$480/year for repetitive movies, videos, shows, channels is too much even for the gainfully employed.
Can I get an AMEN! Seriously, it is way overpriced and more folks should consider things in terms of yearly cost. With the currently passed policy of mergers the programming is going to get even more homogenized. Once the news comes from one souce, then I'll not suscribe to any of it because I'll trust it even less then the current media (which is close to single source). One big propaganda machine for Madison Avenue.
US common law provides for contracts lacking signatures.
Yes, it does. If both parties admit to the contract, or have some form of evidence. Otherwise, it's unprovable based on the claim of one party. So for a nice enforceable contract, better get it in writing with a signature by both parties.
When you go to Best Buy and buy a CD, you just entered into a sales agreement, whether you signed anything or not.
And a sales agreement is protected by consumer law, not contract law.
I was disappointed by your web site restricting usage to a specific version
of Internet Explorer. First of all, I am a developer who has embedded
browsers into hardware for usage in a television. Also I don't have a
Microsoft system currently. This means that even if I wanted to run IE,
I couldn't without buying a spare system, buying Windows, and installing all
of this, just to view your web site. In so restricting access, you've
automatically lost market share of potential customers, not everyone runs
whatever specific version you require. I've been logging version
numbers of IE that people access some website's that I manage. I routinely see
very old versions of IE (3.0!) and Netscape (4.0!) in significant numbers.
Also by checking for specific version of specific browsers, the web
code base is continually having to be updated for new releases of
browsers and other changes.
Adhering to web standards as proposed by w3c (http://www.w3.org), is not
that difficult and insures that your web site can be viewed by *any*
standards compliant browser. This future proofs your work against any
proprietary changes that Microsoft can throw at you and reduces your
long term maintenance burden. Increasing advertising while reducing cost is something most businesses
strive for.
I set my web browswers user agent to "lie" and say that it was Internet
Explorer. Guess what, you're web site worked fine and if I did not know this
trick I would have simply closed your site and continued no further.
Shawn Garbett
NOTE:Send this to management and/or marketing. Most IT departments couldn't give a crap about the quality of their code, they only respond to pressure from above.
IANAL but, for a contract in the United States to binding it requires two things:
A signature by both parties
An expiration date or term
When I goto the store and buy a DVD with cash, I didn't sign a damn thing. No contract, NADA. Othewise, I could write contracts on the bottom of rocks that say, "If you picked this up you owe me your first born son."
That's what I do--I close the window and look for another site. This is partially based on principle and partially based on my own convenience.
I have a form letter that I fire off to the webmaster of any IE specific site. Reason, I worked on several embedded set top browsers. I mention that in so restricting the users of the site, that the site loses market share. Using established standards, and not restricting the user, more market share. Second reason, code that checks for specific browser implementations requires constant updating creating more cost in IT. Sometimes I would even mention the fact that I used their web page just fine by setting the "user agent" to lie about what browswer I was using.
One year ago, I was sending this form letter out daily. As time goes on, this has become a non-issue for me and my browsing habits. I actually saw a few web-sites change. Instead of closing the window, send 'em a notice that you don't like it.
Re:considered the father of Linux?
on
Today's SCO News
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I've worked on two embedded projects using Java on low power (energy consumption/CPU performance both) platforms. Both projects had amazingly similar things happen. I stated up from, "Java is interpreted; it will be slower than the C code of the previous project on the platform, potentially significant."
The reply, "We don't care about performance."
Four months later... "Why the hell is your code so slow?"
I know someone who is obsessed with reading source code. He keeps printouts in his bathroom for some light reading. He knows the Linux kernel inside and out. He regularly submits patchs all over the place. He would drool over the idea of reading code for satellites and the shuttle.
An old ledged has it that Djkstra saved the Apollo moon landing, because he happened across some code at NASA and questioned a minus sign in the thrust calculation. Turns out that the lander was set to thrust into the moon and not away from it on landing. I don't know if this story is true or not, or how distorted this nth retelling is, but it makes one think how many bugs could be caught by open sourcing. There are those who would love to read the code.
NASA's process relies on many many code audits, it only makes sense to get a few for free.
If you file paperwork, the IRS is required to keep a copy of everything you send them. So every year, I send them the majority of what they would request during an audit, bank records, etc.
I've used software to prepare my return, but always file by mail. That way, they have more to deal with. I am not about to pay, to go through a private company for a filing. If the IRS makes it simple to file digitally, then I might ease up on them. Right now I say Choke 'em on paperwork.
He was a witness in the 1993 lawsuit between UNIX System Laboratories versus BSDI. The prosecution accused him of being Mentally Contaiminated for having viewed both sets of source code. Someone went out an made big red laquer buttons that said this and everyone who had seen source wore one to the trial. The contempt of court argument begins, and since it was a statement made by the prosecutor and not objected to by the court, then the buttons got to stay.
This case has some interesting similarities to the SCO accusations. SCO has much less of a leg to stand on.
I want a mentally contaiminated laquered button. If you've seen source code, then you are mentally contaminated. Maybe it's the start of a movement.
My first project out of college was to "patch" some computer software. It was written by three different engineers in FORTRAN, working for about 2 years. When it started crashing all the time, the solution was to put a watchdog on the computer. Then it would loose the state of computation, so it started saving it's computation state regularly, and upon booting would restore it. Eventually it saved the state that led to a crash, at which point it started rebooting like a yoyo.
Looking over the software, it was a total mess. Every section of the code completely reordered all data on the stack, going several levels deep. I asked what the formula the code was trying to compute, and was shocked to see a simple iterative formula, with about 10 variables. I recommended a rewrite. I was heckled.
I was eventually given one month to waste, before they said I would be forced to patch the existing code. The first thing I did was remove the watchdog. Then I did a data flow diagram and found a straight line. No control over the format of the data going out, but total control of coming in. So presto, I structured the data coming in to match the required format of the output. It would all sit in place and the routines would work on it like a pipeline. It went from taking four or five minutes to do a single pass to nine seconds. It also didn't crash all the time. The size of the code shrank dramatically.
Two other times in my career I've ran into similar code. The next was about two hundred pages of FORTRAN, that I replaced with one page of lex.
The next time was a database engine written in FORTRAN by an engineer with no database theory (data/indices mixed, every index was of a different form, every violation of normalization you can think of, etc). I recommend a rewrite then, and just about got fired, because the VP wrote the code. It wasn't rewritten and their competitors have just about squeezed them out of the market, because they can't adapt.
Lesson: FORTRAN written by engineers is generally in bad need of a rewrite.
How about being your own ISP? Co-ops are a possibility. Just lease a T1 with 9 or your neighbors and share it with a WiFi. A nice little whip antenna on your roof. The cost in the long run can be made cheaper than a cable modem. The only problem is someone has to run the show and fiddle with it, and keep enough subscribers in the pool.
Now when someone says you can't use a VPN or a Firewall, you can say take a hike. I'm the ISP-- The law is on my side.
Yeah, they might not take your cable modem. But they will soon be able to tell you how you can use it.
Here in Tennessee the battle has already begun. See
Tennessee Digital Freedom and slashdot which was used to organize the fight.
Using MySQL for database.
Then use phpMyAdmin to export structure to SQL.
Then use perl SQL-Translator to convert from SQL to XML.
Then use XSLT (saxon engine) with a script to convert scheme into a set of persistent classes.
Took one day to figure it out. One day to write the script. Presto, 30 class files and about 1500 lines of code. One day to debug (just had to edit the script). Three days to a set of working persistent classes. The database schema has been updated several times since then. Each time took about 1 minute to update all the code, and I didn't have to worry about typing errors.
All open source tools.
I saw a letter to Dr. Dobbs recently that was saying that XML needed to have the ability to embed things like Visual Basic and javascript in it to be really useful. I think that this is a horrible idea. The whole point of XML was to have a generic data model, i.e. one parser to rule them all.
I've been able to do thing like export MySQL schemas into XML, then using XSLT generate an entire set of base classes providing persistent objects. What was once weeks worth of work, now takes an afternoon (from concept to final product). The whole set is entirely consistent, no misspelled names or changed signatures. When bugs were found, I fixed all the files in one place and rerun the XML/XSLT script. Massive productivity boost. If that isn't an argument on why XML doesn't suck I don't know what is.
The idea of embedding code in XML is a perverse distortion of what XML is really about. XML would suck if one uses it for unintended purposes. I don't use a hammer to tighten machine bolts, well I guess some people do.
Better yet, since each program is just a binary, it can be treated as a number.
Write a test script that takes a program as input. Now just feed that script 0, then feed it 1, then feed it 2, and keep incrementing till you get the result you want.
Oh, you might want to take a coffee break. It's going to take a little while to find the solution.
You mentioned "Geek" when the article was about Nerds. He said in the article that "Nerds" sat at table D. Have you ever bother to look up Geek in a dictionary? Geek originally was a circus performer who specializes in biting heads off small animals. So good old Ozzie is an alpha Geek.
And further more, for the least common denominator, they want to click on some media content on a web site and it just do whatever it's supposed to do. That means flash, sound, mp3s, midi, pictures, movies, whatever. Then they usually want to edit a few documents, maybe print some Xmas cards and look at photos from their digital camera. Email should just mysteriously work for them with little setup.
Linux has to overcome the video codec problems (lack thereof), and get some games before the average joe's needs are met. Till then the easiest install won't satisfy-- but it's a step in the right direction for these folks.
You can thank King Gilette of disposable razor blade fame for this business model.
Wrong, you can thank Edison's power company. In order to generate customers they gave aways things like electric toasters and subsidized appliances like electric stoves and refrigerators.
I remember in middle school digging around in a library till I found a cookbook for making crystals. My favorite was the piezoelectric crystal. I decided to make one. I got a chemical supply catalog, wrote up my list and sent off the order. A few days later my dad was surprised by the DEA knocking on the door (these days I understand you're lucky if they knock). Oh those were the days.
Clooney's Ass Ain't Worth Six Bucks.
on
Review: Solaris
·
· Score: 1
I really enjoyed the film. Felt it left more things mysterious than the previous movie and the book. Loved the special effects. I want that for a screen saver-- music included.
The preview writers had real heartburn over this one. I saw several previews that gave one the impression that it was a horror film. I saw one preview that completely played on the love story aspect. Apparently this movie didn't fit any of hollywoods molds, which in my opinion is a wonderful thing in and of itself.
In front of me sat a row of middle age women who came to see a love story together. I heard mutterings of "How long is this damn movie" with revered silence for the love scenes. Then at then end they all looked at each other in shock and the loud one spoke up and said, "Clooney's Ass Ain't Worth Six Bucks!"
I think it's a good correlation. I've been a computer user for the last seventeen years. In the first fifteen of those years, I had one drive go bad. In the last two years, I'm going through them like butter.
What I think is happening is that manufacturers are exploring the cheapness threshold that consumers are willing to tolerate in their push for higher densities. Once it crosses too deeply that economic threshold, they pull back and make them just reliable enough to keep the average consumer content.
I'm personally hoping that a more expensive drive is released that is more reliable. I'm willing to pay extra for a critical component in my computer needs.
Slashdot Mirror
$480/year for repetitive movies, videos, shows, channels is too much even for the gainfully employed.
Can I get an AMEN! Seriously, it is way overpriced and more folks should consider things in terms of yearly cost. With the currently passed policy of mergers the programming is going to get even more homogenized. Once the news comes from one souce, then I'll not suscribe to any of it because I'll trust it even less then the current media (which is close to single source). One big propaganda machine for Madison Avenue.
BLog-o-sphere to the rescue....
Kill you television, before it gets you!
US common law provides for contracts lacking signatures.
Yes, it does. If both parties admit to the contract, or have some form of evidence. Otherwise, it's unprovable based on the claim of one party. So for a nice enforceable contract, better get it in writing with a signature by both parties.
When you go to Best Buy and buy a CD, you just entered into a sales agreement, whether you signed anything or not.
And a sales agreement is protected by consumer law, not contract law.
I was disappointed by your web site restricting usage to a specific version of Internet Explorer. First of all, I am a developer who has embedded browsers into hardware for usage in a television. Also I don't have a Microsoft system currently. This means that even if I wanted to run IE, I couldn't without buying a spare system, buying Windows, and installing all of this, just to view your web site. In so restricting access, you've automatically lost market share of potential customers, not everyone runs whatever specific version you require. I've been logging version numbers of IE that people access some website's that I manage. I routinely see very old versions of IE (3.0!) and Netscape (4.0!) in significant numbers.
Also by checking for specific version of specific browsers, the web code base is continually having to be updated for new releases of browsers and other changes.
Adhering to web standards as proposed by w3c (http://www.w3.org), is not that difficult and insures that your web site can be viewed by *any* standards compliant browser. This future proofs your work against any proprietary changes that Microsoft can throw at you and reduces your long term maintenance burden. Increasing advertising while reducing cost is something most businesses strive for.
I set my web browswers user agent to "lie" and say that it was Internet Explorer. Guess what, you're web site worked fine and if I did not know this trick I would have simply closed your site and continued no further.
Shawn Garbett
NOTE: Send this to management and/or marketing. Most IT departments couldn't give a crap about the quality of their code, they only respond to pressure from above.
- A signature by both parties
- An expiration date or term
When I goto the store and buy a DVD with cash, I didn't sign a damn thing. No contract, NADA. Othewise, I could write contracts on the bottom of rocks that say, "If you picked this up you owe me your first born son."That's what I do--I close the window and look for another site. This is partially based on principle and partially based on my own convenience.
I have a form letter that I fire off to the webmaster of any IE specific site. Reason, I worked on several embedded set top browsers. I mention that in so restricting the users of the site, that the site loses market share. Using established standards, and not restricting the user, more market share. Second reason, code that checks for specific browser implementations requires constant updating creating more cost in IT. Sometimes I would even mention the fact that I used their web page just fine by setting the "user agent" to lie about what browswer I was using.
One year ago, I was sending this form letter out daily. As time goes on, this has become a non-issue for me and my browsing habits. I actually saw a few web-sites change. Instead of closing the window, send 'em a notice that you don't like it.
Didn't Al Gore invent Linux?
I've worked on two embedded projects using Java on low power (energy consumption/CPU performance both) platforms. Both projects had amazingly similar things happen. I stated up from, "Java is interpreted; it will be slower than the C code of the previous project on the platform, potentially significant."
The reply, "We don't care about performance."
Four months later... "Why the hell is your code so slow?"
Interpreted is as interpreted does.
I tell you what some peopel would do. See my previous post: Free Software Reviews.
I know someone who is obsessed with reading source code. He keeps printouts in his bathroom for some light reading. He knows the Linux kernel inside and out. He regularly submits patchs all over the place. He would drool over the idea of reading code for satellites and the shuttle.
An old ledged has it that Djkstra saved the Apollo moon landing, because he happened across some code at NASA and questioned a minus sign in the thrust calculation. Turns out that the lander was set to thrust into the moon and not away from it on landing. I don't know if this story is true or not, or how distorted this nth retelling is, but it makes one think how many bugs could be caught by open sourcing. There are those who would love to read the code.
NASA's process relies on many many code audits, it only makes sense to get a few for free.
I shudder to think that William Gibson is the prophet of the future. But his grim vision of the future seems to be coming...
If you file paperwork, the IRS is required to keep a copy of everything you send them. So every year, I send them the majority of what they would request during an audit, bank records, etc.
I've used software to prepare my return, but always file by mail. That way, they have more to deal with. I am not about to pay, to go through a private company for a filing. If the IRS makes it simple to file digitally, then I might ease up on them. Right now I say Choke 'em on paperwork.
I had the pleasure of seeing a lecture, A History of UNIX and UNIX Licenses, by Peter Salus at Setec recently.
He was a witness in the 1993 lawsuit between UNIX System Laboratories versus BSDI. The prosecution accused him of being Mentally Contaiminated for having viewed both sets of source code. Someone went out an made big red laquer buttons that said this and everyone who had seen source wore one to the trial. The contempt of court argument begins, and since it was a statement made by the prosecutor and not objected to by the court, then the buttons got to stay.
This case has some interesting similarities to the SCO accusations. SCO has much less of a leg to stand on.
I want a mentally contaiminated laquered button. If you've seen source code, then you are mentally contaminated. Maybe it's the start of a movement.
Let's see, if I'm an e-tailor with a single/store outlet in California that's doing marginally. Time to close that outlet.
Does this tax effect someone who is just running their server in California? If so, then time to move the server and business out of California.
Watch that sputting economy in California, go for broke.
My first project out of college was to "patch" some computer software. It was written by three different engineers in FORTRAN, working for about 2 years. When it started crashing all the time, the solution was to put a watchdog on the computer. Then it would loose the state of computation, so it started saving it's computation state regularly, and upon booting would restore it. Eventually it saved the state that led to a crash, at which point it started rebooting like a yoyo.
Looking over the software, it was a total mess. Every section of the code completely reordered all data on the stack, going several levels deep. I asked what the formula the code was trying to compute, and was shocked to see a simple iterative formula, with about 10 variables. I recommended a rewrite. I was heckled.
I was eventually given one month to waste, before they said I would be forced to patch the existing code. The first thing I did was remove the watchdog. Then I did a data flow diagram and found a straight line. No control over the format of the data going out, but total control of coming in. So presto, I structured the data coming in to match the required format of the output. It would all sit in place and the routines would work on it like a pipeline. It went from taking four or five minutes to do a single pass to nine seconds. It also didn't crash all the time. The size of the code shrank dramatically.
Two other times in my career I've ran into similar code. The next was about two hundred pages of FORTRAN, that I replaced with one page of lex.
The next time was a database engine written in FORTRAN by an engineer with no database theory (data/indices mixed, every index was of a different form, every violation of normalization you can think of, etc). I recommend a rewrite then, and just about got fired, because the VP wrote the code. It wasn't rewritten and their competitors have just about squeezed them out of the market, because they can't adapt.
Lesson: FORTRAN written by engineers is generally in bad need of a rewrite.
How about being your own ISP? Co-ops are a possibility. Just lease a T1 with 9 or your neighbors and share it with a WiFi. A nice little whip antenna on your roof. The cost in the long run can be made cheaper than a cable modem. The only problem is someone has to run the show and fiddle with it, and keep enough subscribers in the pool.
Now when someone says you can't use a VPN or a Firewall, you can say take a hike. I'm the ISP-- The law is on my side.
Yeah, they might not take your cable modem. But they will soon be able to tell you how you can use it. Here in Tennessee the battle has already begun. See Tennessee Digital Freedom and slashdot which was used to organize the fight.
Shawn
Using MySQL for database.
Then use phpMyAdmin to export structure to SQL.
Then use perl SQL-Translator to convert from SQL to XML.
Then use XSLT (saxon engine) with a script to convert scheme into a set of persistent classes.
Took one day to figure it out. One day to write the script. Presto, 30 class files and about 1500 lines of code. One day to debug (just had to edit the script). Three days to a set of working persistent classes. The database schema has been updated several times since then. Each time took about 1 minute to update all the code, and I didn't have to worry about typing errors.
All open source tools.
I saw a letter to Dr. Dobbs recently that was saying that XML needed to have the ability to embed things like Visual Basic and javascript in it to be really useful. I think that this is a horrible idea. The whole point of XML was to have a generic data model, i.e. one parser to rule them all.
I've been able to do thing like export MySQL schemas into XML, then using XSLT generate an entire set of base classes providing persistent objects. What was once weeks worth of work, now takes an afternoon (from concept to final product). The whole set is entirely consistent, no misspelled names or changed signatures. When bugs were found, I fixed all the files in one place and rerun the XML/XSLT script. Massive productivity boost. If that isn't an argument on why XML doesn't suck I don't know what is.
The idea of embedding code in XML is a perverse distortion of what XML is really about. XML would suck if one uses it for unintended purposes. I don't use a hammer to tighten machine bolts, well I guess some people do.
Better yet, since each program is just a binary, it can be treated as a number.
Write a test script that takes a program as input. Now just feed that script 0, then feed it 1, then feed it 2, and keep incrementing till you get the result you want.
Oh, you might want to take a coffee break. It's going to take a little while to find the solution.
You mentioned "Geek" when the article was about Nerds. He said in the article that "Nerds" sat at table D. Have you ever bother to look up Geek in a dictionary? Geek originally was a circus performer who specializes in biting heads off small animals. So good old Ozzie is an alpha Geek.
Nerds are usually passively antisocial.
Geeks are in your face weird.
And further more, for the least common denominator, they want to click on some media content on a web site and it just do whatever it's supposed to do. That means flash, sound, mp3s, midi, pictures, movies, whatever. Then they usually want to edit a few documents, maybe print some Xmas cards and look at photos from their digital camera. Email should just mysteriously work for them with little setup.
Linux has to overcome the video codec problems (lack thereof), and get some games before the average joe's needs are met. Till then the easiest install won't satisfy-- but it's a step in the right direction for these folks.
You can thank King Gilette of disposable razor blade fame for this business model.
Wrong, you can thank Edison's power company. In order to generate customers they gave aways things like electric toasters and subsidized appliances like electric stoves and refrigerators.
I remember in middle school digging around in a library till I found a cookbook for making crystals. My favorite was the piezoelectric crystal. I decided to make one. I got a chemical supply catalog, wrote up my list and sent off the order. A few days later my dad was surprised by the DEA knocking on the door (these days I understand you're lucky if they knock). Oh those were the days.
I really enjoyed the film. Felt it left more things mysterious than the previous movie and the book. Loved the special effects. I want that for a screen saver-- music included.
The preview writers had real heartburn over this one. I saw several previews that gave one the impression that it was a horror film. I saw one preview that completely played on the love story aspect. Apparently this movie didn't fit any of hollywoods molds, which in my opinion is a wonderful thing in and of itself.
In front of me sat a row of middle age women who came to see a love story together. I heard mutterings of "How long is this damn movie" with revered silence for the love scenes. Then at then end they all looked at each other in shock and the loud one spoke up and said, "Clooney's Ass Ain't Worth Six Bucks!"
I think it's a good correlation. I've been a computer user for the last seventeen years. In the first fifteen of those years, I had one drive go bad. In the last two years, I'm going through them like butter.
What I think is happening is that manufacturers are exploring the cheapness threshold that consumers are willing to tolerate in their push for higher densities. Once it crosses too deeply that economic threshold, they pull back and make them just reliable enough to keep the average consumer content.
I'm personally hoping that a more expensive drive is released that is more reliable. I'm willing to pay extra for a critical component in my computer needs.