The article says it's available on Amazon, but they have it listed as unavailable. Anyone know where you can buy it? 'Can't believe ThinkGeek doesn't carry it yet, would seem a more obvious reason for/. to post a review...
I don't think you can compare static art with a motion picture. Paintings aren't temporally dependent. Much of the 'art' of movies is defined in the way dependencies are developed between scenes, much like chapters in a good novel. Showing too much in a trailer spoils these unexpected dependencies.
I personally think that The Usual Suspects has a great deal of artistic value, but I would've been pissed had they said "***** ****** is Keyser Soze" in a trailer.
you don't understand. I'm a *developer* for a high-end CAD package. Software developer, not a CAD-operator.
Out of ~750 developers on our main product (including the CAE, CAM components), I would hazard a guess that 10% are PhDs. I have no PhD myself, but my specialty (graphics/rendering) would be greatly enhanced by it. And yes, my plain old masters was helpful for everything from basic calc to geometric representation, and even run-of-the-mill database theory and basic algorithm design.
The PhD's aren't just product planners and managers, many are also plain old developers.
And in the design engineer space, *many* design analysts who are everyday CAD/CAE users have a PhD. If a CAD operator/design engineer wants to progress in a large project team, a PhD can help to pave the road.
Disagree. Look beyond the mindset of going to school just to make more money.
why would I want a CS degree?
In my case, because doing web or DB work makes me want to shove a fork into my eye. I would say this -- plumbers can make more money than you, why are you wasting your time doing web work when you can sweat pipes? I'd say it's because you're lucky enough to be doing what you like to do, you didn't have to go to school specifically for it, and you make good money -- kudos to you. Not everyone is that lucky, and not everyone dislikes coursework.
The stuff schools are teaching in quickly changing fields like IT is already dated anyhow.
Dykstra, Turing, Bessier, Knuth -- outdated? Damn! I guess I've been doing this CAD development work completely wrong for the past five years....I should read SIGGRAPH more closely.
The populace of India, particularly the rising geek-white-collar crowd that has money, is increasingly blending meat into their diet. I have friends in India who regularly eat mutton and fish, and even the 'hill people' (their words) will eat a respectable amount of snake.
Because of this, there is a scary increase in heart disease amongst Indians that are adopting this more 'western' diet. It would be interesting to see how the plot would look if you tracked rise of tech jobs versus meat consumption. Perhaps the 'new' Indian diet is supplying more creatine, explaining the country's newfound ability to do good tech work? (tongue planted firmly in cheek)
'Kind of a circular argument, isn't it? The Republican is bad because he nominated Republicans to the courts. This is bad because Republicans are bad because they nominate Republicans to the courts. My head spins. I'm sure you can come up with a better example of the evils of the GOP.
Your assumption (which I disagree with) is that Federal judges should all be moderates. Personally, I would say that Clinton's wishy-washy, moderate stance on so many important issues (like Federal court nominations) made him far more evil a choice than the alternatives. He was way too afraid to take any stance that went off-center.
You ought to take it easy with the name calling and hyper-aggressive criticism. People will more readily listen to you if you keep from discussing matters of polity with the ferocity of a sports fanatic.
Nothing about it's revisionist, considering I never said the US was involved in WWII in 1940. Largely due to paranoia (what else drove Stalin and most of his successors?), Russia invaded Finland in 1940. If the British (and French!) hand't intervened, Finland would probably just now be regaining its independence after having become part of the Iron Curtain. Look up the Invasion of Finland sometime. And yes, I know the US wasn't involved. I was generalizing -- even daring to defend -- all so-called 'military police action' countries.
I was generally responding to the parent's off-handed slam against the US that seems so popular on/. these days, trying to offer the idea that the world isn't totally rotten. But indeed you seem to want to hammer the pessimist's view home. Well done.
Hmm... this is based on the assumption that most of the desktop pub market migrated to OSX. I don't have numbers, but the half dozen or so ad houses I know have stayed back at OS9 so they could run Quark, but YMMV.
That rings a bell -- weren't there two robot experts that worked for 'The Company' in all of the robot short stories? Wasn't Dr. Susan Whatherface the robo-psychiatrist always talking about those two guys, one of which was Donovan? It's been some years...
as someone in the US should be culpable for advertizing Nazi memorabilia across the internet to someone in France
He's saying someone in the US *should* be held accountable for breaking other countries' laws. He just didn't necessarily agree with the law.
BTW, If it weren't for countries like Britain and the US, who are willing to send their young men to die for the causes of others, Finland might have entirely disappeared from the map in 1940...
Yeah, it's actually very hard to come up with consistent numbers. I just did a little poking, the Indian gov't claims ~25%, but I found sources that still quoted as high as 50%. You hit the nail on the head -- what's poverty? We talk about the poor in America, but no one in America lives like the poorest of India and Africa, unless they're seriously mentally impaired.
The most interesting quote I read was by a famous Indian intellectual who said something to the extent economic growth is *always* followed by a decline in poverty. India has, since 1991, had its greatest economic growth ever.
At any rate, it's safe to say they're doing much better than they were, but they've still a long way to go.
Yeah, those Indians sure are living the high-life financially at the moment.
Actually, they are. Remember that currency conversion works some magic for companies. One-third the dollars in India affords a comfortable middle-class existence.
I have a friend in Pune who works as a QA guy, as does his wife, and they own two cars, a house, and work in a brand new office building that sports an indoor pool and gym. in other words, he lives like any one of us might.
Poverty is down to about 25% in India, and what the West would consider a middle class is growing exponentially. This is still a *huge* amount of extremely poor people, but it's a *huge* improvement over the ~60% poverty that existed 30 years ago. Unfortunately, it's just an inevitable that a huge divide exists between the extremely poor and this new class of tech-type professional there. Don't think for a minute that the tech guys there are some sort of 3rd world sweatshop workers.
It'd be like if they exported tech jobs from San Francisco to Indianapolis, and then assumed the Indiana workers were living in squalor because they were making 25% less than their west-coast equivalents. It's just a whole lot cheaper to live there. (analogy might be bad, but you get the point;-) )
Re:Different than any other production staff?
on
A Tour of Pixar
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm...doesn't sound like much fun at all -- 'hope you're more happy where you are now.
Different than any other production staff?
on
A Tour of Pixar
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The salary stuff doesn't really surprise me -- this could happen at just about every large company in the world. That's why you don't discuss salaries with your office mates; demand to be paid what you deserve, and negotiate something acceptable to you and management. It is still a business, and if management thinks you're happy making what you're making, why should they offer anything more than the normal wage increases? If your salary expectation on hire was 20k lower than what they were willing to pay, and 20k lower than your office mate's, why should they pay you more?
As for the caste system at Pixar, the disparate culture doesn't surprise me, either. From your less-than-thrilled-with-Pixar-attitude, I'm assuming that you weren't in production. I work at a software company, production apps, not consulting, and the culture, albeit not as extreme as you describe, is similar. I wear jeans to work and can work my own hours so long as my projects are done on time. Certainly there's more of a creative atmosphere fostered on this side of the pond. The accounting and HR people have to wear business casual (at least), and work strict 8 to 6 hours. Legal and sales are even more formal. It's just the nature of the beast. Although, I think it was 'Fire in the Valley' that describes Job's carefully orchestrated tension between the Mac and Apple groups. It wouldn't surprise me if he did the same thing at Pixar.
Northamericans -please, dont use "american"; america is mucho more that US
I guess this is a troll, but it irritates me so much that I have to respond.
'Northamerican' would be inaccurate by your flawed logic, too. Canada is part of North America, and clearly you're talking about citizens of the USA.
The United States of America is the only country of the world to include 'America' in its title, so calling someone from the US an 'American' uses an accurate and unique derivative of the country's name. Perhaps you should review some geography lessons on the differences between countries and continents.
i'm sure indian president talk better english than George W. Bush
Lastly, you should really check your own grammar before you criticize someone else's.
I second the other poster and say to go check for yourself -- our local electronics store has a couple of gas plasma displays hooked up to Tivo and Replay, so you should be able to find something similar and get a pretty good demo.
My experience, with Replay, has been very good. There are 3 quality levels, the highest of which is, IMHO, fairly indiscernable from straight cable on my Samsung hdtv (CRT, not projection, so the quality is quite good). Occasionally I'll see a compression artifact at the highest quality, but for the most part the benefits *far* outway the small loss.
And the most lossy quality setting is good for recording the nightly Simpsons reruns;-).
demonstarted precisely why much of the world thinks poorly of American
Then everyone in the world should think poorly of everyone else. The kind of generalizing/profiling that you condemn is common amongst more than Americans. Articles blossomed everywhere after the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal describing widespread fear for parents of Asian college students; many (read many, not all) of them had such a distorted view of American culture that they feared that 'intern' equated to 'sex slave'.
It is most definitely unreasonable and unfair, and I hate to see my fellow Americans, and my fellow human beings, hate each other for some poorly formed generalizations. But it's also an innately human flaw, not just an American one.
Really? I guess cnet got the story wrong, then? They had to smash the windows with a sledgehammer to get him out, the doors would not unlock. But I guess you know everything about BMWs, smart guy.
BTW, moderators who modded down the original post, doesn't this qualify as "When Bad Software Kills"?
My chiropractor is still using Medi-Soft on his 286-10MHz with 512-Kbit RAM and an old 40-Mbyte drive, running DOS 5. He refuses to spend the time to learn something new.
Yeah, that's a guy I want to be adjusting my back. Probably doesn't believe in that 'new fangled' aspirin for aches, either.
Slashdot Mirror
Wearing technology or technology wearing you?
The article says it's available on Amazon, but they have it listed as unavailable. Anyone know where you can buy it? 'Can't believe ThinkGeek doesn't carry it yet, would seem a more obvious reason for /. to post a review...
I personally think that The Usual Suspects has a great deal of artistic value, but I would've been pissed had they said "***** ****** is Keyser Soze" in a trailer.
Out of ~750 developers on our main product (including the CAE, CAM components), I would hazard a guess that 10% are PhDs. I have no PhD myself, but my specialty (graphics/rendering) would be greatly enhanced by it. And yes, my plain old masters was helpful for everything from basic calc to geometric representation, and even run-of-the-mill database theory and basic algorithm design.
The PhD's aren't just product planners and managers, many are also plain old developers.
And in the design engineer space, *many* design analysts who are everyday CAD/CAE users have a PhD. If a CAD operator/design engineer wants to progress in a large project team, a PhD can help to pave the road.
Yup, and I meant Bezier, not Bessier. I never said I could spell ;-).
why would I want a CS degree?
In my case, because doing web or DB work makes me want to shove a fork into my eye. I would say this -- plumbers can make more money than you, why are you wasting your time doing web work when you can sweat pipes? I'd say it's because you're lucky enough to be doing what you like to do, you didn't have to go to school specifically for it, and you make good money -- kudos to you. Not everyone is that lucky, and not everyone dislikes coursework.
Dykstra, Turing, Bessier, Knuth -- outdated? Damn! I guess I've been doing this CAD development work completely wrong for the past five years....I should read SIGGRAPH more closely.
Because of this, there is a scary increase in heart disease amongst Indians that are adopting this more 'western' diet. It would be interesting to see how the plot would look if you tracked rise of tech jobs versus meat consumption. Perhaps the 'new' Indian diet is supplying more creatine, explaining the country's newfound ability to do good tech work? (tongue planted firmly in cheek)
Shrike Rover, 1k Slaughtered On One Command
Your assumption (which I disagree with) is that Federal judges should all be moderates. Personally, I would say that Clinton's wishy-washy, moderate stance on so many important issues (like Federal court nominations) made him far more evil a choice than the alternatives. He was way too afraid to take any stance that went off-center.
You ought to take it easy with the name calling and hyper-aggressive criticism. People will more readily listen to you if you keep from discussing matters of polity with the ferocity of a sports fanatic.
I was generally responding to the parent's off-handed slam against the US that seems so popular on /. these days, trying to offer the idea that the world isn't totally rotten. But indeed you seem to want to hammer the pessimist's view home. Well done.
Hmm... this is based on the assumption that most of the desktop pub market migrated to OSX. I don't have numbers, but the half dozen or so ad houses I know have stayed back at OS9 so they could run Quark, but YMMV.
That rings a bell -- weren't there two robot experts that worked for 'The Company' in all of the robot short stories? Wasn't Dr. Susan Whatherface the robo-psychiatrist always talking about those two guys, one of which was Donovan? It's been some years...
as someone in the US should be culpable for advertizing Nazi memorabilia across the internet to someone in France
He's saying someone in the US *should* be held accountable for breaking other countries' laws. He just didn't necessarily agree with the law.
BTW, If it weren't for countries like Britain and the US, who are willing to send their young men to die for the causes of others, Finland might have entirely disappeared from the map in 1940...
The most interesting quote I read was by a famous Indian intellectual who said something to the extent economic growth is *always* followed by a decline in poverty. India has, since 1991, had its greatest economic growth ever.
At any rate, it's safe to say they're doing much better than they were, but they've still a long way to go.
Actually, they are. Remember that currency conversion works some magic for companies. One-third the dollars in India affords a comfortable middle-class existence.
I have a friend in Pune who works as a QA guy, as does his wife, and they own two cars, a house, and work in a brand new office building that sports an indoor pool and gym. in other words, he lives like any one of us might.
Poverty is down to about 25% in India, and what the West would consider a middle class is growing exponentially. This is still a *huge* amount of extremely poor people, but it's a *huge* improvement over the ~60% poverty that existed 30 years ago. Unfortunately, it's just an inevitable that a huge divide exists between the extremely poor and this new class of tech-type professional there. Don't think for a minute that the tech guys there are some sort of 3rd world sweatshop workers.
It'd be like if they exported tech jobs from San Francisco to Indianapolis, and then assumed the Indiana workers were living in squalor because they were making 25% less than their west-coast equivalents. It's just a whole lot cheaper to live there. (analogy might be bad, but you get the point ;-) )
Hmmm...doesn't sound like much fun at all -- 'hope you're more happy where you are now.
As for the caste system at Pixar, the disparate culture doesn't surprise me, either. From your less-than-thrilled-with-Pixar-attitude, I'm assuming that you weren't in production. I work at a software company, production apps, not consulting, and the culture, albeit not as extreme as you describe, is similar. I wear jeans to work and can work my own hours so long as my projects are done on time. Certainly there's more of a creative atmosphere fostered on this side of the pond. The accounting and HR people have to wear business casual (at least), and work strict 8 to 6 hours. Legal and sales are even more formal. It's just the nature of the beast. Although, I think it was 'Fire in the Valley' that describes Job's carefully orchestrated tension between the Mac and Apple groups. It wouldn't surprise me if he did the same thing at Pixar.
Or first posts... ;-)
I guess this is a troll, but it irritates me so much that I have to respond.
'Northamerican' would be inaccurate by your flawed logic, too. Canada is part of North America, and clearly you're talking about citizens of the USA.
The United States of America is the only country of the world to include 'America' in its title, so calling someone from the US an 'American' uses an accurate and unique derivative of the country's name. Perhaps you should review some geography lessons on the differences between countries and continents.
i'm sure indian president talk better english than George W. Bush
Lastly, you should really check your own grammar before you criticize someone else's.
My experience, with Replay, has been very good. There are 3 quality levels, the highest of which is, IMHO, fairly indiscernable from straight cable on my Samsung hdtv (CRT, not projection, so the quality is quite good). Occasionally I'll see a compression artifact at the highest quality, but for the most part the benefits *far* outway the small loss.
And the most lossy quality setting is good for recording the nightly Simpsons reruns ;-).
Then everyone in the world should think poorly of everyone else. The kind of generalizing/profiling that you condemn is common amongst more than Americans. Articles blossomed everywhere after the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal describing widespread fear for parents of Asian college students; many (read many, not all) of them had such a distorted view of American culture that they feared that 'intern' equated to 'sex slave'.
It is most definitely unreasonable and unfair, and I hate to see my fellow Americans, and my fellow human beings, hate each other for some poorly formed generalizations. But it's also an innately human flaw, not just an American one.
As for your own blathering, two braincell point --
I suppose you're going to take anything BMW's PR people say as gospel? Prick.
BTW, moderators who modded down the original post, doesn't this qualify as "When Bad Software Kills"?
Yeah, that's a guy I want to be adjusting my back. Probably doesn't believe in that 'new fangled' aspirin for aches, either.