In the case of the Simpsons, hoewever, this really is the case.
My wife has never watched the Simpsons. Last year I bought the first few seasons on DVD and we watched it together. She thought it was hilarious! So we caught a few of the new episodes on regular TV. She looked at me and asked why the new ones are so "dumb" compared to the first couple seasons, and not as funny.
Check out the Coding4Fun site. You can get free downloads of lightweight versions of many of MS's development tools, plus lots of ideas, resources, message boards, etc.
Schools. I remember PET being the computer that was in middle schools and high schools (at least in Florida, where I grew up). A PET is where I learned LOGO and BASIC (well, that and the TI 99/4a, which curiously is not mentioned in TFA).
Having been closely involved with the USAF for a long while, I think most readers here on slashdot are misinterpreting this. Cyberspace and Cyberwarfare in this context doesn't mean a bunch of hackers/crackers trying to penetrate other countries' networks and do war stuff. This is not a Matrix/Neuromancer idea of "war in the internet".
The future of US warfare depends heavily on networking, NetCentric Warfare, and using WANs. Cyberspace means the network that exists between headquarters, soldiers, planes, tanks, etc. Think StarCraft or Command and Conquer. Defense of this network is a top priority.
1) Easily available in all parts of the world 2) Stickball 3) Weapon (stabbing, slashing, or projectile) 4) Fishing pole 5) Hiking/walking stick 6) Spear/Javelin 7) Pole vault 8) Luggage (i.e. tie a bag to end and carry over shoulder)...the list goes on and on!
Your last paragraph is absolutely correct. My wakeup call was seeing some really, really fat people (I live in America after all) huff and puff walking to lunch one day. I resolved to never be that person.
I do basically the same thing you do...count calories. I've lost 40lbs in 12 months. Not as fast as you but I feel great.
My gym, Bally's, has a device called a BodyGem. This thing helps you estimate what your resting metabolic rate (i.e. worst-case) caloric burn for a day is. This is useful for planning how many calories you can eat.
Another helpful rule-of-thumb... 30 minutes of cardio burns about 500 calories, if you keep your heart rate about 125-130.
And of course, if you lift weights or do strength training, your metabolic rate increases so you burn more calories in a day.
Simple math. No need for expensive Atkins, South Beach, etc.
at first, it doesn't seem that bad. "Violent" is described (para 2) as specifically heinous, depraved, or cruel. In other words, police shooters and military combat games aren't affected. And the bill specifically states (para 5) that parents are allowed to buy or rent violent games for their kids. In other words, if a parent thinks its OK a kid can still play a targeted game.
So in reality, is this bill that bad? Yes, I know its "parenting by legislation" but from a certain point of view this is no different than not allowing underage kids to buy alcohol. The question, of course, is whether alcohol is better/worse than playing a violent game.
My personal concern is that if the bill is passed it becomes some sort of "slippery slope" for other legislation. The bill states that playing violent games mentally affects and even damages kids but no scientific evidence is cited. So a bill could be written that says playing soccer is bad without any scientific evidence and it could become illegal.
No one will probably read this comment because its been a day since the OP, but I'm amazed at the quantity of people who are slamming this guy for wanting to research something that's admittedly interesting.
For starters, if the submitter is a CompSci student then he definately gets my kudos. Too many CS students are just focused on "I wanna learn C# so I can go make money!" as opposed to actually LEARNING.
Secondly, what happened to just plain geekiness of research and studying things because its fun and interesting? Does everything we do have to have some specific applicable purpose? If you say yes, you are thinking like the MBAs that always get bashed around here instead of a real nerd.
Who knows? Its unlikely, but possible that thinking about this problem somehow leads to a train of thought that solves P=NP or something.
Depends how old you are. If you're near the end or right after high school, keep your education going. There are always ways to find money to pay for college (student loans as a last resort, the repayment plans are reasonable and at least you can get through school) and the school will help you find jobs.
Or if that's not quite your thing, find your local Best Buy and start working to be on the Geek Squad.
Or, if all else fails, move to a city where you *can* pursue your dream. I realize that moving can be an extremely scary thing (I just recently moved for a new job, away from my family to a city where I don't know anyone), but it can be worth it.
Excellent point, symbolic. That's why the best interviewers don't necessarily just ask "How many years of C++ experience do you have?". They give you brain-twister-type problems that show, in general, your intelligence and enthusiasm. This is way more important than the number of years you've spent typing at the keyboard.
Joel actually talks about this in another article (link) although he still insists on specific knowledge of programming syntax. I suppose that's just his way of minimizing the startup cost of a new hire. Pity, you'll miss out on some good people that way.
The bext boss I ever had once said to me, "I'd rather hire a smart person and teach them to code, then teach a coder to be smart." (paraphrase). This is what you are saying in your post, and I agree completely. But my mindset does not get you a fast, hit-the-ground-running developer.
I think the "live to work" thing happens when you are a business owner. Its one thing to have a job (even if its doing something cool and fun) just to make your paycheck, but if its a company that you've poured your own sweat and blood into, then its not just a job. Its your hobby, recreation, and everything else.
The joke goes, if you won the lottery what would you do? The idea is to determine what you REALLY want to do with your life. I suspect Joel would do the same exact thing he is doing now...run a software company.
You are exactly stating the arguments for Spiral development model vs. waterfall development model. I've seen many engineering shops changing to this approach lately. Usually the management buzzword used is "agility" instead of "rigor".
I'm glad this comment is "Insightful" instead of "Funny". Although it sounds amusing, it actually makes sense.
IANAParent (butI hope to be soon), but I perhaps can see where occasionally spending a long time focused on something is not necessarily bad. What if, not all the time but just every now and then, your kid gets focused on building a science project and spends 12 hours straight one Saturday working on it. Is that bad? I dunno.
Personally I'm scared to death of the thought of being a parent. Its not like D+D where you can reroll a new character. Once your kid has their skills set that's it. But I look around at some great people I know who had absolutely lousy parents and they turned out mostly OK. So that makes me feel better.
I'm not sure where you live and who your baby bell is but....my DSL ISP, BellSouth, offers what they call DSL Lite, which is always on but has much lower bandwith for less cost, $24.95 a month.
I wish I could mod you up +1000000000. This was my thought exactly.
Re:Neoliberal Tyranny of Enforced Competition
on
Life Interrupted
·
· Score: 1
Holy moley! You're advocating MORE government involvement in business? Mandating changes that would have a negative impact upon productivity (i.e. note necessarily more efficient, but acheiving more results)? And we complain now that U.S. companies are outsourcing. I wonder how many hours a week the off-shore Indian programmers and technicians work.
The answer truly is that the competition is not necessarily driven by the corporations, but by people. If I want a desirable job, but another candidate is willing to work more than I am, then s/he rightfully deserves that job.
The trick is not to work less hours, but to work more effectively. Be honest, if you did not surf slashdot at all during work, how much more productive would you be? When someone spends 12 hours a day at their desk, are they really doing work for 12 hours, or only doing 8 hours of work and 4 goofing off? And the other biggie that I see all the time is: why would you do some task that takes 2 hours when it can be automated and improved with technology and only take 15 minutes? If I can accomplish in 8 hours a day what it takes others 11 hours a day, does that mean I'm a worse employee cause I'm working less hours? I only wish upper-level management would understand this fact.
Perhaps on the day last week when Harry Potter Book 6 became available for pre-order. Wouldn't that book alone perhaps count for a million or so of the 2.8 million sales? Especially since Book 5 sold 5 million copies in the first 24 hours?
Very good point. I actually used SuprNove for game demos, patches, etc., perfectly legal stuff. The search engine worked OK, and the database was huge. Now I have to find another site...
*EVERY* MMORPG? Meridian 69? ATITD? Progress Quest? Saga of Ryzom? Planetside? Puzzle Pirates? EVE Online? Horizons? Lineage? Ragnarok Online? Phantasy Star Online? The Sims Online? Or just the biggies: EQ, UO, DAOC, AC, SW, COY, FF11 and AO?
In any case, there are a lot of MMORPGs out there, I don't know how you had the time to play *ALL* of them.
(P.S. I know this is a troll, but overexaggeration is one of my pet peeves. That and people who say "They should do this...They are going to do that...." WHO IS THEY?!?!?!)
Actually, when New Line did "Trilogy Tuesday" it was a very successful event. I wish that more companies did that --- Star Wars, Matrix, wait a second...never mind.
Re:Direct link to the hi-res quicktime video
on
ROTK:EE Trailer Released
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Remember when RotK was first released, some theaters did a "Trilogy Tuesday" where they played all three back-to-back-to-back. My wife and I drove 150 miles to a theater to participate. It was great! We got free gifts from New Line, the theater brought in catered free food from Sonny's BBQ, and theonering.net reps were there giving away gifts.
Ah, a very fond memory. I still have the tickets (and lanyard pass) hanging on my cube wall.
Slashdot Mirror
In the case of the Simpsons, hoewever, this really is the case.
My wife has never watched the Simpsons. Last year I bought the first few seasons on DVD and we watched it together. She thought it was hilarious! So we caught a few of the new episodes on regular TV. She looked at me and asked why the new ones are so "dumb" compared to the first couple seasons, and not as funny.
God, I love that woman.
Apparently, all of it. :-)
My apologies. I not only did not RTFA, I didn't even completely RTFSummary.
I guess I should refrain from commenting when I'm just quickly glancing between Slashdot and my IDE at work.
Check out the Coding4Fun site. You can get free downloads of lightweight versions of many of MS's development tools, plus lots of ideas, resources, message boards, etc.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/
Me personally, I like playing with things like Amazon.com's API or Google's various tool APIs and building my own hacks.
Amazon's AWS/Alexa
Google Desktop API
Schools. I remember PET being the computer that was in middle schools and high schools (at least in Florida, where I grew up). A PET is where I learned LOGO and BASIC (well, that and the TI 99/4a, which curiously is not mentioned in TFA).
I never saw a TRS80 in a school.
Having been closely involved with the USAF for a long while, I think most readers here on slashdot are misinterpreting this. Cyberspace and Cyberwarfare in this context doesn't mean a bunch of hackers/crackers trying to penetrate other countries' networks and do war stuff. This is not a Matrix/Neuromancer idea of "war in the internet".
The future of US warfare depends heavily on networking, NetCentric Warfare, and using WANs. Cyberspace means the network that exists between headquarters, soldiers, planes, tanks, etc. Think StarCraft or Command and Conquer. Defense of this network is a top priority.
Around the ENTIRE world? I would bet "stick".
...the list goes on and on!
1) Easily available in all parts of the world
2) Stickball
3) Weapon (stabbing, slashing, or projectile)
4) Fishing pole
5) Hiking/walking stick
6) Spear/Javelin
7) Pole vault
8) Luggage (i.e. tie a bag to end and carry over shoulder)
Are you kidding? I didn't even RTFA and once I saw the word "Zelda" the overworld theme popped into my head.
Your last paragraph is absolutely correct. My wakeup call was seeing some really, really fat people (I live in America after all) huff and puff walking to lunch one day. I resolved to never be that person.
I do basically the same thing you do...count calories. I've lost 40lbs in 12 months. Not as fast as you but I feel great.
My gym, Bally's, has a device called a BodyGem. This thing helps you estimate what your resting metabolic rate (i.e. worst-case) caloric burn for a day is. This is useful for planning how many calories you can eat.
Another helpful rule-of-thumb... 30 minutes of cardio burns about 500 calories, if you keep your heart rate about 125-130.
And of course, if you lift weights or do strength training, your metabolic rate increases so you burn more calories in a day.
Simple math. No need for expensive Atkins, South Beach, etc.
If you actually read the bill...
here
at first, it doesn't seem that bad. "Violent" is described (para 2) as specifically heinous, depraved, or cruel. In other words, police shooters and military combat games aren't affected. And the bill specifically states (para 5) that parents are allowed to buy or rent violent games for their kids. In other words, if a parent thinks its OK a kid can still play a targeted game.
So in reality, is this bill that bad? Yes, I know its "parenting by legislation" but from a certain point of view this is no different than not allowing underage kids to buy alcohol. The question, of course, is whether alcohol is better/worse than playing a violent game.
My personal concern is that if the bill is passed it becomes some sort of "slippery slope" for other legislation. The bill states that playing violent games mentally affects and even damages kids but no scientific evidence is cited. So a bill could be written that says playing soccer is bad without any scientific evidence and it could become illegal.
Wow. Just wow.
No one will probably read this comment because its been a day since the OP, but I'm amazed at the quantity of people who are slamming this guy for wanting to research something that's admittedly interesting.
For starters, if the submitter is a CompSci student then he definately gets my kudos. Too many CS students are just focused on "I wanna learn C# so I can go make money!" as opposed to actually LEARNING.
Secondly, what happened to just plain geekiness of research and studying things because its fun and interesting? Does everything we do have to have some specific applicable purpose? If you say yes, you are thinking like the MBAs that always get bashed around here instead of a real nerd.
Who knows? Its unlikely, but possible that thinking about this problem somehow leads to a train of thought that solves P=NP or something.
Depends how old you are. If you're near the end or right after high school, keep your education going. There are always ways to find money to pay for college (student loans as a last resort, the repayment plans are reasonable and at least you can get through school) and the school will help you find jobs.
Or if that's not quite your thing, find your local Best Buy and start working to be on the Geek Squad.
Or, if all else fails, move to a city where you *can* pursue your dream. I realize that moving can be an extremely scary thing (I just recently moved for a new job, away from my family to a city where I don't know anyone), but it can be worth it.
Excellent point, symbolic. That's why the best interviewers don't necessarily just ask "How many years of C++ experience do you have?". They give you brain-twister-type problems that show, in general, your intelligence and enthusiasm. This is way more important than the number of years you've spent typing at the keyboard.
Joel actually talks about this in another article (link) although he still insists on specific knowledge of programming syntax. I suppose that's just his way of minimizing the startup cost of a new hire. Pity, you'll miss out on some good people that way.
The bext boss I ever had once said to me, "I'd rather hire a smart person and teach them to code, then teach a coder to be smart." (paraphrase). This is what you are saying in your post, and I agree completely. But my mindset does not get you a fast, hit-the-ground-running developer.
I think the "live to work" thing happens when you are a business owner. Its one thing to have a job (even if its doing something cool and fun) just to make your paycheck, but if its a company that you've poured your own sweat and blood into, then its not just a job. Its your hobby, recreation, and everything else.
The joke goes, if you won the lottery what would you do? The idea is to determine what you REALLY want to do with your life. I suspect Joel would do the same exact thing he is doing now...run a software company.
You are exactly stating the arguments for Spiral development model vs. waterfall development model. I've seen many engineering shops changing to this approach lately. Usually the management buzzword used is "agility" instead of "rigor".
I'm glad this comment is "Insightful" instead of "Funny". Although it sounds amusing, it actually makes sense.
IANAParent (butI hope to be soon), but I perhaps can see where occasionally spending a long time focused on something is not necessarily bad. What if, not all the time but just every now and then, your kid gets focused on building a science project and spends 12 hours straight one Saturday working on it. Is that bad? I dunno.
Personally I'm scared to death of the thought of being a parent. Its not like D+D where you can reroll a new character. Once your kid has their skills set that's it. But I look around at some great people I know who had absolutely lousy parents and they turned out mostly OK. So that makes me feel better.
I'm not sure where you live and who your baby bell is but....my DSL ISP, BellSouth, offers what they call DSL Lite, which is always on but has much lower bandwith for less cost, $24.95 a month.
. html
http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/inetsrvcs/index
I wish I could mod you up +1000000000. This was my thought exactly.
Holy moley! You're advocating MORE government involvement in business? Mandating changes that would have a negative impact upon productivity (i.e. note necessarily more efficient, but acheiving more results)? And we complain now that U.S. companies are outsourcing. I wonder how many hours a week the off-shore Indian programmers and technicians work.
The answer truly is that the competition is not necessarily driven by the corporations, but by people. If I want a desirable job, but another candidate is willing to work more than I am, then s/he rightfully deserves that job.
The trick is not to work less hours, but to work more effectively. Be honest, if you did not surf slashdot at all during work, how much more productive would you be? When someone spends 12 hours a day at their desk, are they really doing work for 12 hours, or only doing 8 hours of work and 4 goofing off? And the other biggie that I see all the time is: why would you do some task that takes 2 hours when it can be automated and improved with technology and only take 15 minutes? If I can accomplish in 8 hours a day what it takes others 11 hours a day, does that mean I'm a worse employee cause I'm working less hours? I only wish upper-level management would understand this fact.
How about...
$147,000,000,000 - spent on war in Iraq
22,000,000 - population of Iraq
= $6,681.82 - spent per Iraqi for a democratic election
That's more than my federal government spends on me. In fact, I give them almost three times that much in income tax each year.
Perhaps on the day last week when Harry Potter Book 6 became available for pre-order. Wouldn't that book alone perhaps count for a million or so of the 2.8 million sales? Especially since Book 5 sold 5 million copies in the first 24 hours?
Very good point. I actually used SuprNove for game demos, patches, etc., perfectly legal stuff. The search engine worked OK, and the database was huge. Now I have to find another site...
I've played every MMORPG since Everquest
*EVERY* MMORPG? Meridian 69? ATITD? Progress Quest? Saga of Ryzom? Planetside? Puzzle Pirates? EVE Online? Horizons? Lineage? Ragnarok Online? Phantasy Star Online? The Sims Online? Or just the biggies: EQ, UO, DAOC, AC, SW, COY, FF11 and AO?
In any case, there are a lot of MMORPGs out there, I don't know how you had the time to play *ALL* of them.
(P.S. I know this is a troll, but overexaggeration is one of my pet peeves. That and people who say "They should do this...They are going to do that...." WHO IS THEY?!?!?!)
Actually, when New Line did "Trilogy Tuesday" it was a very successful event. I wish that more companies did that --- Star Wars, Matrix, wait a second...never mind.
Remember when RotK was first released, some theaters did a "Trilogy Tuesday" where they played all three back-to-back-to-back. My wife and I drove 150 miles to a theater to participate. It was great! We got free gifts from New Line, the theater brought in catered free food from Sonny's BBQ, and theonering.net reps were there giving away gifts.
Ah, a very fond memory. I still have the tickets (and lanyard pass) hanging on my cube wall.