Coming from a very similar circumstance, I agree with virtually everything you said. However, your comment seems to highlight the facts with a negative spin. You have to consider the positives.
When I was going through school, there were times when getting to bed at 3am so I could get up for 7am was, to me, a pretty good night. This would go on for weeks at a time. This is how technical schools work - when you're working as an engineer, you don't want some dunce who doesn't know which end of the keyboard to place in front of him working on the same project as you. There's something to be said for "trial by fire". School was intense, yes. Very intense. But I walked away from it with a degree from a very good school, and because of this I walked right into a job that usually requires 10 years of industry experience (no exaggeration, I usually interview people with 20+ years on their resume). Now I'm working just like any other sap, hours are more or less 9 to 5. There's the occasional burst where I'm working 10 or 12 hour days for a while, and this happens to everyone, but looking back on what I did in school, this now seems like absolutely nothing. Really, now that I'm finished, my day is like anyone else's day, except I'm working in an awesome job and getting paid a damn good wage to do it.
Going to a top tier school is tough, make no mistake. But the rewards you get at the end are definitely worth your consideration.
Could someone please mod this man up? I actually didn't read the comment, but if it gets modded up that will make it 6 consecutive +5 posts in a row. If you REALLY want to see something amazing, mod this post up to +5...well...anything!
"they decided to blindside everyone by teaching Visual J++ instead--Microsoft having "generously" donated the college discs containing the software"
That seems to be their style, alright. When I was at Waterloo, the first programming course I ever took was in C++. That's the way they'd been doing it for a generation, and it was working quite well. Then along came Microsoft, carrying two big bags with dollar signs on them, and all of a sudden C++ wasn't good enough, the future was C#. I'm glad I squeaked through when I did.
As someone who reads a fair number of resumes for software development positions, I can tell you that that is completely incorrect. If I see some sort of programming on an open source project that this person has done in their spare time, that speaks volumes about their enthusiasm and drive. Open source projects on the resume is one way to get fast tracked to an interview.
The only reason you're stuck with Apple, is that nobody else does all this in one box.
Nobody else DID this in one box. A lot has changed since 10.1, including Linux distros. Remove the word "Apple" from your post and I would swear you're describing Ubuntu.
Window shading, sloppy focus, virtual desktops, and all the other goodness Blackbox has to offer, but on Windows. I've been using it for a year and a half straight, have never had a single problem.
There's either something wrong with your vim install or computer, or you're using a really old version. I opened a 25 meg file the other day with Vim 7 and I barely had time to open a browser and check slashdot before it was ready to go.
My problem with the iPhone isn't that it isn't a cool toy. It's just nothing particularly exciting considering that similar toys have been available for quite some time.
Exactly. Thank you. All Apple did is take existing technology, package it up into a nice little device and slap a shiny UI onto it. It looks nice and performs pretty well, but I get annoyed by the fanbrats who still can't bring themselves to close their mouths after the iPhone dropped their jaws. Constantly claiming that the iPhone is revolutionary and that nothing comes close is just naive. I know of at least half a dozen phones that have the exact same capabilities of the iPhone, and look pretty good doing it, but since they're not from Apple they get no attention.
Indeed. My girlfriend just got a new computer and had to upgrade the RAM to 4 gigs just to meet the recommended requirements. And then, get this, Vista contains a bug that only recognizes and uses 3 gigs of it. So there goes a small chunk of cash out the window.
The RAM thing is the least of her problems. Quite frankly I'm blown away that they shipped this thing. After putting on everything I could from Windows Update, we still get random freezes, crashes, and applications hanging. To even make wireless networking work at all took two days of digging into the thing, and even now it's spotty at best. It frequently forgets the credentials to the wireless network and asks us to re-enter them ('frequently' is twice per day). Mean time between reboots is 2 to 4 hours when using computer for tasks such as watching a video, browsing a network share, or surfing the internet.
This is all on Dell hardware. Dell hardware that has supposedly been selected because it plays well with the OS.
That's exactly what I was thinking when I read this. More like 'introducing ext3cow for Apple in the form of Time Machine'. I don't know how stable ext3cow is, or how much of a hack or work of art it is, but I do know some people who have been happily time shifting around for a while now. And this is with an actual filesystem doing your copy on write for you, not some python/rsync hack.
Most will treat it just like windows. But there's always going to be that small percentage who won't. They'll be interested in how the internals work, and if there's one thing Linux does great it's give you access to the guts of the OS.
Consider that someone who is interested in hacking up an OS and seeing how it works has any number of ways to go about it on Linux, and pretty much nothing to go on with Windows.
Ubuntu is also a server distro. There's a server edition that's released with the Desktop edition. When you boil it down, Ubuntu is Debian, and Debian serves things just fine.
Hmmm. People must be buying different iPods than me. Mine took exactly the duration of the warranty plus 2 days to completely have the biscuit. Hard drive failed, no hope of getting it back. Thanks Apple for a good 12 months and 2 days, but I don't think I'll be coming back for more.
Glad you posted this. I read Rainbow's End, and by the end of the book I was rushing to get through it. As you said, the technological predictions were interesting, but the plot itself was a real lemon. Maybe I'll give him another shot, since it seems Rainbow's End wasn't a true representation of his work.
Slashdot Mirror
Coming from a very similar circumstance, I agree with virtually everything you said. However, your comment seems to highlight the facts with a negative spin. You have to consider the positives.
When I was going through school, there were times when getting to bed at 3am so I could get up for 7am was, to me, a pretty good night. This would go on for weeks at a time. This is how technical schools work - when you're working as an engineer, you don't want some dunce who doesn't know which end of the keyboard to place in front of him working on the same project as you. There's something to be said for "trial by fire". School was intense, yes. Very intense. But I walked away from it with a degree from a very good school, and because of this I walked right into a job that usually requires 10 years of industry experience (no exaggeration, I usually interview people with 20+ years on their resume). Now I'm working just like any other sap, hours are more or less 9 to 5. There's the occasional burst where I'm working 10 or 12 hour days for a while, and this happens to everyone, but looking back on what I did in school, this now seems like absolutely nothing. Really, now that I'm finished, my day is like anyone else's day, except I'm working in an awesome job and getting paid a damn good wage to do it.
Going to a top tier school is tough, make no mistake. But the rewards you get at the end are definitely worth your consideration.
Could someone please mod this man up? I actually didn't read the comment, but if it gets modded up that will make it 6 consecutive +5 posts in a row. If you REALLY want to see something amazing, mod this post up to +5...well...anything!
"they decided to blindside everyone by teaching Visual J++ instead--Microsoft having "generously" donated the college discs containing the software"
That seems to be their style, alright. When I was at Waterloo, the first programming course I ever took was in C++. That's the way they'd been doing it for a generation, and it was working quite well. Then along came Microsoft, carrying two big bags with dollar signs on them, and all of a sudden C++ wasn't good enough, the future was C#. I'm glad I squeaked through when I did.
As someone who reads a fair number of resumes for software development positions, I can tell you that that is completely incorrect. If I see some sort of programming on an open source project that this person has done in their spare time, that speaks volumes about their enthusiasm and drive. Open source projects on the resume is one way to get fast tracked to an interview.
The only reason you're stuck with Apple, is that nobody else does all this in one box.
Nobody else DID this in one box. A lot has changed since 10.1, including Linux distros. Remove the word "Apple" from your post and I would swear you're describing Ubuntu.
It HAS taken off for TV. The networks just got left behind on the launch pad.
Two word: push email.
And while I'm at it, where's my window shading and sloppy focus too?
http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/
Window shading, sloppy focus, virtual desktops, and all the other goodness Blackbox has to offer, but on Windows. I've been using it for a year and a half straight, have never had a single problem.
A straight up unladen MP3. THAT plays for sure.
With Linus preferring KDE, could Stallman's support put more weight behind KDE?
You have to realize that a VERY small portion of desktop users give half a rat's ass what Linus and Stallman do with their desktops.
There's either something wrong with your vim install or computer, or you're using a really old version. I opened a 25 meg file the other day with Vim 7 and I barely had time to open a browser and check slashdot before it was ready to go.
I read the title of the article, and thought "someone is going to tag this as 'shrinkydinks'". Sure enough, there it is.
Oh Slashdot, I can read you like a book.
My problem with the iPhone isn't that it isn't a cool toy. It's just nothing particularly exciting considering that similar toys have been available for quite some time.
Exactly. Thank you. All Apple did is take existing technology, package it up into a nice little device and slap a shiny UI onto it. It looks nice and performs pretty well, but I get annoyed by the fanbrats who still can't bring themselves to close their mouths after the iPhone dropped their jaws. Constantly claiming that the iPhone is revolutionary and that nothing comes close is just naive. I know of at least half a dozen phones that have the exact same capabilities of the iPhone, and look pretty good doing it, but since they're not from Apple they get no attention.
Indeed. My girlfriend just got a new computer and had to upgrade the RAM to 4 gigs just to meet the recommended requirements. And then, get this, Vista contains a bug that only recognizes and uses 3 gigs of it. So there goes a small chunk of cash out the window.
The RAM thing is the least of her problems. Quite frankly I'm blown away that they shipped this thing. After putting on everything I could from Windows Update, we still get random freezes, crashes, and applications hanging. To even make wireless networking work at all took two days of digging into the thing, and even now it's spotty at best. It frequently forgets the credentials to the wireless network and asks us to re-enter them ('frequently' is twice per day). Mean time between reboots is 2 to 4 hours when using computer for tasks such as watching a video, browsing a network share, or surfing the internet.
This is all on Dell hardware. Dell hardware that has supposedly been selected because it plays well with the OS.
Is stability a problem? Yes, yes it is.
Imagine when wires get crossed. You end up with one VERY confused team of nuclear engineers, and one VERY confused janitor.
The porn industry has been doing this kind of stuff for years.
That's exactly what I was thinking when I read this. More like 'introducing ext3cow for Apple in the form of Time Machine'. I don't know how stable ext3cow is, or how much of a hack or work of art it is, but I do know some people who have been happily time shifting around for a while now. And this is with an actual filesystem doing your copy on write for you, not some python/rsync hack.
Seriously. I work writing C code all day and you can't get much better than Vim.
Most will treat it just like windows. But there's always going to be that small percentage who won't. They'll be interested in how the internals work, and if there's one thing Linux does great it's give you access to the guts of the OS.
Consider that someone who is interested in hacking up an OS and seeing how it works has any number of ways to go about it on Linux, and pretty much nothing to go on with Windows.
I got it wrong. The nerds got it right.
So...business as usual?
especially around a desktop distro like Ubuntu
Ubuntu is also a server distro. There's a server edition that's released with the Desktop edition. When you boil it down, Ubuntu is Debian, and Debian serves things just fine.
That's Cimitan Andrea :)
http://cimi.netsons.org/pages/home.php
People buy Ipods for a reason. They're well built
Hmmm. People must be buying different iPods than me. Mine took exactly the duration of the warranty plus 2 days to completely have the biscuit. Hard drive failed, no hope of getting it back. Thanks Apple for a good 12 months and 2 days, but I don't think I'll be coming back for more.
Buried for inaccuracy.
Glad you posted this. I read Rainbow's End, and by the end of the book I was rushing to get through it. As you said, the technological predictions were interesting, but the plot itself was a real lemon. Maybe I'll give him another shot, since it seems Rainbow's End wasn't a true representation of his work.