Right. The real problem is that lots of people who write code dealing with times and dates do a really crappy job. Some piece of software breaks every leap year, every time we change to daylight savings time, every time the dates of daylight savings time change, every time there's a leap second, every time you move your computer across time zones, every time a year divisible by 4 isn't a leap year... Just last month I reported a bug in a library function in a well-known software product, and had to explain to the developer that no, we weren't on DST yet, but Australia was.
So this leap second debate is really just a cunningly disguised way of talking about the crisis of software quality. The fact that a lot of software can't deal with 23:59:60 is the same problem that causes a lot of software to fall over when there's a February 29th.
Now, if only they can find a technological innovation that'll let them make a Palm device with a decent size screen. Say, a device about the size of a paperback book. That way e-books might actually have a chance of catching on.
Sony asked me to participate in a questionnaire asking about online play. I explained that I didn't have the PS2 network adaptor, for the single reason that I don't see any reasonably priced games with co-operative explorational online play. I have zero interest in "deathmatches".
(EverQuest Online is arguably co-operative, but the pricing is ludicrous.)
The SQL database people should rename their database AOL.
Seriously, though, I came up with the name "Mozuki" for a hypothetical cut-down version of Mozilla shortly after the Mozilla project was launched. (I suspect you'll find mention of it on the mailing list archives.) As far as I know, the name is unused and available. C'mon, guys, you know it makes sense.
To me, a rebate says "We know this product is overpriced". I also value my own time highly, and so I don't want to waste it on paperwork and queueing at the post office.
I hate rebates so much that I will even buy a slightly more expensive product just to avoid a rebate. I've gone into a store wanting to buy some Brand X CD-Rs, found that they all have rebates attached, and bought Brand Y instead, paying more than the price the Brand X was before the rebate. I know, stupid and pathological, I just really hate companies that cynically attempt to rip me off.
Another real example: for a long time I wanted to get a Lexar USB memory key device. I particularly wanted the Lexar, as it was the smallest on the market. However, I always saw it with a rebate, so I decided to wait until the price dropped and the rebate went away. It didn't--instead, PQI came out with an even smaller USB flash memory device (the "Intelligent Stick"), which was cheaper than the price of the Lexar before rebate. So I bought PQI, and Lexar lost a customer.
You found evidence that your co-worker is building a pornographic web site on company computers, on company time? A little blackmail ought to buy you a new Mac or two...
That's it, if Microsoft buys UMG, I won't be buying any more CDs by... uh...
Wow. I just looked at the list, and I don't have a single UMG CD release. (Peter Gabriel doesn't count, as they only distribute a few of his albums in the US, and I bought the UK releases. Ditto Elvis Costello.) Yup, that's quite an impressively awful roster of artists they have there.
Well, I guess if Microsoft buys Universal I'll carry on not buying CDs by Boyzone and Queen Latifah. That'll show em.
If a major label decides you're not making them enough money, they just refuse to release anything else you create. But you're still under contract, so you can't release it through anyone else, or record for anyone else without their permission, until the contract expires. The usual expiry period is 8 years. During that time, anything you create is owned by the corporation, and goes into their big pit of never-to-be-released recordings.
(Yes, I know someone whose career was ruined this way.)
I didn't mind ads for a while, but when certain sites (ahem) started putting in those huge mega-ads that take up more than half my browser window, I had to start doing some ad blocking to make the web usable. It was either that or learn to read text that looks like this.
Tragedy of the commons and all that. The people whose ads are being blocked should get angry at the idiots who force us to block ads by making their ads so huge, obnoxious and badly-placed.
But, Notes and Domino have continued to be the most important under IBM's management.
And Linux on zSeries is just RedHat (or SuSE or Turbolinux) build using a zSeries-patched kernel and sold and supported by the Linux vendor of your choice.
You don't say what kind of Mac, what OS, or anything else that would allow for specific suggestions...
I'm running Cubase SL on Mac OS X for multitrack digital audio editing, and I like it a lot, in a way that I really didn't like Cubase 3.5. (I didn't upgrade to 4 or 5 because they didn't run on OS X.) It's basically a whole new program. It seems to be very reliable, and the UI is much cleaner and easier to use.
Having said that, I don't use any pro hardware yet, so I can't say for sure that there won't be problems if/when I start...
I can confirm that a Microsoft wheel mouse works on OS X with no drivers. You get left click, right click and the wheel for free. If you have one of the megamice with side buttons, you'll need a driver to map the side buttons.
The AC has a point. I worked with a guy who used to be a Xerox Star salesman. He said that they used to arrange that the machines be booted ahead of time. If they crashed for any reason, you'd just walk out, because once the customer saw how long they took to boot you'd never sell one.
The Alto and Star had a number of dubious design decisions that led to the incredibly large boot time and low reliability. One was that the filesystem implemented disk allocation via a simple linked list; no file allocation table. If you want to get to block 250 of a file, you had to read the first 249 to follow the chain of pointers. Yeeesh.
Slashdot Mirror
Right. The real problem is that lots of people who write code dealing with times and dates do a really crappy job. Some piece of software breaks every leap year, every time we change to daylight savings time, every time the dates of daylight savings time change, every time there's a leap second, every time you move your computer across time zones, every time a year divisible by 4 isn't a leap year... Just last month I reported a bug in a library function in a well-known software product, and had to explain to the developer that no, we weren't on DST yet, but Australia was.
So this leap second debate is really just a cunningly disguised way of talking about the crisis of software quality. The fact that a lot of software can't deal with 23:59:60 is the same problem that causes a lot of software to fall over when there's a February 29th.
I don't know, why do Americans bother to vote?
Oh, wait, most of them don't.
Now, if only they can find a technological innovation that'll let them make a Palm device with a decent size screen. Say, a device about the size of a paperback book. That way e-books might actually have a chance of catching on.
Sony asked me to participate in a questionnaire asking about online play. I explained that I didn't have the PS2 network adaptor, for the single reason that I don't see any reasonably priced games with co-operative explorational online play. I have zero interest in "deathmatches".
(EverQuest Online is arguably co-operative, but the pricing is ludicrous.)
The SQL database people should rename their database AOL.
Seriously, though, I came up with the name "Mozuki" for a hypothetical cut-down version of Mozilla shortly after the Mozilla project was launched. (I suspect you'll find mention of it on the mailing list archives.) As far as I know, the name is unused and available. C'mon, guys, you know it makes sense.
Glad someone finally recommended that book, rather than the overrated crap from Motley Fool and the like.
To me, a rebate says "We know this product is overpriced". I also value my own time highly, and so I don't want to waste it on paperwork and queueing at the post office.
I hate rebates so much that I will even buy a slightly more expensive product just to avoid a rebate. I've gone into a store wanting to buy some Brand X CD-Rs, found that they all have rebates attached, and bought Brand Y instead, paying more than the price the Brand X was before the rebate. I know, stupid and pathological, I just really hate companies that cynically attempt to rip me off.
Another real example: for a long time I wanted to get a Lexar USB memory key device. I particularly wanted the Lexar, as it was the smallest on the market. However, I always saw it with a rebate, so I decided to wait until the price dropped and the rebate went away. It didn't--instead, PQI came out with an even smaller USB flash memory device (the "Intelligent Stick"), which was cheaper than the price of the Lexar before rebate. So I bought PQI, and Lexar lost a customer.
You found evidence that your co-worker is building a pornographic web site on company computers, on company time? A little blackmail ought to buy you a new Mac or two...
Maybe Firebird is named after the dead software company and Thunderbird is named after the Gerry Anderson SF TV series?
Oh well, at least there'll be a really obvious choice of icon for Thunderbird 1.0.
Actually, my screen's generally 1024x768. However, my browser window never is.
If it's true, then that's a shame. I watched the first two episodes, decided it wasn't interesting enough, and didn't watch any more.
That's it, if Microsoft buys UMG, I won't be buying any more CDs by... uh...
Wow. I just looked at the list, and I don't have a single UMG CD release. (Peter Gabriel doesn't count, as they only distribute a few of his albums in the US, and I bought the UK releases. Ditto Elvis Costello.) Yup, that's quite an impressively awful roster of artists they have there.
Well, I guess if Microsoft buys Universal I'll carry on not buying CDs by Boyzone and Queen Latifah. That'll show em.
Back in the USSR John Lennon plays you.
If a major label decides you're not making them enough money, they just refuse to release anything else you create. But you're still under contract, so you can't release it through anyone else, or record for anyone else without their permission, until the contract expires. The usual expiry period is 8 years. During that time, anything you create is owned by the corporation, and goes into their big pit of never-to-be-released recordings.
(Yes, I know someone whose career was ruined this way.)
I didn't mind ads for a while, but when certain sites (ahem) started putting in those huge mega-ads that take up more than half my browser window, I had to start doing some ad blocking to make the web usable. It was either that or learn to
read
text
that
looks
like
this.
Tragedy of the commons and all that. The people whose ads are being blocked should get angry at the idiots who force us to block ads by making their ads so huge, obnoxious and badly-placed.
But, Notes and Domino have continued to be the most important under IBM's management.
And Linux on zSeries is just RedHat (or SuSE or Turbolinux) build using a zSeries-patched kernel and sold and supported by the Linux vendor of your choice.
This is all new J2EE code. It's not old Lotus code.
That was eSuite. It's dead.
This is completely new J2EE code.
Well, first off there is no IBM Linux. IBM doesn't have its own Linux distribution.
As to IBM's few software successes, they include:
I'd guess you're just a bitter OS/2 fan. Get over it.
IE isn't just slow on OS X. On an 8500/180, Mozilla 1.3 is easily twice as fast as IE 5.
You don't say what kind of Mac, what OS, or anything else that would allow for specific suggestions...
I'm running Cubase SL on Mac OS X for multitrack digital audio editing, and I like it a lot, in a way that I really didn't like Cubase 3.5. (I didn't upgrade to 4 or 5 because they didn't run on OS X.) It's basically a whole new program. It seems to be very reliable, and the UI is much cleaner and easier to use.
Having said that, I don't use any pro hardware yet, so I can't say for sure that there won't be problems if/when I start...
Computer Laboratory Information Technology Operators Responsible for Information Systems?
(To re-work a classic Red Dwarf joke)
I can confirm that a Microsoft wheel mouse works on OS X with no drivers. You get left click, right click and the wheel for free. If you have one of the megamice with side buttons, you'll need a driver to map the side buttons.
The AC has a point. I worked with a guy who used to be a Xerox Star salesman. He said that they used to arrange that the machines be booted ahead of time. If they crashed for any reason, you'd just walk out, because once the customer saw how long they took to boot you'd never sell one.
The Alto and Star had a number of dubious design decisions that led to the incredibly large boot time and low reliability. One was that the filesystem implemented disk allocation via a simple linked list; no file allocation table. If you want to get to block 250 of a file, you had to read the first 249 to follow the chain of pointers. Yeeesh.
Wow, I'd heard that there were people who run every program maximized, but I'd never met any.
Lucky you, stupid web designers build their sites for you!