However, the work-around required to do something like that just is not realistic for the vast majority of users. I expect it will take an hour or two of reading and tweaking for someone who is reasonably comfortable with software.
Macromedia has it within their power to build a 64 bit linux version of Flash and doing so would save thousands upon thousands of people a lot of hassle and would help linux gain marketshare. An hour or two of tweaking multiplied ~300000 times adds up to a lot of hassle work. Even worse, there are orgs and individuals that will just drop desktop linux from consideration simply because they can't get flash to work on their machines "out of the box".
I am skeptical of any algorithm that purports to gauge or classify taste. People listen to music for complicated reasons and they often listen to very different genres.
A better solution is to point people to "taste-makers".
I found by illegally downloading music using limewire, that I could find very interesting new music by simply broswing the collections of the people that were downloading from me. That really opened up my horizons as far as taste is concerned. I don't think an algorithm could come close to that.
Part of the problem is that the w3c is very mushy about their "recommendations". Where the recs have different interpretations they should step in and clarify a CORRECT interpretation and incentivize browser makers to do the right thing.
So much of web-development is a pain in the ass simply because of inspid browser-compatibility issues. The year is now 2005, we've walked on the moon why can't we just get the story straight with CSS and XHTML?
I have had success with Damn small linux, feather linux, and ubuntu.
My favorite was ubuntu. I simply did a "server" install-- no gui at first. I then apt-getted X11 and ICEWM and whatever else I needed. This works fine on a old p2 laptop, 300MHz w/96 Meg of ram. I can comfortably use firefox too.
On a more powerful machine (p2 400MHz, 196M ram), I was able to use ubuntu server install with xfce.
Unfortunately, Gnome and KDE seem to hog as many resources as I throw at them.
Ha, yeah, similar to the C version when comparing a 200 MHz Pentium II machine running the C version versus what? the java port running on a dual core P4 with 1 GB of RAM?
I think that the reason we are seeing this is because "enterprise class" apps are based on J2EE or.NET technology. Hence, the stuggle of application servers becomes reflected in server OS popularity.
Sadly,.NET is poised to overtake j2ee because everything in j2ee is a colossal pain in the ass to implement. Yeah, I know j2ee is "better" but at some point people have work to get done. The java world ass-hats are releasing one framework per week now with no signs of consolodation or simplification. It is a full time job just to keep up with developments in j2ee.
The end result of all this is that elite groups will maintain j2ee based apps on linux machines and the rest of the world will use.NET on windows servers (non-enterprise folks will cut the bullshit and use neither technology on linux).
* No Installation
* Easy content creation
* Global hyperlinking system
* Speedy interaction
* True rapid development
* Standard navigation/bookmarking scheme
I really take exception with "true rapid development". Web apps are ALWAYS more difficult than the equivalent in client apps.
Also, there is way too much emphasis these days on web-apps. So much, in fact, that managers and developers feel the pressure to roll out "web-apps" even for simple in-house CRUD apps. I am in one of those situations. I dread having to deal with jsp's that are a train wreck of javascript, taglibs, scriptlets, html, css and "browser compatibility issues". AJAX techniques only fuck that up even more.
Most development is not "for the internet", it is for in-house apps where you really DON'T NEED a web app.
"IT" used to mean sys administrators and help desk people-- sort of like the geeky AV-crew types we remember from high school.
These days, IT includes the entire software engineering department and anyone who has anything to do with computers (ie DBA's, modelers, network and security). WTF? This usage of terminology annoys more more every year.
I don't recommend IT to any young student. Instead, I recommend that they study computer science or some science/engineering discipline if they have a technical inclination.
Sometimes all people need is a little push to get them started. If all that book does is to effectively intro some commands and some ideas into the head of someone who never used unix, I think it is sucessful.
Portable code? that's fine,but more importantly...
on
Write Portable Code
·
· Score: 1
Let's be honest, what percentage of projects are actually ported to other architectures? My guess is that it is a very very low number-- like 10%.
These days, the fashion is to scrap everything as legacy and do total re-writes using new tools and practices. Somehow, I don't think that will change.
Today's gleamming cutting edge J2EE project is tomorrow's crufty legacy that no one understands.
Re:Thats the whole point of the "puzzler"
on
Java Puzzlers
·
· Score: 1
That never really stuck me as a reasonable explanation.
I always felt it was a cop out at some level on the part of java to exclude unsigned ints. Its java, for christ's sake, can't the array bounds issue be taken care of?
Java puzzles? I do them everyday
on
Java Puzzlers
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Unfortunately, real-life java problems are never very interesting.
Invariably the solution consists of editing an annoying xml config file, or perhaps correcting one of my daily misconceptions about some boring detail in whatever convoluted j2ee framework I am forced to work with.
First, ignore all advice from computer science undergrads with no experience who make an inspid and glib list of weakly argued points and pretend to sound like they know what they are talking about. For whatever reason, that is very common on slashdot.
Then realize that the question "How do you manage geeks?" presupposes a lot of bullshit that does not apply in real life. If you are a manager and you have a question like that floating around in your head, you probably should not be managing.
...Conversely, love of roleplaying can illustrate how important creativity is to good programming. What do you think?"
Ever since the 80's, the RPG scene has been the domain of smart but socially mal-adjusted people. I think you folks would do better to get outside and exercise daily and not waste any mental energy on those tedious games that serve no interesting purpose.
Web apps all have the same problem. They use a goddamn BROWSER as the application platform. This sucks.
I'm looking at a typical jsp right now. Its an awful demoralizing conflation of xml, css, jstl, html, and javascript-- all in one file. As developer, it sucks to work with and it is a major hassle to create a nice user experience with this trash y stuff.
I have not worked with PHP, but looking at the source from the browser page, I imagine the same problems apply.
Whatever happened to the "applet" concept? True, there were problems with it initially, but one would think that these problems could have been solved by now. Instead, the industry turned away from nice clean designs to the brutal mess that is today's web app.
AJAX is okay for some limited applications like webmail, but it is no replacement for a nicely written interactive GUI APPLICATION.
At my work, we have slaved away for a year to develop an insipid data-entry application. The chosen technogy? J2ee w/struts. It was a colossal pain in the considering that this was strictly an in-house-under-one-roof app. Now, some of the "architects" are already talking about AJAX for our subsequent in-house bloated data-entry web apps.
Everything I've see about AJAX so far indicates that it is a brutally annoying way to put together an app. Sadly, the hype-pushers show no sign of relenting.
When are we going to move on from this web-browser as application platform bullshit and work with more interesting things like, for example, java web-start and other ways to maintain a rich thick client?
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks, I'll look into that!
However, the work-around required to do something like that just is not realistic for the vast majority of users. I expect it will take an hour or two of reading and tweaking for someone who is reasonably comfortable with software.
Macromedia has it within their power to build a 64 bit linux version of Flash and doing so would save thousands upon thousands of people a lot of hassle and would help linux gain marketshare. An hour or two of tweaking multiplied ~300000 times adds up to a lot of hassle work. Even worse, there are orgs and individuals that will just drop desktop linux from consideration simply because they can't get flash to work on their machines "out of the box".
Sadly, macromedia is sitting on their hands when it comes to supporting Flash on computer that use 64 bit processors.
Basically, if you have an AMD 64 running linux in 64 bit mode, you can't see flash on websites.
I am skeptical of any algorithm that purports to gauge or classify taste. People listen to music for complicated reasons and they often listen to very different genres.
A better solution is to point people to "taste-makers".
I found by illegally downloading music using limewire, that I could find very interesting new music by simply broswing the collections of the people that were downloading from me. That really opened up my horizons as far as taste is concerned. I don't think an algorithm could come close to that.
I agree.
Part of the problem is that the w3c is very mushy about their "recommendations". Where the recs have different interpretations they should step in and clarify a CORRECT interpretation and incentivize browser makers to do the right thing.
So much of web-development is a pain in the ass simply because of inspid browser-compatibility issues. The year is now 2005, we've walked on the moon why can't we just get the story straight with CSS and XHTML?
I have had success with Damn small linux, feather linux, and ubuntu.
My favorite was ubuntu. I simply did a "server" install-- no gui at first. I then apt-getted X11 and ICEWM and whatever else I needed. This works fine on a old p2 laptop, 300MHz w/96 Meg of ram. I can comfortably use firefox too.
On a more powerful machine (p2 400MHz, 196M ram), I was able to use ubuntu server install with xfce.
Unfortunately, Gnome and KDE seem to hog as many resources as I throw at them.
I admit that I was being harsh...
They actually did nice work. It is refreshing to see something in Java that is not a bore-me-to-tears enterprise J2EE framework.
Ha, yeah, similar to the C version when comparing a 200 MHz Pentium II machine running the C version versus what? the java port running on a dual core P4 with 1 GB of RAM?
I think that the reason we are seeing this is because "enterprise class" apps are based on J2EE or .NET technology. Hence, the stuggle of application servers becomes reflected in server OS popularity.
.NET is poised to overtake j2ee because everything in j2ee is a colossal pain in the ass to implement. Yeah, I know j2ee is "better" but at some point people have work to get done. The java world ass-hats are releasing one framework per week now with no signs of consolodation or simplification. It is a full time job just to keep up with developments in j2ee.
.NET on windows servers (non-enterprise folks will cut the bullshit and use neither technology on linux).
Sadly,
The end result of all this is that elite groups will maintain j2ee based apps on linux machines and the rest of the world will use
* No Installation
* Easy content creation
* Global hyperlinking system
* Speedy interaction
* True rapid development
* Standard navigation/bookmarking scheme
I really take exception with "true rapid development". Web apps are ALWAYS more difficult than the equivalent in client apps.
Also, there is way too much emphasis these days on web-apps. So much, in fact, that managers and developers feel the pressure to roll out "web-apps" even for simple in-house CRUD apps. I am in one of those situations. I dread having to deal with jsp's that are a train wreck of javascript, taglibs, scriptlets, html, css and "browser compatibility issues". AJAX techniques only fuck that up even more.
Most development is not "for the internet", it is for in-house apps where you really DON'T NEED a web app.
"IT" used to mean sys administrators and help desk people-- sort of like the geeky AV-crew types we remember from high school.
These days, IT includes the entire software engineering department and anyone who has anything to do with computers (ie DBA's, modelers, network and security). WTF? This usage of terminology annoys more more every year.
I don't recommend IT to any young student. Instead, I recommend that they study computer science or some science/engineering discipline if they have a technical inclination.
Sometimes all people need is a little push to get them started. If all that book does is to effectively intro some commands and some ideas into the head of someone who never used unix, I think it is sucessful.
Let's be honest, what percentage of projects are actually ported to other architectures? My guess is that it is a very very low number-- like 10%.
These days, the fashion is to scrap everything as legacy and do total re-writes using new tools and practices. Somehow, I don't think that will change.
Today's gleamming cutting edge J2EE project is tomorrow's crufty legacy that no one understands.
That never really stuck me as a reasonable explanation.
I always felt it was a cop out at some level on the part of java to exclude unsigned ints. Its java, for christ's sake, can't the array bounds issue be taken care of?
Unfortunately, real-life java problems are never very interesting.
Invariably the solution consists of editing an annoying xml config file, or perhaps correcting one of my daily misconceptions about some boring detail in whatever convoluted j2ee framework I am forced to work with.
ahh 1999...
when being a "geek" was celebrated and bizarre "geek" perks were plentiful (mp3.com, anyone?).
Well, dammit, those days are long gone. Do we have to re-hash this past like some worn-out sit-com plot?
Next thing you know, someone will bring up the netslaves hierarchy.
First, ignore all advice from computer science undergrads with no experience who make an inspid and glib list of weakly argued points and pretend to sound like they know what they are talking about. For whatever reason, that is very common on slashdot.
Then realize that the question "How do you manage geeks?" presupposes a lot of bullshit that does not apply in real life. If you are a manager and you have a question like that floating around in your head, you probably should not be managing.
Yeah, I know, we've all heard it-- more than a few times.
R. Stallman and persnickety enthusiasts can say it until they are blue in the face, but it doesn't matter to the general public and never will.
What did Apple do right with OS X that the Linux distro community can learn from?
That is the question we should be asking!
Of course, as reasonable people, we all understand that he means LINUX distributions rather than the LINUX kernel.
You can have your cake and eat it too.
Linux has to made more useable "out of the box", expert users can always strip-down their install or use only certain tools or pick "expert" distros.
No harm is done (to expert users) if a smart company decides to release a user-friendly linux distro.
IDE's are wonderful and productive things. Plain old text editors such as vi and emacs are also wonderful.
It's the programmers and the app frameworks that they use that suck.
...Conversely, love of roleplaying can illustrate how important creativity is to good programming. What do you think?"
Ever since the 80's, the RPG scene has been the domain of smart but socially mal-adjusted people. I think you folks would do better to get outside and exercise daily and not waste any mental energy on those tedious games that serve no interesting purpose.
Web apps all have the same problem. They use a goddamn BROWSER as the application platform. This sucks.
I'm looking at a typical jsp right now. Its an awful demoralizing conflation of xml, css, jstl, html, and javascript-- all in one file. As developer, it sucks to work with and it is a major hassle to create a nice user experience with this trash y stuff.
I have not worked with PHP, but looking at the source from the browser page, I imagine the same problems apply.
Whatever happened to the "applet" concept? True, there were problems with it initially, but one would think that these problems could have been solved by now. Instead, the industry turned away from nice clean designs to the brutal mess that is today's web app.
Sounds like a typical J2EE roll-out.
Lets not get carried away here.
AJAX is okay for some limited applications like webmail, but it is no replacement for a nicely written interactive GUI APPLICATION.
At my work, we have slaved away for a year to develop an insipid data-entry application. The chosen technogy? J2ee w/struts. It was a colossal pain in the considering that this was strictly an in-house-under-one-roof app. Now, some of the "architects" are already talking about AJAX for our subsequent in-house bloated data-entry web apps.
Everything I've see about AJAX so far indicates that it is a brutally annoying way to put together an app. Sadly, the hype-pushers show no sign of relenting.
When are we going to move on from this web-browser as application platform bullshit and work with more interesting things like, for example, java web-start and other ways to maintain a rich thick client?