This is great when you create a model based on a single town/city/location and apply it to that city/town/location, but that doesn't mean it is transferable.
For example, there are many small town or villages in wine regions in the midwest U.S. where there are multiple wineries/shops/bakeries that are right next door to each other and do quite well. According to this model, many of those bakeries should fail. In fact, it is the shops farther away from the "main street" that have the fewest customers. The same in historical/heritage communities. In the Amana Colonies in Iowa - same thing - multiple bakeries beside each other with similar merchandise but all full of customers.
What is missing in this model is how different cultures view the shopping experience. In the U.S., we seem to prefer going to a single area and having a large number of similar shops. If we want to buy a car, we prefer to hit an area where there are numerous dealers so we can find a good deal. We would rather drive past a local bakery to hit WalMart so we can save a few dollars. Since most american families own a car, how the distance and time affect things is different than in Europe. We don't shop locally by default, which is why WalMart can kill small businesses for miles around.
Now, I'm not saying that this model is bad, but the locality, culture an demographics needs to be taken into account, so this isn't a generic model that can be applied everywhere, but a technique that other localities can use to create their own model.
It would also be interesting to see how large changes such as extended construction on a major road, or the construction of a new mall/housing complex/office building would affect the model.
You could make a virus that brings all mechanical components (hard drive, CD/DVD drive, fans)up to maximum speed and leaves them there, or alternates starting and stopping them, or anything designed to stress the hardware. You could be sneaky and only do it overnight so no one notices the noise. In a large corporation this abuse is going to kill at least 1 machine and probably more.
You could even be rude and set it to send 1000 completely blackened pages to every printer. Don't know if the warranty would cover peripherals or not. Hmmm... I wonder why Staples/Office Depot hasn't developed this virus yet? Even a few companies using all the toner in their printers would make a pretty good demand for supplies. Of course, HP makes a lot of profit from toner/ink sales and we know their position on "legal issues" so maybe they will develop it.
One meeting a week should be sufficient. Three meetings a week spells inefficiency and poor process.
Why?
I think you are confusing meetings with bad meetings. Sometimes you need multiple meetings a week so everyone can stay informed and on top of things. For example, I was placed in charge of an important module in a large software project and I would show up to the test meetings to see what the test status was, talk to the testers involved and discuss the test cases that were going to be run that day. They had to meet since scheduled tests could change due to test results from the previous day or people out sick, at training on vacation, etc. Email wasn't an option since there were many different testers involved and it was easier to go to the meeting where results were already graphed out, and daily tests were listed. It also helped that I could inform them of potential problems with test cases. The requirements weren't always the best and if we had spent time with the architects getting their interpretation, I could pass that on to them, so they didn't get confused at questionable results. Saved them the hassle of opening a bug report and me closing it by pasting an email from the architect. This did keep the average time to fix a bug down though...
Bug reports or failed test reports were not a replacement for this kind of interaction. However, the meetings were fairly quick (30 minutes or so) and weren't spent on topics that weren't of direct interest and people didn't head off on a tangent. They were good meetings that were productive.
I also attended a large number of code inspections each week. These weren't desk checks or code reviews but full-blown inspections with a moderator and someone to record the issues. It generally required an hour of prep time for each hour in the inspection and the inspections were around 2 hours. Writing code is good. However, if you want to be a real software engineer this is part of "writing code". No tool is a replacement for 4 people spending time inspecting the code (before the meeting) and then inspecting it again, and discussing it, in a group. (This has been proven - see Fagan inspection.)
So meetings can be good. It is bad meetings that convince you that there is a hell - and you have found it.
Do they assume that you are on your own? Do they assume that you bought the strategy guide that was right next to it? Do they assume that it is 6 weeks after the game was released and there are hints/cheats/walkthroughs on the Internet?
All of these can greatly affect the total playtime.
It can even matter how you want to play a game. For example, in Neverwinter Nights, it takes a lot longer to play through the game as a wizard than as a fighter. Why? Wizards have to sleep so they can recast their spells, so after every battle you have to sit down and rest for 30 seconds. In many places, a fighter just keeps rolling along. Actually, a monk is probably the fastest way to complete the game since they move faster. Need to walk back out of a dungeon? A monk can do it in half the time of a lightly loaded character. The 2-3 minutes saved can really add up.
So, asking the "average" playing time of a game is a loaded question. It has way too many variables to give a simple answer.
First, we must remember that not all web sites are found through Google. When was the last time you did a search for Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com? Sure, it's nice to be listed but hardly deadly if they weren't - they already have the name recognition.
Now, there is a legitimate downside to being listed on Google News - all of your competitor news sources are also listed - right next to you. If the New York Times runs a piece from the Associated Press, I can see that the Des Moines Register runs the same story, why go to the big name source? The NYT has spent decades and millions of dollars building their reputation and get listed next to other, less-known papers. It serves to dillute their name and reputation.
For those of you convinced that you can get plenty of news from other places and that these print publications can adjust to new business models or die, are you crazy?!? One nice thing about having a huge newspaper is that they generally try to verify their stories, or at least avoid making things up. (I said generally...) When your paper owns buildings and huge printing presses and is sold at every newsstand your reputation means something. If you are a few people working out of a basement, then who cares? As long as you got people reading, you are happy. I like the idea of responsible journalism. It may be less than it was, but if I see it in the NYT I am inclinded to believe it. If it is in some tabloid, I am inclined to not believe it. In a strictly Internet world, how do you tell the difference?
I hope that a good arrangement is made between the press and the search engines, but I don't think the survival of the press is based on them being indexed by Google.
Sure, many profs allow it. However, many can't or don't allow it. Sometimes the room isn't big enough. Sometimes there are too few students in the course. Sometimes they just don't want you there. Yes, kindly professors will let you sit in - they are already going to be giving the lecture so what do they care? BUT, if a room is overcrowded, they are not going to let you sit in since the seats are for registered students.
1) Every Nintendo console so far has been $200 at launch. Obviously, they couldn't keep that up forever, especially since this system is quite a bit more complex than the previous ones.
In an earlier Wii thread, Karma Sucks pointed out the following:
Let's play "spot the pattern."
SNES launch price: 25000 Yen / 200 USD.
N64 launch price: 25000 Yen / 200 USD.
Gamecube launch price: 25000 yen / 200 USD.
Wii launch price: 25000 yen / ??? USD.
Hrm.
You can blame the higher U.S. price on a bad exchange rate. While the complexity may be higher, prices for tech have dropped over time. I can get a Dell desktop for $300 which is way less than the $2500 I spent on my 386 back in 1991. It is more complex, but still a lot cheaper.
I hear this repeatedly suggested. For most would-be programmers it's terrible advice. You might as well tell would be doctors, "If you just want to heal people, go to a community college. Universities are about education."
If you don't realize the absurdity of comparing a doctor to a beginning programmer, I can't say anything that will convince you. Now, community colleges do have nursing programs and other medical related programs, but there is no way they can hope to train a doctor. Even most universities can't do it - most offer pre-med programs which MIGHT get you into a medical school. Then, once you have done that, you get to be an intern for several years. If you want to specialize, add a few more years onto that. Now, at the end of it you know a lot about medicine AND have demonstrated your skills numerous times - more than most programmers ever will.
Now, regarding CS programs... You miss the point of CS programs - they are to create computer scientists. I know that seems like a simple statemet, but it isn't. A computer scientist isn't a programmer, software engineer, network administrator, or a hundred other job descriptions. They are about computer science. This means math, proofs, algorithms and other things. How do you round out these skills? By taking a lot of different math courses. Now, in the real world, most graduates of a CS program become programmers, software engineers, admins, etc. However, this is because the skills they learn in a CS program can be applied to those roles and there aren't as many jobs for actual computer scientists.
What you want is an Information Science or Information Technology department that teaches those skills. Some universities are starting to have them, but it is a slow start since many universities have changed their CS department to fit that role. However, just because we can use a wrench as a hammer, that doesn't mean that's what the wrench is for; and just because CS graduates can perform other jobs, doesn't mean that that is what a CS program is for either.
I disagree that this applies to software engineers.
There is a big difference between the two.
The point of all the math is to make the subject sufficiently academic that it is acceptable to universities, who are scared by anything vocational.
Universities are not scared by anything vocational. However, it doesn't fit with their role in education. If you want a vocation, go to a community college or something else. They will teach you the "hot" programming language, environment, skills, etc. However, these things are fleeting. What are the hot areas today? Ruby on Rails? Security? LAMP? What was it 5 years ago? Java?.NET? You can't target "hot areas" in a 4 year program. The hot area is over by the time you get finished.
Now, if you get a solid grounding in theory and skills that apply to different areas, it doesn't matter what the hot area is. You can use your foundation and learn that area quickly. If you have a solid background in programming, including different languages, picking up a new language is easy. If you have a good grounding in networks and OSes, then picking up security is much easier. So, universities don't aim for the hot areas, they aim for giving you the skills and tools to be successful in the long run.
Yes, they LET you sit in. They are under no obligation to allow you to sit in, and in some courses, they don't allow it since it would be a distraction/problem. In fact, if you want to have the right to sit-in on the course you have to audit that course - which means you have to pay tuition for those credits.
And just in case you're still sitting in judgment of college students' "laziness", consider the fact that many college students have classes six days a week, year round, from 8AM to 10PM, and on the off day they're doing homework. This was the way my student life was at NYU. My last 2 years, I got about 3 hours of sleep every single night, and some nights I got none. You're going to judge somebody even if they do just feel like taking a day off now and then?
So, I wonder about a few things...
First, how many credits are you assuming? If you take a normal class, it meets about 3 hours a week. Most colleges consider 4 classes "full-time" with 5 or 6 being the normal load, (maybe 7 for engineers). Assuming engineers, this is 21 hours of class a week. Maybe there are lab periods for some of them, so we can bump it up to 30 hours a week. So, this would be from 8AM - 2PM Monday through Friday. Then, a student could spend from 2PM - 6PM doing homework, leaving the evenings free for meetings/clubs/social life. Then the weekends can be used to do any studying or other projects that need to be done.
Now, I know the schedules never work out properly and that you might have an hour between classes and you lose time that way. However, just because it's only an hour, doesn't mean you can't get stuff accomplished. Maybe you re-read your notes. Maybe you work on a homework problem. Maybe you take care of other responsibilities. It doesn't matter. USE the time wisely. Don't blow it sending emails deciding the best bar to go to, or talking to your friends and talking about how horrible some of your profs are. Get something done - it makes all the other time go much easier.
Also, don't join 16 different clubs or organizations. Pick a few and spend more time on them if you have extra time. Also, don't blow time in group meetings talking about your weekend or discussing the best color of PowerPoint slides to use. Make a quick decision or defer it. I can't count how many times I've been in a long meeting and had nothing decided or done by the end of it. Both in industry and in school. Proper time management is a key skill - learn it and practice it and you will be much better off.
The students have already paid tuition to hear the content of the lecture, why should they pay again.
So, as an analogy, if you pay to see a play, you should get to see it as many times as you want since you have already paid your admission? Or maybe you think you should be provided with a recording of the performance as well?
The interpretation here is that paying tuition gives you the right to attend the lecture. Not the right to view it however you want - but to attend it at a specific time and a certain location - just like a ticket to a 7:15 movie - you don't get to use it to go to the 7:30 movie in another theatre.
Plus, he's recording all of this and hosting all of this with university equipment.
No, he isn't. He's hosting it on an indie music site. Also, even if it is university equipment he may have to pay for use, or he may have purchased his own equipment. He mentions a cost for the equipment, but not how that cost is incurred.
As for taking time and effort, I'm pretty sure a microphone and tape recorder is all it takes to record a lecture (that's how I did it in school in the "old" days). Then you plug the headphone jack into the line-in and record it to an mp3 or whatever format you want and you're done. Not much more work than ripping a CD.
If you read the article, and I can tell you didn't, you would also have found out that he does perform editing of the lecture. The extent of the editing is unknown. It could be as simple as taking out any extended pauses or it could include re-recording audio that isn't clear, or taking out ambient noise. Without purchasing one, (and attending the actual lecture), it isnt possible to know what editing is done.
I don't think he is doing anything wrong with this. Sure, he could do this out of the goodness of his own heart, but there would be students who would then blow off the lecture since they could listen to it later. Statistically, this will result in a lower grade for them, so an educator should try to minimize the number of students who skip class. A small fee seems to provide a good balance between convenience and assisting the students.
Now I can make sure all of my important financial documents are printed on this paper. When the IRS or SEC come after me they will have nothing but blank pages. MUAHAHAHA! (I'll take the fines for improper document retention, but it is better than going to jail for fraud.)
Seriously, think how bad some of the OOPSes will be....
I printed off your email before deleting it, but now I can't find it!
What happened to those photos I printed?
If you don't have your receipt, we can't take it back.
No, that section of the contract never existed. Can you prove it did?
When I took CS at Iowa State I had to learn VB. Mind you, it was in the CS "Intro" class and also involved the history of the computer and using Office. However, I think this was a good thing for several reasons...
1) Learning languages with different paradigms is very helpful. It develops your abstract thinking so you don't think of the code, you think about what tasks need to be accomplished. If you are just starting out, this is critical. (If you don't believe me, try using LISP (or Scheme) for a few weeks.)
2) Whether it is true geek or not, VB is in a LOT of places and being able to put it on your resume may open a few extra doors. True, not everyone needs that advantage, but not everyone is a straight-A student. At our campus career fairs we did get some techinical people staffing the booths, but a lot of them weren't either and just had their "desired skills" list to short list resumes.
3) If you are in IT (or other technical position), everyone expects you to know everything about computers. If you say "I don't do Windows.", they are going to wonder what kind of crappy school you went to that you don't even know how to use Windows. This may not accurately reflect the quality of your education, but perception is everything.
4) It can also help you maintain legacy apps or business apps developed for Access or Excel. Maybe you can do new development in the language of your choice, but you have to maintain whatever legacy apps are already there. At least having exposure to VB can make it a much easier process.
So, to summarize - learning VB (or other languages) can help develop your skills. May help you get a job. May help your credibility (and that of your school). May make life easier.
Overall, VB isn't my language of choice - in fact, I try and avoid it. However, the few times I haven't had a choice, I'm glad to have had some exposure to it. Also, there are situations where VB is desirable. Need to make a small app that gets data from Access or Excel? It can probably be developed a lot faster in VB.
I purchased my MacBook on August 16th. Original ship date was August 22nd.
On August 22nd they changed my ship date to the 29th.
On August 29th they changed it to the 31st.
On September 1st, they changed the ship date to September 14th.
It shipped today...
I did get some free stuff from Apple for my troubles, but no speed bump.
You can't change your fingerprint to match another signal. It is based on the minute physical differences between cards, not their firmware, so it wouldn't be possible. It would be possible to use specialized hardware to mimic a signal, but that would be orders of magnitude more expensive. (I think the equipment required is around US$100,000 so it is not accesible to the average attacker...)
As to making a completely erratic, changing print - sure. However, while this would prevent tracking it would mean you can't connect to your companies AP since you don't match the fingerprint they have on file. Access is denied and security is maintained. *Crowd goes wild*
Yes, that 5% is definitely a problem. However, you could set the system to log a warning if the fingerprint doesn't match. If nothing else, this would give you a paper trail that you can follow if an incident occurs. Also, if you record the fingerprint and find that same fingerprint trying to be several different MAC addresses you could raise an alarm.
So, 5% is far too high to be used on its own, but it isn't completely useless.
As a doctoral student, Dr Hall analysed the RF signals of fifteen devices from six manufacturers, and found it was possible to distinguish clearly, even between devices from the same manufacturer.
So it doesn't matter if everyone uses Centrino - they can still tell them apart. The key point is that no two devices are identical - there are always differences in the manufacturing process that makes them behave differently. Sure, at 10 or 54 Mbps they look the same but when you sample at 100 Msps (or higher), small differences are detectable.
For more info on this area, here is a paper [warning PDF] from the Dilon Project at Iowa State University.
You are forgetting the insider threat. I might have the WPA key because I am an employee with my own laptop. However, if I spoof your MAC, then it looks like you are the one surfing/. (or porn sites) all day and not me.
Encryption is good, but it doesn't solve every security problem.
While I applaud this person's efforts to get the problem known so it can be rectified, I fear that he endangers personel's safety by publishing the exact nature of the problems, including what equates to detailed instructions on how to not get spotted by cameras while approacing the vessel.
Well, we first have to remember that public safety trumps employers consent. That's why it is the first rule. As for publishing the exact nature of the problems - once they are known and acknowledged by everyone, workarounds can be made.
If this was an easy moral decision, it wouldn't be such big news. However, it was a tough choice for him - professionally and personally. Maybe he didn't lose his job for releasing the video - but he might have hurt his chances at getting a new one. He also had to choose between 2 "conflicting rules" in the Code of Ethics. It wasn't an easy choice. As a former Marine, I am glad he did it. The people who actually use these things aren't in the information loop on problems - until they have to deal with them. Then it's usually too late.
Exactly! Right from the Code of Ethics of a Professional Engineer? Here's a link.
Notice, the first fundamental canon is: Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
The third is: Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
If we go down to the specific Rules of Practice:
If engineers' judgment is overruled under circumstances that endanger life or property, they shall notify their employer or client and such other authority as may be appropriate. This is what he was worried about. However, the "normal" people to inform were ignoring him and he didn't know any other way to get this information to the people who would be affected - not only the Coast Guard personnel, but the public that will be sharing the waters with them, and the People of the United States who are the ultimate client.
Engineers shall not reveal facts, data, or information without the prior consent of the client or employer except as authorized or required by law or this Code. As a Person of the United States, he has my consent. As do all other Engineers who have concerns. Also, the previous rule requires him to do this.
Engineers shall not aid or abet the unlawful practice of engineering by a person or firm. Which he did not. Sorry he lost his position. Hopefully something good will come around for him.
Now, I hope he gets a lot of money for speaking engagements at different Engineering conferences. He chose the difficult road, but proved he is an Engineer. If Ethics were easy, we wouldn't need to write them all down in Codes of Ethics.
Why not pass a law that treats video games like other forms of entertainment?
It is illegal to allow a child under 17 to see an R-rated movie without a parent or guardian present.
It is illegal to allow a child under 18 to purchase pornographic materials.
Why not make it illegal to allow a child under 17 (or 18) to purchase an M (or AO) rated game?
It doesn't prevent the games from being sold. It doesn't make it illegal to have, or play, the games. It just requires that a parent must be willing to get involved enough to purchase the game for their children instead of handing them $50 and telling them to go buy a game. Yes, there might be trouble enforcing it if the games are purchased online, but verifying age online has always been a problem. Could this cost the game companies some money? Yes. However, this is also true for movie studios that make R-rated movies. They generally don't make as much as movies with a PG rating.
Slashdot Mirror
This is great when you create a model based on a single town/city/location and apply it to that city/town/location, but that doesn't mean it is transferable.
For example, there are many small town or villages in wine regions in the midwest U.S. where there are multiple wineries/shops/bakeries that are right next door to each other and do quite well. According to this model, many of those bakeries should fail. In fact, it is the shops farther away from the "main street" that have the fewest customers. The same in historical/heritage communities. In the Amana Colonies in Iowa - same thing - multiple bakeries beside each other with similar merchandise but all full of customers.
What is missing in this model is how different cultures view the shopping experience. In the U.S., we seem to prefer going to a single area and having a large number of similar shops. If we want to buy a car, we prefer to hit an area where there are numerous dealers so we can find a good deal. We would rather drive past a local bakery to hit WalMart so we can save a few dollars. Since most american families own a car, how the distance and time affect things is different than in Europe. We don't shop locally by default, which is why WalMart can kill small businesses for miles around.
Now, I'm not saying that this model is bad, but the locality, culture an demographics needs to be taken into account, so this isn't a generic model that can be applied everywhere, but a technique that other localities can use to create their own model.
It would also be interesting to see how large changes such as extended construction on a major road, or the construction of a new mall/housing complex/office building would affect the model.
You could make a virus that brings all mechanical components (hard drive, CD/DVD drive, fans)up to maximum speed and leaves them there, or alternates starting and stopping them, or anything designed to stress the hardware. You could be sneaky and only do it overnight so no one notices the noise. In a large corporation this abuse is going to kill at least 1 machine and probably more.
You could even be rude and set it to send 1000 completely blackened pages to every printer. Don't know if the warranty would cover peripherals or not. Hmmm... I wonder why Staples/Office Depot hasn't developed this virus yet? Even a few companies using all the toner in their printers would make a pretty good demand for supplies. Of course, HP makes a lot of profit from toner/ink sales and we know their position on "legal issues" so maybe they will develop it.
One meeting a week should be sufficient. Three meetings a week spells inefficiency and poor process.
Why?
I think you are confusing meetings with bad meetings. Sometimes you need multiple meetings a week so everyone can stay informed and on top of things. For example, I was placed in charge of an important module in a large software project and I would show up to the test meetings to see what the test status was, talk to the testers involved and discuss the test cases that were going to be run that day. They had to meet since scheduled tests could change due to test results from the previous day or people out sick, at training on vacation, etc. Email wasn't an option since there were many different testers involved and it was easier to go to the meeting where results were already graphed out, and daily tests were listed. It also helped that I could inform them of potential problems with test cases. The requirements weren't always the best and if we had spent time with the architects getting their interpretation, I could pass that on to them, so they didn't get confused at questionable results. Saved them the hassle of opening a bug report and me closing it by pasting an email from the architect. This did keep the average time to fix a bug down though...
Bug reports or failed test reports were not a replacement for this kind of interaction. However, the meetings were fairly quick (30 minutes or so) and weren't spent on topics that weren't of direct interest and people didn't head off on a tangent. They were good meetings that were productive.
I also attended a large number of code inspections each week. These weren't desk checks or code reviews but full-blown inspections with a moderator and someone to record the issues. It generally required an hour of prep time for each hour in the inspection and the inspections were around 2 hours. Writing code is good. However, if you want to be a real software engineer this is part of "writing code". No tool is a replacement for 4 people spending time inspecting the code (before the meeting) and then inspecting it again, and discussing it, in a group. (This has been proven - see Fagan inspection.)
So meetings can be good. It is bad meetings that convince you that there is a hell - and you have found it.
What are the assumptions for a "40-hour" game?
Do they assume that you are on your own? Do they assume that you bought the strategy guide that was right next to it? Do they assume that it is 6 weeks after the game was released and there are hints/cheats/walkthroughs on the Internet?
All of these can greatly affect the total playtime.
It can even matter how you want to play a game. For example, in Neverwinter Nights, it takes a lot longer to play through the game as a wizard than as a fighter. Why? Wizards have to sleep so they can recast their spells, so after every battle you have to sit down and rest for 30 seconds. In many places, a fighter just keeps rolling along. Actually, a monk is probably the fastest way to complete the game since they move faster. Need to walk back out of a dungeon? A monk can do it in half the time of a lightly loaded character. The 2-3 minutes saved can really add up.
So, asking the "average" playing time of a game is a loaded question. It has way too many variables to give a simple answer.
First, we must remember that not all web sites are found through Google. When was the last time you did a search for Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com? Sure, it's nice to be listed but hardly deadly if they weren't - they already have the name recognition.
Now, there is a legitimate downside to being listed on Google News - all of your competitor news sources are also listed - right next to you. If the New York Times runs a piece from the Associated Press, I can see that the Des Moines Register runs the same story, why go to the big name source? The NYT has spent decades and millions of dollars building their reputation and get listed next to other, less-known papers. It serves to dillute their name and reputation.
For those of you convinced that you can get plenty of news from other places and that these print publications can adjust to new business models or die, are you crazy?!? One nice thing about having a huge newspaper is that they generally try to verify their stories, or at least avoid making things up. (I said generally...) When your paper owns buildings and huge printing presses and is sold at every newsstand your reputation means something. If you are a few people working out of a basement, then who cares? As long as you got people reading, you are happy. I like the idea of responsible journalism. It may be less than it was, but if I see it in the NYT I am inclinded to believe it. If it is in some tabloid, I am inclined to not believe it. In a strictly Internet world, how do you tell the difference?
I hope that a good arrangement is made between the press and the search engines, but I don't think the survival of the press is based on them being indexed by Google.
Sure, many profs allow it. However, many can't or don't allow it. Sometimes the room isn't big enough. Sometimes there are too few students in the course. Sometimes they just don't want you there. Yes, kindly professors will let you sit in - they are already going to be giving the lecture so what do they care? BUT, if a room is overcrowded, they are not going to let you sit in since the seats are for registered students.
1) Every Nintendo console so far has been $200 at launch. Obviously, they couldn't keep that up forever, especially since this system is quite a bit more complex than the previous ones.
In an earlier Wii thread, Karma Sucks pointed out the following:
Let's play "spot the pattern."
SNES launch price: 25000 Yen / 200 USD.
N64 launch price: 25000 Yen / 200 USD.
Gamecube launch price: 25000 yen / 200 USD.
Wii launch price: 25000 yen / ??? USD.
Hrm.
You can blame the higher U.S. price on a bad exchange rate. While the complexity may be higher, prices for tech have dropped over time. I can get a Dell desktop for $300 which is way less than the $2500 I spent on my 386 back in 1991. It is more complex, but still a lot cheaper.
I hear this repeatedly suggested. For most would-be programmers it's terrible advice. You might as well tell would be doctors, "If you just want to heal people, go to a community college. Universities are about education."
If you don't realize the absurdity of comparing a doctor to a beginning programmer, I can't say anything that will convince you. Now, community colleges do have nursing programs and other medical related programs, but there is no way they can hope to train a doctor. Even most universities can't do it - most offer pre-med programs which MIGHT get you into a medical school. Then, once you have done that, you get to be an intern for several years. If you want to specialize, add a few more years onto that. Now, at the end of it you know a lot about medicine AND have demonstrated your skills numerous times - more than most programmers ever will.
Now, regarding CS programs... You miss the point of CS programs - they are to create computer scientists. I know that seems like a simple statemet, but it isn't. A computer scientist isn't a programmer, software engineer, network administrator, or a hundred other job descriptions. They are about computer science. This means math, proofs, algorithms and other things. How do you round out these skills? By taking a lot of different math courses. Now, in the real world, most graduates of a CS program become programmers, software engineers, admins, etc. However, this is because the skills they learn in a CS program can be applied to those roles and there aren't as many jobs for actual computer scientists.
What you want is an Information Science or Information Technology department that teaches those skills. Some universities are starting to have them, but it is a slow start since many universities have changed their CS department to fit that role. However, just because we can use a wrench as a hammer, that doesn't mean that's what the wrench is for; and just because CS graduates can perform other jobs, doesn't mean that that is what a CS program is for either.
I both agree and disagree with you.
.NET? You can't target "hot areas" in a 4 year program. The hot area is over by the time you get finished.
I agree that this applies to programmers.
I disagree that this applies to software engineers.
There is a big difference between the two.
The point of all the math is to make the subject sufficiently academic that it is acceptable to universities, who are scared by anything vocational.
Universities are not scared by anything vocational. However, it doesn't fit with their role in education. If you want a vocation, go to a community college or something else. They will teach you the "hot" programming language, environment, skills, etc. However, these things are fleeting. What are the hot areas today? Ruby on Rails? Security? LAMP? What was it 5 years ago? Java?
Now, if you get a solid grounding in theory and skills that apply to different areas, it doesn't matter what the hot area is. You can use your foundation and learn that area quickly. If you have a solid background in programming, including different languages, picking up a new language is easy. If you have a good grounding in networks and OSes, then picking up security is much easier. So, universities don't aim for the hot areas, they aim for giving you the skills and tools to be successful in the long run.
Yes, they LET you sit in. They are under no obligation to allow you to sit in, and in some courses, they don't allow it since it would be a distraction/problem. In fact, if you want to have the right to sit-in on the course you have to audit that course - which means you have to pay tuition for those credits.
And just in case you're still sitting in judgment of college students' "laziness", consider the fact that many college students have classes six days a week, year round, from 8AM to 10PM, and on the off day they're doing homework. This was the way my student life was at NYU. My last 2 years, I got about 3 hours of sleep every single night, and some nights I got none. You're going to judge somebody even if they do just feel like taking a day off now and then?
So, I wonder about a few things...
First, how many credits are you assuming? If you take a normal class, it meets about 3 hours a week. Most colleges consider 4 classes "full-time" with 5 or 6 being the normal load, (maybe 7 for engineers). Assuming engineers, this is 21 hours of class a week. Maybe there are lab periods for some of them, so we can bump it up to 30 hours a week. So, this would be from 8AM - 2PM Monday through Friday. Then, a student could spend from 2PM - 6PM doing homework, leaving the evenings free for meetings/clubs/social life. Then the weekends can be used to do any studying or other projects that need to be done.
Now, I know the schedules never work out properly and that you might have an hour between classes and you lose time that way. However, just because it's only an hour, doesn't mean you can't get stuff accomplished. Maybe you re-read your notes. Maybe you work on a homework problem. Maybe you take care of other responsibilities. It doesn't matter. USE the time wisely. Don't blow it sending emails deciding the best bar to go to, or talking to your friends and talking about how horrible some of your profs are. Get something done - it makes all the other time go much easier.
Also, don't join 16 different clubs or organizations. Pick a few and spend more time on them if you have extra time. Also, don't blow time in group meetings talking about your weekend or discussing the best color of PowerPoint slides to use. Make a quick decision or defer it. I can't count how many times I've been in a long meeting and had nothing decided or done by the end of it. Both in industry and in school. Proper time management is a key skill - learn it and practice it and you will be much better off.
The students have already paid tuition to hear the content of the lecture, why should they pay again.
So, as an analogy, if you pay to see a play, you should get to see it as many times as you want since you have already paid your admission? Or maybe you think you should be provided with a recording of the performance as well?
The interpretation here is that paying tuition gives you the right to attend the lecture. Not the right to view it however you want - but to attend it at a specific time and a certain location - just like a ticket to a 7:15 movie - you don't get to use it to go to the 7:30 movie in another theatre.
Plus, he's recording all of this and hosting all of this with university equipment.
No, he isn't. He's hosting it on an indie music site. Also, even if it is university equipment he may have to pay for use, or he may have purchased his own equipment. He mentions a cost for the equipment, but not how that cost is incurred.
As for taking time and effort, I'm pretty sure a microphone and tape recorder is all it takes to record a lecture (that's how I did it in school in the "old" days). Then you plug the headphone jack into the line-in and record it to an mp3 or whatever format you want and you're done. Not much more work than ripping a CD.
If you read the article, and I can tell you didn't, you would also have found out that he does perform editing of the lecture. The extent of the editing is unknown. It could be as simple as taking out any extended pauses or it could include re-recording audio that isn't clear, or taking out ambient noise. Without purchasing one, (and attending the actual lecture), it isnt possible to know what editing is done.
I don't think he is doing anything wrong with this. Sure, he could do this out of the goodness of his own heart, but there would be students who would then blow off the lecture since they could listen to it later. Statistically, this will result in a lower grade for them, so an educator should try to minimize the number of students who skip class. A small fee seems to provide a good balance between convenience and assisting the students.
The Slashdot Wiki wouldn't be too bad. It would just say Linux and Emacs. Right? Right?!?
Seriously, think how bad some of the OOPSes will be....
I printed off your email before deleting it, but now I can't find it!
What happened to those photos I printed?
If you don't have your receipt, we can't take it back.
No, that section of the contract never existed. Can you prove it did?
When I took CS at Iowa State I had to learn VB. Mind you, it was in the CS "Intro" class and also involved the history of the computer and using Office. However, I think this was a good thing for several reasons...
1) Learning languages with different paradigms is very helpful. It develops your abstract thinking so you don't think of the code, you think about what tasks need to be accomplished. If you are just starting out, this is critical. (If you don't believe me, try using LISP (or Scheme) for a few weeks.)
2) Whether it is true geek or not, VB is in a LOT of places and being able to put it on your resume may open a few extra doors. True, not everyone needs that advantage, but not everyone is a straight-A student. At our campus career fairs we did get some techinical people staffing the booths, but a lot of them weren't either and just had their "desired skills" list to short list resumes.
3) If you are in IT (or other technical position), everyone expects you to know everything about computers. If you say "I don't do Windows.", they are going to wonder what kind of crappy school you went to that you don't even know how to use Windows. This may not accurately reflect the quality of your education, but perception is everything.
4) It can also help you maintain legacy apps or business apps developed for Access or Excel. Maybe you can do new development in the language of your choice, but you have to maintain whatever legacy apps are already there. At least having exposure to VB can make it a much easier process.
So, to summarize - learning VB (or other languages) can help develop your skills. May help you get a job. May help your credibility (and that of your school). May make life easier.
Overall, VB isn't my language of choice - in fact, I try and avoid it. However, the few times I haven't had a choice, I'm glad to have had some exposure to it. Also, there are situations where VB is desirable. Need to make a small app that gets data from Access or Excel? It can probably be developed a lot faster in VB.
I think they are just behind in production.
I purchased my MacBook on August 16th. Original ship date was August 22nd.
On August 22nd they changed my ship date to the 29th.
On August 29th they changed it to the 31st.
On September 1st, they changed the ship date to September 14th.
It shipped today...
I did get some free stuff from Apple for my troubles, but no speed bump.
You can't change your fingerprint to match another signal. It is based on the minute physical differences between cards, not their firmware, so it wouldn't be possible. It would be possible to use specialized hardware to mimic a signal, but that would be orders of magnitude more expensive. (I think the equipment required is around US$100,000 so it is not accesible to the average attacker...)
As to making a completely erratic, changing print - sure. However, while this would prevent tracking it would mean you can't connect to your companies AP since you don't match the fingerprint they have on file. Access is denied and security is maintained. *Crowd goes wild*
Yes, that 5% is definitely a problem. However, you could set the system to log a warning if the fingerprint doesn't match. If nothing else, this would give you a paper trail that you can follow if an incident occurs. Also, if you record the fingerprint and find that same fingerprint trying to be several different MAC addresses you could raise an alarm.
So, 5% is far too high to be used on its own, but it isn't completely useless.
From the article, (emphasis mine):
As a doctoral student, Dr Hall analysed the RF signals of fifteen devices from six manufacturers, and found it was possible to distinguish clearly, even between devices from the same manufacturer.
So it doesn't matter if everyone uses Centrino - they can still tell them apart. The key point is that no two devices are identical - there are always differences in the manufacturing process that makes them behave differently. Sure, at 10 or 54 Mbps they look the same but when you sample at 100 Msps (or higher), small differences are detectable.
For more info on this area, here is a paper [warning PDF] from the Dilon Project at Iowa State University.
You are forgetting the insider threat. I might have the WPA key because I am an employee with my own laptop. However, if I spoof your MAC, then it looks like you are the one surfing /. (or porn sites) all day and not me.
Encryption is good, but it doesn't solve every security problem.
While I applaud this person's efforts to get the problem known so it can be rectified, I fear that he endangers personel's safety by publishing the exact nature of the problems, including what equates to detailed instructions on how to not get spotted by cameras while approacing the vessel.
Well, we first have to remember that public safety trumps employers consent. That's why it is the first rule. As for publishing the exact nature of the problems - once they are known and acknowledged by everyone, workarounds can be made.
If this was an easy moral decision, it wouldn't be such big news. However, it was a tough choice for him - professionally and personally. Maybe he didn't lose his job for releasing the video - but he might have hurt his chances at getting a new one. He also had to choose between 2 "conflicting rules" in the Code of Ethics. It wasn't an easy choice. As a former Marine, I am glad he did it. The people who actually use these things aren't in the information loop on problems - until they have to deal with them. Then it's usually too late.
Exactly! Right from the Code of Ethics of a Professional Engineer? Here's a link.
Notice, the first fundamental canon is: Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
The third is: Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
If we go down to the specific Rules of Practice:
If engineers' judgment is overruled under circumstances that endanger life or property, they shall notify their employer or client and such other authority as may be appropriate. This is what he was worried about. However, the "normal" people to inform were ignoring him and he didn't know any other way to get this information to the people who would be affected - not only the Coast Guard personnel, but the public that will be sharing the waters with them, and the People of the United States who are the ultimate client.
Engineers shall not reveal facts, data, or information without the prior consent of the client or employer except as authorized or required by law or this Code. As a Person of the United States, he has my consent. As do all other Engineers who have concerns. Also, the previous rule requires him to do this.
Engineers shall not aid or abet the unlawful practice of engineering by a person or firm. Which he did not. Sorry he lost his position. Hopefully something good will come around for him.
Now, I hope he gets a lot of money for speaking engagements at different Engineering conferences. He chose the difficult road, but proved he is an Engineer. If Ethics were easy, we wouldn't need to write them all down in Codes of Ethics.
Try burning your CDs at a much slower burn rate. I have found that problems with older drives disappear at 4x burn speed or less.
Why not pass a law that treats video games like other forms of entertainment?
It is illegal to allow a child under 17 to see an R-rated movie without a parent or guardian present.
It is illegal to allow a child under 18 to purchase pornographic materials.
Why not make it illegal to allow a child under 17 (or 18) to purchase an M (or AO) rated game?
It doesn't prevent the games from being sold. It doesn't make it illegal to have, or play, the games. It just requires that a parent must be willing to get involved enough to purchase the game for their children instead of handing them $50 and telling them to go buy a game. Yes, there might be trouble enforcing it if the games are purchased online, but verifying age online has always been a problem. Could this cost the game companies some money? Yes. However, this is also true for movie studios that make R-rated movies. They generally don't make as much as movies with a PG rating.
Make him hand-write one copy of the email for each email that got sent.
If you want to be mean, make him write out the headers as well.