Are you really aware of MS's process, or just assuming because of the end-product? Only reason I ask--I don't like M$ products more than any other Slashdot reader, but I can't imagine anything like Word or Access being slapped together ad-hoc. I mean, blame the architects for _poor_ engineering, and the managers for pushing things out the door with poor quality, but I think 'thrown together' is pushing it.
I don't think the parent actually alluded to the original Pentium bug; if you read more carefully his post is actually correcting the broken analogy from an earlier post. I think he was saying that _if_ a division bug in a processor was the _same magnitude_ as Palm's error in number of colors (12 vs. 16 bit), it would render a processor unusable. You might have inferred incorrectly because of other posts that do mention the infamous bug, so good thing you didn't mod down;-).
Well, I don't really understand what the fallacy in that statement is--I mean, it is legally defensible, so the company can in fact do what they want. But I think I went to some great lengths to explain why, in fact, it does suck and they shouldn't do it. I never tried to say it was ethically correct because no law exists to deny it.
This is one reason for laws to exist: to create boundaries of extreme behavior Absolutely. But how do you write this law to protect all circumstances? What if I work for DoD subcontractor, or a company that's extremely prone to industrial espionage? These things aren't just fiction. Doesn't the employer have the right to some paranoia?
I just think we have too many laws. I can turn your statement around: just because an action is unacceptabe, does NOT mean it should be made illegal. An additional law to regulate employee privacy is just not necessary at this point, especially if the employees of the world just grow some balls and decide not to take this along with the other increasingly silly corporate antics.
If this trend [control-freakishness]goes too far, and it probably already has, then it's a definite call for improved privacy laws
Umm...Yeah, I guess, except, where above did you try to establish that employers don't have the right to do this? You're assuming your premise to be true, when in fact, it is highly debatable. Are you saying that anything you believe to be wrong should be turned into a law? Isn't it possible we should defend the employer's right to do this, despite the fact that the action is deplorable?
So the market has never corrected problems by itself, and we should always legislate when we're not happy with something?
Rubbish. If it's sweatshops and 12 year olds, write laws. Professionals? Take care of yourselves.
If you want to explore the legalities, imagine you visit a neighbor for dinner. You ask if you can borrow the phone, and he lets you know that you can, but the conversation will be recorded. Perfectly legal, _but you have the choice not to come back for dinner_.
You're cashing the paycheck and the benefits, no one's holding a gun to your head. If you want to control your communications, bring a laptop and cell phone to work, or go work for someone that's enlightened on how to treat their most valuable resource.
good reasons for the existince of fair practice standards
No doubt, but I think the slave comparison is a false analogy; to compare our work situations to people who were physically and emotionally supressed for hundreds of years, people who had *no* choice, is pretty cheap.
My point was, constitutionally I don't think regualating data falls outside the limits of what an owner *can* do, but it is something they *shouldn't* do. And you know what? If we don't like it, we should go work somewhere else.
that the market will take care of these privacy invasions, and people just won't work for companies that get a rep for doing BS like this.
I mean, legally, I have to side with the companies. Their machines, their time, their liability. The can do what they want.
BUT...it does suck, and I'd hate to work for anyone that would think they needed to read my private mail. My only hope is that more and more people will leave companies that do that to work for smaller companies, or start their own, and that these smaller companies will begin to resist the temptation of corporate assimilation. I see it beginning to happen now, there are some fairly large, privately held consulting companies that foster a great atmosphere for their people. The more I see big companies doing things like this, the more hope I have that this renaissance of the small business will grow.
I agree with the parent on this one. Vast is a relative term, but VHS quality could never touch Betamax in terms of original broadcast quality, IMHO.
As for why VHS won, it wasn't really technical inferiority, but _perceived_ technical inferiority. Yes, Beta could "only" achieve 270 min of record time on its slowest setting compared to 480 min on NTSC VHS, but realistically, unless you really didn't care about heavy static, the slowest VHS speed was virtually unwatchable. This leaves the best setting on Beta and VHS to 90 minutes and 160, respectively. Realistically, again just IMHO, Beta's second slowest setting was still a better format than VHS's fastest, and would hold 180 minutes on a 750' tape.
This is all moot, though, because of VHS's VASTLY superior marketing. 'Just say to Joe Sixpack, 'quality's arguable, but ours holds twice as much!' and you've got a marketing coup. Who cares that hardly anyone I knew would record more than one movie to a tape, and most people either taped over the same thing daily for their 'soaps', or bought prerecorded anyway!
Keep in mind, though, that many would argue that the _sole_ reason that Beta lost was because Sony insisted on keeping all of the IP rights associated with Beta. Their Japanese peers were forced into promoting a more 'open' format. Ergo, Open Source wins again!
but wouldn't it benefit apple to introduce a problem that they had the solution to already, so they could quickly "develop" the patch? This would be great fodder for a marketing campaign.
I know, I know. I should go work on discrediting the Apollo missions, too.;-)
I think your logic and some of your facts are just plain wrong.
Firstly, Africa is not dominated by the Catholic church. Most countries in Africa are listed between 30-60 percent Catholic, and in my experience these numbers have been inflated. Most tribes have indigenous beliefs that supercede Christian/Muslim doctrine; you've been there and you should know this.
Secondly, let's assume your premise is correct, that Catholicism is dominant. If the people of Africa wouldn't use condoms for fear of eternal damnation, why ON EARTH would they have premarital sex with multiple partners? If they have such strong religious beliefs in terms of sexual practice, who left out this latter core belief in their indoctrination? It just doesn't add up. If this logic was consistent, the Republic of Ireland would have 99% of their population infected.
Lastly, don't forget that the church pours big time and money into African AIDS relief efforts. And unlike many other religions, Catholic relief efforts do not necessarily mean proselytizing missions.
I respect your opinion that Catholics have a job ahead of them in terms of reform, but you're just making some mean, inaccurate conjectures to support an anti-religion stance.
you escaped from the looney bin to post this comment. I mean, did you even do anything but pick the buzz words out of my post, and can you even _define_ a police state? How does a secret police control the economy in America? Or Britain? Or Rome?
In case you were wondering, name calling does not necessarily make you insightful, or even particularly interesting. Try to actually construct cogent arguments next time, and maybe more people will listen to you. Calling someone ignorant or retarded does not necessarily make it so.
The chinese openly admit to censorship, restrictions on individual rights, etc.
So do we--you've heard of the Constitution and the bill of rights, no? In the interest of protecting individual rights and freedoms, we repress other individual rights. Freedom is no illusion, it is a careful, careful balance. The difference is that I can go to court and challenge _any_ law that I perceive to be too restrictive, and I can win! It happens every day. Some might argue that the system's out of whack right now, but...
scariest thing is that it all arises without rigid central control
Exactly! It's brilliant! We control the extent to which our freedoms are suppressed, sometimes in the interest of safety, sometimes because of FUD, but always because we have chosen. And no doubt, the pendulum swings a little extreme one way, we see the error of our ways, and it swings back too far the other way. It's just human nature.
waging nearly perpetual war for 50 years
Rome went to war much longer--was it a police state? So did Britain--police state? You digress here, methinks.
BTW, I've been to some peaceful demonstrations, in our nation's capital and other places, and no tanks and soldiers have ever shown up, shot large numbers of peaceful demonstrators, and covered the numbers up. That kind of thing just can't happen here; part of the beauty of our system is that horrible things like Kent State can happen and be displayed by the media, to become a forum for the public to discuss for the next hundred years. How did the public discussion go in the People's Republic after that little incident in the Square? There are some bad trends in the US right now, but I do NOT think you can draw similarities between the States and China.
EDS bought both SDRC and UGS. Both companies are working furiously to build a unified product line, which will probably be branded Unigraphics, although modeling, FEA, and CAM will certainly have much in common with both products. I-DEAS isn't dead--it's still selling millions $ in new seats, and it will evolve along with Unigraphics into the new product line.
As for Ford switching to CATIA, possible but not likely. After the fallout, there will be pretty much only 2 products controlling high-end CAD--EDS and Dessault. Every large consumer product/automotive/aerospace company will be evaluating both products continuously, I'd imagine. Pro-E? Not bloody likely. Check their stock--Ford or any other big auto name isn't going to invest $250+ million in an MCAD package that might flounder any day now. The big 3 (really big 5) are perfectly happy dealing with EDS and IBM (dessault's reseller).
it's the first (major) solid modeler to port to Linux. Not I-DEAS, nor CATIA, nor Unigraphics, nor AutoCAD (snicker) have a Linux solution. True that FEA products (MSC, etc.) have gone to Linux already, but solid modeling is still the cash cow, so this is a big damn deal.
I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing you mean, but have you seen Atom Films? They have some crap, but a decent number of good indie shorts.
Re:Maybe I'm missing something, but...
on
Cradle to Cradle
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· Score: 2
Well, buy wool carpet then. Preferably berber. Even thick pile wool carpet will last 30+ years. Berber would last 50 years standing on its head (so to speak), and it's biodegradable. Consider most natural fabrics will composte, it's just that we keep them clean enough inside that they don't. Of course, your avg code monkey like me can only afford the synthetic stuff;-).
You make a good point, but keep in mind that large, mature software systems that live on for years will continually have projects to enhance functionality and performance. Even echelon, if it's in maintenance mode, could need new architects for performance tweaks and whatnot.
But, just as easily, this guy's full of crap and was just a co-op when echelon was finishing up;-).
D'oh. I think you're right. I misread imdb's page on total gross--I thought each week was individual, not a running total. Thanks for catching my mistake--still a great movie, though;-).
Gimme a break. This is just snobery. Are you a PE? What's that? There is no professional engineer testing given by the NSPE for CompEs? Most MechEs and some EEs wouldn't consider you an engineer either then.
Most CS guys call themselves engineers because that's what most of them do--engineer computer software. They aren't doing theoretical research in the field of algorithms or other pertinent fields, they're designing and building complex systems.
As for different mindset, different coursework, where did you go to school? I have a BSE (and now ME) in CS, that was granted to me from an ACM accredited institution. I took digital design classes, automata, diff eq, physics for eng, and many of the classes that the CompE guys took. Those guys had more specialized hardware courses, as I'm sure you did, like heat transfer and signals, and I had DB theory, compiler theory, etc.
Now, certainly there are still non-accredited so-called CS programs that grant BS degrees through arts and science schools, but before you scoff at the guy who calls himself a software engineer, keep in mind he might have more credits earned from the engineering college, and if you earned your degree in four years probably more co-op time, than you.
Surprising! OUTSTANDING movie. It was, though, definitely a 'sleeper' hit, it had a relatively small (36m) budget, but did $120m+ in the US alone. Frankly, it's a little too highbrow to have been a 'big, big' hit, but it was very well done.
Great cast: Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, Jude Law. Spectacular writing, great symbolism in the film. It's not a "Star Wars" type SF film, it's got a much more sublime vibe to it. It was pretty heavily advertised once it picked up pace at the box office, and its video sales went through the roof from what I understand--how'd you never hear of it? You must have been obsessed with Diablo or something that year.;-)
Maybe this would be like digging up elvis...
on
China Plans Moonbase
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· Score: 2
but couldn't we verify the Apollo program with Sat imagery? I am not well versed in the limitations of our celestial viewing technologies, but I would think it would be feasable to see the lunar lander, the flag, something to prove all the skeptics wrong. Someone explain why this isn't possible?
Open source programming may not result in fewer bugs - but they do get fixed quicker Data??
If the program requirements are incorrect that's the customer's fault - it's not up to the programmers to change what they're asked to do! On any medium-large sized project, requirements are usually set by a project lead and program management, not customers. It usually is the programmer--er, usually developer/designer today--who helps refine, subtract from, and add to the requirements. The customer just wants a way to do something--it's rarely his/her fault that the resultant design is incorrect. That isn't to say there aren't exceptions to this.
Does it really matter to you whether the money is given paycheck to paycheck, or a lump sum after death? I think I can defend the latter pretty well.
Here's an old link I found about Gates' philanthropic tendencies: In 1999, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded more than $2 billion in grants. That's generous amongst the rich or average or poor.
He's intimated that he will give more than 90% of his wealth away before he dies, as do many of the superrich. So they don't attach as much wages as many other 'average' earners do--which is more effective?
Most of these guys invested in the economy, providing capital through stock purchases and cash holdings that allowed new companies to thrive, houses to be built, etc. And most, yes most, of these ultra-rich give much (most?) of their dollars away after they die. I'd rather see these "10% tithers" save their money, and rev up a large fortune.
Unfortunately, I can't find good statistics on the financial donations. I suspect you won't either--private donations are usually cash-type, non-entity sponsored form. In other words, if the UW gets a $1000 donation from John Smith, they don't and can't really do an analysis on what Mr. Smith's income is. There's some data derived from write-offs on federal tax forms, and this seems to show that the top 5% of the wage-earners represent most of the increases in charitable donations from year to year (a quarter of the increase in institutional contributions was from Bill Gates in 1999).
And don't forget that 91% of the taxes are paid by just the top 5% of the taxpayers. I know that our tax duties aren't philanthropic, but dammit, people want to act like the rich do _nothing_ but capitalize on those beneath them, and it just ain't true.
Check out Dynamism. They import all the cool Asian subnotes we can't get here.
This includes the Libretto L3, a 10" LCD, 600mhz-Crusue version of your own notebook. It's slightly bigger, but I think there are some other subnotes on this site that approach the size of the original Toshibas.
Slashdot Mirror
This is one reason for laws to exist: to create boundaries of extreme behavior
Absolutely. But how do you write this law to protect all circumstances? What if I work for DoD subcontractor, or a company that's extremely prone to industrial espionage? These things aren't just fiction. Doesn't the employer have the right to some paranoia?
I just think we have too many laws. I can turn your statement around: just because an action is unacceptabe, does NOT mean it should be made illegal. An additional law to regulate employee privacy is just not necessary at this point, especially if the employees of the world just grow some balls and decide not to take this along with the other increasingly silly corporate antics.
If this trend [control-freakishness]goes too far, and it probably already has, then it's a definite call for improved privacy laws
Umm...Yeah, I guess, except, where above did you try to establish that employers don't have the right to do this? You're assuming your premise to be true, when in fact, it is highly debatable. Are you saying that anything you believe to be wrong should be turned into a law? Isn't it possible we should defend the employer's right to do this, despite the fact that the action is deplorable?
So the market has never corrected problems by itself, and we should always legislate when we're not happy with something?
Rubbish. If it's sweatshops and 12 year olds, write laws. Professionals? Take care of yourselves.
If you want to explore the legalities, imagine you visit a neighbor for dinner. You ask if you can borrow the phone, and he lets you know that you can, but the conversation will be recorded. Perfectly legal, _but you have the choice not to come back for dinner_.
You're cashing the paycheck and the benefits, no one's holding a gun to your head. If you want to control your communications, bring a laptop and cell phone to work, or go work for someone that's enlightened on how to treat their most valuable resource.
No doubt, but I think the slave comparison is a false analogy; to compare our work situations to people who were physically and emotionally supressed for hundreds of years, people who had *no* choice, is pretty cheap.
My point was, constitutionally I don't think regualating data falls outside the limits of what an owner *can* do, but it is something they *shouldn't* do. And you know what? If we don't like it, we should go work somewhere else.
I mean, legally, I have to side with the companies. Their machines, their time, their liability. The can do what they want.
BUT...it does suck, and I'd hate to work for anyone that would think they needed to read my private mail. My only hope is that more and more people will leave companies that do that to work for smaller companies, or start their own, and that these smaller companies will begin to resist the temptation of corporate assimilation. I see it beginning to happen now, there are some fairly large, privately held consulting companies that foster a great atmosphere for their people. The more I see big companies doing things like this, the more hope I have that this renaissance of the small business will grow.
As for why VHS won, it wasn't really technical inferiority, but _perceived_ technical inferiority. Yes, Beta could "only" achieve 270 min of record time on its slowest setting compared to 480 min on NTSC VHS, but realistically, unless you really didn't care about heavy static, the slowest VHS speed was virtually unwatchable. This leaves the best setting on Beta and VHS to 90 minutes and 160, respectively. Realistically, again just IMHO, Beta's second slowest setting was still a better format than VHS's fastest, and would hold 180 minutes on a 750' tape.
This is all moot, though, because of VHS's VASTLY superior marketing. 'Just say to Joe Sixpack, 'quality's arguable, but ours holds twice as much!' and you've got a marketing coup. Who cares that hardly anyone I knew would record more than one movie to a tape, and most people either taped over the same thing daily for their 'soaps', or bought prerecorded anyway!
Keep in mind, though, that many would argue that the _sole_ reason that Beta lost was because Sony insisted on keeping all of the IP rights associated with Beta. Their Japanese peers were forced into promoting a more 'open' format. Ergo, Open Source wins again!
I know, I know. I should go work on discrediting the Apollo missions, too. ;-)
I think your logic and some of your facts are just plain wrong.
Firstly, Africa is not dominated by the Catholic church. Most countries in Africa are listed between 30-60 percent Catholic, and in my experience these numbers have been inflated. Most tribes have indigenous beliefs that supercede Christian/Muslim doctrine; you've been there and you should know this.
Secondly, let's assume your premise is correct, that Catholicism is dominant. If the people of Africa wouldn't use condoms for fear of eternal damnation, why ON EARTH would they have premarital sex with multiple partners? If they have such strong religious beliefs in terms of sexual practice, who left out this latter core belief in their indoctrination? It just doesn't add up. If this logic was consistent, the Republic of Ireland would have 99% of their population infected.
Lastly, don't forget that the church pours big time and money into African AIDS relief efforts. And unlike many other religions, Catholic relief efforts do not necessarily mean proselytizing missions.
I respect your opinion that Catholics have a job ahead of them in terms of reform, but you're just making some mean, inaccurate conjectures to support an anti-religion stance.
In case you were wondering, name calling does not necessarily make you insightful, or even particularly interesting. Try to actually construct cogent arguments next time, and maybe more people will listen to you. Calling someone ignorant or retarded does not necessarily make it so.
So do we--you've heard of the Constitution and the bill of rights, no? In the interest of protecting individual rights and freedoms, we repress other individual rights. Freedom is no illusion, it is a careful, careful balance. The difference is that I can go to court and challenge _any_ law that I perceive to be too restrictive, and I can win! It happens every day. Some might argue that the system's out of whack right now, but...
scariest thing is that it all arises without rigid central control
Exactly! It's brilliant! We control the extent to which our freedoms are suppressed, sometimes in the interest of safety, sometimes because of FUD, but always because we have chosen. And no doubt, the pendulum swings a little extreme one way, we see the error of our ways, and it swings back too far the other way. It's just human nature.
waging nearly perpetual war for 50 years
Rome went to war much longer--was it a police state? So did Britain--police state? You digress here, methinks.
BTW, I've been to some peaceful demonstrations, in our nation's capital and other places, and no tanks and soldiers have ever shown up, shot large numbers of peaceful demonstrators, and covered the numbers up. That kind of thing just can't happen here; part of the beauty of our system is that horrible things like Kent State can happen and be displayed by the media, to become a forum for the public to discuss for the next hundred years. How did the public discussion go in the People's Republic after that little incident in the Square? There are some bad trends in the US right now, but I do NOT think you can draw similarities between the States and China.
As for Ford switching to CATIA, possible but not likely. After the fallout, there will be pretty much only 2 products controlling high-end CAD--EDS and Dessault. Every large consumer product/automotive/aerospace company will be evaluating both products continuously, I'd imagine. Pro-E? Not bloody likely. Check their stock--Ford or any other big auto name isn't going to invest $250+ million in an MCAD package that might flounder any day now. The big 3 (really big 5) are perfectly happy dealing with EDS and IBM (dessault's reseller).
Well, buy wool carpet then. Preferably berber. Even thick pile wool carpet will last 30+ years. Berber would last 50 years standing on its head (so to speak), and it's biodegradable. Consider most natural fabrics will composte, it's just that we keep them clean enough inside that they don't. Of course, your avg code monkey like me can only afford the synthetic stuff ;-).
You make a good point, but keep in mind that large, mature software systems that live on for years will continually have projects to enhance functionality and performance. Even echelon, if it's in maintenance mode, could need new architects for performance tweaks and whatnot.
;-) .
But, just as easily, this guy's full of crap and was just a co-op when echelon was finishing up
D'oh. I think you're right. I misread imdb's page on total gross--I thought each week was individual, not a running total. Thanks for catching my mistake--still a great movie, though ;-).
Gimme a break. This is just snobery. Are you a PE? What's that? There is no professional engineer testing given by the NSPE for CompEs? Most MechEs and some EEs wouldn't consider you an engineer either then.
Most CS guys call themselves engineers because that's what most of them do--engineer computer software. They aren't doing theoretical research in the field of algorithms or other pertinent fields, they're designing and building complex systems.
As for different mindset, different coursework, where did you go to school? I have a BSE (and now ME) in CS, that was granted to me from an ACM accredited institution. I took digital design classes, automata, diff eq, physics for eng, and many of the classes that the CompE guys took. Those guys had more specialized hardware courses, as I'm sure you did, like heat transfer and signals, and I had DB theory, compiler theory, etc.
Now, certainly there are still non-accredited so-called CS programs that grant BS degrees through arts and science schools, but before you scoff at the guy who calls himself a software engineer, keep in mind he might have more credits earned from the engineering college, and if you earned your degree in four years probably more co-op time, than you.
Surprising! OUTSTANDING movie. It was, though, definitely a 'sleeper' hit, it had a relatively small (36m) budget, but did $120m+ in the US alone. Frankly, it's a little too highbrow to have been a 'big, big' hit, but it was very well done.
;-)
Great cast: Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, Jude Law. Spectacular writing, great symbolism in the film. It's not a "Star Wars" type SF film, it's got a much more sublime vibe to it. It was pretty heavily advertised once it picked up pace at the box office, and its video sales went through the roof from what I understand--how'd you never hear of it? You must have been obsessed with Diablo or something that year.
but couldn't we verify the Apollo program with Sat imagery? I am not well versed in the limitations of our celestial viewing technologies, but I would think it would be feasable to see the lunar lander, the flag, something to prove all the skeptics wrong. Someone explain why this isn't possible?
Open source programming may not result in fewer bugs - but they do get fixed quicker
Data??
If the program requirements are incorrect that's the customer's fault - it's not up to the programmers to change what they're asked to do!
On any medium-large sized project, requirements are usually set by a project lead and program management, not customers. It usually is the programmer--er, usually developer/designer today--who helps refine, subtract from, and add to the requirements. The customer just wants a way to do something--it's rarely his/her fault that the resultant design is incorrect. That isn't to say there aren't exceptions to this.
Here's an old link I found about Gates' philanthropic tendencies: In 1999, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded more than $2 billion in grants. That's generous amongst the rich or average or poor.
He's intimated that he will give more than 90% of his wealth away before he dies, as do many of the superrich. So they don't attach as much wages as many other 'average' earners do--which is more effective?
Most of these guys invested in the economy, providing capital through stock purchases and cash holdings that allowed new companies to thrive, houses to be built, etc. And most, yes most, of these ultra-rich give much (most?) of their dollars away after they die. I'd rather see these "10% tithers" save their money, and rev up a large fortune.
Unfortunately, I can't find good statistics on the financial donations. I suspect you won't either--private donations are usually cash-type, non-entity sponsored form. In other words, if the UW gets a $1000 donation from John Smith, they don't and can't really do an analysis on what Mr. Smith's income is. There's some data derived from write-offs on federal tax forms, and this seems to show that the top 5% of the wage-earners represent most of the increases in charitable donations from year to year (a quarter of the increase in institutional contributions was from Bill Gates in 1999).
And don't forget that 91% of the taxes are paid by just the top 5% of the taxpayers. I know that our tax duties aren't philanthropic, but dammit, people want to act like the rich do _nothing_ but capitalize on those beneath them, and it just ain't true.
--ducks-- ;-)
This includes the Libretto L3, a 10" LCD, 600mhz-Crusue version of your own notebook. It's slightly bigger, but I think there are some other subnotes on this site that approach the size of the original Toshibas.