Some folks HAVE to use the USPS. Particularly for those of us in Hawai'i (and Alaska), UPS/FEDEX/DHL are insanely expensive. And yes, when an on-line seller won't use the USPS, we just don't do business with them. I can rant for hours about how good Amazon (gasp!) is with USPS shipping, and how bad their "partners" are because most refuse to use USPS.
My wife and I are galloping into middle age, and yes, computers are HARD to use as you age. Tiny type that can be read by a 16-year-old, but no one older, but what is worse, over-sensitive input devices (yes , the mouse!).
We use large type and trackballs (thanks Logitech!) and definitely recommend trackballs to all of our contemporaries and elders.
Some kind of compensating mouse will be of little use to people who do graphic drawing, where good precision is needed. Any who anyway decreed that an icon had to be hit exactly on the pixel, in order to work?
He links to many other very interesting blogs. Sometimes macabre, because the real world has become that way, too.
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/
Little Green Footballs offers a very clear picture of the current war situation. They use the enemy's own words to paint the picture, you don't need a commentator to tell you how much hate there is, or who the bad guys are, and who their intended targets are (yes, you...and me, all of us).
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/
James Lileks is always a good read. He shoots it onto the website (paper?) directly from his brain. He is of my generation and has been through many of the changes (political and social) that I have experienced.
Economics affects all our lives, whether you want to or not, you are part of the economic system. Best to read up on it and understand what is going on.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm
How numbers and statistics are distorted out of all proportion. Based in the UK, the lessons are the same everywhere. Very much up to date.
http://www.coxandforkum.com/
And maybe if you like your blogs just to be pictures (with a few words here and there), here they are.
http://victorhanson.com/index.html
Victor Davis Hansen is one of the most readable people today who has a strong understanding of the military (and world-political) situation we are in. Always thoughtful, always insightful. (good books too)
http://cellar.org/iotd.php
More pictures for those who don't want to read too much.
http://www.belmontclub.blogspot.com/
More on military matters. Well, we are in a war, ya know. Best to learn all you can about it.
This state is particularly famous for over-licensing (rather like Hawaii). The most recent court case involved people failing the "florist test" year after year. Without the license, they could not sell flowers.
My personal experience has been that when an organization builds a fantastic, expensive new building, the organization itself is on the verge of failure, and you can expect it to be out of business in a very short time.
>> I haven't heard anyone say they are using Framemaker for serious development of anything in years.
Well some very large corporations are using it, because they have vast amounts of paperwork they must manage.
But my very positive experience was using it to create a very complex and large book with many images in it. M$ word just could not handle a large document with many images. Barfs regularly and suffers from the BIG RED X problem with only a few images pasted in.
Now, that said, I've recently tried using OpenOffice to remake that large document, and it shows a lot of promise.
Maybe I'll find a viable alternative to FrameMaker yet!
Hmmm, corporations at least are trying to make a buck for their shareholders (40% of American people these days, not just Scrooge McDuck swimming in his basement). They do need to influence policy decisions, since Gov policy these days severely affects business. If gov policy had no effect on business, there would be no attempt to influence decisions.
Corruption? Unlikely. If you want to see some corruption, take a look at Saddam and his "oil for protection" business:
http://rogerlsimon.com/archives/00000708.htm
Now, THAT is corruption by vicious killers to protect themselves from the bad old USA.
Not that bad, but my first computing job was in a test area where they were trying to destructively smash components until they broke. The noise was pretty bad at times.
Worse, the halls outside the computer room door were full of forklifts buzzing here and there. I always wondered if a known hazzard of software development was being run down by a forklift on the job.
Amen. Worst airline I've ever been forced to deal with. Worse yet was ATA (not forced to use this airline) which is not only worst, but far more dangerous.
Sadly no longer with us. These are
wonderful books. They appeal at
one level with my geeky outlook,
giving vast detail on how to
sail a square-rigged ship.
In addition, interesting characters,
intrigue (much like John LeCarre novels),
an excellent portrait of the world in
1800, as seen from the deck of
a ship.
Another candidate for re-reading, these
books stand up to regular repeats, and
reward the reader again and again.
Nightwatch was very satisfying for me. I've
read some negative reviews on the web, etc,
and maybe expected less-than-good, but
instead was very happy with the book.
This book requires having read SOME
of the previous watch books, to get the
feel for the characters and world. In a
way, this is a kind of parody of the
already-parody diskworld, the
characters and events turning into
themselves. The richness and depth is great,
as I said, satisfying like a fine meal.
Terry creates a great character
with Vimes, and he is maturing
and getting better with each
new book, IMHO.
BTW, anyone share my enjoyment of
re-reading Pratchett books? I find
that revisiting the books from time
to time is very rewarding. Not all authors
can be re-read successfully. (of course
LOTR is great for re-reading, too).
Remember the Italian Restaurant that was really a time-warp spaceship? Arguing with the waiter over the bill caused changes in the space-time continuum, driving the ship along.
When ever ANYONE says that the "government should promote" something, it only means that the taxpayers and consumers will be left with a huge bill and little to show for it.
The vast, useless wind farms of the 1970-80's period are a typical example.
may appear dated too, but the concepts are timeless, and NO ONE in industry has yet to do it right, after all these years, and all these books, and all those bucks spent on failed bloated projects, and all those programmers burned out, etc, etc.
In about.5 hrs, I was able to extract the content from an OpenOffice text document, as well as a presentation, and feed them into other tools. This without trying to read any DTD's. Applying more effort would have yielded more functionality, but I was in a hurry, just trying to get some information out with some heirarchy to it.
Now, extracting the style is a different challenge, and of course style means different things to different people. But it is simply madness to try to extract content from Word and Powerpoint files for use elsewhere.
I used to work at a computer center where we ran a lot of weather and climate models. The state of modelling is far more primitive than most people think, even people in the computing business.
We found that even slight changes to initial conditions or, say, a 14th decimal position difference (maybe 1 bit in a 64-bit floating-point number) in calculations caused the model to veer off and produce completely different outcomes.
It is unwise to rely on computer models completely. A lot of different approaches help, where a human integrates many results and tries to come to a conclusion.
Remember that programmers and scientists can be lazy. They often use the same code kernels over and over, adding their own science to the calculations.
Slashdot Mirror
I have created Java code that makes image-heavy, interactive ebooks in several formats. It has been quite a learning experience.
Feel free to contact me off-group:
bobswansong "at"
gmail
"""dot"""
com
Some folks HAVE to use the USPS. Particularly for those of us in Hawai'i (and Alaska), UPS/FEDEX/DHL are insanely expensive. And yes, when an on-line seller won't use the USPS, we just don't do business with them. I can rant for hours about how good Amazon (gasp!) is with USPS shipping, and how bad their "partners" are because most refuse to use USPS.
My wife and I are galloping into middle age, and yes, computers are HARD to use as you age. Tiny type that can be read by a 16-year-old, but no one older, but what is worse, over-sensitive input devices (yes , the mouse!).
We use large type and trackballs (thanks Logitech!) and definitely recommend trackballs to all of our contemporaries and elders.
Some kind of compensating mouse will be of little use to people who do graphic drawing, where good precision is needed. Any who anyway decreed that an icon had to be hit exactly on the pixel, in order to work?
Oh yes, double click, too, needs to be changed.
Also used for many years to test/burn in all of the Cray supercomputers. Many thanks to Dave Slowinski!
For another project about uncertainty
in the battlefield, incidently helped
in its infancy by Van Riper, check
out:
http://www.projectalbert.org
http://www.fecesflingingmonkey.com
0 70 4.html
He links to many other very interesting blogs. Sometimes macabre, because the real world has become that way, too.
http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/
Little Green Footballs offers a very clear picture of the current war situation. They use the enemy's own words to paint the picture, you don't need a commentator to tell you how much hate there is, or who the bad guys are, and who their intended targets are (yes, you...and me, all of us).
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/
James Lileks is always a good read. He shoots it onto the website (paper?) directly from his brain. He is of my generation and has been through many of the changes (political and social) that I have experienced.
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0604/06
His piece on Reagan, a must read.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
Economics affects all our lives, whether you want to or not, you are part of the economic system. Best to read up on it and understand what is going on.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm
How numbers and statistics are distorted out of all proportion. Based in the UK, the lessons are the same everywhere. Very much up to date.
http://www.coxandforkum.com/
And maybe if you like your blogs just to be pictures (with a few words here and there), here they are.
http://victorhanson.com/index.html
Victor Davis Hansen is one of the most readable people today who has a strong understanding of the military (and world-political) situation we are in. Always thoughtful, always insightful. (good books too)
http://cellar.org/iotd.php
More pictures for those who don't want to read too much.
http://www.belmontclub.blogspot.com/
More on military matters. Well, we are in a war, ya know. Best to learn all you can about it.
http://www.americandigest.org/
Insightful, too.
Nope. Not Even Close.
Postal "spam" has existed since the
post office was first founded. In
the 19th Century, the typical
addressee would be:
The Best Farmer In
Smallville, Missouri
or
Progressive Businessman In
Littletown, Iowa
The worst was before stamps,
when all letters were
sent collect. If someone was dumb
enough to claim one of these, they
paid the postage!
Hmmm, kinda familiar.....
This state is particularly famous for
1 _0 4_a.asp
over-licensing (rather like Hawaii). The most
recent court case involved people failing
the "florist test" year after year. Without
the license, they could not sell flowers.
See:
http://www.ij.org/publications/liberty/2004/13_
An early Kurt Vonnegut book, and
possibly one of his best. Read it.
The issues he exposes are as appropriate
today as in 1959.
No different in Hawaii
My personal experience has been that
when an organization builds a fantastic,
expensive new building, the organization
itself is on the verge of failure, and you
can expect it to be out of business in
a very short time.
While it is fun to see how badly they mess up the warning signs, you can just make your own instead. The possibilities are limitless.
sign builder>> I haven't heard anyone say they are using Framemaker for serious development of anything in years.
Well some very large corporations
are using it, because they have vast
amounts of paperwork they must
manage.
But my very positive experience
was using it to create a very complex
and large book with many images
in it. M$ word just could not handle
a large document with many images. Barfs
regularly and suffers from the
BIG RED X problem with only a
few images pasted in.
Now, that said, I've recently tried
using OpenOffice to remake that large
document, and it shows a lot of promise.
Maybe I'll find a viable alternative
to FrameMaker yet!
Hmmm, corporations at least are trying
to make a buck for their shareholders (40%
of American people these days, not just
Scrooge McDuck swimming in his basement).
They do need to influence policy decisions,
since Gov policy these days severely
affects business. If gov policy had no effect
on business, there would be no attempt to
influence decisions.
Corruption? Unlikely. If you want to see
some corruption, take a look at Saddam
and his "oil for protection" business:
http://rogerlsimon.com/archives/00000708.htm
Now, THAT is corruption by vicious killers
to protect themselves from the bad old USA.
Not that bad, but my first computing
job was in a test area where they
were trying to destructively smash
components until they broke. The noise
was pretty bad at times.
Worse, the halls outside the computer
room door were full of forklifts buzzing
here and there. I always wondered if
a known hazzard of software development was
being run down by a forklift on the job.
Amen. Worst airline I've
ever been forced to deal with.
Worse yet was ATA (not forced
to use this airline) which is
not only worst, but far
more dangerous.
Sadly no longer with us. These are wonderful books. They appeal at one level with my geeky outlook, giving vast detail on how to sail a square-rigged ship.
In addition, interesting characters, intrigue (much like John LeCarre novels), an excellent portrait of the world in 1800, as seen from the deck of a ship.
Another candidate for re-reading, these books stand up to regular repeats, and reward the reader again and again.
Nightwatch was very satisfying for me. I've read some negative reviews on the web, etc, and maybe expected less-than-good, but instead was very happy with the book.
This book requires having read SOME of the previous watch books, to get the feel for the characters and world. In a way, this is a kind of parody of the already-parody diskworld, the characters and events turning into themselves. The richness and depth is great, as I said, satisfying like a fine meal.
Terry creates a great character with Vimes, and he is maturing and getting better with each new book, IMHO.
BTW, anyone share my enjoyment of re-reading Pratchett books? I find that revisiting the books from time to time is very rewarding. Not all authors can be re-read successfully. (of course LOTR is great for re-reading, too).
Remember the Italian Restaurant
that was really a time-warp
spaceship? Arguing with the
waiter over the bill caused changes
in the space-time continuum, driving
the ship along.
When ever ANYONE says that
the "government should promote"
something, it only means that the
taxpayers and consumers will
be left with a huge bill
and little to show for it.
The vast, useless wind farms
of the 1970-80's period
are a typical example.
Hmmmmph.
And while we are at it:
9 32 633439/qid=1066981565/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-313994 0-1652031?v=glance&s=books
Peopleware
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0
may appear dated too, but
the concepts are timeless,
and NO ONE in industry
has yet to do it right,
after all these years,
and all these books,
and all those bucks spent on
failed bloated projects,
and all those programmers burned
out, etc, etc.
I believe that books carry no
duty in the US, especially
used books.
In about .5 hrs, I was able to
extract the content from an
OpenOffice text document, as
well as a presentation, and feed them
into other tools. This without
trying to read any DTD's. Applying
more effort would have yielded more
functionality, but I was in a hurry,
just trying to get some information
out with some heirarchy to it.
Now, extracting the style is a different
challenge, and of course style
means different things to different
people. But it is simply madness to try
to extract content from Word
and Powerpoint files for use elsewhere.
Oh yes, I used Saxon. Nice product.
I used to work at a computer center
where we ran a lot of weather and
climate models. The state of
modelling is far more primitive
than most people think, even
people in the computing business.
We found that even slight changes to
initial conditions or, say, a 14th
decimal position difference (maybe
1 bit in a 64-bit floating-point
number) in calculations
caused the model to veer off
and produce completely different
outcomes.
It is unwise to rely on computer models
completely. A lot of different approaches
help, where a human integrates many
results and tries to come to a
conclusion.
Remember that programmers and
scientists can be lazy. They often use
the same code kernels over and over,
adding their own science to
the calculations.
A science fiction author who
illuminated these issues about
50 years ago. Always worth a read.
http://cordwainersmith.com/