Montreal is nuts like that. I remember driving through Montreal, and having to do over 120km to keep up with the flow of traffic and not be a hazard, in a zone marked 50 km/h. (Now, this fellow might have not been on such a busy and wide street, but the driving in Montreal truly is nuts in general.)
Wow, flashback to when elegance in programming was far more common, and bloat was far less programming.
I worry about newer generations of coders, never having known elegant, lean, efficient, and useful code, from the major bloat that comprises most software projects today.
Items like this, are truly things of beauty, and only becoming more rare.
All I'm saying is that the amount of knowledge and skills the average human being can possess will not increase expontentially over time (barring artificial manipulation). We gain new skills as a population and lose old ones.
Just like the time I took that wine making course, and forgot how to drive.
(Okay, okay, I promise that's the last time I'll make that joke.)
Know that you Know something Know that you Don't Know something (the second most common) Don't Know that you Don't Know something (most things fall in this category for most people) Don't Know that you Know something (the most interesting of the categories)
Generally people go through learning something new in that order, too. I remember vividly seeing this when i learned to sail. I didn't even know I couldn't do it worth a damn (unconscious incompetence); I then realized I couldn't do it (conscious incompetence); as I got better at it, I was getting good at it, but had to think about it while I was doing it (conscious competence); finally, it became second nature, and I didn't have to think about most aspects of it (unconscious competence).
Most people have gone through the same stages when learning to drive; 1) doesn't look so hard; 2) man, those brakes are sensitive, how the hell do I work the clutch; 3) hey, I can do this, I'm getting the hang of it; 4) blah, blah, blah on the cell phone while applying makeup and drinking a milkshake.
Here is a link to research being done using a similar approach, but more efficient evaproration (not water), and a vacuum, so it can actually produce 2kg of ice a day. (Not in production yet, due to deterioration of the system after a couple of years, but doesn't sound too far off.)
In a former life, I worked for a great software company, awesome products, incredibly clean, lean, mean, and workable source code.
As part of industry trends, we were required to internationalize the whole thing; I wasn't involved directly in it, but got to see the effects upon the source code. It completely made things awkward and unreadable. It seemed to kill all of the elegance in the code.
I'm sure there are better ways to achieve internationalization, but in more than one case, I've seen it turn elegant source code into painful stuff to work on. It's an interesting phenomenon, which probably warrants some study:-)
Does anyone remember the earlier versions of StarOffice (and I think OpenOffice, but am not sure)? They had an email client, which was quite integrated into the environment.
I was kind of surprised to see that removed from the subsequent releases, but in general, it focused upon being a great spreadsheet and word processor to such an amazing degree, it was easy to forget.
It's interesting that the latest Microsoft FUD is related to the email client integration.
If you need to stay in touch with your servers at home, all you need is a Web browser, and tools such as VNC to get at your remote desktop, to monitor, get notified, and so forth.
And with tools such as SSH Tunnelling, you can access pretty much any service tunnelled over SSH. Most corporations tend not to block HTTP and SSH ports, so you can still stay in touch with your servers as required.
If you truly need to be notified of things while you're wandering around the office, they make some incredibly small pagers these days; I believe you can even get a pager in a watch form factor; it's unlikely they'd stop you from wearing your watch.
They are in the Public Domain, not GPLed, or BSDed or whatever.
Actually, BSD'd (or X MIT'd) would be the closest comparison (any attribution requirements aside). Anyone can take BSD or X code, and create a commercial product. As a person who makes their living creating and improving software, I like that.
If anyone has a problem with what I do to commercialize chunks BSD or X (and truth be told, I haven't, but I like the fact I *could), is completely free to rip off my concepts and implement them back into the core for free. Go nuts!
It's interesting how much warmer the reception is for "if they want to PDF them and charge, fine, as long as the free alternative is there" versus the GPL/BSD/X/Stallman debates.
Being *able* to commercialize, and being *able* to do things for free, is true freedom, in my humble but biased opinion.:-)
Actually, the parent post reminded me of something I've experienced with more than one person (typically female, although that could be coincidental): the thought that turning up a themostat higher, would make a room warm up *faster*.
Despite trying to explain that it really is just an on-off switch with a threshold, and cranking it to 30 (celcius, that is), will only warm up the room at normal speed, and *then* make it uncomfortably hot, I've never been able to alter this behaviour in anyone:-)
What about a clear roll of thin plastic (or whatver) that comes from a spool, over the panels, onto another spool (which has a motor to draw and spool up the plastic). Requires one motor, and a couple of rotating spools. If the motor failed, it would be no worse than the current situation.
What's the problem with a setup like that? Just too much added weight?
I think a main hope for Linux being able to track things like this is, it to be able to use windows drivers, codex, and programs, under Linux. MPlayer, I believe, has the ability to use Windows codecs, things like Wine/Crossover Office and such, allow using the programs.
I'd like to see an more core general ability for Linux to be able to use Windows device drivers, codecs, and such. This would really keep Microsoft in their place.
Yes, there may be licensing hassles, and it would technically be up to each individual to make sure they're not violating any licenses for the binaries themselves, but for the kernel to provide a framework to support this ability shouldn't be stopped by licensing, and it would be very handy, and help the future of Linux.
Now, Windows device drivers and codecs can be some of the things that cause the most system instability, but I think that's more an artifact of the Windows side not handling problems in the drivers well; Linux could probably isolate the running system from flakiness of the drivers/codecs to a greater degree. (Just as Crossover Office and Win4Lin can run Windows faster than is possible under raw Windows, I believe greater device driver stability should be possible, too.)
Ummmm, by simply stealing the crooks' gear, aren't they blowing a chance at letting the police catch the criminals to stop them from hitting again? Isn't there a civic (or legal?) duty to report a crime you see in progress, especially one where you know the culprit will be returning to the scene???
Given the fact they took the gear home and took pictures of it, I'm guessing the police aren't involved, so the crooks are still out their claiming more victims like himself.
Also reminds me of the story of mainframes that kept crashing up on a high floor of an office tower overlooking Halifax harbour. They finally realized it was related to whether or not the navy ships were in town, toasting the mainframes with their radar.
Punishments like this not only look bigger than the minor cost behind then, but they also increase market share (Microsoft piling more copies of Windows into the schools only helps entrench the OS), and it makes for a healthy tax write-off for the companies, too, further reducing any pain they feel from the punishment.
I've always felt that the GPL was too restrctive, and could achieve it's same goals without being as fanatical as it seems to be; could the XFree86 and Apache license conflicts be a sign of a trend that might indicate the GPL needs to bend a bit to avoid becoming more part of the problem, than the solution?
"It takes 20 minutes to distribute a 90-minute film over a VPN and the system avoids the costs associated with transporting physical copies to areas largely inaccessible by road"
Hey, wait a minute... There are pure digital megaplexes with internet connectivity that allows 5G in 20M (what's that 700kbps?), but you can't get there by road??? Seems odd, no? Can someone expand on that point? (Or maybe I should break tradition, and RTFA... Nahhhhh, I want to fit in here.)
I agree with the parent, and prefer BSD/X style licensing to GPL. But isn't there already some code in Linux distributions now, that falls under the BSD license? Or is it completely free of any BSD licensed code? I find it hard to believe, but if so, could someone clarify?
And it's not only consistent with Christianity, but with alien's perspectives on the whole thing:
"We've been observing your pathetic planet since it was created. Five thousand years ago. By God." -Kang and Kodos
Because it requires our past experiences...
on
Comic Book Physics
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
In movies, the producers can play fast and loose with physics, because they have the benefit of motion and sound, to make things seem more plausible (if only slighly plausible, to someone who understands basic physics logically).
In comic books, being still frames with no sound, any action, motion, sound, can be implied, but it's really up to our imaginations to create the vivid scene that is real to life; and we do that with the feel for real world physics that we experience in real life. I would guess that this has something to do with comic books tending to be a bit more realistic; so they can leverage our own experience with the physics of the world, for a more realistic and vivid experience.
Slashdot Mirror
All you need is one extra parity sheet in your stack, for RAID 5 redundancy. (Pssst, can you loan me a sheet, I need a hot spare.)
Montreal is nuts like that. I remember driving through Montreal, and having to do over 120km to keep up with the flow of traffic and not be a hazard, in a zone marked 50 km/h. (Now, this fellow might have not been on such a busy and wide street, but the driving in Montreal truly is nuts in general.)
I worry about newer generations of coders, never having known elegant, lean, efficient, and useful code, from the major bloat that comprises most software projects today.
Items like this, are truly things of beauty, and only becoming more rare.
Just like the time I took that wine making course, and forgot how to drive.
(Okay, okay, I promise that's the last time I'll make that joke.)
Know that you Know something
Know that you Don't Know something (the second most common)
Don't Know that you Don't Know something (most things fall in this category for most people)
Don't Know that you Know something (the most interesting of the categories)
These are also known as:
Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence
Generally people go through learning something new in that order, too. I remember vividly seeing this when i learned to sail. I didn't even know I couldn't do it worth a damn (unconscious incompetence); I then realized I couldn't do it (conscious incompetence); as I got better at it, I was getting good at it, but had to think about it while I was doing it (conscious competence); finally, it became second nature, and I didn't have to think about most aspects of it (unconscious competence).
Most people have gone through the same stages when learning to drive; 1) doesn't look so hard; 2) man, those brakes are sensitive, how the hell do I work the clutch; 3) hey, I can do this, I'm getting the hang of it; 4) blah, blah, blah on the cell phone while applying makeup and drinking a milkshake.
Here is a link to research being done using a similar approach, but more efficient evaproration (not water), and a vacuum, so it can actually produce 2kg of ice a day. (Not in production yet, due to deterioration of the system after a couple of years, but doesn't sound too far off.)
As part of industry trends, we were required to internationalize the whole thing; I wasn't involved directly in it, but got to see the effects upon the source code. It completely made things awkward and unreadable. It seemed to kill all of the elegance in the code.
I'm sure there are better ways to achieve internationalization, but in more than one case, I've seen it turn elegant source code into painful stuff to work on. It's an interesting phenomenon, which probably warrants some study :-)
I was kind of surprised to see that removed from the subsequent releases, but in general, it focused upon being a great spreadsheet and word processor to such an amazing degree, it was easy to forget.
It's interesting that the latest Microsoft FUD is related to the email client integration.
And with tools such as SSH Tunnelling, you can access pretty much any service tunnelled over SSH. Most corporations tend not to block HTTP and SSH ports, so you can still stay in touch with your servers as required.
If you truly need to be notified of things while you're wandering around the office, they make some incredibly small pagers these days; I believe you can even get a pager in a watch form factor; it's unlikely they'd stop you from wearing your watch.
Actually, BSD'd (or X MIT'd) would be the closest comparison (any attribution requirements aside). Anyone can take BSD or X code, and create a commercial product. As a person who makes their living creating and improving software, I like that.
If anyone has a problem with what I do to commercialize chunks BSD or X (and truth be told, I haven't, but I like the fact I *could), is completely free to rip off my concepts and implement them back into the core for free. Go nuts!
It's interesting how much warmer the reception is for "if they want to PDF them and charge, fine, as long as the free alternative is there" versus the GPL/BSD/X/Stallman debates.
Being *able* to commercialize, and being *able* to do things for free, is true freedom, in my humble but biased opinion. :-)
Don't no about hour anonymity, but we shore seem to be loosing hour ability to use the write words when we right.
Just like the time I took that wine making course, and forgot how to drive.
Despite trying to explain that it really is just an on-off switch with a threshold, and cranking it to 30 (celcius, that is), will only warm up the room at normal speed, and *then* make it uncomfortably hot, I've never been able to alter this behaviour in anyone :-)
What's the problem with a setup like that? Just too much added weight?
I'd like to see an more core general ability for Linux to be able to use Windows device drivers, codecs, and such. This would really keep Microsoft in their place.
Yes, there may be licensing hassles, and it would technically be up to each individual to make sure they're not violating any licenses for the binaries themselves, but for the kernel to provide a framework to support this ability shouldn't be stopped by licensing, and it would be very handy, and help the future of Linux.
Now, Windows device drivers and codecs can be some of the things that cause the most system instability, but I think that's more an artifact of the Windows side not handling problems in the drivers well; Linux could probably isolate the running system from flakiness of the drivers/codecs to a greater degree. (Just as Crossover Office and Win4Lin can run Windows faster than is possible under raw Windows, I believe greater device driver stability should be possible, too.)
I thought the main problem with X was it's new BSD-like license?
Given the fact they took the gear home and took pictures of it, I'm guessing the police aren't involved, so the crooks are still out their claiming more victims like himself.
RF is a strange and disturbing thing.
Punishments like this not only look bigger than the minor cost behind then, but they also increase market share (Microsoft piling more copies of Windows into the schools only helps entrench the OS), and it makes for a healthy tax write-off for the companies, too, further reducing any pain they feel from the punishment.
I may have my excellent Karma, but my geek life won't be complete until I get a "+5 Funny" rating on my own "In Soviet Russia" post.
I've always felt that the GPL was too restrctive, and could achieve it's same goals without being as fanatical as it seems to be; could the XFree86 and Apache license conflicts be a sign of a trend that might indicate the GPL needs to bend a bit to avoid becoming more part of the problem, than the solution?
Hey, wait a minute... There are pure digital megaplexes with internet connectivity that allows 5G in 20M (what's that 700kbps?), but you can't get there by road??? Seems odd, no? Can someone expand on that point? (Or maybe I should break tradition, and RTFA... Nahhhhh, I want to fit in here.)
I agree with the parent, and prefer BSD/X style licensing to GPL. But isn't there already some code in Linux distributions now, that falls under the BSD license? Or is it completely free of any BSD licensed code? I find it hard to believe, but if so, could someone clarify?
In comic books, being still frames with no sound, any action, motion, sound, can be implied, but it's really up to our imaginations to create the vivid scene that is real to life; and we do that with the feel for real world physics that we experience in real life. I would guess that this has something to do with comic books tending to be a bit more realistic; so they can leverage our own experience with the physics of the world, for a more realistic and vivid experience.