At my place of work we can receive up to 20,000 items of Royal Mail each day. During the last strikes in '07 the Communication Workers Union message was that the manager's "modernisation" plan was really just a massive cut in service whereas RM management claimed they were just trying to eliminate "Spanish practices".
Immediately after the imposition of the managers plan the quality of the service we receive decreased substantially. It used to be the case that we'd receive about 80% of our post by 7:30 with the rest arriving by about 11:00 at the latest. Nowadays we receive anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of our post by around 8:00ish (sometimes a little later) with the rest turning up by about noon. This is because RM have stopped people coming in an hour early to help sort the post (for which they received a small bonus) and also cut down or eliminated the overnight shifts in most sorting offices.
Obviously this makes planning the workflow each day challenging. It used to be the case that we'd have a clear idea of our intake first thing in the morning and so people would know straight away which jobs were going to be busiest and whether or not it'd be possible to use flexi-time to leave early that day; these days we just have to take it as it goes.
This has knock on effects for our customer as essentially we're dealing with a RM "failure" each day meaning we're not in breach of our contract for failing to supply all the post on time to them. The solution we agreed for that was to treat the late post as having come in the next day which, considering the time-sensitive nature of our work and the effect delays could have on the customers our customer serves, is a pretty poor outcome.
Most posties take an enormous amount of pride in their work and they're angry at how Adam Crozier and chums are tearing the service apart. I'm sure the problems we get due to the cuts in RM are being experienced elsewhere too at a cost to UK business, so support the CWU in their campaign to save Royal Mail!
Also, the timing of this strike is the responsibility of RM management. They're the one's who made an unacceptable offer just before Christmas and, because of the way the Trade Union laws in this country work, the CWU had to ballot for strike action now. This is clearly a PR stunt by the RM managers so they can put out a message of "look at the greedy posties trying to ruin Christmas!". It's utterly shameful, don't fall for it.
The HD install option is actually the best way to prevent RROD. The spinning of the disk generates heat so removing that means that your console is less likely to die, it's also quieter.
I've also noticed that it makes all games run more consistently. GTA4, for example, tends to stutter after about 3 to 4hrs of continuous play for me when running from disc whereas I experience no such problem whilst installed to the HD. It's just a guess, but I think it might be down to the CPU or GPU having thermal throttling, so less heat means it's free to run at full speed.
There was a 2yr delay between the release of NWN and the release of the first premium module, Bioware stuck to traditional disc based expansions initially with SoU and HotU. As far as I understand it, there was no intention to release "premium modules" at all during development, it was just an experiment that turned out very successful.
This DLC comes free with the Digital Deluxe Edition that you can buy direct from Bioware, this simply makes it available to people who want a physical copy. It's also worth pointing out that the PC version of DA was finished about 5 months ago but held back so they could do a multi-platform release. This DLC was made from content that was cut from that original "unrelease" but wasn't completed in time for the builds that were submitted to Sony and MS QA.
This isn't horse armour, I seriously expect this to be worth $7 (tho if they try to charge £7 here I'll be miffed!).
Oh, and I agree that the lack of Linux port sucks. You have to admit that NWN really was just exceptional in that regard though, I can't think of any other AAA video game release that has, before or since, received that level of multi-PC-platform support.
This question is always on-topic for this site, bad mods!
Whilst there's been no word whatsoever about a Linux port, it is worth noting that NWN had a fully supported Linux port. I doubt this will happen with DA because it uses DX and not OGL but, given Bioware's history with such things, if the DX support in winelib were to get good enough then it could happen. That's more than you can say for most game developers!
Frankly, I can't believe you are even contemplating it.
The original Xbox remains, once modded, one of the best HTPCs you can get. You guys in the USA even get HD output! Unfortunately that feature was disabled in the European Xbox, but I doubt an Xbox could deal with full 1080p AVC-1 anyway. Still, if you want an SDTV media centre just use an old Xbox, there's nothing better.
I bought an original Xbox many moons ago after going round to a friends house and seeing him running Xbox Media Centre (XBMC), actually playing games on it was a secondary concern. Having said that, being able to install games on the HD was a very nice feature to have back then and I'm glad MS has replicated it with the 360. If they carry on at this rate then they'll catch up with the homebrew version of their last console by the next-next gen;)
You're missing the point, which is that you're not free to produce a non-compatible implementation. Regardless of how useful that would be, the FSF view is that you should be free to do so.
RMS and the FSF always stick to their principles on issues like this because to compromise on the four freedoms would completely destroy all their credibility. There's free software and there's proprietary software and the former is ethical whilst the latter isn't. Because it's not possible to write an implementation of.Net that's free from any patent threat then the FSF view is that it's unethical to write, distribute or encourage people to use such software.
This applies to any software that's under patent threat; if the Linux kernel were to be threatened with an impossible to code around patent (purely for example) then the FSF view would also be that the project should cease until such time that the threat has passed.
It's the classic freedom or death position and I think any honest observer would admit that the FSF has been consistent with it.
Right, they've committed themselves to not sue fully compatible implementations of ECMA 334 and 335. That's far from all of.Net and the "fully compatible" clause means it violates the FSFs freedom 1, the freedom to "change it to make it do what you wish".
Yes, Microsoft is a big, litigious, evil monopoly, but they actually have made a pretty watertight commitment to keeping those portions of.NET that Mono relies on open and free.
You've not actually looked at the detail of that patent covenant, have you? Microsoft's "Community Promise" only covers compatible implementations of the.Net CLI and C#, i.e. ECMA 334 and 335. That doesn't cover all the other libraries that real.Net apps use or allow you to make your own weird non-compatible version of.Net.
On those grounds it's clear to see why the FSF is campaigning against Mono /.Net.
Yes, Stallman is a principled man. The problem with Stallman and Mono, however, is that his objections are based on fear and innuendo, not on principles or reason.
Wrong. Microsoft has offered a patent covenant that covers compatible re-implementations of.Net. If you want to make your own cut down or otherwise incompatible version of.Net - for whatever reason - then MS can still sue you. It also only covers the core.Net libraries and not all the libraries that actual real world.Net applications use.
Given those facts, it's easy to see how Mono /.Net remain incompatible with the principles of Free Software.
No, "apologist" in this context is clearly a reference to the fact that Miguel has fairly consistently defended the Microsoft position, that's what that word means. It's only a pejorative if you think Microsoft is bad. If you approve of Microsoft then you really should approve of Microsoft apologists, that's coming from a proud FSF apologist of course!
Despite all the mud that gets thrown at him, RMS is actually very honest about what he does and doesn't believe and why he believes it; anyone who's used to serious political debate (not what you read in the papers or see on TV) will find it quite easy to digest the polemical style of RMS and won't wind themselves up by reading personal attacks where there are none.
Also, I find it hilarious that Miguel links to an apology from RMS about an inaccurate claim he made regarding Mac OS X as proof that he "makes up facts". That's a clear show of intellectual dishonesty, and, dare I say, an astonishingly bold use of a classic trolling technique!
What if you had HUNDREDS of scientists objectively judging facial expressions of HUNDREDS of infants?
Unless you found some non-human scientists, they would still be pre-disposed to think that girls would act more fearfully. It'd be impossible to control for the expectation bias in an experiment like that.
Three Mile Island was an example of a failure at a nuclear facility that was solved correctly.
The fault at TMI that led to the meltdown was initially missed and it was only because of a shift-change that it was noticed. It occurred because the reactor and control systems at TMI had been poorly designed and training for the staff wasn't as good as it needed to be.
TMI could quite easily have turned out much worse and so it's directly comparable to Chernobyl. We need to keep that in mind with nuclear power, it may well be the only realistic option to meet our energy demands without massive CO2 increases but safety needs to be the primary concern.
There is one very good reason why the public school system has consistently told people like you to get bent. If you track students by ability - all the smart kids together, all the average kids together, all the dumb kids together - you are flushing the dumb ones down the toilet. Even the biggest idiot knows that he has been labeled stupid, and will perform to your expectations. You'll never get them back after that.
That's just total rubbish though. The best classes I took at secondary school (UK, so GCSEs) were the ones that were segregated on ability. We ploughed through the curriculum at a fair pace in our maths and science classes whereas mixed ability classes dragged as the teacher tried to respond to various levels of ability at the same time. Mixed ability classes might work if learning was more focused on groups of students interacting and discussing ideas in groups rather than the rote learn-to-test that secondary education here in the UK has become.
Thinking about it like that, mixed ability classes require a different, arguably better style of teaching. I think that point is missed a lot of times this discussion comes up.
Kennedy was desperate to find a way of getting into space without spending so much money and so opened talks with Kruschev, who was interested. Unfortunately the House passed a bill banning any such cooperation but Kennedy still kept negotiations open via a back channel. Unfortunately the idea of cooperation died with Kennedy and the Apollo programme was born.
I've been reading Craig Nelson's Rocket Men lately and it's the most fascinating history of the Apollo programme I've read yet!
If the burners were needed during the course of business, it may have been impossible to disable them without costing more in the long run.
I don't see how that could be the case. My work PC is on the UK government intranet and everything is totally locked down. Only certain users are allowed to copy things to CD/DVD or other external media and even then it's locked down to particular machines. That's why that Child Benefit CD fiasco was such a mystery to me; it was eventually pinned on a low grade Admin Officer for failing to send the discs via the correct courier service but you'd have to be pretty senior to have complete access to a database like that and have disc burning privileges.
Anyway, the point is that it definitely is possible to lock down CD burners in a work environment that use them. It was clear from the story that the users weren't meant to be using those burners, however, as otherwise security wouldn't have been called.
That one copper can't be everywhere though. I know for a fact that street robbers keep away from areas with CCTV because getting caught on camera means one more thing they'll get done for when they eventually get caught.
Mass CCTV doesn't invade privacy that much either. In 1984 there was always someone looking at the pictures and noting what was happening whereas with the CCTV in the UK most of the footage is, in fact, ignored because a lot of coppers can't be bothered looking through it.
The best way to increase CCTV related conviction rates would be for coppers to actually pay more attention to it! Even ignoring that though, the deterrent factor is worth the price of CCTV.
I get people telling me how bad carbs are all the time because I basically live on a high-carb diet. It's mainly fat people telling me how bad all the pasta I eat is (typical single guy diet: lots of pasta with various meat or veggie sauces). Funny thing is, I'm pretty much a beanpole compare to most of those fat yo-yo dieters!
I have started to get a bit of a belly now at the grand old age of 27 (33") but I'm blaming that on all the Innis & Gunn I've been drinking since I found out about it last Christmas. Oak aged beer from Scotland that has hints of vanilla and toffee!
You can already get, free of charge, the SDKs of some of the most popular PC game engines (Unreal Engine, Source, etc). Engine developers restrict access to their source code unless you're prepared to stump up for the licensing costs but, compared to writing something like that yourself, those costs are usually very reasonable.
The cost associated with making an AAA video game comes from all the original work the developer has to do: Prototyping mechanics, writing, project planning, marketing, asset creation, etc. Having a free game engine of the standard of Source or UE3 would therefore clearly be a benefit as it would allow easier porting of those assets between projects and also allow indie developers to use the most powerful tools without having to worry about the associated licensing costs.
In fact game engines, as "middleware", could quite clearly be given away and have development be funded by selling services to professional developers. For that to happen, however, one of the current free software engines would have to reach comparable quality of UE3 / Source / etc and also there would have to be an ecosystem of engine developers, big commercial game developers and indies working together and contributing code and / or money. That's a chicken and egg problem!
But I see you didn't let that stop you from trying, eh?
If you take the time to read carefully, you'll find most sensible pro-FSF posters do actually share RMS's views on copyright. The Pirate Party "kill copyright" crowd are an altogether different bunch./. attracts posters of various affiliations!
Professor Layton is a system seller here in the UK, The Curious Village is on prime view on a large number of NDS display racks and I know two women (30ish and 45ish) who purchased a DS because of Professor Layton!
So, I remain confident that English language versions of the sequels will appear in due course, at this rate probably around Christmas for the first sequel.
You're wrong. The cops who murdered that Brazilian electrician on the tube because they mistakenly assumed he was a terrorist got away scot free. There was also that killing during the G20 protests about which little will be done.
The police in this country are largely unaccountable.
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At my place of work we can receive up to 20,000 items of Royal Mail each day. During the last strikes in '07 the Communication Workers Union message was that the manager's "modernisation" plan was really just a massive cut in service whereas RM management claimed they were just trying to eliminate "Spanish practices".
Immediately after the imposition of the managers plan the quality of the service we receive decreased substantially. It used to be the case that we'd receive about 80% of our post by 7:30 with the rest arriving by about 11:00 at the latest. Nowadays we receive anywhere from 1/3 to 2/3 of our post by around 8:00ish (sometimes a little later) with the rest turning up by about noon. This is because RM have stopped people coming in an hour early to help sort the post (for which they received a small bonus) and also cut down or eliminated the overnight shifts in most sorting offices.
Obviously this makes planning the workflow each day challenging. It used to be the case that we'd have a clear idea of our intake first thing in the morning and so people would know straight away which jobs were going to be busiest and whether or not it'd be possible to use flexi-time to leave early that day; these days we just have to take it as it goes.
This has knock on effects for our customer as essentially we're dealing with a RM "failure" each day meaning we're not in breach of our contract for failing to supply all the post on time to them. The solution we agreed for that was to treat the late post as having come in the next day which, considering the time-sensitive nature of our work and the effect delays could have on the customers our customer serves, is a pretty poor outcome.
Most posties take an enormous amount of pride in their work and they're angry at how Adam Crozier and chums are tearing the service apart. I'm sure the problems we get due to the cuts in RM are being experienced elsewhere too at a cost to UK business, so support the CWU in their campaign to save Royal Mail!
Also, the timing of this strike is the responsibility of RM management. They're the one's who made an unacceptable offer just before Christmas and, because of the way the Trade Union laws in this country work, the CWU had to ballot for strike action now. This is clearly a PR stunt by the RM managers so they can put out a message of "look at the greedy posties trying to ruin Christmas!". It's utterly shameful, don't fall for it.
It lacks the horsepower to handle HD content.
I said:
I doubt an Xbox could deal with full 1080p AVC-1 anyway. [...] if you want an SDTV media centre just use an old Xbox
The HD install option is actually the best way to prevent RROD. The spinning of the disk generates heat so removing that means that your console is less likely to die, it's also quieter.
I've also noticed that it makes all games run more consistently. GTA4, for example, tends to stutter after about 3 to 4hrs of continuous play for me when running from disc whereas I experience no such problem whilst installed to the HD. It's just a guess, but I think it might be down to the CPU or GPU having thermal throttling, so less heat means it's free to run at full speed.
There was a 2yr delay between the release of NWN and the release of the first premium module, Bioware stuck to traditional disc based expansions initially with SoU and HotU. As far as I understand it, there was no intention to release "premium modules" at all during development, it was just an experiment that turned out very successful.
This DLC comes free with the Digital Deluxe Edition that you can buy direct from Bioware, this simply makes it available to people who want a physical copy. It's also worth pointing out that the PC version of DA was finished about 5 months ago but held back so they could do a multi-platform release. This DLC was made from content that was cut from that original "unrelease" but wasn't completed in time for the builds that were submitted to Sony and MS QA.
This isn't horse armour, I seriously expect this to be worth $7 (tho if they try to charge £7 here I'll be miffed!).
Oh, and I agree that the lack of Linux port sucks. You have to admit that NWN really was just exceptional in that regard though, I can't think of any other AAA video game release that has, before or since, received that level of multi-PC-platform support.
This question is always on-topic for this site, bad mods!
Whilst there's been no word whatsoever about a Linux port, it is worth noting that NWN had a fully supported Linux port. I doubt this will happen with DA because it uses DX and not OGL but, given Bioware's history with such things, if the DX support in winelib were to get good enough then it could happen. That's more than you can say for most game developers!
Frankly, I can't believe you are even contemplating it.
The original Xbox remains, once modded, one of the best HTPCs you can get. You guys in the USA even get HD output! Unfortunately that feature was disabled in the European Xbox, but I doubt an Xbox could deal with full 1080p AVC-1 anyway. Still, if you want an SDTV media centre just use an old Xbox, there's nothing better.
I bought an original Xbox many moons ago after going round to a friends house and seeing him running Xbox Media Centre (XBMC), actually playing games on it was a secondary concern. Having said that, being able to install games on the HD was a very nice feature to have back then and I'm glad MS has replicated it with the 360. If they carry on at this rate then they'll catch up with the homebrew version of their last console by the next-next gen ;)
You're missing the point, which is that you're not free to produce a non-compatible implementation. Regardless of how useful that would be, the FSF view is that you should be free to do so.
RMS and the FSF always stick to their principles on issues like this because to compromise on the four freedoms would completely destroy all their credibility. There's free software and there's proprietary software and the former is ethical whilst the latter isn't. Because it's not possible to write an implementation of .Net that's free from any patent threat then the FSF view is that it's unethical to write, distribute or encourage people to use such software.
This applies to any software that's under patent threat; if the Linux kernel were to be threatened with an impossible to code around patent (purely for example) then the FSF view would also be that the project should cease until such time that the threat has passed.
It's the classic freedom or death position and I think any honest observer would admit that the FSF has been consistent with it.
Microsoft's commitment is legally binding.
Right, they've committed themselves to not sue fully compatible implementations of ECMA 334 and 335. That's far from all of .Net and the "fully compatible" clause means it violates the FSFs freedom 1, the freedom to "change it to make it do what you wish".
Yes, Microsoft is a big, litigious, evil monopoly, but they actually have made a pretty watertight commitment to keeping those portions of .NET that Mono relies on open and free.
You've not actually looked at the detail of that patent covenant, have you? Microsoft's "Community Promise" only covers compatible implementations of the .Net CLI and C#, i.e. ECMA 334 and 335. That doesn't cover all the other libraries that real .Net apps use or allow you to make your own weird non-compatible version of .Net.
On those grounds it's clear to see why the FSF is campaigning against Mono / .Net.
Yes, Stallman is a principled man. The problem with Stallman and Mono, however, is that his objections are based on fear and innuendo, not on principles or reason.
Wrong. Microsoft has offered a patent covenant that covers compatible re-implementations of .Net. If you want to make your own cut down or otherwise incompatible version of .Net - for whatever reason - then MS can still sue you. It also only covers the core .Net libraries and not all the libraries that actual real world .Net applications use.
Given those facts, it's easy to see how Mono / .Net remain incompatible with the principles of Free Software.
No, "apologist" in this context is clearly a reference to the fact that Miguel has fairly consistently defended the Microsoft position, that's what that word means. It's only a pejorative if you think Microsoft is bad. If you approve of Microsoft then you really should approve of Microsoft apologists, that's coming from a proud FSF apologist of course!
Despite all the mud that gets thrown at him, RMS is actually very honest about what he does and doesn't believe and why he believes it; anyone who's used to serious political debate (not what you read in the papers or see on TV) will find it quite easy to digest the polemical style of RMS and won't wind themselves up by reading personal attacks where there are none.
Also, I find it hilarious that Miguel links to an apology from RMS about an inaccurate claim he made regarding Mac OS X as proof that he "makes up facts". That's a clear show of intellectual dishonesty, and, dare I say, an astonishingly bold use of a classic trolling technique!
None of the Gran Turismo games have a damage model, although one is planned for GT5.
What if you had HUNDREDS of scientists objectively judging facial expressions of HUNDREDS of infants?
Unless you found some non-human scientists, they would still be pre-disposed to think that girls would act more fearfully. It'd be impossible to control for the expectation bias in an experiment like that.
Three Mile Island was an example of a failure at a nuclear facility that was solved correctly.
The fault at TMI that led to the meltdown was initially missed and it was only because of a shift-change that it was noticed. It occurred because the reactor and control systems at TMI had been poorly designed and training for the staff wasn't as good as it needed to be.
TMI could quite easily have turned out much worse and so it's directly comparable to Chernobyl. We need to keep that in mind with nuclear power, it may well be the only realistic option to meet our energy demands without massive CO2 increases but safety needs to be the primary concern.
There is one very good reason why the public school system has consistently told people like you to get bent. If you track students by ability - all the smart kids together, all the average kids together, all the dumb kids together - you are flushing the dumb ones down the toilet. Even the biggest idiot knows that he has been labeled stupid, and will perform to your expectations. You'll never get them back after that.
That's just total rubbish though. The best classes I took at secondary school (UK, so GCSEs) were the ones that were segregated on ability. We ploughed through the curriculum at a fair pace in our maths and science classes whereas mixed ability classes dragged as the teacher tried to respond to various levels of ability at the same time. Mixed ability classes might work if learning was more focused on groups of students interacting and discussing ideas in groups rather than the rote learn-to-test that secondary education here in the UK has become.
Thinking about it like that, mixed ability classes require a different, arguably better style of teaching. I think that point is missed a lot of times this discussion comes up.
Kennedy was desperate to find a way of getting into space without spending so much money and so opened talks with Kruschev, who was interested. Unfortunately the House passed a bill banning any such cooperation but Kennedy still kept negotiations open via a back channel. Unfortunately the idea of cooperation died with Kennedy and the Apollo programme was born.
I've been reading Craig Nelson's Rocket Men lately and it's the most fascinating history of the Apollo programme I've read yet!
If the burners were needed during the course of business, it may have been impossible to disable them without costing more in the long run.
I don't see how that could be the case. My work PC is on the UK government intranet and everything is totally locked down. Only certain users are allowed to copy things to CD/DVD or other external media and even then it's locked down to particular machines. That's why that Child Benefit CD fiasco was such a mystery to me; it was eventually pinned on a low grade Admin Officer for failing to send the discs via the correct courier service but you'd have to be pretty senior to have complete access to a database like that and have disc burning privileges.
Anyway, the point is that it definitely is possible to lock down CD burners in a work environment that use them. It was clear from the story that the users weren't meant to be using those burners, however, as otherwise security wouldn't have been called.
That one copper can't be everywhere though. I know for a fact that street robbers keep away from areas with CCTV because getting caught on camera means one more thing they'll get done for when they eventually get caught.
Mass CCTV doesn't invade privacy that much either. In 1984 there was always someone looking at the pictures and noting what was happening whereas with the CCTV in the UK most of the footage is, in fact, ignored because a lot of coppers can't be bothered looking through it.
The best way to increase CCTV related conviction rates would be for coppers to actually pay more attention to it! Even ignoring that though, the deterrent factor is worth the price of CCTV.
I get people telling me how bad carbs are all the time because I basically live on a high-carb diet. It's mainly fat people telling me how bad all the pasta I eat is (typical single guy diet: lots of pasta with various meat or veggie sauces). Funny thing is, I'm pretty much a beanpole compare to most of those fat yo-yo dieters!
I have started to get a bit of a belly now at the grand old age of 27 (33") but I'm blaming that on all the Innis & Gunn I've been drinking since I found out about it last Christmas. Oak aged beer from Scotland that has hints of vanilla and toffee!
isn't the speed of light constant in any medium?
No.
If the medium is transparent (to the particular wavelength) the speed is is c.
Never really paid attention in physics, did you?
Not an a.f.p'er (or even a DW MUD'er) by any chance?
You can already get, free of charge, the SDKs of some of the most popular PC game engines (Unreal Engine, Source, etc). Engine developers restrict access to their source code unless you're prepared to stump up for the licensing costs but, compared to writing something like that yourself, those costs are usually very reasonable.
The cost associated with making an AAA video game comes from all the original work the developer has to do: Prototyping mechanics, writing, project planning, marketing, asset creation, etc. Having a free game engine of the standard of Source or UE3 would therefore clearly be a benefit as it would allow easier porting of those assets between projects and also allow indie developers to use the most powerful tools without having to worry about the associated licensing costs.
In fact game engines, as "middleware", could quite clearly be given away and have development be funded by selling services to professional developers. For that to happen, however, one of the current free software engines would have to reach comparable quality of UE3 / Source / etc and also there would have to be an ecosystem of engine developers, big commercial game developers and indies working together and contributing code and / or money. That's a chicken and egg problem!
You can't have it both ways.
But I see you didn't let that stop you from trying, eh?
If you take the time to read carefully, you'll find most sensible pro-FSF posters do actually share RMS's views on copyright. The Pirate Party "kill copyright" crowd are an altogether different bunch. /. attracts posters of various affiliations!
Professor Layton is a system seller here in the UK, The Curious Village is on prime view on a large number of NDS display racks and I know two women (30ish and 45ish) who purchased a DS because of Professor Layton!
So, I remain confident that English language versions of the sequels will appear in due course, at this rate probably around Christmas for the first sequel.
You're wrong. The cops who murdered that Brazilian electrician on the tube because they mistakenly assumed he was a terrorist got away scot free. There was also that killing during the G20 protests about which little will be done.
The police in this country are largely unaccountable.