So Intel is betting on more and more cores, and AMD is betting on more and more integrated units. Wait... why not, y'know, BOTH? A 16-core CPU with an integrated high-end GPU sounds sweet.
In terms of being a programmer, I agree 100%, although I can't speak for SysAdmins.
Before I came to Uni, I was considering doing a joint honours Maths & CS degree. I was advised against it by my A-Level (UK qualification; normally taking ages 16-18) computing teacher, who said that by doing just maths I'd actually end up being a better programmer. If I compare stuff I've written recently, with stuff I did for A-level projects, I'd say this is true - and there was a good year and a half gap where I wasn't programming anything, so the improvement is not just experience.
I think this is the case because, as is so often pointed out, the logic behind mathematics and programming is the same. Maths forces you to learn the logic, whereas CS tends to teach you factual details on how it works etc.
So, what maths modules should be part of a CS degree? It depends on what you want to do with your degree. I would imagine Linear Algebra, Discrete and Logic (at least Propositional, possibly Predicate) to be good in general.
The problem with generation-old hardware is it's a generation old in features.
Unless you want to run the lastest games, the day they come out, at their max settings and at a high framerate, you don't really need said features. I have found that, in general, by waiting a few months, both the cards and the games come down in price, any major bugs in the games have been fixed, and newer driver versions are available.
This is an absolute key point that the 'toy language' crowd often miss out on. PHP is a good language, when used correctly, and when coded properly - i.e. the same as any other language/tool/whatever.
I do have a couple of gripes with PHP however. Firstly, as the parent (and a myriad and one other people) pointed out, inconsistent function names. Secondly, the presence of objects in the language - IMHO OOP is a bit overrated - and if you try to take PHP V4 objects to PHP V5 objects you have to use an instantiation hack.
But then, I could go on about my gripes with C++, Java, SQL, HTML/CSS, and pretty much every language I've ever coded in.
I'm being serious. Google is supposed to tell you where to find what you're looking for, like the catalog computer in a library that tells you exactly which shelf to go to, whereas Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, an indiviual book in the library. Comparing the two is IMHO completely pointless.
Obligatory conspiracy theory: could it be a publicity stunt from Kaspersky themselves? Naaah, I'm certainly too paranoïd.
Obligatory shooting down your conspiracy - if they did, they'd get sued the shit out of them. The only thing that saved Sony (during the rootkit fiasco) was their size as a corporation, and I presume Kaspersky don't have that.
I'm more interested in seeing what Kaspersky's official response to this is.
The ISC is concerned that the report's approach fails to consider the achievements of [non-FLOSS]. This is to some extent understandable as the report is a study primarily on the FLOSS model.
In other words: we know that this report was specifically on F/OSS, but we want you to mention how well we non-F/OSS companies have done anyway.
It's common practice in the IT industry to work on version n+1 of a product before version n is released - e.g. Firefox versions 2 & 3, MS Office, etc. Consoles are no different - I'm pretty sure that development work for the PS3 had started when the PS2 was in it's "shortage panic" stage.
You give MySQL away for free, and sell an enhanced version also. How do you convince the bank manager/other investors to give you money to start a for-profit business, based on such a model?
The warming (and increased CO2) means more food availability, more fresh water availablility, and more survivable habitats. The only downside is rising ocean levels, and that is only a downside if you either 1) own ocean-front property, or 2) are planning a trip from Russia to the Americas on foot.
This isn't true. My mum works in Energy Efficiency and looks at this sort of stuff all the time.
Firstly, there is an upper limit (temperature-wise) in which humans can survive. There are areas near the equator which are beyond this limit now, and a slight increase in temperature would enlarge them considerably - possibly as far as Spain, or equivilant southwards.
Secondly, you'd be surprised how much land is actually below sea-level.
Then there's the fact that North-West Europe (in particular us Brits) is kept warm by the Gulf Stream (look it up), which is highly dependant on the salt density in the Atlantic. Any rise in the sea level would disrupt that balance, and we'd lose the Stream, taking us down to the temperature you'd expect us to be at this north (about the same as Moscow - check the latitudes).
I'd expect there to be a whole bunch of other effects that I don't know about, as well. Global warming will have a considerable impact, more than most people imagine.
...the environmentalist option to be against both oil and nuclear power...
Whilst I agree that it's stupid to be against both options (radioactivity is even less understood, especially at low doses), I think you're making a harsh stereotype here.
Finally: I've said this before, but perhaps was misunderstood:
-If we don't cut our carbon emissions (because we think we don't need to) and then turn out to be wrong, we may well end up like Venus.
-If we do cut them, we reduce our use of oil (which is in finite supply, as parent pointed out) and probably cut our costs (by energy efficieny stuff, my Mum works in that). Should we then turn out to be incorrect (i.e. CO2 isn't quite as bad as some of the doomsday predictions), we haven't really lost anything, but have gained quite a bit. Unfortunately, this is largely dependant on industry, and as the parent observed, convincing them may be difficult.
In short, either we will screw the atmosphere up with CO2, or we won't. Some people will inevitably pick sides and be wrong. In a matter with such potentially far-reaching implications, which way would you rather be wrong?
How many American sites accept, say, Switch? How many UK sites accept US debit cards, for that matter? When I first bought a game off Steam, I had to wait for the bank to give me a Mastercard.
(Yes, I know you can get e.g. Visa debit cards.)
It's far worse in Europe, which will be basically Muslim within a generation, its entire culture and history pushed into slavery (dhimmitude)
How the fuck did this blatant racist crap get modded insightful?! This is exactly the kind of thing that causes interracial/political/religious tension. Would you care to cite some sources for your claims? Of course you can't, because they're complete bollocks. Western culture is NOT becoming extinct any time soon, and given some of our histories wiping out native populations etc, we aren't exactly in a position to complain if it was.
On topic: aren't there huge expanses of the US where no-one lives? It's not like you're going to run out of room!
Tesco are a supermarket that everyone's heard of and been in to buy something or other. It makes far more advertising sense for them to put up posters in-store than an ad on the web, especially as the target audience are not the type to go directly to a supermarket's website. Those of us that buy software online are going to go to Amazon, or Play.com, or somewhere similar.
I could go on and on, but I hope I've made my point.
Personally I'd like violent games to come with the insane warning stickers you see on appliances
I agreed with your post up until that point, for the simple reason that I feel you shouldn't have to. In the past, people have criticised other mediums for being violent, TV being a perfect example. There was one notorious critic here in the UK who claimed that the children's cartoon Tom and Jerry was too violent. The anti-video-game lot is just the latest incarnation of this sort of thing - as my Mum likes to say, "Nothing ever changes".
To all the posters above talking about 6-axes etc etc - it's a name. A PR stunt, nothing more.
Let me give you an example. Here in the UK, expectant parents can now buy ultrasound scans of the child as videos. They are called '4D pictures' - which is of course sounds stupid to anyone that actually knows the 4th dimension is time. Sony's naming here is no different - they're probably just trying to equal the publicity Nintendo got when they named their next-gen console the Wii.
You beat me to the exact point I wanted to make. Actually being a half-decent parent is a far better solution. My parents & grandparents get very annoyed at people who make no effort with their children, and even at my age (20) it is possible to discern between people who've had a decent upbringing from people who haven't. The problems the article discusses are just the most recent symptom of this much deeper issue.
Unfortunately the prices aren't that much lower. HL2 Ep 1 had about 5 hours of gameplay, and cost 19.99USD. It took me three hours to download it off steam, and had I bought it retail here in the UK it would have cost at least 15.99GBP, more likely 19.99GBP - a considerable amount more which is difficult to justify through taxes. On top of that there are rumours that Ep 2 will be more expensive (I can't remember where I read that but it may well have been a/. article), and they are pushing it back to February.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of more frequent releases, but the prices must reflect shorter games. 1/3 of the gameplay at 2/3 of the cost with no new multiplayer options is a bit of a rip-off IMHO. Yes, I know programming is hard, the only game I've ever written was a Snake/Centipede varient in DirectDraw which was all buggy, but I'd like prices to be reasonable.
What on earth do they need our email addresses for?! I fail to see how this is relevant security information, especially considering how easy it is to set up a new email alias, and how easy it is to fake an email.
Slashdot Mirror
People who to drunk to care will do it wherever (or piss their pants if they're completely wasted).
People who are desperate because there's no open public toilets will continue to (attempt to) hide behind a tree, bus stop or anything else.
In terms of being a programmer, I agree 100%, although I can't speak for SysAdmins.
Before I came to Uni, I was considering doing a joint honours Maths & CS degree. I was advised against it by my A-Level (UK qualification; normally taking ages 16-18) computing teacher, who said that by doing just maths I'd actually end up being a better programmer. If I compare stuff I've written recently, with stuff I did for A-level projects, I'd say this is true - and there was a good year and a half gap where I wasn't programming anything, so the improvement is not just experience.
I think this is the case because, as is so often pointed out, the logic behind mathematics and programming is the same. Maths forces you to learn the logic, whereas CS tends to teach you factual details on how it works etc.
So, what maths modules should be part of a CS degree? It depends on what you want to do with your degree. I would imagine Linear Algebra, Discrete and Logic (at least Propositional, possibly Predicate) to be good in general.
I do have a couple of gripes with PHP however. Firstly, as the parent (and a myriad and one other people) pointed out, inconsistent function names. Secondly, the presence of objects in the language - IMHO OOP is a bit overrated - and if you try to take PHP V4 objects to PHP V5 objects you have to use an instantiation hack.
But then, I could go on about my gripes with C++, Java, SQL, HTML/CSS, and pretty much every language I've ever coded in.
This may seem like a stupid question, but how else did we go from HTML 1.0 to 4.01 without the standard being 'incrementally evolved'?
This is a moot point.
I'm being serious. Google is supposed to tell you where to find what you're looking for, like the catalog computer in a library that tells you exactly which shelf to go to, whereas Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, an indiviual book in the library. Comparing the two is IMHO completely pointless.
I'm more interested in seeing what Kaspersky's official response to this is.
It's common practice in the IT industry to work on version n+1 of a product before version n is released - e.g. Firefox versions 2 & 3, MS Office, etc. Consoles are no different - I'm pretty sure that development work for the PS3 had started when the PS2 was in it's "shortage panic" stage.
You give MySQL away for free, and sell an enhanced version also. How do you convince the bank manager/other investors to give you money to start a for-profit business, based on such a model?
Firstly, there is an upper limit (temperature-wise) in which humans can survive. There are areas near the equator which are beyond this limit now, and a slight increase in temperature would enlarge them considerably - possibly as far as Spain, or equivilant southwards.
Secondly, you'd be surprised how much land is actually below sea-level.
Then there's the fact that North-West Europe (in particular us Brits) is kept warm by the Gulf Stream (look it up), which is highly dependant on the salt density in the Atlantic. Any rise in the sea level would disrupt that balance, and we'd lose the Stream, taking us down to the temperature you'd expect us to be at this north (about the same as Moscow - check the latitudes).
I'd expect there to be a whole bunch of other effects that I don't know about, as well. Global warming will have a considerable impact, more than most people imagine.
The real point, however, is that Adobe have always had Photoshop, and, more recently, Flash. They're not going away any time soon.
Finally: I've said this before, but perhaps was misunderstood:
-If we don't cut our carbon emissions (because we think we don't need to) and then turn out to be wrong, we may well end up like Venus.
-If we do cut them, we reduce our use of oil (which is in finite supply, as parent pointed out) and probably cut our costs (by energy efficieny stuff, my Mum works in that). Should we then turn out to be incorrect (i.e. CO2 isn't quite as bad as some of the doomsday predictions), we haven't really lost anything, but have gained quite a bit. Unfortunately, this is largely dependant on industry, and as the parent observed, convincing them may be difficult.
In short, either we will screw the atmosphere up with CO2, or we won't. Some people will inevitably pick sides and be wrong. In a matter with such potentially far-reaching implications, which way would you rather be wrong?
How many American sites accept, say, Switch? How many UK sites accept US debit cards, for that matter? When I first bought a game off Steam, I had to wait for the bank to give me a Mastercard.
(Yes, I know you can get e.g. Visa debit cards.)
...who read the title as "Google gadgets come to get you"?
On topic: aren't there huge expanses of the US where no-one lives? It's not like you're going to run out of room!
Tesco are a supermarket that everyone's heard of and been in to buy something or other. It makes far more advertising sense for them to put up posters in-store than an ad on the web, especially as the target audience are not the type to go directly to a supermarket's website. Those of us that buy software online are going to go to Amazon, or Play.com, or somewhere similar.
I could go on and on, but I hope I've made my point.
To all the posters above talking about 6-axes etc etc - it's a name. A PR stunt, nothing more.
Let me give you an example. Here in the UK, expectant parents can now buy ultrasound scans of the child as videos. They are called '4D pictures' - which is of course sounds stupid to anyone that actually knows the 4th dimension is time. Sony's naming here is no different - they're probably just trying to equal the publicity Nintendo got when they named their next-gen console the Wii.
You beat me to the exact point I wanted to make. Actually being a half-decent parent is a far better solution. My parents & grandparents get very annoyed at people who make no effort with their children, and even at my age (20) it is possible to discern between people who've had a decent upbringing from people who haven't. The problems the article discusses are just the most recent symptom of this much deeper issue.
Unfortunately the prices aren't that much lower. HL2 Ep 1 had about 5 hours of gameplay, and cost 19.99USD. It took me three hours to download it off steam, and had I bought it retail here in the UK it would have cost at least 15.99GBP, more likely 19.99GBP - a considerable amount more which is difficult to justify through taxes. On top of that there are rumours that Ep 2 will be more expensive (I can't remember where I read that but it may well have been a /. article), and they are pushing it back to February.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of more frequent releases, but the prices must reflect shorter games. 1/3 of the gameplay at 2/3 of the cost with no new multiplayer options is a bit of a rip-off IMHO. Yes, I know programming is hard, the only game I've ever written was a Snake/Centipede varient in DirectDraw which was all buggy, but I'd like prices to be reasonable.
What on earth do they need our email addresses for?! I fail to see how this is relevant security information, especially considering how easy it is to set up a new email alias, and how easy it is to fake an email.
"Not once we demonstrate the power of this DRM!"