As a Canadian I know that what happens in the US eventually comes to Canada. I don't want clone food for sale at all... but at the BARE minimum I want labels.
I can already bet the the fast food industry will be all over this technology. In fact I bet they are a big part of the lobbying in favor of it.
Personally I will not eat cloned meat if I can avoid it. It just feels like humans are really crossing the line of what's decent and right. How long until all the cows left in north america are clones of just a handful of 'originals'? Gross.
Although... we are destroying this planet and the life on it pretty effectively... this is just another side of that coin.
I can't wait for the first accident/leak/bad engineering/explosion/terrorist attack to flood the oceans with toxic waste and radiation. Sweet. Imagine an oil tanker spill times a million. Could that be a bigger temptation for any radical nutjobs? Why not paint a bulls-eye on it too?
Oh, but the fools in the town next to mine are fighting against wind turbines because a few birds might fly into them and it'll wreck their nice water front view. How about a floating reactor instead?
Idiots.
Sarcasm=dripping;
Re:Wii-Mote is not the end of the world
on
The Wii Takes NYC
·
· Score: 1
Well, if they DON'T make a normal controller an option for MOST games, I'll be sorely disappointed. And sore. Oy my arms!;)
RTFA geez. The artitcle was not about postreSQL, it merely mentioned it. He didn't slam it at all or even state that you shouldn't use it. Simply said that if desired you may be able to avoid using it and emulate missing features of mySQL using php. He was illustrating the capabilities of php, not slamming postreSQL. By the way, many hosting providers provide mySQL but not postgreSQL so it may be useful to work around not having it.
Where did the title for this slashdot post come from? The couple sentences that mentioned postreSQL? What about the rest of the article? Stop being drama-queens. Slashdot needs more serious posts- not this flame-inducing crap.
Wii-Mote is not the end of the world
on
The Wii Takes NYC
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Do people realize that you WILL be able to use a NORMAL controller for the games too? So even if the wiimote stinks, the system will still be a good buy. If the wiimote gets old, or tiring, or even if it doesn't work right... it's not going to be the only control option!
The sad thing is that essentially all Canadian (over the phone) ISPs essentially ARE Bell. The others are just Resellers. Primus? Nope, they resell Bell. (I know, I worked there). This is because Bell owns nearly all the phone lines in the country. So switching providers won't get you out of it. It's also the reason why when you call your provider, their Tech support can't do Jack-All when Bell is having an 'outage'.
This is an outrage. And here I thought that all the news about it happening in the US was not affecting me... so much for that.
After 10+ years of playing intense video games... can someone explain to me why a bleeding paper cut still freaks me out? Yup, I'm desensitized all right. God I'm sick of the violent-pop-culture-makes-kids-violent crap. Maybe if parents tried actually raising their children, the kids wouldn't have so many issues.
Don't forget... I read somewhere that the GameCube controllers will work on the Wii. Talk about savings. That way I don't need to rush out and buy a bunch of controllers. Oh, and the Cube games will work on it too. Bonus. Sounds like Nintendo is ramping up for a winner. I have to say I hope to see stores start stocking more than 2 shelves of Nintendo games compared to a whole aisle of the other systems. As a Cube owner it's depressing to have poor selection, or see a commercial for a sweet game only to see the tag line: Only for PC, PS2 & Xbox. Game selection and price will be the KEY factors, not specs.
Does anyone know if Nintendo is going to charge for the downloads of old games? And are they going to charge a monthly fee to play their online games??
It's amazing to me that the industry is still scratching their heads as to why people aren't falling in love with eBooks. The answer is so obvious - there's little or nothing wrong with paper books! On top of that, ebooks have a huge number of downsides:
-Staying power- 5 years from now, if I want to read one of my eBooks again, I'll have to find where I backed it up to, probably have to convert it to the latest and greatest file format (because the device I bought it for will probably not be the device I have in 5 years), load it onto my device and so on. With a book... I skim my shelves, grab it and go. With the widespread use of acid-free paper these days- books last as long as I'll live.
-Hard on the eyes. Staring at a screen, any screen is not as pleasant as paper.
-Comfort. I want to curl up on the couch and read- not sit at my computer desk. If I use a portable device... I don't want it to run out of battery power (I read for hours on end), and if I fall asleep with it on I don't want it to lose all it's juice.
-Durability. I want to be able to cram it in my purse... drop it, throw it to someone, or slam it on the ground if I read something that pisses me off.
-Format. I want to be able to use it anywhere on anything. Give it to a friend who doesn't have the same device. Sell it, trade it, donate it, display it nicely on my bookcase, or use the same file in 20 years. I want to read, search, bookmark, highlight, jot notes, stick pieces of paper in the pages, etc as easy as with a paper-book.
-Sensory experience. I want to smell the bookish smell, feel the cover, see any pictures in it etc. A portable eReader is just rather cold and impersonal. I want to be able to fall asleep with it wedged between me and the cushion and not get a bruise.
-Cost! A paperback novel costs around $10can. I would expect an ebook to cost much less than a dollar. Hell, give me a subscription so I can download as many as I want for a flat fee. When I buy a book now... I feel like it's an investment in my collection. It has value beyond the info.
Basically- eBooks have a long way to go. If they ever get wider popularity over paper books. I'll be shocked.
The latest Prince of Persia games are poison candy. Why? they look great, the gameplay is slick, but in truth it amounts to a pointless excercise in platform jumping 'puzzles' and only slightly varied combat sequences. Platform jumping!?! Please... as an adult, I need more from a game, and the idea of doing the same garbage over and over again till I finally reach a save point is a waste of my valuable time. Maybe now that Ubisoft has purged this from their systems and can move on to a sequel of the under marketed and highly acclaimed game: Beyond Good and Evil.
Why do the scientists who run these studies overlook THE big problem? Historically, women were not allowed to go to school. Then when they were, they were not encouraged to make it a priority, or to persue intellectual hobbies in their spare time. TODAY, this is less of an issue, but there is still a smaller percent of women who make book-school-learning a priority or passion. Women tend to get more fulfillment from social pursuits. This is already a known fact.
Knowing that, does anyone remember their IQ test(s)? Questions that test your skill by asking you the meaning of obscure words. Or your math skills, reading, pattern recognition, etc. People who have not given their brains lots of excercise in this type of work as they grew up, will not be as good at it. Not because they can't, but because they never excercised their ability.
If Tiger Woods had never picked up a golf club, he still would have had the potential to be great, but never would have developed it.
Wait a few generations when the % of women with a lifetime intellectual focus/interest is equal to men, then run the study!
My favourite game of all time is Half-Life (proud to say I beat it with NO cheat codes or walkthroughs).
I'm a big fan of FPS and adventure/action games. I'm currently playing Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube and previously finished Beyond Good & Evil and Eternal Darkess on that system.
I also like RTSes and RPGs... but hate it when they get repetitive.
Biggest example of repetitive junk is Diablo II. Horrid!
Basically a game has to have a GREAT story to make it worth my while. I actually have a life (amazing for a slashdotter eh?) and I refuse to play games with no point that aren't interesting.
It's how you use it...
on
A Decade of PHP
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I've been developing website backends in PHP for 3 years, and large enterprise-scale apps for the past 1 year. It's a common misconception that PHP isn't appropriate for large applications.
It's all in how you use it. Do you hack together a bunch of pages with isolated scripts talking to html forms and databases in an ad-hoc manner? Or did you start with a solid application design model from the start and follow through with time-tested methodologies?
PHP gets a bad rep because of the large number of inexperienced developers using it with poor results. I've developed full CRM and ERP apps with it including invoicing and ticketing systems that scale beautifully and are a dream to maintain. PHP is fast, free, and easy to use.
It's the responsibility of the developers to use more mature practices when developing large apps- and to recognize the fact that small site admin areas often evolve into larger apps. Plan and design!
Who are we kidding? Microsoft doesn't HAVE to smarten up and keep enhancing their product. Look at the current stats: FireFox blows IE out of the water in all respects but can barely grab... what is it now... 6% market share? IE doesn't even have to worry. It'll be a miracle if the IE market share gets even as low as 70%.
And even if it does... IE isn't a money-maker so what's Micro$oft's motivation to sink devel money into it?
Only USERS demanding better product, and refusing to use insecure, outdated software will force corporations to take notice. There are too many dummies who think that the blue 'e' IS the Internet. As long as IE is packaged with Windows... things won't change any time soon.
6 times out of 10 when I try to install a PC game it fails to install for some hardware or OS incompatibility. Or my requirements aren't good enough. If it does install, every time I want to play I have to boot up my system, FIND the CD, load the game and play. Then when I'm done the process is reversed. On top of it all I have to sit at a desk- something I do all day and I'm not keen on doing it when I get home.
For my console games, I plop myself on the floor, or stretch out on the couch (aaaaahhh), turn on my TV and system, and I'm playing in seconds.
Gee... tough decision eh? When my hard drive died a year ago, I didn't even bother re-installing any games. Although I do miss my RTSes and Half-Life!
Ah.. I wasn't aware that American NDAs are non-compete agreements. In Canada non-competes try to tell you that you can't get another job in the same industry. That doesn't fly with the courts because it would lock employees into a job, even if it was a bad job.
The Canadian business ecomomy and the American one are closely related. We are tied together and the ethics issues are nearly identical. I'm not advocating being happy-go-lucky, and I DO feel that he should defend himself. Just don't do anything that will make you look bad or burn bridges.
From the post he implied that he was not a business owner or manager but an employee. Therefore competition and market share are less his concerns... and his reputation, skills, and how well he can 'sell himself' as a valuable asset ARE his concerns. If he takes some kind of reactionary response, it will knock one long term job reference off his resume. It's not worth it- especially since he's leaving to better things soon.
Careful, NDA (non disclosure) contracts ARE enforcable in court, at least in Canada and I believe in the US as well. Non-compete contracts are the ones that are of dubious enforcability. Protecting corporate 'secrets' and clients is a time tested legal right of companies. I have personal experience of this in my family (the company won in court and the employee lost - for taking away clients).
Also, the arguement that you should 'stick it to em' is foolish. Burning bridges is always a bad idea. If 'the boss' has no legitimate reason to trash talk you... why give him one? Business is about networking and making contacts, not childish spite. Are you sure your new job won't fall through? Are you sure you'll never have to deal with your old employers ever again? Don't be.
Great.. another service that people will sign up for because of non-stop commercials... and get permanently stuck with a shoddy service, overkill proprietary software, and no way out. Have you ever tried to cancel your AOL service? HA! Good luck.
Meanwhile, your local businesses are going bankrupt. *tsk*
I always wanted to see what was in my neighbour's backyard... a pool apparently. (The have a high wood fence).
Works for some parts of Canada apparently.
Slashdot Mirror
As a Canadian I know that what happens in the US eventually comes to Canada. I don't want clone food for sale at all... but at the BARE minimum I want labels.
I can already bet the the fast food industry will be all over this technology. In fact I bet they are a big part of the lobbying in favor of it.
Personally I will not eat cloned meat if I can avoid it. It just feels like humans are really crossing the line of what's decent and right. How long until all the cows left in north america are clones of just a handful of 'originals'? Gross.
Although... we are destroying this planet and the life on it pretty effectively... this is just another side of that coin.
This is already happening. If you think there is fair competition in the beef industry, think again. Read the book: Fast Food Nation.
I can't wait for the first accident/leak/bad engineering/explosion/terrorist attack to flood the oceans with toxic waste and radiation. Sweet. Imagine an oil tanker spill times a million. Could that be a bigger temptation for any radical nutjobs? Why not paint a bulls-eye on it too?
Oh, but the fools in the town next to mine are fighting against wind turbines because a few birds might fly into them and it'll wreck their nice water front view. How about a floating reactor instead?
Idiots.
Sarcasm=dripping;
Well, if they DON'T make a normal controller an option for MOST games, I'll be sorely disappointed. And sore. Oy my arms! ;)
RTFA geez. The artitcle was not about postreSQL, it merely mentioned it. He didn't slam it at all or even state that you shouldn't use it. Simply said that if desired you may be able to avoid using it and emulate missing features of mySQL using php. He was illustrating the capabilities of php, not slamming postreSQL. By the way, many hosting providers provide mySQL but not postgreSQL so it may be useful to work around not having it.
Where did the title for this slashdot post come from? The couple sentences that mentioned postreSQL? What about the rest of the article? Stop being drama-queens. Slashdot needs more serious posts- not this flame-inducing crap.
Do people realize that you WILL be able to use a NORMAL controller for the games too? So even if the wiimote stinks, the system will still be a good buy. If the wiimote gets old, or tiring, or even if it doesn't work right... it's not going to be the only control option!
PLEASE Ubisoft- give us a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil. And for the love of god- no more Prince of Persia(cringe)!
So, in a nutshell... people tend to procrastinate when there's nothing pressuring them. No kidding! Why was this article Slashdot worthy exactly?
The sad thing is that essentially all Canadian (over the phone) ISPs essentially ARE Bell. The others are just Resellers. Primus? Nope, they resell Bell. (I know, I worked there). This is because Bell owns nearly all the phone lines in the country. So switching providers won't get you out of it. It's also the reason why when you call your provider, their Tech support can't do Jack-All when Bell is having an 'outage'.
This is an outrage. And here I thought that all the news about it happening in the US was not affecting me... so much for that.
After 10+ years of playing intense video games... can someone explain to me why a bleeding paper cut still freaks me out? Yup, I'm desensitized all right. God I'm sick of the violent-pop-culture-makes-kids-violent crap. Maybe if parents tried actually raising their children, the kids wouldn't have so many issues.
Don't forget... I read somewhere that the GameCube controllers will work on the Wii. Talk about savings. That way I don't need to rush out and buy a bunch of controllers. Oh, and the Cube games will work on it too. Bonus. Sounds like Nintendo is ramping up for a winner. I have to say I hope to see stores start stocking more than 2 shelves of Nintendo games compared to a whole aisle of the other systems. As a Cube owner it's depressing to have poor selection, or see a commercial for a sweet game only to see the tag line: Only for PC, PS2 & Xbox. Game selection and price will be the KEY factors, not specs.
Does anyone know if Nintendo is going to charge for the downloads of old games? And are they going to charge a monthly fee to play their online games??
It's amazing to me that the industry is still scratching their heads as to why people aren't falling in love with eBooks. The answer is so obvious - there's little or nothing wrong with paper books! On top of that, ebooks have a huge number of downsides:
-Staying power- 5 years from now, if I want to read one of my eBooks again, I'll have to find where I backed it up to, probably have to convert it to the latest and greatest file format (because the device I bought it for will probably not be the device I have in 5 years), load it onto my device and so on. With a book... I skim my shelves, grab it and go. With the widespread use of acid-free paper these days- books last as long as I'll live.
-Hard on the eyes. Staring at a screen, any screen is not as pleasant as paper.
-Comfort. I want to curl up on the couch and read- not sit at my computer desk. If I use a portable device... I don't want it to run out of battery power (I read for hours on end), and if I fall asleep with it on I don't want it to lose all it's juice.
-Durability. I want to be able to cram it in my purse... drop it, throw it to someone, or slam it on the ground if I read something that pisses me off.
-Format. I want to be able to use it anywhere on anything. Give it to a friend who doesn't have the same device. Sell it, trade it, donate it, display it nicely on my bookcase, or use the same file in 20 years. I want to read, search, bookmark, highlight, jot notes, stick pieces of paper in the pages, etc as easy as with a paper-book.
-Sensory experience. I want to smell the bookish smell, feel the cover, see any pictures in it etc. A portable eReader is just rather cold and impersonal. I want to be able to fall asleep with it wedged between me and the cushion and not get a bruise.
-Cost! A paperback novel costs around $10can. I would expect an ebook to cost much less than a dollar. Hell, give me a subscription so I can download as many as I want for a flat fee. When I buy a book now... I feel like it's an investment in my collection. It has value beyond the info.
Basically- eBooks have a long way to go. If they ever get wider popularity over paper books. I'll be shocked.
The latest Prince of Persia games are poison candy. Why? they look great, the gameplay is slick, but in truth it amounts to a pointless excercise in platform jumping 'puzzles' and only slightly varied combat sequences. Platform jumping!?! Please... as an adult, I need more from a game, and the idea of doing the same garbage over and over again till I finally reach a save point is a waste of my valuable time. Maybe now that Ubisoft has purged this from their systems and can move on to a sequel of the under marketed and highly acclaimed game: Beyond Good and Evil.
Why do the scientists who run these studies overlook THE big problem? Historically, women were not allowed to go to school. Then when they were, they were not encouraged to make it a priority, or to persue intellectual hobbies in their spare time. TODAY, this is less of an issue, but there is still a smaller percent of women who make book-school-learning a priority or passion. Women tend to get more fulfillment from social pursuits. This is already a known fact.
Knowing that, does anyone remember their IQ test(s)? Questions that test your skill by asking you the meaning of obscure words. Or your math skills, reading, pattern recognition, etc. People who have not given their brains lots of excercise in this type of work as they grew up, will not be as good at it. Not because they can't, but because they never excercised their ability.
If Tiger Woods had never picked up a golf club, he still would have had the potential to be great, but never would have developed it.
Wait a few generations when the % of women with a lifetime intellectual focus/interest is equal to men, then run the study!
My favourite game of all time is Half-Life (proud to say I beat it with NO cheat codes or walkthroughs).
I'm a big fan of FPS and adventure/action games. I'm currently playing Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube and previously finished Beyond Good & Evil and Eternal Darkess on that system.
I also like RTSes and RPGs... but hate it when they get repetitive.
Biggest example of repetitive junk is Diablo II. Horrid!
Basically a game has to have a GREAT story to make it worth my while. I actually have a life (amazing for a slashdotter eh?) and I refuse to play games with no point that aren't interesting.
I've been developing website backends in PHP for 3 years, and large enterprise-scale apps for the past 1 year. It's a common misconception that PHP isn't appropriate for large applications.
It's all in how you use it. Do you hack together a bunch of pages with isolated scripts talking to html forms and databases in an ad-hoc manner? Or did you start with a solid application design model from the start and follow through with time-tested methodologies?
PHP gets a bad rep because of the large number of inexperienced developers using it with poor results. I've developed full CRM and ERP apps with it including invoicing and ticketing systems that scale beautifully and are a dream to maintain. PHP is fast, free, and easy to use.
It's the responsibility of the developers to use more mature practices when developing large apps- and to recognize the fact that small site admin areas often evolve into larger apps. Plan and design!
What about teaching them Flash Actionscript? Something designers might actually use in practice...
Do YOU want to hold your hand up at your screen for extended periods of time? Or stare at one tiny spot? HA!
Who are we kidding? Microsoft doesn't HAVE to smarten up and keep enhancing their product. Look at the current stats: FireFox blows IE out of the water in all respects but can barely grab... what is it now... 6% market share? IE doesn't even have to worry. It'll be a miracle if the IE market share gets even as low as 70%. And even if it does... IE isn't a money-maker so what's Micro$oft's motivation to sink devel money into it? Only USERS demanding better product, and refusing to use insecure, outdated software will force corporations to take notice. There are too many dummies who think that the blue 'e' IS the Internet. As long as IE is packaged with Windows... things won't change any time soon.
6 times out of 10 when I try to install a PC game it fails to install for some hardware or OS incompatibility. Or my requirements aren't good enough. If it does install, every time I want to play I have to boot up my system, FIND the CD, load the game and play. Then when I'm done the process is reversed. On top of it all I have to sit at a desk- something I do all day and I'm not keen on doing it when I get home.
For my console games, I plop myself on the floor, or stretch out on the couch (aaaaahhh), turn on my TV and system, and I'm playing in seconds.
Gee... tough decision eh? When my hard drive died a year ago, I didn't even bother re-installing any games. Although I do miss my RTSes and Half-Life!
Ah.. I wasn't aware that American NDAs are non-compete agreements. In Canada non-competes try to tell you that you can't get another job in the same industry. That doesn't fly with the courts because it would lock employees into a job, even if it was a bad job.
The Canadian business ecomomy and the American one are closely related. We are tied together and the ethics issues are nearly identical. I'm not advocating being happy-go-lucky, and I DO feel that he should defend himself. Just don't do anything that will make you look bad or burn bridges.
From the post he implied that he was not a business owner or manager but an employee. Therefore competition and market share are less his concerns... and his reputation, skills, and how well he can 'sell himself' as a valuable asset ARE his concerns. If he takes some kind of reactionary response, it will knock one long term job reference off his resume. It's not worth it- especially since he's leaving to better things soon.
Careful, NDA (non disclosure) contracts ARE enforcable in court, at least in Canada and I believe in the US as well. Non-compete contracts are the ones that are of dubious enforcability. Protecting corporate 'secrets' and clients is a time tested legal right of companies. I have personal experience of this in my family (the company won in court and the employee lost - for taking away clients). Also, the arguement that you should 'stick it to em' is foolish. Burning bridges is always a bad idea. If 'the boss' has no legitimate reason to trash talk you... why give him one? Business is about networking and making contacts, not childish spite. Are you sure your new job won't fall through? Are you sure you'll never have to deal with your old employers ever again? Don't be.
Great.. another service that people will sign up for because of non-stop commercials... and get permanently stuck with a shoddy service, overkill proprietary software, and no way out. Have you ever tried to cancel your AOL service? HA! Good luck. Meanwhile, your local businesses are going bankrupt. *tsk*
I always wanted to see what was in my neighbour's backyard... a pool apparently. (The have a high wood fence). Works for some parts of Canada apparently.