The article kept talking about: "Crit-One-R" -- meaning a cable and its twin would have to both fail to make for a really Bad Day.
What I am wondering is if Fortune 500 companies go out of their way to set up their servers with Triple Mirroring Hard Disk setups, why doesn't NASA also use doubly redundant cabling? I mean this is billions of dollars and lives we're talking about here. Shouldn't they be extra sure? It seems to me that one backup isn't enough.
(I know the Triple mirror example isn't the best, since most triple mirrors are specifically so you can break one mirror and back it up, while you have regular mirroring still in place. But regardless of the backing up advantage, you still get doubly redundant data)
Assholes. Can't you see that I had the #10 post?!?! How is my post redundant? If I was perhaps the first to post it. I think the moderators don't understand how this Slashdot forum thing works.
I think there are a lot of DVD players that don't read CD-R. Apparently the laser used to read DVD, also works well on CD-RW and regular mass produced CDs, but it seems the reflectivity of most CD-Rs is not good enough (or only works some of the time.)
Check out http://www.vcdhelp.com for a list of DVD players that can read CD-Rs.
Oddly enough, Katz misquoted the article. In fact he didn't quote it at all, he pretty much copied the text word for word, yet somehow messed up the statistic. (Follow the link in this article to verify.)
The quote was "Men are also three times as likely as female gamers to participate in first-person shooter games (38 percent vs. 12 percent)..." (not 10 percent. Odd, huh?)
Also quoted from the article:
"The study was conducted among a sample of 3,507 home Internet users, including both gamers and non-gamers, selected from a panel of 120,000 US home Internet users during Nov. 2 to 9. Margin of error on this data is +/- 1.7 percent."
A sample of 3500 is pretty good, but the problem with this survey (I suspect) is that the marjority of these people surveyed were guys, thus reducing the sample of females. Of the women who were in these surveys, only the technically minded probably responded, thus messing with the results again.
I suspect the number of women likely to play first person shooters is closer to 5% (or less).
Although to give credit where credit is due, I was able to get my mother to play "Rise of the Triad" with me once. (She thought it was pretty funny actually.)
I think the inherent problem here is that the majority of our technological products (just like software) has gotten much more complex. It would cost far more to do "perfect" Quality Assurance (QA) than it would to make money off the product. A company that doesn't make money goes out of business (or hope it gets bought out).
Example, in 1979 the 8088 CPU had only 29,000 transistors in it and I'm sure only a handful of engineers had a hand in making/designing it. Only 10 years later, the 486 had 1.2 Million transistors!!! That's 41 times more transistors! That's a large jump in complexity. It makes me wonder how our computers run as well as they do. (it also makes me wonder how AMD stays in business charging only a few hundred per chip.)
QA is a very important part of your business, but unfortunately, it's usually the first part that is skimped on.
It's the state of capitalism, I guess.
Having stood on both sides of the fence (child-teenage / adult), I feel that I have a good (but not infallable) grasp on the problem here. In fact most Gen-X'ers should be able to have a good idea of the problem.
For the most part, it comes down to good parenting and instilling good morals into your child. Time and time again, the children who get into gaming and real violence/crime are those who don't get enough positive attention from their parents.
Most young kids don't know better. They act the way they are taught to act (or allowed to act).
Most teenagers sometimes know better, but not always. Being a teenager is tough. You are almost an adult, but without the adult responsibilities. Not being quite adult, teenagers emulate whoever appeals to them most.
Unfortunately, it is the media (owned by the older generation) that glamourizes violence. The media does indeed tell us what is cool and what isn't. Teenagers and young children are very susceptible to the media.
For the most part, if it's on TV (or the Internet now), it must be true. And the kids just gobble this stuff up.
Some will point out that I am generalizing. Of course I am. Having worked with kids, each one is a different case. I have to generalize and classify in order to get a decent grasp on the problem.
I'd like to point out that there are a lot of good kids out there who play these violent games who grow up to be upstanding citizens. It was only less than 10 years ago that I was one of these kids.
The biggest problem is that we are looking for a single source for this problem. Unfortunately there is no single source. It is a non-point source problem. All the little things from failing to spend time with your child, to the media glamourizing violence, to violent gaming, to the schools that they attend, to genetic pre-dispositions, all contribute to the way a child grows and acts.
We have to stop looking for a single source. It doesn't exist. We (as adults) have to start taking responsibility for our actions and the consequences they have.
He seems to be saying that old programmers are shunned for younger and ones with newer skills. I'm not so sure I can agree with this.
I've found that in my field: ERP and E-business consulting, it's the exact opposite. Most of my peers are at least 30, if not older. There are very few 20-somethings such as myself. Similarly, this sets a sort of standard for what the customer expects when they get a consultant. When I first started, I was 23 and most customers had difficulty beleiving that I could get the job done like my older peers.
At least I have the re-assuring knowledge that as I get older in this field, I'm more likely to retain my job.
I guess the point I was trying to make is that drugs are overused. If used in certain situations and specific conditions, drugs can be quite useful. I rarely use drugs and only for certain reasons.
The point I was trying to make was "It seems that we've all forgotten how to live." Have you ever watched a very young child? They look at everything in the world with absolute amazement: A hightened state of awareness without drugs.
You said that "they merely enhance what is already there" when in reality they usually only reveal things that either aren't there or have always been there, you've just been too jaded by life to see it. (ie forgotten how to live.)
Yes, so in that sense, drugs can be useful when taking in small, infrequent doses. I just find the amount and frequency that most people use drugs foolish.
Seriously though. It seems to me that drug use used to be limited not only in it's frequency of use and by a small group of people. I'm not sure why it's so popular. I've done a few drugs and none of them ever "did it" for me. The after-effects were much worse than any brief gain they gave me.
Heck, I went to a party this weekend and didn't drink or smoke and it was fun as all hell. What got so annoying was the drunk people. Maybe if I had been drunk I wouldn't have noticed, but it seems really stupid that a group of people can't get together and party without drinking/drugging.
Is it me or has our society lost their souls (in general)? It seems that we've all forgotten how to live. The only thing we seem interested in any more is money and getting high (and technology).
Seriously, I've always thought console gaming was overrated; until I played Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Now with the new one on the way, the N64 in my house should keep me busy for another month.
Heck, maybe we should all re-live our youth. download MAME from www.mame.net and get all the ROMs you want from www.mame.dk - Man, it takes me back to when gaming was all about the game and not just fancy graphics and surround sound.
I lost 2 hours last night just playing all those different versions of Pac-Man (Ms and Jr., too!)
Slashdot Mirror
What I am wondering is if Fortune 500 companies go out of their way to set up their servers with Triple Mirroring Hard Disk setups, why doesn't NASA also use doubly redundant cabling? I mean this is billions of dollars and lives we're talking about here. Shouldn't they be extra sure? It seems to me that one backup isn't enough.
(I know the Triple mirror example isn't the best, since most triple mirrors are specifically so you can break one mirror and back it up, while you have regular mirroring still in place. But regardless of the backing up advantage, you still get doubly redundant data)
Assholes. Can't you see that I had the #10 post?!?! How is my post redundant? If I was perhaps the first to post it. I think the moderators don't understand how this Slashdot forum thing works.
Check out http://www.vcdhelp.com for a list of DVD players that can read CD-Rs.
The quote was "Men are also three times as likely as female gamers to participate in first-person shooter games (38 percent vs. 12 percent)..." (not 10 percent. Odd, huh?)
Also quoted from the article: "The study was conducted among a sample of 3,507 home Internet users, including both gamers and non-gamers, selected from a panel of 120,000 US home Internet users during Nov. 2 to 9. Margin of error on this data is +/- 1.7 percent." A sample of 3500 is pretty good, but the problem with this survey (I suspect) is that the marjority of these people surveyed were guys, thus reducing the sample of females. Of the women who were in these surveys, only the technically minded probably responded, thus messing with the results again. I suspect the number of women likely to play first person shooters is closer to 5% (or less). Although to give credit where credit is due, I was able to get my mother to play "Rise of the Triad" with me once. (She thought it was pretty funny actually.)
The sales of UPS's have shot up 200% in response to the blackouts. Stocks APC and Tripplite were each up ~25% on this news.
Heh, heh, thanks for the info. Makes sense, too.
I think the inherent problem here is that the majority of our technological products (just like software) has gotten much more complex. It would cost far more to do "perfect" Quality Assurance (QA) than it would to make money off the product. A company that doesn't make money goes out of business (or hope it gets bought out). Example, in 1979 the 8088 CPU had only 29,000 transistors in it and I'm sure only a handful of engineers had a hand in making/designing it. Only 10 years later, the 486 had 1.2 Million transistors!!! That's 41 times more transistors! That's a large jump in complexity. It makes me wonder how our computers run as well as they do. (it also makes me wonder how AMD stays in business charging only a few hundred per chip.) QA is a very important part of your business, but unfortunately, it's usually the first part that is skimped on. It's the state of capitalism, I guess.
For the most part, it comes down to good parenting and instilling good morals into your child. Time and time again, the children who get into gaming and real violence/crime are those who don't get enough positive attention from their parents.
Most young kids don't know better. They act the way they are taught to act (or allowed to act).
Most teenagers sometimes know better, but not always. Being a teenager is tough. You are almost an adult, but without the adult responsibilities. Not being quite adult, teenagers emulate whoever appeals to them most.
Unfortunately, it is the media (owned by the older generation) that glamourizes violence. The media does indeed tell us what is cool and what isn't. Teenagers and young children are very susceptible to the media.
For the most part, if it's on TV (or the Internet now), it must be true. And the kids just gobble this stuff up.
Some will point out that I am generalizing. Of course I am. Having worked with kids, each one is a different case. I have to generalize and classify in order to get a decent grasp on the problem.
I'd like to point out that there are a lot of good kids out there who play these violent games who grow up to be upstanding citizens. It was only less than 10 years ago that I was one of these kids.
The biggest problem is that we are looking for a single source for this problem. Unfortunately there is no single source. It is a non-point source problem. All the little things from failing to spend time with your child, to the media glamourizing violence, to violent gaming, to the schools that they attend, to genetic pre-dispositions, all contribute to the way a child grows and acts.
We have to stop looking for a single source. It doesn't exist. We (as adults) have to start taking responsibility for our actions and the consequences they have.
I've found that in my field: ERP and E-business consulting, it's the exact opposite. Most of my peers are at least 30, if not older. There are very few 20-somethings such as myself. Similarly, this sets a sort of standard for what the customer expects when they get a consultant. When I first started, I was 23 and most customers had difficulty beleiving that I could get the job done like my older peers.
At least I have the re-assuring knowledge that as I get older in this field, I'm more likely to retain my job.
Okay, so let's say that Amazon gets 1-Click shopping. B&N turns around and patents 2-Click shopping. Buy.com patents 3-click shopping...
:P
This is ridiculous! How many clicks does it take to get to the checkout page? (The world may never know.)
I guess the point I was trying to make is that drugs are overused. If used in certain situations and specific conditions, drugs can be quite useful. I rarely use drugs and only for certain reasons.
The point I was trying to make was "It seems that we've all forgotten how to live." Have you ever watched a very young child? They look at everything in the world with absolute amazement: A hightened state of awareness without drugs.
You said that "they merely enhance what is already there" when in reality they usually only reveal things that either aren't there or have always been there, you've just been too jaded by life to see it. (ie forgotten how to live.)
Yes, so in that sense, drugs can be useful when taking in small, infrequent doses. I just find the amount and frequency that most people use drugs foolish.
Attend a party sober sometime. It's pretty fun.
Seriously though. It seems to me that drug use used to be limited not only in it's frequency of use and by a small group of people. I'm not sure why it's so popular. I've done a few drugs and none of them ever "did it" for me. The after-effects were much worse than any brief gain they gave me.
:)
Heck, I went to a party this weekend and didn't drink or smoke and it was fun as all hell. What got so annoying was the drunk people. Maybe if I had been drunk I wouldn't have noticed, but it seems really stupid that a group of people can't get together and party without drinking/drugging.
Is it me or has our society lost their souls (in general)? It seems that we've all forgotten how to live. The only thing we seem interested in any more is money and getting high (and technology).
(sigh) oh sad day.
Seriously, I've always thought console gaming was overrated; until I played Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Now with the new one on the way, the N64 in my house should keep me busy for another month. Heck, maybe we should all re-live our youth. download MAME from www.mame.net and get all the ROMs you want from www.mame.dk - Man, it takes me back to when gaming was all about the game and not just fancy graphics and surround sound. I lost 2 hours last night just playing all those different versions of Pac-Man (Ms and Jr., too!)