I'll agree that as a general rule, O'Reilly books are more informative than, oh, just about everything else out there. (Not counting my K&R, of course.)
However, there are always exceptions to rules,(1) and this is one of them. I avoided the O'Reilly mSQL & mySQL book after seeing it panned at their own web site in the reader reviews section, and, at the advice of my co-workers, picked up the New Riders book instead.
It's definitely money well spent. It's an interesting read, it's an informative read, and hasn't left my side for the last two weeks, which makes showering a little awkward.
Brand loyalty can be helpful sometimes, but don't let it blind you.
(1) Well, there might not always be an exception to a rule... I bet there's an exception to that rule as well. (Uh-oh, I've gone cross-eyed.)
I do not understand. Why need accelerated 3d? Life is in 3d, it has no accelerator.
Yeah, but in real life if you're shot with a rail gun, you don't re-spawn 3 seconds later. Life can be really inconvenient that way.
And don't get me started on the lack of cool grappling hooks...
In a strange twist of fate...
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Well, on the Rap scene Dr. Dre is screeming bloody murder. His lawyers wrote a letter to napster demanding that they remove all of his music from thier databases. As if they have any control over that.
Just today, Dr. Dre got sued for sampling LucasFilm's THX "startup" sound. Dr. Dre's attorney is saying they didn't sample the THX sound, they just created a sound of their own which happens to sound exactly like the original THX sound, so they shouldn't be sued.
Strangely, my Dr. Dre.mp3s are just originals that I created which happen to sound exactly like the original musical tracks. >:-)
(I'm just kidding, of course. I don't own any Dr. Dre.mp3s)
The difference is not what is said, but how it is said. You'll never see a press release by Microsoft say, "Linux sucks more than your mom!" (Although it certainly may be implied.)
I don't think anybody's saying that Linux users can't reply to insults, but they have to keep it at a mature level without losing their temper. One difference with the open-source community is that they have far fewer PR and Marketing types than the big business / big media companies.
Whether that's an advantage or a disadvantage I'll leave as an exercise for the reader.:)
Right now, I believe the current situation is a result of two things. First, a snobbery going on within the tech industry of "Well, sheesh, if they don't have a browser that supports Java and CSS and Flash, then they need to get themselves a real browser" (and, let's face it, engineers can be just as guilty of this as marketing folks).
And second, we just simply forget about people who have older browsers or are otherwise lacking in their ability to view all the bells and whistles. For people who develop web sites and preview them on IE5 through our DSL lines, we're just not going to remember about things like alt tags or dealing with people who don't support frames. I have no idea how my web site looks for people who are viewing it through Netscape 2. I deleted it from my hard drive years ago.
So what will save us? I think it's the next generation of browsers -- not IE or Netscape, but the little browsers you're going to have on your handhelds and cell phones. Ones that don't support Flash or Java or, heck, MouseOver events. As companies start bulding sites for these smaller browsers, they're going to remember, "Hey! That's right! I should add alt tags to my images!" That attitude will eventually carry over to their "real" sites.
That is, until IE8 for the PalmPilot comes around.:-)
If any of you have played Starcraft, you'll notice that when you give the Science Vessel a command, one of the responses you get is a Mr. Burns-esque "Excellent..."
Well, lemme add my own contribution to the "Reservoir Geeks" script...
JOE: But once again, at the risk of being redundant, if I even think I hear somebody telling or referring to somebody by their Christian name... you won't want to be you. Okay, quickly. (pointing at the men as he gives them a name) Mr. VMS, Mr. X-Windows, Mr. Palm, Mr. BeOS, Mr. Solaris, and Mr. Mac.
MR. MAC: Why do I gotta be Mr. Mac?
JOE: 'Cuz you're a wussie.
MR. MAC: Why can't we pick our own operating systems?
JOE: I tried that once, it don't work. You get four guys fighting over who's gonna be Mr. Linux. Since nobody knows anybody else, nobody wants to back down. So forget it, I pick. Be thankful you're not Mr. Windows 3.1.
MR. VMS: Yeah, but Mr. VMS? That's too much like Mr. Penis.
(Everybody laughs.)
MR. MAC: Yeah, Mr. Mac sounds like Mr. Macarena. Tell you what, let me be Mr. NextStep. That sounds good to me, I'm Mr. NextStep.
JOE: You're not Mr. NextStep, somebody from another job's Mr. NextStep. You're Mr. Mac.
MR. PALM: Who cares what your name is? Who cares if you're Mr. Mac, Mr. NextStep, Mr. FAQ, Mr. Maca...
MR. MAC: Oh that's really easy for you to say, you're Mr. Palm. You gotta cool-sounding name. So tell me, Mr. Palm, if you think "Mr. Mac" is no big deal, you wanna trade?
JOE: Nobody's trading with anybody! Look, this ain't a f------ city counsel meeting! Listen up Mr. Mac. We got two ways here, my way or the information superhighway. And you can go down either of 'em. So what's it gonna be, Mr. Mac?
MR. MAC: Jeez, Joe. F----- forget it. This is beneath me. I'm Mr. Mac, let's move on.
I don't think anybody's questioning the integrity of the Swedish scientists, they're questioning Wired magazine's treatment of the findings.
The important fact to take away is that some bacteria can survive a trip through space into our atmosphere. But apparently, that's not interesting enough for a magazine article. Instead, they've gotta draw the conclusion that because these two bacteria happened to show the qualities needed to survive through space, these must be the ones that seeded life so long ago. (And that somehow, they came from Mars instead of one of the other meteroites that strike the Earth.)
The best analogy I can draw would be if a murder was committed, and police tell us, "The murderer is a 6-foot tall male. And he's left-handed... ya know, like Bill Clinton." The next day, Wired magazine reports, "Bill Clinton wanted for murder!"
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However, there are always exceptions to rules,(1) and this is one of them. I avoided the O'Reilly mSQL & mySQL book after seeing it panned at their own web site in the reader reviews section, and, at the advice of my co-workers, picked up the New Riders book instead.
It's definitely money well spent. It's an interesting read, it's an informative read, and hasn't left my side for the last two weeks, which makes showering a little awkward.
Brand loyalty can be helpful sometimes, but don't let it blind you.
(1) Well, there might not always be an exception to a rule... I bet there's an exception to that rule as well. (Uh-oh, I've gone cross-eyed.)
And don't get me started on the lack of cool grappling hooks...
Strangely, my Dr. Dre .mp3s are just originals that I created which happen to sound exactly like the original musical tracks. >:-)
(I'm just kidding, of course. I don't own any Dr. Dre .mp3s)
...involving the phrase "Getting the dot, but missing the point."
I just can't think of it.
Damn.
Hmmm... does this mean that we can expect lawsuits again Futurama?
...at the end of the article, there's a link that says "Email this article to a friend."
"Warning! Email attachments could make your computer explode! Please read the attached article to find out more!"
Hmmm...
I don't think anybody's saying that Linux users can't reply to insults, but they have to keep it at a mature level without losing their temper. One difference with the open-source community is that they have far fewer PR and Marketing types than the big business / big media companies.
Whether that's an advantage or a disadvantage I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. :)
And second, we just simply forget about people who have older browsers or are otherwise lacking in their ability to view all the bells and whistles. For people who develop web sites and preview them on IE5 through our DSL lines, we're just not going to remember about things like alt tags or dealing with people who don't support frames. I have no idea how my web site looks for people who are viewing it through Netscape 2. I deleted it from my hard drive years ago.
So what will save us? I think it's the next generation of browsers -- not IE or Netscape, but the little browsers you're going to have on your handhelds and cell phones. Ones that don't support Flash or Java or, heck, MouseOver events. As companies start bulding sites for these smaller browsers, they're going to remember, "Hey! That's right! I should add alt tags to my images!" That attitude will eventually carry over to their "real" sites.
That is, until IE8 for the PalmPilot comes around. :-)
If any of you have played Starcraft, you'll notice that when you give the Science Vessel a command, one of the responses you get is a Mr. Burns-esque "Excellent..."
Or when he's looking at a deck of nudie cards, "Ooh... The Girls of the Internet... I'd go online with them anyday..."
The important fact to take away is that some bacteria can survive a trip through space into our atmosphere. But apparently, that's not interesting enough for a magazine article. Instead, they've gotta draw the conclusion that because these two bacteria happened to show the qualities needed to survive through space, these must be the ones that seeded life so long ago. (And that somehow, they came from Mars instead of one of the other meteroites that strike the Earth.)
The best analogy I can draw would be if a murder was committed, and police tell us, "The murderer is a 6-foot tall male. And he's left-handed... ya know, like Bill Clinton." The next day, Wired magazine reports, "Bill Clinton wanted for murder!"