When product issues come up, auto makers must make their shortcomings public
Um, no. Recalls are a business strategy like any other. The lawyers sit down with the accountants, figure out total costs for a recall and a class-action lawsuit, and pick the cheaper of the two.
You'd be shocked to find out how often the lawsuit actually ends up cheaper. That's largely because class-action settlements have a very narrow scope, and only a small portion of the customer base will actually join the class.
There are still countries around the world that have some sense of respect for their citizens. If you're smart enough to feel insulted and betrayed by these laws, I'm sure these other countries would love to have you.
My beloved Canada could use a few morally robust immigrants right about now, to hold up to the neo-con asshats we've somehow elected.
The big problem with Future Mark is they have absolutely no credibility nor transparency. They list all the major hardware manufacturers as "partners", so how can they possibly be impartial ? Their test scores are commonly used to compare different brands, these numbers command great influence over the market... whoever gets the the highest scores is almost guaranteed to outsell their competitors, especially in the high-end segment where buyers are primarily interested in having the fastest product available, and where the high prices result in more time spent researching each purchase.
I also cannot imagine very many people buy the Pro versions of their benchmarking tools, other than major sites and publications that routinely publish detailed benchmark results. Most people are perfectly satisfied with the free one. This means the money has to come from other sources. I know for a fact, I wouldn't bother developing custom game-based benchmarks unless I was making more money than I would making actual games.
Welcome to America. This is how things work around here. There are so many ridiculous laws in place, you're probably breaking some right now without doing a damned thing.
I think the world's many legal systems need a reboot. We don't need so many specific laws, just a few generic ones that apply to everyone. Something like the ten commandments minus all the Jesus crap.
Yeah, I get that they're studying the body for possible space travel trauma, but who the hell cares ? The way things are going down here on Earth, we probably won't survive long enough to colonize anywhere else. We're too busy killing each other over fabricated issues of money, religion or ideology. We may dream of a Star Trek reality where humans explore the galaxy discovering allies everywhere they go, but the truth is that we're angry little shits and the only think we'll do in space is look for someone new to hate, pillage and murder.
What's the rationale behind them caving in ? So there are a bunch of extremist parents who complained, but they always do! You could give them a video game where you plant trees, and they'd manage to find suggestive phallic themes in the seed/plant/bug things...
Why couldn't this company just say a nice big "Fuck You" and release their game as originally designed and titled ? No one's forcing these church nuts to buy the damned thing, and it's not like the average underage kid can afford their own games.
It's a fackin' picture, what's the big deal ? Security by obscurity ? Come on! This is the 21st century, if someone wanted to break into that home, they wouldn't research it on Google, they'd show up with a couple of crowbars and barge right in.
It's always the no-talent inbreds that launch these frivolous suits. You know, the ones that have nothing better to do and need the cash.
Frankly, if Google feels like streaming a live feed of my naked ass through the apartment window, go nuts! We can split the Adsense revenue:)
I want the software industry in the USA to stay healthy because that's how I earn my living.
Easy solution: move to India!
But seriously, I also roll my eyes at excessive perks. It really gives the impression that they're bleeding VC money for the hell of it. There's a balance between comfort and productivity, a sweet spot where they mutually enhance each other, but too much of one will cramp the other.
For me, that sweet spot is a combination of flex time, relaxed dress code (so I can wear my t-shirt hell), and no bean-counters. I do what needs doing, and if I fall behind I fully expect someone to call me on it, but otherwise stay out of my hair. I think that whole attitude comes from the fact that I'm more of an independent entrepreneur kinda guy, and I passionately despise office drones.
I work in a semi-creative environment where you can't be 100% productive all the time, but you most certainly can be 300% productive some of the time then have a dry spell for a day or two. I make the most of my peak days, and leave early when I'm useless... it balances out and I'm happy as a clam. Most importantly, it's not a huge burden on the company to get me in that happy zone - I don't need on-site massage therapists, catered lunches and private movie theaters. Perhaps that's because, unlike Cuil, my employers acknowledges and respects the fact that I have a life outside of work. I don't need my job to be a vacation, because I take real vacations. I don't even want a stocked fridge, because I like taking a walk down to the store once a week to pick up a case of pop and some snacks - it's a small escape from the office, which often leads to creative spurts upon my return.
No matter how cushy your job is, it's still work. The psychological association remains and there's nothing you can do about it. You know how business owners are often workaholic nutjobs ? That's because they fail to isolate work from the rest of their life. When you don't have a clear distinction, your brain gets really confused!
So you're either a brilliant Googler, or you simply don't care about finding that perfect page again.
I'm the opposite, I often spend a long time searching and reading various pages until I find one that really nails the topic, so I bookmark it. There are many hours invested in my bookmarks, which hold great value and save me oodles of time in looking up hard-to-remember info. That's probably why I back them up diligently, sync them between my various PCs, and pass them along to friends. I'm like a one-man uber-quality Digg pile:)
FWIW, I like the awesome bar. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's a step in the right direction. For me, it's a nice shortcut that replaces the slow-loading CTRL-B sidebar (because I have so many bookmarks).
Intention ignorance amounts to treason, IMHO. The nation has been fucked over via unverifiable elections the last time, and congress is effectively turning a blind eye to the defective system, in order to "save a few bucks" because they did spend a shitload of money on that white elephant. I mean, Diebold isn't exactly in the poorhouse.
Isn't it funny how the companies can (and do) shop around the globe for the cheapest resources, but we consumers are forced to pay whatever price they charge within our borders, and treated as criminals if we dare shop around for a deal.
The way I see it, if a business is free to buy overseas and hire their cheap labor, so should we. It's just plain common sense.
an epic production like space quest could be knocked up in flash in a few weeks by one guy at little cost
No, it couldn't. The flash-developing kids don't have hired artists, skilled writers, a sound engineer or competent musician (anyone remember the Fat Man?)... Flash games reproduce much of the engine, but in an adventure game, the engine is the easy part. The content is what's valuable.
Yep, if there were an option to disable non-boss battles, I would have greatly enjoyed the new Prince games. There's just something too repetitive about killing ten ghosts in each frickin' room... they're ghosts! Let them die already!
Er... if the virus is detecting your scanner, you've already lost the battle. Sure, the hypervisor would prevent the virus from having a sexy time with the scanner/firewall, but it will still infect everything else in the system.
Far better to just run a dedicated box with the firewall and virus scanner, to properly isolate your workstations from the idiotnet.
Compression can help bring out the faint natural harmonics in a sound, making it "warmer", not unlike an overdriven tube amp. These harmonics are like ear candy to most people, subliminally making the sound more enjoyable.
Radio stations do it for various reasons, one is it helps them sustain peak output power. Another is that the average radio is a cheap chinese gadget that sounds like liquid ass, so the compression actually helps with the sound quality on those devices. When you also consider where radio is often heard, e.g. malls, outdoor venues, cube offices, you realize these are all substandard listening environments where high dynamic range really means you lose half the sound, so the compression again helps with perceived quality by driving most of the content above the noise threshold.
There are plenty of good reasons for sound compression, but its use should be toggled by the user, and for the love of god, give it some sane thresholds! For most content, anything above 4x compression is overkill!
If by "exciting" you mean "more dumb singing whores on TV", you're absolutely right.
The greatest challenge for artists these days isn't piracy, it's publicity. Everyone and their mother are "artists", and they mostly all suck. The signal-to-noise ratio is at an all-time low, to a point where marketing is the only "reliable" driving force left standing. As a small fry, it's probably better to sue every filesharer, just for the cheap publicity, than to spend the same amount on traditional merchandising and touring.
Creativity has little to do with it anymore. You either have to look like a dollar sign to the dirtbags in the suits, or have a real pretty mouth.
Maybe I'm missing something here (hint: i'm not), but why would you want to be manually editing such a file anyway ? It sounds like this task should be handled by a lightweight interface, be it web or otherwise, that controls access to the file and natively logs edits to a database.
That's the going rate for 10 minutes of your life.
Every time someone says this non-truth, I roll my eyes so hard I see the back of my head.
Do you work 24/7 ? Do you not value your downtime ? Have you ever had fun in your life ? If you measure everything by the cost of not working, then how much are we costing you when you post on slashdot ?
I saw these disposable DVDs at the 7eleven the other day. Apparently they start to decompose once you open the shrinkwrap... unbelievably retarded, imho.
Why buy a rotting DVD, from a selection of 15-20, when the rental chain down the street has zillions of movies for less ?
Slashdot Mirror
When product issues come up, auto makers must make their shortcomings public
Um, no. Recalls are a business strategy like any other. The lawyers sit down with the accountants, figure out total costs for a recall and a class-action lawsuit, and pick the cheaper of the two.
You'd be shocked to find out how often the lawsuit actually ends up cheaper. That's largely because class-action settlements have a very narrow scope, and only a small portion of the customer base will actually join the class.
Anyone remotely considering Apple for their enterprise hardware will probably immediately disregard them after this.
Anyone remotely considering Apple for their enterprise hardware has already drunk the koolaid.
Seriously, if you think Apple is the right solution for your server, I see two possibilities:
1. you're running something very Apple-centric, that's cool
-or-
2. you don't even know of the alternatives and are deaf blind and stupid.
Actually I have more specific advice:
If you're pissed off, move.
There are still countries around the world that have some sense of respect for their citizens. If you're smart enough to feel insulted and betrayed by these laws, I'm sure these other countries would love to have you.
My beloved Canada could use a few morally robust immigrants right about now, to hold up to the neo-con asshats we've somehow elected.
The big problem with Future Mark is they have absolutely no credibility nor transparency. They list all the major hardware manufacturers as "partners", so how can they possibly be impartial ? Their test scores are commonly used to compare different brands, these numbers command great influence over the market... whoever gets the the highest scores is almost guaranteed to outsell their competitors, especially in the high-end segment where buyers are primarily interested in having the fastest product available, and where the high prices result in more time spent researching each purchase.
I also cannot imagine very many people buy the Pro versions of their benchmarking tools, other than major sites and publications that routinely publish detailed benchmark results. Most people are perfectly satisfied with the free one. This means the money has to come from other sources. I know for a fact, I wouldn't bother developing custom game-based benchmarks unless I was making more money than I would making actual games.
You must be new here.
Welcome to America. This is how things work around here. There are so many ridiculous laws in place, you're probably breaking some right now without doing a damned thing.
I think the world's many legal systems need a reboot. We don't need so many specific laws, just a few generic ones that apply to everyone. Something like the ten commandments minus all the Jesus crap.
Yeah, I get that they're studying the body for possible space travel trauma, but who the hell cares ? The way things are going down here on Earth, we probably won't survive long enough to colonize anywhere else. We're too busy killing each other over fabricated issues of money, religion or ideology. We may dream of a Star Trek reality where humans explore the galaxy discovering allies everywhere they go, but the truth is that we're angry little shits and the only think we'll do in space is look for someone new to hate, pillage and murder.
What's the rationale behind them caving in ? So there are a bunch of extremist parents who complained, but they always do! You could give them a video game where you plant trees, and they'd manage to find suggestive phallic themes in the seed/plant/bug things...
Why couldn't this company just say a nice big "Fuck You" and release their game as originally designed and titled ? No one's forcing these church nuts to buy the damned thing, and it's not like the average underage kid can afford their own games.
It's a fackin' picture, what's the big deal ? Security by obscurity ? Come on! This is the 21st century, if someone wanted to break into that home, they wouldn't research it on Google, they'd show up with a couple of crowbars and barge right in.
It's always the no-talent inbreds that launch these frivolous suits. You know, the ones that have nothing better to do and need the cash.
Frankly, if Google feels like streaming a live feed of my naked ass through the apartment window, go nuts! We can split the Adsense revenue :)
I want the software industry in the USA to stay healthy because that's how I earn my living.
Easy solution: move to India!
But seriously, I also roll my eyes at excessive perks. It really gives the impression that they're bleeding VC money for the hell of it. There's a balance between comfort and productivity, a sweet spot where they mutually enhance each other, but too much of one will cramp the other.
For me, that sweet spot is a combination of flex time, relaxed dress code (so I can wear my t-shirt hell), and no bean-counters. I do what needs doing, and if I fall behind I fully expect someone to call me on it, but otherwise stay out of my hair. I think that whole attitude comes from the fact that I'm more of an independent entrepreneur kinda guy, and I passionately despise office drones.
I work in a semi-creative environment where you can't be 100% productive all the time, but you most certainly can be 300% productive some of the time then have a dry spell for a day or two. I make the most of my peak days, and leave early when I'm useless... it balances out and I'm happy as a clam. Most importantly, it's not a huge burden on the company to get me in that happy zone - I don't need on-site massage therapists, catered lunches and private movie theaters. Perhaps that's because, unlike Cuil, my employers acknowledges and respects the fact that I have a life outside of work. I don't need my job to be a vacation, because I take real vacations. I don't even want a stocked fridge, because I like taking a walk down to the store once a week to pick up a case of pop and some snacks - it's a small escape from the office, which often leads to creative spurts upon my return.
No matter how cushy your job is, it's still work. The psychological association remains and there's nothing you can do about it. You know how business owners are often workaholic nutjobs ? That's because they fail to isolate work from the rest of their life. When you don't have a clear distinction, your brain gets really confused!
So you're either a brilliant Googler, or you simply don't care about finding that perfect page again.
I'm the opposite, I often spend a long time searching and reading various pages until I find one that really nails the topic, so I bookmark it. There are many hours invested in my bookmarks, which hold great value and save me oodles of time in looking up hard-to-remember info. That's probably why I back them up diligently, sync them between my various PCs, and pass them along to friends. I'm like a one-man uber-quality Digg pile :)
FWIW, I like the awesome bar. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's a step in the right direction. For me, it's a nice shortcut that replaces the slow-loading CTRL-B sidebar (because I have so many bookmarks).
Burning more power is OK if you can finish the job faster and get back into a low power state.
Ok then, how about four Atoms in the same power footprint as one Nano ? I'll take 4 Intels over one Via any day. Heck, I'd take one Intel over a Via!
The right people do the right things, and then the wrong people quickly undo it all while nobody's looking.
Intention ignorance amounts to treason, IMHO. The nation has been fucked over via unverifiable elections the last time, and congress is effectively turning a blind eye to the defective system, in order to "save a few bucks" because they did spend a shitload of money on that white elephant. I mean, Diebold isn't exactly in the poorhouse.
Isn't it funny how the companies can (and do) shop around the globe for the cheapest resources, but we consumers are forced to pay whatever price they charge within our borders, and treated as criminals if we dare shop around for a deal.
The way I see it, if a business is free to buy overseas and hire their cheap labor, so should we. It's just plain common sense.
an epic production like space quest could be knocked up in flash in a few weeks by one guy at little cost
No, it couldn't. The flash-developing kids don't have hired artists, skilled writers, a sound engineer or competent musician (anyone remember the Fat Man?)... Flash games reproduce much of the engine, but in an adventure game, the engine is the easy part. The content is what's valuable.
Since IQ is a normalized index, the IQ in new gamers is probably the same as it's always been. It's the old adventure gamers whose IQ has gone up ;)
Yep, if there were an option to disable non-boss battles, I would have greatly enjoyed the new Prince games. There's just something too repetitive about killing ten ghosts in each frickin' room... they're ghosts! Let them die already!
Er... if the virus is detecting your scanner, you've already lost the battle. Sure, the hypervisor would prevent the virus from having a sexy time with the scanner/firewall, but it will still infect everything else in the system.
Far better to just run a dedicated box with the firewall and virus scanner, to properly isolate your workstations from the idiotnet.
Yep, they can work in a call center like every other no-talent inbred.
But what if you move away from the mic to breathe ?
Chocolate Rain
*whoooosh*
Youtube makes my breathing loud again
Chocolate Rain
*whoooosh*
My eardrums are whimpering in pain
Louder is one thing, compression is another.
Compression can help bring out the faint natural harmonics in a sound, making it "warmer", not unlike an overdriven tube amp. These harmonics are like ear candy to most people, subliminally making the sound more enjoyable.
Radio stations do it for various reasons, one is it helps them sustain peak output power. Another is that the average radio is a cheap chinese gadget that sounds like liquid ass, so the compression actually helps with the sound quality on those devices. When you also consider where radio is often heard, e.g. malls, outdoor venues, cube offices, you realize these are all substandard listening environments where high dynamic range really means you lose half the sound, so the compression again helps with perceived quality by driving most of the content above the noise threshold.
There are plenty of good reasons for sound compression, but its use should be toggled by the user, and for the love of god, give it some sane thresholds! For most content, anything above 4x compression is overkill!
If by "exciting" you mean "more dumb singing whores on TV", you're absolutely right.
The greatest challenge for artists these days isn't piracy, it's publicity. Everyone and their mother are "artists", and they mostly all suck. The signal-to-noise ratio is at an all-time low, to a point where marketing is the only "reliable" driving force left standing. As a small fry, it's probably better to sue every filesharer, just for the cheap publicity, than to spend the same amount on traditional merchandising and touring.
Creativity has little to do with it anymore. You either have to look like a dollar sign to the dirtbags in the suits, or have a real pretty mouth.
Maybe I'm missing something here (hint: i'm not), but why would you want to be manually editing such a file anyway ? It sounds like this task should be handled by a lightweight interface, be it web or otherwise, that controls access to the file and natively logs edits to a database.
That's the going rate for 10 minutes of your life.
Every time someone says this non-truth, I roll my eyes so hard I see the back of my head.
Do you work 24/7 ? Do you not value your downtime ? Have you ever had fun in your life ? If you measure everything by the cost of not working, then how much are we costing you when you post on slashdot ?
I've got a toonie you can shove up your ass!
I saw these disposable DVDs at the 7eleven the other day. Apparently they start to decompose once you open the shrinkwrap... unbelievably retarded, imho.
Why buy a rotting DVD, from a selection of 15-20, when the rental chain down the street has zillions of movies for less ?