It always seems to get lost among the constant vi vs. emacs holy wars, and the code is (fairly) easy to customize. A job ago, while working at an ISP, I had Pico customized eight ways to Sunday, with automatic comment block generation, line gotos and indentation of C code to my exacting, anal standards. It was fast and efficient and perfect for C coding.
So what if it doesn't have all the features of emacs, or the power of vi? Emacs is like the kid with all the cool toys, and vi's the kid with the Lego. But you always liked to play with Pico best, because he's the kid with the big cardboard box that you would always turn into a little house or racecar. He's the most fun to play with.:-)
Microsoft Releases W2K CNN will present 24 continuous hours of live coverage starting at 6am EST (3am PST) February 16, 2000. Join anchors Wolf Blitzer and Christiane Ammanpour as CNN visits various sites around the world as midnight on February 17 and the release of W2K dawns on each of the world's time zones. Featured are live reports from Paris, Toyko, Rome, London, Newfoundland and New York, as well as a countdown of the top 100 events in Windows history.
Linux is no longer a completely foreign word in the media, so this event should gather some mainstream press. Granted, it won't be covered like the W2K launch (I'm not even sure God himself could compete with that), but it should get mentioned, and is more likely to do so if it occurs before the W2K hype and it's tied in to the release somehow by contrasting itself with W2K. Here's what I would do:
Seek not to disseminate anti-MS FUD, but rather to point out the differences in Linux and W2K, and emphasize the major points of Linux that W2K cannot provide (e.g. open source). This should ensure coverage AND Linux education.
I have several friends who have been running all manner of servers off the @Home service for a long time, and not one of them has even received a warning e-mail or any sort of indication that the good folks at @Home noticed or even cared.
They certainly didn't when some software of mine detected huge numbers of broadcast packets with huge sizes on my subnet from some jabonie...
...at the work these people do to figure out the internals of the console. Determining what the registers in a custom graphics/sound/CD-ROM VLSI chip cannot be all that easy. It's not like this information is up on the Sony/Nintendo/Sega web site--they won't tell you that bit 0 of register 5 in chip U2 is the VBI flag, let alone how it's mapped on the address bus. These guys disassemble code, look at hardware, probe--hell, I don't even know how half of it gets figured out--but they do, and they deserve some props.
Hardware hacking has always been, for me, one of the most exciting aspects of computers, and has been an integral part since day one. Stuff like this blows me away.
This technique is in heavy usage on the Global Television Network here in Canada during their NFL feeds from CBS or Fox. Between commercials (Canadian ones--the original network commercials are not used) and the beginning of action, the screen will show a shot of the stadium, usually focussing on the JumboTron with billboard ads around it. Those billboards are changed on the fly to Global's own advertisers. For example, I doubt a local pizza chain would be able to afford to advertise in Miami's NFL stadium, let alone want to (there goes the 'thirty minutes or free' delivery guarantee).:-)
Furthermore, they are starting to superimpose fake blimps, with logos for Canadian companies, in sky shots of the stadium. My mother thought it was so cool that an auto insurance place had their own blimp at a recent game. She was shocked to find it was computer-generated.
I cannot simply escape this by watching the CBS or Fox network versions on cable, because CRTC (Canada's version of the FCC) rules regulating a certain percentage of Canadian content mean that when I switch to the CBS or Fox station, they are replaced with the Global feed! This means we can't get any of the American commercials when both a Canadian and American network are broadcasting the same show. When commercials are the only aspect of programming that some people will watch (e.g. most of the women in my family do watch the commercials during the Super Bowl), we have to haul in an old TV, hook up the antenna, and tune to a poor broadcast signal simply to see Bud Bowl XXXVIII.
I have been thinking of creating a Boycott Global Web site all about this--they also received some pretty negative press last year about the billboard replacement stunt. Any Canadians in with me?
The text on the card would be full of spelling errors, and when you swiped it, it wouldn't give up the most recent version of the credit card number.:-)
You really have to LIKE CS to be good at it, and be good whne[sic] you graduate...
And how do you get good at something? Practice.
The few people who graduated didn't just sit at a computer, figure out a solution for a problem and then write the program because they had an assignment due. They, as do I, did and still do it on their spare time as a hobby. For me and for the other true geeks I know, computers and programming is an all-consuming passion. For example, I have been up until 2am the past two nights working with packet drivers and far calls to assembly routines in DOS from C. People say, 'DOS is deprecated, do something in Windows where you have the proper tools'. They shake their heads when I tell them that it's no fun that way.
This is the spirit that is lacking in 99% of the CS majors today.
I am thinking back to my first-year computer science classes. There were 180 first-years, bright-eyed and anxious to tackle programming and design and all that associated stuff.
60% dropped out after the first semester.
There were 15 people graduated from the department (including me).
This was not a particularly hard program (there wasn't a lot of math, which frightens some people off). It's just that most people can't hack the program (pun intended).
Computer science was one of the smallest departments too. Why? Well, we may be revered by business, who pay us good salaries to do relatively little work (compared to, say, a bricklayer) because we are in such demand. But do you know what the average high school student's impression (especially a girl) of a computer programmer/engineer/etc. is? Nerd. Dweeb. Egghead. They don't want to be perceived as such, so they pursue other fields that don't have that stigma attached to them. They can take their philosophy, psychology, etc. courses and earn the degrees that will allow them to flip my burgers for the rest of their lives.
Enrollment is on the rise, but people are just beginning to overlook the usual social stigma of being a computer programmer and see that it is not like that and that they can make a lot of money doing it. It's sad--there are student in the program not for the love of doing it, but for the eventual cash.
And that, my friends, is why we will always have a job, even in the toughest recession. Watch the psychology students starve, 600 fighting for one sales position at J.C. Penney's, while we will have our pick of the jobs.
You BASTARDS have ruined every stinking article on this site for the past month!!!!!!! What is [their] problem?!?!?!
That's something I've been asking myself for a while. Why have the trolls been on the rise for the last six months or so? I have a theory about it, and it relates to moderation. (This is neither an endorsement nor criticism of the moderation process--please hear me out.)
These idiots, simply put, in being moderated down to the -1 they deserve to receive, are getting attention. When a post is -1, it means it has been singled out because it is not worth anyone's time. (I, however, really love these posts and it's the good comments, plus the funny -1 posts, that make/. worth reading.)
Perhaps if we were to get rid of moderation, then these people would not get the attention they are looking for. Everyone's on equal footing.
If you ignore them, I believe they'll go away.
Moderation guide: Might I suggest(Score: 2, Offtopic)?
This scares me, not because I don't want my speed remotely controlled (I don't speed as a habit anyway), but I can just imagine a scenario where the government, having access to GPS data and vehicle registration information/addresses, sells this valuable "market research data" straight to everyone's favourite people, the spam-meisters.
Then combined with the vehicle's speed being recorded and modified, you have situations where the location of your parked car is mapped to some establishment (i.e. a fast-food resturant, Radio Shack, Italian deli, etc.), and suddenly you are receiving coupons for Big Macs, batteries and crusty bread.
Just another way for the marketing forces of the world to spam us. They'd love this.
Don't like Windows? Have a spare PC? Put Windows on it...
Umm, dude, if you dislike Windows, then why install it on the spare machine? Old hardware cries out for Linux. I own several 386s and 486s that thrive quite happily running various versions of Slackware.
set it up as a router between your LAN and the DSL, hook up your Linux machines to the LAN, and away you go!
Why not use the aforementioned spare machine running the aforementioned Linux with ipchains or some IP masquerading type of setup? I think you'll find it faster and more reliable.
Of course, if you really want Windows on your old spare machine running WinRoute or Internet Connection Sharing, it's your life...
I don't know the guy but I do know he has an interesting point of view on a lot of topics. He is opinionated but who isn't? Its everyone's right to be just that.
Sure, he can opine on whatever he wants, but he's special. He can write articles for Slashdot, whereas we peons can only post comments. Jon could start an article about the shape, colour, and smell of his stool this morning if he wanted. Thus, he should be more careful, and truly, this site's status as geeky, nerdy haven is compromised with his in-depth evaulations of school shootings and movie reviews. Katz, we don't care! I want to hear your latest OpenGL driver troubles or latest kernel hack, not what you think about the media this or that. Go write for Salon, not for Slashdot.
I will NEVER see a movie with Courtney Love in it because her entire career has been based on the death of her husband
Oh, sorry! Wrong! Courtney Love built up her career with a hell of a lot of media savvy. She knows how to work it, baby. She knows how to attract attention, plus, it helps that she truly is beautiful and talented. But don't say it's just because her husband SHOT HIMSELF. He wasn't half as fucking talented or influential as everyone says, anyway.
C'mon, moderators, this is about the funniest, most subversive, Kaufman-like posts amongst the 'Jon Katz Sucks!' and Carrey vs. Kaufman ejaculations making the rounds.
Might I recommend (Score: 3, Funny)?
RKIELFIX.NLM: 312 patch to fix Richard Kiel memorial abend # 27 message
Slashdot Mirror
Pico... the 'other' UNIX editor.
:-)
It always seems to get lost among the constant vi vs. emacs holy wars, and the code is (fairly) easy to customize. A job ago, while working at an ISP, I had Pico customized eight ways to Sunday, with automatic comment block generation, line gotos and indentation of C code to my exacting, anal standards. It was fast and efficient and perfect for C coding.
So what if it doesn't have all the features of emacs, or the power of vi? Emacs is like the kid with all the cool toys, and vi's the kid with the Lego. But you always liked to play with Pico best, because he's the kid with the big cardboard box that you would always turn into a little house or racecar. He's the most fun to play with.
---
Tempfiles fugit.
On CNN:
Microsoft Releases W2K
CNN will present 24 continuous hours of live coverage starting at 6am EST (3am PST) February 16, 2000. Join anchors Wolf Blitzer and Christiane Ammanpour as CNN visits various sites around the world as midnight on February 17 and the release of W2K dawns on each of the world's time zones. Featured are live reports from Paris, Toyko, Rome, London, Newfoundland and New York, as well as a countdown of the top 100 events in Windows history.
(And yes, it will be almost this bad.)
---
Tempfiles fugit.
Good point, and I definitely agree.
Linux is no longer a completely foreign word in the media, so this event should gather some mainstream press. Granted, it won't be covered like the W2K launch (I'm not even sure God himself could compete with that), but it should get mentioned, and is more likely to do so if it occurs before the W2K hype and it's tied in to the release somehow by contrasting itself with W2K. Here's what I would do:
Seek not to disseminate anti-MS FUD, but rather to point out the differences in Linux and W2K, and emphasize the major points of Linux that W2K cannot provide (e.g. open source). This should ensure coverage AND Linux education.
---
Tempfiles fugit.
NEW LINE CINEMA
presents
Geeks
adapted from a novel by
Jon Katz
- Katz Sucks (Score: -1, Flamebait)
--- Re: Katz Sucks
--- FIRST CREDIT YEAH!
- phR15T CR3D1T! (Score: -1, Troll)
--- Not even close
--- F1RST!!!!!!!!
staring
CmdrTaco
Hemos
- That's Starring, idiots (Score: -1, Flamebait)
--- Hemos must have written that
--- Re: That's Starring, idiots
----- Re: Re: That's Starring, idiots
- First Credit? (Score: 0)
- OPENSOURCE YOUR ACTING, TACO! (Score: -1, Flamebait)
--- Re: OPENSOURCE YOUR ACTING, TACO!
- CMDRTACO NAKED AND PETRIFIED (Score: -1, Flamebait)
---
Tempfiles fugit.
Oh... I thought you were referring to a first post.
:-)
My bad.
---
Tempfiles fugit.
Sure, it might be illegal, but is this enforced?
I have several friends who have been running all manner of servers off the @Home service for a long time, and not one of them has even received a warning e-mail or any sort of indication that the good folks at @Home noticed or even cared.
They certainly didn't when some software of mine detected huge numbers of broadcast packets with huge sizes on my subnet from some jabonie...
...at the work these people do to figure out the internals of the console. Determining what the registers in a custom graphics/sound/CD-ROM VLSI chip cannot be all that easy. It's not like this information is up on the Sony/Nintendo/Sega web site--they won't tell you that bit 0 of register 5 in chip U2 is the VBI flag, let alone how it's mapped on the address bus. These guys disassemble code, look at hardware, probe--hell, I don't even know how half of it gets figured out--but they do, and they deserve some props.
Hardware hacking has always been, for me, one of the most exciting aspects of computers, and has been an integral part since day one. Stuff like this blows me away.
This technique is in heavy usage on the Global Television Network here in Canada during their NFL feeds from CBS or Fox. Between commercials (Canadian ones--the original network commercials are not used) and the beginning of action, the screen will show a shot of the stadium, usually focussing on the JumboTron with billboard ads around it. Those billboards are changed on the fly to Global's own advertisers. For example, I doubt a local pizza chain would be able to afford to advertise in Miami's NFL stadium, let alone want to (there goes the 'thirty minutes or free' delivery guarantee). :-)
Furthermore, they are starting to superimpose fake blimps, with logos for Canadian companies, in sky shots of the stadium. My mother thought it was so cool that an auto insurance place had their own blimp at a recent game. She was shocked to find it was computer-generated.
I cannot simply escape this by watching the CBS or Fox network versions on cable, because CRTC (Canada's version of the FCC) rules regulating a certain percentage of Canadian content mean that when I switch to the CBS or Fox station, they are replaced with the Global feed! This means we can't get any of the American commercials when both a Canadian and American network are broadcasting the same show. When commercials are the only aspect of programming that some people will watch (e.g. most of the women in my family do watch the commercials during the Super Bowl), we have to haul in an old TV, hook up the antenna, and tune to a poor broadcast signal simply to see Bud Bowl XXXVIII.
I have been thinking of creating a Boycott Global Web site all about this--they also received some pretty negative press last year about the billboard replacement stunt. Any Canadians in with me?
That cracks me up. 'Well, I sent the motherboards in for an upgrade last week and we're still waiting on the RIMM job.'
Tasteless, yeah, I know... I am so ashamed of myself.
---
Tempfiles fugit.
The text on the card would be full of spelling errors, and when you swiped it, it wouldn't give up the most recent version of the credit card number. :-)
---
Tempfiles fugit
You really have to LIKE CS to be good at it, and be good whne[sic] you graduate...
And how do you get good at something? Practice.
The few people who graduated didn't just sit at a computer, figure out a solution for a problem and then write the program because they had an assignment due. They, as do I, did and still do it on their spare time as a hobby. For me and for the other true geeks I know, computers and programming is an all-consuming passion. For example, I have been up until 2am the past two nights working with packet drivers and far calls to assembly routines in DOS from C. People say, 'DOS is deprecated, do something in Windows where you have the proper tools'. They shake their heads when I tell them that it's no fun that way.
This is the spirit that is lacking in 99% of the CS majors today.
I am thinking back to my first-year computer science classes. There were 180 first-years, bright-eyed and anxious to tackle programming and design and all that associated stuff.
60% dropped out after the first semester.
There were 15 people graduated from the department (including me).
This was not a particularly hard program (there wasn't a lot of math, which frightens some people off). It's just that most people can't hack the program (pun intended).
Computer science was one of the smallest departments too. Why? Well, we may be revered by business, who pay us good salaries to do relatively little work (compared to, say, a bricklayer) because we are in such demand. But do you know what the average high school student's impression (especially a girl) of a computer programmer/engineer/etc. is? Nerd. Dweeb. Egghead. They don't want to be perceived as such, so they pursue other fields that don't have that stigma attached to them. They can take their philosophy, psychology, etc. courses and earn the degrees that will allow them to flip my burgers for the rest of their lives.
Enrollment is on the rise, but people are just beginning to overlook the usual social stigma of being a computer programmer and see that it is not like that and that they can make a lot of money doing it. It's sad--there are student in the program not for the love of doing it, but for the eventual cash.
And that, my friends, is why we will always have a job, even in the toughest recession. Watch the psychology students starve, 600 fighting for one sales position at J.C. Penney's, while we will have our pick of the jobs.
You BASTARDS have ruined every stinking article on this site for the past month!!!!!!! What is [their] problem?!?!?!
/. worth reading.)
That's something I've been asking myself for a while. Why have the trolls been on the rise for the last six months or so? I have a theory about it, and it relates to moderation. (This is neither an endorsement nor criticism of the moderation process--please hear me out.)
These idiots, simply put, in being moderated down to the -1 they deserve to receive, are getting attention. When a post is -1, it means it has been singled out because it is not worth anyone's time. (I, however, really love these posts and it's the good comments, plus the funny -1 posts, that make
Perhaps if we were to get rid of moderation, then these people would not get the attention they are looking for. Everyone's on equal footing.
If you ignore them, I believe they'll go away.
Moderation guide: Might I suggest (Score: 2, Offtopic)?
This scares me, not because I don't want my speed remotely controlled (I don't speed as a habit anyway), but I can just imagine a scenario where the government, having access to GPS data and vehicle registration information/addresses, sells this valuable "market research data" straight to everyone's favourite people, the spam-meisters.
Then combined with the vehicle's speed being recorded and modified, you have situations where the location of your parked car is mapped to some establishment (i.e. a fast-food resturant, Radio Shack, Italian deli, etc.), and suddenly you are receiving coupons for Big Macs, batteries and crusty bread.
Just another way for the marketing forces of the world to spam us. They'd love this.
Don't like Windows? Have a spare PC? Put Windows on it...
Umm, dude, if you dislike Windows, then why install it on the spare machine? Old hardware cries out for Linux. I own several 386s and 486s that thrive quite happily running various versions of Slackware.
set it up as a router between your LAN and the DSL, hook up your Linux machines to the LAN, and away you go!
Why not use the aforementioned spare machine running the aforementioned Linux with ipchains or some IP masquerading type of setup? I think you'll find it faster and more reliable.
Of course, if you really want Windows on your old spare machine running WinRoute or Internet Connection Sharing, it's your life...
My favorite is sylibus, a fourth declension noun, plural sylibus. So many pompus people get that one wrong
Dude:
It's syllabus .
Thank you.
More bleating from Katz.
Once again I do not care.
Shut the fuck up, please.
Trolling For Jesus -- salvation through irritation
Y2K for me
Is over four hours away.
I'm bored of this shit.
Novell Netware in German = Guten Abend !
Whoa, now there's a troll!
My haiku comment is deep.
Won't be minus one.
Why? Because he'll be able to regale me with movie reviews and entertaining features about school shooting and the media's perception of the shooters?
Fuck, no. So I can eat him when there's no food left!
Hey... Isn't this news for nerds? hmmm... Did you see "Pi"?
It was, until Katz showed up.
I don't know the guy but I do know he has an interesting point of view on a lot of topics. He is opinionated but who isn't? Its everyone's right to be just that.
Sure, he can opine on whatever he wants, but he's special. He can write articles for Slashdot, whereas we peons can only post comments. Jon could start an article about the shape, colour, and smell of his stool this morning if he wanted. Thus, he should be more careful, and truly, this site's status as geeky, nerdy haven is compromised with his in-depth evaulations of school shootings and movie reviews. Katz, we don't care ! I want to hear your latest OpenGL driver troubles or latest kernel hack, not what you think about the media this or that. Go write for Salon, not for Slashdot.
I will NEVER see a movie with Courtney Love in it because her entire career has been based on the death of her husband
Oh, sorry! Wrong! Courtney Love built up her career with a hell of a lot of media savvy. She knows how to work it, baby. She knows how to attract attention, plus, it helps that she truly is beautiful and talented. But don't say it's just because her husband SHOT HIMSELF. He wasn't half as fucking talented or influential as everyone says, anyway.
C'mon, moderators, this is about the funniest, most subversive, Kaufman-like posts amongst the 'Jon Katz Sucks!' and Carrey vs. Kaufman ejaculations making the rounds.
Might I recommend (Score: 3, Funny)?
RKIELFIX.NLM: 312 patch to fix Richard Kiel memorial abend # 27 message
Beeoooch? What the hell is that?
Oh, I get it. Object-oriented methodology wrestling.
Let's get ready to RUMMMMMMM-BAUGH!
:-)
holy shit, i laugh
it's a haiku, not 'First Post!'
i sense a new trend