I have, many times and current projects included, performed CNR (Comode-and-Recode) on code - simply because as a project is coded, it is better understood and the developers understandibly want to do it better, smaller, and more elegant. This is a true engineering objective.
In the case where code is inhereted by a maintenance group or a successor developer, then it is more laziness than arrogance that tends toward the preference of tossing out existing code, as it is at times easier to reinvent than it is to reverse-engineer.
The final word - Translated
on
HP Buys Compaq
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· Score: 1
FROM MICHAEL CAPELLAS 4/09/01 - 8:47pm
To: Compaq Global Team
I have finally found a way to make a boat-load of money in the wake of the Earl Mason coup-de-taut. When I ripped the mantle of CEO from Ekhardt Pfeifer, I had no idea that the executive staff had already implemented my evil schemes to astroturf the company image and cash in before the collapse. Since that card has already been played, my new strategy is to sell you all off for medical experiments and reap a hefty severance.
Please keep in mind that this only benefits me and a few of my hench(wo)men, and the rest of you can sit back and clean up, if there is, in fact, anything to clean up.
Also keep in mind that as I am being massaged by swedish models on the Riviera, I will not once, even for a second, think of any of you struggling to rebuild.
Companies offer rebates because they have a low attach rate (less than 15%) and it entices retailers to carry the product, since that means higher overall sales and revenues for the outlet.
The question is that it probably cost the fulfillment company more than the $35 rebate to refuse the rebate. Logic?
Because it undermines the whole purpose of insurance in the first place. Which - btw - has been perverted from its original concept.
If an insurance company could, say, deny coverage or charge higher premiums because they believe that you are genetically predisposed to a given condition, then that just puts more money in their pocket. Also, just because you have to gene doesn't mean that you're going to get the disease. This is just another means for the insurance carriers to charge more money and deny more claims.
I certainly agree with this. Games of the M rating sell for the same reasons that Playboy sells - because there is a demand. I would bet that these types of games with blood/gore/sex-a-plenty don't need much marketing beyond the huge exposure they get on the web. I mean, how many games are published that aren't already reviewed long before hand?
Bottom line, Southland deciding to pull Playboy out of the 7-11 stores didn't hurt its circulation one bit - and regulating the marketing of M rated games, like regulating the marketing of cigarettes, will not effect a game's ultimate success.
Actually, the Batman of the comic books is what I want. The stuff that was done by DC in the 80's was great stuff - Knightfall, Years one and two, etc. What I want is a story that tells of an ordinary man - no super powers to speak of - who is driven to combat the criminal element that has robbed him. What Burton gave us was a circus of images and farcical sequences that had little more to do with Batman than the name. The franchise deserves more respect than Burton gave it.
As far as Superman goes, I was speaking of production values. Superman on a lot of levels is a good movie - but the best thing is that although they kinda updated the story for the 70's audience, it was true to the legacy. Burton was more interested in reshaping Batman in his own image than of giving us (fans) something that we've waiting long for since the abortion of a series we had in the Batman television effort. Before then it was half-baked serials in movie theatres, and lost attempts at other things. With the technology at his disposal, he could have done something really great - but it was only a great disappointment. I know a lot of people will disagree with me - but Batman is more than a guy with a bunch of gadgets who beats up bad guys.
All his movies look alike, sound alike, and dare I say smell alike. Batman was a big disappointment to me (an avid Batman fan), from the casting of short-stature comedian Keaton, to all the dark-techo-nightmare-pointy-curled-up awfulness of the sets.
I didn't care about any of the characters in this movie because although Batman is a fantasy, you have to be able to relate to it in order to get something out of it. How can you do that when where everything happens looks like someone's interpretation of a nightmare? I found watching any of the Batman moves difficult - at least with Cooney they got a Batman that actually looks like a Batman.
Frank Miller is a plus, though, he really groks the Batman. Get the crew who did Superman I to do the next Batman - then we'll have a movie!
When VHS VCR's started to hit the market big in the late 70's/early 80's, Big Media tried to get a tax levied on every blank VHS cassette sold to account for lost royalties due to the pirating of televised works. I.e., if you recorded a program off the television, they somehow felt they were being robbed of royalties.
The trouble is, how do you KNOW that the blank media is being used to record copyrighted works, and not used to generate new work? Again, it was just a ploy for Big Media to get unearned revenue out of an already over-priced industry.
Congress didn't go for it, although I can't remember all the details. Anyone else have more info?
Titan A.E. died because it had a bad story line. I didn't see it because of the animation style - I find it annoying. Fox's style to live animation is to make the characters move and "breath" while they're standing still. It just doesn't seem natural for animated characters to do that. This is exactly the same thing that bothered me about Anastasia. The characters are there rocking back and forth and I found it uncomfortable to watch.
As for the fate of A.E., it was yet-another-attempt to have special effects carry the weight of the film in the great tradition of Phantom Menace. I watched Run Silent, Run Deep last weekend which has some of the cheesiest FX ever, but what a hell of a movie. The audience will happily forgive bad FX for a good story, but not vice-versa.
Animation as an art form can be great with either 2d or 3dcgi, it all depends on whose weilding the brush/mouse.
That's not to say they're fixed, its just they're helped a helluva lot.
I used to work for a hardware manufacturer that shall remain nameless. Whenever we would release a new box, we would not only give them to the reviewers, but were told who the reviewers were and how to contact them. Then if/when a problem arose (not with my stuff, of course) they were on the phone with the dude doing damage control. Some of these guys had exposure clear up to the exec-vp level on some products. Talk about service! You try getting that level of service when you buy the junk.
This has always been the case. Its not that they give good reviews for want of free software/hardware/etc. - they know they'll get that because they have circulation. Its that they give less than perfect reviews because they are not totally objective. And then there's the advertising revenue to consider, etc.
The only objective reviews are those published by those who care more about helping their fellow/.ers than the one trying to sell the junk.
Strange that the Constitution makes all kinds of provisions on how bills become law, but there are practically no guidelines for how bills are made. Wouldn't it be grand if the forefathers required bills to have perfect coherence?
This kind of pork is exactly why the line item veto was fought for so long and so strong by many by all parties. The strategy went something like this: Take something like the Clean Air Bill and attach to it a provision that required the US to purchase oil from a Mass. oil company for the next 50 years. Since the President must either sign or veto the bill in its entirety, it was usually vetoed because of the pork (provisions in a bill that have litte or nothing to do with the main body of the bill.) This would give the opposing party a fitting "Hey, look, the President vetoed the Clearn Air Bill, I guess he doesn't want you to have clean air!" and other bullying tactics to that effect. The permutations are obvious.
Now we have a line item veto, which allows the President to veto some portions of a bill while passing others into law. Those vetoed portions are still allowed to be re-debated by the Hill and passed without the Presidents consent etc (see The Constitution of the United States of America, John Adams et al.)
Now, given that the President has the power to veto something like this while keeping the outer bill intact, does he have the courage to act? In the Clinton era, I think not.
Since Nike doesn't control the name registration records (unless they've gotten into that business recently) then they are not responsible for a hack which redirects the name servers to point somewhere else. That said, there might be negligence if Nike didn't take appropriate and timely action to correct the problem.
That the person selling you the item is responsible for collecting the sales tax, not vise versa. When I go to a store, the clerk tells me how much tax I owe, I don't have to figure that on my own.
The right of this is that PETA.org was an obvious parody in bad taste to the work of PETA.com, and as such I think that PETA.com has a right to contest the use of an all-too-similar domain name, as people could easily go to PETA.org mistakingly. PETA.org needs to move on to PETA_IS_CRAP.org, or something like that.
The wrong of this is that the PETA.com site has a McDonald's parody on their home page citing "Unhappy Meals". Interesting...
The price of automation is corruption. As things get more machine-to-machine oriented, that is, fewer eyeballs scrutinize process such that all is the result of an automatic process, then you open the door for crime and abuse. It would be damn convenient to get all our gubment stuff done online - but the criminals will find it more convenient to abuse that automation for ill gain.
Once again, the few would spoil it for the rest of us. Technology will have to get a lot better to make a "no line society" a reality.
Engineers can still make allowances in designs to allow for upgrades in the future, even if the nature of those upgrades exceeds the current state of the art. To design a system such that it must be replaced is not what any engineer in their heart of hearts would want to build. Unfortunately, time and money usually forces this circumstance.
IANAL - but, as is with credit information, incorrect information being published about a person is the liability of the entity or person providing the information. Someone made a judgement that this person was the same as the one with the conviction. Whoever made that judgement is the liable party because they did not check their facts. Sad thing is, that recovering damages would be very difficult in such a situation.
As to the other question, computers or automated systems are not the problem here but its the operators and employers of those systems not making sure the informatoin is being catalogued corrrectly.
Of course, the solution is to have Big Brother provide everyone with a single identifying number (aka Social Security Number) and everything to be keyed off of that. But that will not better things until we strengthen the weak and unenforced accountablility laws regarding the distrubution of incorrect personal information.
Another thought - how many felons are passing background checks for firearms?
Better that we start to mine elsewhere before we run out of things here.
Actually, the cost of space mining can be relatively cheap in the long term (after startup costs, of course) because the transport of the ore via slingshot is very cheap (there have been discussions on mining the moon in the way, with the payloads being "slingshotted" back to Earth using natural return.) Also, depending upon the quantity of available breathing gases trapped in the asteroids, level of robotic automation, and/or the ability to senthisize the required organics to support a human crew, the relative cost could drop considerably.
Slashdot Mirror
In the case where code is inhereted by a maintenance group or a successor developer, then it is more laziness than arrogance that tends toward the preference of tossing out existing code, as it is at times easier to reinvent than it is to reverse-engineer.
FROM MICHAEL CAPELLAS 4/09/01 - 8:47pm
To: Compaq Global Team
I have finally found a way to make a boat-load of money in the wake of the Earl Mason coup-de-taut. When I ripped the mantle of CEO from Ekhardt Pfeifer, I had no idea that the executive staff had already implemented my evil schemes to astroturf the company image and cash in before the collapse. Since that card has already been played, my new strategy is to sell you all off for medical experiments and reap a hefty severance.
Please keep in mind that this only benefits me and a few of my hench(wo)men, and the rest of you can sit back and clean up, if there is, in fact, anything to clean up.
Also keep in mind that as I am being massaged by swedish models on the Riviera, I will not once, even for a second, think of any of you struggling to rebuild.
So long, suckers!
Michael Capellas
Super Evil Genius and Earl "Free" Mason Devotee.
is also a must.
The question is that it probably cost the fulfillment company more than the $35 rebate to refuse the rebate. Logic?
If an insurance company could, say, deny coverage or charge higher premiums because they believe that you are genetically predisposed to a given condition, then that just puts more money in their pocket. Also, just because you have to gene doesn't mean that you're going to get the disease. This is just another means for the insurance carriers to charge more money and deny more claims.
Bottom line, Southland deciding to pull Playboy out of the 7-11 stores didn't hurt its circulation one bit - and regulating the marketing of M rated games, like regulating the marketing of cigarettes, will not effect a game's ultimate success.
As far as Superman goes, I was speaking of production values. Superman on a lot of levels is a good movie - but the best thing is that although they kinda updated the story for the 70's audience, it was true to the legacy. Burton was more interested in reshaping Batman in his own image than of giving us (fans) something that we've waiting long for since the abortion of a series we had in the Batman television effort. Before then it was half-baked serials in movie theatres, and lost attempts at other things. With the technology at his disposal, he could have done something really great - but it was only a great disappointment. I know a lot of people will disagree with me - but Batman is more than a guy with a bunch of gadgets who beats up bad guys.
I didn't care about any of the characters in this movie because although Batman is a fantasy, you have to be able to relate to it in order to get something out of it. How can you do that when where everything happens looks like someone's interpretation of a nightmare? I found watching any of the Batman moves difficult - at least with Cooney they got a Batman that actually looks like a Batman.
Frank Miller is a plus, though, he really groks the Batman. Get the crew who did Superman I to do the next Batman - then we'll have a movie!
Sad to say I've never heard of DC, and after reading this piece, the linked pieces, and their web site, I don't think I want to know them.
The trouble is, how do you KNOW that the blank media is being used to record copyrighted works, and not used to generate new work? Again, it was just a ploy for Big Media to get unearned revenue out of an already over-priced industry.
Congress didn't go for it, although I can't remember all the details. Anyone else have more info?
you know I'm using said equipment to copy YOUR IP and I'll pay the royalty. What if I'm only using it to copy MY OWN IP?
As for the fate of A.E., it was yet-another-attempt to have special effects carry the weight of the film in the great tradition of Phantom Menace. I watched Run Silent, Run Deep last weekend which has some of the cheesiest FX ever, but what a hell of a movie. The audience will happily forgive bad FX for a good story, but not vice-versa.
Animation as an art form can be great with either 2d or 3dcgi, it all depends on whose weilding the brush/mouse.
'nug said.
I used to work for a hardware manufacturer that shall remain nameless. Whenever we would release a new box, we would not only give them to the reviewers, but were told who the reviewers were and how to contact them. Then if/when a problem arose (not with my stuff, of course) they were on the phone with the dude doing damage control. Some of these guys had exposure clear up to the exec-vp level on some products. Talk about service! You try getting that level of service when you buy the junk.
This has always been the case. Its not that they give good reviews for want of free software/hardware/etc. - they know they'll get that because they have circulation. Its that they give less than perfect reviews because they are not totally objective. And then there's the advertising revenue to consider, etc.
The only objective reviews are those published by those who care more about helping their fellow /.ers than the one trying to sell the junk.
Long live the free press!
Strange that the Constitution makes all kinds of provisions on how bills become law, but there are practically no guidelines for how bills are made. Wouldn't it be grand if the forefathers required bills to have perfect coherence?
Now we have a line item veto, which allows the President to veto some portions of a bill while passing others into law. Those vetoed portions are still allowed to be re-debated by the Hill and passed without the Presidents consent etc (see The Constitution of the United States of America , John Adams et al.)
Now, given that the President has the power to veto something like this while keeping the outer bill intact, does he have the courage to act? In the Clinton era, I think not.
Since Nike doesn't control the name registration records (unless they've gotten into that business recently) then they are not responsible for a hack which redirects the name servers to point somewhere else. That said, there might be negligence if Nike didn't take appropriate and timely action to correct the problem.
To double the ram in his head was RamDoubler?
That the person selling you the item is responsible for collecting the sales tax, not vise versa. When I go to a store, the clerk tells me how much tax I owe, I don't have to figure that on my own.
The wrong of this is that the PETA.com site has a McDonald's parody on their home page citing "Unhappy Meals". Interesting...
Once again, the few would spoil it for the rest of us. Technology will have to get a lot better to make a "no line society" a reality.
What about Apple's Hypertext product from the mid 80's? That used hyperlinks out the yang.
Engineers can still make allowances in designs to allow for upgrades in the future, even if the nature of those upgrades exceeds the current state of the art. To design a system such that it must be replaced is not what any engineer in their heart of hearts would want to build. Unfortunately, time and money usually forces this circumstance.
As to the other question, computers or automated systems are not the problem here but its the operators and employers of those systems not making sure the informatoin is being catalogued corrrectly.
Of course, the solution is to have Big Brother provide everyone with a single identifying number (aka Social Security Number) and everything to be keyed off of that. But that will not better things until we strengthen the weak and unenforced accountablility laws regarding the distrubution of incorrect personal information.
Another thought - how many felons are passing background checks for firearms?
Actually, the cost of space mining can be relatively cheap in the long term (after startup costs, of course) because the transport of the ore via slingshot is very cheap (there have been discussions on mining the moon in the way, with the payloads being "slingshotted" back to Earth using natural return.) Also, depending upon the quantity of available breathing gases trapped in the asteroids, level of robotic automation, and/or the ability to senthisize the required organics to support a human crew, the relative cost could drop considerably.