I like how everyone criticizing this guy brings apparently no relevant experience, instead talking about what they WOULD do, or how fast they can read a book, or how things should be.
Glad to see that speculative nonsense still gets modded up on slashdot.
Maybe, just maybe, because EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW how it should be done?
How about, with 200 resumes, he read through each one carefully UNTIL he found a suitable candidate and call him for an interview? He only needs to find one right person for his opening. He has no obligation to read through all 200 resumes, this is not a school entrance exam where he must go through each and every resume that landed on his desk (and he only made a show of doing that anyway).
If, being a manager, one cannot keep your sight the real purpose of getting those resumes and immediate identify the right solution to the simple problem of getting too many resumes for the opening, I serious doubt that person's capability of dealing with multiple and often conflicting requests from different parts of business to his team.
So if his users requested 200 new features for a system under his management, is he going to follow the same route and just made 200 random resource estimate because he don't have the time to do it properly? And then let his team and his company suffer when those estimates are totally off?
You first-posted yourself some karma, Mitreya (at least for a moment), but as long as you use readily use similar devices, like "deskspace" and "screen real estate" and "folders" and "directory trees", you might want to reflect a little more before you say something as ridiculous as "the concept of "Cyberspace" is quite stupid". It's no less a troll than "people who use perl are stupid". Worse, I'll hazard a guess that you use the term "the Cloud" several times a day [note: I'm profiling here]
Now, if you want to say, as the writer of the Salon article at least tried to say, that "people have used the concept of "Cyberspace" in stupid ways", that might at least be a little bit defensible (if you gave sufficient evidence).
Where's mod points when you need it?
The concept of a "space" is widely used in many science disciplines, especially on the more abstract concepts, e.g. phase space, Hilbert space, address space, etc. But of course, any fool can use them in stupid ways such as writing fictions where people "enter" them (anyone who knew what a phase space is will see how silly it is to say it can be "entered", double bonus for quoting a novel with people entering an address space).
The concept of "Cyberspace" is no different. We mentally used that concept of a "space" every time we used the term "log in" or "log out" of a remote system. We talked about "going" from one node/server to another in online games, have terms like "server hopping", or even the most common usage of "surfing the web" (yuck!). All of them used the metaphor of a "space" to refer to computers connected to a network.
The concept of a space is not stupid, it is how people used it that is stupid.
This will probably be lot in the sea of responses, but hopefully some of the devs will see this.
I am using iPhone and found that the mobile version is very bad at handling unstable network connections, namely
1. if I start the app on a train, or anywhere with weak signals, the site will open, then load.... forever. Even when I get back to places with good signal. Have to force close then re-open.
2. if I switch to another app (e.g. make a phone call, or even follow a link in the article), then get back, the app will have to reload again (and lost the spot I was reading, I have to scroll down from the top again)! **** PLEASE FIX - THIS IS A SHOW-STOPPER ISSUE ****
3. I cannot open an article, then swap back to the main page while it loads in the background, then switch back later when the article is loaded, which I can do in Safari with the normal web site.
4. No button to Quote Parent when posting.
5. Minor issue, the screen layout wasted a lot of space, especially noticeable when used on iPad.
We feel that if the right thing is done every time, we would can eliminate our issues and still release at the same pace. How do we effect the social change necessary to convince them of what is better and encourage them to take the effort to do it?
Write a business case showing how much these "issues" are costing your company, and by extension, how much your proposed changes is going to save.
Then write out clearly what you want to change, how much that costs, and exactly how those changes can be objectively measured (i.e. so someone outside can know if real change has been implemented or if only lip service been paid).
Then offer to put your money on the line, and offer to take a share of the P&L that resulted in this change you wish done, on the condition that the changes have been implemented measurably.
Make your presentation to your manager, his manager, all the way up to the big boss who is ultimately responsible for these related costs and profits.
Then let them decide. This is the most important part, your job is to do the work, their job is to make decisions. Don't presume you can do their work better than they do. If they decide against it, don't make a fuss, don't try to implement your changes by subterfuge, find another job if you wish, but respect that your management had made a decision.
While it is always fun to flame Sony (especially on/., where you will get modded up automatically!), the fact is there is nothing on the PS3 that forces you to pay twice for any PS3 game at all since it was released.
I have a PS3, and for the past few years, all the games I bought, both on physical disc or through PSN, can be still played, no problem, even though I have reformatted the harddisk 3 times so far (once due to replacing a bigger disk, once due to PS3 broke down and fixed, and once when my bigger disk failed).
While you are free to buy old PS1 and PS2 games from PSN to play on your PS3. There is nothing to prevent you from firing up your old PS1/2 console to play those games if you like.
The 2G phone models is another similar case. We have so many different models of 2G phones, all are basically rectangularish with a button pad and a display, with earpiece and mic at both ends. Yet when you take a phone each from two manufacturers, you can distinguish the two most of the time, as all of them are trying to make phones that are distinct from other manufacturers.
Another example would be cars (automobiles for your Americans). All are basically a rectangular block on top of 4 wheels, with 2 or 4 doors. Yet you would have no problem identifying one zooming past you in a second or two.
To claim that the iPad design is somehow obvious, you have to totally ignore all the various tablet designs that came before it, but didn't sell as well.
Contract - your obligation to your current employer is spelled out in your contract already. How much notice do you need to give? If they needed longer notice when you leave, they would have added it in the contract already (and bound themselves to give you the same notice period, usually means extra $$, when they fire you). So why worry about them not having enough time when they don't bother to bound themselves to pay more if they fire you?
Commute - "practically next door" usually still mean a few minutes of commute. While you still save over an hour each day in your new job, but OTOH would you be required to stay late or longer because your home is practically just next door?
Pay - is it 7K more per month? (no brainer, go to the next point) Or 7K more per year? If the latter, then the difference may not be that big percentage wise, unless you are absolutely clear about the new environment, it may not be enough to cover the risk. You may do better negotiating a raise in your current job.
Environment - how much do you know about your new employer or working environment? It is always better to know more. Ask around. Are they slave drivers? Do they have a reputation for behaving honorably/honestly? How long have they been in business? Are their finance sound? etc etc.
Ths story is particularly remarkable that when we have successfully sequenced the genomes of the entire line of the fish - reptile - bird - mammal evolution then we will finally be able to prove the theory even beyond any reasonable doubt of intelligent designers.
If someone can believe that some intelligent being created all species, then that someone will also believe that any evidence found for any alternate theory are simply false trails laid down to "test your faith".
Seriously, anyone with sufficient intelligence to discard intelligence design given enough evidence, would have done so already if he only took the time to review the evidence already found.
They're assuming that everyone has cheap, reliable, easily available broadband.
No, they are assume that anyone worth doing business with already has available broadband.
The dot-com boom is already more than 10 years ago, if your area still don't have affordable broadband, you are simply not in their target customer segment. Sane business simply do not cater for everyone.
200 million iOS users have downloaded over 15 billion apps from its App Store
That equates to an average of 75 downloads per iOS user. That's a lot.
You obviously do not own any iOS device.
I owned an iPhone for 2 years, and added an iPad a few months ago. I just checked I have 220+ apps on my iTunes, and that's not include apps I have already deleted.
Not surprisingly, quite a number of them are free apps, but just getting the usual news apps, map apps, social network/communication apps (FB, Skype), some general utilities, and, of course, lots of games will easily get you 50+ downloads already.
superiority of Western culture? Where, exactly, did I say that?
Back-tracking already? How about this two statement?
We have the idea that the test is there to see who is competent to get the job. Simple, right? Nope, it's our own cultural biases that make us think this way
Elsewhere [...] The idea that if you don't have the skills then you're not qualified doesn't translate.
The fact that you posited an ideal (meritocracy, which while generally considered a good virtue, BTW, isn't actually practiced in the West anyway) and then imply it is only your "cultural biases" is tantamount to saying "we have this great meritocracy culture that other cultures do not have".
My TA work is in a university, and the government employment tests are exactly for the same age group (18-25). Unless you are going to imply Uni students are more prone to cheating, then my experience directly applies to the same age group between Western and Eastern candidates.
The only cultural blinder is yours, as you assumed any criticism against your criticism of other culture mean I am "Anti-Western". If anything, I am "anti-hypocrisy", which your posts demonstrated in full (you accused me of being "anti-western" for criticizing western hypocrisy, while ignoring the fact that mine is a reply to your criticizing of other cultures)
[Go ahead and mod me down, I know piercing the/. meme of Asians somehow being inferior (always copy, no creativity, cannot really compete, like to cheat, etc) is unpopular, but sometimes, things need to be said]
Sony could actually hurt their own case by allowing a judge to rule against them.
Haven't you paid attention to ANY of the RIAA lawsuits? They will drop the case once it reaches the point that any unfavorable ruling is likely.
The whole point is just to drag GeoHot through hell. Do you think he won't be stressed and his normal life won't come to a stop if EFF will help his defense? When the rest of your life is at stake, you will go through hell no matter how unlikely your life will really be ruined. Your whole life will revolve around the suit until it is over. And that's the whole point.
I have lived outside our Western culture for a while now, and there is a big difference in the idea of tests and examinations. We have the idea that the test is there to see who is competent to get the job.
I have lived inside your Western culture and worked as TA and helped grading exams. And I can say that your "idea" that tests and exams are for seeing who's competent is just that -- your own idea, which has little relation with reality. (Or you might enlighten us how knowing why manhole is round demonstrate your competence in whatever job interview? Or why everybody said "it's who you know, not what you know" that matters?)
The fact is Western students lie and cheat just as much as Eastern students. The difference being Western students are hypocrite enough to criticize other students cheating while cheating themselves. Anyone missed the news sometime ago where a professor offering amnesty to students who admitted to cheating, and a big portion of his class came forward? Anyone dare say their class don't have any cheaters?
Your post is just typical Western hypocrisy of comparing Western ideals (which nobody does in practice) against other cultures' actual practice, and then generalize that to indicate some deficiency on the others' culture. But don't let facts get bother your mental masturbation on the superiority of Western culture.
Sue that information right off the Internet! It'll work, we promise.
The naivety of this is amazing. When the mafia burning down someone's shop, it is not because they are trying to recup any losses, but rather to send a "Don't mess with us" message to OTHER shop owners.
Sony don't need to win anything from this suit, they just need to drag GeoHot through a very expensive lawsuit hell as a message "You better have a lot of money before messing with us!" to other future possible hackers.
This is the same tactic with the RIAA against filesharers (but there are simply too many to fight against), and the same tactic Adobe tried against Skylarov (sorry, maybe mispelled), and the same tactic the US govt is using against Assange. No different from any school bully, you mess with him, you got beaten by whatever means available.
Deadlines always loom, and they are always too short. [...] has to constantly decide [...] to get it done. There's no worse feeling when management decides [...] and asks "who can we add to [...]?" [...].
Not to belittle your stress, but tell me, which decent-paying mid-level job is NOT like this?
Not everyone can function well under stress, and not everyone can work without a script telling them exactly what to do. THAT's why your job is paying such money, not a lot though, cause there are still quite a lot of people out there who could do your job, your pay just reflects how hard it is to find your replacement.
No cheats on PS3? They legalised the biggest cheat: aimbot, little skill needed there.
I don't know why there are PC players saying that there are aimbot or aim-assist in PS3.
I have never seen my PS3 help me aim at anything in all my hundreds of hours of BF2. Every shot I have to aim manually with the right stick and pull the trigger myself.
Have you ever played a game on the PS3 before accusing us of having aimbot?
What's more, since our turning speed is limited, playing FPS in PS3 you have to consider your facing when you run, a bit more realistic than being able do a 180 flip and shoot in less than 1/4 sec.
OTOH, funny thing is even playing on the PS3 there are losers who accused me of hacking after losing...
The key also cannot be changed without hardware modifications.
Simple. Sony releases a new PS3+ that is backwards compatible with PS3, but with new keys and this exploit patched. Any PS3 can be upgraded to a PS3+ for FREE, you only need to take your PS3 to a service center and wait for 15 minutes for a hardware "upgrade".
PS3 will no longer be sold. Only PS3+ are available.
New games eventually requires PS3+, and as hacks and aimbots start to plagues games that supports the old PS3, PS3 players (those wiling to PAY for games) flock to upgrade and play PS3+ only multiplayer games.
Might cost Sony a bunch, but hardly showstopping if they start to see real damage from pirate games or hacks.
My take is that due to pervasiveness of cheaters in PC multiplayer games, most long time PC gamer have already joined some clan or another, or have long time in-game buddies. Otherwise, if you venture out alone, you will be playing against cheaters all day long.
In BF2, it is common for PC clans to host their own servers, so they can ban any cheaters found.
OTOH, the console don't have/need private servers. Hacks/aimbots/etc mods are not (yet) possible on PS3, so it is common for PS3 players to just join random multiplayer games without any clan or wait for buddies. Lots of BF2 games in PS3 are filled with players who don't know each other at all, you will find maybe 5-6 from clans out of 24 players in the game.
With this background, is it any wonder that tasks needing team work will be done much much faster for PC gamers than console gamers?
While some would say it is good news for PC gamers, as they logged only 1/2 of the hours played but "achieved" twice as much". I would think the opposite, as it indicates that PC sales is probably only 1/2 of either PS3 or XBox sales. I.e. combined console sales : PC sales would be about 4 : 1!
Is it good news for PC when they only consist of 20% of the market share?
Console's network policy is probably the main reason.
However, as a PS3 player, I have no desire to play with PC players. Why? Cheaters and griefers.
In an all PS3 multiplayer game, I can at least be reasonably sure no one is cheating with hacks/aimbots/etc. Although there are still network cheats possible (e.g. lag switches), those are few enough that in >400 hours of BF2 multiplayer, I haven't met anyone that I was sure he had cheated.
What's more, the LACK of cross team chatting (text or voice), spared me from the rants of 13 yr old losers. There were still 2 or 3 losers who bothered to send PSN msg, during the game, to tell me I sucked/cheated/whatever. (Yeah, they wasted the time DURING A GAME to send flaming msg to opposing players, no wonder their team lost!) Those losers were easily blocked in PSN, after the game was over.
Even within squad voice chat can be easily blocked, so I easily block those whose only use for voice chat is to swear, or those who played some rock music in background (really, you block out the environmental audio cues* and you wonder why you lost?!).
* - really, hearing the environment IN STEREO is important, that's how I hear the footsteps of enemy behind the wall (plant C4 and blow it, kill him through the wall), or hear someone turning around the corner, or hear the gunshots of hiding snipers, hear a tank is coming and where it is, etc. It helps A LOT.
It is highly unlikely Chinese will displace English as a lingua franca, in the near future. There will be more Chinese pages or more Chinese internet users, perhaps, but that will not make the dominant language of the "internet" Chinese. For the rest of the world, English will remain the dominant language. Chinese users wanting to speak to most non-Chinese will need to resort to English or another third language.
This is plain wishful thinking. Yes, initially, you may have a Chinese-only subnet and a more English oriented subnet. But to think it will remain that way and Chinese people has to "come out" to join the English subnet is plain arrogance at best.
China has 1/4 of the world population and is rising fast. In 20-50 years, the rest of the world has no choice but to communicate with Chinese people using Chinese language, just like much of the world had no choice but to learn English to do business with first UK and later the US. While you can probably get by speaking only English and only talk to Chinese people who also speaks English (as most expat do in China now), being able to speak Chinese directly will gain you an advantage that will slowly become too much to ignore.
As for "preserving the purity" of the language, that's just bullshit. TV shows and such are subtitled in Chinese for two very simple reasons: first, many Chinese don't speak Mandarin Chinese, the official language! Most Chinese dialects are mutually unintelligible. Only the written language is common to the whole of China, and allows communication between users/people who don't speak the same (oral) language.
This myth is very pervasive among the US, maybe it gives you reason to be complacent, but it is largely false.
All schools in China teaches Putonghua (official name for Mandarin) and all TV are broadcasted in mainly Putonghua, and in 20-50 years, those who still wouldn't speak Putonghua would be too few and too old. Much like some people who never learned English in the US, they will effective become invisible.
So what is the author saying? Inferring that whichever language group has the most users, dominates the internet? I'm sorry, but Chinese users aren't anywhere near a 50% majority, much less any sort of "overwhelming" majority.
Yet. You forgot China has 1/4 of the world's population, and that's not counting the Chinese speaking population living abroad. When China become fully modernized, in say 20-50 years, it is just natural that most people will be communicating in Chinese, including on the Internet.
By the time you can feel the pressure of using Chinese in the rest of the world, practically everyone you will meet in China would be speaking Putonghua.
Beyond that I'm not sure why it would be Chinese. China has a huge number of people, but they don't really speak the same language, the words are written more or less the same way, but good luck using the same dialect all over China. Same reason why India won't use any of their languages as the default.
THIS considered informative?? The amount of misunderstanding of foreign countries in the US is depressing.
I have spoken with a Putonghua teacher born in Beijing, who has traveled all around China, and she has never once mentioned any difficulty in communicating with anyone anywhere. She only said she can tell someone's origin from the accent when they speak Putonghua.
While it is true that different regions in China has different local languages, Putonghua is used as the official language in all schools and TV/radio stations (with only 2 exceptions). So for all practical purposes, you can travel all around China speaking only Putonghua and you would have no trouble communicating with anyone.
The chance of meeting any locals who don't speak Putonghua would be about the same as meeting someone in the US who only speaks Spanish. Would you then say "Good luck trying to use English all over the US"?
What's more, when we talk about the net, we are talking about WRITTEN language. And Chinese, regardless of local spoken language, all use the same written words. Although some choice of words or local slang may not be understood everywhere, the main bulk of any written passage would be understood correctly.
As for India, really try using English traveling around it sometime. Just in Mumbai I have met enough taxi drivers who didn't understand a single English word (e.g. the name of a big mall or hotel in the city).
Spoken just like someone who don't know anything about Chinese (or any language other than English) at all.
In the official Putonghua (aka Mandarin, i.e. the official spoken Chinese) test syllabus, it listed ~10k multi-word phrases composed from 3795 words. I.e. once you learned how to speak those 10k phrases (and passages made up from those phrases), you are practically deemed to be "fluent" in Putonghua.
So it means for normal day to day usage, just ~3800 individual letters is all you need to learn. What's more, the list starts with the 10k phrases commonly used, so actually with those 3800 letters, there many many more phrases than those 10k you can make up with.
And this compared to how many thousand English words you need to be considered "fluent"? Not to mention the sheer number of exceptions in the spelling and pronunciation of English words, it is amazing that you considers English to be a "reasonable" language.
... remembering how to write their own language thanks to auto-completing Latin-to-Chinese.
I look at it this other way. That auto-completing Latin-to-Chinese (i.e. Pinyin input) is allowing illiterate people (i.e. cannot write properly) to become literate with a computer.
If you think this idea (some young people cannot write) is ridiculous with universal education, just look at the poor spelling so pervasive with American youths.
Writing properly is a hard-learned skill, and computers can help people (with spell-checking and Pinyin input) to write properly, doesn't mean it is foolproof though. You must seen enough bear/bare, your/you're misspellings already, so why point out Chinese writing problems as if it is something new or unique?
Slashdot Mirror
I like how everyone criticizing this guy brings apparently no relevant experience, instead talking about what they WOULD do, or how fast they can read a book, or how things should be.
Glad to see that speculative nonsense still gets modded up on slashdot.
Maybe, just maybe, because EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW how it should be done?
How about, with 200 resumes, he read through each one carefully UNTIL he found a suitable candidate and call him for an interview? He only needs to find one right person for his opening. He has no obligation to read through all 200 resumes, this is not a school entrance exam where he must go through each and every resume that landed on his desk (and he only made a show of doing that anyway).
If, being a manager, one cannot keep your sight the real purpose of getting those resumes and immediate identify the right solution to the simple problem of getting too many resumes for the opening, I serious doubt that person's capability of dealing with multiple and often conflicting requests from different parts of business to his team.
So if his users requested 200 new features for a system under his management, is he going to follow the same route and just made 200 random resource estimate because he don't have the time to do it properly? And then let his team and his company suffer when those estimates are totally off?
You first-posted yourself some karma, Mitreya (at least for a moment), but as long as you use readily use similar devices, like "deskspace" and "screen real estate" and "folders" and "directory trees", you might want to reflect a little more before you say something as ridiculous as "the concept of "Cyberspace" is quite stupid". It's no less a troll than "people who use perl are stupid". Worse, I'll hazard a guess that you use the term "the Cloud" several times a day [note: I'm profiling here]
Now, if you want to say, as the writer of the Salon article at least tried to say, that "people have used the concept of "Cyberspace" in stupid ways", that might at least be a little bit defensible (if you gave sufficient evidence).
Where's mod points when you need it?
The concept of a "space" is widely used in many science disciplines, especially on the more abstract concepts, e.g. phase space, Hilbert space, address space, etc. But of course, any fool can use them in stupid ways such as writing fictions where people "enter" them (anyone who knew what a phase space is will see how silly it is to say it can be "entered", double bonus for quoting a novel with people entering an address space).
The concept of "Cyberspace" is no different. We mentally used that concept of a "space" every time we used the term "log in" or "log out" of a remote system. We talked about "going" from one node/server to another in online games, have terms like "server hopping", or even the most common usage of "surfing the web" (yuck!). All of them used the metaphor of a "space" to refer to computers connected to a network.
The concept of a space is not stupid, it is how people used it that is stupid.
This will probably be lot in the sea of responses, but hopefully some of the devs will see this.
I am using iPhone and found that the mobile version is very bad at handling unstable network connections, namely
1. if I start the app on a train, or anywhere with weak signals, the site will open, then load.... forever. Even when I get back to places with good signal. Have to force close then re-open.
2. if I switch to another app (e.g. make a phone call, or even follow a link in the article), then get back, the app will have to reload again (and lost the spot I was reading, I have to scroll down from the top again)! **** PLEASE FIX - THIS IS A SHOW-STOPPER ISSUE ****
3. I cannot open an article, then swap back to the main page while it loads in the background, then switch back later when the article is loaded, which I can do in Safari with the normal web site.
4. No button to Quote Parent when posting.
5. Minor issue, the screen layout wasted a lot of space, especially noticeable when used on iPad.
So, which one of them is going to be threatened with charges up to 35 years in jail in order to squeeze out a plea bargain?
We feel that if the right thing is done every time, we would can eliminate our issues and still release at the same pace. How do we effect the social change necessary to convince them of what is better and encourage them to take the effort to do it?
Write a business case showing how much these "issues" are costing your company, and by extension, how much your proposed changes is going to save.
Then write out clearly what you want to change, how much that costs, and exactly how those changes can be objectively measured (i.e. so someone outside can know if real change has been implemented or if only lip service been paid).
Then offer to put your money on the line, and offer to take a share of the P&L that resulted in this change you wish done, on the condition that the changes have been implemented measurably.
Make your presentation to your manager, his manager, all the way up to the big boss who is ultimately responsible for these related costs and profits.
Then let them decide. This is the most important part, your job is to do the work, their job is to make decisions. Don't presume you can do their work better than they do. If they decide against it, don't make a fuss, don't try to implement your changes by subterfuge, find another job if you wish, but respect that your management had made a decision.
While it is always fun to flame Sony (especially on /., where you will get modded up automatically!), the fact is there is nothing on the PS3 that forces you to pay twice for any PS3 game at all since it was released.
I have a PS3, and for the past few years, all the games I bought, both on physical disc or through PSN, can be still played, no problem, even though I have reformatted the harddisk 3 times so far (once due to replacing a bigger disk, once due to PS3 broke down and fixed, and once when my bigger disk failed).
While you are free to buy old PS1 and PS2 games from PSN to play on your PS3. There is nothing to prevent you from firing up your old PS1/2 console to play those games if you like.
Where are mod points when you need them??
The console analogy nailed it right on the head.
The 2G phone models is another similar case. We have so many different models of 2G phones, all are basically rectangularish with a button pad and a display, with earpiece and mic at both ends. Yet when you take a phone each from two manufacturers, you can distinguish the two most of the time, as all of them are trying to make phones that are distinct from other manufacturers.
Another example would be cars (automobiles for your Americans). All are basically a rectangular block on top of 4 wheels, with 2 or 4 doors. Yet you would have no problem identifying one zooming past you in a second or two.
To claim that the iPad design is somehow obvious, you have to totally ignore all the various tablet designs that came before it, but didn't sell as well.
Think in terms of real tangible things like:
Contract - your obligation to your current employer is spelled out in your contract already. How much notice do you need to give? If they needed longer notice when you leave, they would have added it in the contract already (and bound themselves to give you the same notice period, usually means extra $$, when they fire you). So why worry about them not having enough time when they don't bother to bound themselves to pay more if they fire you?
Commute - "practically next door" usually still mean a few minutes of commute. While you still save over an hour each day in your new job, but OTOH would you be required to stay late or longer because your home is practically just next door?
Pay - is it 7K more per month? (no brainer, go to the next point) Or 7K more per year? If the latter, then the difference may not be that big percentage wise, unless you are absolutely clear about the new environment, it may not be enough to cover the risk. You may do better negotiating a raise in your current job.
Environment - how much do you know about your new employer or working environment? It is always better to know more. Ask around. Are they slave drivers? Do they have a reputation for behaving honorably/honestly? How long have they been in business? Are their finance sound? etc etc.
Ths story is particularly remarkable that when we have successfully sequenced the genomes of the entire line of the fish - reptile - bird - mammal evolution then we will finally be able to prove the theory even beyond any reasonable doubt of intelligent designers.
If someone can believe that some intelligent being created all species, then that someone will also believe that any evidence found for any alternate theory are simply false trails laid down to "test your faith".
Seriously, anyone with sufficient intelligence to discard intelligence design given enough evidence, would have done so already if he only took the time to review the evidence already found.
They're assuming that everyone has cheap, reliable, easily available broadband.
No, they are assume that anyone worth doing business with already has available broadband.
The dot-com boom is already more than 10 years ago, if your area still don't have affordable broadband, you are simply not in their target customer segment. Sane business simply do not cater for everyone.
200 million iOS users have downloaded over 15 billion apps from its App Store
That equates to an average of 75 downloads per iOS user. That's a lot.
You obviously do not own any iOS device.
I owned an iPhone for 2 years, and added an iPad a few months ago. I just checked I have 220+ apps on my iTunes, and that's not include apps I have already deleted.
Not surprisingly, quite a number of them are free apps, but just getting the usual news apps, map apps, social network/communication apps (FB, Skype), some general utilities, and, of course, lots of games will easily get you 50+ downloads already.
superiority of Western culture? Where, exactly, did I say that?
Back-tracking already? How about this two statement?
We have the idea that the test is there to see who is competent to get the job. Simple, right? Nope, it's our own cultural biases that make us think this way
Elsewhere [...] The idea that if you don't have the skills then you're not qualified doesn't translate.
The fact that you posited an ideal (meritocracy, which while generally considered a good virtue, BTW, isn't actually practiced in the West anyway) and then imply it is only your "cultural biases" is tantamount to saying "we have this great meritocracy culture that other cultures do not have".
My TA work is in a university, and the government employment tests are exactly for the same age group (18-25). Unless you are going to imply Uni students are more prone to cheating, then my experience directly applies to the same age group between Western and Eastern candidates.
The only cultural blinder is yours, as you assumed any criticism against your criticism of other culture mean I am "Anti-Western". If anything, I am "anti-hypocrisy", which your posts demonstrated in full (you accused me of being "anti-western" for criticizing western hypocrisy, while ignoring the fact that mine is a reply to your criticizing of other cultures)
[Go ahead and mod me down, I know piercing the /. meme of Asians somehow being inferior (always copy, no creativity, cannot really compete, like to cheat, etc) is unpopular, but sometimes, things need to be said]
Sony could actually hurt their own case by allowing a judge to rule against them.
Haven't you paid attention to ANY of the RIAA lawsuits? They will drop the case once it reaches the point that any unfavorable ruling is likely.
The whole point is just to drag GeoHot through hell. Do you think he won't be stressed and his normal life won't come to a stop if EFF will help his defense? When the rest of your life is at stake, you will go through hell no matter how unlikely your life will really be ruined. Your whole life will revolve around the suit until it is over. And that's the whole point.
I have lived outside our Western culture for a while now, and there is a big difference in the idea of tests and examinations. We have the idea that the test is there to see who is competent to get the job.
I have lived inside your Western culture and worked as TA and helped grading exams. And I can say that your "idea" that tests and exams are for seeing who's competent is just that -- your own idea, which has little relation with reality. (Or you might enlighten us how knowing why manhole is round demonstrate your competence in whatever job interview? Or why everybody said "it's who you know, not what you know" that matters?)
The fact is Western students lie and cheat just as much as Eastern students. The difference being Western students are hypocrite enough to criticize other students cheating while cheating themselves. Anyone missed the news sometime ago where a professor offering amnesty to students who admitted to cheating, and a big portion of his class came forward? Anyone dare say their class don't have any cheaters?
Your post is just typical Western hypocrisy of comparing Western ideals (which nobody does in practice) against other cultures' actual practice, and then generalize that to indicate some deficiency on the others' culture. But don't let facts get bother your mental masturbation on the superiority of Western culture.
Sue that information right off the Internet! It'll work, we promise.
The naivety of this is amazing. When the mafia burning down someone's shop, it is not because they are trying to recup any losses, but rather to send a "Don't mess with us" message to OTHER shop owners.
Sony don't need to win anything from this suit, they just need to drag GeoHot through a very expensive lawsuit hell as a message "You better have a lot of money before messing with us!" to other future possible hackers.
This is the same tactic with the RIAA against filesharers (but there are simply too many to fight against), and the same tactic Adobe tried against Skylarov (sorry, maybe mispelled), and the same tactic the US govt is using against Assange. No different from any school bully, you mess with him, you got beaten by whatever means available.
Deadlines always loom, and they are always too short. [...] has to constantly decide [...] to get it done. There's no worse feeling when management decides [...] and asks "who can we add to [...]?" [...].
Not to belittle your stress, but tell me, which decent-paying mid-level job is NOT like this?
Not everyone can function well under stress, and not everyone can work without a script telling them exactly what to do. THAT's why your job is paying such money, not a lot though, cause there are still quite a lot of people out there who could do your job, your pay just reflects how hard it is to find your replacement.
No cheats on PS3? They legalised the biggest cheat: aimbot, little skill needed there.
I don't know why there are PC players saying that there are aimbot or aim-assist in PS3.
I have never seen my PS3 help me aim at anything in all my hundreds of hours of BF2. Every shot I have to aim manually with the right stick and pull the trigger myself.
Have you ever played a game on the PS3 before accusing us of having aimbot?
What's more, since our turning speed is limited, playing FPS in PS3 you have to consider your facing when you run, a bit more realistic than being able do a 180 flip and shoot in less than 1/4 sec.
OTOH, funny thing is even playing on the PS3 there are losers who accused me of hacking after losing...
The key also cannot be changed without hardware modifications.
Simple. Sony releases a new PS3+ that is backwards compatible with PS3, but with new keys and this exploit patched. Any PS3 can be upgraded to a PS3+ for FREE, you only need to take your PS3 to a service center and wait for 15 minutes for a hardware "upgrade".
PS3 will no longer be sold. Only PS3+ are available.
New games eventually requires PS3+, and as hacks and aimbots start to plagues games that supports the old PS3, PS3 players (those wiling to PAY for games) flock to upgrade and play PS3+ only multiplayer games.
Might cost Sony a bunch, but hardly showstopping if they start to see real damage from pirate games or hacks.
Really, how is this news?
Maybe because this involved both Apple and Google? Guaranteed tons of comments (and tons of hits) from fanboys on both sides.
My take is that due to pervasiveness of cheaters in PC multiplayer games, most long time PC gamer have already joined some clan or another, or have long time in-game buddies. Otherwise, if you venture out alone, you will be playing against cheaters all day long.
In BF2, it is common for PC clans to host their own servers, so they can ban any cheaters found.
OTOH, the console don't have/need private servers. Hacks/aimbots/etc mods are not (yet) possible on PS3, so it is common for PS3 players to just join random multiplayer games without any clan or wait for buddies. Lots of BF2 games in PS3 are filled with players who don't know each other at all, you will find maybe 5-6 from clans out of 24 players in the game.
With this background, is it any wonder that tasks needing team work will be done much much faster for PC gamers than console gamers?
While some would say it is good news for PC gamers, as they logged only 1/2 of the hours played but "achieved" twice as much". I would think the opposite, as it indicates that PC sales is probably only 1/2 of either PS3 or XBox sales. I.e. combined console sales : PC sales would be about 4 : 1!
Is it good news for PC when they only consist of 20% of the market share?
Console's network policy is probably the main reason.
However, as a PS3 player, I have no desire to play with PC players. Why? Cheaters and griefers.
In an all PS3 multiplayer game, I can at least be reasonably sure no one is cheating with hacks/aimbots/etc. Although there are still network cheats possible (e.g. lag switches), those are few enough that in >400 hours of BF2 multiplayer, I haven't met anyone that I was sure he had cheated.
What's more, the LACK of cross team chatting (text or voice), spared me from the rants of 13 yr old losers. There were still 2 or 3 losers who bothered to send PSN msg, during the game, to tell me I sucked/cheated/whatever. (Yeah, they wasted the time DURING A GAME to send flaming msg to opposing players, no wonder their team lost!) Those losers were easily blocked in PSN, after the game was over.
Even within squad voice chat can be easily blocked, so I easily block those whose only use for voice chat is to swear, or those who played some rock music in background (really, you block out the environmental audio cues* and you wonder why you lost?!).
* - really, hearing the environment IN STEREO is important, that's how I hear the footsteps of enemy behind the wall (plant C4 and blow it, kill him through the wall), or hear someone turning around the corner, or hear the gunshots of hiding snipers, hear a tank is coming and where it is, etc. It helps A LOT.
It is highly unlikely Chinese will displace English as a lingua franca, in the near future. There will be more Chinese pages or more Chinese internet users, perhaps, but that will not make the dominant language of the "internet" Chinese. For the rest of the world, English will remain the dominant language. Chinese users wanting to speak to most non-Chinese will need to resort to English or another third language.
This is plain wishful thinking. Yes, initially, you may have a Chinese-only subnet and a more English oriented subnet. But to think it will remain that way and Chinese people has to "come out" to join the English subnet is plain arrogance at best.
China has 1/4 of the world population and is rising fast. In 20-50 years, the rest of the world has no choice but to communicate with Chinese people using Chinese language, just like much of the world had no choice but to learn English to do business with first UK and later the US. While you can probably get by speaking only English and only talk to Chinese people who also speaks English (as most expat do in China now), being able to speak Chinese directly will gain you an advantage that will slowly become too much to ignore.
As for "preserving the purity" of the language, that's just bullshit. TV shows and such are subtitled in Chinese for two very simple reasons: first, many Chinese don't speak Mandarin Chinese, the official language! Most Chinese dialects are mutually unintelligible. Only the written language is common to the whole of China, and allows communication between users/people who don't speak the same (oral) language.
This myth is very pervasive among the US, maybe it gives you reason to be complacent, but it is largely false.
All schools in China teaches Putonghua (official name for Mandarin) and all TV are broadcasted in mainly Putonghua, and in 20-50 years, those who still wouldn't speak Putonghua would be too few and too old. Much like some people who never learned English in the US, they will effective become invisible.
So what is the author saying? Inferring that whichever language group has the most users, dominates the internet? I'm sorry, but Chinese users aren't anywhere near a 50% majority, much less any sort of "overwhelming" majority.
Yet. You forgot China has 1/4 of the world's population, and that's not counting the Chinese speaking population living abroad. When China become fully modernized, in say 20-50 years, it is just natural that most people will be communicating in Chinese, including on the Internet.
By the time you can feel the pressure of using Chinese in the rest of the world, practically everyone you will meet in China would be speaking Putonghua.
Beyond that I'm not sure why it would be Chinese. China has a huge number of people, but they don't really speak the same language, the words are written more or less the same way, but good luck using the same dialect all over China. Same reason why India won't use any of their languages as the default.
THIS considered informative?? The amount of misunderstanding of foreign countries in the US is depressing.
I have spoken with a Putonghua teacher born in Beijing, who has traveled all around China, and she has never once mentioned any difficulty in communicating with anyone anywhere. She only said she can tell someone's origin from the accent when they speak Putonghua.
While it is true that different regions in China has different local languages, Putonghua is used as the official language in all schools and TV/radio stations (with only 2 exceptions). So for all practical purposes, you can travel all around China speaking only Putonghua and you would have no trouble communicating with anyone.
The chance of meeting any locals who don't speak Putonghua would be about the same as meeting someone in the US who only speaks Spanish. Would you then say "Good luck trying to use English all over the US"?
What's more, when we talk about the net, we are talking about WRITTEN language. And Chinese, regardless of local spoken language, all use the same written words. Although some choice of words or local slang may not be understood everywhere, the main bulk of any written passage would be understood correctly.
As for India, really try using English traveling around it sometime. Just in Mumbai I have met enough taxi drivers who didn't understand a single English word (e.g. the name of a big mall or hotel in the city).
Spoken just like someone who don't know anything about Chinese (or any language other than English) at all.
In the official Putonghua (aka Mandarin, i.e. the official spoken Chinese) test syllabus, it listed ~10k multi-word phrases composed from 3795 words. I.e. once you learned how to speak those 10k phrases (and passages made up from those phrases), you are practically deemed to be "fluent" in Putonghua.
So it means for normal day to day usage, just ~3800 individual letters is all you need to learn. What's more, the list starts with the 10k phrases commonly used, so actually with those 3800 letters, there many many more phrases than those 10k you can make up with.
And this compared to how many thousand English words you need to be considered "fluent"? Not to mention the sheer number of exceptions in the spelling and pronunciation of English words, it is amazing that you considers English to be a "reasonable" language.
I don't see much advantage for English here.
... remembering how to write their own language thanks to auto-completing Latin-to-Chinese.
I look at it this other way. That auto-completing Latin-to-Chinese (i.e. Pinyin input) is allowing illiterate people (i.e. cannot write properly) to become literate with a computer.
If you think this idea (some young people cannot write) is ridiculous with universal education, just look at the poor spelling so pervasive with American youths.
Writing properly is a hard-learned skill, and computers can help people (with spell-checking and Pinyin input) to write properly, doesn't mean it is foolproof though. You must seen enough bear/bare, your/you're misspellings already, so why point out Chinese writing problems as if it is something new or unique?