I think Blizzard is just more sensitive to quality and the user experience than other vendors... and when they do let a bug slip through, there is generally a patch within days. They realize any new users would probably have a bad experience if they were to start playing today, so they are buying themselves some time so they can deal with the problem. It's kind of refreshing there are still companies out there with high standards.
Why resort to insults? The book needed a disclaimer because 2000 parents complained about a controversial subject... this community decided that they wanted their children to think critically about the theory of evolution in HOW IT RELATES TO THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. Not about whether moths can change color or giraffes can grow long necks, but about how life began.
I personally think the warning label is stupid, but I don't live in that community and I haven't read the textbook. What I have a problem with is a judge thinks this label somehow establishes religion. If the textbook truly does present evolution AS IT RELATES TO THE ORIGIN OF LIFE as a fact then that establishes religion more than the sticker because we know so little at this point accepting any theory as fact would be completely by faith.
This is the text that establishes religion according to the judge:
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
No mention of creationism... no mention of God. It only states that Evolution is a theory regarding the origin of living things which is absolutely true. Why is this world trying to abolish critical thinking?
In the U.S. we pay for anything that companies think they can get away with charging us. This is especially true for any company that locks us into a contract such as cell phone carriers. If you are one day late on a bill on your credit card: $30. You want to upgrade from a TDMA phone to a GSM one at Cingular? $17.
There are a few companies that make money by providing excellent service and complete on that basis (kudos to National City Bank and their free checking and free quicken downloads!) but the vast majority just try and lock you in somehow and then milk you for as much as they can get away with.
While I agree with the gist of your comment, I think all sorts of red flags need to go up if you are finding yourself re-implementing freely available API's, even if they aren't exactly the code you had hoped for. Of course there will be special situations that call for finely tuned custom algorithms, but these situations are few and far between for most of us.
More projects fail because of a bloated code base and the cascading stream of problems that causes than poor performance. Unless the fundamental architecture is completely screwed, performance bottlenecks are usually pretty easy to find and fix if time is allotted to that exercise.
I second that... there is nothing quite like sitting in a soda near the beach, eating gallo pinto for breakfast and drinking the best coffee in the world.
I brought back about 20 pounds of coffee when I went (stored in the freezer)... gave most of it away but kept a few pounds for me. It was a sad, sad day when it ran out.
In the article they also say that as many as 6.2% of US homes don't have phone service - that would mean that 19 million Americans don't have wired phone lines available to them."
Maybe some people just don't want a telephone, like the Amish. They certainly don't account for 6.2% of U.S. homes, but I'll bet it's a factor.
I don't have so much a problem with the technology in this case, but the lack of disclosure by the companies that produce this stuff (or the agencies that "suggest" they do so). I have no idea whether HP discloses this feature in their manuel, but I know when it was revealed that photoshop now has "anti counterfit technology" embedded in it that no one was told about, people were more than a little irate.
I think the good captain was saying that in his studies he determined that the probability of evolution was so mathematically miniscule it can be considered impossible for all intensive purposes. Therefore creation, however improbable, is left as the truth.
Your example demonstrates evolution within a species very well... most people I know that believe in a creator also believe in evolution within a species (micro-evolution). It's been demonstrated over and over by selective breeding, fruit flys with four wings, etc. The problem is evolution as a mechanism to create new species (macro evolution) really has no scientific proof but has been accepted on faith by the scientific establishment. Considering all that you have observed in the world around us, which is more preposterous: that there is a creator responsible for all this, or that it all spontaneously sprang forth from a puddle of goo? All I'm asking is that macro evolution get the same amount of healthy skepticism as any other unproven hypothesis. If not, then science has just become another religion.
They left one out... the guy that has already researched the product he's interested in and just wants to be left alone to look around until he's ready to buy something.
I used to go into Best Buy just to browse around and see what was new... if something good was on sale I might buy it on impulse. I would usually buy a CD or DVD or something... until I realized BB has crap for product selection and inventory management. They always seemed to be out of everything. Anyway, I do my browsing at CompUSA now and buy my CD's/DVD's at Wal-Mart.
And here's a billion dollar idea that I will give to everyone. The airline industry already has everything we need! You know those paper boarding passes? Well, on the back they have a magnetic strip that can easily be encoded for machine reading. On the front, there is ample space to print a human readable record so the voter can validate votes were recorded correctly. They even have a stub that can be torn off just like the ballots today have!
The polls could have self contained touchscreen machines that print the ballots, and the ballot box could be just like the machines that read the tickets at the gate. Real time counting, and if there's any challenges the ballots can be counted by hand, or maybe with an alternate machine like a barcode reader.
Honestly, I'm all for boxes filled in with a #2 pencil, but if we must make voting more complicated, let's at least do it with proven technology.
I was at a conference recently with some high level Sun employees, and this subject came up.
Sun isn't ashamed to admit that Java is not open source, and likely won't be for the foreseeable future. In fact, they seem to get a little angry at the question pointing out that Sun has spent millions developing Java and now the community expects them to make it GPL or something. I'm not sure how keeping the development burden of Java internal to Sun really makes them money, though. Open sourcing would be the ultimate outsoursing... hundreds (or thousands) of developers all contributing to Java for free.
The biggest argument against this I heard is that Sun would have to halt new features of Java for 9-12mos and concentrate on getting the source ready to be released. I don't get this at all... just throw it in CVS and do it with the help of the open source community.
We control the property that leaves and enters these shores. Shouldn't we also do this with personal data? I'm not talking about a big firewall like China has, but I am required to give out personal information all the time in the course of living my daily life. I would like assurances that when I entrust personal info with, say, my insurance company that the data will stay where the laws protect me. What good are privacy laws otherwise?
If that's the case, they can do the same thing today with retina or fingerprint scans. Maybe someday there will be a quick, fast way to scan DNA directly... if that's not the king of all barcodes, I don't know what is.
The point is, the above are all non invasive ways to solve this problem. The idea of a mass implantation of RFID chips into the population creeps me out, and I'm not quite ready to accept it as inevitable.
I think the legal system works when people's deeds come to light no matter what thier status... the problem is congress and the supreme court over time have created a superclass of citizen, the Corporation, whos rights supercede yours and mine. This creates a great opportunity for the elite that control the institution to hide behind that veil and get away with a lot more than they normally could. People controlling other types of entities (such as UCSD) have taken notice and now are acting as if their institutions are supercitizens too... and after a few court ruling s they very well may be!
The legal system works fine... the problem is more with comfortable career politicians in corporate pockets giving them more and more priviledges while eroding our rights. If that isn't criminal, I don't know what is.
If only someone would have told me in time!
on
Coffee is Addictive
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· Score: 1
Seriously though,
I drink a moderate amount of coffee (and, even through my nickname eludes otherwise, almost never at night) and I have gotten headaches when not drinking any, say, over the weekend. But, I wonder where the line gets drawn here. The human body can form an addiction to lots of things if they stimulate the brain properly. Some of those things we can't live without as a society, such as sex. It seems to me the part that makes addictive substances so dangerous is when they induce cravings for more and more. From personal experience, coffee seems to be pretty benign in this respect. Even though they have documented withdrawl symptoms, any addicion "feels" more like a conditioned response, not anything chemical.
I have a set of paperback BOOKS that follow this color scheme: Fellowship=Blue, Two Towers=Green, Return of King=Red (and The Hobbit=Yellow). Not sure what that has to do with anything since they still aren't the same...interesting that those are the colors represented, though.
What is really scary is most (all?) states require you to have insurance if you want to partake in the "priviledge" of using the public road with a motor vehicle. Once these boxes become mandatory, your only choice if you don't want to be monitored is not to drive.
Most citizens are smart enough maybe, but not most Senators. Remember Senator Joseph McCarthy? I'm sure there was many a reading list that came into question during the Macarthyism era.
Does Dunkin Donuts brew in a french press in their stores or is that how you make it at home?
I think it's funny how overpriced the Starbucks beans are in the grocery store... I like eight-o-clock Columbian much better! Actually, some of the best coffee I have had recently was Sam's Club "Members Mark Columbian Supremo"... they don't seem to carry that anymore, though.
One nice thing about Starbucks is they do a reasonable job maintaining consistency. Kind of like McDonalds... no surprises, you know what you're going to get. I usually get Americano's when I go to Starbucks... usually that doesn't have the burnt taste like their regular coffee does.
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I think Blizzard is just more sensitive to quality and the user experience than other vendors... and when they do let a bug slip through, there is generally a patch within days. They realize any new users would probably have a bad experience if they were to start playing today, so they are buying themselves some time so they can deal with the problem. It's kind of refreshing there are still companies out there with high standards.
Do a google search for "chemical evolution".
I personally think the warning label is stupid, but I don't live in that community and I haven't read the textbook. What I have a problem with is a judge thinks this label somehow establishes religion. If the textbook truly does present evolution AS IT RELATES TO THE ORIGIN OF LIFE as a fact then that establishes religion more than the sticker because we know so little at this point accepting any theory as fact would be completely by faith.
"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."
No mention of creationism... no mention of God. It only states that Evolution is a theory regarding the origin of living things which is absolutely true. Why is this world trying to abolish critical thinking?
There are a few companies that make money by providing excellent service and complete on that basis (kudos to National City Bank and their free checking and free quicken downloads!) but the vast majority just try and lock you in somehow and then milk you for as much as they can get away with.
More projects fail because of a bloated code base and the cascading stream of problems that causes than poor performance. Unless the fundamental architecture is completely screwed, performance bottlenecks are usually pretty easy to find and fix if time is allotted to that exercise.
Don't bloat the code!
Oh please, this is old news. Earl Shive and Macco have been using this technology for years.
I brought back about 20 pounds of coffee when I went (stored in the freezer)... gave most of it away but kept a few pounds for me. It was a sad, sad day when it ran out.
They could always open source the thing and let it take on a life of it's own. If it's a good idea, it will live. If not, it will die.
I don't have so much a problem with the technology in this case, but the lack of disclosure by the companies that produce this stuff (or the agencies that "suggest" they do so). I have no idea whether HP discloses this feature in their manuel, but I know when it was revealed that photoshop now has "anti counterfit technology" embedded in it that no one was told about, people were more than a little irate.
Your example demonstrates evolution within a species very well... most people I know that believe in a creator also believe in evolution within a species (micro-evolution). It's been demonstrated over and over by selective breeding, fruit flys with four wings, etc. The problem is evolution as a mechanism to create new species (macro evolution) really has no scientific proof but has been accepted on faith by the scientific establishment. Considering all that you have observed in the world around us, which is more preposterous: that there is a creator responsible for all this, or that it all spontaneously sprang forth from a puddle of goo? All I'm asking is that macro evolution get the same amount of healthy skepticism as any other unproven hypothesis. If not, then science has just become another religion.
Great post Mr. Frito... one of the best I've read on slashdot in a long time. I'm adding you to my friends list.
I used to go into Best Buy just to browse around and see what was new... if something good was on sale I might buy it on impulse. I would usually buy a CD or DVD or something... until I realized BB has crap for product selection and inventory management. They always seemed to be out of everything. Anyway, I do my browsing at CompUSA now and buy my CD's/DVD's at Wal-Mart.
The polls could have self contained touchscreen machines that print the ballots, and the ballot box could be just like the machines that read the tickets at the gate. Real time counting, and if there's any challenges the ballots can be counted by hand, or maybe with an alternate machine like a barcode reader.
Honestly, I'm all for boxes filled in with a #2 pencil, but if we must make voting more complicated, let's at least do it with proven technology.
Sun isn't ashamed to admit that Java is not open source, and likely won't be for the foreseeable future. In fact, they seem to get a little angry at the question pointing out that Sun has spent millions developing Java and now the community expects them to make it GPL or something. I'm not sure how keeping the development burden of Java internal to Sun really makes them money, though. Open sourcing would be the ultimate outsoursing... hundreds (or thousands) of developers all contributing to Java for free.
The biggest argument against this I heard is that Sun would have to halt new features of Java for 9-12mos and concentrate on getting the source ready to be released. I don't get this at all... just throw it in CVS and do it with the help of the open source community.
P.S. The Colorado Software Sumit is awesome!
We control the property that leaves and enters these shores. Shouldn't we also do this with personal data? I'm not talking about a big firewall like China has, but I am required to give out personal information all the time in the course of living my daily life. I would like assurances that when I entrust personal info with, say, my insurance company that the data will stay where the laws protect me. What good are privacy laws otherwise?
The point is, the above are all non invasive ways to solve this problem. The idea of a mass implantation of RFID chips into the population creeps me out, and I'm not quite ready to accept it as inevitable.
The legal system works fine... the problem is more with comfortable career politicians in corporate pockets giving them more and more priviledges while eroding our rights. If that isn't criminal, I don't know what is.
Check out This if you want to know more.
Or they want to used tranparent PNG's
Seriously though, I drink a moderate amount of coffee (and, even through my nickname eludes otherwise, almost never at night) and I have gotten headaches when not drinking any, say, over the weekend. But, I wonder where the line gets drawn here. The human body can form an addiction to lots of things if they stimulate the brain properly. Some of those things we can't live without as a society, such as sex. It seems to me the part that makes addictive substances so dangerous is when they induce cravings for more and more. From personal experience, coffee seems to be pretty benign in this respect. Even though they have documented withdrawl symptoms, any addicion "feels" more like a conditioned response, not anything chemical.
I have a set of paperback BOOKS that follow this color scheme: Fellowship=Blue, Two Towers=Green, Return of King=Red (and The Hobbit=Yellow). Not sure what that has to do with anything since they still aren't the same...interesting that those are the colors represented, though.
What is really scary is most (all?) states require you to have insurance if you want to partake in the "priviledge" of using the public road with a motor vehicle. Once these boxes become mandatory, your only choice if you don't want to be monitored is not to drive.
History, Doom, Repeat.
I think it's funny how overpriced the Starbucks beans are in the grocery store... I like eight-o-clock Columbian much better! Actually, some of the best coffee I have had recently was Sam's Club "Members Mark Columbian Supremo"... they don't seem to carry that anymore, though.
One nice thing about Starbucks is they do a reasonable job maintaining consistency. Kind of like McDonalds... no surprises, you know what you're going to get. I usually get Americano's when I go to Starbucks... usually that doesn't have the burnt taste like their regular coffee does.