So - $150 for good quality TV that's worth watching, or roughly $500 a year for a bunch of crap? BBC tax or Time-Warner tax?
I'd rather have the BBC tax than you very much.
Ah, but consider that you have to pay the BBC tax even if you don't watch the BBC channels!
I can get a basic Sky digital satellite TV for about US$15 per month, and I'd get about 20 channels in that. That's less than what the BBC charge me for the 'pleasure' of receiving their *TWO* terrestrial channels!
The BBC is a ripoff, and it should be privatised and charge people for access, just like any other network.
But the BBC is part of the 'establishment'. It's not a separate company that is bound by all of the same rules and regulations that all other British companies have to live by. The BBC is basically a part of the 'State'.
Paying the TV tax to the BBC is no different than the way you pay your state taxes to the state you live in and not to Washington. The BBC is part of the establishment, so I consider it a tax.
And keep car insurance out of this. Car insurance is a good thing, and if we didn't have it, millions of people would get severely burned financially in crashes etc. Getting rid of the TV licence would harm no-one except ITV, since the BBC would, undoubtedly, steal some of their advertisers.
Yeah, but $150 TV tax gets you the BBC channels ad-free only!
Every other channel has ads just like the American ones.
If you never watch BBC channels (I don't) then that $150 has been STOLEN from you for a service you never use! (Admittedly, I listen to BBC Radio 1, but you don't pay TV tax to listen to the radio!)
I pay my TV license fee, I get BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, BBC 4, CBBC, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, six national radio stations and a nationwide chain of regional stations. Since none of them carry advertisements, I don't think they'll be much affected by ad-stripping technologies.
Yeah, and that's great if you're a socialist. Most Americans, on the other hand, would not be so happy with a $150 per year TV tax.
Are you on drugs!? Do you not realize that most of the 75p per litre of petrol (US$4.00+ for a gallon of gas) we have to pay in the UK is tax?
Not only that, but you end up paying tax ON the sales tax (VAT)!
Worse, you already paid 25%+ of your income out in income taxes and national insurance to be able to buy the gas on which you're getting taxed TWICE again!
Not taxed to the hilt? You must be having a laugh.
The terms 'first world', 'second world' and 'third world' came from Cold War times. The 'First World' defined all those countries that were capitalist, the 'Second World' all those that were communist, and the 'Third World' were countries that were neither, thanks to negligable markets etc.
Not all of these are a must. I figured that Slashdot would be the perfect place to ask, with its compliment of intellectual types (yes, I know flattery will get me nowhere )."
You mean complement, of course. In fact, that's a mathematical word and you got it wrong, so you should certainly fail your course.
So before you attack Gimp, I suggest you consider what you are saying.
Did you realize that a troll actually has to have some sort of truth or some sort of humor in it? You have missed on both marks. I didn't even mention 'Gimp', you gimp!
Why do I disagree? Because 99% of programming is either understanding existing algorithms and data structures in code or implementing them. If a programmer/designer cannot quickly see that a design pattern or algorithm solves the problem, they can spend literally weeks fumbling around until they come up with it.
My point was that many good programmers are not great at conversation and might not be able to answer questions competently in an interview environment, but may be excellent at their job. Of course they should have the skills, as you say.
The original posters questions and theories are a little weak. Testing a programmer's skills in constructing algorithms for random scenarios is a great idea.. if they need to use lots of algorithms.
The key to interviewing is to scope out the person's general work ethic, overall personality, and how well the person can do the job they have applied for. That's it!
In previous Slashdot threads we have learned that it's not wise to sit programmers down with a pen and paper and get them to write C code on the fly! Yet... the interview techniques you are mentioning are a lot like that.
Getting people to 'think on their feet' is good, if you're just talking concepts and ideas, but don't expect people to get things 100% right sitting at an interview table. These guys are programmers, not TV evangelists with all of the answers at the tip of a hat.
From the sound of your post it seems like you have interviewed people, found them to be great at algorithms and answering your questions, but then have found their work ethic stinks or that they're not as ingenious as you thought they were. That's because you assume that someone who can answer questions quickly and proficiently is a good programmer. Wrong!
Instead, look out for programmers who list extra-cirrucular projects on their resume. Look for programmers who have worked on their own projects, and can demonstrate them for you. Would you rather employ someone who coded a great deal of Gecko, or some gimp who can answer your algorithm questions?
Look for people who don't need incentives to work, but those who will program whether they get paid or not! Those are the people who will stick with you, and aren't just learning new languages to make a quick buck.
DSL in Lincolnshire? You MUST be kidding right. Anyone who wants broadband in this farming hellhole has to pay $1500 to get satellite installed, and then a nice $120 per month to BT for 512kbps downstream and 256kbps upstream!
That said, Boston, Louth and Sleaford have DSL in the town centers, but that'd be like only Dallas and Austin having DSL in Texas.
To put it bluntly.. BT are a bunch of cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life,snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless,hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sacks of monkey shit who couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery.
Two days ago I bought a Sharp 16" TFT. It cost $650, so you might say.. "shoulda got a 17 incher!" But.. it's the absolute luxury top of the range 16", with features only the best (and mighty expensive) 17" screens have.. like anti-glare, 25ms response time (compared to the regular 50ms).. and 1280x1024 res.
That all said, I hope prices don't fall! I want to be able to sell this baby for at least half what I paid for it in a year's time! Then again, whenever I buy something it seems to crash in value the week after anyway.. so perhaps I should buy an Apple Studio Display next, huh?
So are they going to get the $200,000 (or whatever it was) that was put up a couple of months ago to the first person to get Linux running on the XBox? (The story was run here on Slashdot, but thanks to Slashdot's incredibly shitty search system, I can't find it)
It'd be nice to see if whoever it was sticks to their word.
Re:How to find frag parties
on
Fragfest
·
· Score: 1
Doh, I thought LANParty.com was US only. My bad. Please ignore:-D Still.. doesn't seem to be many over here!
Sorry to sound like a total lamer, but none of my friends are interested in stuff like LAN parties. So how do you find LAN parties? Is there a site that lists parties by location?
"...book arrived wrapped in plastic with a shrinkwrap license on the front"
That's how most mail-order porn mags arrive. It means the seller can accept returns that are still wrapped and be confident the pages aren't stained with jizz. Retailers of regular fiction don't suffer from this problem.
How easy would it be to break? What if it falls? How will the elevator be funded? What will the elevator be used for? When can I ride it?
Which leads me to..
Well, sir, there's nothing on Earth like a genuine, bonafide, electrified, six-car space elevator!
Elevator! Elevator! What's it called? Elevator! Elevator!
Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud. Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud. Apu: is there a chance the track could bend? Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend. Barney: What about us brain- dead slobs? Lanley: You'll all be given cushy jobs. Abe: Were you sent here by the devil? Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level. Chief Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can. Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man! I swear it's Springfield's only choice! Throw up your hands and raise your voice! Everyone: Monorail! Lanley: What's it called? Everyone: Monorail! Lanley: Once again! Everyone: Monorail! Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken! Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken! Everyone: Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Homer: Mono- DOH!!
ZD are definitely doing this the right way. Other companies could learn from their actions if they near bankruptcy.
If McDonald's starts to go under.. it can close all of its outlets and stop buying supplies! No more costs, the business can get back on its feet.
If Walmart starts to go under.. it can just close all of its stores. No more stock to buy, no staff to employ, costs will be through the floor, with profits sure to rebound.
Really, I'm thinking the best way for a multi-billion dollar company to make money these days is to shut down its main operation, accumulate the billions in a high interest bank account, and then dabble in risky investments.
Yeah, but Michael Bolton proved that was a load of crap anyway.
Michael Bolton: "That question is bullshit to begin with. If everyone listened to her, there'd be no janitors, because no one would clean shit up if they had a million dollars."
Slashdot Mirror
So - $150 for good quality TV that's worth watching, or roughly $500 a year for a bunch of crap? BBC tax or Time-Warner tax?
I'd rather have the BBC tax than you very much.
Ah, but consider that you have to pay the BBC tax even if you don't watch the BBC channels!
I can get a basic Sky digital satellite TV for about US$15 per month, and I'd get about 20 channels in that. That's less than what the BBC charge me for the 'pleasure' of receiving their *TWO* terrestrial channels!
The BBC is a ripoff, and it should be privatised and charge people for access, just like any other network.
But the BBC is part of the 'establishment'. It's not a separate company that is bound by all of the same rules and regulations that all other British companies have to live by. The BBC is basically a part of the 'State'.
Paying the TV tax to the BBC is no different than the way you pay your state taxes to the state you live in and not to Washington. The BBC is part of the establishment, so I consider it a tax.
And keep car insurance out of this. Car insurance is a good thing, and if we didn't have it, millions of people would get severely burned financially in crashes etc. Getting rid of the TV licence would harm no-one except ITV, since the BBC would, undoubtedly, steal some of their advertisers.
Yeah, but $150 TV tax gets you the BBC channels ad-free only!
Every other channel has ads just like the American ones.
If you never watch BBC channels (I don't) then that $150 has been STOLEN from you for a service you never use! (Admittedly, I listen to BBC Radio 1, but you don't pay TV tax to listen to the radio!)
I pay my TV license fee, I get BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC 3, BBC 4, CBBC, BBC News 24, BBC Parliament, six national radio stations and a nationwide chain of regional stations. Since none of them carry advertisements, I don't think they'll be much affected by ad-stripping technologies.
Yeah, and that's great if you're a socialist. Most Americans, on the other hand, would not be so happy with a $150 per year TV tax.
I hope they get rid of TV licensing soon!
Nor are we taxed to the hilt.
Are you on drugs!? Do you not realize that most of the 75p per litre of petrol (US$4.00+ for a gallon of gas) we have to pay in the UK is tax?
Not only that, but you end up paying tax ON the sales tax (VAT)!
Worse, you already paid 25%+ of your income out in income taxes and national insurance to be able to buy the gas on which you're getting taxed TWICE again!
Not taxed to the hilt? You must be having a laugh.
The terms 'first world', 'second world' and 'third world' came from Cold War times. The 'First World' defined all those countries that were capitalist, the 'Second World' all those that were communist, and the 'Third World' were countries that were neither, thanks to negligable markets etc.
So.. China is in the Second World, not the Third!
Not all of these are a must. I figured that Slashdot would be the perfect place to ask, with its compliment of intellectual types (yes, I know flattery will get me nowhere )."
You mean complement, of course. In fact, that's a mathematical word and you got it wrong, so you should certainly fail your course.
So before you attack Gimp, I suggest you consider what you are saying.
Did you realize that a troll actually has to have some sort of truth or some sort of humor in it? You have missed on both marks. I didn't even mention 'Gimp', you gimp!
Why do I disagree? Because 99% of programming is either understanding existing algorithms and data structures in code or implementing them. If a programmer/designer cannot quickly see that a design pattern or algorithm solves the problem, they can spend literally weeks fumbling around until they come up with it.
My point was that many good programmers are not great at conversation and might not be able to answer questions competently in an interview environment, but may be excellent at their job. Of course they should have the skills, as you say.
The original posters questions and theories are a little weak. Testing a programmer's skills in constructing algorithms for random scenarios is a great idea.. if they need to use lots of algorithms.
The key to interviewing is to scope out the person's general work ethic, overall personality, and how well the person can do the job they have applied for. That's it!
In previous Slashdot threads we have learned that it's not wise to sit programmers down with a pen and paper and get them to write C code on the fly! Yet... the interview techniques you are mentioning are a lot like that.
Getting people to 'think on their feet' is good, if you're just talking concepts and ideas, but don't expect people to get things 100% right sitting at an interview table. These guys are programmers, not TV evangelists with all of the answers at the tip of a hat.
From the sound of your post it seems like you have interviewed people, found them to be great at algorithms and answering your questions, but then have found their work ethic stinks or that they're not as ingenious as you thought they were. That's because you assume that someone who can answer questions quickly and proficiently is a good programmer. Wrong!
Instead, look out for programmers who list extra-cirrucular projects on their resume. Look for programmers who have worked on their own projects, and can demonstrate them for you. Would you rather employ someone who coded a great deal of Gecko, or some gimp who can answer your algorithm questions?
Look for people who don't need incentives to work, but those who will program whether they get paid or not! Those are the people who will stick with you, and aren't just learning new languages to make a quick buck.
bunch of cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life,snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless,hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sacks of monkey shit
You all missed the blatant quote. It was said by Chevy Chase in National Lampoons' Christmas Vacation.
If there are existing phone lines, is it not possible to set up some sort of VPN over DSL that does not require the addition of more phone lines?
MWAHAWHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWAHWHWWA HWA WHAHWA WAHWHWAH WAHAWHWAHWAHAW HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
*wipes the tears from his eye*
DSL in Lincolnshire? You MUST be kidding right. Anyone who wants broadband in this farming hellhole has to pay $1500 to get satellite installed, and then a nice $120 per month to BT for 512kbps downstream and 256kbps upstream!
That said, Boston, Louth and Sleaford have DSL in the town centers, but that'd be like only Dallas and Austin having DSL in Texas.
To put it bluntly.. BT are a bunch of cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life,snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless,hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sacks of monkey shit who couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery.
I tried! But Slashdot said my post had too many 'nonsense characters'. Slash seems quite Perl-sourcecode unfriendly!
First the money went..
$tpj =~ s/\$//g;
So two magazines merged..
.= $tpj;
$sysadmin
The advertising slump hit hard..
$sysadmin =~ s/ActiveState/Make Money Fast!/g;
And eventually they lost money merged together too.
$sysadmin =~ s/\$//g;
The arse totally fell out of the operation.
$sysadmin =~ s/.//g;
So they shut up shop.
exit;
They had the clever idea of using plane trails as gigantic 100ft wide symbols in the sky, but forgot that trails only last for a few minutes at best.
Two days ago I bought a Sharp 16" TFT. It cost $650, so you might say.. "shoulda got a 17 incher!" But.. it's the absolute luxury top of the range 16", with features only the best (and mighty expensive) 17" screens have.. like anti-glare, 25ms response time (compared to the regular 50ms).. and 1280x1024 res.
That all said, I hope prices don't fall! I want to be able to sell this baby for at least half what I paid for it in a year's time! Then again, whenever I buy something it seems to crash in value the week after anyway.. so perhaps I should buy an Apple Studio Display next, huh?
B is probably correct.. however, Slash does tend to suck a lot when it comes to searching and archiving.
I mean.. Slashdot stories don't even have the YEAR on them. How retarded is that?
So are they going to get the $200,000 (or whatever it was) that was put up a couple of months ago to the first person to get Linux running on the XBox? (The story was run here on Slashdot, but thanks to Slashdot's incredibly shitty search system, I can't find it)
It'd be nice to see if whoever it was sticks to their word.
Doh, I thought LANParty.com was US only. My bad. Please ignore :-D Still.. doesn't seem to be many over here!
Sorry to sound like a total lamer, but none of my friends are interested in stuff like LAN parties. So how do you find LAN parties? Is there a site that lists parties by location?
I'm in the UK, by the way.
And what happened to the plans for the original York?
You dozy pillock. The 'original' York is still right where it was 400 years ago! That is.. about 200 miles north of London.
"...book arrived wrapped in plastic with a shrinkwrap license on the front"
That's how most mail-order porn mags arrive. It means the seller can accept returns that are still wrapped and be confident the pages aren't stained with jizz. Retailers of regular fiction don't suffer from this problem.
Their FAQ has some great questions.
How easy would it be to break?
What if it falls?
How will the elevator be funded?
What will the elevator be used for?
When can I ride it?
Which leads me to..
Well, sir, there's nothing on Earth like a genuine, bonafide, electrified, six-car space elevator!
Elevator! Elevator! What's it called? Elevator! Elevator!
Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud.
Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud.
Apu: is there a chance the track could bend?
Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
Barney: What about us brain- dead slobs?
Lanley: You'll all be given cushy jobs.
Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?
Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level.
Chief Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.
Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man!
I swear it's Springfield's only choice!
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
Everyone: Monorail!
Lanley: What's it called?
Everyone: Monorail!
Lanley: Once again!
Everyone: Monorail!
Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken!
Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!
Everyone: Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
Homer: Mono- DOH!!
ZD are definitely doing this the right way. Other companies could learn from their actions if they near bankruptcy.
If McDonald's starts to go under.. it can close all of its outlets and stop buying supplies! No more costs, the business can get back on its feet.
If Walmart starts to go under.. it can just close all of its stores. No more stock to buy, no staff to employ, costs will be through the floor, with profits sure to rebound.
Really, I'm thinking the best way for a multi-billion dollar company to make money these days is to shut down its main operation, accumulate the billions in a high interest bank account, and then dabble in risky investments.
Yeah, but Michael Bolton proved that was a load of crap anyway.
Michael Bolton: "That question is bullshit to begin with. If everyone listened to her, there'd be no janitors, because no one would clean shit up if they had a million dollars."