The Ruby on Rails book was done particularly well. They did most of the writing before it went beta. When you buy the beta book, you get a personalized PDF (to discourage further distribution), and eventually the PDF of the final book (as well as interim editions).
I was planning on buying the 'Dead Tree' version anyway as soon as it was released, so I sprung for the combo pack... Beta versions now, Final PDF and Dead Tree version when released.
I'm not sure this would work for every type technical book. Ruby on Rails might be unique because (a) it's become very popular very quickly and (b) there isn't definitive documentation yet and (c) the authors are considered experts in the field.
I don't think it would work for a Perl or a Python book, because there is already lots of quality documentation. I think it would work best rapidly developing projects.
I've seen Wikis used for similar projects (the Textpattern book at Textpattern.net comes to mind) but as much as I love wikis (and I do love wikis) good writing isn't easy.
A small group of skilled people are better than a large group of not-so-skilled people. It sounds like a universal truth... I wonder if this law has got a name (like Murphy or Godwin).
It also made some of his novels (I'm thinking David Copperfield) go on and on and on an ON. Also, there's the 'dropped thread'. In one book (I forget which) there was a lady who was a 'little person'. Her thread gets dropped somewhere in the middle of the story. She makes a perfunctory appearance in one of the final chapters, as if Dickens says "Oops, forgot about the midget".
Linux has lost momentum, but so has Windows. IE no longer has 90% of market share.
Jobs said Intel Macs could run Windows, but he says "who would want to?". I think he's being disingenuous. I for one, would love to be able to dual boot Windows and OS X on an Intel-powered Powerbook. That's one less computer I need on my desk.
Mark my words: more machines that _can_ run Mac OS X means more machines that _will_ run Mac OS X. Apple better have a good plan to make a Windows partition and an even better plan to reclaim abandoned Windows partitions.
Both Motorola and IBM have dicked around with Apple by not advancing the PPC.
Apple had production delays because IBM couldn't get chips out fast enough. No higher-speed G5 chips and no releasable G5 laptop compelled Jobs to do this in the first place.
I for one, welcome our new Intel overlords, if only for one reason: On my iMac DV SE (circa 2000) Mac OS X has been getting snappier with each release with the same G3 processor. I can't imagine how fast it will be on modern Intel hardware.
It's 24 years after the first Indiana Jones movie and according to Wikipedia, it's set in 1936.
So... 1936 + 24 = 1960.
Indiana Jones and the Red Menace Indiana Jones and the Beaver Cleaver Indiana Jones meets Sputnik Indiana Jones goes "On The Road" with the Beaniks Indiana Jones and the Two Car Garage Indiana Jones vs. Cassius Clay
I guess I was commenting on parent poster's claim that copying the iPod interface is 'wrong' and copying the Outlook interface is 'okay'. I frankly don't see that much of a difference.
I guess I have a problem with the whole point of the article: "Look, Evolution and Kontact look so much like Outlook therefore they must be just as good".
I don't mind people implementing functionality, even in a manner similar to the 'original' (because after all, the original MS Word program copied from MacWrite). The last 20 years have pretty much proved that all word processing programs will look kinda similar. OpenOffice will be a success not because it looks just like MS Word, but because it beats MS Word on price, functionality, and performance.
Outlook is pretty good, but it's not the 'be all and end all'. Evolution is so similar to Outlook (ie: the navigation bar) that you might as well call it "Convergent Evolution". I'm not familiar with either Evolution or Kontact. Is there a side-by-side breakdown by functionality and not screenshot? That's a more useful article and worth slashdotting...:-)
The broadcast networks are charging top dollar for advertising.
Somebody's making money on TV. They will continue to make money, despite my fair use right to make a copy for my private use.
MPAA turned the VCR into a tremendous revenue stream. For them to demand the broadcast flag without one shred of evidence that they're being hurt by my fair use rights is unmitigated gall. Show me some damages and I'll think about it.
I want to keep that set carpenter hippie that met his wife on the set of the Big Chill employed, I really do, but I don't see how if I burn episodes of "the Wire" to DVD so I can watch them later harms him. Glickman is going to have to come up with some big brib.. er... donations to get my Congressman to agree.
>>Stealing the interface of an iPod is stealing the iPod.
Stealing the interface of Outlook is stealing Outlook.
I have a lot more respect for Apple (for Address Book and iCal) and OSAF (for Chandler) for their attempts at an "Outlook Killer" than I do for these two examples.
In the late 1990s, I was using Day Timer Organizer. It was essentially an electronic version of their paper organizer. For what it was, I thought it rocked... I switched to Outlook because of the integration between contacts and email (and it was on my new computer). In other words, I switched for a functionality.
>>most Open Source coders look at something that already exists, and try to mirror its functionality.
I think your comment does a disservice to Open Source coders that _don't_ do that. The real heroes are the ones that create an entirely new take on an existing problem. They're the ones who are pushing the envelope and they get my respect, open or closed.
Um, better performance is a functionality. Faster startup times is a functionality.
Also, refactoring isn't an either/or, it's both. Nothing precludes you from refactoring while you add features. In fact, Martin Fowler (who wrote "Refactoring") says:
When you find you have to add a feature to a program, and the program's code is not structured in a convenient way to add the feature, first refactor the program to make it easy to add the feature, then add the feature.
As for "rewrite vs. refactor", that might be true for relatively small changes, but when you're talking about a large project like OOo, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Sheesh, 100 comments on the proper use of the word LEGO and only two on the casting. Only on slashdot...
I think it's amazing they were able to get the voice talent they got. Maybe Adam West is easy to get, but Hammil, Van Dyke, and Ms. CTS don't need the work. Good casting!
Also, why isn't Time Warner (who owns Batman) all over this with a C&D? I guess we should be grateful for small favors.
Re:what about plotting waypoints on the map?
on
Mapping Google Maps
·
· Score: 1
Competition is good.
I used to use Mapquest for maps (because they had aerial photos) but when they cheaped out, I tried maps.yahoo.com and got hooked.
Another reason I switched is I felt that Mapquest seemed to only feature its partners (like holiday inn hotels). Yahoo also features its partners, but at least that includes Marriott hotels (and that's where my points accumulate).
It seems that the Google Maps beta already looks nicer than Yahoo and Mapquest. If they can avoid icky ad placement (which I have complete faith they will), then they've got another winner, IMHO.
The only problem I found so far: I searched for an address in "Des Planes, Illinois" and got no results. Turns out that it's spelled "Des Plaines". It's a minor quibble, but Google seems to know when I misspell ever other fcuking word.
"last night I went though an Electronic Botique with her"
And you're still married? This happened to me and my wife exactly once. I was going to a neighboring town expressly to go game shopping. Wife wanted to tag along and combine trips, so I told her she could, but she couldn't complain.
She lasted 4 minutes and then excused herself to the Borders Bookstore next door. I'm surprised she lasted that long.
We've had an uneasy truce over PS2 ever since. Fortunately, she sleeps in on weekends and I wake up at 5 AM.
As these ridiculous examples come to surface, you'll see more public momentum to freeing culture.
It's bad enough that only DC and Marvel can use the (obviously generic, but actually trademarked) term Super-Hero.
It was only 24 years ago that a wrestler took the name Hulk Hogan. Nobody seemed to mind back then. Why is it that we have to avoid 'hulking males with green skin and tattered purple pants' in our video games?
Any why doesn't Marvel sue the pants off of DC with their obvious Hulk-ripoffs Soloman Grundy and Bizarro Superman? Maybe because Marvel rippedoff DC?
And how about the similarities between the civilian careers of Peter Parker and Clark Kent?
The whole super-hero scene is so full of rip-offs, homages, and influences they ought to be ashamed of their action.
Actually, they really ought to be ashamed of the Hulk movie, the more time that passes, the more violated I feel.
They were the cradle of the MIT Hackerdom and their efforts are the genesis of miniturization of electronics, RC airplanes, robot vehicles and a whole slew of electronics hobbies (house automation for one).
It's the governments business about marriage if things like divorce and child custody become civil issues.
For example, I tell everyone me and my lady are married. Then, after I trash her credit, I 'divorce' her. She would be mightily pissed. Oh, and I take her kid.
The government regulates all contracts for the public good.
Civil unions sidestep the whole marriage deal. If Bush _really_ wanted to pass an amendment, he should've passed one that guaranteed civil unions all, including gays.
But, it wouldn't have given the right-wing nut-jobs a hard-on.
Slashdot Mirror
He's already a better law enforcer than the GWB's choices.
Imagine if Spitzer in charge of the Microsoft Anti-trust case. Bill Gates would be selling pencils in Times Square.
The Ruby on Rails book was done particularly well. They did most of the writing before it went beta. When you buy the beta book, you get a personalized PDF (to discourage further distribution), and eventually the PDF of the final book (as well as interim editions).
I was planning on buying the 'Dead Tree' version anyway as soon as it was released, so I sprung for the combo pack... Beta versions now, Final PDF and Dead Tree version when released.
I'm not sure this would work for every type technical book. Ruby on Rails might be unique because (a) it's become very popular very quickly and (b) there isn't definitive documentation yet and (c) the authors are considered experts in the field.
I don't think it would work for a Perl or a Python book, because there is already lots of quality documentation. I think it would work best rapidly developing projects.
I've seen Wikis used for similar projects (the Textpattern book at Textpattern.net comes to mind) but as much as I love wikis (and I do love wikis) good writing isn't easy.
A small group of skilled people are better than a large group of not-so-skilled people. It sounds like a universal truth... I wonder if this law has got a name (like Murphy or Godwin).
It also made some of his novels (I'm thinking David Copperfield) go on and on and on an ON. Also, there's the 'dropped thread'. In one book (I forget which) there was a lady who was a 'little person'. Her thread gets dropped somewhere in the middle of the story. She makes a perfunctory appearance in one of the final chapters, as if Dickens says "Oops, forgot about the midget".
Make sure that you include the 'climb stair' extension, or else you can evade it by just going upstairs...
Dalek sez: "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"
Linux has lost momentum, but so has Windows. IE no longer has 90% of market share.
Jobs said Intel Macs could run Windows, but he says "who would want to?". I think he's being disingenuous. I for one, would love to be able to dual boot Windows and OS X on an Intel-powered Powerbook. That's one less computer I need on my desk.
Mark my words: more machines that _can_ run Mac OS X means more machines that _will_ run Mac OS X. Apple better have a good plan to make a Windows partition and an even better plan to reclaim abandoned Windows partitions.
Both Motorola and IBM have dicked around with Apple by not advancing the PPC.
Apple had production delays because IBM couldn't get chips out fast enough. No higher-speed G5 chips and no releasable G5 laptop compelled Jobs to do this in the first place.
I for one, welcome our new Intel overlords, if only for one reason: On my iMac DV SE (circa 2000) Mac OS X has been getting snappier with each release with the same G3 processor. I can't imagine how fast it will be on modern Intel hardware.
"YHBT YHL HAND"
Brad Pitt or Heidi Klum? Jobs might be lots of things, but he's not an actor/model, he's a businessman with an over 20-year proven track record.
If you want to make a fair comparison, at least say it's like inventing in Martha Stewart, or Donald Trump, or Warren Buffett.
It's 24 years after the first Indiana Jones movie and according to Wikipedia, it's set in 1936.
So... 1936 + 24 = 1960.
Indiana Jones and the Red Menace
Indiana Jones and the Beaver Cleaver
Indiana Jones meets Sputnik
Indiana Jones goes "On The Road" with the Beaniks
Indiana Jones and the Two Car Garage
Indiana Jones vs. Cassius Clay
The possibilities are endless... ly Stupid.
Point taken.
:-)
I guess I was commenting on parent poster's claim that copying the iPod interface is 'wrong' and copying the Outlook interface is 'okay'. I frankly don't see that much of a difference.
I guess I have a problem with the whole point of the article: "Look, Evolution and Kontact look so much like Outlook therefore they must be just as good".
I don't mind people implementing functionality, even in a manner similar to the 'original' (because after all, the original MS Word program copied from MacWrite). The last 20 years have pretty much proved that all word processing programs will look kinda similar. OpenOffice will be a success not because it looks just like MS Word, but because it beats MS Word on price, functionality, and performance.
Outlook is pretty good, but it's not the 'be all and end all'. Evolution is so similar to Outlook (ie: the navigation bar) that you might as well call it "Convergent Evolution". I'm not familiar with either Evolution or Kontact. Is there a side-by-side breakdown by functionality and not screenshot? That's a more useful article and worth slashdotting...
Just pull your content off broadcast TV already!
If you can make more money elsewhere, please do.
The broadcast networks are charging top dollar for advertising.
Somebody's making money on TV. They will continue to make money, despite my fair use right to make a copy for my private use.
MPAA turned the VCR into a tremendous revenue stream. For them to demand the broadcast flag without one shred of evidence that they're being hurt by my fair use rights is unmitigated gall. Show me some damages and I'll think about it.
I want to keep that set carpenter hippie that met his wife on the set of the Big Chill employed, I really do, but I don't see how if I burn episodes of "the Wire" to DVD so I can watch them later harms him. Glickman is going to have to come up with some big brib.. er... donations to get my Congressman to agree.
>>Stealing the interface of an iPod is stealing the iPod.
Stealing the interface of Outlook is stealing Outlook.
I have a lot more respect for Apple (for Address Book and iCal) and OSAF (for Chandler) for their attempts at an "Outlook Killer" than I do for these two examples.
In the late 1990s, I was using Day Timer Organizer. It was essentially an electronic version of their paper organizer. For what it was, I thought it rocked... I switched to Outlook because of the integration between contacts and email (and it was on my new computer). In other words, I switched for a functionality.
>>most Open Source coders look at something that already exists, and try to mirror its functionality.
I think your comment does a disservice to Open Source coders that _don't_ do that. The real heroes are the ones that create an entirely new take on an existing problem. They're the ones who are pushing the envelope and they get my respect, open or closed.
Although applying ROT13 to a 13-letter alphabet would be pointless.
Let's see... Two heads, three arms. If other appendages follow the same pattern, I'm going to guess 2.5 zaphods in a trillian.
No wonder poor Arthur can't make a dent.
Also, refactoring isn't an either/or, it's both. Nothing precludes you from refactoring while you add features. In fact, Martin Fowler (who wrote "Refactoring") says:
As for "rewrite vs. refactor", that might be true for relatively small changes, but when you're talking about a large project like OOo, you don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Sheesh, 100 comments on the proper use of the word LEGO and only two on the casting. Only on slashdot...
I think it's amazing they were able to get the voice talent they got. Maybe Adam West is easy to get, but Hammil, Van Dyke, and Ms. CTS don't need the work. Good casting!
Also, why isn't Time Warner (who owns Batman) all over this with a C&D? I guess we should be grateful for small favors.
Competition is good.
I used to use Mapquest for maps (because they had aerial photos) but when they cheaped out, I tried maps.yahoo.com and got hooked.
Another reason I switched is I felt that Mapquest seemed to only feature its partners (like holiday inn hotels). Yahoo also features its partners, but at least that includes Marriott hotels (and that's where my points accumulate).
It seems that the Google Maps beta already looks nicer than Yahoo and Mapquest. If they can avoid icky ad placement (which I have complete faith they will), then they've got another winner, IMHO.
The only problem I found so far: I searched for an address in "Des Planes, Illinois" and got no results. Turns out that it's spelled "Des Plaines". It's a minor quibble, but Google seems to know when I misspell ever other fcuking word.
"last night I went though an Electronic Botique with her"
And you're still married? This happened to me and my wife exactly once. I was going to a neighboring town expressly to go game shopping. Wife wanted to tag along and combine trips, so I told her she could, but she couldn't complain.
She lasted 4 minutes and then excused herself to the Borders Bookstore next door. I'm surprised she lasted that long.
We've had an uneasy truce over PS2 ever since. Fortunately, she sleeps in on weekends and I wake up at 5 AM.
Do firetruck missions. The ice cream truck shows up eventually. Put out the fire and it's yours.
Laura Bush has killed more people with her car than you have with your rifle. So what?
By your logic Dago and Polack should all be fine to use, because they refer to a subset of White people.
Hmmm....
They were just waiting for his replacement.
Might as well put a guy who actually went to the moon in the top position at NASA.
As these ridiculous examples come to surface, you'll see more public momentum to freeing culture.
It's bad enough that only DC and Marvel can use the (obviously generic, but actually trademarked) term Super-Hero.
It was only 24 years ago that a wrestler took the name Hulk Hogan. Nobody seemed to mind back then. Why is it that we have to avoid 'hulking males with green skin and tattered purple pants' in our video games?
Any why doesn't Marvel sue the pants off of DC with their obvious Hulk-ripoffs Soloman Grundy and Bizarro Superman? Maybe because Marvel ripped off DC?
And how about the similarities between the civilian careers of Peter Parker and Clark Kent?
The whole super-hero scene is so full of rip-offs, homages, and influences they ought to be ashamed of their action.
Actually, they really ought to be ashamed of the Hulk movie, the more time that passes, the more violated I feel.
Let's talk about Model Railroaders.
They were the cradle of the MIT Hackerdom and their efforts are the genesis of miniturization of electronics, RC airplanes, robot vehicles and a whole slew of electronics hobbies (house automation for one).
It's the governments business about marriage if things like divorce and child custody become civil issues.
For example, I tell everyone me and my lady are married. Then, after I trash her credit, I 'divorce' her. She would be mightily pissed. Oh, and I take her kid.
The government regulates all contracts for the public good.
Civil unions sidestep the whole marriage deal. If Bush _really_ wanted to pass an amendment, he should've passed one that guaranteed civil unions all, including gays.
But, it wouldn't have given the right-wing nut-jobs a hard-on.