There's no way I could ever put up with handwriting recognition as my sole source of input.
I can type about 5-10 times faster than I can write normally, and that's without caring if anybody besides myself can read it. If I'm writing on my Palm, and care to have a certain level of accuracy, I'm reduced to less than 10 words per minute.
That's just not acceptable for a laptop computer. Palm tops, where the most you should have to type in is a person's name and address, are ok for handwriting recognition, but even there I find myself typing notes on my PC and uploading them to the palm.
I've always thought the best way of promoting open-source software was to create it and release it.
If you do this successfully, it demonstrates the viability of open-source software on your platform. It also gives weight to your advocacy of the open-source model, since you are willing to put forth considerable effort towards that end.
Actually the Hubble cannot be used anywhere near 24 hours a day. You have the problem of avoiding the very bright sun and moon, both which would easily damage the sensitive instruments.
You also have the problem that at any given time half of the sky is blocked by the earth.
Finally a positive story about corporations taking control of trademark disputed domains...
Eventually Josh gave it back to McDonald's in exchange for McDonald's funding a T-1 in perpetuity to a high school in the Bronx.
At least somebody somewhere got something useful out of it. Now if we could just convince other corporations that being charitable can often be more productive and better for their public image (not to mention cheaper!) than calling in the lawyers.
Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to cede their domain so easily...
It's not that simple. Sure its easy to say "launch today with today's tech," but consider the factors involved in a longer voyage...
You have to have enough consumables to keep your crew alive for a long period of time: air, food, and water. The longer the voyage, the more mass you will have to take in order to provide for your crew, and thus the more fuel you will need to propel the extra mass...
You would need a tremendous amount of fuel using conventional propulsion methods, and the cost would be prohibitive (note we don't already have a mars mission underway!).
Its the grape boards which are specialized. All they can do is calculate gravitational potentials between particles, nothing else.
The only problem with previous versions of grape (that I know of) is that their precision is a little lower than you'd really like or need for some applications, but otherwise they are very nice for doing large n-body sims.
Ok, this is true, I doubt that many metallica tapes are traded every 48 hours (because everyone's trading mp3's:).
You also have to consider the fact that the 1.4 million figure is counting individual songs, while if I make a copy of a CD and give it to somebody else, I am giving them about a dozen songs...
Lars: Yeah, I mean I think we answered that before. Of course we have, ok? And of course it's a valid point. The bottom line is the size of it. The size of it and the quality of it. When we go in, and check Napster out, we come up with 1.4 million copyright infringements in 48 hours, this is a different thing than trading cassette tapes with your buddy at school. I mean, 48 hours! So it's the quality, the quality and the scale.
I'm sorry, but if you had the ability to track all the trading of cassette tapes and burned CD's, you'd find that 1.4 million in 48 hours is not at all understated. Its just nobody keeps a large log of everything that gets traded.
Solidifying a contract like that works when the client actually knows what they want. More often they have absolutely no clue of what they want/need, and require the programmer to help them along that stage as well.
With these type of clients (and I've dealt with many) taking the proper long stage of design and discussion doesn't work at all. The client immediately changes their tune after seeing initial results. Not so much to add features, but that the features they actually requested were not the ones they needed, or didn't work within their business practices.
Ok, to be more clear, mass-energy is conserved. When you convert from mass to energy or from energy to mass, you have simply changed its form.
My point is that you can never "run out" of energy in the universe, as long as you can continue to recapture it in whatever wasteproduct form it occurs.
1) Energy is conserved, so you can never "use up" all the energy in the universe, you have simply converted it to a different form.
2) The problem is not really the computation time, I could set my little TI-82 at the task and have it finish in 10^100 years (pulled that out of nowhere). The problem is how do you store the results. If you have a very compact storage solution, where you only need a few hundred atoms per solution, you still need far more matter than we have available in our solar system.
This is my biggest gripe with Card. He used to be my favorite author, but I got sick of him refusing to let a story conclude.
The first one or two books in a series are always excellent, well written, with very good character development. These books get me hooked on the storyline and characters, but they never quite allow the story to finish.
By the 4th or 5th book, I realize that Card is simply writing to sell more books. The story has become stale, and these books lack the excitement of the first few.
I just wish Card would push himself to give a decent conclusion within a trilogy, and demonstrate more concern for the story than for selling more books.
Of course I am making a huge assumption about Card's motives here, and to be fair, he could also just lack talent at giving closure.
I'm only very familiar with Microsoft SQL server, (if you have to use this product I'm sorry for you, but sometimes you have to learn about it anyay)
I'm not certain of the support in other sql servers (although I'm sure major servers such as Oracle include server stored procedures).
Essentially what happens in Microsoft SQL server is that you can create certain scripts in T-sql (transact-sql) which can be run as queries or within triggers (scripts that execute on insert, update, or delete).
The cool thing about stored procedures is when you're using ODBC, which can be incredibly slow, especially with large recordsets. You can move large updates (things like updating the dates on all records in a query) onto the server, where its caching and local data makes it MUCH faster.
The great thing about themes is that the people who want to use them can, and the people who are afraid of them probably don't even know they exist to begin with!
The problem with Netscape is they are planning to have a default theme which breaks current GUI standards, thus leading to possible confusion for the latter group.
I think Netscape has to (and really already has) two points: 1) Making your program look flashy gives the impression to the newbie user that your program is somehow "futuristic" and better than the competition without really getting under the hood (sports car syndrome).
2) Giving your program a flashy look may confuse newbie users and give IT managers headaches having to retrain their users.
I think the default skin Netscape chose is at least intuitive enough so (2) is not a very large issue. One of Mozilla's major strengths is its support within the hacker community, which is rewarded with the ability to make it look whatever f'ked up way they want.
Not quite. A photon's momentum is related to its wavelength by the following relation:
p = h / lambda
so (p^2 * c^2) - E^2 = -m^2 * c^4 =>
((h^2 * c^2 ) / lambda^2) - E^2 = -m^2 * c^4
c / lambda = frequency, so:
h^2 * frequency ^2 = -m^2 * c^4
and h * frequency = energy (for photon)
so E^2 - E^2 = -m^2 * c^4, and c != 0, so m must equal 0.
Unless you can demonstrate that either h*frequency != Energy for photon or h / lambda != momentum, both of which have been established experimentally, you cannot say a photon has mass (also see the logic in my previous reply to another poster).
Photons are massless, and do not exert gravitational force. Light does respond to gravity, however, since it is just following the shortest path of a deformed fabric of space.
Photons have to be massless, otherwise they would have infinite energy:
E = mc^2 * gamma
gamma = 1 / sqrt( 1 - (v^2 / c ^ 2))
insert c for v, and you get a zero in the denominator, thus any particle which travels at c must be massless.
Its a common misconception that black holes some how "suck" in matter. In fact black holes have exactly the same amount of gravitational attraction as a different object with the same mass. If we replaced our sun with a black hole of the sun's mass, the earth would continue to orbit.
Since black holes form and grow from matter which was already in the general vicinity, objects which were far away feel the exact same gravitational force, regardless of whether the mass is in star or black hole form.
I am a happy owner of The Data Compression Book (2nd Ed). With the increasing availability of compression routines within libraries (Java's GZIP streams spring to mind), does this make your book a little unnecessary?
Should software authors continue to write their own compression routines, or simply trust the versions available to them in library form?
I can see some definite advantages to library code, i.e. the ability to upgrade routines, and having standardized algorithms which can be read by any program which utilizes the library.
This is only true when you are faster than the system. The user's resources are limited, there's no way to upgrade the processor inside your head (afawk). The processor on your desk, however, will be 2x faster in 18 months anyway, so system resources should always take second place to user resources.
The problem is that girls who otherwise might be interested in CS are unable to even consider it as a possibility, due to such statements as "girls just aren't interested in CS."
Many girls get pushed out of science and math when they are in high school, thus limiting their possibilities simply due to lack of proper education.
The "system" isn't always to blame, but the problem with generalizing behavior is that when that generalization becomes a cultural norm. Thus it is a self-fulfilling prophesy: girls aren't interested because in this society we have decided that girls aren't interested.
That goes for real life too. The female form is a much more pleasing shape to look at than the male form. (Don't think I'm biased because I'm male, ladies. Anyone who's ever studied art knows this.)
Actually that's more of a cultural idea. We hold the female form very highly, as our advertising demonstrates. The ancient Greeks, however, held the male form to be the ideal. Your judgement of what is aesthetically pleasing has been influenced by your culture and its values.
I'm not trying to argue the point with you, but its always a good thing for people to realize that many things we consider "natural" are simply outgrowths of the culture to which we belong and only seem natural because we find it difficult to imagine an alternative. Doug
Slashdot Mirror
There's no way I could ever put up with handwriting recognition as my sole source of input.
I can type about 5-10 times faster than I can write normally, and that's without caring if anybody besides myself can read it. If I'm writing on my Palm, and care to have a certain level of accuracy, I'm reduced to less than 10 words per minute.
That's just not acceptable for a laptop computer. Palm tops, where the most you should have to type in is a person's name and address, are ok for handwriting recognition, but even there I find myself typing notes on my PC and uploading them to the palm.
In short, bad idea Apple...
Doug
I've always thought the best way of promoting open-source software was to create it and release it.
If you do this successfully, it demonstrates the viability of open-source software on your platform. It also gives weight to your advocacy of the open-source model, since you are willing to put forth considerable effort towards that end.
Doug
Nothing like a $500/gal price tag to prevent something from trickling down into the consumer market.
;)
Hell, for $1000, overclock the crap out of a chip, and burn it out, then just buy another
Doug
Actually the Hubble cannot be used anywhere near 24 hours a day. You have the problem of avoiding the very bright sun and moon, both which would easily damage the sensitive instruments.
You also have the problem that at any given time half of the sky is blocked by the earth.
Doug
Finally a positive story about corporations taking control of trademark disputed domains...
Eventually Josh gave it back to McDonald's in exchange for McDonald's funding a T-1 in perpetuity to a high school in the Bronx.
At least somebody somewhere got something useful out of it. Now if we could just convince other corporations that being charitable can often be more productive and better for their public image (not to mention cheaper!) than calling in the lawyers.
Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to cede their domain so easily...
Doug
Look at it from this angle: 600 employees x $1000 for a new computer = $600,000 / $20,000 per work year = 30 years for it to be cost effective.
Besides, in a company with 600 employees, $20k is not a whole heck of a lot. One clerk's salary.
Doug
It's not that simple. Sure its easy to say "launch today with today's tech," but consider the factors involved in a longer voyage...
You have to have enough consumables to keep your crew alive for a long period of time: air, food, and water. The longer the voyage, the more mass you will have to take in order to provide for your crew, and thus the more fuel you will need to propel the extra mass...
You would need a tremendous amount of fuel using conventional propulsion methods, and the cost would be prohibitive (note we don't already have a mars mission underway!).
Doug
Its the grape boards which are specialized. All they can do is calculate gravitational potentials between particles, nothing else.
The only problem with previous versions of grape (that I know of) is that their precision is a little lower than you'd really like or need for some applications, but otherwise they are very nice for doing large n-body sims.
Doug
Ok, this is true, I doubt that many metallica tapes are traded every 48 hours (because everyone's trading mp3's :).
You also have to consider the fact that the 1.4 million figure is counting individual songs, while if I make a copy of a CD and give it to somebody else, I am giving them about a dozen songs...
Doug
Lars: Yeah, I mean I think we answered that before. Of course we have, ok? And of course it's a valid point. The bottom line is the size of it. The size of it and the quality of it. When we go in, and check Napster out, we come up with 1.4 million copyright infringements in 48 hours, this is a different thing than trading cassette tapes with your buddy at school. I mean, 48 hours! So it's the quality, the quality and the scale.
I'm sorry, but if you had the ability to track all the trading of cassette tapes and burned CD's, you'd find that 1.4 million in 48 hours is not at all understated. Its just nobody keeps a large log of everything that gets traded.
Doug
Solidifying a contract like that works when the client actually knows what they want. More often they have absolutely no clue of what they want/need, and require the programmer to help them along that stage as well.
With these type of clients (and I've dealt with many) taking the proper long stage of design and discussion doesn't work at all. The client immediately changes their tune after seeing initial results. Not so much to add features, but that the features they actually requested were not the ones they needed, or didn't work within their business practices.
Doug
Ok, to be more clear, mass-energy is conserved. When you convert from mass to energy or from energy to mass, you have simply changed its form.
My point is that you can never "run out" of energy in the universe, as long as you can continue to recapture it in whatever wasteproduct form it occurs.
Doug
1) Energy is conserved, so you can never "use up" all the energy in the universe, you have simply converted it to a different form.
2) The problem is not really the computation time, I could set my little TI-82 at the task and have it finish in 10^100 years (pulled that out of nowhere). The problem is how do you store the results. If you have a very compact storage solution, where you only need a few hundred atoms per solution, you still need far more matter than we have available in our solar system.
Doug
This is my biggest gripe with Card. He used to be my favorite author, but I got sick of him refusing to let a story conclude.
The first one or two books in a series are always excellent, well written, with very good character development. These books get me hooked on the storyline and characters, but they never quite allow the story to finish.
By the 4th or 5th book, I realize that Card is simply writing to sell more books. The story has become stale, and these books lack the excitement of the first few.
I just wish Card would push himself to give a decent conclusion within a trilogy, and demonstrate more concern for the story than for selling more books.
Of course I am making a huge assumption about Card's motives here, and to be fair, he could also just lack talent at giving closure.
Doug
First off, I'm about as far from being an expert in such matters as you can get.
It occurs to me that CRT's would be far BETTER for high stress environments, simply due to the removal of moving parts.
Doug
I'm only very familiar with Microsoft SQL server,
(if you have to use this product I'm sorry for you, but sometimes you have to learn about it anyay)
I'm not certain of the support in other sql servers (although I'm sure major servers such as Oracle include server stored procedures).
Essentially what happens in Microsoft SQL server
is that you can create certain scripts in T-sql (transact-sql) which can be run as queries or within triggers (scripts that execute on insert, update, or delete).
The cool thing about stored procedures is when you're using ODBC, which can be incredibly slow, especially with large recordsets. You can move large updates (things like updating the dates on all records in a query) onto the server, where its caching and local data makes it MUCH faster.
Doug
The great thing about themes is that the people who want to use them can, and the people who are afraid of them probably don't even know they exist to begin with!
The problem with Netscape is they are planning to have a default theme which breaks current GUI standards, thus leading to possible confusion for the latter group.
I think Netscape has to (and really already has) two points:
1) Making your program look flashy gives the impression to the newbie user that your program is somehow "futuristic" and better than the competition without really getting under the hood (sports car syndrome).
2) Giving your program a flashy look may confuse newbie users and give IT managers headaches having to retrain their users.
I think the default skin Netscape chose is at least intuitive enough so (2) is not a very large issue. One of Mozilla's major strengths is its support within the hacker community, which is rewarded with the ability to make it look whatever f'ked up way they want.
Doug
Not quite. A photon's momentum is related to its wavelength by the following relation:
p = h / lambda
so (p^2 * c^2) - E^2 = -m^2 * c^4 =>
((h^2 * c^2 ) / lambda^2) - E^2 = -m^2 * c^4
c / lambda = frequency, so:
h^2 * frequency ^2 = -m^2 * c^4
and h * frequency = energy (for photon)
so E^2 - E^2 = -m^2 * c^4, and c != 0,
so m must equal 0.
Unless you can demonstrate that either
h*frequency != Energy for photon
or h / lambda != momentum, both of which
have been established experimentally, you
cannot say a photon has mass (also see the logic in my previous reply to another poster).
Doug
Not proton, PHOTON.
Photons are massless, and do not exert gravitational force. Light does respond to gravity, however, since it is just following the shortest path of a deformed fabric of space.
Photons have to be massless, otherwise they would have infinite energy:
E = mc^2 * gamma
gamma = 1 / sqrt( 1 - (v^2 / c ^ 2))
insert c for v, and you get a zero in the denominator, thus any particle which travels at c must be massless.
Doug
Its a common misconception that black holes some how "suck" in matter. In fact black holes have exactly the same amount of gravitational attraction as a different object with the same mass. If we replaced our sun with a black hole of the sun's mass, the earth would continue to orbit.
Since black holes form and grow from matter which was already in the general vicinity, objects which were far away feel the exact same gravitational force, regardless of whether the mass is in star or black hole form.
Doug
I am a happy owner of The Data Compression Book (2nd Ed). With the increasing availability of compression routines within libraries (Java's GZIP streams spring to mind), does this make your book a little unnecessary?
Should software authors continue to write their own compression routines, or simply trust the versions available to them in library form?
I can see some definite advantages to library code, i.e. the ability to upgrade routines, and having standardized algorithms which can be read by any program which utilizes the library.
Doug
This is only true when you are faster than the system. The user's resources are limited, there's no way to upgrade the processor inside your head (afawk). The processor on your desk, however, will be 2x faster in 18 months anyway, so system resources should always take second place to user resources.
Doug
The problem is that girls who otherwise might be interested in CS are unable to even consider it as a possibility, due to such statements as "girls just aren't interested in CS."
Many girls get pushed out of science and math when they are in high school, thus limiting their possibilities simply due to lack of proper education.
The "system" isn't always to blame, but the problem with generalizing behavior is that when that generalization becomes a cultural norm. Thus it is a self-fulfilling prophesy: girls aren't interested because in this society we have decided that girls aren't interested.
Doug
That's what the recording studios consider radio for, plus there they have much more control over the music.
Doug
That goes for real life too. The female form is a much more pleasing shape to look at than the male form. (Don't think I'm biased because I'm male, ladies. Anyone who's ever studied art knows this.)
Actually that's more of a cultural idea. We hold the female form very highly, as our advertising demonstrates. The ancient Greeks, however, held the male form to be the ideal. Your judgement of what is aesthetically pleasing has been influenced by your culture and its values.
I'm not trying to argue the point with you, but its always a good thing for people to realize that many things we consider "natural" are simply outgrowths of the culture to which we belong and only seem natural because we find it difficult to imagine an alternative. Doug