How much of an asshole do you have to be to ask your employee for a password of a personal service they're using? If I didn't know better I'd say it's impossible to be so far high on that scale.
Everyone's different, of course. Me? I felt sharpest and most productive in my work when I started being able to take a morning off in the middle of the week. I usually work overtime and, after a few days, I start to feel unable to concentrate after the 6th hour of work. When I get something done, I take much more time than I usually would and with stupid little mistakes in it. Just taking a morning off, in the middle of the week, really makes a huge difference for me.
This is just anecdotal evidence but there's something to be said about this. In the end, everyone's different and every job is different. Companies don't have the luxury of knowing all the variables about the way your brain works so they have to find an average. Some people's sweet spots for optimal performance, will fall closer to that average, others wont. If you have the flexibility to find it yourself, great! If you don't, arguing with your boss that you should work less is usually out of question.
Hopefully, companies will become more flexible and work more with its employees brains and less against them.
I don't know if they're sending emails at all, I didn't get one. This information was shown in a popup after you close a game, inside Steam's software. That's where I got to know about it.
I don't know how things work in other countries but all banks in Portugal allow you to link your account to a service called MBNet, which allows you to create a virtual CC number with the balance that you need to make a purchase and it expires in 2 days or after it's used.
Ever since I got to know about it, I don't use anything else and I don't know why someone would. You don't even need a CC, it's linked to your bank account.
So every time you need to make a purchase, you create a CC number on the fly, with the spending limit of the purchase you want to make and this CC information will be useless after you complete the purchase.
That's all hackers will ever get from me, a bunch of useless CC numbers.
Maybe they should decide on the form factor before deciding on the manufacturer. It's like saying, "Hey, our staff could use some Toyota Yaris! It would cut down the time they spend using the bus!"
Are there any good reasons to have a 7-day week anyway? I'm asking from pure ignorance because there may be, specially after everything in our lives that got adapted to that. But if we ignore everything we built on top of it, is there a good reason to choose that system over any other?
I'm asking because I always felt this is something that should be rethought. Is it really beneficial for human beings, to work 5 consecutive days and have 2 days off (in most cases). Is there any research on that?
I partially agree with this move, not because of budgets, but because I feel that working 5 consecutive days decreases your productivity as opposed to, let's say, working 3 days in a row and having 1 day off. A 4-day week system that wouldn't decrease productivity in the long run since you increase the working days and decrease the consecutive working days. Maybe a better system would be a 2/1 ratio on working vs weekend days. Who knows? All I'm saying is that this should be rethought and studies should be made.
I know I went on a tangent here, feel free to mod me down for being off-topic, this is just something I feel should be talked about but for other reasons than what these schools presented.
I'd refuse your request and mod you up if I could because that really needs to be said. As an atheist myself, the monopoly atheists in these sort of discussions think they have on reason just shows a lack of understanding of the other side.
This doesn't really bother me too much but I don't buy any of those excuses to require the internet all the time.
Protecting the game's economy? That does not require this feature. Diablo 2 already did that. Basically it separated players in two worlds, one where they guarantee fairness but you need to be connected all the time, and another where everything goes and you could use those characters offline. This seems like a reasonable position that has the best of both worlds with no negative consequences so taking away the offline part is not an improvement in any perspective you could use. This is obviously a downgrade that can only be explained by lack of time (or willingness to make an extra effort for those who used that feature) or it's about piracy, which is ok but I'd rather if they'd just admit it instead of saying that they're doing it because it's "the way things are going" and making it sound like an improvement.
I said this didn't bother me because I ended up playing single player connected to Battle.Net all the time so that I could do fair PvP or trading. However, this is a limitation that I have put myself into because I understood the advantages and even though I almost didn't use much offline single player, I appreciate the choice.
Taking into account that it's for kids in a charity, I'd go with Ubuntu. I already set up Ubuntu machines for kids and excluding one or two bumps along the way (which Windows XP isn't imune to) it works just fine.
These are my reasons:
1) Windows XP at this point is too vulnerable to malware. I've seen networks in businesses based on XP that were basically breeding grounds for all sorts of viruses, even with paid AV software up to date, and I assume you'll have only free AV protection in them. Also note that you can't use the latest browser from MS so to be up to date on that you should use another one. If I had to bet, I'd say those computers in the hands of kids will be full of malware in a very short time.
2) Ubuntu is easy to use. I'd go as far as to say that it's more intuitive than Windows. Of course, this won't apply to people that lived their whole lives using Windows but since we're talking about kids here, I don't think that should be much of a problem. I'd stick with Ubuntu classic desktop instead of Unity though, since it's just easier to understand.
3) With a centralized repository of software, kids can install new games and other apps without looking in the wild west of the internet and dealing with installers and potentially harmful stuff.
4) In terms of content and applications, a new installation of Ubuntu is much superior than a new installation of Windows. Of course, this is not a problem if you intend to put some work setting up your Windows with more software before donating, like an office suite, etc.
5) No licensing issues whatsoever, no matter how many people use it, how they use it, how they access it, etc. This may not be a problem in your case.
The thing that Evolution had that played a big part for us in adopting Evolution, was that it had really easy MS Exchange connectivity. I don't know if this was a factor in Cannonical's decision in the past but it was for me.
You can use little "formulas" to determine chord progressions that will sound ok but you can't make a good song with formulas. It's not about having tempo x to be successful, it's about having the appropriate tempo for that particular song you're writing. Using statistics to make these sort of decisions will lead to mediocre results at best.
Also, about the study, if the tempo on most hits average out at 119.80 bpm, that could just mean that all songs (hits or not) average out at 119.80. The same could be said about all other variables in this study. The only merit I see in it is in studying trends over time.
This is a fascinating subject though. One day we may be able to generate new songs on demand with some piece of software that would mirror the kind of algorithms we use ourselves to produce music and to judge its quality, whatever they may be.
I don't see what's the big deal here. Why are so many people offended by this? Is it wrong to try this new model? I don't see why, unless the costumers aren't warned about it which isn't implied in the article.
The model itself isn't good or bad, it may work with some kinds of games and some kinds of gamers for a lower price. I don't think it would succeed for most of the market though. There's no reason to rally against this practice as some comments seem to encourage, it's just a new kind of product out there, if you don't like it, don't buy it and buy something you like instead.
The kinds of games that are made are the kind that get sold. If games are targeted at men it's because they're the ones that want to buy them. I believe that there are games targeted at women (or at least not targeted at men specifically) already so I don't see the problem there. Maybe advances in technology or shifts in the gaming interfaces will make the medium more attractive to women in the future. Games, like any other product, will always be targeted to wherever the demand is.
Remember that a lot of stuff was apprehended. I'd bet that on most of these cases, data on these guys' pcs will give away information about other members.
So its user base decreased around 3%, so what? I'm not a big facebook user but I find it funny how these little fluctuations always give rise to these sort of news saying that users are angry and whatnot.
Actually no. Anonymous Coward is correct in that some punctuation is placed inside the ending quotation according to the American standard but this does not apply to question marks or exclamation points, for obvious reasons.
Any vigilante could potentially do good things but would you really trust random individuals (as egotistical and immature they may be) going around making justice by their own hands?
Slashdot Mirror
How much of an asshole do you have to be to ask your employee for a password of a personal service they're using? If I didn't know better I'd say it's impossible to be so far high on that scale.
Everyone's different, of course. Me? I felt sharpest and most productive in my work when I started being able to take a morning off in the middle of the week. I usually work overtime and, after a few days, I start to feel unable to concentrate after the 6th hour of work. When I get something done, I take much more time than I usually would and with stupid little mistakes in it. Just taking a morning off, in the middle of the week, really makes a huge difference for me.
This is just anecdotal evidence but there's something to be said about this. In the end, everyone's different and every job is different. Companies don't have the luxury of knowing all the variables about the way your brain works so they have to find an average. Some people's sweet spots for optimal performance, will fall closer to that average, others wont. If you have the flexibility to find it yourself, great! If you don't, arguing with your boss that you should work less is usually out of question.
Hopefully, companies will become more flexible and work more with its employees brains and less against them.
They might as well just arrest everyone that opposes the bill as they obviously are in the child porn business themselves.
Did I say arrest? I meant, burnt at the cross! Made an example of!
... with the cat!
The thing that usually pushes these games over the ratings is nipples.
I'm ok with mutilations but nipples? No way, I hope they go back with this measure, no nipples should be hidden from all mankind, forever!
I don't know if they're sending emails at all, I didn't get one. This information was shown in a popup after you close a game, inside Steam's software. That's where I got to know about it.
I don't know how things work in other countries but all banks in Portugal allow you to link your account to a service called MBNet, which allows you to create a virtual CC number with the balance that you need to make a purchase and it expires in 2 days or after it's used.
Ever since I got to know about it, I don't use anything else and I don't know why someone would. You don't even need a CC, it's linked to your bank account.
So every time you need to make a purchase, you create a CC number on the fly, with the spending limit of the purchase you want to make and this CC information will be useless after you complete the purchase.
That's all hackers will ever get from me, a bunch of useless CC numbers.
Maybe they should decide on the form factor before deciding on the manufacturer. It's like saying, "Hey, our staff could use some Toyota Yaris! It would cut down the time they spend using the bus!"
Are there any good reasons to have a 7-day week anyway? I'm asking from pure ignorance because there may be, specially after everything in our lives that got adapted to that. But if we ignore everything we built on top of it, is there a good reason to choose that system over any other?
I'm asking because I always felt this is something that should be rethought. Is it really beneficial for human beings, to work 5 consecutive days and have 2 days off (in most cases). Is there any research on that?
I partially agree with this move, not because of budgets, but because I feel that working 5 consecutive days decreases your productivity as opposed to, let's say, working 3 days in a row and having 1 day off. A 4-day week system that wouldn't decrease productivity in the long run since you increase the working days and decrease the consecutive working days. Maybe a better system would be a 2/1 ratio on working vs weekend days. Who knows? All I'm saying is that this should be rethought and studies should be made.
I know I went on a tangent here, feel free to mod me down for being off-topic, this is just something I feel should be talked about but for other reasons than what these schools presented.
I'd refuse your request and mod you up if I could because that really needs to be said. As an atheist myself, the monopoly atheists in these sort of discussions think they have on reason just shows a lack of understanding of the other side.
In related news, cancer has been found to cure HIV.
This doesn't really bother me too much but I don't buy any of those excuses to require the internet all the time.
Protecting the game's economy? That does not require this feature. Diablo 2 already did that. Basically it separated players in two worlds, one where they guarantee fairness but you need to be connected all the time, and another where everything goes and you could use those characters offline. This seems like a reasonable position that has the best of both worlds with no negative consequences so taking away the offline part is not an improvement in any perspective you could use. This is obviously a downgrade that can only be explained by lack of time (or willingness to make an extra effort for those who used that feature) or it's about piracy, which is ok but I'd rather if they'd just admit it instead of saying that they're doing it because it's "the way things are going" and making it sound like an improvement.
I said this didn't bother me because I ended up playing single player connected to Battle.Net all the time so that I could do fair PvP or trading. However, this is a limitation that I have put myself into because I understood the advantages and even though I almost didn't use much offline single player, I appreciate the choice.
Taking into account that it's for kids in a charity, I'd go with Ubuntu. I already set up Ubuntu machines for kids and excluding one or two bumps along the way (which Windows XP isn't imune to) it works just fine.
These are my reasons:
1) Windows XP at this point is too vulnerable to malware. I've seen networks in businesses based on XP that were basically breeding grounds for all sorts of viruses, even with paid AV software up to date, and I assume you'll have only free AV protection in them. Also note that you can't use the latest browser from MS so to be up to date on that you should use another one. If I had to bet, I'd say those computers in the hands of kids will be full of malware in a very short time.
2) Ubuntu is easy to use. I'd go as far as to say that it's more intuitive than Windows. Of course, this won't apply to people that lived their whole lives using Windows but since we're talking about kids here, I don't think that should be much of a problem. I'd stick with Ubuntu classic desktop instead of Unity though, since it's just easier to understand.
3) With a centralized repository of software, kids can install new games and other apps without looking in the wild west of the internet and dealing with installers and potentially harmful stuff.
4) In terms of content and applications, a new installation of Ubuntu is much superior than a new installation of Windows. Of course, this is not a problem if you intend to put some work setting up your Windows with more software before donating, like an office suite, etc.
5) No licensing issues whatsoever, no matter how many people use it, how they use it, how they access it, etc. This may not be a problem in your case.
The thing that Evolution had that played a big part for us in adopting Evolution, was that it had really easy MS Exchange connectivity. I don't know if this was a factor in Cannonical's decision in the past but it was for me.
You can use little "formulas" to determine chord progressions that will sound ok but you can't make a good song with formulas. It's not about having tempo x to be successful, it's about having the appropriate tempo for that particular song you're writing. Using statistics to make these sort of decisions will lead to mediocre results at best.
Also, about the study, if the tempo on most hits average out at 119.80 bpm, that could just mean that all songs (hits or not) average out at 119.80. The same could be said about all other variables in this study. The only merit I see in it is in studying trends over time.
This is a fascinating subject though. One day we may be able to generate new songs on demand with some piece of software that would mirror the kind of algorithms we use ourselves to produce music and to judge its quality, whatever they may be.
I don't see what's the big deal here. Why are so many people offended by this? Is it wrong to try this new model? I don't see why, unless the costumers aren't warned about it which isn't implied in the article.
The model itself isn't good or bad, it may work with some kinds of games and some kinds of gamers for a lower price. I don't think it would succeed for most of the market though. There's no reason to rally against this practice as some comments seem to encourage, it's just a new kind of product out there, if you don't like it, don't buy it and buy something you like instead.
What I read on my rss feed was "Gay whale... seen in N. Atlantic"
I'm kind of disappointed now that they haven't found a gay whale...
Soon it will be time to start working of viruses. I can't wait to hear my car's engine singing flight of the bumblebees for no reason.
You should have organized them into folders:
Just remember to change the folder name from "pirated" to "thoughtful gifts from online 'friends'"
The kinds of games that are made are the kind that get sold. If games are targeted at men it's because they're the ones that want to buy them. I believe that there are games targeted at women (or at least not targeted at men specifically) already so I don't see the problem there. Maybe advances in technology or shifts in the gaming interfaces will make the medium more attractive to women in the future. Games, like any other product, will always be targeted to wherever the demand is.
Remember that a lot of stuff was apprehended. I'd bet that on most of these cases, data on these guys' pcs will give away information about other members.
Very well put.
So its user base decreased around 3%, so what? I'm not a big facebook user but I find it funny how these little fluctuations always give rise to these sort of news saying that users are angry and whatnot.
Actually no. Anonymous Coward is correct in that some punctuation is placed inside the ending quotation according to the American standard but this does not apply to question marks or exclamation points, for obvious reasons.
Any vigilante could potentially do good things but would you really trust random individuals (as egotistical and immature they may be) going around making justice by their own hands?