Ummm - not SEALs, submariners. And if you've ever been to a Navy/Submariner bar you'll know that total silence is definitely not a skill they have:)
Actually, I would think this is rather obvious. You want to send a team into space on an extended mission that will be complete. Who do you send? Pilots and Scientists, or the men/women you can trust with billions of dollars in hardware and nuclear weapons? I'd take a boomer crew over some pampered flyboys any day.
ROKR and the SLVR, which is a pretty good phone. I have one, and love it.
The thing now is that the iPhone looks to be a hell of a lot better than WinCE (or Win mobile or whatever). I'd love to see MS make a better phone - it could only be good to have two huge companies competing to make a decent high-end phone.
We use Linux extensivley for servers (the really big expensive important ones) at my company, and most of IT runs on OSX or Linux desktops. What we don't do is attempt to make Linux act like Windows. We use Lotus Notes, which, BTW, has a fantastic Mac client. I can't speak to the Linux client, since I don't use it. We don't force everything to be domain-based. We use LDAP (hosted on AD, true) for that sort of thing. DB2 on Linux is more than capable of handling our database requirements from webservers running a few GB to SAP running several TB.
I buy mine used at GameStop for two reasons 1) 90% or so of the retail cost, with an additional 10% discount (for a mag subscription that I enjoy) 2) If the game reeks I can take it back within 10 days and return it, exhange it, etc. 90 days if it just doesn't work
I like OO.o, and I use it every day... but here are some examples of why it's not great: 1) Text to columns (WTF? This isn't rocket science) 2) Multi-User documents (like when I have to update a shared group task list) 3) Speed (It takes roughly 5-10x as long to open a document with screenshots as Word)
This is true enough, but in my experience most programmers have tremendous difficulty with parallel operations and programs. Heck, several have difficulty with serial operations. On VMS I ran into a lot of issues where people would incorrectly attempt to run in parallel, just to try and access information at inappropriate times.
What we really need is for people to start using and developing the parallel languages (like Charm++) so that we can simply phase the older stuff out of existence.
True enough - I went to a stereophile store and heard SACD and I was blown away. Then, I looked at the costs to actually *deliver* that sound... cables, speakers, stands, power supplies, etc. It was madness. Ipods can deliver a really outstanding sound (especially with AIFF) with minimal investment and maximum pleasure. Obvious choice.
HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have two battles - sunk costs (older sets/collections), and limited improvement. These aren't a huge step forward like tape to disc, they're more of a minor (insignifigant) improvement. Are they scratch proof? Are the 9.99 or less? That's what matters to me.
I agree, and what I really like is when games take a metric (like failed attempts to complete a task) and use it to kick you to easy mode automatically. Devil May Cry is my favorite example of this. I *loved* the game on easy, and just couldn't stand it on normal/hard.
Easy should be just that - easy. Makes me feel like I'm having fun, not getting a whipping.
I've been married for 10 years, and my wife an I are both hardcore gamers. We have conversation, we watch some movies... but the main thing we do is play games together. Incidentally, we both play on the same team nearly all the time.
I may be a nerd, but I know what works for my relationship:)
In my family, my wife is a writer. I'm an IT guy. At night, we play WoW together.
Added together, our total time at home together (including sleep) is about 11 hours. That means 13 hours is spent with a computer seperately right off the bat.
Considering our nights are often spent playing 3-4 hours of WoW, that puts it at 17 hours on the computer per day. Even at best, we would spend probably 3-4 hours a day together, which wouldn't even put a dent in the usual 8-10 hours at work with a computer.
4) Mac Users. They are opposed to Windows and anything Microsoft tainted, but don't really understand the fuss over Linux:) They comment usually to gloat and troll.
You're obviously too young to remember when IBM was *the* dominant IT company. Everything they produced turned up in datacenters at some point, and I worked for management that was "Big Blue, through and through".
IBM made these machines called "Mainframes", as well as "Midrange" and "Mini" computers. These were the 360s, the 390s etc on the high end, the 400s on the midrange, and the RISC/6000 and such on the mini set. They even produced microcomputers, which today we call PCs. IBM compatible got that name for a reason - it meant that a "clone" was 100% compatible with IBM or Tandy microcomputers. This was important, because "no-one got fired for buying IBM". A common saying back in the 70s and 80s.
IBM took it in the shorts, faced huge fines, and changed into a pretty cool company. MS is now in that same position that IBM was when the clones came... the difference is that IBM was (at the time) ignorant of how big an opportunity they were missing. They saw microcomputers as nothing more than enhanced terminals and small business machines. Toys, really. Anybody that mattered used mainframes or AS/400s. Their big rival was Digital Electronic Corp (DEC), and so they never assumed that Microsoft was leading the charge against the computer room based machines.
Well, here we are, 30 years later, and MS shot several bullets into IBMs head. Now, IBM isn't even the right choice very often, unlike MS. MS however, is also facing a sharp decline, as Apple, Sun, Redhat and legions of others are waiting to dethrone them.
This year - I spec'd and configured millions in new hardware - moving our flagship systems to Linux. Not a penny of that money went with MS, and even Sun lost out. Our end users and IT are even buying themselves Apple machines, running OSX. Even our lowliest end users are deciding that they don't want to use Windows anymore, and they are taking it upon themselves to move (since IT hasn't forced them to toe the line).
That's what the line means, and that's why it is being applied ironically to Microsoft.
Yeah - I'm with you there. We can send people to mars, but we don't have a stupid gunlight... or the ability to hold a flashlight in our off-hands? There's only so much fun to the whole 'oh no, a scary monster jumping at me from the dark'. As has been said before, it felt like a tech demo or something. Not a real game.
My personal fav - Ultima 7. Over 100 hours of gameplay, with the possibility to spend a LOT more. Second to that - Fable. Much shorter, but REALLY fun. Well, until the end, which completely sucks.
On the other hand, Doom 3 bored me after about 3 hours.
That's a pretty good point. I've run into issues like that with NetBeans in the past, and it was a serious headache - I never tried the technique you mention.
My biggest issue with Java GUI development, however, is that there is no common codebase for it - if I write a project with Borland JBuilder or whatever, I have to totally redo the GUI in NetBeans or Eclipse. At least, this has been true in my experience with Borland (which was short and negative). Xcode also has this issue.
Can we get something more like GTK or something with a nice cross-platform *standard* GUI toolkit?
I think that is an awesome comment! I agree with the definitions you have there to the most part... especially since I "lead" an F/OSS project like that.
It's part of that whole "movie experience"... like the sticky floor, $20 bag of popcorn, and ear-splitting sound. If I didn't feel robbed, cheated, and insulted in the movie theatre, where else could I go to feel like that?
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Ummm - not SEALs, submariners. And if you've ever been to a Navy/Submariner bar you'll know that total silence is definitely not a skill they have :)
Actually, I would think this is rather obvious. You want to send a team into space on an extended mission that will be complete. Who do you send? Pilots and Scientists, or the men/women you can trust with billions of dollars in hardware and nuclear weapons? I'd take a boomer crew over some pampered flyboys any day.
Why, I'm 17-60, married, and from any ethnic background!! I'm practically good as gone :)
-WS
ROKR and the SLVR, which is a pretty good phone. I have one, and love it.
The thing now is that the iPhone looks to be a hell of a lot better than WinCE (or Win mobile or whatever). I'd love to see MS make a better phone - it could only be good to have two huge companies competing to make a decent high-end phone.
-WS
Awesome post.
We use Linux extensivley for servers (the really big expensive important ones) at my company, and most of IT runs on OSX or Linux desktops. What we don't do is attempt to make Linux act like Windows. We use Lotus Notes, which, BTW, has a fantastic Mac client. I can't speak to the Linux client, since I don't use it.
We don't force everything to be domain-based. We use LDAP (hosted on AD, true) for that sort of thing.
DB2 on Linux is more than capable of handling our database requirements from webservers running a few GB to SAP running several TB.
You have to use what is appropriate for the task.
-WS
I buy mine used at GameStop for two reasons
1) 90% or so of the retail cost, with an additional 10% discount (for a mag subscription that I enjoy)
2) If the game reeks I can take it back within 10 days and return it, exhange it, etc. 90 days if it just doesn't work
Walmart and Target don't give me that.
-WS
I like OO.o, and I use it every day... but here are some examples of why it's not great:
1) Text to columns (WTF? This isn't rocket science)
2) Multi-User documents (like when I have to update a shared group task list)
3) Speed (It takes roughly 5-10x as long to open a document with screenshots as Word)
-WS
Noooo - waiting in line because they give away cool crap :)
In the 10.4 line, the girl in front of me got a 17" laptop. I got some neat loot too. It also wasn't midnight, but 5pm or so.
-WS
That was one of the best posts ever :)
I wish I had mod points!
-WS
I was in line for 10.3! That was awesome (and a needed update).
:)
I plan to be in line for 10.5, but just because I'm sort of in the habit of it now
-WS
This is true enough, but in my experience most programmers have tremendous difficulty with parallel operations and programs. Heck, several have difficulty with serial operations. On VMS I ran into a lot of issues where people would incorrectly attempt to run in parallel, just to try and access information at inappropriate times.
What we really need is for people to start using and developing the parallel languages (like Charm++) so that we can simply phase the older stuff out of existence.
-WS
True enough - I went to a stereophile store and heard SACD and I was blown away. Then, I looked at the costs to actually *deliver* that sound... cables, speakers, stands, power supplies, etc. It was madness. Ipods can deliver a really outstanding sound (especially with AIFF) with minimal investment and maximum pleasure. Obvious choice.
HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have two battles - sunk costs (older sets/collections), and limited improvement. These aren't a huge step forward like tape to disc, they're more of a minor (insignifigant) improvement. Are they scratch proof? Are the 9.99 or less? That's what matters to me.
-WS
Yeah - that looks familiar :)
:)
I caught a *lot* of crap about having to play DMC in easy mode, but what can I say? I suck
-WS
I agree, and what I really like is when games take a metric (like failed attempts to complete a task) and use it to kick you to easy mode automatically. Devil May Cry is my favorite example of this. I *loved* the game on easy, and just couldn't stand it on normal/hard.
Easy should be just that - easy. Makes me feel like I'm having fun, not getting a whipping.
-WS
I've been married for 10 years, and my wife an I are both hardcore gamers. We have conversation, we watch some movies... but the main thing we do is play games together. Incidentally, we both play on the same team nearly all the time.
:)
I may be a nerd, but I know what works for my relationship
-WS
In my family, my wife is a writer. I'm an IT guy. At night, we play WoW together.
Added together, our total time at home together (including sleep) is about 11 hours. That means 13 hours is spent with a computer seperately right off the bat.
Considering our nights are often spent playing 3-4 hours of WoW, that puts it at 17 hours on the computer per day. Even at best, we would spend probably 3-4 hours a day together, which wouldn't even put a dent in the usual 8-10 hours at work with a computer.
-WS
At least that's the case for every MBP I can find from the original series. It's also the case with their website specs.
Maybe your post was deleted because you were just trying to sound technical, when you couldn't even be bothered to click "About this Mac"?
-WS
4) Mac Users. They are opposed to Windows and anything Microsoft tainted, but don't really understand the fuss over Linux :)
They comment usually to gloat and troll.
-WS
You're obviously too young to remember when IBM was *the* dominant IT company. Everything they produced turned up in datacenters at some point, and I worked for management that was "Big Blue, through and through".
h tml2
IBM made these machines called "Mainframes", as well as "Midrange" and "Mini" computers. These were the 360s, the 390s etc on the high end, the 400s on the midrange, and the RISC/6000 and such on the mini set. They even produced microcomputers, which today we call PCs. IBM compatible got that name for a reason - it meant that a "clone" was 100% compatible with IBM or Tandy microcomputers. This was important, because "no-one got fired for buying IBM". A common saying back in the 70s and 80s.
IBM took it in the shorts, faced huge fines, and changed into a pretty cool company. MS is now in that same position that IBM was when the clones came... the difference is that IBM was (at the time) ignorant of how big an opportunity they were missing. They saw microcomputers as nothing more than enhanced terminals and small business machines. Toys, really. Anybody that mattered used mainframes or AS/400s. Their big rival was Digital Electronic Corp (DEC), and so they never assumed that Microsoft was leading the charge against the computer room based machines.
Well, here we are, 30 years later, and MS shot several bullets into IBMs head. Now, IBM isn't even the right choice very often, unlike MS. MS however, is also facing a sharp decline, as Apple, Sun, Redhat and legions of others are waiting to dethrone them.
This year - I spec'd and configured millions in new hardware - moving our flagship systems to Linux. Not a penny of that money went with MS, and even Sun lost out. Our end users and IT are even buying themselves Apple machines, running OSX. Even our lowliest end users are deciding that they don't want to use Windows anymore, and they are taking it upon themselves to move (since IT hasn't forced them to toe the line).
That's what the line means, and that's why it is being applied ironically to Microsoft.
Here's some links if you're interested
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/000345.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/
http://www.zisman.ca/Articles/2006/Biv876.html
http://e-pix.com/CPUWARS/cpuwars.html
-WS
Yeah - I'm with you there. We can send people to mars, but we don't have a stupid gunlight... or the ability to hold a flashlight in our off-hands? There's only so much fun to the whole 'oh no, a scary monster jumping at me from the dark'. As has been said before, it felt like a tech demo or something. Not a real game.
-WS
My personal fav - Ultima 7. Over 100 hours of gameplay, with the possibility to spend a LOT more.
Second to that - Fable. Much shorter, but REALLY fun. Well, until the end, which completely sucks.
On the other hand, Doom 3 bored me after about 3 hours.
-WS
So basically there is a format to use, but you're on your own to create the actual document? Like writing XML by hand, kind of thing?
-WS
That's a pretty good point.
I've run into issues like that with NetBeans in the past, and it was a serious headache - I never tried the technique you mention.
My biggest issue with Java GUI development, however, is that there is no common codebase for it - if I write a project with Borland JBuilder or whatever, I have to totally redo the GUI in NetBeans or Eclipse. At least, this has been true in my experience with Borland (which was short and negative). Xcode also has this issue.
Can we get something more like GTK or something with a nice cross-platform *standard* GUI toolkit?
-WS
-WS
I think that is an awesome comment! I agree with the definitions you have there to the most part... especially since I "lead" an F/OSS project like that.
-WS
It's part of that whole "movie experience"... like the sticky floor, $20 bag of popcorn, and ear-splitting sound. If I didn't feel robbed, cheated, and insulted in the movie theatre, where else could I go to feel like that?
-WS