I realize this was written in 2001, but I found this parent's statement very amusing:
If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.
He also refers to "Programming with Perl" as a "hackers manual".
Well, I'm going straight to hell it seems.
Not one mention of flying cars? I've been waiting for those damn things for 30 years! I'm glad this prediction did not mention it. I think in many ways these predictions will come true in my lifetime (next 40 years), but not as many will happen in 10 years.
I was quite amused with sleeping with the all-in-wonder wristband. Does that enhance the sex life as well?
Having a high quantity of low quality games does more to shrink their market than piracy. Perhaps having 25 brands of ketchup does something to improve my eating habits, but it doesn't. When it boils down to it, I buy one or two brands all the time and no amount of shoplifting changes the fact that my hamburger tastes the same with Heinz or any other brand. I avoid the no-name brand though since its not as good, but for some people its good enough.
My problem with current game design "logic" is that just because your cookie cutter is really fancy and makes things look nice, that doesn't mean you can get away with using it without adding significant quality to a game. Incremental changes in game design probably will keep fans of a game buying add-ons for years (Re: The Sims), but it certainly isn't getting someone to jump up and buy the whole series if the original idea didn't grab them in the first place.
Perhaps what we need is a FPS/RTS/Sim with MMORPG elements. Wait a minute, I know what we'll call it: Life.
Spielburg does muck about with old movies, Re: War of the Worlds. However, his approach is different, he refilms it from scratch. In all honesty, if 4-6 need such changes, I think it would be best to refilm from frame zero. Perhaps then, we could rid ourselves of the disco haircuts.
"The strangest thing is that I am not getting any reaction about the hacking from eBay, despite repeated attempts. Agents of the SSS [American Secret Security Service] visited eBay, but they also complained that they could not get any information from them."
Do we imply that the SSS is relavent to the actual Secret Service and now investigates commercial fraud and theft? If we imply SSS is the secret service, what is a domestic agency that is vested with the pursuit of counterfeiters and executive branch security doing in this jurisdiction?
If the SSS is some other agency, what exactly is this? A commercial security agency? A police agency?
This was "probably" scrapped simply because of the publicity it generated. There are "probably" easier ways to collect private information on the populate using pre-established methods that are less prone to public scrutiny (re: Carnivore).
This is nothing new, the US government has been doing this since WW2 (maybe longer). Just because the current administration does it more overtly does not lessen the fact that domestic policy has been centered around using fear as a populace control for almost 60 years. In general, its quite effective. Now, give the populace an illusion that they have "choice" and "freedom" and suddenly that fear does not become so oppressive.
Its only when the illusions are broken that people start to feel the oppression: 1) Bush's "losing" of the election and the removal of choice in the elected government? In all honesty, there aren't really choices in the modern republic. The option of choice should mean that you actually choose what you want, not the lesser of 2 or 3 evils. I've never voted for who I really wanted, just who I thought wouldn't screw up the country as bad. 2) The "loss" of personal freedom due to the Patriot act, RIAA, MPAA? These are not new, they are simply extensions of old debates. The war on terrorism is quickly becoming the new McCarthyism, except now its international. RIAA/MPAA? What about Betamax/VCRs, etc.
Do not despair too much though, Bush is now a larger evil and in my opinion cannot survive this election (even if he "cheats"). This is partially due to Iraq, but more in part with the current lack of substantial economic growth and recovery in the USA. Kerry would do better to tackle economy vs. the war. When it comes to international policy and war, Republican's always emerge as Teflon Don's. It is only on the economy that they come away stained.
If you took a XBox and matched it to a similarly configured PC, the XBox would obviously win. It might be more helpful to compare an SUV with a 500hp engine to a highly tuned race car with the same engine. Dumping horsepower into a general solution does not always match the purpose of a specialized solution. Your beefed up SUV is constantly stuggling against the wind resistance of the O/S. Try putting that 3GHz CPU and GeForce 4 into the specialized XBox... Now, that is a fairer comparision. Try building a PC with 4-6 year old technology that outperforms a console. That would be a challenge.
If you need patterns, you may as well look at a generic patterns resource like Addison Wesley's excellent book on Application Patterns (ISBN 0321127420). While it has a strong J2EE bent, if you can't adapt a generic idea like a pattern to another language, then you need alot more help than these books provide. It also goes into intricate detail on DB type patterns, levels of abstration and when to choose the appropriate pattern.
With PHP5, object oriented programming becomes more Java-like, so adapting pattern examples should be straightforward. I've already found that creating code based on complex pattern interactions is much easier to manage with PHP5 than in 4. I really wish the PHP docs out in the wild had better information on Relection. I might look at this book to see what it might offer.
This is not at all uncommon to see. I've seen children even younger than 12 with cell phones. Parents in latchkey homes use these as contact and emergency location tools for their kids.
What is interesting in my opinion is how when children start sending hateful messages on devices that record activity, suddenly schoolyard bickering becomes a fully punishable hate crime. This doesn't just apply to texting, it applies to email, web forums and the whole gamut. My local school tried to suspend some children for posting that another student was "ugly" on a web forum in which several students were participating actively on one of the student's personal websites. All of them were in the 12-14 year age range. If that happened in the schoolyard, the teacher wouldn't have the time or would use personal objectivity to mediate the situation. Not so online.
This case in Georgia is probably a bit more serious even if the term "sodomy" in Georgia probably covers everything not deemed strictly missionary, heterosexual, consensual and married intercourse. That's an entirely different kettle of fish though. The US Military has a similar definition of sodomy in the UCMJ.
Generally, I have noted that DirecTV follows this model, especially for PPV and other types of periodic events. Some of the shopping channels even only broadcast at certain times, at other times the channel is essentially dead. Your local channels occupy a specific subset of the range of your 1000 or so channels as well, and are keyed to your viewing locale. I suppose this is just a matter of time before it gets to cable.
While I didn't read the article (I see enough NY Post commercials on TV). I assume this guy seems to think the O/S is "all the pretty windows". I think the common person's viewpoint of the O/S is also the same, but when we get down to brass tacks, the O/S is what holds those windows on your desktop. File system access, memory management, task/process management, interfacing drivers to hardware. THIS IS THE O/S!! I doubt seriously that these floating 3-D documents will do little good if you can't even drive signal to your video card.
Perhaps this person should exhalt a new outlook on user interface design (ex: extending Windows, or KDE or Gnome), and not dismiss the O/S.
And for those ready to flame on my inclusion of Windows, Gnome and KDE on the same sentence, realize that these are all essentially window/interface managers, and not operating systems. Yes, MS bundles their manager and O/S in an unpackageable package, but the interface you see in MSWindows is not the MSWindows O/S. That is like saying a BASH shell is the O/S of Linux/UNIX.
Doesn't it also make sense that if your 3d/paralax generating display is in a separate element of the display that in order to switch to 2D, you simply shut off power to the element? I.E: less power == less heat.
If Microsoft isn't making any money on MSIE? Then why am I seeing MS Shopping commercials every 15 minutes on the TV? Why is MS blatently working to couple the entire O/S with the browser. Somehow, I don't think they are giving away product there... MSIE has become the "Window" that MS will open to monopolize the Internet. Think it won't happen... wait...
Well, if you're that professionally diverse to be able to handle that many languages THAT well, I am sure your company will pretty much be forced to keep you around. Either that, or your team is pretty well set for life. I'd be surprised that this would stay a living entity for long.
In my experience, IT managers are becoming more and more tech saavy (although probably a bit slighted by tech companies one way or another -- i.e. MS vs. Sun vs. Linux). Eventually, someone with buying power is going to look at the support mish-mash and cut you out like yesterday's rotten grapes. In my book, its best to become the best at one or three core languages and stick to those until they are dead in the water, and even then, keep tabs on those old languages. Who would have known two years ago (1999-2000) that COBOL developers would be in such high demand.
Maintainability of the app is also core. Sure you developed it, but for who and how will it be supported. If you're a consultant, you're probably releasing this into the wild to be supported by near non-tech saavy people who at most will use the app and do basic monitoring. If you are developing in-house and supporting it locally, you might be able to afford such "advantages" as multiple languages might afford.
In closing, remember Perl's motto... "There is always more than one way to do something." If you find a language that cannot live up to that credo.. maybe its time to look for another language?
My only problem with Interbase (6.0 Borland Server Edition -- Commercial) is that in order to do even simple SQL based manipulation of data, you have to actually physically write the functions into the DB. They aren't there natively (not in 6.0 anyhow). I have only recently started playing with 6.1 Open Source, but after talking to Borland in the past regarding 6.0, I'd be surprised if they "fixed" the issue.
These functions include things as simple as SUBSTR(), but also limit doing things like DECODE() and NVL() (to allow conditional DB selects). MySQL and Postgres support such functions natively, or have a similar native function.
Well, comparing MySQL with Oracle or a enterprise level RDBMS is like comparing a motorcycle with a jumbo jet. Both will most likely get you to your destination, and while MySQL is much lower maintenance, the jet has much greater room to handle future issues, while being able to expand to other destinations easily.
It should also be noted that MySQL is not a relational database (RDBMS), unless the application logic behind the data enforces the constraints. This is not to say that MySQL is not up to many tasks, but its not ideal for applications like data warehousing and complex relational database models. I certainly would not think that the NYSE uses MySQL for holding its trading records.
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Not one mention of flying cars? I've been waiting for those damn things for 30 years! I'm glad this prediction did not mention it. I think in many ways these predictions will come true in my lifetime (next 40 years), but not as many will happen in 10 years.
I was quite amused with sleeping with the all-in-wonder wristband. Does that enhance the sex life as well?
Having a high quantity of low quality games does more to shrink their market than piracy. Perhaps having 25 brands of ketchup does something to improve my eating habits, but it doesn't. When it boils down to it, I buy one or two brands all the time and no amount of shoplifting changes the fact that my hamburger tastes the same with Heinz or any other brand. I avoid the no-name brand though since its not as good, but for some people its good enough.
My problem with current game design "logic" is that just because your cookie cutter is really fancy and makes things look nice, that doesn't mean you can get away with using it without adding significant quality to a game. Incremental changes in game design probably will keep fans of a game buying add-ons for years (Re: The Sims), but it certainly isn't getting someone to jump up and buy the whole series if the original idea didn't grab them in the first place.
Perhaps what we need is a FPS/RTS/Sim with MMORPG elements. Wait a minute, I know what we'll call it: Life.
Spielburg does muck about with old movies, Re: War of the Worlds. However, his approach is different, he refilms it from scratch. In all honesty, if 4-6 need such changes, I think it would be best to refilm from frame zero. Perhaps then, we could rid ourselves of the disco haircuts.
From ze article:
"The strangest thing is that I am not getting any reaction about the hacking from eBay, despite repeated attempts. Agents of the SSS [American Secret Security Service] visited eBay, but they also complained that they could not get any information from them."
Do we imply that the SSS is relavent to the actual Secret Service and now investigates commercial fraud and theft? If we imply SSS is the secret service, what is a domestic agency that is vested with the pursuit of counterfeiters and executive branch security doing in this jurisdiction?
If the SSS is some other agency, what exactly is this? A commercial security agency? A police agency?
This whole article stinks of phish.
This was "probably" scrapped simply because of the publicity it generated. There are "probably" easier ways to collect private information on the populate using pre-established methods that are less prone to public scrutiny (re: Carnivore).
This is nothing new, the US government has been doing this since WW2 (maybe longer). Just because the current administration does it more overtly does not lessen the fact that domestic policy has been centered around using fear as a populace control for almost 60 years. In general, its quite effective. Now, give the populace an illusion that they have "choice" and "freedom" and suddenly that fear does not become so oppressive.
Its only when the illusions are broken that people start to feel the oppression:
1) Bush's "losing" of the election and the removal of choice in the elected government? In all honesty, there aren't really choices in the modern republic. The option of choice should mean that you actually choose what you want, not the lesser of 2 or 3 evils. I've never voted for who I really wanted, just who I thought wouldn't screw up the country as bad.
2) The "loss" of personal freedom due to the Patriot act, RIAA, MPAA? These are not new, they are simply extensions of old debates. The war on terrorism is quickly becoming the new McCarthyism, except now its international. RIAA/MPAA? What about Betamax/VCRs, etc.
Do not despair too much though, Bush is now a larger evil and in my opinion cannot survive this election (even if he "cheats"). This is partially due to Iraq, but more in part with the current lack of substantial economic growth and recovery in the USA. Kerry would do better to tackle economy vs. the war. When it comes to international policy and war, Republican's always emerge as Teflon Don's. It is only on the economy that they come away stained.
Just my rantings...
Weell..
If you took a XBox and matched it to a similarly configured PC, the XBox would obviously win. It might be more helpful to compare an SUV with a 500hp engine to a highly tuned race car with the same engine. Dumping horsepower into a general solution does not always match the purpose of a specialized solution. Your beefed up SUV is constantly stuggling against the wind resistance of the O/S. Try putting that 3GHz CPU and GeForce 4 into the specialized XBox... Now, that is a fairer comparision. Try building a PC with 4-6 year old technology that outperforms a console. That would be a challenge.
Hrmm...
If you need patterns, you may as well look at a generic patterns resource like Addison Wesley's excellent book on Application Patterns (ISBN 0321127420). While it has a strong J2EE bent, if you can't adapt a generic idea like a pattern to another language, then you need alot more help than these books provide. It also goes into intricate detail on DB type patterns, levels of abstration and when to choose the appropriate pattern.
With PHP5, object oriented programming becomes more Java-like, so adapting pattern examples should be straightforward. I've already found that creating code based on complex pattern interactions is much easier to manage with PHP5 than in 4. I really wish the PHP docs out in the wild had better information on Relection. I might look at this book to see what it might offer.
This is not at all uncommon to see. I've seen children even younger than 12 with cell phones. Parents in latchkey homes use these as contact and emergency location tools for their kids.
What is interesting in my opinion is how when children start sending hateful messages on devices that record activity, suddenly schoolyard bickering becomes a fully punishable hate crime. This doesn't just apply to texting, it applies to email, web forums and the whole gamut. My local school tried to suspend some children for posting that another student was "ugly" on a web forum in which several students were participating actively on one of the student's personal websites. All of them were in the 12-14 year age range. If that happened in the schoolyard, the teacher wouldn't have the time or would use personal objectivity to mediate the situation. Not so online.
This case in Georgia is probably a bit more serious even if the term "sodomy" in Georgia probably covers everything not deemed strictly missionary, heterosexual, consensual and married intercourse. That's an entirely different kettle of fish though. The US Military has a similar definition of sodomy in the UCMJ.
Generally, I have noted that DirecTV follows this model, especially for PPV and other types of periodic events. Some of the shopping channels even only broadcast at certain times, at other times the channel is essentially dead. Your local channels occupy a specific subset of the range of your 1000 or so channels as well, and are keyed to your viewing locale. I suppose this is just a matter of time before it gets to cable.
While I didn't read the article (I see enough NY Post commercials on TV). I assume this guy seems to think the O/S is "all the pretty windows". I think the common person's viewpoint of the O/S is also the same, but when we get down to brass tacks, the O/S is what holds those windows on your desktop. File system access, memory management, task/process management, interfacing drivers to hardware. THIS IS THE O/S!! I doubt seriously that these floating 3-D documents will do little good if you can't even drive signal to your video card.
Perhaps this person should exhalt a new outlook on user interface design (ex: extending Windows, or KDE or Gnome), and not dismiss the O/S.
And for those ready to flame on my inclusion of Windows, Gnome and KDE on the same sentence, realize that these are all essentially window/interface managers, and not operating systems. Yes, MS bundles their manager and O/S in an unpackageable package, but the interface you see in MSWindows is not the MSWindows O/S. That is like saying a BASH shell is the O/S of Linux/UNIX.
Doesn't it also make sense that if your 3d/paralax generating display is in a separate element of the display that in order to switch to 2D, you simply shut off power to the element? I.E: less power == less heat.
If Microsoft isn't making any money on MSIE? Then why am I seeing MS Shopping commercials every 15 minutes on the TV? Why is MS blatently working to couple the entire O/S with the browser. Somehow, I don't think they are giving away product there... MSIE has become the "Window" that MS will open to monopolize the Internet. Think it won't happen... wait...
Well, if you're that professionally diverse to be able to handle that many languages THAT well, I am sure your company will pretty much be forced to keep you around. Either that, or your team is pretty well set for life. I'd be surprised that this would stay a living entity for long.
In my experience, IT managers are becoming more and more tech saavy (although probably a bit slighted by tech companies one way or another -- i.e. MS vs. Sun vs. Linux). Eventually, someone with buying power is going to look at the support mish-mash and cut you out like yesterday's rotten grapes. In my book, its best to become the best at one or three core languages and stick to those until they are dead in the water, and even then, keep tabs on those old languages. Who would have known two years ago (1999-2000) that COBOL developers would be in such high demand.
Maintainability of the app is also core. Sure you developed it, but for who and how will it be supported. If you're a consultant, you're probably releasing this into the wild to be supported by near non-tech saavy people who at most will use the app and do basic monitoring. If you are developing in-house and supporting it locally, you might be able to afford such "advantages" as multiple languages might afford.
In closing, remember Perl's motto... "There is always more than one way to do something." If you find a language that cannot live up to that credo.. maybe its time to look for another language?
My only problem with Interbase (6.0 Borland Server Edition -- Commercial) is that in order to do even simple SQL based manipulation of data, you have to actually physically write the functions into the DB. They aren't there natively (not in 6.0 anyhow). I have only recently started playing with 6.1 Open Source, but after talking to Borland in the past regarding 6.0, I'd be surprised if they "fixed" the issue.
These functions include things as simple as SUBSTR(), but also limit doing things like DECODE() and NVL() (to allow conditional DB selects). MySQL and Postgres support such functions natively, or have a similar native function.
Well, comparing MySQL with Oracle or a enterprise level RDBMS is like comparing a motorcycle with a jumbo jet. Both will most likely get you to your destination, and while MySQL is much lower maintenance, the jet has much greater room to handle future issues, while being able to expand to other destinations easily. It should also be noted that MySQL is not a relational database (RDBMS), unless the application logic behind the data enforces the constraints. This is not to say that MySQL is not up to many tasks, but its not ideal for applications like data warehousing and complex relational database models. I certainly would not think that the NYSE uses MySQL for holding its trading records.