We already have most of that stuff in our phones, why would we want it built into the car too? Maybe it used to make sense back in the 1990s when the tech was big and bulky and being able to keep it in a vehicle was convenient. But that's no longer the case at all. When this stuff is available as an option, it's a very expensive option, way out of line with the functionality provided -- it's just a profit center. When it's "standard", it's used to justify the increased price of the "luxury" model.
A dedicated GPS unit in the car just seems dumb at this point. And unless the car has a network connection, that road data isn't getting updated and you don't have realtime traffic. My phone already has a network connection, and is thus infinitely better than the one that's built into the car. Same for everything else, including music players, concierge services (haha!). At this point, the only thing that should be built-into the car are technologies directly related to driving. Everything else could be handled by "dumb terminals" driven by a smartphone. For the luddites who refuse to get a smartphone, the car manufacturers could provide a shim device.
I don't really want my car to have it's own cellular network connection until I can stop having to pay for every device's bandwidth individually.
> so, while you are spending^Hwasting time learning a new language, the rest of us are busy making real things with tools that we have spent years mastering.
Well, unlike some people, I'm capable of doing more than one thing in a day.
I'm also capable of making abstractions and applying things learned in one context to another context.
I'm not claiming these skills are useful to everyone, but they've certainly helped me hone my craft, and made me a more flexible programmer in whatever language my current project is using.
Thanks for your judgements though. They'll be filed as appropriate.
I wouldn't claim to be a master, but I've been writing code for a while and like to think that I have a good grasp of the craft. I appreciate that you call it a craft, actually, because that word describes an intersection of pragmatism and art that I think well describes the activity.
In any case, I enjoy learning new programming languages. I've written Conway's Life in more languages than I can count off the top of my head, just because it's a fun way to try to express well-known algorithms in new forms and contexts.
I agree that no language will turn someone without the skill or inclination into a good programmer. But some languages are more fun than others, some are faster, some have better run-time validation. Like all tools, different ones have different strengths. Learning about each one is an interesting experience, even if I don't end up liking them.
And then there are languages that I enjoy but nobody else seems willing to give a chance. Nobody on my team is willing to look at Clojure, for example, despite it's advantages over traditional Java syntax. "All those parenthesis, it's confusing!" (Never mind that Clojure code might have fewer delimiters than Java code that does the same thing). It's like the people who hate on Python for the forced indentation, they miss the forest for the trees.
Being willing to learn new languages can open you up to new approaches to problems that you might not have thought of. It's also fun. So bring on the new languages!
The second for loop should be indented. I have trouble believing that you really think the non-indented version is more readable, or conveys the algorithmic intent well. If you were applying for a job with my team and you made this argument, I would find it very difficult to hire you.
Singapore is not an Islamic nation. There is no official state religion in Singapore. The majority avow Buddhism, second-highest is non-religious, and Islam is third at just 14.7% (as of 2010, according to Wikipedia). Singaporeans in general are much more interested in "profits" than "prophets".
Malaysia is an Islamic nation. My relatives who live there are quite concerned about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, though historically it has generally functioned as a mostly secular nation.
Singapore is not a Muslim nation. Not even close. The majority religion is Buddhism, and as of 2010 (according to Wikipedia, I did not follow up by going to the primary sources), Islam was only 14.7%. I lived in Singapore until the late 1980s, and go back now and then to visit family... I would say that Singapore is actually quite secular, with most people way more interested in "profit" than "prophet".
Most liberals I know are against the war on drugs. It's really more of a conservative cause. Championed by Ronnie Reagan and his handler^U wife, supported by the for-profit prison industry (not run by liberals, I'm pretty sure), and so forth.
I'm not disputing your definition of political correctness, which I think is technically correct (the best kind of correct!). Just your example.
The popular success of iOS and other closed systems doesn't mean there aren't choices out there. I have an easily-unlocked and rooted Android phone, and I love it. Would my wife appreciate the command-line access and Python scripting facilities? Probably not -- she didn't even want a feature phone -- even an iPhone would be overkill for her use cases.
HTC just announced that going forward, all their phones will have unlocked bootloaders. Not everything is going closed.
I would mod you up... I signed up for the Foxmarks beta, waited for my e-mail, and now I'm happily using the beta. It does what it says on the tin. Thanks for the pointer!
The reason I don't use a portable apps sort of solution is because I use OS-X, Windows XP, and Linux systems in roughly equal measure. At work two of the boxes are physically adjacent and in use at the same time. I can't use a physical device like a USB drive on more than one system at the same time.
Obviously I can manually export and import bookmarks, but I did that for years and it sucked.
There was an addon with bookmark sync functionality that required you to use your own WebDAV or ftp server, but it was orphaned before Foxmarks came along. I'm not even going to try to get it to work with version 3.
I used the previous beta quite happily under OS-X, but I've become seriously dependent on Foxmarks for keeping my bookmarks synced between the two (or 3, sometimes 4) systems I use regularly. Can anyone suggest a bookmark sync tool that works with Firefox 3? Ideally it would work with Firefox 2 as well, but 3 looks "ready enough for me" (if not my mom), so I'd probably be happy with using Firefox 3 everywhere if necessary.
Other than the compatibility issues with mods written for older versions (omelettes, eggs, etc), I am impressed by the quality of version 3. The speed and interface tweaks are certainly welcome.
Since almost everything must deal with dissipating heat, why can't someone invent something that collect the heat and re-use it to generate even more power?
Because of a little thing called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Basically, if you use the waste heat to generate energy, you do so by exploiting the difference between the heat (probably stored in a medium that doesn't dissipate heat easily) and something else that's cold -- this makes the cold thing warm at the same time your heat storage medium cools down. Eventually, everything in your system reaches a uniform temperature, and the fat lady sings.
Willingness to properly stand behind your product goes a long way towards my confidence. (In other words, it's also got to actually do what it says on the box.)
You mean the way EULAs prohibit the purchaser from benchmarking the product? Or the way they state that there's no warranty against loss or damage? Have you even read a software license agreement for a commercial product recently? Basically, by agreeing to their license, you're indemnifying them from everything under the sun. The really high-class commercial outfits will rent you consultants to work around quirks in their product. I guess you could call that "standing behind the product".
And if an open source product does not do what it says on the box (err... website), you are always entitled to return it for a full refund. That's better than you get with most commercial software.
I'm not in a name-calling match, by the way. I simply pointed out that calling someone a "fanboi" [sic] is weak sauce when it comes from someone who posts as anonymous coward.
Most of the software on Sourceforge would meet the definition of unproved.
So if I shove a CD in a box and charge money for it, the bits automatically become proven? Or are you deliberately missing the point you were replying too?
Try not being a knee-jerk fanboi for just one second.
I've decided to stop giving a crap if my pages don't look right in IE. Okay, I might spend 15 minutes to work around a problem, but other than my resume, my pages are things I build for fun.
Figuring out why IE doesn't work with a page that looks good in every other browser is just not my idea of fun. It's not even an interesting challenge, since the solutions are never elegant or satisfying.
And this is not a matter of spite, or retaliation, it's just a simple matter of spending my time on things I find enjoyable, versus working around someone else's brokeness.
Thankfully, I don't do web development to put food on the table.
Slashdot Mirror
s/it's own/its own/
*hangs head in shame*
I still can't edit posts on Slashdot?
*shambles off grumbling*
We already have most of that stuff in our phones, why would we want it built into the car too? Maybe it used to make sense back in the 1990s when the tech was big and bulky and being able to keep it in a vehicle was convenient. But that's no longer the case at all. When this stuff is available as an option, it's a very expensive option, way out of line with the functionality provided -- it's just a profit center. When it's "standard", it's used to justify the increased price of the "luxury" model.
A dedicated GPS unit in the car just seems dumb at this point. And unless the car has a network connection, that road data isn't getting updated and you don't have realtime traffic. My phone already has a network connection, and is thus infinitely better than the one that's built into the car. Same for everything else, including music players, concierge services (haha!). At this point, the only thing that should be built-into the car are technologies directly related to driving. Everything else could be handled by "dumb terminals" driven by a smartphone. For the luddites who refuse to get a smartphone, the car manufacturers could provide a shim device.
I don't really want my car to have it's own cellular network connection until I can stop having to pay for every device's bandwidth individually.
> so, while you are spending^Hwasting time learning a new language, the rest of us are busy making real things with tools that we have spent years mastering.
Well, unlike some people, I'm capable of doing more than one thing in a day.
I'm also capable of making abstractions and applying things learned in one context to another context.
I'm not claiming these skills are useful to everyone, but they've certainly helped me hone my craft, and made me a more flexible programmer in whatever language my current project is using.
Thanks for your judgements though. They'll be filed as appropriate.
Please stop, this is getting really tiresome. Python has multi-line strings without special escaping:
http://stackoverflow.com/quest...
You just look like an ignorant idiot with an axe to grind with this obsession over a non-existent problem.
Speaking of obsessions, Python programmers don't obsess over forced indentation. It's the people who violently dislike Python who keep harping on it.
Python has multi-line strings. I know that fact won't change your mind, but it might help you look less ignorant.
I wouldn't claim to be a master, but I've been writing code for a while and like to think that I have a good grasp of the craft. I appreciate that you call it a craft, actually, because that word describes an intersection of pragmatism and art that I think well describes the activity.
In any case, I enjoy learning new programming languages. I've written Conway's Life in more languages than I can count off the top of my head, just because it's a fun way to try to express well-known algorithms in new forms and contexts.
I agree that no language will turn someone without the skill or inclination into a good programmer. But some languages are more fun than others, some are faster, some have better run-time validation. Like all tools, different ones have different strengths. Learning about each one is an interesting experience, even if I don't end up liking them.
And then there are languages that I enjoy but nobody else seems willing to give a chance. Nobody on my team is willing to look at Clojure, for example, despite it's advantages over traditional Java syntax. "All those parenthesis, it's confusing!" (Never mind that Clojure code might have fewer delimiters than Java code that does the same thing). It's like the people who hate on Python for the forced indentation, they miss the forest for the trees.
Being willing to learn new languages can open you up to new approaches to problems that you might not have thought of. It's also fun. So bring on the new languages!
The second for loop should be indented. I have trouble believing that you really think the non-indented version is more readable, or conveys the algorithmic intent well. If you were applying for a job with my team and you made this argument, I would find it very difficult to hire you.
Alternate interpretation: nicely trolled. I bit.
Singapore is not an Islamic nation. There is no official state religion in Singapore. The majority avow Buddhism, second-highest is non-religious, and Islam is third at just 14.7% (as of 2010, according to Wikipedia). Singaporeans in general are much more interested in "profits" than "prophets".
Malaysia is an Islamic nation. My relatives who live there are quite concerned about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, though historically it has generally functioned as a mostly secular nation.
Singapore is not a Muslim nation. Not even close. The majority religion is Buddhism, and as of 2010 (according to Wikipedia, I did not follow up by going to the primary sources), Islam was only 14.7%. I lived in Singapore until the late 1980s, and go back now and then to visit family... I would say that Singapore is actually quite secular, with most people way more interested in "profit" than "prophet".
When a web site can teach the hacker nature, then I'll start worrying.
I don't understand how you kids can play Nethack on a phone.
This old nerd needs all the keys.
Most liberals I know are against the war on drugs. It's really more of a conservative cause. Championed by Ronnie Reagan and his handler^U wife, supported by the for-profit prison industry (not run by liberals, I'm pretty sure), and so forth.
I'm not disputing your definition of political correctness, which I think is technically correct (the best kind of correct!). Just your example.
Valid comparisons: PS 3 to Xbox 360; PS 2 to Xbox; BMW 3 Series to Mercedes C Class
Invalid comparisons: PS 2 to Xbox 360; BMW 3 Series to Porsche 911
The popular success of iOS and other closed systems doesn't mean there aren't choices out there. I have an easily-unlocked and rooted Android phone, and I love it. Would my wife appreciate the command-line access and Python scripting facilities? Probably not -- she didn't even want a feature phone -- even an iPhone would be overkill for her use cases.
HTC just announced that going forward, all their phones will have unlocked bootloaders. Not everything is going closed.
is the slug compiled or interpreted?
In the case of Java, it's both.
Java: All the restrictions of a compiled language, plus the inconveniences of an interpreted one!
Oracle is welcome to contact me, my services as a slogan-writer are available and quite reasonably priced (by Oracle standards).
I hardly consider the lack of Mac or Linux versions a "flaw". In fact, I consider that one of the few positive aspects of the software.
I would mod you up... I signed up for the Foxmarks beta, waited for my e-mail, and now I'm happily using the beta. It does what it says on the tin. Thanks for the pointer!
The reason I don't use a portable apps sort of solution is because I use OS-X, Windows XP, and Linux systems in roughly equal measure. At work two of the boxes are physically adjacent and in use at the same time. I can't use a physical device like a USB drive on more than one system at the same time.
Obviously I can manually export and import bookmarks, but I did that for years and it sucked.
There was an addon with bookmark sync functionality that required you to use your own WebDAV or ftp server, but it was orphaned before Foxmarks came along. I'm not even going to try to get it to work with version 3.
I used the previous beta quite happily under OS-X, but I've become seriously dependent on Foxmarks for keeping my bookmarks synced between the two (or 3, sometimes 4) systems I use regularly. Can anyone suggest a bookmark sync tool that works with Firefox 3? Ideally it would work with Firefox 2 as well, but 3 looks "ready enough for me" (if not my mom), so I'd probably be happy with using Firefox 3 everywhere if necessary.
Other than the compatibility issues with mods written for older versions (omelettes, eggs, etc), I am impressed by the quality of version 3. The speed and interface tweaks are certainly welcome.
Because of a little thing called the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Basically, if you use the waste heat to generate energy, you do so by exploiting the difference between the heat (probably stored in a medium that doesn't dissipate heat easily) and something else that's cold -- this makes the cold thing warm at the same time your heat storage medium cools down. Eventually, everything in your system reaches a uniform temperature, and the fat lady sings.
If the universe is a closed system... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death/
More about the Second Law, including math and quotable quotes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermo
Firefox "Bon Echo" 2.0a3, with AdBlock and auto-updated Filterset.G... No pop-ups.
Yeah, that rating is bogus. If I had mod points today, I would help correct the injustice. As it is, I can only post useless followups.
Willingness to properly stand behind your product goes a long way towards my confidence. (In other words, it's also got to actually do what it says on the box.)
You mean the way EULAs prohibit the purchaser from benchmarking the product? Or the way they state that there's no warranty against loss or damage? Have you even read a software license agreement for a commercial product recently? Basically, by agreeing to their license, you're indemnifying them from everything under the sun. The really high-class commercial outfits will rent you consultants to work around quirks in their product. I guess you could call that "standing behind the product".
And if an open source product does not do what it says on the box (err... website), you are always entitled to return it for a full refund. That's better than you get with most commercial software.
I'm not in a name-calling match, by the way. I simply pointed out that calling someone a "fanboi" [sic] is weak sauce when it comes from someone who posts as anonymous coward.
Most of the software on Sourceforge would meet the definition of unproved.
So if I shove a CD in a box and charge money for it, the bits automatically become proven? Or are you deliberately missing the point you were replying too?
Try not being a knee-jerk fanboi for just one second.
Says the anonymous coward.
I've decided to stop giving a crap if my pages don't look right in IE. Okay, I might spend 15 minutes to work around a problem, but other than my resume, my pages are things I build for fun.
Figuring out why IE doesn't work with a page that looks good in every other browser is just not my idea of fun. It's not even an interesting challenge, since the solutions are never elegant or satisfying.
And this is not a matter of spite, or retaliation, it's just a simple matter of spending my time on things I find enjoyable, versus working around someone else's brokeness.
Thankfully, I don't do web development to put food on the table.