CS majors are required to take lots of math because it teaches them how to think in a certain way. Don't worry about understanding the esoteric stuff. Knowing it exists is sufficient to be able to look it up later if you ever do need it.
There is, however, one exception: statistics. Knowing how to calculate and interpret meaningful statistics (and how to recognize non-meaningful statistics) is extremely important. Simply understanding the principles behind good statistics will help keep you from deceiving yourself about how well your code really works. Knowing how to generate good statistics will help you make your case in front of the business types (they don't necessarily understand statistics, but they don't, they will generally agree with your interpretation rather than expose their ignorance).
Because if performance is an issue, you find your bottleneck and replace the bottleneck Python code with a C module.
Suddenly your Python "Script" runs 99% as fast as if you'd written it in C in the first place.
That's why nobody ever dogs on Python for being slow: Python makes it simple to get the performance you'd expect from C while only requiring a minimal amount of actual C code to be written.
SPAM is pushed on unwilling victims wasting time and resources. P2P allows people to infringe on copyright diluting the victim's (i.e. the label's) revenue stream.
One is not the inverse or converse of the other. The are simply too disimilar to compare meaningfully.
I would agree that Microsoft still has a monopoly on consumer desktops, but in my department, Windows desktops are limited to mostly admin, business types, and a couple developers.I would imagine that the majority of the rest of the company (Fortune 150ish) runs windows, but it isn't dictated to us.
Most of what we develop is platform agnostic and so we're seeing more and more Linux boxes running in the field since they are cheaper to build, easier to remotely maintain, and rock solid.
This is how the Microsoft monopoly is being eroded: good engineering creates products that are platform agnostic, the platform is chosen that best meets requirements, and often enough that platform isn't Windows.
10 years might seem excessive, but once the company had bought the cameras and storage equipment, there is no harm to the company and no great expense associated with keeping the data forever. You're lucky they decided to limit it to 10 years rather than using a weasel word like "indefinately".
Another thing to consider is that the crimes that they're hoping to use this footage to prosecute might have a 10 year limit on how long they're prosecutable (can't think of the word...you know what I mean).
But you know the migration from Linux to WS2003 probably wasn't a technical decision. Some VP probably decreed it and the techs had no choice but to comply.
I would only start worrying if it turns out that the migrations were, in fact, due to technical decisions.
The Register had a link to the netcraft uptime summary of Colt's internet facing server that migrated from Linux to WS2003. Since migrating, the machine hasn't had an uptime of more than 4.45 days.
Just thought you'd like to know, we haven't been in a recession since 2001. This is just a period of slow growth.
The group of economists that officially determines when we're in a recession just released these numbers earlier this week. Probably still a story on Google News if you're interested.
That other 90% falls into the "put parentheses around everything else" catagory.
However, your mentioning of the increment and decrement operators reminds me: the increment and decrement operators are generally best used by themselves, not in complicated expressions where precedence order might be confusing. This is not because the precedence order might cause confusion, but because these operators might go unnoticed during casual inspection if they aren't set apart in the code.
What are you talking about? In practical programming, there are only 3 levels: 1. (), [], and -> 2. *,/, and % 3. + and - and you put parentheses around everything else. Putting parentheses around something you would otherwise have to look up is good practice because it means you don't have to look it up later when trying to maintain the code.
Our legal dept has decreed that we shouldn't discuss the whole SCO thing via email, but other than that, the company I work for (about 150 on the fortune 500 list) is still very aggressively considering Linux deployments for all sorts of things.
Most people don't care about the SCO issue and those that do are convinced that SCO has no case.
Companies obtain lines of credit based on many things, including the amount of public stock they can sell to raise capital. If the stock price goes down, new lines of credit become unavailable and current creditors can "call in" some or all of what is owed them.
If anyone wants the karma, google could probably yield some links that explain how company value is leveraged into lines of credit and what can happen when the company's perceived value lessens.
0% is correct. There is an infinite number of primes. There is only one even prime: 2. 1 (or any finite number, for that matter) divided by infinity is 0.
I believe the poster knew this would be missed by some readers which is probably why he wrote "(tricky)".
Seriously, though... I was discussing the future of programming languages with some friends and we agreed that a real step forward would be to provide features such as higher order functions in a mainstream language... could this be it?
If you consider Python to be mainstream, then there's already a mainstream language that supports both functional programming and advanced types like lists and associative arrays (aka dictionaries).
I stumbled on to Python about a year ago and have been so impressed by it that it's becoming my languange of choice for new development.
But if you boot from Knoppix, it is trivial to copy a bootable image from the CD to the hard drive, essentially giving you a fully functional Debian installation. I believe that Knoppix even comes with instructions on how to do this.
A game compiled for x86-64 will run significantly faster since there are more general purpose registers available to it. So even if it doesn't make use of 64-bit ops, it will still run faster.
The same game compiled for x86 and run on an x86-64 will not see the same improvement since it won't take advantage of the extra registers.
According to an interview posted on Slashdot recently (karma op for anyone who wants to hunt down the link), several current games recompiled for x86-64 but not tweaked in any way, experienced a 30% increase in performance because of the extra registers.
They could potentially put up sites which provide a better service to the public than commercial sites such as Google because they don't have the commercial baggage and clutter and demands from shareholders.
Google doesn't have any shareholders. Google is a privately owned company. Google is the master of its own fate (as much as any company can be in this modern age).
Anyone who has used the code licensed under 'viral' (read GPL) open-source licenses cannot close their source code.
This is blatantly false. The GPL only requires you to GPL your code if you distribute it. This means that company X is allowed to take GPL'd code, modify it for their own use and use it internally for as long as they like without ever releasing their changes to their competitors.
While it's true that they can't sell their software without GPLing it, 99.9% of software written isn't written to be sold as a product, it's written to meet internal needs of an organization. That's what "in-house" development is.
Anonymous email isn't a bad idea as long as you can't send me any unless I opt-in. Anonymous emial sent to people who don't want to receive it is no different than harrassment.
Slashdot Mirror
You're not doomed.
CS majors are required to take lots of math because it teaches them how
to think in a certain way. Don't worry about understanding the esoteric
stuff. Knowing it exists is sufficient to be able to look it up later if
you ever do need it.
There is, however, one exception: statistics. Knowing how to calculate
and interpret meaningful statistics (and how to recognize non-meaningful
statistics) is extremely important. Simply understanding the principles
behind good statistics will help keep you from deceiving yourself about
how well your code really works. Knowing how to generate good statistics
will help you make your case in front of the business types (they don't
necessarily understand statistics, but they don't, they will generally
agree with your interpretation rather than expose their ignorance).
Why?
Because if performance is an issue, you find your bottleneck and replace the
bottleneck Python code with a C module.
Suddenly your Python "Script" runs 99% as fast as if you'd written it in
C in the first place.
That's why nobody ever dogs on Python for being slow: Python makes it simple
to get the performance you'd expect from C while only requiring a minimal
amount of actual C code to be written.
You're comparing apples and oranges.
SPAM is pushed on unwilling victims wasting time and resources.
P2P allows people to infringe on copyright diluting the victim's
(i.e. the label's) revenue stream.
One is not the inverse or converse of the other.
The are simply too disimilar to compare meaningfully.
I would agree that Microsoft still has a monopoly on consumer desktops, but
in my department, Windows desktops are limited to mostly admin, business types,
and a couple developers.I would imagine that the majority of the rest of the
company (Fortune 150ish) runs windows, but it isn't dictated to us.
Most of what we develop is platform agnostic and so we're seeing more and
more Linux boxes running in the field since they are cheaper to build, easier
to remotely maintain, and rock solid.
This is how the Microsoft monopoly is being eroded: good engineering creates
products that are platform agnostic, the platform is chosen that best meets
requirements, and often enough that platform isn't Windows.
Has Apple announced when iTunes for Windows will be available?
10 years might seem excessive, but once the company had bought
the cameras and storage equipment, there is no harm to the company
and no great expense associated with keeping the data forever.
You're lucky they decided to limit it to 10 years rather than using
a weasel word like "indefinately".
Another thing to consider is that the crimes that they're hoping to
use this footage to prosecute might have a 10 year limit on how long
they're prosecutable (can't think of the word...you know what I mean).
But you know the migration from Linux to WS2003 probably wasn't a technical
decision. Some VP probably decreed it and the techs had no choice but to
comply.
I would only start worrying if it turns out that the migrations were,
in fact, due to technical decisions.
The Register had a link to the netcraft uptime summary of Colt's
internet facing server that migrated from Linux to WS2003. Since
migrating, the machine hasn't had an uptime of more than 4.45 days.
Just thought someone might find that interesting.
Just thought you'd like to know, we haven't been
in a recession since 2001. This is just a period
of slow growth.
The group of economists that officially determines
when we're in a recession just released these
numbers earlier this week. Probably still a story
on Google News if you're interested.
Here's one for your list:
Business ethics
Someone mod this +1 Insightful!
*wonders why he blew all his mod points yesterday*
That other 90% falls into the "put parentheses around everything else" catagory.
However, your mentioning of the increment and decrement operators reminds me:
the increment and decrement operators are generally best used by themselves,
not in complicated expressions where precedence order might be confusing.
This is not because the precedence order might cause confusion, but because
these operators might go unnoticed during casual inspection if they aren't
set apart in the code.
What are you talking about? In practical programming, /, and %
there are only 3 levels:
1. (), [], and ->
2. *,
3. + and -
and you put parentheses around everything else.
Putting parentheses around something you would
otherwise have to look up is good practice because
it means you don't have to look it up later when
trying to maintain the code.
In the USA, corporations and organizations are treated as singular.
In Britain and many other parts of the world, they are treated
as plural.
For examples of this, try looking at BBC news items.
Our legal dept has decreed that we shouldn't discuss the
whole SCO thing via email, but other than that, the company
I work for (about 150 on the fortune 500 list) is still
very aggressively considering Linux deployments for all
sorts of things.
Most people don't care about the SCO issue and those that
do are convinced that SCO has no case.
You're wrong.
Companies obtain lines of credit based on many things, including the
amount of public stock they can sell to raise capital. If the stock price
goes down, new lines of credit become unavailable and current
creditors can "call in" some or all of what is owed them.
If anyone wants the karma, google could probably yield some links that
explain how company value is leveraged into lines of credit and what
can happen when the company's perceived value lessens.
0% is correct.
There is an infinite number of primes.
There is only one even prime: 2.
1 (or any finite number, for that matter) divided by infinity is 0.
I believe the poster knew this would be missed by some readers which
is probably why he wrote "(tricky)".
Seriously, though... I was discussing the future of programming languages with some friends and we agreed that a real step forward would be to provide features such as higher order functions in a mainstream language... could this be it?
If you consider Python to be mainstream, then there's already a mainstream language that supports both functional programming and advanced types like lists and associative arrays (aka dictionaries).
I stumbled on to Python about a year ago and have been so impressed by it that it's becoming my languange of choice for new development.
Check Python out. Really
Get back, Troll!
Apple has several products in the sub-$1000 range.
But if you boot from Knoppix, it is trivial to
copy a bootable image from the CD to the hard
drive, essentially giving you a fully functional
Debian installation. I believe that Knoppix even
comes with instructions on how to do this.
A game compiled for x86-64 will run significantly
faster since there are more general purpose
registers available to it. So even if it doesn't
make use of 64-bit ops, it will still run faster.
The same game compiled for x86 and run on an
x86-64 will not see the same improvement since
it won't take advantage of the extra registers.
According to an interview posted on Slashdot
recently (karma op for anyone who wants to hunt
down the link), several current games recompiled
for x86-64 but not tweaked in any way, experienced
a 30% increase in performance because of the
extra registers.
Just because I'm a part of a Union doesn't mean
that I can't act as an individual if I so choose.
From what I've seen, being a member of a union
means you're giving up the right to do your job
in the manner that you think is best.
One of our customers has unionized plant workers
and the environment is stifling.
They could potentially put up sites which
provide a better service to the public than
commercial sites such as Google because they don't
have the commercial baggage and clutter and
demands from shareholders.
Google doesn't have any shareholders.
Google is a privately owned company.
Google is the master of its own fate (as much as
any company can be in this modern age).
Just thought you'd like to know.
Anyone who has used the code licensed under
'viral' (read GPL) open-source licenses cannot
close their source code.
This is blatantly false. The GPL only requires
you to GPL your code if you distribute it. This
means that company X is allowed to take GPL'd
code, modify it for their own use and use it
internally for as long as they like without
ever releasing their changes to their competitors.
While it's true that they can't sell their
software without GPLing it, 99.9% of software
written isn't written to be sold as a product,
it's written to meet internal needs of an
organization. That's what "in-house" development
is.
Can any lawyers here tell us whether military
use of OpenBSD would be bound by GPL? Is our next
tank's source code going to be available for
download?
OpenBSD isn't GPL. Therefore, there's no reason
to believe that any modifications done to it
by the military would be GPL.
Anonymous email isn't a bad idea as long as you
can't send me any unless I opt-in. Anonymous
emial sent to people who don't want to receive it
is no different than harrassment.