You know, I thought this was a joke, until I read a few of the related links on the Reg. This is serious stuff, isn't it? These things really had bad power supplies and frequent line voltage level problems??? (of course, Europeans use 220 instead of 110)
Never mind: I see one of the other posters has kindly provided the EULA, which says I can't listen to (what otherwise would have been) my music at work anyway.
This poses a potential problem for me, as I like to listen to my CDs at work (ripped to MP3 format, of course). Security is a real issue at work, to their credit. I can't have my music installing spyware on my employer's PC.
HELLO SONY! You are making your stuff unusable! Cease & desist, and all that.
I guess that makes me about 15 years older than you. You have my sympathy in watching the decline.
My memories were watching the later moon landings in primary school (I was only 4 at the first moon landing, so I don't remember Neil & Buzz, sorry). Pretty cool, even if they were do-overs. I really enjoyed building model rockets the next few years.
Then, in 76, we got to see landers land on Mars. That was a first. During the 80s, we got to see the Voyagers send back some really cool picture every year or two. These things went where pretty much NOTHING (other than Pioneer to Jupiter) had been. THAT was the legacy of NASA when I was growing up.
Oh, they also built this silly space shuttle thing. For all I know, it costs every bit as much as a Saturn V, or at least a I, to launch, but just doesn't lift as much or as high. "But it's reusable!" (just not cheap)
Since then, rehashing same old stuff. The newer Mars landers the last 10 years were interesting, but not really new.
OK, I overlooked a few things. Cassini was pretty cool (planned in the early 90s, took a long time to travel, of course). Gallileo was interesting as well.
As it is now, our current technology really only supports robots. How do we get people somewhere new before they starve or die of boredom on the trip? I'm not sure of the economic value, but it sure would be nice to see them do more than pick at the problem... (and ditch that boondoggle shuttle)
Wow. "PC". My mind keeps wanting to think personal computer, or even "PC[MCIA] card". I have to force myself to remember printed circuit boards, like the hobby crud we did in the 70s where you'd drop on a dozen do-dads or so (and then proceed to burn them up, if you are me in junior high, heh heh)
Somehow, it seems much more appropriate to have big-iron-ish parts on a beast like this, rather than grafting on somebody's Palm-Pilot or iPod:-)
I've been programming since '83, doing commercial business aps since '85 part time while still going to school.
I just quit a job a few months ago for EXACTLY those kind of reasons. I'm looking for another developer job, but the wife and I often discuss the prospect of both of us going into teaching instead (her former occupation, and something I have dabbled in), so as to have some kind of life. It doesn't pay much, but it can sometimes be fun.
I like developing software, and it's nice to be able to support a family with a stay at home mom. However, the rant above, coupled with the constant churning of tools and the "gotta have 3 to 5 years experience with Acme Silver Bullet 7.2" (other languages, brands or versions need not apply) syndrome, and the constant threat of layoffs and outsourcing make doing something else, while perhaps doing some open source hacking once in a while, attractive.
Your friend was asked to stop because he was wasting your employer's money.
I agree that in some cases it would be nice if commercial software to be installed on thousands/millions of machines did not suck so much, but: If we are talking about an in-house app to run on, say, 4 servers, and my choice is add $50 worth of slightly faster CPU + tiny bit more RAM to each ($200 total), OR, spend an extra 2 days randomizing^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hoptomizing the code (12 hours * $40 / hr loaded cost = $480), the hardcore method just cost me an extra $280, NOT COUNTING the extra maintenance costs I may incur should I ever have to update the resulting speed-o-spaghetti.
Of course, if we're talking 10 minutes work to avoid an extra $200 worth of hardware, then be my guest:-)
Yeah, I ran into a similar result on a Stargate episode it had indexed. Rather amusing, actually, for how the text was garbled^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htranslated.
http://video.google.com/videopreview?q=stargate& ti me=3445000&page=1&docid=-7550729655870718868&urlcr eated=1106719618&chan=KTVU&prog=Stargate+SG-1+%7C+ Revisions&date=Sun+Dec+26+2004+at+12%3A00+AM+PST&h mac=t12HyS5VXbIJMhzxSJnHSugndjk
sample:
at 58 minutes, quote: F otr snacks are pointless. R wear lc, Wit adruff no Wa, so I witcdto elsn blue. Doctor recomene withaloe N oisturiers for healtierhir N cl. Never ar 2cwitot te blue. end-quote
I had a similar issue with an Oracle database at work. We "defeated" the DBAs (their unwillingness to lift a finger on our behalf or grant us access to much of anything even in development) by writing a little java program to get an JDBC connection, then "select * from $1", puking out a list of inserts with an occasional commit. Wrap this in a little script to get each table (yes, if I were really gung ho I would have made the java program start a transaction, then pull an array of tables for consistancy). Thus, we were able to back up the production database and re-import it into development.
Assuming no more than minor changes to the insert statements syntax, and JDBC driver for database of the day, this should allow you to port data without too much fuss. (e.g. - me replicating the production database by piping said insert dump-scripts through psql)
I realize I'm replying to a joke post, but the data extraction issue is a recurring nuisance.
I don't know about games, but I often use AMD chips for "nominal" upgrades to existing machines at home when they break or start to get too weak for the task-of-the-day.
They are cheap, and they work well enough. By the time I buy a board, chip and RAM, I'm only paying about 200 to 300 dollars, and I don't want to add another $100 to that for a chip that is perhaps 20 to 50 percent faster. I'll just upgrade another one of my computers next year.
We'll screw the other nations later. (OK, not "we" but "our corporate overlords"). Oh, that, and, we seem to be doing a good job of randomly harming any other nations who "simply got in the way"* already...
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
* "Your ensign simply got in the way", reply by builder of manical computer, M5, on old Star Trek after red-shirt gets fried by said computer when it starts sucking down some high watt power.
But, obviously, that's not what the powers that be wanted, apparently. Unless they REALLY ARE too stupid to figure out that what you said is what is needed / wanted.
It's AS IF they wanted to make a system that made cheating difficult to impossible to detect. Nah, couldn't be...
The focus on comments over blocks of code seems to tie into Donald Knuth's "Literate Programming" where you write the documentation first, then embed the code, in any order you want. The build process then extracts the code in a working order / set of files and off you go to the compiler.
Not that I've ever been in an environment that used such a thing, but it sounds very interesting.
Dismiss? No way. However, I would recommend that perhaps people learn to create their own simple code generators for various needs.
One of my personal favorites is to translate tables in a document, such as HTML, into language X for use by a table driven processing engine. Another is to whip up record structures / objects + attributes.
Your mileage may vary. Eliminate redundancies, you have better uses for your time.
Sounds like an unreasonable search to me. Not that Big Brother, Inc. gives a rat's rear end about the constitution anymore, except perhaps when caught with both hands a little too deeply in the cookie jar.
Slashdot Mirror
"Evil Ernie"???
See? That's what this whole constructive memory thing is talking about. Everybody who's seen the pictures knows that it's Evil Bert, not Earnie. Puh!
You see, they really told the truth about the memory card: Once WE put what we want into the card, YOU can't change it!
Oh, the irony...
You know, I thought this was a joke, until I read a few of the related links on the Reg. This is serious stuff, isn't it? These things really had bad power supplies and frequent line voltage level problems??? (of course, Europeans use 220 instead of 110)
Ow. "RUN AWAY!!!"
good catch :-)
(a redundant AOL! response and all that)
Never mind: I see one of the other posters has kindly provided the EULA, which says I can't listen to (what otherwise would have been) my music at work anyway.
Problem "solved"
Caveat emptor! (read label, avoid zombie un-CDs)
This poses a potential problem for me, as I like to listen to my CDs at work (ripped to MP3 format, of course). Security is a real issue at work, to their credit. I can't have my music installing spyware on my employer's PC.
HELLO SONY! You are making your stuff unusable! Cease & desist, and all that.
You think you're funny, but you're not!
I can see why this was modded up, but not sure about the "Funny" part.
This sounds like EXACTLY the kind of BS our esteemed federal govt would pull.
Good summmary. Too bad you got scored a 0, due to no previous clout. That's life...
I guess that makes me about 15 years older than you. You have my sympathy in watching the decline.
My memories were watching the later moon landings in primary school (I was only 4 at the first moon landing, so I don't remember Neil & Buzz, sorry). Pretty cool, even if they were do-overs. I really enjoyed building model rockets the next few years.
Then, in 76, we got to see landers land on Mars. That was a first. During the 80s, we got to see the Voyagers send back some really cool picture every year or two. These things went where pretty much NOTHING (other than Pioneer to Jupiter) had been. THAT was the legacy of NASA when I was growing up.
Oh, they also built this silly space shuttle thing. For all I know, it costs every bit as much as a Saturn V, or at least a I, to launch, but just doesn't lift as much or as high. "But it's reusable!" (just not cheap)
Since then, rehashing same old stuff. The newer Mars landers the last 10 years were interesting, but not really new.
OK, I overlooked a few things. Cassini was pretty cool (planned in the early 90s, took a long time to travel, of course). Gallileo was interesting as well.
As it is now, our current technology really only supports robots. How do we get people somewhere new before they starve or die of boredom on the trip? I'm not sure of the economic value, but it sure would be nice to see them do more than pick at the problem...
(and ditch that boondoggle shuttle)
... even now, many antichrists have arisen ...
And, it would surprise me if good ol' Bush is one of them. Not in the sense of The Antichrist at The End, but in the sense of Yet Another Faker. Bah.
I'm so tired of the stinky rotten "fruit" that is falling off the "tree" of these people in DC. Say one set of things, do another...
Wow. "PC". My mind keeps wanting to think personal computer, or even "PC[MCIA] card". I have to force myself to remember printed circuit boards, like the hobby crud we did in the 70s where you'd drop on a dozen do-dads or so (and then proceed to burn them up, if you are me in junior high, heh heh)
:-)
Somehow, it seems much more appropriate to have big-iron-ish parts on a beast like this, rather than grafting on somebody's Palm-Pilot or iPod
Won't somebody please email me a Twinkie, before I do something desparate!!!!
in the top left corner -- it reminds me of the start of the Dilbert TV series!
OK, it was off-topic, sorry...
+ 5 Funny? I would have said Insightful. Well, OK, maybe it's more Master-of-the-Obvious than Insightful. But you get the point, AOL!
(mumbles to self, walks off to sit in corner next to shopping cart and bags of cans...)
You - so - incredibly - nailed - it !
I've been programming since '83, doing commercial business aps since '85 part time while still going to school.
I just quit a job a few months ago for EXACTLY those kind of reasons. I'm looking for another developer job, but the wife and I often discuss the prospect of both of us going into teaching instead (her former occupation, and something I have dabbled in), so as to have some kind of life. It doesn't pay much, but it can sometimes be fun.
I like developing software, and it's nice to be able to support a family with a stay at home mom. However, the rant above, coupled with the constant churning of tools and the "gotta have 3 to 5 years experience with Acme Silver Bullet 7.2" (other languages, brands or versions need not apply) syndrome, and the constant threat of layoffs and outsourcing make doing something else, while perhaps doing some open source hacking once in a while, attractive.
Bah!
Don't write the documentation and the code in separate platforms.
Doesn't fly well with managements love of chartoons and MS-Office, though.
Alas, the typical development organization is not composed of a bunch of Donald Knuth-s.
[/flog horse="dead"]
Your friend was asked to stop because he was wasting your employer's money.
:-)
I agree that in some cases it would be nice if commercial software to be installed on thousands/millions of machines did not suck so much, but: If we are talking about an in-house app to run on, say, 4 servers, and my choice is add $50 worth of slightly faster CPU + tiny bit more RAM to each ($200 total), OR, spend an extra 2 days randomizing^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hoptomizing the code (12 hours * $40 / hr loaded cost = $480), the hardcore method just cost me an extra $280, NOT COUNTING the extra maintenance costs I may incur should I ever have to update the resulting speed-o-spaghetti.
Of course, if we're talking 10 minutes work to avoid an extra $200 worth of hardware, then be my guest
Yeah, I ran into a similar result on a Stargate episode it had indexed. Rather amusing, actually, for how the text was garbled^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htranslated.
& ti me=3445000&page=1&docid=-7550729655870718868&urlcr eated=1106719618&chan=KTVU&prog=Stargate+SG-1+%7C+ Revisions&date=Sun+Dec+26+2004+at+12%3A00+AM+PST&h mac=t12HyS5VXbIJMhzxSJnHSugndjk
http://video.google.com/videopreview?q=stargate
sample:
at 58 minutes, quote:
F otr snacks are pointless. R wear lc, Wit adruff no Wa, so I witcdto elsn blue. Doctor recomene withaloe N oisturiers for healtierhir N cl. Never ar 2cwitot te blue.
end-quote
I had a similar issue with an Oracle database at work. We "defeated" the DBAs (their unwillingness to lift a finger on our behalf or grant us access to much of anything even in development) by writing a little java program to get an JDBC connection, then "select * from $1", puking out a list of inserts with an occasional commit. Wrap this in a little script to get each table (yes, if I were really gung ho I would have made the java program start a transaction, then pull an array of tables for consistancy). Thus, we were able to back up the production database and re-import it into development.
Assuming no more than minor changes to the insert statements syntax, and JDBC driver for database of the day, this should allow you to port data without too much fuss. (e.g. - me replicating the production database by piping said insert dump-scripts through psql)
I realize I'm replying to a joke post, but the data extraction issue is a recurring nuisance.
I don't know about games, but I often use AMD chips for "nominal" upgrades to existing machines at home when they break or start to get too weak for the task-of-the-day.
They are cheap, and they work well enough. By the time I buy a board, chip and RAM, I'm only paying about 200 to 300 dollars, and I don't want to add another $100 to that for a chip that is perhaps 20 to 50 percent faster. I'll just upgrade another one of my computers next year.
We'll screw the other nations later. (OK, not "we" but "our corporate overlords"). Oh, that, and, we seem to be doing a good job of randomly harming any other nations who "simply got in the way"* already...
Sorry, couldn't help myself.
* "Your ensign simply got in the way", reply by builder of manical computer, M5, on old Star Trek after red-shirt gets fried by said computer when it starts sucking down some high watt power.
But, obviously, that's not what the powers that be wanted, apparently. Unless they REALLY ARE too stupid to figure out that what you said is what is needed / wanted.
It's AS IF they wanted to make a system that made cheating difficult to impossible to detect. Nah, couldn't be...
The focus on comments over blocks of code seems to tie into Donald Knuth's "Literate Programming" where you write the documentation first, then embed the code, in any order you want. The build process then extracts the code in a working order / set of files and off you go to the compiler.
Not that I've ever been in an environment that used such a thing, but it sounds very interesting.
Dismiss? No way. However, I would recommend that perhaps people learn to create their own simple code generators for various needs.
One of my personal favorites is to translate tables in a document, such as HTML, into language X for use by a table driven processing engine. Another is to whip up record structures / objects + attributes.
Your mileage may vary. Eliminate redundancies, you have better uses for your time.
Sounds like an unreasonable search to me. Not that Big Brother, Inc. gives a rat's rear end about the constitution anymore, except perhaps when caught with both hands a little too deeply in the cookie jar.
America: it was nice while it lasted.