"Other countries do better than the United States because they seem to expect more from students, he said. That could also explain why high performers in other nations express less confidence and enjoyment in math."
So, it could well be nothing to do with people being good at maths being unhappy, it could just be that some wealthy countries are happy in their complacency. If achievement only comes with hard work and stress, then high achievers in maths (or any field for that matter) may rate as "less happy".
The only irony here is, despite pointing out the uselessness of the study, and then the deceptiveness of the Slashdot title, I have still posted, thereby contributing to the entire system anyway.
Luckily I suck at maths, otherwise this would really upset me.
The important part of Open Source is not the the subversion of hierarchy. The important part is being "Open". The first thought that occurred to me when you mentioned an "Open Source" business organisation was that it would open and upfront about its REAL aims and strategies, and willing to incorporate feedback from employees and customers. Arguably this would be a boon for almost any organisation, but in my personal experience it is rare in the real world.
In the context of business then, maybe Open Source could refer to a philosophy of inclusiveness in strategy development and implementation, rather than a shift to an anarchic mob.
"One of the worst kinds of projects is writing an interface to a piece of software that's full of bugs. Another is when you have to customize something for an individual client's complex and ill-defined needs. To hackers these kinds of projects are the death of a thousand cuts."
Ignoring the first sentence (It's kinda obvious), the second though is more entertaining. Why? Becayse it describes basically ever single real software project EVER! If 'real' hackers can't handle that sort of project then in the real world they are utterly useless.
"Working on nasty little problems makes you stupid. Good hackers avoid it for the same reason models avoid cheeseburgers."
Great, so hackers are the sort of person who just refuse to deal with the complexity of generating a reliable, functional system. Fantastic. Let's hire a whole bunch of overly sensitive prats whoe refuse to work on software because it's a little bit messy or because the user isn't quite sure what they want yet!
Great. Am i a a hacker? Not any more. I like to get the job done, and i like to get it done properly. Guess that makes me dumb.
Not that I buy all the FUD over terrorism. Mostly it's a load of nonsense. But how come the government has time to try to ban cell phone use, access to cell phone outages information, and other relatively obscure pointless data, but doesn't act when information that could assist with identity theft is stolen?
Check out www.dell.com and www.apple.com and compare prices before repeating the usual PC cheapness nonsense.
An eMac (basic outfit) costs $799 (without any education discount).
The cheapest Dell I could find with roughly the same stuff under the education section was a Dimension 2400 (with 17 inch monitor) costs $757 (again with no special discount, but with only a 1yr warranty - probably a very bad idea with Dell stuff).
So you save a couple of bucks and end up with decidedly inferior hardware!
Enough said on the issue. People who don't buy mac for cost reasons are too lazy to look at more than one web site.
Imagine being able to push your enemies down a grade.
Imagine making some extra cash selling exam information.
Imagine trashing the occasional file to irk a disliked professor.
Imagine that the organisation responsible for stopping you doing these things spends more time complaining about white hats than it does stopping black hats.
Imagine how much easier life would be not doing the right thing.
Just imagine...
Whether they did for self aggrandisement or not, whistle-blowers make it safe for the rest of us. I don't have the skill to test security like this. But its nice to know that there are self-serving show-offs who will do it for me. More power to them.
My understanding from all of the news coverage thus far is that fairly significant knowledge of terrorist plans are available before the fact - the problem seems to be not in alerting the terrorists, but in alerting OUR OWN FREAKING GOVERNMENTS TO THE INFORMATION HELD BY THEIR OWN INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATIONS!
2 - There are already thousands of deadly yet-unknown diseases lurking right here on the surface, in remote rainforests, waiting to be released by idiotic poacher.
Really? Can you substantiate this?
SARS? From cherval cats in China, I think. Not exactly remote rainforests either.
IT (well, the good stuff) is a service now, not a product. Rather than massed conglomerates manufacturing a generic product (which is largely the case for cars, for example, or the increasingly stressed Microsoft), software/IT is about providing specific skills, industry knowledge and support services. This is better achieved by small, highly focused organisations.
Large companies will slowly be replaced by boutique industry/regional focused businesses who understand their CUSTOMER better than the competition, rather than massive faceless companies who take 2 years just to work out their customer's name.
Wealth and fame only leave the unimaginative and stupid unhappy. An imaginative person will achieve great things with wealth and happiness because their greatness will be expressed through the wealth and fame NOT DERIVED FROM IT. A stupid person will remain sad and uphappy no matter what.
Not that I know the actual stats, but 80% survival rate over 5 years sounds pretty good. What was the survival rate of the early European-American colonists? Accounting for disease, starvation, being stabbed by someone or eaten by something - would it be better than 80%? Probably not.
So hell yes. I'd go. Anyone with a sense of adventure and courage would go (or in Australia's case, anyone with a criminal record).
The rewards are potentially massive (better than a tiny farm plot which is all the early colonists got) and the experience?! To have your name recorded as one of the first to colonise off-earth! Immortality is yours! Go and take it!
I don't think anyone could argue that a shortage of highly motivated and suitable volunteers would be a problem. Rather, the real problem is getting us all up there. At 80% or 50% or even 10%.
Good point. Actually, I guess banning cars is entirely reasonable when compared to banning phones, i.e. stop them delivering the bomb at all, rather than just (possibly) stop them activating it.
Presumably though not every car is entirely banned from Federal Buildings (it would make getting office supplies in very hard work). So my analogy only stretches to blanket bans. There is nothing wrong with targeted and reasonable limits when there is a clear, proven threat, and the limits do not impede normal life.
Not being able to park your car near the door of a Federal Building is a minor hassle for few people, but shutting down every cell phone is quite different... (as would a blanket ban on every single car... even Ambulances!)
This is somewhat like banning cars from an area. Sure, cars are a convenient way to move people, but hey, it could also be used as a delivery mechanism for an explosive!
Hasn't anyone in America clued up to the idea that 99% of the impact of Terrorism is exploiting FUD? In allowing the freaky controlling elements of society to make life impossible for the rest of the sane people, don't you lose so much more?
And don't give me that "if we can save just one life" crap. If that's the case then ban cigarettes, alcohol and McDonalds. Hell, ban religion and guns while you're at it.
For goodness sake! Stop letting the terrorists run your lives for you! They're winning! Wake up!
Re:OS Popularity?
on
A Worm's Worm
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Well, the fact is that Sasser JUST PLAIN WORKS, whereas Linux is a nightmare to install. Furthermore, Sasser is ready for the desktop. Joe Sixpack understands Sasser because it's just like all the other worms etc etc...
Although I also have a mobile, which removes the problem for accessing emergency numbers (sure, I need to keep it charged, but I don't need to crawl to the land line everytime I cut off one of my legs).
The main reason why? Well, my land line calls were so few and far between (about 2-3 bucks a month) my line rental ($AUS 20/month) far outweighed it.
The funny thing is, I hardly use VOIP at all. Email and chat usage went up (but that costs me nothing) while mobile remained steady.
I got this from Loki (before they burned out:( )for my Linux box. Great game. The Kohan concept of using positioning and strategy in a quick play RTS game needs to be used more, methinks.
Re:How did this virus spread so easily?
on
SCO Offline
·
· Score: 1
Maybe you need an OS that doesnt rely on file extensions to identify file types.
Why do we give attention to someone as obviously ignorant as Gates? It's embarressing. A quick scan of the more sensible comments here on/. makes it clear his grand vision for stopping spam has more implementation holes in it than Swiss cheese stored in a particle accelerator.
I recently got a non-gaming friend hooked on all three of these.
Diablo (II specifically). Pointlessly simple interface, familiar fantasy type themes, nice graphics, plenty of lush feedback (sound, animation, etc). Good but simple story line.
Myst (all three). Again, simple to play, not real-time so easy to learn how to use. Nice eye candy.
Civilisation (III specifically). Turn based. Probably way too complex to start with, but again, the lack of real-time elements made it more approachable.
Seriously though, if a company has to organise special dinners just to open communications, it already has a problem way beyond IT bugets and infrastructure.
You don't think that soldiers everywhere sometimes want to scream this at the people back home? Come on, firstly, we can find people who have the courage to endure it. And if we choose the wrong person, we can just hide it like the military of the world's largest democracy does all the time!
Slashdot Mirror
"As long as this is the way they're used"
Enough said, really.
Just like guns, nukes, syringes, drugs, religion, education, etc., etc.
Yeah, as long as everyone is good and honest a surveillance state is fine.
FTFA:
"Other countries do better than the United States because they seem to expect more from students, he said. That could also explain why high performers in other nations express less confidence and enjoyment in math."
So, it could well be nothing to do with people being good at maths being unhappy, it could just be that some wealthy countries are happy in their complacency. If achievement only comes with hard work and stress, then high achievers in maths (or any field for that matter) may rate as "less happy".
The only irony here is, despite pointing out the uselessness of the study, and then the deceptiveness of the Slashdot title, I have still posted, thereby contributing to the entire system anyway.
Luckily I suck at maths, otherwise this would really upset me.
The important part of Open Source is not the the subversion of hierarchy. The important part is being "Open". The first thought that occurred to me when you mentioned an "Open Source" business organisation was that it would open and upfront about its REAL aims and strategies, and willing to incorporate feedback from employees and customers. Arguably this would be a boon for almost any organisation, but in my personal experience it is rare in the real world.
In the context of business then, maybe Open Source could refer to a philosophy of inclusiveness in strategy development and implementation, rather than a shift to an anarchic mob.
I have no idea why I'm replying, since no one reads low mods. But in case you read replies...
"so that their muscles will atrophy"
Damn that's weird. I mean really.
"re-establish America as a sovereign nation by removing and bulldozing the United Nations headquarters"
Well, I think this would be popular with a great many Americans. I'm serious.
"my interpretation of their very limited powers"
Sounds dictatorial doesn't it? I don't think it is though. I think he means to illustrate a reminder of the limited rights of government...
This quote speaks volumes:
"One of the worst kinds of projects is writing an interface to a piece of software that's full of bugs. Another is when you have to customize something for an individual client's complex and ill-defined needs. To hackers these kinds of projects are the death of a thousand cuts."
Ignoring the first sentence (It's kinda obvious), the second though is more entertaining. Why? Becayse it describes basically ever single real software project EVER! If 'real' hackers can't handle that sort of project then in the real world they are utterly useless.
"Working on nasty little problems makes you stupid. Good hackers avoid it for the same reason models avoid cheeseburgers."
Great, so hackers are the sort of person who just refuse to deal with the complexity of generating a reliable, functional system. Fantastic. Let's hire a whole bunch of overly sensitive prats whoe refuse to work on software because it's a little bit messy or because the user isn't quite sure what they want yet!
Great. Am i a a hacker? Not any more. I like to get the job done, and i like to get it done properly. Guess that makes me dumb.
Not that I buy all the FUD over terrorism. Mostly it's a load of nonsense. But how come the government has time to try to ban cell phone use, access to cell phone outages information, and other relatively obscure pointless data, but doesn't act when information that could assist with identity theft is stolen?
WTF?
Who the hell is prioritizing this crap?
And windows computers are cheaper than Mac's.
I call BS!
Check out www.dell.com and www.apple.com and compare prices before repeating the usual PC cheapness nonsense.
An eMac (basic outfit) costs $799 (without any education discount).
The cheapest Dell I could find with roughly the same stuff under the education section was a Dimension 2400 (with 17 inch monitor) costs $757 (again with no special discount, but with only a 1yr warranty - probably a very bad idea with Dell stuff).
So you save a couple of bucks and end up with decidedly inferior hardware!
Enough said on the issue. People who don't buy mac for cost reasons are too lazy to look at more than one web site.
Imagine never failing another subject.
Imagine being able to push your enemies down a grade.
Imagine making some extra cash selling exam information.
Imagine trashing the occasional file to irk a disliked professor.
Imagine that the organisation responsible for stopping you doing these things spends more time complaining about white hats than it does stopping black hats.
Imagine how much easier life would be not doing the right thing.
Just imagine...
Whether they did for self aggrandisement or not, whistle-blowers make it safe for the rest of us. I don't have the skill to test security like this. But its nice to know that there are self-serving show-offs who will do it for me. More power to them.
My understanding from all of the news coverage thus far is that fairly significant knowledge of terrorist plans are available before the fact - the problem seems to be not in alerting the terrorists, but in alerting OUR OWN FREAKING GOVERNMENTS TO THE INFORMATION HELD BY THEIR OWN INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATIONS!
2 - There are already thousands of deadly yet-unknown diseases lurking right here on the surface, in remote rainforests, waiting to be released by idiotic poacher.
Really? Can you substantiate this?
SARS? From cherval cats in China, I think. Not exactly remote rainforests either.
IT (well, the good stuff) is a service now, not a product. Rather than massed conglomerates manufacturing a generic product (which is largely the case for cars, for example, or the increasingly stressed Microsoft), software/IT is about providing specific skills, industry knowledge and support services. This is better achieved by small, highly focused organisations.
Large companies will slowly be replaced by boutique industry/regional focused businesses who understand their CUSTOMER better than the competition, rather than massive faceless companies who take 2 years just to work out their customer's name.
Wealth and fame only leave the unimaginative and stupid unhappy. An imaginative person will achieve great things with wealth and happiness because their greatness will be expressed through the wealth and fame NOT DERIVED FROM IT. A stupid person will remain sad and uphappy no matter what.
Not that I know the actual stats, but 80% survival rate over 5 years sounds pretty good. What was the survival rate of the early European-American colonists? Accounting for disease, starvation, being stabbed by someone or eaten by something - would it be better than 80%? Probably not.
So hell yes. I'd go. Anyone with a sense of adventure and courage would go (or in Australia's case, anyone with a criminal record).
The rewards are potentially massive (better than a tiny farm plot which is all the early colonists got) and the experience?! To have your name recorded as one of the first to colonise off-earth! Immortality is yours! Go and take it!
I don't think anyone could argue that a shortage of highly motivated and suitable volunteers would be a problem. Rather, the real problem is getting us all up there. At 80% or 50% or even 10%.
I'm ready now.
Just for the record, I oppose most civilian gun ownership, but for now, if you're an American and you own a gun, please don't give it up.
And when the brown-shirts start arriving to 'question' your friend at 3am in the morning, please have the courage to stand beside them.
With your gun.
You might need it.
Good point. Actually, I guess banning cars is entirely reasonable when compared to banning phones, i.e. stop them delivering the bomb at all, rather than just (possibly) stop them activating it.
Presumably though not every car is entirely banned from Federal Buildings (it would make getting office supplies in very hard work). So my analogy only stretches to blanket bans. There is nothing wrong with targeted and reasonable limits when there is a clear, proven threat, and the limits do not impede normal life.
Not being able to park your car near the door of a Federal Building is a minor hassle for few people, but shutting down every cell phone is quite different... (as would a blanket ban on every single car... even Ambulances!)
This is somewhat like banning cars from an area. Sure, cars are a convenient way to move people, but hey, it could also be used as a delivery mechanism for an explosive!
Hasn't anyone in America clued up to the idea that 99% of the impact of Terrorism is exploiting FUD? In allowing the freaky controlling elements of society to make life impossible for the rest of the sane people, don't you lose so much more?
And don't give me that "if we can save just one life" crap. If that's the case then ban cigarettes, alcohol and McDonalds. Hell, ban religion and guns while you're at it.
For goodness sake! Stop letting the terrorists run your lives for you! They're winning! Wake up!
Well, the fact is that Sasser JUST PLAIN WORKS, whereas Linux is a nightmare to install. Furthermore, Sasser is ready for the desktop. Joe Sixpack understands Sasser because it's just like all the other worms etc etc...
Although I also have a mobile, which removes the problem for accessing emergency numbers (sure, I need to keep it charged, but I don't need to crawl to the land line everytime I cut off one of my legs).
The main reason why? Well, my land line calls were so few and far between (about 2-3 bucks a month) my line rental ($AUS 20/month) far outweighed it.
The funny thing is, I hardly use VOIP at all. Email and chat usage went up (but that costs me nothing) while mobile remained steady.
I got this from Loki (before they burned out :( )for my Linux box. Great game. The Kohan concept of using positioning and strategy in a quick play RTS game needs to be used more, methinks.
Maybe you need an OS that doesnt rely on file extensions to identify file types.
Submarine patent eh? That sounds like a great idea. I wonder if anyone has...
Why do we give attention to someone as obviously ignorant as Gates? It's embarressing. A quick scan of the more sensible comments here on /. makes it clear his grand vision for stopping spam has more implementation holes in it than Swiss cheese stored in a particle accelerator.
I recently got a non-gaming friend hooked on all three of these.
Diablo (II specifically). Pointlessly simple interface, familiar fantasy type themes, nice graphics, plenty of lush feedback (sound, animation, etc). Good but simple story line.
Myst (all three). Again, simple to play, not real-time so easy to learn how to use. Nice eye candy.
Civilisation (III specifically). Turn based. Probably way too complex to start with, but again, the lack of real-time elements made it more approachable.
Work smarter not harder.
There is no "I" in team.
Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Seriously though, if a company has to organise special dinners just to open communications, it already has a problem way beyond IT bugets and infrastructure.
You don't think that soldiers everywhere sometimes want to scream this at the people back home? Come on, firstly, we can find people who have the courage to endure it. And if we choose the wrong person, we can just hide it like the military of the world's largest democracy does all the time!