Yeah, I guess it was a poorly worded question on his part. Still, people need to use common sense when they read these things. I do use online reviews to make buying decisions, and I've found that the quality of the reviews depends a lot on what you're trying to purchase.
For instance, technical books tend to have good reviews on Amazon. This is probably because it's more difficult for a marketer to fake that stuff. I've also used reviews on others sites before buying a lawn mower, snow thrower, and a computer parts supplier. I had to dig through more noise, but the results have all been positive.
Probably the worst reviews that I've found have been for video games. It's nothing but blind fans, posting mindless garbage about how much this game rules.
What I usually do is look for trends in the negative reviews. If there is a common theme emerging, then I might stay away from that product or company. The same can be said for the reviews that people get on Ebay. If someone has a few negatives, and they all say that he didn't ship on time, there might be a problem there.
A reviewer who takes the time to use proper grammar and explains his thoughts logically will obviously carry more weight.
Again, it's just common sense, with a little luck thrown in.
I wasn't saying that you can't find vinyl. I was just pointing out that price isn't the reason that people choose vinyl records over cd's, which we seem to agree on.
Actually, if you compare the cost and availability of CD's and LP's, you're going to come out ahead with CD's. Then factor in the ease of making your own CD's, configured however you like it. LP's are a pain to find, use, and maintain.
I'd wager that the popularity of LP turntables has more to do with the "coolness" factor than the price.
Apparently DOS+Windows was good enough for their employees too. When I worked at IBM in the late 90's, they were in the process of moving their (non-Unix) desktop systems from OS/2 to Windows. The general reaction was "Hmm, ok. I use Windows at home anyway." It's probably a bad sign when the company doesn't want to use its own product.
It should be fairly easy to find facts on gun ownership, number of shooting deaths, etc
One problem is that you can't find statistics on how many crimes are prevented because someone pulled a gun. Those types of incidents are rarely reported. It's only when someone actually pulls the trigger that it becomes a statistic.
/** Decide if payment is required. * @author Jim - IT Development */ public boolean isPayment { /* 1% chance of payment */ //if (Math.random() < 0.01) { // return true; //} //return false;
Your access to the web in general is one thing. But do you also think that it's appropriate for you to decide how someone else develops their own website? If American Airlines doesn't design their site with blind access in mind, that sounds like a business problem not a legal one.
If they did, then they're engaging in unfair business practices.
Their business is making a list of links based on a set of words that the user types in. How do you manage to read into this that the list has to be "fair". And who defines "fair" anyway? They can produce any list they want to. If that list isn't useful, people won't use Google.
True, but SearchKing is alleging that they tweaked the algorithm solely to shut them out as a competitor.
Even if they did, so what? Google can rank pages any way they want to. If that means never showing a Search King link at all, that's their choice.
In this scenario, if the users of Google decided that they would rather use a search engine that doesn't arbitrarily block sites, they'd move to another search engine.
The complaint is not that his work is rooted in science fiction. The complaint is that he won't admit it. At least not publically. I'm not sure why any of this matters though. The first three were good, ESB the best, and TPM was horrible. What's more to know?
*sigh* I've never modded anything up because of humor, but this would have warranted it. It basically sums up just how stupid the arguments between engineers can get. Having gone to an engineering university, it really hit home.
Sounds like you worked for a pretty low tech surveying outfit then.
The ability to get sub-centimeter accuracy from GPS has been around for years. It's called Differential GPS. Basically, you set one receiver as a base station at a known location. The base station measures the error between its known point and the location that the GPS measurement is giving it. This error information is transmitted to a similar mobile GPS unit in the field, which applies the error correction. Some surveyers go so far as to use 6 or more base stations, although theoretically you only need one.
It costs bucks (big ones), but your statement about GPS not being accurate enough for surveying is false. This is old tech now.
Re:Why not a .free or .all domains for free?
on
.biz Open For Biz
·
· Score: 1
It might be free to you, but someone will have to pay for it. Probably me through higher taxes. No thanks.
...I would go to my local car improvement rally were it not for all the guns held by the police and contestants at such events...
How sad that you live in such fear. When was the last time you heard of a shootout at a car rally? For that matter when was the last time you heard of a shootout at a gun show? They're rare events, because the criminals know that someone will be there to shoot back at them.
Guns make you safer, even if you're not the person carrying one.
Re:I can't see these _not_ getting foxed.
on
Ultima Revived
·
· Score: 1
(Fox is the term coined after the shutdown of Aliens Doom by the fox movie studio)
You end up exchanging dozens of e-mails, where you say, "That's bad because of this and this," and they say, "Oh no, this programming style is great." Then you have got to teach them a couple of years of computer science so they can understand why it's crap.
If by some miracle, the person in charge of that site is reading this, your HTML is hosed.
You close the freameset tag 5 times and noframes tag twice. Most of these are outside of your html tag.
The fun part is that you have all of your "Home" links pointing to/index.htm rather than/main.htm, so if you keep clicking the "Home" link it fills the screen with your navigation frame.
It's fun to play with, in a "wow someone actually got paid for this?" kind of way.
When I first subscribed, the issues all came wrapped in a nice envelope which protected them in the mail. Suddenly, they started mailing them sans-envelope with the mailing label glued to the cover. The first issue that arrived in this fashion had a very mangled back cover.
Now, this wasn't a really big deal because it didn't affect the content. But, it still bugged me. I wrote to TPJ and explained that I owned every copy of the magazine, and they are an important part of my library/archive/"O'Reilly shrine". I said that it was just the back cover, and I didn't really want a new issue, but would appreciate an envelope in the future.
Well, in no time at all, I received in the mail a brand new copy of the damaged issue. It was in pristine condition, in an envelope, and it included a handwritten note from Jon Orwant appologizing for the inconvenience. I was very impressed.
Great magazine, awesome content, and great customer service. Thank you TPJ.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I guess it was a poorly worded question on his part. Still, people need to use common sense when they read these things. I do use online reviews to make buying decisions, and I've found that the quality of the reviews depends a lot on what you're trying to purchase.
For instance, technical books tend to have good reviews on Amazon. This is probably because it's more difficult for a marketer to fake that stuff. I've also used reviews on others sites before buying a lawn mower, snow thrower, and a computer parts supplier. I had to dig through more noise, but the results have all been positive.
Probably the worst reviews that I've found have been for video games. It's nothing but blind fans, posting mindless garbage about how much this game rules.
What I usually do is look for trends in the negative reviews. If there is a common theme emerging, then I might stay away from that product or company. The same can be said for the reviews that people get on Ebay. If someone has a few negatives, and they all say that he didn't ship on time, there might be a problem there.
A reviewer who takes the time to use proper grammar and explains his thoughts logically will obviously carry more weight.
Again, it's just common sense, with a little luck thrown in.
How about ignoring the reviews if you don't trust them? This isn't difficult.
I wasn't saying that you can't find vinyl. I was just pointing out that price isn't the reason that people choose vinyl records over cd's, which we seem to agree on.
Actually, if you compare the cost and availability of CD's and LP's, you're going to come out ahead with CD's. Then factor in the ease of making your own CD's, configured however you like it. LP's are a pain to find, use, and maintain.
I'd wager that the popularity of LP turntables has more to do with the "coolness" factor than the price.
Apparently DOS+Windows was good enough for their employees too. When I worked at IBM in the late 90's, they were in the process of moving their (non-Unix) desktop systems from OS/2 to Windows. The general reaction was "Hmm, ok. I use Windows at home anyway." It's probably a bad sign when the company doesn't want to use its own product.
One problem is that you can't find statistics on how many crimes are prevented because someone pulled a gun. Those types of incidents are rarely reported. It's only when someone actually pulls the trigger that it becomes a statistic.
Uh huh. And the code looks like this.
/* 1% chance of payment */
//if (Math.random() < 0.01) {
// return true;
//}
//return false;
// Fixed a bug (Bob - Marketing Department)
/** Decide if payment is required.
* @author Jim - IT Development
*/
public boolean isPayment {
return true;
}
Tell that to the Coyote the next time he's loading a catapult.
Your access to the web in general is one thing. But do you also think that it's appropriate for you to decide how someone else develops their own website? If American Airlines doesn't design their site with blind access in mind, that sounds like a business problem not a legal one.
Their business is making a list of links based on a set of words that the user types in. How do you manage to read into this that the list has to be "fair". And who defines "fair" anyway? They can produce any list they want to. If that list isn't useful, people won't use Google.
Even if they did, so what? Google can rank pages any way they want to. If that means never showing a Search King link at all, that's their choice.
In this scenario, if the users of Google decided that they would rather use a search engine that doesn't arbitrarily block sites, they'd move to another search engine.
Odds are good that a lot of audiophile's pants were changed after that too.
The complaint is not that his work is rooted in science fiction. The complaint is that he won't admit it. At least not publically. I'm not sure why any of this matters though. The first three were good, ESB the best, and TPM was horrible. What's more to know?
*sigh* I've never modded anything up because of humor, but this would have warranted it. It basically sums up just how stupid the arguments between engineers can get. Having gone to an engineering university, it really hit home.
:)
Thanks for the laugh.
Yes, no, and no. Any other stupid questions?
Sounds like you worked for a pretty low tech surveying outfit then.
The ability to get sub-centimeter accuracy from GPS has been around for years. It's called Differential GPS. Basically, you set one receiver as a base station at a known location. The base station measures the error between its known point and the location that the GPS measurement is giving it. This error information is transmitted to a similar mobile GPS unit in the field, which applies the error correction. Some surveyers go so far as to use 6 or more base stations, although theoretically you only need one.
It costs bucks (big ones), but your statement about GPS not being accurate enough for surveying is false. This is old tech now.
It might be free to you, but someone will have to pay for it. Probably me through higher taxes. No thanks.
Phase 1: Steal the Underpants.
Phase 2: ?.
Phase 3: Profit!
That'll only work for Gnome.
How sad that you live in such fear. When was the last time you heard of a shootout at a car rally? For that matter when was the last time you heard of a shootout at a gun show? They're rare events, because the criminals know that someone will be there to shoot back at them.
Guns make you safer, even if you're not the person carrying one.
If you have to explain it, was it really coined?
Well, you certainly aren't alone. MOM2, done properly, could be a great game. I'd pay money for it anyway.
You end up exchanging dozens of e-mails, where you say, "That's bad because of this and this," and they say, "Oh no, this programming style is great." Then you have got to teach them a couple of years of computer science so they can understand why it's crap.
OT - but annoying.
/index.htm rather than /main.htm, so if you keep clicking the "Home" link it fills the screen with your navigation frame.
If by some miracle, the person in charge of that site is reading this, your HTML is hosed.
You close the freameset tag 5 times and noframes tag twice. Most of these are outside of your html tag.
The fun part is that you have all of your "Home" links pointing to
It's fun to play with, in a "wow someone actually got paid for this?" kind of way.
Now, this wasn't a really big deal because it didn't affect the content. But, it still bugged me. I wrote to TPJ and explained that I owned every copy of the magazine, and they are an important part of my library/archive/"O'Reilly shrine". I said that it was just the back cover, and I didn't really want a new issue, but would appreciate an envelope in the future.
Well, in no time at all, I received in the mail a brand new copy of the damaged issue. It was in pristine condition, in an envelope, and it included a handwritten note from Jon Orwant appologizing for the inconvenience. I was very impressed. Great magazine, awesome content, and great customer service. Thank you TPJ.
It's "Real Genius".