I would also mention that playing a character from a foreign country to mock the US was done in the 70's by Andy Kaufman, which makes both of these guys (no matter how funny or relevant) "style biters".
There are so many different "Tech Jobs" that you should first have an idea of what you want to do. There certainly is the Best Buy "selling computers tech", but there's also the "computer repair tech", or "corporate computer/printer/network/etc. tech", and that's just the beginning of careers where you wouldn't be required to go to any kind of school (just be very self-starting). Then there's the whole range of computer science/engineering related "tech" positions, from programmer to software engineer to security researcher to theorist to cryptographer to data mining to just about anything you can imagine.
What do you want to do? When you can answer that, come back and ask about what steps would be needed to get you there.
I've always got 4 ssh terminals, 1 log window for local daemons, 2 windows for my source editor (console output in case of crash, and the actual editor), at least two file system browsers, 2+ consoles for testing software or downloading using wget, a browser window or two (with perhaps 4-6 persistent tabs on one), a couple help file windows (Python and wxPython generally), a chat window (with multiple tabs for my wife, work, etc.), maybe a copy of notepad or two.
I'm looking into tabbed versions of consoles and ssh windows, so we'll see if I can't make my life easier.
I don't know about you, but in my opinion, the author's site (http://www.webvastu.com/) looks like hell. Content boxes that look like google adwords, wide image borders, red backgrounds and white text? I'd say Slashdot looks much better than that.
Where to move? Vancouver, British Columbia (because it is beautiful), Winnipeg, Manitoba (close to my relatives in Northern and Southern Minnesota), Toronto, Ontario (close to my wife's relatives in Michigan, and to NYC), London, UK (to get the hell out of North America and to a place where understatement is appreciated), Singapore (who wouldn't want to live in a clean city?), The Big Island, Hawaii (a guy can hope for them to cede, and it's f-ing beautiful). Maybe Stockholm, Sweeden; but only during the summers.
Why not move? My wife works for Obsidian Entertainment as a designer, I'm still working on my PhD in Computer Science Theory, our combined job prospects in the short term are better exactly where we are, my wife would *kill* me if I made her quit, moving off the continent would make it just about impossible to visit relatives, etc.
Goodrich and Tamassia have a good general algorithms book. It's much shorter than CLRS, but it is also significantly more readable. They also have an "Algorithms in C++" and "Algorithms in Java" variants coauthored with others that have fairly substantial code samples.
It's about damn time. The only movies he has written, directed, and/or produced that I would ever watch a second time are limited to the original SW trilogy, Indiana Jones, Willow, and perhaps Labyrinth. Basically everything else he has ever done has been crap. Nevermind his holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to dealing with people (so say various associates who have worked for Lucasarts).
On the upside to his retirement, at least we won't get anymore date-rapist looks from Anakin (see Eps 2 and 3), or any more fart jokes (Ep 1).
If she keeps saying that the machine you built is crap, tell her to buy this week's Dell special. When she inevitably comes back with "it's broken, fix it", tell her to call up Dell, because they obviously built a piece of crap too.
I'm not in IT, but at least for the next 6+ months, I'd run ethernet. No jamming, no outages, no worries about needing a VPN solution just to be in the office. Heck, I'd run 2+ jacks to every cube in the place, that way even if a mobile-only AP setup goes to hell, you've always got wired.
When 802.11n comes out, I'd consider it. Better range + more bandwidth could result in far fewer APs to maintain. Who knows, it could even be robust against jamming.
In my experience of learning programming languages, as well as programming in general, in Scheme, C/C++, SML, Python, etc., the most useful feature of learning a programming language wasn't the IDE vs. editor question, it was whether or not there was an interactive interpreter for the language.
With Scheme, SML, Python, Mathematica, Prolog, etc., after learning a bit of syntax, you can sit at a computer and try the syntax out, work through your assumptions about the syntax, etc., giving the student a better idea of what is going on.
The other rub about writing actual software in these languages is documentation. I personally prefer to have documentation in any format similar to the Windows help file format; but that's generally because the documentation I tend to look at (Python and wxPython) have documentation that have convenient indices for modules/classes. I also prefer to have help exterior to the application in which I'm programming, but I understand the desireability of being able to have a tab for documentation viewable while programming.
So, to answer the bigger question: if the language has an interactive interpreter available, give students access to it (Python obviously does, as Java does if you look around). Be careful of offering editors with built-in interpreters, you don't want your students crashing their editor (test to see if the interpreter can recover from 'while 1: pass' or 'while (1);'). For writing software/assignments using standard libraries, make sure that documentation is easily accessable; external or internal to the application.
Once you've got an interpreter, documentation, and an editor that at least isn't braindead, you've got all of the essential tools for teaching a language to students.
Actually, if you listen to what Varimathras says, he only follows Lady Sylvanas Windrunner because she beat him in battle, and he begged for mercy. While he is the second-highest ranked person in UC, that's only because (from a military standpoint) he's very competant. He also says that he's always on the winning side, meaning that he's a follower, not a leader; he directs, but he doesn't lead.
Also, generally speaking, the demons aren't terribly forgiving. Do you honestly believe they would have let him live had he gone back to the Burning Legion having failed in battle? Or do you think they would believe him if he told them, "I was working undercover guys!" No.
According to the lore (if you read the books that are scattered all around Azeroth), one can think of the alliance races as the equivalent of "the man", and the horde as being minorities (as their stereotypical behavior implies); including the attempted genocide against Trolls (which is why they hang out with the Orcs) and the Orc concentration camps with demon breeding programs.
The taurens side with the horde because (if I remember correctly), the Orcs and Trolls helped them fight the centaur races, even though the Night Elves had historically been their friends (due to their shared Druidic culture).
But why the undead? It's fairly obvious that humans (in WoW lore) are quite xenophobic, and would shun their undead kin; one notices this everywhere.
The only "evil" really inherant in the undead is that they are sick of being considered not people, and are willing to make all humans undead to make their point heard. Many, if not all high-ranking undead were once high-ranking humans of one sort or another, but upon death, were shunned by their own people, forcing them to join a group that they once hated, feared, and killed. Yet they still choose to fight along side the undead...why? I'll leave that up to those who bother to read the books (in the game; the paperback ones you can buy at bookstores, I hear, are horrible wastes of pulp).
I would guess that it was a combination of the brick-like shape with the 2" thick that killed it for him. Not all laptop bags fit "accessories" the size of a mac mini.
There is SDL + Python, PyGame, and a few other packages for Python, which, in my opinion, tends to be easier to learn than Perl. Plus there are already many games produced with Pygame, etc.
Give yourself a couple days to get into Python, knowing how Python classes work will help.
Then spend a few days digging into wxPython.
There are various Python serial interface modules available, and reading from them via a thread, and posting data updates via events will finish everything you need.
Alternatively, pay someone who knows what the heck they are doing to write it up in a couple hours.
I've never seen someone fellate their boss more than in that interview. It was like watching the whole thing unfold through a bad Scooter Libby novel, only without the fiction.
Personally, I find this workflow* to be a more likely scenario for how the recent Star Wars were made.
* the link is correct, image name includes original site, and posting date of image, for reference.
Heh, AMS is having a clearance on various products. A nice deal ($22) is their external 5.25" enclosure with fan and built-in power supply http://www.amsestore.com/Detail.bok?no=722, though they don't specify whether or not it supports 128+ gig drives, so it probably doesn't. My personal favorite is the $9 external USB enclosure: http://www.amsestore.com/Detail.bok?no=439 . It lacks a fan, but it includes a seemingly reasonable (and removable) USB -> IDE controller with support for big drives. Couple a few of those with one of their external 2-12 5.25" bay enclosures and a fan or two...that could be quite a bit of storage.
Who in the hell ever decided that Uwe Boll should get any money for making movies? That no-talent hack has been making crap movies for years (just take a look at the ratings offered on IMDB). I don't care if he's been making movies since he was a child with Hi-8, I bet they were crap too.
If they hand the Halo adaptation off to him, Microsoft will be destroying their Halo brand.
What will it take for companies to tell Uwe Boll to drown himself? Seriously?
1) Get some gasoline. 2) Dump it on your posessions. 3) Light zippo from 40+ feet away and toss towards the gasoline soaked posessions.
Alternative: rent a storage unit until you move into a larger place again.
As for the all-in-one ripper/etc., I hear that MythTV works great, though I've so far been happy with my TiVo for time shifting, and an old PII-450 for archived movies and other stuff.
It's available at affini.com . You have to send at least as much as the recipient requires, but there are no transaction fees (but a minimum $20 balance to pull money out via Paypal).
If you want them to be able to adapt to any other language available, teach them Scheme.
If you want them to be able to program in their first day, teach them Python.
My question is, "What do you want them to do with the knowledge they gain in your course?" If this is to be an introductory course to progamming and/or computer science, it makes sense for it to be both enjoyable and educational. Start them out with Python and get them into PyGame, they'll be tickled to be writing games in their first course. If/when they want to get into writing web applications, send them off to Cheetah or some other templating language for Python. If/when they want to write GUI applications, send them off to wxPython.
Of course this all fails when they get to college and they are forced to learn Java (C/C++ was so much better to learn), but by the time that rolls around, we hope they have matured enough to understand that learning multiple programming languages is actually good for them.
Slashdot Mirror
I would also mention that playing a character from a foreign country to mock the US was done in the 70's by Andy Kaufman, which makes both of these guys (no matter how funny or relevant) "style biters".
There are so many different "Tech Jobs" that you should first have an idea of what you want to do. There certainly is the Best Buy "selling computers tech", but there's also the "computer repair tech", or "corporate computer/printer/network/etc. tech", and that's just the beginning of careers where you wouldn't be required to go to any kind of school (just be very self-starting). Then there's the whole range of computer science/engineering related "tech" positions, from programmer to software engineer to security researcher to theorist to cryptographer to data mining to just about anything you can imagine.
What do you want to do? When you can answer that, come back and ask about what steps would be needed to get you there.
I've always got 4 ssh terminals, 1 log window for local daemons, 2 windows for my source editor (console output in case of crash, and the actual editor), at least two file system browsers, 2+ consoles for testing software or downloading using wget, a browser window or two (with perhaps 4-6 persistent tabs on one), a couple help file windows (Python and wxPython generally), a chat window (with multiple tabs for my wife, work, etc.), maybe a copy of notepad or two.
I'm looking into tabbed versions of consoles and ssh windows, so we'll see if I can't make my life easier.
I don't know about you, but in my opinion, the author's site (http://www.webvastu.com/) looks like hell. Content boxes that look like google adwords, wide image borders, red backgrounds and white text? I'd say Slashdot looks much better than that.
Where to move? Vancouver, British Columbia (because it is beautiful), Winnipeg, Manitoba (close to my relatives in Northern and Southern Minnesota), Toronto, Ontario (close to my wife's relatives in Michigan, and to NYC), London, UK (to get the hell out of North America and to a place where understatement is appreciated), Singapore (who wouldn't want to live in a clean city?), The Big Island, Hawaii (a guy can hope for them to cede, and it's f-ing beautiful). Maybe Stockholm, Sweeden; but only during the summers.
Why not move? My wife works for Obsidian Entertainment as a designer, I'm still working on my PhD in Computer Science Theory, our combined job prospects in the short term are better exactly where we are, my wife would *kill* me if I made her quit, moving off the continent would make it just about impossible to visit relatives, etc.
Goodrich and Tamassia have a good general algorithms book. It's much shorter than CLRS, but it is also significantly more readable. They also have an "Algorithms in C++" and "Algorithms in Java" variants coauthored with others that have fairly substantial code samples.
It's about damn time. The only movies he has written, directed, and/or produced that I would ever watch a second time are limited to the original SW trilogy, Indiana Jones, Willow, and perhaps Labyrinth. Basically everything else he has ever done has been crap. Nevermind his holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to dealing with people (so say various associates who have worked for Lucasarts).
On the upside to his retirement, at least we won't get anymore date-rapist looks from Anakin (see Eps 2 and 3), or any more fart jokes (Ep 1).
If she keeps saying that the machine you built is crap, tell her to buy this week's Dell special. When she inevitably comes back with "it's broken, fix it", tell her to call up Dell, because they obviously built a piece of crap too.
I'm not in IT, but at least for the next 6+ months, I'd run ethernet. No jamming, no outages, no worries about needing a VPN solution just to be in the office. Heck, I'd run 2+ jacks to every cube in the place, that way even if a mobile-only AP setup goes to hell, you've always got wired.
When 802.11n comes out, I'd consider it. Better range + more bandwidth could result in far fewer APs to maintain. Who knows, it could even be robust against jamming.
In my experience of learning programming languages, as well as programming in general, in Scheme, C/C++, SML, Python, etc., the most useful feature of learning a programming language wasn't the IDE vs. editor question, it was whether or not there was an interactive interpreter for the language.
With Scheme, SML, Python, Mathematica, Prolog, etc., after learning a bit of syntax, you can sit at a computer and try the syntax out, work through your assumptions about the syntax, etc., giving the student a better idea of what is going on.
The other rub about writing actual software in these languages is documentation. I personally prefer to have documentation in any format similar to the Windows help file format; but that's generally because the documentation I tend to look at (Python and wxPython) have documentation that have convenient indices for modules/classes. I also prefer to have help exterior to the application in which I'm programming, but I understand the desireability of being able to have a tab for documentation viewable while programming.
So, to answer the bigger question: if the language has an interactive interpreter available, give students access to it (Python obviously does, as Java does if you look around). Be careful of offering editors with built-in interpreters, you don't want your students crashing their editor (test to see if the interpreter can recover from 'while 1: pass' or 'while (1);'). For writing software/assignments using standard libraries, make sure that documentation is easily accessable; external or internal to the application.
Once you've got an interpreter, documentation, and an editor that at least isn't braindead, you've got all of the essential tools for teaching a language to students.
Actually, if you listen to what Varimathras says, he only follows Lady Sylvanas Windrunner because she beat him in battle, and he begged for mercy. While he is the second-highest ranked person in UC, that's only because (from a military standpoint) he's very competant. He also says that he's always on the winning side, meaning that he's a follower, not a leader; he directs, but he doesn't lead.
Also, generally speaking, the demons aren't terribly forgiving. Do you honestly believe they would have let him live had he gone back to the Burning Legion having failed in battle? Or do you think they would believe him if he told them, "I was working undercover guys!" No.
According to the lore (if you read the books that are scattered all around Azeroth), one can think of the alliance races as the equivalent of "the man", and the horde as being minorities (as their stereotypical behavior implies); including the attempted genocide against Trolls (which is why they hang out with the Orcs) and the Orc concentration camps with demon breeding programs.
The taurens side with the horde because (if I remember correctly), the Orcs and Trolls helped them fight the centaur races, even though the Night Elves had historically been their friends (due to their shared Druidic culture).
But why the undead? It's fairly obvious that humans (in WoW lore) are quite xenophobic, and would shun their undead kin; one notices this everywhere.
The only "evil" really inherant in the undead is that they are sick of being considered not people, and are willing to make all humans undead to make their point heard. Many, if not all high-ranking undead were once high-ranking humans of one sort or another, but upon death, were shunned by their own people, forcing them to join a group that they once hated, feared, and killed. Yet they still choose to fight along side the undead...why? I'll leave that up to those who bother to read the books (in the game; the paperback ones you can buy at bookstores, I hear, are horrible wastes of pulp).
I would guess that it was a combination of the brick-like shape with the 2" thick that killed it for him. Not all laptop bags fit "accessories" the size of a mac mini.
If you are going to go with a P-language OS, why not go with http://www.unununium.org/ ?
There is SDL + Python, PyGame, and a few other packages for Python, which, in my opinion, tends to be easier to learn than Perl. Plus there are already many games produced with Pygame, etc.
Give yourself a couple days to get into Python, knowing how Python classes work will help.
Then spend a few days digging into wxPython.
There are various Python serial interface modules available, and reading from them via a thread, and posting data updates via events will finish everything you need.
Alternatively, pay someone who knows what the heck they are doing to write it up in a couple hours.
I've never seen someone fellate their boss more than in that interview. It was like watching the whole thing unfold through a bad Scooter Libby novel, only without the fiction.
Personally, I find this workflow* to be a more likely scenario for how the recent Star Wars were made.
* the link is correct, image name includes original site, and posting date of image, for reference.
Heh, AMS is having a clearance on various products. A nice deal ($22) is their external 5.25" enclosure with fan and built-in power supply http://www.amsestore.com/Detail.bok?no=722, though they don't specify whether or not it supports 128+ gig drives, so it probably doesn't. My personal favorite is the $9 external USB enclosure: http://www.amsestore.com/Detail.bok?no=439 . It lacks a fan, but it includes a seemingly reasonable (and removable) USB -> IDE controller with support for big drives. Couple a few of those with one of their external 2-12 5.25" bay enclosures and a fan or two...that could be quite a bit of storage.
Who in the hell ever decided that Uwe Boll should get any money for making movies? That no-talent hack has been making crap movies for years (just take a look at the ratings offered on IMDB). I don't care if he's been making movies since he was a child with Hi-8, I bet they were crap too.
If they hand the Halo adaptation off to him, Microsoft will be destroying their Halo brand.
What will it take for companies to tell Uwe Boll to drown himself? Seriously?
1) Get some gasoline.
2) Dump it on your posessions.
3) Light zippo from 40+ feet away and toss towards the gasoline soaked posessions.
Alternative: rent a storage unit until you move into a larger place again.
As for the all-in-one ripper/etc., I hear that MythTV works great, though I've so far been happy with my TiVo for time shifting, and an old PII-450 for archived movies and other stuff.
It's available at affini.com . You have to send at least as much as the recipient requires, but there are no transaction fees (but a minimum $20 balance to pull money out via Paypal).
It doesn't have to be that particular game, they could make some other equivalently silly game.
As was suggested by some friends last night during a random gaming discussion: Sega should put out a good "Mutant League Football" game.
Make it as good or better than Madden (which doesn't look to be a challenge according to the reviews), and they can print their own money.
If you want them to be able to adapt to any other language available, teach them Scheme.
If you want them to be able to program in their first day, teach them Python.
My question is, "What do you want them to do with the knowledge they gain in your course?" If this is to be an introductory course to progamming and/or computer science, it makes sense for it to be both enjoyable and educational. Start them out with Python and get them into PyGame, they'll be tickled to be writing games in their first course. If/when they want to get into writing web applications, send them off to Cheetah or some other templating language for Python. If/when they want to write GUI applications, send them off to wxPython.
Of course this all fails when they get to college and they are forced to learn Java (C/C++ was so much better to learn), but by the time that rolls around, we hope they have matured enough to understand that learning multiple programming languages is actually good for them.
You make very good points, though I'm personally a big fan of sweet deals for those who have to do the work.