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User: BigZaphod

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  1. Here it is in COW. on $BottlesOfBeerOnTheWall = 99; · · Score: 1

    A friend of mine wrote 99 bottles of beer in my COW language. It is an interesting sight to behold.

  2. I tried. on Convincing Colleges to Upgrade Their Classes? · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, the profs weren't very interested in listening to a stupid undergraduate. Ah well. I went around the system by using the computer club as my own class of sorts. The few folks who showed up every week seemed to really enjoy learning about how the modern stuff works. Plus, I think I had way more fun doing that than if the classes would have changed. Generally I didn't try to lecture all the time. Sometimes someone had something they'd be interested in and do some research then show the rest of us. Other times I'd be sitting there and they'd start asking me questions (as I had gained a bit of a reputation as being a good source of knowledge) and I'd help wherever I could. It was cool and I like to think I helped some of the others expand their horizons a bit.

  3. Re:Where does the FUBAR memory model come from? on Inside The Development of Windows NT · · Score: 1

    There are bugs in the STL shipped by Microsoft. There's some unofficial patches here. The one you're looking for is "Fix to <xtree>."

  4. Everyone should learn COW.. on Number of Jobs by Programming Language · · Score: 2

    This language is clearly the next big thing!

  5. Re:I need a new spine... on New Stem Cell Source - Your Bone Marrow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ever had back problems fuck head? No? Go to hell. You have no idea what its like.

  6. I need a new spine... on New Stem Cell Source - Your Bone Marrow · · Score: 1

    Timely. I got to work today and my back gave out right at the 9:00 morning meeting. A coworker rushed me to the chiropractor and I was told to go home and spend the day lying down. I've had back problems for years now and I'm only 23. This sucks. Sure, I get a day off work, but I'm in so much pain I'd rather be bored there than bored here. At least I have a powerbook. Otherwise I don't know what I'd do....

    I really hope this kind of technology can fix this someday soon. It just hurts so bad...

  7. Bounce.. on Network Aware Screensavers? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I bounced a few random shapes around an entire lab my last year at college. It was pretty cool and took maybe 4 hours at most to write (I did it in front of the computer club on a projector as a two-meeting presentation series :-)).

    I used OpenGL, SDL, and SDL_net to make things easy. If you're at all a programmer, it shouldn't take much to pull those tools together and do something simple. In my case, I actually had a file that would load informing the program which computer was to its left and right so the shape could move properly. But for an actual screensaver, I imagine something more random would be fine. Maybe using some broadcast packets to discover each other.

    Fun stuff. Too bad I can't find the code anymore.

  8. Finally! on Tornado in a Can · · Score: 2

    A real honest-to-goodness can of whoop-ass! Cool!

  9. Re:Not enough! on Has Software Development Improved? · · Score: 2

    I'm really not a Java advocate, but I have to wonder why this matters for most cases? I mean, in my own personal C code when I check return values for malloc I usually have it bailing if it runs out of memory. What's the difference between an uncaught exception (which will kill the program with an error about catching exception "OutOfMemory") and doing a printf( "Out of memory!\n" ) and exit?

    I can certainly understand that in some cases you might want to continue even with a memory problem. Perhaps you have control over so much data that you can then start relasing some of that memory elsewhere or something. But that seems to be an exceptional case and if you're doing programming where that situation can arise, well then you likely know what you're doing and this whole entire complaint wouldn't be issue.

    So, I guess what it boils down to is, what's the point? I may be missing something here. I haven't been programming 20 years or anything like that. If so, please share!

  10. Question for hardware gurus.. on Build Your Own PowerPC? · · Score: 2

    Is it possible to interface an alternate CPU to a motherboard not originally designed for it? For instance, could a PowerPC be grafted onto a standard x86 motherboard? In my somewhat currently limited knowledge of such things, it seems that address lines are just address lines and it all really comes down to software. So if a new bios firmware could be connected to the new chip, and the right bus lines connected in the right places, the rest would just be software, right?

    I imagine there would be timing issues to deal with. Possibly voltage differences, too. I don't know. Like I said, I don't know much about this layer of things. :-)

  11. Re:What. Is. It. on Moonlight|3D 0.5.5 Released · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't forget about "Moonlight, the flame thrower." (The kids love that one..)

  12. Re:Idiot loser on Google sued as PetsWarehouse Lawsuit Continues. · · Score: 2

    "Saying the service sucks -- which it probably does -- is a matter of opinion, not a factual statement."

    That would be truthful high praise to a vaccuming service. Of course we're not talking about that kind of suck...

  13. Home user.. on Software for Room Planning and Design? · · Score: 2

    "I've seen these in use in stores like Lowe's and Home Depot, but is there anything out there geared and priced for the home user?"

    Uhh.. Those *are* for the home user. Geesh. You don't really think the pros use that stuff, do you know?

  14. Re:Newer, cheaper, unreliable? on Pioneer 10 Still Running After 30 years · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The real loss if the ISS is shut down will be that they could have built a rail-gun to fire largely unpowered probes on long-term missions for basically free."

    Well, except they need to get materials there somehow.

  15. Re:"just a computer programmer" on The Chronoliths · · Score: 2

    No no.. That's "Meek" not "Geek." Unless of course the bible had a misprint...

  16. Obviously.. on MP3 for Gameboy · · Score: 2

    The cart must have its own MP3 decoder chip in it. Not everything need be done by software, you know...

  17. Fiber on Iowa Court May Order Microsoft Refunds · · Score: 1

    Uh, sorry dude. Iowa does, in fact, have lots of fiber. Not just for schools, either, although the one in question is the Iowa Communications Network.

    If you were an IT admin in a school in Iowa and didn't know about ICN, then you must have been trying really damn hard to make your school part of the reason we're not always #1 in education.

  18. Re:Of course... on Iowa Court May Order Microsoft Refunds · · Score: 1

    /me gets up and peeks over cube wall.

    Nope. Way more than 3 here.

  19. Re:Iowa and Political Power on Iowa Court May Order Microsoft Refunds · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh crap, our secret is out. Expect a visit from the black-tractors....

  20. Re:Two ways on Is it Wrong to Accept an Employment Counter-Offer? · · Score: 1

    What about:

    3. This person isn't good enough for that kind of money. He can go ahead and leave. Greedy bastard.

    I suppose if I got this kind of reaction, then I wouldn't want to be there anyway, but still.. It could happen.

  21. Re:Question. on Game Developers Cracking Down on Cheating · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There is a reason why dongles aren't used much anymore--they are easy to crack.

  22. Re:No! Charge them out the wazoo. on Sneaking Open Source Software Through the Front Door · · Score: 1

    As silly as this sounds, this is actually a pretty good idea. Don't know about a price that high, but maybe like $50-$80 or so.

    The main reason is image. OSS stuff often looks cheap (simply because the interfaces are usually not as refined and smooth as software windows/macos users are used to). Things that look cheap don't sell.

    There's another reason to put a high price tag on it. This may sound almost elitist, but do you really want the kinds of users that dig through (and then buy) the cheap crap in bargin bins at department stores? These are the people that will flood mailing lists, newsgroups, and weblogs with stupid comments and demands for their money back or insisting that they have the God-given right to feature X because they paid a hard-earned $5.00 on the CD 2 years ago!

    It would be much better to attract a slightly more respectful crowd. Making a product expensive is a way of buying that sort of customer. Heck, it worked for Apple... (/me ducks!)

  23. Amazing. on The Price Of Doing Business · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find it amazing that they are moving out of large US cities into Canda instead of just moving to the midwest or something. Chicago is quite a lot cheaper than the coastal cities, and it has all the usual big-city perks.

    Of course there are also a lot of small citys that would kill for some high-tech company to move in. Seems like they could get some pretty good deals if they used that option.

    Why do so many companies feel the need to be tied to a coast?

  24. Re:Good points! on Michi Henning on Computing Fallacies · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some finer points in design; I see some stuff like this a lot as well: function bob( varlist ) { $var = $joe + 12345; return $var; } You're wasting memory and such for the variable declaration and assignment, simply return $joe + 12345;.

    I know that you are talking about (what appears to be) PHP here, but I thought I'd toss in my 2 cents. In compiled languages small differences like that don't matter. If your optimizer doesn't suck (and most don't, these days), it will reorder your code to be as efficient as it can get it to be, and that includes things like elminiating uneeded variables, etc. So maybe what you are seeing is developers used to working with compiled languages that include a good optimizer and like to go for good, clear code as a first rule of thumb. No, that doesn't make it right, but just something to be aware of.

  25. Antitrust, huh? on AOL Time Warner Files Anti-Trust Suit against MS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, well I don't trust Microsoft OR AOL/Time Warner! I guess I should file one of these things then too...

    What directory do I put it in, again?