...is how the submitter (and the rest of you) keep finding these pictures... I mean, you all obviously have some deviously intelligent way of searching for images based on the content of the image, rather than on the context surrounding it.
On the other hand, you could all have insanely good memories for faces, and just recall URLs where you've seen this guy, in lieu of his name.
I wish I had either skill. But come on folks, fess up... I want to hear your techniques!
And for those of you who detest everything Microsoft, I accomplish nearly all of the same things using Netscape Communicator 4.73 (because Moz Mail isn't quite there yet), and a set of procmail/perl/bash recipes.
It works great for me, although I must admit, I'm far more comfortable on the command line than the GUI -- my setup is not for the faint of heart or inexperienced.
Somehow the PhD program elevates the undergrad program?
When I was applying to undergrad school, not quite ten years ago, I had to decide between two schools for my physics degree.
One school, was relatively small and just had an undergrad program. At that school, I had the promise of much more personal attention from the professors, and I was assured that the professors were focused on teaching, not on there own research.
The other school had a much larger program, going all the way up to a PhD. They had research going on, and lots of fun fancy equipment.
I chose the larger program, and found that all of those advanced resources were, in fact, available to me. I took a graduate class as a sophomore in solid state physics, and got to be co-author on a real paper in the field.
I was surrounded by people who were really interested in the field, and knew that the professors truly got it.
So, assuming that your program doesn't completely ignore undergrads, then going to a school with a bigger program can be a very good choice. Particularly if you're headed for grad school or are interested in research. Just make sure you do your homework -- some of those big name schools are the ones that ignore undergrads.
About a year ago, I had a Quantum Fireball IDE drive die on me as the result of me plugging something into the motherboard improperly... I could actually see the burn spot on the circuit board of the HD where it got fried. But all my data was on there!
So after much thought, I came to the realization that it takes a lot of abuse for the data to die, so I bought an identical Quantum Fireball, and swapped the boards.
To my glee, it actually worked, and my replacement HD has been fine ever since.
Some time later, I had a Western Digital HD die on me, although this time, it just died -- I didn't kill it. I went through the same process as with the first, except that the replacement drive was obscenely expensive (this was nearly two years ago with a 40 GB HD), and I had to go out and buy a torx set to pull the circuit board off.
And after I frankenstein'd it, I was disappointed to find that it didn't work... I haven't figured out why, but I figure I can't afford the thousands of dollars to recover the data.
So long and short of it, as long as the problem is just with the circuit board, it can probably be done, if not, you're torx'd.
Yeah, but anti-gravity wouldn't necessarily be anti-inertia.... since you're moving along at however many miles per hour, you'd tend to continue moving along at that rate unless some force were applied to prevent it. And in fact the forces of friction imposed by the atmosphere would probably tend to actually wiz you along with the planet.
Experiment from high school: Stand at the front of a school bus going along at 55 mph with the windows closed, and drop something. Because of inertia, the object will appear to fall straight down inside the bus, instead of straight down in relationship to the planet (which would make it fall toward the back of the bus as it barrels along).
...holding people in jail because they do/sell drugs... having their cars and houses seized for buying a dime bag?
Not too many, I'd imagine. A friend of mine was arrested for having an obscene quantity of weed (enough for felony posession) -- and got off with probation. Many more friends have been caught doing it, and usually have it confiscated and told "don't do it again". I've never even heard of someone actually going to jail for being high on weed. People who were high and committed some other crime -- like holding up a liquor store, or running around the street naked screaming "I can't feel my face?!!", but for simple posession? I just don't see it.
On the other hand, dealers and traffickers are definitely being hunted and jailed.
On the same note, people who are doing simple file sharing ought to be left alone. And the people who are mass producing copies of CDs, labeling them, and selling them on the street for a profit should be the industry's target.
Well, we'll see what the future and civil disobedience bring...
T3 is thus the real stumper to me. By this time, all info about the cyborg chips was to be destroyed (remember going back to the office building and performing a bit of good "Office Space"-ish reconstruction). AAMOF, with the destruction of the Terminator in T2, there are to be no systems left.
Actually, do you remember the scene toward the end of T2 where Arnold gets his arm caught in the gears and he pries it off and spends the rest of the movie with a stump... leftovers! So that's not really a hole.
Also, I seem to recall that in T3, they mention that Dyson's project was only one of many projects working towards the same goal, which is why the General is the one who actually matters.
Okay, it's not perfect, but dammit, it's not completely bad either, and you can rationalize the rest!
While I admit, that I'd be upset if I spent time building a character only to have it destroyed by another player. However, if this is "outlawed", there will be no bad guys, and no fun. Who wants to play against the computer all the time -- that defeats the purpose of online gaming.
Perhaps it makes sense to regulate offline actions affecting in game actions -- such as hacking into the game. But on the other hand, I have no problem with selling in-game items for real world money. Why not? It's not like the in-game items were manufactured out of nothing. Someone had to go through the work. Who cares if money changed hands in the game or in real life? And besides, people who do that are likely to do it both ways, so the economy of the game is likely to balance out.
The point is, aside from outside problems like hacking, things like murder and theft within the game must be controlled by the virtual society -- if you get mugged in the game, next time, you'll make sure to travel in a group. Or maybe you and your friends will get together and form a police force. And so on.
The same societal forces apply to the game as to the real world, because the same minds control both. But it's okay if your game persona gets killed from time to time or goes to jail or whatever. That's what makes the game different from real life and what makes it a useful diversion. If people stick with it, some form of order will eventually emerge, just like it does in any other group.
Try and get ahold of an Itanium with OpenVMS (which isn't really "mainframe" mainframe, is it?)?
Well, my previous university, IUP, did all of their computing on an old VAX running OpenVMS. The system operators all had DEC Alphas on their desktops, but for some reason, the 10,000 students shared the VAX. Weird.
But anyway, part of the CS curriculum at IUP are two required COBOL courses. ALL the classes (except the two C++ classes and the one Unix class) were tought on the VAX. They even offered a FORTRAN class, but that's not relevent to this discussion.
When was this, you ask? I started in 1996 and dropped the hell out in 1998. Joined a startup, learned Java... and then got sent to every customer site who wanted to run our product on an AS/400 or other equally hideous platform.
Long and short -- it's still being taught at the university level, if you find one that's backwards enough. And it's definitely useful experience. If you can stand it, which I can't... so have at it!
If you live in the USA, the Bill of Rights enumerates your right of free speech. That does not make it an absolute right. Try exercising your right to free speech on my property and I will have you arrested for trespassing.
More to the point, "free speech" means that you can say whatever you want without the government coming after you because of it. It doesn't mean that anyone is obligated to publish what you say, repeat it, or listen to it.
-brian
The IAU Says There's No Cause for Concern
on
Defining "Planet"
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
... in their press release on the topic, nearly three years ago.
People keep trying to wage a debate about this, but no matter what technical hand-waving is going on in the press, the International Astronomical Union is committed to the traditional status of all nine planets, and isn't likely to change that opinion.
As a matter of fact, my thinkpad battery gave out on me after about 15 minutes earlier this afternoon. But the battery has to be over a year old, and is rarely used (I'm nearly always on power).
What I want to know, is why the hell did my sound stop working in NT. I just started getting these messages saying that the driver couldn't load. The hardware is fine -- I can get sound when I boot to the Linux, just not in NT. I updated my drivers, fiddled with the IRQ settings, but nada.
Microsoft Corp. announced on Saturday the introduction of new digital rights software aimed at helping music labels control unauthorized copying of CDs, one of the biggest thorns in the ailing industry's side.
Can someone explain to me how an industry that reports record profits, year and year, can be called ailing?? That's like calling Microsoft an "ailing software company" because they have the minor inconvenience of the Justice Department. It's just not relevent.
Oh wait, I'm not a pirate, because I've never illegally sold someone elses art, and in fact, I am not bound by any agreement with the recording industry with regard to music that I've downloaded off the Internet, any more than I would be for music I taped off the radio!
In the case you presented, I wouldn't put the 29-y-old wiz as a VP. Is more usefull on the field. To be VP you don't need to be able to decompile but you need to understand what it mean, and have a general idea of it....whatever....still, good point:)
I used to work for that 29-year-old. I'm not making this stuff up!
On your other points, I'd be more patient with your "stupid" managers if I were you. Managers don't need to know all the technical details -- that's why you're there. They're there to manage people and keep the monkeys off your back so you can do what you need to do.
I'm no PhD, but doesn't that kinda prove that you weren't lazy? It seem's to me like you would have to work pretty hard to become one.
Most of the time you do have to work very hard to get a Ph.D. It is not true of everyone, and certainly not true of all Ph.Ds, but most of our Ph.D's are in other fields and they only do CS because it pays better than rocket science or whatever they studied. They tend to think they are God's gift -- they are really smart... but they don't think they have to follow the rules/coding standards/etc, and they don't take criticism very well -- you have to argue with them for an hour to convince them that there's something wrong with the code they've written (when there is). I'm sure they don't make any more mistakes than anyone else, but getting those mistakes acknowledged and fixed is just painful.
On the other hand, when they are so inclined, they do tend to write vastly superior documentation. Although, that's maybe one in ten around here.
Like you, those practioners do not particularly care if they are recognized by the medical community as a legitimate treatment -- they proudly point to their satisfied customers as "proof" that their methods work.
Your point is well taken, but imagine a world where Pfizer and GlaxoKlineSmith decide who gets certified. That's where the world is headed with IT certifications - there is no FDA of computers, and if there was, it would be controlled by special interests like Microsoft and Disney.
Even if you have "certified" support from a company like Microsoft (or Red Hat or whatever) they still aren't particularly accountable -- they're perfectly happy to tell you "too bad" or "it's your fault" when their software crashes and you lose data.
Microsoft uses their customer base to support the claim that they aren't evil, but there's lots of dispute.
But to go back to the analogy someone made about mechanics, I'm more likely to go to a mechanic recommended to me by a friend than one I find in the phone book. I never wanted to use customer satisfaction as a means of advertising or justification, only that it is sufficient for my own self-reliance.
Also, if you have a reputation for fixing problems, what difference does it make if you backed up their software and reinstalled the OS versus going into the registry and fixing the problem manually. Aside from the fact that if you choose the first route too often you'll lose your mind.
Granted, I work in software, but we've got a bunch of yahoos here with degrees in CS, and some with Masters and PhDs who are just too lazy to code well.
Then we have some people with no formal training who know there stuff and work hard and produce great work.
Similarly, we have folks who have "certifications" that are absolutely meaningless.
Same with our hardware people -- our 17-year-old interns know more about this stuff than the MCSEs.
All this does is make it harder for an independent artisan to make a living -- I don't want Intel's stamp of approval. The only approval I need is a legion of satisfied customers who tell their friends and colleagues and word spreads and reputation builds -- like in the old days before you could "buy" a certification.
While you're studying for A+ or MCSE, there's some 14-year-old with a soldering iron, learning the hard way how to fix a faulty IDE control, and a 12-year-old decompiling the NT kernel to figure out why his graphics card causes a BSoD. And in ten or fifteen years old, your certification will be obsolete, and if you're lucky, you'll be working for the now-29-year-old VP of engineering.
You don't seem to understand the meaning "piracy". There's nothing illegal about downloading stuff off the Internet. Philosophers may argue what's ethical, but that's irrelevent to legality.
Piracy would be buying a CD, making copies of it, and selling those copies to people for a profit. In this case, you entered into an agreement with the copyright holder of the CD, and are violating applicable laws.
When you download something off the Internet, you are under no obligation to be aware of its source, or the license agreements associated with it.
Even posting copyrighted material on the Internet is not illegal if you have not been explicitely notified that you are in violation of the copyright agreement. The notice on your CD case counts, I believe, if you own the CD.
So if you download something off the 'Net, you're well within the bounds of legality, and you can retransmit that until the copyright holder asks you to stop.
But isn't the Mozilla installer on Windows just as bad as any other windows application? It insists on "updating" all of my registery settings and putting crap on my menus. Why can't it just put the damn application in C:\usr\mozilla and count on the fact that I'm smart enough to do the rest? Couldn't that at least be an option? Argh....
And when are they going to fix the damn quick launch and the plethora of mail bugs that keep me tied to Communicator for mail.
I love Moz, but geez, this stuff has been pushed out since 1.0RC1 (which was a fine application EXCEPT THIS STUFF).
Waterproof is important... but for something like this, it would also be nice to have a left-handed model -- or a reversible model. I'm sure their engineers could do that. It would suck to have to use the rocker-control with my left thumb instead of my index finger, like designed.
So, don't worry, the penguins there won't have any bad "fuelly" surprise anytime soon.
That may be true, but that is mostly due to the fact that penguins can only be found in Antarctica. I would imagine that a northwest passage would only move tankers away from penguins...
It seems to me that a laser that can pump enough energy into a rocket or a shell to destroy it is going to pump enough energy into your face to melt it off. I really don't think being blinded is much of a concern. That's like saying, "watch where you point that shotgun! You could put someone's eye out!" Sure, their eyes come out the back of their head. They ain't blind... they dead.
Slashdot Mirror
On the other hand, you could all have insanely good memories for faces, and just recall URLs where you've seen this guy, in lieu of his name.
I wish I had either skill. But come on folks, fess up... I want to hear your techniques!
It works great for me, although I must admit, I'm far more comfortable on the command line than the GUI -- my setup is not for the faint of heart or inexperienced.
When I was applying to undergrad school, not quite ten years ago, I had to decide between two schools for my physics degree.
One school, was relatively small and just had an undergrad program. At that school, I had the promise of much more personal attention from the professors, and I was assured that the professors were focused on teaching, not on there own research.
The other school had a much larger program, going all the way up to a PhD. They had research going on, and lots of fun fancy equipment.
I chose the larger program, and found that all of those advanced resources were, in fact, available to me. I took a graduate class as a sophomore in solid state physics, and got to be co-author on a real paper in the field.
I was surrounded by people who were really interested in the field, and knew that the professors truly got it.
So, assuming that your program doesn't completely ignore undergrads, then going to a school with a bigger program can be a very good choice. Particularly if you're headed for grad school or are interested in research. Just make sure you do your homework -- some of those big name schools are the ones that ignore undergrads.
-brian
About a year ago, I had a Quantum Fireball IDE drive die on me as the result of me plugging something into the motherboard improperly... I could actually see the burn spot on the circuit board of the HD where it got fried. But all my data was on there!
So after much thought, I came to the realization that it takes a lot of abuse for the data to die, so I bought an identical Quantum Fireball, and swapped the boards.
To my glee, it actually worked, and my replacement HD has been fine ever since.
Some time later, I had a Western Digital HD die on me, although this time, it just died -- I didn't kill it. I went through the same process as with the first, except that the replacement drive was obscenely expensive (this was nearly two years ago with a 40 GB HD), and I had to go out and buy a torx set to pull the circuit board off.
And after I frankenstein'd it, I was disappointed to find that it didn't work... I haven't figured out why, but I figure I can't afford the thousands of dollars to recover the data.
So long and short of it, as long as the problem is just with the circuit board, it can probably be done, if not, you're torx'd.
-brian
Experiment from high school: Stand at the front of a school bus going along at 55 mph with the windows closed, and drop something. Because of inertia, the object will appear to fall straight down inside the bus, instead of straight down in relationship to the planet (which would make it fall toward the back of the bus as it barrels along).
Not too many, I'd imagine. A friend of mine was arrested for having an obscene quantity of weed (enough for felony posession) -- and got off with probation. Many more friends have been caught doing it, and usually have it confiscated and told "don't do it again". I've never even heard of someone actually going to jail for being high on weed. People who were high and committed some other crime -- like holding up a liquor store, or running around the street naked screaming "I can't feel my face?!!", but for simple posession? I just don't see it.
On the other hand, dealers and traffickers are definitely being hunted and jailed.
On the same note, people who are doing simple file sharing ought to be left alone. And the people who are mass producing copies of CDs, labeling them, and selling them on the street for a profit should be the industry's target.
Well, we'll see what the future and civil disobedience bring...
Actually, do you remember the scene toward the end of T2 where Arnold gets his arm caught in the gears and he pries it off and spends the rest of the movie with a stump... leftovers! So that's not really a hole.
Also, I seem to recall that in T3, they mention that Dyson's project was only one of many projects working towards the same goal, which is why the General is the one who actually matters.
Okay, it's not perfect, but dammit, it's not completely bad either, and you can rationalize the rest!
Perhaps it makes sense to regulate offline actions affecting in game actions -- such as hacking into the game. But on the other hand, I have no problem with selling in-game items for real world money. Why not? It's not like the in-game items were manufactured out of nothing. Someone had to go through the work. Who cares if money changed hands in the game or in real life? And besides, people who do that are likely to do it both ways, so the economy of the game is likely to balance out.
The point is, aside from outside problems like hacking, things like murder and theft within the game must be controlled by the virtual society -- if you get mugged in the game, next time, you'll make sure to travel in a group. Or maybe you and your friends will get together and form a police force. And so on.
The same societal forces apply to the game as to the real world, because the same minds control both. But it's okay if your game persona gets killed from time to time or goes to jail or whatever. That's what makes the game different from real life and what makes it a useful diversion. If people stick with it, some form of order will eventually emerge, just like it does in any other group.
9 = number of unique letters in the words.
But anyway, part of the CS curriculum at IUP are two required COBOL courses. ALL the classes (except the two C++ classes and the one Unix class) were tought on the VAX. They even offered a FORTRAN class, but that's not relevent to this discussion.
When was this, you ask? I started in 1996 and dropped the hell out in 1998. Joined a startup, learned Java... and then got sent to every customer site who wanted to run our product on an AS/400 or other equally hideous platform.
Long and short -- it's still being taught at the university level, if you find one that's backwards enough. And it's definitely useful experience. If you can stand it, which I can't... so have at it!
-brian
People keep trying to wage a debate about this, but no matter what technical hand-waving is going on in the press, the International Astronomical Union is committed to the traditional status of all nine planets, and isn't likely to change that opinion.
--brian
What I want to know, is why the hell did my sound stop working in NT. I just started getting these messages saying that the driver couldn't load. The hardware is fine -- I can get sound when I boot to the Linux, just not in NT. I updated my drivers, fiddled with the IRQ settings, but nada.
Can someone explain to me how an industry that reports record profits, year and year, can be called ailing?? That's like calling Microsoft an "ailing software company" because they have the minor inconvenience of the Justice Department. It's just not relevent.
Oh wait, I'm not a pirate, because I've never illegally sold someone elses art, and in fact, I am not bound by any agreement with the recording industry with regard to music that I've downloaded off the Internet, any more than I would be for music I taped off the radio!
Grrr.
I used to work for that 29-year-old. I'm not making this stuff up!
On your other points, I'd be more patient with your "stupid" managers if I were you. Managers don't need to know all the technical details -- that's why you're there. They're there to manage people and keep the monkeys off your back so you can do what you need to do.
Most of the time you do have to work very hard to get a Ph.D. It is not true of everyone, and certainly not true of all Ph.Ds, but most of our Ph.D's are in other fields and they only do CS because it pays better than rocket science or whatever they studied. They tend to think they are God's gift -- they are really smart... but they don't think they have to follow the rules/coding standards/etc, and they don't take criticism very well -- you have to argue with them for an hour to convince them that there's something wrong with the code they've written (when there is). I'm sure they don't make any more mistakes than anyone else, but getting those mistakes acknowledged and fixed is just painful.
On the other hand, when they are so inclined, they do tend to write vastly superior documentation. Although, that's maybe one in ten around here.
Your point is well taken, but imagine a world where Pfizer and GlaxoKlineSmith decide who gets certified. That's where the world is headed with IT certifications - there is no FDA of computers, and if there was, it would be controlled by special interests like Microsoft and Disney.
Even if you have "certified" support from a company like Microsoft (or Red Hat or whatever) they still aren't particularly accountable -- they're perfectly happy to tell you "too bad" or "it's your fault" when their software crashes and you lose data.
Microsoft uses their customer base to support the claim that they aren't evil, but there's lots of dispute.
But to go back to the analogy someone made about mechanics, I'm more likely to go to a mechanic recommended to me by a friend than one I find in the phone book. I never wanted to use customer satisfaction as a means of advertising or justification, only that it is sufficient for my own self-reliance.
Also, if you have a reputation for fixing problems, what difference does it make if you backed up their software and reinstalled the OS versus going into the registry and fixing the problem manually. Aside from the fact that if you choose the first route too often you'll lose your mind.
Then we have some people with no formal training who know there stuff and work hard and produce great work.
Similarly, we have folks who have "certifications" that are absolutely meaningless.
Same with our hardware people -- our 17-year-old interns know more about this stuff than the MCSEs.
All this does is make it harder for an independent artisan to make a living -- I don't want Intel's stamp of approval. The only approval I need is a legion of satisfied customers who tell their friends and colleagues and word spreads and reputation builds -- like in the old days before you could "buy" a certification.
While you're studying for A+ or MCSE, there's some 14-year-old with a soldering iron, learning the hard way how to fix a faulty IDE control, and a 12-year-old decompiling the NT kernel to figure out why his graphics card causes a BSoD. And in ten or fifteen years old, your certification will be obsolete, and if you're lucky, you'll be working for the now-29-year-old VP of engineering.
Piracy would be buying a CD, making copies of it, and selling those copies to people for a profit. In this case, you entered into an agreement with the copyright holder of the CD, and are violating applicable laws.
When you download something off the Internet, you are under no obligation to be aware of its source, or the license agreements associated with it.
Even posting copyrighted material on the Internet is not illegal if you have not been explicitely notified that you are in violation of the copyright agreement. The notice on your CD case counts, I believe, if you own the CD.
So if you download something off the 'Net, you're well within the bounds of legality, and you can retransmit that until the copyright holder asks you to stop.
American laws are so strange...
(I'm kidding, laugh.)
And when are they going to fix the damn quick launch and the plethora of mail bugs that keep me tied to Communicator for mail.
I love Moz, but geez, this stuff has been pushed out since 1.0RC1 (which was a fine application EXCEPT THIS STUFF).
</rant>
And what's with the two hour battery life?
Otherwise, very very cool.
That may be true, but that is mostly due to the fact that penguins can only be found in Antarctica. I would imagine that a northwest passage would only move tankers away from penguins...
It seems to me that a laser that can pump enough energy into a rocket or a shell to destroy it is going to pump enough energy into your face to melt it off. I really don't think being blinded is much of a concern. That's like saying, "watch where you point that shotgun! You could put someone's eye out!" Sure, their eyes come out the back of their head. They ain't blind... they dead.
You're right of course... my mistake. A little trigger happy on the submit button.