It's no exaggeration to say that over 70% of all research students are foreign--simply because there are not many qualified US students. (It's a different story if we needed literature or communication students--we've got tons of those.)
We used to call it the Scotty rule. It is from one of the Star Trek movies. Basically it goes like this:
If you think it will take a week, say it will take three. Then complete it in two weeks and you are a hero.
Unfortunately, in my experience, it's been more like you think it will take 1 week, you say it will take 3, then it ends up taking 2 months due to changing requirements...:/
I keep several documents on there too. A current copy of my resume, a list of sites and passwords, some random pr0n, helpful regedits, PHP books in.pdf, basic drivers for my NICs, and pics of my kids.
Well, why do pepole buy Gamecubes and Xboxes, when the PS2 has more games available? Because people want to play games that are exclusive to those systems. As far as I can tell, there are still a lot of games that are PC-exclusive. And it doesn't matter if I can get similar games on a console, if I want a particular game, then I want that particular game, period.
And I'm sorry, but PC gaming isn't this perpetual nightmare of patching and drivers that some console gamers make it out to be. I download drivers for my hardware when I install windows, and I can't remember the last time I had to update a driver to play a game. It was probably when DX9 came out or something.
PC gaming is definitely going to be more expensive with upgrades than consoles, obviously. But really, people way over exaggerate how much you need to upgrade your PC. If you're an enthusiast, then yeah you'll probably end up spending a lot of money on PC hardware, but most people don't need to go out and buy a new video card every year to enjoy PC games.
Sure some people have problems, and consoles are obviously simpler. But if you're big into gaming and you limit yourself to one system, then all you're doing is preventing yourself from playing good games. Personally, I play both console and PC games and wouldn't want it any other way.
The parent's example of running firefox and mp3s probably wasn't the greatest example. I'll give another one.
I know someone who has an Athlon 2600+ system, gig of ram, etc... When he encodes and burns a movie to DVD, his system becomes unusable until the DVD is done. When I do the same thing on my dual Opteron system, my system simply becomes "sluggish".
It's not like most people are going to say "OMG my system is so much better with SMP!", but when you get used to using it, you don't want to go back. If dual cores become mainstream, it's a win for everyone.
And as far as games go, they're mostly GPU bound (there are exceptions of course). But even if they were all heavily CPU bound, we're slowing down on cranking up the clockspeed anyway. If abandoning dual cores meant Intel and AMD could churn out 5+ GHz procs this year, then that might be the way to go. But as it stands, both seem to think there's more potential in dual cores.
Dual core is basically SMP as far as I know, so you're not missing anything, except maybe some of the benefits of running SMP. From my experience, SMP can go a long way to making a system feel less "sluggish". Tasks that will essentially lock up a single processor system can run in the background without making a system useless on SMP.
Now this doesn't usually add up enough to warrant a normal user to spend the extra money on SMP, but if dual cores become the replacement for the desktop line, they should (eventually?) be more affordable than SMP. Plus, if dual cores become ubiquitous, more and more software will no doubt be written to take advantage of SMP.
I can't see any downside to the push for dual cores, as we seem to be slowing down in how far we can push a single processor in clockspeed and performance.
All of Blizzard's games ship with both the PC and Mac version on the same discs. So I think his point was you can buy the game from an Apple store and still run it on your PC...
No offense, but maybe more people would be interested in giving Linux a shot if so many people in the community didn't use words like "winblows". Just a suggestion...
No -- I didn't propose totally outlawing anything, not even firearms. I just proposed having stricter control over them.
Sorry, that was an assumption on my part.
Exactly. But the U.S. discussion about the matter seems to be like it would be a 1-bit issue. See, when it is a constitutional right, it cannot be limited as long as the person not under some sort of punishment and is declared mentally capable of managing his/her own life. What I tried to say is that bearing arms should be a privilege -- like it is elsewhere in the world -- not a right. I didn't actually propose outlawing anything. But if it'd be a privilege, people would need to get a license before getting any firearms. And to get a license, you'd probably need to show that you know how to handle and to store weapons safely, and that you're not known to be mentally incapable of posessing them.
The reason it's a right here instead of a privilage is that our government was founded on a premise of inherent distrust for those who hold power. A right can be limited, just like a privilage (and in fact, gun rights here are limited), but a privilage can be taken away, a right cannot (at least in theory).
You do actually need a license to own a gun in the US, so it's not like any Joe Blow can walk into a gun store and walk out with a hand gun that same day. Personally, though, I'm somewhat conflicted on the issue of how much gun control we should have... It's a complicated issue to be sure, and both sides of the argument have merit.
The pro-firearms people always say that "guns don't kill people, people do" as their main defense. But same applies to cars, and still driving a car is not a constitutional right, but a special privilege granted only for those, who have obtained a driver's license. And yet killing living things -- including, but not limited to humans -- is the primary function guns are actually designed for, but this is definitely not the case with cars.
Can you buy a bow and arrows in Europe? How bout daggers or swords? These are also items whose primary purpose is killing living things. Should those be outlawed?
My point here is that weapon control is not a black and white issue. It's a line that must be drawn somewhere, saying some weapons are ok, others are not. The US just draws the line in a different place.
As others have pointed out, it's not been proven that gun control lowers crime. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But the US constitution guarantees that we have a right to bear arms, so don't expect our country to ban guns anytime soon.
Now on the issue of global warming, my gut tells me that any warming the planet is going through is likely a natural cycle. But it is a global issue, and if the rest of the planet thinks we should take action just in case, then I think it's arrogant of us to not support it in some way. Especially since if the warming truly is man-made, we would be one of the top countries doing the damage.
Are we going to build tentacle robots that are oozing oil along their smooth plasticene actuators? I think I've seen a few Japanese cartoons along this motif...
Hmm... I don't know that I'd call those cartoons, per se...
4. Things aren't too hard. Most of the professions (ie crafting) aren't too comlicated which is nice for a casual player like myself who has a full time job.:)
This has got to be the first mmorpg that I've actually enjoyed the crafting in. It's not that it's amazingly deep or anything, but while out leveling/questing, it's hardly any extra effort to go do you "gathering" (mining/skinning/etc), so that after a good leveling session, you'll probably have enough stuff to level your profession a bit.
And you can't fail to make something. Also, if you make something sufficiently high level (orange), you're guaranteed to increase in your profession. Basically this makes crafting completely frustration-free. BTW I came from Dark Age of Camelot, where the crafting is completely mind numbing...
Slashdot Mirror
Welcome to Public Relations!
CAAAAAAAAAAANNED!!!
Just be sure not to get too attached to your robosapien, or people will start thinking you're a robosexual.
Id say were loosing on that front 2
Where do you think the iPod Shuffles come from? iPods don't get their displays till they reach puberty.
Best april fools joke all day!
Unfortunately, in my experience, it's been more like you think it will take 1 week, you say it will take 3, then it ends up taking 2 months due to changing requirements... :/
I imagine that could lead to an akward moment...
Look on the bright side, if we're going to toast a server, better to toast the old Celeron than the new one coming in. ;)
And I'm sorry, but PC gaming isn't this perpetual nightmare of patching and drivers that some console gamers make it out to be. I download drivers for my hardware when I install windows, and I can't remember the last time I had to update a driver to play a game. It was probably when DX9 came out or something.
PC gaming is definitely going to be more expensive with upgrades than consoles, obviously. But really, people way over exaggerate how much you need to upgrade your PC. If you're an enthusiast, then yeah you'll probably end up spending a lot of money on PC hardware, but most people don't need to go out and buy a new video card every year to enjoy PC games.
Sure some people have problems, and consoles are obviously simpler. But if you're big into gaming and you limit yourself to one system, then all you're doing is preventing yourself from playing good games. Personally, I play both console and PC games and wouldn't want it any other way.
Don't knock Slashdot for catering to people with alzheimer's. They're people too!
I know someone who has an Athlon 2600+ system, gig of ram, etc... When he encodes and burns a movie to DVD, his system becomes unusable until the DVD is done. When I do the same thing on my dual Opteron system, my system simply becomes "sluggish".
It's not like most people are going to say "OMG my system is so much better with SMP!", but when you get used to using it, you don't want to go back. If dual cores become mainstream, it's a win for everyone.
And as far as games go, they're mostly GPU bound (there are exceptions of course). But even if they were all heavily CPU bound, we're slowing down on cranking up the clockspeed anyway. If abandoning dual cores meant Intel and AMD could churn out 5+ GHz procs this year, then that might be the way to go. But as it stands, both seem to think there's more potential in dual cores.
Now this doesn't usually add up enough to warrant a normal user to spend the extra money on SMP, but if dual cores become the replacement for the desktop line, they should (eventually?) be more affordable than SMP. Plus, if dual cores become ubiquitous, more and more software will no doubt be written to take advantage of SMP.
I can't see any downside to the push for dual cores, as we seem to be slowing down in how far we can push a single processor in clockspeed and performance.
+1 for using "happy-assing" in a sentence.
Yeah... Like they're going to know how to solve the xbox problem... Sheesh.
All of Blizzard's games ship with both the PC and Mac version on the same discs. So I think his point was you can buy the game from an Apple store and still run it on your PC...
Didn't you get the memo?
Then why didn't you say "We'll bore them into submission with footage from a Senate vote"? ;)
So can you also set up a cron job to clean the litter box?
No offense, but maybe more people would be interested in giving Linux a shot if so many people in the community didn't use words like "winblows". Just a suggestion...
Maybe he's German...? ;)
Sorry, that was an assumption on my part.
The reason it's a right here instead of a privilage is that our government was founded on a premise of inherent distrust for those who hold power. A right can be limited, just like a privilage (and in fact, gun rights here are limited), but a privilage can be taken away, a right cannot (at least in theory).
You do actually need a license to own a gun in the US, so it's not like any Joe Blow can walk into a gun store and walk out with a hand gun that same day. Personally, though, I'm somewhat conflicted on the issue of how much gun control we should have... It's a complicated issue to be sure, and both sides of the argument have merit.
Can you buy a bow and arrows in Europe? How bout daggers or swords? These are also items whose primary purpose is killing living things. Should those be outlawed?
My point here is that weapon control is not a black and white issue. It's a line that must be drawn somewhere, saying some weapons are ok, others are not. The US just draws the line in a different place.
As others have pointed out, it's not been proven that gun control lowers crime. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But the US constitution guarantees that we have a right to bear arms, so don't expect our country to ban guns anytime soon.
Now on the issue of global warming, my gut tells me that any warming the planet is going through is likely a natural cycle. But it is a global issue, and if the rest of the planet thinks we should take action just in case, then I think it's arrogant of us to not support it in some way. Especially since if the warming truly is man-made, we would be one of the top countries doing the damage.
Hmm... I don't know that I'd call those cartoons, per se...
This has got to be the first mmorpg that I've actually enjoyed the crafting in. It's not that it's amazingly deep or anything, but while out leveling/questing, it's hardly any extra effort to go do you "gathering" (mining/skinning/etc), so that after a good leveling session, you'll probably have enough stuff to level your profession a bit.
And you can't fail to make something. Also, if you make something sufficiently high level (orange), you're guaranteed to increase in your profession. Basically this makes crafting completely frustration-free. BTW I came from Dark Age of Camelot, where the crafting is completely mind numbing...