Very easy to move apps from one VD to another. You can also make them sticky. Customizable keyboard shortcuts for moving between windows as well as other process/.exe-specific handling if you desire.
I've been using it for at least 5 years. There's a try-before-you-by period, cost is $25.
I've hit every one of these issues in actual embedded telecom code -- sometimes it's scary what you come across. And if that phone call of yours drops, please don't blame me...!
3. Don't be clever when you can be clear
Amen. Had one fellow developer write if-conditional tests with 6+ elements (no sin when it's needed, of course), but the SOB used bit-wise operators (XORs especially) where ever and whenever he could, and trying to figure out just *what* was attempted to be tested for was literally an exercise with pencil and paper. And need I mention that there wasn't an explanatory comment anywhere in sight...? Didn't think so.
5. Unrelated to comments, but use variable names that make sense. Don't name them arbitrarily or to amuse yourself!
That CD sound streamer code I mentioned above used quirky names for variables. Can you tell what "little_ninja" is supposed to be just from the name? When I confronted the coder about this quirk of his (in another library he wrote), he got all huffy and didn't understand why people didn't appreciate his little puzzles or his sense of humor. It galls me he still earns a paycheck in the industry.
At least you had the opportunity to confront him. Writing that sort of $hit when you're getting paid for it and knowing that others will have to follow you should earn an immediate bitch-slap. I was literally confronted with such a situation today where misleading (not just obtuse) information caused me and another developer to go down a dead end. Fortunately for the author he's out on vacation, but he'll be back...;)
I'd add another suggestion regarding comments that will save you time down the road:
Don't comment what you're coding, comment why you're doing it.
The code already tells me what it's doing, but I need to know *why* it's being done here and now, and why that function exists, and why this test is relevant here. The 'why' gets into the bigger picture of what's trying to be accomplished, and keeping that in mind while digging through all the details of [likely someone else's] code is often difficult but important to do. And 6 months from now you'll look at your own code and wonder what you were thinking, guaranteed. Then those few but important "why's" will be worth it 100-fold.
There is no procedure, and there is no informing for or of the masses. Life's a bitch, and the FBI/CIA/DEA/XYZ may eaves drop, so don't use a cell phone when you're discussing illegal doings.
Yes, thermoelectric coolers (TECs) are very effective at spot cooling critical components, but you know what? They consume power in order to do this, and thus the net system (e.g., laptop) consumes more power (e.g., battery life) and thus will be giving off more heat.
Personally, I think that the transmeta Crusoe is the answer here -- check out its thermal characteristics. Less power and less heat were the entire motivation behind its development.
In the March issue of Embedded Systems Programming there was a good opinion piece about how hardware engineers are becoming more and more like programmers these days. This is clearly oriented toward digital/logic hardware folks implementing designs in FPGAs and PLDs as opposed to high frequency analog engineers.
Bottom line: the line between "software" engineers and "hardware" engineers is becoming more blurred.
Having taken several undergraduate CS courses at Tech as well as having earned a Master's in CS there ('95), I read the editorial with a very self-interested eye.
Frankly, I've got mixed feelings.
On the one hand, as many have persuasively pointed out almost no one can defend the notion of prohibiting general conversation and interaction involving course material/ideas/concepts as a good thing for learning in the long run. And I agree with this -- for obvious reasons, engineering as well as literature students should be encouraged to discuss technical as well as philosophical ideas and approaches.
On the other hand, this is an introductory course meant to intellectually test (both figuratively and literally) the capabilities of the students, and it is by design meant to generate a gradient/differentiation of the students' skill sets. This is perhaps the one course that may demonstrate to non-CS majors the work involved in understanding a problem set, designing a solution, and implementing the solution via a programming language -- this is a good thing, and the fact that it's challenging to many doesn't mean that the assignments are patently unfair.
As far back as 1993 (and probably before) Ga Tech was submitting programming assignments to "similarity/copying detection programs" which aimed to detect, and thus deter, near verbatim occurrences ("copying") of code in students' submissions. Students were told UP FRONT that this was being done, and that they would be caught if they cut-n-pasted even a portion of their friend's (or classmates' whose directories/file permissions were a bit too lax allowing visibility to group/world users) assignment.
I think we need to be careful about indicting an entire university or department based on an editorial. At a minimum, we need the cold, hard facts (ie, the likely verbatim similarities -- variables, spacing, comments, etc. -- involved in the code submissions) before getting too one-sided either way.
Yes, you could use this "details unknown" case to condemn Ga Tech's College of Computing of being too much of a nit-picking hard ass, but you surely can't use it question the integrity or individual accomplishment of those that successfully completed their curriculum -- and in the technical fields of CS and engineering, this is a Very Good Thing.
And unfortunately Georgians need to put their right index finger on a scanner to get a license.
But as far as the bar codes go, which in Georgia are printed on the back of the licenses, don't worry. After a few months of taking it in and out of your wallet with the raised numbers of a credit card behind it rubbing on them, it gets completely unintelligible and smeared.
Yes, they (state DMV, and thus likely Fed Gov't computers) already have the biometric info you "voluntarily provided" (digital face scan, finger print, etc), but the vehicle of the DL card itself accurately retaining this is a very short-lived affair.
I read the article -- verbatim -- in Red Herring's printed rag. There's no meat to that article. What exactly is it that this thumb-sized chip does, and how/where will this device be used (to reduce cost, or increase functionality, or increase circuit density per rack, or...) in the optical systems being deployed by the optical carriers?
Does this chip offer SONET layer switching (or muxing/demuxing)? SONET layer Performance Monitoring? Does it bring anything to the DWDM playing field, in either the long-haul or metro arenas?
Optical carriers buy optical transmission and switching systems, not components, with accompanying network management platforms to operate, integrate, and manage it.
I ask again, where's the beef? As it is, this is just a glorified press release.
This is great news, but it makes me hate my cable company (AT&T) even more -- they moved the SciFi channel to their "digital-only" offerings, requiring their newer/bigger set top box and yet another remote. I don't want such a box, nor another remote.
The Shenzhou III, which includes a simulated human complete with sensors to monitor conditions, is expected to return within days...
For some odd reason this reminds me of Airport Security vs. Cyborg Steve Mann, complete with a visual of Dr. Mann undergoing interrogation by some airport security lackeys, only to return home some days later with a bizarre, unbelievable story to show for the delay...
First off, it's an excellent article covering most of the issues that arise in embedded systems -- you should at least peruse it if you're going to comment in this thread. One of the biggest issues for non-embedded developers to understand is that each development task is somewhat unique -- different hardware, I/O requirements, cost targets, time to market, etc. It's not a [relatively] standard environment like that of a typical desktop computer. In fact, the vast majority of embedded devices are "headless" -- no keyboard or monitor, so support for video drivers and/or X only impacts a very small number of applications.
My company recently went down the path of evaluating several embedded linux suppliers, including Hard Hat Linux, LynuxWorks, RTLinux, and others. This evaluation was for an embedded communications platform.
Staff familiarity with Unix-like programming (most embedded developers know traditional RTOS-like architectures, not unix IPC methods or socket programming)
Ease/difficulty with which already-written application software can migrate to a new OS
OS support for preferred hardware devices (processor, communications peripherals, flash, etc. -- writing drivers from scratch isn't desirable)
Internal corporate or organizational resistance to change (don't underestimate this one, folks!)
Product life cycle phase
Existing customer experience(s) with any previous OS-related behavior that may change under linux (customers like seeing behaviors they've seen before, not something new)
Hard real-time versus soft real-time requirement(s)
Communications stack and protocol requirements
In short, development in the embedded world tends to have many more complications associated with it. That's not necessarily bad -- in fact it often makes it more technically challenging and thus professionally satisfying -- it's just something that ought to be recognized, acknowledged, and taken into account when OS decisions are being made.
I'd sure like to see some sort of push to force the patent office to do what many of us here seem to be barking about -- do, at a minimum, at least a half-assed on-line search/examination of what's out there and being used today to discover potential prior art (which begs the question of its potential "obviousness" to those similarly knowledgeable and inclined).
Case in point: the infamous "1-click" patent.
Many (most?) software and business method patents would pass this minimalist scrutiny test -- and those that are valid clearly should and would. But remember that the point is not to prevent the granting of any patents, but rather to prevent the improper granting of them.
Andy
I'm not a patent lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Don't know if this is part of the hack/compromise, but lately it seems I've needed to login twice. After hitting the "user login" box, I get one cookie that seems legit, then another setting anon=-1, then the main page refreshes, but it doesn't get displayed using my preferences (just a repeat of an AC main page).
So, I enter my username and password again, then again click "user login", then get the same first cookie presented again (which I again accept), but no "anon=xxxx" cookie, and then the main page presents itself as expected.
Maybe it's just me. Anyone else notice this in the past few weeks or so? Is this just a new/. feature, or...?
Andy
In-home automatic toilet flusher application?
on
Lego Mindstorms DJ
·
· Score: 1
Yes, just like at the airport, you too could have your very own automatically flushing toilet with this technology.
Heck, you could even take the video feed and 'stream' it out to the web.
I never said it wasn't interesting.
I never said it didn't have a hack value.
I never said it wasn't cool.
I said that there are cool, interesting, major-hack-value things one can work on that would be much more useful and usable by many more people. My goal wasn't to rain on their parade -- obviously, and to their credit, they successfully tackled some challenging issues -- but to let others realize that there are bigger, better parades to march in.
Each of us has the power of choice. Which parade(s) do you choose? And just as important, Why?
Egads. This story really raises many questions for me.
Is there any useful, mainstream purpose to this or reason for taking the time to develop it? Or was it solely a "because we/I
can" exercise?
Is this really primary Slashdot story material? Like much of what is hacked out there, it strikes me as a minor (albiet clever),
nearly useless end product with an extremely limited audience that might use it.
Are there not a plethora of interesting, meaningful software projects out there that could use the talents of folks like this?
Is it just a matter of hooking the two parties together somehow (clearly an entire Slashdot topic in and of itself, I realize)?
Will the developers' next accomplishment (making Slashot headlines?) include something similarly as earthshaking, novel,
and absurd as "Enlightenment on a Palm III!"
Slashdot clearly has a reader base of engineers, programmers, et. al., that is arguably part of the very top few percent of
developers and professionals out there in terms of technical knowledge, talents, and abilities. But dammit, folks, sometimes you
ought to ask yourselves "Should I spend my energies and time on this?" before too quickly (and I realize we're all guilty of
this at times) diving into the Sea Of Details known as how.
Slashdot Mirror
http://flashdesktops.com/
Very easy to move apps from one VD to another. You can also make them sticky.
Customizable keyboard shortcuts for moving between windows as well as other
process/.exe-specific handling if you desire.
I've been using it for at least 5 years. There's a try-before-you-by period,
cost is $25.
Best feature -- it's FAST.
Andy
Um, no. Don't know him, don't love him, and I only show my "love" to the Ponies!!!
There. Fixed.
The "media" elements for the homepage (and others) include:
http://images.slashdot.org/slashtitle-fools.gif
http://images.slashdot.org/slashcorner-fools.gif
http://images.slashdot.org/slashbar-fools.gif
What more do you need, guys?
Andy
Mod the parent up.
;)
I've hit every one of these issues in actual embedded telecom code -- sometimes it's scary what you come across. And if that phone call of yours drops, please don't blame me...!
3. Don't be clever when you can be clear
Amen. Had one fellow developer write if-conditional tests with 6+ elements (no sin when it's needed, of course), but the SOB used bit-wise operators (XORs especially) where ever and whenever he could, and trying to figure out just *what* was attempted to be tested for was literally an exercise with pencil and paper. And need I mention that there wasn't an explanatory comment anywhere in sight...? Didn't think so.
5. Unrelated to comments, but use variable names that make sense. Don't name them arbitrarily or to amuse yourself!
That CD sound streamer code I mentioned above used quirky names for variables. Can you tell what "little_ninja" is supposed to be just from the name? When I confronted the coder about this quirk of his (in another library he wrote), he got all huffy and didn't understand why people didn't appreciate his little puzzles or his sense of humor. It galls me he still earns a paycheck in the industry.
At least you had the opportunity to confront him. Writing that sort of $hit when you're getting paid for it and knowing that others will have to follow you should earn an immediate bitch-slap. I was literally confronted with such a situation today where misleading (not just obtuse) information caused me and another developer to go down a dead end. Fortunately for the author he's out on vacation, but he'll be back...
I'd add another suggestion regarding comments that will save you time down the road:
Don't comment what you're coding, comment why you're doing it.
The code already tells me what it's doing, but I need to know *why* it's being done here and now, and why that function exists, and why this test is relevant here. The 'why' gets into the bigger picture of what's trying to be accomplished, and keeping that in mind while digging through all the details of [likely someone else's] code is often difficult but important to do. And 6 months from now you'll look at your own code and wonder what you were thinking, guaranteed. Then those few but important "why's" will be worth it 100-fold.
Andy
What's a website?
There is no procedure, and there is no informing for or of the masses. Life's a bitch, and the FBI/CIA/DEA/XYZ may eaves drop, so don't use a cell phone when you're discussing illegal doings.
Andy
Damn straight. Sign me up for one -- I'd pay into the hundreds as well.
Andy
If you're at all into the C64, you've got to check out the song "C64 Convention" by mindfusion, available for free on mp3.com.
Cool old school electronica that rocks.
Andy
What's the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
/. audience to learn from your experience?
What's the most important lesson for the
Andy
That's it. Those piss-ant's from up north aren't getting another penny of my beer-consumption budget! :)
Andy
Personally, I think that the transmeta Crusoe is the answer here -- check out its thermal characteristics. Less power and less heat were the entire motivation behind its development.
Andy
In the March issue of Embedded Systems Programming there was a good opinion piece about how hardware engineers are becoming more and more like programmers these days. This is clearly oriented toward digital/logic hardware folks implementing designs in FPGAs and PLDs as opposed to high frequency analog engineers.
Bottom line: the line between "software" engineers and "hardware" engineers is becoming more blurred.
Andy
Having taken several undergraduate CS courses at Tech as well as having earned a Master's in CS there ('95), I read the editorial with a very self-interested eye.
Frankly, I've got mixed feelings.
On the one hand, as many have persuasively pointed out almost no one can defend the notion of prohibiting general conversation and interaction involving course material/ideas/concepts as a good thing for learning in the long run. And I agree with this -- for obvious reasons, engineering as well as literature students should be encouraged to discuss technical as well as philosophical ideas and approaches.
On the other hand, this is an introductory course meant to intellectually test (both figuratively and literally) the capabilities of the students, and it is by design meant to generate a gradient/differentiation of the students' skill sets. This is perhaps the one course that may demonstrate to non-CS majors the work involved in understanding a problem set, designing a solution, and implementing the solution via a programming language -- this is a good thing, and the fact that it's challenging to many doesn't mean that the assignments are patently unfair.
As far back as 1993 (and probably before) Ga Tech was submitting programming assignments to "similarity/copying detection programs" which aimed to detect, and thus deter, near verbatim occurrences ("copying") of code in students' submissions. Students were told UP FRONT that this was being done, and that they would be caught if they cut-n-pasted even a portion of their friend's (or classmates' whose directories/file permissions were a bit too lax allowing visibility to group/world users) assignment.
I think we need to be careful about indicting an entire university or department based on an editorial. At a minimum, we need the cold, hard facts (ie, the likely verbatim similarities -- variables, spacing, comments, etc. -- involved in the code submissions) before getting too one-sided either way.
Yes, you could use this "details unknown" case to condemn Ga Tech's College of Computing of being too much of a nit-picking hard ass, but you surely can't use it question the integrity or individual accomplishment of those that successfully completed their curriculum -- and in the technical fields of CS and engineering, this is a Very Good Thing.
Andy
Georgia's DLs have these on the back.
And unfortunately Georgians need to put their right index finger on a scanner to get a license.
But as far as the bar codes go, which in Georgia are printed on the back of the licenses, don't worry. After a few months of taking it in and out of your wallet with the raised numbers of a credit card behind it rubbing on them, it gets completely unintelligible and smeared.
Yes, they (state DMV, and thus likely Fed Gov't computers) already have the biometric info you "voluntarily provided" (digital face scan, finger print, etc), but the vehicle of the DL card itself accurately retaining this is a very short-lived affair.
Andy
I read the article -- verbatim -- in Red Herring's printed rag. There's no meat to that article. What exactly is it that this thumb-sized chip does, and how/where will this device be used (to reduce cost, or increase functionality, or increase circuit density per rack, or...) in the optical systems being deployed by the optical carriers?
Does this chip offer SONET layer switching (or muxing/demuxing)? SONET layer Performance Monitoring? Does it bring anything to the DWDM playing field, in either the long-haul or metro arenas?
Optical carriers buy optical transmission and switching systems, not components, with accompanying network management platforms to operate, integrate, and manage it.
I ask again, where's the beef? As it is, this is just a glorified press release.
Andy
This is great news, but it makes me hate my cable company (AT&T) even more -- they moved the SciFi channel to their "digital-only" offerings, requiring their newer/bigger set top box and yet another remote. I don't want such a box, nor another remote.
Andy
Hasn't his acting career transitioned to gay porn yet?
Andy
For some odd reason this reminds me of Airport Security vs. Cyborg Steve Mann, complete with a visual of Dr. Mann undergoing interrogation by some airport security lackeys, only to return home some days later with a bizarre, unbelievable story to show for the delay...
Andy
My company recently went down the path of evaluating several embedded linux suppliers, including Hard Hat Linux, LynuxWorks, RTLinux, and others. This evaluation was for an embedded communications platform.
There are many "real-world" issues that will arise when considering Linux instead of some of the more established embedded OS players (WindRiver/pSOS, Green Hills, Keil, QNX, et al -- see Embedded Systems Programming magazine for a pdf summary of embedded OS providers). These real-world issues, which will vary in importance among organizations for various reasons, include:
In short, development in the embedded world tends to have many more complications associated with it. That's not necessarily bad -- in fact it often makes it more technically challenging and thus professionally satisfying -- it's just something that ought to be recognized, acknowledged, and taken into account when OS decisions are being made.
Andy
I'd sure like to see some sort of push to force the patent office to do what many of us here seem to be barking about -- do, at a minimum, at least a half-assed on-line search/examination of what's out there and being used today to discover potential prior art (which begs the question of its potential "obviousness" to those similarly knowledgeable and inclined).
Case in point: the infamous "1-click" patent.
Many (most?) software and business method patents would pass this minimalist scrutiny test -- and those that are valid clearly should and would. But remember that the point is not to prevent the granting of any patents, but rather to prevent the improper granting of them.
Andy
I'm not a patent lawyer, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
I once knew a gal that failed the "three day old fish" test.
;)
But I guess that topic might be more germane on slash.org...
Andy
Offtopic -- Mod me down!
Don't know if this is part of the hack/compromise, but lately it seems I've needed to login twice. After hitting the "user login" box, I get one cookie that seems legit, then another setting anon=-1, then the main page refreshes, but it doesn't get displayed using my preferences (just a repeat of an AC main page).
/. feature, or...?
So, I enter my username and password again, then again click "user login", then get the same first cookie presented again (which I again accept), but no "anon=xxxx" cookie, and then the main page presents itself as expected.
Maybe it's just me. Anyone else notice this in the past few weeks or so? Is this just a new
Andy
Yes, just like at the airport, you too could have your very own automatically flushing toilet with this technology.
Heck, you could even take the video feed and 'stream' it out to the web.
Coming soon: www.WebcamWipes.com
Andy
I never said it wasn't interesting.
I never said it didn't have a hack value.
I never said it wasn't cool.
I said that there are cool, interesting, major-hack-value things one can work on that would be much more useful and usable by many more people. My goal wasn't to rain on their parade -- obviously, and to their credit, they successfully tackled some challenging issues -- but to let others realize that there are bigger, better parades to march in.
Each of us has the power of choice. Which parade(s) do you choose? And just as important, Why?
Andy
- Is there any useful, mainstream purpose to this or reason for taking the time to develop it? Or was it solely a "because we/I
can" exercise?
- Is this really primary Slashdot story material? Like much of what is hacked out there, it strikes me as a minor (albiet clever),
nearly useless end product with an extremely limited audience that might use it.
- Are there not a plethora of interesting, meaningful software projects out there that could use the talents of folks like this?
Is it just a matter of hooking the two parties together somehow (clearly an entire Slashdot topic in and of itself, I realize)?
- Will the developers' next accomplishment (making Slashot headlines?) include something similarly as earthshaking, novel,
and absurd as "Enlightenment on a Palm III!"
Slashdot clearly has a reader base of engineers, programmers, et. al., that is arguably part of the very top few percent of developers and professionals out there in terms of technical knowledge, talents, and abilities. But dammit, folks, sometimes you ought to ask yourselves "Should I spend my energies and time on this?" before too quickly (and I realize we're all guilty of this at times) diving into the Sea Of Details known as how.Andy