Yeah, I have to agree your definition for "political obstinance" makes more sense then mine, but I still don't agree that it holds true for everyone that voted for Bush (and by implication, not at all for Kerry supporters). Using the new deifnition I can see how there was a great deal of that on both sides, but I'd still be wary of maky generalized statements that said "all" or even "most" of one side was incapable of changing their minds.
Religion: Sorry, that was a bit of a sarky response, should've ben a bit more serious (and had a bit more coffee first). While I believe the majority of Jews would likely vote for the Jewish candidate, and while religion does tend to shape an individuals opinions and thought processes, I would hoinestly have to say that religion alone is not enough to base a decision on.
Quietly: I do not believe, nor assume, tat there wouldn't have been a decent amount of shouting from the Republican side if Kerry had won, I think there would be some serious overlap between the shouting group and the obstinate group from the top. However, looking through hundreds of posts (and tv interviews, and blogs, etc) that talk about leaving the country, how "evil" Bush is, etc. Leave me believing that the larger number of complainer, shouters, etc were in the Kerry camp. I know I would have been upset about Kerry being elected, but hell, it's one election, 4 years.
Misinformation: Again, I don't believe that all Bush supporters were misinformed or ignorant. Of the people I know that supported Bush, several have crossed the party line on several occasions, and only two of them would vote Republican no matter what. Nearly all of them spent time online for weks and months looking up information, hitting sites like factcheck.org, etc. And while I don't believe that my group of friends is necesarally representative of the whole (especially since a couple voted for Kerry but most voted fr Bush) it does at least prove that the original posters asserted generalization is not a blanket truth.
I agree that being open about his religion has won him a lot of support (as well as piss of a lot of people). Personally it doesn't bother me at all that he believes and follows a religion not my own. It humanizs his image a little and I think people respond to that as well.
Issues: As far the crappy economy, I don't like it any more then you do. I think it could be improved with a lightly higher delta, but I also have difficulty believing that it is Bush's fault. Some people who blame it on him will admit that it started before his term, or that economists predicted (although there are so my economic theories we may as well throw hem all out). I do know that there were some recent Kerry ads using outdated data to push that line, but Factcheck.org had some interesting responses to those. Comparisons to the great depression, to Hoover, etc have all been disproved by hard fact. And numbers indicating that people had taken $9000 (i think that was the number) cuts in new jobs were also highly suspect, since neither the source referenced or any other source actually doe tat type of polling/calculation. Not to say that the economy hasn't been hurting, but to blame it all on Bush is a bit ludicrous. The only thing I blame on him in that regard is making exagerated growth claims at the beginning of his last term and for not doing enough ass-kicking to get people into gear (either thinking of ways to increase employment, etc). I'm thinking if he put his inner circle on it and told them that the one that came up with the best solution wouldn't be fired, their'd be some solutions forthcoming. Deaths in Iraq: I have no response for this, I don't like the deaths and would like the whole affair wrapped up, but I will continue to support the troops (some of them acquantinances, family of friends, etc) Growing Gap: I have yet to find any numbers on the "growing" gap, though there were a lot of claims from Kerry's camp that the middle class was shrinking, so I guess if they were shrinking then perhaps t
they voted for him because of religion, no other reason.
Yep, you caught me, I voted for Bush because of his religion. As a Jew my primary concern this election was to get another Christian in office. Damn, I thought I was going to be able to keep that to myself.
so, now that Bush thinks God wants him to be president and he things God is telling him how to govern, we are in deep shit during his Legacy term.
All I can say to that morass of illogic (god I hope your not a programmer i ever have to go in and debug behind) is: God is Love, Love Is Blind, I am Blind, Therefore I am God.
-- Back to religion
Of course (no offense intended to either religion) but I personally don't see much difference between Catholicism or Christianity. I'm sure some of the other religions that didn't make it out of the back streets of Babylon were probably fairly similar also.
Replying to both your comments and the comments of several others who like to generalize based on little to no real information:
I don't consider myself ignorant, and while most ignorant people don't consider themselves ignorant, I have had a fairly solid education with extra history and politics classes thrown in. I wasn't born rich and had to work up to and through college so I'm either the dumbest clod on the planet or I actually learned something about working hard to put food on the table. So that covers political, historical, and financial ignorance.
The only possible definition I can think of for "political obstinance" would be someone that goes out of teir way to choose every option save the one they don't like the most (ie, the best option), as opposed to someone who chooses the best option. Personally I think it depends on your viewpoint and also implies another generalization (closed-mindedness).
Religously prejudiced: yep, that me, make jew jokes all the time. Course, they are just jokes and, oh yeah, I'm Jewish. Funny how that works.
Embarassingly gullible: Rather then attack the poor ground that you fling that supposed insult from, I'll re-itirate that you are making a generalization. I don't think I'm gullible (same problem as ignorant, however). I've never been scammed, when watching little children they don't get very far,...insert numerous othe counter-exampls here...
The one fact that everyone seems to be missing is that no state is "blue" or "red". While majorities caused the state to be a color in general, there are still mixes of multiple religions, political views, etc in each state.
--- I find it interesting that the group that is supposed to be the most open-minded and supportive of democracy is also the same group that screams the loudest and longest when the system doesn't go their own way. You may want to look back over your previous comments and count how many of those apply to yourself.
Or, on the other hand, you may want to take your generalizations and ask how "your" party could possibly have lost if your party's representative was against such poor competition.
On a sidenote: I'd like to thank everyone from moveon.org that went out of their way to skew the exit polls. Ity's a shame there aren't some hard numbers on how many Kerry supporters became complacent enough to not bother voting and how many Bush-supporters decided that the 3-hour line was worth the wait. My personal thanks goes out to the site and members involved in that particular bit of bright strategy.
At least you made it on the list. Hell, Asheville made it on the list and UNCW didn't.
Computers/Student: Not sure, but every building has at least two labs plus labs in all the residence hall lobbies, etc
Wireless: There was wireless in several buildings as early as 99 or earlier...heck, I was working ona grant project that depended on wireless connectivity in 2001, it wasn't campus wide yet but it was definately there
Remote Access: Yep
Web Pages: Yep and double yep, if your in CS you have access to two accounts, the CS dept one and the std school one - or at least there was a cs one in 99, can't remember if there was one when they upgraded the main Unix server to Linux servers
Online Courses - yep, ethics, mutlimedia, etc courses since either 99 or 2000
Registration - also a big yes
Online Administrative Function - yes, personally I think this is part of the registration capabilities. They had this since at least 2001 (I think earlier)
Ownership requirements: nope, no one is required to own a computer
Computer Purchase: yep
Handheld computing: No classes centered on handhelds, they have an application that is used in mutlple classes (chemistry, CS, etc) that uses the handhelds to actively poll students. Very useful for the teacher to see how well people are keeping up, etc and keeps the students attention better. They also have lab applications, reports, etc. So this would be a yes also
Streaming courses: Dunno, this isa yes and no. There are courses that include streaming media as part of their coursework but I don't think any course is 100% streamed. Not sure where the line is here
Dorm Access: yep
Lounge Access: yep
Ethics: yep
USENET: yep
Computers Provided: nope
Multimedia Equipment: yep
Emerging Curricula: yep (security, wireless included in networking since pre-2000, robotics and AI from software standpoint, etc)
Digital Streaming: not sure, why is this even on the list?
But UNCW is just a beach schol, it's not like we're important or anything. Funny how some of our people were playing with 802.11b equipment before it was standardized (95-ish), the chair is an editor for IEEE and speaker for ACM, etc.
Where's the questions on having a Parallel Computing Lab (yes), private CS labs (yes), etc?
What I love about those figures is that it looks like a whole bunch of people didn't even bother with IE6, they heard all the bad press and upgraded straight from IE5.? to Firefox:)
Re:Wow! now what could i do with 10 miles...
on
WiMax: When, Not If
·
· Score: 1
How do you figure?
A lot of ISP's run high contention rates. I think a popular DSL carrier in the UK runs a 15:1 contention rate. That would be something like 1000+ users if you wanted to do 1Mb bursting to 3-5+Mb accounts. Course it also depens on the type of customers also, if you have a mix of business and residential then you could actually sell business connections at a low contention and assume tey will be mostly used during the day, and sell residential accounts with a lower contention and assume they would be mostly used in the evening. Even so, your still looking at 500-800 customers (probably, you'd have to alter your target contention as your network grew and you had real numbers to work with). As another example, I know a wireless ISP that runs over a 50:1 contention rate between combined business and residential accounts. Again, it depends on the demands th users put on your system and where you cap them at.
If you wanted to sell the bandwidth as T1 replacement then you could only sell to 75 customers, true, but we aren't talking about guaranteed bandwidth any more then your DSL or cable company will guarantee bandwidth. Thats why T1's still cost an arm and a leg for 'less' bandwidth then residential cable connections.
So say you went with _only_ a 10:1 contention, and used a base 512k connection bursting to 5Mb package for your customers (and thus can advertise as almost twice as fast as conventional cable abnd DSL that burst to 3Mb). Lets add in the fact that you are cheap and don't want to buy more than an OC1 (52Mbps) for your backhaul. Initial costs aside, your spending about $7k/month for the bandwidth, Transport, NOC, and tower space (yes this is a realistic number I just grabbed from a spreadsheet:P). Sold out at 10:1 contention nets you 1040 customers. Your also charging them only 39.99/month, so your monthly gross is just over $41,000.
Now that looks all nice and pretty ($35k+/month net), but I didn't add in initial costs, office space rental, tech support, call center, tech ppl, installation people (WiMax needs receivers!), hardware costs for eah user, etc. But trust me, in the end it still ends up profitable.
Add in services like 802.11b hotspots, etc and you have another source of revenue at very small contention.
Now thats just direct to customer uses. Another common use for wireless broadband is as a cheap alternative backhaul. It;'s a lot cheaper to run a 75Mbps backhaul across 30 miles then to get all the permits, equipment, etc to bury an optical line. I know there are actually oil rigs that are using similar technology now simply because it makes moe sense to them then trying to setup fiber or copper lines for communications, but it's cheaper then sattelite and reacts better to weather.
It sounds to me like he [Andreessen] somehow got lost when he was trying to find the definition of "browser" and ended up in "OS".
Please, someone explain to me how Firefox is going to hurt 'Windows operating system monopoly'...Will using Firefox instantly make my computer run Linux? Or will it somehow re-route all the MS Windows purchases to another site? (oh, well, actually...guess this ones possible)
The only way Firefox is going to threaten the MS Windows OS monopoly is by getting people to use an open browser, and while that may soften them up to using other open software, I don't see anyone adding file system, drivers, et al to Firefox anytime soon. Apparently he read that old "The browser is embedded in the OS" argument of MS's backwards andthinks that somehow if he isn't using IE he isn't using Windows...
Sorry, had to get that off my chest:D
Actually, maybe he is bitter about Netscape not winning the first time around so he is trying to blow the new browser battle out of proportion to make MS come back and try to squash it [da Fox] even harder....could be he's just bitter. In my book bitter is still better then ignorant:P
-T
Re:Wow! now what could i do with 10 miles...
on
WiMax: When, Not If
·
· Score: 1
Is that 100Mbps outside bandwidth or local?
What kind of 802.11g access point are you using? Yes, there is built-in limit on synchronous channels, but why would the same be true of the 802.16 standard?
Half the bandwidth issues have nothing to do with the actual amount available, they have everything to do with how well the network is designed, etc. I have seen dozens of networks running just fine on T1-T3 backbones that have double to triple digit client counts. In fact, I know of some smaller WISP's that sell 1Mbps packages as thir top package, have several hundred customers, and run everything on a single fractional T3.
Of course, maybe you do have two OC1's or T3's attached somehow to a single 100-port router and everybody is colliding, dunno. But I seriously doubt 100 computers could drown even one OC1 without trying really really hard.
Lets look at your phone, for example. Say your on a network with only 20 other people. If more then two of you pick up the phone at any given moment in time to make a call your going to be overtaxing the system (this is a very simplistic explanation, but anyways). Thats because the phone company figures on an %80-ish contention rate, or that only 20% of their customers will need service at any given instant.
So in order to sink a [dedicated] 100Mbps bandwidth connection, with collisions and such aside, and assuming no bottlenecks, you would need everyone to start listening to 8 128Kbps music streams simultaneously...? Now, granted, collisions and such would lower this, as would actual packet throughput rates on the switches/routers/etc on your network, and any connection count limitations, but my guess would be that you have some devices on your network tat are not doing there jobs very well or a set of devices that are flooding the network for no reason.
Or you have a T1 to the outside world and everyone is trying to load data from that thin pipe. Or worse yet a non-dedicated conneciton like a 3Mbps cable connection that dosn't even guarantee 3Mbps, but instead bursts to that when it's available...
But I'm not a network engineer, rf engineer, etc. My networking classes were long ago and it' very possible I'm overlooking something, I haven't had to deal with any MANs or WANs in almost 6 months.
Re:Wow! now what could i do with 10 miles...
on
WiMax: When, Not If
·
· Score: 1
No, I'm on eof those people that read up on the technology ack when it came out and felt the need to correct a badly mis-quoted figure in the original topic listing.:)
1-2 miles? Just because that works for wire dosn't mean you have to restrict yourself like that for wireless. I know there are several wireless ISP's in th mid-west US that are using 802.16/WiMAX-type networks that have much larger spreads then 1 node per mile or two. It all coms down to how many simultaneous connecitons the device can handle and what it is plugged into.
Yeah, i got that, just wasn't sure if it would work similarly in that situation (which is why i asked if anyone had tried). I'm not sure how much the Broadcom hardware differs and hadn't expectd the Windows drivers to work, but if it's the same interface and same hardware that runs on a Window machine you never know...
Basically just curious if anyone had bothered to try (they do have a demo period, and no I don't work with/for/etc them).
-T
Re:Wow! now what could i do with 10 miles...
on
WiMax: When, Not If
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Actually, the original post was sadly misinformaed (and a couple years late). WiMAX devices are already being sold and implemented by ISP's.
Try 75Mbps max bandwidth and 30 mile range:)
Don't believe me? Redline, Alvarion, et al already have products for sale that are compatible with or implement 802.16 standards. Not to mention products like Motorola Canopy that are in use at several ISPs that I'm aware of...
Personally, I'm waiting for 802.16e - mobile broadband wireless:D
No really, thats my dog...er...he's just been shaved and had some odd accidents lately...really...not my kid at all...hurry up and put a chip in his neck:P
Lost my Job in 2002 spent 6 months getting new one at lower pay Damn, you lost your job when the artificially inflated job market took a look at itself an noticed the inflation? C'mon, I feel bad for any and everyone who lost their jobs when the bubble burst, but blaming the next president in office for the failures of the business community during the previous presidents rule is a bit of a stretch.
My health care premiums have risen every year. I agree, health care companies are bastards, little better then legalized gambling companies. Almost as bad as mandatory car insurance...
The first Tax break was really a loan to be repaid the next year. Funny I had to pay it while I was on my unemployment. Well, good thing you got that tax break to use towards the next year, otherwise you would have been that much further behind. I mean, if you haven't gotten that tax break you would have been twice as far behind, neh?
My friends are now fighting a war and have emailed me several times to never believe what their superiors have said. Believe the News. I feel sorry for your friends, it sucks to be stuk in the middle of a situation that everyone disagrees about. Course we could question why they are in the military if they disagree with the actions of the military, but I can understand tha at 18 most people don'tgenerally question the government much (or even care for that mater)...
No WMD's and I'm sure Saddam is still laughing inside about it. Yep, laugh a minute, poor Saddam, no mass slaughters for him this year and someone called his bluff when he all but stood around with a sign saying "I have WMD's". I should feel sorry for him because he was playing particularly nasty games in international politics?
Our freedom is threatened by the Patriot Act. I agree, write more letters, the Patriot act has some extreme issues. Posting on Slashdot only gains you agreement, write your legislators. Or better yet call, regularly.
Bush wants to amend the constitution a document that has historically given rights to individuals. This time he wants to take away individual rights. Yep, took a whole 4 extra years to get to the point were people believed that...poor Gore, so ahead of his times that people were listening to him talk about modifying the consitution 4 years ago...
Cuts money to the police while at the same time allowing the assault weapon ban to expire. Since when were police federally mandated? I'd prefer not to have a federal police force, thank you. And yeah, people can now own assault weapons...bet if that robber a few years ago would have robbed my friend with an assault rifle instead of the half-brick he had to use instead...and damn those thins are concealable, no one will ever notice you staking the place out from the parking lot with the rifle shoved down the front of your pants...
Oh despite a 87billion dollar boost in money soldiers (I was one) are still getting raises that are lower than inflation and many make much less than poverty level with housing and food considered. I'm sorry, what? Yep, poor (as in money) soldiers..explains why all those car places set up outside bases, because soldiers don't get paid enough to own more expensive cars then me. With housing and food paid for, what expenses do you have left?
That second tax break amounted to 15 dollars a month for me and I make 60k a year. However I'm paying more than 40 dollars extra a month in Gas for my veichle and nearly 50 dollars extra in energy costs for my house. It's all an evil plan, we get tax breaks while the government makes extra money on gas...well, actually that's probably pretty close...we should vote in Kerry, he understands, lets ignore the fact that his promises to reinstate old tax rates will increase his own taxes more dramatically then our own, of course he would be all for it...and it would somehow magically lower gas prices too...
Why let a little thing like facts get in the way of a perfectly good diatribe. Now without bothering to say which way I lean in this issue (though seeing the previous biases, I don't doubt I will be given a direction, those that disagree and all).
I am looking for these documentation errors that your talking about, unfortunatly articles about Iraq rejecting inspectors and purposely making the process as protracted and confusing as possible keep getting in the way. The only reference I have seen to documents so far are the documents by UN inspectors that questioned several priority issues that "had not been satisfactorily resolved", mainly in reference to chemical (VX) and biological warfare. Not to mention the (likely untrue at this point) news from a defector that Saddam had restarted nuclear development, shortly before expelling the weapons inspectors from his country. Add in the fact that the former leader of the UN Inspectors had felt that they were being gamed the whole time, that they thought they were seeing signs of ongoing weapon development but never direct evidence, which just seemed to back up rumors that the weapons were being moved around. The most "anti-Bush" (not agreeing or disagreeing, just a description) of the Inspectors I could find thought that 95% of the previously built WMD in Iraq were accounted for.
Taking a couple of the facts and showing that they were untrue does not magically remove all other facts. I agree that some serious misjudgements were made in choosing what to believe and what not to believe, however there is one fact that I find amazingly overlooked, or perhaps not so amazingly. The purpose of going to War with Iraq was originally for one reason, Iraq refusing to follow UN sanctions concerning weapons inspectors.
WMD's, fictional ties with Al Queada, et al were merely sub points that got picked up by a media that was looking to add more spice tothei stories. Sure these were on the list of reasoning, but they were afterthoughts, originally the entire point was due to Saddam attempting to break sanctions.
As for your hole in the ground, remote location issue, it alwaysheklps to have someone say "oh yeah, btw, he's over there in that hole. " Even as late as a month or so ago I seem to remember seeing pictures of buried planes that they had found out in the desert, though I can't remember if they were found through complete chance or satellite imaging (believe it was chance, but won't say for sure without info backig me up).
And considering that every body count I have seen so far has been an estimate, I am not surprised that you picked the estimate that was based upon media coverage. Excuse me, media reports. Of course the rest ofthe estimates are not much beter. I don't doubt their was a great deal of civilian casualties (though, an interesting comparison is the average death rate of previous years to that figure) but I think I will wait for someone who is actually on the same continent to do an accurate (semi-accurate at least) documented count. A group of 20-some people counting supposed bodies from media reports for the sole reason of proving how many deaths there were seems to me that some severe bias is in play. It's like sending kids to count gumdrops after telling them there is no way you know how many there are.
But I digress, fact generally get's swept under the rug in the political thread around here.
Has anyone tried using the driverloader package to get aorund this? I had a similar problem with the Broadcom wireless in my Dell (work) laptop. It costs like $14 after the demo period is over, but allows you to use the windows drivers for your wireless card and gives you at least basic functionality. In my book basic wireless functionality beats none, especially for such a cheap price (beats buying a PCMCIA card). Just a thought.
Cost isn't a standalone advantage here. If you build a quality HTPC system it's going to probably cost you more then an off-the-shelf system. However, you get the added advantages of being able to handle your own upgrades and equipment (ie, choosing what will go in the box), the choice of what it will look like, a larger set of functionality, etc.
Ask for a Tivo with 2Tb of storage and you'll get laughed at. Build an HTPC with 8 250Gb drives and your there. When new functionality is added to Myth, download and install. When Tivo adds new functionality...er...?
Pictures, Music collections with complex playlists, DVD's, TV, TV Recording, Web Browsing, Phone, etc. MythTV does everything I would expect a full featured set top box to do...except for having a little popup overlay when a new email comes in, that would be nifty. And if/when it gets added you won't have to do anything wierd to make it work, just install and set it up.
An HTPC isn't going to be a 1-to-1 replacement for your Tivo. It's going to replace that and multiple other devices (such as the DVD player) with high quality replacements. A top of the line DVD player for your computer will run you $70-ish, it replaces the top of the line $700 set top DVD player. Quality 100-disc changer? SVCD [computer] system to record pictures on CD so you can page through them on TV?
For better arguments (including the DVD one that I borrowed from the coming link), check out the HOWTO guide located here: http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/
Thanks for that link, I've always wondered what his house was like...very very cool. Guess I sould start saving my money now...only about 5 centuries to go:P
I don't entirely disagree. There are a lot of programmers and self-described software engineers that are bad at their jobs or entirely clueless. My commentary was on the fact that the original poster never once mentioned they were looking for a programming job, yet you (I assume your the same AC) took it upon yourself to berate this user based on your own assumptions of their goals as well as your assumption of their lack of skill. And your further assumption that I cannot program because I have a "self-described" title of Director is just another bad assumption on your part. While there are a great many managers out there that have no skill whatsoever in the area they are managing, the assumption that any given manager cannot program is a poor use of probability to base a decision upon.
But this isn't a measuring contest or any other type of comparison, it was simply a commentary on your (and others) assumptions and the speed with which you jump to them, building chains of logic on poor assumption. But you can continue to justify your position by pretending I am another clueless manager if you wish, it won't hurt my feelings.
Meanwhile I will go back to being a software engineer (and director), a trade that is followed by first obtaining the fact and needs of the customers before writing the code instead of making blind assumptions based on generallaties or fallacious logic. One of many traits that seperate the Software Engineer from the Programmer or Code Hacker.
Just like you don't need good communication skills to be a software engineer but your documentation and intra-company communications capabilities will be incredibly stunted.
It sounds like you have problems with someone in your life that you decided to take out on the grandparent poster with no regard whatsoever for their situation.
"because they know some basic C++ and VB" - I wish our PC tech knew some coding, even if it was basic VB, C++, AND perl. I don't see the grandparent poster asking for a software engineering job, and frankly I wouldn't hire them for one, but there are a multitude of jobs that they could fill (possibly well, no way to know that) where knowing even basic coding principles would be of immense usefullness.
I am not self-taught, and I agre that a college education will help you have a broader theoretical base (and programming is really just applied theory), but at the same time I remember the people I graduated with. Especially the ones that graduated without truly understanding any of the theory we were talking about, or without enough understanding to implement those theories.
It's obvious you have some pent up rage, but taking it out on the grandparent poster with little to no real provocation only shows your lackings, not theirs. Personally I wouldn't hire someone that acted as uncouth or disrespectful towards another party simply because they had not had a college education, especially if they leapt to possibly erroneous conclusions so swiftly on so little input......but then, what do I know, I've only had my "Director" title for the last year of my software engineering past.
I dunno, I get these wierd ideas some times, i think it comes from that horrible habit of actually reading the articles: "The program was well-received and feedback from participating customers was very positive; consequently, the program was expanded in April 2004 to include all customers who will sign an appropriate non-disclosure agreement"
The car analogy is a very bad analogy. I have yet to meet anyone that avidly watches car recall lists, then determines a method to exploit the problem, and then enacts it. That would be like finding out their is a brake problem with all Hyundai Elantra's released between 2001-2002 that could become a critical problem after 40,000 miles. So I go out and start slamming my brakes on in front of every Hyundai Elantra in the hopes that it is a 2001-02 with close to the requisite mileage?
Course, lets ignore the fact that if a 2000 rear-ends him with no insurance he can't just go on to the next serial number...oh right, you can't scan serial numbers like you can IP Numbers... Well then I'm sure this would give them access to the other car and allow them to commit crimes with it...except for the fact that they are both sitting in the middle of traffic Er, perhaps he could go hit someone else and blame it on the Elantra...except that it is much more obvious when you ram someone in your non-Elantra that itisn't an elantra...hard to spoof your car, or even your car paint...
Actually, these "so called 'premium' members" will be able to get their patches at the same time as you will be able to, they will just get advance warning that there are going to be patches.
It's not like MS is holding back the patches a few days for normal people after handing them to the preferred customers. They are just doing a private announcement a few days earlier that there will be patches coming on such-and-such date.
This makes a lot of sense to me, if I'm managing a couple hundred desktops it would give me time to get a plan together to get them all updated so that I amd ready to go when the patch is available, instead of a few days of planning after the patch is available and the everyone and their brother know about the new vulnerabilities.
Basically this is going to allow companies that have to do massive patching sessions to get it done several days earlier simply because they can plan for it in advance (not because theyget the patch in advance) rather then plan for it after the vulnerabilities and patch are available to the general public.
SF can't run out of ideas until all writers run out of ideas.
Sure, some SF books explore an SF world, pointing out all the wonders and tragedies that have and will occur. But many of them build a SF world and then intertwine a story with that world, in many cases doing such a good job of it that the story itself is not truly SciFi but more of a cross-genre story that just happens to have it's environment in (and be affected by) a futuristic setting.
Love stories, detective stories, horror stories, etc. They have all been represented in the SF world. I often find the most amazing SF books to be the ones that build an entire environment but then center the story on the characters living inside that environment, not really ignoring it, but treating it like an environment instead of "hey look, it's a laser blaster!".
There are even cross-genre books between science fiction and fantasy (Stasheff's Wizard and Warlock series's?).
I don't think Scifi or Fantasy is dead. Other genres cover the past and present, Sci-Fi and Fantasy cover the future and the never-have-been, it's a much wider territory.
I am no less interested in reading these genres now then when I was a kid. If the argument (from article) was that kids these days don't read enough and that it will dwindle due to a smaller and smaller reading (and thus writing) population, I might give it a little credit, but running out of ideas is not something I have seen even begin to occur yet. And dwindling reader base woul affect a lot more then just SciFi, if the author chose SciFi in order to get the greatest response then he is belied by his own goals. You don't choose the one of the biggest audiences and say they don't exist, it ain't logical:P
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I have to agree your definition for "political obstinance" makes more sense then mine, but I still don't agree that it holds true for everyone that voted for Bush (and by implication, not at all for Kerry supporters). Using the new deifnition I can see how there was a great deal of that on both sides, but I'd still be wary of maky generalized statements that said "all" or even "most" of one side was incapable of changing their minds.
Religion: Sorry, that was a bit of a sarky response, should've ben a bit more serious (and had a bit more coffee first). While I believe the majority of Jews would likely vote for the Jewish candidate, and while religion does tend to shape an individuals opinions and thought processes, I would hoinestly have to say that religion alone is not enough to base a decision on.
Quietly: I do not believe, nor assume, tat there wouldn't have been a decent amount of shouting from the Republican side if Kerry had won, I think there would be some serious overlap between the shouting group and the obstinate group from the top. However, looking through hundreds of posts (and tv interviews, and blogs, etc) that talk about leaving the country, how "evil" Bush is, etc. Leave me believing that the larger number of complainer, shouters, etc were in the Kerry camp. I know I would have been upset about Kerry being elected, but hell, it's one election, 4 years.
Misinformation: Again, I don't believe that all Bush supporters were misinformed or ignorant. Of the people I know that supported Bush, several have crossed the party line on several occasions, and only two of them would vote Republican no matter what. Nearly all of them spent time online for weks and months looking up information, hitting sites like factcheck.org, etc. And while I don't believe that my group of friends is necesarally representative of the whole (especially since a couple voted for Kerry but most voted fr Bush) it does at least prove that the original posters asserted generalization is not a blanket truth.
I agree that being open about his religion has won him a lot of support (as well as piss of a lot of people). Personally it doesn't bother me at all that he believes and follows a religion not my own. It humanizs his image a little and I think people respond to that as well.
Issues: As far the crappy economy, I don't like it any more then you do. I think it could be improved with a lightly higher delta, but I also have difficulty believing that it is Bush's fault. Some people who blame it on him will admit that it started before his term, or that economists predicted (although there are so my economic theories we may as well throw hem all out). I do know that there were some recent Kerry ads using outdated data to push that line, but Factcheck.org had some interesting responses to those. Comparisons to the great depression, to Hoover, etc have all been disproved by hard fact. And numbers indicating that people had taken $9000 (i think that was the number) cuts in new jobs were also highly suspect, since neither the source referenced or any other source actually doe tat type of polling/calculation. Not to say that the economy hasn't been hurting, but to blame it all on Bush is a bit ludicrous. The only thing I blame on him in that regard is making exagerated growth claims at the beginning of his last term and for not doing enough ass-kicking to get people into gear (either thinking of ways to increase employment, etc). I'm thinking if he put his inner circle on it and told them that the one that came up with the best solution wouldn't be fired, their'd be some solutions forthcoming.
Deaths in Iraq: I have no response for this, I don't like the deaths and would like the whole affair wrapped up, but I will continue to support the troops (some of them acquantinances, family of friends, etc)
Growing Gap: I have yet to find any numbers on the "growing" gap, though there were a lot of claims from Kerry's camp that the middle class was shrinking, so I guess if they were shrinking then perhaps t
they voted for him because of religion, no other reason.
Yep, you caught me, I voted for Bush because of his religion. As a Jew my primary concern this election was to get another Christian in office. Damn, I thought I was going to be able to keep that to myself.
so, now that Bush thinks God wants him to be president and he things God is telling him how to govern, we are in deep shit during his Legacy term.
All I can say to that morass of illogic (god I hope your not a programmer i ever have to go in and debug behind) is:
God is Love,
Love Is Blind,
I am Blind,
Therefore I am God.
-- Back to religion
Of course (no offense intended to either religion) but I personally don't see much difference between Catholicism or Christianity. I'm sure some of the other religions that didn't make it out of the back streets of Babylon were probably fairly similar also.
Replying to both your comments and the comments of several others who like to generalize based on little to no real information:
...insert numerous othe counter-exampls here...
I don't consider myself ignorant, and while most ignorant people don't consider themselves ignorant, I have had a fairly solid education with extra history and politics classes thrown in. I wasn't born rich and had to work up to and through college so I'm either the dumbest clod on the planet or I actually learned something about working hard to put food on the table. So that covers political, historical, and financial ignorance.
The only possible definition I can think of for "political obstinance" would be someone that goes out of teir way to choose every option save the one they don't like the most (ie, the best option), as opposed to someone who chooses the best option. Personally I think it depends on your viewpoint and also implies another generalization (closed-mindedness).
Religously prejudiced: yep, that me, make jew jokes all the time. Course, they are just jokes and, oh yeah, I'm Jewish. Funny how that works.
Embarassingly gullible: Rather then attack the poor ground that you fling that supposed insult from, I'll re-itirate that you are making a generalization. I don't think I'm gullible (same problem as ignorant, however). I've never been scammed, when watching little children they don't get very far,
The one fact that everyone seems to be missing is that no state is "blue" or "red". While majorities caused the state to be a color in general, there are still mixes of multiple religions, political views, etc in each state.
---
I find it interesting that the group that is supposed to be the most open-minded and supportive of democracy is also the same group that screams the loudest and longest when the system doesn't go their own way. You may want to look back over your previous comments and count how many of those apply to yourself.
Or, on the other hand, you may want to take your generalizations and ask how "your" party could possibly have lost if your party's representative was against such poor competition.
On a sidenote: I'd like to thank everyone from moveon.org that went out of their way to skew the exit polls. Ity's a shame there aren't some hard numbers on how many Kerry supporters became complacent enough to not bother voting and how many Bush-supporters decided that the 3-hour line was worth the wait. My personal thanks goes out to the site and members involved in that particular bit of bright strategy.
Ok, and if you can send tissue samples via Pay-Pal, why do I keep paying for plane tickets?
At least you made it on the list. Hell, Asheville made it on the list and UNCW didn't.
Computers/Student: Not sure, but every building has at least two labs plus labs in all the residence hall lobbies, etc
Wireless: There was wireless in several buildings as early as 99 or earlier...heck, I was working ona grant project that depended on wireless connectivity in 2001, it wasn't campus wide yet but it was definately there
Remote Access: Yep
Web Pages: Yep and double yep, if your in CS you have access to two accounts, the CS dept one and the std school one - or at least there was a cs one in 99, can't remember if there was one when they upgraded the main Unix server to Linux servers
Online Courses - yep, ethics, mutlimedia, etc courses since either 99 or 2000
Registration - also a big yes
Online Administrative Function - yes, personally I think this is part of the registration capabilities. They had this since at least 2001 (I think earlier)
Ownership requirements: nope, no one is required to own a computer
Computer Purchase: yep
Handheld computing: No classes centered on handhelds, they have an application that is used in mutlple classes (chemistry, CS, etc) that uses the handhelds to actively poll students. Very useful for the teacher to see how well people are keeping up, etc and keeps the students attention better. They also have lab applications, reports, etc. So this would be a yes also
Streaming courses: Dunno, this isa yes and no. There are courses that include streaming media as part of their coursework but I don't think any course is 100% streamed. Not sure where the line is here
Dorm Access: yep
Lounge Access: yep
Ethics: yep
USENET: yep
Computers Provided: nope
Multimedia Equipment: yep
Emerging Curricula: yep (security, wireless included in networking since pre-2000, robotics and AI from software standpoint, etc)
Digital Streaming: not sure, why is this even on the list?
But UNCW is just a beach schol, it's not like we're important or anything. Funny how some of our people were playing with 802.11b equipment before it was standardized (95-ish), the chair is an editor for IEEE and speaker for ACM, etc.
Where's the questions on having a Parallel Computing Lab (yes), private CS labs (yes), etc?
What I love about those figures is that it looks like a whole bunch of people didn't even bother with IE6, they heard all the bad press and upgraded straight from IE5.? to Firefox :)
How do you figure?
:P). Sold out at 10:1 contention nets you 1040 customers. Your also charging them only 39.99/month, so your monthly gross is just over $41,000.
:P
A lot of ISP's run high contention rates. I think a popular DSL carrier in the UK runs a 15:1 contention rate. That would be something like 1000+ users if you wanted to do 1Mb bursting to 3-5+Mb accounts. Course it also depens on the type of customers also, if you have a mix of business and residential then you could actually sell business connections at a low contention and assume tey will be mostly used during the day, and sell residential accounts with a lower contention and assume they would be mostly used in the evening. Even so, your still looking at 500-800 customers (probably, you'd have to alter your target contention as your network grew and you had real numbers to work with).
As another example, I know a wireless ISP that runs over a 50:1 contention rate between combined business and residential accounts. Again, it depends on the demands th users put on your system and where you cap them at.
If you wanted to sell the bandwidth as T1 replacement then you could only sell to 75 customers, true, but we aren't talking about guaranteed bandwidth any more then your DSL or cable company will guarantee bandwidth. Thats why T1's still cost an arm and a leg for 'less' bandwidth then residential cable connections.
So say you went with _only_ a 10:1 contention, and used a base 512k connection bursting to 5Mb package for your customers (and thus can advertise as almost twice as fast as conventional cable abnd DSL that burst to 3Mb). Lets add in the fact that you are cheap and don't want to buy more than an OC1 (52Mbps) for your backhaul. Initial costs aside, your spending about $7k/month for the bandwidth, Transport, NOC, and tower space (yes this is a realistic number I just grabbed from a spreadsheet
Now that looks all nice and pretty ($35k+/month net), but I didn't add in initial costs, office space rental, tech support, call center, tech ppl, installation people (WiMax needs receivers!), hardware costs for eah user, etc. But trust me, in the end it still ends up profitable.
Add in services like 802.11b hotspots, etc and you have another source of revenue at very small contention.
Now thats just direct to customer uses. Another common use for wireless broadband is as a cheap alternative backhaul. It;'s a lot cheaper to run a 75Mbps backhaul across 30 miles then to get all the permits, equipment, etc to bury an optical line. I know there are actually oil rigs that are using similar technology now simply because it makes moe sense to them then trying to setup fiber or copper lines for communications, but it's cheaper then sattelite and reacts better to weather.
sorry, got me in a rambling mood
-T
It sounds to me like he [Andreessen] somehow got lost when he was trying to find the definition of "browser" and ended up in "OS".
:D
:P
Please, someone explain to me how Firefox is going to hurt 'Windows operating system monopoly'...Will using Firefox instantly make my computer run Linux? Or will it somehow re-route all the MS Windows purchases to another site? (oh, well, actually...guess this ones possible)
The only way Firefox is going to threaten the MS Windows OS monopoly is by getting people to use an open browser, and while that may soften them up to using other open software, I don't see anyone adding file system, drivers, et al to Firefox anytime soon. Apparently he read that old "The browser is embedded in the OS" argument of MS's backwards andthinks that somehow if he isn't using IE he isn't using Windows...
Sorry, had to get that off my chest
Actually, maybe he is bitter about Netscape not winning the first time around so he is trying to blow the new browser battle out of proportion to make MS come back and try to squash it [da Fox] even harder....could be he's just bitter. In my book bitter is still better then ignorant
-T
Is that 100Mbps outside bandwidth or local?
What kind of 802.11g access point are you using? Yes, there is built-in limit on synchronous channels, but why would the same be true of the 802.16 standard?
Half the bandwidth issues have nothing to do with the actual amount available, they have everything to do with how well the network is designed, etc. I have seen dozens of networks running just fine on T1-T3 backbones that have double to triple digit client counts. In fact, I know of some smaller WISP's that sell 1Mbps packages as thir top package, have several hundred customers, and run everything on a single fractional T3.
Of course, maybe you do have two OC1's or T3's attached somehow to a single 100-port router and everybody is colliding, dunno. But I seriously doubt 100 computers could drown even one OC1 without trying really really hard.
Lets look at your phone, for example. Say your on a network with only 20 other people. If more then two of you pick up the phone at any given moment in time to make a call your going to be overtaxing the system (this is a very simplistic explanation, but anyways). Thats because the phone company figures on an %80-ish contention rate, or that only 20% of their customers will need service at any given instant.
So in order to sink a [dedicated] 100Mbps bandwidth connection, with collisions and such aside, and assuming no bottlenecks, you would need everyone to start listening to 8 128Kbps music streams simultaneously...? Now, granted, collisions and such would lower this, as would actual packet throughput rates on the switches/routers/etc on your network, and any connection count limitations, but my guess would be that you have some devices on your network tat are not doing there jobs very well or a set of devices that are flooding the network for no reason.
Or you have a T1 to the outside world and everyone is trying to load data from that thin pipe. Or worse yet a non-dedicated conneciton like a 3Mbps cable connection that dosn't even guarantee 3Mbps, but instead bursts to that when it's available...
But I'm not a network engineer, rf engineer, etc. My networking classes were long ago and it' very possible I'm overlooking something, I haven't had to deal with any MANs or WANs in almost 6 months.
No, I'm on eof those people that read up on the technology ack when it came out and felt the need to correct a badly mis-quoted figure in the original topic listing. :)
1-2 miles? Just because that works for wire dosn't mean you have to restrict yourself like that for wireless. I know there are several wireless ISP's in th mid-west US that are using 802.16/WiMAX-type networks that have much larger spreads then 1 node per mile or two. It all coms down to how many simultaneous connecitons the device can handle and what it is plugged into.
Yeah, i got that, just wasn't sure if it would work similarly in that situation (which is why i asked if anyone had tried). I'm not sure how much the Broadcom hardware differs and hadn't expectd the Windows drivers to work, but if it's the same interface and same hardware that runs on a Window machine you never know...
Basically just curious if anyone had bothered to try (they do have a demo period, and no I don't work with/for/etc them).
-T
Actually, the original post was sadly misinformaed (and a couple years late). WiMAX devices are already being sold and implemented by ISP's.
:)
:D
Try 75Mbps max bandwidth and 30 mile range
Don't believe me?
Redline, Alvarion, et al already have products for sale that are compatible with or implement 802.16 standards.
Not to mention products like Motorola Canopy that are in use at several ISPs that I'm aware of...
Personally, I'm waiting for 802.16e - mobile broadband wireless
No really, thats my dog...er...he's just been shaved and had some odd accidents lately...really...not my kid at all...hurry up and put a chip in his neck :P
Lost my Job in 2002 spent 6 months getting new one at lower pay
Damn, you lost your job when the artificially inflated job market took a look at itself an noticed the inflation? C'mon, I feel bad for any and everyone who lost their jobs when the bubble burst, but blaming the next president in office for the failures of the business community during the previous presidents rule is a bit of a stretch.
My health care premiums have risen every year.
I agree, health care companies are bastards, little better then legalized gambling companies. Almost as bad as mandatory car insurance...
The first Tax break was really a loan to be repaid the next year. Funny I had to pay it while I was on my unemployment.
Well, good thing you got that tax break to use towards the next year, otherwise you would have been that much further behind. I mean, if you haven't gotten that tax break you would have been twice as far behind, neh?
My friends are now fighting a war and have emailed me several times to never believe what their superiors have said. Believe the News.
I feel sorry for your friends, it sucks to be stuk in the middle of a situation that everyone disagrees about. Course we could question why they are in the military if they disagree with the actions of the military, but I can understand tha at 18 most people don'tgenerally question the government much (or even care for that mater)...
No WMD's and I'm sure Saddam is still laughing inside about it.
Yep, laugh a minute, poor Saddam, no mass slaughters for him this year and someone called his bluff when he all but stood around with a sign saying "I have WMD's". I should feel sorry for him because he was playing particularly nasty games in international politics?
Our freedom is threatened by the Patriot Act.
I agree, write more letters, the Patriot act has some extreme issues. Posting on Slashdot only gains you agreement, write your legislators. Or better yet call, regularly.
Bush wants to amend the constitution a document that has historically given rights to individuals. This time he wants to take away individual rights.
Yep, took a whole 4 extra years to get to the point were people believed that...poor Gore, so ahead of his times that people were listening to him talk about modifying the consitution 4 years ago...
Cuts money to the police while at the same time allowing the assault weapon ban to expire.
Since when were police federally mandated? I'd prefer not to have a federal police force, thank you. And yeah, people can now own assault weapons...bet if that robber a few years ago would have robbed my friend with an assault rifle instead of the half-brick he had to use instead...and damn those thins are concealable, no one will ever notice you staking the place out from the parking lot with the rifle shoved down the front of your pants...
Oh despite a 87billion dollar boost in money soldiers (I was one) are still getting raises that are lower than inflation and many make much less than poverty level with housing and food considered.
I'm sorry, what? Yep, poor (as in money) soldiers..explains why all those car places set up outside bases, because soldiers don't get paid enough to own more expensive cars then me. With housing and food paid for, what expenses do you have left?
That second tax break amounted to 15 dollars a month for me and I make 60k a year. However I'm paying more than 40 dollars extra a month in Gas for my veichle and nearly 50 dollars extra in energy costs for my house.
It's all an evil plan, we get tax breaks while the government makes extra money on gas...well, actually that's probably pretty close...we should vote in Kerry, he understands, lets ignore the fact that his promises to reinstate old tax rates will increase his own taxes more dramatically then our own, of course he would be all for it...and it would somehow magically lower gas prices too...
Oil price
Why let a little thing like facts get in the way of a perfectly good diatribe. Now without bothering to say which way I lean in this issue (though seeing the previous biases, I don't doubt I will be given a direction, those that disagree and all).
I am looking for these documentation errors that your talking about, unfortunatly articles about Iraq rejecting inspectors and purposely making the process as protracted and confusing as possible keep getting in the way. The only reference I have seen to documents so far are the documents by UN inspectors that questioned several priority issues that "had not been satisfactorily resolved", mainly in reference to chemical (VX) and biological warfare. Not to mention the (likely untrue at this point) news from a defector that Saddam had restarted nuclear development, shortly before expelling the weapons inspectors from his country. Add in the fact that the former leader of the UN Inspectors had felt that they were being gamed the whole time, that they thought they were seeing signs of ongoing weapon development but never direct evidence, which just seemed to back up rumors that the weapons were being moved around. The most "anti-Bush" (not agreeing or disagreeing, just a description) of the Inspectors I could find thought that 95% of the previously built WMD in Iraq were accounted for.
Taking a couple of the facts and showing that they were untrue does not magically remove all other facts. I agree that some serious misjudgements were made in choosing what to believe and what not to believe, however there is one fact that I find amazingly overlooked, or perhaps not so amazingly. The purpose of going to War with Iraq was originally for one reason, Iraq refusing to follow UN sanctions concerning weapons inspectors.
WMD's, fictional ties with Al Queada, et al were merely sub points that got picked up by a media that was looking to add more spice tothei stories. Sure these were on the list of reasoning, but they were afterthoughts, originally the entire point was due to Saddam attempting to break sanctions.
As for your hole in the ground, remote location issue, it alwaysheklps to have someone say "oh yeah, btw, he's over there in that hole. "
Even as late as a month or so ago I seem to remember seeing pictures of buried planes that they had found out in the desert, though I can't remember if they were found through complete chance or satellite imaging (believe it was chance, but won't say for sure without info backig me up).
And considering that every body count I have seen so far has been an estimate, I am not surprised that you picked the estimate that was based upon media coverage. Excuse me, media reports. Of course the rest ofthe estimates are not much beter. I don't doubt their was a great deal of civilian casualties (though, an interesting comparison is the average death rate of previous years to that figure) but I think I will wait for someone who is actually on the same continent to do an accurate (semi-accurate at least) documented count. A group of 20-some people counting supposed bodies from media reports for the sole reason of proving how many deaths there were seems to me that some severe bias is in play. It's like sending kids to count gumdrops after telling them there is no way you know how many there are.
But I digress, fact generally get's swept under the rug in the political thread around here.
Has anyone tried using the driverloader package to get aorund this? I had a similar problem with the Broadcom wireless in my Dell (work) laptop. It costs like $14 after the demo period is over, but allows you to use the windows drivers for your wireless card and gives you at least basic functionality. In my book basic wireless functionality beats none, especially for such a cheap price (beats buying a PCMCIA card). Just a thought.
feck?
f ecl? :P
full?
hull?
huck?
hulk?
fulk?
hecl?
4 lines if you don't need declarations, set to nothings, etc:
Set conn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
conn.Open "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Path\To\Db\database.mdb;Persist Security Info=False"
conn.Execute("Your SQL Statement")
conn.Close()
Cost isn't a standalone advantage here. If you build a quality HTPC system it's going to probably cost you more then an off-the-shelf system. However, you get the added advantages of being able to handle your own upgrades and equipment (ie, choosing what will go in the box), the choice of what it will look like, a larger set of functionality, etc.
c /
Ask for a Tivo with 2Tb of storage and you'll get laughed at. Build an HTPC with 8 250Gb drives and your there. When new functionality is added to Myth, download and install. When Tivo adds new functionality...er...?
Pictures, Music collections with complex playlists, DVD's, TV, TV Recording, Web Browsing, Phone, etc. MythTV does everything I would expect a full featured set top box to do...except for having a little popup overlay when a new email comes in, that would be nifty. And if/when it gets added you won't have to do anything wierd to make it work, just install and set it up.
An HTPC isn't going to be a 1-to-1 replacement for your Tivo. It's going to replace that and multiple other devices (such as the DVD player) with high quality replacements.
A top of the line DVD player for your computer will run you $70-ish, it replaces the top of the line $700 set top DVD player. Quality 100-disc changer? SVCD [computer] system to record pictures on CD so you can page through them on TV?
For better arguments (including the DVD one that I borrowed from the coming link), check out the HOWTO guide located here: http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htp
-T
Thanks for that link, I've always wondered what his house was like...very very cool. Guess I sould start saving my money now...only about 5 centuries to go :P
I don't entirely disagree. There are a lot of programmers and self-described software engineers that are bad at their jobs or entirely clueless. My commentary was on the fact that the original poster never once mentioned they were looking for a programming job, yet you (I assume your the same AC) took it upon yourself to berate this user based on your own assumptions of their goals as well as your assumption of their lack of skill.
And your further assumption that I cannot program because I have a "self-described" title of Director is just another bad assumption on your part. While there are a great many managers out there that have no skill whatsoever in the area they are managing, the assumption that any given manager cannot program is a poor use of probability to base a decision upon.
But this isn't a measuring contest or any other type of comparison, it was simply a commentary on your (and others) assumptions and the speed with which you jump to them, building chains of logic on poor assumption. But you can continue to justify your position by pretending I am another clueless manager if you wish, it won't hurt my feelings.
Meanwhile I will go back to being a software engineer (and director), a trade that is followed by first obtaining the fact and needs of the customers before writing the code instead of making blind assumptions based on generallaties or fallacious logic. One of many traits that seperate the Software Engineer from the Programmer or Code Hacker.
Just like you don't need good communication skills to be a software engineer but your documentation and intra-company communications capabilities will be incredibly stunted.
...but then, what do I know, I've only had my "Director" title for the last year of my software engineering past.
It sounds like you have problems with someone in your life that you decided to take out on the grandparent poster with no regard whatsoever for their situation.
"because they know some basic C++ and VB" - I wish our PC tech knew some coding, even if it was basic VB, C++, AND perl. I don't see the grandparent poster asking for a software engineering job, and frankly I wouldn't hire them for one, but there are a multitude of jobs that they could fill (possibly well, no way to know that) where knowing even basic coding principles would be of immense usefullness.
I am not self-taught, and I agre that a college education will help you have a broader theoretical base (and programming is really just applied theory), but at the same time I remember the people I graduated with. Especially the ones that graduated without truly understanding any of the theory we were talking about, or without enough understanding to implement those theories.
It's obvious you have some pent up rage, but taking it out on the grandparent poster with little to no real provocation only shows your lackings, not theirs. Personally I wouldn't hire someone that acted as uncouth or disrespectful towards another party simply because they had not had a college education, especially if they leapt to possibly erroneous conclusions so swiftly on so little input...
Simple Solution: Sign up.
I dunno, I get these wierd ideas some times, i think it comes from that horrible habit of actually reading the articles:
"The program was well-received and feedback from participating customers was very positive; consequently, the program was expanded in April 2004 to include all customers who will sign an appropriate non-disclosure agreement"
The car analogy is a very bad analogy. I have yet to meet anyone that avidly watches car recall lists, then determines a method to exploit the problem, and then enacts it. That would be like finding out their is a brake problem with all Hyundai Elantra's released between 2001-2002 that could become a critical problem after 40,000 miles. So I go out and start slamming my brakes on in front of every Hyundai Elantra in the hopes that it is a 2001-02 with close to the requisite mileage?
Course, lets ignore the fact that if a 2000 rear-ends him with no insurance he can't just go on to the next serial number...oh right, you can't scan serial numbers like you can IP Numbers...
Well then I'm sure this would give them access to the other car and allow them to commit crimes with it...except for the fact that they are both sitting in the middle of traffic
Er, perhaps he could go hit someone else and blame it on the Elantra...except that it is much more obvious when you ram someone in your non-Elantra that itisn't an elantra...hard to spoof your car, or even your car paint...
Actually, these "so called 'premium' members" will be able to get their patches at the same time as you will be able to, they will just get advance warning that there are going to be patches.
It's not like MS is holding back the patches a few days for normal people after handing them to the preferred customers. They are just doing a private announcement a few days earlier that there will be patches coming on such-and-such date.
This makes a lot of sense to me, if I'm managing a couple hundred desktops it would give me time to get a plan together to get them all updated so that I amd ready to go when the patch is available, instead of a few days of planning after the patch is available and the everyone and their brother know about the new vulnerabilities.
Basically this is going to allow companies that have to do massive patching sessions to get it done several days earlier simply because they can plan for it in advance (not because theyget the patch in advance) rather then plan for it after the vulnerabilities and patch are available to the general public.
SF can't run out of ideas until all writers run out of ideas.
:P
Sure, some SF books explore an SF world, pointing out all the wonders and tragedies that have and will occur. But many of them build a SF world and then intertwine a story with that world, in many cases doing such a good job of it that the story itself is not truly SciFi but more of a cross-genre story that just happens to have it's environment in (and be affected by) a futuristic setting.
Love stories, detective stories, horror stories, etc. They have all been represented in the SF world. I often find the most amazing SF books to be the ones that build an entire environment but then center the story on the characters living inside that environment, not really ignoring it, but treating it like an environment instead of "hey look, it's a laser blaster!".
There are even cross-genre books between science fiction and fantasy (Stasheff's Wizard and Warlock series's?).
I don't think Scifi or Fantasy is dead. Other genres cover the past and present, Sci-Fi and Fantasy cover the future and the never-have-been, it's a much wider territory.
I am no less interested in reading these genres now then when I was a kid. If the argument (from article) was that kids these days don't read enough and that it will dwindle due to a smaller and smaller reading (and thus writing) population, I might give it a little credit, but running out of ideas is not something I have seen even begin to occur yet. And dwindling reader base woul affect a lot more then just SciFi, if the author chose SciFi in order to get the greatest response then he is belied by his own goals. You don't choose the one of the biggest audiences and say they don't exist, it ain't logical
-T