"Full-width and half-width encoding is a technique for encoding Unicode characters"
No, these are not Unicode encoding techniques, whoever wrote that description has no clue.
They are forms of Latin characters used in Japanese, with clear usage, and long history.
You can find them in the JIS standards (Japanese Standards Association),
and where used by UNIX, MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Mac OS, long-long before Unicode was even created.
The problems is not Unicode, is not even JIS, is the vendors that have no clue about international
issues that exist for more than 20 years now.
All of the things you mention are just based on the fact that you are used to the imperial system. If you get used to the metric one it will feel like the imperial system sucks.
To use stuff "as is", both systems are easy. To calculate something (drill 7 holes at equal distance in a 5 foot plank:-), then the imperial system sucks. A cube with the edge of 10cm is one liter. One liter of water is on kilogram. Nice:-)
The only reasonable explanation for not switching is backward-compatibility (in other words, price).
It seems that most Americans that want to switch base it on a "the Europeans are superior" inferiority complex that many Americans strangely have
Americans have an inferiority complex:-D
Now, this is a good one:-D
About a year and a half ago I was in a similar situation.
It was hard, very hard, overworked and stressed.
Then one of my colegues left for a month, and I had to take over some of his projects. And that was it!
I have submited the resume on a Friday night, 1:30 am.
For the phone interviu I have explained where I was available (morning before 9 or lunch time).
Passed that one, I was able to come up with some reasons to disapear for half a day (dentist, way for somebody at airport, moving friend, broken pipe at home, whatever).
In two weeks I was gone. And now I am way better.
So, think you are cornered, and move your ass. If the house is burning, get out.
Forget Slashdot, forget XBox or whatever. Find the door and exit!
Everyine entering U.S. with a visa, a form (I94) is stitched to the passport.
When you leave the country (at check-in) they take that form back.
So if you need a vise, they do trace when you come and go.
Plus, even as a citizen, the airlines scan your passport.
But they don't give that info to the gov. Or do they ?:-)
O, wait! They do! It while ago was some noise about that one.
The noise stopped, but not the sharing:-)
Let's not forget that the PC manufacturer payed the "MS tribute" for each PC they sell. So, unless you put you PC together yourself, there is no 100% pirated MS OS.
I did transmissions in the armym, and the required speed was 60 chars per minute for the 3rd degree (the lowest). The top instructors arround where able to go up to 300, but none of us was able to receive at that speed:-)
There are two sides here:
- who pays for it?
- how do you encourage it?
If it goes to manufactures, it will end up on my bill anyway. They will fight to reduce these costs? I bet! Will the saving make it back to me? Absolutely not.
The price of music CDs did not decreased, everything enforced on phone companies end in my bill ("conectivity fee", "portability fee" and so on).
The oher side (as someone noted already): why does a computer end in the dumpster? Because it is not easy to get read of it otherwise and there is no incentive to make the effort.
What about this: I pay the cost when I buy.
The manufacturer has to pick it up when I call and has to reimburse me the initial recicling price.
And they are not allowed to pass the cost back to me. Why? Because I pay in advance! I pay them a recicling fee 3-5 years (even more) in advance! And they are using my money. And a big percent of ppl will be too lazy to recicle anyway, so the manufacturer gets those money for free.
Here is an article I have submited to Slashdot on Dec. 14, 2003. The article never made it.
Here is a
link from a guy working in German company claming RIAA payed them to hack P2P networks and implant spyware software. Interesting. Not sure how legal, though.
Compared with many stories here, what you are required is not absurd. Internationalization (i18n) is a normal requirement if you need a localized application or the application deals with data from several locales.
If the developers before (or you) did not do it, someone has to do it now.
The developer's job is not only fun, new toys and cutting edge technologies.
"a script... quite primitive"
Nobody forced you to use it. If you are a developer, write a better one.
We all had some bad experiences. When it is you against the boss/company, maybe is not much you can do. But here it is you against the machine.
And you don't sound like a winner (more like a whiner).
Slashdot Mirror
"Full-width and half-width encoding is a technique for encoding Unicode characters" No, these are not Unicode encoding techniques, whoever wrote that description has no clue. They are forms of Latin characters used in Japanese, with clear usage, and long history. You can find them in the JIS standards (Japanese Standards Association), and where used by UNIX, MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, Mac OS, long-long before Unicode was even created. The problems is not Unicode, is not even JIS, is the vendors that have no clue about international issues that exist for more than 20 years now.
We will pass a law that say US companies should not provide info about the customers to governments.
Except to the US government and *IAA, because that is about combating terrorism and piracy.
Right?
All of the things you mention are just based on the fact that you are used to the imperial system. If you get used to the metric one it will feel like the imperial system sucks.
To use stuff "as is", both systems are easy. To calculate something (drill 7 holes at equal distance in a 5 foot plank :-), then the imperial system sucks. A cube with the edge of 10cm is one liter. One liter of water is on kilogram. Nice :-)
The only reasonable explanation for not switching is backward-compatibility (in other words, price).
It seems that most Americans that want to switch base it on a "the Europeans are superior" inferiority complex that many Americans strangely have Americans have an inferiority complex :-D
Now, this is a good one :-D
If people see that you can get away if you die, they will do that in order to escape and not pay. :-(
Poor RIAA
About a year and a half ago I was in a similar situation. It was hard, very hard, overworked and stressed. Then one of my colegues left for a month, and I had to take over some of his projects. And that was it! I have submited the resume on a Friday night, 1:30 am. For the phone interviu I have explained where I was available (morning before 9 or lunch time). Passed that one, I was able to come up with some reasons to disapear for half a day (dentist, way for somebody at airport, moving friend, broken pipe at home, whatever). In two weeks I was gone. And now I am way better. So, think you are cornered, and move your ass. If the house is burning, get out. Forget Slashdot, forget XBox or whatever. Find the door and exit!
Adobe
Everyine entering U.S. with a visa, a form (I94) is stitched to the passport. When you leave the country (at check-in) they take that form back. So if you need a vise, they do trace when you come and go.
Plus, even as a citizen, the airlines scan your passport. But they don't give that info to the gov. Or do they ? :-)
O, wait! They do! It while ago was some noise about that one.
The noise stopped, but not the sharing :-)
Let's not forget that the PC manufacturer payed the "MS tribute" for each PC they sell. So, unless you put you PC together yourself, there is no 100% pirated MS OS.
I did transmissions in the armym, and the required speed was 60 chars per minute for the 3rd degree (the lowest). :-)
The top instructors arround where able to go up to 300, but none of us was able to receive at that speed
There are two sides here:
- who pays for it?
- how do you encourage it?
If it goes to manufactures, it will end up on my bill anyway. They will fight to reduce these costs? I bet! Will the saving make it back to me? Absolutely not.
The price of music CDs did not decreased, everything enforced on phone companies end in my bill ("conectivity fee", "portability fee" and so on).
The oher side (as someone noted already): why does a computer end in the dumpster? Because it is not easy to get read of it otherwise and there is no incentive to make the effort.
What about this: I pay the cost when I buy. The manufacturer has to pick it up when I call and has to reimburse me the initial recicling price.
And they are not allowed to pass the cost back to me. Why? Because I pay in advance! I pay them a recicling fee 3-5 years (even more) in advance! And they are using my money. And a big percent of ppl will be too lazy to recicle anyway, so the manufacturer gets those money for free.
-
Old news? Did the reporter heard about the speed of the light?
- "Tests Find Theoretical Data Speed Limit"
I am pretty sure the Stanford scientists know what they are doing. Only that the message gets deformed or lost with bad reporting.A theoretical something can be proven/confirmed with tests, not found.
Compared with many stories here, what you are required is not absurd. Internationalization (i18n) is a normal requirement if you need a localized application or the application deals with data from several locales. If the developers before (or you) did not do it, someone has to do it now.
The developer's job is not only fun, new toys and cutting edge technologies.
"a script ... quite primitive"
Nobody forced you to use it. If you are a developer, write a better one.
We all had some bad experiences. When it is you against the boss/company, maybe is not much you can do. But here it is you against the machine. And you don't sound like a winner (more like a whiner).