Exactly, it is quite simple actually, it all involves money. The scientists writting grants have to make them appealing to the current trends in research so thier piers will give them positive reviews. That means sugar coating and skipping over major potential problems. Because if they are honest and don't get many grants they can be replaced with more competent "liars" who can obtain any grant just by using the right words.
Then in the science community prestiege is much more important than in the business community. Coming out with interesting and innovative research is always the pressure, so sometimes they fudge the data so it looks like they have interesting and innovative research.
The only positive thing still is that those who do get caught are severly punishes, scorned and most of all they loose their reputation, which is very much the end of their scientific career.
I tried Scribus, it is pretty nice, I don't know all the fancy features of other layout programs but I played with Scribus before and made couple of PDF pages. It seems you guys are using python for you scripts and I like how it launches GIMP when I click on an image edit selection from an image pop-up context menu.
I don't want to sound cliche here on Slashdot but I think they should try and invest into providing a Linux version of their software. I think they are so far behind and a bold move like that might still save them, of course it could also kill them after they invest all that time=money into it, but I think they are almost as good as dead now anyway.
If a group of desktop publishers use just that particular application and it looks the same as it does on windows or mac osx then a small company can save some money by not paying Microsoft for a couple of workstation.
As far as I see it, it is the applications that keep people tied to on OS mostly, for many it is Microsoft Office, for some - Photoshop and so on.
Good point, besides if people really whine about speed they can always use JNI, that is what we did for our CAD product. We already had a large library of C and FORTRAN libraries and we wrote the functionality of the new appliation in Java yet used libraries through the JNI and it worked out great.
By the way, some of the games out there that require fast rendering are done mostly in Java for example IL-2 Sturmovik made by the Russian company C3 is written in java but some of performance crititical code is in C or C++, you couldn't tell that its Java - its very fast (unlike Swing!)
Yeah, it was modded as a troll and this post probably will too, but frankly speaking I forgot C++ syntax since I used it the late 90's both at the unversity and work. I started using Java and found out I was more efficient. Recently I tried writting something in C++ and all I could think of was how it would be better done in Java.
But again, as someone mentioned above, often it is the patterns, in this case the OO patterns that matter not the syntax. Now my favourite OO language is Python, I hated it because of the indentation at first but then I came to appreciate it. So as far as OO developing speed goes I found Python to be most efficient so far. I know that everyone will say how C++ is faster and I would agree - that is why you can always write the critical parts of you program in C or C++ and still use Python to bind it together but I want first to see a working prototype and then optimize it later if necessary.
Some states and organizations are trying to move away from it. Like someone said about University of Cincinanti that is trying out the new 16 digit ID numbers. But the databases are still indexed by the SSNs so many services on campus, including the library, still want you "social".
Or the state of Ohio made it optional recently the display of SSNs on the driver's licences, but stupudly enough they require people who choose that option to have some other proof of SSN! So in effect someone has to carry the SS card with them in the wallet, which defies the initial point of keeping the SSN's private and hidden.
Good point! UC's mainframe might be on its own LAN and everything along with other "core systems" as they call them. But students are able to pay tution online so somehow, somewhere there is a connection. Also the library off-campus log in uses just the name+SSN combintion.
I think the breach was an inside job by some underpaida and overworked IT guy would rather worked for P&G's IT but is not good enough for it.
Speaking of the new 16 digit numbers, they probably still somehow index the the databases by SSNs so they probably translate ID->SSN using some mapping, I wouldn't be surprized if they just used a simple formula that someone could figure out based on a large number of SSNs and IDs, then all you need is ID which would, of course, not be as protected, and you could figure out SSNs.
Nope, I was taking classes just last year (now doing the thesis), and sure enough on homeworks we had to put our SSNs. How about this one, I took a computer science class (oh the irony!) where the professor posted the list of SSNs on the website along with the midterm grades, then on the same site, later posted the list of all names in the class with another grade. I still have the list of 20 or so numbers and the other with the names saved some place. I tried couple of combination to log into the UC library and sure enough, I found a couple of matches. It is also really easy to pick out the international student's IDs and names and separate them and also the higher scores provide a good hint too. Now I would expect that from an English professor not in a computer science one.
The 16 digit id on your card is what they "want" to use for the ID but the matter of fact is that they still use SSNs because that is the main index in all of their databases.
Now that you said that, just recently, at the University Of Cincinnati someone broke into the system and stole thousands of names + social security numbers+dates of birth along with other juicy info.
Someone asked the question whether the University is responsible and would restitute time and money spent recovering from an identity theft that resulted from this, and they basically shrugged it off and said "tough luck", we are not liable here is their FAQ on it .
Actually hackers were very smart, they went for a stupid public institution that still uses social security numbers as student ids and doesn't have the money nor the brains (you'd think a university would at least have that) to protect students' and employees' information. Why bother and go for commercial institutions like banks or why mess with FBI and DOD when you have hundreds of thousands of SSN protected by idiots in IT who couldn't find better jobs in the private sector. Note: UC just spent millions building shopping and recreation areas around campus but they couldn't afford enough to protect their data. If you need to see your and public money mismanaged and thrown away, just go to UC.
The message was talking about a country invading us. Now of, course if we want to invade a country we'll have to do with insurgency like we had to do in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan, but if Europe or China wanted to launch an attack on us, even though they have all the men, they will not be able to do it.
Fighting guerillas is another story, I was talking about WWIII, and how it would differ significantly from WWI and WWII.
The message was talking about a country invading us. Now of, course if we want to invade a country we'll have to do with insurgency like we had to do in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan, but if Europe or China wanted to launch an attack on us, even though they have all the men, they will not be able to do it with just bowls of rice and AK-47, they need communication and support infrastructure, which, if disabled would disable and disarm the offensive rather quickly.
Fighting guerillas is another story, I was talking about WWIII type of conflict.
You say that: "US has less population than Europe, and China dwarves just about anyone on the planet. Should they try an invasion anywhere, they're guaranteed success just because of numbers. Just because we've got technology for "surgical strikes" doesn't mean we can stop everything. What good is a surgical strike going to do against 10,000 people coming after us?"
I don't think it is you who doesn't understand how strategy and tactics work. What good are your 10,000 people if I knock down their power station, fuel and food suply, and use an EMP weapon to disable their communication and electronics, they are just as good as 10,000 cows ready to get slaughtered. Or maybe they'll just start jumping in sync hoping to cause an earthquake. We are long past the "let's dig trenches and shoot each other with machines guns for months on end without gaining any ground." The one who has the technology wins today not the one who has the numbers. Look at the numbers of US military casualties in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan versus the casualties of the other side, that will explain what "surgical strikes" can do.
But then again, post a link to the target on Slashdot and you got instant, free (less then 5c/machine) botnet attack.
Come to think of it, the operator is probabil not from US or Western Europe, if they were, they would have had something like 25c/machine, maybe even have a deal: buy 100 for the price of 90. Or perhaps, offer coupons to the slashdot geeks or something.
I personally would be interested and I would buy the botnet just so I can have it attack itself to see what happens.
Yeah clearly AMD is playing a marketing game here. 2 dies in one package sure looks and sounds like a dual-core to me.
Some people are die-hard fans of one or the other (AMD or Intel), I am a fan of what works better and is cheaper at the same time. It was Intel for me a while a go, now its AMD, but it might change, who knows...
I agree with you on rewarding excellence, but as you say it seems people want their mediocrity rewarded just as much. You're right about interconnectedness of the system, the company makes X ammount of money, a part of it goes to the CEOs and a part goes to the workers. How much does the CEO deserve? 10%? 30? 75?
What about workers? Did the CEO do proportionately 30% of all the work? Well it depends, but yeah, I think there is an unfairness, and people don't know between the difference of what they need and what they want
How to explain consistent dual core advantage of AMD in bencharks. If connectivity is better and latencies are better the results should be better too. Stacking might not be as advantageous, the two cores cannot be put too close to each other because of the heat dissipation issue, if you put them far appart might as well put them on the same die and that will allow for better cooling too. From a theortical point of view having two stacked cores might mean shorter latency, but from an engineering and a cost perspective, same die make more sense. It is located in one plane so cooling and thus efficiency can be much higher.
Well I care if they are on the same die or not. Being on the same die means faster communication between them it also means less heat, which means a smaller heatsink, less noise and less electricity consumed. Whether it should be called "dual core" or "2x" or whatever marketing lingo is irrelevant for me.
It is also a problem with the culture of work, inherited from the puritans. Here "all work and no play make Jack a happy boy (because he is on prozac) " Only 3 or 4 weeks of vacation per year with only half hour lunches. If you even dare to take a year off to travel or do whatever, have fun explaining that gap on your resume to a new employer. You are immediatly seen as 'lazy' and someone who works day and night will get your position.
There is a hidden obsession with money and material posessions here, I think more so than in other countries. People are told they have the "right to happiness" (a misreading of the right to _persue_ happiness) and god dammit, they will be happy even if it means racking up $100,000 dept buying a Lexus when they only make $20,000 a year. Then they have to slave day in and day out just to make minimum payment each month.
But on the other side, having a %15-%20 percent tax so I can support Jo Schmo next door who is too lazy to work and stays home on welfare, doesn't work either. Socialized medicine is great but when you have to wait a year or two for heart surgery, there is a problem. Slaving all your life to pay the bill might be a better option than having no life at all - it all depends I guess.
Actually ink can be a good bacterial growth medium. Especially polygraph ink (for Grass polygraphs, we use them at the lab). It even comes with a warning that bacteria will grow rappidly in it and to make sure to clean it up. So yeah, I can see sprinking some of that ink to 'seed' a pattern that baceria will further grow and develop, even on someone's skin...
Sprint is not TDMA Sprint is CDMA, same as Verizon. CDMA is inherently more efficient at using the frequency bands and it is, from an engineering standpoint a superior technology. GSM is a TDMA type technology, Cignular uses GSM.
Yeah, I was just being sarcastic but to play the "devil's adocate" I would ask whether US was justified to drop the A-bomb on Hirishima and Nagasaki effectively killing mostly innocent people and causing lots of suffering.
If the answer is 'yes' (which I would mostly agree with since the war did seem to end fairly quickly after that) wouldn't you call that terorrism too? I know that you'd probably say that have to be at war countries are at war. But now put yourself in the shoes of a small state that is overpowered many times over by a larger state that controls it, The call by the large state to "come out and fight fairly" would seem a little ironic and and the small state would probably loose all its military and all its men. They see the large state as being at war with them, so if dropping an a-bomb, killing lots of inocent Japanese helped end the war why wouldn't blowing up a couple dozen planes or pizza parlors help the cause also, it is the same principle.
If the answere is 'no' then I would ask why are different principles applied to a large country and to a smaller country. Why is one a 'strategic move to end the war' and the other 'terrorism'. Didn't technically the a-bomb produce terror. They didn't intend to destroy as much millitary infrastructure and there where a lot of military bases and other cities there left, but the goal of the bomb was exactly _mass terror_ and guess what? - it worked. Why can't it work for a small state?
Yes but not the high quality and the smart designed systems. I know there is medical equipment that runs on various modified windows OSs but the important and most critical machines still use some *nix variant. I know of a couple of CAT scan machines that use UNIX but you'd be surprized how many of other machines out there still run on top of DOS.
For instance at work they use an old DOS data acquisition setup connected to an old analog Grass polygraph and then I have to copy the data table onto the floppy and take the floppy to a desktop to do data analysis. Now I am trying to design a unified linux based data acquisition and analysis system. You'd be surprized how hard it for people to accept change, they learned the old way and they don't seem to excited learn a new (even an easier) way of doing things.
Slashdot Mirror
when my flux capacitor wouldn't charge, right around that time, must have been all those protons just swarming and swarming around us.
Then in the science community prestiege is much more important than in the business community. Coming out with interesting and innovative research is always the pressure, so sometimes they fudge the data so it looks like they have interesting and innovative research.
The only positive thing still is that those who do get caught are severly punishes, scorned and most of all they loose their reputation, which is very much the end of their scientific career.
I tried Scribus, it is pretty nice, I don't know all the fancy features of other layout programs but I played with Scribus before and made couple of PDF pages. It seems you guys are using python for you scripts and I like how it launches GIMP when I click on an image edit selection from an image pop-up context menu.
If a group of desktop publishers use just that particular application and it looks the same as it does on windows or mac osx then a small company can save some money by not paying Microsoft for a couple of workstation.
As far as I see it, it is the applications that keep people tied to on OS mostly, for many it is Microsoft Office, for some - Photoshop and so on.
By the way, some of the games out there that require fast rendering are done mostly in Java for example IL-2 Sturmovik made by the Russian company C3 is written in java but some of performance crititical code is in C or C++, you couldn't tell that its Java - its very fast (unlike Swing!)
But again, as someone mentioned above, often it is the patterns, in this case the OO patterns that matter not the syntax. Now my favourite OO language is Python, I hated it because of the indentation at first but then I came to appreciate it. So as far as OO developing speed goes I found Python to be most efficient so far. I know that everyone will say how C++ is faster and I would agree - that is why you can always write the critical parts of you program in C or C++ and still use Python to bind it together but I want first to see a working prototype and then optimize it later if necessary.
Or the state of Ohio made it optional recently the display of SSNs on the driver's licences, but stupudly enough they require people who choose that option to have some other proof of SSN! So in effect someone has to carry the SS card with them in the wallet, which defies the initial point of keeping the SSN's private and hidden.
I think the breach was an inside job by some underpaida and overworked IT guy would rather worked for P&G's IT but is not good enough for it.
Speaking of the new 16 digit numbers, they probably still somehow index the the databases by SSNs so they probably translate ID->SSN using some mapping, I wouldn't be surprized if they just used a simple formula that someone could figure out based on a large number of SSNs and IDs, then all you need is ID which would, of course, not be as protected, and you could figure out SSNs.
The 16 digit id on your card is what they "want" to use for the ID but the matter of fact is that they still use SSNs because that is the main index in all of their databases.
...many problems, such as sex
-- Problems the American geeks would wish to have...
Someone asked the question whether the University is responsible and would restitute time and money spent recovering from an identity theft that resulted from this, and they basically shrugged it off and said "tough luck", we are not liable here is their FAQ on it .
Actually hackers were very smart, they went for a stupid public institution that still uses social security numbers as student ids and doesn't have the money nor the brains (you'd think a university would at least have that) to protect students' and employees' information. Why bother and go for commercial institutions like banks or why mess with FBI and DOD when you have hundreds of thousands of SSN protected by idiots in IT who couldn't find better jobs in the private sector.
Note: UC just spent millions building shopping and recreation areas around campus but they couldn't afford enough to protect their data. If you need to see your and public money mismanaged and thrown away, just go to UC.
The message was talking about a country invading us. Now of, course if we want to invade a country we'll have to do with insurgency like we had to do in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan, but if Europe or China wanted to launch an attack on us, even though they have all the men, they will not be able to do it.
Fighting guerillas is another story, I was talking about WWIII, and how it would differ significantly from WWI and WWII.
The message was talking about a country invading us. Now of, course if we want to invade a country we'll have to do with insurgency like we had to do in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan, but if Europe or China wanted to launch an attack on us, even though they have all the men, they will not be able to do it with just bowls of rice and AK-47, they need communication and support infrastructure, which, if disabled would disable and disarm the offensive rather quickly.
Fighting guerillas is another story, I was talking about WWIII type of conflict.
"US has less population than Europe, and China dwarves just about anyone on the planet. Should they try an invasion anywhere, they're guaranteed success just because of numbers. Just because we've got technology for "surgical strikes" doesn't mean we can stop everything. What good is a surgical strike going to do against 10,000 people coming after us?" I don't think it is you who doesn't understand how strategy and tactics work. What good are your 10,000 people if I knock down their power station, fuel and food suply, and use an EMP weapon to disable their communication and electronics, they are just as good as 10,000 cows ready to get slaughtered. Or maybe they'll just start jumping in sync hoping to cause an earthquake. We are long past the "let's dig trenches and shoot each other with machines guns for months on end without gaining any ground." The one who has the technology wins today not the one who has the numbers. Look at the numbers of US military casualties in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan versus the casualties of the other side, that will explain what "surgical strikes" can do.
Come to think of it, the operator is probabil not from US or Western Europe, if they were, they would have had something like 25c/machine, maybe even have a deal: buy 100 for the price of 90. Or perhaps, offer coupons to the slashdot geeks or something.
I personally would be interested and I would buy the botnet just so I can have it attack itself to see what happens.
Some people are die-hard fans of one or the other (AMD or Intel), I am a fan of what works better and is cheaper at the same time. It was Intel for me a while a go, now its AMD, but it might change, who knows...
I agree with you on rewarding excellence, but as you say it seems people want their mediocrity rewarded just as much. You're right about interconnectedness of the system, the company makes X ammount of money, a part of it goes to the CEOs and a part goes to the workers. How much does the CEO deserve? 10%? 30? 75? What about workers? Did the CEO do proportionately 30% of all the work? Well it depends, but yeah, I think there is an unfairness, and people don't know between the difference of what they need and what they want
How to explain consistent dual core advantage of AMD in bencharks. If connectivity is better and latencies are better the results should be better too. Stacking might not be as advantageous, the two cores cannot be put too close to each other because of the heat dissipation issue, if you put them far appart might as well put them on the same die and that will allow for better cooling too. From a theortical point of view having two stacked cores might mean shorter latency, but from an engineering and a cost perspective, same die make more sense. It is located in one plane so cooling and thus efficiency can be much higher.
Well I care if they are on the same die or not. Being on the same die means faster communication between them it also means less heat, which means a smaller heatsink, less noise and less electricity consumed. Whether it should be called "dual core" or "2x" or whatever marketing lingo is irrelevant for me.
There is a hidden obsession with money and material posessions here, I think more so than in other countries. People are told they have the "right to happiness" (a misreading of the right to _persue_ happiness) and god dammit, they will be happy even if it means racking up $100,000 dept buying a Lexus when they only make $20,000 a year. Then they have to slave day in and day out just to make minimum payment each month.
But on the other side, having a %15-%20 percent tax so I can support Jo Schmo next door who is too lazy to work and stays home on welfare, doesn't work either. Socialized medicine is great but when you have to wait a year or two for heart surgery, there is a problem. Slaving all your life to pay the bill might be a better option than having no life at all - it all depends I guess.
Actually ink can be a good bacterial growth medium. Especially polygraph ink (for Grass polygraphs, we use them at the lab). It even comes with a warning that bacteria will grow rappidly in it and to make sure to clean it up. So yeah, I can see sprinking some of that ink to 'seed' a pattern that baceria will further grow and develop, even on someone's skin...
Sprint is not TDMA Sprint is CDMA, same as Verizon. CDMA is inherently more efficient at using the frequency bands and it is, from an engineering standpoint a superior technology. GSM is a TDMA type technology, Cignular uses GSM.
Thank for the advice, I found people you mentioned here. I might contact them. I am looking also at this USB DAQ for linux here.
If the answer is 'yes' (which I would mostly agree with since the war did seem to end fairly quickly after that) wouldn't you call that terorrism too? I know that you'd probably say that have to be at war countries are at war. But now put yourself in the shoes of a small state that is overpowered many times over by a larger state that controls it, The call by the large state to "come out and fight fairly" would seem a little ironic and and the small state would probably loose all its military and all its men. They see the large state as being at war with them, so if dropping an a-bomb, killing lots of inocent Japanese helped end the war why wouldn't blowing up a couple dozen planes or pizza parlors help the cause also, it is the same principle.
If the answere is 'no' then I would ask why are different principles applied to a large country and to a smaller country. Why is one a 'strategic move to end the war' and the other 'terrorism'. Didn't technically the a-bomb produce terror. They didn't intend to destroy as much millitary infrastructure and there where a lot of military bases and other cities there left, but the goal of the bomb was exactly _mass terror_ and guess what? - it worked. Why can't it work for a small state?
For instance at work they use an old DOS data acquisition setup connected to an old analog Grass polygraph and then I have to copy the data table onto the floppy and take the floppy to a desktop to do data analysis. Now I am trying to design a unified linux based data acquisition and analysis system. You'd be surprized how hard it for people to accept change, they learned the old way and they don't seem to excited learn a new (even an easier) way of doing things.