Good Omens by Niel Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
on
A Good Summer Read?
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Absolutely stellar story. Check Amazon. Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Re:How does Gator operate? (Get a HOSTS file here)
on
Gator Examined
·
· Score: 1
The guys that run this site may hate me for it, but here's a location to grab a HOSTS file update that removes access to all sorts of sites (mostly ads, but also spyware). What I have set up on my machine is a little apache server that serves up a random quote instead of an ad from whatever server. Shoot a note if you have a question (or reply here).
And I don't mean the 3D meshes. I read in the hard-copy of Wired some time last year that in Hong Kong (I think) companies are spending a year developing software models of horse races, taking into account all sorts of little variables, and using them to figure out bets. They're so successful, they generally have to launder the money, and place bets through various 3rd parties in order to stay "in business."
I could see the same thing happening with off the shelf software, maybe, if you could make the software deal with stats over the span of a season (more or less) in realtime. e.g. Guy breaks his arm, software mirrors that in the virtual world, or Guy hits 40 homeruns half-way through a season, Virtual Guy more likely to hit homeruns.
From the blurb on the product page, Assimilator won't do, since the drive's fundamental structure and partitions will have to be changed. Nice program, though.
Yes. No. I would think the time and effort could be better spent trying specifically to get broadband (or at least WiFi) net access to rural areas.
Just go to the publisher's website for info...
on
FDL Math Textbooks?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
After a particularly bad book,
Electric Circuits
by Nilsson, IIRC, where they forgot to include the appendix with the answers, I've made it a habit to check the publisher's website for corrections and errata. For that matter, you sometimes get useful things like more sample problems.
Hey, to my knowledge, there isn't an open-source tool that'll do what you want. You might, however, just consider shelling out the cash for a program such as Embarcadero's Describe. Check it out, and see if it fits your needs.
Oh, and it uses Perl as a scripting language, so you can really customize it to match your design flow wherever you are. One of our coders modified an existing script to make it do some useful things, like interact with the GUI, and (of course) the core of the program.
One of the better mods someone around here came up with is one that lets it trundle over source code, and reverse-engineer the UML for you, if you're working off of an existing code base.
Take a look. They offer downloads for trial purposes.
I would suggest a ThinkPad T40, which starts at US$1369. If you want a machine that will last several years, get one based on the Pentium M (Centrino technology) which is $2179 (ThinkPad Pricing). ThinkPads in general are nice machines, and, short of getting a Panasonic Toughbook, pretty hard to break, as far as laptops go. I would give IBM's Sales line a call and ask specifically how you would go about getting warranty help or technical support overseas.
If software compatability isn't an issue, get an iBook! They're cheap, and have loads of nifty features.
I like my Laserwriter Select 360. I had it serviced circa 1999 to get it good and clean, but it's lasted around 11 to 12 years. I recall reading somewhere that someone salvaged one from a dumpster (after it had rained), gutted it, cleaned it, and reassembled it into a working machine.
My Laserwriter has lasted for about 11 years, with a good internal dust cleaning circa 1999. It's a great (big) printer that's fairly loud, but interfaces with almost everything, so I'm happy with it. It's still my primary printer. Match it up with some HP Bright White paper, and it's perfect.
I would say no, but I'm finishing up a B.S. in Computer Engineering and starting an M.S. in Electrical Engineering (and taking my Fundamentals of Engineering Exam soon).
I bought one from a certain big name store, and, after the power rectification circuits on my machine failed after a good 1.5 years of use & abuse, the opted to give me a new machine, rather than buy replacement components. They're a good deal, especially after you've spend $2500+ on a machine.
Same thing for my car. I bought an extended warranty for my car and, so far, have had approximately $3000 in parts / work done (2400 was the transmission, mind you). Definitely worth it.
My primary reason is that I the software I have for Windows, and my choices for most of my apps for college are Linux and Windows. Given the choice, I take XP. If I could have my way, I'd have a TiBook (I own three other Macs that serve me well).
I'm guessing AMD's new offering might do better. We'll see. If we can get the focus away from performance and to longevity, we'll have great machines. Some year now, it'll happen. My prediciton is that once a device the size of your cell phone can take dictation and parse it into text, we'll start working on power consumption.
It's not so much battery technology as power consumption (and waste) of the battery. That huge 16" on some laptops sucks up watts left and right. That new P4-1.X Ghz pulls away power too. Oh, and don't forget about the GPU and the spindles for the drives.
Out of that list, the three that you could most obviously increase the power efficiency of are the ones where the masses want the latest and greatest. You could make a machine that runs for hours and hours, but it'd have a crappy little i810 graphics chip, and a p3, and a smaller display, which, honestly, is last century's technology, and not as appealing as the new gigahertz monsters.
My VAIO (6 month old GRX), when running at the "slow" speed of 1.1 Ghz with full backlight and 3Com WiFi X-jack card, runs for 2.5 -> 3 hours, depending on how many packets I fling out to the base station, and how much I pound on the hard drive.
If you want to know where your battery's going, it's the new "space warmer" feature that comes standard with most laptops.
The biggest delay I have is starting iControl itself. On more than one occasion (maybe half of the time) opening an iControl channel takes about 30 seconds. Starting a show takes anywhere from 10 seconds to another 30 seconds.
Once it's started, though, it works with very few delays (if any). Even seeking forward doesn't delay much.
You've got a good point on the closed captioning, though.
I'm curious: does anyone else have a Scientific Atlanta digital box with USB ports? I've tried plugging a couple of devices in, and nothing happens (as far as I can tell).
This sounds like iControl from Time Warner Cable on steroids. I have most of those features, but not with live programming. It's pretty neat in its current form, but, of course, the playlists are updated and rotated every so often, so you don't get to "save" a show if the network decides to give you a new episode.
Courtesy of Inflection Point, who has one of the largest technical / computer / engineering joke archives on the internet (aside from google groups, anyway).
Timesheet Honesty A promising young NASA aerospace engineer was killed in a horrific car accident and arrived in Heaven, protesting to St. Peter at the pearly gates. "St. Peter, I'm only 35. I'm much too young to die. I have a wonderful wife and family, so much to live for. Why in the world am I here?"
St. Peter looked through a huge stack of papers, looked over the top of his glasses and said, "Well, according to all of these hours on your time sheets, you've got to be at least 108."
And my favorite one-liner: "Engineers aren't boring people; we just get excited over boring things."
-- Anon.
You can find more at the link above, and (SHAMELESS PLUG) at in the random quotes on the homepage of my site: www.hollinger.net.
Let's see... which ones didn't involve strange calculus and complex numbers... (from amazon) Bebop to the Boolean Boogie: An Unconventional Guide to Electronics by Clive Maxfield Paperback: 500 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.89 x 9.34 x 7.36 Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann (Trd); ; 2 edition (December 2002) ISBN: 0750675438
Bebop is an absolutely stellar electronics guide and overview. It takes you through the full gamut of electrical engineering, from K-map minimization to high-level circuit design and operation. Stellar! Oh, and the index has entries for things like "Blind -obediance of fools" next to "BJT's". It's a great read, and really will get someone interested in the field.
Basic Electronics by Bernard Grob Hardcover: 1010 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.46 x 10.27 x 8.18 Publisher: Glencoe McGraw Hill; ; 8th edition (December 1996) ISBN: 002802253X Other Editions: Paperback (4th) | Textbook Binding (4th) | All Editions This one's more serious, and provides more in depth information, but will get someone to the point of being able to run to radio shack and cobble together a nice little circuit / project.
I would say get both of these, as Bebop will lead logically to Electronics.
"They're still not completely realistic, which is why the initial rollout will be on networks like MTV where the viewing audience is especially numb and used to very rapid edits, constant lip-syncing, and other concealments of ineptitude."
This is why I call MTV the flashy-shiny-thing channel.
The Sim series of games are inherently unending, yet they're thriving, and now have one of the most recognized brands in the US.
What's kept the Sims series alive? Constant upgrades and updates.
Don't want to spend $1000+? Try a Progear!
on
Examining a Tablet PC
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Check out the SonicBlue ProGear. It's a Transmeta 400 Mhz CPU with 128 Megs of RAM, 5 Gig HD, WiFi, IR, and a touch screen. It comes in two flavors, Windows98, and a bastardized Linux (that can be replaced with your favorite distro). I've got one that currently runs Slackware 8.1, and I've heard of others that have RedHat installed.
If you want to check out the "Progear Scene," head over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/progear/ to check otu the Progear User's Group. We've been hacking away at this thing for a a good six months (or so) now.
<SHAMLESS PLUG>Check out www.mira2go.com to buy a PG for circa US$600.</SHAMLESS PLUG>
I agree that having the so-called "1 degree of separation" that Microsoft's been advertising for the past several months is a good thing. However, it's very, very hard to do. I think Home Depot has in-store inventories, along with CompUSA. The catch with this is being able to link all of your store's POS (Point of Sale, not Piece of...) systems into a national network safely, securely, and inexpensively. To do this properly you need a properly designed infrastructure, and people there to support it. That's where companies like the various Microsoft vendors come in. If you pay them enough, they'll build and support the whole thing. If you pay them enough.
In all this talk about p2p and b2b, IT firms like MS seem to be forgetting b2c: "Business to Consumer."
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely stellar story. Check Amazon.
Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
The guys that run this site may hate me for it, but here's a location to grab a HOSTS file update that removes access to all sorts of sites (mostly ads, but also spyware). What I have set up on my machine is a little apache server that serves up a random quote instead of an ad from whatever server. Shoot a note if you have a question (or reply here).
And I don't mean the 3D meshes. I read in the hard-copy of Wired some time last year that in Hong Kong (I think) companies are spending a year developing software models of horse races, taking into account all sorts of little variables, and using them to figure out bets. They're so successful, they generally have to launder the money, and place bets through various 3rd parties in order to stay "in business."
I could see the same thing happening with off the shelf software, maybe, if you could make the software deal with stats over the span of a season (more or less) in realtime. e.g. Guy breaks his arm, software mirrors that in the virtual world, or Guy hits 40 homeruns half-way through a season, Virtual Guy more likely to hit homeruns.
From the blurb on the product page, Assimilator won't do, since the drive's fundamental structure and partitions will have to be changed. Nice program, though.
Yes. No. I would think the time and effort could be better spent trying specifically to get broadband (or at least WiFi) net access to rural areas.
- Electric Circuits
by Nilsson, IIRC, where they forgot to include the appendix with the answers, I've made it a habit to check the publisher's website for corrections and errata. For that matter, you sometimes get useful things like more sample problems.Hey, to my knowledge, there isn't an open-source tool that'll do what you want. You might, however, just consider shelling out the cash for a program such as Embarcadero's Describe. Check it out, and see if it fits your needs.
Oh, and it uses Perl as a scripting language, so you can really customize it to match your design flow wherever you are. One of our coders modified an existing script to make it do some useful things, like interact with the GUI, and (of course) the core of the program.
One of the better mods someone around here came up with is one that lets it trundle over source code, and reverse-engineer the UML for you, if you're working off of an existing code base.
Take a look. They offer downloads for trial purposes.
Why not just buy a TiVo with DirecTV? There's no point in reinventing the wheel, especially if it comes in a nice AV-rack-sized box.
So, how many ways can you retell Romeo and Juliet?
See http://romanticmovies.about.com/cs/underworld/ for what I'm talking about.
I would suggest a ThinkPad T40, which starts at US$1369. If you want a machine that will last several years, get one based on the Pentium M (Centrino technology) which is $2179 (ThinkPad Pricing). ThinkPads in general are nice machines, and, short of getting a Panasonic Toughbook, pretty hard to break, as far as laptops go. I would give IBM's Sales line a call and ask specifically how you would go about getting warranty help or technical support overseas.
If software compatability isn't an issue, get an iBook! They're cheap, and have loads of nifty features.
I like my Laserwriter Select 360. I had it serviced circa 1999 to get it good and clean, but it's lasted around 11 to 12 years. I recall reading somewhere that someone salvaged one from a dumpster (after it had rained), gutted it, cleaned it, and reassembled it into a working machine.
My Laserwriter has lasted for about 11 years, with a good internal dust cleaning circa 1999. It's a great (big) printer that's fairly loud, but interfaces with almost everything, so I'm happy with it. It's still my primary printer. Match it up with some HP Bright White paper, and it's perfect.
I would say no, but I'm finishing up a B.S. in Computer Engineering and starting an M.S. in Electrical Engineering (and taking my Fundamentals of Engineering Exam soon).
I bought one from a certain big name store, and, after the power rectification circuits on my machine failed after a good 1.5 years of use & abuse, the opted to give me a new machine, rather than buy replacement components. They're a good deal, especially after you've spend $2500+ on a machine.
Same thing for my car. I bought an extended warranty for my car and, so far, have had approximately $3000 in parts / work done (2400 was the transmission, mind you). Definitely worth it.
My primary reason is that I the software I have for Windows, and my choices for most of my apps for college are Linux and Windows. Given the choice, I take XP. If I could have my way, I'd have a TiBook (I own three other Macs that serve me well).
I'm guessing AMD's new offering might do better. We'll see. If we can get the focus away from performance and to longevity, we'll have great machines. Some year now, it'll happen. My prediciton is that once a device the size of your cell phone can take dictation and parse it into text, we'll start working on power consumption.
It's not so much battery technology as power consumption (and waste) of the battery. That huge 16" on some laptops sucks up watts left and right. That new P4-1.X Ghz pulls away power too. Oh, and don't forget about the GPU and the spindles for the drives.
Out of that list, the three that you could most obviously increase the power efficiency of are the ones where the masses want the latest and greatest. You could make a machine that runs for hours and hours, but it'd have a crappy little i810 graphics chip, and a p3, and a smaller display, which, honestly, is last century's technology, and not as appealing as the new gigahertz monsters.
My VAIO (6 month old GRX), when running at the "slow" speed of 1.1 Ghz with full backlight and 3Com WiFi X-jack card, runs for 2.5 -> 3 hours, depending on how many packets I fling out to the base station, and how much I pound on the hard drive.
If you want to know where your battery's going, it's the new "space warmer" feature that comes standard with most laptops.
The biggest delay I have is starting iControl itself. On more than one occasion (maybe half of the time) opening an iControl channel takes about 30 seconds. Starting a show takes anywhere from 10 seconds to another 30 seconds.
Once it's started, though, it works with very few delays (if any). Even seeking forward doesn't delay much.
You've got a good point on the closed captioning, though.
I'm curious: does anyone else have a Scientific Atlanta digital box with USB ports? I've tried plugging a couple of devices in, and nothing happens (as far as I can tell).
This sounds like iControl from Time Warner Cable on steroids. I have most of those features, but not with live programming. It's pretty neat in its current form, but, of course, the playlists are updated and rotated every so often, so you don't get to "save" a show if the network decides to give you a new episode.
See The Pentagon Wars for a good example of how projects work once you get out into industry.
Courtesy of Inflection Point, who has one of the largest technical / computer / engineering joke archives on the internet (aside from google groups, anyway).
.
Timesheet Honesty
A promising young NASA aerospace engineer was killed in a horrific car accident and arrived in Heaven, protesting to St. Peter at the pearly gates. "St. Peter, I'm only 35. I'm much too young to die. I have a wonderful wife and family, so much to live for. Why in the world am I here?"
St. Peter looked through a huge stack of papers, looked over the top of his glasses and said, "Well, according to all of these hours on your time sheets, you've got to be at least 108."
And my favorite one-liner:
"Engineers aren't boring people; we just get excited over boring things."
-- Anon.
You can find more at the link above, and (SHAMELESS PLUG) at in the random quotes on the homepage of my site: www.hollinger.net
Let's see... which ones didn't involve strange calculus and complex numbers...
(from amazon)
Bebop to the Boolean Boogie: An Unconventional Guide to Electronics
by Clive Maxfield
Paperback: 500 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.89 x 9.34 x 7.36
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann (Trd); ; 2 edition (December 2002)
ISBN: 0750675438
Bebop is an absolutely stellar electronics guide and overview. It takes you through the full gamut of electrical engineering, from K-map minimization to high-level circuit design and operation. Stellar! Oh, and the index has entries for things like "Blind -obediance of fools" next to "BJT's". It's a great read, and really will get someone interested in the field.
Basic Electronics
by Bernard Grob
Hardcover: 1010 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.46 x 10.27 x 8.18
Publisher: Glencoe McGraw Hill; ; 8th edition (December 1996)
ISBN: 002802253X
Other Editions: Paperback (4th) | Textbook Binding (4th) | All Editions
This one's more serious, and provides more in depth information, but will get someone to the point of being able to run to radio shack and cobble together a nice little circuit / project.
I would say get both of these, as Bebop will lead logically to Electronics.
"They're still not completely realistic, which is why the initial rollout will be on networks like MTV where the viewing audience is especially numb and used to very rapid edits, constant lip-syncing, and other concealments of ineptitude."
This is why I call MTV the flashy-shiny-thing channel.
The Sim series of games are inherently unending, yet they're thriving, and now have one of the most recognized brands in the US.
What's kept the Sims series alive? Constant upgrades and updates.
Check out the SonicBlue ProGear. It's a Transmeta 400 Mhz CPU with 128 Megs of RAM, 5 Gig HD, WiFi, IR, and a touch screen. It comes in two flavors, Windows98, and a bastardized Linux (that can be replaced with your favorite distro). I've got one that currently runs Slackware 8.1, and I've heard of others that have RedHat installed.
If you want to check out the "Progear Scene," head over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/progear/ to check otu the Progear User's Group. We've been hacking away at this thing for a a good six months (or so) now.
<SHAMLESS PLUG>Check out www.mira2go.com to buy a PG for circa US$600.</SHAMLESS PLUG>
I agree that having the so-called "1 degree of separation" that Microsoft's been advertising for the past several months is a good thing. However, it's very, very hard to do. I think Home Depot has in-store inventories, along with CompUSA. The catch with this is being able to link all of your store's POS (Point of Sale, not Piece of...) systems into a national network safely, securely, and inexpensively. To do this properly you need a properly designed infrastructure, and people there to support it. That's where companies like the various Microsoft vendors come in. If you pay them enough, they'll build and support the whole thing. If you pay them enough.
In all this talk about p2p and b2b, IT firms like MS seem to be forgetting b2c: "Business to Consumer."