TN Visas actually don't allow for Software Developers. There are Computer Systems Analysts, but any talk of programming will cause the visa to be rejected.
I'm a dual Canadian/Australian citizen who works in the USA on an E-3 visa even though it's more expensive to process the paperwork.
Take a very simple application that keeps a list of what money you get, and what you spend it on. A simple display screen of
Amount Reason
Then explain you need to add two buttons - add money and spend money. Each button opens up a screen where you enter the information, explain how you need fields to enter the data, and buttons to go OK. Then you can go, what if you hit the button by mistake? You need a cancel button. Around this time you need to talk about how dumb computers are, and how you have to tell them every single little detail of what needs to happen.
Then assuming the OK button is hit, you need to update the screen to add the new Amount and Reason.
After you explain the above (use a blackboard to draw simple versions of what the screen should look like), you will have spent probably 15 minutes explaining what you had to go through at least. Then, if you have the resources, open up something like excel. Explain that each and every little menu and option and button requires just as much if not more analysis like what you just described - and that keeping track of all that information with such detail gets very difficult.
And voila, you've largely explained what software development is all about, without touching code.
So they can go for about an hour before recharging, and then they spent half their active time recharging?
Keep in mind, there's also time required to leave from and return to whatever charging station you have.
These things are useless.
With that said, this is the most horrendous example of what the gaming society is becoming. I'd rather throw myself off a cliff than pay these fucktards.
Thankfully, you have a simple, legal option available to you: Don't buy the game. It's just entertainment:)
Why people still routinely neglect compound interesting I'll never know.
If he took that $38,000 and put it in a long term investment at a mere 5%, he'd had 68242.54 at the end of 12 years.
Yes, it's green, yes, it's cool, but no, he's not saving money.
That was taken into consideration. From the viewpoint of developers and users, distribution costs are free. Yes, someone pays for it, but the cost is so low that it is provided for free to the participants. Even if we are talking p2p distribution, the distribution costs are at least fixed, which has a similar effect (sorry, it's been a while since I've taken economics).
There's always a fine line when to keep your post simple, and when to write an essay:)
"Most people in the West, including myself, were indoctrinated with the notion that extending the power of individuals necessarily diminishes the power of the state, and vice versa"
What? Western culture has been about empowering the individual, about heroes. Conversely, communist nations such as Russia and China are less about individuals, and more about "the good of many outweighs the good of the few".
Additionally, the "free" software you see isn't an affront to free market principles, in fact it is an application of "when a product has an infinitely increasing returns to scale, cost tends towards distribution costs", and since distribution costs are free, well, hello open source.
Open source is very much a product of western, capitalist countries that PROMOTE the power of the individual.
And is instead similar to the Agile software development process. If the average Web 2.0 monkey had some real software engineering background, maybe their work will be maintainable a few years down the road, and not just rewritten for the Next Big Buzzword.
No it wouldn't. You take the hard drive out of the laptop, either put it in another laptop or buy a $15 adapter that lets you plug it into an IDE slot on a computer. Change the files, put the disk back in the laptop.
There isn't anything magical or hidden about a laptop hard drive.
It is NOT the cops responsibility to judge the laws they are given to enforce. That should be sole responsibility of elected officials. If so, is it right for a police officer to not bring charges against the owner of an establishment because they do not allow black people to enter? There is FAR more damage to be done by cops selectively applying the laws they want to than the cops just following what the civilian government tells them to do.
The user stands to gain the use of the services! Servers, coders, managers (you generally need at least one to keep track of things) don't come for free.
Well, here is one person who does have a moral principle against it.
As a software developer, copyright is what gives me the ability to work, by giving me a mechanism with which I can control the distribution of my work in return for money, which I require to live. Even if I wish to create GPL software (which I have done) it is copyright that enforces how my software can be redistributed... instead of money, I require that the changes be made available.
If someone wants to take the time (and while doing so, needs to be clothed, fed and sheltered) to create a piece of copyrighted work, then it should be up to them to control their work as they please. Even beyond money, they took the time to create the work, they should be able to do whatever they please with it. Yes, the RIAA are nasty, but the musicians sign the contracts with their members, so obviously there's got to be something in it for them. Other musicians promote themselves, and that's great.
I don't buy any DRM'd crap, but if someone wants to CREATE something themselves (or transfer their created work for compensation) and then lock it away in a format that I can only use if I stick a probe up my ass to verify my identity, I don't care. I just won't use it or buy it. But morally, we need humans to make this stuff. Humans need food, shelter, computers, some pleasurable stuff. Copyright is the mechanism by which more than just a few artists that are funded by rich benefactors can create intangible works.
Now, patents are an entirely different animal, I think they should die, especially where software is concerned, But the difference with copyright is that if you think that the cost is too high, you can go and make something similar yourself.
I do agree with you, a balance is required. I'm not advocating unrestrained capitalism. A smaller gap between rich and poor is better, as long as it is the result of productive work, and not just forced 'equality' (such as the hospital example provided).
The profit motive is also the best thing for an economy, as it promotes producing goods for those that desire them most, it underpins supply and demand. At the same time, there obviously needs to be laws restraining monopolies and corruption.
Anyways, my original post was taking issue with 'how to feel smug when everyone being equal', when everyone has access to the *exact same technology* etc. That will only ever happen when everyone is forced to use the same technology, forced to be 'equal'. Otherwise, some people will naturally prefer to spend their extra resources on a car, and another person would rather a better computer. The only way to ever remove that is by forcing.
> The point of the GP (and this thread in general) is that *everyone* should be entitled to education and heathcare, regardless of being rich and poor. You've kind of missed the point haven't you.
I object to everyone being entitled to the *same* education and health care. There is scarcity in the world, and if someone wishes to allocate their resources as they see fit to better themselves, they should be allowed to do so, without being frowned upon. The *same for everyone* concept means that those that wish to do better are not allowed... An example is where I live, Canada (not american). If you need a surgery, you have to get on a list and wait. It doesn't matter that you may have been smart saving all your life, and you could afford to buy the surgery now before your health deteriorates even further, you need to wait two years. At least it's still legal to go to the US and pay if you are well enough to get yourself there.
There's no incentive to save the health system from needless visits just due to a cold, since the cost is shared. Everyone having the same is just another way to say that no-one is allowed to excel. Two tiered, which the OP was referring to with the poor in public hospitals, is something that I believe is fair. The only way to ensure that everyone has the *same* is to take from those who can make more, thereby removing their incentive to make more. Which decreases society's overall wealth.
I wish to minimize my costs on other people, and I wish they would respect me and let me handle my own affairs as well. I like opt-in systems, I like two-tiered systems, and yes, I'm quite anti-socialist. It happens when you escape from a communist country where everyone is "equal", where everyone has the same as everyone else. Then you just get nothing.
> How can a white middle to upper class American feel smug about themselves when poor people are getting the same care as they are and have access to information technology to better their lot in life?
They can't when they might work hard to earn their better care and technology, and others just think they are entitled to it because they are poor. I scrimp and save every penny to put myself through school, without any government assistance or student loans. I don't smoke or drink. The "poor" students at my university, who go out to pubs a couple times a week and smoke, put spare time into volunteering, then complain about being too poor to pay for education, expect taxpayers (like myself) to fund their lifestyles for them.
I agree it's a whole different ballgame in Africa. But on a domestic scale, when I do without to save up so that I can get something better, it doesn't automatically mean that I should subsidize those who spend all of their disposable income, or subsidize those who think that us "nerds" are stupid for all of our hard work when they regularly go out and party.
I don't have a social life, I work very hard to look after myself, save diligently, and as such I am well off financially as compared to my peers. Now I should just give my money to others?
And yes, I'm white and male. I apologise, because it seems lately that it's something I should be ashamed of. Even though I started off with less than most of my peers.
What? Your post is so wrong I don't even know where to begin.
First off, why not just use a human brain if you want an identical machine? Well, for sending probes to mars. Or to the depths of the ocean. Or any other place that is too dangerous to send humans, but that a machine could survive in. Even if the brain was a replica of someone's personality, all they'd have to do is find someone who thinks it would be really cool to go to mars, and replicate their brain. It'd be a hell of a lot more intelligent than a traditional AI system at this point.
Secondly, if we want an AI system that better than the human brain, THIS IS THE WAY TO GO. Figure out exactly how the human brain handles thing that are really hard for computers, like object recognition. Once you've got that, you can replace//add on parts that do things better/faster than humans, like math. In terms of adaptability and general purpose use, NOTHING in AI comes anywhere close to the human brain right now. So trying to make an AI system that is better than the brain, a good first step is to try and make the human brain, then start tweaking that.
The point is to try and understand how biological brains do what they do, and how we can make computers do those things (which computers currently suck at). Sure, you can emulate basic behaviour in a pre-define environment, but try making a system that can differentiate a food source the 'rat' may never have seen before based on sight and smell in an environment that it's never been in.
Look, I've been a vegan for 19 years now, but not even I can see how this comment is anywhere near relevant to this article. It's not like the camera is going to somehow to a time warp on the dead animal on your plate, follow its constituent atoms back to its grains etc.
Seriously, wtf. Debate where it is an appropriate forum, just interjecting where it makes no sense gives a bad image to vegans/vegetarians.
I think it is quite the reverse: If anything, Wal-Mart probably runs marketing surveys to try and get a reliable picture of how people in different demographics view their company. Your post sounds very much like "my friends and I don't like walmart, therefore the most other people must agree with us".
As far as the educated people go... I'll disagree with you there too. I'm finishing an honours degree with a scholarship for grad school in computer science and I love walmart, as do many of my university friends. From my observation, the largest concentration of walmart haters are arts students.
But I think that both of our opinions are going to be less accurate than the surveys that Wal-Mart, and any other large corp does/buys.
They say this now, when there is Vista to buy. It's just part of Microsofts standard strategy... Release new operating system, try and make the old one look bad.
At the BMI's he is suggesting, you would be considered underweight. Normal BMI is 18.5-24.9. If he really had a BMI of 11, I'm surprised that he is still alive.
Here's a page giving some BMI weight ranges and a calculator.
Until we find out what kind of torture this imparts on the BRAIN.
Personally, I'd take the risks from straining my wrists due to mechanical motion over implanting a chip (along with unknown stressors) in my brain any day. If I'm going to potentionally cause harm to one part of my body, it'll be my wrists over my brain.
I'm not a luddite, really! But my brain is just too vital to me to start tossing implants into it.
Well, off the top of my head if there are a more than one or two other people, having a boardroom would give a physical reference to select a video stream to view.
There is really no excuse for those memory bugs. There are free, simple tools that check C code and memory management (and php itself is written in C).
"double freed memory to bugs in functions that allow attackers to enable register_globals, to memory corruption with unserialize()"
The authors of php should use valgrind, and with a few test cases, could virtually eliminate memory errors.
Memory errors have been around for so long that there are numerous tools for dealing with them, many of them free. I know that many people on slashdot like to put down the importance of an education, but the knowledge, ability and discipline to use these tools is what separates professional software engineers from (generally smart) people who just hack at things.
Slashdot Mirror
Ask them what their official job title is - I can guarantee you that it is not Software Developer. http://canada.usembassy.gov/vi...
TN Visas actually don't allow for Software Developers. There are Computer Systems Analysts, but any talk of programming will cause the visa to be rejected. I'm a dual Canadian/Australian citizen who works in the USA on an E-3 visa even though it's more expensive to process the paperwork.
Take a very simple application that keeps a list of what money you get, and what you spend it on. A simple display screen of Amount Reason Then explain you need to add two buttons - add money and spend money. Each button opens up a screen where you enter the information, explain how you need fields to enter the data, and buttons to go OK. Then you can go, what if you hit the button by mistake? You need a cancel button. Around this time you need to talk about how dumb computers are, and how you have to tell them every single little detail of what needs to happen. Then assuming the OK button is hit, you need to update the screen to add the new Amount and Reason. After you explain the above (use a blackboard to draw simple versions of what the screen should look like), you will have spent probably 15 minutes explaining what you had to go through at least. Then, if you have the resources, open up something like excel. Explain that each and every little menu and option and button requires just as much if not more analysis like what you just described - and that keeping track of all that information with such detail gets very difficult. And voila, you've largely explained what software development is all about, without touching code.
So they can go for about an hour before recharging, and then they spent half their active time recharging? Keep in mind, there's also time required to leave from and return to whatever charging station you have. These things are useless.
With that said, this is the most horrendous example of what the gaming society is becoming. I'd rather throw myself off a cliff than pay these fucktards.
Thankfully, you have a simple, legal option available to you: Don't buy the game. It's just entertainment :)
Simply put, this has nothing to do with globalization and everything to do with Monopoly.
Why people still routinely neglect compound interesting I'll never know. If he took that $38,000 and put it in a long term investment at a mere 5%, he'd had 68242.54 at the end of 12 years. Yes, it's green, yes, it's cool, but no, he's not saving money.
That was taken into consideration. From the viewpoint of developers and users, distribution costs are free. Yes, someone pays for it, but the cost is so low that it is provided for free to the participants. Even if we are talking p2p distribution, the distribution costs are at least fixed, which has a similar effect (sorry, it's been a while since I've taken economics).
:)
There's always a fine line when to keep your post simple, and when to write an essay
"Most people in the West, including myself, were indoctrinated with the notion that extending the power of individuals necessarily diminishes the power of the state, and vice versa"
What? Western culture has been about empowering the individual, about heroes. Conversely, communist nations such as Russia and China are less about individuals, and more about "the good of many outweighs the good of the few".
Additionally, the "free" software you see isn't an affront to free market principles, in fact it is an application of "when a product has an infinitely increasing returns to scale, cost tends towards distribution costs", and since distribution costs are free, well, hello open source.
Open source is very much a product of western, capitalist countries that PROMOTE the power of the individual.
And is instead similar to the Agile software development process. If the average Web 2.0 monkey had some real software engineering background, maybe their work will be maintainable a few years down the road, and not just rewritten for the Next Big Buzzword.
No it wouldn't. You take the hard drive out of the laptop, either put it in another laptop or buy a $15 adapter that lets you plug it into an IDE slot on a computer. Change the files, put the disk back in the laptop.
There isn't anything magical or hidden about a laptop hard drive.
It is NOT the cops responsibility to judge the laws they are given to enforce. That should be sole responsibility of elected officials. If so, is it right for a police officer to not bring charges against the owner of an establishment because they do not allow black people to enter? There is FAR more damage to be done by cops selectively applying the laws they want to than the cops just following what the civilian government tells them to do.
Josh
The user stands to gain the use of the services! Servers, coders, managers (you generally need at least one to keep track of things) don't come for free.
Josh
Well, here is one person who does have a moral principle against it.
As a software developer, copyright is what gives me the ability to work, by giving me a mechanism with which I can control the distribution of my work in return for money, which I require to live. Even if I wish to create GPL software (which I have done) it is copyright that enforces how my software can be redistributed... instead of money, I require that the changes be made available.
If someone wants to take the time (and while doing so, needs to be clothed, fed and sheltered) to create a piece of copyrighted work, then it should be up to them to control their work as they please. Even beyond money, they took the time to create the work, they should be able to do whatever they please with it. Yes, the RIAA are nasty, but the musicians sign the contracts with their members, so obviously there's got to be something in it for them. Other musicians promote themselves, and that's great.
I don't buy any DRM'd crap, but if someone wants to CREATE something themselves (or transfer their created work for compensation) and then lock it away in a format that I can only use if I stick a probe up my ass to verify my identity, I don't care. I just won't use it or buy it. But morally, we need humans to make this stuff. Humans need food, shelter, computers, some pleasurable stuff. Copyright is the mechanism by which more than just a few artists that are funded by rich benefactors can create intangible works.
Now, patents are an entirely different animal, I think they should die, especially where software is concerned, But the difference with copyright is that if you think that the cost is too high, you can go and make something similar yourself.
Josh
I do agree with you, a balance is required. I'm not advocating unrestrained capitalism. A smaller gap between rich and poor is better, as long as it is the result of productive work, and not just forced 'equality' (such as the hospital example provided).
The profit motive is also the best thing for an economy, as it promotes producing goods for those that desire them most, it underpins supply and demand. At the same time, there obviously needs to be laws restraining monopolies and corruption.
Anyways, my original post was taking issue with 'how to feel smug when everyone being equal', when everyone has access to the *exact same technology* etc. That will only ever happen when everyone is forced to use the same technology, forced to be 'equal'. Otherwise, some people will naturally prefer to spend their extra resources on a car, and another person would rather a better computer. The only way to ever remove that is by forcing.
Peace, Josh
> The point of the GP (and this thread in general) is that *everyone* should be entitled to education and heathcare, regardless of being rich and poor. You've kind of missed the point haven't you.
I object to everyone being entitled to the *same* education and health care. There is scarcity in the world, and if someone wishes to allocate their resources as they see fit to better themselves, they should be allowed to do so, without being frowned upon. The *same for everyone* concept means that those that wish to do better are not allowed... An example is where I live, Canada (not american). If you need a surgery, you have to get on a list and wait. It doesn't matter that you may have been smart saving all your life, and you could afford to buy the surgery now before your health deteriorates even further, you need to wait two years. At least it's still legal to go to the US and pay if you are well enough to get yourself there.
There's no incentive to save the health system from needless visits just due to a cold, since the cost is shared. Everyone having the same is just another way to say that no-one is allowed to excel. Two tiered, which the OP was referring to with the poor in public hospitals, is something that I believe is fair. The only way to ensure that everyone has the *same* is to take from those who can make more, thereby removing their incentive to make more. Which decreases society's overall wealth.
I wish to minimize my costs on other people, and I wish they would respect me and let me handle my own affairs as well. I like opt-in systems, I like two-tiered systems, and yes, I'm quite anti-socialist. It happens when you escape from a communist country where everyone is "equal", where everyone has the same as everyone else. Then you just get nothing.
Josh
> How can a white middle to upper class American feel smug about themselves when poor people are getting the same care as they are and have access to information technology to better their lot in life?
They can't when they might work hard to earn their better care and technology, and others just think they are entitled to it because they are poor. I scrimp and save every penny to put myself through school, without any government assistance or student loans. I don't smoke or drink. The "poor" students at my university, who go out to pubs a couple times a week and smoke, put spare time into volunteering, then complain about being too poor to pay for education, expect taxpayers (like myself) to fund their lifestyles for them.
I agree it's a whole different ballgame in Africa. But on a domestic scale, when I do without to save up so that I can get something better, it doesn't automatically mean that I should subsidize those who spend all of their disposable income, or subsidize those who think that us "nerds" are stupid for all of our hard work when they regularly go out and party.
I don't have a social life, I work very hard to look after myself, save diligently, and as such I am well off financially as compared to my peers. Now I should just give my money to others?
And yes, I'm white and male. I apologise, because it seems lately that it's something I should be ashamed of. Even though I started off with less than most of my peers.
What? Your post is so wrong I don't even know where to begin.
First off, why not just use a human brain if you want an identical machine? Well, for sending probes to mars. Or to the depths of the ocean. Or any other place that is too dangerous to send humans, but that a machine could survive in. Even if the brain was a replica of someone's personality, all they'd have to do is find someone who thinks it would be really cool to go to mars, and replicate their brain. It'd be a hell of a lot more intelligent than a traditional AI system at this point.
Secondly, if we want an AI system that better than the human brain, THIS IS THE WAY TO GO. Figure out exactly how the human brain handles thing that are really hard for computers, like object recognition. Once you've got that, you can replace//add on parts that do things better/faster than humans, like math. In terms of adaptability and general purpose use, NOTHING in AI comes anywhere close to the human brain right now. So trying to make an AI system that is better than the brain, a good first step is to try and make the human brain, then start tweaking that.
The point is to try and understand how biological brains do what they do, and how we can make computers do those things (which computers currently suck at). Sure, you can emulate basic behaviour in a pre-define environment, but try making a system that can differentiate a food source the 'rat' may never have seen before based on sight and smell in an environment that it's never been in.
What!?!
Look, I've been a vegan for 19 years now, but not even I can see how this comment is anywhere near relevant to this article. It's not like the camera is going to somehow to a time warp on the dead animal on your plate, follow its constituent atoms back to its grains etc.
Seriously, wtf. Debate where it is an appropriate forum, just interjecting where it makes no sense gives a bad image to vegans/vegetarians.
Josh
I think it is quite the reverse: If anything, Wal-Mart probably runs marketing surveys to try and get a reliable picture of how people in different demographics view their company. Your post sounds very much like "my friends and I don't like walmart, therefore the most other people must agree with us".
As far as the educated people go... I'll disagree with you there too. I'm finishing an honours degree with a scholarship for grad school in computer science and I love walmart, as do many of my university friends. From my observation, the largest concentration of walmart haters are arts students.
But I think that both of our opinions are going to be less accurate than the surveys that Wal-Mart, and any other large corp does/buys.
They say this now, when there is Vista to buy. It's just part of Microsofts standard strategy... Release new operating system, try and make the old one look bad.
At the BMI's he is suggesting, you would be considered underweight. Normal BMI is 18.5-24.9. If he really had a BMI of 11, I'm surprised that he is still alive.
Here's a page giving some BMI weight ranges and a calculator.
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
Josh
Until we find out what kind of torture this imparts on the BRAIN.
Personally, I'd take the risks from straining my wrists due to mechanical motion over implanting a chip (along with unknown stressors) in my brain any day. If I'm going to potentionally cause harm to one part of my body, it'll be my wrists over my brain.
I'm not a luddite, really! But my brain is just too vital to me to start tossing implants into it.
Well, off the top of my head if there are a more than one or two other people, having a boardroom would give a physical reference to select a video stream to view.
What's wrong with adding a virtual boardroom?
There is really no excuse for those memory bugs. There are free, simple tools that check C code and memory management (and php itself is written in C).
"double freed memory to bugs in functions that allow attackers to enable register_globals, to memory corruption with unserialize()"
The authors of php should use valgrind, and with a few test cases, could virtually eliminate memory errors.
Memory errors have been around for so long that there are numerous tools for dealing with them, many of them free. I know that many people on slashdot like to put down the importance of an education, but the knowledge, ability and discipline to use these tools is what separates professional software engineers from (generally smart) people who just hack at things.