I'm willing to bet that Encarta is a compilation of articles and content written by other reputable sources rather than Encarta authoring its own content. I have a feeling that Encarta is about as accurate (though vauge) as any other average home encylopedia.
This may, or may not be a good grade. With all the effort to make people "feel good" lately I wonder if what used to be a high grade now is just sort of average.
The goal isn't to have the infrastructure maintain itself. The goal is to have the infrastructure be maintained by 1/2 has many people as it takes to maintain it today. I think this is possible and I also think it is a good thing. When the sysadmins aren't spending all of thier time applying patches maybe they can spend some time doing other amazing things in the datacenter. I hope its a transition of jobs for those people to something new and exciting rather than a complete loss.
I went to an average state school and I have a great job. I didn't notice any disadvantage to not having a prestigious schools name on my diploma. The big point is when you get near the end of your schooling (heck the point the oringal poster is at is a good one to start) to start going to companies and working to get jobs. Apply for internships ect. If you are a good software engineer you will get a job and once you have an in you are set.
As a person that screens candidates for hire on my team I rarely ever look at where the person went to school. I look at what they say they know and what jobs they have held and what responsibilities they had.
As a person that works with people from prestigious schools I've found that a number of them talk big and don't back it up. They also demand respect based on thier education that is not necessarily warrented by thier actions. The ones that are not in that group of not so useful big talkers but still have a prestigous degree rarely bring it up.
I think that CS jobs are a place where action speaks louder than some name on a paper. A good school will only be useful to you if you use it as an opportunity to learn things that wouldn't be taught at the school you are attending and not so much for getting a better job when you get out. If you want the good job the only answer is to be good at what you do and prove that to the people you interview with. Also make sure you go out and get the interviews because its rare that the companies will spend time chasing you down but if you stop on thier doorstep with good experience and lots of passion to do thier work they will think hard about hiring you.
The problem with blogs is that they don't go through any level of background checks and often don't provide reasonable sources. Not that mainstream media seems to do that these days either.
I would agree that free market forces would correct the problem except for one thing, computers are still advance enough that for large portion of the population they approach magic. The people still trust the engineers when the engineers say "A computer just can't do that."
Somehow (based on all the URL canonicalization security issues I've seen) I think there is a security issue lurking in his "spaces in urls" fix.
That is not to mention the case where the space is actually part of the url (and converted to %20). I would get pissed at my browser if I was looking for my file.doc (my%20file.doc) and the browser grabbed myfile.doc instead. I want the address bar to go where I tell it, not where it thinks I told it.
No, that is not such a foolish wish, just one that we haven't achieved yet. Usability is the study of making it so the computer will do what the user willed it to do without the user having to learn anything special. Of course we will never reach that point for many obvious reasons but every step you take to making the computer work correctly for complete dumbasses (and I say that in a kind way) will put more money in your pocket.
It wouldn't satisfy the author and for good reason. He isn't upset that they are grey, just that he can't find out WHY they are grey. I agree with him, I think that they should be grey and have tool tip text explaining why. For instance if you hover over a greyed out "print" it would say "No printable document is open." That way the greyed out items wouldn't be "mysterious" anymore. BTW this is one of the very few points on the list I could agree with and its EASY to solve. (well if you don't take into account those times where the option is greyed out for numerous possible reasons and you have to decide which one to show the user)
Agreed, many of his bugs were of the sort "this damn machine can't read my mind". They are good to have around though because if you solve them it could make you some money.
The one I found funny was the continuous save. Computers "used" to do things that way (in the 70's) and if the power went out not only was your in memory copy bad, so was the one on disk because it was saving when the power went down (well back then it was on casette but the damage was the same) and is corrupted. Thats not even thinking about the fact that writing to disk all the time would slow the application down to the speed of molasses flowing uphill in January. This isn't to say that there is no happy medium. I find that 5 minute saves are plenty for me and I prefer them to go into a "backup" file that the application can handle instead of being saved in my actual document.
Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along
on
SCO.com Defaced
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· Score: 1
Unfortunately the public (which you have to remember is stupid, individuals can be intelligent, but the public as a group is stupid) sees the legal system as right and just and defacement is "vandalism" and thought of in a low light. This may not reflect the actual morality or weight of the acts but the perception is what it is.
I think the key to cracking the open source nut is making your platform so compelling for some reason that the big guns decide that using it at the cost of releasing anything they add to it is less than developing from the ground up.
A tape is like $4, find me 4GB hd's for that price and I'll carry a few.
That said, anyone know the lifetime on mini-dv tapes? Is it better than on optical media (dvd-r specifically). I'm trying to decide how best to archive video of my child. DVD is great for watching but I fear that some day I'll pop it in the machine and it will be dead.
I think that this idea would be great if instead of always needing to be on the pad it had some batteries so that maybe once a week you needed to leave the mouse on the pad or in a cradle for 2 or 3 hours. That way you wouldn't have to switch batteries but you would still be able to mouse wherever you wanted. It wouldn't solve the issue of batteries being heavy but that wasn't what made me upset about my mouse. Dead batteries and interferance from the tower (my pc tower sits right next to the mousepad and caused mouse movement with the early wirless mouse I used to be erratic) were the problems.
The only reason caps lock would go extinct is if all of the real typists died. Its a very useful key when used correctly and makes the keyboard far more ergonomic than not having it (because holding down shift can't be good for your hands/wrists).
If web content isn't a good reason for having the wmv9 codec on windows then HD DVD's will be a good one. Most of the options in contention right now have the wmv9 codec at the center of them (I think) and so it would be very valuable if linux was able to decode that video.
Of course the next step will be getting around the enevitable DRM that will encumver those DVD's.
Because its very valuable for targeting demographics by area. By tying all of the information together they can find out all sorts of crazy things (like I think people buy more ice cream during hurricanes or something crazy, see the slashdot article about walmart data mining).
Nope, they are being broadcast at the cost of you watching the commercials (or at least going to the kitchen long enough for those commercials to get over). Moreover, because advertisement costs are based on show ratings (in a way), even if you watch the show with commercials the network doesn't get more money for it. Mostly people cut the commercials though so that doesn't even get viewed.
You know what the savior of the networks will be? IPTV that allows you to pick whatever show you want to watch at the time and inserts new relevant ads in it. It would have any shows from that network that are in syndication (you wouldn't get tonights show today, but you might be able to get last nights show). Anyways, this would totally allow the network to get the full ad value out of the download stream without burdening you with a super big charge for show you download through IPTV.
I'm afraid if you do the calculations there are not enough calories in the 6L of Coke to actually propel your body that far. Humans, while being truely amazing machines, are not terribly energy effcient from what I understand.
Yes I know this was a joke, but I've seen many posts saying that bicycles are great machines and forget that thier source of propulsion is probably not as effcient as a gasoline engine.
And the average web browser doesn't use these applications. I fully agree that SP2 broke a great number of important applications but for the average Joe its a decent upgrade that will save them some time in the future that they would have wasted killing spyware.
On the downside, if that average Joe already has spyware installed there is a significant chance that the SP2 install will go horribly wrong.
I must say that since I updated to XP SP2 I have had no spyware on my machine. I built out the machine and installed SP2 in about august. Since then I've done normal browsing on the box and so has my wife and I just checked with ad-aware last night and the only "spyware" was tracking cookies and I don't really count those. Now that active X controls can't (as easily anyway) install in stealth mode (and in fact are auto canceled so my wife can't even figure out how to install them when she wants which is good) I don't see them on my machine.
If the cost of paying to have the break fixed is less than preventing the break in the first place it sounds like a great time to impose a fine on breaking lines by not being careful with your digging.
Honestly this sounds like a bunch of contractors not doing due diligence. It also sounds like the backhoe operators need to slow down and be careful. I agree with the stop but it can't be forever. They need to stop it now and make it clear that any further breaks will result in fines and a preponderance of breaks from a single contractor will result in steps to revoke that contractors licence.
Continue that "monitor" thought to include the television and you might have one of the most widespread uses vacuum tubes.
Back on the thought of tubes in amplifiers, its funny to me that the reason that tubes are better is specifically because they are less accurate than the transitors. The "crunch" and "warmth" are due to distinct flaws in the signal reproduction that just happen to sound good.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm willing to bet that Encarta is a compilation of articles and content written by other reputable sources rather than Encarta authoring its own content. I have a feeling that Encarta is about as accurate (though vauge) as any other average home encylopedia.
This may, or may not be a good grade. With all the effort to make people "feel good" lately I wonder if what used to be a high grade now is just sort of average.
The goal isn't to have the infrastructure maintain itself. The goal is to have the infrastructure be maintained by 1/2 has many people as it takes to maintain it today. I think this is possible and I also think it is a good thing. When the sysadmins aren't spending all of thier time applying patches maybe they can spend some time doing other amazing things in the datacenter. I hope its a transition of jobs for those people to something new and exciting rather than a complete loss.
I went to an average state school and I have a great job. I didn't notice any disadvantage to not having a prestigious schools name on my diploma. The big point is when you get near the end of your schooling (heck the point the oringal poster is at is a good one to start) to start going to companies and working to get jobs. Apply for internships ect. If you are a good software engineer you will get a job and once you have an in you are set.
As a person that screens candidates for hire on my team I rarely ever look at where the person went to school. I look at what they say they know and what jobs they have held and what responsibilities they had.
As a person that works with people from prestigious schools I've found that a number of them talk big and don't back it up. They also demand respect based on thier education that is not necessarily warrented by thier actions. The ones that are not in that group of not so useful big talkers but still have a prestigous degree rarely bring it up.
I think that CS jobs are a place where action speaks louder than some name on a paper. A good school will only be useful to you if you use it as an opportunity to learn things that wouldn't be taught at the school you are attending and not so much for getting a better job when you get out. If you want the good job the only answer is to be good at what you do and prove that to the people you interview with. Also make sure you go out and get the interviews because its rare that the companies will spend time chasing you down but if you stop on thier doorstep with good experience and lots of passion to do thier work they will think hard about hiring you.
The problem with blogs is that they don't go through any level of background checks and often don't provide reasonable sources. Not that mainstream media seems to do that these days either.
I would agree that free market forces would correct the problem except for one thing, computers are still advance enough that for large portion of the population they approach magic. The people still trust the engineers when the engineers say "A computer just can't do that."
Its funny that most computer systems type people think that case insensitive file naming is a design flaw.
Somehow (based on all the URL canonicalization security issues I've seen) I think there is a security issue lurking in his "spaces in urls" fix.
That is not to mention the case where the space is actually part of the url (and converted to %20). I would get pissed at my browser if I was looking for my file.doc (my%20file.doc) and the browser grabbed myfile.doc instead. I want the address bar to go where I tell it, not where it thinks I told it.
No, that is not such a foolish wish, just one that we haven't achieved yet. Usability is the study of making it so the computer will do what the user willed it to do without the user having to learn anything special. Of course we will never reach that point for many obvious reasons but every step you take to making the computer work correctly for complete dumbasses (and I say that in a kind way) will put more money in your pocket.
It wouldn't satisfy the author and for good reason. He isn't upset that they are grey, just that he can't find out WHY they are grey. I agree with him, I think that they should be grey and have tool tip text explaining why. For instance if you hover over a greyed out "print" it would say "No printable document is open." That way the greyed out items wouldn't be "mysterious" anymore. BTW this is one of the very few points on the list I could agree with and its EASY to solve. (well if you don't take into account those times where the option is greyed out for numerous possible reasons and you have to decide which one to show the user)
Agreed, many of his bugs were of the sort "this damn machine can't read my mind". They are good to have around though because if you solve them it could make you some money.
The one I found funny was the continuous save. Computers "used" to do things that way (in the 70's) and if the power went out not only was your in memory copy bad, so was the one on disk because it was saving when the power went down (well back then it was on casette but the damage was the same) and is corrupted. Thats not even thinking about the fact that writing to disk all the time would slow the application down to the speed of molasses flowing uphill in January. This isn't to say that there is no happy medium. I find that 5 minute saves are plenty for me and I prefer them to go into a "backup" file that the application can handle instead of being saved in my actual document.
Unfortunately the public (which you have to remember is stupid, individuals can be intelligent, but the public as a group is stupid) sees the legal system as right and just and defacement is "vandalism" and thought of in a low light. This may not reflect the actual morality or weight of the acts but the perception is what it is.
I think the key to cracking the open source nut is making your platform so compelling for some reason that the big guns decide that using it at the cost of releasing anything they add to it is less than developing from the ground up.
A tape is like $4, find me 4GB hd's for that price and I'll carry a few.
That said, anyone know the lifetime on mini-dv tapes? Is it better than on optical media (dvd-r specifically). I'm trying to decide how best to archive video of my child. DVD is great for watching but I fear that some day I'll pop it in the machine and it will be dead.
I think that this idea would be great if instead of always needing to be on the pad it had some batteries so that maybe once a week you needed to leave the mouse on the pad or in a cradle for 2 or 3 hours. That way you wouldn't have to switch batteries but you would still be able to mouse wherever you wanted. It wouldn't solve the issue of batteries being heavy but that wasn't what made me upset about my mouse. Dead batteries and interferance from the tower (my pc tower sits right next to the mousepad and caused mouse movement with the early wirless mouse I used to be erratic) were the problems.
The only reason caps lock would go extinct is if all of the real typists died. Its a very useful key when used correctly and makes the keyboard far more ergonomic than not having it (because holding down shift can't be good for your hands/wrists).
If web content isn't a good reason for having the wmv9 codec on windows then HD DVD's will be a good one. Most of the options in contention right now have the wmv9 codec at the center of them (I think) and so it would be very valuable if linux was able to decode that video.
Of course the next step will be getting around the enevitable DRM that will encumver those DVD's.
Now why do they need to know that?
Because its very valuable for targeting demographics by area. By tying all of the information together they can find out all sorts of crazy things (like I think people buy more ice cream during hurricanes or something crazy, see the slashdot article about walmart data mining).
Nope, they are being broadcast at the cost of you watching the commercials (or at least going to the kitchen long enough for those commercials to get over). Moreover, because advertisement costs are based on show ratings (in a way), even if you watch the show with commercials the network doesn't get more money for it. Mostly people cut the commercials though so that doesn't even get viewed.
You know what the savior of the networks will be? IPTV that allows you to pick whatever show you want to watch at the time and inserts new relevant ads in it. It would have any shows from that network that are in syndication (you wouldn't get tonights show today, but you might be able to get last nights show). Anyways, this would totally allow the network to get the full ad value out of the download stream without burdening you with a super big charge for show you download through IPTV.
I'm afraid if you do the calculations there are not enough calories in the 6L of Coke to actually propel your body that far. Humans, while being truely amazing machines, are not terribly energy effcient from what I understand.
Yes I know this was a joke, but I've seen many posts saying that bicycles are great machines and forget that thier source of propulsion is probably not as effcient as a gasoline engine.
The solution to the energy crisis is less humans.
And the average web browser doesn't use these applications. I fully agree that SP2 broke a great number of important applications but for the average Joe its a decent upgrade that will save them some time in the future that they would have wasted killing spyware.
On the downside, if that average Joe already has spyware installed there is a significant chance that the SP2 install will go horribly wrong.
I must say that since I updated to XP SP2 I have had no spyware on my machine. I built out the machine and installed SP2 in about august. Since then I've done normal browsing on the box and so has my wife and I just checked with ad-aware last night and the only "spyware" was tracking cookies and I don't really count those. Now that active X controls can't (as easily anyway) install in stealth mode (and in fact are auto canceled so my wife can't even figure out how to install them when she wants which is good) I don't see them on my machine.
If the cost of paying to have the break fixed is less than preventing the break in the first place it sounds like a great time to impose a fine on breaking lines by not being careful with your digging.
Honestly this sounds like a bunch of contractors not doing due diligence. It also sounds like the backhoe operators need to slow down and be careful. I agree with the stop but it can't be forever. They need to stop it now and make it clear that any further breaks will result in fines and a preponderance of breaks from a single contractor will result in steps to revoke that contractors licence.
Continue that "monitor" thought to include the television and you might have one of the most widespread uses vacuum tubes.
Back on the thought of tubes in amplifiers, its funny to me that the reason that tubes are better is specifically because they are less accurate than the transitors. The "crunch" and "warmth" are due to distinct flaws in the signal reproduction that just happen to sound good.
You mean now I'll see ads for Viagra outside the e-mail as well as in it?