I dropped my land line last year - haven't missed it. I did go with VOIP because I have young kids and I want them to be able to pick up a phone in the house and quickly dial 911 in an emergency. As soon as they are old enough to use a cell phone reliably, even if under duress, I'll be dropping the VOIP. In the past I might hesitate to go strictly mobile but with Google Voice available now, it's a no brainer.
The way we are spending our time and money right now in this regard, is under the assumption that it is anthropogenic. It it's not then most of what we are doing is at best useless. I think that may be why people continue to focus on it.
Re-reading that and realize that it says Komodo Edit is closed source. That's not right, realized it after I hit submit. Komodo Edit is FOSS. Komodo IDE is closed.
Netbeans is FOSS, runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. It handles Java, C/C++, PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy and does a bunch of other stuff.
There is the viPlugin for Eclipse as well - I just happen to like Netbeans better.
The ActiveState folks list VI key bindings as a feature for their Komodo and Komodo Edit products. These are closed source though Komodo Edit is free as in beer. It is cross platform - covering the win/lin/mac world.
I'm sure there are other options but those are the largest projects I know of that do what you want.
Both books I mentioned above rely pretty heavily on Pygame. I think it provides the fun factor you are thinking about. I think there are a lot of good options, but that is one more that makes Python my preferred choice. I really like that it is a language I use myself pretty regularly, which makes it that much more valuable as a teaching tool.
This week-end I busted out a little Python to figure out some information my wife couldn't get from the lame software that came with her GPS watch. Fortunately it had an option to export the data and I took it from there.
Then I can turn and use those same tools to teach programming to my daughter. Very cool.
Python is multiplatform and is free. There are quite a few free tools and libraries available. It is a 'real' language that is at the same time suitable for youngsters to learn on. With the huge Python ecosystem that exists you can have them cranking out code in a text editor, an interpreter or a full blown IDE. (A wide number of them in fact). Python also makes for a nice bridge to C as it pretty easy to integrate the two. If you feel competent, you could probably just hit the Python docs and work your way through them. If you'd like a little help and have material already prepared for teaching younger people how to program with Python, there are resources out there.
If you don't want to buy a book, then you may want to look at Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python 2nd ed. I haven't read it myself yet, and a quick glance showed it to have some rough edges, but one can't be too picky at that price. It is available to download or read online.
It allows for an unlimited run of ebooks. This is the issue I'm talking about. As more people purchase more books in electronic format as opposed to dead tree, big publishers will become less relevant.
There are still a number of services that a publisher can provide, and my guess would be that Booksurge and the like can or will provide them. So in a way, publishers will still exist, and they will still be a part of distribution but it is now all electronic and the payment structure will shift to reflect that.
In the last link, about the battle with publishers over pricing, it seems apparent to me that the primary leverage the publisher brings to the table is access to the markets, but that ceases to exist with digital media.
This should go without saying in any web forum, but I'm not a published author and I'm not involved in the publishing business. These are just my opinions as an avid reader and someone who spends a lot of time online. That said, I read the vast majority of my books off-line. The ebook readers and their functionality still aren't there for me. The ebooks I do read, I read on my laptop. I've never payed money for an ebook.
They are in the publishing business - it's called booksurge and is apparently in the process of being rebranded CreateSpace.
This is print on demand, self publishing stuff but reading the above articles make it pretty clear to me that this is where stuff is headed. The big publishing houses don't make a lot of sense any more. Pretty much like music.
No it wouldn't because you wouldn't be comparing anything of meaning. What we would be comparing are campaign promises to actions. As we are being taught right now, there is no real connection between the two so it isn't a valid comparison.
It's impossible to compare them as presidents since Gore never was a president. As I said, I'm not interested in conjecture about what might have been or will happen. I just look at the history of what has been done.
Sure I can list differences between Gore and Bush but to what end? It would all be pointless conjecture.
Let's talk about the actions that have been (are being) taken and I'd love to be persuaded that there are substantial differences between the two parties.
I see none in the realm of ethics or substantial policy.
My post was a reply to this post by nomadic. So that may be why you think I'm missing your point. I'm not replying to you.
But while we are here, Sarah Palin talks about 'death panels?' Nobody bats an eyelid.
Really? No one? You didn't? It didn't get mentioned at huffpo or other spots? I'm pretty sure I heard a bit about it on NPR and it wasn't a ringing endorsement of her ability to cut through the deception to the truth of the matter. In fact I think I saw stuff about it on just about every major MSM outlet too, and I can't recall anyone that didn't report what she said as being inaccurate.
I reject your assertion that for every lie told on one side there must be an equal and opposite lie told on the other. I'm glad you reject that as I didn't say that. I'd reject it too. I spoke of history. For every example of bad behavior (and let bad cover everything from misleading to illegal) in one party, there as been someone in the other party that has done the same or similar. The idea that one party is somehow less evil, incompetent, etc. than the other is a fiction. My paying attention to history isn't a lazy assessment it is just the opposite. One party hasn't lied more than the other - it is o.k. to say so.
People who think there is a big difference between the two parties are people that have a vested interest in one of them and that allows them to ignore the faults in their own side of choice. That makes it look like the other side is worse. People who can step back and look at this whole thing impartially realize what we have are a bunch of people with a few negligible external differences but they all pretty much do the same things. And actions, not appearances are what matters.
I think we need to come up with better candidates that aren't a part of either party and vote them in. I haven't been crazy about independent choices up until now either, so I think the solution begins with finding good candidates. Though I have voted independent in the past because I am so fed up with the whole current regime.
I think that it's difficult to discuss Africa as a whole sometimes, and there are a lot of places that are like you describe. Niger would be a good example. At the same time, a lot of Africa is not that bad off, and enabling people with technology is a big part of making it even better.
I think the largest advances in this regard have come via mobile, but I think devices like this may provide for some needs in niches that are not really being served right now.
The economic impact of cell phones alone has been huge in many poor nations. They have been described by some as a "ticket out of poverty". Having seen some of these great results I tend to err on the side of, "Let's get these out there and see how they do" rather than "That will never work."
What's funny about that from what I've read in the local papers is that it hasn't really been all that successful in raising money. I wonder if that would play into it.
It's impossible to say one side is worse than the other without having the blinders of partisanship in place. They are all repulsive in the extreme and anyone who tries to argue that their party is "not as bad as the other guys" is deluded. That's not necessarily throwing up one's hands to let the problem continue, though it will continue as long as we keep letting these corrupt people into office.
For every example of 'bad' behavior on the part of one party, there is a corresponding example from the other. How they keep so many people hoodwinked into think it is all the others groups fault is completely beyond me.
Realizing that isn't giving up, it is necessary to get on track to take meaningful action rather than swinging back and forth between two 'options' that are just different sides of the same coin.
I first heard about these via the white African (a tech guy in Nairobi). There is some interesting discussion there that revolved around capabilities, how realistic the $99 price point is outside the developed world and durability.
Getting these in the U.S. at $99 is pretty easy, but could one get them into an African country at that price? Max Seybold says yes, but I'd like to see it first. Then the question is how well it will sell, even at that price point when up against used hardware with better specs.
I'm all for more choices at the lower end of things. And I think this product is great even if for nothing more than the conversations it can generate that will bring more awareness about the needs in developing countries. But ultimately I wonder if this kind of thing is just a stop gap anyway until cheap smart phones and reliable data access are global.
I was at the Sim Lim Square a couple weeks ago and enjoyed seeing all the hardware, but pretty much everything cost more than I could get at home in the U.S.A. So I didn't end up picking up anything while I was there beyond some tea mix friends had requested and souvenirs for my kids.
I don't think there is a huge incentive to do that. I saw a banner on a booth that read, "The government will spend 3 trillion dollars this year. Are you getting your fair share?" I didn't see what they were selling.
My friend that got me in works in a lab at the University of Central Florida. As we walked in he said something like "Now you can see what can be built with a virtually unlimited budget."
I think a lot of this stuff can't be made less expensive. So it would be hard if not impossible to do and there is a buyer that has no problem spending more.
There are many more jobs in the military that don't include direct combat that benefit from this kind of thing - though VR is useful for combat as well. It's not all or nothing though. It's all part of a mixed approach, just like flight simulators.
I was at I/ITSEC today. ( Interservice/Industry Training Simulation & Education Conference ) It was completely off the hook. There was an entire section devoted to what they called "Serious Games" and a few of them were actually fun to play and educational at the same time.
Of course a lot of the other stuff was quite a bit like a game as well, just involving high dollar hardware that most gamers could never afford. They had a simulator for dismounted troops that involved wearing VR gear inside what was basically a giant hamster ball set up on a frame that allowed it to roll around while staying in one place. I saw a number of demos for what they called organic tracking I think. Imagine something like Natal but in a large area with cameras overhead, all around. They seemed to be pushing it as less expensive as sensors were not required on each individual. Still didn't look cheap. And of course there were tons of simulators for flying and driving that looked pretty typical. Still very cool.
It was wall to wall military folks and defense contractors and pretty much anyone looking to sell to the military or related type stuff. I saw a simulator for law enforcement that was pretty slick. It was all CGI so unlike the type that use film, the person in the simulator could affect the outcome. Pretty wild.
I think the game thing has been going on for some time and will continue to develop inside and outside the military. One game I looked at was for teaching Information Security. They said most threats were physical and so the game focused on that. The dude telling me about it claimed that people would finish the training but continue to play the game on their own. He said retention of skills and information went up with each repetition. It was interesting but I am somewhat skeptical on how much someone would play it. It looked a bit boring.
The implications for space travel are cool. The implications for feeding people who currently live with hunger could be cool. I doubt they would ever completely do away with natural meat. It will probably always be available for those who can pay for it, but if this becomes cheaper and easier to make than raising animals I could see it becoming pretty big. I would think that if the process can be refined then we could get more meat with less environmental impact.
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I dropped my land line last year - haven't missed it. I did go with VOIP because I have young kids and I want them to be able to pick up a phone in the house and quickly dial 911 in an emergency. As soon as they are old enough to use a cell phone reliably, even if under duress, I'll be dropping the VOIP. In the past I might hesitate to go strictly mobile but with Google Voice available now, it's a no brainer.
The way we are spending our time and money right now in this regard, is under the assumption that it is anthropogenic. It it's not then most of what we are doing is at best useless. I think that may be why people continue to focus on it.
based on their experience with avoiding snow - I consider this to be a highly likely outcome.
I don't think VS runs on Linux.
Re-reading that and realize that it says Komodo Edit is closed source. That's not right, realized it after I hit submit. Komodo Edit is FOSS. Komodo IDE is closed.
Netbeans with the Vi Vim for netbeans plugin.
Netbeans is FOSS, runs on Windows, Linux and OS X. It handles Java, C/C++, PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy and does a bunch of other stuff.
There is the viPlugin for Eclipse as well - I just happen to like Netbeans better.
The ActiveState folks list VI key bindings as a feature for their Komodo and Komodo Edit products. These are closed source though Komodo Edit is free as in beer. It is cross platform - covering the win/lin/mac world.
I'm sure there are other options but those are the largest projects I know of that do what you want.
Both books I mentioned above rely pretty heavily on Pygame. I think it provides the fun factor you are thinking about. I think there are a lot of good options, but that is one more that makes Python my preferred choice. I really like that it is a language I use myself pretty regularly, which makes it that much more valuable as a teaching tool.
This week-end I busted out a little Python to figure out some information my wife couldn't get from the lame software that came with her GPS watch. Fortunately it had an option to export the data and I took it from there.
Then I can turn and use those same tools to teach programming to my daughter. Very cool.
Python is multiplatform and is free. There are quite a few free tools and libraries available. It is a 'real' language that is at the same time suitable for youngsters to learn on. With the huge Python ecosystem that exists you can have them cranking out code in a text editor, an interpreter or a full blown IDE. (A wide number of them in fact). Python also makes for a nice bridge to C as it pretty easy to integrate the two. If you feel competent, you could probably just hit the Python docs and work your way through them. If you'd like a little help and have material already prepared for teaching younger people how to program with Python, there are resources out there.
I recommend Hello World! which uses Python. (You can read my full review of it here.)
If you don't want to buy a book, then you may want to look at Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python 2nd ed. I haven't read it myself yet, and a quick glance showed it to have some rough edges, but one can't be too picky at that price. It is available to download or read online.
"Booksurge allows for smaller runs of books..."
It allows for an unlimited run of ebooks. This is the issue I'm talking about. As more people purchase more books in electronic format as opposed to dead tree, big publishers will become less relevant.
There are still a number of services that a publisher can provide, and my guess would be that Booksurge and the like can or will provide them. So in a way, publishers will still exist, and they will still be a part of distribution but it is now all electronic and the payment structure will shift to reflect that.
In the last link, about the battle with publishers over pricing, it seems apparent to me that the primary leverage the publisher brings to the table is access to the markets, but that ceases to exist with digital media.
This should go without saying in any web forum, but I'm not a published author and I'm not involved in the publishing business. These are just my opinions as an avid reader and someone who spends a lot of time online. That said, I read the vast majority of my books off-line. The ebook readers and their functionality still aren't there for me. The ebooks I do read, I read on my laptop. I've never payed money for an ebook.
They are in the publishing business - it's called booksurge and is apparently in the process of being rebranded CreateSpace.
This is print on demand, self publishing stuff but reading the above articles make it pretty clear to me that this is where stuff is headed. The big publishing houses don't make a lot of sense any more. Pretty much like music.
No it wouldn't because you wouldn't be comparing anything of meaning. What we would be comparing are campaign promises to actions. As we are being taught right now, there is no real connection between the two so it isn't a valid comparison.
And will the results of this interview be publicly available at some point? If so, where?
It's impossible to compare them as presidents since Gore never was a president. As I said, I'm not interested in conjecture about what might have been or will happen. I just look at the history of what has been done.
Sure I can list differences between Gore and Bush but to what end? It would all be pointless conjecture.
Let's talk about the actions that have been (are being) taken and I'd love to be persuaded that there are substantial differences between the two parties.
I see none in the realm of ethics or substantial policy.
My post was a reply to this post by nomadic. So that may be why you think I'm missing your point. I'm not replying to you.
But while we are here,
Sarah Palin talks about 'death panels?' Nobody bats an eyelid.
Really? No one? You didn't? It didn't get mentioned at huffpo or other spots? I'm pretty sure I heard a bit about it on NPR and it wasn't a ringing endorsement of her ability to cut through the deception to the truth of the matter. In fact I think I saw stuff about it on just about every major MSM outlet too, and I can't recall anyone that didn't report what she said as being inaccurate.
I reject your assertion that for every lie told on one side there must be an equal and opposite lie told on the other.
I'm glad you reject that as I didn't say that. I'd reject it too. I spoke of history. For every example of bad behavior (and let bad cover everything from misleading to illegal) in one party, there as been someone in the other party that has done the same or similar. The idea that one party is somehow less evil, incompetent, etc. than the other is a fiction. My paying attention to history isn't a lazy assessment it is just the opposite. One party hasn't lied more than the other - it is o.k. to say so.
People who think there is a big difference between the two parties are people that have a vested interest in one of them and that allows them to ignore the faults in their own side of choice. That makes it look like the other side is worse. People who can step back and look at this whole thing impartially realize what we have are a bunch of people with a few negligible external differences but they all pretty much do the same things. And actions, not appearances are what matters.
I think we need to come up with better candidates that aren't a part of either party and vote them in. I haven't been crazy about independent choices up until now either, so I think the solution begins with finding good candidates. Though I have voted independent in the past because I am so fed up with the whole current regime.
I think that it's difficult to discuss Africa as a whole sometimes, and there are a lot of places that are like you describe. Niger would be a good example. At the same time, a lot of Africa is not that bad off, and enabling people with technology is a big part of making it even better.
I think the largest advances in this regard have come via mobile, but I think devices like this may provide for some needs in niches that are not really being served right now.
The economic impact of cell phones alone has been huge in many poor nations. They have been described by some as a "ticket out of poverty". Having seen some of these great results I tend to err on the side of, "Let's get these out there and see how they do" rather than "That will never work."
What's funny about that from what I've read in the local papers is that it hasn't really been all that successful in raising money. I wonder if that would play into it.
It's impossible to say one side is worse than the other without having the blinders of partisanship in place. They are all repulsive in the extreme and anyone who tries to argue that their party is "not as bad as the other guys" is deluded. That's not necessarily throwing up one's hands to let the problem continue, though it will continue as long as we keep letting these corrupt people into office.
For every example of 'bad' behavior on the part of one party, there is a corresponding example from the other. How they keep so many people hoodwinked into think it is all the others groups fault is completely beyond me.
Realizing that isn't giving up, it is necessary to get on track to take meaningful action rather than swinging back and forth between two 'options' that are just different sides of the same coin.
I first heard about these via the white African (a tech guy in Nairobi). There is some interesting discussion there that revolved around capabilities, how realistic the $99 price point is outside the developed world and durability.
Getting these in the U.S. at $99 is pretty easy, but could one get them into an African country at that price? Max Seybold says yes, but I'd like to see it first. Then the question is how well it will sell, even at that price point when up against used hardware with better specs.
I'm all for more choices at the lower end of things. And I think this product is great even if for nothing more than the conversations it can generate that will bring more awareness about the needs in developing countries. But ultimately I wonder if this kind of thing is just a stop gap anyway until cheap smart phones and reliable data access are global.
I was at the Sim Lim Square a couple weeks ago and enjoyed seeing all the hardware, but pretty much everything cost more than I could get at home in the U.S.A. So I didn't end up picking up anything while I was there beyond some tea mix friends had requested and souvenirs for my kids.
I don't think there is a huge incentive to do that. I saw a banner on a booth that read, "The government will spend 3 trillion dollars this year. Are you getting your fair share?" I didn't see what they were selling.
My friend that got me in works in a lab at the University of Central Florida. As we walked in he said something like "Now you can see what can be built with a virtually unlimited budget."
I think a lot of this stuff can't be made less expensive. So it would be hard if not impossible to do and there is a buyer that has no problem spending more.
There are many more jobs in the military that don't include direct combat that benefit from this kind of thing - though VR is useful for combat as well. It's not all or nothing though. It's all part of a mixed approach, just like flight simulators.
I just spent a few hours on the exhibitor floor. I have a friend from a local university that had a booth and got me in.
I was at I/ITSEC today. ( Interservice/Industry Training Simulation & Education Conference ) It was completely off the hook. There was an entire section devoted to what they called "Serious Games" and a few of them were actually fun to play and educational at the same time.
Of course a lot of the other stuff was quite a bit like a game as well, just involving high dollar hardware that most gamers could never afford. They had a simulator for dismounted troops that involved wearing VR gear inside what was basically a giant hamster ball set up on a frame that allowed it to roll around while staying in one place. I saw a number of demos for what they called organic tracking I think. Imagine something like Natal but in a large area with cameras overhead, all around. They seemed to be pushing it as less expensive as sensors were not required on each individual. Still didn't look cheap. And of course there were tons of simulators for flying and driving that looked pretty typical. Still very cool.
It was wall to wall military folks and defense contractors and pretty much anyone looking to sell to the military or related type stuff. I saw a simulator for law enforcement that was pretty slick. It was all CGI so unlike the type that use film, the person in the simulator could affect the outcome. Pretty wild.
I think the game thing has been going on for some time and will continue to develop inside and outside the military. One game I looked at was for teaching Information Security. They said most threats were physical and so the game focused on that. The dude telling me about it claimed that people would finish the training but continue to play the game on their own. He said retention of skills and information went up with each repetition. It was interesting but I am somewhat skeptical on how much someone would play it. It looked a bit boring.
The implications for space travel are cool. The implications for feeding people who currently live with hunger could be cool. I doubt they would ever completely do away with natural meat. It will probably always be available for those who can pay for it, but if this becomes cheaper and easier to make than raising animals I could see it becoming pretty big. I would think that if the process can be refined then we could get more meat with less environmental impact.