Funny, every time I watch it, I keep hearing it as "Dogbert". And I picture Scully and the little round Dilbert character getting out of an FBI Ford Tarus with sidearms ready to take on the latest sci-fi freak or government conspericy in a zany TV / Comic crossover that never should have been...
But maybe that's just me.
Re:Tandys, take a lickin keep on tickin
on
Tandys Never Die
·
· Score: 1
I have to know... is that incident where you got that handle from? Or just a concequence of the same?
Re:How about bringing it back??
on
Tandys Never Die
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· Score: 1
Um... I hope this is sarcastic, but it just doesn't seem like it is, so I'll bite:
If you get rid of the (now) craptastic screen, make it thinner, and give it PalmOS, then what, exactly is seperating it from a Palm Pilot?
If you're trying to be cute and say, these things do exist in a toung-in-cheek manner, then well, you didn't come across that way. But otherwise, WTF?
...the TRS-80 books on BASIC were/are the BEST I have ever seen. I would use them on a college level because they break it down so nicely.
I couldn't agree more. I've been looking for copies of those books for a couple years now. Mainly just to find out who wrote them so I can get my hands on books of that caliber in real languages such as C.
I've looked for them on eBay and seen similar books, but never the ones that came with my CoCo 3. Programing in Extended Color BASIC 3, I think it was called. And of course there were a couple others, referance manuals and a guide to working with and programing for the optional 5 1/4" disk drive.
If you (or anyone for that matter) can tell me who actually WROTE those books (especially the main BASIC book for the CoCo 3) or point me to where I can pick one up myself, please let me know!
They were literaly written so well a 6 year old could understand them and start writing real programs (not just "Hello world!"). I know, because I *was* 6 when I started using my CoCo 3.
Yes, Virginia, there are Tandy emulators. My first PC was a non-portable version of the Trash 80, the Tandy Color Computer 3. The CoCo 3, as it was lovingly called came with a new fangled version of the Tandy/MS BASIC called Extended Color Basic, with advanced features such as color output, lowercase characters (WOW NOW I CAN WRITE BASIC THAT WILL OUTPUT IN LOWERCASE TOO?!?! W00T!) and a eye-killing nuclear green screen with a unique, wild cursor. Very wild layout compared with the calm CLIs of today.
I drink to prepare for a fight; tonight I'm very prepared. -Soda Popinksi
Your sig (and all of the other quotes from that particular Punchout! character) are a lot funnier when you use the character's origional name from the arcade version - Vodka Drunkinski
I will concede that you're probably right about programming not being a field where a non-expert would make a good manager.
However, your points do not illustrate this. Every one of those points represents a blunder on the part of someone other than a coder or lower level manager. Marketing decisions are not made by entry level coders. Weather to go with a GUI or CLI is not a decision made by a low level coder or bottom rung manager either. It'll be made at the top of the project, if not the top of the company itself. You also don't have to be a coder to make a decision like that. Just look at the world around you. What do you see surviving in the market? There's your answer.
Yes, I understand your point, but it was made by your more abstract arguments (prevention of painting yourself into a corner with bad code style, etc.). But I still wonder if this is necessarily true. Wouldn't this depend on your company's structure? How well you trust your coders? Netscape in it's prime, for example had the best and brightest. I'm sure it's coders were allowed far more latitude than say, coders in a non-glamorous code sweatshop like Norton or Corel or IBM. From what I know of their corporate culture, The same would not be true of Microsoft, but for different reasons.
And let's not forget coders for non software-companies. I have a friend that's a coder for a major pharmaceutical company. Should his direct manager be someone with a pure coding background? I doubt it. Since they have needs that he's not 100% sure of himself. His boss is a coder, but he has degrees in chemistry and that's where he spent most of his career. My friend is from a pure code background and he recognizes that he lacks the expertise to manage coders in this specialized environment. In a way, yes this supports your argument. But I do know that my friend is a better coder than his boss, and I'd go so far as to say the rest of his team as well (it's why they hired him in the first place without a pharmaceutical or related background). Does his boss give him leeway with code he doesn't understand? Absolutely. That's what they hired him for. If his boss audited every line of code he wrote, he might as well write it himself and the company would save ~$80,000 (not sure) or so a year.
Also, what happens if you're managing a small but diverse team? Not just coders for instance? Should the manager have to be an expert in coding and graphics and promotion and whatever else is on his team? Should he have to have 5+ years experience in EACH FIELD just to be a lower level manager?
I don't know about you, but I'd rather have someone with good leadership skills who knows NOTHING about his/her subordinate's jobs but knows how to delegate authority and will listen to his/her people. All the skill in the world is a poor substitute for good leadership. You don't pay managers to do a job for your employees. You pay them to make sure that they CAN get it done.
I used to be a member of a search and rescue unit. At one point, we got a new commander. A Lieutenant Colonel. Great officer. But he was from a Logistics background. He knew nothing of SAR. But, he listened to his people, assembled the best staff, and fought for us at higher levels in the chain of command for the resources we needed. Our unit flourished under his command until he was promoted to a higher level of command. He was a good leader. And because he knew his limitations, he was able to lead (well!) in a field unfamiliar to him. Our Air Crews and Ground teams of course had people of the proper backgrounds leading them (it's 100% necessary on an operational level), but in an office type environment? Not really. Sometimes I'd rather have a good bureaucrat in my corner in a sufficiently politicized environment. It means your less likely to get your budget slashed or people taken away from you.
Would I always seek a manager with a related background to a job? Absolutely! But it's not the only way to make things work well.
I think you may have misunderstood. I'm not sure the poster is saying he's a professional programmer. It's not very clearly written, but I believe he's just an amateur coder who works with professional programmers and sees an opportunity to advance to management because no managers seem to understand coders at all. I don't see the problem there.
Ever read The Cuckoo's Egg? It's about an astronomer who finds a $0.75 accounting error on billing time on a mainframe. Since he's got some coding experience and management doesn't realize the scope of the problem at first (it was a cracker screwing up covering his tracks), they assign him to track down the problem since he's the one that first noticed it and opened his mouth about it.
To paraphrase his own words "The coders I work with say 'He's not much of a coder, but what a great astronomer!' while the other astronomers I know all say, 'He's not the best astronomer, but what a great programmer!'"
Just because someone isn't an expert in a job doesn't (always) mean they can't manage it. Especially true if one is managing workers in multiple fields. A good understanding of the job(s) is necessary, but I'm not sure the poster is seeking management because he "can't hack it" (sorry for the pun) as a coder.
A large part of the theory of advertising is "mindshare". One brand bombards you with it's name. When it comes time for you to purchace a product, you will think of brand x. Most likley purchasing it over a lesser known competitor. Of course this doesn't work for Pepsi if you hate Pepsi nad will only drink coke. But I see it already worked on you (at least the mindshare bit, perhaps not the purchasing bit) because you mention X10 cameras specificly. Sure you don't click through on them, but if you ignore them how do you know they're X10?
I know that when *I* buy a stereo/potato chips/whatever, I'm more inclined to believe that Pepsi is a quality product than Sams Club brand cola. Or Pioneer vs Radiotronics brand. Or Crest toothpaste vs the generic supermarket brand. It makes me biased. I've *heard of* these guys before! This sounds better than that! Does that mean I don't comparison shop? No, of course I do. But I think that it's silly to think that advertising has no affect on you.
First off, that price is for the space shuttle. The space shuttle costs more per pound than any other launch system because it's a manned system. It's saftey must be assured absolutly. A 85% chance of sucess is good enough for an unmanned rocket as building it to 95% might cost more than launching two or three identicle rockets at 85%! But you MUST have that 99.9...% percent chance of sucess on a manned system because of the crew, hence the astronomicle price.
Secondly, it cost NOTHING (in terms of weight) to launch this satelite. The hitchhiker program is a nice (virtually) costless program, because the weight that the participating satelites take up would have been needed anyway for ballast. (remember, these rockets need to be balanced correctly!) Hence, the only real extra expence of adding a hitchhiker payload is the extra planning involved.
Boeing (or whoever) needs that weight on theor rockets and they have to pay for it weather it's useful payload or just lead weights. So the hitchhiker program was born. Yes, companies doing these launches *could* charge for space on the launche vehicle even though they would otherwise have to pay for it themselves, but that would then technically be profit, not expence.
Also, remember that these are MILITARY cadets (Midshipmen actually). And remember that they ARE being paid. (You get paid while going to an academy, not much, but it is something). If these weren't military cadets, if they were active Naval or Air Force officers, how much do you think they'd be making? Not much, I can tell you that. Certainly less than any non-military peers in their field.
Remember labor is NOT a cost factor unless of course, it is. And in this case, it isn't. ( :
If the infinite improbability drive is virtually impossibility then it must be finite improbability.
If it's a finite improbability, we just need to know exactly how improbable it is (what ratio) and feed that number into the finiteimprobability device and a fresh cup of realy realy hot tea.
Brand new and better than that (It's illegal in several states, including Florida) is Sam Adam's Utopiat (it's not on their web site yet, but a local radio program had Jim Koch (Sam Adams' founder) pitching it earlier today). It's Fourty-something proof. To put this in perspective, most beers are 7 or 8 proof.
The problem there is that, let's face it. The reason you can log on to Gnutella or any other filesharing network and find almost any MP3 you're looking for is because of the sheer number of people ripping them from CDs. If this fantasy world were to become reality (which I think is highly improbable) then only a relativly few geeks would be left to feed the network. So you've then gone from a pool of say 2 Million active users to what? 2000? Note that the reason these numbers seem low is because it's only the ones that contribute (rip tracks) that count, not just anyone on the network.
Remember, there are MILLIONS of filesharing system users out there that are using prefabbed compaqs or Dells or iMacs and logging on though AOL who can barley figure out how to rip MP3s. Most of them are certainly not savy/brave enough to go out and order new hardware to hack past DRM.
My Asus motherboard manual reads like this too. Does that mean that the motherboard in the system I'm trping this on is a hoax too?
If you check out the "contact us" link, you'll see that the company has ties to Taiwan (supprise, supprise, same place Asus is based out of). I think that would explain the broken english. Would it have been more professional if he had a native english speaking person do the web site for him (or at least proof read it) yes. However if this is a small one person (or even if it's a handful of people) company, I can understand why it's quite rough.
Okay, let's say it is a hoax? What makes you think so other than the poor quality of the site?
Is the technology unfeasable? Is it that hard for you to wrap your mind around the possibility that someone managed to fit a 266MHz screamer in a Din slot? I know... I know... that kind of seems like an unbelievable amount of power, huh?
Seriously though, if you think this is a hoax, please point to something more solid than just poor web design and english.
Why did you chose to host your crapware on geocities? Why not something with a more liberal TOS? All I had to do was go here and report this crap. I expect that Trollmaster will be going offline shortly. Everyone else that's tired of this shit, please feel free to do the same.
Looks like I accidentially hit "Post Anonymously". For those that browse with ACs filtered out here was my comment:
Not only are you wrong about California as many have pointed out, but you're also wrong about the very state you live in. NJ does have energy competition. The New Jersey Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act was signed into law in Febuary 1999 and put into full effect on 1 August tht same year. This wasn't quietly signed into law either. I know because the state government has spent millions in TV and radio ads alone to let consumers know. There's even a web site.
What's wrong with this? I haven't used it, but I think the real test should be "does it work"? IF so, then great, he did something that WINE couldn't. If not, then so what, don't use it. Simple. And the reason to perpetuate windows apps is that they are currently the dominant standard. The same reason you don't see many web pages with embeded corel draw vector images.
You're kidding me, right?
Call Microsoft what you will, 'evil', monopolistic, untrustworthy, whatever. One thing they are *not* is stupid. FNANB / Circuit City was stupid to try DIVX (I know, I worked for them when they launched it. Despite big incentives for selling DIVX enabled players, I wouldn't unless a customer specificly requested the feature. (which never happened))
If Circuit City hadn't fallen on their collective faces with DIVX, MS *might* consider doing this. But Microsoft is a company that lears from the past and as it is, I see no way in hell this will happen. Perhaps time will prove me wrong, but I can't see MS doing something so... well, stupid.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm assuming this is a rhetorical question?
If not, well... China. ( :
Funny, every time I watch it, I keep hearing it as "Dogbert". And I picture Scully and the little round Dilbert character getting out of an FBI Ford Tarus with sidearms ready to take on the latest sci-fi freak or government conspericy in a zany TV / Comic crossover that never should have been...
But maybe that's just me.
I have to know... is that incident where you got that handle from? Or just a concequence of the same?
Um... I hope this is sarcastic, but it just doesn't seem like it is, so I'll bite:
If you get rid of the (now) craptastic screen, make it thinner, and give it PalmOS, then what, exactly is seperating it from a Palm Pilot?
If you're trying to be cute and say, these things do exist in a toung-in-cheek manner, then well, you didn't come across that way. But otherwise, WTF?
...the TRS-80 books on BASIC were/are the BEST I have ever seen. I would use them on a college level because they break it down so nicely.
I couldn't agree more. I've been looking for copies of those books for a couple years now. Mainly just to find out who wrote them so I can get my hands on books of that caliber in real languages such as C.
I've looked for them on eBay and seen similar books, but never the ones that came with my CoCo 3. Programing in Extended Color BASIC 3, I think it was called. And of course there were a couple others, referance manuals and a guide to working with and programing for the optional 5 1/4" disk drive.
If you (or anyone for that matter) can tell me who actually WROTE those books (especially the main BASIC book for the CoCo 3) or point me to where I can pick one up myself, please let me know!
They were literaly written so well a 6 year old could understand them and start writing real programs (not just "Hello world!"). I know, because I *was* 6 when I started using my CoCo 3.
Yes, Virginia, there are Tandy emulators. My first PC was a non-portable version of the Trash 80, the Tandy Color Computer 3. The CoCo 3, as it was lovingly called came with a new fangled version of the Tandy/MS BASIC called Extended Color Basic, with advanced features such as color output, lowercase characters (WOW NOW I CAN WRITE BASIC THAT WILL OUTPUT IN LOWERCASE TOO?!?! W00T!) and a eye-killing nuclear green screen with a unique, wild cursor. Very wild layout compared with the calm CLIs of today.
I drink to prepare for a fight; tonight I'm very prepared. -Soda Popinksi
Your sig (and all of the other quotes from that particular Punchout! character) are a lot funnier when you use the character's origional name from the arcade version - Vodka Drunkinski
Now someone mod me down accordingly, please. ( :
I stand corrected!
Actually (assuming two leading zeros, to make it an 8 bit word '00010100') is says: ^T
That's also assuming it's ASCII
I will concede that you're probably right about programming not being a field where a non-expert would make a good manager.
However, your points do not illustrate this. Every one of those points represents a blunder on the part of someone other than a coder or lower level manager. Marketing decisions are not made by entry level coders. Weather to go with a GUI or CLI is not a decision made by a low level coder or bottom rung manager either. It'll be made at the top of the project, if not the top of the company itself. You also don't have to be a coder to make a decision like that. Just look at the world around you. What do you see surviving in the market? There's your answer.
Yes, I understand your point, but it was made by your more abstract arguments (prevention of painting yourself into a corner with bad code style, etc.). But I still wonder if this is necessarily true. Wouldn't this depend on your company's structure? How well you trust your coders? Netscape in it's prime, for example had the best and brightest. I'm sure it's coders were allowed far more latitude than say, coders in a non-glamorous code sweatshop like Norton or Corel or IBM. From what I know of their corporate culture, The same would not be true of Microsoft, but for different reasons.
And let's not forget coders for non software-companies. I have a friend that's a coder for a major pharmaceutical company. Should his direct manager be someone with a pure coding background? I doubt it. Since they have needs that he's not 100% sure of himself. His boss is a coder, but he has degrees in chemistry and that's where he spent most of his career. My friend is from a pure code background and he recognizes that he lacks the expertise to manage coders in this specialized environment. In a way, yes this supports your argument. But I do know that my friend is a better coder than his boss, and I'd go so far as to say the rest of his team as well (it's why they hired him in the first place without a pharmaceutical or related background). Does his boss give him leeway with code he doesn't understand? Absolutely. That's what they hired him for. If his boss audited every line of code he wrote, he might as well write it himself and the company would save ~$80,000 (not sure) or so a year.
Also, what happens if you're managing a small but diverse team? Not just coders for instance? Should the manager have to be an expert in coding and graphics and promotion and whatever else is on his team? Should he have to have 5+ years experience in EACH FIELD just to be a lower level manager?
I don't know about you, but I'd rather have someone with good leadership skills who knows NOTHING about his/her subordinate's jobs but knows how to delegate authority and will listen to his/her people. All the skill in the world is a poor substitute for good leadership. You don't pay managers to do a job for your employees. You pay them to make sure that they CAN get it done.
I used to be a member of a search and rescue unit. At one point, we got a new commander. A Lieutenant Colonel. Great officer. But he was from a Logistics background. He knew nothing of SAR. But, he listened to his people, assembled the best staff, and fought for us at higher levels in the chain of command for the resources we needed. Our unit flourished under his command until he was promoted to a higher level of command. He was a good leader. And because he knew his limitations, he was able to lead (well!) in a field unfamiliar to him. Our Air Crews and Ground teams of course had people of the proper backgrounds leading them (it's 100% necessary on an operational level), but in an office type environment? Not really. Sometimes I'd rather have a good bureaucrat in my corner in a sufficiently politicized environment. It means your less likely to get your budget slashed or people taken away from you.
Would I always seek a manager with a related background to a job? Absolutely! But it's not the only way to make things work well.
I think you may have misunderstood. I'm not sure the poster is saying he's a professional programmer. It's not very clearly written, but I believe he's just an amateur coder who works with professional programmers and sees an opportunity to advance to management because no managers seem to understand coders at all. I don't see the problem there.
Ever read The Cuckoo's Egg? It's about an astronomer who finds a $0.75 accounting error on billing time on a mainframe. Since he's got some coding experience and management doesn't realize the scope of the problem at first (it was a cracker screwing up covering his tracks), they assign him to track down the problem since he's the one that first noticed it and opened his mouth about it.
To paraphrase his own words "The coders I work with say 'He's not much of a coder, but what a great astronomer!' while the other astronomers I know all say, 'He's not the best astronomer, but what a great programmer!'"
Just because someone isn't an expert in a job doesn't (always) mean they can't manage it. Especially true if one is managing workers in multiple fields. A good understanding of the job(s) is necessary, but I'm not sure the poster is seeking management because he "can't hack it" (sorry for the pun) as a coder.
You mean like this recent /. poll?
/. editors are bad at repeating articles / polls!
Sheesh! And people think the
A large part of the theory of advertising is "mindshare". One brand bombards you with it's name. When it comes time for you to purchace a product, you will think of brand x. Most likley purchasing it over a lesser known competitor. Of course this doesn't work for Pepsi if you hate Pepsi nad will only drink coke. But I see it already worked on you (at least the mindshare bit, perhaps not the purchasing bit) because you mention X10 cameras specificly. Sure you don't click through on them, but if you ignore them how do you know they're X10?
I know that when *I* buy a stereo/potato chips/whatever, I'm more inclined to believe that Pepsi is a quality product than Sams Club brand cola. Or Pioneer vs Radiotronics brand. Or Crest toothpaste vs the generic supermarket brand. It makes me biased. I've *heard of* these guys before! This sounds better than that! Does that mean I don't comparison shop? No, of course I do. But I think that it's silly to think that advertising has no affect on you.
Ewwwwww....
I have a feeling that this guy would love it though.
That's a scarry thought. Real life trolling through building materials.
First off, that price is for the space shuttle. The space shuttle costs more per pound than any other launch system because it's a manned system. It's saftey must be assured absolutly. A 85% chance of sucess is good enough for an unmanned rocket as building it to 95% might cost more than launching two or three identicle rockets at 85%! But you MUST have that 99.9...% percent chance of sucess on a manned system because of the crew, hence the astronomicle price.
Secondly, it cost NOTHING (in terms of weight) to launch this satelite. The hitchhiker program is a nice (virtually) costless program, because the weight that the participating satelites take up would have been needed anyway for ballast. (remember, these rockets need to be balanced correctly!) Hence, the only real extra expence of adding a hitchhiker payload is the extra planning involved.
Boeing (or whoever) needs that weight on theor rockets and they have to pay for it weather it's useful payload or just lead weights. So the hitchhiker program was born. Yes, companies doing these launches *could* charge for space on the launche vehicle even though they would otherwise have to pay for it themselves, but that would then technically be profit, not expence.
Also, remember that these are MILITARY cadets (Midshipmen actually). And remember that they ARE being paid. (You get paid while going to an academy, not much, but it is something). If these weren't military cadets, if they were active Naval or Air Force officers, how much do you think they'd be making? Not much, I can tell you that. Certainly less than any non-military peers in their field.
Remember labor is NOT a cost factor unless of course, it is. And in this case, it isn't. ( :
If the infinite improbability drive is virtually impossibility then it must be finite improbability.
If it's a finite improbability, we just need to know exactly how improbable it is (what ratio) and feed that number into the finite improbability device and a fresh cup of realy realy hot tea.
Brand new and better than that (It's illegal in several states, including Florida) is Sam Adam's Utopiat (it's not on their web site yet, but a local radio program had Jim Koch (Sam Adams' founder) pitching it earlier today). It's Fourty-something proof. To put this in perspective, most beers are 7 or 8 proof.
IT'S BEER YOU CAN SET ON FIRE!!!
The problem there is that, let's face it. The reason you can log on to Gnutella or any other filesharing network and find almost any MP3 you're looking for is because of the sheer number of people ripping them from CDs. If this fantasy world were to become reality (which I think is highly improbable) then only a relativly few geeks would be left to feed the network. So you've then gone from a pool of say 2 Million active users to what? 2000? Note that the reason these numbers seem low is because it's only the ones that contribute (rip tracks) that count, not just anyone on the network.
Remember, there are MILLIONS of filesharing system users out there that are using prefabbed compaqs or Dells or iMacs and logging on though AOL who can barley figure out how to rip MP3s. Most of them are certainly not savy/brave enough to go out and order new hardware to hack past DRM.
My Asus motherboard manual reads like this too. Does that mean that the motherboard in the system I'm trping this on is a hoax too?
If you check out the "contact us" link, you'll see that the company has ties to Taiwan (supprise, supprise, same place Asus is based out of). I think that would explain the broken english. Would it have been more professional if he had a native english speaking person do the web site for him (or at least proof read it) yes. However if this is a small one person (or even if it's a handful of people) company, I can understand why it's quite rough.
Okay, let's say it is a hoax? What makes you think so other than the poor quality of the site?
Is the technology unfeasable? Is it that hard for you to wrap your mind around the possibility that someone managed to fit a 266MHz screamer in a Din slot? I know... I know... that kind of seems like an unbelievable amount of power, huh?
Seriously though, if you think this is a hoax, please point to something more solid than just poor web design and english.
Has anyone ever read the book CIA and the cult of intelligence ?
Anyone notice the blank line at the top of this article?
What's going on here? I smell a censor!
The cia has [deleted] civil liberties
[deleted] Former Director [delted]
without any thought
[deleted]
won't stand for this!
(please don't mod this down if you haven't read the book)
Why did you chose to host your crapware on geocities? Why not something with a more liberal TOS? All I had to do was go here and report this crap. I expect that Trollmaster will be going offline shortly. Everyone else that's tired of this shit, please feel free to do the same.
Looks like I accidentially hit "Post Anonymously". For those that browse with ACs filtered out here was my comment:
Not only are you wrong about California as many have pointed out, but you're also wrong about the very state you live in. NJ does have energy competition. The New Jersey Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act was signed into law in Febuary 1999 and put into full effect on 1 August tht same year. This wasn't quietly signed into law either. I know because the state government has spent millions in TV and radio ads alone to let consumers know. There's even a web site.
What's wrong with this? I haven't used it, but I think the real test should be "does it work"? IF so, then great, he did something that WINE couldn't. If not, then so what, don't use it. Simple. And the reason to perpetuate windows apps is that they are currently the dominant standard. The same reason you don't see many web pages with embeded corel draw vector images.
You're kidding me, right?
Call Microsoft what you will, 'evil', monopolistic, untrustworthy, whatever. One thing they are *not* is stupid. FNANB / Circuit City was stupid to try DIVX (I know, I worked for them when they launched it. Despite big incentives for selling DIVX enabled players, I wouldn't unless a customer specificly requested the feature. (which never happened))
If Circuit City hadn't fallen on their collective faces with DIVX, MS *might* consider doing this. But Microsoft is a company that lears from the past and as it is, I see no way in hell this will happen. Perhaps time will prove me wrong, but I can't see MS doing something so... well, stupid.
So that's what a "Hrung" is!