It's possible that the problem is decentralized control.
If a school district were to decide to make its math classes harder, the grades in those classes would go down, but the students would probably be learning more, since students typically rise to the level of performance expected of them.
However, what happens when one school district raises standards, and the one next door doesn't? The school district that raised standards has lower GPAs, and their students compare poorly against neighboring districts, and those students miss out on scholarships (and perhaps don't get into the school of their choice).
I'm no fan of centralized control over education, but how can math standards be raised without students unfairly missing out on a college education?
That's part of my point. Paying the developers overtime would make the company (and hopefully the managers) pay for the "mistake" of poor planning, making it less likely to happen again.
It's my opinion that they do it on purpose, fully aware that neither they or the company will have to pay the consequence.
Most developers of software or hardware are no salary and get no overtime pay. When theye refuse to work the extra hours, projects miss their unrealistic deadlines, and they lose our jobs.
That's no solution.
I see this as a common problem throughout the tech industry, it just seems to be more pronounced than most at EA.
The upper management creates a flawed schedule, without enough time or resources to do all of the required tasks.
When it becomes apparent that the schedule will be missed, everyone goes into crunch mode, working ungodly hours to get the product out the door.
The project is saved, but all of the developers have ulcers.
Since the management didn't have to pay the developers for the extra hours they worked, there is not cost to the scheduling mistake, and make the same mistakes on the next project (unless they intentionally lowball the schedule, because they know they won't be the one's paying for it).
If the developers received overtime, there would be a cost to the error, and it would be less likely to happen the next time.
Perhaps the reason she was riding the white line is because it had glass or rocks in it that would puncture here tire. The street cleaners rarely clean the shoulders.
Besides, she is entitled to a full lane (by law), if she sees fit.
Fine, the car can detect collisions with other cars, but can it detect collisions with bicycles and pedestrians?
On most roads in the US, despite what people think, bicycles have equal access to the roads under the the law.
1. Will their sensors be able to detect a bicyclist?
2. Will they be able to identify it as a "cyclist" or will it presume that it's a ped
3. will the behavior modeling software (used to predict what the identified object will do next - essential for this type of system) be able to predict the behavior of a cyclist?
Typcially, the name "The Economist" is regarded as qualification enough.
It made quite a row when they endorsed John Kerry for President, considering their staunchly fiscally conservative point of view.
That would be fine, but the big question comes down to "what do we teach the children in school?"
Do we teach them evolution? Intelligent design? These are debates that happened this year in Texas (and several other states)
Do the evolutionists want the future scientists of America to believe in intelligent design? No.
Do the intelligent designsists want the future theologians (it would be foolish to call them scientists, since they don't follow the basic tenets of science) of America to believe in evolution? No.
There lies the deadlock, and the reason this debate matters.
One side-effect of 64-bit computing that I don't hear a lot of discussion about is the increase in the size of a pointer.
A standard implementation of a linked list of integers will now be 50 to 100% larger (depending on if you use 32 or 64 bit integers), simply because the pointers take up more space.
If I bought a 64 bit system, simply because it's the "Best", but only got 1GB of RAM, I have less useful memory, because the pointers take up all of my physical RAM.
Do the architects of these systems take this into account?
articles like this really chap my hide, because they equate programming with any computer oriented job. If you design web pages, you are not a programmer (unless you write your own back-end apps - Writing HTML does not count).
They always post dire statistics about "computer professionals" in Silicon Valley not being able to find jobs, but how many of those professionals have technical degrees? How many of them were liberal arts majors who lucked into a technical labor shortage in the late 90's? How many of them were accountants for failed dot-coms?
Yes, the job market for degreed professionals, but not as bad as that article makes it out to be.
Actually, it would be in your best interest to go with the signature instead of entering a PIN for 2 reasons:
When you enter a PIN in an ATM, the PIN is encrypted immediatly using hardware (usually an IBM 4758 encryption board). When you enter the PIN at the grocery store, they probably do the encryption using software, and exactly how secure is the back-end computer system at a grocery store? I don't trust an IT guy who couldn't get a job somewhere else. Also, it is virtually impossible to contest a purchase that was made using a PIN, so if someone else gets your PIN, too bad for you.
Which brings me to my second point: when a bogus purchase is made with a signature, all you have to do is call the card company to get it cancelled. You cannot get a purchase made using a PIN cancelled.
To quote the article:
"70 percent of voters in the state's November 2002 elections...reported being very confident that their vote was accurately counted"
Since when does voter confidence have any correlation with how secure/reliable the system is?
The vast majority of the voters consider computers some sort of "magical" technology, and understand very little about how they work, or, more importantly, how they are programmed.
Anonymous coward is right. My DishNetwork box waits until the box is turned off and downloads the guide in the middle of the night from the satellite. Sometimes I turn it on late at night and it's busy downloading the guide. It then gives me the choice to interrupt the download to watch TV or not.
I don't know how Direct TV does it, though.
I don't have a POTs line attached to my Dish Network PVR, and I have no problems. I think it only uses it for ordering pay-per-view. Have you considered switching? (I rent my equipment for something like $5 a month)
Have you considered getting a cable model or DSL line instead of the phone line? If the only thing you use it for is data, why not get a much fatter pipe for just a few dollars more a month?
You guys still don't get it!
Microsoft no longer cares about developers!
Most of the users out there don't use anything but Microsoft products. The users want an easy experience, and Microsoft (sort-of) provides that.
It doesn't matter to Microsoft (or most of the users) how many developers defect to Open Source.
Microsoft used to care about developers, but those days are over. If Microsoft wants an app written for Windows, it writes it.
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It's possible that the problem is decentralized control.
If a school district were to decide to make its math classes harder, the grades in those classes would go down, but the students would probably be learning more, since students typically rise to the level of performance expected of them.
However, what happens when one school district raises standards, and the one next door doesn't? The school district that raised standards has lower GPAs, and their students compare poorly against neighboring districts, and those students miss out on scholarships (and perhaps don't get into the school of their choice).
I'm no fan of centralized control over education, but how can math standards be raised without students unfairly missing out on a college education?
That's part of my point. Paying the developers overtime would make the company (and hopefully the managers) pay for the "mistake" of poor planning, making it less likely to happen again.
It's my opinion that they do it on purpose, fully aware that neither they or the company will have to pay the consequence.
Most developers of software or hardware are no salary and get no overtime pay. When theye refuse to work the extra hours, projects miss their unrealistic deadlines, and they lose our jobs. That's no solution.
I see this as a common problem throughout the tech industry, it just seems to be more pronounced than most at EA. The upper management creates a flawed schedule, without enough time or resources to do all of the required tasks. When it becomes apparent that the schedule will be missed, everyone goes into crunch mode, working ungodly hours to get the product out the door. The project is saved, but all of the developers have ulcers. Since the management didn't have to pay the developers for the extra hours they worked, there is not cost to the scheduling mistake, and make the same mistakes on the next project (unless they intentionally lowball the schedule, because they know they won't be the one's paying for it). If the developers received overtime, there would be a cost to the error, and it would be less likely to happen the next time.
Perhaps the reason she was riding the white line is because it had glass or rocks in it that would puncture here tire. The street cleaners rarely clean the shoulders. Besides, she is entitled to a full lane (by law), if she sees fit.
Fine, the car can detect collisions with other cars, but can it detect collisions with bicycles and pedestrians? On most roads in the US, despite what people think, bicycles have equal access to the roads under the the law. 1. Will their sensors be able to detect a bicyclist? 2. Will they be able to identify it as a "cyclist" or will it presume that it's a ped 3. will the behavior modeling software (used to predict what the identified object will do next - essential for this type of system) be able to predict the behavior of a cyclist?
Typcially, the name "The Economist" is regarded as qualification enough. It made quite a row when they endorsed John Kerry for President, considering their staunchly fiscally conservative point of view.
That would be fine, but the big question comes down to "what do we teach the children in school?" Do we teach them evolution? Intelligent design? These are debates that happened this year in Texas (and several other states) Do the evolutionists want the future scientists of America to believe in intelligent design? No. Do the intelligent designsists want the future theologians (it would be foolish to call them scientists, since they don't follow the basic tenets of science) of America to believe in evolution? No. There lies the deadlock, and the reason this debate matters.
One side-effect of 64-bit computing that I don't hear a lot of discussion about is the increase in the size of a pointer. A standard implementation of a linked list of integers will now be 50 to 100% larger (depending on if you use 32 or 64 bit integers), simply because the pointers take up more space. If I bought a 64 bit system, simply because it's the "Best", but only got 1GB of RAM, I have less useful memory, because the pointers take up all of my physical RAM. Do the architects of these systems take this into account?
articles like this really chap my hide, because they equate programming with any computer oriented job. If you design web pages, you are not a programmer (unless you write your own back-end apps - Writing HTML does not count). They always post dire statistics about "computer professionals" in Silicon Valley not being able to find jobs, but how many of those professionals have technical degrees? How many of them were liberal arts majors who lucked into a technical labor shortage in the late 90's? How many of them were accountants for failed dot-coms? Yes, the job market for degreed professionals, but not as bad as that article makes it out to be.
I think the original post was referring the the conspiracies as right-wing, not the conspiracy theories(which, we would presume, would be left-wing).
Actually, it would be in your best interest to go with the signature instead of entering a PIN for 2 reasons: When you enter a PIN in an ATM, the PIN is encrypted immediatly using hardware (usually an IBM 4758 encryption board). When you enter the PIN at the grocery store, they probably do the encryption using software, and exactly how secure is the back-end computer system at a grocery store? I don't trust an IT guy who couldn't get a job somewhere else. Also, it is virtually impossible to contest a purchase that was made using a PIN, so if someone else gets your PIN, too bad for you. Which brings me to my second point: when a bogus purchase is made with a signature, all you have to do is call the card company to get it cancelled. You cannot get a purchase made using a PIN cancelled.
To quote the article: "70 percent of voters in the state's November 2002 elections...reported being very confident that their vote was accurately counted" Since when does voter confidence have any correlation with how secure/reliable the system is? The vast majority of the voters consider computers some sort of "magical" technology, and understand very little about how they work, or, more importantly, how they are programmed.
Anonymous coward is right. My DishNetwork box waits until the box is turned off and downloads the guide in the middle of the night from the satellite. Sometimes I turn it on late at night and it's busy downloading the guide. It then gives me the choice to interrupt the download to watch TV or not. I don't know how Direct TV does it, though.
I don't have a POTs line attached to my Dish Network PVR, and I have no problems. I think it only uses it for ordering pay-per-view. Have you considered switching? (I rent my equipment for something like $5 a month)
Have you considered getting a cable model or DSL line instead of the phone line? If the only thing you use it for is data, why not get a much fatter pipe for just a few dollars more a month?
You guys still don't get it! Microsoft no longer cares about developers! Most of the users out there don't use anything but Microsoft products. The users want an easy experience, and Microsoft (sort-of) provides that. It doesn't matter to Microsoft (or most of the users) how many developers defect to Open Source. Microsoft used to care about developers, but those days are over. If Microsoft wants an app written for Windows, it writes it.