Most of the people who end up as astronauts used to work at NASA in engineering or related fields. In fact, they mention quite explicitly that working at NASA usually increases your chances of becoming an astronaut (now, this may be PR to get more people to join NASA, but hey).
Now, the pilots are a different story. The pilots usually have a different background (Air Force/Navy etc) but they too tend to be rather well qualified.
I can hazard a guess or two on the origins of cut-and-paste based on the term and its possible etymology, but no, I cannot say for certain where it came from.
And why do you think I would have to? And what makes you think that I should know where it came from?
Shortening words and writing incomplete sentences is the Indian way of expressing their coolness.
And oh, the parent is a lot better - most tend to spell like 13 year old girls who listen to Britney Spears, when they probably are 30 year olds (who still listen to Britney Spears, of course).
And yes, I am an Indian too, so I trust you me. India - screwing the Queen's English since 1947. Ba-da-CHING!
So... Until something has actually happened in retaliation... This isn't really much of a story.
Yes it is. It is the abuse of the law by a group that does not substantiate their claims by science and literally uses the law as a tool to censor points of view that they do not like.
If anything, I do not see why this isn't more of a news.
Or learn from programs like Paint.Net. Of course, in terms of capabilities, it does not come close to GIMP or Photoshop. But in terms of usability, it is extremely usable, the keyboard shortcuts make sense and it is reminiscent of the more popular photo-editing UIs.
Perhaps GIMP could learn a thing or two from them.
The one thing that some of us who've been around long will remember is that apart from the dupes and the bad editing, Slashdot has changed a lot over the years.
When it started out, it was for geeks of a certain age and demographic. Over the years, those users have grown up, and with them, so has Slashdot.
Compare the number of actual technology articles from the older versions of Slashdot with the number of articles relating to business, politics and management of technology on today's Slashdot. Slashdot has broadened its horizons, and the discussions tend to be a lot more balanced (if you do not believe me, just go over to Digg and see the trolls and the flamebaits out there).
And yes, the average Slashdotter was (and is) probably a geek or a nerd, but I think that as they have matured, so has the website? Do we see the occasional crap posting and foam-at-the-mouth zealotry? Of course. But compared to the amount of actual, sane discussion, the percentage of idiocy is surprisingly less.
Secondly, Slashdot is not just about the main articles - it is also about the posters having their journals and having sub-communities of posters.
Over simplification and stereotyping has been the bane of many an analysis, and this article (if it can be called that) is no different.
I agree with you, but I was having a talk about this with my lawyer the other day. She said that unfortunately, most of the rest of the world follows the first to file rule.
One of the side effects of being part of the WTO is that there should be a level playing field. Unfortunately, we've asked other countries to bend over backwards to do things our way, now they want us to do things their way, and corporations are more than happy to give in. After all, who cares about the lone innovator that you are talking about?
It's unfortunate, but that's the state of affairs for you.
I'd say a mixture of both is probably better. Being able to skim over things of little importance to focus on those things of higher importance...
It's the little things that make up the big things.
I am in R&D and all the *good* people I know are those that are extremely focussed on what they do and can tackle a problem until they can find a solution. I would not trust an engineer who suffered from excessive ADD mostly because I would not be sure that all the components of his system received his full and complete attention. I mean, imagine people like the parent poster building bridges. Oh yeah, it would simply be wonderful.
And think of adventure sports -- can you imagine a mountaineer with ADD reaching out for that handhold and then going, ooh shiny! Evolution at work, right there.
I am yet to see a convincing argument on why ADD isn't a problem -- now, I do not believe that medicating kids with ADD is the solution. When I was younger, I was distracted by, "Ooh! Shiny!" ever so often myself. But with effort and help, my concentration has improved. That's probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. It gives me the ability to sit down for several hours and focus on a problem and solve it -- persistence is often the key to solving hard problems because no matter how intelligent you are, some problems require a good degree of effort to solve.
Anyone who cannot consistently provide that effort without being distracted cannot give their very best to what they are doing.
To quote a sentiment attributed to Voltaire and expressed by Hall, I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Besides, what's this? An ad on Slashdot for anti-Facebook campaign? Or some sort of troll that expects Slashdotters to actually side with censorship?
Almost worthy of an Adequacy.org troll, were it not for the fact that the poster seems to believe his/her words.
Working in the R&D labs of a baby-Bell, we get told this all the time (i.e. innovation without monetary benefit is meaningless).
We still get to do cool stuff and every once in a while, we have something that gets monetized. But for the most part, we work on cool stuff and the demos keep the management happy.
Just prepare a list of questions (say, 10) and print them out clearly. Distribute that to the students and to Mr. Rich Taylor.
Tell him that you expect clear and concise answers, not fluff and excuses. And in that list, you could include such questions as --
1. Why the MPAA's principles do not seem to agree with what even the UN's Declaration of Human Rights dictates?
2. Ask them how they think that the exaggerated numbers of piracy relate to the actual numbers? Bring some tangible evidence to the table and ask them how they think that copied media equals revenue lost.
3. Ask him what the MPAA thinks about such things as Creative Commons and how they could think that long-term copyrights (e.g. Disney) is conducive to what the founding fathers of this land had in mind?
4. Cite some examples of how DMCA has harmed people, and ask him his opinion on that. If he agrees with the DMCA, then obviously it is wrong. If he disagrees, you can ask him if he thinks the law should be tested in a court of law. After all, their tactic seems to be making even fair use hard for people.
5. Why are the big boys (RIAA, MPAA) afraid of new media? Isn't it like a scrivener complaining about the arrival of the printing press?
6. Bring up the issue of fair use and piracy - you could cite personal examples where you (or your friends) have had to download media because it was easier than making backups of your own data. How can the MPAA distinguish between such piracy?
7. Citing the previous case, explain that they should either understand that not all variants of piracy is bad, or alternatively make it easy for you to back up your own media. Trying to discourage both sounds like they are against the very concept of *you* copying *your* media.
8. Ask him what he thinks of you lending a book to your friend. And how is it different from you lending your movie to a friend? Now if the friend could easily make a copy of the book without spending a penny, is it bad? Ignoring today's copyright law, ask him if his business model is wrong or is the friend wrong?
9. On that same note, ask him if there are any plans of improving the existing business model, since it is clearly unsuitable for an era where things can be copied for free. Clearly, artists are being robbed, given how poor the Hollywood actors are and how they live in filth and squalor (well, to be fair, they *do* live in LA, but still...)
10. Bring up the issue of suppressing your own customers - and how it has worked out for people in the past. After all, suppressing something is not the best way to accomplish it, and sometimes being open can be better for everyone.
Trouble tickets are great, but I would recommend that you find ways to quantify all of the following in some way or the other -
Stability calculated using the uptime of your systems. You could include such things as updates, patches etc to this to demonstrate that stability is not set in stone.
Reliability is similar to stability, but how many production/pilot/training and other systems rely on you? How often and how well do you serve them?
Response time is how fast you react to problems and how often do problems come up? (trouble tickets are a good way to quantify the latter)
Network load is a good way to demonstrate how well your network is performing, if you are a *nix sysadmin handling networks.
Security is how much time and effort do you spend on keeping your systems secure, both internally and externally?
Efficiency would be a combination of all of the above and a way of measuring how well you achieved those things and how much time, resources and effort was expended to achieve those things.
I am sure that others could find much better ways of quantifying performance, but this is something that jumped out at me. I was part of a consulting team that was asked to improve performance in a company several years back, and they came up with something similar.
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot to add -- get a job at NASA.
Most of the people who end up as astronauts used to work at NASA in engineering or related fields. In fact, they mention quite explicitly that working at NASA usually increases your chances of becoming an astronaut (now, this may be PR to get more people to join NASA, but hey).
Now, the pilots are a different story. The pilots usually have a different background (Air Force/Navy etc) but they too tend to be rather well qualified.
As a fan of both Pratchett and Miles, I will add one more to the list - L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Except for a few boring series, his books in the Recluce saga can be read as stand-alone books (for the most part) or in order.
Of course, it is not fair to compare him to Pratchett, but Modesitt, Jr.'s books are good in their own way.
Okay, I'll bite.
I can hazard a guess or two on the origins of cut-and-paste based on the term and its possible etymology, but no, I cannot say for certain where it came from.
And why do you think I would have to? And what makes you think that I should know where it came from?
Shhhhhhh! It's an Indian cultural thing.
Shortening words and writing incomplete sentences is the Indian way of expressing their coolness.
And oh, the parent is a lot better - most tend to spell like 13 year old girls who listen to Britney Spears, when they probably are 30 year olds (who still listen to Britney Spears, of course).
And yes, I am an Indian too, so I trust you me. India - screwing the Queen's English since 1947. Ba-da-CHING!
A quick Googling reveals that a lot of these people seem to be from USC. That's interesting. Although, I wonder why.
If anything, I do not see why this isn't more of a news.
Or learn from programs like Paint.Net. Of course, in terms of capabilities, it does not come close to GIMP or Photoshop. But in terms of usability, it is extremely usable, the keyboard shortcuts make sense and it is reminiscent of the more popular photo-editing UIs.
Perhaps GIMP could learn a thing or two from them.
Hear, hear.
Well said, sir. Hats off to you.
Luck can only get you so far.
Fortune is what you make of it.
How about both?
Extremes of both kinds are bad - the middle ground usually tends to be better.
And have it squirt?
Oh yeah, baby. Squirt your brown Zune for me.
How about being ethical and doing the right thing?
I mean, if only people were a little more honest and open about things, the world would be a better place (not to mention a little less stupid).
Precisely.
The one thing that some of us who've been around long will remember is that apart from the dupes and the bad editing, Slashdot has changed a lot over the years.
When it started out, it was for geeks of a certain age and demographic. Over the years, those users have grown up, and with them, so has Slashdot.
Compare the number of actual technology articles from the older versions of Slashdot with the number of articles relating to business, politics and management of technology on today's Slashdot. Slashdot has broadened its horizons, and the discussions tend to be a lot more balanced (if you do not believe me, just go over to Digg and see the trolls and the flamebaits out there).
And yes, the average Slashdotter was (and is) probably a geek or a nerd, but I think that as they have matured, so has the website? Do we see the occasional crap posting and foam-at-the-mouth zealotry? Of course. But compared to the amount of actual, sane discussion, the percentage of idiocy is surprisingly less.
Secondly, Slashdot is not just about the main articles - it is also about the posters having their journals and having sub-communities of posters.
Over simplification and stereotyping has been the bane of many an analysis, and this article (if it can be called that) is no different.
Bleh.
I agree with you, but I was having a talk about this with my lawyer the other day. She said that unfortunately, most of the rest of the world follows the first to file rule.
One of the side effects of being part of the WTO is that there should be a level playing field. Unfortunately, we've asked other countries to bend over backwards to do things our way, now they want us to do things their way, and corporations are more than happy to give in. After all, who cares about the lone innovator that you are talking about?
It's unfortunate, but that's the state of affairs for you.
Speaking of editors, I love Notepad2 on Windows. Lightweight, small memory footprint and extremely well written. Not to mention useful!
And of course, anyone who's had to edit over a slow and bad connection (on *nix) would love pico/nano.
Then, back to Windows, there is Irfanview on Windows, which is a fantastic piece of image viewing software. Quite useful.
Finally, I love Safesex by Nullsoft. Other favorites include Winamp (in its traditional UI without the bloatware) and Opera.
I am in R&D and all the *good* people I know are those that are extremely focussed on what they do and can tackle a problem until they can find a solution. I would not trust an engineer who suffered from excessive ADD mostly because I would not be sure that all the components of his system received his full and complete attention. I mean, imagine people like the parent poster building bridges. Oh yeah, it would simply be wonderful.
And think of adventure sports -- can you imagine a mountaineer with ADD reaching out for that handhold and then going, ooh shiny! Evolution at work, right there.
I am yet to see a convincing argument on why ADD isn't a problem -- now, I do not believe that medicating kids with ADD is the solution. When I was younger, I was distracted by, "Ooh! Shiny!" ever so often myself. But with effort and help, my concentration has improved. That's probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. It gives me the ability to sit down for several hours and focus on a problem and solve it -- persistence is often the key to solving hard problems because no matter how intelligent you are, some problems require a good degree of effort to solve.
Anyone who cannot consistently provide that effort without being distracted cannot give their very best to what they are doing.
Precisely.
To quote a sentiment attributed to Voltaire and expressed by Hall, I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Besides, what's this? An ad on Slashdot for anti-Facebook campaign? Or some sort of troll that expects Slashdotters to actually side with censorship?
Almost worthy of an Adequacy.org troll, were it not for the fact that the poster seems to believe his/her words.
Working in the R&D labs of a baby-Bell, we get told this all the time (i.e. innovation without monetary benefit is meaningless).
We still get to do cool stuff and every once in a while, we have something that gets monetized. But for the most part, we work on cool stuff and the demos keep the management happy.
You obviously haven't had the opportunity to meet Sam Carter yet.
You know, that just gave me an idea.
Just prepare a list of questions (say, 10) and print them out clearly. Distribute that to the students and to Mr. Rich Taylor.
Tell him that you expect clear and concise answers, not fluff and excuses. And in that list, you could include such questions as --
1. Why the MPAA's principles do not seem to agree with what even the UN's Declaration of Human Rights dictates?
2. Ask them how they think that the exaggerated numbers of piracy relate to the actual numbers? Bring some tangible evidence to the table and ask them how they think that copied media equals revenue lost.
3. Ask him what the MPAA thinks about such things as Creative Commons and how they could think that long-term copyrights (e.g. Disney) is conducive to what the founding fathers of this land had in mind?
4. Cite some examples of how DMCA has harmed people, and ask him his opinion on that. If he agrees with the DMCA, then obviously it is wrong. If he disagrees, you can ask him if he thinks the law should be tested in a court of law. After all, their tactic seems to be making even fair use hard for people.
5. Why are the big boys (RIAA, MPAA) afraid of new media? Isn't it like a scrivener complaining about the arrival of the printing press?
6. Bring up the issue of fair use and piracy - you could cite personal examples where you (or your friends) have had to download media because it was easier than making backups of your own data. How can the MPAA distinguish between such piracy?
7. Citing the previous case, explain that they should either understand that not all variants of piracy is bad, or alternatively make it easy for you to back up your own media. Trying to discourage both sounds like they are against the very concept of *you* copying *your* media.
8. Ask him what he thinks of you lending a book to your friend. And how is it different from you lending your movie to a friend? Now if the friend could easily make a copy of the book without spending a penny, is it bad? Ignoring today's copyright law, ask him if his business model is wrong or is the friend wrong?
9. On that same note, ask him if there are any plans of improving the existing business model, since it is clearly unsuitable for an era where things can be copied for free. Clearly, artists are being robbed, given how poor the Hollywood actors are and how they live in filth and squalor (well, to be fair, they *do* live in LA, but still...)
10. Bring up the issue of suppressing your own customers - and how it has worked out for people in the past. After all, suppressing something is not the best way to accomplish it, and sometimes being open can be better for everyone.
I am sure that others could find much better ways of quantifying performance, but this is something that jumped out at me. I was part of a consulting team that was asked to improve performance in a company several years back, and they came up with something similar.
A love story where this god character tortures his children by throwing them into pits of fire and hurting them for all eternity?
Sounds like *your* god has a thing for BDSM, dude.
Anubis!
Those damn goa'ulds.