Good afternoon, you have reached the law offices of Sue The Bastards.
If you have been injured in an automobile accident, please press 1 now. If you have really been injured in an automobile accident, please press 2 now.
There's actually an attorney advertising in the New York area with an ad campaign like that. It starts with a crazy client claiming all sorts of fake injuries, calling the attorneys advertised. They tell him they can't help him, and then cut to their pitch, which ends "But you must have REALLY been injured"
1) You can make the road look more dangerous, e.g. with optical illusions to make it look narrower
2) You can make the road actually and obviously more dangerous, e.g. reducing sight lines and adding on-street parking
Number 2 works, but it doesn't increase safety. Number 1 works... for a while. My concern with #1 is that drivers will realize they are being fooled, and start speeding up again. That's OK, except they may then interpret the real situation that the illusion was imitating as an illusion, and fail to take it into account, resulting in a net decrease in safety.
I'm thinking what Phoebe did to her bullies is infinitely worse than what they did to her. Imagine growing up knowing that you pushed a classmate over the edge and in a way caused her death.
You or I would probably feel bad about that. Perhaps even remorseful. These psychopaths-in-training won't. Don't cry for them.
Let's be perfectly clear here. Suicide is irrational. There was de facto something else wrong with this girl.
I believe you mean "ipso facto".
Let me say it again: Suicide Is Irrational. Without extreme methods, you simply can't drive a mentally healthy person to suicide.
High school bullying counts as "Extreme methods". Take a human being, require them (upon pain of fines and imprisonment, or fines and imprisonment for those they love) to attend a school wherein they are teased, harassed both verbally and physically, and occasionally assaulted. Place them under the control of authority figures who range from indifferent to hostile to the attacks on them, but who make it clear they will come down hard on the victim should she attempt to retaliate or escape.
Assuming the sex was otherwise consensual, it sucks that these guys are getting charged with such a serious crime in what amounts to a prosecutorial attempt to close the barn door after the cows are out.
Fortunately if they didn't brag about having sex with her, it's unlikely they'll be convicted; she can't testify against them and they can't be required to testify against themselves.
No, statutory rape (that is, usually-consensual sex with someone who it isn't legal to have sex with). And nothing in TFA suggests that the two charged with statutory rape had anything to do with the bullying (cyber or otherwise); they aren't charged with the other stuff.
Well, with the recently enacted health-care legislation, my taxes will be subsidizing your health-care. That means that I and my government now have a financial stake in your health and safety.
And I yours. Now about that rock climbing... seems pretty dangerous. And what's the point? It's pure recreation for you. Surely it is not in society's best interest to allow you to risk injury and the concomitant cost to the health insurance system for purely selfish purposes.
The second cost of obesity, greatly increased medical care, is now socialized as well.
Not a problem. The government will simply use the high cost of health insurance for the obese to ban cake for all of us, whether fat, medium, or thin. Then the problem will be solved. Well, except that the obese will switch to something else, like bacon-wrapped sugar cubes, and the rest of us will be angry about our missing cake.
As far as anyone knows, cocaine acts by causing direct stimulation of the reward center, a property shared by (as far as I know) any behavior the brain seeks to reinforce, including eating energy dense foods,
Cocaine causes direct stimulation of certain receptors within the brain associated with pleasure. Energy-dense foods cause _indirect_ stimulation of receptors. The problem with calling anything which stimulates pleasure receptors "addictive" (and therefore implicitly bad) should be obvious, unless you're an ascetic.
If there wasn't a way for pirates to pirate their game (like now with the Ubisoft always-online-DRM), that higher profit price point might also mean lower prices for everyone when more people would buy it, especially since the pc piracy rate is around 80-90%. If half of those bought the game, it would mean publishers could lower their price by 4 times ($50 -> $12.5) and they would still get the same profit.
Your argument basically amounts to "reduced supply of substitute product results in increased demand for original product which leads to lower prices". Which doesn't pass ECON 101. Reduced supply of substitutes and increased demand for original both lead to higher prices, not lower.
Shouldn't you query the closest available server, not the furthest?
A host is a host/From coast to coast/And no one will talk to a host that's close/unless the host (that isn't close)/is busy, hung, or dead! (From the.signature file of one David Lesher...)
Racing. Not driving fast in a line where position basically never changes unless someone screws up drastically. That's just a high speed parade. For all of NASCAR's faults (and they are legion), it's not THAT boring.
He forgot -Wnone. And the "return 0" is entirely unnecessary; the specs say to print "Hello World.", with no requirement on the return value. This overdesigning of the simplest tasks is costing far too much money:-)
That's all well and good but the issue is translating a mathematical formula for say basic particle physics into C code. You might read a paper that says the formula for a spring network for cloth simulation is this and there will be a fancy formula with lots of fancy symbols. Last time I checked, C didn't have these symbols in it. I have also seen the code for a rigid-body dynamics engine and I look at the code for the solver and I'm left scratch my head going "How the hell do you go from a pure paper mathematical formula to this bit of code?"
That's where the sub-field called "numerical methods" come in. Well, the numerical methods actually get you to an implementable mathematical algorithm, translating that to C or whatever is left as an exercise. Numerical methods being older than digital computers, they're intended to be implemented on grad students.
Please don't get the wrong impression from this thread. I've been searching for programming jobs lately and the vast majority of them are the sort of thing the blog post is talking about: databases, business rules, and user interface, where the UI is mostly web these days.
Unfortunately, those jobs are Sturgeon's 90%. It's true there's not much math is required in them, though it helps to know enough set theory to figure out why your SQL query is taking forever. The other 10% (not the whole thing, true, but a much higher percentage) is where the math is to be found. So unless you want to spend your entire career doing business programming, math is important. Computer graphics, scientific programming (e.g. simulations), signal processing - all require math.
No, it wont get higher prices because you can't increase price of a product infinitely just because it's one of a kind product.
What sort of silly straw man is this? Who said anything about "infinitely"? If eliminating piracy means that increasing prices will result in a higher profit-maximizing price (and unless you assume that paying customers never convert to pirates at any price, nor vice-versa, it will), then the companies will increase prices.
If you make the parenthesized assumption above, then piracy doesn't matter at all, so why are you bothering with the DRM?
I hope they introduce it to more titles - by winning piracy we will start to get more quality games, as 90% of gamers aren't freeloaders anymore.
Mod +6, hilarious.
Having them successfully tighten their grip won't get you more quality games. It'll get you higher prices (supply and demand; the lack of a free substitute product) and more intrusive DRM.
Well, in your parentheses there lies the whole thing. It's the MPEG-LA who specify the license for the encoder, and they won't license an encoder to be used to produce material for distribution. I'm not sure whether that kind of restriction on use will fly, but it doesn't seem totally implausible, and it doesn't quite depend on them claiming some kind of patent rights over the data stream itself.
It does, though. Suppose I encode a movie and pass the encoded data stream on to someone else for distribution. What standing does MPEG-LA have to sue this other person, if they have no rights in the data stream itself?
IIRC, the MPEG patents DO in fact include claims to distributing the data streams. But like I said, I don't think those claims will hold up against a well-lawyered opponent.
The traditional problems utilities have had to deal with are of physical intrusion, either by customers or by neighbors, looking to bypass the meter, modify the readings, or steal electricity. They solve this (or at least reduce it to a manageable level) mostly with intrusion detection -- basically, seals so they know the meter has been tampered with. In this model, the only loss is money and so preventing it at high cost doesn't make sense; detecting and stopping it reasonably quickly is more important.
With meters which do more than metering, that's just not good enough. Significant effort must be made to prevent malicious people from surreptitiously turning power off, otherwise assholes will do it just for lols. It's not like ripping a meter off the wall, which will have the same effect but carries high likelyhood of getting caught.
Sure. 1 start bit, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. Ten bits.
Which brings up the question: Why are communications bits measured in base 10? Simple enough; they're based on clock rates, not data path sizes. Those clock rates have nothing to do with base 2.
No, the kibi-business was in response to confusion.
No, the kibi-business was introduced by a bunch of academics annoyed that we unwashed computer people were misusing their hallowed prefixes. To punish us, they came up with the really stupid-sounding kibi, mebi, gibi, etc, and demanded we relinquish the use of the normal-sounding prefixes. I, for one, refuse.
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There's actually an attorney advertising in the New York area with an ad campaign like that. It starts with a crazy client claiming all sorts of fake injuries, calling the attorneys advertised. They tell him they can't help him, and then cut to their pitch, which ends "But you must have REALLY been injured"
1) You can make the road look more dangerous, e.g. with optical illusions to make it look narrower
2) You can make the road actually and obviously more dangerous, e.g. reducing sight lines and adding on-street parking
Number 2 works, but it doesn't increase safety. Number 1 works... for a while. My concern with #1 is that drivers will realize they are being fooled, and start speeding up again. That's OK, except they may then interpret the real situation that the illusion was imitating as an illusion, and fail to take it into account, resulting in a net decrease in safety.
Tell that to John Wayne Bobbit.
You or I would probably feel bad about that. Perhaps even remorseful. These psychopaths-in-training won't. Don't cry for them.
I believe you mean "ipso facto".
High school bullying counts as "Extreme methods". Take a human being, require them (upon pain of fines and imprisonment, or fines and imprisonment for those they love) to attend a school wherein they are teased, harassed both verbally and physically, and occasionally assaulted. Place them under the control of authority figures who range from indifferent to hostile to the attacks on them, but who make it clear they will come down hard on the victim should she attempt to retaliate or escape.
Fortunately if they didn't brag about having sex with her, it's unlikely they'll be convicted; she can't testify against them and they can't be required to testify against themselves.
Unfortunately, they're teenaged boys, so....
No, statutory rape (that is, usually-consensual sex with someone who it isn't legal to have sex with). And nothing in TFA suggests that the two charged with statutory rape had anything to do with the bullying (cyber or otherwise); they aren't charged with the other stuff.
Lots of married men are accustomed to regular sex. Look at Tiger Woods or Bill Clinton, for example.
(I'd apologize to my wife here but I don't think she reads slashdot)
If we know which companies subscribe to the service, we have new additions to the list of companies to avoid working for.
And I yours. Now about that rock climbing... seems pretty dangerous. And what's the point? It's pure recreation for you. Surely it is not in society's best interest to allow you to risk injury and the concomitant cost to the health insurance system for purely selfish purposes.
Not a problem. The government will simply use the high cost of health insurance for the obese to ban cake for all of us, whether fat, medium, or thin. Then the problem will be solved. Well, except that the obese will switch to something else, like bacon-wrapped sugar cubes, and the rest of us will be angry about our missing cake.
Cocaine causes direct stimulation of certain receptors within the brain associated with pleasure. Energy-dense foods cause _indirect_ stimulation of receptors. The problem with calling anything which stimulates pleasure receptors "addictive" (and therefore implicitly bad) should be obvious, unless you're an ascetic.
Your argument basically amounts to "reduced supply of substitute product results in increased demand for original product which leads to lower prices". Which doesn't pass ECON 101. Reduced supply of substitutes and increased demand for original both lead to higher prices, not lower.
A host is a host/From coast to coast/And no one will talk to a host that's close/unless the host (that isn't close)/is busy, hung, or dead! .signature file of one David Lesher...)
(From the
Racing. Not driving fast in a line where position basically never changes unless someone screws up drastically. That's just a high speed parade. For all of NASCAR's faults (and they are legion), it's not THAT boring.
He forgot -Wnone. And the "return 0" is entirely unnecessary; the specs say to print "Hello World.", with no requirement on the return value. This overdesigning of the simplest tasks is costing far too much money :-)
That's where the sub-field called "numerical methods" come in. Well, the numerical methods actually get you to an implementable mathematical algorithm, translating that to C or whatever is left as an exercise. Numerical methods being older than digital computers, they're intended to be implemented on grad students.
Unfortunately, those jobs are Sturgeon's 90%. It's true there's not much math is required in them, though it helps to know enough set theory to figure out why your SQL query is taking forever. The other 10% (not the whole thing, true, but a much higher percentage) is where the math is to be found. So unless you want to spend your entire career doing business programming, math is important. Computer graphics, scientific programming (e.g. simulations), signal processing - all require math.
I thought progress towards a Ph.D was pretty much quantized... that is, there's a wide gap between ABD and Ph.D. with nothing in between.
What sort of silly straw man is this? Who said anything about "infinitely"? If eliminating piracy means that increasing prices will result in a higher profit-maximizing price (and unless you assume that paying customers never convert to pirates at any price, nor vice-versa, it will), then the companies will increase prices.
If you make the parenthesized assumption above, then piracy doesn't matter at all, so why are you bothering with the DRM?
Mod +6, hilarious.
Having them successfully tighten their grip won't get you more quality games. It'll get you higher prices (supply and demand; the lack of a free substitute product) and more intrusive DRM.
It does, though. Suppose I encode a movie and pass the encoded data stream on to someone else for distribution. What standing does MPEG-LA have to sue this other person, if they have no rights in the data stream itself?
IIRC, the MPEG patents DO in fact include claims to distributing the data streams. But like I said, I don't think those claims will hold up against a well-lawyered opponent.
The traditional problems utilities have had to deal with are of physical intrusion, either by customers or by neighbors, looking to bypass the meter, modify the readings, or steal electricity. They solve this (or at least reduce it to a manageable level) mostly with intrusion detection -- basically, seals so they know the meter has been tampered with. In this model, the only loss is money and so preventing it at high cost doesn't make sense; detecting and stopping it reasonably quickly is more important.
With meters which do more than metering, that's just not good enough. Significant effort must be made to prevent malicious people from surreptitiously turning power off, otherwise assholes will do it just for lols. It's not like ripping a meter off the wall, which will have the same effect but carries high likelyhood of getting caught.
Sure. 1 start bit, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. Ten bits.
Which brings up the question: Why are communications bits measured in base 10? Simple enough; they're based on clock rates, not data path sizes. Those clock rates have nothing to do with base 2.
No, the kibi-business was introduced by a bunch of academics annoyed that we unwashed computer people were misusing their hallowed prefixes. To punish us, they came up with the really stupid-sounding kibi, mebi, gibi, etc, and demanded we relinquish the use of the normal-sounding prefixes. I, for one, refuse.