Depends...I had the drive on a new Dell fail at my old job after two months. The tech was there the next day with a new drive.
When the network adapter failed on my home Dell, they sent me a new one via Airborne Express before I sent the old one back.
When my friend bought a compuer at one of those traveling computer shows ("Step right up! Get yer cheap 'not for resale' software here!"), the power switch didn't work when we got it home, and the CD-ROM broke after three to six months.
Now that you've read all the posts about how the Russian space program is done, read this Wired article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/rd-180.ht ml) that describes how US companies are launching their payloads using Russian propulsion.
Here's a quote: "They build the thing and test the shit out of it. This engine cost $10 million and produces almost 1 million pounds of thrust. You can't do that with an American-made engine."
> MS weathered a complete rewrite c/o cutler and
> co. quite happily.
As Joel pointed out, as long as you're doing parallel development on a SHIPPING (that's right folks, REVENUE GENERATING) product, you can go ahead and rewrite the world. WinWord kept cranking whilst Pyramid (apparently) floundered...Win3.1 was shipping while 95 was being written.
He didn't say all rewrites are bad...just have something to weather the storm.
> As Ellison said in the article, all we would be
> giving up is the "illusion" that we can't be
> tracked.
It's still not an illusion, no matter what Ego Ellison says. If you've got cash, you can go anywhere and nobody will know the better. Think they ask for id/passport when you ride Grey Hound? Amtrak? Think I can't buy (with cash) id that will get me on a plane to anywhere in the country? Think I can't buy a passport that will get me international? Think again.
I hate to sound like a Heston, but this is another way to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens while not doing too much about the problem.
> This process led to the creation of a computer
> program that can determine the likelihood that
> a secret message has been hidden within an
> image.
So he can show that something is in there? That's not as big a deal as the article makes it out to be...half the time, you'll know the data has encrypted information embedded in it. The hard part is getting the info OUT OF the data, which the article doesn't really address.
1. Hook two monitors up to your computer to focus all visual stimulation away from possibly drab surroundings.
2. Put on headphones. Start listening to Tool.
3. You now have no distractions, and a pleasant, if intense, sensory experience.
4. Get some work done, after spending a day or two picking a WM.
Seriously, try adding some plants (remember to water!) and a Target wood bookshelf or something. Keep the surface of your desk clean. Replace super annoying overhead fluorescent lights with soft desk lamps (also at Target for $9.99).
Fisk tank can also be economical and interesting. Goldfish can be found for 10c. Remember to feed and change the water every so often. Don't get freaked out when a fish dies every time somebody leaves the project (I'm serious...to the day...three people in our team left...three floaters).
As somebody else has pointed out, this will be great PocketPC competition. Just what Palm needs - a new OS that's scalable, lightweight, and has a lightweight GUI. I hope they port BeIA to the ARM and introduce it as Palm 4 next year...Palm needs something new and shiny fast.
"It takes three hours to read a serious comic book," he says. "Most people want
to read a comic in three minutes."
How long does it take this guy to read the comics in the paper? Doesn't Goth realize the short attention-span comics in the paper created comic art (The Yellow Kid in The New York World started the whole chebang in 1894)?
Maus was, and still is, amazing. The CD-ROM version including audio interviews with Art's grandfather mixed with imagery from Auschwitz is extremely moving. I don't think people will confuse some of the comics that are being published on the net with works like Maus. Art, and others, will still be able to publish in places like The New Yorker where I'm happy to read it.
But writing off new forms of media for your art is always dangerous, because it never works. These guys need to remember comic art that tackles tough social and political issues faced the same criticisms they're making of the web as a comic art distribution method.
> The Net fosters a "Hey, I can do this, too"
> value system.
Computers in general give kids a feeling of power and ability they might not feel elsewhere. I was that 15yr. old geek reading "Byte" (the one good computer tech magazine) in study hall. But since my dad worked at an engineering firm and nobody there knew how to code, I was hired.
Somebody else said they haven't met a project manager under 40 that's any good...well, I'm tired of "I've been doing this for twenty years, so I know what I'm doing." Give me a REAL, rational reason for what you're doing, instead of claiming experience. I've been doing this for almost twenty years, too.
That's one of the reasons C++ and PHP seem to work just fine for me. A bunch of shell scripts to pack it up, ship it over and unpack it. Or for UI updates, just ship new FastTemplate pages and presto! New look n' feel.
I guess I can understand that using app servers provides some scalability features, but you can do a lot of that in C++ using the ADAPTIVE Communications Environment (http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html), which has been around for a few years now.
Here's the one thing I take away from.NET that looks like new technology to me, and it looks like a good idea that wouldn't be super hard to do:.NET lets you provide a public interface for VB and C# objects ("Windows services", web services - guess they haven't thought of an acronym for it yet) without adding another compile/curse/compile step. That is, the interface you write for the C# class is publicly available without writing a separate IDL.
This is a good thing, as I'll bet a large chunk of most development projects is spent writing/debugging this damn translation layer. App servers like Resin let you run applets, but you've gotta set up an agreed upon message format, parse some XML/HTML/binary message format, and do reflection (if you're doing Java).
Why not write a module that maps a XML DTD to a Java interface, then does the RPC for you?
IMHO, this is what.NET is trying to do. For all the marketing BS in there (the whole certified email thing seems hokey - PGP gives you the exact same functionality now), the general idea seems to boil down to be something small and simple.
As far as C# goes, the standard MSFT development practice seems to be "prototype in VB, ship in VC++" because of VB language restrictions (OO in VB looks like a whole lotta duct tape). I'll bet C# is an effort to address these restrictions, while continuing to use a VM, which makes it much easier to tie the whole shebang together:
As one can see from this sample.Net Framework application, what was previously only in the realm of Visual C++ programmers is now possible in a simple, object-oriented program. Although this article focuses on C#, everything written here can also be written in Visual Basic and Managed C++. The new.Net Framework has enabled developers to create highly functional, scalable Windows applications and services from any programming language.
Note that using a VM also makes it easier for MSFT to restrict developers to use only published API calls - no more hitting the hardware.:)
Slashdot Mirror
My car gets five ramrods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it.
> As it is now, the cost of a CD (getting up
> around 20$) is outrageous.
Which is why I buy used.
Check these out:
s vgt ions
http://www.ep.cs.nott.ac.uk/projects/SVG/flash2
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/SVG-Implementa
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an alternative to Flash.
> I'll bet it's possible to create a
> cybernetic "animal" that functions on 95%
> instinct and 5% learning.
It could even be a tuna:
Draper VCUUV Project
> Do OEM boxes worth your money?
Depends...I had the drive on a new Dell fail at my old job after two months. The tech was there the next day with a new drive.
When the network adapter failed on my home Dell, they sent me a new one via Airborne Express before I sent the old one back.
When my friend bought a compuer at one of those traveling computer shows ("Step right up! Get yer cheap 'not for resale' software here!"), the power switch didn't work when we got it home, and the CD-ROM broke after three to six months.
> Of course EVERYTHING is harder on Microsoft's
> platform
* Remote profiles have been around for a long
time.
* WinXP desktop sharing is great for the use the
OP is talking about.
* WinVNC works just fine.
> Its been mostly grey and blocky.
I'm guessing you haven't used XP.
As opposed to Mundie/Ballmer, who are more along the lines of 1984...
Now that you've read all the posts about how the Russian space program is done, read this Wired article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/rd-180.ht ml) that describes how US companies are launching their payloads using Russian propulsion.
Here's a quote: "They build the thing and test the shit out of it. This engine cost $10 million and produces almost 1 million pounds of thrust. You can't do that with an American-made engine."
> What will bother me is 50 brightly glowing
> LCD's dispearsed throughout the theater
Maybe they'll hand out black tape as well...
> Can you imagine the impact of GM going out of
> business and then finding your car doesn't
> start the next morning?
Can you imagine trying to find parts for a Stutz Bearcat?
> Superfriends.
Excelsior!
> MS weathered a complete rewrite c/o cutler and
> co. quite happily.
As Joel pointed out, as long as you're doing parallel development on a SHIPPING (that's right folks, REVENUE GENERATING) product, you can go ahead and rewrite the world. WinWord kept cranking whilst Pyramid (apparently) floundered...Win3.1 was shipping while 95 was being written.
He didn't say all rewrites are bad...just have something to weather the storm.
> I'd love to know what went wrong.
Having the little agent there to click on is fine. The only problem with agents is when they aggresively take over focus and prevent me from typing.
The problem is with MSFT's help engine. It never helps me find the answer. Maybe if the agent went out and hit google.com and/or groups.google.com...
> As Ellison said in the article, all we would be
> giving up is the "illusion" that we can't be
> tracked.
It's still not an illusion, no matter what Ego Ellison says. If you've got cash, you can go anywhere and nobody will know the better. Think they ask for id/passport when you ride Grey Hound? Amtrak? Think I can't buy (with cash) id that will get me on a plane to anywhere in the country? Think I can't buy a passport that will get me international? Think again.
I hate to sound like a Heston, but this is another way to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens while not doing too much about the problem.
> Linux is not trying to be a Windows clone,
> instead it is a rather successful Unix clone.
Yeah, that's why they're doing all the desktop work on KDE and Gnome...and there's a start menu...
Or you can download ACE and get it all for C++. One of the most productivity-enhancing uses of design patterns I've ever seen.
> This process led to the creation of a computer
> program that can determine the likelihood that
> a secret message has been hidden within an
> image.
So he can show that something is in there? That's not as big a deal as the article makes it out to be...half the time, you'll know the data has encrypted information embedded in it. The hard part is getting the info OUT OF the data, which the article doesn't really address.
1. Hook two monitors up to your computer to focus all visual stimulation away from possibly drab surroundings.
2. Put on headphones. Start listening to Tool.
3. You now have no distractions, and a pleasant, if intense, sensory experience.
4. Get some work done, after spending a day or two picking a WM.
Seriously, try adding some plants (remember to water!) and a Target wood bookshelf or something. Keep the surface of your desk clean. Replace super annoying overhead fluorescent lights with soft desk lamps (also at Target for $9.99).
Fisk tank can also be economical and interesting. Goldfish can be found for 10c. Remember to feed and change the water every so often. Don't get freaked out when a fish dies every time somebody leaves the project (I'm serious...to the day...three people in our team left...three floaters).
As somebody else has pointed out, this will be great PocketPC competition. Just what Palm needs - a new OS that's scalable, lightweight, and has a lightweight GUI. I hope they port BeIA to the ARM and introduce it as Palm 4 next year...Palm needs something new and shiny fast.
How long does it take this guy to read the comics in the paper? Doesn't Goth realize the short attention-span comics in the paper created comic art (The Yellow Kid in The New York World started the whole chebang in 1894)?
Maus was, and still is, amazing. The CD-ROM version including audio interviews with Art's grandfather mixed with imagery from Auschwitz is extremely moving. I don't think people will confuse some of the comics that are being published on the net with works like Maus. Art, and others, will still be able to publish in places like The New Yorker where I'm happy to read it.
But writing off new forms of media for your art is always dangerous, because it never works. These guys need to remember comic art that tackles tough social and political issues faced the same criticisms they're making of the web as a comic art distribution method.
> The Net fosters a "Hey, I can do this, too"
> value system.
Computers in general give kids a feeling of power and ability they might not feel elsewhere. I was that 15yr. old geek reading "Byte" (the one good computer tech magazine) in study hall. But since my dad worked at an engineering firm and nobody there knew how to code, I was hired.
Somebody else said they haven't met a project manager under 40 that's any good...well, I'm tired of "I've been doing this for twenty years, so I know what I'm doing." Give me a REAL, rational reason for what you're doing, instead of claiming experience. I've been doing this for almost twenty years, too.
Wonder why more people don't take Slashdot and open source seriously...
That's one of the reasons C++ and PHP seem to work just fine for me. A bunch of shell scripts to pack it up, ship it over and unpack it. Or for UI updates, just ship new FastTemplate pages and presto! New look n' feel.
I guess I can understand that using app servers provides some scalability features, but you can do a lot of that in C++ using the ADAPTIVE Communications Environment (http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html), which has been around for a few years now.
Here's the one thing I take away from .NET that looks like new technology to me, and it looks like a good idea that wouldn't be super hard to do: .NET lets you provide a public interface for VB and C# objects ("Windows services", web services - guess they haven't thought of an acronym for it yet) without adding another compile/curse/compile step. That is, the interface you write for the C# class is publicly available without writing a separate IDL.
This is a good thing, as I'll bet a large chunk of most development projects is spent writing/debugging this damn translation layer. App servers like Resin let you run applets, but you've gotta set up an agreed upon message format, parse some XML/HTML/binary message format, and do reflection (if you're doing Java).
Why not write a module that maps a XML DTD to a Java interface, then does the RPC for you?
IMHO, this is what .NET is trying to do. For all the marketing BS in there (the whole certified email thing seems hokey - PGP gives you the exact same functionality now), the general idea seems to boil down to be something small and simple.
As far as C# goes, the standard MSFT development practice seems to be "prototype in VB, ship in VC++" because of VB language restrictions (OO in VB looks like a whole lotta duct tape). I'll bet C# is an effort to address these restrictions, while continuing to use a VM, which makes it much easier to tie the whole shebang together:
Note that using a VM also makes it easier for MSFT to restrict developers to use only published API calls - no more hitting the hardware. :)