if you consider the scenario that we are witnessing the fall of our democracy
Actually, we are a republic. There's a huge difference. A democracy is just a popularity contest - tyranny of the majority. If the majority of people want to be spied on, then it is law, regardless of the 4th Amendment. Sadly, the Constitution and Bill of Rights aresupposed to be held above a "majority rules" (except in the case of an amendment).
You know, I'd like to vote for a lawremover, not a lawmaker. Ever think someone will win running on that platform? "I'm so-and-so and I'm running as an independent to be a Washington lawremover. Vote for me and I'll reduce the size of government by getting rid of all of these unconstitutional government programs and alphabet agencies." We can dream, can't we?
The part that I am waiting for is to see how this 2006 election plays out. If republicans keep their seats with 51-49 margins all over the country, we will know our democratic process no longer works and we have no control over who gets in office
Do you think the Democrat Party is the answer? Both parties are the same shit. Both do not uphold the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Only when the majority of America finally dumps this Republican vs. Democrat bullshit will there be any meaningful change.
Maybe it will ensure that I never have to worry about a terrorist inside my country ever again.
What a lot of people seem to overlook is that our gang problem in the US is huge. For example, the MS-13 gang is spread out across the US and is made up of former South American guerrilla soldiers. Go into any inner-city: Los Angeles, Chicago, Detriot, etc. and the people there live in fear on a daily basis from the gang warfare. Drive-by shootings, rapes, murders, etc. Gang violence has only increased in the past several years.
Yet all we hear about from our corrupt politicians is that the boogeyman Osama and Al Quaeda is coming to get us. Fear! Fear! Fear! I lived in the inner-city for awhile. I absolutely guarantee you that those people living there could care less about Osama or Al Quaeda or Emmanuel Goldstein. The real threat to their lives, to their children's lives 24/7 is the gang problem. Those people truly live in fear.
However, what do our despicable policians do? Do they order the police and national guard to round up all gang members and get them off of our streets? No. They want to grant amnesty to the illegals! (I would say the majority of gang members are illegals or children of illegals.) And what happens when an individual police force tries to get tough on gangs? Civil lawsuits! The police "violated" these murderers', rapists', drug-dealers', and illegals' "rights."
So what do our politicians do? Why they enact laws that are meant to monitor, arrest, and imprison... we, the people!
I do not live in fear of "terrorists." I live in fear of my own government.
That was my attitude when I was fresh out of college prior to 9/11. I've had 21 years of "land of the free & home of the brave" rah rah rah. I would read what was happening in the UK and thought that our Constutition and especially the Bill of Rights would prevent all of that from happening. Little did I know that there was already an increase in the seizing of our freedoms - 2nd Amendment via "gun control", 4th Amendment via "war on drugs", etc. And all it took was 9/11 to throw the majority of Americans into a fear-stricken "we must give up our liberties for security" attitude. And our politicians were more than willing to pander to it. The money from Homeland Security for the major cities has gone for more CCTVs to monitor the public. Police rave about how they can put more "virtual" cops on the beat to "fight crime." Citizens say they have nothing to hide because they aren't doing anything wrong and are glad they are now "safe" by being monitored 24/7.
I have since come to accept that whatever Big Brother mess we see start in the UK will eventually make its way into the US. "Land of the free, home of the brave"???
Isn't that interesting. The people behind the man-made Global Warming agenda get the media to repeat it enough times and soon nearly everyone assumes it's the truth. There's an increase in hurricanes? Global Warming! For a few weeks this past summer, we had a real scorcher out in the West. Global Warming!
What is greatly disheartening, though, is that when someone posts a different viewpoint, it is immediately regarded as trolling. At least a few replies posted similar items regarding the Kyoto agreement and what we were taught in the '70's.
Back in the '70's the big scare was Global Cooling. We were told that we would all freeze to death. Now the big scare is Global Warming. We're all going to overheat, melt the icecaps, and drown. These are all part of nature's climate cycles of cooling and warming trends. To say that man's activity is warming the earth is unproven.
However, under the name of "Global Warming", there are large power-grabs between nations. Notice that China, the world's largest polluter, is excluded from the Kyoto agreement, yet the US is supposed to follow it. This allows China to grow their economy while it tries to destroy the US economy. The amount of pollution that we emit is small compared to China, yet we are pegged as the "world's polluter."
I'm a conservationist. There are many ways to conserve the environment and have full economic activity. That is in stark contrast to the environmentalists and Global Warming theorists who want us to reduce and/or stop our economic growth.
Oh yeah... that was a while ago. Now I vaguely remember. Jackson's wife was nude when the Gu'ould stripped off her clothing. Can't quite recall the AF woman, though.
How many people are using 7.1, or THX sound? Or, if they have it, have it set up correctly? Or, if they have it, have any reasonable collection of media to make use of it?
I'm using 7.1 via Audigy 2 ZS and the 7.1 GigaWorks speakers. I've also tweaked the THX settings for the correct angles and speaker distances. And I have a large DVD collection, many of which are THX-sound mastered.
I'm also waiting for Vista to come out before I build a new PC w/ all of the latest technical specs, including all of the DRM-hardware. I have no choice - if I want to continue to enjoy my DVD collection and add HDDVD and/or Blue-Ray to my HTPC, I need to go w/ Vista for the DRM.
I think Dell and the others will have all of this pre-configured when your average Joe & Jane buy their PC. Compare it to buying a new car - there is a lot of high-tech computer and mechanical stuff in today's cars but you don't really care or have to even know about it since it is pre-packaged for you.
I tried your suggestion, switched on ClearType, and used the MS ActiveX to tweak it. Yuck. Maybe it's because I'm so used to seeing each pixel, but it looks like ClearType blurs (softens?) the characters making it look like it's smeared. I like very crisp text to the point where I can even see the pixels. In fact, whenever I can choose an option, whether if it's a monitor or a video application, I always turn up the sharpness. BTW, I'm using the Samsung 213T (21.3") in 1600x1200 and DVI.
Does it use STARFORCE? I'm not buying/playing it.
on
Prey Review
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I just want to make sure Prey is NOT using StarForce. I absolutely refuse to buy or play any game that uses that malware. Can anyone confirm this? Thx.
I cannot stand the corporate advertising bullshit that gets forced down our necks everytime we try to watch a TV show. BUY NOW! SAVE MORE! BUY, CONSUME! YOU NEED THIS! IT WILL REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR LIFE! Even "clever" advertising is still advertising. (But I will admit, I do watch a commercial (usually only shown late at night) that has hot women nearly showing T&A. I have no idea what the commercials are for - so in a sense the marketing company failed, nor do I even care to purchase their products, but will watch the eye candy.)
I buy the DVDs of TV shows at the end of the season. Besides having no commercials, there are behind-the-scenes stuff, too. Everytime I read articles like this, it keeps reminding me of George Lucas' THX-1138. "Buy more, consume more." The main character buys crap not because he needs it, but because he thinks he's supposed to "consume."
Much like "open sourcers" take their "open source" way, way, way too seriously.
haha, I can see why you posted that AC.
I think it's about control. People want to control others who go against their view of the world, real or virtual. With Open Source, some hold a certain "view" that it should be done in this way for the betterment of humanity, while others think it should be done that way to increase their business revenue, etc. In a video game, some people want to control how everyone else, who also paid $20/month to play the same game, plays in their game. e.g. "In my video game, we should stop everyone else from playing so our small, little group can insert Real World situations in the Virtual World which completely removes the immersion effect and fun factor. I am a morally superior person because I disarmed and stood in silence like a sitting duck." Huh? To me, that looks like an easy kill with +++ experience and gold points.
But isn't there something in the EULA that does not allow you to re-license the materials in the game? Wasn't there an issue with "gold miners" and the game companies wanting to stop it because it is against the EULA? If so, then reselling any "virtual" item in the game is against the EULA. Further, how is that virtual item your "property" which you paid money for? What is the game company decides to shutdown their servers or they go bankrupt. In an instant, all of your "property" (electrons arranged in a pattern on hard drives) is gone.
In many games getting killed by an opponent repeatedly usually stems from a difference in skill, yes, but in MMORPGs your combat ability is directly related to the level of your character.
Then maybe the MMORPG in question is not a well-designed, well-programmed game and not worth to play with in the first place? Seriously, if you know people are a level 60 and you are a "n00b" at level 0, then you can expect to get killed. Maybe the game designers need to put a safe-haven in the game. e.g. "Within the King's city limits, killing a citizen raises an alarm where all of the King's soldiers go after you and either kill you or lock you in prison for 1 or game real-world days which results in your virtual skills and strengths weakening, etc." Or put in a hunting game park (like in real life) or martial arts studios or menial job to earn some gold, etc. to allow the player to gain some skills before he ventures out into the world. Or have the player venture out in the world with a group of other "n00bs".
I think the failure(?) of some of these MMORPGs lies with the game designers, not the players who play the game.
Exactly, when did playing a video game and "morals" go together? A game is a competition. There are winners and there are losers. What the hell is the point of advancing your character, being more powerful, getting more gold, experience, etc. unless you can compete with others and use the skills that you have amassed? If the game allows you to be killed, then someone is going to kill you. There is no such thing as "morals". That's the whole point of playing a video game - escape from the real world and wreck havoc and chaos - something you shouldn't do in real life since there are rules against it.
greifers who'd kill me 8-10 times in an hour... I AM losing money, because I can't enjoy the game I'm paying for. That's why people get pissed over griefers and theifs.
What about the people who killed you 8 - 10 times in an hour? They are playing the same game as you (unless using cheats which is a totally different situation), paid the same money as you, and are entitled to play the game in whatever fashion they enjoy. Just because you suck and they are good doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them killing you. I would play Halo PC online and get my ass handed to me every single game. If I was lucky, I'd get maybe a couple of kills per match. So what? I paid $50 for the game and knew I'm not some kick-ass video gamer so I expected to get killed all the time. That's why it's called a game and not a online chat service. There are winners and there are losers. Should you get upset at the online poker casinos when "griefers" always knock you out of tournaments?
given that in many MMOGs, items that your avatar owns have real-world commercial value.
Doesn't the video game company own the rights to the software and all the hardware they host it on and you are just licensing it from them? Isn't that like saying you are renting an apartment from someone, then turning it into a condo and selling it to someone else for "real-world value"? That's not possible since you don't own the apartment in the first place.
Jesus H. Christ. I read the article and these "gamers" take their recreational time way, way, way too seriously. Look at this example:
The players of World of Warcraft were left with a similar conundrum in March, when a group of gamers performed an act whose only purpose was to cause emotional pain. The death of a member of the community inspired her fellow gamers to hold a virtual funeral, which was raided by a malicious mob that made short work of the mourners, all of whom had relinquished their weapons as a sign of respect. Since the funeral was naively held in a zone designed for combat, few could question the legitimacy of the attack within the game's rules. None the less, the mourners were outraged, not at the penalties their characters would have to suffer, but at the brazen attack on their feelings.
You're playing a video game where you can kill and destroy. That's the game. Your virtual character can do anything you want to do in the game that the game allows. Some want to sit around making a political statement, others want to wreck havoc. The only "rules" in a video game is what the programmers write into it. Other than that, anything goes.
Of course, you can't do anything that's already illegal such as a DDOS attack or sending viruses to other players. Or even cheating - i.e. changing the "rules" in a video game than what the programmers put in place. Note, this is different than taking advantage of an exploit, which is perfectly fine since it is in the game. If gamers don't like it, the programmers can put out a patch to fix it.
The point is that this is just a video game and there are no real-world dollar values assigned to the bits of electrons on the servers' hard drives. If there was, then anyone (most likely the parent company or a programmer within the company) could create 10,000 "uber-great-warrior-characters" for $100 each and be an instant millionaire. There is no such thing as "property rights" in a video game since you own nothing. You pay a monthly fee to access the physical property (servers, routers, etc.) of the game company.
Could you imagine the chaos if your video game character's items were considered real property? Could you get sued for theft if you play a thief and steal the items? Could you get sued for sexual harassment if you knock down a character and remove their armor, thus exposing some of its virtual body parts? Could the video game company be sued for not providing adequate virtual security (i.e. unpickable lock on a treasure chest or your house) to protect your virtual items?
The whole point of a video game is to escape from reality into an alternate place. Some think they can take their politics, opinions, etc. with them and shape the alternate place into the same fucked up place as the real world. Others, like myself, who lived in a structured and planned out environment like to wreck havoc and chaos in the alternate world as an escape from real life. I like to inject my bit of "Grand Theft Auto" gameplay in all of the online game I play.
Start-Up vs. Big Corporation
on
The Living Dilbert?
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· Score: 3, Interesting
You can work at a Start-Up. In those types of jobs, there's not a lot of money to go around so there's no room to slack off. Thus, everyone around you should, in theory, be top quality. Your reward for long hours and lower pay is a lot of stock options... But if the company doesn't work out, all you're left with is toilet paper. (No, I'm not bitter, not at all)
Or you can work at Big Corporation. All of them are the same, with varying degrees of B.S. Some have very little office politics and your hard work is noted and rewarded. Others are just one big C.Y.A. environment. Even worse, even if you do work hard in your local I.T. area, upper management may decide to oursource your job, so you get screwed anyways.
Remember, the goal is not to work hard. The goal is to work smart. Put in a lot padding on your estimates so you can slack off and still meet the deadline. If your co-workers in other areas / departments ask you to do things for them, pretend you don't know so they won't bother you anymore. (After all, you only answer to your boss.) Be sure to take the credit when something works and pass the blame when it doesn't. Don't complain about new projects or moved up timelines. You'll still have to complete them anyways if you still want to keep your job. Instead, agree with management and discuss how much more revenue the company will make once the project is finished. It gives the impression you actually give a shit about your clients and you'll be remembered as the "can do" person instead of the "can't do" complainer. I do all of these and have steadily advanced in position & salary.
Wasn't the THX technology first introduced in Return of the Jedi? According to the web sites I've read, they will be released in Dolby 2.0 just like in the theatres. I can see IV, and V in 2.0, but shouldn't VI be in THX?
I started programming in my sophomore year of high school. I always liked math and science and my friend told me about his older brother being a computer programmer and making tens of thousands of dollars. He recommended I learn C and move on from there. I bought one of the Waite Group's C programming books (which was also geared for the 80x86 platform) and learned all of the basics. From there, taught myself C++, then Assembly. Then I started college, noticed girls, and stopped programming except for my math classes and Java my last year to get me a job making tens of thousands of dollars.:-)
The point is that you need to start with the basics. Just as it is a bad idea to have kids use calculators in math class, it is a bad idea to start kids off with C++. Teach the foundations first, then move on from there. Actually, I really don't care for computer classes at all. The best programmers are self-taught. We have to do everything ourselves without anyone to fall back on. All of the creativity, ingenious ideas, etc. come from the individual, not a professor or T.A. There is no safety net. I noticed in the few computer classes that I had to take for my major that a lot of my classmates would always go to the T.A. asking how to do the assignment. There is no way that would work in a real I.T. environment where you are given specs and told to complete it in a few weeks.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, I'd like to vote for a lawremover, not a lawmaker. Ever think someone will win running on that platform? "I'm so-and-so and I'm running as an independent to be a Washington lawremover. Vote for me and I'll reduce the size of government by getting rid of all of these unconstitutional government programs and alphabet agencies." We can dream, can't we?
Do you think the Democrat Party is the answer? Both parties are the same shit. Both do not uphold the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Only when the majority of America finally dumps this Republican vs. Democrat bullshit will there be any meaningful change.
Yet all we hear about from our corrupt politicians is that the boogeyman Osama and Al Quaeda is coming to get us. Fear! Fear! Fear! I lived in the inner-city for awhile. I absolutely guarantee you that those people living there could care less about Osama or Al Quaeda or Emmanuel Goldstein. The real threat to their lives, to their children's lives 24/7 is the gang problem. Those people truly live in fear.
However, what do our despicable policians do? Do they order the police and national guard to round up all gang members and get them off of our streets? No. They want to grant amnesty to the illegals! (I would say the majority of gang members are illegals or children of illegals.) And what happens when an individual police force tries to get tough on gangs? Civil lawsuits! The police "violated" these murderers', rapists', drug-dealers', and illegals' "rights."
So what do our politicians do? Why they enact laws that are meant to monitor, arrest, and imprison... we, the people!
I do not live in fear of "terrorists." I live in fear of my own government.
That was my attitude when I was fresh out of college prior to 9/11. I've had 21 years of "land of the free & home of the brave" rah rah rah. I would read what was happening in the UK and thought that our Constutition and especially the Bill of Rights would prevent all of that from happening. Little did I know that there was already an increase in the seizing of our freedoms - 2nd Amendment via "gun control", 4th Amendment via "war on drugs", etc. And all it took was 9/11 to throw the majority of Americans into a fear-stricken "we must give up our liberties for security" attitude. And our politicians were more than willing to pander to it. The money from Homeland Security for the major cities has gone for more CCTVs to monitor the public. Police rave about how they can put more "virtual" cops on the beat to "fight crime." Citizens say they have nothing to hide because they aren't doing anything wrong and are glad they are now "safe" by being monitored 24/7.
I have since come to accept that whatever Big Brother mess we see start in the UK will eventually make its way into the US. "Land of the free, home of the brave"???
Isn't that interesting. The people behind the man-made Global Warming agenda get the media to repeat it enough times and soon nearly everyone assumes it's the truth. There's an increase in hurricanes? Global Warming! For a few weeks this past summer, we had a real scorcher out in the West. Global Warming!
What is greatly disheartening, though, is that when someone posts a different viewpoint, it is immediately regarded as trolling. At least a few replies posted similar items regarding the Kyoto agreement and what we were taught in the '70's.
Back in the '70's the big scare was Global Cooling. We were told that we would all freeze to death. Now the big scare is Global Warming. We're all going to overheat, melt the icecaps, and drown. These are all part of nature's climate cycles of cooling and warming trends. To say that man's activity is warming the earth is unproven.
However, under the name of "Global Warming", there are large power-grabs between nations. Notice that China, the world's largest polluter, is excluded from the Kyoto agreement, yet the US is supposed to follow it. This allows China to grow their economy while it tries to destroy the US economy. The amount of pollution that we emit is small compared to China, yet we are pegged as the "world's polluter."
I'm a conservationist. There are many ways to conserve the environment and have full economic activity. That is in stark contrast to the environmentalists and Global Warming theorists who want us to reduce and/or stop our economic growth.
You apparently haven't been to MySpace. Young people add a great deal of value to the Internet.
Oh yeah... that was a while ago. Now I vaguely remember. Jackson's wife was nude when the Gu'ould stripped off her clothing. Can't quite recall the AF woman, though.
I own all of the seasons on DVD and never saw any nudity in Seasons 1 - 5. Are you sure?
I'm also waiting for Vista to come out before I build a new PC w/ all of the latest technical specs, including all of the DRM-hardware. I have no choice - if I want to continue to enjoy my DVD collection and add HDDVD and/or Blue-Ray to my HTPC, I need to go w/ Vista for the DRM.
I think Dell and the others will have all of this pre-configured when your average Joe & Jane buy their PC. Compare it to buying a new car - there is a lot of high-tech computer and mechanical stuff in today's cars but you don't really care or have to even know about it since it is pre-packaged for you.
I tried your suggestion, switched on ClearType, and used the MS ActiveX to tweak it. Yuck. Maybe it's because I'm so used to seeing each pixel, but it looks like ClearType blurs (softens?) the characters making it look like it's smeared. I like very crisp text to the point where I can even see the pixels. In fact, whenever I can choose an option, whether if it's a monitor or a video application, I always turn up the sharpness. BTW, I'm using the Samsung 213T (21.3") in 1600x1200 and DVI.
I just want to make sure Prey is NOT using StarForce. I absolutely refuse to buy or play any game that uses that malware. Can anyone confirm this? Thx.
I cannot stand the corporate advertising bullshit that gets forced down our necks everytime we try to watch a TV show. BUY NOW! SAVE MORE! BUY, CONSUME! YOU NEED THIS! IT WILL REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR LIFE! Even "clever" advertising is still advertising. (But I will admit, I do watch a commercial (usually only shown late at night) that has hot women nearly showing T&A. I have no idea what the commercials are for - so in a sense the marketing company failed, nor do I even care to purchase their products, but will watch the eye candy.)
I buy the DVDs of TV shows at the end of the season. Besides having no commercials, there are behind-the-scenes stuff, too. Everytime I read articles like this, it keeps reminding me of George Lucas' THX-1138. "Buy more, consume more." The main character buys crap not because he needs it, but because he thinks he's supposed to "consume."
I think it's about control. People want to control others who go against their view of the world, real or virtual. With Open Source, some hold a certain "view" that it should be done in this way for the betterment of humanity, while others think it should be done that way to increase their business revenue, etc. In a video game, some people want to control how everyone else, who also paid $20/month to play the same game, plays in their game. e.g. "In my video game, we should stop everyone else from playing so our small, little group can insert Real World situations in the Virtual World which completely removes the immersion effect and fun factor. I am a morally superior person because I disarmed and stood in silence like a sitting duck." Huh? To me, that looks like an easy kill with +++ experience and gold points.
But isn't there something in the EULA that does not allow you to re-license the materials in the game? Wasn't there an issue with "gold miners" and the game companies wanting to stop it because it is against the EULA? If so, then reselling any "virtual" item in the game is against the EULA. Further, how is that virtual item your "property" which you paid money for? What is the game company decides to shutdown their servers or they go bankrupt. In an instant, all of your "property" (electrons arranged in a pattern on hard drives) is gone.
I think the failure(?) of some of these MMORPGs lies with the game designers, not the players who play the game.
Exactly, when did playing a video game and "morals" go together? A game is a competition. There are winners and there are losers. What the hell is the point of advancing your character, being more powerful, getting more gold, experience, etc. unless you can compete with others and use the skills that you have amassed? If the game allows you to be killed, then someone is going to kill you. There is no such thing as "morals". That's the whole point of playing a video game - escape from the real world and wreck havoc and chaos - something you shouldn't do in real life since there are rules against it.
Jesus H. Christ. I read the article and these "gamers" take their recreational time way, way, way too seriously. Look at this example:
The players of World of Warcraft were left with a similar conundrum in March, when a group of gamers performed an act whose only purpose was to cause emotional pain. The death of a member of the community inspired her fellow gamers to hold a virtual funeral, which was raided by a malicious mob that made short work of the mourners, all of whom had relinquished their weapons as a sign of respect. Since the funeral was naively held in a zone designed for combat, few could question the legitimacy of the attack within the game's rules. None the less, the mourners were outraged, not at the penalties their characters would have to suffer, but at the brazen attack on their feelings.
You're playing a video game where you can kill and destroy. That's the game. Your virtual character can do anything you want to do in the game that the game allows. Some want to sit around making a political statement, others want to wreck havoc. The only "rules" in a video game is what the programmers write into it. Other than that, anything goes.
Of course, you can't do anything that's already illegal such as a DDOS attack or sending viruses to other players. Or even cheating - i.e. changing the "rules" in a video game than what the programmers put in place. Note, this is different than taking advantage of an exploit, which is perfectly fine since it is in the game. If gamers don't like it, the programmers can put out a patch to fix it.
The point is that this is just a video game and there are no real-world dollar values assigned to the bits of electrons on the servers' hard drives. If there was, then anyone (most likely the parent company or a programmer within the company) could create 10,000 "uber-great-warrior-characters" for $100 each and be an instant millionaire. There is no such thing as "property rights" in a video game since you own nothing. You pay a monthly fee to access the physical property (servers, routers, etc.) of the game company.
Could you imagine the chaos if your video game character's items were considered real property? Could you get sued for theft if you play a thief and steal the items? Could you get sued for sexual harassment if you knock down a character and remove their armor, thus exposing some of its virtual body parts? Could the video game company be sued for not providing adequate virtual security (i.e. unpickable lock on a treasure chest or your house) to protect your virtual items?
The whole point of a video game is to escape from reality into an alternate place. Some think they can take their politics, opinions, etc. with them and shape the alternate place into the same fucked up place as the real world. Others, like myself, who lived in a structured and planned out environment like to wreck havoc and chaos in the alternate world as an escape from real life. I like to inject my bit of "Grand Theft Auto" gameplay in all of the online game I play.
You can work at a Start-Up. In those types of jobs, there's not a lot of money to go around so there's no room to slack off. Thus, everyone around you should, in theory, be top quality. Your reward for long hours and lower pay is a lot of stock options... But if the company doesn't work out, all you're left with is toilet paper. (No, I'm not bitter, not at all)
Or you can work at Big Corporation. All of them are the same, with varying degrees of B.S. Some have very little office politics and your hard work is noted and rewarded. Others are just one big C.Y.A. environment. Even worse, even if you do work hard in your local I.T. area, upper management may decide to oursource your job, so you get screwed anyways.
Remember, the goal is not to work hard. The goal is to work smart. Put in a lot padding on your estimates so you can slack off and still meet the deadline. If your co-workers in other areas / departments ask you to do things for them, pretend you don't know so they won't bother you anymore. (After all, you only answer to your boss.) Be sure to take the credit when something works and pass the blame when it doesn't. Don't complain about new projects or moved up timelines. You'll still have to complete them anyways if you still want to keep your job. Instead, agree with management and discuss how much more revenue the company will make once the project is finished. It gives the impression you actually give a shit about your clients and you'll be remembered as the "can do" person instead of the "can't do" complainer. I do all of these and have steadily advanced in position & salary.
His Qualities
Your Qualities
Wasn't the THX technology first introduced in Return of the Jedi? According to the web sites I've read, they will be released in Dolby 2.0 just like in the theatres. I can see IV, and V in 2.0, but shouldn't VI be in THX?
I mean, come on. I visit Slashdot for Stuff that Matters. You know, News for... um... oh nevermind.
I started programming in my sophomore year of high school. I always liked math and science and my friend told me about his older brother being a computer programmer and making tens of thousands of dollars. He recommended I learn C and move on from there. I bought one of the Waite Group's C programming books (which was also geared for the 80x86 platform) and learned all of the basics. From there, taught myself C++, then Assembly. Then I started college, noticed girls, and stopped programming except for my math classes and Java my last year to get me a job making tens of thousands of dollars. :-)
The point is that you need to start with the basics. Just as it is a bad idea to have kids use calculators in math class, it is a bad idea to start kids off with C++. Teach the foundations first, then move on from there. Actually, I really don't care for computer classes at all. The best programmers are self-taught. We have to do everything ourselves without anyone to fall back on. All of the creativity, ingenious ideas, etc. come from the individual, not a professor or T.A. There is no safety net. I noticed in the few computer classes that I had to take for my major that a lot of my classmates would always go to the T.A. asking how to do the assignment. There is no way that would work in a real I.T. environment where you are given specs and told to complete it in a few weeks.