This is one thing I do not understand about the people on the far left. A lot of them seem to have no respect for people in the military.
No political system is perfect, including the US, and wars are often fought for less than perfect reasons. Several mistakes have been made, but the majority of people in the military are fighting and dying for an ideal. This is something you must respect.
The world isn't all gravy, and they're some fucking barbarians that need to civilized, whether by diplomacy or by force. There is no need to respect the sovereignty of an oppressive nation. Iraq & Afghanistan needed regime change. And if you ask me, who are we to decide that - I ask you, who is Saddam to decide the fate of the Iraqis? Who are the Taleban to condemn their women to slavery?
Respect your vets, mate. They're not idiots. They're probably far smarter than you'll ever be,
No it does not. What kind of lunatic statement is that. Is it still stealing if you steal a farmer's crop once he's done selling it (and is using it to feed his family). Absolutely idiotic statement.
I agree. While Vista has some problems, I'm still running it as my OS of choice on my Mac Pro (which comes with Leopard). Yes, this will come as shocking news to the slashdot community, but some people have jobs that require them to produce software for the vast majority of the population.
And Vista is not as bad as people think. The security "features" are fucking annoying, but you can turn them off.
The list of things that can make us stupid now includes writing, calculators, computers, TV and the internet.
The internet deals with low level computation, leaving you to raise your level of thought. Just like all the computational/storage tools that came before it.
Everyone seems to be under the impression that engineering jobs are severely underpaid. My question is: compared to what?
I know plenty of people who graduated with me from school (in 2007) and are getting salaries of $90k/year. I work at a smaller company, so my salary is lower, but still way better than any non-engineers salary.
Non-engineers I know start out at $30k/year in the Los Angeles area, which is barely enough to cover rent and food.
What are these majors that pay well compared to engineering? Pray tell.
The ignorance of some Slashdot posters is beyond belief. The US had poor people too, when it launched the first Apollo mission. It still does today, when it's spending on national security is at least twice that of any other nation. Does this mean that it should bring technological advancement to a halt to feed the poor??
The government's job is to to set the country's direction. This creates jobs, creates investment, and eventually leads to better conditions for its citizens. It is not the government's job to make sure you've got food on the table - that responsibility is yours.
We have a long way to go - but the only way to get there is by giving the people a sense of empowerment, by making them believe in their country and themselves.
LOL WUT? This is a very one-sided take on things. I was involved in a research project while I was doing my undergrad and masters degrees. There was so much development work going on that I did absolutely zero development in my spare time. That code is the property of the university/DARPA and cannot be released.
After graduating, I started working for a small military contractor. Once again, zero coding in my spare time. I do have other interests, and am not going to waste my off-work time writing code for 'fun'. I've got plenty of real problems to deal with.
The only reason I would ever have written 5k of well-written, well-maintained code that I can hand out is if I was unemployed for a few months. By restricting yourself only people who have 5k lines of code lying around, you're getting the people no one else wants.
Now I interview people at work, and we have a 'novel solution': make programmers write code in the interview - that will sort out the boys from the men pretty quick. Besides, that 5k of code 'they wrote' could just as well have been swiped of their roommate.
So your fiance resents the fact that people less privileged than her who face the decision of illegal immigration or starvation for their family are not deported.
I doubt that's what she's telling the gardener when you're at the office.
I'm sorry mate, I just don't find that believable. I can't disclose the name of my company, but we have been looking for programmers for a while. US citizens are preferred, as we do a lot of military contracting, specifically in modeling and simulation.
We have had people interview, but the talent pool is extremely weak. At this point we're prepared to take anyone who is a good programmer and train them in specific skills. And it is still near impossible to find good people.
Chances are, if you're good, you are in demand. Especially if you are a citizen.
of this there is no doubt. As software companies go, Microsoft is reasonably open about their products and is interested in giving developers power. Yes, they spew a lot of bullshit and have been responsible for some awful software, but occasionally they develop really good tools (Visual Studio, XNA).
Apple on the other hand keeps things much closer to its chest.
However, as some people have rightly pointed out, Apple is not a monopoly, and is not subject to the same degree of regulation as MS. This is part of a societal decision we have made to limit the powers of any one entity, because anyone with too much power is likely to abuse it.
I find Apple products unusable anyways, so I don't care.
skills. Easy to find applicants, but we've been looking for people for a long time, and have had extreme difficulty finding someone who can even code up simple programs in the course of the interview. We have a programmer interview where the three senior developers (including myself) ask somewhat tricky questions and guide applicants in trying to solve them (using pseudocode). Most applicants seem to be afraid of even attempting to code on the fly, or, even worse, start providing super-high level solutions without figuring out how they will work.
We work on simulation software, and that requires a special set of skills, but all we look for in an interview is someone with the relevant background and reasonable programming skills. Most graduates from universities these days have either (a) spent their life doing HTML/CSS/JavaScript, (b) passed their exams by copying off their classmates, (c) got really deep into the specifics of one particular technology while have no general knowledge. I was in a top-10 engineering school until a little while ago, I can assure you that I would not hire 99% of my classmates.
Good people are always hard to find. Anywhere in the world. End of story.
Bullshit argument. If the guy shot the clerk, he'd be getting charged for murder, dumbass. He wouldn't be going to jail over the stolen slurpee.
These guys did not shoot anyone or physically harm anyone. It is not the same thing.
Hmm.. looks like I shouldn't have sent that to everyone at work... now all I need to do is track the Coward down (I wonder if my boss reads slashdot - scary)
One of the issues my advisor and I noted was that the dialogues and interactions were scripted
This is partly true, but not completely. The dialogue is restricted to the script, but it doesn't have to be. There are script variants (admittedly, a lot of them have been introduced recently), but allowing the AI agents to do whatever they want might increase interactivity, but the flipside is that learners could get through without learning what we consider the 'important' skills.
and BTW, its USC, not CalTech. We're good at things other than football, too!!
One of the issues my advisor and I noted was that the dialogues and interactions were scripted
This is partly true, but not completely. The dialogue is restricted to the script, but it doesn't have to be.
There are script variants (admittedly, a lot of them have been introduced recently), but allowing the AI agents to do whatever they want might increase interactivity, but the flipside is that learners could get through without learning what we consider the 'important' skills.
and BTW, its USC, not CalTech. We're good at things other than football, too!!
Maybe so, but action has to start somewhere. If they make an example of EA, other companies will soon learn that they can't get away with this level of exploitation.
Im not involved with the project being talked about (as I mentioned in my first post), so I can only speculate. Typically social simulations have a smaller number of agents, each of which maintains goals and an emotional state... all of which is pretty computationally expensive to simulate.
Obviously getting this all to work in a massive scale is stunningly complex (realistic behavior with 5 people is hard enough), and I'm not sure what approach is being taken, but I'm pretty sure that the social aspect will fit in - because if it didn't, as you mentioned, the exercise would be much less beneficial than if it were..
I work on another project at the ISI, and if I were to make a guess on whether social factors would make it into the simulation, I'd have to say yes. Emotional and psychological modeling have been given a lot of attention here, and I'd be surprised if we didn't use the technology we've developed over the last few years...
Look into mobile games. With J2ME and BREW technology, its pretty easy to get your programs onto any decent handset.
Think about it, there are over 1 billion cell phone users. Where ese do you have that kind of an install base.
I work in a startup company doing cell games right now and business is so good that were always looking for engineers to hire....
Slashdot Mirror
This is one thing I do not understand about the people on the far left. A lot of them seem to have no respect for people in the military. No political system is perfect, including the US, and wars are often fought for less than perfect reasons. Several mistakes have been made, but the majority of people in the military are fighting and dying for an ideal. This is something you must respect. The world isn't all gravy, and they're some fucking barbarians that need to civilized, whether by diplomacy or by force. There is no need to respect the sovereignty of an oppressive nation. Iraq & Afghanistan needed regime change. And if you ask me, who are we to decide that - I ask you, who is Saddam to decide the fate of the Iraqis? Who are the Taleban to condemn their women to slavery? Respect your vets, mate. They're not idiots. They're probably far smarter than you'll ever be,
No it does not. What kind of lunatic statement is that. Is it still stealing if you steal a farmer's crop once he's done selling it (and is using it to feed his family). Absolutely idiotic statement.
I agree. While Vista has some problems, I'm still running it as my OS of choice on my Mac Pro (which comes with Leopard). Yes, this will come as shocking news to the slashdot community, but some people have jobs that require them to produce software for the vast majority of the population. And Vista is not as bad as people think. The security "features" are fucking annoying, but you can turn them off.
YA RLY
The list of things that can make us stupid now includes writing, calculators, computers, TV and the internet.
The internet deals with low level computation, leaving you to raise your level of thought. Just like all the computational/storage tools that came before it.
Everyone seems to be under the impression that engineering jobs are severely underpaid. My question is: compared to what? I know plenty of people who graduated with me from school (in 2007) and are getting salaries of $90k/year. I work at a smaller company, so my salary is lower, but still way better than any non-engineers salary. Non-engineers I know start out at $30k/year in the Los Angeles area, which is barely enough to cover rent and food. What are these majors that pay well compared to engineering? Pray tell.
The ignorance of some Slashdot posters is beyond belief. The US had poor people too, when it launched the first Apollo mission. It still does today, when it's spending on national security is at least twice that of any other nation. Does this mean that it should bring technological advancement to a halt to feed the poor?? The government's job is to to set the country's direction. This creates jobs, creates investment, and eventually leads to better conditions for its citizens. It is not the government's job to make sure you've got food on the table - that responsibility is yours. We have a long way to go - but the only way to get there is by giving the people a sense of empowerment, by making them believe in their country and themselves.
LOL WUT? This is a very one-sided take on things. I was involved in a research project while I was doing my undergrad and masters degrees. There was so much development work going on that I did absolutely zero development in my spare time. That code is the property of the university/DARPA and cannot be released. After graduating, I started working for a small military contractor. Once again, zero coding in my spare time. I do have other interests, and am not going to waste my off-work time writing code for 'fun'. I've got plenty of real problems to deal with. The only reason I would ever have written 5k of well-written, well-maintained code that I can hand out is if I was unemployed for a few months. By restricting yourself only people who have 5k lines of code lying around, you're getting the people no one else wants. Now I interview people at work, and we have a 'novel solution': make programmers write code in the interview - that will sort out the boys from the men pretty quick. Besides, that 5k of code 'they wrote' could just as well have been swiped of their roommate.
So your fiance resents the fact that people less privileged than her who face the decision of illegal immigration or starvation for their family are not deported. I doubt that's what she's telling the gardener when you're at the office.
I'm sorry mate, I just don't find that believable. I can't disclose the name of my company, but we have been looking for programmers for a while. US citizens are preferred, as we do a lot of military contracting, specifically in modeling and simulation. We have had people interview, but the talent pool is extremely weak. At this point we're prepared to take anyone who is a good programmer and train them in specific skills. And it is still near impossible to find good people. Chances are, if you're good, you are in demand. Especially if you are a citizen.
of this there is no doubt. As software companies go, Microsoft is reasonably open about their products and is interested in giving developers power. Yes, they spew a lot of bullshit and have been responsible for some awful software, but occasionally they develop really good tools (Visual Studio, XNA). Apple on the other hand keeps things much closer to its chest. However, as some people have rightly pointed out, Apple is not a monopoly, and is not subject to the same degree of regulation as MS. This is part of a societal decision we have made to limit the powers of any one entity, because anyone with too much power is likely to abuse it. I find Apple products unusable anyways, so I don't care.
skills. Easy to find applicants, but we've been looking for people for a long time, and have had extreme difficulty finding someone who can even code up simple programs in the course of the interview. We have a programmer interview where the three senior developers (including myself) ask somewhat tricky questions and guide applicants in trying to solve them (using pseudocode). Most applicants seem to be afraid of even attempting to code on the fly, or, even worse, start providing super-high level solutions without figuring out how they will work. We work on simulation software, and that requires a special set of skills, but all we look for in an interview is someone with the relevant background and reasonable programming skills. Most graduates from universities these days have either (a) spent their life doing HTML/CSS/JavaScript, (b) passed their exams by copying off their classmates, (c) got really deep into the specifics of one particular technology while have no general knowledge. I was in a top-10 engineering school until a little while ago, I can assure you that I would not hire 99% of my classmates. Good people are always hard to find. Anywhere in the world. End of story.
I smell a Java programmer...
Bullshit argument. If the guy shot the clerk, he'd be getting charged for murder, dumbass. He wouldn't be going to jail over the stolen slurpee. These guys did not shoot anyone or physically harm anyone. It is not the same thing.
Hmm.. looks like I shouldn't have sent that to everyone at work... now all I need to do is track the Coward down (I wonder if my boss reads slashdot - scary)
Go LA!
Damn, damn, damn. Clean formatted version below
One of the issues my advisor and I noted was that the dialogues and interactions were scripted
This is partly true, but not completely. The dialogue is restricted to the script, but it doesn't have to be. There are script variants (admittedly, a lot of them have been introduced recently), but allowing the AI agents to do whatever they want might increase interactivity, but the flipside is that learners could get through without learning what we consider the 'important' skills.
and BTW, its USC, not CalTech. We're good at things other than football, too!!
One of the issues my advisor and I noted was that the dialogues and interactions were scripted This is partly true, but not completely. The dialogue is restricted to the script, but it doesn't have to be. There are script variants (admittedly, a lot of them have been introduced recently), but allowing the AI agents to do whatever they want might increase interactivity, but the flipside is that learners could get through without learning what we consider the 'important' skills. and BTW, its USC, not CalTech. We're good at things other than football, too!!
Making Pretty Python look like Ugly Perl!! Tsk, tsk... Python Golf has been officially outlawed by moi!!
Maybe so, but action has to start somewhere. If they make an example of EA, other companies will soon learn that they can't get away with this level of exploitation.
Hell, no!! You can't make anyone work those kinds of hours. It's just wrong. Hire two programmers instead.
Im not involved with the project being talked about (as I mentioned in my first post), so I can only speculate. Typically social simulations have a smaller number of agents, each of which maintains goals and an emotional state... all of which is pretty computationally expensive to simulate. Obviously getting this all to work in a massive scale is stunningly complex (realistic behavior with 5 people is hard enough), and I'm not sure what approach is being taken, but I'm pretty sure that the social aspect will fit in - because if it didn't, as you mentioned, the exercise would be much less beneficial than if it were..
I work on another project at the ISI, and if I were to make a guess on whether social factors would make it into the simulation, I'd have to say yes. Emotional and psychological modeling have been given a lot of attention here, and I'd be surprised if we didn't use the technology we've developed over the last few years...
WTF? WTF? WTF? Is this what the world's come down to?? Gates should now proceed to patent absolute disregard for common sense. Mwaahaahhaa
Look into mobile games. With J2ME and BREW technology, its pretty easy to get your programs onto any decent handset. Think about it, there are over 1 billion cell phone users. Where ese do you have that kind of an install base. I work in a startup company doing cell games right now and business is so good that were always looking for engineers to hire....