... where as Spielburg's version will be drastically modified to a more modern version...
Hasn't that been done by Emmerich already? If you take a look at the plot of ID4:
- Aliens attack earth
- Their weapons are far superior
- Our weapons cannot hurt them really
- A virus kills them
It has a very close resemblence to the book War of the Worlds, the difference is that it is set in modern times.
That is not entirely true. If a company buys goods for its own use, it has to pay VAT. Only if the goods are intended for resale no VAT has to be paid or the paid VAT can be reclaimed. That way the VAT is only paid once, by the person/entity that uses the product.
The system is not THAT difficult. As a company, you sum up the VAT included in everything you buy(called Vorsteuer in German) and the VAT for everything you sell(Umsatzsteuer). The difference between the two is then paid as taxes (at the 15. of every 3rd month, at least here in Austria).
It will only improve speech recognition, to make it faster and less power consuming. Converting human speech to text is already possible with very few mistakes. A high-end consumer PC has the power to do that already.
For the chip to understand "Pull up the name of employee number 12345" it would need some very strong AI. It would need a conceptual model of the world or at least of the area in question to allow arbitrary syntax for its queries. That is far beyond our current level of AI and computing power, even if you use a cluster of supercomputers. To see such intelligence on a single, efficient chip will take several decades of research in the areas of AI and minaturization.
Am I the only one or does the registration process abort with an error when submitting the second form?
Last year the same thing happened. Either they don't like me or my browser/OS combination is to blame.
Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616
I tried the support of TopCoder last year, they were just incompetent jerks. Maybe this year they will be able to help me.
I use my iPaq PocketPC just for that. It is my gaming device (GameBoy, NES, SuperNES emulator), portable music player, ebook reader, portable storage solution and Addressbook/Calender. Oh, and I can surf the net from everywhere (via my cellphone) and send/recieve mails.
Most important: it is my universal interface.
USB, IRDA, serial, Bluetooth, CF-, SD- and PCMCIA-cards (via jacket) and it has speakers and microphone.
So, I'd say that a PocketPC is the Swiss Army Knife for the geek, but YMMV...
He mixes up cause and effect, as usual.
It would be the same to say: "People who use a PC are better software developers", because you compared the quality of things they coded.
All that result shows is, that people with better writing skills buy Macs. This may be because people doing artistic stuff are usually doing it on a Mac (God knows why). And artistic talent often implies writing skills, too.
OTOH developers often use PCs, because there are better tools/development environments available (with OS X that may have changed).
Or maybe this is all utter nonsense and only a flamebait. Well, my post fits in nicely, then;-).
Although I think the article has a point, I do not agree with always comparing a modern computer with a car, a TV-set or a camera. Computers are capable of so much more, and that makes it diffcult to do a certain thing easily.
The author is right when he says, that sometimes it is too difficult. But software engineering is a quite young discipline. Give us a few more decades, and software will be easy to use like a toaster. *g*
VS6 was excellent, yes.
But since the.NET series started, VS really sucks. At least for the non-managed-code, non-.NET c++-developer (as I am).
The debugger tends to get worthless with any project/solution more complex than the average "hello world!" program. The UI has lots of bugs(The "Watch" windows do not open sometimes when debugging, does anybody else experience that?). Having 2 instances of VS.NET open makes both instable.
Somehow I get the feeling, they are trying to force everybody to use C# and.NET by making VS unusable for all other purposes.
Another problem is their update policy. With VS6, there were service packs and pathches available, with.NET you have to buy a newer version.
No free updates/bugfixes any more. At least none I could find on their homepage.
Re:Being from Austria is nothing to brag about....
on
Our Friend, The Meter
·
· Score: 1
I do not disagree with you. At least not completely.
But our neutrality works a little bit different then you described. The basic idea was, that we do not participate in wars, do not join a military alliance (like NATO) and do not allow foreign military bases on our soil. Nevertheless the Allied signed a treaty that they would have protected us in case of an attack.
Of course, a country of our size would have been overrun before anyone could help us, but that is another story altogether.
As for the annexion in 1938: It is a little more complicated then that. Parts of our population welcomed it, and the others were to scared to do something about the Nazis (as the German people themselves). And after our big defeat in WW I, we had not the slightest chance to defend ourselves against Germany.
My point was, that Lord Kano was wrong in saying, that there are no places where all "these things" exist (see his post for what I mean).
And I wanted to say, that the whole EU has most of that "features". And it is *slightly* larger than LA County.
Oh and yes, living in Austria IS great, no matter what. I do not have to worry if I can pay the doctor/hospital to fix me up, I get the best treatment without paying a cent. For example.
Regarding your protection (assuming you are from the US): Thanks, but it brought the world to the brink of nuclear war a couple of times and created a terrible world order. And what your country has been doing in recent times, needs no further commentary (Iraq, Afgahnistan, Southern America, War on Drugs, War on Terror,...).
BUT: Lets just agree, that the whole (western?) world is quite f*cked up right now and no country is on the right track, shall we? Maybe we should stop flaming around and trying to fix it.
Well, not to brag or so, but I am from Austria, and we have most of that list. We do have slight problems with racism(not nearly as big as in the US) and police restrictions. But thats about all. Other countries in Europe are quite similar in that regard.
To pay for all that, we have higher taxes, yes, but it is worth it. It is quite nice to live here. Clean water, healthy environment, good food, free education for everyone, you can walk through the worst part of Vienna(has 2 million inhabitants) at 3 in the morning and not be in any danger.
The problem is, some of our leaders are blindly following everything the US does, so the situation slowly is getting worse.
But that will change soon, I hope...
Only if you sell new books, you have to stick to the fixed prices. And that is what we call "Buchpreisbindung". It guarantees the same price for a book in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and it has good reasons.
Basically, if you let resellers set the price, rarely bought books will cost much more, and only the few bestsellers will be cheap.
This ensures that everyone is able to read books he or she likes, and not only what the masses dictate. Also it allows a publisher to try out something new, without so much risk.
I just took a look at the specs and found the "refactoring"-features:
- Rename
- Extract Method
- Encapsulate Field
- Convert Local to Field
- Convert Global to Field Instance
- Convert Static Method to Instance Method
- Move Static Field
- Move Method
- Replace Literal with Constant
- Create Standard Methods
It does not seem overly complicated to me, to implement these.
Most of the features are simple search and replace operations. Just add some knowledge the compiler would have to the editor and it becomes quite easy to do.
Yes, but getting them wealthy will not work without the "environmental pooch".
The ecosystem of earth is able to sustain about 4 billion people indefinitely. Right now, we are using 150% of the resources we have.
Its like using more of your savings than you get in interest. It will work for a time, but not forever.
Calculations of the UN show that world population will stagnate somewhere around 14 billion (or was it 9? ) in the second half of this century, so we are way beyond our limits.
Now we can either reduce our population size or find ways to augment the ecosystem in order to sustain our actual number.
Only a huge leap in technology and mindset could accomplish that. And space exploration is something that may be able to inspire enough people to make that leap happen.
To explore and extend our knowledge (and posessions) is the very basic nature of humanity, which we cannot fight, so lets use it to undo the mistakes it caused. The solar system is huge(from our point of view) and very rich in materials and energy, ready to be taken. To use them is the best way to protect earth in the long run and make it a nicer place again.
The ISS is, technically, international since two nations are doing most of it, but what if there were a dozen nations as deeply involved, or a hundred?
Actually, there are 16 Nations participating, so this qualifies for "a dozen", doesnt't it?
Besides that, you are right. The ISS is just a prototype. Talking about its qualities as research lab was just a way to show the investors (taxpayers) some justification for the expense. It was needed to quiet down all those "we have more pressing problems as to catapult stuff into space"-people. Of course science is a goal, but to think those discoveries will earn back the money invested in a way directly measurable, is absurd.
In the long term there are 2 solutions for mankind:
1. Find a way to stop population growth and base our whole society on resources available in unlimited amounts. Live in equilibrium with our environment. As our economy does only work if it can grow steady (about 2% are ideal) this would be a fundamental change.
2. Do what we did for millenea now: Go out there and expand.
As #1 is not very likely to happen, the question is not whether we can afford to venture into space, but if we can afford not to.
If we do neither, we(as in humanity) will vanish inevitably.
The ISS is just a stepping stone, yes, but as training ground for space engineering, not space expeditions.
We have thought after Arnie becoming governor in California you Americans would know Austria, at least a little.
Reading a word until it ends, really really difficult...
"Take a closer look at the Longhorn build-once, deploy n-times application model."
Sure. THAT is new.
They made it possible to copy some of your files/settings to other machines...
The interesting part in that quote is the n in "n-times". Sounds like some new DRM for developers. Next time you want to distribute your just finished application it says: "Sorry, you are only allowed to ship this product to n users. With your Visual Studio license, n is limited to 5. Have a nice day!"
The big problems with non-IE-browsers are their lack of XSLT-support.
That may not be important for day-to-day websurfing, but if you use the browser as part of an application, that effectively becomes a show-stopper. Especially in corporate environments, where XML usage is much more common than in home computing.
And that may be the reason too, why iTunes must use IE. iTunes may need it to display XML-documents and use some more sophisticated parts of the XML-standard.
In terms of making it easy to integrate the browser in your application IE is years ahead of the others. That also may be a reason why IE has that many security holes. The fact, that you can use IE for surfing the web, is just a nice byproduct for Microsoft. Mozilla, on the other hand, has been developed mainly for that purpose.
As long as you can listen to the music, you can also redirect it to the optical out of your sound card. You connect tho opt-out with opt-in, and set your favourite recording application to listen to opt-in.
I have used optical to transfer music to minidiscs. Back then there were no USB-pluggable minidisc-players. But mine had optical in/out and so recording was possible (and near loss-less). The only problem is the speed, which is always 1x. But if you are converting your collection of DRM'd music, you can stream all songs in one playlist through. In one or two weeks you could get through...
You see, every body works different. Although the western medicine wants to make us believe we are all equal, that is simply not true.
I do not want to say medicine is wrong. They have lots of really cool results. But metabolism works little bit different in each of us. I am quite sure there is more than one stable state in which our body chemistry is working fine. Find out how your body reacts to different influences and act correspondingly. Surely, that sounds not very easy. But that is the thing you should have been doing the first 20 years on that planet: exploring your body and mind to find out what you like and need.
I found that out about half a year ago, as I got problems with digestion. I went to some doctors and even to a hospital, but they couldn't find the reason. While I got sick more and more, nausious each morning, they couldn't do anything about it. And, here in Austria, we have really good healthcare and the best doctors available.
Stop fighting about low-fat vs. low-carbs diet. Balance things out. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Eat less, but more often. Drink lots of water. Do not hesitate to eat the occasional chocolate or fast food. Not only your body needs to stay healthy, but your mind and soul, too. If you do not sin every now and then, there comes something up we call "Fressflash" (German). You know that urgent feeling to stuff things to eat into yourself. Mostly junkfood.
Start doing something. The daily walk home/to work is a good beginning. Start swimming or biking. You will begin to feel better after a few days.
Do not start to run, if you're overweight and/or undertrained! It will ruin your knees (happened to me, at least). Start with it, when you are trained enough, the stronger muscles will help your knees then. To avoid injury, consult a professional trainer. He can give you simple hints to improve your training and make it safe. You do not want to got to a fitness-center or buy expensive things? Use your own bodyweight to train! Everything that makes your muscles feel tired is good.
But most important: Start listening to the things your body tells you. Maybe you never learned to interpret its signals right?
Slashdot Mirror
... where as Spielburg's version will be drastically modified to a more modern version ...
Hasn't that been done by Emmerich already? If you take a look at the plot of ID4:
- Aliens attack earth
- Their weapons are far superior
- Our weapons cannot hurt them really
- A virus kills them
It has a very close resemblence to the book War of the Worlds, the difference is that it is set in modern times.
Inter-company trade does not have to pay VAT.
That is not entirely true. If a company buys goods for its own use, it has to pay VAT. Only if the goods are intended for resale no VAT has to be paid or the paid VAT can be reclaimed. That way the VAT is only paid once, by the person/entity that uses the product.
The system is not THAT difficult. As a company, you sum up the VAT included in everything you buy(called Vorsteuer in German) and the VAT for everything you sell(Umsatzsteuer). The difference between the two is then paid as taxes (at the 15. of every 3rd month, at least here in Austria).
It will only improve speech recognition, to make it faster and less power consuming.
Converting human speech to text is already possible with very few mistakes. A high-end consumer PC has the power to do that already.
For the chip to understand "Pull up the name of employee number 12345" it would need some very strong AI. It would need a conceptual model of the world or at least of the area in question to allow arbitrary syntax for its queries. That is far beyond our current level of AI and computing power, even if you use a cluster of supercomputers. To see such intelligence on a single, efficient chip will take several decades of research in the areas of AI and minaturization.
Am I the only one or does the registration process abort with an error when submitting the second form?
Last year the same thing happened. Either they don't like me or my browser/OS combination is to blame.
Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616
I tried the support of TopCoder last year, they were just incompetent jerks. Maybe this year they will be able to help me.
I use my iPaq PocketPC just for that. It is my gaming device (GameBoy, NES, SuperNES emulator), portable music player, ebook reader, portable storage solution and Addressbook/Calender. Oh, and I can surf the net from everywhere (via my cellphone) and send/recieve mails.
Most important: it is my universal interface.
USB, IRDA, serial, Bluetooth, CF-, SD- and PCMCIA-cards (via jacket) and it has speakers and microphone.
So, I'd say that a PocketPC is the Swiss Army Knife for the geek, but YMMV...
Well, there goes his account....
Take a look at his journal.
*g*
I personally always liked ERD diagrams and LCD displays...
He mixes up cause and effect, as usual. It would be the same to say: "People who use a PC are better software developers", because you compared the quality of things they coded.
;-).
All that result shows is, that people with better writing skills buy Macs. This may be because people doing artistic stuff are usually doing it on a Mac (God knows why). And artistic talent often implies writing skills, too.
OTOH developers often use PCs, because there are better tools/development environments available (with OS X that may have changed).
Or maybe this is all utter nonsense and only a flamebait. Well, my post fits in nicely, then
Although I think the article has a point, I do not agree with always comparing a modern computer with a car, a TV-set or a camera. Computers are capable of so much more, and that makes it diffcult to do a certain thing easily.
The author is right when he says, that sometimes it is too difficult. But software engineering is a quite young discipline. Give us a few more decades, and software will be easy to use like a toaster. *g*
Ever tried Mensa? Great people there, nice meetings and they have branches nearly everywhere.
VS6 was excellent, yes. But since the .NET series started, VS really sucks. At least for the non-managed-code, non-.NET c++-developer (as I am).
.NET by making VS unusable for all other purposes.
.NET you have to buy a newer version.
The debugger tends to get worthless with any project/solution more complex than the average "hello world!" program. The UI has lots of bugs(The "Watch" windows do not open sometimes when debugging, does anybody else experience that?). Having 2 instances of VS.NET open makes both instable.
Somehow I get the feeling, they are trying to force everybody to use C# and
Another problem is their update policy. With VS6, there were service packs and pathches available, with
No free updates/bugfixes any more. At least none I could find on their homepage.
I do not disagree with you. At least not completely.
...).
But our neutrality works a little bit different then you described. The basic idea was, that we do not participate in wars, do not join a military alliance (like NATO) and do not allow foreign military bases on our soil. Nevertheless the Allied signed a treaty that they would have protected us in case of an attack.
Of course, a country of our size would have been overrun before anyone could help us, but that is another story altogether.
As for the annexion in 1938: It is a little more complicated then that. Parts of our population welcomed it, and the others were to scared to do something about the Nazis (as the German people themselves). And after our big defeat in WW I, we had not the slightest chance to defend ourselves against Germany.
My point was, that Lord Kano was wrong in saying, that there are no places where all "these things" exist (see his post for what I mean).
And I wanted to say, that the whole EU has most of that "features". And it is *slightly* larger than LA County.
Oh and yes, living in Austria IS great, no matter what. I do not have to worry if I can pay the doctor/hospital to fix me up, I get the best treatment without paying a cent. For example.
Regarding your protection (assuming you are from the US): Thanks, but it brought the world to the brink of nuclear war a couple of times and created a terrible world order. And what your country has been doing in recent times, needs no further commentary (Iraq, Afgahnistan, Southern America, War on Drugs, War on Terror,
BUT: Lets just agree, that the whole (western?) world is quite f*cked up right now and no country is on the right track, shall we? Maybe we should stop flaming around and trying to fix it.
What place on Earth has all of these things?
Well, not to brag or so, but I am from Austria, and we have most of that list. We do have slight problems with racism(not nearly as big as in the US) and police restrictions. But thats about all. Other countries in Europe are quite similar in that regard.
To pay for all that, we have higher taxes, yes, but it is worth it. It is quite nice to live here. Clean water, healthy environment, good food, free education for everyone, you can walk through the worst part of Vienna(has 2 million inhabitants) at 3 in the morning and not be in any danger.
The problem is, some of our leaders are blindly following everything the US does, so the situation slowly is getting worse.
But that will change soon, I hope...
Only if you sell new books, you have to stick to the fixed prices. And that is what we call "Buchpreisbindung". It guarantees the same price for a book in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and it has good reasons. Basically, if you let resellers set the price, rarely bought books will cost much more, and only the few bestsellers will be cheap.
See this (translation).
This ensures that everyone is able to read books he or she likes, and not only what the masses dictate. Also it allows a publisher to try out something new, without so much risk.
The PS2/Xbox title
Regarding to their FAQ it is being relased for all 3 major platforms....
I just took a look at the specs and found the "refactoring"-features:
- Rename
- Extract Method
- Encapsulate Field
- Convert Local to Field
- Convert Global to Field Instance
- Convert Static Method to Instance Method
- Move Static Field
- Move Method
- Replace Literal with Constant
- Create Standard Methods
It does not seem overly complicated to me, to implement these.
Most of the features are simple search and replace operations. Just add some knowledge the compiler would have to the editor and it becomes quite easy to do.
Just plain and simply marketing fuzz...
Yes, but getting them wealthy will not work without the "environmental pooch".
The ecosystem of earth is able to sustain about 4 billion people indefinitely. Right now, we are using 150% of the resources we have. Its like using more of your savings than you get in interest. It will work for a time, but not forever.
Calculations of the UN show that world population will stagnate somewhere around 14 billion (or was it 9? ) in the second half of this century, so we are way beyond our limits.
Now we can either reduce our population size or find ways to augment the ecosystem in order to sustain our actual number.
Only a huge leap in technology and mindset could accomplish that. And space exploration is something that may be able to inspire enough people to make that leap happen.
To explore and extend our knowledge (and posessions) is the very basic nature of humanity, which we cannot fight, so lets use it to undo the mistakes it caused. The solar system is huge(from our point of view) and very rich in materials and energy, ready to be taken. To use them is the best way to protect earth in the long run and make it a nicer place again.
The ISS is, technically, international since two nations are doing most of it, but what if there were a dozen nations as deeply involved, or a hundred?
Actually, there are 16 Nations participating, so this qualifies for "a dozen", doesnt't it?
Besides that, you are right. The ISS is just a prototype. Talking about its qualities as research lab was just a way to show the investors (taxpayers) some justification for the expense. It was needed to quiet down all those "we have more pressing problems as to catapult stuff into space"-people.
Of course science is a goal, but to think those discoveries will earn back the money invested in a way directly measurable, is absurd.
In the long term there are 2 solutions for mankind:
1. Find a way to stop population growth and base our whole society on resources available in unlimited amounts. Live in equilibrium with our environment. As our economy does only work if it can grow steady (about 2% are ideal) this would be a fundamental change.
2. Do what we did for millenea now: Go out there and expand.
As #1 is not very likely to happen, the question is not whether we can afford to venture into space, but if we can afford not to.
If we do neither, we(as in humanity) will vanish inevitably.
The ISS is just a stepping stone, yes, but as training ground for space engineering, not space expeditions.
We have thought after Arnie becoming governor in California you Americans would know Austria, at least a little. Reading a word until it ends, really really difficult ...
I bow before you...
Should be: Their lights aren't blinking anymore.
"Take a closer look at the Longhorn build-once, deploy n-times application model."
Sure. THAT is new. They made it possible to copy some of your files/settings to other machines...
The interesting part in that quote is the n in "n-times". Sounds like some new DRM for developers. Next time you want to distribute your just finished application it says: "Sorry, you are only allowed to ship this product to n users. With your Visual Studio license, n is limited to 5. Have a nice day!"
The big problems with non-IE-browsers are their lack of XSLT-support.
That may not be important for day-to-day websurfing, but if you use the browser as part of an application, that effectively becomes a show-stopper. Especially in corporate environments, where XML usage is much more common than in home computing.
And that may be the reason too, why iTunes must use IE. iTunes may need it to display XML-documents and use some more sophisticated parts of the XML-standard.
In terms of making it easy to integrate the browser in your application IE is years ahead of the others. That also may be a reason why IE has that many security holes.
The fact, that you can use IE for surfing the web, is just a nice byproduct for Microsoft.
Mozilla, on the other hand, has been developed mainly for that purpose.
See the problem?
There is no unbeatable DRM.
As long as you can listen to the music, you can also redirect it to the optical out of your sound card. You connect tho opt-out with opt-in, and set your favourite recording application to listen to opt-in.
I have used optical to transfer music to minidiscs. Back then there were no USB-pluggable minidisc-players. But mine had optical in/out and so recording was possible (and near loss-less). The only problem is the speed, which is always 1x.
But if you are converting your collection of DRM'd music, you can stream all songs in one playlist through. In one or two weeks you could get through...
You see, every body works different. Although the western medicine wants to make us believe we are all equal, that is simply not true.
I do not want to say medicine is wrong. They have lots of really cool results. But metabolism works little bit different in each of us. I am quite sure there is more than one stable state in which our body chemistry is working fine. Find out how your body reacts to different influences and act correspondingly.
Surely, that sounds not very easy. But that is the thing you should have been doing the first 20 years on that planet: exploring your body and mind to find out what you like and need.
I found that out about half a year ago, as I got problems with digestion. I went to some doctors and even to a hospital, but they couldn't find the reason. While I got sick more and more, nausious each morning, they couldn't do anything about it.
And, here in Austria, we have really good healthcare and the best doctors available.
Stop fighting about low-fat vs. low-carbs diet. Balance things out. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Eat less, but more often. Drink lots of water. Do not hesitate to eat the occasional chocolate or fast food. Not only your body needs to stay healthy, but your mind and soul, too. If you do not sin every now and then, there comes something up we call "Fressflash" (German). You know that urgent feeling to stuff things to eat into yourself. Mostly junkfood.
Start doing something. The daily walk home/to work is a good beginning. Start swimming or biking. You will begin to feel better after a few days.
Do not start to run, if you're overweight and/or undertrained! It will ruin your knees (happened to me, at least). Start with it, when you are trained enough, the stronger muscles will help your knees then. To avoid injury, consult a professional trainer. He can give you simple hints to improve your training and make it safe.
You do not want to got to a fitness-center or buy expensive things? Use your own bodyweight to train! Everything that makes your muscles feel tired is good.
But most important: Start listening to the things your body tells you. Maybe you never learned to interpret its signals right?