Every time I spill Coke on my keyboard (yes, it's happened more than once) I've had to replace the whole thing because the coke at away at the circuitry. When I clean off the soda, the solder and wiring come with it.
I often read stories about this kind of thing; where a {piece of software, band, CD, Movie, TV Show, etc} gains popularity and a 'legitamate' user base as a result of piracy.
The most commonly used example of this is Photoshop (followed closely by windows). Through a very high piracy rate, and a very low litagation rate, photoshop gained so much market share that it is now the dominant application in its field (bitmap editing).
Adobe didn't condone the piracy of their software, but they also didn't actively pursue minor cases. That is, if some high school kid pirated photoshop, and used to create images for personal use, no biggie. If a company pirated photoshop, and used it for commercial purposes (and got caught), send in the lawyers.
So many people used the software illegally at home that when it came time to make a purchase in the work place, the choice was obvious. People already knew how to use photoshop, and kept hearing the name of the application over, and over again.
By allowing piracy (or in this case, downloading of tv shows) to happen amongst a demographic that 'doesn't matter' (home users that cannot afford the software anyways, or a small number of people that would have downloaded BSG regardless) but have influence over a demographic that does (companies that can afford photoshop, or friends and family that have never heard of BSG), companies can gaing huge market share. It's a grey area, but it has proven positive effects.
I find that there are a number of things that I buy that have a very short life. Optical drives are one of them (also, hard drives, keyboards, remote controls, blenders, etc.).
My solution has always been to warranty the product for a free one. Most products come with a pretty decent warranty, but most people don't bother to cash in on it.
Another good suggestion, buy the extended warranty that is offered by many retail outlets. Yeah yeah, I know that most of you will think that it's a scam, and they are just trying to get more money out of you; and you are right. It is a money maker for them, but not because they won't warranty, or because the product won't break, but because people forget about the extended warranty, or can't be bothered to use it. As long as you are smart, you will probably be able to cash in on it. The additional warranty typically runs for 3-5 years, and costs and additional 10-15% of the retail cost. This is well beyond the lifespan of most consumer grade electronics. Instead of thinking of it costing you 10% more, think of it as saving you 90% on the cost of a new one when it breaks in 2 years.
The benefit to you: when your next optical drive craps out, take it to Best Buy and they will give you a new one.
The benefit is that they can use the agreement to place blame on regulators, and percieved 'higher bodies.' This takes the blame off of them, and lessens the bad press.
It's like when you get fired due to downsizing, rather than your boss just not wanting you there. One hurts less, and makes you less likely to fight back or complain.
The benfit as I see it is this: ISPs pay for bandwidth. The more their customers use, the more they have to pay. They charge customers a blanket fee. Most people use very little bandwidth, and cost very little. Some people use lots, and cost them more money. By signing this agreement, they can upcharge the people who are using a lot for legitimate usage (by forcing them into a more expensive business account), and they can get rid of the customers that use it for illegal purposes (by saying that they are 'merely complying with the RIAA agreement' that they signed).
Thus, they retain the customers that use little bandwidth, and don't cost them money. They get more money from the customers that need the bandwidth. And they lose the customers that are costing them more money.
Standard business practice. Get rid of the costly customers, or charge them more.
They wouldn't. I've gotten into many a fight with my ISP about bandwidth usage.
"All last week you were downloading 1.3 gigs a day?" "Yeah, I was listening to music. What of it?" "Sir, I shouold inform you that you are only allowed to download 10 gigs a month. If you continute in illegally downloading music your service will be terminated." "I was listening to CBC" "I don't care what MP3 you were downloading, pircay is pircay" "It's public radio!" "stealer!!"
stupid isp lady.
I have also gotten this call when I've downloaded full debian distros, and when I was enrolled in a Digital Media course.
Why why why is it so difficult to run a server out of my house. I'm not pirating software, music or movies; I just want to host a personal website, or a website on which to showcase current work done on a project to clients, or to host community projects, etc.
People have legitimate server needs, and ISPs make it terribly difficult to meet these needs.
Everytime I call an ISP to ask if they allow server access, I get in a fight with the operator at the other end because she accuses me of software piracy.
All I want is to be able to play with a server in my spare time, without having to fight with my ISP (or pay for a business line).
My wife - she works at Futureshop (the Canadian arm of Best Buy) - came home last night to tell me of her hatred for the PSP.
On the opening day, about 17% of the PSPs sold were returned due to defect of some kind. Many of them didn't even turn on.
Yesterday, she had person after person coming into the store complaining about dead pixels. With one guy, she went through an entire crate of PSPs to try and find one that didn't have a dead pixel. No luck. He ended up settling for a PSP that had only one dead pixel - rather than the average 3. One of them had an entire vertical column gone.
From what I'm hearing from my wife, it would be much, much better to wait until revision B before thinking about purchasing a PSP. The ones on the shelves today have far too many defects.
You forgot to mention that playing dioplomacy puts you at severe risk of hurting your brain. Every time my buddies and I finish a game we are so brain-fried, it's all we can do to fire up the bar-b-q and drink beer for the rest of the night.
Just in case you didn't know, you can download remote desktop for your OSX machine as well. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx ?pid=do wnload&location=/mac/download/misc/rdc_update_103. xml&secid=80&ssid=10&flgnosysreq=True
That saved me from having to buy a windows machine so I could remote desktop to my various machines at work.
Apologies if I've offended you, but the honest truth is that while the number of female gamers/geeks is climbing at an alarming rate, this growth is not happening in the "male domintated" areas.
I fully support anyone, of any gender, playing the video games, or pursuing the career of their choice. However, I more support a simple increase in the number of women who use technology on a day to day basis - for whatever reason at all. The more women that are using technology, the more it will feel comfortable to them, and the more that it will be considered acceptable as a career option for their daughters, and themselves.
And the more girls that get into technology today, for whatever reason, the more women there will be in this field in the future.
What is motivating the market today are the types of things that I mentioned in my earlier post. Pink iPods, pink game boys, Barbies Seaside Adventure (and other such GBA games), the Sims, cell phones (again, sadly the pink ones), digital cameras, PDAs, home decorating software, scraobooking software, entry level computers so that people can stay connected with their loved ones.
Five years ago, none of this stuff was around, and most of the females that I encountered thought that electronics, games and computers were stupid boy things.
That has changed SO much through the advent of 'girly' technology. While I would love it if the number of ladies purchasing Doom 3, and Halflife 2 was similar to the number of guys. But its not a reality. So instead of trying to push ladies into playing games that they do not enjoy, I'd sooner welcome them into a world where technology is viewed as welcome change, and an integral part of their lives.
...unfortunately Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant
Well that's super lame.
I had actually expected it would be a show about the rising use of video games, and personal electronics among women. Hopefuly with an emphasis on software/hardware that would be more appealing to a female audience (sims, iPod minis, Pink iPods/GBAs, new cell phone features, web cams, etc).
2) What are the differences between graduate studies at the Masters level in the US, Canada and the UK? I already know a bit from what is available on the websites, so I'm looking for some deeper insights.
Reputation, money and reputation.
I'm a Canadian student, and I will tell you up front that many of our schools, even the bigger/better ones, don't carry as strong a reputation as American or British schools. It's not that the education is any worse, more that the other schools have been around for longer, have a better established reputation, and spend more advertising dollards.
That said, there are two ways to look for a school. The first is to find a school with a great reputation and go there. It will help you get a better job, quicker than going to a less heard of school. If your goal is money, do this.
If your goal is learning, then your job is a little tougher. You should pick the subjects that you are interested in, and then find the *people* that hold the best reputation. These people could be anywhere. When you are looking to get a good education it is not just the school that matters (although a school with better funding will make things easier) but the person teaching you. Pick the top three profs in the field that you want to study, and apply to those schools. In most cases, you should start by meeting/talking with the prof that you want to study with. By establishing a bond with the prof you have a better chance of getting in.
Victoria. It's warmer than Toronto, and rains less than Vancouver.
I wear sandals 300 days a year, and haven't worn a coat since I moved here. It's smaller than both Vancouver and Toronto, but it's big enough for most.
I'd like to be the first to invite you north, to Canada.
It's nice here, I swear to you. Especially if you stay out of Toronto and Vancouver. Try something just a little smaller (may I suggest Victoria BC, or Waterloo ON).
I stood in a University Residence in Canada watching the bush/gore results pour in. When the final results were announced, the only person in the room to say anything was an american buddy of mine.
All he had to say was "Oh $#!^, I'm going to war."
He was right.
Seeing as America is currently at war, I wonder what he would say tonight?
If we're lucky they'll go to war, fight it out, and niether will survive.
Heh heh heh... I keep thinking about a war between Walmart and the RIAA. On one side we have an army of 80-year-old "Hello, and welcome to Walmart" men, and on the other side we have an army of skinny, pocket-protecter wearing legal geeks.
This is not uncommon. If you check back in your history books, left wing governments will always be able to provide more jobs than their right wing counterparts.
Most of the times, historically, where there has been a recovery from an economic recession, it has been due to a left wing government being elected.
The main tactic is to increase taxes, and create new pubilc sector jobs from that revenue. Or to provide companies with hiring incentives (covering a portion of an employees salary).
These strategies will not make anybody rich, but they do stop a recession. What you need to get out of a recessions is jobs for everybody. The more people that have jobs, the more people that have money to spend. With more spending comes a higher success rate for jobs in the private sector. As these jobs increase, the employers hire more people.
Then they all want more money, and elect a right wing government to lower their taxes and the recession starts again.
Sorry, I should have written out the full approximation.
I have 5 classes a semester, with 3 hours of lecture per week. I assume an average of 6 hours out of class per week for homework and study.
our semesters are 12 weeks long, and there are 8 of them grand total.
So:
5 classes x (3+6) hours each week x 12 weeks x 8 semesters = 4320 hours.
I think that the discrepancy between your courses and mine comes mostly from the shorter term, and the lower number of instructor hours.
Also, you did get a BEng. While I don't want to say that one is easier than the other, I do know that the BEng students here take an extra class a semester, and have labs that they have to attend on top of their normal studies/homework. So at the very least it takes more hours to complete.
Slashdot Mirror
About three times with coke.
I've also spilled slurpee, juice, milk (that one smells bad) and many, many cups of coffee.
It's not me, I swear. It's just that everyone I know is a clutz.
Every time I spill Coke on my keyboard (yes, it's happened more than once) I've had to replace the whole thing because the coke at away at the circuitry. When I clean off the soda, the solder and wiring come with it.
I often read stories about this kind of thing; where a {piece of software, band, CD, Movie, TV Show, etc} gains popularity and a 'legitamate' user base as a result of piracy.
The most commonly used example of this is Photoshop (followed closely by windows). Through a very high piracy rate, and a very low litagation rate, photoshop gained so much market share that it is now the dominant application in its field (bitmap editing).
Adobe didn't condone the piracy of their software, but they also didn't actively pursue minor cases. That is, if some high school kid pirated photoshop, and used to create images for personal use, no biggie. If a company pirated photoshop, and used it for commercial purposes (and got caught), send in the lawyers.
So many people used the software illegally at home that when it came time to make a purchase in the work place, the choice was obvious. People already knew how to use photoshop, and kept hearing the name of the application over, and over again.
By allowing piracy (or in this case, downloading of tv shows) to happen amongst a demographic that 'doesn't matter' (home users that cannot afford the software anyways, or a small number of people that would have downloaded BSG regardless) but have influence over a demographic that does (companies that can afford photoshop, or friends and family that have never heard of BSG), companies can gaing huge market share. It's a grey area, but it has proven positive effects.
only slightly different than rm -rf *
and way worse if you are running as root.
I find that there are a number of things that I buy that have a very short life. Optical drives are one of them (also, hard drives, keyboards, remote controls, blenders, etc.).
My solution has always been to warranty the product for a free one. Most products come with a pretty decent warranty, but most people don't bother to cash in on it.
Another good suggestion, buy the extended warranty that is offered by many retail outlets. Yeah yeah, I know that most of you will think that it's a scam, and they are just trying to get more money out of you; and you are right. It is a money maker for them, but not because they won't warranty, or because the product won't break, but because people forget about the extended warranty, or can't be bothered to use it. As long as you are smart, you will probably be able to cash in on it. The additional warranty typically runs for 3-5 years, and costs and additional 10-15% of the retail cost. This is well beyond the lifespan of most consumer grade electronics. Instead of thinking of it costing you 10% more, think of it as saving you 90% on the cost of a new one when it breaks in 2 years.
The benefit to you: when your next optical drive craps out, take it to Best Buy and they will give you a new one.
The benefit is that they can use the agreement to place blame on regulators, and percieved 'higher bodies.' This takes the blame off of them, and lessens the bad press.
It's like when you get fired due to downsizing, rather than your boss just not wanting you there. One hurts less, and makes you less likely to fight back or complain.
The benfit as I see it is this:
ISPs pay for bandwidth. The more their customers use, the more they have to pay.
They charge customers a blanket fee. Most people use very little bandwidth, and cost very little. Some people use lots, and cost them more money.
By signing this agreement, they can upcharge the people who are using a lot for legitimate usage (by forcing them into a more expensive business account), and they can get rid of the customers that use it for illegal purposes (by saying that they are 'merely complying with the RIAA agreement' that they signed).
Thus, they retain the customers that use little bandwidth, and don't cost them money.
They get more money from the customers that need the bandwidth.
And they lose the customers that are costing them more money.
Standard business practice. Get rid of the costly customers, or charge them more.
They wouldn't.
I've gotten into many a fight with my ISP about bandwidth usage.
"All last week you were downloading 1.3 gigs a day?"
"Yeah, I was listening to music. What of it?"
"Sir, I shouold inform you that you are only allowed to download 10 gigs a month. If you continute in illegally downloading music your service will be terminated."
"I was listening to CBC"
"I don't care what MP3 you were downloading, pircay is pircay"
"It's public radio!"
"stealer!!"
stupid isp lady.
I have also gotten this call when I've downloaded full debian distros, and when I was enrolled in a Digital Media course.
Why why why is it so difficult to run a server out of my house. I'm not pirating software, music or movies; I just want to host a personal website, or a website on which to showcase current work done on a project to clients, or to host community projects, etc.
People have legitimate server needs, and ISPs make it terribly difficult to meet these needs.
Everytime I call an ISP to ask if they allow server access, I get in a fight with the operator at the other end because she accuses me of software piracy.
All I want is to be able to play with a server in my spare time, without having to fight with my ISP (or pay for a business line).
My wife - she works at Futureshop (the Canadian arm of Best Buy) - came home last night to tell me of her hatred for the PSP.
On the opening day, about 17% of the PSPs sold were returned due to defect of some kind. Many of them didn't even turn on.
Yesterday, she had person after person coming into the store complaining about dead pixels. With one guy, she went through an entire crate of PSPs to try and find one that didn't have a dead pixel. No luck. He ended up settling for a PSP that had only one dead pixel - rather than the average 3. One of them had an entire vertical column gone.
From what I'm hearing from my wife, it would be much, much better to wait until revision B before thinking about purchasing a PSP. The ones on the shelves today have far too many defects.
You forgot to mention that playing dioplomacy puts you at severe risk of hurting your brain.
Every time my buddies and I finish a game we are so brain-fried, it's all we can do to fire up the bar-b-q and drink beer for the rest of the night.
Not entirely a bad thing I suppose.
Just in case you didn't know, you can download remote desktop for your OSX machine as well.x ?pid=do wnload&location=/mac/download/misc/rdc_update_103. xml&secid=80&ssid=10&flgnosysreq=True
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.asp
That saved me from having to buy a windows machine so I could remote desktop to my various machines at work.
I'm certain that everyone that I know has used passphrases, or at least condensed passphrases for 3+ years now. They are way easier to remember.
As an example of a condensed passphrase: "Yambanbm!" (You And Me Baby Ain't Nothin But Mammals!) or "i86bits" (I ate six (Tim) Bits).
I'd rather play a good game of UT2004 or Halo2.
And I'm so glad to hear it.
Apologies if I've offended you, but the honest truth is that while the number of female gamers/geeks is climbing at an alarming rate, this growth is not happening in the "male domintated" areas.
I fully support anyone, of any gender, playing the video games, or pursuing the career of their choice. However, I more support a simple increase in the number of women who use technology on a day to day basis - for whatever reason at all. The more women that are using technology, the more it will feel comfortable to them, and the more that it will be considered acceptable as a career option for their daughters, and themselves.
And the more girls that get into technology today, for whatever reason, the more women there will be in this field in the future.
What is motivating the market today are the types of things that I mentioned in my earlier post. Pink iPods, pink game boys, Barbies Seaside Adventure (and other such GBA games), the Sims, cell phones (again, sadly the pink ones), digital cameras, PDAs, home decorating software, scraobooking software, entry level computers so that people can stay connected with their loved ones.
Five years ago, none of this stuff was around, and most of the females that I encountered thought that electronics, games and computers were stupid boy things.
That has changed SO much through the advent of 'girly' technology. While I would love it if the number of ladies purchasing Doom 3, and Halflife 2 was similar to the number of guys. But its not a reality. So instead of trying to push ladies into playing games that they do not enjoy, I'd sooner welcome them into a world where technology is viewed as welcome change, and an integral part of their lives.
...unfortunately Girls Gone Wired appears to be exactly what you'd expect: Guys ogling video game characters in a beauty pageant
Well that's super lame.
I had actually expected it would be a show about the rising use of video games, and personal electronics among women. Hopefuly with an emphasis on software/hardware that would be more appealing to a female audience (sims, iPod minis, Pink iPods/GBAs, new cell phone features, web cams, etc).
My wife would have loved a show like that.
2) What are the differences between graduate studies at the Masters level in the US, Canada and the UK? I already know a bit from what is available on the websites, so I'm looking for some deeper insights.
Reputation, money and reputation.
I'm a Canadian student, and I will tell you up front that many of our schools, even the bigger/better ones, don't carry as strong a reputation as American or British schools. It's not that the education is any worse, more that the other schools have been around for longer, have a better established reputation, and spend more advertising dollards.
That said, there are two ways to look for a school. The first is to find a school with a great reputation and go there. It will help you get a better job, quicker than going to a less heard of school. If your goal is money, do this.
If your goal is learning, then your job is a little tougher. You should pick the subjects that you are interested in, and then find the *people* that hold the best reputation. These people could be anywhere. When you are looking to get a good education it is not just the school that matters (although a school with better funding will make things easier) but the person teaching you. Pick the top three profs in the field that you want to study, and apply to those schools. In most cases, you should start by meeting/talking with the prof that you want to study with. By establishing a bond with the prof you have a better chance of getting in.
Victoria. It's warmer than Toronto, and rains less than Vancouver.
I wear sandals 300 days a year, and haven't worn a coat since I moved here. It's smaller than both Vancouver and Toronto, but it's big enough for most.
I'd like to be the first to invite you north, to Canada.
It's nice here, I swear to you. Especially if you stay out of Toronto and Vancouver. Try something just a little smaller (may I suggest Victoria BC, or Waterloo ON).
I stood in a University Residence in Canada watching the bush/gore results pour in. When the final results were announced, the only person in the room to say anything was an american buddy of mine.
All he had to say was "Oh $#!^, I'm going to war."
He was right.
Seeing as America is currently at war, I wonder what he would say tonight?
If we're lucky they'll go to war, fight it out, and niether will survive.
Heh heh heh... I keep thinking about a war between Walmart and the RIAA. On one side we have an army of 80-year-old "Hello, and welcome to Walmart" men, and on the other side we have an army of skinny, pocket-protecter wearing legal geeks.
I wonder who would win.
it had TWO suquels!?
This is not uncommon.
If you check back in your history books, left wing governments will always be able to provide more jobs than their right wing counterparts.
Most of the times, historically, where there has been a recovery from an economic recession, it has been due to a left wing government being elected.
The main tactic is to increase taxes, and create new pubilc sector jobs from that revenue. Or to provide companies with hiring incentives (covering a portion of an employees salary).
These strategies will not make anybody rich, but they do stop a recession. What you need to get out of a recessions is jobs for everybody. The more people that have jobs, the more people that have money to spend. With more spending comes a higher success rate for jobs in the private sector. As these jobs increase, the employers hire more people.
Then they all want more money, and elect a right wing government to lower their taxes and the recession starts again.
yes.
Sorry, I should have written out the full approximation.
I have 5 classes a semester, with 3 hours of lecture per week. I assume an average of 6 hours out of class per week for homework and study.
our semesters are 12 weeks long, and there are 8 of them grand total.
So:
5 classes x (3+6) hours each week x 12 weeks x 8 semesters = 4320 hours.
I think that the discrepancy between your courses and mine comes mostly from the shorter term, and the lower number of instructor hours.
Also, you did get a BEng. While I don't want to say that one is easier than the other, I do know that the BEng students here take an extra class a semester, and have labs that they have to attend on top of their normal studies/homework. So at the very least it takes more hours to complete.
I don't know, my Department only requires 10.5 units of math (or 7 courses).
Calc 1, 2 and 3
Linear algebra 1
Discrete Math 1 and 2
Statistics 1
The only thing that we learn, over these guys, is differential equations.