Things like this make me care enough to make me stop lurking, get an account, and finally post
Since you're admitedly a newbie poster, i have to warn you about something: - Contrary to popular belief, having 50 Karma on Slashdot is NOT a chick magnet!!!
...why did the US Congress write a bill legalizing an invasion of the Netherlands in case the proposed International Court tries to hold American citizens for war crimes?
Up to now it's only just talk, posture, look mean. Most animals do that too (not only man) - it has no meaning.
I'm thinking real actions here.
Do you really believe that there would be no security, economic and diplomatic repercussions if the US invaded The Netherlands?
It's clear that the US has the military might to do such a thing. Still, the current wealth of the US and it's citizens (just like most western countries and Japan) is very dependent on economic ties, flows of capital and inter-nation commerce. Any action that would harm such relations would utterly smash the US economy (the current recession would look like a glitch in comparison).
Any such event would definitly not destroy the US as a nation. It would, however, end the prospertity of the USA.
Somehow I doubt it'd be all that difficult for the US or NATO or the EU to put together a rescue operation if anyone does get jailed, too. Zimbabwe's military isn't exactly well-trained...
This is about the most simple minded view i have ever seen in relation to armed intervention into another country's sovereign territory.
Those things are not comonly done not because of military inability but because of political constraints (and good old common sense).
- Say that a nation would actually arbitrarily spring their nationals from jails in sovereign nations through the use of armed interventions into the territory of said sovereign nations. - Other nations could not trust that nation - after all, in practice they were arbitrarily attacking other nations (an armed attack into another nation is still an armed attack, even if you call it a "rescue operation") - No trust impacts into: business deals; military cooperation; intelligence cooperation; diplomatic cooperation - This in turn impacts into: economy (for example, no licences to dril oil for companies from that nation); security (think no foreign cooperation/intel on the war on terror); international agreements (nobody would side with that nation, it would be excluded from even participating in agreements which would be beneficial to it)
Do you think you will retain it from your boss/co-workers?
My experience is that you end up getting more respect both from your boss and from your co-workers.
If you are worthy and you fight to have it rewarded ( for real, NOT a pat on the back - talk is cheap) and end up achieving it, then people will respect (even admire) you for it. (i've been there)
[..] if you've worked your ass off, and management didn't see a need to give you a raise until you threatened to leave em, it's just a sign that they'll keep you on temporarily until they find someone to replace you [..]
No way could it be farther from the truth.
If you don't ask for a raise you won't get it, period.
Very few managers are actually competent enough to take the long-term view and actually try and keep their best staff happier. If you don't say anything, even the competent ones cannot know your are unhappy because of your salary.
Even managers that are trying to keep their staff happy have to balance between two oposites: 1) Beter salaries for employees (sometimes having to fight through mid-level/upper management to do it) on the possibility they might become unhappy/leave because of their salary vs 2) Lower salaries, more profit for the company, bigger bonuses and improved image for the manager.
What incentives can you give a manager to align their objectives with your objectives (ie, choose option 1) - from less powerfull to more powerfull: a) Tell them you are unhappy with your salary. b) Start looking for a job and let them know about it (best after using the previous option). c) Come to them with an offer in your hand and tell them you are seriously considering it. (again best after the previous option).
These options are progressivly more effective but also progressively more risky (ie the manager might decide to let you go - then again, if you are in step c, it really doesn't mater).
One very important thing to have in mind is to let them know this is ONLY a salary question, and that you are happy with all the rest and would like to stay around if it wasn't for the salary. If the perception from the manager is that a salary raise will not address the main causes of your dicontentment, then they will probably let you go (unless your are really considered essencial).
Even more important - think through very well why are you unhappy. Are you really sure it's only the salary? If it's something else, maybe you should go to management and try to address it. If it doesn't get solved just leave!!! Believe me, no ammount of salary raise will be enough to compensate the constant feeling of unhapinness.
... comments from people saying "My music collection has grown at the same rate, I only use it to sample, I listen to albums that aren't available from new bands" etc. etc.
The fact of the matter is people used Napster and are using these filesharing applications mainly because they get it for free.
One word: commodity.
I freely admit i use Kazaa to download music. Even more, i rarelly buy CDs nowadays (after my Nth experience of buying a CD full of crap plus 1 good song i decided i had been screwed once too much).
You know what? Kazaa is very suited for impulse buy (only here the price is zero): - You listen to a music in TV; you like it; you get it! As simple as that.
What are the downsides: - Irregular quality. - Not that great speeds. - No guarantee you will find what you're looking for.
Would i be willing to pay for a service that offered me any music, at a reasonable speed, flat fee, quality guaranteed (the files, not necessarily the music) and in a format i could freely use with whatever playing devices i have (MP3)?
Damn sure i would!!! For free access to The Universal Jukebox i would definitly pay as much as i pay for my cable connection!!!
Now - compare this to the stuff the music industry is offering: - Pay per music. - Proprietary format, incompatible with anything but a PC with Windows (how usefull can THAT be). - Completly and totally locked-in into they system (c'mon, you cancel your subscription and you cannot listen to the music YOU ALREADY DOWNLOADED anymore - it's an insult to one's inteligence )
I'll stick to Kazaa until the music industry comes to their senses.
Anyways, a space vehicle can actually be propelled by light alone (no reaction mass needed - Solar sail).
This is due to the fact that light actually exerts pressure on any surface it shines on (altough very little) - thus, the idea is to deploy a big sail in a spaceship (in space, not inside the atmosphere) and use the pressure of solar radiation to propel it.
Due to the fact that the pressure per unit of area is proportional to the intensity of the light (Formulas for the mathematical inclined), a (really powerfull) laser can be used to provide a significant boost to said solar sail, with a much smaller decrease of the radiation intensity versus distance than the one you get from the sun's radiation (ie when the ship gets to Pluto, the Sun's radiation is very weak, while the laser's is still strong).
However, I believe their skills are more rare. Namely, the ability to understand financials, set vision, and manage people is very rare.
That's the "advertised" view - CEO's are somewhat more able, or are able in areas we (who's we) don't really understand.
Come to think of it, the whole top-to-bottom structuring of salaries/rewards is based on the theory that people higher up in the hierarchy are more experienced/skilled/able than people lower down in the hierarchy and thus need a proporcionaly better reward.
When i started working in IT, i was a bright-eyed kid that trully believed that if someone was above me in the hierachy and/or getting a bigger salary, that was because they were beter than me.
After years in IT, having contacted with all levels of management (including CEOs) and having developed some of the people-skills which i was never taught in my technical degree (things like networking - the people type of networking - which are taught in management degrees but not technical ones) i came to the conclusion that decieving is the most rewarded ability in IT:
Disinformation - don't let people know they're being shafted.
Getting the credits not the blame - taking advantage of other people's successes (for CEOs - ride the wave of a market wide growth and claim your companie's growth as a result of your "vision") and dumping the blame for your mistakes on others ("the market is going down").
The appearence of success - if you look successful you will be rewarded as such
A success now at the cost of long-term losses - "by the time things fall down i'll be long gone in a new coushy job"
...
I've seen these over and over and over, and i'm still amazed at the stupidity (or maybe ability for self-decieving) of most people which cannot see beyond the outer layer (or maybe just won't do anything about it).
I myself hade to sink my hands in to the guts of the best game Microsoft ever made (Nibbles, comes with QBasic on DOS) because the machine was too fast and caused a divide-by-zero exception on the time calibration routines.
No wonder there's a huge fragmentation in the Linux world - it's all a problem of excessive number of libraries.
Just look at this, they've done a foolib and a barlib - c'mon guys, everybody knows that foo.c and bar.c are just example names, why create a lib for each of them?
Next thing you know and they'le come up with a helloworldlib or maybe put a web site on example.org
sin(x)*sin(y) = cos(x+y)/2 + cos(x-y)/2 (or something like that, i sorta forgot the precise formula)
Anyways - Assume x is the frequency of the carrier wave - Assume y is the frequency of the modulating wave - sin(x)*sin(y) is the carrier wave modulated by the modulating wave
Food for thought: 1) Which is the strongest driving force for Console/Console-Accessories/Console-Games: a) Whinning kids. b) Grownups buying presents.
This whole MS approach to selling a "clean" network for kids to play in will appeal to parents but not necessarily to the kids.
2) Can/Will Microsoft buy legislation forcing ISPs/GameNetworks/etc... to "protect" children?
If they get there first and then they buy the legislation, they will be first to market with a product designed to fit that legislation (actually it will be the legislation designed to fit the products, but in practice it's the same).
Ok - i'm just a non-Dutch learning Dutch, but it seems to me that there is no at- prefix in Dutch. There is a ver- prefix which would more or less match your description.
Just to make sure i looked in the dictionary and there are about 30 words starting with "at", and none of them seems to use it as a prefix.
Could any expert in Dutch (out of at least 15 million) please clarify?
Slashdot Mirror
So, does your product include a vibrating ring option?
If so, will it also be available to install into any part of the body by customers choice?
Things like this make me care enough to make me stop lurking, get an account, and finally post
Since you're admitedly a newbie poster, i have to warn you about something:
- Contrary to popular belief, having 50 Karma on Slashdot is NOT a chick magnet!!!
Actually, since the second person pulled one out of a box ...
I suspect you didn't notice that i was actually the only one talking about p0rn ...
.. the sweet flavour of irony ...
Aaah
we can all drool over the other possibilities
It's always the same on Slashdot - somebody will eventually end up talking about p0rn...
I'm disgusted!!!
...why did the US Congress write a bill legalizing an invasion of the Netherlands in case the proposed International Court tries to hold American citizens for war crimes?
Up to now it's only just talk, posture, look mean. Most animals do that too (not only man) - it has no meaning.
I'm thinking real actions here.
Do you really believe that there would be no security, economic and diplomatic repercussions if the US invaded The Netherlands?
It's clear that the US has the military might to do such a thing. Still, the current wealth of the US and it's citizens (just like most western countries and Japan) is very dependent on economic ties, flows of capital and inter-nation commerce.
Any action that would harm such relations would utterly smash the US economy (the current recession would look like a glitch in comparison).
Any such event would definitly not destroy the US as a nation. It would, however, end the prospertity of the USA.
What choice do you think will be made?
No, but if the guy on the other side of the border shoots you in the head with an AK-47, what're you gonna do about it?
Well, it depends - unless one has a very thick skull or the other guy has a really bad aim i suspect the what one does in such a situation is die.
Then again IANAPTGSITHWAAK47 ( I Am Not A Person That Got Shot In The Head With An AK-47 )
Somehow I doubt it'd be all that difficult for the US or NATO or the EU to put together a rescue operation if anyone does get jailed, too. Zimbabwe's military isn't exactly well-trained...
This is about the most simple minded view i have ever seen in relation to armed intervention into another country's sovereign territory.
Those things are not comonly done not because of military inability but because of political constraints (and good old common sense).
- Say that a nation would actually arbitrarily spring their nationals from jails in sovereign nations through the use of armed interventions into the territory of said sovereign nations.
- Other nations could not trust that nation - after all, in practice they were arbitrarily attacking other nations (an armed attack into another nation is still an armed attack, even if you call it a "rescue operation")
- No trust impacts into: business deals; military cooperation; intelligence cooperation; diplomatic cooperation
- This in turn impacts into: economy (for example, no licences to dril oil for companies from that nation); security (think no foreign cooperation/intel on the war on terror); international agreements (nobody would side with that nation, it would be excluded from even participating in agreements which would be beneficial to it)
An this is just scrapping the surface...
Do you think you will retain it from your boss/co-workers?
My experience is that you end up getting more respect both from your boss and from your co-workers.
If you are worthy and you fight to have it rewarded ( for real, NOT a pat on the back - talk is cheap) and end up achieving it, then people will respect (even admire) you for it. (i've been there)
[..] if you've worked your ass off, and management didn't see a need to give you a raise until you threatened to leave em, it's just a sign that they'll keep you on temporarily until they find someone to replace you [..]
:
No way could it be farther from the truth.
If you don't ask for a raise you won't get it, period.
Very few managers are actually competent enough to take the long-term view and actually try and keep their best staff happier. If you don't say anything, even the competent ones cannot know your are unhappy because of your salary.
Even managers that are trying to keep their staff happy have to balance between two oposites:
1) Beter salaries for employees (sometimes having to fight through mid-level/upper management to do it) on the possibility they might become unhappy/leave because of their salary
vs
2) Lower salaries, more profit for the company, bigger bonuses and improved image for the manager.
What incentives can you give a manager to align their objectives with your objectives (ie, choose option 1) - from less powerfull to more powerfull
a) Tell them you are unhappy with your salary.
b) Start looking for a job and let them know about it (best after using the previous option).
c) Come to them with an offer in your hand and tell them you are seriously considering it. (again best after the previous option).
These options are progressivly more effective but also progressively more risky (ie the manager might decide to let you go - then again, if you are in step c, it really doesn't mater).
One very important thing to have in mind is to let them know this is ONLY a salary question, and that you are happy with all the rest and would like to stay around if it wasn't for the salary.
If the perception from the manager is that a salary raise will not address the main causes of your dicontentment, then they will probably let you go (unless your are really considered essencial).
Even more important - think through very well why are you unhappy. Are you really sure it's only the salary? If it's something else, maybe you should go to management and try to address it. If it doesn't get solved just leave!!! Believe me, no ammount of salary raise will be enough to compensate the constant feeling of unhapinness.
The fact of the matter is people used Napster and are using these filesharing applications mainly because they get it for free.
One word: commodity.
I freely admit i use Kazaa to download music. Even more, i rarelly buy CDs nowadays (after my Nth experience of buying a CD full of crap plus 1 good song i decided i had been screwed once too much).
You know what? Kazaa is very suited for impulse buy (only here the price is zero):
- You listen to a music in TV; you like it; you get it!
As simple as that.
What are the downsides:
- Irregular quality.
- Not that great speeds.
- No guarantee you will find what you're looking for.
Would i be willing to pay for a service that offered me any music, at a reasonable speed, flat fee, quality guaranteed (the files, not necessarily the music) and in a format i could freely use with whatever playing devices i have (MP3)?
Damn sure i would!!! For free access to The Universal Jukebox i would definitly pay as much as i pay for my cable connection!!!
Now - compare this to the stuff the music industry is offering:
- Pay per music.
- Proprietary format, incompatible with anything but a PC with Windows (how usefull can THAT be).
- Completly and totally locked-in into they system (c'mon, you cancel your subscription and you cannot listen to the music YOU ALREADY DOWNLOADED anymore - it's an insult to one's inteligence )
I'll stick to Kazaa until the music industry comes to their senses.
Well... almost. ( sorry couldn't resist )
Anyways, a space vehicle can actually be propelled by light alone (no reaction mass needed - Solar sail).
This is due to the fact that light actually exerts pressure on any surface it shines on (altough very little) - thus, the idea is to deploy a big sail in a spaceship (in space, not inside the atmosphere) and use the pressure of solar radiation to propel it.
Due to the fact that the pressure per unit of area is proportional to the intensity of the light (Formulas for the mathematical inclined), a (really powerfull) laser can be used to provide a significant boost to said solar sail, with a much smaller decrease of the radiation intensity versus distance than the one you get from the sun's radiation (ie when the ship gets to Pluto, the Sun's radiation is very weak, while the laser's is still strong).
That's the "advertised" view - CEO's are somewhat more able, or are able in areas we (who's we) don't really understand.
Come to think of it, the whole top-to-bottom structuring of salaries/rewards is based on the theory that people higher up in the hierarchy are more experienced/skilled/able than people lower down in the hierarchy and thus need a proporcionaly better reward.
When i started working in IT, i was a bright-eyed kid that trully believed that if someone was above me in the hierachy and/or getting a bigger salary, that was because they were beter than me.
After years in IT, having contacted with all levels of management (including CEOs) and having developed some of the people-skills which i was never taught in my technical degree (things like networking - the people type of networking - which are taught in management degrees but not technical ones) i came to the conclusion that decieving is the most rewarded ability in IT:
I've seen these over and over and over, and i'm still amazed at the stupidity (or maybe ability for self-decieving) of most people which cannot see beyond the outer layer (or maybe just won't do anything about it).
It made me think of the Philosophers Soccer Match sketch from Monthy Pythons
THEY STOLE MY ELECTRONS!!!
...
Shocking !!!
And now some words from our sponsor, the lameness filter
I share your pain!!!
....
I myself hade to sink my hands in to the guts of the best game Microsoft ever made (Nibbles, comes with QBasic on DOS) because the machine was too fast and caused a divide-by-zero exception on the time calibration routines.
Oh, the pain
No wonder there's a huge fragmentation in the Linux world - it's all a problem of excessive number of libraries.
Just look at this, they've done a foolib and a barlib - c'mon guys, everybody knows that foo.c and bar.c are just example names, why create a lib for each of them?
Next thing you know and they'le come up with a helloworldlib or maybe put a web site on example.org
Yep - all them missiles got really confused!!!
sin(x)*sin(y) = cos(x+y)/2 + cos(x-y)/2
(or something like that, i sorta forgot the precise formula)
Anyways
- Assume x is the frequency of the carrier wave
- Assume y is the frequency of the modulating wave
- sin(x)*sin(y) is the carrier wave modulated by the modulating wave
Draw your own conclusions...
transferring the equivalent of an entire compact disc's contents across more than 7608 miles (12,272 km) of network in 13 seconds
It's probably the DNA codes for a polar worm.
It might fail, or it might not...
Food for thought:
1) Which is the strongest driving force for Console/Console-Accessories/Console-Games:
a) Whinning kids.
b) Grownups buying presents.
This whole MS approach to selling a "clean" network for kids to play in will appeal to parents but not necessarily to the kids.
2) Can/Will Microsoft buy legislation forcing ISPs/GameNetworks/etc... to "protect" children?
If they get there first and then they buy the legislation, they will be first to market with a product designed to fit that legislation (actually it will be the legislation designed to fit the products, but in practice it's the same).
But the real culprit when it comes to poor software are time and resource pressures, feature creep, and other environmental factors.
THAT explains the "This is a ugly hack" comments i keep finding when going through somebody else's code!!!
Start cuting down and burying trees now!!!
Sure it will take a little will, but all that oil will be there in the future.
Help the future generations - think of the little children!!!
Ok - i'm just a non-Dutch learning Dutch, but it seems to me that there is no at- prefix in Dutch. There is a ver- prefix which would more or less match your description.
Just to make sure i looked in the dictionary and there are about 30 words starting with "at", and none of them seems to use it as a prefix.
Could any expert in Dutch (out of at least 15 million) please clarify?