Seti@Home is constantly updating disk files (status.sah, for instance), and does keep the hard drive busy, unless you run the program from a RAM disk. I have done this, both on Windows machines, and on FreeBSD, where I run the program from a/tmp directory mounted on MFS. This allows the hard drive to remain idle.
I have a Jameco JE2019 tower case/power supply that I've had since 1988 or so. It's been through at least three different motherboards and currently has a Pentium II MB.
Also a Northgate Omnikey 102 keyboard that I got at the same time and still works great.
I have a couple of old Apple external 1X SCSI CD-ROM drives that I use regularly on a FreeBSD system.
Things that I still have, but don't use regularly include various computer items dating back to 1981.
As a consultant, I charge $90/hour for programming, sometimes $80 for projects that I know will run for at least several weeks. I'm thinking of raising my rates. Depending on the depth of the client's pockets, I would probably go for $100-$150 per hour on my next project. As others here have said, definitely start with a high quote and negotiate down only if necessary.
I agree that students shouldn't use calculators when learning math. Math is about concepts and understanding, not about writing down the output from a magic "numbers in, answer out" box. Applied math is a different matter.
I have been doing practical electronic engineering and computer programming for the past 20 years, and use my HP 21, 10C and 32SII (all RPN calculators) almost daily. I keep one at home, one at the office, and one in my briefcase and use them for calculating component values, generating short tables of numbers for programs, and balancing my checkbook, among other things.
I have difficulty using a calculator with an "=" button because RPN is second nature to me.
Other operating systems not supported because they make up only a small percentage of the users?
What percentage of voters are handicapped and require wheelchair access to physical polls? Are they turned away because they can't walk in on Microsoft Legs(TM)? No, polling places are chosen to be wheelchair accessible.
Likewise, online voting should be accessible to all, and to that end, the specs of the voting interface should be published, so anyone with a C64 and a modem should be able to write their own voting program. As long as the specs are met, there should be no requirement for any proprietary software.
Re:Planned Obsolescence
on
42-Volt Autos
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, why don't they just start using 110Volt AC batteries?/sarcasm
Unless the watt-hour capacity of the battery is also increased, the cost shouldn't be much different. The physical size will be about the same, the amount of lead and acid will be about the same, there will just be more cells with lower amp-hour capacity (watt-hours = volts * amp-hours).
People learn by example, and with so many bad examples to choose from on TV, it's not surprising that a previously "untouched" culture should be negatively affected.
If a benchmark doesn't measure performance related to real-world applications, what's the point? If a driver is optimized to run a benchmark faster, that SHOULD mean that the real world apps should run faster, too. If not, the benchmark is useless.
"user error" is such an oximoron. A correct program does not allow a user to enter erroneous data.
Actually, a well designed program should allow the user to enter whatever they want, but deal with it gracefully if it's not what it was expecting, instead of crashing.
Put a GPS and a 802.11 web server in the rings. That way each of you can keep track of where the other one is at all times. (At least as long as you stay close to a Starbucks).
Consider a television set from the 1950s. It is a visual page (display face of the TV set) which has a static control (channel select dial) that controls the dynamic content (image on screen).
Good ideas. Another thing to consider in a design: Don't let a cheap hardware design force a bad interface design.
Spend the extra money to include a useful display. If it makes the design better, use an alphanumeric display with enough space to display messages in plain English instead of using only a two-digit 7-segment LED.
Include enough buttons so that you have one function per button -- no multifunction buttons that change meaning depending on what mode the system is in.
Don't be limited to a numeric keypad for data or parameter entry. Consider using a rotary encoder for setting parameters.
I think users should gladly pay a little more for a product that is easy and simple to use, versus a badly designed but cheap item.
Around 1981, I built a computer of my own design. It uses a 6502 processor, and wire-wrapped STD cards on a backplane with a card cage for peripheral boards.
I still have it, and last time I checked, it still worked. (The manual EPROM programmer, rack case and some other minor items are long gone, but the computer and power supply are still usable).
Is this worth anything to any of you collectors? I would be willing to sell it if I could find it a good home.
Pick one desktop -- KDE or Gnome. Don't make an eight year-old decide which desktop to use.
Text editors -- vi and emacs are both difficult for a novice to use; choose a simple graphical editor such as nedit, or for text-only based editing, use ee or pico. Let the kids concentrate on what they're writing, not on learning modes and metakey combinations.
About three years ago I built a BFG8500 (smaller cousin to the BFG9000) as part of my halloween costume. I sold it on eBay a couple of years ago, but I still have some pictures of it.
Here, here, here, here and here.
It was pretty cool. It had a digital sound generator to recreate the whooshing sound of the BFG9000 and a photoflash with a green filter, rigged to a trigger button. And some blinky LEDs, too.
Does no one else use WM2? It's a simple, lightweight window manager. I use it on two different FreeBSD machines, and I've used it for about three years.
Slashdot Mirror
Seti@Home is constantly updating disk files (status.sah, for instance), and does keep the hard drive busy, unless you run the program from a RAM disk. I have done this, both on Windows machines, and on FreeBSD, where I run the program from a /tmp directory mounted on MFS. This allows the hard drive to remain idle.
Don't forget the HCF instruction (Halt and Catch Fire).
I have a Jameco JE2019 tower case/power supply that I've had since 1988 or so. It's been through at least three different motherboards and currently has a Pentium II MB. Also a Northgate Omnikey 102 keyboard that I got at the same time and still works great. I have a couple of old Apple external 1X SCSI CD-ROM drives that I use regularly on a FreeBSD system.
Things that I still have, but don't use regularly include various computer items dating back to 1981.
- Borland C++
- P-CAD
- WS FTP
- Eudora
- Opera
- Acrobat Reader
- Thumbs Plus
- Real Player
- Tera Term Pro & TTSSH
- Fixit Utilities
FreeBSD (or other *nix)As a consultant, I charge $90/hour for programming, sometimes $80 for projects that I know will run for at least several weeks.
I'm thinking of raising my rates. Depending on the depth of the client's pockets, I would probably go for $100-$150 per hour on my next project.
As others here have said, definitely start with a high quote and negotiate down only if necessary.
I agree that students shouldn't use calculators when learning math. Math is about concepts and understanding, not about writing down the output from a magic "numbers in, answer out" box. Applied math is a different matter.
I have been doing practical electronic engineering and computer programming for the past 20 years, and use my HP 21, 10C and 32SII (all RPN calculators) almost daily. I keep one at home, one at the office, and one in my briefcase and use them for calculating component values, generating short tables of numbers for programs, and balancing my checkbook, among other things.
I have difficulty using a calculator with an "=" button because RPN is second nature to me.
Kartoo has an interactive ranking system, too. It's an interesting system, drawing a visual map of search results.
Other operating systems not supported because they make up only a small percentage of the users?
What percentage of voters are handicapped and require wheelchair access to physical polls? Are they turned away because they can't walk in on Microsoft Legs(TM)? No, polling places are chosen to be wheelchair accessible.
Likewise, online voting should be accessible to all, and to that end, the specs of the voting interface should be published, so anyone with a C64 and a modem should be able to write their own voting program. As long as the specs are met, there should be no requirement for any proprietary software.
Yeah, why don't they just start using 110Volt AC batteries? /sarcasm
Unless the watt-hour capacity of the battery is also increased, the cost shouldn't be much different. The physical size will be about the same, the amount of lead and acid will be about the same, there will just be more cells with lower amp-hour capacity (watt-hours = volts * amp-hours).
Negative. The positive side of the battery is grounded, making the "hot" terminal negative with respect to ground.
People learn by example, and with so many bad examples to choose from on TV, it's not surprising that a previously "untouched" culture should be negatively affected.
If a benchmark doesn't measure performance related to real-world applications, what's the point? If a driver is optimized to run a benchmark faster, that SHOULD mean that the real world apps should run faster, too. If not, the benchmark is useless.
"user error" is such an oximoron. A correct program does not allow a user to enter erroneous data.
Actually, a well designed program should allow the user to enter whatever they want, but deal with it gracefully if it's not what it was expecting, instead of crashing.
I agree. Sites that put pop-ups on my screen don't get any repeat visits.
Huh huh, huh huh. You said "nude erection".
Put a GPS and a 802.11 web server in the rings. That way each of you can keep track of where the other one is at all times. (At least as long as you stay close to a Starbucks).
Consider a television set from the 1950s. It is a visual page (display face of the TV set) which has a static control (channel select dial) that controls the dynamic content (image on screen).
Good ideas. Another thing to consider in a design:
Don't let a cheap hardware design force a bad interface design.
- Spend the extra money to include a useful display. If it makes the design better, use an alphanumeric display with enough space to display messages in plain English instead of using only a two-digit 7-segment LED.
- Include enough buttons so that you have one function per button -- no multifunction buttons that change meaning depending on what mode the system is in.
- Don't be limited to a numeric keypad for data or parameter entry. Consider using a rotary encoder for setting parameters.
I think users should gladly pay a little more for a product that is easy and simple to use, versus a badly designed but cheap item.Around 1981, I built a computer of my own design. It uses a 6502 processor, and wire-wrapped STD cards on a backplane with a card cage for peripheral boards. I still have it, and last time I checked, it still worked. (The manual EPROM programmer, rack case and some other minor items are long gone, but the computer and power supply are still usable).
Is this worth anything to any of you collectors? I would be willing to sell it if I could find it a good home.
Doom - work your way through pworld. E1M1 is good for multiplayer. E1M7 was a favorite also.
I use my Handspring Visor and keep it with me or near at hand all the time.
I use it:
Pick one desktop -- KDE or Gnome. Don't make an eight year-old decide which desktop to use.
Text editors -- vi and emacs are both difficult for a novice to use; choose a simple graphical editor such as nedit, or for text-only based editing, use ee or pico. Let the kids concentrate on what they're writing, not on learning modes and metakey combinations.
About three years ago I built a BFG8500 (smaller cousin to the BFG9000) as part of my halloween costume. I sold it on eBay a couple of years ago, but I still have some pictures of it. Here, here, here, here and here. It was pretty cool. It had a digital sound generator to recreate the whooshing sound of the BFG9000 and a photoflash with a green filter, rigged to a trigger button. And some blinky LEDs, too.
Does no one else use WM2? It's a simple, lightweight window manager. I use it on two different FreeBSD machines, and I've used it for about three years.