This site gives some insight as to how photoreceptors work, and may help explain what you're asking. The focus of the site is color-blindness, but it's the same sort of idea; take photoreceptors away vs add a new kind. Try the "Basics" section.
Pardon the sarcasm but: Good gravy, you're at UWMadison and you can't find cheap programmers? They're those younger people crawling all over your campus. You know, the ones with student loans and tuition bills to pay. They might not have as much experience, and you might have to hire a couple of them to work together because they can't work full-time, and there's likely to be a big learning curve (depending on the person and the project). But, these are people who are used to learning constantly, they've been doing it in class for a while.
Yeah, you'll have to lower your expectations a bit, and pay decent wages. I've seen a lot of ads on campus from various local companies trying to hire student workers for dining-hall wages with "required skills" that no college student is going to have acquired. But it's a compromise, and a way to get things done. And hey, you might even be able to hire one or more full-time when they graduate.
I had totally forgotten that game. It ruled. Also missing is "Paperboy". Did anyone else have that? He's got Mighty Bomb Jack even, and I thought I was the only person who'd ever even heard of that, let alone played it.
There's no way I'd actually buy these, but wow, reading the list is a great nostalgia trip.:-) It'd be cool also, to see a few pics, of some of the games. Not that I don't believe he's legit, more for the "wow, I haven't seen that in AGES" factor.
A lot of new-hire "contracts" stipulate that you must stay for X amount of time (usually 1-2 years) or return the signing bonus and reimburse any costs incurred by them from helping you relocate, etc. This is reasonable. It doesn't prevent you from leaving and working somewhere else if you really want to, but gives a good incentive to stick around.
As far as contracts that don't allow you to leave at all, methinks that would not stand up in court. There may be repercussions from leaving, but certainly they can't legally force you to stay?
I agree that the conveyor belt is a likely culprit. I'd like to add that the major hazard here, though, is travelling in general. Looking at the original posting, he says, that he has never had any problem with his laptop, but these guys were travelling with their 3.5" desktop drives. Perhaps, since laptops are designed for travelling, they can absorb the bumps and bangs and rattles of going over a conveyor belt, being jostled in luggage, kicked under the seat, etc., much easier than a naked desktop drive. He doesn't say how the drives were protected. If they weren't well-protected from jarring, all bets are off.
Why were they just carrying the drives in a carryon anyway? Wouldn't one _assume_ the need to protect them in _some_ way?
First, let me echo what's been said here already: if the kid's just not interested in learning more, don't force it. Not everyone needs to know how computers work, just how to use them. Especially at that age. So he's not a protogeek. So he's not interested in what you're interested in. Who cares? Someone's gotta keep tech support in business.
That said, my younger brother (who IS interested in computers), at about the same age, got a lot out of the "How the *fill-in-the-blank* Work" series of books. They're paperbacks about 1/2" thick including "How Networks Work" "How Computers Work" and "How the Internet Works". Used to be published by Macmillan, now by Que. Includes helpful diagrams.
So anyway, if you do find a kid who shows an interest and needs some somewhat-technical information, you might suggest this. Sounds like this isn't the right kid tho. Ease off.
I think you misunderstood the technology used in the article you reference here. The technological problem posed by this question is completely different.
First of all, to clarify: no, Quova can NOT _pinpoint_ users in real time. They have catalogued IP addresses and correlated them with locations. If your IP is not static, or has changed since their cataloguing (sp?), their data is meaningless. Same for dial-up users, who will all appear to be in the same place (wherever the server is) even though they may be spread far and wide. Think AOL. A simple example: say I have an account with my ISP. I could be dialing in to the same number from home; or from a friend's house; or from across town; or from another state, for that matter, if I'm willing to pay long-distance charges; all of these would give an IP address that appears to be in the same location.
The main thrust of this problem is not just knowing where someone is generally, but using exact location for authentication/identification. You would need a way of verifying that the person/device is precisely where they claim to be. Knowing that a particular IP implies that they are in a certain city or even on a certain street means little in this context. Authentication requires much more precise, verifiable information than could be provided by Quova.
Does their claim of university ownership only cover work done directly for your funded research? What about stuff you do on your own time? What about stuff you do on your own time, but using university facilities (lab computers, etc.)? What if the code is related to your research, but not directly part of what your grant is for?
For that matter, what if you wrote code that really sucked? Or a virus? If they want to lay claim to everything else you write, they'd sorta have to take that too.
This is an interesting problem and I'm curious to hear how it turns out.
This is true, good point. I wonder how many people saw the line and left because they didn't want to wait; or alternatively, how many saw the line and said, well, everyone else is voting, I'd better vote too. (Peer pressure can sometimes be a good thing.) Just getting people to GO to the polls is hard enough!
I just heard, the voter turnout in Missouri is so high tonight that a judge ordered the polls be kept open past the normal end of voting because so many people were lined up waiting to vote. This is outstanding! I'm very impressed so many people cared and got out to vote.
Yes, non-sanctioned parodies are still legal. What's happening here is that Atom Films makes some revenues from films on their site (banner ads, etc), and Lucasfilm wants a cut of that. Since they'd be getting revenue partly from the Star Wars name. It's mutually beneficial to both of them; Lucasfilm gets $$, AtomFilms gets to use the Star Wars name. So, if you want to create a parody and put it up on your own site, or some other site, that's fine. Go ahead. But if you want to put it on AtomFilms, Lucasfilm gets their share of the $$, and some control over what gets to use the official "seal of approval".
Processors perhaps would be a better term. Just eliminating the "central" doesn't really work well tho...you just try to market something full of "PU"'s!
AmIHotOrNot much like real life
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This seems a lot like real life...you have to wade through a lot of junk to find the good stuff.
I'll gladly work at even a semi-rational company and buy my own coffee and soda.
Dude, if you ever find a semi-rational company, that doesn't change policies randomly or have massive office politics or change requirements without changing deadlines, let me know. That's like, Utopia. On the flipside tho, there are TONS of companies out there that don't require insane workweeks and are very flexible with your schedule. I've worked for a few. You don't have to put up with that.
Absolutely. Furthermore, it's much easier to convince a company to put a foosball table or whatever in the break room, because it's a one-time purchase with a low per-employee cost. Things like cellphones, healthclubs, free home internet access, etc are a long-term committment with a higher per-employee cost. Much less painful for the budget folks.
Did anyone else feel that Bush's answer read like a canned statement that only peripherally related to the question? The paragraphs about the importance of privacy were informative as to his views, but they felt way out of place, like they'd been cut-and-pasted from some other statement. I got the impression of being assaulted by buzzwords, and the gratuitous reference to how "the Clinton Administration" has botched export laws and the attack on Gore were unneccessary. Never mind that I'm sure he didn't write the response himself. It doesn't sound like him at all. Do you think Bush actually knows what "opt-in" means WRT spam?
Yet another independent, undecided voter searching for a candidate with the whole clue....
Gotta put a plug in for Iowa State's very own VRAC. The C6 environment is pretty doggone neat. Full 6-directional (4 walls, floor, ceiling) immersion. Plus, unlike this ball system, it's actually up and running now. (It also happens to look like a cross between the Titanic and a Borg ship.) Go check it out.
Ah, but with the degrees in CS already, if this should happen (deciding law isn't for you) you've got a darn good fallback plan.
Also, I respectfully disagree that a CS degree would be useless outside of patent law. There's a lot to be done in the area of computer crime, to name one. [H,Cr]ackers need defense attorneys; prosecutors need to know what they're talking about when they prosecute [h,cr]ackers; goodness knows we need more technically-aware people pushing for better laws against computer crime and regarding the whole IP-rights-field. We spend so much time here complaining about how inept/uninfomed lawyers are/can be. I applaud someone who wants to change that.
Look at your quote. "... should independently orbit a star...." Earth's moon does not orbit the sun independently, but rather as a satellite of Earth. If your interpretation were correct there would be no such thing as a large moon.
...why this isn't just called an asteroid, when they say it's smaller than Ceres, which is called an asteroid. What's the real difference? Is it because it's spherical? That's a somewhat odd distinction. How "spherical" does it have to be? Even the earth isn't exactly spherical.
Don't get me wrong. I mean, I think it's cool that there's a really big rock floating out there and someone spotted it. But if anyone out there understands this and can explain better, please do.
The site smells strongly of either hoax or hopeful ignorance. A few flags:
Note that the first items in their menu, and a large portion of the site, are about sponsorship, how big of an opportunity for advertising this is, etc. etc. I've never heard of a research project with a "Supporters' club".
As has been mentioned, it wasn't Deep Thought that "beat" Kasparov (it's argued that it was hardly a fair fight), it was Deep Blue. Methinks someone who was studying AI techniques and relevant prior AI work would know that.
The few technical parts read like a sophomore year computer engineering project proposal. high on fluff, low on details.
Nowhere does it give any details of what this challenge really is. Is it just negotiating a car around an oval track at high speed? Is it a real race with other drivers? The real goal is unclear.
I think it's a neat idea and if it's for real, hey, I applaud them. Personally, I take it with a grain of salt the size of Texas. Sounds like someone trying to grab attention, maybe go IPO, get-rich-quick. The whole thing sounds like a sales pitch, and I'm not buying.
I feel that if we have to have a compromise, it is better to monitor what is being viewed than to censor it. For one, censoring software is far, far from perfect. No matter how "good" it is, it misses a lot and blocks things it shouldn't. It would be far better for a parent to see that their child has been reading websites about birth control and talk to them (gasp!) than to try to keep them from getting the information in the first place. Or, if the child is looking at sites the parent doesn't approve of, the parent could explain WHY they feel that way rather than just hoping the child doesn't ever learn that it's out there.
Also, look at it like companies monitoring employees' internet use. The resources are there for a specific purpose, furthering the company's goals. A library, school, whatever, needs to know that their resources aren't being misused; that is, computers bought with public money are being used for their intended purpose (research, information, etc.). I personally don't think we should be out there trying to "protect" kids from the evil boogeyman of the internet, but if the computers bought with my taxes in the name of furthering education are being used by some horny 17-year-old kid to look at porn, I have a problem with that.
Slashdot Mirror
Girl to guy on dance floor: "Um, you're way off. Go replace the batteries in your beat detector."
Neitz Color Vision Lab
Yeah, you'll have to lower your expectations a bit, and pay decent wages. I've seen a lot of ads on campus from various local companies trying to hire student workers for dining-hall wages with "required skills" that no college student is going to have acquired. But it's a compromise, and a way to get things done. And hey, you might even be able to hire one or more full-time when they graduate.
There's no way I'd actually buy these, but wow, reading the list is a great nostalgia trip. :-) It'd be cool also, to see a few pics, of some of the games. Not that I don't believe he's legit, more for the "wow, I haven't seen that in AGES" factor.
As far as contracts that don't allow you to leave at all, methinks that would not stand up in court. There may be repercussions from leaving, but certainly they can't legally force you to stay?
Why were they just carrying the drives in a carryon anyway? Wouldn't one _assume_ the need to protect them in _some_ way?
That said, my younger brother (who IS interested in computers), at about the same age, got a lot out of the "How the *fill-in-the-blank* Work" series of books. They're paperbacks about 1/2" thick including "How Networks Work" "How Computers Work" and "How the Internet Works". Used to be published by Macmillan, now by Que. Includes helpful diagrams.
So anyway, if you do find a kid who shows an interest and needs some somewhat-technical information, you might suggest this. Sounds like this isn't the right kid tho. Ease off.
First of all, to clarify: no, Quova can NOT _pinpoint_ users in real time. They have catalogued IP addresses and correlated them with locations. If your IP is not static, or has changed since their cataloguing (sp?), their data is meaningless. Same for dial-up users, who will all appear to be in the same place (wherever the server is) even though they may be spread far and wide. Think AOL. A simple example: say I have an account with my ISP. I could be dialing in to the same number from home; or from a friend's house; or from across town; or from another state, for that matter, if I'm willing to pay long-distance charges; all of these would give an IP address that appears to be in the same location.
The main thrust of this problem is not just knowing where someone is generally, but using exact location for authentication/identification. You would need a way of verifying that the person/device is precisely where they claim to be. Knowing that a particular IP implies that they are in a certain city or even on a certain street means little in this context. Authentication requires much more precise, verifiable information than could be provided by Quova.
For that matter, what if you wrote code that really sucked? Or a virus? If they want to lay claim to everything else you write, they'd sorta have to take that too.
This is an interesting problem and I'm curious to hear how it turns out.
Yes, non-sanctioned parodies are still legal. What's happening here is that Atom Films makes some revenues from films on their site (banner ads, etc), and Lucasfilm wants a cut of that. Since they'd be getting revenue partly from the Star Wars name. It's mutually beneficial to both of them; Lucasfilm gets $$, AtomFilms gets to use the Star Wars name. So, if you want to create a parody and put it up on your own site, or some other site, that's fine. Go ahead. But if you want to put it on AtomFilms, Lucasfilm gets their share of the $$, and some control over what gets to use the official "seal of approval".
Dude, if you ever find a semi-rational company, that doesn't change policies randomly or have massive office politics or change requirements without changing deadlines, let me know. That's like, Utopia. On the flipside tho, there are TONS of companies out there that don't require insane workweeks and are very flexible with your schedule. I've worked for a few. You don't have to put up with that.
Yet another independent, undecided voter searching for a candidate with the whole clue....
Also, I respectfully disagree that a CS degree would be useless outside of patent law. There's a lot to be done in the area of computer crime, to name one. [H,Cr]ackers need defense attorneys; prosecutors need to know what they're talking about when they prosecute [h,cr]ackers; goodness knows we need more technically-aware people pushing for better laws against computer crime and regarding the whole IP-rights-field. We spend so much time here complaining about how inept/uninfomed lawyers are/can be. I applaud someone who wants to change that.
Don't get me wrong. I mean, I think it's cool that there's a really big rock floating out there and someone spotted it. But if anyone out there understands this and can explain better, please do.
- Note that the first items in their menu, and a large portion of the site, are about sponsorship, how big of an opportunity for advertising this is, etc. etc. I've never heard of a research project with a "Supporters' club".
- As has been mentioned, it wasn't Deep Thought that "beat" Kasparov (it's argued that it was hardly a fair fight), it was Deep Blue. Methinks someone who was studying AI techniques and relevant prior AI work would know that.
- The few technical parts read like a sophomore year computer engineering project proposal. high on fluff, low on details.
- Nowhere does it give any details of what this challenge really is. Is it just negotiating a car around an oval track at high speed? Is it a real race with other drivers? The real goal is unclear.
I think it's a neat idea and if it's for real, hey, I applaud them. Personally, I take it with a grain of salt the size of Texas. Sounds like someone trying to grab attention, maybe go IPO, get-rich-quick. The whole thing sounds like a sales pitch, and I'm not buying.Also, look at it like companies monitoring employees' internet use. The resources are there for a specific purpose, furthering the company's goals. A library, school, whatever, needs to know that their resources aren't being misused; that is, computers bought with public money are being used for their intended purpose (research, information, etc.). I personally don't think we should be out there trying to "protect" kids from the evil boogeyman of the internet, but if the computers bought with my taxes in the name of furthering education are being used by some horny 17-year-old kid to look at porn, I have a problem with that.