Nope, I'm rarely in a bad mood, and I'm not mad at the world at all. But thanks for assuming I am.
Posting repetitive, poorly thought out so-called 'April Fools Joke' stories that are based on science fiction stories and almost completley rip off the original story concept is simply not funny. Especially after the 3rd or 4th one.
Look at the previous comment - pinkdot was genuinely funny.
When Taco was around, at least there were a few good stories posted on AFD. Since he left, not so much.
The framework that Wietse created to structure Postfix is, from my perspective, a thing of beauty. I don't doubt that this has been done elsewhere, but Postfix is the first real example that I came across of a somewhat-large application structured in a very clean and understandable way.
You can do log shipping with mysql to have multiple sync'd databases - I've set this up in a small environment, and have not tested this feature with a high-capacity database, but the capability *is* there.
Nothing kills progress than having to create documentation that will never be read or updated.
Don't get me wrong - certain types of documentation are important (overall systems design, data models, for example). But unless you're going to continue to use the documentation after the project has been completed, don't bother creating it.
What most people seem to forget is that if you don't plan on maintaining all the documentation you create, you're wasting your time. Once a document is out of date, it no longer serves it's purpose. I'll expand on an adage: Outdated and incorrect documentation is worse than no documentation at all.
I initially thought that entering keyboard commands to run a program was completely opposite what a GUI was supposed to offer, but being a command-line driven guy (hey, I'm getting old!), it was amazingly intuitive, not to mention blazingly fast. I rarely use the toolbar to start programs any more, let alone navigate through the Applications folder.
Definitely recommended for all you OS X folks out there.
I've always had issues with comparisons that follow the 'constant == lvalue' format. For whatever reason, it always takes me longer to grok what the comparison means. When I use 'lvalue == constant', it makes much more sense. At least to me.
I'm not sure why you say this has anything to do with 'safety' - can you elaborate? I'm curious.
I will say that I've noticed this coding construct more in code written by developers from Asia and India. Something in the curriculum, perhaps? In my formal education I never saw the 'constant == lvalue' construct, and I went to University in N.A.
I looked at using Tangle and Weave for C development a long time ago, but found that it was a pretty difficult paradigm to get used to.
FYI, TeX and Metafont were both written using Tangle and Weave. Pretty impressive to read the source code, which had both code and documentation intermixed. It was a novel way (as in innovative, and as in a book:-) )to develop a complex application; I believe that Knuth even stated that creating TeX and MetaFONT were made much easier by using Literate Programming...
At my company we have a change freeze from mid-December to mid-January to avoid problems such as this. With a large (40B+) company, you need to have a stable environment to perform year-end financial activities, and an outage like this would be completely unacceptable.
While I don't personally use a Blackberry, I would be asking some serious questions about their change policies before I relied too heavily on a BB for business purposes...
This was thought about, and discarded. While on the surface it seems like a good idea, in actuality it's incredibly difficult to implement, since the dust on Mar's is so 'sticky' - from what I've read elsewhere, the electrostatic charge of the dust on Mars is very high, and any attempt to scrape it off the solar panels would just move it around, not really remove it.
Besides, with a two month life expectancy, I think it was determined that they wouldn't need to remove any dust from the solar panels since the rovers would have long since died...
I mean, really. I've never understood this obsession with Apple. Yes, I own an iPod. I also own a PowerBook, and I recently purchased a MacPro tower. But I don't live and breath Apple. I use the tools because they're good tools.
Apple sells products - they do not sell a way of life, even though they would like you to believe that.
Well, you're certainly ahead of me:-) I doubt if I'll ever read it, let alone buy it.
I remember quite clearly the huge excitement when it was announced that 'Children' was going to be published - I also remember thinking that a lot of people were going to be disappointed when the book was released, since I *knew* that it was going to be 'unreadable' for most people.
I haven't heard much about the book since it was released, so I think my assumption about the popularity of the book was correct. To 'true' fans, 'Children', and all other books by JRR will always be popular; to the general populace, The Hobbit and LoTR are pretty much it.
It's somewhat sad, since JRR created a huge amount of content. However, when it's written in a style that's as difficult to read as his 'other' books are, they'll remain, for the most part, obscure.
I agree with much of what he said in the review - I tried to read The Silmarillion, but just couldn't get into it. I too was expecting a LOtR experience, was was very much disappointed by what I found.
I agree - I know that Shaw Cable (Alberta) offers a plan that does exactly this: for 5-20 seconds, you get increased download bandwidth. This is their PowerBoost feature, that costs an extra $2.95 above your regular plan....
Here? On Slashdot? Man, I thought you were just a rumour....:-)
Back on topic - most of the places where I hang out (ha) don't have tv's above the urinals, but they do have large ad posters, some of which can, well, make it hard (ha) to take care of business.
I know at the local hockey rink for our NHL team, each pee station has a small LCD screen - between live action, they show ads...
In '97, my wife and I went to San Antonio for a week - we went out to a movie one night, and lo-and-behold, they were showing ads before the show started. It was the first time we had seen ads presented like that - it took a few years, but that concept has finally infected our movie theaters up in Canada as well.....and it hasn't made the experience any better, that's for sure.
I guess we live in an ad infected world. Better get used to it.
I do agree with what you're saying, but he should realize that he's created a persona that probably affects how people interact with him. If you constantly come off as a conceited, arrogant prick (even if you're not), then people will probably start to treat you like that's what you are. This apparently abrasive facade has created a hair trigger with many of the people he deals with - all it takes is one small disagreement, and you've got a major explosion on your hands.
So, I guess what it all boils down to is that he needs to take some responsibility - he can't lay how he's treated solely at the feet of others. (pun intended!:-) )
However, if you step back and look at his blog from a humorous point of view, it is quite funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope, I'm rarely in a bad mood, and I'm not mad at the world at all. But thanks for assuming I am.
Posting repetitive, poorly thought out so-called 'April Fools Joke' stories that are based on science fiction stories and almost completley rip off the original story concept is simply not funny. Especially after the 3rd or 4th one.
Look at the previous comment - pinkdot was genuinely funny.
When Taco was around, at least there were a few good stories posted on AFD. Since he left, not so much.
Just stop. Please.
These so-called April 1st story posts are simply not funny.
Fantasic example of code written in a procedural language (C) in an object-oriented way,with clear separation of responsibilities.
http://www.postfix.org/
The framework that Wietse created to structure Postfix is, from my perspective, a thing of beauty. I don't doubt that this has been done elsewhere, but Postfix is the first real example that I came across of a somewhat-large application structured in a very clean and understandable way.
Well worth spending some time perusing the code.
You can do log shipping with mysql to have multiple sync'd databases - I've set this up in a small environment, and have not tested this feature with a high-capacity database, but the capability *is* there.
Nothing kills progress than having to create documentation that will never be read or updated.
Don't get me wrong - certain types of documentation are important (overall systems design, data models, for example). But unless you're going to continue to use the documentation after the project has been completed, don't bother creating it.
What most people seem to forget is that if you don't plan on maintaining all the documentation you create, you're wasting your time. Once a document is out of date, it no longer serves it's purpose. I'll expand on an adage: Outdated and incorrect documentation is worse than no documentation at all.
I know I'd be completely lost without LaunchBar on OS X:
http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html
I initially thought that entering keyboard commands to run a program was completely opposite what a GUI was supposed to offer, but being a command-line driven guy (hey, I'm getting old!), it was amazingly intuitive, not to mention blazingly fast. I rarely use the toolbar to start programs any more, let alone navigate through the Applications folder.
Definitely recommended for all you OS X folks out there.
I've always had issues with comparisons that follow the 'constant == lvalue' format. For whatever reason, it always takes me longer to grok what the comparison means. When I use 'lvalue == constant', it makes much more sense. At least to me.
I'm not sure why you say this has anything to do with 'safety' - can you elaborate? I'm curious.
I will say that I've noticed this coding construct more in code written by developers from Asia and India. Something in the curriculum, perhaps? In my formal education I never saw the 'constant == lvalue' construct, and I went to University in N.A.
The U.K. has the world's largest civilian stockpile of plutonium.
A civilian stockpile? Can someone explain to me how the UK has a civilian stockpile of plutonium?
What, did we go through a time warp? Wasn't there a Moonbase Alpha back in 1999?
And, didn't the moon vacate the premises shortly thereafter?
D'oh! That should have been "now it's accelerating".
(sigh) I don't know why I bother to preview :-)
...but Star Wars will be soon (or is it already?) part of the list of those shows that 'Jumped the Shark'.
With Lucas at the helm, the death spiral has been been underway for a while, and how it's accelerating.
This sounds very much like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming/, as introduced by Knuth.
I looked at using Tangle and Weave for C development a long time ago, but found that it was a pretty difficult paradigm to get used to.
FYI, TeX and Metafont were both written using Tangle and Weave. Pretty impressive to read the source code, which had both code and documentation intermixed. It was a novel way (as in innovative, and as in a book :-) )to develop a complex application; I believe that Knuth even stated that creating TeX and MetaFONT were made much easier by using Literate Programming...
At my company we have a change freeze from mid-December to mid-January to avoid problems such as this. With a large (40B+) company, you need to have a stable environment to perform year-end financial activities, and an outage like this would be completely unacceptable.
While I don't personally use a Blackberry, I would be asking some serious questions about their change policies before I relied too heavily on a BB for business purposes...
I do not think that word means what you think it does.
This was thought about, and discarded. While on the surface it seems like a good idea, in actuality it's incredibly difficult to implement, since the dust on Mar's is so 'sticky' - from what I've read elsewhere, the electrostatic charge of the dust on Mars is very high, and any attempt to scrape it off the solar panels would just move it around, not really remove it.
Besides, with a two month life expectancy, I think it was determined that they wouldn't need to remove any dust from the solar panels since the rovers would have long since died...
GET
A
LIFE!
I mean, really. I've never understood this obsession with Apple. Yes, I own an iPod. I also own a PowerBook, and I recently purchased a MacPro tower. But I don't live and breath Apple. I use the tools because they're good tools.
Apple sells products - they do not sell a way of life, even though they would like you to believe that.
I hadn't seen this episode on xkcd - thanks!
Anyone look at the comments on YouTube? Almost unanimous support for Stein's movie. How interesting....
You couldn't *pick* a better name than that....
:-)
Picture him playing 'bop-the-gopher' at the next local Fair
Well, you're certainly ahead of me :-) I doubt if I'll ever read it, let alone buy it.
I remember quite clearly the huge excitement when it was announced that 'Children' was going to be published - I also remember thinking that a lot of people were going to be disappointed when the book was released, since I *knew* that it was going to be 'unreadable' for most people.
I haven't heard much about the book since it was released, so I think my assumption about the popularity of the book was correct. To 'true' fans, 'Children', and all other books by JRR will always be popular; to the general populace, The Hobbit and LoTR are pretty much it.
It's somewhat sad, since JRR created a huge amount of content. However, when it's written in a style that's as difficult to read as his 'other' books are, they'll remain, for the most part, obscure.
He's the first one to finish it.....
I agree with much of what he said in the review - I tried to read The Silmarillion, but just couldn't get into it. I too was expecting a LOtR experience, was was very much disappointed by what I found.
I'm certainly not alone.
Gary, thanks for what you and Dave created.
May your rolls always be natural 20s....
I agree - I know that Shaw Cable (Alberta) offers a plan that does exactly this: for 5-20 seconds, you get increased download bandwidth. This is their PowerBoost feature, that costs an extra $2.95 above your regular plan....
Are you a....girl?
:-)
Here? On Slashdot? Man, I thought you were just a rumour....
Back on topic - most of the places where I hang out (ha) don't have tv's above the urinals, but they do have large ad posters, some of which can, well, make it hard (ha) to take care of business.
I know at the local hockey rink for our NHL team, each pee station has a small LCD screen - between live action, they show ads...
In '97, my wife and I went to San Antonio for a week - we went out to a movie one night, and lo-and-behold, they were showing ads before the show started. It was the first time we had seen ads presented like that - it took a few years, but that concept has finally infected our movie theaters up in Canada as well.....and it hasn't made the experience any better, that's for sure.
I guess we live in an ad infected world. Better get used to it.
I do agree with what you're saying, but he should realize that he's created a persona that probably affects how people interact with him. If you constantly come off as a conceited, arrogant prick (even if you're not), then people will probably start to treat you like that's what you are. This apparently abrasive facade has created a hair trigger with many of the people he deals with - all it takes is one small disagreement, and you've got a major explosion on your hands.
:-) )
So, I guess what it all boils down to is that he needs to take some responsibility - he can't lay how he's treated solely at the feet of others. (pun intended!
However, if you step back and look at his blog from a humorous point of view, it is quite funny.