You do realize that each release of OSX has all the features, as opposed to Vista Basic, which is intentionally crippled to encourage people to upgrade?
However, seeing as how solid rocket boosters have been in use for a while, and that we've already launched thousands of things into space, I can see where the "experts" and the AP might try to capitalize on the frustration of people who don't do this kind of work.
If the Challenger issue taught us anything, its that problems with solid rocket booster should never be taken lightly. When justifying the use of solid rockets for the Shuttle, NASA made the same argument that you are making now. "Solid rockets, solid technology," was their catch phrase. NASA overlooked the fact that this was a novel use for solid rocket boosters and that lessons learned from other projects (notably the solid rocket motors used for ICBMs) might not apply in the shuttle scenario.
Here again we have NASA working with issues on solid rocket motors. I hope that NASA has learned its lesson and is willing to halt the program until a solution is developed, rather than continue to "fly and pray" while they work on the fix.
The Wikipedia article is wrong. If you read the book, you'll see that, on the night of the launch, it was Morton Thiokol that was hesitant. In fact Thiokol only went along when, in response to their hesitance, one of the NASA managers said, "My god, when do you want me to launch, April?"
If anyone else has read Diane Vaughan's Challenger Launch Decision, he or she will know that launch schedule pressure from upper management was a leading cause of the rationalization of risk that NASA undertook to justify flying with known Shuttle desgign flaws. Hopefully, in this case, the NASA senior managers are not applying the same mindless schedule pressures that leads to quick fixes and mindless workarounds at the expense of long term safety.
If the contract for your job states "we can fire you for any reason", and you're fired on the grounds of race or gender, the company would most likely be found guilty in a wrongful termination lawsuit.
There's no clause in the Constitution prohibiting that. However, there is a federal Equal Opportunity Act that does apply to private employers that makes this illegal. Equal protection only applies to the government. As a private individual, I have the right to ask you to leave my property for whatever reason, equal opportunity laws notwithsdanding.
Not disagreeing with you, but I find that people just out of school often know better programming technique, esp. with regard to object-orientation, versus more experienced programmers for whom object oriented programming is a "second language" of sorts.
You also see the same thing with physicians. The ones for whom med. school is a recent memory often have better experience with new techniques and new machines as compared to experienced doctors who have learned the new technology through a continuing education program.
however here in the US we have massive reserves of it in Alaska where we cannot drill for oil there.
The total proven reserves in ANWR are about 10 billion barrels. Our daily consumption of petroleum is about 20,687,000 barrels/day. Doing the math, that means the entire ANWR reserve discovered so far would give us about 10.4 billion / 20 687 000 = 502.731184 days of petroleum.
When I was young, all the computers at school ran MacOS. My entire introduction to computing was done on Apple IIs and Macintoshes. However, when it came time to buy a computer for home, our family bought a Windows machine because it had better specs. Starting these kids out on Linux doesn't necessarily mean that they'll stay with Linux.
Also, don't forget about the fact that the disgruntled sysadmin could easily have corrupted the backups as well, depending on how long ago he wrote this logic bomb. Even if he hadn't done anything to the backups, the fact that he attacked the production data means that he could have attacked the backups as well, so the company would have had to go over the backups with a fine-toothed comb.
I cannot agree with that. If the law is always updated to reflect the will of the people, then all you have is mob rule. The rights of the minority must be protected, even if the minority is currently unpopular. And yes, I do believe that the right to get paid for your labor is a fundamental right.
Really? You don't get 4Mbit/sec? Are you in a heavily settled area or something? I know that I get 5Mbit/sec. on a consistent basis, and my throughput peaks around 7Mbit/sec. Of course, I'm paying for 8Mbit/sec, so what do I know?
The Internet industry has been promising us higher speeds for nigh on a decade now. However the rollout of this new technology has always been slow to nonexistent. What guarantee do we have that Comcast will roll out DOCSIS 3.0 over any kind of reasonable timespan? Also, given that this is Comcast, what guarantees do we have as far as network neutrality goes? I know that one of major arguments used by proponents of traffic discrimination is the reality of limited bandwidth. Now that bandwidth will be becoming plentiful again, will proponents of traffic discrimination drop those arguments?
If higher level programming languages are really "more productive" than low level programming languages, then why aren't you advocating teaching the highest-level programming languages like Python (which is almost pseudo-code), or Lisp?
Presumably we should start our students out with those languages, since they're so much more productive.
True enough, but you'll find that a lot of the same cost/benefit calculations apply to purchasing upscaling DVD players as well. Namely, I'll only be buying an upscaling DVD player if I already own a HDTV. Since I don't already own an HDTV, I'm not going to shell out for one just so I can watch upscaled DVD movies (just like I'm not going to buy a new HDTV to watch HD movies).
I think the key year for HD in general will be 2009, when consumers are forced to abandon their existing analog TVs for digital sets. As analog TV goes dark, many consumers will take the jump to HD, rather than to standard definition digital TV. Once HDTVs gain market share over their standard definition brethren, I predict we'll see a noticeable up-tick in sales of HD players. But, as long as the vast majority of televisions in the US are standard defintion, there'll be no real push towards buying HD players.
If you're paying $200 for an average to good DVD player, you're getting ripped off. Good brands (e.g. Sony, Toshiba, etc) can be had for $150 or less in most cases. If you shop around, you can sometimes get these brands for less than a hundred.
It reinforces your point though. The cheapest HD-DVD player is Toshiba's $250 kit. The cheapest Blu-Ray player is the PS3. Both of these are twice as expensive (approximately) as a "good" DVD player. Add in the cost of a new TV (most consumers don't have HDTV yet either), and the hassle of removing and disposing of an existing TV, and you see that the switch to HD is much more expensive and troublesome than its worth to many consumers (myself included).
What's even more amusing is that, in some places (e.g. Orissa), you're legally required to use the hazard light to indicate that you're going straight. Glad to hear that your municipality is more sane in this regard.
If you think that America is bad when it comes to turn signals, then you've never driven in a 3rd world country (India or Thailand come to mind). There, you're lucky if the car behind you has functioning turn signals, much less ones that are actually used by the driver.
Given the prevalence of dirty hacks to use HTML for layout, how do you know which result is "correct"? Heck, how do you know even know who decides what's correct, the user or the web developer?
OpenOffice doesn't face any competition from web-based editors. The entire point of web-based editors is that they provide a free lightweight alternative to full-featured office suites. OpenOffice is a full-featured office suite that also happens to be free. Frankly, I think OpenOffice's open formats and standards allow it to be complemented by web-based editors. I can use full featured OpenOffice when I'm at home, and I can use a web-based editor that outputs to ODF when away from my computer.
Ideally, this'd be a sort of "reference implementation" that shows other web based editors how to properly import and export ODF files. I know Google Docs still has some issues with ODF (especially with double spacing), and I've heard of problems with other web-based editors.
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You do realize that each release of OSX has all the features, as opposed to Vista Basic, which is intentionally crippled to encourage people to upgrade?
If the Challenger issue taught us anything, its that problems with solid rocket booster should never be taken lightly. When justifying the use of solid rockets for the Shuttle, NASA made the same argument that you are making now. "Solid rockets, solid technology," was their catch phrase. NASA overlooked the fact that this was a novel use for solid rocket boosters and that lessons learned from other projects (notably the solid rocket motors used for ICBMs) might not apply in the shuttle scenario.
Here again we have NASA working with issues on solid rocket motors. I hope that NASA has learned its lesson and is willing to halt the program until a solution is developed, rather than continue to "fly and pray" while they work on the fix.
The Wikipedia article is wrong. If you read the book, you'll see that, on the night of the launch, it was Morton Thiokol that was hesitant. In fact Thiokol only went along when, in response to their hesitance, one of the NASA managers said, "My god, when do you want me to launch, April?"
If anyone else has read Diane Vaughan's Challenger Launch Decision, he or she will know that launch schedule pressure from upper management was a leading cause of the rationalization of risk that NASA undertook to justify flying with known Shuttle desgign flaws. Hopefully, in this case, the NASA senior managers are not applying the same mindless schedule pressures that leads to quick fixes and mindless workarounds at the expense of long term safety.
Heh, yeah. That's like saying that the Green Party here has mass popular support because its in the top 10.
There's no clause in the Constitution prohibiting that. However, there is a federal Equal Opportunity Act that does apply to private employers that makes this illegal. Equal protection only applies to the government. As a private individual, I have the right to ask you to leave my property for whatever reason, equal opportunity laws notwithsdanding.
Well like others said, we should probably "bank" that oil by leaving it in the ground until we absolutely need it.
Not disagreeing with you, but I find that people just out of school often know better programming technique, esp. with regard to object-orientation, versus more experienced programmers for whom object oriented programming is a "second language" of sorts.
You also see the same thing with physicians. The ones for whom med. school is a recent memory often have better experience with new techniques and new machines as compared to experienced doctors who have learned the new technology through a continuing education program.
The total proven reserves in ANWR are about 10 billion barrels. Our daily consumption of petroleum is about 20,687,000 barrels/day. Doing the math, that means the entire ANWR reserve discovered so far would give us about 10.4 billion / 20 687 000 = 502.731184 days of petroleum.
<sarcasm>Yeah, real massive. </sarcasm>
When I was young, all the computers at school ran MacOS. My entire introduction to computing was done on Apple IIs and Macintoshes. However, when it came time to buy a computer for home, our family bought a Windows machine because it had better specs. Starting these kids out on Linux doesn't necessarily mean that they'll stay with Linux.
Also, don't forget about the fact that the disgruntled sysadmin could easily have corrupted the backups as well, depending on how long ago he wrote this logic bomb. Even if he hadn't done anything to the backups, the fact that he attacked the production data means that he could have attacked the backups as well, so the company would have had to go over the backups with a fine-toothed comb.
Given the pace at which Verizon is rolling out FiOS, that's not much of a motivation.
I cannot agree with that. If the law is always updated to reflect the will of the people, then all you have is mob rule. The rights of the minority must be protected, even if the minority is currently unpopular. And yes, I do believe that the right to get paid for your labor is a fundamental right.
Really? You don't get 4Mbit/sec? Are you in a heavily settled area or something? I know that I get 5Mbit/sec. on a consistent basis, and my throughput peaks around 7Mbit/sec. Of course, I'm paying for 8Mbit/sec, so what do I know?
The Internet industry has been promising us higher speeds for nigh on a decade now. However the rollout of this new technology has always been slow to nonexistent. What guarantee do we have that Comcast will roll out DOCSIS 3.0 over any kind of reasonable timespan? Also, given that this is Comcast, what guarantees do we have as far as network neutrality goes? I know that one of major arguments used by proponents of traffic discrimination is the reality of limited bandwidth. Now that bandwidth will be becoming plentiful again, will proponents of traffic discrimination drop those arguments?
No, I'm not disagreeing. I'm just clarifying...
If higher level programming languages are really "more productive" than low level programming languages, then why aren't you advocating teaching the highest-level programming languages like Python (which is almost pseudo-code), or Lisp?
Presumably we should start our students out with those languages, since they're so much more productive.
True enough, but you'll find that a lot of the same cost/benefit calculations apply to purchasing upscaling DVD players as well. Namely, I'll only be buying an upscaling DVD player if I already own a HDTV. Since I don't already own an HDTV, I'm not going to shell out for one just so I can watch upscaled DVD movies (just like I'm not going to buy a new HDTV to watch HD movies).
I think the key year for HD in general will be 2009, when consumers are forced to abandon their existing analog TVs for digital sets. As analog TV goes dark, many consumers will take the jump to HD, rather than to standard definition digital TV. Once HDTVs gain market share over their standard definition brethren, I predict we'll see a noticeable up-tick in sales of HD players. But, as long as the vast majority of televisions in the US are standard defintion, there'll be no real push towards buying HD players.
If you're paying $200 for an average to good DVD player, you're getting ripped off. Good brands (e.g. Sony, Toshiba, etc) can be had for $150 or less in most cases. If you shop around, you can sometimes get these brands for less than a hundred.
It reinforces your point though. The cheapest HD-DVD player is Toshiba's $250 kit. The cheapest Blu-Ray player is the PS3. Both of these are twice as expensive (approximately) as a "good" DVD player. Add in the cost of a new TV (most consumers don't have HDTV yet either), and the hassle of removing and disposing of an existing TV, and you see that the switch to HD is much more expensive and troublesome than its worth to many consumers (myself included).
What's even more amusing is that, in some places (e.g. Orissa), you're legally required to use the hazard light to indicate that you're going straight. Glad to hear that your municipality is more sane in this regard.
If you think that America is bad when it comes to turn signals, then you've never driven in a 3rd world country (India or Thailand come to mind). There, you're lucky if the car behind you has functioning turn signals, much less ones that are actually used by the driver.
Given the prevalence of dirty hacks to use HTML for layout, how do you know which result is "correct"? Heck, how do you know even know who decides what's correct, the user or the web developer?
I thought Activision merged with Blizzard, not Vivendi as the heading for that section indicates. Am I wrong, or is the article inaccurate?
OpenOffice doesn't face any competition from web-based editors. The entire point of web-based editors is that they provide a free lightweight alternative to full-featured office suites. OpenOffice is a full-featured office suite that also happens to be free. Frankly, I think OpenOffice's open formats and standards allow it to be complemented by web-based editors. I can use full featured OpenOffice when I'm at home, and I can use a web-based editor that outputs to ODF when away from my computer.
Ideally, this'd be a sort of "reference implementation" that shows other web based editors how to properly import and export ODF files. I know Google Docs still has some issues with ODF (especially with double spacing), and I've heard of problems with other web-based editors.