I believe in death. I believe in disease. I believe in injustice and inhumanity, and torture, and anger, and hate. I believe in murder. I believe in pain. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. I believe in slime and stink, and every crawling, putrid thing, every possible ugliness and corruption.
Well, in my area ( Hamilton, ON ) a GeForce card retails for about $550. Add the lovely GST and PST to that and you'are around $630, so $650 doesn't seem out of line with current prices ( not that I'd pay that much for a video card ).
Then it gets small. My life doesn't revolve around the web so much that I can't ignore sites that waste my time. If all sites wast my time, then I won't need the internet anymore. Simple.
It went on to say that ads that pop up between you and the page you're trying to read are the most effective
Yeah, most effective at making me leave that site and never come back. I usually surf with scripting turned off so popups don't bother me too much, but anyplace that makes it diffucult for me to view the content just isn't worth my time.
The sad thing is that this was Stephen Kings best book->movie conversion
To each thier own, but the movie isn't anything like the book. The only commonality is that there's a very popular game show where the contestants may die and the title. The book is far superior to the movie IMHO. There should be laws about saying a movie is "based" on a book when the movie doesn't even TRY to follow the story in the book...
And if I percieve your actions as unacceptable does that give me the right to do physical violence to you? Can I burn down your house if I disagree with you?
The problem with advocating viglante justice to stop something you perceive as "bad" is that the same argument can be turned against you. We, as a society need to find better ways of working out our differances than devolving into mobs with torches and pitchforks.
Religion is a mind-controlling device invented by a certain Jewish huckster named Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago.
Just a nitpick. Religion is much older than 2000 years. You said it yourself, Jesus was Jewish. There were many other faiths all over the world thousands of years before that. Perhaps you meant Christianity??
That's assuming that one can be productive for 7 hours straight every day. Personally, I'll take a break every once in a while to take a stroll around the office, have a quick chat with someone, or check slashdot:)
If I didn't take the occasional 5-10 minute break I'm pretty sure I'd be less productive in the long run.
They don't (or shouldn't) have to understand the business context around that code
I don't necessarily argree with that statement. If a coder doesn't understand the business context of the code he's going to write, how will he determine if the specs make any sense. Yes, we should all be given specs that are correct, but we all know this isn't always the case. If I don't know the business context, I could spend weeks writing code that will work to the specs, but won't do anything useful.
I assumed he meant "your new code isn't breaking something!". I'm not saying that building the test suites isn't a good idea ( in fact I'm trying to get my current company to go in that direction ), it's just the time it will take that is the main concern since we have a very large codebase.
That aside, just writing test suites for the functions you touched won't catch all the possible new broken code if the functions have any side-effects, so you've got to be very carful in what you don't write a test suite for initially. Baby steps are the most palatable way of doing it though:)
I don't think "integrate it into the code" means changing the existing code to make the test suites. I think he means that if you have a large existing codebase (without test suites), it will take a huge amount of time/effort to write the test suites for it. This is a legitimate concern since you'll have to write test suites for your entire program before you can add any new code as the previous poster noted.
How the HELL does something evolve like that? Like, does one giraffe look at another giraffe exploding and thinks "Hmm, maybe if I wibbled my legs apart a bit further I might be able to get away with it?" Are animals THAT self aware?
No, it's just that the only giraffes that lived long enough to procreate were the ones that displayed that behaviour. This is probably an instinct that is passed along genetically. Basically, any giraffes with the "wrong" instincts didn't live long enough to pass them on. What we end up with is all giraffes doing the leg spread:)
"I'm sorry sir, your test came back and your genetic makeup shows there's a high probability that you'll die in the next 80 years. We'll have to triple you rates now..."
A UI should be consistent. A program's UI should not just be internally consistent ( ie menus/mouse behaviour/tab behaviour etc, should be consistent in differnet views of the same program ) but should be consistent with other programs on the same OS. At least for a default. This would make things much easier for people to learn systems and programs.
We all know what road the Good Intentions Paving Company maintains...
While it's true that if this program is used only as intended it could help some kids who desperately need it, I don't think we can trust people that much. You can't possibly expect kids to use a system like this the way it is intended. Kids in general REALLY disklike anyone who doesn't "fit in". This dislike often borders on hatred. While I don't think the average kid would misuse the system, there are too many who would. It only takes one kid to "report" on little Johnny to ruin him. Once that kind of accusation has been made ( especially in today's climate ) it becomes a case of "prove to us you're not dangerous". This system is a bad, bad idea.
I'm glad I finished high school years ago before the world went completely nuts, but what do I do about my kids??
It's a form of negative billing. Very similar to what the TV cable companies tried to do here in Canada a couple of years ago. Basically they attempted to put everybody on all the new "packages" they were releasing. Unless you went to the cable company and told them you didn't want the service, you'd get billed for it. Of course, they backed off when there was a huge public outcry.
*sigh* Take away people's freedoms and they don't care. Mess with thier TV service and all hell breaks loose! Why does that just seem WRONG?
This kind of reminds me of the old "If we only knew the exact position and velocity of all the particles in the universe, we could predict everything that will ever happen" argument that arose shortly after Newton.
If you accept this argument (and ignore some of the non-predictable, quantom nature of things) then you also have to accept that you have NO free will. Everything you do, think and say was determined at the birth of the universe, along with everything else in history.
However, if we choose to say that this is not the case ( ie the universe is NOT deterministic) then I think there are problems with getting a human mind into a machine (at least as the article proposes). Sure you may one day develop the technology to get a "snapshot" of my brain, but what about some of the things happening at a quantum level? A few years ago I read an article (the name of the author escapes me, but I think he's fairly well known) about how it may be this quantum activity that allows our brains to have "conciousness". Does anybody else know the article/author's name?
Anyway, my point is I don't think that a snapshot of the neurons and transmitters in my head can FULLY represent what is "me".
Slashdot Mirror
I believe in death. I believe in disease. I believe in injustice and inhumanity, and torture, and anger, and hate. I believe in murder. I believe in pain. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. I believe in slime and stink, and every crawling, putrid thing, every possible ugliness and corruption.
:)
Too many exorcist movies perhaps?
Well, in my area ( Hamilton, ON ) a GeForce card retails for about $550. Add the lovely GST and PST to that and you'are around $630, so $650 doesn't seem out of line with current prices ( not that I'd pay that much for a video card ).
"A famous brand-name soft drink has been found to be fatal. We won't tell you which one until after sports and the weather!" - Ken Brockman
Then it gets small. My life doesn't revolve around the web so much that I can't ignore sites that waste my time. If all sites wast my time, then I won't need the internet anymore. Simple.
It went on to say that ads that pop up between you and the page you're trying to read are the most effective
Yeah, most effective at making me leave that site and never come back. I usually surf with scripting turned off so popups don't bother me too much, but anyplace that makes it diffucult for me to view the content just isn't worth my time.
Don't forget "Stand By Me"
The sad thing is that this was Stephen Kings best book->movie conversion
To each thier own, but the movie isn't anything like the book. The only commonality is that there's a very popular game show where the contestants may die and the title. The book is far superior to the movie IMHO. There should be laws about saying a movie is "based" on a book when the movie doesn't even TRY to follow the story in the book...
And if I percieve your actions as unacceptable does that give me the right to do physical violence to you? Can I burn down your house if I disagree with you?
The problem with advocating viglante justice to stop something you perceive as "bad" is that the same argument can be turned against you. We, as a society need to find better ways of working out our differances than devolving into mobs with torches and pitchforks.
MS ivensted $600 in Rogers??? I hope they don't spend it all in one place :)
I think it's supposed to be $600 million dollars.
So I guess this is an announcement of the announcement? :)
Religion is a mind-controlling device invented by a certain Jewish huckster named Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago.
Just a nitpick. Religion is much older than 2000 years. You said it yourself, Jesus was Jewish. There were many other faiths all over the world thousands of years before that. Perhaps you meant Christianity??
That's assuming that one can be productive for 7 hours straight every day. Personally, I'll take a break every once in a while to take a stroll around the office, have a quick chat with someone, or check slashdot :)
If I didn't take the occasional 5-10 minute break I'm pretty sure I'd be less productive in the long run.
That's right!! And by 2001 we'll only work two days a week, and have colonies on the moon, and...
:(
Oh....
They don't (or shouldn't) have to understand the business context around that code
I don't necessarily argree with that statement. If a coder doesn't understand the business context of the code he's going to write, how will he determine if the specs make any sense. Yes, we should all be given specs that are correct, but we all know this isn't always the case. If I don't know the business context, I could spend weeks writing code that will work to the specs, but won't do anything useful.
I assumed he meant "your new code isn't breaking something!". I'm not saying that building the test suites isn't a good idea ( in fact I'm trying to get my current company to go in that direction ), it's just the time it will take that is the main concern since we have a very large codebase.
:)
That aside, just writing test suites for the functions you touched won't catch all the possible new broken code if the functions have any side-effects, so you've got to be very carful in what you don't write a test suite for initially. Baby steps are the most palatable way of doing it though
I don't think "integrate it into the code" means changing the existing code to make the test suites. I think he means that if you have a large existing codebase (without test suites), it will take a huge amount of time/effort to write the test suites for it. This is a legitimate concern since you'll have to write test suites for your entire program before you can add any new code as the previous poster noted.
How the HELL does something evolve like that? Like, does one giraffe look at another giraffe exploding and thinks "Hmm, maybe if I wibbled my legs apart a bit further I might be able to get away with it?" Are animals THAT self aware?
:)
No, it's just that the only giraffes that lived long enough to procreate were the ones that displayed that behaviour. This is probably an instinct that is passed along genetically. Basically, any giraffes with the "wrong" instincts didn't live long enough to pass them on. What we end up with is all giraffes doing the leg spread
"I'm sorry sir, your test came back and your genetic makeup shows there's a high probability that you'll die in the next 80 years. We'll have to triple you rates now..."
A UI should be consistent. A program's UI should not just be internally consistent ( ie menus/mouse behaviour/tab behaviour etc, should be consistent in differnet views of the same program ) but should be consistent with other programs on the same OS. At least for a default. This would make things much easier for people to learn systems and programs.
This program appears to be well intended
We all know what road the Good Intentions Paving Company maintains...
While it's true that if this program is used only as intended it could help some kids who desperately need it, I don't think we can trust people that much. You can't possibly expect kids to use a system like this the way it is intended. Kids in general REALLY disklike anyone who doesn't "fit in". This dislike often borders on hatred. While I don't think the average kid would misuse the system, there are too many who would. It only takes one kid to "report" on little Johnny to ruin him. Once that kind of accusation has been made ( especially in today's climate ) it becomes a case of "prove to us you're not dangerous". This system is a bad, bad idea.
I'm glad I finished high school years ago before the world went completely nuts, but what do I do about my kids??
I cant think of anything else as stimulating and satisfying as computer work (code, design, etc)
:)
I can think of a couple of things... Of course they mostly involve my girlfriend
My sentiments exactly!
It's a form of negative billing. Very similar to what the TV cable companies tried to do here in Canada a couple of years ago. Basically they attempted to put everybody on all the new "packages" they were releasing. Unless you went to the cable company and told them you didn't want the service, you'd get billed for it. Of course, they backed off when there was a huge public outcry.
*sigh* Take away people's freedoms and they don't care. Mess with thier TV service and all hell breaks loose! Why does that just seem WRONG?
Here's an article that may give you some incite into the problem.
:)
Of course it could just confuse you even more
http://members.aol.com/NeoNoetics/Nagel_Bat.html
This kind of reminds me of the old "If we only knew the exact position and velocity of all the particles in the universe, we could predict everything that will ever happen" argument that arose shortly after Newton.
If you accept this argument (and ignore some of the non-predictable, quantom nature of things) then you also have to accept that you have NO free will. Everything you do, think and say was determined at the birth of the universe, along with everything else in history.
However, if we choose to say that this is not the case ( ie the universe is NOT deterministic) then I think there are problems with getting a human mind into a machine (at least as the article proposes). Sure you may one day develop the technology to get a "snapshot" of my brain, but what about some of the things happening at a quantum level? A few years ago I read an article (the name of the author escapes me, but I think he's fairly well known) about how it may be this quantum activity that allows our brains to have "conciousness". Does anybody else know the article/author's name?
Anyway, my point is I don't think that a snapshot of the neurons and transmitters in my head can FULLY represent what is "me".
What job can you possible get that you don't have to use a PC at????????
How about working in construction? Janatorial services? Assembly lines? etc,etc... All good, honest ways of making a living.