"I don't know what technique was used to date the spider"
Well, my guess is that he got to know the spider a bit before he finally asked it out. Then it could be a nice dinner, some wine, and a walk on the beach. If it was a more "casual" date, it might have involved a movie or Putt-Putt.
My favorite, though, is the "eye-dee-ten-tee" error. When they're confused I'll tell them to write it out: ID10T.
In fact, using these jokes directly is often a good way of explaining that sometimes the problem isn't the computer - it's the user. As users begin to realize that they might be at fault, they're usually less likely to come blaming you for something that almost certainly wasn't because of you.
I believe that R&D costs are considered "sunk" costs and are not a part of the actual cost. It's a consideration in pricing, of course, but the point I kept getting when researching product pricing was that sunk costs are gone whether or not you sell any or how much you sell them for.
Overhead for plants, staff, etc. probably aren't factored into their estimate, though. How could they know the cost of running the factories, the costs of paying all the employees (including plant managers and non-assembly staff), etc.? I'm not positive, but I'd assume that marketing costs are part of the Cost of Acquiring a Customer - which should be factored in as well.
1. Create a browser extension to install a set of stylesheets for a certain website by domain (actually, there's already one of these out there for the Mozilla family and also a non-extension way of doing it).
2. Create a site that hosts alternate styles for popular websites, allowing users to upload CSS files and image packs.
3. Create alternate extension that integrates the two - finds available styles for the site you're on and offers to switch. Also, it remembers your last selection (if you ask it to).
4. Finally, create and implement style sheets that are applied to all websites (fingers crossed for support). This is just an upfront version of Firefox's user styles.
I'm glad to see the improvements. I was surprised to see a couple of the pages loading much faster and my text-size was slightly decreased from the previous version. Looking under the hood, I saw that the move was made. However, there are a few items I noticed (I'll submit to the SF page as appropriate)...
Validator says it's not correct Strict. There are 13 errors. Some areas still have FONT tags and whatnot, but I don't know if those are includes from external sites (and therefore out of/.'s hands).
Anyway, I'll be working on an alternate design right quick. I also expect to see a Firefox extension to load up a custom Slashdot stylesheet (and maybe a/. styles database site to find good ones).
I don't think it's unreasonable for employers to demand that their employees keep a security information quiet.
However, keeping it quiet because they think that will improve security rather than fixing the problem is NOT reasonable. That's why we have whistleblower protections. A company that has this much of a role in our country - by way of their products - should be held to the highest standards. And from what it sounds like, they are not.
Which Diebold exec was the roommate of which politician?
With the exception of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, I have never encountered the "relatively untapped genre of the vampire cowboy" anywhere.
I think there's a pretty good reason for that.
Re:The Slurpee is Great But...
on
The Slurpee at 40
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I used to buy Slurpees once a week or so. I once complained to the store manager that they rarely had Cherry - which is my favorite - but always seem to have Coke - usually my least favorite. He replied that they rotate flavors for a lot of reasons, but they always carry Coke because Coke is the most popular flavor and the one folks are most likely to pick if they find nothing else of interest.
Interesting... Looking at the IPCC reports, I see no conclusion that suggest humans are responsible for the warming. The 2001 report concludes that there is a warming, it has increased, and it will continue to increase.
A quick Google Scholars search reveals hundreds of articles dissenting from the "consensus" that many claim. A non-scholar Google search (sorry, I don't have access to any more professional litsearch tools right now) shows many articles (admittedly, from sources with varying levels of credibility). However, some of the most informed sources that I was able to find in my previous reading were not in agreement with this conclusion.
Again, I see the general consensus that a climate change is occurring, but many articles contest the view that it is entirely or even largely human-induced.
I'll keep reading about these things. Like I say, I'm no expert but I also haven't been convinced by any experts yet.
*inserts link to pictures of mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and John Leguizamo in a sloth costume*
Seriously, though, I agree. Having just had this discussion with some folks, I read up on a lot of articles and comments from folks ranging from scientists to press to "I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night" guys. And while I can't pretend to be an expert, I will say that the literature I found is anything but conclusive. So many studies have conflicting results. Most of these agreed that a measurable temperature shift has occurred, the disagreements arise when you start making assumptions about the source of that shift, the long-term effects, and so on.
Wal-mart has an estimated 1.6 million employees. (source)
General Motors, by contrast, has approximately 360,000 employees.
The post says "around one million accounts" which is very different from one million employees. I have over ten email accounts that I actively use for receiving mail and four to six for sending.
An ISP could easily have millions of accounts. But since he said "huge" company, they were using Exchange, and because he's asking Slashdot my guess is that he's not at an ISP. Instead, I'd guess he's at a medium-sized company that might offer email accounts to its customers or at a large company that also contains many subsidiaries (but wants one email domain for all of those).
You're right, but I think there's a business model to be found there. The first thing that comes to mind is the same defense that many use regarding space exploration: innovation. While the goal and long-term plan might involve getting to Mars and setting up shop there, along the way they'll need a lot of technological advancements. Licensing that technology, the patents, etc. would make the journey just as profitable as the destination.
Sure, this is a fund-raising PR move. But if they come anywhere close to their goal by that time, I'd guess they'll be an awfully powerful and rich company by then simply from their patent portfolio.
I've gone swimming in the lake with it in my bathing suit pocket, worn fuzzy sweaters on thick carpet, and accidentally slammed it against some concrete (swinging it on a cord when the cord broke).
The thing is really durable, and I'm certainly not gentle with it.
I've been accused of pointing out flaws but not providing a solution. I've also been accused of suggesting unrealistic solutions after I pointed out the flaws. Major security risk, but the client doesn't want to spend money to fix it. You just can't win.
In the "all or nothing" world, I envision my wife's grandparents clicking No to every box even when they should click Yes (Do you want to install Ad-aware, Do you want to update your antivirus definitions, Do you want to delete the virus?). They are "all or nothing"-minded people when it comes to computers. They were still running defrag every night because someone told them it would speed things up.
I agree with Schneier and your comments. Code signing shouldn't part of the end user experience... it's another way to confuse users like my in-laws, who have enough trouble as it is with AOL, replacing printer cartridges, and going swimming with their $500 digital camera in grandpa's pocket.
I think Schneier's criticisms often come off that way. His critique of certificates amounts to "they're not perfect, so don't bother." This "all or nothing" type of attitude may not be exactly how he feels, but his writing certainly makes one feel that way.
What makes you think they meant to say anything other than what they actually said? There's no indication that it was a mistake. There's nothing that suggests the author changed his mind by the end of the article and recanted. There's only the argument that songs might end up being priced according to their demand.
Go look in the discount bin at Wal-mart. You can buy CDs for $5 there. I see no reason why the unpopular songs on iTunes can't be treated the same way as the discount bin. Quality music that doesn't sell is no more valuable to the seller at $.99 than free. So offering it at a price where it sells is far more likely than leaving it at a price where it doesn't.
"A hot new single, for example, could sell for $1.49, while a golden oldie could go for substantially less than 99 cents.'"
That's a quote from the article. If you can't be bothered to RTFA, at least RTFSlashdotPost.
* There is high demand for popular songs, so selling them at a higher price is more likely to work.
* There is a low demand for unpopular songs, so selling them at a higher price is unlikely to work.
Garage band songs and oldies won't sell well for $1.49. Many of them barely sell at $.99. So lowering those songs - the ones where the production cost is very low or has been long since recovered - to $.49-$.79 might increase sales enough to make them worthwhile for the label. That probably means you're cutting away at the eighth of a cent that the small artist might be getting. That doesn't change much in their paycheck - they're not the artists that expect to be selling ten million songs on iTunes. But it improves their exposure, encourages labels to invest more in the band, and likely increases concert attendance.
Finally, I can get that Win95 admin job I've always wanted!
Two years ago, I saw ads requiring 10+ years experience in.Net.
[off-topic:] Just a few months ago I saw an ad for a junior application developer that required what I consider a nearly impossible combination of three or four decades' worth of languages - Cobol, Fortran, Scheme, Assembly,.Net, Java, C, C++, HTML, Perl, Python, and (of all things) GW-Basic. I believe that they asked for 5-10 years of experience.
I know that some employers do this so they can offer a lower salary because applicants do not meet the requirements of the position. Never mind that the job was not going to need most of those languages. Never mind that the list reads like a Google search for "programming languages" or that junior developers are unlikely to be exposed to some of those. And never mind that 5-10 years of experience in those languages should not be a "junior" position.
As soon as I turned off my TRS-80, it was cleared completely. There were ROMs for it, but I only had some accounting software ROM and a 12-year-old has very little use for outdated accounting software.
It started up to a prompt, waiting for BASIC instruction. I remember keeping the thing on for almost a week because I had written a program I couldn't bear to erase...
Ahh, yes. The day we had to decide between another 4MB of RAM or upgrading the modem from a 2400bps to 14.4k. They both ran about $150. I think we chose the 14.4k. I was sick of watching the letters appear on my screen one at a time on the local BBSs.
Slashdot Mirror
"I don't know what technique was used to date the spider"
Well, my guess is that he got to know the spider a bit before he finally asked it out. Then it could be a nice dinner, some wine, and a walk on the beach. If it was a more "casual" date, it might have involved a movie or Putt-Putt.
We may never know.
I always used PEBKAC (P Exists BKAC).
My favorite, though, is the "eye-dee-ten-tee" error. When they're confused I'll tell them to write it out: ID10T.
In fact, using these jokes directly is often a good way of explaining that sometimes the problem isn't the computer - it's the user. As users begin to realize that they might be at fault, they're usually less likely to come blaming you for something that almost certainly wasn't because of you.
I believe that R&D costs are considered "sunk" costs and are not a part of the actual cost. It's a consideration in pricing, of course, but the point I kept getting when researching product pricing was that sunk costs are gone whether or not you sell any or how much you sell them for.
Overhead for plants, staff, etc. probably aren't factored into their estimate, though. How could they know the cost of running the factories, the costs of paying all the employees (including plant managers and non-assembly staff), etc.? I'm not positive, but I'd assume that marketing costs are part of the Cost of Acquiring a Customer - which should be factored in as well.
I started thinking about this...
1. Create a browser extension to install a set of stylesheets for a certain website by domain (actually, there's already one of these out there for the Mozilla family and also a non-extension way of doing it).
2. Create a site that hosts alternate styles for popular websites, allowing users to upload CSS files and image packs.
3. Create alternate extension that integrates the two - finds available styles for the site you're on and offers to switch. Also, it remembers your last selection (if you ask it to).
4. Finally, create and implement style sheets that are applied to all websites (fingers crossed for support). This is just an upfront version of Firefox's user styles.
XHTML: Hey baby, you got style.
CSS: *blushes* Why, thank you.
I recommend you (using Firefox, of course) get the Web Developer extension, and use that to access, edit, and download the stylesheets.
Validator says it's not correct Strict. There are 13 errors. Some areas still have FONT tags and whatnot, but I don't know if those are includes from external sites (and therefore out of
Welcome to the 21st Century.
I don't think it's unreasonable for employers to demand that their employees keep a security information quiet.
However, keeping it quiet because they think that will improve security rather than fixing the problem is NOT reasonable. That's why we have whistleblower protections. A company that has this much of a role in our country - by way of their products - should be held to the highest standards. And from what it sounds like, they are not.
Which Diebold exec was the roommate of which politician?
With the exception of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, I have never encountered the "relatively untapped genre of the vampire cowboy" anywhere.
I think there's a pretty good reason for that.
I used to buy Slurpees once a week or so. I once complained to the store manager that they rarely had Cherry - which is my favorite - but always seem to have Coke - usually my least favorite. He replied that they rotate flavors for a lot of reasons, but they always carry Coke because Coke is the most popular flavor and the one folks are most likely to pick if they find nothing else of interest.
Interesting... Looking at the IPCC reports, I see no conclusion that suggest humans are responsible for the warming. The 2001 report concludes that there is a warming, it has increased, and it will continue to increase.
A quick Google Scholars search reveals hundreds of articles dissenting from the "consensus" that many claim. A non-scholar Google search (sorry, I don't have access to any more professional litsearch tools right now) shows many articles (admittedly, from sources with varying levels of credibility). However, some of the most informed sources that I was able to find in my previous reading were not in agreement with this conclusion.
Again, I see the general consensus that a climate change is occurring, but many articles contest the view that it is entirely or even largely human-induced.
I'll keep reading about these things. Like I say, I'm no expert but I also haven't been convinced by any experts yet.
*inserts link to pictures of mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and John Leguizamo in a sloth costume*
Seriously, though, I agree. Having just had this discussion with some folks, I read up on a lot of articles and comments from folks ranging from scientists to press to "I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night" guys. And while I can't pretend to be an expert, I will say that the literature I found is anything but conclusive. So many studies have conflicting results. Most of these agreed that a measurable temperature shift has occurred, the disagreements arise when you start making assumptions about the source of that shift, the long-term effects, and so on.
"Especially when a doctor is free to blog their side of the story."
Breaching patient confidentiality is far worse for business than an unhappy patient with a blog.
Ahh, yes. Heaven forbid that a website be visited!
I was curious about that, too...
Wal-mart has an estimated 1.6 million employees. (source)
General Motors, by contrast, has approximately 360,000 employees.
The post says "around one million accounts" which is very different from one million employees. I have over ten email accounts that I actively use for receiving mail and four to six for sending.
An ISP could easily have millions of accounts. But since he said "huge" company, they were using Exchange, and because he's asking Slashdot my guess is that he's not at an ISP. Instead, I'd guess he's at a medium-sized company that might offer email accounts to its customers or at a large company that also contains many subsidiaries (but wants one email domain for all of those).
You're right, but I think there's a business model to be found there. The first thing that comes to mind is the same defense that many use regarding space exploration: innovation. While the goal and long-term plan might involve getting to Mars and setting up shop there, along the way they'll need a lot of technological advancements. Licensing that technology, the patents, etc. would make the journey just as profitable as the destination.
Sure, this is a fund-raising PR move. But if they come anywhere close to their goal by that time, I'd guess they'll be an awfully powerful and rich company by then simply from their patent portfolio.
I have a PNY Attache.
I've gone swimming in the lake with it in my bathing suit pocket, worn fuzzy sweaters on thick carpet, and accidentally slammed it against some concrete (swinging it on a cord when the cord broke).
The thing is really durable, and I'm certainly not gentle with it.
Still works beautifully. YMMV.
I've been accused of pointing out flaws but not providing a solution. I've also been accused of suggesting unrealistic solutions after I pointed out the flaws. Major security risk, but the client doesn't want to spend money to fix it. You just can't win.
In the "all or nothing" world, I envision my wife's grandparents clicking No to every box even when they should click Yes (Do you want to install Ad-aware, Do you want to update your antivirus definitions, Do you want to delete the virus?). They are "all or nothing"-minded people when it comes to computers. They were still running defrag every night because someone told them it would speed things up.
I agree with Schneier and your comments. Code signing shouldn't part of the end user experience... it's another way to confuse users like my in-laws, who have enough trouble as it is with AOL, replacing printer cartridges, and going swimming with their $500 digital camera in grandpa's pocket.
I think I'll split that bottle with you now.
I think Schneier's criticisms often come off that way. His critique of certificates amounts to "they're not perfect, so don't bother." This "all or nothing" type of attitude may not be exactly how he feels, but his writing certainly makes one feel that way.
What makes you think they meant to say anything other than what they actually said? There's no indication that it was a mistake. There's nothing that suggests the author changed his mind by the end of the article and recanted. There's only the argument that songs might end up being priced according to their demand.
Go look in the discount bin at Wal-mart. You can buy CDs for $5 there. I see no reason why the unpopular songs on iTunes can't be treated the same way as the discount bin. Quality music that doesn't sell is no more valuable to the seller at $.99 than free. So offering it at a price where it sells is far more likely than leaving it at a price where it doesn't.
"A hot new single, for example, could sell for $1.49, while a golden oldie could go for substantially less than 99 cents.'"
That's a quote from the article. If you can't be bothered to RTFA, at least RTFSlashdotPost.
* There is high demand for popular songs, so selling them at a higher price is more likely to work.
* There is a low demand for unpopular songs, so selling them at a higher price is unlikely to work.
Garage band songs and oldies won't sell well for $1.49. Many of them barely sell at $.99. So lowering those songs - the ones where the production cost is very low or has been long since recovered - to $.49-$.79 might increase sales enough to make them worthwhile for the label. That probably means you're cutting away at the eighth of a cent that the small artist might be getting. That doesn't change much in their paycheck - they're not the artists that expect to be selling ten million songs on iTunes. But it improves their exposure, encourages labels to invest more in the band, and likely increases concert attendance.
Then I might actually consider buying music, given that I rarely buy "new" or "popular" music.
Finally, I can get that Win95 admin job I've always wanted!
.Net.
.Net, Java, C, C++, HTML, Perl, Python, and (of all things) GW-Basic. I believe that they asked for 5-10 years of experience.
Two years ago, I saw ads requiring 10+ years experience in
[off-topic:]
Just a few months ago I saw an ad for a junior application developer that required what I consider a nearly impossible combination of three or four decades' worth of languages - Cobol, Fortran, Scheme, Assembly,
I know that some employers do this so they can offer a lower salary because applicants do not meet the requirements of the position. Never mind that the job was not going to need most of those languages. Never mind that the list reads like a Google search for "programming languages" or that junior developers are unlikely to be exposed to some of those. And never mind that 5-10 years of experience in those languages should not be a "junior" position.
As soon as I turned off my TRS-80, it was cleared completely. There were ROMs for it, but I only had some accounting software ROM and a 12-year-old has very little use for outdated accounting software.
It started up to a prompt, waiting for BASIC instruction. I remember keeping the thing on for almost a week because I had written a program I couldn't bear to erase...
Ahh, yes. The day we had to decide between another 4MB of RAM or upgrading the modem from a 2400bps to 14.4k. They both ran about $150. I think we chose the 14.4k. I was sick of watching the letters appear on my screen one at a time on the local BBSs.