I prefer Guild Wars. It's a one time subscription fee that's getting lower over time. Currently, you can spend $20 to get the core game. I own all of campaigns and play them like a casual game. I don't want xp, material, or gold grinding. I want a compelling environment and story that doesn't hold me back because I didn't reach level X.
Besides, I tried WoW and didn't like it. I like Blizzard. I love the Diablo series (mostly because it was unapologetic about being hack and slash, though I'm usually a fan of hack and slash). I thought WC was ok, and SC was pretty darn cool. I can't wait for D3; that's gonna be awesome.
BTW: GW just celebrated 4 years, updated tons of content (though I'm concerned about the rather large "micro" payments for some of it), and have surpassed 6 million units sold. I don't know how that translates into active players though. Plus, they just went live on Steam with all three main campaigns for $50.
Here's what mom would ask: what's the cheapest thing I can get to do what I want? Well, what do you want? Internet, photos, maybe some CD's I doubt movies but that would be nice I guess.
So, what's the cheapest laptop or PC? Usually it's Linux or Windows based (with Linux beating out, generally).
That's my $.02. (don't forget the Verizon conversion tables to accurately account for pricing).
I would certainly like to play a game like this. I play Guild Wars a lot as I don't like WoW. I wouldn't mind trying an MMO similar to GW where a small band of people go out gather supplies, salvage what they can, return and give to the greater good. Economy would be difficult, weapons would be hard, ammo and such, so perhaps a profession and barter system where one person specializes in making ammo and another in armor or weapons. It would be nice if it were also buy once play forever rather than monthly fees like GW. In fact, until GW I avoided MMO's because of the monthly fee.
Yea, but are those 8700 useful? Even 8700 useless links is the same as no results at all. In fact, I'd rather have no results and be frustrated that Cuil couldn't find it than have 8700 results and be frustrated that Google gave me crap. Hmm, maybe not. Damn I hate these dilemas.
I sense a crotchedy, moldy, cynic somewhere in the comments on flikr who seems to "not get it". Oh well, not everyone is/can be a pedagogue, so someone has to do it.
think you missed the point being made. The poster was not suggesting that Alec Baldwin is exempt from making comments publicly that are considered wrong and Ann Coulter is not. The poster very clearly stated that when any information, such as Ann Coulter's statements, were edited out that a lack of information is a greater threat than misinformation.
Misinformation can often be corrected, though not always, people are stubborn and often refuse to believe what is directly in front of their eyes.
I remember, or perhaps I don't, hmmm, a post sometime back, I think, that a/. poster mentioned something about, "And the RIAA now charges per memory of a song, as it is only licensed to be heard once. Soon, memory altering methods will be used to erase the song from persons memory who do not continue to pay the licensing fees."
But then I could be wrong.
Oh, come one! You knew someone was going to make the RIAA connection!
I work for a large IT company managing well over 50,000 IP addresses. We looked at several off the shelf products, including VitalIP, but as we have a dynamic mix of DNS, DHCP, and hosts files, we could not reliably manage that many IPs in Access, Excel, or any off the shelf product (that we reviewed at the time; 2003). We already had an in-house developed app doing the job, so we just decided to modify it. Honestly, a few hours of Oracle development to create the tables, a week of VB.NET programming, and we had a fully functional IP management tool complete with business rules for assigning IPs based on a schema. While is it was fairly easy as we knew very intimiately our needs, it may not be as easy for you. I'd suggest starting a list of requirements and the moment you feel overwhelmed you know you're on to something. Use that to determine whether you need off the shelf or develop (re-develop, or OSS).
It's the hang up everyone has with interpretting language. You know what you wanted to say, and meant to say, and the words you selected to say it seemed logical at the time however, people (persons), as you can well see, demand that you qualify what you said to more accurately complete your thought. For example:
Yes, buying a new computer is in fact a solution. And more to the point, may not be a good solution. However, when put into context of the original question regarding fixing the current issue, perhaps buying a computer isn't a solution in that scenario.
But honestly (aside from me being hypocritical about it) who really cares, and does it really matter? No. I don't give a rat's ass whether it's a case of non-sequitor. It goes back to the idea of "how the hell can one get a failing grade on an opinion". Two ways actually; either it isn't what the professor wanted, or it was non-sequitor.
So what? I'm just rambling anyway. Mod this down please, I suck and deserve bad karma...
...but I'd say test your compilers. Find the right fit. If the compiler doesn't optimize or doesn't optimize the way you'd want or expect then change it. I've tried gnu c++ compiler. I like it. But I don't care about optimization. So I didn't pick it based on that. I chose it based on free beer. A buddy of mine said it wouldn't work as well as Borland's. Depending on the task it's better. So he owed me a case.
Regardless, since coders are a choosey lot, you're best bet in my mind is to play around until you find the one you like.
I have to say I like the analogy between Embedded versus Desktop. One would think embedded compilers use better optimization but I would also think, based on some code I've seen, that embedded coders also hand optimize as well. Is there such a thing as double optimization?
Philosophical Debate: What is a human life worth? Some say it's priceless while others clearly demonstrate that it's worthless. This can be seen in all walks of life, culture, society, the world around. One man's trash is another's treasure can be applied to this dilema. The end result will always be the same. Until it affects you personally it's probably not an issue.
Consider the parents who drink and occasionally drive after holiday parties, this is even seen in movies. But when their child dies either because of drinking or driving or someone else's drinking and driving they become immediate christian's in pursuit of the nearest MADD chapter to place that child on a poster and parade it around as the next reason not to drink and drive.
I'm a firm believer is NO drinking and driving. No matter how little or how much. I vote for laws that increase these penalties and restrict the ability of people from doing so. I care about this BEFORE it hits near home.
I do care about it because I care about life. Yes, I'm generally against abortion. I have three children of my own. However, I also see the merits that keeping aboriton legeal presents.
While I prescribe certain ethical and moral boundaries to myself I do not feel that I can assert those same values on others unlike Emmanuel Kant who said "if you cannot universally agree that others should do as you did then it shouldn't be done", and his golden rule "do NOT to to others that which you do NOT want done to you."
The reality of the human life debate is literally within the mind of the person who is taught that human life is precious or a waste. I hear people often claim assraunces on both sides of the debate. They "flip-flop" on the idea. On the one hand "Abortion is horrible murder and should be stopped", and on the other "Send our children off to war to maybe die because that mad man needs to be stopped!"
Frivilous law suits are another one. The moment that you cap the awards limits is the moment the corporations win. They have tried like hell to get the average person to believe that some old lady burned herself with coffee and it's some how not their fault. The truth is that the coffee was a few degrees below BOILING. It caused third degree burns to her genitals. Her medial bills far exceed her ability to pay them. They had to perform skin grafts to her inner thighs. At first all she wanted was for them to pay the bill. I agree that she should NOT have used her lap as a "hot beverage securing device", but get real. This lady is scarred by hot liquid. Imagine if that was your child having to grow up with these scarrs. Unable to feel orgasm because the flesh was removed. Price tag that.
So, now we get to my point. A single person with no life can easily accomplish similar demands to EA's work policies. However, a person who even tries to have a life needs to reconsider.
A corporations pays you to do a job. On the flip side you lose that time forever. Never to be returned. Sure the kids are at school 6 to 8 hours a day. But you have to factor drive time, no paid lunch, frustration of working long hard hours regardless of the industry or job. I drive one and a half hours one way to my job. I love my job. I get paid well according to my standards, which are very low. However, they do not pay me nearly enough. I miss a LOT of my children's time. I'm on the road early, spend 9 hours at work and get home late. While I'm not working all that time I am gone all that time. Some of it willingly some of it because I don't have a choice. I can't get a job like this closer to home andI can't afford to move. I'm stuck.
Therefore, for 8 paid hours a day I get just over 50K a year. Tack on the drive time and that's 11 hours. Tack on an unpaid lunch and that's 12 hours. Tack on any overtime and I'm screwed. I recently pulled a 15 hour day to finalize a project. I didn't mind. It does not happen often.
But the bottom line is what's a human life worth? 5
Hopefully Alaa will be reading these posts. A lot of positive thinking.
I have to admit I was not aware, although not shocked, to here some of the answers he gave.
But that leaves me wondering; what can we do from here to help them there?
I mean, I don't have the money to spend to travel the world around and become a Lin-evanglilist. So what help can I provide from here to people like Alaa? What services can I provide to communities like Linux-Egypt?
It really breaks my heart to hear that the educational system cannot accomodate the shear number of students. And couple that with the 60% illiteracy rate Alaa mentions. This makes me want to do something.
No offense to anyone, but when I see the "help the poor country" ads on TV I get sad but can't help. But somehow I can't help but think I can do something here. That I can help with this.
So, Alaa, if you're reading this, please, I encourage you, spread the word back home that people here care and would love to help. We just need to know how.
What tools or avenues of legal recourse does an individual have at his/her disposal to combat the myriad and plethora of otherwise frivilous lawsuits?
For example, IBM has a legal team very capable to defending IBM. SCO seems to think it's lawyers could take them on.
These are corporations, and while corporations have similar rights as citizens, what rights do I have as a US citizen on the Internet? Where can I go, who do I see? Are there lawyers or firms that represent me? I know the EFF can and will support and defend an obvious injustice in the system.
But what tools can I use to prevent having to even go that far in the first place?
I don't trade music, movies, scripts, books, or even look for them. I make my own. If I own the DVD, CD, book, or program, I create my own copies as backups (I know, I know). I have children who love to play Frisbee(tm) with my CD's(tm), DVD's(tm), and VHS(tm).
But considering the nature of IP law in the internet era am I ever going to be truly safe from infringing upon some law, obscure or otherwise, just by simply exercising Free Speech(tm)?
Interestingly enough, ALL technology companies should NOT want this ruling to be on the side of content companies such as RIAA and MPAA among others. If in fact this will decide how tech companies will be held liable for ANY and ALL activity using their products imagine what that would mean for companies whose abuses by script kiddies using watered down linux distros or even M$ whose enemies use their own OS to write viruses. In other words, will M$ be responsible to illegal P2P file swapping just because P2P software is compatible, interoperable, or even in the case of MSN send files/photos actually circumvent such measures? What about the content companies that have interests in both sides of the dispute, SONY for example?
Basically, no one has the right for any reason to violate your emotional and mental boundaries. Given this information, any employer who would expect you, the only IT employee, to work miracles on a budget with 70+ hour work weeks would either be insane, satan, or taking advantage of you.
In any of these cases in it not right. I assume you are salary which means you work whatever they tell you too. They can fire you because they feel like it. And basically, you owe them for giving you a job in such difficult financial and job market times.
Therefore, here is a practical solution. Explain to your customers, clients, employer and co-workers that you are one person doing the job of several. You are more than happy to get to their requests (which I can assume are typically easy user account resets, PC checks, LAN crawls) but to please be patient. And if you must tell them "No, I cannot do that." Be sure to add, "No, I cannot do that right now. I have too much work to do. Perhaps we can revisit this at a later date."
Keep in mind you do not want to upset them. So yelling "NO!!! GO AWAY!!!" as the BOFH would, while quite humurous, and honestly quite theraputic, would probably get you fired. You want them to be considerate of your time and your work so please be considerate of theirs (and it sounds like you are, otherwise you wouldn't be so willing to do the work and find it so hard to say "No.")
There were a lot of good questions posted. I don't have time to read them all so if I repeat a previous post in spirit, my apologies.
Intellectual property rights are granted to those who created the work. In the case of work for hire (almost all corporations employ this) IP rights are turned over from creator to employer. Contracts in place this is legally held.
Has there ever been a case where an employee sued for IP rights? What was the verdict?
Has there been a case where IP rights were enforced previous to the creation of a work? Example, employee intends to create work but leaves company and founds own company only to produce that same work (which was never actually created for the original company).
And finally, in the face of the changing landscape of consumer flexibility do you personally feel that corporations are grasping at every straw they can to maintain income flow?
Given that consumers will find ways to use a product to their advantage most digital information providers are trying to "lock" down their creations to ensure income using "prefered" devices. It is unrealistic to think that people will stop using these products in what would be the largest boycott known to date. However, if companies continue to blame the consumers and their tools for damages to income they will eventually find themselves on the receiving end of a very large deficit of income. The question above is meant to garner some idea of how the government agencies feel about corporations using them to ensure a steady (or compensated) financial income as a result of consumer ingenuity.
Most of us believe that corporations should modify their business models to accomodate the changing landscapes of consumerism. It seems that most tend to prefer business as usual and start litigiation any way they can.
So, are corporations using any means possible (legal of course) to simply ensure that they can maintain a financial foothold in spite of consumers finding new ways to utilize, modify, and recreate the corporations IP works?
Keep in mind I'm viewing this from the ages old ideal that "the customer is always right" and slowly learning that "the customer wants what we allow them to have, assuming the pay us huge amounts of money for any misuses". Also, consider my sig for a moment and try to apply that to IP laws...
I mean really. Everyone here knows that the industry needs to change. They know it too. But the real problem here is that WE the US citizens are not being shielded. We elect these people into office and they work for us. However, at some point since they had the power they decided to give themselves more power. In the end, we have a Congressional body that obviously caters to the all mighty dollar. Therefore, screaming about it does no good. For those you tell don't care. Honestl, they don't.
Here's the insightful bit:
Since when did the US government guarantee that a corporation will earn money one way or another? I mean instead of letting the companies attempt to crack down on piracy their own way the companies beg and plead that the US government step in and be the daddy. The problem is that the government is not supposed to be involved in such matters. The ONLY thing the governement to supposed to do receive taxes to defend our countries citizens from outside attacks. Not police the world, bend to the will of a common nation governemnt (UN), or be involved in corporate legalities that do not directly affect the us citizens.
Online music piracy (incorrectly identified BTW), is nothing more than an easier way to "tape" a CD. We all know this. They know this. The bottom line is that the corporation needs to address this NOT the fucking government!!!
We OWN the governement. We are the BOSSES! They seemed to forget this. And we citizens find ourselves electing these people to office to only have them incorporate themselves upon entering office and then immediately being hired by a lobbyist firm as a contractor. This is why it's not called bribery. They are getting paid as if they worked there.
Some people claim (ESR being one of them) that obtaining the Unix source code is not difficult. In that case, has anyone thought to obtain a copy and compare it to the Linux source? I'm sure someone has thought of it, but has anyone done it? If so, what is verdict?
I played with this back in 98 or 99 (perhaps even before). It's based on the HyperCube obviously. That being a point streched perpendicular to itself is a line, a line stretched perpedicular to itself is a 2D plane (rectangle), a rectangle stretched perpedicular to itself is a 3D plane (cube), and so on and so on. It's infinite. But I'm sure most of you already knew that. Regardless, I wonder if they made any changes since last time I played with it?
Regardless of any reasons posted here I find that the most use I have for PNG (other than websites) is for a really cool tool I use to create SNES quality (vintage is good!) RPG's. In fact, PNG is the preferred graphics format even though BMP is supported. PNG just has so many advantages over most graphics. For it's quality it has relatively low byte counts. But then I have a very specific use of PNG.
Problem 1: Re-definition Society constantly tried to redefine events, words, languages, cultures, and just about every aspect of life. America is most at fault here. Look in the dictionary under listless and it will mention melancholy. Look at melancholy and it will say sad. Look at sad and it will say depressed. Look at depressed and it will say listless. This circular logic works for programming because we need computers to perform repititious actions often based off of the results it gives to itself. But how the hell can I order a fucking hamburger when the Advocates for Social Screening (ASS) are always telling me that pork (ham) does not acutally exist in the hamburger and should therefore be called beefburger as not to insult either species of animal?
Problem 2: Accountability When you do something, let everyone who is important know you did it. That means friends, family, bosses, authorities. If you did something wrong, admit it and pay the price. If you did something right celebrate your success. It's simple. Don't blame others for your fuck up and don't let others shine in you light without you. Your manager didn't do a single technical thing in her life and therefore should NOT get credit because she "influenced" you.
Problem 3: Discipline Keep yourself in check. You know the rules, you know the laws, and you know the consequences. Sin tells us it's okay if no one knows (see problem number 2). Don't believe in Sin? So what. America somehow thinks we can legislate morality by biblical terms. Get used to it.
Problem 4: Why have laws if there is no God? It's simple. While the laws were created by the influence of the bible man still wrote the laws. God does not factor into the equation of law making, law enforcement, or punishment of law breakers. If he did I doubt that death row would exist. I know abortion wouldn't. So if God didn't exist why have laws? Because it makes sense. If there was no evil would we know good? Sure we would. Evil is NOT necessarily the opposite of good. Cat is not the opposite of dog. Black is not the opposite of white. The only absolute opposites are this or that terms. True OR False, Yes OR No. Even right OR wrong. We know what is right: get along with each other. We know what is wrong: do take things you didn't earn (see problem 2), don't lie (see problem 1 and 2).
Now how does this relate? It's easy:
On September 11th, 2001, an extremely horrofying event occurred. And as always we rallied together in love and peace in hopes of obtaining answers, punishments, and relief from grief. And as always our nation became divided on the terms. Some wanted war, some wanted tighter restrictions on immigrants and illegal citizens, sitll others wanted a different type of resolution. In the end the US enacted three evils; patriot act, total information awareness, homeland security. Evils? Sure they are. These three entities all turn INWARD into OUR country and examine OUR lives. The politicians would not have jobs if WE the PEOPLE didn't hire them. They work for us. We pay their salaries. But they want to watch us and know what we're doing just to make sure we aren't terrorists. Saudi Arabian muslims terrorists committed the crimes by the order of Osama Bin Laden. None of the people are citizens of the US. They came here to learn to fly a plane. Interesting? The FBI and CIA BOTH had briefs before the president during the week of the attacks.
Problem 1: Redefining WHO shoudl be watched. Problem 2: Shifting blame from the people involved to others and then creating an entity to watch over EVERYONE just to make sure. Problem 3: Discipline those involed NOT ME. More over show some personal restraint in using terrorism as a means to big borther us. Problem 4: Whether we like it or not, God is used in ways never meant by Him. And yet again, we see the all seeing eye perched above us peering at our lives.
Perhaps ISP's can include an Act of Man clause similar to an Act of God. When tragedy strikes and service(s) are down it's expected that the ISP will do everything it can to rememdy the situation. The ISP is not responsible for the customers portion of the problem however. Therefore, if an Act of Man (mailicous code) causes unecessary spikes for incoming traffic the ISp is responsible for stopping it on their networks as best possible and alerting the customers that unless they do something about it they will be charged. "Doing something about it" includes maintaining logs that can be used to prove the customer did NOT incur those spikes and therefore will NOT be responsible for the bill. This can be handed upward as well. For example, if Joe Customer uses Public Internet Access (PIA) as an ISP and PIA uses Qwest, SWB, AT&T, UUNET, or some other backbone provider ultimately the backbone provider eats the costs. This is unfortunate but like an Act of God no ones true responsibility. If the backbone provider has enough evidence to point at a person or group for the malicious code causing serious downtimes and outages then by all means, customers support your backbone provider in court and pay some of the bill to help further ensure that malicious coders will be prosecuted. As for me I'd hate to eat those costs but if I signed as SLA that I didn't like it's partially my fault.
Rivendahl
Re:Nothing happens to your privacy...
on
NYT on RFID Tags
·
· Score: 1
Well...
May I suggest, then, that we:
A) Start the EFF on stopping the insanity B) Remove the RFID tags once we leave the store C) Everyone buy the same exact combination
Currently, there are at least three ways to know who you are. DNA, fingerprinting, and dental records. There are of course others. And all of them require that they get close enough to obtain a sample prior to confirming your identity. Bloodtype, facial recognition software, skeletal profiles, voice prints, retinal scans are all possiblities.
To worry about a store selling me RFID tags is yet another hurdle to ensure personal privacy. But I have a better solution, a much harder solution to carry out over all however.
Let's all get together, talk about who the best person might be to become our untied voice in Congress, elect that person to office, and have that person vote down any legistation we refuse to accept. Lobbyists have been doing it for years. We could even have that person vote FOR legislation we want. In fact, we could even require that that person conference with us before voting on any issue. Then we could give a truely democratic voice among ourselves.
Okay, that's stretching. But think about it. What if we had someone or a group of someones in office on our side? All the "ammedments" in the constituion are ammendable. The first 10 are inalienable rights. Our forefathers new this would be an issue later. Everyone wants to quote the famous ones. Freedom of speach, freedom of religion, right to bare arms. Lets try to get another added. Lets get congress to add right to personal privacy.
Slashdot Mirror
Really?
Correction:
(mostly because it was unapologetic about being hack and slash, though I'm usually a fan of hack and slash)
(mostly because it was unapologetic about being hack and slash, though I'm usually a NOT fan of hack and slash)
I prefer Guild Wars. It's a one time subscription fee that's getting lower over time. Currently, you can spend $20 to get the core game. I own all of campaigns and play them like a casual game. I don't want xp, material, or gold grinding. I want a compelling environment and story that doesn't hold me back because I didn't reach level X.
Besides, I tried WoW and didn't like it. I like Blizzard. I love the Diablo series (mostly because it was unapologetic about being hack and slash, though I'm usually a fan of hack and slash). I thought WC was ok, and SC was pretty darn cool. I can't wait for D3; that's gonna be awesome.
BTW: GW just celebrated 4 years, updated tons of content (though I'm concerned about the rather large "micro" payments for some of it), and have surpassed 6 million units sold. I don't know how that translates into active players though. Plus, they just went live on Steam with all three main campaigns for $50.
Just my $.02 (the non Verizon math 2 cents).
Here's what mom would ask: what's the cheapest thing I can get to do what I want? Well, what do you want? Internet, photos, maybe some CD's I doubt movies but that would be nice I guess.
So, what's the cheapest laptop or PC? Usually it's Linux or Windows based (with Linux beating out, generally).
That's my $.02. (don't forget the Verizon conversion tables to accurately account for pricing).
I would certainly like to play a game like this. I play Guild Wars a lot as I don't like WoW. I wouldn't mind trying an MMO similar to GW where a small band of people go out gather supplies, salvage what they can, return and give to the greater good. Economy would be difficult, weapons would be hard, ammo and such, so perhaps a profession and barter system where one person specializes in making ammo and another in armor or weapons. It would be nice if it were also buy once play forever rather than monthly fees like GW. In fact, until GW I avoided MMO's because of the monthly fee.
Yea, but are those 8700 useful? Even 8700 useless links is the same as no results at all. In fact, I'd rather have no results and be frustrated that Cuil couldn't find it than have 8700 results and be frustrated that Google gave me crap. Hmm, maybe not. Damn I hate these dilemas.
I sense a crotchedy, moldy, cynic somewhere in the comments on flikr who seems to "not get it". Oh well, not everyone is/can be a pedagogue, so someone has to do it.
Riv
think you missed the point being made. The poster was not suggesting that Alec Baldwin is exempt from making comments publicly that are considered wrong and Ann Coulter is not. The poster very clearly stated that when any information, such as Ann Coulter's statements, were edited out that a lack of information is a greater threat than misinformation.
Misinformation can often be corrected, though not always, people are stubborn and often refuse to believe what is directly in front of their eyes.
I say your comments are off-topic.
I remember, or perhaps I don't, hmmm, a post sometime back, I think, that a /. poster mentioned something about, "And the RIAA now charges per memory of a song, as it is only licensed to be heard once. Soon, memory altering methods will be used to erase the song from persons memory who do not continue to pay the licensing fees."
But then I could be wrong.
Oh, come one! You knew someone was going to make the RIAA connection!
Later.
I work for a large IT company managing well over 50,000 IP addresses. We looked at several off the shelf products, including VitalIP, but as we have a dynamic mix of DNS, DHCP, and hosts files, we could not reliably manage that many IPs in Access, Excel, or any off the shelf product (that we reviewed at the time; 2003). We already had an in-house developed app doing the job, so we just decided to modify it. Honestly, a few hours of Oracle development to create the tables, a week of VB.NET programming, and we had a fully functional IP management tool complete with business rules for assigning IPs based on a schema. While is it was fairly easy as we knew very intimiately our needs, it may not be as easy for you. I'd suggest starting a list of requirements and the moment you feel overwhelmed you know you're on to something. Use that to determine whether you need off the shelf or develop (re-develop, or OSS).
It's the hang up everyone has with interpretting language. You know what you wanted to say, and meant to say, and the words you selected to say it seemed logical at the time however, people (persons), as you can well see, demand that you qualify what you said to more accurately complete your thought. For example:
Yes, buying a new computer is in fact a solution . And more to the point, may not be a good solution. However, when put into context of the original question regarding fixing the current issue, perhaps buying a computer isn't a solution in that scenario .
But honestly (aside from me being hypocritical about it) who really cares, and does it really matter? No. I don't give a rat's ass whether it's a case of non-sequitor. It goes back to the idea of "how the hell can one get a failing grade on an opinion". Two ways actually; either it isn't what the professor wanted, or it was non-sequitor.
So what? I'm just rambling anyway. Mod this down please, I suck and deserve bad karma...
Riv
...but I'd say test your compilers. Find the right fit. If the compiler doesn't optimize or doesn't optimize the way you'd want or expect then change it. I've tried gnu c++ compiler. I like it. But I don't care about optimization. So I didn't pick it based on that. I chose it based on free beer. A buddy of mine said it wouldn't work as well as Borland's. Depending on the task it's better. So he owed me a case.
Regardless, since coders are a choosey lot, you're best bet in my mind is to play around until you find the one you like.
I have to say I like the analogy between Embedded versus Desktop. One would think embedded compilers use better optimization but I would also think, based on some code I've seen, that embedded coders also hand optimize as well. Is there such a thing as double optimization?
Rivendahl
Philosophical Debate:
What is a human life worth?
Some say it's priceless while others clearly demonstrate that it's worthless. This can be seen in all walks of life, culture, society, the world around. One man's trash is another's treasure can be applied to this dilema. The end result will always be the same. Until it affects you personally it's probably not an issue.
Consider the parents who drink and occasionally drive after holiday parties, this is even seen in movies. But when their child dies either because of drinking or driving or someone else's drinking and driving they become immediate christian's in pursuit of the nearest MADD chapter to place that child on a poster and parade it around as the next reason not to drink and drive.
I'm a firm believer is NO drinking and driving. No matter how little or how much. I vote for laws that increase these penalties and restrict the ability of people from doing so. I care about this BEFORE it hits near home.
I do care about it because I care about life. Yes, I'm generally against abortion. I have three children of my own. However, I also see the merits that keeping aboriton legeal presents.
While I prescribe certain ethical and moral boundaries to myself I do not feel that I can assert those same values on others unlike Emmanuel Kant who said "if you cannot universally agree that others should do as you did then it shouldn't be done", and his golden rule "do NOT to to others that which you do NOT want done to you."
The reality of the human life debate is literally within the mind of the person who is taught that human life is precious or a waste. I hear people often claim assraunces on both sides of the debate. They "flip-flop" on the idea. On the one hand "Abortion is horrible murder and should be stopped", and on the other "Send our children off to war to maybe die because that mad man needs to be stopped!"
Frivilous law suits are another one. The moment that you cap the awards limits is the moment the corporations win. They have tried like hell to get the average person to believe that some old lady burned herself with coffee and it's some how not their fault. The truth is that the coffee was a few degrees below BOILING. It caused third degree burns to her genitals. Her medial bills far exceed her ability to pay them. They had to perform skin grafts to her inner thighs. At first all she wanted was for them to pay the bill. I agree that she should NOT have used her lap as a "hot beverage securing device", but get real. This lady is scarred by hot liquid. Imagine if that was your child having to grow up with these scarrs. Unable to feel orgasm because the flesh was removed. Price tag that.
So, now we get to my point. A single person with no life can easily accomplish similar demands to EA's work policies. However, a person who even tries to have a life needs to reconsider.
A corporations pays you to do a job. On the flip side you lose that time forever. Never to be returned. Sure the kids are at school 6 to 8 hours a day. But you have to factor drive time, no paid lunch, frustration of working long hard hours regardless of the industry or job. I drive one and a half hours one way to my job. I love my job. I get paid well according to my standards, which are very low. However, they do not pay me nearly enough. I miss a LOT of my children's time. I'm on the road early, spend 9 hours at work and get home late. While I'm not working all that time I am gone all that time. Some of it willingly some of it because I don't have a choice. I can't get a job like this closer to home andI can't afford to move. I'm stuck.
Therefore, for 8 paid hours a day I get just over 50K a year. Tack on the drive time and that's 11 hours. Tack on an unpaid lunch and that's 12 hours. Tack on any overtime and I'm screwed. I recently pulled a 15 hour day to finalize a project. I didn't mind. It does not happen often.
But the bottom line is what's a human life worth? 5
Hopefully Alaa will be reading these posts. A lot of positive thinking.
I have to admit I was not aware, although not shocked, to here some of the answers he gave.
But that leaves me wondering; what can we do from here to help them there?
I mean, I don't have the money to spend to travel the world around and become a Lin-evanglilist. So what help can I provide from here to people like Alaa? What services can I provide to communities like Linux-Egypt?
It really breaks my heart to hear that the educational system cannot accomodate the shear number of students. And couple that with the 60% illiteracy rate Alaa mentions. This makes me want to do something.
No offense to anyone, but when I see the "help the poor country" ads on TV I get sad but can't help. But somehow I can't help but think I can do something here. That I can help with this.
So, Alaa, if you're reading this, please, I encourage you, spread the word back home that people here care and would love to help. We just need to know how.
Rivendahl
What tools or avenues of legal recourse does an individual have at his/her disposal to combat the myriad and plethora of otherwise frivilous lawsuits?
For example, IBM has a legal team very capable to defending IBM. SCO seems to think it's lawyers could take them on.
These are corporations, and while corporations have similar rights as citizens, what rights do I have as a US citizen on the Internet? Where can I go, who do I see? Are there lawyers or firms that represent me? I know the EFF can and will support and defend an obvious injustice in the system.
But what tools can I use to prevent having to even go that far in the first place?
I don't trade music, movies, scripts, books, or even look for them. I make my own. If I own the DVD, CD, book, or program, I create my own copies as backups (I know, I know). I have children who love to play Frisbee(tm) with my CD's(tm), DVD's(tm), and VHS(tm).
But considering the nature of IP law in the internet era am I ever going to be truly safe from infringing upon some law, obscure or otherwise, just by simply exercising Free Speech(tm)?
- Rivendahl
Interestingly enough, ALL technology companies should NOT want this ruling to be on the side of content companies such as RIAA and MPAA among others. If in fact this will decide how tech companies will be held liable for ANY and ALL activity using their products imagine what that would mean for companies whose abuses by script kiddies using watered down linux distros or even M$ whose enemies use their own OS to write viruses. In other words, will M$ be responsible to illegal P2P file swapping just because P2P software is compatible, interoperable, or even in the case of MSN send files/photos actually circumvent such measures? What about the content companies that have interests in both sides of the dispute, SONY for example?
I'll try not to sound too much like a therapist.
Basically, no one has the right for any reason to violate your emotional and mental boundaries. Given this information, any employer who would expect you, the only IT employee, to work miracles on a budget with 70+ hour work weeks would either be insane, satan, or taking advantage of you.
In any of these cases in it not right. I assume you are salary which means you work whatever they tell you too. They can fire you because they feel like it. And basically, you owe them for giving you a job in such difficult financial and job market times.
Therefore, here is a practical solution. Explain to your customers, clients, employer and co-workers that you are one person doing the job of several. You are more than happy to get to their requests (which I can assume are typically easy user account resets, PC checks, LAN crawls) but to please be patient. And if you must tell them "No, I cannot do that." Be sure to add, "No, I cannot do that right now. I have too much work to do. Perhaps we can revisit this at a later date."
Keep in mind you do not want to upset them. So yelling "NO!!! GO AWAY!!!" as the BOFH would, while quite humurous, and honestly quite theraputic, would probably get you fired. You want them to be considerate of your time and your work so please be considerate of theirs (and it sounds like you are, otherwise you wouldn't be so willing to do the work and find it so hard to say "No.")
I hope this helps.
Rivendahl
There were a lot of good questions posted. I don't have time to read them all so if I repeat a previous post in spirit, my apologies.
Intellectual property rights are granted to those who created the work. In the case of work for hire (almost all corporations employ this) IP rights are turned over from creator to employer. Contracts in place this is legally held.
Has there ever been a case where an employee sued for IP rights? What was the verdict?
Has there been a case where IP rights were enforced previous to the creation of a work? Example, employee intends to create work but leaves company and founds own company only to produce that same work (which was never actually created for the original company).
And finally, in the face of the changing landscape of consumer flexibility do you personally feel that corporations are grasping at every straw they can to maintain income flow?
Given that consumers will find ways to use a product to their advantage most digital information providers are trying to "lock" down their creations to ensure income using "prefered" devices. It is unrealistic to think that people will stop using these products in what would be the largest boycott known to date. However, if companies continue to blame the consumers and their tools for damages to income they will eventually find themselves on the receiving end of a very large deficit of income. The question above is meant to garner some idea of how the government agencies feel about corporations using them to ensure a steady (or compensated) financial income as a result of consumer ingenuity.
Most of us believe that corporations should modify their business models to accomodate the changing landscapes of consumerism. It seems that most tend to prefer business as usual and start litigiation any way they can.
So, are corporations using any means possible (legal of course) to simply ensure that they can maintain a financial foothold in spite of consumers finding new ways to utilize, modify, and recreate the corporations IP works?
Keep in mind I'm viewing this from the ages old ideal that "the customer is always right" and slowly learning that "the customer wants what we allow them to have, assuming the pay us huge amounts of money for any misuses". Also, consider my sig for a moment and try to apply that to IP laws...
Rivendahl
I mean really. Everyone here knows that the industry needs to change. They know it too. But the real problem here is that WE the US citizens are not being shielded. We elect these people into office and they work for us. However, at some point since they had the power they decided to give themselves more power. In the end, we have a Congressional body that obviously caters to the all mighty dollar. Therefore, screaming about it does no good. For those you tell don't care. Honestl, they don't.
Here's the insightful bit:
Since when did the US government guarantee that a corporation will earn money one way or another? I mean instead of letting the companies attempt to crack down on piracy their own way the companies beg and plead that the US government step in and be the daddy. The problem is that the government is not supposed to be involved in such matters. The ONLY thing the governement to supposed to do receive taxes to defend our countries citizens from outside attacks. Not police the world, bend to the will of a common nation governemnt (UN), or be involved in corporate legalities that do not directly affect the us citizens.
Online music piracy (incorrectly identified BTW), is nothing more than an easier way to "tape" a CD. We all know this. They know this. The bottom line is that the corporation needs to address this NOT the fucking government!!!
We OWN the governement. We are the BOSSES! They seemed to forget this. And we citizens find ourselves electing these people to office to only have them incorporate themselves upon entering office and then immediately being hired by a lobbyist firm as a contractor. This is why it's not called bribery. They are getting paid as if they worked there.
But I could be wrong...
Rivendahl
Some people claim (ESR being one of them) that obtaining the Unix source code is not difficult. In that case, has anyone thought to obtain a copy and compare it to the Linux source? I'm sure someone has thought of it, but has anyone done it? If so, what is verdict?
Rivendahl
I played with this back in 98 or 99 (perhaps even before). It's based on the HyperCube obviously. That being a point streched perpendicular to itself is a line, a line stretched perpedicular to itself is a 2D plane (rectangle), a rectangle stretched perpedicular to itself is a 3D plane (cube), and so on and so on. It's infinite. But I'm sure most of you already knew that. Regardless, I wonder if they made any changes since last time I played with it?
Rivendahl
Regardless of any reasons posted here I find that the most use I have for PNG (other than websites) is for a really cool tool I use to create SNES quality (vintage is good!) RPG's. In fact, PNG is the preferred graphics format even though BMP is supported. PNG just has so many advantages over most graphics. For it's quality it has relatively low byte counts. But then I have a very specific use of PNG.
http://www.gaminggroundzero.com
Rivendahl
This may seem a bit off topic but bare with me.
Problem 1: Re-definition
Society constantly tried to redefine events, words, languages, cultures, and just about every aspect of life. America is most at fault here. Look in the dictionary under listless and it will mention melancholy. Look at melancholy and it will say sad. Look at sad and it will say depressed. Look at depressed and it will say listless. This circular logic works for programming because we need computers to perform repititious actions often based off of the results it gives to itself. But how the hell can I order a fucking hamburger when the Advocates for Social Screening (ASS) are always telling me that pork (ham) does not acutally exist in the hamburger and should therefore be called beefburger as not to insult either species of animal?
Problem 2: Accountability
When you do something, let everyone who is important know you did it. That means friends, family, bosses, authorities. If you did something wrong, admit it and pay the price. If you did something right celebrate your success. It's simple. Don't blame others for your fuck up and don't let others shine in you light without you. Your manager didn't do a single technical thing in her life and therefore should NOT get credit because she "influenced" you.
Problem 3: Discipline
Keep yourself in check. You know the rules, you know the laws, and you know the consequences. Sin tells us it's okay if no one knows (see problem number 2). Don't believe in Sin? So what. America somehow thinks we can legislate morality by biblical terms. Get used to it.
Problem 4: Why have laws if there is no God?
It's simple. While the laws were created by the influence of the bible man still wrote the laws. God does not factor into the equation of law making, law enforcement, or punishment of law breakers. If he did I doubt that death row would exist. I know abortion wouldn't. So if God didn't exist why have laws? Because it makes sense. If there was no evil would we know good? Sure we would. Evil is NOT necessarily the opposite of good. Cat is not the opposite of dog. Black is not the opposite of white. The only absolute opposites are this or that terms. True OR False, Yes OR No. Even right OR wrong. We know what is right: get along with each other. We know what is wrong: do take things you didn't earn (see problem 2), don't lie (see problem 1 and 2).
Now how does this relate? It's easy:
On September 11th, 2001, an extremely horrofying event occurred. And as always we rallied together in love and peace in hopes of obtaining answers, punishments, and relief from grief. And as always our nation became divided on the terms. Some wanted war, some wanted tighter restrictions on immigrants and illegal citizens, sitll others wanted a different type of resolution. In the end the US enacted three evils; patriot act, total information awareness, homeland security. Evils? Sure they are. These three entities all turn INWARD into OUR country and examine OUR lives. The politicians would not have jobs if WE the PEOPLE didn't hire them. They work for us. We pay their salaries. But they want to watch us and know what we're doing just to make sure we aren't terrorists. Saudi Arabian muslims terrorists committed the crimes by the order of Osama Bin Laden. None of the people are citizens of the US. They came here to learn to fly a plane. Interesting? The FBI and CIA BOTH had briefs before the president during the week of the attacks.
Problem 1: Redefining WHO shoudl be watched.
Problem 2: Shifting blame from the people involved to others and then creating an entity to watch over EVERYONE just to make sure.
Problem 3: Discipline those involed NOT ME. More over show some personal restraint in using terrorism as a means to big borther us.
Problem 4: Whether we like it or not, God is used in ways never meant by Him. And yet again, we see the all seeing eye perched above us peering at our lives.
I agree
Perhaps ISP's can include an Act of Man clause similar to an Act of God. When tragedy strikes and service(s) are down it's expected that the ISP will do everything it can to rememdy the situation. The ISP is not responsible for the customers portion of the problem however. Therefore, if an Act of Man (mailicous code) causes unecessary spikes for incoming traffic the ISp is responsible for stopping it on their networks as best possible and alerting the customers that unless they do something about it they will be charged. "Doing something about it" includes maintaining logs that can be used to prove the customer did NOT incur those spikes and therefore will NOT be responsible for the bill. This can be handed upward as well. For example, if Joe Customer uses Public Internet Access (PIA) as an ISP and PIA uses Qwest, SWB, AT&T, UUNET, or some other backbone provider ultimately the backbone provider eats the costs. This is unfortunate but like an Act of God no ones true responsibility. If the backbone provider has enough evidence to point at a person or group for the malicious code causing serious downtimes and outages then by all means, customers support your backbone provider in court and pay some of the bill to help further ensure that malicious coders will be prosecuted. As for me I'd hate to eat those costs but if I signed as SLA that I didn't like it's partially my fault.
Rivendahl
Well...
May I suggest, then, that we:
A) Start the EFF on stopping the insanity
B) Remove the RFID tags once we leave the store
C) Everyone buy the same exact combination
Currently, there are at least three ways to know who you are. DNA, fingerprinting, and dental records. There are of course others. And all of them require that they get close enough to obtain a sample prior to confirming your identity. Bloodtype, facial recognition software, skeletal profiles, voice prints, retinal scans are all possiblities.
To worry about a store selling me RFID tags is yet another hurdle to ensure personal privacy. But I have a better solution, a much harder solution to carry out over all however.
Let's all get together, talk about who the best person might be to become our untied voice in Congress, elect that person to office, and have that person vote down any legistation we refuse to accept. Lobbyists have been doing it for years. We could even have that person vote FOR legislation we want. In fact, we could even require that that person conference with us before voting on any issue. Then we could give a truely democratic voice among ourselves.
Okay, that's stretching. But think about it. What if we had someone or a group of someones in office on our side? All the "ammedments" in the constituion are ammendable. The first 10 are inalienable rights. Our forefathers new this would be an issue later. Everyone wants to quote the famous ones. Freedom of speach, freedom of religion, right to bare arms. Lets try to get another added. Lets get congress to add right to personal privacy.
Who's with me!
Rivendahl