Same. I've recently dealt with online courses for an institution that required ebook purchases and the use of a really sluggish 3rd party glorified pdf reader... it was awful for two reasons. First, I had no choice about paying for the books or not; it was a fee I had to pay if I wanted credit. Second, there were a couple of books I really wanted to keep my hands on, that I'd paid for, but were
a) locked to the one computer I'd downloaded them to, which isn't my main dev box
b) impossible to use easily even on that computer, thanks to the DRM cruft
c) platform-dependent so I didn't have the option to install it on, say, an iPhone or Android.
In other words, while I'd paid full price for "a book," I would have had to commit a crime in order to actually use it. I hate living in the dystopian future.
"Beowulf" is a kenning, a poetic analogy in Old English. It already means bee-wolf, a sort of pun for bear, which is what the name translates to in modern English.
Potential users of implantable LCD for medical purposes: small number.
Potential users of implantable LCD for fashion or entertainment purposes: large number.
Like robotic prostheses, the groundbreaking work will be done for medical reasons, where money is no object. However, the technology will see many more improvements in cost, efficiency, and useability once it becomes useful to a larger group.
Ownership is 9/10 of the law. See also the settling of North America. If nations want to lay claim to the moon, they'll need a presence there. Expect either Robot Wars On The Moon or a colonization race the instant we figure out the technologies necessary to make it feasible.
Correct. Though it does make you wonder why the US didn't do the same with rare earth production. Maybe they figured to leave their own reserves in place and buy out other nations', and just didn't think about the need to develop their own production rate?
Huh. You're right, it's odd that I didn't know that. Or forgot it.
Well, my courses focused on Oracle, and my experience has been in MySQL and a bit of Postgres. I don't mind not knowing MS SQL quirks, and I don't think it's unreasonable for intro DB courses to not mention quirks in each DMBS. Or maybe they did and I forgot, it's been a while. They're busy teaching drooling undergrads about normalization, though; unless the course was using MS SQL I wouldn't expect it to mention MS SQL quirks. I heard about plenty of Oracle quirks in Oracle-focused classes.
On the one hand, unsigned ints aren't standard, so I can't hammer MS for that. On the other hand that's never stopped MS from implementing things before, so screw 'em. Was the system using MS SQL, though? I didn't see that in the article. Reasonable assumption for government work, I guess.
Canada has learned partisan politics from the US, I think. But come on, "dangerous single minded ideologue?" That puts him a single mind ahead of most politicians, at least.:P Not his fan, but I don't think the last 3 or 4 or 5 PMs, or the other party leaders, or any MP I've met, were much better.
unsigned integers only, which are rarely used, especially in databases.
What? Intro DB courses all mention using unsigned columns for numeric/incremented indices. I use unsigned ints by habit for numbered indices. I'll grant you I've seen plenty of really terrible DB designs in the wild that happen to use signed ints, but "especially in databases" unsigned ints are more frequently used, at least by the competent pros I've met.
Also, if the system's already down, there's no load on it. The admin can mount the schemas (maybe rollback a bit), apply the changes, and go get some coffee. It's not that it wouldn't take some time, but days? I think not. Sure, with 2B records there's going to be some fun disk action while you reindex everything, but you've got the entire server's power to do it with. An afternoon, maybe, depending on the (probably HA) hardware and the (admittedly in this case lacking) sanity in table design. If (in this case admittedly unlikely) they're partitioned by timestamp values or something, I think (but I'm not sure) that you could get the most-recent partitions of the table altered and running and get the system up right away, then take historical partitions and convert them on backup hardware or during low load periods. Not a good solution, but it'd bring the system up in the least time. Or depending on the features available in the DBMS, and diskspace available, they should be able to do something like Oracle's online table redefinition; just copy table to new tablespace, but include the modified column definition when writing, then swap it.
*shrug* My $0.02 CAD. I work on DBs but usually on smaller systems, so that's my perspective. Maybe there's some deep magic involved in larger recordsets that can't be compensated for by good design.
Home computer as a secure (SSH&Truecrypt) backup for a doctor's office; patient records, encrypted, stored on the computer in case of a catastrophic loss at the office. I've seen it.
Well, was it "the Nazis" or the people who voted them in? Those who held office? Those who held guns? Was it Hindenburg who gave Hitler power or the brownshirts in the streets who had street fights? Was it every German who had suspicions about the new regime but ignored them? Was it the generals? Was it the privates? Was in members of the Nazi party in 1935 who sought economic stability, or members of the Nazi party who had to join in order to get work in 1940? 14 year old boys defending their nation from invasion at the very end?
The camps proved that horrible wrong had been done. They did not make it clear exactly who was and who was not to blame. Understanding the history of WWII requires that we put aside the question of who was responsible, so that we don't read for confirmation of our biases (Germans did it, or Nazis, Communists, Socialists, &c). It's impossible, but keeping in mind that we've got the bias helps us read more accurately.
You have proof that there are roughly 20 people who've read the code for each 1 that Amazon/your publisher claims bought the ebook version. This does not mean 20X more people bought the book or that 20X more people read the ebook. Consider piracy (of the whole digital book) and loaning (of the copylefted code, or the physical book). Consider them in good ways, mind you, but consider that the evidence doesn't prove your publisher made sales so much as it proves people have read the code.
Not to say your publisher/Amazon aren't lying, cheating SOBs, and if they've been liars and cheats elsewhere it's reasonable to expect foul play, but remember Hanlon's Razor.
All nature sounds eerily silent to people accustomed to the noise of city living. There is no hum of engines or transformers, no sirens, no screeching tires, no TV or radio. It is shocking like plunging into cold water when you step out of your car and into an environment where noise is the exception rather than the rule. At first, it sounds dead. As you begin to grow accustomed to it, however, you start hearing wind in the trees or grass, birds, etc. It sounds "desolate" because the sounds are different in volume and frequency, not because everything is dead. Moles, deer, and wolves don't make a lot of noise. There's a reason people that go way out into the bush for a long time sometimes come back and don't talk much. Silence is natural.
I'll grant you that the containment doesn't seem promising. Plants regularly grow in radiation zones, though, afaik; they're usually a lot more radiation-tolerant than we are. Gingko trees survived at Hiroshima (still growing today; http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/hiroshima.htm ), lichens are hard to affect with radiation, etc.
Totally agreed on Thorium (liquid salt) reactors. I don't like having our nuclear power technology stuck in the 60's.
Slashdot Mirror
We accept responsibility for those errors now that we have been caught and forced in court to do so
FTFY.
Wiki article on Modnafil, also known as Provigil. Man, that sounds like a barely-legal substance I could really get behind.
No, it's impossible because production would have wrapped around to 0. They had teensy memory space back then.
Same. I've recently dealt with online courses for an institution that required ebook purchases and the use of a really sluggish 3rd party glorified pdf reader... it was awful for two reasons. First, I had no choice about paying for the books or not; it was a fee I had to pay if I wanted credit. Second, there were a couple of books I really wanted to keep my hands on, that I'd paid for, but were
a) locked to the one computer I'd downloaded them to, which isn't my main dev box
b) impossible to use easily even on that computer, thanks to the DRM cruft
c) platform-dependent so I didn't have the option to install it on, say, an iPhone or Android.
In other words, while I'd paid full price for "a book," I would have had to commit a crime in order to actually use it. I hate living in the dystopian future.
"Beowulf" is a kenning, a poetic analogy in Old English. It already means bee-wolf, a sort of pun for bear, which is what the name translates to in modern English.
Potential users of implantable LCD for medical purposes: small number.
Potential users of implantable LCD for fashion or entertainment purposes: large number.
Like robotic prostheses, the groundbreaking work will be done for medical reasons, where money is no object. However, the technology will see many more improvements in cost, efficiency, and useability once it becomes useful to a larger group.
Ownership is 9/10 of the law. See also the settling of North America. If nations want to lay claim to the moon, they'll need a presence there. Expect either Robot Wars On The Moon or a colonization race the instant we figure out the technologies necessary to make it feasible.
I feel the need to point out that moon rocks sell for a lot because they are rare. If it starts raining moon rocks, they will devalue rapidly.
Honestly, though, hot green alien chicks should be enough motivation for anyone.
Does anyone have a solution?
Well, bombing things from orbit seems to work for NASA.
Congressmen Marblecake, TheGame, and CmdrTaco.
Ah, but planes can transport themselves! And, if you land just right, they're self-disassembling.
Correct. Though it does make you wonder why the US didn't do the same with rare earth production. Maybe they figured to leave their own reserves in place and buy out other nations', and just didn't think about the need to develop their own production rate?
Huh. You're right, it's odd that I didn't know that. Or forgot it.
Well, my courses focused on Oracle, and my experience has been in MySQL and a bit of Postgres. I don't mind not knowing MS SQL quirks, and I don't think it's unreasonable for intro DB courses to not mention quirks in each DMBS. Or maybe they did and I forgot, it's been a while. They're busy teaching drooling undergrads about normalization, though; unless the course was using MS SQL I wouldn't expect it to mention MS SQL quirks. I heard about plenty of Oracle quirks in Oracle-focused classes.
On the one hand, unsigned ints aren't standard, so I can't hammer MS for that. On the other hand that's never stopped MS from implementing things before, so screw 'em. Was the system using MS SQL, though? I didn't see that in the article. Reasonable assumption for government work, I guess.
Allow me to summarize your post;
Skynet.
Slashdot, of course, went the same rout it always goes with news: Outright lies.
No, that would be you.
Now, now, remember Hanlon's razor.
Canada has learned partisan politics from the US, I think. But come on, "dangerous single minded ideologue?" That puts him a single mind ahead of most politicians, at least. :P Not his fan, but I don't think the last 3 or 4 or 5 PMs, or the other party leaders, or any MP I've met, were much better.
unsigned integers only, which are rarely used, especially in databases.
What? Intro DB courses all mention using unsigned columns for numeric/incremented indices. I use unsigned ints by habit for numbered indices. I'll grant you I've seen plenty of really terrible DB designs in the wild that happen to use signed ints, but "especially in databases" unsigned ints are more frequently used, at least by the competent pros I've met.
Also, if the system's already down, there's no load on it. The admin can mount the schemas (maybe rollback a bit), apply the changes, and go get some coffee. It's not that it wouldn't take some time, but days? I think not. Sure, with 2B records there's going to be some fun disk action while you reindex everything, but you've got the entire server's power to do it with. An afternoon, maybe, depending on the (probably HA) hardware and the (admittedly in this case lacking) sanity in table design. If (in this case admittedly unlikely) they're partitioned by timestamp values or something, I think (but I'm not sure) that you could get the most-recent partitions of the table altered and running and get the system up right away, then take historical partitions and convert them on backup hardware or during low load periods. Not a good solution, but it'd bring the system up in the least time. Or depending on the features available in the DBMS, and diskspace available, they should be able to do something like Oracle's online table redefinition; just copy table to new tablespace, but include the modified column definition when writing, then swap it.
*shrug* My $0.02 CAD. I work on DBs but usually on smaller systems, so that's my perspective. Maybe there's some deep magic involved in larger recordsets that can't be compensated for by good design.
Excel + ODBC + Oracle/Postgres/MySQL/whatever = warehouseable accounting data with no change in user experience.
Home computer as a secure (SSH&Truecrypt) backup for a doctor's office; patient records, encrypted, stored on the computer in case of a catastrophic loss at the office. I've seen it.
Performance anxiety. :3 Can't quite get the timing right, knowing how much is at stake! Too bad.
Agreed. Thank you, Mr. Stallman.
Well, was it "the Nazis" or the people who voted them in? Those who held office? Those who held guns? Was it Hindenburg who gave Hitler power or the brownshirts in the streets who had street fights? Was it every German who had suspicions about the new regime but ignored them? Was it the generals? Was it the privates? Was in members of the Nazi party in 1935 who sought economic stability, or members of the Nazi party who had to join in order to get work in 1940? 14 year old boys defending their nation from invasion at the very end?
The camps proved that horrible wrong had been done. They did not make it clear exactly who was and who was not to blame. Understanding the history of WWII requires that we put aside the question of who was responsible, so that we don't read for confirmation of our biases (Germans did it, or Nazis, Communists, Socialists, &c). It's impossible, but keeping in mind that we've got the bias helps us read more accurately.
You have proof that there are roughly 20 people who've read the code for each 1 that Amazon/your publisher claims bought the ebook version. This does not mean 20X more people bought the book or that 20X more people read the ebook. Consider piracy (of the whole digital book) and loaning (of the copylefted code, or the physical book). Consider them in good ways, mind you, but consider that the evidence doesn't prove your publisher made sales so much as it proves people have read the code.
Not to say your publisher/Amazon aren't lying, cheating SOBs, and if they've been liars and cheats elsewhere it's reasonable to expect foul play, but remember Hanlon's Razor.
All nature sounds eerily silent to people accustomed to the noise of city living. There is no hum of engines or transformers, no sirens, no screeching tires, no TV or radio. It is shocking like plunging into cold water when you step out of your car and into an environment where noise is the exception rather than the rule. At first, it sounds dead. As you begin to grow accustomed to it, however, you start hearing wind in the trees or grass, birds, etc. It sounds "desolate" because the sounds are different in volume and frequency, not because everything is dead. Moles, deer, and wolves don't make a lot of noise. There's a reason people that go way out into the bush for a long time sometimes come back and don't talk much. Silence is natural.
I'll grant you that the containment doesn't seem promising. Plants regularly grow in radiation zones, though, afaik; they're usually a lot more radiation-tolerant than we are. Gingko trees survived at Hiroshima (still growing today; http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/hiroshima.htm ), lichens are hard to affect with radiation, etc.
Totally agreed on Thorium (liquid salt) reactors. I don't like having our nuclear power technology stuck in the 60's.
The elves are getting uppity again.