Try to find ways to spend less time looking at the screen. Really.
Draw UML on a whiteboard. Step outside for a minute or two every so often. Outline test cases on a piece of paper. Organize things on real to-do lists, instead of running your life off the screen.
(This advice has helped me avoid carpal tunnel, too - I got to the point where my wrists ached, and found ways to break up long bouts of typing. It helped quite a bit.)
Get your refresh rate on your monitor up as much as is reasonable - even the slightest flicker can cause trouble after a few intense hours.
Also, if you can, find a way to get rid of fluorescent lighting in your work area. It makes a big difference.
Do everything you can to break up those long bouts in front of a screen, even for short periods. Rest your eyes. Good luck.
That "spin doctor" was none other than Darl McBride. You heard it from the mouth of the beast.
He *did* sound rather convincing with his talk of how they already owned the copyrights, and were just looking for corroboration from Novell. And the analyst he was speaking to seemed to believe him too. (If he already owned them, why would he need the letter from Novell? Getting his ducks in a row for the trial, perhaps?)
Of course, a 24% drop in SCOX, much of it after lunch, says that people are more inclined to believe Novell about who owns what - and his little fantasy wasn't playing well in Peoria.
I'm sure that for these kinds of numbers, in a high-profile installation... -someone- over at Apple would be interested in making things go smoothly for you.
I'd imagine that you could get help directly from Apple - and probably better than anything you'll find here.
I wasn't arguing that MS was going to lose in the Desktop space - they'll be there forever. I mean hell, there are people out there still using VMS!
My point was that Linux/BSD apps, properly administered, will provide excellent functionality for business users in controlled environments - and would break the MS monopoly there.
Nothing is going to eradicate Windows anytime soon. We're in agreement there.
7 years ago was... 1996? I'd imagine that Windows 3.1 was old news by then.
I mean... there's a reason they called it Windows 95 - and there were releases delayed much earlier than that (back when it was called "Chicago").
And the new tech coming out on Windows first? I believe the Mac was the first with a widely commercially used windowing GUI.
Oh, and Apple won't break the MS monopoly, no matter what eye-candy they come up with. Linux/BSD will - because it's free, looks good enough, and it gets the job done.
Your point is valid . . . but it in no way has anything to do with "being democratic about this."
More people "benefit" by your logic than were killed. No voting... no "majority rule, minority rights." No democracy.
Yes, our military looks damned good against a poorly equipped, poorly trained, poorly motivated, poorly coordinated army. And yes, I'm proud of them (hell, I'm a Gulf War I veteran myself).
And just to bite at what I believe is a troll, I'm reserving judgement on the value of this whole thing for six months or a year. By then we'll see whether or not we've prevented or encouraged terrorism; started on world-wide campaign of "liberation" or not; and damaged diplomatic ties with any other nations that stand in the way of our president's vision of a new world order, in which anyone who is a threat to the United States is taken out preemptively.
Yes, we won. Yes it was good. Only time will tell if it was wise.
This visa worker may or may not be guilty, but they are not going to give a non-citizen the rights of a citizen.
Umm... he -is- a citizen. Just like you (and me).
This antiseptic obsession
on
Clothes That Kill
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Why does it seem that everywhere you look there's another antibacterial product?
As though antibiotics are the key to healthier living or something.
There are lots of benign bacteria out there, who inhibit the growth of more dangerous strains by consuming their resources. (Competitive inhibition is the 'real' term.) Add to the fact that the antibacterial agents are leaching into the environment, thereby ensuring that only resistant bacteria thrive.
What we're ending up with is a world in which the only bacteria are resistant to anything we can throw at them - making it harder and harder to treat the problems that they cause.
In addition, exposure to immunological challenges like benign bacteria helps to keep our immune systems strong.
I can see where these fabrics can be useful in military or hospital situations, but society's obsession with antibacterial wipes and soaps and gels (and now clothing) is only going to harm us long-term.
One of the big reasons for upgrading from a fast, efficient mainframe or (yes, it's still out there) DOS applications is ease of integration.
These days enterprise apps are being required to talk to each other - and some obscure data format from 15 or 20 years ago would cost a -ton- to get integrated with something modern.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you - it's management's responsibility to choose a product that won't kill productivity for too long while the users learn the new system. And an even larger responsibility to prove that the cost of integration (both in user experience and hardware/software/consulting costs) is more than offset by the benefits of integration.
Too often, upgrading for the reasons you mention happens, with disastrous results. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's -always- a bad idea.
Actually, the legal certification of professionals has traditionally taken place for two different reasons.
In the case of lawyers, doctors, and accountants - the government requires a license to ensure the practitioner's competence.
In the case of hair stylists, auto mechanics, plumbers (I think), and other occupations with lesser educational requirements, the licensing process is there for a business license/tax revenue purpose. I suppose it may also serve the purpose of keeping out people who are only casual about cutting hair professionally.
Government certification requirements are usually an either-or: either as a statement of competence when providing professional services - or simply as a stamp of having paid your licensing tax.
What I meant to say (and perhaps was unclear) was that the poor would end up spending more of their income on taxes than they already do.
And when you consider that the poor spend (as a percentage of income) much more on things like food, gas, and other basic necessities - they're really getting soaked by this proposal.
I have nothing against the rich - but we shouldn't institutionalize a huge tax cut for them while making life harder still for the working poor.
You don't think your flat tax would unfairly benefit the really well-off members of our society, who currently pay as much as 38% of their income?
Hell - if I made a lot of money, I'd be -begging- for a tax cut like that. Oh wait... Steve Forbes is already doing it for me.
Meanwhile, lower-income people would spend an even-larger percentage of their income on taxes - and these are the people for whom every last dollar counts.
A flat tax - while appealing - would have really perverse consequences. Perhaps leaving tax brackets in place - and dramatically simplifying deductions and loopholes - would be more in line with what you're trying to accomplish.
Not sure if this is a troll, or intended to be funny . . . but it works on both levels I suppose.
Anyhow, I've been using Struts for about a month refactoring a largish internal Oracle PL/SQL web app, and the MVC separation that's enforced by the Struts framework is really just what the doctor ordered. I'm getting similar functionality in roughly 20% of the comparable lines of code; and this is early enough in the project to where code reuse hasn't even come into play much. I'd imagine it'll end up at about 15% - i.e., 150K LOC using struts as opposed to about a million LOC using PL/SQL.
I know Lines of Code isn't necessarily a good measure of just about anything - but the real benefit is maintainability and ease of expansion (which is what brought on this refactoring to begin with).
Struts is really worth a long hard look - gets you away from using the technologies above and into a real enterprise-class web application structure.
Slashdot Mirror
Humorous intent? And I thought -my- sense of humor was dry!
As others have (less politely) said . . .
Try to find ways to spend less time looking at the screen. Really.
Draw UML on a whiteboard. Step outside for a minute or two every so often. Outline test cases on a piece of paper. Organize things on real to-do lists, instead of running your life off the screen.
(This advice has helped me avoid carpal tunnel, too - I got to the point where my wrists ached, and found ways to break up long bouts of typing. It helped quite a bit.)
Get your refresh rate on your monitor up as much as is reasonable - even the slightest flicker can cause trouble after a few intense hours.
Also, if you can, find a way to get rid of fluorescent lighting in your work area. It makes a big difference.
Do everything you can to break up those long bouts in front of a screen, even for short periods. Rest your eyes. Good luck.
That "spin doctor" was none other than Darl McBride. You heard it from the mouth of the beast.
He *did* sound rather convincing with his talk of how they already owned the copyrights, and were just looking for corroboration from Novell. And the analyst he was speaking to seemed to believe him too. (If he already owned them, why would he need the letter from Novell? Getting his ducks in a row for the trial, perhaps?)
Of course, a 24% drop in SCOX, much of it after lunch, says that people are more inclined to believe Novell about who owns what - and his little fantasy wasn't playing well in Peoria.
Instead of asking people here on Slashdot...
I'm sure that for these kinds of numbers, in a high-profile installation... -someone- over at Apple would be interested in making things go smoothly for you.
I'd imagine that you could get help directly from Apple - and probably better than anything you'll find here.
Listen, mr. puffypants...
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
I wasn't arguing that MS was going to lose in the Desktop space - they'll be there forever. I mean hell, there are people out there still using VMS!
My point was that Linux/BSD apps, properly administered, will provide excellent functionality for business users in controlled environments - and would break the MS monopoly there.
Nothing is going to eradicate Windows anytime soon. We're in agreement there.
7 years ago was... 1996? I'd imagine that Windows 3.1 was old news by then.
I mean... there's a reason they called it Windows 95 - and there were releases delayed much earlier than that (back when it was called "Chicago").
And the new tech coming out on Windows first? I believe the Mac was the first with a widely commercially used windowing GUI.
Oh, and Apple won't break the MS monopoly, no matter what eye-candy they come up with. Linux/BSD will - because it's free, looks good enough, and it gets the job done.
Umm.. Borland's Delphi/CPP-Builder does all this. And Kylix too for Linux machines.
OOP. RAD Tools. Object Reuse. And a variety of data engines you can plug in if you don't want to use theirs.
Your point is valid . . . but it in no way has anything to do with "being democratic about this."
More people "benefit" by your logic than were killed. No voting... no "majority rule, minority rights." No democracy.
Yes, our military looks damned good against a poorly equipped, poorly trained, poorly motivated, poorly coordinated army. And yes, I'm proud of them (hell, I'm a Gulf War I veteran myself).
And just to bite at what I believe is a troll, I'm reserving judgement on the value of this whole thing for six months or a year. By then we'll see whether or not we've prevented or encouraged terrorism; started on world-wide campaign of "liberation" or not; and damaged diplomatic ties with any other nations that stand in the way of our president's vision of a new world order, in which anyone who is a threat to the United States is taken out preemptively.
Yes, we won. Yes it was good. Only time will tell if it was wise.
Think they won't jail a "potential terrorist?"
Think again!
This visa worker may or may not be guilty, .
but they are not going to give a non-citizen
the rights of a citizen
Umm... he -is- a citizen. Just like you (and me).
Why does it seem that everywhere you look there's another antibacterial product?
As though antibiotics are the key to healthier living or something.
There are lots of benign bacteria out there, who inhibit the growth of more dangerous strains by consuming their resources. (Competitive inhibition is the 'real' term.) Add to the fact that the antibacterial agents are leaching into the environment, thereby ensuring that only resistant bacteria thrive.
What we're ending up with is a world in which the only bacteria are resistant to anything we can throw at them - making it harder and harder to treat the problems that they cause.
In addition, exposure to immunological challenges like benign bacteria helps to keep our immune systems strong.
I can see where these fabrics can be useful in military or hospital situations, but society's obsession with antibacterial wipes and soaps and gels (and now clothing) is only going to harm us long-term.
I'll second that whine.
When? Oh When?
Man I wish that'd come together soon.
Hear hear - I must second the request for the SVG viewer. It's the one reason I still use IE.
Slashdot isn't perfect - but it's gotten wide recognition for being a news outlet for the technically minded.
Tens of thousands of users... active discussions daily.
Joel may not think this format is ideal, but nothing succeeds like success - and Slashdot is successful as a discussion format.
One of the big reasons for upgrading from a fast, efficient mainframe or (yes, it's still out there) DOS applications is ease of integration.
These days enterprise apps are being required to talk to each other - and some obscure data format from 15 or 20 years ago would cost a -ton- to get integrated with something modern.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you - it's management's responsibility to choose a product that won't kill productivity for too long while the users learn the new system. And an even larger responsibility to prove that the cost of integration (both in user experience and hardware/software/consulting costs) is more than offset by the benefits of integration.
Too often, upgrading for the reasons you mention happens, with disastrous results. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's -always- a bad idea.
But only because Toyota Tundra trucks are and have always been assembled at their Princeton, Indiana factory.
It's an American truck built by a Japanese company. Or so the logic goes.
SkyAuction.com
I don't work for them, but I've had nothing but good experiences taking trips arranged through them.
Amazing prices. And even after the trip is over, you'll be wondering what the catch was.
Erm, no.
I'm not saying that these jobs don't carry some sort of public health risk -
But I'm speaking from experience. At least here in the state of Illinois.
And any accounting or business law text will tell you essentially what I did.
It'll take more than your hand-waving explanation to convince me that you're right.
Actually, the legal certification of professionals has traditionally taken place for two different reasons.
In the case of lawyers, doctors, and accountants - the government requires a license to ensure the practitioner's competence.
In the case of hair stylists, auto mechanics, plumbers (I think), and other occupations with lesser educational requirements, the licensing process is there for a business license/tax revenue purpose. I suppose it may also serve the purpose of keeping out people who are only casual about cutting hair professionally.
Government certification requirements are usually an either-or: either as a statement of competence when providing professional services - or simply as a stamp of having paid your licensing tax.
What I meant to say (and perhaps was unclear) was that the poor would end up spending more of their income on taxes than they already do.
And when you consider that the poor spend (as a percentage of income) much more on things like food, gas, and other basic necessities - they're really getting soaked by this proposal.
I have nothing against the rich - but we shouldn't institutionalize a huge tax cut for them while making life harder still for the working poor.
You don't think your flat tax would unfairly benefit the really well-off members of our society, who currently pay as much as 38% of their income?
Hell - if I made a lot of money, I'd be -begging- for a tax cut like that. Oh wait... Steve Forbes is already doing it for me.
Meanwhile, lower-income people would spend an even-larger percentage of their income on taxes - and these are the people for whom every last dollar counts.
A flat tax - while appealing - would have really perverse consequences. Perhaps leaving tax brackets in place - and dramatically simplifying deductions and loopholes - would be more in line with what you're trying to accomplish.
Mmhmm. And so does the 4th amendment. And the Miranda rule. And . . .
Oh forget it.
This has -got- to be a troll.
Velocity is another jakarta project that helps out on the view side of things. You might want to check it out . . .
hehe . . .
Not sure if this is a troll, or intended to be funny . . . but it works on both levels I suppose.
Anyhow, I've been using Struts for about a month refactoring a largish internal Oracle PL/SQL web app, and the MVC separation that's enforced by the Struts framework is really just what the doctor ordered. I'm getting similar functionality in roughly 20% of the comparable lines of code; and this is early enough in the project to where code reuse hasn't even come into play much. I'd imagine it'll end up at about 15% - i.e., 150K LOC using struts as opposed to about a million LOC using PL/SQL.
I know Lines of Code isn't necessarily a good measure of just about anything - but the real benefit is maintainability and ease of expansion (which is what brought on this refactoring to begin with).
Struts is really worth a long hard look - gets you away from using the technologies above and into a real enterprise-class web application structure.
It was a continuation of the joke he started in the SNL trekkie skit. It was nothing personal. Sheesh.