In case you didn't notice, you're a nobody also. And so was Galileo, and Copernicus, and Columbus. Join the crowd.
"now known to be dangerous?"
PROVE to me that these people disagreeing is dangerous. Go ahead. I'm waiting.
You can't do it. You disagree with them and are only trying to shut them up. (And me, as well.)
"You're view is not share by the vast majority of climatology experts."
Again, the earth is flat, the sun orbits the earth, etc etc. What is now known as fact was previously 'known' to be false. You can't prove this is any different.
Put away your stones and stand back. If these people are truly crackpots, they'll hang themselves with their own ropes. If not, you people are going to look like absolute fools.
Are you seriously saying that the only problem you see with testing Nuclear Weapons is that someone once signed a paper saying they wouldn't? Really??
The true problem is the same in both cases, paper or no. I'll spell it out for you:
Extremely dangerous weapon.
Yes, the nuke seems to be a much worse weapon because it destroys ground for tens of miles out, for tens of years or more... The laser, by itself, only destroys non-ground targets. If combined with other weapons, when other countries don't have lasers, it can become a nearly-impenetrable defense. This leads them to developing and using whatever weapons they want, as long as they are they only ones with that defense. This means EVERYONE has to develop laser weapons to 'defend' themselves, just like they 'had' to produce nukes to defend themselves.
It's going to take a lot of money, time and stress, for nothing. Nothing. (Well, sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads will be cool, but not worth the money, time and stress, really.)
If we decertified everyone that held a view we thought was 'potentially very dangerous' we'll be right back to thinking the world is flat or other now-obviously-false things.
I've seen enough lately about global warming to think that we may actually have considerably less effect on the environment than we think. The Earth goes through hot-cold cycles constantly and we have probably sped up this cycle. That's not a good thing. But if you look at the long view... We're about to run out of oil anyhow. They keep predicting 10 years, but they'd done that for 5 or 10 years already. So let's assume it'll stretch out to 30 years. In 30 years, we won't be ABLE to make the pollution that we have been. Nature put built-in limits on it. So we'll have polluted for a few hundred years at the most, then calm down on it whether we like it or not. A hundred years later, I bet we won't even be able to tell anything changed.
It's a fact that the planet is heating up. We know that. But correlation is not the same as causation. We can't separate exactly how much the planet heated up because of things humans have done, and if we can't do that, we can't PROVE that 'global warming' is an issue.
They want to decertify people over a subject that they can't prove.
So, either admit that the earth is flat and God never intended people to fly, or live with the fact that there are people who don't believe what is 'common sense' and fight the system. I kind of like those people.
You're assuming that they make it that far in their career. Have you ever heard of the Peter Principle? It basically states that everyone will rise to the level of their incompetence. They'll be promoted as long as they are doing the job well. When they are promoted high enough that they no longer do the job well, they'll stop being promoted. They'll end up in a job that aren't quite competent in.
It's the same deal here. The promotion above 'senior programmer' is 'project leader', which is a halfway-management position. The promotions above that are all management positions.
Competent programmers will be promoted to management, and incompetent ones will remain programmers. (Except for the few who fight to stay programmers, instead of being 'promoted' out of the area they love.)
"For instance, I have absolutely no ambitions to become a manager."
I feel exactly the same way. And yet, in every technical position I've ever been in, I was 'managing' in a very short time. I was always still responsible for programming/repairing/whatever, but as soon as they realized I wasn't an idiot, it was my job to overseeing one or more other people. Training 'the new guy' is one thing, and I'm okay with that. But it usually ends up that I'm responsible for making sure his projects are coming along, or the projects of some outsourced company, or... Bleh.
When ITT's career counseling was trying to prep me for interviews, I told them that I didn't want to ever be management. They thought I was crazy and told me to NEVER say that in an interview. I finally made it clear to them that I refused to lie in an interview and they gave up.
I don't feel any need to quit my current job, but they are growing fast and talking about hiring more in-house programmers already. The IT department will soon be big enough that -someone- has to be a 'manager' and the other non-new guy obviously doesn't want it, either.
Was being a contractor the only way you found to assure that you weren't stuck managing?
"The Orange Box is available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. It retails for a modest $59.99."
This also doesn't state ANYTHING about buying the pieces seperately. These are obviously bundle packs. Individual pricing apparently has not been announced. Whether this is because there will be no individual sales (unlikely, I think) or because they are trying to hype Black and Orange (both known as 'the new pink'... odd!) we don't know yet.
"It's so big they'll never have enough storage space!" "It's so big they'll never have enough bandwidth!" "It's so big they'll never have enough... !" -- Fill in whatever.
These are no serious impediments. Pirates routinely download 5GB (and 9GB) DVDs all the time and they don't have problem with that. Their ISPs don't suddenly cap them. They don't suddenly find their quality of life has depreciated because they can't download enough porn.
It doesn't happen like that.
ISPs increase bandwidth. Hard drives get bigger. Writable media gets larger. Compression gets more advanced.
I'm on the experimental interface for Slashdot. It changes quite a lot and some days won't show posts, sometimes other things... The last few days, Slashdot is only showing me reply buttons on posts with high enough score to be shown fully automatically.
I love the new interface, so I put up with the little quirks that pop up once or twice a week and they eventually get fixed.
Good deal. I was wondering how many others might also see this as a good thing, instead of an annoyance. (There was a time that I would have been in the 'annoyance' class.)
I'm still worried about the customer service nightmares (lost/stolen dongle) but I'm sure they could be worked out. I suppose the standard 'personal questions' approach would do the job.
I used to hoard my ideas in the thought that I would eventually use them in a game and make a bajillion dollars. Then I realized that it'll never happen, and I spread the ideas and hope someone can make them happen.
"And in your scheme, if you lose the dongle, you are screwed if you were using it instead of username/password."
Yes, that's why I added "Thoughts: Lost/broken USB drive? Any backup means I can think of is another backdoor for a 'hacker'. (I use that term loosely.)" to the post. Name ANY dongle scheme that does not have this problem.
The whole 'point' of the dongle if to increase security. If that security is at the expense of usability, a good many people won't want it. It's their right to be insecure. You're thinking about the company's security again, instead of the consumer's. Let me be clear:
I AM ONLY THINKING OF THE CONSUMER'S SECURITY.
If the consumer chooses not to use the dongle, it's no skin off my back. Their account is just less secure for them. It doesn't cause a security breach on my side. But for those consumers that are worried about security, the dongle will appeal to them and they'll use it.
(Slashdot won't show me the reply links on replies now... So I'm starting a new post. Firefox2/Linux, btw.)
So, is this the first time in the history of dongles that the 'security' provided by the dongle is for the USER and not the company? -boggle-
I actually think this is a great idea, IF it's optional. Example:
You buy New-RPG. You install New-RPG and plug in the dongle. At that point, you have the option to create a username and password, or use the dongle as your authentication mechanism. Later, if you want to change, you simply insert the dongle and go to the config and change it. (Needed to enable AND disable, for obvious reasons.)
If (huge IF) I ever write an online game, I'm going to seriously consider this. I tend towards 'free' games, so I'd probably make it write the authentication to a USB drive.
Thoughts: Lost/broken USB drive? Any backup means I can think of is another backdoor for a 'hacker'. (I use that term loosely.) Copied auth data? Use the hardware ID of the USB drive as part of the auth? Hacked executable to send any auth data they wish? Troublesome.
At any rate, I'm astonished at the thought of a dongle actually protecting the user instead of the company.
"Then, throwing would-be critics a nasty curveball, you pre-empt what you *know* to be their rebuttals "
I've posted on Slashdot before.;) I've found that if you don't spell things out, some fool will reply with an ever-so-amazingly-obvious reply that has an even-more-amazingly-obvious rebuttal that you are then forced to post to prove you were not a complete moron after all. Never assume the reader can think. But by that time you've been modded as flamebait and overrated so much that your post is toast and... Well, it all ends in tears.
I'll admit their point was that it was misleading, but the information they chose to make that point... Nope. The post clearly states that the Wii was not related to the contest in any way, and it was.
'Kill' does carry connotations and 'Wii' is definitely a buzzword, but 'Wii-related' is definitely the correct term. (Sometimes you have to pick your battles. Heh.)
As one of those who 'misunderstood' that statement for years, and just looked it up, allow me to explain to everyone what the real meaning is:
Einstein was not saying anything about Fate or God or Free-will. He referring to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which basically says that events at the "microphysical" level happen 'by pure chance' or 'without any cause'. Einstein maintained that it wasn't without cause, we were simply unable to make measurements that fine and could not predict the movements.
It's implicit. You can redistribute as long as you follow the conditions stated. Nothing in the conditions prevents you from adding other conditions.
Here's a test:
Can you redistribute BSD licensed code while sitting? Yes.
"Nothing permits you to redistribute BSD licensed code while sitting. That's the way copyright law works. Anything that is not permitted is prohibited." - Wrong.
While drunk? Yes. While at home? Yes. While at work? Yes. While...
Permission was given to anyone who followed certain conditions. Anything else not stated does not matter.
This goes for any software license. It outlines the exact conditions you must follow in order to do X. If you follow those, even if you're doing a billion other things, then you can do X.
Nothing says the modified code has to be distributed UNDER the license. Only that the copyright notice, conditions, and disclaimer in the license are retained. Nothing prevents you from adding more copyright notices, conditions and disclaimers.
Sorry, but you're wrong. It IS related. It was the prize of the contest. The woman would NOT have been there if it wasn't a Wii, she'd have been somewhere else.
"But it could have been any prize."
Not for this woman. She (or most other people) probably wouldn't have wanted just any prize badly enough. Nobody would ingest enough water to kill them to win a toaster.
"It could have been anyone."
Sure it could have. But it wasn't.
The fact the matter is that the headline is correct. It IS Wii-related. They did not try to make it sound like the Wii was involved in the competition, only that it was related to it. And it is.
If it was related to any other product, they'd have put that product in the headline, and you probably wouldn't have screamed about it. You are only mad because the Wii is 'in' right now.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you only need a license if you plan to let others use your work in some way, shape or form? You are protected by Copyright law without a license and there are no exceptions. Licenses provide any general exceptions you want to give.
Demoscene people generally have a very small set of people they even want to hear their music. There's some live events and a few websites and that's it.
Slashdot Mirror
In case you didn't notice, you're a nobody also. And so was Galileo, and Copernicus, and Columbus. Join the crowd.
"now known to be dangerous?"
PROVE to me that these people disagreeing is dangerous. Go ahead. I'm waiting.
You can't do it. You disagree with them and are only trying to shut them up. (And me, as well.)
"You're view is not share by the vast majority of climatology experts."
Again, the earth is flat, the sun orbits the earth, etc etc. What is now known as fact was previously 'known' to be false. You can't prove this is any different.
Put away your stones and stand back. If these people are truly crackpots, they'll hang themselves with their own ropes. If not, you people are going to look like absolute fools.
Are you seriously saying that the only problem you see with testing Nuclear Weapons is that someone once signed a paper saying they wouldn't? Really??
The true problem is the same in both cases, paper or no. I'll spell it out for you:
Extremely dangerous weapon.
Yes, the nuke seems to be a much worse weapon because it destroys ground for tens of miles out, for tens of years or more... The laser, by itself, only destroys non-ground targets. If combined with other weapons, when other countries don't have lasers, it can become a nearly-impenetrable defense. This leads them to developing and using whatever weapons they want, as long as they are they only ones with that defense. This means EVERYONE has to develop laser weapons to 'defend' themselves, just like they 'had' to produce nukes to defend themselves.
It's going to take a lot of money, time and stress, for nothing. Nothing. (Well, sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads will be cool, but not worth the money, time and stress, really.)
If we decertified everyone that held a view we thought was 'potentially very dangerous' we'll be right back to thinking the world is flat or other now-obviously-false things.
I've seen enough lately about global warming to think that we may actually have considerably less effect on the environment than we think. The Earth goes through hot-cold cycles constantly and we have probably sped up this cycle. That's not a good thing. But if you look at the long view... We're about to run out of oil anyhow. They keep predicting 10 years, but they'd done that for 5 or 10 years already. So let's assume it'll stretch out to 30 years. In 30 years, we won't be ABLE to make the pollution that we have been. Nature put built-in limits on it. So we'll have polluted for a few hundred years at the most, then calm down on it whether we like it or not. A hundred years later, I bet we won't even be able to tell anything changed.
It's a fact that the planet is heating up. We know that. But correlation is not the same as causation. We can't separate exactly how much the planet heated up because of things humans have done, and if we can't do that, we can't PROVE that 'global warming' is an issue.
They want to decertify people over a subject that they can't prove.
So, either admit that the earth is flat and God never intended people to fly, or live with the fact that there are people who don't believe what is 'common sense' and fight the system. I kind of like those people.
You're assuming that they make it that far in their career. Have you ever heard of the Peter Principle? It basically states that everyone will rise to the level of their incompetence. They'll be promoted as long as they are doing the job well. When they are promoted high enough that they no longer do the job well, they'll stop being promoted. They'll end up in a job that aren't quite competent in.
It's the same deal here. The promotion above 'senior programmer' is 'project leader', which is a halfway-management position. The promotions above that are all management positions.
Competent programmers will be promoted to management, and incompetent ones will remain programmers. (Except for the few who fight to stay programmers, instead of being 'promoted' out of the area they love.)
"For instance, I have absolutely no ambitions to become a manager."
... Bleh.
I feel exactly the same way. And yet, in every technical position I've ever been in, I was 'managing' in a very short time. I was always still responsible for programming/repairing/whatever, but as soon as they realized I wasn't an idiot, it was my job to overseeing one or more other people. Training 'the new guy' is one thing, and I'm okay with that. But it usually ends up that I'm responsible for making sure his projects are coming along, or the projects of some outsourced company, or
When ITT's career counseling was trying to prep me for interviews, I told them that I didn't want to ever be management. They thought I was crazy and told me to NEVER say that in an interview. I finally made it clear to them that I refused to lie in an interview and they gave up.
I don't feel any need to quit my current job, but they are growing fast and talking about hiring more in-house programmers already. The IT department will soon be big enough that -someone- has to be a 'manager' and the other non-new guy obviously doesn't want it, either.
Was being a contractor the only way you found to assure that you weren't stuck managing?
Because it states something redundant.
In this case, it restates what TFS already said without adding anything useful.
"The Orange Box is available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and includes Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal and Team Fortress. It retails for a modest $59.99."
... odd!) we don't know yet.
This also doesn't state ANYTHING about buying the pieces seperately. These are obviously bundle packs. Individual pricing apparently has not been announced. Whether this is because there will be no individual sales (unlikely, I think) or because they are trying to hype Black and Orange (both known as 'the new pink'
Exercise your right view ads. thinkoutside.org [thinkoutside.org]
There, I fixed that for you.
"It's so big they'll never have enough storage space!" ... !" -- Fill in whatever.
"It's so big they'll never have enough bandwidth!"
"It's so big they'll never have enough
These are no serious impediments. Pirates routinely download 5GB (and 9GB) DVDs all the time and they don't have problem with that. Their ISPs don't suddenly cap them. They don't suddenly find their quality of life has depreciated because they can't download enough porn.
It doesn't happen like that.
ISPs increase bandwidth. Hard drives get bigger. Writable media gets larger. Compression gets more advanced.
It's no big deal.
I'm on the experimental interface for Slashdot. It changes quite a lot and some days won't show posts, sometimes other things... The last few days, Slashdot is only showing me reply buttons on posts with high enough score to be shown fully automatically.
I love the new interface, so I put up with the little quirks that pop up once or twice a week and they eventually get fixed.
Good deal. I was wondering how many others might also see this as a good thing, instead of an annoyance. (There was a time that I would have been in the 'annoyance' class.)
I'm still worried about the customer service nightmares (lost/stolen dongle) but I'm sure they could be worked out. I suppose the standard 'personal questions' approach would do the job.
I used to hoard my ideas in the thought that I would eventually use them in a game and make a bajillion dollars. Then I realized that it'll never happen, and I spread the ideas and hope someone can make them happen.
"And in your scheme, if you lose the dongle, you are screwed if you were using it instead of username/password."
Yes, that's why I added "Thoughts: Lost/broken USB drive? Any backup means I can think of is another backdoor for a 'hacker'. (I use that term loosely.)" to the post. Name ANY dongle scheme that does not have this problem.
The whole 'point' of the dongle if to increase security. If that security is at the expense of usability, a good many people won't want it. It's their right to be insecure. You're thinking about the company's security again, instead of the consumer's. Let me be clear:
I AM ONLY THINKING OF THE CONSUMER'S SECURITY.
If the consumer chooses not to use the dongle, it's no skin off my back. Their account is just less secure for them. It doesn't cause a security breach on my side. But for those consumers that are worried about security, the dongle will appeal to them and they'll use it.
(Slashdot won't show me the reply links on replies now... So I'm starting a new post. Firefox2/Linux, btw.)
So, is this the first time in the history of dongles that the 'security' provided by the dongle is for the USER and not the company? -boggle-
I actually think this is a great idea, IF it's optional. Example:
You buy New-RPG. You install New-RPG and plug in the dongle. At that point, you have the option to create a username and password, or use the dongle as your authentication mechanism. Later, if you want to change, you simply insert the dongle and go to the config and change it. (Needed to enable AND disable, for obvious reasons.)
If (huge IF) I ever write an online game, I'm going to seriously consider this. I tend towards 'free' games, so I'd probably make it write the authentication to a USB drive.
Thoughts: Lost/broken USB drive? Any backup means I can think of is another backdoor for a 'hacker'. (I use that term loosely.)
Copied auth data? Use the hardware ID of the USB drive as part of the auth?
Hacked executable to send any auth data they wish? Troublesome.
At any rate, I'm astonished at the thought of a dongle actually protecting the user instead of the company.
I don't have any mod points, so I'm going to express my regard in text.
Excellent reference!
"Then, throwing would-be critics a nasty curveball, you pre-empt what you *know* to be their rebuttals "
;) I've found that if you don't spell things out, some fool will reply with an ever-so-amazingly-obvious reply that has an even-more-amazingly-obvious rebuttal that you are then forced to post to prove you were not a complete moron after all. Never assume the reader can think. But by that time you've been modded as flamebait and overrated so much that your post is toast and ... Well, it all ends in tears.
I've posted on Slashdot before.
I'll admit their point was that it was misleading, but the information they chose to make that point... Nope. The post clearly states that the Wii was not related to the contest in any way, and it was.
'Kill' does carry connotations and 'Wii' is definitely a buzzword, but 'Wii-related' is definitely the correct term. (Sometimes you have to pick your battles. Heh.)
As one of those who 'misunderstood' that statement for years, and just looked it up, allow me to explain to everyone what the real meaning is:
Einstein was not saying anything about Fate or God or Free-will. He referring to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which basically says that events at the "microphysical" level happen 'by pure chance' or 'without any cause'. Einstein maintained that it wasn't without cause, we were simply unable to make measurements that fine and could not predict the movements.
It's implicit. You can redistribute as long as you follow the conditions stated. Nothing in the conditions prevents you from adding other conditions.
Here's a test:
Can you redistribute BSD licensed code while sitting? Yes.
"Nothing permits you to redistribute BSD licensed code while sitting. That's the way copyright law works. Anything that is not permitted is prohibited." - Wrong.
While drunk? Yes.
While at home? Yes.
While at work? Yes.
While...
Permission was given to anyone who followed certain conditions. Anything else not stated does not matter.
This goes for any software license. It outlines the exact conditions you must follow in order to do X. If you follow those, even if you're doing a billion other things, then you can do X.
Kill: "to cause the death of"
Yes.
kill != murder.
Nothing says the modified code has to be distributed UNDER the license. Only that the copyright notice, conditions, and disclaimer in the license are retained. Nothing prevents you from adding more copyright notices, conditions and disclaimers.
Sorry, but you're wrong. It IS related. It was the prize of the contest. The woman would NOT have been there if it wasn't a Wii, she'd have been somewhere else.
"But it could have been any prize."
Not for this woman. She (or most other people) probably wouldn't have wanted just any prize badly enough. Nobody would ingest enough water to kill them to win a toaster.
"It could have been anyone."
Sure it could have. But it wasn't.
The fact the matter is that the headline is correct. It IS Wii-related. They did not try to make it sound like the Wii was involved in the competition, only that it was related to it. And it is.
If it was related to any other product, they'd have put that product in the headline, and you probably wouldn't have screamed about it. You are only mad because the Wii is 'in' right now.
Dihydrogen Monoxide is Dangerous! They've been telling us for years, but we just don't listen!
http://www.dhmo.org/
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you only need a license if you plan to let others use your work in some way, shape or form? You are protected by Copyright law without a license and there are no exceptions. Licenses provide any general exceptions you want to give.
Demoscene people generally have a very small set of people they even want to hear their music. There's some live events and a few websites and that's it.
His statement means that FOSS developers won't be able to program for the phone. Even for-profit developers will have to kiss Jobs' feet and pay dues.
Screw that.
Maybe you should stop relying on a single source for you advertising.
... wait, you did that.
Maybe you should actually monitor your forums. You know, in case your customers need your help or a SPAM-bot goes on a rampage.
Maybe you should actually have a site that people care about so they'll keep coming back.
Maybe you should slashvertise and
If your site is worthwhile, dropping off Google for a week won't affect it that much, and you'll actually have control over your forums.
Slashdot is freaking out again and I can't reply to the reply.
You are correct, I was looking at the upgrade pricing instead of the regular pricing.
The fact that there is no 'unlimited' version is still odd. I suppose it must only have existed in 1.x...