I totally agree. If he was all about making sure that the disenfranchised inventors like Tesla don't get bullied by the Edison's of the world, then why the hell is he one of the Edison's? Why is he making money off of the lawsuits his company wages against people? I don't see him any different than the RIAA in suing people so that they can "pay" their artists. If it was all about the inventors/artists then more of the litigation & licensing money would go towards the inventors/artists and these leach companies would die of their own altruism.
No, they don't directly sell them to their customers. But you can use an iPhone on their network. You just won't be able to get one for the subsidized sell price.
Another reason you don't see any calculus(or other advanced mathematics) in programming is that you derive the equations you'll need on a piece of paper or white board then use the results in the actual application. An example is the velocity & distance equations that are derived from constant acceleration(V = V0 + a*t, d = d0 + V0 * t + 1/2 * a * t^2). Those equations are the 1st & 2nd integrals of the acceleration. Now instead of trying to recalculate the entire integral each time you need to know how far something traveled, you simply use the already derived equation. The same goes for most applications of various mathematics. But knowing how to derive those equations doesn't stop you when you are presented with something outside the given(say for example if a = 2 * a0 * t).
The bulk of programming jobs have nothing at all to do with math beyond the high school level.
Its mostly counting beans and keeping records. Really, it is.
It's not so much that most programming doesn't use math, it's that different business realms use different type of math. Your standard business application probably isn't going to use much more than basic algebra. But it all depends on the needs of the business you are trying to support. Some will need to calculate & keep track of large statistics. Or you could be working for someone who's business is defined by space usage, so you'll need geometry & calculus. In the graphics & high performance realms you'll need matrix mathematics. At the very least every programmer will need to know boolean algebra.
My mathematical background is more geared to physics, which really doesn't help much in my current job. What I need here is more statistics. And that's what I'd recommend most programmers get, b/c what business doesn't need statistics.
This is something I've seen in just about every product, both what I've bought & what I've worked on. I'm a software developer and have mostly stuck to working for non-tech companies as an in-house developer. I've not worked on things nearly as competitive as smart phones, but all the time my bosses are looking at our competitor's software & seeing how we could apply what they did to our stuff. And we also have seen blatant ripoffs of our stuff, down to what amounts to photo-shopped screen shots, in advertisements for features "Coming Soon". Now at my present company we stress that our software is superior to our competitors(our "customers" use our software, but it's not what we "sell"), but we also make sure that the whole experience is what matters. We make sure that the services we offer are of the highest quality and that's how we beat our competitors. Just because the current Mustang & Camaro look a lot alike, doesn't mean when you drive them that you'll have the same experience.
I find others copying our stuff and use copying others both funny & flattering. Isn't imitation the highest form of flattery?
But that's just it. Unless you unplug your router from the internet EVERYTIME you need to make a change, you have to use their service. Not only that they are willing to push out changes whether you want them or not.
I've only had 2 developer jobs(past & current). Each was entirely different with good & bad things happening. But by far my previous job was the worst kind of place to work for. Even if you forget the fact that we were forced to use outdated tech and the experience there are worthless elsewhere(beyond general software development techniques), it still was a horrible place to work. And that's something I only realized after leaving. So what made all the difference?
1st, I work for a company that sees their employees as their #1 asset. I've seen how they make it a priority to put us 1st over profits. They treat us like adults, not children that have to be supervised or else we will run off with everything including the kitchen sink. They work with us to resolve problems & conflicts, instead of simply letting them fester until the only thing left is firing someone. The key there is that they work with us, not tell us how we will resolve them or discipline us. To date, I've only seen 2 people get fired, and it was quite obvious that they left management no choice.
2nd, my current job is managed by IT people. My boss is an IT grad with an MBA. All of the people I directly answer to either have extensive IT experience or have comparable degrees to my own. This makes a big difference in that they can not only understand the tech, but also the complexities of what is required of us. They also are able to properly prioritize the tasks that ultimately make it to the grunts like me.
3rd, we have Business Analysis-es. They are the buffer between the suits & users and us techs. I can't tell you how much this makes things better for all the techs. When done right, they are able to work with our users when something goes wrong, then come to us to fix actual problems. When there's an improvement or addition that's been requested they are the ones responsible for doing most of the requirement gathering and making sure that the final product works as expected.
Finally, we strive to both keep up with current tech & best IT practices. My company recognizes that its tech is what makes it competitive, so we are always looking for ways to make our stuff better. And because of the 1st 3 reasons, what we techs say carries weight.
If you want to see how not to do things, go look at the DailyWTF. There's plenty of examples there to see how even the best intentions can go horribly wrong.
I never said a tablet was good for a STEM class, only that it's better than a laptop or other low cost PC. The only way a tablet would work for notes taking is if you were using it as a Pen & Paper replacement and it had really good handwriting recognition & translation software. You actually argued my point in the 2nd part of your response about how difficult it is to use either LaTeX or other equation writing software as a means of taking notes. It is near impossible to do on a PC.
Pencil. Paper. Calculator. The keyboard gets in the way of doing anything useful, especially if you're trying to do things involving symbols (like math).
This is why a tablet would be better in most STEM classes than a low cost PC. I tried using my laptop in a CS course for taking notes. But because it wasn't a simple coding class, but more of a mathematical/theoretical course, there was no way I could. Even now, it's hella hard to try typing up papers with any sort of mathematical representations(unless you type everything in LaTeX or try using a GUI equation editor).
A very simple way of doing this is with Putty/SSH. Basically, you open a SSH connection with a tunnel. Then you use something like FoxyProxy, point it at the SSH tunnel you opened. I'm sure there are better solutions for opening the SSH tunnel or Proxy. This works as a quick & dirty solution. And it's a great way to get around certain firewalls, if your proxy lies outside the firewall(ie home server while @ work).
my media pc has an nvidia (ion1) onboard and I dualboot betwen linux for myth-tv client-side use or win7 for dvd play use.
when playing recording OTA stuff from my myth-server, this has to be linux on the client side as there is no (?) win version.
howevever, video playback is NOT as good as win7/nvidia drivers are. not quite as clean. I'm very sorry to say that but its true.
I'm not so picky these days and I stay in myth-client most of the time; but for really clean video, its reality that MS's video system is still better and their win media player (sigh) is still the best 'free' solution for judder and jitter free playback. not a great user interface but once I'm watching fullscreen, who cares. its much less important what the o/s is or the app is once the movie starts; as long as the quality on playback is there!
I hate even admitting that an MS player on MS o/s and a closed source nv driver wins, but it just does. and this is for 'easy' stuff like dvd, not even talking about bd or any HD stuff.
taking it out in win8 is a bad move, I think.
Good to know what kind of problems I should face in the near future. I plan on picking up a similar media box for my MythTV network. But just so you know there is a Win version of MythTV, it just sucks so bad it's not worth using and I've never gotten the source to compile.
Religion still opposes the pursuit of truth, and substitutes for that its own mumbo-jumbo. That's abhorrent to those who seek truth.
"Next time instead of attacking what you don't agree with, try to understand it."
Supply scientific proof your deity exists and your religion is the correct one. Otherwise there is nothing to discuss. Proof, and I bow before your Sky Fairie. No proof? No respect for lies.
I could assert that the universe sprang from my balls, is sustained by my balls, and after my death my balls will live on in the Paradise they created, and that would be as "valid" as every superstition.
How about this? Why don't you prove to me that God doesn't exist.
Because they're the norm, so they're not newsworthy. It's far easier for a raving idiot to make the news than an average person.
Not only that, but as one of my physics professors, who is a very active church goer, made very clear. His/her job is to teach the science, it's my pastor/preacher/bishop/Sunday School Teacher/Rabi/Imam/whatever & mine's job to resolve the supposed conflict between science & religion.
Just so you know, not all of us conservatives are anti-education. I find the fact that people are rewritting history and forcing religious view points on people just as abhorrent as the most ardent atheist. Oh, and did I mention I'm Mormon & even served a mission? Or how about the fact that I'm not the only one? How's this food for thought: There are plenty in the scientific community that not only believe in God, but also think this kind of crap is the stupidest thing they've ever heard? Next time instead of attacking what you don't agree with, try to understand it. Otherwise, all you are doing is giving these idiots reasons to further their agenda.
I never looked into it really. All I knew was that my coworker was unable to use the OSS RDP clients available in Linux, so when I needed to remote in I just setup a VM & used that. Never had much problem with it. I'm not afraid of the command line, I prefer it in most cases. I was just too damn lazy to go & spend hours of my life trying find out how to get something to work, only to have limited abilities, when I can simply run a VM and call it done. And as the company I work for is a M$ shop(except for a few thing), if I want help getting things setup from my system admins, I have to use M$.
But I do believe it was the TS Gateway authentication that at the time was unavailable. I think it's now called RD Gateway. Since I no longer need to dual purpose my desktop as a server, I've put Win7 back on it & no longer worry about whether my RDP client will connect to my work PC. So I've not kept up with what doesn't work.
Not all terminal services work in Linux. There are authentication and other protocols that M$ uses that aren't always available in Linux. Or like most other Linux interfaces to M$ products, there's a lag between what's required by M$ and what's available in Linux. And given how M$ likes to randomly change things on us, you could easily find yourself out in the cold if you can't upgrade as fast as your work. This is what happened to a coworker & I when we tried to use primarily Linux at home(he still does). Unlike him, I had Windows licenses I could use to build legit VMs when I needed to remote into work. For a while it was the only thing we could do.
It doesn't say you can't sue, just that you cannot participate in a Class Action Lawsuit. And unless you opt out, you agree to binding arbitration. Both of which limit what you are able to do.
You are right, used sales are leaching off of content producers. But, that's a very short sighted view point. What you miss is that when people have cheap and affordable access to your content, they are more likely to get hooked. Think of your local drug dealer. The 1st joint, line, shot, etc is free or offered for a very low price. And why? Because if he can get you hooked you'll come back & pay full price for more. The same here. Some gamers won't care what they have to pay, especially if they can sell it back for a portion of what they paid when they don't like it or tire of it. But others are more cautious and are only willing to shell out the full price when they know they will like it. And still others will only take the cheap/free route. Things like this will not affect the 1st & last group all that much. It's the 2nd group that you'll lose with shortsighted thinking that "used sales are only leaching". Of the 3 groups, that 2nd one is by far the largest, as it's where most of the target audience for games fits into things. And unless you want to only play games like Halo 83, then you might want to support used sales.
Except that Sony's EULA, which you will now be forced to agree to as you have to have a PSN account to play any game, means that each person must sue separately and then only if they opted out of arbitration. And that later bit is only if they are aware of what they are signing. I had to get a buddy who's a lawyer explain what my options weren't in signing the latest PSN EULA. Luckily, he doesn't think that the "No Class Action Lawsuit" clause will hold up in court.
Big companies seem to think that consumers have an endless supply of money to spend on anything and everything they want... no concept of a consumer has $100 to spend on games this year. If titles are $50 each, then only two get sold. If titles are $50, but they can resell each for $25 then three games get sold.
All they want is that $100. Selling you less games to get it doesn't worry them in the slightest*.
[*] In fact it's better for them - it means they can control the release schedules and screw over the game developers for an even bigger cut. Every console maker knows how Nintendo used to do things and dreams of being able to do the same.
Not only that but if they can make that $100 by doing less then they will. Games cost a lot of money, and if they were able to only put out a few titles a year and still gross the same amount of money, their net income is that much better off.
Yes, because downloading executable software from a random website has always been a good idea. Even better is running this software on your naturally very secure copy of Windows. Yeah, not seeing a problem with that. Sorry for bringing up what obviously is not going to be a problem at all.
A lot of DRM would be much more acceptable if the publisher guaranteed to put out a patch X months (or even years) after release to allow off-line play. In a game's life-cycle, the first few months of release are the most profitable. Trying to prevent copy-right infringement at that point is the most productive. If a company, say after 6-9 months would release a patch that removed the DRM, it wouldn't bother me enough to prevent me from buying the game.
No it wouldn't. The problem here is that you assume that if you purchase a copy after the DRM removal patch is out that your "new" copy won't have the DRM. Most likely, the DRM will still be apart of the retail copy and years down the road after they've stopped supporting the game you won't be able to find the patch that removes the DRM. A patch you need every time you need/decide to reinstall something you own.
Unless I'm totally off my rocker(which is possible) wouldn't prior art come into play here? It's one of the "techs" of at least Mass Effect. And I don't think the writers from ME made it up out of thin air.
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I totally agree. If he was all about making sure that the disenfranchised inventors like Tesla don't get bullied by the Edison's of the world, then why the hell is he one of the Edison's? Why is he making money off of the lawsuits his company wages against people? I don't see him any different than the RIAA in suing people so that they can "pay" their artists. If it was all about the inventors/artists then more of the litigation & licensing money would go towards the inventors/artists and these leach companies would die of their own altruism.
No, they don't directly sell them to their customers. But you can use an iPhone on their network. You just won't be able to get one for the subsidized sell price.
Another reason you don't see any calculus(or other advanced mathematics) in programming is that you derive the equations you'll need on a piece of paper or white board then use the results in the actual application. An example is the velocity & distance equations that are derived from constant acceleration(V = V0 + a*t, d = d0 + V0 * t + 1/2 * a * t^2). Those equations are the 1st & 2nd integrals of the acceleration. Now instead of trying to recalculate the entire integral each time you need to know how far something traveled, you simply use the already derived equation. The same goes for most applications of various mathematics. But knowing how to derive those equations doesn't stop you when you are presented with something outside the given(say for example if a = 2 * a0 * t).
The bulk of programming jobs have nothing at all to do with math beyond the high school level. Its mostly counting beans and keeping records. Really, it is.
It's not so much that most programming doesn't use math, it's that different business realms use different type of math. Your standard business application probably isn't going to use much more than basic algebra. But it all depends on the needs of the business you are trying to support. Some will need to calculate & keep track of large statistics. Or you could be working for someone who's business is defined by space usage, so you'll need geometry & calculus. In the graphics & high performance realms you'll need matrix mathematics. At the very least every programmer will need to know boolean algebra.
My mathematical background is more geared to physics, which really doesn't help much in my current job. What I need here is more statistics. And that's what I'd recommend most programmers get, b/c what business doesn't need statistics.
This is something I've seen in just about every product, both what I've bought & what I've worked on. I'm a software developer and have mostly stuck to working for non-tech companies as an in-house developer. I've not worked on things nearly as competitive as smart phones, but all the time my bosses are looking at our competitor's software & seeing how we could apply what they did to our stuff. And we also have seen blatant ripoffs of our stuff, down to what amounts to photo-shopped screen shots, in advertisements for features "Coming Soon". Now at my present company we stress that our software is superior to our competitors(our "customers" use our software, but it's not what we "sell"), but we also make sure that the whole experience is what matters. We make sure that the services we offer are of the highest quality and that's how we beat our competitors. Just because the current Mustang & Camaro look a lot alike, doesn't mean when you drive them that you'll have the same experience. I find others copying our stuff and use copying others both funny & flattering. Isn't imitation the highest form of flattery?
EA2700 is included. It's the one I have & I got hosed by this.
But that's just it. Unless you unplug your router from the internet EVERYTIME you need to make a change, you have to use their service. Not only that they are willing to push out changes whether you want them or not.
I've only had 2 developer jobs(past & current). Each was entirely different with good & bad things happening. But by far my previous job was the worst kind of place to work for. Even if you forget the fact that we were forced to use outdated tech and the experience there are worthless elsewhere(beyond general software development techniques), it still was a horrible place to work. And that's something I only realized after leaving. So what made all the difference?
1st, I work for a company that sees their employees as their #1 asset. I've seen how they make it a priority to put us 1st over profits. They treat us like adults, not children that have to be supervised or else we will run off with everything including the kitchen sink. They work with us to resolve problems & conflicts, instead of simply letting them fester until the only thing left is firing someone. The key there is that they work with us, not tell us how we will resolve them or discipline us. To date, I've only seen 2 people get fired, and it was quite obvious that they left management no choice.
2nd, my current job is managed by IT people. My boss is an IT grad with an MBA. All of the people I directly answer to either have extensive IT experience or have comparable degrees to my own. This makes a big difference in that they can not only understand the tech, but also the complexities of what is required of us. They also are able to properly prioritize the tasks that ultimately make it to the grunts like me.
3rd, we have Business Analysis-es. They are the buffer between the suits & users and us techs. I can't tell you how much this makes things better for all the techs. When done right, they are able to work with our users when something goes wrong, then come to us to fix actual problems. When there's an improvement or addition that's been requested they are the ones responsible for doing most of the requirement gathering and making sure that the final product works as expected.
Finally, we strive to both keep up with current tech & best IT practices. My company recognizes that its tech is what makes it competitive, so we are always looking for ways to make our stuff better. And because of the 1st 3 reasons, what we techs say carries weight.
If you want to see how not to do things, go look at the DailyWTF. There's plenty of examples there to see how even the best intentions can go horribly wrong.
I never said a tablet was good for a STEM class, only that it's better than a laptop or other low cost PC. The only way a tablet would work for notes taking is if you were using it as a Pen & Paper replacement and it had really good handwriting recognition & translation software. You actually argued my point in the 2nd part of your response about how difficult it is to use either LaTeX or other equation writing software as a means of taking notes. It is near impossible to do on a PC.
Pencil. Paper. Calculator. The keyboard gets in the way of doing anything useful, especially if you're trying to do things involving symbols (like math).
This is why a tablet would be better in most STEM classes than a low cost PC. I tried using my laptop in a CS course for taking notes. But because it wasn't a simple coding class, but more of a mathematical/theoretical course, there was no way I could. Even now, it's hella hard to try typing up papers with any sort of mathematical representations(unless you type everything in LaTeX or try using a GUI equation editor).
A very simple way of doing this is with Putty/SSH. Basically, you open a SSH connection with a tunnel. Then you use something like FoxyProxy, point it at the SSH tunnel you opened. I'm sure there are better solutions for opening the SSH tunnel or Proxy. This works as a quick & dirty solution. And it's a great way to get around certain firewalls, if your proxy lies outside the firewall(ie home server while @ work).
my media pc has an nvidia (ion1) onboard and I dualboot betwen linux for myth-tv client-side use or win7 for dvd play use.
when playing recording OTA stuff from my myth-server, this has to be linux on the client side as there is no (?) win version.
howevever, video playback is NOT as good as win7/nvidia drivers are. not quite as clean. I'm very sorry to say that but its true.
I'm not so picky these days and I stay in myth-client most of the time; but for really clean video, its reality that MS's video system is still better and their win media player (sigh) is still the best 'free' solution for judder and jitter free playback. not a great user interface but once I'm watching fullscreen, who cares. its much less important what the o/s is or the app is once the movie starts; as long as the quality on playback is there!
I hate even admitting that an MS player on MS o/s and a closed source nv driver wins, but it just does. and this is for 'easy' stuff like dvd, not even talking about bd or any HD stuff.
taking it out in win8 is a bad move, I think.
Good to know what kind of problems I should face in the near future. I plan on picking up a similar media box for my MythTV network. But just so you know there is a Win version of MythTV, it just sucks so bad it's not worth using and I've never gotten the source to compile.
Religion still opposes the pursuit of truth, and substitutes for that its own mumbo-jumbo. That's abhorrent to those who seek truth.
"Next time instead of attacking what you don't agree with, try to understand it."
Supply scientific proof your deity exists and your religion is the correct one. Otherwise there is nothing to discuss. Proof, and I bow before your Sky Fairie. No proof? No respect for lies.
I could assert that the universe sprang from my balls, is sustained by my balls, and after my death my balls will live on in the Paradise they created, and that would be as "valid" as every superstition.
How about this? Why don't you prove to me that God doesn't exist.
Because they're the norm, so they're not newsworthy. It's far easier for a raving idiot to make the news than an average person.
Not only that, but as one of my physics professors, who is a very active church goer, made very clear. His/her job is to teach the science, it's my pastor/preacher/bishop/Sunday School Teacher/Rabi/Imam/whatever & mine's job to resolve the supposed conflict between science & religion.
Just so you know, not all of us conservatives are anti-education. I find the fact that people are rewritting history and forcing religious view points on people just as abhorrent as the most ardent atheist. Oh, and did I mention I'm Mormon & even served a mission? Or how about the fact that I'm not the only one? How's this food for thought: There are plenty in the scientific community that not only believe in God, but also think this kind of crap is the stupidest thing they've ever heard?
Next time instead of attacking what you don't agree with, try to understand it. Otherwise, all you are doing is giving these idiots reasons to further their agenda.
I never looked into it really. All I knew was that my coworker was unable to use the OSS RDP clients available in Linux, so when I needed to remote in I just setup a VM & used that. Never had much problem with it. I'm not afraid of the command line, I prefer it in most cases. I was just too damn lazy to go & spend hours of my life trying find out how to get something to work, only to have limited abilities, when I can simply run a VM and call it done. And as the company I work for is a M$ shop(except for a few thing), if I want help getting things setup from my system admins, I have to use M$.
But I do believe it was the TS Gateway authentication that at the time was unavailable. I think it's now called RD Gateway. Since I no longer need to dual purpose my desktop as a server, I've put Win7 back on it & no longer worry about whether my RDP client will connect to my work PC. So I've not kept up with what doesn't work.
Not all terminal services work in Linux. There are authentication and other protocols that M$ uses that aren't always available in Linux. Or like most other Linux interfaces to M$ products, there's a lag between what's required by M$ and what's available in Linux. And given how M$ likes to randomly change things on us, you could easily find yourself out in the cold if you can't upgrade as fast as your work. This is what happened to a coworker & I when we tried to use primarily Linux at home(he still does). Unlike him, I had Windows licenses I could use to build legit VMs when I needed to remote into work. For a while it was the only thing we could do.
It doesn't say you can't sue, just that you cannot participate in a Class Action Lawsuit. And unless you opt out, you agree to binding arbitration. Both of which limit what you are able to do.
You are right, used sales are leaching off of content producers. But, that's a very short sighted view point. What you miss is that when people have cheap and affordable access to your content, they are more likely to get hooked. Think of your local drug dealer. The 1st joint, line, shot, etc is free or offered for a very low price. And why? Because if he can get you hooked you'll come back & pay full price for more. The same here. Some gamers won't care what they have to pay, especially if they can sell it back for a portion of what they paid when they don't like it or tire of it. But others are more cautious and are only willing to shell out the full price when they know they will like it. And still others will only take the cheap/free route. Things like this will not affect the 1st & last group all that much. It's the 2nd group that you'll lose with shortsighted thinking that "used sales are only leaching". Of the 3 groups, that 2nd one is by far the largest, as it's where most of the target audience for games fits into things. And unless you want to only play games like Halo 83, then you might want to support used sales.
That lawsuit should be epic.
Except that Sony's EULA, which you will now be forced to agree to as you have to have a PSN account to play any game, means that each person must sue separately and then only if they opted out of arbitration. And that later bit is only if they are aware of what they are signing. I had to get a buddy who's a lawyer explain what my options weren't in signing the latest PSN EULA. Luckily, he doesn't think that the "No Class Action Lawsuit" clause will hold up in court.
Big companies seem to think that consumers have an endless supply of money to spend on anything and everything they want... no concept of a consumer has $100 to spend on games this year. If titles are $50 each, then only two get sold. If titles are $50, but they can resell each for $25 then three games get sold.
All they want is that $100. Selling you less games to get it doesn't worry them in the slightest*.
[*] In fact it's better for them - it means they can control the release schedules and screw over the game developers for an even bigger cut. Every console maker knows how Nintendo used to do things and dreams of being able to do the same.
Not only that but if they can make that $100 by doing less then they will. Games cost a lot of money, and if they were able to only put out a few titles a year and still gross the same amount of money, their net income is that much better off.
Yes, because downloading executable software from a random website has always been a good idea. Even better is running this software on your naturally very secure copy of Windows. Yeah, not seeing a problem with that. Sorry for bringing up what obviously is not going to be a problem at all.
A lot of DRM would be much more acceptable if the publisher guaranteed to put out a patch X months (or even years) after release to allow off-line play. In a game's life-cycle, the first few months of release are the most profitable. Trying to prevent copy-right infringement at that point is the most productive. If a company, say after 6-9 months would release a patch that removed the DRM, it wouldn't bother me enough to prevent me from buying the game.
No it wouldn't. The problem here is that you assume that if you purchase a copy after the DRM removal patch is out that your "new" copy won't have the DRM. Most likely, the DRM will still be apart of the retail copy and years down the road after they've stopped supporting the game you won't be able to find the patch that removes the DRM. A patch you need every time you need/decide to reinstall something you own.
Unless I'm totally off my rocker(which is possible) wouldn't prior art come into play here? It's one of the "techs" of at least Mass Effect. And I don't think the writers from ME made it up out of thin air.
Nah, I'd rather have cake.
But the cake is a lie