You don't need to specify the geometry. However you need to know:
- the IRQs and port numbers used by your cards
- the video clock rate
- the number of stop bits for the terminal
- the hard drive PIO mode
- the memclock index value
- the hard drive encoding method
- the ROW precharge time
- the typematic delay
For you it is "kicking around", a fun project, a proof of concept. For your boss it is a tool, essential for his business, that has to work flawlessly.
Now ask yourself a few questions:
How much work does it take to go from a prototype to a fully documented and tested implementation ?
Are you going to be paid for this ?
When are you going to do it ? On the week-end ?
Will your boss expect you to offer 24/24 support, since it was your idea ?
Besides, realize that POS software is the least exciting thing you could work on. If it is not your job, forget it. If you want to tinker with linux and learn things, do something fun.
BTW I and the OP should have said "disk" instead of "circle", but it is not uncommon to say the later when you mean the former. Mathematicians are generally clever enough to understand the context and not quibble over silly details.
That's funny because I happen to hold an MSc in math. I meant that in advanced mathematics (not high school) it is customary to use the word volume in a generic sense so that you don't depend on dimension. For example you can speak of the volume of the n-sphere. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-sphere#Volume_of_the_n-ball (and the example section below), where the volume of a circle is considered.
You are certainly an ass, but aren't so smart. In mathematics instead of using the words length for 1 dimension, area for 2, volume for 3, and having nothing for higher dimensions, the word volume is used in a generic manner for arbitrary dimensions.
Oh, and don't give me the woosh thing. There might have been an attempt at a joke but there was no joke. If jokes are supposed to be funny that is.
Predictably, this was considered flamebait. Sure I swear too much but these criticisms remain valid. Besides, you don't rant about things you don't care about, and I do care about Firefox. Unfortunately, Mozilla has proven incapable to create a browser usable by the prototypical "grandma". I used to recommend it to non-technical people but I no longer do, as it is simply not ready for prime time.
Maybe one day we will have a good free web browser, maybe it will even be a future firefox release, but it isn't there yet.
Will this release be "usable" ? Seriously, for all the so called usability experts that they have this is one of the worst application in this department. (and it was supposed to be simple to use).
A few examples:
Take the whole logic behind confirmation dialogs for the installation of extensions. The basic idea is that you do not want a simple click to trigger the install because you want to warn the user of the implications. Fine. The proper way is to do what explorer 6 does: ask for confirmation, have a little checkbox to bypass the confirmation for this site in the future if you want to, and if confirmed perform the action. Instead, firefox got it completely wrong. First, I can't authorize *just* this extension. I have to authorize every extensions from the site, which is generally not what I want. Most of the time, you don't known and trust the site sufficiently to blindly authorize everything. So to achieve this, after installation, you have to dive in the preferences menu and try to remove the authorization. Fucking morons. The second problem is even worse. Instead of having the sequence 1. click 2. accept 3. the action is performed, you actually have to retrigger the action ! You have to find the installation link a *second* time, and re-click on it. This is totally brain-damaged. To sum up: to install one (and only one) extension requires 2 (or 3) clicks in explorer 6, *14* in firefox (I just tried it). double fucking morons.
Another thing concerns the update to extensions. Do you really need this "do you want to update your extensions" dialog right when you start the program ? The average user, who might have had an extension installed by a techie friend, shouldn't even know what an extension is. Way to scare him away. Fucking morons. This thing should happen automatically, or maybe with a little thing in the statusbar (à la windows update notification in windows). This way the average user, who by principle, doesn't touch what he doesn't understand, won't be confused.
About the update thing again. The great thing is that if you say ok, I'll please you, do your updating stuff, firefox conveniently blocks until the update is done. Which is great for unsuspecting users who are in a hurry to check their emails and expect this stuff to be done in the background. Fucking morons. I guess they will just fire iexplore to get the job done while firefox is blocked. What are they thinking ?
Can we talk about plugins ? Is there any reason why firefox should freeze for 30 seconds while a page loads java ? Or even crash ? Ever heard of the idea of loading in a separate process ? Don't tell me it is the fault of the plugin writer, it isn't. This should have been fixed years ago. For an example of an application that does this right, look no further than the gimp. Plugins are loaded as separate processes and cannot bring the app done.
I'll stop there before I break my blood pressure monitor. But seriously, usability wise (I am not speaking of the underlying engine), this is a piece of crap. And to think that firefox was supposed, among other things, to fix usability issues in mozilla suite. sigh. So please, use your millions to create a usable program and shove your themes,tag,semantic crap you know where.
Just a naive question. Why the fuck do they use themes ? Can't they just use native widgets à la wxwidgets ? Seems to be the right way (c) to do it. And of course if the user wants to customize the look of the application he can do this using the desktop's themes feature.
I wonder how much time they loose trying to tweak the themes.
Incidentally, this is also the date of the first (and last) taxpayers-funded game of golf on the moon. A significant event that helped reevaluate the usefulness of the manned lunar program.
The only problem with this is that you are forced to write every single application in the "managed" language the kernel is written in. This is simply not acceptable. You have to support all the existing C applications and some applications need the speed of assembly.
The point is that you do not need to run fibers to every home if all you want is give broadband access to every home. DSL works just fine in urban areas. All you have to do is improve the infrastructure in rural areas. This may be done in different ways, but not necessarily with fibers. WiMAX comes to mind.
I am looking forward to the interstellar probe mission, which is specifically designed to explore the interstellar medium.
Unfortunately it will probably not happen in my lifetime, unless we stop putting in charge of the budget people who think that a talk between a teacher in LEO and school-children on earth is more "inspiring" than fundamental research.
Better yet would be a faster rover, which could cover a much bigger area. I don't understand why MSL will travel at an average of 30 meters per hour while the winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge traveled at an average of 30 kilometers per hour. I understand sojourner was slow because it had to be driven from the ground, but it seems autonomous driving technology could do much better than that.
And if I develop for Windows Mobile, PalmOs or Symbian I can write in C/C++, compile once, and have the guarantee that the code will run everywhere, because every device is based on the same architecture/ABI (f.i. ARMv4). This is what make these platforms superior.
The only reason to offer Java *exclusively* is if you run on a limited device (i.e. no MMU). In this case a VM is necessary to isolate untrusted third party applications. But in the case of modern ARM chips (with MMU), which can run a POSIX system, the OS can achieve process isolation even if they are written in machine code. Java is thus unnecessary on modern phones.
Now I realize a good jazelle based VM may render Java almost as fast as C++, but there is another reason beside performance to support C++, easy porting of existing code.
Therefore the absence of well defined C/C++ ABI is a deficiency.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, all three were fake. The real ones were hidden underneath.
You don't need to specify the geometry. However you need to know:
- the IRQs and port numbers used by your cards
- the video clock rate
- the number of stop bits for the terminal
- the hard drive PIO mode
- the memclock index value
- the hard drive encoding method
- the ROW precharge time
- the typematic delay
newbie-ready as you can see.
Don't do it.
For you it is "kicking around", a fun project, a proof of concept. For your boss it is a tool, essential for his business, that has to work flawlessly.
Now ask yourself a few questions:
Besides, realize that POS software is the least exciting thing you could work on. If it is not your job, forget it. If you want to tinker with linux and learn things, do something fun.
Remember: you are not the first.
</paternalist advice>
Anyone knows how it compares with the Intel Performance libraries ? and especially how good IPL is on an AMD processor and vice versa ?
BTW I and the OP should have said "disk" instead of "circle", but it is not uncommon to say the later when you mean the former. Mathematicians are generally clever enough to understand the context and not quibble over silly details.
That's funny because I happen to hold an MSc in math. I meant that in advanced mathematics (not high school) it is customary to use the word volume in a generic sense so that you don't depend on dimension. For example you can speak of the volume of the n-sphere. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-sphere#Volume_of_the_n-ball (and the example section below), where the volume of a circle is considered.
You are certainly an ass, but aren't so smart. In mathematics instead of using the words length for 1 dimension, area for 2, volume for 3, and having nothing for higher dimensions, the word volume is used in a generic manner for arbitrary dimensions.
Oh, and don't give me the woosh thing. There might have been an attempt at a joke but there was no joke. If jokes are supposed to be funny that is.
Predictably, this was considered flamebait. Sure I swear too much but these criticisms remain valid. Besides, you don't rant about things you don't care about, and I do care about Firefox. Unfortunately, Mozilla has proven incapable to create a browser usable by the prototypical "grandma". I used to recommend it to non-technical people but I no longer do, as it is simply not ready for prime time.
Maybe one day we will have a good free web browser, maybe it will even be a future firefox release, but it isn't there yet.
I agree. Didn't have time to check my thesaurus.
A few examples:
- Take the whole logic behind confirmation dialogs for the installation of extensions. The basic idea is that you do not want a simple click to trigger the install because you want to warn the user of the implications. Fine. The proper way is to do what explorer 6 does: ask for confirmation, have a little checkbox to bypass the confirmation for this site in the future if you want to, and if confirmed perform the action. Instead, firefox got it completely wrong. First, I can't authorize *just* this extension. I have to authorize every extensions from the site, which is generally not what I want. Most of the time, you don't known and trust the site sufficiently to blindly authorize everything. So to achieve this, after installation, you have to dive in the preferences menu and try to remove the authorization. Fucking morons. The second problem is even worse. Instead of having the sequence 1. click 2. accept 3. the action is performed, you actually have to retrigger the action ! You have to find the installation link a *second* time, and re-click on it. This is totally brain-damaged. To sum up: to install one (and only one) extension requires 2 (or 3) clicks in explorer 6, *14* in firefox (I just tried it). double fucking morons.
-
Another thing concerns the update to extensions. Do you really need this "do you want to update your extensions" dialog right when you start the program ? The average user, who might have had an extension installed by a techie friend, shouldn't even know what an extension is. Way to scare him away. Fucking morons. This thing should happen automatically, or maybe with a little thing in the statusbar (à la windows update notification in windows). This way the average user, who by principle, doesn't touch what he doesn't understand, won't be confused.
-
About the update thing again. The great thing is that if you say ok, I'll please you, do your updating stuff, firefox conveniently blocks until the update is done. Which is great for unsuspecting users who are in a hurry to check their emails and expect this stuff to be done in the background. Fucking morons. I guess they will just fire iexplore to get the job done while firefox is blocked. What are they thinking ?
-
Can we talk about plugins ? Is there any reason why firefox should freeze for 30 seconds while a page loads java ? Or even crash ? Ever heard of the idea of loading in a separate process ? Don't tell me it is the fault of the plugin writer, it isn't. This should have been fixed years ago. For an example of an application that does this right, look no further than the gimp. Plugins are loaded as separate processes and cannot bring the app done.
I'll stop there before I break my blood pressure monitor. But seriously, usability wise (I am not speaking of the underlying engine), this is a piece of crap. And to think that firefox was supposed, among other things, to fix usability issues in mozilla suite. sigh. So please, use your millions to create a usable program and shove your themes,tag,semantic crap you know where.Just a naive question. Why the fuck do they use themes ? Can't they just use native widgets à la wxwidgets ? Seems to be the right way (c) to do it. And of course if the user wants to customize the look of the application he can do this using the desktop's themes feature.
I wonder how much time they loose trying to tweak the themes.
I'll support the "Read the Bills Act" if it was renamed to RTFB.
Target the VT100, and you won't have to worry about evil corporations
Incidentally, this is also the date of the first (and last) taxpayers-funded game of golf on the moon. A significant event that helped reevaluate the usefulness of the manned lunar program.
The only problem with this is that you are forced to write every single application in the "managed" language the kernel is written in. This is simply not acceptable. You have to support all the existing C applications and some applications need the speed of assembly.
The point is that you do not need to run fibers to every home if all you want is give broadband access to every home. DSL works just fine in urban areas. All you have to do is improve the infrastructure in rural areas. This may be done in different ways, but not necessarily with fibers. WiMAX comes to mind.
Wow. Since when must an employer convince his employees to do as they are told ? Either they write the doc or they are fired. There, problem solved.
Ethanol is people ! .
Seriously, how can you trust CDE users ?
I am looking forward to the interstellar probe mission, which is specifically designed to explore the interstellar medium.
Unfortunately it will probably not happen in my lifetime, unless we stop putting in charge of the budget people who think that a talk between a teacher in LEO and school-children on earth is more "inspiring" than fundamental research.
Because the duration of the mean solar day / 86400 is not a constant. That was the whole point of the definition of the SI second.
Better yet would be a faster rover, which could cover a much bigger area. I don't understand why MSL will travel at an average of 30 meters per hour while the winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge traveled at an average of 30 kilometers per hour. I understand sojourner was slow because it had to be driven from the ground, but it seems autonomous driving technology could do much better than that.
And if I develop for Windows Mobile, PalmOs or Symbian I can write in C/C++, compile once, and have the guarantee that the code will run everywhere, because every device is based on the same architecture/ABI (f.i. ARMv4). This is what make these platforms superior.
The only reason to offer Java *exclusively* is if you run on a limited device (i.e. no MMU). In this case a VM is necessary to isolate untrusted third party applications. But in the case of modern ARM chips (with MMU), which can run a POSIX system, the OS can achieve process isolation even if they are written in machine code. Java is thus unnecessary on modern phones.
Now I realize a good jazelle based VM may render Java almost as fast as C++, but there is another reason beside performance to support C++, easy porting of existing code.
Therefore the absence of well defined C/C++ ABI is a deficiency.
The proper form is [[citation needed]] !