"But a dead badger? I'm no animal rights activist... but this joke isn't even funny"
Well actually it is mildly funny to those of us who are sick of seeing Linux installed on everything under the sun but not being used particularly well on it. "We put Linux on a watch! That means there's great potential!! Slashdot us!!!"
"thats what I say to any story about installing linux on anything"
I don't mind the "installing Linux on something unusual" bit, it's the lack of anything like "... then we wrote this app that takes special advantage of this hardware." Installing Linux on a dead badger is lame, installing Linux on a dead badger and programming it to chase my sister would be cool, though.
"The problem comes when the resulting proof is too involved to be verified by a human, and so the computer's work has to be trusted."
Just to clarify, do you mean the computer's accuracy in moving the bits around, or do you mean the human who wrote the program didn't make any mistakes?
"This is the kind of stupidity that created the phrase 'digging your own grave". No matter what, you're screwed. If you dig your grave, you'll openly acknowledge that you're going to die. If you don't dig your grave, what are they going to do? Kill you? In both cases, there is no incentive to have the person do a damn thing."
No incentive? Here's the way I see it:
1.) Refuse to train, laid off immediately, no benefits.
2.) Train, and ya get another month of pay. If the company's nice enough, you might even get a month or two severance.
No, this is not 'digging your own grave'. It's just humiliating.
"The company wants to have the ability to layoff anyone, anytime without worry. In fact they have a big layoff once every few months. I'm getting used to it."
"I'm not in the computer industry, but I'm wondering how long it takes to train foreign workers? If your job is so valuable that it takes a few days to train someone to be as competent as you, then how does that reflect upon your job?"
It doesn't reflect on your competency at all. Take programmers, for example. They're trained to program. The all learn basically the same thing. If they start a new job, then the first few days are more about orientation than learning how to write "Hello World".
"So, by those rules, I DO have a problem with MTV's half-time performance."
How do you feel about the media's sensationalism of it? I didn't watch the half-time show, but I still saw that shot about 3 million times for the weeks following.
"Here's to hoping he decided to put a little more thought into dialogue and less into the special effects."
It won't happen. Coincidently, I watched AotC last night with the commentary on. Lucas explained rather clearly that they were going after the "30's serial" style of movie. That type of movie doesn't lend itself to modern 'good' dialog.
I don't think Lucas realizes how movie tastes have changed since ANH originally hit theaters.
"And as long as there are idiots like you out there, willing to pay whatever price the MPAA demands of you to see their latest crappy movie, there is no incentive for them to drop the prices."
I got news for ya, the DVD prices have dropped. They used to be $30 for a new release, then it dropped to a little over $20, now it's at $15.
As for calling me an idiot, bit presumptuous, dontcha think? Even in light of the recent price drop?
"What *I* love about slashdot is that there is no requirement that a poster must read the effing article before being modded up."
To be fair, half the stories that Slashdot links to aren't available because of too much traffic. I agree that sometimes stupid comments get modded up, but at the same time, you eventually get sick of even trying to RTFA.
"How can games be downloaded from netflix or any other place."
There's a relatively simple way, well simple if Microsoft lends a hand. XBOX's have a network port. Connect that to broadband. Then, create a disc that alters things on the XBOX a bit, where the data that should be coming through the optical drive is instead pulled in from the network connection. So, in essence, the data is pulled down from the net in real time as if the disc is in the drive. There are obvious issues here, but I've seen a variant of this technique done on the PC before. It'd require broadband and a special disc.
" Renting video games might be a problem too, when people start "losing" the games. A DVD probably runs about $5 in bulk... a game will probably cost them $30 or more."
That wouldn't be such a big deal. they have to pay $20 a month for the service anyway, right? Well they have to keep paying that until they get their game back. If it cannot be returned, then Netflix should just charge them a fee to recoup the costs.
"I'm already copying and burning DVDs from netflix as fast as I can get them."
What's the point? How many of those movies are you going to watch more than once in the next year? Seems like a huge waste of time to me. If I really want a movie, I'm $15 and a 5 minute drive away. Renting the movie from Netflix, and waiting for it to arrive in the mail.. well how much are you really saving?
Maybe you're just joking, I dunno. But I can tell you that you're putting way too much energy into being a pirate. Maybe if movies cost $30.
"I don't think anybody can launch a Hollywood-movies-on-demand without having the cable companies on board. They can place servers closer to their users, and have the advantage of being able to allocate more bandwidth to themselves on their cable systems. They're going to have an advantage over any outside provider..."
Their biggest advantage is that it's out today. I would assume not in all areas, but in Portland it is. I've already watched a few movies on it. Not too bad at all. They just stream the digital signal down to my TV over the cable. Frankly, I have NFI how Netflix can beat that unless they make it cheaper. Right now it's $4 a movie streamed right to my TV. If they had some movies for $1 to view, I'd watch some of the movies I'm less excited about on my laptop. No biggie.
"but I don't want to download PS2 games on demand. They're freaking huge! I've only got 512 down, and it would take forever to download some of those four disk RPGs."
It wouldn't work that way. They'd send the data down as needed. I beta tested a PC game service like that a while back. It wasn't bad. I have a 3 megabit connection, though.
Slashdot Mirror
"Agreed. This has to rank up there as the single most fucking retarded story Slashdot has ever posted."
I just hope nobody makes any root jokes about the dead badger. Ick.
"But a dead badger? I'm no animal rights activist... but this joke isn't even funny"
Well actually it is mildly funny to those of us who are sick of seeing Linux installed on everything under the sun but not being used particularly well on it. "We put Linux on a watch! That means there's great potential!! Slashdot us!!!"
"April Fools Day was last Thursday, you insenstive clod!"
Everybody bookmark this comment. It's the first time Slashdot's ever modded somebody as +5 Informative for stating what day it is!
"thats what I say to any story about installing linux on anything"
I don't mind the "installing Linux on something unusual" bit, it's the lack of anything like "... then we wrote this app that takes special advantage of this hardware." Installing Linux on a dead badger is lame, installing Linux on a dead badger and programming it to chase my sister would be cool, though.
"The problem comes when the resulting proof is too involved to be verified by a human, and so the computer's work has to be trusted."
Just to clarify, do you mean the computer's accuracy in moving the bits around, or do you mean the human who wrote the program didn't make any mistakes?
"This is the kind of stupidity that created the phrase 'digging your own grave". No matter what, you're screwed. If you dig your grave, you'll openly acknowledge that you're going to die. If you don't dig your grave, what are they going to do? Kill you? In both cases, there is no incentive to have the person do a damn thing."
No incentive? Here's the way I see it:
1.) Refuse to train, laid off immediately, no benefits.
2.) Train, and ya get another month of pay. If the company's nice enough, you might even get a month or two severance.
No, this is not 'digging your own grave'. It's just humiliating.
"The company wants to have the ability to layoff anyone, anytime without worry. In fact they have a big layoff once every few months. I'm getting used to it."
IBM? Heh.
"I'm not in the computer industry, but I'm wondering how long it takes to train foreign workers? If your job is so valuable that it takes a few days to train someone to be as competent as you, then how does that reflect upon your job?"
It doesn't reflect on your competency at all. Take programmers, for example. They're trained to program. The all learn basically the same thing. If they start a new job, then the first few days are more about orientation than learning how to write "Hello World".
"No sense in helping them to look good eh?"
Tell them that the chick that answers the phone also serves coffee.
"So, by those rules, I DO have a problem with MTV's half-time performance."
How do you feel about the media's sensationalism of it? I didn't watch the half-time show, but I still saw that shot about 3 million times for the weeks following.
"your a moron, complete moron. my only hopes are that you are being sarcastic."
So I'm a moron, but you're not completely sure what I was saying? Heh.
" For one, I hate "online" manuals. You can take your PDFs and stuff 'em."
I hated PDFs until I discovered the 'Find' tool. The ability to download the manual (like if you bought something second hand) is icing.
"That way I can be that crazy fan shown on national TV. Who cares if I have to quit my job, drop out of school, etc. Star Wars is worth it."
Boy I'd like to know how these people keep reproducing.
"May 2005. Anyone else notice that that's about the middle of the indeterminate area that the PS3, GC2 and XBox2 are currently likely to be launched?"
Somehow I doubt the tie-ins are going to be anything like the 300 million dollars they're going to rake on on May 21st.
"Woohoo! I wonder when they'll start production on the 4th episode?"
I heard George recently bought a Delorean from his friend Bob.
"Here's to hoping he decided to put a little more thought into dialogue and less into the special effects."
It won't happen. Coincidently, I watched AotC last night with the commentary on. Lucas explained rather clearly that they were going after the "30's serial" style of movie. That type of movie doesn't lend itself to modern 'good' dialog.
I don't think Lucas realizes how movie tastes have changed since ANH originally hit theaters.
"And as long as there are idiots like you out there, willing to pay whatever price the MPAA demands of you to see their latest crappy movie, there is no incentive for them to drop the prices."
I got news for ya, the DVD prices have dropped. They used to be $30 for a new release, then it dropped to a little over $20, now it's at $15.
As for calling me an idiot, bit presumptuous, dontcha think? Even in light of the recent price drop?
"What *I* love about slashdot is that there is no requirement that a poster must read the effing article before being modded up."
To be fair, half the stories that Slashdot links to aren't available because of too much traffic. I agree that sometimes stupid comments get modded up, but at the same time, you eventually get sick of even trying to RTFA.
"How can games be downloaded from netflix or any other place."
There's a relatively simple way, well simple if Microsoft lends a hand. XBOX's have a network port. Connect that to broadband. Then, create a disc that alters things on the XBOX a bit, where the data that should be coming through the optical drive is instead pulled in from the network connection. So, in essence, the data is pulled down from the net in real time as if the disc is in the drive. There are obvious issues here, but I've seen a variant of this technique done on the PC before. It'd require broadband and a special disc.
" Renting video games might be a problem too, when people start "losing" the games. A DVD probably runs about $5 in bulk... a game will probably cost them $30 or more."
That wouldn't be such a big deal. they have to pay $20 a month for the service anyway, right? Well they have to keep paying that until they get their game back. If it cannot be returned, then Netflix should just charge them a fee to recoup the costs.
"I'm already copying and burning DVDs from netflix as fast as I can get them."
What's the point? How many of those movies are you going to watch more than once in the next year? Seems like a huge waste of time to me. If I really want a movie, I'm $15 and a 5 minute drive away. Renting the movie from Netflix, and waiting for it to arrive in the mail.. well how much are you really saving?
Maybe you're just joking, I dunno. But I can tell you that you're putting way too much energy into being a pirate. Maybe if movies cost $30.
"I don't think anybody can launch a Hollywood-movies-on-demand without having the cable companies on board. They can place servers closer to their users, and have the advantage of being able to allocate more bandwidth to themselves on their cable systems. They're going to have an advantage over any outside provider..."
Their biggest advantage is that it's out today. I would assume not in all areas, but in Portland it is. I've already watched a few movies on it. Not too bad at all. They just stream the digital signal down to my TV over the cable. Frankly, I have NFI how Netflix can beat that unless they make it cheaper. Right now it's $4 a movie streamed right to my TV. If they had some movies for $1 to view, I'd watch some of the movies I'm less excited about on my laptop. No biggie.
"but I don't want to download PS2 games on demand. They're freaking huge! I've only got 512 down, and it would take forever to download some of those four disk RPGs."
It wouldn't work that way. They'd send the data down as needed. I beta tested a PC game service like that a while back. It wasn't bad. I have a 3 megabit connection, though.
"I used to hate the SPF/PDF interface"
Yeah me too. Adobe really needs to fix that.
Chucke E. Cheese will never be the same again.