Juggling isn't athletic? I would hope you've actually tried juggling 3, 4, or 5 clubs or balls for a few hours before telling me that it's not athletic. Sheesh.
She was always the most liberal member of the simpsons family. They've just expanded that role to encompass some of the more far-flung left-wing fun.
She's the opposite of Homer. You can't deny he's probably a right-winger, and he goes all the way along the political spectrum to the realm of hard-core, crazy gun toters!
Grandpa was seargent of The Fighting Hellfish. And I can't believe you thought that episode was bad!
The episodes I like the least are the very early ones, with the concentration on Bart. Back then, the show seemed to be very much aimed at children. When Homer came to the fore, so did the increasing use of satire and parody and it became a cartoon for grownups.
The Worldforge project (http://www.worldforge.org) has come a LONG way since its inception over a year ago. And though it's not done, it's definitely on track to create an OpenSource MMRPG system for Linux. Sam Jooky
I've played too many sims, myself, though not of the terribly violent sort.
Lately I've been running around town rezoning and putting in waterworks and schools and raising taxes. Sometimes I tear down a church and fill it in with small parks.
Needless to say, the city council is not happy with my actions. They are seeing firsthand the evil effect of some simulation games: city planning.
I work for the US Forest Service which -- until this October -- has been using ApplixWare for its OfficeSuite. We're currently on version 4.37, and the program still sucks. The reason behind our use of it was that the FS is using IBM 6500s and PCs and ApplixWare could work on both.
Enough of the rank and file in the Forest Service, however, complained about how absolutely crappy the system is that we're now switching over to Microsoft Office. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I don't mind not having to use Applix anymore.
I agree with all your complaints, but the worst part to my mind is that Applix more or less decided to use all their own shortcut keys for common operations. You wanna paste? Try F5, or F6, I don't recall.
Applix mail is atrocious, too. It's slow, the interface is horrible (click here, then type here -- hands always moving from keyboard to mouse and back), and it's just a hassle to use.
I have avoided using AW as much as possible -- it's just too obnoxious to be worth the trouble.
Bruce, do you think of the term Cyberpunk as an apt description for the 'cyberpunk' genre of books? Heck, is there really such a thing as a Cyberpunk genre (the books typically considered Cyberpunk are so different).
I ask because among the main three authors (well, to my opinion: yourself, William Gibson and Neal Stephenson), there is little common ground except for technology, and that's not even always true. What defines a book of the 'cyberpunk' genre (if there is such a thing)?
Hi there, Colonel Kurtz. If I were in your shoes, I would probably continue on the track I was on. Good academic standing is important, as is a quality GRE score. I'm sure you've heard this before, but schools do look at other activities that students have done in their undergraduate work. Get involved!
Reading academic journals is a good way to get immersed in that ultra-dry writing style.
Even though your school doesn't offer graduate-level programs, your profs had to have taken some at a point in their scholastic history. Find a good one -- as many other people pointed out and I missed, a good advisor is worth their weight in gold -- and look into doing an independent study with them and learning the advanced versions of some topics.
Perhaps if you can find a project on which a professor is working and you can help out, perhaps you'll be able to get to help out on writing the final article, and being published is a great thing when you're applying to grad schools.
Colonel Kurtz -- yes, I am responding to my own message:) -- I have some more information and suggestions for you as well (and actually, for anyone interested in postgraduate studies).
Grad Schools are really competitive, so right now while you have plenty of time left as an undergrad, start improving your chances of getting in. You can do this in lots of ways.
Remember, though, that grad schools really pay attention to letters of references from past professors that show how well you can do work (and possibly research). Meet a professor in your department who is doing research on something you find interesting and offer them your services. Learn a little bit about CS research.
When you get up to senior-status, talk to some professors about taking on a class as a non-teaching TA. Profs and GTAs always appreciate all the help you can offer. TA one of the introductory CS classes with 100 people.
Both of these things will help you get better letters of recommendation, and at the same time, you will get a much better idea of whether or not the grad student life is for you.
Also, when you start to get into the higher-level courses, take some graduate-level courses. Most schools won't let you take the higher-level grad courses, but the introductory ones should be accessible. This will help prepare for the amount of reading and work that your classes will involve in grad school.
If I think of other helpful tips, I'll respond to my message again.:)
Well, I'm not going to follow suit with the other folks who have posted by the time I wrote this and just throw out a school name...let's see if we can get you some advice.
When you're selecting a grad school don't just put a bunch of school names on a dartboard and throw a dart to choose. Figure out what interests you in CS. Which subfield makes you cream your jeans? AI? Parallel Processing? Computer Graphics? You need to have a semi-narrow choice.
Once you've figured that part out, then start looking at grad schools. Don't go pick a school and then figure out what you want to study. That's a recipe for unhappiness.
Most CS departments list on their webpages which fields they specialize in. Find the profs at the school who teach your interest and email them about the sort of program of study they offer.
And don't forget to use the profs at your current school. They're in the field and can probably point you in a good direction for a good school, and if not, they're in a better position than you to find out where the best [insert your interest here] school is located.
Talk to the grad students at your school, too. They've been through this process before and can probably offer you good advice.
In short, don't just jump into a CS grad program because you like the school -- make sure they'll teach you what you want to learn.
And if you're interested in AI, Software Engineering or Parallel and Distributed Computation, come out to Colorado State University!:)
Hope this was semi-helpful and not totally redundant.
Here is a link to a page with some screen shots of a prospective 3-D GUI. Personally, I find the whole idea silly, because until we can interact with the GUI in 3-D (as opposed to on our 2-D monitors), all it seems useful for is something to the effect of: "I'm running a 3-D GUI" "Gee, Hank, that's swell." "Yep."
If you ever really need to know what someone says in a movie, but the voice is indistinct, turn on the closed captioning in your television (if you have a recent one, within 5 years or so, you probably have CC). 9 times out of 10, they will caption what you can't understand and you'll finally know what you've been missing.
The old x11amp is my favorite and most used Linux app, not counting xterm, tcsh, and gcc of course. I just love the program. I'm still baffled as to why they went GPL with it. They didn't have to, they could of made a lot of money selling such a quality product.
They went GPL with it and didn't sell it for the simple reason that they're committed to supporting the linux community. And no, they didn't have to, but if they didn't, someone else would come along and written a GPL MP3 player, and we'd all be using that. As it is, I'm glad I can use X11Amp...err, Xmmsmsmsmmmsmsm (or whatnot). It's a great product.
A little pessimism never hurt anyone -- I usually dish a fair dose each day -- but in this case, I don't think there was anything wrong with the submission to SlashDot. They are still very early in their development schedule, and as you've noticed, no code is yet available. By posting on Slashdot, they can try to reach the best and the brightest (or so we like to think) of the Linux community, and perhaps find those coders out there with the time on their hands to help, and the skill to get this game made.
According to the article, the only aspects that will (well, have been planned *so* far) to not be OS are installation procedures. I find it hard to believe because of my utter cynicism towards MS, though. We'll see.
I am dissapointed that ActiveState is in bed with M$. Why collobrate with an organization that openly is against open source?
Well, neither is really an organization. Both are businesses, and that should be enough to answer your question. They collaborate because they feel it will increase their revenues.
Yeah, I agree. Every month the processing power, amount of storage and amount of memory we have at our fingertips seemingly increases logarithmically, and yet we're (most of us) surfing the web on modems that are only 6 to 10 times faster than they were 7 years ago or so.
Pretty soon here I'm planning on seeing how well USWest ADSL works to my place. A little finger-crossing, a little cash, and (I expect) a lot of swearing should do the trick.
Outside of certain shops, IBM does not have alot of credibilty in the desktop space. Just look around your office. The only place that IBM has significant desktop market share is Lotus Notes and ccMail, the latter being a dead product.
I work for a certain Gov't Department, and we currently have orders in with IBM for computers. I don't know which is worse: IBMs shoddy software and hardware that we get shipped, or the fact that due to the government's wise bargaining, we get machines that would be above-average quality last year, and we still have to pay last year's prices for them. So in our institution, our database software is Lotus Approach, our presentation software is Freelance, our word processing software... etc.
While I loathe to say it, I would almost rather use PowerPoint or some such, if only because all the other government folks we work with use them.
Slashdot Mirror
Juggling isn't athletic? I would hope you've actually tried juggling 3, 4, or 5 clubs or balls for a few hours before telling me that it's not athletic. Sheesh.
You're right. :)
(or, as Homer's Doh's are written in the scripts for each week's episode: (Annoyed Grunt!)
Sam Jooky
Cat guts not your style?
She's the opposite of Homer. You can't deny he's probably a right-winger, and he goes all the way along the political spectrum to the realm of hard-core, crazy gun toters!
Sam Jooky
Cat guts not your style?
The episodes I like the least are the very early ones, with the concentration on Bart. Back then, the show seemed to be very much aimed at children. When Homer came to the fore, so did the increasing use of satire and parody and it became a cartoon for grownups.
Man, I love that show. :)
Cat guts not your style?
The Worldforge project (http://www.worldforge.org) has come a LONG way since its inception over a year ago. And though it's not done, it's definitely on track to create an OpenSource MMRPG system for Linux. Sam Jooky
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0193524
Sam Jooky
Lately I've been running around town rezoning and putting in waterworks and schools and raising taxes. Sometimes I tear down a church and fill it in with small parks.
Needless to say, the city council is not happy with my actions. They are seeing firsthand the evil effect of some simulation games: city planning.
Sam Jooky
http://www.worldwidemart.com/sapienza/s alad
Enough of the rank and file in the Forest Service, however, complained about how absolutely crappy the system is that we're now switching over to Microsoft Office. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I don't mind not having to use Applix anymore.
I agree with all your complaints, but the worst part to my mind is that Applix more or less decided to use all their own shortcut keys for common operations. You wanna paste? Try F5, or F6, I don't recall.
Applix mail is atrocious, too. It's slow, the interface is horrible (click here, then type here -- hands always moving from keyboard to mouse and back), and it's just a hassle to use.
I have avoided using AW as much as possible -- it's just too obnoxious to be worth the trouble.
Sam Jooky
Where's my Burrito? Where's my Burrito? Where's my Burrito?
http://www.worldwidemart.com/sapienza/s alad
I ask because among the main three authors (well, to my opinion: yourself, William Gibson and Neal Stephenson), there is little common ground except for technology, and that's not even always true. What defines a book of the 'cyberpunk' genre (if there is such a thing)?
Sam Jooky
http://www.worldwidemart.com/sapienza/s alad
Reading academic journals is a good way to get immersed in that ultra-dry writing style.
Even though your school doesn't offer graduate-level programs, your profs had to have taken some at a point in their scholastic history. Find a good one -- as many other people pointed out and I missed, a good advisor is worth their weight in gold -- and look into doing an independent study with them and learning the advanced versions of some topics.
Perhaps if you can find a project on which a professor is working and you can help out, perhaps you'll be able to get to help out on writing the final article, and being published is a great thing when you're applying to grad schools.
Good luck to you, Kurtz!
Sam Jooky
sapienza@holly.colostate.edu
Grad Schools are really competitive, so right now while you have plenty of time left as an undergrad, start improving your chances of getting in. You can do this in lots of ways.
Remember, though, that grad schools really pay attention to letters of references from past professors that show how well you can do work (and possibly research). Meet a professor in your department who is doing research on something you find interesting and offer them your services. Learn a little bit about CS research.
When you get up to senior-status, talk to some professors about taking on a class as a non-teaching TA. Profs and GTAs always appreciate all the help you can offer. TA one of the introductory CS classes with 100 people.
Both of these things will help you get better letters of recommendation, and at the same time, you will get a much better idea of whether or not the grad student life is for you.
Also, when you start to get into the higher-level courses, take some graduate-level courses. Most schools won't let you take the higher-level grad courses, but the introductory ones should be accessible. This will help prepare for the amount of reading and work that your classes will involve in grad school.
If I think of other helpful tips, I'll respond to my message again. :)
Sam Jooky
sapienza@holly.colostate.edu
When you're selecting a grad school don't just put a bunch of school names on a dartboard and throw a dart to choose. Figure out what interests you in CS. Which subfield makes you cream your jeans? AI? Parallel Processing? Computer Graphics? You need to have a semi-narrow choice.
Once you've figured that part out, then start looking at grad schools. Don't go pick a school and then figure out what you want to study. That's a recipe for unhappiness.
Most CS departments list on their webpages which fields they specialize in. Find the profs at the school who teach your interest and email them about the sort of program of study they offer.
And don't forget to use the profs at your current school. They're in the field and can probably point you in a good direction for a good school, and if not, they're in a better position than you to find out where the best [insert your interest here] school is located.
Talk to the grad students at your school, too. They've been through this process before and can probably offer you good advice.
In short, don't just jump into a CS grad program because you like the school -- make sure they'll teach you what you want to learn.
And if you're interested in AI, Software Engineering or Parallel and Distributed Computation, come out to Colorado State University! :)
Hope this was semi-helpful and not totally redundant.
Sam Jooky
"I'm running a 3-D GUI"
"Gee, Hank, that's swell."
"Yep."
But, there ya go.
Sam Jooky
I wonder, though, if regular folks will begin to hold actual Gargoyles in as much disdain as the people in Snow Crash, did...
:) Now to get my copy of SC back from the "friend" who has stolen it!
Though, like you other folks, that was the first thing I thought of.
Sam Jooky
If you ever really need to know what someone says in a movie, but the voice is indistinct, turn on the closed captioning in your television (if you have a recent one, within 5 years or so, you probably have CC). 9 times out of 10, they will caption what you can't understand and you'll finally know what you've been missing.
Sam Jooky
The old x11amp is my favorite and most used Linux app, not counting xterm, tcsh, and
gcc of course. I just love the program. I'm still baffled as to why they went GPL with it.
They didn't have to, they could of made a lot of money selling such a quality product.
They went GPL with it and didn't sell it for the simple reason that they're committed to supporting the linux community. And no, they didn't have to, but if they didn't, someone else would come along and written a GPL MP3 player, and we'd all be using that. As it is, I'm glad I can use X11Amp...err, Xmmsmsmsmmmsmsm (or whatnot). It's a great product.
Sam Jooky
I don't think Wintermute is online, yet, so I believe you mean "...who Wintermute will be."
A little pessimism never hurt anyone -- I usually dish a fair dose each day -- but in this case, I don't think there was anything wrong with the submission to SlashDot. They are still very early in their development schedule, and as you've noticed, no code is yet available. By posting on Slashdot, they can try to reach the best and the brightest (or so we like to think) of the Linux community, and perhaps find those coders out there with the time on their hands to help, and the skill to get this game made.
God, I hope that was a troll...and considering the website we're on, I imagine it was.
According to the article, the only aspects that will (well, have been planned *so* far) to not be OS are installation procedures. I find it hard to believe because of my utter cynicism towards MS, though. We'll see.
Sam Jooky
Well, neither is really an organization. Both are businesses, and that should be enough to answer your question. They collaborate because they feel it will increase their revenues.
Sam Jooky
Yeah, I agree. Every month the processing power, amount of storage and amount of memory we have at our fingertips seemingly increases logarithmically, and yet we're (most of us) surfing the web on modems that are only 6 to 10 times faster than they were 7 years ago or so.
Pretty soon here I'm planning on seeing how well USWest ADSL works to my place. A little finger-crossing, a little cash, and (I expect) a lot of swearing should do the trick.
Sam Jooky
I work for a certain Gov't Department, and we currently have orders in with IBM for computers. I don't know which is worse: IBMs shoddy software and hardware that we get shipped, or the fact that due to the government's wise bargaining, we get machines that would be above-average quality last year, and we still have to pay last year's prices for them. So in our institution, our database software is Lotus Approach, our presentation software is Freelance, our word processing software ... etc.
While I loathe to say it, I would almost rather use PowerPoint or some such, if only because all the other government folks we work with use them.
Sam Jooky
20 hours a month? I usually rack up that much online time in a day or two.