Everything has an ideal size. For portable computer devices it's about the size of a 3 1/2" floppy.
That's the real reason they became popular, and have refused to die off. It has nothing to do with technical merits or storage capacities. They're simply the *exact* right size and thickness for comfortable human handling.
Big enough to hold onto. Thick enough not to fold or break. Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. The media itself protected by a shell.
CD's fit none of these parameters. Mini disks would if you didn't have to worry about scratching them.
You don't need the smallest card possible, you need the *right* sized card.
Nevermind that your scenario has nothing to do with the car in question which doesn't hold power constant, but reduces power, and thus fuel requirments, by cutting out the cylinders.
And there are better, and technologically more interesting, ways to do that, as stated.
Which makes the whole real point of using XML ( other than buzzword compliance), well, pointless.
The point is that XML can be machine and app independantly parsed if the need arise.
Using an open format so that you say you use an open format and locking it up in an encrypted wrapper is *exactly* the sort of thing we can expect from MS right down the line, up to, and including, an official MS Linux distro.
KFG
I don't know how to break this to people, but. . .
on
The Linux Uprising
·
· Score: 1
most businesses survive quite nicely on a 20% margin. If fact, many companies doing quite well for themselves would *kill* for a 20% margin.
The software industry is a temporary business aberation that is in the process of mainstreaming.
Get used to the idea of 20% margins, you're not only going to have to learn to live on them, just about everybody else already *has.*
If anything what that statement proves is that an open source service oriented company can not only make money, but can so at a rate quite comptetive with businesses in more traditional lines.
A Better Model by Steven Levine at Apollo Computer
Submitted by "Spam"
Sung to the tune of "A Modern Major-General"
by Gilbert and Sullivan
I've built a better model than the one at Data General For data bases vegetable, animal, and mineral My OS handles CPUs with multiplexed duality; My PL/1 compiler shows impressive functionality. My storage system's better than magnetic core polarity, You never have to bother checking out a bit for parity; There isn't any reason to install non-static floor matting; My disk drive has capacity for variable formatting.
Chorus:
His disk drive has capacity for variable formatting,
His disk drive has capacity for variable formatting,
His disk drive has capacity for variable format-formatting.
I feel compelled to mention what I know to be a gloating point: There's lots of room in memory for variables floating-point, Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Chorus:
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
The IBM new home computer's nothing more than germinal; At Prime they still have trouble with an interactive terminal; While Tandy's done a lousy job with operations Boolean, At Wang the byte capacity's too small to fit a coolie in. Intel's mid-year finances are something of the trouble sort; The Timex Sinclar crashes when you implement a bubble sort. All DEC investors soon will find they haven't spent their money well; And need I even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
Chorus:
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honey-Honeywell?
By striving to eliminate all source code that's repetitive I've brought my benchmark standings to results that are competitive. In short, for input vegetable, animal, and mineral I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Chorus:
In short for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
In fact when I've a floppy of a maximum diameter, When I can call a subroutine of infinite parameter, When I can point to registers and keep their current map around, And when I can prevent the need for mystifying wraparound, When I can update record blocks with minimum of suffering, And when I can afford to use a hundred K for buffering, When I've performed a matrix sort and tested the addition rate, You'll marvel at the speed of my asynchronous transmission rate.
Chorus:
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission-mission rate.
Though all my better programs that self-reference recursively Have only been obtained through expert spying, done subversively, But still for input vegetable, animal, and mineral, I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Chorus:
But still for input vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
For what it's worth, they're called "cash machines" here in the colonies as well.
A west coastism is to refer to twenty dollar bills as "Yuppie Foodstamps" because cash machines only dispense twenties, and thus people who rely on them never seem to have anything but.
Well, they're going to college too, on sports "scholarships". Get used to the idea now and when you get there you can skip the disappointment phase and enjoy your freshman year a lot more.
If you do that you'll discover that college professors ( at least the good ones) aren't authority figures. They're actually *teachers,* and are quite willing to be your friend as well. Even when things get rocky. Find the good ones and cultivate them.
You aren't really socially inept. You've matured early. This puts you about 20 to 30 years ahead of the curve. When you hit 40 or so people will suddenly think you're "cool" not because of any change in you, but because they've finally caught up. So don't sweat not fitting in with people who are, essentially, still savages.
But since your parents already know, and you don't know that they know, your parents are actually a bit cooler then you thought.
Why on earth do you think your dad *put* that Playboy in his sock drawer when any intelligent person could have effectively hidden it?
Think about it.
KFG
Re:Not the politically correct explanation, but...
on
Shift Calls it Quits
·
· Score: 1
Death is the ultimate jest.
You'ld is archaic, but acceptable. It distinguishes between "you would" and you had."
And as Shakespeare whould likely agree, correcting grammer and spelling errors gratuitously is the first resort of bright agains the intelligent in some vague sort of attempt to feel some unearned superiourity in the brains dept.
I note, however, that you were wise enough not to offer up some small original missive of your own that the favor might be returned.:)
I understand the lure you're trolling before my eyes.
Still, the part of the equation you've missed is that if it really *was* the best Tetris ever, and offered for a fair price, I'd buy it. And so would others.
It's OK to make good things better and better things great.
Oh yeah, that would suck. Lawyers looking at EULA's and saying, "What? We can't sign this piece of shit."
I mean, if THAT happened we'd get better EULA's and shit, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?
The EULA and its terms are part of the TCO. Choose wisely Grasshopper.
KFG
Re:Not the politically correct explanation, but...
on
Shift Calls it Quits
·
· Score: 1
Poof! Hey, where'd I go?
There's a market for entertaining smart people. It's a different market though, that plays to different rules. One could say "smart" rules, where the basic tenets that average people have devised for marketing simply don't work.
That said, I think Shift was more aligned with what are termed Pseudo-Intellectuals, which is to say, people of average intelligence who think having gone to college made them smart. This is a broader, but oh so pickey market. Particularly among the young.
10 years is actually a pretty good run among this crowd. Although Vanity Fair has managed a lot longer.
As an aside, Court Jester is one of the grand jobs of the truely intelligent, one to which all aspire. It is thought of with awe and reverence. Those who can hold that job sucessfully for more than a year or two are demigods. I'm not making this up.
But then, you'ld have to be smart enough to understand that.:)
No, they're too busy showing Komodo for the umptyninth time.
At least their showing Crossing Over is truth in advertising. Well, except for the "science" part.
KFG
Re:Some important differences
on
Giant Mecha News
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
On the other hand we have the classic Batman, Silver Surfer, Daredevil and the X-Men.
We're not as prone to the tortured hero, but they aren't exactly absent.
Even in classic American literature we've got Twain's Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn, Melville's Ishmael (who slept with his cannibal buddy) and Hemmingway's Nick Adams (among others).
Oh, and The Incredible Hulk was Bill Bixby. Also a tortured hero who had trouble with the law.
Slashdot Mirror
Everything has an ideal size. For portable computer devices it's about the size of a 3 1/2" floppy.
That's the real reason they became popular, and have refused to die off. It has nothing to do with technical merits or storage capacities. They're simply the *exact* right size and thickness for comfortable human handling.
Big enough to hold onto. Thick enough not to fold or break. Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. The media itself protected by a shell.
CD's fit none of these parameters. Mini disks would if you didn't have to worry about scratching them.
You don't need the smallest card possible, you need the *right* sized card.
KFG
Which is exactly (although a bit disguised) what Intel did with the Pentium.
Here's our fifth generation chip. Here's our newer (II) fifth generation chip and here's our even newer (III) fifth generation chip.
Rinse and repeat until people in general catch on and start pointing and giggling at them.
At this rate we'll NEVER see the Sexium.
KFG
Which is why all cars should be flat twos.
Either that or you've missed something.
Nevermind that your scenario has nothing to do with the car in question which doesn't hold power constant, but reduces power, and thus fuel requirments, by cutting out the cylinders.
And there are better, and technologically more interesting, ways to do that, as stated.
KFG
Because it's a lousy idea. There are far better ways to handle variable power output and energy usage.
This one is just designed to feed off the public's misconception that "4 cylinders weak, but thrifty. 8 cylinders strong, but gas hog. Uggg."
It's a marketing ploy and not only technologically uninteresting, it's repugnant.
KFG
a GOOD thing for the people.
KFG
Which makes the whole real point of using XML ( other than buzzword compliance), well, pointless.
The point is that XML can be machine and app independantly parsed if the need arise.
Using an open format so that you say you use an open format and locking it up in an encrypted wrapper is *exactly* the sort of thing we can expect from MS right down the line, up to, and including, an official MS Linux distro.
KFG
most businesses survive quite nicely on a 20% margin. If fact, many companies doing quite well for themselves would *kill* for a 20% margin.
The software industry is a temporary business aberation that is in the process of mainstreaming.
Get used to the idea of 20% margins, you're not only going to have to learn to live on them, just about everybody else already *has.*
If anything what that statement proves is that an open source service oriented company can not only make money, but can so at a rate quite comptetive with businesses in more traditional lines.
KFG
Kind of like building a Cobra kit car rather than buying a Honda.
KFG
I believe that is what is generally refered to as "maturation."
Maturation is what is generally refered to as a "Good Thing."
KFG
A Better Model by Steven Levine at Apollo Computer
Submitted by "Spam"
Sung to the tune of "A Modern Major-General"
by Gilbert and Sullivan
I've built a better model than the one at Data General
For data bases vegetable, animal, and mineral
My OS handles CPUs with multiplexed duality;
My PL/1 compiler shows impressive functionality.
My storage system's better than magnetic core polarity,
You never have to bother checking out a bit for parity;
There isn't any reason to install non-static floor matting;
My disk drive has capacity for variable formatting.
Chorus:
His disk drive has capacity for variable formatting,
His disk drive has capacity for variable formatting,
His disk drive has capacity for variable format-formatting.
I feel compelled to mention what I know to be a gloating point:
There's lots of room in memory for variables floating-point,
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Chorus:
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
The IBM new home computer's nothing more than germinal;
At Prime they still have trouble with an interactive terminal;
While Tandy's done a lousy job with operations Boolean,
At Wang the byte capacity's too small to fit a coolie in.
Intel's mid-year finances are something of the trouble sort;
The Timex Sinclar crashes when you implement a bubble sort.
All DEC investors soon will find they haven't spent their money well;
And need I even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
Chorus:
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honeywell?
And need he even mention Nixdorf, Univac, or Honey-Honeywell?
By striving to eliminate all source code that's repetitive
I've brought my benchmark standings to results that are competitive.
In short, for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Chorus:
In short for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
In fact when I've a floppy of a maximum diameter,
When I can call a subroutine of infinite parameter,
When I can point to registers and keep their current map around,
And when I can prevent the need for mystifying wraparound,
When I can update record blocks with minimum of suffering,
And when I can afford to use a hundred K for buffering,
When I've performed a matrix sort and tested the addition rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of my asynchronous transmission rate.
Chorus:
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission rate,
You'll marvel at the speed of his asynchronous transmission-mission rate.
Though all my better programs that self-reference recursively
Have only been obtained through expert spying, done subversively,
But still for input vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
Chorus:
But still for input vegetable, animal, and mineral,
He's built a better model than the one at Data General.
KFG
For what it's worth, they're called "cash machines" here in the colonies as well.
A west coastism is to refer to twenty dollar bills as "Yuppie Foodstamps" because cash machines only dispense twenties, and thus people who rely on them never seem to have anything but.
KFG
Well, they're going to college too, on sports "scholarships". Get used to the idea now and when you get there you can skip the disappointment phase and enjoy your freshman year a lot more.
If you do that you'll discover that college professors ( at least the good ones) aren't authority figures. They're actually *teachers,* and are quite willing to be your friend as well. Even when things get rocky. Find the good ones and cultivate them.
You aren't really socially inept. You've matured early. This puts you about 20 to 30 years ahead of the curve. When you hit 40 or so people will suddenly think you're "cool" not because of any change in you, but because they've finally caught up. So don't sweat not fitting in with people who are, essentially, still savages.
KFG
But since your parents already know, and you don't know that they know, your parents are actually a bit cooler then you thought.
Why on earth do you think your dad *put* that Playboy in his sock drawer when any intelligent person could have effectively hidden it?
Think about it.
KFG
Death is the ultimate jest.
:)
You'ld is archaic, but acceptable. It distinguishes between "you would" and you had."
And as Shakespeare whould likely agree, correcting grammer and spelling errors gratuitously is the first resort of bright agains the intelligent in some vague sort of attempt to feel some unearned superiourity in the brains dept.
I note, however, that you were wise enough not to offer up some small original missive of your own that the favor might be returned.
KFG
Last time I went into my local Best Buy they had an entire Linux section, including commercial games.
So did EB.
Go figure.
Mind you I havn't been in either since Loki closed the doors, but they've certainly demonstrated a willingness to stock if the titles are available.
KFG
I understand the lure you're trolling before my eyes.
Still, the part of the equation you've missed is that if it really *was* the best Tetris ever, and offered for a fair price, I'd buy it. And so would others.
It's OK to make good things better and better things great.
KFG
Reputation is not free. It is "costly" to aquire (sometimes even financially) and devilishly difficult to maintain.
This very instance may serve as a case in point of the latter.
KFG
Dust. Wind.
Excellent! Party on Dudes.
KFG
Oh yeah, that would suck. Lawyers looking at EULA's and saying, "What? We can't sign this piece of shit."
I mean, if THAT happened we'd get better EULA's and shit, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?
The EULA and its terms are part of the TCO. Choose wisely Grasshopper.
KFG
Poof! Hey, where'd I go?
:)
There's a market for entertaining smart people. It's a different market though, that plays to different rules. One could say "smart" rules, where the basic tenets that average people have devised for marketing simply don't work.
That said, I think Shift was more aligned with what are termed Pseudo-Intellectuals, which is to say, people of average intelligence who think having gone to college made them smart. This is a broader, but oh so pickey market. Particularly among the young.
10 years is actually a pretty good run among this crowd. Although Vanity Fair has managed a lot longer.
As an aside, Court Jester is one of the grand jobs of the truely intelligent, one to which all aspire. It is thought of with awe and reverence. Those who can hold that job sucessfully for more than a year or two are demigods. I'm not making this up.
But then, you'ld have to be smart enough to understand that.
KFG
Hell. I didn't even know you *cared.*
KFG
No, they're too busy showing Komodo for the umptyninth time.
At least their showing Crossing Over is truth in advertising. Well, except for the "science" part.
KFG
On the other hand we have the classic Batman, Silver Surfer, Daredevil and the X-Men.
We're not as prone to the tortured hero, but they aren't exactly absent.
Even in classic American literature we've got Twain's Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn, Melville's Ishmael (who slept with his cannibal buddy) and Hemmingway's Nick Adams (among others).
Oh, and The Incredible Hulk was Bill Bixby. Also a tortured hero who had trouble with the law.
KFG
How about voice actors from Hokkaido? We could have a little Engrish with our Japanese. Set us up the bomb? Closs shaped maybe?
I'm afraid *any* religious references will offend somebody. Today "tolerence" means "shut up."
Go figure.
KFG
With Relish. I guess that would make it Moore's Thousand Islands.
KFG