Put it in the back window of your car and attach it to a mobile device with a touch screen. You can tell people to get off your ass, or tell off the drivers going 40 in a 55 (on a road with a 65 defacto speed) after you pass them.
What I would like... is to have an OS/GUI that was able to properly save the "state" of all open programs.... proper save of what applications were running,... etc. This would allow me to restore the proper state after reboots.
You've just described hibernation. The OS can't determine which apps, their states (i.e. data in memory), process control blocks, scheduler states, etc. that you care about, so the only way to accomplish what you want is by saving everything to disk. In other words, hibernating.
I certainly wasn't generalizing about the poor - my point was that some people aren't really poor, they just make bad spending decisions that put them in the same boat the the poor (unable to afford the essentials). That's why I put the word "poor" in quotes.
I guess the poor think it's more important to invest their $700 a year on FOOD.
Sadly, I think the opposite is often the case: many "poor" families think it's more important to spend their $700 on television - that's why they're poor. There are many people who live in poverty and/or receive public assistance that could easily afford everything they NEED if they didn't blow their money on things could live WITHOUT (TV, beer, cigarettes, eating out, drinks at the bar, $50+ pairs of jeans, home and auto A/V systems, etc).
I suppose for some people that is true, but the vulgarity associated with certain arbitrary words in a language is not instinctive - it's learned. So where do you suppose that leaves those who never learned that these words are vulgar? If mom and dad, family and friends, the kids at school, and (later) the guys/gals at work (the boss too) all use that language in everyday speech, how can you expect anyone to learn that a handful of those words are any different than the rest of the language they've learned?
I don't mean to get into a rant (and certainly don't want to make any assumptions about AC's "unrefined ruffian"), but this is just touches on my pet peeve about people not understanding the fact that any taboo in a culture is learned, not innate. If a person never learns that something is taboo, then as far as they're concerned, it's not.
One man's unrefined ruffianity is another man's unconscious vernacular.
Moving to a university research lab after five years in IT at a paper mill in East Bumville, I really had to make a conscious effort to unlearn the conversational vernacular that I had picked up over the last few years.
Oh, and I believe the correct expression is "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Hell, at first I thought (maybe hoped) the GP was being sarcastic.
Throwing more hardware at something just so you can write poetic code is foolishness. It's often lazyness, but I think in the GP's case it's stubborn idealism.
Code is written for the computer, and should accommodate the computer; comments are written for humans, so keep your poetry and prose there. Explain what you are doing in English (or Swedish, French, German, Swahili, etc.), not by making the computer jump through hoops each time a program is executed.
Speaking of stubborn idealism, if you ever want to start a usenet flamewar, post to one of the database groups questioning whether something belongs in program code or a stored procedure. The deontological nutjobs come out of the woodwork, advocating their absolutisms that completely ignore efficiency and the possibility case-specific solutions.
Mind you, I refused to send an SMS for 15-20 years until I finally got hold of a phone with a qwerty keyboard, so you're welcome to ignore me.
So, you refused to send an SMS in 1988? Such a shame Motorola never though of adding a QWERTY keyboard to their DynaTAC phones so it wouldn't have been such a hassle to send an SMS...
I have a feeling that the Dear Abby column in the paper makes a practice of it -- if not, she sure seems to attract letters from an awfully articulate lot of pre-teens.
If Heffernan were quoting published works, that's one thing, but she should treat Internet postings (blog, forum, etc.) like letters to the editor or to a newspaper column - edit them as necessary. Besides, just about every 'letters to the editor' section of a periodical includes the disclaimer that the publisher reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, space or clarity, so one can reasonably conclude that the practice is a common one.
Re:This message will self destruct in 5 seconds...
on
TrueCrypt 6.0 Released
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· Score: 2, Insightful
True, a lot of comments here refer to hypothetical situations using over-generalized terminology. But worrying about being forced to give out your password is indeed a legitimate concern.
ebonum describes one example in his "Sad" comment, although his specific concerns probably don't apply to very many of us. A more likely example, however, is if you become the target of a civil suit or a suspect in a criminal case; if (in the US) your computer equipment is seized by law enforcement and they ask for your encryption password, you could face additional criminal charges if you don't give it to them. Now, suppose that you're innocent, or don't feel like rolling over for a tort claim made with malicious intent. Do you really want to hand over all your private data to some cop or investigator who has no business accessing it? It's not as unlikely as you may think.
So yeah, "adversary" is probably a bad word choice, and those who made references to waterboarding are probably fair targets for sarcasm, but the geeks out there are putting together solutions to meet the valid and reasonable needs of the community.
...a job with low pay... receive no public recognition... have to pass periodic drug, credit and background checks for security clearance, get crappy benefits and with no stock options. I realize this is anecdotal, but my uncle just retired from the Army in his early 40s, receives a full pension (try getting that today in the private sector), and now has a high-paying job with a government contractor on account of his military experience and security clearance.
From what I understand, military health-care benefits are fairly comprehensive, and if you're worried about drug, credit, and background checks I doubt they want you anyway.
Sounds like a dream job Maybe not to you (or me either, for that matter), but for a lot of people willing to make a career out of it, it's not such a bad deal.
Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone explain why the music industry is in any position to "warn" advertisers to stop supporting another company?
It seems to me that the advertisers have the upper hand - they are a customer to the record labels, after all. Wouldn't the music industry's demands be akin to the convenience store down the street warning me not to buy milk from the grocery store? Sure, they could tell me that my business is no longer welcome if I ever to buy milk at the grocery store, but doing so would not be in their best interest.
I'll never forget those fateful words from the professor: "I don't know this language myself, so I'll be learning it with you as we go."
Isn't the whole idea of a Computer Science education to learn the underlying concepts of programming, not just the syntax or semantics of a particular language? The programming language used is merely a vehicle for conveying those concepts. The professor who was "learning [J++] with you as we go" was referring to the specifics of the new programming language, not the concepts that he was going to teach in the course. Presumably (unless he was unfit for his position), he knew those concepts well and was able to convey them to the class using whatever syntax and semantics were thrown in front of him.
The quote I'll never forget came from one of my professors during an advising session: "I'll often get calls from IT managers asking if we have any graduating students who know COBOL. I always tell them that ANY of our graduates could know COBOL - and ask if they are hiring someone for their intellect and understanding of programming concepts, or for their knowledge of a particular language."
I don't see any particular reason why kids should be allowed to put their contact information up on the web. Not to flame the parent author here, but what kind of whack job thinks any person should need explicit permission to do what they will with their contact information?
She called L. L. Bean. They said, "Oh, that's too bad, we're sorry, we'll send another one out right away." L. L. Bean made several customers for life that day.
I shop at LL Bean's retail store in Maine quite regularly, and I've always had the same first-rate customer service. Their employees know their merchandise, they treat their customers (and employees) well, accept responsibility for issues that are clearly someone else's problem (such as UPS), and guarantee their products for life. Hell, I knew a kid growing up who would get a new LL Bean backpack every couple of years because he'd overload it with 80 pounds of crap or drag it through hell and back then return it for a new one when the shoulder straps started to give way at the seams or he ruined the zipper. They never hesitated to give him a new one.
But all that comes at a price, and that's why you pay $40 for the same pair of jeans you can get at JC Penney for $25, or $120 for the same pair of Rockport shoes you can get at Macy's for $90, or $250 for the same hunting knife you can get down the road for $220 from the illiterate high schooler behind the counter who is too busy playing with the Samurai swords to even notice that you entered the store (despite the 70 decibel entrance chime). Best Buy is a JC Penney and a Macy's and a store down the road, not an LL Bean. They compete on price, not service, so they can't afford to take it on the chin when someone screws up. LL Bean and similar retailers that distinguish themselves by customer service don't have to take it on the chin - they build it into the price. I'm willing to spend a little extra to buy a winter coat at LL Bean because I consider the additional money an insurance policy against poor customer service; chances are my extra cash will go towards someone's missed UPS shipment, an employee bonus, maintaining the indoor trout pond, or the cost of hiring a hiking gear salesman who is actually a frequent hiker*, but at least I know that if the stitching on my coat comes undone in six months I will have a new or repaired coat without question.
You get what you pay for. Hell of a deal on that 500 GB external hard drive at Best Buy? Gee, I wonder how they can afford that.
---
* My most interesting LL Bean experience was when I was looking at backpacks in the hiking section for a while, and the customer beside me noticed my indecision and asked about how I planned to use it, what type of hiking I did the most, etc. He gave me a 10 or 15 minute discussion of the pros and cons of each one, and recommended a few as the best choices for my needs. Come to find out he was an employee in that department doing some shopping on his day off.
Bullshit. People were expected to work as slaves to those in the social class above them, and were occasionally given a few scraps from the table. I was referring to the Patron-Client system of the Roman Empire. While I'm in no position to argue that historians got it right, they do all seem to agree that it was a system of mutual benefit that held the society together for generations.
I respect your point that culture and content was abundant in times when there were no copyright laws, but its relative abundance paled in comparison to today. Consider that:
Most poets and playwrights came from the social elite, because they did not get paid for their work. Imagine how much creative work we would have today if our only source was the portion of the population rich enough to work without pay.
The philosopher Socrates was poor. He supported his family from gifts he received from wealthy admirers. There was no paycheck from a university tenureship to support what he did all day.
The people who attended Plato's philosophical school in Athens - the Academy - were only those who could afford to live and study without working to support themselves.
Also, consider that this was a time when:
The primary job of a ruler was to please the gods, because upsetting the gods meant failure in war, natural disaster, disease, or hard times. If something bad were to happen to the city, it was because the ruler wasn't pleasing the gods, and he would overthrown.
Honor and prestige was the reward for seeking top political positions, not money or even power. In fact, top government officials were expected to fund warships, public infrastructure, and public entertainment out of their own pockets. Many of the ancient temples, theaters, government offices, bath houses and other public structures whose ruins we see today were built using the private funds of top government officials.
People of each social class were expected to help and support those in the class below them, and did so.
We live in different times and have a completely different culture, so to compare today's creative content to that of ancient Greece or Rome is misleading. Copyright law was created for a reason. Without it, we wouldn't have nearly the amount of creative works we have today, because those who created most of what we do have today would have taken 9-5 day jobs instead.
A five-year-old is not likely to understand any possible explanation for a violent rape scene that he/she saw on TV
If you think a five-year-old won't understand the explanation, what makes you think he'll understand a rape scene at all, or recognize that it is violent? If he doesn't understand enough about it to be upset or disturbed by it, then what's the harm, exactly?
The same goes for nudity, profanity, sex scenes, pornography, and other content most people deem inappropriate for children. One quote that I heard often when there was local debate about a porn shop opening in our small town was that exposure to these things would "take away my child's innocence". What the hell does that even mean? The fact that these things are taboo in our culture is LEARNED behavior. If the child hasn't yet LEARNED that it is considered taboo, then how could they possibly be upset, affected, or "robbed of their innocence" (whatever that means) by it?
Granted, I can count on one hand the number of times I've spent more than a few hours around a five-year-old, and I don't have any friends with children, so these are sincere questions.
I agree. I abhor the thought of abused authority and double standards as much as anyone here, but when I really stop to think about it, I realize that I have no basis for estimating just how prevalent it is. In fact, my only "experience" with what goes on in the criminal justice system is the *fictional* TV crime dramas and the occasional press report like this.
A few years ago I read an article about how TV crime dramas set in the United States were starting to get into people's heads: French citizens were telling police who came to their door that they could not come in without a warrant, when in fact the authorities did not even need a warrant in France. I wonder if a similar thing is happening with the "They're all tyrants!" crowd. How many of them are basing their disdain, without realizing it, on the rule-flaunting, hotroding, car requisitioning, do-whatever-it-takes-to-take-down-the-bad-guy T.V. detectives who get nothing more than a stern "don't do it again" from their on-screen supervisors? Or press reports like this one, which are few compared to the number of interactions that these agencies have with the public on a daily basis.
So while there is little I hate more than authority without accountability, and while it pains me to defend anyone who considers themselves an authority over anyone else, I'm not going to say anything about how bad it is unless I have experience with the REAL system.
Slashdot Mirror
Put it in the back window of your car and attach it to a mobile device with a touch screen. You can tell people to get off your ass, or tell off the drivers going 40 in a 55 (on a road with a 65 defacto speed) after you pass them.
What I would like ... is to have an OS/GUI that was able to properly save the "state" of all open programs. ... proper save of what applications were running, ... etc. This would allow me to restore the proper state after reboots.
You've just described hibernation. The OS can't determine which apps, their states (i.e. data in memory), process control blocks, scheduler states, etc. that you care about, so the only way to accomplish what you want is by saving everything to disk. In other words, hibernating.
I certainly wasn't generalizing about the poor - my point was that some people aren't really poor, they just make bad spending decisions that put them in the same boat the the poor (unable to afford the essentials). That's why I put the word "poor" in quotes.
I guess the poor think it's more important to invest their $700 a year on FOOD.
Sadly, I think the opposite is often the case: many "poor" families think it's more important to spend their $700 on television - that's why they're poor. There are many people who live in poverty and/or receive public assistance that could easily afford everything they NEED if they didn't blow their money on things could live WITHOUT (TV, beer, cigarettes, eating out, drinks at the bar, $50+ pairs of jeans, home and auto A/V systems, etc).
...dealing with VCRs is a headache
VC-whats?
I suppose for some people that is true, but the vulgarity associated with certain arbitrary words in a language is not instinctive - it's learned. So where do you suppose that leaves those who never learned that these words are vulgar? If mom and dad, family and friends, the kids at school, and (later) the guys/gals at work (the boss too) all use that language in everyday speech, how can you expect anyone to learn that a handful of those words are any different than the rest of the language they've learned?
I don't mean to get into a rant (and certainly don't want to make any assumptions about AC's "unrefined ruffian"), but this is just touches on my pet peeve about people not understanding the fact that any taboo in a culture is learned, not innate. If a person never learns that something is taboo, then as far as they're concerned, it's not.
One man's unrefined ruffianity is another man's unconscious vernacular.
Moving to a university research lab after five years in IT at a paper mill in East Bumville, I really had to make a conscious effort to unlearn the conversational vernacular that I had picked up over the last few years.
Oh, and I believe the correct expression is "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Like my mother always said, "Save your pennies. They add up quickly."
But I guess that philosophy could also be regarded as stubbornly idealistic, so touche.
Hell, at first I thought (maybe hoped) the GP was being sarcastic.
Throwing more hardware at something just so you can write poetic code is foolishness. It's often lazyness, but I think in the GP's case it's stubborn idealism.
Code is written for the computer, and should accommodate the computer; comments are written for humans, so keep your poetry and prose there. Explain what you are doing in English (or Swedish, French, German, Swahili, etc.), not by making the computer jump through hoops each time a program is executed.
Speaking of stubborn idealism, if you ever want to start a usenet flamewar, post to one of the database groups questioning whether something belongs in program code or a stored procedure. The deontological nutjobs come out of the woodwork, advocating their absolutisms that completely ignore efficiency and the possibility case-specific solutions.
Mind you, I refused to send an SMS for 15-20 years until I finally got hold of a phone with a qwerty keyboard, so you're welcome to ignore me.
So, you refused to send an SMS in 1988? Such a shame Motorola never though of adding a QWERTY keyboard to their DynaTAC phones so it wouldn't have been such a hassle to send an SMS...
I have a feeling that the Dear Abby column in the paper makes a practice of it -- if not, she sure seems to attract letters from an awfully articulate lot of pre-teens.
If Heffernan were quoting published works, that's one thing, but she should treat Internet postings (blog, forum, etc.) like letters to the editor or to a newspaper column - edit them as necessary. Besides, just about every 'letters to the editor' section of a periodical includes the disclaimer that the publisher reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, space or clarity, so one can reasonably conclude that the practice is a common one.
True, a lot of comments here refer to hypothetical situations using over-generalized terminology. But worrying about being forced to give out your password is indeed a legitimate concern.
ebonum describes one example in his "Sad" comment, although his specific concerns probably don't apply to very many of us. A more likely example, however, is if you become the target of a civil suit or a suspect in a criminal case; if (in the US) your computer equipment is seized by law enforcement and they ask for your encryption password, you could face additional criminal charges if you don't give it to them. Now, suppose that you're innocent, or don't feel like rolling over for a tort claim made with malicious intent. Do you really want to hand over all your private data to some cop or investigator who has no business accessing it? It's not as unlikely as you may think.
So yeah, "adversary" is probably a bad word choice, and those who made references to waterboarding are probably fair targets for sarcasm, but the geeks out there are putting together solutions to meet the valid and reasonable needs of the community.
...a job with low payFrom what I understand, military health-care benefits are fairly comprehensive, and if you're worried about drug, credit, and background checks I doubt they want you anyway. Sounds like a dream job Maybe not to you (or me either, for that matter), but for a lot of people willing to make a career out of it, it's not such a bad deal.
Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone explain why the music industry is in any position to "warn" advertisers to stop supporting another company?
It seems to me that the advertisers have the upper hand - they are a customer to the record labels, after all. Wouldn't the music industry's demands be akin to the convenience store down the street warning me not to buy milk from the grocery store? Sure, they could tell me that my business is no longer welcome if I ever to buy milk at the grocery store, but doing so would not be in their best interest.
[Cue sarcastic comments about RIAA arrogance...]
Isn't the whole idea of a Computer Science education to learn the underlying concepts of programming, not just the syntax or semantics of a particular language? The programming language used is merely a vehicle for conveying those concepts. The professor who was "learning [J++] with you as we go" was referring to the specifics of the new programming language, not the concepts that he was going to teach in the course. Presumably (unless he was unfit for his position), he knew those concepts well and was able to convey them to the class using whatever syntax and semantics were thrown in front of him.
The quote I'll never forget came from one of my professors during an advising session: "I'll often get calls from IT managers asking if we have any graduating students who know COBOL. I always tell them that ANY of our graduates could know COBOL - and ask if they are hiring someone for their intellect and understanding of programming concepts, or for their knowledge of a particular language."
Damn. I though I was literal-minded.
If you got Vista with the laptop, MS only got about $40 out of the deal. Hardly enough to buy a hard drive, let alone four.
I shop at LL Bean's retail store in Maine quite regularly, and I've always had the same first-rate customer service. Their employees know their merchandise, they treat their customers (and employees) well, accept responsibility for issues that are clearly someone else's problem (such as UPS), and guarantee their products for life. Hell, I knew a kid growing up who would get a new LL Bean backpack every couple of years because he'd overload it with 80 pounds of crap or drag it through hell and back then return it for a new one when the shoulder straps started to give way at the seams or he ruined the zipper. They never hesitated to give him a new one.
But all that comes at a price, and that's why you pay $40 for the same pair of jeans you can get at JC Penney for $25, or $120 for the same pair of Rockport shoes you can get at Macy's for $90, or $250 for the same hunting knife you can get down the road for $220 from the illiterate high schooler behind the counter who is too busy playing with the Samurai swords to even notice that you entered the store (despite the 70 decibel entrance chime). Best Buy is a JC Penney and a Macy's and a store down the road, not an LL Bean. They compete on price, not service, so they can't afford to take it on the chin when someone screws up. LL Bean and similar retailers that distinguish themselves by customer service don't have to take it on the chin - they build it into the price. I'm willing to spend a little extra to buy a winter coat at LL Bean because I consider the additional money an insurance policy against poor customer service; chances are my extra cash will go towards someone's missed UPS shipment, an employee bonus, maintaining the indoor trout pond, or the cost of hiring a hiking gear salesman who is actually a frequent hiker*, but at least I know that if the stitching on my coat comes undone in six months I will have a new or repaired coat without question.
You get what you pay for. Hell of a deal on that 500 GB external hard drive at Best Buy? Gee, I wonder how they can afford that.
---
* My most interesting LL Bean experience was when I was looking at backpacks in the hiking section for a while, and the customer beside me noticed my indecision and asked about how I planned to use it, what type of hiking I did the most, etc. He gave me a 10 or 15 minute discussion of the pros and cons of each one, and recommended a few as the best choices for my needs. Come to find out he was an employee in that department doing some shopping on his day off.
I respect your point that culture and content was abundant in times when there were no copyright laws, but its relative abundance paled in comparison to today. Consider that:
Also, consider that this was a time when:
We live in different times and have a completely different culture, so to compare today's creative content to that of ancient Greece or Rome is misleading. Copyright law was created for a reason. Without it, we wouldn't have nearly the amount of creative works we have today, because those who created most of what we do have today would have taken 9-5 day jobs instead.
If you think a five-year-old won't understand the explanation, what makes you think he'll understand a rape scene at all, or recognize that it is violent? If he doesn't understand enough about it to be upset or disturbed by it, then what's the harm, exactly?
The same goes for nudity, profanity, sex scenes, pornography, and other content most people deem inappropriate for children. One quote that I heard often when there was local debate about a porn shop opening in our small town was that exposure to these things would "take away my child's innocence". What the hell does that even mean? The fact that these things are taboo in our culture is LEARNED behavior. If the child hasn't yet LEARNED that it is considered taboo, then how could they possibly be upset, affected, or "robbed of their innocence" (whatever that means) by it?
Granted, I can count on one hand the number of times I've spent more than a few hours around a five-year-old, and I don't have any friends with children, so these are sincere questions.
Huh? I think you misunderstood my comment.
I agree. I abhor the thought of abused authority and double standards as much as anyone here, but when I really stop to think about it, I realize that I have no basis for estimating just how prevalent it is. In fact, my only "experience" with what goes on in the criminal justice system is the *fictional* TV crime dramas and the occasional press report like this. A few years ago I read an article about how TV crime dramas set in the United States were starting to get into people's heads: French citizens were telling police who came to their door that they could not come in without a warrant, when in fact the authorities did not even need a warrant in France. I wonder if a similar thing is happening with the "They're all tyrants!" crowd. How many of them are basing their disdain, without realizing it, on the rule-flaunting, hotroding, car requisitioning, do-whatever-it-takes-to-take-down-the-bad-guy T.V. detectives who get nothing more than a stern "don't do it again" from their on-screen supervisors? Or press reports like this one, which are few compared to the number of interactions that these agencies have with the public on a daily basis. So while there is little I hate more than authority without accountability, and while it pains me to defend anyone who considers themselves an authority over anyone else, I'm not going to say anything about how bad it is unless I have experience with the REAL system.
...they *arrested* him for stealing the parking boot. I would have sent the city a bill for the cost of my time to remove the boot from my car.