The summary says the replication slaves are now crash free, but TFA says they are crash-safe. My database knowledge doesn't go very deep, but I think the latter means they won't lose data on crashes, not that they never crash.
A Ren'Py story does need graphics to shine. A possible alternative if you want to create a text-based interactive story is Twine. The editor (1.4 series) is written in wxPython, stories are created using wiki syntax and optionally CSS and JavaScript. It packages stories as HTML files for playing.
Code quality in the Linux kernel varies a lot per individual driver or subsystem. Many interfaces are under-documented: you have to read the implementation code and make an educated guess at what the intended interface was. And a lot of the error handling paths contain bugs, since those are rarely exercised when testing manually.
The Linux kernel might seem elegant if you just read the code superficially. Once you start making changes and have to know exactly how it works, you'll see the problems that many parts of the kernel code have. While there is certainly a lot worse code out there, I wouldn't use the kernel as a shining example of elegant code.
There is one thing I learned from the Linux coding style though: avoiding typedefs and just writing "struct blah" in full helps make code accessible to new readers: the less indirections, the sooner you find what you're looking for. The same thing holds for avoiding typedef aliases for integer types and using macros sparingly.
The door lock analogy works best, I think: if there is something really valuable in the house, a door lock won't stop a thief, but for an average house a good lock could make it not worth the effort. Likewise, if my government (the Netherlands has a population of almost 17 million) can afford to spy on a thousand people, I won't be among them, but if they can afford to spy on a million people, I might be. So if you want privacy, make sure mass spying does not become too easy.
It's tremendously awkward to tell someone that you should buy two copies of the expansion just to get a second 90.
A bit of searching shows that in the past WoW expansions were introduced at $40, so why wouldn't a player opt to buy the expansion twice rather than buying the level upgrade for a second character?
Note that the pricing for this expansion hasn't been published yet, but I doubt they're going to price it at $60, since people expect a full game for that price.
Indeed there is no such thing as secure self-destructing messages. What is more interesting is end-to-end encryption, where you can at least ensure that no-one except the recipient can open the message.
And when the largest Dutch telco announced plans to charge extra for the "privilege" of being able to use IM or VOIP on a mobile data plan, net neutrality legislation was passed in record time.
Right now the arctic ocean and Hudson Bay are 100% frozen due to this thing we call winter. Summer it is a different story.
The summer story is much more relevant though. In winter, when there is a low angle sun a few hours a day, sunlight is reflected back into space. In summer, when the sun is at a higher angle and there are only a few hours of night a day, increasingly large areas are not reflecting much sunlight back into space. I don't see how this invalidates TFA.
But don't forget that big pharma, for all its problems still is the number one creator of new drugs. In 2012 alone, the U.S. government and private companies spent a combined $130 billion (PDF) on medical research.
Ahh, very large numbers without context.
There is a little context:
Last year Novartis lost a six-year legal battle after the Indian Supreme court ruled that small changes and improvements to the drug Glivec did not amount to innovation deserving of a patent.
So some of that research is being spent on patentable variations rather than better cures, which is a waste of time and money when looking at the complete healthcare system. Commercial research also produces actually useful drugs, but perhaps it would be more efficient to let governments lead the research and let pharma companies handle the production side.
If NBC buys television rights for billions of dollars, of course they're going to use those to make money in any way they can. In my opinion the IOC is the main party to blame here, for selling exclusive television rights in the first place. They're the ones who are supposed to uphold the Olympic tradition.
It all depends on the numbers. If there is 5% less traffic in that week, they'll ignore it. If there is 50% less traffic, they might take notice.
Also, unlike most boycotts, this protest is not against an unpopular corporate policy, but against the product itself. The beta interface has such poor usability that I can't see myself using it, even if I wanted to.
John Walker replied "I'll just fire myself for you now", so I think it's safe to say he has zero pull. But that was not my point. Asking for the publisher to be fired is saying "this should never have been published in the first place". I think it's telling that discussing copyright length provokes such a strong reaction.
As a result, his reaction to these kinds of comments is totally unsurprising.
Disagreeing with an editorial piece is fine, even if the motivation behind it might be self-serving, but asking for whoever published it to be fired is completely unreasonable, in my opinion.
If you want to make it a fair test, only 20 year old content should be included. Unfortunately, despite their "PC Gaming since 1873" slogan, they haven't been around for that long.
The moon is made of green cheese. -- John Heywood
