It's pretty much just like that. The main difference is that it's in 3D, so it affords some additional challenges (mainly that the katamari must be a certain size, either small enough or large enough, to go certain places). Plus the engine seems particularly adept at identifying collisions, so a katamari with oblong objects attached is often very awkward to control, which is fun. It's also more entertaining when you start picking up living creatures, particularly people, or things you were rolling on top of only a few minutes prior.
It's fun, but I personally don't think it lives up to the hype. It's worth $20, though. Any more than that and I'd say pass it up.
"Nerd", like many words, only takes on a pejorative meaning if it's used in a pejorative sense.
I could call somebody a religious zealot, or an intellectual, or a conservative or liberal, or obvious insults like asshole or worse, or even objective things like democrat and republican. Whether those things are intended to speak badly about the people to whom they refer depends on the context in which they are said (including to whom and under what circumstances) and what is known about the person saying them.
For instance, "conservative" and "liberal" coming from Al Franken have quite different meanings than coming from Sean Hannity, and "homie" is quite different when said by a gang-buster thug than by a middle-class white college student. Some (like "asshole", "punk", "loser") can even be different when said between friends than they are between enemies.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the word itself isn't what should be considered offensive. And if you think that a company is going on a business venture trying to make money by talking pejoratively to the tech-savvy, you should think again.
I think it's funny that the summary leads the reader to believe that such a switch could be of trivial difficulty.
If your network is so complex and you have so many domains and related devices that you're "fed up" with Windows to the extent that you're ready to ditch it completely, a switch to Linux, while it would certainly eliminate certain issues, would itself hardly be a walk in the park.
It's really too bad that SVG hasn't been more widely accepted. It seems obvious that it should, given the popularity of such technologies as Javascript, XML, and CSS and in consideration of problems like the one described in TFA.
It seems like it should be relatively easy to add a graphical style property to CSS3 for certain elements that COULD point to an SVG file. This would also force the browsers to include some rendering capability to allow more websites to utilize this format. I for one am in favor of this idea.
Right. If you want to show off the innards of your computer, get case windows. And lights, if necessary. Removing the panel altogether will probably cause more problems than it solves.
In other words, never remove Windows from your computer.
But when you say "objective replication" you are expecting an unrealistic level of research into every element of reality. No person (or group of people) has a thorough enough understanding of every facet of reality to adequately simulate it.
And even if we did, there are psychological factors like the base-rate theory that prevent us from always seeing things the way they are. The conclusion isn't that true, authentic simulations are impossible, it's that the human mind is incapable of creating them.
Video games are simulations of some reality, either real or imagined. When a simulation is actually created by a person, it must be created by a person who is familiar with the experience (or the simulation will bear no resemblance thereto) and is therefore necessarily restricted to that person or people's perception of the experience.
As far as I understand the allegations, Intel's compiler uses non-optimized algorithms when it detects AMD processors.
We're not talking about whether it uses Intel-specific processor optimizations. We're talking about the equivalent of doing a bubble sort instead of a quick sort.
We're not talking about Intel neglecting to research the ins and outs of an AMD chip, causing incidental problems.
We're talking about them deliberately modifying their compiler to make programs run more slowly (or even crash, though that may be incidental) when they detect that they're running on an AMD.
Microsoft has alleged that the gcc compiler is deliberately designed so that programs compiled with it do not run as efficiently under Windows as they do under Linux.
People who have money are the ones who most often get what they want. You can interpret that any way you want.
I do think it's sad that companies can try to blame hackers and virus authors for their failed business plans. It's easy to picture where these ideas are coming from - a corporate board-room where investors are asking tough questions about their ROI, and threatening to withdraw their support for the business. In a situation like that, folks like Sven are the perfect scapegoats.
Following the link to the original story on the status change leads to this page detailing the list of software that has been downgraded. Screenshots included for the doubtful.
...including certain WhenU adware programs, WebHancer and Ezula Toptext. So the Claria downgrade is quite likely part of a bigger picture regarding Microsoft's listing criteria for adware.
Well, you wouldn't really want the data on your "preferred" hand anyway, because you need to have it accessible for data access. Just put all the pr0n on your LEFT fingernails and do your... ermh... other activities with the right hand.
All this time I was thinking the borg icon was symbolic, but alas! Apparently it was a prediction that Bill someday will actually have cybernetic implants with a startling resemblance to a fictional race!
I hope so too. But I'm more optimistic than you. I'm willing to bet that there are dozens of software companies that would love to hire anyone capable of not only creating but devising a tool so simple and yet so powerful that the RIAA/MPAA would go after him. Being as successful as Bram Cohen at creating any software pretty much guarantees you an extended career in software development.
- they probably aren't aware of the problems with the software
- alternatively, they inherited it as part of another application
- third-case: they built the app four years ago on a shoestring and data quality didn't matter. Back then there were fewer descent options.
Pure speculation. Worthless unless you've got examples.
- without partitioning it can't keep up with oracle or db2 on adhoc queries.
- its write performance with myisam is a joke
- its read & write performance with innodb is completely unimpressive
- its optimizer is trivial - so common queries with 5-way joins or subselects can cause horrific performance problems that you wouldn't see with a more mature product.
- it costs $500 or so for a license, postgresql is free, and db2/oracle just a little more. You're better off either saving your $500 or spending a few hundred extra for a database with fewer issues.
Wrong, on many counts. First, MySQL is as free as postgresql. You do not have to pay for a license to use the software. Currently the Standard (STD) edition of Oracle is priced at $15,000 per processor, and the Enterprise (EE) edition is priced at $40,000 per processor. The RAC feature is $20,000 per processor extra, and you need to add 22 percent annually for the support contract. Alternatively, you can license it on a per-user basis, at $300 per user for STD and $800 per user for EE.
Next, MySQL is more stable and faster (when using MyISAM) than PostgreSQL in just about every comparison I've ever seen. If you've got one that shows otherwise, I'd be interested to see it. You are right, though, that InnoDB is much slower. I haven't used that format, with any database, so I don't really know the significance of this.
I have seen the performance problems you're talking about with moderately complicated queries, however that was on an older version, and I don't know the details of the schema I was using. I do remember that I was joining the same table multiple times on different criteria. It's possible I had been doing something wrong, or it's possible that this was due to poor software. But given the subjectivity (and inaccuracy) of many of your objections, I don't have a hard time believing that it was my own fault.
- this is an initial release that will still have enormous limitations in the use of these features
- it fails to address the far more serious and legitimate complaint of poor exception handling - in which errors are ignored and data is corrupted.
First, this is a BETA release, not an "initial" release. I don't typically try beta releases of database products, so I haven't tried these in particular, but rest assured that I will be very disappointed if stored procedures are not fully implemented and contain considerable optimization.
As for your other complaint, what errors does MySQL ignore?
I'm not saying MySQL is without problems (taking 10 years to implement Stored Procedures is worth complaining about, not to mention the mediocre SQL compliance) but it is extremely competitive in a performance analysis of FREE database products.
If you gauge the intelligence of a comment by how well the grammar therein conforms to your understanding of grammar rules and not by its substance, then you've got serious issues.
How hard is it to read something and think about what it's saying? It's one thing if you literally can't decipher it. But if you know what they are trying to say, and you discount it simply because they aren't the best spellers or they have excess commas (as I often do), you might be missing out on a lot of useful information. (You are probably also racist.)
This is, of course, not to mention that the english language is a bastardization of a bastardization of a bastardization of (etc). And every time it's changed, elitists have been up in arms about the purity of their language insofar as they learned it when they were young. Go read some Old English and then come back here and tell me that hackers are the ones breaking the rules.
Language evolves. This is the nature of things. If you can't understand, ask for clarification. Otherwise, deal with it. Next article, please.
it is a toy database, and as such, should not be used on serious projects (i.e., anything that uses normalized data schemas and requires data integrity).
Huh?
see here for a list of companies using MySQL. Do you think any of these companies use normalized data schemas? Do you think data integrity is important to them?
People choose databases (as with any software) based on a cost to performance comparison. MySQL happens to be very fast and efficient at what it does, and for the perfect price tag. On top of that, version 5.0 includes features that address every legitimate complaint that people have had against MySQL: Stored Procedures, Views, and Triggers. Am I missing something?
Is it possible that the authors also suggest the use of magic quotes? If so, the query above would to be safe to run, since the user could not submit an un-escaped apostrophe. (not that this is an excuse not to explain what SQL injection is and how to protect against it.)
Of course, magic quotes creates more problems than it solves, and I don't like it, but it does dramatically reduce vulnerability to SQL injection.
I guess I didn't mean to say that I thought they were innovative; I just think that their complete suite of products would be incredibly (and probably uniquely) powerful and/or useful if they were properly developed.
They've had dozens of chances to overcome that problem and repeatedly they just contribute to it. What's funny is that they have thousands of genuinely great ideas; they just half-ass the delivery. It happens every time.
It's too bad, really; I wish we had a true software giant that regularly produced reliable, feature-rich software packages.
Slashdot Mirror
It's pretty much just like that. The main difference is that it's in 3D, so it affords some additional challenges (mainly that the katamari must be a certain size, either small enough or large enough, to go certain places). Plus the engine seems particularly adept at identifying collisions, so a katamari with oblong objects attached is often very awkward to control, which is fun. It's also more entertaining when you start picking up living creatures, particularly people, or things you were rolling on top of only a few minutes prior.
It's fun, but I personally don't think it lives up to the hype. It's worth $20, though. Any more than that and I'd say pass it up.
"Nerd", like many words, only takes on a pejorative meaning if it's used in a pejorative sense.
I could call somebody a religious zealot, or an intellectual, or a conservative or liberal, or obvious insults like asshole or worse, or even objective things like democrat and republican. Whether those things are intended to speak badly about the people to whom they refer depends on the context in which they are said (including to whom and under what circumstances) and what is known about the person saying them.
For instance, "conservative" and "liberal" coming from Al Franken have quite different meanings than coming from Sean Hannity, and "homie" is quite different when said by a gang-buster thug than by a middle-class white college student. Some (like "asshole", "punk", "loser") can even be different when said between friends than they are between enemies.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the word itself isn't what should be considered offensive. And if you think that a company is going on a business venture trying to make money by talking pejoratively to the tech-savvy, you should think again.
I think it's funny that the summary leads the reader to believe that such a switch could be of trivial difficulty.
If your network is so complex and you have so many domains and related devices that you're "fed up" with Windows to the extent that you're ready to ditch it completely, a switch to Linux, while it would certainly eliminate certain issues, would itself hardly be a walk in the park.
Don't you think native recognition of this spec would be preferable to including third-party implementations? For the sake of consistency, at least?
Even if not, or if there's some common knowledge about SVG that I lack, what's wrong with Adobe's viewer?
It's really too bad that SVG hasn't been more widely accepted. It seems obvious that it should, given the popularity of such technologies as Javascript, XML, and CSS and in consideration of problems like the one described in TFA.
It seems like it should be relatively easy to add a graphical style property to CSS3 for certain elements that COULD point to an SVG file. This would also force the browsers to include some rendering capability to allow more websites to utilize this format. I for one am in favor of this idea.
Right. If you want to show off the innards of your computer, get case windows. And lights, if necessary. Removing the panel altogether will probably cause more problems than it solves.
In other words, never remove Windows from your computer.
er, wait. What site is this again?
It doesn't really matter what the TLD is. Internet-enabled phones will provide a way to enter it expediently.
But when you say "objective replication" you are expecting an unrealistic level of research into every element of reality. No person (or group of people) has a thorough enough understanding of every facet of reality to adequately simulate it.
And even if we did, there are psychological factors like the base-rate theory that prevent us from always seeing things the way they are. The conclusion isn't that true, authentic simulations are impossible, it's that the human mind is incapable of creating them.
Why is anyone surprised?
Video games are simulations of some reality, either real or imagined. When a simulation is actually created by a person, it must be created by a person who is familiar with the experience (or the simulation will bear no resemblance thereto) and is therefore necessarily restricted to that person or people's perception of the experience.
Why would we expect anything different?
I guess I wasn't clear enough.
As far as I understand the allegations, Intel's compiler uses non-optimized algorithms when it detects AMD processors.
We're not talking about whether it uses Intel-specific processor optimizations. We're talking about the equivalent of doing a bubble sort instead of a quick sort.
We're not talking about Intel neglecting to research the ins and outs of an AMD chip, causing incidental problems.
We're talking about them deliberately modifying their compiler to make programs run more slowly (or even crash, though that may be incidental) when they detect that they're running on an AMD.
Microsoft has alleged that the gcc compiler is deliberately designed so that programs compiled with it do not run as efficiently under Windows as they do under Linux.
People who have money are the ones who most often get what they want. You can interpret that any way you want.
I do think it's sad that companies can try to blame hackers and virus authors for their failed business plans. It's easy to picture where these ideas are coming from - a corporate board-room where investors are asking tough questions about their ROI, and threatening to withdraw their support for the business. In a situation like that, folks like Sven are the perfect scapegoats.
Following the link to the original story on the status change leads to this page detailing the list of software that has been downgraded. Screenshots included for the doubtful.
...including certain WhenU adware programs, WebHancer and Ezula Toptext. So the Claria downgrade is quite likely part of a bigger picture regarding Microsoft's listing criteria for adware.
or perhaps they could write the data onto a USB flash drive and then glue that to the fingernail.
Well, you wouldn't really want the data on your "preferred" hand anyway, because you need to have it accessible for data access. Just put all the pr0n on your LEFT fingernails and do your ... ermh... other activities with the right hand.
All this time I was thinking the borg icon was symbolic, but alas! Apparently it was a prediction that Bill someday will actually have cybernetic implants with a startling resemblance to a fictional race!
My world is torn apart.
I hope so too. But I'm more optimistic than you. I'm willing to bet that there are dozens of software companies that would love to hire anyone capable of not only creating but devising a tool so simple and yet so powerful that the RIAA/MPAA would go after him. Being as successful as Bram Cohen at creating any software pretty much guarantees you an extended career in software development.
Next, MySQL is more stable and faster (when using MyISAM) than PostgreSQL in just about every comparison I've ever seen. If you've got one that shows otherwise, I'd be interested to see it. You are right, though, that InnoDB is much slower. I haven't used that format, with any database, so I don't really know the significance of this.
I have seen the performance problems you're talking about with moderately complicated queries, however that was on an older version, and I don't know the details of the schema I was using. I do remember that I was joining the same table multiple times on different criteria. It's possible I had been doing something wrong, or it's possible that this was due to poor software. But given the subjectivity (and inaccuracy) of many of your objections, I don't have a hard time believing that it was my own fault. First, this is a BETA release, not an "initial" release. I don't typically try beta releases of database products, so I haven't tried these in particular, but rest assured that I will be very disappointed if stored procedures are not fully implemented and contain considerable optimization.
As for your other complaint, what errors does MySQL ignore?
I'm not saying MySQL is without problems (taking 10 years to implement Stored Procedures is worth complaining about, not to mention the mediocre SQL compliance) but it is extremely competitive in a performance analysis of FREE database products.
If you gauge the intelligence of a comment by how well the grammar therein conforms to your understanding of grammar rules and not by its substance, then you've got serious issues.
How hard is it to read something and think about what it's saying? It's one thing if you literally can't decipher it. But if you know what they are trying to say, and you discount it simply because they aren't the best spellers or they have excess commas (as I often do), you might be missing out on a lot of useful information. (You are probably also racist.)
This is, of course, not to mention that the english language is a bastardization of a bastardization of a bastardization of (etc). And every time it's changed, elitists have been up in arms about the purity of their language insofar as they learned it when they were young. Go read some Old English and then come back here and tell me that hackers are the ones breaking the rules.
Language evolves. This is the nature of things. If you can't understand, ask for clarification. Otherwise, deal with it. Next article, please.
it is a toy database, and as such, should not be used on serious projects (i.e., anything that uses normalized data schemas and requires data integrity).
Huh?
see here for a list of companies using MySQL. Do you think any of these companies use normalized data schemas? Do you think data integrity is important to them?
People choose databases (as with any software) based on a cost to performance comparison. MySQL happens to be very fast and efficient at what it does, and for the perfect price tag. On top of that, version 5.0 includes features that address every legitimate complaint that people have had against MySQL: Stored Procedures, Views, and Triggers. Am I missing something?
Is it possible that the authors also suggest the use of magic quotes? If so, the query above would to be safe to run, since the user could not submit an un-escaped apostrophe. (not that this is an excuse not to explain what SQL injection is and how to protect against it.)
Of course, magic quotes creates more problems than it solves, and I don't like it, but it does dramatically reduce vulnerability to SQL injection.
With all the WiMAX buzz in the wireless internet industry, it's interesting that a company like Nextel is using UMTS TD-CDMA for mobile wireless.
Makes you wonder if it's because of the slow development of WiMAX, or if it's just not as good a technology as it's being touted as.
I guess I didn't mean to say that I thought they were innovative; I just think that their complete suite of products would be incredibly (and probably uniquely) powerful and/or useful if they were properly developed.
They've had dozens of chances to overcome that problem and repeatedly they just contribute to it. What's funny is that they have thousands of genuinely great ideas; they just half-ass the delivery. It happens every time.
It's too bad, really; I wish we had a true software giant that regularly produced reliable, feature-rich software packages.