> At its Mix '06 conference in Las Vegas, reports Microsoft Watch, company execs insisted that there's a bright future for IE. They not only distributed a 'layout-complete' build of IE 7.0, but offered hints about what the new version of the browser geeks love to disdain (yes, it will include ActiveX) will include. Also shown: tools to test IE compatibility...
um... is it worth pointing out that this conference that Microsoft Watch and Slashdot are reporting about in the past tense hasn't actually happened yet? Mix '06 doesn't start until Monday.
I picked this up while browsing in Barnes & Noble a few days ago. I found it so frustrating that I couldn't finish it - and that doesn't happen often. The problem wasn't the technical content. As technical information goes, it's reasonable; perhaps a long magazine article's worth. And the material on crypto is well written: good analogies, good examples. But the "novel" itself reads like a self-published vanity work in serious need of a real fiction editor. In a $35 book I shouldn't have to be subjected to sentences like:
"The car, like the stallions of old carrying their knights in
shinning armor, idled roughly to keep him warm."
(Page 46, emphasis mine.)
Apart from being a godawful metaphor - which I re-read several times in a vain attempt to figure out exactly what was being compared here (The car "idled like the stallions of old"? Do stallions idle? And if they did, how exactly would that keep knights warm?) basic misspellings like "shinning armor" don't exactly do a lot to help with the ol' suspension of disbelief.
But my main annoyance so far has to be a repeated story device in which the main character "realizes" that an Interpol agent who interviewed him at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport must have been a bad guy:
"As Davis drifted off to sleep, he was hit with a moment of clarity.
Why was an Interpol agent investigating a crime in Amsterdam? Amsterdam isn't a member country of Interpol..."
Well, that's right, sparky. Here's a newsflash: Amsterdam isn't a member country of Interpol, because Amsterdam isn't a country. It's a city. And the country it's in most certainly is a member country of Interpol; Netherlands has been in Interpol since the 1920's.
So it's fairly obvious the author's Ph.D isn't in geography. Haven't these guys heard of Google?
And no, it's not a throwaway line. It's a plot point. This blunder is repeated when the hero is talking to his best friend, FBI Agent "Hans":
"..I was at the airport in Amsterdam and got questioned by Interpol..."
Hans interrupted inquisitively, "Interpol? In Amsterdam? What were they doing there?"
Their jobs, presumably.
The characters are paper-thin and unpleasant; perhaps one should inform the writers that you're meant to like the hero, not think he's an ass. Personally I find it hard to root for a character who's inner character is revealed by such prose as:
"The flight from Amsterdam had been frustrating on two fronts. The first was the complete noninterest from an attractive
but now assumed to be lesbian passenger seated in the seat to his right..."
This is our great hero and protagonist? Then why does it sound like petulant schoolyard bitching from a rebuffed fourteen year old with self-esteem issues?
And to add insult to injury, this thing's $35. If you're wanting to read a page-turner on security, just pick up a Bruce Schneier book instead, and use the leftover money to grab yourself a latte and a decent novel.
Wrong, sparky. The Concorde crash was on the 25th July 2000. While Air France grounded their planes immediately, British Airways didn't do so until the 15th August. I flew on the 14th August.
There's a marvellous new invention called "Google" that would allow you to check your assertions; you might want to look into it.
Oh, and as there were only about twenty passengers on on board. I had plenty of time to stuff my face, thanks.
No, I'm not fat. I'm 6'2" and 210 lbs. Bigger than average, but hardly a "freaky" size. And it wasn't a width issue; most of my problems were from my knees being pressed up against the chair in front.
The cramped feeling is also due to the cabin itself being small and very curved, so the ceiling is a lot closer than in a normal plane, which ain't the roomiest thing to begin with.
Two years ago, I was bumped from a cancelled BA business class trip onto a Concorde flight from New York to London. This was just after the Paris crash, when I guess they had to bump people onto the Concorde just to have some warm bodies aboard.
At first I couldn't believe my luck, and was phoning everyone I knew from the Concorde lounge ("Hey, guess where I am...?") but once on the plane, it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. It was almost empty, but it was still unbearably cramped. If it had been full, it would have felt claustrophobic in the extreme. By the time we were an hour into the trip, my wife and I were both agreeing that even if we were rolling in stupid cash, we'd never, ever fly it again. Give me first or business class any time. Hell, coach would have been more comfortable.
And apart watching an LED display tick up to Mach 2, there is no particular experience of "speed"; you just feel like you're in a cramped, uncomfortable airplane, flying a little higher than normal.
Fujitsu is making a big push with NetCOBOL for.NET and there's a lot worse things you could learn.
Spinning knowledge of COBOL together with.NET probably ain't a bad idea if you want to position yourself as useful to big companies looking to migrate their legacy apps to.NET. Sure, it might not be interesting work (lots of tedious banking/insurance applications) but hell, if you're asking Slashdot to comment on what languages you should learn, let's face it, you aren't a born C++ programmer anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
um... is it worth pointing out that this conference that Microsoft Watch and Slashdot are reporting about in the past tense hasn't actually happened yet? Mix '06 doesn't start until Monday.
http://www.mix06.com/
(Page 46, emphasis mine.)
Apart from being a godawful metaphor - which I re-read several times in a vain attempt to figure out exactly what was being compared here (The car "idled like the stallions of old"? Do stallions idle? And if they did, how exactly would that keep knights warm?) basic misspellings like "shinning armor" don't exactly do a lot to help with the ol' suspension of disbelief.
But my main annoyance so far has to be a repeated story device in which the main character "realizes" that an Interpol agent who interviewed him at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport must have been a bad guy:
Well, that's right, sparky. Here's a newsflash: Amsterdam isn't a member country of Interpol, because Amsterdam isn't a country. It's a city. And the country it's in most certainly is a member country of Interpol; Netherlands has been in Interpol since the 1920's.
So it's fairly obvious the author's Ph.D isn't in geography. Haven't these guys heard of Google?
And no, it's not a throwaway line. It's a plot point. This blunder is repeated when the hero is talking to his best friend, FBI Agent "Hans":
Their jobs, presumably.
The characters are paper-thin and unpleasant; perhaps one should inform the writers that you're meant to like the hero, not think he's an ass. Personally I find it hard to root for a character who's inner character is revealed by such prose as:
This is our great hero and protagonist? Then why does it sound like petulant schoolyard bitching from a rebuffed fourteen year old with self-esteem issues?
And to add insult to injury, this thing's $35. If you're wanting to read a page-turner on security, just pick up a Bruce Schneier book instead, and use the leftover money to grab yourself a latte and a decent novel.
Wrong, sparky. The Concorde crash was on the 25th July 2000. While Air France grounded their planes immediately, British Airways didn't do so until the 15th August. I flew on the 14th August.
There's a marvellous new invention called "Google" that would allow you to check your assertions; you might want to look into it.
Oh, and as there were only about twenty passengers on on board. I had plenty of time to stuff my face, thanks.
No, I'm not fat. I'm 6'2" and 210 lbs. Bigger than average, but hardly a "freaky" size. And it wasn't a width issue; most of my problems were from my knees being pressed up against the chair in front.
The cramped feeling is also due to the cabin itself being small and very curved, so the ceiling is a lot closer than in a normal plane, which ain't the roomiest thing to begin with.
And don't even get me started on the bathrooms...
Two years ago, I was bumped from a cancelled BA business class trip onto a Concorde flight from New York to London. This was just after the Paris crash, when I guess they had to bump people onto the Concorde just to have some warm bodies aboard.
At first I couldn't believe my luck, and was phoning everyone I knew from the Concorde lounge ("Hey, guess where I am...?") but once on the plane, it was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. It was almost empty, but it was still unbearably cramped. If it had been full, it would have felt claustrophobic in the extreme. By the time we were an hour into the trip, my wife and I were both agreeing that even if we were rolling in stupid cash, we'd never, ever fly it again. Give me first or business class any time. Hell, coach would have been more comfortable.
And apart watching an LED display tick up to Mach 2, there is no particular experience of "speed"; you just feel like you're in a cramped, uncomfortable airplane, flying a little higher than normal.
The food and tchotchkes were nice, though.
Why is this being modded as "funny"?
.NET and there's a lot worse things you could learn.
.NET probably ain't a bad idea if you want to position yourself as useful to big companies looking to migrate their legacy apps to .NET. Sure, it might not be interesting work (lots of tedious banking/insurance applications) but hell, if you're asking Slashdot to comment on what languages you should learn, let's face it, you aren't a born C++ programmer anyway.
Fujitsu is making a big push with NetCOBOL for
Spinning knowledge of COBOL together with