Did you read the relevant articles? The challenge didn't allow for more than one attempt, that I could see, whereas here's Johnny (heh) saying that it could take multiple attempts to exploit the race condition correctly [...]
I updated the stipulations to allow for an entire hour to delete the file on the desktop. If they want more time than that, I'd be willing to extend it.
Pudge, was that a shot, or just good-natured ribbing?
Surely it was good-natured ribbing. "Biased" isn't necessarily pejorative. Heck, "unbiased" often means "boring", so I'm pretty sure he was trying to pay me a complement.
About four years ago, I was suffering through terrible wrist pain. I was working days on a computer-tech internship, and at night, I was editing and writing for my college newspaper. Mondays through Thursdays, I was often at a keyboard for over 12 hours a day.
I was definitely scared, because I did some research and I realized how bad things could get for me if I didn't make some changes. I started stetching and taking timed breaks, and perhaps most importantly, began taking my hands off the keyboard whenever possible.
Also, and this was tough, I gave up playing computer games.
The next two years, things went pretty well. I had occasional pain, but never as bad as at the peak. Then, in summer 1997, I bought a ComforType keyboard gadget.
It changed my life.
What it is, is a tray for your keyboard with two sliding arms in front. On each sliding arm is a contoured pad for your hand. You rest your hand on these pads it feels like they're floating over the keyboard.
Yes, it looks a bit silly, and it's not cheap (about $200). But it fucking works like magic. You know how they say you're not supposed to rest your palms on the desk or even on a wrist rest? Nice in theory, but impossible for long sessions at a terminal, in my experience. This is what the ComforType does for you.
It took me less than a day to get used to. It works on standard keyboards. And I have had no wrist pain for two years, despite using the keyboard more than ever.
I know $200 sounds like a lot for a goofy-looking gadget, but I'd pay twice that to replace mine if I needed to.
Enough with these short blurbs from Mr. Katz. I long to read something longer from this sharp wit.
Re:Why I hate Mac keyboards
on
Interface Zen
·
· Score: 1
Actually, recent Mac keyboards (starting with the current PowerBooks and the iMac) have the nibs on the F and J.
As someone who's been typing on Apple keyboards since 5th grade in the mid 80s, I find it highly annoying. Luckily, the key caps pop off easily, and can be swapped.
The PowerBooks (including the iBook) have excellent keyboards, really. Apple has an engineering team solely devoted to them. The iMac keyboard, however, is another matter entirely. It is, quite frankly, the worst keyboard I've ever used, by far. The arrow keys are half-sized, and are tucked under the right Shift key, in the area normally occupied by the right Option and Control keys. So, the only Option and Control keys are on the left.
I have Red Hat 6.0 running under VPC 3.0 on my PowerMac 9600/350. X is painfully slow, even worse than Win98. It pretty much installed without a hitch, however.
I've also tried installing it on my girlfriend's iMac 266, but must have screwed up my guess at how to describe the iMac's monitor. With my 9600, I just specified my actual monitor model. I plan on doing a fresh install on her machine when I get a chance.
Despite the fact that her iMac benchmarks slightly slower than my 9600, her machine runs Win98 under VPC significantly faster. I suspect the reason is that Connectix (VPC's developers) have done some heavy optimization for the G3/G4, and my 9600 has a PPC 604.
Despite the fact that X is slow, it's still a pretty neat setup. I have our home office connected with 10baseT and I run IPNetRouter under the Mac OS on my 9600. This not only lets our Macs share the same PPP connection simultaneously, but Virtual PC acts as a separate machine, gets its own IP address (via DHCP), and is therefore connected at the same time. That's the one advantage over going dual-boot with LinuxPPC -- I can work in both OSes at the same time on the same machine.
VPC also makes it very easy to move files back and forth between the two environments.
The main advantage with Office is file compatibility with other Office users. It's that simple.
I would love to see the Justice Department try to force them to open up the Office file formats as part of the anti-trust settlement. I don't want the source to the apps -- it's likely a bloody mess -- but if the file formats were opened up, competing apps would be much more appealing to typical end-users. Remember, most end-users have trouble enough saving and opening files with the regular Save command, let alone using Save As and Import/Export to share data files with non-Office users.
Remember too that many organizations -- including branches of the federal government and most book publishers -- mandate Office 98 formatted files. I'm not saying it's a good idea for organizations to do this, but if the formats were completely open, it wouldn't be so much of a hassle for those of us who don't use MS Office.
Maybe in America MS stays a monopol for a long time: but in poorer countries, which cannot afford new hardware and $1000 for every update, simple, low-end solutions start to play an important role.
This is exactly why Microsoft encourages the piracy of their products, especially in less prosperous regions of the world. Ballmer is on the record (somewhere) as stating that they want their software to be both the best-selling and the most-pirated, on the basis that eventually, some pirates start buying software, and they tend to buy what they previously pirated.
Slashdot Mirror
Did you read the relevant articles? The challenge didn't allow for more than one attempt, that I could see, whereas here's Johnny (heh) saying that it could take multiple attempts to exploit the race condition correctly [...]
I updated the stipulations to allow for an entire hour to delete the file on the desktop. If they want more time than that, I'd be willing to extend it.
Pudge, was that a shot, or just good-natured ribbing?
Surely it was good-natured ribbing. "Biased" isn't necessarily pejorative. Heck, "unbiased" often means "boring", so I'm pretty sure he was trying to pay me a complement.
About four years ago, I was suffering through terrible wrist pain. I was working days on a computer-tech internship, and at night, I was editing and writing for my college newspaper. Mondays through Thursdays, I was often at a keyboard for over 12 hours a day.
I was definitely scared, because I did some research and I realized how bad things could get for me if I didn't make some changes. I started stetching and taking timed breaks, and perhaps most importantly, began taking my hands off the keyboard whenever possible.
Also, and this was tough, I gave up playing computer games.
The next two years, things went pretty well. I had occasional pain, but never as bad as at the peak. Then, in summer 1997, I bought a ComforType keyboard gadget.
It changed my life.
What it is, is a tray for your keyboard with two sliding arms in front. On each sliding arm is a contoured pad for your hand. You rest your hand on these pads it feels like they're floating over the keyboard.
Yes, it looks a bit silly, and it's not cheap (about $200). But it fucking works like magic. You know how they say you're not supposed to rest your palms on the desk or even on a wrist rest? Nice in theory, but impossible for long sessions at a terminal, in my experience. This is what the ComforType does for you.
It took me less than a day to get used to. It works on standard keyboards. And I have had no wrist pain for two years, despite using the keyboard more than ever.
I know $200 sounds like a lot for a goofy-looking gadget, but I'd pay twice that to replace mine if I needed to.
- Gruber
Enough with these short blurbs from Mr. Katz. I long to read something longer from this sharp wit.
As someone who's been typing on Apple keyboards since 5th grade in the mid 80s, I find it highly annoying. Luckily, the key caps pop off easily, and can be swapped.
The PowerBooks (including the iBook) have excellent keyboards, really. Apple has an engineering team solely devoted to them. The iMac keyboard, however, is another matter entirely. It is, quite frankly, the worst keyboard I've ever used, by far. The arrow keys are half-sized, and are tucked under the right Shift key, in the area normally occupied by the right Option and Control keys. So, the only Option and Control keys are on the left.
--
Gruber
I've also tried installing it on my girlfriend's iMac 266, but must have screwed up my guess at how to describe the iMac's monitor. With my 9600, I just specified my actual monitor model. I plan on doing a fresh install on her machine when I get a chance.
Despite the fact that her iMac benchmarks slightly slower than my 9600, her machine runs Win98 under VPC significantly faster. I suspect the reason is that Connectix (VPC's developers) have done some heavy optimization for the G3/G4, and my 9600 has a PPC 604.
Despite the fact that X is slow, it's still a pretty neat setup. I have our home office connected with 10baseT and I run IPNetRouter under the Mac OS on my 9600. This not only lets our Macs share the same PPP connection simultaneously, but Virtual PC acts as a separate machine, gets its own IP address (via DHCP), and is therefore connected at the same time. That's the one advantage over going dual-boot with LinuxPPC -- I can work in both OSes at the same time on the same machine.
VPC also makes it very easy to move files back and forth between the two environments.
--
Gruber
--
I would love to see the Justice Department try to force them to open up the Office file formats as part of the anti-trust settlement. I don't want the source to the apps -- it's likely a bloody mess -- but if the file formats were opened up, competing apps would be much more appealing to typical end-users. Remember, most end-users have trouble enough saving and opening files with the regular Save command, let alone using Save As and Import/Export to share data files with non-Office users.
Remember too that many organizations -- including branches of the federal government and most book publishers -- mandate Office 98 formatted files. I'm not saying it's a good idea for organizations to do this, but if the formats were completely open, it wouldn't be so much of a hassle for those of us who don't use MS Office.
--
Gruber
--
This is exactly why Microsoft encourages the piracy of their products, especially in less prosperous regions of the world. Ballmer is on the record (somewhere) as stating that they want their software to be both the best-selling and the most-pirated, on the basis that eventually, some pirates start buying software, and they tend to buy what they previously pirated.
--
Gruber
--