I have heard it said of Microsoft that they have so many really smart people, and you don't see it in the products that they actually release to us normal humans.
That sounds like the opposite of IBM. IBM releases loads of cool technology to customers that those of us in the company aren't allowed to use.
I worked in an office in the Boston area. It was OK in summer, but in winter it became clear that the building's HVAC was fundamentally faulty: it had no humidity control, so the air was literally drier than a desert (below 10% humidity). Lots of people had headaches, sinus problems, and so on.
Then the company decided they wanted to clear out the entire floor I was on, and turn it into a center for customer meetings. I was told I could either move to a cubicle on another floor, or move to a home office. You don't get any prizes for guessing which I chose.
The problem isn't that leaders "around the world" don't do that... the problem is that the leaders in the countries that are encouraging this, and sending money to do more of it, and celebrating it when it happens are not condemning it.
And meanwhile, the supposedly Christian leaders who tell us they lead Christian countries support assassination of foreign leaders, invasion of foreign sovereign nations in violation of international law, disappearance and imprisonment without trial, torture, and so on.
The same thing was said about the PS2. The developers of Oddworld switched from the PS2 to the XBOX early on, citing the fact that the PS2 was too hard to code for.
And the fact that Microsoft purchased them for a huge wad of cash a few weeks later was a complete coincidence...
Most game logic doesn't need or want too many different threads; requiring multiprocessor use to get the most out of the system is just overcomplicating things.
A modern 3D video game ought to have:
A 3D rendering thread
A display thread (separate so that if the frame rate drops, you don't get tearing)
A game physics and game logic thread, separate so that the physics doesn't change if the frame rate changes
In fact, if the open source community love OS X so much, they ought to throw away GNOME, put KDE in maintenance mode, and pour their resources into OpenStep.
It's a bit frustrating to hear Mac OS X compared to Linux or even a typical BSD because they are really apples and oranges (no puns intended)
As a long-time Unix guy, I have to say I don't see that much of a difference between them. Maybe if you're writing device drivers or need to output PDF, yeah, but they're all pretty much POSIX Unix systems. They're similar the way Solaris and AIX are similar, or BSD and Linux.
That was what I meant by the last comment--that their system will be insecure. I'm betting it'll be based on easily-spoofed headers, rather than some kind of cryptographic signature.
The problem with the scheme isn't that it's charging for e-mail; ultimately that's the only plan I'm aware of that has any chance of working. (See http://www.pobox.com/~meta/pages/spam for my rationale for that statement.)
No, the problems with this scheme are:
- No provision for non-profit entities (e.g. mailing lists I run for friends, etc.)
- The amount isn't set by the appropriate party (i.e. the only person qualified to determine how much it should cost you to send me mail, is me.)
- The criteria aren't set by the appropriate party (i.e. similarly, the only person qualified to determine whether a given source of mail *should* be subject to this charge/filtering in order to send to my mailbox, is me.)
- Doesn't scale (if every ISP does it, you have to pay every ISP, billing/paying costs become ridiculous, etc)
There may be other problems too, for example AOL's implementation may be insecure. In fact, I'm guessing it will be.
Terms and conditions may say all kinds of things. However, try selling a product for $20 a month, and putting in the small print of the contract "* Actual price is $49.95 a month", and see how far you get in court.
The PX100s are great, they come with a hard protective case but I don't use it and they haven't broken.
The PXC250s are also good, basically PX100s with added active noise reduction. It'll filter out machine fan noise, but you'll still be able to hear people just fine.
I was somewhat embarrassed to discover that I preferred the sound of my PX100s to my full-size Sennheisers...
People have long paid more money to make more long distance calls, that only makes sense.
Actually, it doesn't, and that's part of the problem.
The cost to the telecoms companies of providing long distance calling is almost zero, compared to the cost of operating and maintaining the local cable they own. That's why the price of long distance has dropped dramatically, but the monthly fee to have a phone line hasn't fallen as much. If pricing was based on cost, local calls would be more expensive than long distance ones.
Still, even in today's competitive market, long distance can be a cash cow. There are enough people who are too lazy to get calling cards, and the costs are really low, so big profits--which pay for the free local calls used to entice you in. But what scares the crap out of the telcos is voice over IP--suddenly they lose their long distance income, and have to survive on their local fees.
Yes, but how many of the voting public (i.e. those registered to vote) actually voted in 2000? Not many, I believe. The figure was slightly higher in 2004, but still low.
Also, it's not like we're talking about a few minor points of disagreement. We're talking about people disagreeing with Bush on the exact same issues they say are the most important to them, and voting against the guy who takes their position on those issues.
In other news, 90 seconds of Britney Spears has been shown to kill brain cells.
And Bose will be adapting their acoustic waveguide technology to produce a suppository-based speaker that gives you booty-shaking bass while killing colon cancer.
Even ignoring loudness, the iPod has issues driving headphones. Bass, in particular, is mushy. I got an Xin Mini, it's about the size of a box of matches, takes 3xAAA cells, and will comfortably drive a pair of full-size Sennheisers. It also has a binaural crossover circuit, so the stereo image sounds much better.
In fact, it's probably not entirely his fault either. He probably went to the doctor with hearing problems, had expensive tests and treatments, and then his insurer asked him to sue Apple. That's the way it works.
I accidentally cut my finger open using a Leatherman tool, and had to go to the ER. When it came time to pay up, my insurance company sent me a letter asking where the accident occurred, what products were involved, and asking me to sue anyone who might be liable in order to recoup the costs. The letter really didn't have a checkbox for "It was my own stupid fault"; it just assumed that it would be possible to sue somebody.
I wrote "It was my own stupid fault" on the form and sent it back... but don't be surprised if you see someone suing Leatherman for making knives sharp enough to cut into fingers.
Slashdot Mirror
"Offices all over the country provide free coffee. How do Starbucks make money?"
"Books are free to read at the local library. How do book stores make money?"
"Water is free, it falls out of the sky. How do the people who sell bottles of water make money?"
All the patents covering OpenGL are owned by Microsoft. They were sold by SGI some years ago.
That sounds like the opposite of IBM. IBM releases loads of cool technology to customers that those of us in the company aren't allowed to use.
I worked in an office in the Boston area. It was OK in summer, but in winter it became clear that the building's HVAC was fundamentally faulty: it had no humidity control, so the air was literally drier than a desert (below 10% humidity). Lots of people had headaches, sinus problems, and so on.
Then the company decided they wanted to clear out the entire floor I was on, and turn it into a center for customer meetings. I was told I could either move to a cubicle on another floor, or move to a home office. You don't get any prizes for guessing which I chose.
And meanwhile, the supposedly Christian leaders who tell us they lead Christian countries support assassination of foreign leaders, invasion of foreign sovereign nations in violation of international law, disappearance and imprisonment without trial, torture, and so on.
And the fact that Microsoft purchased them for a huge wad of cash a few weeks later was a complete coincidence...
A modern 3D video game ought to have:
That's 5 threads at a bare minimum.
In fact, if the open source community love OS X so much, they ought to throw away GNOME, put KDE in maintenance mode, and pour their resources into OpenStep.
As a long-time Unix guy, I have to say I don't see that much of a difference between them. Maybe if you're writing device drivers or need to output PDF, yeah, but they're all pretty much POSIX Unix systems. They're similar the way Solaris and AIX are similar, or BSD and Linux.
That was what I meant by the last comment--that their system will be insecure. I'm betting it'll be based on easily-spoofed headers, rather than some kind of cryptographic signature.
The problem with the scheme isn't that it's charging for e-mail; ultimately that's the only plan I'm aware of that has any chance of working. (See http://www.pobox.com/~meta/pages/spam for my rationale for that statement.)
No, the problems with this scheme are:
- No provision for non-profit entities (e.g. mailing lists I run for friends, etc.)
- The amount isn't set by the appropriate party (i.e. the only person qualified to determine how much it should cost you to send me mail, is me.)
- The criteria aren't set by the appropriate party (i.e. similarly, the only person qualified to determine whether a given source of mail *should* be subject to this charge/filtering in order to send to my mailbox, is me.)
- Doesn't scale (if every ISP does it, you have to pay every ISP, billing/paying costs become ridiculous, etc)
There may be other problems too, for example AOL's implementation may be insecure. In fact, I'm guessing it will be.
Terms and conditions may say all kinds of things. However, try selling a product for $20 a month, and putting in the small print of the contract "* Actual price is $49.95 a month", and see how far you get in court.
I just moved to Austin. Solved that problem, I tell you whut.
The PX100s are great, they come with a hard protective case but I don't use it and they haven't broken.
The PXC250s are also good, basically PX100s with added active noise reduction. It'll filter out machine fan noise, but you'll still be able to hear people just fine.
I was somewhat embarrassed to discover that I preferred the sound of my PX100s to my full-size Sennheisers...
Since when is gold toxic?
Or are they saying King Tut was a Cyberman?
I'd rather you didn't, he's probably pretty stinky by now.
Anyone who confuses unit testing with QA shouldn't be developing software.
(Sorry, I'm not going to summarize a couple of decades of SWEng experience for Slashdot, just do more reading on the subject.)
If you think .NET is the way to riches, you should see how much you can earn as an arms dealer or drug dealer!
And apparently the BitKeeper fiasco wasn't enough to get Linus to see the error of his ways.
Actually, it doesn't, and that's part of the problem.
The cost to the telecoms companies of providing long distance calling is almost zero, compared to the cost of operating and maintaining the local cable they own. That's why the price of long distance has dropped dramatically, but the monthly fee to have a phone line hasn't fallen as much. If pricing was based on cost, local calls would be more expensive than long distance ones.
Still, even in today's competitive market, long distance can be a cash cow. There are enough people who are too lazy to get calling cards, and the costs are really low, so big profits--which pay for the free local calls used to entice you in. But what scares the crap out of the telcos is voice over IP--suddenly they lose their long distance income, and have to survive on their local fees.
Quit whining and install one of the plugins that labels non-HTML links for you.
Or uninstall the Acrobat plug-in from your browser, so the browser will ask you whether you want to open the PDF, download it, or cancel.
Yes, but how many of the voting public (i.e. those registered to vote) actually voted in 2000? Not many, I believe. The figure was slightly higher in 2004, but still low.
Also, it's not like we're talking about a few minor points of disagreement. We're talking about people disagreeing with Bush on the exact same issues they say are the most important to them, and voting against the guy who takes their position on those issues.
In other news, 90 seconds of Britney Spears has been shown to kill brain cells.
And Bose will be adapting their acoustic waveguide technology to produce a suppository-based speaker that gives you booty-shaking bass while killing colon cancer.
Even ignoring loudness, the iPod has issues driving headphones. Bass, in particular, is mushy. I got an Xin Mini, it's about the size of a box of matches, takes 3xAAA cells, and will comfortably drive a pair of full-size Sennheisers. It also has a binaural crossover circuit, so the stereo image sounds much better.
In fact, it's probably not entirely his fault either. He probably went to the doctor with hearing problems, had expensive tests and treatments, and then his insurer asked him to sue Apple. That's the way it works.
I accidentally cut my finger open using a Leatherman tool, and had to go to the ER. When it came time to pay up, my insurance company sent me a letter asking where the accident occurred, what products were involved, and asking me to sue anyone who might be liable in order to recoup the costs. The letter really didn't have a checkbox for "It was my own stupid fault"; it just assumed that it would be possible to sue somebody.
I wrote "It was my own stupid fault" on the form and sent it back... but don't be surprised if you see someone suing Leatherman for making knives sharp enough to cut into fingers.