That's true, but we had a "What recovery CDs do you carry with you?" askslashdot just the other day. What does this bring to the discussion that that didn't, other than a tighter size constraint? (Although personally, if I were to carry recovery tools around with me on CD, I'd not want to carry more than 1-2 CDs anyway, making the constraint comparable...)
Every pager I've ever seen comes with a setting called vibrate.
Likewise, here in the UK it's been quite a few years since I saw a mobile phone that didn't have a "vibrate only" setting. In fact, my phone is switched to that permanently. Check the caller display, and if it looks like it might be important, go somewhere you won't disturb people!
Well, given that the techie knew about the legal requirement to keep the backups (or he wouldn't have been asking for the money in the first place), he of course kept an audit trail of the conversations and so could demonstrate to the judge that it was not his responsibility as he had done all he could.
Oh, the slime - somehow the floor never seems that bad while I'm there, until I get home and see the state of my boots and the bottom of my trouser legs.
Still, it's better than it used to be - I still remember the days when the stairs were literally treacherously slippery, and you daren't sit on them for fear of the crap soaking through the seat of your trousers. (Unless you happened to be wearing PVC, of course...)
Oh absolutely - gaming and C# are the only things really keeping me on Windows (that and the fact that I bought my copy of XP Pro already, and that I personally prefer the look and feel). In fact for a couple of years Linux was my primary OS. I switched back when I realised that I was using it not because I loved Linux, but because I hated Windows, and that I no longer hated Windows having used XP for a while.
I've seen some fair evidence that in many cases a freak is a geek with fashion sense;)
We used to joke that if a meteorite were ever to hit Slimelight on a Saturday night, most of the servers in London would be fucked within a week; so many of us there were sysadmins, programmers or various related techy-types.
(oh and I gave up on the blue swithcing between colours can make your hair melt, just black no. 1 right now)
Indeed; years ago a friend of mine had dyed and bleached his hair so much that eventually when he bleached it one day in preparation for the next colour, most of it simply snapped and fell off. He ended up shaving most of it off and wearing a hat for a while.
2. The target is too big and the OS too poorly designed for running a reasonably safe desktop.
Bullshit - see for example my desktop. Despite P2P usage and running executables from unknown/untrusted sources, I've not had a single infection since I installed it 5+ years ago. Congratulations on getting your "bashes M$" positive moderation though.
as the DirectX seems to have more pretty functionality than OpenGL
Let me fend off the obvious replies by saying simply that DirectX encompasses far more functionality than OpenGL does, and that that's by design. What you *should* be comparing is Direct3D and OpenGL.
(And yes, I knew what you meant, but you know what pedants us slashbots can be)
That's nice, and believe me I'll be at the head of the line to grab a copy of UT2k7, but that's just one game. The number of (commercial/big name) games released for Windows still outnumbers those available for Linux by several orders of magnitude, even if you only count *good* games...
Why do we need to know what happened at the beginning of the universe? It has no bearing on our lives at all.
Prove it. Prove that the physics that we learn doing such experiments will have no bearing on our lives.
For years, you could say the same thing about quantum mechanics; now, there are increasing numbers of devices that rely on quantum mechanical effects for their operation (see, eg, superconducting quantum interference devices). Also, as I love to remind people in this sort of situation, the laser was sat in research labs for years before anyone thought of a use for it; now I 2 within a few centimetres of me right now, and another 4 elsewhere in my house.
but I can tell you what will happen when we as a massive clump of atoms meet our fate. A black hole, maybe even the one we will more than likely create, will grow larger and larger until it sucks up most of the entire universe, resulting in it reaching critical mass, and creating another big bang, restarting the whole chain of events that we have observed so far.
Hardly an original theory, but unfortunately for you available evidence at the moment seems to point to the universe being open - that is, there won't be any "Big Crunch" as you describe it. If you have compelling evidence to the contrary, please share it - cosmologists everywhere will love you forever.
Trying to look any farther back than the big bang is not only pointless, but also impossible
And a great way to spend an evening in idle speculation.
THERE IS NO REASON TO TAKE EVEN THIS TINY RISK TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAME TO BE.
One of the things that makes us human is our powerful curiosity, our drive to know things. We as a species can no more not seek out this sort of knowledge than we can do without food or sleep. Tell me, what sort of research *would* you allow, given that most practical research starts out as purely theoretical?
I see you've scored a flamebait mod, which is fair enough given how you put it, but you're right - apart from a small minority of techies, no-one cares what OS anything other than their PC runs, as long as it works. They only care about their PC's OS so they know their software will run on it, or so they can rest safe in the knowledge that they have the latest version (which is a rare attitude).
why is it every woman in this country must spend about $35 a month for birth control? Wouldn't it make sense, that the government research this basic need, and provide it for free or perhaps a $1 month? Where did the Public Good, change to "someone needs to profit?" There is no inherent right to profit or even existence for corporations -- yet that's how our government now acts.
Now, I actually agree with you, and think that free contraceptives for both sexes would cut down on the number of unwanted pregnancies and incidence of STDs, etc, but to play devil's advocate for a moment - there is no inherent right to contraception, either. People could just stop having sex.
So, back to topic, maybe we should stop assuming that mass media want to educate us.
I think you're the first person I've ever seen say that they thought that mass media do want to educate us. Any given person (writer, camera operator, director, etc) might want to educate people; the media companies want to make money. If putting out educational shows does that, that's what they'll do. If regurgitating sensationalist clap-trap makes more, they'll do that instead.
I know a lot of people don't think of the UK as part of Europe, but it is, and I've never seen an ATM like that here. I also didn't notice anything like that on the one I used in France last year, but given that had been tampered with anyway (as I later discovered, fortunately at no cost!) I'm not taking it as representative.
It was a careful study and creative analisys of policies and procedures of the air traffic control & airline crews, and the structural integrity of the buildings, and of the enconomic and command structures of our country.
You're telling me that it takes a strategical genius to realise that flying a large plane into a building famed for its economic importance might make things a bit tricky for a while? That no-one else could possibly realise that previously when planes were taken over everyone sat tight and waited it out, safe in the knowledge that while the guys might be murdering scum, they're not suicidal?
I suspect in the real world, most of the infections happen when users don't go straight to Windows Update right after taking their computer out of the box, and instead get excited and decide to browse around to their favorite forum or two.
For a lot of users, whether or not they keep their machine patched is largely immaterial - they'll end up rooting themselves sooner or later when they voluntarily run a trojan or virus. Remote exploits are dangerous yes, but nowhere near as common as an idiot sat at the keyboard with an admin login.
Response by developers was very quick, but the other staff responded slow.
That's my experience from the other side - I'm a developer (although not for MS or Oracle), and on those occasions when I have to deal with a production support issue I try to clear it as quickly as possible. That's partly because I take pride in my work, and don't like to think of a user having an issue with something I've written for them, and partly because generally speaking bug fixing (especially live code) sucks so I want to get it over with. That said, it's an essential task, and I certainly don't rush it (if nothing else that would be foolish, as I'd only end up with more bugs to fix and a further dented pride), but neither do I take my time savouring it.
Chances are your developer experiences stem from the same desire to get the bug out of the way and get back to the "real" work of new development. Also, the original developers know the code much better than a support team would, especially if that team is supporting a range of products/apps, as is likely.
On a more controversial note, my admittedly limited experience of most (by no means all) dedicated first/second line support staff is that they're just not that good. Anyone who is any good quickly moves further up the chain, or over into development. The rest, well... there's most probably a reason the response was slow.
Slashdot Mirror
That's true, but we had a "What recovery CDs do you carry with you?" askslashdot just the other day. What does this bring to the discussion that that didn't, other than a tighter size constraint? (Although personally, if I were to carry recovery tools around with me on CD, I'd not want to carry more than 1-2 CDs anyway, making the constraint comparable...)
I'll remember that as I'm sitting my seat with chest pains and can't even cry out.
If you can't even cry out, how do you propose to make a call on your mobile phone?
Every pager I've ever seen comes with a setting called vibrate.
Likewise, here in the UK it's been quite a few years since I saw a mobile phone that didn't have a "vibrate only" setting. In fact, my phone is switched to that permanently. Check the caller display, and if it looks like it might be important, go somewhere you won't disturb people!
Well, given that the techie knew about the legal requirement to keep the backups (or he wouldn't have been asking for the money in the first place), he of course kept an audit trail of the conversations and so could demonstrate to the judge that it was not his responsibility as he had done all he could.
I see that as a good thing - stops me falling over from all the alcohol!
(Man are we going to be burnt for being Offtopic)
Oh, the slime - somehow the floor never seems that bad while I'm there, until I get home and see the state of my boots and the bottom of my trouser legs.
Still, it's better than it used to be - I still remember the days when the stairs were literally treacherously slippery, and you daren't sit on them for fear of the crap soaking through the seat of your trousers. (Unless you happened to be wearing PVC, of course...)
Oh absolutely - gaming and C# are the only things really keeping me on Windows (that and the fact that I bought my copy of XP Pro already, and that I personally prefer the look and feel). In fact for a couple of years Linux was my primary OS. I switched back when I realised that I was using it not because I loved Linux, but because I hated Windows, and that I no longer hated Windows having used XP for a while.
I've seen some fair evidence that in many cases a freak is a geek with fashion sense ;)
We used to joke that if a meteorite were ever to hit Slimelight on a Saturday night, most of the servers in London would be fucked within a week; so many of us there were sysadmins, programmers or various related techy-types.
(oh and I gave up on the blue swithcing between colours can make your hair melt, just black no. 1 right now)
Indeed; years ago a friend of mine had dyed and bleached his hair so much that eventually when he bleached it one day in preparation for the next colour, most of it simply snapped and fell off. He ended up shaving most of it off and wearing a hat for a while.
2. The target is too big and the OS too poorly designed for running a reasonably safe desktop.
Bullshit - see for example my desktop. Despite P2P usage and running executables from unknown/untrusted sources, I've not had a single infection since I installed it 5+ years ago. Congratulations on getting your "bashes M$" positive moderation though.
as the DirectX seems to have more pretty functionality than OpenGL
Let me fend off the obvious replies by saying simply that DirectX encompasses far more functionality than OpenGL does, and that that's by design. What you *should* be comparing is Direct3D and OpenGL.
(And yes, I knew what you meant, but you know what pedants us slashbots can be)
That's nice, and believe me I'll be at the head of the line to grab a copy of UT2k7, but that's just one game. The number of (commercial/big name) games released for Windows still outnumbers those available for Linux by several orders of magnitude, even if you only count *good* games...
I'll choose my own OS, thank you very much.
Why do we need to know what happened at the beginning of the universe? It has no bearing on our lives at all.
Prove it. Prove that the physics that we learn doing such experiments will have no bearing on our lives.
For years, you could say the same thing about quantum mechanics; now, there are increasing numbers of devices that rely on quantum mechanical effects for their operation (see, eg, superconducting quantum interference devices). Also, as I love to remind people in this sort of situation, the laser was sat in research labs for years before anyone thought of a use for it; now I 2 within a few centimetres of me right now, and another 4 elsewhere in my house.
but I can tell you what will happen when we as a massive clump of atoms meet our fate. A black hole, maybe even the one we will more than likely create, will grow larger and larger until it sucks up most of the entire universe, resulting in it reaching critical mass, and creating another big bang, restarting the whole chain of events that we have observed so far.
Hardly an original theory, but unfortunately for you available evidence at the moment seems to point to the universe being open - that is, there won't be any "Big Crunch" as you describe it. If you have compelling evidence to the contrary, please share it - cosmologists everywhere will love you forever.
Trying to look any farther back than the big bang is not only pointless, but also impossible
And a great way to spend an evening in idle speculation.
THERE IS NO REASON TO TAKE EVEN THIS TINY RISK TO FIND OUT HOW WE CAME TO BE.
One of the things that makes us human is our powerful curiosity, our drive to know things. We as a species can no more not seek out this sort of knowledge than we can do without food or sleep. Tell me, what sort of research *would* you allow, given that most practical research starts out as purely theoretical?
What good would that do? If I'm going to return a product, I'm going to return it to the seller, not the manufacturer.
(Yes, I realise you were joking; it was a dumb joke)
You don't think that Apple dropped the iPod's price when they did precisely to piss MS off and make them rethink their pricing strategy?
I'm not saying that the price drop wouldn't have happened without the Zune, but you can bet that the impending Zune launch was at least a factor.
I see you've scored a flamebait mod, which is fair enough given how you put it, but you're right - apart from a small minority of techies, no-one cares what OS anything other than their PC runs, as long as it works. They only care about their PC's OS so they know their software will run on it, or so they can rest safe in the knowledge that they have the latest version (which is a rare attitude).
why is it every woman in this country must spend about $35 a month for birth control? Wouldn't it make sense, that the government research this basic need, and provide it for free or perhaps a $1 month? Where did the Public Good, change to "someone needs to profit?" There is no inherent right to profit or even existence for corporations -- yet that's how our government now acts.
Now, I actually agree with you, and think that free contraceptives for both sexes would cut down on the number of unwanted pregnancies and incidence of STDs, etc, but to play devil's advocate for a moment - there is no inherent right to contraception, either. People could just stop having sex.
So, back to topic, maybe we should stop assuming that mass media want to educate us .
I think you're the first person I've ever seen say that they thought that mass media do want to educate us. Any given person (writer, camera operator, director, etc) might want to educate people; the media companies want to make money. If putting out educational shows does that, that's what they'll do. If regurgitating sensationalist clap-trap makes more, they'll do that instead.
Probably more like "We have a room full of lawyers, we think they'd like to talk to you".
I know a lot of people don't think of the UK as part of Europe, but it is, and I've never seen an ATM like that here. I also didn't notice anything like that on the one I used in France last year, but given that had been tampered with anyway (as I later discovered, fortunately at no cost!) I'm not taking it as representative.
I can neither see nor feel anything along the top of either the 5 or 10 pound notes I have in my wallet at the moment; are you sure about that?
It was a careful study and creative analisys of policies and procedures of the air traffic control & airline crews, and the structural integrity of the buildings, and of the enconomic and command structures of our country.
You're telling me that it takes a strategical genius to realise that flying a large plane into a building famed for its economic importance might make things a bit tricky for a while? That no-one else could possibly realise that previously when planes were taken over everyone sat tight and waited it out, safe in the knowledge that while the guys might be murdering scum, they're not suicidal?
I suspect in the real world, most of the infections happen when users don't go straight to Windows Update right after taking their computer out of the box, and instead get excited and decide to browse around to their favorite forum or two.
For a lot of users, whether or not they keep their machine patched is largely immaterial - they'll end up rooting themselves sooner or later when they voluntarily run a trojan or virus. Remote exploits are dangerous yes, but nowhere near as common as an idiot sat at the keyboard with an admin login.
So if you click the link or even copy-paste it, you risk being directed to a phishing site.
Hence the original rule is "type the address in manually".
Response by developers was very quick, but the other staff responded slow.
That's my experience from the other side - I'm a developer (although not for MS or Oracle), and on those occasions when I have to deal with a production support issue I try to clear it as quickly as possible. That's partly because I take pride in my work, and don't like to think of a user having an issue with something I've written for them, and partly because generally speaking bug fixing (especially live code) sucks so I want to get it over with. That said, it's an essential task, and I certainly don't rush it (if nothing else that would be foolish, as I'd only end up with more bugs to fix and a further dented pride), but neither do I take my time savouring it.
Chances are your developer experiences stem from the same desire to get the bug out of the way and get back to the "real" work of new development. Also, the original developers know the code much better than a support team would, especially if that team is supporting a range of products/apps, as is likely.
On a more controversial note, my admittedly limited experience of most (by no means all) dedicated first/second line support staff is that they're just not that good. Anyone who is any good quickly moves further up the chain, or over into development. The rest, well... there's most probably a reason the response was slow.