IIRC, we responded to the Irish terrorism by sending thousands of troops into Northern Ireland, instituting detention without trial (Internment) and greatly increasing the size and powers of the security services.
"Living in London and with sons using the Tube daily, my human right to be free of worry of them being blown to bits takes precedence over everything."
How idiotic do you have to be to post that? Apparently "CC, London, UK" is willing to sacrifice human rights in order to reduce his risk of death by a miniscule amount. Even if terrorist attacks manage one a year, he is still 10 times more likely to die of drowning than by being blown up. 100 times more likely to die by being run over while walking to the tube station than by being blown up.
The hysteria about terrorism just makes no sense to me. Even if the security services were 100% effective and stopped every terrorist attack, the risk of me (and every other citizen in Britain or the USA) dying of non-disease or age-related causes in the next year would be virtually unchanged.
AFAICS, the terrorists have already won in the UK: our freedoms are being eroded, our free society is weakening, Muslims are coming under increased attack. FFS, dark-skinned people with backpacks are being treated like terrorists on the Tube by other passengers. What happened to tolerance and the stiff upper lip?
I almost replied to this before, but decided not to. But now it's been modded up? Bizarre. It barely even makes sense.
Maybe I'll explain it simply for you:
1) Most people listen to their iPod in their pocket (or clipped to something). Presumably you would rather not be linked to a bag by a headphone cable if possible. 2) Pockets are quite small containers, often pressed up against skin by the outer layer of material of clothing. They are most commonly available on humans around the thigh region, or in warmer weather requiring a coat, around the waist area. 3) Pockets are available in a range of sizes. In many cases, large pocket size is sacrificed for the fashion or style of the containing garment. In warm weather, wearing a jacket to provide a large pocket may be uncomfortable, leaving only smaller thigh-region pockets for storage (buttock-region pockets may also be available, but are not favoured due to the difficulty in sitting down when they are full.) 4) Large items in too-small trouser pockets either make the human wearing the trousers look like a sex offender (if the pocket-owning human is male) or press against their leg, causing discomfort. 4) We can conclude from the previous four statements that, for many people, smaller iPods are desirable.
Exactly. The author seems to forget that games are meant to be fun, not frustrating. A game can be challenging without having to be frustratingly difficult purely because it requires some action to be performed with perfect accuracy - it's the essence of good game making. There's an far better article about the subject on Gamasutra.
Hahahaha. I've seen peer review and I've had it foisted on me by over-worked supervisors. Most published papers I've seen only get the most cursory review before publication. Hell, I've had complete crap published.
It's not just psychology that has so much publication list padding. During my PhD I was asked to do a detailed review of about ten papers in my area (process scheduling algorithms). They were all peer-reviewed and published in reputable journals by well-known researchers. IIRC:
- About half had very little novel content. Maybe one equation changed, a few different examples added - Two or three had basic mathematical errors - About half omitted details that were required to easily replicate their results or actually use their methods. I spent weeks piecing together what the authors meant from various clues scattered across appendices, tables and figures. - Several had gaping holes in the method that were apparent to me, a first year PhD with no experience. - All of them cherry-picked examples to show their methods in the best light, completely omitting any bad results.
1. There used to be a link to PA on the Slashdot front page. That's how I found out about it, anyway.
2. PA is consistently funny.
3. PA generally has interesting and (mostly) well-written games-related info along with the comic. Certainly better than the write up for most comics and games sites, anyway.
4. PA has gone out of its way to create a community of readers around itself. They have their own WoW guild and many mascots, for example.
I would second the "Perfoce rocks". We just switched from SourceSafe, so I guess anything would seem good after that abomination, but Perforce has a really nice interface, is fast and cross-platform.
I definitely agree on the Freespaces. I got review copies (university paper) of both and they both passed the "dressing gown" test - I would play review games saturday morning, and if it got to late afternoon and I was still in my dressing gown and playing the game, then it was a good game.
Unfortunately, both copies were pre-release code and I can't even get them to install any more. Anyone know of good PS2/GC alternatives?
I think his point was that application-layer security does nothing to prevent people using your network. If you have an extremely fast (or no) internet connection, you might not mind other people using your network - if you have limited bandwidth or usage caps, someone leaching could be very annoying.
Just how bad are textbooks in the US then? I can think of one German language textbook I used at school I disliked, the others were on the whole interesting and dealt with concepts and background over rote memorisation. The emphasis on rote learning here (UK) started to dissappear 25 years ago, unless something has changed drastically since I left school.
Every job beyond the most menial is going to involve reading and writing reports, manuals, sdks etc. The simple act of reading a newspaper requires the concentration to read 1500-2000 words of dense, factual text - I would hope that schools could at least produce kids that can read a newspaper.
Can someone out there explain what this means in simple words a dumb software developer like me can understand? Say I wanted to create a Linux distro called "FooLinux" now, as an entirely volunteer, non-commercial effort. Do I have to pay the LMI $200 if I want to operate in one of the jurisdictions where the trademark is valid?
I have sat through so many Powerpoint lectures (ex-PhD student) and they are almost universally crap. Nobody listens, the speaker just reads every bullet point, nobody checks anything. I swear, in most cases you could add a slide in the middle saying "Screw you bunch of tree-hugging hippies" and nobody would notice.
It's because it is so easy to cram so much information into the slides with no explanation or consideration of how people will understand it. The best talks were always those where the speaker actually got involved and wrote something or interacted with the presentation.
When I was an undergrad (1997-2001), our lectures were all OHP or board-based. We were given printed lecture notes at the beginning of every lecture or course and the lecturer then went through the material on the board, writing out proofs, deriving formulas and explaining concepts. The students could then annotate the notes themselves from the lectures if they wanted. The best lecturers were those that got really involved: half way through writing something on the board, they would get distracted and tell some related anecdote from their time in industry. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in powerpoint lectures.
One computer for every three students? How did they ever think that many computers would help with the children's education?
Ridiculous quote: Jena Haggith, one of Hansen's students last school year, said she preferred his use of technology for lessons over textbooks. "When I read from a textbook, I get so bored, so I don't know what they're saying,"
But how much time in lessons is spent reading the textbook? 5%, perhaps 10%. Hardly a justification for spending so much money. Also, the ability to read and comprehend dense factual text is a useful skill - how are these kids going to cope in the real world where everything isn't broken down into bite-size multimedia presentations?
But it gets even funnier: But, he said, students perk up when technology is involved. "They're into computers, and they're into what computers can do," he said.
No, they're perking up because they know they won't have to do any work for the rest of the lesson because the teacher will be too busy troubleshooting to keep an eye on the kids
A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words. intr.v., punned, punning, puns.
Battlefield 2 seems to be a game requiring team work that (so far) has managed to avoid the "13 year old moron" problem. I have yet to be intentionally TKed, and frequently spend entire games attacking and defending as part of a squad, with medics, engineers and support guys etc all going out of their way to help people out.
I think it's a combination of the benefits of teamwork in the game, the way the points system works and the persistent profile.
Except that the programmers of the game can make a better sword at any time by changing one or two numbers. Music, movies and books, on the other hand, require artistic effort to improve.
It doesn't take more intelligence or skill to make a Sword+5 than a Sword+4. It takes effort to make it look better graphically, of course, but people aren't buying these things for the looks.
The BBC still has to justify its existence and funding to government and to the public, who pay for it. Viewing figures and page impressions give them evidence that their output is still worthwhile.
I would have to agree with you on that. MS Office is not an especially good piece of software, but office workers can hack together functionality that saves them hours of work using it without being programmers.
It's not that people are lazy, really, it's just that compared to workers' salaries, software really isn't that expensive.
This got modded insightful? Of course motorways are the safest, they have been very carfeully designed to be safe. Add to that no pedestrians, no cycles, no parked cars, no sharp corners, no hidden junctions and no major relative speed diffences between cars and of course they are safe.
It's pretty bad logic to assume from that that "speed == safe". Personally, I'd like to see the motorway limit pushed up to around 80-90mph, combined with an extension of 20mph limits and better enforcement of those limits in urban areas. The fact that idiots do 30-40mph down my tiny one-lane, two-way residential street with a primary school at one end is insane.
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IIRC, we responded to the Irish terrorism by sending thousands of troops into Northern Ireland, instituting detention without trial (Internment) and greatly increasing the size and powers of the security services.
I don't see anyone threatening to remove right to trial in order to prevent leukemia.
It gets worse:
"Living in London and with sons using the Tube daily, my human right to be free of worry of them being blown to bits takes precedence over everything."
How idiotic do you have to be to post that? Apparently "CC, London, UK" is willing to sacrifice human rights in order to reduce his risk of death by a miniscule amount. Even if terrorist attacks manage one a year, he is still 10 times more likely to die of drowning than by being blown up. 100 times more likely to die by being run over while walking to the tube station than by being blown up.
The hysteria about terrorism just makes no sense to me. Even if the security services were 100% effective and stopped every terrorist attack, the risk of me (and every other citizen in Britain or the USA) dying of non-disease or age-related causes in the next year would be virtually unchanged.
AFAICS, the terrorists have already won in the UK: our freedoms are being eroded, our free society is weakening, Muslims are coming under increased attack. FFS, dark-skinned people with backpacks are being treated like terrorists on the Tube by other passengers. What happened to tolerance and the stiff upper lip?
I almost replied to this before, but decided not to. But now it's been modded up? Bizarre. It barely even makes sense.
Maybe I'll explain it simply for you:
1) Most people listen to their iPod in their pocket (or clipped to something). Presumably you would rather not be linked to a bag by a headphone cable if possible.
2) Pockets are quite small containers, often pressed up against skin by the outer layer of material of clothing. They are most commonly available on humans around the thigh region, or in warmer weather requiring a coat, around the waist area.
3) Pockets are available in a range of sizes. In many cases, large pocket size is sacrificed for the fashion or style of the containing garment. In warm weather, wearing a jacket to provide a large pocket may be uncomfortable, leaving only smaller thigh-region pockets for storage (buttock-region pockets may also be available, but are not favoured due to the difficulty in sitting down when they are full.)
4) Large items in too-small trouser pockets either make the human wearing the trousers look like a sex offender (if the pocket-owning human is male) or press against their leg, causing discomfort.
4) We can conclude from the previous four statements that, for many people, smaller iPods are desirable.
Exactly. The author seems to forget that games are meant to be fun, not frustrating. A game can be challenging without having to be frustratingly difficult purely because it requires some action to be performed with perfect accuracy - it's the essence of good game making. There's an far better article about the subject on Gamasutra.
One that could play the GNOME logout fade animation without stuttering is all I want. Why oh why did I buy a laptop with an ATI X700?
Hahahaha. I've seen peer review and I've had it foisted on me by over-worked supervisors. Most published papers I've seen only get the most cursory review before publication. Hell, I've had complete crap published.
It's not just psychology that has so much publication list padding. During my PhD I was asked to do a detailed review of about ten papers in my area (process scheduling algorithms). They were all peer-reviewed and published in reputable journals by well-known researchers. IIRC:
- About half had very little novel content. Maybe one equation changed, a few different examples added
- Two or three had basic mathematical errors
- About half omitted details that were required to easily replicate their results or actually use their methods. I spent weeks piecing together what the authors meant from various clues scattered across appendices, tables and figures.
- Several had gaping holes in the method that were apparent to me, a first year PhD with no experience.
- All of them cherry-picked examples to show their methods in the best light, completely omitting any bad results.
"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research"
That's what my supervisor used to say to me when I got depressed about lack of progress.
Some reasons:
1. There used to be a link to PA on the Slashdot front page. That's how I found out about it, anyway.
2. PA is consistently funny.
3. PA generally has interesting and (mostly) well-written games-related info along with the comic. Certainly better than the write up for most comics and games sites, anyway.
4. PA has gone out of its way to create a community of readers around itself. They have their own WoW guild and many mascots, for example.
I would second the "Perfoce rocks". We just switched from SourceSafe, so I guess anything would seem good after that abomination, but Perforce has a really nice interface, is fast and cross-platform.
I definitely agree on the Freespaces. I got review copies (university paper) of both and they both passed the "dressing gown" test - I would play review games saturday morning, and if it got to late afternoon and I was still in my dressing gown and playing the game, then it was a good game.
Unfortunately, both copies were pre-release code and I can't even get them to install any more. Anyone know of good PS2/GC alternatives?
I think his point was that application-layer security does nothing to prevent people using your network. If you have an extremely fast (or no) internet connection, you might not mind other people using your network - if you have limited bandwidth or usage caps, someone leaching could be very annoying.
Just how bad are textbooks in the US then? I can think of one German language textbook I used at school I disliked, the others were on the whole interesting and dealt with concepts and background over rote memorisation. The emphasis on rote learning here (UK) started to dissappear 25 years ago, unless something has changed drastically since I left school.
Every job beyond the most menial is going to involve reading and writing reports, manuals, sdks etc. The simple act of reading a newspaper requires the concentration to read 1500-2000 words of dense, factual text - I would hope that schools could at least produce kids that can read a newspaper.
Can someone out there explain what this means in simple words a dumb software developer like me can understand? Say I wanted to create a Linux distro called "FooLinux" now, as an entirely volunteer, non-commercial effort. Do I have to pay the LMI $200 if I want to operate in one of the jurisdictions where the trademark is valid?
I have sat through so many Powerpoint lectures (ex-PhD student) and they are almost universally crap. Nobody listens, the speaker just reads every bullet point, nobody checks anything. I swear, in most cases you could add a slide in the middle saying "Screw you bunch of tree-hugging hippies" and nobody would notice.
It's because it is so easy to cram so much information into the slides with no explanation or consideration of how people will understand it. The best talks were always those where the speaker actually got involved and wrote something or interacted with the presentation.
When I was an undergrad (1997-2001), our lectures were all OHP or board-based. We were given printed lecture notes at the beginning of every lecture or course and the lecturer then went through the material on the board, writing out proofs, deriving formulas and explaining concepts. The students could then annotate the notes themselves from the lectures if they wanted. The best lecturers were those that got really involved: half way through writing something on the board, they would get distracted and tell some related anecdote from their time in industry. That sort of thing just doesn't happen in powerpoint lectures.
One computer for every three students? How did they ever think that many computers would help with the children's education?
Ridiculous quote:
Jena Haggith, one of Hansen's students last school year, said she preferred his use of technology for lessons over textbooks. "When I read from a textbook, I get so bored, so I don't know what they're saying,"
But how much time in lessons is spent reading the textbook? 5%, perhaps 10%. Hardly a justification for spending so much money. Also, the ability to read and comprehend dense factual text is a useful skill - how are these kids going to cope in the real world where everything isn't broken down into bite-size multimedia presentations?
But it gets even funnier:
But, he said, students perk up when technology is involved. "They're into computers, and they're into what computers can do," he said.
No, they're perking up because they know they won't have to do any work for the rest of the lesson because the teacher will be too busy troubleshooting to keep an eye on the kids
pun (pn) pronunciation
n.
A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.
intr.v., punned, punning, puns.
To make puns or a pun.
There was just enough story in the Matrix to cover one film. Beyond that, the cracks started to show.
Battlefield 2 seems to be a game requiring team work that (so far) has managed to avoid the "13 year old moron" problem. I have yet to be intentionally TKed, and frequently spend entire games attacking and defending as part of a squad, with medics, engineers and support guys etc all going out of their way to help people out.
I think it's a combination of the benefits of teamwork in the game, the way the points system works and the persistent profile.
Except that the programmers of the game can make a better sword at any time by changing one or two numbers. Music, movies and books, on the other hand, require artistic effort to improve.
It doesn't take more intelligence or skill to make a Sword+5 than a Sword+4. It takes effort to make it look better graphically, of course, but people aren't buying these things for the looks.
The BBC still has to justify its existence and funding to government and to the public, who pay for it. Viewing figures and page impressions give them evidence that their output is still worthwhile.
I would have to agree with you on that. MS Office is not an especially good piece of software, but office workers can hack together functionality that saves them hours of work using it without being programmers.
It's not that people are lazy, really, it's just that compared to workers' salaries, software really isn't that expensive.
This got modded insightful? Of course motorways are the safest, they have been very carfeully designed to be safe. Add to that no pedestrians, no cycles, no parked cars, no sharp corners, no hidden junctions and no major relative speed diffences between cars and of course they are safe.
It's pretty bad logic to assume from that that "speed == safe". Personally, I'd like to see the motorway limit pushed up to around 80-90mph, combined with an extension of 20mph limits and better enforcement of those limits in urban areas. The fact that idiots do 30-40mph down my tiny one-lane, two-way residential street with a primary school at one end is insane.