I deeply apologize for riling you so much. I disagree with your assessment that "nothing in this situation is worth making fun of". Humour (even bad humour) can put issues in a new perspective.
I am still debating whether or not the electoral college should be reformed/abolished. The negatives are of course the probable election of a president without the popular vote and Decrease in voter turnout. And the reinforcement of a two party system. But of course you do have to consider that the electoral college, prevents urban areas from having too much power. It also increase the power of states, which is inline with the ideas of the Constitution.
So the voting system may not have to be reformed on the Federal level, but individual states themselves may have to look closer at their voting laws.
Finally, Reno and Hillary will in no way bring the US laws even close to what the Statue of Liberty stands for. Well at least to what I think the Statue of Liberty stands for, and how I think the laws can attempt to achieve them.
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous elections I have recalled.
First, the people of Missouri elect a dead man to the United States Senate.
Second, the media in their haste to one up each other has to make two retractions of their prediction for the President in Florida.
Third, Nader is wrongly blamed for Gore maybe losing the Presidential Election, arguing that Nader had no chance to win the election and would take votes from Gore.
Fourth, people in Palm Beach, are allegedly confused about the Ballot. The Ballot in Palm Beach was confirmed by Both Parties.
Fifth, people are declaring Voter Fraud. Even though there are is no real evidence that the Voter Fraud that did occur would substantially swing the vote in either way. Note, Voter Fraud occurs in every election (forged ballots and such).
Sixth, people make a huge deal that a President may win the electoral college vote but not the popular vote. The popular vote is effected by the electoral college system that we have. States that are declared locks for a candidate, brings out less voters in that state. The popular vote would be different if we didn't have the electoral college system.
Seventh, the recent results from the House, Senate, and Presidential race confirms that we as a nation are not united. We might be fed up with politics. We might need a "new direction".
What should we do about this? Reform the electoral college system? Create a major new party? No, all these are too complicated... Democracy does not work.
So I propose that we abolish the government that we have now. No more elections and elected officials. I declare Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the enlightened Dictator of the the USA. Whats better than a Totalitarian state? We don't have to waste millions of dollars on cookie cutter campaigns. No need to worry about Politics, Clinton will take care of everything. And what is a better way to unite a group of people, than a oppresive dictator. All we would have to do if rise up once a decade and overthrow the dictator and establish a new one. Government would be interesting again.
Long Live Hillary!
OFFTOPIC: Hijacked Indian Passengers set free.
on
Boris Yeltsin Resigns
·
· Score: 1
You think Russia is trying to trump Y2K.
The terrorists released the passengers from that Indian plane almost during the time the New Year began in New Zealand.
Maybe the terrorists were afraid of being on a plane during Y2K?;-)
I am not an expert in CPUs and I haven't read a basic CPU architecture schematic since the original Pentium came out. Therefore I cannot judge the merits of this document.
I would like to point out that this document is from Compaq, so we must suspect that the document was written with a Pro-Alpha slant to begin with. Its like Intel coming out with a paper debating the merits of the Pentium III vs. the Athlon Processor.
Linux is an operating system for technically skilled users, who believes in openess and that information should in general be free. Linux was created for the computer literate and was not intended for the "average user". But as a consequence of the growing popularity of the Open Source movement and Linux, it has come to a head that for the movement to continue, some concessions need to be made for the "average user". This include GUIs, consumer software, drivers for consumer hardware, and simpler installation.
I contend that these things will be implemented as a matter of course. As linux becomes more popular and more commercialized the GUIs and simplisticty will follow suit. The GNOME and KDE environments are examples of projects to make Linux more "user friendly". GNOME and KDE are trying to replicate the ideas of a common gui environment that made other OSs so popular.
But I also contend that Linux users need to do more than go Mainstream. The reason that "power users" stick with command line interfaces is that the keyboard is far more expressive than the mouse in most cases. While implementing the points in the article will slowly bring in new users, and also increase the productivity of the "power user" slightly, for Linux to truly be a success, Linux developers need to go beyond mainstream. Linux needs the so called "killer app". This so called "killer app" does not even have to be an application. It can be a new form of UI. Something that will bring together the GUIs of the "average user" and the CLIs of the "power user". Lets face it folks, the current notion of windows and widgets is not the answer.
The main point is that Linux has to stop playing catch up ASAP and start innovating. Quit playing games and bickering with a certain OS vendor. Hurry up and finish porting all that software that you think you need, and start developing software that is not a rehash of an old idea, and that might truly revolutionize the industry.
Actually, I still watch MTV now and again. The best time to watch MTV is after Midnight. They start playing mostly Music Videos at that time. I guess the adolescents are sleeping by then.
Even when they do play the videos, its mostly pop music like Puff Daddy, and Brittany Spears, which I have no interest in seeing. (Well maybe Spears on a lonely night:). But they occasionally do play some good music in "120 minutes", the alternative program.
At least I have three so called music stations where I live... MTV, VH1, and Much Music. Sometimes I can find a decent music video among the three. Ah Well.
Me: Hey scumbag, there's a conference on Real Time Linux, that I think would improve my capabilities as a developer. Boss: Hey genius, you're a Windows Developer! Me: You know the famous saying, "to defeat your enemies you must know your enemy". Boss: What I never heard that saying. Me: Ok, Ok. I just made that up. I couln't remember the real saying. Boss: Hmmm... I've been sick about NT crashing all the time. And I heard that Linux is the next big thing. How long is it? Me: Its ahhh, thr.. no no, two weeks long. Boss: Two weeks for a conference? No way. Me: Its true. Its one of those big conferences like COMDEX. Boss: Alright where is it? Me: Ummmm (in a low breath) vienna. Boss: What was that? Me (while running out the door) : Vienna!
Ok I have to apologize for the lack of humour in this post. Man.
OK I will now start to rehash the growing sentiment againt MTV.
MTV starting in the late 80's and 90's has slowing changed itself from a truly ground breaking station to a breeding ground of decadent pop culture. They are continously releasing programs that are "in the now" and are supposedly relevant to the 12-30 something demographic. These programs are hyped to be hip and new, but realistically they rehash common pop sentimentality albeit formatted for the target audience. Programs like The Real World, programs about Teen Violence, Sex, and the infamous Hacker "Documentary", exemplify their new form of programming.
Actually some of there ideas for programs are interesting at first. Take for example the "Real World". Supposedly a show about how "real" people will act in "real" life situations. It has quickly turned into a forum for aspiring entertainers to display their talents, or for derelicts to obtain their so called "15 minutes of fame". In reality a program that really showed real people in real life situations would probably only be good as a treatment for insomniacs.
This new Bunker project program is just another program from MTV that exploits the "popular interest" of the month, and supposedly brings in real people for another real life situation. Of course MTV has carefully chosen these "bunkernauts" not for their realness ( for a lack of a better term ) but entertainment value. You cannot blaim MTV for continuing with a paradigm that continously brings in viewers. It is just that educated users do not have accept the programming, and can choose not to tune in.
Expressing disagreement about MTV programming will most likely not effect the way MTV chooses to develop new programs, since for the limited number of detractors of MTV, there are a plethora of proponents. And new MTV enthusiasts are conceived daily.
Well, Sorry for the length of this gabble, I guess I have too much time on my hands. Man
I love reading the amateur Psychiatrists on slashdot.
There are those that believe that holistic medicine cures all. There are those that believe that mental disorders don't exist, and are just "invented" by psychiatrists. There are those that think mental disorders can be cured with good all fashioned tough love. There are those that think all mental disorders can be cured by drugs. There are those that think that all psychiatrists do is prescribe drugs for mental disorders.
The fact is we do not know everything about mental disorders, since we don't know that much about the brain. And anybody who says that there is a cureall solution for all mental disorders, is lying, wrong, or being overly simplistic.
I do believe that 22% of people suffer from mental disorders at one time in their life. This does not mean they all have to take drugs, meditate, or whatever to get better. Hell, I have no idea how to help those 22% percent, I am not a Psychiatrist, and I will try to be one to help someone with a disorder. The best I can do is give them support and try to help them find some help. Of course that does not necessarily that help is a psychriatrist, since they don't have all the answers either.
If the internet was alive, I think It would almost be like my baby cousin.
My baby cousin can't walk so she crawls. She tends to be irritable and tempermental so she crys and whines all the time. She can get angry, and when she does watch out! Because you should hear some of the things that come out of her mouth. She likes talking gibberish. She can be fascinated by the stupidest things. Of course she is not all that bad, there are some rare good qualities in her. But boy-o you should see some of the shit that comes out of her!
DCOM is far from being deprecated by Micrsoft. From what I gather they will be using XML as common means of formatting data between systems. No more propietary data formats. Just write up a schema or use a pre existing schema for your data. But something still has to parse the XML and have it do something useful besides displaying it on the screen. And that is where DCOM comes in. Write a DCOM component to do business logic from incoming XML. The DCOM component will be responsible for IPC within the system. The system could be one computer or a network of computers. So DCOM and XML will be complementary in Microsofts eyes.
I mean right now Microsoft is building everything as some kind of DCOM component, or something that supports DCOM. There is MSMQ, MS XML Parser, OLEDB, ADO, AppCenter,... Yada Yada Yada.
If Microsoft had its way everyone would be running Windows, and all applications would be using DCOM components written in Visual Basic or C++.
You could tell MS was losing interest in Java. Microsoft's JVM and J++ used to be one of the fastest Java implemenations. And then the Sun lawsuit happened. The performance has dropped so that its performance can be labeled as average at best.
I doubt this was an attempt convince the DOJ. Even Microsoft is not stupid enough to believe that the DOJ would fall for this kind of tactic. Are they?
Not really suprising. With the injunction against Microsoft from extending Java, and the lack of popularity in J++, it isn't suprising that Microsoft is dropping J++.
Now that Microsoft can't really extend the Java language like MS likes to do with all technologies not developed by MS, just drop J++. You see, they can't fight within Java anymore (by creating MS specific extensions that require Windows), so now they plan on fighting Java directly, with XML as the "lingua franca" of the web, as hinted in the article. But now, I don't really see how the use of XML will help Microsoft's war on Java. Java and XML can and should be complementary languages. Unless they "innovate" and extend XML to the point you couldn't use Java to parse XML. But thats silly since XML is text based.
We will see how far Rational will go in continuing development of J++, with heavy competition from Sun, Inprise, and IBM.
Well I'm pretty sure J++ won't be missed that much, to Microsoft and everyone else.
I've probably been watching too many Futuristic Sci-Fi movies in which the devices are almost undetectable and light.
I just have this notion that a wearable computer should have the wearableness (is that a word?) of the device as its number one priority. And then we can have all the good stuff like 1GHz CPUs. Definately not feasible now, but with Nanotechnology starting to pick up, who knows what will happen in the near future.
Hear Hear Tom! Some very good points, even though I disagree about some of them. (Darnit I like the Emacs editor. I also use vi for small editing jobs)
Reading his article reminds me that I hate Minnies. The term was used by Alan Cooper in his book "About Face". These are the people who use the mouse for everything.
It drives me nuts when I am watching somebody editing a document in any Windows Editor and they want to save the document. After they are finished typing, what do they do to save the document? They take there hand off the keyboard... grab the mouse... look at the file menu... move the cursor over and click the file menu... find the save menu item... then finally click on the save menu item. Completely ignoring the Ctrl+S that it displays to the right of the save menu item. They do this everytime they want to save. I once watched a person try to save three different documents in three different programs... they all defined the Ctrl-S accelerator... did he use it... NO! And of course he had to exit out of all three programs, so there we go again with the File->Exit. Don't mention to them that Alt-F4 works just as good as Windows. Needless to say it drove me nuts. I couldn't say anything at the time because it was my manager doing it. Well enough about that.
One pet peeve I have is that programs that do not have a good keyboard interface. We must forgive graphics programs since you can't really draw that well with just the keyboard. I mean some of the programs tout enhanced usability and an improved user interface. But they should have disclaimer that reads: The enhanced usability and improved user interface is only for minnies. If you use the keyboard as your main input device, sorry! One example was when I was trying to find a good FTP program for Windows. You know the ones that resume downloads, can schedule downloads and uploads. Well I found some good programs that do these FTP tasks well, but they all had non existant keyboard interfaces. If you like working with the Windows Explorer for your file management tasks, you guys will love Absolute FTP. Does any real programmer use the Windows Explorer for file management now adays, instead of like an improved Command prompt like 4NT? Of course a lot of you probably don't use Windows at all so you guys can ignore that question.
I know that most of the wearable computers I've seen are in the preliminary stage. But do they really have to be butt ugly and bulky?
I mean they have to start making these things WEARABLE. That doesn't mean take a small laptop and and fasten it to your belt buckle. I mean make it sleeker, and make it look better. (This does not mean copying the new look of the Mac. Whoever designed that color scheme should be shot) Drop the grayish color and make that monocle smaller! I mean the greatest thing that happened to portable headphones was the earphone.
I think that is what will make wearable computers truly useful. Don't make the wearable computer do everything a computer does. Make it simple. Think Palm.
As far as I can see this will be truly revolutionary for UI when it can be used for general computer use. Forget Voice. Voice is too clumsy to be used for general input/output. Its also annoying to your neighbor. But controlling a computer by thought is the way to go.
Of course as mentioned in the article there is ways to go before this will be feasible. Who would want surgery just to interface with your computer? Something that is non-invasive would be ideal.
I guess that finger doohickey that came out 1-2 years ago is a step (albeit a minor step) in the right direction. I forgot was it was called, but you basically place your finger on this sensor. And the sensor detects minute movements in your skin that is activated by thought or your eye to control a cursor. Forgot the exact details. It didn't really work too well. I remember it was demoed at COMPUSA. And I couldn't really use it that well. I guess you needed to train on it. The problem with this is that all it allowed you to do was move the cursor around (I think). Would would buy such a thing, when a mouse works better w/o training.
I would love some kind of a device that would pick out the correct thought patterns and translate it into commands. This means commands other than the moving of a cursor. When you can actually think an 'A' or an entire word and have it appear on the screen. This of course is difficult.
The Doctor asks why would we want to control computers with our brains rather than with our fingers or hands. Well for one thing it would it would help with carpal tunnel syndrome. Has anyone ever got injured just by thinking too hard? (Well there was those marketing majors in college:) And with the right technology, it would be more efficient.
College really can't teach you much about the newest Technologies or Methodologies, if you are a Computer Science major. It will teach you some fundamentals like Algorithms, Data Structures, theories on Operating Systems, Compilers, some languages like C, Java, C++, Databases, and Computer and Network Architecture. Or at least that is what I learned in College. Or maybe not. A College senior who was a potential intern for the company I work for, did not know the basics of a Linked List. He knew Java and Linux though:-) Makes me wonder what kind of CS majors we are graduating nowadays. But hopefully thats an exception.
Well I think the best thing you can get out of college, is that it teaches you how to learn, and it enhances your teamwork skills. And someday all those other courses will come in handy, especially the mathematics courses if you really are into Computers.
If you think about it. 9 movies about a basic space opera, with good vs. evil confrontations, is really taking things a bit too far. Just leave well enough alone, and start making more original movies.
Don't get me wrong, I love Star Wars. And I am definately watching the prequels, but after a while you just have to say enough already, and don't ruin a good thing. Leave that for the fanatics.
Slashdot Mirror
I deeply apologize for riling you so much. I disagree with your assessment that "nothing in this situation is worth making fun of". Humour (even bad humour) can put issues in a new perspective.
I am still debating whether or not the electoral college should be reformed/abolished. The negatives are of course the probable election of a president without the popular vote and Decrease in voter turnout. And the reinforcement of a two party system. But of course you do have to consider that the electoral college, prevents urban areas from having too much power. It also increase the power of states, which is inline with the ideas of the Constitution.
So the voting system may not have to be reformed on the Federal level, but individual states themselves may have to look closer at their voting laws.
Finally, Reno and Hillary will in no way bring the US laws even close to what the Statue of Liberty stands for. Well at least to what I think the Statue of Liberty stands for, and how I think the laws can attempt to achieve them.
Regards,
Sterling
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous elections I have recalled.
... Democracy does not work.
First, the people of Missouri elect a dead man to the United States Senate.
Second, the media in their haste to one up each other has to make two retractions of their prediction for the President in Florida.
Third, Nader is wrongly blamed for Gore maybe losing the Presidential Election, arguing that Nader had no chance to win the election and would take votes from Gore.
Fourth, people in Palm Beach, are allegedly confused about the Ballot. The Ballot in Palm Beach was confirmed by Both Parties.
Fifth, people are declaring Voter Fraud. Even though there are is no real evidence that the Voter Fraud that did occur would substantially swing the vote in either way. Note, Voter Fraud occurs in every election (forged ballots and such).
Sixth, people make a huge deal that a President may win the electoral college vote but not the popular vote. The popular vote is effected by the electoral college system that we have. States that are declared locks for a candidate, brings out less voters in that state. The popular vote would be different if we didn't have the electoral college system.
Seventh, the recent results from the House, Senate, and Presidential race confirms that we as a nation are not united. We might be fed up with politics. We might need a "new direction".
What should we do about this? Reform the electoral college system? Create a major new party? No, all these are too complicated
So I propose that we abolish the government that we have now. No more elections and elected officials. I declare Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the enlightened Dictator of the the USA. Whats better than a Totalitarian state? We don't have to waste millions of dollars on cookie cutter campaigns. No need to worry about Politics, Clinton will take care of everything. And what is a better way to unite a group of people, than a oppresive dictator. All we would have to do if rise up once a decade and overthrow the dictator and establish a new one. Government would be interesting again.
Long Live Hillary!
You think Russia is trying to trump Y2K.
;-)
The terrorists released the passengers from that Indian plane almost during the time the New Year began in New Zealand.
Maybe the terrorists were afraid of being on a plane during Y2K?
Man
I am not an expert in CPUs and I haven't read a basic CPU architecture schematic since the original Pentium came out. Therefore I cannot judge the merits of this document.
I would like to point out that this document is from Compaq, so we must suspect that the document was written with a Pro-Alpha slant to begin with. Its like Intel coming out with a paper debating the merits of the Pentium III vs. the Athlon Processor.
Manung
Ok,
Linux is an operating system for technically skilled users, who believes in openess and that information should in general be free. Linux was created for the computer literate and was not intended for the "average user". But as a consequence of the growing popularity of the Open Source movement and Linux, it has come to a head that for the movement to continue, some concessions need to be made for the "average user". This include GUIs, consumer software, drivers for consumer hardware, and simpler installation.
I contend that these things will be implemented as a matter of course. As linux becomes more popular and more commercialized the GUIs and simplisticty will follow suit. The GNOME and KDE environments are examples of projects to make Linux more "user friendly". GNOME and KDE are trying to replicate the ideas of a common gui environment that made other OSs so popular.
But I also contend that Linux users need to do more than go Mainstream. The reason that "power users" stick with command line interfaces is that the keyboard is far more expressive than the mouse in most cases. While implementing the points in the article will slowly bring in new users, and also increase the productivity of the "power user" slightly, for Linux to truly be a success, Linux developers need to go beyond mainstream. Linux needs the so called "killer app". This so called "killer app" does not even have to be an application. It can be a new form of UI. Something that will bring together the GUIs of the "average user" and the CLIs of the "power user". Lets face it folks, the current notion of windows and widgets is not the answer.
The main point is that Linux has to stop playing catch up ASAP and start innovating. Quit playing games and bickering with a certain OS vendor. Hurry up and finish porting all that software that you think you need, and start developing software that is not a rehash of an old idea, and that might truly revolutionize the industry.
Man
Actually, I still watch MTV now and again. The best time to watch MTV is after Midnight. They start playing mostly Music Videos at that time. I guess the adolescents are sleeping by then.
:). But they occasionally do play some good music in "120 minutes", the alternative program.
... MTV, VH1, and Much Music. Sometimes I can find a decent music video among the three. Ah Well.
Even when they do play the videos, its mostly pop music like Puff Daddy, and Brittany Spears, which I have no interest in seeing. (Well maybe Spears on a lonely night
At least I have three so called music stations where I live
Man
Conversation with boss ...
... I've been sick about NT crashing all the time. And I heard that Linux is the next big thing. How long is it?
Me: Hey scumbag, there's a conference on Real Time Linux, that I think would improve my capabilities as a developer.
Boss: Hey genius, you're a Windows Developer!
Me: You know the famous saying, "to defeat your enemies you must know your enemy".
Boss: What I never heard that saying.
Me: Ok, Ok. I just made that up. I couln't remember the real saying.
Boss: Hmmm
Me: Its ahhh, thr.. no no, two weeks long.
Boss: Two weeks for a conference? No way.
Me: Its true. Its one of those big conferences like COMDEX.
Boss: Alright where is it?
Me: Ummmm (in a low breath) vienna.
Boss: What was that?
Me (while running out the door) : Vienna!
Ok I have to apologize for the lack of humour in this post.
Man.
OK I will now start to rehash the growing sentiment againt MTV.
MTV starting in the late 80's and 90's has slowing changed itself from a truly ground breaking station to a breeding ground of decadent pop culture. They are continously releasing programs that are "in the now" and are supposedly relevant to the 12-30 something demographic. These programs are hyped to be hip and new, but realistically they rehash common pop sentimentality albeit formatted for the target audience. Programs like The Real World, programs about Teen Violence, Sex, and the infamous Hacker "Documentary", exemplify their new form of programming.
Actually some of there ideas for programs are interesting at first. Take for example the "Real World". Supposedly a show about how "real" people will act in "real" life situations. It has quickly turned into a forum for aspiring entertainers to display their talents, or for derelicts to obtain their so called "15 minutes of fame". In reality a program that really showed real people in real life situations would probably only be good as a treatment for insomniacs.
This new Bunker project program is just another program from MTV that exploits the "popular interest" of the month, and supposedly brings in real people for another real life situation. Of course MTV has carefully chosen these "bunkernauts" not for their realness ( for a lack of a better term ) but entertainment value. You cannot blaim MTV for continuing with a paradigm that continously brings in viewers. It is just that educated users do not have accept the programming, and can choose not to tune in.
Expressing disagreement about MTV programming will most likely not effect the way MTV chooses to develop new programs, since for the limited number of detractors of MTV, there are a plethora of proponents. And new MTV enthusiasts are conceived daily.
Well, Sorry for the length of this gabble, I guess I have too much time on my hands.
Man
I love reading the amateur Psychiatrists on slashdot.
There are those that believe that holistic medicine cures all.
There are those that believe that mental disorders don't exist, and are just "invented" by psychiatrists.
There are those that think mental disorders can be cured with good all fashioned tough love.
There are those that think all mental disorders can be cured by drugs.
There are those that think that all psychiatrists do is prescribe drugs for mental disorders.
The fact is we do not know everything about mental disorders, since we don't know that much about the brain. And anybody who says that there is a cureall solution for all mental disorders, is lying, wrong, or being overly simplistic.
I do believe that 22% of people suffer from mental disorders at one time in their life. This does not mean they all have to take drugs, meditate, or whatever to get better. Hell, I have no idea how to help those 22% percent, I am not a Psychiatrist, and I will try to be one to help someone with a disorder. The best I can do is give them support and try to help them find some help. Of course that does not necessarily that help is a psychriatrist, since they don't have all the answers either.
Ok I will stop now.
If the internet was alive, I think It would almost be like my baby cousin.
My baby cousin can't walk so she crawls.
She tends to be irritable and tempermental so she crys and whines all the time.
She can get angry, and when she does watch out! Because you should hear some of the things that come out of her mouth.
She likes talking gibberish.
She can be fascinated by the stupidest things.
Of course she is not all that bad, there are some rare good qualities in her.
But boy-o you should see some of the shit that comes out of her!
Man
DCOM is far from being deprecated by Micrsoft. From what I gather they will be using XML as common means of formatting data between systems. No more propietary data formats. Just write up a schema or use a pre existing schema for your data. But something still has to parse the XML and have it do something useful besides displaying it on the screen. And that is where DCOM comes in. Write a DCOM component to do business logic from incoming XML. The DCOM component will be responsible for IPC within the system. The system could be one computer or a network of computers. So DCOM and XML will be complementary in Microsofts eyes.
... Yada Yada Yada.
I mean right now Microsoft is building everything as some kind of DCOM component, or something that supports DCOM. There is MSMQ, MS XML Parser, OLEDB, ADO, AppCenter,
If Microsoft had its way everyone would be running Windows, and all applications would be using DCOM components written in Visual Basic or C++.
Man
You could tell MS was losing interest in Java. Microsoft's JVM and J++ used to be one of the fastest Java implemenations. And then the Sun lawsuit happened. The performance has dropped so that its performance can be labeled as average at best.
I doubt this was an attempt convince the DOJ. Even Microsoft is not stupid enough to believe that the DOJ would fall for this kind of tactic. Are they?
Man
Not really suprising. With the injunction against Microsoft from extending Java, and the lack of popularity in J++, it isn't suprising that Microsoft is dropping J++.
Now that Microsoft can't really extend the Java language like MS likes to do with all technologies not developed by MS, just drop J++. You see, they can't fight within Java anymore (by creating MS specific extensions that require Windows), so now they plan on fighting Java directly, with XML as the "lingua franca" of the web, as hinted in the article.
But now, I don't really see how the use of XML will help Microsoft's war on Java. Java and XML can and should be complementary languages. Unless they "innovate" and extend XML to the point you couldn't use Java to parse XML. But thats silly since XML is text based.
We will see how far Rational will go in continuing development of J++, with heavy competition from Sun, Inprise, and IBM.
Well I'm pretty sure J++ won't be missed that much, to Microsoft and everyone else.
Man
Yes that is probably true.
I've probably been watching too many Futuristic Sci-Fi movies in which the devices are almost undetectable and light.
I just have this notion that a wearable computer should have the wearableness (is that a word?) of the device as its number one priority. And then we can have all the good stuff like 1GHz CPUs. Definately not feasible now, but with Nanotechnology starting to pick up, who knows what will happen in the near future.
Man
Hear Hear Tom! Some very good points, even though I disagree about some of them. (Darnit I like the Emacs editor. I also use vi for small editing jobs)
... grab the mouse ... look at the file menu ... move the cursor over and click the file menu ... find the save menu item ... then finally click on the save menu item. Completely ignoring the Ctrl+S that it displays to the right of the save menu item. They do this everytime they want to save. I once watched a person try to save three different documents in three different programs ... they all defined the Ctrl-S accelerator ... did he use it ... NO! And of course he had to exit out of all three programs, so there we go again with the File->Exit. Don't mention to them that Alt-F4 works just as good as Windows. Needless to say it drove me nuts. I couldn't say anything at the time because it was my manager doing it. Well enough about that.
Reading his article reminds me that I hate Minnies. The term was used by Alan Cooper in his book "About Face". These are the people who use the mouse for everything.
It drives me nuts when I am watching somebody editing a document in any Windows Editor and they want to save the document. After they are finished typing, what do they do to save the document? They take there hand off the keyboard
One pet peeve I have is that programs that do not have a good keyboard interface. We must forgive graphics programs since you can't really draw that well with just the keyboard. I mean some of the programs tout enhanced usability and an improved user interface. But they should have disclaimer that reads: The enhanced usability and improved user interface is only for minnies. If you use the keyboard as your main input device, sorry!
One example was when I was trying to find a good FTP program for Windows. You know the ones that resume downloads, can schedule downloads and uploads. Well I found some good programs that do these FTP tasks well, but they all had non existant keyboard interfaces. If you like working with the Windows Explorer for your file management tasks, you guys will love Absolute FTP. Does any real programmer use the Windows Explorer for file management now adays, instead of like an improved Command prompt like 4NT? Of course a lot of you probably don't use Windows at all so you guys can ignore that question.
Well enought rambling for now.
Man
I know that most of the wearable computers I've seen are in the preliminary stage. But do they really have to be butt ugly and bulky?
I mean they have to start making these things WEARABLE. That doesn't mean take a small laptop and and fasten it to your belt buckle. I mean make it sleeker, and make it look better. (This does not mean copying the new look of the Mac. Whoever designed that color scheme should be shot) Drop the grayish color and make that monocle smaller! I mean the greatest thing that happened to portable headphones was the earphone.
I think that is what will make wearable computers truly useful. Don't make the wearable computer do everything a computer does. Make it simple. Think Palm.
Man
As far as I can see this will be truly revolutionary for UI when it can be used for general computer use. Forget Voice. Voice is too clumsy to be used for general input/output. Its also annoying to your neighbor. But controlling a computer by thought is the way to go.
Of course as mentioned in the article there is ways to go before this will be feasible. Who would want surgery just to interface with your computer? Something that is non-invasive would be ideal.
I guess that finger doohickey that came out 1-2 years ago is a step (albeit a minor step) in the right direction. I forgot was it was called, but you basically place your finger on this sensor. And the sensor detects minute movements in your skin that is activated by thought or your eye to control a cursor. Forgot the exact details. It didn't really work too well. I remember it was demoed at COMPUSA. And I couldn't really use it that well. I guess you needed to train on it. The problem with this is that all it allowed you to do was move the cursor around (I think). Would would buy such a thing, when a mouse works better w/o training.
I would love some kind of a device that would pick out the correct thought patterns and translate it into commands. This means commands other than the moving of a cursor. When you can actually think an 'A' or an entire word and have it appear on the screen. This of course is difficult.
The Doctor asks why would we want to control computers with our brains rather than with our fingers or hands. Well for one thing it would it would help with carpal tunnel syndrome. Has anyone ever got injured just by thinking too hard? (Well there was those marketing majors in college:) And with the right technology, it would be more efficient.
Just my two cents.
Man
College really can't teach you much about the newest Technologies or Methodologies, if you are a Computer Science major. It will teach you some fundamentals like Algorithms, Data Structures, theories on Operating Systems, Compilers, some languages like C, Java, C++, Databases, and Computer and Network Architecture. Or at least that is what I learned in College. :-) Makes me wonder what kind of CS majors we are graduating nowadays.
Or maybe not. A College senior who was a potential intern for the company I work for, did not know the basics of a Linked List. He knew Java and Linux though
But hopefully thats an exception.
Well I think the best thing you can get out of college, is that it teaches you how to learn, and it enhances your teamwork skills. And someday all those other courses will come in handy, especially the mathematics courses if you really are into Computers.
Man
If you think about it. 9 movies about a basic space opera, with good vs. evil confrontations, is really taking things a bit too far. Just leave well enough alone, and start making more original movies.
Don't get me wrong, I love Star Wars. And I am definately watching the prequels, but after a while you just have to say enough already, and don't ruin a good thing. Leave that for the fanatics.
Man