If they were charging more than the running costs then yes. That would be immoral.
What this guy's doing is worse, because first he's convincing gullible people that they have a problem (when in fact they probably don't), and once they fall for that line then he's trying to milk them for cash. I find that repugnant.
Did people in the middle ages, for example, ever think much past the end of their own lives?
They didn't seem to think about much else - it's called religion. I suspect the afterlife they were thinking about was considerably different than their daily existence.
The difference now is that we're imagining a future that we can build ourselves, and maybe even live long enough to experience.
Yep, way OT, but who cares this far down the thread. Gentoo's nice, but to get the full benefit you need broadband and a reasonably quick machine (those KDE compiles take ages). Being on the bleeding edge can be fun though:)
Exactly - I use that one all the time. Together with the tilde, which saves me typing the full path to my home directory (emacs ~/src/foo.c) the `/~ key on the US layout is one of the most useful keys.
On the other hand, there should be a law against CAPS LOCK. Especially for AOL users.
Wow, I remember playing that on a C64 in about 1985, which would make it about the same age as nethack.
Of course, with nethack you don't get a printed manual with descriptions of the locations you enter - I don't think there was room in the C64's "elephantine" memory to hold them.
Software engineering is so grossly inefficient that only kids have the stamina to weather the hours that it takes to do anything robust and useful.
Software engineering as practiced by those kids might be that inefficient. The whole point is that you learn easier ways to get the same effect and make fewer mistakes as you gain experience.
The fact is, in Software Engineering if you are over 30 you had better be in management or a legacy maintenance program like me with Clipper, or you're out.
Wrong. If you actually learn from your experience instead of stagnating there's no reason for this to happen. You don't ned to pull all-nighters because you do it right the first time.
Same goes for your analogy with learning new organs. If all you get out of CS schools is some parrot-learned techniques then you've totally missed the point of that level of education, which is to teach you how to learn for yourself.
If you think you've "lost it" when you turn 30 then you probably never had it in the first place.
Quite right. Studies have shown that every spammer started out dabbling in "soft" electronic communications - an email here, a Slashdot post there.
They think it's harmless and that they can stop anytime they want but inevitably they end up spamming millions of messages, spending money on bulk email software and CDs with lists of fake "verified" email addresses.
Soon they have to start selling herbal viagra to support their habit and some even resort to scanning naked pictures of themselves and their family to attract attention to their messages.
From there it's only a small step to selling lists of their friends and acquaintances addresses to other desparate souls and the whole sordid process begins again.
The only rational solution is for the government to declare a "War on Email" to protect our children from the misery caused by electronic communications.
A modest first step would be to outlaw the so-called "Internet Service Pushers"; these are the people who provide the helpless spammers with the means to feed their addiction, and so profit from others' suffering.
I urge you to write to your local government representative now. Think of the children!
Wow, good idea! I only wish it happened more often in technical cases. Better still, maybe judges should be required to attend a remedial computer class and barred (heh) from hearing computer-related cases until they pass it.
# Computer code does not suffer from wear and tear,
Not in the conventional sense, but the context in which the code runs will change over time and this has the same effect.
- A program which runs perfectly on one release of an OS might fail when the OS is upgraded.
- An installation of an updated shared library can break the code.
- Eventually the hardware will break and need replacing. Guess what - the old OS probably won't support the new hardware and will need upgrading, thus causing the program to fail.
Computer code doesn't exist in isolation and if it's to continue to function it must be adapted to a changing environment.
Slashdot Mirror
If they were charging more than the running costs then yes. That would be immoral.
What this guy's doing is worse, because first he's convincing gullible people that they have a problem (when in fact they probably don't), and once they fall for that line then he's trying to milk them for cash. I find that repugnant.
The comments here belittle one man's attempt to improve himself.
To the tune of $3.95 a month.
The guy's trying to profit from other people's "weaknesses" and deserves all the contempt which is thrown at him.
Shouldn't that be "slackers".
Did people in the middle ages, for example, ever think much past the end of their own lives?
They didn't seem to think about much else - it's called religion. I suspect the afterlife they were thinking about was considerably different than their daily existence.
The difference now is that we're imagining a future that we can build ourselves, and maybe even live long enough to experience.
TarProxy is written in Java,
Well, that's one way to do it.
He changed the site in response to the threat. It used to be a parody of google - quite subtly funny IMO.
That's google's third strike in two days: two spurious legal threats and a dodgy patent. I'm starting to get a bit irritated with them.
Yep, way OT, but who cares this far down the thread. Gentoo's nice, but to get the full benefit you need broadband and a reasonably quick machine (those KDE compiles take ages). Being on the bleeding edge can be fun though :)
emerge nethack
A good 40% easier.
Exactly - I use that one all the time. Together with the tilde, which saves me typing the full path to my home directory (emacs ~/src/foo.c) the `/~ key on the US layout is one of the most useful keys.
On the other hand, there should be a law against CAPS LOCK. Especially for AOL users.
I guess you're not a *nix user. The back-tick is a *very* useful key.
Thirty years ago, they didn't have WYSIWYG wordprocessors. Thirty years ago, they didn't have C++ or Perl or Python.
Paradise! Take me back there!
VHS had two hour tapes...
Which, as far as I'm concerned. made VHS technically better.
They're probably just jealous because they could never get past Minetown.
Wow, I remember playing that on a C64 in about 1985, which would make it about the same age as nethack.
Of course, with nethack you don't get a printed manual with descriptions of the locations you enter - I don't think there was room in the C64's "elephantine" memory to hold them.
Fun game though. Thanks for reminding me of it.
Software engineering as practiced by those kids might be that inefficient. The whole point is that you learn easier ways to get the same effect and make fewer mistakes as you gain experience.
Wrong. If you actually learn from your experience instead of stagnating there's no reason for this to happen. You don't ned to pull all-nighters because you do it right the first time.
Same goes for your analogy with learning new organs. If all you get out of CS schools is some parrot-learned techniques then you've totally missed the point of that level of education, which is to teach you how to learn for yourself.
If you think you've "lost it" when you turn 30 then you probably never had it in the first place.
2:38 left on the laptop battery and then I'll be offline for Christmas.
a bill that blocks the use of email
Quite right. Studies have shown that every spammer started out dabbling in "soft" electronic communications - an email here, a Slashdot post there.
They think it's harmless and that they can stop anytime they want but inevitably they end up spamming millions of messages, spending money on bulk email software and CDs with lists of fake "verified" email addresses.
Soon they have to start selling herbal viagra to support their habit and some even resort to scanning naked pictures of themselves and their family to attract attention to their messages.
From there it's only a small step to selling lists of their friends and acquaintances addresses to other desparate souls and the whole sordid process begins again.
The only rational solution is for the government to declare a "War on Email" to protect our children from the misery caused by electronic communications.
A modest first step would be to outlaw the so-called "Internet Service Pushers"; these are the people who provide the helpless spammers with the means to feed their addiction, and so profit from others' suffering.
I urge you to write to your local government representative now. Think of the children!
What I want to know is if I'm the only over-40 person to like reading trash.
Guess that make me a feral...
They did test at 1024x768 after people asked in the comments section, and posted the results there. Performance was still pretty dismal.
Anyway - I have a couple of unused vacation days that I plan on spending in the courtroom.
/.? Would make an good follow up story to this one.
How about submitting a writeup to
[...]finding judges qualified to hear the case
Wow, good idea! I only wish it happened more often in technical cases. Better still, maybe judges should be required to attend a remedial computer class and barred (heh) from hearing computer-related cases until they pass it.
Arrogant scientists unleash a horror which gets out of control.
Hero dispatches said horror after it kills arrogant scientists.
Conclusion (voice-over): "There Are Some Things That Man Was Not Meant To Know".
I'll stick with Neal Stephenson, thanks.
# Computer code does not suffer from wear and tear,
Not in the conventional sense, but the context in which the code runs will change over time and this has the same effect.
- A program which runs perfectly on one release of an OS might fail when the OS is upgraded.
- An installation of an updated shared library can break the code.
- Eventually the hardware will break and need replacing. Guess what - the old OS probably won't support the new hardware and will need upgrading, thus causing the program to fail.
Computer code doesn't exist in isolation and if it's to continue to function it must be adapted to a changing environment.
Where did this COME from?
"Caves of Steel" by the sound of it, which IMO would be a better choice for a film than trying to tie together all the stories in "I, Robot".
ROFL. Oh, for some mod points.