Amen to this. Experience is what makes a good programmer. Not a bunch of funny pictures with lines going between them. I'm not saying not to use those when you need to...just don't think it'll be a substitute for experience.
You know, this guy's company is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. Same place that cranked out Mosaic a few years back. There's a supercomputer center there, with a HUGE linux cluster. I think there was even an article a while back about some huge display they have there. They have CaveQuake there too. Plus, Descent was created by a company in that area...same people that did that RPG a while back.
You might think you know what you want to do now, but things change. When I was in high school, I wanted to do compilers of all things. Fortunately, a compiler class taught me the error of my ways, and I went on to more interesting things.
Having a degree is a good thing in many places. It'll never hurt to have that degree, but there are cases that it will hurt if you don't.
I've browsed the web on the Palm, iPAQ and Zaurus. They ALL suck for the all in one web browsing thing you're looking for. If you want to really do web browsing, wait a bit and get one of those oQo devices that are coming out later this summer. (Hopefully someone will gut the OS on the thing and get it to run Linux).
Having said they all suck, they suck in varying degrees. Mostly it's the power consumption. The developer Zaurus absolutely sucks down the batteries big time. So does the iPAQ running WinCE. Believe it or not, the iPAQ running savaJeOS can browse the web for a Loooooong time.
The other thing is that things just won't render the way they will with a "real" web browser. You can get the info from most pages, but some pages won't come up at all. (And clearly, something like Flash will just not work).
having said all that...if all you're looking for is something to have to use during those boring meetings, just about anything will do. Just be aware of the limits all these devices currently have. They're not quite there yet.
Oh yeah, one more thing. The Blackberry. Hands down, the best device out there. Problem with that is, no 802.11. And it's quite expensive (more than $50 per month just for the e-mail version, higher with the cell-phone e-mail combo).
If they had one with 802.11, it'd be time to sell the Palm stock, they'd blow Palm away. It's that good. They're probably making money with the cell-phone networking stuff they have now, but it would pale in comparision to what they could do if they had an 802.11 device.
....smoking is bad for you. Linux is a great development platform. People get really ticked off when they talk about politics with someone that doesn't agree with them.
These, and other stories, covered in DUH Magazine.
Heh...sorry for the rant. This Microsoft "admission" is something that's so obvious to people in software development. I'm glad someone realized that was a point they could make against Microsoft.
The thing I find most amazing about this whole thing is Microsoft saying "Other companies want to see Microsoft destroyed" and similar things. This is EXACTLY what Microsoft has been doing to countless other companies for YEARS.
No office politics crapola. It's what drove me from my last job, and it's what's about to drive me from my current one. (A real shame too, because I love the work...the new boss never should have been put in charge).
A Window
No phone calls
A stock of pop in the fridge
No e-mail
Those things, (especially the first one), are what make more more productive.
Not having to worry about office politics is WAY underrated. I think we spend more time with that crap than anything else.
When I was a grader for a CS class back in the stone age...er...early 1980s.... I saw a number of people with duplicate programs, right down to the comments. I always pointed this out to the TAs, and nothing ever happened.
So, what's so bad about this? That idiot you're always complaining about at work... the one who can't code? Yeah, that one. If TAs would have cracked down on people like this cheating in school, you wouldn't have to work with people like that.
Now, I'm NOT saying that GTech was right in what they did. They aren't. They're morons. The first thing they do when you get out of school (most of the time anyway) is throw you into a group situation where you have to work with other people. Being able to consult with people effectively is something you need to know how to do in the real world.
There's a protocol that you implement to locate a machine running a Surrogate Host. (This can either be done via multicast or unicast, under the TCP/IP implementation). Once it's located, the device sends a JAR file to the Surrogate Host, which opens the JAR file and runs the code in there. That code registers itself with the Jini network, and has a way (that you decide) to communicate back with the device. It looks like a regular Jini service to the lookup services and so forth. The device code can be implemented in any language. There's no RMI involved in the communication between the device and the Surrogate Host. It just has to get a way to get the JAR file over to the host. There's a spec for TCP/IP, and many other specs underdevelopment (USB, etc).
I did this on a Palm device; others have whipped up stuff that work on smart cards and even Motorola phones. It's pretty cool.
They really need to rename it from "Amiga" to something people are going to respect. I was heavily into the Amiga from the very beginning, and finally gave it up about 7 years ago. What was the Amiga before is not the Amiga now.
First, if you can do it at all, get yourself to JavaOne. It starts on March 25th, and usually has the handheld things that are either just coming out, or are about to come out.
Off the top of my head: Sharp Zaurus PDA, IPAQ (either running Windows or the complete Java replacement OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment), Palm (you know that already). Bigger "handheld" Windows devices, like tablets, can also run it, but you have to look at which chipsets these things support.
Phones can do this too... some are Palm based, so you can use those. Others, like Motorola's i85s (you can get this via NexTel) have been running Java for a year. No idea what the cost to run this would be for networked apps.... these phone companies like to charge out the ying-yang for service. There's a new wireless service in South Dakota that gives all you can eat wireless service for $50. Not sure how widespread that'll be, but hopefully it'll become more commonplace.
Nokia is building Java into all their phones,and Sprint is working on stuff too. I don't know if they'll have products announced at JavaOne or not, but they both have either regular sessions or "Birds of a Feather" sessions planned for during the conference.
The article "Imposter Boy", is worth a read.
This is the ONLY article I've ever seen from the perspective of the non-Netscape people of how all that Mosaic/Netscape got started.
http://www.chrispy.net/marca/gqarticle.html
ALL the other articles I've ever seen are from either Netscape's or Andreesen's perspective, perpetuating the myth of what really happened in the beginning.
I've seen a lot of people comment on this article before, and I'll tell you most of the comments are "sour grapes, sour grapes". Well, just look at what the article says about people that worked at Netscape.
This is awful. Where do people get off taking someone else's hard work and basically stealing it? Man, oh man.
Oh, and the Morpheus code thing is awful too.
One thing I *did* notice was a father of someone I know works at Microsoft wrote in, in favor of the settlement. I wonder how many of those there were?
Oh, go screw yourself. There are a helluva lot of Republicans that don't support the settlement, and wrote in opposing it, and my comments are up there under my real name. You act like only Democrats always support the cause of "what's right". That's a bunch of crap. If it were true, our schools wouldn't be as farked up as they are now.
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Look, I don't know what the big deal is. If you don't want to read a manual, that's up to you.
Amen to this. Experience is what makes a good programmer. Not a bunch of funny pictures with lines going between them. I'm not saying not to use those when you need to...just don't think it'll be a substitute for experience.
Uh...I'd toss the flowcharts...we tossed those back when I started programming more than 20 years ago.
If there were a good reliable SAT service for Internet, I'd go for that, the same way I dumped my local cable company.
And yes, I know about Sat Dish Internet. Last time I looked they were unreliable. Has that been fixed?
"Sim Invading Iraq to Keep Approval Ratings High"
Ah, no. That should be:
"Sim Invading Iraq So The Psychopath Doesn't Eventually Build Nuclear Weapons"
dork.
that joints jumpin
What a shame too. Those guys were great.
Having a degree is a good thing in many places. It'll never hurt to have that degree, but there are cases that it will hurt if you don't.
I've browsed the web on the Palm, iPAQ and Zaurus. They ALL suck for the all in one web browsing thing you're looking for. If you want to really do web browsing, wait a bit and get one of those oQo devices that are coming out later this summer. (Hopefully someone will gut the OS on the thing and get it to run Linux). Having said they all suck, they suck in varying degrees. Mostly it's the power consumption. The developer Zaurus absolutely sucks down the batteries big time. So does the iPAQ running WinCE. Believe it or not, the iPAQ running savaJeOS can browse the web for a Loooooong time. The other thing is that things just won't render the way they will with a "real" web browser. You can get the info from most pages, but some pages won't come up at all. (And clearly, something like Flash will just not work). having said all that...if all you're looking for is something to have to use during those boring meetings, just about anything will do. Just be aware of the limits all these devices currently have. They're not quite there yet. Oh yeah, one more thing. The Blackberry. Hands down, the best device out there. Problem with that is, no 802.11. And it's quite expensive (more than $50 per month just for the e-mail version, higher with the cell-phone e-mail combo). If they had one with 802.11, it'd be time to sell the Palm stock, they'd blow Palm away. It's that good. They're probably making money with the cell-phone networking stuff they have now, but it would pale in comparision to what they could do if they had an 802.11 device.
These, and other stories, covered in DUH Magazine.
Heh...sorry for the rant. This Microsoft "admission" is something that's so obvious to people in software development. I'm glad someone realized that was a point they could make against Microsoft.
The thing I find most amazing about this whole thing is Microsoft saying "Other companies want to see Microsoft destroyed" and similar things. This is EXACTLY what Microsoft has been doing to countless other companies for YEARS.
No office politics crapola. It's what drove me from my last job, and it's what's about to drive me from my current one. (A real shame too, because I love the work...the new boss never should have been put in charge).
A Window
No phone calls
A stock of pop in the fridge
No e-mail
Those things, (especially the first one), are what make more more productive.
Not having to worry about office politics is WAY underrated. I think we spend more time with that crap than anything else.
It's not just the NRA either. Very single special interest group does this.
So, what's so bad about this? That idiot you're always complaining about at work... the one who can't code? Yeah, that one. If TAs would have cracked down on people like this cheating in school, you wouldn't have to work with people like that.
Now, I'm NOT saying that GTech was right in what they did. They aren't. They're morons. The first thing they do when you get out of school (most of the time anyway) is throw you into a group situation where you have to work with other people. Being able to consult with people effectively is something you need to know how to do in the real world.
It's not open source, but it's realitively inexpensive ($49.95) http://www.swishzone.com/
Correction: 3 million programmers. 1 million downloads of 1.4 in the first month it was released (a few months ago)
Yeah, and they'll make a beowulf cluster of us too. eeek! eeek!
The systems are "hooked-up" but are in various places in the country.
The surrogate host stuff works like this:
There's a protocol that you implement to locate a machine running a Surrogate Host. (This can either be done via multicast or unicast, under the TCP/IP implementation). Once it's located, the device sends a JAR file to the Surrogate Host, which opens the JAR file and runs the code in there. That code registers itself with the Jini network, and has a way (that you decide) to communicate back with the device. It looks like a regular Jini service to the lookup services and so forth. The device code can be implemented in any language. There's no RMI involved in the communication between the device and the Surrogate Host. It just has to get a way to get the JAR file over to the host. There's a spec for TCP/IP, and many other specs underdevelopment (USB, etc).
I did this on a Palm device; others have whipped up stuff that work on smart cards and even Motorola phones. It's pretty cool.
They really need to rename it from "Amiga" to something people are going to respect. I was heavily into the Amiga from the very beginning, and finally gave it up about 7 years ago. What was the Amiga before is not the Amiga now.
No Jini support isn't strictly true. I've done apps using the Surrogate Host Architecture stuff in Jini, and it works fine.
Off the top of my head: Sharp Zaurus PDA, IPAQ (either running Windows or the complete Java replacement OS, the name of which escapes me at the moment), Palm (you know that already). Bigger "handheld" Windows devices, like tablets, can also run it, but you have to look at which chipsets these things support.
Phones can do this too... some are Palm based, so you can use those. Others, like Motorola's i85s (you can get this via NexTel) have been running Java for a year. No idea what the cost to run this would be for networked apps.... these phone companies like to charge out the ying-yang for service. There's a new wireless service in South Dakota that gives all you can eat wireless service for $50. Not sure how widespread that'll be, but hopefully it'll become more commonplace.
Nokia is building Java into all their phones,and Sprint is working on stuff too. I don't know if they'll have products announced at JavaOne or not, but they both have either regular sessions or "Birds of a Feather" sessions planned for during the conference.
good luck
The article "Imposter Boy", is worth a read. This is the ONLY article I've ever seen from the perspective of the non-Netscape people of how all that Mosaic/Netscape got started. http://www.chrispy.net/marca/gqarticle.html ALL the other articles I've ever seen are from either Netscape's or Andreesen's perspective, perpetuating the myth of what really happened in the beginning. I've seen a lot of people comment on this article before, and I'll tell you most of the comments are "sour grapes, sour grapes". Well, just look at what the article says about people that worked at Netscape.
This is awful. Where do people get off taking someone else's hard work and basically stealing it? Man, oh man. Oh, and the Morpheus code thing is awful too.
One thing I *did* notice was a father of someone I know works at Microsoft wrote in, in favor of the settlement. I wonder how many of those there were?
Oh, go screw yourself. There are a helluva lot of Republicans that don't support the settlement, and wrote in opposing it, and my comments are up there under my real name. You act like only Democrats always support the cause of "what's right". That's a bunch of crap. If it were true, our schools wouldn't be as farked up as they are now.