Toronto) as representative of all of Canada, and therefore any problem in the major urban centers is a problem everywhere. Yes, waiting lists are an issue, but not nearly as grand as some would like to make it appear in order to score political points.
Turns out, income taxes for median incomes (roughly CAD$52k in the US per household, roughly CAD$56k in Canada per household) are more or less equivalent dependant on province vs. state. You'd be better off anywhere in Canada than, say, Texas. If you make 60k or less, you'll probably pay less tax in Canada. If you make 60k or more, you'll pay more. Particularly if you're a landowner... Canada doesn't give big tax breaks for land ownership, which is unfortunate... but you can get a significant portion of dividend income tax free, so if you're getting started in the investor class, you've got some advantages.
GST does make things more expensive, but cost of living varies so widely based on region both in Canada and the US that it's essentially useless to make comparisons.
It really depends on which side of the alleged libel you're standing on.
In this case, the compelling story is that a mother-of-three is doing this to protect her children against a faceless, insensitive and obnoxious corporation. It plays to our desires to root for the underdog. We can all see ourselves in that situation: a lone voice in the wilderness crying out for solace.
In this case, our libel laws are not very forgiving. The burden of proof is set pretty high. Not impossibly so, but perhaps more difficult than an individual could accomodate without becoming some sort of crucading private investigator.
Now, let's take another scenario. An unrelated, fictional woman has an axe to grind over a local construction company based on some imagined slight (say, she thinks they go to work too early in the morning and mess up her sleep). She then engages in a campaign of deliberate misinformation using plausable but falsified events. In this case, the libel laws are quite GOOD, because it puts the burden of proof on the potential libeler to back up their words with proof, and god only knows what kind of damage could be done by one disgruntled and motivated nutcase.
Personally, I think that libel laws SHOULD put the burden on the person making the statements, but there should be increased protection of the little guy 'whistleblower' from being intimidated away from speaking out in protest when its due. An anti-SLAPP style law would go a long way to resolve that weakness.
Either way, it's premature to judge Canada's (really, british common law's) approach as 'inferior' because of one anecdote where the law isn't supportive of the little guy over big business. After all, the same protection extends to the woman in the event this company tried to railroad HER.
Ohhh... wasn't that some obscure Mac game from forever ago? Has some sort of lovecraftian theme as I recall.
If it makes you feel any better, you can 'claim' bullet time for the ancient game from an irrelevant platform while you wank off onto your iPod... but talk to the vast majority of people who play games on real computers and they're gonna say "Bullet time? That's Max Payne. And Matrix."
I also wonder how old the developers of FEAR are, and whether or not they were old enough to remember games from the early 90s and not, say, watching "Arthur" reruns after coming home from elementary school.
To me, it was just another run-of-the-mill FPS with some creepy moments thrown in. The most chilling were the sudden appearance of the girl right in front of me when I was on my way down a ladder, and then paxton at the bottom of same. But those were, really, the ONLY two moments that actually raised hair.
The rest of it was standard seek and destroy. The bullet time, er... slo-mo was a nice touch, even if it was an obvious ripoff of Max Payne.
That said, FEAR was infinitely better than the pisspoor Doom 3, where it was all "open a door, monster appears... open another door, another monster appears". iD software: great engines, crap games. It'd also be nice to see a game come from iD where the textures weren't made in 4096 shades of black.
Now, as for creep factor, how about the Mad Hatter's workshop in American McGee's Alice? Poor fucking borgified churchmouse twitching away on the bench. Now THAT gave me chills.
Slashdot Mirror
Will I be able to play "B-17 BALLLLLMER" again?
Sadly, his comment is in line with stuff I've seen in the wild. Not *exclusively*, mind. I'm sure there's plenty of normal Rust coders, but it doesn't take a particularly large coterie of insufferable douchenozzles to leave an impression that is really difficult to overcome (in part because, at least for that coterie and those who accommodate them, it's a true impression.)
The welfare of humanity has always been the alibi of tyrants. ~ A. Camus
Turns out theirs was the first big Usenet spam, not the first ever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You can already get glucose meters... or are you talking about something other?
I'm halfway tempted to apply for a job where you are just so I could experience this. Most interviews I've had have clearly (and sadly) been conducted by people who have little technical knowledge, but lots of HR experience and are working off a script put together by some more technically inclined person.
A triglyceride test would go over big. A whole lipoprotein panel, in fact.
Hell, I'd use it myself.
Most bittorrent clients have to connect to the tracker at least once to get an initial peer list. Subsequent peer list requests usually include upload/download byte counts and whatnot, but that data isn't verifiable.
So you may not be able to get a reliable count of the total number of people who finished downloading your file, but you can get a reasonable estimate of how many people tried to... presuming there isn't someone trying to jigger the numbers by connecting to the swarm without doing any data transfer just to bump the numbers up.
Most torrent clients require at least one connection to the tracker in order to get a peer list, and most will send updates of total data sent/received while re-polling for new peers.
The data isn't authenticated or anything, you can't depend on the values for uploads or downloads, nor can you depend on the client to accurately report a completed download, but you CAN get a reasonably accurate count of the total number of people who shared in the swarm.
You can play some online!
Right here, in fact.
And absolutely, singing the Ballad of the Star-crossed Miner to Floyd as he died, that was emotionally intense. Of course, I was something like 12 at the time so hormones had their say.
I also greatly enjoyed Planescape: Torment. It's a work of art in its own way, in my opinion (less so about the graphics and interface, more so for the experience).
I think Ebert's out to lunch on this topic.
Actually, slowing uptake DOES reduce holdings. Old 10 and 20 year bonds all come due (in either 10 or 20 years, not coincidentally ;). Instead of turning those over directly into new bonds, they're turning over some and taking the payout on others. It's not a huge amount, but it's an overall 'negative growth'.
And when I say debt is back to WW2 levels, I'm talking debt-to-GDP ratio, not actual dollars. Debt-to-GDP is a (somewhat) more reliable gauge of actual debtload in terms of ability to repay the debt.
If you mean "Asian Central Banks" when you say "The World", that's already happening. If you take a look at recent purchases of 10 year and 20 year federal bonds, those banks are slowing their uptake (ie. reducing their holdings), with the slack taken up by private investors and odd little financial groups that magically materialized in the carribean.
The credit card is running dry. The dependable, long-view institutions are closing the purse and leaving the bulk to be handled by the short-view private investor. And this year alone, debt has grown by $300 billion beyond GDP, increasing for the 5th year in a row the debt/GDP ratio. It's nearly at WW2 levels now.
When you have an economy 70% fueled by consumer spending and the credit cards are running dry due to massive debt buildup and leverage of overpriced real estate... well, the ultimate results don't sound terribly appealing.
:(
That is all.
lol
"Now look I say lookee here, son... there be 20 I say 20 points a markin', y'hear?
Nice kid, but about as sharp as a sack I say a sack of bowling balls..."
"...didn't being marked at 20 approximately 20 points."
;)
Maybe I have that gene, 'cuz I can't figure out what you're trying to say there...
A sadly good point.
One thing that could help resolve some of these issues is if immigration canada could take some time and evaluate foreign accreditations better than they currently do. Help solve the woeful issue of emergency room doctors from senegal driving cabs for years waiting for equivalency to practice over here, for sure.
6 months to 2 years? Hardly. I'd be hard pressed to think of any gadget that took longer to get to Canada than the US by any stretch longer than perhaps 2 weeks. When I bought my Canon S-40, I got it in a store here before it was available in the US (Carsand-Mosher has got the hookups!) The device itself was not more expensive than the US version after taking into account exchange (in fact, it was about $10 cheaper... and local bought). GST was added, but that's hardly the 25% premium after 2 year wait you're trying to push.
Considering places like California have between 7.75%-8.75% state sales tax randomly based on a county-by-county basis, GST seems pretty straightforward. For the consumer, anyways.
Gas is more expensive. Not much, but some. During the big gas price spike, there was roughly a 10%-15% difference between the average price in Canada and the US (that was the time I was paying attention to it. I dunno what the difference is at the moment).
As for median incomes, your numbers are way off. The median household income in the US is currently around $44kUSD (~$51kCAD). The median household income in Canada is currently ~$56kCAD (~$48kUSD) and the median household income in vancouver, as of the 2000 Canada Census is ~$77k. Moreover, the downtowns of Vancouver and Toronto are currently in a speculatory bubble environment, not unlike that of Miami, LA, et al. You can get 2000+ sq.ft out in the burbs (maple ridge, for instance) at $100-$200sq ft.
Yeesh, so much intellectual dishonesty. Are you so afraid of an apples-to-apples comparison that you have to be deliberately misleading?
- GDP is a pointless number to base anything on. It counts all the cash that moves around, regardless of whether that cash is spent doing anything productive. You could dig a $1 million dollar hole, then spend another $1 million filling it, and that would increase your GDP by $2 million. Try using purchase price parity or something less... random. Moreover, GDP has basically no effect on the population whatsoever. Median household income is far more pertinent, and currently median household income in Canada (~$56k CAD/year) is around 9% higher than that of the US (~$44k USD/year, or around ~$51k CAD).
- Average total taxation is out of date. The tax situation has changed pretty substantially both north and south of the border since 1998 (for example, exemptions are now indexed to CPI in Canada, dividend income is nontaxable up to 25k, etc). I would love to see an up-to-date version.
- Unemployment rates are calculated completely differently between the US and Canada. Add the 'discouraged' rates to current US unemployment rates, and take into account the difference in labour force utilization (canada routinely has a couple % higher utilization, mostly due to people magically disappearing from US labour force when they don't fall under the specific categories that allows them to be considered employable). Sadly, neither country tracks underemployed people, but I suppose it's a difficult measure to gauge.
- Violent crime statistics in the US are calculated differently than those in Canada. In the US, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crime in the US is comprised of "The number of persons arrested for homicide, forcible rape, robbery or aggravated assault as reported by law enforcement agencies to the FBI." Notice that there is no mention of basic assaults (ie. bar fights) that ARE included in the canadian statistics you provided, and which account for the vast vast majority of incidents reported. However, an apples-to-apples comparison is here. In summary: Violent crime in canada is substantially less, whereas property crime is essentially parallel.
If comparisons MUST be made, at the very least they should be intellectually honest.
Or perhaps you havn't been paying attention?
A quote:
Which brings us full circle to the point of the article. Obviously, Canada has attractions that money can't buy. A general sense of safety, for instance, as exemplified by the people coming home. Thus it's wise (election posturing or no) to give additional incentives to people worthy of being here. Combine that with higher median per-houshold income, not having to worry about declaring bankruptcy if you happen to get sick (oh yes, did you know that half of the bankruptcies in the US are medically related, and that 75% of those bankrupts HAD INSURANCE? Some great coverage, there!), a socially liberal atmosphere and not being in a country that has a leader threatening to veto anti-torture legislation.... well, Canada's lookin' pretty good these days.Not that it'd matter much to you "Hate Canada First" types.
Indeed. You hear about the MRI anecdotes often in heavily taxed areas, but in other places it's a complete nonissue. My mother got an MRI within 1 week here in Halifax. My youngest son was able to get a same-day CAT scan for a relatively innocuous issue involving his sinuses.
Therein lies the rub though, Canadian media does have myopia... they consider the big cities (particularly Toronto) as representative of all of Canada, and therefore any problem in the major urban centers is a problem everywhere. Yes, waiting lists are an issue, but not nearly as grand as some would like to make it appear in order to score political points.
Turns out, income taxes for median incomes (roughly CAD$52k in the US per household, roughly CAD$56k in Canada per household) are more or less equivalent dependant on province vs. state. You'd be better off anywhere in Canada than, say, Texas. If you make 60k or less, you'll probably pay less tax in Canada. If you make 60k or more, you'll pay more. Particularly if you're a landowner... Canada doesn't give big tax breaks for land ownership, which is unfortunate... but you can get a significant portion of dividend income tax free, so if you're getting started in the investor class, you've got some advantages.
GST does make things more expensive, but cost of living varies so widely based on region both in Canada and the US that it's essentially useless to make comparisons.
In this case, the compelling story is that a mother-of-three is doing this to protect her children against a faceless, insensitive and obnoxious corporation. It plays to our desires to root for the underdog. We can all see ourselves in that situation: a lone voice in the wilderness crying out for solace.
In this case, our libel laws are not very forgiving. The burden of proof is set pretty high. Not impossibly so, but perhaps more difficult than an individual could accomodate without becoming some sort of crucading private investigator.
Now, let's take another scenario. An unrelated, fictional woman has an axe to grind over a local construction company based on some imagined slight (say, she thinks they go to work too early in the morning and mess up her sleep). She then engages in a campaign of deliberate misinformation using plausable but falsified events. In this case, the libel laws are quite GOOD, because it puts the burden of proof on the potential libeler to back up their words with proof, and god only knows what kind of damage could be done by one disgruntled and motivated nutcase.
Personally, I think that libel laws SHOULD put the burden on the person making the statements, but there should be increased protection of the little guy 'whistleblower' from being intimidated away from speaking out in protest when its due. An anti-SLAPP style law would go a long way to resolve that weakness.
Either way, it's premature to judge Canada's (really, british common law's) approach as 'inferior' because of one anecdote where the law isn't supportive of the little guy over big business. After all, the same protection extends to the woman in the event this company tried to railroad HER.
Which into what, now?
Ohhh... wasn't that some obscure Mac game from forever ago? Has some sort of lovecraftian theme as I recall.
If it makes you feel any better, you can 'claim' bullet time for the ancient game from an irrelevant platform while you wank off onto your iPod... but talk to the vast majority of people who play games on real computers and they're gonna say "Bullet time? That's Max Payne. And Matrix."
I also wonder how old the developers of FEAR are, and whether or not they were old enough to remember games from the early 90s and not, say, watching "Arthur" reruns after coming home from elementary school.
I just finished it last night.
To me, it was just another run-of-the-mill FPS with some creepy moments thrown in. The most chilling were the sudden appearance of the girl right in front of me when I was on my way down a ladder, and then paxton at the bottom of same. But those were, really, the ONLY two moments that actually raised hair.
The rest of it was standard seek and destroy. The bullet time, er... slo-mo was a nice touch, even if it was an obvious ripoff of Max Payne.
That said, FEAR was infinitely better than the pisspoor Doom 3, where it was all "open a door, monster appears... open another door, another monster appears". iD software: great engines, crap games. It'd also be nice to see a game come from iD where the textures weren't made in 4096 shades of black.
Now, as for creep factor, how about the Mad Hatter's workshop in American McGee's Alice? Poor fucking borgified churchmouse twitching away on the bench. Now THAT gave me chills.
Heh, my wife always made me do that part for her. "It makes me too jumpy!" she'd say, cuz of the lightbulbs popping and so forth.
It's funny how something like a little toy car rolling out into the hallway can give you a chill. It was quite well done.
I enjoyed the thing-that-is-not-quite-a-vampire who was snacking on the reality TV show crew too.