I didn't go to war, I wasn't destined to go to war, I wasn't a fighter, I shot less than 20 bullets during basic training and threw one fake grenade. What I was taught (how to clean three types of weapons), I could have learnt in a day. The rest was spent running around, doing the dishes and guarding the camp.
My five years in the army had nothing to do with this humiliating period, and it was the last time I saw any of the "sergeants" until I met one of them later on (she was a waitress and I had to decide how much to tip her).
I've been in boot camp, the "instructors" (who were about our own age) were verbally abusive non-stop and humiliated people as much as possible, including name-calling and mocking people in front of others to make everybody giggle (like teachers do in school when they should be teaching).
In my opinion the idea behind it is to break your spirit, make you realise that you're not going to enjoy anything, hate every minute and (somehow) make a good soldier out of you. It's pretty much the same as: 1. Break one's spirit 2.... 3. Profit!
I'm glad it was pretty short, but I seriously hated every minute of it. There was no bonding, no teamwork, nothing. It was simply a bunch of people humiliating another bunch of people just because they could.
Yes, you're probably right. Something along the lines of "if I pay less than production costs then 1. it's a bargain and I should get one and 2. at least Amazon aren't getting rich by selling it (unlike Apple), so it's a fairer deal".
In other words, if word leaked that Amazon are making $100 for each $199 Kindle, people would think they're being pigs. If Amazon are losing $10, that's fair and they'll get it back through content. And so the price is no longer related to the benefit to the consumer (would $199 do something that's worth at least $199 to me), but to the perceived "actual value" as claimed by Amazon. They make this connection for you - if Amazon are paying more than that, then surely it's worth more than that, and I don't have to think hard to decide whether it's a good price *for me*.
Clever - thanks for pointing out this option, because I honestly never thought of that.
"...on a dollars-per-line basis, it makes the group among the nation's most expensive software organizations." "The specs for that one change run 2,500 pages, a volume thicker than a phone book."
There's the consumption side to it as well. I don't have to buy a playstation, but I want to. I don't have to read a book, but I want to. I don't have to listen to music, but I want to.
And as a consumer, I want choice. And as someone with a "fake" job (writing software), I have the money to pay for these "fake" needs. So someone else also has a "fake" job (game programmers, authors, etc.)
Economy is a funny thing. I look at my cats, they couldn't care less about playstation, books or music. All they want is some food, a shelter, and to sleep (I think they also like my company, but maybe I'm deluding myself). Sometimes I wish I could be like them, and sometimes I think they must be bored out of their wits.
Because Israel is not a democracy, as such (despite the trademarks).
People vote, but there is a lot of corruption in the government and many of its actions are undemocratic. Including the way it was elected (note that the current prime minister is not the leader of the party that received the largest number of votes, he's there because of some political slight-of-hand).
But I get the basic principle: if a country is democratic, it should be punished for the actions of its leaders, because in principle the people can do something about them. If a country is not democratic, there's no point punishing it, because not only do the people suffer, they are also not in a position to do anything about it.
So leaving Israel aside for a second, why would the US push for sanctions against North Korea? We all know the people there can't do anything about the government, and they suffer enough. The same could be said about Iran as well (not to mention Iraq, but that's a different story).
I guess reality is just a bit more complicated than that.
The Israeli government never gets embarrassed. That's a proven fact.
This means that anything you do to harm the citizens of Israel simply harms the citizens of Israel. It doesn't change anything anywhere, just makes people's lives a bit more miserable.
There's no problem with that, of course. Many people lead miserable lives, and not just in the middle east. Isolating Israel culturally, financially and scientifically would make many people feel good inside, so at least there is something positive about it.
But I'm a bit sick of the old argument "if we do that, they'll change". In fact, some people in the Israeli government take pride in being isolated, and push towards it at all costs, just to have a common enemy and to score political points. Reality is a bit more complicated than a simple carrot/stick theory.
Yes, it's the Israeli scientists that are responsible for Mossad operations. I mean, in every country the academia is responsible for counter-intelligence and military operations.
Life is so easy when you group together people just because they were all born in the same country. That's why people think that Americans are stupid. I mean, George Bush is stupid; George Bush is American; hence all Americans are stupid. Even Aristotle couldn't fault this logic.
Just remember your poor colleagues trying to understand your inner logic when you're away and they have to fix a bug while customers are complaining and they've got ten other things to finish by yesterday.
When time is short and you've got to dig in someone else's code, you appreciate every bit of help. "q" for "query" is not so bad if it's consistent, but the brain reads "query" a lot faster, even if it takes more time to type. Every abbreviation is something that the brain has to juggle, whereas there's no extra burden when you use words such as "result" or "query".
And please, please don't use the abbreviation "cnt" for counter.
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Nov 27 2010, 17:19:03) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> if 1 + 1 == 2: print "yes" ... yes >>>
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't go to war, I wasn't destined to go to war, I wasn't a fighter, I shot less than 20 bullets during basic training and threw one fake grenade. What I was taught (how to clean three types of weapons), I could have learnt in a day. The rest was spent running around, doing the dishes and guarding the camp.
My five years in the army had nothing to do with this humiliating period, and it was the last time I saw any of the "sergeants" until I met one of them later on (she was a waitress and I had to decide how much to tip her).
I've been in boot camp, the "instructors" (who were about our own age) were verbally abusive non-stop and humiliated people as much as possible, including name-calling and mocking people in front of others to make everybody giggle (like teachers do in school when they should be teaching).
In my opinion the idea behind it is to break your spirit, make you realise that you're not going to enjoy anything, hate every minute and (somehow) make a good soldier out of you. It's pretty much the same as: ...
1. Break one's spirit
2.
3. Profit!
I'm glad it was pretty short, but I seriously hated every minute of it. There was no bonding, no teamwork, nothing. It was simply a bunch of people humiliating another bunch of people just because they could.
Yes, you're probably right. Something along the lines of "if I pay less than production costs then 1. it's a bargain and I should get one and 2. at least Amazon aren't getting rich by selling it (unlike Apple), so it's a fairer deal".
In other words, if word leaked that Amazon are making $100 for each $199 Kindle, people would think they're being pigs. If Amazon are losing $10, that's fair and they'll get it back through content. And so the price is no longer related to the benefit to the consumer (would $199 do something that's worth at least $199 to me), but to the perceived "actual value" as claimed by Amazon. They make this connection for you - if Amazon are paying more than that, then surely it's worth more than that, and I don't have to think hard to decide whether it's a good price *for me*.
Clever - thanks for pointing out this option, because I honestly never thought of that.
What "margin of error"? The *estimate* is $209.63. Not a penny more, not a penny less. Not "around $210" and not "$200+", but exactly $209.63.
That's either a totally bogus number, or inside information direct from the manufacturer.
I'm sure you are aware of the fact that even NASA don't always get it right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_bugs
It's a great article, by the way. But still...
"...on a dollars-per-line basis, it makes the group among the nation's most expensive software organizations."
"The specs for that one change run 2,500 pages, a volume thicker than a phone book."
They don't work 100 times harder than you. They simply belong to a network 100 times better than yours.
There's the consumption side to it as well. I don't have to buy a playstation, but I want to. I don't have to read a book, but I want to. I don't have to listen to music, but I want to.
And as a consumer, I want choice. And as someone with a "fake" job (writing software), I have the money to pay for these "fake" needs. So someone else also has a "fake" job (game programmers, authors, etc.)
Economy is a funny thing. I look at my cats, they couldn't care less about playstation, books or music. All they want is some food, a shelter, and to sleep (I think they also like my company, but maybe I'm deluding myself). Sometimes I wish I could be like them, and sometimes I think they must be bored out of their wits.
Because Israel is not a democracy, as such (despite the trademarks).
People vote, but there is a lot of corruption in the government and many of its actions are undemocratic. Including the way it was elected (note that the current prime minister is not the leader of the party that received the largest number of votes, he's there because of some political slight-of-hand).
But I get the basic principle: if a country is democratic, it should be punished for the actions of its leaders, because in principle the people can do something about them. If a country is not democratic, there's no point punishing it, because not only do the people suffer, they are also not in a position to do anything about it.
So leaving Israel aside for a second, why would the US push for sanctions against North Korea? We all know the people there can't do anything about the government, and they suffer enough. The same could be said about Iran as well (not to mention Iraq, but that's a different story).
I guess reality is just a bit more complicated than that.
The Israeli government never gets embarrassed. That's a proven fact.
This means that anything you do to harm the citizens of Israel simply harms the citizens of Israel. It doesn't change anything anywhere, just makes people's lives a bit more miserable.
There's no problem with that, of course. Many people lead miserable lives, and not just in the middle east. Isolating Israel culturally, financially and scientifically would make many people feel good inside, so at least there is something positive about it.
But I'm a bit sick of the old argument "if we do that, they'll change". In fact, some people in the Israeli government take pride in being isolated, and push towards it at all costs, just to have a common enemy and to score political points. Reality is a bit more complicated than a simple carrot/stick theory.
Yes, it's the Israeli scientists that are responsible for Mossad operations.
I mean, in every country the academia is responsible for counter-intelligence and military operations.
Life is so easy when you group together people just because they were all born in the same country. That's why people think that Americans are stupid. I mean, George Bush is stupid; George Bush is American; hence all Americans are stupid. Even Aristotle couldn't fault this logic.
Patents = innovation.
So patenting a linked list with two pointers is a sign of innovation?
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Szh4AAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false
Texas is an anagram of taxes.
You can find more interesting trivia at www.wikipedia.org.
Probably the same way that Frank McCabe feels about 'Go':
http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/soa_webservices/221601351
They could bundle it with a webcam, so that they can, you know, just see what's missing in your life and send you a few suggestions.
The Black Book taught me the most important lesson in programming: You have so much more to learn...
I had the same feeling when I opened Advanced Spectrum Machine Language (opened, not understood).
It's as natural as "the dog the man the fly bit shot died".
The dog.
Which dog? the dog the man...
Which man? the man the fly bit...
Ok, what did the man do? He shot.
And what happened to the dog? It died.
Simple and natural.
No true Scotsman would follow the Cambridge Guide to English Usage.
You have to be more careful with the way you describe reality. Too much accuracy may cause depression.
Nature should also demand all her land back from the land registry.
I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time
you are finished talking, type RET twice.
How secure can Emacs be with all that malicious Lisp code floating around?
Are you sure malicious lisp code floating around?
Just remember your poor colleagues trying to understand your inner logic when you're away and they have to fix a bug while customers are complaining and they've got ten other things to finish by yesterday.
When time is short and you've got to dig in someone else's code, you appreciate every bit of help. "q" for "query" is not so bad if it's consistent, but the brain reads "query" a lot faster, even if it takes more time to type. Every abbreviation is something that the brain has to juggle, whereas there's no extra burden when you use words such as "result" or "query".
And please, please don't use the abbreviation "cnt" for counter.
I'm glad you added "not to the extreme". Some people like less code, so they have everything in one big function with variables such as "q" and "mm".
I prefer more code: many small functions with readable names. Then again, I use auto-completion so I don't get too tired.
Wet paper bags are a hardware problem.
Why get a bigger hull? Just call it "Submarine 5.0" and you're done.
if a == b: do_something()
Doesn't work.
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Nov 27 2010, 17:19:03) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on
...
win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> if 1 + 1 == 2: print "yes"
yes
>>>