$50 to $80 million? For a mediocre TV show? How about using that kind of enthusiasm to fund an actual interplanetary mission? It'd probably be cheaper, and would certainly contribute more to society than more lame, recycled plots and lukewarm acting.
Nobody except embedded programmers. My biggest project of late runs on an 8-bit, 8 MHz CPU with about 7k of Flash and 192 BYTES of RAM. Not megs, not kilobytes, but bytes. That's equivalent to less than three lines worth of text. And the code's written in C, rather than assembly, so while it's easier to maintain, it takes more effort to make sure it stays efficient.
I think all programming students should have to code for a system like this. It gives you a MUCH greater appreciation for what the compiler is doing for you, and what the consequences of simple changes can be.
Re:I have to Agree - PayPal need serious help
on
eBay Begins A Change
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· Score: 2, Insightful
"May PayPal & eBay both rot in hell..."
It's the rip-off artists I want to see rot in hell. PayPal and eBay both provide useful services. Yeah, their fees could be lower and their customer service could be better. They've just got a lot of scum out there to deal with.
I made several thousand USD in PayPal sales through my own website last year. Yeah, I paid 2.9%. But I didn't have to pay monthly fees for a merchant account, and I was able to integrate their payment notifications with my own order tracking database. And being a legitimate, responsible seller, I've had no problems with customer complaints or returns. 2.9% is an acceptable price to pay for their service.
Re:I have to Agree - PayPal need serious help
on
eBay Begins A Change
·
· Score: 1
I'll second that. PayPal's fraud policy is bogus. Ship an empty box or envelope, and you've fulfilled your obligation as a seller, as far as they're concerned.
And that's not just my interpretation - I finally got a human on the line who told me exactly that. System Modz / Console Corner LLC ripped me off that way, and by the accounts I've seen from other customers it's part of the guy's regular mode of business. Take a big order, only ship part of it, and ignore all further emails.
Seems we see these stories about every day or two - 'companies lose $xx billion to such-and-such every year.'
Has anyone added all of these up? With the wild loss estimates from sick days, viruses, spam, major sporting events, bee stings, and Slashdot, I wouldn't be surprised if the world as a whole is running trillions of dollars in the negative...
This brings up an interesting question - how many times does the average person get fingerprinted, and how many different organizations have that on file? For myself, several instances come to mind:
- Elementary school 'child safety' programs like you mentioned - Driver's license - Air Force enlistment (+ DNA) - Security clearance - EMT background check - Sheriff's Dept. background check - Passport? Can't remember
And probably a few others I'm forgetting. Some biometric security demos at the very least. It's the wide range of organizations having the prints that worries me. They have inconsistent privacy policies and security practices, and the more places that information exists, the more opportunities there are for it to be stolen or used inappropriately.
That's what underground papers are for. I was involved with one in high school - had the backing of a certain English teacher, and even some funding from more open minded types.
I think the environment's going to be a little more hostile toward such things today. I remember one issue we published with a 'how-to' section - one page was a how-to on performing an at-home abortion, the facing page was on how to firebomb your local abortion clinic. We obviously weren't advocating that anyone do either, but people in those days seemed to have enough common sense to realize that and see that we were trying to make a point. Today, you're likely to get expelled and reported to the FBI for inciting terrorist acts.
Seriously, the FAA isn't that stupid. Go read DO-178B. Critical functions that could cause a catastrophic failure in the event of a malfunction are classified as Level A, and I only know of one off-the-shelf RTOS that's been submitted for approval. Submitted, not approved, last I heard. And an embedded RTOS is orders of magnitude smaller and easier to validate than something like Windows 2000.
Airliners are not being flown by Windows boxes. If there's anything in the cockpit running Windows, it would have to be non-critical, something that could fail and not cause immediate danger to passengers.
"And, no doubt, if we just leave it up there the Chinese and/or the EU will most certainly claim salvage rights and send up a repair crew."
On what grounds? How do you declare an unmanned piece of equipment abandoned? What do you do when you claim it? Console in and change the root password?
And manned space programs, China's in particular at this stage, are all about national prestige. How much prestige is there in swiping someone else's aging, discarded technology? China would do far better to launch their own observatory.
It's bad enough that most users have no clue to begin with, but you should try working within the DoD. Or maybe it's just the Air Force that's so screwed up. But they've been pushing so hard on a poorly-implemented PKI plan that all their users are now conditioned to automatically accept invalid, expired, or untrusted certificates dozens of times per day to get their jobs done.
Enablement... yeah, that's a perfectly cromulent word...
I started working on VMS systems in 1997, so I was a relative latecomer to the OS. Still, I quickly learned to appreciate what it's capable of. The ancient hardware I've got in my garage (VAX 6000, VAXstation 3100s, MicroVAX IIs, AlphaStation 200) is capable of more useful and reliable clustering, out of the box, than Windows 2000 AS. Almost undoubtedly better than 2003 as well.
I've had to migrate a legacy VMS application to a Windows 2000 AS cluster, and after 10 years of operation with no more than a few hours' downtime at any given time, the old Alpha cluster is ready to be shut down next week. It's sad to see it go - the Windows version will probably never be as solid and reliable, but what counts to management is that for the price of annual hardware and software maintenance on the old cluster we can buy all new Dell servers with 3-year warranties every year or two.
I did once set up an OpenVMS machine with the intent of taking it to DefCon, but never got around to it. Others did, though, and there's nothing like watching a bunch of hotshot Unix crackers pounding their heads on their keyboards out of frustration.
(And that's just trying to get a volume listing, not breaking in!)
The problem is that it would only be available to relatively few people. People who could afford multimillion dollar fees...
And I predict that within 100 years, computers will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will be able to afford them.
Seriously... any effective treatment will almost undoubtedly be expensive at first. Demand will bring the price down. Hopefully before I die.
Unless I'm rich by then. In that case, that's your problem, suckers.
I could have told you years ago that this was going to happen. Why? Because I own Interplay stock. It's the kiss of death, me owning one share in a company. Want to make sure your biotech firm doesn't get FDA approval for their new product? Just have me by some stock. Really. Look at Advanced Tissue Sciences. See that 50% drop? Two days after I bought it. That was all me, baby./sticking to my boring 401(k) from now on...
I've watched one particular development project for several years. I won't mention the company's name, but it rhymes with Mockheed Lartin.
I don't think they've ever had a problem with changing requirements, because the requirements were written completely without the input of the end users - they specified what THEY thought the end users should want, and then proceeded to build it and let political inertia force it on the users, despite it not being what they wanted or needed.
"Then, two days ago, I tried to run a C64 emulator, and couldn't remember how to use the LOAD command."
Dude... I guess I spent too much time on the ol' C64. I fired up an emulator a couple of weeks ago and not only used the shorthand form of the command, but even used the correct keys for " and * without being aware of the change. I'm sure I could go back to the C64 style arrow keys in an instant, if presented with an original keyboard.
I started out the same way, with the Vic-20 and later the C-64 and C-128. But how do you get today's kids started without just dumping them at a BASH prompt?
With the Commodores and Apples, there was no question about where to start - you turned on the computer and there's your BASIC interpreter. Yeah, BASIC is for the most part an awful language, but it at least teaches the kids the necessary logic and thought processes that go into programming.
My 8-year old son is a lot like I was at that age, and I suspect that he'll really take off in that department if he can get started. He's already taken an interest in modifying a silly game I wrote in C when I was 15 - he likes it mostly because of its quirks and bugs, and is fascinated by the idea of being able to change it himself. C is a tough language to start out in if you've never programmed, though.
Slashdot Mirror
Goddamned Puppeteers. Before you know it, they'll be fleeing with all the good stars.
Yeah... Captain Archer makes one ugly woman!
$50 to $80 million? For a mediocre TV show? How about using that kind of enthusiasm to fund an actual interplanetary mission? It'd probably be cheaper, and would certainly contribute more to society than more lame, recycled plots and lukewarm acting.
CELL is a dessert topping AND a floor wax!
Nobody except embedded programmers. My biggest project of late runs on an 8-bit, 8 MHz CPU with about 7k of Flash and 192 BYTES of RAM. Not megs, not kilobytes, but bytes. That's equivalent to less than three lines worth of text. And the code's written in C, rather than assembly, so while it's easier to maintain, it takes more effort to make sure it stays efficient.
I think all programming students should have to code for a system like this. It gives you a MUCH greater appreciation for what the compiler is doing for you, and what the consequences of simple changes can be.
"May PayPal & eBay both rot in hell..."
It's the rip-off artists I want to see rot in hell. PayPal and eBay both provide useful services. Yeah, their fees could be lower and their customer service could be better. They've just got a lot of scum out there to deal with.
I made several thousand USD in PayPal sales through my own website last year. Yeah, I paid 2.9%. But I didn't have to pay monthly fees for a merchant account, and I was able to integrate their payment notifications with my own order tracking database. And being a legitimate, responsible seller, I've had no problems with customer complaints or returns. 2.9% is an acceptable price to pay for their service.
I'll second that. PayPal's fraud policy is bogus. Ship an empty box or envelope, and you've fulfilled your obligation as a seller, as far as they're concerned.
And that's not just my interpretation - I finally got a human on the line who told me exactly that. System Modz / Console Corner LLC ripped me off that way, and by the accounts I've seen from other customers it's part of the guy's regular mode of business. Take a big order, only ship part of it, and ignore all further emails.
Seems we see these stories about every day or two - 'companies lose $xx billion to such-and-such every year.'
Has anyone added all of these up? With the wild loss estimates from sick days, viruses, spam, major sporting events, bee stings, and Slashdot, I wouldn't be surprised if the world as a whole is running trillions of dollars in the negative...
This brings up an interesting question - how many times does the average person get fingerprinted, and how many different organizations have that on file? For myself, several instances come to mind:
- Elementary school 'child safety' programs like you mentioned
- Driver's license
- Air Force enlistment (+ DNA)
- Security clearance
- EMT background check
- Sheriff's Dept. background check
- Passport? Can't remember
And probably a few others I'm forgetting. Some biometric security demos at the very least. It's the wide range of organizations having the prints that worries me. They have inconsistent privacy policies and security practices, and the more places that information exists, the more opportunities there are for it to be stolen or used inappropriately.
"If the doctor says you're not fit to drive your licence is taken away. There are periodic checkups, and they are mandatory."
Yeah, but it takes a lot before they'll take your license away.
Happened to my aunt, but by that time she was too senile to remember that she didn't have a license anymore.
That's what underground papers are for. I was involved with one in high school - had the backing of a certain English teacher, and even some funding from more open minded types.
I think the environment's going to be a little more hostile toward such things today. I remember one issue we published with a 'how-to' section - one page was a how-to on performing an at-home abortion, the facing page was on how to firebomb your local abortion clinic. We obviously weren't advocating that anyone do either, but people in those days seemed to have enough common sense to realize that and see that we were trying to make a point. Today, you're likely to get expelled and reported to the FBI for inciting terrorist acts.
Seriously, the FAA isn't that stupid. Go read DO-178B. Critical functions that could cause a catastrophic failure in the event of a malfunction are classified as Level A, and I only know of one off-the-shelf RTOS that's been submitted for approval. Submitted, not approved, last I heard. And an embedded RTOS is orders of magnitude smaller and easier to validate than something like Windows 2000.
Airliners are not being flown by Windows boxes. If there's anything in the cockpit running Windows, it would have to be non-critical, something that could fail and not cause immediate danger to passengers.
"And, no doubt, if we just leave it up there the Chinese and/or the EU will most certainly claim salvage rights and send up a repair crew."
On what grounds? How do you declare an unmanned piece of equipment abandoned? What do you do when you claim it? Console in and change the root password?
And manned space programs, China's in particular at this stage, are all about national prestige. How much prestige is there in swiping someone else's aging, discarded technology? China would do far better to launch their own observatory.
It's bad enough that most users have no clue to begin with, but you should try working within the DoD. Or maybe it's just the Air Force that's so screwed up. But they've been pushing so hard on a poorly-implemented PKI plan that all their users are now conditioned to automatically accept invalid, expired, or untrusted certificates dozens of times per day to get their jobs done.
Enablement... yeah, that's a perfectly cromulent word...
I started working on VMS systems in 1997, so I was a relative latecomer to the OS. Still, I quickly learned to appreciate what it's capable of. The ancient hardware I've got in my garage (VAX 6000, VAXstation 3100s, MicroVAX IIs, AlphaStation 200) is capable of more useful and reliable clustering, out of the box, than Windows 2000 AS. Almost undoubtedly better than 2003 as well.
I've had to migrate a legacy VMS application to a Windows 2000 AS cluster, and after 10 years of operation with no more than a few hours' downtime at any given time, the old Alpha cluster is ready to be shut down next week. It's sad to see it go - the Windows version will probably never be as solid and reliable, but what counts to management is that for the price of annual hardware and software maintenance on the old cluster we can buy all new Dell servers with 3-year warranties every year or two.
I did once set up an OpenVMS machine with the intent of taking it to DefCon, but never got around to it. Others did, though, and there's nothing like watching a bunch of hotshot Unix crackers pounding their heads on their keyboards out of frustration.
(And that's just trying to get a volume listing, not breaking in!)
And I predict that within 100 years, computers will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will be able to afford them.
Seriously... any effective treatment will almost undoubtedly be expensive at first. Demand will bring the price down. Hopefully before I die.
Unless I'm rich by then. In that case, that's your problem, suckers.
Just high enough to wash away this mudslide, thanks!
Hey man, lay off the tentacle porn - some of us LIKE that!
And being a licensed ham, the FCC can come knocking on your door at any time to inspect your equipment, as I understand it.
I could have told you years ago that this was going to happen. Why? Because I own Interplay stock. It's the kiss of death, me owning one share in a company. Want to make sure your biotech firm doesn't get FDA approval for their new product? Just have me by some stock. Really. Look at Advanced Tissue Sciences. See that 50% drop? Two days after I bought it. That was all me, baby. /sticking to my boring 401(k) from now on...
I've watched one particular development project for several years. I won't mention the company's name, but it rhymes with Mockheed Lartin.
I don't think they've ever had a problem with changing requirements, because the requirements were written completely without the input of the end users - they specified what THEY thought the end users should want, and then proceeded to build it and let political inertia force it on the users, despite it not being what they wanted or needed.
Your tax dollars at work...
Bears? It's wolves you've got to watch out for. There's a good reason they carry a gun on every Soyuz.
"Then, two days ago, I tried to run a C64 emulator, and couldn't remember how to use the LOAD command."
Dude... I guess I spent too much time on the ol' C64. I fired up an emulator a couple of weeks ago and not only used the shorthand form of the command, but even used the correct keys for " and * without being aware of the change. I'm sure I could go back to the C64 style arrow keys in an instant, if presented with an original keyboard.
I started out the same way, with the Vic-20 and later the C-64 and C-128. But how do you get today's kids started without just dumping them at a BASH prompt?
With the Commodores and Apples, there was no question about where to start - you turned on the computer and there's your BASIC interpreter. Yeah, BASIC is for the most part an awful language, but it at least teaches the kids the necessary logic and thought processes that go into programming.
My 8-year old son is a lot like I was at that age, and I suspect that he'll really take off in that department if he can get started. He's already taken an interest in modifying a silly game I wrote in C when I was 15 - he likes it mostly because of its quirks and bugs, and is fascinated by the idea of being able to change it himself. C is a tough language to start out in if you've never programmed, though.
But only old people use them for email...