1. Nomenclature: An "adjective-noun" should always be a subset of "noun". A "dwarf planet" should be no less seen as a type of planet than a "dwarf star" is seen as a type of star by the IAU.
No. A dry lake is not a type of lake, for example. "adjective-noun" can mean "something in the category described by adjective but resembling the nouns". You can't make Pluto a planet by playing a cheap word game.
2. Erroneous foundation: Current research agrees that most planets did not clear their own neighborhoods
Nothing from the IAU's resolution indicates a purpose to consider the historical conditions. Your objection is semantic pedantry and can easily be fixed by wording the requirement as "has a cleared neighborhood". Also, yes Mars and Neptune vary in Stern-Levison values by 300x. That doesn't make the value unhelpful. And it doesn't change the fact that there's a gap of 10 orders of magnitude between any of the planets and the high Stern-Levison value of any dwarf planet (Pluto).
3. Comparative inconsistency: Earth is far more like Ceres and Pluto than it is like Jupiter, yet these very dissimilar groups - gas giants and terrestrial planets - are lumped together as "planets" while dwarfs are excluded.
Since was grouping of astronomical objects done by atmospheric similarity? That would be the worst rule yet.
4. Poor choice of dividing line: While defining objects inherently requires drawing lines between groups, the chosen line has been poorly selected. Achieving a rough hydrostatic equilibrium is a very meaningful dividing line - it means differentiation, mineralization processes, alteration of primordial materials, and so forth. It's also often associated with internal heat and, increasingly as we're realizing, a common association with subsurface fluids.
You are describing differentiation for a different purpose than the IAU's planet definition and then jumping to the claim that it is better. Your answer begs the question of what the purpose is for distinguishing a planet.
5. Mutability: Under the IA definition, what an object is declared as can be altered without any of the properties of the object changing simply by its "neighborhood" changing in any of countless ways.
Yes, we live in an evolving and mutating universe. Each of these planets came into existence at one point, so any definition involves some mutability unless you believe in a static, eternal universe.
6. Situational inconsistency: (Related) An exact copy of Earth (what the vast majority of people would consider the prototype for what a planet should be), identical down to all of the life on its surface, would not be considered a planet if orbiting in the habitable zone of a significantly larger star (harder to clear zone), or a young star (insufficient time to clear), a star without a Jupiter equivalent (no assistance in clearing), or so forth.
The definition is aimed at defining planets within our own solar system and not intended to be applied to exoplanets. You abuse this same limitation in another point below.
7. Ambiguous definition: There is still no consensus on what defines having "cleared the neighborhood" - in particular, what the "neighborhood" is.
While it's true that Resolution 5a didn't specify which discriminant to use, that doesn't make it ambiguous. There are multiple discriminants, and a common theme of all of them is that the 8 planets have disc
Good point. Another item is the above list should be:
- API servers which have become unacceptably slow
We think of Google as fast because google.com loads quickly. But most other google APIs (including auth, the list of links which show on the new tab, profile info, etc) are extremely slow. I've been recording them lately and I routinely see 1000 ms response times from google on queries as simple as fetching the profile pic.
This might obfuscate the meaning of the clicks, but what if it just encourages the ad sellers to claim even higher click-through rates as a selling point?
As someone who has worked at companies using ads, I can assure you that click-through rate is fully meaningless. Customer Lifetime Value per ad acquired user, or revenue per ad channel, or some similar meaningful metric will be used. Dead clicks will not give ad sellers any fuel for their cause.
One on hand, this is an ugly example of DMCA abuse and goes against the wish of even the copy right owner.
One the other hand it's one less Prince recording on the internet.
I'm inclined to side with Prince here since the public welfare outweighs the individual IP.
But from what I understand, Anonymous' targets have been people who "offended" them in some way
Anonymous attacking the "Church" of Scientology makes sense. Anonymous attacking random epileptics does not
I've gotta jump in here. There's a slew of slashdot posters defending Anonymous who are really ignorant of what's happened here.
Please look at the message boards being targetted. Gaiaonline.com. Go read the *chan message boards and read up on the longcat issue. Anonymous is pissed at Gaiaonline.com. They've attacked Gaia in other ways lately too. This is just one of many/i/ "raid" activities against the site.
I hate Scientology as much as the next guy, but lets not be naive here. This has been planned on the message boards used by Anonymous very thoroughly. Go start reading the chans and other places used by Anonymous. You'll see a bunch of directives and plenty of explanation as to why they are pissed.
Your analogy fails miserably, my dear AC. Private residences are legally quite distinct from other property. Your wireless signal as seen from outside your residence is merely a possession of yours at most. Even if we grant it full protection of your ownership (which is dubious already), that doesn't mean that it can't be 'accessed'.
I left my car unlocked at a repair shop once while I walked outside with my brother to discuss the situation (he was clearly being scammed). While I was gone they entered my vehicle and rummaged around. I found $20 missing and my insurance/registration documents. Naturally I called the police after returning home to report it. The office arrived, we went to the shop, he talked with the owner and retrieved my documents minus the bill. The officer then kindly returned those to me and bid me goodday. I asked whether I couldn't press charges for entering my vehicle. He shrugged it off saying that if my car had been locked, he could make a case. But being unlocked my car was a fair target for entry. Despite being my property, I didn't secure it and thus gave up protection from the law.
I came into this thread with 10 shiny new mod points hoping to find someone insightful, but found not a single comment in the entire thread worth promotion. What's happened to slashdot? A story on a hot subject, and I see nothing but off-topic trolls and insipid banter about deadly sins taken out of context from the description at the top of the page. Not a single comment on the actual article.
Anyway, the RIAA's attempt to dodge the charge of hypocrisy is equally lame. First the new deal gives ridiculous profit to SoundExchange (30% of gross). And even though they do have a 'plan' to share with artists (an inequitable one, albeit), the lack of expediency is directly adding to the profit of the RIAA through this process. The artists are clearly an afterthought. The RIAA can't come close to hiding their real motivation: profit for its members at all costs, regardless of artists rights/needs.
if you want your code to read like english, you consider a language like COBOL? Not that it would help you with spell checking, per se...
Responses like this entirely miss the point of the question. Same with the "just review your code" responses. It's not a matter of making the language more readable. It's a matter of making the code more usable. Certainly, correct spelling is pointless without other elements of good code practice. However, bad spelling can add a lot of frustration.
I joined a project which already had a few misspelled class names. I'm a fast typer and often I've typed out more of a filename than is spelled correctly before hitting tab to complete the name. Needless to say, I've been trained to hit tab earlier for a few choice files. But it's certainly been an irritation. Similarly, I've been confounded more than once when a function or variable couldn't be found by the compiler, only to realize that I'd spelled a word correctly rather than how the actual name was spelled.
We choose to use English words for our class, function, and variable names for a reason. That reason is mostly defeated by misspelling the English word. A dictionary is a great idea, even for coding languages that don't "read like English".
There, my computer just demanded equal rights. What difference does it make if it comes out of a more complicated set of code that results in the same thing?
Excuse me... (AKA Mod down at will, but,) English, motherfucker! Do you speak it.
Small piece of advice: If you wish to complain about English usage, you will be taken more seriously if you can do so without an extra comma, a missing question mark, unnecessary capitalization, a misused ellipsis, and pointless cursing.
If you had checked the article in the Register you would notice that the wikipedia article is "firing back" by its existence, not by its content. The content was meant to be honest and helpful, not an argument with the Register. That allows wikipedia to look better without sinking to the Register's tactics.
Personally, I find it hilarious that there's a standard anarchy symbol....
The hilarity can be explained by the following reasons:
1. You have absolutely no clue what anarchy means in a political sense.
You are probably one of these people who imagine crazed lunatics running around with cartoon-style bombs when you think of anarchists. In fact, anarchy (as a political term) is defined quite simply: absence of authority. Generally, I would describe it as a system of living without government or the enforced hierarchy which accompanies such government. You may not think this is practical or reasonable (fine, I agree) but don't ignorantly define anarchy as "chaos". If anarchists simply wanted chaos, they would call their movement chaotics or something.
The ideal of anarchy is a system voluntarily accepted by all without forcing it's ideas on anyone. Society would operate by a system which no one person or group controls, but everyone agrees to. By standards everyone follows, with no need to enforce them. Metaphorically, the best symbol for anarchy would be one that all anarchists adopted, but was not dictated or owned by any one of them in particular. Thus, we find that the symbol is actually quite appropriate, contrary to your "hilarious" view of it.
Why is it "nice" to see that Microsoft is "recognizing the power of blogs"? Was the blogging world hurting before now due to lack of respect from Redmond? Were bloggers stinted by a lack of support from Microsoft? No, bloggers did just fine without showing up on Microsoft's radar, thank you.
marketing folks have reserved the right to change your license at any time, which means that your right to use the software __in your posession__ can be revoked at any time
So, we shouldn't use software that is currently free/limited because it might not be free in the future? Isn't that sort of like saying don't drive on Main Street today because it'll be under construction next week? I can see how this could affect a large company that depended on a library or app where it would be expensive to switch to a different setup. But, for me, I don't see any problem in using a free/limited product if I prefer it and can always change to the free/free one if need be.
Say, how about a new Nikon camera? Oh, wait, you can't use the white balance information unless you purchase more software from Nikon, and only from Nikon
Actually, no. Nikon makes the SDK available to anyone who signs up. You are restricted to using their SDK for converting RAW images, but you are able to use it for free. They are not selling the SDK. Please check your information before ranting. A cursory glance at a/. headline is a poor way to gather facts.
Simple really-- some programmers are lazy. They can't be bothered with optimizing their code for individual platforms... as soon as I find out something's written in Java I can immediately ignore it
Sorry, but that's a pretty ignorant attitude. Judging an application soley on being java-based is a poor method. Rather, you should ask if the developing language is appropriate for the task. If someone told me they wrote a graphically intense FPS in java I would be suspicious. But, if the app only needs to be light and portable java may be a good choice. It allows for very easy control of how the application looks on multiple operating systems. A good example of a nice-looking java app with no speed issues is Limewire. It runs quickly, works well and can be updated more efficiently than if they had used a graphical toolkit for python or C. Not that anything is wrong with chosing python or C either. It entirely depends on your application requirements and development resources. Brushing off all apps written for the JVM (or any development kit) will cause you to miss out on a good app sometime.
In 2003 the CEO of BellSouth made over $10 million in salary, bonuses, and stock. But, I'm sure he is only concerned with helping out those poor old people's retirement funds.
All the largest portions of stock are owned by company executives and wealthy investors. But, I'm sure the small time share-holders are a high priority.
In 2001 BellSouth executives released false information to artificially inflate the stock price and then cashed out before the stock plummeted. Surely that will help all those employees with 401(k) plans!
If you think corporate profits are boon to society I have some Enron stock to sell you.
What's with all the people commenting about Evil Dead who haven't actually seen it? NO! Ash's fight with his hand is in the second one. Go watch them. The first one is a very freshman effort, but lays the groundwork for Raimi's amusing style.
One technique that can be applied to many job interviews is to turn the situation around and make them try to sell the job to you. If you have a history of being let go by former employers stress that it's important that your next job be with a stable, successful company and ask pointed questions about the new company. Let them try to convince you that the new company is respectable and trustworthy. Then they'll feel like they've invested something in you by convincing you.
Slashdot Mirror
The IAU vote was narrow,
Really? Their notes from conference indicate that the resolution "was passed with a great majority.": https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau0603/
1. Nomenclature: An "adjective-noun" should always be a subset of "noun". A "dwarf planet" should be no less seen as a type of planet than a "dwarf star" is seen as a type of star by the IAU.
No. A dry lake is not a type of lake, for example. "adjective-noun" can mean "something in the category described by adjective but resembling the nouns". You can't make Pluto a planet by playing a cheap word game.
2. Erroneous foundation: Current research agrees that most planets did not clear their own neighborhoods
Nothing from the IAU's resolution indicates a purpose to consider the historical conditions. Your objection is semantic pedantry and can easily be fixed by wording the requirement as "has a cleared neighborhood". Also, yes Mars and Neptune vary in Stern-Levison values by 300x. That doesn't make the value unhelpful. And it doesn't change the fact that there's a gap of 10 orders of magnitude between any of the planets and the high Stern-Levison value of any dwarf planet (Pluto).
3. Comparative inconsistency: Earth is far more like Ceres and Pluto than it is like Jupiter, yet these very dissimilar groups - gas giants and terrestrial planets - are lumped together as "planets" while dwarfs are excluded.
Since was grouping of astronomical objects done by atmospheric similarity? That would be the worst rule yet.
4. Poor choice of dividing line: While defining objects inherently requires drawing lines between groups, the chosen line has been poorly selected. Achieving a rough hydrostatic equilibrium is a very meaningful dividing line - it means differentiation, mineralization processes, alteration of primordial materials, and so forth. It's also often associated with internal heat and, increasingly as we're realizing, a common association with subsurface fluids.
You are describing differentiation for a different purpose than the IAU's planet definition and then jumping to the claim that it is better. Your answer begs the question of what the purpose is for distinguishing a planet.
5. Mutability: Under the IA definition, what an object is declared as can be altered without any of the properties of the object changing simply by its "neighborhood" changing in any of countless ways.
Yes, we live in an evolving and mutating universe. Each of these planets came into existence at one point, so any definition involves some mutability unless you believe in a static, eternal universe.
6. Situational inconsistency: (Related) An exact copy of Earth (what the vast majority of people would consider the prototype for what a planet should be), identical down to all of the life on its surface, would not be considered a planet if orbiting in the habitable zone of a significantly larger star (harder to clear zone), or a young star (insufficient time to clear), a star without a Jupiter equivalent (no assistance in clearing), or so forth.
The definition is aimed at defining planets within our own solar system and not intended to be applied to exoplanets. You abuse this same limitation in another point below.
7. Ambiguous definition: There is still no consensus on what defines having "cleared the neighborhood" - in particular, what the "neighborhood" is.
While it's true that Resolution 5a didn't specify which discriminant to use, that doesn't make it ambiguous. There are multiple discriminants, and a common theme of all of them is that the 8 planets have disc
Good point. Another item is the above list should be:
- API servers which have become unacceptably slow
We think of Google as fast because google.com loads quickly. But most other google APIs (including auth, the list of links which show on the new tab, profile info, etc) are extremely slow. I've been recording them lately and I routinely see 1000 ms response times from google on queries as simple as fetching the profile pic.
This might obfuscate the meaning of the clicks, but what if it just encourages the ad sellers to claim even higher click-through rates as a selling point?
As someone who has worked at companies using ads, I can assure you that click-through rate is fully meaningless. Customer Lifetime Value per ad acquired user, or revenue per ad channel, or some similar meaningful metric will be used. Dead clicks will not give ad sellers any fuel for their cause.
From TFA
Wouldn't that be the opposite of what you just said?
I can see both sides of the issue here.
One on hand, this is an ugly example of DMCA abuse and goes against the wish of even the copy right owner.
One the other hand it's one less Prince recording on the internet.
I'm inclined to side with Prince here since the public welfare outweighs the individual IP.
But from what I understand, Anonymous' targets have been people who "offended" them in some way
/i/ "raid" activities against the site.
Anonymous attacking the "Church" of Scientology makes sense. Anonymous attacking random epileptics does not
I've gotta jump in here. There's a slew of slashdot posters defending Anonymous who are really ignorant of what's happened here.
Please look at the message boards being targetted. Gaiaonline.com. Go read the *chan message boards and read up on the longcat issue. Anonymous is pissed at Gaiaonline.com. They've attacked Gaia in other ways lately too. This is just one of many
I hate Scientology as much as the next guy, but lets not be naive here. This has been planned on the message boards used by Anonymous very thoroughly. Go start reading the chans and other places used by Anonymous. You'll see a bunch of directives and plenty of explanation as to why they are pissed.
Your analogy fails miserably, my dear AC. Private residences are legally quite distinct from other property. Your wireless signal as seen from outside your residence is merely a possession of yours at most. Even if we grant it full protection of your ownership (which is dubious already), that doesn't mean that it can't be 'accessed'.
I left my car unlocked at a repair shop once while I walked outside with my brother to discuss the situation (he was clearly being scammed). While I was gone they entered my vehicle and rummaged around. I found $20 missing and my insurance/registration documents. Naturally I called the police after returning home to report it. The office arrived, we went to the shop, he talked with the owner and retrieved my documents minus the bill. The officer then kindly returned those to me and bid me goodday. I asked whether I couldn't press charges for entering my vehicle. He shrugged it off saying that if my car had been locked, he could make a case. But being unlocked my car was a fair target for entry. Despite being my property, I didn't secure it and thus gave up protection from the law.
Same for wireless.
Er, which is it?
I came into this thread with 10 shiny new mod points hoping to find someone insightful, but found not a single comment in the entire thread worth promotion. What's happened to slashdot? A story on a hot subject, and I see nothing but off-topic trolls and insipid banter about deadly sins taken out of context from the description at the top of the page. Not a single comment on the actual article.
Anyway, the RIAA's attempt to dodge the charge of hypocrisy is equally lame. First the new deal gives ridiculous profit to SoundExchange (30% of gross). And even though they do have a 'plan' to share with artists (an inequitable one, albeit), the lack of expediency is directly adding to the profit of the RIAA through this process. The artists are clearly an afterthought. The RIAA can't come close to hiding their real motivation: profit for its members at all costs, regardless of artists rights/needs.
Responses like this entirely miss the point of the question. Same with the "just review your code" responses. It's not a matter of making the language more readable. It's a matter of making the code more usable. Certainly, correct spelling is pointless without other elements of good code practice. However, bad spelling can add a lot of frustration.
I joined a project which already had a few misspelled class names. I'm a fast typer and often I've typed out more of a filename than is spelled correctly before hitting tab to complete the name. Needless to say, I've been trained to hit tab earlier for a few choice files. But it's certainly been an irritation. Similarly, I've been confounded more than once when a function or variable couldn't be found by the compiler, only to realize that I'd spelled a word correctly rather than how the actual name was spelled.
We choose to use English words for our class, function, and variable names for a reason. That reason is mostly defeated by misspelling the English word. A dictionary is a great idea, even for coding languages that don't "read like English".
perl -e 'print "I demand equal rights NOW!\n"'
There, my computer just demanded equal rights. What difference does it make if it comes out of a more complicated set of code that results in the same thing?
Better luck next time,
-DSA
If you had checked the article in the Register you would notice that the wikipedia article is "firing back" by its existence, not by its content. The content was meant to be honest and helpful, not an argument with the Register. That allows wikipedia to look better without sinking to the Register's tactics.
Personally, I find it hilarious that there's a standard anarchy symbol....
The hilarity can be explained by the following reasons:
1. You have absolutely no clue what anarchy means in a political sense.
You are probably one of these people who imagine crazed lunatics running around with cartoon-style bombs when you think of anarchists. In fact, anarchy (as a political term) is defined quite simply: absence of authority. Generally, I would describe it as a system of living without government or the enforced hierarchy which accompanies such government. You may not think this is practical or reasonable (fine, I agree) but don't ignorantly define anarchy as "chaos". If anarchists simply wanted chaos, they would call their movement chaotics or something.
The ideal of anarchy is a system voluntarily accepted by all without forcing it's ideas on anyone. Society would operate by a system which no one person or group controls, but everyone agrees to. By standards everyone follows, with no need to enforce them. Metaphorically, the best symbol for anarchy would be one that all anarchists adopted, but was not dictated or owned by any one of them in particular. Thus, we find that the symbol is actually quite appropriate, contrary to your "hilarious" view of it.
Why is it "nice" to see that Microsoft is "recognizing the power of blogs"? Was the blogging world hurting before now due to lack of respect from Redmond? Were bloggers stinted by a lack of support from Microsoft? No, bloggers did just fine without showing up on Microsoft's radar, thank you.
Actually, no. Nikon makes the SDK available to anyone who signs up. You are restricted to using their SDK for converting RAW images, but you are able to use it for free. They are not selling the SDK. Please check your information before ranting. A cursory glance at a
Simple really-- some programmers are lazy. They can't be bothered with optimizing their code for individual platforms
Sorry, but that's a pretty ignorant attitude. Judging an application soley on being java-based is a poor method. Rather, you should ask if the developing language is appropriate for the task. If someone told me they wrote a graphically intense FPS in java I would be suspicious. But, if the app only needs to be light and portable java may be a good choice. It allows for very easy control of how the application looks on multiple operating systems. A good example of a nice-looking java app with no speed issues is Limewire. It runs quickly, works well and can be updated more efficiently than if they had used a graphical toolkit for python or C. Not that anything is wrong with chosing python or C either. It entirely depends on your application requirements and development resources. Brushing off all apps written for the JVM (or any development kit) will cause you to miss out on a good app sometime.
We already have it for phone numbers, so it shouldn't be too hard for e-mail right?
Yeah, and when I move to a new city I should be able to keep my old address right? Can't be too hard.
In 2003 the CEO of BellSouth made over $10 million in salary, bonuses, and stock. But, I'm sure he is only concerned with helping out those poor old people's retirement funds.
All the largest portions of stock are owned by company executives and wealthy investors. But, I'm sure the small time share-holders are a high priority.
In 2001 BellSouth executives released false information to artificially inflate the stock price and then cashed out before the stock plummeted. Surely that will help all those employees with 401(k) plans!
If you think corporate profits are boon to society I have some Enron stock to sell you.
Dude, you followed a link from an AC comment that doesn't mention the topic at all? Are you new here? or trying to get fired?
What's with all the people commenting about Evil Dead who haven't actually seen it? NO! Ash's fight with his hand is in the second one. Go watch them. The first one is a very freshman effort, but lays the groundwork for Raimi's amusing style.
Ah, another misguided Vepublican. When will you learn that the VOP is only helping out big business?
One technique that can be applied to many job interviews is to turn the situation around and make them try to sell the job to you. If you have a history of being let go by former employers stress that it's important that your next job be with a stable, successful company and ask pointed questions about the new company. Let them try to convince you that the new company is respectable and trustworthy. Then they'll feel like they've invested something in you by convincing you.
Steven Hawking is trying to start up a band.