We also have a Mustek A3 EP scanner where I work. We use it pretty often to scan 11x17 prints, and it works well for our needs. Be aware that it does not do very high resolutions, and I have never tested it with any OS other than Win98 (on an old computer we keep in the back).
... but there is always a price. The best trade-off (IMHO) for most situations is losing the 'D' when you're in NS4.x or IE4.x. You said:
I am seriously thinking of redoing my main page in Flash, primarily because it would be compatible with Netscape 4.x and the latest spiffy browsers. Flash seems to be more cross-platform than anything. It's not perfect, but sadly neither is Dynamic HTML.
By your comment, I assume that support for NS4.x is a priority for you. I could try to argue all of the reasons to deprecate NS4.x, but The Browser Upgrade Initiative and A List Apart do a much better job.
The bottom line is that you can create web sites that:
are beautiful in any of the 5.0+ browsers
are totally dynamic in any browser with Javascript and a reasonable implementation of the DOM
drop down into a clean top-down format in browsers with poor (or no) CSS support (that means that it is beautiful in Lynx as well)
and are acutally easier to create and maintain
If outside forces require that you make your sites all flashy in every concevable browser, then you have my sympathy. Every new browser will mean time-consuming maintenance, because pixel-perfect backwards compatability automatically precludes forwards compatability in today's web. If you don't need 100% accessability (screw those blind and non-Flash-liking people) Flash is probably your best answer. If you want a site that is a breeze to maintain, and don't mind giving older browsers a plainer page, (and maybe don't mind pushing the web forward a little instead of holding it back,) go with the latest web standards.
The GPL is not an end user licensing agreement because end users don't need to worry about it. Only non-end users (those who plan to redistribute) need to accept it.
You can get the educational visual studio really cheap at most Universities. Ohio State will give students a bundle with Windows, Office, Visual Studio, Visio and (I think) even Project for next to nothing. It's scary.
All software is data and all data (if it's in a computing machine) is software. Programmers split them up in order to facilitate talking about them, but when you get down to it your computer is a state machine. It might seem that the 'software' manipulates 'data', but it's just as true that 'data' manipulates 'software'. If you try to separate them for legal reasons, you will only make laws that make no sense (as they seem to have done).
Laws that rely on a distinction between software and data should be challenged as ambiguous and thrown out. Is that VHS tape a bunch of data? You bet it is, but it's also analog software that runs on your VCR to display moving pictures with sound. There was a slashdot article a while back about weather or not DVDs are software. Of course they are! And they are data also. I know that there are bad legal implications of this, but that's because the laws are bad!
We thought that we were bad off when we let legislators write laws, but now that we let media companies write them, things are even worse. Our legislative bodies need large influxes of mathematitions and programmers. Logic seems to be in short supply at the state and federal level - at least in the U.S. (not to mention local, but they're hopeless).
Other usefull (and obscure) shortcut keys
on
Computing Pet Peeves?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Here are some that I use quite often:
To save form data in IE (e.g. for later reference) before you submit it, hit alt-F4
To do an auto-save across multiple applications, hit ctrl-alt-. a few times (has to be the period on the numeric keypad with numlock off)
For a hidden easter-egg game in Windows, hit winkey-r (that's the key that has the Windows logo and 'r') and type regedit. The object is to delete as many of the evil keys as you can before time runs out. (I know you don't see a timer, but you'll know when time runs out).
Here in Ohio, the rule with phone conversations is that either party may record without the other's consent or knowledge. Third parties (especially law enforcement) need appropriate court authorization to record/listen in on those conversations. I think that that is reasonable and good. I think that the same should apply to IMs, e-mails, what-have-you. I don't see why there should be a difference when it is an e-mail. Digital communication should be the same as any other form of communication - why do they even write laws that differentiate?
What happens if tomorrow someone comes out with a speech compression scheme that uses a voice fingerprint and voice recognition/synthesis to compress voice communication into text? Next they throw it into the phone system to save bandwidth. Would that give Big Brother the right to listen to all your phone communications?
that annoying plastic sticker seal thing on the edge. By tearing that thing off, you are circumventing their copy protection. Next thing you know, your hands have been confiscated because they are circumvention devices.
-flame- -flame- -flame-
OK, I was just kidding. I love PostgreSQL, but even I realize that when you don't need stability, speed, good SQL compliance or... what was I saying again?
-flame- -flame- -flame-
Alright, back on topic, I'm pretty sure that you've been able to compile PHP4 for Apache 2.0 for quite a while now (at least the option has been there - maybe it's been broken?).
It is reassuring to see that the courts haven't thrown out fair use altogether, but (IMHO) the ruling that you can't link to offsite pictures has bad implications. If I put a link on my site, all it is is me telling you where to find such-and-such. Now I am not allowed to tell you that information? Can I give you a URL that you see as text? What if you end up viewing my text in an e-mail program that automatically makes my URL a link?
This is a great book just waiting to happen! The APIs and Object Model are well documented, but not documented well. They are cryptic as hell to read and you have to jump through about 12 pages to find any concrete info. Please write this book!
There also doesn't appear to be much corporate interest - Microsoft has moved its mindshare strategies to web services, leaving the only big backer of LDAP being Novell - not really a key industry player at this point.
Slap me with a strongly worded post if I am incorrect, but isn't Active Directory an LDAP implementation?
He mentions that the two memory slots would be better with little doors to keep stuff out, and he points out that the front panel buttons don't work unless the panel is all the way up or down. There is information on battery life (and Sharp's claims that it will get better.) Plus, it's not even the final product, so a real full review is not possible. Give them a break.
IE and MS Office running in a Linux-based environment! Evil? Probably. Capable of breaking the MS OS Monopoly? Maybe! (We can dream, can't we?) One thing is for sure, it sure looks pretty.
I liked his letter as well. Savvy? Yes. Patronizing? Who can say?
Most art - paintings, sculpture, music, drama - is alterable by its creator, but not by the patron.
Most professional artists I think would agree that, regardless of how static their art form is, the reader/viewer/listener always is a part of the equation. The patron's point of view, prejudices, even mood are all important. There have also been many attempts in the past to make overtly interactive art. Now, you could easily say that video games are more interactive than most other art forms.
I am very pleased with my new setup: old X-style focus-follows-the-mouse setup with all my big windows (Mozilla, Konsole) in shade mode. They de-shade themselves and come to the front on hover (after a short delay, of course). I keep EveryBuddy and KDE media player (with my.ogg playlist) over to the side so I have a partial view of them even when my bigger windows de-shade.
I can tell already that this is going to be a flame war, but here are my two cents:
PostgreSQL has stored procedures, unicode support, transactions, triggers, rules, and all sorts of other goodies! In fact, there is precious little that PostgreSQL doesn't have. I am using it for several projects at work, and I love it. It's great that MySQL is adding features, but it has a lot of catching up to do.
The US has poorly written laws. Our legislatures seem to be unconcerned with writing laws that are easy to interpret, so our courts have to decide what they should mean. Also, laws are never overturned (to my knowledge) for being ambiguous. Don't you hate that?
Security and freedom are not inversely related! You can easily take away someone's freedoms without giving them any more security (and the government is poised to do just that with anti-encryption laws).
But giving up freedoms in exchange for less security is another. Restricting cryptography will not keep tech-savy criminals from using it - they'll just use it in combination with stenography. Meanwhile, all of our legal communications will become less secure - poking holes in the security of law-abiding citizens. There is no good way to police anti-encryption laws - they will do little (if any) good.
Slashdot Mirror
We also have a Mustek A3 EP scanner where I work. We use it pretty often to scan 11x17 prints, and it works well for our needs. Be aware that it does not do very high resolutions, and I have never tested it with any OS other than Win98 (on an old computer we keep in the back).
... but there is always a price. The best trade-off (IMHO) for most situations is losing the 'D' when you're in NS4.x or IE4.x. You said:
By your comment, I assume that support for NS4.x is a priority for you. I could try to argue all of the reasons to deprecate NS4.x, but The Browser Upgrade Initiative and A List Apart do a much better job.
The bottom line is that you can create web sites that:
If outside forces require that you make your sites all flashy in every concevable browser, then you have my sympathy. Every new browser will mean time-consuming maintenance, because pixel-perfect backwards compatability automatically precludes forwards compatability in today's web. If you don't need 100% accessability (screw those blind and non-Flash-liking people) Flash is probably your best answer. If you want a site that is a breeze to maintain, and don't mind giving older browsers a plainer page, (and maybe don't mind pushing the web forward a little instead of holding it back,) go with the latest web standards.
The GPL is an EULA.
The GPL is not an end user licensing agreement because end users don't need to worry about it. Only non-end users (those who plan to redistribute) need to accept it.
That's nuke-u-lar.
You can get the educational visual studio really cheap at most Universities. Ohio State will give students a bundle with Windows, Office, Visual Studio, Visio and (I think) even Project for next to nothing. It's scary.
All software is data and all data (if it's in a computing machine) is software. Programmers split them up in order to facilitate talking about them, but when you get down to it your computer is a state machine. It might seem that the 'software' manipulates 'data', but it's just as true that 'data' manipulates 'software'. If you try to separate them for legal reasons, you will only make laws that make no sense (as they seem to have done).
Laws that rely on a distinction between software and data should be challenged as ambiguous and thrown out. Is that VHS tape a bunch of data? You bet it is, but it's also analog software that runs on your VCR to display moving pictures with sound. There was a slashdot article a while back about weather or not DVDs are software. Of course they are! And they are data also. I know that there are bad legal implications of this, but that's because the laws are bad!
We thought that we were bad off when we let legislators write laws, but now that we let media companies write them, things are even worse. Our legislative bodies need large influxes of mathematitions and programmers. Logic seems to be in short supply at the state and federal level - at least in the U.S. (not to mention local, but they're hopeless).
I remember a good article about Clear Channel on Salon.com a while back... here it is:
Radio's Big Bully
This one also looks relevant: Clear Channel an Illegal Monopoly
Here in Ohio, the rule with phone conversations is that either party may record without the other's consent or knowledge. Third parties (especially law enforcement) need appropriate court authorization to record/listen in on those conversations. I think that that is reasonable and good. I think that the same should apply to IMs, e-mails, what-have-you. I don't see why there should be a difference when it is an e-mail. Digital communication should be the same as any other form of communication - why do they even write laws that differentiate?
What happens if tomorrow someone comes out with a speech compression scheme that uses a voice fingerprint and voice recognition/synthesis to compress voice communication into text? Next they throw it into the phone system to save bandwidth. Would that give Big Brother the right to listen to all your phone communications?
that annoying plastic sticker seal thing on the edge. By tearing that thing off, you are circumventing their copy protection. Next thing you know, your hands have been confiscated because they are circumvention devices.
-flame- -flame- -flame- OK, I was just kidding. I love PostgreSQL, but even I realize that when you don't need stability, speed, good SQL compliance or ... what was I saying again?
-flame- -flame- -flame-
Alright, back on topic, I'm pretty sure that you've been able to compile PHP4 for Apache 2.0 for quite a while now (at least the option has been there - maybe it's been broken?).
I guy I know that goes to Case Western has FIBER running all the way into his computer! :_(
It is reassuring to see that the courts haven't thrown out fair use altogether, but (IMHO) the ruling that you can't link to offsite pictures has bad implications. If I put a link on my site, all it is is me telling you where to find such-and-such. Now I am not allowed to tell you that information? Can I give you a URL that you see as text? What if you end up viewing my text in an e-mail program that automatically makes my URL a link?
This is a great book just waiting to happen! The APIs and Object Model are well documented, but not documented well. They are cryptic as hell to read and you have to jump through about 12 pages to find any concrete info. Please write this book!
There also doesn't appear to be much corporate interest - Microsoft has moved its mindshare strategies to web services, leaving the only big backer of LDAP being Novell - not really a key industry player at this point.
Slap me with a strongly worded post if I am incorrect, but isn't Active Directory an LDAP implementation?
He mentions that the two memory slots would be better with little doors to keep stuff out, and he points out that the front panel buttons don't work unless the panel is all the way up or down. There is information on battery life (and Sharp's claims that it will get better.) Plus, it's not even the final product, so a real full review is not possible. Give them a break.
IE and MS Office running in a Linux-based environment! Evil? Probably. Capable of breaking the MS OS Monopoly? Maybe! (We can dream, can't we?) One thing is for sure, it sure looks pretty.
I liked his letter as well. Savvy? Yes. Patronizing? Who can say?
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Most art - paintings, sculpture, music, drama - is alterable by its creator, but not by the patron.
Most professional artists I think would agree that, regardless of how static their art form is, the reader/viewer/listener always is a part of the equation. The patron's point of view, prejudices, even mood are all important. There have also been many attempts in the past to make overtly interactive art. Now, you could easily say that video games are more interactive than most other art forms.
I am very pleased with my new setup: old X-style focus-follows-the-mouse setup with all my big windows (Mozilla, Konsole) in shade mode. They de-shade themselves and come to the front on hover (after a short delay, of course). I keep EveryBuddy and KDE media player (with my .ogg playlist) over to the side so I have a partial view of them even when my bigger windows de-shade.
My roommate's costume this year was a t-shirt that said "Costume" in scary letters - pretty amusing.
I can tell already that this is going to be a flame war, but here are my two cents: PostgreSQL has stored procedures, unicode support, transactions, triggers, rules, and all sorts of other goodies! In fact, there is precious little that PostgreSQL doesn't have. I am using it for several projects at work, and I love it. It's great that MySQL is adding features, but it has a lot of catching up to do.
The US has poorly written laws. Our legislatures seem to be unconcerned with writing laws that are easy to interpret, so our courts have to decide what they should mean. Also, laws are never overturned (to my knowledge) for being ambiguous. Don't you hate that?
Security and freedom are not inversely related! You can easily take away someone's freedoms without giving them any more security (and the government is poised to do just that with anti-encryption laws).
But giving up freedoms in exchange for less security is another. Restricting cryptography will not keep tech-savy criminals from using it - they'll just use it in combination with stenography. Meanwhile, all of our legal communications will become less secure - poking holes in the security of law-abiding citizens. There is no good way to police anti-encryption laws - they will do little (if any) good.