I find this article extremely interesting- it implies (amoung other things) that by altering DNA in its hosts, viruses could be one of the main mutation contributors. Genetic engineers do this now by using retroviruses to insert genes we want, so it's not a stretch to say that this happened incidentally in the past.
Actually, the average consumer does need to be concerned with Digital Rights Management. If I have a legally purchased DVD (as an example) I would like to be able to:
1. Watch the DVD on any piece of technology in my house- which may mean that I need to save the DVD electronically.
2. Have the DVD still be watchable if I upgrade technology in the future.
3. Be able to re-sell the DVD if I get bored of it.
4. Allow a friend to borrow the DVD.
DRM that stops people from doing these perfectly legal things should be of concern to the average consumer- since I want to do all of these things, I imagine the average consumer will want to do at least half of them.
I'm a UMR alum, and I don't have a problem with this article- sure, UMR may have created new and powerful ceramics, but the article is about how an underdog managed to place second by using normal ceramics and creativity. That's more interesting (and potentially more useful) than saying "UMR created a coffee cup that can survive being tossed out a second story window. For $300, you could have one too!" Besides, the story still mentions that we did the best, even if we didn't think as "outside the box."
The mathematics behind the 3D imaging aren't particularly innovative for a couple of reasons. First is that it's not the patenter's own mathematics, as he even mentions in the patent, he got the equations from mathematical textbooks. Secondly, there is really only one way of doing the 3D zooming and rotation- since it's mathematics, all other ways of doing it correctly can be shown to be identical to the first. It's like computing the area of a rectangle- no matter how you do it, you're still basically taking the width times the height.
I'd have to agree with you about what is best varies depending on your situation. My work uses a combination of Open Source software, Windows products, third-party vendors and software we created. We try to go with whatever will be best for us as a company- which means if there is a good open source (or freeware) solution that is the way to go. If there's not, we can either make it ourselves or try to buy it off someone else. There isn't yet a good open source solution for every problem.
I agreed with the article that the report had weak statistics- but for him to suggest that business majors know more about statistics that programmers is insulting. If anything I would expect that the mathematical background of programmers would be higher than that of business majors (but then, I majored in math and computer science, so I'm probably biased).
My college, the University of Missouri-Rolla, requires some (not much) linux familiarity for all its computer science majors. I think all CS degrees should require some experience in both Windows and Linux based enviroments (who knows what you'll need to use once you get a job- we use both every day at my work).
I feel that the Chinese Government has been in an interesting position for some time- in order to compete with the developed nations they need educated, intelligent workers, they need technology, and they need communications. However, an intelligent, informed, communicating populace is much harder to control than a population that has no phone lines, can't read, and never learned to question assumptions or think critically.
They are trying to keep a tight grip on everything while the world is changing around them. Already their system is more capitalistic than communistic in many respects- but it is a totalitarian capitalism. The Communist party has the power and they are afraid to let the reins of power go. Most Chinese in power have a few skeletons in their closets, and I feel many of them are worried that if they lost control, they would be arrested, tried, and executed.
I'm curious how China will look like in 20 years. I'm thinking they will either become the next United States or be involved in a bloody revolution. Maybe even both.
My wife once dated someone she met online- it was one of the stupidest things she's ever done. However, if she had met and dated him offline, it wouldn't have been any smarter.
A few of my other friends have "dated" people they met online- but the relationship rarely survived a single real life meeting, if they got that far. An unamed friend of mine brought a online date home once- only to have his date hit on his roommate the entire visit. Not surprisingly, that ended things rather quickly.
Like offline dating, online dating is more likely to end badly than end well. It's just easier to tell whether or not things will go well if you are actually able to be with the person instead of merely talking to them.
Diablo II and expansion has to lead the list- I had way too much fun with that game over the years.
Starcraft / Warcraft games gave me a lot of fun as well, and I haven't seen them mentioned yet. (I haven't played WoW, I'm talking about the RTS versions).
The best 8-bit games I played were Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy 1 (For an NES game, it was really good).
The main reason RIM lost the original case is because they created false evidence to try to demonstrate prior art. However, they were caught trying to pull this off in the courtroom. Nothing says "I'm breaking the law and trying to get away with it" like perjury.
My mother works in gifted education, and she has often said that "the more you have in your head, the more that can go wrong. The higher your IQ the more likely you are to have a lot of minor mental disorders, such as ADD- and even if they don't have any disorders it's hard to relate to people with very different IQs than you in either direction.
Ignore the blasphemer. Battlestar Galactica is the best TV show that I've seen in years. If you haven't seen the show yet, you should. You will need to start from the first episode, though, since the show actually has an ongoing plot.
We don't have solitare on the computers where I work. Only the IT people (like me) and senior staff have internet access. Considering I'm currently posting on Slashdot when I should be working, maybe they have the right idea...
I think asking that question helped me get the job that I have now. They needed to hire someone capable of working with the software done for the company by a consultant (it worked, but the code behind it was insane). I think that asking them to show me the code and then actually understanding the parts of it I was shown was a huge plus in my favor.
What I see as being most disturbing about this article is the premise that children are not born violent, but made that way through TV/videogames. If you have ever seen young kids, you'll realize that violence is a natural thing for them. I was shoving my brother around at the age of 4, long before I played any video games. (I don't remember doing it, but my parents do).
The premise of the rest of the article is pretty silly- from what I understand, people who play videogames are actaully less likely to engage in real violence, and the rates of violence amoung children has been dropping considerably.
I've always felt that if you wanted your child to grow up to be a professial thug, you should let him play football. Just look at the criminal records sported by most of the NFL.
I agree- it seems like people who know what they are doing can get great salaries, so if you aren't willing to pay a great salary then you're stuck with the people who aren't even good enough to pretend they know what they are doing.
The demand for good IT people greatly exceeds the supply. The problem is that not everyone who comes out of college with a CS degree or IT degree is good- or even close to it.
My advice to those people interested in IT/CompSci degrees is to work hard enough to be one of the "good" IT people. Know what you are talking about, don't just take the easy classes, do things outside of class to improve your skills. Work hard. It seems like obvious advice, but there are a lot of people out there who didn't take it- and you want to be able to beat all of them in a job application.
How to deal with kids of different intelligence
on
The Prodigy Puzzle
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Let kids take classes in elementary school and middle school like they do in college and high school- able to pick the classes that they want to take. Then you don't need three levels per grade for smart, dumb, and average kids. If someone flunks 7th grade math they can take it over again. If someone feels their 6th grade english class is too easy they can take 7th or 8th grade english.
My school let me take 8th grade Science classes in the 6th grade- and I actually learned something in my science class for the first time in years. Upping the grade level is usually all that is necessary to make a class challenging for someone. (Sometimes you need to go 2 or 3 levels higher, but it's still basically the same idea).
This guy is a favorite topic of bored journalists- but that doesn't mean he's wrong. If you look at human life expectancies, they have been increasing for the past 500 years, and the rate at which they are increasing is also increasing. If this continues (which is a pretty big if), then eventually people's life expectancies will be increasing faster than people age. This gives people near-immortality- they can only be killed by random accidents, or 'acts of God'.
The effects of this would be incredible, and probably spark a vicious conflict between those who can afford immortality and those who can't. But that is another story...
The average CS major at my school (University of Missouri-Rolla) mades over $51k/yr when they graduate with a bachelor's- working at positions that are usually about 50 hours a week. All major gaming companies, from what I've heard, are closer to 60 hours a week (Unless you work for EA games, where 60 hours would be considered a light load- that's less than 10 hours a day). Also, I'm assuming IGN is talking about development position alongs the coasts or something to get higher numbers- 60k/year in, say, Seattle will get you about the same standard of living as 38k/year here in Missouri. (Even without factoring in cost of living, though, we're still getting more money per hour). From what I've seen, every gaming company will want you to work more hours for less money than a comparable position elsewhere.
Don't be dumb enough to work at a gaming company because you want the money. If you love games, it might be worth it- but I'd rather have more free time to play the games and more money to buy them with.
If I developed it on my "own time"- when I wasn't at work- then I would tell the managers that it's my software, and would be happy to liscense it to them, once I'm finished with it and have opportunity to test it.
If I developed it "on company time when I was bored anyway"- then I would tell the managers that quality software takes time to develop, and if the deadline is unreasonable, warn them you won't be able to make it.
If the manager(s) try to steal the credit, intelligent people will still realize that the managers didn't write the program. Also, if it's good enough to go to the national level, then the managers deserve some credit for recognizing that anyway.
What sort of idiots the managers are will affect what will work and what doesn't. Your friends will know beter than me.
No one in my office had any experience with Macromedia Flash, so it was easier to use Rent-a-Coder to develop a basic flash application for us that to learn it ourselves. My boss ended up having to re-write a lot of it, but he thought it was still worth the money he paid to get a application that mostly worked.
We have a race of tiny adult humans already, they are called pygmies. They average about 4 feet tall. They are not a seperate species by any means- they are just a race of short people. It is not hard to imagine that there could have been a race of humans (not a different species) who were even shorter. After all, if a toy poodle and a great dane are the same species, having humans that averaged 3 feet tall instead of 5 feet is trivial.
Slashdot Mirror
I find this article extremely interesting- it implies (amoung other things) that by altering DNA in its hosts, viruses could be one of the main mutation contributors. Genetic engineers do this now by using retroviruses to insert genes we want, so it's not a stretch to say that this happened incidentally in the past.
1. Watch the DVD on any piece of technology in my house- which may mean that I need to save the DVD electronically.
2. Have the DVD still be watchable if I upgrade technology in the future.
3. Be able to re-sell the DVD if I get bored of it.
4. Allow a friend to borrow the DVD.
DRM that stops people from doing these perfectly legal things should be of concern to the average consumer- since I want to do all of these things, I imagine the average consumer will want to do at least half of them.
I'm a UMR alum, and I don't have a problem with this article- sure, UMR may have created new and powerful ceramics, but the article is about how an underdog managed to place second by using normal ceramics and creativity. That's more interesting (and potentially more useful) than saying "UMR created a coffee cup that can survive being tossed out a second story window. For $300, you could have one too!" Besides, the story still mentions that we did the best, even if we didn't think as "outside the box."
The mathematics behind the 3D imaging aren't particularly innovative for a couple of reasons. First is that it's not the patenter's own mathematics, as he even mentions in the patent, he got the equations from mathematical textbooks. Secondly, there is really only one way of doing the 3D zooming and rotation- since it's mathematics, all other ways of doing it correctly can be shown to be identical to the first. It's like computing the area of a rectangle- no matter how you do it, you're still basically taking the width times the height.
I'd have to agree with you about what is best varies depending on your situation. My work uses a combination of Open Source software, Windows products, third-party vendors and software we created. We try to go with whatever will be best for us as a company- which means if there is a good open source (or freeware) solution that is the way to go. If there's not, we can either make it ourselves or try to buy it off someone else. There isn't yet a good open source solution for every problem.
I agreed with the article that the report had weak statistics- but for him to suggest that business majors know more about statistics that programmers is insulting. If anything I would expect that the mathematical background of programmers would be higher than that of business majors (but then, I majored in math and computer science, so I'm probably biased).
My college, the University of Missouri-Rolla, requires some (not much) linux familiarity for all its computer science majors. I think all CS degrees should require some experience in both Windows and Linux based enviroments (who knows what you'll need to use once you get a job- we use both every day at my work).
They are trying to keep a tight grip on everything while the world is changing around them. Already their system is more capitalistic than communistic in many respects- but it is a totalitarian capitalism. The Communist party has the power and they are afraid to let the reins of power go. Most Chinese in power have a few skeletons in their closets, and I feel many of them are worried that if they lost control, they would be arrested, tried, and executed.
I'm curious how China will look like in 20 years. I'm thinking they will either become the next United States or be involved in a bloody revolution. Maybe even both.
My wife once dated someone she met online- it was one of the stupidest things she's ever done. However, if she had met and dated him offline, it wouldn't have been any smarter. A few of my other friends have "dated" people they met online- but the relationship rarely survived a single real life meeting, if they got that far. An unamed friend of mine brought a online date home once- only to have his date hit on his roommate the entire visit. Not surprisingly, that ended things rather quickly. Like offline dating, online dating is more likely to end badly than end well. It's just easier to tell whether or not things will go well if you are actually able to be with the person instead of merely talking to them.
Diablo II and expansion has to lead the list- I had way too much fun with that game over the years. Starcraft / Warcraft games gave me a lot of fun as well, and I haven't seen them mentioned yet. (I haven't played WoW, I'm talking about the RTS versions). The best 8-bit games I played were Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy 1 (For an NES game, it was really good).
The main reason RIM lost the original case is because they created false evidence to try to demonstrate prior art. However, they were caught trying to pull this off in the courtroom. Nothing says "I'm breaking the law and trying to get away with it" like perjury.
My mother works in gifted education, and she has often said that "the more you have in your head, the more that can go wrong. The higher your IQ the more likely you are to have a lot of minor mental disorders, such as ADD- and even if they don't have any disorders it's hard to relate to people with very different IQs than you in either direction.
Ignore the blasphemer. Battlestar Galactica is the best TV show that I've seen in years. If you haven't seen the show yet, you should. You will need to start from the first episode, though, since the show actually has an ongoing plot.
We don't have solitare on the computers where I work. Only the IT people (like me) and senior staff have internet access. Considering I'm currently posting on Slashdot when I should be working, maybe they have the right idea...
I think asking that question helped me get the job that I have now. They needed to hire someone capable of working with the software done for the company by a consultant (it worked, but the code behind it was insane). I think that asking them to show me the code and then actually understanding the parts of it I was shown was a huge plus in my favor.
What I see as being most disturbing about this article is the premise that children are not born violent, but made that way through TV/videogames. If you have ever seen young kids, you'll realize that violence is a natural thing for them. I was shoving my brother around at the age of 4, long before I played any video games. (I don't remember doing it, but my parents do). The premise of the rest of the article is pretty silly- from what I understand, people who play videogames are actaully less likely to engage in real violence, and the rates of violence amoung children has been dropping considerably. I've always felt that if you wanted your child to grow up to be a professial thug, you should let him play football. Just look at the criminal records sported by most of the NFL.
I agree- it seems like people who know what they are doing can get great salaries, so if you aren't willing to pay a great salary then you're stuck with the people who aren't even good enough to pretend they know what they are doing. The demand for good IT people greatly exceeds the supply. The problem is that not everyone who comes out of college with a CS degree or IT degree is good- or even close to it. My advice to those people interested in IT/CompSci degrees is to work hard enough to be one of the "good" IT people. Know what you are talking about, don't just take the easy classes, do things outside of class to improve your skills. Work hard. It seems like obvious advice, but there are a lot of people out there who didn't take it- and you want to be able to beat all of them in a job application.
Let kids take classes in elementary school and middle school like they do in college and high school- able to pick the classes that they want to take. Then you don't need three levels per grade for smart, dumb, and average kids. If someone flunks 7th grade math they can take it over again. If someone feels their 6th grade english class is too easy they can take 7th or 8th grade english. My school let me take 8th grade Science classes in the 6th grade- and I actually learned something in my science class for the first time in years. Upping the grade level is usually all that is necessary to make a class challenging for someone. (Sometimes you need to go 2 or 3 levels higher, but it's still basically the same idea).
This guy is a favorite topic of bored journalists- but that doesn't mean he's wrong. If you look at human life expectancies, they have been increasing for the past 500 years, and the rate at which they are increasing is also increasing. If this continues (which is a pretty big if), then eventually people's life expectancies will be increasing faster than people age. This gives people near-immortality- they can only be killed by random accidents, or 'acts of God'. The effects of this would be incredible, and probably spark a vicious conflict between those who can afford immortality and those who can't. But that is another story...
The average CS major at my school (University of Missouri-Rolla) mades over $51k/yr when they graduate with a bachelor's- working at positions that are usually about 50 hours a week. All major gaming companies, from what I've heard, are closer to 60 hours a week (Unless you work for EA games, where 60 hours would be considered a light load- that's less than 10 hours a day). Also, I'm assuming IGN is talking about development position alongs the coasts or something to get higher numbers- 60k/year in, say, Seattle will get you about the same standard of living as 38k/year here in Missouri. (Even without factoring in cost of living, though, we're still getting more money per hour). From what I've seen, every gaming company will want you to work more hours for less money than a comparable position elsewhere. Don't be dumb enough to work at a gaming company because you want the money. If you love games, it might be worth it- but I'd rather have more free time to play the games and more money to buy them with.
If I developed it on my "own time"- when I wasn't at work- then I would tell the managers that it's my software, and would be happy to liscense it to them, once I'm finished with it and have opportunity to test it. If I developed it "on company time when I was bored anyway"- then I would tell the managers that quality software takes time to develop, and if the deadline is unreasonable, warn them you won't be able to make it. If the manager(s) try to steal the credit, intelligent people will still realize that the managers didn't write the program. Also, if it's good enough to go to the national level, then the managers deserve some credit for recognizing that anyway. What sort of idiots the managers are will affect what will work and what doesn't. Your friends will know beter than me.
No one in my office had any experience with Macromedia Flash, so it was easier to use Rent-a-Coder to develop a basic flash application for us that to learn it ourselves. My boss ended up having to re-write a lot of it, but he thought it was still worth the money he paid to get a application that mostly worked.
I thought this was a serious article for 5 whole seconds. I feel stupid now.
We have a race of tiny adult humans already, they are called pygmies. They average about 4 feet tall. They are not a seperate species by any means- they are just a race of short people. It is not hard to imagine that there could have been a race of humans (not a different species) who were even shorter. After all, if a toy poodle and a great dane are the same species, having humans that averaged 3 feet tall instead of 5 feet is trivial.
It's got fewer bogus articles than slashdot!