Seems like every few weeks someone writes another story about the amazing "trends" in the TIOBE Index. As far as I can see, the real trend is: Languages go up in popularity, they go down, they move around, one month it's the First! Time! Ever! that a language has made the list, the next month it's gone again, and C, C++, and Java are always at the top (in varying order). Such variable results suggest that TIOBE's sampling method isn't all that reliable or accurate to begin with, but I think we all have a pretty good idea what languages people are really using and for what.
I'm of the opinion that the vertical space is quite lacking for browsing.
I agree, it's the vertical space that's the problem. I use a couple of Web applications that aren't really all that complicated, but that have forms with one or two long drop-down selection boxes that can be really difficult to navigate on the short screen.
Then again, hitting F11 to hide the browser chrome helps...
I learned my lesson and yes it is my fault so do not blame me on this but where I am from anything above 6% is considered loan sharking.
I actually have a credit card with an interest rate below 6 percent... but it sure ain't from BofA. I have one or two of their cards but I literally never use them. I just use them as a bank.
Bank of America doesn't use Java. I bank with them and I don't even have Java installed. They have a second-factor authentication app on their online banking site, but it's implemented in Flash (which a lot of people probably don't want installed either, but at least using the app is optional). And I'm not rich either, and they've never robbed me or "treated me like cattle" -- I don't understand views like that.
There are very few businesses who will want to modify OO/LO and release derivative versions to third parties... Most companies simply want to use the software as-is, and a very small minority might want to modify it for internal use. For these uses, even the full blown GPL has no impact whatsoever.
"Very few businesses" isn't a valid argument. The license is business friendly even if it only interests an audience of one.
And there are all kinds of situations where having a "business-friendly" open source license is desirable; you're just thinking of the wrong business cases. Sure, most end users of the suite aren't going to want to modify it. But one example of a derivative version of OpenOffice.org would be IBM Lotus Symphony (recently donated to the Apache Foundation). Might no one ever want to create such a product ever again? Or how about this: What if a company wanted to write an actually decent database manager that could compete with Access, keep it proprietary, but bundle the rest of LibreOffice with it so it could compete with Office as a suite? I bet they could find customers.
There are some countries in the world where the punishment for some crimes is physical torture. It is incredibly painful, and in our western culture, it's considered dehumanizing, but it's worth nothing that those countries don't really have a serious repeat offender problem.
FTFY. I think we've found a solution to America's problems right here.
Yeah, I think the bigger problem is that the updates are weird. It's been a while since I've had Java installed on my main machines, but the way I remember it, you'd end up with a long list of updates in your Programs and Settings panel, even when they all have the same major version number. Like... you could keep Java 1.6.19 even when you uninstalled Java 1.6.12. And they don't seem to be patches, either... like, each one adds another 350MB subdirectory to some folder in your system disk, and they all just sit there like turds.
Then there was the time Oracle tried to bundle a McAfee "security scan" in the Java updates. That really inspired confidence. "Hey, I know -- let's interrupt this vital security procedure to push crapware from our marketing partners."
No, I think Roger Grimes is wrong -- folks can and will uninstall Java. I've been avoiding it just fine, and those bespoke Java applications that we're told all these Fortune 500 companies are sitting on will eventually be replaced with Web applications.
(None of this is to say Java doesn't have a strong future in the datacenter, though.)
Getting varied quality from different cards means you're doing something VERY wrong.
Maybe it means you're good at programming one GPU but you're not as good at programming the other. Or if another person did the code for the other GPU, maybe the other person doesn't code as well as you do.
But if all these chips have different instruction sets and APIs, it sounds kinda like saying, "If your program runs slower on iOS than it does on Android, you're doing something very wrong." Maybe. The point is that things were supposed to be getting easier, but apparently they're not.
There are some exceptions; but where a branded and generic version of a given drug are available, the dispensing pharmacist can substitute the generic compound even if the prescription is written for the common brand name.
I believe that's the law in California.
But I was talking more about the cases where the prescription might be codeine or codeine plus acetaminophen, and one might be called codeine and the other might be called Gablibbitol. And the doctor doesn't really tell you that Gablibbitol is the same thing as codeine in so many words, but just says "hey there's these two drugs, I think Gablibbitol might be just slightly more effective, but either one will work." And that's true, the doctor is saying something absolutely factual. But you're being asked to make a decision and you're not being given all the facts -- specifically, you're not being told the cost difference between the two, which is probably the sole piece of information that could help you decide whether "just slightly more effective" makes a difference to you.
There are some things that are obvious, e.g. conjunctivitis.
Only conjunctivitis isn't that obvious, because viruses are actually the most common cause, and it could also be caused by allergies, fungal infections, or whatever else.
Its also cheaper for the insurance company not to cover the blood pressure medication, have you not buy it OTC, and have you die from a heart attack before you are able to get (and rack up a bill for) medical attention that they would have to pay for.
Yeah. Because nobody ever has a heart attack, gets rushed by ambulance to the emergency room, gets put on oxygen and in-home hospice care, and dies a month later. Good cost/benefit analysis there.
BTW someone talked about prescription drugs being patented (and therefore overpriced). You can always ask your doctor for over-the-counter versions, if you don't want the prescription version. It's a business transaction & just like any business transaction you negotiate the deal. You don't have to just blindly accept what the salesman (doctor) is handing you.
Some of the doctors I've been to recently have made a point of acting like this was not the case (when I agree it clearly is). As in:
"I can prescribe you this version or I can prescribe you this other version, which includes something a little extra. I think either one will help your problem. It's up to you."
"Well... how do I decide? What's the cost difference between the two?"
"I don't know."
I think to some extent they're not bullshitting me, because that's a complex question. It's largely the insurance companies that decide what the ultimate out-of-pocket cost of your treatment is. Maybe your insurance company will cover one version but not the other. Maybe it's all the same. But for the customer (patient) to explicitly not be told what their treatment might cost kind of flies in the face of everything every smart consumer has ever learned, and it's incredibly frustrating to feel victimized by a system that basically has you by the balls: Either pay or stay sick.
First post to/. in a while, but nobody seems to ask the question, why does Facebook need a spam filter? Would not one just block connections or eliminate them from your network if they were spamming you?
I think it gets more complicated than that with Facebook's various privacy settings. In a lot of cases, you can access and even post to "friends of friends." So if you mistakenly friend a bot, that person might then be able to start posting link spam on your friends' posts without you realizing it.
And yes, some people really do want to allow friends of friends to comment that way, so saying "fix the privacy settings" isn't enough.
Looks like Snopes is unblocked now, but they also block a lot of torrent links. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other cases (and honestly, I wouldn't really blame them).
Sure. I'm always on 9 different channels with mostly different but occasionally overlapping (e.g. ex-workmates and current workmates overlap) groups of friends, half of which exist almost entirely for organising face-2-face things at very short notice
Great. But what about the kind of "keeping in touch" that doesn't require your constant attention and doesn't take place in real time for everybody at the same time, which is 99% of what Facebook is used for?
(I know, I know, "run your own Listserv." Whatever, dude.)
Overdrinking leads to all sorts of excesses in risk-taking: promiscuous sex, abuse of drugs, poorly executed extreme stunts, violence against others, and other ridiculousness.
Haven't noticed any of the above, myself. In my experience, it usually leads to telling excessive jokes, bickering about bands, concocting crazy schemes that we'll never follow through with, playing lots of music way too loud, and generally having a good time. Then feeling like crap the next morning.
Based on your own description, however, may I suggest that you avoid alcohol and stick to prune juice.
Maybe it's time to reexamine why they're in your circle to begin with if you leaving Facebook is going to actually strain your friendship? If they can't be arsed to shoot an email or text message to the guy that doesn't want to waste his time reading stupid bullshit (90% of Facebook status updates), then they're probably not your friend in the first place.
Get a little older. By 40 or so, you'll find it's often just too difficult to try to get three people in the same place at the same time to go to the movies, yet alone keep up with everything that's going on in everybody's lives. In fact, I've actually had more than one friend announce their major illness on Facebook -- and certainly plenty of pictures of new babies. Also, if the most likely place you're going to see some of your old friends is at scheduled, public events (parties, art openings, live music, DJ nights at the bar, whatever), as is often the case when people live in cities, it's helpful to get those updates in one place.
If they're using my Facebook feed for data mining and targeted advertising, why haven't promotional bottles of liquor started showing up on my doorstep yet?
I'm in the middle of resurrecting the system, and not a day goes by that I don't say "WTF did they do this in a scripting language?"
When you call Ruby or PHP "scripting languages" it sounds like you mean they're only about as powerful as shell scripting. That hasn't been the case for a long time. And you might be surprised how many major Web projects have been built the most expedient way available, only to be completely rewritten when they needed to scale. The first version of your friend's software lasted through a certain amount of growth. The second lasted 20 times longer. That's not a bad track record, really. Some projects will never be asked to scale that big.
It's true. "Mistake" might be too strong a word. Look at what they got by going with Java: They got a language that a lot of people already knew, they got Eclipse, they got all the other Java tools (like Ant, or whatever)... it gave them an incredible head start. Even if it ends up costing them some money, in the long run it was probably the right choice.
Yeah, I found it weird that this article is saying Google is the new Microsoft because it's ripping off Dropbox... when it's also ripping off Microsoft SkyDrive. (For those definitions of "ripping off" that mean "competing with.")
Slashdot Mirror
Well, it's not free software and it's not even all that cheap, but there's always this.
Seems like every few weeks someone writes another story about the amazing "trends" in the TIOBE Index. As far as I can see, the real trend is: Languages go up in popularity, they go down, they move around, one month it's the First! Time! Ever! that a language has made the list, the next month it's gone again, and C, C++, and Java are always at the top (in varying order). Such variable results suggest that TIOBE's sampling method isn't all that reliable or accurate to begin with, but I think we all have a pretty good idea what languages people are really using and for what.
I'm of the opinion that the vertical space is quite lacking for browsing.
I agree, it's the vertical space that's the problem. I use a couple of Web applications that aren't really all that complicated, but that have forms with one or two long drop-down selection boxes that can be really difficult to navigate on the short screen.
Then again, hitting F11 to hide the browser chrome helps...
I learned my lesson and yes it is my fault so do not blame me on this but where I am from anything above 6% is considered loan sharking.
I actually have a credit card with an interest rate below 6 percent ... but it sure ain't from BofA. I have one or two of their cards but I literally never use them. I just use them as a bank.
Bank of America doesn't use Java. I bank with them and I don't even have Java installed. They have a second-factor authentication app on their online banking site, but it's implemented in Flash (which a lot of people probably don't want installed either, but at least using the app is optional). And I'm not rich either, and they've never robbed me or "treated me like cattle" -- I don't understand views like that.
There are very few businesses who will want to modify OO/LO and release derivative versions to third parties... Most companies simply want to use the software as-is, and a very small minority might want to modify it for internal use. For these uses, even the full blown GPL has no impact whatsoever.
"Very few businesses" isn't a valid argument. The license is business friendly even if it only interests an audience of one.
And there are all kinds of situations where having a "business-friendly" open source license is desirable; you're just thinking of the wrong business cases. Sure, most end users of the suite aren't going to want to modify it. But one example of a derivative version of OpenOffice.org would be IBM Lotus Symphony (recently donated to the Apache Foundation). Might no one ever want to create such a product ever again? Or how about this: What if a company wanted to write an actually decent database manager that could compete with Access, keep it proprietary, but bundle the rest of LibreOffice with it so it could compete with Office as a suite? I bet they could find customers.
There are some countries in the world where the punishment for some crimes is physical torture. It is incredibly painful, and in our western culture, it's considered dehumanizing, but it's worth nothing that those countries don't really have a serious repeat offender problem.
FTFY. I think we've found a solution to America's problems right here.
Yeah, I think the bigger problem is that the updates are weird. It's been a while since I've had Java installed on my main machines, but the way I remember it, you'd end up with a long list of updates in your Programs and Settings panel, even when they all have the same major version number. Like... you could keep Java 1.6.19 even when you uninstalled Java 1.6.12. And they don't seem to be patches, either... like, each one adds another 350MB subdirectory to some folder in your system disk, and they all just sit there like turds.
Then there was the time Oracle tried to bundle a McAfee "security scan" in the Java updates. That really inspired confidence. "Hey, I know -- let's interrupt this vital security procedure to push crapware from our marketing partners."
No, I think Roger Grimes is wrong -- folks can and will uninstall Java. I've been avoiding it just fine, and those bespoke Java applications that we're told all these Fortune 500 companies are sitting on will eventually be replaced with Web applications.
(None of this is to say Java doesn't have a strong future in the datacenter, though.)
has anyone tried Badaboom?
Not much point. It's been discontinued.
Getting varied quality from different cards means you're doing something VERY wrong.
Maybe it means you're good at programming one GPU but you're not as good at programming the other. Or if another person did the code for the other GPU, maybe the other person doesn't code as well as you do.
But if all these chips have different instruction sets and APIs, it sounds kinda like saying, "If your program runs slower on iOS than it does on Android, you're doing something very wrong." Maybe. The point is that things were supposed to be getting easier, but apparently they're not.
but it seems like outrageously bad customer service that the doctor can't have the practice's billing-and-coding people look it up for you...
Well, they often don't have them. My mom used to work at a company that provided that service to doctors' practices.
There are some exceptions; but where a branded and generic version of a given drug are available, the dispensing pharmacist can substitute the generic compound even if the prescription is written for the common brand name.
I believe that's the law in California.
But I was talking more about the cases where the prescription might be codeine or codeine plus acetaminophen, and one might be called codeine and the other might be called Gablibbitol. And the doctor doesn't really tell you that Gablibbitol is the same thing as codeine in so many words, but just says "hey there's these two drugs, I think Gablibbitol might be just slightly more effective, but either one will work." And that's true, the doctor is saying something absolutely factual. But you're being asked to make a decision and you're not being given all the facts -- specifically, you're not being told the cost difference between the two, which is probably the sole piece of information that could help you decide whether "just slightly more effective" makes a difference to you.
There are some things that are obvious, e.g. conjunctivitis.
Only conjunctivitis isn't that obvious, because viruses are actually the most common cause, and it could also be caused by allergies, fungal infections, or whatever else.
Its also cheaper for the insurance company not to cover the blood pressure medication, have you not buy it OTC, and have you die from a heart attack before you are able to get (and rack up a bill for) medical attention that they would have to pay for.
Yeah. Because nobody ever has a heart attack, gets rushed by ambulance to the emergency room, gets put on oxygen and in-home hospice care, and dies a month later. Good cost/benefit analysis there.
What's your copay for a doctor visit? I think for me it might be $30. Are the prescription drugs still cheaper?
BTW someone talked about prescription drugs being patented (and therefore overpriced). You can always ask your doctor for over-the-counter versions, if you don't want the prescription version. It's a business transaction & just like any business transaction you negotiate the deal. You don't have to just blindly accept what the salesman (doctor) is handing you.
Some of the doctors I've been to recently have made a point of acting like this was not the case (when I agree it clearly is). As in:
"I can prescribe you this version or I can prescribe you this other version, which includes something a little extra. I think either one will help your problem. It's up to you."
"Well... how do I decide? What's the cost difference between the two?"
"I don't know."
I think to some extent they're not bullshitting me, because that's a complex question. It's largely the insurance companies that decide what the ultimate out-of-pocket cost of your treatment is. Maybe your insurance company will cover one version but not the other. Maybe it's all the same. But for the customer (patient) to explicitly not be told what their treatment might cost kind of flies in the face of everything every smart consumer has ever learned, and it's incredibly frustrating to feel victimized by a system that basically has you by the balls: Either pay or stay sick.
First post to /. in a while, but nobody seems to ask the question, why does Facebook need a spam filter? Would not one just block connections or eliminate them from your network if they were spamming you?
I think it gets more complicated than that with Facebook's various privacy settings. In a lot of cases, you can access and even post to "friends of friends." So if you mistakenly friend a bot, that person might then be able to start posting link spam on your friends' posts without you realizing it.
And yes, some people really do want to allow friends of friends to comment that way, so saying "fix the privacy settings" isn't enough.
Looks like Snopes is unblocked now, but they also block a lot of torrent links. I wouldn't be surprised if there were other cases (and honestly, I wouldn't really blame them).
Sure. I'm always on 9 different channels with mostly different but occasionally overlapping (e.g. ex-workmates and current workmates overlap) groups of friends, half of which exist almost entirely for organising face-2-face things at very short notice
Great. But what about the kind of "keeping in touch" that doesn't require your constant attention and doesn't take place in real time for everybody at the same time, which is 99% of what Facebook is used for?
(I know, I know, "run your own Listserv." Whatever, dude.)
Overdrinking leads to all sorts of excesses in risk-taking: promiscuous sex, abuse of drugs, poorly executed extreme stunts, violence against others, and other ridiculousness.
Haven't noticed any of the above, myself. In my experience, it usually leads to telling excessive jokes, bickering about bands, concocting crazy schemes that we'll never follow through with, playing lots of music way too loud, and generally having a good time. Then feeling like crap the next morning.
Based on your own description, however, may I suggest that you avoid alcohol and stick to prune juice.
Maybe it's time to reexamine why they're in your circle to begin with if you leaving Facebook is going to actually strain your friendship? If they can't be arsed to shoot an email or text message to the guy that doesn't want to waste his time reading stupid bullshit (90% of Facebook status updates), then they're probably not your friend in the first place.
Get a little older. By 40 or so, you'll find it's often just too difficult to try to get three people in the same place at the same time to go to the movies, yet alone keep up with everything that's going on in everybody's lives. In fact, I've actually had more than one friend announce their major illness on Facebook -- and certainly plenty of pictures of new babies. Also, if the most likely place you're going to see some of your old friends is at scheduled, public events (parties, art openings, live music, DJ nights at the bar, whatever), as is often the case when people live in cities, it's helpful to get those updates in one place.
If they're using my Facebook feed for data mining and targeted advertising, why haven't promotional bottles of liquor started showing up on my doorstep yet?
I'm in the middle of resurrecting the system, and not a day goes by that I don't say "WTF did they do this in a scripting language?"
When you call Ruby or PHP "scripting languages" it sounds like you mean they're only about as powerful as shell scripting. That hasn't been the case for a long time. And you might be surprised how many major Web projects have been built the most expedient way available, only to be completely rewritten when they needed to scale. The first version of your friend's software lasted through a certain amount of growth. The second lasted 20 times longer. That's not a bad track record, really. Some projects will never be asked to scale that big.
It's true. "Mistake" might be too strong a word. Look at what they got by going with Java: They got a language that a lot of people already knew, they got Eclipse, they got all the other Java tools (like Ant, or whatever)... it gave them an incredible head start. Even if it ends up costing them some money, in the long run it was probably the right choice.
Yeah, I found it weird that this article is saying Google is the new Microsoft because it's ripping off Dropbox... when it's also ripping off Microsoft SkyDrive. (For those definitions of "ripping off" that mean "competing with.")