You assume most people use push mowers. I see plenty who use riding mowers, getting no cardio benefits and breathing in vast amounts of carbon monoxide from the exhaust. How can you ride your mountain bike if your free time is spent mowing the lawn?
Anyone know if we'll be able to hear them?
on
Perseid Meteor Showers
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I don't know if Chris Kimball is a computer geek, but his work certainly delves into the science of cooking to answer fundamental kitchen questions, like which starch is best to thicken a fruit pie. (Answer: amylopectin, found in arrowroot and tapioca, which is good to know now that fresh blueberries are cheap and plentiful. God, I love fresh blueberry pie.)
Anyway, my wife and I have several of his books, which are great references to have in the kitchen, and although I haven't used it much, he does have a website. It's advertisement-free, and the product reviews are about as objective as you'll find.
Call me paranoid, but could someone just check and make sure that's not a coating of aluminum doping compound? Thanks!
This book is aimed at /. readers
on
Cradle to Cradle
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Damn, I wanted to review this book. Oh well, I'll just say that while anyone can enjoy reading it, it is clearly aimed at the designers of products, not merely at consumers. The whole premise is that we can't solve the problem by just consuming less -- we need products that behave as nature does.
Take textiles. Many textiles contain unwanted materials such as heavy metals or pesticides, what the authors refer to as "products-plus". Why are they included with the product? Did you the consumer ask for them? Such products can't be safely decomposed or recycled. The only safe place for them is a landfill (hence the term cradle-to-grave). Take the long, long-term view and it is clear that, if this cradle-to-grave model continues, we'll fill the planet with landfills.
However, if you model the product on nature, then the waste from the textile production process and end-of-life product itself can be used safely as mulch: cradle-to-cradle. The challenge for the designers is to distinguish the biological nutrients from the technical nutrients, and provide a way for these nutrients to be reused, the way nature reuses them. This is not hypothetical: the authors provide many examples of companies that are doing this type of work.
If you are a scientist, engineer, or designer, you will need to be familiar with the techniques these guys espouse. The MBA's willl need to recognize the value of this approach, but it's up to the designers to select the materials and techniques that achieve the results.
Also, I was very impressed with the example the authors provide of Bill Ford at Ford Motor Company. He is transforming the ancient River Rouge plant into a model of these principles, and saving as much as $35 million in the process.
In short, this is a really thought-provoking book.
So much CGI just looks like CGI -- it often subverts the willing suspension of disbelief. Give me the old Star Wars/Ray Harryhausen stuff anyday. But CGI is the future and economics will be on its side. (I had to laugh at last night's Smallville -- it used CGI to show a waitress dropping a tray of coffee mugs. Now that is affordable CGI!) So, if it's inevitable, is anyone working on CGI that will mimic the results of the old physical modelling techniques?
I work for a company that started with a wireless thick client app for the Palm with Novatel's CDPD modem. It was one of the first of its kind and had some success. Being a Palm app it was written in c.
Then along came the RIM Blackberry devices, so we wrote a client for it. Naturally, that was in C++.
Then along came the iPaq with the expansion jacket and CDPD card. Naturally, we just had to write a client for that. Oh and guess what, new code base.
It's a pain for our developers to have all those platforms, and what we see happening is that our business people are saying they can only afford to develop for the most popular platform, which for this app is the RIM.
RIM is really playing up the use of Java for such apps on its next device. We're doing other apps on the Sharp Zaurus, not all in Java, but at least it is an option and the processing power is sufficient to run at a decent speed. It is quite possible that very soon, all our thick client development will be done in Java.
A risk is an event that might or might not occur. Ask your team what the risks are. Document them. Have a contingency plan that the team and your customer understand. Better to be prepared for when shit happens than to assume it won't.
Also, the Capability Maturity Matrix is a good thing to be familiar with. The best managers I know have made it an integral part of their employees' professional development.
The Middleware is classic, too. In the locker room the coach hands out big fat fanmail bags to Mainframe and Linux, and ("oh yeah, I almost forgot") he hands one thin letter to Middleware. In a hilarious twist on the old Mean Joe Green Coke ad (or was it Pepsi?:) from the 1970's, Middleware walks outside and sees a shy, nervous-looking kid and asks him if he wants his autograph. "Um, not really." Even my wife learned and can recite the punchline after Sunday's playoff games: "He seeks not glory. He seeks only results."
True foodies recommend you check out Chef! with Lenny Henry as Gareth Blackstock, proprietor and chef of the Chateau Anglese. In the US you can find it on PBS from time to time. Favorite lines:
Chef (instructing a kitchen menial who has just disappointed him again): "What's the most important element of cooking?"
Kitchen menial: "Ingredients?"
Chef: "Timing. Ingredients was 5 minutes ago. You're supposed to peak together. Hasn't your wife explained this to you?"
Bert's "penchant for penguins?"
on
Bert Is Evil
·
· Score: 1
From the Fox story:
"Sesame Workshop... very unhappy with the sudden connection between a lovable character with a penchant for penguins... and the most wanted man in the world."
So now he's a Linux enthusiast? Probably Osama's crypto mastermind too.
I finished a project with mine and left it locked in a drawer unused for about a month. When I picked it up again last week, the battery was dead, and it had lost its configuration. Does anyone know if this is expected behavior, i.e., does it need to be in the cradle to prevent this from happening? It's kind of an expensive device to just leave out on your desk all the time.
New York's first public water system used hollow logs for pipes, and I read somewhere that some of these logs are actually still in use to this day. Seems a little unlikely but I was wondering if anyone had some info on this.
--
Forget the BSOD, what about that fresh fruit?
on
Space Station BSOD
·
· Score: 1
I mean, how are you to defend yourself if you are attacked by an astronaut armed with a piece of fresh fruit? To whit:
Can't shoot him
Can't just release a tiger on him
Can't drop a 16-ton weight on him, zero gravity and all
So that leaves the perennial question: What about pointed sticks?
In Iowa, entomologist Tom Baker has built a device for finding land mines using tiny moth antennae that emit signals to microprocessors, which transform them into different tones.
I've used the Kyocera SmartPhone (formerly made by Qualcomm til they sold their handset division) for a couple days this week and I have to say that the form factor is just the coolest thing. Some background: I own a Handspring Visor, my company gave me a laptop, a Palm V w/ Omnisky service and a Sprint PCS phone, and most of my coworkers use RIM's. The Smartphone points the way to a device that will subsume all of these, and negate the need for a laptop for probably 90 percent of what I do when I'm mobile -- I mean really mobile, not just moving to another desk. Think how many times you choose not to bring your laptop because it is a pain in the ass to haul around.
I think the "smaller is better" mantra that cell phones have followed WILL be reversed when you see how much easier an interface like the PalmOS is to use than a damn touchtone keypad. Here's a link with a picture.
I think Handspring would do well to offer a longer attachable Springboard slot for this, so it mounts flush onto the back of the unit and includes its own battery (yes, like the iPaq expansion sleeve). The eyemodule kills my Visor's battery in about two minutes. How long would an 802.11b springboard module be useful? Modules that solve the problem by including their own battery like the VisorPhone feel clunky. Those are the issues that affect the market I'm developing for. Sigh.
Computer science is offered at most of the elite "liberal arts" colleges. The liberal arts should teach you to love learning and problem-solving, which are essential to what you'll be doing in this industry. In ten years of working I've encountered plenty of self-taught folks with such educational backgrounds. But don't hamstring yourself by not taking the core CS stuff -- at least take data structures and algorithms, and see how it goes from there. I wish I had taken more of those classes, and sooner than I did.
I doubt that "Red Dwarf" and "Family Circus" have much overlap
I'll give it a shot: "Red Dwarf" plots often deal with time warps, while reading "Family Circus" makes you think you've entered a time warp. Or that small square section of the newspaper in which "Family Circus" has appeared for the last, what, 40 years? has been in a time warp. Or its creator, Bil Keane, has spent that time in isolation in deep space with no real human contact, hence the rehashing of the same mind-sucking jokes.
Does this mean we won't be seeing anymore "Rico" secret-agent ads? Now those were "HOT". And the technology is cool -- more than just a sock puppet here, thank you.
How about the irony that CmdrTaco posts a link on adaptive-website Slashdot pointing to non-adaptive NY Times website summarizing the benefits of adaptive web sites? It's all so meta...
Slashdot Mirror
If it's from Microsoft, no one will take the leap for a buggy 2.0 release.
You assume most people use push mowers. I see plenty who use riding mowers, getting no cardio benefits and breathing in vast amounts of carbon monoxide from the exhaust. How can you ride your mountain bike if your free time is spent mowing the lawn?
Here's the story on being able to hear the Leonids?.
I don't know if Chris Kimball is a computer geek, but his work certainly delves into the science of cooking to answer fundamental kitchen questions, like which starch is best to thicken a fruit pie. (Answer: amylopectin, found in arrowroot and tapioca, which is good to know now that fresh blueberries are cheap and plentiful. God, I love fresh blueberry pie.)
Anyway, my wife and I have several of his books, which are great references to have in the kitchen, and although I haven't used it much, he does have a website. It's advertisement-free, and the product reviews are about as objective as you'll find.
Call me paranoid, but could someone just check and make sure that's not a coating of aluminum doping compound? Thanks!
Damn, I wanted to review this book. Oh well, I'll just say that while anyone can enjoy reading it, it is clearly aimed at the designers of products, not merely at consumers. The whole premise is that we can't solve the problem by just consuming less -- we need products that behave as nature does.
Take textiles. Many textiles contain unwanted materials such as heavy metals or pesticides, what the authors refer to as "products-plus". Why are they included with the product? Did you the consumer ask for them? Such products can't be safely decomposed or recycled. The only safe place for them is a landfill (hence the term cradle-to-grave). Take the long, long-term view and it is clear that, if this cradle-to-grave model continues, we'll fill the planet with landfills.
However, if you model the product on nature, then the waste from the textile production process and end-of-life product itself can be used safely as mulch: cradle-to-cradle. The challenge for the designers is to distinguish the biological nutrients from the technical nutrients, and provide a way for these nutrients to be reused, the way nature reuses them. This is not hypothetical: the authors provide many examples of companies that are doing this type of work.
If you are a scientist, engineer, or designer, you will need to be familiar with the techniques these guys espouse. The MBA's willl need to recognize the value of this approach, but it's up to the designers to select the materials and techniques that achieve the results.
Also, I was very impressed with the example the authors provide of Bill Ford at Ford Motor Company. He is transforming the ancient River Rouge plant into a model of these principles, and saving as much as $35 million in the process.
In short, this is a really thought-provoking book.
So much CGI just looks like CGI -- it often subverts the willing suspension of disbelief. Give me the old Star Wars/Ray Harryhausen stuff anyday. But CGI is the future and economics will be on its side. (I had to laugh at last night's Smallville -- it used CGI to show a waitress dropping a tray of coffee mugs. Now that is affordable CGI!) So, if it's inevitable, is anyone working on CGI that will mimic the results of the old physical modelling techniques?
I work for a company that started with a wireless thick client app for the Palm with Novatel's CDPD modem. It was one of the first of its kind and had some success. Being a Palm app it was written in c.
Then along came the RIM Blackberry devices, so we wrote a client for it. Naturally, that was in C++.
Then along came the iPaq with the expansion jacket and CDPD card. Naturally, we just had to write a client for that. Oh and guess what, new code base.
It's a pain for our developers to have all those platforms, and what we see happening is that our business people are saying they can only afford to develop for the most popular platform, which for this app is the RIM.
RIM is really playing up the use of Java for such apps on its next device. We're doing other apps on the Sharp Zaurus, not all in Java, but at least it is an option and the processing power is sufficient to run at a decent speed. It is quite possible that very soon, all our thick client development will be done in Java.
A risk is an event that might or might not occur. Ask your team what the risks are. Document them. Have a contingency plan that the team and your customer understand. Better to be prepared for when shit happens than to assume it won't.
Also, the Capability Maturity Matrix is a good thing to be familiar with. The best managers I know have made it an integral part of their employees' professional development.
The Middleware is classic, too. In the locker room the coach hands out big fat fanmail bags to Mainframe and Linux, and ("oh yeah, I almost forgot") he hands one thin letter to Middleware. In a hilarious twist on the old Mean Joe Green Coke ad (or was it Pepsi? :) from the 1970's, Middleware walks outside and sees a shy, nervous-looking kid and asks him if he wants his autograph. "Um, not really." Even my wife learned and can recite the punchline after Sunday's playoff games: "He seeks not glory. He seeks only results."
Someone had to say it, why not me?
True foodies recommend you check out Chef! with Lenny Henry as Gareth Blackstock, proprietor and chef of the Chateau Anglese. In the US you can find it on PBS from time to time. Favorite lines:
Chef (instructing a kitchen menial who has just disappointed him again): "What's the most important element of cooking?"
Kitchen menial: "Ingredients?"
Chef: "Timing. Ingredients was 5 minutes ago. You're supposed to peak together. Hasn't your wife explained this to you?"
From the Fox story:
... very unhappy with the sudden connection between a lovable character with a penchant for penguins... and the most wanted man in the world."
"Sesame Workshop
So now he's a Linux enthusiast? Probably Osama's crypto mastermind too.
2001-04-09 21:20:02 Sun using Linux handheld (articles,news) (rejected)
--
I finished a project with mine and left it locked in a drawer unused for about a month. When I picked it up again last week, the battery was dead, and it had lost its configuration. Does anyone know if this is expected behavior, i.e., does it need to be in the cradle to prevent this from happening? It's kind of an expensive device to just leave out on your desk all the time.
--
New York's first public water system used hollow logs for pipes, and I read somewhere that some of these logs are actually still in use to this day. Seems a little unlikely but I was wondering if anyone had some info on this.
--
- Can't shoot him
- Can't just release a tiger on him
- Can't drop a 16-ton weight on him, zero gravity and all
So that leaves the perennial question: What about pointed sticks?--
I wonder if he used his sonic screwdriver...
--
I think the "smaller is better" mantra that cell phones have followed WILL be reversed when you see how much easier an interface like the PalmOS is to use than a damn touchtone keypad. Here's a link with a picture.
--
I think Handspring would do well to offer a longer attachable Springboard slot for this, so it mounts flush onto the back of the unit and includes its own battery (yes, like the iPaq expansion sleeve). The eyemodule kills my Visor's battery in about two minutes. How long would an 802.11b springboard module be useful? Modules that solve the problem by including their own battery like the VisorPhone feel clunky. Those are the issues that affect the market I'm developing for. Sigh.
--
Computer science is offered at most of the elite "liberal arts" colleges. The liberal arts should teach you to love learning and problem-solving, which are essential to what you'll be doing in this industry. In ten years of working I've encountered plenty of self-taught folks with such educational backgrounds. But don't hamstring yourself by not taking the core CS stuff -- at least take data structures and algorithms, and see how it goes from there. I wish I had taken more of those classes, and sooner than I did.
--
I'll give it a shot: "Red Dwarf" plots often deal with time warps, while reading "Family Circus" makes you think you've entered a time warp. Or that small square section of the newspaper in which "Family Circus" has appeared for the last, what, 40 years? has been in a time warp. Or its creator, Bil Keane, has spent that time in isolation in deep space with no real human contact, hence the rehashing of the same mind-sucking jokes.
Yeah, it's a slow friday alright.
--
"His genome is filled with CANDY!!!
--
Does this mean we won't be seeing anymore "Rico" secret-agent ads? Now those were "HOT". And the technology is cool -- more than just a sock puppet here, thank you.
--
How about the irony that CmdrTaco posts a link on adaptive-website Slashdot pointing to non-adaptive NY Times website summarizing the benefits of adaptive web sites? It's all so meta...
--