If the try to make me pay Taxes because I live in Michigan, well what happens when I make a purchase but I am in Georgia at the time? Or maybe Texas? Whose tax do I pay then? Does my tax burden follow me around the nation?
You pay taxes in Michigan, Georgia, and Texas. You think I'm kidding, try telecommuting from Michigan to a job in New York. You'll pay both New York and Michigan income tax. Check
this and this
To tell you the truth, this is just another way to place a disproportionate amount of the tax burden on the poor and middle class. Sales taxes are a regressive tax, and any increase of a regressive tax during a recession is just plain idiotic.
Travel in the upper lower peninsula in Michigan, or in the entire upper peninsula. Not only do they go from asphalt to gravel to concrete, but it's pretty common for roads to do so.
We'll get the april fools articles tomorrow. Perhaps there really are no/. editors, and the articles are posted automatically by slashcode... and CmdrTaco failed to update it for leap year this year.
Speaking of cake, a favorite joke of mine is to put a delicious looking cake in the office break room with "Happy April Fools Day" written in large letters in the frosting. Of course, the cake is perfectly fine and 100% edible, but no one will trust it. Its amusing seing people staring it down, debating, and daring each other to take a bite all day long.
Isn't the whole "wait until it's proven to upgrade" thing pretty much standard operating procedure for any major update to software as critical as on OS? I don't know of any organization of significant size that would go ahead and ship off an update without going through extensive testing and determining if the update makes sense. Hell, my unnamed organization just now is updating to SQL Server 2000 to 2005. We have an "if it works, don't fix it" attitude, which makes sense in my opinion. I don't see how this service pack would be any different.
I admit, I haven't RTFA or the patent, but I thought in order to file for a patent you had to have some concrete evidence, such as prototypes, detailed schematics, etc. I'm not a patent expert, but I didn't think you could patent "playing plastic instruments to simulate rocking out."
Also, aren't patents kind of a use it or lose it thing? Again, I'm a patent n00b so forgive me if I'm ignorant on these points.
In fact, I'm of the opinion that prescription drug ads should be illegal.
This is such an excellent point. I agree, there really is not good, ethical point to having drugs advertised to common people. My doctor knows exactly what drugs should be prescribed based on my condition. Most people don't have the knowledge to know what's best for them based on an ad. To go along with your point, it should also be illegal to offer kickbacks to doctors for prescribing certain drugs.
Back on topic, I think a certain amount of ads are ok for promoting product awareness only. What I hate are the ads which try to use statistics to state their products worth (9 out of 10 dentists, etc) because we all know it's lies. There should also be laws against plastering ads on every single visible surface available. I live in the Detroit area, and our whaling wall is now completely covered by a Cadillac ad. This not only covers up a great piece of art that people can no longer enjoy, but it is a complete insult to the artist.
These meatspace metaphors just don't work when it comes to technology. It is wrong to walk into a library and take anything that's not nailed down. This is also preventing other library users from using those same resources. In this case, accessing the stream is not preventing paying customers from using the service. Therefore, the metaphor does not work.
Google serves up ads based on keywords on the page you are currently viewing. This would track everywhere you go. Let's say you accidentally stumbled on some pr0n site. Your isp now has a record of it and will start serving up pr0n ads, which could be quite embarrassing when someone wants to jump on your computer to check their gmail...
Of course, these engineers had one thing in common. Like many schools, they took their programming and algorithms classes in the CS faculty because the schools were trying to save money. The CS schools are doing their best to churn out people who know all the buzzword technologies (Java, HTML, AJAX, etc) but have little marketable skill. CS courses seem mostly a left-over from the dot bomb era.
I've yet to meet a CS grad who properly understands the difference between TCP, UDP and IP. I haven't met one who knows anything about algorithm analysis (or big O notation; I think they were all out getting a lot of Big-O's instead of studying).
If you've met anyone that has a CS degree and gives you a blank stare when you mention big-O notation, then they either failed out or graduated from Rafael Alonzo's I.T.F. Technical Computer Institute.
And, let's be realistic here. Concepts such as TCP, UDP, etc are advanced programming topics and are either taught as electives, or in post-graduate classes.
Computer Science involves a lot of math classes, and then programming classes that implement those mathematical ideas in code. Yes, the school will offer classes like HTML and AJAX, but these are electives used to broaden a student's understanding of the buzzword technology du jour (in an effort to make those students more marketable after graduation). Your post just makes you sound ignorant about what is actually offered in a *good* CS department.
Yes, while the code is abandoned from the company's standpoint, it could still be considered a "trade secret" that would give competitors an advantage. Why would your company want to let the money they spent to have you write the software go to help a competitor if they decide to use it for free?
I took most of the HP crapware off, but there are still bits and pieces. I also de-nortoned the machine as well. It actually looks like it's hanging on something running at startup, so a crappy driver might be the culprit.
I boot instead of hibernate because I only use the laptop for about 10% of my computing needs (on the road or a trip to the coffee shop). The rest of the time I'm on the desktop, happily switching between XP for games, and Ubuntu for everything else.
I'm using a 5200, it shouldn't make that big of a difference. Like I said, i'm sure I need to tweak settings. I only bought the thing so that I have something to work on when I'm on the road. Other than that I don't have any other vista installs so I don't use it enough to care about looking under the hood.
I'm not griping about Vista just to gripe, the proof is right in front of me.
I have a laptop with an AMD 64 dual core processor, and 2 gigs of ram. It takes Vista at least 2 full minutes to boot from the time I type my password to the time I get a usable desktop. This is out of the box. With major tweaks, I was able to improve this, but it is just sloppy to have this kind of performance by default. Vista is geared towards your average joe who won't/can't tinker with the OS.
The shiny stuff is nice, I like the photo gallery, I like the customizable folders in explorer. However, all of these items I can get in any operating system with 3rd party software. They aren't the kind of things that it would take a the top talent at Microsoft to produce.
I agree that XP is an incremental advance of the NT client OS... However, why are we getting charged so much for an incremental advance?
1) Space monorail system 2) the train set 3) the pirate ship (my brother and I each received one of the two ship models so they could battle)
No other toy or video game has captured my attention or imagination quite like lego has. My brother and I would build towns or space stations that would take up the entire floor of our bedrooms.
I also remember the christmas that my parents got me an erector set out of the blue... I had no idea what it was before then and had never asked for it. I immediately fell in love with it. It was like lego for big kids. I still kick back and play with those old toys now and then. They will never get old and you are never too old.
Or the number of units sold != number of units in customers hands. When apple sells a shipment of iphones to a vendor, those are considered "sold" items under most circumstances. What this article tells me is that apple overestimated the demand for the iphone, and there are a lot of units (like 700,000) collecting dust on store shelves.
The kid was being silly, but he was also making a political point. The political point wasn't "Bong Hits for Jesus," it was that he should have the right to say something as silly as that.
This is a country whose government allows skinheads/KKK to parade in downtown Toledo and lets the westboro baptist church protest soldiers funerals. Yet, saying "Bong Hits for Jesus" gets you yanked out of school and into court.
There's a difference between Java the Framework and Java the language. You can still program your own data structures using the Java language and not taking advantage of what the framework offers. We weren't allowed to use anything that was built into the framework besides simple things, like the Integer class for example. I highly doubt any university in the world would issue an assignment to program a hash table, and accept a program that simply creates a HashTable object.
I think learning data structures with Java is actually a good thing. It allows the first year students to think about how a linked list works without confusing them with things like memory management that are really irrelavent to that topic.
There are some people who enter a CS program who have never programmed before in their lives, and I can see learning the basics about data structures and what not using it to be a very good thing.
BUT poorly (or not at all) architected, unmaintainable, and resource-hogging. I'm not so sure that's an improvement.
It doesn't matter what language you write in, you can always have a poorly architected and unmaintainable codebase if you really want to. If you have a bunch of know-nothing systems architects and programmers working for you, you will get crap whether it's in C++, C#, Java, or anything else you want to write in.
As for the resource hogging, the latest versions of java have made many improvements in this area and its pretty much a non-issue for most applications.
I don't think it matters what language a university teaches their 1st years. Any decent curriculum will include an operating systems class which should have the low level programming assignments. My uni taught us data structures and OOP concepts with java our first year, and then we reverted back to C/C++ for the system calls, threads, etc. And any CS program that does not teach algorithms, well I don't know how they get accreditation (referring back to TFA).
This is why I'm all for "American Gladiators - Presidential Edition." We have to get with the times and end this silly voting business. Two Candidates Enter, One President Leaves!!!!
The audience would be larger than the voter turnout anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
If the try to make me pay Taxes because I live in Michigan, well what happens when I make a purchase but I am in Georgia at the time? Or maybe Texas? Whose tax do I pay then? Does my tax burden follow me around the nation?
You pay taxes in Michigan, Georgia, and Texas. You think I'm kidding, try telecommuting from Michigan to a job in New York. You'll pay both New York and Michigan income tax. Check this and this
To tell you the truth, this is just another way to place a disproportionate amount of the tax burden on the poor and middle class. Sales taxes are a regressive tax, and any increase of a regressive tax during a recession is just plain idiotic.
Travel in the upper lower peninsula in Michigan, or in the entire upper peninsula. Not only do they go from asphalt to gravel to concrete, but it's pretty common for roads to do so.
I find the irony of your comment combined with your signature extremely amusing.
We'll get the april fools articles tomorrow. Perhaps there really are no /. editors, and the articles are posted automatically by slashcode... and CmdrTaco failed to update it for leap year this year.
Speaking of cake, a favorite joke of mine is to put a delicious looking cake in the office break room with "Happy April Fools Day" written in large letters in the frosting. Of course, the cake is perfectly fine and 100% edible, but no one will trust it. Its amusing seing people staring it down, debating, and daring each other to take a bite all day long.
That's how it used to be before the OMG PONIES era...
Can you even Nerf a Nerf gun????
*brain asplodes*
Isn't the whole "wait until it's proven to upgrade" thing pretty much standard operating procedure for any major update to software as critical as on OS? I don't know of any organization of significant size that would go ahead and ship off an update without going through extensive testing and determining if the update makes sense. Hell, my unnamed organization just now is updating to SQL Server 2000 to 2005. We have an "if it works, don't fix it" attitude, which makes sense in my opinion. I don't see how this service pack would be any different.
Liar! Everyone knows there's no such thing as 2!
I admit, I haven't RTFA or the patent, but I thought in order to file for a patent you had to have some concrete evidence, such as prototypes, detailed schematics, etc. I'm not a patent expert, but I didn't think you could patent "playing plastic instruments to simulate rocking out."
Also, aren't patents kind of a use it or lose it thing? Again, I'm a patent n00b so forgive me if I'm ignorant on these points.
In fact, I'm of the opinion that prescription drug ads should be illegal.
This is such an excellent point. I agree, there really is not good, ethical point to having drugs advertised to common people. My doctor knows exactly what drugs should be prescribed based on my condition. Most people don't have the knowledge to know what's best for them based on an ad. To go along with your point, it should also be illegal to offer kickbacks to doctors for prescribing certain drugs.
Back on topic, I think a certain amount of ads are ok for promoting product awareness only. What I hate are the ads which try to use statistics to state their products worth (9 out of 10 dentists, etc) because we all know it's lies. There should also be laws against plastering ads on every single visible surface available. I live in the Detroit area, and our whaling wall is now completely covered by a Cadillac ad. This not only covers up a great piece of art that people can no longer enjoy, but it is a complete insult to the artist.
These meatspace metaphors just don't work when it comes to technology. It is wrong to walk into a library and take anything that's not nailed down. This is also preventing other library users from using those same resources. In this case, accessing the stream is not preventing paying customers from using the service. Therefore, the metaphor does not work.
Google serves up ads based on keywords on the page you are currently viewing. This would track everywhere you go. Let's say you accidentally stumbled on some pr0n site. Your isp now has a record of it and will start serving up pr0n ads, which could be quite embarrassing when someone wants to jump on your computer to check their gmail...
Of course, these engineers had one thing in common. Like many schools, they took their programming and algorithms classes in the CS faculty because the schools were trying to save money. The CS schools are doing their best to churn out people who know all the buzzword technologies (Java, HTML, AJAX, etc) but have little marketable skill. CS courses seem mostly a left-over from the dot bomb era.
I've yet to meet a CS grad who properly understands the difference between TCP, UDP and IP. I haven't met one who knows anything about algorithm analysis (or big O notation; I think they were all out getting a lot of Big-O's instead of studying).
If you've met anyone that has a CS degree and gives you a blank stare when you mention big-O notation, then they either failed out or graduated from Rafael Alonzo's I.T.F. Technical Computer Institute.
And, let's be realistic here. Concepts such as TCP, UDP, etc are advanced programming topics and are either taught as electives, or in post-graduate classes.
Computer Science involves a lot of math classes, and then programming classes that implement those mathematical ideas in code. Yes, the school will offer classes like HTML and AJAX, but these are electives used to broaden a student's understanding of the buzzword technology du jour (in an effort to make those students more marketable after graduation). Your post just makes you sound ignorant about what is actually offered in a *good* CS department.
Yes, while the code is abandoned from the company's standpoint, it could still be considered a "trade secret" that would give competitors an advantage. Why would your company want to let the money they spent to have you write the software go to help a competitor if they decide to use it for free?
I took most of the HP crapware off, but there are still bits and pieces. I also de-nortoned the machine as well. It actually looks like it's hanging on something running at startup, so a crappy driver might be the culprit.
I boot instead of hibernate because I only use the laptop for about 10% of my computing needs (on the road or a trip to the coffee shop). The rest of the time I'm on the desktop, happily switching between XP for games, and Ubuntu for everything else.
I'm using a 5200, it shouldn't make that big of a difference. Like I said, i'm sure I need to tweak settings. I only bought the thing so that I have something to work on when I'm on the road. Other than that I don't have any other vista installs so I don't use it enough to care about looking under the hood.
I'm not griping about Vista just to gripe, the proof is right in front of me.
I have a laptop with an AMD 64 dual core processor, and 2 gigs of ram. It takes Vista at least 2 full minutes to boot from the time I type my password to the time I get a usable desktop. This is out of the box. With major tweaks, I was able to improve this, but it is just sloppy to have this kind of performance by default. Vista is geared towards your average joe who won't/can't tinker with the OS.
The shiny stuff is nice, I like the photo gallery, I like the customizable folders in explorer. However, all of these items I can get in any operating system with 3rd party software. They aren't the kind of things that it would take a the top talent at Microsoft to produce.
I agree that XP is an incremental advance of the NT client OS... However, why are we getting charged so much for an incremental advance?
3 best Christmas lego memories:
1) Space monorail system
2) the train set
3) the pirate ship (my brother and I each received one of the two ship models so they could battle)
No other toy or video game has captured my attention or imagination quite like lego has. My brother and I would build towns or space stations that would take up the entire floor of our bedrooms.
I also remember the christmas that my parents got me an erector set out of the blue... I had no idea what it was before then and had never asked for it. I immediately fell in love with it. It was like lego for big kids. I still kick back and play with those old toys now and then. They will never get old and you are never too old.
Or the number of units sold != number of units in customers hands. When apple sells a shipment of iphones to a vendor, those are considered "sold" items under most circumstances. What this article tells me is that apple overestimated the demand for the iphone, and there are a lot of units (like 700,000) collecting dust on store shelves.
The kid was being silly, but he was also making a political point. The political point wasn't "Bong Hits for Jesus," it was that he should have the right to say something as silly as that.
This is a country whose government allows skinheads/KKK to parade in downtown Toledo and lets the westboro baptist church protest soldiers funerals. Yet, saying "Bong Hits for Jesus" gets you yanked out of school and into court.
There's a difference between Java the Framework and Java the language. You can still program your own data structures using the Java language and not taking advantage of what the framework offers. We weren't allowed to use anything that was built into the framework besides simple things, like the Integer class for example. I highly doubt any university in the world would issue an assignment to program a hash table, and accept a program that simply creates a HashTable object.
I think learning data structures with Java is actually a good thing. It allows the first year students to think about how a linked list works without confusing them with things like memory management that are really irrelavent to that topic.
There are some people who enter a CS program who have never programmed before in their lives, and I can see learning the basics about data structures and what not using it to be a very good thing.
BUT poorly (or not at all) architected, unmaintainable, and resource-hogging. I'm not so sure that's an improvement.
It doesn't matter what language you write in, you can always have a poorly architected and unmaintainable codebase if you really want to. If you have a bunch of know-nothing systems architects and programmers working for you, you will get crap whether it's in C++, C#, Java, or anything else you want to write in.
As for the resource hogging, the latest versions of java have made many improvements in this area and its pretty much a non-issue for most applications.
I don't think it matters what language a university teaches their 1st years. Any decent curriculum will include an operating systems class which should have the low level programming assignments. My uni taught us data structures and OOP concepts with java our first year, and then we reverted back to C/C++ for the system calls, threads, etc. And any CS program that does not teach algorithms, well I don't know how they get accreditation (referring back to TFA).
This is why I'm all for "American Gladiators - Presidential Edition." We have to get with the times and end this silly voting business. Two Candidates Enter, One President Leaves!!!!
The audience would be larger than the voter turnout anyway.