The market didn't shun the PS3 because it was late to market, they shunned it because the games on offer aren't appreciably more compelling than the ones for the other consoles, but it retails for twice, and three times the cost of the 360 and Wii respectively.
As someone that's seen this first hand, I've got to say it's definitely not caused by abnormal usage. Any slight jostle has the possibility of causing the disk to become gouged, and sometimes it doesn't even need to be moved in order for it to happen. My 360 regularly puts slight scratches on any disk inserted into it under normal circumstances, but so far non of them have been bad enough to prevent play. The only time I've seen gouges bad enough to ruin a disk (on my console) was when someone tripped over a cord and knocked the console onto its side. Even so, the occasional jostle should not be an automatic death sentence to any disk in the drive, and certainly carefully turning the console on its side should be within the normal usage.
The real kicker here of course is that MS essentially screwed all their customers just to save a measly 50 cents a console. To me that's ridiculous, as I, and I'm sure the vast majority of owners would gladly have paid an extra 50 cents to prevent this problem.
I'm not sure about Canadian law, but in US law there's the concept of fair use exemptions to copyright (which I think we got from UK law, but I can't say for sure without researching it). I would be somewhat surprised if Canadian law didn't already have a set of exemptions to its copyright laws prior to 1997 (such as for instance for educational purposes, reference, backup, etc.).
Not that I necessarily agree with him (or don't), but I think his point was something along the lines of Radio being a somewhat localized medium, requiring a certain amount of local content makes it easier for local performers to get exposure. The internet on the other hand, being massively non-localized and more or less free to everyone, it makes no sense and serves no purpose to require "local" websites to carry a certain percentage of local content, as the location of the servers hosting a website makes no difference to the content of that website, nor where it can be accessed from (barring local regulations, censorship, or routing issues).
The worlds copyright and patent systems are in need of massive reform, as they don't seem to be living up to the ideals they promised (namely providing incentive for the production of new works). Rather in most cases modern copyright and patent seems to function primarily as a crutch to prop up record companies (as opposed to artists), and as a stick that corporations can beat each other with. Does copyright and patent have some good ideas and good uses? Yes, but nowhere near as many as the abuses it seems to be put to lately.
Unfortunately I don't have a better system to propose, nor even a set of suggestions on how the current one can be fixed, other than perhaps by reducing the span of copyright to something like say 10 years, and putting more stringent requirements on the issuing of patents. What I do know is that the current system doesn't seem to cut it, and hopefully we can come up with something better.
Mostly the social aspect of it. It's one of the few leisure activities you can do from home, at almost any time, in which you're part of a group working towards a common goal. In many ways it's the same reason people play team sports, but with the advantage you can more easily fit it around your downtime. Got nothing to do for the next 3 hours between getting off work, and when your wife/husband gets home? Hop on WOW and run a dungeon for a hour or so.
The only time the game requires more than a couple hours of time or specific timing is in the more hardcore raiding guilds, where you need to be online at a particular time in order to be part of the group that's going to be spending the next 3 to 6 hours in some raid dungeon.
Thanks. But are you using Mac OSX, or a WindowsPC? Do you have other device drivers already installed that could be conflicting? Are you using the wireless version? I've got ANOTHER Microsoft mouse that works just fine (and didn't even come with the crappy system software install that this one did). Just because YOUR mouse works fine, doesn't mean this one isn't a steamy pile of dung that has clogged up my system with useless system software.
Now lets see... Windows PC... no conflicts (did I say anything was broken?).. it's wired. Think that covers all the questions.
My point was more that I've never known any mouse to actually require drivers to function properly on any of the current generation OSes (XP, OSX, Linux, BSD, etc.). Also just because the drivers that came with your mouse, whether it was Microsoft or some other brand mouse, happen to hose your system doesn't mean there bad, it could be some other problem with the system. Of course it also doesn't mean they aren't bad, but as I pointed out I've never had the problem because I never bother to install the drivers that come with any of the mice (if they even come with drivers in the first place).
I take it I'm not the only one that saw the previews for the remake and went "WTF? What does this have to do with the original?". In TDTESS they never attacked Earth, and never destroyed anything that wasn't trying to hurt or kill them. From what I've seen of the previews it looks like in this version they've got an all out invasion going, and they've got clouds of something or other that look to be disintegrating (or maybe eating) metal, stone, and possibly plastic structures (like cars, and buildings). I mean, where does that fit into The Day the Earth Stood Still?
Try the Sidewinder X5, I upgraded to it from a G5. The shape of the X5 fits my hand much better than the G5 ever did, and the weight cartridge in the X5 is heavier as well. Other than the added weight and better shape, the X5 is nearly identical to the G5. Also, if you're interested in a wireless rechargeable mouse the Sidewinder X8 which is a wireless version of the X5 will be coming out in I believe February 2009, although to incorporate the wireless hardware they had to remove the weight package which may be a deal breaker for me (I like a heavy mouse).
I'm quite sure Intel has shipped more than a billion CPUs (hell, probably more than a billion in the 80x86 family alone), and that's just off the top of my head without really doing any digging. I'm sure there are examples all over the place of companies shipping more than a billion of various complex products.
As others have pointed out, "Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone." is at best a rather ill-conceived bit of hyperbole, and sounds rather much like an off the cuff statement he made without bothering to do any real research. Yes I'm sure this is an amazing achievement for Logitech, and no it's not every day that a company ships a billion of a non-trivial product (which is a distinction he didn't even bother to make), but to say it doesn't happen, and that it's never happened seems to be pure idiocy.
I love my Sidewinder X5 mouse, and I'm looking forward to the new X8 although I'm a bit concerned as they've apparently removed the ability to change the weight of the mouse. I'll take the Sidewinder X5 over any mouse Logitech makes any day.
MS makes excellent products, so long as you're not talking about software of any kind, and you can overlook the odd RRoD on the XBox360. Also depends on how generous you consider "making" something to be, as quite a bit of what comes out of MS is just a rebanded product they bought from someone else (well, they bought the company anyway, which is more or less the same thing).
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft.
Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out there.
The language itself, the syntax and such is fairly good, but as the wikipedia article points out the standard libraries are a little fubar right now. Tango was built as a replacement for Phobos, but because they use different APIs, an application (and worse, a library) written for Tango won't run on Phobos and vice versa. The goal of D was to create a language with all the benefits of Java/C#/Python and other high level OO languages, but with the ability to compile to a native binary so the language could be used to write drivers and to do embedded development. The language is compatible with C and you can link against and use C libraries, although as you might expect a little bit of foresight needs to be used when passing variables to and from C libraries due to the garbage collection mechanism that D provides (you can opt to manually do garbage collection which is necessary in some cases).
From a syntax perspective D looks most like C# I think, although there are differences and some parts look more like Java. There's work being done right now with D 2.0 to unify Tango and Phobos and clean up the standard library in general, but as far as the syntax of the actual language goes it's one of the best I've seen.
If teaching assembly doesn't interest and motivate the students then either the teacher is crap and needs to be fired, or the students should find something else to do beside programming. A good teacher can do a class based on assembly and hold the attention of the entire class quite easily, as most people who are learning programming (particularly in CS where theory is often more important than practice) should already be motivated to understand how the computer works. If you can't find the motivation to understand simple addressing and things like registers, you need to find a new major.
This reminds me of the problem that physicists have been trying to grapple with for a long time between the energy view of the world and the forces view. Some things are simpler to model as a set of interacting forces, others as a set of energy transformations. Of course both are equally correct models, but some things are easier to model using one or the other. Likewise taking the algorithm, versus outcome ways of modeling programming you see something similar, where a problem can be modeled with either one, but some problems are easier to model with one than the other.
Yes, BASIC is more or less obsolete at this point, so might as well point them in the direction of something at least slightly useful, which is where Perl comes in. Assuming you're not talking a beginner level class, assembly would be the better choice to start with. I was assuming recommendations from the level of complete beginner to programming on through at least a medium level of experience. Once you've gone beyond medium level of course the language you pick is going to depend on what you're trying to do, and learning a new language should not be a problem as you should already have a grasp of all the basic concepts and most of the advanced ones as well.
Javascript might not be a bad choice as well, although I'm a bit hesitant to recommend that over Perl for a complete beginner as some of the concepts (like prototypes) might put off a beginner, and the distinction between the various structures is a little less defined than it is in Perl, which once again might prove confusion to a beginner. Also, do you really want to try to explain the difference between =, ==, and ===, to a complete beginner?
Exactly, which is why introductory courses should be taught using notepad, vim, emacs, or your choice of standard text editor. If the language you're using can't be used effectively without and IDE you shouldn't be using it for an introductory course.
My recommendation? Assembly using notepad++ or vim depending on the platform you happen to be on. For assembler either NASM or LLVM, although GCC will do in a pinch.
Agreed, with the exception that I think that assembly should be taught prior to Java or even C. With C the concept of a pointer is a rather abstract concept, but with assembly it's a very concrete and easy to understand component of the language.
I think the best teaching language is Perl, followed by assembly, C, and then Java. Do things in that order and you'll have an excellent understanding of first variables and data structures, then pointer arithmetic and binary math, followed by functional and then object oriented programming. You can also pickup a bit of the functional and object oriented concepts while doing Perl.
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The market didn't shun the PS3 because it was late to market, they shunned it because the games on offer aren't appreciably more compelling than the ones for the other consoles, but it retails for twice, and three times the cost of the 360 and Wii respectively.
As someone that's seen this first hand, I've got to say it's definitely not caused by abnormal usage. Any slight jostle has the possibility of causing the disk to become gouged, and sometimes it doesn't even need to be moved in order for it to happen. My 360 regularly puts slight scratches on any disk inserted into it under normal circumstances, but so far non of them have been bad enough to prevent play. The only time I've seen gouges bad enough to ruin a disk (on my console) was when someone tripped over a cord and knocked the console onto its side. Even so, the occasional jostle should not be an automatic death sentence to any disk in the drive, and certainly carefully turning the console on its side should be within the normal usage.
The real kicker here of course is that MS essentially screwed all their customers just to save a measly 50 cents a console. To me that's ridiculous, as I, and I'm sure the vast majority of owners would gladly have paid an extra 50 cents to prevent this problem.
I'm not sure about Canadian law, but in US law there's the concept of fair use exemptions to copyright (which I think we got from UK law, but I can't say for sure without researching it). I would be somewhat surprised if Canadian law didn't already have a set of exemptions to its copyright laws prior to 1997 (such as for instance for educational purposes, reference, backup, etc.).
Apparently that's only if you inhale them.
Not that I necessarily agree with him (or don't), but I think his point was something along the lines of Radio being a somewhat localized medium, requiring a certain amount of local content makes it easier for local performers to get exposure. The internet on the other hand, being massively non-localized and more or less free to everyone, it makes no sense and serves no purpose to require "local" websites to carry a certain percentage of local content, as the location of the servers hosting a website makes no difference to the content of that website, nor where it can be accessed from (barring local regulations, censorship, or routing issues).
The worlds copyright and patent systems are in need of massive reform, as they don't seem to be living up to the ideals they promised (namely providing incentive for the production of new works). Rather in most cases modern copyright and patent seems to function primarily as a crutch to prop up record companies (as opposed to artists), and as a stick that corporations can beat each other with. Does copyright and patent have some good ideas and good uses? Yes, but nowhere near as many as the abuses it seems to be put to lately.
Unfortunately I don't have a better system to propose, nor even a set of suggestions on how the current one can be fixed, other than perhaps by reducing the span of copyright to something like say 10 years, and putting more stringent requirements on the issuing of patents. What I do know is that the current system doesn't seem to cut it, and hopefully we can come up with something better.
Mostly the social aspect of it. It's one of the few leisure activities you can do from home, at almost any time, in which you're part of a group working towards a common goal. In many ways it's the same reason people play team sports, but with the advantage you can more easily fit it around your downtime. Got nothing to do for the next 3 hours between getting off work, and when your wife/husband gets home? Hop on WOW and run a dungeon for a hour or so.
The only time the game requires more than a couple hours of time or specific timing is in the more hardcore raiding guilds, where you need to be online at a particular time in order to be part of the group that's going to be spending the next 3 to 6 hours in some raid dungeon.
Thanks. But are you using Mac OSX, or a WindowsPC? Do you have other device drivers already installed that could be conflicting? Are you using the wireless version? I've got ANOTHER Microsoft mouse that works just fine (and didn't even come with the crappy system software install that this one did). Just because YOUR mouse works fine, doesn't mean this one isn't a steamy pile of dung that has clogged up my system with useless system software.
Now lets see... Windows PC... no conflicts (did I say anything was broken?).. it's wired. Think that covers all the questions.
My point was more that I've never known any mouse to actually require drivers to function properly on any of the current generation OSes (XP, OSX, Linux, BSD, etc.). Also just because the drivers that came with your mouse, whether it was Microsoft or some other brand mouse, happen to hose your system doesn't mean there bad, it could be some other problem with the system. Of course it also doesn't mean they aren't bad, but as I pointed out I've never had the problem because I never bother to install the drivers that come with any of the mice (if they even come with drivers in the first place).
I've got a Microsoft mouse and I've never installed any drivers for it, it works just fine.
I take it I'm not the only one that saw the previews for the remake and went "WTF? What does this have to do with the original?". In TDTESS they never attacked Earth, and never destroyed anything that wasn't trying to hurt or kill them. From what I've seen of the previews it looks like in this version they've got an all out invasion going, and they've got clouds of something or other that look to be disintegrating (or maybe eating) metal, stone, and possibly plastic structures (like cars, and buildings). I mean, where does that fit into The Day the Earth Stood Still?
Try the Sidewinder X5, I upgraded to it from a G5. The shape of the X5 fits my hand much better than the G5 ever did, and the weight cartridge in the X5 is heavier as well. Other than the added weight and better shape, the X5 is nearly identical to the G5. Also, if you're interested in a wireless rechargeable mouse the Sidewinder X8 which is a wireless version of the X5 will be coming out in I believe February 2009, although to incorporate the wireless hardware they had to remove the weight package which may be a deal breaker for me (I like a heavy mouse).
They probably make some, or even most, but I'm fairly certain the one I have (Sidewinder X5) is not manufactured by Logitech.
I'm quite sure Intel has shipped more than a billion CPUs (hell, probably more than a billion in the 80x86 family alone), and that's just off the top of my head without really doing any digging. I'm sure there are examples all over the place of companies shipping more than a billion of various complex products.
As others have pointed out, "Look at any other industry and it has never happened. This is a significant milestone." is at best a rather ill-conceived bit of hyperbole, and sounds rather much like an off the cuff statement he made without bothering to do any real research. Yes I'm sure this is an amazing achievement for Logitech, and no it's not every day that a company ships a billion of a non-trivial product (which is a distinction he didn't even bother to make), but to say it doesn't happen, and that it's never happened seems to be pure idiocy.
Mice have drivers? I don't think I've ever bothered to install the driver disk for any mouse since the days of Windows 95.
I love my Sidewinder X5 mouse, and I'm looking forward to the new X8 although I'm a bit concerned as they've apparently removed the ability to change the weight of the mouse. I'll take the Sidewinder X5 over any mouse Logitech makes any day.
MS makes excellent products, so long as you're not talking about software of any kind, and you can overlook the odd RRoD on the XBox360. Also depends on how generous you consider "making" something to be, as quite a bit of what comes out of MS is just a rebanded product they bought from someone else (well, they bought the company anyway, which is more or less the same thing).
Much as I'm loath to admit it, the best mouse I've ever owned was manufactured by Microsoft.
Logitech however does place a close second. Followed even more closely by virtually every other mouse I've ever owned by any company, I mean, it's a mouse, there's not all that much you can do to set it apart from the rest of the pack. If it moves the pointer around smoothly, has at least 3 buttons and a scroll wheel, and doesn't stick it's as good as at least 90% of the mice (is that even the right term?) out there.
The language itself, the syntax and such is fairly good, but as the wikipedia article points out the standard libraries are a little fubar right now. Tango was built as a replacement for Phobos, but because they use different APIs, an application (and worse, a library) written for Tango won't run on Phobos and vice versa. The goal of D was to create a language with all the benefits of Java/C#/Python and other high level OO languages, but with the ability to compile to a native binary so the language could be used to write drivers and to do embedded development. The language is compatible with C and you can link against and use C libraries, although as you might expect a little bit of foresight needs to be used when passing variables to and from C libraries due to the garbage collection mechanism that D provides (you can opt to manually do garbage collection which is necessary in some cases).
From a syntax perspective D looks most like C# I think, although there are differences and some parts look more like Java. There's work being done right now with D 2.0 to unify Tango and Phobos and clean up the standard library in general, but as far as the syntax of the actual language goes it's one of the best I've seen.
If teaching assembly doesn't interest and motivate the students then either the teacher is crap and needs to be fired, or the students should find something else to do beside programming. A good teacher can do a class based on assembly and hold the attention of the entire class quite easily, as most people who are learning programming (particularly in CS where theory is often more important than practice) should already be motivated to understand how the computer works. If you can't find the motivation to understand simple addressing and things like registers, you need to find a new major.
IE is still the main browser.
Only to the Luddites dear. IE is for people that say things like "The other day I sent an internet and it never showed up".
D is everything C++ should have been. C++ was the rough draft of how OO should be implemented on top of C, D is the final product.
This reminds me of the problem that physicists have been trying to grapple with for a long time between the energy view of the world and the forces view. Some things are simpler to model as a set of interacting forces, others as a set of energy transformations. Of course both are equally correct models, but some things are easier to model using one or the other. Likewise taking the algorithm, versus outcome ways of modeling programming you see something similar, where a problem can be modeled with either one, but some problems are easier to model with one than the other.
Yes, BASIC is more or less obsolete at this point, so might as well point them in the direction of something at least slightly useful, which is where Perl comes in. Assuming you're not talking a beginner level class, assembly would be the better choice to start with. I was assuming recommendations from the level of complete beginner to programming on through at least a medium level of experience. Once you've gone beyond medium level of course the language you pick is going to depend on what you're trying to do, and learning a new language should not be a problem as you should already have a grasp of all the basic concepts and most of the advanced ones as well.
Javascript might not be a bad choice as well, although I'm a bit hesitant to recommend that over Perl for a complete beginner as some of the concepts (like prototypes) might put off a beginner, and the distinction between the various structures is a little less defined than it is in Perl, which once again might prove confusion to a beginner. Also, do you really want to try to explain the difference between =, ==, and ===, to a complete beginner?
Exactly, which is why introductory courses should be taught using notepad, vim, emacs, or your choice of standard text editor. If the language you're using can't be used effectively without and IDE you shouldn't be using it for an introductory course.
My recommendation? Assembly using notepad++ or vim depending on the platform you happen to be on. For assembler either NASM or LLVM, although GCC will do in a pinch.
Agreed, with the exception that I think that assembly should be taught prior to Java or even C. With C the concept of a pointer is a rather abstract concept, but with assembly it's a very concrete and easy to understand component of the language.
I think the best teaching language is Perl, followed by assembly, C, and then Java. Do things in that order and you'll have an excellent understanding of first variables and data structures, then pointer arithmetic and binary math, followed by functional and then object oriented programming. You can also pickup a bit of the functional and object oriented concepts while doing Perl.