Not to complain, but Slashbacks seem to have had a revival while quickies seem to have died a quiet death. Any chance we can revive this most loved Slashdot feature?
There used to be a database product called Alpha 5, which incorporated a programming language called xBASIC. One of its features was being able to interact with the database as well as sending data to Windows services (for printing, saving files, etc).
When it ran into problems with external components, it would always return the following error:
"xBASIC Error: No error at line X", where X was the external system call.
It would be nice if the web were accessible to people using non-standard browsers in general. The number of Windows IE specific sites ( the Mac version of IE doesn't seem to be compatible ) out there, especially for major vendors, is sickening.
So instead of focusing on making the web accessible for people using alternate access methods, we should settle on a web standard. It would make the alternate methods that much easier to implement.
What about a constantly increasing time keeping system. We already have epoch time ( # of seconds since midnight, 1 Jan, 1970 GMT ), which is just a number that keeps growing.
At the risk of sounding completely corny, the Star Trek star date time would actually be a good system. Divorced from natural events, _very_ easy to sort, and easy to plan in. There would be no confusion trying to remember if you ventured off in a search for the Holy Grail ( Neh! ) last June or 2 Junes ago. It would be date 100201.012 ( or something like that ).
Now, what the system actually counts is something else. ( Days ( which would tie the system to earth ), atomic frequency, epoch seconds ( yah! ), what? ).
in Canada, at least. We have to pay 7% tax on all items purchased through or from a business. On used cars, less than a year old, we have to pay the 7%, plus an 8% provincial tax. Seems like a rip off to me. How can they justify collecting taxes on a single item more than once?!?!?
Sun's greatest feature isn't it's SPARC, although that's a major component. It's the fact that SPARC Architectures are so scalable. Take for example an E10K server. 16 system boards with 4 CPU/ 4GB RAM. Any number of system boards can be connected together to make a "domain" or a single system. So you could have a single instance of Solaris on a 64/64 system, 2 instances with 32/32 each, or 16 individual domains.
From what I've seen, Intel has only recently introduced its ProFusion chipset, which allows Intel systems to scale to 8 processors. Hmmm . . . . 64 max CPUs together ( E15k will have more ), or 8 CPUs. Granted I haven't looked into SMP for the Itanium chipset, so there may have been advances there ( especially with the partnership with HP ).
Finally, there is far more hardware redundancy and error checking in Sun hardware ( E class ) than in Intel based platforms. Until this is addressed ( removing all Single Point Of Failures (SPOFs) ), Intel won't be seen has a high available environment except through extensive software failovers.
X has become an incredible resource hog and a fine example of bloatware. I ran X 4.0 on my AMD k6-3 450 w/64MB RAM, and it was incredibly slow! Almost unusable. I moved back to 3.3.6 after two weeks of torture.
It's time to have a clean break from legacy platforms. When the time comes to vote, say NO to X!
Because it's good manners. You are about to take a product developed by somebody else through hard work. Once they've done that, and attempted to make a little bit of money off it ( in this case ), then you go ahead and make a free version of the software. These people are trying to make a living, and you're robbing them of it. The least you could do is ask before your ruin their entire business model.
The TRGPro uses compact flash to attain the same results. With the IBMmicrodrive, this means up to 1GB storage. The TRGPro site is currently down, so check out HandHeld Interfaces to look at the specs (Prices in CDN ).
I realise that windows is far removed from the DOS 3.0 days that I started in, but I think that a good place to start is with batch files (.BAT). This is a _really_ primitive form of shell script that allows a person to sting multiple commands together. In old DOS days, you could set one up to, say, copy all the files from your a: drive to another location and zip them there with just one command. Later implementations of the bat interpreter allowed the use of interaction and jumping, etc.
After that, I moved to BASIC, but it might be worth going to something a bit more intuitive. Perl, I like, but it's more than just a little confusing, especially since you can always do things another way (The motto of perl?:).
I've always liked Delphi, if there into the entire windows scene. It has basic OO concepts.
I guess you might want to consider what they might be doing. I find that as a sysadmin that I rarely, if ever, use OO in my day to day work. As a developer, especially for the *nix platform, I still see C as being a dominating force. So If OO and visual stuff wasn't on the list as being desirable, I'd introduce C. Or even the shell scripting on Unix. It's closer to the batch programming on DOS, but, obviously, much more powerful and extensive. Limited command set, very useful functionality, and still used today (and probably tomorow).
I think that Borland is coming from the perspective that additional licensing fees were required to distrubte binary only versions of software compiled with their compiler. It seems to me that Borland is saying 'No, you don't have to pay to have this basic functionality'. Sounds good to me. . .
Manuals are still great. You don't have to constantly flip back and forth between windows / terminals in order to figure out how to do things. Also, if it is a systems manual, it's nice to be able to reference it if you don't have a working system at the time.
Manuals that come with software should be phased out a little. 3rd party books are always so much better than manuals, and new software seems to be a lot more intuitive than before, making manuals something that I can Live Without.
BUT, if online documentation is moving towards that paper clip, then HOORAY for paper manuals!
This is somewhat of a philosophical question, but most things in AI seem to be that anyway. What do you consider to be Intelligence, or the essence of Intelligence?
The way that I look at it, it seems that all intelligence is is an incredibly powerful and generalised pattern recognition engine. This model provides a relatively simple model with the only requirements being relatively simple ones (Basic inputs and instinctual incentives such as those governing self preservation, etc).
Finally, what do you see as being the single greatest obstacle in the way of AI (Social acceptance, a technical obstance, etc)?
'Moreover, he adds, DoubleClick itself would hand over to privacy advocates the list of articipating companies if it could. But as in many lines of business, partners frown when their relationships are disclosed without their permission, he says.'
... From the article on USA today.
Hmmm. Dare I ask why it's ok to disclose my relationship to a site I'm browsing without my permission? They seem to be more than just a little hypocritical and arogant (obvious, Joe Blow isn't worth applying ethics to).
www.microsoft.com: A basic smell of money mixed with a heady bouquet of sweaty lawyers working hard into the night researching how to accept the Linux revolution without losing face or money. www.slashdot.org: The slightly musty, burning smell one gets when opening their computer up (assuming you ever put the cover back on). www.linux.com: One word: Penguin!:) I don't think that this is going to work out so well. I'd start looking like the borg: A hands free headset in one ear, and earphone to my computer in the other, and now they probably want to stick some plastic (and yet Oh! so stylish) tubes up my nose. . . Hmm. If they're using java, does that mean the smells with be the same regardless of the nose that's smelling them?:)
Slashdot Mirror
Not to complain, but Slashbacks seem to have had a revival while quickies seem to have died a quiet death. Any chance we can revive this most loved Slashdot feature?
When it ran into problems with external components, it would always return the following error:
"xBASIC Error: No error at line X", where X was the external system call.
So instead of focusing on making the web accessible for people using alternate access methods, we should settle on a web standard. It would make the alternate methods that much easier to implement.
What about a constantly increasing time keeping system. We already have epoch time ( # of seconds since midnight, 1 Jan, 1970 GMT ), which is just a number that keeps growing.
At the risk of sounding completely corny, the Star Trek star date time would actually be a good system. Divorced from natural events, _very_ easy to sort, and easy to plan in. There would be no confusion trying to remember if you ventured off in a search for the Holy Grail ( Neh! ) last June or 2 Junes ago. It would be date 100201.012 ( or something like that ).
Now, what the system actually counts is something else. ( Days ( which would tie the system to earth ), atomic frequency, epoch seconds ( yah! ), what? ).
But who will watch those watchers? And who will watch them?
I dunno. The Coast Guard?
in Canada, at least. We have to pay 7% tax on all items purchased through or from a business. On used cars, less than a year old, we have to pay the 7%, plus an 8% provincial tax. Seems like a rip off to me. How can they justify collecting taxes on a single item more than once?!?!?
From what I've seen, Intel has only recently introduced its ProFusion chipset, which allows Intel systems to scale to 8 processors. Hmmm . . . . 64 max CPUs together ( E15k will have more ), or 8 CPUs. Granted I haven't looked into SMP for the Itanium chipset, so there may have been advances there ( especially with the partnership with HP ).
Finally, there is far more hardware redundancy and error checking in Sun hardware ( E class ) than in Intel based platforms. Until this is addressed ( removing all Single Point Of Failures (SPOFs) ), Intel won't be seen has a high available environment except through extensive software failovers.
Just my 2 cents.
It's time to have a clean break from legacy platforms. When the time comes to vote, say NO to X!
Because it's good manners. You are about to take a product developed by somebody else through hard work. Once they've done that, and attempted to make a little bit of money off it ( in this case ), then you go ahead and make a free version of the software. These people are trying to make a living, and you're robbing them of it. The least you could do is ask before your ruin their entire business model.
The TRGPro uses compact flash to attain the same results. With the IBM microdrive, this means up to 1GB storage. The TRGPro site is currently down, so check out HandHeld Interfaces to look at the specs (Prices in CDN ).
How come they never level the playing field by removing taxes?
After that, I moved to BASIC, but it might be worth going to something a bit more intuitive. Perl, I like, but it's more than just a little confusing, especially since you can always do things another way (The motto of perl? :).
I've always liked Delphi, if there into the entire windows scene. It has basic OO concepts.
I guess you might want to consider what they might be doing. I find that as a sysadmin that I rarely, if ever, use OO in my day to day work. As a developer, especially for the *nix platform, I still see C as being a dominating force. So If OO and visual stuff wasn't on the list as being desirable, I'd introduce C. Or even the shell scripting on Unix. It's closer to the batch programming on DOS, but, obviously, much more powerful and extensive. Limited command set, very useful functionality, and still used today (and probably tomorow).
I think that Borland is coming from the perspective that additional licensing fees were required to distrubte binary only versions of software compiled with their compiler. It seems to me that Borland is saying 'No, you don't have to pay to have this basic functionality'. Sounds good to me. . .
Manuals that come with software should be phased out a little. 3rd party books are always so much better than manuals, and new software seems to be a lot more intuitive than before, making manuals something that I can Live Without.
BUT, if online documentation is moving towards that paper clip, then HOORAY for paper manuals!
They created the DB for something else. Maybe a compile farm or something. Or a /. archive (include cached pages of eveything ever linked to :)
Obstacle, that is, not obstance :)
The way that I look at it, it seems that all intelligence is is an incredibly powerful and generalised pattern recognition engine. This model provides a relatively simple model with the only requirements being relatively simple ones (Basic inputs and instinctual incentives such as those governing self preservation, etc).
Finally, what do you see as being the single greatest obstacle in the way of AI (Social acceptance, a technical obstance, etc)?
Regards,
Ian
Hmmm. Dare I ask why it's ok to disclose my relationship to a site I'm browsing without my permission? They seem to be more than just a little hypocritical and arogant (obvious, Joe Blow isn't worth applying ethics to).
www.microsoft.com: A basic smell of money mixed with a heady bouquet of sweaty lawyers working hard into the night researching how to accept the Linux revolution without losing face or money. www.slashdot.org: The slightly musty, burning smell one gets when opening their computer up (assuming you ever put the cover back on). www.linux.com: One word: Penguin! :) I don't think that this is going to work out so well. I'd start looking like the borg: A hands free headset in one ear, and earphone to my computer in the other, and now they probably want to stick some plastic (and yet Oh! so stylish) tubes up my nose. . . Hmm. If they're using java, does that mean the smells with be the same regardless of the nose that's smelling them? :)