It wasn't the overall score that disappointed me, but the specific scores. "89,04%" for Windows viruses? Ouch! "67,20%" for script viruses/malware? Double-ouch! (Other malware is a different category, which also performs poorly. I don't use it for anti-malware, but I expect it to catch the viral ones.)
I don't use OSX at work myself (I use Kubuntu) but most other employees do, including the owners. The biggest problem we have is that OSX will randomly corrupt the preferences file. Deleting it fixes the problem, but loses information like stored logins. This is a problem, as the CSRs don't actually have the passwords to the stuff.
All-in-all, I'd say we have about as many problems with OSX as we did with Windows. The only reason we switched is that one of the managers used it and talked the owners into trying it. They liked it enough better that they decided to purchase all OSX except for a couple of us techs, and accounting which uses proprietary software. The other tech is gone and now it's just me and the servers that are Linux.
Luckily, I've managed to stay mostly ignorant of OSX so I don't have to do any tech support on them, and can actually do the job they hired me for, instead. (Well, most of the time.)
My first thought was 'Ah, Creationist! Burn him!' and then I choked that down and thought, 'Actually, that's a good point.'
But I think the reason that God is always left out of science is because there's no test for that. Being ominiscient and ominpotent, he has the ability to either make a reason for the thing to be that way, or make it appear there's a reason. We couldn't know, because God will always beat us to it. Always.
So because it doesn't help us a single iota to keep saying 'Or God could have just made it that way,' we simply leave that off. From now on, you can mentally tack on the 'or God made it that way' to the end of every set of theories.
"If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code."
Assuming they did not modify the games (and I doubt they did) and that they downloaded the games pre-compiled (not source, and I assume they did), then they only have to make known where they downloaded it, so that others may do the same.
The artwork and other non-code items are a different matter entirely, of course. They are likely not free to use for commercial use.
Re:Explaintions. (Yes, I spelled it wrong on purpo
on
Schools Banning Homework?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Since you're the only one that disagreed with me that showed any ability to debate at all, I'll respond to you.
There's 2 types of homework: Busywork, and learning reinforcement. (Despite the other response that says learning can't be reinforced, this not true. If you do something over and over, you remember it easier.)
For young students, how much is there really to reinforce? It's pretty much all just memorization, and you either memorize it or you don't. I suspect the 'homework' for these students was busywork, and not good for them, hence the negative relationship.
For older students, there's more thought and less memorization involved. Essays, word-problems, calculations, etc. This is a behavior that is being learned, and not just memorization.
The final thing to realize is that not all homework is equal. Even if the teacher means well and wants to reinforce the day's lesson, they might assign the 'odd problems' (you know, the ones that have the answers in the back) so that the student can 'check their own work.' I think I was the only kid in the school that didn't cheat on that. (Mainly because it was even more boring than doing the problems.)
Explaintions. (Yes, I spelled it wrong on purpose)
on
Schools Banning Homework?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I wonder how they are going to explain the drop in grades? Probably blame it on the teachers or some such.
Homework exists to reinforce the learning from the schoolday. It is not punishment, and it is not surplus work to keep the devil from taking over their souls.
As much as I hated homework (even moreso because I learned very well during the class), I have to admit that it does reinforce the learning. It's the 'doing' that reinforces the 'learning'.
Yes, and a good portion of the time, people will know what you mean when you say 'this'. There are cases when it is totally unclear, though.
On Tuesday, you ask you friend 'When did Ms. Wright say the paper is due?' and your friend says 'This Monday.' Is that yesterday, or 6 days later? 'Monday next week' or 'Yesterday' would have been clear. Due to the odd use of 'this' and 'next', neither of them can be used to specify the day with any certainty of the person understanding.
When you say 'next'... It's not as clear as 'this'.
For example: On Tuesday, you say 'Next Monday, I am going to Detroit.' 'This Monday' is obviously 6 days later. Is 'Next Monday' the same day, or a week later? If I said it, I'd mean the same day. When my co-worker said it (a couple weeks ago) he meant mean the week after.
Adding 'last' or 'next' to a month or day name means you are not talk about the closest one, but the one beyond that. I really wish people would stop saying it because it IS confusing.
'January this year' and 'January last year' are a LOT clearer.
Also, say you are in September and say 'this January'... Which one do you mean? The one coming, or the one last year? Often, you'd mean the January in the future, but... Not always. Too much context is needed.
So your webhost won't upgrade, and that's PHP's fault? PHP5 has been out a LONG time. Don't bother complaining about bugs in PHP4 simply because your website can't be bothered to upgrade. Find a decent webhost instead.
strpos() return FALSE when it can't find the 'needle'. http://us2.php.net/strpos Use a proper test (===) and you'll have all you need in a single statement.
Some people really LIKE dynamically-typed variables. It's not a bug or a problem. It's a design choice.
Your flamebait at the end (vbscript) does nothing to enhance your argument. Leave it off next time.
You mean something like: "Kaspersky has a higher % on that chart, AND it doesn't screw up the system?"
Norton, when it goes bad, is a nightmare to remove. And that's your only option, as you can't just fix the installation once it gets that bad. If you've already gone through the pain to remove it, why not just recommend the better solution and be done with it?
Personally, I like AVG, but that chart doesn't say great things about it. I'm disappointed in its performance. I'm seriously considering seeking a better solution.
Maybe it's about efficiency. If they spare time, they might choose to do just that. For the rest of us (who have NO spare time) it's about getting the most efficient exercise in the time we have.
I agree, Sony did nothing wrong. What they did was not smart. With all the trouble they've had in the last year, the last thing they want to do is piss off any gamers or gamer news sites.
If they'd done exactly as they did, but didn't TELL them they were doing it, none of this would be an issue. This is simple PR, and Sony has failed even in that arena.
2 years ago, I'd have been seriously considering getting in line for a PS3. I love(d) my PS2 and had a ton of fun with it. But their attitude, and their increasingly shoddy products, have made me reconsider. The PSP, while a good machine, has hardly any games I care to play at all. The PS3 still doesn't have a game I'll even look at. Their 'innovations' are simply an arms race. And their attitude towards their customers is absolutely abbhorent.
And now they go and deliberately piss off customers and sites. Not smart.
Okay, you admitted it's a bad analogy already, but let's finish it off:
Your neighbor happens to be the guy all the cool people come to talk to. He gets all the gossip, and people like to listen to what he says. He's very careful to label rumors as such.
But the rumor isn't leprosy, as that could be considered a danger to the community. (Whether it is or isn't, isn't at issue here.) Instead, the rumor is that you're getting a pool. But you REALLY want to be the one to tell everyone. You neighbor, gossip monger that he is, can't help himself over such a trivial, fun tidbit that he really isn't even sure of.
So you turn the cold shoulder to him. In return, he tells all his people how you are now treating him. Over a silly little rumor that he wasn't even really sure of. Why are you being so mean to him? You don't have to TELL him you're going to be mean, just stop telling him anything that might be rumor-ish.
On the other hand, if you are using your work email address for things you are doing that have nothing to do with the company, you are just asking for trouble.
I'm sure there are some that weren't 'sponsored', but for the most part, I think it's a pretty safe assumption to make.
And Photoshop-as-a-web-app won't be crap? I don't particularly care for The GIMP either, but it's a darn sight better than a web implementation of an image editing app.
On #3, 1 more tip: Don't try to talk about things you know nothing about. You'll appear a fool and get exactly the kind of attention you don't want.
I know it's very tempting to try to learn new things all the time, but if you are angling to get noticed and promoted, asking basic questions is not the way.
Sorry, I meant the project is probably a pipe dream. Not the name of the game. (A pipe dream is a project that is unrealistic or unlikely to be completed.)
It's funny, I was just thinking a couple months ago that it would be neat if I managed to make a nice game (pipe dream?) and that GameTap could be a nice way to earn money from it, if I could convince them that they wanted small titles.
Not that this is entirely from nowhere, as Sam & Max is from a small company and GT is getting it as it is released.
Anyhow, it's nice to see that they are doing this.
Yup, same here. k800i, and it all worked before. Now it just says 'connecting' and sits there. I just finished submitting my cancel request for the data services.
I share a plan with my mother, father and sister, and my mother just re-upped for 2 years to get free phones. (Mom and Sis are murder on phones.) If they hadn't, we'd be changing rather quickly. MetroPCS has unlimited minutes... Very tempting.
The 2 EB Games stores (owned by GameStop) are the opposite. They usually have about 3 people in the store, and 2 are usually talking to customers while the third checks people out.
The game racks are generally in alpha order. (How they manage this, I can't imagine... It must be a nightmare.) The near one usually only gets pre-orders on release day, but the one at the mall generally has extras. (Larger customer base.)
And they generally have all the pre-order materials, like the bonus discs and such.
In addition, they are polite and honest about games. They actually tell me, without asking, if the game in my hand is only 5 hours long (Trace Memory DS) and will politely recommend games like the ones I'm holding, if I'm looking for more.
They generally actually know about each game, and sometimes even give conflicting personal reviews. (One guy liked Red Steel, believe it or not.)
They aren't just company shills, and they actually take time to get to know the customers.
Not all EB/GS stores are the same. I'd much rather go to mine than buy at a Walmart, BestBuy or anywhere online. Customer service is the ONLY difference.
You've stated the bad, and that's what I usually look for in a review when I want a new game. (I've been considering Vanguard for a while.) But I find that nobody is stating the good, which is disconcerting. Can you tell me what you -do- like about the game? In particular, can you tell me how good/bad the combat, magic, crafting, and quest systems are?
Slashdot Mirror
It wasn't the overall score that disappointed me, but the specific scores. "89,04%" for Windows viruses? Ouch! "67,20%" for script viruses/malware? Double-ouch! (Other malware is a different category, which also performs poorly. I don't use it for anti-malware, but I expect it to catch the viral ones.)
I don't use OSX at work myself (I use Kubuntu) but most other employees do, including the owners. The biggest problem we have is that OSX will randomly corrupt the preferences file. Deleting it fixes the problem, but loses information like stored logins. This is a problem, as the CSRs don't actually have the passwords to the stuff.
All-in-all, I'd say we have about as many problems with OSX as we did with Windows. The only reason we switched is that one of the managers used it and talked the owners into trying it. They liked it enough better that they decided to purchase all OSX except for a couple of us techs, and accounting which uses proprietary software. The other tech is gone and now it's just me and the servers that are Linux.
Luckily, I've managed to stay mostly ignorant of OSX so I don't have to do any tech support on them, and can actually do the job they hired me for, instead. (Well, most of the time.)
My first thought was 'Ah, Creationist! Burn him!' and then I choked that down and thought, 'Actually, that's a good point.'
But I think the reason that God is always left out of science is because there's no test for that. Being ominiscient and ominpotent, he has the ability to either make a reason for the thing to be that way, or make it appear there's a reason. We couldn't know, because God will always beat us to it. Always.
So because it doesn't help us a single iota to keep saying 'Or God could have just made it that way,' we simply leave that off. From now on, you can mentally tack on the 'or God made it that way' to the end of every set of theories.
Oh c'mon, how did this not get modded insightful yet?
From the GPL:
"If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code."
Assuming they did not modify the games (and I doubt they did) and that they downloaded the games pre-compiled (not source, and I assume they did), then they only have to make known where they downloaded it, so that others may do the same.
The artwork and other non-code items are a different matter entirely, of course. They are likely not free to use for commercial use.
Since you're the only one that disagreed with me that showed any ability to debate at all, I'll respond to you.
There's 2 types of homework: Busywork, and learning reinforcement. (Despite the other response that says learning can't be reinforced, this not true. If you do something over and over, you remember it easier.)
For young students, how much is there really to reinforce? It's pretty much all just memorization, and you either memorize it or you don't. I suspect the 'homework' for these students was busywork, and not good for them, hence the negative relationship.
For older students, there's more thought and less memorization involved. Essays, word-problems, calculations, etc. This is a behavior that is being learned, and not just memorization.
The final thing to realize is that not all homework is equal. Even if the teacher means well and wants to reinforce the day's lesson, they might assign the 'odd problems' (you know, the ones that have the answers in the back) so that the student can 'check their own work.' I think I was the only kid in the school that didn't cheat on that. (Mainly because it was even more boring than doing the problems.)
I wonder how they are going to explain the drop in grades? Probably blame it on the teachers or some such.
Homework exists to reinforce the learning from the schoolday. It is not punishment, and it is not surplus work to keep the devil from taking over their souls.
As much as I hated homework (even moreso because I learned very well during the class), I have to admit that it does reinforce the learning. It's the 'doing' that reinforces the 'learning'.
Yes, and a good portion of the time, people will know what you mean when you say 'this'. There are cases when it is totally unclear, though.
On Tuesday, you ask you friend 'When did Ms. Wright say the paper is due?' and your friend says 'This Monday.' Is that yesterday, or 6 days later? 'Monday next week' or 'Yesterday' would have been clear. Due to the odd use of 'this' and 'next', neither of them can be used to specify the day with any certainty of the person understanding.
When you say 'next' ... It's not as clear as 'this'.
For example: On Tuesday, you say 'Next Monday, I am going to Detroit.' 'This Monday' is obviously 6 days later. Is 'Next Monday' the same day, or a week later? If I said it, I'd mean the same day. When my co-worker said it (a couple weeks ago) he meant mean the week after.
Adding 'last' or 'next' to a month or day name means you are not talk about the closest one, but the one beyond that. I really wish people would stop saying it because it IS confusing.
... Which one do you mean? The one coming, or the one last year? Often, you'd mean the January in the future, but ... Not always. Too much context is needed.
'January this year' and 'January last year' are a LOT clearer.
Also, say you are in September and say 'this January'
I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure there is.
On the other hand, if there isn't, any half-assed geek could write one and distribute it for free.
As the guy said, this is -good- for FOSS. It highlights the kind of BS that you'll never have to put up with from FOSS.
So your webhost won't upgrade, and that's PHP's fault? PHP5 has been out a LONG time. Don't bother complaining about bugs in PHP4 simply because your website can't be bothered to upgrade. Find a decent webhost instead.
strpos() return FALSE when it can't find the 'needle'. http://us2.php.net/strpos Use a proper test (===) and you'll have all you need in a single statement.
Some people really LIKE dynamically-typed variables. It's not a bug or a problem. It's a design choice.
Your flamebait at the end (vbscript) does nothing to enhance your argument. Leave it off next time.
You mean something like: "Kaspersky has a higher % on that chart, AND it doesn't screw up the system?"
Norton, when it goes bad, is a nightmare to remove. And that's your only option, as you can't just fix the installation once it gets that bad. If you've already gone through the pain to remove it, why not just recommend the better solution and be done with it?
Personally, I like AVG, but that chart doesn't say great things about it. I'm disappointed in its performance. I'm seriously considering seeking a better solution.
Maybe it's about efficiency. If they spare time, they might choose to do just that. For the rest of us (who have NO spare time) it's about getting the most efficient exercise in the time we have.
I agree, Sony did nothing wrong. What they did was not smart. With all the trouble they've had in the last year, the last thing they want to do is piss off any gamers or gamer news sites.
If they'd done exactly as they did, but didn't TELL them they were doing it, none of this would be an issue. This is simple PR, and Sony has failed even in that arena.
2 years ago, I'd have been seriously considering getting in line for a PS3. I love(d) my PS2 and had a ton of fun with it. But their attitude, and their increasingly shoddy products, have made me reconsider. The PSP, while a good machine, has hardly any games I care to play at all. The PS3 still doesn't have a game I'll even look at. Their 'innovations' are simply an arms race. And their attitude towards their customers is absolutely abbhorent.
And now they go and deliberately piss off customers and sites. Not smart.
Okay, you admitted it's a bad analogy already, but let's finish it off:
;)
Your neighbor happens to be the guy all the cool people come to talk to. He gets all the gossip, and people like to listen to what he says. He's very careful to label rumors as such.
But the rumor isn't leprosy, as that could be considered a danger to the community. (Whether it is or isn't, isn't at issue here.) Instead, the rumor is that you're getting a pool. But you REALLY want to be the one to tell everyone. You neighbor, gossip monger that he is, can't help himself over such a trivial, fun tidbit that he really isn't even sure of.
So you turn the cold shoulder to him. In return, he tells all his people how you are now treating him. Over a silly little rumor that he wasn't even really sure of. Why are you being so mean to him? You don't have to TELL him you're going to be mean, just stop telling him anything that might be rumor-ish.
That's a better bad analogy.
On the other hand, if you are using your work email address for things you are doing that have nothing to do with the company, you are just asking for trouble.
I'm sure there are some that weren't 'sponsored', but for the most part, I think it's a pretty safe assumption to make.
And Photoshop-as-a-web-app won't be crap? I don't particularly care for The GIMP either, but it's a darn sight better than a web implementation of an image editing app.
On #3, 1 more tip: Don't try to talk about things you know nothing about. You'll appear a fool and get exactly the kind of attention you don't want.
I know it's very tempting to try to learn new things all the time, but if you are angling to get noticed and promoted, asking basic questions is not the way.
Sorry, I meant the project is probably a pipe dream. Not the name of the game. (A pipe dream is a project that is unrealistic or unlikely to be completed.)
It's funny, I was just thinking a couple months ago that it would be neat if I managed to make a nice game (pipe dream?) and that GameTap could be a nice way to earn money from it, if I could convince them that they wanted small titles.
Not that this is entirely from nowhere, as Sam & Max is from a small company and GT is getting it as it is released.
Anyhow, it's nice to see that they are doing this.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source
draconian (dr-k'n-n, dr-) Pronunciation Key
adj. Exceedingly harsh; very severe: a draconian legal code; draconian budget cuts.
Words evolve. Deal with it.
My uncle was an anayzer, you insensitive clod!
Yup, same here. k800i, and it all worked before. Now it just says 'connecting' and sits there. I just finished submitting my cancel request for the data services.
I share a plan with my mother, father and sister, and my mother just re-upped for 2 years to get free phones. (Mom and Sis are murder on phones.) If they hadn't, we'd be changing rather quickly. MetroPCS has unlimited minutes... Very tempting.
The 2 EB Games stores (owned by GameStop) are the opposite. They usually have about 3 people in the store, and 2 are usually talking to customers while the third checks people out.
The game racks are generally in alpha order. (How they manage this, I can't imagine... It must be a nightmare.) The near one usually only gets pre-orders on release day, but the one at the mall generally has extras. (Larger customer base.)
And they generally have all the pre-order materials, like the bonus discs and such.
In addition, they are polite and honest about games. They actually tell me, without asking, if the game in my hand is only 5 hours long (Trace Memory DS) and will politely recommend games like the ones I'm holding, if I'm looking for more.
They generally actually know about each game, and sometimes even give conflicting personal reviews. (One guy liked Red Steel, believe it or not.)
They aren't just company shills, and they actually take time to get to know the customers.
Not all EB/GS stores are the same. I'd much rather go to mine than buy at a Walmart, BestBuy or anywhere online. Customer service is the ONLY difference.
You've stated the bad, and that's what I usually look for in a review when I want a new game. (I've been considering Vanguard for a while.) But I find that nobody is stating the good, which is disconcerting. Can you tell me what you -do- like about the game? In particular, can you tell me how good/bad the combat, magic, crafting, and quest systems are?
Thanks