Not all of us. I'm majoring in EET/ComET at ODU (they didn't offer the pure EE via distance-learning) -- and we're required to learn PIC assembly at least.
Granted, PICs are much MUCH simpler than anything running a modern OS -- but learning assembler, even on a simple device like a PIC, does teach a lot about how hardware and software integrate. Also, it's kind of cool to know that (for example) exactly 1,000,000 clock cycles after the program starts up, it will be calling *this* instruction, which moves the value in the accumulator to *that* register.
I can't be the only one out there who finds this extremely refreshing after taking a course in Java (and learning about font objects, GridBagLayouts, and other things so far removed from "real" programming that they might as well call it a Fine Arts course), can I?
Anyway, I wasn't really looking forward to learning Assembler -- until I got started and saw how powerful, elegant, and just plain beautiful it really is.
PICs are cool toys -- 5MIPS ain't much compared to the latest and greatest Intel and AMD have to offer -- but when you consider that they'll run for days (weeks? months?) on a CR2032 cell, and cost under a buck apiece, they're very impressive. (Freescale MCUs, too -- although I don't yet know those quite as well.)
* People who like knowing what their computer is up to (kind of like motorheads for the information age);
* People who don't like M$ deciding how their computers will work;
* People who don't want to spend money when a more reliable solution exists for Free;
* People who believe that competition is a Good Thing (tm);
* People who resent being called pirates (at least without being able to make others walk the plank!)
If it can be played... it can be copied. The only questions are how difficult it would be, and if there would be any significant quality loss. It's theoretically possible to make a perfect copy of a movie, given any DRM. (Imagine a PCI-X video card that digitized the input it was given to an AVI stream etc...)
I have a theater. Granted, it's a home theater, but still -- I want in on this. Maybe now I won't have to wait forever for the DVD to come out, if I don't like driving halfway across town to sit in a noisy, dirty room with 200 of my closest friends.
Maybe their game can detect depression, but by posting an article about a videogame on Slashdot and not including a download link (or at least a vendor), you're gonna *cause* angst and depression!
Video games inspire violence? C'mon -- you guys can do better than that.
I'm no fan of FPS games, but I think that the three major western religions have inspired more violence than video games, D&D, M:tG, G.I. Joe, and toy guns put together. When are we all going to get over this whole "my-God-can-beat-up-your-God-so-nyaaah" thing?? Compared to that, video games don't even merit a mention. They're more likely to keep violent types *out* of trouble, says me...
It's difficult for anyone to compete with Wally World on price alone -- but where Gamestop et al could do well is on service and convenience. My local Wal-Mart's game selection is absolutely horrible. They probably still aren't aware that there are two versions of Flight Simulator X, let alone add-ons.
What smaller stores can offer is a store by gamers, for gamers -- with employees who understand what the games are about (c'mon, finding gamer employees can't be that hard). Just like comic book/game stores can stay in business by providing niche services and products (where else are you gonna find a blue pearlescent D30 for your collection?), Gamestop and similar stores can attract customers by just providing better service.
Some things they might try are:
* Guaranteed availability of games on launch day (I believe they already do this; I don't think Wal-Mart bothers.)
* Try-before-you-buy, with a bunch of really cool peripherals set up (to encourage sales of these, too),
* Courier service, for lazy geeks who want their games now but don't want to drive to the mall (maybe work with a pizza-delivery joint?),
* Web delivery of games (I just downloaded Ship Simulator, which is 300+ meg; it got here in just a few minutes. Much easier for everyone involved than buying a CD from a store or using FedEx.)
Bottom line -- they shouldn't need strong-arm tactics like this. Can't really fault them much, though; it seems like it's becoming more and more common. 8-(
Akamai and Net Neutrality don't have much to do with each other. Its services would be useful no matter what. All they do is take common content and place it "near" where it will likely be needed. It's a caching service, essentially. I don't think anyone has a problem with that business model.
Think of the Internet as being like a highway system for information. Net Neutrality basically says that if you're building roads and connecting them to the main highway system, you must let anyone use these roads. That's how the Internet grew; everyone brings their own network, and pretty soon we have a nice global network (yes, this is dumbed down, but hey).
Think of Akamai not as a provider of highways, but as a warehouser. Kind of like how Wal-Mart knows that people in Dubuque, Iowa are going to want to buy beer for Super Bowl weekend, so they arrange to truck it to their stores ahead of time. That way, locals don't have to slog all the way to St. Louis, MO to get their brewskis.
I'm sorry, but this doesn't pass the "laugh test."
We already have drivers chatting on cell phones. Now we want them downloading music and checking their email while driving?!? Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what your favorite busy intersection is going to look like with that going on. NOT pretty, huh?
Don't get me wrong -- I (like pretty much everyone here) really like technology -- but there are already way too many distractions for even good drivers to handle. We need to either go with laws that require a low-distraction environment (no cell phones, video screens, etc) for drivers, or develop a foolproof autopilot system. And with the current state of technology, I think any "autopilot" option is basically only on the table as a scare tactic.
I believe public-key cryptography could do this. Encode the public key (several kilobits, if you're paranoid)? in the source, and have the program use it to authenticate the secret key given by the user. Publish the source code on YouTube for all the good it will do an adversary, right?
...if they can provide an last-mile Internet connectivity solution (that doesn't involve geosynchronous satellites) to rural areas, I know of at least two clients (my parents) who would not only be *very* interested in signing a contract, but who would probably put whichever company gets there first on their holiday-card list.
For rural business locations, there's a big gap between a T1 (very expensive) and dial-up or satellite (both slow in different ways). This would make 95% of their IT issues disappear overnight. (It's amazing how many 'Net apps really don't like ping times in excess of 1000ms.)
Slashdot Mirror
Not all of us. I'm majoring in EET/ComET at ODU (they didn't offer the pure EE via distance-learning) -- and we're required to learn PIC assembly at least.
Granted, PICs are much MUCH simpler than anything running a modern OS -- but learning assembler, even on a simple device like a PIC, does teach a lot about how hardware and software integrate. Also, it's kind of cool to know that (for example) exactly 1,000,000 clock cycles after the program starts up, it will be calling *this* instruction, which moves the value in the accumulator to *that* register.
I can't be the only one out there who finds this extremely refreshing after taking a course in Java (and learning about font objects, GridBagLayouts, and other things so far removed from "real" programming that they might as well call it a Fine Arts course), can I?
Anyway, I wasn't really looking forward to learning Assembler -- until I got started and saw how powerful, elegant, and just plain beautiful it really is.
PICs are cool toys -- 5MIPS ain't much compared to the latest and greatest Intel and AMD have to offer -- but when you consider that they'll run for days (weeks? months?) on a CR2032 cell, and cost under a buck apiece, they're very impressive. (Freescale MCUs, too -- although I don't yet know those quite as well.)
Well, he does make a puzzle I can't refuse...
Linux users are, among other things:
* People who like knowing what their computer is up to (kind of like motorheads for the information age);
* People who don't like M$ deciding how their computers will work;
* People who don't want to spend money when a more reliable solution exists for Free;
* People who believe that competition is a Good Thing (tm);
* People who resent being called pirates (at least without being able to make others walk the plank!)
I stand corrected. Thanks.
I hereby award samzenpus the "Far Out" award for the John Denver quote on the "dept" subtitle. 8-)
If it can be played... it can be copied. The only questions are how difficult it would be, and if there would be any significant quality loss. It's theoretically possible to make a perfect copy of a movie, given any DRM. (Imagine a PCI-X video card that digitized the input it was given to an AVI stream etc...)
I have a theater. Granted, it's a home theater, but still -- I want in on this. Maybe now I won't have to wait forever for the DVD to come out, if I don't like driving halfway across town to sit in a noisy, dirty room with 200 of my closest friends.
Yeah, I know. And pigs may fly...
Adding and subtracting is "high-level" intellectual activity, now?
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Wasabi isn't a food -- it's a weapon. I'm convinced that if you brought two large chunks of it together fast enough, it would go supercritical...
In other news:
Maybe their game can detect depression, but by posting an article about a videogame on Slashdot and not including a download link (or at least a vendor), you're gonna *cause* angst and depression!
<whine>I wanna plaaaaaay!</whine>
Video games inspire violence? C'mon -- you guys can do better than that.
I'm no fan of FPS games, but I think that the three major western religions have inspired more violence than video games, D&D, M:tG, G.I. Joe, and toy guns put together. When are we all going to get over this whole "my-God-can-beat-up-your-God-so-nyaaah" thing?? Compared to that, video games don't even merit a mention. They're more likely to keep violent types *out* of trouble, says me...
It's difficult for anyone to compete with Wally World on price alone -- but where Gamestop et al could do well is on service and convenience. My local Wal-Mart's game selection is absolutely horrible. They probably still aren't aware that there are two versions of Flight Simulator X, let alone add-ons.
What smaller stores can offer is a store by gamers, for gamers -- with employees who understand what the games are about (c'mon, finding gamer employees can't be that hard). Just like comic book/game stores can stay in business by providing niche services and products (where else are you gonna find a blue pearlescent D30 for your collection?), Gamestop and similar stores can attract customers by just providing better service.
Some things they might try are:
* Guaranteed availability of games on launch day (I believe they already do this; I don't think Wal-Mart bothers.)
* Try-before-you-buy, with a bunch of really cool peripherals set up (to encourage sales of these, too),
* Courier service, for lazy geeks who want their games now but don't want to drive to the mall (maybe work with a pizza-delivery joint?),
* Web delivery of games (I just downloaded Ship Simulator, which is 300+ meg; it got here in just a few minutes. Much easier for everyone involved than buying a CD from a store or using FedEx.)
Bottom line -- they shouldn't need strong-arm tactics like this. Can't really fault them much, though; it seems like it's becoming more and more common. 8-(
It's not a hammer.
It's a highly specialized kinetic-energy inertial impartion implement.
After all, it cost far more than a mere hammer...
Not to nitpick, but do Ferraris actually *have* backseats?
Every. Last. One. of them involves violence and combat?
Wow. That's sad.
>and it's back??
/. editors have started using some of that new "dense" memory already!
Must be
Dense is good?
People have been calling me dense for years. But hey, they also called me a geek, so maybe they're right.
Tubes? COOL!
*me wonders how hard it would be to build a working CPU out of 6AU6 tubes*
Professor --
Akamai and Net Neutrality don't have much to do with each other. Its services would be useful no matter what. All they do is take common content and place it "near" where it will likely be needed. It's a caching service, essentially. I don't think anyone has a problem with that business model.
Think of the Internet as being like a highway system for information. Net Neutrality basically says that if you're building roads and connecting them to the main highway system, you must let anyone use these roads. That's how the Internet grew; everyone brings their own network, and pretty soon we have a nice global network (yes, this is dumbed down, but hey).
Think of Akamai not as a provider of highways, but as a warehouser. Kind of like how Wal-Mart knows that people in Dubuque, Iowa are going to want to buy beer for Super Bowl weekend, so they arrange to truck it to their stores ahead of time. That way, locals don't have to slog all the way to St. Louis, MO to get their brewskis.
I'm sorry, but this doesn't pass the "laugh test."
We already have drivers chatting on cell phones. Now we want them downloading music and checking their email while driving?!? Close your eyes for a minute and imagine what your favorite busy intersection is going to look like with that going on. NOT pretty, huh?
Don't get me wrong -- I (like pretty much everyone here) really like technology -- but there are already way too many distractions for even good drivers to handle. We need to either go with laws that require a low-distraction environment (no cell phones, video screens, etc) for drivers, or develop a foolproof autopilot system. And with the current state of technology, I think any "autopilot" option is basically only on the table as a scare tactic.
IANRAProgrammer, but...
I believe public-key cryptography could do this. Encode the public key (several kilobits, if you're paranoid)? in the source, and have the program use it to authenticate the secret key given by the user. Publish the source code on YouTube for all the good it will do an adversary, right?
...if they can provide an last-mile Internet connectivity solution (that doesn't involve geosynchronous satellites) to rural areas, I know of at least two clients (my parents) who would not only be *very* interested in signing a contract, but who would probably put whichever company gets there first on their holiday-card list.
For rural business locations, there's a big gap between a T1 (very expensive) and dial-up or satellite (both slow in different ways). This would make 95% of their IT issues disappear overnight. (It's amazing how many 'Net apps really don't like ping times in excess of 1000ms.)
I for one welcome our new nanobot overlords. (Heck, maybe they'll be able to give me some pointers on soldering these SOT-23 circuits...
Um, and have the government know exactly where every car is, where they've been, and how long they've been there?
What a doubleplusgood idea for MiniLuv, citizen...
I for one do NOT welcome any such RFID overlords.