You of course could program with a considerably easier API like the gtk or qt API. I believe these are much easier to use then the Windows API and seems to be a good choice for a beginning c++ programmer.
Sure. I believe that closed source software is immoral. By with holding its source, companies, I believe, are violating a basic human right, the right to information. Violating this basic human right, as is violating any human right, is immoral and detrimental to a perfect community or society. Many people would disagree that the right to information is a basic human right by using weak arguments such as "you can live without information." If you live in a state of ignorence, you are not truly living. Instead of just marketing their shody software, Microsoft actively pushes it to be the de facto standard, not by improving it, but either 1) paying off other companies to use their product (A good example is how microsoft actually paid companies to use their inferior live search product) or/and 2) by destroying the competition with 'embrace and destroy' tactics. This brings up of a interesting true story.
My teacher at school brought to my attention a local writing competition. Being a good writer (If I do say so myself ;-p) I decided to look over the competition requirements. I was shocked to find out that the essays had to be in the proprietary doc format. What sense does this make? Why do they forgo open ISO\ANSI standards such as the odt (actually I use latex which exports in the venerable and open dvi and ps formats) format? Why does most of the world trust a company …
>What if the brainwasher/indoctrinator is something/someone you pay for (against your wishes), but its/his aim is contrary to your own beliefs and values?
When your three years old, you don't have many values. This is why the process of indoctrination must began at an early age, in which the mind is fertile.
It is saddening that religion inhibits the progress of science and the well being of all. By preaching absolutism and fundementalism, many people defy logic and common sense. This reminds me of George Orwell's book 1984. In the book the ability to doublethink is considered the highest virtue. Can people not realize that the squelching dictatorship in the book is actually present in most houses in the world? Yet when presented with data, such that intelligence is inversely related on how religious your are, they deny the data with unfalsifiable claims?
For a more complete view of religion, I recommend that you read Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion
>I've never really known someone that has forced their children into religion. In rare cases, I've seen that happen to PKs (Preacher's Kids)... but when that does occur, the children just choose to rebel.
>haha.. talk to the kid? Are you mad? I'm talking about little kids.. you can't talk to them.. beating them is the best thing to do.. they're stupid anyways..
Why cannot you talk to them? When I was 2 years old, I was capable of carrying out a conversation.
>Eh, child abuse laws are too strict these days.. kids need to be beaten more in order to develop better disciplinary skills.. Of course, I don't mean flat out abuse for no reason.. But, used more as negative reinforcement.. I've noticed so many spoiled rotten kids who are never disciplined (my 8 year-old cousin), and the parents do more harm by not beating them. However, religion and psychological abuse also causes much more long-term damage to the kids.
Sorry but I will have to disagree with you. I have never been beaten and I really don't consider myself spoiled, stupid, and rotten. (In fact, I consider myself quite the opposite) Beating the child may (in fact it might have just the opposite effect) improve discipline but it will definetely not improve respect or appreciation for the parents. Instead of beating your children (which I consider highly unintelligent and hallmarks of a uneducated parent), wouldn't it be better to explain to the child what they did wrong, why it was wrong, and leave the question on whether it was wrong debatably? Respect and appreciation cannot be bought or demanded, it must be earned. For one day, they will decide what nursing home you will be sent to.
>well, if the OS does what it's supposed to do you shouldn't have to bother too much with it... It should effectively be transparent, enabling interaction with applications without being obviously there.
Does this mean you should want to nothing about it?
>You're criticizing an operating system that you've only used for an hour? So that's how you know all the faults of Macs.
Im not. I am saying that based on my experience (however short it may be), I like mac a lot less than windows. But I despise windows (for technical and moral reasons, mostly technical), which I have had a fair amount of experience with (~5 years).
Lets just say (something I don't think even you can refute) that mac and windows offer less freedom than linux. I liking freedom, prefer linux. Others who are not as technically inclined as I am, might prefer another operating system.
>Those Operating Systems; can do This and That and a lot lot more obscure functions, that are only of interest, to the Geekiest. For Me: I want to know as little as is humanly possible, about the OS.
I never met a person who considered stupidity a virtue. Well live and learn I guess...
>Let's look at an example. Say your religion preaches self mutilation as a way to become closer to your god. If you teach that to your children and force them to follow the belief, you're the primary cause of physical harm being caused to them, and that's child abuse.
Perhaps a tad extreme, but nothing extremely outstanding!
Yeah, I rarely use my Mac any more. I use my Windows computer a lot, especially since I "borrowed" M-Audio Sessions, tried it out, uninstalled it, and am now going to purchase it, namely so I can have a piece of software legally that is better than GarageBand, and for the cool little dongle that comes with it.
But honestly, Macs suck in general. For one reason really -- Visual. Basic. No, I'm just kidding, but Macs lack a lot of that what Windows has... I mean, sure, GarageBand... You can use Audacity, M-Audio Sessions, Adobe Audition, Ableton Live, etc. to do the same thing. iWeb? Try Publisher, Neo, GoLive, etc. to build websites. iTunes? Ha! It's for Windows too! Safari is too, which I am very happy about. Now, that almighty DOCK! Oh my lord! Try Stardock's applications to emulate the crappy looks of OS X.
And seriously, Macs can't even find the correct side to put the buttons on. And they don't have dropdown menus in applications, that's what truly pisses me off.
As for Windows being complicated, pssh. Try Vista, and you'll see easy to use -- Aside from UAC.
And notice how I mentioned the Windows equivalents of the Mac applications above, like 5+ exist for each Mac application, whereas only one Mac one exist.
No one wants to make Mac users suffer more than they already are with their own Machines. That's why no one writes viruses for Macs... They feel bad for their sucky …
>>I don't hate Christians, or religious people at all; what I do hate though is people who read religious texts literally (evangelicals, if you will).
>Or in other words, as far as you're concerned it's only valid if it isn't treated as being valid?
Im pretty sure he did not mean that. I think Rashakil Fol is trying to say that he respects or at least doesn't hate people that are not too illogical and dogmatic in their beliefs. That is not saying that they are not illogical but at least they have more intelligence than evangelicals.
Actually I believe hp gets the most for your money... Dont no your price range put my I am extremely happy with my dv6000t. View my bio for its specs... It cost about $1600.
yeah I am... Mac users (in my biased bigoted opinion that is) are completely clueless on how to actually operate computers. I have heard mac users say "I switched to mac because windows is too complicated." Windows? Complicated? Sure....
>And what if you can't? What if you know very little about computing? What if you are browsing the internet and come by a (for the most part) friendly community and dive in? What then? What I see from your logic is we should tell these people to beat it... and that's just right-out mean.
Than you better get some skills. I stumbled across daniweb because I needed some c++ help.... How would you stumble on to daniweb if you are technically ignorant? Presumably you would not be searching for programming information if you are technically illiterate?
In short: Having dead weight posters degrades the quality of daniweb and its general integrity.
[edit] wow narue said the samething I said... (darn real time posting! ;-) [/edit]
your wrong. The processor just allows larger variables access. It is just a modifed intel core duo chip I think. All it does is allow larger access... It is not built to be 64 bit.
>It's fine.. there's nothing wrong with people just hanging out here.. It's fun.. Hell, most of my posts are from the Geek's lounge.. Yours too, Sturm
a lot of them are also in the c++, tech lounge (doesn't count. All people do in the tech lounge is ask support questions), linux forums, etc. Im not saying posting the geek lounge is wrong, I just think that you should post in places besides the geek lounge.
>yeah lets ban the people who just like to hang out with us! :rolleyes:
did I say anything about banning? No, I just said I think people should contribute and not waste all their time in the geek lounge. If all you do on daniweb is waste time in the geek lounge, you're hardly a geek.
Video card should be your number 1 priority. Before buying check if its DX10 compatible. Quad core extreme OC'ed intel core 2 should pwn. 2 gigs of ram definetely (maybe even 4, rams cheap). You will probably want a 10,000 rpm harddrive.
>To answer your question, yes there are ways, but no there aren't any good ones. For example, you could add a boolean flag parameter that says whether to create or not. But that changes the meaning of the function and gives it two jobs rather than one. Bad idea.
oh and also it saves memory. If you pass by value it will copy the input object into local scope. So if you want some data just use a const reference to access it.
>Like playing the posting games? At least I spend the majority of my time answering questions on the technical forums rather than making tons of inane posts in the Geek's Lounge. If I happen to look superior it's because I usually am.
I agree. Why do you even post on daniweb If all you do is play posting games? It really doesn't seem to make sense to me... (granted most of my posts are in the geek lounge put I also post in the c++ forum and linux forums)
