I used to make tea in an espresso maker to make tea all the time when I was in college (a good way to wring everything out of the leaves).
I've used coffee makers as well but I suspect the the other people on the night shift would be a little upset if I took over the coffee maker.
Besides, I like the little silver ball I use as an infuser. It's shiny!
Plus, I just drop it in my mug at the beginning of the 12 hour shift, and top off with hot water throughout the night until my tea no longer tastes like tea. Then I just refill the ball, and repeat...
Hmmm - looks interesting, but all of their tea is bagged.
Lately I've switched to buying loose lea. I find that it is usually cheaper (less processing) and better quality (it has to be whole leaves so it won't pass through the strainer).
I've been buying mine from Stash Tea and I've been happy with what I get. I usually have some of their Chai Spice with me at work, with a canister of Lapsang Souchong for those high stress moments.
Better yet, store the information in memory, and display the contents of the memory variable. Refresh the variable every ten or fifteen minutes, or simply deallocate it if nobody's looked at it for ten or fifteen minutes. Still dynamic enough, and your database will thank you
Congratulations, you've just reinvented Roxen's Cache Tag.
In Roxen, wrapping that pesky block of CPU/database intensive code in <cache minutes='15' > </cache> tags would have done pretty much what you describe, without any extra coding...
Using their root zone will have NO adverse effects on your current websurfing but it will allow you to view alternative roots which have been democratically decided upon.
Technically, I think that this is not quite right.
I believe that OpenNic does not support the icann.biz zone.
Personally, I would have a hard time finding a way to care less than I already do about anything under.biz, so I use OpenNIC as my DNS root.
If they want to view zoomed out images often, and they want to go through the effort of writing their own tool, storing the data in a quadtree would probably be a good idea to allow fast access to the data needed to generate the overview without having to process the whole file.
Of course, it would suck if they wanted to manipulate the data, but for viewing only it might be a good idea.
But I seem to recall hearing from some people who work creating visual effects for movies that Discreet: Combustion is a very good software only solution for working with extremely high resolution images.
It's overkill because of the price, that fact that it is an editing tool, and that it is designed to work with video at higher resolutions than the still pictures you are dealing with, but it would probably work for what you want if you can't find anything else...
When it all comes down to a final reckoning, there
is only one search engine attribute that we all care about:
How well we show up when doing a vanity search.
Let's see how the search engines stack up:
1. Searching on my real name.
When I search on my real name on both Google and Teoma, my personal web page comes up as the first hit. Furthermore, on both google and teoma, 70% of the hits on the first page directly relate to me, although tenoma has a duplicate link.
Both engines preform well in this test.
2. Searching for a handle.
I have used the handle Pathwalker for years - let's see how well it shows up:
On this test, Google Lists my webpage on the first screen of hits. Teoma on the other hand lists a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo about finding your path in life; none of the info on ME which I am looking for and care about.
Google wins this test hands down.
3. Email searching
Many of my e-mail addresses have contained the string hungerf3 - let's see how many times each search engine can find this:
Google finds 1470 hits of that string, all of which appear to relate to me, and of which it considers 21 important.
Teoma, on the other hand finds only 13, but they all appear to be of generally high quality.
Still, google wins this test as well through the sheer amount of information related to me which it can dig up!
Overall, one test was tied, and Google won the others. While Teoma appears to be a good search engine, it just doesn't have enough information about me in it. If they fix this, then I might start using it more...
I wouldn't have much faith in the tests you link to. I looked at the settings that the tester used, and it looks to me like they deliberately crippled vp3.
To quote the article:
"In VP3 I set the bitrate, keyframe interval to 9999 seconds, auto keyframe turned on as well as quick compression"
In my experience VP3 only gets noticibly blocky (the tester's major complaint) when it is prevented from creating a keyframe when it wants to. Here, they pretty much prevented vp3 from generating keyframes at all. The keyframe interval should have been left BLANK not set to a stupidly high number.
Additionaly, there is another menu of keyframing options (the one he should have used to set the adaptive keyframe rate rather than locking it) of which he writes nothing. Here, I probably would have set the minimum time to about 1/4-1/2 second, and set the maximum time to the highest supported number.
Furthermore, There is an image quality control which controls the tradeoff between image quality, and the risk of dropping the frame rate. No mention was made of the setting of this control, but the complaints about low detail make me wonder what it was set to.
Finally, turning quick compress on does lower quality. For a test which did not involve encoding speed, I have to wonder why the tester chose to turn that option on, as it trades off quality for faster encoding!
I use vp3 to encode DV streams (in Quicktime) for viewing over the web. Vp3 is a very good quality codec, superior in many cases (unless you are streaming from a QTSS, or the source was shot under unusual light conditions) to the free version of Sorenson. It is excellent under these conditions.
I was thinking of just having the heat exchange on the cpu, with two hoses hooked up (with the incoming hose run past other components that might overheat), and to just leave the ends of the hoses sticking out of the block of foam.
You could hook up to a common water source (if some maniac builds a party sized water chiller) or just hook one to a faucet, and let the other run down the drain if you don't mind being wasteful when you have the system away from your normal water source.
Then again, I'm not the person to pntificate on overclocking/cooling techniques. I've tended to underclock processors more than I've overclocked them...
Probably not - he only has a pentium (I) 200 in there.
If you were going to try this with anything faster, water cooling would be a good idea, just remember to hook up the ends of tubing sticking out of the foam to a water source before you turn it on.
While I agree with you that some of the more advanced features of PostgreSQL would confuse someone who is learning SQL (At least Epochs on queries [1] are no longer an issue!) I feel that this is not a major issue as the fact that the features exist, does not mean that a new user will encounter them.
Someone can start out just using the same basic SQL that would work on MySQL, Oracle, DB2 or any other database without having to worry about transactions (PostgreSQL will wrap each statement in a transaction if you do not set up a transaction block) or other concepts beyond using the database as a simple data store.
When the user is starting to encounter tasks that Referential Integrity, server side functions, or transactions could make easier, they don't have to go through the effort of installing another database system, and moving their projects over. They can continue working in the same enviroment, and start using advanced concepts at their own rate.
I suspect that a lot of people continue to use MySQL for projects that have grown beyond what it is suitable for because they do not want to have to go through the trouble of installing another database system, and instead apply far more effort in the creative use of table locks, and extensive application level logic to simulate the capabilities that a more complete database would give them. I suspect that had they learned on a different database, they would be more likely to realize when the time comes to move to a more complete system, as they would not have had the barrier of a platform change discouraging them from learning about these concepts.
Personally, I think someone should start learning on PostgreSQL until they reach the level where they are using transactions and foreign keys. Then they should play with MySQL, and learn how useful it can be for read dominated tasks with lots of simple queries. After getting used to the speed of MySQL, and seeing under what circumstances it falls down, and PostgreSQL pulls ahead, they should experiment with tuning PostgreSQL to give them an introduction to how to tweak a database. After that, they should be ready for the powerful beast that is Oracle.
1. Postgres used to track all of the changes to the database over it's lifetime. By specifying an Epoch for a query, you could run the query on the database as it appeared at a specific point in time in the past. I think this was removed in the change from Postgres95 to PostgreSQL.
SQL for web nerds
on
Beginning SQL?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Phillip Greenspun's book SQL for Web Nerds is a very nice introduction to SQL. It would be a good idea to grab a copy of PostgreSQL or one of those Oracle demo cds that are as common as AOL cds, and work through the exercises in it.
Please avoid MySQL if you are just learning SQL. You'll just have to unlearn all of the workarounds for the features (such as real transactions, and referential integrity to name two) which it is missing when you move to a real database.
You said:
Apple crippled their DVD writing software to disallow mastering for replication.
I reply:
I fail to see any problematic "crippling" of DVD production in Apple's current hardware.
If you were referring to the fact that iDVD will not export a master image (to a DLT tape for example) - Apple has to differentiate DVD Studio Pro from their free software.
If you were referring to the fact that the SuperDrive can only produce DVD-R 5-general disks, and not authoring disks, I also fail to see that as a problem, as all of the DVD manufacturing services I have checked will accept a general disk as a media source.
It is true that disks produced in this way can not be protected with CSS and macrovision, (an author would need to make a master on a DLT, or an authoring DVD-R rather than on a superdrive to add these protections ) but I feel that many on Slashdot would see this as an advantage in that it increases the amount of unprotected, legally viewable under Linux (or [Free,Open,Net]BSD ) available in the world;-)
I use this little rxml widget on all of the email addresses on my web site.
If the client is detected as a robot, or the detection fails, the address is displayed as a randomly named graphic.
If the client is not detected to be a robot, then just a light entity encoding (which I change from time to time) is applied to the address, which is displayed as a mailto link.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to make tea in an espresso maker to make tea all the time when I was in college (a good way to wring everything out of the leaves).
I've used coffee makers as well but I suspect the the other people on the night shift would be a little upset if I took over the coffee maker.
Besides, I like the little silver ball I use as an infuser. It's shiny!
Plus, I just drop it in my mug at the beginning of the 12 hour shift, and top off with hot water throughout the night until my tea no longer tastes like tea. Then I just refill the ball, and repeat...
Hmmm - looks interesting, but all of their tea is bagged.
Lately I've switched to buying loose lea. I find that it is usually cheaper (less processing) and better quality (it has to be whole leaves so it won't pass through the strainer).
I've been buying mine from Stash Tea and I've been happy with what I get.
I usually have some of their Chai Spice with me at work, with a canister of Lapsang Souchong for those high stress moments.
You said:
Yes but remember, you never need cat.
I reply:
s/never/sometimes/
Ever start out a script with cat $* | next_stage in order to concatenate and process a large number of files in one pass?
Ever just need to concatenate a bunch of log files from different sources together before processing?
Plus, don't forget the old trick of using cut and head/tail to hack apart a file, and using cat and paste to build something new from the bits.
Don't knock concatenation - it has it's uses...
I use a little trick that combines both of those techniques.
/>
It's a little block of RXML that defines a tag called cloak. You use it like this:
<cloak email='foo@pathwalker.org'
If Roxen determines that the client is a robot, or it can't identify what the client is, then they get a graphic.
If they are detected as a normal webbrowser, then they get a partially entity encoded address.
If anyone uses Roxen as their server it might be of some use.
Link with Libparanoia
Tweak configure options for features you do/don't want
compile with -Wall to get a sense for how buggy the package is
Skim through the source to get a feel for how the program is laid out, and what flaws it may have in it's design
Myself, I build everything I run, and I reserve the right to make fun of people who use binary packages.
Better yet, store the information in memory, and display the contents of the memory variable. Refresh the variable every ten or fifteen minutes, or simply deallocate it if nobody's looked at it for ten or fifteen minutes. Still dynamic enough, and your database will thank you
Congratulations, you've just reinvented Roxen's Cache Tag.
In Roxen, wrapping that pesky block of CPU/database intensive code in <cache minutes='15' > </cache> tags would have done pretty much what you describe, without any extra coding...
I think it is rather obvious why he chose that target...
Using their root zone will have NO adverse effects on your current websurfing but it will allow you to view alternative roots which have been democratically decided upon.
.biz zone. .biz, so I use OpenNIC as my DNS root.
Technically, I think that this is not quite right. I believe that OpenNic does not support the icann
Personally, I would have a hard time finding a way to care less than I already do about anything under
If they want to view zoomed out images often, and they want to go through the effort of writing their own tool, storing the data in a quadtree would probably be a good idea to allow fast access to the data needed to generate the overview without having to process the whole file.
Of course, it would suck if they wanted to manipulate the data, but for viewing only it might be a good idea.
But I seem to recall hearing from some people who work creating visual effects for movies that Discreet: Combustion is a very good software only solution for working with extremely high resolution images.
It's overkill because of the price, that fact that it is an editing tool, and that it is designed to work with video at higher resolutions than the still pictures you are dealing with, but it would probably work for what you want if you can't find anything else...
No, I figured you could just use the iPod through the bag.
If there is enough slack in it, you should be able to turn the dial...
Problem solved...
Let's see how the search engines stack up:
1. Searching on my real name.
When I search on my real name on both Google and Teoma, my personal web page comes up as the first hit. Furthermore, on both google and teoma, 70% of the hits on the first page directly relate to me, although tenoma has a duplicate link.
Both engines preform well in this test.
2. Searching for a handle.
I have used the handle Pathwalker for years - let's see how well it shows up:
On this test, Google Lists my webpage on the first screen of hits. Teoma on the other hand lists a lot of mystical mumbo-jumbo about finding your path in life; none of the info on ME which I am looking for and care about.
Google wins this test hands down.
3. Email searching
Many of my e-mail addresses have contained the string hungerf3 - let's see how many times each search engine can find this:
Google finds 1470 hits of that string, all of which appear to relate to me, and of which it considers 21 important.
Teoma, on the other hand finds only 13, but they all appear to be of generally high quality.
Still, google wins this test as well through the sheer amount of information related to me which it can dig up!
Overall, one test was tied, and Google won the others. While Teoma appears to be a good search engine, it just doesn't have enough information about me in it. If they fix this, then I might start using it more...
To quote the article:
In my experience VP3 only gets noticibly blocky (the tester's major complaint) when it is prevented from creating a keyframe when it wants to. Here, they pretty much prevented vp3 from generating keyframes at all. The keyframe interval should have been left BLANK not set to a stupidly high number.
Additionaly, there is another menu of keyframing options (the one he should have used to set the adaptive keyframe rate rather than locking it) of which he writes nothing. Here, I probably would have set the minimum time to about 1/4-1/2 second, and set the maximum time to the highest supported number.
Furthermore, There is an image quality control which controls the tradeoff between image quality, and the risk of dropping the frame rate. No mention was made of the setting of this control, but the complaints about low detail make me wonder what it was set to.
Finally, turning quick compress on does lower quality. For a test which did not involve encoding speed, I have to wonder why the tester chose to turn that option on, as it trades off quality for faster encoding!
I use vp3 to encode DV streams (in Quicktime) for viewing over the web. Vp3 is a very good quality codec, superior in many cases (unless you are streaming from a QTSS, or the source was shot under unusual light conditions) to the free version of Sorenson. It is excellent under these conditions.
I was thinking of just having the heat exchange on the cpu, with two hoses hooked up (with the incoming hose run past other components that might overheat), and to just leave the ends of the hoses sticking out of the block of foam.
You could hook up to a common water source (if some maniac builds a party sized water chiller) or just hook one to a faucet, and let the other run down the drain if you don't mind being wasteful when you have the system away from your normal water source.
Then again, I'm not the person to pntificate on overclocking/cooling techniques. I've tended to underclock processors more than I've overclocked them...
Probably not - he only has a pentium (I) 200 in there.
If you were going to try this with anything faster, water cooling would be a good idea, just remember to hook up the ends of tubing sticking out of the foam to a water source before you turn it on.
And you call yourself a master of the Art of Pee-Fu!
Clue: The massive cup from that mega drink will eliminate the need to leave your seat during the movie.
I'll bet that you stop at rest areas on road trips as well...
While I agree with you that some of the more advanced features of PostgreSQL would confuse someone who is learning SQL (At least Epochs on queries [1] are no longer an issue!) I feel that this is not a major issue as the fact that the features exist, does not mean that a new user will encounter them.
Someone can start out just using the same basic SQL that would work on MySQL, Oracle, DB2 or any other database without having to worry about transactions (PostgreSQL will wrap each statement in a transaction if you do not set up a transaction block) or other concepts beyond using the database as a simple data store.
When the user is starting to encounter tasks that Referential Integrity, server side functions, or transactions could make easier, they don't have to go through the effort of installing another database system, and moving their projects over. They can continue working in the same enviroment, and start using advanced concepts at their own rate.
I suspect that a lot of people continue to use MySQL for projects that have grown beyond what it is suitable for because they do not want to have to go through the trouble of installing another database system, and instead apply far more effort in the creative use of table locks, and extensive application level logic to simulate the capabilities that a more complete database would give them. I suspect that had they learned on a different database, they would be more likely to realize when the time comes to move to a more complete system, as they would not have had the barrier of a platform change discouraging them from learning about these concepts.
Personally, I think someone should start learning on PostgreSQL until they reach the level where they are using transactions and foreign keys. Then they should play with MySQL, and learn how useful it can be for read dominated tasks with lots of simple queries. After getting used to the speed of MySQL, and seeing under what circumstances it falls down, and PostgreSQL pulls ahead, they should experiment with tuning PostgreSQL to give them an introduction to how to tweak a database. After that, they should be ready for the powerful beast that is Oracle.
1. Postgres used to track all of the changes to the database over it's lifetime. By specifying an Epoch for a query, you could run the query on the database as it appeared at a specific point in time in the past. I think this was removed in the change from Postgres95 to PostgreSQL.
Phillip Greenspun's book SQL for Web Nerds is a very nice introduction to SQL. It would be a good idea to grab a copy of PostgreSQL or one of those Oracle demo cds that are as common as AOL cds, and work through the exercises in it.
Please avoid MySQL if you are just learning SQL. You'll just have to unlearn all of the workarounds for the features (such as real transactions, and referential integrity to name two) which it is missing when you move to a real database.
The Onyx 2 does rock - I think it's the little color LCD monitor to track the load of all of the processors in the rack.
The later ones, with the B/W LCD readout just aren't as cool...
OpenSSH ends up looking like Qmail with each discrete task running as a separate program under a different user?
Wish I'd thought about that - I would have gotten up earlier and picked up a couple of two digit ones. I probably only missed by 10 minutes or so...
You said:
;-)
Apple crippled their DVD writing software to disallow mastering for replication.
I reply:
I fail to see any problematic "crippling" of DVD production in Apple's current hardware.
If you were referring to the fact that iDVD will not export a master image (to a DLT tape for example) - Apple has to differentiate DVD Studio Pro from their free software.
If you were referring to the fact that the SuperDrive can only produce DVD-R 5-general disks, and not authoring disks, I also fail to see that as a problem, as all of the DVD manufacturing services I have checked will accept a general disk as a media source.
It is true that disks produced in this way can not be protected with CSS and macrovision, (an author would need to make a master on a DLT, or an authoring DVD-R rather than on a superdrive to add these protections ) but I feel that many on Slashdot would see this as an advantage in that it increases the amount of unprotected, legally viewable under Linux (or [Free,Open,Net]BSD ) available in the world
No, that was SpyMac who did the iWalk...
I use this little rxml widget on all of the email addresses on my web site.
If the client is detected as a robot, or the detection fails, the address is displayed as a randomly named graphic.
If the client is not detected to be a robot, then just a light entity encoding (which I change from time to time) is applied to the address, which is displayed as a mailto link.