The best solution I've found for eye strain is to simply force myself to stand up every half an hour and walk around for a couple of minutes. Close your eyes, relax for a minute, stretch your arms and legs. It does wonders.
If you're on a Windows machine it may have nothing to do with geolocation and everything to do with your regional settings. Go to Control Panel, Regional Settings (XP) or Regional and Language Options (Vista) and make sure your current format is English (United States) not English (Canada). Yes, I know it's odd to have Language Options instead of Location affect this, but it does.
List your new laptops on your homeowners/renters insurance. Next time your laptops are stolen, forget about recover and call your insurance company. After paying your small deductible, order two new laptops with the payment you get from them. It is, after all, why you pay money for homeowners/renters insurance:)
WestJest flights out of Vancouver, BC, Canada will frequently use dual-door boarding. They have Y-shaped jetways that have two arms to attach to the plane.
They do free-for-all boarding, and you go either front or back depending on your row number. Fast and simple.
Get 'em to give you windows that face outside so you can get natural light. Note that I mean windows as in the thing you look through, not the software everyone here loves to hate:)
I've worked in offices both with and without windows and there is no comparison to being able to see real light during the day.
Word 2007 has a completely revamped equation editor and includes a new font specifically designed for laying out math equations (Cambria Math).
If you haven't given it a whirl, you should. Quick, easy, approachable, and it produces beautiful output. You can even cut/paste equations to/from MathML.
The Nexus pass isn't actually tied to your car. It used to be when it was the PACE program, but not anymore. True on the passengers, but if they don't have a card, why are you driving with them!?:) As for the interview, but it's a onetime hassle for a big payback.
At the risk of spoiling the fast lane for the rest of us... www.getnexus.com. $50 for five years, and you can even do your application on-line now. You'll blast past all the suckers in the slow lane.
As a Canadian working in the US for the "Evil Empire"...
NAFTA only gets you TN status, which is a temporary work authorization that only lasts a year. You can renew it, but after a while the USCIS starts to get very suspicious. Long term employemnt requires an H1-B, the same visa as everyone else in the world uses to come to the US to work. Furthermore none of those (TN, H1-B) allow your spouse to work while you're in the US, which makes it very awkward for married people. Yes, actually, there are geeks who are married.
I was fortunate to get my green card before 9/11, when everything changed. Many of my co-workers, both Canadian and from other countries, have been waiting for upwards of 5 years for any chance at a green card. You may not think it's a big deal, but for families trying to figure out how to make everyone happy it's a very stressful situation to be in.
I'll stay out of the whole "hire programmers in the US" debate, and simply say that on the salary scale Microsoft pays the same to workers regardless of where they come from. This is US law, and part of the process for bringing works into the US from other countries.
I used to work on cellphone software, and outside our building we had a COW (Cell on Wheels) to get us good quality reception to local mobile operators. I had a nice view of it from my window, since it was right across the parking lot from me.
One day we had some tech dudes from an overseas MO, and being the geeks they were they fired up their phones in "test mode" to check out our COW.
The look on their faces when they realized how strong the output of the COW... priceless! They suggested we go out and twiddle the appropriate nob to turn it down some. We did.
I carpool to and from work about 20 miles each way. Interestingly, my non-scientific observation of our commute times and what affects it matches pretty closely with the linked article:
1) Friday mornings are usually pretty smooth. Mondays are often smooth too. 2) Evenings are always terrible. It doesn't matter the day of the week, they're just consistently awful. 3) Days/weeks without school are lighter. 4) Leaving at 8:40 gives a pretty consistent 30 minute commute. Leaving an hour earlier guarantees bad traffic.
The author did miss one key point though, which I call the Nielson Law of Traffic Dynamics (named for my carpool buddy who discovered it):
Traffic on the evening of October 31st is unquestionably always the worst traffic of the year, every year.
Every year we forget about this law, and every year we curse the thousands of parents who *have* *to* *be* *home* *before* *sunset*.
The Security Design Lifecycle is part of the daily process of work on software development at Microsoft. It has a fancy name because you do different things at different parts of the cycle, and it has specific signoff points, but it's not like it's something you do all at once at the very end. Threat models are done before code is written. Code reviews include checks for certain known badness. Tools are run at check-in time to look for things like buffer overruns. Tools are run post-build to look for other types of errors.
The whole point of documenting the security part of the lifecycle was specifically so we can be educated on how to apply security thinking to our daily development process. In fact, I remember when they put little advertisements on all the tables in all the cafeterias about this very point.
It's a whole process that is integrated into the daily development cycle.
The language on the website is slightly confusing. If you download an express edition it doesn't stop working in 365 days. It just means that a year from now Microsoft *may* stop offering it for free download.
Think of it as "if you download within the next year, it's absolutely free!".
In last week's episode Adam was specifically saying how the myth they were testing (tailgate up or down for better fuel economy) was one of the experiments where the result totally surprised them.
The same episode also had them surprised that a finger in the barrel of a gun, even though it couldn't stop the bullet, would actually cause enough pressure buildup to deform the gun barrel at the tip.
Once the city council backed the mayor to withdraw support, the monoral project was forced to put a measure on the upcoming November ballot so Seattle citizens can vote a fifth time on the monorail project. This time they're being offered the option of a 10-mile long route (as opposed to the original 14-mile route) that would (only) cost $5B. This whole mess started when it was discovered that the original route would wind up costing $11B to build.
The Seattle PI had a good article on the latest developments in the paper yesterday.
The build process is automated and kicks off every night. The reason it used to take several days to get a build is you'd have no idea when the build kicked off whether it would work. You could be six hours into the build only to find that some code that was checked in conflicted with some other check-in, or was missing a file, and boom, your build is on the floor. Then you have to have a human figure out what went wrong, patch it up, and restart the build.
Once the build gets kicked out, nobody in their right mind goes and installs it on their desktop. It has to be validated through tests to ensure it actually hobbles along well enough to be used. In the old days of Windows (and many many teams at Microsoft) a lot of those verification tests were manual. For a product the size of Windows, you can imagine how long it would take to validate even a small set of tests that ensure the basics of Windows work well enought to be useful.
A lot of the changes that went in place (and happened over in Office) have to do with ensuring that quality code gets checked in from the start. In addition, a huge effort was made to automate the vast majority of tests, so someone can whack a button to verify a build instead of having to line up a legion of testers to do it.
The examples above (var i = 5, etc.) are pretty simple and I agree, not particularly useful.
The place where var is useful is when you're writing LINQ code. When you're writing LINQ statements you are effectively building objects on the fly. You don't know what the object will look like when you write the LINQ statement, but you also want to make sure that once it's assigned it's fixed to that type and you get the benefits of it being "strong" through the rest of your code.
The way the patent system works in the US is based on the date you invented the idea, not the date of filing. Whether Apple shipped before Microsoft filed is irrelevant. All that matters is whether they can show they invented it before Microsoft.
When there's a patent dispute like this, companies will file with the patent office anything they have internally that shows when they came up with the invention. Apple, for example, might have internal product specifications that show they came up with the UI back on, say, May 14th, 2001. Microsoft might similarly have e-mail correspondence between developers indicating they invented it on May 12th, 2001. Generally when you file a patent you put the earliest date for invention that you can prove.
As far as I understand, FatWallet actually gives you back the commission on click-throughs through their "cash back" program, rather than keeping it for themselves. I got over $60 cash back on a Dell computer purchase alone.
Costco is more than happy to take your semi-pro or pro shots and print them. In fact, they specifically do things to cater to pro-sumers and independent professional photographers: each and every one of Costco's digital printers are profiled every six months. The profiles are made available on the web at Dry Creek Photo so you can have a completely colour-managed workflow.
The best part is the price:) Costco's largest size, 12"x18", is only $2.99 a copy, and they look stunning. I have six hanging in my office right now and people are shocked when I tell them where they were printed.
Well, actually, neither comment is quite correct. I actually work in Visual Studio, and believe I have a tiny bit of insight into this:)
Obviously all of Visual Studio hasn't been re-written in.NET, as another poster mentioned. That would be a massive undertaking and a silly use of developer resources when there is already a stable codebase that is well-understood.
However, where appropriate, new features being added to VS are written entirely using managed code, where it makes sense. My feature area, for example, is entirely written in C#.
The first issue of Make had a whole article, with parts list and clear directions, on how to attach a card reader to your computer and use the Stripe Snoop software to read off the information.
My wife and I carved pumpkins last weekend. Ever the geek I bought a spiral cutting bit for my Dremel. My wife made do with a potato peeler (for the eye gouging end) and a knife.
The Dremel sucked for cutting out the faces. It, as others have mentioned, sprays orange rind everywhere, and is very hard to control. Plus you don't get a clean cut through the flesh. The edges wind up all fuzzy and gross instead of having that nice clean look that you get with a knife.
The Dremel was, however, very good at beveling all the edges back 45 degrees so the light could shine through better. It made quick work of the flesh behind the rind.
Slashdot Mirror
The best solution I've found for eye strain is to simply force myself to stand up every half an hour and walk around for a couple of minutes. Close your eyes, relax for a minute, stretch your arms and legs. It does wonders.
Neil
If you're on a Windows machine it may have nothing to do with geolocation and everything to do with your regional settings. Go to Control Panel, Regional Settings (XP) or Regional and Language Options (Vista) and make sure your current format is English (United States) not English (Canada). Yes, I know it's odd to have Language Options instead of Location affect this, but it does.
Neil
List your new laptops on your homeowners/renters insurance. Next time your laptops are stolen, forget about recover and call your insurance company. After paying your small deductible, order two new laptops with the payment you get from them. It is, after all, why you pay money for homeowners/renters insurance :)
Neil
WestJest flights out of Vancouver, BC, Canada will frequently use dual-door boarding. They have Y-shaped jetways that have two arms to attach to the plane.
They do free-for-all boarding, and you go either front or back depending on your row number. Fast and simple.
Get 'em to give you windows that face outside so you can get natural light. Note that I mean windows as in the thing you look through, not the software everyone here loves to hate :)
I've worked in offices both with and without windows and there is no comparison to being able to see real light during the day.
Neil
Why wait for it to be built into Google Earth when it is already built into Live Maps?
Neil
Word 2007 has a completely revamped equation editor and includes a new font specifically designed for laying out math equations (Cambria Math).
If you haven't given it a whirl, you should. Quick, easy, approachable, and it produces beautiful output. You can even cut/paste equations to/from MathML.
Neil
The Nexus pass isn't actually tied to your car. It used to be when it was the PACE program, but not anymore. True on the passengers, but if they don't have a card, why are you driving with them!? :) As for the interview, but it's a onetime hassle for a big payback.
At the risk of spoiling the fast lane for the rest of us... www.getnexus.com. $50 for five years, and you can even do your application on-line now. You'll blast past all the suckers in the slow lane.
Neil
As a Canadian working in the US for the "Evil Empire"...
NAFTA only gets you TN status, which is a temporary work authorization that only lasts a year. You can renew it, but after a while the USCIS starts to get very suspicious. Long term employemnt requires an H1-B, the same visa as everyone else in the world uses to come to the US to work. Furthermore none of those (TN, H1-B) allow your spouse to work while you're in the US, which makes it very awkward for married people. Yes, actually, there are geeks who are married.
I was fortunate to get my green card before 9/11, when everything changed. Many of my co-workers, both Canadian and from other countries, have been waiting for upwards of 5 years for any chance at a green card. You may not think it's a big deal, but for families trying to figure out how to make everyone happy it's a very stressful situation to be in.
I'll stay out of the whole "hire programmers in the US" debate, and simply say that on the salary scale Microsoft pays the same to workers regardless of where they come from. This is US law, and part of the process for bringing works into the US from other countries.
Neil
I used to work on cellphone software, and outside our building we had a COW (Cell on Wheels) to get us good quality reception to local mobile operators. I had a nice view of it from my window, since it was right across the parking lot from me.
One day we had some tech dudes from an overseas MO, and being the geeks they were they fired up their phones in "test mode" to check out our COW.
The look on their faces when they realized how strong the output of the COW... priceless! They suggested we go out and twiddle the appropriate nob to turn it down some. We did.
Neil
I carpool to and from work about 20 miles each way. Interestingly, my non-scientific observation of our commute times and what affects it matches pretty closely with the linked article:
1) Friday mornings are usually pretty smooth. Mondays are often smooth too.
2) Evenings are always terrible. It doesn't matter the day of the week, they're just consistently awful.
3) Days/weeks without school are lighter.
4) Leaving at 8:40 gives a pretty consistent 30 minute commute. Leaving an hour earlier guarantees bad traffic.
The author did miss one key point though, which I call the Nielson Law of Traffic Dynamics (named for my carpool buddy who discovered it):
Traffic on the evening of October 31st is unquestionably always the worst traffic of the year, every year.
Every year we forget about this law, and every year we curse the thousands of parents who *have* *to* *be* *home* *before* *sunset*.
Neil
The Security Design Lifecycle is part of the daily process of work on software development at Microsoft. It has a fancy name because you do different things at different parts of the cycle, and it has specific signoff points, but it's not like it's something you do all at once at the very end. Threat models are done before code is written. Code reviews include checks for certain known badness. Tools are run at check-in time to look for things like buffer overruns. Tools are run post-build to look for other types of errors.
The whole point of documenting the security part of the lifecycle was specifically so we can be educated on how to apply security thinking to our daily development process. In fact, I remember when they put little advertisements on all the tables in all the cafeterias about this very point.
It's a whole process that is integrated into the daily development cycle.
Neil
The language on the website is slightly confusing. If you download an express edition it doesn't stop working in 365 days. It just means that a year from now Microsoft *may* stop offering it for free download.
Think of it as "if you download within the next year, it's absolutely free!".
Neil
In last week's episode Adam was specifically saying how the myth they were testing (tailgate up or down for better fuel economy) was one of the experiments where the result totally surprised them.
The same episode also had them surprised that a finger in the barrel of a gun, even though it couldn't stop the bullet, would actually cause enough pressure buildup to deform the gun barrel at the tip.
Neil
Once the city council backed the mayor to withdraw support, the monoral project was forced to put a measure on the upcoming November ballot so Seattle citizens can vote a fifth time on the monorail project. This time they're being offered the option of a 10-mile long route (as opposed to the original 14-mile route) that would (only) cost $5B. This whole mess started when it was discovered that the original route would wind up costing $11B to build.
The Seattle PI had a good article on the latest developments in the paper yesterday.
The build process is automated and kicks off every night. The reason it used to take several days to get a build is you'd have no idea when the build kicked off whether it would work. You could be six hours into the build only to find that some code that was checked in conflicted with some other check-in, or was missing a file, and boom, your build is on the floor. Then you have to have a human figure out what went wrong, patch it up, and restart the build.
Once the build gets kicked out, nobody in their right mind goes and installs it on their desktop. It has to be validated through tests to ensure it actually hobbles along well enough to be used. In the old days of Windows (and many many teams at Microsoft) a lot of those verification tests were manual. For a product the size of Windows, you can imagine how long it would take to validate even a small set of tests that ensure the basics of Windows work well enought to be useful.
A lot of the changes that went in place (and happened over in Office) have to do with ensuring that quality code gets checked in from the start. In addition, a huge effort was made to automate the vast majority of tests, so someone can whack a button to verify a build instead of having to line up a legion of testers to do it.
The examples above (var i = 5, etc.) are pretty simple and I agree, not particularly useful.
l es/projection/default.aspx#anonymous1. Here's one:
The place where var is useful is when you're writing LINQ code. When you're writing LINQ statements you are effectively building objects on the fly. You don't know what the object will look like when you write the LINQ statement, but you also want to make sure that once it's assigned it's fixed to that type and you get the benefits of it being "strong" through the rest of your code.
There are tons of examples of this over at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/future/linqsamp
public void Linq10() {
int[] numbers = { 5, 4, 1, 3, 9, 8, 6, 7, 2, 0 };
string[] strings = { "zero", "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", "seven", "eight", "nine" };
var digitOddEvens =
from n in numbers
select new {Digit = strings[n], Even = (n % 2 == 0)};
foreach (var d in digitOddEvens) {
Console.WriteLine("The digit {0} is {1}.", d.Digit, d.Even ? "even" : "odd");
}
}
Neil
The way the patent system works in the US is based on the date you invented the idea, not the date of filing. Whether Apple shipped before Microsoft filed is irrelevant. All that matters is whether they can show they invented it before Microsoft.
When there's a patent dispute like this, companies will file with the patent office anything they have internally that shows when they came up with the invention. Apple, for example, might have internal product specifications that show they came up with the UI back on, say, May 14th, 2001. Microsoft might similarly have e-mail correspondence between developers indicating they invented it on May 12th, 2001. Generally when you file a patent you put the earliest date for invention that you can prove.
NeilAs far as I understand, FatWallet actually gives you back the commission on click-throughs through their "cash back" program, rather than keeping it for themselves. I got over $60 cash back on a Dell computer purchase alone.
Neil
Costco is more than happy to take your semi-pro or pro shots and print them. In fact, they specifically do things to cater to pro-sumers and independent professional photographers: each and every one of Costco's digital printers are profiled every six months. The profiles are made available on the web at Dry Creek Photo so you can have a completely colour-managed workflow.
The best part is the price :) Costco's largest size, 12"x18", is only $2.99 a copy, and they look stunning. I have six hanging in my office right now and people are shocked when I tell them where they were printed.
Neil
Well, actually, neither comment is quite correct. I actually work in Visual Studio, and believe I have a tiny bit of insight into this :)
.NET, as another poster mentioned. That would be a massive undertaking and a silly use of developer resources when there is already a stable codebase that is well-understood.
Obviously all of Visual Studio hasn't been re-written in
However, where appropriate, new features being added to VS are written entirely using managed code, where it makes sense. My feature area, for example, is entirely written in C#.
Artie! I didn't know you posted to Slashdot! :)
The first issue of Make had a whole article, with parts list and clear directions, on how to attach a card reader to your computer and use the Stripe Snoop software to read off the information.
My wife and I carved pumpkins last weekend. Ever the geek I bought a spiral cutting bit for my Dremel. My wife made do with a potato peeler (for the eye gouging end) and a knife.
:(
The Dremel sucked for cutting out the faces. It, as others have mentioned, sprays orange rind everywhere, and is very hard to control. Plus you don't get a clean cut through the flesh. The edges wind up all fuzzy and gross instead of having that nice clean look that you get with a knife.
The Dremel was, however, very good at beveling all the edges back 45 degrees so the light could shine through better. It made quick work of the flesh behind the rind.
My wife's pumpkins turned out way better
Neil