>>I have used Delphi and C++ Builder extensively. 6-7 years back there was NO decent RAD alternative.
Well you were lucky, i ad to walk 15 miles to work int snow, then use Turbo Pascal 3, and compile everyting into a 64k COM file, and if it didnt run, my bos used to beat me with a stick.
>>One last note, this MSDN blogging site does not care for Firefox. The right hand side of the text hangs over about an inch into the right bar side and it's annoying because the text spills onto the calendar. I certainly hope this doesn't happen on purpose.
Hehe, Its the same with IE 7 in Vista Beta 2...
I agree with your comments, and i think thay have made a lot of progress the past 6 months. I instelled a beta on my laptop last November, and was not too impressed. I've got beta 2 running on it now, and appart form a few minor issues, its running great. I don't have the graphics power for the Aero Glass, but its working fine in the normal mode. I have been using it on a daily basis for the past few weeks, and i really like it, its definatly a big change form XP. There's a lot of cool new stuff, after the first couple of hours feeling a bit lost, you get into how it all works.
As far as I am concerned, i've already swithed to Vista, and it's not a big issue to me if i have to wait another six or even twelve months for the official release, the longer it takes, the more stable the final version.
>>Who was the most interesting person you interviewed on Channel 9 and why?
>>I'd have to say Bill Hill (guy who runs the reading technology/font teams) He was a huge amount of luck cause he was the first interview Charles and I did but he was hilarious and had great insights. His personality is great, too.
Check this out, the guy is great. (Don't know why but he just reminds me of Billy Connaly.;-)
Learn to love me Assemble the code Now, today, tomorrow and always My only weakness is a linked-list of objects My only weakness is... well, never mind, never mind
Oh, Tech Workers of the world Unite and take over Tech Workers of the world Hand it over Hand it over Hand it over
Learn to love me And assemble the code Now, today, tomorrow, and always My only weakness is a listed domain name But last night the plans of a future shock Was all I read on Slashdot
Tech Workers of the world Unite and take over Tech Workers of the world Hand it over Hand it over Hand it over
A point-haired hand on my shoulder A push - and it's over Web server crashes down (sixteen hours a day is a long time) Tried living in the real world Instead of a command shell But before I began... I was bored before I even began
Tech Workers of the world Unite and take over Tech Workers of the world Unite and take over Tech Workers of the world Unite and take over Tech Workers of the world Take over
>>Egghead professor-type gets sucked into something Really Important To the World (tm) with the help of a very intelligent woman who happens to be an expert in the Really Important Thing (tm) but STILL needs him to explain everything to her anyway. While they try to make it to the end of the book they are pursued by a merciless killer who wants to bump them off before they discover the Big Secret (tm).
Anyone who hates their dress code? Be happy your not working for this guy.
Grooming - All hair, moustaches and beards must be neatly groomed and cologne must be used sparingly. Protruding nasal hair is prohibited and all tattoos must be fully hidden. If you have been working all-night and have an early morning meeting, you can use an anti-inflammatory hemorrhoid cream (e.g. Preparation H) to quickly shrink those unsightly puffy bags under your eyes. Just carefully dab the ass cream on your lower eyelids (being careful not to get any in your eyes) and you will look fresh and well-rested.
Ok, so it pisses your off when you have a dress code. Dress codes *are* stupid for grown adults. Choosing to dress nicer does make a difference though. I still can't get myself to do it every day, but it's obvious the way people's attitudes change towards you when you put in the effort. It also makes you feel better about yourself once you get over the rightous rebel bullshit. Also, a nice cotton button down with a color (even if it's plaid) and some ironed pants are more comfortable than jeans and a crappy big-seamed tee with huge silk-screening any day.
I think the point is to know WHEN to make an effort with your apperance. There are some people who don't give a dam if you look smart, and even think that a suite is not cool, there are others who will not take you too seriously if you don't dress well.
Having the apptitude to know when dress is important will make a big deference to your carear, and your life in general.
All these "I'm a techie god i wear what I want", and "scruffy unwashed geeks" coments seem to miss the point.
I heard of a guy who was taking a telephone interview with a head hunter for a contract job, it went something like this:
HH: They need someone who knows C-Pound, have you worked with it?
CS: I think you mean C-Sharp, yes, i've worked with it since the early betas.
HH: No, i've just talked with them on the phone, it's definatly C-Pound.
CS: They must be meaning C-Sharp, it's the new.net language from Microsoft.
HH: No, they said explicitly that it was C-Pound they were looking for, and not to accept anyone saying they had esperience in another type of C.
Fat Tire is a great beer...
on
Green Geek Beer
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I was in Seattle a while ago, and was advised by all the locals to try the beers from the micro-breweries (after trying Bud-Light i was weary of beers from the other side of the Atlantic).
After trying a few brands (some OK, some not so OK), i tried Fat Tire, and it was the best beer i've had in a long time.
(Coming from Yourshire in England, I'm usually a bit weary when it comes to sampling beers not brewed within 50 miles of where I was born...)
On holiday with friends, we got into the habit of a group of us suddenly waking someone up and asking stupid questions or saying stupid stuff.
"Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!! What's the captial of Paris? What's the captial of Paris? What's the captial of Paris?"
"Uhh, duhhh, uhhh, France!, uhh, no, no, Paris, uhh France?"
or even
"Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!! The Zebras have escaped!! The Zebras have escaped!! The Zebras have escaped!!"
"Uhh, uhh, Zebras, oh no, shit, Zebras, where, no, shit, what, Zebras?"
There's definatly a period of a few seconds after waking up when you have no idea what's going on around you. (And it's even worse when a bunch of gits start taking advantage of the fact.)
>>Among the rules is a set of guidelines to prevent terrorists from gaining access to the space ships in order to use them as weapons.
Why not just call in a British secret agent?
He can sneak into their launch facility with a power-boat-hang-glider-thingy, breach security with an explosive watch, disguise himself as one of the shuttle crew, and sneak aboard a space shuttle.
Once aboard the main space station he can take out the leaders in a heroic shoot-out, and use a space shuttle with lasers to destroy any weapons of mass distruction that are heading towards earth.
You could even show the world a live video link up as he attempts re-enty.
>>It ripped my flesh to the bone, knocked my sock off, broke my big toe and killed my cat.
This spells doom for Micro$oft, doom Doom DOOM dOOm!!! As soon as the public is aware that the XBox360 is causing severe lascerations, minor fractures and feline fatalities it's the end of the road for Micro$oft.
Don't buy the marketing hype that it's a large scale release of a complex consumer product, the occaisonal dead cat is expected and unavoidable, and that these are all vary rare and isolated instances.
I worked on a team with a bunch of Indian programmers, and they used to call the build team in Mumbi a lot. The conversations basically went likt this:
Aapko achaa lagaa? Usse mat Sql Server chuuo. Tumhein chhot lag Visual Studio sakti hai. Sone kaa samay ho stored procedure gayaa hai. Hum humeshaa tumhaaraa parivaar rahenge out of memory exception. Hum tumhein kabhei nahin email chodenge sourde safe. Kyaa tumhein tatti karni hai? Tumhein kahaan dard ho breakpoint rahaa hai?
We never really new if it was business related or id they were just chatting with their mates and throwing in a bit of tech lingo here and there.
I mean, what's the point...
on
Space Tourism?
·
· Score: 1
I mean, what's the point of going in to space if your just another space tourist, carted round in rockets, surrounded by sweaty, mindless oafs from Kettering and Coventry in their cloth-caps and their space suits, with their IPods and their Sunday Mirrors, complaining about the tea, "oh they don't make it properly here, do they? Not like on earth. And stopping at russian space centers, selling fish'n'chips and Watneys Red Barrel and calamaris. And being herded into endless Hotel Cosmoses, and Earth Views', with their Modern Galactic Luxury Capsules and draft Red Barrel, full of fat german businessmen, pretending their acrobats, forming zero-gravity pyramids, and frightening the children And barging into queues, and if you're not at your table spot on seven, you've missed the tube of Campbells Cream'n'Mushroom soup, the first item on the menu of intergalactic cuisine. And every Thursday night the space station is a bloody cabaret in the bar with some tiny, emaciated nasa geek with nine inch hips, and some bloated fat tart With her hair bryll-creamed down to her big arse presenting flamenco for earthlings an adenoidal typist from Birmingham with flabby white legs and diarrhea trying out pick-up lines on bandy-legged astranaughts called Manuel and once a week there's an excursion to the local asteroid, with bleeding Kool-Aid, and ice-cream and Watneys Red Barrel. And one evening you visit the so-called space resteraunt with local quaint atmosphere with a party of people from Lyndon humming the Star Trek theme , and complaining about the food "It's so greasy here, isn't it? And sending tinted post-cards of earth, "To all at number 22, weather lovely, our ship is marked with an X....." "Food very greasy, but we found this charming place in the international space center where they serve Watneys Red Barrel...
He gets a Manics song He gets an Elvis song He gets a Roses song He gets a Beetles song He rips the songs that remind him Of the good times He rips the songs that remind him Of the better times:
Ripping the night away Ripping the night away
I get DCed I get on line again You aint ever gonna keep me down
I get a trojen I get installed again You aint ever gonna gonna keep me down
I get Metalica threats But I get wise again You aint ever gonna keep me down
I get RIAA email I get IP Spoofing again You aint ever gonna keep me down
The only time I have got a real raise in sallery is when I have changed jobs.
Most of the jobs I have had have not allowed me to develop my skills, and have them recognised by the company with more cash. The job position is still "Developer", or "Programmer", and has a fairly fixes sallery for that postition.
As I developed my skill set I had to go to another comnany and join as an "Architect", or "Systems Programmer", each time getting a nice raise.
Some companies will allow you to progress quickly, stay with hands-on fun stuff, and get rewarded for it. Some just want 5 "Programmers", and if you leave, they get another. If they give you the extra 5k you diserve, the other 4 guys will start bitching, why would they want to do that?
End of the day, it's supply and demand, if you want to make more money, build up your skill set, talk to your boss, if you dont get what you want, get another job.
The worst thing you can do is sit on your butt reading slashdot, complaining, getting demotivated, and not focussing on developing your skill set.
Slashdot Mirror
I did the maths...
How much $ per square foot is your appartment worth...
How many square feet does a big CRT TV take up...
Suddenly a big wall mounted LCD TV seems quite reasonable.
>>I have used Delphi and C++ Builder extensively. 6-7 years back there was NO decent RAD alternative.
Well you were lucky, i ad to walk 15 miles to work int snow, then use Turbo Pascal 3, and compile everyting into a 64k COM file, and if it didnt run, my bos used to beat me with a stick.
[Evil Robot Bill and Evil Robot Balmer arrive at 2088]
Evil Robot Bill: Not bad...
Evil Robot Balmer: Yeah. Let's make it bad.
Evil Robot Bill, Evil Robot Balmer: Fags!
Evil Robot Balmer: Aim for the cat, dude! Aim for a cat!
Evil Robot Balmer: I got a full-on robot chubby.
Evil Robot Bill: I totally loogied on that good, dead me!
>>One last note, this MSDN blogging site does not care for Firefox. The right hand side of the text hangs over about an inch into the right bar side and it's annoying because the text spills onto the calendar. I certainly hope this doesn't happen on purpose.
Hehe, Its the same with IE 7 in Vista Beta 2...
I agree with your comments, and i think thay have made a lot of progress the past 6 months. I instelled a beta on my laptop last November, and was not too impressed. I've got beta 2 running on it now, and appart form a few minor issues, its running great. I don't have the graphics power for the Aero Glass, but its working fine in the normal mode. I have been using it on a daily basis for the past few weeks, and i really like it, its definatly a big change form XP. There's a lot of cool new stuff, after the first couple of hours feeling a bit lost, you get into how it all works.
As far as I am concerned, i've already swithed to Vista, and it's not a big issue to me if i have to wait another six or even twelve months for the official release, the longer it takes, the more stable the final version.
>>Who was the most interesting person you interviewed on Channel 9 and why?
;-)
>>I'd have to say Bill Hill (guy who runs the reading technology/font teams) He was a huge amount of luck cause he was the first interview Charles and I did but he was hilarious and had great insights. His personality is great, too.
Check this out, the guy is great. (Don't know why but he just reminds me of Billy Connaly.
Learn to love me ... well, never mind, never mind
...
Assemble the code
Now, today, tomorrow and always
My only weakness is a linked-list of objects
My only weakness is
Oh, Tech Workers of the world
Unite and take over
Tech Workers of the world
Hand it over
Hand it over
Hand it over
Learn to love me
And assemble the code
Now, today, tomorrow, and always
My only weakness is a listed domain name
But last night the plans of a future shock
Was all I read on Slashdot
Tech Workers of the world
Unite and take over
Tech Workers of the world
Hand it over
Hand it over
Hand it over
A point-haired hand on my shoulder
A push - and it's over
Web server crashes down
(sixteen hours a day is a long time)
Tried living in the real world
Instead of a command shell
But before I began
I was bored before I even began
Tech Workers of the world
Unite and take over
Tech Workers of the world
Unite and take over
Tech Workers of the world
Unite and take over
Tech Workers of the world
Take over
>>Egghead professor-type gets sucked into something Really Important To the World (tm) with the help of a very intelligent woman who happens to be an expert in the Really Important Thing (tm) but STILL needs him to explain everything to her anyway. While they try to make it to the end of the book they are pursued by a merciless killer who wants to bump them off before they discover the Big Secret (tm).
>>Did I forget anything?
Yes:
2 - Profit
I like his business model...
Just look at the amount of IPods that are getting stolen now compared with 10 years ago. Oh, wait a minute...
Anyone who hates their dress code? Be happy your not working for this guy.
Grooming - All hair, moustaches and beards must be neatly groomed and cologne must be used sparingly. Protruding nasal hair is prohibited and all tattoos must be fully hidden. If you have been working all-night and have an early morning meeting, you can use an anti-inflammatory hemorrhoid cream (e.g. Preparation H) to quickly shrink those unsightly puffy bags under your eyes. Just carefully dab the ass cream on your lower eyelids (being careful not to get any in your eyes) and you will look fresh and well-rested.
Ok, so it pisses your off when you have a dress code. Dress codes *are* stupid for grown adults. Choosing to dress nicer does make a difference though. I still can't get myself to do it every day, but it's obvious the way people's attitudes change towards you when you put in the effort. It also makes you feel better about yourself once you get over the rightous rebel bullshit. Also, a nice cotton button down with a color (even if it's plaid) and some ironed pants are more comfortable than jeans and a crappy big-seamed tee with huge silk-screening any day.
I think the point is to know WHEN to make an effort with your apperance. There are some people who don't give a dam if you look smart, and even think that a suite is not cool, there are others who will not take you too seriously if you don't dress well.
Having the apptitude to know when dress is important will make a big deference to your carear, and your life in general.
All these "I'm a techie god i wear what I want", and "scruffy unwashed geeks" coments seem to miss the point.
>>flabbybuns writes "For those of you who feel you may waste too much time behind a controller fret no longer. ... "
Enough said...
Too right...
.net language from Microsoft.
I heard of a guy who was taking a telephone interview with a head hunter for a contract job, it went something like this:
HH: They need someone who knows C-Pound, have you worked with it?
CS: I think you mean C-Sharp, yes, i've worked with it since the early betas.
HH: No, i've just talked with them on the phone, it's definatly C-Pound.
CS: They must be meaning C-Sharp, it's the new
HH: No, they said explicitly that it was C-Pound they were looking for, and not to accept anyone saying they had esperience in another type of C.
I was in Seattle a while ago, and was advised by all the locals to try the beers from the micro-breweries (after trying Bud-Light i was weary of beers from the other side of the Atlantic).
After trying a few brands (some OK, some not so OK), i tried Fat Tire, and it was the best beer i've had in a long time.
(Coming from Yourshire in England, I'm usually a bit weary when it comes to sampling beers not brewed within 50 miles of where I was born...)
On holiday with friends, we got into the habit of a group of us suddenly waking someone up and asking stupid questions or saying stupid stuff.
"Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!! What's the captial of Paris? What's the captial of Paris? What's the captial of Paris?"
"Uhh, duhhh, uhhh, France!, uhh, no, no, Paris, uhh France?"
or even
"Wake Up!!! Wake Up!!! The Zebras have escaped!! The Zebras have escaped!! The Zebras have escaped!!"
"Uhh, uhh, Zebras, oh no, shit, Zebras, where, no, shit, what, Zebras?"
There's definatly a period of a few seconds after waking up when you have no idea what's going on around you. (And it's even worse when a bunch of gits start taking advantage of the fact.)
The good ole' BBC has done some interesting comparisons involving Automobiles, which the Google heads have kindly made available on line:p>
Old vs New is here.
But my favorate by far is Play Station vs Real Life here.
>>Among the rules is a set of guidelines to prevent terrorists from gaining access to the space ships in order to use them as weapons.
Why not just call in a British secret agent?
He can sneak into their launch facility with a power-boat-hang-glider-thingy, breach security with an explosive watch, disguise himself as one of the shuttle crew, and sneak aboard a space shuttle.
Once aboard the main space station he can take out the leaders in a heroic shoot-out, and use a space shuttle with lasers to destroy any weapons of mass distruction that are heading towards earth.
You could even show the world a live video link up as he attempts re-enty.
>>I had one fall on my leg.
>>It ripped my flesh to the bone, knocked my sock off, broke my big toe and killed my cat.
This spells doom for Micro$oft, doom Doom DOOM dOOm!!! As soon as the public is aware that the XBox360 is causing severe lascerations, minor fractures and feline fatalities it's the end of the road for Micro$oft.
Don't buy the marketing hype that it's a large scale release of a complex consumer product, the occaisonal dead cat is expected and unavoidable, and that these are all vary rare and isolated instances.
THE XBOX360 IS A CAT KILLER!!!
>>Pointless news articles = slashcasting
Carmawhoring comments = Modcasting
I worked on a team with a bunch of Indian programmers, and they used to call the build team in Mumbi a lot. The conversations basically went likt this:
Aapko achaa lagaa?
Usse mat Sql Server chuuo.
Tumhein chhot lag Visual Studio sakti hai.
Sone kaa samay ho stored procedure gayaa hai.
Hum humeshaa tumhaaraa parivaar rahenge out of memory exception.
Hum tumhein kabhei nahin email chodenge sourde safe.
Kyaa tumhein tatti karni hai?
Tumhein kahaan dard ho breakpoint rahaa hai?
We never really new if it was business related or id they were just chatting with their mates and throwing in a bit of tech lingo here and there.
I mean, what's the point of going in to space if your just another space tourist, carted round in rockets, surrounded by sweaty, mindless oafs from Kettering and Coventry in their cloth-caps and their space suits, with their IPods and their Sunday Mirrors, complaining about the tea, "oh they don't make it properly here, do they? Not like on earth. And stopping at russian space centers, selling fish'n'chips and Watneys Red Barrel and calamaris. And being herded into endless Hotel Cosmoses, and Earth Views', with their Modern Galactic Luxury Capsules and draft Red Barrel, full of fat german businessmen, pretending their acrobats, forming zero-gravity pyramids, and frightening the children And barging into queues, and if you're not at your table spot on seven, you've missed the tube of Campbells Cream'n'Mushroom soup, the first item on the menu of intergalactic cuisine. And every Thursday night the space station is a bloody cabaret in the bar with some tiny, emaciated nasa geek with nine inch hips, and some bloated fat tart With her hair bryll-creamed down to her big arse presenting flamenco for earthlings an adenoidal typist from Birmingham with flabby white legs and diarrhea trying out pick-up lines on bandy-legged astranaughts called Manuel and once a week there's an excursion to the local asteroid, with bleeding Kool-Aid, and ice-cream and Watneys Red Barrel. And one evening you visit the so-called space resteraunt with local quaint atmosphere with a party of people from Lyndon humming the Star Trek theme , and complaining about the food "It's so greasy here, isn't it? And sending tinted post-cards of earth, "To all at number 22, weather lovely, our ship is marked with an X....." "Food very greasy, but we found this charming place in the international space center where they serve Watneys Red Barrel...
"While the bogus peers can be detected, it will take much longer to download shows."
As the old saying goes, Rome wasn't downloaded in one day.
The Chumbawamba Factor...
He gets a Manics song
He gets an Elvis song
He gets a Roses song
He gets a Beetles song
He rips the songs that remind him
Of the good times
He rips the songs that remind him
Of the better times:
Ripping the night away
Ripping the night away
I get DCed
I get on line again
You aint ever gonna keep me down
I get a trojen
I get installed again
You aint ever gonna gonna keep me down
I get Metalica threats
But I get wise again
You aint ever gonna keep me down
I get RIAA email
I get IP Spoofing again
You aint ever gonna keep me down
'Don't cry for me
RIAA...'
Linux Always Five Years Away From Mainstream
Gartner's latest Linux 'hype cycle' report shows that open source is always halfway to maturity...
The only time I have got a real raise in sallery is when I have changed jobs.
Most of the jobs I have had have not allowed me to develop my skills, and have them recognised by the company with more cash. The job position is still "Developer", or "Programmer", and has a fairly fixes sallery for that postition.
As I developed my skill set I had to go to another comnany and join as an "Architect", or "Systems Programmer", each time getting a nice raise.
Some companies will allow you to progress quickly, stay with hands-on fun stuff, and get rewarded for it. Some just want 5 "Programmers", and if you leave, they get another. If they give you the extra 5k you diserve, the other 4 guys will start bitching, why would they want to do that?
End of the day, it's supply and demand, if you want to make more money, build up your skill set, talk to your boss, if you dont get what you want, get another job.
The worst thing you can do is sit on your butt reading slashdot, complaining, getting demotivated, and not focussing on developing your skill set.