I'm a programmer and inveterate time waster by trade, not a programmer, but I agree about the scroll wheel being necessary.
So I went and bought one. Mice are cheap these days and for very little I have a Belkin that matches the colour of my TiBook, has a scroll wheel and the second button is automatically option-click, which means context menus.
Not really sure why Apple insists on the one button mouse when a three button mouse works perfectly upon being plugged in... I know it's traditional, but I never liked the key-click combinations.
I strongly doubt that there is enough evidence to support such a claim at the present time. The era of satellite observations of the sun has only really just started, and any rise may be simply noise from a short duration sample, or due to the decreasing minimum signal capable of being detected.
It's an interesting claim, but the authors are going to have to do a lot of convincing, and in the meantime this news will be twisted to support those opposed to, say, the Kyoto treaty.
I was going to say exactly the same thing as this post.
I've been using Unix of various flavours for the last decade, but never actually had a home PC of any flavour. I'm strictly a software guy (that's how I make my living) and was a bit dismayed at the Linux setup process - Linux is fine, it's the hassle with drivers and what hardware I want. Bleugh.
Last year I finally bought a PC for home use; a 15" Titanium PowerBook (TiBook). It's Unix (BSD), has X11, a very nice interface, and compiles almost everything I've ever tried first time. It's expensive (especially with a gig of RAM and 60gig of disk) but it's amazingly well finished hardware.
OS X is nice, everything 'just works', I can develop happily on here, but the real joy comes from having an iPod (20 gig, I had a redundancy settlement to spend) to carry with me to work/gym.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Microsoft tax position; I've no problem with Microsoft as a software company, in fact I bought Office as I need it for work (yes, I could have used OpenOffice, I know, but this was easier and looks nicer). I do however object to paying for something I don't want when buying hardware.
So, here's my position. Buy an Apple laptop. They're loaded with features, and have terrific build quality. The run native Unix for open-source fun, and can easily run Linux if you want. I wanted to give my money to a player in the market who is opposing M$. I wanted competition. Buying one less laptop from $MAJOR_HARDWARE_COMPANY doesn't dent their bottom line; they have the corporate market sewn up. Buying one more Apple however does change the demographics. One more Apple is one more consumer Unix machine, and one less Windows license. Think about it as voting with your buying money.
"Since time has been proven to continue into infinity"
Uh? It has? When?
Do not let English and common sense lead you into confusion. Go read a cosmology primer; asking what was 'before' the big bang is like asking what the big bang happened in. Time and space didn't exist an infinite time ago... which is hard to think about... so we _can_ say that things 'started' 13.7 billion years ago.
Re:Aren't the pictures from SOHO exciting enough?!
on
SOHO Strikes Back
·
· Score: 1
> See the appeal for non-scientists?
I take your point but I'm still bemused that someone can trawl through SOHO piccies, see artefacts and think that (a) no-one else has ever noticed these things and (b) there's no point checking around the site to see what makes them look that like.
CCD bleed isn't a particularly hard idea to grasp. We're all used to seeing not-disimilar things on TV when a documentary/news-camera hits a bright light.
Aren't the pictures from SOHO exciting enough?!
on
SOHO Strikes Back
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
What really gets me is that the people searching for UFOs in the SOHO data obviously find that more exciting that the SOHO data... and that's tragic.
I mean, it takes some effort to follow the detailed science SOHO was designed to support, but the images alone should be worth looking at. Go look at this hotshot of four planets and the Sun's outer layers. Tell me you don't find that image awe-inspiring, or that you don't think the ability to get that image is among man's most impressive achievements.
(Yes, I'm a scientist by training, and do find this stuff genuinely awe-inspiring and have no time for those who refuse to learn and chase after UFOs. I never worked with SOHO, but I sat in a lab for three years across from someone who was doing a PhD on SOHO data. I was working on something much more boring for my PhD.)
The only book I recommend.
on
Effective Java
·
· Score: 2
Decent review of an excellent book.
I read books like other people eat hot dinners, and when I recommend Java books in work I only recommend this one. (I tend to find that a surprisingly number of coders only read one or two tech books a year anyway). "Effective java" is very well written; it's nice and short without sacrificing any exposition of the hairer parts of the language.
And as another poster has said, at work it's often sufficient to say in a review, "HashCode as per Bloch please"
The reason that I wonder the same is that I, as a seasoned software developer and looong time Unix user, recently bought a Mac as my home platform. Everyone assumed I'd build a PC and slap Linux on there. I assumed the same until the 11th hour and then bought a Mac. It's pretty, easy to use, required me to learn nothing about the hardware (I'm a software person through and through) and yet I can run all my favourite apps and there's plenty of already ported Unix/Linux apps, and converting the rest is no more challenging than getting them to build on, say, an older HP or similar.
I'd very much like to have been able to get my folks a Mac rather than their troublesome Windows box.
Mac OS X on commodity priced hardware would be VERY attractive in the marketplace.
This isn't a very useful new term - it's not even a new idea. Fact is that there is a central paradox in the world of commercial software - truly successful stuff doesn't sell. Or rather, it sells once, fixes all the user's problems, and you can't sell him anything else.
Without trying to be too cynical, this is a very obvious reason for the re-release of old apps with very minor changes to the previous version. How many NEW features of your latest word processor/IDE (delete as appropriate) do you really use? Chances are very few.
The re-release cycle is a real problem for consumer oriented companies. In a technical/business backend server market (like telecomms or banking) the problem is even worse - shift an app, which will run for ten years trouble free and provide full functionality, once and you may have destroyed your job! Who needs you once that ships?
Nah. Market forces dictate that broken or incomplete software will be much more dominant in the commercial marketplace.
I disagree. I've been using Unix since I started University, in 1991. When I have a problem with non-programming tasks it's typically a MS problem and not a Unix one (well, for HP, Sun boxen anyway).
The openness of the systems (even for non-Open systems like Solaris) makes them easy to maintain. All Unices behaves mostly alike, usually trivial to bring them to single user, fsck and reboot for example.
There are plenty of capable Unix admins, and plenty of resources for said admins - usually lab shelves are coming down with O'Reilly books, the web has plenty and if Usenet archives on Google can't solve your problem, well...
I'd argue, based PURELY on my current job experience, that the TCO of PCs is higher. We were a Unix based design lab, now we're PC based with Unix server farms. I've more calls on Support now than ever as I can't fix anything myself.
I originally wanted to protest that bi-monthly does not mean "twice a month" in any way - but checking the various dictionaries (even the OED) and alt.usage.english I'm amazed to find the above is correct. Weird, because here [Northern Ireland] bi-monthly/bi-weekly etc means "every two months/weeks". I work in a USAn company and the meaning is retained there too.
For "semi-monthly" and the shorter sense of "bi-monthly" the common UK term is "fortnight".
Sorry, can't resist off-topic language wrangles...
It's very important that everyone in the UK who is concerned about this actually do something about it by writing to their MP. When the RIP was going through I'd an exchange of letters with my MP where I registered my concern. In fairness, my comments probably had little effect but I was informed of amemdments and at least there's one more piece of paper expressing concern in the files.
It's important to note that only comments in writing will be noticed. That's the way the system works. Also, by writing to your MP you're going to get attention - it's part of their office to reply - even sending out form letters creates notice. The easy way for us to make comments is by faxing your MP.
Being blunt, it's because we're cheaper too. The argument for keeping the work from going to Asia is that for R&D and smaller development the higer price point is worth it for higher standards and the ease of communication afforded by working with people whose native language is English. Don't read any bias into the above comments, it's what I'm told from working in the IT industry, and yes, I've seen projects go to Wipro and similar places.
(I'm a software engineer for a Canadian company and my housemate works for a memory/disk manufacturer. Location: Northern Ireland)
Couple of comments on the ever-so-brief-and-simple press release:
(1) No mention of the increasing research into why cloning large mammals if more difficult than thought. See recent New Scientist magazines for pop coverage.
(2) No mention of host animals. The Tiger can't be brought back whole and entire, something needs to act as a host - 90% close relative, 10% recovered DNA. Then work up.
(3) No mention of gene pools and viable population sizes. Pick one human - clone a breeding population from them. Fancy working with them? Didn't think so.
Agreed - the best form of commenting is peer-reviewed JavaDoc or Doxygen. I've used both and used to love Doxygen, it's superbly flexible and easy to use.
It helps to gather up the real things people should be commenting; pre-conditions, post-conditions etc and not "Infinite loop".
Plus it looks nice presenting your docs on a website as part of the nightly build, or printed out as a (huge) pdf book. All for no hassle.
I've a Mac OS X machine being built for me now (can't wait!). For work reasons I'd need some sort of way of producing Word/PowerPoint - just because that's what all corporate offices use. I'd planned on trying OpenOffice - Mac OS X support would be nice.
However, if it's not there, I'll use Linux instead. *shrug*
>That's because he was using an RGB scart cable. It's >been deliberately crippled by Sony. To watch DVD >they want you to use the crappy composite cable that >comes with the unit.
To clarify: 1) You get a composite cable with the PS2. 2) The composite is rubbish. 3) You can play games with RGB. 4) You cannot watch DVDs on a vanilla PS2 in RGB - the screen would be greened. This is "to prevent piracy" and is, IMO, a stupid decision. 5) There are 3rd party ways around this OR 7) Just use the almost-as-good SVHS cable instead. I've SVHS into a 36" TV, looks lovely and sounds good. Only one DVD/Audio-phile friend notices the difference.
Get it right people; it's an ISO standard, not an ANSI standard. If nothing else this is a useful interview answer!
As for Herb Sutter - I believe him when he says he's to going to compromise his standards work. I don't believe MS, but Herb Sutter's books have earned him my respect.
Good article; I think the description of the sociological basis of the "laws" is correct. My experience suggests that the slowest development paths are those that cross other people's areas. (And yes, I know about XP's "All code is shared.")
As for the maintenance, it's my normal experience, but the prohects I've been involved in may be atypical. (*cough*Canadian*cough*telecommunications*cough*gi ant*) We spend a *lot* of time reworking old code to (a) fix obscure bugs, many of which are slow leaks shown up by weeks serving live traffic (b) adapt the code to support new releases of underlying hardware product and (c) adding new features to satisfy users.
The only problem I can see with this is that there was a recent thread on here about Google blocking a lump of IP addresses as someone in there was automatically querying way too often and affecting their load.
With the exposed API I could see, by malice or sheer accident, floods of queries coming in...
It might be nice, but it's not an email client.
on
The Perfect Email Client?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There are some terrible ideas on that list:
(1) Floating PIM pane. This isn't an email client function. Sure, it's nice, and I do use Outlook's Calendar at work, but it's nothing to do with email. Having it hook into and be readily accessible from email window though - that'd be useful. Provided I get to choose what to use. Consider Outlook - it rules corporate email for one simple reason - scheduling meetings.
(2) Split view in-box. Why split view? Why 2? Just make it more flexible. Let one of them be my window to Usenet, let one be a project email folder.
(3) Instant Messaging. Okay, I don't use IM. However, my views on it's utility aside, why would you want it embedded in a giant window? It's the sort of app that runs in a small window in the corner of the screen - sticking it in the email client is... odd.
(4) Calendar linked autoresponse. NO NEED! Why would I want to send an email and get 30 replies all stating that they're in a meeting? If I'd wanted instant replies I'd have phoned, or met in person. By mailing I'm batching the job - unless the person is gone for weeks I don't care. Often even urgent work emails don't get replied to for 2-3 days. But that's fine for email. If people are away for days they can choose to set autoreply anyway.
Sounds like the ideal mailer would be a blend of Outlook and Mutt!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a programmer and inveterate time waster by trade, not a programmer, but I agree about the scroll wheel being necessary.
So I went and bought one. Mice are cheap these days and for very little I have a Belkin that matches the colour of my TiBook, has a scroll wheel and the second button is automatically option-click, which means context menus.
Not really sure why Apple insists on the one button mouse when a three button mouse works perfectly upon being plugged in... I know it's traditional, but I never liked the key-click combinations.
I strongly doubt that there is enough evidence to support such a claim at the present time. The era of satellite observations of the sun has only really just started, and any rise may be simply noise from a short duration sample, or due to the decreasing minimum signal capable of being detected.
It's an interesting claim, but the authors are going to have to do a lot of convincing, and in the meantime this news will be twisted to support those opposed to, say, the Kyoto treaty.
_Design Patterns_ is not a methodology book. Say it with me, "Design Patterns is NOT a methodology book."
There are very few paper magazines that I subscribe to.
Same for most people. It's a tough market.
I've been using Unix of various flavours for the last decade, but never actually had a home PC of any flavour. I'm strictly a software guy (that's how I make my living) and was a bit dismayed at the Linux setup process - Linux is fine, it's the hassle with drivers and what hardware I want. Bleugh.
Last year I finally bought a PC for home use; a 15" Titanium PowerBook (TiBook). It's Unix (BSD), has X11, a very nice interface, and compiles almost everything I've ever tried first time. It's expensive (especially with a gig of RAM and 60gig of disk) but it's amazingly well finished hardware.
OS X is nice, everything 'just works', I can develop happily on here, but the real joy comes from having an iPod (20 gig, I had a redundancy settlement to spend) to carry with me to work/gym.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Microsoft tax position; I've no problem with Microsoft as a software company, in fact I bought Office as I need it for work (yes, I could have used OpenOffice, I know, but this was easier and looks nicer). I do however object to paying for something I don't want when buying hardware.
So, here's my position. Buy an Apple laptop. They're loaded with features, and have terrific build quality. The run native Unix for open-source fun, and can easily run Linux if you want. I wanted to give my money to a player in the market who is opposing M$. I wanted competition. Buying one less laptop from $MAJOR_HARDWARE_COMPANY doesn't dent their bottom line; they have the corporate market sewn up. Buying one more Apple however does change the demographics. One more Apple is one more consumer Unix machine, and one less Windows license. Think about it as voting with your buying money.
Uh? It has? When?
Do not let English and common sense lead you into confusion. Go read a cosmology primer; asking what was 'before' the big bang is like asking what the big bang happened in. Time and space didn't exist an infinite time ago... which is hard to think about... so we _can_ say that things 'started' 13.7 billion years ago.
> See the appeal for non-scientists?
I take your point but I'm still bemused that someone can trawl through SOHO piccies, see artefacts and think that (a) no-one else has ever noticed these things and (b) there's no point checking around the site to see what makes them look that like.
CCD bleed isn't a particularly hard idea to grasp.
We're all used to seeing not-disimilar things on TV when a documentary/news-camera hits a bright light.
What really gets me is that the people searching for UFOs in the SOHO data obviously find that more exciting that the SOHO data... and that's tragic.
I mean, it takes some effort to follow the detailed science SOHO was designed to support, but the images alone should be worth looking at. Go look at this hotshot of four planets and the Sun's outer layers. Tell me you don't find that image awe-inspiring, or that you don't think the ability to get that image is among man's most impressive achievements.
(Yes, I'm a scientist by training, and do find this stuff genuinely awe-inspiring and have no time for those who refuse to learn and chase after UFOs. I never worked with SOHO, but I sat in a lab for three years across from someone who was doing a PhD on SOHO data. I was working on something much more boring for my PhD.)
Decent review of an excellent book.
I read books like other people eat hot dinners, and when I recommend Java books in work I only recommend this one. (I tend to find that a surprisingly number of coders only read one or two tech books a year anyway). "Effective java" is very well written; it's nice and short without sacrificing any exposition of the hairer parts of the language.
And as another poster has said, at work it's often sufficient to say in a review, "HashCode as per Bloch please"
I wish I was moderating this - I wonder the same.
The reason that I wonder the same is that I, as a seasoned software developer and looong time Unix user, recently bought a Mac as my home platform. Everyone assumed I'd build a PC and slap Linux on there. I assumed the same until the 11th hour and then bought a Mac. It's pretty, easy to use, required me to learn nothing about the hardware (I'm a software person through and through) and yet I can run all my favourite apps and there's plenty of already ported Unix/Linux apps, and converting the rest is no more challenging than getting them to build on, say, an older HP or similar.
I'd very much like to have been able to get my folks a Mac rather than their troublesome Windows box.
Mac OS X on commodity priced hardware would be VERY attractive in the marketplace.
This isn't a very useful new term - it's not even a new idea. Fact is that there is a central paradox in the world of commercial software - truly successful stuff doesn't sell. Or rather, it sells once, fixes all the user's problems, and you can't sell him anything else.
Without trying to be too cynical, this is a very obvious reason for the re-release of old apps with very minor changes to the previous version. How many NEW features of your latest word processor/IDE (delete as appropriate) do you really use? Chances are very few.
The re-release cycle is a real problem for consumer oriented companies. In a technical/business backend server market (like telecomms or banking) the problem is even worse - shift an app, which will run for ten years trouble free and provide full functionality, once and you may have destroyed your job! Who needs you once that ships?
Nah. Market forces dictate that broken or incomplete software will be much more dominant in the commercial marketplace.
I disagree. I've been using Unix since I started University, in 1991. When I have a problem with non-programming tasks it's typically a MS problem and not a Unix one (well, for HP, Sun boxen anyway).
The openness of the systems (even for non-Open systems like Solaris) makes them easy to maintain. All Unices behaves mostly alike, usually trivial to bring them to single user, fsck and reboot for example.
There are plenty of capable Unix admins, and plenty of resources for said admins - usually lab shelves are coming down with O'Reilly books, the web has plenty and if Usenet archives on Google can't solve your problem, well...
I'd argue, based PURELY on my current job experience, that the TCO of PCs is higher. We were a Unix based design lab, now we're PC based with Unix server farms. I've more calls on Support now than ever as I can't fix anything myself.
[bi-monthly vs semi-monthly]
I originally wanted to protest that bi-monthly does not mean "twice a month" in any way - but checking the various dictionaries (even the OED) and alt.usage.english I'm amazed to find the above is correct. Weird, because here [Northern Ireland] bi-monthly/bi-weekly etc
means "every two months/weeks". I work in a USAn company and the meaning is retained there too.
For "semi-monthly" and the shorter sense of "bi-monthly" the common UK term is "fortnight".
Sorry, can't resist off-topic language wrangles...
It's very important that everyone in the UK who is concerned about this actually do something about it by writing to their MP. When the RIP was going through I'd an exchange of letters with my MP where I registered my concern. In fairness, my comments probably had little effect but I was informed of amemdments and at least there's one more piece of paper expressing concern in the files.
It's important to note that only comments in writing will be noticed. That's the way the system works. Also, by writing to your MP you're going to get attention - it's part of their office to reply - even sending out form letters creates notice. The easy way for us to make comments is by faxing your MP.
Go and do it now.
Being blunt, it's because we're cheaper too.
The argument for keeping the work from going to
Asia is that for R&D and smaller development the
higer price point is worth it for higher standards
and the ease of communication afforded by working
with people whose native language is English.
Don't read any bias into the above comments, it's
what I'm told from working in the IT industry,
and yes, I've seen projects go to Wipro and
similar places.
(I'm a software engineer for a Canadian company
and my housemate works for a memory/disk
manufacturer. Location: Northern Ireland)
Couple of comments on the ever-so-brief-and-simple press release:
(1) No mention of the increasing research into why cloning large mammals if more difficult than thought. See recent New Scientist magazines for pop coverage.
(2) No mention of host animals. The Tiger can't be brought back whole and entire, something needs to act as a host - 90% close relative, 10% recovered DNA. Then work up.
(3) No mention of gene pools and viable population sizes. Pick one human - clone a breeding population from them. Fancy working with them? Didn't think so.
Still, interesting project!
> the realisim is not there. The car needs to incurr
> damage,
Eh? Cars do incur damage! Lots of it!
> the tires actually need to wear (Buy the
> best tires drive on them forever as they never
> wear out)
Eh? You don't buy tires - and I don't want to
see that added.
> you can slam into a wall at 212MPH and
> just simply stop.
EH? Car burns!
> you cant flip over (I tried,
> when your car hit's the groun it magically
> rights it'sself)
WHAT!? I flip mine all the time after jumps!
> i love GTA, I play it alot. but they need to
> add some realisim into it.
You see, you DIDN'T READ THE ARTICLE! AT ALL!
You mean Grand Tourismo. Everyone else is talking
about Grand Theft Auto.
Idiot.
Agreed - the best form of commenting is peer-reviewed
JavaDoc or Doxygen. I've used both and used to love
Doxygen, it's superbly flexible and easy to use.
It helps to gather up the real things people should be commenting; pre-conditions, post-conditions etc
and not "Infinite loop".
Plus it looks nice presenting your docs on a
website as part of the nightly build, or printed
out as a (huge) pdf book. All for no hassle.
I agree.
I've a Mac OS X machine being built for me now (can't wait!). For work reasons I'd need some sort of way of producing Word/PowerPoint - just because that's what all corporate offices use. I'd planned on trying OpenOffice - Mac OS X support would be nice.
However, if it's not there, I'll use Linux instead. *shrug*
> I take that back.
> The guy's paper clears says it was funded by DoJ.
>
> Wired == suckAssJournalism
Learn to read carefully; the article clearly states
"The U.S. Department of Justice and IBM partially funded this research."
Wired isn't my journalistic choice, but this criticism at least is unfounded.
>That's because he was using an RGB scart cable. It's >been deliberately crippled by Sony. To watch DVD >they want you to use the crappy composite cable that >comes with the unit.
To clarify:
1) You get a composite cable with the PS2.
2) The composite is rubbish.
3) You can play games with RGB.
4) You cannot watch DVDs on a vanilla PS2 in RGB - the screen would be greened. This is "to prevent piracy" and is, IMO, a stupid decision.
5) There are 3rd party ways around this OR
7) Just use the almost-as-good SVHS cable instead.
I've SVHS into a 36" TV, looks lovely and sounds good. Only one DVD/Audio-phile friend notices the
difference.
Get it right people; it's an ISO standard, not an ANSI standard. If nothing else this is a useful interview answer!
As for Herb Sutter - I believe him when he says he's to going to compromise his standards work. I don't believe MS, but Herb Sutter's books have earned him my respect.
Good article; I think the description of the sociological basis of the "laws" is correct. My experience suggests that the slowest development paths are those that cross other people's areas.
i ant*)
(And yes, I know about XP's "All code is shared.")
As for the maintenance, it's my normal experience, but the prohects I've been involved in may be atypical. (*cough*Canadian*cough*telecommunications*cough*g
We spend a *lot* of time reworking old code to (a) fix obscure bugs, many of which are slow leaks shown up by weeks serving live traffic (b) adapt the code to support new releases of underlying hardware product and (c) adding new features to satisfy users.
The only problem I can see with this is that there was a recent thread on here about Google blocking a lump of IP addresses as someone in there was automatically querying way too often and affecting their load.
With the exposed API I could see, by malice or sheer accident, floods of queries coming in...
There are some terrible ideas on that list:
... odd.
(1) Floating PIM pane.
This isn't an email client function. Sure, it's nice, and I do use Outlook's Calendar at work, but it's nothing to do with email. Having it hook into and be readily accessible from email window though - that'd be useful. Provided I get to choose what to use. Consider Outlook - it rules corporate email for one simple reason - scheduling meetings.
(2) Split view in-box.
Why split view? Why 2? Just make it more flexible.
Let one of them be my window to Usenet, let one be a project email folder.
(3) Instant Messaging.
Okay, I don't use IM. However, my views on it's utility aside, why would you want it embedded in a giant window? It's the sort of app that runs in a small window in the corner of the screen - sticking it in the email client is
(4) Calendar linked autoresponse.
NO NEED! Why would I want to send an email and get 30 replies all stating that they're in a meeting?
If I'd wanted instant replies I'd have phoned, or met in person. By mailing I'm batching the job - unless the person is gone for weeks I don't care.
Often even urgent work emails don't get replied to for 2-3 days. But that's fine for email. If people are away for days they can choose to set autoreply anyway.
Sounds like the ideal mailer would be a blend of Outlook and Mutt!