What about all of that Microsoft "Certified This-Or-That" crap? None of that's accredited, and you might even find job want-ads that list it as a requirement.
But what I don't understand here is what the difference is between this book, and say "Hard Times" by Studs Terkel, in which interviews with various parties were included in his book. If Jon Katz had sat down in person with the various posters and asked their opinions, we wouldn't be discussing this now.
I think the problem is there is no valid legal precedent to determining if "public oral" displays of this nature (i.e., postings on a web board) are ownable in the sense we use when speaking of an essay or written article.
In fact, this seems much more like writing a letter to the editor. The expectation is that people *will* see and *will* read your words. Everyone who posted here did so without expectation of payment, but with the express intent of joining a conversation and having their words heard. To complain because these same comments are being bound into a printed volume so that non-technophiles can hear and understand your statements is pure foolishness.
Note: Feel free to reproduce this comment in future media of any sort. blah blah. No payment necessary. blah blah.
Well, it might just go into both. There are some release-critical bugs against Mozilla in Potato. I.e., these bugs would either hold up Potato's release or prevent Mozilla from being included.
In my former life as a Civil Engineer, I was once required to watch a training film about the dangers of "confined space" entry.
In this film, one member of a construction team ventures into a deep, dark pit where a small gas line is venting odor-free gas. The worker is soon overcome, and drops (lifeless) to the ground.
His coworker is in the midst of asking him some question ("Hey Joe, did you see those Dodgers on Saturday?") and when his friend doesn't respond, he peers into the pit. Joe is lifeless! The worker scrambles down the ladder to render aid, and is also struck down by the lack of oxygen.
By the end of the 10-minute film (based on a true story), a pile of 5 bodies lay in the pit because they don't follow proper confined space entry procedure.
The sad part is that me and the group of jaded workers I was with laughed uproariously at the silly looks on the actors faces as the feigned asphyxia, and at the silly behavior of the last two workers (I mean, you see 3 guys down at the bottom, you must figure something is wrong!). ("Hmm. Joe, John, and Tony are all motionless at the bottom of the pit. Guess I'll climb down and see whats up!")
And as I watched "Mission to Mars" I felt the same way. Silly antics by usually good actors (doing their best to ruin my impression of their talents) in unrealistic situations acting unrealistically. ("Hmm. There are three bodies already down there on mars. Guess I'll just run willy-nilly down there and see what's up!")
I am generally a huge De Palma fan, and I must say I was extremely excited about this film. Still, I try to keep my expectations low these days as so many films are so bad. However, it has been a long time since I've seen a stinker like this actually make it to theatres (and not straight-to-video).
I may not be a fake-looking CG alien, but about the time he was shedding his sad alien tear over the loss of his homeworld, I was shedding some of my own. For the two hours of my life I'll never get back.
Or else, please throw away GCC, CPP, BASH, EMACS, AUTOCONF, AUTOMAKE, GLIBC, RM, MV, LS, PASSWD, ADDUSER, USERDEL, HOSTNAME, etc., etc., etc., and see how much of an operating system you have.
I still disagree that 4/10 is reasonable. 4 out of 10 sounds like "F" quality work, which I don't think TF20MIATH deserves. 4/10 sounds like worthless pablum that is best avoided at all costs.
In short, "4" and less should be reserved exclusively for the purpose of rating any of Piers Anthony's novels, any of Bill Gates' various infomercial books, and any future "I invented the internet" stories by VP Gore.
Consider:
1. TF20MIATH has a definite beginning, middle, and end. There is an exciting race sequence. There are fun math puzzles. There is great dialog. There are some decidedly prescient concepts of the "sub-$500 PC".
2. This is an extremely funny book. I loved how the one fellow taped a patch over his eye to stop his headaches from the fluorescent lights and told his coworkers it was from a fight with his sister-in-law. I liked how Andy's love-interest made pasta in a rice-maker, because of course it's impossible to have a real-life apartment (with a kitchen) anywhere near Menlo park without shelling out $2000 a month. Benoit walking out of that last meeting and coming face-to-face with Piper's practical joke was hilarious -- and somehow sad at the same time.
I think you and others are glossing over many of the more interesting aspects of the book, and I frankly don't see why everyone hated it so much. I have read far, far worse. And in fact seen far worse books given far better reviews right here on slashdot.
I urge you, sir, to revise your unconscionable rating and return some sense of justice and fairness to this review forum!:-)
I found this to be an extremely enjoyable book. Frankly, based on the review comments, I find it surprising that the reviewer would hold "Microserfs" (a rather plotless effort) up as the level to which all silicon-valley fiction should aspire.
This book has many levels, and one of the major subtexts to this story is the questions of why the protagonist (Andy Piper) does not turn out more like his main "antagonist", Francis Benot. They are two sides of the same coin -- a sort of techie version of the Yin/Yang conflict. Benoit's is clearly conflicted regarding Andy, as his frequent "dueling" and sabotage, along with his desire to have Andy work for him indicate.
There are also some classic scenes and priceless images in this book. Take for example the "What Time is it" challenge that Benot gives Piper in the opening few chapters. A classic phsychological trick and a good example of how your own mind can be your worst enemy. Or the running joke about the posh New York advertising agency attempting to create an advertising campaign around important Silicon Valley businessmen, and becoming increasingly crestfallen at the raw material they have to work with.
While this book may not be perfect, I found to be at least as enjoyable as Bombadiers (if not more realistic), and a far better read than Microserfs. I think one of Broson's great strengths is his ability to create lively, realistic characters and populate his stories with them.
This book answered a ton of questions I had about CORBA, and how to work with it in a real-world environment.
There are easily a dozen crappy books out there that give you the worthless "manager-level" overview of CORBA technologies, but I have yet to see one that provides the important details you need to actually get a CORBA client and server to get together and do something useful.
If you want to program CORBA, buy this book!
No he's not -- try "Fallen Angels". What crap.
on
2 Scoops of Quickies
·
· Score: 1
Subject says it all. Niven wears the talent pants in their little "family".
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know if this helps, but an ODBC driver is available for Postgres that might allow your Microsoft products to connect with it.
It's available as a Debian package, but you'll have to check the Postgres site for details on other platforms.
What about all of that Microsoft "Certified
This-Or-That" crap? None of that's accredited,
and you might even find job want-ads that list
it as a requirement.
It's all in the advertising....
But what I don't understand here is what the difference is between this book, and say "Hard Times" by Studs Terkel, in which interviews with various parties were included in his book. If Jon Katz had sat down in person with the various posters and asked their opinions, we wouldn't be discussing this now.
I think the problem is there is no valid legal precedent to determining if "public oral" displays of this nature (i.e., postings on a web board) are ownable in the sense we use when speaking of an essay or written article.
In fact, this seems much more like writing a letter to the editor. The expectation is that people *will* see and *will* read your words. Everyone who posted here did so without expectation of payment, but with the express intent of joining a conversation and having their words heard. To complain because these same comments are being bound into a printed volume so that non-technophiles can hear and understand your statements is pure foolishness.
Note: Feel free to reproduce this comment in future media of any sort. blah blah. No payment necessary. blah blah.
Well, it might just go into both. There are some release-critical bugs against Mozilla in Potato. I.e., these bugs would either hold up Potato's release or prevent Mozilla from being included.
This release may fix them.
In my former life as a Civil Engineer, I was once required to watch a training film about the dangers of "confined space" entry.
In this film, one member of a construction team ventures into a deep, dark pit where a small gas line is venting odor-free gas. The worker is soon overcome, and drops (lifeless) to the ground.
His coworker is in the midst of asking him some question ("Hey Joe, did you see those Dodgers on Saturday?") and when his friend doesn't respond, he peers into the pit. Joe is lifeless! The worker scrambles down the ladder to render aid, and is also struck down by the lack of oxygen.
By the end of the 10-minute film (based on a true story), a pile of 5 bodies lay in the pit because they don't follow proper confined space entry procedure.
The sad part is that me and the group of jaded workers I was with laughed uproariously at the silly looks on the actors faces as the feigned asphyxia, and at the silly behavior of the last two workers (I mean, you see 3 guys down at the bottom, you must figure something is wrong!). ("Hmm. Joe, John, and Tony are all motionless at the bottom of the pit. Guess I'll climb down and see whats up!")
And as I watched "Mission to Mars" I felt the same way. Silly antics by usually good actors (doing their best to ruin my impression of their talents) in unrealistic situations acting unrealistically. ("Hmm. There are three bodies already down there on mars. Guess I'll just run willy-nilly down there and see what's up!")
I am generally a huge De Palma fan, and I must say I was extremely excited about this film. Still, I try to keep my expectations low these days as so many films are so bad. However, it has been a long time since I've seen a stinker like this actually make it to theatres (and not straight-to-video).
I may not be a fake-looking CG alien, but about the time he was shedding his sad alien tear over the loss of his homeworld, I was shedding some of my own. For the two hours of my life I'll never get back.
It IS Gnu/Linux.
Or else, please throw away GCC, CPP, BASH, EMACS,
AUTOCONF, AUTOMAKE, GLIBC, RM, MV, LS, PASSWD, ADDUSER, USERDEL, HOSTNAME, etc., etc., etc.,
and see how much of an operating system you
have.
Brent Fulgham
Debian GNU/Linux
I still disagree that 4/10 is reasonable. 4 out
:-)
of 10 sounds like "F" quality work, which I don't think TF20MIATH deserves. 4/10 sounds like worthless pablum that is best avoided at all costs.
In short, "4" and less should be reserved exclusively for the purpose of rating any of Piers Anthony's novels, any of Bill Gates' various infomercial books, and any future "I invented the internet" stories by VP Gore.
Consider:
1. TF20MIATH has a definite beginning, middle, and end. There is an exciting race sequence. There are fun math puzzles. There is great
dialog. There are some decidedly prescient concepts of the "sub-$500 PC".
2. This is an extremely funny book. I loved how the one fellow taped a patch over his eye to stop his headaches from the fluorescent lights
and told his coworkers it was from a fight with his sister-in-law. I liked how Andy's love-interest made pasta in a rice-maker, because of course it's impossible to have a real-life apartment (with a kitchen) anywhere near Menlo park without shelling out $2000 a month. Benoit walking out of that last meeting and coming face-to-face with Piper's practical joke was hilarious -- and somehow sad at the same time.
I think you and others are glossing over many of the more interesting aspects of the book, and I frankly don't see why everyone hated it so much. I have read far, far worse. And in fact seen far worse books given far better reviews right here on slashdot.
I urge you, sir, to revise your unconscionable rating and return some sense of justice and fairness to this review forum!
I found this to be an extremely enjoyable book. Frankly, based on the review comments, I find it surprising that the reviewer would hold "Microserfs" (a rather plotless effort) up as the level to which all silicon-valley fiction should aspire.
This book has many levels, and one of the major subtexts to this story is the questions of why the protagonist (Andy Piper) does not turn out more like his main "antagonist", Francis Benot. They are two sides of the same coin -- a sort of techie version of the Yin/Yang conflict. Benoit's is clearly conflicted regarding Andy, as his frequent "dueling" and sabotage, along with his desire to have Andy work for him indicate.
There are also some classic scenes and priceless images in this book. Take for example the "What Time is it" challenge that Benot gives Piper in the opening few chapters. A classic phsychological trick and a good example of how your own mind can be your worst enemy. Or the running joke about the posh New York advertising agency attempting to create an advertising campaign around important Silicon Valley businessmen, and becoming increasingly crestfallen at the raw material they have to work with.
While this book may not be perfect, I found to be at least as enjoyable as Bombadiers (if not more realistic), and a far better read than Microserfs. I think one of Broson's great strengths is his ability to create lively, realistic characters and populate his stories with them.
I rate this book as an 8/10.
This book answered a ton of questions I had about
CORBA, and how to work with it in a real-world
environment.
There are easily a dozen crappy books out there
that give you the worthless "manager-level"
overview of CORBA technologies, but I have yet to
see one that provides the important details you
need to actually get a CORBA client and server to
get together and do something useful.
If you want to program CORBA, buy this book!
Subject says it all. Niven wears the talent pants in their little "family".