BlueDVD.com I think its called. If that doesn't find it just google blueDVD. It's cheap and fast and has a good selection. I'm not sure if they do the monthly fee thing for serious addicts, but the price is reasonable for renting just one.
BTW that's the only reason that independent video stores still exist; Blockbuster won't rent pr0n. Walmart will of course have the same problem.
There are a lot of great scripting languages on all platforms, but the real answer is web pages. HTML is a _really_ easy way to get started programming computers. Obviously its not the same as a real programming language, but it contains an important abstraction that one has to learn first: that I put in some particular text, and as a result I get some interesting behavior from the computer. This is really not much different than when I discovered I could type in a command to my Apple ][ to turn blocks of the screen different colors. If people get used to the abstraction of text turning into interesting behavior (and are fascinated by it, as I'm sure most of the people reading this are) its an easy next step to move on to javascript and start learning about control statements and data structures/objects.
Almost all of the adults I know who work in different fields and get interested in programming do it through writing web pages, and it seems like a perfect thing for kids too.
Somewhat off topic: There's even a better deal than this: I've moved into new apartments three times in the last couple of years, and every time the cable is already hooked up, and no one bothers to unhook it for several months. My theory is that people are so unlikely to not order cable that it isn't worth it for the cable company to actually send someone to turn off the analog cable when an account is canceled. So if the next person doesn't bother to set up a new account they get everything on analog for free until the cable compnay notices months later.
Back on topic: I don't really like to see the government do anything to help cable companies, which tend to be pretty monopolistic.
If you're ever in Silicon Valley, there are a bunch of nickel arcades here, where you can play all kinds of games really cheaply. ( I think one is called "Nickel City" if you want to look it up)
You pay two bucks to get in the door, and then 5 to 15 cents a game, some of them even pretty new. But the best part is a wall of games in the back that are FREE. This includes a lot of old favorites from the 80's.
I don't know if these things exist elsewhere. Have other people seen them in other places?
One interesting thing I've concluded from them is that a large part of the cost of video games is maintenance, since about half the games in the nickel arcade are usually broken. (but its not so frustrating to lose your money when its only a nickel)
OT: Glad to hear someone else say it: SNK was the best baseball game ever. No question.
I believe their target market is things like factory automation, where you have a lot of machines that only talk serial, and you'd like to run them all from one remote terminal using ethernet. These are situations where you only need to see them on the local network. Opening your factory equipment to the world would be a very bad idea anyway, so having enough IP addresses is not an issue.
For a lot of things this is an extremely low price. If you have a large piece of machinery that cost thousands of dollars, thirty three bucks is nothing. This company also sells (or at least used to sell) big boxes that do the same thing, and they sold a lot of them for a lot more than thirty bucks.
That works, but it's really just a macro without any parameters. It removes some of the dangers of the macro, but also a lot of the usefulness.
If you're going to do it, you might as well use #define. It will have the same effect, but its a more standard way to say it. (and you don't have to have a bunch of files with just one function)
as using some strange non-standard tool or hack to get around this, or letting your code get really big and ugly from "manually inlining" everything.
Macros have their dangers, but at least their dangers are well understood, and should be familiar to anyone who is writing embedded C. It is the commonly used solution to your problem, which makes it nice for keeping your code maintainable.
If you use a trick to get around the problem, it will just be another thing to confuse the next person who has to maintain the code.
My wife had laser surgery over three years ago, and she still has night vision problems so bad that she can't drive at night.
The problem is that her pupils dialate past the corrected area, causing here to see halos around bright lights. This problem (unlike her nearsightedness before the surgery) cannot be fixed by lenses, so there's nothing she can do about it.
I've heard that the problem fades over time, but three years has not been enough for her.
No matter what the browsers support or don't support, or how many books this guy sells by ranting about how everyone else sucks.
I hate the fact that browsers are incompatible as much as anyone, but the fact that there is lots of sloppy code on the web is inevitable, because writing web pages is something lots of people do, and not all of them are competent. I don't think its something we should be complaining about.
The great thing about writing web pages is that anyone can do it. Because of this we get a lot of crappy web pages, but its also why there are so many good ones.
I agree completely. I've read a lot of physics textbooks, and this one really stands out. There's nothing flashy about it, but it explains the basics clearly and concisely, and makes a very good reference.
When they built the EV1, they got a lot of good press for doing something innovative and good for the environment, but then a few years later they quit making them and recalled most of the existing ones because of "fire hazards". Sounds to me like they took the good PR, then let the world know that "electric cars aren't safe! they catch fire easily! so keep buying your big expensive gas-guzzeling cars."
The only reason a 500 pound vehicle is a death trap is because there are too many idiots driving 5000 pound SUVs. If all cars weighed only 500 pounds, we would all be a lot safer. Lighter cars are inherently safer, because there is less energy stored in the act of moving them, which means less energy available for destroying things and injuring people when they crash.
People getting rid of heavy cars obviously isn't going to happen any time soon, but it's definitely a goal worth shooting for.
Another reason you might want to play these games is that they really are a lot of fun. On an Atari 2600 they couldn't cover up a bad game with fancy graphics or 500 levels. The game itself HAD to be fun, because there wasn't anything else there.
They also name products after mountain ranges. Using geographic features for code names keeps them safe from inadvertently using someone else's copyright.
Actually, clients do call up and say things like that, no matter what business you're in. I spent several years working as a mechanical engineer before switching to software, and clients never stopped asking me to change things that there was obviously no hope of changing so far into the project.
The problem with software is that it is perceived as being easier to change than it really is, even by people who develop it, and certainly by people who manage developers. So when they ask for the moat, we actually have to build it.
Slashdot Mirror
BlueDVD.com I think its called. If that doesn't find it just google blueDVD. It's cheap and fast and has a good selection. I'm not sure if they do the monthly fee thing for serious addicts, but the price is reasonable for renting just one.
BTW that's the only reason that independent video stores still exist; Blockbuster won't rent pr0n.
Walmart will of course have the same problem.
There are a lot of great scripting languages on all platforms, but the real answer is web pages. HTML is a _really_ easy way to get started programming computers. Obviously its not the same as a real programming language, but it contains an important abstraction that one has to learn first: that I put in some particular text, and as a result I get some interesting behavior from the computer. This is really not much different than when I discovered I could type in a command to my Apple ][ to turn blocks of the screen different colors. If people get used to the abstraction of text turning into interesting behavior (and are fascinated by it, as I'm sure most of the people reading this are) its an easy next step to move on to javascript and start learning about control statements and data structures/objects.
Almost all of the adults I know who work in different fields and get interested in programming do it through writing web pages, and it seems like a perfect thing for kids too.
Somewhat off topic:
There's even a better deal than this: I've moved into new apartments three times in the last couple of years, and every time the cable is already hooked up, and no one bothers to unhook it for several months. My theory is that people are so unlikely to not order cable that it isn't worth it for the cable company to actually send someone to turn off the analog cable when an account is canceled. So if the next person doesn't bother to set up a new account they get everything on analog for free until the cable compnay notices months later.
Back on topic:
I don't really like to see the government do anything to help cable companies, which tend to be pretty monopolistic.
For low power ethernet cameras. They first started making them three or four years ago, and they work great.
IQeye Cameras
If you're ever in Silicon Valley, there are a bunch of nickel arcades here, where you can play all kinds of games really cheaply. ( I think one is called "Nickel City" if you want to look it up)
You pay two bucks to get in the door, and then 5 to 15 cents a game, some of them even pretty new. But the best part is a wall of games in the back that are FREE. This includes a lot of old favorites from the 80's.
I don't know if these things exist elsewhere. Have other people seen them in other places?
One interesting thing I've concluded from them is that a large part of the cost of video games is maintenance, since about half the games in the nickel arcade are usually broken. (but its not so frustrating to lose your money when its only a nickel)
OT: Glad to hear someone else say it: SNK was the best baseball game ever. No question.
I believe their target market is things like factory automation, where you have a lot of machines that only talk serial, and you'd like to run them all from one remote terminal using ethernet. These are situations where you only need to see them on the local network. Opening your factory equipment to the world would be a very bad idea anyway, so having enough IP addresses is not an issue.
For a lot of things this is an extremely low price. If you have a large piece of machinery that cost thousands of dollars, thirty three bucks is nothing. This company also sells (or at least used to sell) big boxes that do the same thing, and they sold a lot of them for a lot more than thirty bucks.
They said the same thing when VCRs came out, and that certainly wasn't the end of the movie industry.
That works, but it's really just a macro without any parameters. It removes some of the dangers of the macro, but also a lot of the usefulness.
If you're going to do it, you might as well use #define. It will have the same effect, but its a more standard way to say it. (and you don't have to have a bunch of files with just one function)
as using some strange non-standard tool or hack to get around this, or letting your code get really big and ugly from "manually inlining" everything.
Macros have their dangers, but at least their dangers are well understood, and should be familiar to anyone who is writing embedded C. It is the commonly used solution to your problem, which makes it nice for keeping your code maintainable.
If you use a trick to get around the problem, it will just be another thing to confuse the next person who has to maintain the code.
My wife had laser surgery over three years ago, and she still has night vision problems so bad that she can't drive at night.
The problem is that her pupils dialate past the corrected area, causing here to see halos around bright lights. This problem (unlike her nearsightedness before the surgery) cannot be fixed by lenses, so there's nothing she can do about it.
I've heard that the problem fades over time, but three years has not been enough for her.
the real reason software is so expensive is that all of us developers are spending our time reading slashdot instead of writing code.
I used to work for a company called IQInVision that also makes these. They have some really neat features not available in the other cameras.
No matter what the browsers support or don't support, or how many books this guy sells by ranting about how everyone else sucks.
I hate the fact that browsers are incompatible as much as anyone, but the fact that there is lots of sloppy code on the web is inevitable, because writing web pages is something lots of people do, and not all of them are competent. I don't think its something we should be complaining about.
The great thing about writing web pages is that anyone can do it. Because of this we get a lot of crappy web pages, but its also why there are so many good ones.
I agree completely. I've read a lot of physics textbooks, and this one really stands out. There's nothing flashy about it, but it explains the basics clearly and concisely, and makes a very good reference.
When they built the EV1, they got a lot of good press for doing something innovative and good for the environment, but then a few years later they quit making them and recalled most of the existing ones because of "fire hazards". Sounds to me like they took the good PR, then let the world know that "electric cars aren't safe! they catch fire easily! so keep buying your big expensive gas-guzzeling cars."
The only reason a 500 pound vehicle is a death trap is because there are too many idiots driving 5000 pound SUVs. If all cars weighed only 500 pounds, we would all be a lot safer. Lighter cars are inherently safer, because there is less energy stored in the act of moving them, which means less energy available for destroying things and injuring people when they crash.
People getting rid of heavy cars obviously isn't going to happen any time soon, but it's definitely a goal worth shooting for.
Another reason you might want to play these games is that they really are a lot of fun.
On an Atari 2600 they couldn't cover up a bad game with fancy graphics or 500 levels. The game itself HAD to be fun, because there wasn't anything else there.
They also name products after mountain ranges. Using geographic features for code names keeps them safe from inadvertently using someone else's copyright.
Actually, clients do call up and say things like that, no matter what business you're in. I spent several years working as a mechanical engineer before switching to software, and clients never stopped asking me to change things that there was obviously no hope of changing so far into the project.
The problem with software is that it is perceived as being easier to change than it really is, even by people who develop it, and certainly by people who manage developers. So when they ask for the moat, we actually have to build it.