Innovation... ha. that's just marketing blather to Microsoft, they know people like to hear it, along with the March of the Version Numbers.
Gates/Ballmer/MS is a warlord. This is about power and control. Requiring an NDA to read the license terms for the spec was a brilliant tactical move. This is going to get ugly, really ugly. It's your mistake to think this is about new ideas or technology.
Just have a vat of liquid nitogen, put in something (a rose for example), remove it and shatter it by throwing it on the floor (or use a hammer). Fun experiment, and looks impressive with the fumes of the liquid nitrogen;-)
I remember this being done with live bugs of various types. They shatter, of course, but when they thaw, all the various parts of them begin to move again... eewww!
Yeah, it sucks. But it's also impossible in the long run because we know all about complexity and software and systems and we know they don't last. They break down. Anything man-made of even moderate complexity has a short lifespan. Anyone who has been involved in a large project knows it's ugly behind the curtain. Always bugs, always loopholes, always brittle, and in the end - run by regular people who are more worried about picking their kid up from school on time than anything else, etc. etc.
I'm not worried for the long term, I'm worried about how the system will collapse. Privacy catastrophe. It always takes a big disaster to change people's minds. That's what really sucks, in my mind.
The first thing is to ask yourself whether you want this to actually exist as a product that works. I'm sure you do. But it's possible your knowledge of physics and 3D math may be outweighed by your (in)ability to create a realistic development plan. You have grand aspirations. But if you can't make progress, let alone produce something useful, nothing else matters.
So you need a design that will allow you to be productive, probably in small increments. You need the Unix shell model, in which the big stuff happens in a dynamic scripting type of environment, and the heavy lifting happens in a high performance environment, with a well-defined and straightforward interface. Go find the Unix Magic poster right now and hang it on your wall.
In other words, you need a framework. I suggest this be your central design philosophy - code your high performance stuff in C++, keeping them small and self-contained. Do your higher level design in an interpreted, dynamic language that invokes/manipulates your low-level hiperf routines. You can migrate code to or from C++ to find the right balance between flexibility and performance. You will be able to change things all around and do significant experimentation quickly.
But more importantly, with the right framework in place, it will be easy for anyone, such as you, to contribute in small increments.
It'd be nice to be able to just buy a digital camera and a photo printer, and be able to bypass a computer altogether. Not every electronic device in your home need be linked together somehow.
You can, it's called CompactFlash/memorystick/ etc. Walk up to the printer at Ritz Camera and plug in your CF card. A few home printers have the card readers as well. No big deal, right?
The one thing I would like to do is transfer pictures from my camera to an iPod - then I could take the digital camera on a long trip without a computer. And it doesn't matter how they connect. Plugging a CF card into it would be fine, or with FireWire, USB, wireless, or anything, as long as I don't need a computer (and battery use is minimized).
Re:Where's your sense of danger???
on
Undelete In Linux
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· Score: 1
Recycle bins are a lot more fun when you can attach a confetti shredder to the top, or at least a basketball net. Now that Jaguar's desktop is an OpenGL environment, we can take direct manipulation to the next level. I'm looking forward to requiring skill to toss files in the trash, and having crumpled files laying around it. But in reality, I want to finally be able to take the trashcan off the desktop and put the damn thing on the floor.
Re:Here's a Handy Hint
on
Undelete In Linux
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· Score: 2, Interesting
That's why you use the old trick of having a file named something like "-normstar" (or anything that begins with '-' and which isn't an rm option). rm chokes on it as it scans argv[] for options, and won't delete your files.
A manager went to the master programmer and showed him the requirements document for a new application. The manager asked the master: ``How long will it take to design this system if I assign five programmers to it?''
``It will take one year,'' said the master promptly.
``But we need this system immediately or even sooner! How long will it take if I assign ten programmers to it?''
The master programmer frowned. ``In that case, it will take two years.''
``And what if I assign a hundred programmers to it?''
The master programmer shrugged. ``Then the design will never be completed,'' he said.
---
A manager asked a programmer how long it would take him to finish the program on which he was working. ``It will be finished tomorrow,'' the programmer promptly replied.
``I think you are being unrealistic,'' said the manager, ``Truthfully, how long will it take?''
The programmer thought for a moment. ``I have some features that I wish to add. This will take at least two weeks,'' he finally said.
``Even that is too much to expect,'' insisted the manager, ``I will be satisfied if you simply tell me when the program is complete.''
The programmer agreed to this.
Several years later, the manager retired. On the way to his retirement luncheon, he discovered the programmer asleep at his terminal. He had been programming all night.
I'm certain the artsy crowd would not respond to literate programming over, um, conventional programming. In fact, displaying source code alongside the pictures is, IMHO, only vaguely useful, because source code isn't the software. There's art in that software, but it's stuck in the programmer's head. The only way to convey it is either a) through the action of the program, or b) by exposing the abstract structure of the program in a meaningful way. Think of it like this - which is more revealing: a) seeing the mechanism of a clock which is running, or b) seeing the mechanism of a clock which is stopped. Source code is like b, but vastly more complex. Someone unfamiliar with the code cannot appreciate it (since people aren't computers) - the structure and the design is hidden even to the original programmer once s/he gets enough mental distance from it. English explanations - literate programming - engage the wrong part of your brain. Demonstrating the actual mechanism behind the running clock is, I'm sure, infinitely more engaging and satisfying than any English description of the wound spring, gears, etc.
is the best time to buy a Mac Plus. They originally sold for $2600, and you can get them for $10 or less now. That's 99.61538% off! show me a better deal than that!
It is waaaay too many for most people, but not for those who need to do a lot of postprocessing. You can't, for example, shoot way under/overexposed and then over/underexpose the print without serious degredation in digital, although you can in analog. An SLR and a high end scanner will be better until digital cameras can do 48 bits per pixel or more (quickly).
How so? Mac OS X provides Classic mode for this very reason -- so that those old legacy applications can still run. The only things that balk at running in Classic are a few old games.
...and Final Cut Pro 2 that I bought.. like.. hours before 3 (OSX version) was released.
Slightly OT but this reminds me of my first intro to college geekdom. picture the computer lab. Dark.. silent.. about 15 or so geeks basking in the glow of z29 terminals... when suddenly I realize omg THEY ARE ALL TALKING TO EACH OTHER!
don't now whether to run screaming or join the crowd!
It's called an Edit Decision List in the industry. it's what your non-linear editing app creates for cutting the actual film.
I don't see how the MPAA could have a legitimate case against that. It's like distributing printed directions that go like: play until 00:01:02; FF to 00:03:14; play until 00:07:01; etc. I have a universal remote application for my Palm V; no reason I couldn't write a Palm OS app to play an simple EDL to control my VCR or DVD player via IR. No pretty transitions or funky dubbing, but it's the principle.
Re:Video renting vending machines
on
Shop Till It Drops
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· Score: 2, Funny
It's more fun to wander around in the store for an hour going "I don't know, what do you want to watch?"
Won't the race be improved?, especially if we could raise the average IQ a little, after all the traditional model would have had Steven Hawking eaten by a dinosour and his intellectual value would not have been realised.
Tragically, individuals don't matter that much when we're talking about this scale. As you said earlier in your post, the poor will continue to have more kids. Cloning will have only a symbolic effect on humanity - IMHO, a bad one. The "this isn't the kid I ordered" effect. The rich who already outsource as much of the raising of their kids as possible. We as humans have to love our kids no matter who they are, it doesn't matter what their traits are. Love them no matter what. Ordering traits via selection or cloning has already fallen from that position - it's stating you'll love this particular set of attributes more. But I'm not worried about it as a general trend since nature always proves herself much more complex than we think. And the poor have more kids.
Patterns have more to do with programming than computer science.
You're right, but not in the way you think you are. You're thinking of the software industry popularization of Alexander's patterns, which is of course all about programming and not computer science. However, they have dumbed down the concept significantly. If you read Alexander's A Pattern Language, and compare it with the gang of four book, there's just no comparison - Alexander's is deep, probing, and almost alive; the GoF's book is shallow and dead. The comparison between patterns and computer science is like biology to physics: biology is about life, whereas physics is about the structure of matter. We have a new field here - nobody's recognized it yet.
Slashdot Mirror
...the things we try after 1 AM. heheheheh...
parse error, line 1: no trailing '
Bring MacWorld to Philly!
Innovation... ha. that's just marketing blather to Microsoft, they know people like to hear it, along with the March of the Version Numbers. Gates/Ballmer/MS is a warlord. This is about power and control. Requiring an NDA to read the license terms for the spec was a brilliant tactical move. This is going to get ugly, really ugly. It's your mistake to think this is about new ideas or technology.
Leonardo used paintbrushes. That doesn't help us though.
I remember this being done with live bugs of various types. They shatter, of course, but when they thaw, all the various parts of them begin to move again... eewww!
Paper is good. It's proof. Paper can last for a long time. You can recount paper. Don't knock it just because it's paper.
Yeah, it sucks. But it's also impossible in the long run because we know all about complexity and software and systems and we know they don't last. They break down. Anything man-made of even moderate complexity has a short lifespan. Anyone who has been involved in a large project knows it's ugly behind the curtain. Always bugs, always loopholes, always brittle, and in the end - run by regular people who are more worried about picking their kid up from school on time than anything else, etc. etc.
I'm not worried for the long term, I'm worried about how the system will collapse. Privacy catastrophe. It always takes a big disaster to change people's minds. That's what really sucks, in my mind.
The first thing is to ask yourself whether you want this to actually exist as a product that works. I'm sure you do. But it's possible your knowledge of physics and 3D math may be outweighed by your (in)ability to create a realistic development plan. You have grand aspirations. But if you can't make progress, let alone produce something useful, nothing else matters.
So you need a design that will allow you to be productive, probably in small increments. You need the Unix shell model, in which the big stuff happens in a dynamic scripting type of environment, and the heavy lifting happens in a high performance environment, with a well-defined and straightforward interface. Go find the Unix Magic poster right now and hang it on your wall.
In other words, you need a framework. I suggest this be your central design philosophy - code your high performance stuff in C++, keeping them small and self-contained. Do your higher level design in an interpreted, dynamic language that invokes/manipulates your low-level hiperf routines. You can migrate code to or from C++ to find the right balance between flexibility and performance. You will be able to change things all around and do significant experimentation quickly.
But more importantly, with the right framework in place, it will be easy for anyone, such as you, to contribute in small increments.
That's right. Gnu's Not Unix, either. What is Unix? Perhaps it is but a dream..
You can, it's called CompactFlash/memorystick/ etc. Walk up to the printer at Ritz Camera and plug in your CF card. A few home printers have the card readers as well. No big deal, right?
The one thing I would like to do is transfer pictures from my camera to an iPod - then I could take the digital camera on a long trip without a computer. And it doesn't matter how they connect. Plugging a CF card into it would be fine, or with FireWire, USB, wireless, or anything, as long as I don't need a computer (and battery use is minimized).
Recycle bins are a lot more fun when you can attach a confetti shredder to the top, or at least a basketball net. Now that Jaguar's desktop is an OpenGL environment, we can take direct manipulation to the next level. I'm looking forward to requiring skill to toss files in the trash, and having crumpled files laying around it. But in reality, I want to finally be able to take the trashcan off the desktop and put the damn thing on the floor.
That's why you use the old trick of having a file named something like "-normstar" (or anything that begins with '-' and which isn't an rm option). rm chokes on it as it scans argv[] for options, and won't delete your files.
just don't have a file named -rf
A manager went to the master programmer and showed him the requirements document for a new application. The manager asked the master: ``How long will it take to design this system if I assign five programmers to it?''
``It will take one year,'' said the master promptly.
``But we need this system immediately or even sooner! How long will it take if I assign ten programmers to it?''
The master programmer frowned. ``In that case, it will take two years.''
``And what if I assign a hundred programmers to it?''
The master programmer shrugged. ``Then the design will never be completed,'' he said.
---
A manager asked a programmer how long it would take him to finish the program on which he was working. ``It will be finished tomorrow,'' the programmer promptly replied.
``I think you are being unrealistic,'' said the manager, ``Truthfully, how long will it take?''
The programmer thought for a moment. ``I have some features that I wish to add. This will take at least two weeks,'' he finally said.
``Even that is too much to expect,'' insisted the manager, ``I will be satisfied if you simply tell me when the program is complete.''
The programmer agreed to this.
Several years later, the manager retired. On the way to his retirement luncheon, he discovered the programmer asleep at his terminal. He had been programming all night.
I'm certain the artsy crowd would not respond to literate programming over, um, conventional programming. In fact, displaying source code alongside the pictures is, IMHO, only vaguely useful, because source code isn't the software. There's art in that software, but it's stuck in the programmer's head. The only way to convey it is either a) through the action of the program, or b) by exposing the abstract structure of the program in a meaningful way. Think of it like this - which is more revealing: a) seeing the mechanism of a clock which is running, or b) seeing the mechanism of a clock which is stopped. Source code is like b, but vastly more complex. Someone unfamiliar with the code cannot appreciate it (since people aren't computers) - the structure and the design is hidden even to the original programmer once s/he gets enough mental distance from it. English explanations - literate programming - engage the wrong part of your brain. Demonstrating the actual mechanism behind the running clock is, I'm sure, infinitely more engaging and satisfying than any English description of the wound spring, gears, etc.
is the best time to buy a Mac Plus. They originally sold for $2600, and you can get them for $10 or less now. That's 99.61538% off! show me a better deal than that!
It is waaaay too many for most people, but not for those who need to do a lot of postprocessing. You can't, for example, shoot way under/overexposed and then over/underexpose the print without serious degredation in digital, although you can in analog. An SLR and a high end scanner will be better until digital cameras can do 48 bits per pixel or more (quickly).
Here are the truly great games: Little Wing Pinball. I have never seen more pixel-perfect and infinitely fun games.
Slightly OT but this reminds me of my first intro to college geekdom. picture the computer lab. Dark.. silent.. about 15 or so geeks basking in the glow of z29 terminals... when suddenly I realize omg THEY ARE ALL TALKING TO EACH OTHER!
don't now whether to run screaming or join the crowd!
It's called an Edit Decision List in the industry. it's what your non-linear editing app creates for cutting the actual film.
I don't see how the MPAA could have a legitimate case against that. It's like distributing printed directions that go like: play until 00:01:02; FF to 00:03:14; play until 00:07:01; etc. I have a universal remote application for my Palm V; no reason I couldn't write a Palm OS app to play an simple EDL to control my VCR or DVD player via IR. No pretty transitions or funky dubbing, but it's the principle.
It's more fun to wander around in the store for an hour going "I don't know, what do you want to watch?"
dude, windowshade started as a 3rd party INIT on the Mac in, like, 1992 or 1993. Then Apple integrated that functionality into, hmm, system 7.6 or so.
You're right, but not in the way you think you are. You're thinking of the software industry popularization of Alexander's patterns, which is of course all about programming and not computer science. However, they have dumbed down the concept significantly. If you read Alexander's A Pattern Language, and compare it with the gang of four book, there's just no comparison - Alexander's is deep, probing, and almost alive; the GoF's book is shallow and dead. The comparison between patterns and computer science is like biology to physics: biology is about life, whereas physics is about the structure of matter. We have a new field here - nobody's recognized it yet.