Working for a Canadian company, I spent a year writing software for a Brazilian company that handled weights and measurements. And I was outright asked to put in a "hidden" manual override. When I refused on moral grounds, they put pressure on my bosses, and eventually I was forced to put a disable switch on the screen that showed results to the customer. (In other words, when something was weighed, both the customer and the client would get screens displaying the result. By adding the disable, the result would not be displayed on the customer screen, so he had to rely on what the client verbally reported.)
The registers, BTW, were pre-audited by the government team - which clearly wasn't savvy enough to find the switch or had been properly compensated for their blindness.
Again in Brazil, I had been told the representative from the Bureau of weights and measurements was coming by to certify the scales and our system. I worked 30 hours straight to make sure everything was ready in time. But come the scheduled 9 am test, I realized one of the databases was completely unresponsive and huge parts were thus not working. I apologized, told them it would take me an hour to restore the DB so they could test. After a stress-filled hour, things looked repaired and working and ready for testing. I went out to tell the client that things were ready for certification.
They told me that everything had already been certified. I remember saying "How? I know for a fact nothing worked while he was here." The Brazilian client said "He looked at it, and he was certain it would work. He thinks you do good work!"
The problem is, nobody knows how many people downloaded from Ms. Thomas. Nobody. Not even Ms. Thomas. Could be nobody. Could be the entire Internet-using population of the world. Nobody can find out. According to some, this means her liability should be... nothing. I'm not sure that makes sense either.
Ok, so you freely admit no one knows how many downloaded from Ms. Thomas. The number is between zero and everyone on the internet.
Suppose you lived in a country where you're "innocent until proven guilty". A country where it was considered better to let a guilty man go free than to wrongly convict an innocent man. Would it not be correct to say the number used in court should be zero?
I don't think you understand game psychology. There is a crossover between a smooth, slow progression and long-term enjoyability.
If a game had no grind, players would lose interest quickly--the rewards need to be spaced out and not constant.
So you're saying any day now we can expect Civ IV Glider? Mass Effect Glider? Guild Wars Glider?
I'm just picking on some games I play and enjoy. Civ IV is a perfect example. Sure it has a "grind" between the point that you decide on your plan and actually implement it. But what's this? Civ IV lets you set up a build order ahead of time and automate the process? Or it even lets you turn over the city building to an AI so you don't have to do the boring part?
I guess we don't need a Civ IV Glider because the ability to skip the boring parts is built into Civ IV. So according to your logic, it's too bad no one will ever play that game.
At work, we always use "win the lottery" as our excuse to make everyone document everything.
You'd be surprised how much better that works. Much more positive mood too.
5280 feet was designed to be approximately equal to 1000 strides of the average person
Wait... You mean imperial measurements were just failed attempts at a metric system? Imagine if they had just done it right, and instead of miles, if they had just used kilostrides...
I bought a 900 (the 700 screen was just too small for me) and I've been very happy. I have a desktop that does all my high end processing/compiling/gaming/etc. But when I want mobility, the 900 is perfect. I'll pull it out in the living room to browse while I'm watching the news. Or I take it with me too and from work. I wouldn't do that with a regular laptop, but this one is so portable, it's like taking a book to work.
I do kinda regret not waiting for the atom, but it might not be a problem. After seeing mine in action, several folks from work have already offered to buy mine off me...
The differences in the primary processes really show how the parties work. So you're saying the Republicans select the person who can most likely get elected, while the Democrats pick the person who will actually do the best job.
Speaking as someone who is not American, I've always wondered how the heck Bush got elected. Now it kinda makes sense...
"Based on the 6-to-4 ratio the company predicts" I have an insider, a buddy who works at ASUS. And he swears to me that despite the media quoting a "6-to-4 ratio", inside the company they really expect a 3 to 2 ratio. But you didn't hear that from me...
The Brazilian gov't puts heavy taxes on any technologies that are imported. Their whole idea is to be so punative that companies that manufacture in Brazil won't have to compete vs. the outside world.
The Wii costs over $1000 in Brazil and the Playstation 3 costs $1800. (These are 2007 prices, I'm not sure what's current) The games cost $300-$400 reais, which is probably about $200 US Dollars. It's not just a Microsoft issue.
The only reason I'm glad to see this post is because it's vindication. Long ago, before the general population, including myself, were concerned about voting machines and Diebold, the facts were right here on Slashdot. Several folks put a lot of time and effort to explain why they were so dangerous, and convinced many, again including myself, that Diebold really was a threat to honest democracy.
So if there's any joy to be gained from this post, it's simply that it started here, and now it's so well known, it's fodder for humour.
I could list my qualification (starting with Quake) but trust that I am a veteran of FPS games. (In fact, my alias comes from a game of Counterstrike where I was accused of camping, and I responded voice "I'm so terrified, I'm frozen in fear and can't move." and that's what the team called me for the rest of the night." And I absolutely, 100% do NOT enjoy dying in a FPS shooter game. But I do agree that the moment of death is a "release" of sorts. So I can see the confusion.
When I'm playing, a million things are shooting through my head. (Pun intended.) I'm dodging, weaving, doing quick peeks around corners. I'm also thinking of larger strategy. Trying to think where the enemy team is set up, remembering the map danger points, etc. It's fast, furious action with not a moment of relaxation. Every sound, every movement needs to be processed and reacted to. At the moment you die... You no longer have to do that. And of course blood pressure goes down, respiration goes down, and all the signs of Zen might appear. But at the same moment, I'm also likely tossing a controller and shouting 'M*****F*****'. Does that sound like "positive emotion" to you?
"eg. if you have a 1000 kg car compared to a 2000 kg car, then the 2000 kg car is causing 32 times as much wear on the road surface"
This is quite deceptive. Because while your basic formula is correct, the fact is that a 1000kg car may be doing zero damage to the road surface. And 32 x 0 = ? Typical road surface has a critical point where as long as all the vehicles that drive over the surface are under a given weight, the road surface will survive forever. (Discounting weather and other erosive sources.)
Slashdot Mirror
The registers, BTW, were pre-audited by the government team - which clearly wasn't savvy enough to find the switch or had been properly compensated for their blindness.
Again in Brazil, I had been told the representative from the Bureau of weights and measurements was coming by to certify the scales and our system. I worked 30 hours straight to make sure everything was ready in time. But come the scheduled 9 am test, I realized one of the databases was completely unresponsive and huge parts were thus not working. I apologized, told them it would take me an hour to restore the DB so they could test. After a stress-filled hour, things looked repaired and working and ready for testing. I went out to tell the client that things were ready for certification. They told me that everything had already been certified. I remember saying "How? I know for a fact nothing worked while he was here." The Brazilian client said "He looked at it, and he was certain it would work. He thinks you do good work!"
The problem is, nobody knows how many people downloaded from Ms. Thomas. Nobody. Not even Ms. Thomas. Could be nobody. Could be the entire Internet-using population of the world. Nobody can find out. According to some, this means her liability should be ... nothing. I'm not sure that makes sense either.
Ok, so you freely admit no one knows how many downloaded from Ms. Thomas. The number is between zero and everyone on the internet. Suppose you lived in a country where you're "innocent until proven guilty". A country where it was considered better to let a guilty man go free than to wrongly convict an innocent man. Would it not be correct to say the number used in court should be zero?
I don't think you understand game psychology. There is a crossover between a smooth, slow progression and long-term enjoyability.
If a game had no grind, players would lose interest quickly--the rewards need to be spaced out and not constant.
So you're saying any day now we can expect Civ IV Glider? Mass Effect Glider? Guild Wars Glider? I'm just picking on some games I play and enjoy. Civ IV is a perfect example. Sure it has a "grind" between the point that you decide on your plan and actually implement it. But what's this? Civ IV lets you set up a build order ahead of time and automate the process? Or it even lets you turn over the city building to an AI so you don't have to do the boring part? I guess we don't need a Civ IV Glider because the ability to skip the boring parts is built into Civ IV. So according to your logic, it's too bad no one will ever play that game.
You spelled it wrong. Here let me fix it for you... "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Much better. ;)
At work, we always use "win the lottery" as our excuse to make everyone document everything. You'd be surprised how much better that works. Much more positive mood too.
5280 feet was designed to be approximately equal to 1000 strides of the average person
Wait... You mean imperial measurements were just failed attempts at a metric system? Imagine if they had just done it right, and instead of miles, if they had just used kilostrides...
I bought a 900 (the 700 screen was just too small for me) and I've been very happy. I have a desktop that does all my high end processing/compiling/gaming/etc. But when I want mobility, the 900 is perfect. I'll pull it out in the living room to browse while I'm watching the news. Or I take it with me too and from work. I wouldn't do that with a regular laptop, but this one is so portable, it's like taking a book to work. I do kinda regret not waiting for the atom, but it might not be a problem. After seeing mine in action, several folks from work have already offered to buy mine off me...
For example, if he murders ME, I can verify I will stop using the kernel. ;)
When I grow up, I want to be just like you. No sarcasm. Seriously.
The Brazilian gov't puts heavy taxes on any technologies that are imported. Their whole idea is to be so punative that companies that manufacture in Brazil won't have to compete vs. the outside world. The Wii costs over $1000 in Brazil and the Playstation 3 costs $1800. (These are 2007 prices, I'm not sure what's current) The games cost $300-$400 reais, which is probably about $200 US Dollars. It's not just a Microsoft issue.
The only reason I'm glad to see this post is because it's vindication. Long ago, before the general population, including myself, were concerned about voting machines and Diebold, the facts were right here on Slashdot. Several folks put a lot of time and effort to explain why they were so dangerous, and convinced many, again including myself, that Diebold really was a threat to honest democracy.
So if there's any joy to be gained from this post, it's simply that it started here, and now it's so well known, it's fodder for humour.
I could list my qualification (starting with Quake) but trust that I am a veteran of FPS games. (In fact, my alias comes from a game of Counterstrike where I was accused of camping, and I responded voice "I'm so terrified, I'm frozen in fear and can't move." and that's what the team called me for the rest of the night." And I absolutely, 100% do NOT enjoy dying in a FPS shooter game. But I do agree that the moment of death is a "release" of sorts. So I can see the confusion.
When I'm playing, a million things are shooting through my head. (Pun intended.) I'm dodging, weaving, doing quick peeks around corners. I'm also thinking of larger strategy. Trying to think where the enemy team is set up, remembering the map danger points, etc. It's fast, furious action with not a moment of relaxation. Every sound, every movement needs to be processed and reacted to. At the moment you die... You no longer have to do that. And of course blood pressure goes down, respiration goes down, and all the signs of Zen might appear. But at the same moment, I'm also likely tossing a controller and shouting 'M*****F*****'. Does that sound like "positive emotion" to you?
"eg. if you have a 1000 kg car compared to a 2000 kg car, then the 2000 kg car is causing 32 times as much wear on the road surface"
This is quite deceptive. Because while your basic formula is correct, the fact is that a 1000kg car may be doing zero damage to the road surface. And 32 x 0 = ? Typical road surface has a critical point where as long as all the vehicles that drive over the surface are under a given weight, the road surface will survive forever. (Discounting weather and other erosive sources.)
What a great idea! How about all the Slashdot submitters put $20 in a pot, and the last one who hasn't put in a dupe wins the pot?
Batman Batman 2 Sleepy Hollow Nightmare Before Christmas Ed Wood Mars Attacks Beetle Juice...