I wish the scientists and skeptics alike would get beyond any political agendas and simply state it like it is. Yes, global climate change is real and there is evidence to support a warming trend. Yes, man's activities have an impact on the climate but climate change is a given regardless.
Once they get that out of the way we can start talking about ways to respond to the climate change in a rational manner (without the knee-jerk reactions to seeing one's political position being attacked).
I don't see any good coming from denying global climate change OR from claiming that we can control the climate by eliminating pollution.
I don't think the problem is necessarily people disagreeing with facts. It is people disagreeing with conclusions that might be based on facts. If you take any controversial position you will find that both sides are usually able to pull facts that support their conclusions and discredit the opposition.
So, who is responsible for fixing the ad plates when they break? If the mechanism fails, is the automobile owner expected to take the initiative to bring the vehicle in for repairs? Is the government going to cover the cost of repairs? I imagine this ad mechanism will be highly prone to failure as people will be tempted to disable the mechanism (whether that be on their own cars or the cars of strangers). Now if the government of California offered incentives for the ad plates that might change things...
I don't have a problem with the show's title but I do have a problem with the attempted association between the show's title and the sayings of Qbert. If I recall, Qbert merely let out a sequence of characters with no context (other than it was obvious that he was unhappy). It wasn't something like "@!#*$ snake!". Had they bleeped out the entire title I believe it would be comparable, but as it stands it is not.
I disagree that this is a problem with Web developers. Rather, it's a problem with non-Web developers stuck in the role of a Web developer. They are always trying to find ways around the stateless nature of the Web with the new "Ohh shiny" of the month. True Web developers are comfortable working with PHP, Classic ASP, and other technologies that don't try to obscure the fact that you're working with the Web (i.e. webforms). Up until the introduction of jQuery and ASP.NET MVC I hadn't really been excited about any of the "Ohh shinies" over the past decade.
Given the cost-cutting trend we've seen in IT over the past decade, would the image of someone that spends additional money/time on unnecessary technology be appealing?
I'm just playing devil's advocate here as I don't have a preference one way or another. That said, it could be that there are extremes in both directions and it's safest to sit in the middle.
I think it's the end of being able to promote scientific conclusions without allowing others to review/criticize the methods/data used to produce those conclusions. This is not a bad thing as society should never blindly trust someone just because they have attained a certain status. This is the way most good development teams work with peer reviews and such, why shouldn't the world work in the same way.
I was interested by that part of the article as well. What's wrong with encouraging fewer monolith corporations and more small competitors? However, I don't see how that philosophy plays into the Sun/Oracle situation. Two years from now we will either have a single Oracle/Sun company or a single Oracle company.
This certainly highlights the need for oversight in organizations where their output (summaries, trends, studies, statements, etc.) are used to formulate government policy. The fact that there exists evidence suggesting that opposing points were knowingly ignored and/or oppressed is disturbing. Not to mention the fact that data was potentially manipulated to support a pre-existing point of view. We need more transparency.
I've seen examples where third parties require cookies to analyze the usage patterns of users on client sites but I don't require logs to understand usage trends on sites where I have easy access to log files. In fact, I think usability testing would reveal more than analysis of usage data.
I haven't seen many articles citing the high fuel prices in 2007 as a factor in the economic collapse. Surely the diversion of $$$ from typical consumer spending towards oil was a factor. It *had* to be a factor. So why isn't anyone talking about it?
PowerPoint wasn't in use when I was in college, but that didn't stop *some* professors from having the same pre-printed materials on overhead sheets that they presented each semester. Blame the individuals, not the technology.
I used to sell audio equipment as a teenager and I recall different people had different ideas about what constituted quality audio. Some people liked deep muddy base, other people liked loud midranges, etc.. I think the study's conclusion is all wrong... it's not that people can't tell the difference, it's that people sometimes prefer the lower quality bitrate. Personally, I just want things to sound representative of the real-life equivalent.:)
Well, since this is/., you take your car in for a routine oil change. The mechanic botches the job. Are you going to go back to the same mechanic for a transmission rebuild?
I'm a victim of a botched oil change. In my case, I ended up doing most of my vehicle maintenance myself and I found a different company to do the complicated stuff.
Being part of a company that was recently acquired I have some insight. Our conversion plan is absurdly aggressive and we're still looking at 6 months. The buying company won't come in, see your problems, and ask you to fix them with your own processes before converting you. Rather the buying company will come in, see what you have, and figure out how to merge it with their own systems/processes.
Having worked with SharePoint for many years, I do not see how the data is locked in. The documents can be accessed much like a network share. The list data (including the meta data associated with documents) can be exported to Excel or even accessed through web services or through the object model itself.
And I don't see how it is an explicit threat to ODF because end users can easily store any document type in SharePoint. The only threat is that SharePoint offers integration with Office - but that doesn't prevent people from using ODF, it just encourages usage of Office.
I'm not suggesting that SharePoint is a good platform, but let's not bash it for locking users in and locking out competing products when it is merely retaining users by being just good enough to keep them content.
I disposed of some old hard drives a few months back. I wiped all of them (not just formatted) but I wasn't satisfied. I found that a breaker bar (a large iron bar meant to break up rocks) performed well. Just hold the bar over the drive and let it drop - repeat. The IBM deskstar was truly easy to destroy - the casing deformed quickly and the platters literally shattered into hundreds of pieces. Quantum fireballs however were sturdy little beasts. I thought I had protected the surface of my garage floor but I found that the breaker bar pushed the hard drive through the cardboard protection and into the garage floor... oops. Eventually the casing opened and I was able to use pliers to tear the platters. Yes it was all overkill - but it certainly was satisfying.:)
Microsoft is advertising Bing as an aid to making decisions, not necessarily a search engine. So from the Microsoft perspective, someone searching for "why is windows so expensive" is looking into making a purchase and the "why are macs so expensive" result helps them in their decision to make their purchase.
That doesn't make it any better, but to simply return results matching the original query doesn't do anything to make them stand out over Google. The ideal results would have probably covered Linux, netbooks, Macs, physical windows, and Windows itself.
My wife purchased a 3G iPhone for personal use back when it first came out. She loves it to death and, for that reason, puts up with an astonishing number of annoyances. The worst thing for me is the lack of quality on the network and the dropped calls. She's always trying to call me with that thing and I can't stand it because I have to strain just to have a conversation.
Now I have a BlackBerry for my job. It does what I need it to and I'm not aware of any malfunctions. If it did have a problem, I'd be very likely to remedy it because my employer would handle all of the repairs/costs and I'd simply have to notify them of the problem.
I'm no iPhone hater - it's a lovely device. A comparison between iPhone and BlackBerry is like a comparison between an Acura and a Honda. Mine's a workhorse. Her's is prettier, faster, and does more (since it's not locked down like mine). But I'm not sold on iPhone reliability (yes - it could be AT&T/3G - but I've heard other 3G devices perform well in my area).
My friend and I once found a receiver buried in a dry creek bed (probably stolen - but it was literally buried with a faceplate sticking out). We dug it up, took it home, hosed it out, threw it in the pool, etc.. In the end, after it dried out, it worked perfectly. It still works today - 20 years later.
This may not be a popular view here but it seems to me that the phrase "open source" has taken on a highly generic meaning within the tech community. Some feel that specific criteria must be met to label something as open source while others throw the term around for anything where the source code is "available".
Sure - it might be wrong. But much like the improper use of kleenex and coke, open source may fall in the same boat.
Like anyone else I agree that stereotyping is unfair (to say the least). So don't get me wrong when I say that this same reasoning can be used to justify stereotyping or any other socially-unacceptable behavior that, mathematically, results in an individual limiting their exposure to situations that are likely to put them at risk despite the fact that they don't see anything immediately threatening.
In our high school we had to make our own image editor. I went extra far and made a pallet (sp?) editor. Learned alot more than using PhotoShop. Of course - that didn't stop me from downloading all available graphics editors and using them to create really cool images and then writing an import tool to convert from bmp (or whatever format) to our own proprietary format. Our teacher never actually opened up our project - I saw it sealed near his desk after we had gotten our final grades. It was an awesome team - had a genius creative type who could make awesome graphics out of thin air and we had our coffee guy - I feel kinda bad for him in retrospect - it's not like we made him get coffee but he got assigned with some shitty tasks.
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I wish the scientists and skeptics alike would get beyond any political agendas and simply state it like it is. Yes, global climate change is real and there is evidence to support a warming trend. Yes, man's activities have an impact on the climate but climate change is a given regardless.
Once they get that out of the way we can start talking about ways to respond to the climate change in a rational manner (without the knee-jerk reactions to seeing one's political position being attacked).
I don't see any good coming from denying global climate change OR from claiming that we can control the climate by eliminating pollution.
"If this continues, you will not see a single person their who has a degree above a high school diploma."
Sounds like a realistic path towards achieving the vision in Idiocracy...
I don't think the problem is necessarily people disagreeing with facts. It is people disagreeing with conclusions that might be based on facts. If you take any controversial position you will find that both sides are usually able to pull facts that support their conclusions and discredit the opposition.
So, who is responsible for fixing the ad plates when they break? If the mechanism fails, is the automobile owner expected to take the initiative to bring the vehicle in for repairs? Is the government going to cover the cost of repairs? I imagine this ad mechanism will be highly prone to failure as people will be tempted to disable the mechanism (whether that be on their own cars or the cars of strangers). Now if the government of California offered incentives for the ad plates that might change things...
I don't have a problem with the show's title but I do have a problem with the attempted association between the show's title and the sayings of Qbert. If I recall, Qbert merely let out a sequence of characters with no context (other than it was obvious that he was unhappy). It wasn't something like "@!#*$ snake!". Had they bleeped out the entire title I believe it would be comparable, but as it stands it is not.
I disagree that this is a problem with Web developers. Rather, it's a problem with non-Web developers stuck in the role of a Web developer. They are always trying to find ways around the stateless nature of the Web with the new "Ohh shiny" of the month. True Web developers are comfortable working with PHP, Classic ASP, and other technologies that don't try to obscure the fact that you're working with the Web (i.e. webforms). Up until the introduction of jQuery and ASP.NET MVC I hadn't really been excited about any of the "Ohh shinies" over the past decade.
Given the cost-cutting trend we've seen in IT over the past decade, would the image of someone that spends additional money/time on unnecessary technology be appealing? I'm just playing devil's advocate here as I don't have a preference one way or another. That said, it could be that there are extremes in both directions and it's safest to sit in the middle.
I think it's the end of being able to promote scientific conclusions without allowing others to review/criticize the methods/data used to produce those conclusions. This is not a bad thing as society should never blindly trust someone just because they have attained a certain status. This is the way most good development teams work with peer reviews and such, why shouldn't the world work in the same way.
I was interested by that part of the article as well. What's wrong with encouraging fewer monolith corporations and more small competitors? However, I don't see how that philosophy plays into the Sun/Oracle situation. Two years from now we will either have a single Oracle/Sun company or a single Oracle company.
I figured he was suggesting that a site called "realclimate.org" might have a bias of some sort.
This certainly highlights the need for oversight in organizations where their output (summaries, trends, studies, statements, etc.) are used to formulate government policy. The fact that there exists evidence suggesting that opposing points were knowingly ignored and/or oppressed is disturbing. Not to mention the fact that data was potentially manipulated to support a pre-existing point of view. We need more transparency.
I've seen examples where third parties require cookies to analyze the usage patterns of users on client sites but I don't require logs to understand usage trends on sites where I have easy access to log files. In fact, I think usability testing would reveal more than analysis of usage data.
I haven't seen many articles citing the high fuel prices in 2007 as a factor in the economic collapse. Surely the diversion of $$$ from typical consumer spending towards oil was a factor. It *had* to be a factor. So why isn't anyone talking about it?
PowerPoint wasn't in use when I was in college, but that didn't stop *some* professors from having the same pre-printed materials on overhead sheets that they presented each semester. Blame the individuals, not the technology.
I used to sell audio equipment as a teenager and I recall different people had different ideas about what constituted quality audio. Some people liked deep muddy base, other people liked loud midranges, etc.. I think the study's conclusion is all wrong... it's not that people can't tell the difference, it's that people sometimes prefer the lower quality bitrate. Personally, I just want things to sound representative of the real-life equivalent. :)
Well, since this is /., you take your car in for a routine oil change. The mechanic botches the job. Are you going to go back to the same mechanic for a transmission rebuild?
I'm a victim of a botched oil change. In my case, I ended up doing most of my vehicle maintenance myself and I found a different company to do the complicated stuff.
Being part of a company that was recently acquired I have some insight. Our conversion plan is absurdly aggressive and we're still looking at 6 months. The buying company won't come in, see your problems, and ask you to fix them with your own processes before converting you. Rather the buying company will come in, see what you have, and figure out how to merge it with their own systems/processes.
Having worked with SharePoint for many years, I do not see how the data is locked in. The documents can be accessed much like a network share. The list data (including the meta data associated with documents) can be exported to Excel or even accessed through web services or through the object model itself.
And I don't see how it is an explicit threat to ODF because end users can easily store any document type in SharePoint. The only threat is that SharePoint offers integration with Office - but that doesn't prevent people from using ODF, it just encourages usage of Office.
I'm not suggesting that SharePoint is a good platform, but let's not bash it for locking users in and locking out competing products when it is merely retaining users by being just good enough to keep them content.
I disposed of some old hard drives a few months back. I wiped all of them (not just formatted) but I wasn't satisfied. I found that a breaker bar (a large iron bar meant to break up rocks) performed well. Just hold the bar over the drive and let it drop - repeat. The IBM deskstar was truly easy to destroy - the casing deformed quickly and the platters literally shattered into hundreds of pieces. Quantum fireballs however were sturdy little beasts. I thought I had protected the surface of my garage floor but I found that the breaker bar pushed the hard drive through the cardboard protection and into the garage floor... oops. Eventually the casing opened and I was able to use pliers to tear the platters. Yes it was all overkill - but it certainly was satisfying. :)
Devil's advocate...
Microsoft is advertising Bing as an aid to making decisions, not necessarily a search engine. So from the Microsoft perspective, someone searching for "why is windows so expensive" is looking into making a purchase and the "why are macs so expensive" result helps them in their decision to make their purchase.
That doesn't make it any better, but to simply return results matching the original query doesn't do anything to make them stand out over Google. The ideal results would have probably covered Linux, netbooks, Macs, physical windows, and Windows itself.
My wife purchased a 3G iPhone for personal use back when it first came out. She loves it to death and, for that reason, puts up with an astonishing number of annoyances. The worst thing for me is the lack of quality on the network and the dropped calls. She's always trying to call me with that thing and I can't stand it because I have to strain just to have a conversation.
Now I have a BlackBerry for my job. It does what I need it to and I'm not aware of any malfunctions. If it did have a problem, I'd be very likely to remedy it because my employer would handle all of the repairs/costs and I'd simply have to notify them of the problem.
I'm no iPhone hater - it's a lovely device. A comparison between iPhone and BlackBerry is like a comparison between an Acura and a Honda. Mine's a workhorse. Her's is prettier, faster, and does more (since it's not locked down like mine). But I'm not sold on iPhone reliability (yes - it could be AT&T/3G - but I've heard other 3G devices perform well in my area).
My friend and I once found a receiver buried in a dry creek bed (probably stolen - but it was literally buried with a faceplate sticking out). We dug it up, took it home, hosed it out, threw it in the pool, etc.. In the end, after it dried out, it worked perfectly. It still works today - 20 years later.
This may not be a popular view here but it seems to me that the phrase "open source" has taken on a highly generic meaning within the tech community. Some feel that specific criteria must be met to label something as open source while others throw the term around for anything where the source code is "available". Sure - it might be wrong. But much like the improper use of kleenex and coke, open source may fall in the same boat.
Like anyone else I agree that stereotyping is unfair (to say the least). So don't get me wrong when I say that this same reasoning can be used to justify stereotyping or any other socially-unacceptable behavior that, mathematically, results in an individual limiting their exposure to situations that are likely to put them at risk despite the fact that they don't see anything immediately threatening.
In our high school we had to make our own image editor. I went extra far and made a pallet (sp?) editor. Learned alot more than using PhotoShop. Of course - that didn't stop me from downloading all available graphics editors and using them to create really cool images and then writing an import tool to convert from bmp (or whatever format) to our own proprietary format. Our teacher never actually opened up our project - I saw it sealed near his desk after we had gotten our final grades. It was an awesome team - had a genius creative type who could make awesome graphics out of thin air and we had our coffee guy - I feel kinda bad for him in retrospect - it's not like we made him get coffee but he got assigned with some shitty tasks.