I *do* have other interests besides programming, you know. If I spent as much time hacking code at home for fun as I do in the office for money, when am I supposed to get my gaming/hiking/drumming/cooking/woodworking/TV watching done...?
My definition of a good programmer isn't the worlds most talented codemonkey, but rather the guy that can set the boundaries of the project firmly and manage the expectations of client/boss.
Funny... that's my definition of a good project manager.
And in any organization of more than about 20 people, "programmer" and "project manager" should probably NOT be roles performed by the same person.
We didn't take precautions when we played when I was growing up. And you know what? We survived.
Well, the ones that survived did, at least.
We don't talk much about the boy who became a vegetable because he wasn't wearing a helmet and cracked his head open, or the girl who disappeared walking home from a friend's house and whose body was found in the woods a week later...
Could it be that Cuomo wants to stir up dirt for NY senator Chuck Schumer to use in senate hearings or as a bludgeon against the Federal trade Commission
Probably not; Schumer's relationship with Albany is normally not very cordial.
There's an edit source button on the XO. In the Sugar environment it pulls up the source code of the current program for editing.
Which will be a Python script or similar. It's not like the Source Code key will ever pull up the kernel of the underlying OS that the Sugar shell is running on top of, whether that OS is Linux-based or Windows-based.
To use a term from the lexicon of the average New Yorker, why don't those companies, which are based OUTSIDE of New York, politely tell the attorney general of New York to go f*** himself?
Gerald Ford told NYC to drop dead once, and it didn't work out too well for him come 1976.
If Intel were to decide it would rather discontinue doing business in the state of New York altogether than halt these alleged anticompetitive practices, they'd be fools.
I don't see the LCD screens getting down to a price making this possible.
Hmm, I dunno, maybe Ms. Jepsen will create some innovative new display filter technology that allows 200dpi color-capable LCD screens with backlighting to be built for roughtly the same cost as a 75dpi monochrome LCD screen. Wouldn't that be something...
If Tuesday's results really were the likely result of malfeasance, the Obama and Edwards campaigns would be raising holy hell. They would be seeking a recount, and investigation of the voting, and they would be doing it because they saw the irregularities in the vote results.
O RLY? Al Gore had the temerity to not concede Florida in 2000 until all the votes had been counted, and "Sore Loserman" bumper stickers were available within days.
Even if there were possible malfeasance in the New Hampshire voting this week, it would not be in the best interests of the Obama abd Edwards campaigns to make a stink about it. Their candidates would be branded as 'whiners' or 'conspiracy theorists', and it's not worth it for New Hampshire's small number of delegates.
from the article, re C64: "the layout was peppered with an unusually large number of nonstandard keys such as Run/Stop and Restore."
I was 5 years old at the time, so I may be misremembering, but in what sense was there a "standard" keyboard at the time of the C64's release?
Sure, the alphanumerics were standard QWERTY as derived from typewriters, but the Apple II line had different utility keys than the Atari 8-bits, than Commodores, than the IBM PC-XT, than the IBM PC-AT. It wasn't until the Wintel monoculture really took root in the mid-'90s that any sort of consistency in PC keyboard layout took hold.
re Sinclair 2068 et al: "the unit had no Backspace key, a fault of many other early home computers. Did the designers assume that typists would never make mistakes?"
Who needs a dedicated Backspace key when you have shift-Delete, or ctrl-d, or whatever other key combination was bound to the 'backspace' action in software...?
Modding the set into something of a more full sized drum set while, yes, taking up FAR more room will make it a lot easier for people like me to play
Also, the guitar controller should have six strings instead of just a toggle switch, and 22+ frets instead of five colored buttons. You know, so it's easier for real guitarists to play.
just go to any Chevrolet or Dodge or Ford dealership and you cant get a new car for less than 15 thousand dollars
Who needs a NEW car, though?
If Tata were to go to the extreme expense of setting up shop and selling this car in the US, safety and emissions regulations and everything else would surely push the price up from US$2500 to $6000 or more.
For my $6000, I'd much rather buy a gently used Toyota Corolla than a new Tata.
Since pretty much everything these days is automatically copyrighted at the time of creation or fixing, I guess the days of network congestion will soon be pretty much over then?
Only creative works are copyrightable. You could not, for instance, claim copyright on a number.
So as long as all your network traffic is passed using some sort of numerical representation, it should be okay. Binary, perhaps?
So if C is like a manual car, Java is an automatic.
And you don't think it's a reasonable pedagogy to start new drivers on automatic transmissions, and only once they've got a good grasp on the fundamentals, introduce the clutch pedal and gearshift?
If your goal is to smoke out all but the most dedicated or naturally gifted students (and ruin a bunch of transmissions in the process), by all means start them out on the most difficult concepts first. If you want everyone to have a chance to learn, start with easier concepts and work up to the hard ones.
The basic module (screen, processor and wireless) can be very cheap indeed if mass made.
But never cheaper nor more efficient than a piece of hardware that is ONLY a display, or ONLY a keyboard, or ONLY a CPU could be.
Is there a market for people who need the kind of configuration flexibility you propose, and is willing to compromise on price and or performance to get it? Certainly. Will that market ever be more than a niche among computer users in general? I may be making a "640K should be enough"-type prediciton here, but my educated guess is "no".
I can't decide who's going to be marching on corporate america first with torches and pitchforks -- the early-adopters of HD, or those screwed out of TV when we switch to digital in Feb of 2009.
Neither.
HD early adopters tend to be technophiles who don't mind pouring money into a pit to be able to say they have the latest and greatest gear, and are about to come due to upgrade from their inferior equipment anyway (who wants a 42" 1080i plasma screen when there are 50" 1080p LCDs on the market now?).
The only people at risk of being screwed out of TV next year are those who depend on rabbit ears to get reception; those who have cable or satellite TV service, as most of us do, are not affected by the digital switchover. And subsidies for converter boxes are already being made available.
Film cameras are still objectively "better" than digital cameras, when you consider contrast and colour-balance and all that.
Yes, but what's the point of using an objective measure in an area where subjective measurement is so important?
For a typical point 'n' shoot casual photographer, a consumer-grade digital camera will probably be "good enough" in quality.
A professional photographer working for a news organization might find that the better quality of film is cancelled out by the convenience of being able to upload digital files directly from the camera to the server, instead of having to go through a chemical development process.
Fine art photographers will tend to stick with film, and for good reason. The digital option generally does not meet their needs. But it certainly isn't a choice where one option is universally "better" than the other.
Let us put it in testing and quality assurance and then announce it's release a little before we put it out.
I may be misreading your intent, but are you suggesting that Sony's decision to subject a product to a quality assurance process before publicly announcing its release is a BAD thing?
Good will does not increase the bottom line of their stock portfolio or give them a fat dividend check.
If not, then why the hell did Intel get involved with the OLPC project in the first place?
From this vantage point, it looks an awful lot like they did it to get an inside track on what "the competition" was doing... only to turn around and undermine Negroponte's efforts by introducing a competing piece of hardware.
I buy sheet music online - the site only allows you to print to a physical printer NOT a PDF recorder (it also prints my full name on the sheet music). I'm sure there is someone who is smart enough out there to bypass this
A photocopier and a bottle of Wite-Out ought to do the trick.
OLPC is not a laptop project, it is an educational project
If Nicholas Negroponte and the rest of the OLPC team didn't want people to think of their project as a laptop project, perhaps naming it "One LAPTOP Per Child" was a poor choice.
the software and the content [are] more important than the hardware
I think it's too early to say which is more important. Sugar looks to me to be the most innovative and intuitive UI to be introduced in a long long time, but I can't tell whether it will ever find popularity outside of computer neophytes. It could be next Xerox PARC User Interface, or it could be the next Microsoft Bob.
The hardware innovations, on the other hand, have much greater immediate potential. The XO-1's approach to power management ought to be standard on all portable computers, and I think within 5 years it will be. And while the dual-mode screen may be little more than a novelty now at 6x4", if the production can be scaled up to 12x8", it could be revolutionary.
Ultimately, we'll have to wait and see to find out which is more important.
Slashdot Mirror
Negative indicators:
* Programming is a day job
I *do* have other interests besides programming, you know. If I spent as much time hacking code at home for fun as I do in the office for money, when am I supposed to get my gaming/hiking/drumming/cooking/woodworking/TV watching done...?
My definition of a good programmer isn't the worlds most talented codemonkey, but rather the guy that can set the boundaries of the project firmly and manage the expectations of client/boss.
Funny... that's my definition of a good project manager.
And in any organization of more than about 20 people, "programmer" and "project manager" should probably NOT be roles performed by the same person.
We didn't take precautions when we played when I was growing up. And you know what? We survived.
Well, the ones that survived did, at least.
We don't talk much about the boy who became a vegetable because he wasn't wearing a helmet and cracked his head open, or the girl who disappeared walking home from a friend's house and whose body was found in the woods a week later...
Could it be that Cuomo wants to stir up dirt for NY senator Chuck Schumer to use in senate hearings or as a bludgeon against the Federal trade Commission
Probably not; Schumer's relationship with Albany is normally not very cordial.
There's an edit source button on the XO. In the Sugar environment it pulls up the source code of the current program for editing.
Which will be a Python script or similar. It's not like the Source Code key will ever pull up the kernel of the underlying OS that the Sugar shell is running on top of, whether that OS is Linux-based or Windows-based.
To use a term from the lexicon of the average New Yorker, why don't those companies, which are based OUTSIDE of New York, politely tell the attorney general of New York to go f*** himself?
Gerald Ford told NYC to drop dead once, and it didn't work out too well for him come 1976.
If Intel were to decide it would rather discontinue doing business in the state of New York altogether than halt these alleged anticompetitive practices, they'd be fools.
I don't see the LCD screens getting down to a price making this possible.
Hmm, I dunno, maybe Ms. Jepsen will create some innovative new display filter technology that allows 200dpi color-capable LCD screens with backlighting to be built for roughtly the same cost as a 75dpi monochrome LCD screen. Wouldn't that be something...
O RLY? Al Gore had the temerity to not concede Florida in 2000 until all the votes had been counted, and "Sore Loserman" bumper stickers were available within days.
Even if there were possible malfeasance in the New Hampshire voting this week, it would not be in the best interests of the Obama abd Edwards campaigns to make a stink about it. Their candidates would be branded as 'whiners' or 'conspiracy theorists', and it's not worth it for New Hampshire's small number of delegates.
from the article, re C64: "the layout was peppered with an unusually large number of nonstandard keys such as Run/Stop and Restore."
I was 5 years old at the time, so I may be misremembering, but in what sense was there a "standard" keyboard at the time of the C64's release?
Sure, the alphanumerics were standard QWERTY as derived from typewriters, but the Apple II line had different utility keys than the Atari 8-bits, than Commodores, than the IBM PC-XT, than the IBM PC-AT. It wasn't until the Wintel monoculture really took root in the mid-'90s that any sort of consistency in PC keyboard layout took hold.
re Sinclair 2068 et al: "the unit had no Backspace key, a fault of many other early home computers. Did the designers assume that typists would never make mistakes?"
Who needs a dedicated Backspace key when you have shift-Delete, or ctrl-d, or whatever other key combination was bound to the 'backspace' action in software...?
This thread is to suggest who should be considered best drummer ....
I nominate Neal Peart from RUSH
If we all humor you and 'agree' that he's the best, can we let this boring and pointless debate end here and now...?
Modding the set into something of a more full sized drum set while, yes, taking up FAR more room will make it a lot easier for people like me to play
Also, the guitar controller should have six strings instead of just a toggle switch, and 22+ frets instead of five colored buttons. You know, so it's easier for real guitarists to play.
just go to any Chevrolet or Dodge or Ford dealership and you cant get a new car for less than 15 thousand dollars
Who needs a NEW car, though?
If Tata were to go to the extreme expense of setting up shop and selling this car in the US, safety and emissions regulations and everything else would surely push the price up from US$2500 to $6000 or more.
For my $6000, I'd much rather buy a gently used Toyota Corolla than a new Tata.
How about a PC game box that plays the sounds from the game, for example American McGee's Alice which had interesting tracks?
Computer software still comes in boxes...?
What I want to know is ... is there a hidden 3rd party pushing Intel *cough*Microsoft*cough*?
Why does Microsoft have to be the evil boogeyman lurking in the shadows behind every other company that does something nasty?
Can't we accept that Intel, SCO, et al are more than capable of having their own rotten agendas?
Since pretty much everything these days is automatically copyrighted at the time of creation or fixing, I guess the days of network congestion will soon be pretty much over then?
Only creative works are copyrightable. You could not, for instance, claim copyright on a number.
So as long as all your network traffic is passed using some sort of numerical representation, it should be okay. Binary, perhaps?
So if C is like a manual car, Java is an automatic.
And you don't think it's a reasonable pedagogy to start new drivers on automatic transmissions, and only once they've got a good grasp on the fundamentals, introduce the clutch pedal and gearshift?
If your goal is to smoke out all but the most dedicated or naturally gifted students (and ruin a bunch of transmissions in the process), by all means start them out on the most difficult concepts first. If you want everyone to have a chance to learn, start with easier concepts and work up to the hard ones.
The basic module (screen, processor and wireless) can be very cheap indeed if mass made.
But never cheaper nor more efficient than a piece of hardware that is ONLY a display, or ONLY a keyboard, or ONLY a CPU could be.
Is there a market for people who need the kind of configuration flexibility you propose, and is willing to compromise on price and or performance to get it? Certainly. Will that market ever be more than a niche among computer users in general? I may be making a "640K should be enough"-type prediciton here, but my educated guess is "no".
2. z2 with a hinge - a laptop, program the lower one to have a keyboard and tracker pad
Why would I want to spend $X,000 making a touch screen work as a keyboard when I can buy a real keycaps-and-springs USB keyboard for $10?
I can't decide who's going to be marching on corporate america first with torches and pitchforks -- the early-adopters of HD, or those screwed out of TV when we switch to digital in Feb of 2009.
Neither.
HD early adopters tend to be technophiles who don't mind pouring money into a pit to be able to say they have the latest and greatest gear, and are about to come due to upgrade from their inferior equipment anyway (who wants a 42" 1080i plasma screen when there are 50" 1080p LCDs on the market now?).
The only people at risk of being screwed out of TV next year are those who depend on rabbit ears to get reception; those who have cable or satellite TV service, as most of us do, are not affected by the digital switchover. And subsidies for converter boxes are already being made available.
Film cameras are still objectively "better" than digital cameras, when you consider contrast and colour-balance and all that.
Yes, but what's the point of using an objective measure in an area where subjective measurement is so important?
For a typical point 'n' shoot casual photographer, a consumer-grade digital camera will probably be "good enough" in quality.
A professional photographer working for a news organization might find that the better quality of film is cancelled out by the convenience of being able to upload digital files directly from the camera to the server, instead of having to go through a chemical development process.
Fine art photographers will tend to stick with film, and for good reason. The digital option generally does not meet their needs. But it certainly isn't a choice where one option is universally "better" than the other.
Let us put it in testing and quality assurance and then announce it's release a little before we put it out.
I may be misreading your intent, but are you suggesting that Sony's decision to subject a product to a quality assurance process before publicly announcing its release is a BAD thing?
Good will does not increase the bottom line of their stock portfolio or give them a fat dividend check.
If not, then why the hell did Intel get involved with the OLPC project in the first place?
From this vantage point, it looks an awful lot like they did it to get an inside track on what "the competition" was doing... only to turn around and undermine Negroponte's efforts by introducing a competing piece of hardware.
I buy sheet music online - the site only allows you to print to a physical printer NOT a PDF recorder (it also prints my full name on the sheet music). I'm sure there is someone who is smart enough out there to bypass this
A photocopier and a bottle of Wite-Out ought to do the trick.
OLPC is not a laptop project, it is an educational project
If Nicholas Negroponte and the rest of the OLPC team didn't want people to think of their project as a laptop project, perhaps naming it "One LAPTOP Per Child" was a poor choice.
the software and the content [are] more important than the hardware
I think it's too early to say which is more important. Sugar looks to me to be the most innovative and intuitive UI to be introduced in a long long time, but I can't tell whether it will ever find popularity outside of computer neophytes. It could be next Xerox PARC User Interface, or it could be the next Microsoft Bob.
The hardware innovations, on the other hand, have much greater immediate potential. The XO-1's approach to power management ought to be standard on all portable computers, and I think within 5 years it will be. And while the dual-mode screen may be little more than a novelty now at 6x4", if the production can be scaled up to 12x8", it could be revolutionary.
Ultimately, we'll have to wait and see to find out which is more important.
So I look at the chaos that his scheduling and his lack of proper planning created, looked him in the eye, told him I quit, and walked out the door.
BIG mistake.
What you should have done is tell him you quit, and then stick around to observe the carnage until asked to leave.