However, the K6-2 is also a previous generation, the K6-3 is a little more competitive in floating point and overall performance to the Celeron and Pentium II/III than the K6-2 and original K6 were. The K6-2 is, on the other hand usually significantly cheaper than even Celerons. The Athlon was just the first time in a long time that AMD has actually convincingly beat Intel in flat out performance. In price/performance, AMD has always been very competitive.
Besides I think that intel machines are more oriented to math intensive operations wheras AMD chips are focused on graphics rendering.
You are dealing with obsolete information. This may have been true of the K6 family and earlier, but the Athlon's FPU beats the Pentium III convincingly and across the board even for pure numerical calculation. The question really is, in the long run can AMD stay ahead since they have considerably smaller resources than Intel. This will become especially difficult for AMD once the Itanium ships, because it looks like AMD has a long road ahead to build a competitive 64 bit architecture. Luckily for AMD in the short run it will be quite a while before the Itanium is much of a factor due to costs and availability of software that will take advantage of it.
Uggh?! Pascal a dead language? When perhaps pure procedural Pascal. But Borland's best selling product by a large margin for quite a while has been Delphi, which is based on Object Pascal - sort of like C++ is to C. I have to say, that of the object oriented languages I've seen, Object Pascal has to be one of the nicest.
I still think that Pascal is essentially a dead language. Delphi appears to be the last gasp for Pascal derived languages. It seems that both Borland and Microsoft have trouble getting away from their roots (Pascal and BASIC respectively). Now that Borland is putting out more Delphi-like products with C++ and Java (C++ Builder and J Builder) as the core languages instead of Object Pascal, I expect that eventually they will eclipse Delphi just as Turbo C and Turbo C++ did with Turbo Pascal.
Java approaches pure-OO which can admittedly be annoying. C++ is simply a bastard (well, it's a hybrid), so, like a mut, is ugly but can do the job. Pascal, whose adoption, or lack thereof, could be considered both a deficit and a boon, has matured at a much slower measured pace.
I just don't see it as likely that even a matured Pascal derivative will rewrite history and suddenly vanquish the C derived languages.
I'd have to say Object Pascal is a lovely language which is suited for many purposes.
Unfortunately, I really just don't like the Pascal syntax, so I doubt that Object Pascal would ever appeal to me.
monopolies will usually lower their prices to kick competitors out
That is only until they have effectively eliminated the competitors. MS-DOS 6.x+Windows 3.x was sold much cheaper than Windows 95. By the time Windows 95 came out, the Amiga and Atari were dead, OS/2 and the Mac were already in severe decline and Linux hadn't started to take off much yet. Microsoft raised the price of Windows 98 compared to 95, despite the fact that it was mainly bug fixes and window dressing on top of 95. The prices of MS-Office have also gone way up as competition has gone down.
The traditional monopolistic pricing pattern is certainly there with Microsoft, make no mistake about it.
Re:What ever happened to the Unix Pascal system?
on
FreeBSD at COMDEX
·
· Score: 2
I personally first learned Basic on an Apple ][ then 6502 Assembler with Big Mac/Merlin and then Pascal with UCSD Pascal and later Kyan Pascal. Then came Forth,
Small world it is... I also started out with BASIC on an Apple ][ (back in about 1980) and then switched to 6502 assembler, although I used a couple of different assemblers including the Apple DOS toolkit, Lisa 2.5 and the one from ByteWorks. I did use Big Mac/Merlin some, but not as much as the others. I also played with both the Apple UCSD Pascal system and used Kyan Pascal some. I even did a little forth (GraForth and a couple others on the Apple ][). Around that time I started doing C on VAXes under BSD. I also used Manx's Aztec C on the Apple ][ quite a bit.
then Turbo Pascal for CP/M and the for the IBM PC which was good enough for several years
I pretty much skipped doing much programming on CP/M and MS-DOS in those years as much as I could. I did do some C on MS-DOS, painful as it was because the compilers in those days (Lattice C mainly) really stank. I did some Pascal (Lightspeed) and C on the Mac (Lightspeed/Symantec).
until I hit C++ in 1990
Around 1990 I did a couple of years of Informix 4GL and C on System V (Motorola 88k) and AIX (RT and RS/6000).
and then Java in 1996.
I started playing with Java around the same time, although it has only been in the last year and a half that I've really started using it seriously.
With C++ still my favourite language. (Perl is not bad either)
I still use C and C++ quite a bit on my own, although not so much at work anymore. I do quite a bit of Perl as well, although mainly for quick and dirty stuff.
This learning history also represents an increasing order of difficulty. Pascal is certainly easier to grasp and less mighty than C or C++. And therefore suited for teaching programming.
Here I'd tend to disagree. Pascal is just plain outmoded, and not suited for teaching anymore. There are other things that are better suited. Personally I don't really believe that C/C++ are that much more difficult than Pascal if approached correctly. Given that Pascal is essentially a dead language, and C based languages (including C++, Java and to a lesser extent Perl) pretty much rule the software development world. Given that reality, I think it makes more sense to spend time learning something practical like Java. Pascal also suffered from the facts that it has never evolved as nicely as has C into C++ (and Java to some degree).
A lot of that is because Wirth abandoned work on improving Pascal in favor of developing the Modula and Oberon series. Unfortunately neither of those families of languages has managed to take off.
Not to forget the admirable effort by Bjarne Stroustup to forge the ISO C++ Standard. That was certainly sucking work, but he did it.
True enough. Stroustrup certainly was more activist in standardizing C++ than Kernighan and Ritchie were in the ANSIfication of C.
Yea, I imagine that wouldn't sit too well. I'm afraid that he probably liked that better than what I would have had to say, although in all reality I probably wouldn't have said anything at all. As much as I dislike Pascal, I don't feel a need to vent to Wirth about it, especially since it seems kinda like kicking someone when they are down.
Re:Well, Linux still has a ways to go.
on
FreeBSD at COMDEX
·
· Score: 2
Apparently not a single vendor of digital cameras has seen the wisdom of your pronouncement as they foolishly plod ahead and use nothing but FW interfaces...
What about Sony? (hey, didn't that use to be one of their ad slogans?)
The whole Mavica line uses a good ol' 1.4M 3.5" floppy disk as its interface.
Yes, I am a happy Mavica owner.
Re:What ever happened to the Unix Pascal system?
on
FreeBSD at COMDEX
·
· Score: 2
FWIW, gpc isn't the same thing as the old Berkeley pi/pc/pix that Tom was talking about. I believe gpc is a totally new development, and it sits on the gcc backend.
I too, remember using the Berkeley Pascal system on VAX 730 and 780's (and later on an 8250) under 4.2 and 4.3 BSD. I absolutely detest VMS (which is what the undergrad work was done on back in those days where I went to college), but I worked for a place that ran BSD. Not only that, but the Comp Center's machines were grossly overloaded with users, while I virtually had the VAXes at work to myself at night.
Actually, I hate Pascal too, so what I would do was write the assignments in C under BSD, then hand convert the C source code to Pascal once it was finished, and compile and test it under BSD using pi. I really liked the quick syntax check in pi (it would even fix small errors like missing semicolons and begin/end keywords). Once the Pascal version of the code was working under BSD, I would upload it to VMS, compile, test and turn it in. It took a little explanation to the instructor of one class as to why my source code was always version 1 or 2, and why I used very little 'funny money' on my VMS account.
I suspect that the old pi/pc/pix isn't included in current *BSD's because of two things. One, I suspect that the originals are highly VAX-centric, especially pc. I also suspect that the code may be AT&T encumbered because I remeber seeing mention in a recent interview with Bill Joy that BSD did the work on that code as a summer project that was funded by AT&T.
At any rate, it seems that in general, Pascal has mostly fallen out of favor in the world with the exception of Borland's Delphi which seems like it is still kind of struggling.
The real problem with hell is that it is eternal punishment, the point of no return, no second chances.
That kind of attitude is one of the things that turns so many people off from religion. 'No second chances' just doesn't seem consistant with a 'kind, loving and forgiving' deity. And eternal punishment seems only fitting for the worst sort of offenders (such as Stalin, Hitler, Bill Gates:-), etc). Even a lot of people who really are pretty much assholes really don't deserve eternal torment and damnation.
The Bible tells you how to be sure that you will avoid hell. Take the advice. Don't go there.
Well, the Bible is not only inconsistant and vague, it is greatly open to interpretation. There are hundreds of denominations which call themselves Christian, and yet almost nobody agrees on what the Bible really means.
All I can say is that any deity that would condemn me to eternal fire for basically being human is evil and doesn't deserve to be worshiped. So either way, it looks to me like most of the world's organized religions really have things wrong one way or the other.
Looks like it is already mirrored, so it appears that the Co$ is not getting their way in silencing their critics. Actually, what will most likely happen, given what I've seen lately, is that this information will end up being hosted on more sites after being shut down than it was before. The Co$ is shooting themselves in the foot, again.
One thing I have never been able to figure out is how people think that a god that would sentance people to burn in hell for all eternity just for not believing was a 'kind and loving god'. There are just too many inconsistancies there to take everything at face value. One has to wonder if god(s) does/do exist, how accurately man has forwarded their message. Would it be the first time that (often self-appointed) authority figures overstated the downside of misbehavior in order to try to intimidate people to 'correct' behavior? Would it be the first time that authority figures invoke the name of a 'higher power' to gain power?
Here in Germany, btw, they usually use the same voice actor for the same actor. Thus Arnold Schwartzenegger, for example, always has the same voice actor. And still you often recognize the same voice on many different shows/actors/characters.
Arnold Schwartzenegger is a very interesting example, since he is a native german speaker (being from Austria originally). He should be able to very easily dub his own dialog into German, so you should be able to get his real voice. It is really kinda sad if they don't take the german speaking market seriously enough to do it that way.
You should take into consideration that the election is still almost a year away. If you are 17 now, you will be 18 in time for the election unless your birthday fell within about the last two or three weeks. So get your posterior down to the courthouse or wherever you can get a voter registration form and get yourself registered to vote. Most counties will let you register to vote if you are 17 but will turn 18 before the next election.
I won't vote for Gore because of his stance on gun control, for his stance on crypto (he was the poster-boy for Clipper, for instance), etc. His continual boneheaded remarks are the least of my concern, as I don't think any other politicians at his level have much of a clue when real tech issues come up.
A shameless plug for phpbuilder.com. No, it isn't mine, but it gets its connectivity from the same ISP I use. Those people who have been complaining about a lack of PHP source code and information, you should visit this site.
I wasn't meaning to slight your friend, if he can goof off 1/2 the time and still do double average, then more power to him. It is kinda a sad statement about some of the other people that work there. Either they are really bottom of the barrel or they are just totally unmotivated.
It really sounds to me like their quota system is just incredibly poorly designed. That and the general lack of motivation sounds like they have poor management. Your point about their educational policies are another point in that direction. It is a good indication that they don't do enough to reward people _after_ they get the education to retain them. Unfortunately, bad management is too common in government.
Well, from your description, it sounds more like the patent office is spending their money poorly rather than they are underfunded. If they paid half as many examiners twice as much money each as they do now, they should be able to get well qualified and dilligent people who should be able to get better than twice the work done.
Unfortunately, this type of inefficiency seems epidemic in government.
Oh please. You want to blame incompetence and/or apathy on the part of the patent office on the Republicans? I don't see very many Democrats trying to make funding levels for the patent office into a campaign issue. I somehow doubt that we'd see much different action from the patent office if the Democrats controlled congress. And if the Democrats regain control of congress (which is a possibility) after the next elections, I will be surprised if we see a sudden increase in funding of the patent office. Even if there was a big increase in their budget, I am not at all convinced that it would make a big difference in the quality of research they seem to be doing.
What makes you think that this is a partisan issue in the first place?
The problem is that the people at the patent office seem to know so little about the subject matter that they are issuing patents on that they don't seem to be aware of what prior art is out there (even stuff covered by prior - sometimes expired - patents). They also don't seem to know enough about the subject matter even to be able to decide that certain patents should be disallowed because they are for something that is obvious.
Unfortunately, the patent office's attitude seems to be to rubber stamp just about anything that crosses their desks these days that has the correct paperwork and $$$ attached to it, especially if it is for a big corporation. The assumption appears to be 'let the courts sort it out'.
Obviously you aren't really a student. If you were, you'd know that in the academic world teamwork is called 'cheating'. Code re-use is called 'plagurism'.
In case you are wondering, this is called 'sarcasm'. But only slightly.
Never seen Netscape crash my X session. I noticed some instability with Navigator 4.0x on Red Hat 5.x, but I've had good luck with 4.5 or newer on SuSE 6.x and I am currently using Navigator 4.61 on both SuSE and Red Hat amd it seems pretty stable. In no case have I seen it cause an X crash. I haven't had X crap out on me since the days of the 1.1.x kernel series, and that has been a long time ago. It was also likely due to bogus video card drivers. I use mostly Matrox Mystique II or S3 (Virge DX and Trio64), but a couple of my minor boxes have Cirrus Logic 54xx video cards.
Your milage may vary, but I have a Navigator 4.61 session that has been running on my main Linux box for a couple of weeks and I use it for browsing on a daily basis.
The town I live in is only about 300K people, however the only colleges here are a small private university and some even smaller private colleges, so they have no noticeable impact on the wage situation, especially since none of them are technically orriented and they turn out very few Com Sci students.
Another bad thing about Madison (which is also true of the town I live in, unfortunately) is that it is the state capitol. The state governments pay poorly also, albiet in general not any worse than a public university does. Luckily the town I live in is really mostly dominated by insurance and financial companies as far as the job market goes.
As for moving to Chicago, you would see dramatically better salaries there, but as I noted before, the cost of living in the Chicagoland area is nearly as high as the east coast. If you can hack the weather, I'd consider the twin cities instead, or for warmer weather I'd look at Kansas City, Omaha or perhaps even St Louis.
For the sake of not appearing biased and the fact that if you like Madison, you'd probably be bored to death here, I am not recommending the town I live in.:-)
I also have an HP LJ III which I picked up for $50. The going price for them these days seems to be about $100 or so. I got mine cheap because the person who had it had a mishap that caused a large amount of toner to be spilled inside, but after some careful cleaning it now works fine. Supplies as noted are cheap (unlike an inkjet, it prints good on even the cheapest copier bond). Refilled toner cartridges can save you serious money, but even new cartridges are cheap compared to inkjet when you consider a $50-$80 cartridge will print 3000-4000 pages compared to a lot of inkjets with $20-$30 cartridges that print 500-700 pages.
One recommendation is to add additional memory to improve performance. The LJ III's only come with a small amount of memory, and adding more really helps.
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in q3 my amd k6-2 450 sucks
However, the K6-2 is also a previous generation, the K6-3 is a little more competitive in floating point and overall performance to the Celeron and Pentium II/III than the K6-2 and original K6 were. The K6-2 is, on the other hand usually significantly cheaper than even Celerons. The Athlon was just the first time in a long time that AMD has actually convincingly beat Intel in flat out performance. In price/performance, AMD has always been very competitive.
Besides I think that intel machines are more oriented to math intensive operations wheras AMD chips are focused on graphics rendering.
You are dealing with obsolete information. This may have been true of the K6 family and earlier, but the Athlon's FPU beats the Pentium III convincingly and across the board even for pure numerical calculation. The question really is, in the long run can AMD stay ahead since they have considerably smaller resources than Intel. This will become especially difficult for AMD once the Itanium ships, because it looks like AMD has a long road ahead to build a competitive 64 bit architecture. Luckily for AMD in the short run it will be quite a while before the Itanium is much of a factor due to costs and availability of software that will take advantage of it.
Uggh?! Pascal a dead language? When perhaps pure procedural Pascal. But Borland's best selling product by a large margin for quite a while has been Delphi, which is based on Object Pascal - sort of like C++ is to C. I have to say, that of the object oriented languages I've seen, Object Pascal has to be one of the nicest.
I still think that Pascal is essentially a dead language. Delphi appears to be the last gasp for Pascal derived languages. It seems that both Borland and Microsoft have trouble getting away from their roots (Pascal and BASIC respectively). Now that Borland is putting out more Delphi-like products with C++ and Java (C++ Builder and J Builder) as the core languages instead of Object Pascal, I expect that eventually they will eclipse Delphi just as Turbo C and Turbo C++ did with Turbo Pascal.
Java approaches pure-OO which can admittedly be annoying. C++ is simply a bastard (well, it's a hybrid), so, like a mut, is ugly but can do the job. Pascal, whose adoption, or lack thereof, could be considered both a deficit and a boon, has matured at a much slower measured pace.
I just don't see it as likely that even a matured Pascal derivative will rewrite history and suddenly vanquish the C derived languages.
I'd have to say Object Pascal is a lovely language which is suited for many purposes.
Unfortunately, I really just don't like the Pascal syntax, so I doubt that Object Pascal would ever appeal to me.
monopolies will usually lower their prices to kick competitors out
That is only until they have effectively eliminated the competitors. MS-DOS 6.x+Windows 3.x was sold much cheaper than Windows 95. By the time Windows 95 came out, the Amiga and Atari were dead, OS/2 and the Mac were already in severe decline and Linux hadn't started to take off much yet. Microsoft raised the price of Windows 98 compared to 95, despite the fact that it was mainly bug fixes and window dressing on top of 95. The prices of MS-Office have also gone way up as competition has gone down.
The traditional monopolistic pricing pattern is certainly there with Microsoft, make no mistake about it.
I personally first learned Basic on an Apple ][ then 6502 Assembler with Big Mac/Merlin and then Pascal with UCSD Pascal and later Kyan Pascal. Then came Forth,
Small world it is... I also started out with BASIC on an Apple ][ (back in about 1980) and then switched to 6502 assembler, although I used a couple of different assemblers including the Apple DOS toolkit, Lisa 2.5 and the one from ByteWorks. I did use Big Mac/Merlin some, but not as much as the others. I also played with both the Apple UCSD Pascal system and used Kyan Pascal some. I even did a little forth (GraForth and a couple others on the Apple ][). Around that time I started doing C on VAXes under BSD. I also used Manx's Aztec C on the Apple ][ quite a bit.
then Turbo Pascal for CP/M and the for the IBM PC which was good enough for several years
I pretty much skipped doing much programming on CP/M and MS-DOS in those years as much as I could. I did do some C on MS-DOS, painful as it was because the compilers in those days (Lattice C mainly) really stank. I did some Pascal (Lightspeed) and C on the Mac (Lightspeed/Symantec).
until I hit C++ in 1990
Around 1990 I did a couple of years of Informix 4GL and C on System V (Motorola 88k) and AIX (RT and RS/6000).
and then Java in 1996.
I started playing with Java around the same time, although it has only been in the last year and a half that I've really started using it seriously.
With C++ still my favourite language. (Perl is not bad either)
I still use C and C++ quite a bit on my own, although not so much at work anymore. I do quite a bit of Perl as well, although mainly for quick and dirty stuff.
This learning history also represents an increasing order of difficulty. Pascal is certainly easier to grasp and less mighty than C or C++. And therefore suited for teaching programming.
Here I'd tend to disagree. Pascal is just plain outmoded, and not suited for teaching anymore. There are other things that are better suited. Personally I don't really believe that C/C++ are that much more difficult than Pascal if approached correctly. Given that Pascal is essentially a dead language, and C based languages (including C++, Java and to a lesser extent Perl) pretty much rule the software development world. Given that reality, I think it makes more sense to spend time learning something practical like Java. Pascal also suffered from the facts that it has never evolved as nicely as has C into C++ (and Java to some degree).
A lot of that is because Wirth abandoned work on improving Pascal in favor of developing the Modula and Oberon series. Unfortunately neither of those families of languages has managed to take off.
Not to forget the admirable effort by Bjarne Stroustup to forge the ISO C++ Standard. That was certainly sucking work, but he did it.
True enough. Stroustrup certainly was more activist in standardizing C++ than Kernighan and Ritchie were in the ANSIfication of C.
Yea, I imagine that wouldn't sit too well. I'm afraid that he probably liked that better than what I would have had to say, although in all reality I probably wouldn't have said anything at all. As much as I dislike Pascal, I don't feel a need to vent to Wirth about it, especially since it seems kinda like kicking someone when they are down.
Apparently not a single vendor of digital cameras has seen the wisdom of your pronouncement as they foolishly plod ahead and use nothing but FW interfaces...
What about Sony? (hey, didn't that use to be one of their ad slogans?)
The whole Mavica line uses a good ol' 1.4M 3.5" floppy disk as its interface.
Yes, I am a happy Mavica owner.
FWIW, gpc isn't the same thing as the old Berkeley pi/pc/pix that Tom was talking about. I believe gpc is a totally new development, and it sits on the gcc backend.
I too, remember using the Berkeley Pascal system on VAX 730 and 780's (and later on an 8250) under 4.2 and 4.3 BSD. I absolutely detest VMS (which is what the undergrad work was done on back in those days where I went to college), but I worked for a place that ran BSD. Not only that, but the Comp Center's machines were grossly overloaded with users, while I virtually had the VAXes at work to myself at night.
Actually, I hate Pascal too, so what I would do was write the assignments in C under BSD, then hand convert the C source code to Pascal once it was finished, and compile and test it under BSD using pi. I really liked the quick syntax check in pi (it would even fix small errors like missing semicolons and begin/end keywords). Once the Pascal version of the code was working under BSD, I would upload it to VMS, compile, test and turn it in. It took a little explanation to the instructor of one class as to why my source code was always version 1 or 2, and why I used very little 'funny money' on my VMS account.
I suspect that the old pi/pc/pix isn't included in current *BSD's because of two things. One, I suspect that the originals are highly VAX-centric, especially pc. I also suspect that the code may be AT&T encumbered because I remeber seeing mention in a recent interview with Bill Joy that BSD did the work on that code as a summer project that was funded by AT&T.
At any rate, it seems that in general, Pascal has mostly fallen out of favor in the world with the exception of Borland's Delphi which seems like it is still kind of struggling.
The real problem with hell is that it is eternal punishment, the point of no return, no second chances.
:-), etc). Even a lot of people who really are pretty much assholes really don't deserve eternal torment and damnation.
That kind of attitude is one of the things that turns so many people off from religion. 'No second chances' just doesn't seem consistant with a 'kind, loving and forgiving' deity. And eternal punishment seems only fitting for the worst sort of offenders (such as Stalin, Hitler, Bill Gates
The Bible tells you how to be sure that you will avoid hell. Take the advice. Don't go there.
Well, the Bible is not only inconsistant and vague, it is greatly open to interpretation. There are hundreds of denominations which call themselves Christian, and yet almost nobody agrees on what the Bible really means.
All I can say is that any deity that would condemn me to eternal fire for basically being human is evil and doesn't deserve to be worshiped. So either way, it looks to me like most of the world's organized religions really have things wrong one way or the other.
Looks like it is already mirrored, so it appears that the Co$ is not getting their way in silencing their critics. Actually, what will most likely happen, given what I've seen lately, is that this information will end up being hosted on more sites after being shut down than it was before. The Co$ is shooting themselves in the foot, again.
Poor little clams. Snap snap snap.
What if you've picked the wrong god?
One thing I have never been able to figure out is how people think that a god that would sentance people to burn in hell for all eternity just for not believing was a 'kind and loving god'. There are just too many inconsistancies there to take everything at face value. One has to wonder if god(s) does/do exist, how accurately man has forwarded their message. Would it be the first time that (often self-appointed) authority figures overstated the downside of misbehavior in order to try to intimidate people to 'correct' behavior? Would it be the first time that authority figures invoke the name of a 'higher power' to gain power?
Here in Germany, btw, they usually use the same voice actor for the same actor. Thus Arnold Schwartzenegger, for example, always has the same voice actor. And still you often recognize the same voice on many different shows/actors/characters.
Arnold Schwartzenegger is a very interesting example, since he is a native german speaker (being from Austria originally). He should be able to very easily dub his own dialog into German, so you should be able to get his real voice. It is really kinda sad if they don't take the german speaking market seriously enough to do it that way.
On your point 4:
You should take into consideration that the election is still almost a year away. If you are 17 now, you will be 18 in time for the election unless your birthday fell within about the last two or three weeks. So get your posterior down to the courthouse or wherever you can get a voter registration form and get yourself registered to vote. Most counties will let you register to vote if you are 17 but will turn 18 before the next election.
I won't vote for Gore because of his stance on gun control, for his stance on crypto (he was the poster-boy for Clipper, for instance), etc. His continual boneheaded remarks are the least of my concern, as I don't think any other politicians at his level have much of a clue when real tech issues come up.
A shameless plug for phpbuilder.com. No, it isn't mine, but it gets its connectivity from the same ISP I use. Those people who have been complaining about a lack of PHP source code and information, you should visit this site.
I wasn't meaning to slight your friend, if he can goof off 1/2 the time and still do double average, then more power to him. It is kinda a sad statement about some of the other people that work there. Either they are really bottom of the barrel or they are just totally unmotivated.
It really sounds to me like their quota system is just incredibly poorly designed. That and the general lack of motivation sounds like they have poor management. Your point about their educational policies are another point in that direction. It is a good indication that they don't do enough to reward people _after_ they get the education to retain them. Unfortunately, bad management is too common in government.
Well, from your description, it sounds more like the patent office is spending their money poorly rather than they are underfunded. If they paid half as many examiners twice as much money each as they do now, they should be able to get well qualified and dilligent people who should be able to get better than twice the work done.
Unfortunately, this type of inefficiency seems epidemic in government.
Oh please. You want to blame incompetence and/or apathy on the part of the patent office on the Republicans? I don't see very many Democrats trying to make funding levels for the patent office into a campaign issue. I somehow doubt that we'd see much different action from the patent office if the Democrats controlled congress. And if the Democrats regain control of congress (which is a possibility) after the next elections, I will be surprised if we see a sudden increase in funding of the patent office. Even if there was a big increase in their budget, I am not at all convinced that it would make a big difference in the quality of research they seem to be doing.
What makes you think that this is a partisan issue in the first place?
There were rumors recently that someone was trying to get Mosaic development going again...
I don't remember where I saw them or who it was that was doing it, but it wasn't that long ago.
The problem is that the people at the patent office seem to know so little about the subject matter that they are issuing patents on that they don't seem to be aware of what prior art is out there (even stuff covered by prior - sometimes expired - patents). They also don't seem to know enough about the subject matter even to be able to decide that certain patents should be disallowed because they are for something that is obvious.
Unfortunately, the patent office's attitude seems to be to rubber stamp just about anything that crosses their desks these days that has the correct paperwork and $$$ attached to it, especially if it is for a big corporation. The assumption appears to be 'let the courts sort it out'.
Obviously you aren't really a student. If you were, you'd know that in the academic world teamwork is called 'cheating'. Code re-use is called 'plagurism'.
In case you are wondering, this is called 'sarcasm'. But only slightly.
Never seen Netscape crash my X session. I noticed some instability with Navigator 4.0x on Red Hat 5.x, but I've had good luck with 4.5 or newer on SuSE 6.x and I am currently using Navigator 4.61 on both SuSE and Red Hat amd it seems pretty stable. In no case have I seen it cause an X crash. I haven't had X crap out on me since the days of the 1.1.x kernel series, and that has been a long time ago. It was also likely due to bogus video card drivers. I use mostly Matrox Mystique II or S3 (Virge DX and Trio64), but a couple of my minor boxes have Cirrus Logic 54xx video cards.
I don't know what video card you are using or what you are doing, but I haven't had an X session crash in eons.
Your milage may vary, but I have a Navigator 4.61 session that has been running on my main Linux box for a couple of weeks and I use it for browsing on a daily basis.
The town I live in is only about 300K people, however the only colleges here are a small private university and some even smaller private colleges, so they have no noticeable impact on the wage situation, especially since none of them are technically orriented and they turn out very few Com Sci students.
:-)
Another bad thing about Madison (which is also true of the town I live in, unfortunately) is that it is the state capitol. The state governments pay poorly also, albiet in general not any worse than a public university does. Luckily the town I live in is really mostly dominated by insurance and financial companies as far as the job market goes.
As for moving to Chicago, you would see dramatically better salaries there, but as I noted before, the cost of living in the Chicagoland area is nearly as high as the east coast. If you can hack the weather, I'd consider the twin cities instead, or for warmer weather I'd look at Kansas City, Omaha or perhaps even St Louis.
For the sake of not appearing biased and the fact that if you like Madison, you'd probably be bored to death here, I am not recommending the town I live in.
I also have an HP LJ III which I picked up for $50. The going price for them these days seems to be about $100 or so. I got mine cheap because the person who had it had a mishap that caused a large amount of toner to be spilled inside, but after some careful cleaning it now works fine. Supplies as noted are cheap (unlike an inkjet, it prints good on even the cheapest copier bond). Refilled toner cartridges can save you serious money, but even new cartridges are cheap compared to inkjet when you consider a $50-$80 cartridge will print 3000-4000 pages compared to a lot of inkjets with $20-$30 cartridges that print 500-700 pages.
One recommendation is to add additional memory to improve performance. The LJ III's only come with a small amount of memory, and adding more really helps.