What's the point of this enoding scheme? Everyone knows that the best way to encode a geolocation is just to use WGS-84 cartiesian coordinates (XYZ), and let the back-end convert to LLH for display or whatever.
The sheep herd market doesn't decide what are the best technical solutions.
It decides what was marketed the best.
Stupid sheep.
Strawman, strawman, strawman
on
Mac mini Dissection
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· Score: 4, Interesting
You're not getting it.
I'm no Mac fanboy; I've got plenty of x86 machines running Linux and XP (it does have its uses) all over the place at work and at home. But, the very next machine on my list to buy is the Mac Mini. Seems to me that the whole point of the Mac Mini (and indeed of all Macs in general) is this:
1. You bring it home.
2. You turn it on.
3. It just fucking works.
Constrast with the proceedure for x86 machines:
1. You bring it home.
2. You install all your expansion cards.
3. You install the operating system. We all do that ourselves, right?
4. You configure the operating system for the devices you have installed
5. You shut down and rearrange the expansion devices and pray that it clears up interrupt conflicts.
6. Probably go to step 4. Eventually fall out of this loop.
7. Tweek. Repeat.
8. Futz. Repeat.
I've wasted many, many hours of my precious life installing, configuring, tweeking, twiddling, rearranging, futzing, prodding, farting around with, etc., all these x86 machines. I want at least one computer that I don't have to dick with. Here's my checklist for justifying my buying one:
1. Runs Quicken? Check.
2. Runs TurboTax? Check.
3. Mozilla products? Check.
4. Runs MS Office (sorry, gotta use it)? Check.
5. Runs Photoshop? Check.
6. Runs iTunes? Check.
7. Unix-based? Check. X11? Check. ('tho I'm no big fan of BSD-ish installations, I'll get used to it).
8. Upgradable? Who gives a shit?
What this means for me is that I can dump two machines that I have at home (one Linux, one XP), and replace it with a smaller, no-muss-no-fuss, machine.
Our applications (real-time geographically distributed RF DSP) involve shipping around lots and lots and lots and lots of digitized RF data. We have our share of wonks who think we should be using XML for this kind of thing. We all agree that XML would solve many problems for us. Except there's no convenient way to represent the actual data payloads, which consist of scads of binary data.
A good binary XML specification could be an extremely good fit for us.
And, don't suggest that we just compress XML and send that. Here's why: first we have to expand all that digitized data into some sort ASCII encoding, which is then compressed. End result: no gain and a possible loss of precision in the data.
A real, live, useful binary XML spec could help us immensely. I say BRING IT ON!!!!
BTW, wasn't DIME supposed to address these problems? What happened to DIME, anyway?
I use a Squeezebox for playing music through my stereo. It's a nice gadget, and it uses great (open source) driver software called SlimServer.
Now, I actually like iTunes. It slurped up my previously ripped MP3 collection with no problems. I like the design, layout, and semantics of iTunes. It's really a nice app.
What's more, is that the SlimServer software has some integration with iTunes. Pretty cool. You can set up playlists in iTunes and then use SlimServer to play it through your stereo via the SqueezeBox. Way cool, really.
So, my wife heard a song on the radio that she liked, so we fired up iTunes and got an account on iTMS. Very nice integration, I must say. We found the song she liked, paid our $0.99 and downloaded it. It was an extremely smooth and appealing experience. But after getting the song, we found that we can use iTunes to play it through the computer's speakers, but when we try to play it through the SqueezeBox -- nothing!! It won't work.
Please note that music purchased from the iTunes Music Store ("Protected AAC" (.m4p) files) is encrypted and cannot be played back with Squeezebox until Apple provides the necessary hooks to enable this. In the meantime, it is possible to burn your iTunes Music Store songs to CD and re-rip them as unprotected.m4a files.
This means that I paid $0.99 for a worthless stream of bytes!! I'm not gonna spend time to download, burn, and re-rip. That's stupid. I can go buy the damn CD, rip it, and then immediately sell it to Cheapo, and be out only a little money (as opposed to the total loss that iTMS offers). Thankfully, I downloaded only one song and wasted only a buck.
iTMS looks really nice, and you gotta hand it to Apple -- it's a nicely integrated product. I like iTunes, and I'll probably continue to use it. But, until I can play music on my own players, I will not be wasting any more money on iTMS.
... had in mind for this post. I tried to use "Score: -1, Troll" as my subject, but when I hit preview I get this: "Cat got your tongue? (something important seems to be missing from your comment... like the body or the subject!)". So, I had to change the subject and now the joke is ruined.
So, for what it's worth, here's my original <strike>troll</strike> posting:
If we are still fucking around reinventing the wheel (scripts, repeated processes, crappy hardware, patching CRAP software, etc.. then I will be amazed, and dissappointed.
Well, then, that means you have a good 10-20 years to prepare yourself for the inevitable amazement and disappointment.
Why should the next 20 years be any different from the last?
Roughly 80% of the technical people we've hired over the last four years have been on contract to hire terms.
This arraignment works well for us, because with a six-month contract, we can get a good feel for how well someone will "really" fit in to our culture.
It is essentially a six month paid interview.
Of the people who we started out as contractors, about 95% of them went on to become full-time employees.
More importantly for us, none of the people we've hired over those last four years has moved on. We expect minimal personnel losses.
I actually read the article, and he makes very good points. Many of the articles are mediocre. Some are very good. Vandelism abounds -- I once read on Wikipedia that Adolf Hitler was born in the Sea of Tranquility.
Wikipedia has different coverage than Britannica.
Perhaps Wikipedia's greatest strength is that it documents things that have no real business being in Britannica, but are interesting nonetheless. And should be documented for posterity, if nothing else.
I dare anyone to show me an embedded version of any of those browsers.
No doubt the marketplace is clamboring for browers to be bundled in embedded systems. I, for one, can't want until automobiles come with browsers embedded in their engine, fuel, and brake control systems. Exciting times!!
What if you want to count all the word and excel documents that contain the phrase "unix can jump up my ass"?
Huh, jack? Where's your command line tool for that?
find ~/. -type f | egrep '\.(doc,xls)$' | xargs grep -l 'unix can jump up my ass' | wc -l
Slashdot Mirror
What's the point of this enoding scheme? Everyone knows that the best way to encode a geolocation is just to use WGS-84 cartiesian coordinates (XYZ), and let the back-end convert to LLH for display or whatever.
Whatever; now it's time for you give me a break.
Clueless morons make sleds of money all the time. That's what business is all about: enabling hopeless idiots to become rich.
Case in point: Microsoft.
Of course you could try to argue that making money in business demonstrates smartness. But that would just make you an anti-elitist moron.
http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/
Oh, rats. I stand corrected.
Forced upgrade, yes. But Intiut sent me a free copy of Quicken 2005 via US mail to do the upgrade.
Not that I've done the upgrade yet, but....
I just assumed that everyone who had already purchased Quicken was getting a free copy of Quicken 2005. Is this not the case?
References, please, to back that statement up.
It's for your own good. Otherwise, people will that you're just another damn lying Microsoft shill.
No problem. Glad you have a better understanding of the situation.
The sheep herd market doesn't decide what are the best technical solutions.
It decides what was marketed the best.
Stupid sheep.
I'm no Mac fanboy; I've got plenty of x86 machines running Linux and XP (it does have its uses) all over the place at work and at home. But, the very next machine on my list to buy is the Mac Mini. Seems to me that the whole point of the Mac Mini (and indeed of all Macs in general) is this:
1. You bring it home.
2. You turn it on.
3. It just fucking works.
Constrast with the proceedure for x86 machines:
1. You bring it home.
2. You install all your expansion cards.
3. You install the operating system. We all do that ourselves, right?
4. You configure the operating system for the devices you have installed
5. You shut down and rearrange the expansion devices and pray that it clears up interrupt conflicts.
6. Probably go to step 4. Eventually fall out of this loop.
7. Tweek. Repeat.
8. Futz. Repeat.
I've wasted many, many hours of my precious life installing, configuring, tweeking, twiddling, rearranging, futzing, prodding, farting around with, etc., all these x86 machines. I want at least one computer that I don't have to dick with. Here's my checklist for justifying my buying one:
1. Runs Quicken? Check.
2. Runs TurboTax? Check.
3. Mozilla products? Check.
4. Runs MS Office (sorry, gotta use it)? Check.
5. Runs Photoshop? Check.
6. Runs iTunes? Check.
7. Unix-based? Check. X11? Check. ('tho I'm no big fan of BSD-ish installations, I'll get used to it).
8. Upgradable? Who gives a shit?
What this means for me is that I can dump two machines that I have at home (one Linux, one XP), and replace it with a smaller, no-muss-no-fuss, machine.
Geeze, how can I resist?
A good binary XML specification could be an extremely good fit for us.
And, don't suggest that we just compress XML and send that. Here's why: first we have to expand all that digitized data into some sort ASCII encoding, which is then compressed. End result: no gain and a possible loss of precision in the data.
A real, live, useful binary XML spec could help us immensely. I say BRING IT ON!!!!
BTW, wasn't DIME supposed to address these problems? What happened to DIME, anyway?
No iTMS for me until hymn catches up. And, no, I won't downgrade to 4.6. That's just silly.
Now, I actually like iTunes. It slurped up my previously ripped MP3 collection with no problems. I like the design, layout, and semantics of iTunes. It's really a nice app.
What's more, is that the SlimServer software has some integration with iTunes. Pretty cool. You can set up playlists in iTunes and then use SlimServer to play it through your stereo via the SqueezeBox. Way cool, really.
So, my wife heard a song on the radio that she liked, so we fired up iTunes and got an account on iTMS. Very nice integration, I must say. We found the song she liked, paid our $0.99 and downloaded it. It was an extremely smooth and appealing experience. But after getting the song, we found that we can use iTunes to play it through the computer's speakers, but when we try to play it through the SqueezeBox -- nothing!! It won't work.
I dug around, and finally found this:
This means that I paid $0.99 for a worthless stream of bytes!! I'm not gonna spend time to download, burn, and re-rip. That's stupid. I can go buy the damn CD, rip it, and then immediately sell it to Cheapo, and be out only a little money (as opposed to the total loss that iTMS offers). Thankfully, I downloaded only one song and wasted only a buck.
iTMS looks really nice, and you gotta hand it to Apple -- it's a nicely integrated product. I like iTunes, and I'll probably continue to use it. But, until I can play music on my own players, I will not be wasting any more money on iTMS.
... had in mind for this post. I tried to use "Score: -1, Troll" as my subject, but when I hit preview I get this: "Cat got your tongue? (something important seems to be missing from your comment ... like the body or the subject!)". So, I had to change the subject and now the joke is ruined.
So, for what it's worth, here's my original <strike>troll</strike> posting:
Ugh, COBOL. Bleah.
Oh well, at least it's not Java.
Why, you'll be using the latest equivalent of COBOL. That is, when they decide what comes after Java.
Well, then, that means you have a good 10-20 years to prepare yourself for the inevitable amazement and disappointment.
Why should the next 20 years be any different from the last?
Roughly 80% of the technical people we've hired over the last four years have been on contract to hire terms.
This arraignment works well for us, because with a six-month contract, we can get a good feel for how well someone will "really" fit in to our culture.
It is essentially a six month paid interview.
Of the people who we started out as contractors, about 95% of them went on to become full-time employees.
More importantly for us, none of the people we've hired over those last four years has moved on. We expect minimal personnel losses.
Some people, when confronted with a problem, say, "Let's use CORBA."
Now they have two problems.
Standalone software as a product? Interesting.
...will run under emacs.
Emacs, baby. All the way.
So, pick a single distro and stick with it. Allow no others.
That's what we do, and we have no problems.
Wikipedia has different coverage than Britannica. Perhaps Wikipedia's greatest strength is that it documents things that have no real business being in Britannica, but are interesting nonetheless. And should be documented for posterity, if nothing else.
No doubt the marketplace is clamboring for browers to be bundled in embedded systems. I, for one, can't want until automobiles come with browsers embedded in their engine, fuel, and brake control systems. Exciting times!!
Yikes. That's a little harder:
Or something like that.
At this point, I think the solution is to not use Word nor Excel files.
Easy peasy.