Because using Segway is so unlike anything out there in terms of personal transportation devices, the reseller better really teach people how to use it correctly. I have visions of clueless Segway riders crashing into other pedestrians and larger vehicles because they're not used to how to stop this scooter.
The automobile has been around for how long? What percentage of drivers out there would you say drove their vehicle "correctly?"
Re:Microsoft can't be to happy about this...
on
XBox Netplay Already
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My guess is that Microsoft will allow this and maybe even encourage it. All to sell as many X-Boxes as possible.
I am guessing not. They will want to nip this in the bud (see next comment). Only part of the money in X-Box is in up-front unit sales. They are no doubt counting on a lot of cash from recurring revenue (i.e. online service subscriptions).
Then in the next version of the X-Box or X-Box version 3 they will crack down and lock the system down.
They stand to lose a lot of goodwill if they wait too long. By that point, there will be huge communities, web sites, etc. rallied around this neat little hack. Maybe they could figure out a compromise (lock out only new games) but my guess is it won't take two generations of machines for this to happen.
I could have been clearer, but when I said "programming languages are like sets of tools," I meant that each language was a set of tools, not that languages are collectively a set of tools. My bad.
I can see some merit in that, but if you pass on maintenance to someone else, you could have just increased the number of people required to support the project, or require the new developers to learn more new languages before they can be useful.
I see your point, but if all teams used this reasoning, how would better languages (technologies) ever get developed? How does a system evolve when it has reached the limits of its underlying language/technologies?
There is always a learning curve when learning a new language/technology, but the more experienced (or talented) you are, the less steep this curve is, and the less a cause of concern it becomes when considering future maintenance requirements.
I don't think I'm alone when I say I actually look forward to working with a new language/technology, because it increases my skill set. At this point in my career I've worked with enough tools/technologies that I don't balk when a new one falls into my hands because I know it will probably work pretty similarly to others with which I'm already familiar: very few (good) technologies these days are so revolutionary as to confound even veterans.
I think your approach (and ones similar to it) make the most sense.
Programming languages are like sets of tools; the challenge is picking the right set for the job(s) at hand. I'm sure that given enough resolve, one could code a 3-D FPS game in perl (knowing our community, this has probably already been done). You can also get away with using a butter knife instead of a powerdrill in some instances. It doesn't mean it's the best use of tools or technology.
I've always been puzzled by people who are fanatic about a single language (or any single technology for that matter). You'd never hear a carpenter say, "I always use a chisel and hammer, no matter what the task."
A merchant's business model is a more immediate concern for its investors, not its patrons.
When Webvan went bust, did its customers rejoice or lament?
So long as a company delivers the goods and services it promises, why should the average customer care about its balance sheet?
And what "expense" are brick-and-mortar businesses paying? If their business models are so sound, why would they be so threatened by these "shaky" companies?
In anticipation of hundreds of redundant "big brother is watching" posts,
I challenge every poster who wants to tell us about all the problems inherent in a national ID card, to instead suggest alternative solutions that increase national security while protecting personal liberties and freedoms (or at least not infringing upon them).
Note: Suggesting appeasement of fundamentalist Muslim demands earns you no points. Let's hear some real ideas.
So USB audio makes a *lot* of sense for setups that simply want to do faithful MP3 playback --- a cheap Roland UA-30 will do SPDIF, TOSLINK, powers itself off the bus, and can sit yards away from your computer.
Note that a USB audio device is only going to be as good as your BIOS' USB support.
There are a lot of old/broken USB implementations in many BIOS' out there that will cause pops, drop-outs, and other lameness with your USB audio output, even with a decent gadget like the Roland UA-30.
Good summary, but it doesn't really seem that revolutionary or prescient to basically say (paraphrase) "games and game environments are going to get more realistic."
Most of the ideas he puts forth about birds, lampposts, and crickets seem motivated by long-standing notions about object-oriented systems, and it's pretty straightforward to project them onto the future of gaming.
Give credit where due
on
Bert Is Evil
·
· Score: 5, Informative
This is about two years old and was originally "Iraqi TV Guide".
I feel any practical introduction to programming needs to be grounded in some example language. What beginners need least is theory without reinforcing example.
That being said, O'Reilly's Practical C++ Programming has been a long-standing favorite recommendation of mine.
That would be kind of cool, but in all seriousness, continually rotating your wrist to reorient your palm would be no better for your carpal tunnel than those diabolical emacs key chords.
In a judicial system that does not respect precedents of higher courts, jurisprudence devolves to anarchy. Think of how (much more) easy it would be to corrupt the judicial process if judges didn't have to respect higher (and peer) judges' decisions.
A hierarchy of judicial authority goes hand in hand with the right to appeal your case to a higher court, and both are critical.
Microsoft recently announced that they plan to open up Hailstorm to the web at large, and allow different authentication "cells" to share Kerberos keys.
This tells me that they've decided that owning the authentication database (and associated user profile information) is not as valuable a proposition as having an open authentication network and getting a micro-cut of every monetary transaction that passes through it.
No doubt if Hailstorm takes hold, every third-party authentication is practically going to need to interoperate with it, and will just become an involuntary revenue generation service for Microsoft.
To this end, look for Microsoft's purchase of PayPal or some "leading" micropayment shop (perhaps from x.25 land if not.com land) in the next couple quarters.
Slashdot Mirror
I could have been clearer, but when I said "programming languages are like sets of tools," I meant that each language was a set of tools, not that languages are collectively a set of tools. My bad.
I see your point, but if all teams used this reasoning, how would better languages (technologies) ever get developed? How does a system evolve when it has reached the limits of its underlying language/technologies?
There is always a learning curve when learning a new language/technology, but the more experienced (or talented) you are, the less steep this curve is, and the less a cause of concern it becomes when considering future maintenance requirements.
I don't think I'm alone when I say I actually look forward to working with a new language/technology, because it increases my skill set. At this point in my career I've worked with enough tools/technologies that I don't balk when a new one falls into my hands because I know it will probably work pretty similarly to others with which I'm already familiar: very few (good) technologies these days are so revolutionary as to confound even veterans.
I think your approach (and ones similar to it) make the most sense.
Programming languages are like sets of tools; the challenge is picking the right set for the job(s) at hand. I'm sure that given enough resolve, one could code a 3-D FPS game in perl (knowing our community, this has probably already been done). You can also get away with using a butter knife instead of a powerdrill in some instances. It doesn't mean it's the best use of tools or technology.
I've always been puzzled by people who are fanatic about a single language (or any single technology for that matter). You'd never hear a carpenter say, "I always use a chisel and hammer, no matter what the task."
Perhaps in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, he could contract Al Gore to invent one?
Be sure to include this tragically lost packet.
Given enough monkeys and typewriters ...
Wouldn't object-oriented databases qualify as hierarchical (or some of them, at least)?
Be careful not to confuse class "hierarchies" with relationships among objects, which are generally graphs, not rooted trees.
A merchant's business model is a more immediate concern for its investors, not its patrons.
When Webvan went bust, did its customers rejoice or lament?
So long as a company delivers the goods and services it promises, why should the average customer care about its balance sheet?
And what "expense" are brick-and-mortar businesses paying? If their business models are so sound, why would they be so threatened by these "shaky" companies?
Are you a bookstore owner?
Is this book more authoratative than the de facto chronicle of disingenuity?
What value does this book add? I sense some irony here.
"The Justice Department said less than one-tenth of 1 percent of federal inmates are subject to the provision that allows such monitoring.
So with our current prison system, that's about what, 3 million prisoners?
perl: not found; perhaps you meant "pearl"?
ispell: not found; perhaps you meant "spell"?
This would take away from the self-documenting nature of XML, I think.
Inevitably, authors would begin terminating their deeply nested documents with tags like:
which is a lot less informative/helpful/debuggable than:
Know what I mean?
While we're at it, let's start fining lawyers for bringing meritless cases to our nation's court systems.
...
Brings up some issues
In anticipation of hundreds of redundant "big brother is watching" posts,
I challenge every poster who wants to tell us about all the problems inherent in a national ID card, to instead suggest alternative solutions that increase national security while protecting personal liberties and freedoms (or at least not infringing upon them).
Note: Suggesting appeasement of fundamentalist Muslim demands earns you no points. Let's hear some real ideas.
The idea is that if you go to the airport and don't have one of these ID cards, you will be subject to more thorough checks and searches.
Note that a USB audio device is only going to be as good as your BIOS' USB support.
There are a lot of old/broken USB implementations in many BIOS' out there that will cause pops, drop-outs, and other lameness with your USB audio output, even with a decent gadget like the Roland UA-30.
Good summary, but it doesn't really seem that revolutionary or prescient to basically say (paraphrase) "games and game environments are going to get more realistic."
Most of the ideas he puts forth about birds, lampposts, and crickets seem motivated by long-standing notions about object-oriented systems, and it's pretty straightforward to project them onto the future of gaming.
This is about two years old and was originally "Iraqi TV Guide".
That being said, O'Reilly's Practical C++ Programming has been a long-standing favorite recommendation of mine.
That would be kind of cool, but in all seriousness, continually rotating your wrist to reorient your palm would be no better for your carpal tunnel than those diabolical emacs key chords.
A hierarchy of judicial authority goes hand in hand with the right to appeal your case to a higher court, and both are critical.
If only he had wrapped it in a better conundrum ...
Microsoft recently announced that they plan to open up Hailstorm to the web at large, and allow different authentication "cells" to share Kerberos keys.
.com land) in the next couple quarters.
This tells me that they've decided that owning the authentication database (and associated user profile information) is not as valuable a proposition as having an open authentication network and getting a micro-cut of every monetary transaction that passes through it.
No doubt if Hailstorm takes hold, every third-party authentication is practically going to need to interoperate with it, and will just become an involuntary revenue generation service for Microsoft.
To this end, look for Microsoft's purchase of PayPal or some "leading" micropayment shop (perhaps from x.25 land if not