I'd imagine that people had no trouble seeing them. Have you ever tried to take a picture of the night sky with a digital camera? Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.
He might be talking about a ceramic one... they do make them out of pure ceramic, and they are as good at retaining heat as the cast iron, but dishwasher safe.
Usually, but in an increasingly large part of the world, "cooking" means upacking a prefab and putting it in the microwave.
I confess I'm guilty of that sometimes... there are nights I just don't have the time to cook properly, and I use prefab sauce to save time. The modern industrialized world just doesn't lend itself to having that kind of time, unfortunately.
You couldn't teach someone who doesn't know what a dry vine is because you have a reduced capacity to realize that that would be necessary or even appropriate.
Yes you could, because people aren't *that* stupid. Even if you have no clue what a dry wine is, there are people who make a career out of selling wine. You can go to one of those people, and ask them to help you pick a wine out. They are usually easy to find anywhere you can buy wine, for some reason.
The same goes for any ingredients. The only situation where a person can't be taught how to cook is if they don't know how to use a measuring cup, or they don't have the right tools. Neither are impediments that can't be overcome, but it is not the job of the person writing a cookbook to tell you how to measure stuff, nor is it their job to go out and buy you appropriate cookware. There are salespeople for that.
As a woman, I think it's very improper for you to expect me to stand up for myself. A proper gentleman would defend his woman....;)
You are right, though... this is a completely ridiculous blowup over a relatively harmless joke. Working in technology, I've come to expect the guys around me to act like juvenile idiots from time to time. Whether that's just the nature of the beast, or it's because everybody needs to let off steam from time to time is irrelevant. If it's bothering me, I find an excuse to go to the coffee shop for a latte. They're usually done by the time I get back, and everybody's happy. When that's not an option, I change the topic... works every time. I have never needed to go to HR and complain that the guys are being guys before.
Different strokes, I guess. Hopefully Adria will grow out of it, though, because she's making the rest of us look bad. A real feminist recognizes that it's possible for a man to be a feminist, too.
Most amusing (and effective) DRM I ever saw was actually a fairly loose and easily broken copy protection scheme... the program could detect when it had been "cracked" but still gave full functionality to the cracked version... just with some interesting bugs that only appeared late game on the cracked version. It was a game, and deliberately corrupted the load of certain textures on pirated version so the game was still playable, but had quality degradation. Is it possible you could do something like that with the utility?
The reality is that some people are going to pirate it, even if you only charge $0.05 for a copy. They're going to do it because they can. The best DRM schemes take that into mind, and give them something they can pirate while still making it worth actually paying for the product for those who want to. In the case of the game, for example, you could give it away for free, but only with low quality textures and low bitrate audio samples... if you pay for the game, you can download and install the hi res packs and get a better gameplay experience. If you have the bandwidth to spare, you could tag those hi res packs with a unique watermark and have the software check activation servers for the hi res packs on, say, a weekly basis... if you find them on a pirate site, you can nuke the activation for that particular hi res pack, leaving a functional game that defaults back to the low res textures for pirate users.
For the utility described, maybe limit the number of objects it can save in a render, for example (assuming that's what the software is), or limit the quality of JPEG it can save to 30% if it's saving images, or apply a watermark to work created with a pirated copy? If it's something people will use to interoperate with other users, maybe have it tag files created on a pirated copy with a randomly generated hash that's stored on the client PC, so that the files can be opened on that system but won't open on another computer? Or even just tweak it with artificial slowdowns in the code so that it's usable when it's pirated, but nowhere near as efficient to work with.
The possibilties are endless, once you accept that you won't stop people from pirating it, and start thinking of ways to fuck with pirates instead.
The back end *is* open source, under the Apache license.
It's only the front end/UI that's CC licensed. And honestly, if you're selling software as a service, you have no business being in the industry if you're not capable of coming up with your own front end for something like that.
Is not quite that simple - the quad-core 1.4GHz might be able to finish some intensive operations significantly faster than the dual-core 1.3GHz, allowing it to go back to a low-power state earlier and save more battery.
In theory, yes. In practice, if that were going to be a significant factor, then wouldn't the benchmark show a significantly higher score than the 1.4GHz quad? The two were close enough to make me wonder, is all.
You're surprised that a quad core 1.4GHz processor outperforms a dual core 1.3GHz processor?
I'm more surprised that they were so close.... That's actually a vote in favour of the Apple offering, because Apple's slower processor with half the processing cores will use less battery....
(and before some twat accuses me of being an Apple fangirl, I'll point out that I'm quite happy with the 1GHz single core processor in my HTC One V, and have no intention of replacing it until either it up and dies or I have maxed out the credit available on the tab with my cell phone carrier and can get the new one for free... $300 max, currently $163, and increasing at $6/mo)
No, but I find it's best not to respond to the strawmen that the McCarthyists like to hold up. They usually find some other grand flaw in socialism when you bother to point out that it's been working well for decades in Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, and most of South America, and that many of the countries under that umbrella enjoy a better average standard of living and healthier economy than the US, too.
A lot of cameras on the market today are using Android to begin with, and have the same camera software that your smartphone does. While it's true that a good DSLR will take better pictures, it's also true that a cheap P&S camera will probably be about par for most users.
Similarly, while you *can* buy an iPod or dedicated music player to go alongside your phone, there isn't much point. An iPod runs *exactly* the same operating system as an iPhone. Any other device that plays music really only needs two things: the appropriate codec to play your music, and a sound card that produces decent sound. Since most people listening to music use cheap earbuds, you probably won't notice the difference between a smart phone and a portable music player. In that case, the cell phone ends up being a better buy, because it's got expandible memory cards, and because it's easier to add more codecs. All of my music is in FLAC (1400kbps minimum, some of it's in 3800kbps), and my Android phone is a better player than anything else, because it can play the FLAC with no problem, and because it can take 32 and 64GB memory cards without batting an eye.
Ok, yes, it's easier to type an e-mail out or manage my calendar on a laptop. The sound is better on my stereo. Movies are better on the big screen HDTV. Games are better on the Nintendo. Pictures are better with my DSLR. But I'd rather carry the cell phone on the bus than my stereo.
To a certain extent, yes. With good optics on the DSLR, a phone camera shouldn't be anywhere near as good as the DSLR. With cheap lenses on the DSLR, they're about the same. the problem with using the DSLR as a point of comparison is that most people who buy them these days don't have a clue about buying lenses and just use what it came with, turning it into a glorified P&S camera.
That said, the optics and CCD's that cell phones are coming with are getting significantly better than even just 2 years ago. The 5MP camera in my HTC One V is easily as good as the Fuji P&S I was using 4 years ago, and it's *significantly* lighter than the DSLR I have. The result? For 99% of the photography I'm doing these days, the phone is good enough. For the remaining 1%, I have a good quality DSLR with good quality lenses, and a good quality tripod. And the One V isn't even a high end phone.
The Mini's a sweet little car. My wife's 1994 Honda Civic got 40 to 45 mpg depending on how close we were to the ocean which I thought odd.
Probably altitude, not proximity to ocean. Just that the two usually go hand in hand.
At higher altitudes, the air is less dense which will reduce the air resistance. While the less dense air will also negatively affect the power your engine can generate, most of us don't drive cars anywhere near the levels where a few extra HP will make a noticeable difference to fuel economy.
Modern cars have to meet much more stringent emissions requirements than older cars did. It was a lot easier to get good gas mileage when the car could exhaust more crap. Cars are also getting heavier bigger, heavier, and more powerful.
Exhausting unburned hydrocarbons is *bad* for efficiency, not good for it.
It's the weight that the emissions control and safety systems add which is affecting mileage on modern cars. If you have the same BHP in your car and weigh 200kg more, then your efficiency and performance characteristics are going to suffer. Fitting a bigger engine will actually improve efficiency, if it's being driven sanely, because most engines also lose efficiency when they are running closer to their limits.
But it's also the car manufacturers' faults... how Chev managed to only get 103HP out of the 2007 Aveo's 1.6L engine is a mystery, for example... You see significantly more than that out of 1.6L engines in European cars and it makes an enormous difference to the overall efficiency (let alone adding a turbo or two, or going to diesel). And they are still doing the same thing today on many of their models.
The Europeans may be fudging the numbers a bit, but take everything an auto manufacturer says with a grain of salt anyway. The European cars are still better on the efficiency front, because they're designed for a market where gas costs 3x as much.
If you feel they're giving you the short stick, don't buy their product. There are plenty of games and devs out there who do not enforce this kind of stupid crap, and the quality of indy games coming out these days is huge. The case for buying AAA titles, which are the only ones that try to pull this kind of crap, is quite weak.
The reason they try this shit is that people will still buy the product if they do. If they do it, and nobody buys it, then the issue will solve itself.
that's the point... the claims aren't unfounded, at least not to the best of their knowledge. They have evidence (which has yet to be accepted/proven in court) which links the IP address in question to an infringement that is illegal under Canadian law. They're seeking to have the information which links the IP address to a real person so that they can sue.
Whether they actually intend to sue, or simply send threatening letters, has nothing to do with it. The whole point of the case is that the validity of IP address evidence itself needs to be tested in court before the subscriber information is released, not after.
Because, theoretically, there actually has been a crime committed in which they are actually the victims. As such, they have a right to defend their properties.
Whether they actually intend to prosecute it is irrelevant, when considering whether they have an entitlement to do so.
I'm not worried about receiving a letter from them, but I absolutely do not want them to have my contact information at all. Who's to say what they're going to do with that information besides launch a bullshit lawsuit? They may still be able to make money off it, even if not a single suit gets filed.
I find it amusing that you assume people know who April Ryan is, but that they don't know who Chell is... I'd say that Portal was a *much* bigger title than The Longest Journey, not to mention that TLJ came out 14 years ago, and while it has a cult following it's still quite an old game that isn't very well known in the main stream.... (that said, you're right... TLJ and Dreamfall both present strong female leads as their protagonists)
You tend to find better written female characters in CRPGs. Bioware is especially good at writing female characters that ring true... Think Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age. It shouldn't really be surprising that Bioware is doing this, though... they're also about the only game developper that bothers to include gay/lesbian characters and romance options in their work, too. I'm torn on the Bioware issue, actually, between my desire to support them and what they're doing, and my utter loathing for EA and its business practices....
Unfortunately, as much as women vote with their wallets, a lot more people just don't give a shit, so developpers don't realize that there's a market for it... but a personal anecdote: the last time I bought a game that didn't give me the option of having a female lead (or an undefined gender for the lead character) was 1992 (Star Control II). I'm simply not comfortable playing male characters, or with all the fan service that men get in games. Perhaps the reason there aren't a lot of girl gamers is because the industry on the whole doesn't seem to give a shit about women?
Iran hasn't started a war of aggression in 150 years, so yes, I do consider them to be intelligent and rational. They're doing better than the US has on that front, by a wide margin. My personal values and beliefs are more in line with those when it was still called Persia, but the current leadership in Iran isn't stupid.
Nothing says regional stability like everyone having nuclear weapons.
Actually, in the case of India/Pakistan, and Europe, that's exactly what people arming themselves with nuclear weapons has meant. And I have every confidence that if Iran is ever allowed to have nukes, that's exactly what it'll do for the middle east, too.
That said, Japan, SK, and Taiwan are all signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, so them arming with nukes would be difficult without breaking several international laws that they helped write.
And I'm pretty much done with any Slashdot discussion on this since the apologists and "MAD is good" folks have been mighty thick on these past few news stories. We have entered into the era of "Hey everybody, we have nuclear weapons now do what we say or we will nuke you!" Like a teenage gang member who found his first handgun...
MAD actually *is* good... when the nuclear weapons are in the hands of rational people. It worked during the cold war because the Soviets had enough to lose, and were intelligent about it. It's worked in the India/Pakistan conflict because the leadership in both countries is intelligent and rational. It'll work in Israel/Iran for exactly the same reason (which is why I'm not worried about Iran getting nuclear weapons: Israel being the only nuclear power in the region is actually destabilizing things, and there needs to be an opposing nuclear armed state to restore the balance of power). Historically, we've enjoyed more world peace since the development of nuclear weapons than ever before. Even with all the clusterfuck going on in the world today, we're still better off than we were 100 years ago by a very wide margin.
North Korea, on the other hand, has nothing to begin with, and they have an irrational despot calling the shots. Even China backed the last round of sanctions (rather than abstaining like they usually do)... that says it all.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's start with Red Matter....
I'd imagine that people had no trouble seeing them. Have you ever tried to take a picture of the night sky with a digital camera? Most of them, especially the cheap P&S or cell phone cameras that people would actually be likely to have on them, have a hard time picking up the stars too, even though they're plainly visible to anybody who bothers to look.
He might be talking about a ceramic one... they do make them out of pure ceramic, and they are as good at retaining heat as the cast iron, but dishwasher safe.
Usually, but in an increasingly large part of the world, "cooking" means upacking a prefab and putting it in the microwave.
I confess I'm guilty of that sometimes... there are nights I just don't have the time to cook properly, and I use prefab sauce to save time. The modern industrialized world just doesn't lend itself to having that kind of time, unfortunately.
You couldn't teach someone who doesn't know what a dry vine is because you have a reduced capacity to realize that that would be necessary or even appropriate.
Yes you could, because people aren't *that* stupid. Even if you have no clue what a dry wine is, there are people who make a career out of selling wine. You can go to one of those people, and ask them to help you pick a wine out. They are usually easy to find anywhere you can buy wine, for some reason.
The same goes for any ingredients. The only situation where a person can't be taught how to cook is if they don't know how to use a measuring cup, or they don't have the right tools. Neither are impediments that can't be overcome, but it is not the job of the person writing a cookbook to tell you how to measure stuff, nor is it their job to go out and buy you appropriate cookware. There are salespeople for that.
As a woman, I think it's very improper for you to expect me to stand up for myself. A proper gentleman would defend his woman.... ;)
You are right, though... this is a completely ridiculous blowup over a relatively harmless joke. Working in technology, I've come to expect the guys around me to act like juvenile idiots from time to time. Whether that's just the nature of the beast, or it's because everybody needs to let off steam from time to time is irrelevant. If it's bothering me, I find an excuse to go to the coffee shop for a latte. They're usually done by the time I get back, and everybody's happy. When that's not an option, I change the topic... works every time. I have never needed to go to HR and complain that the guys are being guys before.
Different strokes, I guess. Hopefully Adria will grow out of it, though, because she's making the rest of us look bad. A real feminist recognizes that it's possible for a man to be a feminist, too.
I *think* that was actually the one I was talking about.... you had a thread on Slashdot about it a couple of years ago? :)
Most amusing (and effective) DRM I ever saw was actually a fairly loose and easily broken copy protection scheme... the program could detect when it had been "cracked" but still gave full functionality to the cracked version... just with some interesting bugs that only appeared late game on the cracked version. It was a game, and deliberately corrupted the load of certain textures on pirated version so the game was still playable, but had quality degradation. Is it possible you could do something like that with the utility?
The reality is that some people are going to pirate it, even if you only charge $0.05 for a copy. They're going to do it because they can. The best DRM schemes take that into mind, and give them something they can pirate while still making it worth actually paying for the product for those who want to. In the case of the game, for example, you could give it away for free, but only with low quality textures and low bitrate audio samples... if you pay for the game, you can download and install the hi res packs and get a better gameplay experience. If you have the bandwidth to spare, you could tag those hi res packs with a unique watermark and have the software check activation servers for the hi res packs on, say, a weekly basis... if you find them on a pirate site, you can nuke the activation for that particular hi res pack, leaving a functional game that defaults back to the low res textures for pirate users.
For the utility described, maybe limit the number of objects it can save in a render, for example (assuming that's what the software is), or limit the quality of JPEG it can save to 30% if it's saving images, or apply a watermark to work created with a pirated copy? If it's something people will use to interoperate with other users, maybe have it tag files created on a pirated copy with a randomly generated hash that's stored on the client PC, so that the files can be opened on that system but won't open on another computer? Or even just tweak it with artificial slowdowns in the code so that it's usable when it's pirated, but nowhere near as efficient to work with.
The possibilties are endless, once you accept that you won't stop people from pirating it, and start thinking of ways to fuck with pirates instead.
The back end *is* open source, under the Apache license.
It's only the front end/UI that's CC licensed. And honestly, if you're selling software as a service, you have no business being in the industry if you're not capable of coming up with your own front end for something like that.
Is not quite that simple - the quad-core 1.4GHz might be able to finish some intensive operations significantly faster than the dual-core 1.3GHz, allowing it to go back to a low-power state earlier and save more battery.
In theory, yes. In practice, if that were going to be a significant factor, then wouldn't the benchmark show a significantly higher score than the 1.4GHz quad? The two were close enough to make me wonder, is all.
You're surprised that a quad core 1.4GHz processor outperforms a dual core 1.3GHz processor?
I'm more surprised that they were so close.... That's actually a vote in favour of the Apple offering, because Apple's slower processor with half the processing cores will use less battery....
(and before some twat accuses me of being an Apple fangirl, I'll point out that I'm quite happy with the 1GHz single core processor in my HTC One V, and have no intention of replacing it until either it up and dies or I have maxed out the credit available on the tab with my cell phone carrier and can get the new one for free... $300 max, currently $163, and increasing at $6/mo)
Only a politician would think you could cut a foot from one end of a blanket, sew it to the other end, and have a bigger blanket.
No, but I find it's best not to respond to the strawmen that the McCarthyists like to hold up. They usually find some other grand flaw in socialism when you bother to point out that it's been working well for decades in Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, and most of South America, and that many of the countries under that umbrella enjoy a better average standard of living and healthier economy than the US, too.
A lot of cameras on the market today are using Android to begin with, and have the same camera software that your smartphone does. While it's true that a good DSLR will take better pictures, it's also true that a cheap P&S camera will probably be about par for most users.
Similarly, while you *can* buy an iPod or dedicated music player to go alongside your phone, there isn't much point. An iPod runs *exactly* the same operating system as an iPhone. Any other device that plays music really only needs two things: the appropriate codec to play your music, and a sound card that produces decent sound. Since most people listening to music use cheap earbuds, you probably won't notice the difference between a smart phone and a portable music player. In that case, the cell phone ends up being a better buy, because it's got expandible memory cards, and because it's easier to add more codecs. All of my music is in FLAC (1400kbps minimum, some of it's in 3800kbps), and my Android phone is a better player than anything else, because it can play the FLAC with no problem, and because it can take 32 and 64GB memory cards without batting an eye.
Ok, yes, it's easier to type an e-mail out or manage my calendar on a laptop. The sound is better on my stereo. Movies are better on the big screen HDTV. Games are better on the Nintendo. Pictures are better with my DSLR. But I'd rather carry the cell phone on the bus than my stereo.
To a certain extent, yes. With good optics on the DSLR, a phone camera shouldn't be anywhere near as good as the DSLR. With cheap lenses on the DSLR, they're about the same. the problem with using the DSLR as a point of comparison is that most people who buy them these days don't have a clue about buying lenses and just use what it came with, turning it into a glorified P&S camera.
That said, the optics and CCD's that cell phones are coming with are getting significantly better than even just 2 years ago. The 5MP camera in my HTC One V is easily as good as the Fuji P&S I was using 4 years ago, and it's *significantly* lighter than the DSLR I have. The result? For 99% of the photography I'm doing these days, the phone is good enough. For the remaining 1%, I have a good quality DSLR with good quality lenses, and a good quality tripod. And the One V isn't even a high end phone.
The Mini's a sweet little car. My wife's 1994 Honda Civic got 40 to 45 mpg depending on how close we were to the ocean which I thought odd.
Probably altitude, not proximity to ocean. Just that the two usually go hand in hand.
At higher altitudes, the air is less dense which will reduce the air resistance. While the less dense air will also negatively affect the power your engine can generate, most of us don't drive cars anywhere near the levels where a few extra HP will make a noticeable difference to fuel economy.
Modern cars have to meet much more stringent emissions requirements than older cars did. It was a lot easier to get good gas mileage when the car could exhaust more crap. Cars are also getting heavier bigger, heavier, and more powerful.
Exhausting unburned hydrocarbons is *bad* for efficiency, not good for it.
It's the weight that the emissions control and safety systems add which is affecting mileage on modern cars. If you have the same BHP in your car and weigh 200kg more, then your efficiency and performance characteristics are going to suffer. Fitting a bigger engine will actually improve efficiency, if it's being driven sanely, because most engines also lose efficiency when they are running closer to their limits.
But it's also the car manufacturers' faults... how Chev managed to only get 103HP out of the 2007 Aveo's 1.6L engine is a mystery, for example... You see significantly more than that out of 1.6L engines in European cars and it makes an enormous difference to the overall efficiency (let alone adding a turbo or two, or going to diesel). And they are still doing the same thing today on many of their models.
The Europeans may be fudging the numbers a bit, but take everything an auto manufacturer says with a grain of salt anyway. The European cars are still better on the efficiency front, because they're designed for a market where gas costs 3x as much.
No.
If you feel they're giving you the short stick, don't buy their product. There are plenty of games and devs out there who do not enforce this kind of stupid crap, and the quality of indy games coming out these days is huge. The case for buying AAA titles, which are the only ones that try to pull this kind of crap, is quite weak.
The reason they try this shit is that people will still buy the product if they do. If they do it, and nobody buys it, then the issue will solve itself.
send a notice making unfounded claims
that's the point... the claims aren't unfounded, at least not to the best of their knowledge. They have evidence (which has yet to be accepted/proven in court) which links the IP address in question to an infringement that is illegal under Canadian law. They're seeking to have the information which links the IP address to a real person so that they can sue.
Whether they actually intend to sue, or simply send threatening letters, has nothing to do with it. The whole point of the case is that the validity of IP address evidence itself needs to be tested in court before the subscriber information is released, not after.
The CIPPIC briefs in this case are particularly interesting/important reading... you can find them, along with all of the other court documents, here: http://www.teksavvy.com/en/why-teksavvy/in-the-news/teksavvy-customer-notices/legal-documents-for-request-for-customer-information
Because, theoretically, there actually has been a crime committed in which they are actually the victims. As such, they have a right to defend their properties.
Whether they actually intend to prosecute it is irrelevant, when considering whether they have an entitlement to do so.
sucks, don't it?
Absolutely not.
I'm not worried about receiving a letter from them, but I absolutely do not want them to have my contact information at all. Who's to say what they're going to do with that information besides launch a bullshit lawsuit? They may still be able to make money off it, even if not a single suit gets filed.
I find it amusing that you assume people know who April Ryan is, but that they don't know who Chell is... I'd say that Portal was a *much* bigger title than The Longest Journey, not to mention that TLJ came out 14 years ago, and while it has a cult following it's still quite an old game that isn't very well known in the main stream.... (that said, you're right... TLJ and Dreamfall both present strong female leads as their protagonists)
You tend to find better written female characters in CRPGs. Bioware is especially good at writing female characters that ring true... Think Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age. It shouldn't really be surprising that Bioware is doing this, though... they're also about the only game developper that bothers to include gay/lesbian characters and romance options in their work, too. I'm torn on the Bioware issue, actually, between my desire to support them and what they're doing, and my utter loathing for EA and its business practices....
Unfortunately, as much as women vote with their wallets, a lot more people just don't give a shit, so developpers don't realize that there's a market for it... but a personal anecdote: the last time I bought a game that didn't give me the option of having a female lead (or an undefined gender for the lead character) was 1992 (Star Control II). I'm simply not comfortable playing male characters, or with all the fan service that men get in games. Perhaps the reason there aren't a lot of girl gamers is because the industry on the whole doesn't seem to give a shit about women?
Iran hasn't started a war of aggression in 150 years, so yes, I do consider them to be intelligent and rational. They're doing better than the US has on that front, by a wide margin. My personal values and beliefs are more in line with those when it was still called Persia, but the current leadership in Iran isn't stupid.
Nothing says regional stability like everyone having nuclear weapons.
Actually, in the case of India/Pakistan, and Europe, that's exactly what people arming themselves with nuclear weapons has meant. And I have every confidence that if Iran is ever allowed to have nukes, that's exactly what it'll do for the middle east, too.
That said, Japan, SK, and Taiwan are all signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, so them arming with nukes would be difficult without breaking several international laws that they helped write.
And I'm pretty much done with any Slashdot discussion on this since the apologists and "MAD is good" folks have been mighty thick on these past few news stories. We have entered into the era of "Hey everybody, we have nuclear weapons now do what we say or we will nuke you!" Like a teenage gang member who found his first handgun ...
MAD actually *is* good... when the nuclear weapons are in the hands of rational people. It worked during the cold war because the Soviets had enough to lose, and were intelligent about it. It's worked in the India/Pakistan conflict because the leadership in both countries is intelligent and rational. It'll work in Israel/Iran for exactly the same reason (which is why I'm not worried about Iran getting nuclear weapons: Israel being the only nuclear power in the region is actually destabilizing things, and there needs to be an opposing nuclear armed state to restore the balance of power). Historically, we've enjoyed more world peace since the development of nuclear weapons than ever before. Even with all the clusterfuck going on in the world today, we're still better off than we were 100 years ago by a very wide margin.
North Korea, on the other hand, has nothing to begin with, and they have an irrational despot calling the shots. Even China backed the last round of sanctions (rather than abstaining like they usually do)... that says it all.