I can't honestly claim to have a peaceful bedroom at the moment because we have a 3 week old baby sharing it with us, but aside from that it's extremely easy to have a refuge - don't take all the crap in there! We have a phone in there (in case of emergency calls from relatives overseas), two lights, and a ceiling fan - that's it for hi-tech. It was tough not buying a new TV/PC/random gadget, not carrying it into the bedroom and not setting it up, but somehow I struggled through.
My mistake, I should have made it clear that I'm talking about the taxes I pay for medicare, medicaid, job training, university education, unemployment benefit, housing benefit, food stamps, electoral expenses, disability/workers comp, elderly care, and pensions. I may have missed some.
And I'm not complaining - as I said, I think the govt exists to look after the interests of Americans, not foreigners. Just making the point that the average H1-b person takes less for what they pay than the 'average' American.
(Disclaimer: I'm on my second H1-b, and have no problem with the government delaying or changing the program as they see fit - their purpose is to protect and promote the welfare of Americans, not provide nice jobs for foreigners like me)
One of the measures listed is
Restrict this "temporary" guest worker program to one, two or three year (non-renewable) term.
I'd guess that a great many people wouldn't bother. Visa processing can take 3-6 months (and maybe more under these new suggestions), then I get to pack up my life at home, leave friends and family, potentially put my existing career on hold, all to spend a year in another country. Sure it's nice, but I'm not sure the incentive is there.
In my situation I knew I could spend a few years here (maybe even get citizenship if I liked it that much), which made it well worth the upheaval. And of course I'm helping my company prosper, and paying lots of taxes without access to the corresponding benefits.
I'm afraid this is a blatant example of isism - the word 'is' clearly separates the two links. To think I would live to see the day when isism should rear its ugly head on slashdot:(
Sounds like the two guys who didn't do well weren't doing pair programming. Pair programming is about working together, with one PC, to develop code together. What they were doing was working in a very small team, which may be valid, but isn't PP.
What amazes me most is that this is a book definitely aimed at the beginner. So rule out most CS students, and a lot of hobbyists, who will have picked up a moderate amount at some time. This is (presumably) for the person who isn't that familiar with computers, hasn't really done much 'programming', but needs to set up a database. So, are the 8 people who fall into that category *ever* going to read those 834 pages?
But when they go into the bookstore, and see the big thick book, they'll think it must be the best, so they'll buy it and shelf it. I know I have in the past:(
So under normal weather conditions Boston is 50 miles from NJ, but in certain circumstances they're 270 miles apart? Do they have to close a bridge or something?
I will NEVER VOTE DEMOCRATE. All they want to do is STEAL my money and spend it on things I don't want.
Unfortunately that's all the Republicans want to do as well. They campaign on lower taxes and smaller government, which may well be A Good Thing (TM), but it's a good thing you can only sell once ("yes, I know you lowered income tax last year, but what do I get this year?"). So to keep themselves in jobs they have to keep doing stuff, and stuff costs money.
One of the big problems the Republicans have is that (theoretically at least) they want to get out of people's lives, be it with lower taxes or less regulation. But you can only do this once - you pass a law that says people can do X, Y and Z without government interference, and that's it.
The Democrats campaign on the hundreds of things they want to do through legislation and spending, and each one of those is an interesting issue they can engage the public on, and give them stuff. To compete with this Republicans have to talk about cutting taxes and government programs, except for all the ones that will benefit their state. And pretty soon you realise that they're doing much the same, just using different words.
I participate in this project, looking at a mathematical problem that I barely understand. Why? Because it requires very little network traffic (about 20k every couple of months) so it's unobtrusive, but still delivers the sense of doing something that seti@home and similar projects do (though it's not going to cure cancer like the UD team might).
(though I'm sure someone has come up with it already):
"Any prediction that a particular industry is doomed to failure within 3-5 years is wrong"
Now I know that technically this can't be true, as industries do eventually fail (and must therefore have failed within 3-5 years of some point), but it's close enough:)
printing your own photos is very expensive and between the ink and paper really burn money.
I often print 8x10s with my Epson Photo printer. I figure they cost me less than a dollar each, compared to the $10-$15 for a photo print at a store, or $4 for a print from Ofoto. And I get to pick exactly the image I want, I only wait for a couple of minutes, and if it doesn't work out as I want I can rework it and print it again in a few minutes.
Anyway, if you're worried about burning money, with a good printer you can always make some more:)
So the higher the bitrate gets, the harder it is to tell between the formats? That's hardly surprising really - if you take the bitrate up close to 800kbps Flac among others can do it losslessly. The higher the bitrate, the closer any format can get to the original, and the smaller the differences.
My understanding is that a company exists to improve the value of the investor's investment. It might have other obligations under law, and it might choose to undertake good works in the community (with subsequent boosts in goodwill), but its prime goal is to make money doing whatever it is it does. Money used to do things other than this is mis-spent.
Grab the nearest politician and ask him if money contributed to him/her can buy favors. I imagine the answer will be "no", because that kind of thing is illegal in most countries.
So as a shareholder in a company that makes campaign contributions, can I bring a lawsuit for misappropriation of company funds? After all, they're spending money on something that "can't" increase shareholder value!
One of the problems with testing wma is that it boosts the volume of anything it encodes. People tend to prefer the louder of two samples, so it gives wma a boost that has nothing to do with quality.
Well, Microsoft say that 64kbps is CD-quality, so why use anything more?:)
It's true that different formats work best at different bitrates. Most of the effort on Ogg Vorbis so far has been for lower bitrates (128kbps down), though it works pretty well at higher rates too. MPC I believe works better at higher rates (160kbps+). So while the results are important, they only provide clues to higher bitrates.
But remember that as the formats get better the lower bitrates are likely to be more important. An mp3 at 128kbps is considered 'good enough' by most people, at least for portable listening. The equivalent _quality_ for ogg vorbis is produced at around 96kbps. If that is 'good enough' for common uses then higher bitrates become less important - why use more space than you need to, when space on a portable is at a premium?
Slashdot Mirror
I can't honestly claim to have a peaceful bedroom at the moment because we have a 3 week old baby sharing it with us, but aside from that it's extremely easy to have a refuge - don't take all the crap in there! We have a phone in there (in case of emergency calls from relatives overseas), two lights, and a ceiling fan - that's it for hi-tech. It was tough not buying a new TV/PC/random gadget, not carrying it into the bedroom and not setting it up, but somehow I struggled through.
Cheers, Paul
My mistake, I should have made it clear that I'm talking about the taxes I pay for medicare, medicaid, job training, university education, unemployment benefit, housing benefit, food stamps, electoral expenses, disability/workers comp, elderly care, and pensions. I may have missed some.
And I'm not complaining - as I said, I think the govt exists to look after the interests of Americans, not foreigners. Just making the point that the average H1-b person takes less for what they pay than the 'average' American.
One of the measures listed is
I'd guess that a great many people wouldn't bother. Visa processing can take 3-6 months (and maybe more under these new suggestions), then I get to pack up my life at home, leave friends and family, potentially put my existing career on hold, all to spend a year in another country. Sure it's nice, but I'm not sure the incentive is there.
In my situation I knew I could spend a few years here (maybe even get citizenship if I liked it that much), which made it well worth the upheaval. And of course I'm helping my company prosper, and paying lots of taxes without access to the corresponding benefits.
'There's not even any space between the links!'
:(
I'm afraid this is a blatant example of isism - the word 'is' clearly separates the two links. To think I would live to see the day when isism should rear its ugly head on slashdot
Computer Associates is writing laws now? And I thought Microsoft had influence with the gov..
oh, right, California...
Sounds like the two guys who didn't do well weren't doing pair programming. Pair programming is about working together, with one PC, to develop code together. What they were doing was working in a very small team, which may be valid, but isn't PP.
What amazes me most is that this is a book definitely aimed at the beginner. So rule out most CS students, and a lot of hobbyists, who will have picked up a moderate amount at some time. This is (presumably) for the person who isn't that familiar with computers, hasn't really done much 'programming', but needs to set up a database. So, are the 8 people who fall into that category *ever* going to read those 834 pages?
:(
But when they go into the bookstore, and see the big thick book, they'll think it must be the best, so they'll buy it and shelf it. I know I have in the past
So under normal weather conditions Boston is 50 miles from NJ, but in certain circumstances they're 270 miles apart? Do they have to close a bridge or something?
Oh, wait...
I'm still pretty new to slashdot, so I thought I should practice...
:)
"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!"
No, that doesn't seem right somehow...
I will NEVER VOTE DEMOCRATE. All they want to do is STEAL my money and spend it on things I don't want.
Unfortunately that's all the Republicans want to do as well. They campaign on lower taxes and smaller government, which may well be A Good Thing (TM), but it's a good thing you can only sell once ("yes, I know you lowered income tax last year, but what do I get this year?"). So to keep themselves in jobs they have to keep doing stuff, and stuff costs money.
One of the big problems the Republicans have is that (theoretically at least) they want to get out of people's lives, be it with lower taxes or less regulation. But you can only do this once - you pass a law that says people can do X, Y and Z without government interference, and that's it.
The Democrats campaign on the hundreds of things they want to do through legislation and spending, and each one of those is an interesting issue they can engage the public on, and give them stuff. To compete with this Republicans have to talk about cutting taxes and government programs, except for all the ones that will benefit their state. And pretty soon you realise that they're doing much the same, just using different words.
I participate in this project, looking at a mathematical problem that I barely understand. Why? Because it requires very little network traffic (about 20k every couple of months) so it's unobtrusive, but still delivers the sense of doing something that seti@home and similar projects do (though it's not going to cure cancer like the UD team might).
Whew, the boys in marketing must have had a hell of an all-nighter coming up with that one!
Easy mistake to make, but I suspect you're thinking of Jerry Pournelle Maybe international terrorism will end now that he has DSL.
Cheers, Paul
Well, I guess we could try patenting that, but I'm pretty sure people will stick with using water or foam. And I don't think MS will care either way.
(though I'm sure someone has come up with it already):
:)
"Any prediction that a particular industry is doomed to failure within 3-5 years is wrong"
Now I know that technically this can't be true, as industries do eventually fail (and must therefore have failed within 3-5 years of some point), but it's close enough
Rumour has it that the shark community will be code-naming these gliders:
"Lunch"
From the Periodic Table Table's site:
"the Periodic Table Table was awarded the highest conceivable award for which it is eligible"
Interestingly the sentence works just as will shifted round:
"awarded the highest award for which it is conceivably eligible"
printing your own photos is very expensive and between the ink and paper really burn money.
:)
I often print 8x10s with my Epson Photo printer. I figure they cost me less than a dollar each, compared to the $10-$15 for a photo print at a store, or $4 for a print from Ofoto. And I get to pick exactly the image I want, I only wait for a couple of minutes, and if it doesn't work out as I want I can rework it and print it again in a few minutes.
Anyway, if you're worried about burning money, with a good printer you can always make some more
Great! I won't have to take the extra time to wipe the fingerprints from my neighbor's window every eveni...
oh, wait...never mind.
...about offshore powerboat racing I heard somewhere:
"It's like sitting in the shower burning 50 pound notes"
So the higher the bitrate gets, the harder it is to tell between the formats? That's hardly surprising really - if you take the bitrate up close to 800kbps Flac among others can do it losslessly. The higher the bitrate, the closer any format can get to the original, and the smaller the differences.
My understanding is that a company exists to improve the value of the investor's investment. It might have other obligations under law, and it might choose to undertake good works in the community (with subsequent boosts in goodwill), but its prime goal is to make money doing whatever it is it does. Money used to do things other than this is mis-spent.
Grab the nearest politician and ask him if money contributed to him/her can buy favors. I imagine the answer will be "no", because that kind of thing is illegal in most countries.
So as a shareholder in a company that makes campaign contributions, can I bring a lawsuit for misappropriation of company funds? After all, they're spending money on something that "can't" increase shareholder value!
One of the problems with testing wma is that it boosts the volume of anything it encodes. People tend to prefer the louder of two samples, so it gives wma a boost that has nothing to do with quality.
Well, Microsoft say that 64kbps is CD-quality, so why use anything more? :)
It's true that different formats work best at different bitrates. Most of the effort on Ogg Vorbis so far has been for lower bitrates (128kbps down), though it works pretty well at higher rates too. MPC I believe works better at higher rates (160kbps+). So while the results are important, they only provide clues to higher bitrates.
But remember that as the formats get better the lower bitrates are likely to be more important. An mp3 at 128kbps is considered 'good enough' by most people, at least for portable listening. The equivalent _quality_ for ogg vorbis is produced at around 96kbps. If that is 'good enough' for common uses then higher bitrates become less important - why use more space than you need to, when space on a portable is at a premium?