One of the biggest concerns is that in a war with China or North Korea they would swarm our aircraft carriers with airplanes and missiles. Developing something like this to counter the asymmetric warfare would be huge.
Which came first: the dinosaur or the egg? Saying that a different creature from the chicken laid the egg from which the chicken hatched just pushes the problem back one more level.
The grandparent post deals with the realities of DRM, you are living in a fantasy land where the games are not DRM. So while it's true that in theory digital media is better, in practice DRM makes it so that it is not.
I would think the police could enforce a serial number system similar to what we have today for CD checks in online games like Starcraft. Everyone who purchases the design gets a serial that has been authorized. When you get pulled over, the police check your serial and if it's not authorized, you get busted. If you steal someone else's serial, if the cops find two or more people using the same serial, they know something's up and investigate further.
What you would pay for the design is a lot less than what you pay for the tech to manufacture the car on its own. Which is the problem with entertainment copyright today. We're still paying for the overhead to manufacture things like CDs from back when they first came out because the market has proved that is what people are willing to pay. Someday there will be a market correction. In the meantime, those of us who choose to be law-abiding and still get entertained make use of things like Pandora, the local library, DVRs, and unsigned artists who are willing to charge less than what the *IAA want.
Nowhere is it written that someone who writes a song or stars in a movie deserves to make millions of dollars in perpetuity. I would think it's even less so the case for the people who produce albums or movies, but unfortunately the ones with the money are in control. I would argue we would have better art without all the money involved. How many artists have a crappy sophomore album after they've made all their money with the first album? How many TV shows get ruined by television execs digging their claws in so that they can squeeze more money out of marketing and merchandising the show?
Re:One person's myth is another person's fact.
on
Myths About Code Comments
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· Score: 2, Insightful
"Write-only monkeys"? While I think it is expected that a programmer should be able to figure out a given piece of software, even undocumented, given enough time, I think it's a bit severe to expect that any piece of non-trivial software can and should be figured out from raw disassembled code 100% of the time. Just thinking through some of the headaches I've encountered with spaghetti high-level code, I can't imagine trying to decipher that same code at the assembly level, nor how it's a good use of someone's time to have to do so just because someone else couldn't be bothered to comment their code.
The best technique I've learned is to first write out in English a comment describing what you are about to write in code, then write the code after the comment. If you can't explain what you are going to do in English to begin with, you probably aren't ready to write the code. Doing it this way doesn't cost you that much extra time in the long run, since about 80% of your time as a coder is spent thinking about the problem, and only about 20% is actually writing it up. When done, your code will have a nice natural flow to it, and it will be obvious where you should break out new methods to increase the understanding of the code.
Yes, because every time someone tries to be a hero in real life, a million billion things that can go wrong, will. The intruder is going to bounce around like a rabbit, the gun owner is going to miss the the intruder and shoot his wife and daughter, the shots that hit the wife and daughter are going to travel through the house into someone next door who happens to be standing there, and the police happen to be the detectives from CSI Las Vegas.
You're so paralyzed with fear I don't know how you get up from bed in the morning.
Oh boo hoo! I'll shed a tear for your precious karma. No one is going to read your stupid comment at the bottom of the list of comments anyway, regardless of whether you get the +1 karma modifier.
Other than that last line, I found your post to be quite salient.
Sugar is cheaper, and produces way more energy than either potatoes or corn (just think about the calorie content of each). I don't have my farmer's almanac handy to give you the exact amount per acre, but sugar is grown plentifully in countries other than the US.
I don't think the OP's point was that learning those languages would directly put the student in a better position to get a job after college. I think the point was that learning those languages would help the student to understand more about computer science.
But, the whole reason to GO to a University, is to get the skills/education to make more money when finished, than you would have if you had not gone.
A common misconception, and one that has ruined our higher education system. It used to be that jobs didn't require a college diploma, and not nearly as many people were interested in going to college. If all you want are vocational skills, I suggest going to a vocational school like DeVry. If you want to learn for the sake of learning, that is what university is for.
My only concern with Ron Paul is that I think he would be very successful at abolishing the truly useful government programs like OSHA and the FDA and he would have a hard time taking down the more powerful and harmful ones like the Fed.
Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Dachannien. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you complete your Q2 deliverables on time, or given you clairvoyance to know when your boss won't notice that you're reading Slashdot...
Whoa, whoa, whoa... last time I checked, iPhone was still locked to Cingular here in the United States. Yes, you can go through all the trouble of unlocking your phone, which the average person cannot be bothered with. The point of this story is that the idea of locking phones to plans in Europe is immediately recognized as something wrong by the courts, and here in the United States it is accepted as a common business practice. Why is Europe always so far ahead of us in this regard?
So if cell phones are so important, why are we leaving control of them to these greedy pigs here in America? Imagine our potential that such a communications device could provide if it were open to the "supposedly" richest and best country in the world; land of the free home of the brave and all that.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you tried Microsoft Allegiance (now open source!)?
http://www.freeallegiance.org/
Haskell and other functional programming languages give you that multicore processing for free.
One of the biggest concerns is that in a war with China or North Korea they would swarm our aircraft carriers with airplanes and missiles. Developing something like this to counter the asymmetric warfare would be huge.
Which came first: the dinosaur or the egg? Saying that a different creature from the chicken laid the egg from which the chicken hatched just pushes the problem back one more level.
The grandparent post deals with the realities of DRM, you are living in a fantasy land where the games are not DRM. So while it's true that in theory digital media is better, in practice DRM makes it so that it is not.
Wouldn't senators then be forced to take actions that benefit those in the house, thereby corrupting the system in a different way?
"You voted against all my bills! I'm not voting for you!"
I would think the police could enforce a serial number system similar to what we have today for CD checks in online games like Starcraft. Everyone who purchases the design gets a serial that has been authorized. When you get pulled over, the police check your serial and if it's not authorized, you get busted. If you steal someone else's serial, if the cops find two or more people using the same serial, they know something's up and investigate further.
What you would pay for the design is a lot less than what you pay for the tech to manufacture the car on its own. Which is the problem with entertainment copyright today. We're still paying for the overhead to manufacture things like CDs from back when they first came out because the market has proved that is what people are willing to pay. Someday there will be a market correction. In the meantime, those of us who choose to be law-abiding and still get entertained make use of things like Pandora, the local library, DVRs, and unsigned artists who are willing to charge less than what the *IAA want.
Nowhere is it written that someone who writes a song or stars in a movie deserves to make millions of dollars in perpetuity. I would think it's even less so the case for the people who produce albums or movies, but unfortunately the ones with the money are in control. I would argue we would have better art without all the money involved. How many artists have a crappy sophomore album after they've made all their money with the first album? How many TV shows get ruined by television execs digging their claws in so that they can squeeze more money out of marketing and merchandising the show?
"Write-only monkeys"? While I think it is expected that a programmer should be able to figure out a given piece of software, even undocumented, given enough time, I think it's a bit severe to expect that any piece of non-trivial software can and should be figured out from raw disassembled code 100% of the time. Just thinking through some of the headaches I've encountered with spaghetti high-level code, I can't imagine trying to decipher that same code at the assembly level, nor how it's a good use of someone's time to have to do so just because someone else couldn't be bothered to comment their code.
The best technique I've learned is to first write out in English a comment describing what you are about to write in code, then write the code after the comment. If you can't explain what you are going to do in English to begin with, you probably aren't ready to write the code. Doing it this way doesn't cost you that much extra time in the long run, since about 80% of your time as a coder is spent thinking about the problem, and only about 20% is actually writing it up. When done, your code will have a nice natural flow to it, and it will be obvious where you should break out new methods to increase the understanding of the code.
Was he supposed to write there or they're? Get out of here!
Microsoft already ensures that the controllers are compatible across games.
Great, maybe now I can play that new Penny Arcade game, since they didn't want to release it for PS3.
OpenGL for Windows uses DirectX underneath. That is why it is so small.
Check the size of OpenGL for Linux.
Yes, because every time someone tries to be a hero in real life, a million billion things that can go wrong, will. The intruder is going to bounce around like a rabbit, the gun owner is going to miss the the intruder and shoot his wife and daughter, the shots that hit the wife and daughter are going to travel through the house into someone next door who happens to be standing there, and the police happen to be the detectives from CSI Las Vegas.
You're so paralyzed with fear I don't know how you get up from bed in the morning.
Meh, probably actually was a pedo... did he have the pedosmile?
Oh boo hoo! I'll shed a tear for your precious karma. No one is going to read your stupid comment at the bottom of the list of comments anyway, regardless of whether you get the +1 karma modifier.
Other than that last line, I found your post to be quite salient.
Hrm... How interesting!
Sugar is cheaper, and produces way more energy than either potatoes or corn (just think about the calorie content of each). I don't have my farmer's almanac handy to give you the exact amount per acre, but sugar is grown plentifully in countries other than the US.
Now the police can safely ignore the Spanish equivalent of "Don't tase me, bro"!
I don't think the OP's point was that learning those languages would directly put the student in a better position to get a job after college. I think the point was that learning those languages would help the student to understand more about computer science.
But, the whole reason to GO to a University, is to get the skills/education to make more money when finished, than you would have if you had not gone.
A common misconception, and one that has ruined our higher education system. It used to be that jobs didn't require a college diploma, and not nearly as many people were interested in going to college. If all you want are vocational skills, I suggest going to a vocational school like DeVry. If you want to learn for the sake of learning, that is what university is for.
My only concern with Ron Paul is that I think he would be very successful at abolishing the truly useful government programs like OSHA and the FDA and he would have a hard time taking down the more powerful and harmful ones like the Fed.
Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Dachannien. Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you complete your Q2 deliverables on time, or given you clairvoyance to know when your boss won't notice that you're reading Slashdot...
Whoa, whoa, whoa... last time I checked, iPhone was still locked to Cingular here in the United States. Yes, you can go through all the trouble of unlocking your phone, which the average person cannot be bothered with. The point of this story is that the idea of locking phones to plans in Europe is immediately recognized as something wrong by the courts, and here in the United States it is accepted as a common business practice. Why is Europe always so far ahead of us in this regard?
Sounds like a great opportunity for the law enforcement officers of Barrow Gurney to make some money issuing fines.
So if cell phones are so important, why are we leaving control of them to these greedy pigs here in America? Imagine our potential that such a communications device could provide if it were open to the "supposedly" richest and best country in the world; land of the free home of the brave and all that.