I was wondering if anyone would make a comment like that. This is the funny part. I have never purchased anything from iTunes and I don't own an iPod.
I purchase all my music on CD and rip to MP3. If I sell the CD I delete the MP3s as well. I like owning physical media, and a large portion of the music I listen too is only available that way. But just because this is they way that I prefere to do things does not mean I should go and spread obvious FUD like "a format that could be obsolete in the future" (yes I realize it says "could"). Every music recording format in history has been made obsolete by the next best thing, and this will happen to CDs as well, but it's not reason to bash the format. I mean CDs are inferior to High Quality records but I don't see to many people posting about that.
In the future I would suggest being careful with your assumptions. I defend alot of things I don't actually do, as long as I think they are fair.
I was going to avoid making an intelligent comment about this redicules article but you inspired me to back up my statement. The 4th paragraph all but entirely false. MP3s are not "crystal clear" by any sense of the word. Even at high bit rates they are chock full of audio artifacts, certainly no better than Apples AAC. MP3s can not "be played on any device." The author doesn't even come close to back up his statement that "[mp3s ripped from CD]...represent better value..." I guess he has never purchased a CD for $16 where more than half of it was worthless, paying $4 or more per decent song.
Then he goes on to claim that any player, particularly a phone based one, that is not made by Apple would not be able to play songs downloaded from iTunes. Besides the fact that you can fairly easily convert iTunes songs to non-DRMed MP3s, there are already phones that "Apple didn't make" that support iTunes directly, let alone AAC.
The authors tactic for getting cheap CDs, by purchasing, ripping and returning, is not only illegal it is the reason that his beloved DRM free CDs are soon to be a thing of the past. The music industry is already looking to change there industry to be a licensed one rather than a purchasing one. I can make speculation too, and tout it as fact, like the idea that soon not only will all CDs be DRMed, worse than Fair Play, but also that the license agreement will say that it licenses only the orignal purchaser and therefor can't resell it.
The rest of the article is just one guys anti-Apple rant, which I assume is there just because he's upset that he purchased an MP3 player other than an iPod and is trying to justify the purchase of a 3rd rate product.
Please tell me prototype.js is not actually catching on. I'm not going to rip into prototype.js, but I will say emulating classical inheritance is a waste. Prototypical inheritance is far more powerful and flexible than classical inheritance in pretty much every way. Honestly prototype.js has some useful functionality, but adding in things like the classical inheritance emulation is just asking for trouble, by teaching the next generation of developers that prototyping is bad, which is far from the truth.
Just my opinion, I'm just sick of people trying to knock prototypical systems.
Oh and to back up some of the other comments, as much as slashdot has alot of posts about Ruby on Rails I have never heard of a single company using it. I worked for a company that used XUL heavily but wouldn't say it's popular since no one else used it in production systems. I think Ruby is the same way.
The problem with MMORPGS is not that it benefits those that put in more time, but that there is no detriment to failing. People keep talking about how everyone has the same opportunity and those that put in more time deserve better things, and then the loosely equat it to reality. The classic example is that a good "drop" will happen every so often, so those that play more are more likely to get that good "drop". The problem with this, and how it deviates from reality is that there is no draw back to failure. You could say that given enough tries even I can knock out Mike Tyson (yes it is possible). Problem is I would probably die, or be irreversably damaged in my first fight with him. In an MMORPG you just fail and get up again, probably even keeping all your expereince and property. If there were perma-death or a significant loss in experience or property then those with skill and patients would be able to catch up with less skilled players who happen to have more time.
Slow down and take a deap breath. There are no horrible languages, only horrible developers (or implementations). I happen to find ECMAScript to be a very powerful language. It includes dynamic prototypical inheritance, which is considerably more flexible and powerful than classical inheritance. It is fully object oriented, as everything is an object. True it is losely type, which can be both a benifit and a detriment, but that and the fact that it is interpreted are the only flaws I have ever found in the language. The JavaScript Implementation of ECMAScript even allows for individual objects of the same constructor to have seperate prototypes which aover comes the last issue I would have with the language, which is private inheritable object properties.
Understanding Scope in ECMAScript does take a little bit of learning, and its certainly not for everyone, but it's not a flaw, its a benefit, if you know how to use it. I wait for the day that there is a viable ECMAScript runtime environment not in a browsers for writing applications.
XUL was a horrible, horrible, horrible mistake.
Just like JS, XUL is not horrible. The problem is that the current development is targeted toward getting Firefox to work. When more people develop in XUL you will seen it advance very quickly and become more stable and more powerful. It's atleast good enough for Microsoft to copy it in their XAML implementation. I happen to be pretty much against the idea of "Web Applications" but after having worked with XUL for a couple years I find that web apps may actually be a viable thing.
XULRunner is actually a good step toward getting rid of some of the bloat of Firefox and other Web Browsers. If we can take the Web Application out of the Web Page Browser and move it into the Web Application Browser, we can have two specialized programs and alot less bloat in both.
I think I did a good job of avoiding any name calling and I would suggest that if you want to be succesful in the legal industry that in the future you do the same. I just don't think "Snide Asshole" is a valid legal argument.
I can't say anymore to some how change your opinion that surveillance is only and issue to those who have something to hide. Personally I am not worried about the intrusion or lack of privacy. I have nothing that needs to remain secretive, and most of my private life would be of no intrest to anyone but me. I find it a sign of the self-centered, self-absorbed, view of the common US citizen that makes people think that other people give a rats ass about their personal life. Very very few people go out of their way to seek out things they disaprove of.
Lastly I would like to know what Alan Turning's sex life has to do with his work? The fact that he engadge in sexual activity with another man does not affect his intellect or logic (only slightly affects his judgement). There is a big difference between "homosexuality is not valuable to the existance and advancement of civilization" and "homosexuals are not valuable to the existance and advancement of civilization." I would suggest that next time you try and understand the words and not view everything that you read as an attack on you or your lifestyle. Feel free to show me how homosexuality (sexual activity with another of the same sex) helps advance and or continue civilization and humanity.
If you had come out and said you were a "law student" and member of a "legal advocacy" group right off the bat I would have realized that logic and reason were completely lost on you and not wasted either of our time.
The point your statement got across was pretty clear (even if it's not what you meant to get across). You wrote a total of two sentences stating that you were afraid of what certain people would do if they saw two men kissing (I'm assuming on the men part since I couldn't see any other reason people would get upset at you kissing your boyfriend). I'm not a supporter of homosexuality (since I don't see it as valuable to the existence or advancement of civilization), but I'm not against it either. All I can say is if I thought something was acceptable public activity I would go ahead and do it and not be so afraid of what other people think. There is no need to be shoving it in anyways face, but you should still feel free to do it, camera or not. Nelson Mandela and the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws showed that acting as you think should be acceptable is far more effective than hiding your actions. Let the people see and what is right by the decision of the society will prevail, it always does.
I don't know how much clearer I can be about your unnecessary paranoia. You are just as likely to be a target of random violence as you are to be persecuted for a difference in moral belief that is, currently, legal.
You are correct some groups are going to want to use it for their own purposes that do not included the security of the people. But really if you think your life style is acceptable then you should do it and not worry about the reactions of others. Stand up for what you believe in and be ready to accept the consequence. Hiding behind closed doors and anonymity will not help your cause.
On the other hand Homosexuality is not a protected right in the US as far as I am aware so you do have a long way to go and are still a minority. Just be happy this is not a democracy at that minorities can have an voice in societal decisions.
It's funny I thought I was the only one that though "if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to hide," an then comes along this guy that almost quotes me word for word. Really put a cameras on every street corner, in every public space I would welcome it. In people's homes I'm not sure, but I have to admit if you are calling the cops that often then it's not a bad idea for your own safety.
I have to agree whole heartedly with the parent poster. There is no reason to tell them and you can not be compelled to do so. Tell them that you don't think that your previous compensations should have any bearing on what you would accept for this position. If you don't want to tell them and they don't hire you because of it then you probably don't want to work there. On the other hand, if it is a big jump from where you were, with out you having a reason for that jump such as finishing a higher level of education, then it may be best for you to talk a position at a lower rate and work your way to where you should be incrimentally.
I personally am a self educated Software Developer and I always make a 10-20% increase in pay when I change Jobs (even a nearly 50% increase once) so I know it can be done. Working through a recruiter is also a big help when it comes to making leaps in pay since the employer will often take the recruiters word and not ask you about your actual salary history.
Lastly I have, on more than one occassion, stated that I had an agreement with my previous employer that I would not reveal my compensation to anyone and am bound by that contract. Also most companies don't want to pay you less than you are honestly worth, by much, because you will just go to another job with a better offer.
This is just people trying to not be responsible for their own actions. I beleive, from what I read, the CDs are clearly labelled, and the user is warned that there is DRM on the CD. I have seen no reputable cases of systems that had been made unusable after the DRM software had been installed. I have heard no complaints from anyone using a system not vulnerable to the attack. This is just like suing McDonalds after spill hot coffee in your own lap, or suing a lown mower maker because you stuck your hand in the blade. Microsoft release software that regularly opens up users to attacks and hacking that are atleast as bad as a root kit, and those volunerablities can not be removed.
All companies have a right to keep their intelectual property protected from illegal replication. Yes it's true that may also stop legal replication. I have never heard anyone complain when they copy a check and it prints void or copy across the copy. And what is even better in this case is that it's not that hard to make legal backups. All CD copiers and any computer not running Microsoft Windows.
The more I have these conversations the more I side with the RIAA. Making MP3 of a song is not making a legal backup. You are altering the original, You are making it usable concurrently on multiple machines. I think personal property should be totally abolished, but until then, the law is the law. Do something to stop rape and murder, stop wasting so much energy on the desire to make copies of crappy music. I willing to bet the parent poster doesn't even own one of these DRMed CDs and is just looking to be angry and someone.
it really bugs me that everyone is coming down on a corporation for working within the legal bounds of the law and using the tools available to them to uphold their protected rights. I neither agree with the rights nor the approach taken, but Sony is not the big person to blame here. And since no one broke into anything thing the parent posters analogy is completely wrong.
That's like being upset, not because a thief stole your TV, but because he left the back door unlocked when he left.
This is more like being upset that a person came into your house and you gave them complete access to your most valuable items completely unwatched and are trying to blame them for taking an opportunity given them and protected by law.
Sony didn't break into anything, they didn't put that crappy music CD into your drive, on your PC with an unsecure Operating system. You stick a gerbal up your butt, it finds a way out of the plastic you wrapped it in, and you die when it sracthes a hole in some vital organ, you can't expect the gerbal's parents to be held responsible.
Lets start placing blame where blame is due, like on the person that put their computer at risk, or on the maker of the OS that left a big gapping hole to be exploited, or on the organization that demands their property be protected, or on the government that allows such saunchy control of artistic media, or on the cheap ass bastards that decided it's better to steal music than pay for it causing the companies to have to come up with new ways to protect their property.
...violence (or rather the desire to apply it) is a natural human instinct...
I both agree and disagree. I think anger is a natural human emotion, and threw years of social learning we have come to the conclusion that violence is often the easiet way of dealing with a situation that angers us. But I don't think that it is natural to think that hurting some is the right way to handle a situation. I have neither done nor read and studies on that so it is all just speculation.
Some people don't have the mental blocks to stop...killing people. Klebold/Harris comes to mind...
I do agree that some people do not have the mental blocks to stop from killing people, but I also feel that the cause of these is largely environmental. In the end I do beleive that people are responsible for how they are affected by their environment, but even I succum to those effects in a negative way some times.
My point is that you can't get rid of violence. You can't have good without the bad.
This is not exactly a realistic point of view, it's a fatalistic point of view. It is always easier to say that "this is the way things are" than to actually put some effort towards changing them. Violence can be removed from society by simply removing the causes of violence, but that is really another topic.
But as I said before, I'm not an anti-violence in media type person, but I would like to see more elements in games and other media that did not include violence. Admitadly it is worse here in the US than in other countries so I maybe a little tainted in my view. I just don't understand were things went wrong and somehow taught children that violence is entertainment. I recall playing games growing up that were entertaining and non-violent. Sure Pac-man ate ghosts, and Donkey Kong was trying to kill Mario, but it's not like the violence of today. Even the early violent games had a goal other than to kill things, but today you don't need any princess saving to make a game, just kill everything in sight seems to be good enough.
I don't know why you have had such problems with Apple support. I have owned 2 Apples now and so far things have been pretty darn good (past 3 years). I have had no problem getting support, well after the 90 day mark, but I do wander to the nearest apple store and talk to people in person, which I have NEVER had a to wait for (and that was in two different major metropolitan areas). We had to return my wife's, which she was without for less than a week and even got it back with all her data intact (even though we did back it up). I had a "duckhead" replaced with no questions ask on a unit that was out of warranty. Now that I think about it I ought to ask them to replace the battery on my 2 year out of warranty machine, they probably will. I will admit I wish they had in store techs to fix things, but they don't, and we will have to deal with that.
I have noticed this is true of most of the products I buy. I just think some people don't know how to get service. I'm sorry that some people have these bad experiences with Apple, since everyone I know has been nothing but totally satisfied, if not more than satisified. Then again if you have never tried to get support from Microsoft or someother large company you may not realize how easy Apple makes it on you.
Normally I would leave these topics alone as I am very anti censorship but a few comments of the parent post hit me as very disturbing.
I think what the "realistic" games do is allow an outlet for things...Like killing people...
I have to ask, why does someone need an outlet for killing people. The idea that we need such an outlet is a sign of serious problems in our society, and I am starting the beleive that our media is a big part of the problem. I don't think the issue is that there is too much violence in media (though I personally find most violent games to be boring) but that there is a lack of other more civilized things. We have reduced our enterainment to the lowest form of violence and nothing but.
you...avoid running into petty quarrels with...law enforcement
I find it even more disturbing that someone would think being arrest for killing a person is a petty quarrel.
If you are looking to have to rewrite most of the available plugins and fight with configurations for weeks on end please consider Maven2.
Someone at my company recently convinced the rest of the team (excluding myself) that we should begin to use Maven2 for out build process. Maven2 is neither complete not bug free. Please do yourself a favore and stick with ant, where you have more fine control of your file structure and many more options for tasks already available (and I will also add that the exisiting tasks work).
Of course this is probably why OSS will find it hard to get into enterprises space. To often OSS is released before it is ready for production use and a bunch of fanboys (I have never felt the need to use that term before) push it like it's the silver bullet for whatever problem.
The US government, and all world governments for that matter, should spend a little more time focusing on their own country and leave things like this alone. Psuedo Republic politics are not the only way to succesfully run a country. Absoulte freedom, or anarchy, is only one of the viable approaches to national survival and citizens comfort. Allow the natural ebb and flow of proletariat/peseant revolt handle these things. If there are true autrocities like government sponsored slavery or molestation of inoccents then we should spend some time and effort on it. But circumventing the laws of another country just because they can't read web sites that defame their government or have access to the latest porn is just not what good governments should be doing. The kind of governmental intrusion you are calling for is why the US is so hated east of the mediteranian.
Hey the only thing that is going to keep as programmers employed is the fact that the new generation does not find and interest in programming. Making consoles easy to program would really change that, and I don't know about you, but I don't think that is a good thing. I was programming before I hand a decent understanding of my native language, and this was back when a 2mhz machine was Blazing fast, and color was not exactly common place (unheard of as far as I was aware). This has given me an edge it todays job market and I don't want that edge taken away, Specially by some snot nosed kid that doesn't even know what a register is.
I think alot of people may be missing the point of the potential benifit of some of the newer technologies like AJAX and why it's not just about fancy graphics. The key with AJAX is that it can happen asynchronously (which any one that communicates by IM or email regularly can see the benefit too) and therefor does not need to impede the user experience. I would think, correctly applied, these technologies would actually reduce the amount of network traffic, and increase the relative spead for those using slower connections, by not having to transmit layout and display information in each request. Instead the process should be to load a basic HTML page (I'm not talking about web apps, since they should not be written in document markup) which will include a small library for accessing the serve, and when you move from "page to page" an AJAX request would be sent to the server and return only the new content which is placed where need by a client side processor. If you combine that with binary encoded XML and you get very small and quick to parse packets, greatly reducing network traffic.
Like any other technology, new web techniques can be miss used. Try not to judge the concept on poor implementations.
I have an even better Idea. How about all of use never ever buy a new console or video game, or any product for that matter. We get everyone together and show big corporations we don't have to stand for their high prices. We just wait until the products are on the used market and then... Oh wait, how are products going to get onto the used market? And who out there is actually paying good money for something just to turn around and sell it in a couple months?
Seriously people, not wanting to be an early adopter because of the price is a totaly resonable concept. Not wanting the company that makes the product to profit(or in console land, recoup a small amount of the cost) is down right stupid.
I think that you are correct that having an optimizing compiler of some sort available would increase the rate of adoption of cell processors by developers. On the other hand I find it to be a REALLY bad idea, if taken to far or done incorrectly. If you make it easy for developers to create bad software that is not writen specificially for the cell architecture you will lose alot of the benifits of the cell. People will write a few general purpose apps that are not better performing than there x86 equivelants and then Cell will be washed away (please refere to the percevied performance of the Emotion Engine). It may be better to figure out how to get developers to work with more direct access to the architecture, at say the assembly level. Though finding a modern developer that even knows what assembly is might be difficult (yes I know there are a few of us out there).
Your statistics, which are not only inaccurate, hide a bit of the facts behind the adoption of High Defenition video. Yes it is true that the majority of the population (US atleast) does not YET have an HD TV. But if you look at the more affluent of the population, those who tend to be early adopters and, the percentage owning HDTVs is much higher. Add to this the fact that HDTV sales increase each year as standard Defenition drops and you get a perfect environment for High Defenition Video formats.
Also if you think upconverted/upscalled standard def video (or even 480p) is even close to true 1080i or 1080p you are really deluding yourself. I know you are probably like me and paid good money for your upconverting DVD player and really want to beleive it is as good as the sales man made it out to be, but trust me, it's not. True HD video is spectacular and well above any DVD, upscalled or not, that you could get today. And all that coming from someone who plays console games instead of PC games and argued for years that the difference in resolution was hardly noticeable.
I know how to manage -- I hire folks that are smarter than me for a reason -- because if I wanted to do the job myself, I'd have hired someone stupider.
Where do you work and are you hiring? Honestly I have a manager than is exactly the same and I am very happy with him as a manager because of this.
Managers should be managers and nothing else. As long as a manager does not atempt to make decisions about things he is not knowledgeable about then there should be no issue about how "smart" he is. On the other hand people in non-management positions should not be asked to do managerial work, and shoul dbe allowed to focus on task more suitable to the skillset they were highered for. I say all this as I take the hours it is taking me to fill out an assesment of my work for the last year becuase some high up tought this would be a good idea, rather than allow our managers to do thier jobs and asses their direct reports themselves.
Hold up, did Sony say something about the ps3 coming preinstalled with Microsoft Windows? I don't see how they would be putting a Windows exploit on the ps3 with out it.
Slashdot Mirror
I was wondering if anyone would make a comment like that. This is the funny part. I have never purchased anything from iTunes and I don't own an iPod.
I purchase all my music on CD and rip to MP3. If I sell the CD I delete the MP3s as well. I like owning physical media, and a large portion of the music I listen too is only available that way. But just because this is they way that I prefere to do things does not mean I should go and spread obvious FUD like "a format that could be obsolete in the future" (yes I realize it says "could"). Every music recording format in history has been made obsolete by the next best thing, and this will happen to CDs as well, but it's not reason to bash the format. I mean CDs are inferior to High Quality records but I don't see to many people posting about that.
In the future I would suggest being careful with your assumptions. I defend alot of things I don't actually do, as long as I think they are fair.
I was going to avoid making an intelligent comment about this redicules article but you inspired me to back up my statement. The 4th paragraph all but entirely false. MP3s are not "crystal clear" by any sense of the word. Even at high bit rates they are chock full of audio artifacts, certainly no better than Apples AAC. MP3s can not "be played on any device." The author doesn't even come close to back up his statement that "[mp3s ripped from CD]...represent better value..." I guess he has never purchased a CD for $16 where more than half of it was worthless, paying $4 or more per decent song.
Then he goes on to claim that any player, particularly a phone based one, that is not made by Apple would not be able to play songs downloaded from iTunes. Besides the fact that you can fairly easily convert iTunes songs to non-DRMed MP3s, there are already phones that "Apple didn't make" that support iTunes directly, let alone AAC.
The authors tactic for getting cheap CDs, by purchasing, ripping and returning, is not only illegal it is the reason that his beloved DRM free CDs are soon to be a thing of the past. The music industry is already looking to change there industry to be a licensed one rather than a purchasing one. I can make speculation too, and tout it as fact, like the idea that soon not only will all CDs be DRMed, worse than Fair Play, but also that the license agreement will say that it licenses only the orignal purchaser and therefor can't resell it.
The rest of the article is just one guys anti-Apple rant, which I assume is there just because he's upset that he purchased an MP3 player other than an iPod and is trying to justify the purchase of a 3rd rate product.
This post is just stupid. It's full of lies. How did this get onto the main page?
Please tell me prototype.js is not actually catching on. I'm not going to rip into prototype.js, but I will say emulating classical inheritance is a waste. Prototypical inheritance is far more powerful and flexible than classical inheritance in pretty much every way. Honestly prototype.js has some useful functionality, but adding in things like the classical inheritance emulation is just asking for trouble, by teaching the next generation of developers that prototyping is bad, which is far from the truth.
Just my opinion, I'm just sick of people trying to knock prototypical systems.
Oh and to back up some of the other comments, as much as slashdot has alot of posts about Ruby on Rails I have never heard of a single company using it. I worked for a company that used XUL heavily but wouldn't say it's popular since no one else used it in production systems. I think Ruby is the same way.
The problem with MMORPGS is not that it benefits those that put in more time, but that there is no detriment to failing. People keep talking about how everyone has the same opportunity and those that put in more time deserve better things, and then the loosely equat it to reality. The classic example is that a good "drop" will happen every so often, so those that play more are more likely to get that good "drop". The problem with this, and how it deviates from reality is that there is no draw back to failure. You could say that given enough tries even I can knock out Mike Tyson (yes it is possible). Problem is I would probably die, or be irreversably damaged in my first fight with him. In an MMORPG you just fail and get up again, probably even keeping all your expereince and property. If there were perma-death or a significant loss in experience or property then those with skill and patients would be able to catch up with less skilled players who happen to have more time.
JavaScript is a horrible, horrible language.
Slow down and take a deap breath. There are no horrible languages, only horrible developers (or implementations). I happen to find ECMAScript to be a very powerful language. It includes dynamic prototypical inheritance, which is considerably more flexible and powerful than classical inheritance. It is fully object oriented, as everything is an object. True it is losely type, which can be both a benifit and a detriment, but that and the fact that it is interpreted are the only flaws I have ever found in the language. The JavaScript Implementation of ECMAScript even allows for individual objects of the same constructor to have seperate prototypes which aover comes the last issue I would have with the language, which is private inheritable object properties.
Understanding Scope in ECMAScript does take a little bit of learning, and its certainly not for everyone, but it's not a flaw, its a benefit, if you know how to use it. I wait for the day that there is a viable ECMAScript runtime environment not in a browsers for writing applications. XUL was a horrible, horrible, horrible mistake.
Just like JS, XUL is not horrible. The problem is that the current development is targeted toward getting Firefox to work. When more people develop in XUL you will seen it advance very quickly and become more stable and more powerful. It's atleast good enough for Microsoft to copy it in their XAML implementation. I happen to be pretty much against the idea of "Web Applications" but after having worked with XUL for a couple years I find that web apps may actually be a viable thing.
XULRunner is actually a good step toward getting rid of some of the bloat of Firefox and other Web Browsers. If we can take the Web Application out of the Web Page Browser and move it into the Web Application Browser, we can have two specialized programs and alot less bloat in both.
I think I did a good job of avoiding any name calling and I would suggest that if you want to be succesful in the legal industry that in the future you do the same. I just don't think "Snide Asshole" is a valid legal argument.
I can't say anymore to some how change your opinion that surveillance is only and issue to those who have something to hide. Personally I am not worried about the intrusion or lack of privacy. I have nothing that needs to remain secretive, and most of my private life would be of no intrest to anyone but me. I find it a sign of the self-centered, self-absorbed, view of the common US citizen that makes people think that other people give a rats ass about their personal life. Very very few people go out of their way to seek out things they disaprove of.
Lastly I would like to know what Alan Turning's sex life has to do with his work? The fact that he engadge in sexual activity with another man does not affect his intellect or logic (only slightly affects his judgement). There is a big difference between "homosexuality is not valuable to the existance and advancement of civilization" and "homosexuals are not valuable to the existance and advancement of civilization." I would suggest that next time you try and understand the words and not view everything that you read as an attack on you or your lifestyle. Feel free to show me how homosexuality (sexual activity with another of the same sex) helps advance and or continue civilization and humanity.
If you had come out and said you were a "law student" and member of a "legal advocacy" group right off the bat I would have realized that logic and reason were completely lost on you and not wasted either of our time.
The point your statement got across was pretty clear (even if it's not what you meant to get across). You wrote a total of two sentences stating that you were afraid of what certain people would do if they saw two men kissing (I'm assuming on the men part since I couldn't see any other reason people would get upset at you kissing your boyfriend). I'm not a supporter of homosexuality (since I don't see it as valuable to the existence or advancement of civilization), but I'm not against it either. All I can say is if I thought something was acceptable public activity I would go ahead and do it and not be so afraid of what other people think. There is no need to be shoving it in anyways face, but you should still feel free to do it, camera or not. Nelson Mandela and the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws showed that acting as you think should be acceptable is far more effective than hiding your actions. Let the people see and what is right by the decision of the society will prevail, it always does.
I don't know how much clearer I can be about your unnecessary paranoia. You are just as likely to be a target of random violence as you are to be persecuted for a difference in moral belief that is, currently, legal.
You are correct some groups are going to want to use it for their own purposes that do not included the security of the people. But really if you think your life style is acceptable then you should do it and not worry about the reactions of others. Stand up for what you believe in and be ready to accept the consequence. Hiding behind closed doors and anonymity will not help your cause.
On the other hand Homosexuality is not a protected right in the US as far as I am aware so you do have a long way to go and are still a minority. Just be happy this is not a democracy at that minorities can have an voice in societal decisions.
It's funny I thought I was the only one that though "if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to hide," an then comes along this guy that almost quotes me word for word. Really put a cameras on every street corner, in every public space I would welcome it. In people's homes I'm not sure, but I have to admit if you are calling the cops that often then it's not a bad idea for your own safety.
I have to agree whole heartedly with the parent poster. There is no reason to tell them and you can not be compelled to do so. Tell them that you don't think that your previous compensations should have any bearing on what you would accept for this position. If you don't want to tell them and they don't hire you because of it then you probably don't want to work there. On the other hand, if it is a big jump from where you were, with out you having a reason for that jump such as finishing a higher level of education, then it may be best for you to talk a position at a lower rate and work your way to where you should be incrimentally.
I personally am a self educated Software Developer and I always make a 10-20% increase in pay when I change Jobs (even a nearly 50% increase once) so I know it can be done. Working through a recruiter is also a big help when it comes to making leaps in pay since the employer will often take the recruiters word and not ask you about your actual salary history.
Lastly I have, on more than one occassion, stated that I had an agreement with my previous employer that I would not reveal my compensation to anyone and am bound by that contract. Also most companies don't want to pay you less than you are honestly worth, by much, because you will just go to another job with a better offer.
This is just people trying to not be responsible for their own actions. I beleive, from what I read, the CDs are clearly labelled, and the user is warned that there is DRM on the CD. I have seen no reputable cases of systems that had been made unusable after the DRM software had been installed. I have heard no complaints from anyone using a system not vulnerable to the attack. This is just like suing McDonalds after spill hot coffee in your own lap, or suing a lown mower maker because you stuck your hand in the blade. Microsoft release software that regularly opens up users to attacks and hacking that are atleast as bad as a root kit, and those volunerablities can not be removed.
All companies have a right to keep their intelectual property protected from illegal replication. Yes it's true that may also stop legal replication. I have never heard anyone complain when they copy a check and it prints void or copy across the copy. And what is even better in this case is that it's not that hard to make legal backups. All CD copiers and any computer not running Microsoft Windows.
The more I have these conversations the more I side with the RIAA. Making MP3 of a song is not making a legal backup. You are altering the original, You are making it usable concurrently on multiple machines. I think personal property should be totally abolished, but until then, the law is the law. Do something to stop rape and murder, stop wasting so much energy on the desire to make copies of crappy music. I willing to bet the parent poster doesn't even own one of these DRMed CDs and is just looking to be angry and someone.
it really bugs me that everyone is coming down on a corporation for working within the legal bounds of the law and using the tools available to them to uphold their protected rights. I neither agree with the rights nor the approach taken, but Sony is not the big person to blame here. And since no one broke into anything thing the parent posters analogy is completely wrong.
That's like being upset, not because a thief stole your TV, but because he left the back door unlocked when he left.
This is more like being upset that a person came into your house and you gave them complete access to your most valuable items completely unwatched and are trying to blame them for taking an opportunity given them and protected by law.
Sony didn't break into anything, they didn't put that crappy music CD into your drive, on your PC with an unsecure Operating system. You stick a gerbal up your butt, it finds a way out of the plastic you wrapped it in, and you die when it sracthes a hole in some vital organ, you can't expect the gerbal's parents to be held responsible.
Lets start placing blame where blame is due, like on the person that put their computer at risk, or on the maker of the OS that left a big gapping hole to be exploited, or on the organization that demands their property be protected, or on the government that allows such saunchy control of artistic media, or on the cheap ass bastards that decided it's better to steal music than pay for it causing the companies to have to come up with new ways to protect their property.
...violence (or rather the desire to apply it) is a natural human instinct...
I both agree and disagree. I think anger is a natural human emotion, and threw years of social learning we have come to the conclusion that violence is often the easiet way of dealing with a situation that angers us. But I don't think that it is natural to think that hurting some is the right way to handle a situation. I have neither done nor read and studies on that so it is all just speculation.
Some people don't have the mental blocks to stop...killing people. Klebold/Harris comes to mind...
I do agree that some people do not have the mental blocks to stop from killing people, but I also feel that the cause of these is largely environmental. In the end I do beleive that people are responsible for how they are affected by their environment, but even I succum to those effects in a negative way some times.
My point is that you can't get rid of violence. You can't have good without the bad.
This is not exactly a realistic point of view, it's a fatalistic point of view. It is always easier to say that "this is the way things are" than to actually put some effort towards changing them. Violence can be removed from society by simply removing the causes of violence, but that is really another topic.
But as I said before, I'm not an anti-violence in media type person, but I would like to see more elements in games and other media that did not include violence. Admitadly it is worse here in the US than in other countries so I maybe a little tainted in my view. I just don't understand were things went wrong and somehow taught children that violence is entertainment. I recall playing games growing up that were entertaining and non-violent. Sure Pac-man ate ghosts, and Donkey Kong was trying to kill Mario, but it's not like the violence of today. Even the early violent games had a goal other than to kill things, but today you don't need any princess saving to make a game, just kill everything in sight seems to be good enough.
I don't know why you have had such problems with Apple support. I have owned 2 Apples now and so far things have been pretty darn good (past 3 years). I have had no problem getting support, well after the 90 day mark, but I do wander to the nearest apple store and talk to people in person, which I have NEVER had a to wait for (and that was in two different major metropolitan areas). We had to return my wife's, which she was without for less than a week and even got it back with all her data intact (even though we did back it up). I had a "duckhead" replaced with no questions ask on a unit that was out of warranty. Now that I think about it I ought to ask them to replace the battery on my 2 year out of warranty machine, they probably will. I will admit I wish they had in store techs to fix things, but they don't, and we will have to deal with that.
I have noticed this is true of most of the products I buy. I just think some people don't know how to get service. I'm sorry that some people have these bad experiences with Apple, since everyone I know has been nothing but totally satisfied, if not more than satisified. Then again if you have never tried to get support from Microsoft or someother large company you may not realize how easy Apple makes it on you.
Normally I would leave these topics alone as I am very anti censorship but a few comments of the parent post hit me as very disturbing.
I think what the "realistic" games do is allow an outlet for things...Like killing people...
I have to ask, why does someone need an outlet for killing people. The idea that we need such an outlet is a sign of serious problems in our society, and I am starting the beleive that our media is a big part of the problem. I don't think the issue is that there is too much violence in media (though I personally find most violent games to be boring) but that there is a lack of other more civilized things. We have reduced our enterainment to the lowest form of violence and nothing but.
you...avoid running into petty quarrels with...law enforcement
I find it even more disturbing that someone would think being arrest for killing a person is a petty quarrel.
If you are looking to have to rewrite most of the available plugins and fight with configurations for weeks on end please consider Maven2.
Someone at my company recently convinced the rest of the team (excluding myself) that we should begin to use Maven2 for out build process. Maven2 is neither complete not bug free. Please do yourself a favore and stick with ant, where you have more fine control of your file structure and many more options for tasks already available (and I will also add that the exisiting tasks work).
Of course this is probably why OSS will find it hard to get into enterprises space. To often OSS is released before it is ready for production use and a bunch of fanboys (I have never felt the need to use that term before) push it like it's the silver bullet for whatever problem.
The US government, and all world governments for that matter, should spend a little more time focusing on their own country and leave things like this alone. Psuedo Republic politics are not the only way to succesfully run a country. Absoulte freedom, or anarchy, is only one of the viable approaches to national survival and citizens comfort. Allow the natural ebb and flow of proletariat/peseant revolt handle these things. If there are true autrocities like government sponsored slavery or molestation of inoccents then we should spend some time and effort on it. But circumventing the laws of another country just because they can't read web sites that defame their government or have access to the latest porn is just not what good governments should be doing. The kind of governmental intrusion you are calling for is why the US is so hated east of the mediteranian.
Hey the only thing that is going to keep as programmers employed is the fact that the new generation does not find and interest in programming. Making consoles easy to program would really change that, and I don't know about you, but I don't think that is a good thing. I was programming before I hand a decent understanding of my native language, and this was back when a 2mhz machine was Blazing fast, and color was not exactly common place (unheard of as far as I was aware). This has given me an edge it todays job market and I don't want that edge taken away, Specially by some snot nosed kid that doesn't even know what a register is.
I think alot of people may be missing the point of the potential benifit of some of the newer technologies like AJAX and why it's not just about fancy graphics. The key with AJAX is that it can happen asynchronously (which any one that communicates by IM or email regularly can see the benefit too) and therefor does not need to impede the user experience. I would think, correctly applied, these technologies would actually reduce the amount of network traffic, and increase the relative spead for those using slower connections, by not having to transmit layout and display information in each request. Instead the process should be to load a basic HTML page (I'm not talking about web apps, since they should not be written in document markup) which will include a small library for accessing the serve, and when you move from "page to page" an AJAX request would be sent to the server and return only the new content which is placed where need by a client side processor. If you combine that with binary encoded XML and you get very small and quick to parse packets, greatly reducing network traffic.
Like any other technology, new web techniques can be miss used. Try not to judge the concept on poor implementations.
I have an even better Idea. How about all of use never ever buy a new console or video game, or any product for that matter. We get everyone together and show big corporations we don't have to stand for their high prices. We just wait until the products are on the used market and then... Oh wait, how are products going to get onto the used market? And who out there is actually paying good money for something just to turn around and sell it in a couple months?
Seriously people, not wanting to be an early adopter because of the price is a totaly resonable concept. Not wanting the company that makes the product to profit(or in console land, recoup a small amount of the cost) is down right stupid.
I think that you are correct that having an optimizing compiler of some sort available would increase the rate of adoption of cell processors by developers. On the other hand I find it to be a REALLY bad idea, if taken to far or done incorrectly. If you make it easy for developers to create bad software that is not writen specificially for the cell architecture you will lose alot of the benifits of the cell. People will write a few general purpose apps that are not better performing than there x86 equivelants and then Cell will be washed away (please refere to the percevied performance of the Emotion Engine). It may be better to figure out how to get developers to work with more direct access to the architecture, at say the assembly level. Though finding a modern developer that even knows what assembly is might be difficult (yes I know there are a few of us out there).
Your statistics, which are not only inaccurate, hide a bit of the facts behind the adoption of High Defenition video. Yes it is true that the majority of the population (US atleast) does not YET have an HD TV. But if you look at the more affluent of the population, those who tend to be early adopters and, the percentage owning HDTVs is much higher. Add to this the fact that HDTV sales increase each year as standard Defenition drops and you get a perfect environment for High Defenition Video formats.
Also if you think upconverted/upscalled standard def video (or even 480p) is even close to true 1080i or 1080p you are really deluding yourself. I know you are probably like me and paid good money for your upconverting DVD player and really want to beleive it is as good as the sales man made it out to be, but trust me, it's not. True HD video is spectacular and well above any DVD, upscalled or not, that you could get today. And all that coming from someone who plays console games instead of PC games and argued for years that the difference in resolution was hardly noticeable.
I know how to manage -- I hire folks that are smarter than me for a reason -- because if I wanted to do the job myself, I'd have hired someone stupider.
Where do you work and are you hiring? Honestly I have a manager than is exactly the same and I am very happy with him as a manager because of this.
Managers should be managers and nothing else. As long as a manager does not atempt to make decisions about things he is not knowledgeable about then there should be no issue about how "smart" he is. On the other hand people in non-management positions should not be asked to do managerial work, and shoul dbe allowed to focus on task more suitable to the skillset they were highered for. I say all this as I take the hours it is taking me to fill out an assesment of my work for the last year becuase some high up tought this would be a good idea, rather than allow our managers to do thier jobs and asses their direct reports themselves.
Playstation 3 with rootkit pre-installed!
Hold up, did Sony say something about the ps3 coming preinstalled with Microsoft Windows? I don't see how they would be putting a Windows exploit on the ps3 with out it.