That comic strip is a bit shallow. I'm sure Sony would love to ship millions for Christmas, but they have production problems. Even if those problems are their fault, it's not like they intentionally want to be short on supply.
I don't buy it. Taking out the Taliban was a very reasonable and probably positive thing to do. After all, they were actively giving a terrorist organization safe harbor. Not taking them down after 9/11 would make us look extremely impotent.
The real trouble came with Iraq, which had nothing to do with the terrorist attack, and only served to fuel charges of American imperialism.
I don't feel any pity for landlords who don't return security deposits promptly. I've heard too many horror stories of people just not getting their money back. I myself asked for my security deposit back, and after a week of hearing absolutely nothing, made a very stern call and said something like "I was hoping we could settle this in a civilized manner". Well they called back within an hour and I received my check in the mail the next day.
If it takes a lawsuit and double damages to teach these jerks a lesson then I'm all for it. Maybe then the next guy won't have to wait and hope he gets his money.
This time I was firm, took no prisoners, and was able to cancel after a mere half hour of repeating "No, I really want to cancel" to the customer service brick wall.
This tactic by service companies suck, but the easy away around it is to state in absolute, clear terms that you want to cancel your account (which you did), and then hang up the phone. If they don't cancel your account call your credit card company and they will reverse the charges. The merchant gets hit with a small fee when this happens, and if too many customers do this, they'll lose their rights to take credit card payments at all.
I used to work in the credit card industry. This is the weapon consumers should use to fight back, as it hurts bad merchants the most.
The last I want to advocate is the stick your head in the sand and let's go to the mall mentality but unless you cut the static you will not be in a position to seek out the real news.
Yes, the massive changes we're making to the environment aren't real news. What, we're performing a worldwide global experiment on the weather? What, we can measure the side effects and see that it's totally out of whack with history? Oh well, who cares, it doesn't affect you locally and immediately. Best not to think beyond your sight. I suppose the phrase "think globally and act locally" is too much for you.
I'm totally with you. I read that "well you know" comment and wondered the same as you. It makes his whole story look fishy. Did he just misremember it? Is he embellishing? Is the whole story made up? Well, I don't know. I certainly don't think he was referring to any story about what may have happened after the tank incident.
So if the US and China have different stories, and they are trading with each other, how is that logical? Which country has a state run media? Which country had Tiananmen Square? Umm yeah, I'm sure the great firewall of China is nothing but a myth.
Iraq. Don't even try the talking points on this one, it is well documented in this country as well as in dozens of others. Here's a starting point: White phosphorous, Fallujah.
If the intention was genocide, then why did the US military order and allow 300,000 civilians to flee the city?
Doom was actually an ok movie, given low expectations. The presentation was pretty slick, and with decent acting. As for the first-person thing, yeah it was gimmicky, but it was a nice tribute to the game. You can't catch the last 30 minutes of a movie and critique it. There's no emotional investment.
I also enjoyed Resident Evil II. Beautiful cinematography. The actress was nice eye candy too (Milla Jovovich, the chick from the 5th Element). Cheesy as hell, but good fun.
This whole movement toward prettifying the desktop reminds me of the recent trend in computer and console gaming to emphasize graphics over gameplay.
I don't think that's recent. I remember looking at screenshots on the back of game boxes 20 years ago. If anything, as we're nearing diminishing returns on graphics I think innovative gameplay will win out. Watch as the Wii beats the PS3 this round.
Oh, and watch out for "back in my day" syndrome. It creeps up on you:)
Though I agree, pretty for the sake of pretty is damn annoying when it actively interferes with usability. Booting up a CD version of Linux and being confronted with a transparent shell window that is hard to read is a prime example.
Instead I have ran Debian Sid for the last 2 years, my system is updated weekly by doing apt-get dist-upgrade.
I tried frequent updates with testing, but grew tired of the constant problems. I couldn't imagine doing the same with unstable. The choice comes down to: Do you want frequent minor pain, or infrequent major pain? I prefer not having to adminster my box weekly. But, to each their own.
Bringing up a controversial issue like global warming is not a good way to shed light on an issue. It's a good way to get sidetracked into a discussion over global warming.
Ah. I'm one of those anti-geek-establishment geeks who isn't into Monty Python. But besides that, I think you're being overly sensitive. The guy's last name looks funny to the average Slashdot reader. So what? I didn't detect any viciousness in the jokes.
I don't understand why I was modded as troll though..
Probably because you offered no insight as to what you found sad about it. So, it was just empty bashing.
The follow-up poster filled in the blanks for you. (He also used the trick of saying he would get moderated down to almost guarantee being moderated up, but I digress.)
Yes you do. Rejection hurts, and it's natural to feel bitter. I remember my first rejection after getting my first two submissions accepted. Rationally, I knew it was a stupid thing to feel bitter about, but emotionally I couldn't help it. I think I stopped visiting daily and meta-moderating for a while too.
Implementing floating-point framebuffers is non-trivial problem, and SGIs solutions to doing so are why they deserved the patent.
They don't deserve anything except the opportunity of having a first-mover advantage. Patents are granted "To promote the progress of science and useful arts". Consider all the advances that were made in software before software became patentable. It's been clearly shown that patents are not needed, and all they do is gum up the works. Do you think the progress of "useful arts" in computer graphics would have been better off if all the early research that took place was under a patent umbrella?
And while a video card may be hardware, it's really just a realization of a software algorithm.
Interesting post. I especially liked the link to TPR. You'll probably never read this response, but if you do, please consider not posting anonymously. It's such a waste of good posting material!
It was interesting but I thought it was egotistical. Especially when you see it as a pitch to his follow-up book, The Reiligion War. It's clear Scott sees himself as the Avatar.
All the things you mentioned are important. But the problem is you cannot get this information reliably from an interview. A person does not behave the same in an interview situation as they would in the real world scenarios you describe. The attempts to recreate it fail miserably. It's much easier to try and find out what a person knows rather than how somebody will behave.
Your analogy with the cash register is silly. It doesn't take years to learn how to operate a cash register well. It does for being a developer. You should spend as much time as possible trying to judge their skills. Talk design issues, show them some code and ask them to critique it, or whatever. But don't "test" them by deceiving them. I would not want to work for somebody that played these kinds of games.
If it was important for them to handle cranky customers, then tell them up front and put them through a mock scenario. This is a much more honest approach and probably more predictive of performance, since they know what your expectations are and don't have to guess how the fickle interviewer expects them to behave.
It amazes me the stupid games some interviewers play. You put somebody in a totally unrealistic environment like an interview, and then expect them to meet your pre-conceived notion of how somebody should behave when asked to do something stupid.
Life is not a movie; gimmicks like this are bad. You should be testing for technical competence, not playing mind games.
Slashdot Mirror
That comic strip is a bit shallow. I'm sure Sony would love to ship millions for Christmas, but they have production problems. Even if those problems are their fault, it's not like they intentionally want to be short on supply.
I don't buy it. Taking out the Taliban was a very reasonable and probably positive thing to do. After all, they were actively giving a terrorist organization safe harbor. Not taking them down after 9/11 would make us look extremely impotent.
The real trouble came with Iraq, which had nothing to do with the terrorist attack, and only served to fuel charges of American imperialism.
I don't feel any pity for landlords who don't return security deposits promptly. I've heard too many horror stories of people just not getting their money back. I myself asked for my security deposit back, and after a week of hearing absolutely nothing, made a very stern call and said something like "I was hoping we could settle this in a civilized manner". Well they called back within an hour and I received my check in the mail the next day.
If it takes a lawsuit and double damages to teach these jerks a lesson then I'm all for it. Maybe then the next guy won't have to wait and hope he gets his money.
This tactic by service companies suck, but the easy away around it is to state in absolute, clear terms that you want to cancel your account (which you did), and then hang up the phone. If they don't cancel your account call your credit card company and they will reverse the charges. The merchant gets hit with a small fee when this happens, and if too many customers do this, they'll lose their rights to take credit card payments at all.
I used to work in the credit card industry. This is the weapon consumers should use to fight back, as it hurts bad merchants the most.
When I think of all those mispelled words, why, it just makes me cry.
Yes, the massive changes we're making to the environment aren't real news. What, we're performing a worldwide global experiment on the weather? What, we can measure the side effects and see that it's totally out of whack with history? Oh well, who cares, it doesn't affect you locally and immediately. Best not to think beyond your sight. I suppose the phrase "think globally and act locally" is too much for you.
Don't worry, whining about not having mod points is a sure fire way to mod something up. But you already knew that.
I'm totally with you. I read that "well you know" comment and wondered the same as you. It makes his whole story look fishy. Did he just misremember it? Is he embellishing? Is the whole story made up? Well, I don't know. I certainly don't think he was referring to any story about what may have happened after the tank incident.
So if the US and China have different stories, and they are trading with each other, how is that logical? Which country has a state run media? Which country had Tiananmen Square? Umm yeah, I'm sure the great firewall of China is nothing but a myth.
If the intention was genocide, then why did the US military order and allow 300,000 civilians to flee the city?
Doom was actually an ok movie, given low expectations. The presentation was pretty slick, and with decent acting. As for the first-person thing, yeah it was gimmicky, but it was a nice tribute to the game. You can't catch the last 30 minutes of a movie and critique it. There's no emotional investment.
I also enjoyed Resident Evil II. Beautiful cinematography. The actress was nice eye candy too (Milla Jovovich, the chick from the 5th Element). Cheesy as hell, but good fun.
I don't think that's recent. I remember looking at screenshots on the back of game boxes 20 years ago. If anything, as we're nearing diminishing returns on graphics I think innovative gameplay will win out. Watch as the Wii beats the PS3 this round.
Oh, and watch out for "back in my day" syndrome. It creeps up on you :)
Though I agree, pretty for the sake of pretty is damn annoying when it actively interferes with usability. Booting up a CD version of Linux and being confronted with a transparent shell window that is hard to read is a prime example.
This is great. Thanks for the laugh :)
I tried frequent updates with testing, but grew tired of the constant problems. I couldn't imagine doing the same with unstable. The choice comes down to: Do you want frequent minor pain, or infrequent major pain? I prefer not having to adminster my box weekly. But, to each their own.
Bringing up a controversial issue like global warming is not a good way to shed light on an issue. It's a good way to get sidetracked into a discussion over global warming.
Ah. I'm one of those anti-geek-establishment geeks who isn't into Monty Python. But besides that, I think you're being overly sensitive. The guy's last name looks funny to the average Slashdot reader. So what? I didn't detect any viciousness in the jokes.
Or even geekier, on your DS.
Who's "we", and when did they elect you to speak for them?
Probably because you offered no insight as to what you found sad about it. So, it was just empty bashing.
The follow-up poster filled in the blanks for you. (He also used the trick of saying he would get moderated down to almost guarantee being moderated up, but I digress.)
Yes you do. Rejection hurts, and it's natural to feel bitter. I remember my first rejection after getting my first two submissions accepted. Rationally, I knew it was a stupid thing to feel bitter about, but emotionally I couldn't help it. I think I stopped visiting daily and meta-moderating for a while too.
They don't deserve anything except the opportunity of having a first-mover advantage. Patents are granted "To promote the progress of science and useful arts". Consider all the advances that were made in software before software became patentable. It's been clearly shown that patents are not needed, and all they do is gum up the works. Do you think the progress of "useful arts" in computer graphics would have been better off if all the early research that took place was under a patent umbrella?
And while a video card may be hardware, it's really just a realization of a software algorithm.
Interesting post. I especially liked the link to TPR. You'll probably never read this response, but if you do, please consider not posting anonymously. It's such a waste of good posting material!
It was interesting but I thought it was egotistical. Especially when you see it as a pitch to his follow-up book, The Reiligion War. It's clear Scott sees himself as the Avatar.
All the things you mentioned are important. But the problem is you cannot get this information reliably from an interview. A person does not behave the same in an interview situation as they would in the real world scenarios you describe. The attempts to recreate it fail miserably. It's much easier to try and find out what a person knows rather than how somebody will behave.
Your analogy with the cash register is silly. It doesn't take years to learn how to operate a cash register well. It does for being a developer. You should spend as much time as possible trying to judge their skills. Talk design issues, show them some code and ask them to critique it, or whatever. But don't "test" them by deceiving them. I would not want to work for somebody that played these kinds of games.
If it was important for them to handle cranky customers, then tell them up front and put them through a mock scenario. This is a much more honest approach and probably more predictive of performance, since they know what your expectations are and don't have to guess how the fickle interviewer expects them to behave.
It amazes me the stupid games some interviewers play. You put somebody in a totally unrealistic environment like an interview, and then expect them to meet your pre-conceived notion of how somebody should behave when asked to do something stupid.
Life is not a movie; gimmicks like this are bad. You should be testing for technical competence, not playing mind games.