We don't have any facts about the original shooting, including if it is even connected to the latter shooting. At this point, I would give the school administration the benefit of the doubt. Do you know how expensive and disruptive it is to "lock down the state all the way to Roanoke".
If the administration believed that the original shooting was under control, i.e., a suspect was in custody, then they absolutely did the right thing. If, on the other hand, they knew the suspect was still at large, then perhaps they didn't. However, recall that when a crime like this is committed, 99.99% of the time, the person _does not_ go on to commit a wild shooting rampage, killing dozens. If people were to react as you suggest, our country would literally come to a standstill. Would we be safer in a police state? Probably. Are you willing to live in a police state? I'm not.
Regardless, my sympathies and prayers go out to the victims, their families and the community of Virginia Tech.
On a personal note, this really hit home to me since I went to Virginia Tech, spent many an hour (and many a night) in Ambler-Johnston dorm where a large PC lab was housed at the time, and had several classes in Norris Hall.
Augh! I'm such a spelling Nazi, I have to correct myself. That's "wring" of course. I usually try to limit my Nazi-ism to setting a good example for others, but sometimes ya just gotta speak up./me breaks out the sackcloth and ashes.
You're right of course, but I think it's more of the case that you don't need lots of cycles often, but when you do you really want as much as you can get.
Most software people use doesn't (or shouldn't) use 5% of the processor power available to it. Of course, when you fire up the latest 3D game, ray-tracer, or other truly CPU-intensive app, you need all the cycles you can ring from every core. Most of these are multitaskable or parallelable, but it's not always obvious or easy how to do it.
Besides, how else can MS consider writing any new software now that Moore's law is taking a vacation?
The sad truth is that while Gates is doing good philanthropic work (and face it, what else would a sane person who had 11 figures in the bank possibly do... Buy Bolivia? Pave the Grand Canyon? Build a shopping mall on the moon?), he is the richest man in the world because of his company, which under his direction was (and is) a ruthless monopoly that routinely competed unfairly, practiced extortion, and spread deceit. Bill Gates made his billions at the expense of many thousands of others that likely would have made millions each had Microsoft not destroyed their companies with unfair competition. Economics is not a zero-sum game, and Microsoft has created tremendous wealth and technology that would not have otherwise existed, but being a monopoly _is_ a zero-sum game, and it is one in which Microsoft excels at the expense of many, many competitors. It is a testament to the sheer economic and political power of Gates and Microsoft that the company can be convicted of this and yet face no significant penalty for having been found so.
You do realize that 99% of a CPU is just the packaging, and it's only that big because it's the only reasonable way to get that many pins that are large enough not to snap off during socket insertion (or sublimate directly into the atmosphere;-)).
A government doesn't need to be made up of human politicians.
Look at the U.S., it's run by a bunch of self-serving, power-grubbing chordates who'd sell the chemicals in their grandmothers' bodies for a handful of votes.
Seriously though... um... you know I don't have anything serious to say. I just wanted to be obnoxious.
NASA's hardware flexibility is legendary. They have literally reprogrammed hardware in space and given it completely new capabilities, and in the case of Voyager, managed to get them to visit two whole planets that weren't even in the original mission plan. We're talking billions of miles here. In terms of mission critical hardware, especially when it is inaccessible, this development could be really useful.
However, the idea of taping a FPGA bag on the side of your OEM embedded processor and shipping hardware patches implies to me even more products that are shipped before they are done, and we users once again have to live with the consequences. The excerpt above claims just that. It is literally describing pushing testing further down the line to get something to market faster, and you know that invariably means it ends up in the paying customers' laps.
I can see it now: having to download and install patches to my vacuum cleaner, garage door opener or anti-lock brake system.
Of course, it can have its up sides. "Sorry dear, I can't cut the grass, our lawnmower model has been chopping off people's feet and I can't patch it because the Internet connection is down. Can you get me a beer?"
p.s. We already have software, hardware and firmware. What will this be called? Hardish-ware? Stiffware? Dent-resistent-Ware? Firm-But-Yielding-ware? Pert-Yet-Supple-Ware? Oops, definitely not that.
The more I think about it, the more this article is really awful. It should be titled, "10 Firefox Extensions I Want to Avoid Despite not Having Good Reasons to Do So", or "10 Firefox Extensions that Cripple Our Site And We Are Too Lazy To Do Anything About It", or, given the tone of it "If You Know More About the Web Than I Do, You're A Hopeless Geek, Get A Life".
For most of the extensions he gives several reasons _to use it_ and then some really lame excuse like "but I don't like it" or "that's too much hassle for me", or "you're just paranoid", the latter being a particularly egregious example of stupidity given the millions of machines that are botnetted. Those so-called "too paranoid" people will be the only ones left surfing when the next big virus/worm/trojan takes down half the 'net.
That and the ability to import and export from your message store. I love Thunderbird and have been using it exclusively since about version 0.4, but simply cannot believe some of the functionality it lacks.
After using FFx with AdBlock for years, I'd forgotten just how horrible Web browsing is without it. It's like not watching TV ads. After a short time you realize just how horrible they are, and will go through much more trouble to avoid them.
We turned off the satellite service years ago. Between Netflix and simply buying movies and shows, we enjoy lots of good TV with almost no ads, for about the same price.
the Slashdot crowd tends to be in the industry and/or college and seems a tad experienced in the ways of the world
This is the funniest thing I've seen in a week. Although for certain values of "ways of the world", I think you are right. Certainly compared to Digg. I've tried to add something constructive to the Digg comments, but mostly I feel like it's a waste of time. Plus, given the fact that there's no easy way to track your comments to see what others say, or to be able to respond (more than one level) Digg comments can never achieve the quality of "conversation" that appears on/., and unless they change how it works, it never will be.
I look at Digg to find interesting articles (but mostly neat photos or links to still more versions of Tower Defense, and other fluff). The comments may be worth glancing at, but are secondary. At/., the comments are primary reason to read, and the best discussions are often tangential to the original article.
Bill Gates and company have successfully created the software version of Soviet Russia, where software runs you. I've always complained that Microsoft never understood that the software should work for you, not you work for it, and Vista seems like a step _further_ in the direction of making the user do work.
Of course, I guess that's better than something like Word, where it takes 3 times as long to get anything done as it should because of all the unpredictable and illogical "helpful" stuff that the program keeps doing for you.
I miss the the old days when software was a tool rather than a shackle. Oh wait, no I don't, there's always Linux.
I'll second that, using Word has consistently been the most excruciating software experience I've ever had with a product that is supposedly good made by a real company (in contrast to some VB piece-of-crap shareware).
I found OpenOffice to be much easier to use because Word always tries to anticipate what you are doing and "help" you. Now, I'm not a typical Office user, but it has been my experience in 20+ years of using Microsoft products that whenever a Microsoft product tries to help, it is almost invariably _not_ what I want it to do, and it's much harder to get it to stop doing these seemingly random behaviors than it is if it would just leave me alone and let me do everything myself. It's just like Windows, which I generally like, if there is an option, it seems to me that Microsoft almost invariably picks the most annoying and confusing default.
The biggest productivity gain I ever had with word processing was to switch to reStructuredText and throw the GUI away. I really don't have any problem using Windows in general, although I find Explorer to be a really, horrible and consistenly buggy piece of crap that has barely gotten better and less buggy in 12 whole years. You would think MS would put a little more effort into the piece of software that is probably the most widely used in all of Microsoft-dom. They _can_ write some decent software, they just choose not to do so, and more importantly, choose to manage themselves like a committee of idiots.
Of course, I'm completely convinced that mankind is simply incapable of managing any process less concrete than building a bridge or a skyscraper with more than about 5% efficiency, but I may be a little jaded from having worked at AOL for about 15 months. Luckily, I'm back at a small company and am 10 times happier and 10 times more productive.
Same here. The second thing I do is turn of those idiotic sounds.
XP out of the box has the most hideous UI I've ever seen since Tandy Deskmate. Fortunately, with a few clicks you can turn it back into something sane.
I have found that Explorer is somewhat more stable in XP, which is the primary reason I'd like to upgrade the kids' computer... but XP blue screens when booting up on the installation disc on that box(!). So I have a license sitting around unused.
Slashdot Mirror
We don't have any facts about the original shooting, including if it is even connected to the latter shooting. At this point, I would give the school administration the benefit of the doubt. Do you know how expensive and disruptive it is to "lock down the state all the way to Roanoke".
If the administration believed that the original shooting was under control, i.e., a suspect was in custody, then they absolutely did the right thing. If, on the other hand, they knew the suspect was still at large, then perhaps they didn't. However, recall that when a crime like this is committed, 99.99% of the time, the person _does not_ go on to commit a wild shooting rampage, killing dozens. If people were to react as you suggest, our country would literally come to a standstill. Would we be safer in a police state? Probably. Are you willing to live in a police state? I'm not.
Regardless, my sympathies and prayers go out to the victims, their families and the community of Virginia Tech.
On a personal note, this really hit home to me since I went to Virginia Tech, spent many an hour (and many a night) in Ambler-Johnston dorm where a large PC lab was housed at the time, and had several classes in Norris Hall.
I just can't believe my previous post has an "Insightful" rating.
I'd say "You must be new here." but obviously you aren't.
For the record I'm happily married with kids too. Fortunately, there are women out there who can appreciate nerds for what they are.
And what, exactly does the green dot do? I could never figure out.
(Answer: In a Microsoft-like move, the green dot is fairly unpredictable.)
I have large K on the bottom left of my screen.
Augh! I'm such a spelling Nazi, I have to correct myself. That's "wring" of course. I usually try to limit my Nazi-ism to setting a good example for others, but sometimes ya just gotta speak up. /me breaks out the sackcloth and ashes.
You're right of course, but I think it's more of the case that you don't need lots of cycles often, but when you do you really want as much as you can get.
Most software people use doesn't (or shouldn't) use 5% of the processor power available to it. Of course, when you fire up the latest 3D game, ray-tracer, or other truly CPU-intensive app, you need all the cycles you can ring from every core. Most of these are multitaskable or parallelable, but it's not always obvious or easy how to do it.
Besides, how else can MS consider writing any new software now that Moore's law is taking a vacation?
I had this same idea years ago. I think we have a ways to go (i.e., decades) but I'll be waiting along with you.
In 20 years, digital display technology could be as ubiquitous as paper today. I'm sure the advertisers are waiting with bated breath.
So you're saying the ends justify the means.
Some morality.
The sad truth is that while Gates is doing good philanthropic work (and face it, what else would a sane person who had 11 figures in the bank possibly do... Buy Bolivia? Pave the Grand Canyon? Build a shopping mall on the moon?), he is the richest man in the world because of his company, which under his direction was (and is) a ruthless monopoly that routinely competed unfairly, practiced extortion, and spread deceit. Bill Gates made his billions at the expense of many thousands of others that likely would have made millions each had Microsoft not destroyed their companies with unfair competition. Economics is not a zero-sum game, and Microsoft has created tremendous wealth and technology that would not have otherwise existed, but being a monopoly _is_ a zero-sum game, and it is one in which Microsoft excels at the expense of many, many competitors. It is a testament to the sheer economic and political power of Gates and Microsoft that the company can be convicted of this and yet face no significant penalty for having been found so.
Perhaps they were. I have an exposed AMD Sempron (or whatever the non-64 bit one was called), it's less than 1cm square.
ESRB and sales restrictions are unconstitutional.
Wow, what country do you live in? Here in the U.S., there's no problem...
You do realize that 99% of a CPU is just the packaging, and it's only that big because it's the only reasonable way to get that many pins that are large enough not to snap off during socket insertion (or sublimate directly into the atmosphere ;-)).
A government doesn't need to be made up of human politicians.
Look at the U.S., it's run by a bunch of self-serving, power-grubbing chordates who'd sell the chemicals in their grandmothers' bodies for a handful of votes.
Seriously though... um... you know I don't have anything serious to say. I just wanted to be obnoxious.
Heh, chordates.
NASA's hardware flexibility is legendary. They have literally reprogrammed hardware in space and given it completely new capabilities, and in the case of Voyager, managed to get them to visit two whole planets that weren't even in the original mission plan. We're talking billions of miles here. In terms of mission critical hardware, especially when it is inaccessible, this development could be really useful.
However, the idea of taping a FPGA bag on the side of your OEM embedded processor and shipping hardware patches implies to me even more products that are shipped before they are done, and we users once again have to live with the consequences. The excerpt above claims just that. It is literally describing pushing testing further down the line to get something to market faster, and you know that invariably means it ends up in the paying customers' laps.
I can see it now: having to download and install patches to my vacuum cleaner, garage door opener or anti-lock brake system.
Of course, it can have its up sides. "Sorry dear, I can't cut the grass, our lawnmower model has been chopping off people's feet and I can't patch it because the Internet connection is down. Can you get me a beer?"
p.s. We already have software, hardware and firmware. What will this be called? Hardish-ware? Stiffware? Dent-resistent-Ware? Firm-But-Yielding-ware? Pert-Yet-Supple-Ware? Oops, definitely not that.
The more I think about it, the more this article is really awful. It should be titled, "10 Firefox Extensions I Want to Avoid Despite not Having Good Reasons to Do So", or "10 Firefox Extensions that Cripple Our Site And We Are Too Lazy To Do Anything About It", or, given the tone of it "If You Know More About the Web Than I Do, You're A Hopeless Geek, Get A Life".
For most of the extensions he gives several reasons _to use it_ and then some really lame excuse like "but I don't like it" or "that's too much hassle for me", or "you're just paranoid", the latter being a particularly egregious example of stupidity given the millions of machines that are botnetted. Those so-called "too paranoid" people will be the only ones left surfing when the next big virus/worm/trojan takes down half the 'net.
That and the ability to import and export from your message store. I love Thunderbird and have been using it exclusively since about version 0.4, but simply cannot believe some of the functionality it lacks.
After using FFx with AdBlock for years, I'd forgotten just how horrible Web browsing is without it. It's like not watching TV ads. After a short time you realize just how horrible they are, and will go through much more trouble to avoid them.
We turned off the satellite service years ago. Between Netflix and simply buying movies and shows, we enjoy lots of good TV with almost no ads, for about the same price.
"where would the web be if everyone blocked ads."
The fact of the matter is that's not the user's problem now is it?
Don't whine to me if your business model doesn't work because it annoys people. That's the free market, baby. Adapt or die.
Yes, there's a song about it. It has a first name and a last name, and when you drop on in a hot skittle it dances and tastes good too.
Reminds me of the infamous HAM mode on the Amiga implemented in Photon Paint, a copy of which I purchased almost 20 years ago.
The idea was to implement 12-bit color using only the 6 bits per pixel available. You had constraints on which colors could be adjacent to each other.
Ah, those were the days.
But region encoding _is_ DRM.
the Slashdot crowd tends to be in the industry and/or college and seems a tad experienced in the ways of the world
/., and unless they change how it works, it never will be.
/., the comments are primary reason to read, and the best discussions are often tangential to the original article.
This is the funniest thing I've seen in a week. Although for certain values of "ways of the world", I think you are right. Certainly compared to Digg. I've tried to add something constructive to the Digg comments, but mostly I feel like it's a waste of time. Plus, given the fact that there's no easy way to track your comments to see what others say, or to be able to respond (more than one level) Digg comments can never achieve the quality of "conversation" that appears on
I look at Digg to find interesting articles (but mostly neat photos or links to still more versions of Tower Defense, and other fluff). The comments may be worth glancing at, but are secondary. At
Bill Gates and company have successfully created the software version of Soviet Russia, where software runs you. I've always complained that Microsoft never understood that the software should work for you, not you work for it, and Vista seems like a step _further_ in the direction of making the user do work.
Of course, I guess that's better than something like Word, where it takes 3 times as long to get anything done as it should because of all the unpredictable and illogical "helpful" stuff that the program keeps doing for you.
I miss the the old days when software was a tool rather than a shackle. Oh wait, no I don't, there's always Linux.
I'll second that, using Word has consistently been the most excruciating software experience I've ever had with a product that is supposedly good made by a real company (in contrast to some VB piece-of-crap shareware).
I found OpenOffice to be much easier to use because Word always tries to anticipate what you are doing and "help" you. Now, I'm not a typical Office user, but it has been my experience in 20+ years of using Microsoft products that whenever a Microsoft product tries to help, it is almost invariably _not_ what I want it to do, and it's much harder to get it to stop doing these seemingly random behaviors than it is if it would just leave me alone and let me do everything myself. It's just like Windows, which I generally like, if there is an option, it seems to me that Microsoft almost invariably picks the most annoying and confusing default.
The biggest productivity gain I ever had with word processing was to switch to reStructuredText and throw the GUI away. I really don't have any problem using Windows in general, although I find Explorer to be a really, horrible and consistenly buggy piece of crap that has barely gotten better and less buggy in 12 whole years. You would think MS would put a little more effort into the piece of software that is probably the most widely used in all of Microsoft-dom. They _can_ write some decent software, they just choose not to do so, and more importantly, choose to manage themselves like a committee of idiots.
Of course, I'm completely convinced that mankind is simply incapable of managing any process less concrete than building a bridge or a skyscraper with more than about 5% efficiency, but I may be a little jaded from having worked at AOL for about 15 months. Luckily, I'm back at a small company and am 10 times happier and 10 times more productive.
I think the behavior can be explained more simply, and it's really a variation of the prisoner's dilemma. It is basically this:
If I do the Right Thing, everyone else who doesn't do the Right Thing will have a huge advantage over me.
Of course you do, it's just that when you die in China nobody cares.
Same with Rwanda, American coal mines, Russia during WW2, the Sudan (at least until about a year ago) or Israeli civilians.
Same here. The second thing I do is turn of those idiotic sounds.
XP out of the box has the most hideous UI I've ever seen since Tandy Deskmate. Fortunately, with a few clicks you can turn it back into something sane.
I have found that Explorer is somewhat more stable in XP, which is the primary reason I'd like to upgrade the kids' computer... but XP blue screens when booting up on the installation disc on that box(!). So I have a license sitting around unused.
Meanwhile, I'm migrating my boxes to Linux.
Vista? Who cares.