Um, your statement raises the even bigger question of what good someone is who can't even solve trivial problems on a whiteboard.
Depends on what you're hiring them for. Assuming their job doesn't involve solving trivial problems on a whiteboard, how good they are at that is pretty irrelevant. I can understand this test if you're an academic. It doesn't make a lot of a sense for testing the skills of a practicing software engineer, though. Sure, it can hint at them, but you could easily design a much more accurate test, and any more accurate test will almost certainly involve not using something other than a whiteboard. I would consider being able to design a far better test than that to be an even bigger reflection of your skills. The people who think the whiteboard test is a good one obvious lack the skills necessary to do more complex and genuine problem solving...
Look at all the replies this article has. This is how sites like this determine the level of interest in a subject. By commenting here, you'd indicated this as being one of the stories that most interested you today, and encouraged/. to publish more like it.
Human population can't grow exponentially much longer.
It's surprise you admit that, since it's completely undercuts your point. This more than anything is the primary factor behind exponential growth in energy consumption.
Yes. These are the same people who researched using psychics for intelligence. It means nothing (other than, if you have enough money, you can afford to waste it outrageously).
So, say, something in the laser pointer to detect if it's being pointed at an aircraft, and causing a small explosive to detonate, deactivating the device and removing the hand of the moron who was holding it? That might work...
boggles I think I saw one of those in a museum once.
I voted for several. I used to vote R more often than D. It's telling that every single one I voted for that's still alive has since retired or been voted out of office, and in recent interviews called themselves independents, with one saying he agrees with Democrats more often these days. Neither their nor my political opinions have changed much, save for our opinions of the Republican party.
However, the case is not closed for RCW 86; these cavities are associated only with what are called core-collapse supernovas, but the Chandra and XMM-Newton observations show evidence of a great deal of iron in the remnant - associated instead with Type 1A supernovas.
The phrase in the/. summary, "...but the core remnant is high in iron..." appears to be the invention of the submitter, and does not appear in the original article.
Yes, that's what "propelled by their own weight" means. Your reading comprehension skills were not in doubt, but thanks for verifying for us all that you did in fact read what the summary says correctly.
Waqs it lying somewhere fully formed and he sort of stumbled upon it? Enquiring minds want to know...
Inherent in the nature of the universe, simply waiting for minds to explore and expound upon it, yes. That is the view of many. Sort of an extreme version of the idea that the Pythagorean Theorem is essentially embedded in nature, and Pythagoras merely discovered it.
Is there some reason for saying that "today" humanity passed the 7B mark? Are the counts really that accurate?
Well, we're growing at ten thousand per hour. That's a quarter of a million per day. To be wrong about the day, we'd have to be off by more than that. And, unlike the cattle farmer who doesn't bother to name each of a few thousand head of cattle, we humans are pretty particular about each and every individual human being. The counts probably are at least that accurate. We don't misplace a quarter million people easily...
I just realized - those numbers actually indicate a very linear increase (though I doubt this will be true in the long-term);-)
Right. It used to be exponential, now it's more linear, and if current second-order trends continue, it will eventually halt and start to backslide. Already has in many developed nations.
Good Idea: Bringing in NPCs of a fun race players have been asking for year after year.
Bad Idea: Making an entire expansion off of a joke race.
Stupid idea: assume that since the only thing you know about an expansion (apparently) is that it will include Pandaren, assume the entire expansion is nothing but Pandaren.
Blizzard doesn't realize their current model is prohibitive to new players. Even with Battle Chests, to get the full game experience, requires new players to purchase WoW, BC, Wraith, Cataclysm and now Panda. With each costing ~40 you're looking at a nearly $200 barrier of entry.
First of all, that's not true, and secondly, your math is way off. You can't buy BC separately anymore, you just automatically get all BC content with WoW, and that costs $20, not $40. You then spend $40 for Wrath, or more likely ~30 on sale, and then $40 for Cata, for a total of $90 or at worst $100 to get you current. When Panda is released, they'll do the exact same thing they've done the past two expansions -- bundle more into the first package/battle chest/whatever, then you pay for Cata and and Panda, for a total of $100. It's what they've done with every new expansion to keep the cost of getting to endgame from becoming prohibitive, why do you think they've suddenly stop?
... Pandarens as a race don't fit the world, they were originally put in as a joke...
As were gnomes, and goblins, and tauren. Are you sure you've ever played the Warcraft games? Much of its content was there for the humor value. Pandarens fit the world perfectly. You just seem to be unfamiliar with it.
Um, really? How bizarre. Maybe you need that much if you're running Win 7. Modern WoW runs beautifully on Windows XP, 2GB RAM, 1.2GHz single-core processor, and a six year old video card. Alas, it doesn't run any better if you have better stuff, since it's designed to run well on what was a casual, modest system in 2004 and they've steadfastly refused to update the graphics engine or anything to be more demanding. Hence, even today the most modern content looks kinda crappy compared to state of the art 2005 games.
They seem to be aware of this -- one of the goals they've stated for Mists of Pandaria is to get people out into the world more instead of hanging around Stormwind/Orgrimmar all day once they hit 85, so they'll have a bunch of stuff for you to head out into the world to do.
Slashdot Mirror
Um, your statement raises the even bigger question of what good someone is who can't even solve trivial problems on a whiteboard.
Depends on what you're hiring them for. Assuming their job doesn't involve solving trivial problems on a whiteboard, how good they are at that is pretty irrelevant. I can understand this test if you're an academic. It doesn't make a lot of a sense for testing the skills of a practicing software engineer, though. Sure, it can hint at them, but you could easily design a much more accurate test, and any more accurate test will almost certainly involve not using something other than a whiteboard. I would consider being able to design a far better test than that to be an even bigger reflection of your skills. The people who think the whiteboard test is a good one obvious lack the skills necessary to do more complex and genuine problem solving...
That's why Slashdot still looks just like it did 10 years ago.
Not true at all. I there have been a number of instances of significant degradation of /.'s look and feel over the last decade.
Look at all the replies this article has. This is how sites like this determine the level of interest in a subject. By commenting here, you'd indicated this as being one of the stories that most interested you today, and encouraged /. to publish more like it.
Human population can't grow exponentially much longer.
It's surprise you admit that, since it's completely undercuts your point. This more than anything is the primary factor behind exponential growth in energy consumption.
Those green technologies would be a lot cheaper if they got half the subsidies oil companies do.
...military is working on it too.
Yes. These are the same people who researched using psychics for intelligence. It means nothing (other than, if you have enough money, you can afford to waste it outrageously).
You've put way too much thought into this... XD
So, say, something in the laser pointer to detect if it's being pointed at an aircraft, and causing a small explosive to detonate, deactivating the device and removing the hand of the moron who was holding it? That might work...
Hence the name: Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister.
Amen, brother.
a moderate Republican
boggles I think I saw one of those in a museum once.
I voted for several. I used to vote R more often than D. It's telling that every single one I voted for that's still alive has since retired or been voted out of office, and in recent interviews called themselves independents, with one saying he agrees with Democrats more often these days. Neither their nor my political opinions have changed much, save for our opinions of the Republican party.
You haven't lived until you've eaten fresh duck roasted over a pool of molten lava ;)
I just now realized how barren and empty my life has been...
At least I've got chicken.
Indeed, TFA reads:
However, the case is not closed for RCW 86; these cavities are associated only with what are called core-collapse supernovas, but the Chandra and XMM-Newton observations show evidence of a great deal of iron in the remnant - associated instead with Type 1A supernovas.
The phrase in the /. summary, "...but the core remnant is high in iron..." appears to be the invention of the submitter, and does not appear in the original article.
Yes, that's what "propelled by their own weight" means. Your reading comprehension skills were not in doubt, but thanks for verifying for us all that you did in fact read what the summary says correctly.
If I put a rolling pin on a treadmill on a downward slope, I achieve the same effect.
No, you don't. No matter what you do with a rolling pin, it will not walk with a human-like gait.
Waqs it lying somewhere fully formed and he sort of stumbled upon it? Enquiring minds want to know...
Inherent in the nature of the universe, simply waiting for minds to explore and expound upon it, yes. That is the view of many. Sort of an extreme version of the idea that the Pythagorean Theorem is essentially embedded in nature, and Pythagoras merely discovered it.
I think all philosophers would universally agree that philosophy is worthwhile. :-)
Ha! There are entire philosophy books, written by philosophers, dedicated to the theory that philosophy is worthless and should be abandoned.
Is there some reason for saying that "today" humanity passed the 7B mark? Are the counts really that accurate?
Well, we're growing at ten thousand per hour. That's a quarter of a million per day. To be wrong about the day, we'd have to be off by more than that. And, unlike the cattle farmer who doesn't bother to name each of a few thousand head of cattle, we humans are pretty particular about each and every individual human being. The counts probably are at least that accurate. We don't misplace a quarter million people easily...
I love how you say he got it backwards, then state a double-negative that, once parsed, has precisely the same meaning. XD
I just realized - those numbers actually indicate a very linear increase (though I doubt this will be true in the long-term) ;-)
Right. It used to be exponential, now it's more linear, and if current second-order trends continue, it will eventually halt and start to backslide. Already has in many developed nations.
Good Idea: Bringing in NPCs of a fun race players have been asking for year after year.
Bad Idea: Making an entire expansion off of a joke race.
Stupid idea: assume that since the only thing you know about an expansion (apparently) is that it will include Pandaren, assume the entire expansion is nothing but Pandaren.
Blizzard doesn't realize their current model is prohibitive to new players. Even with Battle Chests, to get the full game experience, requires new players to purchase WoW, BC, Wraith, Cataclysm and now Panda. With each costing ~40 you're looking at a nearly $200 barrier of entry.
First of all, that's not true, and secondly, your math is way off. You can't buy BC separately anymore, you just automatically get all BC content with WoW, and that costs $20, not $40. You then spend $40 for Wrath, or more likely ~30 on sale, and then $40 for Cata, for a total of $90 or at worst $100 to get you current. When Panda is released, they'll do the exact same thing they've done the past two expansions -- bundle more into the first package/battle chest/whatever, then you pay for Cata and and Panda, for a total of $100. It's what they've done with every new expansion to keep the cost of getting to endgame from becoming prohibitive, why do you think they've suddenly stop?
... Pandarens as a race don't fit the world, they were originally put in as a joke...
As were gnomes, and goblins, and tauren. Are you sure you've ever played the Warcraft games? Much of its content was there for the humor value. Pandarens fit the world perfectly. You just seem to be unfamiliar with it.
A new expac announcement inside a year of the last being brought out.
You mean exactly like all three previous expansions? They've all been announced at the BlizzCon following the release of the previous one.
Um, really? How bizarre. Maybe you need that much if you're running Win 7. Modern WoW runs beautifully on Windows XP, 2GB RAM, 1.2GHz single-core processor, and a six year old video card. Alas, it doesn't run any better if you have better stuff, since it's designed to run well on what was a casual, modest system in 2004 and they've steadfastly refused to update the graphics engine or anything to be more demanding. Hence, even today the most modern content looks kinda crappy compared to state of the art 2005 games.
They seem to be aware of this -- one of the goals they've stated for Mists of Pandaria is to get people out into the world more instead of hanging around Stormwind/Orgrimmar all day once they hit 85, so they'll have a bunch of stuff for you to head out into the world to do.