You can change your name very easily (in America). You just fill out a form and have a judge sign it. So you can be Setphan Saftoiu if you want. By common law, in most states your name automatically changes if you just start using the new name, but with all of the computer databases it is hard to get the government to go along unless you fill out the form.
But that's why I'm no longer in the contracting business. I refused to sign overly restrictive NDA's, contracts that were counter to my long term interests, take drug tests, or submit for various other forms of privacy invasion. If a company wants people to work for them, they should provide good terms. The workforce needs to stand up to companies. Giving up all privacy in exchange for a pay check is analogous to giving up all freedom for safety; it is hard to stand up, but we need to do it or as a population we will be crushed by organizations of our own making: governments and corporations.
The "lament" paper seems to miss a fundamental aspect of hacker culture: Engineers like to make things. There are probably some engineers who work only for the money, but I believe that most engineers work because they enjoy the process of creation.
We work in companies because they will pay us for doing what we love, and because we can create larger projects when we work together. We work on open source for many reasons that derive from this. Here are two. First, open source projects offer fewer restrictions than corporate ones. Second, open source projects are less likely to be killed for non-technical reasons, like projects at a company. In other words, our utility function is being maximized by participation in the process of creation. The economics of whether creation is funded or unfunded are a red herring.
I'm a professional game developer. Many of my colleages agree that parents should take an active role in choosing games for their children and should keep kids away from mature games.
Games are rated, like movies. "Everyone" games are G-rated. "Teen" games are the equivalent of PG-13, and "Mature" games are for 17+. There's also an "Adult" category that is obviously not for kids. Parents should stop buying their kids Mature games like GTA3 and Mafia. These games were not meant for little kids. If you wouldn't take your kid to The Godfather, why would you give them a game where they can role play it?
Some really awesome entertainment intended for people over 17 gets a bad rap because parents aren't doing a good job at keeping these mature games away from kids. Spending your day peering through a sniper rifle or gunning down crowds is not good for anyone. It is a free country and if you're old enough, you can decide how much of this is ok. If you are a minor, the decision rests with your parents who hopefully will find something more constructive for you to do.
I pay for a Yahoo! mailbox and am very happy with it... except that even if you are a paying customer, they still show you ads.
The Flash ads tend to crash older browsers and the non-Flash ads often have women in bikinis in them. I don't need pictures of semi-naked women showing on my monitor at work, thank you. I wish Yahoo! would get rid of the ads for paying customers.
It's even better than that. The entire setup you're watching in the video is a really complicated way of playing a movie on a television, which presumably we could do without the Xbox in the first place.
Yes, keep a lab notebook and notarize it. This is legal proof of the date of the invention. Then file-- if someone else invents the thing then patents it, your claim is meaningless if you didn't attempt to file a patent. Patents are to protectect inventors who share their work (the original open source!) not inventors who try to keep it proprietary.
Electrons usually travel at about two-thirds of light speed in wires, slowed down as they bump into atoms. Hache says it may be possible to send usable electrical signals to near light speed.
The electrons don't carry information in wires. Electric fields carry information. The electrons happen to move about in the electric field. The electric fields propagate at about 2/3 the speed of light through metal, depending on conductance. Electrons move comparatively slowly (in part because they bump into things and heat up). It would take a heck of a lot of energy to accelerate an electron to 2/3 the speed of light inside a wire. I believe they move at speeds measured in single meters per second.
Re:GeForce 4mx is an abomination
on
nForce2 Preview
·
· Score: 1, Redundant
YES-- I can't express how much I agree with this post. NVIDIA marketing has been completely out of control for years, sitting on a superior product and yet creating total confusion instead of pushing their cards. Similar to the MX debacle, the Quaddro line fails to be distinguished from the GeForce line except for the price. Also, the GeForce2Go mobile line similarly lags the desktop line.
The GeForce4 Ti XXXX cards are the ones you want, and the XXXX number after is linearly proportional to the clock speed. Everything else is FUD and I have no idea why they do this. It's as bad as Apple changing the specs on iMacs and not giving them different version numbers-- developers have to say things like "our product runs on green and orange iMacs with DVD drives" because users don't know what the graphics card or RAM level is.
Don't hold your breath, Linux folks-- it isn't a very good game. Most games encourage exploration and individuality. This one is an army simulator: if you throw 2 grenades instead of 3, are too slow to reach an objective, or look the wrong way, you fail and are forced to repeat all of the training exercises with no option to skip through cutscenes.
Now, a Linux Unreal II should be worth waiting for.
The whole point of Open Source is that I'm allowed, enabled, and typically, encouraged to change the source myself. So I can go in and remove the ads if I don't like them, and recompile the OS. I can even fork the codebase to keep it that way.
Making it hard to remove the ads (e.g. obfuscating the code) would just be contrary to the point of having the source open, as would be saying "please don't remove the ads, we need the revenue." Look, Microsoft says, "please pay for our OS, we need the revenue." The difference gets pretty slim.
I can't imagine generating a lot of revenue from ads that show once to Linux or even more marginal OS users. So don't bother doing this--it distracts from the mission of making an open source OS and probably won't catch on with advertisers anyway.
LucasArts has announced Full Throttle 2. I think they should encourage anything that will let them put Full Throttle 1 (and have any expectation of it working!) on that CD to distribute with the new game, but they may not agree.
We're already approaching the point for web apps where you can't run something that Microsoft or VeriSign doesn't like-- IE puts up a dialog telling your user that your program is nasty and evil if it isn't signed by a certificate that can be traced back to one of these two sources. It's easy to get these companies to "like" you-- pay them a lot of money (a few thousand a year) and don't make a competing product. I'm not being sarcastic. These are the terms of the agreement for getting them to sign your certificates (i.e. public keys). At least IE still gives you the choice of running the program, even though a naive user might be scared off.
Public key architectures don't really rest on who the user trusts; users are uneducated about the system. They really rest on who the OS maker trusts because the OS is set up to say "the user trusts anything signed by these default root certificates".
A Palladium based system will just be another step in this direction. It will prevent developers and artists from distributing their work unless they pay the Microsoft tax and it will allow Microsoft to decide what applications, music, etc. get distributed.
What if MS gets sued and is forced to revoke the certificate for a movie because it isn't appropriate for minors? Or the certificate for a website because it contains secret Scientologist information?
As a software developer, it has gotten consistently harder to develop and distribute small, independent apps for PC's. Under this system, how will small developers or ones that Microsoft doesn't like because they directly compete (e.g. Netscape, Napster, Borland) make products?
How to Design Programs (Rice) and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (MIT) are two classic texts that ignore syntax and dive straight for concepts.
Ditto-- as the primary Xbox publisher, owner of many of the game studios producing for Xbox, and owner of the online service, Microsoft has a lot more ways of making money than just their 10% cut for the "software tax".
Not to mention that they negotiated very agressively with the hardware vendors-- NVIDIA and Intel aren't selling those chips to them at the same price you pay in the store!
The Xbox is the best gaming console (from a developer's point of view) with the best developer support program. Microsoft clearly understands developer's needs and has ensured that they get multiple revenue streams off this product. I don't think they've handled this in a naive way at all.
I think the list is really good (I disagree with a few, of course, but overall they hit the high points).
As to Gattaca: it was a brilliant movie, well written, directed, and acted, with a tight, logical plot and lots of symbolism. The style of the film reminded me of old (Heinlein/Asimov) sci-fi, particularly as the characters lift off for the moon wearing suits and sitting on benches. Symbolic, not literal. So I think Gattaca definitely deserves its spot.
I'd put Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926) in the top 20 (near the top), maybe at the expense of Barbarella.
Slashdot Mirror
-m
-m
We work in companies because they will pay us for doing what we love, and because we can create larger projects when we work together. We work on open source for many reasons that derive from this. Here are two. First, open source projects offer fewer restrictions than corporate ones. Second, open source projects are less likely to be killed for non-technical reasons, like projects at a company. In other words, our utility function is being maximized by participation in the process of creation. The economics of whether creation is funded or unfunded are a red herring.
-m
Their website (http://www.infiniumlabs.com) isn't slashdotted, the news site is.
-m
Games are rated, like movies. "Everyone" games are G-rated. "Teen" games are the equivalent of PG-13, and "Mature" games are for 17+. There's also an "Adult" category that is obviously not for kids. Parents should stop buying their kids Mature games like GTA3 and Mafia. These games were not meant for little kids. If you wouldn't take your kid to The Godfather, why would you give them a game where they can role play it?
Some really awesome entertainment intended for people over 17 gets a bad rap because parents aren't doing a good job at keeping these mature games away from kids. Spending your day peering through a sniper rifle or gunning down crowds is not good for anyone. It is a free country and if you're old enough, you can decide how much of this is ok. If you are a minor, the decision rests with your parents who hopefully will find something more constructive for you to do.
-m
I'm disappointed-- this movie looks like a spoof of T2, not a quality sequel.
-m
The Flash ads tend to crash older browsers and the non-Flash ads often have women in bikinis in them. I don't need pictures of semi-naked women showing on my monitor at work, thank you. I wish Yahoo! would get rid of the ads for paying customers.
-m
-m
-magic
-m
-m
Electrons usually travel at about two-thirds of light speed in wires, slowed down as they bump into atoms. Hache says it may be possible to send usable electrical signals to near light speed.
The electrons don't carry information in wires. Electric fields carry information. The electrons happen to move about in the electric field. The electric fields propagate at about 2/3 the speed of light through metal, depending on conductance. Electrons move comparatively slowly (in part because they bump into things and heat up). It would take a heck of a lot of energy to accelerate an electron to 2/3 the speed of light inside a wire. I believe they move at speeds measured in single meters per second.
-m
-m
-m
Reminiscent of Paul Debevec's light probes.
-m
The GeForce4 Ti XXXX cards are the ones you want, and the XXXX number after is linearly proportional to the clock speed. Everything else is FUD and I have no idea why they do this. It's as bad as Apple changing the specs on iMacs and not giving them different version numbers-- developers have to say things like "our product runs on green and orange iMacs with DVD drives" because users don't know what the graphics card or RAM level is.
-m
Now, a Linux Unreal II should be worth waiting for.
-m
Making it hard to remove the ads (e.g. obfuscating the code) would just be contrary to the point of having the source open, as would be saying "please don't remove the ads, we need the revenue." Look, Microsoft says, "please pay for our OS, we need the revenue." The difference gets pretty slim.
I can't imagine generating a lot of revenue from ads that show once to Linux or even more marginal OS users. So don't bother doing this--it distracts from the mission of making an open source OS and probably won't catch on with advertisers anyway.
-m
Fe is the symbol for iron (Ferrium), which isn't particularly "strong" by itself. Steel is much stronger and is a mix of iron with other metals.
Titanium (Ti) is a single-element metal, however.
-m
LucasArts has announced Full Throttle 2. I think they should encourage anything that will let them put Full Throttle 1 (and have any expectation of it working!) on that CD to distribute with the new game, but they may not agree.
-magic
We're already approaching the point for web apps where you can't run something that Microsoft or VeriSign doesn't like-- IE puts up a dialog telling your user that your program is nasty and evil if it isn't signed by a certificate that can be traced back to one of these two sources. It's easy to get these companies to "like" you-- pay them a lot of money (a few thousand a year) and don't make a competing product. I'm not being sarcastic. These are the terms of the agreement for getting them to sign your certificates (i.e. public keys). At least IE still gives you the choice of running the program, even though a naive user might be scared off.
Public key architectures don't really rest on who the user trusts; users are uneducated about the system. They really rest on who the OS maker trusts because the OS is set up to say "the user trusts anything signed by these default root certificates".
A Palladium based system will just be another step in this direction. It will prevent developers and artists from distributing their work unless they pay the Microsoft tax and it will allow Microsoft to decide what applications, music, etc. get distributed.
What if MS gets sued and is forced to revoke the certificate for a movie because it isn't appropriate for minors? Or the certificate for a website because it contains secret Scientologist information?
As a software developer, it has gotten consistently harder to develop and distribute small, independent apps for PC's. Under this system, how will small developers or ones that Microsoft doesn't like because they directly compete (e.g. Netscape, Napster, Borland) make products?
-m
At flipcode.com
-m
How to Design Programs (Rice) and Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (MIT) are two classic texts that ignore syntax and dive straight for concepts.
-m
Ditto-- as the primary Xbox publisher, owner of many of the game studios producing for Xbox, and owner of the online service, Microsoft has a lot more ways of making money than just their 10% cut for the "software tax".
Not to mention that they negotiated very agressively with the hardware vendors-- NVIDIA and Intel aren't selling those chips to them at the same price you pay in the store!
The Xbox is the best gaming console (from a developer's point of view) with the best developer support program. Microsoft clearly understands developer's needs and has ensured that they get multiple revenue streams off this product. I don't think they've handled this in a naive way at all.
-m
I think the list is really good (I disagree with a few, of course, but overall they hit the high points).
As to Gattaca: it was a brilliant movie, well written, directed, and acted, with a tight, logical plot and lots of symbolism. The style of the film reminded me of old (Heinlein/Asimov) sci-fi, particularly as the characters lift off for the moon wearing suits and sitting on benches. Symbolic, not literal. So I think Gattaca definitely deserves its spot.
I'd put Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926) in the top 20 (near the top), maybe at the expense of Barbarella.
-m