The only place I'm aware of where you can get a Java runtime for OS X is from Apple and it's tightly built in to the OS, but is currently 1.4.something.
1) 1 song - the Captain Pugwash Theme (don't ask) 2) 13% apparently - more than I thought 3) 0% 4) 87% 5) 0%
I don't rip off music. Producing a professional quality recording is an extremely expensive business. If we all ripped it off, people would stop doing it.
Further, the fact that my iTunes purchased music has DRM in it so that I can't do what I like with it is entirely because of all the people who do steal music.
Enumerated types are originally from C++ - backported to C. The Java version is better - it's type safe and also more powerful.
Static import is closer to const declarations than #defines again a C++ feature backported to C.
Formatted output is a C feature. I have a love-hate relationship with it. It's great for output to a stream but sprintf is a total mare (how big a buffer should I allocate for the destination?).
Varargs... hmm not sure about that. The original K&R C just didn't worry about how many parameters you passed a function. The use of elipses in the protoype/declaration came in with ANSI C but I'm not sure if it's a C++ back port. The constructs for accessing the varargs i.e. stdarg.h are just hacks because ANSI C / C++ only implemented half of the feature. The Java version which wraps up all the var args into an array of objects (using autoboxing for primitive types) seems much cleaner.
The "Earth's biggest mass extinction" refers not to the dinosaurs being wiped out but the one at the end of the Permian more than 250 million years ago.
Lots of people seem to think they have to have the little notifier on and making loud noises whenever an e-mail arrives. If you do that, you will find it extremely intrusive.
I heard that this is an urban myth. The argument went that cell phone antennas are designed to project their signals horizontally because that's where most of the cell phones are.
Of course, what I just said might be the urban myth. Any cell network engineers care to comment?
There's also the problem that in the event of an accident, a laptop computer and to a lesser extent, other electronic items are bad things to be flying around the cabin being as they tend to be fairly solid objects.
The BBC interviewed a spokesperson from the insurance company yesterday and they asked her about speeding. She said they absolutely would not be measuring your speed.
No, really.
Honestly, that's what she said and I believe her. I will not, however, be signing up for this scheme because insurance companies are amongst the scumiest most two faced companies there are and I don't believe her.
Funny that. That's exactly what they mean by a dangerous road. In the UK, the motorways have always been safest so if you stick to them, your premium goes down. Also, driving after 11pm and before about midnight will be expensive as all the pubs shut at 11 and apparently that is a dangerous time to drive (you might get hit by a drunk or be a drunk).
Do not underestimate the cost of migration. Six months ago I had the pleasure of doing a study on a district council (similar thing to this one). I'm pretty sure that it had similar issues to Newham (the clue is the reference to 120 *Office* based applications).
You see the thing is, the IT departments in UK councils are strapped for cash. The council thinks that things like education, refuse collection, housing benefit etc are more important, so at some time in the past everybody had a Windows PC slapped on their desk with a standard Microsoft Office Professional install. There's always some little job that could be computerised, so some bright spark says "I know, we've got Access, let's use that". There's no proper study or requirements spec or anything, because the kid with a computer at home is happy to write it during his lunch hour for free.
For this local council we interviewed two or three people from each department and they all had a little M$ Access application running some vital part of their infrastructure. Even the IT person who sat in with us was surprised at the stuff that was going on.
Not only that, but many of the "real" applications had Windows only front ends even if the back end DB was an industrial strength Oracle install.
Care to make an estimate as to how long it would take to convert an Access based app to an open source solution? Five days? Ten days? Remember you can't just convert it, you have to test it, show the users how to use it, convert the data, show the help desk staff have to support it. Also the kid who wrote it during his lunch hour left because he finally realised he was being exploited and went somewhere where they'd pay him to write crappy Access apps. Let's say ten man days per app (on average). Newham has 120, so that's 1,200 man days. At CAP Gemini's rates that's unlikely to be much less than £1 million.
Slashdot Mirror
The only place I'm aware of where you can get a Java runtime for OS X is from Apple and it's tightly built in to the OS, but is currently 1.4.something.
1) 1 song - the Captain Pugwash Theme (don't ask)
2) 13% apparently - more than I thought
3) 0%
4) 87%
5) 0%
I don't rip off music. Producing a professional quality recording is an extremely expensive business. If we all ripped it off, people would stop doing it.
Further, the fact that my iTunes purchased music has DRM in it so that I can't do what I like with it is entirely because of all the people who do steal music.
Generic types are in C++ not C.
Enumerated types are originally from C++ - backported to C. The Java version is better - it's type safe and also more powerful.
Static import is closer to const declarations than #defines again a C++ feature backported to C.
Formatted output is a C feature. I have a love-hate relationship with it. It's great for output to a stream but sprintf is a total mare (how big a buffer should I allocate for the destination?).
Varargs... hmm not sure about that. The original K&R C just didn't worry about how many parameters you passed a function. The use of elipses in the protoype/declaration came in with ANSI C but I'm not sure if it's a C++ back port. The constructs for accessing the varargs i.e. stdarg.h are just hacks because ANSI C / C++ only implemented half of the feature. The Java version which wraps up all the var args into an array of objects (using autoboxing for primitive types) seems much cleaner.
The "Earth's biggest mass extinction" refers not to the dinosaurs being wiped out but the one at the end of the Permian more than 250 million years ago.
"By Toutatis" is the closest you get to swearing in the Asterix books.
The village chief - Vitalstatistix in the English translation - was only frightened of one thing - the sky falling on their heads.
If I had mod points, they'd all be yours.
It's repeated on Thursdays at 10pm GMT and after that is available via the listen again facility.
If this is the only thing you ever want to rip off, I suggest you wait for the CD - it'll be less than $32.
According to the advert after the programme, the CD is out in November.
"There's no good reason to stop it from working"
Well there is one: it's easy to dial accidentally with a push button phone.
Lots of people seem to think they have to have the little notifier on and making loud noises whenever an e-mail arrives. If you do that, you will find it extremely intrusive.
Yes but aside all these photos and videos, they had an eye whitness report. I suspect they were really saying "we can't be arsed to deal with this".
But high street thieves are a much more significant problem for most people than terrorism.
"and being unreachable for 12 hours as they fly to Hawaii just isn't an option."
Yes it is. That's the situation now and the World hasn't come to a grinding halt.
I heard that this is an urban myth. The argument went that cell phone antennas are designed to project their signals horizontally because that's where most of the cell phones are.
Of course, what I just said might be the urban myth. Any cell network engineers care to comment?
There's also the problem that in the event of an accident, a laptop computer and to a lesser extent, other electronic items are bad things to be flying around the cabin being as they tend to be fairly solid objects.
"each one is a monopoly label"
"Each one" implies there is more than one label. How could there be a monopoly then?
"and the creation of the text usually requires significantly less thought."
The last thing we would want is anybody putting any thought into creating text - particularly on Slashdot.
I hate that actually, it doesn't feel right when I say it in my head.
OTOH since I ban myself from doing assignments where an expression is expected, and have done for 15 years, whenever I even see
while (foo = bar)
alarm bells always ring inside my head straight away.
There's also his follow up where a Brit goes into a shop in Australia and asks for Durex and thinks "must be 'do-it-yourself'"
The BBC interviewed a spokesperson from the insurance company yesterday and they asked her about speeding. She said they absolutely would not be measuring your speed.
No, really.
Honestly, that's what she said and I believe her. I will not, however, be signing up for this scheme because insurance companies are amongst the scumiest most two faced companies there are and I don't believe her.
Funny that. That's exactly what they mean by a dangerous road. In the UK, the motorways have always been safest so if you stick to them, your premium goes down. Also, driving after 11pm and before about midnight will be expensive as all the pubs shut at 11 and apparently that is a dangerous time to drive (you might get hit by a drunk or be a drunk).
"Receivers of SMS are those that pay for it"
Not in my country. Sender pays. This is why I'm not drowning in SMS spam yet.
Do not underestimate the cost of migration. Six months ago I had the pleasure of doing a study on a district council (similar thing to this one). I'm pretty sure that it had similar issues to Newham (the clue is the reference to 120 *Office* based applications).
You see the thing is, the IT departments in UK councils are strapped for cash. The council thinks that things like education, refuse collection, housing benefit etc are more important, so at some time in the past everybody had a Windows PC slapped on their desk with a standard Microsoft Office Professional install. There's always some little job that could be computerised, so some bright spark says "I know, we've got Access, let's use that". There's no proper study or requirements spec or anything, because the kid with a computer at home is happy to write it during his lunch hour for free.
For this local council we interviewed two or three people from each department and they all had a little M$ Access application running some vital part of their infrastructure. Even the IT person who sat in with us was surprised at the stuff that was going on.
Not only that, but many of the "real" applications had Windows only front ends even if the back end DB was an industrial strength Oracle install.
Care to make an estimate as to how long it would take to convert an Access based app to an open source solution? Five days? Ten days? Remember you can't just convert it, you have to test it, show the users how to use it, convert the data, show the help desk staff have to support it. Also the kid who wrote it during his lunch hour left because he finally realised he was being exploited and went somewhere where they'd pay him to write crappy Access apps. Let's say ten man days per app (on average). Newham has 120, so that's 1,200 man days. At CAP Gemini's rates that's unlikely to be much less than £1 million.
1.4?!
You were lucky.
The last big Java project I was involved in (about 6 months ago) hadn't progressed off 1.3.
It was a bit of a shock really. "This feature can be implemented with this library. Damnit - I've got to roll my own"