Bioware has always used D&D for their Role-Playing games. There's nothing wrong with it. It allows them to use an already existing rule-base with tons of fans, and then spend most of their time developing good graphics and gameplay to make the title actually worth purchasing. Every other person/company who tries to do "something different" ends up with a crappy, half-baked plotline and mediocre gameplay. New and Inventive isn't really that easy, you know.
What I said is that a free democratic society is about letting the people themselves choose how to live their lives and not the rulers telling them how. Pornography, public nakedness and women's fashions are just issues that have to be dealt with.
According to the original poster, it's okay for a country's rulers to dictate how the people live, but not okay for us to tell the ruler's to let the people decide for themselves. Ironic, isn't it?
How the hell do we know what the people of a country "really" want if they don't have the ability to voice their opinions without fear of retribution?
Cut the crap and realize that a free democratic society is the better way to live. A country who's rulers force everyone to not watch porn is completely different from a country where the people themselves have decided to not allow porn through a majority opinion.
Did you get the name(s) of the person(people) you talked to on the phone? Did you talk to their supervisors? Did you call the better business bureau? Did you write a letter to upper management? Did you write a letter to the newspaper? Did you write a letter to the TV station? Did you write a letter to the techie journals?
When you were in the process of transferring, did you call them every day and ask why it hadn't been transferred yet? Did you ask them what the exact reasons were? Did you talk to that person's supervisor to get answers? Did you talk to his/her supervisor to get more answers?
What were all the specifics of your "attempt" to transfer?
Hmmm... What's this thingy here? Looks kinda technical! It's got this cord running from what looks like a weirdly shaped banana to this other thingy here with a bunch of numbers on it...
Hmmm, I wonder if I pick up this banana thing and hold it up to my ear? Whoa, that's a weird sound. Whoever came up with that stuff must have been high.
Let's see here, I'll just punch a bunch of these buttons randomly... 1...8...0...0...7...7...9...1...7...1...0
"Hello, you've reached the offices of Verisign. How may I assist you today?"
Yeah, but here's the thing. We are no way NEAR the type of oppressive government that we fought against in the previous world wars. NO where NEAR. So, let them take a slice of the information out there. We'll see what happens. If they try and take more and more and more, and you start to see large groups of people actually AFFECTED by the removal of information, then it goes to a democratic vote and the needs of the country will be decided.
I understand the cries of tyranny and oppression, but you people don't even understand the idea of it. The United States lives in the most open society in the world, with millions of freedoms for each individual. The blueprints of some random nuclear facility are not going to change anyone's life.
If things DO start to affect people's everyday lives, then you'll see the public backlash, and that's beautiful. Because THAT, my friend, is democracy at work. So, I say, let them take the information. You don't need it anyway. But keep your eyes and your ears open and keep watch on your government. Your liberties aren't taken away yet and I doubt they ever will be. We haven't quite gotten to the state of Franklin's quote.
Since you're coding this thing in C++, then you have a prime opportunity to use generic programming techniques like abstraction, encapsulation and template program to hide all platform specific code.
For instance, rather than coding using the native windowing system, wrap and generalize the window functionality in such a way that you can code your client code using a generic object. You might have objects such as:
class generic_window
contains class generic_window_impl pointer
class win32_window : public generic_window_impl
class xwin_window : public generic_window_impl
The client would create an instance of generic_window, which would set it's member implementation object to the correct native window manager based on what platform you were on. Then you can generalize the callback functions, by providing a callback_register() function in the generic_window class that takes a generic_callback class as it's parameter. The generic callback would be a "functor" object that gets called by the native window object when it receives a native window message.
Basically, just create your own generic libraries! But if you're a good c++ programmer, then you already know this.
Otherwise, definitely use STL for all your data containers and searching algorithms. Use the Boost library (www.boost.org) for other useful generic classes and algorithms.
I don't think 6 months is enough to make a completely generic product, but if you constantly remind yourself to program generically, even if you're only providing windows functionality at first, your porting efforts will be MUCH easier a year from now. Encapsulate ALL platform specific code.
The major myth about down markets is that there are no jobs out there. Everyone's getting laid off and no one's getting hired, right? Actually, there are MANY jobs out there, but it's usually the privately held companies that are in need of people more than the publicly held companies.
Just think about it. When the market is up, everyone wants a job at a publicly traded company so they can get in on the stock options. But in the down economy, those same publicly traded companies are trying to save their stock prices by cutting costs, which includes cutting personnel.
So, we know the jobs are out there, but how can we get them?
1) Don't ever rely on your own personal website. No one looks at it except your friends.
2) Online job sites are really only used by headhunters. Only once in a blue moon is there an individual company that posts a job offer there. So, if you want to use a headhunter, use an online job site. But, be forewarned: in a down economy, companies are not going to want to pay the extra headhunter's fees when they already have applications being sent directly to them.
3) Ads in the newspaper are better than online job searches. It's amazing, its preposterous, but still the large majority of HR people will use the local newspaper to find applicants, rather than going online. The thinking is that they're more likely to find someone local to their company, plus most HR people just aren't as interested in computers as we are.
4) To really, really get a job in the down economy, your best bet is your friends, your family, your schoolmates, your past coworkers - your network. Networking is going to be your lifesaver in finding a job nowadays. Most companies who are hiring now are looking for trusted people. They can't afford to take on unkowns who may leave in 3-4 months, wasting their time and money. So, they'll turn to their employees, their friends and their families to find people. And because of that, your best bet for finding a job is seeking out everyone you know on earth and checking in to see if they know anything about any openings. It's the one true way to really get yourself noticed and in the position you need. So, brush up the resume, but really brush up the people skills and work on your contacts. Good luck!
No, you completely misunderstood me. I did NOT say that there is NO absolute truth. I said that human beings cannot in any possible way MEASURE absolute truth. There is no absolute truth according to human thought. There may well be an absolute truth, but we have no way of finding it. We can make good guesses though, which is why in most of the world killing another human being is considered wrong. You are right that we don't live in a moral vaccuum. But we also do not live in a world with absolute moral truths.
The problem with religion is not the existence of "false religions." Rather it is a problem with the human stubborness in believing only one religion is correct.
No where did I state that moral relativism is okay. I want an absolute truth as much as the next person, but human beings are imperfect, and can therefore never live according to an absolute truth. We have been given the gift of free will, but with gift comes a downside as well: uneducation, misunderstanding, stubborness, etc.
What one person calls an "absolute truth" can be far above or far below what another person calls an "absolute truth" and therefore, we end up only have "relative truths."
There is absolutely no viable way for human beings to measure "truth" to the absolute power. It's just not possible. The only thing that can come even close is religion, and you see where that's gotten us...
Excellent work on this. It's a wonder that the a fully preemptive kernel wasn't introduced a long time ago, but I guess it depends on what your view of the purpose of Linux is.
1. Is it a server OS, built to handle a large amount of processing and get it done as fast as possible
or
2. Is it a workstation OS, built with from a user's perspective, with responsiveness and ease of frustration as the most important elements.
If you look at it this way, I guess it is easy to see why the preemptive kernel wasn't brought in before now, because up until only recently, Linux really was thought of as a server OS. But now that it's trying to become more user friendly to the general populace to more easily spread its love, #2 starts eclipsing #1 for attention.
It is a good thing that they are making it a sysem option, because then you can choose which mode is more important for YOU.
Well, then why the hell do you care? It comes down to this: If it sounds good to YOU on your sound system, then that's the one you should pick. If you can't tell, then obviously it doesn't really matter. Why re-rip all your CDs to the other encoding scheme if you don't hear a difference? Asking other people what's better really doesn't matter in this instance. It's what YOU think.
Wow, it's amazing the amount of egotism that you find in the online messageboard world, as if everyone thinks that they know all the answers to life. And of course, it's amazing that assholes like me spend time trying to goad people into showing it with fabricated feelings and thoughts...
I will have to do this more often. I love seeing the/. show-offs strut their "stuff" for the rest of the readers to see. Quite entertaining! The second best thing to shouting "Microsoft is Awesome!"
Thanks for the apology. You actually surprised me there, as your original comment didn't show that much humanity, but it appears you have a better sense of how to tell other people the best way to live their lives. I guess the weapon making to destroy my small mind was only a facade.
By the way, I don't walk around every day fearing for my life. Neither do I think the "kooky" programming languages are a complete waste of time. I understand creativity and personal solace more than you can even imagine, but thanks for your assumption-based advice anyway. The only fear I have in the world is that human beings have become increasingly more interested in their own personal accomplishments and ideas over the accomplishments of our race and society. Your post helped reinforce that fear. Thanks.
small-minded? wow, that's brilliant. Thanks. You don't even know me and yet you have the gall to call me names, when all I'm saying is that there's a lot of shit to take care of in this world, and I figured there's a bunch of smart people here who have skills and talents that can help make this world better and I though that maybe it's more worth their time to put their talents to use in a productive manner, but instead, I get jumped on by a bunch of crackpots who think it's funny to trounce on another fellow human being to make themselves look better.
Well, listen here bitch, my city just got completely blasted a month ago. I walk around every day now wondering if I'm gonna blow up in a nuclear fireball by some crazy idiot human being who doesn't value the meaning of life and all I'm asking is for talented and smart people to help out a little bit. And I don't mean by building bombs to blast away each other. I mean by thinking and creating in a productive manner that's will help enlighten our race and make this a better world to live in.
So, if you want to call me small-minded, go right ahead, but I wonder if you wouldn't mind taking back that comment and showing a little decency to a fellow traveller in this crazy thing called life. You know, some things are just too important to take for granted, and one of those is respect for others. Thanks a lot for making my fucking day.
I'm just trying to figure out why, with all the serious and meaningful work still to do in our world - things that will really have a strong impact on our lives - that people with this kind of talent waste it on dumb-ass kooky stuff? I mean, it's cute and all, but why not help create a better world with your smarts, rather than wasting time?
If this is what has to happen to make sure our youth aren't corrupted by stupid-ass music, I'm all for it. Praise to the record companies for making it harder to listen to Boy Band crap!
You should first make sure you have a good definition of what working in a team means in the workforce. YES, you have people around you who are all working on the same project you are, but in reality, you have your own code that you're in charge of and your own timeline that you have to keep. So, it's not like you don't have to pull your own weight in the "real" world.
Having individual projects in college really helps you find your own strengths and weaknesses and helps you develop good work habits that are yours and yours alone. This should be what the majority of work you do at college is about.
But, you should also have the chance to work in a team in 2 or 3 classes so that you can get a feel for how your individual talents will play out in a team environment. Perhaps your school needed to add a few more classes like these, or they did have them and you just needed to sign up for the specific classes that offered this type of work environment.
There needs to be a good balance, but having gone to a large University where we had both team and individual projects, I would say that your college experience should stress the individual part first and foremost and then add in team-based development every so often.
If you need extra work on your teamwork skills, join some student groups and work on them that way. That will also get you interfacing with people outside the CS department, which will also come in handy in the work world as well.
There is a difference between a leading scientist spouting rhetoric about a technology and a leading scientist who has working prototypes of a technology.
Cut the crap and realize that this isn't vaporware anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
How about just waiting until you get in the car to start the fucking engine? Was the extra 2.4 seconds really worth it to you?
Bioware has always used D&D for their Role-Playing games. There's nothing wrong with it. It allows them to use an already existing rule-base with tons of fans, and then spend most of their time developing good graphics and gameplay to make the title actually worth purchasing. Every other person/company who tries to do "something different" ends up with a crappy, half-baked plotline and mediocre gameplay. New and Inventive isn't really that easy, you know.
Thank you for agreeing that a democratic society is a better way to live. You have passed judgement on their belief system in a satisfactory way.
You need to read my post a little more closely.
What I said is that a free democratic society is about letting the people themselves choose how to live their lives and not the rulers telling them how. Pornography, public nakedness and women's fashions are just issues that have to be dealt with.
According to the original poster, it's okay for a country's rulers to dictate how the people live, but not okay for us to tell the ruler's to let the people decide for themselves. Ironic, isn't it?
Get a clue.
Look at this moral relativist bull-crap.
How the hell do we know what the people of a country "really" want if they don't have the ability to voice their opinions without fear of retribution?
Cut the crap and realize that a free democratic society is the better way to live. A country who's rulers force everyone to not watch porn is completely different from a country where the people themselves have decided to not allow porn through a majority opinion.
I'm not in power and I worry about anarchy.
Did you get the name(s) of the person(people) you talked to on the phone? Did you talk to their supervisors? Did you call the better business bureau? Did you write a letter to upper management? Did you write a letter to the newspaper? Did you write a letter to the TV station? Did you write a letter to the techie journals?
When you were in the process of transferring, did you call them every day and ask why it hadn't been transferred yet? Did you ask them what the exact reasons were? Did you talk to that person's supervisor to get answers? Did you talk to his/her supervisor to get more answers?
What were all the specifics of your "attempt" to transfer?
Hmmm... What's this thingy here? Looks kinda technical! It's got this cord running from what looks like a weirdly shaped banana to this other thingy here with a bunch of numbers on it...
Hmmm, I wonder if I pick up this banana thing and hold it up to my ear? Whoa, that's a weird sound. Whoever came up with that stuff must have been high.
Let's see here, I'll just punch a bunch of these buttons randomly... 1...8...0...0...7...7...9...1...7...1...0
"Hello, you've reached the offices of Verisign. How may I assist you today?"
Yeah, but here's the thing. We are no way NEAR the type of oppressive government that we fought against in the previous world wars. NO where NEAR. So, let them take a slice of the information out there. We'll see what happens. If they try and take more and more and more, and you start to see large groups of people actually AFFECTED by the removal of information, then it goes to a democratic vote and the needs of the country will be decided.
I understand the cries of tyranny and oppression, but you people don't even understand the idea of it. The United States lives in the most open society in the world, with millions of freedoms for each individual. The blueprints of some random nuclear facility are not going to change anyone's life.
If things DO start to affect people's everyday lives, then you'll see the public backlash, and that's beautiful. Because THAT, my friend, is democracy at work. So, I say, let them take the information. You don't need it anyway. But keep your eyes and your ears open and keep watch on your government. Your liberties aren't taken away yet and I doubt they ever will be. We haven't quite gotten to the state of Franklin's quote.
Since you're coding this thing in C++, then you have a prime opportunity to use generic programming techniques like abstraction, encapsulation and template program to hide all platform specific code.
For instance, rather than coding using the native windowing system, wrap and generalize the window functionality in such a way that you can code your client code using a generic object. You might have objects such as:
class generic_window
contains class generic_window_impl pointer
class win32_window : public generic_window_impl
class xwin_window : public generic_window_impl
The client would create an instance of generic_window, which would set it's member implementation object to the correct native window manager based on what platform you were on. Then you can generalize the callback functions, by providing a callback_register() function in the generic_window class that takes a generic_callback class as it's parameter. The generic callback would be a "functor" object that gets called by the native window object when it receives a native window message.
Basically, just create your own generic libraries! But if you're a good c++ programmer, then you already know this.
Otherwise, definitely use STL for all your data containers and searching algorithms. Use the Boost library (www.boost.org) for other useful generic classes and algorithms.
I don't think 6 months is enough to make a completely generic product, but if you constantly remind yourself to program generically, even if you're only providing windows functionality at first, your porting efforts will be MUCH easier a year from now. Encapsulate ALL platform specific code.
The major myth about down markets is that there are no jobs out there. Everyone's getting laid off and no one's getting hired, right? Actually, there are MANY jobs out there, but it's usually the privately held companies that are in need of people more than the publicly held companies.
Just think about it. When the market is up, everyone wants a job at a publicly traded company so they can get in on the stock options. But in the down economy, those same publicly traded companies are trying to save their stock prices by cutting costs, which includes cutting personnel.
So, we know the jobs are out there, but how can we get them?
1) Don't ever rely on your own personal website. No one looks at it except your friends.
2) Online job sites are really only used by headhunters. Only once in a blue moon is there an individual company that posts a job offer there. So, if you want to use a headhunter, use an online job site. But, be forewarned: in a down economy, companies are not going to want to pay the extra headhunter's fees when they already have applications being sent directly to them.
3) Ads in the newspaper are better than online job searches. It's amazing, its preposterous, but still the large majority of HR people will use the local newspaper to find applicants, rather than going online. The thinking is that they're more likely to find someone local to their company, plus most HR people just aren't as interested in computers as we are.
4) To really, really get a job in the down economy, your best bet is your friends, your family, your schoolmates, your past coworkers - your network. Networking is going to be your lifesaver in finding a job nowadays. Most companies who are hiring now are looking for trusted people. They can't afford to take on unkowns who may leave in 3-4 months, wasting their time and money. So, they'll turn to their employees, their friends and their families to find people. And because of that, your best bet for finding a job is seeking out everyone you know on earth and checking in to see if they know anything about any openings. It's the one true way to really get yourself noticed and in the position you need. So, brush up the resume, but really brush up the people skills and work on your contacts. Good luck!
No, you completely misunderstood me. I did NOT say that there is NO absolute truth. I said that human beings cannot in any possible way MEASURE absolute truth. There is no absolute truth according to human thought. There may well be an absolute truth, but we have no way of finding it. We can make good guesses though, which is why in most of the world killing another human being is considered wrong. You are right that we don't live in a moral vaccuum. But we also do not live in a world with absolute moral truths.
The problem with religion is not the existence of "false religions." Rather it is a problem with the human stubborness in believing only one religion is correct.
No where did I state that moral relativism is okay. I want an absolute truth as much as the next person, but human beings are imperfect, and can therefore never live according to an absolute truth. We have been given the gift of free will, but with gift comes a downside as well: uneducation, misunderstanding, stubborness, etc.
Sorry bud, but it's not as easy as that.
What one person calls an "absolute truth" can be far above or far below what another person calls an "absolute truth" and therefore, we end up only have "relative truths."
There is absolutely no viable way for human beings to measure "truth" to the absolute power. It's just not possible. The only thing that can come even close is religion, and you see where that's gotten us...
Raytheon TDU-850 Printer Driver for Windows
Sweet, I'd been waiting for that one for a long time...
Excellent work on this. It's a wonder that the a fully preemptive kernel wasn't introduced a long time ago, but I guess it depends on what your view of the purpose of Linux is.
1. Is it a server OS, built to handle a large amount of processing and get it done as fast as possible
or
2. Is it a workstation OS, built with from a user's perspective, with responsiveness and ease of frustration as the most important elements.
If you look at it this way, I guess it is easy to see why the preemptive kernel wasn't brought in before now, because up until only recently, Linux really was thought of as a server OS. But now that it's trying to become more user friendly to the general populace to more easily spread its love, #2 starts eclipsing #1 for attention.
It is a good thing that they are making it a sysem option, because then you can choose which mode is more important for YOU.
i-can't-really-tell
Well, then why the hell do you care? It comes down to this: If it sounds good to YOU on your sound system, then that's the one you should pick. If you can't tell, then obviously it doesn't really matter. Why re-rip all your CDs to the other encoding scheme if you don't hear a difference? Asking other people what's better really doesn't matter in this instance. It's what YOU think.
Wow, it's amazing the amount of egotism that you find in the online messageboard world, as if everyone thinks that they know all the answers to life. And of course, it's amazing that assholes like me spend time trying to goad people into showing it with fabricated feelings and thoughts...
/. show-offs strut their "stuff" for the rest of the readers to see. Quite entertaining! The second best thing to shouting "Microsoft is Awesome!"
I will have to do this more often. I love seeing the
Thanks for the apology. You actually surprised me there, as your original comment didn't show that much humanity, but it appears you have a better sense of how to tell other people the best way to live their lives. I guess the weapon making to destroy my small mind was only a facade.
By the way, I don't walk around every day fearing for my life. Neither do I think the "kooky" programming languages are a complete waste of time. I understand creativity and personal solace more than you can even imagine, but thanks for your assumption-based advice anyway. The only fear I have in the world is that human beings have become increasingly more interested in their own personal accomplishments and ideas over the accomplishments of our race and society. Your post helped reinforce that fear. Thanks.
small-minded? wow, that's brilliant. Thanks. You don't even know me and yet you have the gall to call me names, when all I'm saying is that there's a lot of shit to take care of in this world, and I figured there's a bunch of smart people here who have skills and talents that can help make this world better and I though that maybe it's more worth their time to put their talents to use in a productive manner, but instead, I get jumped on by a bunch of crackpots who think it's funny to trounce on another fellow human being to make themselves look better.
Well, listen here bitch, my city just got completely blasted a month ago. I walk around every day now wondering if I'm gonna blow up in a nuclear fireball by some crazy idiot human being who doesn't value the meaning of life and all I'm asking is for talented and smart people to help out a little bit. And I don't mean by building bombs to blast away each other. I mean by thinking and creating in a productive manner that's will help enlighten our race and make this a better world to live in.
So, if you want to call me small-minded, go right ahead, but I wonder if you wouldn't mind taking back that comment and showing a little decency to a fellow traveller in this crazy thing called life. You know, some things are just too important to take for granted, and one of those is respect for others. Thanks a lot for making my fucking day.
I'm just trying to figure out why, with all the serious and meaningful work still to do in our world - things that will really have a strong impact on our lives - that people with this kind of talent waste it on dumb-ass kooky stuff? I mean, it's cute and all, but why not help create a better world with your smarts, rather than wasting time?
Ms. Landers, you comments please?
This is going to prove a problem for all those "index-finger" typers out there.
( wh ere's that damn '~'?)....click...
click...click...click...click...click..........
Good one. Nice.
If this is what has to happen to make sure our youth aren't corrupted by stupid-ass music, I'm all for it. Praise to the record companies for making it harder to listen to Boy Band crap!
You should first make sure you have a good definition of what working in a team means in the workforce. YES, you have people around you who are all working on the same project you are, but in reality, you have your own code that you're in charge of and your own timeline that you have to keep. So, it's not like you don't have to pull your own weight in the "real" world.
Having individual projects in college really helps you find your own strengths and weaknesses and helps you develop good work habits that are yours and yours alone. This should be what the majority of work you do at college is about.
But, you should also have the chance to work in a team in 2 or 3 classes so that you can get a feel for how your individual talents will play out in a team environment. Perhaps your school needed to add a few more classes like these, or they did have them and you just needed to sign up for the specific classes that offered this type of work environment.
There needs to be a good balance, but having gone to a large University where we had both team and individual projects, I would say that your college experience should stress the individual part first and foremost and then add in team-based development every so often.
If you need extra work on your teamwork skills, join some student groups and work on them that way. That will also get you interfacing with people outside the CS department, which will also come in handy in the work world as well.
Good luck!
There is a difference between a leading scientist spouting rhetoric about a technology and a leading scientist who has working prototypes of a technology.
Cut the crap and realize that this isn't vaporware anymore.
Science is just a bunch of beliefs, as all religions are...
They both contain beliefs, but religions are based on faith, while science is based on observation. Very big difference.