And just to continue our time travel excursion, check out the Apple II joysticks, very different from the Atari ones. These were great for games like Castle Wolfenstein as compared to the stiff joysticks.
The only problem I had with the Intellivision controller was that the overlays would often wear out from constant/excessive/frantic rubbing, which excited teenagers were wont to do. But it was a nifty one, I agree.
Except for right now, where http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topicinputdevice s.gif returns a "400 Bad Request" error. Must be someone's idea of a/. joke. Or maybe they're updating the picture to something of more recent vintage.
While lacking the sophistication of today's controllers, the Atari 2600 joystick was still a lot of fun for those of us who were actually around when it first came out. And at least with one button you didn't have to wonder which one to press.
Eric (grumpy old VIC-20 guy)
Author of Make Easy Money with Google, which describes the second easiest
way to make money with Google (the first is apparently to buy GOOG stock and watch it go up!)
The reason Sun is open sourcing their app server is because no one uses it!
Sun's application server has actually been free to use (including production deployment) for quite some time now, so this further step of releasing the source code under a friendly license isn't that big a deal. Let's face it, basic application servers are pretty much commodities these days, making it hard for anyone to compete in that space. With at least three open source app server projects on the go (this one, JBoss, Geronimo) it's certainly a crowded market. It's certainly not the big deal that misleading headline makes it sound like.
If you can't be bothered to figure out for yourself which books you "ought" to read to get a good grasp of western literature, are you going to read the books some people at Amazon think you "ought" to read if they just end up on your shelves?
For example, MS provided us the wonderful thing called Conditional Comments
I'm not sure I'd describe it as "wonderful", but it is certainly an option. Really, I wrote "How to Detect Internet Explorer" as a companion piece for my HTTP header viewer to show some of the things you can (very easily) do with the header information. As with most things in computing, there are various ways to accomplish the same basic goal.
A very similar approach can be found here: JavaScript Browser Detection. If you're running JavaScript, though, you can detect the browser more accurately using other techniques that don't rely on the user-agent header. The code gets pretty complicated, though.
If all you're interested in is a way to detect IE then you'll probably be interested in IE's Conditional Comments, which is really a horrible hack but it works...
The problem with doing things in JavaScript, of course, is that it's a client-side technique and it doesn't work if the browser's disabled JavaScript support.
But only encourage switching to a different browser, don't harangue them into doing it. Remember that some companies/organizations still require the use of IE, especially to access internal systems. If your surfers are coming from such a place, getting mad at them won't help either of you.
Eric
Recently interviewed in The Waterloo Chronicle! (OK, so it isn't The Globe and Mail)
Relying on the headers the browser sends to figure out stats on browser usage is a dicey proposition at best. A statistically significant survey of Internet users would yield better results, but who's going to pay for that?
There's always a tug-of-war happening in tech companies with respect to innovation. It seems to me that the best companies have people that take a long-term view, looking ahead at what's coming down the pipe, instead of the short-term quarter-by-quarter view. This can be hard in a public company, yes, and it's a difficult balance to achieve.
That said, I don't think everyone likes skunk works projects. The important thing is that people enjoy what they do, whatever it is. A good QA person, for example, is one who derives satisfaction from finding and squashing bugs and ultimately making things better for the customer. Different strokes for different folks. A company like Google will tend to attract the creative I-gotta-think-about-things types because that's what they want. But it doesn't meant that every company has to work that way. Indeed, I doubt every company could work that way.
And don't forget the customer satisfaction angle. I suspect that what really turns the crank of people at Google is that they can come up with projects that will eventually be used by thousands, potentially millions, of people worldwide. They're thinking like customers, and in fact they are customers themselves... and Google's audience is so large in general that I suspect it means that there will always be a group of customers who can identify and enjoy a given skunk works project. And then the audience gets bigger... it's a bit self-perpetuating.
Well, I doubt that Google is "worried" about RSS feeds, they're just looking at them as another source of information to search. The GoogleBot kicks the tires of my blog at least once a day, so I can only imagine that it's doing the same for everyone else's. It's just a logical extension of what they already do. Replace "is worried" with "sees an opportunity", in other words.
It has to do with the fact that the J2ME devices have limited RAM, and can't hold a large page.
Luckily, the memory limitations that once seriously constrained J2ME platforms are becoming a thing of the past with the newer devices, though it's still not an excuse to go and download megabytes of data. I still find it really slow, in Canada at least, to surf the web via cellphone/BlackBerry. Reminds me of WAP browsing, and we all know how people loved that.
Yes, I know the Reqwireless browser is J2ME (I know the guys who built it) but it seems to me that you still need proxying to reduce the wireless network traffic so that pages don't load so quickly by stripping and transforming (and compressing) the pages that get sent back down...
I assume his carrier doesn't offer flat-rate pricing for data, which can lead to some pretty stiff charges if you don't browse carefully, especially if you're downloading Slashdot pages that probably don't even format correctly for the small screen anyhow...
This is a blow for the Opera for Mobile product, it seems to me. I wonder how usable this new browser is without a proxying component like the one used by the Reqwireless WebViewer or even the BlackBerry's built-in browser?
Socks. Buy only one colour of sock. Black, white, whatever as long as they are all the same.
Stay away from white, then, otherwise when you accidentally wash some of your socks with your blue jeans you'll have to start pairing them up again, which would defeat the purpose...
Slashdot Mirror
The Slashdot monkeys generated my page to include both the spoon and the joystick, it seems, though the latter seems more useful for game playing.
And just to continue our time travel excursion, check out the Apple II joysticks, very different from the Atari ones. These were great for games like Castle Wolfenstein as compared to the stiff joysticks.
The only problem I had with the Intellivision controller was that the overlays would often wear out from constant/excessive/frantic rubbing, which excited teenagers were wont to do. But it was a nifty one, I agree.
Except for right now, where http://images.slashdot.org/topics/topicinputdevice s.gif returns a "400 Bad Request" error. Must be someone's idea of a /. joke. Or maybe they're updating the picture to something of more recent vintage.
And here's a picture of the original Atari joystick and a few other classics, since they're missing from the article.
EricWhile lacking the sophistication of today's controllers, the Atari 2600 joystick was still a lot of fun for those of us who were actually around when it first came out. And at least with one button you didn't have to wonder which one to press.
Eric (grumpy old VIC-20 guy)Author of Make Easy Money with Google, which describes the second easiest
way to make money with Google (the first is apparently to buy GOOG stock and watch it go up!)
Lotus Notes^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
EricMake Easy Money with Google (new book for non-techies)
Apple was so enamored with absolute pure, minimalist design that some designers may argue that ergonomics were compromised.
Let me guess, those designers would be.... Rio's?
EricRead my AdSense blog (goes with my new book for non-techies)
The reason Sun is open sourcing their app server is because no one uses it!
Sun's application server has actually been free to use (including production deployment) for quite some time now, so this further step of releasing the source code under a friendly license isn't that big a deal. Let's face it, basic application servers are pretty much commodities these days, making it hard for anyone to compete in that space. With at least three open source app server projects on the go (this one, JBoss, Geronimo) it's certainly a crowded market. It's certainly not the big deal that misleading headline makes it sound like.
EricJ2ME stuff
If you can't be bothered to figure out for yourself which books you "ought" to read to get a good grasp of western literature, are you going to read the books some people at Amazon think you "ought" to read if they just end up on your shelves?
No, no, we already have Slashdot for that...
EricA new subspecies of lawyer?
For example, MS provided us the wonderful thing called Conditional Comments
I'm not sure I'd describe it as "wonderful", but it is certainly an option. Really, I wrote "How to Detect Internet Explorer" as a companion piece for my HTTP header viewer to show some of the things you can (very easily) do with the header information. As with most things in computing, there are various ways to accomplish the same basic goal.
EricThe three types of click fraud
A very similar approach can be found here: JavaScript Browser Detection. If you're running JavaScript, though, you can detect the browser more accurately using other techniques that don't rely on the user-agent header. The code gets pretty complicated, though.
If all you're interested in is a way to detect IE then you'll probably be interested in IE's Conditional Comments, which is really a horrible hack but it works...
The problem with doing things in JavaScript, of course, is that it's a client-side technique and it doesn't work if the browser's disabled JavaScript support.
EricRead Make Easy Money with Google, a book for non-techies (not you guys!)
Time to dust off this page:
How to Detect Internet Explorer
But only encourage switching to a different browser, don't harangue them into doing it. Remember that some companies/organizations still require the use of IE, especially to access internal systems. If your surfers are coming from such a place, getting mad at them won't help either of you.
EricRecently interviewed in The Waterloo Chronicle! (OK, so it isn't The Globe and Mail)
Relying on the headers the browser sends to figure out stats on browser usage is a dicey proposition at best. A statistically significant survey of Internet users would yield better results, but who's going to pay for that?
EricDescriptions of my books
See my HTTP Header Viewer tool to see what User-Agent header your browser is actually sending.
EricThere's always a tug-of-war happening in tech companies with respect to innovation. It seems to me that the best companies have people that take a long-term view, looking ahead at what's coming down the pipe, instead of the short-term quarter-by-quarter view. This can be hard in a public company, yes, and it's a difficult balance to achieve.
That said, I don't think everyone likes skunk works projects. The important thing is that people enjoy what they do, whatever it is. A good QA person, for example, is one who derives satisfaction from finding and squashing bugs and ultimately making things better for the customer. Different strokes for different folks. A company like Google will tend to attract the creative I-gotta-think-about-things types because that's what they want. But it doesn't meant that every company has to work that way. Indeed, I doubt every company could work that way.
And don't forget the customer satisfaction angle. I suspect that what really turns the crank of people at Google is that they can come up with projects that will eventually be used by thousands, potentially millions, of people worldwide. They're thinking like customers, and in fact they are customers themselves... and Google's audience is so large in general that I suspect it means that there will always be a group of customers who can identify and enjoy a given skunk works project. And then the audience gets bigger... it's a bit self-perpetuating.
EricGoogle-related: my new book about AdSense for non-techies is now shipping
Well, I doubt that Google is "worried" about RSS feeds, they're just looking at them as another source of information to search. The GoogleBot kicks the tires of my blog at least once a day, so I can only imagine that it's doing the same for everyone else's. It's just a logical extension of what they already do. Replace "is worried" with "sees an opportunity", in other words.
EricYeah, how do I get one of those for my new book? Though this is really the wrong audience for it...
EricIt has to do with the fact that the J2ME devices have limited RAM, and can't hold a large page.
Luckily, the memory limitations that once seriously constrained J2ME platforms are becoming a thing of the past with the newer devices, though it's still not an excuse to go and download megabytes of data. I still find it really slow, in Canada at least, to surf the web via cellphone/BlackBerry. Reminds me of WAP browsing, and we all know how people loved that.
EricRead my Google AdSense Tips
Yes, I know the Reqwireless browser is J2ME (I know the guys who built it) but it seems to me that you still need proxying to reduce the wireless network traffic so that pages don't load so quickly by stripping and transforming (and compressing) the pages that get sent back down...
I assume his carrier doesn't offer flat-rate pricing for data, which can lead to some pretty stiff charges if you don't browse carefully, especially if you're downloading Slashdot pages that probably don't even format correctly for the small screen anyhow...
EricSee your HTTP headers here
This is a blow for the Opera for Mobile product, it seems to me. I wonder how usable this new browser is without a proxying component like the one used by the Reqwireless WebViewer or even the BlackBerry's built-in browser?
EricJ2ME acronyms defined
And you get free shipping if you buy $1,000,000.00 or more!
But just think of the commissions you'd earn from the affiliate program! Where do I sign up?
EricRead my AdSense blog: high-paying keywords, the Long Tail, and other fun stuff
Socks. Buy only one colour of sock. Black, white, whatever as long as they are all the same.
Stay away from white, then, otherwise when you accidentally wash some of your socks with your blue jeans you'll have to start pairing them up again, which would defeat the purpose...
EricMy new book's out this Friday!
In further news, 90% of scientists who were surveyed admitted to lying on surveys at least 60% of the time...