"I was surprised I had to tell my mother that sending a DVD she bought in the US to her penpal in Europe was a bad idea because of region coding. She didn't have a farking clue what I was talking about."
Actually, it might work. A lot of the DVD players that are sold in europe is region free. Many cineasts imports a lot of movies, and region codes are definitly not apprechiated over here, since they leave us with whatever the media corps bother to market here.
Most of the people I know actually make sure to buy region free DVD's. This is an retailer in Stockholm, Sweden that only sells region free DVDs (yes, they have been sued a lot... but are still kickin'). They also modify your region free machine for a fee. Here is a list of the modifications they offer.
This was posted just a few days ago. Don't you editors ever check at all? Sounds like there is some need for a better search engine at/. It would benefit us all.
Why do you think the best of the Indian talent comes to the US? More money and a better life. How long with the best still in India talent work for $10/hour?
When that happens, the industry will search for coders elsewhere, like they do in other businesses (Flextronics anyone?, or Nike...)
As long as there are differences in living standards to be exploited companies will do just that. As long as companies and money move freely over borders and people do not this situation will exist. And, yes, in the long run us wages will probably drop. I wish min would go up instead (and it probably will, a bit... i make 50%, tops of what an us programmer makes). And this is in europe, not India.
I have to wonder whether the same rules and guidelines also apply to custom software commissioned by the government.
Anyone who pays someone else to customise software for him and don't specifically request the source+docs to be part of the deal is a complete and utter fool!
If the original programmer quits his job, or the company hired to do the work croaks, then you're f##ked! You have to do a complete reverse enginering/rewrite. Very expensive and time consuming.
Of course a lot of people do this anyway, but they are acting very irresponsible with their companys money, and may (depending on how business critical the software is) even risk putting their company out of business!
Even if the original contractor is available to help you out when the need arises, you are completely locked in to that vendor (probably even to that person) and he can extort as much money as he pleases from you as long as he charges less than a complete rewrite would cost. You are essentially his bitch.
Don't put yourself in that position folks. Trust me.
As a programmer however, this can be a great cash-cow if you feel evil and can pull it of (This requires brain-dead management on your clients part, but that is not as uncommon as one might think). A lot of smaller software companies as well as spinoffs from larger companies ar founded this way. I.e. a few programmers notice that they are the only people on earth that can keep a big clients undocumentet business critical application running. They quit their jobs and start a new company, offer their services to their former employers big client and roll around naked and laughing in a big pile of money...
If you are a skilled programmer, willing to work for local wages, I don't think there is a single 3:d world nation that would kick you out, man. They are desperate to get out of the economic stranglehold they are in.
You, sir obviously have no real world experiance as a programmer.
You have a point in that a lot of oss programmers have day jobs writing non free programs, but other than that you make no sense.
Anyone who has worked for a few years embedding closed source products in complex corporate it systems will tell you how incredibly frustrating it is to have another copanies business decisions make it all but impossible to use their products with different vendors or refuse to fix bugs and force you to write time consuming and inneficient workarounds.
A system built from oss components is usually a lot more agile (unless you use one single vendor of proprietory software, that is, then you get MOST of the advantages of oss, except the os in oss of cource...)
maybe the govt you're referring to, but 9 out of 10 of the best csci school are here in the states, along with anyone writing software or making hardware pretty much in the world, we're the best!
Well, more like 9 out of 10 of the best csci school in the us is in the us;-)
The us has a lot of great hackers, it also has a lot of the major software companies. Which, IMHO is a large part of the explanation to why the us is such a major power in comp sci. But great programmers live all over the world. Check the nationalities of the people involved in the linux kernel for example. A lot of americans, but also a lot of other nationalities.
For example, both india and western europe has a lot of great hackers, but not a lot of big software houses, and thus make less of an impact in the world of boxed software.
They do, however write a fair chare of code for both OSS and us software companies (outsourcing to india is very common).
I don't mean to insult all the americans here, you are a nation of coders, but not dominant to the extent some seem to think.
Rubber bullets isn't half as nice as they sound! They consist of a steel core surrounded by a rubber jacket (propelled by a weaker than usual charge). They leave nasty wounds, kill or maim at close distances and would most certainly break a plane window.
There are indeed however wheapons capable of disabling people without breaching the hull, they are often refered to as "remote batons" or "sandbag guns" but they are to cumbersome to be practical in a crowded plane.
I guess it all depends on who is paid to do the study and how they carry it out, but this report would counter the study performed by an RIAA backed group, which noted that file swapping lowered music purchases.
And guess wich study will get the most attention in the mainstream media? No prices for knowing the correct answer to that one I'm afraid...
I tend to believe that, more likely, the U.S. failed to condemn it because even though it WAS a coup, they were overthrowing a complete idiot that the country and the hemisphere would be better without in the long run.
Many people feel the same way about George Bush jr... You could even argue that he isn't elected in a democratic fashion.
Still no reason for a coup in my book.
If you are right I think the US has indeed been a bad doggie... ...although not as bad as I had been led to believe.
No but had the airline captains and copilots been armed all we would have had were a small number of dead arab hijackers and perhaps a few in federal custody after the planes landed instead of what we have now.
I'm not sure it is such a good idea to have bullets compromising your hull at 30 000 feet. Chanses are you go down anyway (though not hitting a major target)
And if the initially unarmed hijackers manage to overpower one of the armed crewmembers. (not too hard if one acts as a decoy and three other jumps the crewmember when he is focused on the distraction) You now have hijackers with guns, in a firefight they will probably win, since they don't care who they hit or if the plane go down, and the remaining crewmembers certainly does.
And this time there is no way for passagers to stop the hijackers, holding a cockpit with one or more guns is easy. They would probably average more than one attacking passager per shot in their "killing zone"...
I actually think an armed crew makes you an easier target for suicidal hijackers. Not for "normal" hijackings though. But on the other hand those seldom have a high bodycount. Probably not worth risking the the entire plane in the afforementioned firefight.
Just my 0.02 kr. You are welcome to rebutt if you like.
ve->VENEZUELA
Just had a coup attempt in the last month or so. There are also cross-border rebels that move between Venezuela and Colombia. Drugs is a problem as well.
Wasn't that more or less encouraged by certain crackheads in the US? Seemed to be all around the media recently. Anyone know anything about this? Wasn't the president of Venezuela democratically elected? What did he do to piss of GWB? What's the story about this one?
Yeah, your next revolution is long overdue man. Guess you better stock up on guns and tin cans...
No, really. That you are a stable country is one of the good things about the USA. You sure are involved in a lot of other conflicts though... But lets not get into that now, shall we.
Repeat until enlightened - Whereever in the universe you go, mass of an object is the same. Weight might vary
No, it depends on the speed of the object. You'll have to move very fast to notice a measurable difference though. But one could say this is why objects with rest mass cant reach lightspeed. When speed --> c that means mass --> infinity (time grinds to an halt too, but i'll get back to that soon) and that, of cource would require an infinite amount of enery, which you are not likely to find...
Only reason a photon can reach lightspeed is that it has no rest mass. Photons are really wierd, they can't exist at rest (E=mc, and m0 is 0, remember...) they have no anti particle either. Any antiparticle behaves as it's particle exept "travelling backwards" in time. Since the photon moves at lightspeed direction in time is irrelevant and it is it's own anti particle.
I don't like photons, they give me an hedache...
I dropped out of physics by the way... It was cool, but I just couldn't stand it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, it must be great not being able to lose, no matter who wins!
"region free DVDs" was supposed to read region free DVD players
sorry.
"I was surprised I had to tell my mother that sending a DVD she bought in the US to her penpal in Europe was a bad idea because of region coding. She didn't have a farking clue what I was talking about."
Actually, it might work. A lot of the DVD players that are sold in europe is region free.
Many cineasts imports a lot of movies, and region codes are definitly not apprechiated over here, since they leave us with whatever the media corps bother to market here.
Most of the people I know actually make sure to buy region free DVD's.
This is an retailer in Stockholm, Sweden that only sells region free DVDs (yes, they have been sued a lot... but are still kickin').
They also modify your region free machine for a fee. Here is a list of the modifications they offer.
...true, but he could have given the sidebar a quick glance.
It's right there under older stuff.
Maybe he is still hungover from a crazy party or something. Some days we all just leave the brain home I guess...
This was posted just a few days ago. Don't you editors ever check at all? /. It would benefit us all.
Sounds like there is some need for a better search engine at
Why do you think the best of the Indian talent comes to the US? More money and a better life. How long with the best still in India talent work for $10/hour?
When that happens, the industry will search for coders elsewhere, like they do in other businesses (Flextronics anyone?, or Nike...)
As long as there are differences in living standards to be exploited companies will do just that.
As long as companies and money move freely over borders and people do not this situation will exist.
And, yes, in the long run us wages will probably drop.
I wish min would go up instead (and it probably will, a bit... i make 50%, tops of what an us programmer makes).
And this is in europe, not India.
I wish I could have been the one the one who pulled that plug...
Man, that must have felt good...
It probably went down something like this:
Lucky employee> "Bite my shiny metal ass, spammers!"
*sound of cat5 cable violently ripped out of a router*
I have to wonder whether the same rules and guidelines also apply to custom software commissioned by the government.
Anyone who pays someone else to customise software for him and don't specifically request the source+docs to be part of the deal is a complete and utter fool!
If the original programmer quits his job, or the company hired to do the work croaks, then you're f##ked!
You have to do a complete reverse enginering/rewrite. Very expensive and time consuming.
Of course a lot of people do this anyway, but they are acting very irresponsible with their companys money, and may (depending on how business critical the software is) even risk putting their company out of business!
Even if the original contractor is available to help you out when the need arises, you are completely locked in to that vendor (probably even to that person) and he can extort as much money as he pleases from you as long as he charges less than a complete rewrite would cost.
You are essentially his bitch.
Don't put yourself in that position folks. Trust me.
As a programmer however, this can be a great cash-cow if you feel evil and can pull it of (This requires brain-dead management on your clients part, but that is not as uncommon as one might think).
A lot of smaller software companies as well as spinoffs from larger companies ar founded this way.
I.e. a few programmers notice that they are the only people on earth that can keep a big clients undocumentet business critical application running. They quit their jobs and start a new company, offer their services to their former employers big client and roll around naked and laughing in a big pile of money...
That may explain why he makes sense!
Yes, mister Nunez kung fu is indeed strong.
The government I work for could use a few men like him in the right places.
Us oss advocates are few, far between and (with only one exception I know of) not in a position with any real power.
I am sneaking some Apache-licenced software through the back door however, all approved with a little help from the aforementioned exception...
If you are a skilled programmer, willing to work for local wages, I don't think there is a single 3:d world nation that would kick you out, man.
They are desperate to get out of the economic stranglehold they are in.
You, sir obviously have no real world experiance as a programmer.
You have a point in that a lot of oss programmers have day jobs writing non free programs, but other than that you make no sense.
Anyone who has worked for a few years embedding closed source products in complex corporate it systems will tell you how incredibly frustrating it is to have another copanies business decisions make it all but impossible to use their products with different vendors or refuse to fix bugs and force you to write time consuming and inneficient workarounds.
A system built from oss components is usually a lot more agile (unless you use one single vendor of proprietory software, that is, then you get MOST of the advantages of oss, except the os in oss of cource...)
maybe the govt you're referring to, but 9 out of 10 of the best csci school are here in the states, along with anyone writing software or making hardware pretty much in the world, we're the best!
;-)
Well, more like 9 out of 10 of the best csci school in the us is in the us
The us has a lot of great hackers, it also has a lot of the major software companies. Which, IMHO is a large part of the explanation to why the us is such a major power in comp sci.
But great programmers live all over the world. Check the nationalities of the people involved in the linux kernel for example. A lot of americans, but also a lot of other nationalities.
For example, both india and western europe has a lot of great hackers, but not a lot of big software houses, and thus make less of an impact in the world of boxed software.
They do, however write a fair chare of code for both OSS and us software companies (outsourcing to india is very common).
I don't mean to insult all the americans here, you are a nation of coders, but not dominant to the extent some seem to think.
Rubber bullets isn't half as nice as they sound!
They consist of a steel core surrounded by a rubber jacket (propelled by a weaker than usual charge).
They leave nasty wounds, kill or maim at close distances and would most certainly break a plane window.
There are indeed however wheapons capable of disabling people without breaching the hull, they are often refered to as "remote batons" or "sandbag guns" but they are to cumbersome to be practical in a crowded plane.
Actually they did.
jamie flamed them heavily though...
I guess it all depends on who is paid to do the study and how they carry it out, but this report would counter the study performed by an RIAA backed group, which noted that file swapping lowered music purchases.
And guess wich study will get the most attention in the mainstream media?
No prices for knowing the correct answer to that one I'm afraid...
Thanks for the clarification by the way!
I tend to believe that, more likely, the U.S. failed to condemn it because even though it WAS a coup, they were overthrowing a complete idiot that the country and the hemisphere would be better without in the long run.
Many people feel the same way about George Bush jr...
You could even argue that he isn't elected in a democratic fashion.
Still no reason for a coup in my book.
If you are right I think the US has indeed been a bad doggie...
...although not as bad as I had been led to believe.
No but had the airline captains and copilots been armed all we would have had were a small number of dead arab hijackers and perhaps a few in federal custody after the planes landed instead of what we have now.
I'm not sure it is such a good idea to have bullets compromising your hull at 30 000 feet.
Chanses are you go down anyway (though not hitting a major target)
And if the initially unarmed hijackers manage to overpower one of the armed crewmembers. (not too hard if one acts as a decoy and three other jumps the crewmember when he is focused on the distraction) You now have hijackers with guns, in a firefight they will probably win, since they don't care who they hit or if the plane go down, and the remaining crewmembers certainly does.
And this time there is no way for passagers to stop the hijackers, holding a cockpit with one or more guns is easy. They would probably average more than one attacking passager per shot in their "killing zone"...
I actually think an armed crew makes you an easier target for suicidal hijackers.
Not for "normal" hijackings though. But on the other hand those seldom have a high bodycount. Probably not worth risking the the entire plane in the afforementioned firefight.
Just my 0.02 kr.
You are welcome to rebutt if you like.
Parents sig: -- Linux sucks, but everything else sucks more.
;-)
Your sig indicates som bias though
But I guess that is just natural if you are well versed in both OSes.
ve->VENEZUELA
Just had a coup attempt in the last month or so. There are also cross-border rebels that move between Venezuela and Colombia. Drugs is a problem as well.
Wasn't that more or less encouraged by certain crackheads in the US?
Seemed to be all around the media recently. Anyone know anything about this?
Wasn't the president of Venezuela democratically elected? What did he do to piss of GWB?
What's the story about this one?
Yeah, your next revolution is long overdue man.
Guess you better stock up on guns and tin cans...
No, really.
That you are a stable country is one of the good things about the USA.
You sure are involved in a lot of other conflicts though... But lets not get into that now, shall we.
...and in a fit of pure genius, to newton as well
Actually, I am surprised I haven't seen any trolls trying to pull that one of in this thread.
Repeat until enlightened - Whereever in the universe you go, mass of an object is the same. Weight might vary
No, it depends on the speed of the object.
You'll have to move very fast to notice a measurable difference though.
But one could say this is why objects with rest mass cant reach lightspeed. When speed --> c that means mass --> infinity (time grinds to an halt too, but i'll get back to that soon) and that, of cource would require an infinite amount of enery, which you are not likely to find...
Only reason a photon can reach lightspeed is that it has no rest mass.
Photons are really wierd, they can't exist at rest (E=mc, and m0 is 0, remember...) they have no anti particle either. Any antiparticle behaves as it's particle exept "travelling backwards" in time. Since the photon moves at lightspeed direction in time is irrelevant and it is it's own anti particle.
I don't like photons, they give me an hedache...
I dropped out of physics by the way...
It was cool, but I just couldn't stand it.
If Compaq purchased Digital, and HP is merging with Compaq, is HP-Compaq-Digital a Beowulf cluster of corporations?
;-)
No, to much overhead.
It will probably be more like a crash prone Windows 95 box
No, seriously, chances are this will not work out very well.
Or at least take years to get right.
Time will tell.