They mean English as a programming language, which would, indeed, be the easiest to learn of them all, provided the person attempting to learn it were already a fluent speaker/reader/writer of the natural language English.
I agree about Perl, however. Perl can be more cryptic than Enigma! Hardly "easy to learn".
Those who whine about the anti-MS attitude of Slashdotters are just as annoying as those who have a blind anti-MS attitude. Take your bitching elsewhere, please.
Penny Arcade and PvP have taken a few shots at each other over the years -- some playful jabs, some that seemed less than benign. Now be honest: what's really going on between you guys and Scott?
most of the time that people use Zope, it's to run a CMS on top (or in the case of Plone, walk or crawl a CMS on top)
And now you know why we don't develop for Zope or Plone anymore in house. Performance just got to be too big an issue, dispite (or perhaps because of) the nifty features Zope offers. Now that 3.0 is out, we'll take another look, but we'll probably stick with PHP/Apache.
I suggest you look into the concept of satire. Yes, they're meant to be funny. Not informative or helpful, or ethical. Funny.
And they are. The Giant Douche / Turd Sandwich episode was downright hi-friggin-larious, ripped on both sides of the aisle and PETA in the process. If you didn't think it was funny.... I dunno. Maybe you should flick your funny bone or something.
Now that we have the whole story, I think we can cut Nintendo a little bit of slack. Note the following from the original C&D letter:
It has come to our client's attention recently that you are using the Nintendo trademark(s)/works in the
hidden text/visible text/meta tags and/or title and/or links of the above-referenced sexually explicit Web site.
Note the bolded portions. Then note this quote from the apology letter:
The letter was sent as part of an ongoing Nintendo program to aggressively protect our younger consumers from the hundreds of sexually-explicit sites each year that use Nintendo properties to attract children. We are proud of our efforts in this area. Unfortunately, the site posting identified in our letter was targeted by mistake.
What Nintendo did was try to protect children from porn-site google-spoofing. I know every one of you has done an innocent search for, say, "dog food brands", and come up with hundreds of porn links, usually on the first page, often the first link! I think what Nintendo was trying to do is a good thing, not a bad thing; unfortunately, they targeted a legitimate porn site rather than a google-spoofer.
It was a mistake, and they recognized it and fessed up. That in and of itself takes balls, and I salute Nintendo for it. I think the rest of us should calm down about it. I understand the desire to knee-jerk and think the man is out to get us, but I think the truth, in this case, is a little more mundane.
After several years of thinking about it, I've decided that the reason is because I kept asking "why".
I've never seen an adequate explaination for *why* a Lorentz Transformation is necessary and, since everything about relativity hinges on it, the entire theory breaks down for me at that point.
Of course, as soon as I finally understand why, I'll probably go "duh! of course!!!!" or something like that.;)
Today is a great day for space afficionados. We've been rather fed up with NASA's castration for years... it's great that the doorway to space seems to be opening up again.
I am very much in favor of the Electoral College, although I agree that certain tweaks are necessary, specifically the winner-take-all system that nearly all of the States have adopted.
Mr. Bennahum, you appear to be statistically oriented.... try applying those statistics to the inherit error involved in a nation-wide direct-vote Presidential election. Be sure to factor in electoral problems like the ones in New Mexico and Florida in the 2000 election.
Pretty high, isn't it? That's right it is.
Not only does the Electoral College ensure that a Presidential Candidate be palatable to most of the States in the country (as Luke White mentioned), it also ensures a final vote that has zero statistic error. Although whether or not a particular vote should have been one way or the other could come in to question, the vote itself, once cast, is solid and undeniable. There is zero doubt about the legitimacy of the Presidency in such as system.
Invariably, whenever there is a close race, somebody calls for the abolishment of the Electoral College. The thing is... close races are when the Electoral College goes to *work*, not when it gets in the way.
Average salaries may be on the increase, but total jobs in the IT field are not. It's getting *more* difficult to find a job; the glut of IT folks out there (and it *is* a glut) means employers can sit on their haunches while waiting for that "perfect candidate" who has exactly 3 years as an Oracle DBA and 5+ years experience with ADO.NET. (Yes, I've seen job offers exactly like that -- has ADO.NET even been *around* for 5 years?).
There are *ZERO* entry level jobs on the market at the moment. So the rest of us who just got out of college, even if we racked up experience with internships or other on-the-side jobs, are screwed unless we can lie convincingly in our interviews. If we can even *get* an interview, that is.
Then you're ignoring a much larger problem than the Electoral College--gerrymandering.
Deliberately, in fact. I agree that it's a problem, but I didnt' think it was directly relevant to what I was discussing. Tangential, yes. I actually had severl paragraphs written on the subject, but I deleted them before I posted. I agree that gerrymandering is a problem, but as I wrote, I realize that I didn't have the slightest clue how to actually go about fixing it. Everything I suggested was a hack, just as exploitable as leaving any districting rules out entirely.
*shrug* We could probably have a whole thread just on gerrymandering.
The ribbon itself, if it's conductive, could act as a lightning rod; all you have to do is ground it.
Re:Why do we /still/ have the Electoral College?
on
Nader off Florida Ballot
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Two political reasons, and one statistical reason:
1) because the Electoral College allows the *individual states*, not the popular vote, to elect the President. This actually *helps* keep California and New York from completely dominating, say, Wisconsin.
2) because the winner-take-all system in place favors a two-party system, which shifts political coalitions and compromise out of the government and into political parties, creating a more simple, stable government. This is at the expense of choices for voters, naturally.
3) because a close national vote like 2000 will never be considered valid. 2000 was statistically a tie (49.3% to 49.8% in favor of Gore -- about 500,000 votes out of 100 million). Most states and local governments have some 1% difference rule that mandates a recount for a close race. Imagine the debacle in Florida, but scaled nationwide. Yeah, we're talking total chaos. Now imagine a recount of the Electoral votes. 538 -- nice and easy. Although whether an individual vote should have been one way or the other might be called into question, you cannot question the final tally.
Now, I happen to think that number 2 is a bogus reason, but I agree with the reasoning behind 1 and 3. To that end, I think the Electoral College should be *reformed*, but not eliminated. I favor eliminating the possibility of winner-take-all, and setting up a system where each House vote is determined by popular vote within that district -- states still get to draw the district lines per census -- and the two senate votes are determined by state-wide popular vote, coupled with a strictly mathematical process (i.e. no Electors, no two-votes one not in home state, etc.). Possibly an auto-invalidation rule for close votes within a particular district could help, but I can see enough problems that I wouldn't push hard for it.
Such a system will help keep the little states from being stomped (a win in the district of a 3-vote state is worth 3 votes rather than one), while giving third parties a better chance of at least *affecting* the election by drawing electoral votes.
Well.... since we're likely talking about a *woven* nanotube mesh, why would we only have one process for growing the thread? Paralell nanotube growth would cut the time required to build a ribbon to the sky quite a bit.
Of course, by your math, we'd need at least a dozen and a half processesseseseseses -- processi? Processions?
Slashdot Mirror
Read the first abstract here.
They mean English as a programming language, which would, indeed, be the easiest to learn of them all, provided the person attempting to learn it were already a fluent speaker/reader/writer of the natural language English.
I agree about Perl, however. Perl can be more cryptic than Enigma! Hardly "easy to learn".
Those who whine about the anti-MS attitude of Slashdotters are just as annoying as those who have a blind anti-MS attitude. Take your bitching elsewhere, please.
Penny Arcade and PvP have taken a few shots at each other over the years -- some playful jabs, some that seemed less than benign. Now be honest: what's really going on between you guys and Scott?
You'd think BBC would be above sensationalizing pseudo-science, wouldn't you?
... has dealt with this topic. Anything I write would just reword what David wrote, so I'll skip the redundancy. :)
I suggest you look into the concept of satire. Yes, they're meant to be funny. Not informative or helpful, or ethical. Funny.
And they are. The Giant Douche / Turd Sandwich episode was downright hi-friggin-larious, ripped on both sides of the aisle and PETA in the process. If you didn't think it was funny.... I dunno. Maybe you should flick your funny bone or something.
2 months to design and implement an application on an architecture I've yet to even read up on.
I think I'll try it.
It was a mistake, and they recognized it and fessed up. That in and of itself takes balls, and I salute Nintendo for it. I think the rest of us should calm down about it. I understand the desire to knee-jerk and think the man is out to get us, but I think the truth, in this case, is a little more mundane.
Of course.... all it will have is stuff like:
sup
nmu
nmjc
a/s/l? I have pics on my webcam
bot! j00 su><orz!
I had the same problem.
;)
After several years of thinking about it, I've decided that the reason is because I kept asking "why".
I've never seen an adequate explaination for *why* a Lorentz Transformation is necessary and, since everything about relativity hinges on it, the entire theory breaks down for me at that point.
Of course, as soon as I finally understand why, I'll probably go "duh! of course!!!!" or something like that.
buzz with your index finger, not your thumb.
Private airliners can also be used to deliver nukes, yet they reach every corner of the globe.
Today is a great day for space afficionados. We've been rather fed up with NASA's castration for years... it's great that the doorway to space seems to be opening up again.
Next step: orbit.
I am very much in favor of the Electoral College, although I agree that certain tweaks are necessary, specifically the winner-take-all system that nearly all of the States have adopted.
Mr. Bennahum, you appear to be statistically oriented.... try applying those statistics to the inherit error involved in a nation-wide direct-vote Presidential election. Be sure to factor in electoral problems like the ones in New Mexico and Florida in the 2000 election.
Pretty high, isn't it? That's right it is.
Not only does the Electoral College ensure that a Presidential Candidate be palatable to most of the States in the country (as Luke White mentioned), it also ensures a final vote that has zero statistic error. Although whether or not a particular vote should have been one way or the other could come in to question, the vote itself, once cast, is solid and undeniable. There is zero doubt about the legitimacy of the Presidency in such as system.
Invariably, whenever there is a close race, somebody calls for the abolishment of the Electoral College. The thing is... close races are when the Electoral College goes to *work*, not when it gets in the way.
Fix the Electoral College, don't remove it.
That's still better no job at all.
w3rd.
Average salaries may be on the increase, but total jobs in the IT field are not. It's getting *more* difficult to find a job; the glut of IT folks out there (and it *is* a glut) means employers can sit on their haunches while waiting for that "perfect candidate" who has exactly 3 years as an Oracle DBA and 5+ years experience with ADO.NET. (Yes, I've seen job offers exactly like that -- has ADO.NET even been *around* for 5 years?).
There are *ZERO* entry level jobs on the market at the moment. So the rest of us who just got out of college, even if we racked up experience with internships or other on-the-side jobs, are screwed unless we can lie convincingly in our interviews. If we can even *get* an interview, that is.
By the way, for those of you who are in the U.S..... 6:30 pm British time is 1:30pm Eastern time. So be ready... it'll be broadcast in about an hour.
augh! Stupid scroll-wheel switched me to extrans when I wasn't looking! I hate when I do that!!! Sorry about the formatting there.
Deliberately, in fact. I agree that it's a problem, but I didnt' think it was directly relevant to what I was discussing. Tangential, yes. I actually had severl paragraphs written on the subject, but I deleted them before I posted. I agree that gerrymandering is a problem, but as I wrote, I realize that I didn't have the slightest clue how to actually go about fixing it. Everything I suggested was a hack, just as exploitable as leaving any districting rules out entirely.
*shrug* We could probably have a whole thread just on gerrymandering.
The ribbon itself, if it's conductive, could act as a lightning rod; all you have to do is ground it.
Two political reasons, and one statistical reason:
1) because the Electoral College allows the *individual states*, not the popular vote, to elect the President. This actually *helps* keep California and New York from completely dominating, say, Wisconsin.
2) because the winner-take-all system in place favors a two-party system, which shifts political coalitions and compromise out of the government and into political parties, creating a more simple, stable government. This is at the expense of choices for voters, naturally.
3) because a close national vote like 2000 will never be considered valid. 2000 was statistically a tie (49.3% to 49.8% in favor of Gore -- about 500,000 votes out of 100 million). Most states and local governments have some 1% difference rule that mandates a recount for a close race. Imagine the debacle in Florida, but scaled nationwide. Yeah, we're talking total chaos. Now imagine a recount of the Electoral votes. 538 -- nice and easy. Although whether an individual vote should have been one way or the other might be called into question, you cannot question the final tally.
Now, I happen to think that number 2 is a bogus reason, but I agree with the reasoning behind 1 and 3. To that end, I think the Electoral College should be *reformed*, but not eliminated. I favor eliminating the possibility of winner-take-all, and setting up a system where each House vote is determined by popular vote within that district -- states still get to draw the district lines per census -- and the two senate votes are determined by state-wide popular vote, coupled with a strictly mathematical process (i.e. no Electors, no two-votes one not in home state, etc.). Possibly an auto-invalidation rule for close votes within a particular district could help, but I can see enough problems that I wouldn't push hard for it.
Such a system will help keep the little states from being stomped (a win in the district of a 3-vote state is worth 3 votes rather than one), while giving third parties a better chance of at least *affecting* the election by drawing electoral votes.
Ever hear of a lightning rod?
Well.... since we're likely talking about a *woven* nanotube mesh, why would we only have one process for growing the thread? Paralell nanotube growth would cut the time required to build a ribbon to the sky quite a bit.
Of course, by your math, we'd need at least a dozen and a half processesseseseseses -- processi? Processions?
Heh heh heh heh....