I think it depends a lot on how many systems you use, both now and in the future, and also your rate of learning.
If I'm a new Java programmer I'll probably get more out of Eclipse than vi or Emacs; if I'm using Windows I might get more out of Visual Studio than vi or Emacs. But that's just in the short term. In the long term, the language and operating system might change, but the need to work on text files is likely to still be there. If I'm using multiple languages or OSes now, or if I expect that I'll be using different languages or OSes in the future, it means I'm likely to change IDEs. Each time I change, I'm learning from scratch. This means I don't get more than a decade of becoming an expert with one editor; instead I learn the most common tasks but not the advanced features.
With vi(m) or Emacs, I get something that's not optimized (specialized) for one environment, but instead something that's general-purpose and adapts to many different systems, and I can carry what I learn from one system to the next. I've been using vi and Emacs on Solaris, OS/2, Linux, Windows, Mac, with C, Scheme, C++, Java, Ruby, Python, Perl, SML, and many other languages. I could've used Visual Age on OS/2, but most of what I learned would not have been that useful when I switched to Eclipse on Linux, and most of that would not be useful when I switched to Visual Studio on Windows, and most of that would not be useful when I switched to XCode on Mac. Instead, I'm using a tool that's less optimal for my current needs, but it's something that I can keep using for other needs.
It extends beyond programming to my editing of text files, email, messages for newsgroups, HTML, my diary, my calendar, blogs, XML, config files, etc. Do you use Visual Studio for editing your blog, or do you use a different editor? Do you use yet a different editor for HTML? For email? I think it's a reasonable way to go but I find that I only use the simplest editing functions when I use lots of editors, because I can't count on features being available as I switch from one context to another.
It's a tradeoff, and I don't know for sure whether it's better to be a novice with specialized tools or an expert with a single general-purpose tool. I'd consider vi(m) and/or Emacs if you're editing a whole lot and expect to be editing on many different systems, languages, etc. I'd stick to IDEs if you're using one system a lot and don't expect to switch often, or if you don't edit enough that there's any benefit to learning vi(m) or Emacs.
Wait no longer. There is a web browser written in Javascript; I think it uses AJAX but I'm not sure. It's called Bitty Browser, and you can embed a browser inside a web page:
If Google logs the MD5 of your IP and cookie, then the government can look at your computer, get your IP and cookie, and MD5 it, then go to Google. There's no protection from hashing unless it's in a way that makes it useless to Google as well.
Part of what I like about Guild Wars is that I don't need the CD in the drive, there's no annoying splash screen before I get into the game, and the game works very nicely (no weird glitches, graphics issues, etc.). It makes the game really quick to startup, so I end up playing it more.
URLs contain a domain name. Domain names already provide a level of indirection. Why can't we use that level of indirection for Wikipedia's problem? I don't see what URIs buy us -- if we're already not using the indirection we have, how does a second level give us?
Re:Discarding too many people
on
Defining Google
·
· Score: 3, Funny
If you interview enough people, you can solve all your problems this way.
Re:My chief google frustration is...
on
In Google We Trust
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I wish google would stop passing the search words along with the URL when I click on a link. That's a privacy invasion.
It's your web browser doing that. In Firefox, go to about:config and change the network.http.sendRefererHeader value to 0. Or run a proxy like Junkbuster or WebWasher.
Micropayments create an incentive not to read as many articles. If you're not sure whether something is worth reading, you'll tend to take a look at it when the marginal cost (in money anyway) is zero, but you'll tend to not look when you have to pay for it (even a small amount). Since the marginal cost to the publisher of providing an article to someone is zero, this leads to less overall value. Publishers and users both are better off having a small fee for unlimited use for some period of time ($1 for all articles on a particular day, for example). People will read more and publishers will make more (they'll keep you on their site instead of spending another $1 on another site).
The cell phone folk have figured out that it's simpler to offer 300 "free" minutes for $30 than to have a low monthly fee but a per-minute usage fee.
I find that when I'm in the library I'm much more willing to read new kinds of books. When I'm shopping at Amazon, I'm only going to get a few books.
It's possible that the publishers can use teasers / samples to get people to read the articles. For example, at a bookstore, I'm more willing to buy books because I can take a look at them. Still, I'm conservative when paying for something and more adventurous when I can get things for free.
For some number of years I thought my allergy symptoms were related to high pressure systems. After looking at pressure records, they certainly seemed correlated with my sniffling and sneezing. Some of my friends were having headaches at the same time.
However, I have an alternate explanation for my allergies -- high pressure systems affect winds and winds can bring in pollens. The high pressure systems in Northern California come from the west. As they go east, they blow pollen, pesticides, etc. from the California Central Valley to the coast (where I live). At other times we have relatively clean air (well, there's smog...). So when the dirty air comes in, I sneeze. In this theory, high pressure and my allergy symptoms are correlated but high pressure itself isn't the direct cause of those symptoms.
It's just a theory, though. I'm willing to believe that air pressure can affect your health, but I'm also willing to be convinced otherwise. At this point I don't have enough data. I'd love to hear the experiences of others.
Flexible systems solve more of the initial problem but tend to be harder to manage. (Pick your favorite example: Linux vs. Mac, C++ vs. Java, Civilization vs. Quake,...) What I worried about back when I used ACLs was that roles can change over time. Yes, I have some directory that Bob should have access to. Two months from now, Alice joins Bob's group and takes over his duties, so she needs access. Can Bob grant that access? Now what happens when Bob transfers to a different group? Who's going to go around checking all files accessible by Bob to determine which of them were accessible by him because he's working on some particular project and which were accessible because he's a good buddy of mine? What if you forget to do this?
Keep it simple. If not for yourself, for your children, and your children's children.
There has been some work on using graphics cards for computation. The tough part is figuring out how to rephrase your algorithm in terms of what the GPU can handle. You'd expect matrix math to work out but people have tried to implement more interesting algorithms too.:-)
We complain about the Microsoft monoculture because what OS other people use affects me too -- availability of software, interoperability of protocols, sharing of documents. There's a cost to being in the minority. I can use more than one OS, but it's a lot of work.
With search engines, it doesn't really matter much what other people use. I can still use any search engine I choose without risking a penalty for choosing something different. I'm also able to easily use more than one.
I think the big difference is that with search engines, I feel like I have a choice, and I'm not being pressured to use one particular search engine.
If there were 10,000 niche search engines, how would you figure out which search engine is the right one? Either you'd have a metasearch engine that searched them all or you'd have a serach engine that told you which search engine to go to. Either way, there'd be some place where people started the search process, and that site would upset the balance of power.
Weird. I'm not seeing any ads on Google when I search for hiccups. It's possible that Google already got to it -- its ad system looks out for ads that users aren't interested in (i.e., aren't getting clicks) and turns them off.
I'm playing a game. I don't want it to be realistic. I don't want to deal with eating, bathroom breaks, or "that time of the month". I don't want to wait 8 hours while my characters sleep. I want to be able to pause the game. I don't want to deal with colds and flus and lyme disease. I don't want to deal with dying without being able to reload. I don't want to play the boring parts of the story.
As far as special colors and fonts go, my random guess would be that for replayability, you want to help the player the second time through (as you're playing a different clan/race/class) by emphasizing the text that may change. You normally skip the long text the second time you play the game, so you need something to draw your eye to the things you need to pay attention to.
Realism is overrated in games. The point of the game is to escape real life, not to emulate it.
I was incredibly annoyed when my health insurance company printed my social security number on my health insurance card. I no longer carry that card with me.:P
There are a lot of good ideas that just don't work out. Maybe the right time will come; maybe not. In the meantime, go do something else. Don't get so attached to something that didn't work out that you miss out on new opportunities.
As for your question, I had a design and partial implementation of a multiplayer game... for BBSes. I started that project in 1993, and by 1996 I realized that there's little point in writing for BBSes anymore. So I moved on to a 3d simulation game... for OS/2. By 1997 I realized that there's little point in writing for OS/2 anymore. So I moved on to grad school, working on theoretically sound statically typed programming languages. By 1999 I realized that there's little point in implementing theoretically sound statically typed programming languages. So I moved on. I now work at a "dot com". We'll see how that goes.:-)
12" is hard to read at a res bigger than 1024x768 as well.
This all depends on your font size, no? I just got a laptop that offers 1400x1050 on a 14.1" screen, and it's beautiful. Yes, I had to increase the default font sizes, and yes, ads on web sites are smaller, but the text is easier to read than on the lower resolution screens. Given this experience, I now want to see the Dells that have even higher resolution (1600? 1900?).
The cable set-top box I have (AT&T digital cable) is really awful.
It misses keypresses -- the receiver light blinks, so the hardware received the keypress, but the software just ignores it.
It's really slow -- you can see the text being drawn on the screen
It's buggy -- the wrong show sometimes gets described, which is really amusing/annoying when I'm watching Discovery Channel and the program guide shows the description of an adult movie.
It's ugly -- but maybe I've been spoiled by the less harsh colors and more readable text used by TiVo.
Although I'm not generally a big fan of Microsoft software, in this case I'd put my bets on Microsoft's software being better.
I had a similar problem, but in the other direction: I wanted to generate a chart without drawing it on the screen. That's all. This should require a short and simple executable.
Do I _REALLY_ want to install X on my web server so that I can use some charting library that was designed for interactive use, try to script it, then have it take a screenshot, save the file to disk, then serve the file to the web user? What kinds of risks does pulling these libraries and apps add to my project? How much will this bloat my server?
Turns out it was simpler, easier, and less risky to just roll my own.
Keep the windows open at night. Let it get really cold throughout the house (except maybe the bedroom). Close the windows and blinds in the morning. Having tight seals on doors and windows helps here.
Set up efficient air flow.
In the evening, use fans to bring in cooler air from outside. (This depends on where you live. In the San Francisco area, it gets down into the 50s and 60s in the evening.)
Put the fans in the windows. Block off as much of the window as you can except the area where the fan goes. Ideally, you can find box fans that fit precisely in the window.
Important: point the fans OUT. Open a window on the other side of the house where air will come in. Pointing fans out is more efficient at moving air than pointing them in. Although pointing them in feels better, it doesn't do as good a job at actually bringing in cool air from outside.
Don't use interior fans except when you are in the room.
Use the multiple rooms of your home at different times of day.
At night, I cool down the non-bedroom areas. During the evening, those areas are most comfortable, so I stay there. But I'm also cooling down the bedroom so that by the time I go to bed, the bedroom is comfortable.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it depends a lot on how many systems you use, both now and in the future, and also your rate of learning.
If I'm a new Java programmer I'll probably get more out of Eclipse than vi or Emacs; if I'm using Windows I might get more out of Visual Studio than vi or Emacs. But that's just in the short term. In the long term, the language and operating system might change, but the need to work on text files is likely to still be there. If I'm using multiple languages or OSes now, or if I expect that I'll be using different languages or OSes in the future, it means I'm likely to change IDEs. Each time I change, I'm learning from scratch. This means I don't get more than a decade of becoming an expert with one editor; instead I learn the most common tasks but not the advanced features.
With vi(m) or Emacs, I get something that's not optimized (specialized) for one environment, but instead something that's general-purpose and adapts to many different systems, and I can carry what I learn from one system to the next. I've been using vi and Emacs on Solaris, OS/2, Linux, Windows, Mac, with C, Scheme, C++, Java, Ruby, Python, Perl, SML, and many other languages. I could've used Visual Age on OS/2, but most of what I learned would not have been that useful when I switched to Eclipse on Linux, and most of that would not be useful when I switched to Visual Studio on Windows, and most of that would not be useful when I switched to XCode on Mac. Instead, I'm using a tool that's less optimal for my current needs, but it's something that I can keep using for other needs.
It extends beyond programming to my editing of text files, email, messages for newsgroups, HTML, my diary, my calendar, blogs, XML, config files, etc. Do you use Visual Studio for editing your blog, or do you use a different editor? Do you use yet a different editor for HTML? For email? I think it's a reasonable way to go but I find that I only use the simplest editing functions when I use lots of editors, because I can't count on features being available as I switch from one context to another.
It's a tradeoff, and I don't know for sure whether it's better to be a novice with specialized tools or an expert with a single general-purpose tool. I'd consider vi(m) and/or Emacs if you're editing a whole lot and expect to be editing on many different systems, languages, etc. I'd stick to IDEs if you're using one system a lot and don't expect to switch often, or if you don't edit enough that there's any benefit to learning vi(m) or Emacs.
Wait no longer. There is a web browser written in Javascript; I think it uses AJAX but I'm not sure. It's called Bitty Browser, and you can embed a browser inside a web page:
http://www.bitty.com/
If Google logs the MD5 of your IP and cookie, then the government can look at your computer, get your IP and cookie, and MD5 it, then go to Google. There's no protection from hashing unless it's in a way that makes it useless to Google as well.
Part of what I like about Guild Wars is that I don't need the CD in the drive, there's no annoying splash screen before I get into the game, and the game works very nicely (no weird glitches, graphics issues, etc.). It makes the game really quick to startup, so I end up playing it more.
URLs contain a domain name. Domain names already provide a level of indirection. Why can't we use that level of indirection for Wikipedia's problem? I don't see what URIs buy us -- if we're already not using the indirection we have, how does a second level give us?
If you interview enough people, you can solve all your problems this way.
It's your web browser doing that. In Firefox, go to about:config and change the network.http.sendRefererHeader value to 0. Or run a proxy like Junkbuster or WebWasher.
Micropayments create an incentive not to read as many articles. If you're not sure whether something is worth reading, you'll tend to take a look at it when the marginal cost (in money anyway) is zero, but you'll tend to not look when you have to pay for it (even a small amount). Since the marginal cost to the publisher of providing an article to someone is zero, this leads to less overall value. Publishers and users both are better off having a small fee for unlimited use for some period of time ($1 for all articles on a particular day, for example). People will read more and publishers will make more (they'll keep you on their site instead of spending another $1 on another site).
The cell phone folk have figured out that it's simpler to offer 300 "free" minutes for $30 than to have a low monthly fee but a per-minute usage fee.
I find that when I'm in the library I'm much more willing to read new kinds of books. When I'm shopping at Amazon, I'm only going to get a few books.
It's possible that the publishers can use teasers / samples to get people to read the articles. For example, at a bookstore, I'm more willing to buy books because I can take a look at them. Still, I'm conservative when paying for something and more adventurous when I can get things for free.
For some number of years I thought my allergy symptoms were related to high pressure systems. After looking at pressure records, they certainly seemed correlated with my sniffling and sneezing. Some of my friends were having headaches at the same time.
However, I have an alternate explanation for my allergies -- high pressure systems affect winds and winds can bring in pollens. The high pressure systems in Northern California come from the west. As they go east, they blow pollen, pesticides, etc. from the California Central Valley to the coast (where I live). At other times we have relatively clean air (well, there's smog...). So when the dirty air comes in, I sneeze. In this theory, high pressure and my allergy symptoms are correlated but high pressure itself isn't the direct cause of those symptoms.
It's just a theory, though. I'm willing to believe that air pressure can affect your health, but I'm also willing to be convinced otherwise. At this point I don't have enough data. I'd love to hear the experiences of others.
- AmitFlexible systems solve more of the initial problem but tend to be harder to manage. (Pick your favorite example: Linux vs. Mac, C++ vs. Java, Civilization vs. Quake, ...) What I worried about back when I used ACLs was that roles can change over time. Yes, I have some directory that Bob should have access to. Two months from now, Alice joins Bob's group and takes over his duties, so she needs access. Can Bob grant that access? Now what happens when Bob transfers to a different group? Who's going to go around checking all files accessible by Bob to determine which of them were accessible by him because he's working on some particular project and which were accessible because he's a good buddy of mine? What if you forget to do this?
Keep it simple. If not for yourself, for your children, and your children's children.
-- Amit (overgeneralizing)There has been some work on using graphics cards for computation. The tough part is figuring out how to rephrase your algorithm in terms of what the GPU can handle. You'd expect matrix math to work out but people have tried to implement more interesting algorithms too. :-)
- AmitWe complain about the Microsoft monoculture because what OS other people use affects me too -- availability of software, interoperability of protocols, sharing of documents. There's a cost to being in the minority. I can use more than one OS, but it's a lot of work.
With search engines, it doesn't really matter much what other people use. I can still use any search engine I choose without risking a penalty for choosing something different. I'm also able to easily use more than one.
I think the big difference is that with search engines, I feel like I have a choice, and I'm not being pressured to use one particular search engine.
-- AmitIf there were 10,000 niche search engines, how would you figure out which search engine is the right one? Either you'd have a metasearch engine that searched them all or you'd have a serach engine that told you which search engine to go to. Either way, there'd be some place where people started the search process, and that site would upset the balance of power.
-- AmitWeird. I'm not seeing any ads on Google when I search for hiccups. It's possible that Google already got to it -- its ad system looks out for ads that users aren't interested in (i.e., aren't getting clicks) and turns them off.
- AmitI'm playing a game. I don't want it to be realistic. I don't want to deal with eating, bathroom breaks, or "that time of the month". I don't want to wait 8 hours while my characters sleep. I want to be able to pause the game. I don't want to deal with colds and flus and lyme disease. I don't want to deal with dying without being able to reload. I don't want to play the boring parts of the story.
As far as special colors and fonts go, my random guess would be that for replayability, you want to help the player the second time through (as you're playing a different clan/race/class) by emphasizing the text that may change. You normally skip the long text the second time you play the game, so you need something to draw your eye to the things you need to pay attention to.
Realism is overrated in games. The point of the game is to escape real life, not to emulate it.
- AmitI was incredibly annoyed when my health insurance company printed my social security number on my health insurance card. I no longer carry that card with me. :P
- AmitThere are a lot of good ideas that just don't work out. Maybe the right time will come; maybe not. In the meantime, go do something else. Don't get so attached to something that didn't work out that you miss out on new opportunities.
As for your question, I had a design and partial implementation of a multiplayer game ... for BBSes. I started that project in 1993, and by 1996 I realized that there's little point in writing for BBSes anymore. So I moved on to a 3d simulation game ... for OS/2. By 1997 I realized that there's little point in writing for OS/2 anymore. So I moved on to grad school, working on theoretically sound statically typed programming languages. By 1999 I realized that there's little point in implementing theoretically sound statically typed programming languages. So I moved on. I now work at a "dot com". We'll see how that goes. :-)
This all depends on your font size, no? I just got a laptop that offers 1400x1050 on a 14.1" screen, and it's beautiful. Yes, I had to increase the default font sizes, and yes, ads on web sites are smaller, but the text is easier to read than on the lower resolution screens. Given this experience, I now want to see the Dells that have even higher resolution (1600? 1900?).
- Amit
The cable set-top box I have (AT&T digital cable) is really awful.
Although I'm not generally a big fan of Microsoft software, in this case I'd put my bets on Microsoft's software being better.
Amit
I had a similar problem, but in the other direction: I wanted to generate a chart without drawing it on the screen. That's all. This should require a short and simple executable.
Do I _REALLY_ want to install X on my web server so that I can use some charting library that was designed for interactive use, try to script it, then have it take a screenshot, save the file to disk, then serve the file to the web user? What kinds of risks does pulling these libraries and apps add to my project? How much will this bloat my server?
Turns out it was simpler, easier, and less risky to just roll my own.
- Amit
** Parts of the previous post were reused. **
I used this technique in my one-bedroom apartment -- the living room and kitchen were one area and the bedroom was the other area. - Amit
Keep the windows open at night. Let it get really cold throughout the house (except maybe the bedroom). Close the windows and blinds in the morning. Having tight seals on doors and windows helps here.
In the evening, use fans to bring in cooler air from outside. (This depends on where you live. In the San Francisco area, it gets down into the 50s and 60s in the evening.)
Put the fans in the windows. Block off as much of the window as you can except the area where the fan goes. Ideally, you can find box fans that fit precisely in the window.
Important: point the fans OUT. Open a window on the other side of the house where air will come in. Pointing fans out is more efficient at moving air than pointing them in. Although pointing them in feels better, it doesn't do as good a job at actually bringing in cool air from outside.
Don't use interior fans except when you are in the room.
At night, I cool down the non-bedroom areas. During the evening, those areas are most comfortable, so I stay there. But I'm also cooling down the bedroom so that by the time I go to bed, the bedroom is comfortable.
I think there may be a lesson here for parents.
Bloogle? Gooblogs?
I agree, it's wise to check Google when deciding on a name for your product. You want a name that:
Names that help users find your product will help your business more than names that are hard to search for.
- Amit