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User: haystor

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  1. Re:The best thing about Perl on Exegesis 7 Released (Perl 6 Text Formatting) · · Score: 1

    Ah.

    I think that like most people, I've only read formal documentation as a last resort. I suppose very rarely I have a highly technical nuance of code that requires a formal definition.

    I don't know what to say. It seems Perl is best learned by immersion and topical vocabulary rather than a book of grammar.

  2. Re:A guy walks into his coworker's office.... on Exegesis 7 Released (Perl 6 Text Formatting) · · Score: 1

    The current style of java "in the industry" is to provide multiple layers of abrstraction.

    Go to a webpage lookupData.do

    This looks up a class LookupDataAction verified by LookupDataForm.

    This calls LookupDataSessionBean.

    Which uses a JNDI interface to find the proper classes for "lookupData". This turns out to be LookupData.

    This looks up the data, returns the results to be displayed in LookupData.jsp.

    This is the verbosity that people complain about with Java. The defense is always that it is great for abstracting out parts of a project to different levels of people.

    The truth is Java is more about misdirection than abstraction. But hey, a lot of code gets written, so they must be productive.

    There is no need to defend Perl though. There are lots of people getting work done with it that don't know better.

  3. Re:The best thing about Perl on Exegesis 7 Released (Perl 6 Text Formatting) · · Score: 1

    If you have a problem with that line of code it arises from the fact that Perl expects you to know what you're doing and will allow you to do it.

    The simple answer to what that does is: it does what you expect it to. Perl is not a "safe" language in the sense that it will stop you doing something. It is a different language entirely in the sense that it tries its best to complete whatever you ask it. If you want to add a string to a reference it will try without complaint, even if the result is meaningless. To some of us, this is what computers are all about.

    Assume the programmer knows what they're doing and try to get the job done. That's a good goal for a language.

    Oh, and as for documentation, I consider the error messages and warnings to be documentation as well. And in this respect Perl outshines *all* other languages.

  4. Re:If Shakespeare were a blogger on Bloggers' Plagiarism Scientifically Proven · · Score: 1

    I'm just imagining what his response would be if you really ticked him off. Imagine a 2 page flame from him.

    More likely he'd write a play completely destroying your reputation.

  5. Re:Why not buy SCO then? on Leaked Memo Says Microsoft Raised $86 million for SCO · · Score: 1

    First, it would be near impossible for MS to buy an OS company.

    Second, who's to say MS wasn't target number 1? SCO has shown a propensity to go after anyone for anything.

    Then there is also the possibility that MS is a legitimate customer of SCO and drove a hard price of $86 million because SCO is in such a position.

    I hope to find the answers to these questions after people pick through the charred remains surrounding IBM's lawyers.

  6. Re:Try $3500 on Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook · · Score: 1

    I'm very price sensitive when it comes to computers. There are only a few parts I'm willing to spend considerably for quality. Not cheap, just price sensitive.

    I'd rather lift an extra 10 pounds than spend $2k.

    You have an different idea of work if it can only be done on a Mac. Personally I think people would be better off with any computer and a company that spent their money on monitors for the eyes, chairs for the back and keyboards for the hands.

    Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed it is much easier for a graphics guy to justify an outrageous development machine than for a programmer? I can never seem to even get ram. I'd just like to be able to check email without paging out my IDE. The company's solution was to get me a second computer also with 256M of RAM.

  7. Re:Not a poor move on Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook · · Score: 2, Funny

    To make room for the new Acer laptop.

  8. Re:Prior law might defeat this in court on Do You Have A License For Those Facts? · · Score: 1

    A dictionary is a troublesome example because the specific definitions themselves are copyrightable work even if the meanings are not.

    Think of something like the multiplication tables where the answers are not open to interpretation.

    Under this act you'd still be able to make your own multiplication table, you'd just have to build it yourself. This is protecting the work down by those gathering the facts, not necessarily making the facts themselves off limits.

  9. Re:Absolutely ridiculous on Do You Have A License For Those Facts? · · Score: 2, Informative

    I believe the point of this act is to prevent people from using other people's databases to gather facts.

    You're perfectly welcome to have a database of phone numbers, you just can't make your list from the phone book.

    Right now there is a certain disincentive to research data when it could just be collected from a competitor because it is "fact".

    It might have interesting effects on sports scores though, which you won't be able to repeat unless you had some way of independently confirming the results.

  10. Re:Powerbook.......all the way on Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just out of curiousity, how much does a 17" powerbook with 1G of ram cost?

  11. Re:Not a poor move on Acer Plans A 16 lb. Notebook · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd gladly "suffer" 16 pounds just to be able to move this around my house easily...oh and to be able to afford it easily.

    Sheesh, 16 pounds is easily portable. My son is 30 pounds, but we don't leave him at home because he's too heavy to lift into the car seat.

    Sure it might be a pain for someone that takes their computer everywhere, but there are lots of more expensive options for those people.

  12. Re:The memories... on Purely Functional Data Structures · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Non recursive problems can be handled with functional languages quite well generally.

    After just a few weeks of programming seriously in Lisp, I found it easier to debug than languages I've used for years. The reason for this is that everything is a function. You can unit test practically everything. You can try it out from the interactive loop.

    My typical hard to find bugs at the beginning were typically because I was using the language wrong, not because I was using the syntax incorrectly. A good example of this would be using a counter combined with a while loop instead of recursion or my favorite, the loop facility.

  13. Re:I need some clarification... on DRAM Price Fixing Investigations · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Clearly it's your use of gas that causes the fluctuations. Bastard.

    Seriously though, for the in town prices being higher there are a couple reasons. The cost of operating on more expensive land works its way into the price. There may also be city taxes involved as well.

    As far as why it fluctuates from week to week, you should view the gas station as a very small futures market. They don't price the gas they have now based upon how much they paid for it. They price it based upon how much it will cost to replace what you buy. This means they are pricing your current purchases on how much it will cost them to buy gas a couple weeks from now.

    This means that if the political climate in the mideast flares up they may raise prices. If some nation bucks OPEC and produces more, prices may go down.

    I heard of a study that observed the prices moved up much more efficiently than they moved down.

    There are also seasonal differences in the composition of gasoline which is actually a mixture of lots of chemicals. This, along with a greater demand makes gas in the summer more expensive.

  14. Re:I need some clarification... on DRAM Price Fixing Investigations · · Score: 1

    This is a legitimate question.

    If have a significant portion of the market:

    Low prices are anti-competitive and thus illegal.

    Same prices indicate collusion and are illegal.

    Higher prices are gouging and illegal.

    This may be from your company acting as a monopoly or a group of companies all acting in (perceived) concert.

  15. Re:article text on Twenty-five Years at the Heart of Gaming · · Score: 1

    Smash TV was a worthy successor to Robotron not just a rehash with new skins.

    The most notable difference for me was that Smash TV was multiplayer. The only thing that could make blowing stuff up more fun is being able to bring a friend along.

  16. Re:worth? on Young Programmer, Stop Advocating Free Software! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My time is worth the software I produce.

    Other people's time contributing to this software is worth *more to me* than complete ownership of what I can write on my own.

    If we put numbers to it, it would look something like this:

    I can spend an extra 500 hours a year trying to sell it (opportunity cost of 500 hours development which I'd rather do). I make a total of $10k off this software. But I've hired out testers, coders, designers, etc. since nobody works for free anymore. I spend $268,000 on them. I lose $258,000.

    Or, I work on it and buy the participation of others with sharing of the software.

    I think what really drives these guys nuts is that there are leeches who might be willing to pay for something but don't contribute to it. This lost potential gain isn't the same as a loss. It's just the price of doing business in the free software world. Maybe that person is contributing to another software project we're using. Maybe they just spread the word and that ends up drawing in a new developer's time somewhere. Maybe they just like using our software and all we get is satisfaction for having created something (when was the last time you got that on a proprietary contract?)

    Imagine if no doctors did volunteer work or worked below their earning capacity. Ever had a teacher who could have been doing something else that paid a lot more? A lot of firemen could do better financialy (not to mention safety) to work somewhere else. There is a definite value in doing what you want.

  17. Re:11 Wins on Lord Of The Rings - Oscars, We Loves Them · · Score: 5, Funny

    Titanic had a slippery Kate Winslet. They also killed DiCaprio.

    So it wasn't all bad.

  18. BLUE BLUE GREEN RED BLUE YELLOW on Firmware Upgrades For Everything · · Score: 5, Funny

    The messiah has spoken, now we must follow.

  19. Re:well, i'm not too terrified on Superflu Being Brewed in the Lab · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why oh why don't they work on a genocidal virus that attacks mosquitos?

  20. Re:XP Rebooted on Microsoft Plans WinXP "Reloaded" · · Score: 1

    His only mistake apparently was deciding you must have been worth spending some time with.

    I'm sure he was pretending to like the music because your taste in music, like most kids, is terrible.

  21. Re:another rite of passage in perl. on Cultured Perl: Fun with MP3 and Perl, Part 2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is a testament to the effectiveness of these various languages that just anyone can produce something useful.

  22. Re:Flame me if you want... but... on A First Look At The GIMP 2.0 · · Score: 1

    I wasn't really trying to say that Gimp does something photoshop doesn't. I was genuinely asking. The $600 price for photoshop is prohibitive for me and I haven't used it since version 3.

    You mention some mouse clicks. Can you do it so it all runs from the command line?

  23. Re:Flame me if you want... but... on A First Look At The GIMP 2.0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use Gimp for a couple things for jpgs coming out of my camera:

    rotate-left abc.jpg
    rotate-right abc.jpg
    thumbnail abc.jpg

    I'm working on a smarter resize script that bring pictures down from 340k on the camera to something more manageable like 100k.

    How is this accomplished with photoshop? Can it be done with just photoshop or does it require another purchase?

  24. Re:Ad when is REAL CMYK Coming ? on A First Look At The GIMP 2.0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Probably because print people, who make up a very small minority of graphics program users, aren't providing the code for CMYK.

    This is like the desktop problem with Linux. For most of the people making Linux, the desktop is essentially done. I personally can do 90% of what I need on the desktop as soon as I can open multiple xterms. I can do 100% of what I need with Gimp without CMYK. I imagine most other people contributing and using Gimp are the same.

  25. Re:Exactly why.... on Last Great Internet Bubble Auction · · Score: 1

    Give me a bunch of dinosaurs in a boring workplace and I'll take on any company full of Aeron's, Hummers and foosball tables.