Our supplier companies have been bought out, dropped production, decided that just stopping and giving us source was more cost effective than making all the fixes our contract demanded, etc.
Due to the enormous length of our software development life cycle (10+ years!) we end up supporting a LOT of CAS.
The ones who survived off advertisements online? No? Me neither.
Gee, I guess you've never heard of Penny-Arcade. Just a few weeks ago they started REFUSING money from their viewers, since they are getting by with online advertising.
WE like them, because A) they are the reason for X10's down fall, and B) they are un-secured creditors, so there is a very likely chance that they won't get a dime!
So the house of cards falls in on itself, and we get to gawk at the zero-sum game.
Any coherent response will have to wait 'till I filter these ideas through my biophysicist buddy in Frisco (cuz I don't mind pestering him with my dumb questions).
Thanks for giving my mind something new to chew on.
Dewd, this is the second best post, EVER. Only slightly more coherent than the actual article, this post takes non-sequitor tangentiality and runs with it.
You can buy beer and wine anywhere else, but for the Haad Licka' (trans: Hard Liquor) You GOTTA buy from the DLC. And they are closed on Sundays. Given the way I currently live, I have a liquor cabinet. When I'm running low, I'll make a note to go out and buy. So this is a decent set up for how I live now.
But how I lived in college, that would have been COMPTELEY unacceptable! Thank god you could get haad licka up to 2 am on Greenmount in Bal'mer.
If your music is in 128kbps mp3, you aren't going to get a better sound if any new format comes along. You'll just get smaller file sizes with equal or lesser quality.
Right- and thats my main point: 128 mp3 is good enough for me. Unless there is some REALLY crappy artifact from conversion, I don't notice any loss.
The new E-music service agreements are for those who find mp3's "good enough."
What about CDE desktops managers and things like goScreen for windows- I have my e-mail in one, slashdot in another, my exceed in a third, my spreadsheet in a fourth.
I realize the value of seeing "more at once", and I realize that virtual "Desktops" take a degree of organization on the part of the user. But I can't help but wonder if a well used virtual desktop system can't rival a multimonitor setup.
Depends upon the ear of the listener. Yes, I know plenty of people who scoff at anything less than 198kbps encoding, saying "why not just listen to your music through a tinny radio shack speaker that you've slit up with a razor blade!?!?!"
But I for one find 120kbps perfectly acceptable. So for 5 bucks, it might be worth it for me, because they are close enough.
Also your other point of re-ripping. With an MP3, I can convert it to an AA3, and vice versa using any number of converters- no need for an interim step. However, I could always convert to wav, THEN to my desired format. Infact, its more of a pain in the neck to re-rip cd's (insert, click, wait, eject, repeat) than to point a converter at a folder and say "please convert all 9,000 of these files. I'm going to bed."
Also, whats to say my cd's will last that long? I have plenty of CDs I can't rip, thanks to oxidation. At least with a digital format I can make multiple copies and spread my risk of loss out amongst a few MTBFs as opposed to One. So that point is fruitless.
From my understanding, Fortran has a heavy hold on scientific computing.
As for Cobol- I'm UN-informed. I thought the majority of its place in the market was just legacy support? Mind you, legacy support is a multi-billion dollar industry (thats what we do now with ADA). So is there a lot of new development in Cobol?
Can you really imagine C being used for systems work in 50 years?
Sadly, yes. And maybe thats only because I'm either ill-informed or unimaginative.
Barring the low level stuff (Kernel stuff is de facto C, if not de jure), how else can you get performance? Ada is going the way of the Dodo (there are still a few huge legacy apps running around). Java can't take its place until a rock-solid JVM is common (is there one available?). There are far too many stories of applications running out of memory because the garbage collector never got around to working.
Then maybe my crispness comment is generalizing how a snare sounds in a garage with the rest of the band playing through one mic (located on the boombox itself). Muddy drums are a pain in the ass.
ACtually, I concede nothing. Give me crisp music or give me white noise!;)
Sitcoms are like mastered songs, recorded in a studio. What he was saying is that trying to get famous off of home recordings is like borrowing your mom's Hi-8 and having your talk show broadcast over public access.
It's a catchy well-written tune that sells, not the polish on top of it.
Yeah, yr right. Because Madonna's new album was really raw... oh wait, no it wasn't. WEll, Britany Spears and Christina Aguilera, wait, no, they weren't underproduced either. But Blink 182 and Korn, and Limp Bizkit and System of a Down and the new Metallica... no, strike that. They sure have studio polish.
But there are great writers with that lo-fi sound who are really popular like Cat Power. Wait, no, no-one knows about Cat Power. Hmmmmmm.
Notice that the "general public" has no problem enjoying all those questionably-encoded mp3s floating around.
Yes, they do. I hear nothing but constant complaining about 128bit encoded MP3s.
If production quality truly mattered to the public, Cops, You Gotta See This, and any number of other "real" video shows would never have hit the airwaves.
Just like the White Stripes, COps is the exception that doesn't necessarily disprove the validity of the rule.
The biggest hurdle to getting your music listened to by the general public was that "HISSSSSSS", that background noise and sibilance which was the mark of the un-professional. Despite the inde "low fi" artistes, crispness in sound is something that is valued the world over- from style to style. Even your beloved "composers" preferred to have their compositions played by good musicians on world class instruments.
Now-a-days, I can quickly knock off some stuff, burn to a cd, and throw it in my car. And it sounds like my other cd's. Thats a huge plus. I'm not worrying about recording generation loss. I'm just worrying if the vocals are in tune.
Dude- what you need is a significant other who will support you.
Why? You certainy don't need the support, you have 5 years (less if you include start-up costs) of savings...
But if they have a stable career- track job, then you can feel good about doing your own thing.
OR I could give you the ubermensch asnwer of SNAP OUT OF IT AND FUCKING DO IT. Only those who go out on a limb get the fruit at the end! Besides- once you've quit, you've put the fire under your fanny to get moving.
Anybody else? Could YOU quit?
No, not yet. That piggy-back support thing? I just put my wife through law school, and she starts as an associate in 2 weeks. She's offered to bear the earning burden if I want to get my PhD, do a start-up, etc. But I really feel that I have a lot more to learn about time and project management and I know I can get that from the company I'm with and where I'm at.
Using a GAIT phone (Nokia 6340i) I just powered it on, I get antennae bars (albeit with a noticeable lag after start up) and it receives calls like a charm. This is in the Washington D.C. metro area.
(it better work! I just signed another 2 year contract on Wednesday!)
I too prefer traditional buttons (you can feel 'em in the dark (wow, did that sound dirty))
And the Sony RM VL-900 learning remote is the SCHMOKINEST. Why? Because it works. How? That list of codes they give you on that index card written in 2 point font? useless, don't even bother with it.
Its remote-to-remote learning function is sooo good, the only thing you have to worry about is forgetting to record a button.
I'll admit, it takes a little getting used to, hitting (TV) then (POWER), instead of just hitting the (POWER) button, but if you have more than 3 components (TV, Cable box, VCR, DVD) there is no excuse for having 4 stupid remotes.
to fit on my olde skool mp3 player (which has 32 MB on board and ONLY takes 32MB smart Media cards, no larger) I sure as hell re-rip to 64 kbps MONO.
Why? I use it on the plane (Crazy background noise), on public transpo like buses and DC Metro (crazy background noise) and in our raised floor lab (Crazy background noise).
only has 32megs on board, and accepts 32 MB smart media cards. MIND YOU, those 32 MB cards are hard to find but when you do find them, they are 9 bucks a pop, new (amazon has 'em). After rediculous rebates I got it 3 years ago for $50. Its also really small, less than half the size of a pack of cigarettes. I've got 5 cards, so if you include the on board 32, that makes 192 MB of music.
Is it worth it? Yes, but only because I super-compress my MP3's (60 kbps MONO) since I only listen to it in noisy environments; Air planes, my raised-floor lab with h00j air handlers, and public transportation. That way I can stick an hours worth of music in 32 MB (there is something cool about having Stereolab's "Dots and Loops" on a smart media card!).
Slashdot Mirror
Our supplier companies have been bought out, dropped production, decided that just stopping and giving us source was more cost effective than making all the fixes our contract demanded, etc.
Due to the enormous length of our software development life cycle (10+ years!) we end up supporting a LOT of CAS.
And we do it by buying the source.
The ones who survived off advertisements online? No? Me neither.
Gee, I guess you've never heard of Penny-Arcade. Just a few weeks ago they started REFUSING money from their viewers, since they are getting by with online advertising.
well, I guess there are anomalies to every rule.
WE like them, because A) they are the reason for X10's down fall, and B) they are un-secured creditors, so there is a very likely chance that they won't get a dime!
So the house of cards falls in on itself, and we get to gawk at the zero-sum game.
Judgements are indeed, unsecured. And secured creditors come first.
Any coherent response will have to wait 'till I filter these ideas through my biophysicist buddy in Frisco (cuz I don't mind pestering him with my dumb questions).
Thanks for giving my mind something new to chew on.
Dewd, this is the second best post, EVER. Only slightly more coherent than the actual article, this post takes non-sequitor tangentiality and runs with it.
You got me with "Drug lab on-a-chip."
You can buy beer and wine anywhere else, but for the Haad Licka' (trans: Hard Liquor) You GOTTA buy from the DLC. And they are closed on Sundays. Given the way I currently live, I have a liquor cabinet. When I'm running low, I'll make a note to go out and buy. So this is a decent set up for how I live now.
But how I lived in college, that would have been COMPTELEY unacceptable! Thank god you could get haad licka up to 2 am on Greenmount in Bal'mer.
If your music is in 128kbps mp3, you aren't going to get a better sound if any new format comes along. You'll just get smaller file sizes with equal or lesser quality.
Right- and thats my main point: 128 mp3 is good enough for me. Unless there is some REALLY crappy artifact from conversion, I don't notice any loss.
The new E-music service agreements are for those who find mp3's "good enough."
What about CDE desktops managers and things like goScreen for windows- I have my e-mail in one, slashdot in another, my exceed in a third, my spreadsheet in a fourth.
I realize the value of seeing "more at once", and I realize that virtual "Desktops" take a degree of organization on the part of the user. But I can't help but wonder if a well used virtual desktop system can't rival a multimonitor setup.
Depends upon the ear of the listener.
Yes, I know plenty of people who scoff at anything less than 198kbps encoding, saying "why not just listen to your music through a tinny radio shack speaker that you've slit up with a razor blade!?!?!"
But I for one find 120kbps perfectly acceptable.
So for 5 bucks, it might be worth it for me, because they are close enough.
Also your other point of re-ripping. With an MP3, I can convert it to an AA3, and vice versa using any number of converters- no need for an interim step. However, I could always convert to wav, THEN to my desired format. Infact, its more of a pain in the neck to re-rip cd's (insert, click, wait, eject, repeat) than to point a converter at a folder and say "please convert all 9,000 of these files. I'm going to bed."
Also, whats to say my cd's will last that long? I have plenty of CDs I can't rip, thanks to oxidation. At least with a digital format I can make multiple copies and spread my risk of loss out amongst a few MTBFs as opposed to One.
So that point is fruitless.
that is so FRIGGIN' K00l!!
I gotta learn about this calculator!
So why do searches that might fit US telephone conventions not trigger calculator?
;) (big up my unix geeks!)
What does the recently created verb "to google" mean? It typically implies to "grep the web", not "dc on the web"
So if you REALLY NEED to use google calc to do that, add 100 + 23 + 867 + 5309
Also, I mean, come on! You are asking for JEnny's phone number! (which, I got off the wall).
From my understanding, Fortran has a heavy hold on scientific computing.
As for Cobol- I'm UN-informed. I thought the majority of its place in the market was just legacy support? Mind you, legacy support is a multi-billion dollar industry (thats what we do now with ADA). So is there a lot of new development in Cobol?
Can you really imagine C being used for systems work in 50 years?
Sadly, yes. And maybe thats only because I'm either ill-informed or unimaginative.
Barring the low level stuff (Kernel stuff is de facto C, if not de jure), how else can you get performance? Ada is going the way of the Dodo (there are still a few huge legacy apps running around). Java can't take its place until a rock-solid JVM is common (is there one available?). There are far too many stories of applications running out of memory because the garbage collector never got around to working.
Dewd, you weren't!!!
ANthony Michael Hall played Bill Frickin' Gates!
I guess you don't watch that much tv.
Then maybe my crispness comment is generalizing how a snare sounds in a garage with the rest of the band playing through one mic (located on the boombox itself). Muddy drums are a pain in the ass.
;)
ACtually, I concede nothing. Give me crisp music or give me white noise!
Sitcoms are like mastered songs, recorded in a studio. What he was saying is that trying to get famous off of home recordings is like borrowing your mom's Hi-8 and having your talk show broadcast over public access.
That was excellent. Bravo.
It's a catchy well-written tune that sells, not the polish on top of it.
Yeah, yr right. Because Madonna's new album was really raw... oh wait, no it wasn't. WEll, Britany Spears and Christina Aguilera, wait, no, they weren't underproduced either. But Blink 182 and Korn, and Limp Bizkit and System of a Down and the new Metallica... no, strike that. They sure have studio polish.
But there are great writers with that lo-fi sound who are really popular like Cat Power. Wait, no, no-one knows about Cat Power. Hmmmmmm.
Notice that the "general public" has no problem enjoying all those questionably-encoded mp3s floating around.
Yes, they do. I hear nothing but constant complaining about 128bit encoded MP3s.
If production quality truly mattered to the public, Cops, You Gotta See This, and any number of other "real" video shows would never have hit the airwaves.
Just like the White Stripes, COps is the exception that doesn't necessarily disprove the validity of the rule.
The biggest hurdle to getting your music listened to by the general public was that "HISSSSSSS", that background noise and sibilance which was the mark of the un-professional. Despite the inde "low fi" artistes, crispness in sound is something that is valued the world over- from style to style. Even your beloved "composers" preferred to have their compositions played by good musicians on world class instruments.
Now-a-days, I can quickly knock off some stuff, burn to a cd, and throw it in my car. And it sounds like my other cd's. Thats a huge plus. I'm not worrying about recording generation loss. I'm just worrying if the vocals are in tune.
Dude- what you need is a significant other who will support you.
Why? You certainy don't need the support, you have 5 years (less if you include start-up costs) of savings...
But if they have a stable career- track job, then you can feel good about doing your own thing.
OR I could give you the ubermensch asnwer of SNAP OUT OF IT AND FUCKING DO IT. Only those who go out on a limb get the fruit at the end! Besides- once you've quit, you've put the fire under your fanny to get moving.
Anybody else? Could YOU quit?
No, not yet. That piggy-back support thing? I just put my wife through law school, and she starts as an associate in 2 weeks. She's offered to bear the earning burden if I want to get my PhD, do a start-up, etc. But I really feel that I have a lot more to learn about time and project management and I know I can get that from the company I'm with and where I'm at.
Using a GAIT phone (Nokia 6340i) I just powered it on, I get antennae bars (albeit with a noticeable lag after start up) and it receives calls like a charm. This is in the Washington D.C. metro area.
(it better work! I just signed another 2 year contract on Wednesday!)
Anyone else care to report?
SUmmoner Geeks, a bold look at the darker side of geekdom.
P.S.- you know that was you.
I too prefer traditional buttons (you can feel 'em in the dark (wow, did that sound dirty))
And the Sony RM VL-900 learning remote is the SCHMOKINEST. Why? Because it works. How? That list of codes they give you on that index card written in 2 point font? useless, don't even bother with it.
Its remote-to-remote learning function is sooo good, the only thing you have to worry about is forgetting to record a button.
I'll admit, it takes a little getting used to, hitting (TV) then (POWER), instead of just hitting the (POWER) button, but if you have more than 3 components (TV, Cable box, VCR, DVD) there is no excuse for having 4 stupid remotes.
to fit on my olde skool mp3 player (which has 32 MB on board and ONLY takes 32MB smart Media cards, no larger) I sure as hell re-rip to 64 kbps MONO.
Why? I use it on the plane (Crazy background noise), on public transpo like buses and DC Metro (crazy background noise) and in our raised floor lab (Crazy background noise).
And I can't hear any difference!
only has 32megs on board, and accepts 32 MB smart media cards. MIND YOU, those 32 MB cards are hard to find but when you do find them, they are 9 bucks a pop, new (amazon has 'em).
After rediculous rebates I got it 3 years ago for $50. Its also really small, less than half the size of a pack of cigarettes. I've got 5 cards, so if you include the on board 32, that makes 192 MB of music.
Is it worth it?
Yes, but only because I super-compress my MP3's (60 kbps MONO) since I only listen to it in noisy environments; Air planes, my raised-floor lab with h00j air handlers, and public transportation. That way I can stick an hours worth of music in 32 MB (there is something cool about having Stereolab's "Dots and Loops" on a smart media card!).
Otherwise, these players aren't worth your time.