I suggest you try https://duckduckgo.com/ for searches like that - regexes, content categories, site-specific, all sorts of "goodies".
It hasn't replaced Google's other search modes for me, but feels like the first real good competitor for the standard web-search.
And BTW, They cater well to the privacy-concerned - they don't keep any info on you, use a redirect to remove your search terms when you click on a result, and will gladly operate over SSL for anything
and yet... southwest is an ITA customer, for the functionality on their own site (and possibly other authorized sales channels) though they still don't allow their fares to be used for cross-shopping search.
(former ITA employee who is currently wondering what his shares would be worth right now)
One of the goals of Parrot is to give any language running on it the capability of accessing functionality in libraries written in any other language. For example, a program written in Python could use CPAN modules written in Perl and libraries written in Lisp, presumably keeping a "native" python interface!
Now, as far as I'm concerned, such a thing is practically magic, but I do recognize that it has been done before, and the Parrot hackers are some very smart folks.
Big SG1 fan, not impressed.
on
Stargate Universe
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Stargate: Why simply beat a dead horse where it lay, when you can transport it anywhere in the universe?
And the specs Carl cites in that article has grown by an order of magnitude - in both amounts of data and hardware power, as well as the complexity of the requirements.
True, I ignored the original point - generally C|C++ is going to be faster than LISP, if the algorithms necessary can be expressed in similar terms in each language. However, when it comes to having to constantly change the code to support constantly changing requirements, a dynamic language like LISP has a great advantage over C++.
That said, the code doing the searching for Orbitz uses algorithms and architectural techniques that would take so much more "scaffolding" in C++ that it would not only hamper maintenance of the code, it would likely hamper innovation and invention of new algorithms and functionality.
LISP is certainly not popular, and in many cases, not the best or most practical tool for the job... but it is alive and well, and will continue to be available to those who can/need to use it for the foreseeable future.
Perl became popular because it is very good at what it was designed to do - munging text with incredible flexibility and impressive speed - and it was the best available tool for the job when that ability was in high demand: the birth of the web.
Now, you can argue syntax ugliness all you want, I consider that subjective. However, when you begin to truly grok all of Perl's abilities, it's hard *not* to appreciate a fundamental beauty to the language.
I dare say, would you declare the German language a "monstrosity" because to American ears Deutsche has too many harsh-sounding words? Tell that to a German and he'll gladly smack you upside the head with a book of Goethe's poetry or perhaps the works of Wagner or Strauss!
Go read "Higher Order Perl" by Mark Jason Dominus and learn how to leverage Perl's features using the same techniques that LISP and ML programmers take for granted...
As a native speaker of Perl, I actually consider sigils and braces quite natural and beautiful.
Maybe this is overly pedantic, but I've seen it mentioned several times in various posts that "Orbitz is powered by LISP"
That's very true, but only one component of their back-end is actually written in LISP - the lowest-fare search engine.
Also, Orbitz did not write that component, called QPX - it was actually written by a company called ITA Software, who licenses it to dozens of other air-fare cross-shopping services.
Despite the other issues with Orbitz, QPX is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by highly skilled LISP programmers - an exceedingly fast, flexible, and successful search algorithm that they have been able to maintain as the industry leader since it's invention over twelve years ago.
As far as your assessment of "Orbitz is ridiculously slow for the amount of data it processes" I beg to differ. Having worked for ITA in the past, let me tell you the amount of data searched through is staggering, especially when you consider that that data set is updated continuously, in nearly-real-time (I could claim real-time, but I like being accurate)
Combine that data source with the fact that the queries sent can have dozens (and in some cases hundreds) of parameters, and various results can be filtered and modified arbitrarily based on rules imposed by the airlines and their sales partners (eg. Orbitz' negotiated fares for Airline X vs Airline Y, per flight/date/time/passengers/booking class etc etc etc) *and* that without a highly sophisticated approach to finding the best solutions the result set can have *billions* of possibilities....
Yeah... Orbitz' fare searching is pretty damned fast, considering.
Usually I hear this old saw from the same Pythonistas who seem to believe that Python 2.x is effectively dead now that P3K has been released.
I've been watching the development of Perl for a while now and I am certain that Perl5 isn't going anywhere any time soon, and it will continue to evolve and be developed for many years after Perl6 is finally released.
I recently tried making a bet with a Python hacker that we will probably see perl 5.14 before Python 2.9. He declined on grounds that we may *never* see Python 2.9:)
No problem! Just run x86 linux under qemu on all physical platforms, then run your applications under x86 linux inside a kvm inside qemu with migration between the qemu instances on each physical system!
You'd *love* the place where I just started working. Yes, there's certainly a predominance of males in the engineering and IT departments, but it's quite impressive how many women are working here - in highly technical roles - and every day since I got here I get the sense that this company only hires the best they can get. Right across the street from MIT, as you you could surmise, what they get is pretty damn good:)
That does sound annoying. A few years ago, I moved three times in a short period, changing my contact info each time, but have stayed put for quite a while (bought a house) and I haven't gotten a single one of those emails.
However, it was about that time I synchronized the domain renewal dates of all my domains... I dunno. Maybe that may help? There may be some sort of opt-out option hidden deep within their extensive config pages. Good luck!
On a similar vein (OT, but amusing) I just got an email from Lenovo recommending that I upgrade my new laptop to 1GB of RAM and add an Extended 6-cell Battery... I *bought* the thing with 2GB RAM and the 9-Cell battery! They've been sending me emails like that every week since I bought from them, like clockwork.
It's hard to believe, but your comment is the first I've read on this page with anything good to say about GoDaddy. I have about a dozen domains registered thru them, and I've recommended them to friends and family and clients many times throughout the years, often because they were getting ripped-off or defrauded by NSI.
I've never had a problem with GoDaddy, nor have I *ever* received a complaint. On the contrary, several of those whom I've referred have *compliments* about their service and pricing.
In about 8 years of doing business with them, yy only beef with GoDaddy so far is how desperate they seem to sell you loads of additional software that many people simply don't know that they *don't* need. I always warn people about that ahead of time.
Yes, I acknowledge their 'evil' practices, but really, for me, none of that has ever been an issue, and I've only had a positive consumer experience with them.
BTW - I am not, not have I ever been employed or in any way paid by GoDaddy or any related entity. I only add this because I get the sense that nobody here would believe there's anything *good* to say!
I agree, but I'd like to play devil's advocate, because this professor may have a 'valid' case, despite being an ass who doesn't deserve to teach.
An analogy: Let's posit that I have just attended an 'all-hands' meeting where I work and the owner has some interesting news about what the company is about to do.
Just because what is said is distributed openly to all attending, we are not allowed to re-distribute that information outside the company. If the owner then takes that same information and sends it to the newspaper, I *still* have no right to distribute it on my own.
If this information makes him rich, guess what... I'm still poor. If he orders that all copies be immediately returned or destroyed, I am bound by copyright to comply. The information is entrusted to me for uses which the owner defines at his whim.
People can argue that a University lecture simply does not have the same rules, but let me make some comparisons. There is an exchange of money - the student pays for the privilege to attend, and use the information learned in lectures to obtain a degree. The professor is paid to distribute information to the students for said purpose.
At this point I'm getting tired and I'm just going to continue by spouting my semi-organized musings on this topic of which I know nothing canonical.
Yes, I'm bored and drunk.
If there is a contract between the University and the professor giving the professor complete ownership and rights to any information he/she passes on to students, then the professor may have a case. His case could further be propped up if a University lecture is legally considered a private forum, like the hypothetical company meeting.
Furthermore, if there is a contract between the University and the student binding him or her to use information from lectures only for the purpose of passing the course, that gives the professor further support for legal action.
(BTW, I don't remember ever signing such an agreement in school - explicit OR implicit - does anybody??)
Granted, I think that selling your notes (and buying other people's notes as a substitute for attending class) is morally dishonest, but shouldn't be criminal. This stems from my opinion that despite the financial exchanges between University, student, and professor, a University lecture exists for the distribution of information that should be publicly available. Please note, however, I also believe that a professor should be able to reserve the right to block attendance to his/her lectures as he/she sees fit, at least to the extent that University policy would allow. The arseholes hopefully would be discovered quickly and when students begin dropping those classes, perhaps would be ousted... on second thought, universities do really stupid things backing their faculty sometimes...
SO... have I fanned the flames of a possible debate? Will Richard Stallman beat down my door? Discuss.
Slashdot Mirror
I suggest you try https://duckduckgo.com/ for searches like that - regexes, content categories, site-specific, all sorts of "goodies".
It hasn't replaced Google's other search modes for me, but feels like the first real good competitor for the standard web-search.
And BTW, They cater well to the privacy-concerned - they don't keep any info on you, use a redirect to remove your search terms when you click on a result, and will gladly operate over SSL for anything
and yet... southwest is an ITA customer, for the functionality on their own site (and possibly other authorized sales channels) though they still don't allow their fares to be used for cross-shopping search.
(former ITA employee who is currently wondering what his shares would be worth right now)
Just FYI...
One of the goals of Parrot is to give any language running on it the capability of accessing functionality in libraries written in any other language. For example, a program written in Python could use CPAN modules written in Perl and libraries written in Lisp, presumably keeping a "native" python interface!
Now, as far as I'm concerned, such a thing is practically magic, but I do recognize that it has been done before, and the Parrot hackers are some very smart folks.
Stargate: Why simply beat a dead horse where it lay, when you can transport it anywhere in the universe?
exactly.
And the specs Carl cites in that article has grown by an order of magnitude - in both amounts of data and hardware power, as well as the complexity of the requirements.
True, I ignored the original point - generally C|C++ is going to be faster than LISP, if the algorithms necessary can be expressed in similar terms in each language. However, when it comes to having to constantly change the code to support constantly changing requirements, a dynamic language like LISP has a great advantage over C++.
That said, the code doing the searching for Orbitz uses algorithms and architectural techniques that would take so much more "scaffolding" in C++ that it would not only hamper maintenance of the code, it would likely hamper innovation and invention of new algorithms and functionality.
LISP is certainly not popular, and in many cases, not the best or most practical tool for the job... but it is alive and well, and will continue to be available to those who can/need to use it for the foreseeable future.
Perl became popular because it is very good at what it was designed to do - munging text with incredible flexibility and impressive speed - and it was the best available tool for the job when that ability was in high demand: the birth of the web.
Now, you can argue syntax ugliness all you want, I consider that subjective. However, when you begin to truly grok all of Perl's abilities, it's hard *not* to appreciate a fundamental beauty to the language.
I dare say, would you declare the German language a "monstrosity" because to American ears Deutsche has too many harsh-sounding words? Tell that to a German and he'll gladly smack you upside the head with a book of Goethe's poetry or perhaps the works of Wagner or Strauss!
Go read "Higher Order Perl" by Mark Jason Dominus and learn how to leverage Perl's features using the same techniques that LISP and ML programmers take for granted...
As a native speaker of Perl, I actually consider sigils and braces quite natural and beautiful.
Maybe this is overly pedantic, but I've seen it mentioned several times in various posts that "Orbitz is powered by LISP"
That's very true, but only one component of their back-end is actually written in LISP - the lowest-fare search engine.
Also, Orbitz did not write that component, called QPX - it was actually written by a company called ITA Software, who licenses it to dozens of other air-fare cross-shopping services.
Despite the other issues with Orbitz, QPX is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by highly skilled LISP programmers - an exceedingly fast, flexible, and successful search algorithm that they have been able to maintain as the industry leader since it's invention over twelve years ago.
As far as your assessment of "Orbitz is ridiculously slow for the amount of data it processes" I beg to differ. Having worked for ITA in the past, let me tell you the amount of data searched through is staggering, especially when you consider that that data set is updated continuously, in nearly-real-time (I could claim real-time, but I like being accurate)
Combine that data source with the fact that the queries sent can have dozens (and in some cases hundreds) of parameters, and various results can be filtered and modified arbitrarily based on rules imposed by the airlines and their sales partners (eg. Orbitz' negotiated fares for Airline X vs Airline Y, per flight/date/time/passengers/booking class etc etc etc) *and* that without a highly sophisticated approach to finding the best solutions the result set can have *billions* of possibilities....
Yeah... Orbitz' fare searching is pretty damned fast, considering.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
Did I ever mention that the slashdot posting filter is retarded?
Usually I hear this old saw from the same Pythonistas who seem to believe that Python 2.x is effectively dead now that P3K has been released.
I've been watching the development of Perl for a while now and I am certain that Perl5 isn't going anywhere any time soon, and it will continue to evolve and be developed for many years after Perl6 is finally released.
I recently tried making a bet with a Python hacker that we will probably see perl 5.14 before Python 2.9. He declined on grounds that we may *never* see Python 2.9 :)
Well, it took longer than I expected, but looks like there was at least *one* knee-jerk moderator out there! :D
Anybody else who comes along, mod parent up! I shouldn't have to explain why, if you - you know - like *read* the summary...
Adam, you're the freakin' MAN.
I actually didn't know the breadth of what you were arranging but this is just way beyond what I expected!
I will definitely be taking advantage of this... Next time you're in the Boston area, I want to personally buy you a case of your choice of beer.
(yes, I understand fully that this posting means it's "on the record" :D )
This was solved in Perl a long time ago.
No, really!!
Quantum::Superpositions
You can pry cyberdog from my cold, dead hands
but then the joke isn't funny! :)
No problem! Just run x86 linux under qemu on all physical platforms, then run your applications under x86 linux inside a kvm inside qemu with migration between the qemu instances on each physical system!
Well, that kinda *is* the purpose of live VM migration... it's already being done, just not between systems with different processor types.
It was hard to see, since it was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf...
You (sir|miss), deserve far more karma than /. can provide!
An armed man can mix whatever chemicals he damn well pleases.
And an un-armed man has to find an able-bodied assistant who can follow his instructions!
You'd *love* the place where I just started working. Yes, there's certainly a predominance of males in the engineering and IT departments, but it's quite impressive how many women are working here - in highly technical roles - and every day since I got here I get the sense that this company only hires the best they can get. Right across the street from MIT, as you you could surmise, what they get is pretty damn good :)
I can see that happening on the free-hosting accounts, but I've never seen that happen with any paid web-hosting service I've bought from them.
That does sound annoying. A few years ago, I moved three times in a short period, changing my contact info each time, but have stayed put for quite a while (bought a house) and I haven't gotten a single one of those emails.
However, it was about that time I synchronized the domain renewal dates of all my domains... I dunno. Maybe that may help? There may be some sort of opt-out option hidden deep within their extensive config pages. Good luck!
On a similar vein (OT, but amusing) I just got an email from Lenovo recommending that I upgrade my new laptop to 1GB of RAM and add an Extended 6-cell Battery... I *bought* the thing with 2GB RAM and the 9-Cell battery! They've been sending me emails like that every week since I bought from them, like clockwork.
It's hard to believe, but your comment is the first I've read on this page with anything good to say about GoDaddy. I have about a dozen domains registered thru them, and I've recommended them to friends and family and clients many times throughout the years, often because they were getting ripped-off or defrauded by NSI.
I've never had a problem with GoDaddy, nor have I *ever* received a complaint. On the contrary, several of those whom I've referred have *compliments* about their service and pricing.
In about 8 years of doing business with them, yy only beef with GoDaddy so far is how desperate they seem to sell you loads of additional software that many people simply don't know that they *don't* need. I always warn people about that ahead of time.
Yes, I acknowledge their 'evil' practices, but really, for me, none of that has ever been an issue, and I've only had a positive consumer experience with them.
BTW - I am not, not have I ever been employed or in any way paid by GoDaddy or any related entity. I only add this because I get the sense that nobody here would believe there's anything *good* to say!
I agree, but I'd like to play devil's advocate, because this professor may have a 'valid' case, despite being an ass who doesn't deserve to teach.
An analogy: Let's posit that I have just attended an 'all-hands' meeting where I work and the owner has some interesting news about what the company is about to do.
Just because what is said is distributed openly to all attending, we are not allowed to re-distribute that information outside the company. If the owner then takes that same information and sends it to the newspaper, I *still* have no right to distribute it on my own.
If this information makes him rich, guess what... I'm still poor. If he orders that all copies be immediately returned or destroyed, I am bound by copyright to comply. The information is entrusted to me for uses which the owner defines at his whim.
People can argue that a University lecture simply does not have the same rules, but let me make some comparisons. There is an exchange of money - the student pays for the privilege to attend, and use the information learned in lectures to obtain a degree. The professor is paid to distribute information to the students for said purpose.
At this point I'm getting tired and I'm just going to continue by spouting my semi-organized musings on this topic of which I know nothing canonical.
Yes, I'm bored and drunk.
If there is a contract between the University and the professor giving the professor complete ownership and rights to any information he/she passes on to students, then the professor may have a case. His case could further be propped up if a University lecture is legally considered a private forum, like the hypothetical company meeting.
Furthermore, if there is a contract between the University and the student binding him or her to use information from lectures only for the purpose of passing the course, that gives the professor further support for legal action.
(BTW, I don't remember ever signing such an agreement in school - explicit OR implicit - does anybody??)
Granted, I think that selling your notes (and buying other people's notes as a substitute for attending class) is morally dishonest, but shouldn't be criminal. This stems from my opinion that despite the financial exchanges between University, student, and professor, a University lecture exists for the distribution of information that should be publicly available. Please note, however, I also believe that a professor should be able to reserve the right to block attendance to his/her lectures as he/she sees fit, at least to the extent that University policy would allow. The arseholes hopefully would be discovered quickly and when students begin dropping those classes, perhaps would be ousted... on second thought, universities do really stupid things backing their faculty sometimes...
SO... have I fanned the flames of a possible debate? Will Richard Stallman beat down my door? Discuss.