Clothing, consumer appliances, power tools, any sort of plastic or metal manufacturing, furniture, etc.
Heck, the hardwood futon I bought 4 years ago was made in china - the store said that local manufacturers just couldn't compete with the lower wages paid there. As a result, there was nearly a $200 difference in final price for a product that was approximately the same design and quality.
Ya, I was going to say battlefield earth, then I went to the IMDB and had a look to see what I rated the lowest.
In hindsight, it was obvious: Alien3
I gave it a 1 out of 10, and that was only because they didn't have a "zero" option.
Nothing like taking characters that we cared about in Aliens and flushing them down the toilet without any thought or creativity whatsoever beyond "well, let's just kill them off in the first 3 minutes so they don't interfere with our script idea".
Alien4 was "marginally" better, but IMHO, the series ended at "Aliens". If I had the microsoft-like resources to buy the rights to "Alien3" and have every copy and the original negatives destroyed, believe me, I would.
Fortunately friends buying the boxed sets relieved me of the guilt of actually spending money to watch the sequels.
Hats-off to Ridley Scott and Jim Cameron for making the only two decent movies in the series.
Well, the simple thing to do (that I'd fully support) is this:
If the police catch someone driving without insurance (or DUI for that matter), their car is crushed. It's immediately towed-away and thrown in the crusher, no matter if it's a POS Fiero, or a top of the line Mercedes.
As far as the topic goes - I'd subscribe to that sort of system when it gave me a 50%-75% discount. At that price, it's worth the invasion of privacy. Any less and I'd rather just pay the going rate and not be monitored.
Certainly a 5% rate reduction just isn't going to cut it.
So long as they're willing to pay you for not working for anyone they don't want you to, I don't see a problem with it.
I figure non-competes should be worded as such:
Anytime the company wants to prevent you from working for someone else, they must continue to pay you the average of your last three full month's salary for as long as they want you prohibited from working.
When they stop paying, you are no longer restricted from working wherever you want.
I was looking for a comment like this to reply to - I knew if I scrolled-down far enough I'd find it.
At any rate, Windows NT4 most certainly did not suck - it had full multitasking, something that Macs really didn't have until years later - granted it wasn't as good as the Amiga's multitasking at the time, but for popular use, it worked just fine, was very stable, and had a reasonable level of user-based security (something that was not at-all common on PCs at the time).
Now as for the past - wouldacouldashoulda - I don't really care about Apple failing to license their products in the past. OS-X is a whole 'nother ballgame. It's basically unix and with a modicum of tweaking and some extra drivers, should be possible to compile for X86 CPUs and most anything-else out there.
But it will never happen, because Apple is too fond of their own hardware solutions to see the bigger picture, and they really want to keep their "designer" image - there are still a lot of people out there for whom owning a Mac is a status-symbol of sorts (read: bumpersticker about how intelligent and artistic the owner is).
Eventually when Linux is getting to the point of becoming common on the desktop (say, 5 years from now), Apple may re-think it's strategy, but for the reasons I lised above, I doubt it.
Apple has, however, conquered the one major problem that Linux still has - for it to be commonplace on desktop PCs, Linux needs to be able to be installed, configured, and maintained without EVER seeing a command line interface or editing config files by hand. I know unix-types want their CLI and I'm all for having it, buried some some folder of the operating system that normal users never need to look at.
As soon as Linux can consistantly pull-off this trick, the userbase will skyrocket and application developers will follow.
Not to mention that steering wheels are actually pretty soft. If you've ever seen one of the crash-tests in slow-motion, the steering wheel looks like a rubber band during the impact. They're designed to be soft so as not to impale you when you're in an accident.
If a crook wants past your club, they can just cut through the steering wheel and remove the club.
I've seen a different sort of club-type device on TV that hooks around the brake pedal. Looks like a better product to use anyway.
An interesting way of solving the problem may have been with atmospheric effects like fog.
Give the player a choice - you can use the flashlight, but it reflects right back off of the fog/smoke and reduces your vision to a few feet (which are well-lit).
Or you can turn the flashlight off, and just go by the ambient illumination and the lights in the scene. Lots more dark areas, but then you can see farther through the fog.
Of course, you'd need to balance the effects out so not all rooms were foggy and/or dark. But it would be one way of reducing the usefulness of the flashlight without crippling it in an unrealistic way.
A lot of the people downloading would've bought the game if it was available in stores at the same time that it was available online, but they weren't willing to wait the extra few days until the retail release. It certainly didn't help any that stores had boxes all ready-to-sell in the back that said "Do not sell until August 3rd". Like it or not, that really frosts a lot of people.
Lots of people already have it ordered (especially in Europe), but they're impatient and miffed that the release date is a week later than North America.
Realistically, I have to hand it to the guys at Valve, who have a wonderful solution for this...
Steam
So when HL2 is announced as an imminent release, people sign-onto Steam, which then downloads the game onto the host machine in encrypted form over a few days or weeks.
Then, when the game is ready to be released in stores (or when a pirate copy shows up on websites), they just enable the "buy" option, which sends the encryption key to the host computer and the game is fully available to play within a minute or so.
Brilliant strategy that will definately pay-off for them.
I refuse to play the "release date" game with some young EB employee who's ego-tripping and acting like a bouncer at a nightclub because he works at a store that's selling Doom3. "Oh, you're NOT on the list. NO DOOM FOR YOU!"
I'll wait for a few weeks until the rush has died down, then I'll go buy it at my leisure.
The funny thing is that people don't think about that with fuel cells...
"Oh, they just use hydrogen, it's CHEAP!"
Yes, unless they store it in proprietary non-refillable containers (obvious).
I wouldn't put it past each company to design an incompatible and non-refillable (you do know hydrogen is DAAAANGEROUS don't you - you wouldn't want people refilling at home!) fuel cell "battery" pre-packaged in just the proper amount to wear-out after one usage.
People who think that fuel cells are the end-all-be-all free power forever product are going to be sadly mistaken.
He was only supposed to monitor and enforce the security policy for mere mortals - it never even occurred to them that he might decide to monitor his betters. Management are GODs afterall, and everything they do is above reproach.
No wonder they fired the guy but only gave the manager a "stern talking to". After all, it could be one of THEM next that he chose to monitor.
Suits stick together, and they don't want some do-gooder computer admin running around checking on THEM. That might put their own jobs in jeopardy at some point.
Heck, I work in a pretty reasonable environment at work with my boss, but it's 100% crystal clear that if there's a problem, you do NOT go over the boss's head. While it wouldn't result in me being fired (gotta love those union jobs), there would be hard feelings and lasting ill-will all around.
I feel more or less the same way - ID games have always been great technology demos, but at least for a single-player experience, generally havn't been more than "shoot everything that moves" type games (run into dark room, wonder where the trigger is that will open all the hidden doors so the baddies can charge out at you).
That said, some of my fondest memories were of playing multiplayer original Doom and Quake (original CTF).
Don't get me wrong, I'll buy doom3 next week because I always like a new toy, and I'm sure I'll have fun with it, but as with you, HL2 is also what I'm waiting for (apparently in September?).
It's odd that the "think of the children" crowd regularly allow their kids to watch "professional wrestling" (and I'm not referring to the Olympic variety) - which is possibly one of the most violent productions on TV.
And the same nutters that allow their kids to watch actors smashing eachother over the head with chairs (often drawing blood) throw a hissyfit if the kids see a female breast or buttock on TV and start campaigning for better family values.
Well, the US federal government isn't, but there are a number of other governments around the world that have embraced open-source software as a way of freeing themselves from Microsoft products. Small municipalities are also looking in the same direction. At some point it will be easier and more efficient to have one central office to manage the checks than it is to have everyone duplicating effort doing the same thing.
And when they do that, they become part of the software business. At that point, it makes perfect sense for them to have a quality control office in the same way that they check air/water quality, regulate public services, etc.
There's so much power to be had in developing/regulating an operating system and software (ie: microsoft), can you see a government overlooking that type of control?
This kind of sensationalist headline by a company with a vested interest in the status-quo amuses me to a fair degree.
"So What?" comes to mind.
It might mean the government has to spend a few million runing a "Open Source Audit Office" where a team of talented (and presumably patriotic) programmers verify sourcecode before it's approved for "official purposes". If they're going to move to an open-source operating system for vital projects, it's a no-brainer.
In the big scheme of things, this is one of those concepts that's simply too trivial to think about. It would get funded in a heartbeat and then it's problem-solved forever.
Infact, some enterprising businessperson might just wanna go and put a proposal together to the right congressman (be sure to bring your wallet) to get the ball rolling.
After some further research, it appears the place that's doing it locally is doing a laser PRK as opposed to LASIK.
The laser PRK actually uses the laser to remove the cells above the cornea rather than cutting a flap.
The old-style PRK method of this that got a really bad name is when they used to abrade (read: sand off) the top surface of the eye using a q-tip of some sort. Apparently this was highly uncomfortable and was prone to problems healing (ick).
The laser version basically does the same thing, but it just vaporizes the top layer of cells then uses the laser to reshape the cornea underneath and is much less traumatic to the eye as nothing is physically touching the optical surface of the eye.
That said, the technology you mentioned is also very intriguing. Using a laser to cut a flap, then reshape makes good sense as well. Apparently each method has it's tradeoffs:
-The flap-cut method heals faster and causes less discomfort, however there's the issue of the flap itself and the size of flap they can cut to work on the cornea underneath. Apparently "flap problems" are the biggest cause of after-surgery complications
-The laser PRK method is a bit more uncomfortable afterwards as the membrane on the eye needs to regrow (a few days). But there's no flap, and they can work on a larger area to reduce night-effects. This method is apparently not approved in the US (although the reference for that was a few years ago) so you might need to go to another country to do it (ie: Canada).
The only reason I know about it is that I went for one of their free evaluations a few years ago because I was curious what they could do. I opted not to do anything at the time, but I felt comfortable with the staff and it seemed like an easy-enough procedure.
There were a few people in the lobby that were getting after-procedure checkups, but they didn't speak english, so I couldn't ask them about it:P. Apparently this company also gives you "free touchups for life" after the surgery incase your prescription drifts as you age.
I think you've hit-upon a key point. If your eyesight is so bad that you're effectively blind without glasses (incapacitated), I would think that it's a fair chance to take. As other posters have said, the main reported side-effect can be poor night-vision (halos on bright objects) - and I found the same issue when I wore contacts.
I can "see" fine without glasses to get around and such, but I can't read comfortably without them.
The tradeoff is that I work in the film and television industry - eyes are pretty important (read: vital) for my job, and the risk is outweighed by the potential problems if something "went wrong".
I'm reasonably comfortable with the technology now - I know that a local company doing the laser correction does a "no touch" technique where they use the laser exclusively without the microkeratome so no foreign objects touch the optical surface of your eye - apparently it provides a smoother finished surface with less chance of issues at night.
But it's not an urgent "fix" for me. Add to that at least a couple times where glasses have saved my eyes from being injured (once by flying debris, and once by an accidental spray of cleaning solvent) and I'm not all that unhappy wearing glasses...
Agreed, when I read crap like this, I'm sure happy I live in Canada and not the US.
But both of our countries have the same problem however - a population of sheep that just rolls-over when big business pays-off a politician to pass whatever law they feel will best-ensure their cash flow.
Everyone just goes "oh, that sucks" and goes on with their life instead of DOING something about it.
(see Bush's presidential "win" for a perfect example of US Democrats just rolling-over rather than fighting).
Slashdot Mirror
Clothing, consumer appliances, power tools, any sort of plastic or metal manufacturing, furniture, etc.
Heck, the hardwood futon I bought 4 years ago was made in china - the store said that local manufacturers just couldn't compete with the lower wages paid there. As a result, there was nearly a $200 difference in final price for a product that was approximately the same design and quality.
Ya, I was going to say battlefield earth, then I went to the IMDB and had a look to see what I rated the lowest.
In hindsight, it was obvious: Alien3
I gave it a 1 out of 10, and that was only because they didn't have a "zero" option.
Nothing like taking characters that we cared about in Aliens and flushing them down the toilet without any thought or creativity whatsoever beyond "well, let's just kill them off in the first 3 minutes so they don't interfere with our script idea".
Alien4 was "marginally" better, but IMHO, the series ended at "Aliens". If I had the microsoft-like resources to buy the rights to "Alien3" and have every copy and the original negatives destroyed, believe me, I would.
Fortunately friends buying the boxed sets relieved me of the guilt of actually spending money to watch the sequels.
Hats-off to Ridley Scott and Jim Cameron for making the only two decent movies in the series.
N.
Well, the simple thing to do (that I'd fully support) is this:
If the police catch someone driving without insurance (or DUI for that matter), their car is crushed. It's immediately towed-away and thrown in the crusher, no matter if it's a POS Fiero, or a top of the line Mercedes.
As far as the topic goes - I'd subscribe to that sort of system when it gave me a 50%-75% discount. At that price, it's worth the invasion of privacy. Any less and I'd rather just pay the going rate and not be monitored.
Certainly a 5% rate reduction just isn't going to cut it.
Erm, I didn't say graphical installer, I said never using a command line interface or editing config files by hand.
The windows installer isn't a GUI, but neither does it need a CLI or hand-editing of the config files.
N.
So long as they're willing to pay you for not working for anyone they don't want you to, I don't see a problem with it.
I figure non-competes should be worded as such:
Anytime the company wants to prevent you from working for someone else, they must continue to pay you the average of your last three full month's salary for as long as they want you prohibited from working.
When they stop paying, you are no longer restricted from working wherever you want.
N.
I was looking for a comment like this to reply to - I knew if I scrolled-down far enough I'd find it.
At any rate, Windows NT4 most certainly did not suck - it had full multitasking, something that Macs really didn't have until years later - granted it wasn't as good as the Amiga's multitasking at the time, but for popular use, it worked just fine, was very stable, and had a reasonable level of user-based security (something that was not at-all common on PCs at the time).
Now as for the past - wouldacouldashoulda - I don't really care about Apple failing to license their products in the past. OS-X is a whole 'nother ballgame. It's basically unix and with a modicum of tweaking and some extra drivers, should be possible to compile for X86 CPUs and most anything-else out there.
But it will never happen, because Apple is too fond of their own hardware solutions to see the bigger picture, and they really want to keep their "designer" image - there are still a lot of people out there for whom owning a Mac is a status-symbol of sorts (read: bumpersticker about how intelligent and artistic the owner is).
Eventually when Linux is getting to the point of becoming common on the desktop (say, 5 years from now), Apple may re-think it's strategy, but for the reasons I lised above, I doubt it.
Apple has, however, conquered the one major problem that Linux still has - for it to be commonplace on desktop PCs, Linux needs to be able to be installed, configured, and maintained without EVER seeing a command line interface or editing config files by hand. I know unix-types want their CLI and I'm all for having it, buried some some folder of the operating system that normal users never need to look at.
As soon as Linux can consistantly pull-off this trick, the userbase will skyrocket and application developers will follow.
N.
Not to mention that steering wheels are actually pretty soft. If you've ever seen one of the crash-tests in slow-motion, the steering wheel looks like a rubber band during the impact. They're designed to be soft so as not to impale you when you're in an accident.
If a crook wants past your club, they can just cut through the steering wheel and remove the club.
I've seen a different sort of club-type device on TV that hooks around the brake pedal. Looks like a better product to use anyway.
So... Security through obscurity then? :P
(runs away)
N.
An interesting way of solving the problem may have been with atmospheric effects like fog.
Give the player a choice - you can use the flashlight, but it reflects right back off of the fog/smoke and reduces your vision to a few feet (which are well-lit).
Or you can turn the flashlight off, and just go by the ambient illumination and the lights in the scene. Lots more dark areas, but then you can see farther through the fog.
Of course, you'd need to balance the effects out so not all rooms were foggy and/or dark. But it would be one way of reducing the usefulness of the flashlight without crippling it in an unrealistic way.
N.
A lot of the people downloading would've bought the game if it was available in stores at the same time that it was available online, but they weren't willing to wait the extra few days until the retail release. It certainly didn't help any that stores had boxes all ready-to-sell in the back that said "Do not sell until August 3rd". Like it or not, that really frosts a lot of people.
Lots of people already have it ordered (especially in Europe), but they're impatient and miffed that the release date is a week later than North America.
Realistically, I have to hand it to the guys at Valve, who have a wonderful solution for this...
Steam
So when HL2 is announced as an imminent release, people sign-onto Steam, which then downloads the game onto the host machine in encrypted form over a few days or weeks.
Then, when the game is ready to be released in stores (or when a pirate copy shows up on websites), they just enable the "buy" option, which sends the encryption key to the host computer and the game is fully available to play within a minute or so.
Brilliant strategy that will definately pay-off for them.
N.
I refuse to play the "release date" game with some young EB employee who's ego-tripping and acting like a bouncer at a nightclub because he works at a store that's selling Doom3. "Oh, you're NOT on the list. NO DOOM FOR YOU!"
I'll wait for a few weeks until the rush has died down, then I'll go buy it at my leisure.
N.
The funny thing is that people don't think about that with fuel cells...
"Oh, they just use hydrogen, it's CHEAP!"
Yes, unless they store it in proprietary non-refillable containers (obvious).
I wouldn't put it past each company to design an incompatible and non-refillable (you do know hydrogen is DAAAANGEROUS don't you - you wouldn't want people refilling at home!) fuel cell "battery" pre-packaged in just the proper amount to wear-out after one usage.
People who think that fuel cells are the end-all-be-all free power forever product are going to be sadly mistaken.
Ah, but you see, there's a difference.
He was only supposed to monitor and enforce the security policy for mere mortals - it never even occurred to them that he might decide to monitor his betters. Management are GODs afterall, and everything they do is above reproach.
No wonder they fired the guy but only gave the manager a "stern talking to". After all, it could be one of THEM next that he chose to monitor.
Suits stick together, and they don't want some do-gooder computer admin running around checking on THEM. That might put their own jobs in jeopardy at some point.
Heck, I work in a pretty reasonable environment at work with my boss, but it's 100% crystal clear that if there's a problem, you do NOT go over the boss's head. While it wouldn't result in me being fired (gotta love those union jobs), there would be hard feelings and lasting ill-will all around.
N.
I feel more or less the same way - ID games have always been great technology demos, but at least for a single-player experience, generally havn't been more than "shoot everything that moves" type games (run into dark room, wonder where the trigger is that will open all the hidden doors so the baddies can charge out at you).
That said, some of my fondest memories were of playing multiplayer original Doom and Quake (original CTF).
Don't get me wrong, I'll buy doom3 next week because I always like a new toy, and I'm sure I'll have fun with it, but as with you, HL2 is also what I'm waiting for (apparently in September?).
Like Aliens3!
Oh... wait...
N.
It's odd that the "think of the children" crowd regularly allow their kids to watch "professional wrestling" (and I'm not referring to the Olympic variety) - which is possibly one of the most violent productions on TV.
And the same nutters that allow their kids to watch actors smashing eachother over the head with chairs (often drawing blood) throw a hissyfit if the kids see a female breast or buttock on TV and start campaigning for better family values.
Talk about a sad excuse for parenting.
N.
I got 90% right - the only one I missed was because I didn't have screen wrapping on and the fake address was hidden off the edge of my screen.
If in doubt, don't click the link, just type the URL that you know to be accurate directly into your browser.
Well, the US federal government isn't, but there are a number of other governments around the world that have embraced open-source software as a way of freeing themselves from Microsoft products. Small municipalities are also looking in the same direction. At some point it will be easier and more efficient to have one central office to manage the checks than it is to have everyone duplicating effort doing the same thing.
And when they do that, they become part of the software business. At that point, it makes perfect sense for them to have a quality control office in the same way that they check air/water quality, regulate public services, etc.
There's so much power to be had in developing/regulating an operating system and software (ie: microsoft), can you see a government overlooking that type of control?
N.
Looks like about the same size as the Newton, which is far too big for a PDA in my books.
For my money, the Vaio TR-series is vastly more useful in a slightly larger form factor, has built-in optical drive, full keyboard, etc.
N.
This kind of sensationalist headline by a company with a vested interest in the status-quo amuses me to a fair degree.
"So What?" comes to mind.
It might mean the government has to spend a few million runing a "Open Source Audit Office" where a team of talented (and presumably patriotic) programmers verify sourcecode before it's approved for "official purposes". If they're going to move to an open-source operating system for vital projects, it's a no-brainer.
In the big scheme of things, this is one of those concepts that's simply too trivial to think about. It would get funded in a heartbeat and then it's problem-solved forever.
Infact, some enterprising businessperson might just wanna go and put a proposal together to the right congressman (be sure to bring your wallet) to get the ball rolling.
N.
After some further research, it appears the place that's doing it locally is doing a laser PRK as opposed to LASIK.
:P. Apparently this company also gives you "free touchups for life" after the surgery incase your prescription drifts as you age.
The laser PRK actually uses the laser to remove the cells above the cornea rather than cutting a flap.
The old-style PRK method of this that got a really bad name is when they used to abrade (read: sand off) the top surface of the eye using a q-tip of some sort. Apparently this was highly uncomfortable and was prone to problems healing (ick).
The laser version basically does the same thing, but it just vaporizes the top layer of cells then uses the laser to reshape the cornea underneath and is much less traumatic to the eye as nothing is physically touching the optical surface of the eye.
That said, the technology you mentioned is also very intriguing. Using a laser to cut a flap, then reshape makes good sense as well. Apparently each method has it's tradeoffs:
-The flap-cut method heals faster and causes less discomfort, however there's the issue of the flap itself and the size of flap they can cut to work on the cornea underneath. Apparently "flap problems" are the biggest cause of after-surgery complications
-The laser PRK method is a bit more uncomfortable afterwards as the membrane on the eye needs to regrow (a few days). But there's no flap, and they can work on a larger area to reduce night-effects. This method is apparently not approved in the US (although the reference for that was a few years ago) so you might need to go to another country to do it (ie: Canada).
The only reason I know about it is that I went for one of their free evaluations a few years ago because I was curious what they could do. I opted not to do anything at the time, but I felt comfortable with the staff and it seemed like an easy-enough procedure.
There were a few people in the lobby that were getting after-procedure checkups, but they didn't speak english, so I couldn't ask them about it
N.
I was wondering if anyone was going to mention this - a great episode :)
N.
I think you've hit-upon a key point. If your eyesight is so bad that you're effectively blind without glasses (incapacitated), I would think that it's a fair chance to take. As other posters have said, the main reported side-effect can be poor night-vision (halos on bright objects) - and I found the same issue when I wore contacts.
I can "see" fine without glasses to get around and such, but I can't read comfortably without them.
The tradeoff is that I work in the film and television industry - eyes are pretty important (read: vital) for my job, and the risk is outweighed by the potential problems if something "went wrong".
I'm reasonably comfortable with the technology now - I know that a local company doing the laser correction does a "no touch" technique where they use the laser exclusively without the microkeratome so no foreign objects touch the optical surface of your eye - apparently it provides a smoother finished surface with less chance of issues at night.
But it's not an urgent "fix" for me. Add to that at least a couple times where glasses have saved my eyes from being injured (once by flying debris, and once by an accidental spray of cleaning solvent) and I'm not all that unhappy wearing glasses...
N.
Same with me - both of the domains I run for work and at home are using the register.com DNS servers.
I've had BIND set up, but as you've noted, their servers are far more robust than my own.
So right now, with register.com unable to include the SPF records, is mail getting lost/rejected?
Agreed, when I read crap like this, I'm sure happy I live in Canada and not the US.
But both of our countries have the same problem however - a population of sheep that just rolls-over when big business pays-off a politician to pass whatever law they feel will best-ensure their cash flow.
Everyone just goes "oh, that sucks" and goes on with their life instead of DOING something about it.
(see Bush's presidential "win" for a perfect example of US Democrats just rolling-over rather than fighting).