Back at university I had a lecturer that based his assignment evaluation off Test Driven Development (though I didn't realise it at the time, being a process-noob). Basically he gave us a list of test cases and the spec for the first assignment, a couple of extra requirements and more test cases in the second, and again for the third. I didn't realise the cleverness of this approach until several years out of uni and in the real world.
It all sounds pretty much right but I'd move back the hard drive companies doing this earlier. I remember getting hard drives of several hundred megabytes size and "losing" an appropriate percentage once I looked at the size in an OS. I seem to remember back then they'd even count the MBs as unformatted, because that'd give them even more wiggle room.
After flicking through the majority of up-modded comments, it seems that people are missing the main reason the FDA panel is recommended removing these drugs from the market. Vicodin and drugs like it that combine a opiate painkiller with acetaminophen that are taken long-term require larger doses over time to be as effective as the body builds up resistances (see House as a fairly accurate example). This results in a high risk of acetaminophen overdose as these larger doses are taken.
By removing the acetaminophen and just prescribing the base drug, this risk is obviously removed. This is a _good thing_ because acetaminophen overdose is a very very nasty way to die, and surprisingly easy given the lack of any feedback mechanism to indicate you're taking too many.
I didn't read this TFA, but I read an article on this prior to it making on/.
Hardly. I know I don't. Sure, there's the elephant in the room that is the "deregulated" government monopoly called Telstra who maintain horrific price/quota ratios because they attract the people who don't know any better, and for whom the plans aren't that bad (relatively). Other ISPs like Internode and iiNet (the #2 and #3 suppliers, I think, although Optus might be in there somewhere) have reasonable plans as long as you know how much you're going to use. Go over the quota and you get your bandwidth reduced to a lower level.
The main problem that gets MMO-playing Aussies fired up is people complaining about latency, given our pings to the servers we have to play on that are almost invariably in the US.
Our government is also planning on an almost nation-wide FTTN network, something that should bump up the industry a bit as a lot of our infrastructure is still 100% copper wire-based. The net result of all this is not that we have the greatest plans (we definitely don't, and a lot of that is to do with the cost of laying the undersea cables to the US which gets passed right through to the consumers - unique to Aus and NZ), but the article is correct in that it means we don't have to worry about the Net neutrality issues directly.
The negative connotation is that when any given thread has reached a reference to Nazis, it's use-by date has expired and the thread will devolve into flames either about (a) the Nazis, or (b) Godwin's Law. Which amuses me, since it places the Law on the same level as the Nazis...
WoW with more than 120ms lag wouldn't be THAT much fun
Speaking as an Australian playing on an "Oceanic" server, any time we have less than 400ms lag it's a miracle. However WoW does handle the latency quite well, especially compared to what you'd have to put up with in FPSs, etc.
It's worse for use as a desktop OS than some of the other examples in that list. Building controls, manufacturing controls and SCADA networks are, for instance, examples where Windows is actually passable. Why? A very controlled environment and lack of Internet connectivity. The main source of memory leaks and degradation over time is third-party sources, whether applications or drivers. Windows still has a significant number of inherent security flaws, but in these applications the systems should not be connected to the general Internet. This makes it a lot more difficult for an attacker to access the system.
The control over installed third-party systems and lack of external systems connectivity means that Windows tends to be a lot more stable in these environments than on an average desktop PC. The greatly reduces the potential for the jokes about "viruses" and "Trojans" on these systems the author joked about. It's not necessarily the best tool, as a custom Unix or Linux OS can provide much better general uptime and the ability to potentially fix any issues yourself, but it can be an adequate tool.
I've read quite a few articles in the US press about concerns about dropping levels of tourism. All I can say is "It's pretty fracking obvious why."
Any given visitor is already treated as a prospective criminal at the borders, with fingerprint and retina recordings, and now they have the potential to use shock collars within the country? Like hell I'm going to holiday in a country-wide prison - I'd much rather spend my money on an enjoyable traveling experience.
It depends on the scale of "company-wide". This would be absurdly stupid for a large multinational, or even large national, because they inevitably cover such a wide range of areas where software development may take part. Think Sony - PS3, movie DVDs, games, interactive CDs, all being written with the same set of tools. They would be gimping themselves from the start.
However, in a smaller company of a few teams within a single location and working on similar projects (e.g. all application development), this can greatly aid general understanding of code, code re-use, etc. So there are definite benefits in that situation.
The net answer would be the obvious "it depends". There aren't enough details on the circumstances in this case to make a decision. A lot of people will jump on it and deride the management for these dictates, but they can definitely make sense and provide benefits in some situations.
Mod parent up. I read the summary and was thinking being able to design catalysts was a huge development if it was the case but was quite disappointed when finding out the actual details were extrapolating from a single data point. "Look, we got this tennis ball to bounce! Therefore all balls must bounce!", etc.
Similarly, I was under the impression that the brain is a fairly dynamic thing in that neural connections vary from person to person, and even in a single person's brain over time. This sounds like they've managed to map a single brain, which may provide some information but presumably not as much as a generic map.
Pfft it's not even the coolest thing I've seen today. The story before it was "Ghostly Ring Found Circling Dead Star"! Much much cooler, all without leaving my basement or even slashdot!
You mention the Australian Dollar in your comparison. Blu-Ray player prices here in Australia have gone up since the scrapping of HD-DVD. Blu-Ray disc prices are static at about twice the price of DVDs and aren't selling awfully well. I don't think it can be attributed to the exchange rate fluctuations.
Reputation based schemes like Credence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credence_(reputation_management_scheme) applied to peers could help you boot off peers out of swarms with no or poor reputation.
Personally I much prefer basing reputations off Creedence.
Alas it's the remaining (100% - pretty much) that will cause people problems. I've recently started dual booting and of the applications I "required", four have native ports or equivalents (VNC client, BT client, Firefox, VMPlayer - though with some fiddling for Ubuntu on the last), one I need Wine for (WoW) and the last keeps me booting into Windows (iTunes to talk to my iPod Touch).
I was doing some testing of an Ubuntu LiveCD last night and had a bit of a struggle getting my wireless networking running (my first time trying it out). I thought I finally had it all set up, so called up Firefox and typed in "slashdot.org" to find... nothing. Swore my head off at the prospect of more blind fiddling. Luckily I tried Google as a back-up, forcing me to apologise sheepishly to the computer.
I finally gave Linux a run via a LiveCD last night (Ubuntu, given all the positive press). On the five systems in our house (two mine, three my fiancee's) that I gave it a run through it detected and had appropriate wireless drivers and graphics card drivers for all five. I didn't test Bluetooth. My only problem was in configuring the wireless network access because the networking on the first machine I tried didn't auto-detect any networks, but that was completely separate to drivers (although it does lead into a complaint about use of "ESSID" versus the more understandable "Network ID/Name", as well as incorrect/not very useful help file descriptions). It's no longer driver support stalling anything.
Try that with a closed software, like Windows. Ah, I forgot, Microsoft always listens to their customers and gives them what they want;-). Absolutely true, for values of "they" equal to "Microsoft".
Slashdot Mirror
Back at university I had a lecturer that based his assignment evaluation off Test Driven Development (though I didn't realise it at the time, being a process-noob). Basically he gave us a list of test cases and the spec for the first assignment, a couple of extra requirements and more test cases in the second, and again for the third. I didn't realise the cleverness of this approach until several years out of uni and in the real world.
It all sounds pretty much right but I'd move back the hard drive companies doing this earlier. I remember getting hard drives of several hundred megabytes size and "losing" an appropriate percentage once I looked at the size in an OS. I seem to remember back then they'd even count the MBs as unformatted, because that'd give them even more wiggle room.
After flicking through the majority of up-modded comments, it seems that people are missing the main reason the FDA panel is recommended removing these drugs from the market. Vicodin and drugs like it that combine a opiate painkiller with acetaminophen that are taken long-term require larger doses over time to be as effective as the body builds up resistances (see House as a fairly accurate example). This results in a high risk of acetaminophen overdose as these larger doses are taken.
By removing the acetaminophen and just prescribing the base drug, this risk is obviously removed. This is a _good thing_ because acetaminophen overdose is a very very nasty way to die, and surprisingly easy given the lack of any feedback mechanism to indicate you're taking too many.
I didn't read this TFA, but I read an article on this prior to it making on /.
Considering that that was long enough ago that it's entired the collective repository of /. knowledge, I'd still go with "nah, not really".
Well might we say "Who asks the askers?"!
Hardly. I know I don't. Sure, there's the elephant in the room that is the "deregulated" government monopoly called Telstra who maintain horrific price/quota ratios because they attract the people who don't know any better, and for whom the plans aren't that bad (relatively). Other ISPs like Internode and iiNet (the #2 and #3 suppliers, I think, although Optus might be in there somewhere) have reasonable plans as long as you know how much you're going to use. Go over the quota and you get your bandwidth reduced to a lower level.
The main problem that gets MMO-playing Aussies fired up is people complaining about latency, given our pings to the servers we have to play on that are almost invariably in the US.
Our government is also planning on an almost nation-wide FTTN network, something that should bump up the industry a bit as a lot of our infrastructure is still 100% copper wire-based. The net result of all this is not that we have the greatest plans (we definitely don't, and a lot of that is to do with the cost of laying the undersea cables to the US which gets passed right through to the consumers - unique to Aus and NZ), but the article is correct in that it means we don't have to worry about the Net neutrality issues directly.
Well, Design at any rate...
The negative connotation is that when any given thread has reached a reference to Nazis, it's use-by date has expired and the thread will devolve into flames either about (a) the Nazis, or (b) Godwin's Law. Which amuses me, since it places the Law on the same level as the Nazis...
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/
WoW with more than 120ms lag wouldn't be THAT much fun
Speaking as an Australian playing on an "Oceanic" server, any time we have less than 400ms lag it's a miracle. However WoW does handle the latency quite well, especially compared to what you'd have to put up with in FPSs, etc.
That's what I was expecting too. And then no one believing the prison ship's claim that they didn't press the button.
I think the big black evil-looking prisoner throwing the detonator out when no one else could or would was one of the best parts of the movie.
Mein Shaft!!!
(It all comes back to the Viagra jokes...)
It's worse for use as a desktop OS than some of the other examples in that list. Building controls, manufacturing controls and SCADA networks are, for instance, examples where Windows is actually passable. Why? A very controlled environment and lack of Internet connectivity. The main source of memory leaks and degradation over time is third-party sources, whether applications or drivers. Windows still has a significant number of inherent security flaws, but in these applications the systems should not be connected to the general Internet. This makes it a lot more difficult for an attacker to access the system.
The control over installed third-party systems and lack of external systems connectivity means that Windows tends to be a lot more stable in these environments than on an average desktop PC. The greatly reduces the potential for the jokes about "viruses" and "Trojans" on these systems the author joked about. It's not necessarily the best tool, as a custom Unix or Linux OS can provide much better general uptime and the ability to potentially fix any issues yourself, but it can be an adequate tool.
I've read quite a few articles in the US press about concerns about dropping levels of tourism. All I can say is "It's pretty fracking obvious why."
Any given visitor is already treated as a prospective criminal at the borders, with fingerprint and retina recordings, and now they have the potential to use shock collars within the country? Like hell I'm going to holiday in a country-wide prison - I'd much rather spend my money on an enjoyable traveling experience.
It depends on the scale of "company-wide". This would be absurdly stupid for a large multinational, or even large national, because they inevitably cover such a wide range of areas where software development may take part. Think Sony - PS3, movie DVDs, games, interactive CDs, all being written with the same set of tools. They would be gimping themselves from the start.
However, in a smaller company of a few teams within a single location and working on similar projects (e.g. all application development), this can greatly aid general understanding of code, code re-use, etc. So there are definite benefits in that situation.
The net answer would be the obvious "it depends". There aren't enough details on the circumstances in this case to make a decision. A lot of people will jump on it and deride the management for these dictates, but they can definitely make sense and provide benefits in some situations.
Mod parent up. I read the summary and was thinking being able to design catalysts was a huge development if it was the case but was quite disappointed when finding out the actual details were extrapolating from a single data point. "Look, we got this tennis ball to bounce! Therefore all balls must bounce!", etc.
Similarly, I was under the impression that the brain is a fairly dynamic thing in that neural connections vary from person to person, and even in a single person's brain over time. This sounds like they've managed to map a single brain, which may provide some information but presumably not as much as a generic map.
Incomprehensible and appears to have a completely different meaning? I'm guessing Haskell.
Mod parent +1 WTF?
/..
I'm still having serious issues figuring out whether he was serious or kidding, given some of the theories espoused on
Pfft it's not even the coolest thing I've seen today. The story before it was "Ghostly Ring Found Circling Dead Star"! Much much cooler, all without leaving my basement or even slashdot!
You mention the Australian Dollar in your comparison. Blu-Ray player prices here in Australia have gone up since the scrapping of HD-DVD. Blu-Ray disc prices are static at about twice the price of DVDs and aren't selling awfully well. I don't think it can be attributed to the exchange rate fluctuations.
Personally I much prefer basing reputations off Creedence.
Alas it's the remaining (100% - pretty much) that will cause people problems. I've recently started dual booting and of the applications I "required", four have native ports or equivalents (VNC client, BT client, Firefox, VMPlayer - though with some fiddling for Ubuntu on the last), one I need Wine for (WoW) and the last keeps me booting into Windows (iTunes to talk to my iPod Touch).
I was doing some testing of an Ubuntu LiveCD last night and had a bit of a struggle getting my wireless networking running (my first time trying it out). I thought I finally had it all set up, so called up Firefox and typed in "slashdot.org" to find... nothing. Swore my head off at the prospect of more blind fiddling. Luckily I tried Google as a back-up, forcing me to apologise sheepishly to the computer.
I finally gave Linux a run via a LiveCD last night (Ubuntu, given all the positive press). On the five systems in our house (two mine, three my fiancee's) that I gave it a run through it detected and had appropriate wireless drivers and graphics card drivers for all five. I didn't test Bluetooth. My only problem was in configuring the wireless network access because the networking on the first machine I tried didn't auto-detect any networks, but that was completely separate to drivers (although it does lead into a complaint about use of "ESSID" versus the more understandable "Network ID/Name", as well as incorrect/not very useful help file descriptions). It's no longer driver support stalling anything.