Soft power allows the operating system to automatically shut the machine down during periods of activity in order to save power, and was implemented as part of the energy star program.
When you turn the PC off manually, obviously you can also turn of the manual power switch on the back of the machine.
Th'at isn't exactly correct. Tungsten lightbulbs are self regulated in that the resistence increases with temperature. You will not see a linear increase in current for a linear increase in voltage because the additional heat will regulate the current. If you go too high over the rated voltage, the bulb will blow.
While I am inclined to completely ignore this study, it's not on a 'correlation/causation' basis. I just find it incredibly hard to believe that television is such a huge factor for autism.
Do you have a hard time believing verbal abuse or a supportive environment can have an effect on a child's self-esteem? Do you have a hard time believing that abuse can cause depression? Do you have a hard time believing that educational programming for babies helps the development of the child?
Why is it so hard to believe that sensory input could have an effect on psycological development? I'm not saying that this particular effect is real, but it seems to me that it deserves some looking into considering how prevalent the activity and potenital result are.
If he hadn't mentioned that he has an autistic child, what would you do to invalidate his criticism then? Point out that he's just an M.D. while you have a B.A. in Latin?
My post would have been largely the same. I would have pointed out that he made good points, but all they prove is that the study was done poorly, not that the study is incorrect. As a researcher, he should advocate that the research be done correctly rather than write off the concept simply because somebody did a poor job studying it.
Simon Baron Cohen (he's Sascha's cousin) has theorized that Autism represents an extremely systematizing mind, and that kind of mind (in my experience) tends to shy away from the disordered chaos of TV and towards systems and obsessions (trains, cars, computers, etc.)
I'm not saying that this is true, but really, I could see how some video entertainment designed for babies may contribute to something like this. These shows are simple, focus on the most stimulating effects and sounds, and are highly repetitive. They could (again, not saying that they do) cause the brain to develop the recognition of certain patterns considerably more than anything else. Who knows what effect that could have on the future development of the child. We take for granted that some exposures have long term psycological effects, and even that certain things can cause mental disorders later in life. Nobody questions that early childhood abuse can cause all sorts of mental disorders, for example. That includes verbal abuse. Why is it so hard to believe that constant exposure to repetitive media, or anything that provokes any type of emotional response from the child, wouldn't have a long lasting effect?
Unfortunatly, this will not be pursued any further, because it suggests that parents may have caused their child's problems.
This paper will be a bombshell, all right. I'll use it over and over again as I explain to medical students and colleagues that you don't have to have much in the way of actual brains to write a scientific paper. Or, as I said about another paper in journal club once, "the font is nice, and I like the layout of the tables. It's a shame the actual science is such garbage."
You would rather trash talk the paper rather than either doing the necessary research, or teaching that followup research should be done to confirm/debunk the hypothesis. Do you think that, perhaps, this is because the paper suggests it is possible that autism could have been prevented by the parent of the autistic child?
Honestly, even though you make well reasoned points early on in your comment, it is clear that your conclusions are influenced by your situation.
You see, it's something called historical evidence... You reference a past event in order to make an educated assessment of the current situation. It's either that or you can just have knee-jerk responses... Your call.
Think back. Remember how all the reviews called the PSP flimsy and poorly built? But then they actually came out, and aside from dead-pixel problems, the units were solid. So why should I believe them?
...PSP UMDs come flying out like throwing stars during normal gameplay all the time...
Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of a negative review of a Sony product before it is even released. I'll wait until I see a demo unit and judge for myself.
Legalese is as much about what it doesn't say as it is about what it does say. They are not bound to do anything by your pre-order other than mail you a check (I haven't gone to the store, but I'll be money that the reciept you sign at the store says 'within 7-10 weeks') when you ask for your money back.
Yes, yes. You've drunk the cool-aid. Congratulations.
keep in mind that while thinking like that you can't also desire allowing pre-orders more than a month in advance
Explain to me the difference between standing in line for a pre-order and standing in line for an actual console.... Now, tell me what the hell *we* need pre-orders for.
Pre-orders benefit only the retailer at the expense of the customer. Nobody should 'desire' pre-orders.
I do know a number of people who work there and [...]
I also know a number of people who work there and in competing game stores. Employees of EB/Gamestop will flat out lie to you in order to meet whatever quota they have for that month, because if they don't the lose their jobs. I'm not saying that your story about paying into the pre-orders isn't true, but if it is true, then the whole "first come first serve" story is a lie... Which is it? First come first serve, or people who paid in full get their console first? Either way, somebody at Gamestop is lied to you, because they can't both be true. You shouldn't trust them, or ask them for information. Do your research before you go into the store. They are not impartial or objective and have many incentives to mislead you.
Just like Funcoland before them, EB went to shit when Gamestop bought them. Crappy customer service. Artificial release day 'shortages' of popular games if you didn't pre-order (the miraculously have 50 copies in stock the next morning, even though they were 'all out' the previous evening way past the time any shipping companies deliver). Sucky return policies. Horrible trade-in values. The higest prices anyhere on used games. They no longer stock used titles for older systems... I used to spend close to $5k a year at my local EB, but now I take my gaming dollars to Target or Amazon.
That's not what the terms on the EBgames website say. They say you aren't guaranteed a console. Period. That means they can just keep your $50 until you ask for it back, or until they decide they've had it long enough, even if they have other machines available to be sold to the general public.
If oil and gas deposits produce a happy population then how come Nigeria isn't, or Alaska for that matter?
The former because of a corrupt governemnt that does not use the proceeds to the benefit of the population... The latter... Well, the citizens all get a big fat check with their cut of the revenues every year. The standard of living is very high, and I don't see any evidence that the population as a whole isn't happy.
Everyone else in most 1st world countries work 40 hours a week. Infact its illegal to go over 45 or 50 in France. America as a result is leading in divorce.
France is also leading the list of 'first world' countries in unemployment, dropping steadily in the GDP per-capita rankings, dealing with occational labor riots, and generally regressing into a 'second world' country. Hardly a model anybody should be holding up as a goal.
People should be free to screw up their family life if they so desire. It isn't the job of the government to provide you with a happy marriage.
Where did you get the $50M from? $50 down on 1M units? My understanding is that Gamestop has 3200 stores, which, if each sells 30 pre-orders is roughly 100k units. That knocks your estimate down by an order of magnitude.
Somewhere else in this thread are people claiming that EB/Gamestop are getting 60% of the initial shipment of 2 million units; small stores would be getting 15-30 units. Larger stores in big cities would presumably get many times that.
Obviously, if that is incorrect my point is based on a flawed assumption.
You get nothing from your Gamestop preorder anyway
on
The State Of Wii Preorders
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Why isn't it making news that your pre-order at gamestop or EB doesn't guarantee you a console, even if you are sufficiently to the front of the line.
What are people paying $50 for? If they want money, I'd better get a guarantee, or at least more that $50 back when they're telling me they aren't actually going to sell me the machine I pre-ordered.
1: Interest on $50,000,000 for a month (You really think the costs of running the pre-order operation for a day are going to exceed $4 million?) 2: Gets the customer into the store two times, increasing the opportunity for additional sales 3: Requires the customer to provide personal information that they can sell
AnyDVD is the most updated piece of software I ever own.
Rarely, there will be several days between updates, and I skip most of them to maintain my sanity. They never seem to fail to release a new update within 8 hours of any update I install, however.
Quick (circuit diagram|woodworking drawing w/dimensions|flowerbed layout|connector pinout) for reference during implementation? Paper. -If I had a light tablet PC, I'd rather use that. Much less awkward to access large diagrams without spreading it all over the place. And you don't have to skip the Spanish section.
$800 and 5+lbs of equipment to do what you could have done with $0.40 worth of pencil and paper? Would it even do the job any better? I'd say no. Where would I keep the tablet PC between cuts at the table saw or while I'm digging holes in the garden? The paper gets stuffed in my pocket. How would it stand up to vibration, sawdust, dirt, or water? It is a much larger 'display' than any pocketable touchscreen device too.
Notes from a 5-minute meeting (even if you are going to digitize them later)? Paper. -I try to take notes on a laptop if its not too distracting to my fellow attendees.
Forget distracting. What about disconnecting it from power, carrying it around, powering it up, all to write down two or three line items. Plus it requires a laptop. I'll bet you $100 I can type up the three sentences that come from notes at a quick meeting faster than you can close and re-open the cover on your laptop and re-connect the power.
Temporary sign to post on the wall? Paper. -If I had lots of cheap, low power screens everywhere, I'd use those. We're not talking this decade though.
If we had tons of low-power screens everywhere most of my arguments would no longer make sense. Of course we'd also probably be bombarded with so much light-emitting animated advertising that we would collectively all stab ourselvs blind and jump off a cliff ending the human race forever... Or maybe not.
Paperless may make sense in some Star-Trekian future, but we don't live then yet.
As for stacks of headers printed out on paper. That's idiotic, and not what I was talking about. A single data structure taped to the side of the monitor for side-by-side reference while debugging somebody else's sloppy code is more what I had in mind. I do personally prefer a second display for the task, but only about one in three of my past employers have been willing to provide such a setup.
I'm 28, I'm a software engineer, and I think that you are wrong. You also probably would make a terrible engineer. (At least you refer to yourself as a programmer, and not an engineer)
Whenever you have a problem you should choose the solution with the best combination of simplicity, cost, and reliability. For many tasks, a piece of paper wins all three. It generally wins for durability, size, and weight too. Quick grocery list? Paper. Quick (circuit diagram|woodworking drawing w/dimensions|flowerbed layout|connector pinout) for reference during implementation? Paper. Web based directions to somewhere you've never been in a format you can take along in the car? Paper. Notes from a 5-minute meeting (even if you are going to digitize them later)? Paper. Keeping static information (headers, a page from the API docs, a quick reference card) in your field of view while you are writing software without the added costs of an additional display? Paper. Note to the (mailman|gardner|etc...)? Paper. Temporary sign to post on the wall? Paper. Getting the picture?
Don't be so infatuated with technology that you lose sight of how good the old ways to do things are. All things are good with the proper level of moderation.
To avoid interference, current DSL implementations use static spectrum management that is built for a "worst-case" scenario. [...] and DSM technology will allow each DSL connection to be regulated in real time by the [...] data needs of each customer. The end result could be DSL connections that top out at 100Mbps or more...but are down most of the time, and are slower than advertised most of the rest of the time.
Slashdot Mirror
Soft power allows the operating system to automatically shut the machine down during periods of activity in order to save power, and was implemented as part of the energy star program.
When you turn the PC off manually, obviously you can also turn of the manual power switch on the back of the machine.
Th'at isn't exactly correct. Tungsten lightbulbs are self regulated in that the resistence increases with temperature. You will not see a linear increase in current for a linear increase in voltage because the additional heat will regulate the current. If you go too high over the rated voltage, the bulb will blow.
While I am inclined to completely ignore this study, it's not on a 'correlation/causation' basis. I just find it incredibly hard to believe that television is such a huge factor for autism.
Do you have a hard time believing verbal abuse or a supportive environment can have an effect on a child's self-esteem?
Do you have a hard time believing that abuse can cause depression?
Do you have a hard time believing that educational programming for babies helps the development of the child?
Why is it so hard to believe that sensory input could have an effect on psycological development? I'm not saying that this particular effect is real, but it seems to me that it deserves some looking into considering how prevalent the activity and potenital result are.
If he hadn't mentioned that he has an autistic child, what would you do to invalidate his criticism then? Point out that he's just an M.D. while you have a B.A. in Latin?
My post would have been largely the same. I would have pointed out that he made good points, but all they prove is that the study was done poorly, not that the study is incorrect. As a researcher, he should advocate that the research be done correctly rather than write off the concept simply because somebody did a poor job studying it.
Simon Baron Cohen (he's Sascha's cousin) has theorized that Autism represents an extremely systematizing mind, and that kind of mind (in my experience) tends to shy away from the disordered chaos of TV and towards systems and obsessions (trains, cars, computers, etc.)
I'm not saying that this is true, but really, I could see how some video entertainment designed for babies may contribute to something like this. These shows are simple, focus on the most stimulating effects and sounds, and are highly repetitive. They could (again, not saying that they do) cause the brain to develop the recognition of certain patterns considerably more than anything else. Who knows what effect that could have on the future development of the child. We take for granted that some exposures have long term psycological effects, and even that certain things can cause mental disorders later in life. Nobody questions that early childhood abuse can cause all sorts of mental disorders, for example. That includes verbal abuse. Why is it so hard to believe that constant exposure to repetitive media, or anything that provokes any type of emotional response from the child, wouldn't have a long lasting effect?
Unfortunatly, this will not be pursued any further, because it suggests that parents may have caused their child's problems.
This paper will be a bombshell, all right. I'll use it over and over again as I explain to medical students and colleagues that you don't have to have much in the way of actual brains to write a scientific paper. Or, as I said about another paper in journal club once, "the font is nice, and I like the layout of the tables. It's a shame the actual science is such garbage."
You would rather trash talk the paper rather than either doing the necessary research, or teaching that followup research should be done to confirm/debunk the hypothesis. Do you think that, perhaps, this is because the paper suggests it is possible that autism could have been prevented by the parent of the autistic child?
Honestly, even though you make well reasoned points early on in your comment, it is clear that your conclusions are influenced by your situation.
You see, it's something called historical evidence... You reference a past event in order to make an educated assessment of the current situation. It's either that or you can just have knee-jerk responses... Your call.
Think back. Remember how all the reviews called the PSP flimsy and poorly built? But then they actually came out, and aside from dead-pixel problems, the units were solid. So why should I believe them?
My point is that these guys have little to no credibility based on past performance.
It's not that it doesn't happen. It's that you have to twist the crap out of the machine to get it to happen.
...PSP UMDs come flying out like throwing stars during normal gameplay all the time...
Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of a negative review of a Sony product before it is even released. I'll wait until I see a demo unit and judge for myself.
Legalese is as much about what it doesn't say as it is about what it does say. They are not bound to do anything by your pre-order other than mail you a check (I haven't gone to the store, but I'll be money that the reciept you sign at the store says 'within 7-10 weeks') when you ask for your money back.
Yes, yes. You've drunk the cool-aid. Congratulations.
keep in mind that while thinking like that you can't also desire allowing pre-orders more than a month in advance
Explain to me the difference between standing in line for a pre-order and standing in line for an actual console.... Now, tell me what the hell *we* need pre-orders for.
Pre-orders benefit only the retailer at the expense of the customer. Nobody should 'desire' pre-orders.
I do know a number of people who work there and [...]
I also know a number of people who work there and in competing game stores. Employees of EB/Gamestop will flat out lie to you in order to meet whatever quota they have for that month, because if they don't the lose their jobs. I'm not saying that your story about paying into the pre-orders isn't true, but if it is true, then the whole "first come first serve" story is a lie... Which is it? First come first serve, or people who paid in full get their console first? Either way, somebody at Gamestop is lied to you, because they can't both be true. You shouldn't trust them, or ask them for information. Do your research before you go into the store. They are not impartial or objective and have many incentives to mislead you.
Just like Funcoland before them, EB went to shit when Gamestop bought them. Crappy customer service. Artificial release day 'shortages' of popular games if you didn't pre-order (the miraculously have 50 copies in stock the next morning, even though they were 'all out' the previous evening way past the time any shipping companies deliver). Sucky return policies. Horrible trade-in values. The higest prices anyhere on used games. They no longer stock used titles for older systems... I used to spend close to $5k a year at my local EB, but now I take my gaming dollars to Target or Amazon.
That's not what the terms on the EBgames website say. They say you aren't guaranteed a console. Period. That means they can just keep your $50 until you ask for it back, or until they decide they've had it long enough, even if they have other machines available to be sold to the general public.
If oil and gas deposits produce a happy population then how come Nigeria isn't, or Alaska for that matter?
The former because of a corrupt governemnt that does not use the proceeds to the benefit of the population... The latter... Well, the citizens all get a big fat check with their cut of the revenues every year. The standard of living is very high, and I don't see any evidence that the population as a whole isn't happy.
Everyone else in most 1st world countries work 40 hours a week. Infact its illegal to go over 45 or 50 in France. America as a result is leading in divorce.
France is also leading the list of 'first world' countries in unemployment, dropping steadily in the GDP per-capita rankings, dealing with occational labor riots, and generally regressing into a 'second world' country. Hardly a model anybody should be holding up as a goal.
People should be free to screw up their family life if they so desire. It isn't the job of the government to provide you with a happy marriage.
Where did you get the $50M from? $50 down on 1M units? My understanding is that Gamestop has 3200 stores, which, if each sells 30 pre-orders is roughly 100k units. That knocks your estimate down by an order of magnitude.
Somewhere else in this thread are people claiming that EB/Gamestop are getting 60% of the initial shipment of 2 million units; small stores would be getting 15-30 units. Larger stores in big cities would presumably get many times that.
Obviously, if that is incorrect my point is based on a flawed assumption.
Why isn't it making news that your pre-order at gamestop or EB doesn't guarantee you a console, even if you are sufficiently to the front of the line.
What are people paying $50 for? If they want money, I'd better get a guarantee, or at least more that $50 back when they're telling me they aren't actually going to sell me the machine I pre-ordered.
Er... That should have said "$400,000", not "$4 million". Point still stands dispite the thinko.
Three reasons.
1: Interest on $50,000,000 for a month (You really think the costs of running the pre-order operation for a day are going to exceed $4 million?)
2: Gets the customer into the store two times, increasing the opportunity for additional sales
3: Requires the customer to provide personal information that they can sell
AnyDVD is the most updated piece of software I ever own.
Rarely, there will be several days between updates, and I skip most of them to maintain my sanity. They never seem to fail to release a new update within 8 hours of any update I install, however.
$800 and 5+lbs of equipment to do what you could have done with $0.40 worth of pencil and paper? Would it even do the job any better? I'd say no. Where would I keep the tablet PC between cuts at the table saw or while I'm digging holes in the garden? The paper gets stuffed in my pocket. How would it stand up to vibration, sawdust, dirt, or water? It is a much larger 'display' than any pocketable touchscreen device too.
Forget distracting. What about disconnecting it from power, carrying it around, powering it up, all to write down two or three line items. Plus it requires a laptop. I'll bet you $100 I can type up the three sentences that come from notes at a quick meeting faster than you can close and re-open the cover on your laptop and re-connect the power.
If we had tons of low-power screens everywhere most of my arguments would no longer make sense. Of course we'd also probably be bombarded with so much light-emitting animated advertising that we would collectively all stab ourselvs blind and jump off a cliff ending the human race forever... Or maybe not.
Paperless may make sense in some Star-Trekian future, but we don't live then yet.
As for stacks of headers printed out on paper. That's idiotic, and not what I was talking about. A single data structure taped to the side of the monitor for side-by-side reference while debugging somebody else's sloppy code is more what I had in mind. I do personally prefer a second display for the task, but only about one in three of my past employers have been willing to provide such a setup.
Even if Dell offered all of their machines without windows, I would bet that the same percentage of their sales would include windows.
This is a binary argument. Either Dell sells PCs without Windows, or as you initially asserted, they aren't.
I'm 28, I'm a software engineer, and I think that you are wrong. You also probably would make a terrible engineer. (At least you refer to yourself as a programmer, and not an engineer)
Whenever you have a problem you should choose the solution with the best combination of simplicity, cost, and reliability. For many tasks, a piece of paper wins all three. It generally wins for durability, size, and weight too. Quick grocery list? Paper. Quick (circuit diagram|woodworking drawing w/dimensions|flowerbed layout|connector pinout) for reference during implementation? Paper. Web based directions to somewhere you've never been in a format you can take along in the car? Paper. Notes from a 5-minute meeting (even if you are going to digitize them later)? Paper. Keeping static information (headers, a page from the API docs, a quick reference card) in your field of view while you are writing software without the added costs of an additional display? Paper. Note to the (mailman|gardner|etc...)? Paper. Temporary sign to post on the wall? Paper. Getting the picture?
Don't be so infatuated with technology that you lose sight of how good the old ways to do things are. All things are good with the proper level of moderation.
To avoid interference, current DSL implementations use static spectrum management that is built for a "worst-case" scenario. [...] and DSM technology will allow each DSL connection to be regulated in real time by the [...] data needs of each customer. The end result could be DSL connections that top out at 100Mbps or more ...but are down most of the time, and are slower than advertised most of the rest of the time.
So basically, you're trying to say that I'm 100% correct with sufficient spin to make the people reading your comments think otherwise.
Judging by your posting history, you tend to do that a lot.