The company I work for, which has an IT shop of about 400 people, is very leery about adopting open source software at the enterprise level (except for Apache). Some of us are working to change this, but we have a lot of FUD to overcome.
However, nearly every developer here uses open source tools daily. JUnit and Ant are everywhere, as well as NUnit, NDoc, and NAnt for the.NET folks. Eclipse is gaining ground, and Emacs use is pretty common.
For one project, the dev team created a post-project list of all the software used during development. Out of about 30 programs (including DB, OS, etc), 2/3rds were open source.
Sony also has the much more expensive MDR-DS5100 and the still even more expensive MDR-DS8000.
I've been very tempted by these, but haven't been able to find many reviews. (I haven't looked for a few months though. Maybe there's more information available now.)
Thankfully I haven't had to update my resume in a while, but I used to include the circus as previous work experience.
I was actually in the circus at one time, though it never applied to the jobs I was interviewing for. (Not directly anyway.)
I'm not sure how much it helped in getting my resume noticed, but it was great for interview small-talk. "Were you really in the circus?" was my most common interview question.
The lawsuit asks for an injunction against the purportedly unfair marketing practices, an order requiring the defendants to disclose their practices to the public, restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten profits and attorneys' fees.
I'm not sure what disgorgement means, but it sounds really gross.
CNET has an article with more details (or speculation more likely).
Some interesting quotes:
"The performance boost is awesome," Burns said Tuesday during a speech at the Intel Developer Forum here.
"It is a Xeon with a different pin-out, or least that's what it looks like to me," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64.
Intel did not disclose the price of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. It likely will be as expensive as its counterpart, the 2.8GHz Xeon with 2MB cache. That chip sells for $3,692 in quantities of 1,000.
"It absolutely will be kind of pricey," Brookwood said.
This reminds me of the Hit Charade article by Mark Jenkins on Slate which talks about declining record sales in the late 70s. (This was reported on Slashdot, but I can't find the story anymore.)
The record companies claimed that cassette tapes allowed easy "pirating" of music and evil thieves weren't buying records anymore.
However, sales climbed back up in the 80s, despite the fact that cassette tapes weren't outlawed. Jenkins theorizes that it was actually "personality-free" disco that convinced people to stop buying records. He then draws parallels between disco and today's "teen-pop".
Both are intellectually underachieving, cookie-cutter styles that have made stars of performers not known primarily for their skills as singers, songwriters, or musicians.
It's an insightful article. Definitely worth a read.
Personally, I was never a big music listener, but the RIAA has pretty much turned me off every buying a CD again.
Actually, 1080i is interlaced mode, which means that every other line is drawn on each scan.
I don't know of any TVs that support 1080p, which is what your describing. (Not that they don't exist.)
Usually 720p is the highest progressive scan available.
There's a fairly good description of progressive vs. interlaced at Panasonic, but it concentrates on 480p vs. 480i. (The basic idea is the same though.)
I was surprised when I read that NASA was planning this book to begin with. People who think the moon landings were a hoax are never going to be convinced otherwise by anything anyone says, NASA or otherwise.
If NASA really wants to do something about these wackos, they should sic Buzz Aldrin on them.
This reminds me of a similar story about a programmer for GameTech rigged their bingo machines to let him cheat.
Is there some development methodology or practice a company can implement to protect itself from "rogue" programmers like this? The NSA / CIA / FBI / Pentagon must have software that they want to guarantee is uncompromised. How do they do it?
There aren't any setups at the bus stops, but Seattle has 2 web sites, BusView and MyBus.org that provide real-time bus location. MyBus.org can even be accessed using a wap-enabled cell phone.
I use the MyBus.org page for the intersection right next to where I work ( FAIRVIEW AV N & DENNY WY) practically every day. It's really nice because I clearly see when the next bus will arrive (and if it's going to be late) and I know to leave my cube about 5 minutes before it shows up. No more standing around in the Seattle rain waiting for the bus!
How the blind know how much is in their wallet
on
Greenbacks No More
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· Score: 1
My blind friends (not a statistically significant sample, for sure) solve this problem by only carrying one dollar bills.
Of course, this is a pain because just carrying around $50 can double the size of your billfold.
I agree. An "analyst" even says so in the article:
The online versions and bootlegging could serve as a marketing vehicle, whetting fans' appetite for the real thing, noted P.J. McNealy, research director for GartnerG2, a division of the Gartner research firm.
It's also interesting to note that (despite the "rampant piracy") the limited edition of the CD is the #1 selling CD on Amazon.
The game that Taco mentions (with the bowling ball trackball) is Hyperbowl. It's a mildly fun game. (The more beer you drink, the more fun it becomes.)
A windows version is available, but it doesn't include a trackball. For that, you need to buy the attraction version. (It's only US$29,995.00.)
How long did it take for THX to become a widely adopted standard?
AFAIK, THX is not tied to a particular technology, but it was developed by Lucas (his company, anyway), and I imagine it took some time for it to become widespread in theaters.
Can a useful parallel be drawn here? Was there some point in THX's history when it's lack of adoption was lamented by Lucas?
The video on Tom's Hardware Guide can be found here.
Where are all the Canadian gamers?
on
XBox Delayed
·
· Score: 1
According to the LA Times article:
Main said Nintendo, which recently pushed back its North American launch by two weeks, was "locked and loaded" to deliver 630,000 GameCubes to the United States and 70,000 to Canada before Thanksgiving weekend
I'm amazed that the number of units going to Canada is so low. Are there really only 1/9th as many games in Canada as in the US?
Slashdot Mirror
However, nearly every developer here uses open source tools daily. JUnit and Ant are everywhere, as well as NUnit, NDoc, and NAnt for the .NET folks. Eclipse is gaining ground, and Emacs use is pretty common.
For one project, the dev team created a post-project list of all the software used during development. Out of about 30 programs (including DB, OS, etc), 2/3rds were open source.
I've been very tempted by these, but haven't been able to find many reviews. (I haven't looked for a few months though. Maybe there's more information available now.)
I was actually in the circus at one time, though it never applied to the jobs I was interviewing for. (Not directly anyway.)
I'm not sure how much it helped in getting my resume noticed, but it was great for interview small-talk. "Were you really in the circus?" was my most common interview question.
So far I've got " a slice of pizza sticking out of your head", "a taco surgically grafted to your head", and "like talking into a banana or Frisbee."
Any others?
You can see a picture of someone using the phone here.
The lawsuit asks for an injunction against the purportedly unfair marketing practices, an order requiring the defendants to disclose their practices to the public, restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten profits and attorneys' fees.
I'm not sure what disgorgement means, but it sounds really gross.
Some interesting quotes:
"The performance boost is awesome," Burns said Tuesday during a speech at the Intel Developer Forum here.
"It is a Xeon with a different pin-out, or least that's what it looks like to me," said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at Insight 64.
Intel did not disclose the price of the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. It likely will be as expensive as its counterpart, the 2.8GHz Xeon with 2MB cache. That chip sells for $3,692 in quantities of 1,000.
"It absolutely will be kind of pricey," Brookwood said.
With 17,000 PlayStations, I could take over the world !
What are we going to do tomorrow Brain? - Pinky
According to Moby Games, he also worked on some other games, but I don't know how accurate that information is.
Don't miss his complaints about the interface! The button arrangement on this phone is apparently a PITA.
The record companies claimed that cassette tapes allowed easy "pirating" of music and evil thieves weren't buying records anymore.
However, sales climbed back up in the 80s, despite the fact that cassette tapes weren't outlawed. Jenkins theorizes that it was actually "personality-free" disco that convinced people to stop buying records. He then draws parallels between disco and today's "teen-pop".
Both are intellectually underachieving, cookie-cutter styles that have made stars of performers not known primarily for their skills as singers, songwriters, or musicians.
It's an insightful article. Definitely worth a read.
Personally, I was never a big music listener, but the RIAA has pretty much turned me off every buying a CD again.
If you're looking for Beastie to add to you (non-virtual) desktop, this is probably the time to get one.
If my OS doesn't support a particular PCI device, it is pretty much guaranteed that I won't purchase that device.
This seems like another example of where vehemently defending intellectual property actually hurts companies more than it helps.
Google news has some more links.
I don't know of any TVs that support 1080p, which is what your describing. (Not that they don't exist.)
Usually 720p is the highest progressive scan available.
There's a fairly good description of progressive vs. interlaced at Panasonic, but it concentrates on 480p vs. 480i. (The basic idea is the same though.)
If NASA really wants to do something about these wackos, they should sic Buzz Aldrin on them.
Is there some development methodology or practice a company can implement to protect itself from "rogue" programmers like this? The NSA / CIA / FBI / Pentagon must have software that they want to guarantee is uncompromised. How do they do it?
I use the MyBus.org page for the intersection right next to where I work ( FAIRVIEW AV N & DENNY WY) practically every day. It's really nice because I clearly see when the next bus will arrive (and if it's going to be late) and I know to leave my cube about 5 minutes before it shows up. No more standing around in the Seattle rain waiting for the bus!
Of course, this is a pain because just carrying around $50 can double the size of your billfold.
I use Pricewatch in conjuntion with ResellerRatings to find the best prices on hardware from reputable companies.
The online versions and bootlegging could serve as a marketing vehicle, whetting fans' appetite for the real thing, noted P.J. McNealy, research director for GartnerG2, a division of the Gartner research firm.
It's also interesting to note that (despite the "rampant piracy") the limited edition of the CD is the #1 selling CD on Amazon.
Damn those Internet pirates!
A windows version is available, but it doesn't include a trackball. For that, you need to buy the attraction version. (It's only US$29,995.00.)
How long did it take for THX to become a widely adopted standard?
AFAIK, THX is not tied to a particular technology, but it was developed by Lucas (his company, anyway), and I imagine it took some time for it to become widespread in theaters.
Can a useful parallel be drawn here? Was there some point in THX's history when it's lack of adoption was lamented by Lucas?
The video on Tom's Hardware Guide can be found here.
According to the LA Times article:
Main said Nintendo, which recently pushed back its North American launch by two weeks, was "locked and loaded" to deliver 630,000 GameCubes to the United States and 70,000 to Canada before Thanksgiving weekend
I'm amazed that the number of units going to Canada is so low. Are there really only 1/9th as many games in Canada as in the US?