No, they'll have to buy MacOSX, or buy Linux (first, not going to happen until there is enough reason to, second most end users would rather buy it so they can get support). What am I supposed to do, dedicate valuable time and resources to developing, testing, and supporting a game release for Linux when prior experience already shows that there aren't enough users willing to buy games to offset those costs? This is a business here, not a charity. Claiming that there is a "royalty" to developing a game using DirectX is a specious argument at best. I'm not paying it, and I'm not forcing anyone else to pay it. There is an up front cost, to the user, to have windows so they can use all of their software. If they don't want to play new games, or use the software they're used to, they can download and install one of many Linux distributions-just forget about anything more visually appealing than Tux Racer.
I've been around here long enough to know not to bring facts into a discussion, but I will anyway. I'm boneheaded like that.
royalty: A share of the profit or product reserved by the grantor, especially of an oil or mining lease. Also called override. (from dictionary.com)
Hmm, interesting, you're claiming the "windows tax" is a royalty. Now, the last I checked (and I'm a professional developer), we pay a flat licensing fee for the OS and development tools to Microsoft, just like everyone else who pays for software (and any company that doesn't pay for the commercial software they're using to do business deserves whatever happens to them). We don't pay any additional fees for revenue or profits generated from the use of that software. You are confusing a cost of doing business that is little different from paying for the chairs your programmers sit in with a cut of the gross or profits, which is what a royalty is.
If that's the case, and if any of them have enough sense to plead guilty and explain themselves to the judge, they'll get a lighter sentence. Lack of food/money/time in country doesn't excuse you for committing a crime, but you may get some leniancy from the judge. If they try to fight this and they're found guilty, they could get both barrels. As for the CEO, he'll get nailed to the wall if they ever get ahold of him-bail jumpers aren't looked upon kindly.
So, how do we know that some of the stories on/. aren't just DDOS attacks masquerading as News for Nerds, Stuff that matters? Nothing better than a/.ing for shutting down someone's website.
Ah yes, a video with no time stamp, and the only thing which can really be seen clearly is the equipement which has been added to the checkin processs since 9/11. Funny how that video was plastered all over the place, then just disappeared.
Em, I'm talking about security videos discussed in the 9/11 commission report. If you're saying that the commission based their history of the events on that day on video that is known to be spurious, and you know this, what does that tell us about their report? Maybe I'm being naive, but I'm a little skeptical of what you're saying here.
The same crackpots that say that are the same ones that, for some reason, resist criminal background checks for people seeking to purchase a gun.
Wow, back that truck up a couple miles there buddy. Don't lump me in with the NRA politicos who resist every new gun law passed-there's a reason why I'm no longer a member of that group, even though I support the right to bear arms. I agreed with instant background checks, and I've seen people arrested at gun shows who attempted to purchase arms illegally. Thank goodness they were stopped there. My view is that many times we pass laws on state and federal level that are contradictory (look at the gun laws in CA, for example-I've talked to law enforcement folks out there and they aren't certain what is legal in many cases), or are a redundant passage of something that already exists.
Just because I don't like congress wasting its time passing the fifth law on something that is already illegal and just needs to be enforced by the current administration does not mean I support the hard line "No new laws period" attitude.
So OK, let's enforce the law entirely, consistently, and logically: background checks to buy a gun (ANY gun, ANYWHERE), period. How about that eh?
Nice try there buddy. Don't go shoving words into my mouth because you have a stereotypical view of gun owners. I support all of this. I support background checks for private sales, even between family members, something the NRA does not support (and a large part of the reason why I ended my membership).
Bingo. For the most part over there (an especially in the cities) you walk most everywhere you go. That's a big difference from the US where you drive like mad because everything is so spread apart. In the US we have to put a concerted effort into exercising (which I do because I do not want what a friend of mine terms "programmer's paunch" when I get older). We're just way too sedentary for our own good, and man does it ever show.
Here's the really obscene part, which comes from the 9/11 commission reports: in every flight, at least one (and in one case all four) of the highjackers on the flights set off the metal detectors. They were screened by security afterwards, and allowed to pass. We even have it on video. The sad truth from what happened on 9/11 is that we did't really need more security-we needed to make the security we already had functional. Of course, this is the country that passes new gun laws instead of enforcing the ones it already has, so why break with tradition?
Probably the worst part about this is almost all game retailers will not take returns, even if the game does not work on your system (say, because of copy protection issues). Games are one of the few products where if it doesn't work as advertised, you can't return it. Its made me very hesitant to drop cash on a game these days. Unless I can push the store manager to take a return, I'm out that money. That and the less than less than original game design these days (sequelitis) has really cut back on my game purchases.
There's nothing wrong with being unmarried. Having a significant other (or kids, etc) would only impact my ability to work. If I only worked 9-5 five days per week, I'd be bored out of my fucking skull.
Dude, get a hobby, start a company, something that is for yourself, and doesn't involve sacrificing the small amount of time you have on this world making someone else rich.
I think people place too much value on "personal" time and "relationsihps" and "real life".
Maybe its because of different priorities. After my experiences, only your family and friends (by friends I mean the people who will stick with you through the most hellish shit you can't even imagine-not folks who will go out boozing with you on friday night and can barely remember your last name, let alone anything else about you), will stand by you when things get tough-your employer will fire you the moment they feel they need the cash for something else, no matter how invaluable you think you are to them. Loyalty in business is only as good as the balance sheet.
I'm very focused on family and friends, and I try to do the best I can at work while maintaining a personal life. I'm also focused on having a challenging job, because I bore pretty easily, but once the day is done work is the last thing on my mind. I started to compartmentalise my life like that because I was sliding into the "work all the time" life, and it was killing me and hurting the people I care about.
It takes someone of principal and accomplishment to build a smashing resume and career over his life time. Wow. It also takes principal and accomplishment to have a happy, stable family, and more commitment and dedication than damn near any career will ever demand. That's why so many people fuck it up-they figure raising kids and keeping a marriage together is all nice and self maintaining, when in reality its a lifetime of effort-rewarding effort, but effort.
I wish I knew, the apartment complex owners didn't tell us much. Part of the reason why everyone moved out as soon as they could find better living conditions. I expect they ended up in a juvinile prison for awhile, though-too many people in danger not to.
Amen to that, and then some. I can't believe for a moment he wasn't aware of the consequences, at least to others. Hell, I and my friends were very aware of these kinds of things in middle school. I don't buy this claim that someone who does something before the age of 18 doesn't have to pay for it in. I'm OK with lighter penalties, sometimes a warning is all you need to set someone straight, but I'm not in favor of just letting them off for "being a kid". Two kids (12 & 13 years old) nearly killed me and 30 others when they doused our apartment building with gasoline and set it afire-and I don't believe for a moment they didn't at least know what the consequences would be of their actions.
Who is really to blame for this? People who run unsecured Windows installs, or the original worm writer?
Why is it we're supposed to be more angry at the victim than at the criminal? If we tell the victim of violent crime "Its your fault for not locking the door.", its morally reprehensible at a minimum. Yet, when someone writes, or modifies as in this case, a worm and releases it in the wild with the full knowledge of the consequences, we see fit to blame the users of the operating system because it is somehow more acceptable to our vision of the world? Get it through your heads-doing this kind of thing is destructive and unacceptable, and you will pay a penalty. I don't see any more reason to hold this kid up as some kind of martyr than I do someone who happens to be the fifth person to loot a store during a riot. Just because he didn't create the virus does not make him somehow a victim-he made the changes, I doubt very much he's so clueless as to not know what the consequences of those changes are, and he released it in the wild.
Is cyber-punk really getting a fair shake, when authorities have made it clear they are making an example out of him?
Oh, come on-if as you imply cyber-punk means modifying and releasing malicious programs of any sort, then its getting a very fair shake. Stop caterwalling, this isn't the so-called glory days of Mitnick's imprisonment.
Why is Microsoft not held liable for an OS full of exploits? Microsoft certainly is having their feet held to the fire by their customers over their security problems. Those that haven't abandoned windows for unix servers, that is.
Why are/.ers so angry at dumb cyber-dork and not angry at the company that makes the OS that makes these worms possible, or people that continue to use Outlook Express - when there are alternatives for both? Why are we more angry at the guy who threw the brick than Glen Gary, the guys who made the brick that could be thrown through a window? Give me a break-if you can prove malicious intent or willful negligence on the part of Microsoft, great! Many of us are tired of the windows problems-that's why I use a firewall now, bought a mac, and have used Linux for a file server for the last half dozen years. However, the problems in their software do not excuse those who choose to exploit them-that's no better than saying "the window was open, so as angry as we are at the burglar, we're also angry at you, the home owner". Noone is making these people write viruses! They choose to do it. Got that?
After about 6 or 7 months at that pay scale, things started to get ugly at work. I had a new boss who seemed to hate me. It turns out that I made more money than the boss, and when this came to light, all hell broke loose. Ugh, that's never a good situation. Its natural for a boss to want to make more money than those under them, but it is a sign of a bad manager when they take it out on the employee.
I haven't seen a pay increase in four years That's not too unusual right now. A lot of salaries went up signficantly in the late 90s, and the people making them haven't seen an increase because what they are making is so much higher than what the employer typically wants to pay. That may change if the economy really is perking back up.
Going to your employer and asking for a raise isn't a bad idea, but it may be the only raise you'll see for a few years. Going to them seeking a counter offer isn't such a great idea, though. I've also known more than a few managers who won't give counter offers, ever. They figure if you're leaving now, paying you won't keep you much longer anyway. Or, as the grandparent mentioned, they'll throw you out in six months time.
This is probably being written far too late for someone to notice, but I'm going to waste my time anyway (I'm waiting for a test to run, so I have some time to burn). I end up running into a lot of very bright kids these days who are just finishing up high school and looking at what to do for their education. Some of them are looking at these two year game development schools, or two year software development schools. Every time I give them the same advice: pick a school that is going to give you a well rounded education beyond your immediate career path. Don't just study CS and learn how to be a C++ god. Learn how to write, how to speak, about history, math, science, art, whatever. The more you are exposed to, the more useful it is going to be to you later in life. That's not just a trite phrase-its reality. It is very rare today for someone to stay in the same career path or field for their whole lives-market factors, human factors, any number of things can and will force changes in your planning. The better rounded you are, and the better able to adapt, the better chance you have of changing professions successfully. As it is, I look back on my education at Penn State (EE degree, I'm a software engineer now), and some of the courses I think of most fondly had absolutely nothing to do with my career-but they were a lot of fun and I'm very glad to have taken them.
If you want to go to one of these trade schools and in two years hit the job market, go for it, but the guy who waits another two (or four or six, depending on degree) years is probably going to be able to better mold his career path to the needs of his life.
Back in college, a born again friend of mine was bashing Tolkien, because he had been told Tolkien was an atheist. At the same time he was lamenting that C.S. Lewis hadn't been able to convert Tolkien.
It floored him when I corrected him about this, and told him Tolkien helped convert Lewis to christianity. All of a sudden a lot of things he had been told by his evangelical friends came under some serious scrutiny (that's the problem with creating or repeating untruths-the moment you're found out, everything else you say is questioned).
Great reading skills there. He specifically said in his post that he has worked at Hanford. Not just sat in his chair and watched the news. If you're going to try to punch holes in his credibility, at least take the time to read what he says in his comment.
Later on we'll hopefully hear sound from the surface of Titan, once the Huygens probe lands. That could be interesting (or it could just be the sound of blowing wind).
So, lemme get this straight-in order to get a 77% speed increase, I'm going to have to blow hundreds on a second card ($400), xeon processor, motherboard, memory, and a damned good cooling system so it all doesn't melt and I don't go deaf? Wouldn't it make more sense to buy a decent card now, and wait two years for them to put out the single GPU card that does the same performance for $200? Unless you're really worried about dropping under 100 frames, or you have a lot of high end rendering to do, I can't imagine this really being worth it. At least with the Voodoo 2 SLI system you could buy a second card without having to invest in a huge honking system that makes a dual G5 look cheap.
Re:Over in Fallujah...
on
Linux in Iraq
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· Score: 1
Buddy, once something along these lines happens to someone you know or care about, and you won't be spouting that crap.
I played CS from the original beta release up to the 1.1 release. I only stopped because the cheating had gone from a minor annoyance to an epidemic. After the retail game was released, there was an explosion of new servers and players, and the cheating went out of control. Outside of a few well run clan servers, most servers were unadministered, or the admin just didn't care (he was the one cheating). Once that happened, I dumped CS altogether, and I switched over to Day of Defeat. DoD doesn't have anywhere near as large of a community, but cheating is not as rampant. I tend to play on clan servers where the administrators do not put up with griefers, or cheaters (GSS is my regular haunt, in case any DoD players are reading this). It makes all the difference when the people playing on the server are there to play the game, and not be a bunch of immature jerks.
Valve is going to have a heck of a time stopping cheating, however. There is only so much you can do when you can't really trust the client. You could put statistical detection on the server (ie, 5 headshots in a row and its probably cheating), but that will be to the detriment of players who legitimately have above average skills. A lot of cheat detection and suppression is really going to come down to the administrators-most of the existing cheat detection takes care of the most obvious "script kiddy" cheats.
That's true, and it is very dangerous (anyone remember the death of PA Senator Heinz back in 1991 because of this?). More than anything else they have to be able to quickly and clearly communicate any problems they see so the pilot of a wounded aircraft can react appropriately (such as finding out your landing gear did not actually properly deploy).
You were right on the first guess. They usually look for damage or other external problems (like the landing gear not actually being down). There really isn't anything they can do to help, except warn the pilot that something has gone wrong.
Keeping state like that is all well and good-as long as you're doing sanity checks on what is returned in the POST. If you aren't, you've just opened yourself up to a whole world of abuse. One of the biggest problems with the web is you can't trust the user at all. At any point he could turn out to be some schmuck trying to crack into your server/crash the app/steal money/whatever. Its tough enough to trust anyone with a client/server application design, but really trusting anyone with a web application is a mess.
I'm none too fond of web development because all of the really powerful things you can do easily on the desktop has been removed from the browsers because of abuse. That won't change anytime soon, at least until we can sandbox every application out there.
I know there are several Doctor Who collectors over here in the states, and just last year Ian Levine (super fan) was selling some of his props. That included at least one cyberman helmet. I seriously doubt Allen would have any trouble at all buying or getting on loan anything Who related he wanted. Whether he could get permission from the BBC to display it is another matter entirely, although I've no doubt he could work that out if he really wanted to.
Slashdot Mirror
No, they'll have to buy MacOSX, or buy Linux (first, not going to happen until there is enough reason to, second most end users would rather buy it so they can get support). What am I supposed to do, dedicate valuable time and resources to developing, testing, and supporting a game release for Linux when prior experience already shows that there aren't enough users willing to buy games to offset those costs? This is a business here, not a charity. Claiming that there is a "royalty" to developing a game using DirectX is a specious argument at best. I'm not paying it, and I'm not forcing anyone else to pay it. There is an up front cost, to the user, to have windows so they can use all of their software. If they don't want to play new games, or use the software they're used to, they can download and install one of many Linux distributions-just forget about anything more visually appealing than Tux Racer.
I've been around here long enough to know not to bring facts into a discussion, but I will anyway. I'm boneheaded like that.
royalty: A share of the profit or product reserved by the grantor, especially of an oil or mining lease. Also called override. (from dictionary.com)
Hmm, interesting, you're claiming the "windows tax" is a royalty. Now, the last I checked (and I'm a professional developer), we pay a flat licensing fee for the OS and development tools to Microsoft, just like everyone else who pays for software (and any company that doesn't pay for the commercial software they're using to do business deserves whatever happens to them). We don't pay any additional fees for revenue or profits generated from the use of that software. You are confusing a cost of doing business that is little different from paying for the chairs your programmers sit in with a cut of the gross or profits, which is what a royalty is.
If that's the case, and if any of them have enough sense to plead guilty and explain themselves to the judge, they'll get a lighter sentence. Lack of food/money/time in country doesn't excuse you for committing a crime, but you may get some leniancy from the judge. If they try to fight this and they're found guilty, they could get both barrels. As for the CEO, he'll get nailed to the wall if they ever get ahold of him-bail jumpers aren't looked upon kindly.
So, how do we know that some of the stories on /. aren't just DDOS attacks masquerading as News for Nerds, Stuff that matters? Nothing better than a /.ing for shutting down someone's website.
Ah yes, a video with no time stamp, and the only thing which can really be seen clearly is the equipement which has been added to the checkin processs since 9/11. Funny how that video was plastered all over the place, then just disappeared.
Em, I'm talking about security videos discussed in the 9/11 commission report. If you're saying that the commission based their history of the events on that day on video that is known to be spurious, and you know this, what does that tell us about their report? Maybe I'm being naive, but I'm a little skeptical of what you're saying here.
The same crackpots that say that are the same ones that, for some reason, resist criminal background checks for people seeking to purchase a gun.
Wow, back that truck up a couple miles there buddy. Don't lump me in with the NRA politicos who resist every new gun law passed-there's a reason why I'm no longer a member of that group, even though I support the right to bear arms. I agreed with instant background checks, and I've seen people arrested at gun shows who attempted to purchase arms illegally. Thank goodness they were stopped there. My view is that many times we pass laws on state and federal level that are contradictory (look at the gun laws in CA, for example-I've talked to law enforcement folks out there and they aren't certain what is legal in many cases), or are a redundant passage of something that already exists.
Just because I don't like congress wasting its time passing the fifth law on something that is already illegal and just needs to be enforced by the current administration does not mean I support the hard line "No new laws period" attitude.
So OK, let's enforce the law entirely, consistently, and logically: background checks to buy a gun (ANY gun, ANYWHERE), period. How about that eh?
Nice try there buddy. Don't go shoving words into my mouth because you have a stereotypical view of gun owners. I support all of this. I support background checks for private sales, even between family members, something the NRA does not support (and a large part of the reason why I ended my membership).
Bingo. For the most part over there (an especially in the cities) you walk most everywhere you go. That's a big difference from the US where you drive like mad because everything is so spread apart. In the US we have to put a concerted effort into exercising (which I do because I do not want what a friend of mine terms "programmer's paunch" when I get older). We're just way too sedentary for our own good, and man does it ever show.
They went through a metal detector.
Here's the really obscene part, which comes from the 9/11 commission reports: in every flight, at least one (and in one case all four) of the highjackers on the flights set off the metal detectors. They were screened by security afterwards, and allowed to pass. We even have it on video. The sad truth from what happened on 9/11 is that we did't really need more security-we needed to make the security we already had functional. Of course, this is the country that passes new gun laws instead of enforcing the ones it already has, so why break with tradition?
Probably the worst part about this is almost all game retailers will not take returns, even if the game does not work on your system (say, because of copy protection issues). Games are one of the few products where if it doesn't work as advertised, you can't return it. Its made me very hesitant to drop cash on a game these days. Unless I can push the store manager to take a return, I'm out that money. That and the less than less than original game design these days (sequelitis) has really cut back on my game purchases.
There's nothing wrong with being unmarried. Having a significant other (or kids, etc) would only impact my ability to work. If I only worked 9-5 five days per week, I'd be bored out of my fucking skull.
Dude, get a hobby, start a company, something that is for yourself, and doesn't involve sacrificing the small amount of time you have on this world making someone else rich.
I think people place too much value on "personal" time and "relationsihps" and "real life".
Maybe its because of different priorities. After my experiences, only your family and friends (by friends I mean the people who will stick with you through the most hellish shit you can't even imagine-not folks who will go out boozing with you on friday night and can barely remember your last name, let alone anything else about you), will stand by you when things get tough-your employer will fire you the moment they feel they need the cash for something else, no matter how invaluable you think you are to them. Loyalty in business is only as good as the balance sheet.
I'm very focused on family and friends, and I try to do the best I can at work while maintaining a personal life. I'm also focused on having a challenging job, because I bore pretty easily, but once the day is done work is the last thing on my mind. I started to compartmentalise my life like that because I was sliding into the "work all the time" life, and it was killing me and hurting the people I care about.
It takes someone of principal and accomplishment to build a smashing resume and career over his life time.
Wow. It also takes principal and accomplishment to have a happy, stable family, and more commitment and dedication than damn near any career will ever demand. That's why so many people fuck it up-they figure raising kids and keeping a marriage together is all nice and self maintaining, when in reality its a lifetime of effort-rewarding effort, but effort.
I wish I knew, the apartment complex owners didn't tell us much. Part of the reason why everyone moved out as soon as they could find better living conditions. I expect they ended up in a juvinile prison for awhile, though-too many people in danger not to.
Amen to that, and then some. I can't believe for a moment he wasn't aware of the consequences, at least to others. Hell, I and my friends were very aware of these kinds of things in middle school. I don't buy this claim that someone who does something before the age of 18 doesn't have to pay for it in. I'm OK with lighter penalties, sometimes a warning is all you need to set someone straight, but I'm not in favor of just letting them off for "being a kid". Two kids (12 & 13 years old) nearly killed me and 30 others when they doused our apartment building with gasoline and set it afire-and I don't believe for a moment they didn't at least know what the consequences would be of their actions.
Who is really to blame for this? People who run unsecured Windows installs, or the original worm writer?
Why is it we're supposed to be more angry at the victim than at the criminal? If we tell the victim of violent crime "Its your fault for not locking the door.", its morally reprehensible at a minimum. Yet, when someone writes, or modifies as in this case, a worm and releases it in the wild with the full knowledge of the consequences, we see fit to blame the users of the operating system because it is somehow more acceptable to our vision of the world? Get it through your heads-doing this kind of thing is destructive and unacceptable, and you will pay a penalty. I don't see any more reason to hold this kid up as some kind of martyr than I do someone who happens to be the fifth person to loot a store during a riot. Just because he didn't create the virus does not make him somehow a victim-he made the changes, I doubt very much he's so clueless as to not know what the consequences of those changes are, and he released it in the wild.
Is cyber-punk really getting a fair shake, when authorities have made it clear they are making an example out of him?
Oh, come on-if as you imply cyber-punk means modifying and releasing malicious programs of any sort, then its getting a very fair shake. Stop caterwalling, this isn't the so-called glory days of Mitnick's imprisonment.
Why is Microsoft not held liable for an OS full of exploits?
Microsoft certainly is having their feet held to the fire by their customers over their security problems. Those that haven't abandoned windows for unix servers, that is.
Why are /.ers so angry at dumb cyber-dork and not angry at the company that makes the OS that makes these worms possible, or people that continue to use Outlook Express - when there are alternatives for both?
Why are we more angry at the guy who threw the brick than Glen Gary, the guys who made the brick that could be thrown through a window? Give me a break-if you can prove malicious intent or willful negligence on the part of Microsoft, great! Many of us are tired of the windows problems-that's why I use a firewall now, bought a mac, and have used Linux for a file server for the last half dozen years. However, the problems in their software do not excuse those who choose to exploit them-that's no better than saying "the window was open, so as angry as we are at the burglar, we're also angry at you, the home owner". Noone is making these people write viruses! They choose to do it. Got that?
After about 6 or 7 months at that pay scale, things started to get ugly at work. I had a new boss who seemed to hate me. It turns out that I made more money than the boss, and when this came to light, all hell broke loose.
Ugh, that's never a good situation. Its natural for a boss to want to make more money than those under them, but it is a sign of a bad manager when they take it out on the employee.
I haven't seen a pay increase in four years
That's not too unusual right now. A lot of salaries went up signficantly in the late 90s, and the people making them haven't seen an increase because what they are making is so much higher than what the employer typically wants to pay. That may change if the economy really is perking back up.
Going to your employer and asking for a raise isn't a bad idea, but it may be the only raise you'll see for a few years. Going to them seeking a counter offer isn't such a great idea, though. I've also known more than a few managers who won't give counter offers, ever. They figure if you're leaving now, paying you won't keep you much longer anyway. Or, as the grandparent mentioned, they'll throw you out in six months time.
This is probably being written far too late for someone to notice, but I'm going to waste my time anyway (I'm waiting for a test to run, so I have some time to burn). I end up running into a lot of very bright kids these days who are just finishing up high school and looking at what to do for their education. Some of them are looking at these two year game development schools, or two year software development schools. Every time I give them the same advice: pick a school that is going to give you a well rounded education beyond your immediate career path. Don't just study CS and learn how to be a C++ god. Learn how to write, how to speak, about history, math, science, art, whatever. The more you are exposed to, the more useful it is going to be to you later in life. That's not just a trite phrase-its reality. It is very rare today for someone to stay in the same career path or field for their whole lives-market factors, human factors, any number of things can and will force changes in your planning. The better rounded you are, and the better able to adapt, the better chance you have of changing professions successfully. As it is, I look back on my education at Penn State (EE degree, I'm a software engineer now), and some of the courses I think of most fondly had absolutely nothing to do with my career-but they were a lot of fun and I'm very glad to have taken them.
If you want to go to one of these trade schools and in two years hit the job market, go for it, but the guy who waits another two (or four or six, depending on degree) years is probably going to be able to better mold his career path to the needs of his life.
Back in college, a born again friend of mine was bashing Tolkien, because he had been told Tolkien was an atheist. At the same time he was lamenting that C.S. Lewis hadn't been able to convert Tolkien.
It floored him when I corrected him about this, and told him Tolkien helped convert Lewis to christianity. All of a sudden a lot of things he had been told by his evangelical friends came under some serious scrutiny (that's the problem with creating or repeating untruths-the moment you're found out, everything else you say is questioned).
Great reading skills there. He specifically said in his post that he has worked at Hanford. Not just sat in his chair and watched the news. If you're going to try to punch holes in his credibility, at least take the time to read what he says in his comment.
Later on we'll hopefully hear sound from the surface of Titan, once the Huygens probe lands. That could be interesting (or it could just be the sound of blowing wind).
So, lemme get this straight-in order to get a 77% speed increase, I'm going to have to blow hundreds on a second card ($400), xeon processor, motherboard, memory, and a damned good cooling system so it all doesn't melt and I don't go deaf? Wouldn't it make more sense to buy a decent card now, and wait two years for them to put out the single GPU card that does the same performance for $200? Unless you're really worried about dropping under 100 frames, or you have a lot of high end rendering to do, I can't imagine this really being worth it. At least with the Voodoo 2 SLI system you could buy a second card without having to invest in a huge honking system that makes a dual G5 look cheap.
Buddy, once something along these lines happens to someone you know or care about, and you won't be spouting that crap.
I played CS from the original beta release up to the 1.1 release. I only stopped because the cheating had gone from a minor annoyance to an epidemic. After the retail game was released, there was an explosion of new servers and players, and the cheating went out of control. Outside of a few well run clan servers, most servers were unadministered, or the admin just didn't care (he was the one cheating). Once that happened, I dumped CS altogether, and I switched over to Day of Defeat. DoD doesn't have anywhere near as large of a community, but cheating is not as rampant. I tend to play on clan servers where the administrators do not put up with griefers, or cheaters (GSS is my regular haunt, in case any DoD players are reading this). It makes all the difference when the people playing on the server are there to play the game, and not be a bunch of immature jerks.
Valve is going to have a heck of a time stopping cheating, however. There is only so much you can do when you can't really trust the client. You could put statistical detection on the server (ie, 5 headshots in a row and its probably cheating), but that will be to the detriment of players who legitimately have above average skills. A lot of cheat detection and suppression is really going to come down to the administrators-most of the existing cheat detection takes care of the most obvious "script kiddy" cheats.
That's true, and it is very dangerous (anyone remember the death of PA Senator Heinz back in 1991 because of this?). More than anything else they have to be able to quickly and clearly communicate any problems they see so the pilot of a wounded aircraft can react appropriately (such as finding out your landing gear did not actually properly deploy).
You were right on the first guess. They usually look for damage or other external problems (like the landing gear not actually being down). There really isn't anything they can do to help, except warn the pilot that something has gone wrong.
Keeping state like that is all well and good-as long as you're doing sanity checks on what is returned in the POST. If you aren't, you've just opened yourself up to a whole world of abuse. One of the biggest problems with the web is you can't trust the user at all. At any point he could turn out to be some schmuck trying to crack into your server/crash the app/steal money/whatever. Its tough enough to trust anyone with a client/server application design, but really trusting anyone with a web application is a mess.
I'm none too fond of web development because all of the really powerful things you can do easily on the desktop has been removed from the browsers because of abuse. That won't change anytime soon, at least until we can sandbox every application out there.
I know there are several Doctor Who collectors over here in the states, and just last year Ian Levine (super fan) was selling some of his props. That included at least one cyberman helmet. I seriously doubt Allen would have any trouble at all buying or getting on loan anything Who related he wanted. Whether he could get permission from the BBC to display it is another matter entirely, although I've no doubt he could work that out if he really wanted to.