The type checking is much weaker thus introducing new potential holes for error to slip through
No, the compile time type checking is stronger. Since, for example, you can declare the exact type that a collection may contain, there's no need for unsafe casting at run-time. This is *much* safer, as a whole class of run-time errors has been eliminated.
The reusabilty "argument" is rubbish: that's what we have already OOP for. And when you now claim performance problems due to heavy stack/virtual methods use: that's an issue of the processor design not of the programming language. When you think that running serious software on system compatible to 30 year old rubbish is cool, then you must accept the performance of 30 year old waste in the same turn.
I don't see what this has to do with generics. But I agree in so far as "virtual" methods should be the default as they are in Java. And they still are. Adding generics to Java hasn't changed that one bit.
The above mentioned problems create new security holes
Such as? I've never heard of such a thing.
That's why the use of generics/templates in strictly forbidden in e.g. the banking sector
Aside from the fact that your argument about "security holes" is untrue on the face of it, this is just incorrect. Evidence? I know people using C++ at various banks, and they've never mentioned any such thing.
Due to turing completeness of most template/generics systems the compiler is slowed down to 30 percent performance
This is true - and actually it's much worse than that. But honestly, is that an issue today?
More evil is that templates push the grammars into the Chomsky-0 type making secure (=100%) correctness checking impossible
Firstly, this kind of thing will only effect a tiny subset of Java programmers. Secondly, correctness checking *is* impossible to get 100% right. Turing showed that, after all...
In old languages like Lisps the use of generics is usually strongly discouraged to users unless they are ultra-gurus due to the bad experiences. It's not clear why this should be different for Java or C++
I don't think I'd be going out on a limb to say that you don't really know what generics are as they apply to C++ and Java.
Given that Lisp is a dynamically typed language in the first place, I'd imagine that "generics" are a very different feature entirely in that language. So what are generics in Lisp, exactly?
So, I look at your homepage to see if I can find out what company could possible be so hopelessly backwards and lame, and I see this: "systems engineer with a certain large aerospace/defence contractor based in Brisbane's CBD, Queensland, Australia".
That's the second time in a week I've run into somebody in Brisbane on Slashdot that I didn't already know - before that, it had never happened. Anyway, I think I can guess who it is you work for. If I'm right, I know some people there. When I was looking for work last year I seriously considered applying - but I didn't *exactly* because of this kind of bullshit. Now, I don't want to blow my own trumpet too much, but it's safe to say I would have been a pretty good fit for at least one of the current projects there to say the least, and it's certainly *not* good when people like me are put off by stupid rubbish like this.
Basically, if you project the image of a bunch of anti-innovation and backward luddites, you're not going to attract or *retain* the kind of people you might like to, just lemmings who don't actually contribute anything beyond grunt coding work. I see you're not entirely happy, so you're excepted, of course;)
A brief aside
On your todo list, I noticed this:
- Understand how CORBA works. - In Python.
Another co-incidence. So what did you want to know? About either. Just email me at my address above and I'll help as much as I am able if you have any questions.
I've yet to bring myself to try Victoria Bitters -- it's those initials, they give me the heebiejeebies
VB is my lowest limit of toleration. Then you get into real swill like XXXX. If I'm absolutely stuck with no other choice, VB is what I'll go for.
As for "next time" -- I quite like it here, not planning on leaving anytime soon, thanks
I wasn't sure if you were still here or not. Well, glad to hear you like it!
This marks the first time I've run into somebody on/. who lives in Brisbane that I didn't already know in real life.
I've got used to driving on the left now, you see, and I don't want to be forced to re-learn (again).
Ah, yes. I know this well - I just snapped back after a few weeks once I got back.
What's really strange is that my memories reversed themselves as well at exactly the same time - for example I now recall conversations I had while driving in the US, talking to the passenger on my left. Of course, it would have been the other way around in reality. The passenger would have been on my *right*.
And that's exactly why we export it:) As you will have noticed, no-one here drinks it.
(I like Toohey's myself.)
Toohey's eh? Not a bad call. Try Toohey's Old if you get a chance next time you're here. And also give "James Boags" a try, currently my domestic beer of choice. More expensive but well worth it.
Never been to Sydney, I've always gone via Auckland
Ah, I see. I'd forgotten about that option. I might try that next time, anything to shorten that trans-pacific flight even by a little bit.
If the US declared war on Australia tomorrow (granted, that's an unlikely event, but nevertheless), do you think the Aussie would just let me hop the next flight out of Brisbane Internaitonal back to LA? Hell, no -- I'd be interned as an enemy national.
We could just threaten you with exporting more Fosters (a chemical agent if ever there was one) and with encouraging Russell Crowe to record more "music". Look, I know that probably contravenes the rules of warfare, as well as being absolutely reprehensible, but desperate times...
do you think the Aussie would just let me hop the next flight out of Brisbane Internaitonal back to LA?
No, but only because there are no flights direct from Brisbane to LA, you have to go to Sydney first;)
(However, it's been a few years since I made that trek, so it might have changed)
As for me, I was born and raised in the USA of native-born American parents; my American ancestors fought in the Revolution, the Civil War, and both World Wars; I hold a US passport; I pay US taxes. I am definitely a US citizen, and I definitely am enitled to vote in US elections.
Yes, I've lived for an extended period in the US, and I'd agree in principle, even thought the situation is reversed. I fully expected to retain my rights as an Australian citizen during that time. Except: I didn't have to pay Australian taxes while I was there, just US ones. I guess the "tax treaty" that we have for this sort of thing just isn't symmetrical.
Except, of course, that double-neck guitars have their purpose [snip] There's still no better way to move between string layouts
Interesting. I knew that they must have had some purpose, aside from looking a bit silly;) Otto, certainly, had no futher use for it apart from the fact that it was more kewl in his mind, and I can't help but wonder if that's the case here.
Still, 2 screens is a hardware change based somewhat in the PC world that has been mostly unused
I suspect that, like the double guitar, there's only a very small niche for this kind of thing. Will developers even be interested in coming up with worthwhile uses for it, or will it just be relegated to "map" or "menu" stuff? I don't believe the average hand-held game player is going to get too excited about that. Then we get into the UI design issue that your attention can only be focused on one thing at a time anyway.
As you say, we'll have to wait and see what they intend this for, but given how something like wireless multi-player gaming, done well, could change the nature of hand-held gaming, it had better be more interesting than "maps and menus" to make anybody care enought to buy one.
Of course, if it does indeed have wireless support, and the multi-screen thing is really not the focus, that's a different story.
So after the hype over this mysterious new hardware they were going to announce at E3, all they have in mind is a gameboy with two screens, like those old game and watch devices.
This appears to be the level of thinking here:
Otto: You know those guitars, that are like, double guitars, you know?
I mean, it's just *got* too be cooler, right? Reading the article, they are certainly clutching at straws for valid applications for this "innovation." Nintendo, just kill this nonsense now and create a Gameboy with wireless multi-player support. It's not like it's *hard* or anything... oh yeah, and with a god-damned standard headphone jack, too!
He toasts Steven and Sara and then turns and wishes everyone at home a happy Christmas as well.
Amazing!
I'd forgotten about this infamous scene. I can't remember how it was worked into the novelisation. The author probably just dropped it. The episode itself, "The Feast of Steven" was there in all its "glory", but I don't recall the "cliffhanger" being present.
I'm just feeling lucky that ALL(yes ALL) of the Tomb of the Cybermen episodes were restored. It seemed like the best story that was lost forever
I must be the only person disappointed with "Tomb of the Cybermen". I read the novelisation as a child, and *that's* the version I grew up with.
Then the real thing comes out, full of bad effects (the Cybermen were literally coming apart at the seams), some very stilted and generally poor acting and *very* bad staging of the climatic scenes.
In my imagination, the special effects were perfect and there were countless lethal and effective Cybermen rather than a few clumsy and silly looking ones. And the reality just couldn't live up to that.
This story was published in novelisation form around 1989, in two parts due to the length of the original story (12 episodes). This was basically done via scripts and the author's memory of the show, and no doubt a fair bit of research.
Anyway, based on the hype surrounding this supposed great epic lost story, I bought and read the two books that year as soon as possible. And it really isn't very good. An extremely thin plot padded by endless chapters of the Daleks chasing the Doctor through time and space, which had already been done by "The Chase" in the show the year before - and "The Chase" *itself* was mostly padding.
Honestly, the entire thing could be told in 2 or 3 episodes, and it still wouldn't be much to write home about. It's full of holes and is ultimately just lame.
It's nice that this was recovered for historical and completeness reasons I guess, but the article is trying to hype this story up as a lost classic and it just isn't. It's filler to reach the episode count for the season, using the ever-popular Daleks, pure and simple. There are some really good Doctor Who stories, and some are missing, but this isn't one of them in my opinion.
As for describing it as "an all-round masterpiece"... that's just garbage. "The direction of Douglas Camfield combined with the scripting of Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner gelled in... a way that defied description," - now *that* I can agree with;)
Just zip out 30 to 40 light years record the old broadcasts and then bring it all back
This might just explain why they're missing in the first place. Some time-travelling fanboy takes the "missing" tapes out of the BBC vault, and transports them safely to the year 3001:)
16. Our engineers have reached the conclusion that parts of Linux have almost certainly been copied or derived from AIX or Dynix/ptx. In those cases, confirmation of this opinion would require access to more current versions of AIX and Dynix/ptx
"Almost certainly"? What happened to the "millions of lines" of source code, and the "DNA of Linux"? They appear to be saying, "We think we might have a case here, but we're just guessing really".
Did SCO just blow their own case out of the water? Is this what made them think they have ownership of Linux IP? A guess?! You know, I really thought they must have had *some* basis for these claims even if they were tenuous - I guess I was wrong, and they really are deluding themselves or just outright scam-artists.
Canticle for Leibowitz was the second reference, but I don't get the first.... Foundation by Asimov?
Yes. Obviously it's now too obscure or my reference was too oblique.
However, I don't get the *second* one, probably because I'm unfamiliar with "Canticle for Leibowitz". I just can't see how a pound of pastrami is going to shorten the dark age - perhaps Seldon (protagonist in Foundation) missed something important there!:)
Since the fall of the empire is now inevitable, what we clearly need is something to reduce the length of the oncoming dark age! To this end I will create two Foundations at opposite ends of the Earth...
Actually, they could! They had at least one very large impact event in the Jurassic that *didn't* wipe them out, or even affect them in any noticable way. So far we haven't even had one!
Standard rant on K/T theories:
It's important not to just uncritically accept the asteroid impact theory. There's currently no decent explanation for why this would kill off the dinosaurs that I have seen. Currently it's at the level of "an impact happened *around* this time therefore is *must* be responsible somehow" followed by some vigorous handwaving and dismissal of contradictary evidence.
After he was done speaking she gushed about how brilliant he was. Deep down I wanted to ask her if she could explain what gave her that impression, but instead I agreed with her. My little head was doing the thinking. I even spouted back some of the junk he had said in order to try to impress her.
Here's what you should have done: said what you thought as strongly as possible without being rude. Attractive women just aren't *used* to having men outright disagree with them with no reservations. More than likely, they'll argue back, instead of wandering off to join the groupies as you mention.
Okay, it might not be an effective strategy every time, but 1) at least you stand out from every other male who just smiles, nods and drools in her presence 2) you get to have a real conversation with her, and 3) you get to keep your integrity.
I haven't read this whole thread, but I assume you are Australian?
If I didn't make that explicit, then yes, I am by birth.
How many American emmigrants do you know?
I was just trying to figure that out!
Five that I know quite well, and their spouses where applicable on top of that.
The figure would be larger if I included people I don't know as well. It would easily reach a dozen at least, without having to strain my memory to go right back to university.
Can you characterize the reasons they left the U.S. (Politics, adventure, restlessness, etc)?
Well, it's not politics. There's a fairly broad spectrum represented, but it's safe to say that none of these people appear interested enough in politics to want to *move* over it. So maybe that's something significant in itself!
I've never thought about it to be honest... I think it's that I've been lucky enough to work in some places that were doing interesting stuff even by worldwide standards, and that's just going to attract people from all over. These same places were also working closely with various US organisations, so naturally a few people would come out for work, like it, and end up staying.
I'll tell you what - I'll ask them next time I see them and report back in my journal.
My "point" is what I said: I've met many people outside the U.S. who wanted to move to the U.S., and I know no one in the U.S. who wants to leave foranother country. I imagine that current, as well as historical, immigration data support that impression.
Fair enough. You're right, I should have said "implication" rather than "statement".
Anyway, my response was only intended to point out that I know plenty who *have* left. Just as a data point for your interest only... I really don't want to argue over it. It's just a bare fact. I suppose you'll meet some eventually;) There are also (Australian) people I know who really, really, don't like spending time in the US for a variety of reasons, mostly related to bad past experiences as far as I can see, but there it is.
For the record, I had a great time myself and liked the place a lot. I was working too damned hard to see much, but I will do it again.
There are lots of reasons for that, obviously. It seems to me that the U.S. is one of the few countries where acceptance as a national (not as a citizen, which is merely a legal rite of passage) is not dependent on a person's genetic composition. In my experience, even in the democracies of Europe and certainly in the largely tribal societies of Afica and the MIddle East, immigrants and the assimilated children of immigrants may be accepted as legal citizens, but they are always viewed as "guests" in a country that belongs to the ancient tribes that migrated there first. THis is, of course, just another aspect of racism
We don't do that either, which also means we have a high immigration rate. Not to say there's no racism, but it's not enshrined in law at least.
Unlimited broadband, and 15gb+/month broadband is readily available in Australia
What is being called "unlimited" by various ISPs is not in fact unlimited. Data shaping, i.e. dropping back to dialup speed when a cap is reached, is not "unlimited" by any reasonable definition.
I would suggest you're getting ripped off on your current ISP plan
No, I don't believe that I am. No one provides true unlimited broadband to my knowledge. If you want to link to a specific plan that you think does, feel free to go ahead and we'll see. I'm pretty certain they all use data shaping of one form or another - so they're not "unlimited" at all.
Of course, I may be wrong, but I think you've been taken in by a very debatable use of the word "unlimited". Take a look around the Whirlpool site for any given ISP, and I think you'll find no one provides true unlimited broadband.
Even Telstra doesn't charge for excess usage aymore, just drops to 64kbps.
Except that's clearly *not* unlimited! It's capped to a certain number of megabytes, then you drop back (almost) to dialup speed. If you read my post more carefully, I did include mention this case. This is very obviously not unlimited as far as I'm concerned.
Sounds like gaming over the net in Australia can rape you wallet in a hurry. Must suck to be a gamer down under.
This is where your choice of ISP becomes very important. Many ISPs offer free download servers and game servers that don't incur any cost. I don't happen to play PC games at the moment, however my ISP has an array of game servers for different popular games. It also mirrors various Linux distros, FreeBSD, Mozilla, Python, Perl and other popular open source projects - which is what *I'm* interested in. So my total bandwidth is actually quite low. The "gamers" I know who use my ISP are also pretty satisfied with the game servers and associated software downloads.
So, it becomes a matter of finding an ISP that provides extra services that match your interests.
But, at least WiFi is an option right? [...] Could it work? Any thoughts on this.
The problem, as I understand it, is that there are very few large pipes into the country, what with it being an island and all.
And yes, people have been trying to set up local community wireless networks for years now, but it's not crossed the chasm into the mainstream yet. I suppose the problem is that in the end you have to connect to an ISP at *some* point to reach someone outside the network, and so you end up paying anyhow. It might work for local gaming, though.
In Australia we pay directly for every byte we download.
For our monthly ISP fee we are granted a certain number of megabytes that we may download without incurring extra cost. This "bandwidth cap" varies depending on how much you pay per month. Beyond that we typically pay some rate such as 15c per megabyte, or are cut back to dialup speeds.
Now, this doesn't directly affect the discrepancy discussed in the article (between the rate of people burning CDs for their friends and the lack of a corresponding drop in CD sales), but in general you have to keep this in mind when trying to draw conclusions from any investigation of illegal music sharing in Australia.
Of course, it might just be that illegal music sharing has no effect on sales elsewhere in the world, but it's important to realize that our usage patterns will be very different from areas that have unlimited downloads.
Slashdot Mirror
The type checking is much weaker thus introducing new potential holes for error to slip through
...
No, the compile time type checking is stronger. Since, for example, you can declare the exact type that a collection may contain, there's no need for unsafe casting at run-time. This is *much* safer, as a whole class of run-time errors has been eliminated.
The reusabilty "argument" is rubbish: that's what we have already OOP for. And when you now claim performance problems due to heavy stack/virtual methods use: that's an issue of the processor design not of the programming language. When you think that running serious software on system compatible to 30 year old rubbish is cool, then you must accept the performance of 30 year old waste in the same turn.
I don't see what this has to do with generics. But I agree in so far as "virtual" methods should be the default as they are in Java. And they still are. Adding generics to Java hasn't changed that one bit.
The above mentioned problems create new security holes
Such as? I've never heard of such a thing.
That's why the use of generics/templates in strictly forbidden in e.g. the banking sector
Aside from the fact that your argument about "security holes" is untrue on the face of it, this is just incorrect. Evidence? I know people using C++ at various banks, and they've never mentioned any such thing.
Due to turing completeness of most template/generics systems the compiler is slowed down to 30 percent performance
This is true - and actually it's much worse than that. But honestly, is that an issue today?
More evil is that templates push the grammars into the Chomsky-0 type making secure (=100%) correctness checking impossible
Firstly, this kind of thing will only effect a tiny subset of Java programmers. Secondly, correctness checking *is* impossible to get 100% right. Turing showed that, after all
In old languages like Lisps the use of generics is usually strongly discouraged to users unless they are ultra-gurus due to the bad experiences. It's not clear why this should be different for Java or C++
I don't think I'd be going out on a limb to say that you don't really know what generics are as they apply to C++ and Java.
Given that Lisp is a dynamically typed language in the first place, I'd imagine that "generics" are a very different feature entirely in that language. So what are generics in Lisp, exactly?
So, I look at your homepage to see if I can find out what company could possible be so hopelessly backwards and lame, and I see this: "systems engineer with a certain large aerospace/defence contractor based in Brisbane's CBD, Queensland, Australia".
;)
That's the second time in a week I've run into somebody in Brisbane on Slashdot that I didn't already know - before that, it had never happened. Anyway, I think I can guess who it is you work for. If I'm right, I know some people there. When I was looking for work last year I seriously considered applying - but I didn't *exactly* because of this kind of bullshit. Now, I don't want to blow my own trumpet too much, but it's safe to say I would have been a pretty good fit for at least one of the current projects there to say the least, and it's certainly *not* good when people like me are put off by stupid rubbish like this.
Basically, if you project the image of a bunch of anti-innovation and backward luddites, you're not going to attract or *retain* the kind of people you might like to, just lemmings who don't actually contribute anything beyond grunt coding work. I see you're not entirely happy, so you're excepted, of course
A brief aside
On your todo list, I noticed this:
- Understand how CORBA works.
- In Python.
Another co-incidence. So what did you want to know? About either. Just email me at my address above and I'll help as much as I am able if you have any questions.
I've yet to bring myself to try Victoria Bitters -- it's those initials, they give me the heebiejeebies
/. who lives in Brisbane that I didn't already know in real life.
VB is my lowest limit of toleration. Then you get into real swill like XXXX. If I'm absolutely stuck with no other choice, VB is what I'll go for.
As for "next time" -- I quite like it here, not planning on leaving anytime soon, thanks
I wasn't sure if you were still here or not. Well, glad to hear you like it!
This marks the first time I've run into somebody on
I've got used to driving on the left now, you see, and I don't want to be forced to re-learn (again).
Ah, yes. I know this well - I just snapped back after a few weeks once I got back.
What's really strange is that my memories reversed themselves as well at exactly the same time - for example I now recall conversations I had while driving in the US, talking to the passenger on my left. Of course, it would have been the other way around in reality. The passenger would have been on my *right*.
Nukes trump Foster's but only just barely.
:) As you will have noticed, no-one here drinks it.
And that's exactly why we export it
(I like Toohey's myself.)
Toohey's eh? Not a bad call. Try Toohey's Old if you get a chance next time you're here. And also give "James Boags" a try, currently my domestic beer of choice. More expensive but well worth it.
Never been to Sydney, I've always gone via Auckland
Ah, I see. I'd forgotten about that option. I might try that next time, anything to shorten that trans-pacific flight even by a little bit.
If the US declared war on Australia tomorrow (granted, that's an unlikely event, but nevertheless), do you think the Aussie would just let me hop the next flight out of Brisbane Internaitonal back to LA? Hell, no -- I'd be interned as an enemy national.
...
;)
We could just threaten you with exporting more Fosters (a chemical agent if ever there was one) and with encouraging Russell Crowe to record more "music". Look, I know that probably contravenes the rules of warfare, as well as being absolutely reprehensible, but desperate times
do you think the Aussie would just let me hop the next flight out of Brisbane Internaitonal back to LA?
No, but only because there are no flights direct from Brisbane to LA, you have to go to Sydney first
(However, it's been a few years since I made that trek, so it might have changed)
As for me, I was born and raised in the USA of native-born American parents; my American ancestors fought in the Revolution, the Civil War, and both World Wars; I hold a US passport; I pay US taxes. I am definitely a US citizen, and I definitely am enitled to vote in US elections.
Yes, I've lived for an extended period in the US, and I'd agree in principle, even thought the situation is reversed. I fully expected to retain my rights as an Australian citizen during that time. Except: I didn't have to pay Australian taxes while I was there, just US ones. I guess the "tax treaty" that we have for this sort of thing just isn't symmetrical.
Damian must stop!
"use Acme::Lingua::Strine::Perl;"
to reach out to him.
Just use the "Coy" module, and all the error messages you output from your Perl programs can be Haikus, as well.
From the module's documentation:
When a program dies
what you need is a moment
of serenity.
The Coy.pm
module brings tranquillity
to your debugging.
(Note that the documentation for Coy is, you guessed it, in Haiku form)
Except, of course, that double-neck guitars have their purpose [snip] There's still no better way to move between string layouts
;) Otto, certainly, had no futher use for it apart from the fact that it was more kewl in his mind, and I can't help but wonder if that's the case here.
Interesting. I knew that they must have had some purpose, aside from looking a bit silly
Still, 2 screens is a hardware change based somewhat in the PC world that has been mostly unused
I suspect that, like the double guitar, there's only a very small niche for this kind of thing. Will developers even be interested in coming up with worthwhile uses for it, or will it just be relegated to "map" or "menu" stuff? I don't believe the average hand-held game player is going to get too excited about that. Then we get into the UI design issue that your attention can only be focused on one thing at a time anyway.
As you say, we'll have to wait and see what they intend this for, but given how something like wireless multi-player gaming, done well, could change the nature of hand-held gaming, it had better be more interesting than "maps and menus" to make anybody care enought to buy one.
Of course, if it does indeed have wireless support, and the multi-screen thing is really not the focus, that's a different story.
So after the hype over this mysterious new hardware they were going to announce at E3, all they have in mind is a gameboy with two screens, like those old game and watch devices.
... oh yeah, and with a god-damned standard headphone jack, too!
This appears to be the level of thinking here:
Otto: You know those guitars, that are like, double guitars, you know?
I mean, it's just *got* too be cooler, right? Reading the article, they are certainly clutching at straws for valid applications for this "innovation." Nintendo, just kill this nonsense now and create a Gameboy with wireless multi-player support. It's not like it's *hard* or anything
He toasts Steven and Sara and then turns and wishes everyone at home a happy Christmas as well.
Amazing!
I'd forgotten about this infamous scene. I can't remember how it was worked into the novelisation. The author probably just dropped it. The episode itself, "The Feast of Steven" was there in all its "glory", but I don't recall the "cliffhanger" being present.
Maybe the ruler of Omicron Persei 8 could watch it and then we could see it too...
"We demand to know what happened to this Doctor and his companion with the compellingly short skirt!"
I'm just feeling lucky that ALL(yes ALL) of the Tomb of the Cybermen episodes were restored. It seemed like the best story that was lost forever
I must be the only person disappointed with "Tomb of the Cybermen". I read the novelisation as a child, and *that's* the version I grew up with.
Then the real thing comes out, full of bad effects (the Cybermen were literally coming apart at the seams), some very stilted and generally poor acting and *very* bad staging of the climatic scenes.
In my imagination, the special effects were perfect and there were countless lethal and effective Cybermen rather than a few clumsy and silly looking ones. And the reality just couldn't live up to that.
This story was published in novelisation form around 1989, in two parts due to the length of the original story (12 episodes). This was basically done via scripts and the author's memory of the show, and no doubt a fair bit of research.
... that's just garbage. "The direction of Douglas Camfield combined with the scripting of Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner gelled in... a way that defied description," - now *that* I can agree with ;)
Anyway, based on the hype surrounding this supposed great epic lost story, I bought and read the two books that year as soon as possible. And it really isn't very good. An extremely thin plot padded by endless chapters of the Daleks chasing the Doctor through time and space, which had already been done by "The Chase" in the show the year before - and "The Chase" *itself* was mostly padding.
Honestly, the entire thing could be told in 2 or 3 episodes, and it still wouldn't be much to write home about. It's full of holes and is ultimately just lame.
It's nice that this was recovered for historical and completeness reasons I guess, but the article is trying to hype this story up as a lost classic and it just isn't. It's filler to reach the episode count for the season, using the ever-popular Daleks, pure and simple. There are some really good Doctor Who stories, and some are missing, but this isn't one of them in my opinion.
As for describing it as "an all-round masterpiece"
Just zip out 30 to 40 light years record the old broadcasts and then bring it all back
:)
This might just explain why they're missing in the first place. Some time-travelling fanboy takes the "missing" tapes out of the BBC vault, and transports them safely to the year 3001
16. Our engineers have reached the conclusion that parts of Linux have almost certainly been copied or derived from AIX or Dynix/ptx. In those cases, confirmation of this opinion would require access to more current versions of AIX and Dynix/ptx
"Almost certainly"? What happened to the "millions of lines" of source code, and the "DNA of Linux"? They appear to be saying, "We think we might have a case here, but we're just guessing really".
Did SCO just blow their own case out of the water? Is this what made them think they have ownership of Linux IP? A guess?! You know, I really thought they must have had *some* basis for these claims even if they were tenuous - I guess I was wrong, and they really are deluding themselves or just outright scam-artists.
SCO: But your ad says "No money down."
Hutz: They got this all wrong, it's supposed to say "No! Money DOWN!"
Canticle for Leibowitz was the second reference, but I don't get the first.... Foundation by Asimov?
:)
Yes. Obviously it's now too obscure or my reference was too oblique.
However, I don't get the *second* one, probably because I'm unfamiliar with "Canticle for Leibowitz". I just can't see how a pound of pastrami is going to shorten the dark age - perhaps Seldon (protagonist in Foundation) missed something important there!
Since the fall of the empire is now inevitable, what we clearly need is something to reduce the length of the oncoming dark age! To this end I will create two Foundations at opposite ends of the Earth ...
And the dinosaurs couldn't handle one asteroid.
Actually, they could! They had at least one very large impact event in the Jurassic that *didn't* wipe them out, or even affect them in any noticable way. So far we haven't even had one!
Standard rant on K/T theories:
It's important not to just uncritically accept the asteroid impact theory. There's currently no decent explanation for why this would kill off the dinosaurs that I have seen. Currently it's at the level of "an impact happened *around* this time therefore is *must* be responsible somehow" followed by some vigorous handwaving and dismissal of contradictary evidence.
Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction event
It sure sounds exciting though! Certain theories are just more "marketable" than others, I suppose.
After he was done speaking she gushed about how brilliant he was. Deep down I wanted to ask her if she could explain what gave her that impression, but instead I agreed with her. My little head was doing the thinking. I even spouted back some of the junk he had said in order to try to impress her.
Here's what you should have done: said what you thought as strongly as possible without being rude. Attractive women just aren't *used* to having men outright disagree with them with no reservations. More than likely, they'll argue back, instead of wandering off to join the groupies as you mention.
Okay, it might not be an effective strategy every time, but 1) at least you stand out from every other male who just smiles, nods and drools in her presence 2) you get to have a real conversation with her, and 3) you get to keep your integrity.
I haven't read this whole thread, but I assume you are Australian?
... I think it's that I've been lucky enough to work in some places that were doing interesting stuff even by worldwide standards, and that's just going to attract people from all over. These same places were also working closely with various US organisations, so naturally a few people would come out for work, like it, and end up staying.
If I didn't make that explicit, then yes, I am by birth.
How many American emmigrants do you know?
I was just trying to figure that out!
Five that I know quite well, and their spouses where applicable on top of that.
The figure would be larger if I included people I don't know as well. It would easily reach a dozen at least, without having to strain my memory to go right back to university.
Can you characterize the reasons they left the U.S. (Politics, adventure, restlessness, etc)?
Well, it's not politics. There's a fairly broad spectrum represented, but it's safe to say that none of these people appear interested enough in politics to want to *move* over it. So maybe that's something significant in itself!
I've never thought about it to be honest
I'll tell you what - I'll ask them next time I see them and report back in my journal.
My "point" is what I said: I've met many people outside the U.S. who wanted to move to the U.S., and I know no one in the U.S. who wants to leave foranother country. I imagine that current, as well as historical, immigration data support that impression.
... I really don't want to argue over it. It's just a bare fact. I suppose you'll meet some eventually ;) There are also (Australian) people I know who really, really, don't like spending time in the US for a variety of reasons, mostly related to bad past experiences as far as I can see, but there it is.
Fair enough. You're right, I should have said "implication" rather than "statement".
Anyway, my response was only intended to point out that I know plenty who *have* left. Just as a data point for your interest only
For the record, I had a great time myself and liked the place a lot. I was working too damned hard to see much, but I will do it again.
There are lots of reasons for that, obviously. It seems to me that the U.S. is one of the few countries where acceptance as a national (not as a citizen, which is merely a legal rite of passage) is not dependent on a person's genetic composition. In my experience, even in the democracies of Europe and certainly in the largely tribal societies of Afica and the MIddle East, immigrants and the assimilated children of immigrants may be accepted as legal citizens, but they are always viewed as "guests" in a country that belongs to the ancient tribes that migrated there first. THis is, of course, just another aspect of racism
We don't do that either, which also means we have a high immigration rate. Not to say there's no racism, but it's not enshrined in law at least.
Unlimited broadband, and 15gb+/month broadband is readily available in Australia
What is being called "unlimited" by various ISPs is not in fact unlimited. Data shaping, i.e. dropping back to dialup speed when a cap is reached, is not "unlimited" by any reasonable definition.
I would suggest you're getting ripped off on your current ISP plan
No, I don't believe that I am. No one provides true unlimited broadband to my knowledge. If you want to link to a specific plan that you think does, feel free to go ahead and we'll see. I'm pretty certain they all use data shaping of one form or another - so they're not "unlimited" at all.
Of course, I may be wrong, but I think you've been taken in by a very debatable use of the word "unlimited". Take a look around the Whirlpool site for any given ISP, and I think you'll find no one provides true unlimited broadband.
Even Telstra doesn't charge for excess usage aymore, just drops to 64kbps.
Except that's clearly *not* unlimited! It's capped to a certain number of megabytes, then you drop back (almost) to dialup speed. If you read my post more carefully, I did include mention this case. This is very obviously not unlimited as far as I'm concerned.
Sounds like gaming over the net in Australia can rape you wallet in a hurry. Must suck to be a gamer down under.
This is where your choice of ISP becomes very important. Many ISPs offer free download servers and game servers that don't incur any cost. I don't happen to play PC games at the moment, however my ISP has an array of game servers for different popular games. It also mirrors various Linux distros, FreeBSD, Mozilla, Python, Perl and other popular open source projects - which is what *I'm* interested in. So my total bandwidth is actually quite low. The "gamers" I know who use my ISP are also pretty satisfied with the game servers and associated software downloads.
So, it becomes a matter of finding an ISP that provides extra services that match your interests.
But, at least WiFi is an option right? [...] Could it work? Any thoughts on this.
The problem, as I understand it, is that there are very few large pipes into the country, what with it being an island and all.
And yes, people have been trying to set up local community wireless networks for years now, but it's not crossed the chasm into the mainstream yet. I suppose the problem is that in the end you have to connect to an ISP at *some* point to reach someone outside the network, and so you end up paying anyhow. It might work for local gaming, though.
In Australia we pay directly for every byte we download.
For our monthly ISP fee we are granted a certain number of megabytes that we may download without incurring extra cost. This "bandwidth cap" varies depending on how much you pay per month. Beyond that we typically pay some rate such as 15c per megabyte, or are cut back to dialup speeds.
Now, this doesn't directly affect the discrepancy discussed in the article (between the rate of people burning CDs for their friends and the lack of a corresponding drop in CD sales), but in general you have to keep this in mind when trying to draw conclusions from any investigation of illegal music sharing in Australia.
Of course, it might just be that illegal music sharing has no effect on sales elsewhere in the world, but it's important to realize that our usage patterns will be very different from areas that have unlimited downloads.