Okay, as an "inventor" for a private firm, you probably signed an agreement stating that all of your work done at said company is owned by the company. I think, therefore, that it is out of your hands--if the company wants to file a patent, they can do so.
Notice how Microsoft patents, for example, are owned by Microsoft Corporation, not by the individual coders who came up with whatever algorithm/mechanism/whatever the company is trying to patent.
Therefore, I *think* that your boss is just requesting your help filing and managing whatever the software does (assuming he is not a techie and can't write out the algorithm/flow charts himself). If you refuse to help him, he could still get a patent, and probably fire you, too...
HOWEVER! I am not a lawyer, and this sounds like something that should be verified by one. I would recommend talking to a patent attorney as well.
I was playing a frustrating game on my original Game Boy back in the day, got frustrated and hit it against my head--I broke the internal screen, and it couldn't display games correctly anymore. So it's not that tough...
I think it's worthy of note that by repeating these classes, you'd probably get more than just higher grades--you'd get a better education and actually learn the material in these higher-level (300 and 400) computer science classes. Remember that it wouldn't just be you with good grades and another year vs you with bad grades minus a year competing; it would be you with good grades, another year, more knowledge about higher-level theory and software engineering and more time to work on open source/passion projects vs. you with bad grades, no knowledge and less time.
I'm definitely not a recruiter (just an employee), but I think that this seems to make the most sense to me--especially if at your time in school you'd be able to get into some undergraduate research with a professor there.
DEFCON, while fun, is more of a giant party with some technical talks than an actual educational experience. If you're looking for something to further your technical prowess, rather than a fun weekend off in Vegas, I wouldn't recommend DEFCON.
I'd look into all of the USENIX conferences, or maybe CRYPTO if you're so inclined.
The thing that really annoys me about this whole ordeal is the nearly unfathomable amounts of hypocrisy which envelop the entire scenario. First of all, she was the dean of admissions--it was her job to admit and deny people, to make or break what I'm sure were many of the applicants' dreams. I'm a high school senior (trying to decide between UCSB and the University of Washington for next year), and this makes my blood simply boil. I didn't apply to MIT, but I know a lot of people who did. Think about how horrible and betrayed they must feel that the dean of admissions didn't even go to college herself! And all that talking and prodding about academic honesty...
I think the worst part, though, is that she wasn't just the dean of admissions--she was capitalizing on her position of power as well, giving speeches to high schools (such as my own) to promote herself and the book that she wrote. That's what really irks me.
In some situations, I would have said that after 28 years doing a good job in her position, she should be reprimanded but not asked to resign. However, her blatant abuse of the system and extensive lying and hypocrisy simply drive me crazy.
This is a preposterous idea, Mr. Article! How dare they try to pay math & science teachers more than art and english ones? In fact, I think that we should eliminate all AP/IB/Honors classes from the public education system--they simply "breed discontent" amidst the student population. Additionally, we most certainly cannot allow the "real world" to act in this fashion either; scientists and engineers at Boeing need to be paid the same wage as artists off the street. We wouldn't want to breed discontent, would we?
Note: If anyone didn't grasp that this is a satire, I pity them. However, this comment is most certainly satirical in nature.
I have no special contacts, no utterly unremarkable skill- I'm not trying to show off. My point is that if you can take the initiative to teach things to yourself so much as to qualify for a job (by the fact that you're asking for one, I can assume that you have), you need to put yourself out there and get one. It's not that hard- people are hiring, and if you're qualified, there's really not that much to stop them from letting you be an employee- or at least an intern.
Sorry for this horribly long-winded post. To summarize: just put yourself out there; don't ask slashdot.
However, moderation like on Slashdot, requires a large numbers of users to have enough moderators without giving everyone moderator access, therefore making it impossible to use on smaller sites
I don't think that this is necessarily true. For sites as large as slashdot, you need a large pool of moderators. For smaller sites, you'd need a much smaller pool of moderators. You could have median posting group moderation points given, plus dedicated moderators to overrule, or no mod points given at all- just the mod staff could handle a smaller site. For large sites like Slashdot, you'd need a large group of users to have moderators... which you would, since it's a large site. I'm quite tired so I hope this post was coherent, and hope that it helps:)
I somehow thing that this wouldn't be totally secure. Man in the middle attacks? DNS attacks, spoofing the "web based chat"'s interface? There are lots of ways to mess this up. If I was going for anonymity and protection, I'd use Cult of the Dead Cow's newly released "hacktivism" tool, ScatterChat. It basically uses strong encryption plus Tor (optionally, I think) to make chats as close to perfectly secure as a major chat appliance has come. It's a great idea, many years in the making. I'd go with that, myself.
- dshaw
PS: No, I'm neither affiliated with ScatterChat or CDC in any way.
It's kind of disgusting that it takes so long for documents to be declassified and released to the public, but I understand that there is always the imminent threat to national security and these things can't be rushed. I understand why many of these documents simply *cannot* be released to the public, but this indexing is truly whetting me appetite for what I cannot have! I would love to read almost any of the articuals in the NSA Technical Journal, and some articles such as 'BS: Dealing with Beaurocracies' sound quite entertaining. Come on, can you really say that What Every Cryptologist Should Know About Pearl Harbor doesn't make you want to storm the NSA headquarters and grab a few copies?
Sigh, such is life... still, this declassification is the first step to a full release of these documents.
Many users take advantage of Tor and other anonymous web browsing tools, but is the amount of hassle worth the effort it takes to remain anonymous?
I think that this must be a joke. Guys, you're missing the entire point of using Tor. Tor usage isn't designed for script kiddies who don't want the FBI on them, child pornography rings afraid of Interpol or nerdy teenagers that don't want their IP logged (although these are all applications of Tor, too). Tor was designed for electronic freedom for people in, for example, totalitarian regimes that don't allow freedom of speech, or whistleblowers on governments, major industry, etc.
Having a little bit of "a hassle" is fine for the designed type of use. People trying to communicate anonymously out of the Great Firewall of China don't worry if it takes an extra few seconds. The nerdy teenager that thinks anonymity is cool (not that I have anything against this guy), might think it's not quite so cool to wait forever to have a site load, and be banned from things like Slashdot and Wikipedia (via the Exit Nodes).
The article is inherently flawed, since it's looking at Tor from the wrong perspective.
I know that most linux geeks are stereotypically single, womanless (or manless?) and have no family/lover obligations... but does that justify having LinuxWorld on Valentine's Day?
It sounds like he was forcefully ejected from his own board, but the story leads me to believe that this is what he wanted- even the slashdot summary states that he had said it was "time to go" and that he wanted more time with his family and son... so why was he 'ousted'? Or perhaps I'm simply reading something wrong...
Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I like my matress to be fixed to solid ground. But then again, I don't really like water mattresses, either. Is there really a market for a magnetic bed?
I've used AIM and IRC excessively in the past few years, and it has led me to getting a nearly perfect score on my English SAT exams. Just because some p30p3l tlk lik this dosnt meen that omg all of u r going 2 be liek th1s. Some people may actually improve based on the widespread use of IMs, just like emails or passing notes in class...
Maybe I'm just an unbeliever, but I don't think that John Romero is all that great. I mean, he's had a few good games-- great games, even, sure-- but is he the savior of all games? No. There are other great game developers that deserve just as much credit as Romero, but unfortunately simply don't receive it.
Oh well, I guess we don't live in a perfect world. John Romero is still an extremely intelligent guy, and although the design intricacies of the Doom series are a little bit on the cobweb side of things, it's interesting nonetheless.
I think that so far most of you are showing the general idea of what xfire does, but not some of it's main features. First of all, it saves all of the servers you visit with xfire-supported games, and lets you join them with a simple click. Xfire also allows you to download files (such as patches or gaming movies or demos, etc.) in a bittorrent-like file downloader, which works very efficiently. xfire also allows you to chat in-game, as many of you have said.
What you haven't said (or at least that I've seen) is that xfire gives you a user profile that logs all of the games that you play, and for how long you play them. For me (a gamer), this is a really really cool piece of software. I think it's awesome to watch my gaming trends; some, however, think it's sad to see all of the hours that they're wasting away. My profile is here, and my cool xfire-signature-image-thing (great for gaming forums is here.
In my opinion, xfire is a great piece of software, and one that I use pretty much all the time that I'm at my desktop. I'm glad they're getting business (well, getting bought...), but I sure hope Viacom doesn't change the product too much...
The system that I use simply gave me a wonderful little notice saying that unauthorized users are, well, unauthorized, and that they reserve the right to monitor activities.
A special significance of this might be that it's from a university system, like the one in question by the... er, Asker. It's a research ssh account from a University of California system. So, there's at least one response from another university:)
We're not Korea, guys. Talking about them won't say anything about America or the very america-centric internet.
Is the Internet American? Sure, we might have a lot of users, but the title of this story is Games: No One Watches Online Videogame TV". "No one" and "online" are key words. Korea certainly counts as people, and are most certainly online.
Granted, I'm not saying that we're Korea, or that we have a videogame-centric culture- we don't. That doesn't mean that it isn't a valid point for discussion, though.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, as an "inventor" for a private firm, you probably signed an agreement stating that all of your work done at said company is owned by the company. I think, therefore, that it is out of your hands--if the company wants to file a patent, they can do so.
Notice how Microsoft patents, for example, are owned by Microsoft Corporation, not by the individual coders who came up with whatever algorithm/mechanism/whatever the company is trying to patent.
Therefore, I *think* that your boss is just requesting your help filing and managing whatever the software does (assuming he is not a techie and can't write out the algorithm/flow charts himself). If you refuse to help him, he could still get a patent, and probably fire you, too...
HOWEVER! I am not a lawyer, and this sounds like something that should be verified by one. I would recommend talking to a patent attorney as well.
Hope that helps!
I was playing a frustrating game on my original Game Boy back in the day, got frustrated and hit it against my head--I broke the internal screen, and it couldn't display games correctly anymore. So it's not that tough...
I think it's worthy of note that by repeating these classes, you'd probably get more than just higher grades--you'd get a better education and actually learn the material in these higher-level (300 and 400) computer science classes. Remember that it wouldn't just be you with good grades and another year vs you with bad grades minus a year competing; it would be you with good grades, another year, more knowledge about higher-level theory and software engineering and more time to work on open source/passion projects vs. you with bad grades, no knowledge and less time.
I'm definitely not a recruiter (just an employee), but I think that this seems to make the most sense to me--especially if at your time in school you'd be able to get into some undergraduate research with a professor there.
Good luck with whatever you decide,
- dshaw
DEFCON, while fun, is more of a giant party with some technical talks than an actual educational experience. If you're looking for something to further your technical prowess, rather than a fun weekend off in Vegas, I wouldn't recommend DEFCON.
I'd look into all of the USENIX conferences, or maybe CRYPTO if you're so inclined.
- dshaw
She was a student for one year, I believe, at one of the three institutions from which she claimed to have a degree.
The thing that really annoys me about this whole ordeal is the nearly unfathomable amounts of hypocrisy which envelop the entire scenario. First of all, she was the dean of admissions--it was her job to admit and deny people, to make or break what I'm sure were many of the applicants' dreams. I'm a high school senior (trying to decide between UCSB and the University of Washington for next year), and this makes my blood simply boil. I didn't apply to MIT, but I know a lot of people who did. Think about how horrible and betrayed they must feel that the dean of admissions didn't even go to college herself! And all that talking and prodding about academic honesty...
I think the worst part, though, is that she wasn't just the dean of admissions--she was capitalizing on her position of power as well, giving speeches to high schools (such as my own) to promote herself and the book that she wrote. That's what really irks me.
In some situations, I would have said that after 28 years doing a good job in her position, she should be reprimanded but not asked to resign. However, her blatant abuse of the system and extensive lying and hypocrisy simply drive me crazy.
- dshaw
... is all of the other dream machines people have listed in this thread, put together in a Beowulf cluster...
This is a preposterous idea, Mr. Article! How dare they try to pay math & science teachers more than art and english ones? In fact, I think that we should eliminate all AP/IB/Honors classes from the public education system--they simply "breed discontent" amidst the student population. Additionally, we most certainly cannot allow the "real world" to act in this fashion either; scientists and engineers at Boeing need to be paid the same wage as artists off the street. We wouldn't want to breed discontent, would we?
Note: If anyone didn't grasp that this is a satire, I pity them. However, this comment is most certainly satirical in nature.
I turned 18 on October 7th- just a few weeks ago. I'm a senior in high school, and I've worked as a programmer at the San Diego Supercomputer interfacing the Open Croquet 3D operating system to their GIS servers, a database engineer at the University of California, San Diego, a researcher at Calit2, and lastly a network security analyst for Softwink, Inc.
I have no special contacts, no utterly unremarkable skill- I'm not trying to show off. My point is that if you can take the initiative to teach things to yourself so much as to qualify for a job (by the fact that you're asking for one, I can assume that you have), you need to put yourself out there and get one. It's not that hard- people are hiring, and if you're qualified, there's really not that much to stop them from letting you be an employee- or at least an intern.
Sorry for this horribly long-winded post. To summarize: just put yourself out there; don't ask slashdot.
- dshaw
However, moderation like on Slashdot, requires a large numbers of users to have enough moderators without giving everyone moderator access, therefore making it impossible to use on smaller sites
:)
I don't think that this is necessarily true. For sites as large as slashdot, you need a large pool of moderators. For smaller sites, you'd need a much smaller pool of moderators. You could have median posting group moderation points given, plus dedicated moderators to overrule, or no mod points given at all- just the mod staff could handle a smaller site. For large sites like Slashdot, you'd need a large group of users to have moderators... which you would, since it's a large site. I'm quite tired so I hope this post was coherent, and hope that it helps
- dshaw
I somehow thing that this wouldn't be totally secure. Man in the middle attacks? DNS attacks, spoofing the "web based chat"'s interface? There are lots of ways to mess this up. If I was going for anonymity and protection, I'd use Cult of the Dead Cow's newly released "hacktivism" tool, ScatterChat. It basically uses strong encryption plus Tor (optionally, I think) to make chats as close to perfectly secure as a major chat appliance has come. It's a great idea, many years in the making. I'd go with that, myself.
- dshaw
PS: No, I'm neither affiliated with ScatterChat or CDC in any way.
It's kind of disgusting that it takes so long for documents to be declassified and released to the public, but I understand that there is always the imminent threat to national security and these things can't be rushed. I understand why many of these documents simply *cannot* be released to the public, but this indexing is truly whetting me appetite for what I cannot have! I would love to read almost any of the articuals in the NSA Technical Journal, and some articles such as 'BS: Dealing with Beaurocracies' sound quite entertaining. Come on, can you really say that What Every Cryptologist Should Know About Pearl Harbor doesn't make you want to storm the NSA headquarters and grab a few copies?
Sigh, such is life... still, this declassification is the first step to a full release of these documents.
- dshaw
Now now, dearie... I'm sure there are plenty of new geeks joining the site every day that can help our discussions.
Many users take advantage of Tor and other anonymous web browsing tools, but is the amount of hassle worth the effort it takes to remain anonymous?
I think that this must be a joke. Guys, you're missing the entire point of using Tor. Tor usage isn't designed for script kiddies who don't want the FBI on them, child pornography rings afraid of Interpol or nerdy teenagers that don't want their IP logged (although these are all applications of Tor, too). Tor was designed for electronic freedom for people in, for example, totalitarian regimes that don't allow freedom of speech, or whistleblowers on governments, major industry, etc.
Having a little bit of "a hassle" is fine for the designed type of use. People trying to communicate anonymously out of the Great Firewall of China don't worry if it takes an extra few seconds. The nerdy teenager that thinks anonymity is cool (not that I have anything against this guy), might think it's not quite so cool to wait forever to have a site load, and be banned from things like Slashdot and Wikipedia (via the Exit Nodes).
The article is inherently flawed, since it's looking at Tor from the wrong perspective.
- dshaw
just like high-concept movie ideas where a one-sentence summary gets turned into a 90-minute film.
Snakes on a Plane was longer than 90 minutes!
I know that most linux geeks are stereotypically single, womanless (or manless?) and have no family/lover obligations... but does that justify having LinuxWorld on Valentine's Day?
It sounds like he was forcefully ejected from his own board, but the story leads me to believe that this is what he wanted- even the slashdot summary states that he had said it was "time to go" and that he wanted more time with his family and son... so why was he 'ousted'? Or perhaps I'm simply reading something wrong...
Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I like my matress to be fixed to solid ground. But then again, I don't really like water mattresses, either. Is there really a market for a magnetic bed?
I've used AIM and IRC excessively in the past few years, and it has led me to getting a nearly perfect score on my English SAT exams. Just because some p30p3l tlk lik this dosnt meen that omg all of u r going 2 be liek th1s. Some people may actually improve based on the widespread use of IMs, just like emails or passing notes in class...
- dshaw
Whatever he did after that is meaningless compared to Subnodule.
I feel insulted that you didn't mention Daikatana.
Maybe I'm just an unbeliever, but I don't think that John Romero is all that great. I mean, he's had a few good games-- great games, even, sure-- but is he the savior of all games? No. There are other great game developers that deserve just as much credit as Romero, but unfortunately simply don't receive it.
Oh well, I guess we don't live in a perfect world. John Romero is still an extremely intelligent guy, and although the design intricacies of the Doom series are a little bit on the cobweb side of things, it's interesting nonetheless.
- dshaw
Java is a very poor implementation of smalltalk.
... what? You mean it's object-oriented and... you apparently don't like it? Bizarre.
PHP and Perl are more scripting languages than hard code languages, but they work nonetheless. Not that bad for a 14 year old.
But C and C++ are still good starter languages... Java isn't that bad at all for learning object-oriented programming. Don't worry about it too much.
- dshaw
I think that so far most of you are showing the general idea of what xfire does, but not some of it's main features. First of all, it saves all of the servers you visit with xfire-supported games, and lets you join them with a simple click. Xfire also allows you to download files (such as patches or gaming movies or demos, etc.) in a bittorrent-like file downloader, which works very efficiently. xfire also allows you to chat in-game, as many of you have said.
What you haven't said (or at least that I've seen) is that xfire gives you a user profile that logs all of the games that you play, and for how long you play them. For me (a gamer), this is a really really cool piece of software. I think it's awesome to watch my gaming trends; some, however, think it's sad to see all of the hours that they're wasting away. My profile is here, and my cool xfire-signature-image-thing (great for gaming forums is here.
In my opinion, xfire is a great piece of software, and one that I use pretty much all the time that I'm at my desktop. I'm glad they're getting business (well, getting bought...), but I sure hope Viacom doesn't change the product too much...
- dshaw
The system that I use simply gave me a wonderful little notice saying that unauthorized users are, well, unauthorized, and that they reserve the right to monitor activities.
:)
A special significance of this might be that it's from a university system, like the one in question by the... er, Asker. It's a research ssh account from a University of California system. So, there's at least one response from another university
- dshaw
We're not Korea, guys. Talking about them won't say anything about America or the very america-centric internet.
Is the Internet American? Sure, we might have a lot of users, but the title of this story is Games: No One Watches Online Videogame TV". "No one" and "online" are key words. Korea certainly counts as people, and are most certainly online.
Granted, I'm not saying that we're Korea, or that we have a videogame-centric culture- we don't. That doesn't mean that it isn't a valid point for discussion, though.
- dshaw