In "the arts", soul and style are more important. You know (by now) how to be exact and specific when programming, but that exactitude doesn't help you design or code well or cleanly. Your education should not give you much concrete experience, though you should get yourself some while you're there. It should not waste time teaching you ephemera like Solaris administration GUIs or MySQL syntax when it can teach you operating system and database concepts, and let you figure out the particulars of Solaris or MySQL on your own...or not, if you wind up in an AIX/Oracle environment. Heck, I learned SunOS administration from using Linux and paying attention, and now look how different Solaris administration is!
I would also submit that a pure administration job doesn't demand what they'll teach you in a good CS program. Web application development (not just pages, but the stuff that gets content into a database and from the database onto the page), they can teach you useful principles for. Designing a web server from scratch, they can teach you the basics and you can research (gasp, horrors, a library!) the details you need.
Or you can just fake it, peek at the Apache source when you get frustrated, and generate an unmaintainable mound of garbage that may sort of work, but not well. There is good business value, as well as good hair preservation value, in knowing what you're doing before you do it.
I got an excellent, well-rounded liberal arts education because I went to a small liberal arts school, and because I took the time to better myself as a person, not just as a computer geek. I took courses in philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and (human) languages in addition to science and math.
Then I went to grad school. The place had a great computer reputation, but for undergrads it was a horrible place to try to grow into a living, feeling person. But you could get your BS or BE, and you could get "C++" on your resume even if you were an EE because that kind of buzzwordism drove the undergrad required course list. It wouldn't have been too much better than that for me as a grad student, if I hadn't taught low-level programming courses (fundamentals!) and if I hadn't done a project leading to a thesis.
It helped--and still helps--that I can write well. But spending my college years growing, and the crystalizing experience of doing that project and thesis, got me where I am.
The problem with selling low-cost boxes is that they're inherently low-margin. On the other hand, finding a low-cost box which will run linux and X without a problem can be hard.
I would probably use a highly integrated AT mobo with a minitower case, if I had to build one, unless MicroATX has gotten a lot cheaper...and you'd have to find a MicroATX board that has full Linux support for the video and audio. Ditto for any MediaGX boards.
The one good thing is the 1024x768 screen resolution. I have no clue (and they don't say) who made the laptop, so I don't know what accessories I can buy except from them. It comes with too little memory and you can only get a total of 64M from them (and it's presumably EDO, not SDRAM). Your only choice for networking is a 3COM 10Mbit card, no 10/100 cards nor any modem I saw, built-in or otherwise.
Just not knowing who makes the laptop would be the first big red flag in my book...not seeing any interesting accessories on that site nor on cpu micromart's site was another... Where do you go for a docking station? An extra battery if the "Linux Store" goes under?
I'd get a refurbished Winbook, despite the name, give the lose'98 CD to a friend (if any wanted it) and stick Linux on it myself so I know what's going on... As hot as they call themselves, I would've thought they'd use Stampede, not Red Hat, if they knew what they were doing...
The 6-character limit was actually in force this decade. SGI's GL libraries (before X took over the world) had full-length names for C, and 6-character abbrs. for fortran. I assume this was due to language or compiler constraints, not just linker inability...
But it would be a good idea to be able to "down-moderate" yourself when you want to post something pointless. Saves you from having to log out, post as AC, then stick your name on the bottom to disclaim anonymity.
plugging into a phone jack is hard?
on
Anti-DIVX article
·
· Score: 1
This one I don't get. Maybe it's a pain or unsightly to run a phone cord to the nearest jack, but they do include a 25' cord, and it sounds like they even include the requisite "Y" plug.
DIVX bites, but not particularly because it's hard to plug a phone cord into the wall.
One problem with GC in CORBA: when is an object garbage, and how can the server with the object tell? If I stringify an object reference, write it down on a piece of paper, and send it message-in-a-bottle to parts unknown...the object is still referenced.
Of course, "nobody seems to be using the object recently" is useful for objects which can be shut down and restarted...
As the linked article takes pains to point out, Apple's obligation to discriminate is not an obligation to force all licensees to perpetuate that discrimination. US law does not require you to copy then-current US law into your licenses.
Slashdot Mirror
In "the arts", soul and style are more important. You know (by now) how to be exact and specific when programming, but that exactitude doesn't help you design or code well or cleanly. Your education should not give you much concrete experience, though you should get yourself some while you're there. It should not waste time teaching you ephemera like Solaris administration GUIs or MySQL syntax when it can teach you operating system and database concepts, and let you figure out the particulars of Solaris or MySQL on your own...or not, if you wind up in an AIX/Oracle environment. Heck, I learned SunOS administration from using Linux and paying attention, and now look how different Solaris administration is!
I would also submit that a pure administration job doesn't demand what they'll teach you in a good CS program. Web application development (not just pages, but the stuff that gets content into a database and from the database onto the page), they can teach you useful principles for. Designing a web server from scratch, they can teach you the basics and you can research (gasp, horrors, a library!) the details you need.
Or you can just fake it, peek at the Apache source when you get frustrated, and generate an unmaintainable mound of garbage that may sort of work, but not well. There is good business value, as well as good hair preservation value, in knowing what you're doing before you do it.
I got an excellent, well-rounded liberal arts education because I went to a small liberal arts school, and because I took the time to better myself as a person, not just as a computer geek. I took courses in philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and (human) languages in addition to science and math.
Then I went to grad school. The place had a great computer reputation, but for undergrads it was a horrible place to try to grow into a living, feeling person. But you could get your BS or BE, and you could get "C++" on your resume even if you were an EE because that kind of buzzwordism drove the undergrad required course list. It wouldn't have been too much better than that for me as a grad student, if I hadn't taught low-level programming courses (fundamentals!) and if I hadn't done a project leading to a thesis.
It helped--and still helps--that I can write well. But spending my college years growing, and the crystalizing experience of doing that project and thesis, got me where I am.
The problem with selling low-cost boxes is that they're inherently low-margin. On the other hand, finding a low-cost box which will run linux and X without a problem can be hard.
I would probably use a highly integrated AT mobo with a minitower case, if I had to build one, unless MicroATX has gotten a lot cheaper...and you'd have to find a MicroATX board that has full Linux support for the video and audio. Ditto for any MediaGX boards.
The one good thing is the 1024x768 screen resolution. I have no clue (and they don't say) who made the laptop, so I don't know what accessories I can buy except from them. It comes with too little memory and you can only get a total of 64M from them (and it's presumably EDO, not SDRAM). Your only choice for networking is a 3COM 10Mbit card, no 10/100 cards nor any modem I saw, built-in or otherwise.
Just not knowing who makes the laptop would be the first big red flag in my book...not seeing any interesting accessories on that site nor on cpu micromart's site was another... Where do you go for a docking station? An extra battery if the "Linux Store" goes under?
I'd get a refurbished Winbook, despite the name, give the lose'98 CD to a friend (if any wanted it) and stick Linux on it myself so I know what's going on... As hot as they call themselves, I would've thought they'd use Stampede, not Red Hat, if they knew what they were doing...
The 6-character limit was actually in force this decade. SGI's GL libraries (before X took over the world) had full-length names for C, and 6-character abbrs. for fortran. I assume this was due to language or compiler constraints, not just linker inability...
It's back at 2 now.
But it would be a good idea to be able to "down-moderate" yourself when you want to post something pointless. Saves you from having to log out, post as AC, then stick your name on the bottom to disclaim anonymity.
This one I don't get. Maybe it's a pain or unsightly to run a phone cord to the nearest jack, but they do include a 25' cord, and it sounds like they even include the requisite "Y" plug.
DIVX bites, but not particularly because it's hard to plug a phone cord into the wall.
One problem with GC in CORBA: when is an object garbage, and how can the server with the object tell? If I stringify an object reference, write it down on a piece of paper, and send it message-in-a-bottle to parts unknown...the object is still referenced.
Of course, "nobody seems to be using the object recently" is useful for objects which can be shut down and restarted...
As the linked article takes pains to point out, Apple's obligation to discriminate is not an obligation to force all licensees to perpetuate that discrimination. US law does not require you to copy then-current US law into your licenses.