I've actually been a part of a few car forums and that's usually the attitude I run into. It's generally just the occasional young asshole who openly admits to speeding like that. The rest either speak out against it or at least don't admit to it.
I successfully ran every Civ4 expansion/patch under various versions of Ubuntu with relatively little effort. A popular game like Civ usually gets enough attention that's it's not a huge issue.
Civ5 might take a while with the overhaul it's gotten, but I'm willing to bet it will eventually run with WINE.
I think it even goes beyond that. I'm constantly reading these stories about how sophisticated ancient civilizations were compared to our previous belief, and even about mankind's more-ancient ancestors. I'm convinced that our ancestors were much more advanced in nearly every way than we give them credit for.
I suspect that some of that is that we want to believe we've developed beyond our views of our 'primitive' ancestors, and that desire helps to keep us from seeing the truth. Imagine what will be left of our civilization in a few thousand years (especially if electronic records don't survive). They'll be making all kinds of crazy guesses that will almost certainly be completely inaccurate.
and it's modded 70% INSIGHTFUL? (as I'm posting, anyway)
Look, I get that people thought it was funny and want to give the guy points, but come on... Welcome to Slashdot, I guess. Sometimes I wish I were a zombie; then I wouldn't be reading this stuff.
Mod me down, folks. The points obviously don't mean a damn thing anymore.
I was going to just mod GP up, but I feel like typing:
Contact my boss and HR to have my title changed to meet your, apparently, delicate sensibilities. Either that, or get off your high horse and stop complaining about arbitrary job titles that change at the mere whim of the aforementioned persons.
Or, to put it another way, stop being so damn pedantic. I've honestly never seen a rant so serious about something so meaningless.
Well, no, this has nothing to do with being pedantic. The meaning of the word 'engineer' has been diluted. Any schmuck with a bit of common sense and a computer can learn to be a 'computer engineer' or whatever silly, meaningless title you feel like making up. It only got to be like that because people wanted to make boring jobs sound better than they actually were. This doesn't necessarily apply to you because I don't know what your job is, but people should suck it up and be realistic about what their job is.
I spent my time, money, and a HELL of a lot of effort to become a REAL engineer. That should mean something. It USED to mean something. People don't walk around calling themselves doctors and lawyers without the degrees/certifications/whatever. I'm not about to start writing letters or what have you, but GP makes a good point. It should not be dismissed just because you want to feel important when you tell people what your job is.
That depends on perspective. Personally, I would love for Gnome to be completely unique (as long as its usability is good). However, among the people that I help with computer issues, there has been a lot of interest in free (no cost) software and I've fairly easily transitioned them to open source Windows apps. A 'close enough' interface for Linux would let a lot of them switch without a significant learning curve, which would reduce their computer problems, make my life easier, and possibly extend the life of their hardware.
Again, I don't disagree (something other than Gnome should fill that gap), but there are people with a different perspective that's perfectly valid.
This is what the FDA (in the USA) is for. There are similar organizations in other countries.
I do quality assurance for a medical device manufacturer. Anybody who has dealt with medical devices and the FDA knows that you don't mess with the FDA. Period. They take public safety very, very seriously.
Opening code to the public is not necessarily the best way to do this. I can't say it's definitively a BAD thing, but I can see it causing more issues than it's worth. If everybody knows how the device works, everybody has the potential to exploit it, and many devices would not be easily fixed - pacemakers and the like, obviously, are not removed very often. I see quite a bit of potential for trouble when it comes to medical stuff.
Oh I can't stand the random drops in TF2. I like the game, but I'm the type of guy that tends to stick to a playstyle that I find interesting. In other games, you get items because you work on the relevant skills. In TF2, I play engineer or soldier and get a pile of medic and sniper junk, which I don't care to ever use.
At times, I even wish I could go back to the early days before all the junk.
I'm a mechanical engineer, myself. True, vocation and university education are not the same. It's also true that, with engineering, you need to know how to do the basics so you can apply abstract ideas and theory to the real world. Anyway, while we were required to learn how to do all the vocational-ish stuff, we weren't required to gain true proficiency in welding, machining, etc, just competency. Many of us learned above and beyond that, but it wasn't required. (I was actually a fairly good machinist back when I was more hands-on, but it didn't do much for me in school other than the enjoyment I got from working with my hands.)
I'm sure it depends somewhat on the school and subject matter, of course.
I'm also in New York state, so this might still be skewed, but we did that too, with a bit more granularity. There were multiple groups for math, science, and reading, starting as early as first grade.
There also is a fair amount of differentiation in subject matter as you move up in grade level. We were required to meet certain minimums in the major subjects, but we got to choose how we filled our schedules beyond those. Myself, I added in advanced placement math and science courses, engineering courses, and played an instrument in the band. It's hardly as simple as some people like to imply.
His response seems perfectly reasonable to me. It just sounds like he just made a poor choice for his field of study. Like you said, probably because of pressure from elsewhere. It doesn't mean his original logic was bad.
I love working with computers and technology, but if computers became my job, it would ruin my hobby. I would hate having to do support and programming for me would stop being interesting if I could only work on things other people wanted me to work on. Strangely enough, I'm also mechanical engineer (of course I did graduate and I have a good job). The only things I don't like are the issues of office politics, ignorant people, etc. I'd be dealing with those same things if I were in a computer job.
A non-trivial number of all customers are morons. All it takes is a tiny bit of bad publicity and they pounce, looking for a quick buck or 15 minutes of fame. It's unfortunate that the company will suffer for it, but I doubt if it change things too much. Toyota is such a powerhouse in the auto industry that I expect they will be around for a while.
Yes, and it likely is mostly stupid people or people trying to take advantage, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of an actual problem with Toyotas. There likely IS some kind of problem and it's just been blown way out of proportion.
One of the stories this will turn up is the recall of Audi 5000's in the 1980s. 60 Minutes covered the story and claimed to demonstrate the effect. They actually faked it with a compressed air bottle.
This topic has come up dozens of times, on dozens of models, in dozens of countries. To date, 100% of the time it's driver error.
Maury
I mean from these same models of Toyotas. Toyota (most car companies for that matter) share lots of stuff between their various models. If there actually is a problem with the US version of the car, there should be more cars in the rest of the world that have the same problem. If not, I'd attribute most (if not all) of this crap to people trying to take advantage of the situation.
Not that I believe this is the disaster people are making it out to be, but an ECU problem could prevent the engine from shutting off like that. Regardless, I haven't seen much evidence that the brakes were applied in the majority of these cases.
Even if the ECU had a glitch and applied the gas, the brakes are an independent mechanical system. These incidents always required the simultaneous failure of too many different systems for something other than driver error to be the most likely problem.
Somebody please mod this up (I have points but I already posted...)
Brakes are an independent system. It's a safety feature. Regardless of what the computer is saying, the brakes do work in these vehicles. There should be physical evidence of the brakes being applied in most of the legitimate cases.
Given how many times things like this have happened, you're probably right. However, we also know the first part is true. There are some truly stupid people, as well as other people that just plain shouldn't be driving for various reasons. I'd like to see/hear/read some better evidence one way or the other.
I do similar types of investigations for my job and almost everything I've seen so far (from both camps) is circumstantial and/or loaded with assumptions. Surely there must be SOME relationship between the cars this has happened with. If there is, we have our first step to recreating the problem in a controlled environment. Until we can do that...
Actually, have any of these types of accidents happened in the rest of the world? I don't recall hearing/reading about them.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sorry, but it does NOT cost them 20 cents per SMS message. Yet somehow ALL of the major players have settled on that for text messages?
I'm not saying it's a giant conspiracy, but don't delude yourself. They have NOT reached the floor on their prices.
I've actually been a part of a few car forums and that's usually the attitude I run into. It's generally just the occasional young asshole who openly admits to speeding like that. The rest either speak out against it or at least don't admit to it.
Standard Steam DRM only. Log in to install and/or update and you can run it in offline mode the rest of the time. There are no install limits.
Personally, I like it as I use Steam anyway. Now I can play it on my desktop and laptop without having to fiddle with cracks/cd images/whatever.
I successfully ran every Civ4 expansion/patch under various versions of Ubuntu with relatively little effort. A popular game like Civ usually gets enough attention that's it's not a huge issue.
Civ5 might take a while with the overhaul it's gotten, but I'm willing to bet it will eventually run with WINE.
That's not at all what I meant and I hope to insert nonexistent deity here you knew that.
There was a time, though, when an Insightful post actually was somewhat insightful.
I think it even goes beyond that. I'm constantly reading these stories about how sophisticated ancient civilizations were compared to our previous belief, and even about mankind's more-ancient ancestors. I'm convinced that our ancestors were much more advanced in nearly every way than we give them credit for.
I suspect that some of that is that we want to believe we've developed beyond our views of our 'primitive' ancestors, and that desire helps to keep us from seeing the truth. Imagine what will be left of our civilization in a few thousand years (especially if electronic records don't survive). They'll be making all kinds of crazy guesses that will almost certainly be completely inaccurate.
and it's modded 70% INSIGHTFUL? (as I'm posting, anyway)
Look, I get that people thought it was funny and want to give the guy points, but come on... Welcome to Slashdot, I guess. Sometimes I wish I were a zombie; then I wouldn't be reading this stuff.
Mod me down, folks. The points obviously don't mean a damn thing anymore.
I was going to just mod GP up, but I feel like typing:
Contact my boss and HR to have my title changed to meet your, apparently, delicate sensibilities. Either that, or get off your high horse and stop complaining about arbitrary job titles that change at the mere whim of the aforementioned persons.
Or, to put it another way, stop being so damn pedantic. I've honestly never seen a rant so serious about something so meaningless.
Well, no, this has nothing to do with being pedantic. The meaning of the word 'engineer' has been diluted. Any schmuck with a bit of common sense and a computer can learn to be a 'computer engineer' or whatever silly, meaningless title you feel like making up. It only got to be like that because people wanted to make boring jobs sound better than they actually were. This doesn't necessarily apply to you because I don't know what your job is, but people should suck it up and be realistic about what their job is.
I spent my time, money, and a HELL of a lot of effort to become a REAL engineer. That should mean something. It USED to mean something. People don't walk around calling themselves doctors and lawyers without the degrees/certifications/whatever. I'm not about to start writing letters or what have you, but GP makes a good point. It should not be dismissed just because you want to feel important when you tell people what your job is.
That depends on perspective. Personally, I would love for Gnome to be completely unique (as long as its usability is good). However, among the people that I help with computer issues, there has been a lot of interest in free (no cost) software and I've fairly easily transitioned them to open source Windows apps. A 'close enough' interface for Linux would let a lot of them switch without a significant learning curve, which would reduce their computer problems, make my life easier, and possibly extend the life of their hardware.
Again, I don't disagree (something other than Gnome should fill that gap), but there are people with a different perspective that's perfectly valid.
This is what the FDA (in the USA) is for. There are similar organizations in other countries.
I do quality assurance for a medical device manufacturer. Anybody who has dealt with medical devices and the FDA knows that you don't mess with the FDA. Period. They take public safety very, very seriously.
Opening code to the public is not necessarily the best way to do this. I can't say it's definitively a BAD thing, but I can see it causing more issues than it's worth. If everybody knows how the device works, everybody has the potential to exploit it, and many devices would not be easily fixed - pacemakers and the like, obviously, are not removed very often. I see quite a bit of potential for trouble when it comes to medical stuff.
Blue Face of Death.
Oh I can't stand the random drops in TF2. I like the game, but I'm the type of guy that tends to stick to a playstyle that I find interesting. In other games, you get items because you work on the relevant skills. In TF2, I play engineer or soldier and get a pile of medic and sniper junk, which I don't care to ever use.
At times, I even wish I could go back to the early days before all the junk.
What the heck Slashdot? You eat my reply, then give it back after I try again? Who designed this crap?
I assume that last line was supposed to read 'exec povtoggle.cfg'
Might be important if anyone intends to use the script and doesn't read closely.
I assume that last line was supposed to read 'exec povtoggle.cfg'
Might be important if anyone intends to use it and doesn't bother to read closely.
I'm a mechanical engineer, myself. True, vocation and university education are not the same. It's also true that, with engineering, you need to know how to do the basics so you can apply abstract ideas and theory to the real world. Anyway, while we were required to learn how to do all the vocational-ish stuff, we weren't required to gain true proficiency in welding, machining, etc, just competency. Many of us learned above and beyond that, but it wasn't required. (I was actually a fairly good machinist back when I was more hands-on, but it didn't do much for me in school other than the enjoyment I got from working with my hands.)
I'm sure it depends somewhat on the school and subject matter, of course.
I'm also in New York state, so this might still be skewed, but we did that too, with a bit more granularity. There were multiple groups for math, science, and reading, starting as early as first grade.
There also is a fair amount of differentiation in subject matter as you move up in grade level. We were required to meet certain minimums in the major subjects, but we got to choose how we filled our schedules beyond those. Myself, I added in advanced placement math and science courses, engineering courses, and played an instrument in the band. It's hardly as simple as some people like to imply.
His response seems perfectly reasonable to me. It just sounds like he just made a poor choice for his field of study. Like you said, probably because of pressure from elsewhere. It doesn't mean his original logic was bad.
I love working with computers and technology, but if computers became my job, it would ruin my hobby. I would hate having to do support and programming for me would stop being interesting if I could only work on things other people wanted me to work on. Strangely enough, I'm also mechanical engineer (of course I did graduate and I have a good job). The only things I don't like are the issues of office politics, ignorant people, etc. I'd be dealing with those same things if I were in a computer job.
A non-trivial number of all customers are morons. All it takes is a tiny bit of bad publicity and they pounce, looking for a quick buck or 15 minutes of fame. It's unfortunate that the company will suffer for it, but I doubt if it change things too much. Toyota is such a powerhouse in the auto industry that I expect they will be around for a while.
Yes, and it likely is mostly stupid people or people trying to take advantage, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of an actual problem with Toyotas. There likely IS some kind of problem and it's just been blown way out of proportion.
> I don't recall hearing/reading about them.
Oh please... google up "sudden acceleration".
One of the stories this will turn up is the recall of Audi 5000's in the 1980s. 60 Minutes covered the story and claimed to demonstrate the effect. They actually faked it with a compressed air bottle.
This topic has come up dozens of times, on dozens of models, in dozens of countries. To date, 100% of the time it's driver error.
Maury
I mean from these same models of Toyotas. Toyota (most car companies for that matter) share lots of stuff between their various models. If there actually is a problem with the US version of the car, there should be more cars in the rest of the world that have the same problem. If not, I'd attribute most (if not all) of this crap to people trying to take advantage of the situation.
Not that I believe this is the disaster people are making it out to be, but an ECU problem could prevent the engine from shutting off like that. Regardless, I haven't seen much evidence that the brakes were applied in the majority of these cases.
Even if the ECU had a glitch and applied the gas, the brakes are an independent mechanical system. These incidents always required the simultaneous failure of too many different systems for something other than driver error to be the most likely problem.
Somebody please mod this up (I have points but I already posted...)
Brakes are an independent system. It's a safety feature. Regardless of what the computer is saying, the brakes do work in these vehicles. There should be physical evidence of the brakes being applied in most of the legitimate cases.
Given how many times things like this have happened, you're probably right. However, we also know the first part is true. There are some truly stupid people, as well as other people that just plain shouldn't be driving for various reasons. I'd like to see/hear/read some better evidence one way or the other.
I do similar types of investigations for my job and almost everything I've seen so far (from both camps) is circumstantial and/or loaded with assumptions. Surely there must be SOME relationship between the cars this has happened with. If there is, we have our first step to recreating the problem in a controlled environment. Until we can do that...
Actually, have any of these types of accidents happened in the rest of the world? I don't recall hearing/reading about them.
I fully expect to get modded into oblivion, but I can't help myself:
I gave my boss face
I don't know exactly what that means, but I hope you got a raise after.