Computer science is in such a continuous state of flux
Really?
Maybe I have a view of CS that's be artificially narrowed through only being taught the things I have been taught, but:
In the last ten years,
Are there any paradigm shifts?
Are there any major new subbranches being started?
Are there any fundamental notions being challenged?
In short, how has CS changed?
The Church-Turing thesis still stands unchallenged. No one knows whether P equals NP. The parallel revolution is still in the future (even though algorithm guys study parallel algorithms). We still don't have quantum computing or biocomputing worth talking much about (yay, we can factor 21---into 4 and 6). By and large we still parse languages into a LALR(1) grammars like in... the 70's? User interfaces, they're still mouse-and-keyboard, Window/Icon/Menu/Pointer.
Exactly what do you mean when you say "Computer Science is in flux"? What's fluctuating?
Maybe they're using MAFIAA math... Each minute causes $5 worth of damage to their network...?
Obviously, each minute moving terrorist traffic could be spent moving song torrents worth $5 of kickback from the damages awarded to the RIAA members...
It just seems like a spiteful jab at MS and a double-standard that they don't apply to Apple, Canonical, etc.
I don't see it as a double standard at all: they apply it equally to all desktop OS monopolies.
There's also rumblings about going after Apple for their iTunes monopoly. Funny how they don't go after iZunes or ZuneStore or... does MS have something in this department?
Forcing MS not to bundle a simple default browser with their OS isn't leveling the playing field, it's forcing them to play with a disadvantage over everyone else.
Forcing MS not to bundle a browser AND stripping away their monopoly browser would disadvantage them.
Not forcing MS's hand and letting MS keep its monopoly position means everyone else plays with a disadvantage.
If ISPs don't offer enough service for price, people won't buy the service.
For many people, having an ISP is better than not having an ISP, and the ISP---because there often is only one---has to be very expensive and/or crappy (in terms of bandwidth and/or AUP/restrictions/caps/ads/etc.) before people say "No, I'll rather not have Internet access."
If Microsoft don't offer enough software for price, people won't buy the software.
Guess what, Microsoft has tried (and probably still is trying) to make it so you don't really (you know, in practice) have a choice if you want to use computers.
Making market-based arguments should be reserved for the cases in which the free market actually works. Dealing with (unregulated) monopolies is the first example of the opposite in my Microeconomics 101 textbook.
The EU are seen as money-grabbing corrupt bastards
Of course! "The EU", in the shape you hear about it, consists of politicians.
When I hear about "Denmark", or "Germany", or "Italy", I think of a geographical area, a people, a language, customs, culture, cuisine that all differ between one another.
When I hear about "Colorado", "California", "Texas" or "Massachussetts", I think of the USA, one people, one language, one set of customs, culture and cuisine.... And I think I'm right in doing so. When I hear about "The EU", I think of what politicians do in Bruxelles. The rest of what goes on in Europe goes on in a particular country (in my mind), not so much "The EU".
(I'm from Denmark, FWIW. we're an EU member, but we take exception to a few things; the common currency, for one).
But how can you trust something which bleeds for five days and doesn't die?
(I'm not a misogynist, I'm just parroting a superficially misogynistic joke which is funny not due to its misogyny but its shock-and-surprise value. "So there", or something...)
Isn't that pretty much the same thing that Mozilla requires?
Well, they require it for a trademark... license? It's a trademark issue, anyways. Regarding DJB, it's a copyright issue.
What's the difference? With firefox, if you replace the fox+globe logo with a globe logo and rename the program to FrozenRodent, you can do whatever the hell you please (if it's in line with at least one of firefox's license).
With DJB's software, I can't just strip out the "DanielMail" name and call it "JonasMail". No matter what I change, I still have to ask him for permission.
Wish that the idiots that post these things had the cojones to use their own names and not hide behind "AC" like a sniveling little girl hiding behind her mothers skirts.
Hi. My name is Jonas Kölker. I go by "jonaskoelker" in the interwebs only to be an ASCII-lover.
I don't think non-commercial copying of music, movies or software is wrong per se.
My underlying value is that I want humanity to be prosperous (defined as having the things we want, such as food, sex, friends, big TVs and cars, entertainment, self-actualization, etc.).
Much useful software can be produced in ways that satisfy the need for self-actualization; it can then be given away. Other software can be produced as a way to sell support (fulfilling the need for food and expensive cars as a strategy for getting laid); it, too, can be given away.
Similarly, music can be made for the purpose of self-actualization; it can also be given away.
If humanity's needs can be satisfied out of altruism, let's repeal copyright.
Maybe movies are too laborious (thus, expensive) to do as a hobby, on the scale needed to satisfy our needs and wants. In that case, maybe a copyright-protected movie industry is the right solution, and copying movies really is stealing the bread of the mouthes of the actors, editors, sound effect guys and middle men.
But in today's society, I see a lot of middle men becoming fat cats on the back of others, while paying said others a mere pittance. And I see the middle men buying laws which give them more power, not respecting the will of the people in a country that claims to be democratic.
Those laws are perfectly ethical to break.
But please don't! I don't want to come off as I'm advocating breaking the law, because (since most laws are good) advocating breaking the law is advocating doing something bad, which is bad, and I don't want to do bad things.
What it comes down to is that people on this site believe themselves to possess a God-given right to enjoy other people's work without paying, and they'll demand that "right" be defended by any means necessary
Or we recognize that it's overwhelmingly likely that Jammie did something illegal, but think it's better if Capitol Records loses, because
We plain ol' hate the RIAA members, Capitol Records included, and wish ill upon them;
We think they're right but their "argument" (legal tactics, evidence, etc.) is wrong and we don't want a precedent saying the "argument" is valid.
We think the consequences for Jammie of Capitol Records winning are unwarranted and the harm of no consequences are less than the harm of those consequences.
A number of other reasons.
It could be. Please consider all options and argue against all except the one you want to conclude if you want to be really certain you're right.
And if the game doesn't make heavy use of motion, why not ship it on another console, and improve the game in other areas (sound, graphics, physics, etc)?
There are many Wii owners whose money you can earn if you release for the Wii.
And speaking as a Wii owner, I don't give a rats ass about whether or not a game uses motion control. I did when Wii Sports was Teh Funzorz(!), but now I just want a good game.
Zelda uses motion sensing simply as "extra buttons"---you use it to swing your sword and thrust your shield, but the force and angle of your motion doesn't matter (as long as the angle is in the "right" eighth of space).
Okami and Metroid use the IR camera (i.e. "sensor" bar), not motion control, to give the wii pointing abilities roughly on par with a mouse. (Okami also uses a little motion control as "extra buttons").
Guitar Hero 3 uses only one motion control gesture, and only as an extra button, and there's even a button you can use instead---though, sadly, you can't disable the gesture; I like to keep the guitar pointing upwards quite a bit, which causes me to waste many a Star Power:(
I like all those games. Motion control has very little to do with it. A good control scheme (which happens to use motion control) has something to do with. Being really great games has a lot to do with it.
And outside of the U.S. I am fairly certain that the practice is both unappreciated and unwelcome. It is probably one of the larger reasons the U.S. is presently disliked in the world.
Quite on the contrary!
I think it's commendable for GWB to go to such great lengths to give democracy, rule of law and civil liberties to the Iraqi people.
I think it's especially noble of him, considering how he had to sacrifice those of his own people.
Could you imagine anything more noble than to give up what you value the most (it's in the constitution), such that not your friend, but your long time enemy could have them for himself.
Jesus would be proud of this man, as should every US citizen!
Here are some thoughts about what the summary says:
After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors
Let's assume that if it's large, it's important. I guess that if something is important to you, the downfall of anything that opposes it is good. But even at the expense of sane legal systems in other countries? Maybe Orin Hatch should take a word from a party fellow, GWB, about ensuring democracy and Rule of Law in other countries;-)
costs the US economy $58 billion in total output, costs American workers 373,375 jobs and $16.3 billion in earnings, and costs federal, state, and local governments $2.6 billion in tax revenue.
Let's see... the 16.3 billion dollars freed up by not having to be spent on music, I guess people just park them in their bank accounts---right? Or maybe people spend the money elsewhere, so that other people earn the same money (through jobs) and pay taxes off of them.
This seems awfully hard to measure. I'm sure those who came up with the numbers did their due diligence and did this hard measurement, so that the $16.3e9 figure is the difference between money saved on music and money spent on other stuff.
It's acceptable (unfortunately) for a shrink wrap app to die and corrupt [its] data
Not on any of my machines.
Second, it was wearing endlessly defending the idea of buying software [...] "If you were any good, you'd just develop it yourself."
I'll concede that being a system administrator for incompetent developers is a pain. I consider having a basic sense of how long stuff takes a core competence (at least on the order of is-it-days-or-months).
The next job you interview for, start doing some interviewing of them in return.
I'm thinking there should be a "Joel Test" for system administration (/IT) positions.
And I'm not really sure what should be in it, because what's "Good enough practices" for two laptops, a desktop, a router, a wii and a phone is vastly different from what's "Best practices" for even a small company (maybe except a two-man startup).
(For one, my self-inflicted data loss amounts to some Linear Algebra hand-in.tex files, and I have the pdfs to recreate them from. I worry more about hardware failure, so a big RAID is probably a fine "backup" solution for my home. No offsite backup. Sorry about your choking on your coffee:D)
I would seek work at a non SW company. Non[-]computer folk are much more appreciative.
I would venture a guess here, but first my background (so you can flame it to death:D): I'm a CS/crypto student, having interned as a developer, shared office with the local sysadmin, but never sysadmin'ed myself.
Computer folk (well duh) understand computer better. That means you can probably writer terser documentation. It also means they understand the difference between understanding networking and knowing the local network topology.
If they have just a tiny bit of humility, they'll accept that even though they could fix their computer problems if they had all the IT knowledge, it's more efficient for IT to spend on it so they can get back to coding.
They probably also understand that it's a non-trivial job, and even though they can install Apache on their home box and play with it they don't know what it really takes to run a corporate website.
They'll probably also do stupid things less often, so you can spend less time removing malware, changing wallpaper settings for them (there's a true story close to this...), etc.
You won't get a standing ovation for power cycling the printer. But on the other hand, you also won't get "Why did you break the printer?!? I'm on a deadline, you inconsiderate clod!!"
Completely unrelated: how do doctors with different specializations feel when they treat each other?
Slashdot Mirror
Go to a public university library.
Sure, that's only a $20 for train and bus tickets, and four hours of my time. Not much more overhead than clicking a link to a pdf file.
Don't underestimate the difference between free and "costs money". And don't underestimate the time it takes to get to your nearest university.
Computer science is in such a continuous state of flux
Really?
Maybe I have a view of CS that's be artificially narrowed through only being taught the things I have been taught, but:
In the last ten years,
In short, how has CS changed?
The Church-Turing thesis still stands unchallenged. No one knows whether P equals NP. The parallel revolution is still in the future (even though algorithm guys study parallel algorithms). We still don't have quantum computing or biocomputing worth talking much about (yay, we can factor 21---into 4 and 6). By and large we still parse languages into a LALR(1) grammars like in... the 70's? User interfaces, they're still mouse-and-keyboard, Window/Icon/Menu/Pointer.
Exactly what do you mean when you say "Computer Science is in flux"? What's fluctuating?
Let's assume women can talk on the phone for 16 hours each day (leaving them one hour to eat and use the toilet, seven hours to sleep).
Then, for three people to spend 12 million minutes on the phone would take well over eleven years.
That's 12e6 / 60 / 24 / 365 / 3 * 1.5 = 11.4155...
number of minutes / minutes per hour / hours per day / days per year / number of persons * phone use inefficiency factor (16-vs-24 hours per day).
No wonder people say slashdot is late with the news ;-)
Maybe they're using MAFIAA math... Each minute causes $5 worth of damage to their network...?
Obviously, each minute moving terrorist traffic could be spent moving song torrents worth $5 of kickback from the damages awarded to the RIAA members...
Wait, is that what you call cynicism? ;-)
It just seems like a spiteful jab at MS and a double-standard that they don't apply to Apple, Canonical, etc.
I don't see it as a double standard at all: they apply it equally to all desktop OS monopolies.
There's also rumblings about going after Apple for their iTunes monopoly. Funny how they don't go after iZunes or ZuneStore or... does MS have something in this department?
Forcing MS not to bundle a simple default browser with their OS isn't leveling the playing field, it's forcing them to play with a disadvantage over everyone else.
Forcing MS not to bundle a browser AND stripping away their monopoly browser would disadvantage them.
Not forcing MS's hand and letting MS keep its monopoly position means everyone else plays with a disadvantage.
Guess what the middle ground is trying to be.
If ISPs don't offer enough service for price, people won't buy the service.
For many people, having an ISP is better than not having an ISP, and the ISP---because there often is only one---has to be very expensive and/or crappy (in terms of bandwidth and/or AUP/restrictions/caps/ads/etc.) before people say "No, I'll rather not have Internet access."
If Microsoft don't offer enough software for price, people won't buy the software.
Guess what, Microsoft has tried (and probably still is trying) to make it so you don't really (you know, in practice) have a choice if you want to use computers.
Making market-based arguments should be reserved for the cases in which the free market actually works. Dealing with (unregulated) monopolies is the first example of the opposite in my Microeconomics 101 textbook.
The EU are seen as money-grabbing corrupt bastards
Of course! "The EU", in the shape you hear about it, consists of politicians.
When I hear about "Denmark", or "Germany", or "Italy", I think of a geographical area, a people, a language, customs, culture, cuisine that all differ between one another.
When I hear about "Colorado", "California", "Texas" or "Massachussetts", I think of the USA, one people, one language, one set of customs, culture and cuisine. ... And I think I'm right in doing so. When I hear about "The EU", I think of what politicians do in Bruxelles. The rest of what goes on in Europe goes on in a particular country (in my mind), not so much "The EU".
(I'm from Denmark, FWIW. we're an EU member, but we take exception to a few things; the common currency, for one).
Slashdot + talking about menstruation = NO!
But how can you trust something which bleeds for five days and doesn't die?
(I'm not a misogynist, I'm just parroting a superficially misogynistic joke which is funny not due to its misogyny but its shock-and-surprise value. "So there", or something...)
Or, to put it another way, it allows USB to enter the 20th century. :)
Yeah, I always hated how the USB support was broken for my Babbage Engine! It worked so much better on my Z3.
Isn't that pretty much the same thing that Mozilla requires?
Well, they require it for a trademark... license? It's a trademark issue, anyways. Regarding DJB, it's a copyright issue.
What's the difference? With firefox, if you replace the fox+globe logo with a globe logo and rename the program to FrozenRodent, you can do whatever the hell you please (if it's in line with at least one of firefox's license).
With DJB's software, I can't just strip out the "DanielMail" name and call it "JonasMail". No matter what I change, I still have to ask him for permission.
Wish that the idiots that post these things had the cojones to use their own names and not hide behind "AC" like a sniveling little girl hiding behind her mothers skirts.
Hi. My name is Jonas Kölker. I go by "jonaskoelker" in the interwebs only to be an ASCII-lover.
I don't think non-commercial copying of music, movies or software is wrong per se.
My underlying value is that I want humanity to be prosperous (defined as having the things we want, such as food, sex, friends, big TVs and cars, entertainment, self-actualization, etc.).
Much useful software can be produced in ways that satisfy the need for self-actualization; it can then be given away. Other software can be produced as a way to sell support (fulfilling the need for food and expensive cars as a strategy for getting laid); it, too, can be given away.
Similarly, music can be made for the purpose of self-actualization; it can also be given away.
If humanity's needs can be satisfied out of altruism, let's repeal copyright.
Maybe movies are too laborious (thus, expensive) to do as a hobby, on the scale needed to satisfy our needs and wants. In that case, maybe a copyright-protected movie industry is the right solution, and copying movies really is stealing the bread of the mouthes of the actors, editors, sound effect guys and middle men.
But in today's society, I see a lot of middle men becoming fat cats on the back of others, while paying said others a mere pittance. And I see the middle men buying laws which give them more power, not respecting the will of the people in a country that claims to be democratic.
Those laws are perfectly ethical to break.
But please don't! I don't want to come off as I'm advocating breaking the law, because (since most laws are good) advocating breaking the law is advocating doing something bad, which is bad, and I don't want to do bad things.
What it comes down to is that people on this site believe themselves to possess a God-given right to enjoy other people's work without paying, and they'll demand that "right" be defended by any means necessary
Or we recognize that it's overwhelmingly likely that Jammie did something illegal, but think it's better if Capitol Records loses, because
It could be. Please consider all options and argue against all except the one you want to conclude if you want to be really certain you're right.
And if the game doesn't make heavy use of motion, why not ship it on another console, and improve the game in other areas (sound, graphics, physics, etc)?
There are many Wii owners whose money you can earn if you release for the Wii.
And speaking as a Wii owner, I don't give a rats ass about whether or not a game uses motion control. I did when Wii Sports was Teh Funzorz(!), but now I just want a good game.
Zelda uses motion sensing simply as "extra buttons"---you use it to swing your sword and thrust your shield, but the force and angle of your motion doesn't matter (as long as the angle is in the "right" eighth of space).
Okami and Metroid use the IR camera (i.e. "sensor" bar), not motion control, to give the wii pointing abilities roughly on par with a mouse. (Okami also uses a little motion control as "extra buttons").
Guitar Hero 3 uses only one motion control gesture, and only as an extra button, and there's even a button you can use instead---though, sadly, you can't disable the gesture; I like to keep the guitar pointing upwards quite a bit, which causes me to waste many a Star Power :(
I like all those games. Motion control has very little to do with it. A good control scheme (which happens to use motion control) has something to do with. Being really great games has a lot to do with it.
Yes, IAAP
What's a pemist?
I define "German" to include "German Jews".
Much like you define "American" to include "American Jews" and "Arab" to include "Arab Jews", yes?
Why the inclusion of one particular religion?
And outside of the U.S. I am fairly certain that the practice is both unappreciated and unwelcome. It is probably one of the larger reasons the U.S. is presently disliked in the world.
Quite on the contrary!
I think it's commendable for GWB to go to such great lengths to give democracy, rule of law and civil liberties to the Iraqi people.
I think it's especially noble of him, considering how he had to sacrifice those of his own people.
Could you imagine anything more noble than to give up what you value the most (it's in the constitution), such that not your friend, but your long time enemy could have them for himself.
Jesus would be proud of this man, as should every US citizen!
Here are some thoughts about what the summary says:
After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors
Let's assume that if it's large, it's important. I guess that if something is important to you, the downfall of anything that opposes it is good. But even at the expense of sane legal systems in other countries? Maybe Orin Hatch should take a word from a party fellow, GWB, about ensuring democracy and Rule of Law in other countries ;-)
costs the US economy $58 billion in total output, costs American workers 373,375 jobs and $16.3 billion in earnings, and costs federal, state, and local governments $2.6 billion in tax revenue.
Let's see... the 16.3 billion dollars freed up by not having to be spent on music, I guess people just park them in their bank accounts---right? Or maybe people spend the money elsewhere, so that other people earn the same money (through jobs) and pay taxes off of them.
This seems awfully hard to measure. I'm sure those who came up with the numbers did their due diligence and did this hard measurement, so that the $16.3e9 figure is the difference between money saved on music and money spent on other stuff.
But I could be hopelessly naive ;-)
It's acceptable (unfortunately) for a shrink wrap app to die and corrupt [its] data
Not on any of my machines.
Second, it was wearing endlessly defending the idea of buying software [...] "If you were any good, you'd just develop it yourself."
I'll concede that being a system administrator for incompetent developers is a pain. I consider having a basic sense of how long stuff takes a core competence (at least on the order of is-it-days-or-months).
I wasn't implying that child porn is on the same level as ill-gotten downloads
You mean like ill-gotten gamez? ;-)
A bug is something not working as intended. Slashdot's rendering [...]
Snipped, but not so as to change the meaning ;)
The next job you interview for, start doing some interviewing of them in return.
I'm thinking there should be a "Joel Test" for system administration (/IT) positions.
And I'm not really sure what should be in it, because what's "Good enough practices" for two laptops, a desktop, a router, a wii and a phone is vastly different from what's "Best practices" for even a small company (maybe except a two-man startup).
(For one, my self-inflicted data loss amounts to some Linear Algebra hand-in .tex files, and I have the pdfs to recreate them from. I worry more about hardware failure, so a big RAID is probably a fine "backup" solution for my home. No offsite backup. Sorry about your choking on your coffee :D)
I would seek work at a non SW company. Non[-]computer folk are much more appreciative.
I would venture a guess here, but first my background (so you can flame it to death :D): I'm a CS/crypto student, having interned as a developer, shared office with the local sysadmin, but never sysadmin'ed myself.
Computer folk (well duh) understand computer better. That means you can probably writer terser documentation. It also means they understand the difference between understanding networking and knowing the local network topology.
If they have just a tiny bit of humility, they'll accept that even though they could fix their computer problems if they had all the IT knowledge, it's more efficient for IT to spend on it so they can get back to coding.
They probably also understand that it's a non-trivial job, and even though they can install Apache on their home box and play with it they don't know what it really takes to run a corporate website.
They'll probably also do stupid things less often, so you can spend less time removing malware, changing wallpaper settings for them (there's a true story close to this...), etc.
You won't get a standing ovation for power cycling the printer. But on the other hand, you also won't get "Why did you break the printer?!? I'm on a deadline, you inconsiderate clod!!"
Completely unrelated: how do doctors with different specializations feel when they treat each other?
Seppuku, anyone?
Then what do pirates do?
Let's just discuss tech, and let the personal stay personal.
Sure! When is Reiser4 coming out? ;-)