Don't generalize. The country where I was born, Portugal, has much more privacy than any of the countries you've mentioned in your post (including the US). Germany has an even larger degree of privacy. And, according to a study by Privacy International, USA is worse all the European countries except UK.
You should research a bit before posting your opinions!
I don't think it's the case that slashdot hates sony for being industry leaders (btw, are they?). I think slashdotters hate sony because of something called "sony's rootkit". And they want to hurt Sony for that mistake. Which I find quite natural by the way...
In Europe's case, it's even worse - the backwards compatibility will suffer a lot because sony decide not to include the PS2 cpu in the European version of the PS3, using software emulation instead. According to them, only about 1000 games will be playable when the console launches, and improving that figure won't be a priority (which may mean they won't give a shit about it, but we'll see).
Oh, and have I mentioned that the list of compatible PS2 games will only be revealed on launch day? A great way to fuck the customers who made pre-orders, and probably also a great way of getting more pre-orders from people who don't know about that issue yet...
"You could characterize our announcement as being met with enthusiasm from industry and skepticism from academia," D-Wave CEO Ed Martin said in an interview Feb. 27. But he said the event served as proof of concept of the technology, and that D-Wave's potential customers are businesses that don't care how the technology works as long as it can solve their complex models. He plans to start renting time on the machine to customers in 2008
Bullshit. Academics aren't just skeptical because they care how the technology works. They're also skeptical because D-wave hasn't proved that their QC design can scale to a larger number of qubits. And that's something that "D-wave's potential customers" do care about, since a QC with 16-qubits can't do anything which classical computers can't solve quickly... A typical PR reality-distortion demonstration...
Martin said the back end is a rack-mounted PC with an off-the-shelf processor, but wouldn't cite the specific brand
Who cares about the PC's brand?? Any modern (and even some not-so-modern) PC would even have the capability to simulate 16-qubits if they wanted to fake the demonstration...
A standard digital processor assigns a specific value to each data bit, and handles them one at a time.
Rough summary: There are many problems for which a purported solution can be checked quickly, but which are thought to take a long time to solve with classical computers.
So first off, you can't move there, even if you wanted to.
Well, being a foreigner who's working in Denmark, I have to disagree... And I know many people who immigrated here.
And the fraction of people who pay more than 50% in tax is a minority. Of course, Denmark's not a place where it's easy to get rich. But it IS a place where you can live a happy, healthy and safe life while "working for a living" instead of "living for working". That's something a value a lot
Either you're not speaking seriously, or you're speaking of a reality very different from what I've read about in several places.
I'm originally from Portugal but I've living in Denmark for more than one year now. From what I've read regarding USA worker rights, they're nowhere near those offered in Scandinavia, and in some cases, in other European countries too.
How many hours do you work per week in the USA? Anywhere near 37? How many weeks of paid vacation do you have? Anywhere near 5? How long is parental leave? Only for the mother, right? From what I've read, parental leave really sucks in the USA. Do you have, for all practical purposes, a 2.5 days weekend in the USA?
I really don't understand how you can be speaking seriously regarding those issues, but since your posting history doesn't seem trollish, I'm giving you the benefit of doubt. Please enlighten me.
I also don't think you can compare crime levels because the population profiles are so different. Scandanavia is a small, sparse, and relatively homogenous society. Human nature dictates that such a society will be quite a bit smoother. Just driving across (north-south or east-west, you choose) my home state of Texas is like driving from Paris to Vienna(Wien).
Those reasons may be the most valid in the world, but that doesn't change the basic fact that Scandinavian countries (and Portugal too, for that matter) are much safer than the USA.
And that's a great idea that you presented about not giving new computer science students a modern machine to start programming with. It would have a good side benefit - they'd have to start programming with a lower-level language such as Assembly or C, which would make them learn how computer software (and to a lesser, but also important extent, hardware) really works.
Some of my faculty colleagues didn't use any time thinking about what their high-level-language primitives were doing in the background. The result is painfully obvious to anyone who's using recently made programs.
Why do you think AI problems grow exponentially? There are many problems for which the best known complexity is much better than exponential. Even for NP-Hard problems, polynomial-runtime approximation algorithms are often good enough.
One of America's greatest advantages is that it's just a damn nice place to live. If you can move here
Is that supposed to be a joke? Call me when USA guarantees cheap health care, decent vacation time and working hours policies, personal safety and privacy.
But does Apple buy Office from microsoft to include it the computers they sell? No they don't. That's the beginning of the end of your analogy's validity, but there's more:
A car is not functional without tires, while a computer is fully functional without office software
You can build tires which work with any car, but you can't build office software which works in every platform (don't come talking about Java or.NET, that's obviously not a solution here)
Is that enough to make you forget the car analogy? If not, just think about this: by your logic, Microsoft is supposed to make versions of Office eternally, no matter how much money the lose because of that? If that's the law, it's got to be a very fucked up one to have that consequence.
Why do slashdotters always use stupid car analogies? Your analogy doesn't even work. Road tires are necessary to make cars, office software isn't necessary to make computers at all.
Well, my girlfriend has a powerbook which fills anyone who's using it with static electricity. Also, the power cable socket doesn't keep the cable stuck at all, which often causes the laptop to quickly alternate between receiving/not receiving current. That can't be good for the battery... Also, the laptop is fucking heavy for its size...
Those things make me wonder why people say that Apple's hardware is better or better designed
Slashdot Mirror
Don't generalize. The country where I was born, Portugal, has much more privacy than any of the countries you've mentioned in your post (including the US). Germany has an even larger degree of privacy. And, according to a study by Privacy International, USA is worse all the European countries except UK.
You should research a bit before posting your opinions!
Actually, a 386 is overkill. Pen and paper may be enough :)
Are you trolling, or you never heard of lossless compression? Ever downloaded a zip or a rar file?
Ever heard of compression? It works even if the data has no "nulls".
I wouldn't bet on that, lately it seems that Sony is regarded as more evil than Microsoft here, considering the rootkit crap and all...
I don't think it's the case that slashdot hates sony for being industry leaders (btw, are they?). I think slashdotters hate sony because of something called "sony's rootkit". And they want to hurt Sony for that mistake. Which I find quite natural by the way...
Maybe he's right. Maybe the PS3 is not overpriced. But the real question is, do people want to buy it?
BTW, I forgot to mention that despite that BC issue, Europeans won't get the 20 GB option either. And the prices? Even bigger than in the USA...
In Europe's case, it's even worse - the backwards compatibility will suffer a lot because sony decide not to include the PS2 cpu in the European version of the PS3, using software emulation instead. According to them, only about 1000 games will be playable when the console launches, and improving that figure won't be a priority (which may mean they won't give a shit about it, but we'll see).
Oh, and have I mentioned that the list of compatible PS2 games will only be revealed on launch day? A great way to fuck the customers who made pre-orders, and probably also a great way of getting more pre-orders from people who don't know about that issue yet...
Bullshit. Academics aren't just skeptical because they care how the technology works. They're also skeptical because D-wave hasn't proved that their QC design can scale to a larger number of qubits. And that's something that "D-wave's potential customers" do care about, since a QC with 16-qubits can't do anything which classical computers can't solve quickly... A typical PR reality-distortion demonstration...
Who cares about the PC's brand?? Any modern (and even some not-so-modern) PC would even have the capability to simulate 16-qubits if they wanted to fake the demonstration...
I guess they never heard of pipelining...
Read this.
Rough summary: There are many problems for which a purported solution can be checked quickly, but which are thought to take a long time to solve with classical computers.
Well, being a foreigner who's working in Denmark, I have to disagree... And I know many people who immigrated here.
And the fraction of people who pay more than 50% in tax is a minority. Of course, Denmark's not a place where it's easy to get rich. But it IS a place where you can live a happy, healthy and safe life while "working for a living" instead of "living for working". That's something a value a lot
I'm originally from Portugal but I've living in Denmark for more than one year now. From what I've read regarding USA worker rights, they're nowhere near those offered in Scandinavia, and in some cases, in other European countries too.
How many hours do you work per week in the USA? Anywhere near 37?
How many weeks of paid vacation do you have? Anywhere near 5?
How long is parental leave? Only for the mother, right? From what I've read, parental leave really sucks in the USA.
Do you have, for all practical purposes, a 2.5 days weekend in the USA?
I really don't understand how you can be speaking seriously regarding those issues, but since your posting history doesn't seem trollish, I'm giving you the benefit of doubt. Please enlighten me.
Those reasons may be the most valid in the world, but that doesn't change the basic fact that Scandinavian countries (and Portugal too, for that matter) are much safer than the USA.
PS: Some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_hours#United
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave
Scandinavian countries. Workers have many more rights, vacation and free time than in the USA, and there's much less crime.
As for privacy, it depends and I'm not an expert on the details, but I think it's at the very least, not worse than USA.
Like Scandinavian countries for example.
I'm not comparing "you" to Asia and South America, I'm comparing "you" to places where it's actually nice to live and work.
Amen.
And that's a great idea that you presented about not giving new computer science students a modern machine to start programming with. It would have a good side benefit - they'd have to start programming with a lower-level language such as Assembly or C, which would make them learn how computer software (and to a lesser, but also important extent, hardware) really works.
Some of my faculty colleagues didn't use any time thinking about what their high-level-language primitives were doing in the background. The result is painfully obvious to anyone who's using recently made programs.
Why do you think AI problems grow exponentially? There are many problems for which the best known complexity is much better than exponential. Even for NP-Hard problems, polynomial-runtime approximation algorithms are often good enough.
Not really, since it seems he was criticizing the CPU power more than the GPU power... But I'd have to look up his other statements.
PS: What I've written above doesn't mean that I don't think the guy's probably an asshole.
What do you mean about quality of life? I'm a Portuguese working in Denmark and can't complain about quality of life at all...
Is that supposed to be a joke? Call me when USA guarantees cheap health care, decent vacation time and working hours policies, personal safety and privacy.
Is that enough to make you forget the car analogy? If not, just think about this: by your logic, Microsoft is supposed to make versions of Office eternally, no matter how much money the lose because of that? If that's the law, it's got to be a very fucked up one to have that consequence.
Why do slashdotters always use stupid car analogies? Your analogy doesn't even work. Road tires are necessary to make cars, office software isn't necessary to make computers at all.
Well, my girlfriend has a powerbook which fills anyone who's using it with static electricity. Also, the power cable socket doesn't keep the cable stuck at all, which often causes the laptop to quickly alternate between receiving/not receiving current. That can't be good for the battery... Also, the laptop is fucking heavy for its size...
Those things make me wonder why people say that Apple's hardware is better or better designed
Hey, leave the computer and go take your pills.