Don't blame the techies..... they're only as despicable as the car mechanic who throws random "auto-term" (for which no manual exists (get it auto, manual...)), or that goddamn waiter at the f**king french restaurants who turns his nose up when I try to pronounce something on the menu, or
all those lawyers with their legalese....
particularly Effective C++ and More Effective C++.
So "Effective C++" was really "LESS Effective C++",
that a "MORE Effective C++" needed to be written?
I'm eagerly awaiting "Much More Effective C++", "Even More Effective C++" and "Infinitely More Effective C++". Hopefully, we'll also have "Chicken soup for the C++ programmer", "C programmers are from Uranus, C++ programmers are from Mercury", etc..
They are crap.
It's also a comment on a language so obfuscated
that 99% of the books don't seem to get the descriptions right. If it were a sensible language,
one book (ok, perhaps 5 - 6) would have been enough.
....they wrote a book about why the "general user" should use linux.
.... and then, they wrote a book about why the
"general user" should buy a book about why the "general user" should use linux.
.... and then, they wrote a book about why the
"general user" should buy a book about why the
"general user" should buy a book about why the "general user" should use linux.
Reviewers (in general) are full of CRAP. Reviewers hardly ever seem to review a movie in a way that reflects public opinion.
Well, other than the filthiest of them all (Yes, our own filthy critic), I agree with you. If I went to every movie that was given "two enthusiastic thumbs up", I'd be sad, sad, and depressed. I think critics need some desperate metamoderation.
But NEMESIS is little more than a Western type "shoot out" movie. The bad guys attack. The good guys fight back, Then, there's more attacking and more fighting back. Then it happens again. And again. You get the idea.
Not that I support this movie, but I'd really have
to think quite a bit to come up with one popular action movie that does not have the basic story
line that you describe. (Of course, few can do it with the finesse that Itchy and Scratchy do it.)
I think more people watch action movies these days for the ``non-action'' parts rather than what it really is all about - the good guys beating the s**t out of the baddies. Is that good? I know not!
Value of networks...
on
Smart Mobs
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
How is "value of network" defined in all those laws? Surely can't be monetary or even necessarily related to productivity. Perhaps cultural, but how do you compute an "exponential growth in a cultural value"?
I've never used these devices, but won't the screen turn really oily/dirty since your hand/palm rests on it while writing stuff? Also, the normal lcd display has distortion when you press it hard. Isn't this a problem with the tablet PCs?
I'm not sure Berkeley would offer these programs. More likely, you'll have to go to Miss Cleo. I hear she also offers Ph.D.'s over the phone if you call 1-888-555-8080.
I have my doubts if something like this can be objective and complete. Without wanting to start a flame thread, I'm sure that Microsoft has really good programmers doing code review - and probably many testers trying to do comprehensive testing. This is still not enough to make their software bugfree. If a large corporation with lots (virtually unlimited) of resources cannot have this, it seems unlikely that "software review" shops could be really trustworthy. Also, how do you rate the software raters?
Things like electronic gadgets/cars have limited functionality which can be thoroughly tested. Software testers don't have this luxury.
Umm.. I'd disagree with the parallels you draw.
For example, how do you find out the tensile strength of the metal, the thermal properties (how much it expands/contracts), the stress limits for the bridge? To give another example, how many cars engines could be easily inspected to get enough information for an educated analysis?
Another error in drawing similarity is that giving away code would beequivalent to giving away another bridge for free. (I'm myself not against that idea; I just think we cannot draw reasonable parallels).
People need to understand that the countries that these parts are shipped to either A) Want them. B) Don't care about the damage they do.
This is too simplistic a view to take about the situation. You cannot make a collective judgement about the whole country. There are opportunists in the third world. There are worse opportunists in the first world who are willing to fsck up land/air as long as it is not their own. No country willingly wants someone else's trash. If there were riskless money to be made out of it, people would be doing it here in the first world itself, not sending it there.
The people who do this work don't do it because they "Dont care about the damage they do", but because they're not literate and hence uninformed to make a sensible decision, and too poor to have a choice to make a decision in the first place.
There will always be market for crud. Similarly, there will always be market for cocaine. That does not justify making it and shipping it there.
I think this link is a deliberate and extraordinarily intelligent allegory. The goat, the one who is violated represents a blocker. It is the true victim in this case. It is the one trying to do all in its power to prevent being violated by things that are being shoved up its a*se much the same way that advertisers shove all that junk up your browser.
Thankfully the article ends with the man (representing the evil advertisers) being jailed (representing them being jailed). Perhaps it is also a way of telling the judicial system who should be punished really.
I found that I needed to be too disciplined to use my PDA for tasks that I'd use it for like todo lists and phone,contacts. I got a free one sometime ago. I tried using it but found I was spending more time trying to organise my life in the PDA. I gave up shortly finding that it was more convenient to forget things than to spend time and energy inputting every thing in the PDA.
Now if only I had a personal human analog assistant inputting everything into my digital one.
Am I the only one who prefers a clean minamalist desktop
No, I'm with you on this one. For some strange reason most people don't quite seem to mind that they're giving up a significant part of the "screen real estate" for trashy eye candy. In general if it's a choice between some clickable thingy on the screen vs. having 10 more lines and 20 more columns on emacs, I'd take the second one any day. Besides, a lot more people don't seem to be using ultra-efficient (no keyboard-to-mouse/mouse-to-keyboard transition time) keyboard shortcuts that I can do so well in something divine like fvwm (no flamebait intended). I have tried lots of GUI's and I've been most productive in those that sought to be minimal on their screen presence.
I think the only "inevitable" use of technologoy is that it will be used to hurt someone.
Yes, I can always beat up someone to pulp using a microwave oven. Is that your justification for saying that all microwave oven will definitely hurt people? I can run people down with cars - should they not be used at all? Aspirin in large doses can also kill people - hmm let's ban that too!!
There is a difference between use and abuse. The mere possibility of abuse should not restrict scientific temper. Sadly ethicists/moralists/religious types mostly spread FUD about things they really don't quite understand.
I wish I could mod you up, but some modGods might decide otherwise. BTW, a question to these moral/ethics guys: At what exact point does human endeavour become "playing god"? What makes a person a "certified" ethicist to comment on what is moral and immoral? Wonder what Galileo had to say about them.
Overpopulation is just a part of the problem. The real problem is an inappropriate amount of resource usage by developed countries, in particular the US. If you compare the per-person pollution caused by the US, it is about 20 times that for India/China.
Even after normalising for population (India/China have 4-5 times the population) that still gives a much higher pollution caused by US (as also Europe).
The developing/underdeveloped countries (which contribute maximum to the total global population) will take years (even with the projected population growth trends) to match the pollution caused by the developed nations.
I think the key to reduced population is a changing approach to consumption (giving public transport a priority, reduced paper/electricty use drives, etc)
Slashdot Mirror
The newest fad: Warbroadcasting. you mean the one against "Weapons of Mass Distribution" led by the RIAA and its allies?
Is this for real?
Don't blame the techies..... they're only as despicable as the car mechanic who throws random "auto-term" (for which no manual exists (get it auto, manual...)), or that goddamn waiter at the f**king french restaurants who turns his nose up when I try to pronounce something on the menu, or all those lawyers with their legalese ....
particularly Effective C++ and More Effective C++.
So "Effective C++" was really "LESS Effective C++", that a "MORE Effective C++" needed to be written? I'm eagerly awaiting "Much More Effective C++", "Even More Effective C++" and "Infinitely More Effective C++". Hopefully, we'll also have "Chicken soup for the C++ programmer", "C programmers are from Uranus, C++ programmers are from Mercury", etc..
Great. Is is open source?
They are crap.
It's also a comment on a language so obfuscated that 99% of the books don't seem to get the descriptions right. If it were a sensible language, one book (ok, perhaps 5 - 6) would have been enough.
Well, other than the filthiest of them all (Yes, our own filthy critic), I agree with you. If I went to every movie that was given "two enthusiastic thumbs up", I'd be sad, sad, and depressed. I think critics need some desperate metamoderation.
Not that I support this movie, but I'd really have to think quite a bit to come up with one popular action movie that does not have the basic story line that you describe. (Of course, few can do it with the finesse that Itchy and Scratchy do it.)
I think more people watch action movies these days for the ``non-action'' parts rather than what it really is all about - the good guys beating the s**t out of the baddies. Is that good? I know not!
How is "value of network" defined in all those laws? Surely can't be monetary or even necessarily related to productivity. Perhaps cultural, but how do you compute an "exponential growth in a cultural value"?
I've never used these devices, but won't the screen turn really oily/dirty since your hand/palm rests on it while writing stuff? Also, the normal lcd display has distortion when you press it hard. Isn't this a problem with the tablet PCs?
I'm not sure Berkeley would offer these programs. More likely, you'll have to go to Miss Cleo. I hear she also offers Ph.D.'s over the phone if you call 1-888-555-8080.
I have my doubts if something like this can be objective and complete. Without wanting to start a flame thread, I'm sure that Microsoft has really good programmers doing code review - and probably many testers trying to do comprehensive testing. This is still not enough to make their software bugfree. If a large corporation with lots (virtually unlimited) of resources cannot have this, it seems unlikely that "software review" shops could be really trustworthy. Also, how do you rate the software raters?
Things like electronic gadgets/cars have limited functionality which can be thoroughly tested. Software testers don't have this luxury.
Another error in drawing similarity is that giving away code would beequivalent to giving away another bridge for free. (I'm myself not against that idea; I just think we cannot draw reasonable parallels).
This is too simplistic a view to take about the situation. You cannot make a collective judgement about the whole country. There are opportunists in the third world. There are worse opportunists in the first world who are willing to fsck up land/air as long as it is not their own. No country willingly wants someone else's trash. If there were riskless money to be made out of it, people would be doing it here in the first world itself, not sending it there.
The people who do this work don't do it because they "Dont care about the damage they do", but because they're not literate and hence uninformed to make a sensible decision, and too poor to have a choice to make a decision in the first place.
There will always be market for crud. Similarly, there will always be market for cocaine. That does not justify making it and shipping it there.
Thankfully the article ends with the man (representing the evil advertisers) being jailed (representing them being jailed). Perhaps it is also a way of telling the judicial system who should be punished really.
Kudos to the poster ....
Now if only I had a personal human analog assistant inputting everything into my digital one.
I was once told "Never look into the mouth of a gift horse."
No, I'm with you on this one. For some strange reason most people don't quite seem to mind that they're giving up a significant part of the "screen real estate" for trashy eye candy. In general if it's a choice between some clickable thingy on the screen vs. having 10 more lines and 20 more columns on emacs, I'd take the second one any day. Besides, a lot more people don't seem to be using ultra-efficient (no keyboard-to-mouse/mouse-to-keyboard transition time) keyboard shortcuts that I can do so well in something divine like fvwm (no flamebait intended). I have tried lots of GUI's and I've been most productive in those that sought to be minimal on their screen presence.
Yes. Sometime earlier, the rest of us moved on to Linux.
Yes, I can always beat up someone to pulp using a microwave oven. Is that your justification for saying that all microwave oven will definitely hurt people? I can run people down with cars - should they not be used at all? Aspirin in large doses can also kill people - hmm let's ban that too!!
There is a difference between use and abuse. The mere possibility of abuse should not restrict scientific temper. Sadly ethicists/moralists/religious types mostly spread FUD about things they really don't quite understand.
I wish I could mod you up, but some modGods might decide otherwise. BTW, a question to these moral/ethics guys: At what exact point does human endeavour become "playing god"? What makes a person a "certified" ethicist to comment on what is moral and immoral? Wonder what Galileo had to say about them.
On a related note, a comdex article on /. gets fewest responses ever...
Overpopulation is just a part of the problem. The real problem is an inappropriate amount of resource usage by developed countries, in particular the US. If you compare the per-person pollution caused by the US, it is about 20 times that for India/China. Even after normalising for population (India/China have 4-5 times the population) that still gives a much higher pollution caused by US (as also Europe). The developing/underdeveloped countries (which contribute maximum to the total global population) will take years (even with the projected population growth trends) to match the pollution caused by the developed nations. I think the key to reduced population is a changing approach to consumption (giving public transport a priority, reduced paper/electricty use drives, etc)