It's very easy. There are 64 squares on a chessboard, so if you have 64 chairs you can just sit in one of the 64 chairs and that's all it takes. With less chairs, you can do other things if needed: cross your legs or don't, lean back or don't, and so on. Just crossing your legs and leaning back cuts the number of chairs required down to 16, and that's assuming that you actually need to account for every single square, which you probably don't actually need to do in a real game.
Now if you're thinking that a mere board location doesn't always tell you what piece to put there (depending on the current arrangement) that's accounted for by the fact that these guys actually do know how to play chess so they can decide on the best move themselves after being directed to the proper square to land on.
I just sent that website to our local Economic Development Office. How often do you get an offer from a world-famous pianist to play a concert for only $1000 plus travel costs (from Germany, where she is.) The whole production would end up costing under $10,000 which seems like a steal to me.
This isn't a FOSS 2d CAD package. It's a proprietary program that you can download at no charge but it requires "activation" within 30 days and once per year thereafter. (I just read the FAQ on their website.)
plug USB cables into network ports...and make them fit
I just had a lady phone me yesterday, stating that her router appears to have quit. Why? "I just bought a new mouse and plugged it into the router and now it's not working at all."
How in the world do you plug a MOUSE into a router?
Party lines are still in common use in most places, including the largest cities, but we call that "distinctive ring service" and the phone company generally charges extra for it.
A business I do some work for has several US Robotics modems hooked up to a computer that's in use as a fancy answering machine. It works well. (Particularly since I set it up for them!)
I would add the abacus and sounding line to the list.
I have an abacus, sitting on the bookshelf right beside me within easy reach of my chair. In fact, it's position such that I can use it without having to move it or get off of my chair.
I use it for binary arithmetic and "bit modelling"; it's a great aid to thinking and remembering how X relates to Y when I'm doing something three screens lower in the code.
Where I live the public works department does that hydrant flushing stuff every spring. The fire department has nothing to do with it, as far as I know.
I have NO 3D perception at all. I hear people saying that television and movie screens and photographs look flat, but they look perfectly normal to me. That's how I see the world.
The reason is because I have one very weak eye and always have -- I can see shapes and movement with that eye and that's about it. Since I have always been/seen that way, I take what I see as being normal, and have no idea in anything other than a vague theoretical sense as to what anything in 3D would actually look like.
Like anything else, when you don't know what you're missing you don't miss it, so it really doesn't bother or affect me in any way.
I have no problem with depth perception as such; I know when the curb is in front of my foot and how far the approaching car is away from my own vehicle. How do I do it? I don't really know how to explain it, it's just how things are. How do you do it with 3D vision? You just do it, right? Same question.
I think the major factor is to have the keyboard not be a barrier to thought. I have been typing for over 40 years; I learned how to type "properly" in Typing Class in high school on old Underwood manual office typewriters.
I type automatically, meaning that I don't think about what I'm doing any more than I have to think about breathing. The words just appear on the screen in front of me as I make decisions about what I want to say. This allows me to think about what I'm creating (source code, email message, instructional write-up, etc.), rather than worrying about the mechanics of actually typing it out.
The point being that when the keyboard is not a barrier, it frees you up to think about what you're trying to accomplish and the rest just happens.
This, to me, is the value of knowing how to type properly if you're a programmer. You only have to do one task -- deciding how to write the program -- instead of both that and having to figure out how to type it up as well.
I also spent six months in Malaysia working for a computer company, and I found that they cannot make movies there because no one will buy them, they would all make copies of the film, and sell the copies without any worry, as no one will do anything about it.
Make the movies and sell tickets to see them in theatres, and nothing else. Anyone who wants to see the movie can either buy a ticket and see it on the big screen, or watch some kind of a crappy camcorder "rip" from someone recording off of the screen.
Problem solved, mostly.
Putting it out on home video and expecting that nobody will pirate that is a losing battle, so don't fight that battle.
Also, how did this guy get his neighbor's coworkers e-mail addresses? He must have either: hacked into the dude's pc or hacked into something and did real hacking, or worked with the person and hence knew the e-mail addresses already, or knew the dude good enough to get the e-mail addresses.
I had a laptop with a mini-pci network adapter built in that was old enough that it didn't support anything but WEP.
This is something that I've never quite understood. Why doesn't WPA2 (or any other security protocol) work with any network adapter? I don't need any particular network card to use ssh and friends, so what's different about WPA2?
Neither do I. When I was in high school one of the classes that I took was Shop, and the Shop instructor insisted that everything be written in block caps. This was partly because part of the class was basic drafting (with rulers and pencils; this is the days before computers, let alone CAD) and you use nothing other than block caps on a blueprint. At least, that's what I was taught.
I started using block caps for everything and I have now actually forgotten how to write cursive. I tried to write cursive a few years ago, and discovered that I just can't do it. My script looked like it was written by a six-year old, it took forever to remember how to shape the letters, and I got a few of them wrong. I can still read cursive, obviously, but I can't write it.
Something that I keep telling myself that I will learn one day (and I have a series of textbooks for) is shorthand. That's one skill that wasn't taught in Typing Class when I took it several decades back.
I figure shorthand would be a very useful skill to have for note-taking and the like, but somehow I've never managed to get around to it.
When I was in high school I took the Typing Class. This was in the days before computers, and the Typing Class was geared to teaching you how to be a secretary: How to type, how to layout and compose a letter or memorandum in various formats and for various purposes, filing, carbon copies, invoice preparation, and even things like how to properly fold a piece of paper to fit into an envelope (which a surprising number of people don't seem to know).
I was the only boy in Typing Class but I wanted to learn it because I figured it would be useful to know these things.
I use what I learned in Typing Class every day of my life; I would say that Typing Class was the second-most valuable thing that I learned in school right behind the ability to read and write. Anyone of my age who didn't take Typing Class really missed the boat.
I remember reading an article a while back about tool purchases at Walmart, specifically that they had some manufacturer use plastic gears in their drills. The drills apparently looked identical to the drills at hardware stores, but the hardware store models had metal gears.
My grandmother had a coffee pot that she put on the stove and it went "blurp blurp blurp" and sprayed coffee somehow through or around the lid when it was brewing. I'm pretty sure that it required the water to boil before the "blurp blurp" started.
I have a suspicion that halfway through that recitation he realized that the next words were "Shame on me" and tried to avoid saying that. A three word clip of Bush saying "Shame on me" would be very popular with certain media.
A classic case of putting the mouth into gear before engaging brain.
Slashdot Mirror
It's very easy. There are 64 squares on a chessboard, so if you have 64 chairs you can just sit in one of the 64 chairs and that's all it takes. With less chairs, you can do other things if needed: cross your legs or don't, lean back or don't, and so on. Just crossing your legs and leaning back cuts the number of chairs required down to 16, and that's assuming that you actually need to account for every single square, which you probably don't actually need to do in a real game.
Now if you're thinking that a mere board location doesn't always tell you what piece to put there (depending on the current arrangement) that's accounted for by the fact that these guys actually do know how to play chess so they can decide on the best move themselves after being directed to the proper square to land on.
I just sent that website to our local Economic Development Office. How often do you get an offer from a world-famous pianist to play a concert for only $1000 plus travel costs (from Germany, where she is.) The whole production would end up costing under $10,000 which seems like a steal to me.
FOSS 2d CAD package
This isn't a FOSS 2d CAD package. It's a proprietary program that you can download at no charge but it requires "activation" within 30 days and once per year thereafter. (I just read the FAQ on their website.)
plug USB cables into network ports...and make them fit
I just had a lady phone me yesterday, stating that her router appears to have quit. Why? "I just bought a new mouse and plugged it into the router and now it's not working at all."
How in the world do you plug a MOUSE into a router?
Party lines are still in common use in most places, including the largest cities, but we call that "distinctive ring service" and the phone company generally charges extra for it.
A business I do some work for has several US Robotics modems hooked up to a computer that's in use as a fancy answering machine. It works well. (Particularly since I set it up for them!)
I would add the abacus and sounding line to the list.
I have an abacus, sitting on the bookshelf right beside me within easy reach of my chair. In fact, it's position such that I can use it without having to move it or get off of my chair.
I use it for binary arithmetic and "bit modelling"; it's a great aid to thinking and remembering how X relates to Y when I'm doing something three screens lower in the code.
Doremi CaptiView system for digital cinema
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c37zsx3ZdYM
Where I live the public works department does that hydrant flushing stuff every spring. The fire department has nothing to do with it, as far as I know.
Stuxnet. (Military weapon.)
I have terrible 3D depth perception.
I have NO 3D perception at all. I hear people saying that television and movie screens and photographs look flat, but they look perfectly normal to me. That's how I see the world.
The reason is because I have one very weak eye and always have -- I can see shapes and movement with that eye and that's about it. Since I have always been/seen that way, I take what I see as being normal, and have no idea in anything other than a vague theoretical sense as to what anything in 3D would actually look like.
Like anything else, when you don't know what you're missing you don't miss it, so it really doesn't bother or affect me in any way.
I have no problem with depth perception as such; I know when the curb is in front of my foot and how far the approaching car is away from my own vehicle. How do I do it? I don't really know how to explain it, it's just how things are. How do you do it with 3D vision? You just do it, right? Same question.
If he was pissing in front of your shop or house you would want him caught, too.
What else is there that's minor/common enough to bump up those figures?
Parking tickets.
I think the major factor is to have the keyboard not be a barrier to thought. I have been typing for over 40 years; I learned how to type "properly" in Typing Class in high school on old Underwood manual office typewriters.
I type automatically, meaning that I don't think about what I'm doing any more than I have to think about breathing. The words just appear on the screen in front of me as I make decisions about what I want to say. This allows me to think about what I'm creating (source code, email message, instructional write-up, etc.), rather than worrying about the mechanics of actually typing it out.
The point being that when the keyboard is not a barrier, it frees you up to think about what you're trying to accomplish and the rest just happens.
This, to me, is the value of knowing how to type properly if you're a programmer. You only have to do one task -- deciding how to write the program -- instead of both that and having to figure out how to type it up as well.
This is the most amazingly ridiculous keyboard I've ever seen.
http://www.keyboardforblondes.com/
I also spent six months in Malaysia working for a computer company, and I found that they cannot make movies there because no one will buy them, they would all make copies of the film, and sell the copies without any worry, as no one will do anything about it.
Make the movies and sell tickets to see them in theatres, and nothing else. Anyone who wants to see the movie can either buy a ticket and see it on the big screen, or watch some kind of a crappy camcorder "rip" from someone recording off of the screen.
Problem solved, mostly.
Putting it out on home video and expecting that nobody will pirate that is a losing battle, so don't fight that battle.
Also, how did this guy get his neighbor's coworkers e-mail addresses? He must have either: hacked into the dude's pc or hacked into something and did real hacking, or worked with the person and hence knew the e-mail addresses already, or knew the dude good enough to get the e-mail addresses.
Or maybe just checked the law firm's website?
I had a laptop with a mini-pci network adapter built in that was old enough that it didn't support anything but WEP.
This is something that I've never quite understood. Why doesn't WPA2 (or any other security protocol) work with any network adapter? I don't need any particular network card to use ssh and friends, so what's different about WPA2?
I also do not write in cursive.
Neither do I. When I was in high school one of the classes that I took was Shop, and the Shop instructor insisted that everything be written in block caps. This was partly because part of the class was basic drafting (with rulers and pencils; this is the days before computers, let alone CAD) and you use nothing other than block caps on a blueprint. At least, that's what I was taught.
I started using block caps for everything and I have now actually forgotten how to write cursive. I tried to write cursive a few years ago, and discovered that I just can't do it. My script looked like it was written by a six-year old, it took forever to remember how to shape the letters, and I got a few of them wrong. I can still read cursive, obviously, but I can't write it.
Something that I keep telling myself that I will learn one day (and I have a series of textbooks for) is shorthand. That's one skill that wasn't taught in Typing Class when I took it several decades back.
I figure shorthand would be a very useful skill to have for note-taking and the like, but somehow I've never managed to get around to it.
When I was in high school I took the Typing Class. This was in the days before computers, and the Typing Class was geared to teaching you how to be a secretary: How to type, how to layout and compose a letter or memorandum in various formats and for various purposes, filing, carbon copies, invoice preparation, and even things like how to properly fold a piece of paper to fit into an envelope (which a surprising number of people don't seem to know).
I was the only boy in Typing Class but I wanted to learn it because I figured it would be useful to know these things.
I use what I learned in Typing Class every day of my life; I would say that Typing Class was the second-most valuable thing that I learned in school right behind the ability to read and write. Anyone of my age who didn't take Typing Class really missed the boat.
I remember reading an article a while back about tool purchases at Walmart, specifically that they had some manufacturer use plastic gears in their drills. The drills apparently looked identical to the drills at hardware stores, but the hardware store models had metal gears.
You don't boil water to make coffee.
My grandmother had a coffee pot that she put on the stove and it went "blurp blurp blurp" and sprayed coffee somehow through or around the lid when it was brewing. I'm pretty sure that it required the water to boil before the "blurp blurp" started.
How about paying the developer a percentage of the amount that you get when you re-sell the house, every time for the next hundred years:
Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love
I have a suspicion that halfway through that recitation he realized that the next words were "Shame on me" and tried to avoid saying that. A three word clip of Bush saying "Shame on me" would be very popular with certain media.
A classic case of putting the mouth into gear before engaging brain.