'But perhaps the most significant "update" to come out of Service Pack 1 will be the fact that it exists at all, and that by delivering it to market Microsoft will be signaling that it is now OK for IT shops to pull the trigger on their Windows 7 deployments.'
An initial release of an OS was Microsoft's "signal" that it was ready. People eventually realized that MS's "signal" couldn't be trusted, and they adapted by developing their own "wait for SP1" wisdom. This has not been lost on Microsoft.
If MS's marketing dept. sees that it takes "SP1" to get people to buy their OS, they'll call something "SP1" whenver they want to spur initial uptake of one of their products. So we may find before long that we should wait for SP2 of a given MS product to get the level of quality we want.
Marketers are often sleezebags. Their goal is to drive sales, regardless of how much misleading or deception is required to do so.
I guess it would be insensitive to mention Grammar Nazis right now...
Re:The human eye can dectect 30
on
Framerates Matter
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
The human mind is evolutionary designed to make instant assumptions. Cat in mid air facing us = DANGER. No "Is it dead and being thrown at us?" No "Is it a picture?" As such, video games can quite easily take advantage of this evolutionary assumptions and trick the MIND, if not the brain. into thinking something is real.
It really bothers me when people reason the way you have regarding evolution. I think you're making a huge assumption about what particular causes have lead the human brain to evolve to its present form. Unless what you listed is the only plausible evolutionary pressure that could lead to the brain's current form, I think you're unjustified in asserting that your creation myth of the human brain's present form is in fact true.
You want to shoot someone who probably has zero experience with the field the patent is in, who probably has much less than 2 hours per patent (that's only 4 patents a day, which the various patent articles over the years seem to imply is much less than patent inspectors are expected to review in a single day)?
Good point. On the first offense, just publicly whip the patent investigator. On each subsequent offense, kill the investigator plus all of his management chain, totally one more level of discipline after each offense.
I'm not fundamentally against software patents, so long as they follow some basic rules:
If prior art is found, but wasn't mentioned on the application, the person applying for the patent is shot.
If finding that prior art took less than 2 hours of Googling by a PhD in the field, the inspector is shot.
If all of the above are true, and the patent was asserted against someone, the lawyer is shot, and since corporations are "people", the entire corporation (if one was involved) is put in jail for its "lifetime" (e.g., until its incorporation is dissolved).
A patent is considered "obvious" if 10 top-notch PhD's in the field are put into a room (with access to the Internet), posed with the problem to be solved, and can't come up with a solution similar to the one being proposed within a week.
If a patent is overturned, whoever field the patent must pay all costs (including labor, and interest) to the person who did the work of getting it overturned. And must also participate in a last-man-standing cage match with Michael Tyson after having tatooed on his ass, "Mike Tyson, I'm going to make you my bitch!"
Come on, you're telling me that INTERPOL now has the same protection as the "International Pacific Halibut Commission and Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission".
I'm not worried, as long as they lack the powers of the British Dental Association. Those guys are freakin' crazy.
You shouldn't be recommend Intel graphics for pretty much anything.
I disagree. I've had a few laptops that were primarily used for programming. On those, the basic, build-in Intel graphics (GMA950 and X3100, iirc) were just fine.
In fact, they were even better than ATI or nVidia graphics for me: those computers were running Linux, and I could always count on the Intel drivers being available for the most up-to-date Linux kernels, whereas I couldn't make that assumption for the closed-source nVidia or ATI drivers.
From your high school chemistry classes, you should remember that salts melt at very high temperatures because ions form strong bonds.
There's a lot of things I should have learned in my (AP) high-school chemistry class, but didn't. I'll take your word for it that what you mentioned should be on that list.
Clearly one of the problems which should be obvious is that we are looking at cutting edge material technology to work at these temperatures and neutron fluxes !
Well, duh. We didn't mention it because it was so obvious! Most slashdotters have known that crap from, like, CS 201.
What I'm trying to say is that it is hard to prove things when they can simply lie and further even if you can prove it there isn't much you can do.
Agreed. I would suggest the dude in question gets them to admit in email what they did, before they wise up and shut their mouths. If possible, of course.
I'm guessing that you probably won't find a district attorney who's willing to prosecute them on your behalf. But if you're outside the U.S., or if you can find a civil penalty that might be applicable to their act, you have real means of getting their attention.
I refuse to watch it. I am not going to vote with my pocketbook that plot, craft, and character development don't matter, and that all that matters is effects. This sort of thought has made the bulk of Hollywood movies complete crap. I'm lucky if there is one or two movies a year that aren't nauseatingly bad.
Maybe there's room in the theaters for two different kinds of movies: those with good plot, and those with good visuals?
I saw Avatar last night. I agree that the plot was so-so. But the imagined planet really was beautiful, and it really stoked my imagination. For me, it was worth the ticket price to see them. I like plot as well, but I'm glad this movie exists.
Does this constitute an illegal play on MS/Verison's part(s)?
It seems like, as a team, they're abusing Verizon's monopoly power over people who are locked in via contract.
Alternatively, if Verizon has intentionally reduced the usability of their service, does this represent a material breach of contract with their customers?
When you say "noise", I think you're talking about a random, unpredictable waveform, right?
I think the right way to look at it is this: Once the noise has been generated, there's no longer any uncertainty about the waveform. It's going to be a messy waveform, but at least it's a specific waveform at that point. So Fourier transforms can still be applied, because they work on arbitrary waveforms, including noise.
But I should reiterate that this really isn't my area of expertise.
Slashdot Mirror
Am I the only person who thought Sigourney Weaver's body looked surprisingly hot, considering her age?
An initial release of an OS was Microsoft's "signal" that it was ready. People eventually realized that MS's "signal" couldn't be trusted, and they adapted by developing their own "wait for SP1" wisdom. This has not been lost on Microsoft.
If MS's marketing dept. sees that it takes "SP1" to get people to buy their OS, they'll call something "SP1" whenver they want to spur initial uptake of one of their products. So we may find before long that we should wait for SP2 of a given MS product to get the level of quality we want.
Marketers are often sleezebags. Their goal is to drive sales, regardless of how much misleading or deception is required to do so.
I'm curious too. Let me go ask the lobbyists who draft our legislation.
Maybe he'd be happier just playing paintball and/or AirSoft?
So you're what... some kind of Grammar Nazi Hunter?
I guess it would be insensitive to mention Grammar Nazis right now...
It really bothers me when people reason the way you have regarding evolution. I think you're making a huge assumption about what particular causes have lead the human brain to evolve to its present form. Unless what you listed is the only plausible evolutionary pressure that could lead to the brain's current form, I think you're unjustified in asserting that your creation myth of the human brain's present form is in fact true.
Good point. On the first offense, just publicly whip the patent investigator. On each subsequent offense, kill the investigator plus all of his management chain, totally one more level of discipline after each offense.
I'm not fundamentally against software patents, so long as they follow some basic rules:
This would be completely acceptable to me.
I'm not worried, as long as they lack the powers of the British Dental Association. Those guys are freakin' crazy.
Sure, but to be fair, compared to our minds during sex, a pet rock has more going on mentally.
I disagree. I've had a few laptops that were primarily used for programming. On those, the basic, build-in Intel graphics (GMA950 and X3100, iirc) were just fine.
In fact, they were even better than ATI or nVidia graphics for me: those computers were running Linux, and I could always count on the Intel drivers being available for the most up-to-date Linux kernels, whereas I couldn't make that assumption for the closed-source nVidia or ATI drivers.
There's a lot of things I should have learned in my (AP) high-school chemistry class, but didn't. I'll take your word for it that what you mentioned should be on that list.
Well, duh. We didn't mention it because it was so obvious! Most slashdotters have known that crap from, like, CS 201.
No worries! If you're right, all even-numbered rehashings of a story get it completely right!
And that's why I never go head-to-head against Emeril.
I think there's an app for that on the Emacs operating system.
The problem is that if you had two such engineers, they're compete to see who could get his 72 virgins stacked to make the strongest bridge.
Any sufficiently realistic video game will heal your character via virtual health insurance forms.
Thanks, but I'll take my crowbar any day.
Agreed. I would suggest the dude in question gets them to admit in email what they did, before they wise up and shut their mouths. If possible, of course.
Depending on where the center is located, and exactly what you agreed to in your terms of service, they may have violated anti-hacking laws.
I'm guessing that you probably won't find a district attorney who's willing to prosecute them on your behalf. But if you're outside the U.S., or if you can find a civil penalty that might be applicable to their act, you have real means of getting their attention.
Maybe there's room in the theaters for two different kinds of movies: those with good plot, and those with good visuals?
I saw Avatar last night. I agree that the plot was so-so. But the imagined planet really was beautiful, and it really stoked my imagination. For me, it was worth the ticket price to see them. I like plot as well, but I'm glad this movie exists.
Lawrence Lessig argued that before the SCOTUS, and they wouldn't buy even that basic point, IIRC.
Does this constitute an illegal play on MS/Verison's part(s)?
It seems like, as a team, they're abusing Verizon's monopoly power over people who are locked in via contract.
Alternatively, if Verizon has intentionally reduced the usability of their service, does this represent a material breach of contract with their customers?
When you say "noise", I think you're talking about a random, unpredictable waveform, right?
I think the right way to look at it is this: Once the noise has been generated, there's no longer any uncertainty about the waveform. It's going to be a messy waveform, but at least it's a specific waveform at that point. So Fourier transforms can still be applied, because they work on arbitrary waveforms, including noise.
But I should reiterate that this really isn't my area of expertise.