...so I was typing my term paper on my beowulf cluster which was running MySQL, when all of a sudden - bleep, bleep, bleep! And like my term paper was gone. Then dad got PostgreSQL and we haven't had any trouble since. ACID man, ACID.
...just wanted to see how many I could get into one post.
You have grossly oversimplified. Apple originally introduced some software (I believe the three programs you mentioned - MacWrite, MacDraw, and MacPaint) not to dominate the Mac software market but to show people and software companies what the mac experience was/ought to be like. They didn't believe that vendors would "get it" so they decided to show them. Afterwards they were always trying to strike a delicate balance between producing a good/up to date product and allowing/encouraging competition. In addition, for almost the whole time they were producing those apps they were targeting the low to middle end. They were the simple little apps that did what they said they would do in the Macintosh way. Illustrator and Photoshop were at the other end of the market.
Apple wanted other vendors to produce great software for the mac and weren't so worried about getting/keeping a monopoly on the application market. They still sold the hardware (and the operating system).
Claris was beaten by something better precisely because there was competition. In the current monopoly environment, we can only count on Office being beaten by something better if it is insanely better (and even then only maybe).
I am also in South Jersey, and we've always done our best to make everyone think all of those NJ myths are true. That way they stay the hell out of our state.
...but studying any language will make studying languages easier.
Agreed, but I think Latin is particularly good because (a) it seems to have more structure than both English and the romance languages I (marginally) know, forcing me to really learn grammar and abstract some concepts and (b) it is immediately applicable to said romance languages, a not so small subset of the languages to which I am exposed.
I don't know German but I have the impression it is also full of structure and grammar that I didn't get in English (e.g. declensions), so maybe it's just that I haven't had enough exposure.
Disclaimer: I took only one year of Latin and that was 20 years ago.
If you like philosophy, mathematics and programming I can heartily recommend Engines of Logic: Mathematicians and the Origin of the Computer by Martin Davis (ISBN: 0393322297). [Actually, I read the hardback The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing but I believe they are the exactly the same.] Davis is a heavyweight in the theory of computation and has written very technical stuff, but this is a very accessible history of mathematical logic and said theory.
In my opinion, it strikes the perfect balance for a book of its kind between readability and technical detail. And, based on who wrote it, you can be sure that the tecnical detail is correct. Depending on what you mean by "programming theory", I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for. But based on your stated background, I'm sure you'll love it.
I don't see Latin as a big deal in science. Sure its there, but knowledge of Latin doesn't really help you - its more like trivia. Same with Latin in law and many other fields, I'm sure.
Where Latin has helped me is Languages. I think it helped me immensely with Languages. Particularly with romance languages but even others. I really had to learn grammar and structure with Latin and I gained a facility with pronunciation of new languages.
I would suggest, however, that an introduction to Latin - maybe one year - is enough. After that it is diminishing returns for a (mostly) dead language. Move on to a modern spoken language after
an intro to Latin (unless you really love it).
In the introduction to your book, you dangled something about batters and baking being fodder for another book. I really enjoy your "Mr. Wizard Meets Cooking" style of teaching the "why's" and, dare I say it, theory behind techniques without being boring. Are you seriously considering a baking book and, in the meantime, can you recommend a baking book that explores the "why's" and the techniques and frees me from what James Peterson called the "tyranny of recipes"? Umm... I think it was him.
Maybe after reading a book like that, and I'm Just Here for the Food, I'll have learned enough to know that I know nothing. Only then will I be able to snatch a pebble from Julia Child's hand.
Here's a great example: keyboard shortcuts. Experienced users love 'em. "Usability experts" point out how most tasks are faster with the mouse, and point to this as proof that you shouldn't listen to the users.
I don't think that the argument for the mouse is that it is faster than the keyboard. I think the argument is that it is more intuitive to click a menu that it is to type CTRL-ALT-3. With a mouse, you can figure out most well designed applications. The majority of keyboard shortcuts would never be guessed.
Keyboard shortcuts are just that. A shortcut for doing something that would be done, e.g., with the mouse. They are great once you know what you are doing.
I agree that it is important to understand the relational model and I also agree with your recommendation of Data Modeling Essentials. However, it is a practical book designed to help those who already understand databases and the relational model in the abstract but don't have experience "where the rubber hits the road". As a book to get the more abstract background, I suggest
Introduction to Database Systems, C.J. Date.
Although he can be pedantic, this book teaches the relational model very well. It is somewhat abstract, but it seems much more straightforward than other books I have read covering the same material. Apparently, the new (7th) edition has a greater focus on his "Tutorial-D" language than SQL (because he doesn't believe SQL is a proper relational language). Tutorial-D comes from his book The Third Manifesto which is a detailed proposal for the design of future (object/relational) database systems. I'm not sure if that shift in language focus is a good thing or not. I read an older edition, which was excellent.
Although I have not read this book yet, the description says that Gardner simply tweaked a few things like using modern terminology and symbolism. Then he added three chapters covering some concepts not in the original, apparently including infinite series. Given the stellar reputation that Martin Gardner has, I would not worry too much about getting the new edition.
Due to an extensive public relations campaign orchestrated by an industry trade organization, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), a rash of newspaper articles have been appearing since early 1997, claiming desperate labor shortages in the information-technology field. Frantic employers complain that they cannot fill many open positions for computer programmers.
[...]
Yet readers of the articles proclaiming a shortage would be perplexed if they also knew that Microsoft only hires 2% of its applicants for software positions, and that this rate is typical in the industry. Software employers, large or small, across the nation, concede that they receive huge numbers of re'sume's but reject most of them without even an interview. One does not have to be a ``techie'' to see the contradiction here. A 2% hiring rate might be unremarkable in other fields, but not in one in which there is supposed to be a ``desperate'' labor shortage. If employers were that desperate, they would certainly not be hiring just a minuscule fraction of their job applicants.
The hidden agenda of the ITAA public relations campaign which began in 1997 turned out to be to leverage Congress to increase the yearly quota of H-1B work visas, under which employers were importing tens of thousands of programmers to the U.S. each year. The campaign succeeded, with President Clinton signing the increase into law in October 1998. Yet in 1999 the industry started calling for even further increases in the visa quota, which it attained in October 2000.
And some other points are, in fact, wrong?[Re:EH]
on
A Linux User Goes Back
·
· Score: 2
Some of his points aren't wrong, they are just different from yours.
To paraphrase The Princess Bride, "You're using that phrase, I do not think it means what you think it means."
You're not making a statement about the particular points that the poster claimed were wrong, just about some of the writer's points. Sorry, the grammar nazi inside me escaped again. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...
< waits for laughter > ummm... its a joke
< more silence > ummm... you see... he spelled PostgreSQL wrong... and postre means dessert in Spanish
< embarrased look > and Saturday Night Live did a thing about a floor wax that was also a dessert topping... a long time ago
< sigh > I guess I was reaching... never mind
< shuffles away >
Here's two other amazing solutions. Knotted string and Dijkstra's algorithm.
There are several methods that can be used to solve this problem. One way is to make a model of the map by knotting together pieces of string whose lengths are proportional to the lengths of the roads. To find the shortest path, take hold of the knots corresponding to A and L - and pull tight!
-Introduction to Graph Theory, Robin J. Wilson
How can we find the shortest route from one location to another?... Dijkstra's Algorithm (Dijkstra [1959] and Whiting-Hillier [1960]) solves this problem quickly,...
-Introduction to Graph Theory, Douglas B. West
Check any book on graph theory or on algorithms for the details of Dijkstra's algorithm.
The setup with the tourist map is kind of cool but hardly a breakthrough for math or computer science.
...that is one of the dumbest logical mistakes that you could make.
Its a logical mistake to think that that was a logical mistake. Don't confuse a question with a conclusion. Using your example, it would be wrong to conclude that John is Peter. However, it was not a conclusion but a question, and a valid one at that. You may not believe that Cyc is intelligent, but to claim it is using poor logic in this example just shows your lack of same.
C|Net: In IE, those ads temporarily hide part of the page, then go away. But in our Mozilla tests, the ads sometimes permanently blocked part of the page, and we had to reload the page until we got a different, regular, nonpositioning ad.
I'm not flaming mad over this review like some others, but this seems silly. Am I missing something, or wouldn't it be much easier to simply click the close-box and close the ads instead of reloading the page over and over again? In fact, many of the ads don't go away in IE but pop behind the main page. In those cases I prefer that the ads stay on top so I can click them closed that much easier.
I just disable "move or resize existing windows" and "raise or lower windows" in Mozilla and I've been happy. I'm afraid to disable some of the other stuff because I suspect that some legit sites use some of the features.
...Nader is saying that the government should make an effort to influence the marketplace in a certain direction, rather than letting natural market forces dictate what heppens (questionable/illegal business practices being part of the market).
Are you actually saying that the government should look the other way when "questionable/illegal business" practices are "dictat[ing] what happens"?? And that these practices are part of the "natural market forces" that those of us who believe in the market economy revere?? Because that's what it sounds like.
Gotta go. The mafia just asked for more "protection money". Oh, well. Natural market forces.
Its been quite a while and a new edition since I read this book for a computer science class, but as I reacall the main thrust of
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
was to focus on computer science concepts in a somewhat introductory class with a minimum of syntax. It uses the Scheme dialect of Lisp which, although it was quite alien to most of the students, does not force the programmer to get bogged down in lots of syntax rules and is quite powerful. I think the author(s) explicitly stated as a goal to get right into concepts and let the student absorb the syntax along the way. And you can
read it online
in addition to purchasing it at the bookstore.
I'm sure many people here are already familiar with it, but if you're not it's worth a look.
Slashdot Mirror
Apple wanted other vendors to produce great software for the mac and weren't so worried about getting/keeping a monopoly on the application market. They still sold the hardware (and the operating system).
Claris was beaten by something better precisely because there was competition. In the current monopoly environment, we can only count on Office being beaten by something better if it is insanely better (and even then only maybe).
OUCH!!... damn mosquitos..
(between 2 and 3)
Agreed, but I think Latin is particularly good because (a) it seems to have more structure than both English and the romance languages I (marginally) know, forcing me to really learn grammar and abstract some concepts and (b) it is immediately applicable to said romance languages, a not so small subset of the languages to which I am exposed.
I don't know German but I have the impression it is also full of structure and grammar that I didn't get in English (e.g. declensions), so maybe it's just that I haven't had enough exposure.
Disclaimer: I took only one year of Latin and that was 20 years ago.
In my opinion, it strikes the perfect balance for a book of its kind between readability and technical detail. And, based on who wrote it, you can be sure that the tecnical detail is correct. Depending on what you mean by "programming theory", I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for. But based on your stated background, I'm sure you'll love it.
Where Latin has helped me is Languages. I think it helped me immensely with Languages. Particularly with romance languages but even others. I really had to learn grammar and structure with Latin and I gained a facility with pronunciation of new languages.
I would suggest, however, that an introduction to Latin - maybe one year - is enough. After that it is diminishing returns for a (mostly) dead language. Move on to a modern spoken language after an intro to Latin (unless you really love it).
Maybe after reading a book like that, and I'm Just Here for the Food, I'll have learned enough to know that I know nothing. Only then will I be able to snatch a pebble from Julia Child's hand.
BTW, great TV show, great book!
I don't think that the argument for the mouse is that it is faster than the keyboard. I think the argument is that it is more intuitive to click a menu that it is to type CTRL-ALT-3. With a mouse, you can figure out most well designed applications. The majority of keyboard shortcuts would never be guessed.
Keyboard shortcuts are just that. A shortcut for doing something that would be done, e.g., with the mouse. They are great once you know what you are doing.
Introduction to Database Systems, C.J. Date.
Although he can be pedantic, this book teaches the relational model very well. It is somewhat abstract, but it seems much more straightforward than other books I have read covering the same material. Apparently, the new (7th) edition has a greater focus on his "Tutorial-D" language than SQL (because he doesn't believe SQL is a proper relational language). Tutorial-D comes from his book The Third Manifesto which is a detailed proposal for the design of future (object/relational) database systems. I'm not sure if that shift in language focus is a good thing or not. I read an older edition, which was excellent.
Although I have not read this book yet, the description says that Gardner simply tweaked a few things like using modern terminology and symbolism. Then he added three chapters covering some concepts not in the original, apparently including infinite series. Given the stellar reputation that Martin Gardner has, I would not worry too much about getting the new edition.
To paraphrase The Princess Bride, "You're using that phrase, I do not think it means what you think it means."
You're not making a statement about the particular points that the poster claimed were wrong, just about some of the writer's points. Sorry, the grammar nazi inside me escaped again. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...
< waits for laughter > ummm... its a joke
< more silence > ummm... you see... he spelled PostgreSQL wrong... and postre means dessert in Spanish
< embarrased look > and Saturday Night Live did a thing about a floor wax that was also a dessert topping... a long time ago
< sigh > I guess I was reaching... never mind
< shuffles away >
They're worried about the viral nature of the GPL?
Actually, its Mozilla.
There are several methods that can be used to solve this problem. One way is to make a model of the map by knotting together pieces of string whose lengths are proportional to the lengths of the roads. To find the shortest path, take hold of the knots corresponding to A and L - and pull tight!
-Introduction to Graph Theory, Robin J. Wilson
How can we find the shortest route from one location to another?... Dijkstra's Algorithm (Dijkstra [1959] and Whiting-Hillier [1960]) solves this problem quickly,...
-Introduction to Graph Theory, Douglas B. West
Check any book on graph theory or on algorithms for the details of Dijkstra's algorithm.
The setup with the tourist map is kind of cool but hardly a breakthrough for math or computer science.
Apparently she's friends with "Lisa Catera".
Its a logical mistake to think that that was a logical mistake. Don't confuse a question with a conclusion. Using your example, it would be wrong to conclude that John is Peter. However, it was not a conclusion but a question, and a valid one at that. You may not believe that Cyc is intelligent, but to claim it is using poor logic in this example just shows your lack of same.
Oh my God! The Lone Gunmen are dead??
I'm not flaming mad over this review like some others, but this seems silly. Am I missing something, or wouldn't it be much easier to simply click the close-box and close the ads instead of reloading the page over and over again? In fact, many of the ads don't go away in IE but pop behind the main page. In those cases I prefer that the ads stay on top so I can click them closed that much easier.
I just disable "move or resize existing windows" and "raise or lower windows" in Mozilla and I've been happy. I'm afraid to disable some of the other stuff because I suspect that some legit sites use some of the features.
Are you actually saying that the government should look the other way when "questionable/illegal business" practices are "dictat[ing] what happens"?? And that these practices are part of the "natural market forces" that those of us who believe in the market economy revere?? Because that's what it sounds like.
Gotta go. The mafia just asked for more "protection money". Oh, well. Natural market forces.
I'm sure many people here are already familiar with it, but if you're not it's worth a look.
Man, could you imagine a beowulf clust... errr... school of them.
Whether it works or not, I'm still gonna have nightmares about it.
Yes, I'm kidding.