Once again I'm being drafted as an involuntary beta tester. You know, I don't really mind testing Linux drivers...but when it comes to an OS I have to shell out money for, I kinda expect it to work.
No, most drivers are written by 3rd parties. And exactly how are these involuntary? They are user-submitted!
Also, does the development of this new system mean that Microsoft is admitting the old system of submitting crash reports didn't work for shit? Doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm.
Go read up on Watson and see how many times it has been cited as being one of the main drivers of improvement of MS products. By your logic any new version of any new software is an admission that the old one didn't work.
Finally, will this new system possibly be subject to abuse? Will it be possible for rival manufacturers to submit bogus crash reports to Microsoft to poison the ratings of their competitors?
Good point, I guess we'll see, but I imagine there will be some kind of fraud detection. This is a similar issue to the one of click fraud with any major search engine... but there are ways to prevent it at least to some degree.
All in all, not good news from Microsoft, but I guess we're used to that by now.
Improved quality of drivers is not good news? Umm hmm
foie gras is not difficult legislation. it doesn't seem like it's particularly difficult to ban.
at least it's not nearly as complex as issues like the war in iraq, wiretaps, and energy action.
there's no reason why we have to solve every single major problem in the world like poverty and world hunger before we can handle an issue as easy to legislate as this one.
my point is that you should prioritize important issues, but not completely ignore smaller issues either. being on slashdot, i can make the analogy of the linux kernel's scheduler -- round robin through different priorties, giving high priorities more time meanwhile never completely ignoring smaller priortity queues;-)
the point is foie gras is not a totally trival issue. or at the very least, i wanted to express my personal sentiments about how i don't believe that particular legislation was a waste of time as you folks were insinuating.
the free range chickens (or lack there of) is probably another valid issue too , but i suppose progress comes one step at a time.
foie gras was not about banning food, it was about banning animal cruelty. foie gras is producted by force feeding birds by holding their mouth open. their livers get to something like 10x their normal size. pretty disgusting stuff. maybe you think it's not important, but i'm all for banning cruelty of such proportions.... but i digress.
Well, just to be clear, I'm a married heterosexual and have no vested interest in homosexual rights. I simply think they should have equal rights as adult, consenting, humans.
But in any case, neither the "act" of homosexulity nor heterosexuality should be forbidden. This is an ambigous statement as an "act" is far too wide open to interpretation and hence, it needs to be clarified.
If you're done resorting to childish means of calling the other person (i.e, me) "stupid" then I'll debunk your other point too. The point, once again, is not whether I was "stupid" enough to think a game publisher would publish such a scene. The point is a matter of principle and what could happen as a result... after all, the law has not been passed yet and the entire debate is not about how the law will handle the current market landscape, but how well it will prevail in the future.
As for minors, I believe minors should not be exposed to any overly sexual behavior, hetero or homo. But this is a different subject all together and, as you said, it could be debated all day. Besides, quite frankly, I don't feel you're mature enough to dicuss this anyway. So this is the last you'll here from yours truly on this subject.
Doubting or not doubting what it means is irrelevant. Dvorkin's point is that in this bill, homosexuality is explicitly spelled out as being illegal for minors. In other words, it would be very easy to argue a game with two males holding hands is illegal to sell to minors. And that definitely is discriminatory againt homosexuals.
If you are against homosexuality, then just say it. But if you claim to be for certain rights, then you should agree to spell them out explicitly.
I'm an avid Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, and C# programmer.
Ok, those *nix languages are all fine (I particularly am fond of Python), but C# is definitely a very nice language. Give credit where credit is due.
I can tell you from personal experience that I haven't found development/debugging tools in any of those other languages that compare to Microsoft's.
And as for your comment about the learning curve, I totally don't get that. So you have no problem with the learning curve involved in learning Perl, Python, Korn, PHP, and C and yet you have a problem learning c#? Those languages don't even share the same libraries; at least with.NET you can switch from C# to C++ to J# and still use the same common libraries! And if you already know C, then learning C# is a piece of cake. Same for Java and J#. Your "learning curve" comment is totally unjustified as far as I'm concerned.
Yeah, it's the first state university in the state of Indiana, but it's definitely not the first.
I was a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 5 years ago and we were required to have laptops as well. And yes, UNC is also a state university.
Thinkpads were also the preferred laptops there b/c there was an arrangment made with IBM at the time. For students who couldn't afford it, it was available as part of their financial aid.
How do you free speech and open ideas in that region when places like Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia (among others) make regular use of technologies like Websense to filter content they deem inappropriate? Having lived in Saudi Arabia for 8 years myself, I know first-hand the kind of censorship that is practiced on a regular basis. Some Saudi's have even suggested that the government goes as far as to use humans to monitor their citizen's web activity.
I feel like this problem is even furthered by government control of communication. For example, I was suprised to see the relatively high prices for broadband in Dubai (considering that Dubai is a fairly advanced city) while I was visiting this August. I realized that these high prices were probably a result of Etisalat's near-monopoly on all communication in the UAE.
Since when did it become a "or else" statement when a company offers more reliability or security in a new version. That should be the goal of every company when they introduce a subsequent release.
This is almost like saying "buy the new version or else... you won't get the new features." Well, that's kind of obvious.
Let's also remember that every software has flaws and that many of Windows security changes have been driven by a new landscape on the internet which came with new threats.
Or maybe I'll just remember I'm not slashdot and no matter what I say I'll just get a mod down.
Slashdot Mirror
No, most drivers are written by 3rd parties. And exactly how are these involuntary? They are user-submitted!
Go read up on Watson and see how many times it has been cited as being one of the main drivers of improvement of MS products. By your logic any new version of any new software is an admission that the old one didn't work.
Good point, I guess we'll see, but I imagine there will be some kind of fraud detection. This is a similar issue to the one of click fraud with any major search engine
Improved quality of drivers is not good news? Umm hmm
besides, the default time server is time.windows.com. nist is the alternate choice.
clearly, at least one manifestation of it was, indeed, not banned if foei gras can be legally created or distributed.
foie gras is not difficult legislation. it doesn't seem like it's particularly difficult to ban.
;-)
at least it's not nearly as complex as issues like the war in iraq, wiretaps, and energy action.
there's no reason why we have to solve every single major problem in the world like poverty and world hunger before we can handle an issue as easy to legislate as this one.
my point is that you should prioritize important issues, but not completely ignore smaller issues either. being on slashdot, i can make the analogy of the linux kernel's scheduler -- round robin through different priorties, giving high priorities more time meanwhile never completely ignoring smaller priortity queues
the point is foie gras is not a totally trival issue. or at the very least, i wanted to express my personal sentiments about how i don't believe that particular legislation was a waste of time as you folks were insinuating.
the free range chickens (or lack there of) is probably another valid issue too , but i suppose progress comes one step at a time.
foie gras was not about banning food, it was about banning animal cruelty. foie gras is producted by force feeding birds by holding their mouth open. their livers get to something like 10x their normal size. pretty disgusting stuff. maybe you think it's not important, but i'm all for banning cruelty of such proportions. ... but i digress.
Well, just to be clear, I'm a married heterosexual and have no vested interest in homosexual rights. I simply think they should have equal rights as adult, consenting, humans.
... after all, the law has not been passed yet and the entire debate is not about how the law will handle the current market landscape, but how well it will prevail in the future.
But in any case, neither the "act" of homosexulity nor heterosexuality should be forbidden. This is an ambigous statement as an "act" is far too wide open to interpretation and hence, it needs to be clarified.
If you're done resorting to childish means of calling the other person (i.e, me) "stupid" then I'll debunk your other point too. The point, once again, is not whether I was "stupid" enough to think a game publisher would publish such a scene. The point is a matter of principle and what could happen as a result
As for minors, I believe minors should not be exposed to any overly sexual behavior, hetero or homo. But this is a different subject all together and, as you said, it could be debated all day. Besides, quite frankly, I don't feel you're mature enough to dicuss this anyway. So this is the last you'll here from yours truly on this subject.
Doubting or not doubting what it means is irrelevant. Dvorkin's point is that in this bill, homosexuality is explicitly spelled out as being illegal for minors. In other words, it would be very easy to argue a game with two males holding hands is illegal to sell to minors. And that definitely is discriminatory againt homosexuals. If you are against homosexuality, then just say it. But if you claim to be for certain rights, then you should agree to spell them out explicitly.
Technically, yes, though "Practical Extraction and Report Language" has been widely suggested as a backronym.
I stand corrected. C++/Java is actually more appropriate to compare to C# ... that's correct. That's what I intended to say :-)
I'm an avid Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, and C# programmer.
.NET you can switch from C# to C++ to J# and still use the same common libraries! And if you already know C, then learning C# is a piece of cake. Same for Java and J#. Your "learning curve" comment is totally unjustified as far as I'm concerned.
Ok, those *nix languages are all fine (I particularly am fond of Python), but C# is definitely a very nice language. Give credit where credit is due.
I can tell you from personal experience that I haven't found development/debugging tools in any of those other languages that compare to Microsoft's.
And as for your comment about the learning curve, I totally don't get that. So you have no problem with the learning curve involved in learning Perl, Python, Korn, PHP, and C and yet you have a problem learning c#? Those languages don't even share the same libraries; at least with
You can use your mouse wheel (I've tried in both Firefox and IE) and you can use Page Up/Down to move too.
Yeah, it's the first state university in the state of Indiana, but it's definitely not the first.
I was a freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 5 years ago and we were required to have laptops as well. And yes, UNC is also a state university.
Thinkpads were also the preferred laptops there b/c there was an arrangment made with IBM at the time. For students who couldn't afford it, it was available as part of their financial aid.
How do you free speech and open ideas in that region when places like Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia (among others) make regular use of technologies like Websense to filter content they deem inappropriate? Having lived in Saudi Arabia for 8 years myself, I know first-hand the kind of censorship that is practiced on a regular basis. Some Saudi's have even suggested that the government goes as far as to use humans to monitor their citizen's web activity. I feel like this problem is even furthered by government control of communication. For example, I was suprised to see the relatively high prices for broadband in Dubai (considering that Dubai is a fairly advanced city) while I was visiting this August. I realized that these high prices were probably a result of Etisalat's near-monopoly on all communication in the UAE.
Since when can you just walk into the office of a CEO at a large corporation (such as the one the poster says s/he works for)?
Since when did it become a "or else" statement when a company offers more reliability or security in a new version. That should be the goal of every company when they introduce a subsequent release. This is almost like saying "buy the new version or else ... you won't get the new features." Well, that's kind of obvious.
Let's also remember that every software has flaws and that many of Windows security changes have been driven by a new landscape on the internet which came with new threats.
Or maybe I'll just remember I'm not slashdot and no matter what I say I'll just get a mod down.